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

Woo I was at my cabin but now I am back

[fragmentation]

Ever polite (and fond of tasty goodness), James accepts a cookie cheerfully. "Thank you," he answers, biting into it and giving an appreciative nod. He's been trying to not go crazy with the sugar after he's gotten proper tastebuds, but he can indulge in the dreaming without worry it might affect his teeth or his health.

"Impressive get-up," he comments at Gabriel's outfit. Though the nosed mask seems a little impractical.

hi welcome back :3

[has_a_horn]

"Thanks. The dreaming delivered and I didn't bother to change." He takes a look at James, evaluating his costume. "What about you? You choose the prince charming look?"

thx u :3

[fragmentation]

"Is that what this is?" he asks, glancing down at himself. "No, I arrived like this. But it seems to be one of the more practical outfits I could've gotten, so why change?" He gives a shrug, then smiles and holds out his hand. "I'm James, by the way." Seems like most people who arrive at these dream parties are people have been touched by the rift, so he doesn't feel hesitant getting to know people.

[has_a_horn]

He nods in agreement and switches the plate of cookies to his other hand so that he give James his handshake. "Gabriel." You might have heard of him. He's kind of a big deal. "You another surprise inhabitant of the big apple?" He's been noticing a definite trend of the people showing up in these shared dreams being rifties. It's not a stretch to guess that James is too.

[fragmentation]

He hasn't. Or if he has, through Andrew's meeting with Gabriel, then not by name, at least.

"Indeed I am. Thankfully my partner and I both arrived here around the same time, and we're used to traveling, so it could've been worse," he answers, and takes another bite of the delicious cookie.

[has_a_horn]

"Your partner? That business or romance?" He takes a bite of one of the cookies himself, congratulating himself silently on a job well done. "Or both?"

[fragmentation]

"Neither of us are really in business of any kind currently, so just the latter," he answers. When they had jobs, they were seperate, and since then it's mostly been exploration and the occasional day-saving that comes with the exploration. Not as much since they ended up here, though. "His name is Andrew, perhaps you've met him?" he inquires.

[has_a_horn]

"I have!" He grins, because yes, this does give him a better frame of reference for who James is. "We had a cuddle, once upon a dream." Then, thinking over how that must sound, he adds, "No funny business, scouts honor."

Anyway, the cuddling really isn't what he wants to talk about. "I've seen your spaceship. Very impressive."

[fragmentation]

James brightens at Gabriel's familiarity with Andrew, and apparent friendliness - it's a good thing James isn't a particularly jealous creature, and he knows how tactile Andrew is without there being any, well, funny business involved. (Goodness knows it took the two of them long enough, so it's not really something he's very worried about.)

"Oh really? Thank you, I picked it out myself," he answers brightly, assuming Gabriel is referring to another dream event - perhaps even related to the cuddle? Who knows. "A shame it didn't come through with us. Would've made leaving Manhattan a fair bit easier."

[has_a_horn]

He's even been cuddling up with Sarge and Molly, but he's rather under the impression that they belong to Daine at this point.

"To be fair, it's only the second I've seen. No space travel where I'm from. But I doubt it'd be much help. There's more than just guards at the exits around here." If that was all, he'd have been out of here the first day.

[fragmentation]

"Of course, but a spaceship might've had more chance. Well, depending on the spaceship, of course," he answers, thinking of the TARDIS. Given that she draws her energy from the vortex, it's more difficult to fly when it isn't there.

"What about your world, then? What do you have instead of space travel?" he asks.

[has_a_horn]

"The absence of space travel." He gives James a cheeky smile. He's gotten an idea from the TARDIS of just how extensive some universes can be, and it really is astounding. "Earth is pretty much the only place with intelligent life."

[fragmentation]

"But it's fairly similar to this one, or?" James asks. Because this one is pretty similar to his own. Or rather, the one he stayed on the most. "This is actually the third version of the Earth I've been to, though I'm not from it. But they seem to be pretty alike in most aspects."

[has_a_horn]

He shrugs. "It's similar, yeah." Except for the whole heaven and hell thing. And most of the spooky things that go bump in the night."Not from Earth, or not from this Earth in particular?"

[fragmentation]

"Not from Earth. I'm not human," he answers casually. "Though I have lived on Earth quite a while, in fact it's been my only long-term home." He's grown rather fond of it, really. All versions of it. Well, he likes New York well enough, but he could do without the travel ban that exists in this universe.

[has_a_horn]

"Do you have a...home planet, then? What's it like?" Yeah, he's not terribly fussed about the alien thing. He's more interested in mining for info about other planets.

Woo I even have icons from Androzani

[fragmentation]

James frowns a bit, uncertain how to explain this to an outsider without going into too much detail. "Well... It's complicated. And I wouldn't describe it as my home, I was only there for a few weeks. It was called Androzani Minor, a desert planet colonised by humans in the future. Not very interesting, really, it was mostly a mining site."

[has_a_horn]

"Earth must have been a wonderland after all that." Well, he's still got his biases. He can't imagine a big mining planet being all that interesting either.

[fragmentation]

"Well..." he says slowly, deliberating. "The first time I spent any time there, it was a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and I was brainwashed. But I got to see some better sides of it later."

[has_a_horn]

Gabriel can't help but laugh at that. "There's not much way but up to go from apocalyptic wasteland. I'd hope you'd see something better after that."

[fragmentation]

James smiles and nods. "Thankfully that version of reality never existed, though I still remember it. As do Andrew and Lucy," he answers, remembering that she's here as well, though he hasn't spoken to her. She's probably rather wary of him, given his role as a copy of the Master during the only time they spent together. "Though you might not have met her? Young, blonde woman, English and high class. A bit, err... unusual." He's not sure how to put it politely.

[has_a_horn]

"Awful lot of you here from the same universe." He nods, a bit surprised at that news. But Lucy had said there were aliens in her universe. What else was it, married to an evil alien PM? "Yeah, I've met her a few times. Let me guess, the apocalyptic wasteland had something to do with her ex?"

[fragmentation]

"It had everything to do with him," James confirms. He cannot and does not want to condemn the Master entirely, even if he condemns his actions. But he had his reasons, and he's part of James. That doesn't mean he approves of anything that hurts other people. But the Master never truly considered Earthlings people.

"Though not with her, really. Poor girl, she was just as much as a victim as the rest of us. Probably even more so." Fondness for Lucy is probably another thing James retains from the Master - even though they didn't interact all that much.

[has_a_horn]

"What happened? If you don't mind me asking." He'd gotten a bit of it from Lucy before, but she had seemed a little delicate on the subject. He figures that it'd be better to ask someone who wasn't married to the guy.

[fragmentation]

"With Lucy or with the apocalypse?" James asks, and decides to answer the latter first. "He decided to open up a rift to the far, far future and bring back the humans from the end of the universe and have them rule and kill their ancestors," he explains with a sigh. "And he used the Doctor's TARDIS to maintain the paradox, quite painfully for her, for a whole year."