Part 1 - Ring Around the Rosie

[wieldtherainbow]

The briefing was, well, brief, given the complicated situation they were being thrust into. Stacy tried to give them as much as she could but apparently her intel on this universe was rather limited.

For this reason, they were dumped rather unceremoniously on a vast planet, with grassy green fields, the dropship that dropped them off retreating on autopilot and disappearing back into the transdimensional ether. It was a lovely planet at the very least, with vast deep blue skies, teeming with vegetation, but oddly, they all would likely find themselves dealing with the unnerving inkling feeling that they were somehow being watched. There were no sentients or even animals in site, however.

The only thing they could do right now was wait. They had been told that they would be found, that they would be offered rings, taken into these different Corps of people, and they they needed to make sure the war ended in a way that didn't devastate life in this universe.

That was something of a tall order.

[ooc: Go!]

Comments

[nerves_of_steel]

"We'll need to fly, sooner or later," John said wryly. "There's only so many circuits we can make of this roof before boredom sets in."

He shaded his eyes and peered out over the surrounding buildings. "I suppose this direction is as good as any other."

[first_in_time]

"Alright," Barbara chuckled as she realised her mistake and, staff in hand, leapt gracefully into the air where she hovered near the edge of the building. "Let's go in that direction. You can tell me more about your training and the Green Clan."

She kept the roof beneath her feet while she talked to John lest her concentration slip and she fell. Not that she could focus on that, either. Needless to say, flying too quite a bit of practice to master.

[nerves_of_steel]

John stood well back from the edge of the building as he took flight, less of a graceful leap and more of a vertical hop. Less dramatic, perhaps, but he wasn't particularly one for dramatic gestures.

"I'm not entirely sure I'd call it a 'tribe'," he said, relaxing a bit now that they were onto subjects less near and dear to his heart. "I don't feel any particular kinship with them, at least -- no more or less than I would with the police back home."

[first_in_time]

"It'd be difficult to feel kinship with a group of people who practically stole you from the spot you were standing in...do you have a lot to do with the police at home?" Of course, Barbara asked that with caution. While she wasn't suspecting John of being a criminal (she'd never seen someone look so humble in her life), it was an unusual thing to say.

[nerves_of_steel]

"Sherlock and I, we worked with the police, solving crimes," John explained. "Well, I say 'we'; it was mostly him being mad and brilliant, and me trying to keep up and both of us breathing." His mouth twitched nostalgically. "I had a blog about it, though I suppose that's all been wiped away now. He'd probably be pleased if it didn't mean that his site was gone too."

[first_in_time]

She relaxed at that explanation. Well, relaxed as much as one could while flying above nothing. "That sounds rather fascinating, but what's a blog?" Barbara asked, confused.

[nerves_of_steel]

"Oh, right, sorry." It was easy enough to forget that people on board the ship were from different time periods. Especially when the technology on the ship was so far advanced of anything he knew.

"A blog is...it's short for 'web log'. It's basically something where a person can write up entries like a log book, and other people can go and read them. It's sort of like a newspaper column, only on a screen instead of in a paper, and people do it for things besides work."

[first_in_time]

"I see," she replied, mostly understanding. "Did you and Sherlock have rival blogs?" Because there were rival newspapers, so it seemed likely.

[nerves_of_steel]

"Sort of," John said, looking a bit embarrassed and a little pleased. "It didn't start out as a competition, but in general, people were more interested in reading my write-ups of the cases he solved than they were about reading his treatises about how to distinguish between two-hundred forty-three kinds of tobacco ash. We amassed quite the internet following, he and I."

[first_in_time]

"I've heard of the Internet," Barbara smiled. Below them, a beautiful forest of emerald and purple crystal trees.

"Want to explore there?" she asked and pointed below.

[nerves_of_steel]

"As you like," John said with a shrug. He was reasonably certain that Oa's answer to nature wasn't likely to contain the sort of things that Baskerville had. "Nature's not particularly my bag."

[first_in_time]

Barbara gave him a funny look once she'd touched down. "How can it not be? you breathe, don't you? And drink water?"

[nerves_of_steel]

"Oh, I'm aware of how important it is to our survival, and I'm generally in favour of it," John answered, touching down beside her and looking around. "However, most of my recent associations with it involve corpses, being shot at, or vividly hallucinating an enormous monster dog thanks to an experimental chemical weapon."

He winced a bit, realizing exactly how that sounded, and floundered a moment to try and come up with something to add that didn't seem quite so crazy. "Er, though I suppose nature could be partially credited with my wanting to be a doctor, after my sister fell out of a tree and broke her leg."

...No, not really much better.

[first_in_time]

Barbara just looked at John with wide, thoughtful eyes. "I see," she replied. "I don't think anything will come at us here, and even if it does, we can fly away."

[nerves_of_steel]

"Probably not, yeah," John agreed. "Or we can...put it in a bubble or something, and take it to someone who can deal with it properly."

He shoved his hands in his pockets to keep from fidgeting awkwardly. "So, shall we? That direction looks as good as any other."

[first_in_time]

"If you know how to do that sort of thing," Barbara smiled and walked in the way John suggested, but took note of the fidgeting. "So, is there anything else I should know about you before we get lost in a forest of crystals?"

[nerves_of_steel]

"It's not that hard, relatively," John replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "Do they not teach you how to do that with your rings?"

He considered her question for a moment. "No, I suppose that medical school, my time in Afghanistan, and my friendship with Sherlock are the major highlights of my life." He cast a wary gaze at the "trees" around them. "I don't think I'll ever get used to the weird locations Stacy drops us off at. Not that she's a very normal location herself..."

[first_in_time]

Barbara gave a slight shrug and a tilt of her head. "The compassion tribe were more...compassionate. They wanted to work with emotions rather than force. I'd show you but it's a little invasive."

"At least you have a chance to see things that few other humans will have a chance to see for centuries yet," she pointed out. After a solid year and a half (roughly - it had been difficult to keep time since leaving Earth) of telling herself just that, Barbara looked upon these things as a sort of blessing, even when they were running for their lives.