Time of Day

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sat Sep 07, 2013 12:18 am

There was... A whooshing noise. Almost like somebody was taking a whisk and sweeping it around the edges of a mixing pan, and then amplifying it with a times ten echo-fade. Repeatedly until a solid drone reflected off the shelves, and then silence once more. Ramona stood up, still panting and listened intently. What in the world made a noise like that? And the fact alone that such a noise made her think of whisks and mixing bowls was strange, and how did she even know what an echo-fade was? She didn't, she was just making it up but it felt right. So she stuck with it.

Ramona took a swallow of stagnant heat and pushed herself forward, sliding over to use the shelves as a crutch against the unholy swelter in her search for the source of that sound. It didn't take her too terribly long before she peeked around a corner and spied the blue box. The TARDIS. She wasn't sure if she was excited or livid, glad or sad, mayhap a mixture of it all? Who knew, for her legs still moved in a mechanical way, bringing her the last short feet too the boxes entrance before her knees buckled. A sense of satisfaction filtered through her system and she allowed herself to slide down against the hard wood, blue paint chipping off into her navy hoodie, speckling against her grey sleeves. Ramona sat there, chest heaving and not an ounce of will to actually go inside. Damn Brits and their blue boxes!

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sat Sep 07, 2013 12:23 am

After checking to be sure he landed in the correct spot, the Doctor dashed towards the door and yanked it open only to have Ramona flop onto his feet like a rag doll. "What-" He started to say before cutting himself off with a shake of the head and pulling the poor girl to her feet. A blast of hot air rushing into the control room from the open door nearly causing him to swear once more before shutting it tightly and he drug her over to the jumper seat and plopping her unceremoniously onto it.

Checking to be sure she wouldn't fall over, the Doctor placed two cool fingers to her neck, checking her pulse to assure himself she was there. "Ramona, can you hear me?" He murmured quietly, mentally counting off the beats of her heart against his fingertips then moving his hand to her forehead and scowling at the heat pouring off of her. "Ramona, say something or your going straight to the Med Bay for loads of uncomfortable tests to be sure your fine."

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sat Sep 07, 2013 12:36 am

She was vaguely aware of being lifted and well... Rather man-handled if she had to put a name to it. Solid, strong hands made sure she got to wherever it is she was being taken, she liked to think it was the Doctor rescuing her from the heat. But the heat didn't go away, it only seemed to constrict into a suffocating space instead. The TARDIS walls glowed and blinked around her and Ramona was at least sure of where she was. Otherwise her mind felt very much like mushed spaghetti noodles and she was ready to sleep in a puddle of her own sweat.

So she decided to do just that, she leaned instinctively into the cool press of fingers to her neck, relishing in the small escape from dying heat. Ramona pressed herself forward, arms stretching out to grasp at the cool object, hoping for more "Air conditioning-" she mumbles before making impact with something soft and incredibly cool against her face. She turned her cheek to press her lips into the source and just... felt before she fell asleep.

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sat Sep 07, 2013 12:50 am

The Doctor's eyes popped open wide as she suddenly wrapped herself around his neck before falling limp against his chest. "Blimey, Ramona." He groaned to himself before picking her up once more and carrying her back to the med bay, mentally ordering his TARDIS to push all the cool air she had into the small room as he shut the door behind him and set her down on the cot near the back corner. A sudden rush of air blasting from the circular vent above him sent a rush of relief over his damp skin.

Reaching over, he snatched up a small bit of equipment and began scanning Ramona's head throughly, turning it from side to side to be sure he got a complete run before setting the thing aside and turned to consult the screen near him, watching as little bits of information popped up in several lines. "Heat exhaustion? More, there is more than that. Come on." He snapped, tapping a couple of buttons impatiently, his fingers jabbing at the keys in anger before another line of code appeared in red. "There it is." He said under his breath, turning his blue eyes onto her sleeping face with a worried frown working between his eyes.

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sat Sep 07, 2013 12:58 am

Her mind was a mess, dreams about blue boxes, space and nebulae that swirled into colorful vortexes of images and sounds. Nothing made sense except for a man that seemed to pop up occasionally. She knew him, she thought, and she made a run for him everytime he cropped up. But you know how you get that glue-like sensation when you try to run in your dreams? Always tends to happen when you're trying to escape from danger. That's how she felt everytime she saw him, thus his face was gone before she had the chance to try.

She stirred, eyes flickering rapidly under firmly closed eyelids. Even her dreams felt hot, strange, and bizarre.

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sat Sep 07, 2013 1:13 am

A hand reached into his coat pocket, slowly pulling out his Sonic and pointing it at her head, scanning for the one thing he knew had to be there. Swearing in several languages under his breath, the Doctor glared at the device in his hand as it alerted him of his suspicion. "Light Sprites, I should have known. Honestly, only a planet of humans could attract a race that just floats around aimlessly in space." He groaned to himself, shoving the sonic back into his pocket and pacing around the room in deep thought.

Flicking his eyes over to Ramona, still laying on the bed, her eyelids flickering in her sleep, indicating mental activity of some sort at least. Dreaming was good, fantastic, beautiful even. At least he knew the sprite in her head hadn't done anything too horrible. But how had it gotten in her? The only way they could enter a body would be through a fluid of some sort, injected, drank, on the skin even... Frowning in thought, he strode over and searched the drawers scattered around the med room until he came up with a small bag filled with a glimmering powder.

Picking up a pinch of the dust inside before setting the bag back aside, the Doctor strode back over to the cot and gently held it under her nose so she could breathe it in. Absynthe powders, the only thing short of an injection that would wake her up. Leaning back, he sat in a chair beside the cot and rested his chin in his hands, watching and waiting.

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sat Sep 07, 2013 1:23 am

Ramona nearly choked, her muscles spasming and suddenly she was lurching upwards. Jerked none too ceremoniously from the depths of her dream, R.E.M sleep torn away from her in an unsightly fashion. Her eye fluttered as sleep clung to the vestiges of her mind, brain chugging sluggishly in response to something. She didn't even want to try thinking about what that something was, her head was pounding and she could feel the heat right and proper again. It was eating away at the slumber that rested against her tired eyes, she felt like she'd been asleep for ages and her body felt like it too. Stiff and aching in the joints, maybe that's what being dead felt like. Just a bit more... Lifeless perhaps.

She puckered and pursed her lips repeatedly, fingers flexing against something soft and quite comfortable, resting easily into the flesh of her palms. Ramona managed to crack her eyes and glance down, finding not a hard chair or even the familiar TARDIS console room, but in fact a bed. One similar to those used in a doctor's office but more bed-like she supposed. Either way it was incredibly nice against the sweat kissed pores of her skin, and so she took it upon herself to relax her stiffened spine and lie back into the bed once more. Only this time she was more or less awake, no dreams come to plague her so much as her brain fighting fruitlessly against a battle with the hotness. She didn't even notice the Doctor setting there, watching her quietly as he brain pondered those endless thoughts of his.

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sat Sep 07, 2013 9:42 pm

Jerking backwards slightly from her abrupt wake-up, the Doctor nearly tumbled backwards out of the chair he sat in, his blue eyes wide as he stared at Ramona in surprise before regaining his normal composure. Reaching over, he pressed a hand to her forehead and frowned at the temperature. "Ramona, I need you to focus now. This powder won't last and you'll slip back into sleep. I need you to tell me if you drank or touched anything that was a liquid. Anything at all." He said quickly, leaning down to look in her eyes and for a moment, just a few seconds really, he saw a faint spark of light in there that shouldn't be.

"Something, water, juice, a puddle on the floor. Sweat even actually. They could travel through sweat I suppose. It is a liquid after all, but why sweat unless the person that wiped it on you had one of those in them..." He trailed off suddenly, remembering her state and turned his gaze back onto her face with a faintly worried look.

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sat Sep 07, 2013 10:04 pm

Voices, someone was speaking. Her eyes peeled open once more and she could feel the gentle tugging of curiosity. But she smacked it lazily away, turning head this way and that in a feeble attempt at caring. Fire burned its slow madness through her veins and Ramona finally clenched her teeth to stop a shout from escaping. Somebody blocked out the artificial light and she flinched weakly, a rogue purple shirt and leather jacket filled her view and her mind faintly connected the two with the Doctor.

He was saying things, talking to her and Ramona thought she might be able to understand. She leaned toward him, fingers crawling across the bed-side and toward his torso, she could literally feel the temperature difference. And she definitely wanted in on it. There was nothing in her brain to tell her that perhaps her desire to be so close to him was inappropriate, or even rude for him. She didn't care and didn't stop to wonder why, she knew only that he was cold, cool, and radiated that sweet, delicious chill she so craved. His hand was on her forehead and Ramona whimpered at the contact, pressing against his palm, delirious with delayed gratification. "Better, better- better than Benson. So much sweat- Gross..." The words were a garbled jumble as she spoke them and somewhere she might have been responding to his question. But if she was aware of it there was no way of telling, so long as he kept touching her. Just as long as he kept that cool hand there...

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sat Sep 07, 2013 10:42 pm

"Ramona, focus!" He snapped, grabbing her by the shoulders and turning the girl to face him, a serious expression on his face, eyes staring into hers. "Now tell me, did you drink anything, or touch anything liquid while in the Library before I got to you? I need to know." He said slowly, trying to get his words across her addled mind and get her to pay attention. Reaching up, he pressed one of his hands against her face, dimly registering the rise in her temperature with a slight scowl on his normally smiling face. "You need to look at me and try to focus on what I'm saying. Just tell me."

A slight growl of frustration worked loose from his throat as he stared into her blank eyes, glazed over from the heat pouring off of her. If he didn't do something soon, her mind would melt and he'd be left with a husk of a body with liquids for organs trapped inside. "Ramona, look at me!"

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sat Sep 07, 2013 10:50 pm

"Sweat." Was quite literally the only thing she could manage before her tongue went numb in her mouth. She just wanted to sleep, and he was going to drive her crazy with all the touching, the shaking and grabbing her arms and shoulders. Her body struggled toward him while her head lolled back, her brain stuttering to a halt as thoughts became increasingly hard to register.

Sleep sounded so nice, she'd talk once she took a nap... Yeah that sounded nice..

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sat Sep 07, 2013 10:55 pm

Letting out a low sigh, the Doctor gently lowered her down to the cot again and flicked his Sonic out, directing it at the vent above them and adjusting it so the blast of cold air blew down on Ramona's soaked body before walking away and beginning to rummage around in the cupboards again, tossing random bits of equipment over his shoulder and onto the floor behind him as he tried to find something in particular. "Light Sprites, honestly. How much bad luck could one single race in the universe carry? Everywhere they go something or someone shows up trying to kill them off." He muttered under his breath as he finally yanked out a small box and set it on the counter in front of him.

Flipping up the latches on it, he lifted the lid and reached inside the lined box to pull out a vial of silver liquid that seemed to move around on it's own. "Never wanted to use this. Best thing I can do now..." He said quietly to himself, trying to justify what he's planning on doing all in order to save that single human girl laying in his Med bay. Turning around, he faced Ramona's form and frowned slightly, the small vial twitching in his hands as his fingers itched to drop it onto the floor.

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sat Sep 07, 2013 11:01 pm

Cool, it exploded across her face and all vestiges of thought and idea, words, images, memories all dropped on command. All that existed was that air that washed across her body in an ebbing motion, like a bird ghosting across the curves of her body. Ramona sighed long and deeply, shoulders jerking once, twice before going completely still.

The heat was still there, it was coursing up, up, and up. Surging like a power-strike toward her brain, a compact inferno that lit her on fire and Ramona was too far gone to wonder why she didn't scream. Her fingers twitched and her pulse raced, her chest heaved in half-hearted attempts at keeping up with the necessary increase in heart-rate.

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sat Sep 07, 2013 11:11 pm

A sudden increase of her heart rate sent the Doctor striding back over to the side of the cot and looking down at Ramona with a curious expression. Honestly, he wasn't sure this would even work. Nano-genes were normally used in the air, but these were specifically designed to work out problems in the brain. The best of the situation would be for them to seek out the Light Sprite and eliminate it. The worst being it would unlock everything in her mind, from blocked memories to parts of the brain that don't normally function on any of the human race, not for hundreds to thousands of years.

Taking a deep breath, he uncapped the vial and lifted the back of Ramona's head, placing the edge of the tube to her lips and slowly pouring the silver substance into her mouth, sending the army of micro bots flooding through her system and into her mind to fix what the problem was.

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sat Sep 07, 2013 11:30 pm

Blinking. It was the first sign of normalcy she'd experienced since the heat had gone out in the library. The Library. Memories from the past few hours flooded her mind and Ramona's consciousness took a serious dive toward insecurity. There were more than a few hourse missing that she couldn't account for, but she knew they were there. They had happened, her body, her brain responded in kind. Ramona sat up and grasped at her head, cursing the dizziness that spun across her vision before eventually settling gold eyes on the Doctor. He was standing there, what looked like an empty vial lied on the floor some feet away and his expression was etched with calculated concern. She narrowed her eyes and bit her cheek, not sure what to say. Where did she start? What questions should she ask? There was nothing there for her to bite and thus she was left feeling rather blank.

She wanted to speak so badly she actually itched her neck. Struggling so hard to come up with something expected, witty even! But her brain stayed pleasantly empty and she groaned. Everything felt relatively normal, the same as it had before all the lights had dimmed and people had started dying... Dying, the woman. Images of the ginger woman on the floor, boiling from the inside out as an alien species of energy forms electrocuted her organs. What a way to die. And she had been just as close to the same fate if not for- well, the Doctor. This thought was almost surprising and yet very much expected to a point that Ramona wasn't sure what to show on her face. Nothing made sense, everything was out of wack and yet so beautifully right where it should be.

"Thank you??" Her voice was high and unsure, dis-content finally rippled the confusion and she smiled uncertainly.

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sat Sep 07, 2013 11:35 pm

Blinking slightly, the Doctor got to his feet again and began pacing around the room, carefully picking up everything he had thrown over his shoulder in his search for that bloody vial, concentrating on cleaning up the med bay before focusing on Ramona again. He couldn't face her, whatever might have happened to her mind, could still be happening, very few of the nano genes had exited her head, but even as he watched her sit up, he had seen several more skitter out of her ear and fall to the floor, dead after finishing their job.

"Don't thank me yet, Ramona." He finally murmured, finishing what he was doing and turning around to lean his back against the counter behind him, a small frown working it's way across his features as he watched her, already there was something off with her look. Something different he couldn't place a finger on. A sense of sorts that had begun to show. "Does anything seem different?"

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sat Sep 07, 2013 11:50 pm

She watched him toil over a madness that had taken over the room, though it wasn't like she'd know what the room was supposed to look like anyhow. She'd never been in this room before and she was curious as to how the Doctor managed to fit this entire space into that tiny console room of his. She didn't recall a door leading to anywhere before, then again, it wasn't like she'd especially taken the time to go looking. The two times she'd been in the TARDIS had been brief and rather violent. She scowled at the memory before turning back to the Doctor, 'don't thank me yet' what did that even mean? She didn't know why she thanked him to start with, it was the only thing her mouth would say.

Now she eyed him with a growing sense of discontent, it rode up her back and humped her shoulder. Staring at him straight and unabashed as she gripped the edges of the bed and leaned forward. He leaned against the counter and questioned her about her status, mental? Emotional? Physical? She was sure he didn't want to hear that answer. There wasn't much else to answer with aside from beating the snot out of him. Violence raced through her thoughts as she imagined the awful things she could do to the man as she replied stiffly "I don't catch your meaning, I'm either okay or hope I'm okay. What did you?"

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sat Sep 07, 2013 11:56 pm

A hand reaching up and ran over his head lightly, a frustrated habit he picked up from some planet he visited. He couldn't even be bothered to remember the name of it right now. Blimey this is going to be difficult. How do you tell someone you might have inadvertently turned them into something more than just Human? "I saved you from a Light Sprite." He began slowly, his blue eyes turning from the floor they had drifted down to as he thought, and back up to her face. "It had settled into your brain, causing your entire body to heat up the way it was."

He watched as the last few trickles of nano genes fell from her ear and landed in the small, shimmering pile on the floor next to the cot. "That..." He paused and cleared his throat, nodding at the small pile with his head, refusing to move any closer to the woman in case she had a short temper. He learned his lesson with short tempers after Sonya and he shared the TARDIS for a few months. For a Time Lady, she could throw a punch. Reflexively, he reached up and rubbed at his jaw without even realizing he did it before remembering what he was doing before. "Focus, how does your head feel? Anything different? Odd thoughts, random memories you know are yours but don't remember having before..?"

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sun Sep 08, 2013 12:08 am

Light-sprites, nano-genes, random and forgotten memories... What? Ramona honestly wanted to pull her hair out but a face of calm swept across her features and she stared at him. Eyes darting down to spy a pile of shimmering silver- stuff- which she guessed to be the afore-mentioned 'nano-genes.' It was a short-lived terror that stripped her bare as she turned and that terror transformed into something she rarely had the luck of knowing.

Pure, un-touchable fury. This man, this Doctor injected her with some- Alien things, serum whatever! The fact that he'd done it was only part of the problem. No the big picture revolved around what those little things did, or what they 'could,' do she should say. Correction. He had the gall to save her life by threatening her very existence and... She had nothing to say. She was simply beyond words for what boiled in the pits of her stomach. Bile and venom were too mild.

And she deflated. Ramona gazed at him so helplessly. What the hell was she supposed to do. She didn't honestly feel any different and she was afraid that if she tried to get up she'd punch him, possibly do worse. And despite her rage the man had very well saved her life and she couldn't just let that go. Or she could. But she wouldn't. Refused too. "Nothing, I don't know. Normal?"

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sun Sep 08, 2013 12:13 am

Shifting from foot to foot, the Doctor avoided her gaze before turning and walking to the door. "Right, moving on. I'll... I'll just take you home." He muttered, knowing full well the expression in her eyes and what it meant. Pausing in the door frame, he gently reached up and ran a hand down the edge then continued on his way back towards the control room, his footsteps echoing around the narrow hallway as he walked. "Something... Something is off." He mumbled to himself, his eyes drifting up from the floor and to the console as he walked back into the control room, deep in thought as he walked up to it and pulled the screen over where he could see it.

"Run scans in Med Bay before she leaves. Brain patterns, functions and waves." He instructed suddenly, his blue eyes flicking over to the doorway behind him momentarily to be sure she hadn't followed him right away. "Check for any changes from her previous scans."

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sun Sep 08, 2013 12:20 am

The moment he was gone Ramona cried. It was so unexpected that it made her cry only harder. She jerked her legs up onto the bed and screamed into her knees, teeth digging into the soft flesh of her knuckles. Only now did he willingly take her home, it took her losing all hope and faith. It took her feeling defeated and helpless about her own self. It took shaking the core of her beliefs and life, shattering her way of living and outlook on the world.

There's just no way things would be okay after this. He could take her as far away as he wanted, drop her off on as many earths as he pleased. Nothing could change the damage that tore hot trails down her cheeks, that swelled her eyes and reddened her nose in shame and grief. Again she asked herself how many others he'd done this too, how many other people had this man taken into his 'blue box,' and destroyed with the truth of the Universe. Because she wanted to know. She wanted to know that she wasn't the only one out there that simply could not handle it. That she wasn't alone in her fear, terror and anger. That she was not a singular individual that would rather be crushed under a rock than go anywhere else with this Doctor. Doctor.

How did he ever manage to obtain such a title? Ramona screamed into her jeans and rocked.

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sun Sep 08, 2013 12:27 am

Reaching out, the Doctor flicked a couple of controls, fine-tuning the scan until it finally read clearly, his eyes widening slightly at the sudden proof in front of him. "Bloody hell..." He swore softly, cursing himself for doing this to such an innocent girl. All he wanted to do was take her to a library where she could spend the rest of her life reading books and never finish more than one section by the time her life ended. A thank-you for coming along, but no, she nearly died, and now she was slightly telepathic.

A fist crashing against the edge of the console startled him from his thoughts, his eyes moving down to a clenched hand that was his, trembling slightly with some hidden emotion he didn't even realize he was showing at all. Frustration welled up in him, causing his feet to turn and carry the Doctor back towards the med bay, not even realizing what he was doing until he stood in the doorway, staring at Ramona as she fell apart on the cot. The words he was about to say dying in his throat as he stared at her in utter distress. I'm so sorry, Ramona...

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sun Sep 08, 2013 12:50 am

Somehow she knew, almost like a tick at the back of her brain that alerted her to his return. His expression was aghast and horrified, sorry and ashamed all at the same time. A web of emotions splashed openly across his features. She looked up at him with dripping eyes and moved before she could stop herself. Her mind was futile in keeping up with how swiftly she slipped down from the cot, trainers slamming into the floor with each foot-fall. It was a lonely echo throughout the room as she lunged forward and landed her palm against the right side of his cheek. Sufficiently slapping him with as much strength as she dared, which was in fact probably all of it. She wasn't sure, so long as it hurt him. So long as he left a mark and throbbed in pain.

But she wasn't done, oh she wasn't done. Just as quickly she grasped at his jacket and thrust up as far as she could on her toes. And yet she ghosted his lips so softly it was almost like a memory of what could have been. Now she was done, releasing his leather she dodged to the side and dashed into the hallway. Anger and confusion riddling every ounce of her being. Why in the world had she done that? Ramona stopped without facing him, and that was if he followed her. "One for hurting me and one for saving me. Now we're fair." She might have spoken to air, but she finally admitted it to herself and that was enough for her to breathe a tad easier. She continued onward, not entirely sure where she was heading but she hoped for the console either way.

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sun Sep 08, 2013 1:01 am

Before the Doctor could even work out anything he should have said, Ramona had strode across the Med Bay and slapped him soundly across the face, leaving a stinging mark on his cheek that he reached up for instantly, his eyes popping open in shock as she just as confusingly brushed her lips across his lightly then vanished into the hallway. Finding himself alone in the Med Bay, he blinked his eyes, trying to understand just what happened to him in the past few seconds, his brain in complete meltdown as he struggled to make sense of what she did.

Just as he turned around, he heard her voice faintly, his ears straining slightly to catch what she said and felt his shoulders slump slightly. Without bothering to think of the consequences, when did he ever anyway? The Doctor reached out with his mind, searching through the familiar tones of the TARDIS around him for the new one, the new sound that echoed with the other noises without even realizing what she was doing. Finally, just as he was about to give up, he felt her, heard her sadness for a brief moment. Sucking in a slow breath, the Doctor leaned his back against the wall beside him, closing his eyes as he concentrated on the weak connection he found. Not bothering to think of what she might do in reaction, he sent her a sudden image of herself standing in excitement as she exited the TARDIS for the first time in the Library.

Subject: Re: Time of Day Sun Sep 08, 2013 1:10 am

The Library, it struck her mind so suddenly that she stopped and gaped a moment. There was something terribly wrong with this memory. With this thought bubble that exploded into the train of her mind, derailing her ponderings in such a way that it actually hurt. Ramona gasped aloud and grabbed at her head, confusion and pain echoing through her mind as the image of her rushing out from the TARDIS and into the library played into her mind. Every excited babble she made at the Doctor made her head ache and Ramona moaned, reaching out to hold onto the wall. Supporting herself against the onslaught of, what she wasn't sure. It wasn't kind, it wasn't nice and it was rough, choppy, and... New.

And then it was gone, leaving her breathless and weak at the knees. The floor was a welcome companion and she leaned into her elbows, hair encompassing her face and dragging against the cool paneling below. Sweat pooled from where it dripped steadily from her brow and Ramona whimpered once more. Twinges of sharp, electrical like pains stabbing across her brain with every small movement she made. The image was gone as fast as it had come and yet those moments had seemed like the longest moments of her life, the longest second she had ever endured. When she felt it was safe she lifted her head and whipped it around, searching left and right, up and down. Something, something had to be responsible, something... Someone? No wait, how could she blame someone she wasn't even sure what it was to start with? Stop.

She had to stop. She had to stop. It was time to go home, surely it was just a particularly vicious memory coming to surface, perhaps even her own deep desire to return to that place. Or maybe what might have been a dream before everything went wrong. Sure, that's it.

» bai for some time
» So Little Time
» The Time Rewritten
» The Time of The Drafon
» She Really Messed Up This Time