OPEN RP FOR ANYBODY (RP topic from oncoming_storms)

[rude_not_ginger]

You have picked up a distress signal, and followed it to a hotel in London. All you are able to determine is that it is coming from someplace inside the hotel, and is not terrestrial in origin. What will you do? What will you find at the other end of the signal?

"But I've found a...oh, nevermind."

The receptionist was exceptionally unhelpful, so the Doctor darted down the hallways of the hotel, knocking on doors. One of them would be the person who sent the distress signal.





OOC: Open to all. Any universe, any time. If you want to have your pup be in this hotel and answer the door, just go for it! I won't be up toooooooo much later this evening, but I won't leave anybody hanging, I'll catch you asap tomorrow afternoon!

Comments

[not-on-her-own.livejournal.com]

Maria opened the door swiftly. She'd been in the room by herself only a brief period of time. Sarah & Luke had gone out shopping, and likely to grab a bite.

She was quite surprised at who she saw.


[ooc: I've been dying to play with your pup, but it just seemed weird to do so with Four, so I thought I'd give Maria a go! Off to bed right now, but will pick up tomorrow.]

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor's hand was held over where the door had been just a moment ago, and he blinked down at the girl there.

"Hello!" he said, breaking into a grand smile. "We've talked before, haven't we?"




OOC: YAY! I'm so glad we get a chance to play together! It's hard to find ways to get the Doctor to meet himself, and I positively love Maria. =D

[sarahs-attic.livejournal.com]

OOC: I was going to throw Sarah in...and she'd be a logical fit here, but only if both of you want her here. If so, she can return a little later and one or all of us can write Luke's part. ;)

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

OOC: I don't have a problem with that. I'd love to have a few more tags between the Doctor and Maria first (after all, she doesn't really know he's the Doctor just yet).

How about we tag back and forth and I ping you when it's a good tagging point for Sarah? Or, you could put Sarah coming back to the hotel in another thread, and Maria and I can tag on that?

[not-on-her-own.livejournal.com]

Maria did a slight double-take. Oh, they had met before. And he still hadn't told her who he was. It certainly seemed odd that he would just happen to be here, of all places.

She smiled back, but gave him a slightly skeptical look.

"Yeah, we have. I guess I should have told you my name. I'm Maria. Maria Jackson."

She reached her hand out. As far as she knew, introductions were two-sided.


OOC: I'm happy too! And as for throwing Sarah in, that's fine with me, but yeah, down the line, I think. Sounds good.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor took the girl's hand and shook it firmly, "Maria! You're Sarah's friend, yes! Saving the world on a daily basis!" He gave her a wide grin, "Now that's brilliance, there."

He peeked into the hotel room, "Speaking of, you haven't been setting off any technical devices, have you, Miss Jackson? Anything...distress-signal-ey?"

[not-on-her-own.livejournal.com]

He was...excitable. And he knew Sarah. That still wasn't much to go on. She stepped back from the door, waving him in. He certainly seemed harmless, anyway.

"Yeah, I'm Sarah's friend. And we do that. I guess it is brilliant."

That got a grin. But listening to his question, she frowned.

"Um...I don't know. I don't think so. Look--I'd like to know just who you are, if you don't mind."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Nothing behind the telly?" He hopped over and scanned it quickly with his sonic screwdriver. Nothing out of the order there. Sarah Jane's friend in this hotel (which probably meant Sarah herself wasn't far off) and a mysterious signal? Too much coincidence.

"What, you haven't figured it out yet?" he asked with a teasing smile. "You're smart. Take a guess. I promise I won't mislead you."

[not-on-her-own.livejournal.com]

Now that device looked quite a lot like...

She tilted her head to the side a bit; at first, a look of awe spread across her face, which eventually softened into a slight smile.

"The Doctor, are you?" She tried to seem casual about it, but inside, she was beginning to brim with excitement.

She pointed to the device in his hand. "And that's your sonic...thing. Like Sarah's lipstick."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"That's screwdriver," the Doctor said, holding it up as if it were a prized trophy, "Built it myself."

He grinned again, and offered up his hand once more, "That I am, Maria Jackson. I wish I could say I've heard about you, but I haven't been able to see Sarah Jane lately, we've been a bit out of touch."

[not-on-her-own.livejournal.com]

She took his hand, shaking it enthusiastically, a big smile coming to her face.

"Did you build Sarah's sonic lipstick? I bet you did. She talks about you all the time and you sound...well, you're fantastic, aren't you? S'alright you haven't heard of me. Just means you get to meet someone new, yeah?"

And so far, despite everything, she's enjoyed all the new people that have recently come into her life.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"That's the right sort of attitude: I'm brilliant and you're going to be new and brilliant in my life!"

He reached into his pocket and produced a large, rather complicated-looking device that was the product of a SidekickID, two mobile phones, a bit of wire, and a lot of glue.

"I've found a distress signal, somewhere in the hotel," he said, "Been trying to track it down, but I can't seem to find a fixed point. S'why I've been knocking on everyone's doors, trying to figure out where it's coming from."

[not-on-her-own.livejournal.com]

Her smile was wide as she nodded. Swallowing his words a bit, she said, "Well, I can help you! I've been doing this kind of thing all the time lately, seems like. Two heads better than one and that sort of thing."

In fact, she was beginning to wonder if she was somewhat addicted to the thrill of adventure.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor all but bounced towards the door of the room. Six months---or thereabouts, never could really tell on the TARDIS---since Martha left, he was beginning to doubt his ability with people. At least the people Sarah made friends with were fantastic.

"Right, you knock on that side, I'll knock on this. We should check storage closets, too."

[not-on-her-own.livejournal.com]

Maria nodded, quickly following his instructions. She proceeded to knock on several doors, easily getting away with disturbing people by just smiling and laying on her teenage charm. Well, it seemed to work, anyway.

As she neared the last door, however, no one opened it. It could've meant the occupant wasn't there, or possibly sleeping. But if there was someone in distress about...that could very well mean they were incapable of answering the door. Well, she'd see what the Doctor thought.

"Doctor," she called out. "No one's answering here, should I leave it?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor had fared no better on his side, everyone rather annoyed by the lanky, wide-grinning man at the other end of the door. When Maria called him over, he darted away from an older woman in some form of pink negligee that was asking him to help her with her "distress".

"Well, they could be sleeping," he said, "But then again..."

He pulled out his sonic screwdriver.

"Think we should have a backup excuse if they are in there?"

[not-on-her-own.livejournal.com]

She thought for a moment. Her mind tended to go for the detailed excuse.

"I'm your niece and we're on holiday and we think we dropped our camera, have you seen it? You have to throw in the niece bit, they'll be more...sympathetic. Unless it's a grumpy old man who hates little children and puppies."

She paused. "Or we could just tell them to have a fantastic day, but they might think us odd. That's not unusual for me."

She smiled to herself a bit.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

She was quick. The Doctor had a plan involving costumes and a song and dance routine, and she went off and made it easy. Brilliant!

"Right! Here we go..."

He gave the lock a quick swipe with the screwdriver, then opened the door to the room. Empty? Like Maria's hotel room and every other hotel room he'd stepped into, this one was a ticker-tape replica of the plushness of every other one before it. Couches and a small table near the kitchen, with the door to the bedroom closed.

"You check the kitchen, I'll take a look in the bedroom."

[not-on-her-own.livejournal.com]

Maria nodded, wandering into the kitchen. At first glance, nothing seemed peculiar, but she looked more closely at the table, then the counter. When she opened one of the bottom cabinets, a strange, lime green substance leaked onto the floor. Immediately, she stepped back. It seemed almost like acid as it spread slowly, eroding the floor.

"Doctor, you'd better come look!"

She wondered if he'd found anything in the bedroom, because obviously something was not right here. She also wondered if the green substance was about to be the least of their problems.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The least of their problems indeed. The Doctor's eyes widened as he opened the door to the bedroom. The source of the distress signal, a small mechanical device, attached to what appeared to be a timed device. What it did, the Doctor didn't know. 2:20, it blinked at him. 2:19. 2:18

He darted from the room to the kitchen.

"Eroding acidic mucuses...coupled with the device I just found in the bedroom...I'd say this wasn't a distress signal, but a trap."

The door to the hotel room slammed shut.

[not-on-her-own.livejournal.com]

Maria quickly started to back away from the substance, out of the kitchen. She turned to the Doctor, trying to keep the alarm from her eyes and voice as she heard the door slam shut.

"A trap?!"

She looked towards the bedroom, then back at the substance.

"Well, what--what are we going to do? We can't jump out, we're on one of the top floors! We can...wait, a device? Like a bomb? You can disable it, yeah?"

Oh, she might have known. Even a so-called holiday into the city wasn't free of danger. But somehow, like whenever she was with Sarah, she wasn't irrationally afraid. Still, it was hairier than she would have preferred. Especially if he couldn't disable the device.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"It's a gas-emitting time bomb," the Doctor said, "It'll fill these two rooms, kill us, and evaporate into nothing, looks like we just had a heart attack. I imagine then whoever is behind this will arrive, clean up any evidence to the contrary."

He darted towards the window, "As for disabling it, that will take more than two minutes, which happens to be what we've got until it goes off. Well, more like a minute thirty."

"There's a ledge outside the window, help me get it open. If we can get out for the next few minutes, we'll be safe!" He struggled with the lever, "They've sealed this, too!"

[not-on-her-own.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that worried her. A lot.

"Poison gas?! That's not--it's--"

Oh, bugger, she cursed in her head. There's really no time to talk about it out loud. When the Doctor had trouble with the lever, Maria quickly looked around the room, picking up a sturdy lamp and running back to the window.

"We could break it open!"

Of course, it wouldn't be the cleanest break, they'd likely get scraped up, but they'd be alive. And that was the important thing.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Excellent idea."

The Doctor took a step back from the window and peeked into the bedroom. :59. :58.

"Quickly, Maria!"

[sarahs-attic.livejournal.com]

OOC: I was going to take my cue from Maria and have her show up whenever you two were ready with Chinese takeout. ;-)

Pigning me when you're ready would be perfect. I've got other things I want to do tonight so if you aren't ready for Sarah until late tonight or later in the weekend that's fine with me.