Paper Faces on Parade

[applesaucemod]

The residents of Manhattan will once again find themselves drawn into the currents of the rift when they sleep tonight. Once again, too, the rift is drawing in people from other worlds, both those who might one day find themselves pulled through in waking life and those who might yet escape its grasp.

Tonight, it seems, a celebration is in order. The ballroom of a country manor is the setting for tonight's gathering. Wood and marble gleam in the gas lighting, and a bar at one end of the room provides the, ahem, social lubricant some guests may require. At the other end, a staircase leads to a walkway that runs the entire parameter of the room, allowing guests to watch the dancing from above. While the party is localized in the ballroom, who knows what secret passages and hidden ways a grand old house like this one might conceal?

Those who appear here will find themselves wearing a disguise on arrival. Should the rift cause one to appear in a costume not of their liking (as it is fairly likely to do), an enormous wardrobe can be found through a door near the bar. In it, guests will find a seemingly infinite assortment of costumes and masks of all sizes and varieties ready for their use.


[Mod note: Usual dream-party rules apply. Both members and non-members are welcome to use any character, be they already in the game or no, and players can choose whether to have their characters remember this in the morning.]

Comments

[bluesuit_hoofy]

"As things to forget to mention go, that's a pretty big one," comments Handy, ears finally lifting again. He turns to look down at the crowd, trying to spot the Doctor and see if he's been spotted in return. He can't help but feel a few misgivings now that it's coming down to actually meeting with the Time Lord.

[alwaysalright]

The Doctor turns his head up at the sound just like pretty much everyone else. His initial surprise and worry abates quickly when he realises it's just Daine, and a moment later he realises why exactly she was roaring. He grins up at her and waves back, then makes his way up the stairs towards them, figuring she was getting his attention for a reason.

As he walks up to him, he pushes his mask up and grins in greeting. "Well, that's a pony of a different colour," he comments cheerfully.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine turns her back to the railing; now that the Doctor's up here, she'd rather not have to look back at anyone who's still staring at her.

"Hullo, Doctor," she says, retuning his grin. "This is... well, you, I s'pose. Only a pony."

[bluesuit_hoofy]

It's him? Handy stares at the Doctor, surprised it's the same one whose face he ought to share. If there's another copy of him about like Daine said, the Doctor really should be from later on, and the later on Doctor he's met in Ponyville never said anything about additional duplicates.

He snorts indelicately, amused despite himself at the terrible joke. "You should see the others." He steps back to slide his head out from between the rails and look up at the Doctor properly...and finds he can't. Instead, his skull catches on each side just behind his ears with a very soft thump.

[alwaysalright]

"Me?" he asks with surprise, though yes, actually, that voice does sound rather like him, doesn't he? But why is there another him and why is Daine introducing him and why is he a pony?

So many questions, and yet all he can do is give an involuntary snort when the pony's head gets stuck. "Having a problem there, Doctor?" he asks, though he expects Daine will help him - she's the animal expert.

[wildmage_daine]

"Oh, dear." Daine crouches next to the pony, too concerned to be amused by his predicament yet. At least this isn't the first time she's dealt with a pony caught in a fence. "Hang on, we'll get you out in no time."

Reaching one arm between the bars so she can get at his head from both sides without climbing over him, she says, "We just have to turn your head a bit, then it should slide right out." And if that doesn't work... well, she could always take a bulkier shape and break one of the bars. Giving him an apologetic look, she gently takes his head in her hands. "Ready?"

[bluesuit_hoofy]

"Oh, bollocks," says Handy, displaying considerably less delicacy. He tugs, feeling his face flush (and since when can ponies blush?), and avoids looking at the Doctor. While Daine just grabbing his face is more than a little awkward, he still feels a rush of gratitude owing to the fact that she at least doesn't laugh.

He sucks in a breath, wishing he could disappear. "Yeah, I'm ready."

[alwaysalright]

He's not laughing, he's really not laughing. But honestly, if that happened to him, wouldn't the other him laugh? He would, and anything else is a lie. He's just gonna stand here and pretend he's not as amused as he is. He can't bring himself to be all that worried, given this is a dream, with very minimal physical threat.

[wildmage_daine]

If she wasn't so focused on getting the pony-Doctor unstuck, Daine might give the two-legger version a reproachful look. So this is where Andrew gets it from - 'it' being the tendency to be unsympathetic towards other versions of himself. And honestly, how can you not have sympathy for another version of your own self?

"Try to relax your neck," she advises the pony version before carefully tilting his head to one side. Once it's canted at enough of an angle that she guesses it'll fit back through, she gives him a gentle but firm push. Out he pops, and she lets out a little sigh of relief before pulling her own arms back through the bars. "All right?" she asks him.

[bluesuit_hoofy]

Handy absolutely would laugh at the Doctor -- or at Andrew, for that matter. It's different when you've actually met versions of yourself, he'd argue. It's all fine and well assuming you'd get along with yourself, but the reality tends to fall short.

He wants to try to yank himself free, but resists the urge to do anything more than relax and let Daine do her thing. Even though he's only just met her, he feels as though he can trust her. She seems to know what she's doing. When his head pops free he lets out a big sigh of relief and gives her a grateful smile. "I'm fine," he assures her. "Better than fine, thank you."

[alwaysalright]

Not to mention the unsympathetic behavior could actually be an indicator of a certain amount of self-loathing present in all of them. Anyway, no harm done.

"So, what's this about you being me?" the Doctor asks, characteristically impatient and curious why he's been called over here. "Are you me from a universe where we're all ponies or something, or did that come later?"

[wildmage_daine]

"It's no trouble," she assures him, standing back up. That's the trouble with dresses: you can't just sit down wherever you find yourself.

She's a little surprised by the Doctor's impatience, but she's also plenty curious about why there's a pony Doctor running around the place. Eyebrows raised, she watches the pony with interest.

[bluesuit_hoofy]

"I wasn't born a pony," snorts Handy, as if the idea is completely ridiculous. "There's something pulling people in to this place called Equestria -- something like a rift, though it's been next to impossible to get any meaningful readings on it. Everyone there is a pony -- well, everyone except the dragons and whatnot, but whatever's pulling us through has a transformative component."

[alwaysalright]

The Doctor nods, and he's sort of glad he didn't end up in that universe. He can deal with kittens. But a pony... "Sort of like here, then."

He gives a sniff. "You don't happen to be from the universe where the TARDIS looks like Nyssa, do you?" he asks. Because maybe he's the proper Doctor from that universe.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine, on the other hand, is a bit envious. She'd prefer to be in her own realm, of course, but if she had to be pulled somewhere else, a universe full of ponies and dragons sounds tailor made for her. "You've got dragons, too?" she asks, a little wistfully.

[bluesuit_hoofy]

"A few," he nods, answering Daine first because he likes her better, so there. Also, her question actually makes sense. "The TARDIS is a blue box," he says dryly. "Unless you've hit your head recently?"

[alwaysalright]

He'll let that slide, because he would've had the same reaction too, and satisfying his curiosity is more important at the moment.

"She's that too. She constructed a body," he explains briefly. So not from her universe. But maybe... "Hold on, are you the metacrisis?" Because he might actually be from the same universe as the Doctor, then. Well, before he went to Equestria, that is.

[wildmage_daine]

Dragons and ponies. Some folk have all the luck, at least where rifts are concerned.

"'Metacrisis'?" she repeats, baffled.

[bluesuit_hoofy]

That's...very strange. And more than a little bit titillating exciting, except Handy's not given much time at all to think how interesting it would be to talk to the TARDIS and have her talk back with a human(oid) tongue before the Doctor barges in with a painfully personal question. The sharp breath he takes is probably reply enough, but he gives a reluctant little nod as well to confirm. "I got pulled through from Pete's world a few days after...everything," he admits, wilting a little with the realization that he can no longer get away with Daine thinking he's the real Doctor.

[alwaysalright]

Pete's world? Pete's world?! Okay, hold that thought.

"He's the same as Andrew, but from a different universe," he explains to Daine. "Perhaps even my universe, actually..." He trails off, uncertain how to proceed. He has a lot of questions, but he's not sure the metacrisis will answer if he realises the Doctor is from an earlier point. Andrew didn't.

"How was Pete's world?" he asks Handy cautiously.

[wildmage_daine]

"... Huh." Daine frowns a little, wondering why the pony was calling himself the Doctor in the first place. She can see that he doesn't seem overly pleased about admitting the truth, so she offers him a smile and reaches out to give his back a little pat. "It's all right. Andrew and I are friends."

[bluesuit_hoofy]

"Same as we left it," he tells the Doctor with what would be a shrug if he weren't using his front legs to hold himself up, "minus the Cybermen. Are you saying this Andrew is me?"

He looks back and forth between the pair of them, confused and disturbed by this development. "I thought you'd got yourself copied again in my absence," he admits.

[alwaysalright]

"Not to my knowledge; one metacrisis only," the Doctor answers, though at the moment he's mostly thinking to Other with metacrisis, there's more pressing issues. After 'everything' could mean anything, and if they can get the metacrisis into Pete's world... Well. Long story short. "What about Rose?" Just give him some information, damnit. He needs to know, though he's trying to subdue his intensity.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine considers asking for clarification as to who Pete and Rose and Cybermen are supposed to be, but one look at the Doctor's face convinces her that it'd probably be unwise. It's obvious enough that they're talking about folk from their realm, anyway. So she keeps her mouth shut, though she has to bite back a grin at the thought of what Andrew would say if she told him she'd met a version of him who was a pony. A tiny pony.

[bluesuit_hoofy]

There is nothing more pressing than finding out there's a direct copy of him and that copy is calling himself Andrew. What kind of stupid name is Andrew, anyway? Why would he even come up with that?

Everything, that is, except for Rose. "She didn't come through to Equestria with me," he replies unhappily. "She was alright the last time I saw her, but it was months ago now." And it kills him that he doesn't know how she's doing now.