It's Been a Long Couple of Weeks...

[notthedoctor]

First there were dinosaurs. Which chased me everywhere including up a tree. A sonic screwdriver is not a good defence against dinosaurs from a bad film.

Then there were crates upon crates of meat that wanted to kill me. Do you remember the flock of dead and headless pack of plucked ducks that followed me everywhere with their soy sauce? I do. They had a bed of rice waiting for me somewhere I tell you!

After that, the air turned to acidic poison, and I started dying. Do you know how scary that is for someone with only one life? I don't regenerate like the Doctor.

Now we're about to arrive in Silent Hill?

I still have the Torchwood SUV keys! Jack is going to be furious if I ever make it back to Pete's World. How was I supposed to know the one time I took it without having my, what did he call it, driver's licence?... that I would get kidnapped? I can drive a TARDIS. Why would I need a human driver's licence? What about Ianto's coffee he asked me to pick up? What is Owen going to do without me to herd him home or bail him out? What about Gwen and Toshiko? They have to miss me back home. Rose and I broke up, but she has to know I'm gone!

Comments

[justthedoctor]

[He goves a rather amused quirk of the brow at the mention of dinosaurs.

And then looks a little more amused, and a little confused at crates of murderous meat?

And then just laughs right out loud at the thougt of uncooked processed birds chasing him around with little cups of sweet and sour sauce clutched in their naked wings. Waddle waddle waddle.]

Wouldn't it be a flock? And...yeah, poison gas and zombie towns aside, how does any of that not sound like a normal day when you're one of us? [He jokes because he cares, really! Mostly.]

[notthedoctor]

[that's pretty much what it was. About fifteen plucked and processed ducks chasing the metacrisis round the Charon with packets of soy sauce. These are the moments it doesn't pay to be the metacrisis of the Doctor who doesn't believe in weapons.]

[Theta himself looks thoughtful at the question, scratching the back of his head in a Tennish gesture.]

I suppose you're right. It would be a flock. I didn't think about that. They were rather driven at the time!

[a quiet shrug with a bit of a smile is the best he can give. he's getting closer to death, and it isn't a happy sensation when he doesn't have a regeneration to back him up.]

One of us can regenerate. One of us can't. I'm doing the best I can, Doctor. I promise.

[justthedoctor]

[Probably best he wasn't there, then. They might have nabbed him because he was laughing too hard to run.]

Well, did you all get a nice dinner out of it once they were stopped? Peking Duck. Mmmm.

[His smile softens, at least, at the sadness coming from the other, and he shakes his head gently.]

I don't expect any less of you, I promise. I know you'll be fine. And I would say you're lucky for the one life, but...I do remember how strong your-our-will to live is with that face.

[Not that he doesn't want to live, even if sometimes it's true. There was just such a very strong survival instinct that came with that life. Fighting all the way until the very end.]

[notthedoctor]

No, I didn't. Eliot or Wesley killed them before he shot me.

[Theta's hand found his shoulder where the fading scar from that gunshot was. Wesley was a hell of a shot, but he had been careless that time.

Then why do you dislike me so much?

[That's what he doesn't understand, why the Doctor who looks like this one doesn't like him. Is it because of Ten's fears that another man would get up and walk away? Is he a ghost? What?]

I've tried. I did, Doctor. I keep trying but failing.

[His Doctor remains distant, striking down Theta if he speaks against Rory or does something he doesn't approve of. Theta can only guess anymore, trying to gain kindness.]

I want to live, Doctor. I want to be more.

[justthedoctor]

Wait, shot you??? [He looks absolutely offended!

And then honestly surprised. And worried. Almost like a parent who's own kid asked the very same question.]

Whoever said I dislike you??? Me and my past face may grump at each other, but we don't really mean anything by it, and you're not my past face. You just...wear it. And remember the same things as I did. [Oh, now the explanation is starting to go in circles. He visibly rethinks all of that with a bit of confusion.]

[But then the self-doubt from the other pulls a sad look from him, and he moves in to hug the other. Nope. Not even he is safe from hugs.]

Then you keep trying, and I know you will! You got me and Donna all mixed up in your head, you've got to be as tenacious as a pit bull! But failing doesn't mean you're a failure, if that's what you're worried about. You know as well as I do if it weren't for my friends, not even I would have succeeded near as often as I have.

[Maybe it's a difference between the Universes he and Theta's Doctor were pulled from. He's already seen so many different versions of himself and of others, it's become obvious no two are exactly alike. But he can't fathom hating Theta. He hates himself, yes, but Thera isn't really him, is he? Same as the Flesh weren't the same as the Humans and Jenny wasn't the same as he was, either. Theta simply has the unfortunate misfortune of having been "born" with his memories rattling around in his head.]

(Wow *facepalm* at 2 am, that came out a whole lot more dramatic than what I intended)

[notthedoctor]

Winged me might be a better way to put it.

[Seriously, when Wesley starts doing his bullet bending thing, Theta has decided that he is going to find the nearest piece of flooring and stay there. It's amazing to watch but trying to avoid them is a lot like, well, dodging bullets. That one can never predict the path of.]

[As much as he likes hugs, being hugged by Eleven is a moment where he has to make sure he didn't slip into another alternate universe. Those things were always waiting to swallow people up. Why couldn't someone clean those things up? Other realities aside, he's not quite sure what to say. Usually he's the one doing the pep talk thing to others. Circle of life and all.]

Are you a pod person? They were in this one movie Rose made me watch with her, and they looked just like the real person. It was dull but there was popcorn.

[Openly suspicious of you there, Doctor.]

LOL! Well hey, at least it had the benefit of giving us a moment of schadenfreude at their expense?

[justthedoctor]

They need to be more careful! Seriously, what would they have done if you'd gotten seriously hurt???

[No, he's not fussing now. What gives you that idea? It's not like he mother-hens everyone he meets, not at all.

He pulls back in slight surprise at the question, looking at him as if Theta is the one who grew a second head.]

A Pod Person. Why would I be a Pod Person??? Blimey, one of me is bad enough as it is!

[justthedoctor]

Yeaaaah no, not a Pod person. I just apperently have no sense of personal space after I regenerate into him.

Back up, you oaf, you're scaring children and small animals.

[justthedoctor]

What???

[Oh. He looks at Theta and seems to realize what he's doing and steps back a bit, looking a little sheepish.] Ah. Yeah. Sor-Hey! I am not an oaf!

[justthedoctor]

The point still stands.

[notthedoctor]

I would have died.

[It's as simple and as plain as that. His single heart would have stopped and stayed still. The only other person who could speak Gallifreyan or whisper of memories from that long ago destroyed world would have become another memory among thousands of others.]

[At the pull back, the half-breed's confusion only grew with the suspicion. The Doctor hadn't greeted him with a hug, was still standoffish.]

No sense that tweed isn't stylish either.

[He's so confused, but it's not surprising since he's dying in inches instead of at once. It's the nature of where he is, what happens to a human body after breathing and living in acid filled air and running into acid rain to help save another.]

I did the best I could.

[If he's speaking to Ten or Eleven or simply the Doctor he has is anyone's guess.]