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_handy]

The pony's mane looks like the Doctor's hair. Andrew can't quite stifle a laugh at that, imagining it. "Has to be an alternate universe," he decides. "If he's still calling himself the Doctor...."

That or he's a very young Andrew, but Andrew doesn't remember ever turning into a pony. It seems like the sort of thing that would stick in one's mind. He peers ahead, not sure where Daine is taking him but eager to see his hairy counterpart.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine glances back at the laugh, feeling compelled to add, "Be nice to him. I think he's a bit overwhelmed." And she is definitely not going to mention the part where he got his head stuck in the bannister.

Of course, it remains to be seen whether the pony will be nice to Andrew, and then there's the Doctor on top of it all. She's not sure if she should leave them to it or stick around in case they need a few more reminders to be civil.

She cuts across the dance floor to the staircase and pauses to make sure Andrew's still with her before starting to climb. "They should be just at the top," she says, and a glance upward confirms that they haven't gone anywhere.

"Found him," she says once she's reached them. To the pony, she adds, "This is Andrew."

[bluesuit_hoofy]

Nobody should ever mention that again. It is truly a dark chapter in his short little life. Handy glances in their direction and perks his ears forward when he sees who it is. That does look like him, doesn't it? The hair's wrong, though.

"You need a haircut," he blurts out, glad to already find a way (however petty) in which this Andrew fails to be properly him...or rather, properly the Doctor.

[alwaysalright]

They haven't really missed much of a conversation - the Doctor is still a bit sulky. He doesn't even really greet Andrew when he arrives, even if he's been on pretty okay terms with him lately. And oh joy, they're probably gonna be competitive aren't they? (Which obviously the Doctor himself never ever indulges in.) Although he has to say he prefers Andrew's costume over the pony's. Why didn't he arrive in that?

[bluesuit_handy]

Andrew is fully prepared to guffaw the instant he sees a (presumably talking) pony version of himself. When he draws up to the top of the stairs, though, all he can do is stare at the little blue and white animal. That shape -- that's exactly the way his reflection looked at that party, so long ago, when everyone had been grabbed up by the time scoop and turned into ponies. "I have better things to do," he replies absently, reaching into the inside pocket of his jacket for his brainy specs, and not questioning the fact that he actually finds them there. "That," he decides, "is very, very weird."

[wildmage_daine]

Daine has to suppress a wince at the first words out of the pony's mouth. Fortunately (and a little surprisingly), Andrew doesn't seem bothered by it. Maybe this won't be so bad.

The Doctor's looking a bit frowny, though. Did something happen while they were gone? While Andrew and the pony are focused on one another, she drifts over to the Doctor and gives him a gentle nudge and an inquiring look. Is he okay?

[bluesuit_hoofy]

"Yeah, I'd noticed," says the pony flatly. He's not entirely comfortable with the scrutiny, even though the whole point was so he could stare at Andrew the way Andrew's staring at him now. "You're not...me, are you? Not the actual me from my future?"

[alwaysalright]

The Doctor looks up when Daine nudges him, and manages to pull himself out of his thoughts enough to give her a small smile. "I'll explain later," he says quietly - a phrase he's used quite a few times in his life, which really means he hopes she forgets to ask because he doesn't particularly want to discuss it. He definitely doesn't want to discuss it in front of his two metacrises (Is that the right plural form? There's only ever been one.) though there's a chance he'll have to if they start discussing him and when exactly he comes from. He's only been half paying attention to them until now.

[bluesuit_handy]

"Can't say I've spent much time as a blue pony," replies Andrew. He turns his gaze on Daine and says, as if it would have made everything clear, "You didn't say he was a blue pony."

More seriously, he says, "I'll bet you are newer than me, though."

[wildmage_daine]

Daine gives the Doctor a little nod, more satisfied by his smile than his words. She doesn't really mind being put off for the time being, though. If he says he'll explain later, she trusts he will.

To Andrew, she gives a sigh and a look of playful consternation. "I didn't realize you'd been a pony so often that the color would matter."

[bluesuit_hoofy]

Handy snorts, knowing already that Andrew is older from having been told. "Why d'you call yourself Andrew?" he asks, still perturbed about that particular point.

[alwaysalright]

The Doctor is also confused by why the blue thing matters. "And what's your last name?" he asks Andrew suddenly. Because he's fairly sure he's gonna actually need a last name too, if he's settled on Earth.

[bluesuit_handy]

"N--" Andrew starts to answer the Doctor first, since it's a quick question to answer. Before he's even done with the first consonant, though, he realizes that saying it would be as good as telling the Doctor who where he'd come from. He freezes up, giving the Time Lord a look akin to a deer in the headlights of a car as his mind races to find a way out of saying it that won't end in the Doctor just finding out from someone else anyway.

"I'm Andrew because it's a perfectly nice name and I needed one that was just mine," he says too rapidly, turning all his attention back to the pony and squarely ignoring the Doctor.

[wildmage_daine]

Daine frowns a little. She doesn't know Andrew's last name, either, but she can sympathize with him not wanting to share it. Maybe it's like hers, and tells more about him than he'd like other folk to know.

But then she remembers that he had to choose his own name - it wasn't something given to him by anyone else - and her confusion deepens. How bad could it be if he picked it?

[bluesuit_hoofy]

"Well, I'm the Doctor," says Handy stubbornly. He means it for Andrew, to tell him that whatever shenanigans of nomenclature he's got up to, this meta-crisis isn't prepared to go having an identity crisis. And if he just happens to glance at the real Doctor as he says it as well -- well, best everyone know where they stand.

[alwaysalright]

"You're also a pony," the Doctor comments, some spark of amusement showing through. He's not about contest his title too strongly, though. Neither he nor the TARDIS considers either of them the proper Doctor, not really - neither of the metacrisis has any sort of right to the TARDIS, for example - but that doesn't mean he doesn't consider them himself in the ways that count. (But since when has he really gotten along with other versions of himself?)

"Noble?" he asks Andrew, making an informed guess. Beginning with N, it seems the most logical choice.

[bluesuit_handy]

"You're not meant to know that yet," says Andrew, his voice low and serious. Turning his gaze to the pony, he asks, "How much did you tell him?"

[wildmage_daine]

Even though it's not aimed at Daine, the gravity in Andrew's tone and expression still sends a stab of guilt and anxiety right through her. She knows things she shouldn't about the future, and she unconsciously covers the wrist that's become Secret's favorite spot. At least the darking doesn't seem to have joined her in the Dreaming.

She wants to ask how bad that is - knowing stuff before you're meant to - but she doesn't quite dare. Instead, she presses her lips together and tries to keep from fidgeting.

[bluesuit_hoofy]

"Nothing he didn't already know!" protests the pony, looking back and forth among the other three. "...Didn't you?" he asks the Doctor, suddenly looking worried.

[alwaysalright]

The Doctor heaves a sigh. "I just went to the Great Wall with Donna, and I'd just dropped her off back home before I got here," he admits. Unbeknownst to him, there's not a lot of trips left before he'd create his own metacrisis. After this, he'd planned to take her to Midnight.

"Don't worry, I plan to erase everything I've learnt here so I won't mess up the timeline," he adds grumpily, and then quickly accuses Andrew right back. "What about you? Where's Rose in your world? Did you just leave her to do gallivanting around Pete's world yourself?"

[bluesuit_handy]

"Are we really going to have this conversation?" asks Andrew, pinching the bridge of his nose (and encountering the mask instead of his own flesh). "Now? In front of him?" He gestures to the blue pony, who's looking increasingly worried and put out. "I'm assuming he doesn't know enough to tell you, since it sounds like he opened his big mouth about everything else."

He scowls and sniffs in a deep breath. "Sorry about this, Daine. I wouldn't've come over if I'd realized this was going to be an interrogation."