applesaucedream | [open to all] Room full of people in your head

The first part of Gabriel's explanation makes perfect sense to her and she nods, licking stickiness off her fingers. The same can't be said for the rest though, and she just comments with a bemused "I'm sure he did," because what else is she going to say but affirm his skill with dream projections?

Sometimes Gabriel seems far too human for her to understand, a lot more so than the Doctor, and for the first time that thought fills her with a strange sort of sadness. But she doesn't feel like dwelling on why that may be and instead follows him, taking in more of the boardwalk and sea-side.

Oblivious to any of the TARDIS's doubts, Gabriel chuckles at Peter's answer. "I had a beautiful face and he loved it." He gets distracted by one of the game booths: a game of darts. A barker with a huge curly moustache advertises from behind the barrier - hit the bullseye and win the enormous stuffed teddy bear. Miss and get the little piddly one. Contrary to the normal carnival game, these darts aren't fixed, and it is precisely the game of skill it's been presented as.

Gabriel nods to the man and three darts are given to him. He holds them out to the others. "Who wants a go?" He smiles at the TARDIS, "Want to test how nimble those fingers of yours are? You can win Petey the giant teddy he's always wanted."

Oddly, the memory gives Peter heart: if he can cope with Gabriel turning into a woman and trying to get one over on him (..however that was even supposed to work, he's still not sure), he can cope with Gabriel dragging him around a fake carnival. Same basic principle applies, just keep pushing right back and throw himself into everything.

"You said you were going to do it," he comments, lifting an eyebrow. "Afraid you're losing your touch? Need the little lady to do it for you?"

The TARDIS is dubiously eyeing the game and the offered dart, only taking it because she doesn't want to reject Gabriel, despite not even knowing how to hold the thing properly. But at Peter's last remark in a clearly condescending tone, she fixes the offending human with an ice cold look. "I am neither 'little' nor a lady," she says balefully before shifting her displeased gaze back to Gabriel. "And I think he can win his own imaginary prizes." She's just about had enough of Peter, and it's only her respect for the fact that this is Gabriel's projection that's keeping her from metaphorically whacking him on the nose in some way, just barely.

Gabriel sighs. He would really like for his two guests to at least coexist without chewing each other's heads off. "Come on, the teddy bear won't feel imaginary." He leans in and kisses her cheek while at the same time taking the dart back from her. If she doesn't want to play then she doesn't have to, but he is a little disappointed that she didn't take the opportunity to try it.

He turns to Peter with the handful of darts and holds them out flat for him to select one. "You've been given a challenge, you going to take her up on it?" Expecting his objections, he adds, "This is my dream, you know I can win if I want to. This is about you."

Peter snorts and holds his hands up as if to say he has no idea how the TARDIS could possibly get offended over his perfectly innocent remark. Being wary of her doesn't appear to be translating into showing her any sort of respect -- really, he's taking much the same approach he does with Gabriel.

He opens his mouth to object, only to be headed off by Gabirel. "What was that I said about rigged games?" he interjects as he takes a dart anyway. Weighing it in his hand a moment, he realizes a little too late that it's been years since he last played darts. It can't be that hard, though, right? Like riding a bicycle, except he hasn't done that in a long time, either. Squinting at the target, he tosses the dart in its general direction. It sticks in the board, but outside the target.

Well she would have tried it if Peter wasn't so rude. She's only slightly mollified by the kiss, but refrains from arguing further. Gabriel's wish for them to get along can only make her tolerant up to a point, she's never been willing to endure much disrespect for anyone else's sake.

She'd be happy to beat Peter at the game, but she knows she has terribly untrained hand-eye coordination and would just end up humiliating herself. Technically she could use her influence to direct the dart, but cheating wouldn't be very satisfying and Gabriel would notice, even if he might not tell on her. So she settles for finishing her cotton candy and sulkily glowering at them both while they play.

As The TARDIS finishes her cotton candy, he lets both his and hers disappear. Peter can keep his until he's finished.

"Peter, you've missed the mark. I think that means you forfeit your right to a prize." Gabriel shifts his stance a little, holding up a dart and focusing on the board for a moment before he throws it. It hits the target, but a little to the right of center, not a bulls eye.

He shrugs and receives a cute little teddy bear from the moustachioed vendor. It has been quite a while since he'd played darts too. "One more dart." He offers it to the TARDIS first, though he's not sure why, the way she's sulking. "TARDIS? Peter, want a second go?"

He shouldn't be disappointed. Peter doesn't see how he can be disappointed, since he was expecting to fail and since the prize is, as the TARDIS pointed out, imaginary. And what would he want with a teddy bear, anyway? For all, that, though, he still feels the sting of defeat.

"I don't really play darts," replies Peter, embarrassed about his performance. ~~What can he say? He's got his father's aim.~~ Looks like the TARDIS will have her chance, unless Gabriel really pushes him to go again.

She almost does take the last dart just because Gabriel is looking kind of pitiful offering it to people who clearly don't want it. But her sympathy doesn't go far enough to make her try and inevitably fail even worse than Peter, so she shakes her head at him.

"You are obviously the only one who even stands a chance at hitting the mark," she says with a glance to Peter, deliberately sounding just as condescending as he had earlier.

Goddamnit. What does he have to do to make you people have fun? He sighs and throws the last dart without much thought, this time landing it purposefully outside of the bulls eye. The moustachioed man tosses him another little teddy bear and he shoves one at Peter and one at the TARDIS. ~~And they can both choke on them, for all he cares :|~~

"Maybe we should avoid games of skill altogether." The weather seems to have soured a little bit, shifting overcast, though he'd deny it was caused my his shifting mood. "A ride, maybe? There's bumper cars."

Peter tends to have that effect on social gatherings, hasn't Gabriel noticed? He gives the TARDIS a poisonous look -- at least he tried, though her reaction tells him he was right not to try again and give her more fuel with which to criticize him further.

He's surprised by the teddy bear suddenly being thrust at him, and fumbles when he tries to grab it with his free hand. It drops to the boardwalk and he mutters a curse and stoops without thinking to pick it up, holding the stick on which his candy is wrapped in his mouth so he can brush the toy off when he stands.

Being so used to expressing her own emotions through changing her rooms, the TARDIS doesn't miss the shift in the atmosphere, and the way Gabriel shoves the toy at her only cements that notion. She actually has the decency to feel chastised for a moment, but unfortunately her reaction to that is yet more stubbornness. He's the one who brought Peter along, after all; without the human they'd be having a perfectly enjoyable time right now.

She still knows better than to voice that opinion in front of Peter, though, so while he's distracted she links her arm with Gabriel's and turns him around to lead him away, whispering "Why are you still keeping him around?"

Gabriel allows himself to be pulled away, and he's more than happy to link arms and walk along with the TARDIS, but it doesn't last long. After she asks her question, he stops in his tracks and runs a hand over his face. "No, we're not doing this. No bitching sessions unless I get to start and both of you are around to hear everything."

He extricates himself from the TARDIS and pulls her back to where Peter is, then positions them so they're facing each other. "Okay. I am going to do this, and you are both going to behave like adults that don't throw tantrums when they get their feelings hurt." He looks at the TARDIS first, since it was her question that prompted this whole business. "Peter is probably one of the biggest assholes you will ever meet, but he has a good heart. He means well." He shifts his glance to Peter for just a moment. "Sometimes. Look, I live in hope. My point is. Feeding his insults and firing back is stupid. He's already scared of you, you don't need him to hate you too."

He huffs out a breath and turns to Peter next, raising a hand and shooting him a glare that hopefully will stop him from breaking in before he's done. "Peter. I know you get the heebie jeebies from anything that creeps out of the Twilight Zone, but will you please fucking reign it in. She's not quite human, but she is fun, and she just might like you if you give her an inch. Trust me, you want to give her an inch."

He throws his hands wide, encompassing them both. "In conclusion, you are both enormous assholes. Make up, or leave. I'm going to get some candy." With that, he goes and does just that, leaving them behind to deal with each other.

Peter looks up from what he's doing to see Gabriel and the TARDIS silently departing, and stands staring after them for several embarrassing moments with the papery stick still clenched between his teeth. Before he has a chance to protest Gabriel is already bringing her back. Peter spits out the stick into his hand, giving the pair of them a wary look as Gabriel starts.

"Hey!" he protests when Gabriel calls him an asshole. Okay, so he is, but has Gabriel looked in a mirror lately? He's really not sure whether it helps or makes it worse when the other man starts going on about his supposed good heart. He opens his mouth to break in and tell Gabriel exactly where he can shove his hope, but falls silent on cue.

"I'm not scared of her!" he lies to Gabriel's retreating back. Gaze flicking to the TARDIS, he reiterates as firmly as he can, "I'm not scared of you."

The TARDIS is going to need a moment, not quite believing what she just heard. Did Gabriel just have the nerve to tell her off? And to call her stupid, almost human, and an asshole all in one insolent lecture? Her shock is quickly replaced by (self-)righteous indignation, obstinacy and more than a little hurt. And why does this have to be so bitterly familiar, him bringing along some annoying human and when she bristles at being disrespected she's the one at fault?

Still, despite this mess of emotions she does realize Peter is getting his fair share, little comfort as that may be right now, and hearing that he's scared of her actually rattles her. She only wants to be respected, not feared, not by harmless innocent humans. And Peter's insistent denial once Gabriel is leaving sounds an awful lot like something a scared person would say.

She glares after Gabriel for a moment before narrowing her eyes at Peter, deciding to deal with him first. "Good, because you have no reason to be," she says with noticeably forced calm, wanting to make this one thing clear. "I do not harm anyone who poses no threat to me or those I care about. I have tolerated and even sheltered far more irritating people than you." Which is perhaps what Gabriel meant when he told Peter he shouldn't squander her good will, but that ship has almost irrevocably sailed. More of her anger coming through again, she adds, "But that doesn't give you or him the right to treat me with disregard and condescension."

"And I'm not!" snaps Peter, still stuck on the fear thing. He doesn't need her explaining why he shouldn't be afraid, because he isn't afraid, thank you. He's killed vampires; why should he be scared of some short woman with dumb hair and a dumb name?

"Oh, fuck you," he says, perhaps a bit uncreatively. "Like it's not enough I've got that arsehole in all my dreams, now I've got you as well. You know what? You two can fucking have your carnival -- and I didn't ask for this fucking bear!"

And with that, he throws both his bear and his remaining candy at the TARDIS's feet.

She should have known better than to even bother trying to be reasonable. It never pays off with humans like him; stupid, small-minded, ungrateful, conceited little shits. With a glance at the scorned gifts on the ground she makes them disappear in a tiny lick of fire because she needs to focus her anger somewhere and Gabriel can just deal with her affecting his projection, before glaring up at him again.

"And I didn't ask for your company! Why are you even here?" Why couldn't he leave as soon as he hated her butterflies, instead of ruining her and Gabriel's tenuous companionship. "You are doing no one a favor allowing him or anyone else to make you do things you so obviously don't enjoy! And I can assure you I have no intention of wasting any more of my time on a nuisance like yourself, in dreams or otherwise."

~~She burned up his teddy bear!~~ It's a good thing Peter never cared about that imaginary teddy bear and absolutely meant what he just did, or he might be upset that the TARDIS apparently set it on fire. And it's a good thing he doesn't even like seaside carnivals in the slightest, or butterflies, or Gabriel, or all the attention Gabriel gives him, or else he might have to give her an answer.

Of course, since Peter has very firmly decided that he doesn't give a rat's ass about a single one of those things, he couldn't give her an answer even if he wanted to. Which he doesn't, obviously. "Good," he growls, circumventing any explanation. "Because both of you can piss right off."

Lifting a hand and extending his middle finger, Peter does something he's never done before: he teleports deliberately. It's only a dream, and he knows it would make a dramatic exit...were he not to reappear only five feet closer to the door and have to whirl on the spot and stalk away on foot.

Well that exit is certainly a (badly done) surprise and she watches him leave slightly perplexed. After seeing him require help just for a simple wardrobe change, she wouldn't have expected him to be able to do this at all. But then she recalls Gabriel mentioning someone with a teleportation power, and that clears up this little mystery she didn't care about in the first place.

Having dealt with Peter, she marches over to a likely even more unpleasant confrontation. When she reaches Gabriel waiting by a candy stand, she demonstratively plants her own teddy bear on the counter in front of him, not meeting his eyes. Her voice low and cold, she says, "Don't ever speak to me like that again."

He picks up the bear from where she set it down and runs a thumb over its ear. This had been going so well right up until the time everyone started overreacting. He doesn't like it at all. The carnival setting feels pointless now, but he keeps it anyway. He takes a few steps away from her to sit down on a plastic chair. There's another one beside it if she decides to join him, but they may need an umbrella if the weather gets any worse.

When he speaks, his tone is much lighter than his meaning, and dripping in sarcasm. "This coming from the woman who just set a man's teddy bear on fire. Even if it's imaginary, it's still cruel." He sighs and looks down at the teddy bear instead of up at her. "I told you he's scared, and your response was lighting his things on fire? You know, as far as poor choices go, that's one for the record books. Congratulations."

Edited 2013-05-25 14:16 (UTC)

She's going to stay standing right here, thank you very much. And no, she's not going to be berated for hurting some stupid human's feelings. She did her duty assuring Peter she wouldn't harm him, and how dare he call her cruel. It strikes her deeper than she wants to admit, and she can't help clenching her fists at the word.

"He didn't want it. And why should I care about his feelings, his comfort, when he didn't show me the same courtesy?" She presses her lips together, trying to contain her bitterness at the familiarity of the argument, even if the offender is a different one this time. "Why do you?"

Well if she's not going to come over, he's going to continue to talk without looking at her. "He did want it. You couldn't see that because you were too busy being offended." He groans in frustration, knowing this isn't going to get through to her. "You can't take him at face value. If you do, you'll miss everything under the surface." And hello, nice to meet his own insecurities today. Because if she can't see past Peter's obvious posturing, what is she missing with him?

"You expect him to show you courtesy when you couldn't muster any up for him. He's looking for a sign that you're not two steps away from frying him up crispy because he said the wrong thing. It's a Catch 22. Neither of you get to elbow out of that little two-step without compromise." He rolls his eyes and his voice takes a harder edge. "And fuck compromise, right? It sucks. A lot easier to just be an asshole and convince yourself you're the bigger man."

For a moment as he goes on she suddenly feels like she can't be sure who exactly they're talking about, but that's nonsensical and her confusion is soon pushed aside by more seething anger. None of what he says convinces her that she should care to see under the surface, or whatever it is that he's arguing for. Her native way of getting to know people is literally by seeing into their minds, so she considers herself an excellent judge of character, without realizing that she is quite the opposite when she has to rely solely on surface impressions. And did he just call her an asshole again?

"I am perfectly willing to make compromises, as you well know," she snaps, "if I consider them worth the effort. And continuing to show him courtesy after he scorned my room would not have changed anything." Because she was lenient with him, letting him stay despite his rotten mood, inviting him on the porch swing, telling him to relax.

"I know humans like him; you have no idea how many of them I have had to tolerate." It seems he needs it spelled out, and she can't contain her disgust anymore anyway. "How many I have housed, provided for, protected, and shown the universe to. And all they do is complain that I don't serve their every whim, treat me like a machine or the Doctor's pet! Act like I'm malfunctioning when they don't like the destination or when I refuse to launder their dirty clothes. As though I am not worth a second thought, even when he tells them I'm alive." She takes a sharp breath, not having meant to reveal quite so much, but now it's out she barrels on and fixes him with a hard look. "I will not be held responsible for his happiness. You will not hold me responsible for his happiness over my own."

It takes an effort of will not to wince when she snaps at him. Yes, he hasn't forgotten their makeshift compromise. It had made their friendship possible, after all. But yes, she clearly has her limits. Up till now, she's found him worth the effort, but after this? He doubts it.

He's about to say something to that effect when she just keeps on talking. And wow, now he understands where all of her anger is coming from. She's throwing all of her displaced frustration at the Doctor at him instead...probably because he's easier to piss him off than the guy that handles all her switches and nobs for a living. He understands, but that doesn't mean that he's going to excuse her for being an ass about it.

He turns in his chair to look at her, meeting her hard look with one of his own. "I never asked you to put him first. I had hoped you might both raise the bar to some level of human decency. Maybe that was too much to ask, given that Peter isn't decent and you're not human." He smiles, but it has no warmth to it. When he speaks again, his voice is sharp and clipped. "I'm not the Doctor. And Peter isn't your charge. Remember that."

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theoldgirl - 2013-05-27 19:32 (UTC) - Expand