I really wish I could have saved you

[girlorgun]

There are a number of people who have migrated f rom the TARDIS to the Kashtta after the brief non-existence of the TARDIS yesterday.

Donna Noble is not one of them. Donna has decided that the Doctor hiding inside the walls is not good for anyone, and is tracking him down with the intent of making him talk.

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[thatsortofaman]

The Doctor is indeed in the walls of the TARDIS - he's not hiding, honestly, he's just comfortable there - shuffling through a handful of notes made in Gallifreyan and trying to work out just how the TARDIS and everyone in it can cease to exist for no apparent reason, in between trying to remember where he put a certain piece of technology he took off the Rift machine. It might be back at the house. He wonders if he could convince Charlie to take him back there to pick it up, or if everyone would just decide he'll get himself killed or captured again if he moves more than a block and a half from the Kashtta. The way everyone's acting about this...

He really should notice that Donna's looking for him - she's very... loud, psychically, at least to him - but he has other things on his mind.

[withpockets]

Donna's able to hone in on him quite a bit, moreso in the TARDIS than usual, for some reason, so she heads towards where she feels him.

Passes it.

Stops.

Steps backwards a couple steps.

"How did you get in the walls?" she shouts, top volume. "And, y'know, why?"

If he didn't hear that, he's probably deaf.

[thatsortofaman]

The Doctor hadn't been expecting that, and he jumps, thumping into the wall of his little nest in surprise. It kind of hurts. "Ow." It's been a while since he's experienced just how much Donna can shout.

"What-" No, that's not nearly loud enough to be heard through the walls. He's not sure he even wants to explain. Or... come out, for that matter, if she's going to shout like that.

"Good to see you too, Donna!" he shouts back, and then adds in a mutter, "In a manner of speaking..." Oh, this is ridiculous.

[withpockets]

"I can't hear you!" she shouts, banging on the wall lightly - enough to thump, not enough to make the TARDIS cranky (hopefully). "Why don't you come out, then?"

[aint_a_shepherd]

Book's been... around. Ministering where he can, otherwise feeling gorram useless. It's around that time when a man with goat legs and a nice suit/pinstriped skirt combination (and no, he really doesn't want to ask), shoves a pair of mugs into his hands, saying, "On the roof, that way, and the coffee's yours!" before bustling off, probably to scare the 狗屎 out of some other pour soul by surprising them with hot beverages.

So he goes to the roof, surmising that the mug of hot chocolate must be for the girl sitting on the edge. He makes noise on purpose as he comes up, the little soft sounds that'll get her used to someone coming before he's even halfway there.

"It's a bit lonesome up here," he says at the halfway point. "But some people like that." He pauses. "You've got a friend downstairs -- or so I assume -- sent me up with something warm for you."

Silly Book. Ianto's not so much a friend as he is a den mother.

[girlorgun]

"Don't like it in there. It's... wrong." She sighs, closing her eyes and letting the breeze blow her hair off her face. "The walls talk to me and I don't know if they actually are or if I'm just crazy." Well, technically, she is crazy, but she was just living inside a sentient psychic spaceship. She's allowed to be uncertain about the possible sentience of the Kashtta.

Though Owen would probably make it swing towards not crazy.

She looks over her shoulder and smiles slightly. "Nĭ hăo, Shepherd."

[aint_a_shepherd]

Book smiles back and finishes his approach, offering her the hot chocolate. "April?" He's been a bit out of the loop, but there's only one girl who'd approach him quite like that.

"I've seen... ghosts in there. If you're crazy, that makes two of us."

[girlorgun]

"Well, I'm crazy whether or not the walls were talking," she says, and swings her legs back over so she can pad over, cat-silent, to take the mug of hot chocolate.

She takes a sip, and her eyes widen before fluttering half-closed, and a little happy mewl slips out through her lips.

She hasn't had a proper sweet in years.

[lionofmanc]

Right, so Gene's been a chipmunk for a bit. It's a thing he does now, apparently.

He's back to being a person again, though, and no sooner does he poke his head out of his bloody room than he's set upon by the teaboy, now half-goat, and... All right, he looks tasty is what he looks like. Not his fault he's part lion.

Teaboy, whose name he can't be arsed to remember, gives him a look like he knows just what he's thinking and he'd say something scathing if the stick up his arse would let him talk. Bit like Sam, in a way.

And then he's got two coffees shoved at him, just alike, cream and sugar, and something that sounds like orders. Namely, "Get. On. The. Roof."

And he's gone a second later.

"...What?" Gene says, staring at the retreating Tea...goat. No answer.

"I repeat, a bit louder: WHAT?"

Bloody Torchwood.

Up to the roof it is, then, already sipping at his coffee. When he gets up there and finds Mat, he's not terribly surprised.

"Something for you," he says, holding out a mug.

[guardsintheory]

"Waaah!" Mat jumps a little, startled, and whips around. His gaze flickers from Gene's face to the coffee and back. "Uh. Sorry. Didn't... I didn't hear you."

Too lost in thought.

He takes the coffee with a grateful smile, though. "Thanks."

[lionofmanc]

Gene takes a sip of his own coffee, then raises an eyebrow. "Come up here to think?"

Yes, Mat, that's an invitation to talk. You're not the only one feeling useless around here, and even if he's officially Torchwood now, Gene's not seeing as that makes a lick of difference.

[guardsintheory]

"Yeah," he says, staring at his coffee. He doesn't say anything for a moment, then...

"I found one of Rose's shirts under some blankets last night," he says softly.

[anystranger]

There is a robot on the roof of the tower. And it's wandering around, possibly scanning the streets arrayed below them but who can really tell?

After a while it starts trailing Mat, wandering in patternless paths that don't take it out of visual range, pausing at the edges of the roof to investigate the people walking below and occasionally shooting a scan in the direction of the TARDIS. It's not trying to get Mat's attention for anything, but it's a robot on a roof. It's not exactly blending in.

[guardsintheory]

Mat manages to ignore the robot for a while. After all, the robot might have its own thing to do up here, or its own robot angst, or something.

But eventually he realises that it... seems to be following him. He wanders around the roof a bit to test the theory and, sure enough, it may not be making it obvious, but the robot is definitely trying to keep him in sight.

"Um... are you following me?"

[anystranger]

The robot pauses. Looks over at Mat, and approaches to within a couple of meters. {This unit has preprogrammed priorities including: 1) to ensure the health and safety of Torchwood personnel,} it says. {If possible this unit would like to assist within the next ten days. Request information: status: Torchwood adjunct: Matthew Wallace.}

[guardsintheory]

Mat... is not honestly sure what's going on here. But he's pretty sure that...

"Are you... asking how I'm doing?" he ventures uncertainly. He doesn't know of any robots of this kind of... cold mechanicality that thinks to ask how people are doing.

Of course, most of the robots he knows of are in movies and video games.