Gathering: Halloween Gala

[concierge]

A large, decorative sign situated prominantly in the lobby reads:

The Nexus Hotel
proudly presents its
ANNUAL HALLOWEEN GALA

Formal Reception
Nexus Dining Hall
6 PM - Midnight

Monster Mixer
Nexus Basement
8 PM - 2 AM

Masquerade attire recommended for all guests

Most of the chairs have been removed from the Dining Hall to allow for ballroom-style dancing to the orchestra set up on the far end of the room. A polished cherry wood open bar is aligned along one wall. The adjacent Bistro is open for the duration of the formal reception, serving gourmet hors d'oeuvres.

Downstairs, the basement's largest storeroom has been converted into a spooky nightclub, complete with DJ, dance floor and cocktails.

Comments

[themadmanwithabox]

While the Doctor had perused a multitude of impossibly vast costume options in the TARDIS' wardrobe and while his fez had called out to him with that intoxicating siren's song, there had been one outfit in the depths of the TARDIS that he'd pulled out with no lack of fondness brimming over as he ran his fingers over the spotted cravat and the worn weathered kilt before tugging them out.

Jamie McCrimmon might not remember him, but he remembers Jamie.

And tonight, the Doctor is honouring his dearest Highlander by wearing the clothes that he had left and the cravat is as cool as you get.

[legendthatwas]

"Doctor. I have never seen a hairier sporran in my life." This was true, though Martha hadn't really been around that many kilts all that much, or in Scotland all that much. She was resisting the urge to ask him if he was properly dressed underneath, but the thought still made her blush--different Doctor or not.

[themadmanwithabox]

"Och, aye," he responds, with vim and vigor, a fond smile on his face. "It's a tribute to Jamie McCrimmon that he left me such an authentic costume, though I do hope the TARDIS thought to wash it once or twice over the years. Honestly, nine regenerations and you do hope the wardrobe goes through the wash once or twice in that time." He gestures to her with a point, a big grin on his face. "And look at you, properly catted up!"

[legendthatwas]

"Yeah, don't do that accent again," said Martha, wincing a little. "From what I know of Ross, the aide at work in Oncology, he'd be liable to take offense, if he were here." Also, she wasn't sure you'd wash a kilt. More like dry clean, because wool, but hey, if the Doctor wanted a shrunken wee skirt...

The thought made her smile, and her cheeks heated at the compliment. "I'm just getting by. Mutants walk among us, you know. Did Jamie always wear a kilt, then?"

Ross from Oncology only wore scrubs, as far as she knew. And jeans.

[themadmanwithabox]

"Then lucky for us that Ross isn't here," says the Doctor and he is glad, at that, because really, he doesn't need the trouble with a Scottish aide in Oncology, "Or Jamie. I'm fairly sure that if Jamie could remember me, he'd have a word or two with me about his culture and how I'm misappropriating it, but honestly," he says, scratching the side of his nose, "I think I'm giving a good deal of respect to Jamie and the Scottish people."

He gives the kilt a bit of a flick. "Ross from Oncology probably wouldn't enjoy this, would he? Is there anything I can do to help Ross from Oncology like it better?"

[legendthatwas]

Martha's brow furrowed a little at 'if Jamie could remember me', but she knew far better than to ask. Even her version of the Doctor had to be in a certain frame of mind to answer those questions, and she didn't know this one's moods well as yet.

"I'd just ditch any attempt at the accent, Doctor," she said, reassuringly. "You do look rather dashing, though, except for the small animal attached to your front."

[themadmanwithabox]

"Would it help if I gave the very small animal at my front a name?" he asks, in all seriousness, giving the little thing a bit of a pat before he realises how awkward that likely looks and raises both hands in the air like it's a stick-up, giving Martha a frozen look of bewildered and joyful fear. "Or not," he quickly says. "Have you had any punch? Is it yummers? Should I try some?"

[legendthatwas]

Martha was rather surprised at how quickly the Doctor realised that patting the sporran and giving it a name was possibly a bad idea. Quicker on the draw, this one, it seemed. "I've not had any punch," she said, because he'd answered his own first question. "I sort of avoid it at Halloween parties because it tends to be...not punch colour."

Not punch colour meaning green or something. Martha tended not to drink things that were green, as a rule, not even those smoothies that were supposedly good for you.

[themadmanwithabox]

"Being not-punch-colour is the best part!" the Doctor replies, affronted at the implication that somehow neon green anything would taste bad. Or neon purple, the Doctor loved a good neon purple punch and ooh, the more said about neon orange, the better. "Once, the native aliens of the planet I was visiting spiked the punch with a mild hallucinogen and I went home with a corner plant thinking it was their leader's mistress," he explains. "Suffice to say, we were married and annulled within the day."

[legendthatwas]

"Bright orange is fine," said Martha, who was a child of the early 1990s and therefore perfectly okay with the eponymous and ubiquitous Orange Drink (not squash, that would be elevating Orange Drink too far). "But not green. Or purple. Or spiked with alien roofies, Doctor, really?!"

She stared at him, though it was clear she was trying not to laugh.

[themadmanwithabox]

"We were all young once," he tries to wave it away with a twirl of his hand and the expectation that everyone has done wild things in their youth that they're not particularly proud of. It's hardly the Doctor's fault that his youth happens to stretch for so long of a period. "And at the end of the day, we remained friends, so it's a happy ending! You see, and you never know when you need a friend to convert carbon dioxide to oxygen for you and I've got someone tucked away in the likely event."

[legendthatwas]

Holding up her hand, Martha tried to call a timeout. "Wait, am I hearing this right? You keep your ex-spouse plant hanging out in the TARDIS...the one you married when you got stoned on brightly coloured punch?"

Also, the Doctor being properly young was next to impossible to imagine.

[themadmanwithabox]

"Sometimes, I visit," he defends himself, but the truth is that he doesn't like to leave things behind if he can't help it and he's been truly awful at leaving people behind a great deal of the time and once in a while, he vows to be better. He's ashamed to admit that it doesn't always last. "You can visit sometime if you like, it loves a good visit."

[legendthatwas]

"What, did you ruin the plant's reputation and therefore...it couldn't remain among their people, and had to come with you?" Martha was digging for the most Doctor-like explanation here, because Occam had never seemed to have had a bloody shave when it came down to him. "Doctor!"

[themadmanwithabox]

"I haven't ruined anyone's reputations via marriage!" he protests, but he does have to pause to think about it for just a moment, one troublesome moment in which he actually tallies all his previous marriages (intended or accidental). "At least, within my memory of them," he adds for good measure, just in case he has. "And not through marriage, at least."

[legendthatwas]

Martha crossed her arms over her chest, giving him the I don't know if I'm buying this tale, mister expression she was so good at. "But you just took the plant ex-spouse along for the hell of it."

[themadmanwithabox]

The Doctor opens his mouth, closes it, and then opens it again, all the while processing the best response that won't get him smacked or glared at or glowered at, he does hate the glowering. "She gives me oxygen, I water her, it's a mutually beneficial divorce."

[legendthatwas]

Martha did not glower, she merely looked sceptical as hell. Which was pretty classic Martha Jones, and the Doctor really should have anticipated as such. "I thought you didn't need that much oxygen," she said, and by now she was just teasing the hell out of him.

[themadmanwithabox]

"The next time I get an oxygen-breathing companion, I'll be sure to let them know your opinion on my caring for the environment," he retorts with too much pomp and circumstance, which is the sign he's teasing right back.

[legendthatwas]

Martha considered making a teasing comment about how he picked up those like ordinary people picked up the Metro on the Tube, but decided, before she said it, that it was too cruel. "I'm sure they won't mind when they hear about your appalling treatment of your plant spouse," she said instead, with a wink and a clear silly drawl on appalling that made it clear she wasn't appalled at all.