001 - A Bad Day For Everyone

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[Misaki Kirihara appears on the plane looking very, very pissed. Her Sig P230 is unholstered and leveled at…

…no one.]

Tch.

[She lowers the weapon, very slightly, taking in her surroundings. Or rather, the lack thereof.]

Contractor!

[She turns in a slow circle, tension wrapped around her like a creaking spring.]

Contractor! Show yourself. You’re being stupid. Using your power on a member of the NPA will get you killed. It isn’t worth the laugh.

[A pause. She’s starting to get angry again.]

Show yourself!

[She looks up, down, around at the stars, and a pained expression crosses her face. Barely audible, she mutters,]

You people… know how to be cruel.

Comments

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[At that, she laughs outright, and it's such a relief that she can't stay hostile.]

Of course. [She rubs her forehead.] This is the strangest hallucination I've ever had.

Misaki Kirihara. And you are?

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[laughs with her]

I'm the Doctor. I'm afraid you're not hallucinating. This place is...more or less real. We're obviously not standing in real space. Still! It's nice to look at, isn't it?

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[The look she gives the sky could be considered dreamy.]

It is that...

'The Doctor?' [This time it is a raised eyebrow in his direction]

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[smiles a little softer at her look before beaming again]

Yep! Just the Doctor. Easy, eh?

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[She grins at her shirt and shakes her head.]

I suppose you could say that.

[She feels like sitting, so she does, straight on the not-floor of the Plane.]

You were dragged here like the rest? Into this not-hallucination?

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[and do as the romans do! so he sits down in front of her, legs crossed]

More or less, yeah. I was traveling before this. My, erm, the person I was traveling with was dragged in, too. Actually, a lot of people I know were. It's odd. Anyone you know?

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[She tenses a little, folding in defensively.]

Not... really.

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[tilts his head a bit]

Then you only sort of know them.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[Her smile is sad. You can tell just how tired she is by just how much she's giving away.]

I think it's closer to say that he only sort of knows me.

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[he's nodding gently, definitely not pushing, just asking questions]

I'm sorry. There's been a few cases of that here. Parallel universes and different time eras...

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[It's less of a comfort than he might expect. The longer she's here, the more real it feels, and the less she likes the thought of Li actually being Li.]

Where were you traveling? [Subject change subtlety--fail!]

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[he'll let it slide, though. she looks like she's had a long day]

Oh, planet you've never heard of, I imagine. It's very tropical. Lovely to look at, really. The residents have their ups and downs.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[She's intrigued, despite herself. Talk of outer space tends to have that effect--even if she doesn't quite believe him.]

We were working on interstellar travel, before the Gates appeared. We couldn't get anywhere after that, even if we tried. What are the... residents like?

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[a little smugly]

Welllll, my people have been doing it for a long time. The residents are hyper-intelligent marine life. Dolphins, whales, sharks, squids, all those. The dolphins like lobbing things at me from the shallows.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[Intrigue gives way to disguised delight, both at the thought of free travel to other worlds, and at the thought of hyper-intelligent marine mammals chucking things at people. Even more disturbing than believing this place is real, she's beginning to want to believe it.]

Who are your people?

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[smiles, catching the signs of her interest]

Ah, well, they're mostly gone now but...I'm a Time Lord. Exactly what it sounds like.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[She frowns thoughtfully. Oh yes, her interest has been piqued.]

Time Lord... You control time? How exactly do you travel? Is it a ship? Or some sort of teleportation?

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[a bit amused but happy to see her so curious]

She's called the TARDIS. Stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space. You might actually meet her around here. She's alive. 'Course, there's a lot to it. It's not just that my ship can travel through the vortex. Time is in my blood.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[Tries to imagine what it might look like for someone to bleed time. And then the rest of what he says catches up with her.]

Meet her? The vortex--is that a sort of access point, then? Do you have to give up blood to get in?

[She can't help thinking in terms of Contract and Obeisance.]

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[laughs a bit]

The TARDIS can create realistic projections. She's here, too. Just be polite to her. She's not really used to...people. And the vortex is a pathway through time. I can get in easy enough but my biology has been tuned specifically to withstand this sort of time travel.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

It has damaging effects on humans, then?

[On humans. On humans! Misaki Kirihara is talking to an alien and not finding it weird. There is something very wrong with this picture, she is sure.]

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[the Doctor just loves how easily she asks that]

Not usually, no. I have human traveling companions sometimes. But it's thanks to me being alive that it works so well. The TARDIS and I are symbiotic. [he's actually rather surprised at how much he's telling her but he thinks she's trustworthy enough]

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[She retreating into deep thoughtfulness, now]

Organic, symbiotic space travel. Not an option we considered, that I'm aware of... I wonder what Kanami would think...? The risk factor... But would something like that have a chance at getting past the Gate barrier? Potential for more definite results, but still, the risk...

[She goes on muttering for a moment then looks up, startled at the thought that she's broken off in mid-conversation.]

S-sorry.

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[a little more seriously]

I'd consider going down safer paths, personally. Vortex manipulators are always good. Try to focus on finding the path. Then you can decide how to blaze down it, eh?

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[She persists, despite his change in demeanor.]

But this vortex, if I'm understanding correctly, exists outside of normal time? Sort of like this place? Something like that may be our only chance of actually getting off the planet's surface.