insertmeathere | And if wishes were horses we'd all be eatin' steak.

I'm sure they'd have something about it in their history or any folk tales. If they weren't trying to kill us.

[He nearly bangs into the Doctor. He's too startled to adjust his his glasses himself or stop the Doctor. He blinks]

I don't get captured that much- [how would he know, they just met]

Do you really know what you're doing here? Besides running.

[what he'd give for a certain Air Force colonel right now]

Me? Knowing what I'm doing? Of course I know what I'm doing! [He sounds borderline offended. If there's anything he's quite capable of, it's coming up with a decagon evasion plan. Or just plain retreating, but decagon sounds a bit better] Now, the plus is they don't have sniffer dogs on them. Not that they have dogs.

No, they could just have something similar or better.

[no, he's not very reassured here at all]

We can't keep running forever. They know this land better than we do.

[Shooting a look at Daniel.] It's a miracle you haven't made "prisoner" a permanent occupation with that attitude.

[Daniel's doing a really good fish impression right now for several seconds before he catches himself. He sputters, offended]

It's called having a better plan than just running and hoping they'll forget about us! They're not going to forgive us. We already showed unforgivable blasphemy against their Gods by breaking out rather than wait for their arrival. We also interrupted their solstice ceremony and desecrated their altar, and judging from the intricate detail put into that thing, the ceremony's kind of a big deal. They're not going to give up!

I wish you'd take this more seriously.

[ The Doctor is about two seconds away from pointing out that those "Gods" are the very same aliens Daniel wasn't too keen on waiting around to meet in the first place. He doesn't get a chance as a weird feeling settles over him, the Time Lord rocking back on his feet slightly. ]

Seriously? Seriously? Did you want me to tell you that your chances of survival are about this big? [ Holds up very tiny yay-high hands. ] With mine being slightly improved?

Also that hat has to be offensive on some planets. Rather surprised no one's told you.

[Daniel has a very impressive "O" face for a second there.}

That's not what I meant! My chances of survival are that low because I'm listening to your plans. You don't even have a plan, do you?

[he unconsciously touches the brim of his boonie]

And I like this hat! It makes a lot more sense than that bowtie!

Me? I already told you, I have a plan. It's a decagon. Like a circle but with angles. [He says it a little patronizing, as if having a circle with more angles will really increase Daniel's chances over yay-high. Enjoy your yay-high, Daniel. The Doctor looks forlorn standing under that huge tree. ] But you're right. No doubt you'll be shot five feet from the Stargate. It's how things go, you know.

I'd blame the hat and oi, lay off the bow tie!

[ Ooh, if he was a worse man, he would have left Daniel in the woods for the bow tie alone. The Doctor herds Daniel deeper into the forest, hearing the brush crashing in the distance. ]

Edited 2011-03-23 08:30 (UTC)

So what you really mean is still more running but in something that's not actually a circle. Where does 'getting back to Earth' happen or 'trying to sooth things over with the locals'? [he snorts a little rudely. It really is the Doctor's fault they're in this mess in the first place] We're going to get shot anyway at the rate you're going.

[he gets herded into the forest without quite realizing it.]

There's nothing wrong with the hat. It's functional, it's comfortable and it keeps the sun out of my eyes on digs!

They'll expect a circle, Daniel. Keep up! [ The Doctor scrambles over a fallen tree, legging it like he's a spider monkey. He's as annoyingly good at climbing as he is at running. ] Frankly, neither will probably happen, because you're right: we'll probably get shot.

Or taken as hosts, if what you said about the Goa'uld is correct. Lovely species, from the sound of it.

[ The Doctor clears the huge log, brushing off blue moss from his jacket. His eyes are just drawn in by that hat's general aura of ugh and blah, both at once. It's almost impressive. ]

It's also downright hideous.

[ It's no fez, that's for sure. He's not even sure if Daniel can pull off a fez. ]

Edited 2011-03-23 08:46 (UTC)

You don't know the half of it. I think I'd rather get shot.

[How does he make that look so effortless? Daniel leap-slides over the log in one motion. It's less graceful but it does the job.]

At least it's functional. That bowtie, it's just...it's just so--

[He can really only finish that with a pained look at the other man. Congratulations Doctor, you just rendered a linguist speechless with how awful that tie is. He can't even express how bad it is.]

If you really wanted to get shot, you wouldn't be following me, would you? So good. If we get this decagon right, you won't get shot. ~~Hopefully~~.

[ As for the clambering: it's a lifetime of pure, unadulterated skill. ]

Who says bow ties can't be functional? [ Sniffs at Daniel's narrow definition of functional. Clearly he's never had to use a bow-tie on a zip-line. Long story. ] Now. You must have a compass, dressed like that. Gimme, will you?

I'd rather avoid it all in the first place, but if it's that or being a host...

[This decagon isn't going to work. He digs into a pocket anyway. Then another, and another before finding a compass. He doesn't have that much on him. He wasn't packed to go through the Gate at all. It's lucky that he'd stayed late in partial uniform that he even has this much. Luck and the fact that he got so involved in a manuscript that he didn't quite get around to changing yet]

Here. Well, they aren't. They don't do much for shade or rain, right? I mean from a historical standpoint, I guess they're interesting. They have their origins with Croatian mercenaries during the 17th century but they weren't quite bowties back then, they were early cravats.

Actually they were more useful like that.

[okay, okay, try to think like Jack here because the Doctor's not going to. Right, he's finding it's a lot harder than it looks. A good part of him really does want to go back and try to apologize and work something out with the native population, but then there's that part where they worship a Goau'ld or two.]

Night's coming soon. What do we have between us in case of the wild life? [And the cold because it's starting to get chilly. And the oncoming villagers who will probably be scouring the forest for them]

Because all I have is a copy of the Book of Chilam Balam and an eraser.

For having such small pockets, Daniel seems to be taking awhile actually going through them, the Doctor fidgeting a little and looking around the forest as he waits. Waiting: not one of his strong points. 900 odd years and waiting's just harder than it was when he was centuries younger. He's had his fill of waiting. The Doctor is trying to pick out a bird of some kind chirping away above them with blood-curdling shrieks when Daniel starts to ramble.

"You guess they're interesting," The Doctor repeats. Now isn't the time or place to say that really, Daniel Jackson, chances were he was there himself during the 17th century.

Taking the compass, the Doctor holds it and watches it spin uncertainly. The magnetic field plays havoc with it, rendering the compass useless. Not the first time he's had to rely on his own sense of direction. The Doctor starts to absently pocket the compass as he turns on the spot, shading his eyes and peering up at the trees.

"What we have is right up there," the Doctor stabs a finger up at the sky. Well, tree. Or several, if Daniel wants to be picky. "Halgonic tree shelter. Provided there aren't giant tree snakes up there, we should be fine for the night."

That eraser might come in handy later, he suspects. And he wouldn't mind a look at the book, but he supposes shelter's more important right now.

"It's not nearly as interesting as the rediscovery of Pre-Columbian Maya, no," he explained defensively. Did the Doctor have to say it like that? It was hovering between sarcasm and condescension and he was doing it with the same barely restrained politeness that Jack sometimes did. The only reason Jack (sometimes) got away with it was because he was Jack. "But the evolution of clothing can tell us a lot about sociocultural changes and climes for a society or peoples, not to mention the needs the environment would have placed on them and how they adapted to such needs."

Daniel, in the mean time, was also watching the Doctor out of the corner of his eye as he fiddled with his compass. It was something he'd picked up from dealing with the Colonel. Jack would come by, touch things in his office, artifacts, files, pens, and sometimes forget he had them. Usually it was something harmless like a pen, because even Jack knew not to go waving artifacts around. Pens were a lot easier to replace. Except it started to add up and on some days, he'd find himself with nothing to write with if he didn't watch Jack.

So he watched the Doctor out of habit. Several times his compass got dangerously close to the Doctor's pockets. The Doctor didn't seem to find what he wanted from it and with a sinking feeling, Daniel watched it start to disappear into one of his pockets.

The archaeologist swooped in and plucked it out of his fingers with a meaningful look.

"Or there could be spiders or anything else venomous." Giant tree snakes? Thank you for putting that into his head. He was thinking overgrown anacondas that could climb. "I guess it's the best we're going to get."

Daniel started to reach for a branch and paused. "Halgonic tree shelter, Doctor?"

What was that for? Frowning at Daniel being so possessive about a compass -- which looked truly standard military grade to him and hardly sentimental -- the Doctor focused on Pre-Columbian Maya civilizations, Halgonic tree shelters and venomous spiders.

Wait. One of those didn't belong. See, this was what happened when he was with one of those chatty humans with unique interests. Pre-Columbian Maya civilizations, really now!

He probably would have been happy to talk about Mayans, pre-Columbian and otherwise, if they weren't trying to avoid the locals and the whole nasty "getting shot five feet from the Stargate" business, which was hardly helped along with Daniel being so yay-high on his survival odds. Tricky stuff, that. Did take a bit of concentration.

The Doctor in the meantime rolled up the sleeves of his jacket as Daniel tried to use his imagination about what could be up there in the trees.

"Style of shelter from Halgon (don't ever go there, take my word for it). Dull and incredibly stable. You'd probably like it."

The Doctor roamed about the base of the tree, gathering up countless sticks, creeper vines and moss as he circled about Daniel. Most of it went right into his pockets. Now, there could be tree snakes but if they run into anacondas, well -- he knew an anaconda here or there that could be on the friendly side. Or at least on the side not inclined to smother you in the night. Motioning for Daniel to follow him, the Doctor took a running leap at the tree and began scaling it. A few slabs of bark drifted down as he climbed.

Dull and incredibly stable? If he preferred that, he'd have remained back and kept to doing base jobs rather than go out on the field. There was something about new planets and new cultures that you couldn't get from reports and the only way to get that was to take the risk and go out with a team. He'd have wanted to go explore new worlds even without one but he couldn't think of a better team for it than SG-1.

Daniel couldn't help but wonder what they were doing just now. They were supposed to be on stand by for the next three days. Jack was probably taking it easy. Who knew exactly what Teal'c did when they weren't around. Sam was... well, Sam was a lot like he was, and if she wasn't on base still with her newest technological obsession, she was doing the same thing at home.

The compass safely back in his own pocket, Daniel watched the Doctor run a ring around the tree trunk several times, grabbing seemingly everything he could find. "There's nothing wrong with stable. I'd rather not fall out of a tree in the middle of the night."

And this was coming from the man in tweed and a bowtie. Daniel privately thought the Doctor looked both awkward and old in that tweed. The Doctor reminded him of a stooped Stanford professor in his eighties, who hadn't quite realized that tweed jackets and bowties had stopped being popular years and years ago.

Daniel shook his head. He'd only just met the man and he wasn't sure what to make of him. And passing judgment on him so quickly wasn't going to do either of them any favors and it wasn't fair to the Doctor. Besides, this was going to be the man he was trying to survive the next several hours with.

There wasn't much time for that anyway. They had to get moving. He started to climb up after the Doctor.

"If there's one thing good about Halgonic shelters," the Doctor grunted, as if it was irritating to have to admit this, "it's that you'd have to try to fall out of one."

Interesting trees, by the way. Call it a passing observation mid-climb -- well, more than mid-climb, he was almost at the first layer of branches -- but these were very wide leaves and branches, weren't they? Excellent cover. Reaching a suitable branch, the Doctor hauled himself up on it and peered back down at the human: said human was proving to be...maybe not the best climber, but capable enough, just a few minutes behind. The Doctor busied himself with assembling the shelter.

Out came all the sticks and twigs (the twigs were probably the most important part) and bits of moss.

The Doctor didn't climb the tree so much as he seemed to glide up it in a show of gangly limbs and tweed.

Daniel scaled the tree easily enough. If there was one good about not having the backpack on him, it was that it made climbing a lot easier without it weighing him down. Then again, that pack would have had all the supplies to weather out a few days. Their first priority was find some shelter but that didn't do much for water or food. Daniel could practically hear Jack drilling the survival training into him as if it had been yesterday. The first rule of thumb was to size up the situation, then get those three basics, with 'Don't offend the locals' and 'Don't get killed by the locals' somewhere in there.

They'd really only managed to do one so far, with the other one looking a lot less certain.

Daniel came up after the Doctor. "Well that's good, right?" He thought it was, but with the way the Doctor had said it, it was as if he'd just been told he needed a root canal. Daniel's curiosity was rearing its head again. He'd never heard of a Halgonic shelter. What was Halgon? How was it made and what lead up to its development? "How exactly do you make-"

He had just passed the first layer of branches when the locals came into sight under them. The archaeologist froze where he was. There was a large group of them directly below them, about twenty individuals. He could feel a splinter digging into a palm, and his glasses were starting to press into the left side of his face but he didn't dare move a muscle. They really didn't know how good their hearing was but why risk it by rustling a few branches.

Unless their hearing's so good they can catch me breathing, Daniel thought anyway, which wasn't helping. He held his breath. He was mostly hidden by the leaves, but a calf was still hanging below. He hadn't had a chance to pull it up in time. Maybe the combat boots would blend into the darkening leaves. That was a big maybe.

He just hoped they didn't look up.

Luckily for Daniel they didn't -- perhaps they didn't think him much of a climber.

With that hat, the Doctor couldn't fault them.

After a pause to discuss amongst themselves, their pursuers set off deeper into forest, their crystal globes bobbing away and turning eventually into pinpricks of light. The Doctor waited until even those were out of sight before he leaned over. Daniel clung to the tree like he was trying his very best to do his own spider-monkey impression and, surprisingly, he was rather good at it. The Doctor supposed he should reevaluate his opinion on that point at least, holding out his hand to help the human up onto his big branch. Big, big branch, easily able to hold the two of them. Like he said, Daniel would have to try and try hard to fall out. Grabbing at whatever of Daniel he could get hold of, he heaved and grunted until he could haul him up.

"Oof," said the Doctor in between grunts, "There you go, I got you!"

He gave one finally heave backward.

Daniel had been focusing very hard on becoming one with the tree by not moving or breathing and wasn't doing a very good job of it. Other than getting his glasses imprinting into part of his skull and giving the tree the best partial bear hug of its life, he'd come to the conclusion that you couldn't, in fact, blend perfectly with a tree.

The locals, after what seemed like an eternity, finally moved on. Daniel watched as they began fanning out, separating in groups of threes. He didn't like that sign. It looked like they were still moving in a search pattern instead of giving up, which made him wonder just how long they intended to keep it up. They may be safe for now but these guys were tenacious.

The archaeologist let out a sigh of relief. Or he would have if he wasn't being hauled up like a sack suddenly. The Doctor had leaned over and grabbed at him, and if Daniel hadn't been holding onto the tree in a death grip, he might have fallen out in surprise. The man was stronger than he looked and worse, he didn't have the best hold on him. Daniel felt that he was both being grabbed by the nape of his neck and strangled at the same time. He scrabbled at the branch he was sitting on and the tree trunk and, trying to help, he pushed up, to climb up as the Doctor pulled. He ended up with a scraped palm and a bruised knee for his trouble.

Daniel managed to get both hands on the branch and pull himself up. It wasn't exactly graceful. He fell forward on it, his legs hanging off. The thing was surprisingly large, but then again, these trees were immense to begin with: there was plenty of space for them to rest on. Daniel took a moment to get his wind back. After a moment, he rolled over onto his back and pushing the hat off his head, stared upwards. Night was falling. The sky looked a dark shade of pink and green. That was weird in itself. Maybe it had something to do with the atmosphere or trees. Through the leaves, he could catch glimpses of stars. Any one of them could be Earth. Of course, they might be so far from it that it wasn't visible. Somewhere out there was home. Jack was probably at his place watching The Simpsons.

"So." Daniel said to the air finally. "That could have went better."

"Better?" The Doctor repeated, incredulous, "I was hoping more for something along 'excellent'. You're still not shot," he added, as if it needed pointing out.

Apparently it did. Daniel wasn't shot and they even had a rather comfortable tree for the night. Suffering through a Halgonic shelter didn't seem like too much of a sacrifice.

The Doctor eyed Daniel's ruffled and half-smooshed hat, which was actually looking a bit improved now that it had gotten personal with a tree, and then tore his eyes away as the human got his breath. Daniel seemed fixed on the sky, the Doctor following his gaze. Most of the tree branches are in the way but here and there the alien stars twinkle at them through wispy pink clouds, almost as if there was some light pollution on this planet. Not that there was. Same look, though. Come to think of it, he still didn't know what this planet was called or just where in the galaxy they were in the first place. This tree and the few glimpses of sky he could get from here weren't really helping to jog his memory.

The Doctor clasped his hands together, all business.

"Let's get that shelter going and see if they haven't given up in the morning," he said.

The Doctor set to work, trying to show Daniel how to make a Halgonic tree shelter. It pained him to have to pass this on, really, it did. There were worse things to come from Halgon, though, and he supposed he could make it up to Daniel once they got past the search parties and the guards. The moss was a bit...rank in smell, the sort of smell you probably couldn't get out of your clothes for at least the better part of a week, the Doctor holding his breath as he worked. Insert twig, twist it counter-clockwise, add more moss and voila!

Halgonic tree shelter in progress!

He looked at him sharply, mouth opened to retort. Daniel had just about run his legs off for what felt like hours of evasion. He was bruised, he had splinters, he was generally sore everywhere and he'd managed to do something he'd always tried very hard not to do, and that was completely alienate a new culture and destroy a priceless piece of their ritual at the same time. He wasn't even sure anymore where the Stargate was. And there might be a Goa'uld coming here.

But the Doctor was right. They were alive. They had to be satisfied with that right now.

Daniel's face softened. "It could have been much worse."

Setting up the shelter was interesting enough. It got his mind off what lay below them for several minutes. The Doctor was a patient, if eccentric instructor, and between them, it wasn't long before they'd had the Halgonic tree shelter up. Daniel sat back and inspected it. The directions had been awfully specific, but when you took a moment to look at it, it looked like nothing but a shapeless mass that also smelled weird. It looked just as boring as the Doctor had claimed it would. He wasn't expecting a beautifully crafted palace, and he'd certainly slept in far worse places, but he could honestly say he'd never seen something so drab on Earth. It was actually a weird sensation looking at it. It was like staring into a black hole, only instead of eating all matter, this tree shelter would suck the creativity and will out of you if you concentrated on it too long. It was that boring.

Wow. He had to be tired if he'd actually just thought that and thought it seriously.

Daniel shook one of the supports and was pleased to find that it didn't even budge. What it lacked in looks, it certainly made up for it in stability. He carefully crawled inside, the Doctor at his heels. The interior looked... marginally better.

"One of us should probably keep watch."

Well, at least Daniel had the presence of mind to see the Halgonic shelter for what it was. The Doctor was slightly less ruffled than before, pleased to watch that dawning realization on the human's face at what sheer boringness looked like when it was right there staring you in the face, all in its physical glory. It was something in its nothingness. Impressive, he supposed, but even "impressive" would be giving anything Halgonic entirely too much credit.

The Doctor paused by the door of the shelter.

"Keeping watch, right," the Doctor said. He thought about it and then made a motion like he intended to crawl right back out, bottom first. "I'll do it, shouldn't be a problem because --by the way, don't forget, pull out that mat of moss for a blanket off the corner, that's what it's for, sorry about the smell, and -- "

He continued to back out, scooting expertly backward because that, like climbing in a hurry, was something you tended to pick up given enough traveling. He was truly sorry about having to stash Daniel in a Halgonic shelter. Boringness aside, he'd never been near one or used one that hadn't had smelly moss blankets. You could literally make one out of the honey-moss on Vej and it would still come out smelling like....well, like that. It was warm, though, and he didn't think Daniel would be in danger of falling out of this tree or coming down with hypothermia.

Keeping watch for the night shouldn't be a problem. He worked to button up his jacket, his legs swinging over the broad side of the branch they were on as he kept a lookout for any more of their pursuers.

He'd been about to offer that he take first watch but the Doctor was already backing out of the shelter.

If he'd been Jack, he might have been suspicious at the fact he'd just jumped at the chance to stand guard. They'd only just met after after all, had had known each other maybe a good ten, twelve hours? Now he was volunteering to watch Daniel's back while he slept.

Daniel wasn't Jack though. He preferred not to jump to conclusions. Jack tended to assume the worst was going to happen, or if not yet, that the potential was in anyone he didn't know, which was just about everyone they met. Daniel couldn't believe that of everyone. There was a lot of good out there, and good people, and you were reducing all of them to potential threats if you looked at the world like that. You were missing out.

The Doctor seemed harmless enough, if a little out there. Daniel sincerely didn't believe he was a threat. Not that he had any proof. He really didn't. It was more of a gut feeling, but he didn't see any reason not to trust it. Actually, the more he thought about it, the more it just felt like the Doctor was looking for any excuse to spend as little time in the Halgonic shelter as possible.

"Right. Thanks," Daniel had been about to reach for the blanket when he caught the smell. He made a face. The Doctor was right. It was a musty, mildly unpleasant smell, like a gang of soggy cats had marinated themselves in the aroma of an old woman's house and a clove of old garlic, then tried to cover it up with air freshener. Daniel had slept in places that had smelled absolutely foul, but the difference here was that at least those places had been something you could have a firm opinion on. You also got used to it. This smell seemed to drift in and out, just hovering at the edges and was only borderline offensive.

Maybe he'd just go without the blanket...

The archaeologist lay down awkwardly and closed his eyes against the shelter. It made it easier to handle. There was something unsettlingly boring and nondescript about it that it made his eyes cross just looking at it. In all his years in the field, he'd never had this kind of reaction. Not everything was going to be aesthetically pleasing, and that right there was incredibly subjective, but nothing he'd ever seen on Earth had made him feel so uncomfortable. Daniel kept his eyes firmly closed.

"Doctor," he called out softly after a moment. He had a slew of questions he wanted to ask. Most could wait until morning, but there was one he wanted to ask. He didn't know how long they were stuck on this planet but he had to know. "Would you at least tell me your real name?"

Edited 2011-03-29 08:47 (UTC)

And if wishes were horses we'd all be eatin' steak.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Switching to prose

Same here then

Re: Same here then

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)