kore_logs | ❝ and now it's time to build from the bottom of the pit right to the top. ❞

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❝ and now it's time to build from the bottom of the pit right to the top. ❞

Who: The Doctor and Fortescue
When: Day 162
Where: Hola there is an outside world!
What: ADVENTURE. What are the odds of running into zombies?
Warnings: None that I can think of.

One of the goals the Doctor had since he had woken up in Cape Kore was to find a way out. Maybe not a way out of the planet (though that was a work in progress) but a way outside the building! Humans got testy if they didn't have sunlight for awhile, so god knew what it would be like if they never saw the outside world again.

You'd think the all knowing and powerful machine would of thought that one through!

Which led to the Doctor, after the fiasco of the hellhounds, to testing every door he could think of. He'd mark one with a small pen if he had tried it before. It was similar to marking their skin when a Silence was round, but not quite the same. Which was good because he very much did not want to think about all of that again.

He clapped his hands together and rubbed them as he walked down the hall.

"Eenie Meenie Miney...." the Doctor turned his head and grinned. His eyes fell on a green door he hadn't seen before. Jack pot. "Mo'."

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"Is that scientific terminology I hear?"

The day that Fortescue passed up an occasion to tease a friend would surely arrive, but it would not be this day. Not when she was more or less fully recovered from physical injuries of her re-arrival, and feeling cheerful. Or as cheerful as she could feel, above the line of numbness that kept her from dwelling on what events she'd come from in her own world. Fortescue was a professional at burying her real feelings, at this point.

Jazz padded forward to meet the Doctor head-on, meowing for a head scratch, and Fortescue chuckled. There were only a few people that he did that for; it seemed he'd taken to the Doctor quickly.

"Oh, 'ello Fortescue! And yes. Very science-y. The most, in fact."

The Doctor spun around to smile at Fortescue, opening his arms as welcoming gesture. As for Jazz? Well, he bent down and gave the friendly old man a good scratch behind the ears. Which, by the way, sounded like a brilliant idea.

"And how are the pair of you today? Looking better it seems."

"Oh, we're splendid," she confirmed breezily. It was only a half-truth, but she'd had a few shots of something resembling whiskey and her cheer was, as a result, staying with her. Rather than vanishing, and needing another shot poured on top of it to reconstitute it. Being that she wasn't inebriated, she felt fairly safe wandering the Center. Coming upon the Doctor just cemented that feeling. "Just having a walk. And yourself?"

Jazz purred, pleased, at the attention.

A glance was sent up to her with a knowing smile. One that said he didn't believe Fortescue, but he wouldn't press it. With a pat to Jazz's head, the Doctor stood up and straightened his long coat and hair.

"I was looking for the door out." He pointed to the one behind him. "Maybe not out of Kore but out of this building. Whatta say? Want to join me?"

Fortescue arched her brows upward, briefly, glancing around him at the door in question. It had been a long time since she'd seen one leading outside, and the last one she'd encountered had refused to open.

"Get out of this building and walk over real ground? Oh, absolutely. No arm twisting needed," she noted, clicking her tongue at her cat. Jazz trotted back, and leaped with adept precision onto her shoulders. Anywhere relatively new in the Center (or outside it), she kept him close.

"I'd like to see what is on this stretch of land other than this building. Might help me get my barrings." The Doctor continued to talk as if she hadn't said anything. Except, yes, he did hear her. "Which means it'll be easier to get us all out of here. Of course, it'd help if I could see the stars. Do you think it is nighttime outside? Oh! What if it is always nighttime on this planet? Blimey, it'd be cold."

He had already started back towards the door with that bow legged strut of his.

Shaking her head slightly — though behind his back, where he couldn't see it — Fortescue followed the strutting Doctor. "It didn't look like nighttime when I looked through the windows in the plant lab. But it didn't look particularly cheerful, either. Very foggy."

"Foggy? Means we could inland. Maybe a cape or some kind of bay." He said thoughtfully. He clasped the door handle and paused. With a few taps of his fingers he looked back at her.

"Ready?"

"Doubtful," Fortescue noted, shaking her head slightly. "We used to be in a cape. But the tunnels that brought us here went on for the better part of a day."

She missed that little town. The fresh air, the cozy little houses, the air of mystery that hadn't been brought on by white walls. Sure, there had been the Kraken, and the things in the forest. But it was amazing what a little hindsight can turn rosy.

Especially after a little trauma, or a lot. All she'd wanted to do, back then, was go home and fulfill her end of the deal. Now, after fulfilling it, and seeing the two-faced nature of said deal, she wished she still had ignorance to cling to. It was a childish impulse, perhaps, and one she wasn't proud of. But that was the truth.

She nodded, flexing her fingers in case there really was danger lying in wait out there. "Ready."

The Doctor raised his finger at her. "Be a bit more hopeful about the situation. Otherwise anything is going to be extremely difficult." He whipped out his sonic and started scanning around.

He had hoped this place was still in that little town they talked about. It'd make it all a bit easier. Of course nothing was really easy in life. He had to learn that the hard way, then re-learn it, then be reminded of it in this life.

With a grin on his face the Doctor opened the door with his free hand. Sunlight poured into the room. He turned away for a moment so that his eyes could adjust. It didn't take as long as it would for a human, but then he was out in the fresh cold air.

Fortescue opened her mouth to retort, but was soon distracted by the odd wailing sound from the device he held. That it evidently opened the lock on the door made her curious about just what it was. But then the sun was shining in her face, and she put a hand over her eyes quickly.

It was interesting, really, how much she had adapted to florescent lighting, and how much the sunlight was hurting her eyes.

But after a longer moment, the Doctor already gone, she removed her hand, and she followed him out. Fortescue blinked slowly, adjusting and looking around at the trees, breathing deeply. Fresh air. Oh, how she'd missed fresh air, and the actual smell of dirt. Rather than dust, and whatever else was rotting away on the walls inside. Fungi, probably.

"I'm still happy to see them, anyway," Fortescue noted, looking up at the nearest tree with a wry smile. Her own hopes weren't going to change much of anything. They'd utterly failed in doing so, in fact, and now she was simply left with the pieces of what could have been a life.

The Doctor was already bounding around the small area. He waved the sonic around, glancing at it every so often. Then he was down on the ground and licking it (yes, licking). Then he was up and knocking on the white trees. A frown was on his face and he muttered a few things to himself. Then his eyes shot up when Fortescue finally joined him.

"Happy is good. Brilliant, even. Wish I was happy more often." The Doctor commented as he tapped the sonic in his hand a few times. He puffed out his cheeks before spinning in place to look around them.

"Strange."

Okay. Licking the ground. That had to win some sort of 'most random' award, Fortescue thought, as she watched him tap his device to his palm. She was tempted to ask about that, too, but she restrained herself in light of his comment and his studying of their surroundings.

"What's strange? ...other than everything," she added, as Jazz leaped from her shoulders to roll around in the dirt. She watched him with a sigh, knowing there would now be a bath in his future. He wasn't going to sleep in the bed like that. And Jazz hated baths with a passion, though at least he only flailed instead of scratching her. When he scratched, they both felt it.

It was all very science-y and detailed. Taste buds have a great sense too you know!

"The fact that you can't find true north. Or false north." He said and frowned. He spun around in place. "Completely disorientating. Trees for miles as far as the eye can see. Not to mention the extremely thick fog. Have you ever felt thick fog?"

Fortescue tried not to think of the first memory to pop into her mind, when he mentioned thick fog, and smiled wryly.

"Yes, I have. It's unnerving," she had to agree, glancing up at the horizon. "Anything could be past that fog and we wouldn't know it. Pity we don't have the lighthouse to utilize, anymore."

Good thing she didn't. Otherwise he'd have to ask and the whole moment of being outside would be completely ruined.

"This sort of fog is new to me. Last dense fog I found had fishes floating in it. Used the cloud belt to control them." The Doctor remembered, frowning as he toyed with his hands. Oh the times he had tried to do the good and achieved the opposite. One day he would learn. "The lighthouse might be somewhere out there. It's just a matter of finding it."

"...fish." She wasn't doubting him, but the raise of her brow said that she questioned the logic behind floating fish. "Someone else said that they got out here, and when they got a certain distance kept going back to the Center. Like a... loop, if you like. I wonder if we'd get the same effect on foot."

"Fish." He confirmed.

There was a snap of his fingers and he pointed to her. "Good idea! Sounds good anyways. Testing it might be dangerous."

Fortescue's eyebrow stayed up, as she looked at the Doctor with an increasingly mischievous smile. Dangerous? She thought of fire fights hundreds of feet up on the decks of air ships, prowling through the jungle with Rift Spawn in unknown numbers around here, infiltrating enemy bases and knocking out their sensors and sentries without them knowing what was going on.

"Am I right in thinking that danger never sways you, either?"

This was mild in his book of dangerous, of course, but he wasn't putting any risks into Cape Kore. Not when they had no idea if the forest would repeat like the rest of the building did.

"Of course not! Although, it might sway my company."

It wasn't going to sway Fortescue, evidently, as she immediately stepped toward the trees, Jazz trotting ahead. A walk in the fresh air — fresher air, at least — was what the doctor had ordered. Not this Doctor, however.

"Then let's go see what we can see, love," she declared, grinning. "I've got nowhere else to be."

If this were any normal circumstance? The Doctor would of made sure to bring Fortescue along with the TARDIS. Sadly he was one TARDIS short and a universe apart from her. As if that wasn't humbling enough.

"Love?" He stepped beside her with a cheeky grin. Of course he knew what she meant. Still, it was fun to tease her. She teased back and it made him feel young...er.

"Yes. Be glad you haven't been around long enough for another nickname." Fortescue's grin more resembled a smirk, as they headed through the trees. It's like taking a big gulp of air for the first time in a while, walls of green instead of walls of white. "But if you have a suggestion for me, I'm all ears."

"I imagine I'll get one sooner or later. You lot like to give people names." He reached up and tapped her nose at that. She was an endearing person, and thus received endearing gestures.

"I quite like it, actually. Love. It sounds so posh."

She shrugged, not at all apologetic; she was still half-smirking, after all. Jazz dashed back and forth in front of them, into the trees and then through the makeshift path that they were following. Very makeshift. The trees were thick, trapping the fog high above them. It was hard to see the sky anymore.

"Then you can keep it," she chuckled quietly. Fortescue was a nicknamer in general. Her father had been, and she'd managed to inherit the trait, too. Love or darling was usually just an affectionate moniker for people before she settled on something else. Though if nothing else more befitting came along, it sometimes remained.

"To be honest, you just seem like a bloke who gets a lot of nicknames."

It was the bowtie and the eccentric — but lovable — behavior, really.

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