In which Howard gets schooled....

"Here it is," Lavinia said. "This is what I was looking for."

"Bizarre Plants?" Howard, aka HP Lovecraft said, looking over her shoulder. He's looking for a more "appropriate" body, but we haven't found one yet.

"Yeah. Maddy was asking about something - Gum Axtraxicia, I think. Something like that."

"Where is she?" I said.

"She and her sister went somewhere - I know, not a lot of help, right."

"In that time machine thingy?"

"The TARDIS? No. I think they took Aura's little car."

"I hope they got back before it started raining." It's been raining on and off - and more on than off - since Friday morning. We need it pretty badly, though. Everything was turning brown.

"Just made it!" That was Maddy. "Hey everyone, meet Bowie. She's the middle sister of the bunch."

"Sister?" Howard said.

"Yes. There are five of us," Maddy replied. "Myself, Sigourney, Bowie here, Swan and Alcyone."

"But she's...." Howard started.

"What? Black?" Lavinia stood up. "Oh for the Goddess' sake, Howard, don't start with that crap!"

"But - sisters? When they're....."

"That doesn't have a ****ing thing to do with it!" Since I'm trying to keep this somewhat PG, I'll leave some of Lavinia's language to your imagination. "When are you going to come to your damn senses and realize that we're all human beings, huh? It doesn't matter what color you are. I can't believe I even have to explain this to you. This is the twenty-first century."

"In our case, all Gallifreyians," Bowie said. "From the House of Jade Dreamers."

"We're sisters. We're all from the same genetic loom," Maddy added.

"Loom?"

"Our people lost the ability to bear children years ago. There hasn't been a womb-born child on Gallifrey for thousands of years now," Bowie said,

"And we're all the daughters of Cassilda, so shut up or else," Maddy added.

He seemed rather taken aback, but didn't say anything else about it. I think he has a lot to learn.....

Bonus pic - Maddy, me and Bowie.



















~*~
Note: HP Lovecraft's racism is pretty well-documented. I could only imagine what he'd make of Maddy and her sisters being such varied skin tones. And I can imagine Maddy ripping him a new one the instant he said anything ugly about them.

The reason I picked the four I did is because of the resemblance - and the fact that they were the ones of my crew who either didn't have backstories or didn't have well-defined ones. I think they look quite lovely together.

Bowie is a tan PKF Luna, BTW.

In which - Dalek!

"We should sit on the lawn. It's probably cooler," Paisley said.

"No way." Aura looked over her shoulder. "That bloody dog next door is out again. And he doesn't know to stay on his own side."

It sounded like a party next door - I don't think barbecue, since I couldn't smell anything barbecuing.

"Pardon me, ladies - has anyone seen Maddy?"

"You mean your Maddy, right?" I don't think he and my person have met yet.

"Of course. She said something about..."








"We're back!"

I don't know if it's that a Gallifreyian accent sounds British, or a British accent sounds Gallifreyian. And I seem to remember Fawn telling me about someone else who had a pet fox.

And what the heck....

"Everyone, this is the Eternal Dalek...." Maddy started, but the Doctor cut her off.

"Maddy, what are you doing? Don't bring one of those things here!"

"Doctor, stop! I'll have you know that he's my friend."

"You can't make friends with a Dalek..."

"I did with this one. If it weren't for him, we would never have gotten off of Cassinus."

"The other Daleks abandoned me. I was of no use to them," the yellow - whatever - said in a grating electronic voice.

"Really?" The Doctor looked at it - him, whatever.

"I had been captured by the Mogul. He sent me to exterminate Maddy when her TARDIS crashed on Cassinus. But she promised to rescue me instead. I had no other choice." The Dalek lowered its eyestalk a bit. "I discovered that she was my friend.


"He rescued LaMarr and got her back to the TARDIS. She was the one who knew how to evade the Mogul's defenses. I wouldn't have gotten off Cassinus without her - or him."

The Doctor's eyes went even wider. "You escaped his Time Lock Beam?"

She nodded. "LaMarr knew how it worked. It locks onto your dematerialization frequency and overrides it. But if you randomly hop between frequencies, it can't lock on, and you can escape."

"I didn't think you could do that."

"You can. You aren't supposed to, but you can."

"I'm just glad you're all right, old girl. We're the only ones left."





















"She hasn't told him?" Paisley said.

"Not yet," The Dalek replied. "I don't think she can yet. She said something about a fixed point in time."

I hope she decides to tell me, though.

















Bonus pic: Maddy and Tonio, her pet fox.

In which we have a tea party.....

 It was a nice afternoon for a tea party....


Until..........

"Excuse me, have you seen a blue box around here?"

"A blue box?" I was a little confused.

"Yeah, blue, has a light on top, says "Police Call Box" on it..."

"Wait, do you mean...." John started, but was interrupted by a very peculiar wheezing, swooshing, grinding-type noise...

 "There! That!"

Why does nothing that happens around here surprise me any more?

"Excuse me - is this Zarvos?"

"No, it's Earth, Doctor," the stranger replied.

"Missy? What are you doing here?"

"The same thing you are, apparently..." As she spoke, the box vanished with the same noise, only to reappear nearby on level ground.

"You always pick the worst places to land."

"Maddy? I thought I said...."

"Yeah, yeah. Stay in the TARDIS until we know it's safe. Which it is," she replied with an amused smile. "And it's also not Zarvos. It's Earth."

"And Missy? What are you doing here?"

"The same thing you are, apparently."

"Not exactly. I'm not recruiting Cybermen," Maddy replied.

"Neither am I. Now. I'm on vacation. Can't a Time Lady go on vacation without having her motives questioned? Besides, aren't you the one who's friends with a Dalek?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Friends with a Dalek?" The Doctor looked at her, wide-eyed. "What else weren't you going to tell me, old girl?"

"Well, if I told you it would spoil the surprise, now, wouldn't it?" Maddy said.

"What's a Dalek?" I had to ask.

"Pepper pot type thing. Nasty. Full of hate," the Doctor said. "It's all they know how to do."

"Well, not all of them. You haven't met the Eternal." Maddy looked at him.

"Yeah, he's pretty cool for being a mutant in a tin can." The speaker was...

"Kilbey?" This somehow explained a few things.

"Indeed. And this is the Lady Madrigal Baker, from Gallifrey, and her friend the Doctor."

"We're Time Lords, all of us. Missy, too," Maddy explained.

"At one point I believed us to be the last of our kind," the Doctor said.

"Not really," Maddy said, then whispered to me, "Long story. I'll explain later."

"What are you doing here?" I said.

"Lost, as usual," Kilbey said.

"Kilbey, we're not lost. We're on Earth," Maddy scolded. "We're actually supposed to meet my sisters here." She took out her phone - or what I guessed was a phone, anyway.

"This is Sigourney. She's the oldest next to me."

"This is Bowie..."

"Is that a publicity still?" The Doctor looked over her shoulder.

"No. I took this one." She looked at me. "My sister's a singer. Or she was, anyway, back on Gallifrey. I wish they'd stop saying we Patrexians never do anything useful. Isn't making others happy useful?"

"I should think so," The Doctor said. "But you know how they are back there. Nothing but logic and reason."

"Yeah, well, I know where they can stick that," she said.

"And this is Swan...."

"I know her! Only I thought she was a deva...."

"She has a gift of communication. She's been posing as one," Maddy said.

"And this is my youngest sister, Alcyone."

"And I just realized you're a doll," the Doctor said, looking at me. "Which means, if we're the same size..."

"We'll have to talk to Swan," Maddy said. "That's what we're here for, remember?"

Well, that and tea.....

In which it's a party!

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