Mongolian Mishap (Nine and Sonya)

When had one of their little excursions ever not ended in running for their lives? Honestly, he didn't know what he'd been thinking. Twelfth century Mongolians were not exactly known for their hospitality.

"An' stay out!" he shouted, throwing all of his weight against the TARDIS door and forcing it closed.

A spear's tip broke off in the space between the door and the doorframe and clattered to the floor. He breathed a sigh of relief as the lock clicked into place. They wouldn't be getting in any time soon. Back still pressed against the door, he looked up at Sonya with a maniac grin in his face.

"Nothing like a good old run for your life to liven things up," the Doctor said in between gasps for air. "Where to next? 'Course, I'll be driving this time."

He knelt down, scooped up the spear tip and pocketed it.

(Hey, not trying to be picky or rude, but just a heads-up usually RP beginnings are longer, a little more detail into what's going on sort of thing, makes it easier for people to reply to without adding something that you don't want in it.)

Sonya looked up from where she stood beside the console, an eyebrow raised up at his usual cheer. "Right, no, I'm driving again, the only reason we landed here was because you decided to go pushing buttons when I said not to. You know Lady don't like it when you fuss over her when I'm trying to fly." She said with a scowl in his direction, failing to hide the amusement that flickered in her eyes.

"Just sit back and relax for once. I fly her a lot better than you do." She added, her attention once more turned back to the controls in front of her as she began working, her feet carrying her around the console quickly while her hands flew over it in the process. "How about Mongolia? The planet, haven't been there in a while, and I know for a fact that they have a brilliant bazaar going on at this time..."

Trailing off, she looked back over at the Doctor, a wide grin on her face while her hand hovered over the red switch in front of her. "Or we could hit random and end up in the middle of something that needs fixing. I'm sure you'll end up sticking that nose of yours into it... You know, use it's special powers for something."

((Not rude at all! I've RP'd at a few different places and what might be acceptable in one might not be in another. I'll bear that in mind for next time. Do you have a word count suggestion? I usually find that pretty helpful))

"Traitor," he muttered at the TARDIS, shooting a mockingly dark look at the controls.

Of course she'd prefer Sonya. He left the brakes on twice (okay,probably more than twice) and suddenly his own ship liked another pilot better. Typical.

"Can't relax with you at the wheel," he countered, still a little disgruntled at her comment about pushing buttons at random like he was some kind of Time Tot.

The smile crept back on his face without his permission. Sonya was better at flying the TARDIS, loathe as he was to admit it, and it was nice to get a short break between the disasters he called adventures. He walked across the room and flung himself in the jump seat, where he pulled out the spear tip and spun it around between his fingers.

"Last time I was there," he said, "I bought an amulet that happened to be cursed. Took me a week to get the ruddy thing off my neck."

The bazaars of Mongolia were filled with plenty of lovely trinkets and jewelry. It had just been his usual luck to get the one object among it all that would try to kill him.

"Poking around is what I do bes--oi!" he exclaimed, suddenly realizing what she had said. "What're trying to say about my nose?"

He rubbed indignantly at his nose, staring at her like a wounded dog.

(Usually our replies are about two paragraphs with 7-9 sentences each. that's about all we ask for rping.)

"I'm saying it matches your ears perfectly." Sonya said brightly, a wide grin on her face as she flipped the switch then strode over to where he sat, hands planted on her hips while she watched him fiddle with the spear tip. "They go great with that head of yours." Reaching over, she flicked one of his ears before turning back to the controls and yanking down a lever, sending the TARDIS spinning into the vortex.

"And by the way, that amulet: It's not the bazaar's fault you picked it up. Your drawn to things that end up being destructive somehow. Remember last week? Siberia? You ended up being the one to find out their food wasn't being robbed by the sled dogs, but by the 'Abominable Snowman'." She raised her hands and made quotes in the air to accompany the phrase while referring with the Rygin they ran into while there. "I mean, honestly. The poor thing would have been fine just nicking their food from time to time, but you just had to figure it out. Now he's back on his own planet and I think he liked the solitude he found on Earth."

With a light sigh, she plopped onto the jumpseat beside the Doctor, eyes gazing up at the Time Rotor while it moved up and down while in flight. "Though... And if you ever repeat me, I'll deny it, it's kinda fun."

"Rude, you are," he admonished.

He attempted to protect his ear, but his haphazardly flung out arm failed to even slow Sonya down. He muttered an annoyed 'ouch' under his breath and sank back into the jump seat in defeat.

"I'm not drawn to destructive things!" he protested. Then he paused, thought about what he'd said, and amended it. "Not on purpose, anyway. They're drawn me."

No matter where he went, the Doctor managed to find himself in the thick of things, usually right where the danger was worst and the stakes were highest. There were days he regretted that kind of luck, but usually he relished it.

"An' I thought Siberia would be quiet," he said with a laugh, leaning into her shoulder. "I can't just let Rygins run all over the place! If you were stuck in Siberia, you'd want all your food intact."

He followed her gaze to the Time Rotor. The quiet grinding noise it made always calmed him, whether he was keyed up from a mishap or grieving for someone lost during one of them.

"I wouldn't do it if it wasn't fun."

The TARDIS ground to a halt, and the Doctor sprang to his feet. Clapping his hands together, he turned back to Sonya witha goofy smile on his face once more.

"Anywhere in the universe, just outside the door. Ready?"

"Always ready." Sonya grinned up at him, jumping to her feet as well and running towards the door. "Though now I think about it, could be something out there where we can't breathe. Wouldn't that be interesting." She tossed a searching gaze towards the console then shrugged her shoulders. "Ah well, we'll find out when we open the door, now won't we?"

With that, she spun around and yanked the door open, holding her breath while taking the first step outside before recognizing the surroundings. "Oh, really? We had to end up here of all places." She groaned, her eyes closing for a moment before opening back up and surveying the colorful landscape in front of her. "Tanis."

Trees swayed in a gentle breeze, each leaf of a different color flickering along with the wind giving a multicolored layer effect with each shift of wind. The field purple grass fluttered, dotted with flowers of the deepest blue it nearly matched the TARDIS's outside. Looking upward, Sonya studied the red clouds dotted against the yellow background that made up the sky. "Wonder why she took us here?"

"Wouldn't be the first time," he said, remembering an unfortunate afternoon in which he had stepped out the TARDIS doors only to have all the air exit his lungs with a woosh.

He cautiously watched Sonya as she opened the door, ready to seize her and drag her back inside if necessary, but there was no need.  There wasn't any danger outside the door, only a quiet moor somewhere and somewhen on Tanis.  The Doctor stepped outside.  He glanced around, hand shielding his eyes, but nothing stood out as being out of place.  It was just a typical, sunny day on the post-card perfect planet. Even the sky was a calm, dusty rose color that reminded him almost of Gallifrey's sky.

"Maybe she thought we needed a break," he joked.

That wasn't his TARDIS's style. She always landed them in the thick of things. He kept himself cautious, waiting for something to happen, but absolutely nothing moved besides the gentle swaying of the trees in the breeze.  Tanis was a nice planet, so long as you didn't happen upon one of the three civil wars that had taken place there, but it was hardly a destination he would have chosen for himself.

"Where are all the animals?" the Doctor wondered aloud, spinning this way and that.

Even though the moors were usually filled with oddly colored animals loping about, there were none to be seen. Either everyone else had gotten a memo they hadn't, or something was wrong.

Sonya peered up from the flower she was examining and frowned at his sudden examination of the lack of animals. "You're right. I didn't notice it myself." Straightening up, she dusted off the knees of her jeans and turned in a slow circle. "I don't see anything wrong. Suppose going into the next town might help, come on then." Flashing the Doctor a grin, she turned and began striding across the grass, her boots kicking small rocks out of the way with each step she took.

"How long has it been since we've been to Tanis anyway? I can't remember the last time." She called over her shoulder, still frowning at the eerie absence of animals. "Now that you mention it, I can't even hear any bugs for that matter." Sonya added, stopping suddenly and cupping one of her ears to listen better. "Honestly, this is just... Odd." Turning to look at him again, she raised an eyebrow. "Running might work better at this point." At that, she spun back around and took off sprinting towards the low hill not too far away from where the TARDIS landed, intent on getting a better view.

The Doctor stooped and dragged his fingers through the grass, as if it could give him some answers. Balanced precariously on his heels, he looked up at Sonya.

"That's what worries me," he said.

Oftentimes, the most dangerous thing in the universe was the appearance that nothing was wrong at all. That was when people got comfortable, and when people got comfortable, they got overconfident and made crucial mistakes. He'd seen it happen too many times to be tricked by normalcy.

"It's been a while. Not really interesting 'round here, usually," he said, scratching the back of his neck.

The Doctor hopped to his feet and followed Sonya at a jog, only a half step behind her. The silence of the moor was starting to make him edgy, so he was grateful for the sound of their feet crumpling the grass. At her urging, he ran after her up the bluff towards the top.

"That's...not good," he said, unable to form anything better.

The land beyond the hill was black and barren, a stark contrast to the colorful moor they had just left behind. If he hadn't known better, he would have said there had been a fire in the area, but all the plants were simply wilted, not singed. Everything was dead, collapsed in on itself. The darkness stretched for miles, much father than he could see, as if a dark shadow had fallen across the area. The Doctor twisted around to look behind them again, but nothing had changed. It was still the typical picturesque Tanis landscape.

"Very not good."

He hurried down into the blackened landscape. The plants crunched beneath his feet. It was surreal, like walking through a city that had long since been burnt to a shell.

Sonya stayed silent while she walked beside him, her blue eyes taking in everything around them, a slight pain reflected in the light that shone when she looked up at the sun with a frown. "There are only three things I can think of that would have caused this, Doctor." She finally said quietly, breaking the silence that had hovered around them. "And I don't smell anything out of the normal. So that narrows it down to a new species that's decimated the entire area, or a manmade thing."

Stooping down, she picked up a crumbling plant to examine it closely, curious despite the mute anger she felt at seeing such a peaceful planet being brutalized like this. "Where's the closest village or town, do you remember?" She asked suddenly, straightening back up and dusting her hands off while shooting a quick look over at the Doctor. "The only thing we can do right now is go in and ask rude and probing questions no one wants to answer." A slight grin flashed across her face at what she said, knowing full well he'd appreciate how she put it more than anyone else would.

People, no matter what species or what time period, or what abilities they had, always managed to do the same thing. They were given something wonderful by the universe, and after years of enjoying it without harming it, they destroyed it. Each and every time. The Doctor kicked at a small stone in the grass. It bounced a few feet, then came to a halt.

"That way," he said, pointing down the hill further into the blackened area.

The Doctor didn't fancy getting too deep into the deadness, but their options were limited. He motioned at Sonya to follow him and headed down the hill.

"Rude and probing questions. My specialty," he said, cheerful despite the odd circumstances. "How much you wanna bet we get kicked out of something?"

Usually, rude and probing questions were met with two responses. Silence, and wary looks all around or vhenement exclamations that nothing was wrong, thank you very much. The Doctor's lips quirked slightly at the the thought. Everyone denied something was wrong until it was too late.