Professor D'jon-jon X!escati turns out to be a man in his forties (an in-between as Smoke might reckon him) with dark skin and dreadlocks, wearing a rumpled suit, tiny round spectacles and a bolo tie.  Smoke is likely horrified by his wubble-board -- it's a sliver-thin panel of some dark-grained wood, probably cut from some exotic alien tree and painstakingly worked by a team of historians with photographs and calipers, rather than being sensibly plucked out of a rubbish bin somewhere.

His wub-stepping is missing something, as well.  Although it's recognizable enough, the people at the little amphitheater where he's giving his presentation all fall silent as he's giving his presentation and when it's over, they clap politely.  At one point, he even stops, apologizes for "getting the lyrics wrong", and starts over.

He does seem to be genuinely interested in Smoke's wub-stepping, though, and directs a couple of the flying buzz-bots to record her as she's doing it.

In reply to The Traveller (msg # 477):

"I'll... come with you. You'll get yourself killed again if I'm not."

Stanley stops chewing on the alien food and listens to Tobey. "That... it feels like I've heard that before, though I don't know where... I guess it doesn't matter. I have to say that I am glad that the Calixi were able to share something with everyone."

Eyespying D'jon-jon's show-and-tell, Smoke wondered how he could possibly have made wubstep yawny. Inbetweens. Figuring to show-and-tell him how it was done, she launched into another song-and-dance, belting it out with greater fervour and mixing it up with a little skiphop, punctuating her words with serious wubbles.

'Blue Kangs, Blue Kangs, Blue Kangs are best!
Blue Kangs, Blue Kangs, better than the rest!'

It was getting to be a case of the duelling wubble-boards...

"You wouldn't have been the first to say that. Welcome aboard!"

She thinks - I must visit Sereth.  She finds herself missing the Draconian.

Watching Smoke Alarm's wubbling intently, D'jon-jon leaves off his own recitation, and, looking to Smoke for her permission first, joins in as a backing wubble.  He's not actually bad; it seems that he just had to get into the spirit of the thing.

The duo is attracting more attention from around the heretofore stodgy environs of the conservatory.  Smoke Alarm notices a girl maybe a little older than her, but no taller, with her hair done in tails of red and green and blue and yellow, watching the duo raptly.  She's carefully cradling some sort of double-necked violin as she stands observing, but her right leg is twitching to Smoke's rhythm.

Smoke cheered as D'jon-jon joined in and cut loose. Kang muzak wasn't for one girl to show-and-tell and everyone else to outlook and eyespy, no, it was for all together to make some noise. She waved to the girl of many colours with the fiddle-thingey, beckoning her on stage. 'Come out! Everyone make some noise and muzak!' Wub wub wub.

Trav slips up behind the girl. She waves to Smoke, and points down to the girl.  If Smoke gives a look of assent, she squats down and points to duo.  "Go ahead, join them!"

The girl beams and jumps up with Smoke Alarm and D'jon-jon.  She starts putting a tune around Smoke Alarm's song -- two tunes, really, switching back and forth on the halves of her instrument, which are pitched to very different ranges.

And all the time she's dancing, weaving around and between Smoke and D'jon-jon.  She's really astonishingly good, but she's not going out of her way to upstage Smoke's song, just to accent and embroider it.

The crowd is getting into it by this point, and they've risen to their feet.  Trav notices a large number of drone familiars are orbiting the stage at a distance as well..

Smoke Alarm was less gifted amateur and more over-enthusiastic beginner, belting out her wubbles, skiphop, and just wild shouting. It drew people in though, getting them hooked and getting them excited in the sheer icehot joy of it. She outlooked in amazement at the dancing girl of many colours with the double-bubble-fiddle, hopping and skipping and twirling and flipping, all the while making amazing sounds that made her heart dance. Smoke let her take centre-stage and lead the tune – Smoke was better at following the beat – while she danced around with her and along to her muzak with as much brilliant grace.

The violin girl, Phelba, played a brilliant and rousing cover of "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy", with Smoke Alarm and D'jon-jon providing wibbly-wobbly backing wubbles.


OOC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o43DBG3rGSw

All good wubbles must eventually come to their end.  Such it is with the collaborative effort of Smoke Alarm, D'jon-jon, and Phelba, but only after more than an hour has gone by and the stomping, hooting, clapping and dancing of the watchers has disintegrated from anything resembling a performance into a general party.

The Sixth Traveller, some ways into this, began to hecome alarmed that the wubble had in fact evolved into a memetic plague, but is relieved to realize (after careful scientific measurement and examination) that it has merely caused happy people.

Keeper Peltaven approaches her, after she is confident that the ruckus has been downgraded to a hullabaloo.

"About this 'Sairen the Previously Uncatchable'," he says.  "We've reclaimed the Map of Forever from him.  I'm not sure that I can make the true provenance of most of his other gear, but it looks like it's largely on the level of gadgets and gimcracks: nothing really hazardous, but certainly enough that the fellow could make a mischief.  The Chamber is willing to take custody of him -- I'm not insisting on it, but there's the chance that we could make a halfway responsible agent out of him.  What do you think?"
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 02:05, Tue 19 Sept 2017.

When Peltaven says "make a mischief" She laughs outloud, a bellyful, joyous laugh. Oh, the Corsair so loved to cause mischief, and dragged her 1st and 2nd self on any number of escapades.

And she bites her lip smiling fiercely when Peltaven says, halfway responsible agent. Being responsible for the Corsair aside from their own conscience is a fate worse then death. Beloved, you are the responsible, respectable one. I am just a gadabout thief.

The Chamber didn't need to know any of this, this was Time Lord business.

"Give him back his stuff, and leave him go. But I'll need to speak with him. Don't worry, if he causes trouble across time or space, I'll deal with him, just call for me. He steals for the challenge, not the greed, seems like."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:30, Tue 19 Sept 2017.

Having had what amounted to "a long day", or two long days separated by a short nap-time during Traveller's show-and-tell, Smoke Alarm was soon getting yawny tired. For a breather, she skipped away from the hullabaloo and skidded back to Traveller. 'Trav! Icehot! D'you think we made anough of a show-and-tell now?' she gasped.

After Peltaven was done, more seriously she asked 'Do you feel shapeship and sound now?' She was still rememorising to outlook for Traveller and make sure she was sound-and-safe after her big regeneration, but she hoped the scrapheaping and show-and-tell and all had helped her come to terms with her last selves. 'Do we need to outgo some place else next, mayhaps some place quiet-as-a-mouse?' she wondered, giving Traveller a path to choose.

"I have an appointment at the end of time, that I have up my blonde hair for, Smoke. It was a Christmas gift that the Corsair gave me. It lead me to Khestartes where I learned the cat dance. It's a trip I literally died to make."

Smoke grinned. 'I don't know what that means, but okay!'

"I'll show you back on Sweet Boy. It's family stuff. Before the war stuff. Love with all my hearts stuff."

Having had a taste of the local cuisine (Tobias made sure he didn't pick anything that was inedible for humans, but there were some dishes he wouldn't order again.), Stanley decides it is time to head back. He hasn't been here long enough to know his way around, so as usual he relies on Tobias for directions.

Enough time has passed, so that Smoke Alarm should be done with her lecture. Stanley shows up at the  small amphitheatre, quickly finding the others.

"So, how did it go?" Stanley asks with a smile. Tobias could look up the reviews on the internet, but why do that when you can just ask.

"I don't know, you tell me. Did I pass the Time Lord audition?" A soft smile.

"Time Lord audition? You are asking me if you passed the Time Lord audition? That's difficult to say. I need to think about it... It is true that the Habisphere is better off now that the mysterious cylinder has been properly dealt with and an uncatchable thief has been caught. You played an important role in that. You wanted to help people, you faced up to mistakes from your past. Maybe you were a bit too eager to sacrifice yourself to a psychic phenomenon I didn't fully understand, but that should get better over time. Yeah, you pa..."

Stanley stops mid-word and frowns.

"Wait... I almost forgot about those crash landings. No, that is definitely a fail, not a pass. Better luck next time."

Stanley smiles. "I am joking."

'What about me, did I?' Smoke Alarm bounced.

The familiar that has been doing its best to follow Smoke Alarm at an acceptable distance observes, tentatively, "Participatory demonstrations of novel ethnocultural experiences are typically characterized by a significant accrual of merit within the Habisphere socionet."

'Huh?' Smoke Alarm wondered, outlooking and still waring the flying cleaner. 'Are you still there?'

"Well, you didn't crash the TARDIS. That is definitely a point in your favour." Stanley replies.



Stanley looks at his own familiar. "They are very useful. I am not sure I'd want one hovering around me for the rest of my life, no offence Tobias, but for a short stay in an unfamiliar place like this, they are great. You can get directions and other information just by asking them."

"DOCTOR Newton. I will tell you the same thing I told Malakai of Atlantis and Gooseberry - if you don't like how I drive, you can go outside and push."

She hugs him.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:08, Wed 27 Sept 2017.

"You don't want to be a Time Lord, sweet. The job description calls for much sadness, and you're one of my happinesses. Further, being a Blue Kang seems to be a full time job!"