Reality Crisis

Now that the TARDIS had finally settled into her new desktop, River had taken a break from working on her. She was well aware of the new passengers on board, but had chosen for now to keep her distance. She was already a confusing element to the Doctor - she wasn't interested in being a conflict with the others yet. Though the Metacrisis was a curiosity to her. A human Doctor. It was an odd reflection of herself: a human with Time Lord knowledge and memories, versus a Time Lord with none of the influence of Gallifrey. And with no remaining regenerations to speak of, she never identified herself as a Time Lord. Or Lady. The Doctor was the last of that race, and she wouldn't insult him by claiming it herself.

She was making the rounds through the TARDIS as usual, checking on the various rooms, where the swimming pool was hiding nowadays, and of course, ending up perusing the library. It was one of her favorite spots in the wonderful ship. She selected one of the volumes on Gallifreyan history and settled into an overstuffed armchair to read.

The entire group was halfway through their journey across the wilds when all hell broke loose, in a quite literal fashion. The temperature dropped quickly and snow started to fall at an alarming rate. On one end of the caravan, reality burst at the seams.

One of the trucks disappeared into the hole and the rest of the vehicles just barely stopped short. The ground started to vibrate and suddenly a loud roar could be heard nearby. A gigantic white mass moved from the direction of the hole in reality and started stomping around the caravan. Meanwhile, mounds of snow started forming into even more creatures that converged on the group and their supply trucks.

The largest of the creatures roared again, revealing a full set of snow-white teeth. The mounds of snow formed into dinosaurs that were about half the size of the largest dinosaur, ranging from the large Tyrannosaurus Rex formed out of snow to the smaller and faster Velociraptors.

A few screams rose up from the group below as people started to run in an attempt to avoid finding out if snow-dinosaurs could and would ingest them.

OOC: Just a little holiday crack!plot for you. Join in, create subthreads, and enjoy!

Her scanner had buzzed as River was taking a tour of die Festung. She was particularly interested in the structure being built just outside of the walls - a lot of effort was being put into constructing an amphitheater. For what? It certainly wasn't necessary for survival in a world like this.

The alert pried her attention away with little difficulty. She gaped at the announcement for a moment, then immediately walked away from the construction site to find the cause of the alert. It was two things, really. One, a familiar complication of time and space that she knew was the TARDIS, even if the readings were a bit wonky. Secondly, a binary vascular system that was wandering about in the same vicinity.

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Belia's men were always on the watch for new visitors to die Festung. She was still collecting her Chosen, though she'd certainly given them a lot more free reign than in those early days. Those first arrivals had shown her that trying to control them or hang onto them like a precious resource was not the most effective way of ensuring the alliance with those that might be able to save her people.

She still made an effort to meet each Chosen and give them the proper welcome. To do her best to make them feel comfortable here. She'd already lost some and in her mind, every Chosen living in New Troy or Sanctuary was one that might not be immediately available to help her people should the worst come to pass.

Belia waited patiently in the reception room while her guards went out to summon the latest arrival. She did wonder who it might be this time. Some names were more familiar than others, but she'd certainly spent her share of time studying the contents of that library in anticipation of who might arrive next.

"Well, that was unexpected."

Her voice was muted, emerging from the suit's speakers. River lifted the faceguard in order to take a better look around. This certainly wasn't the Library. But that wasn't the upsetting part. Anita, Proper Dave, Other Dave, even Lux and Miss Evangelista. They were gone. She was alone, on a strange planet.

She checked the scans going on within the suit. Compatible air, similar to Earth normal. Though the vegetation was not of Earth. Not from any time she knew, and she'd visited quite often. River unhooked the protective shield from the suit and took a breath. Late summer, warm day, chance of rain later. Maybe 30% chance.

She checked the scans again. Signs of life to the southeast. Her brow furrowed. "What's going on here?" she murmured, puzzling over the readings. A city of some sort, but very rudimentary structures. Ruins, to be more accurate. And one life sign drawing much closer.

She slid off the strap that held her sonic blaster in place, not drawing the weapon, but making certain it was accessible.