12;

[rude_not_ginger]

[Oh, look who it is. Not bustling, not running around, not talking. Just quietly there.]

[He's been scarce on the Plane lately, his current situation making him anything but social. As it is, he's here now, staring at the post he has on the Plane, waiting for a promised letter. Feel free to interrupt.]

Comments

[chasingstars201]

[Still in scrubs, wrapped again in the doctor's coat. She feels like a kid standing next to him right now, with his serious face and his height and her tininess and what feels like pajamas and a jacket that's too big.

Never mind those stupid gray hairs. She runs her fingers over them, shakes her head, and reaches out to touch his arm.]

Doctor?

[chasingstars201]

[Oh Doctor. She shakes her head] No. They didn't go out. They were replaced. And the Gates... they aren't rifts. They're self-contained. Inside of them... I've seen stone flowers growing, monsters that DNA suggests were ordinary creatures once. Blocks of the city preserved as they were when the Gate spaces appeared and devoured them. Dead people walking, talking... corpses that should have rotted away years ago. The geography inside is always shifting. Nothing stays constant. They'll drive you insane--not just because they're strange. They'll make you insane.

[A shudder. She stares at the wine.] They'll turn your own body against you.

[rude_not_ginger]

[finally notices the thinness of her body and the gray in her hair---he's observant like that]

What happened to you, Misaki?

[chasingstars201]

[...doh. She uses another sip to buy time.] I'm in PANDORA. It's right next to the Gate. They're using it as a sort of headquarters.

[She closes her eyes.] I need your help, actually.

[rude_not_ginger]

How? How can I help?

[chasingstars201]

M.E. technology. It was an early discovery... it's memory manipulation, basically. It can fabricate whole personalities in its most advanced application. But it can be broken as well. They've been using it on me.

[rude_not_ginger]

They've taken your memories? Given you false ones?

Blimey. You can't even get away from Plane-like experiments back on your own reality.

[chasingstars201]

[A tired laugh] It's part of an interrogation technique that, I'm ashamed to say, originated in my department.

[rude_not_ginger]

Why are they interrogating you? You work for them!

[chasingstars201]

It's not... [She rubs her eyes with the heels of her palms] It's not anyone I work for. Everyone who operated PANDORA before this started is dead. They took over. I still don't even know what they're calling themselves.

[rude_not_ginger]

[slow nod]

What do you want me to do?

[chasingstars201]

I need your help sorting things out. [She taps the side of her head.] With everything they've tried-- [another attempt at a smile] It's getting a little crowded in there.

[rude_not_ginger]

[the Doctor doesn't make a habit of this and the fact that she knows is enough to make him nervous---but then again, it is Misaki. She's a friend]

All right. Face me.

[chasingstars201]

[She does, feeling nervous herself. She's only ever done this once, really, and that experience wasn't pleasant.]

[A deep breath.] Ready. I think.

[rude_not_ginger]

[places his fingers against her temple and closes his eyes]

Just relax. Imagine your mind like a walkway. If there's anything you don't want me to see, just imagine a door and I won't look.

[chasingstars201]

[She relaxes, at least. The latter bit is more difficult, seeing as she can't hardly tell what of her recent experience is fabricated and what isn't