[for rude_not_ginger] clouds are shrouding us in moments unforgettable

[galeforcehero]

If you didn't know otherwise, you'd probably be surprised to find out that the Library is one of Dorothy's favorite places in the TARDIS, but it's true. When she's with the younger version of the Doctor, on the TARDIS that's wooden and gothic, she can often be found there, stretched out on a leather couch, surrounded by flickering candles and a

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[rude_not_ginger]

"Dorothy!!!"

Whatever silence might've been in the library is certainly gone now, replaced by the Doctor's panicked voice.

The lights in the TARDIS are dimming, it's getting far too warm, and did the Doctor mention how much he really, truly does not like Sundays?? Because he doesn't, at all.

The Doctor runs into the library and nearly goes falling into a pile of books near the couches.

"Scrambled egg!" he cries.

[galeforcehero]

Dorothy sits up so fast, the book she had been reading (for the record, it was The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte. Not that she'll ever be able to pick it up again without associating it with scrambled eggs, thanks, Doctor) very nearly goes flying across the room. Sleepy and discombobulated, she naturally assumes she managed to mishear him somehow. Maybe it's the accent.

"I'm sorry," she mutters, rubbing at one of her eyes with all of the infinite patience in the world that she has ever so graciously designated to be used on the Doctor's behalf. "What did you say?"

Because either he's burning the kitchen down again after trying to make Sunday brunch (wouldn't be the first time), or he has some sort of aphasia. Or something else has gone horribly awry, which she can't be bothered to think about, because she's still only half awake, and honestly if she's going to die from scrambled eggs she might as well do it while she's not fully aware of exactly what the hell is going on.

[rude_not_ginger]

"Scrambled egg," the Doctor repeats, as though this makes all the sense in the world. To him, it does. To him, it's life or death and more likely death, but! It's important!

"More importantly, cold scrambled egg, which is the shape and consistency of a very nasty time fungus which the TARDIS has decided it would be really great time to have leak all through the halls."

[galeforcehero]

"Time fungus." She must be awake. Her dreams make more sense than this. She swings her legs over the side of the couch and leans over, taking a deep breath and trying to wake up a little more.

"Why is there time fungus in the TARDIS." Because lord knows this isn't gonna be HER fault. No sir. Oh, she'll probably be the one that has to clean it up, because that's her job, but she doesn't mind. Probably better than napping the day away, anyhow. For some reason.

[rude_not_ginger]

"Oh, there's always a little bit of time fungus trapped in a duct or so," the Doctor admits. "Part and partial to flying through the time vortex. No, no, the problem we have right now is the volume of time fungus."

He reaches out his hand to her and gestures for her to follow him.

[galeforcehero]

Very slowly, Dorothy blinks at him. Veeeery slowly. And then she sighs, and takes his hand and gets to her feet and stretches a little and follows after him.

"So, scale of one to ten," she says, trying to suss out exactly how angry she should be with herself for attempting anything even remotely resembling rest on the TARDIS, "with one being 'a plate of eggs at Denny's' and ten being 'we're boned', exactly how much fungus are we talking about, here?"

Dorothy would like to survive, today. Relatively intact would be nice. She was going to ask the Doctor to take her out to dinner, anywhere or anytime he chose. It was going to be fun. And now there was a very good chance that cold scrambled eggs were going to put her off her appetite for a very long time, if not permanently, and that, while not a pleasant prospect, is something Dorothy is attempting to stay positive about. It's very hard.

[rude_not_ginger]

The Doctor considers her question for a long moment, as if really trying to decide the difference between "boned" and "Denny's".

He makes a face. "It may currently be blocking us from the console room. So, yeah, Denny's is a bit off the menu." And cue a bright smile. "Off the menu! Anyway! So, we've got to get down to the engine rooms, provided they're not blocked off, too."

[galeforcehero]

Oh. Yeah. Real funny.

"What can we do from the engine rooms? Blow it out an airlock into the vortex?"

Not that the TARDIS has airlocks, but you know. Hey, at least she's thinking!

[rude_not_ginger]

"Well, no. Not exactly. Time fungus sort of sticks. And by 'sort of' I mean it's very, very sticky. It also doesn't just block us from walking out there, it blocks time from moving in either direction. So the TARDIS could be getting very old on the other side of that wall or we could get very, very old waiting here. So! Engine rooms, get the TARDIS to land somewhere where the fungus won't survive, then we open the front door and basically flood it out. Hopefully not literally, I hate cleaning water out of the console room."

This is a brilliant plan.

[galeforcehero]

Dorothy, for the record, is doing her best to stay motivated enough to run alongside the Doctor. When she bothers putting the effort in, she can easily outrun him, and that's fun. Right now, she's having a hard time justifying expending the effort.

"What if the environment of the place we land floods us out too? Won't we die too, if it's that harsh? If not, where are we gonna get the water from?"

The Fairy Tale wants specifics. Has the universe gone entirely mental?

[rude_not_ginger]

The Doctor glances over to her. "Specifics! Always specifics with you! We'll work it out! Just...got to figure something out until then!"

He turns another corner and pulls open a door to a small engine room. White lightning flicks from one side to the other, but the Doctor walks through, unafraid.

"Right. Now, let's see."

[galeforcehero]

"It's not that I need a plan, just when I'm with you, it's good to have one so that I can think up a backup for when the original inevitably goes wrong."

O, the truth she speaks. The lightning in the engine room causes her to stop in her tracks, the overwhelming thought rushing through her brain being Is that normal?, but when he strolls through it, unconcerned, she can only roll her eyes, try to time it just right, and follow after.

She's banking on her shoes being awful, awful lucky today.

"Not that I'm objecting to getting rid of all this space-cheese filling our beautiful timeship, and all, but does it really matter if either of us gets really, really old? I mean, we sorta already are."

[rude_not_ginger]

"Well, it's more like scrambled egg rather than cheese, but the getting old bit isn't really the problem. It's how long the getting old takes," he says. He takes her hand and leads her down another corridor, this one blocked off with a wall of pinkish goop that has the consistency of cold scrambled egg.

"And, well, I don't really fancy spending a century or two apart from you, that's all."

[galeforcehero]

"Oh," she says, squeezing his hand. Suddenly being faced with a massive wall of Evil Space Fungus (and the Doctor had neglected to mention the smell, which... not good) is somewhat more impressive of just how serious the situation is getting.

"Well that's not good."

No, it really isn't, and it's hitting her now exactly how not-good it is. "Now what?"

[rude_not_ginger]

"Well," he looks at the wall, then behind them, then up and down. "Well...now we..."

Think, Doctor, think!

He stammers for a moment, then pulls out his sonic and unlocks one of the upper vents. "We try to circumvent the situation!"

[galeforcehero]

"Aha! Vent! I get it!" Dorothy takes a few large steps back and, with a running start, runs up the wall, then pushes off to grab onto the opening of the now-opened vent. It's only a moment or two to haul herself up into the strangely organic duct system.

"Didn't know the TARDIS had these! I mean, I knew they were here, but I never thought what they'd be for. Are they for oxygen circulation?"

After a bit of maneuvering, she braces her feet against the inside of the vent and reaches her arm out to the Doctor, to help him up after her.