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

[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."

[has_a_horn]

"Well, that's a headache of an explanation." But no, it's strange, but he got it. The mention of the TARDIS is unexpected and he feels a pang of anger at the thought of her being helpless in the face of someone like that. "And Lucy?"

[fragmentation]

"She..." James begins, then sighs. "Well, he twisted her mind. Made her into something she's not, brought out the worst in her." He feels quite a bit of guilt for this himself, even though logically he had nothing to do with it, it doesn't change the fact the Master is part of him.

"She tried to commit suicide, once. His response was to publically torture and murder one of her brothers and make her watch, then promise her he would do the same to the rest of her family if she ever tried again."

He probably shouldn't be telling that, but James has always had trouble comprehending the need for keeping secrets. Then there's the whole guilty thing.