apocalypsehowcomm | Log - Catch-all for September/October

Who: Donna Noble

thedoctorsmate & OTA
When: Throughout September/October
Where: Around the City
Summary: Happenings from the TDM and Donna snooping around town
Warnings: scopophobia; paranoia

I. Mired Way
"'Cha see that?" Donna whips her head to one side, searching the dark trees for whatever had caught on the edge of her vision. The sense of being watched is nearly overwhelming in a way she really doesn't like. The spotlight is all well and good, but only when you know where the rafters are and who's bloody well controlling the lights so you can yell at them to shut it off. "Over there! There it is!" She turns her head again.

"Oi! Whoever you are in the bushes, we came in here to get you, so maybe stop playing Where the Wild Things Are and come out on the path!" Annoyance. Better to project annoyance than the deep-seated fear that's gathering in her throat. She knows whatever that thing is, it's not who they came in looking for... but the way back seems unfamiliar and far more overgrown than it was a few seconds ago, and she doesn't know what else to do.

II. The Path More Traveled By
"This seems... nice." Too nice. Donna looks up through the break in the trees as she and her companion walk along. "I mean, if I'd hopped a fence to go dog-walking, I reckon this is the way I'd go mind you. It's not all creepy. Somehow, I thought it was gonna be creepier. Was the last time I was in here. Where even are we in the park? I dun' think my phone's GPS is working." It has them jittering around the entirety of Dogtown, as far as she can tell.

She glances over at the other person. "Well, don't look a gift horse, right? Maybe it'll be easy finding this bloke and telling him off, yeah?"

III. Girl Friday Around Town
Donna's a modern woman, and one who prefers to have a relatively active social life, even in Gloucester. Maybe especially in a place like Gloucester. It's why she can be found at the General's Store, scoping out some fancier trail mix options and hemming and hawing over that choice. There are a few other knickknacks she's also eyeballing as potential Christmas gifts. She hadn't had the connections or the money to do this last year, but by golly, she'll be starting early this time!

You might find her at one of the local cafes, sitting out on the patio and sipping an iced coffee while she scrolls her phone, taking in what's left of the summer while she still can.

Or maybe you'll find her at the library, sneaking around the shelves or tapping away at one of the terminals. She's clearly trying not to be noticed with mixed success. There are a few points where she straightens up and pretends at being a librarian when she spots someone moving toward her.

Or maybe you've been invited by Donna (or someone else) for an after work drink at one of the local bars. Donna has something fruity in-hand, and she's talking animatedly, either to you or someone nearby. "Have you seen the latest pictures from the new space telescope they've got? Bonkers what they're doing these days. I mean, I've seen a lot of that stuff from close up, and it's just... spot on, right there! Can you imagine how many people this is going to inspire? My granddad would be so happy. God, I hope he makes it all the way to now back in our world."

IV. Wilcard
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"I have no idea. I put them down under the Flesh in my notes, though. Figure random body parts in bags fit that theme, even if it's technically bones." Donna shudders a little bit. "But just... just holding the bags started to makes your gums itch and bleed and- pretty sure you might've started losing teeth if you held on too long.

"I've had nightmares about losing my teeth, so it's pretty, y'know? No thanks. Get enough of that while I'm asleep. Don't need it in reality!"

"I've heard that's a really common nightmare." She herself feels a horrible skin crawling sensation at the thought of bags of loose teeth just lying around. Ugh.

Something moves in the corner of her eye, and her head snaps in that direction. Nothing. It's nothing.

"I guess that makes it a good fear to prey on." Seriously. She doesn't eat - she's a hologram, her teeth aren't even truly real - and thinking about them falling from her mouth still makes her gums itch.

"I guess they can all make use of something." Donna wrinkles her nose. "What sorts of nightmares d'you have? Or... can you have nightmares? Like when you're in low power mode, or something?"

This is easier. If they don't acknowledge the thing playing at the edges of their vision, then it can't make them afraid. Just keep walking. Just keep chatting.

Cortana flinches slightly at the question. Given her past, it might be obvious with a little thought what sort of nightmares she might be having.

(Though actually, her nightmares contain a lot of even worse shit, too.)

Still, she maintains an air of nonchalance when she does her best to answer.

"I don't really have a low power mode but my mind can wander when I offline parts of myself for maintenance." Nothing is amiss here whatsoever, obviously! No monsters stalking them, no unpleasant memories in her head...

The flinch is noted, and Donna mentally gives herself a kick. She should really know better than to ask something like that. Good dreams. She should have asked about good dreams. "That-that's cool! So, like. You're like a dolphin, yeah? They rest one half to their brains at a time, y'know?"

She's 80% sure that it was dolphins. Marine mammals, in general? It's been ages since she watched one of the Planet Earth documentaries.

She blinks. "Never thought about it that way." She'd always been more interested in her similarities with Humans.

How many dolphins were left in her world, after everything the Earth had gone through?

"So ...any idea on how we're going to get out of here?"

"Oh, y'know? We'll wander back 'round to the fence. It's not like Dogtown goes on forever." It had better not go on forever. Donna is stalwartly focusing on reassuring Cortana in the hopes that it will reassure her and make whatever the flipping hell is following them hop off for green fear pastures.

"Next time we come in, I'm thinking we need a better marker system, though. Especially if we're going off-trail, right? Does the story of Hansel and Gretel still exist in your time?"

"You know, I have encountered places that are physically bigger on the inside."

So has Donna, of course, not that Cortana knows that. Her voice is light, almost teasingly casual as she says it, but she really hopes that's not what's going on here.

"It does, though it's probably known by different titles in the colonies. Would a marker even stay once we placed it or would it be like the breadcrumbs? I wonder..." She trails off, musing to herself about the possibilities.

"We could try retracing our own footsteps, you know."

"Have you?" Well, she doesn't know the Doctor, so it's not the TARDIS, that's for sure. "Computer shenanigans, or something else? And we are retracing our steps. More or less. Unless you can put us exactly on track, in which case, lead on MacDuff! Dunno if markers will work, but they're worth a try."

"Think more more like compressed slipspace bubbles and other space time weirdness." Which is probably something that Donna would need a lot of explanation to understand. It's also probably something Donna doesn't want to hear all that explanation for, hence the short version.

"I do have an exact memory of the path we took... it might be good to compare things to see if the landscape has changed at all since we moved through it. Considering it's already changed considerably from what Dogtown is supposed to look like."

"Yeah... wondering if that's in our heads or in reality. I mean, places don't usually just change. 'Less they're designed to." She ponders that for a moment. "If there anything beyond the supernatural, inexplicable weirdness that could throw off your internal censors?"

"Nothing that I know of short of direct damage." It's not so much her sensors she'd be relying on as her internal memory, though that does require what she experienced to have been accurrate and not interfered with at the time those memories were formed... She makes a face. "But given the nature of our enemy, I wouldn't be surprised if they managed to cook something up." She sounds so incredibly irritated by this and she is - or at least, it's a feeling that she's more willing to indulge than terror.

"No doubt. Has it happened before here? Like with, I dunno, one of the effects we've had. I know you're probably immune to some of them. Small relief there. But if some of them are messing with you in other ways, don't like that, either." And it goes back to the fact that Cortana's more vulnerable in some ways, even as she has advantages, as well.

"Right. Well. Do the best you can, and we'll get out of here. Hop to!"

She stiffens. "Not here, no. At least, nothing beyond the standard hallucinations."

She doesn't say anything else, just gesturing for Donna to follow her as she sets out to - hopefully - lead them back the way they came.

Log - Catch-all for September/October - Open

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