Eat Me, Drink Me

[that-depends.livejournal.com]

Scattered around the park are four smallish glass bottles filled with a mysterious liquid (tasting deliciously of cherry tart, custard, pinapple, roast turkey, toffy, and hot buttered toast). A paper label is attached to each, with the words "DRINK ME" beautifully printed on it in large letters.

Scattered elsewhere are four little glass boxes, containing small cakes on which the words "EAT ME" are beautifully marked in currants.

Neither is marked "poison," which is sensible since neither are poisonous. However, the Surgeon General, were he here, would probably be a little put out that other effects aren't warned about on the packaging.

((The bottles (in Frontierland, Tomorrowland, New Orleans Square, and Toon Town) make you shrink, the cakes (in Main Street, Fantasyland, Adventureland, and Critter Country) make you grow. Have fun!))

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[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

((*glees* I've been meaning to squee at you since Percy's arrival. The book is one of my favorites and you do such a wonderful job with him. :D))

Sador was a very protective dog. So protective that she was blocking Starbuck from this man's view, thus preventing her from getting help. "Bad girl," she grumbled, shoving the dog's leg as hard as she could with tiny arms. Yeah, that already felt ridiculous. So she walked under Sador's belly (a decidedly mind-bending task from her new perspective) and emerged on the other side, not far from this new guy's feet.

She hadn't seen him before. Odd way of dressing. "Hello!" she shouted at him, seeming to recall from bad fantasy shows in her childhood that being small made you softer to big people (she had no idea whether it was true). "Over here!" She waved her hands high in the air for emphasis.

[yousir-mesir.livejournal.com]

There was a dog in Percy's line of view, and so in keeping with form of this place he naturally assumed it was she that was speaking and not the tiny person near his stylish and delicate shoes. He carefully pried off his gloves and pocketed them, then wondered how this dog was speaking without moving its mouth. "Sink me, how odd," he marveled silently. "Hello there."

It was then he was drawn to where the sound had actually been coming from, that is not the dog but the small woman near him. He recoiled sharply and then chided himself for not remembering his manners, crouching down beside her with a confused tilt upwards of his hat. "Dear me, I thought you were the dog."

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

((Huzzah for mischief!))

On any other day, Starbuck would have had a really fantastic comeback for that one. Witty and bitchy and otherwise appropriate for causing dropped jaws. As it was, she was ten inches tall and she didn't know how to fix that. Her mood and her vocabulary were lacking a certain punch.

"Yeah, well I've heard there's a talking dog walking around here, so I guess we can forgive you for that," she said darkly. Eyeing the bottle in his hands, she had the pointless urge to add, "Don't drink from the bottles today. I think it's one of those times where the park gets to play games with us." She wasn't sure if this was worse than the last time; being forced to have tea with a man in a dress was irritating, but shrinking was just unfathomable.

[yousir-mesir.livejournal.com]

"Terrible luck," Percy frowned, looking at her through quizzing glass that hung about his neck. "I suppose this means that you are not normally this tiny, and that I should possibly find a way to help you and put you right." A situation such as thing begged for Percy to act a nitwick and muck things up, and truth be told it would be deliciously amusing if he had decided to do just that.

He let fall his quizzing glass and looked hard at the empty bottle. "Od's fish, m'lady, why would you ever take suggestions from a strange bottle?" He held up the label that 'DRINK ME' clearly written across it and 'tsked' disappointedly.

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

"That would be damned chivalrous of you, yeah," Starbuck said, trying her best to keep the sarcasm out of her voice. This was an act, right? This whole "m'lady" thing? She'd almost gone off on Strider for that stuff. What did a soldier have to do around here to keep people in check?

"I'd just woken up," she answered defensively at his question. After all, she couldn't simply admit that she'd just decided there could be no harm in it. Or that being reckless was a favorite passtime of hers, even when it was lethal. He probably wouldn't understand. "Anyway, odder things have happened around here with less drastic results, so I wasn't expecting it." Okay, that was sort of a lie.

[yousir-mesir.livejournal.com]

Percy squinted his eyes and looked at her incredulously. Of course he would help her, that was never the issue, but the question was would he tease her about it first? After all, who goes around drinking things without a proper label? No, no, he was a gentleman, he told himself sternly. He took off his hat and set it beside her, then began to look around the area for a bottle that said "ANTIDOTE". He figured such a straightforward place would have a straightforward solution.

"And what is your name, little brash woman?" he inquired, still looking about their current location for some sort of re-bigger potion.

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

She leaned against the hat while he began to look. Honestly, he dressed more like a girl than she had ever managed to in her life. And she had worn a dress once or twice. Still didn't beat him. Sador didn't seem to mind it, though. She followed the man, close at his heels, nose to the ground like she somehow understood what he was doing and wanted to help. Or maybe she just really needed to pee and was trying to find the right spot. Never could be sure with animals.

Her eyes narrow at the use of the word 'little.' Even if it were true, there's something in her brain that simply protests. But don't bite the hand that feeds you... or the one trying to unshrink you, apparently. "Starbuck...." she says, then after a pause, "Kara. Kara Thrace. Starbuck is my callsign. What about you?"

[yousir-mesir.livejournal.com]

Percy gave the kind-looking dog a pat on her head while he continued his search. If the bottles were left out in the open wouldn't the cure be in plain sight as well? "Starbuck, like the fish-woman?" he asked out loud, to no one in particular.

"Callsign." He found himself repeating the word because he didn't understand its meaning. Perhaps it was used like the way he used the Pimpernel? A possibility. "Lovely to make your acquaintance, little Madame Thrace." Saying such a thing probably vexed her greatly, but Percy couldn't help himself. He looked under a nearby bush and stated proudly, "My name is Sir Percival Blakeney."

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

"More like my reputation," she muttered. Who the hell was the fish-woman, anyway? "You don't know what a callsign is? Like in the military for a shorthand way to call your squad?" She had no idea where or when this guy was from, but surely there were soldiers where he came from, right? Still, it was sort of a pilot thing. Maybe he was from Earth before they had developed planes? She didn't know enough about Earth history to be sure.

So first she was 'lady' and now she's 'madame'? "You can cut with the formality, you know... Percival." It was only then that the name registered, and she had to stifle a laugh.

[yousir-mesir.livejournal.com]

"Squad? Sink me, my lady, my mind doesn't think in military terms," Percy scoffed, still searching in vain for something to put this woman right. Secretly he wondered where in time she was from, or if she was from another world entirely, because why on earth would women be enlisted in the military?

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he huffed quietly. "I'll not speak to you like I would to a Parisian gutter rat. And please, Od's fish, Percival grows so tiring. Percy, please." He spotted something left on an unassuming bench and strode toward it quickly, scooping it up in his hand and staring at the tag.

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

"So if it doesn't think on military terms, what does it think on?" Starbuck attempted, doing such a good job at not snapping or being rude to the man. Adama would have been proud of her. "What do you do for a living... where ever you're from?"

As for the rest, she had absolutely no idea what a Parisian gutter rat was. Well, she knew what a rat was, but 'Parisian' escaped her entirely. She also had no idea what 'Od's fish' had to do with any of it, but Percy sounded a hell of a lot better than Percival, so she was prepared to accept it. "Right, Percy," she said, squinting up when she noticed him lifting an item off a bench. "Find something promising?"

[yousir-mesir.livejournal.com]

"Fashion mainly. Tying cravats, dancing, going to the theater, writing poetry, riding, hunting... all the usual forms of entertainment." He feigned a scoff at her ignorance at what upper social circles do in their spare time. In reality he was wondering what she might do if she was in th military. Surely the government wouldn't send women to the front! "I'm from England," he frowned. He thought his accent rather obvious. "And I don't do anything."

Percy shook his head as he inspected the bottle in his hands, passing it back and forth carefully. If she drank it wouldn't she shrink to an even smaller size than she was now? No, there had to be another way. "Unfortunately I haven't. Seems you might be out of luck. Unless..." He brought his hand to his chin and crouched down beside the small woman. "I saw random pastries scattered about in my wandering. Perhaps those do the reversal of the devilry in the bottle."

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

((*catches cake triumphantly* XD))

She hadn't thought it was possible to meet a man girlier than Gaius Baltar. Clearly, she'd been mistaken. But at his answer to her uncertainty about where he came from, her eyebrows went up in curiosity. "England? I've got another friend around here from there. James? He's a wizard, though." It still sounded very weird to say that.

Starbuck was actually pretty grateful to see him crouch down. She had never been too happy having to look up as it was, unless she felt like she still had the upper hand. Being less than a foot tall was decidedly not that hand. "Random pastries?" Sador barked at that, and that made her pause. Which was stupid as the dog couldn't understand what they were saying. "Well, I'll try anything, really, at this point." Why would he think the pastries were related?

[yousir-mesir.livejournal.com]

"Silly girl, wizards aren't-" Percy stopped himself. Wizards were real here, weren't they? Hence the shrunken woman standing below him. Percy reached out his hand to touch the dog's head, petting her with a kind of tenderness that was rare outside of certain friendly circles. "Pup, would you kindly watch over this young woman while I fetch a pastry?" he asked the dog quietly, not expecting it to answer.

"I'll be right back," he reassured her, standing tall and smoothing out his waistcoat. If the bottles said DRINK ME and the pastries said EAT ME, then it only made sense to have Miss Starbuck give it a try. He nodded his head and hurried off towards one of the lands in which he had seen the highly decorated cakes. Having found one in record time (was what that yelling in the air? It sounded like a giant bellowing...) he picked it up and carefully found his way back to where he had left the small woman and her dog.

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

Sador gave a small whine in the affirmative while Percy strode off in search of something that might help. Starbuck didn't exactly make it easy for the dog to watch her, however; being restless made her wander, and although it was simple enough to catch up with her at the moment, the dog was forever changing direction and going in circles around her friend.

Someone was shouting for a lady named Susan in a voice that made the ground tremble. Well, that was a little disturbing.

She sighed in relief when the strange man came back. "Please tell me you found something."

[yousir-mesir.livejournal.com]

Percy presented the pastry when asked if he found something. "Here, best if you take a bite." He was about to make a snippy remark regarding her and taking orders from bottles and cakes, but decided that ship had sailed. He held it out to her with one hand and gave a steady pat to the dog, telling it quietly it had done just a very fine job indeed.

"We shall see if this works." He raised his eyebrow to her skeptically and waited.

[i-have-my-flaws.livejournal.com]

That cupcake thing was gigantic.

Wasn't that kind of against the law of something? Her being able to eat... hell, nevermind. She dug her fingers into the thing (which was kind of fun, she had to admit) and took a bite of cake.

There was a swoopy sort of feeling in her stomach as the world righted itself again. Or she did. Either way. "Wow," she said from her normal height, cluching Percy's arm for a moment so her dizziness didn't send her back to the ground again. "Uh, thank you."

[yousir-mesir.livejournal.com]

Percy was quiet sure he had never seen something so comical in his life when the miniature woman took a bite from the cake. Of course he was not about to laugh, no, the shock that the cake actually worked took care of that nicely.

He smiled and placed the cake upon the ground as Starbuck began to grow, wiping the crumbs from his hands before placing a hand to her back in a steadying sort of gesture. "You're quite welcome," he smiled, eying her carefully. "Are you feeling well?"