or_timelords (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
or_timelords) wrote2009-08-18 05:28 pm
or_timelords) wrote2009-08-18 05:28 pm
Entry tags:
Welcome to the City
Following the parlor thread.
When he steps out of the small room where he met the Stranger, any doubts the Doctor might still have harbored as to his change of location are dispelled--this is definitely not the Kerploxian temple district, or, for that matter, any other district or town familiar to the Doctor. Also, it feels different--in the presence of the Oracle, the Doctor's time sense had been a bit shrouded, but out here, he can very definitely feel the flux of an unfamiliar Vortex all around him. This is not his own universe.
The streets of the city are deserted; night is about to fall, and the Doctor can neither hear nor see any signs of life. The area he's in reminds him of the London Docks in the 1970s, after the trade had moved to the bigger ports closer to the sea and before the redevelopment had taken foot. It's not a very welcoming atmosphere, so the Doctor doesn't spend much time exploring, but, after half-heartedly poking around in a couple of side-streets and startling a group of stray cats, makes his way to what the directions on the Stranger's business card call the "Upright Compound". Aside from the unsettling atmosphere in the rapidly darkening streets, there's another reason for his hurry: the steady buzz of the TARDIS' presence in the back of his mind, and his awareness that if this is a different universe, the effects of the foreign Vortex on her structural integrity will be unpredictable.
Finally, he turns a corner and finds himself facing a large building, five stories high, looking like a mixture between an office building and apartment housing. True to the Stranger's words, the Doctor's Three-of-Swords tarot card gets him in through the big glass entrance doors; once inside the deserted lobby, he stops to look around, expressing curiosity and skepticism to about equal amounts. His attention is quickly caught by the row of mailboxes mounted on one of the walls. As expected, most of the names he doesn't recognize--he pauses at the name tag saying Gwen Cooper; it takes him a moment to remember her as the competent young woman on Jack's Torchwood team--but then he spots the mailbox designated to belong to Harold Saxon, and hesitates. This shouldn't come as a surprise; after all, the Stranger told him that he would find the Master here. Finally, the Doctor reaches into his pocket and, after some digging, comes up with one of his old calling cards. Consulting the business card once again, he scribbles his room number on the back, and drops the calling card into the Master's mailbox. Better to take away the element of surprise. On both sides.
Having deigned the rest of the lobby's interiors of little interest, at least presently, the Doctor climbs the stairs to the forth floor, anxious to find out what the Stranger's Powers that Be have done to the TARDIS. He doesn't meet anyone, although he can hear people when he passes the other floors; obviously the building isn't as deserted as it seems. Upon entering his room, he's confused for a moment--he can feel the TARDIS' presence, but unless she's stored away in the walk-in closet, she's not here--but then spots the watch lying on top of one of the dressers.
He picks it up and turns it in his hands. A watch. Not the TARDIS, turned into a watch; he can tell as much from brushing his fingers over the cool metal. Part of him thinks that this shouldn't be a surprise; an interuniversal focal point being pretty much the only way a TARDIS can enter a different universe at all, but that rational train of thought is mostly overshadowed by anger. The TARDIS might have entered this state of existence voluntarily, but knowing his TARDIS, the Doctor is pretty sure that she didn't. It's one thing to abduct him and cast him into a different universe; it's another to mess with his TARDIS' spacetime manifestation. Those mysterious Powers that Be will have a lot to answer to, once the Doctor manages to get through to them.
He slips the watch into the same pocket in which he keeps his sonic screwdriver--in his jacket rather than his coat; it wouldn't do to lose the watch, not at all--and, after a preliminary check of his room (there's a laptop, the Doctor notes with interest, despite this being the "magical" compound), he returns to the compound's lobby. He heard people talking before; time to make his introductions.
When he steps out of the small room where he met the Stranger, any doubts the Doctor might still have harbored as to his change of location are dispelled--this is definitely not the Kerploxian temple district, or, for that matter, any other district or town familiar to the Doctor. Also, it feels different--in the presence of the Oracle, the Doctor's time sense had been a bit shrouded, but out here, he can very definitely feel the flux of an unfamiliar Vortex all around him. This is not his own universe.
The streets of the city are deserted; night is about to fall, and the Doctor can neither hear nor see any signs of life. The area he's in reminds him of the London Docks in the 1970s, after the trade had moved to the bigger ports closer to the sea and before the redevelopment had taken foot. It's not a very welcoming atmosphere, so the Doctor doesn't spend much time exploring, but, after half-heartedly poking around in a couple of side-streets and startling a group of stray cats, makes his way to what the directions on the Stranger's business card call the "Upright Compound". Aside from the unsettling atmosphere in the rapidly darkening streets, there's another reason for his hurry: the steady buzz of the TARDIS' presence in the back of his mind, and his awareness that if this is a different universe, the effects of the foreign Vortex on her structural integrity will be unpredictable.
Finally, he turns a corner and finds himself facing a large building, five stories high, looking like a mixture between an office building and apartment housing. True to the Stranger's words, the Doctor's Three-of-Swords tarot card gets him in through the big glass entrance doors; once inside the deserted lobby, he stops to look around, expressing curiosity and skepticism to about equal amounts. His attention is quickly caught by the row of mailboxes mounted on one of the walls. As expected, most of the names he doesn't recognize--he pauses at the name tag saying Gwen Cooper; it takes him a moment to remember her as the competent young woman on Jack's Torchwood team--but then he spots the mailbox designated to belong to Harold Saxon, and hesitates. This shouldn't come as a surprise; after all, the Stranger told him that he would find the Master here. Finally, the Doctor reaches into his pocket and, after some digging, comes up with one of his old calling cards. Consulting the business card once again, he scribbles his room number on the back, and drops the calling card into the Master's mailbox. Better to take away the element of surprise. On both sides.
Having deigned the rest of the lobby's interiors of little interest, at least presently, the Doctor climbs the stairs to the forth floor, anxious to find out what the Stranger's Powers that Be have done to the TARDIS. He doesn't meet anyone, although he can hear people when he passes the other floors; obviously the building isn't as deserted as it seems. Upon entering his room, he's confused for a moment--he can feel the TARDIS' presence, but unless she's stored away in the walk-in closet, she's not here--but then spots the watch lying on top of one of the dressers.
He picks it up and turns it in his hands. A watch. Not the TARDIS, turned into a watch; he can tell as much from brushing his fingers over the cool metal. Part of him thinks that this shouldn't be a surprise; an interuniversal focal point being pretty much the only way a TARDIS can enter a different universe at all, but that rational train of thought is mostly overshadowed by anger. The TARDIS might have entered this state of existence voluntarily, but knowing his TARDIS, the Doctor is pretty sure that she didn't. It's one thing to abduct him and cast him into a different universe; it's another to mess with his TARDIS' spacetime manifestation. Those mysterious Powers that Be will have a lot to answer to, once the Doctor manages to get through to them.
He slips the watch into the same pocket in which he keeps his sonic screwdriver--in his jacket rather than his coat; it wouldn't do to lose the watch, not at all--and, after a preliminary check of his room (there's a laptop, the Doctor notes with interest, despite this being the "magical" compound), he returns to the compound's lobby. He heard people talking before; time to make his introductions.