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Tweak says, "stay the course, Jess"

Jareth (goblin_king) wrote in labyrinth_rpg,
@ 2009-03-22 20:29:00

Entry tags:

armand, arrival, caspian, cathal, cimorene, claudia, complete, day four, edward cullen, faith lehane, gabrielle, giselle, hermione granger, ianto jones, jack harkness, jareth, juniper golding, legolas greenleaf, mercy thompson, ned the piemaker, nymphadora tonks, olive snook, pandora, robin of locksley, rose tyler, sarah williams, schuldig, severus snape, tara maclay, the doctor, willow rosenberg, xena, yaten kou, yuna

Who: Jareth and everyone!
When: Day Four, evening
What: The King 'invites' everyone to his masque...
Where: Jareth's castle
Rating: Anywhere from G to R, I suppose
Status: Complete

It had been raining earlier in the day, but it had cleared up a short time ago. Jareth looked out the window of his massive ballroom, empty for now, and felt a little bit disoriented by the fact that the Labyrinth had just disappeared. Of course, he'd made it happen, but it had been a long time since he'd felt so exposed. But he couldn't very well have people needing to wander through the Labyrinth, could he? And the two who had been running it had been transported to the castle already, and he knew from the screams of rage that they were being dressed at this very moment.

The king smiled and turned away from the window, checking out his ballroom. It was quite spectacular, with a large orchestra pit, many snack tables, and, of course, lots of empty space for dancing. This, he figured, would be a night to remember. He snapped his fingers and peered into the crystal that appeared there, scrying on each and every person he'd brought to the Underground. Some, he knew wouldn't come on their own, and he sent crystals floating out to ensare them. Of course, some might just be strong enough to resist that pull, so he had goblins standing by to bring others in. Whether willing or not, everyone would be attending, he'd seen to that.

Dressed in his finery, with an evil looking mask in the guise of a leering demon, he walked over to his throne. Draping himself casually over it, he waited. People would be arriving anytime, now. He didn't fool himself for a moment that some wouldn't take this chance to attack him, which was why he wasn't precisely there. Anyone who tried to attack him, he knew, would find their useless effort wasted against what was no more than a projected image.

He gestured, and a goblin slave brought him a glass of wine. This, he was convinced, was going to be a night to remember.

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ex_notethest397
2009-03-24 09:14 am UTC (link)

Part of Jack was looking forward to this Masquerade ball. Why wouldn't he? Dashing men and beautiful women of the realm, dressed in finery and wearing masques. Of course he was going to be looking forward to this. Hell, even when the costume arrived, Jack was damn near giddy when he saw it. Tight leather trousers that, when put on, fit like a second skin and a frilly shirt that looked more at home in eighteenth century France then the medieval period. Once more, Jack had the impression that this Jareth bloke needed to brush up on his time periods just a bit more.

Toying with the black and gold edge masque, Jack laid on the bed, one leg crossed over the other, left foot bouncing in the air. Just because he was looking forward to the ball didn't mean that he was going to go willingly. Because this self-proclaimed king said it was mandatory. Jack's ego was just large enough that he'd make Jareth come and get him.

That was when the crystal appeared. Jack had had far too much experience with things appearing out of thin air, and yet he stupidly reached out a hand to touch it. And found himself moments later in the ballroom, surrounded by the aforementioned beautiful men and women. Chuckling to himself and slipping the masque on, tying the ribbon behind his head, Jack made his way through the throng of people, hoping he'd run into friends.

And, perhaps, make a few new ones while he was at it.

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ittybitty
2009-03-24 08:35 pm UTC (link)

At this very moment, Olive Snook was cleaning the counter at the Pie Hole. It was closed and Ned and Chuck were gone. Emerson was nowhere to be found, but Pigby and Digby were both lying on the floor that had just been waxed. The chairs were upturned and lying on the tables, the lights were down and she was feeling a little lonely. She sighed, leaning on one elbow on the counter that was just a little too tall for her.

She opened her mouth to sing a sad lonely song when the Pie Hole blurred around her and she felt herself falling, falling, falling. When she thought she at least ought to have hit the bottom of whatever hole she'd fallen into, she just continued to fall. But moments later, she found herself upright on her feet though dressed in something completely different than her waitress uniform. She looked down at the fancy blue dres and then realized there was a mask on her face. Reaching up to touch it, she glanced around in confusion, but saw that everyone else in the crowded ballroom also wore fancy clothes and masks.

Digby brushed her skirts and Pigby snorted. What a strange dream. When a man in tight leather pants and a frilly shirt and a black and gold mask walked in her direction she flagged him down, hopping up on her tippytoes. "Excuse me!" Her voice was high pitched and reminiscent of a little girl, but Olive Snook was thirty-two years old. "Hello. Hi. Can you tell me where I am?"

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ex_notethest397
2009-03-25 09:29 am UTC (link)

Well, one thing was for certain: when Jareth said everyone would be required to attend the masquerade, he certainly hadn't been joking. There were more people here than he'd seen in the last three days which either meant he hadn't seen everyone yet (possible) or more people had been brought here since he first arrived (even more possible). Jack craned his neck, looking for the Doctor to impart this new news to him.

What he saw instead was a girl flagging him down. Getting close enough, Jack quickly realised that it was no girl just an exceedingly short woman. "Hello and hi, yourself," Jack replied, arms crossing in front of his chest as he looked down at her. "At present, you're in a ball room but I'd assume that much would be evident by the dresses and fetchingly dressed men. So, I'll assume you mean here in general. That, lady, is anyone's guess. And the fact that I don't know where exactly we are either is quite a bone of contention."

Jack paused for a moment. He really needed to get out of this 'captain' mode one of these days. "I take it you're not from around these parts?"

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ittybitty
2009-03-25 10:07 am UTC (link)

No, she was no girl. Her bosom attested loudly enough to the contrary. She was, to her dismay, just short. She was pleased that she'd managed to grab the man's attention and when he stopped and looked down at her, seemed to settle in to talk to her, she beamed. "Yes, I gathered that." She was suddenly a bit taken by his accent and she wondered if she'd been transported from Lakeshore to England by chance. She looked acutely confused. "It's Olive. Not lady, thank you." She smiled, thin lipped and a little perturbed. Not with him, of course, just in general. Finding herself in the middle of a very strange dream was anything but ordinary, and she wished she would just wake up.

She pinched herself, just to see if it would hurt, because nothing really hurts in dreams. But it hurt. It hurt a lot. She frowned again and looked around before glancing back up at him when he asked a question. "Considering I don't know where "these parts" are, I can't rightly answer that, can I? But I don't think so. I am pretty sure I would recognize this place. And I don't. So now the question is, how did I get here. How did you get here?" Her blue eyes glanced back up at him again. But before he had time to answer, the floor shook beneath her feet.

A sound, so horrifying she actually ducked and covered her ears, echoed around the ballroom. She looked toward the commotion and found that a monster was rising out of the ground. She took one look at it and might have passed out if she'd been a little more faint of heart. She clutched at her aformentioned organ and dropped her jaw. "Oh, hell no." She could only see the top of the monster as it rose above the heads of the crowd, especially from her shorter vantage point, but it was enough. She watched Digby bolt for the doors to the balcony and called after him, "Traitor!" He burst through them and she caught a glimpse of... Ned? And with him was Chuck. Or so she thought.

Giving a sigh, she glanced up at Jack. "This dream is a doozy."

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ex_notethest397
2009-03-28 11:53 pm UTC (link)

And Jack had definitely looked his fill at her chest. Come on, he was a man and he was, certainly, going to look when a pretty young woman stepped in front of him. Hell, he was Jack Harkness. He'd check out a ficus tree if he thought he'd have a chance with it. "Olive?" Jack asked lifting a brow. "Well, Olive it is then." He held out a hand, giving her one of his infamous dazzling smiles. "Captain Jack Harkness at your service."

He spread his arms wide. "I can't exactly tell you where we are as none of us are quite sure. One moment I was in Cardiff, the next here." Jack frowned. "Well, not here specifically. We were in a different area but it's all been the same essential place." Jack chuckled, looking down at Olive. "Which, I know is not much help. All we know is we were brought here by a man who fancies himself a King and told there was a Labyrinth that we could solve. That... is about it."

Jack heard the sound at about the same moment, head flicking up and looking at the monster. He flipped his wrist strap open, poking at a few buttons and growling when it didn't yield any information. He'd never seen this thing before and for a man of his knowledge, that was saying something. His wrist strap had no readings and, while Jack wanted to rush over and take care of things, he didn't have his Webley.

"A dream?" Jack asked, tearing his attention away from the beast. "Sorry to say, love, but this is no dream. Welcome to the strangest reality you or I have ever seen. I've seen the end of the Universe and this? This is unbelievable."

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ittybitty
2009-03-30 07:06 pm UTC (link)

Well. The dazzling smile would have taken her in even if the accent hadn't already. She smiled right back at him and let her eyes travel from his knees back up to his face. She held her hand out to him, meeting his own outstretched hand. "Pleasure to meet you, Captain Jack. What is it you're a captain of?" When he dropped her hand to spread his arms wide she clasped both of her hands in front of her.

"Cardiff... that's uh, Wales, right?" She nodded, brow furrowed in thought as he went on to explain that all the others in the room had also been brought here without much explanation. "Where is this King? I think I might give him a piece of my mind. Hold up, did you say a labyrinth? Why would we want to go get lost in a labyrinth?"

A brow arched up as Jack began messing with a strap around his wrist. He was poking at it like it was some sort of micro-mini computer or something rather than what appeared to be a very sophisticated watch. Although Olive found this behavior strange, she didn't comment and soon enough the monster was gone and business as usual resumed in the ballroom.

Olive scowled when Jack dashed her hopes that this was a dream. She was beginning to think he was right, but she just couldn't believe that something this fanciful and strange could be real. She then did a double-take when she heard him mention the end of the Universe. "Want to run that by me again? The end of the Universe?" Her voice ended in a bit of a squeak and she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. The end of the Universe and she still held a regret that Ned had never looked at her the way he looked at Chuck.

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ex_notethest397
2009-04-04 10:31 pm UTC (link)

Shaking Olive's hand, Jack held on a little longer than strictly necessary, the smile growing brighter by the moment. He had a talent in that department, that was for damn sure, and one Jack didn't mind turning up when faced with such a pretty partner. "Captain of the Royal Air Force, 133rd squadron," he lied easily. Then again, could have said Torchwood -- not like there was any need to keep a secret organisation secret around here.

"It is in fact in Wales. Beautiful city, really, if not as popular as, say, London." Jack shrugged. He knew folks who wouldn't give Cardiff the time of day but over the course of a century he had come to love the city and its people. Mostly the people. "Haven't seen the King since our first day," Jack replied. "Trust me, I'm sure there's a lot of folks around here who wouldn't mind chatting him up either that's for certain. I'm one of them."

Before the wrist strap could take any sort of decent reading, the creature was gone. Jack frowned, snapping the Manipulator closed and shook his head ever so slightly. Apparently he still was going to run into these strange creatures wherever he went. NOt that he was surprised, mind, but Jack was hoping this place would be a bit calmer. Apparently not.

He didn't mean to dash her hopes so completely, but there was also nothing he could do about this reality they had all found themselves in. Worst thing in the world would be to pretend that everything was fine and dandy. "Yes, the end of the Universe," Jack said, a hint of a smile playing about his lips. "Not exactly the greatest place in the world. Or Universe if that's a better expression." Jack gave her a wink. "I've travelled around a bit."

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ittybitty
2009-04-05 12:26 am UTC (link)

If Olive was honest with herself, she would have admitted that she really didn't mind the handsome man holding onto her hand for an unnecessary amount of time. But, little Olive was too hung up on the piemaker to notice many other men, even though she tried. Jack, however, was doing a bang up job of making her take notice. His smile was damn near irresistible and she found her knees melting just a little. She giggled a little nervously and had to look away from the dazzling smile or risk melting into a complete Olive puddle right there in the middle of the ballroom. She looked at her feet and nodded, composing herself. "That's great. You enjoy being a captain, then?"

"One day I'll make it to Cardiff, maybe." She gave another look around the ballroom, though, and gulped. Maybe not. Especially if this wasn't a dream. Who knew if she would ever make it back home. Olive hopped up to see over the heads of people around her and found that there were some people in front of the king and appeared to be trying to talk to him. But Olive soon grew tired of imitating a pogo stick and decided to get her information from Jack. "Those two women getting anywhere with Kingy?"

"Hold on a tick. You mean to say that the end of the Universe is a place? Not actually like... the end of the universe?" Wow, that really made no sense when she said it out loud, but it made perfect sense in her mind. The smile was back on his lips and she had to look away or the jelly knees would return. She'd only just gotten them back to normal and didn't know how many times she would be able to repair them before she fell over. "Have you ever been to Lakeshore?"

She was fairly certain that he hadn't. Not that she knew everyone in Papen County or anything, but she was almost certain she would have remembered him if he'd walked into the Pie Hole. "Anyway, if you ever happen to be in Papen County you should stop by the Pie Hole and grab yourself a piece of pie. Best pie in the world, guaranteed."

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