[video]

[guitar_hero]

[he is sitting in what very much looks like the office of some laid back lecturer with a helpful globe on the desk, though it looks wrong as things keep shifting around, as well as pictures on the desk, shaping away from the camera]

Right so. I lied. I am not Joe Cool. Yes everyone who guessed right gets a cookie and a nice pat yourself on the back for being so clever. Go ahead. I don't mind. Over yourselves? Excellent.

I am the Doctor. There is another man who calls himself the Doctor and he is, in fact, me. You could ask but you'd be wasting your breath. Just don't question it and learn to live a little. Or alternatively ask someone who knows me and see what they will tell you.

Anyway, point is, I am here to help. So if there is something pressing I do have office hours posted outside the big blue police box. Please fill out your name and approximate time of the meeting. Don't hold your breath on the weekends however. If there is an emergency well. I'll find it. Believe me I always do.

However, if you are currently mad at me, that is to say, the Doctor. And by mad I mean furious, angry, want to maim or otherwise want to vent problematic elements of our current relationship, please come and see me and get it out of your system. I am the up to date operating system as it were and the other is still getting the bugs cleared out. But since I was him I can be blamed for all the himming he does.

If you vent your spleen at him instead, I shall be very cross. It's not all that easy keeping ourselves together, you know, especially when there is more than one of me in the same room so, angry as you may be, have consideration.

Anyway! [he drums his hands against the table] That's all I had to say. Staff meeting at ten. Tea at eleven. Twelve is when the fun starts. Oh, and if you know of any good indoor ice skating rinks, let me know. Provided we don't all drown in buckets of angst, it might be fun to get some lead out if you know what I mean.

Comments

Flips it to private.

[im_with_stupid]

"Alright, any help you can give me towards helping other you would be...." [she trailed off and made a face.] "So... ice skating then? Mood you're in, the both of you, you really think strapping blades to your feet is such a great idea?" [she teased with a hint of a grin.]

Flips it to private.

[guitar_hero]

No idea. If I knew that I'd tell you. If I could make it any better I would. But I am up a creek with no paddles and not even a canoe with a waterfall ahead. [hopeless shrug]

It's not so much violence as he'll just puddle right on the ice in a fit of depression so... I'm not really counting on it being a [airquotes] "thing". But maybe for the rest of us.

Re: Flips it to private.

[im_with_stupid]

"Well, you and me, we'll figure it out. What do you know? We'll work from there. And if we can't find a paddle, we'll just have to learn to fly."

"I was more afraid of him calculating how many times he needs to skata an exact circle to break through the ice. Course, with our luck, that'll be because there is something trapped under there. Yet another beast below to save."

Flips it to private.

[guitar_hero]

Listen it's a very long and complicated story. You just be you and try not to worry about it too much. It will fix itself in time. [a lie but there are too many cooks in the kitchen already

He does chuckle a bit ruefully at that morbid thought but hopes it never goes that far]

I was thinking he'd end up face down on the ice and end up a tripping hazard for others.

[though that metaphor may be a bit too on the nose for his liking]

[Action]

[bigbadrose]

[She doesn't know whether to laugh, or cry, just goes to find him in person.]

What happened?

[Action]

[guitar_hero]

[he spins a bit on his spinny chair and regards her, wondering if he should place the pictures flat but decides to leave them up. There is River as she was and Susan as she used to be. He hadn't the hearts to root out Alexander though he must be somewhere in the TARDiSes visual database. She could think of it as she wanted and if she asked why she wasn't there, well, she was right in front of him.]

To put it bluntly, younger me is having a whopper of an existential meltdown and cracking under the pressure of too much relationship drama and enough guilt to make ears me look positively optimistic. [he scratches the lobe of his ear absently with the eraser part of a pencil]

I've no idea what to do about it or how to fix it except by this. Which is probably akin to pissing into the wind but... [he shakes his head] What else can I do?

[Action]

[bigbadrose]

[Rose double face palmed.]

[She shouldn't have come.]

[She should have stayed away.]

[Gotten a hotel.]

[Anything else.]

[What was she supposed to do?]

[The TARDIS gently chided her.]

[She reluctantly took her hands down.]

Last conversation I had with him, I tried to escape. To get out. He told me he loved me the same as Martha.

I wasn't very nice about it.

[DEEP BREATH.]

[She doesn't want to do this but fuck it. Seriously. THINGS CAN GET WORSE, BUT PROBABLY MORE IF THEY DON'T GET THIS STUPIDITY OUT OF THE WAY.}

Talked to Jack about your face.

Did you know? About... why it bugs him? About what happened to end Torchwood in your universe? [Not her universe anymore. Was Pete's Universe hers? Could she ever accept even the idea of that?]

I'd owe you a punch for leaving him as a fixed point, since originally I was going to let that out on your younger self, but since you want to take responsibility for him... only I'm also too numb and angry to do anything about it. Besides I'm sure the words will cause you anguish enough.

[Sits on the desk and looks at the pictures. River Song, for sure... and... granddaughter? Which just makes her ache for Steven, and Jack, and want to punch the Doctor that they abandoned Jack, that he had to face it all alone, without even the two best friends who made him that way.]

[Rose just looks sadly at it, and then back to the Doctor.]

We abandoned Jack. He needed friends. Needed help, and we weren't there for him. Have you looked him up at all?

Your younger self said loves Jack like me and Martha.

[Does he really know what love is?]

[She gently traces the outline of River's curly hair, and back up to peer at the grey haired Doctor.]

Amy said you married Cleopatra, and so did River Song. [Sets her jaw.]

Are you going to tell me you loved them the same as Renneitte and me?

[Draws circles with her finger on the desktop.] I told your younger self he didn't stand a chance with me. Not to waste his chance with Martha. I guess I broke him.

[She meant to say sorry. But she wasn't. She simply wasn't. What did he think was going to happen? That they'd all... what? Play house? She told him she loved him, and his response was that everything ended, and he loved Martha as much as he loved Rose. Woot.]

[She could laugh at it. Almost.]

[It was just so...]

[Stupid.]

Amy said River has a lot of different... marriages. At one time. [Eye roll.]

Thing is yeah? No, it really does insult me. Because I remember how jealous you were. I remember how you wouldn't let me dance with Jack. And good for you growin' up. But he, your younger self, is just delusional if he thinks he can just...

[Throws her hands in the air in exasperation.] I told him what I told you. That I'm the best, and I'm not wastin' my time, no, not even here with someone who doesn't get that. Who doesn't put in his all. Who's got one foot out the door, thinkin' that little moments or just me isn't enough.

I never asked for you to be human. [Steady look at at him.] And I don't want you to be. And I am a little upset that you forced me to choose. Made it act like there even was a choice. [Understatement of the century. She was only JUST BARELY beginning to cool off.] But I'm mostly mad that you hated yourself more than you loved me. And I don't know how to tell him that. Because you have to be the best to be with me, because I am the best. I'm not ever going to settle. And if he thinks I'm on the same with Martha and Jack...

[She closes her eyes again.]

[What can she say? He's an idiot.]

I don't know what to tell you, but I figure you should hear it from the bad wolf's mouth, yeah?

video;

[stairsbro]

But if you're you and he's you, then who is flying the plane?

video;

[guitar_hero]

The plane... flies itself. [makes the expanding 'mind blown!' gesture]

video;

[stairsbro]

Is it also you?

video;

[ivegotadream]

I don't think I have a reason to be mad at you.

[Even if the name thing wasn't true, but she paused for a moment.]

I am not mad at either of you, though I don't think I've met the other, so... no anger here.

video;

[guitar_hero]

Well that's good to know. Might change. Tends to do so. We seem to make more enemies than friends. Just the nature of what happens when you go around and meddle in everything, I suppose.

video;

[ivegotadream]

Do you make more enemies than friends or we as in people in general?

[video]

[mira_strauss]

[Well... that was certainly a lot of information that probably didn't apply to her in any way whatsoever. Should she even bother asking? No, probably not.]

So... are you a police man?

[He did mention a big blue police box and office hours... he could be a detective of some sort, and if she was going to be living here she should try to get to know the local law enforcement, right? Well, even if he wasn't, meeting new people wasn't a bad thing.]

A police doctor perhaps?

[Did the police usually need their own physicians?]

[video]

[guitar_hero]

No it just looks like a police box. I am not a doctor but the Doctor. The definite article as they say. The oncoming storm. The one with really screwed up priorities that nevertheless manages to get the job done sixty-six times out of a hundred.

[he equivocates a bit]

Well let's make it seventy-five. Though if was completely honest it would be a hundred and ten but there is some small margin of error.

[video]

[mira_strauss]

You're very... odd.

[She would say he sounds eccentric bordering on the point of insanity, but odd just seems like the more polite thing to call him.]

What exactly is the job you get done?

[Action]

[captainspain]

[Jack would have laughed his ass off, but this is not a conversation he wants to have in public or on video. So here he was leaning against the door jam not quite looking at this Doctor.]

Helping huh?

[Action]

[guitar_hero]

Best I can.

[he's surprised and not surprised to see him here, taking a deep mental breath to prepare himself. Jack still feels a little strange to him. Like a grain of sand right in the corner of his eye. But it's strangely muted. Thankfully]

Have a seat. Have some drinks in that cabinet if you want it. Don't usually go at it but it's nice to set a scene once in a while.

Re: [Action]

[captainspain]

{Jack enters the room and pulls a chair out turning it around and sitting in it. He's tempted to have a drink, but knows he needs to be sober for this. He gives this Doctor a hard look.]

And is it working Doctor because from where I'm sitting I'd say no.

Video; Private

[clevermind]

Excuse me. I don't know why you are angry with him but that Doctor is my friend and if he is younger than you then you should help guide him. Not be cross with him.

[Her voice his tense despite the kindness to her mannerisms.]

Video; Private

[guitar_hero]

Oh no. Look don't do this. Don't think you know everything there is to know about the situation and tell me how to do it, because you don't. Trust me. It's a very complicated thing and you can't guide me you can only hope I end up alright which is not only guaranteed.

[and he's also not going to argue with you about himself because honestly. No. On so many levels. And also he was cleaning up the mess that that face had done, will do, will have done, which is also this face's fault so he's less inclined to be civil. Though all things considered he had been and was being pretty nice to Twiggy.]

Just stay out of my business, alright?

Video; Private

[clevermind]

I never claimed to know all of the details and I won't ask what they are but I can't do nothing. He's my friend.

[She's stubbornly kind.]

[Video]

[notquitedracula]

Heh. I know how that can be. Even if the weird reincarnation involved is different for you than for me.

At least neither of you is actively waging war on man and God alike?

I don't know any ice rinks here, but there's a damn fine tea shop down in Genessia City proper that does themed days and takeout.

[Video]

[guitar_hero]

Who says we're not. I mean man probably not, they don't stand a chance. But God or Gods? Been there, done that. Got a rather nice shirt out of it as they say.

And who hears the word ice rink and suggests tea shop instead. Those are two wildly different activities except in the Ceta Cluster but they're a little backwards from generations of neurotoxin pumping into their atmosphere. It's a thing. Anyway give me an activity. Something to stir the blood and things of that nature. Not sitting down and having polite conversation over a cuppa. ...Unless it's a rave tea shop which would be interesting.

[Video]

[notquitedracula]

To each his own. [He shrugs; he's... kinda jaded right now, about the whole situation.] Just don't bring your war here and we're fine.

You want activity? Try Holodeck'd. Set up whatever scenario you want and act it out, hard light holography and all. Or there's always the go-to around here, ask someone for a sparring session. Superbeings and demigods abound, if that's your poison, or there are some really good mortal athletes of varying shades. And I hear there's an action science league that's doing weird things with mecha and soccer trying to get up enough players for even teams.

I think I remember something in their menu about a rave night sometime next week, actually. Like I said, themed days.