Text Key

"Audible speech."

'Directed thought, telepathic speech.'

Idiot's Lantern

Chapter 33 - Set The Soundstage

Alright. This was bullshit. This was patently unfair.

"...I skip on an adventure with you one time and you end up in a place where I always wanted to be?" I asked incredulously as I walked my motorcycle - once again attached to its sidecar, with my bags shoved inside that - down the hallway towards my room. "Inside a giant, super-intelligent blue-skinned alien space babe?"

The peanut gallery was also chattering, some similarly upset about the missed opportunity, while others laughed, either because they were heckling or, like Zeke, just riding the raw amusement of watching a simultaneously rare and stupid conversation unfold.

"...while this is an interesting discovery about your interests, you should know that we weren't inside Queen Svelna like that," the Doctor said, scratching the back of his head. "We were just… scuba-ing in her bloodstream, clearing out a parasite clogging her heart… she didn't even notice us until we were out. And it's not like we went there on purpose!"

"Then again," Rose added, with the sort of helpful tone reserved for those who knew they were about to make a situation worse in a very fun way. "She did offer to make him her consort for the effort, so you know..."

"I turned her down!"

"Wasn't that because you thought she'd cheat at tiddlywinks?"

"I mean, yes, but there was also the size difference to account for…" the Doctor pointed out lamely. "-but that wasn't all we did. It was mostly music concerts."

"With the odd bit of trouble between," Rose added. "That's how it always goes with us."

Typical. "...of all the adventures to miss, it's the sexy one," I groused. Now that I was thinking about it, I could remember that story. Doctor Who Adventures. Aimed at children, so the story lasted maybe six pages and tended to bum rush through its plot because - well, the magazine it was published in was aimed at readership four years old and up.

The advantage of having literal perfect recall - like any proper filing system, everything was there and usually in a place that made sense, it just took a minute to find it.

"There will be other sexy ones!" the Doctor protested before catching himself. "I mean. Probably. It's not out of the question. They just sort of… happen, sometimes. This one certainly did. Generally I'm not paying attention."

"Apart from when you're calling yourself 'sexy' in front of an audience," Rose said, clicking her tongue playfully. "You were certainly paying attention then."

"Well…"

"Oh look," I said, near the limit of my tolerance for their flirting already. Almost three months without that in the background had spoiled me. "We're already here. So if you'd just…"

I cut off as I pushed the door to my room open.

This wasn't… how I had left it.

Rose made a sound of pleased surprise. "Oh, it's gorgeous in here!"

"Oh- you've redecorated," the Doctor said after a moment's pause. "...I like it."

I had to agree. Not only had the TARDIS expanded the room to now include a workshop area, she'd changed the aesthetics as well; leeching richer colors into the space while also supplying a dresser - which didn't match the wardrobe in the corner beyond material, but I liked it just like that - and a series of honeycomb shelves growing out of the walls.

The lighting had gone from an even blue to blues-greens-and-golds further dappled with shadows that recalled forests and light reflecting off of the tops of waves. To further add to the sensation of being in a forest grotto, Tiffany glass pond lily lamps had 'sprouted' from the desk, bedside table, and even some of the walls, while the straight lines of the metal bunk bed had been overtaken by curls of Art Nouveau-style wood.

There was still plenty of room to personalize the place, as there wasn't anything of mine besides those books from the bazaar tucked into the bookshelf, but it was nice feeling the room grow more properly home-y. The workshop was a nice touch too.

'I think that might have been mine at one point,' Zeke said, looking at it through the corner of my eye.

Oh. Well that saved us the trouble of tracking it down later then. And the whole space was just really nice to be in - almost being back in the Relic Cave in Agate Village, a few dozen lifetimes ago.

'Beautiful work,' I thought at the ceiling as I walked my motorcycle over to the workshop area.

The TARDIS gave me a pleased hum in response.

"What all you'd bring anyway? Besides the motorcycle," Rose asked, reminding me that I had an audience. "If you don't mind-"

I grabbed my bags to walk over. "Oh, just the necessaries."

I pulled a Beast Machines Megahead Megatron out of my bag, making a few adjustments to its leg placements before sitting it on a shelf, before producing Rampage, who landed in pride of place.

Only the best for my shiny friend.

The Doctor stared as I pulled out Dinobot II and Rapticon. "...how many Transformers are in there?"

"So many." I mean, the bag was one that had been modified over many, many Pokemon jumps and was practically a TARDIS anyway, but I was just kind of using it as a cover for summoning stuff from my Warehouse. "There's also my record collection, my photo albums, and some other stuff. Ah, and a bass guitar." Hadn't had the chance to establish a convincing alibi for it not to be among my things, given the effort I'd put into explaining it to Jackie.

"Did you remember to bring clothes?"

"Yesss," I said as I passed a large jet over to the Doctor. "Careful with Skyquake, he's susceptible to GPS. And don't separate him from Talon, they're friends."

"Do you just… pick the ones that will glow under blacklight?" Rose asked, gingerly holding up Shattered Glass Thundercracker.

The Doctor coughed under his breath.

"No - I mean, sometimes. I like bright colors, but I just pick the ones I think are neat looking. Like how Space Case here looks like a JoJo character," I said, lifting a cyberjet in blue diamond patterning with hot pink limbs. "Guido Mista looking ass."

Really, the great thing about reliving multiple versions of the late 20th and early 21st century was having infinite chances to snap up the exclusives and limited runs of things. It made all the times I had to repeat my teens and twenties over and over again almost liveable… and slightly more affordable than shopping the aftermarket.

Not that I was poor, at this point, but I'd been poor enough in the past to know how much it hurt shelling out triple the original price for something.

Honestly, I probably had a more extensive collection of Doctor Who figures that, overall, were probably more expensive… mostly because Big Chief items tended to start that way - at least while the company had lasted -, rather than how Transformers tended to jack up in price after the fact unless you were going for the really monster models like Unicron, Autobot Ark, or Decepticon Nemesis from the start.

Not that I'd be showing them off to the Doctor any time soon.

"Beast Wars, Beast Machines, and G2," the Doctor said flatly, hands shoved in his pockets as he walked around me. "...somehow, that feels entirely appropriate for you."

"Hey, I have Universe releases, too," I said, handing off two separate Snarls to Rose. "Again, GPS problems with the neon buddy, so set him down carefully. His ankles are delicate."

"That's not dramatically-" the Doctor cut off as he realized the raptor robot I just put in his hands wasn't a Dinobot of any description. "This isn't a Transformer."

"Nah. That's a Zoid. Friend of mine has a habit of gifting me plamo based on random asides I make," I said, making a minor adjustment to the custom Unenlagia's stance before arranging its similarly unique partners Owlwise, Leoblaze, and Mosasledge in the shelves around it. "It's the attention to detail that makes it special."

Zeke smiled from the back of my head. 'It is always good to hear my arrrrtistic endeavors are appreciated.'

I switched back to the bags, focusing on bringing clothes out so I didn't have to look up or worry about controlling my expression perfectly. 'You're one of the only people I'd know who'd hear 'I had this Zoids BLOX raptor as a kid that I thought was neat' and then go out of your way to make me the equivalent of Master Grade models of it and the other three Fuzors needed to make the Matrix Dragon.'

It wasn't an insult or a complaint; I appreciated that level of care. It meant that my words weren't meaningless noise, but at the same time, it was a pretty big present.

'I suppose that should be my next model project.'

'I didn't even watch the show, it was a pity gift from a friend who didn't want theirs anymore! I only learned about it later-'

'Perhaps I'm more interested in the challenge of beating the Challenger at their own game.'

'Don't make me blush in front of an audience that can't hear this conversation.' A realization found me pulling a few more Transformers out of the Warehouse late.

"Ah, almost forgot about these," I said, handing over the customs that were modeled after some of the Alters - Joltfang, Manticon-4, Raccdust, and the rest had never seen the primary market and would never have cash value, but they were special in a way the rare ones could never be. "Can't ever forget this team."

"Honestly, I thought this was going to end up being a knife collection," the Doctor said, idly setting Joltfang's saw gimmick spinning back and forth.

"I mean, I have a d'k tahg if you want," I said, pulling out a knife and pressing the trigger that allowed the side blades to spring out.

"...is it functional as an actual knife?"

"Yes." Very functional, actually. It'd been one of my most reliable tools a long time ago, back in a post-nuclear wasteland. Now, it was mostly just one of my more fun knives. "And it's a great conversation starter."

The Doctor gave me an unimpressed look. "In fully fluent Klingon, I suppose."

"HIja'," I confirmed as I put the knife up on one of the shelves, carefully balancing it for display. "I'm also solid in Mando'a, bev'kov'ika."

Being Mandalorian at a few points didn't hurt there.

"...you also play tabletop games, don't you."

"...that's a stereotype." It didn't stop it from being true, but geeks didn't come in 'hyper specialized' and 'incredibly generalist' all the time. And it didn't hurt that most of those hobby skills and hyperfixations actually had proven practical thanks to how many 'verses I'd been to.

"How is it that he's the alien, but somehow you're the weirder one?" Rose asked.

Because I wasn't wasting time with watering myself down all that much. And the Doctor was generally better at charm.

"Eh. Reasons. Probably. I'm sure the Doctor's just as big a nerd as I am," I replied as I started filling the bookshelf with a few books I liked to keep nearby for my own reasons. Poetry, mostly, but a few others for fun and the photo albums besides. "But I'm not as worried about getting a poor reception for said nerdery."

The Doctor gasped in faux offense.

No, I was saving that worry for when the Doctor figured out that one of the things I was nerdy about was him.

The Doctor watched as more and more of Delaine's things came out of her bags. Wall hangings, books - fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and what looked to be personal journals - and albums had been followed by clothes of many styles and patterns - lots and lots of patterns, often in bold colors that he hadn't expected from the relatively subdued personality he'd gotten used to -, all in the process of being neatly packed into the TARDIS provided dresser and wardrobe in the corner.

He'd almost accuse those bags of being bigger on the inside. Almost.

"You're quite the music enthusiast," he noted as he nudged through a pile of band t-shirts.

It was a bit of a surprise, but not quite as big of one as it could have been. The genre tendency was more interesting - after the big relatively standard names, there was a distinct tendency towards shoegaze and psychedelic rock that would then abruptly zig towards metal and 90's alternative before throwing a curveball into pop and other genres that didn't fit with any of the previous themes at all, like smooth jazz, swing, rap, and even hyperpop.

He paused as he came across one shirt. "'Bad Wolves'?"

Delaine didn't so much as twitch. "Metal band - not quite a supergroup, but has a bit of the vibe. Drummer used to be with DevilDriver, guitarists from God Forbid and Bury Your Dead, bassist from In This Moment, current vocalist from the Acacia Strain. We don't talk about the first vocalist being a racist lil bastard beyond 'that's why he got fired'."

Ah. Well, such was the way of collaborative art.

"Mickey was in a band that called themselves 'Bad Wolf' for like… a day," Rose said thoughtfully. "Rest of the time, it was No Hot Ashes."

"Ah, small bands. Those are fun," Delaine said as she refolded an Emberlight shirt and tucked it into a drawer. "Bitch to get stuff for if you don't catch them in the moment, but fun. Any good?"

The Doctor idly thumbed through Delaine's record and CD collection. Like the T-shirts, there was a wide selection - a bit wider, actually. Probably because after a certain point it was simply impractical to have that many T-shirts if you didn't have a bigger-on-the-inside home with as big a wardrobe as you wanted.

"Fairly. Not, like, radio good, but good enough to get paid every so often." Rose's grimace was audible. "I kind of… lost them their first bassist. Not that he was great, but he was alright. At the music at least."

Foo Fighters, the Ink Spots, My Chemical Romance's Black Parade, a whole lot of Chicago, the soundtrack to Doctor Zhivago, Jehtro Tull, the Pillows, Frijid Pink, Pendulum, Passion Pit, Type O Negative, Ultimate Spinach - ah, psychedelic era again, with a few songs coming in at near ten minutes -, Diablo Swing Orchestra, a rather dramatic set of covers from a metal band called 'Ghost', Britney Spears, Static-X, a-ha, Blue Stahli, a few image albums for anime characters, James Bond soundtracks -

Behind him, Rose and Delaine's conversation continued.

"Guy turned out to be a dick weasel?"

"...suppose that's a good sum up for Jimmy."

"Then nothing of value was lost, even if he could lay down the best bassline in the country," Delaine stated cooly. "Talent and individual ability does not excuse bullshit."

The Doctor hummed as he looked at something that was at least vaguely connected to the conversation thread. "Why does this bass guitar have a rope start engine?"

"Because its owner's sister is batshit," Delaine answered, not breaking away from the task of laundry sorting. "And that bass is probably one of the tamer things that came from her."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow.

"Imagine you, but four inches shorter, salmon pink hair, less patient, more random, sociopathic, and with an tendency towards both manic-pixie dream girling and scamming everyone she meets at the same time, usually teenagers and adults with maladjusted personalities and inadequacy issues, typically of a psychosexual bent."

Now both eyebrows were up. "That is… certainly a description." Not just of that person, but using the Doctor as a comparative meterstick was - well. Not exactly flattering, even if it wasn't necessarily wrong either.

"Yeah. Well, Haruko was certainly an experience. But then again, so is Akizu. But I'd appreciate it if you kept the resemblance to Haruko at its current level of comfortably vague," Delaine said as she pulled a very different sort of instrument from her bag of mixed surprises.

"...are those glass flutes?" Rose asked.

"Yeah," Delaine confirmed as she carefully set them down on a shelf above the records, setting down a medium sized metal flute nearby. "Did a craftsman a favor and he said he'd spare the price for a full set if I collected enough volcanic ash for him."

"Ohhh, I should take you to see Claude Laurent sometime then - bought a watch from him, oh, ages ago, but his real clever thing was his crystal flutes," the Doctor said as he came over to peer at the instruments more closely. Red, blue, yellow, green, black, white… "Probably should replace that watch - not that I'm in the habit of pocket watches at the moment, but you never know when you might want one around…"

The Time Lord trailed off, blinking as he looked at the set more closely.

"That one," he said, pointing at the green flute. "That's a bit of an odd duck, is it?"

It was a bit of an understatement. Apart from the rough length and the fact it was made of glass, it had very little in common with the others in the case - a transverse to their end blown, etched instead of painted, and the nearly luminous color, fading from green to delicate aqua… well, that much the Doctor could just scratch up to being uranium glass, though the trick of getting glittering gold flakes and silvery stardust inside of the material was a half-dozen steps beyond the skill level of the much more humble flutes around it.

But the real problem wasn't in its construction, it was the fact that the flute had an undeniable presence that hummed against his senses like a quieter counterpart to the TARDIS - a misty splinter of Time made material or bound so tightly to the material that it was impossible to tell where the glass ended and the concept began.

"Oh. That one - that…" Delaine looked at it, an empty, half-lost expression taking over her face. "…that one was a gift. From someone else."

Oh. Well, that didn't bode well. "Mmm. Does look antique." Though 'antique' didn't really explain how or why an echo of actual Time existed in front of him. "You play?"

"Not as much as I used to," Delaine said as she arranged the flutes on another shelf before turning her attention to reorganizing her records - a clear diversion, considering she'd just finished with that a few minutes ago. "I don't suppose you have any spare record players around?"

"Should be a few," the Doctor said, still distracted by the flute. "Would it be a bit much to ask you to play later?"

"I'm not- I'm out of practice."

That was less his concern than the question of what it would be like to hear that piece of Time made physical sing. "Neither was I, but I used to play every chance I got. Not on anything as nice as this, of course," he corrected, gesturing vaguely at the latest Delaine mystery to fall into his lap. "Just a little cheap recorder. Drove everyone up the wall."

"I can imagine. Most kids just futz around for the sake of making noise."

His Second bristled. 'How rude. And that has nothing to do with the-'

'I know,' the Doctor shot back. 'Just give me time.'

'Time? That's the very thing that we're worried about here. And you still haven't talked to her about the DNA issue!'

'Or the fact that she was armed for vampires back at Deffry Vale - or did you forget the fact that you took a stake off of her during that mess?' the old soldier pointed out. 'That is not something you told her to do and we never got more of the story behind that then 'it happened in California'.'

It wasn't. And he had forgotten that bit; after all, what was a little piece of pointy wood - albeit one shaped with intent for a very specific use - and a scrap of backstory in the face of forbidden knowledge that stomped all over what was still a very raw subject for him?

'Alright - I'll talk to her about all that. Or - at least some of it. Just… not right now.'

And not just because he was thrown off by everything happening. The Doctor wanted to savor this pleasant interaction for as long as he could before potentially ruining it with serious conversations about how she knew this and why she had that and...

…well, it was also probably sort of rude to bring up someone's genetics in front of an audience.

"Anyway," the Doctor said, clapping his hands together. "I should leave you to finish unpacking - oh, and we're going to your homeland to see Elvis. Dress for 1956, New York."

"Any advice?" Rose asked as she and Delaine walked into the TARDIS wardrobe.

"On what?"

"What to wear."

The other girl raised an eyebrow. "Why ask me? I'm not exactly the pinnacle of conventional taste, here or anywhere."

"Well, we're visiting America and you're an American." Seemed a bit stupid now that Rose had said it out loud, didn't it? It wasn't like Delaine would have been around for the 1950's, but... "And, I don't know. You just seem like you know what you're doing when it comes to retro stuff."

"I mean, vehicles, yes. Books, yes. Music, yes. Buncha other trivia shit, more than likely yes. Fashion?" Delaine made a face and wobbled her hand from side to side in the classic 'so-so' gesture. "Lot more subjective. Everyone has different tastes… but sure - tell me what you were thinking from the start. I can at least tell you what the general 'rules' for certain things were. Maybe help with colors, if you don't trust your own judgment."

"Was thinkin a poodle skirt. If I can find one." She wasn't having much luck in her current area of search. Nylons, yes, sunglasses, yes. A poodle skirt? Apparently the TARDIS just didn't have one of those.

…though Rose supposed that was comforting in its own way. It meant that, out of any other girls the Doctor might have had aboard the TARDIS before her, none of them came from or had ever dressed for the 1950's.

…was that really a comfort though?

"Go for it then," Delaine said, ignorant of Rose's thoughts of insecurity. "Poodle it up. Usually goes with flats of some kind - sneakers, Chucks, Keds, saddle shoes - and bobby socks, but it's your prerogative. And then you can play everything else in the palette to the skirt, since it's the focal centerpiece. You'll also need a crinoline to go under it - adds a bit more fullness to the look. Oh, and you'll want a close fitting t-shirt or sleeveless blouse - maybe a bandeau if you're up to that."

Rose looked up from the pink prom-style dress she had found. It wasn't exactly what she'd been looking for, but it was… fairly close looking. If she ignored the fact that it was satin instead of felt and didn't have a poodle or anything else on it. "A what?"

"It's like a tube top, but usually with a little-" Delaine made a twisting motion with her hands. "Like those vintage bikini swimsuits."

Ah. "Probably not - think I'll just stick with this dress. Less parts to worry about," Rose said as she shimmied into it. The skirt was good, but the top - a straight across cut - felt a bit exposed. Better than a tube top, but… "What about jackets? The Doctor didn't say if we should dress for spring or fall…"

"Cardigans always work, or maybe a motorcycle jacket if you feel more comfortable with that, but you can also do whatever you want. Fashion's that sort of thing most of the time anyway," Delaine said, grabbing clothes seemingly at random and throwing them on, never missing a beat or getting tangled up in the process. "Just do what's comfortable and fun."

Where she'd picked up the art of changing her clothes that fast, Rose didn't know, but the trick of never being naked at any point in the process was impressive - the closest Rose had gotten to seeing any of Delaine's bare skin was when she'd traded out her trousers for a pair of capris and even that had been a blink-and-miss moment. The rest was a ruffling blur of black, blue, and leopard print - oh wait, that was the same waistcoat from the bazaar, wasn't it? It felt like ages ago now.

"So what are you aiming for? Style-wise," Rose clarified, watching the process all come together, the task of finishing her own outfit forgotten for the moment. All she really had to worry about was shoes and that jacket anyway and neither of those would take long.

"Going for a Teddy Boy-Girl Rockabilly thing - Edwardian revival meets rock 'n roll," the other girl explained. "Don't want to be too predictable, after all; people start making assumptions."

Rose eyed Delaine's blue and purple hair. "Do they?"

"You're making some right now," Delaine noted before turning back to the process of fastening a cat cameo brooch to her shirt collar. "Some of them might even be right, but everything you see and hear will be filtered through your life experiences, which will then tint your opinions of anything you encounter in the future. Bad experiences, especially."

"...is that why you're weird about us? Me and the Doctor? Because we remind you of something… or someone?"

Delaine paused.

"Everyone has biases - I'm no exception to the rule," she said after a minute, straightening the lines of her jacket. "But I'm willing to put the effort to grow past those issues. It's just… hard, you know."

Rose noted it was the same sort of non-answer the Doctor liked to give sometimes; neither a yes or a no, but an evasive third thing that gave her very little to work with. But it was at least something that Delaine was trying, instead of just… letting it sit there in a permanent state of awkwardness.

"...aren't you going to…" Rose pointed at Delaine's calves, skin and leg hair on full display with the pair of capris she was wearing.

"Shave? Only ever had bad luck with that," Delaine said as she slipped on a pair of blue suede and leopard print brothel creepers. "Seriously, anyone who makes a deal out of details that small are the types who'd find something else to give you hell over if there wasn't anything there - chipped fingernail polish, anything and everything to do with makeup, whatever stupid rule about mixing patterns is 'in' at the moment, and then stuff you can't do a whole lot about in the first place, like your teeth, weight, voice, or personality... Anyone reasonable would either be too polite to be a bitch about it or be paying attention to better things in the first place."

She stood up in a single smooth motion, effortlessly pulling her hair back into a ponytail pompadour. "Besides, with the way the rest of this look is put together, do you think they're going to be looking at that specific part of my legs that hard?"

That was true, Rose thought as she pulled on her nylons and slipped on the pink heels she'd found. Focusing on something so small as leg hairs would require overlooking a lot; from the leopard print and bright blues to the dynamic curves that defined the rest of Delaine's legs and body. There was nothing that was a proper hourglass or anything that screamed model or movie star, but Rose was still finding herself surprised by how much had been hidden before, either by poor posture or baggy clothing choices.

"I tend to hide myself if I don't feel well," Delaine said, as if responding to that thought. "Either dressing up too stiff if I need to put on a good face or no effort at all if it's not needed. Both tend to hide things."

…the first one described most, if not all, of Rose's experience with Delaine's fashion choices up until now. "So you're not worried about what you look like now?" Rose asked as she did her hair up.

"So long as I can do what I need to do and be comfortable while doing it." Delaine said, before throwing something Rose's way. "Here."

Rose caught it on reflex.

It was a little flower brooch, made out of mother of pearl stained a bold Barbie pink, with a handful of small pearls to represent the… the yellow bit in the middle.

The pistil. Right.

"It'll help carry the pink of your dress through the blue-grey of the jacket to your hairband," Delaine explained, slipping on a pair of cat's eye sunglasses before vaguely motioning at her lapel. "Tie the whole thing together. I'd offer to paint your nails, but I don't think we have enough time for that."

Rose blinked. That was…

"Thanks. Really," she said as she fastened the brooch to her jacket.

The TARDIS shuddered.

"Ah, looks like we've landed," Rose said. "Race you to the console room?"

Delaine scoffed. "Not with you wearing those ankle breakers."

It wasn't that long a walk to the console room - the TARDIS probably shuffling her hallways around to make the trip that much shorter, Rose figured -, but the Doctor was already there, fiddling with the controls.

"Right, right. Should be the right year and location," he muttered, staring into a screen. "And we're not parked too badly…" His head jerked up as he realized he had company, the Time Lord immediately spinning around on his heels, arms spread wide to show himself off. "How do I look?"

There was a beat.

"...all you did was button up your suit and use pomade instead of hair gel," Delaine pointed out, tone dry and strained.

Rose had to agree, that was about it. It looked good, yes, but it wasn't a lot.

The Doctor grinned. "That I did, good eye."

"You asshole, that kind of suit isn't even fashionable for the next-" she trailed off into a wordless growl as the Doctor skipped off down a hallway.

Rose patted Delaine on the shoulder. "You get used to it. Usually the most he does is change his jumper."

"I was definitely getting that impression."

Magpie went about the business of unloading another telly from his truck, taking the pittance offered from his 'customers' and pocketing it.

He was doing this at a loss, financially, - for all the red was clearing from his books and the dust clearing from his stock, it wasn't a sustainable trend - and physically, given that he hadn't gotten more than the barest scrap of sleep since she'd arrived, but there was no other option. Not when things were… quite literally, down to the Wire.

She wasn't touching him right now. Didn't have to - the fire that she'd lit in the back of his mind burnt like- like Willy Pete, he remembered from the War; sticky and blindingly hot to the point where he wanted it over more than he wanted to be a decent man - it was easier to be good when you could think, easier to be upright when you weren't curled over in pain from something you couldn't run away from because it was sizzling in the back of your brain like a lucifer.

That didn't stop the guilt much, but… but it was a justification that could soothe it over a little. That there was no choice for Ronald Magpie, that anyone else would have broken before the Wire anyway, so… so if he played along, it would be less bad. Yes.

That was a lie he could tell himself. It wasn't that good of one, but like he'd realized earlier…

There really wasn't that much room to think about things like that, with her burning in the back of his mind.

Author's Notes

Greetings! It's been a while (original plan was to sit on this until November but hey, early upload works for everyone - the rest of this arc's uploads will be spaced in roughly 2 week intervals and then a hiatus until it's time for the next arc to go up), which was why I took a bit of time to pull on a number of threads I'd dropped a while ago to make sure that they're fresh in reader's memory + established as things that are going to be discussed at varying points in the near-ish future.

Current plans for this fic are, as of the time of writing these Author's Notes, writing ahead as far as possible while everything is on hiatus - you should be seeing this posted in September, but this chapter specifically was finished back in May (with some tweaks happening later in the process as errors were discovered while doing the last parts of the arc in August), while other outlines were being worked on around the same time.

The off-screen adventure that Delaine is sour about missing is A Delicate Operation, from Doctor Who Adventures 2006. The comics are Really short bits and some aren't terribly interesting, while others rely on… legitimate racist stereotypes and writing choices, but that one in particular was really interesting to me for… well. Giant blue-skinned alien space babe reasons.

GPS - Gold Plastic Syndrome. Not so much a thing now (the last reported case was in 2015), but this used to be a recurring problem w/ Transformers and other toys (ex: GPS is also why Majora's Mask cartridges tend to not survive well) that had certain colors of plastic - usually golds, bronzes, and browns, but anything with a certain kind of metallic swirl was at risk - which ended up Unspeakably fragile, sometimes to the point of disintegrating while in packaging.

Skyquake is one of the more famous victims of this, which is one of the reasons why it is Stupid Expensive getting ahold of one of him. The only example I have myself is Transmetal Megatron, which I avoid handling thanks to having two, both in different forms for maximum visual enjoyment with minimum handling.

There is no cure or fix for GPS, only delaying the inevitable. Except, in the context of this fic, magic repair powers and Jumpchain fiat-backed protections.

In the time between writing most of this chapter and its update (aka: while I wasn't looking in August), Big Chief Studios went into solvency with a debt exceeding a million pounds, which means that I now have the delight of shopping exclusively on the aftermarket for those Doctor Who figures now, which are - barring a few exceptions, more expensive than most Transformers - and that the Sixth Doctor figure I pre-ordered almost two years ago will likely never be an actual part of my collection.

Hopefully another, more reliable company gets the license for Doctor Who sixth scale figures in the future…

Plamo - 'Plastic model'. Gunpla is specific to Gundam plastic model kits.

Zeke was given this hobby because in the Classic Who serial 'Battlefield', the Seventh Doctor gets some alien money out of his pocket and there's a Zoid mixed in with them that he describes as 'a valuable piece of coinage' which is a Scarab (European release of Saicurtis) painted black, removed of a few legs and most of its head/pilot seating, along with having its wings glued down.

It was a bit of a hard identification (me + my co-writer both thought it might have been a kitbash between a Zoid and something else for a bit) until better quality visuals could be secured from the ep, and even that still left us with a bit of digging to do. But hey, the question is answered so it's all good.

Plus, out of all the Doctor's incarnations, Seven tends to be the most meticulous and organized, which lines up well with miniature building.

D'k tahg are a ceremonial Klingon dagger from Star Trek - they were also a cameo weapon as the DakTarg in Fallout Tactics: the Brotherhood of Steel as one of the best unpowered knives/melee weapons in the game… though one with a somewhat mean-spirited item description attached.

'Bev'kov'ika' - improvised Mando'a for 'little spike head (affectionate)'. I'm not great at it, but I've been studying.

Emberlight is an example of a small time band that only seems to exist anymore as one T-shirt I found thrifting and a handful of youtube videos, because their actual career seems to have lasted only a few years (2009-2011), though they did manage to tour a few times and there's apparently an EP floating out there somewhere, but it's a ghost so far as the internet is concerned. It's kind of unfortunate, because I enjoy the songs that they did put out and wish I could have enjoyed recordings done with better equipment.

They do have a few songs up on youtube on the 'emberlightmusic' youtube channel and 'Miran deS' youtube channel has videos of a live showing from them chopped up into individual songs, but there are at least 2 to 3 (possibly 4) other bands that were active around the same time had roughly the same name (The Emberlight, Emberlight Fantastic, and May Ember Light) that, in my opinion, aren't nearly as engaging, but tend to muddy search results anyway, to the point where bandmine dot com's page for 'The Emberlight' has videos from all of them despite the clear differences in style + line-up.

Frijid Pink - Detroit Band. 1967-1975 - technically have reformed a few times, but one time (2001) was with none of the original members and the second time (2006) kinda sputtering in and out of activity with small time gigs - though they did get a record released in 2017, so it's something. Absolutely fantastic cover of the House of the Rising Sun - I took a bit during the next chapter to talk about that subject, but they are severely underrated and underappreciated.

Ultimate Spinach - Bosstown sound psychedelic band. Lasted from 1967-1969, three records to show for it. Ran across them by accident, really enjoyed the song 'Mind Flowers' from their second album (it clocks in at 9 minutes 38 seconds).

The glass flutes are from Pokemon - most specifically, they're from the Hoenn games. Well, apart from the 'green' one - that is my adaptation of the Time Flute from the Orre games used to summon Celebi, which never had a sprite of its own, which led to me basing it on Claude Laurent's crystal flutes - specifically the 1844 green one (which is made of uranium glass), currently stored in the Library of Congress, though I obviously took further license with the description.

Originally, I also had the Ocarina of Time there but I felt that was a bit much - both for the section and for the Doctor somehow not saying anything about The Impossible Time Shenanigans he was currently looking at.

Haruko is from FLCL. I've referenced that anime earlier in the fic, with Canti, but that was both a small throw-away moment and quite a while ago.

FLCL also got me into the Pillows which is really good listening if you want to kick back and relax… or give a tempo to doing household tasks. Whatever suits you best.

Fashion - I spent So much time researching, both trying to capture Vibes but also getting the right language. The funniest part was researching poodle skirts because that's what I remembered Rose wearing… and then looking at blogs that document all the costume bits in Doctor Who (for cosplay or just special interest purposes) and seeing how off-base I was. I was able to work the research into the dialog tho, so it wasn't a complete waste of time and I had fun while doing it, so it's a net win in the end.

Also discovered that 'cameo' (as in the jewelry) is a weird thing via friend testing, so a short explain - it's a form of carved jewelry, taking advantage of a stone or shell having layers of different colors to make a contrasted image. They're very old school and have fallen out of pop culture, which led to the word 'cameo' getting transplanted onto the whole guest star thing almost entirely.

Suit research was mostly 'how wrong is the Doctor's suit for the era' and snug cuts like 10's wouldn't be back in style until the 1960's mod suits - which 10 would have been emulating near perfectly with the fully buttoned up look he was doing for Idiot's Lantern - well, apart from his hair, which was era appropriate for the 50's (which is also why the note of what he was using on it was included in the text).