A curtain rises. ACT One is about to begin. What is the story about?

This is a story about a human woman from the Mid-Atlantic Coast of the United States of America who suddenly found herself from nowhere.

This is a story about strength: both metaphorical and physical.

This is a story about meeting people in a-chronological order.

This is a story about an "Associate" and their "Doctor"

This is a story about weird outfits and the light-hearted mockery gotten from friends when you wear them.

This is a story about the motivational powers of friendship, determination, and spite.

This is a story about being offered two bad options and saying "screw you, I made a third".

This is a story about knowing you can't save everyone, but still making sure you can say you tried.

This is a story about nicknames.

This is a story about time.

This is a story about space.

This is a story about a universe.

Most of all...

This is a story about a human woman called Marion Henson.

"I'll be back home in an hour" a short woman with dark brown curly hair says into her phone before hanging up and putting it back in her pocket. It is 3:00 in the afternoon. The woman's name is Marion Henson. She is wrong. She is not wrong on purpose. She does legitimately intend to be home in an hour. She won't be. But this is not her fault.

Today is a Friday, and she has no classes today. She has spent most of the day washing and folding clothes, cleaning the kitchen and going through her closet to determine which sweaters do and do not spark joy. Having a cleaner, more organized house is good for one's mental health, someone told her. Also, supposed to have guests.

Some friends are coming over to her apartment, and she wants to take a quick walk before they do. She's been feeling a little nauseous all day and her headache isn't helping matters. It might be because of the cleaning supplies she used (it's not). Marion and her friends are meeting to beta-test the Doctor Who Powered by the Apocalypse table-top system they've been working on via Discord. She knows from experience that she's a bad DM when she's feeling sick and she doesn't want to have to cancel. Her friends have been looking forward to this and she has no idea when they'll be able to meet up in person next.

She hopes that the 25-minute walk in the nice (if not problematic) 60-degree winter air will be enough to make her feel a bit better. If not, she's walking to the convenience store anyway, and she can buy ginger ale and Advil there.

Or at least she could if she were to make it there. But she won't make it to the convenience store which is for the best.

It's 3:15. She's halfway to the store when she feels something brushing against her arm. Or at least she thinks she does (she does). She turns to see if anyone is there (there isn't).

'Must've been a branch or something.' she thinks to herself. She knows that that can't be right (it isn't). There was only one bush that could've brushed her like that, but the family that moved in there a month and a half ago had trimmed it down.

But still, she can't think of anything else it could be so she decided to keep moving and not think about it at all. (This is how she handles a great many upsetting things.)

She comes to a fork in the road. She can either continue on the sidewalk or walk through the woods on the edge of the park. She picks the park path. It's nice outside, and because it's supposed to be about 20 degrees colder than it actually is, there will likely be fewer bugs then it would during the time of year it's supposed to be this warm out.

Also, it's slightly faster.

As she's walking, she continues to feel something brush on her arm. It's 3:18. She convinces herself that it's just trees. "Even if it's some quick-moving weirdo, I can take 'em", she thinks. If a person did come at her, she probably could. Ever since the incident back in camp when she was 8, she's gotten an interest in martial arts and could hold her own against most people.

At the age of 8, Marion attended a summer camp in DC. There was a boy in the camp who had spent the previous month taking judo lessons. Like most 9-year-old boys, he wanted to show off. He invited people to grab his wrist. Marion, who had always been of the curious sort, did indeed.

When she was 8, she got back up, slightly jarred, but interested. At the end of the day, when her dad picked her up at 23rd street, she got in his blue Saturn, and with her eyes shining like Axinite she said "Dad, can I do martial arts camp next week!"

She shifts so that her messenger bag is in one arm and she's holding the strap with her other hand. She's concerned, but not anxious.

It's 3:19. No one is in the woods but her.

She wants to keep moving but suddenly, she is unable to. That "brush" against her arm is no longer a brush. Someone is holding onto her upper wrist. She turns, planning to grab whoever grabbed her by the forearm, flip them over her shoulder, and then run to a more populated area. However, when she reaches out, she doesn't grab anything. She still feels like someone's holding onto her arm and keeping her in place. What happened all those years ago felt much like what was happening to her now. A tug on the wrist, then a yank on the shoulder, then everything shifting suddenly, and finally, a hard slam on the ground. "What the actual f-"

She does not finish her sentence because whatever grabbed her arm suddenly tugs and she falls backwards.

It's 3:20 No one is in the woods.

Marion had always said jokingly to her friends, "When I disappear under mysterious circumstances. Make sure I'm discussed exclusively by teen girls with true crime podcasts. I wish for them to write my legacy." Who knows if she got her wish, but she did in fact disappear. At least from her universe's point of view anyway. But that universe is none of Marion's concern anymore.

(Next Episode: One Mystery Solved, Countless More To Go)

A/N: Hi! This is a new story I'm writing. I'll do my best to update at least twice a month. I have so many plans! The cover I made is really low res. if you go on my deviant art, you'll be able to see it in better quality. Cheers! Oh. And if any of you've got an episode that you want me to cover quickly (especially if it's from the classic who era). Tell me! I've got a rough outline of this plot, but there are far too many episodes do them all. I can possibly squeeze them in!