Character Meet and Greet
Jun. 7th, 2019 03:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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I. Exploring Main Street! Take a trip through a little town taken straight from 1890's America. Visit the shops, dine at the restaurants- but don't forget you are here on a mission. As an Apprentice, you will need to gather some supplies. A weapon, or tool for producing magic.
But we understand if that corn dog cart on Market Street is your first stop.
II. Apprentice Class 101! Practice your spell casting and weaponship on the open commons behind the Firehouse. Sparring, casting or just general confusion abound here. Try not to hit anything or...anyone, the paint on the infirmary is still drying.
III. Look out! A level 2 corroded monster has managed to get onto Main Street! Protect the citizens and defeat the cur, and please watch the damage, the paint is still wet!
IV. One Little Spark! Go ahead, show us the strength of your imagination and come up with your own scenarios. Just, stay out of the Corroded Lands...if possible.
Re: IV
Date: 2019-06-29 07:06 am (UTC)"Well, I guess since you're not human, or the normal aliens I've run into before, you might not forget me out of dreams. Rose, I'm Rose Tyler." Safer than Bad Wolf still.
"My world isn't anywhere, yeah? That's why I'm a ghost. And yeah, I've been traveling to find him. A long time now." Deep breath. No crying. But god damn she missed him extra and just wanted to hug him and have him tell her everything would be all right --
Deep breath. "He's daft. He's an absolutely daft idiot." She was using the anger to buffer the pain, obviously. "Always getting himself into trouble, even literally dying without me." The seething helped a lot, though it was hard to resist hugging the stranger that looked like him. One heartbeat or not... maybe none, given where she was and how she half considered herself dead; right then she'd take it over the two years longing. "But he's the only person I could think of to solve the darkness. Then I get here and there's a plan, and everyone knows what to do." Except her.
And if she was being honest; maybe that's why she was frustrated. She was happy; she wasn't alone in her fight... and frustrated, because maybe that meant she had no excuse to get to the Doctor anymore. Maybe the universe she was born in had to stay sealed off from her so it wouldn't be undone by the darkness. Maybe, for the first time since she realized that Bad Wolf Bay was named that as a message for her to start looking for ways to get back to him -- maybe it wasn't true at all! Maybe she was just supposed to get here, and that was it! No happily ever after for the wicked.
Rose gave up fighting the temptation, half hoping this was all some mad dream, that despite her attempts to fast forward in the TARDIS to avoid sleep, she'd fallen asleep and this was just weird enough to be one, and Rose spun around and hugged Crowley, sobbing into his chest. "What if I never see him again? What if we fix the Darkness and they make me go back? All that hell, for what?"
So much sobbing. And sniffles. But when she calms down. "Not to be rude," says the girl hugging and crying on a total stranger, "But are you some sort of crow person? You said your name was Crowley, right? Anthony Crowley."
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Date: 2019-06-29 07:06 am (UTC)He sat down next to her on the roof, giving a slight, theatrical bow in her direction as he introduced himself. "The Great Sylvando, at your service, Ms. Rose," he said. "Though assuming I understand your meaning, no, I have not. Not unless you count that nasty business with the mural in Phnom Nohn, at least. Though I have done a great deal of more conventional traveling over the years. Gallopolis, Octagonia, Sniffleheim... I doubt that there's a corner of Erdrea that I haven't visited."
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Date: 2019-06-29 07:10 am (UTC)She offers a hand, and a gentle smile.] I'm Rose, by the way. Rose Tyler. Hallo.
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Date: 2019-06-29 07:11 am (UTC)"Only way forward is through. But the biggest thing that stops magic, or makes it work? How badly you want it. How badly you need it. And how sure you are of yourself. You think Fairy Godmother could have bippity boppidied old Cindy if she doubted herself or her godkid? Nah. Half the spells I do I'm adapting on the fly."
Wait. Did she just give a use your heart and believe in yourself speech? Oh ick. She shook her head. "Look, I'm not about to die because you are too busy going on about needing someone else to hold your hand or not having grown up with magic. You want to do something? You can make it happen, but if you're going to be useless, get out of the way."
Ugh, even while trying to make it sound more evil she wound up being encouraging. What was wrong with her?
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Date: 2019-06-29 07:15 am (UTC)Sadly, this doesn't convince Rose of anything, just makes her feel extra distraught. "Then what do they need us for?" she waggled her fingers. "Just solve it."
Covering for how completely useless she felt. If she was suddenly handed a Hogwarts letter and told there'd been a mistake in her universe, and all the magic had been sucked dry from it, she'd believe it. But landing in a dimension where she was expected to just know magic, have been born with it, and used it all her life? She was ready to throw in the towel... almost. She was scrappy, and a fighter. She'd make do... somehow.
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Date: 2019-06-29 07:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-29 07:25 am (UTC)"Yeah? What're those like, if you don't mind me asking?"
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Date: 2019-06-29 07:35 am (UTC)And giggled slightly at the pep talk about the Fairy Godmother. It was new, but familiar enough to be intelligible at least!
The mirth faded at the last part, and her eyes dimmed again, sharp and serious. "I won't get in your way."
She hated herself a little. It used to be she wouldn't let anyone die on her watch. She'd pull everyone into a cupboard, and do the bloody impossible and they'd all survive. But enough seeing the world end, enough fractured timelines, enough planets, stars, and realities lost to darkness had dimmed that golden determination. A lot. Sometimes even doing the impossible wasn't enough. But just because one paradox ended, didn't mean there wouldn't be another universe's Peter Tyler out there inventing a way to cross the void.
"You ever fight the corrosion before?"
Somewhere in the back of her head, her mind tumbled over the idea of pure determination and willpower. Was all the times Rose survived magic? IN A WAY MAYBE!? But she already knew that... Bad Wolf. She survived where no one else could because she did one impossible thing but threw it around like confetti so that her entire life was like that. Except... all that did was let her survive. What did it matter if she couldn't protect anyone else? She did. Sometimes. Lots of times! But she didn't know when it was going to happen, she had absolutely no control over it, she could procure it, and she definitely couldn't use it as a weapon.
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Date: 2019-06-29 07:37 am (UTC)"If, by your logic, they're just holding us hostage, then there is absolutely nothin' I can do for 'em they can't do for 'emselves."
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Date: 2019-06-29 07:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-29 07:43 am (UTC)Confidence. Is. Key.
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Date: 2019-06-29 08:13 am (UTC)"I don't mind at all, darling," he said. "To begin with, we have Gallopolis, kingdom of the desert knights. Home to horse racing, the Gallopolitan circus, and more sand than you can shake a cactus at. It's ruled by the Sultan and Sultana along with their son and heir, Prince Faris. Princey-poo got off to a bit of a rough start awhile back, but all he needed was a little push in the right direction."
"And then we have Octgonia, home of big muscular brutes beating the bejeezes out of each other," he said. Then gave her a reassuring wink. "All in the name of good fun and a few fabulous prizes, of course. The Masked Martial Arts tournament is the highlight of the year for the residents there, and was definitely the highlight of my visit. I got to know one of the fighters while I was there; you'd never know it, seeing him in the arena, but he's such a sweet, shy boy. Why if it weren't for the mask, I doubt he'd be able to fight at all!"
"Of course, there was the whole nasty business with Arachtagon and the local champion," he said, "but I won't bore you with the details. Suffice to say, Arachtagon was properly pummeled, and dear Vince learned a valuable lesson."
"And far to the north, we have Snifflehiem, the 'Crystal Kingdom," he said. "It's covered in ice and snow for most of the year, and is famous across Erdrea for its scholars and magical researchers. It's ruled by young Queen Frysabel, though I'm afraid the poor dear's reign had a rather rough start, even before Erdrea's current troubles, what with that whole business with the witch freezing her kingdom solid and all. Fortunately, my friends and I were able to help set things to rights, and Frysabel even gained a friend in the bargain."
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Date: 2019-06-29 08:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-06-29 09:03 am (UTC)"The problem with saying any foe can be defeated because we have magic? Or weapons? Or nukes? Or cunning? Is whatever you've got? The enemy's probably got too. THAT is why you bring in outside consultants, off world expertise. For the angle you lack."
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Date: 2019-06-29 09:04 am (UTC)"Sounds like you really have been everywhere there. And know all the royalty," a small laugh, even if she almost hiccuped in pain, remembering the Doctor and his habit of forever bragging about names, especially of rulers.
"I was born on Earth, at least a version of it, but I haven't been to all of it. Don't know too many royalty either..." a long pause. "Oh! But Queen Victoria! I helped save her from a werewolf, and she knighted me and my partner." A wicked grin, "And then banished us not five minutes later. She said we were larkin' about, and treatin' it all as good fun when it wasn't, or at least, shouldn't be in her eyes. But then in my father's universe, we weren't there to save her, so she was eaten, but the werewolf was only supposed to infect her, not kill her. So the crazy cult that kidnapped him killed him too. In the Universe with my friend, that I was born in, she made an organization called Torchwood, just to fight against the Doctor -- that's my friend, and anyone else not from planet Earth, like the werewolf, in Earth's best interest. But then in my father's universe, since she died, Torchwood, its job is to also help aliens that crash land and protect them from humans, that's what Earth people are called, because sometimes we're the monsters. Like the werewolf that was captured by the cult." Nod!
She didn't really expect it to be followed, but it'd been a long time since she even bothered talking to anyone, and talking about her adventures and this kind of thing exactly was something she'd always longed for, even before she went out on her first trip!
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Date: 2019-06-29 09:25 am (UTC)"Maleficent is only the mistress of evil, not darkness incarnate."
She slumped back face first into her arms and took a deep breath. The devil had called himself the darkness. And if the devil was real, maybe God was, but God left everything up to mortals. And whatever Rose counted as these days. Bad Wolf.
"Dragons always have a weak spot, right above their heart," she mumbled to no one in particular. "It's necessary for fire breathing. So how did Satan do it? Fire breathing from a human?" Illusion? Psychic overwhelming?
On this, she knew, not even the Doctor had that answer. He didn't always.
She looked back at Mal extremely seriously, "Rust is easy. Anyone can do that. You don't need magic. Vinegar, even coca cola can strip it." A frown and she glanced away, "I guess you wouldn't have that, but what I mean is..."
Rose looked up at that ceiling. "It's not doing the impossible I'm scared of. That's all I ever do. But on cue, with people watching, in a classroom, following someone else's rules, and ideas, and what they think, and how they think and--"
Rose shook her head, painfully aware now that she hadn't applied makeup in ages, and she almost missed it just then. It must be being back in a classroom setting with a Shireen-type friend on hand.
"Now we're talking truly impossible."
She leaned her head to the side, just one hand. "Corrosion is darkness before it reaches the stage of undoing reality. It's not physical, it's of the being, the soul, what makes you you. Mad cow's disease, Alzheimers, blight, that's corrosion. Some decay's just natural, yeah? But--" she doodled a finger in circles on the table in front of her. "It's the eating away at time and entire existence that scares me. Not blades, not physical, but entire dimensions. Whole planets disappearing, and people don't even remember them unless they've been there, unless they know. I might as well be a ghost, I've got family that will remember me, sure, but even one tiny speck getting swallowed by the darkness, can undo so much more, creates all kinds of ripples... and my 'magic' if you wanna call it that, is just traveling it all. I thought I could just find help. I mean, yeah I want to help too, but..."
A quiet snort.
"Monsters don't scare me. Not even the darkness scares me. But surviving doesn't mean anything if --" she trailed off and shook her head. The woman reminded her so much of Shireen she was treating her like her, and that also meant avoiding mentioning the Doctor was going to be a priority. "Never mind. Just surviving... I can do. Classes... I ran away from school once already. And my family a lot." A face scrunch and impish grin. "I don't like people expectin' things from me, yeah?"
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Date: 2019-06-29 09:27 am (UTC)Well Aahz said he was a demon so she should probably not bring that up.
"You've never heard of Earth, right?"
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Date: 2019-06-29 05:20 pm (UTC)"You're right, we do some really awful stuff to each other. I mean, pranks are one thing. I should tell you about the dinner party. But ... a lot of people just really suck. I'm sorry if I offended you, Crowley."
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Date: 2019-06-29 05:25 pm (UTC)[this - woman? duck? what even - seems absolutely impossible. Lydia folds her arms midair and scowls down at her]
No. I had the beginnings of a plan before you put me in the air, and if you're going to be rude to me, I'll just keep up with that and find someone else to get me down.
[she waves her wand - which looks like a long, thin bone twined with vines - and points it at a nearby pair of awnings]
Barrier, barrier, barrier!
[they each detach one end, stretch out, and tie around one another, effectively blocking off the creature's way, herding it away from the undamaged part of the neighborhood]
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Date: 2019-06-29 05:27 pm (UTC)Re: IV
Date: 2019-06-29 06:36 pm (UTC)He trailed off leaving the word, 'existing', hanging unsaid. They could stop existing, apparently on a whim... as some sort of stupid bloody ridiculous test! But he couldn't see the point. Why make humanity and then test it into extinction?
And maybe that was why he was here. The thought dawned on him like she had dumped a bucketful of Holy Water on him. Maybe his world had been destroyed and now like this Rose he was only a ghost, a remnant of a home he had grown to love, dropped off here because there was no where else to go.
Crowley was silent as Rose spoke on about her daft missing idiot. That too hit fairly hard. After all when he had first arrived he had been missing his daft idiot too, that brilliantly clever daft idiot With the beautifully untarnished white wings. There was a relief that he had found his missing angel.
Then she had turned and wrapped her arms around him...
"Oi! Hey, hey, hey, hey...!"
The surprised protest noises didn't prevent the hug. Crowley found himself trapped, his shirt growing slightly damp from the lady's tears, and he without a clue what to do about it. His hands hung over the girl, never landing on her shoulders, but hovering near as he tried to work out what the hell to do about this.
He was DEEP into angel territory now! The whole comfort and support thing was well out of his job description in fact if any of his people saw him cuddling a distressed human... well, it wouldn't turn out very happily for him. His lot weren't gentle with traitors. Out of habit he swept a quick look around to make sure no one was watching, and hopefully to spot a certain angel he could push Rose off on. Aziraphale! Where the hell are you? He was so much better at this sort of thing!
"Maybe he is here??"
The words were spoken uncertainly, the mark of a demon trying not to drown in unfamiliar waters.
"Trying to fight against the corruption? You seemed to think he would be... doing something... against darkness?"
It was a poor attempt, but it was an attempt. Bonus points for trying? Or did trying still count against him?
Her next question set him on much firmer ground. In trying not to be rude she actually had been. Crowley's face contorted into an unamused frown, not unlike one the Doctor would have worn at all!
"A crow?! I'm not some sort of giant bird..."
He was more a giant snake, totally different.
"I'm a demon!"
Still frowning, though one might notice he still hadn't pushed Rose away from him. Should have, he thought about it, but... she was missing her idiot.
"Humans aren't generally meant to know that... Makes it easier when I can hide these things," finger jab back at his wings, "You humans and much more trusting when you believe I'm one of you."
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Date: 2019-06-29 07:05 pm (UTC)Rose shook her head, "Nuh-uh, he's not, I looked everywhere, that's why I came back to you for clues. I'm not really a study in school type..." A slight hiccup.
At the proclamation he was a demon, and indignation over being compared to a bird, she pulled back herself with a slight giggle and peered closer. "You don't look like one," she decided, though that might be because she was used to the Doctor. "Can you breathe fire? Does Satan exist in your universe? Not that all devils know each other, but he's pretty much their King in most universes I've been through."
A head shake to the last part, and though she was back to sad toned, at least she'd stopped crying, "Nah, the Doctor's not human either. That's my friend. Who looks like you. He could have wings, but then he wouldn't have the same face."
A beat.
Then a suspicious peer, "I know not all demons are the same, and objectives completely differ, but won't it be hard for you to fight the darkness when your job is to spread it?"
She rubbed her eyes again. "Do you think Satan could escape a black hole? He could, right?" She bit her bottom lip. "He said he was the darkness, so I shot him into a black hole, but now with the darkness eating everything..." She shivered and held her arms despite the warm summer air. Clearly, she didn't disbelieve Crowley despite what she said.
And the thoughts gave her a new hope.
Maybe the Doctor still could come, just late as always. He wouldn't be looking for ways out of the universe, but if the darkness spread enough, if the darkness truly was from Satan getting his revenge on Rose Tyler, and all the forces of light and creation in general, then she hadn't made the holes, Satan did, and he must have bore away out the seals on the Doctor's universe. Maybe.
omg all the typos... /hangs head in shame
Date: 2019-06-29 07:09 pm (UTC)"Well done beautiful." A snakey smile at their host, "Prevented a nasty situation there."
Cause watching anyone drink out of that bucket, no thanks!
That the big bad of his canon?
Date: 2019-06-29 07:22 pm (UTC)"That actually worked!"
He sounded more surprised than impressed but thought to make good this opportunity! He found a line, might have been a clothing line or left over from some sort of decoration, and yanked it down. He threw half of the line to the kid.
"Let's tie him up before he can recover!"
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Date: 2019-06-29 07:24 pm (UTC)Unfortunately he wasn't the most artistic of demons.
"I could scrawl a few rude words but they would probably just get in the way of your work."