A Nightmare on Sesame Street

[whodovoodoo]

Donna emerged with a pair of jeans and a green shirt ( she had changed it three times). She had also found a nice grey denim jacket with deep pockets. She picked up a handbag and put it back down, one thing she loved about travelling with the Doctor, she didn't need a hangbag. He had everything she would ever need in those amazing pockets of his; unfortunately though, he never had the right shade of lipstick so she dug one out and slipped it in her pocket, along with her newly upgraded mobile phone (now also topped up - damn pay as you go) and a pen (the doctor's always ran out). She returned back to the console room to find the Doctor with an impatient grin on his face.

"Patience, patience, a lady has to look good you know....Wait...do you have an umbrella?"

Some might say she was stalling, certainly the concept of happy happy and jolly jolly people didn't really ethrall her, she always hated those people that put on false joy, and suspected this was a world practically brimming with sickly sweetness...she hoped the Doctor had a good reason for not pulling the handle and maybe taking them off to a spa...or at least somewhere she could wear her hat. trust the Doctor she reminded herself, he must have a reason...hell he had BETTER have a reason she smiled, that kind of, I'm waiting for you to impress me smile, and "So, what you waitin' for?" She said, completely oblivious that the man was trying his best to wait for her.

[The Doctor/Well...Ten]

After a few false starts, the Doctor had managed to lure Donna away from the Tardis. How many changes of clothing can one person have? Well, it doesn’t matter now. This planet really is a smorgasbord of delights. All along the street children could be seen entering and exiting sweet shops. The smell had him reaching for his Jelly Babies. Ahhh, a nice Banana flavored morsel always hits the spot.

As nice as the sweet smelling diversions were, nothing could compare to the thrill of being on a world that was not your own. The culture pulsed with a breath that was not yours, and called for you to join along. He wondered if Donna could feel it too… One of the best things about traveling with Donna was her adventurous side. She loved seeing the Universe as much as he did. Of course, she didn’t really like the danger too much; but that just sort of happens. Oh well, Carpe Diem...

He turned to ask Donna if she wanted to head for the city square, but before he had the chance, he caught sight of a bouncing, blond ponytail. He pulled on Donna’s arm and pointed across the street. “Did you see her? No, it couldn’t be…” He quickly grabbed her hand and dragged her along behind him. The Doctor didn’t want to risk losing sight of what looked like his Jenny.

[HN]

"Different isn't always a bad thing." The Doctor snapped, reaching for Rose's hand. She had been awed into silence. He couldn't help but grin. The slight 'o' of her mouth, those wide Bambi eyes taking in every detail. Oh yes, he still had it. No Captain Jack Flash could top his Tardis. A Tardis he silently thanked for landing them in just the right spot. There was a first time for everything it seemed.

He quickly surveyed his surroundings, nodding politely to the little red furry Muppet that had almost been squashed by the materializing Time Machine, and then darted off to the left, Rose in tow. The Muppet smiled after them, waving as they ran. One last curious look at the strange blue box, and he was on his way again.

"What do you want to do first?" He asked, all bright smiles and twinkling blue eyes. He had not returned to this planet in an age. He had had no one to share it with. This world had an innocent atmosphere, and was the sort of place a child would go banana's over. It was the sort of place one would go to with friends, or family. A sort of retreat to hide from the stresses and strains of life. One did not go alone. Too much joy could be depressing for a solitary man.

"Where too," he asked his companion, "Food? Candy floss? Ice cream? Cotton Clouds? No maybe something more substantial."

He halted, looking around. There were tourists every where. On every street corner, there were Muppets of all shapes and sizes pedaling their wares. Shop after shop of brightly decorated junk and food made up this lands economy. Children were singing. Clowns were juggling. Hot air balloons hovered over head.

What to do? Where to take her? The options were endless. Like a child in a candy store, the Doctor hauled Rose onwards, Jack following on a few steps behind.

[Jenny]

Jenny was biting in to the cone bit of her ice cream delight and took notice of the growing crowd. Large yellow birds? Funny little blue puppets in capes? Men in leather coats with young women on their arms and dashingly handsome brooding men following. She paused and watched a brooding dashing man for a moment and then was distracted by a couple little puppets and a...duck?

She walked through the crowd, nearly bumping in to yet another blue puppet with a plate full of cookies as she peered over her shoulder at well, the dashingly handsome man. She may have been born nearly yesterday, but it didn't mean she was completely daft.

However it wasn't the man that made her two hearts beat differently. There was a strange new scent in the air.One she could not pinpoint. It was like...stardust and ticking clocks. She'd have to ask her father about it later. It was a strange feeling. The feeling that she truly wasn't alone. It made her tilt her head and pause in the middle of the street.

[whodovoodoo]

Donna, who was actually stronger than the Doctor and his skinny torso, dug in her heels.

"Not on your nelly Mister" she said bluntly. "We're not here to go chasing after blondes who... Ah!" She yelped as something very like a...."what the!" Donna said pointing at the small fluffy red creature brushed passed her thigh. "Muppets!" she then said with her usual nasal whallop. "Mupp-ets!" She repeated for good measure with an additional head tilt and pout on the end, just to make sure the Doctor got her point and knew she meant business.

"Whatever made you think I would find fluffy patronising beanbags a relaxing break Spaceman?" She folded her arms, and he looked pissed so she unfolded them again. He meant well. He always meant well.

"I mean come ooo-n." She said with slightly less power in her voice, a little more whine than she intended. "Why the hell are we here exactly? Was this all a cunning ploy just to see my face when your threw a puppet at me?" She paused, waiting for him to smile mischeviously, but he was making puppydog eyes now, clearly he liked puppets a bit more than she did. "Fine. But I'm not petting any of them. And if they try and teach me my ABCs then they can Ay, Bee, Cee, Dee, Ee, Eff Off!"

She pulled her hand out of his and looked around. Looming in the distance she saw something akin to a castle. "God It's like Disney on crack." She said, and almost covered her mouth as if there were children present, which there weren't, but for a moment she felt bad for being so coarse, only a moment however. "I'm heading to the castle, handsome princes are my forte, I used to have such a thing for that one out of Sleeping Beauty..." The Doctor wasn't paying attention, his eyes were looking somewhere in the distance over her shoulder. She poked him in the chest. "Oi, you paying attention Spaceman?" She smiled warmly. "Seriously I think the last thing you need is to get yourself hopped up on sugar. You're bad enough as it is." Now it was her turn to drag, she latched her hand onto his forearm and pulled him towards the castle. "I want to meet the guy in charge." She grinned.

[thestral]

Was that a furry red muppet they almost landed on? It didn't seemed to mind almost being flattened but then, it was a muppet.

"I never said it was!" Jack replied. Make one comment and he'll find something bad about it. This was going to be a very long trip. He followed behind the Doctor and Rose missing the beautiful young blonde that and looked in their direction. This place was on hyperactive overdrive with gaudy colours to match.

Was that a duck he just saw?

There was a first time for everything that was for sure like almsot getting killed by German bombs on a stolen space ship or almost getting executed. That piece of information he decided never to tell anyone especially not the Doctor since it would just give him more ammunition and cause to hate him. To be honest he wasn't as bad as his ex partner whom he was convince is a sociopath. Although he does brighten up the day when you're bored out your box.

"Sorry," He mumbled when a puppet ran into him not entirely sure who's fault that was but it just squeaked and continued to run rather fast.

[sailorgallifrey12]

Ami looked through the center of the town that was filled with tourists. She couldn't help but the think that the inhabitants were very adorable. She saw a castle and thought it must be important not to mention the possible center of operations, as was the castle she investigated early in her career as a Sailor Soldier at the Dream Land Amusement Park. But when she went to that castle, she was knocked out by drugged sweets made by the enemy and couldn't help Mars and Moon in battle. She was on her guard as she walked, thinking and almost sensing that there could be some sort of trouble, as was the case most of the time. She looked ahead of her and saw a woman with red hair dragging a handsome brown-haired man by the arm toward the castle. She went over to them feeling that they could be safe, wanting to team up with them so they could all explore the castle together. As her mother told her when she was a little kid, there's safety in numbers. She cleared her throat. "Excuse me," she said politely to the woman.

[Jenny]

Jenny huffed as she turned in a full circle, losing sight of her father.

"B*ll*cks!" She growled with a stomp of her foot. She'd only just recently learned the word and it was one of her favorites though...on the cultish planet of matching jumpers she caused an old woman to gasp by yelling it far too loudly.

A heavy, loud sigh escaped from her pouting lips and she tried to form a new plan of action.

"Excuse me!" Came tiny voices and she realized she was still in the middle of the street. She moved towards the sidewalk and tossed her dripping, mushy ice cream. All the sugar she'd ingested was making her feel a bit sick anyway.

She then decided some interaction of the non puppet sort wasn't a bad idea. Especially because she had seen a few people that looked similar to her. The leather clad man and the pretty girl and oh yes, the dashing man.

Standing on her tiptoes she looked beyond the small crowd forming about her and saw them off in the distance.

Jumping over a little pink fairy looking puppet, she raised her voice. "Excuse me?!"

[thestral]

Jack walked along after the Doctor taking in the rather unusual sights. Once he almost managed to stand on a muppet narrowly escaping disaster but then nearly running into another.

"Oops," he said.

These tiny critters were determined to get in the way but then, he really should be more careful about where he's putting his feet.

Jack looked up as a yell caught his ears and glanced around. Did someone yell or was it just him? There was an awful lot of high pitched voices and squeaking. Well they were sort of cute. A tall one past it's feathers ruffling, forcing Jack to stop and get slightly annoyed as he became separated from the other two a little more but unknowingly allowing Jenny to catch up to him.

[Jenny]

Jenny approached Jack from behind, reaching up and tapping him on the shoulder in an attempt to get his attention.

Two puppets walked by gleefully spouting off the alphabet. Another had a horn for a nose that he honked at Jenny as she stood, hand still up in the air as if she were about to tap Jack again. However she was momentarily distracted by the random little puppets and scrunched up her nose and giggled slightly.

Her ponytail whipped her in the face as she turned back to Jack and with the sweet smile still on her face and her light eyes sparkling she spoke, "Right, gonna pay attention to me now?" She teased. She wasn't a needy sort truly, however she could use a decent conversation and a few explanations.

[thestral]

Jack turned around and was pleasantly surprised. He had not expected to see another beautiful young blonde before him although her entrance into his life wasn't was nearly as spectacular as Rose's. Speaking of Rose....he looked back towards them relieved he could still see them but they would have to start moving now to catch up. It wouldn't be good to be left behind. He wouldn't put it past the Doctor to 'forget' him and leave him behind. Jack didn't fancy spending more than a day or two here.

A muppet spewing the alphabet was walking by and paying absolutely no attention to where it was going but chirping away quite happily.

"Captain Jack Harkness. You are just the prettiest gem here. Certainly brightened up my day," He introduced himself with a wide smile. She really was pretty. "Walk and talk?" He asked offering her his arm.

Muppets apparantly just walked where they liked and it meant you had to be quite alert when travelling.

[The Doctor/Well...Ten]

Donna stopped abruptly, leaving his arm feeling like it was out of joint. Hurmph, she was stronger than she looked. He started to complain about losing the Jenny look-a-like, but he could see it was already too late. The mysterious blond was lost in the crowd; talk about the story of his life.

To make matters worse, Donna didn’t seem to share his appreciation for Muppets. How could anyone ‘not’ like Muppets? Fortunately, she relented enough to consider exploring the planet. As long as none of the little puppets approach looking for a cuddle, there shouldn’t be a problem... Ahhh, she’ll change her mind. How could she resist? Muppets=cute=yeah!! Donna likes to pretend she is the toughest one around, but he knows better. There’s a softy hiding underneath all the bravado…

… a softy with lightning slap abilities.

… a softy with lightning slap abilities an’ wooden door kicking skills

…Nah, a softy with lightning slap abilities, wooden door kicking skills, and possibly a hoodie. Yup, yup… That’s what Donna is.

The Doctor pulled his thoughts back to the present. He gave one lingering look over the crowd before accepting that it couldn’t have been his Jenny. Donna wasn't giving him time to dwell on it either. She was already pulling him toward the town square and the looming pink castle...

Unfortunately, the pair hadn’t made it three feet before they were stopped by…a cartoon character??? By the heart of the Tardis, please don’t let the little girl ask to be rubbed, or he’ll never hear the end of it.

[Jenny]

"Jenny," she grinned, those baby blue eyes sparkling like no tomorrow. "Just Jenny," she added, seeing as she had no surname or fancy titles to go along with it.

She linked her arm through his and nodded with a smile, "Sure," she said.

"I couldn't pass up the chance to talk to you. Seeing as I can only chat about so much with these colorful furry little people...." Jenny laughed. It was true, there was only so much to be said about candy floss she had discovered. It was delicious but as she'd just learned, it could also leave one with a bit of a tummy ache and a spinny head. That was her first lesson of the day. Too many lollies? Not a nice time.

[thestral]

Jack grinned in response and concentrated for a few minutes in closing the gap between them and this travelling partners. It didn't take that long, well not as long as he had expected but did invovle a lot of stopping and dodging. When they were only a few metres behind a relaxed and decided to just enjoy the company of another humanoid.

"I'm glad you did," Jack said. "Jenny suits you," he commented before his attention was grabbed by a rather bright yellow bird which was making its way rather quickly down the street. It seemed to be in a bit of a hurry as it kept ushering people out of its way and flapping its wings a tad impatiently.

"It's certainly different and strange although not entirely unpleasant. I think we nearly landed on one when we arrived though. And I nearly stood on one but they don't seem to mind anything at all," Jack said whilst keeping an eye on his feet just to make sure he wasn't about to kick or squish one. The good news was that he was getting used to being around such small creatures and didn't seem in danger of doing any damage to one.

[mastersaxon]

Rose did stare. Of all the places she has seen so far, this one won the cake. Muppets! Of planet with living muppets.

"Mum's never going to believe this..." she said to herself.

She didn't understand why the Doctor had snapped. But then she had come to realise she didn't really understand him half the time. What little she knew about the Time Lord's past concerned his surroundings, never the Time Lord himself. It was annoying. And it was exciting. She had followed him that day he had brought her to the end of her planet even though she hadn't known the first thing about his motives. She still didn't.

"Have you been here before?" She asked suspiciously, dragged along as she was.

The Doctor seemed to know where he was going. Rose felt betrayed. It was like cheating. When they discovered a planet together they shared something special. Anything could happen, and it usually did, but the Doctor knew this place. And Rose didn't. It was like getting half the fun. Rose pulled her hand out of the Doctor's grasp. She was out of breath.

"...give me a minute... I thought... I thought this was like a holiday yeah?" She heaved.

She looked around, unbuttoning her jacket. The weather was nice, she was hot in long sleeves. She swung it over her shoulder, fingers hooked to the collar. Little muppets were running all around, a sea of moving colors. Behind the shops was a huge castle. It looked shiny and... and sugary. Rose stared again. She was so hungry.

"So," she added eventually, "breakfast?"

Rose suddenly remembered their new companion and turned around. She didn't want to leave Jack out. He had saved their lives. Well, he had saver her life twice. She wouldn't forget that. And he was charming, very. If only the Doctor would stop glaring at him! Rose didn't understand this behavior. The Doctor had proved somewhat hostiles from time to time, but never toward someone who had risked his own life to save them. Maybe there was something he saw that she couldn't.

Jack wasn't far behind. He was chatting with a young blond woman.

"Didn't lose a second, did he?" Rose told the Doctor, grinning.