Character Meet and Greet: Boo to You~!

[smk_mods]

Rules | FAQ | Premise | Applications

i. Main Street USA: Daylight Hours
The citizens of Main Street greet the coming of fall in a big way! The entire main part of town is decorated in the colors of fall, carved pumpkins on every window ledge, balcony and stoop! Some are rather creative, ranging from The King himself to various spook-tacular versions. There are also plain pumpkins, squash and apples arranged in a rather decorative (and tasty) presentation outside the Opera House!

Enjoy yourselves as The Candy Palace begins to hand out small, caramel and spice covered apple slices. The smell of apple fritters, grilled apples and apple bacon float through the air. Enjoy the rather relaxed daylight hours...

ii.Main Street USA: After Dark

Because the moment the sun sets, and the lamps have been lit- the entire street takes on a strange and unsettling demeanor. The pumpkins glow a soft, red color and bats and black cats crawl around the shadowed corners. You might see several citizens wandering the streets-but look to hard and they will suddenly vanish before you can even greet them.

The stores are still open and the sweets and treats are still pouring; but! Beware of happy haunts~!

iii. Yo ho, yo ho a Pirates life for me!

Ah! Smell that salty, briny air! It gives life to all those who are from or love the sea!

Which would be wonderful and invigorating, if this was the bottom of the beautiful briny sea. It isn't. It's the open garden in front of the train station which is no being over run by some rather fishy, lv. 2 Corroded! Can you help sweep the proverbial beach clean without being washed away by water based attacks? The conductors would be most grateful if you could!

iv.Come out and Socialize!

No need to be number one thousand! Imagination is the real host here, so go on and use your to come up with your own adventure. Just remember to take loved ones by the hand, please, our ghosts are frightfully sensitive to too much mischief~

Comments

[bigbadrose]

"I really hope Billy Joel didn't write it about him, because Jack already has the strangest stories from being a Time Agent, and no good can come of him shagging his way around all o' Earths most famous pop singers. Especially not if he's giving them future drugs," a beat. "He wouldn't. Could see him being compared to one though," she nodded and closed her eyes.

She watched him somberly. Rose didn't laugh either. Nor deride him either way. "What if you don't have to fight them as much as just... distract them? Punch their jaw and make them confused for a moment so they can get purified, yeah?"

Rose sighed, hand to her forehead, "It's gonna sound daft, but I try not to kill anything, or anyone. It's a timeline thing. You'd be amazed how much happens from a single life lost. So..." she reached out a hand, either for the bottle or to help Richie, it wasn't clear which. "Don't destroy. Preserve. Find something you want to hold onto other than just yourself, and don't let the Darkness or corruption take it from you, yeah?"

[trashylittlesecret]

A single life lost. Oh, he knows so much about that. So, so much. He's with her until that point, and then a little jolt of righteous anger goes up his spine. He sets the bottle on the counter and snarls.

"It already did take what I wanted, okay? Took the only thing I ever wanted. And I was too chickenshit to say anything, so what fucking good is it gonna do me here? When I don't even have ... that person ... anymore?"

Chickenshit. Couldn't even use the right pronoun. Disrespectful as fuck. Why couldn't he say it, even now? He hated himself more than any monster in that moment, and took another gulp from the bottle. Fuck it. Let him turn into his mother. He deserved it.

[bigbadrose]

"Hey," Rose comes and joins him, hugging around his shoulders all the same. "Me too, believe it or not. Multiple times. Time here doesn't work the way you're thinking. All linear. People we've lost, we can meet up with again, yeah? I was looking for the bloke I lost. Love of my life. Battled through timelines where he died, I kept thinking once I found him, it'd all be fixed." A sad smile. "It's not, obviously. But he left me someone I have to care for. Maybe they'll come here, and if they don't, you might find something you weren't expecting instead, yeah?"

[trashylittlesecret]

"Wasn't expecting this," he grumbled miserably under his breath. "I just wanted to clean myself off, change, hop the first red-eye back to California and see if I could get my shitty gig list back after that giant egg I laid before I left."

He sighs. Shit, the theatre. His manager. All of it. He probably wouldn't have been able to handle it, anyway. Maybe she's got a point. The hug around the shoulders reminds him of Bev, the way she used to keep them all together like some weird same-age team mom. A team mom who kept Camels in her overalls and threw rocks with the best of them.

"Look, I'm not going all gung-ho just because of this, but ... you might have something resembling a point." A pause. "Who the hell are you, anyway, random British shoulder barnacle?"

[bigbadrose]

Rose giggles at the nickname. "You don't have to be gung-ho, surviving is enough." She dropped the hug and offered a more formal handshake. "Rose Tyler. Doubt you've ever heard of Torchwood, but we have a California branch... in some universes." A shrug. "Monsters are my thing, traveling more than Earth is how I get there."

[trashylittlesecret]

"Sounds like some period thing." He adopts a snooty, quavering, Maggie-Smith-esque falsetto. "And now, back to Torchwood. When last we left Ms. Thruppitybits, she and Sir Reginald Paddihose were teetering on the brink of reckless indiscretion..." A shift to something a bit more Alistair Cook: "I daresay, Ms. T, you might hold my hand, but kindly keep your gloves on."

[bigbadrose]

Still more laughing!

"That's kind of what it was named after!! Oh, except there was a werewolf involved and a crazy cultist plot to infect Queen Victoria. In my Dad's universe, she got eaten, so they wound up with a President instead of Prime Minister thereafter, but in the one I was born in, me and the Doctor rescued her, and she exiled us after knighting us, and made Torchwood to punish us. It's extra funny because my Dad's the director of it in his universe, and I have clearance through all branches in all universes now! That really backfired on her, huh?"

[trashylittlesecret]

The laughter is good. It grounds him. He's always felt more secure when he can make people laugh: it means he's really there, that he can still change his surroundings, that he's got some twisted form of control.

He listens to Rose go on for a bit, then something clicks for him in the middle of all that weirdness. Never mind the werewolves, and how once upon a time they scared the snot out of him, but he stayed fascinated by them. He can get back to that. There's something a little more important going down in this weird little backstory. "You ... you've done this whole 'other universe' thing before. Am I seriously hearing that right? Or do I have Yankee Candles jammed in my ears?"

[bigbadrose]

"Wow, you caught on quickly!" Rose laughed some more and shook her head. "Yeah! I travel falling timelines. Or did. Will do. Time... it gets... confusing. Normally I can't say that without everyone thinking I'm completely mad, but here everything IS mad, so I can just be honest, yeah?"

[trashylittlesecret]

Everything is mad, so they can just be honest, huh? He takes another swig, then dives right into the deep end.

"You travel failing timelines, I just killed a creature that's billions of years old, shapeshifts to feed off fear, has a taste for little kids in particular, and liked looking like a six-foot tall clown with glowing yellow eyes."

He raises his eyebrows at her.

"Honest enough? If not, I'm also gay and totally a chickenshit about it."

He's already berating himself for saying so, but he was half-drunk, and angry, and scared, and punchy. And all of those things made his mouth run way too much even without the booze. Beep beep, Richie, he thinks, a few moments too late.

[bigbadrose]

"That sounds like a demon, but why a clown??? Colourphobia isn't that common, is it?" She wasn't laughing, or doubting in the least, she had seen too much to ever doubt insane stories at this point.

She chewed her bottom lip in thought, and rested her hand on the top part of his arm, and smiled gently, "If it helps any, you sound like you're from a decade where that matters and here... I guarantee it doesn't." She made a face. "I started time traveling 2005. It was still not really... common in London then, yeah? Especially with like... working class or chavs. Everyone called me chav," she rolled her eyes, since they were being brutally honest and all, "S'like white ghetto for British. Not just poor, but kind of..." she made a face, "Not trying to do better? Anywayyyy..." a huff. Don't get her started. "My best mate is an alien that can change faces and gender," Because Missy, "And my second best mate is a Time Agent from the fifty-first century who flirts wiiiiiiiiiiiiiith... everybody. Just by sayin' hello." She laughed and took a sip of his drink. "I'm really proud o' him though! He's in the 21st century now, I 'aven't A CLUE how he got there, but he's got this boyfriend that is just the ultimate nerd type," She made a face and playfully stuck her tongue out the side, "Bit like you, but more coffee boy! And he, Jack, my second best mate anyone could ever be lucky to have, he just cheerfully drags everyone around him into the future with him," she giggled, took another drink and sat down behind the bar, hunkering down for now.

"Wish he was here, but mixed feels on it. I just miss him, that's my selfishness. But yeah, oh! Uh, Crowley and Aziraphale are an angel and demon snogging or shagging or hooking up or at least something. Anyway, once you take that worst enemies ever thing and throw that out the window, gender really comes into a great perspective, don't it? Mind... they're not really men or male exactly? Like Crowley currently looks like my best mate, a couple faces back -- he changes, like I said; but he's been all woman before and apparently bat his eyelashes at Aziraphale a century ago or something and got him to hold his umbrella??? He was trying to tell me how to win the Doctor over with my womanly wiles.... which would pro'lly go as well as it would on you, yeah?" Rose laughed. "But less because he likes men and more just... he doesn't notice anything or at least is so good at pretending not to, that there's no real difference. Jack used to hit on him too and if Jack can't get through to someone," Rose shook her head! "Nothin' doin'!"

[trashylittlesecret]

Richie is silent for a moment.

"That was a lot of shit for a man trying to get drunk to digest, you know that, right? I caught something about your Captain Jack guy, and a demon umbrella? Which I think I saw in a cartoon once. You're going to have to give me the Cliff Notes version of what you were actually trying to say."

[bigbadrose]

Rose giggled again, slightly at a loss herself, "Demon umbrella?" so much giggles. But she does give Cliff notes version as best she can, channeling her inner Rob who was in fact, the male counterpart to Rose, "Being gay is great, Captain Jack is -- I forget the word, but gender don't mean a thing to him. He's got a boyfriend! I love him. But not yanno... like I fancy him." Bleh, American, would he know what that meant? "Annnd..." she punched the air, "Sod anyone who has a problem with it! I'll punch 'em in the face, and kick their shins for you, yeah? Romance for all!!! Humanity is all about shagging the stars!"

The last part had sober Rose face palming, but only a little, so it's fine!

[trashylittlesecret]

"Shagging the stars," he echoed. "Well, I'm from California, so I can tell you that there was definitely a lot of that going on. Nudge nudge wink wink say no more." She got his best Michael Palin impression on that one. And of course he knew what she meant, he spent his formative high school years devouring VHS tapes of Flying Circus from the library.

"And yeah, demon umbrella. I don't even remember what fuckin' cartoon it was, but there were all these weird monsters and one of them made a whole squadron of umbrellas with devil horns that jumped up and down and breathed fire. They put some weird shit on kids' TV."

[bigbadrose]

She giggled and snorted at that. Of course Monty Python! Though she didn't really know as much about California, but she could guess from reputation.

"Wouldn't mind seein' that," Rose laughed, "Maaaaaaybe not live it though, but stick around awhile, and odds are, we just migh', yeah?"

[trashylittlesecret]

"As long as that's what we see, and not ... anything like that sloppy bitch Pennywise? Sure. Whatever." He sighed, taking another drink from the bottle. From outside, the faint sound of screams and commotion as some of the Apprentices started in on the Corroded at the station.

"Thanks for not dragging me out there kicking and screaming. I ... I tend to do more harm than good with that shit."

[bigbadrose]

"Pennywise is your thousands year old demon clown?" a chewed lip in thought, and Rose snorted. "Just go on a couple missions when you're comfortable, you'll be fine. S'not like --" she rubbed her temples and sighed. "Actual end days o' London, yeah? Had to see... a lot of that. Here... it's... manageable? That's awful o' me to say, I get it, they're still in survivor mode and need us, but..." she shuddered, "Blimey, no one gets it. They can't..." She didn't even want them to, really. End of the world, times several hundred. No one needed to see that. "It's just... a lot better, yeah? A lot." She wondered briefly what Gallifrey was like at the end, and quickly locked that thought away. No one needed to see that either, she expected. Burned before its time. Was ice and snow worse? Didn't matter. She'd make it un-happen. Where it counted.

[trashylittlesecret]

"I'll take your word for it," he says dully. It's not that he doesn't care about the fact that she's apparently seen the end days - that's some heavy shit, the kind of stuff Bill wrote about in his books that were 80% good and 20% steaming crap by the end, like that one where all the people ended up in Colorado or Vegas, no middle ground.

"Missions. Jesus. You're making it sound like we get uniforms and debriefings and all that crap. I dunno if you noticed, but I'm not exactly a military kinda guy. No Torchwood for me."

[bigbadrose]

Rose grinned tightly. "Trust me, I don't get on with military types either. But it's not. It's pretty disorganized, but it's almost like..." her brain searched for the next closest thing to compare it to, "One o' those old video games??" she asked hopefully, not really sure on what decade he was from yet. "Go at your own pace, as it were. But be careful o' Hades. He'll just send you out to fight, ready or not, so it's better if you have friends to help."

[trashylittlesecret]

"How old are we talking?" With those two words, she was speaking his language again, and he pulled hard on his internal reins to keep the neon DORK sign from lighting up over his head. "Super Nintendo? 8-bit? Atari? Or are we going dinosaur Commodore?"

[bigbadrose]

Rose giggled all over again, her face scrunching with it, "Blimey you sound like my ex. He collected a lot o' 'em. British ones, a few Japanese. Learned programming through it and then taught me a few things in the agency so I could get by. UM..." she scrunched her face, struggling to remember them at all. "Blimey, I don't rightly know. I think... Commodore 64 sounds right? Joystick, PC, yeah???" Rose rubbed her temples. "Look, specifics aside -- go easy on me, you wouldn't believe what weird little things change in every universe, yeah? And I've been lousy with any weird names..." A huff. "This one time, I got sent in as one of their... err... pilots, for a video game. Luckily, the Doctor was at the controls o' mine, so he was able to rig them so I could do whatever he needed..... no no no, that's nothing like this at all."

Another huff! "It's like a fantasy rpg," mentally praying she got that term right, "Where there's a mission board to help the village. And there's rewards, and sometimes you're not successful, but it's fine, because it's the same as dimension jumps. Sometimes you have to land in 'orrible dying timelines, just so you can even start to understand why the darkness is taking them all, yeah? But in this case, it's more like kicking the corruption back a bit, so everyone else can succeed on their next one. Slowly but methodically," she snapped her fingers, and nodded. "Yeah!" She punched the air, finally yelling as a title clicked in her head, "Final Fantasy!" and then a frown, "No, that can't be right, that series has like... a dozen sequels, how can it be final anything?" Rose groaned and facepalmed, "It's not that I didn't like them, I just always want to do real adventures. Sort of considered it a karmic punishment when I really was there for real. But basically... missions, message board, go with friends, solve puzzles, no one's died so far. And we have good healers, so that's really good, yeah?"

Rose held up a hand, "Here, if you want, I'll give you a charm. Magic blessing. I can do that here. Brilliant, right?"

[trashylittlesecret]

"Ohhhhhh, yeah, RPG type stuff." Richie snapped his fingers and pointed at her. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. Doesn't matter what order you do it all in, so long as it gets done, and then after a certain number you get a boss fight and everybody levels up, woohoo."

Those had been far more Bill's speed - he was the one who'd had every Final Fantasy and Chrono-Whatsis installation under the sun, and some other one about a giant magic tree. Richie was far more about the games where you just mashed buttons until something made out of pixels died. It was cathartic. But then she brought it back around into reality, and he had to shake his head a little bit to bring it all together.

"What, an honest to God magic charm thing? Seriously? Like what? How long do they last? Is it one of those-" serious announcer Voice and spooky fingers- "befooooore the sun sets on the thiiird daaaay things?"

[bigbadrose]

"As long as I want!" Rose boasted, tongue peeking out the side. "Yeahhhhh, but not really. I have to get more sparks -- level up as it were, right?" She snorted at the ridiculousness of that statement, but took his hand.

"You are stronger than you think, braver than you know, have another drink, don't worry about lettin' go!"

A quiet snort, "Not so bad right? But if anything else happens for at least the rest o' the night, maybe the week, or longer, you'll get a boost you weren't expecting, I promise."

HAD TO SAY IT THAT WAY DIDN'T YOU

[trashylittlesecret]

You're stronger than you think. His own words to Eddie, thrown right back in his face. He does feel the surge of confidence, but ... even as he does, his eyes well with tears.

Probably not the response she was expecting.

Yes

[bigbadrose]

Rose just hugs him, not poking the obvious wound. "You forgot to have another drink," she whispered. "Anything specific you wanna toast to?"

Look, she's been there so much that her favorite song now is Audioslave's Doesn't Remind Me, because the list of random shit that doesn't remind her of Jack and the Doctor is so much smaller than the list of what does remind her of them.