Melting Clock: Quarantine

[cityship]

After Sam Henderson's announcement, the Contagion Containment and Treatment lab was going to get busy. Anyone suspected of being affected by the mysterious affliction would be brought here, and put into one of the large bubbles that would keep any potential contagious diseases in - and the patients themselves. Once in inside, they wouldn't be able to get out again until the Medical staff had cleared them.

And before they could do that, they needed to find out what was causing this - and why.

They had a lot of hard work ahead of them.

[[ooc: Just start your own sub threads under the main threads, guys! And if you're happy to have anyone tag in, put "Open" in the subject line. If you've already got plans for who you're threading with, put "Closed" instead.]]

Comments

[livestoannoy]

"Yeah," Marco said, eying the guy suspiciously. "But I already played twenty questions with Barbie earlier. Who the hell are you?"

The file might not be false (well, except for the fact that it left out anything and everything relating to morphing), but Rory was definitely spot on the nail with that 'paranoid teenager' assessment.

[theboywhowaits]

"Nurse Rory Williams, Royal Leadworth Hospital. Currently medical personal on board the spaceship known as Stacy, engaged, Companion to the Doctor, Time traveler. I think that covers everything. Now, let's talk about you. You're obviously losing time, your file says you should be 19, about 3 kilo heavier, and about an inch taller. Do you remember when this started? Did anything happen on the planet?"

[livestoannoy]

Engaged and "Companion" the the Doctor? "Wait, Psycho Otter Guy? You're engaged to him?" Marco said, staring. Jeez, this guy must have seriously low standards. "And hang on, time traveler? What the hell?"

Marco had done time travel before. It didn't end well. But apparently, some random British nurse who had a big nose and really bad taste in guys did it regularly.

And Rory was going to have to ask those questions again later, because right now there was also something else that was completely and utterly taking up Marco's attention. "No way. No way should I only have lost an inch. You seriously cannot be telling me that I don't get any taller than 5'3." This was so totally unfair. "It's possible to get growth spurts after nineteen, right?!"

[theboywhowaits]

Rory snorted. "No. No, definitely not, not engaged to him. No. I like my sanity intact, thanks." Psycho Otter Guy? Well, he'd heard the Doctor called worse things. Though he had to wonder the cause of the nickname. "I see you've met him though, he tends to make an impression. And yes, time traveler. The TARDIS is a time machine. Well, normally. Right now its just a blue box with an inordinate amount of rooms at odds with its physical size."

He paused, considering lying to him. "Ah, yeah. It's possible. But that's what your file says. Did you take vitamins as a child? Improper nutrition in childhood can result in lower than average height."

Or he could just be short, naturally. Which was what Rory was leaning towards.

[livestoannoy]

"Right, so you're not insane enough to marry him, just enough to agree to wonder into the big blue time traveling box with him?" Marco said, snorting. Then his eyes narrowed slightly. The Time Matrix had been something that not even the Ellimist and Crayak, two beings that were impossibly, insanely powerful, had wanted to risk anyone messing with. A weapon too dangerous and powerful to use. And yet the Doctor owned one? "That one in the hangar, right? And what exactly do you do with it?" he said, watching closely.

Marco hovered for a moment, remembering all those times when he and his dad had had ice cream for dinner. "Not really," he admitted.

[theboywhowaits]

"Well, Amy was traveling with him before. She asked me to. It's a bit mad, yeah. But I wouldn't trade it." Even though it had gotten him killed. "Yes. The one in the hanger." He blinked. "Do with it? I travel in it, the Doctor pilots."

He nodded. "That's probably it then."

[livestoannoy]

"And Amy's...what, the real fiance? Are there other people hanging around this box, or is just you, her, and the wonky third wheel?" Marco said, raising an eyebrow. "Right, so you just use it to go on picnics do you? You don't just go and decide, 'hey, why don't I go and make history happen how I would have liked it to happen?'"

Funny how Marco was the one asking all the questions in this interview. But he'd seen what happened when you tried to mess with time, and finding out that the Doctor had his own time traveling box hadn't exactly made Marco feel less suspicious about the guy.

[theboywhowaits]

"Amy's my fiance, yes. Jamie lives there as well. Though he's the only other one I know about." His lips twitched at the description. "I don't choose the detestation, nor, often enough, does the Doctor. The TARDIS has a life all her own. Sometimes we just go places, and have picnics or things like that. I don't think anyone has ever suggested assassinating Hitler or evacuating Pompeii."

He stayed relaxed, letting Marco direct the questions for a moment. Giving Marco the ability to have control might make him more willing to answer later, so it didn't bother him. He'd done this a time or two with abused teenagers coming in and not wanting to admit how they had been hurt.

[livestoannoy]

"You said he pilots it before," Marco pointed out. "Which means he must be able to control it. And I doubt you've never entertained the thought of changing something - not to mention there's a lot of people who'd look at something like that and see a weapon." Marco being one of those people.

It was a good thing Marco wasn't aware of the comparison Rory was making, because it definitely wasn't one he'd appreciate.

[theboywhowaits]

"He does, it just doesn't always listen. Aim for Rio and end up in 2020 in Wales. It's less linear and controllable than it really sounds, time travel. Often enough, you just end up trying to figure it out." He shrugged. "Could be, in the wrong hands, yeah. But I trust the Doctor. If anyone can handle that sort of power without letting it get out of hand, it's him."

Of course he wouldn't, but that was one of the reasons the tactic worked.

[livestoannoy]

"And you trusted that thing to actually get you home afterwards?" Marco said. "Are you insane?!"

[theboywhowaits]

"Well, I didn't really have a choice the first time. But yeah, by now, probably count as insane. At least by the definition most people would give you. Things start making sense that shouldn't, and normal things start looking rather strange." He tapped the data pad against his hand. "Speaking of odd things, did you run into anything on the planet that struck you as odd?"

[livestoannoy]

"Dude, what wasn't odd on that planet?" Marco pointed out. "I mean, the first thing we even see is an Iskoort with a mustache. That place was nuts, man."

[theboywhowaits]

"Point. But there's odd, and then there's odd." He was fairly certian that Marco would know what he was talking about. "People would normally be overwhelmed by the chaos, right?"

[livestoannoy]

"And how would you even know what's relevant?" Marco pointed out. "You're assuming that this thing was caused by something that noticeably 'odd', yet there's nothing that says whatever it was has to be like that. For all you know we might have just breathed in the wrong air."

[theboywhowaits]

"If you had, then more of the crew would be affected. If we can triangulate an area, we can most likely figure out the cause and then how to fix you. Therefore, things that stuck out as strange or unnerving help us form a profile of what we may be dealing with."

[livestoannoy]

"Dude, wouldn't it be easier if I just made a list of places I went to?" Marco said, rolling his eyes.

[theboywhowaits]

"Yes, actually, that would be helpful. Would you be willing to write it down? Places in common could help us a great deal." He ignored the eye roll, calm and direct and dealing with him as passively as possible.

[livestoannoy]

"Sure, as long as you give me something to actually write with," Marco said dryly. "Unless you want me to graffiti it all over the bubble wall?"

[theboywhowaits]

"I don't have a pad of paper." And he wasn't going to pass his terminal in. The last thing this teenager needed was access to the crew's medical files.

"But I do have a marker, we can start with that." He opened the tiny pass through, setting the marker inside and shutting the door on his side.

[livestoannoy]

Getting up, Marco moved towards the hatch and grabbed the marker. He stared back at Rory for a moment, eyes narrowed. "If anyone asks about this, it's totally your fault by the way."

And then he started to write on the bubble's wall.

A lot of the paces listed were things like video game shops, comic book stalls, electronics stores. Also some food stores - cause he sure wasn't going to live off of gloop if he didn't have to - and a couple of clothing shops. Also, oddly enough, a bookstore (even though Marco wasn't the type to ever walk into a bookstore). And a whole bunch of other, random places. One of which what a stall selling weird clocks.

It also just happened that all of it was written with completely atrocious spelling. And backwards, to Rory's eyes.

[theboywhowaits]

"If anyone asks, it's entirely my fault." He nodded, agreeing. Fairly certian that the living pod wouldn't be harmed by a bit of marker.

The backwards bit was a little bothersome, though it didn't take him long to figure it out and start inputting the information, neatly, precisely, and spell checked for his report. "Now, at the food stores, did you sample anything that you didn't bring back to the ship?"

[livestoannoy]

"No way are you testing any of our food. Do you know how hard it is just to hide that stuff from Ax?" Marco said. "And dude, there were like those food stalls all over the place. I probably went to at least three of them a day." After all that time stuck with Stacy's food, no way was Marco going to pass up the opportunity to get real food.

[theboywhowaits]

"Settle. We need to test anything that might have been contaminated. Would you rather eat slop for another month or deage out of existence?"

[livestoannoy]

"Deage out of existence," Marco said promptly.