Log - Dogtown Exploration [Closed]

[thedoctorsmate]

Who: Donna Noble thedoctorsmate & Yelena Belova musicdied
When: January 26th
Where: Dogtown
Summary: Donna and Yelena explore Dogtown and run into some very unfortunate effects.
Warnings: psychic pain, memory-loss, swarms, biting, uncanny animals

H16
This should be a simple meadow, one filled with red flowers in the spring and taller grasses in the summer. It stretches up to the north. Stepping foot into the meadow brings with it a searing pain inside one's mind that must be fought through, one that burns at the edges of memories, taking important names, dates, something precious. Something you love is gone and cannot be recalled without the intervention of some other power.

H14
This area of the forest seems peaceful at first with open meadow areas dotted around. Pausing, you might see something darting through the grass. It's small and fuzzy, probably some sort of mouse. A longer survey of the field reveals what seems to be burrows here and there, some with soft noses and whiskers poking out. Take a step into the wrong spot and the peace is broken entirely. The squeal is tiny, but it is a definite battlecry. Small bodies flood from the burrows and towards those who have dared to invade their territory. With a better look, it seems these things could fit into the palm of the hand, but they are more mouth and teeth than anything else. Some sort of shrew? It maybe hard to determine as they will swarm and bite anyone they can, only relenting when the intruders have stumbled 'far enough' away or have been killed. They rip through clothes and flesh very quickly, and while the bites might not be bit, a thousand papercuts can be very deadly.

Comments

H16

[thedoctorsmate]

"Watch out for eyes," Donna warns as they emerge from the trees and spot what seems to be a field of red flowers. She's not trusted flowers entirely since the festival after Wolf Pen. Seeing the flowers watching her had been extremely off-putting, all things considered. "Reckon that's more Eye nonsense up ahead."

[musicdied]

"And trapdoors," Yelena says, slowing as they approach the edge of the field to look for telltale shadows, boxy shapes that might suggest the presence of dozens of tiny apocalypses. If the patchwork of horrors really is Dogtown's alternating strangeness concentrated into smaller and smaller spaces instead of left to run wild across the entire area, as she'd theorized with Manji, why not that?

There's a part of her that's tempted to suggest they go back, get some accelerant, and torch the entire field before it has a chance to do anything horrible - but that wouldn't tell them anything, and is as likely to make matters worse as it is to make them better.

[thedoctorsmate]

"Right." Donna takes a deep breath. "Allons-y!"

She steps into the field and it seems... fine at first. The flowers just wave along, and she takes another step, turning her focus outward to keep watch for what they're looking for. It's a few yards in that disaster strikes.

"Not seeing any- ah! Ah!" She stumbles, nearly goes down as she clutches her head, a sudden and intense pain searing through her.

[musicdied]

It's the only warning Yelena has. A cry, a stumbling step, and she reaches out to steady Donna, only for her grip to turn bruising hard when the pain strikes, blurring her vision until the field looks like a sea of fire, a sea of blood.

For a moment, she is back, back, back, in a warren of metal rooms and grated floors and endless, pointed cruelty.

Your pain only makes you stronger.

It's always been a lie - but her pain has taught her how to handle more pain.

"Come," she says, voice ragged and half a sob. "We have to keep moving."

Before this - whatever it is can burn them up entirely. Before they fall here, where no one will find them without falling into the same trap.

H14

[thedoctorsmate]

It has been a day. The field of flowers had been a wretched start to it, and knowing they might need to go back through there to get out... Donna doesn't relish the thought. But at least there's a colony of fuzzy little creatures ahead to temper the terror. She's never been a fan of mice in her house, but outside? That's where they belong, isn't it? She pauses to lean against a tree at the edge of the meadow and just watch.

"D'you reckon those are, like... prairie dogs or something?" Donna has absolutely no idea what they are. She's maybe not the best at rodent identification. "I've heard about them being in America. Thought they'd be longer."