"Let me put it this way: I can make you sense whatever I want you to sense."
— Lorelei to Ian Chesterson, "The Lorelei Chronicles: Origins"
If Loki and the TARDIS had a baby, you would have the main character of The Lorelei Chronicles by thewhovianwerewolf
on FanFiction.Net (or, the_bisexy_whovian_werewolf on Archive of Our Own). The titular character, Lorelei, is stuck in a boring life with parents who are constantly at each other's throats and a school full of bullies. So when she accidentally discovers she has psychic powers that allow her to universe hop, what does she do? She enters the universes of her favorite franchises, befriends the characters, and gives herself worlds to escape to when regular life becomes too much. Meanwhile, her newfound friends have to put up with her psychic abilities and trickster personality the best they can.
One of the major themes in this series is the idea that the characters Lorelei visits don't exist because someone thought them up, but rather the opposite; the characters are the ones who influence their respective franchises. Basically, a character's thoughts get transmitted into the brain of a media creator in another universe, and neither the character nor the creator realize it. The character remains unaware of their existence in the other universe, and the creator just thinks they've had a really good idea for a tv show/comic book/etc. If a creator is praised for said tv show/comic book/etc, what they're really being praised for is their psychic abilities. Likewise, if a creator is criticized for the tv show/comic book/etc, it's not their fault. So, if you're upset that the creator killed off your favorite character, don't blame them. They only write what really happened, even if they don't know it.
Note: Because all the non-original characters have their own trope pages, most of these tropes will be about the original characters like Lorelei, Baxter, and others.
This work contains examples of:
- Abusive Parents: A mild example, but Lorelei's parents are this in her mind because they fight so much, to the point where it's one of her earliest memories. They're one of the reasons Lorelei prefers universe-hopping to regular life.
- Actually Pretty Funny: In "Return of the Dream Lord, the Doctor realizes that not only was he too hard on Lorelei, who only pranked him to try to get him to ease up, but her prank was this trope. He ends up getting her back, in a sort of strange apology.
- Batman Gambit: Lorelei does this during her magic show in "Snow Day". She tells the audience that she has a magic telescope that, instead of making far things look closer, makes the future look like it's happening now. She holds the telescope to her eye and says that she sees everyone laughing a few seconds in the future, though she can't figure out at what. Cue the Eye Piece Prank and everyone does start laughing.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Lorelei may act innocent enough, what with the harmless pranks and the generally nice attitude, but mess with her or her friends, and God help you.
- Beware the Silly Ones: See above
- Big "WHY?!": Lorelei's reaction to the Doctor telling her that she and Baxter can't join him in the TARDIS for real.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: Lorelei's, definitely. Could also be applied to the Avengers or, depending on who in it, the TARDIS crew.
- Cheer Them Up with Laughter:
- In "Return of the Dream Lord", Lorelei sees the Doctor stressed and overworked, and tries to cheer him up by pranking him.
- At the end of "Comfort", while she's calming down after her parents' arguing upsets her, Lorelei knows that when the Doctor reads Alice in Wonderland to her, he'll make up funny voices for all the characters in order to make her laugh. And this is the SIXTH Doctor she's talking about.
- Ben Grimm rips part of his pants on purpose to make Lorelei laugh when he brings her to the Baxter Building.
- Circus Episode: One of the stories involves Lorelei being roped into a circus act by accident.
- Covered in Gunge: Lorelei douses the twelfth Doctor in chocolate sauce in an attempt to help him ease up and stop overworking himself. She expects it to work because his past incarnations always laughed at her pranks, but this is TWELVE we're talking about.
- Cry into Chest: Lorelei does this when the sixth Doctor tries to comfort her.
- Defrosting the Ice Queen: A non-romantic example: In "Comfort", the Sixth Doctor, whose personality usually borders on total Jerkass, tries his hardest to console Lorelei after she gets upset by her parents' arguing.
- Fright Death Trap: The Dreamlord's plan for how to kill the TARDIS crew in "Return of the Dream Lord".
- For Happiness: Lorelei tries to make others happy in numerous ways, mainly pranks, magic tricks, and being helpful. Really a case of Sad Clown, since her life sucks. As she told Peri:"You know how denying someone something only makes them want it more? Well most of the time, there's a severe lack of laughter in my life, and it's led me to believe that happy laughter is one of the most beautiful sounds in the universe".
- Heroic Dog: Since, according to the series, every animal in Lorelei's universe is psychic, her dog Baxter sometimes accompanied her and helps out, especially when splitting up is involved
- Iconic Item: Lorelei's top hat
- I Know What You Fear: The Dream Lord uses this power on the TARDIS crew in "Return of the Dream Lord". Their fears are:
- Useless Protagonist: Lorelei's fear. She worries that because she hasn't made some kind of huge sacrifice for the Doctor like his other companions (Donna giving up her memories of him, Martha making a trip around the world, etc.), she's just an annoyance to him, and one day he'll make her leave.
- Not Himself: Clara's fear. She worries that the Doctor has regenerated into someone cold, manipulative, and Machiavellian, as if the personalities of his sixth and seventh incarnations had been stuffed into one brain. Unfortunately, it's a little Truth in Television, since many whovians felt this way about the twelfth Doctor in his first season.
- You Are What You Hate: The Doctor's fear. He has to face the fact that so many people have died throughout his adventures, which leads him to believe he's some kind of murder for failing to save them all.
- Just Trying to Help: Lorelei didn't mean for her prank to upset the Doctor in "Return of the Dream Lord". She thought the Doctor was overworking himself and needed something to lighten him up. In the end, turns out she was right.
- Master of Illusion: Pretty much sums up Lorelei's skill set. Her brain has a transmitter that can send messages into other people's brains telling them to sense whatever she wants to sense, which is how she travels to other universes while still keeping her body in her universe. She also has a receiver that allows her to pick up messages from others. However, she can only do this to people in other universes since, according to the series, only some people in her universe have the same mutation as her, none of whom she knows.
- Magicians Are Wizards: Lorelei to a degree. Although magic tricks are one of her favorite hobbies besides pranking, her powers aren't actually magic, and she tries not to use them in her act anyways. Sometime though, she just can't help herself.
- Mind Rape: The Dream Lord does this to the TARDIS inhabitants in Return of the Dreamlord. Lorelei could do this to people if she wanted to, but thankfully she's not evil.
- Morality Pet: Lorelei to the sixth Doctor in "Comfort". He's not a villain, but he is far more arrogant and insensitive than any of his other incarnations. However, when he sees Lorelei on the floor, sobbing, he immediately became sweet and caring. The author Justified this as a result of the Doctor's "paternal instincts" kicking in. However, some readers may decide that this was an Out-of-Character Moment no matter what.
- Mutant: Lorelei, in a human sense, because of the natural receiver and transmitter in her brain. As her dog Baxter explains, every animal has them but the genes that activate them are extremely rare in humans. Any attempts made by humans with the activated genes to tell others are mistaken for madness/schizophrenia, and anti-psychotic medication can repress the genes.
- Parental Substitute: The Doctor to Lorelei
- Pollyanna: Inverted. Lorelei's life makes her majorly depressed, which is why she chooses to leave it so often.
- Post-Victory Collapse: Lorelei does this after fighting off the Dream Lord in "Return of the Dream Lord".
- Power-Strain Blackout: Happens to Lorelei when she has to use her mental powers to do exceptionally strenuous things, though it's harmless and really more like sleeping.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Supernatural Powers!: Since nothing she does is permanent, this is Lorelei's general attitude towards universe hopping, much to the other characters' chagrin. Subverted in Return of the Dreamlord, when she really does feel bad about dousing the Doctor.
- She does follow a sort of moral code when it comes to pranking, see above.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Sadly, the Doctor post-Time War, as seen in "Breakdown"
- Shapeshifting: One of Lorelei's powers, and certainly her favorite.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: One of the few powers Lorelei can use in her own universe since all animals in her universe have transmitters and receivers necessary to send and receive messages. As it turns out, some animals can actually understand human language because humans are around them so much, and they in turn teach it to the animals that aren't around humans so much, i.e. a bird would teach language to a bear. Lorelei uses this to her advantage with her dog who, having a transmitter, will join her in universe-hopping when she's in desperate need of help.
- Stage Magician: Lorelei loves to be this. It's the whole plot of "Snow Day", where she puts on a show, after a suggestion by Rose Tyler, for the people waiting in the hospital during the snow storm. She tries not to use her powers, instead keeping her tricks realistic, but sometimes she just can't help herself.
- Stepford Smiler: Inverted, since it's no secret to anyone in the other universes about why Lorelei travels.
- The Prankster: Lorelei to a T, when she visits other universes. However, she has a moral code that goes with it; nothing humiliating or mean, nothing destructive, and if someone tells her to stop, she stops. Also, when she's the victim of a prank, she thinks it's as funny as any prank, as long as it follows her code.
- Troubled Child: Played with for Lorelei. Yes, she has numerous troubles, but she's not always gloomy or upset, at least not on the outside (see sad clown above)
- Unwanted Assistance: Subverted with Lorelei's prank in "Return of the Dream Lord". It actually did the Doctor some good, in the end.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Lorelei with Tony Stark and, depending on the incarnation, the Doctor:"Hello, I'm the Doctor! I'm brash, arrogant, egotistical... and I seem to have an affinity for clown clothes"— Lorelei, mocking the sixth Doctor
- We Used to Be Friends: How the Doctor feels about Lorelei after she abandons him for two centuries. She had good reasons, in that she felt she no longer belonged after the Doctor started maturing in his eighth incarnation and fighting the Time War in his war incarnation. They make up in the end, though.
