Welcome to Gaia! ::

::For a second he thought he had gotten through to him, the boys face peeking out from beneath the table...and then the shock. Their were definately wounds here the Doctor could not see.

This was obviously a matter far beyond stitches and needles. This was a matter of mind, and while the Doctor had no medicine for the mind, he had helpful hands, and open arms to reach around Dathos's shoulders and simply sit.

When he first came, Dathos could barely form words. He had words, now he could barely hold a thought. Such was progress, even if it was small. For now...perhaps...perhaps the table wasnt such a good idea. He simply smiled, and looked Dathos in the eye while trying to scoot himself under the table beside him.::

Hmm, maybe zhis isnt so bad.

::He cozied up under the table for moment, tucking under his lab coat and adjusting his sleaves before turning Dathos yet again.::

So, are you hungry?

::Whoa! He was fast. Very fast, much faster than the old man beside him the Doctor never even saw the hand move, he just felt the hand flick his glasses, and watched as his right eye suddenly found itself counting the hair folicles on Dathos's right eyelash. He couldnt help but laugh a bit himself too.

When he spoke, he expected another jumble of thoughts but, what he got, he understood. An old nursery rhyme...He couldnt help himself, the word just rolled right off of his tongue.::

...Contrary...Mary is upstairz, she's looking forvard to seeing you, Dazhos.

::Hungry? He didnt know what hunger was? This was worse than he imagined. How would he know when to feed him if Dathos didnt even know when he was....

Rumble.

Right! At least his body still knew, even if he didnt. The Doctor laughed a bit again.::

Yes Dazhos, that is vhen you eat...

::And to demonstrate eating, he mimicked the act of picking something up in his right hand and placing it in his mouth.::

...vhen your stomach make zhat rumble.

::And he gestured toward Dathos's tummy.::

Right now, you are hungry.

::He pulled his collar up a bit toward his mouth, tugging the top button of his coat closer to his lips and then spoke.::

Mary, can you bring our guest down a little snack?

::There was a small crackle of transmission static from his coat, and then Mary's voice came back through the small transmitter.::

Sure thing!

::She said back as chipper as can be, and the Doctor turned to Dathos with a bright smile. He simply stared at him for a few moments smiling, and then flicked other lense down. A black disk of a lens fell forward and with a small whirr zoomed forward. He always thought that was amusing.::

::A stout nod met the boy as he clicked the connection between a stomach ache, and hunger. He was learning! Excellent, most excellent! The Doctor was more of a man of cuts and pills, and less of a man to use therapy, but it seemed Dathos was getting a bit better just by functioning.

The Doctor had expected some sort of curiousity with the nano-mic, and so he smiled as Dathos investigated it, thankful that he even still had a sense of curioustiy. He had to hold back a bit of laughter at the look on his face when the zoom whirred into place. He had very enrapturing eyes, the kind that make you stare and say..."How?", but all the Doc could see when he looked in them was the efforts taken to make them so. With a bit of laughter he said.::

No, it doeznt hurt, zhese are for...

::But he stopped as Dathos spoke, speaking was a definite step up.::



Yes, indeed it iz.

::He said in a most excited tone.::



Zhats correct! Very goo--



::Shock. His jaw, literally hung for a moment with his hand, once read to pat the boy on the head, now frozen in mid air. That was a memory, a memory of very very long ago. A memory of a time not forgotten, but not to readily remembered either. The last thing the Doctor had expected were his own words. But he remembered that moment, he remembered smacking both Mary and Marcels hands away from the table where he was working on these very glasses. They always asked so many questions, it was so frustrating, it was impossible to get any work done!

And when he would shoo them away they'd run to mother, who would always come back and drape her arms around him and say the same thing, "They're only curious love, they miss you. Your right here, but your so far away..."

He remembered the sadness in her voice. He nearly remembered her f--::



::The wailing voice, as demure as it was. The exploding burst of words and broken bits, just like moments before, these served to literally snap his mind back to reality from memory lane. Without a thought he leaned forward wrapping his arm around the boy and gently trying to pat his head to calm him as he spoke.::

Itz ok, itz ok....zhe rest vill come soon enough....shh, shh, shh, shh, itz ok. Itz going to be ok.

::He'd keep repeating it, like the many nights he repeated to Mary that it was all going to be ok. That she wasnt a freak for having so many parts. Like the times he had to repeat it to Marcel every time he looked in the mirror and saw a monster. For some reason, while Dathos was not his flesh and blood, he had a part in his creation, in making this life. And for that reason, inside he knew he had to make the life better.

Not a moment too soon, a small boom filled the hall as the elevator shaft crashed into the bottom floor. This was soon followed by a loud.::

Sorry!

::Which echoed down the hall as Mary called out. The Doctor didnt twitch as he knew Squiddly and Mary loved to play games in the shafts, he just hoped she hadnt lost the food in the process. But, the ever growing click clack of her heels in the hall meant they'd soon find out. For now he was content to calm Dathos.::

((Sorry that took so long Sun Sun, but I'm back! And despite your efforts to explode my mind with the complete and total awesome posted above... xp ...I'm gonna post. xd And I will shower you with thanks, the exact second I see you on MSN next. And by shower, I mean literally downpour until a server somewhere shatters. 3nodding ))

: biggrin efensive as a father would and should be, the Doctor let Dathos slink back behind him, but was sure to give him a friendly smile assuring him that all was well.

Slowly and steadily the footsteps drew closer until finally they stopped just before the doors, there was a moment of pause, a few audible deep breaths and slowly very slowly, the door was peel open. Peeled is the applicable expression because Mary peeking through the door seemed a bit like small animal peering out of its den. She wanted to make sure there were no claws or teeth, or blades, or fireballs meant for her. And it had been so very long since she had last seen Dathos that well...she was afraid of what he'd think of her.

Of course, with expection of her aged, most of her body had gone through many...changes, replacements and what not. And in his current state of mind Dathos might not even been able to recognize the Sun much less Mary, but, she was cautious none the less. Finally, she stepped through bearing a very formal tray in her right hand, complete with domed top and elegantly crafted metal handle.

For a second she seemed lost. She was expecting Father to be sitting atop a table beside Dathos, or perhaps on a cot, if the Doctor hadnt let out a rather noticable "Ahem", masked as a cough, she might have missed him entirely.

But with this most indiscreet of discreets hailings she skipped, yes quite literally skipped, over to where Dathos and Doctor sat, and scooted down on all fours, trying her best to keep herself in her little mini-skirt nurses outfit, as she spoke.::

There you are!

::She sounded a bit little girl that had just won a game of hide and seek. Her voice held a cute innocence that belied her body. But despite that, she slid the tray between the Doctor, Dathos, and herself, and pulled the lid off revealing the scent of fresh bread forming a tiny pile of sandwichs freshly prepared, and ready for eating.

Shy little Mary did her best to keep eye contact with her father, afraid to meet Dathos's eyes. But her deep green eyes did steal a few glances at the man. And she tried her best not to comment on how cute he was, while she set out plates.::

Zhank you Mary.

::The Doctor said with a bit of a laugh, he hadnt seen that sort of look on his daughters face in a very long time. And like a true father, he wanted to make her embarassment, just a bit worse. And so he tilted a bit to the side so that he was no longer a shield between the two and gently gestured toward Mary, as he turned to face Dathos.::

Mary, say hello to Dazhos. Dazhos, you remember Mary, right? Dont be shy, she vont bite....right now.

::He had to chuckle a bit at that, he had to bite marks to prove she did bite when she wanted to. And Mary ever obedient to her father, took a few seconds to adjust her nurses cap, and her skirt, and made a shy little wave in the boys general direction.::

Vh--

::"Vhat mess?" Was what he was about to say before a gust of red zoomed past him at blinding speed. Literally, as the sandwichs fell Mary quickly obeyed the magical 5 second rule and tried to place as many of them back on the tray. Before she could even finish the smack of Dathos hitting wall echoed down the hall.

This wasnt good. But that really went without saying. The hall itself was less than hospitable. The 2ft thick steel doors which locked away many a creature were hardly welcoming, and the pungent stench of mildew and rotting meat was barely a fine hello. While scritching and scurrying was heard behind a few of the doors, nothing spoke. Surely, the tiny white spiders which scurried along the floor and nested in the corners would love to speak, but they couldnt. For a moment, Dathos was left in the dank hall, alone to his thoughts. Unfortunately those thoughts were loud enough for another to hear. Knowing his importance Brian dared not even attempt to enter Dathos's mind. But his many bodies still called this place home, and wouldnt be made a stranger by a strangers presence. While Dathos's reaction to the door slamming was late, there was infact a slammed door at the end of the hall where the Doctor and Mary were. One could imagine the look of shock the Doctors face to find himself trapped in his own Operating Room. A few moans soon chimed in responce to Dathos's words.::



::Honestly, he couldnt resist. Moans swirled and kicked up into a single echoing voice, not from any one location but from seemingly all of the hall. It was hard to tell if the voice was male or female, or exactly where it came from, but it spoke none the less and asked a single simple question.::

Lost...?

Awww...

::The voices spoke in one uniform moan, it almost sounded like a song. And as Sun's hands were removed from the door, in that very second, the lights fell dark. It was as if he had some sort of powerful electrical current flowing through him and in removing his hand from the wall he unplugged it.

As his unsteady gait carried him forward, in the darkness the voice spoke again.::

...Broken...

::As the words rolled out the voices seemed to unify, and shrink. At first a thousand, then a couple hundred.::

...Lost...

::Now only a few dozen and finally...::

...But not alone...

::One. A single voice seemingly belonging to a child. But in the darkness of this decayed hall, no children could be seen. And then, without warning a single ceiling light clicked on, several paces down the hall. The light shined a small circle onto the head of a single little girl.

She wore a tattered dress seemingly made of dirty rags sewn together, her hair was filthy, almost like the walls of this place. Her slightly dusty hand, with bits of dirt in its fingernails reached forward to Dathos...no, that wasnt what he called himself, she reached forward at Sunstrike, and she spoke. While her cute little lips moved, it seemed the sound came from all around.::

...Come play with me Sunstrike...

The areas had been extensively surveyed and studied in advance, and now, the first oil rig was in place. It was a small structure in comparison to the much larger rigs that would be floated to much larger deposits of incredibly valuable oil, but it was the begining, a base upon which to build an incredibly profitable venture. Of course, such valuable resources in such a far off hostile land needed to be protected. In such, the first Yaits Corp destroyer was commisioned along with a dozen or so patrol boats to patrol the waters surrounding the small rig. It was an old destroyer purchased surplus from the Gaian Republic Armed Forces, but retrofitted with some new tech, it would serve well in it's humble purpose.

~The hunt for Victor Fah~

Two eye bugs, slightly bigger than the lowest class of Yarneth's insect hoarde, for it was fast becoming a hoarde. Flew from the base and over the cold tundra, keeping aware, as they were linked to their master directly at all times.