genessia | "We opened the door to the shadows...

"We opened the door to the shadows...

The man sat alone, back slumped against a wall as he stared down at the pistol in his hand, unloading and reloading it in silence. Over and over again. How long had he been here, ignoring the sounds of life around him and the chatter and racket from the communication device on the ground along with the discarded necklace? Days? Weeks? Months?

It didn't really matter. None of it did anymore.

Load. Unload. Reload.

"You look like crap."

The man looked up, staring upwards at his only companion for what felt like an eternity. Himself... only different, like seeing a photo negative version. The colors were all wrong and there were a few things off.

It had no eyes. He'd found that strange once before the feeling had been bled out of him.

Load. Unload.

It was this thing that had shown him the truth. It had started with whispers in his mind when he was alone and had grown from there, appearing in shadows, taking the place of his reflection and finally standing right there beside him exposing the plain, hopeless reality of where he'd found himself.

An ugly grin split the negative version's face.

"So, what's the hold up, jackass? You know what you have to do now."

Load.

Yeah, he did.

-------------------

In the early morning, it happened without warning. A shudder ran through the entire city and for just a moment it was almost as if reality itself... bent for a moment, warping out of shape before snapping out of place and one of the buildings of Genessia's skyline vanished into a rising cloud of smoke and dust.

The thing rose up out of the cloud, standing over the buildings around it. Misshapen, grotesque, it could only be called humanoid in the most generous of terms. Its body was colored in splotches of red and black, its limbs twisted with the right arm many times larger than the spindly left and it stood on legs that should have been bent and twisted too awkwardly to support it at all.

The head swiveled from side to side on a too-long twiglike neck, wide, blanket white eyes that seemed painted on searched the city and a toothless mouth opened wide in a low, groaning howl that rumbled over the city.

The creature’s body convulsed and with a chorus of sickening splits and cracks its body bristled with weapons, and they all fired as one, shearing the top floors off of the next several blocks and covering the rest of the town in burning debris.

Through the city, every communicator screamed out a deafening alert, which was followed by the voice of the AI.

“CORRUPTED ELEMENTS DETECTED. PLEASE ASSIST IN PURGING IN ORDER TO ENSURE THE CONTINUED SURVIVAL OF THE CITY AND ITS INHABITANTS”

[OOC: Subthreads are up. Post in them for combat, or go nuts with planning/reactions through the rest of the comments.]

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She had made a deal with her knight. Not to hurt innocents or those who did not provoke her. But that didn't mean she couldn't make her floor of the apartment complex... less than welcoming to those who might try to rent. And so once he hit her floor (the second) the energy shift subtly from just energy into cold. Absolute biting cold and the entire door has been iced over, so much on the hallway side that it has crept up underneath and started onto the stairwell side as well as though the thermostat has completely broken and the building is acting as a freezer now.

Once the door opens, one has to make it down the hallway which looks more like an ice cave, the shimmering surface obscuring the pot lights in the ceiling and giving the whole area a sullen glow, a window at the end casting shimmering flashes of color as the battle rages on outside and icicles hanging here and there like threats.

Snow has drifted in one corner but the ice is mostly just solid sheet ice with feathers of frost crackling across it. Her own door on the left is completely ice free, though it did not mean there weren't wards of some sort. It certainly would not simply open for anyone.

Inside the building she could feel something approaching but with all the chaos it was difficult to determine precisely what. Her head turned a little toward the door though she still kept half her attention on the destruction being wrought outisde.

The Doctor stared up at the ominous icicles stabbing downward at the ceiling. Enough vibration from the beast outside and he could consider himself a great deal more holey than before. He walked forward cautiously, testing the icy ground before trusting it to take the weight of each step. He might very well have been in a building of flats but nothing here was ordinary so it only stood to chance that a crack in the ice might well end his life (to say nothing of the stalactites).

He saw the ice free door ahead and, much like the woman staring out the window, his curiosity was tickled. Another glance upwards at his possible doom and the Doctor slowly took the last few steps, closing the distance between himself and what might be warmth. His Time Lord body might well be able to evade colder conditions for slightly longer than that of a human, but he'd feel it eventually and it was never pleasant.

He hadn't knocked yet so all she could feel was someone or something standing outside her room, amidst all the chaos. Her head jerked back to the carnage as Harry's cannon lit up the sky and then exploded against the thing. And seemed to do absolutely nothing. Hmm.

She turned from the window and walked to the door, eye drifting to the peep hole at eye level but she lifted her hand instead, and using her wards as a magical peep hole, she looked at the unassuming looking man on the other side of the door.

The doorknob doesn't turn but the door opens inward and she stares at him from the inside. The inside of the apartment looks quite normal aside from shifting colors on the walls that might be ice or perhaps not. It's hard to tell. But it is indeed not completely frosty inside. If a little on the cool side. Her gaze on him is expectant.

Now here was the part where the remainder of his plan never managed to manifest itself. The Doctor stared back at the woman, beautiful by Earth's standards (if a little extravagant), and tried not to let the shifting furniture make him feel dizzy.

He found himself strangely fumbling for something to say, and that meant a lot given that he could talk himself out of just about any situation. "Excuse me but did you happen to realise that there's a gargantuan monster tearing apart the place?"

Perhaps the man was going bad. He would be the second one she'd met who seemed so. The crashes outside were muted but still clearly audible as was the view of the chaos outside her window. Even here from the door. Did he really just skate across her hallway to ask about the obvious?

"I find I am neither blind nor deaf." She replied finally.

"Yet you hide in a building made of concrete, nothing stronger than a sandcastle under the fists of that beast. You might not be blind or deaf but I question your wits," the Doctor told her quite bluntly. He held out a hand toward the woman, "now come along. I can't see anywhere in this place being safe. We'll have to make our way out of the city post-haste."

Something stormy passed across her face at the idea of someone questioning her wits. Sanity, she did not mind having questioned. Wits though, the air around them dropped a few noticeable degrees. Her eyes dropped to his hand and then back to his face. "I was given to understand that there is no escape from this place. In which case, I believe I will enjoy the show. I do not run from my enemies." She slowly smiled to show a slip of sharp teeth. "Let them come."

There wasn't an escape? The Doctor tried not to let his panic show, and instead shivered lightly in the decrease in temperature because he certainly would not do a much from those sharp teeth! (Or at least that's what he'd tell himself)

The Doctor let his hand drop. "Madam, there is a time to fight and a time to find a safe place where one might devise a more suitable plan. That thing out there is a great deal bigger and stronger than you. I strongly suggest that you reconsider."

Edited 2014-01-21 04:38 (UTC)

Her eyes narrowed again. So many assumptions from one man. He doesn't feel quite human but he is not fae either. "You do not know my strength. I assure you, I am as safe here as I am anywhere. To where would you suggest escaping? If it plans to attack I will stand and face it. However it would seem that there are many distractions already." She turned her head again, irritated at having missed some of the action. How was she to determine abilities when she wasn't watching? "If you choose to flee you do so alone."

The Doctor couldn't help but feel that he wasn't making a friend but the turn of her attention was certainly interesting. She had the personification of someone irritated that they had been interrupted during a movie or a sporting match or something equally interesting (and possibly thrilling).

"What is your strength, then?" he asked in curiosity. He didn't even try to mask it. The Doctor had no idea who the confident woman was and despite the fact that the building could crumble at any moment (apparently a rather trivial matter), he wanted to find out. For science, of course.

Mab left the door open so he could enter though she did not bid him come in. Just as well to strip him of his powers if he was a threat, either way she was moving back to the window to watch and he could follow along if he wanted to carry on a conversation.

"Such questions have many answers and great costs." She replied and if he'd caught up he'd see a quirk of her lip. "What have you, to pay for this knowledge?"

The Doctor hesitated at the doorway and shoved his hands into his pockets. He didn't like the way the furniture behaved so differently to what he was used to (and he was used to a lot of unusual things). The unease only seemed to grow the further into the room he went but he had survived a lot of close calls. Why shouldn't he survive another? If it came to that.

"Pay? I don't know what the currency here is but I have a few British pounds, a penny, some credits from a space station in the year 5 000, and a droll'c from the Amousilyac empire."

[The only thing really misbehaving is the walls, fortunately for the doctor. Otherwise her furniture is elegant but mostly normal for the time being. And a few icicles in the corners, a bit of frost on the windows and a single frozen rose on the credenza.]

[Mab stands again in front of the window, taking note of the weapons being used and the powers being thrown about like candy. Her mouth quirks at his answer.]

I should think knowledge would be best bought with other knowledge, do you not. For instance you are not human. I find that interesting. As well as the fact that you have some form of currency from a year that has not passed in my reality.

[Bombs exploded outside and she didn't turn but she did breath out, her breath a cloud of ice crystals.]

Shall we play a game?

The Doctor saw that bomb. He saw the way the world outside shook and crumbled a little more. Still, he was tempted given that the women wasn't shaken. She didn't show any signs of having seen the bomb. With exception to that fascinating was she breathed.

"I suppose you're not talking about checkers or monopoly?" was all he said.

"Certainly not." She smiled a little and glanced over her shoulder at him. "You may ask a question and I will answer truthfully, and then you allow me a question which you will also answer truthfully. It's really very simple." She turned her attention back to the window, eyes moving intently from one battle to the next as the citizens fought. A blasting gun here, some impressive leaping there. And of course magic flying about. "Is this acceptable to you?"

The Doctor paused for a long moment. The little smile had a kind of dangerous edge to it - she knew what she was doing. Knowledge was power, and there was a lot of power behind knowing the Doctor's secrets. And he was a very secretive Time Lord. Unfortunately he needed answers and the quicker the better.

"Alright. That is acceptable."

He took time to think about it. Aside from his initial panic-y insistence that they run and hide he seemed mostly together at the very least. And it pleased her to feel the hesitation. Not wanting to answer questions. Which meant he knew answers she might actually want to hear.

"Very well, you may ask."

Right. Asking.

The Doctor opened his mouth and closed it again. Did he get a limit on questions? Perhaps he should have asked beforehand. Too late now.

"Why are you not either running in fear or staying to help fight?" he asked eventually. He figured that either she'd give him a riddle of an answer to ponder or a straight answer to shock him. Either way, it would be something.

She paused in her watching to turn and look at him fully, her chin lifted a little and pride shone from her face. "I am Mab. I do not run in fear." No, but sometimes she created need for fear. Then again, so did most beings of power. "My Knight lends his aid and I do not demand he refrain." Mostly Harry did what he wanted, she just creatively directed things occasionally. Or blackmailed him.

She tilted her head a little. "You are not human. What are you?"

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