Character Meet and Greet

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"You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality."

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.

Comments

[funnylittleclown]

You never had such fine service! While the Doctor in his scruffy outfit was given a few odd pitying looks as he, but for the way he spoke, didn't seem to be much of an executive type he looked more like some one down on his luck Rose was treated like a queen. Complimentary chips for her and her guest, large drinks, would you like to try the special Miss and plenty of napkins in case anyone got crazy with the condiments.

"You know they are good these chips. But well, you are the authority," playful smile, "How do you think they stack up?"

[bigbadrose]

"Brilliant!" om nom nom. "Need more vinegar," nom nom nom, "Didja know they stopped wrapping 'em in newspaper in the chippies by 2007? The version that got separated from me said he always missed it, preferred the news-ink." So many giggles. "So I'd give 'im a tenner so he could get chips and a paper to wrap em proper in."

A beat. "Mind, anythin's better than those blue peppery ones," she made a disgusted face. "Very plastic, them."

[funnylittleclown]

He reached forward and touched the bit of paper their snack currently rested on.

"I did noticed this was little more than wax paper, but they did at least go to the effort of including printing on it as if it were newsprint."

He turned to give the staff a bit of a smile, just to show them the inspection was going in their favor.

"Celebrating 95 years," The Doctor read from the faux newspaper page, "Oh, that is nice. I wonder if they will throw a large party in five years. A hundred is something of a landmark for a company. But nothing about the corruption."

He sighed but was quick to agree with that.

"I suppose it wouldn't do much to keep the tourists calm if they knew what was going on."

[bigbadrose]

Rose instantly relaxed and smiled ear to ear. Still the Doctor where it mattered most. She reached out, her hand over his, not thinking about it, "We should go see it," she poked her tongue over her teeth, before realizing what she'd done and withdrawing the hand blushing scarlet, and just nodding curtly about the corruption.

"I've seen it," she said softly, glancing away. "In the latter stages. When it starts undoing existence. Reality." She glanced back seriously. "It's actually better that there isn't anything. It can't be noticed or felt until it's too late. When it's already started removing something important."

Back to glancing away and she savaged a chip to take out her aggression. "Like potato blight, but instead it's reality. And then it just all goes dark." Nom!

[funnylittleclown]

Her smile was returned with a bright and enthusiastically meddlesome of his own. After all she had just said they should go and see this corruption, something he had been absolutely dying to do since he arrived!

"If you are feeling up to it."

Still as eager as he was to go he wouldn't have forced her to go with him if she weren't ready to face it.

"It does sound very frightful doesn't it? But, I've found its actually very difficult to eliminate worlds entirely so I'm certain we will be able to find some way to put an end to it and set everything right again."

[bigbadrose]

She meant the 100th anniversary. They're definitely going to be seeing that corruption sooner more than later as they're meant to fight it and all.

... His line about how difficult it was to eliminate worlds made her want to curl up in a ball and cry.

Luckily her smile was somehow plastered on. Deep breaths. Don't crack.

Definitely need alcohol. Even if it meant she'd have to be more careful about not loosening up... "What have we got for wine or whiskey or... oh anything really here," asking for a menu.

Ugh. It'd been ages, but she still remembers leather jacket Doctor fighting with her over the Paradox. That if it was just as easy as going back in time to save his family, his planet...

She curled her hands in front of her and rested her head in them.

Still the Doctor where it mattered most...

Maybe if she'd met this Doctor first? But then he would have lost her to the war, like Sarah Jane.

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah she needs a drink.

She can't even fake optimism. It's just not there.

How can she explain why she was separated from the Doctor when she can't even talk about the war and if the TimeLords were around...

Alas, trying to get him back by cheating, by completely undoing the TimeWar was probably worse than paradoxical and almost definitely a Greek tragedy, and just like she told Crowley, he wouldn't proud of her, just mad and disappointed.

"Difficult, but not impossible Doctor. It's been happening since before I met the first version of you," a quiet growl. Dangerous and lupine. "Planets are going out in all universes. Every version that should have them." She rested her forehead back on the table, cradled by arms, lifting only enough to rest on one arm and mumble to the side and grab more chips. "If not eaten, then they're just going dark. But people, whole... species, have been--"

She glanced up at the ceiling. "There was a crack between dimensions. A people called the gelth wanted to slip through. Become solid again." Side glance away. "They were forced into being gaseous because of the darkness, the corruption, whatever. A moon was stolen." She looked at him seriously, chin still resting on the table top and if he's paying close attention, her eyes seem a bit more yellow than they should. "Not like geocaching -- no wait. Geo-grafitti... geo-art??" She meant geohacking. "That thing where you steal bits of planets and monuments to make art, and we put Jack's face on a moon," because the face of Boe. "But like, it's gone," she snapped her fingers, "No one can find it. There's no gravity there, whoever was living there goes with it, it's just, darkness where there used to be light."

If only Rose had been a bigger Kaiju, sentai, or sci-fi fan, or even more into laser tag she might have known of the mythology in the show Photon, that people all generate light but when corrupted, the planet becomes dark, but alas. It's just as well she's running on instinct and what she's pieced out of everything.

[funnylittleclown]

It wouldn't have been the first time the Doctor had misunderstood something a friend said because his mind was busy working on something else. In any event he didn't imagine he would still be here in five years for the 100 year celebration. If they did manage to find the TARDIS it would be easy enough to pop ahead those few years... which was always what he said before his lack of skill at piloting the TARDIS led them some where else entirely.

"What I meant was, sometimes things that have been lost can be found again."

Rose meanwhile spoke about a great deal of things in that speech that didn't make one lick of sense to the Doctor. Events and people he hadn't met yet, gelth, some one called Jack whose face had apparently been added to the moon... The girl was practically delirious with grief. But hope springs eternal in the young, he had optimism to share!

"These missing worlds might not have been destroyed. And if it is just a matter of defeating this Darkness we might be able to set everything right again. We mustn't give up yet, Rose."

The menu was presented about then, a pair of them held out between them. This distracted the conversation for the Doctor as he took one of the menus and smiled warmly at their server.

"Thank you. I could do with a malt I think."

[bigbadrose]

"Well, that's been my assumption, yeah," Rose doodled a finger in circles on the table. Clearly: that was not the worry plaguing her.

She grinned and pulled up when he ordered a malt for himself though. "You know... I don't think I've ever seen you drink," she admitted coyly. "Whenever Jack an' I went out on the town, you just got banana smoothies -- and the one time you said you got a banana daiquiri, I'm not sure it wasn't a lie to confuse the enemy."

Not that she was plotting anything, nope.

[funnylittleclown]

How odd! His forehead knitted slightly as he wondered if it wasn't that then what could it possibly be! But he didn't ask, instead he dodged sideways, brightening to tease the lady he sat with.

"Oh, but you must have done!? I can't have avoided drinking anything whenever you were around? That would be silly!"

Of course when his 'malt' arrived it was one slightly different than Rose might have been expecting. It was a very pretty chocolate malted milkshake and the Doctor took a long thoroughly impish sip from it as Rose watched knowing full well she had been thinking it would be something alcoholic.

"I wouldn't have minded a banana smoothie, those do some rather nice."

[bigbadrose]

She giggles at his milkshake, but drinks her own ale, bitter though it was.

"Alcohol," she giggled. "'Cept when he went dancin' with Madame du Pompadour, but like I said, I think he was just pretendin' to be drunk to confuse the clockwork robots."

[funnylittleclown]

"Oh, did he? How very clever of me!"

Totally taking credit for his older version's ruse, if it was a ruse.

"I imagine you might be correct about that. I'm really not much of a drinker at all. A glass or wine here or there but really.. drunk at a party? You wouldn't be able to remember it the next day."

[bigbadrose]

A grin. "I've only blacked out once, and I wasn't drunk. I fused my heart with the TARDIS and dumped the time vortex into the Dalek god's head." She'd decided that this wasn't directly in his timeline, and very likely he wouldn't remember this, Doctor or not. And if he did, then good. Frustrate him a little in revenge.

[funnylittleclown]

"Oh, my word!"

Far from sounding impressed he looked worried.

"People aren't meant to do that."

It tended to be fatal. Though he didn't say that his brow furrowed and he looked to her eyes, which he suddenly recalled had been glowing oddly earlier. He hadn't known the reason then but now? Now he was terrified for her.

"How are you feeling?"

[bigbadrose]

She laughed softly and shook her head, "No worries, haven't done it since. The future you told me I nearly destroyed the Universe like that."

[funnylittleclown]

"The universe and yourself along with it..."

He said still some what unconvinced as her eyes had still glowed! Unless he had been seeing things? No, he was certain they had!

"Any lasting effects?"

[bigbadrose]

Rose doodled a finger in circles on the table, looking downward.

"Oh... here and there..." evasive, "Nothing I wasn't prepared for." She glanced back up at him seriously, "I don't like having decisions made for me. I'm funny about that, always manage a way to defy them, no matter who's the one deciding."

[funnylittleclown]

"Nor do I! But there are some things, some powers, that just shouldn't be tampered with."

And clearly he felt this was one of those. Just far too dangerous and unpredictable.

"You've no idea what it could do to you."

[bigbadrose]

Rose stops pulling her verbal punches.

"He sent me back," she growled dark and low. "He send me back so he could face the dalek emperor and their entire fleet cultivated from humans alone, so he could die without regenerations. And I was just supposed to watch the TARDIS die slowly and pretend it was all just some wonderful dream I woke up from. I'd rather die by his side than live as a coward stuck in the wrong time, wrong place, pretending I belonged there."

She clenched a fist and chugged her ale. She was angry again, which was a lot more comfortable. It was how she'd gotten through everything so far, after all. "You treat us as so fragile, but I've never met a man so--" However angry she was, she couldn't bring herself to insult him to his face, at least not this one, the cute daft one trying so hard to cheer her up. She sighed, un-clenched her fist, and rested her head on one hand. "I mean it. I'd rather die by his side, than live anywhere else without him." She finished her ale in one go.

[funnylittleclown]

The fist and the sudden burst of anger did startle him but it also brought a certain clarity with it. He thought, incorrectly, that this was the incident that had caused the rift between her and his older self. And he did do what she had accused him of.

Wait here Victoria I won't be a minute! I just need to check something out.
Back to the TARDIS Jamie, I'll be right behind you.
Do mind your step Zoe the ice is quite slippery.

But, while there often had been an occasional 'your nay going in there alone, Doctor' he couldn't recall anyone ever being this cross with him for it.

He spoke very softly in contrast to her anger, "If I... I mean he, my older self, did do that it would only have been to protect you. I can't say that I've ever seen my friends as fragile but I do like to look out for them. After all, they are usually only in these situations because I brought them there."

1/2

[bigbadrose]

"I know it's to protect me," she glared all the same. "But who's going to protect you?"

And a quiet snort at the last part. "No, I wouldn't have been alive if he hadn't pulled me out the first time we met. He had to ask me twice to come with him, because I knew it'd mean leaving my boyfriend and Mum behind, but I did. I did it then, I've done it every time since, and I'm still doing it now. My choice, yeah? Not yours or his, or anyone else's." So what if she had to go through literal hell? Worth it, right? Right! "Giving up freedom for safety isn't living at all."

2/2

[bigbadrose]

A quiet sigh and she gently flagged down a waitress for another ale, and pushed her hair back with a hand. She'd explained this much, might as well explain the rest.

"That wasn't how we got separated," she looked up at the ceiling fighting her tears and closed her eyes until she could be sure they were manageable. "He tried again, o' course, to send me away, always will, I don't expect otherwise, I really don't. But I fought my way back, like I always will." A quiet snort. Through anything. She couldn't explain about the void ship, the cult of Skaro, the Timelord prison... "We had two levers. Torchwood in your universe, where I was born, was bringing over cybermen from my Dad's universe. He runs the Torchwood there, because his company was the one to make the cybermen, even though he was fighting against it. To get rid of all the -- everything, the plan was for my Mum, Pete -- my Dad, Mickey -- my ex-boyfriend, everyone to get to Dad's Universe, and the Doctor was going to use void stuff to send all the rest of the void travelers into the void, yeah?"

A quiet snort. "Like I said, two levers. He tried to send me to Pete's Universe. Twice, but nothing doing. So he was gonna let me stay, but my lever slipped out of place. I locked back in, but my grip on it fell. I would'a been sucked into the void too, but Pete caught me because of that time I fused my heart with the TARDIS, I scattered messages all over my timeline so I wouldn't die."

She drummed her fingers on the table. "Thing is though, yeah?" she looked at the Doctor seriously. "The two universes are sealed for us. Maybe because of the void thing and cybermen." She couldn't say truthfully she didn't know, because she did know, it was because he was the last of the timelords, but like hell was she going to be the one to say that. "He said..."

Her bottom lip trembled, and eyes threatened to well up all over again and Rose mentally cursed her weakness a million times over, and she glanced furiously sideways. "He said goodbye. It took him a whole star to do it. Via hologram. He couldn't manage more than that. Said if he tried to force the TARDIS through then..."

Rose wiped a fist over her eyes, and thanked the waitress, happily digging into the foam of her drink. "But the stars are going out. People think I'm mad, that there weren't any stars there to begin with, just darkness. But I know there were. I've been there, I've seen them in person. So I made the dimension cannon so I could come back..." more drinking. Heavily. "Only... I thought only the Doctor would know what to do. And I'm glad, I'm really glad," a bitter laugh through the tears, "That there's more people to help in the fight. I just..." she gave up the fight and just started crying, burying her head in her arms again. Gods she was pathetic. Was her mission to fight the darkness, or to find the Doctor? How pathetic was it that she was only happy, so determined, so willing to do anything whatever the cost so long as it was both?

Then again, she really truly didn't care that it would seem pathetic to everyone, even herself. That was what she wanted. Who was anyone else to say it was wrong?

1/2

[funnylittleclown]

Who is going to protect you? A name did come to mind admittedly but they had been separated some time ago by now and he doubted they would meet again. Hopefully they might, the universe was full of possibilities, but the likelihood was that they wouldn't. And if they did... Jamie would hardly remember him. Poor Zoe either for that matter. They had both been mind wiped by the Time Lords and sent home to their own proper time streams. Never meant to remember or travel with him again.

He naturally mentioned none of this to Rose, saying instead.

"I know I do seem like a fumbling old man but I can still look after myself."

Which earned him a well deserved mental snerk from memory Jamie. One which the Doctor found himself actually responding to with a light grimace.

"Well, maybe with a little help now and then."

2/2

[funnylittleclown]

Oh, poor girl. He let her cry as she obviously needed to but dug through a few pockets until he found a clean handkerchief. She was in luck, this one was stylishly red with white polka dots... though she might not have noticed with her head on the table sobbing. It was the most natural thing in the world to reach out to her and place a hand on her head, smoothing the hair like he might have done had any of his other friends been upset.

"It does sound like you have gone through quite a lot. I can't say I understand most of it... but it was successful. You did find me!"

His voice grew soft, trying to cushion the fact that he knew he wasn't the version of him she had been so desperately searching for.

"I... I know I mightn't be what you were expecting but the two of us can still work together to put an end to this darkness business. Then maybe we can see about getting you home. Where ever you decide home ought to be. Hm?"

The handkerchief was laid nearby so all she had to do was reach out and take it.

[bigbadrose]

"Yeah," Rose sniffled, but calmed down, gratefully using the handkerchief, with mild amusement at the pattern and held both hands on his. "Thanks... so long as you let that home be with the Doctor, not my parents," she poked her tongue out the side, half-teasing, but definitely ready to fight like a wildcat if anyone tried to decide otherwise for her.

[funnylittleclown]

"Oh well that would be entirely between you and me, older me, which ever me that was..."

He squeezed her hand.

"You know what I mean!"