...Doctor Who? [Ten!]

[hayles]

Exploring time and space. With the Doctor. The idea still sent chills up and down her spine. She could hardly believe it was real. The millions of stories she had written, drawn, and even told...they were nothing compared to reality. She felt like a small child lost in a dream...and that felt cheesy to even think. But it was true. Every time they landed in a new place. A new time. Every time she felt it. That pang deep down that lights up the spine like a Christmas tree. The tickle that always brings a smile to her face. It was the feeling she got when she felt like her life was changing for the better. She was happy. Truly happy.

But what about home? Reality? Rory ready to wed her tomorrow. She wasn't ready for marriage or any of that. Hell - she wasn't even sure if she completely loved Rory. Sometimes she wondered if the only reason she was staying with him, was because he was easy. Not in a sense of getting into his pants, but he was easy to be around. He never complained nor treated her badly. He never forgot an important date (like she often did). Rory was just the easy choice. But did she love him?

She thought she did. Then the Doctor came back again. The way he saved the day and went through life and death scenarios...then laughed about it. Deep down, Amy knew what was happening. She was falling in love with her imaginary friend. He was just so much fun - never dull. Full of so much life...

And here they were in some human colony. The Doctor had decided to give the Earth another break after their last voyage of 'fun' with the strange salt-and-pepper-shaker-like beings known as Daleks. Apparently they were common knowledge - for the Doctor looked at her strange when she was confused at their appearance. He was probably just getting human timelines confused. He was prone.

At the moment, however, Amy was a little...misplaced. The Doctor had seen something and run off, leaving Amy alone in this strange place. He did that more than he should, really. What if she did something to ruin all of time and space? She didn't know what was supposed to happen here or what was going on. Amy was just a tourist in tights and Converse.

But this...this felt worse than normal.

The duo had come to a human colony on some planet that was not Earth. Apparently the air above wasn't quite right (according to the Doctor) meaning they had all taken to the vast seas - living in what appeared to be an underwater city. Large glass (or something glass-like) windows covered nearly every wall - except floors, ceilings, and corners of hallways...for whatever reason. Amy reasoned that it was for reinforcement or...something.

The part that she found herself in appeared to be some sort of...food court? People bustled around, carrying strange dishes and such. They were all clad in odd and strange styles - making Amy's dress, purple tights, and Converse look...Conservative. No one even shot her a side-glance.

It was strange.

The girl approached one of the rather high walls, and leaned against the cold glass-like-surface. Outside she could see the rest of the underwater city. Small and large submarines putted about. Sea creatures drifted by - all of which were exotic and caused Amy's mouth to slide open just a bit further. It was beautiful.

Placing her hand on the glass, she felt the coolness of the outside seawater seeping through - like a window on a stormy day. Even when she was lost and confused - this was still the best time of her entire life.

As she relaxed on a bench that was conveniently at her side, a sound tickled her ears. A very familiar sound. Amy quickly turned her head, to see a blue box. It was slowly appearing behind some crates of the nearest food place.
"What?" Amy whispered to herself. It wasn't like the Doctor to fly around the entire place in his TARDIS to find her. Normally he just ran. It was...more his style.

Pulling herself to her full height, Amy slowly walked over to the TARDIS and opened the door.
"Why'd you bring the TARDIS over here? I could have just walked back. And where did you go anyway? You---"

Amy quickly halted in her words, when she noticed that the TARDIS did not look the same at all. Different colors and shapes.
"Oh...no. This is not good."
---------
Words: 802
Time: After Victory of the Daleks and before Time of Angels

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[The Tenth Doctor]

Running into his future self in a small town in the middle of nowhere, England had been an unexpected surprise. And it had turned out that one he got past the unusualness, the future him was actually a fun bloke to hang around. Of course, the Doctor couldn't hang around him whenever he wanted to. Whenever he ran into his future or past selves, it usually meant big bangs or booms in the fabric of time so, as soon as this Doctor could, he had bade his anon to his future self, making sure that his eleventh incarnation would know better than to walk into any portal without investigating it first.

And now the Doctor was on his own again. At least he now knew that his fits of melancholy weren't going to last forever. There was going to come a day in his future when he was a tweed jacket, bow tie wearing younger looking man who could be quite a bit buffoonish and childish, reminding this Doctor quite a bit of his second incarnation but there were no surprises about his old selves sometimes bleeding through into his future incarnations. He himself was quite a bit like his fifth incarnation.

But all of that was in his future. It didn't change the facts of his life today. He had no companions to impress with any beautiful planets. He could do things for himself, rather than feeling the need to please others. He, according to Sarah Jane Smith, had the biggest family in the world and, yet, they all had someone else to look after right now; they didn't need to spend their time traveling around with him anymore because they had more important things to do these days.

So, the Doctor would leave it up to the TARDIS as to where he was going to go now. Just because he was all alone, it didn't mean that there weren't places and creatures out there that needed his help. Having to save others without someone by his side helping him out made things more difficult but it's not like the Doctor had never traveled on his own before. Or maybe the TARDIS, as sneaky as she could be sometimes, would drop him off somewhere where she knew he was going to run into his next companion. As hard as it was losing his companions, it was even harder to travel without one.

As the TARDIS dematerialized, the Doctor was on the side of the console farthest away from the doors, blocking him from the sight of anyone who might just stumble inside by accident. But it's not like that could happen because the doors were locked, and the TARDIS only ever opened them up for people who had a key or for people that she knew. Therefore, he had absolutely nothing to worry about...But whose voice was that clearly coming from the inside of his TARDIS?

He peeked around the side of the console to see who the intruder was. "Oi! What are you doing..." The Doctor trailed off as a fact about the young woman who had come walking into his TARDIS dawned on him. "You're Ginger!" That...was...not...fair. Eleven incarnations for him and he had never had the pleasure of being Ginger. And just as soon as that fact had dawned on him, another one followed in its footsteps. "Sorry. That was rude." Rude and not Ginger, just like he had been at the beginning of his life as the Tenth Doctor.

The Doctor made his way over the woman. "I'm the Doctor," he introduced himself. He already figured that she probably knew who owned a TARDIS that looked like a blue police box. She had to be one of his future companions. The TARDIS knew everything about his past and about his future so it wasn't surprising that she had let this woman in. Never mind the fact that enteracting with people before he was supposed to wasn't a good idea. The TARDIS clearly didn't want him to be alone right now. Why? He didn't know.

[hayles]

It was strange. It was a feeling Amy had to admit she had before with her various travels with the Doctor...but this one felt a bit more...disturbing. To be in a place you trusted and felt comfortable in...and it wasn't right. Something was off. The exterior looked the same...sort of. Maybe the blue was a bit brighter? Maybe the sign was slightly different? But the inside...it was the same. But wrong. The feeling was much more...brown and green. Less vibrant like she was used to. The middle thing-a-ma-bob looked wrong too. Wrong shape. Wrong...feel. The levers around the center console looked different too. Almost like they made less sense and were more glued on.

It's then when Amy heard a voice, and her mind jumped to a conclusion. This was all a trap. The Doctor probably had enemies and she was now going to be bait for him to fall into whatever trap these people were going to set with her.

"Oi! What are you doing..."

Amy walked further into the TARDIS - seeing a brunette and quite tall man glancing at her in a confused manner. It wasn't half bad to look at, to be honest. She couldn't help a small smile that pulled at her cheeks.

"I'm walking into the TARDIS. What does it look like I'm doin?" her Scottish accent heavy as she fought all the various emotions that were coursing through her veins. She was scared, curious, and oddly turned on.

"You're Ginger!"
Amy lifted a lock of her hair, as if she needed to re-examine her own color. She had always had bright red hair. Not like other gingers where it was an orange...no, not at all. She had red hair since the moment she fell out of her mum screaming and crying. And this strange, foxy man felt the need to point it out.

"I ate too many carrots as a kid," she called back, sliding her hands into the pockets of her dress, as she examined the man. Who was he? This looked like a version of the TARDIS...but what version? Future? Past? Then who was this? He certainly wasn't the Doctor. Maybe this happened after the Doctor eventually died? This guy takes it away from him and remodels?

"Sorry. That was rude."
"Nah it's fine. I've had people pointing that out to me since I was little and we learned colors."
Amy made a slight motion with one of her hands as she spoke - as if waving away the rudeness of his last comment.

"I'm the Doctor," the man proclaimed, now standing next to her.
Amy fell silent. Her previously amused expression - gone. Who was this impostor? He wasn't the Doctor. How dare he call himself the Doctor. He had no right. He was just some guy in a blue box. Not the man who stole her from reality and into this endless adventure.

"Doctor Who? Because - no," her voice was cross, "You're not the Doctor. I know the Doctor," she began to circle him slightly in a slow pace, "And you're just some man who's stolen and remodeled his TARDIS. Or you're planning on kidnapping me to use as bait for the real Doctor. Is that it?"

She then noticed he was wearing the same shoe brand is her.
"You have an excellent taste in footwear, at least."
----
Words: 606

[The Tenth Doctor]

She didn't need to say all that she had said for the Doctor to realize that his initial guess had been correct. She was going to end up traveling with him in his future. With all of the wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey things that could happen, he wasn't surprised that he didn't run into future companions of his more often. And just as soon as she was accusing him of being an impostor, she was complimenting him on his shows, which, of course, made the Doctor look down to see that she was wearing the same footwear that he was. He couldn't keep the smile off his face. "Well," he said, "It isn't often that I find myself with a reasonable sense of fashion." Like bow tie wearing him that he had just met the other day.

But there were more important issues to address right now than his sense of fashion. She still didn't think he was who he said he was. "But I am the Doctor," he insisted. "You must know a future version of me." Of course, those were all just words. Anyone could say that, even someone who wanted to kidnap her. The problem was the Doctor had no way of knowing what stories future him had told her. Did she know about his ability to regenerate? Did she even know what had happened to his home planet? How long had she even been traveling with future him?

Well, all he could really do was start to spurt off some random facts about himself and, hopefully, one of them would ring a bell. "I'm a nine hundred and seven-year-old Time Lord from Gallifrey. I travel around time and space, saving planets with the help of my handy dandy--" The Doctor reached into his jacket pocket and pulled the instrument out. "--sonic screwdriver. And surely I've told you about meeting William Shakespeare. He's a wonderful bloke, although I wouldn't generally recommend meeting your heroes."

If she didn't believe him, she didn't believe him. He could only show her out the TARDIS doors, insuring her that she would find another blue police box eventually with the Doctor that she knew inside of it. The Doctor didn't relish the idea of running into another future version of himself again, although the TARDIS had to have brought him to wherever he was right now for a reason. Speaking of that reason, the Doctor placed his sonic screwdriver back in his pocket and made his way over the the scanner. He adjusted a few knobs and out came his glasses. They really did make him look quite clever.

His eyes quickly raced over the information on the screen. And what a pleasant surprise it all was. "This is brilliant!" he said, more to himself than to the young woman who had wandered into his TARDIS. "I mean, as brilliant as you can get, considering it's not the real deal but brilliant, nonetheless." He had to got out and explore, regardless of whether or not he was running the risk of meeting another future him. The Doctor made his way over the doors in a half-walking, half-jogging pace. "Are you coming along or do you still think I want to kidnap you?" The Doctor realized that he still hadn't received her name but figured there was no point in asking, seeing as future him was going to learn all of that in due time.

[hayles]

This man. This place. In many senses, it scared her. What if this was the Doctor? But...that couldn't be. How could one man have many faces? It wasn't like he had gotten a hair-cut, or even light plastic surgery. The man before her who claimed his identity as the Doctor looked strikingly different. They both had that 'tall and too narrow' feel, but that's where the similarities appeared to end. This 'Doctor' had brown sex-hair, and dressed in a more modern way than her current Doctor. In many ways, this man was more 'pretty' on a surface level. But still. He was probably some homicidal alien that was about to turn her into a damsel in distress.

He replied to her comment about his shoes with a remark that got a laugh out of her, "Oh you have no idea..." she shook her head, as her mind crawled back to when he had managed to save the Earth - and steal an older coma patient's clothing.

This man's insistence that he was the Doctor was beginning to grow a bit disturbing. Especially as he proclaimed that her Doctor was a future version of himself.
"What? Are your kind like lizards and grow another head if one gets cut off?" she asked in a highly sarcastic fashion, started to become intrigued. Whoever this man was...he did have that feel. That feel that she was talking to something more than a simple man.

This "Doctor" then ranted on about his age, species, home planet, then about meeting Shakespere. There was even a sonic involved.
"You do act similar," she began, still studying him. But much in the Doctor's style, he suddenly glanced at the center console, and basically flailed around in excitement.

"Dare I ask what?"" she asked, taking the bait. The longer she was around this individual, the more he felt like...essence of Doctor. It really didn't make sense, but she could see it. Like someone had distilled what the Doctor was, and adding a lightly different personality and new body.

He then ranted on about how brilliant this magical entity or item was, and began to hurry out of the not-TARDIS's doors. Amy simply stood and stared, not sure what to do in this situation. He halted - nearly out the doors - and questioned if she wished to join - with a quip about him 'still wanting to kidnap her.'

Amy simply stared at the man for a moment. She didn't know why, but she was beginning to trust him. He felt familiar. Maybe he was the Doctor.

"If you are the Doctor, it's going to be something insanely dangerous and really alien, that will most likely almost get either one or both of us nearly killed," she paused for a moment, "I'm in. What the other Doctor lost, you gained."