Party in Fantasyland! (Open to All)

[caycep]

The loading area and deck in front of It's a Small World had been transformed. Two large tables had been set up, one bearing the music equipment that Cayce had lugged over from Tomorrowland, the other marked out for food and drink. Another food table was set up at the shop.

Various other places in the vicinity had been marked out as well: a wide space for a dance floor; another wide space with a sign RESERVED FOR STARBUCK posted; a grassy area marked RESERVED FOR M. BEAUFORT; and the loading area was marked RESERVED FOR KIRA AND SETSUNA. Over the walk up to the ride, Cayce had hung a large hand-lettered banner that read:

IT'S A SMALL UNIVERSE (ALL OF THEM)

She'd raided every shop in the park for decorations, and pillars and eaves were festooned with Disneyfied representations of various cultures; there was some Mulan merchandise here, a few items ganked from the Indiana Jones Adventure there. Cayce herself felt, somewhat ruefully, that she wasn't capable of being much more than a representation of early 21st-century urban America, so she wore the dress Crowley had given her. Anyone who was expecting her to do a reprise of the bikini business would be sadly disappointed.

~

After Cayce felt that a critical mass of crowd had been achieved, she went to the music system and turned on the microphone.

"Hi there, everyone. It's good to see you here, and thanks for playing along with my silly party idea. It's kind of a squishy liberal American thing to say—see, I'm representing my culture now—but can I just say that it's great to see the diversity here, and to see everyone taking pride in where they come from. So, thanks. Especially to Psyche, for letting us tromp all over her home and for keeping the music under control; to Crowley as always for the booze; and to everyone who brought something to share." She started to put the mic down, then remembered: "Oh, and thank you to Kira and Setsuna, who will be starting a limbo contest shortly." She grinned. "So if you think you're up for it, see how low you can go." A self-deprecating laugh at the cheesiness of what she'd just said. "Thanks again for coming, and have fun."

((Party time! Talk amongst yourselves, hassle Cayce, get drunk and ride through It's a Small World (not recommended), and otherwise have fun. Feel free to set your post before or after Cayce's little speech.))

((ETA: Here's the limbo thread!))

Comments

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

"Oh, sherbet lemons," the Doctor groaned. "Don't get me started. I don't know how I managed to get so ridiculously understocked with candy on the TARDIS before I got here."

He huffed. "The Master probably stole it all while we were stuck at the End of the Universe; he gets that from me, you know, the Jelly baby thing. Had a fondness for them back in my fourth body."

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

There was a bit of a silence while Una dealt with her mouthful of peppermint bark and considered the implications of the Master appropriating the Doctor's taste for jelly babies. What was that he'd said the once (http://community.livejournal.com/dizzy_land/210906.html?thread=12761562#t12761562)—something about what was on one's mind at the moment of regeneration?

"Gets that from you—you mean from being around you, or ...?"

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

The Doctor shrugged.

"I think he did it on purpose," he said. "To be annoying, or as a taunt maybe. But then, I've noticed recently that I have a tendency to be suspicious of him for the wrong things, and not suspicious enough of the things I should." He shrugged. "But yeah, could've been. We did see a lot of each other during that time; around my third, forth, and fifth incarnations." He shrugged and ate a piece of the peppermint bark himself, licking his fingers afterward. "Who knows."

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

Una felt her ears grow warm, and she wasn't entirely sure why. No, she was sure; she just wasn't going to dwell on it. A sidelong glance just as he licked his fingers only made her ears warmer.

She reached for the bag of peppermint bark. "You could spend all day guessing at a person's motivations and never get anywhere," she said. Especially his did not, she felt, need to be said.

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

"Boy is that ever true," he agreed, of both the spoken and the unspoken, and moved the bag to where she could reach it more easily, not seeming to notice her discomfiture.

"'S like the Second Vice President of the First Federation insulting the Emperor and punching him in the nose just because he suggested it was time for lunch. I kept trying to figure that out." He had another bite of peppermint bark and added, out of the side of his mouth, "Now I'm guessing a fling. Broken hearts, that sort of thing."

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

She took a piece of peppermint bark from the bag. "Ah, the personal and the political. Like the time Arabia almost went to war with Albion over a rejected marriage proposal. Well, no, that was actually more political than personal. You know the routine: the marriage to cement the alliance, et cetera. Only Gloriana was having none of it. Too dangerous, in the end. And everything else going on at the time..." She trailed off, lost for a moment in the memory of that strange and wonderful parallel. There'd been rumours that after Gloriana's rejection of him, the prince of Arabia had consoled himself with Una—your figure's boyish enough for his taste, Gloriana had said—but apart from a few tense dinners and tête-a-têtes and a badly fumbled kiss, nothing had actually happened. She'd never bothered to correct anyone apart from Gloriana; more interesting to keep them guessing.

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

The Doctor nodded.

"That I could've gotten my head around, anyway," he remarked. ""Not much different on Gallifrey, 'cept there aren't seperate sovereign nations. Gloriana of Albion?"

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

"One of the more unusual worlds in which I've operated." It occurred to Una that she'd never really had to explain it to anyone who wasn't part of the League of Temporal Adventurers. "Albion was the name for England there, and Gloriana was their greatest queen. Quite the story there; her father was a spectacularly brutal despot, you see, and after he died, the men of the court who'd secretly opposed him groomed Gloriana to be a beautiful and magnificent figurehead. The rising sun after the dark night of King Hern's rule. But they insulated her, really, kept her from the hardest truths; they were running the government, not her. Sometimes I think they didn't even realise that was what they were doing." Her mouth twisted a little in amusement. "She came into her own eventually, though. I'm glad I was there to see it." She chuckled. "I've got a title in that world. Countess of Scaith, in the far north of Albion. I'm Gloriana's confidante and personal secretary. And for a long time there, I think I was her only real friend."

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

"Queen Gloriana of Albion," the Doctor repeated softly. "Huh. Makes you wonder if Spenser (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faerie_Queene) knew something most of us don't."

He laughed to hear the end of the story.

"Ooh, Countess," he said giving her a bit of a sideways bow, clearly both teasing and yet genuinely impressed at the same time. "My Lady."

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

She actually looked a little embarrassed, if very amused as well. "Oh, you ... honestly, even in that world I don't think I've ever been comfortable with titles. As for Spenser... I've wondered at times myself. Maybe it's another case of bleed-through, across the time streams."

((Ahaha. The last entry in the list of major characters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faerie_Queene#List_of_major_characters) is particularly striking. Also, Gloriana, or the Unfulfill'd Queen (http://books.google.com/books?id=c2z3ODByq_sC&) on Google Books. I feel obligated to point out that the original ending of the novel tends to make women throw up in their mouths a little; Moorcock has since revised it to be less discomfiting.))

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

"Oh, but I think it's splendid!" the Doctor insisted, adding a little slyly; "I'm a knight, you know. And it's entirely possible."

((I know, right?! Totally what the Doctor's thinking. Did you see the first image there, of the Rivière painting?))

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

"I've got a friend who has published a series of novels based on my memoirs," she said (and Mike would have laughed, as he usually did, at her referring to the masses of travel-stained notebooks and odd clipped-and-stapled scraps of paper as memoirs). "I'd often assumed that perhaps some traveller brought tales to Spenser; I'm reasonably certain that I never did. But the bleed-through theory is a better explanation." She raised an eyebrow at him. "Knighted? When and by whom?"

((Yes. Also the Stubbs painting, which, given the lady's portrayal there as a brunette, is even more amusing. ^_^))

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

"I'm full of good explanations," the Doctor said smugly, though more on principle than anything. "Couple of years ago, by my own subjective time. Rose and I saved Queen Victoria from a werewolf. So she knighted us... right before she exiled us from the kingdom." His lips twisted slightly. "Which seemed slightly unfair, I mean, just because I was a little enthusiastic doesn't mean I let it get in the way of protecting her. Much. I was just excited to see my first lupine wavelength hemaveraform, that's all."

((Ha! Missed that one. Awesome.))

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

The smugness got a fond, if slightly sardonic, smirk.

"So werewolves aren't just a legend or people suffering from porphyria, then?" she asked. "And why exile? Excessive property damage while in pursuit of the ... the creature?"

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

"Nope. They're aliens." He gave her a bright grin. "Alien lifeforms; parasites, as it were, living in the blood of the host and germinated by moonlight. And no, actually; that was one of my least 'things exploding' adventures. She was cross about our, I suppose I must admit, rather cavalier attitude toward the whole thing. And possibly because I lied to her and told her I was Scottish. Still, I don't really think it warranted naming me the number one enemy of Torchwood."

After his talk with Jack there's a little less anger in the way he speaks of the place, but you can still hear a certain venom in his tone when he says the name.

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

"Scratch a piece of folklore hard enough, and you'll find facts down there somewhere," Una mused. "Well, Victoria had her virtues, but a sense of humour wasn't one of them. At least not beyond her closest intimates."

The name Torchwood rang the faintest of bells; it had come up at least once before ... in the story (http://community.livejournal.com/dizzy_land/277273.html?thread=16298009#t16298009) about what happened to Rose? The details were elusive; there had been so many names and things to take in at the time. She wondered if the association with those unhappy events accounted for the sharpness in his tone. "You've mentioned it before. Torchwood, I mean. What is it?"

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

He sighed and tucked the bag of peppermint bark, and his hand with it, back into his pocket.

"Well for starters, it was the name of the estate in Scotland where we met the werewolf. Who of course wanted to bite Victoria and transfer to her; you know, take over the world, use the Earth as base of operations to concur the stars, etcetera etcetera and so forth. Apparently after we left, Victoria turned the manor into an organization dedicated to investigating... aliens, I suppose. Strangeness. Something like that. By the time Rose and I ran into them, they were a huge operation out of London, with a tower in Canary, which they built to reach the void ship that came popping through realities one day. And then they found the hole in the rift and starting aiming particle blasters at it, making it bigger, which was how the Cybermen were getting through. That was Torchwood One.

"My friend Jack Harkness heads Torchwood Three now. I was... am... a bit skeptical but... well, I trust him. He says he rebuilt it in my honor, can you imagine that? Mine'n Rose's, probably, since at the time he thought she'd died there."

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

Another piece of the puzzle. Una's sense of the Doctor's world was getting better, bit by bit.

She gave his hand a sympathetic squeeze. "You don't quite sound like you approve of what they do, all the same," she observed. "In your honour? I take it that implies a ... change in focus, or some such."

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

"I don't... didn't... I don't approve of their methods," the Doctor confessed. "Too many guns, too much bravado and not enough understanding. Torchwood One's motto was 'If it's alien, it's ours. Can you believe that? And that included yours truly when the opportunity arose." He sniffed. "But I haven't ever been to Torchwood Three. And Jack's smarter than that. I do trust him, and I'm sure they do their best. Imagine I'll run into them someday, then maybe we'll see."

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

"Never underestimate the thickness of a person when faced with something he doesn't understand," Una said. "For everyone's sake, I hope your Jack and his people are as good as you say."

She gave him a wry look. "We do have a way of raking over the past when we talk like this, don't we? And at a party, no less." She tutted a little, not seriously.

((*keeps comments to self about how T3's motto should be "Saving the World, One Fuckup At a Time"* ^_^ Oh, Torchwood. I do love you guys, but sometimes...))

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

"Me too," he said, expression heartfelt, and then answered her wry look with a sheepishly-bemused one of his own. "It is weird. I think it's your fault; I don't normally ever talk about the past. And well, the party, well, it sort of inspires" -homesickness- "thinking about the past, doesn't it? Everyone thinking about home and what they left behind. In a good way, but still."

((*Cannot count the number of TW/DW crossovers she's read in which the Doctor shows up at Torchwood 3 and is like, 'Omg you're joking right? Seriously people, EPIC FAIL!' then takes away their toys and makes friends with the Weevils and yells at Jack a lot*))

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

She ducked her head, a little abashed. "Sorry. I suppose I'm having a little too much fun getting to know you. And your world. So I keep asking questions..." A small sigh. "And you're right, of course; the whole concept of this party brings on nostalgia, by its very nature." She looked up with a slightly mischievous twinkle in her eye. "How about something a little lighter in the nostalgia department? I believe you still owe me a dance, you know."

((One of my favourite crossovers of that genre included the Doctor snapping at Jack, "Is that the official Torchwood motto? 'It seemed like a good idea at the time'?" Alas, said example now appears to be behind f-lock.))

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

It's alright," he said, and was only mildly surprised -it's one of the things Martha used to get cross with him about, he knows, and she (Una and Martha both) deserves (deserved) better than that (even if it scares him sometimes)- that he really meant it. To cover he added;"I am rather interesting. And do you know, I'd almost forgotten? But I did promise, didn't I?" He smiled back at her, a little shyly.

((Hahaha.))

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

She tapped him lightly in the middle of the chest, as if gently reprimanding (though she was smiling). "You did." And it seemed like an eternity ago; so much water over the dam in the interim.

Cayce's music setup had been cycling randomly through various songs throughout. Una cocked her head, recognising the opening bars of "I've Got You Under My Skin (https://rcpt.yousendit.com/599699951/5957021a49ac8f8bd44de722a5493b6c)". A funny and possibly ironic choice, considering oh so many things, but... "Will this suit?"

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

"Sure." He caught the hand at his chest, and, on some strange impulse he wouldn't be able to explain later, brought it to his lips to brush a kiss on her knuckles, before shifting to pull her closer and sliding one hand around her back.

The last time he'd danced with anyone was as John Smith, and he really really hoped that he was a better dancer in this body than that experience had led him to believe. For the sake of her toes, if nothing else.