taxonomites | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Tara considered.

"I suppose it depends on what you mean by 'real,' but not much. Many of us come with objects from home, and those could be. Some people have places from home they know turn up, but no one is sure if they're just eerily exact reproductions or if they actually came with the person."

"Well, I guess if they look and feel real enough, it's ok." She considered the book in her hand. There were slight signs of age on the corner, and she wondered if it was a faithful reproduction or the real thing.

"Mine has some special properties, and it still works. But then again, I run a shop, and all the stock works properly even though it comes from the hatches." She caught herself. "Has anyone explained hatches yet?"

"Ehm, hatches? No." She supposed she could learn about hatches, though they sounded like something you climbed down.

"It's what we have instead of shopping. I mean, there's some shopping too but... it's where food and clothes and things come from. If you like, I can meet you and show you?"

"Oh, sure. That'd be great!" She glanced around the hall and then back to the screen. "Do you know where to find me? I saw I was a dot on a map."

"If you got outside, there's a big sort of square." After thinking, she added, "There's a little blue 'suggestion' box. It's the color of the TARDIS, more or less? I can meet you by that."

"Ehm, I-- hang on." She started walking in one direction and was surprised when the hall quickly opened into a large common room. "Oh, well now I'm getting somewhere." She turned the tablet around to display the room. "Is there a door out of here to the outside?"

"Should be. One moment..."

Tara pulled up a detail on the map on her own tablet. She hadn't been in the Sanctuary much since arriving. "Okay. Go down the hall to your left. When it T's, go left again."

She followed Tara's directions, bearing left twice and easily finding the exit. Pushing open the door, she was greeted by the bright sunshine.

"Heeeey! I'm out now! Ok, blue suggestion box?" She glanced around, shielding her eyes from the sun. "Oh, got it! I'll meet you there."

"Right. There in a moment."

Tara, true to her word, arrived a few minutes later. "Hi. Amy?" Amy is taller than Tara expected over tablet, but otherwise she looks well for a new arrival.

Amy goofed off in front of the suggestion box, pacing back in forth and waiting a little impatiently. But when she spotted Tara, Amy straightened up and smiled.

"That's me! Hello."

"Hi." She looked at the suggestion box with a little smile, then back at Amy. "Right! Crash course in hatches. There's one not too far, this way. They look kind of like... a little like ATMs, I suppose?"

She turned to walk in step with Tara, nodding along. "This place doesn't look so bad on the outside. That room made a horrible first impression though."

"It does, doesn't it? Like something out of Space Trekking, only creepier."

They get to a hatch. "Alright, these are all over the city, in buildings and outside. The hand with the bracelet goes here." She demonstrated.

"You see the little numbers? They're credits. You get a set number every month, and you can spend them. Like money, sort of. You picture what you want, in your head, with your hand here." She concentrates, a moment, and a crisp, perfect golden delicious apple rolls out.

"And then your credits go down a bit, and you have your food, or your clothes, or whatever."

"So that's what these bracelets are for." She lifted her arm, taking a closer look. The bracelet didn't hurt to be on, so she assumed it was made of some stretchy material that just looked like metal. Now she saw that it was metal, and it was fused to her skin. "Oh, oh no! Is yours attached to your skin too?" She grasped at her wrist with two fingers of her opposite hand, since she was still holding her programmed item.

She watched Tara demonstrate, noting that her bracelet was likewise fused to her skin. Her eyebrows rose when the apple appeared, and it seemed her discomfort with the idea of the bracelet was momentarily forgotten in the prospect of getting things just by thinking of them. She wondered if there was a full sized hatch she could get Rory out of, though granted, it probably wouldn't be the original.

"Yes," Tara said softly. "Fused to the skin. No one's been able to get them off, the Doctor included." Neither magic nor technology.

Amy gave her wrist one more look before lowering her arm. It didn't hurt, so that was something. She was surprised to learn the Doctor couldn't do anything about it though.

"Well, I guess I'll stop moaning about it for the moment and say it's amazing how you worked that thing." She nodded towards the hatch. "Can I give it a go?"

"Please do." Tara stepped away to give Amy some room. At least the woman seemed to accept things about their environment fairly easily.

Amy stepped forward, placed her hand where indicated, and thought of an ice cream cone. One appeared before her in the hatch and the numbers indicating her credits went down.

"Woo hoo, I did it!" She snatched up the cone, taking a tentative lick. "That's incredible."

Tara smiled. "Everything tastes pretty good, too, which is kind of interesting. I mean, since it comes from hatches."

Amy licked at her ice cream, giving a nod. "Yeah, it's brilliant! Thanks for showing me this stuff."

"You're welcome. I'll see you soon, then."

She nodded, taking another lick. The Doctor could sort everything else out for her, but this was a good start.

"Sure will!"

001 ∞ [holo | location: Sanctuary]

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