Hunting Wee Beasties [Open]

[bonnypiperlad]

It's one of those days where Jamie's found himself with free time and no idea how to spend it. He's already finished his shift in Engineering, there's not any training, and for once, he's not actually hungry. Neither the Sensoriums or the Media Library really sound appealing right now, which leaves...what?

Idly wandering the halls, he supposes. If only he could get into the TARDIS, he'd have something to do, but the Doctor was off who knows where and without the Time Lord around, he's stuck. Oh, sure, his old room was still in there, but what good did it do him if he couldn't get into it?

He's passing by Weapons and Possessions when he hears a noise that seems to be coming from just inside the door, and he stops to listen. It doesn't repeat itself, and he frowns slightly. Maybe he misheard. With a shrug, he's about to move on when it happens again - a faint *thump* this time, as though something in there had been knocked over. There's a flash of movement, just out of the corner of his eye. It looks for all the world like a small black and white cat streaking through the room, which is...unusual, to say the least.

That's enough to gain his full interest, and he slips inside in full 'creeping quietly' mode to see what's up. It's not exactly like he can hide that he's doing so from the hallway, however, and anyone else in the area may very well notice what he's up to.

(( OOC: Rachel is here as well as Jamie and will likely be joining in at some point. When exactly that will be...? Only the Shadow she knows. Enjoy! ))

Comments

[ronnae.livejournal.com]

Ronnie was passing by the area when she noticed a creeping Jamie in the hallway. She looks at him curiously from a distance wondering if she should help. Eventually she takes a deep breath and steels herself as she walks a bit closer.

"Lost something?" She asks in a shy voice.

[bonnypiperlad]

Jamie freezes for a moment at the voice, then slowly turns towards it, relaxing as he sees that it belongs to Ronnae. He shakes his head.

"No. I saw something moving in there just now," he murmurs, nodding towards the interior of the room. "Some wee beastie, I think. Stay here while I go take a look, aye?"

It'd be for the best - just in case it's dangerous. Jamie's not really expecting Ronnae to stay behind, though. No matter how often he tries to get a girl to stay put like she should, they always seem to insist on following him.

[ronnae.livejournal.com]

She listens to him but just as expected she shakes her head.
"It's safer if we work together no? Besides, if it's a wee beastie, they usually travel in packs and all attack at once. Our chances of success would be greater as a team." She smiled at Jamie and followed close behind.

[bonnypiperlad]

There's a moment where Jamie opens his mouth to protest, but then shuts it again. There's no sense to trying to argue - and she's got a point. "Aye, all right," he says quietly. "Just keep your voice down and stay behind me."

That at least he thinks will work for a little while. Hand moving to the side his dirk is on, he flips the catch that holds it in place. Last time there was a beastie in here, it tried to eat him. And while he's not about to draw the dirk unless he has to, he feels better knowing the option is there.

"I only saw one. Something black and white. Furry." A bit like a cat, but the only cat he knows of on board is Rhiow, and he doesn't think it was her. "See if ye can spot something like that."

[ronnae.livejournal.com]

She nodded in his direction, staying close but scanning different areas than him to make their search more thorough. "Well at least if it's a cat it shouldn't be too bad. Maybe someone's pet got lost? I keep overhearing random bits about some otter."

She shrugged and knelt closer to the ground so she could check under tables and desks.

[bonnypiperlad]

"Aye, it could be," Jamie says, sounding thoughtful. "There's a few people who have some dogs that were rescued from Zokez II."

He wouldn't have minded a dog, but hadn't been around at the time they were available for adoption. Maybe it's for the best - he's not sure he'd have time to take care of one properly, anyway.

Joining Ronnae in the search, he starts to poke around some of the piles of things, being careful to make sure he's putting people's belongings back when no animal reveals itself. There's not a lot of tables and desks around - mostly it's piles of clothing or other personal items. Some of them are quite odd, like the nesting doll lying atop someone's oilskin duster. Or that medieval helmet that's on its side...

Actually, that one might have something in it, but Jamie can't tell from here. "Hey, Ronnae, you'd not happen to have a torch handy, would ye?"

[ronnae.livejournal.com]

Roonae was going over the piles of clothing and other random items taking a moment with a few of them longer than just inspecting them, who know she might come back here and look through some things, they might not all be claimed.

She turned to Jamie while absentmindedly smiling at the doll. "Hm, Yes? Oh, hmmm, oh yeah." She goes through her pockets real quick and pulls out an odd gadget. It's about palm sized and has a couple of knobs and buttons. "Press the yellow one, and turn the dial to adjust the flame." She added walking over and handing it to Jamie.

[makeherblue]

It's a good creep.

In fact, it looks so good that the Doctor joins him because if there's anything better than a decent sneak around, it's two people decently sneaking around (well, one good sneak from Jamie and the Doctor is much better than decent at it: he's excellent. Ask anyone.). It wasn't exactly intentional -- he'd been having a perfectly good creep on his own from the opposite direction, still trying to track that otter and find a proper connection for the Doodad he'd pulled from Captain Eneesh's crate.

It, he thinks, might be instrumental in giving Jamie his wedding present.

Okay, so it's late. Just a bit. Even if he had the proper equipment to give Jamie a sorely needed upgrade, Jamie's been making it difficult to get that sporran away from him. The Doctor suspects it might be a little on purpose, but he can't be sure just yet. He takes the opportunity to slip the Doodad from Eneesh back into his pocket before he can tip Jamie off to his plans, just in case Kaylee's been giving Jamie lessons in How to Identify Doodads and Whatsits anytime soon.

Jamie slips inside the room, the Doctor sneaking in a picture perfect, award-winning sneak inside and then promptly spoils it, leaning over Jamie's shoulder. "That doesn't sound much like an otter to me, what do you think?"

[bonnypiperlad]

Even though he doesn't see the Doodad being slipped away, he's quite aware when the Doctor joins him - years of practice with sneaking with the Time Lord does tend to help there. But Jamie lets him think that the Doctor's got the edge on sneaking, and pretends like he doesn't even notice that there's someone else coming up behind him.

Of course, he then forgets to act startled when the Doctor leans over his shoulder, so the pretense likely doesn't come off quite as well as he would have hoped. With a shake of his head, he murmurs, "It looked a wee bit too big to be an otter, whatever it was."

That being settled, he's quite ready to settle down and go back to looking for the beastie when the otter part of things actually sinks in. "Hey, why would ye think it was an otter, anyway?"

[makeherblue]

Frowning at Jamie, the Doctor finally looks past him at what had been not so much sneaking as the two of them but scurrying. There's a very fine distinction between a sneak and a scurry. Remind him to tell Jamie the difference another time.

"Because one escaped from the TARDIS right before your wedding," the Doctor says, in that tone of voice as if it should be painfully obvious what an otter with a grudge against Marco would be doing rattling about Stacy. "This is the closest thing I have to a lead since then. Who knew they could be so...well, I was going to say slippery but I thought that would be obvious."

He peers past Jamie's shoulder at the room. Like most everything on Stacy's ship (aside from the gruel, although that's a bit of an insult to gruel because gruel actually has a taste, for one thing), it's impressive. The noise Jamie was listening to sounded to him like something jumping off in some sort of nook. Definitely not a cranny yet. (Thankfully). They >don't want to deal with crannies, crannies can be nasty business and that's without trying to wrestle an angry otter out of one. Somehow he doubts this otter would be impressed with Jamie's kilt, unlike their friend Eneesh. The Doctor stoops next to Jamie, listening.

Another faint whud, the Doctor swiveling toward the noise.

[bonnypiperlad]

"Oh, aye, of course," Jamie replies, shooting the Doctor a bit of a look. He can't really say he's surprised by the news of the otter, or that it's escaped - because, truthfully, he's not. No, the look is for something that, to him, seems quite obvious. "Have ye not thought to look for him in the river? Or the bath house. Somewhere where there might be water, maybe?"

If he was an otter, he wouldn't be wasting his time wandering around in piles of other people's things. He'd be off having a swim somewhere. And that...that was a horrible pun the Doctor made just now. Almost as bad as that one he made back on Telos.

"Ooh," he says, grimacing briefly before he, too, catches that faint noise. Forgetting about bad puns, Jamie drops into a crouch and carefully makes his way towards the source of the sound. He passes what appears to be a robe that's been burnt at some point in the past. The marks are no longer fresh - but they are familiar to Jamie.

"I'd not thought that would still be here," he mutters to himself with a shake of his head. He shuts up, then, tracking the noise to its source, only to find a particularly ugly - and heavy - wooden carving that's been knocked over. He picks it up to show the Time Lord. "Nothing here, Doctor, but could your otter have knocked that over?"

[makeherblue]

"Have I looked -- of course I looked! But that's where an otter would expect me to search, so of course I didn't find it. Him. Or her. Come to think of it, I'm not even sure of its sex..." The Doctor trails off, as if that's somehow important.

He snaps to attention when Jamie lingers over a burnt robe, tilting his head. It's seen better days. Following Jamie, the two make their way deeper into the room, which is clearly some kind of storage unit, and, juddging from those various crates and general miscellaneous items, he's going to hazard a guess and suppose they're possessions. Probably of past and present crew, if that helmet off in the corner from 17th Century France is anything to go by, nevermind all the other fascinating odds and ends scattered around here. The Doctor pauses to peer inside a cardboard box that has seen better days. He knows it. The box knows it. Jamie might not, but that's because he's too busy looking at hideous wood carvings that would've been banned on several planets. The Doctor glances up when Jamie draws his attention to it.

"No, I don't think it could," the Doctor turns on the spot, listening. "And I didn't see two otters pop out of the TARDIS, so it's probably something else entirely."

He's barely finished speaking when there's suddenly a flash of something furry and...okay, that's all he has so far: furry. The Doctor exchanges looks with Jamie and heads over to another pile of boxes, ducking a tapestry that's probably as offended about Jamie's wood carving as he is.

[bonnypiperlad]

Clearly Jamie doesn't feel the same way, as he shakes his head and tries not to roll his eyes. What the sex of an otter has to do with anything is beyond him. Although maybe if it was a really big otter of indeterminate sex, it might have knocked over the rather awful wood carving that...is upside down. Jamie turns it around and looks at it again. Huh. Oddly that seems to be rather better. With a shrug, he sets back down, right way up this time.

"Aye, likely not," he agrees, about to step over a pile of someone's stuff when the Doctor's attention is clearly caught by something. Nodding, he starts to follow after, intending on banking off to the left to see if he can sneak up on it from another direction while the Doctor flushes whatever it is out.

It's then that he looks down and spots a rather plain, ordinary object lying on the floor, right in the Doctor's path. Like the robe, he recognizes the item - or, at least, he thinks he does. "Watch out for that pen, Doctor!" Jamie cries, rather louder than he meant to.

Reaching for the Time Lord's arm, he gives it a rather firm tug to try and get the Doctor away from the seemingly innocuous thing.

[makeherblue]

The Doctor pinwheels, flailing out with an arm as he's suddenly tugged backward.

"Jamie!" he exclaims. Exasperated, he sets to work trying to extricate himself from Jamie's grip, the Scot having a fairly decent hold on his arm. It's rather like trying to pry a cat off you when it has it in its mind to use you as a sentient ladder and no, it's really not up to discussion. Fortunately, the Doctor does have some experience prying humans -- and cats -- off him.

He not-so-patiently tries to unwrap Jamie from his warm, glancing over at that pen. It's a rather nice looking fountain pen, gold cap (fake gold, most likely) and swirling cursive lettering on the side.

"Yes, Jamie, a pen. I saw it, I'll have you know," the Doctor's voice is ever so slightly patronizing, "I'm not going to trip over it." Honestly, he should get some credit here. If he thought death by brick would be embarrassing, death by pen would probably top that. Maybe. Still, he had to say, death by pen would be a novel way to go. Interesting story, at the very least. The Doctor finally tries (and fails) another attempt to shake Jamie free as he stoops to pick up the pen.

Okay. So maybe Jamie's more skilled at clinging on than the average human. Or cat. Clearly the Doctor needs to brush up on his extrication skills.

Up close, the Doctor can see he was right. Fake gold. It's a cheap fountain pen.

(Later, after the meeting with Rachel)

[bonnypiperlad]

Well, Jamie thought, he was at least right about one thing. There had been a beastie in the room after all - even if it wasn't quite what he had in mind when he first came in.

So now that it was gone, there's absolutely no reason to continue to stick around, in theory. In practice, though, Jamie's still there, idly poking through the piles of belongings. It's more out of curiosity rather than anything else now, but the Doctor's still around as well, so he doesn't feel particularly inclined to go and try to find something else to do. Besides, maybe he'd find that watch of his that had gone missing when he woke up - although he doesn't have much hope of that happening, to be honest.

"Hey, Doctor..." His foot bumps up against something on the floor, and he stopped for a moment to pick it up. Someone's top hat must have fallen. There's what looks like a wedding suit hanging from an over-sized picture frame nearby, and Jamie lifts up the hat in an attempt to see if it's part of the outfit or not. He's not quite sure. While he's thinking about it, he glances over his shoulder, back to the Doctor, and goes on with the question.

"Do ye think that Stacy still has some of the things she'd not given back when we first woke up?"

[makeherblue]

"I'd imagine so. Probably more rooms like this scattered about, I hope she had the sense not to jettison the rest." The Doctor holds up a small pendulum, of the sort you normally find on a piano. He presses his ear to it, "Questionable higher level of logic aside."

He chooses to turn then, pausing for a fraction of a second when he sees what's in Jamie's hand. Oh, that old thing -- how did that get here? With a fond smile, the Doctor puts down the pendelum and reaches out to take the suit, the tails of it flapping. He flicks a bit of dust off it (it's probably not actual dust: he thinks more of just shedding from Stacy, given her nature and the venting systems) and straightens out a sleeve, glancing at the top hat in Jamie's hands. It's a little bit battered, especially after the late night dancing from Amy's wedding, but in one piece, more or less. Go ahead, Jamie. Try it on if you'd like, it won't bite.

"Ah, that," the Doctor smiles. "That's mine. Surprised it's out here. Maybe Stacy took a shine to it."

Quite right to. It's a very good hat, practically begging to be worn again: that is, if hats could beg. This one can't, so that's something.

[bonnypiperlad]

"Aye, that's true. There was the time the TARDIS wasn't in the hangar. She must have kept it somewhere then." Jamie tilts the top hat in his head, examining it curiously. It seems a little worn, but not in a bad way. Like some of the other hats he's seen the Doctor wear, it looks like it's been through an adventure or two. The Highlander isn't sure what that would be, exactly, but it must have been something to see.

He's not sure that the hat will fit him, though, if it's meant to go on the Doctor's head now. Even that looks skinnier than it was before, to the Scot. But...maybe he'll give it a go anyway, just to see. He carefully settles it on his head. It's hard to tell if it works without a mirror, but wouldn't the Doctor's reaction give him some sort of clue? Jamie turns so the Doctor can get a look, and watches the Time Lord's face to see what he thinks.

"Is the suit yours too, then?"

[makeherblue]

The hat's a good fit.

If there's one thing Jamie has plenty of to make up for his lacking....height, it's hair. Boy always did have a healthy head of hair. Dying apparently didn't change that, he's relieved to say, because Jamie has just enough hair to make the hat work. The Doctor approves, reaching out without thinking to adjust it on Jamie's head. There you go. Nearly perfect fit.

"Wore it at the Ponds' wedding," the Doctor's unbashedly proud. He always did like that suit. Never did get enough weddings to wear it to, though.

He slings the white scarf around his neck, gazing at the rest of the tuxedo and thinking back to what Jamie just said. Not right this second. Before Jamie had the sense to go on trying hats that work just as much on Scots as they do on Time Lords. Something about the TARDIS being moved, except he didn't recall it being anywhere else; clearly it's before he woke up, but if Stacy's been doing her own twiddling with the TARDIS, that could explain the higher function locks. Despite how utterly gorgeous he finds Stacy, he can't say he's too happy about the idea of the ship mucking about with his ship. He'd give her a stern talking to if he could only communicate with her.

"Here, let's take it back to the TARDIS," the Doctor gestures at the suit, satisfied the top hat is in good hands. Probably best not to tell Jamie he's worried about Stacy's meddling.

Did he say worried? He meant concerned, yeah..."concerned" tended not to send Jamie into too much of a panic -- not that the Scot would agree he necessarily panics, but the Doctor knows better. Dying a few times didn't make him senile and he remembers the panicking and the clinging. So yeah, he's merely concerned, that's all.

Out of habit he checks the pockets to see if they're normal or hideously normal.

He stops. Looks down sharply.

"No, that can't be," the Doctor pulls out the TARDIS key. "What's it doing here?"

[bonnypiperlad]

The response to the Doctor's adjustment is, of course, his favorite grumpy expression, but there's a fondness to it as well. Deep down, Jamie doesn't really mind the Doctor tweaking the hat so it sits better. He's curious, though, as to how it looks, and starts casting about for that hand mirror he had earlier.

He glances up at the mention of the Ponds, catching that proud note in the Time Lord's voice. It would be nice, Jamie thinks, if they woke up. He gets the idea the Doctor misses them rather a lot. "Was it a good wedding, Doctor?"

Going back to the TARDIS seems like a good idea, though. There'd be something in there he could use to see what he looks like, and the Doctor can tell him about the wedding. He nods, and gives up his hunt for the mirror, falling into step without much thought for the inadvertent worry he's just caused by mentioning Stacy moving the TARDIS - and, fortunately, with no current thoughts of panicky clinging anywhere in his mind.

He stops when the Doctor does, and glances over to see what the problem is. The last thing he expected to see is that familiar object, especially since he was under the impression the Doctor had misplaced it somewhere inside the TARDIS, not outside of it.

"Hey, that's the TARDIS key! You mean it's been in Weapons and Possessions this entire time?"

[livestoannoy]

Marco was always someone who's default reaction was frequently 'suspicious', and the way Jamie was skulking around definitely make Marco suspicious. Especially when it was Weapons and Possessions that was being sneaked into.

For half a second he considered morphing and following Jamie in secret. Except the only reason he'd have for that would be to report to Kang about it, and right now Marco damn well wasn't going to do any spying for Kang unless he actually ordered it. (Besides, the only way Jamie could be a threat would be if he got out those bagpipes of his.)

"Shh, you're creeping too loudly! The bazookas might here you," he said instead, in a loud stage whisper.

[bonnypiperlad]

Jamie would be rather cross if he knew that Marco didn't consider him to be a threat. He's quite a capable fighter, even if he's currently not at his best in the art of creeping. As it is, when he hears that loud stage whisper, he's still somewhat annoyed - although it's for a completely different reason.

Turning his head away from the entrance to the room, he fixes Marco with a look that reflects that quite nicely. "I know what a bazooka is," he says in a low tone. "And I know that they don't have ears. Now be quiet before ye scare off the beastie that's gotten in there."

He then goes right back to his creeping, slipping inside the room so he can continue his investigation. Jamie doesn't seem to care if Marco follows him or not, as long as he keeps his mouth shut.

[livestoannoy]

Marco just couldn't imagine someone who plays the bagpipes as a deadly fighter. An assumption that was, unknown to Marco, completely off the mark.

"Hello, it's called a joke?" he said, rolling his eyes. He narrowed his eyes when Jaime explained what he was doing, though. "A 'beastie'?"

There was an animal in here? Marco scanned the room, suspicious. Marco knew better than anyone that animals could be more than they seemed.

[bonnypiperlad]

"Oh aye. A joke." Clearly Marco's timing needs work - and his references, too. Jamie doesn't see how an anti-tank weapon really works in the context of being able to hear things, although he got the gist of the rest of it. Oh well, to each their own. He nods, then.

"One of the space dogs, maybe. I saw a wee bit of fur." At least, Jamie thinks there was fur, which...well. At least some of those dogs from Zokez II had fur, so it's a likely candidate to match something of the approximate size and shape of what he caught a glimpse of. It's a theory, anyway. He glances back over at Marco, and decides a second pair of eyes might not be a bad idea.

"Well, as long as you're here, ye can help me look."

[livestoannoy]

Hey, Marco's timing was excellent, thank you very much! Jamie clearly just needed to get out of the dark ages and actually get a decent sense of humour.

"Or something else entirely," Marco muttered under his breath. "Hey, why do I have to help?!"

[bonnypiperlad]

Well, Jamie can't help being born hundreds of years before Marco...but he does have a decent sense of humor. It's just very hard to tell with him sometimes.

In fact, some of that humor can be seen in Jamie's eyes as he glances over at the the question - having neatly missed the first part of it entirely. He snorts, amused. "I knew there was something I liked about ye," he says dryly. Marco is reminding Jamie a bit of...well, Jamie, when he doesn't want to be dragged into things.

"Well, ye have followed me in here," he points out, quite reasonably, he thinks. "Obviously you've not got anything better to do."