The Pizza Planet, Noonish

[nine-and-ears.livejournal.com]

The Doctor was waaaaay too excited.

They had Skeeball. There are few things as amazing as Skeeball in this universe.

[ooc: For nun_better, but open to the public as a public open place is!]

Comments

[nun-better.livejournal.com]

"Oh!" Rosette bounced excitedly to be able to recognize Skeeball. "I know this game! But there are a lot more lights and flashy parts than back in my day. They were just starting to get popular; me an' a few of the other girls actually tried to make on in the hallways. The nun's didn't like that all too much." She grinned a bit wickedly. Those were good times.

[nine-and-ears.livejournal.com]

"Skeeball is possibly the greatest invention of all time," the Doctor said. "Glad you have something you can recognize."

[nun-better.livejournal.com]

"Greatest invention of all time?" Rosette said with a challenging tone and a chuckle. "Explain."

[nine-and-ears.livejournal.com]

"It's rolling little balls into holes," the Doctor said. "Only a human could come up with that. Only."

[nun-better.livejournal.com]

Rosette snorted a little at that. "We do seem to have a pretty good history of finding new and inventive ways of putting balls in various things for entertainment purposes, don't we? This pinball thing, I assume, follows that trend?"

[nine-and-ears.livejournal.com]

"Sort of, yeah," the Doctor said. "There's... well, best shown, rather than explained." He headed over to where a pinball machine (http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=3781) stood.

"This is pinball. One with little aliens, even."

[nun-better.livejournal.com]

Rosette's head tilted as she inspected the machine; there were so many things there that she wasn't even sure where to start making sense of it. "...How's it work?" she asked. "What does it do?"

[nine-and-ears.livejournal.com]

The Doctor put his money in the slot and started the game. "You see, the idea is to knock that silver ball around the playing field, and you get points for hitting things. The idea is to not lose your ball's down the hole on this end."

[nun-better.livejournal.com]

Rosette had continued closely expecting the machine as the Doctor talked, and she noticed the little plunger, the little ball rolling down to it as the game started up, and put her hand around it. "You pull this, right, and that shoots the ball up..." her hand left the plunger and sketched a course in the air that the ball would presumably follow, "there, and it hits all that stuff annnnd..."

Rosette frowned at the flippers; those were obviously what you used to keep the ball going but where were...Ah-ha! She found the buttons on the side of the machine. "These work those?" She nodeed to the flippers.

[nine-and-ears.livejournal.com]

"Exactly," the Doctor said. "That way you can stop it from going down the hole."

[nun-better.livejournal.com]

Rosette grinned, and then swallowed it down so he wouldn't notice as she took her place in front of the machine and pulled back the plunger. "Well. Here goes nothing." She released it, sending the ball out into the field, eyes watching it like a hawk watches a field mouse, pressing the buttons on the side almost expertly as she batted the ball back with the flippers. Her tongue slipped out of the side of her mouth as she concentrated, but she was playing the game very well. Too well for a first timer.

[nine-and-ears.livejournal.com]

"Wow," the Doctor said. "You're a natural, you are."

And the tongue thing was seriously adorable.

[nun-better.livejournal.com]

"'Course I am!" Rosette responded with a grin, got in a minute or so of good game play before the ball snuck down the little spot where it goes toward the end without a flipper to help catch it. Her eyes narrowed at the stupid alley as the first round was ended. "Ah, snot," she sighed.

And then she turned to grin at the Doctor. "Actually, I've played this before. I didn't recognize it at first because of the machine and the name, because we called it something else back where I'm from, but the old man who ran some of the militia training back at the convent snuck one of these babies down into his workshop, and I got to use it to help with my hand-eye coordination while he fixed my guns. This one sure is a lot crazier than what we had, though."

[nine-and-ears.livejournal.com]

"A-ha," the Doctor said. "No wonder you're so good... wait, militia training?"

[nun-better.livejournal.com]

"Mmhm," Rosette nodded as she pulled the plunger again and started on the second round. "The Magdaline Order specializes in dealing with demons, and I'm one of their elite militia members." She thrust a bit into one of the flipper blocks. "The best, actually."

[nine-and-ears.livejournal.com]

"Oh right, right," the Doctor said. "Was thinking you were part of an army that wasn't God's for a minute. Silly me."

[nun-better.livejournal.com]

"Nope," Rosette said with a small smile. "Just that one."

[nine-and-ears.livejournal.com]

"Well, I apologize then," the Doctor said. "I guess I didn't actually have something new to show you."

[nun-better.livejournal.com]

"Oh! It's still new!" Rosette nodded enthusiasticly. "All those extra bells and whisles and lights. Makes it a lot more difficult to keep track of the ball..."

[nine-and-ears.livejournal.com]

"True," the Doctor said. "Costs you more quarters that way."

[nun-better.livejournal.com]

Rosette chuckled. "So you think it's more of a marketing ploy to make more money than an attempt to improve the challenge and fun of the game?" Because that was totally how she saw it now. Pretty clever.

[nine-and-ears.livejournal.com]

"Oh, a bit of both, really," the Doctor said. "Money reasons will always stand behind most human ideas."

[nun-better.livejournal.com]

Rosette considered that statement with a toughtful hum. "Always? Really?" she asked with a curious tilt of her head as she tried to scan through her limited human experiences. Sure, she had a habit of being interested in what could bring money, but, really...all the big stuff...the important things, had nothing to do with money at all. Then again, all the important stuff didn't centre around just human ideas and goals... "You think so?"

[nine-and-ears.livejournal.com]

"Almost always," the Doctor said. "There's a couple other things that factor in as well. And for the most part, people get along pretty well."

[nun-better.livejournal.com]

"For the most part, yeah," Rosette agreed after a moment of thought. "Hard to categorize people in a broad category, I think. Take demons, for example. They're all rather predictable. With other people, you've got no idea where they'll come from, where they'll go, what they'll do...."

[nine-and-ears.livejournal.com]

"Not a clue, true," the Doctor said. "Fancy a slice of pizza?"

[nun-better.livejournal.com]

"Ah, I'd love a slice!" Rosette beamed brightly at the suggestion (which she rather felt was in line with the unpredictableness she was talking about, unless she thought about it too much, because, well, what else would you ask a person in a pizza place?).

[nine-and-ears.livejournal.com]

"Good," the Doctor said. "What sort of toppings do you like?"

[nun-better.livejournal.com]

"Ummm..." Rosette scratched her nose a little as she thought; she wasn't all too familiar with pizza. She was much more of a hoto doggido hot dog fan. Reaching a conclusion, she shrugged. "I'll eat almost anything, really."

She would, too. Try her.

[nine-and-ears.livejournal.com]

"Be back in a jiffy," the Doctor said. And he was, with two very large slices of pizza, one for him, and one for her.

"Pineapple and ham for you, and a bit of mushroom and sausage for me."

[nun-better.livejournal.com]

"Yay! Thank you!" Rosette smiled as she took the offered pizza. "Interesting choice," she deduced, taking a bite. Interesting, and rather tasty, too. The smile broadened as she chewed.

And the conversational chatter started before she was finished. "Aziraphale taught me how to play pool last night," she said idly. "Maybe we should play sometime? I gotta practise if I'm gonna get any good."

[nine-and-ears.livejournal.com]

"I'd love the chance to see you bending over a table play you," the Doctor said.

[nun-better.livejournal.com]

"Good," Rosette nodded firmly with a grin. "Something to look forward to. Do you play a lot of pool? Because I don't want to get beaten too badly unless you're into that; but I don't want you to go easy on me either at all, rawr."

[nine-and-ears.livejournal.com]

"Played a fair amount of snooker in my time," the Doctor said. "But I wouldn't say I'm a regular pool shark or anything."

[nun-better.livejournal.com]

Rosette smirked, winking before she took another bite of her pizza. "That's exactly what I wanted to hear."

[cantjossme.livejournal.com]

In a flash of light (http://community.livejournal.com/fandomtownies/1340784.html?thread=60516464#t60516464), Mel suddenly appeared in mid-air and landed on one of the wait staff at the Pizza planet. The pizza he was carrying flew in the air and landed on Mel.

"FRAK!"

Within seconds she was out the door and running back towards Caritas.