[Meta] Open verse RP, anyone?

[his_sarah_jane]

[ooc: being stuck in doors is starting to grate on my nerves, especially on this lovely fourth of july day. so! if you feel like interacting with sarah jane smith, with any pup from any universe from any canon from ANYTHING really, i would love you forever. bored mun is bored and tired of being sick.]


On [noun], the glow of the [noun] seemed to sparkle rather than illuminate the [noun] in front of Sarah Jane. So far, the day had been relatively [adjective]. There had been little [-ing verb] to be done and little [noun] to [verb].

Still, Sarah couldn't help but decide that today was a very [adjective] day for [-ing verb]. A very [adjective], indeed.

Comments

[kingcreevey]

"Please to meet you! And, this direction!" Dennis looks around. "I think, because it went ka-pwing over the doo-dah and I had to come around to go through the gates, but I'm pretty sure it was heading this way, and it started over there--"

He points back the way he came.

"--so I reckon it went over there--"

He points in the opposite direction. There's a lake down the way, and some trees, and lots of people with pets. In the far distance an ice-cream truck warbles an approximation of Greensleeves.

"--unless it doubled back, then it could be anywhere! It would head towards words though! Like, um, stuff? That you read?"

[his-sarah-jane.livejournal.com]

"Books!"

Wasn't there a Waterstones somewhere near the park? Oh, bloody hell. It would be heading out towards the general public then and cause absolute havoc in downtown London. Sarah placed a hand to her head and sighed.

Where was the Doctor when you needed him? Regardless, Sarah Jane grabbed Dennis' hand and began to walk in the direction of the bookstore.

"Oh, this may sound kind of daft, Dennis, but you haven't seen a man in a long scarf around here, have you? I've seemed to have lost him and... well, if anyone would be of help in catching this word-stealer, it would be him."

[kingcreevey]

"I know a man who used to be a man who wore a long scarf a lot," Dennis muses, hurrying to keep up with her, "but I haven't seen him for hours, and it's probably not the same man anyway! Isn't it a bit warm for a scarf today?"

[his-sarah-jane.livejournal.com]

She slows down every so much, realising that it might be important to keep on the lookout for the creature.

It might not have gotten to the bookstore yet.

"Not for him. He'd wear it in the middle of the Sahara, really. Trust me, I've seen it." And, despite the urgency of the situation, Sarah Jane had to smile at that.

[kingcreevey]

"It would keep the sand out of your face!" Dennis has a sudden thought. "Perhaps you can't remember where he is because the thing got at you too!"

There seems to be some sort of argument going on outside Waterstones between a large woman in bright colours with a camera hanging around her neck and a small Indian man in a black cab.

[his-sarah-jane.livejournal.com]

"But I don't think I've forgotten any words," Sarah Jane muses as they wander out of the park and on to the street. "Nor do I remember..."

It's the argument that cuts her short. She nudges Dennis' shoulder, pointing towards it. "That creature of yours. It doesn't cause rows too, does it?"

[kingcreevey]

"I don't think so? Let's ask!" Dennis bounds towards the arguing people. "Hello!"

"Hey, y'all," says the woman in a broad American accent. "Y'all don't know the thing do you? Big, goes bong, very famous? Tall thing, people look at it."

"You're a nutter," says the Taxi driver. "'ere, mate, she's a nutter. Calls me over, dun't even know where she's flippin going!"

"I do," the woman complains, "I've lost my guidebook and I just can't remember what the damn thing's called."

"AH-HAH!" exclaims Dennis. They both stare at him. "Never mind!" To Sarah he adds, "it must be around here somewhere!"

[his-sarah-jane.livejournal.com]

As a general rule, Sarah Jane had never been fond of children. Yet, there was something about Dennis' enthusiasm that seemed to rub off on her.

So she couldn't help but laugh when the American and taxi driver looked at him in confusion.

"Big Ben," she said quickly. "She'd like to go to Big Ben."

That was that. Hopefully the woman would get her words back at some point. Until then, didn't they have more pertinent issues at hand?

"In the bookstore, perhaps? Would it venture to--"

A scream from inside the store interrupted Sarah mid-sentence. Well, that answered that.

[kingcreevey]

"A scream!" Dennis announces, rather pointlessly. He points with his wand. "To the store!"

He charges into Waterstone, almost colliding with customers coming out the other way. There's a weedy looking, white-faced teenager in a clerk's uniform and a 'Ask me about our 10% off offer!' precariously balanced on a pile of books on the desk.

"It was a- a- a- a-" The clerk stammers. "I don't know what it was! But it was one, and a big one at that!"

"Actually, I think it's pretty average for the species," Dennis said, "although it's hard to tell from pictures in -- I mean, which way did it go?"

There's a startled cry in the stacks and he bounds in that direction without waiting for an answer, calling back, "Come on, Sarah Jane!"

[his-sarah-jane.livejournal.com]

Sarah Jane blinks at the stick in his hand. Where had that come from? More to the point, what was that?

But there's little time to ask any questions of Dennis. This boy is just about as difficult to keep up with as the Doctor. She shrugs, apologetic grin written all over her face, and runs after him towards the stacks.

Biographies, it seems - a good place for a word devouring monster given the thick volumes on people's lives. A young woman, university aged and wearing thick glasses, stares at the duo in shock.

"I... I thought no... what's it then... oh, those things people have! On... on... on strings! Not allowed." She points down at a messy pile of papers and books in shock. "My books! It'll take forever to... to, oh... to straighten up!"

Sarah Jane grins at Dennis. Enthusiasm really was catching. "Looks like we're getting warmer."

[kingcreevey]

"Yo-yos come on strings!" Dennis suggests helpfully. The woman just stares at him. "I guess that wasn't it, then! Lumos," he adds to his wand, which begins to glow. Pressing a finger to his lips, he tiptoes into the deeper gloom between the stacks.

[his-sarah-jane.livejournal.com]

Sarah Jane looked at the end of glowing stick, confusion on her face. The sonic screwdriver certainly never did anything like that.

"How'd you do that," she hissed, staring at him. "That doesn't look like any torch I've ever seen."

[kingcreevey]

"...well, it's certainly not magic, if that's what you were thinking," Dennis says in a shifty sort of way, "because magic doesn't exist, and if it did exist, there would be an International Statute of Secrecy against telling you about it, hypothetically speaking!"

To be honest, Dennis and being quiet don't really go together all that well.

[his-sarah-jane.livejournal.com]

"In other words," Sarah's journalistic brain translates, "it is some sort of magic and there's quite possibly some sort of International Statue of Secrecy about telling me about it?"

She is on Earth, isn't she?

For a few moments, the thingamagig alien creature is forgotten as she stares at him. Magic? Honestly?

But then a loud CRASH! from a nearby aisle makes her jump. She beams brightly at Dennis. "That way, I think!"

[kingcreevey]

"Quick, I'll nip around the other end to head it off! You cover this exit!"

Without waiting for acknowledgement, Dennis charges off, lit wand leaving trails in the air. Hurtling around the corner, he grabs the bookshelf for balance and half swings, half falls into the aisle, wand waving wildly. Fuzz! Attack!

"Impod-- No, impeda-- Impidom-- Bugger!" he cries. "I've forgotten the spell! Grab it!"

And he dives.

[his-sarah-jane.livejournal.com]

The creature comes running towards Sarah, looking as every bit like a strange cat or rabbit as she expected. In many ways, it seems mostly harmless. But she's had enough experience with the Doctor to know otherwise.

Almost as if in slow motion, she watches Dennis dive. The creature keeps running, squealing in fright at the sudden attack. Sarah bites her lip for a moment, considering what to do.

In the end, the choice isn't very hard. It's very much like a game of football, except the ball is alive rather than kicked. All she has to do is stop it from entering the goal, or in this case, charging past her.

She dives as well, managing to grab pieces of white-pink fur as she tackles the creature on the ground.

[kingcreevey]

The problem with momentum is that is, unfortunately, conserved. Dennis's spectacularly miscalculated dive -- there's a reason he never made it onto any of the school sports teams -- fails to miraculously stop at the point at which he knows he's missed and, in due accordance with physics, continues until he bounces off the shelves and crashes into Sarah Jane in an unwieldy tangle of limbs and falling books.

"Did we get it?" He manages to gasp out from somewhere in the mess. "Did we get it?"

[his-sarah-jane.livejournal.com]

After she untangles herself from a mess of limbs and books, Sarah holds up her hands. In it are two puffs of... of... of...

"Got away," she answers with frustration. "I just have... this fluffy stuff. The... the... oh no! My thingamajigs are gone too now!"

[kingcreevey]

"Oh no! That's not good! Okay! Okay! Don't panic! Um!"

He looks around desperately. There's no sign of the -- well, it sort of looks like a small white-pink fuzzy bear-dog-rabbit-cat thing with antennae, but that takes too long to say, so let's go with wordvore.

"Hang on," says Dennis thoughtfully, "if it heads towards words and it eats words, then what we need is lots of words for bait, and, also we need to get our words back, so, where do people go when they can't quite remember what a word means?"

[his-sarah-jane.livejournal.com]

"Reference aisle!" Sarah exclaims with a gasp.

She scrambles from the floor to hurry over to the Waterstone's floor plan, pulling Dennis along with her. Her fingers trace the various floors and sections. "Can't remember what they are, but they'll be in the reference aisle."

[kingcreevey]

"Of course! Oxfords!" cries Dennis, then frowns. "No, wait, that's not it, but it's something like -- look, there! It's just around the doodads!"

He sprints off in that direction and slides to an arm-waving stop a hairs-breadth from face-planting in the Encyclopedia Britannica. He looks along the shelf before darting across the aisle to snatch up a big red book triumphantly and wave it at Sarah Jane, beaming ear to ear.

"The Oxford English Dictionary!"

[his-sarah-jane.livejournal.com]

When she catches up to him, Dennis is already waving the book around wildly. She smiles back brightly at him and nods.

"Now a place to set the trap! Above, in the wash place! Thingy... oh, no way out!"

[kingcreevey]

"Ooh! That's a good idea!" Dennis nods enthusiastically. "I wouldn't have thought of that!"

[his-sarah-jane.livejournal.com]

"Upstairs!" Sarah points the stairwell before grabbing her own share of dictionaries. "With lots of... things."

[kingcreevey]

Dennis nods and, grabbing up a copy of Chambers, Websters, Collins, Uxbridge and Longman's dictionaries as well, staggers towards and then up the stairs behind a precariously balanced pile of books. He wobbles on the landing, ricochets off the side, stumbles up the next flight and comes to a halt against another wall that by a lucky coincidence has another floor plan on it.

"It's that door down there!" he announces, bumbling in that direction and attempting to open said door with knees on account of having no hands free. "Hang on, I think I've got it!"