A Land in Eternal Night

~ 2001 - Earth - England - Private Bend, a small town much too tiny for a simple map & very, very different from the rest of the world ~

"There was this world. A land like no other. It was called Neverland, if you must know." The mother laughed, shaking her head drearily as her tired eyes explored the landscape right outside the bedroom window. This was the story she would share within her final moments of life? That seemed hardly right, but it was the one her daughter wanted to hear. The story of Peter Pan. To never grow up. "Mother?" Her daughter mumbled, her chin resting against her mother's hand in an attempt to keep her near. The mother smiled gingerly, "Now, now. Mustn't fill your head with nonsense just before your father..." She trailed off. The girl's father wasn't going to come. He never would. She was to face this alone, her daughter's chin atop her fingers. "Peter Pan, a young boy. Never wanted to grow old... Never wanted a thing to change besides their adventures. New ones, always new ones. But always lie the promises of never growing up." The girl was smiling by now. The mother was lost in her story until her throat ran dry and the words no longer came.

~ 2014 - Same town, same Earth, same people, same weirdness ~

I sat impatiently, my feet dangling over the edge of the bench as I curled up to it's side. I was getting annoyed. Anyone would if they were forced to wait this long. This long for a tour guide of all people. A town this small didn't need someone like that, did they? I squirmed, trying to get a clearer view of the office building the man in the funny hat had wandered into. I couldn't see a thing. That was just another factor to my misery.

They said green people and fairy dust on the brochures. Who said that? Who said anything like that at all? Green people and fairy dust. I picked at my nail polish, my eyes wandering about the grass and the street as I waited for the thoughts to click together. Green people? That could be a thousand different species. Not that I remembered many, my memory was still rebuilding itself. But green people was always a funny start. I pulled my legs closer to my body and continued watching the door, half expecting a little green monster to waltz out. Or anyone. This place was like a ghost town. A ghost town with fairy dust.

((Fairy dust. 10 POINTS FOR GRYFFINDOR))

Robin rushed into the blob of people, pushing and shoving her way through to find out what was going on. Even if she was going to be late for the Doctor later - which he deserved, at this point - this was definitely worth checking out. Green people and fairy dust? Either these people were all loons or there was some kind of alien here. She was bored anyway, might as well come check it out. Seeing a bench with an odd woman curled up into the side, she decided that was a good place to avoid people and possibly make a new friend. That, and she really hated standing in the giant flock of tall people who probably weren't even that tall. And she needed to know exactly how late she was going to be later. See? Lots of reasons to talk to random strangers. Taking a seat next to her, she grinned, waving her fingers in greeting. "Hello, nice to meet you. Hope you don't mind but do you have the time?"

((Ugh. This is the shortest intro I've made in a long time.))

(( It's okay, I didn't leave much room for a long reply.. ))

I glanced up, raising a thin eyebrow. "Sorry?" She looked familiar. Most people did at the first look, but her face was different. I really didn't care either way, I hardly did anymore. But I got the tiny bit curious. Turning down to my watch, I raised an eyebrow. "Uh... Noon, I think. It's always dark here. Ignore it." I said curtly, then looked back at the crowds of people wandering down the road. They looked normal enough. One person looked just as simple as a piece of paper. I set my eyes on the stranger. "You know they actually believe a bloody fairy tale. A fairy tale of all things." I rolled my eyes, attempting to shove my legs closer to my body. It didn't work very well. If fact, it was painful. But I continued to squish myself. "Peter Pan, that bloke who never wanted to grow up. Green clothing, yeah? Well, that's what the brochure meant, right? Not green skinned people. That'd make them all wonkers."

They all believed in a fairy tale. There's odd faces in the crowd with a distasteful tinge of green to their cheeks. "Where's the fairy dust?" I muttered under my breath, half acknowledging the fact that I had finally placed the girl's face.

Peter Pan, a fairy tale, a legend, but here..it's truth, it's real Read the headline across the newspaper followed by a picture of an alleged photo graph of the infamous figure, green tights, hat and everything. The Doctor chuckled with a smirk, his glasses reflecting the image of the paper as he peered up from the seat he was sitting at underneath an umbrella table out front of a quaint little coffee shop. Named Coffee-Pan. Immediately The Doctor caught sight of a tour bus, the only thing that appeared to contain life, opposed to the rest of the small town that resembled a post apocalyptic-like scene. Suddenly the image of a man passed in front of him, stopping once in view of the bus before peering back over his shoulder to The Doctor, "You should come along" he insisted, "Trust me, it'l be fun. Everyone that comes on board never come back the same".

The Doctor rose an eyebrow as he raised up from his chair and flopped the newspaper down onto the table, "Or never come back at all" he mumbled a reply to the man before making his way past him and entering the street leading up to the bus. The man eyed The Doctor curiously, watching the image of the suited man walk off towards the bus and eventually board it before finally following after him. Upon entering the bus, The Doctor immediately noticed a few familiar faces but instead of confronting them, he chose to quickly spin into one of the seats in the front row. Making sure not to glance behind him, knowing full well his hair would give him away. But Peter Pan, an actual Peter Pan? How could The Doctor resist not looking into it, especially sense there was nothing else to do.

Hannah sat at the back of the bus. 'Green people and fairy dust' she thought to herself grinning. 'I wouldn't miss it for the world.' She sat back and gazed out of the window. She had wanted an adventure for so long and this was her big moment. She turned her head away from the window and gazed around at all the people. No one she knew. Yet. She would need to make a few friends 'Not now. Maybe I should wait until the tour is halfway through' she planned in her head. She got a notebook and pencil out and started drawing.

Robin's eyes popped open - noon?! How?! It was basically night out there, how was it noon?! Well... then she had about 8 hours to kill, didn't she? She was definitely sticking around now. Quickly masking her surprise, she simply sat and soaked in the information coming from the woman. An eyebrow raised as she heard that they believed in the fairy tale. Then again, it would explain the brochure, but honestly, there'd be no way that all of these people truly thought he was real, right? She suppressed a giggle, deciding on rubbing this missed adventure in the Doctor's face as soon as she saw him. Well.. as long as he wasn't in a mood. 

'What do you mean, "Where's the fairy dust?" I mean, I can understand the green people, actually I've met some, but of all the things, you wonder about the glitter?' Robin questioned as she craned her head to try and see who else was coming along. No one that stood out to her, at least. 'Well... I guess I can't say I don't wonder what they mean by that...' Fairy dust was a pretty vague term, could mean anything, really. Random glitter scattered everywhere, maybe making people fly - which would be much more entertaining to watch. She slipped into a frustrated frown, crossing her arms and waiting impatiently for something significant to jump start this mystery.

I rolled my eyes and stood up from the bench. "Yeah, well. One way to find out..." I started, glancing around the street until my eyes landed on that darned office building. "Find that annoying hat man." Without a second thought to Robin, I rushed across the road to the building. The look on the younger girl's face when I had left her sitting there had said enough. Impatience tied together with frustration. And my hand was itching to slap that stupid tour guide's cheek. My hand curled around the handle to the building as I glanced over my shoulder. My eyebrow lifted swiftly, "Come on, littlun, not waiting all day to see if you're coming." I yelled across the little to no traffic. That should be surprising me, but it was a small town with green tinted people and supposed fairy dust. Nothing should surprise me.

Pulling the door open, I disappeared into the building, expecting to see a bustling office with more than enough people. But all I saw was the very top of the tour guide's hat as he bent down to collect papers behind a copier. Normal enough... If it was night and he was working overtime. But he didn't look up when I entered, and the skin of the back of his neck was definitely exposed. And definitely green.

The Doctor sat ideally in one of the front seats on the bus, his legs resting on the handle bars in front of him as he leaned back, a bag of jelly babies resting on his left hand while his right popped one into his mouth every few seconds. Peering back over his shoulder, The Doctor noticed the growing amount of people outside of the bus, curiosity immediately engulfing him until he groaned and forcefully pulled himself up to a standing position. "Alright, let's see what all of this is about" He mumbled, jumping off of the bus and turning his attention to the back where a group of people surrounded a man who was trying to convince them to get on board the bus. The Doctor rose an eyebrow, his eyes fixed on the crowd and their differing facial expressions before something caught his eye. A sparkle. Something shinning in the light down towards the rear tires of the bus.

Peering down to the shinning portion of the tire and up to the man, The Doctor waited until the man was completely distracted before jetting down beside the tire, immediately beginning to investigate it. Setting his bag of jelly babies down beside him, The Doctor moved his left index finger across its surface then pulled his finger up between his eyes to get a better look at it. It was sparkling yellow dust. "Curious.." The Doctor mumbled under his breath, "Finding yellow dust on the tires of the bus that's ready to take it's passengers to neverland. Blimey..either they are really selling this well or...well...Neverland is real, it's just something nobody here think's it is". Glancing around, The Doctor pondered for a second, "I wonder" he mumbled before shrugging and licking the dust then immediately sticking out his tongue and cringing up his face, "Blagh blagh blagh!" he proclaimed disparagingly, "Bad, bad. Well at least i know now it's nothing harmful..that narrows it down to a couple possibilities".

Hannah noticed the man sit at the front and then get off the bus straight afterwards. "Hmmmm?" She said to herself and looked out of the window to see where he went. She saw him disappear behind the back of the bus. Hannah just shrugged it off and started to draw him. She had to find out who this man was and why he is investigating the back of the bus. All this bus does was just drive around. 'Nothing special about it really' she thought to herself

Robin raised an eyebrow at her comment. 'Hat man?' Before she was given an answer, the woman had already gotten up, obviously knowing where the hat man must be. Rushing to her feet, she followed her as fast as she can, trying not to be left behind without running. Then again, it wasn't like you could walk through traffic, now was it? Squeezing into the building behind her right before the door closed, she tried to see what she was seeing. Being as short as she was, she couldn't even see the tour guide, maybe the tip of his hat if she had known what it looked like. Since she had no idea anyone was there, she didn't think of not talking or waiting to see what was going on. She simply looked up at the girl for a moment before  crossing her arms and leaning back against the wall. 'So why exactly have we come in here? And who's hat man supposed to be?' In her head, all she could manage to think was that this woman did not make a whole lot of sense. It didn't occur to her that she should have kept her mouth shut like she did, because it also didn't occur to her that her height would hinder her from seeing what she did.

I groaned inwardly, rolling my eyes before glancing out at her from the corner of my eyes. I batted my eyelashes as if the question had the most obvious answer. Or that she wasn't just spilling the beans on my whole operation... If I could call it that. Or if there were in fact beans to spill. There really weren't, but it sounded spy-like in my head. I bit my lip, turning my head back to the bent over man. "Can you please attempt a whisper with that voice of yours? It would help." I had lowered my own voice, taking several steps back in the process to hide myself from the man's view. I grabbed Robin's arm and pulled her into a vacant chair that had been slightly pushed away from a much too clean work area. I perched myself on the side of the desk. "Look, I know you're tiny and such, but there's a bloke back there by a copier. He's a tour guide for the town and he was supposed to show me around, but I suppose I'm a bit too dull for him or something because he decided not to show up."

I grinded my teeth together in blunt frustration, not trying to shield my useless emotions from Robin as I rested back on my hands. "Don't you think the tour guide would know tons about this place? Who'd be better to learn information from?"

I heard someone clear a throat, and knowing from sight that it wasn't Robin, I lifted my head. Before us was a man, his skin tinted green and his eyes glowing with annoyance. His weird looking hat sat lopsided on his head, the colours swirling around as if they were in a boxing match. "You two aren't supposed to be in here." He muttered sourly, his eyes darting between Robin and myself. "And humans aren't supposed to be green, but I guess we're all breaking a few rules this afternoon." Were we supposed to run? Was I supposed to say something that would hurl us forward in this chapter of the fairy tale? My eyes flickered to the side of Robin's face that was visible to me.

"Interesting" The Doctor mumbled in awe as he scanned the side of the bus with his sonic screwdriver, his glasses now firmly on his face, "The entire bus is laced with the dust..". Finishing his scan, The Doctor tucked his sonic screwdriver back into the breast pocket of his suit and ran the palm of his hand down from his forehead to his chin with a sigh. "Alright..." He began again, standing up and snagging the bag of jelly babies as he stood, "I'm baffled. Not very often this happens...hmm...interesting is right. Dust covered bus taking people to never land with a few men preaching for more people to join with bad skin complexion". Suddenly the crowd a few feet away from The Doctor broke out into a line, each one of them boarding the bus with blank facial expressions. A pair of eyes locked onto the image of The Doctor, who followed after the crowd, scrutinizing them surveying, even trying to snap them out of it by waving it front of them.

"It's too late for them" The man suddenly said, grabbing the attention of The Doctor, who spun around on his heel to meet the gaze of the man, "They are my puppets. Doing what i say whenever i say. Amazing how easily humans can be manipulated..but you..you seem unfazed by my spell..you're something different". The Doctor nodded his head as he popped in a jelly baby, casually pacing around the man as he began his reply, "And you know! Not many people have the complexion you have..well..i mean unless you're a child from Shrek or a Raxacoricofallapatorian sneezed on you and i feel sorry for you..no i really do if that happened". The man growled, narrowing his eyes in anger as he listened to The Doctor's reply, "Although! I have to applaud you on your effort on this whole Peter Pan gimmick...really nice. Really creative. Never seen or heard of that before but seriously though..what are you planning?".

The man laughed proclaiming his cheerfulness and sudden excitement across the street by his voice alone. "You think i am going to tell you?!" He finally replied, "If i don't like it than it will stop" The Doctor quickly and coldly replied, "Just come on board...and we shall see" the man replied, waving to the bus.

Hannah finished drawing and put her pad away. She watched as more people got onto the bus. But they all looked different. She realised that they had all blank faces. "Interesting." She mumbled to herself. She got up and sat down next to one of the people who had got onto the bus "Hi there. I'm Hannah" She said. The person just sat there blanked face looking ahead "Ummmm hello" Hannah said again and waved her hand in front of his face "Well, This is going to be an interesting trip I can tell" She sighed and sat back in the seat and waited for the bus to depart.

Robin frowned as she listened to the woman, silently cursing her height. Not the first time it's gotten her in trouble... After a moment, she realized the girl was sort of rambling at this point, at least not saying anything too noteworthy, so she got on her tip toes and focused on trying to see the man herself. Still, she couldn't spot anyone, although she could see a bit of the copier. Hm. That was odd, was he sticking out from the side or something? She would have asked if she weren't already trying to keep herself from talking to avoid messing anything else up. Once the man had cleared his throat, she was brought back from her thoughts. Well that explains that. Raising an eyebrow at the green man, Robin crossed her arms in defiance. 'Ignoring the fact that you're green - which, by the way, could be a touchy subject and for all we know, racist,' Her eyes darted to the woman before resting back on the alien. At least she hoped he was alien. 'I'm assuming you shouldn't be in here either. And!' She poked a finger at him before gesturing to the girl beside her, 'She works here, so we don't exactly need your permission to come in, now do we?' In her head, she was pleading that this would work and that the woman would play along... And that this place wasn't run by green people, in which case, they were in trouble.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew she wanted me to play along, but I couldn't resist screwing it up. Lifting my hands defensively, a surprised gleam lighting up my eyes, I rolled my shoulders backwards and shrugged. "I don't work here. In fact, it seems rather lame to work here." I slipped around them both to wander to the copier. "And Robin, couldn't you have said you worked here instead of me? I hate copying things." I muttered, flicking the machine before glancing back at both Robin and the green man. I leaned against the copier, a smirk creeping onto my face as if I knew something they didn't. Which... Of course I didn't, it was just to add to annoying Robin. "Oh, and another thing, he's human. If you were wondering. Plus, racist? Why bring it up even?"

There wasn't a point to my rambling, but the man was grinding his teeth to no ends. He was running his hands over themselves. "I... I work here. This is my office building. Always has been. Past down from my mum's side." He stuttered, his words slamming together. I had to rethink what he had said to be able to process the sentences. But suddenly, his eyes flickered to life, his head snapping between Robin and I as he said, "Have you two gotten the fairy dust yet?"

The Doctor kept a keen eye on the man behind him as he walked up to the bus, only stopping once he was in front of the door. "What's the hold up? Don't you want to see what's in store?" The man asked with a grin that dissipated upon hearing The Doctor's reply, "What's in store is this entire plan of yours wrecking to pieces and you really don't want me back on this bus..because honestly, you missed out on something rather huge". The man glanced around him, growing agitated with The Doctor and his reasoning ramble, "And what would that be?" he growled, "Oh..nothing huge, just the several groups of people you blatantly missed who watched people get on this bus from benches and street corners. All of them knowing the rumors..all of them knowing these stories you formulated..every single one telling other people who tell others".

The man froze, running his hand down the back of his head as he lowered his gaze to the ground beneath him before peering up at The Doctor, "You have no idea how big this is you idiot! How hard we have worked to make this possible! If you or any other retard mess this up....we will kill you. Plain and simple..now get on this bus". The barrel of a gun brushed up against the belly of The Doctor, immediately shifting his attention down to it before the man motioned to the bus with the gun. Obeying, The Doctor rose up his hands to his sides and slowly entered the bus. The man quickly followed after him and directed him to a seat in the back where a blue haired girl sat. "Stay here or i will shoot you" The man ordered, glaring at The Doctor before turning and rushing off of the bus, his line of sight and direction aimed for the office building located across the street.

"You certainly didn't make that guy happy" Hannah expressed smiling at the man she had seen arguing with the bus driver "But you didn't seem to phased when he pointed that gun at you." She added turning to him "I'm Hannah" She said and held up her hand "And you are?" She asked the man with the spiky hair and cool suit

Robin closed her eyes tightly, willing herself not to reach over and slap that woman in the face. Honestly, she had to have seen it. From what she could tell, she wasn't a complete moron, so what in the universe made her think it would be a smart idea to not go along with it? Seriously, she could have gotten them killed, right then and there! Opening her eyes, she sighed inwardly, ignoring every word that came out of the woman's mouth from this point on. Tucking a piece of hair behind her ear, she listened to the green man - who was apparently human, according to this chick - go on about the place. Interesting. But that still didn't explain why he was green, or what was going on. At all. Her eyebrows arched as he asked about the fairy dust. Alright, now there was something helpful. 'No, actually, mind telling us what this "fairy dust" is?' She made the air quotes with her fingers before returning her arms to their crossed position.

A loud thud from behind her made her jump before she spun around to see what made the noise. Oh great. Another one. Honestly it wouldn't have mattered much except this one looked rather angry. That couldn't be good... 'Great! There, you two can have a lovely family reunion and talk about whatever it is you do here and I'll just be off.' Flashing a thumbs up and a false smile, she dashed out the door to avoid the certain confrontation about to go down. Well now where to go? Not like she could just hide in that - oh, look, a bus. Good enough for her. Rushing on board, she took a seat in the middle of the bus next to some elderly person. Hm. Most people would respond to a random child almost slamming them into the window, but this man did nothing. Odd...

Once Robin disappeared out of the small doors, leaving me with probably the most creepiest guy of this time, I placed my hands squarely on my hips. "Family reunion." I repeated sourly, rolling my eyes as I tapped the rather large heel against the ground. The green man squirmed under my strict gaze, before I groaned, stepping forward towards him all too quickly. "Hey, what are you-" He broke off once the hat atop his head was slipping around my fingers, being pulled away as I hurried out the door. "Leave me with the Mad Hatter." Though the man was bound to not hear it, the words were slipping out anyway. I was pacing my steps towards the bus Robin scurried off to, my eyes hovering on the next guy coming my way. He had already greedily watched Robin rush by, but now his beady eyes were locked on me, calculating each curl of the finger or any other motion I was making that he possibly wouldn't approve of. And once I was on the other side of him, he turned, following after me with no caution whatsoever. "Ever heard of the word 'stalking'? Because you're mastering it exquisitely." With no reply and just a shove with the palm of his hand against my shoulder, I was propelled up the short steps to the bus, my eyes roaming over the empty seats before taking the one nearest to the front. A woman was sitting beside me, her eyes lazily set on the leather of the next seat, eyelids balanced between closed and open. I straightened my posture, plopping the crazy hat onto my head as crookedly as I could manage.

"Yeah...i've had my fair share of dealing with people with guns" The Doctor mumbled a reply before looking over to the young girl and smirking, "I'm The Doctor" he replied, shaking her tiny hand. The doors of the bus closed shut as two people walked on board, both of which The Doctor knew as Toni and Robin. His smirk grew just in the slightest before the bus jerked forward causing everyone to propel into their seats then gaze around looking desperately for an explanation. Suddenly the doors opened once more an two men boarded the bus, both taking positions in the front, "We're off to Neverland kiddies...it's going to be so...much fun..so much fun" one man said before taking the seat of the driver while the other nodded his head in agreement, giggled, then sat behind him.

The Doctor rose his eyebrow, "Something tells me...it won't" he mumbled.

Olivia sat at the back of the bus, trying to hide herself away in the corner as she kept her eye on the man who had forced her onto the vehicle a few moments prior. Her eyebrows were drawn in a concerned frown as she took note of everyone else, trying to decide if she could trust anyone before letting out a small sigh. She really wasn't liking the situation she was in right now. The girl kept quiet, instead choosing to gaze forward and studying the crude graffiti on the back of the seat in front of her. It wasn't until a few tense moments later that Livvy heard the criminal and another suited man speak, and her multicoloured eyes looked up in obvious confusion. "Neverland? What do you mean, Neverland? Like in the fairy tale?" Olivia commented with a quiet voice.

"That's a strange name. Doctor. Surely that can't be your real name though?" She asked him and then she heard the driver talk about Neverland. "It does seem a bit bogus, all this Neverland stuff. It just doesn't seem real" She added "And all these people, they look like they're under some weird spell. It just doesn't make sense. Sorry if I'm speaking to much" She said to the Doctor. She hated it when she rambled on a bit to much

Robin frowned, poking the face of the old man next to her. Well he was boring. He literally did not respond to her poke. Nothing. Curiously, she moved a hand in front of his eyes to see if his pupils changed size - that was what they were supposed to do, right? Well they did... but very very slowly.... That couldn't be right. "Hm.." Turing around in her seat, she poked her head up and examined the row on the other side of the bus, finding a girl who seemed much more... well.. responsive. At least she could get a few answers out of her. After being rudely jerked forward - which barely seemed to cause people to care - she quickly moved from her seat and darted to the back of the bus where she sat and plopped down next to her with a grin. 'Neverland, fun, right? Must be, with the green people and glitter and such,' She mocked her enthusiasm, wondering if this was another one of the loopy natives or a proper, thinking person. 

((I really hope she didn't have anyone sitting next to her, just trying to include people x_x))

((She didn't, thank you ^_^))

Olivia bit her lip as she realised something; a majority of the people on the bus seemed dead, and that was the odd way of saying it. Sure, they sat upright and had their eyes open, but they never talked. Maybe they were just shocked or something... but no, that theory was proven wrong when she watched a girl, thankfully very much active and alive, poke at a man for any types of responses. When she got nothing, Livvy's frown turned deeper. What exactly's going on here? She thought to herself, too lost in her thinking phase to realise that the female from before was now sitting next to her saying something. Blinking, Olivia turned to look at her with a somewhat confused expression. "I don't think he's talking about the same kind of Neverland we know." She spoke in a mumble, stating the obvious as she fumbled with her hands in her lap.

"This is getting ridiculous." I lifted my head, gazing over the rows of seats, first spotting Robin talking up a storm with some random girl, then noticing the Doctor in another. At that, I spun back around to face the front of the seat, lowering down so my body was shielded by leather. My gaze turned towards the woman sitting at my side, focused contently on whatever she was studying. Though it didn't look like her attention was captured by something miraculous, she still didn't acknowledge me. I bent the cap lower against my forehead, eyes shifting towards the supposed two bus drivers, one giggling over something most likely not humorous. Once the first man exclaimed something about having loads of fun, I smacked my lips together, rolling my eyes lazily as I sat upright again. The second man, the one with the bothersome giggle, turned his neck, glancing at the passengers with a Cheshire grin. "Don't be such downers! Look at the lot of you! Least the others get to be numbed!" He exclaimed excitedly, his words modified by the excitement gleaming in his dark eyes.