taxonomites | 001 ∞ [holo | location: Sanctuary]

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001 ∞ [holo | location: Sanctuary]

Amy appeared on the platform and jumped, letting out an "AUGH!" Hadn't she just been in the TARDIS? How did she end up here? She looked all around the stark room, seeing a pedestal in the corner, and then noticed the thin book in her hand. Turning it to read the cover, she murmured out loud, "The Legend of Pandora's Box?" She flipped it open, sure that it was the book from her bedroom back home. How did it get here? Or perhaps a better question was, how did she get here? And what was this weird bracelet on her wrist?

She'd been in plenty of strange situations in the past, and plenty of those separated her from her friend and her husband, so she wasn't as freaked out as she could have been. The Doctor was always able to find her, to save her, and so she was confident that he would do the same now.

Stepping off the platform on which she stood, she called out, "Doctor?" before coming up to a pedestal with some sort of mobile on it. Picking it up caused the door behind her to open, and she quickly spun around, the strange little device still in her hand. Amy moved forward cautiously, sticking her head out the door.

"Doctor! Rory! Oi, anybody there?" She clicked her tongue and stepped out into the hall. "Well this is just great." She picked a direction and headed down the hall, clutching her book and the device as the door slid shut behind her. Pausing to look down at the object in her hand, she wondered if it really was some kind of mobile, and if so, if she could use it to find the Doctor.

She slid the screen down over the keyboard and held it up to her ear, listening. "Can anybody hear me on this thing? Hellllllloooooo." She waited a moment for a response and, when none came, she sighed and held it out to look at the screen. Seeing a button with a picture of a house on it, she assumed it was the home key and so she pressed it. It brought up a map with a colored dot in the middle, labeled, 'Amy Pond.' "Great," she replied with a sigh, "now I know where I am. I'm... in some building in some strange place and I'm a dot on a map. So very helpful, that."

Dropping hand and tablet to her side she decided she would just have to explore, and see if anyone could tell her where she was.

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"You're not alone there," she says, with a shy smile. "I think we're all just making do, as best we can." She seemed slightly reassured, which means whichever Doctor had contacted her was the one she expected. That was good; it was always helpful to have a friendly face to greet you.

"I'm Tara. Welcome to, uh, being kidnapped by aliens."

She nodded along. The Doctor could help. She was sure of that.

"I'm Amy. Oh yes, this sounds like great fun," she said with a sarcastic edge. She'd met plenty of murderous aliens before, so this was nothing more than an annoyance to her.

"Well, since you've got the Doctor here, you'll probably want to stick with him, but I know he can be, uh... better with the big things than with the little ones, sometimes? So if you need any help settling in, or need to know how to get a toothbrush or anything..."

Tara's friendliness is genuine, and if there are any aliens watching, she hopes they don't think this is just so they'll bring her cat here. She really would like to help.

It had finally occurred to Amy that when the Doctor said he'd been there for months already that he wasn't just pulling her leg. People seemed to know him quite well, even though the two of them had just been on the TARDIS together mere minutes before.

"Oh yes. We leave the little things to me." She smiled a bit proudly at that. "Thanks. I'll be sure to let you know if anything comes up. Sometimes I'm surprised the Doctor remembers to tie his shoes in the morning."

Tara smiled a little wider. "I know what you mean. But it's... I mean, it's terrible to be trapped here, but it could be worse. And at least you have a friend here to start - it's much harder for people on their own, I think."

"Well if all people are as welcoming as you, I'm sure the others don't have it too hard. Just how many people are here anyway?"

"Um, it changes, but... about 50? It usually hovers somewhere in there, I think." Her smile faded, as she added, "You'll see more, but only about 50 are real people. The rest are... they're sort of like a construct. Or a program."

"They're not real? So they don't have memories of being a person or a personality?" She thought back to the time she and the Doctor came across a Roman legion that she discovered later technically weren't real. And her boyfriend among them.

"I don't think they ever were - people, that is. But they... they have little roles to play, and they can do those, but they can't do anything else." She thought a moment, then said, "If you go into a diner, they can serve coffee, and make eggs, and comment about the weather, but if you ask them if they could... I don't know, tell you about their childhood or if you tried to flirt with one of them or something, they just... wouldn't."

Tara frowned. "I'm explaining it badly. Um... I can sort of see... energy, around people." She tried to put it in terms a friend of the Doctor's would accept. "And their energy isn't human, or Timelord, or like a person at all."

She frowned at that. "So like robots, that just look like people then." Amy didn't think Tara was doing a bad job explaining at all. Usually the first time the Doctor "explained" something, she became more confused than when he had first spouted the science-y mumbo jumbo.

"So are you not human then? Seeing energy and stuff?" In Amy's experience, there were plenty of people out there who looked human, but weren't. Or looked Time Lord. As the Doctor had once pointed out to her, Time Lords were around first.

"No - no, I'm human. I just... it's a talent. It sort of ran in my family?" She wasn't ashamed of being a witch, but she still sometimes hesitated to tell people about it first thing. Amy seemed nice, and traveling with the Doctor was bound to make someone open-minded, but magic was still its own thing.

"But yes, like robots."

"Oh. That sounds like a fun talent to have." Teasingly, she added, "You can't see my energy through the video screen, can you?" She wasn't even sure what Tara meant by "energy," but maybe if she saw the other woman in person, she could tell her.

"Got it." She didn't know how much interaction she'd have with these other fake people, but at least she knew not to bother asking them personal questions.

The teasing put Tara a bit more at ease. "No. Only in person. It's handy though, with Time Lords - the Doctor's been here more than once, and it's... his energy's different, but it's still so clearly him."

She belatedly realized he may not have told Amy about regeneration. Oops.

"He's been here more than once? He's never said-- well, there's a lot of things he doesn't say."

But hearing that gave her hope. She still knew barely anything about how this place worked, but she assumed if the Doctor had been here before, he had figured out how to leave. So all he had to do was figure it out again and the pair would be on their way back to Rory and more adventures in the TARDIS.

"He was. But he doesn't remember," she clarified. "We're not sure why, but it's not just him. Some people have gone and come back, and they usually don't remember."

That freaked Amy out a little. Losing memories was no picnic. Especially when there were tiny bits left behind and you found yourself crying for no reason. "Well... that sounds nice and creepy. Memories being erased and all."

"Yeah. There's also... I don't know how much you've talked to the Doctor yet, but he may not come from exactly the same point in time as you do. Most of my friends from home are from farther on than me, though a couple are from earlier."

That was probably the hardest thing to get used to, at least at the beginning.

"Ugh, this time travel stuff gives me such a headache sometimes." She rubbed her forehead with her fingertips in dismay. "I'll be sure to clear that up with him. Thanks for the heads up."

"You're welcome." She could only hope that, if Amy gets a glimpse of her own future, it went a little better than Tara's had.

"I live in Castle Summers. Once you're settled, you can drop by, if you like." There were, at least, usually baked goods to be had.

"Ooo, a castle, you say? Sounds fun! I'll be sure to drop by." And since Tara already knew the Doctor, maybe Amy would bring him along too.

"Do," she said with a smile. "We'll give you the Sunnydale welcome." ...minus all the monsters, hopefully.

"Sunnydale, is that where you castle dwellers are from? Well, if I were to give you the Leadworth welcome, it'd go a little something like this." She threw her head back, closing her eyes and making a snoring sound. Then she abruptly "woke up," and pretended to look startled. "Wha-- What were you saying? I fell asleep. Because I live in the most boring village on the planet."

She laughed.

"Well, I'm not a native, but I was in Sunnydale before here. It, uh. It's not 'boring' so much as 'a magnet for things that want to destroy the earth.'" Fun times.

"Ah," she nodded knowingly. "The UK seems to be a magnet for trouble too. Or maybe that's just the Doctor..." She trailed off and shrugged.

"Could be a little of both?" Tara suggested. "We have the Slayer - she's sort of specially equipped to fight the monsters, but it's sort of chicken and egg whether she ended up in Sunnydale to fight them, or if they came to Sunnydale to fight her."

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