gotosleep_idiot | Mata Test Drive Memerz

The Doctor, somewhat forgetting that most people would consider his face new or different (he's had it for billions of years now), grins at the young blonde.

"Rose!"

And he jumps right in, because why wouldn't she be able to keep up? But his words aren't the 'excited puppy dog' speed that she might be used to with the other versions of him she's travelled. They're more measured. Statements of fact.

"Yes, again. I was trapped there once with my friend, Charley, oh a long time before the Time War. It's a place without time. It felt a bit like this place."

The clapping of his hand never stops, never faster or slower. Like a metronome. Because that's what he's doing. Measuring time.

"Doctor?" But she perks up right away, a little surprised, but relieved and pleased that he's able to talk about the time before the Time War now.

"Is that a good or bad thing?" she just falls into his pace likes it's no big thing. Different incarnation or not, as long as he recognizes her, that's good enough reason. "Or just a thing-thing?" She's helpful, right?

The Doctor would argue that referencing it isn't the same as 'talking about it'. And in this case, he sort of has to, because it applies.

"Of course. Does anyone else talk like me?"

And now he's North. Way North. An entirely different country north. He's Scottish.

"The only way I can keep track of time here is this..."

He pointedly look at his clapping hand.

"...So, you know, take a wild stab in the dark."

"Nope. You're Scottish now." Sorry, she's not as fast as you at this whole new-to-everything-thing.

She looks at the clapping hand and nods, "I see." And then grins impishly. "Would you like a watch?" Because time being off or not, there's still days and general Earth-time with night and seasons. And American holidays for some reason. Also, yes, she's amused at your pain.

The Doctor grimaces and taps the side of his head with his free, non-clapping hand. "It wouldn't help."

This really isn't an issue to tease him about.

"Sorry," she frowns, thinking harder. "Is there any way to make it easier?" A pause, "It's just... you might be here awhile even if you don't ever plan to sleep." And then a small wince, because the Doctor being anywhere for "awhile" was going to drive him crazy whether he could keep track of time or not.

"Never mind," she waves a hand. "Want me to show you around, grab some food, take in the sights, that sort of thing?" Another hurried addition, "There's gates here, to other worlds and the like, so you don't have to go too nutters feeling trapped." She snaps her fingers, suddenly remember, "Oh, and you can make your own gadget to do that for you, if you want. There's lots of mechanic stuff here too!"

The Doctor tries to answer Rose's first question before she rushes on. "No."

But it came out so quietly, that he doubts she heard him.

"I'll be fine."

Nothing can be worse than his Confession Dial. But Rose is still going on... and on. And he doesn't know how to stop her. He wonders how young she is. Given the way she's talking, and how she accepted his new face, he figures she's sometime after the Sycorax, but he can't just know by looking at her.

"Rose. I'd like a tour, but stop trying to fix me."

He's pretty broken at this point and the only thing that will fix him is the TARDIS.

"I wasn't trying to fix you," a small wince and scowl, "Just help... but yeah, I'll show you around." She offers him a hand as she gets walking, but won't fuss if he doesn't take it, assuming it might throw off his rhythm and points around. "So there's four districts, yeah? North, South, East, West. That's inside Nautilus. And then there's other cities and stuff. But Nautilus is a living telepathic being we're on. Bit weird, yeah? Probably not to you though. Anyway, it's him who called for help, and you came!" A beam, and she added, "Well, we came. Not just you, all of us here."

"Fix. Solve problems. It's all the same from this side."

Mostly he says that because he saw her wince and, well, the last thing he wanted was for this to go as badly as it had with his Tenth self.

"So, a bit like 'The House'... wait that was after you. Sorry. So many years later, different trips get confusing."

Yup, he even talks like an old man sometimes. Though, to be fair, that's only gotten bad because of the loss of his memories of Clara and lack of TARDIS to set him straight.

"And clearly it's a good thing I'm here. Whoever is doing the naming is rubbish. 'The other cities and such' sounds interesting. What's there?"

She laughs a bit at the last part, "Don't know! I haven't been there yet! Want to go traveling with me?" She is getting way too much enjoyment out of being able to say that.

The Doctor raises an eyebrow. "Just as long as you remember there's only one... me...."

And the sentence tapers off there. He pulls a face.

"I know for sure you and I never had this conversation, but then who was it with?"

It was with Clara... Which is why it is confusing for him. He can't remember it.

"And only one me!" Rose asserts confidently, but tilts her head at the question, "Bit of deja vu, then?"

"Thank God there is only one Rose Tyler. The universe would be in trouble if there were more."

But it's an almost fond kind of teasing.

He shakes his head to answer her question. "No. More than that. I'm certain I've had this conversation with someone."

He closes his eyes for a minute trying to parse it.

"Probably with Clara.... Another companion... But my memories of her are... a bit scrambled."

Hopefully, by not saying they're missing entirely, it will prevent Rose from asking too many questions.

"I should hope so," in regards to the universe being in trouble with more than one, "I cause enough trouble without a double, yeah?"

Still, she looks a bit puzzled for a bit. "Sorry. Don't think I've met her, yeah?" She scrunches her face to the side, "Is that a problem?" All of it. Her not knowing Clara, the Doctor's memories of her being all scrambled, and anything else, besides.

"Considering we're stuck in a place that is only the reality of someone's dreaming, I'd say it's a problem, yes."

He won't talk too much about himself. Will try not to reveal too much to Rose... because he plans to get out of here ASAP.

She shakes her head, glancing back at the Doctor. "No, you've got that backwards. Everywhere else is dreaming. Now you're awake." She bit her bottom lip quietly but added all the same, "You hear the call and woke up. Hello."

"How do you know? How can you possibly know you're awake?"

All of this his hauntingly familiar to the Dream Crabs.

"Because here's the thing, Rose: No one knows they're not dreaming. Not one of us. Not ever. Not for one single moment of our lives."

He's definitely changed again. Not just physically, of course, but personality, and grown, there's so many things, it's almost a whiplash. Doctor... but...

She frowns, remembering the planet she can't even name now with the microscopic something-or-other that fed off left-side brain waves -- no wait, was it right-side? The creative side, anyway, so they caused hallucinations, and then there she was hallucinating the doctor saving her, and even walked right into an insane asylum....

But the good thing about that memory? She brightens up, remembering how she was able to tell real from not, and what the Doctor told her back then too.

"Say something clever I couldn't possibly think of!"

Because Jack had actually been able to pronounce a whole bunch of stuff even about the Holy Jagafress and planets she didn't recognize but --

That wouldn't help the Doctor.

She furrows her brow, bites her bottom lip, and thinks hard. What external thing could she do that the Doctor wouldn't be able to expect her doing? Be able to dream her doing?

She abruptly reaches for his free non-clapping hand and tries to hug his chest hard. "I missed you," she tells him assertively, completely sure that the Doctor's self-doubts, self-loathing, self-everything would never normally expect for or account for that in any way at all. There was nothing about herself she could tell him he wouldn't know or expect. But she could still find ways to surprise him, she was sure.

Except this Doctor has travelled with Clara. She was all about the hugs. Even if she mostly respected the fact that he didn't do hugs.

"Rose, don't... I'm not a hugging person now."

And he tries to squirm out of her touch.

"What is it with you humans and hugging anyway?"

Once he's out of her grip he straightens himself up and brushes off his clothes.

"There's only one reliable dream test that I know. The Helman-Ziegler test. But, in order to do it, we'd need something that we've both read. Like..."

Wait. Rose wasn't an English teacher. What would she have read?

"Like something by Jane Austen."

She nods her head. "I've read Pride and Prejudice. And um..." What else had Jane Austen written? Crime and Punishment? Tenth grade English don't fail her now. She could have gone to med-school. If she'd taken her A-levels and hadn't always been skipping out to look at boys. Damn boys.

"Oh! Charles Dickens!" Of course. Because the Doctor was a total Dickens fanboy, and Rose would never ever forget that. "And not just the Christmas Carol," which they both lived. And in the Doctor's case, more than once. "Okay, so what we do with the book-He-man-Zeeger-test?" Yes, she is awesome with names.

"And hugs are good for you, Doctor. You're a doctor, you should know that." She's just saying, but she did pretty instantly let go.

"Fine, so what we need to do is find a book both of us have read, but neither have memorised. The way it works is this: they would be identical in the real world. But since they don't exist in our memories, in a dream, they can't be."

He shrugs. It's rather basic, when you think about it.

"Hugs are not good for me any more. Touching isn't good for me right now."

There is weight to his last sentence. Rose would be better off not to touch him. And he won't be responsible for his actions if she does.

She glances at him. That's.... a very strange statement. And Rose has a very bad habit of touching things she shouldn't, like you know, daleks of all things, but she's trying to learn to keep her hands mostly to herself and out of harm's way. Still, she files it away, even in spite of her protests. "No one should go without any kind of contact, Doctor." Hadn't that been part of the problem with living flesh turned human that the cat nurses created in New New York? Then again, she never could completely figure out how the devil possessed people and if the Doctor said not to touch him...

"Come this way," she almost immediately messed up by grabbing his hand, but firmly stuck her hands in her jacket pocket. "There's a library. I don't know if they have it, but they should have something else we've both read and not memorized if nothing else."

"Given the kinds of touch I experienced recently, not sure you'd still say that."

But that's all he's going to say about his experiences in the Confession Dial. The story is too long and painful to tell. Besides with all the 'Clara-holes' it's too hard to remember.

He also shoves his hands into his pockets as he followers her. "I hope they have two copies, because that's the only way this really works."

She frowns. She doesn't want to know, because as far as she's concerned, she's going to stay with the Doctor forever and ever the end, and she knows that's crazy and probably impossible, but she likes impossible. In any case, no sense learning spoilers for what she's totally, absolutely going to live through.

"Mm. Yeah, let's hope." Or they can find a book they do have two of, maybe. Did you ever read any Dr. Seuss, Doctor? Because they have a lot of that for the sake of teaching children or other species how to read. She grins impishly though, trying to test how similar he is or not, "You're still dashing though."

"Dashing?"

He's not sure how he feels about that. Sandshoes was dashing. Even Bowtie was dashing. He's just attack-eyebrows.

"If you say so."

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I will be quoting LAST CHRISTMAS so much in this game. So. Much.

XDDD Oops

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