Once Upon a Midnight

Getting to Know Everyone

The hostess stood at the front of the shuttle with a smile on her face that Rose knew was faked. She was a pleasant person, but something told Rose she wasn't very happy in her job. "For your entertainment, we have the music channel playing retrovids of Earth classics." The hostess pressed a button on her remote and screens came down playing Do it, Do it Again by Raffaella Carra. "Also the latest Artistic Installations from Ludovic Klein." Light of different colour assaulted everyone's eyes as it spun around the room. "Plus, for the youngsters, a rare treat. The animation archives." She pulled a screen from the ceiling which portrayed Betty Boop. Four hours of fun time! Enjoy." She walked to the back.

The Doctor and Rose made eye contact. This was ridiculous. Noise from the cartoon and the song bombarded the two, as well as the lights from it all. Their senses could hardly sort one from the other. Upon looking around, they both noticed similar discomforts in most of the other passengers. The lady with the bun and book in front made eye contact with the Doctor and rolled her eyes to express her annoyance.

The Doctor looked at Rose and pulled his sonic out. Her eyes widened in a sort of mischievous glee as the sonic turned the "entertainment system" off. The lady from the front glanced at the Doctor in gratitude, noticing he had a role in the sudden failure.

The professor pulled his earplugs out and sliced the sudden silence with, "Well that's a mercy!"

"Uh, I do apologise, ladies and gentlemen and variations thereupon, we seem to have had a failure of the entertainment system..." The hostess walked to the front, meddling with the remote.

"Oh!" The Doctor said in fake disappointment. Rose hid a giggle and slightly bumped him with her elbow. He turned to her and gave her a sarcastic What? look.

"But what do we do?!" The lady from the couple with the riotous child spoke up.

"We've got four hours of this? Four hours of just sitting here!" The man spoke up.

"Tell you what!" the Doctor popped up from his seat to say. Rose hid a smile behind her hand. "We'll have to talk to each other instead."

Rose raised an eyebrow as everyone looked at each other oddly. The Doctor sat back down, lowering his voice so he wouldn't be heard by anyone but Rose. "See, this generation, all they do is entertain themselves with films, art, music, etc. They block one another out. That actually causes a lot of trouble in this time period. So a little talking definitely won't hurt anyone here. Talking is like a lost skill in these people."

"Sounds a bit familiar." Rose said, talking of her time.

"Humans have a way of going through cycles. History repeats itself, after all." The Doctor replied. "Now come on, let's talk to the others." He said with glee in his eyes at the discoveries to be made.

-

98 kliks later...

Laughter filled the room, the Doctor's and Rose's included. Everyone joined in, except the teenage boy, the mysterious woman in the front, and the hostess.

"-so Biff said, 'I'm going swimming.'-" Val said.

"Oh, I was all ready, trunks and everything! Nose plug!" Biff was saying, his wife giggling the whole time.

"He had this little nose plug, you should've seen him-" She giggled.

"And I went marching up to the lifeguard," Biff took over. "And he was a Shamboni, you know, those big bald heads?-"

"-great big forehead! -" Val interrupted, with another giggle.

"And I said, 'Where's the pool?' And he said-"