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

[thatoldthatkind]

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'."

Comments

[blackmagus]

"Some of us didn't get sleep overs when we were tiny, you know."

The urge to stick her tongue out and dare him to call shenanigans on the whole thing was high, but Fortescue resisted. She simply grinned at him like the cat that ate the canary.

"But as someone who's suffered the visual horror of a tweed bodice, I'll remind you that some people will wear just about anything."

[thatoldthatkind]

"That is just horrible." The Doctor stated quietly and seriously. He gave a small frown before turning around and starting to wander forward again.

For some reason he didn't answer her second tease. Namely because his mind was back at Gallifrey when he was a child. He didn't really have "sleep overs" as well. Not a Gallifreyan concept. Not to mention he was the child that was left out of it all.

[blackmagus]

Fortescue frowned slightly at the Doctor's back, wondering if there was something there and if she should poke at it or not. She settled for poking at his shoulder, as she caught up with him, changing the subject. Jazz sat down several yards ahead of them, meowing at a bird in a tree.

"Getting any interesting readings out here?" she asked, nodding at his... well, whatever it was. It seemed vaguely scientific.

[thatoldthatkind]

He turned to look at her, offering her a bright smile contrary of how he had just spoken. That was how he was in this face: contradictions. Hiding the pain and everything and acting like a child. If he didn't have fun or act silly, then what was the point? He had traveled for so long and done so much that it all seemed point less these days. Everyone he had loved had died or fallen into some horrible fate because of him. It was why he as so protective of Clara.

"Ah, well, the fact we've been walking in a loop is certainly interesting. have you noticed?"

[blackmagus]

She paused, raised an eyebrow, and looked behind them. Then back forward, making note of the fact that the trees were always impossible to distinguish from one another. Now that was disconcerting.

"...how big of a loop?" she inquired, delicately. Jazz meowed from somewhere to their left, pawing at a tree.

[thatoldthatkind]

"Not sure. It could be as big as the building! Maybe even smaller. Strange... isn't it? It's like a pocket universe that repeats instead of collapses..."

[blackmagus]

Fortescue mulled that over in her mind, as she studied the trees. "Very strange," she agreed. "Though wouldn't that be... I don't know... easier to accomplish, or to maintain?"

She couldn't claim to be an expert in pocket universes, and only had a small amount of information about the Shadow. And the Shadow was another dimension entirely, rather than a space of its own. A layer. She looked through the trees with trepidation.

"Suppose there's no actual other place here?"

[thatoldthatkind]

"Probably, but if you've got a looping building and bringing people all over the multiverse? I would say they are not fond of taking the easy or boring route."

The Doctor looked up to the sky above them. "There might not. It all depends on how controlled our environment is. Care to take a guess, Fortescue?"

[blackmagus]

"I'm not sure that's entirely wise, love." She's only a betting sort on occasion, but still, there just isn't enough information for a good bet. "But you're right. If they can fetch hellhounds out of Hell, it's not time to start doubting their abilities. Not to mention that... awful trick they do with the interior of the building."

[thatoldthatkind]

"Since when did I do anything wise? You've known two of my faces now. You," he leans close to her (very close) and with a grin taps her nose, "should know that by now."

Who said he couldn't be flirty?

"Still not sure if those were actually from Hell, by the way."

[blackmagus]

Fortescue smirks deeply, winking at him as he taps her. She doesn't try anything else, which is almost surprising, given their proximity.

"I should. I keep giving you the benefit of the doubt." That, or she was simply distracted on a continual basis by his bow tie and wavy arms. "Why wouldn't they be from a Hell, somewhere? There's got to be a Hell somewhere in all those universes, that's just math."

[thatoldthatkind]

Well, she does like girls. Doesn't she? That'd explain it.

"More than most people give me." The Doctor commented, his hands slipping into his pant pockets. "If they can create a labyrinth building and forest, who is to say they didn't simply make them from our memories?"

[blackmagus]

"What can I say? I'm a generous person."

The Doctor doesn't know about the forest that made her so leery of them, the one she hallucinated, and so she puts it out of her mind. Instead, she continues to smirk, the expression unwavering, and then leans up to give his cheek a quick kiss, before starting to wander slowly back in the direction of the Center. It can be seen over the trees. It had never really gone, she realized.

Fortescue could never be accused of being shy, but she did like to wait for good timing.

"Our memories or the scientists? I don't think this place looked familiar to anyone, when we arrived."

[thatoldthatkind]

"Generous is a word for it."

His eyebrows straight up as he leans back. His cheeks puff out and he fidgets, running a hand through his hair. Kissing! He's never used to the kissing in this body. Not that it was a kiss like River gave him, but unexpected enough to make him a bit--well. Flaily.

"The scientists. They are brilliant in all the wrong ways." The Doctor quickly recovers from the unexpected peck. Instead he tosses his screwdriver between his hands. "New place, but filled with things we remember. Things that we lost; things we shouldn't remember."

[blackmagus]

Fortescue smiles, amused. It's fairly common for her to fluster others, but the flailing is endearing and decidedly uncommon. She thinks she likes it. Of course, the topic is a bit sobering. But the smile, glowing just a little, stays.

"Such as?" she wonders, curious despite a heavy feeling in her stomach. "...All of the memory issues here could give a person a real complex."

[thatoldthatkind]

Oh, don't get like that. He might just end up a bit more attached than he should. By that, of course, he means companion. He hasn't got any in Kore and wants to keep it that way. Donna is a bit special due to the whole time-travel thing.

"Which makes you wonder why they'd be so content in keeping us locked up with them."

[blackmagus]

"Perhaps they're not," she notes, giving breath to a hunch she has. A knot, perhaps, deep in her stomach. "Perhaps something happened to them, and that something removed most of the evidence they were here."

Aside from the building itself and its vague and cleaned-up contents, one might not even know these people were scientists to begin with.

"Or perhaps"—Fortescue bites her lower lip, smiling—"I'm just feeling paranoid."

[thatoldthatkind]

"We're being kept here because of something that happened to them. Clever." The Doctor gives her a warm smile and another tap on the nose. He appreciates the new ideas. It is one of the benefits of having that "c" word.

"Never doubt your instincts. They're usually right."

[blackmagus]

Fortescue chuckles, winking. "Well I know mine are, but some people have rubbish instincts, you know. ...one of my colleagues in the war always thought men were swooning over her when they were, in fact, terrified out of their minds. She had terrible instincts about their stammering."

And no one in their right minds would have been able to blame the men. Ivy Chance was a frightening woman. Fortescue likes to think, however, that her own instincts are quite a bit better about most things. Though, as usual, her words are much more confident than she actually is.

[thatoldthatkind]

He snorts at that. "Some might question your judgement too. Part of your soul is in a cat! Not many people would call that good instincts."

A pause.

"Then again, most people would consider wearing a fez one too."

[blackmagus]

Something shadowy, dark and uncomfortable flits across her face — a shiver from a bad memory, being restrained and told that this won't hurt. Except it had hurt, a lot. One bright flash later and she and Jazz had been bonded permanently.

"It wasn't my judgment," she murmurs, before her voice picks back up again. "I'm not sure if fez-wearing is a real fashion crime, anyway."

[thatoldthatkind]

The Doctor raises his eyebrows. Oh, he's certainly rude. But he never really means offense--except for when he does. This wasn't one of those times.

"Then whose was it?" He asks. He is curious, but the tone of his voice says he is far more worried about it. "Things like this rarely turn out well in my experience. Trust me, I've had quite a lot of it as well."

He huffs then. "People don't think they're cool."

[blackmagus]

"I'm not sure if I'd go that far with them," Fortescue teases, to stall the question out a little bit. But it's just the two of them, and avoiding a topic is so much harder when it's this obvious you're doing it. "...The magic I use, it's harmful to souls, so... in order for a Magus to utilize it properly, we have to have our souls extracted through exanima."

She shrugs, trying to be casual. "I'd agreed to use it, so it was... done."

[thatoldthatkind]

He stands where he is, hands in his pockets, quiet obviously not going to let her get away from answering the question. He is the Question Dodger. Not her! Though the answer does make him frown.

"So it is an anti-corruption prevention system." The Doctor glances between her and Jazz again. "Is there anyway to put it back?"

[blackmagus]

It figures, she thinks, that the first and the most current person to ask about the soul business, here, is the Doctor. Different faces, mostly the same man. More flailing, perhaps. And the bow tie. Fortescue heavily considers how to word her answer.

"The only way to put it back is to kill Jazz. And that's not an option. For obvious reasons, and for one other. It's a prevention system, yes, but it doesn't prevent all damage."

Her soul is still, after all these years of heavily using Blood magic, warped and damaged, but less than the alternative. How damaged? There's no way to tell. And Fortescue is absolutely certain she doesn't want to find out. What scraps of information she was able to dig up, more recently, indicate that the side effects of soul damage are... well, alarming.

And she doesn't know, really doesn't know, what she'd do without Jazz.

"I really don't want my soul back. The tether works just fine."