or_timelords: (Default)
or_timelords ([personal profile] or_timelords) wrote2008-12-19 09:34 pm

This could prove to be interesting.

from [livejournal.com profile] laser_not_sonic

If you woke up one morning and found me in your bed, what's the first thing you'd think or say?

[identity profile] watch-is-me.livejournal.com 2008-12-22 06:13 pm (UTC)(link)
[Right. So this isn't the other-Doctor he knows. This is...someone else. Another alternate, another Doctor. In his bed. That makes absolutely no sense.]

What?

[His turn for total loss in this conversation.]

[identity profile] watch-is-me.livejournal.com 2008-12-22 06:36 pm (UTC)(link)
[The Doctor is very glad he can't read narration right now. "Creepy" is not high on his list of "First Impressions I Like to Make on Myself."]

[He sits up in bed, arm resting on one knee, watching the other Time Lord curiously, a bit wary but...this is another him. He's not worried, just puzzled.]

The TARDIS. Well. My TARDIS.

I'm the Doctor. [Because apparently he has to say this. Really, his identity should be obvious to his other self. He's never thought of the possibility that another Time Lord might mistake him for the Master. See similarities between him and the Master, yes—but not mistake him entirely. So he hasn't put two-and-two together yet, figured out why his other had to ask his identity.]

[identity profile] watch-is-me.livejournal.com 2008-12-22 07:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Mm, nope. [And he really shouldn't be amused by this situation but, um, he is. Because he's not met a version of himself that hasn't met other versions of himself before, so getting a reaction like this is rather novel. Though it doesn't explain why this other Doctor appeared in his bed.]

[He runs a hand through his hair and concludes that, yeah, he's awake enough now to get out of bed. So he does so, snagging his pants from where they're hanging over the ichtyosaurus' spine and hopping into them.] We're in the multiverse. Well, I call it the multiverse. Nexus, hub, rabbit hole, it's semantics, really. No paradox, absolutely none, it's the only impossible thing here, that's the fantastic bit.

Doesn't explain what you're doing in my TARDIS, though. [And you really don't know, either?, his expression asks.]

[identity profile] watch-is-me.livejournal.com 2008-12-22 10:28 pm (UTC)(link)
[The bit about other people waking up in your bed is actually a Rather Good Point. He frowns and rubs the back of his head as he considers that.] Well, macro-level physics holds, it's just...partial. It plays by the house rules, to each his own. My TARDIS, my physics. Except for you, you're your own physics, but that doesn't cancel out my physics, so no paradox, it's all a bit...

[Oh, hey, his other's leaving. Something about clothes. Well, speaking of which, he's still standing about in just his trousers. He snatches his jumper and jacket from the ichthyosaurus and pulls them on as he heads out after his other, still barefoot.]

Wardrobe's that way. [Not the way his other's going, where's he heading?]

[identity profile] watch-is-me.livejournal.com 2008-12-22 11:17 pm (UTC)(link)
You'd know as well as me. [He grins at his other, reflexively, but the expression dies quickly. This could all be a lark, a new problem to solve—with himself, of all people—and the last time he worked with himself, together they'd saved a life that had been nothing but dust and memory—but something's wrong. His other—it's not panic, but it's like he's trying to run by everything around him so fast he won't see it through the blur. The Doctor knows running, knows why they do it. There's something here his other doesn't want to stop and think about.]

[It started the moment his other saw him.]

Yeah, that way. Second left after the calender room, three doors down, past the armor—[OI, that won't help]—armoire. The armoire room. Past that.

[If his other heads off in that direction, he'll follow, but at a distance. To see if that makes a difference.]

[identity profile] watch-is-me.livejournal.com 2008-12-23 04:04 am (UTC)(link)
[Well, it is; but the lock's isomorphic, so it responds to the other Doctor's touch after only a moment's hesitation. The TARDIS knows something's wrong—but the DNA's a match, a closer match then even her own Doctor's now (these days, his own's a touch off, contaminated by pieces of her she let slip into him, when she remade him), so what can she do?]

[The Doctor in black turns the corner just as the door's sliding back.]

Oi, no! Don't touch that!

[And he starts running down the hallway, which won't help, because there's no way he can get there to close it in time and running really lets the cat out of the bag, but he has to try anyway.]

[The door, meanwhile, will be opening on a small room—a glorified walk-in closet, really, it's nothing compared to some of the TARDIS' rooms. Hooks and straps and magnetic clamps cover three of its walls—all securing guns, from a wide range of times and places, some of them nothing a 21st-century human would even recognize as a weapon. They have one thing in common—none of them are light arms. They're designed for going up against armored opponents; a few could even take out tanks or small spacecraft. A worktable stands against the fourth wall, with tools hanging on a retro 21st-century pegboard above it.]

[Oh, the guns have something else in common.]

[They're perfectly maintained. Not as display pieces, but for use. Which, judging by the lack of dust and tell-tale wear, many of them have seen. Some of them quite recently.]

[identity profile] watch-is-me.livejournal.com 2008-12-23 04:55 am (UTC)(link)
[Ever since he arrived in the multiverse and discovered how very different his life has been, his choices, from the lives and choices of his others, he's known that there were parts of himself he could never show them. Just as there are parts of themselves the other Doctors hide away from their companions, their friends. The mistakes, the destruction, the hurt. Those pieces of the self that cut and wear, that might make others shun them.]

[Two other Doctors know about the choice he made on the Game Station. None of them know about the armory.]

[He stands in the doorway, one hand resting on the frame. The other Doctor's anger is terrible and fascinating—because it's his anger, an anger he's felt and used and been driven by but never seen. It looks the way it feels, even when it's coming from a version of him in pajamas. Hard. Distant yet precisely, needle-sharp present. Certain.]

[He's fairly certain he's looked like that when he's killed.]

Because they're necessary. Because the Daleks survived the War. Doctor.

[His tone isn't defensive or angry. It's a statement of fact, tinged with slight challenge. It's tempting to be defensive, but why? This is him, as much as the outrage in his other's face is his other's. This is what he and his universe have made of each other.]

[identity profile] watch-is-me.livejournal.com 2008-12-23 05:36 am (UTC)(link)
[He doesn't back down, his own eyes as dark and old and challenging as the other Doctor's, anger held back but ready to snap forward at any moment. A constant anger, perhaps unlike his other's. An anger that never leaves, never since the War. Never since the drums.]

Well, I'll tell you what I've learned when the War's over. Properly over, that is.

[He tips his head, from where he's now leaning against the doorway, indicating the hallway.]

C'mon, you'll want your suit and that coat.

[And he wants to get him out of here before he lets himself get angry or defensive, too.]

[identity profile] watch-is-me.livejournal.com 2008-12-23 06:25 am (UTC)(link)
[This Doctor knows the weight's there. It reminds him, every moment of every day, tapping on his shoulder—1-2-3-4. Once in a very great while, it quiets, or he almost forgets—and in those moments, he can feel the man he's supposed to be, the man standing in front of him now, his Tenth, free of his Ninth, free(r) of the War.]

[He rubs at one eye, his version of something like a sigh. He hadn't wanted to get into this, but he can never seem to avoid it. Right now, they're talking at cross-purposes, and that won't change unless he explains.]

You're right. Everybody died. [He doesn't want to do this, he doesn't want to think about this again, it brings it up fresh every time, but...]

[He pushes off from the doorframe and stands straight.] Let me show you something. [And he raises his hands, reaching for the other Time Lord's temples, but not touching, not yet. He's waiting for permission.]

[identity profile] watch-is-me.livejournal.com 2008-12-23 05:10 pm (UTC)(link)
[Alright. A deep breath, as he closes his own eyes and puts his hands on his other self's temples, and then he opens contact. If he could, he would muffle the drums; but they're beyond his control, and in telepathic rapport like this, unavoidable—as much a part of him as the memories he shares.]

[He lets his own shields down fully, too; if the other Doctor pries too closely into sensitive areas, he may pull back, try to shield, but for the moment, he'll let him see whatever he needs to, to understand the differences between them.

There's the Time War, the end of it, that choice and that burden, a common point between them, as is much of the history that goes before. Beyond that...everything starts to come apart.

No companions, for years following the Time War. Loneliness and anger and remembering the man he was, before the war, and searching for that man, across all of time and space. A restlessness, a scratching pressure at the back of his mind, that wasn't the drums yet but that would grow into them. No rest, no peace, no reasons, and no explanations. The last Dalek, and destroying it, and still finding no peace, though that may have been the first day of the drums. He can't remember; he isn't certain. They crept up, somehow, until they were a part of him and it's hard to know when they purred up from silence to thunder.

The Game Station. Jack, but no Rose. A choice. The same choice. Again.

And he chose killer.

Waking up after, as a new man. The rush of that, because, really, his Tenth is all about the rush, the wonder, the brilliant run from sight to sight, experience to experience, and, in the post-regenerative haze, in those first few moments, he hadn't had the memories to mar that outlook.

Coming awake properly, and wandering the station. No bodies, only gray dust; and he couldn't remember who he was or what had happened. The Earth below, gray clouds like duststorms continents wide and no green anywhere, and he'd known that wasn't right. Daleks, unmoving, dust pouring out through their casings, and that had stirred memories.

He hadn't wanted them back.

There was no point in changing his clothing, the way he usually did on regeneration. He was the same man. He had made the same choice. The new personality fought this, but he knew he was right. The personality was wrong. It hurt him. It wanted to reach out, to show off, to laugh and run and share the brilliant universe with friends. With humanity. It wanted to be close. It wanted to forgive.

More running, and discovering that some of the Daleks had still survived. Hunting them, always. Killing them without mercy and with cold-hot satisfaction.

Becoming the hunted, when the Family of Blood caught his scent. Using the Chameleon Arch to escape, leaving his human half back in the 20th century (and John Smith still lives, still human, still separate, a man who chose to go to the Great War, a shame) and the watch, himself, his Time Lord self, in the TARDIS.

Centuries of imprisonment. Until the TARDIS pulled him out of the watch and remade him, gave him the body he wears now, his Tenth recreated, right down to the Gallifreyan mark of exile on his arm. Gave him a second chance.

Resentment and gratitude and surprise and...something like humility. He hadn't even thought...Had never expected her to
save him.

A new depth of connection with her, another change to get used to, another shift of self.

Like the drums. Which were constant now, loud and always and driving.

More hunting, and more exploring, and more anger, until...here.

The multiverse.

Learning how life had gone, for his others, in their universes. Learning what the drums meant to them. Gaining the first companion he's had since the War, Astrid, saved from her stardust existence by himself and one of his other's.

She's not even from his universe; he never met her, when she lived. Never saved the
Titanic and failed to save her. She's stolen, and he doesn't understand their relationship, it's moving too fast, there's something wrong with it, but it's something. Perhaps it's a start.]

[identity profile] watch-is-me.livejournal.com 2008-12-23 05:10 pm (UTC)(link)
[There's more. Memories of hunts and of agreements struck with the remnants of a sentient star, light in his eyes and his own voice inviting others to burn with him and the screaming of Daleks as they steam to death in their metal carapaces. Errors made, and casualties. The few times he's let others die because it was for the greater good, and there was no way to save them and keep the exterminators from escaping, as well. The drums, everywhere. Long hours in his laboratories, the medical bay, trying to explain them away. No luck. Days spent in the rebuilt Zero Room and still no silence. Wondering if he's more a new man than he's ever been, and if there's any way to find his way back.]

[...He'll ask, if he can, to look into his other's mind. A mental question. He wants to see if there's anything, anything at all, of the man he is now in his other. If the drums are there, even the slightest echo of them, in any moment.

He won't admit it to himself, but he also just wants to see. The good memories. The Earth still whole, and the friends. Things going right and wrong, but right more often than wrong.]

[identity profile] watch-is-me.livejournal.com 2008-12-23 09:10 pm (UTC)(link)
[He's been in contact with another Doctor-who-had-Rose before, so he knows something of what he'll find. The quiet. The running and laughter and the tragedies, the friends lost and hurt, both unintentionally and because it had to be done. Memories taken away, so that they might survive.

Such regret. Over such small things. Things that had to be done.

But he understands that, the regret. It doesn't hurt him.

The love does. The true friends.

Those memories, he touches lightly, hesitantly, as though they might burn—or as though they might hypnotize, a moth drawn into the flame. If he looks too hard, he might never look away. He might try to take, and they're nothing that can be taken. They're the wake of time, the marks of events long since past, never to be relived.

He tries not to see, as he searches. He tries just to listen. To the quiet, though no matter how far into his other's mind he goes, his own drums still follow him, a mental pulse like the beating of his hearts.

He listens for an echo. Any echo, in any memory.

Goes far, far back. Back to when the Master—when Koschei—says his began. When they were very, very young.

There are differences there, between them, in the far past just as there are in the recent past, and those surprise him.

But there are no drums. Anywhere.

He's alone.

When he pulls back, into his own mind, he brushes by certain memories a second time. The Daleks, New York, the other helping them, even though they'd killed so many human beings. He can't understand; there were only four of them, then, it could have been
over, and instead his other helped.

The
Titanic. Astrid, every memory he can find. Turning them over, because she expects him to understand, to have shared those experiences, and he doesn't. They're secondhand to him, and they always will be.

Davros. The beach. The metacrisis.

A decision he approves of, and his other doesn't.

His other's response to that decision.

Too dangerous to be left on his own. Born in battle, full of blood and anger and revenge.

And that is what he hates, about being around his others. The shame. Knowing that that is how they see him.

Knowing that that is how some part of him, under the drums, sees himself.

He lingers, one last moment, in the quiet, and then snaps back into his own mind.]


[It feels wrong, and right. It feels dark, like entering a building after hours out in the sunlight. He'll adjust. He's adjusted before.]

[The drums grind away some of the shame, as he opens his eyes. Help. He should let his other help. He should say yes. He should.]

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