The Doctor (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thedreamer) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
eastbound2022-09-01 10:39 pm
thedreamer) wrote in eastbound2022-09-01 10:39 pm
video | un: dollhouse
Hello, gang! ...Gang? No, not the right word. Team? Better. Do we have a name? Those of us displaced and trapped here. Well, there we are.
[ As if the semantics are really important. Moving on. ]
I'm the Doctor, if we haven't spoken yet. And if we haven't - first of all, why haven't we? Second of all, I'm very glad we are now.
[ He's moving around a lot as he talks, walking in slow circles, just restless. ]
Hearing what everyone's uncovered recently has been helpful and I believe I can add something of value to the mix.
In conversation with our caretaker in the Mouse House, Ma'am Mariol, I learned more about the plague that swept through. When the sickness struck, it fractured Serthica. Those up here believed it came from down below, the Mouse House; the first to touch anything imported, anything crossing the sea, they assumed. Prior to that, it was easier for those down below to come and go up here. Much more difficult now, nearly impossible, and so the people down there, the children, they suffer.
[ He has to note that for a moment because he will remain displeased until he can fix their situation. ]
The children we've met in the Mouse House were orphaned as a result of the sickness. All of them. To anyone's knowledge, not a single person who was infected survived. They referred to it as the coal sick; called that because an infected person's hands, toes, face would go dark, like coal dust and rot. Rot - familiar word, that one, eh?
What else - right - it infected quickly. Someone could be healthy one day and then nearly dead the next. Coughing up blood, teeth chattering, wandering back and forth to keep warm.
I hoped to ascertain how the splitting of Serthica was decided, how people were sorted, if some were exiled down below who'd previously lived in the citadels, simply for fear of spreading illness. There's at least one woman that I know of in the Mouse House, who used to live in the citadels. She receives letters from her daughter, who lives up here. Evidently, this woman ended up in the Mouse House around the time the sickness swept through, yet her daughter remains here.
Don't worry, that won't be the end of what I learn. I'm still working it out. [ He gets a bit more restless, impatient almost, pacing more urgently. ] Brain isn't working fast enough. Thinking and thinking and more thinking. I have to be careful how often I go down there, so I'm told - not that I've ever listened to that sort of thing - but if there are other questions I've missed, tell me. Maybe I'm standing too close to see everything.
Many heads are better than one, so the saying goes. Unless it's a multi-headed predator of some sort. Not the best odds, in that case, if you're the prey, though very good if you're the predator. All creatures have a right to it, though, of course, so can't judge that one. Survival of the fittest. You'd be surprised, though! A very good friend of mine, his name was Bertram; a beautiful, tiny Snorclax with a rainbow shell. He told me once he faced down a three-headed serpent wielding nothing but a pencil. [ This has nothing to do with anything at all, but that hardly matters. He just likes to tell stories and he has a captive audience. Unfortunately for the audience. ]
[ As if the semantics are really important. Moving on. ]
I'm the Doctor, if we haven't spoken yet. And if we haven't - first of all, why haven't we? Second of all, I'm very glad we are now.
[ He's moving around a lot as he talks, walking in slow circles, just restless. ]
Hearing what everyone's uncovered recently has been helpful and I believe I can add something of value to the mix.
In conversation with our caretaker in the Mouse House, Ma'am Mariol, I learned more about the plague that swept through. When the sickness struck, it fractured Serthica. Those up here believed it came from down below, the Mouse House; the first to touch anything imported, anything crossing the sea, they assumed. Prior to that, it was easier for those down below to come and go up here. Much more difficult now, nearly impossible, and so the people down there, the children, they suffer.
[ He has to note that for a moment because he will remain displeased until he can fix their situation. ]
The children we've met in the Mouse House were orphaned as a result of the sickness. All of them. To anyone's knowledge, not a single person who was infected survived. They referred to it as the coal sick; called that because an infected person's hands, toes, face would go dark, like coal dust and rot. Rot - familiar word, that one, eh?
What else - right - it infected quickly. Someone could be healthy one day and then nearly dead the next. Coughing up blood, teeth chattering, wandering back and forth to keep warm.
I hoped to ascertain how the splitting of Serthica was decided, how people were sorted, if some were exiled down below who'd previously lived in the citadels, simply for fear of spreading illness. There's at least one woman that I know of in the Mouse House, who used to live in the citadels. She receives letters from her daughter, who lives up here. Evidently, this woman ended up in the Mouse House around the time the sickness swept through, yet her daughter remains here.
Don't worry, that won't be the end of what I learn. I'm still working it out. [ He gets a bit more restless, impatient almost, pacing more urgently. ] Brain isn't working fast enough. Thinking and thinking and more thinking. I have to be careful how often I go down there, so I'm told - not that I've ever listened to that sort of thing - but if there are other questions I've missed, tell me. Maybe I'm standing too close to see everything.
Many heads are better than one, so the saying goes. Unless it's a multi-headed predator of some sort. Not the best odds, in that case, if you're the prey, though very good if you're the predator. All creatures have a right to it, though, of course, so can't judge that one. Survival of the fittest. You'd be surprised, though! A very good friend of mine, his name was Bertram; a beautiful, tiny Snorclax with a rainbow shell. He told me once he faced down a three-headed serpent wielding nothing but a pencil. [ This has nothing to do with anything at all, but that hardly matters. He just likes to tell stories and he has a captive audience. Unfortunately for the audience. ]
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1) Useless
2) Peculiar. ]
One, or the other, or both?
[ Below, before the sickness, or both? ]
It would be beneficial to know.
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Still, to one point: ]
It seems to be that the danger has not passed, only... changed in form.
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[ He can't help his thoughts turning to the plight of those in the Mouse House. He spent time there, sheltered there by kind people who suffer while those overground turn a blind eye. The Doctor is so used to stepping in and fixing what's wrong, he's frustrated that he's been unable to do so as easily here. ]
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[ Unless proven otherwise. And in that case, well, the Doctor's patience runs out quite quickly. ]
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[ But, you know, whatever works. ]
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[ He understands what the word means, but he does not understand the concept of being subtle, though he would certainly insist otherwise. Clueless, thy name is Doctor. ]
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[ Especially when people are suffering. He has very little patience at all. Still, his newfound friend has a good point. ]
It's more important to me though that these people are taken care of so I'll try any tactic available.
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[ But there's wisdom in what's been shared, the idea of a more subtle approach. The Doctor is generally more used to arriving in the middle of dire situations, solving a problem posing imminent danger, and leaving everything better than he found it. It's meant being rather aggressively of service and trying to help quickly, but here perhaps, he'll need to more strategically adapt his methods. He can't risk alienating those would possess the only means to help. ]
What's your assignment?
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