New Year's Eve

[broken_brushes]

If you had been upstairs in the Compound or in the Hub at six in the evening of December 31, you might have thought your eyes were playing tricks on you, or that you'd once again been whisked off to some strange, new place. Within the blink of an eye, the rooms had changed, sparkling instantly with festive decorations, and it was all so

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[sortofaman]

The Doctor had managed to get out of writing the final section of his thesis, only because it was New Year, after all. He could hardly skip out on that, particularly when the island had deigned to provide all sorts of treats, yet again. Though it was hardly like he was going to stick around and get completely off his face anymore, it was a good excuse to put on a suit.

Sipping a pint, he unknowingly ended up under the mistletoe, pondering the crowd and making strategic plans for snack consumption.

[seeyousoonthen]

Savannah had a can of Diet Coke and was wandering through the crowd, happy as could be. She's had fried chicken with all the trimmings and was full and just happy to be here to enjoy it all.

"Doctor!" she said happily. "How are you? Enjoying your beer and everything?"

[sortofaman]

"Savannah," the Doctor said, grinning at her broadly. Partially it was honest friendliness and partially it was the beer, but that was okay. "Yeah, I'm doing well and it's really really nice beer. How is your..."

He sniffed the air. "Coca-Cola, isn't it?" Guesswork, anyway.

[seeyousoonthen]

"Diet, yeah. I never thought I'd ever taste it again and I've missed it so much. I know, it's an awful vice,"she laughed and there was something really genuine in it. She wasn't joking, she considered her love of Diet Coke to be a real vice.

[sortofaman]

"A vice?" The Doctor lifted his eyebrows at that, finding it amusing at best. "Oh, well, you know, we're all allowed our own small indulgences. Or we should be, as long as they don't hurt anybody. Diet Coke's pretty harmless."

[seeyousoonthen]

That made her smile brightly. "That's true," she agreed. "And since it's just one night, so I hear, it can't get out of control."

Not like the last party she went to.

[sortofaman]

"Well, maybe some people can get out of control. But not those sticking to Diet Coke, I'd reckon," the Doctor said, and sipped from his new pint, slowly. It wasn't bad. "And those of us who are married with children should behave ourselves appropriately, I believe."

[seeyousoonthen]

"Yes, you better," she teased. "You're held to a higher standard. Where's your other half?" She looked around the massive crowd as if she'd just be able to pick one person out of the hundreds.

[sortofaman]

"Oh, he's mingling. He's not overly fond of parties, so he's probably mingling by hanging around by the opposite wall," the Doctor freely admitted. "So, Savannah, have you spotted anything lovely on the snack table? I've not sorted out exactly what I want yet."

[seeyousoonthen]

"There's som real good fried chicken. Real chicken, too," she said with a bright smile. "And I saw there was pizza and some stuffed mushrooms. There's so much I don't know how you can pick. I'm going to stuff myself all night."

[sortofaman]

"Oh Rass," the Doctor muttered under his breath. "Fried chicken, that sounds entirely too good for words. Did I ever tell you about the time I was stuck in Atlanta? Funny story, has to do with Diet Coke, in a way. Diet Coke and the CDC, really rather complicated."

Indeed, they were going to have to roll him home, and Chase was likely to Have Words about it.

[seeyousoonthen]

"That sounds like an amazing story. Tell me," she said, listening eagerly. Her eyes were bright as she devoted all her attention to him.

[sortofaman]

"Well," the Doctor said, leaning against the wall almost bonelessly, "You might be too young, but they introduced Diet Coke in the early 80s. Some agencies had actually manipulated the company into inserting hallucinogens to attempt subliminal messaging in advertising. They figured they could fool people into taking anything as the 'flavour' of the artificial sweetener. Which all sort of went off okay for a while, but then they introduced that new formula of Coke, which went down like a lead balloon, because they wanted to expand their reach...and people started having psi powers, and things got really messy..."

[seeyousoonthen]

Savannah blinked at him, slow blinks that matched her slightly parted lips to make her the very picture of stunned. She didn't know whether to believe him or not but she didn't see any reason he'd outright lie to her.

"Really?" she asked, unable to think of anything else to say to that.

[sortofaman]

"Yeah, so the CDC got in touch with some people at the UN who knew people that I had worked with...really complicated connections. They were worried about the psi emissions causing unrest, the UN was a bit more worried that it'd attract unsavoury elements...to make a long story short, a few explosions sorted things, and then a lot of public relations. Believe me, everything is PR, Savannah."

To make a long story very, VERY short.

[seeyousoonthen]

"That's...amazing," she said, the story spinning her all around. She'd never heard of anything like that. Not a peep.

"Wow. Okay. So, do you do that kind of thing a lot? Explosions and PR?"