01: Open to All!

[nevercruel]

[Action]

If someone had been standing in the small cave filled with the glowing water and a single silver cocoon, their first inclination that the occupant had awoken would have been the very loud BANG, followed by the muffled shout of pain that came from inside. When the Doctor woke up, at least in this body, she tended to do so immediately. Doing so while contained within a small, metal egg without first looking to make sure your head wasn't aimed directly for the lid was a quick way to give yourself one hell of a rude awakening.

She groaned, more in frustration then any actual pain, nursing her forehead for a moment before she looked up with bleary eyes, confusion worming it's way into her gaze as her surroundings became clear.

Alright, first thing; not the TARDIS. She couldn't feel the familiar vibrations, nor could she feel the telepathic connection that told her she was home. That was, obviously, her most immediate concern, but not the only one. Second thing; Ryan, Yaz, and Graham certainly couldn't fit into this tiny pod with her. Their own pods? Still on the TARDIS?

"Hullo? Guys?" She waited, listening, fifteen breaths, but no answer came. So, either not within earshot or able to hear her from outside the pod. She shifted where she lay, first noticing the soft silks that lined the thing. Meant for comfort? Or as decoration. The fact that the thing resembled some sort of coffin didn't go unnoticed, but she certainly didn't remember dying, not that her memory could be depended on 100% of the time. There had been enough times in the past when the Doctor had been caught unawares and not been able to remember it afterward.

The next thing, or things, she noticed were the items that tumbled from her chest as she moved, dropping onto the cushion beneath her. She frowned, shifting to reach for them and press against the top with her other arm, finding it easy enough to open, when one weren't bearing all of their weight and momentum into their forehead as they sat up abruptly. The lid of the thing removed, she clambered out, landing in ankle deep water, her nose curling as she felt it sinking into her boots and soaking her socks all the way through.

"Oh, lovely. The least you could have done would be to leave me a pair of wellies." She snatched the items from inside, tucking them under her arm as she turned to stare at the area around her, eyes dazzled as they adjusted to the dim light and the bright lights coming from the water itself. Huffing out indignantly at the realization that there were no other signs of her friends inside the small inlet she'd found herself in, she turned back to the pod, looking it over curiously, studying it for any markings or features that would indicate just who or what had created it. Nothing.

Not even a scan with the sonic was able to give her an inkling of its origin, and she sighed, tucking the tool back into her coat's breast pocket and wading through the water toward the nearby shore. Once she were somewhere dry, she could take a few minutes to survey the items that had been left for her in her metal, watery life-coffin.

[Video, some time later]

[The Doctor smiled brightly into the camera on the phone that she'd been so graciously left by who only knew, looking much happier then she felt, her head tilted curiously to the side.]

Hullo, Genessia! [She repeated the word a few times, testing different pronunciations. Hard G's, soft G's, long and short vowels. Eventually shook her head as if to clear it of the wayward thought.] Nevermind, I'm distracting myself, not important! I seem to have found myself on your lovely, glowing beach, missing my friends and my ship! I don't suppose any of you have seen any new, out of place blue police boxes out and about, by any chance? I'd be most appreciative if you could direct me there, if so.

Also, if any of you have seen three humans going by the names Ryan, Yasmine, or Graham, I'd be happy to know that they were safe and sound. They're under my protection, and I promised to get them home, safe and sound.

[She let the unspoken warning in her tone linger for a moment before grinning widely and waving.]

Anyway! Nice to meet you all! I'm the Doctor!

Comments

adsfdfg they keep making each other happy and sad at the same time

[spacepeterpan]

[The Doctor raises his eyebrows, giving his future self an amused look at the swaying and preening, and chuckles under his breath at finding her still experimenting with mannerisms. He'd gotten used to it, himself, but from the outside, he can imagine how strange it must seem to humans, someone who looks fully-formed on the outside but doesn't quite know what their personality is yet, somewhere between a 30-something, a Methuselah, and a toddler.

He gets a glimmer in his eye at the allusion she casually drops by specifying long-term, and brightens visibly at the way she describes her braces, hands raising to tug at his bow tie.]

Yeah, they're not bad, are they?

[Oh, he's so pleased to have a future self he can identify with, someone in whom he can see at least bits of himself, when he feels so very, very distant from the one between them.

And then of course she asks a question that cuts the legs out from under him emotionally. One he was prepared for, at least, so his expression doesn't entirely implode, but only buckles slightly; he keeps the shell up, but a dimming of his eyes and a faint grimace creeping in about the corners of his mouth give away to those who know him the way his hearts freeze for just a second. Until he puts on that more defensive sort of smile, again, claps her on the shoulder, and heads inside the TARDIS.]



...not exactly, it's...

[He trusts her to follow and to close the door behind her, walking briskly as usual, but he actually uses the railing as he climbs the stairs, and almost trudges up them rather than bounding up them like a maniac. At the top he flashes a smile back toward her, turning and putting on a more casual stroll toward the console, where he's set up a tea service, as promised.]

...like I said. Amy was here, think it through, if she'd seen me larking about in a new suit, new desktop in the TARDIS...

[More than two-hundred years she'd known him and the most he'd changed was to add a duster and try on a new hat for the five minutes he was allowed to keep it. What would she think if he'd changed so much? What would she start worrying about that she didn't need to?

What would she start asking him about?]

......and, well, like you said, it's homey. ...not such a bad thing, homey.

They DO, and it's kind of a sad pattern for their life. Oof!

[nevercruel]

[A Methuseddler, if you will.

And look, when you've lived as long as they have and come from a race with wildly different ideals on gender then the one you've adopted, there's bound to be a little experimenting with the clothing, from time to time. EsPEcIalLY when you married a woman much later in life who had some very out-of-the-ordinary proclivities, and was very in charge...Certain things should have been expected.

The look is not at all missed when it crosses his face, and when he turns and walks inside, she can see the sadness in every bit of him. No, this is not the Doctor from the beginning of that regeneration, it's obvious that he's much, much later, and her sense of unease just increases as she follows him inside, shutting the door behind her and watching him take the steps one. At. A. Time. She lets him talk as she follows, and when he puts it that way, it makes perfect sense, and she returns that sad, knowing smile.]

She would have had questions. And when Amelia Pond puts her mind to something, she gets her way, yes. I see, now.

[And that last bit, too, spoke volumes. It saddened her, but she understood without it needing to be spelled out for her. He was trying to make himself feel better with those old, familiar things, the things that Amy would have known. Letting himself pretend that things were better then are.]

Not at all. It brings comfort, makes things a little easier to deal with on a bad day. [She followed him to lean her hip against the console, glancing down at it, at the tea he'd set out, the glass floor, the gears and metal and coral-concrete-stucko of the subfloor and the wires and cables hanging beneath.] It's nice to see it again, at least. Don't often get to revisit the old ones. It's a little like the new desktop, too. Golden and brass and warm and so many...buttons and levers. Light comin' in light sunlight through trees, honeycomb structure keepin' it all together. Hourglasses an' a spinning crystal model of the police box, and great, big crystal pillars that glow from the inside out, surrounding the console, and encasin' the Time Rotor! You'll like her, once we find her. She'll probably be amused to see your face again, too.

[She was obviously very enamoured of the TARDIS' new look, her gaze drifting into the distance and her voice describing it all as if on a sigh. Focus on the positives. Keep telling herself, despite the mounting evidence to the contrary that was beginning to build a knot in the pit of her stomach, that there was a simple solution to all of this.]

[spacepeterpan]

[The Doctor flashes a wry smile as his older self puts into words just what he was implying--or at least, most of it. Amy would ask--and he'd have to try and answer. She'd get answers she wouldn't like, and he'd have to think about it. Better for everyone to just sidestep than conversation completely. Sure, it made him sort of cut off from everyone else, but that was hardly new, after centuries of not even admitting he wasn't really the Eleventh.

He'd learned to face up to his past, even if he couldn't quite make peace with it, but facing how he felt about it, or the future it implied... those were different questions altogether.

He shakes that train of thought off and shoves it back down a dark hole in the back of his mind, smiling a bit more quirkily as his older self seems to get a bit distracted and more than a little bit bubbly with the subject of her console room. He'll get to clarifying a point or two, shortly, but for the moment, he pours her a cup of tea. There's milk and sugar and lemon on the tray, as well, since he's not quite sure how her tastes might have evolved, over the course of two regenerations--especially given what a doozy his next one would surely be.]

Ooh, never did go in for any of the crystal themes, but haven't really seen one in.. oh, centuries, anyway, might feel dif'rently, now.

[A brief pause until his older self is properly distracted with tea-prepping, before he speaks up again, just a bit sheepishly. It's something he takes no pleasure explaining to any version of himself, knowing well just how he'd feel, but that's also why it can't be put off for too long.]

...and... well, might not exactly be a question of finding.

[It's obvious from his expression that he knows more, but he's gauging what sort of mood she's in before going down that road--and making sure she has tea to keep her relaxed and to give her an impetus to not fly off the handle, just in case.]

[nevercruel]

[His regeneration had always been a razor's-edge dance between opening up and shutting down, keeping everyone at arms length while trying to absorb any sort of warmth and affection he could from those around him, and that was before any unwelcome, uncomfortable questions had come into play. Now, so far detached from it herself, she felt sorry for him. She was able to see it with a clarity he hadn't had when he was living it, and she hated that he had to carry around that kind of burden on his shoulders. He'd always tried so hard to pretend that things didn't effect him as deeply as they did, to his own detriment.

She brightened as he poured her a cup, eagerly accepting it with a small "Oh, ta!" before grabbing a small handful of sugar cubes and dunking them in, almost as bad as the Doctor between them when it came to sugar in her tea. At least she put a little milk in, to counteract the pure, tooth-rotting sweetness.]

You know, I wouldn't have expected it, either, but I'm certainly not complainin'. Though I wonder if somethin' about the regeneration carried over to her, even if she was half a galaxy away at the time. [Yes, Doctor, she lost the TARDIS when she regenerated. Or more was kicked out for her own safety. She reached into her coat pocket, pulling out her screwdriver and holding it out for him to see.]

She seems to have mirrored the crystalline structure of the technology I made this from. Lost the old sonic, had t'make do with what I had, an' the Stenza seem t'be fond of gold focusin' crystals. [Her brow furrowed as she took a drink from her tea, her 'thinking face' in full force as she contemplated the ramifications of it.] It's fascinatin', honestly. All this time, she's never preemptively imitated somethin' like this. Sure, she seems t'reflect what we'd find appealin' when we regenerate, but this isn' even Time Lord technology, it's completely foreign! S'pose it doesn' make much difference t'her, either way. She knows the layouts before we do, so she's probably know all along that I'd encounter this specific technology while I was still regeneratin' an sort've...[She shrugged, a little confused.] I dunno. imprint on it? I certainly like it, an' it fascinates me, if you look at it technically.

[But then her ramblings trail off when she considers his words, taking another drink to collect her thoughts. She was quiet for a moment, her mouth setting in a thin line. Not angry, but definitely not happy, now that her mind was pulled away from her metaphysical contemplations of the connection they shared with the TARDIS.]

Yeah, I s'pose we should get right down to it, 'cause it won't do either of us any good t'beat around the bush. I'm very clever, an' you don't seem particularly confident that she's here, so. What don't I know?