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. ]
no subject
I believe their memories in the Mouse House are clearer, but there's still a fog of sorts, around the time the sickness descended.
I don't know how much it will yield exactly, but on my next visit there, I'll find out what I can.
[ Outside of this world, it would have been simple; he could walk the path of their memories, mentally project, ascertain far more information than they have now. But he's vastly more limited in his abilities now. Still, he should be able to get a sense of something, as he did with Henry. ]
no subject
And the person from Eidris I interrogated, he got... angry when I tried to press him about the sickness. he gave me something, but then he just plain refused to talk of it anymore, saying everyone on the streets knows. But clearly, I wager if you asked anyone in Eidris, it's unlikely they would remember.
no subject
no subject
In some cases, the loss of memories seem to be intermittent. They come and go. When they go, they seek comfort in the dragons, in the mental bonds they possess with them. Like it's what grounds them. ( tethers them to the here and now. )
no subject
Maybe, if I can - stand in the gap somehow. When their memories go and they turn to the dragons, if I can interrupt that moment, there may be something there.
[ It's all well and good, trouble is, he's not sure how he'd go about that just yet. ]
no subject
How would one go about interrupting?
no subject
[ That didn't quite answer the question, though, and he is aware of that. He's also trying to be careful what he divulges. Some secrets he still holds close, though he's not ignorant of the value in sharing a certain amount of information so they're all aware of each other's skill set. ]
Truthfully, I don't know how much I'll be able to gather. [ Spoiler alert: unfortunately, not that much at all. Something about this place has stripped him of most of those helpful abilities. ] But I will try. I've been able to sense a few things, feelings, mostly, and bare glimpses of memories.