Alright, I have to start recording events again, so much happened in a short time that it’s already starting to feel like a dream…
So, after the incident with the Crimson Cube and Julie , we arrived in 1929 and quickly found ourselves in a pickle with Capone…
Some explanation and introductions
So, I arrived in the middle of console room/pub and naturally asked some questions about who the others were, while thanking « Archie » (the emergency system/consciousness from what he told us) for saving my life, asking him obvious questions, like who he was and why did everyone turned into our ex-prime minister and why we did not… there was some confusion and some answers (not enough, I’ll have to grill him later!).
Archie explained us about the Master/Saxxon, the Time War and how the Archivist were the sole survivor of his race (is that true ? What about this “Doctor”? Did he die afterwards ?), he wanted to save the world from his but first we had to « reassemble » him (with an unknown number of pieces lost through time and space). He chose us and protected us from the Master beam just for that.
He advised us to choose some rooms and rest before arriving to our arrival tour our next destination, particularly insisting on rest for me in the Zero Room (was it just some disappearing remnants from my ordeals, or is there definitive side effects from my exposure ? Will I be alright with time ? I really have to know soon !) .
Still the room was nice, having some of my favourite books and films in it (it is good to be able to read His Dark Materials, Arsène Lupin, The Royal Assassin and other childhood books in French…Still better not to show them too prominently ! ). I could finally have some time to think things over and started this journal in order to help me…
Then I guess we all followed that advice before preparing ourselves for 1929 in the Lexington Hostel (clothes, accessories and money, the usual before a job). I could not help but keep kept my swanky overcoat, it has some style ! The Archivist asked once more how I felt as the others were about to go out (what is wrong with me ?!) and advised everyone not to destroy history/destabilize the economy/loose a sonic screwdriver and/or change history…
“ Professional” arrival and underground railroad boat
We arrived in a cellar with another trapdoor next to the TARDIS (this “chameleon circuit” is really impressive !) .
Anthony wanted us to get out of there quickly to look for the Archivist, especially as there was a cellar full of guns there, but Nevyn saw another trapdoor and could not resist the temptation to take a look, and to be honest, I was kind of itching to do just that ! When there were some gurgling noises, I really had to know what was down there, and soon we all entered the dark corridor to see if someone was in trouble.
And (of course) Anthony announced us by asking if anyone was there !
So, the gangsters were fully alert and ready to shoot when we arrived ! Luckily, I quickly improvised a lie with a French accent (there were French people in Chicago at that time) by saying something about the cops forcing the boss to change his plans. Apparently, « The Boss » had wanted to hire some French singers, and I just managed to convince that’s why I was there, while the others pretended to be my manager, accountant, security…
With a little charm to one of the goons, we all managed to arrive to the hotel more official entrance ! There, there was a lot of corrupted cops (what else ?) and people from high society drinking, playing and enjoying cabaret… we were taken directly to Al Capone who wanted to hear me sing right away, instead of a certain Annette Handshaw (just my luck !) !
A show to die for
I knew I had to be good to avoid us being all shot on the spot, but I did not know any jazz or songs from the 20’s ! Fortunately, I suddenly remembered that my mother used to love Cabaret, she watched it often and it made her feeling nostalgic… of course, it was supposed to happen in the 30’s and we were in 1929, but what’s a few years’ difference ? Besides, it’s not like I had time to learn a song… So, I crossed my fingers, took inspirations from one of my mother’s favourite films and went on stage.
It worked all too well in the end (ah men, a few dances moves and hints and they’re putty in you hand!)… Capone was completely under my spell, but as such, he intended to take advantage of me that very night ! During a conversation with a lot of leering and touching (he really seem to enjoy every sin under the sky !), we still managed to learn that there were a new gang in town, which distributed addictive alcohol and that « the boss » was counting on us for something, probably of a violent nature ! There also was a meteorite shower a little before… Nevyn also discussed with a surprisingly philosophical goon, Tolliver.
Pondering and plotting
We finally managed to convene in Evelyn’s room and discuss ours misgivings about « Archie » in his absence. Though I did find Anthony to be somewhat exaggerating about him (after all, he has saved my life 3 times over already, between Julia’s shooting, the Masters running after me and my time radiation’s poisoning…), Evelyn had some good points, he was hiding a lot of things and we did not know who the Archivist really was… we would have to be careful with him (withholding a piece of his essence until we were sure of his intentions, for example, especially as he could read into our minds !), but I did not think a direct confrontation such as Anthony enjoyed would work and suggested rather empathy and social engineering…
Midnight’s escapade
I did not want to go to the penthouse’s suite given by Capone, as he obviously intended to show me his « personal appreciation » that very same night and thought to sleep in Evelyn’s room. Still, there could be clues there, and I wanted to make it appear as if I had been there and he had just missed me. Once there, I took a close look and find a picture of an enemy of him, probably the boss of this new gang. But I had already stay there too long (me and my damn curiosity, I really should be more careful !) and Capone was already at the door ! I just had time to put things into place, grab a silk pyjamas in hand and I climbed through the window…just in time ! He was obviously quite drunk and aroused, and he started to look for me everywhere, so I opened the next window to my left…
A cunning con ?
… and discovered 2 cops working undercover for Ness and commenting on Capone’s next conquest in rather disagreeable terms… and that one of them was Tolliver (the other one was a regular guy named Mike Malone)! I could probably have sneak out rather easily, but I had a better idea (or so I thought)… why not manipulate these cops into joining forces and helping us ?
For once, they would really work for the greater good and not to uphold unfair laws !
So I introduced myself as someone from a « special group » sent to help them as undercover agents. It worked like a charm and pretty soon, we were all into Evelyn’s room exchanging information. We wanted to go to sleep and investigate together the next day, but Al Capone was not one man to get turn down by a hint and an empty room ! As he could not find me, he wanted some consolation from Evelyn !
Tolliver
Time’s double troubles
Evelyn was surprisingly good under pressure (interesting…) and sent us to hide in the bathroom as she tried to make him drink enough to pass out. She managed to manipulate him, but Anthony, worried about her life, got his solar screwdriver out « just in case ». Tolliver and Malone immediately ask what it was, but I managed to calm them down by talking about « experimental equipment » that did not work out very well (‘subtle” hint to Anthony to hide it away).
Evelyn finally succeeded and started to search him over and found a paper with an address and a time : Luigi’s, 9 AM. She took a picture with her phone, unfortunately, as we did not hear any noise, this was just the time we got out to see what was happening and the cops panicked and pointed guns at us. I wanted to find some credible lies to calm them down, but Anthony and Nevyn, probably terrified, started to tell them all about time-traveling, and our quest for pieces of the Archivist’s soul… Ah, amateurs, this is why I usually work alone ! Still, I thought « we are kind of Archie’s Angels » was a nice quip, who knows, perhaps I am getting better…
Tolliver appeared to be riveted though, he’s clearly a nerd and a geek of that time and could perhaps have made a decent time-traveler…but they wanted to see Archie and the TARDIS !
From there it only got worse… Al’s goons were at the door, and though it was not exactly subtle, Evelyn managed to get them to get Capone’s out of her room by real cheek (definitely not your usual math teacher !) ! Tolliver accepted to wait until the morning and, once more onto the sleep…we wanted to go into the TARDIS to be secure, but Capone and his goons were in the lobby !
After seeing Annette Hanshaw quitting her historical manager, I was trying to find some fire escape (I could not exactly suggest to everyone to climb out a window, I was already lucky enough the cops had not mentioned my unusual entrance), when Evelyn thought of recalling the TARDIS, which was actually an advanced function of our keys.
Annette Hanshaw
It worked, but it resulted in a dressing down from Archie…which was kind of expected given what we had revealed to 2 random guys ! Besides, Anthony decided to connect telepathically to him so he knew everything ! I wished we had just talk to him, we could have avoided to mention some mistakes we made !
And I realised then that we really could have stopped Hanshaw’s career… I felt kind of bad about the woman, I literally upstaged her doing something I don’t especially like in order to save us and may have actually destroyed her life…
After another arguing with Anthony (the two of them are really quite annoying, Archie’s smugness and authoritarian tone responding to Anthony’s bitterness and sometime bad faith in kind), he sent us back to the hotel to try to go on with our mission.
I love the smell of lasers in the morning
Anyway, after a few hours of sleep, we were awakened by Capone’s goons : apparently we were part of the mission we had learnt about the night before (Tolliver was here as well, undercover) ! So, we went along with the flow, hoping to find some clues…
Nevyn was in charge of getting in the bar to let group in, and I quickly joined him to help. He wanted to use his screwdriver to open the backdoor, and as much as I would have liked to see it in action, I remembered that this was also a speakeasy and that we could get in by simply knocking ! We did not know the password, but a « divine » inspiration (and the equipment from Capone’s goons I suddenly remembered) made me use the same bluff as before : we were a band here to see the boss ! It worked out fine, even if I inadvertently vexed a dwarf by complimenting him on how big and manly he was before seeing him, but I managed to get us into the bar and next to the manager.
Nevyn went to get « the rest of the band », I tried to tell him that this was not a good idea to help start a shooting with innocents in the way, but he did not really see how he could avoid it, he tried but could not talk the gangsters out of their mission…
He stayed behind along with Anthony and Evelyn. I had a bad feeling about this, so I took the risk to say to the manager that I had heard a rumor that the police was going to raid the bar soon. It worked out rather well to get the last night owls out (as well as the boss and the manager, unfortunately) but the gang’s goons were quite ready for Capone’s men, and they had laser guns and forcefields ! It was a massacre and I saw the poor Tolliver getting literally torn to pieces. It would have solved one of our time paradox problems, but I could not let an innocent die, especially as I felt I kind of got him into this weirdness (and we were already quite outside of official history with this alien technology anyway) !
So I took the risk to use my atronic screwdriver to rewind his timeline just before he entered the bar and Evelyn (in the official restaurant) managed to get him out of danger then !
It may turn out to be useful in the end, as we saved his life, we may convince him to keep quiet… and write sci-fi novels or work for Torchwood with Harkness, who knows !
It was finally over, Evelyn was carefully looking what was happening in the speakeasy from her hiding place, while Anthony and Nevyn were listening to see if the gun fire was over… The manager’s goons were not paying attention to me behind the bar, so I tried too see if I could sneak out backstage where the boss went…
I think I can hear Archie, I’ll stop now…To be continued
Le chaudron créatif 