DISCLAIMER: I neither own Doctor Who nor Undertale. I also do not own the SCP Foundation, which this vignette in particular is inspired by. Infact, nobody owns the SCP Foundation, it's under creative commons. If I bullshitted hard enough I could just turn this into SCP fiction and publish it completely legally. I'm not going to do that though. That's stupid.
"Oi! Chara! No running in the rain!" The Doctor called out as he emerged from his humble yellow car. He had lowered the phone from his ear but could hear Donna on the other end.
"Lookit you, acting all responsible, like you hadn't done anything more dangerous in the rain." She said with amusement. The Doctor elected to ignore that as he strolled over to the mailbox. He watched his foster child like a hawk as they continued to bolt for the front door, as if the unfiltered outside air was fatal to them.
"Door's locked" The Doctor called out to them as he collected the various envelopes from his letterbox. "Sooorry to disappoiiiint." He apologized in a sing-song that made it clear he was, in fact, not sorry to disappoint.
"You don't want me to be in the rain but I can't go inside either?" Chara shouted from the front porch, "What a wicked double-standard! I demand legal representation at once, sir! Such hypocrisy will not go unpunished! I doubt you even have a full medical license!" The Doctor rolled his eyes, he could hear Donna chuckling on the other end.
"You're only encouraging them," The Doctor told the phone as he unlocked his front door and the world's least patient thirteen year old rushed inside.
"Aw, you love it, really." Donna teased, she was right. "Me and Rose are meeting there tomorrow evening, yeah? Does at six work for you?"
"Six? Er… I suppose." The Doctor raised an eyebrow and frowned, trying to remember if he had made a prior engagement he forgot about. "Sorry Char's first day got me a tad bit scatterbrained. Remind me, what's tomorrow again?"
"Don't tell me you forgot!" Only Donna could verbalize a death glare. Her voice became softer, "It's been two years since," She hesitated, "since grandad passed." The Doctor stopped mid step in the entry hall as the realization hit him, tomorrow evening would mark two whole years of him living on his own - without Wilfred Mott.
"Oh," He sounded disheartened, "How could I forget? Sorry, uh - Six, yeah… six sounds lovely." the Doctor nodded as if Donna could see the gesture over voice call. "I miss him alot." He admitted.
"Me too…" Donna agreed forlornly. They went quiet, and let each other mourn all over again.
The Doctor breathed in and tried to perk back up. "Really, honestly excited to see you and Rose. Have you met Chara yet? I know Rose saw 'em when they stayed with UNIT, but I don't know if you have!"
"Nope, and by the sounds of it, they're a little tyrant." Donna said endeared.
"You have no idea," The Doctor said with a slight smile tossing the mail on his dining room table.
It wasn't until hours after the call ended and Chara was sent to bed that the Doctor would come back to sort through the small pile properly.
"K-9," He called, looking up from the wedding invitation he held in both hands. The robot dog rolled in promptly,
"Master?"
"Remind me sometime after tomorrow evening to put some time aside to attend the King of Sontar's wedding," He folded it up and placed it in his waistcoat inner pocket. "I don't know how, but they found me." He commented, hoping other aliens weren't going to make a habit of tracking him down like this.
"Will Magister Chara be attending as well?" K9 asked. The Doctor chuckled at the use of the title. Chara despised K9's usual gendered title of 'master' or 'mistress' and suggested 'magister' as a neutral counterpick.
"Hm, having them as my plus one probably wouldn't hurt," The Doctor mused, pursing his lips in thought. "Ask me again later, short trips can have a tendency to go sideways. You were there for that one grocery run you know how it is."
"Negative."
"What?"
"Negative master. This unit was not present for any so-called 'grocery run'."
"What? No, nooo, surely!"
"Negative master."
"Asteroid-27? OmegaTesco? The big zarbi mobster with laser guns and the gold mandible?" The Doctor stood up and held his hand high to emphasize the creature's height.
"Negative master, this unit was not present for those events."
"Blimey…" The Doctor conceded the point and lowered himself back into his seat, "Well - point is, I don't know if I want to have Chara involved with that. It's dangerous and they've already been through a lot."
"Master?"
"Yes?"
"Would you like me to remind you to ponder this later?"
"Hm. Yes. I should sleep on it some. Make it so," The Doctor waved a hand over K9 as if to dismiss it.
"Affirmative. Reminder set."
"Thanks K. Attadog, good boy." The Doctor said, turning his attention back down to what remained of his mailbox. He let himself smile hearing the happy whirr of K9's tail motor in motion getting quieter as the robot dog scooted away.
The Doctor set aside the junkmail for recycling and was left with holding a single envelope he had almost missed. Water damage left the paper wrinkled and yellowed. He held it closer to read the shaky cursive, 'With regards, your secret admirer'.
The Doctor frowned and sat back, quietly considering opening it. Curiosity killed the cat, he told himself, he didn't need to solve every single mystery that came to his doorstep.
It could be dangerous.
Riiiiiip
He couldn't help himself. He opened the letter, the secret admirer had won. Curiosity always was his biggest vice. He pulled out the contents of the letter and unfolded it.
He did not expect it to be a few UNIT documents.
Assignment: Biforst Initial Recon Log 0318▇▇
Universe Designation: 0c92a
Date: 03/18/20▇▇
Exploration Team: N/A - One Wyvern-03 Drone
Additional Information: The following is a transcription of live video and audio surveillance conducted by remote-control reconnaissance drone, launched at UNIT headquarters at 1300 hours on 03/18/20▇▇. Planned mission is to determine the potential habitability of Universe 0c92a, henceforth referred to as U-92a. Chief Scientific Officer Osgood was assigned to direct the drone remotely.
[BEGIN LOG]
Video begins once the drone comes online. Hover mode is engaged and it immediately enters through the dimensional threshold into U-92a. Once the dimensional threshold is closed there are not any other light sources present, leaving the drone in pitch blackness. Its attached flashlight is promptly activated.
The surrounding area can be described as a throne room with an indoor garden. The floor is made up of dead grass, wilted flowers and colorless stone. A throne sits on its side, suggesting signs of a struggle.
The drone exits the room through the north exit and into an antechamber, which then leads into a vast room cut off by a pulsating energy wall. There is no observed immediate entry point.
The drone backtracks from this apparent deadend and traverses towards the throne room's southern exit, leading into a passageway that splits into two separate directions. Traveling east brings the drone into a room with several closed caskets lined in a row. Traveling west brings the drone into an extended hallway which contains pillars and stained glass windows.
Scattered along the hall are a number of softly glowing protracted bone-like structures that protrude from the ground, walls and ceiling; white and cyan in colour, they appear to have been forced upwards. Signs of large burn marks and numerous craters of cracked tiling suggest a number of rough impacts.
Upon exiting the structure entirely, the drone travels along a lengthy bridge. While doing so, the drone's audiofeed picks up wind, implying the bridge is elevated and exists in a much larger space. The bridge leads directly into another building where the drone proceeds up a flight of stairs and into what appears to be a furnished living room.
While investigating the domestic environment the drone's auditory sensors pick up a noise coming from the eastward hallway.
Moving in to investigate further, the drone's flashlight does not manage to illuminate the full hallway. Abruptly the audio feed picks up rapidly approaching footsteps and a loud yell. From the darkness what appears to be an adolescent emerges and pounces on the drone. There's a brief struggle but connection is ultimately lost and the drone is presumed destroyed.
[END LOG]
Analysis: I'd like to point out that the hallway with stained glass windows and bones is really very interesting. First of all, it has windows! Which means, at some point, there would have been light to pass through them. Second of all, it being located so close to a throne room and the coffin room implies that at some point it served as a church hall. This isn't just a universe with random architecture that resembles intelligent design. It used to have inhabitants that could see like we do, hold faith like we do, and even hold regency like we do.
This is only a guess, but I think something really bad happened here. And I think whatever it was, that child who tackled the drone at the end could be one of the only survivors. I would like to request that we prioritize a second exploration into U-92a and with an assembly of researchers and security personnel. -Chief Scientific Officer Osgood
I'm skeptical of just going off presumption. But the space seems habitable all things considered, and at any rate, a child hiding in the dark possesses much more of a threat to an unarmed drone than a trained researcher, let alone military personnel. I support Osgood's proposal of a manned exploration but recommend first establishing a security perimeter, ideally within the throne room. I am eager to study that energy wall. -Senior Researcher Price
Request accepted. Be ready in 24 hours. -Overseer Lethbridge-Stewart
We'll only need 12, ma'am. -Chief Scientific Officer Osgood
Reading through the papers, the Doctor silently put the pieces together. UNIT, the throne room, the child at the end. This coincided with everything he was briefed on about Chara. Calmly, the Doctor refolded the papers and returned them back inside the envelope. He would need to talk to someone from UNIT tomorrow, probably after he dropped Chara off for school.
"K9?" He called out.
"Master?" The tin dog was only a room away.
"Could you set another reminder for me?"
"Affirmative master."
Author's note; Once again, I'd like to thank my boyfriend and friends for for endearing this very niche fanfiction idea. I would also like to give a special thanks to friendlycharafan from for leaving a huge review that ostensibly dissected the second vignette. I very much appreciate it, that review alone has been a big motivator for me. I'd like to point out that now I have an idea for where I want this story to go now. I still need to write an outline for all of it, but I atleast know the rough order of everything, as well as who the central antagonist will be. Thank you for reading.