Thursday Next
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Basic facts
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Name: Thursday Next |
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Background
The Nextian Universe
Thursday comes from a parallel 1985. Among the chief differences are that the Crimean War didn't end in 1856, it ended in 1985, the Nazis were successful in occupying England during WWII (which didn't end until several years after 1945), cloning is a popular hobby and dodos, mammoths and Neanderthals are common. Russia still has a Tsar, there is no United Kingdom, England is a republic, Wales is the Socialist Republic of Wales and, most importantly, literature is the primary medium of popular culture, not movies, television or music.
In addition to the regular police force, England has the Special Operations Network (SpecOps), law enforcement professionals who work in various fields that are too unusual or specialised for the regular force. They range from SO-1 (internal affairs) to SO-34 (GlobalWebPolice). A complete list of the various departments can be found here. The most important ones to note are SO-12 (the ChronoGuard, responsible for policing the timestream) SO-17 (Suckers & Biters, the Vampire and Werewolf Disposal Operation) and SO-27 (the Literary Detectives).
Also important to note about this parallel 1985 is the large Goliath Corporation that saved England from economic ruin after WWII. Their motto is "For all you'll ever need (TM)" and they mean it. They had their hand in everything from cribs to coffins up until 1988 when the Toast Marketing Board took over due to a long and complicated series of events that you can read about in Something Rotten (Book 4).
Thursday's Background
The Early Years
Thursday was born in 1950 at St Cerebellum's Hospital, Swindon, to Wednesday and Colonel Next (Colonel Next's real name is unknown because he was eradicated by the ChronoGuard for going rogue). She has two brothers, Anton D. Next (deceased, killed during the Charge of the Light Brigade during the Crimean War) and Jeffrey "Joffy" Next (a minister for the Global Standard Deity church). Her aunt and uncle, inventors Polly and Mycroft Next, live with her mother in Swindon, Wessex County, England.
Thursday went to St Zvlkx's school for infants for five years, then for the remainder of her schooling she went to Blessed Lady of the Lobster School for Girls. She attended Swindon University after that and obtained a degree in English Literature.
Her career from that point on was with law enforcement and the military. She joined the Wessex County police in 1971 where she was given a commendation for bravery. In 1972 Thursday joined the Regular Army where she was assigned as a driver to the Wessex Light Armoured Brigade along with her brother, Anton. Here she met and fell in love with Anton's best friend, Landen Parke-Laine. During the infamous Charge of the Light Brigade, Anton was killed. Despite facing enemy fire, she drove back to the front line to pick up as many soldiers as possible for evacuation. The Army tried to award her the Crimean Star, but she refused.
She returned to Swindon and rejoined the Wessex County Police until 1975 when the official report of the Charge blamed Anton based on evidence given by Colonel Frobisher (her former CO) and Landen Parke-Laine. She packed up and left Swindon at that point to join the Metro Police, eventually making her way into the serious robbery squad. In 1977 Thursday was promoted to Detective Sergeant and offered a position in the Special Operations Network with SpecOps-27 Literary Detectives.
SpecOps
The Literary Detectives deal with crimes of a literary nature - forgeries, stolen manuscripts, etc. Thursday became the London office's expert on all things Shakespeare until she was recruited by SO-5 to aid in tracking down her former university mentor and all around psychotic villain, Acheron Hades. It didn't go very well and, after recovering from gunshot wounds and facing an inquiry about the events, Thursday took a post at the SO-27 office in Swindon.
The Eyre Affair
Acheron Hades stole the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens and, using Mycroft Next's Prose Portal, found a way into fiction to remove a character and kill him. With his threat in place, he then stole the original manuscript of Jane Eyre and kidnapped the protagonist of the same name, threatening to kill her if his demands weren't met.
Thursday, with help, tracked Hades down and spent several months inside Jane Eyre keeping an eye on Jane and Edward Fairfax Rochester while Hades was still in the book hiding out. The resulting battle changed the book. In Thursday's world, the book ended with Jane going to India with St. John Rivers (a boring ending to many), but the battle with Hades resulted in the book being changed to the ending from our world. The resulting change brought Thursday many fans and enemies in the literary community and made her a celebrity. She even went on a world tour.
Thursday's time at SpecOps since then has been sporadic due to several disappearances. She was dismissed at one point, but then rehired. She sent in her letter of resignation prior to her departure for Fandom, but bureaucracy being what it is, it hasn't been processed yet.
Jurisfiction
In 1986, Thursday found herself being recruited by Jurisfiction, the policing agency within fiction. She learned how to read herself into books ("bookjump") and was apprenticed to Miss Havisham from Great Expectations. She encountered many fictional characters, learned the inner workings of the Great Library (that contains all fiction ever published in the history and future of existence) and, after passing her probation, returning the stolen Cardenio manuscript to the Great Library and a batch of other nifty things, Thursday was eventually promoted to Bellman (leader of Jurisfiction). Thursday spent over two years in an unpublished book called Caversham Heights hiding out from her real world during her pregnancy.
She has been on extended leave (since they wouldn't accept her resignation) since 1988 but still does the occasional emergency job for Jurisfiction when necessary.
Goliath
Thursday's relationship with Goliath has not been on good terms. Goliath's representative, Jack Schitt, tried to get his hands on the Prose Portal for nefarious purposes. Thursday responded by trapping him in a copy of The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe. Schitt's replacement, his half-brother Brik Schitt-Hawse, blackmailed Thursday into releasing Jack by having bad ChronoGuard agents eradicate Landen Parke-Laine from existence. She lived up to her end of the bargain, but Landen remained eradicated until 1988, when Goliath decided to make amends in an effort to become a globally recognised religion and reactualised Landen.
Thursday doubts, even despite the recent change of management, that her quarrel with Goliath is over. They always want something, and she's always there to stand in their way.
Family
Thursday married Landen Parke-Laine in September 1985 at Blessed Lady of the Lobsters, Swindon after they reconciled their differences. Unfortunately, in 1986, Landen was eradicated (see Goliath), meaning that time-travelling agents went back to a key moment in his childhood and made sure he drowned when he was 2 instead of Landen's father, Billden, dying in that accident. Thursday's life in the present day changed considerably and no one else knew that Landen had ever existed. As it turned out, she was still pregnant with his child and still remembered him, a side effect by Goliath intended to blackmail her into doing what they wanted.
Thursday gave birth to their son, Friday Next (later Parke-Laine), inside the BookWorld. Friday spent the first two years of his life not knowing his father, and when he began to talk, only spoke Lorem Ipsum, the false language typesetters use to see what a book's layout will look like. He has shown on two occasions that he can speak clear and articulate English (one in Something Rotten when he warned his mother of a bomb under their car, one in Fandom where he asked V to ask Father Christmas to bring his father home permanently) despite not even being three yet. Colonel Next revealed that Friday is set to become the future head of the ChronoGuard, which is why he was not affected when Goliath tampered with the timestream. Thursday has met an adult time-travelling Friday but she doesn't know that it was him.
Although she hasn't been born yet, Thursday has briefly seen her future daughter, Tuesday, and her future grandchildren.
Where Canon and Thursday go separate ways
At the end of Something Rotten (Book 4), Thursday was shot in the head by the Minotaur from the BookWorld that was trying to kill her. She miraculously survived and the book ended, but the Minotaur was on the loose.
Thursday comes to Fandom several months after the events of Something Rotten. Despite the best efforts of Colonel Next, SpecOps and Jurisfiction, they were unable to locate the Minotaur and protect Thursday. Knowing that there was nowhere conventional (in the real world or BookWorld) to keep Thursday and Friday safe, Colonel Next found Fandom and secured a job and place to live for them there. Thursday, for Friday's sake, agreed. Landen remained behind to finish a world tour for his latest book and planned to join them in Fandom at Christmas.
The next canon update for Thursday Next is July 5th 2007 when the fifth book in the series, First Among Sequels, is released.
In Fandom
Living Arrangements
Thursday lives at 33 Apocalypse Avenue (the Cale residence). When she moved in, the residents consisted of Logan Cale, John Winchester, The Tick, V, Darth Vader, Friday and Pickwick. As of January 2007, the residents were Logan Cale, The Tick, Darth Vader, Doogie Howser, Thursday, Friday and Pickwick.
Relationships
Thursday has found a friend in Logan Cale and they've become quite close. She gets along well with her other housemates. Thursday has also taken an interest in several of her students, including her TAs, Hamlet Dane Jr (Fall 06), Elizabeth 'Z' Delgado and Seely Booth (Spring 07).
She is still married to Landen Parke-Laine. Her friendships from home, including her workmates Bowden Cable, Victor Analogy and Spike Stoker, remain stable despite her long absences. She also considers the Unitary Authority of Warrington Cat (the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland), Commander Trafford Bradshaw (an adventurer) and Mrs Bradshaw (a gorilla), Edward Fairfax Rochester and Jane Eyre (Jane Eyre), Amleth Prince of Jutland (Amleth) and Vernham Deane (from the Daphne Farquitt bodice-ripper The Squire of High Potternews) friends as well.
Classes
Fall Semester 2006
Thursday taught Heroism, Humanism & Hijinks: Literature in Action. Her TA was Hamlet Dane Jr.
Spring Semester 2007
Thursday taught Novice's Guide to Villains and Villainy. Her TAs were Elizabeth 'Z' Delgado and Seely Booth.
Summer Semester 2007
Thursday became Fandom High's librarian at the beginning of Summer Semester 2007.
Other
Adventures
Z-Cases
In order to get Logan Cale acquainted with jumping into the BookWorld, Thursday took him to the Great Library. They were then called upon to talk down a PageRunner who had taken the two protagonists of the novelisation of a Z-Cases episode hostage. They did so successfully and then went for a drink at a local bar.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
For Heroism, Humanism & Hijinks: Literature in Action, Thursday, Logan Cale and several Jurisfiction agents took the students into the Great Library and then on to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, where they met many different characters from the book. The trip was uneventful.
Here Now Gone
Landen came to Fandom shortly before Christmas in December 2006. Thursday woke the day after Christmas to find he was gone. Not being able to find him, she packed a bag and returned with Friday to Swindon, despite the threat from the Minotaur, because she was certain that her father knew where Landen had disappeared. Upon arriving at SpecOps headquarters, she learned that she was still employed by them (her letter of resignation hadn't passed yet) and that SpecOps had a new boss, High Commissioner Sullivan Pheces. Bowden asked for her assistance on a case, where the Swindon Globe (a recreation of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre) had been broken into, but nothing had been stolen.
The theft came shortly after - the oldest existing manuscript of Richard III had been stolen. Pheces blamed SpecOps-27, shut them down and handed the job over to Fletcher & Kyd Security Services, a private company. Investigation revealed that Pheces was responsible for the theft, owned Fletcher & Kyd and was planning on outsourcing all SpecOps departments in an effort to take control of the country. He resigned shortly after the incident (which went public) but has not yet been prosecuted.
Thursday also learned that her father was responsible for Landen's disappearance. Colonel Next discovered an attempt by Pheces to track Landen down in Fandom to kill him because he knew too much about an even bigger scheme Pheces had planned and intended to write a book about it. To protect Thursday and Friday, whose only protection from the Minotaur was in Fandom, Landen agreed to allow Colonel Next to sideslip him into an alternate timestream where he couldn't be found until Pheces dropped out of power. Unfortunately, the side effect was that he wouldn't remember anything about his former life, including his wife and son.
Thursday convinced her father to let her see him one last time and say goodbye for now. Landen is now in an alternate timestream running a second-hand bookshop, oblivious of his former life. Thursday and Friday returned to Fandom with Colonel Next's assurance that Pheces' time would come and that it was safest to wait it out in Fandom.
Handy links
Thursday Next on the Wiki
Characters in the Thursday Next series
Thursday Next official website
Fforde Grand Central - the hub for all things Nextian
Thursday's journal
