Application for Don Quixote de La Mancha

[i_don_quixote]

An aged man comes tottering up to the gates, dressed in battered leather armor and carrying a slightly bent lance from which flies a shabby pennant. His white-bearded face, clearly designed for scholarly gentleness and dignity, has somehow acquired an expression of fanatical confusion. A sword hangs off-kilter at his side, and upon his head is

Comments

[tomato_fiend]

((Having just written half an essay on the effect of Spanish colonialism on Latin America. I had to come over and comment.))

Duckula bounded over as soon as he heard the man singing, and in typical fashion, paid little attention to whatever else he was saying, mainly because it was in the crazy old style of speaking. The sort Igor would want him to revert to any day now.

He arrived to find the man on the floor, and Duckula poked him on the shoulder, "Hello there. You like to sing? I love to sing." See, here was something which could break the ice. Maybe this guy was famous. He could sing well, for an old man.

[i_don_quixote]

Don Quixote struggled valiantly to his feet. For whatever unfathomable reason, his dementia found the prospect of a two-dimensional caped talking mallard less offensive than that of a two-dimensional man-sized talking mouse.

"I greet thee, good sir," he said politely to the exotic foreign gentleman. "I do indeed. One cannot better pass an evening than to sing the praises of Heaven, of a fair lady, a mighty hero, or one's beloved home." He placed his hand over his heart and bowed. "I am Don Quixote de La Mancha, as you may have heard. Might I have the honor of your name?"

[tomato_fiend]

Oooh, he was polite. A real gentleman, Nanny would say. He knew what 'Don' meant, and where it came from, as he had a cousin. He gave the knight a nod of the head and smiled, "I am Count Duckula, and I do believe I have a Spanish cousin, Don Diego. Do you know him, by any chance?" Probably not. These humans knew nobody important.

[i_don_quixote]

Don Quixote had, in fact, never heard the name before; but as a good majority of his world was pure fantasy to begin with, this didn't slow him down for an instant. "A nobleman of wide renown and impressive reputation. I am most honored to make your acquaintance, Count Duckula."

[caycep]

((EEEEE OH MY GOD :D))

Cayce's mother had the original Broadway cast recording of Man of La Mancha on vinyl, when Cayce was growing up. Which meant that whether she wanted them there or not, the songs were in her head for the duration.

And so she can only summon up one response: an awkward sort of curtsey (the more awkward because she's wearing jeans) and, "Hail, Knight of the Woeful Countenance."

[i_don_quixote]

"Hail, fair maiden," the knight responds immediately, sweeping the Golden Helmet of Mambrino from his head and creaking chivalrously to one knee before her. "Surely thou art the Lady of yon beseiged fortress? Dost thy lord find need of swords and valor for its defense? Don Quixote is thy humble servant."

[caycep]

"I'm ... no. There's no Lord or Lady of the -- ah -- fortress, I'm afraid." She hadn't really thought this part through. "My name is Cayce Pollard, and this is ... um. Um. An enchanted realm."

It's bad enough explaining this to people who have some kind of context, but this is something else altogether. Cayce decides it'll be best to try and put things in terms that will make sense to the Don.

[i_don_quixote]

"Enchanted...?" The knight repeats, aghast, rising to his feet. "Then mine enemy, the Enchanter, hath made a prisoner of thee? O, base treachery! Pray tell me, gentle maiden, how many other goodly folk have suffered such a fate?"

[i_don_quixote]

"Knave! Wouldst thou challenge thy better on the field of honor?" Quixote bellows, outraged at the young commoner's presumption. "Thou shalt learn a most painful lesson! HAVE AT THEE!"

[i_don_quixote]

Drawing his own sword (not without a moment's awkward struggle,) Quixote--who has no knowledge of actual swordplay whatsoever--brings his weapon crashing down on Kira's head with a two-handed blow like a mallet. Fortunately, the edges of the blade are neither particularly sharp nor turned at the correct angle to do any real damage.

[a_lonely_god]

The Doctor has a rather massive headache, and for once it has nothing to do with the Master.

The problem is that while the part of him educated at the Academy is dead against -to put it mildly- the idea of fictional characters actually existing, the part of him that loves Earth culture is vaguely ecstatic over the arrival of Alonso Quijana. He’d gotten the headache from having a rather heated debate with himself about whether to go say hello.

He’d eventually won.

“Hail, good Sir Knight!” The Doctor calls out as he came up to the elderly man, grinning broadly. -he could go have a melt-down in the TARIDS later if he really needed to. This was too brilliant to pass up.-

[i_don_quixote]

"Hail and well met, good sir," the knight responds, pleased that these wrongfully imprisoned people have remained civilized in spite of their plight. "How may Don Quixote de La Mancha be of service to thee?"

[a_lonely_god]

“Oh, no service,” the Doctor replied easily, still grinning. “I just wanted to meet you. Not everyday one gets to make the acquaintance of so famous a knight as he of the Woeful Countenance. ”

Oops, he might have actually giggled a little at that. Well, Quijana probably wouldn’t notice.

[i_don_quixote]

Fortunately, Quixote did not. He was in fact quite pleased at how his reputation seemed to have preceded him here, considering he'd only received his title a few hours before. "Then I am most pleased to afford you the opportunity. Might I have the honor of thy name?"

[katoustheshit]

"Holy crap," says Katou when he comes. "You're old." He hasn't seen an old person yet here.

Well, besides the old lady, but that was different. He hadn't known it was weird to be old here then.

[i_don_quixote]

Quixote looked at the newcomer, perplexed. He wasn't old. He was in the prime of his life, fit and hale. Perhaps he simply seemed old to one who was so young.

"Indeed," was all he said, "and it should well become thee to address thy elders with courtesy, stripling. What might be thy name?"

[katoustheshit]

"With respect? Why? What did you do to get it?" He frowned. "I'm Yue Katou." Saying his name the western way was just weird.

[i_don_quixote]

"Master Katou," the knight acknowledged with a slight bow. "With time and experience come knowledge and wisdom, young sir. Thine elders might teach thee much of worth, if thou shouldst care to listen."