The TARDIS had materialized near the docks against the wall of one of the warehouses. Several people had heard the sound but only a few had wondered what it was, as there were many strange sounds produced by the comings and goings of ships and machinery and people on the docks.

A drunk was just barely conscious laying in a pile of debris/junk against the wall of the adjacent warehouse.

Other than that, no one was in sight, but cars, horse-drawn wagons and pedestrians could be seen passing by out on the main street. Intent on going about their own business, none of them noticed the blue police call box.

The biggest vehicle that Johnny had ever seen was a train, or, specifically, a locomotive. They came through Tombstone fairly regularly. Admittedly, the inside of the TARDIS was a bit wider than one of the train cars, so he'd just assumed it was the interior of a steamship, maybe even a riverboat. He hadn't made it as far east as the Mississippi River to see one for himself, though... just pictures.

He had no idea what to expect when he stepped out of the TARDIS. What little imagination he might have had been overwhelmed by the time tunnel and his recent... trips.

It was quite natural for him to look back at the vessel he'd just been in... in case he actually had a chance to return to it.

He looked at the blue police call box in puzzlement... then at the warehouse behind it.

"I don't understand," he said to the Doctor. "What happened to your ship?"

He reached out and felt around to the sides of the box, only semi-expecting to find something invisible there, though he wasn't sure if that would have been even stranger.

"Is this what they used in Denver or St. Louis?"

The doctor laughs just a bit as Johnny asks where the ship is, and steps back to open the doors again then steps back so Johnny can see through them, so he can see the scale difference. "No. Except when I was there to visit. The inside exists in another dimension compared to the outside. Think of it... as a pocket, and this box is like the hole you stick your hand through."

He closes the doors again, and says, "Let's look around."

"Well, dang! Don't that beat all!" Johnny replied, staring at the inside of the inside of the call box and then looking around it on the outside again.

"A pocket, you say? Bigger on the inside? Mighty handy, that is. I could use a couple pockets like that. Say... is that what Mony did with mah ammunition? Stuck it in one of these dimension pockets in my gun?"

"Well, don't that beat all!"

"Yep. We should look around. No sense coming all this way and then not seein' what's here."

"Ah ain't been here a'fore, so you should probably lead the way, Doctor. Keep me from gettin' inta trouble."

"Highly improbable a time agent would know how to do that — struck by lightning while laying flat on the ground in a rubber suit on a clear sunny day right before being struck by a meteor improbable — but I suppose it is possible. Far more likely, at a guess, your guns now produce their own ammo out of some form of energy. I'd have to examine them to know for sure."

Nodding with a smile at the suggestion he should take the lead, the Doctor turns to start striding out along the dockside, picking a direction that seems interesting and taking in the details as he walks. He does pause for just a second to glance to the drunk to make sure he's fine before moving on.

More seriously than Johnny has seen him yet, he says, "I agree. Tensions here could be high right now. The economy is still recovering from the first world war, and it's soon going to hit another depression. At some point in 1928, the companies will change their hiring practices which starts a wave of massive riots. I can't remember what the hiring change was, but I remember it offended a lot of people. We don't want to be caught in the middle of that."

He smiles again confidently, and says, "Stay friendly, don't draw your guns, and we will be fine."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:23, Mon 15 Oct 2018.

The Explorer was not happy. Something was wrong here in Australia. Something he couldn't do himself. He'd need the Doctor. He just didn't want to see the Doctor. Since he was too ashamed, though maybe the Doctor wouldn't recognize him. That would do. If he found the Doctor and he didn't recognize him, he could get away with pretending to be someone else.

I know, he thought, Alan Quartermain--that's who I'll be.

So he began to look. he pulled out his sonic and began to look for any signs of a TARDIS or sonic technology.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:55, Tue 16 Oct 2018.

"Ya may be right there, Doc," Johnny responded. "Ah don't draw my gun any more unless someone draws theirs first. The fact ah've gotten real good with mine, though, means ah don't have to kill no one... usually. Wing 'em or disarm 'em is usually good enough."

"Like ah was sayin', where ah come from, you're just as likely ta get shot if ya ain't carryin' a gun. And drawin' a gun tells other ya mean business."

"Now, ah don't think that'd be the case in Kansas City or Baltimore, no sirree--ah ain't no dummy--and it don't rightly look like that's the way of things here in Australia. So'n if ya wanna do the jawin' and palaverin', that's all fine by me."

He wasn't much one for sight-seeing, but he did look around to see what was different about Australia... and Australians. He half expected them to have two heads or something, but they looked just like ordinary people. Clothes seemed a tad different, but still ran the gamut of workers to fancy folks, with a lot more in between. The one thing he did notice differently... he didn't see anyone carrying a gun! He got a few strange looks from folks and figured it was because he was carrying a gun. He'd have to think about that some. If he'd left it in that there blue box, he'd feel right naked walking down the street without it. And he wasn't quite sure he'd be able to get it back. He did wonder if he could get ammunition for it here, even though Mony said he'd probably never run out, Doc's 'pocket' notwithstanding.

Christina shook her head, desperately trying to get rid of the last image that floated at the recesses of her memory. Nitro-9, her backpack was full of Nitro-9 repeated the voice echoing in her head. She sighed giving in to those thoughts gnawing at her and slipped out of the drivers seat of the bus in order to be extremely sure.

She rummaged through her backpack that was next to her on the cold, metal floor of the bus finally looking up in frustration. There was no Nitro-9 in there, and she was positive it was never there. She didn't even know what Nitro-9 was! She knelt there in place, with all her belongings now scattered around her and looked up at the ceiling. These thoughts and images were driving her insane. She needed the Doctor and she needed him now.

Christina didn't believe in fate...until now. It seemed as if she was on a one way trip to always encounter the Doctor. San Helios, The Eye of Ashaya, Adams's Vault. It seemed as if fate kept pushing her towards the Doctor. So this time she was going to follow fate's compass. She knew they should have been together, she told him as much before she flew away in the bus. And everything she had experienced in the past two years seemed as if they were mere stepping stones towards an eventual meeting with the Doctor.

She had seen him, this time with a Bow Tie, as well as Rory and Amy in the fiasco concerning the Eye of Ashaya. She didn't get the very large gem that was the heart of a dying star, but she did manage to get a Vortex Manipulator from a supposed Time Agent that originally got her onto the ship in order to steal the gem in the first place. Then of course she wound up with Henry Van Statten and then captured by his assistant Adam. She managed to escape them with the use of a silver circlet called the Messiah's Diadem which made them fall instantly in love with her. She stole a superphone and learned about Torchwood during that, but unfortunately lost the silver circlet in the process.

This lead her to Torchwood in Wales where she met Ianto Jones and convinced him to set the phone and Vortex manipulator to the Doctor. He did, matching the number to his telephone box. She called him and the phone rang, but it didn't quite go through. (Comic- Tesseract). Well now she at least could find him. But that's when it all went wrong. She pressed the button on the Vortex manipulator...and found herself running a Bed and Breakfast in Wales. She would have remained there for the rest of her life until fate once again intervened. The Doctor showed up, they got rid of some aliens and he told her about how she was now the Lady Christina de Souza 2.0. It was a little hard to swallow, but she accepted it as memories came flooding back from her past as well as others she had never experienced. She headed home and spent six months with her family until the pull of the Doctor made her run away once more.

She gathered her belongings once more stuffing them into her backpack. She took a deep breath and slid back into the drivers seat. She thought she had everything she needed, and if it didn't work...there was always more cat burglary. The clamps were still on the tires, although the tires has long ago run out of air. The cup of Athalstan and clamp were still on the steering wheel, but now she had placed the yellow gem from San Helios, (she had picked it up rather quickly after the Doctor had so carelessly tossed it away), on the wheel as well as the Vortex manipulator. They were all tied together in the only way she could think of. Wires and duct tape. She hoped the crystal, which had powered a fly-alien race's ship, could possibly have enough power to operate a Vortex manipulator. She hoped.

She called the number on the superphone and powered up the bus. The bus lifted off the ground with ease and pushed open the barn doors of one of the barns on her families huge estate. The bus floated in mid air as the phone rang.

Outside of the Tardis the phone rang, but the Doctor had moved on with his companion Johnny. A drunk that had been seen by the Doctor and Johnny got up and answered the phone.

"Thank goodness!" Christina yelled in the bus. "Doctor, this is Christina. I'm on my way to you! And don't think for a second that you don't need me...you always do!" With that she hit the button on the Vortex manipulator and the bus disappeared.

Sparks flew from the steering wheel and Christina covered her face in response. The bus then appeared and the yellow crystal shattered. The bus seemed to lose all its power and landed heavily on the wharf of the dock, right next to the Tardis. Christina sat motionless for a moment and her eyes moved side to side expecting the worst. "Well that was pretty extreme!" She then saw the Tardis and a smile blossomed on her face as she moved with unexpected energy, grabbing her backpack and gathering up the crystal shards that were now scattered around the floor of the bus. "Waste not, want...everything."

The doors opened on the bus and she stepped out in her black leathers and backpack. She was approached by a dock worker. "Mam, you can't leave that there." He then looked at the Victoria blazened on the front of the bus. "Does that belong to the state, Mam?"

Christina, ever one to manipulate the situation agreed with him. "Why yes it does!" She looked at his clothes and had no idea where she was or what time. "You see it is a gift, um for the governor. I was testing it out and it um malfunctioned." She looked down at her clothes. "That's why I am wearing this get-up. I should be in a...frock, but safety and everything." She moved a bit closer to him. "The state and um this fine city, would be extremely grateful if you could keep a close eye on their property until I get back." She then quickly produced some of the crystal gems and handed them to the fine gentleman. "These are yours for helping me out until I can get back with the authorities and pay you for your time."

"And you are?" He asked quizzically.

"I am the Lady Christina de Souza." She made a small curtsy.

"Oh then, of course mam. Will do mam." He nodded and his fingers went to his hat in a gesture of tipping it.

"Thank you. And now I need to run." She nodded politely at him and scurried towards the Tardis. The drunk was still there dumbfounded by what had transpired in the past half hour. He might think about not drinking for awhile. She politely took the phone from his hands and placed it back into the small box in the front of the Tardis. "Now could you direct me to the man who came out of this box for me my good man?" She placed a couple of crystals into his hand. He just pointed down the street staring at the crystals in his other hand. "Thank you again." With that she bolted down the alleyway and into one of the streets of Melbourne calling, "Doctor! Doctor!", as the many passerby's looked strangely at her in her bizarre attire.

Let me know if you want me to roll anything for manipulating the dock worker. It would be a presence and convince - with hopefully a +2 as she hands him the crystal shards and the Victoria 200 on the front of the bus. Just trying to move her into the scene quickly and trying not to god-mod too much. Thanks.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:12, Fri 19 Oct 2018.

The Doctor smiles back to Johnny, and says, "That is exactly the attitude to have! I don't like guns, as there is almost always another way. But if you have to shoot, shooting to disarm is the way to go. When that's possible."

He pauses to look back as he hears the voice, and a huge smile breaks out on his face. "Wonderful!" As soon as Christina gets closer, he introduces, "It is good to see you! Johnny Tornado, meet the Lady Christina de Souza."

"Howdy, ma'am," Johnny says, surveying the garments she's wearing and trying to decide if she looks stranger or more out-of-place than him.

Alan wasn't detecting anything out of the ordinary with his sonic spyglass, but he was sure if he'd detected the 'something wrong' then the Doctor would, too. Sure enough, after half an hour, he picked up both artron energy and huon particles... the Doctor's TARDIS is the only place where the latter could be, and therefore the only place where both could exist.

That meant the Doctor had arrived in Melbourne.

As Alan was walking down the street near the docks looking for a blue police call box, he spotted three people also walking down the same street towards him... well, to be honest, they were walking in the direction he was coming from but it didn't appear that they noticed him yet. As it was, he didn't recognize the Doctor except by the two strange companions with him.

"Pleasure", Christina replied back to the rather handsome cowboy. American, she thought to herself. Definitely American.

She then burst with energy dropping her backpack in the process. She threw her arms around the Doctor and hugged him tight. She stepped back after the hug and gave him the once over. "How dare you leave a damsel in distress. Me alone in a Bed and Breakfast, how droll." She looked long and hard at him. He was older, that could not be denied. Bald, to be sure. Was this the man she had kissed so long ago? The one she had fallen head over heels for in one short day? How she longed for the other one back. But if it was the Doctor, then she needed him. She would have to think of a long range plan on getting that younger self back...if he even could.

"I have a million questions, and do I need say - I am in a bit of a spot. I could really use your help." She implied it but the word please never crossed her lips. She then looked around and asked, "Where are we by the way?"
This message was last edited by the player at 22:01, Fri 19 Oct 2018.

Alan approached wearing appropriate attire for a gentleman of the times. "Well Doctor it's good you finally arrived, I suspected you would be here." He said as he walked up. "And who are your companions at this time?"

Alan stands 6'2" tall which is tall for this time period, and looks like a typical colonial hunter, minus the big game rifle. He has a western US style cowboy hat on, and his eyes are deep blue. He has shaggy brown short hair. "So is this the time where I join you on your travels? Or just help with this adventure."

It was a tribute to his restraint that Johnny's hand didn't automatically seek out the gun at his waist when yet another 'stranger' approached. He talked like he knew the Doctor, though.

Maybe that's why they'd come to Australia in the first place.

He certainly didn't recognize the stranger, and wondered if Lady Christina did, since, after all, she already knew the Doctor, too. He was definitely feeling like the odd man out.

"Johnny Tornado," he said to the newest newcomer, extending his empty hand to show he didn't have a gun in it, though it was becoming obvious that no one else here carried a gun... certainly not one out in the open.

"This here is Lady Christina de Souza, though you may already know her."

He figured he'd let the Doctor explain why Johnny was with him... though it was starting to sound like that was way things were with the Doctor.

The Doctor returns Christina's hug, laughing just a little. "I did? I am truly sorry," he goes on, still in good humour, "But I knew you could take care of yourself."

More seriously, however, he says, "I am, however, always willing to help. What's wrong?"

He pauses, however, looking up to the newer arrival who comes up a moment later, and says, "Hello. Do I know you?" He looks like he believes he does, but can't place the person. Polite and friendly, but a bit wary.

"Do you know me?" Alan said startled. "Oh, this must be earlier in your timeline. Well the answer is, sort of. You see several years ago you came into my life and turned it upside down. Said we would be good friends, but that you couldn't take me with you across the galaxy since we were supposed to meet later in my timeline. I guess that's now."

Grinning roguishly Alan sticks out his hand and says, "Alan Quartermain at your service!"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:38, Thu 25 Oct 2018.

"Well nice to meet you Alan." Christina leaned into the Doctor and whispered. "We'll talk later."

She picked up her backpack and pulled out her sunglasses. "Well, introductions have been made, Johnny, Alan, The Doctor and of course, I. Just like on the bus, don't you think Doctor? By the way, the bus is here, just in case we may need it, later."

Christina turned slipping on her sunglasses not caring what the Doctor might say about bringing the bus here. "So. I'm not one who's too keen on history, but I did play in one of those murder-mystery games once that took place in the twenties. I wore a flapper dress." She turned casually towards the gentlemen seeing if she got a reaction from them, and then continued. "My guess is the 1920's, before the depression. And I'd place a quid on that." Christina tapped the middle of her sunglasses with her middle finger accenting her correctness on the matter at hand.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:11, Fri 26 Oct 2018.

As the four of you walk down the street, going no where in particular apparently, a woman with her young son hurries by in the opposite direction. She looks distraught.

Her son is carrying a fairly large toy object... for his size. It looks rather high-tech, particularly for this time period.

The Doctor recognizes it as a trans-linear obfuscation eradicator. Or, more exactly, a toy replica of one.

Looking at the Doctor Alan says, "That's not a normal toy!" He turns and runs after the woman and her son.

After a moment's thought — though still looking slightly suspicious for another couple of seconds — the Doctor says as he shakes the offered hand, "Well, nice to meet you again for the first time! Tell me, where do we meet?"

It's a test, of course. If this was indeed someone he had met out of order, he would know the Doctor's policy on spoilers.

The Doctor grins to Christina, then, and says, "You'd win that bet. 1928, Melbourne, Australia. A bustling..."

He spins on one foot as he spots the toy, completely forgetting whatever he was going to say. He's as energetic as a young man as he follows after Alan, but it's the woman he approaches first, "Excuse me, ma'am, are you alright?"

The dresses were cute. There were maybe one, two...possibly three or more that she might have wanted to wear. She turned to the Doctor as he spoke to her. Melbourne, huh. How interesting, she thought to herself. Then in a swirl of energetic movement two of them were off chasing down what appeared to be a woman and a child with a toy.

It wasn't the idea that the woman and child were moving quickly down the street towards somewhere, no...in her line of work it was always someone was moving quickly away from someone or something...like police. It was that thought that made Christina turn quickly and look in the direction from whence the woman and child had come from to see what they might be running from - or more importantly what might be chasing them. She was with the Doctor wasn't she? And running was a always a requirement when you were with him.

16:34, Today: Lady Christina de Souza rolled 18 using 2d6+8.  Awareness + Ingenuity +2 for Keen Senses.

"Nope Not giving away the future. That wouldn't be prudent." Alan said as he ran after the woman and child.

Having no idea what concerned the others, Johnny follows along just to learn.

He'd barely noticed the woman, though he thought that she was rather pretty.

Christina can't spot anything or anyone that the woman and child might be fleeing from. No one seems to be following them nor does anyone seem particularly interested in them.


When the Doctor stops the woman with his question, at first she seems momentarily terrified  but then when she apparently sees who it is, her expressing turns to shock, perhaps at being accosted on the street. That lasts less than a second as the Doctor's words seem to register. All this can be discerned from her eyes and facial expressions.

"Oh. Oh, yes, I am quite alright. Thank you for asking," she replies.

The Doctor's colourful suit probably doesn't help with the shock factor, either.

In any case, he gives a gentle smile, and says, "Well, that's good, as you looked frightened. I'm the Doctor, and this is Christina, Alan, and Johnny. We'd all be happy to help if you're in some kind of trouble."

Then, he smiles brighter and says, "But, if you are alright, may I ask where your son got that toy? I'd like to buy one for… a child I know."

19:14, Today: The (15th) Doctor rolled 10 using 2d6+8.  Presence (4) + Convince (4).

He stumbles as almost says granddaughter (and remembers his actual granddaughter), which makes the lie about why he wants to know much more apparent.

"Oh. A doctor," the woman says, a flash of understanding passing through her eyes. "So, you thought I might be a new patient."

The Doctor couldn't tell if she was being facetious or not. What might have been fear seems to have at least shifted to worry.

"I'm Amelia Vanek, and this is Sam. He... uh, made the toy himself. He's very creative for 6."

"Six? My word! He must be a prodigy! Yep, definitely a prodigy." Christina hadn't noticed anything of interest as she looked behind them, so she turned and pushed her sunglasses up onto her head. The Doctor seemed to be stumbling, so Christina ever the Grifter, went to Amelia's side to help him out.

"I have a sister", she started, "a much younger sister and a prodigy as well. Her name is Zoe..." With that, Christina's mouth continued to move, but an image of the Doctor seemed to appear in her memory. A clown of a Doctor with a fur coat and a recorder. Her own image reflected in a mirror was one of a teenager...

"You must be a wonderful mother, patient and extremely loving, in order for this wonderful son of yours to grow up so creative and so full of imagination." Christina held out her hand. "As the Doctor said, I'm Christina. The Lady Christina de Souza."

I am trying to distract Amelia for just a brief moment so others can take a quick look at the toy. I threw in the Lady Christina de Souza to get a +2 for charming. Hopefully that works and is ok, and hoping this gives the next person a a +2 or something on their roll. Up to GM.

23:05, Today: Lady Christina de Souza rolled 13 using 2d6+10.  Presence (4) + Convince (4) +2 for Charming.

Alan knelt down next to the boy. "This is a very interesting toy young man. You made it?"

Grateful for Christina's rescue and distraction, the Doctor kneels down to speak to the child as well, "An inventor, how wonderful! I'm an inventor as well." He pulls his sonic screwdriver from his pocket, holding out to show the child, "I invented this when I was just a bit older than you. See, it lights up and makes noise." He demonstrates, and in the process does a quick biological scan.

15:05, Today: The (15th) Doctor rolled 17 using 2d6+9.  Awareness (4) + Medicine (3) + 2 for sonic screwdriver.

Surreptitiously Alan takes a pair of binoculars out and points them at the "toy".

(what do I need to roll?)

"Pleased to meet you," Amelia responds to Christina. "Oh. Lady Christina. Are you a friend of Lady Phryne's? We were just there. She said she would help us. I left... the book with her."


At Alan's question, young Sam nods assent, but then adds, "I had to stop Mr. Babadook."


Looking at the toy with his binoculars, Alan can see that it is made of wood, metal and ceramic parts that appear to be fairly common household items. However, there seems to be a residual psychic trace to it.

While it looks like a mock-up (rather than an actual toy) of a trans-linear obfuscation eradicator, it shouldn't be able to function like one. If it was real, it'd make something that was invisible visible; it'd work for any entire room.


The Doctor's scan of Sam reveals that Sam is a normal human boy of about six years of age. However, he detects rather excessive activity in the right half of Sam's brain, as well as some kind of residual psychic energy... in the form of fear.

In for a penny, in for a pound. Christina's best guess was that Amelia really wanted Christina to know this Lady Phryne, she could see it in her eyes. It was the oldest trick in the world, look into their eyes - for they are the windows to the soul, and tell everything. What Christina could do with a crystal ball! And the book - well that was just too good to pass up.

"Why yes dear, I know Phryne. Mostly through social gatherings and the like. Wonderful woman! I'm sure she can help you, especially since you left the book with her. We were just on our way to see her when we ran into you. Coincidence? I think not!"

Christina leaned a bit closer and continued. "So how is dear Phryne? And what did she think of the book?"

The Doctor looks at the sonic screwdriver as if reading a display only he can see, and then pockets it. "Mr. Babadook is invisible? What are you stopping him from doing? Maybe we can help you."

"Well, she didn't believe me... about the book, I mean," Amelia responds to Christina. "I don't know where Sam got it but he started having bad dreams after he read it. That's when he made up Mr. Babadook. Well, that's the book's title and what it's about."

"When it got too bad, I tore up the book and threw it away. But, the next morning it was back on our doorstep."


Meanwhile, Sam is talking to The Doctor.

"Sometimes he's invisible, but then I don't know what he's going to do. He scares me... makes noises, opens and closes doors, moves things around. I think he put glass in my mum's food."

Alan looked at The Doctor with a knowing expression. This was not something normal to this world.

Christina smiled a reassuring smile. "Probably just a childish prank. Well Amelia, we are here to help. We have Johnny here, American I think, who - with his frontier ways can take care of just about anything. And with Alan over there, these two fine, strapping men can protect us both don't you think." She smiled a mischievous smile. "You have nothing to fear."

The Doctor nods to Alan, and then smiles back to the boy, and says, doing his best to be reassuring, "She's right, Johnny here makes an excellent bodyguard. He will protect you until we figure this out." He looks up to Johnny, and says, "Right?"

Standing up again, he says to Amelia, "We can help. First, I'd like to see that book, please."

"Ah can shoot varmints and robbers and rustlers right enough," Johnny responds. "Don't know how to shoot spirits and such, though."

"And ah like to think I'm pretty good in a scrap."

The Doctor glances back to Johnny, and says, "No shooting. Just protect and reassure… And keep an eye out for clues to what were dealing with… and help him run if necessary. Running is better than shooting." With each pause, he's almost turning back to the woman and remembering something else, looking back to Johnny to say the next point.

Finally, he looks back to the mother for her response.

"I don't have the book any more. As I just told Lady Christina, I left the book with Lady Phryne," Amelia replies to the Doctor.

"It's just a book... a prank someone is playing on us, isn't it?"

"Then we shall go see the Lady Phryne, won't we Doctor. As long as you and Sam are going to be ok." Christina opened up her backpack and produced a small item and knelt next to Sam. "If I could, could I give this to you? His name is Neko." It was a small, ornamental cat that seemed to wave with it's left paw. "With your talent and creativity maybe you could make something of Neko here that could frighten off any boogey-man. Could you do that for me?"
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 03:25, Tue 06 Nov 2018.

The offer of the toy made Sam smile.

"Uh-huh," he managed to say, still a bit shy, but looked up at his mother for her approval.

"What do you say to the nice lady, Sam?"

"Thank you."

"Where might we find this Lady Fry-Knee?" Johnny asked Amelia.

"First time I been to Australia," he adds, hinting that he might need some directions where to go.

"Actually, I'm familiar with her location, but I've never met her before." Alan said as he stood. "But first shouldn't we get to someplace less public before discussing this further. The middle of the street isn't the best place to do this."

The Doctor smiles and says, turning in the direction that the woman and boy were going, "Indeed, let's go to see Amelia and Sam home to make sure they're safe, and then pay a visit to Lady Phryne… if the book hasn't already returned. From what you describe, Amelia, it quite possibly has."

"You are welcome, Sam." Christina smiled at him and stood up once again erect and confident. Her posture one of extreme self-worth and assurance. She snapped her sunglasses back down upon her face, picked up her backpack and asked, "Amelia, could you lead the way?"

Christina was happy. She was with the Doctor, and an adventure was taking form. This is what she had been missing while escorting patrons to their rooms at that old B&B in Wales. This is what she was really meant to do...wasn't it?

The presence of Christina seems to reassure Amelia, so she welcomes the escort back to her house.

She seems to approach the porch and the front door with a bit of trepidation, but seems relieved for some reason when she reaches it.

"Would you... would you like to come in?" she asks as she unlocks the door and pushes it open.

After they find no book at the doorstep, the Doctor considers the offer, but turns his attention to Sam. Crouching, he says, "What would you say, young man? Would you feel safer if we looked around first, or will you be all right if we go check the book first?"

He asks this question in all seriousness, apparently putting full weight to the child's insights into the situation.

Alan puts the binoculars to his eyes and scans them over the house causing a familiar sound to emit from them as he does.

Christina waits for Sam to answer but takes a moment to look at the surroundings. It seemed it was part of her instinct to check the environment and more importantly to check for escape routes and methods of escape. She surveyed the area checking for upper windows and other means of entry to see if someone, or something...could have easy access to the house.

If you could GM, could you describe the house, surrounding buildings and entry ways that Christina might have noticed. Thanks.

Lady Christina de Souza rolled 13 using 2d6+8.  Awareness + Ingenuity +2 for Keen Senses.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:26, Sun 18 Nov 2018.

Alan scans the house with his binoculars and discovers what he would describe as a residual psychic trace. It's as if something affected certain areas of the house psychically at some point and left a kind of psychic residue behind. There appears to be some trace in the kitchen, and a stronger one in the basement.


The house is a typical Victorian style, two stories, plus attic and basement. The ground floor has a parlor, sitting room, dining room, kitchen and powder room. The kitchen also has a butler's pantry, and there are two flights of stairs that lead to the second floor.

The second floor has four bedrooms and full bathroom. There's a flight of stairs up to the attic. The attic may or may not be finished; you can't really tell from the outside. It does have two dormers, one on each side.

There's a roofed porch around the front of the house and along the right side.

It's not a large or elaborate layout house, and it has a bit of gingerbread decorations on it, but not a lot.

"Doctor, I'm tracing psychic residue. Some in the kitchen, but a bigger concentration in the basement." He said softly to the Doctor.

Looking at the mother, ha asked, "Where did this Babadook appear?"

As Amelia was answering Allan as to where the Babadook seemed to have appeared, Christina pulled herself together and spoke to the Doctor. "Well to answer your question Doctor, I think we should go in first. I think Sam here has been brave enough as it is." Christina took off her sunglasses and slipped them into a pocket in her backpack. "Sam, could you stay outside for a moment and protect your mom, please? Thank you."

Christina listened to Amelia's answer and gathered up her things, proceeding into the foyer of the house. "Gentlemen, Ladies always go first." Once inside she laid her backpack by the door and a memory came floating up from the recesses of her mind. One, where she seemed to have tried to fight off a vampire-like creature in Venice of all places; and she seemed to have fought him off with a broom. Christina shook her head to clear it, and began to look around for a broom.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:19, Fri 23 Nov 2018.

The Doctor smiles to the boy once more, and then stands up, "I agree, let's take a look around. Especially in the basement."

He doesn't seem surprised as Christina takes the lead, instead glancing back to Amelia before he follows, "We shouldn't be long. But if we are, don't come in looking for us, it might be dangerous. Same thing if you hear noises. Growling or the like. Or maniacal laughter, but that could just be me. But if you hear us yelling for help, come rescue us."

It could be he's just joking to try to lighten the woman and child's moods, it's kind of hard to tell. He's almost always smiling.

Finally, he turns to follow after Christina.

Sam replies to Alan's questions: "Mostly in the basement, but mamma saw him in the kitchen once."

He then takes up a fierce stance in front of his mother at Christina's request.


Upon entering the house, you see that Christina's estimation of the internal layout based on the external appearance is spot on.

The kitchen is at the back, and the stairs down to the basement are probably off of or at least near the kitchen. There might also be an outside entrance to the basement... a bulkhead for coal deliveries.


Nothing feels unusual until you get to the kitchen. There's an unease to the room. It does not seem to have a specific source until you open the door to the basement stairs. THAT seems to be where it is coming from.

"It's okay, ma'am," Johnny says to Amelia as they begin entering the house. "The Doc knows what he's doing. He likes to use humor to ease the tension."

"As you probably gathered, there is definitely something hinky going on here. The Doc will find out what it is and make it go away. He's done the same thing many time in many places."

Of course, Johnny didn't know that from first-hand experience, but from what the others had said, that seemed to be the case.

He entered the house last, pausing at the door momentarily, turned, nodded back to Sam, and then walked in, leaving the door open.

It wasn't until she got to the kitchen that she became frightened. Every sense heightened on her like a woman going through a deserted parking garage at night looking for her car. It was just a sixth sense that women had...one of survival. Christina saw what she was looking for in the corner and grabbed it.

She held the broom protectively in her hands as she spoke. "Doctor, there is something really not right in here."

Ghosts and aliens she could possibly endure. But as she looked around at all the cupboards full of plates and bowls, she wondered what in the world could be so possessed as to put glass into someone's food? It bordered on malevolence.

Alan smiled at the boy and his mother, and ent9ered the house. He followed the Lady De Souza and went to the kitchen he too felt the tension, though not where it was from exactly. "If you wish to go first down the stairs be my guest." He said trying to lighten the mood.

The Doctor's smile is gone as they enter the kitchen, and he pulls out his sonic screwdriver again, though more of a defensive pose than actually scanning yet. "Psychic residue, but from what? Sam's showing it, too, but I'm not sure if something's affecting him or if he's somehow projecting his own fear. Whatever it is, it's got to do with the basement."

Placing himself in front of the others, he starts towards the basement.

Christina tilts her head slightly to Alan and smiles sarcastically. "Thank you, but this time I think the manly men with guns need to go first. You know, protectors and all that." She was actually glad not to be going first and her body language expressed those feelings perfectly.

Of course, Christina could not let any good moment just slip away. She set the broom down with the brush end on the floor and leaned on the handle which stuck up in front of her. "I'll just bring up the rear." And with that she gently leaned into her hips with just enough innuendo as to let everyone know that she was still the only woman in the room.

Descending the stairs into the basement causes the unease to increase, but not too much.

Once down in the basement, the psychic residue is more pronounced. There are a few places--the dark corners--where it is a bit stronger, but you can't pinpoint a source any better than that. It's as if something was here and then left.

On the other hand, there's almost a presence still lingering... different than the psychic unease.

The Doctor ways his sonic screwdriver around, scanning for anything that might explain the sense of a presence, most particularly any trace of some kind of cloaking field.

2:12, Today: The (15th) Doctor rolled 19 using 2d6+11.  Awareness + Technology + 2 for sonic screwdriver.

"Is there someone there? Show yourself! Enough of frightening small children, you have to deal with us now!"

Scanning his binoculars around Alan tried to see what his readings were.

With the men in front of her and her bringing up the rear she stood there frozen on the stairs, broom held firmly in her hands. What was she going to do with the broom if she did manage to see something horrific in the basement? Sweep it away? Still, she held it tightly as if it were the most precious thing in the world to her.

She also did what she does best and closed her eyes reaching out for any sounds in the basement that might give away the monsters present location.

Lady Christina de Souza rolled 13 using 2d6+8.  Awareness + Ingenuity +2 for Keen Senses.

Although the psychic residue was detectable from upstairs, it's stronger down here. It seems to have some of the properties of the psychic paper that the Doctor uses.

However, there are two places in the basement where the residual psychic energy seems a bit more concentrated. One is the chair in the corner and the other is a ledge which is part of the foundation.

You also pick up something... else. It takes a moment to focus on it and thus realize that it is a secondary tinge to the psychic trace. You can't quite determine if it's alien but could be. Or it could be something to do with magic... typical Earth magic.

The Doctor pockets his sonic after a few moments, relaxing just a bit. "There's nobody here anymore. But there's something more than just fear here. We need to find that book!"

Glancing around the rest of the dimly lit basement, Christina realized that the chair and the ledge were... perches. She couldn't see any particularly defensive advantage that either location would provide, but the ledge was clearly a spot to look down on Sam. Whether that would intimidate him or not, she couldn't say.

The chair, on the other hand, was just as clearly intended as a point of authority. Or, it certainly seemed like it would be to a little boy.

There was something about the positioning of the chair and how it faced the ledge of the basements foundation. It was as if the chair had been placed specifically in that spot to watch whatever might be found on the ledge.

It reminded her of when she was young and got in trouble. If Nanny wasn't around and Mom had errands to do, she had to sit in the kitchen with the cook. She would try to talk to Mabs the cook, but most of the time she would sit staring at the bird that hopped around in a cage in the corner of the room. Pepper was it's name, and it used to hop and stare out the window. But sometimes if Christina sat really close, Pepper and her would have staring contests. Of course Christina always won, especially when she would move the chair to a certain position which made the bird always become distracted following Mabs.

The chair in the basement was placed in a certain way as to stare at something, or prevent something from moving off the ledge. It had to be Sam. Sam had to be somehow stopping this creature-thing from possibly going up stairs. Possibly with the help of that whirly thing he was carrying.

Christina moved past the men and propped her broom against the foundation wall. She then stepped up onto the chair and then stepped up onto the ledge. She then squatted, or perched upon the ledge looking at the chair.

"Doctor. Could something have been up here while Sam sat in the chair below? You know with the whirly thing-a-ma-ging in his hands? Hopefully keeping it at bay down here and not harming his Mom? And if that's the case, what do you think it is? An alien?"

The Doctor stops and spins around, crouching down to look up at Christina from the chair. To the question on whether it was an alien, he says, "Possibly. Probably." He bounces to his feet again, and says, "But there's other possibilities that might fit the facts. There were beings on earth longer than humans. Even longer than the Silurians. Beings who are usually invisible, but can sometimes be seen by certain children, whom they violently protect even from the slightest threats like a stern parent. I detected traces of what could be magic — that is, those focused psychic phenomena that humans called magic — which could be from the Fair Folk, or what attracted them to Sam. But either way, how would he know to build a device like that?"

This last question is asked rhetorically, as he almost immediately says, "The clues aren't fitting together yet. We need to see that book. But someone should stay with Sam."

"I have no problem staying with Sam," Johnny volunteers, "but I'm not sure how effective I could be against this... creature if it shows up again."

"Does that toy Sam built really work?"

"It's possible. Psychic ability, of which Sam has some talent in, can grant abilities if belief is strong enough. If Sam believes it works, he might be able to use it for that." Alan said as he scanned the room heavily with his binoculars, a very familiar whirring sound emanating from them as he did so.

Alan can detect nothing unusual in the basement with his binoculars. The psychic residue does seem focused on the chair and the ledge, but also permeates most of the basement.

That, of course, means something was here but isn't here any more.

"Thank you, Johnny. Just remember, running is often better than fighting if you have something to protect."

Then, continuing up the stairs again, he says, "Onward!"

Everyone heads back up the stairs, and then The Doctor, Christina and Alan exit the house and leave Johnny behind to guard the family.

Alan knows the way to the Esplanade. There are large houses on the street, so it isn't hard to find 221B. There's no obvious explanation fro the 'B', but the number is consistent with the other numbers on the street.

The Doctor pauses as he sees the address, and he says, "I wonder… No. Couldn't be. She'd still use her own name. Probably."

Coming out of his memories, he looks to Christina, "Maybe you should be the one to knock and greet her, Lady to Lady."

"It would be my pleasure, Doctor." On her way out of the house, she had replaced the broom and picked up her backpack. She now placed her backpack on the stoop of the front porch and preened. Just before knocking on the front door, she turned back to face Alan and the Doctor giving them a wide reassuring smile.

Wandering through the Esplanade, Christina felt a sense of comfort and home. The weather was perfect, just warm enough and the people on the street seemed to go about their business with a sense of pride and ambition. Cars rumbled by along with the occasional carriage and Christina noticed the long length of dresses out during the day. Yet she knew by those women passing by her that when the sun went down tonight the length of the hem would be going up.

Christina smiled once again to herself and then knocked on the door and waited for someone to answer.

The door opens a moment later and a young woman is standing there.

"Hello. May I help you?" she says.

While she is dressed trim and neat, she does not appear to be a Lady.

Christina glanced quickly at the young woman's attire as well as checking for a wedding ring. The young lady was dressed well, yet a bit conservatively. This was not the Lady of the House she surmised, more like a friend, niece or a charge.

"Yes. I am the Lady Christina de Souza, and guests," she said as she gestured to the others. "We are here to see the Lady Phryne Fisher on an extremely important matter. If you could announce us we would be much obliged."

The words and niceties just seemed to flow out of her, and for just a moment she reminded herself of her mom. A bit of her died inside just then realizing just how similar the two of them had become and she sighed inwardly. Then she just blinked it all away and smiled at the young woman, awaiting an answer.

Had these people looked like riffraff, Dot would have told them to go away and promptly shut the door. If there had been any trouble, Mr. Butler would have handled it.

"Pleased to meet you," Dot replied instead. "I am Dot, Miss Fisher's companion. Won't you please come in? Make yourself comfortable while I inform Miss Fisher that you are here. Would you care for some tea?"

She had no doubt that Lady de Souza was, indeed, the lady she claimed to be. In her short time with Phryne, she'd learned to look past appearances. She would never have thought Phryne a lady merely from appearance; she now knew, though, that Phryne was every bit a lady... perhaps not the fluff kind that most of the upper crust expected, but everything that a lady should be.

She at least saw some of that in Christina.

Dot showed them into the parlor, and told Mr. Butler to serve them some tea and crumpets with jam. She then went and told Phryne she had visitors. Phryne, in the kitchen, was reading through that children's book.

The Doctor gives a partial bow to Dot and says, "Thank you, I would love some."

As they are left in the parlour, he glances around, just taking in the details as he waits to meet this Lady.

"Thank you, I would love some as well. Cream and sugar please." Christina placed her bag down close to the hearth in the parlor. She looked around at all the furnishings and realized that there was money in this house. Fine china, decorative ornaments and just the right amount of tastefulness to bequeath prosperity. Definitely a woman's touch, not a trace that a man would live within the confines of these walls.

She sat. "Seems our Lady Fisher might not be attached, Doctor. But the furnishings, butler and opulence does give the impression of money. I wonder what she does for a living?"

"She doesn't do anything for a living," a woman says entering the parlor. "I am, however, a detective."

"Hello. I'm Phryne Fisher. To what do I owe this visit?"

Even as she talks, a butler comes in with a tray with tea service and sets it on the sideboard, then begins serving Christina, the Doctor and Alan.

The Doctor opens his mouth to say something, but when the Lady arrives, he turns to give a bow before sitting as well. "A detective, how wonderful! I half expected as much, given that Amelia turned to you for help. And the number on the door, which is a nice touch. Sherlock Holmes, a classic character, but an amateur compared to the detective he was based on."

He smiles as he takes a sip of tea, perhaps realizing he's getting sidetracked, and then says, "I'm the Doctor, and may I present Lady Christina de Souza and Alan Quartermain. We're trying to assist Amelia as well, and she said she had left a certain book in your care. We would like to look at this book, please."

20:33, Today: The (15th) Doctor rolled 15 using 2d6+10.  Presence + Convince + 2 for Charming.

(Well played off of my last words...very nice!)

It was almost like getting caught with your hand in the cookie jar...but Christina recovered quickly. She stood and extended a hand as she was introduced by the Doctor. "Enchante' What a beautiful home you have." She didn't have to say much more as the Doctor had everything well in hand; just as he usually did.

She sat back down and took the tea cup from the Butler adding a splash of milk and a lump of sugar. She stirred it gently with a small spoon that was provided and listened. She leaned a bit forward, arm on the armrest and crossed her legs.

"Pleased to meet you, Christina... may I call you Christina? You can call me Phryne. I really don't like standing on formalities," Miss Fisher replies.

"First impressions can be quite telling, don't you think? You do not strike me as one of those that subscribe to normal conventions. Neither am I. If I did, I'd grow old serving tea and gossiping with my peers, and, frankly, I don't believe I have any."

"Not that I like to brag, but I can fly a plane. Have you tried it?"

She then studies the Doctor, as if to ascertain whether he is being serious or trying to be provocative.

"Do you mean Auguste Dupin? Or perhaps you are referring to Monsieur Lecoq, or even Tabaret himself. Both Joseph Bell and Henry Littlejohn should also be considered. Personally, I prefer Maximillien Heller. Holmes is the only one that was a consulting detective... a term he himself coined. His approach wasn't solving crimes, unless his assistance was requested, but solving problems that baffled everyone else. He filled a niche--he did what police wouldn't and often couldn't do."

"Yes, Amelia's situation is... unusual--one of those cases that the police wouldn't touch as they are incapable of believing their own eyes."

"For the record, she did not entrust the book to my care--she gave it to me. She wanted it out of her house and out of her life. I have yet to figure out what the book means. I have examined it; to me, it is just a child's book of dubious merit. Sigmund Freud notwithstanding, I do not see anything within its pages that should provoke such concerns."

"However, you may examine it if you wish. I left it on the kitchen table."

She heads out of the room for a moment. Then you hear her voice from presumably the kitchen.

"Dot! Did you move the book I left on the table?" You can't hear a response.

She returns quickly.

"Mr. Butler. Do you know what has happened to the book I left on the table? Has anyone else been in here since this morning?"

When she gets negative answers from Mr. Butler, a partially angry, partially concerned look appears on her face.

"It is gone. Perhaps young Samuel came back for it. Quick! We must go to Amelia's. I do believe the game's afoot!" she finished with a bright smile.

She seemed ready to go out at a moment's notice and headed for the front door, grabbing only a scarf off of the hatrack near the entrance.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:39, Mon 14 Jan 2019.

Alan was baffled by this woman. He was being ignored by her, and yest she was chattering along at a mile a minute while saying precisely nothing. As she discovered her "book" missing though Alan wondered had she deliberately misplaced it not wanting the group to see it?

"Do you mind if I see where the book was last left?" He asked quickly.

As Phryne hustles out the front, Mr. Butler shows Alan to the kitchen and points to the table where the book had been resting.

Using his binoculars he scans the area checking for anything he might find, particularly any psychic residue.

In reply to Phryne Fisher (msg # 85):

The Doctor smiles, and says, "No, I'm referring to a Madame Vastra." No more details, as other topics demand attention.

When the book is revealed to be missing, he hops to his feet, grinning cheerfully as he follows after. He does, however, give a small nod to Adam, before they leave the house.

Not really back, just testing my throat and didn't want everybody to wait for me.

Alan scans the kitchen table with his binoculars and does pick up a faint psychic trace. It's fainter than what he found in Amelia's house.

The trace has a rectangular shape to it consistent with a smallish book. Oddly, though, he cannot detect any trace of how it got there or how it left. It almost certainly was moved via some sort of teleport, but he cannot find any trace of the method used.



Meanwhile, back at Amelia's house, Johnny has been entertaining Sam with wild west tales, most of which weren't true.

Suddenly, a small scream from the other room draws his attention. He rushes in with gun drawn to find Amelia staring with a horrified look at a table... at a book on the table. She points to it.


The Doctor and Christina have followed Phryne out of the house as she rushes back to Amelia's house.

The Doctor may look like an old man, but he has a lot of stamina — and a lot of practice in running. So he follows along after Phryne as easily as a young man.

He'd only slightly picked up on what the others had been talking about earlier. He was still learning 'Doctor-speak'.

He couldn't see anything threatening, certainly not the book. The Baltimore Kid had once told him about a place called Boston where they burned books. Perhaps this was one of those books that needed burning.

If it scared Amelia, though, then he was there to protect her. He drew his gun and pointed it at the book... just in case.

"Ma'am, I'm sure the Doctor will be here soon, but till he does, ah think it's best if you step away from the... book," he told Amelia as he cast another glance around the room in case he missed something.

He put his hand on Amelia's arm and guided her out of the room even as brandished his revolver at a threat he couldn't see.

It couldn't have been more than a few minutes before Phryne, the Doctor, Alan and Christina arrived back at the house.

Phryne doesn't stand on formality now, and just barges into the house. She doesn't seem fazed by finding Johnny pointing a gun at the book that's now sitting on the dining room table.

Following Phryne, Christina hurried through the door and saw the same sight that she did--Johnny pointing his gun at a book on the dining room table. In the opposite doorway into the room, she saw Amelia with Sam peeking out from behind her skirts.

"He's with us," she quickly told Phryne.

"So that's the evil book. What do we do with it, Doctor?"

She didn't think for one minute that there was anything supernatural about the book. In her experiences, 'supernatural' was just an excuse that people used to do something mean and nasty, perhaps even outright evil... as Christina had just said.

She circled around the table keeping an eye on the book. Almost subconsciously holding her breath because the only thing she could think of that would do what this book was supposedly doing was some sort of chemical or drug, she examined the book without touching it.

"That depends on what we find out about the book," Phryne answered.

"I suspect it is giving off some sort of chemical, so burning it will be the safest way of destroying the chemical. Of course, that doesn't explain how it got from my house to here."

"Sam, did you take the book from my kitchen table and bring it home?"

She directed her question at the little boy. She really didn't think that he'd done it, but that would have made things much simpler if he had.

He shook his head and said no.

That would seem to indicate that someone else was involved in this nefarious plot. Perhaps someone wanted Amelia and Sam to move out of the house, sell it maybe. But why?

Alan took out his binoculars... more like opera glasses... and directed it at the book.

He shouldn't have been surprised by what he saw, considering how much residual psychic impressions had been left behind wherever the book had been.

The book was like a glowing sphere of brilliant white light... as seen through the binoculars. He couldn't even see the book through the glow.

"That is not good," he muttered. "Big ball of psychi-whichy stuff!"

"Don't touch it," the Doctor says in answer to Christina, even if nobody seemed inclined to do so. To Phryne, he adds, "Good thinking, but I don't think so in this case. At least, no chemical made by a human."

Pulling his sonic screwdriver, he starts to scan the book as well. Not just looking for the psychic energy, but also at the composition of it. Looking for any clues that might indicate origin or purpose.

16:14, Today: The (15th) Doctor rolled 18 using 2d6+11.  Awareness + Science + 2 for sonic screwdriver.

The Doctor was able to determine that the book was made completely of psychic paper.

However, there was something else about it that made it more than just the sum of the parts. That much psychic paper together shouldn't have made that much of a psychic impression... BUT... it could have made it possible for something to... enter the book... something psychic and not quite real.

That would be the Babadook.

He didn't know what the Babadook was, though, which he needed to know in order to... well, defeat it. He was going to have to force it out of the book, something it now seemed reluctant to do. He doubted that destroying the book would do that, but maybe the Babadook didn't know that...



===== FOR KATRINA JONES =====


She'd been looking for awhile... looking for something that didn't exist. Except... she believed it did. She knew just about everything there was to know about... him. Well, everything that had been 'published'. She didn't for a minute think that it was ALL that there was. She wasn't even sure if all of it was real. Some of it was. Sort of. Maybe.

So, she should have known better. DID know better... when she saw the Weeping Angel. Don't blink. Get out of there but keeping watching it! When she turned to run away... there was the second one!

And then she was somewhere else... somewhen else. In the past.

Even as her present faded away, she caught a final glimpse of the two weeping angels shattering into a million pieces! It was a small consolation as the past faded into view.

She could now understand how disconcerting the 'trip' was to others who would have no idea what was happening.

Her 'new reality' was a room in a house. At least, it looked like the inside of a house. She was standing in a corner of what appeared to be a dining room. There were other people there... all staring at a book on the table.


===== FOR JENNY =====

There was an urge... a desire... a whim... call it what you will, but she was off looking for the Doctor again. Only this time, it was like he was calling to her. No, that wasn't quite right. She was definitely being drawn to him, though. She didn't quite have his experiences, so she wasn't sure, but she felt it was some sort of psychic tug.

She homed in on that tug using her time hopper... what was it, now? The seventh? The eighth? Sure, she'd cobbled it together purely by instinct, yet... there was something... missing. It kept burning out.

"What the? Where or rather when am I?"

Triney looked around for a moment as she fairly bounced with excitement. Weeping Angels! Real weeping angels and if they were real? That meant that she was right! She Was Right an He Was Real! She pulled a metal box off of a hook on her belt from under her lab coat. The box seemed sort of slap dash but it was covered in meters and gauges and dials. It would even go ding when there was stuff. She checked her device ignoring the others for the moment.

"Please tell me I caught the data from that temporal transfer!"

She looked at the others in the room finally. Maybe one of them could tell her where and when she was. Another thought did occur to her though. If she ever wanted to get home she would Have to find Him now. But now she had proof and she was so close now!

"I'm sorry could someone tell me where I am? Also the date please?"

If she did find The Doctor she would have to tell him about those angels exploding. She didn't think that was supposed to happen. The tiny american girl ran her hands through her disheveled hair. She looked much too thin but didn't seem to notice as she looked at each of them with her large eyes.

Johnny had sort of appointed himself as a bodyguard... or maybe watchdog was more accurate. In any case, the woman had materialized directly across the room from him... in the corner. Was there a significance to that?

On occasion, he still had to resist the urge to slap leather. He'd learned, though, that his six gun didn't always do much against the threats that the Doctor encountered. As innocuous as this one appeared, he sure hoped it wasn't one of the dangerous ones.

And then she spoke. It sounded like English, but with the TARDIS, one couldn't really be sure. She sounded a bit like he had when the time tunnel had scooped him up and took him somewhere... and somewhen else.

"Howdy, ma'am," he replied to her. "Ah don't rightly know the exact date, but the year is 1928, a bit ahead of mah time. And you are in a place called Australia... the city of Melbourne to be exact."

"Ah don't suppose you'd care to tell us how y'all got here?"

The Doctor had a tendency to answer a question with his own question, but Johnny had learned that it was because the Doctor's mind was already 5 or 6 steps ahead of them. Not that he necessarily knew what his companions were still trying to find out, but he'd already figured most of that out and skipped over it as unimportant.

The Doctor pockets his sonic screwdriver again, and then reaches into another pocket on his colourful suit, as his eyes flick for just a briefest of instants towards the new arrival.

She's new. Human? Time traveller. Accidental. Scientist? All of that goes through his mind in that instant. And then his attention is fully back on the book. He'll greet her once they are all safe.

"Babadook, or whoever you are!," the Doctor shouts, his voice suddenly angry. "Do you think you can just terrorize children and then hide away in psychic paper without being discovered?"


Then his hand snaps out of his pocket, holding… a chess piece. A knight, to be specific. Or, at least, what looks like one.

"Come out and face us or I will burn your book and you along with it!"

He flicks the top of the chess piece to ignite a small flame, and he holds it over the book.

02:37, Today: The (15th) Doctor rolled 18 using 2d6+13.  Resolve + Convince + 2 (Lie area-of-expertise).

Of course, all of this probably looks very strange to anybody who doesn't know him, with him shouting at a book.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 07:47, Wed 27 Feb 2019.

The timing is perhaps a little too good to be a coincidence, or the universe has a wonderful sense of the dramatic. Or both. Either way, when the Doctor declaims defiance to the book, of all things, there comes a loud crash from the room next door. It is accompanied by a voice - definitely female - apparently appearing half way through a loud yell. Not a scream, more of a whoop of anticipation, or to give oneself confidence.

The crash, however, sounds like it might be expensive.

Ahead of his time? Was he a time traveler too? Which meant he must know The Doctor. Did the other man Have a sonic screwdriver? Had she found Him? Was all her searching finally getting her somewhere? She moved towards the group looking to see what they were doing. She pointed at Johnny very nearly poking him.

"You! You said its ahead of your time? You are a time traveler aren't you? You know where to find Him."

She glanced over at the man who had been holding the sonic device. Was he the Doctor? When he started yelling at the book she narrowed her eyes. The Doctor threatening to kill another being outright? That wasn't like Him. Had she somehow ended up finding another time lord? Unless he was bluffing.

Hearing the crash from the other room, Alan, being the closest to the doorway, moves to investigate, fearing that the Doctor's threat has produced some unexpected result.

It was another woman! There was something... familiar about her. Until he knew more, however, he decided not to scan her with his binoculars. He could clearly see her, she was only 8 feet away, so why would he need binoculars?

That didn't normally bother him. He'd learned long ago that most humans accepted bizarre appearance and behavior with a certain amount of aplomb. The outre, on the other hand, prompted revulsion, annoyance, concern, anger and even fear. While he didn't think he was any of those, nor would using the binoculars fall into that category, looking at a woman who was so close through the binoculars might make her... uncomfortable, as if he was trying to see through her clothes perhaps.

So, was she a burglar? Had she entered the room to steal? Or, perhaps, she was the maid. She wasn't dressed like a maid, but he couldn't be sure that this place and time had used those styles.

"Pardon me, miss, but what are you doing here?"

Jenny was lying in the shattered remains of the sideboard. Amidst the wood was evidence of other casualties: broken expensive china, fruit from the now defunct fruit bowl, a couple of doilies - they, at least, survived intact - and several broken bottles of very fine quality alcohol. Jenny was scrambling to rise, but it was not easy, as she was clearly a little dazed. Directly above where she landed, the ceiling was darkened by a rosette shape, burned into the paintwork.

As someone had addressed her, she fixed her eyes in that direction. A question! She was good at questions! Not always good at answers, of course, but she was always willing to take a stab at a question as best she could. "Trying to get up, of course! Where am I, anyway? One minute, I'm being chased by a pack of angry Friesianites - and don't let their size fool you, for a race of anthropomorphic cattle, they can really shift - and then my hopper finds a new temporal trace, blows a solenoid, and I'm lying in furniture." She lifted one of the broken bottles and examines it with a frown. "What is ... gin? And why does it sting?" she rubbed at one of several cuts and contusions on her skin, where the alcohol had apparently splashed in the incident.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:01, Wed 27 Feb 2019.

A 'hopper'? She had a time hopper? Alan knew of only one person in the universe that had ever owned one of those, and she'd built it herself. She was legendary where he came from. Oh, not like the Doctor... not yet, anyway. And even much of the Doctor's adventures took place 'off screen'... behind the scenes, so to speak. Details might be sparse but the outcome always seemed to get known.

That explained why she had felt... familiar--she was another Time Lord.

"That should make you Jenny," he replied.

"You are on Earth, Australia, Melbourne, St. Kilda... and the year is 1928. We are looking into the matter of a psychic Babadook."

"Pardon my manners... I'm Alan Quartermain

"Well, that is surprising and not a coincidence. Hello, Alan Quatermain. Do you think Alan Quartermain could give me a hand up? I'm sitting in something sticky, and I don't just mean these sticks!" Jenny tossed a shard of wood aside.

So, this was Earth. Finally! She had been trying to get here for a very long time, but always got diverted somehow. And how did the hopper bring her here? Actually, how did it work at all? It seemed to fire up and go off entirely at random, and since she had no clue exactly how it worked, she had equally no clue about how to stop it happening. She tapped it, and shook her hand out, and listened to the device on her wrist by holding it to her ear. "Hang on just one zarton, how do you know my name? I've never even heard of you!"

For a moment, nothing seemed to happen with the book, but then a figure unfolded itself from under the table. Or perhaps it just grew.

When it was fully upright, it was about 6'6" tall but appeared taller because of the top hat. It appeared as a man... a thin gaunt man with an elongated face with dark sunken eyes and a wide toothy outlined mouth. He was dressed in an old faded overcoat.

"Fire doess not sscare me," he hissed at the Doctor in a deep sibilant voice.

"The boy iss miiiiine. You cannot sstop me."

The fact that it can psychically manifest materially isn't surprising to the doctor but it is unusual. Now that it is manifest, the Doctor can sense something... odd about it. It's like there's an echo... or a shadow... or a duality. There's something more there than just a psychic manifestation.

And then there's the question of just what created the Babadook.

Triney watched the entity unfold itself with curiosity. She pulled out her device and trying to get any readings that she could off of it. When it spoke of claiming a child she tilted her head. Well she certainly couldn't allow that. The Doctor wouldn't so neither would she.

"Well that's not gonna be happening Mr. whatever you are."

"Spoiler alert," Alan replied to Jenny as he helped her up.

"Let's just say I've heard of you, and you may have heard of me by a different name. Or perhaps not."

"It's hard to tell some days."

Jenny smiled in thanks for the help, and dusted splinters and broken glass off herself. She then rummaged amongst the debris and produced a rather wicked looking plasma pulse rifle. She checked it carefully. "No harm done. Well, to me. Do you think I should pay for the furniture? Not that I have any..." She broke off and shuddered. What the fardles was that? A psychic stink was coming from nearby, and she did not like it one bit.

She quickly flicked the safety off her rifle, and slowly, silently, moved to the room exit. She paused to whisper, "I think you'd best get behind me. Whatever name you're using won't matter to whatever just woke up in this house. I'll protect you!"

That was her genetically engineered soldier instincts kicking in, of course. First response to a perceived threat in a new location - blow it up, then ask what it was. And the thought that Alan Quartermain, of all people, might need someone else to protect him, especially a slip of a girl, was so ludicrous it was practically comical. Not that Jenny knew that. She had learned another thing when she woke up that first time. Protect everyone else, even at your own risk. She had got that from her father.

She paused, then dove through the door into the room next door, where the others had just met the Babadook. She landed behind a chaise-longe, popped her head over the top, and pointed her plasma rifle at the creepy looking psychic alien monster thingy.

"All right, nobody move a muscle!" She looked like she meant business. "Well, metaphorically. I mean, you can move muscles that are essential to standing up, and keep your hearts beating, and all that sort of thing. Just don't move any other muscles! Now what is going on here?" Slight pause. "You can move talking muscles too."

Damnit, that was not the entry she wanted to make! Poor first impression. She regained some threat-credibility by narrowing her eyes and looking ferocious, which would have worked if she did not also look like the cute girl next door. Being pretty was not a characteristic most soldiers required. It was too darned inconvenient when being taken seriously as a threat was necessary.

At the sudden entrance of not one but two (!) people following shortly after (or simultaneously with?) the materialization of the Babadook was both intriguing and potentially dangerous... to everyone in the room.

Was that...? No, it couldn't be. She was dead! Wasn't she? He had waited, but there had been indication of regeneration. Certainly not as it pertained to him... to Time Lords. And yet... it could still be renewal. It had been so long since he'd undergone that that it had never even occurred to him. After all, it was the old way. Could that cloning machine have somehow tapped that?

No, wait! The Source! It could have done that! But was it a temporary one-time deal? Or would it happen again?

And why was she here? Now?

And who was this other person looking for the Doctor. He was positive he didn't know her. Well, as positive as he could be about something like that. She could have been a secretary or a technician or one of the other 'little people' in the background. If he hadn't actually interacted with her, that memory would have been filed in the Obscure Factoid bin of his mind. Something now might open that bin, but, till then...

"I realize you were created to be a soldier, Jenny, but I am equally certain that you have the capability of moving past that," the Doctor addresses Jenny.

"Even my associate here, Mr. Tornado, has managed to do that. I suppose, though, it's a question of Nature vs. Nurture. You were born that way; he wasn't."

Even as he spoke he ran his sonic screwdriver over the psychic manifestation.

He then turned his attention to the woman in the corner.

"Young lady," he addressed the lady in the corner, "I have no idea how or why you got here, though I'm sure you'll enlighten us in due course, but please stay away from this Babadook creature. He's not real, of course, but he can affect your mind. You do have a mind, don't you?"

He was attempting a bit of humor to diffuse the situation because the reading from the screwdriver gave him all the information he needed.

"Now, Mr. Babadook. You are mistaken. The child is not yours, never was, never will be... because you are not real. You are simply a psychic manifestation of fear. You are not even in control of yourself. You are being manipulated."

"I can detect the threads of another mind that are pulling your strings."

"The real question is: why? The who is incidental. I shall deal with them in due course, and I think they know that. After all, they are manipulating you through time. How could they think I wouldn't detect them?"

He made an adjustment to his screwdriver, pointed it at the creature and activated the device. Almost immediately, the Babadook started writhing in pain. Not really; it just sort of looked like that. The form started stretching and twisting out of shape. When the face did that, it looked like it was in pain.

"Are you watching this, Alan?" He was hoping that Alan was using his sonic binoculars to watch the psychic contortions.

Whatever was controlling the Babadook, the shifting of the psychic energy should reveal that. It might even cause them a bit of discomfort.
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:29, Sun 10 Mar 2019.

Triney stared at the doctor as he used his sonic screwdriver on the... Creature? Manifestation? She'd done it. She'd found Him. She was sure of it now. She took an unsteady step towards him.

"You! You're Him. You're The Doctor. I knew It! I knew you were real! They said I was crazy but I Knew!"

With that the tiny woman swayed and fainted. Her excitement and the immensity of it all, compounded with being ripped through space and time overwhelming her. Her lashes fluttered as she fell and the device fell from her hand with a heavy thunk.

Jenny immediately dropped her supposedly aggressive stance. After all, if he was here, then it was almost certainly superfluous. Moreover, she had spent the Source knew how long hopping the time trails in the hope of reaching him. Even her prior visit to Earth, laden with peril and Ood as it had been, hadn't produced the Doctor. But this time... this time, the time hopper had got her where she needed to be. And it took a malfunction to do it.

There was probably some sort of profound lesson inherent in that incident, but it eluded her, for now. She was just too happy to be here. Yes, they had some monstrous psychic doodad going mental at them, and unless the hopper had managed to avoid being time-traced, there might be a herd of very angry Friesianites popping up any second, but... this was a family reunion. Especially meaningful because one of the members of the family didn't even know they had a family. So. Important.

She hopped to her feet, and with a deft motion, pumped the primer on the plasma rifle. Then she gave a smile like the first sunrise after a Scandinavian winter, and said brightly, "Hello, Dad!"

All of which would have been especially meaningful and nostalgic for the girl and her parent, except someone fainted. Jenny blinked in surprise and looked down at Katrina in surprise. "Well, that's new. Did you do that on purpose, or is stupefying girls purely a side-effect of your presence now?"

He'd followed Jenny back into the dining room, and, at the appearance of the Babadook, he'd immediately began examining it through his binoculars.

He'd seen what the Doctor had seen, but as the Doctor put the manifestation through its paces, he was looking for the source.

Ah, there it is! But what exactly is it? Disguised? Hidden? Blocked? Chameleon? Composite? Temporal desynchronization? Hmmm. Yes. All of the above.

He lowered the binoculars and shrugged his shoulders, giving the Doctor a knowing look even as he said:

"No, Doctor, I could not find it."

He had no idea how much of what the Babadook saw and heard was getting received/perceived by the entities manipulating it, but better not take a chance until the thing was completely gone.

"You sound like the charlatans in London," she said with far more equanimity than someone from this time period should have had... under the circumstances.

"However, while I can't explain what I am seeing just yet, I tend to deal with things a bit more directly."

She reaches out and grabs the book off the table, opens it about half way, and then proceeds to rip it in half down the binding.

"This may not work, but since destroying the book while it was still in it didn't work, we'll just see what happens now that it is out of the book!"

Jenny turned and gave Miss Fisher a long appraising look. And then beamed even wider. She did like to smile. "I like you. You've got moxie!"

She wasn't sure what that was, precisely, but someone said it to her and it sounded complimentary. She climbed over the chaise-longes and went to check Katrina out, carefully examining for sins of trauma, hypotension, or some form of toxin. The battlefield medicine she had hard-wired into her brain was coming in useful for once!

"Does anyone have a laser scalpel or a hypospray? She might need a shot of adrenaline. Or trepanning. I admit, this is all a bit hard without a diagnostic scanner."

Triney's eyes flutter again as Jenny checks her out. She doesn't look as if she is injured, but possibly a bit dehydrated and malnourished. She stirs, blinking up at Jenny.

"Who are you?"

Realizing that Jenny may not have had much experience dealing with REAL people, Alan hurries around the table to the corner where the other person clearly fainted.

"She just fainted, Jenny," he tells the Doctor's daughter. "A bit too much excitement. Hmmm. She also looks a bit malnourished."

He starts fishing around in his pockets and finally pulls out a granola bar. He opens it and offers it to the newcomer as he helps her up, all the while keeping an eye on this amazing Phryne character... and the book.

As Phryne ripped the book in half, the Babadook appeared to be ripped in half as well! It certainly would have been a gruesome sight if the Babadook had been a creature of flesh and blood! Fortunately, it wasn't, though it couldn't really be determined what it was made of. Something dark and shiny and yellow... not fluid or soft or anything like that, yet not quite solid. Perhaps a bit like the psychic paper that the book was made of.

If anybody had been expecting a particular result, they didn't get it... quite. The tear down the middle of the Babadook was just as rough and jagged as that of the book. Yet the Babadook seemed not to be affected in the least. Both halves continued to stand there with half of a malicious grin on each side of its face. It no longer spoke. And then the two halves just seemed to dissolve away.

"Don't that beat all!" Johnny spoke up. "So I could've just shot the book after all!"

Triney stood up carefully and took the granola bar with a bit of an embarrassed smile. She nibbled at the bar as she watched the creature dissolve. She wasn't sure that the thing was gone but she would let the Doctor deal with it for now.

"Sorry, I forget to eat sometimes, when I'm working, and it's been a big day.  Doctor, I'll need to talk to you when you're done with whatever that was."

"Fainted?" Jenny seemed a little puzzled at the term, then the penny dropped. "Oh, fainted!" She gave a happy little smile. "I can't do that. They removed it from me, genetically, when I was made. Not much use... you know, middle of a battle, and WHOOPS! Accidentally fall over because of fear or something. So embarrassing!"

She also got to her feet and held a hand out to Katrina, answering the question the other girl had asked. "I'm a generated anomaly! But everyone calls me Jenny. It's all his fault, of course!" She pointed at the Doctor with a bright smile, and gave a friendly wave. "Hello! Still here!" Then she lowered her voice to a mock-conspiratorial whisper. "He likes to be all stern and things, but he's a pussycat really. I mean, a terrible absentee father, but a good role model, if you don't count the grumpiness and the fact he can't fly a ship without bits dropping off the console. Oh yes, I know! I asked Donna, she had all the facts!"

She looked about, not especially worried about the vanishing Babadook, as she expected it to die, which is what happens when you tear someone in half. She had far more important concerns. "Doctor... where is Donna? You've not lost her again?"

Jenny didn't know. How could she?

"I have no idea what just happened," Phryne spoke up. "So, there really was a creature in the book? What appeared to be a creature at any rate. It was clearly an illusion since nothing organic could have behaved that way."

"If the Babadook has been separated from the book in whatever manner that involved, is the book completely inert now? If we burn the book this time, will that completely destroy it? And keep this Babadook from returning?"

She was quite sympathetic towards Lady Phryne since she herself had been in the same situation before... well, twice before... kind of.

That bus ride had changed everything.

She still didn't know as much as the Doctor, but she was now aware of how much she didn't know.

"An interesting observation, Phryne," she commented. "What makes it a tad dangerous is that we all saw the same illusion. I do not know of any substance that will do that. But, modern chemistry is making unbelievable strides these days."

"I'll let the Doctor tell you about the book."

"My dear, there's nothing wrong with fainting," she then says to Katrina.  "I can't recall a time that I would have done that, but then I had a much different upbringing than most people."

"So, you've been looking for the Doctor but you have never met him. I presume that means he has never met you either. With the Doctor, you can never be quite sure on that matter."

"Now, suppose you tell us who you are and why you've been looking for the Doctor? And how you got here?"

Triney hesitated and chewed her granola slowly. She figured that the doctor had more pressing matters at the moment than her appearance.

"No we have never met as far as I know. He is known in my time as fiction but I believed. I stumbled across something I likely should not have. As to how and why I am here we can save that story for after."

As soon as the Babadook dissolved, the two halves of the book that Phryne was holding also began to dissolve, bursting into flame that consumed the book halves from the bottom up to where they were being held yet not burning Phryne at all.

Within seconds, all trace of the book was gone.

"That is a magician's trick," Phryne said as she instinctively shook her fingers to keep them from getting burned by the fiery paper as it seemed to vanish.

"It appears to me that the threat to Amelia and Sam is gone now. Is that correct, Doctor?"

The Doctor is silent for a few moments, whether because he's thinking or the shock of the mention of Donna stunned him. And, it's the latter he comments on first, smiling sadly to Jenny, "Happily married, and wealthy enough to never worry about anything." He'll just leave the rest of it out, for now.

Pocketing his sonic screwdriver, he turns back to the others, and says, "It was just a trick, a projection. Someone, somewhere, somewhen… They used the book as a receptacle for a psychic projection. They used psychic paper to create a monster designed to scare Sam and Amelia. The origin of the threat is still out there. The question is, will it target them again, or go after someone else next? Was it just a prank on some random earthlings, or did they have some reason to target Amelia and Sam?"

His tone of voice is more like a teacher quizzing a group of students, waiting to see if any of them have figured out the answer.

OOC: I'm still sick, but felt like I was having a good enough day to dip my toes back in the water. I'm very sorry, still, for this. This infection is proving hard to shake.

Triney opened her mouth to speak then looked at the woman who had torn the book and shook her head thinking better of it. She didn't know the family to know why they might be targeted but she did know The Doctor and thinks were very rarely a coincidence when he was involved. She was becoming a bit overwhelmed again with the knowledge that Jenny was here and the mention of Donna.

"Whatever you say, Doc," Johnny says. He'd first thought that the Doctor was being condescending when he spoke like that... as if no one else could possibly understand what he was saying. Johnny had later realized that that really was the situation. Johnny no more understand the technical jargon than anyone else did.

You just had to look past it.

"Unless there's something significant about this time and place, ah think Amelia and Sam were randomly targeted simply because they were innocents... and vulnerable."

"It kinda depends on how the book got here if'n it'll show up again. I'm thinking that ain't gonna happen now cause'a the Doctor's interference."

"But as the Doc said, we probably oughta find the source of the book. You find anything out, Mr. Quartermain?"

There'd been a lot going on in that one room what with people just poppin' in... course, he'd arrived the same way hisself. He was only now beginning to realize how his appearance in the TARDIS was such a unheard of phenomenon.

In any case, he'd managed to catch the look that Quartermain had given the Doctor.

He was more than surprised that Tornado had caught his glance at the Doctor, but no one else seemed to have noticed it. It was just as well.

"Afraid not, Mr. Tornado," Alan replied.

"But I think it's safe to say that the book and the Babadook won't return. You should be perfectly safe now, Miss Amelia... and Sam, too. However, if you detect even the slight thing out of the ordinary, you should head straight to Miss Fisher. I feel confident that she is more than capable of dealing with any trouble."

He had to admit that Miss Fisher was a rather extraordinary person. What a wonderful companion she would have made. Not unlike Donna Noble. Most companions really were made of sterner stuff than they at first appeared to be. It was only the strange circumstance that put them off their game at first.

"Alas, we must be on our way."

He waited for a moment or two to see if there would be any objection, then headed for the front door and out into the street.

When the others had joined him, he offered a different story.

"I not only didn't want to tip our hand in case there was any lingering psychic residue about, but I didn't want Amelia and Sam to start worrying."

"As the Doctor forced the Babadook out of the book, I was able to discern a presence... a controlling force or entity, if you will. The Babadook was being controlled by... the Jagaroth."

"When is it ever a coincidence, or random? I'd say never! There's always a reason for the way things behave, even if we can't see it yet." Jenny seemed happy enough to know Donna was doing well. "So, where do we go now? And what's a Jagaroth?"

She might have Time Lord genes, but she lacked the knowledge that came with experience. Nothing really surprised her, as she always expected weirdness, it was part of being herself. But if she knew what Jagaroth were like, she might be concerned. But she did not know. So she was happy to run along corridors and not shoot people. Just a day out with her Dad!

"Explaining the Jagaroth is a very long story," the Doctor answered Jenny. "A reptilian species that inadvertently time traveled in a ship that blew up and started the biological sequence that produced the human race."

"In an effort to save themselves, they traveled back in time intentionally to stop the ship from exploding. Unfortunately for them, this was a fixed point in time. I had to stop them. Or I will stop them. Even I can't keep it all straight sometimes."

"I can only surmise that this effort by the Jagaroth was an attempt to thwart me from destroying them, though I fail to see how."

"Hmmmm. I wonder. This does not seem like something the Jagaroth would have thought up. I'm not even sure they would have the ability to do this."

"Well, we'll just have to go pay them a visit."

He and the others escort Miss Fisher back to her house.

"I thank you for your assistance, Miss Fisher," he tells her. "It is heartening to know that there is someone like you out here who can deal with all the strangeness that crops up."

"If it's a small consolation, it happens just as often back in England. Maybe more so."

"I'm guessing that we can use the TARDIS to reach the Jagaroth," Alan said.

"I could not tell if there was just one of them or more than that, though presumably just one was controlling the Babadook."

Triney followed  along after the others listening as they talked between them. She bounced in excitement and sped up her pace when Alan mentioned the TARDIS. She would love to study her. She figured that the TARDIS would probably short out her instruments though. Now that they were away from the woman who kept denying the evidence of her own eyes she thought she might talk to the doctor about her run in with the Angels.

"Doctor? Have you ever known Weeping Angels to explode?"

Jenny went along, smiling happily to be amongst such ADVENTURE! But her mind was not still. It all sounded extremely convoluted, and it did not feel quite right. And it was not sitting well. Destroying that Babadook thing by tearing up a book? No. That was far too easy! There was a lot more going on than met the eye.

And they were going to investigate! Find out what! Oh, yes! This is what life was all about!

"We'll beard them in their lair, then! I haven't been in a really good lair for ages!"

"Weeping Angels?" Johnny asked. "Angels are in heaven, ain't they? Why would they be crying if they was in heaven?"

"And if they weren't in heaven, would they still be angels?"

"Exploding on top of that! Well, I suppose if they weren't no longer in heaven, that'd be enough reason to cry... but to the point where they explode? Don't seem right to me."

Not a lot seemed right to him since he met the Doctor. He looked at it like riding a horse. You didn't need to know where the horse came from or who used to own it or any other details like that. Not just to ride it. If you was keepin' it, that was different.

Triney gave Johnny a weird look. She shook her head.

"No, not like judeo Christian angels though they can look like statues of those. Weeping Angel's are quantum locked creatures that feed off of temporal energy. They kill by sending individuals through time."

As they make their way back to the TARDIS, the Doctor looks back to Katrina, and says, "Very good! They are a little more complicated than that, but a good explanation." Though, he adds to Johnny to simplify, "Statues that can move extremely fast when nobody is looking at them. Except, they are aliens and not actually statues. Trust me, you do not want to meet them."

Looking back to Katrina, he says, "I don't think I've ever heard of them exploding, however."

Jenny piped up, full of her usual exuberance. "Anything can explode with the right stimulus. You just have to find the right explosive. I mean, from everything I've heard about these Angel things, I would think that someone blowing them up and stopping their awful behaviour would be a good thing! Or did they just explode spontaneously?" She frowned, and gnawed at her lower lip. She had done as much reading on the subject as she could, and she did have Time Lord instincts and innate grasp of temporal mechanics to draw on. "I suppooosseeee... If they tried to send someone through time, but something was influencing that person temporally already, the two forces could clash and cause a temporal schism, resulting in a volatile exothermic decompression in material space due to excessive agitation in the temporal dimension." She beamed brightly. "Sort of like time ram, but with people, and not TARDISes. What do you reckon, dad? You've done a ram or two in your time, I bet!"

What she was saying was not entirely impossible, or even improbable. It just sounded odd coming from someone who was beaming like a cheerleader on prom night. For all the danger they were in, she was not feeling scared. She was enjoying herself. She'd been genetically manipulated to make peril and dire fighting seem like a fun day at the zoo. Sooner or later, that was going to get her into serious trouble.

"Layers of temporal fluctuation," Alan suggested. "It may well be that the last layer is the one that sticks."

"How do you propose to find the Jagaroth, Doctor?"

Triney considered Jenny's theory  carefully. It was a good theory but she didn't  think that she was being manipulated  temporally before meeting up with the angels.

"Its a good though but I dont think I have ever been manipulated temporally before I met them. Trust me I had been trying. I didn't see any explosives but I couldn't  really see much but the angel in front of me when the other one snuck up from behind me, but as I was yanked through time I swear they exploded."

"I never used the TARDIS to ram anything," the Doctor answered as they entered the TARDIS. "Not intentionally. I've grown rather fond of her."

"Interesting theory, Jenny. Yes, I can see how instantaneous temporal decompression could cause an explosion. The only way for that to have happened under the circumstances you describe is if the person they were time shifting was chronally unstable."

He looks pointedly at Triney as if expecting her to explain that.

"Finding the particular Jagaroth that was manipulating the Babadook should be relatively easy. We'll just backtrack the psychic trail that it left."

Jenny looked down at her arm, where the time hopper was affixed. She gave a rather worried smile. "Oh. I think I am starting to see a flaw in my current transport arrangements. Probably best I don't use this agan until I've fixed the overheating problem."

She'd already caught fire once, and the sudden, random time jumps were fun at first. Of course, if they were totally random, what was the chance of her ending up here, right at this time? It all seemed a little too convenient...

"Maybe someone shot them from range," Johnny suggested. "I've seen rocks and statues explode from a 45 caliber bullet hitting them square on."

As he entered the TARDIS again, he added.

"Suppose someone hit them with cannon-fire or a rocket."

"That reminds me, Doc... if the time tunnel jumps up and bites me again, should ah expect you to come looking for me or am ah gonna be on mah own? Just wondering, that's all."

The Doctor steps up to the console, starting to flip switches and spin dials. "That doesn't mean you weren't unstable. Did you ever notice anything weird? Knowing things before they happen, not knowing things that had happened, thinking you had a brother when you actually had a sister? Things like that?"

To Johnny, he says, "I promise you, if I am at all capable of following you, I will. And I'm usually quite capable."

"He really is, you know." Jenny grinned in a rather teasing manner. "He ended a generations-old war on my home planet, and almost nobody had to die. Except me." She fluttered her eyelids innocently. "I got better."

She had clearly got over the whole dying thing. And she was not above poking at her father about it. Not in a cruel way, but she did have a curiosity to see how he might respond. He was such a massive part of her life, and they'd barely spent any time together. She wanted to know how he reacted to things.

As he starts the TARDIS to following the psychic trail, the Doctor is quiet for a moment. "I never would have left you behind, you know," he says finally, "if I knew you could regenerate."

Jenny gently rested a hand on the Doctor's arm. She spoke softly, in quiet reassurance. "I know. There was no way you could have known. Even I didn't know, until it happened. And that was a real shock. I'm lucky they hadn't cremated me already. And it's given me the chance to see the universe, and run away from a great many interesting people. You gave me that. Thank you."

"Regenerate? Ya make it sound like ya die and then come back to life!" Johnny said.

"Not that it's the weirdest thing ah've seen. Ah don't suppose you can pass that on to anyone."

The Doctor looks back to Jenny and gives a small smile, "I'm glad." Then, with more energy, he adds, "And there's still more to see!"

Then he nods to Johnny, and says, "I've done it sixteen times." Then he shakes his head, and says, "No, you need to be a Time Lord. Well, or be conceived in the time vortex, but that's only happened once."

OOC: I'm very sorry for the delay, I dictated this message out before (or, at least, something very similar), but I guess I forgot to click the button to post it. I just assumed nobody had replied yet. Super embarrassing.