Down in space it's always 1982

[caycep]

((The return of Cayce and Quixote! Wide open RP. If you haven't already, catch up with the adventures of Quixote, Setsuna, Cayce, and Adam here.))

At some point after Pirate Day, an announcement came on over the park PA system.

"Hi everyone. This is Cayce Pollard. I'd like everyone to come to a meeting tonight to discuss a new discovery that's been made about the park. The meeting's in the Honey I Shrunk the Audience auditorium, at sundown. This is pretty important, so please be there if you can."

That evening ...

When Cayce felt a critical mass of audience had been achieved, she stood up, cleared her throat, and began.

"Hi everyone, and thanks for coming. For those of you who don't know him, this is Don Quixote de la Mancha, a ... a true knight and the person we have to thank for this latest discovery. In a moment, I'll let the Don tell his tale in his own words if he wishes, but for now I'll get straight to the point, since I'm sure that's what you're all dying to hear.

"Point is this: Don Quixote and Setsuna Mudou have discovered a complex of passages beneath the park, leading to a door. The door's heavily barred and all our attempts to open it—including asking politely—have met with absolutely no success whatsoever. Any contact with the door—knocking, hitting it, trying to pry off a bar, leaning on it—gets met with the 'please keep your arms and hands inside the ride' announcement that some of you may be familiar with from when people try to walk out the gates, or when ... things happen."

Cayce waited for the reactions to settle down a bit before continuing. "I've called everyone here first to tell about the discovery, and second to find volunteers to look at the door. We really need scientists and magicians." Yep, it still felt weird, saying that. "Whatever's got that door barred probably won't open to anything but sufficiently advanced science. Or magic. Insofar as there's a difference, anyway." Anyone get the Clarke's Law reference?

"So, um, there you have it. Floor's open for questions or discussion. Oh! Before that—Don Quixote, is there anything else that you would like to add?"

***

After the various discussions had settled out somewhat, Cayce finally cleared her throat.

"Okay, so here's the plan. Tomorrow at midday, anyone who wants to join the underground expedition should meet at the statue. It sounds like the time dilation or whatever it is makes time pass more slowly belowground than up here, so I think Adam and Setsuna will be fine. We should take the time to get ready with whatever we'll need to bring with us." Plus, of course, it was Adam. Of course they'd be fine. "Then, once we're at the door and ready to proceed, the—the Master will send a signal to the Doctor, who'll lead the distruption. Anyone has any other questions, find me. Thanks, everybody."

((And there will be a fresh post for the expedition when my life is a little more normal.))

Comments

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

Psyche stood, from the middle row where she'd been standing, and said in a soft voice that nonetheless carried rather well:

"Have you all thought much what the consequences might be to opening that door? Aside, I mean, from traps.

"In my experience, forbidden things tend to be forbidden for a reason. You might consider whether the park security, however annoying it might be, has ever acted to harm you.

"And assuming that it does lead to a way out. And even assuming that it's a way out you'd want to take, and not a way to someplace a great deal worse. I have...a very great desire to return home. But are you all willing to take the chance of making that choice for others here who might not have that desire?"

[caycep]

Cayce frowned and shoved her hands into her pockets. Goddammit, Psyche did have a point.

"Okay, true," she said. "If anything, the security's kept people from getting killed. If not hurt." Her gaze flicked up briefly, finding Crowley in the back. She rubbed her hands together. "And ... okay, maybe there's a chance it'd open some kind of black hole that would suck us all through to somewhere else. But what do we do instead? Ignore it? Look for an alternate way out?" She shrugged helplessly. How had she gotten into this position, again? Running things and organizing shit? Oh, right, she'd just stepped up and done it, because that was what Pollards did. Fuck.

"I don't know. I don't know. But we have to do something." Pause. "Okay. I have to do something. And maybe it's not fair of me to drag everyone else in."

She sat down on the edge of the stage with a thump and wondered why she'd decided to call this meeting before she'd even tried to get so much as a nap.

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"I didn't mean to reproach you, Cayce," Psyche said, smiling gently, speaking musically. "We're all excited. So many of us are, for lack of a better word, the heroes of our own stories, that we can't help wanting to do something if that's now, at last, a possiblity."

"But I would remind you that there are people here, or were, who were dead in their own worlds."

[caycep]

Oh. Yeah.

She really hadn't thought of that at all.

"How do we make this decision, then?" she asked, not just of Psyche but of everyone present. "Do we put it to a vote? Flip a coin? What's fair?"

And then, bitterly and under her breath so that no one else would hear, "Does 'fair' even fucking matter?"

Events of the last four year had, after all, made Cayce question the very concept far, far too many times.

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

"It doesn't," the Doctor said suddenly, and his voice was gentler than most people in that room had ever heard it. "We don't have a choice. We stall, we wait and hash it out and discuss and discuss until our faces turn blue and we still won't have an answer. And in the meantime, that door could be moved. It could disappear. This place could be fortified a million times over in the time it took us to come to the right... the 'fair' decision."

He folded his arms over his chest.

"And if we loose this chance to do something, we may find the park changes for the worse tomorrow. The "no-killing" rule could be revoked, the food could stop replenishing; we don't know anything and that means we have to do this. Whatever the outcome." His glance in the Master's direction jsut then was rather too obvious. "Whatever the risks."

[markoftherani]

The Rani raised an eyebrow. There was an expression on her face that very nearly looked like respect. –little Theta grew up and learned pragmatism, imagine–

[hear-the-drums.livejournal.com]

The Master, on the other hand, turned his gaze slowly on the Doctor. He didn't look respectful in the least.

He did look like a dim light had gone off somewhere. But he seemed content to keep it to himself.

And his eyes went just a little harder.

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

The Doctor may have been aware of the Master's glance, but he certainly appeared to be avoiding it with all his might, his own gaze now perfectly fixed on Cayce's face.

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"Well then," said Psyche, and there was a lift to her chin, an unholy and reckless glint to her eyes that her mother-in-law would have recognized. And loathed. "Then it seems to me the question of disjointed time needs an answer. How can we know if the distraction is taking place at the same time as we investigate?

"What would be the temporal equivalent to Ariadne's thread?"

[caycep]

After the Doctor spoke, Cayce bowed her head and rubbed her hands over her face. For a moment she looked almost as if she might be about to cry.

Then, when Psyche answered, she looked up; her eyes were dry, and the determined set of her jaw had returned.

"Standard timekeepers won't work," she said. "Barring some other solution," a quick glance at the Doctor, "what would be really great is a pair of people who can communicate telepathically. One on the surface and one underground. Don't suppose we've got any of that here?"

[hear-the-drums.livejournal.com]

The Master blinked and rolled his eyes a the same time.

"We do. Unfortunately."

[caycep]

"...really?"

Unspoken: Oh, come on, don't just leave that hanging there.

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

"Really," the Doctor agreed. "The Master and I could establish a connection like that pretty easily." He glanced at Sam and Una. "This mean I'm paired with the rabble rousers, then?"

Of course, what he was really asking was whether the Master and Ponder could possibly hang out down in a tunnel with Ponder for any length of time and still have everyone get something accomplished. Especially because he was sure the Rani'd be down there as well.

[hear-the-drums.livejournal.com]

Oh, the Master would love to spend some time down in a tunnel with someone as cerebral and easily offended as the over-educated wizard.

"Sure. I'd prefer to be working the equipment anyway; I'm better at fast connections." In case they needed to blow the door. But he didn't to add that bit.

[caycep]

That ... was not the team organization Cayce had had in mind. Well, hell. She glanced at Ponder to see what he made of it.

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

"He is the best of the three of us at this sort of thing," the Doctor told Cayce as she glanced at Ponder.

The perils of having a mad scientist in your midst- you couldn't trust him, but if there was anything very interesting going on, you would eventually need him. If the Master hadn't been there, the Doctor could have probably been just as useful, but since they did have the Master's expertise, there was no point in risking their success on the difference.

[caycep]

Cayce pursed her lips slightly, then nodded, looking a little resigned. "Fair enough. If you say so." Well, she supposed that from a certain point of view, it was funny that one would have to spend this expedition trying to keep the magician and the crazy guy from biting each other's heads off. Maybe one day they'd all look back and laugh.

[ruined-mylife.livejournal.com]

Since things seemed to have calmed down a bit, for the time being anyway, Aeryn decided to pipe up with;

"I'll volunteer for the... rebel rousing as well."

[always-confuzed.livejournal.com]

"Rabble, hon," John corrected quietly. It was sort of automatic by now, but it never really stopped being funny (his favorite one had been the time that she had insisted that the lady at the bar making her nervous was giving her 'a woody' and John had had to explain that, no, that would be 'the willies', Aeryn).

"And I volunteer for going down below with the geeks." Not that John particularly had any great desire to spend time with the Master, but there should be more than one relatively sane person keeping them in check, or at least communicating with them. Plus, he might actually be able to help out. MIT degree and Ancients knowledge would hopefully be good for something one of these days.

He glanced around to see if Daniel would be in on this one too, and was slightly alarmed when he didn't see the good doctor anywhere in the auditorium. He'd have to talk to Cayce later, find out if she saw him.

[caycep]

"Works for me," Cayce said, deeply relieved. Having John along for the ride would set her mind considerably at ease.

"So as it stands, we've got Ponder, the Master, John, and Simon accompanying Quixote and me down to the door. We'll have the Doctor on the surface, with Sam, Una, Aeryn, and whoever else happens to be standing around at the time to cause a distraction. Anyone else want to jump in somewhere?" She sort of hoped not, at least as far as the underground group went.

[markoftherani]

"I will join the group going to the door," the Rani said, in a tone that brooked no argument.

She was planning to bring some weaponry, in the event that they ran into anything hostile, and also medical supplies. Because she was fairly certain that none of these idiots could be trusted to think of such things on their own.

[chantinellie.livejournal.com]

((Sorry, this really should have been posted earlier but I had to leave last night))

Ellie had made her way up to the stage and leaned on it next to Cayce, giving the other woman a little hug. "It's okay, sweetie. Just because everybody knows you're best at organizing this kind of thing doesn't mean it's all on your head." She had her own reasons of late to want to stick around the place a while longer, but Jenny was exactly right: those who wanted desperately to leave weren't ultimately going to give a rat's ass what anyone else thought. "I really don't think it's very likely that the thing will just suck everybody through into someplace worse. It's a door, not an airlock, right? And we'll have to work to get through it. I think there's an implication of free will there." Her eyes found Crowley near the back, and her mouth twisted wryly. "What a concept...anyway, I'll help raise a little Hell. And I know somebody else who might be useful with the door group, if I can find his sorry ass."

[caycep]

Cayce allowed herself a wibble, just a tiny one, at Ellie's kindness. "Thanks," she said, just loud enough for Ellie to hear her. "I appreciate it. You and Jenny and the Doctor—you're right. It's—" She waved her hands. "It's funny, y'know. After so long of nothing much happening, everything's kind of going nuts at once. So, y'know, any help you can roust up, I'd be grateful."

[late-born-myth.livejournal.com]

"I'd like to go to the door as well."

[centuryjenny.livejournal.com]

Jenny jumped in about here.

"Speaking for those of us who are dead in our world..." She shrugged. "Well, I wasn't planning to stay here forever anyway. But there's no sense avoiding a way out for everyone if it kills off some of us. Besides, dead is dead. I say we do it. We don't know what the risks are, but they're worth it. The park wouldn't have hid something what wasn't at the real Disneyland for no reason."

She lit a cigarette, and then said coolly, "But if you're worried, we let people voice their concerns. We can have a bloody secret ballot if you want. But if it comes down to it, the majority who want to get out will trample all over us deceased minority no matter how you look at it. And who the fuck is gonna stop people like me from just going down there and blowing things up?"