chess on ice

[tobearwitness]

Ichabod has always been plagued with an insatiable curiosity and in his quest to return to Sleepy Hollow as quickly as possible, he has often stumbled through doorways that lead to fantastic places. He tends to stick to the hotel as much as possible in the vain hopes that somehow Lieutenant Mills will find a way to contact him on his new mobile telephone (no such luck) but today he has taken a chance on a door that seems to have an excessive amount of cheering followed by periods of intense silence.

Beyond the door lies something he has not seen since his last trip to Scotland some years ago. There are two teams of men in brightly-colored garb calling plays and sweeping furiously as a granite stone whirls down the ice. It's a game of Scottish extraction called curling, one that he had been graciously allowed to play once among a group in Kilsyth long ago. It's always been an elegant game to him, full of strategy and tedium, and it seems he's wandered out near the players bench instead of into the stands with the adoring public.

There's another team there, one set to play after this current match is done and judging from their uniforms and accents, they seem to be American, possibly. It seems so strange that the Americans would be playing a Scottish game but who is he to judge? He, too, has chosen America as his country of residence so perhaps it isn't so strange as it might seem on the surface.

"You're the third," the captain tells him and Ichabod racks his brain for the rules of this particular game. He thinks he has a handle on it from that game so long ago but hopefully modern conventions haven't changed this one overly much; he isn't sure what could be complicated about something so simple and elegant as curling but the modern world has a tendency to confuse even the simplest of things.

"Right, yes. The vice-skip, then?" he asks, looking for clarification. Somehow, some way, he's become a member of the American curling team. May God have mercy.

[Either play with Ichabod or join him after the game while he's still decked out in Team USA gear.]

The course of true love never did run smooth.

[themadgirl]

BACKSTORY | PANEM

For Finnick and Annie, there have always been obstacles to happiness.

001 | 002 | 003 | 004 | 005 | 006
ALL COMPLETE | HOVER FOR RATINGS AND WARNINGS

no subject

[assistingconsultant]

She'd decided to go with Caesar's Palace. It did have a nightclub in it, but Joan had decided to start with a bit of gambling before she started dancing. She'd gone to Las Vegas twice before, the first time with several other med students, for an exciting break from her studies. She had graduated with top honours, which meant she had lived a life that had no end to stress and pressure, and Vegas remained a shining blur to her memory. The second time she'd gone was for a doctor's conference, and it had been a relatively uneventful trip. She thought she'd grown out of wanting to go back, but the door within the Nexus was just so tempting she knew she couldn't resist its siren call.

"Have you ever gambled before?" Joan asked Ruby. They had picked an adequately flashy slot machine. They'd come through the door together - it had opened out at the end of a corridor in the hotel - but Joan knew that her, and the rest of the residents who had decided to come, were just as likely to disappear as stick around. Still, it was a girl's night in that Joan was insistent that if they arrived together, they would leave together. Vegas could be dangerous, some of the Nexus residents didn't even come from the same world - Joan wasn't even sure if this was the same Vegas she herself had been to or not - and safety first, as always. If she was going to convince people to step through she would at least keep alert enough to make sure everyone got back. Hence, they were to meet at the door again in six hours. Until then, free reign, and Joan would try not to worry.

She liked Ruby, who was younger than her, and had that sort of cheerful brightness that was infectious. Joan was around a lot of people who only saw the darker side of life, and it was refreshing to be with an optimist for a change.

[Joan will have sent a little message to everyone who was interested to meet at the Vegas door at 8PM, with a note that they will all return together to the Nexus at 2AM unless anyone makes other arrangements. She also left a notice at the front desk for anyone else interested. Feel free to tag Joan in the casino, Joan and Ruby, or start your own little threads anywhere else in Vegas. Obvs a gathering post for the ladies, anyone who identifies as a lady, or anyone who wants to pick a lady up! <3]

Once we're gone, you won't be coming back here for a while

[themadmanwithabox]

There's a doorway to New York City standing before the Doctor.

It's a recognizable sight that anyone would know from the gleaming lights of the skyline in the background and the Empire State Building in the glory of its construction looms above it all, though the Doctor can't move his eyes. He knows this city and he knows the year. He knows that this is New York City in the 1930's and he knows that Amy and Rory are there. If he walks through that door, he will see them again. Even this hotel with its infinite possibilities and all its doors can't bring him back to them.

He can walk through that door, but there's one large problem standing in his way.

"Don't move," he says to whomever has come up next to him. He can feel their presence with the breath in his general area, he can tell that he isn't alone given the way the hairs on his arms have begun to stand up on end. The Doctor stares before him, but avoids looking at the eyes because he's been in this situation before and he knows what looking in its eyes will do. "Don't blink," he breathes out.

He has to close this door. He has to close this door and leave the possibility of Amy and Rory behind. It's far too dangerous. There's no telling if he could even get back if he managed to get past the Weeping Angel, who guards the door, only offering the scantest bit of space to move past. If he gets past that Weeping Angel guarding New York City, he can find them and he can...he can, do what? He can warn them? He can try and tell them to get out of that graveyard before Rory looks at the gravestone?

Time can be rewritten, Amy's voice whispers in his mind with all its temptations and all its promises. I know it can. Can he do that? Can he walk through this door and risk unleashing a lethal enemy on the hotel behind him? All for the sake of companions he had thought lost. High upon a cloud, he had mourned them until a remnant of the future past had brought him down, but now he's faced with something far more difficult.

He can get them back.

But people will likely die in the process. If he goes through that door, that Weeping Angel will come in and it won't stop. He doesn't blink, not for a moment, but his vision clouds as he stares at the creature that had taken them away from him, at the monster who stands between them. What does he do? What does the Doctor do?