Welcome to Gaia! ::

((Actually, no. I was asking swanie. But don't worry, I checked. 18. Only I don't know any VCE maths, so let's have her do quadratic equations.))

"You ran away? From what? The assasins?"

Sephy looked at her. "Who else would I have run from? The gingerbread man?" she asked, sarcastically.

"What do I do if I have 2x^2+8x+16??" Clara muttered.

"Give that here." Telia said with a sigh. "You do this." she worked out the equation quickly. "Got it?"

"Uh.."

"Oh, never mind. Why are you doing maths anyway? We're on another planet, with a time-traveling alien-"
"Timelord."
"Yeah, whatever."

Clara looked at the two of them. "This is due on Monday!" she said.

((you like my ears? What?))

"And..that's what you do. Got it?"
Telia sighed. "No? Well who cares, do it later. The timelord could take you bakc in time to the maths lesson you skipped or whatever." She turned back to Sephy.

"So what will the gingerbread man do if he catches you? Fry you in burning oil? stick pins in you? Throw you off a cliff?"

Sephy glared at her. "You really aren't used to dealing with people, are you?"

okay.
((the funny dog ears you're wearing.))

She continued.
'Actually they will take me, hang me by the hair, whip me, twist my limbs until they come out of their sockets, cut into me with a blunt knife, freeze the room, and then suddenly turn up the temperature, infect me with random diseases and then cure me just as i am about to die, leave me to recover for an hour with nanobots, and then do it all again. for a year or so.'

Telia looked at the young ex-assasin.
'oh. So why did you run away if you already knew all of that?'

the doctor drew his knees up to his chin, and rested his head lightly on them. his breathing had eased, amd now he closed his eyes.
'Well? aside from potatoes, what happened?' sephy spoke more softly now.
The Doctor shook his head slowly, taking a deep breath.
'I dreamt... I dreamt that they were all dead. and It was my fault. and the TARDIS was bleeding... dying. And it was my fault. and potatoes... don't even enter into it, but it was just the first word on my mind and it just scared me a lot because i love my TARDIS dearly and i was watching all this happen...' his voice trailed off and he hugged his scarf even tighter.
There was a sharp rap on the door.
'It is time you helped us assess the situation.'

"No choice at all Doctor,"drawled Mlyss who suddenly appeared via teleport.
"hey priestess people.." Mylss said. "i've got the field reports for you. "
"You have?" asked the priestess. "not written in an entirely made up langiuage?"
"no, its called shorthand." Mylss retorted.
"er..whats going on here?" asked the doctor.
"who are you?" demanded telia.
"hi, i'm Mylss." she smiled at them. "i'm their spy for them against the Ducks."
she saw their expressions. "look do you have any idea hhoew much rent i pay? i have to do something to pay the bills."

((which is scary because i manged to draw Telia last night..well, it wasn't supposed to be her..but before i knew it, I added a saber..and magic..))

Telia blinked. "Magic?" A brief memory flashed before her eyes, but she pushed it away. There was a haunted look in her eyes. "Never." she said firmly. Never again..

Sephy looked at her, a strange look on her face. "Why the aversion to magic?"

Telia looked at her. "Why did you run away?" she shot back, avoiding the question.

The Doctor intervened before a fight broke out - how likely this would have been, he had no idea, but it was always better to be safe than sorry. He stepped between the two but then realised he had nothing much to say.

Up on the Tower, all the priestesses assembled in two circles within each other. the doctor stood in the middle.
'We will need your help later.' whispered one to sephy, Telia and CLara.
'Whatever.' muttered Telia.

They closed their eyes, and a sudden quiet fell over everything around them. The doctor rolled his eyes and turned to look over the gardens, where the ducks were assembled. There was an immense buildup of energy coming from the circle - clara could feel it. The strain was showing in the doctor's face as he looked out on the Ducks.
'I'm going to regret this.' were his last words before everything from the outer circle in was engulfed with a brilliant white light. it radiated from the tower down to the ducks, who were quacking in surprise. Telia stared.
Sephy looked worried.
'what's wrong?' asked Clara.
'He's only one person.' Sephy's voice was shaking.
The ducks lay on the ground - delfated.
'Rubber Ducks!' gasped Telia.
'Decoys.' hissed sephy.
There was a rumble as a gigantic ship can into view. there was evil triumphant quacking, as real ducks, much more menacing, came waddling out.
the light fizzled and died.
The preistesses looked confused and filed out. Sephy and Telia looked at each other, and some understanding passed between them. They both jumper up and pushed through the crowd. Clara hesitantly followed.
When she finally broke through, Sephy and Telia were kneeling next to the Doctor. He had fallen to the floor, and couldn't get up again. He looked more than tired - he looked ill. He was pale and shaking, his breathing irregular. Sweat beaded on his forehead and dampened his hair.
his scarf had fallen off and lay at his feet. Clara hopped over and pushed it under his head.
'well - that was a waste.' he gasped. Then, despite himself, he grinned.
'Could you get me a jelly baby?' he asked softly.