OTA - Let that yawn out;

[20likes]

Who: Heartman and OTA, plus a few closed starters
What: Good News: Heartman knows how to make warding amulets against the Darkwalker. Bad news: he's got Pneumonia because of it.
When: Just after the latest darkwalker attacks + just before the town meeeting
Where: Heartman's makeshift lab + cabin

Content Warnings: TBD

i. closed to Fraser;

[ To say he's grateful to the Mountie once he sees him would be the understatement of the century. To Heartman's credit, he's managed to walk most of the way to his cabin by himself before he has to lean against the nearest wall, out of breath, the room spinning. It's not an unfamiliar sensation but it is a very, very unwelcome one.

He doesn't regret it. Heartman's sweating in the cold, his coughs are painful and his heart feels like it's working overtime despite his issue being a lung infection--he suspects he may still be immunocompromised in Milton as well, considering his condition--but if he just takes a few minutes to rest...

He looks up after trying to stop the dizziness, pushing off of the wall only to see a familiar sight: clean shaven, square jaw, red uniform. He half-waves. ]

Is it safe to presume you're rescuing me a second time? [ His smile is faint, face pale as he fights the urge to fall--best he lean back on the side of the wall again. He's clearly visibly relieved despite his small, tiny joke. ]

ii. OTA - visits while ill;

[ The door to his cabin and makeshift lab remains unlocked as it always does. Courtesy of a few kind people looking out for him, there's a constant fire as Heartman stays underneath thick, warm blankets on the couch. He's no stranger to falling in and out of sleep, although it's perhaps a sign he really is sick when his body completely stops its natural 20 minute cycles and he remains napping for a long, long while, only his own coughing or someone entering waking him up.

He keeps busy: he reads books, some found in his place already and some from the library if he can sucker a poor soul into going for him. He's always welcoming guests, even if he's drifting in and out of it. Dief is curled up at his feet or on top of him at times, clearly a very important part in healing.

That's not to say he isn't bored. Restlessness comes easy when he feels like he can do something--should be doing something--and a visitor who gets him on one of these moments may get him attempting to sit up, speaking after a flurry of coughs. ]

Please, stay--company would be wonderful. I'm in dire need of someone to fill me in on what I've missed. What happened while I've been gone?

iii. OTA - darkwalker warding;

[ When he feels well enough--at the very least when he can actually concentrate on something other than a few pages at a time in whatever book he's got on him--he'll get to work. After the town meeting, if anyone comes in there will be two small piles of stones on the coffee table by where he's lying or sitting down. Heartman, knife in hand as he's in the middle of carving something, will raise it slightly in a greeting. ]

Do forgive the mess.

[ It is rather cluttered. Asides from the two piles of stones and the stacks of books scattered around his spot there is also an absurd amount of scraps of paper strewn about with his handwriting as he theorizes and tries to put together pieces of a puzzle he's unsure if he'll ever solve. Stranger or friend alike, the half-smile is the same. ]

Did Fraser reach out to you about the talismans? Please, have a seat.

Comments

[thedreamer]

You could say that. [ Said with a slightly mischievous grin. Perhaps it hardly matters that he could slip through corridors of space and time with the ease of someone unlocking their own front door when they're all trapped here and any sort of boasting perhaps loses its luster. The man who could go anywhere he ever wanted, the entirety of all that ever was, is, and ever could be just there at the tip of his fingers, and he's trapped here just like the rest of them. But he will go mad(der), you see, if he doesn't at least talk about it, and so he's thrilled the other man invites further conversation.

Even if his companion seems perhaps in need of a bit of rest, though, he can understand putting aside physical ailments in favor of focusing on the very important sharing of knowledge. Heartman has broken the dam open now, so chatter will flow unchecked. As he speaks, the Doctor fidgets, as though he has an abundance of energy that no amount of movement will ever fully expel. ]

I'm a traveler across time and space, have been for...oh, a bit now. Usually I do the rescuing and planet and people saving, though. This is all — [ He waves a hand, scrunches up his nose, and never actually finishes the thought. ] Point me where I need to go, Heartman, you need a warm drink — tea? And tell me more about your data recovery, too!

[ He'll start to...rummage. ]

[20likes]

[ Heartman blinks owlishly behind his glasses, fingers waggling a little in light surprise as he lifts them in the vague direction of a stove and a well loved kettle. There's a few things of tea courtesy of Kate Marsh still left, and even though Heartman knows he should be resting he finds himself physically standing up.

Easier to pace, after all, and pacing makes it easier to think. And a thoughtful mind is helpful for a scientist! ]

I'm not quite sure it's nearly as fascinating as time and space. We have the seeds of it--an element, chiralium, similar to dark matter, but nothing concrete. We've only begun to repair the network that will reconnect us, but afterwards, the possibilities--planets, you said--

Well. I'd be very interested to hear how your travel is done.

[thedreamer]

[ Oh, does he understand pacing. Completely. Best way to get blood flowing, neurons firing, ideas darting every which way and back! He's quick to pivot and move towards the stove and kettle, though, beginning to start the water boiling. ]

Anything you tell me will be fascinating, I promise you. I love hearing what you lot get up to. [ By 'you lot,' he just means, broadly speaking, anyone who isn't him. ]

My ship is called the TARDIS — Time and Relative Dimension in Space, to be exact. She's dimensionally transcendental, bigger and grander and more beautiful than your dreams could conjure. We travel when she shifts out of physical space, into the time vortex, and phases back in where I tell her to go, whether that's another planet or five hundred years into the future.

[ After all these years, he still believes he has any modicum of control at all over the TARDIS. And, of course, he speaks of her like a living entity because she is. ]

[20likes]

[ Heartman is smiling, beaming, and it seems like the first time in a long while that he’s been feeling strangely reassured. The Doctor is fascinating in more ways that one, an infectious sort of energy about him that Heartman picks up easily and swings back into old habits. He feels young again. ]

Far more advanced than anything we can do–I strongly believe that mankind’s ultimate goal before the Death Stranding was to explore more than just the limited space of... well, space, that we already know.

To traverse the unfamiliar is a thrilling prospect, don’t you agree?

[ Is he picking up a scrap of paper to write down the word ‘TARDIS’? Absolutely. ]

[thedreamer]

Absolutely agree! I couldn't agree more, in fact. Well, I could — sort of, but that would just involve saying I agree another ten times in a row and I'm quite sure you've got my point already. Don't let me get ahead of myself, but this is absolutely the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

[ The kettle's not quite ready yet, though with as thrilled as he is to meet someone who matches his excitement, the Doctor could easily miss it going off. ]

Forget that being a cliché, it's perfectly relevant. And humans, well, I can't give it all away, of course, spoilers, but you never stop exploring and seeking and searching, no matter where or when. You keep looking up and you keep wondering, what next.

[ It's why he loves humans so much, of course. ]

Now what's this about Death Stranding?