"What we know is very little, but, if we can all ride this out, we should all be fine! Whatever is out there will lose interest and go somewhere else, preferably away from society. Are there any emergency supplies that may be of any use to us?" Melanie addresses the waitress.
"Well, we have a first aid kit, and plenty of food to last quite a while." Flo offered, unsure. The Doctor nodded pleasantly to her, and then to Melanie. He was giving her the floor, letting her assert the situation.
(gtg, I'll be back around 9:15 EST)
"Okay, given that the-whatever it is out there-has scales" She nods to the Doctor. "It's reasonable to believe that it's some sort of reptile or amphibian. But what doesn't get me is the cold weather… So does that mean it's a mammal with scales?" Melanie starts pacing. "So we have a medical kit, which could-" She looks up to the Doctor. "I'm assuming this place has a roof that we can access, yes? Doctor, I may be doing something risky, but I'd be helping us know more about its-or their-appearance." She catches her breath. "Okay, a medical kit has the basic stuff-cotton balls, gauze, and rubbing alcohol. I think that, if I could get myself to the roof with the medical kit, I could douse the cotton balls in the rubbing alcohol, maybe wrapping the gauze around half of it and light them, throwing them around the building. The only thing that could go wrong is if they could climb, or if it's on the roof already."
"Good plan, very logical. Tell me, what do you want to achieve from this? Are you trying to kill the creature or see if they're scared off?" he asked. The Doctor abhorred meaningless violence, it went against everything he had stood for in all his lives.
"I'm hoping to at least see what they look like, but scaring them off works too. After that, if they come back, we'll hopefully not be trapped." Melanie seems a bit happy with herself.
"It's a sound plan. Tell me, Flo," he turned to the elderly waitress, "is there a roof access?" she looked confused. "Yes, but I don't see why you'd want to go out and face that thing,"
"Okay, I'll do it" Melanie sounded determined and nervous, maybe anxious. "Can we access the roof from inside?"
"Yes, there's a set of stairs in the back." Flo nodded, and the Doctor shot off towards them. Tobias looked confused as to why anyone would be so eager to face the thing, but then let it go.
"Jesus! No need to run! I opted to do this anyways, and besides, you don't have the medical kit!" Melanie runs after him, pausing to find the medical kit, only to go up the stairs where the Doctor was. "Fast runner, you are. Even in that outfit" Melanie's huffing by now.
"It's helpful to be able to sprint quickly from one place to another, what with my lifestyle and all. And what's wrong with my outfit, might I ask?" he raised an incredulous eyebrow.
"You know what? You do you. Even if you are dressed up, I'd better not start up a whole thing where I don't believe you, in which, I still don't, by the way." Melanie sits on the roof and opens the kit, sorting through the things that they'd need.
(gtg)
"I'm not dressed up, this is my normal outfit. I found it in a locker of a morgue, if you must know, and the shoes, which fit perfectly by the way, that's very important, were given to me by a certain Doctor Grace Holloway. Lovely woman, her, but not much of a traveller. We kissed underneath some fireworks, but she left me pretty soon after." he said, slightly pained. Grace. But he was past her by now, and either way, there was more to worry about than a woman he didn't even get the chance to know all that well.
Melanie cringed at the kissing part and shook her head, "If you keep your head in the clouds about Ms. Grace, you might end up dead. Anyways, we should be ready to do this, I just need to soak the cotton balls. Do you think this will work?" Well, we can try, Melanie answered in her head. "And before you get more into it, I'd rather not know of your love life; we've only known each other for what? Twenty, thirty minutes?"
"Believe me, over 900 years of being aromantic and you're surprised that I'd finally get out of my own head after a considerably painful regeneration trauma? Never mind. I do think this has quite a good chance of working, yes, but I have proved myself wrong before. Now, shall we?" he asked.
"Of course, Doctor." Melanie nods, and she brings out a lighter from her back pocket of her jeans, which has a dark pink leopard pattern on it. "I have four of these…whatever we're to call them, to scare the reptilian thing out there away." They're about the size of Melanie's fist. "I'll light them, you throw them, okay?" And she starts lighting them, handing them to the Doctor. "Hold them by the gauze, it shouldn't be ignited yet."
"Right." he said, taking the makeshift explosives and, once lit, tossing them towards the creature. You could see it better, it was a giant thing, with iron scales and a long, spiked tail, glowing yellow eyes. And it had company. The leader roared, then charged at the building with its fellows, but so far it was holding up. Fortunately.
"Jesus Christ! What are those things? I'm kinda glad that we're out of their reach" Melanie's the slightest bit frantic. "Are they leaving?"
"I have no idea, but I'm not so keen on finding out. Let's go." he said, moving back down the stairs.
"Okay. I sure am glad I didn't go out there and try to fight them…" Melanie follows him down into the diner, somewhat exhausted.
"Don't worry, I wouldn't have let you." he smiled, taking off his coat and draping it over her shoulders. The coat smelled faintly of honey, sandalwood, and something spicy. "Cheer up, I'm sure all will turn out perfectly fine. Remeber, you've got me here to solve this for us."
"What necessarily made you and I a team? And besides, how am I supposed to cheer up after seeing…seeing whatever those…those things were?"
"Pure chance, Melanie, but you have a lot more skill than most of your species shows. Trust me," he smiled, leading them back to the others.
"Wha-there are way more people out there who are better than me! Like, I can't do psychic-voodoo… Whatever you do!" Melanie crosses her arms inside, trying to make a point.
"Melanie, Melanie, Melanie, MelanieMelanieMelanieMelanie. You're ever so hard on yourself. I mean, really. You have potential. Millions of atoms from the beginning of time came together to form you in all your Melanie-ness, and you underestimate yourself so much?" he asked with a pained look.
"Okay, please stop. I think I've heard my name enough times for me to question its own existence. God, it's like saying a word over and over again; eventually, it becomes meaningless. And, okay, I can do some things better than others, and I have had a rough life, but that doesn't make me much different from anyone else! Look, I wish I could sugar-coat this, but it's hard for me not to: I'm just some boring, old, low-life person who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, and I'd rather get back to my life than spend time philosophizing over how the universe began, or how humans came into existence. But I can't because those things might still be out there!"
"You're not different?" the Doctor snorted. "Oh, I hate to tell you this, but you very much are. You're so individual. There is nobody else like you, and there will never be. And you're strong, I've seen it. Melanie… you can do anything, alright? Anything. You could travel the stars." he smiled, patted her shoulder, then walked off to see to the scared clump of civilians.
"Like hell I could," Melanie grumbles, walking over to a booth and sitting in it. "Sure, let's all be some wonderful happy community where people can fly on rainbows and travel the universe…somehow without needing oxygen to breathe!" Melanie was talking to herself now. "And we all live happily ever after, yay!" As much as she doubted his words, Melanie couldn't get them out of her head. She refused to believe that she could be something great, but there was a glimmer of hope in her mind.
"You're a highly pessimistic young woman, you know that?" the Doctor asked.
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