Birthday Party at High Noon

[misslucysleeches]

Yup, after a couple month's break in summer, we're into the fall birthdays again, starting off with Lucy! As usual, the bar is done up in green, although this time Doc's added various bits of greenery (both real and fake, depending on where it's placed) to add a little extra oomph to the decorations. Lucy's perched on the bar, swinging her legs and looking for all the world like a kid in a candy store. Shall you come over and say hello?

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[save_us_alice]

Alice is the first up with her present, holding a small package wrapped in white paper patterned with various flowers. "Happy birthday, Lucy!"

[misslucysleeches]

"Thanks!" Lucy says with a grin, taking the gift and tearing it open. Inside is a neatly-folded map of Paris, along with a translation guide to French. "Oooooh -- someone heard about my desire to go to France?"

[save_us_alice]

"Indeed," Alice says, nodding. "I figured I may as well give you something useful for your trip."

[misslucysleeches]

"Yeah -- my trip that's been kind of sidetracked by the never-ending mall visit," Lucy chuckles. "Well, hopefully I can convince Vic to get me out in the Nexus proper again so I can actually go. And hey, I can even use this stuff if I want!" She gives Alice a thumbs-up. "Good work."

[save_us_alice]

"That was also a factor," Alice admits, smiling. "Here's hoping you get to actually go on your fabled trip!"

[flightattendantguy]

Simon's up next, with a CD-shaped present in dark green. "Vic pointed me toward this one," he says, handing it over. "Says you're a fan."

[misslucysleeches]

"Ooooh, I've got a good feeling about this one," Lucy says, tearing off the paper. Her face lights up. "Yes! Lindsey Stirling! This woman does absolutely freaking amazing stuff with a violin -- have you heard?"

[flightattendantguy]

"Yeah, I listened to some of the stuff on her channel -- she's fantastic!" Simon agrees. "I can see why you like her so much. She's really you."

[misslucysleeches]

"Oh hell yeah -- if I ever need an alternate PB for any reason, I know who I'm asking for," Lucy grins. "Thanks a ton, Simon!"

[flightattendantguy]

"Not a problem, Lucy," Simon says, kissing her on the cheek. "Happy birthday."

[forgotten_vows]

Forgotten comes up carrying a box wrapped in light green paper with vine patterns. "I wasn't sure what to get you at first," he says, putting it on the bar next to Lucy. "But I think these should suit you nicely. You could say they sort of go with Alice's present."

[misslucysleeches]

"Oh really?" A curious Lucy opens the present to find a shoebox -- and inside that, a pair of white sneakers with green accents and laces. "Aha -- yeah, I could use these," she agrees, lifting one out and giving it a look. "Gonna be doing a lot of walking if and when I go on that trip."

[forgotten_vows]

Forgotten nods, smiling. "Yes. I was tempted to get you a pair of the strange platforms you seemed to be fond of in your Mall thread, but -- well, I'm still figuring out how one walks in those."

[misslucysleeches]

Lucy giggles. "To be honest, so am I," she says. "I've worn platforms, but the one Scarlet favors -- that takes an acrobat's balance." She pats him on the shoulder. "These are great. Thank you."

[forgotten_vows]

"Oh, you're quite welcome -- happy birthday," Forgotten nods.

[8docs_n_1victor]

The muses and mun tromp in in their usual crowd, waving to everyone. "Hello, Lucy!" OckDoc says, Jules extending to greet her with a gift clutched in his claw. "Happy birthday! You should find a lot of use out of this."

[misslucysleeches]

"That seems to be the theme of the day with presents," Lucy replies, giving Jules a pat before taking the gift and opening it. Her eyes light up. "Ooooh, niiiice," she says, holding up a new digital camera (in green, of course). "Just like the one Vic has, huh?"

[8docs_n_1victor]

"With a few extra features," OckDoc says as the tentacles nod. "Figured you could use it for sightseeing. Since you are supposed to be on a trip and all."

[misslucysleeches]

"Yeah, key words being 'supposed to be,'" Lucy adds with a giggle. "But hey, I'm not turning down a new camera either way. Thanks guys!"

[crossover_chick]

"You're welcome!" the Docs (and Victor) chorus.

The mun comes up now, rolling her eyes. "I don't know why I'm even giving you a present now," she says, handing over a box. "All I have to do is promise you that you're actually going to France. Which you are, by the way -- I'm gonna try and get you back in the regular Nexus this month. Simon or Steve & Gary too, since they haven't been out in ages."

[misslucysleeches]

"Now that would be nice," Simon says.

"Finally trying to get that schedule going, huh?" Lucy agrees, opening her gift. "I can dig it. . ." She laughs as she sees what's inside the box. "Oh -- this stuff was clearly influence by my current thread, though," she adds, lifting out a couple of glowstick-style bracelets and necklaces.

[crossover_chick]

"Yeah," Vic says with a nod. "I love Forgotten, but the rest of you need to breathe too. . . And yes," she snickers. "Come on, I knew you'd be all over this stuff if you had it already."

[misslucysleeches]

"You know me very well," Lucy says, putting on a necklace. "Which is good, since you play me and all. . . Thanks, though. This is fun."

[crossover_chick]

"You're welcome," Vic says with a grin. "Happy birthday."

[alienlisa]

AL and the guys come in late as usual. "What up, folks?"

[misslucysleeches]

"Travel stuff," Lucy says, holding up her camera, phrasebook, and sneakers. "Mostly, anyway. What up with you?"

[alienlisa]

AL looks over the swag. "Nice. You're going to France?"

"Oh, nothing much," says AL with a shrug. "Still have the obsession with Twelve."

"Though it's been quieter," adds Eleven.

"That's because of the alter ego. Her work's been nutso for a few weeks so she couldn't think about it too much. Now that the schedule's gonna be going back to normal, I'm sure that'll come back."

"Oh dear..." says Five quietly as AL gives him a look.

[misslucysleeches]

"Yup -- I was recommended Paris on my last trip to the Nexus, so to Paris I shall go," Lucy says with a proud smile. She nods. "And yeah, so we've heard. Sucks having to pick up an extra shift you didn't particularly want. I should know. At least things are returning to normal. Complete with actor obsession," she adds with a playful "nudge nudge" motion.

[alienlisa]

"The times I was there," says AL, "it was nice...well, as long as it was in modern times." She eyes Erik over in the corner. "Hopefully no one'll try to steal the Mona Lisa this time, though."

[misslucysleeches]

"They'd better not -- I want an adventure that's just for fun, not something that'll put me in the center of a detective adventure game," Lucy says with a frown.

"Well, just don't inspire anyone to steal the Mona Lisa and you'll be set," Vic smirks.

"Har-de-har har."

[alienlisa]

AL chuckles. "Well, considering we stopped the guy trying to sell seven of them to build a time machine, I think you're good."

"And the fact that she can't escape from her frame anymore," adds Eleven. "I'm sure your trip will be uneventful in that aspect."

AL winces. "You have to mention that she's painted with sentient paint?"

[misslucysleeches]

"Wait, what? How the hell -- I assume the original and six forgeries, otherwise what the hell did he need a time machine for?" Lucy says, blinking. "And -- sentient paint?"

[alienlisa]

"Eh," says AL, "technically all seven of them are the real thing since all were painted by Leonardo...except if they're ever x-rayed, they'll see 'this is a fake' written on the canvas in felt tip. But, anyway. This guy, Scaroth...think cyclops meets cthulu...splintered himself in time when he tried to take off from primordial Earth on warp drive. The radiation from the explosion was the catalyst that created all life on the planet. His other selves through time masqueraded as humans and influenced things so his 'main' self in '70s Paris could have the technology to build a time machine so he could go back and stop himself from 'pressing the button' in his words. Except if he did that, then life wouldn't form on Earth. So we had to stop him. Got killed by his own butler in the end." AL shrugs. "And in order to rustle up those extra six, Leo had to borrow paints from his neighbor, Giuseppe di Cattivo. Unfortunately, he'd found a sentient meteorite and used its minterals to make pigments for his paints. He'd painted a thing called 'The Abomination' that when paired with the Mona Lisa caused her to come to life when her painting was lent to a place in London. Luckily, the Doctor's old friend Sarah Jane took care of that one. Long story short, the Abomination was destroyed and Mona Lisa is back in her painting forever. An 'And I Must Scream' situation? The first time, yes. The second?" She shrugs again. "Whether or not knowing she wanted to destroy the world helps with that, well that's up to you." Quickly, she adds, "But don't let that ruin your trip! She's still a very pretty painting. I still wonder why she doesn't have any eyebrows."

[misslucysleeches]

Lucy, along with the others, stare for a moment. "I might just stay away from the Louvre," she admits after a moment. "Pretty or not, I don't like the idea that she might be staring back at me, plotting my doom. Please don't tell me the Eiffel Tower was involved in any of the Doctor's shenanigans. I really want to see that."

"So -- we're all the result of some alien's spaceship going blammo?" Marty says slowly. It's a weird thought, and it'll take him a bit of time to properly wrap his head around it. "Okay then. . .kind of sucks to be him, though. I mean, splintered through time? That sounds like it hurts, to say the freaking least."

[alienlisa]

AL says, "Well, you could just avoid the area her painting is in. The Louvre is a huge place. If I may make a suggestion, though?" She eyes Eleven, who nods. "Visit the Musée d'Orsay...it has a nice collection of Vincent Van Gogh paintings and he was a friend of ours. He dedicated his Vase with Twelve Sunflowers to the Doctor's companion, Amy." ((In-show, the painting winds up with 'For Amy' painted on it))

"As for the Eiffel Tower?" She eyes the Doctors, questioning, and they shake their heads. "Nope, no disasters there. We did wave goodbye to Duggan from there...he was the detective who was hired to investigate a plot to steal the Mona Lisa. But that's all."

AL nods at Marty. "And you were almost not created at all due to a spatial anomaly caused by an exploding starship in the far future. Luckily, Captain Picard reversed that effect and it wound up never happening."

Data nods. "The Captain had been moving back and forward through time between past, present and future. The anomaly had been caused by a starship in the future exploding and rupturing the space-time continuum. Due to it being a temporal anomaly, it grew larger as it moved through the past and covered most of the quadrant by primordial Earth. The Captain, as we were told, was able to collapse the anomaly and return the timeflow to normal."

"He'd told us of the possible future," said AL. "Maybe hoping some things wouldn't come to pass because it wasn't exactly a happy one. The future's always in flux, so I guess the 'not polluting the timeline' rule went out the window there. Though I think there's some leeway with alternate futures." She makes a face as if she's thinking about it, then gives up and shrugs.

[misslucysleeches]

"Awww, I see," Lucy says with a little smile. "I'll definitely put that one on my list of places to visit, then."

"Huh. Funny, you thought aliens would have tried to steal it or something," Lucy comments.

"Probably too big and unweildy -- though I think in one of the Ghostbuster cartoons, it was revealed to be an early ghost containment unit or something similar," Vic says.

"Sheesh -- stuff like this makes what our movie selves had to go through look like pretty small potatoes," Marty has to say.

"Don't get too upset, Marty," Lucy counsels. "At least you can legitimately claim your time-traveling never put the whole universe in peril."

[alienlisa]

((*googlegooglegoogle*)) "Actually," says AL, "it was stolen in a comic, but since the alter ego doesn't read the comics - plus she doesn't get the magazine it's in - it's not in my 'canon'...fanon?...whatever, so I don't know the details. Plus the website she's on doesn't give elaborate details. Also in a comic, there was a replica built on a planet but it wound up being destroyed because it was part of the Nefarious Plot or something. Again, my experiences only lie in the TV show and his movie." She gestures to Eight. "Aaannd, technically, his audio of the alter ego's horse's namesake." She chuckles. "And maybe the one audio she has of Five, Six and Seven together if she ever gets that sequel off the ground."

"Lucy has a point," AL says to Marty. "Granted, didn't Doc mention that the two Jennifers meeting could destroy the universe or at the very least your own galaxy? Luckily she only passed out, huh?"

[misslucysleeches]

"I think it would be 'fanon,'" Lucy says. "At any rate, can't have it in your verse if the fan doesn't get the magazine, right? And you seem to get into enough trouble with just the TV, movie, and radio stuff. Don't need to add the Adventures of Sequential Art to it."

"Especially when you take into account how random some of that sequential art can be," Vic adds, remembering a certain episode of "Atop The 4th Wall."

"Yeah, well, no offense to that Doc, but people started meeting their past and future selves all through Part II, and the universe never blew up," Marty points out.

"I think my other self was referring specifically to those meetings which might result in the disablement or death of the younger self," Doc says, wagging a finger.

"Yeah, the novelization makes it a bit more clear, although it uses a rather gruesome example of Jennifer cracking her head open while fainting to do it," Vic says.