asgardeventide | video • one • day 321

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video • one • day 321

[ There are very few things that Rose thinks will ever surprise her anymore. She feels so utterly world weary, tired of the struggle to put things back on track. But leave it to the multiverses to throw her for a loop again.

Asgard. This was Asgard. The bracelet was on her wrist, pink hued stone embedded just as it had been last time. How long had it been? Gods, she felt as if she'd just nipped off for a snooze, and woken up out of a deadsleep. No new memories of back home, as far as she could glean. Nothing. So why had she left? Had she left? --Yes, evidently. A quick glance at the most recent posts upon the Network showed that no, it was not the same day she had last recalled. Time had definitely passed. And if that were the case- she could think of a few people who might just have been a bit up in arms about it.

She prayed to no one in particular, that everyone was still here. ]

So I think I knocked out for a while... And I'm guessin' it was more than a few hours.

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[Uh. Whoops. Theta may have been thinking it was private.]

Rose.

[A pause and a sigh. He supposes she deserves what truth he can give her, what he feels she needs to know. Believing he's right is one of the ways he is like the Doctor.]

All right. Where are you?

[ Yeah. It was also one of the many reasons she wanted to strangle him. Every version of him. ]

Entrance to Freya. Where my old room was.

[At least she hasn't seen the bug he dropped in Nine's ear.]

I'm on my way.

[He'll be true to his word on this one, heading there right away instead of dithering about to delay.]

[ ... That is gross and disgusting and you should feel terrible and bad, Theta.

She nods at him, frown still creasing a hint on her brow, but she can find herself a seat and park it down. Funny, how even just a few moments being home again, and she suddenly felt as if she could sleep for a week. Hadn't she done that the first time coming here? ]

[He owes it to the Doctor, to himself. Nine never got to say the things he wanted to, that Ten wouldn't and that Theta ultimately did. She remembers none of that and maybe, just maybe, he can set things somewhat right. Give them their second chance.]

[He's there at the doorway soon enough, lingering like Peter Pan's shadow that got away.]

Rose.

[ Yeah, until she ends up going home, coming back and finding out what really happened. You'd be in it deep then, Theta.

But you can bet your bottom dollar that she's up as soon as he's in the doorway, hesitating for only a moment (because really, smiling that big does take a bit of effort, especially when you'd just been scowling at nothing for minutes on end), before biting her lip and walking over like a proper, normal human being. ]

Theta.

[ And then she opens her arms, holds them out because yes, she does expect him to physically initiate the hug, you grumpy pile of grump. ]

[That's a problem Theta has considered. There may come a day when she remembers, when she realises the decisions he's made for her. She might be prettier, but Rose has Jackie Tyler's temper in spades when riled.]

Rose Tyler.

[It takes him a few seconds before he crosses to her, slides his arms around her and takes her up in a hug. It might be all he gets, so he's happy to have it now and in an innocent form.]

I have missed you, Rose. How have you been?

[ Really, while they're here, he can have as many hugs as he likes. She quite enjoys hugging him- all of them, actually. He just needs to stop fussing so much.

And he'd better never let Jackie here that statement, or it won't be the second generation of anger that he'll be facing. --The hug is nice though. Something she wraps herself up in just as much, nose burrowing against his shoulder for the briefest of moments. ]

Rubbish, actually. Bloody knackered, and I wasn't even back home for more than ten seconds. Or at least, no new memories or anythin'. Just sort've blinked an' I was back.

... We were on Bad Wolf Bay?

[ Yeah, actually. Not that she stops to think about it. Hm. ]

[The hug is enjoyed as much as he can let himself do so with the memory of Nine swirling in the back of his mind along with Ten's new presence. It had been a triangle before. Now it was an ugly square that could hurt them all when it came down.]

[Especially with Ten having no idea who he was.]

Oh. There?

[He steps back, arms falling from her as his expression becomes closed.]

Well, the Doctor was so I sort of was. It's all a bit tangled. Rose, it's not something to worry about really, you know that.

[ Yeah, she thought he might do that. But his step back- though a bit ... painful, she follows it. Half instinctively, half because she must. ]

No- No were there. The both of you. Two of you- Me, an' my mum. I don't know what we were doin' there, but I know it was the four of-- no, hang on. Donna was there too. The .. Doctor-Donna. The five of us.

[This could be the downfall of them all in Theta's mind. Or maybe not. He's not completely sure but in his thoughts, he's built it up to be a terrible thing. Nine and Ten don't know how the story ends, who he even really is.]

Rose, no. Don't.

[He watches her sadly. It was nice when he could build castles for the other Doctors, make their lives better. Give them a chance of a happy ending.]

This isn't a story you want. Nine. Remember him? Or Ten! Remember him and that scooter? How much fun you had? The Doctor. Right? The universe and Barcelona?

[ His avoidance does nothing to sway her. If anything, it merely entices her further. He'd avoided this before, too, hadn't he? ]

O'course I remember all that-- How could I not? What could possibly be so awful that you think you can dictate whether or not I should know?

[ Remember that temper we were talking about earlier? Really, Theta, you do this to yourself. ]

You have a chance here to be happy with the Doctor, Rose. Don't you see that? You could be with Nine or Ten.

[His eyes dip down and then back up, looking perfectly miserable.]

They loved you, but they could never tell you. Either of them. It took the Doctor's severed hand paired with Donna to make a new creature to say it to you. But now... now, they could! They know what they've lost, Rose. They're human. They can say all the things they couldn't.

You can't take that from them.

[ A bit like a kicked puppy, really, dragging guilt into Rose's chest without her having done a single thing. But he's saying things, something and it sounds so much more like the truth than anything else she's heard him say since their first meeting, months back. Even if it was evading and underhanded- still so much like the Doctor sometimes, whether he liked it or not.

But that meant. That meant, that they were on Bad Wolf Bay. There were back in Pete's World- they had to be. They were there and Theta was there. He would tell her what had needed to be said, because yes, that was her plan to ask once things calmed down, it always had been. Theta, or the Other Doctor as she had known him then, would tell her. And evidently, her choice in the end, meant him.

Though she isn't sure what sort of choice she could make now, there was something else that was boiling up to infuriate her. ]

Can't take that from them? From them. Really. You're all choked up about sparing their feelings, but I'm over here getting yanked back an' forth because none of you have enough backbone t'say anything!

I don't care if their human or Time Lord or a bloody amoeba! This isn't all about them, 'cause I've got feelings too, and believe it or not, whenever any of you lie t'me-- which frankly, is all you seem t'be doing, it hurts me!

You're given all the heresay t'them, and-- You're just like him, you know that? Never letting me decide for myself what I want, who I want or any-bloody-thing else!

[ She's definitely shouting now, not quite caring that they're in public, that there were still people around (though not entirely close). She's hurt, she's angry and oh gods does she want to whirl around and storm off to her room. Except. ]

There's no guarantee that I'm gonna stay here- that any of us are. I just disappeared for two weeks, gone, just like that! [ She snaps her fingers for emphasis. ] I'm sick an' tired of havin' you and the rest of them think that my life can get bossed around however they feel like! It's my life, my choice! You'd think after puttin' the Vortex in my head, after getting trapped in a parallel world- You'd think you'd stop tryin' to make decisions for me!

[This conversation would have gone much better with alcohol or something that Theta could use as a shield. As it was, all he could do is watch her face miserably. The Doctors were going to kill him. KILL. There would be no help coming from their sector.]

[But what he did have was Donna Noble's quick flashes of anger and rebellion.]

You want to know? All right. Your choice? All right.

Nine regenerated into Ten. Ten and Nine loved you, but they could never say so. Remember the hand the Doctor lost at Christmas? That's me. The Doctor shot me full of regenerative energy and later, Donna touched me. I end up being me. Then the Doctor leaves me with you because I was 'like Nine' and needed you to help me.

But, my Rose wanted the Doctor. She didn't want a cardboard cutout of him. She wanted all that he was, not part. All right? I lost everything I loved because I wasn't him. I'm not the Doctor, Rose Tyler. I'm me.

[He was growing angry, and that was a bad thing.]

[ As he suddenly rants off as she had, there are very few chances to get a word in edgewise. Yes of course, she knew who he was and where (or what) he'd come from, how he came to be- Donna had explained it to them all. It was confusion, sure, but she knew that.

But funnily enough, though she doesn't get to interject her denials, it's the second part that seems to enrage her further. His Rose. Such a key way of phrasing it. His Rose, not her. Some other version of her that had a set idea of what was what in mind, and that only seemed to infuriate her further. As if she wanted to deny those thoughts and ideals simply on principle. How could she possibly think of this version of the Doctor- with a new autonomy, a new everything, as just a cut out? True, of course, she wanted the Doctor. She desperately did- but did that mean she was going to completely cut him out? Somehow, she had a feeling that the choice wasn't even up to her. And what did it wrought? More pain for Theta, evidently.

It always came back to that, though, didn't it? They made the choice for her, the universe did, someone else did. Where the fuck was her autonomy? Her god-given right to freedom of choice? ]

You said it yourself, just now-- Your Rose. Not me, no, doesn't matter what I think. I just get lumped with any other version of me, ones that have made stupid choices an' somehow it's gonna mean that I make them no matter what outcome. An' that's absolute shit!

No one ever said you had t'be the Doctor, either! Maybe he did, but he says a lot of things an' that doesn't make half of them right or true. You should know that- you still have his mind, or at least part of it.

You lie just like him, so how's that going?

[It is the previous Rose that Theta keeps matching her with, something that isn't fair but happens regardless. He had held it all back and in, sent her towards Nine repeatedly. But he is part of the Doctor and he hears what he likes at times even if it's her telling him that she knew who he was.]

I never said her choice was stupid. It was what made her happy. That's all we - myself or the Doctor - wanted for you, for any Rose.

[To the rest he doesn't reply at first, only drawing himself up to his full height. His pride being hurt could be just as horrible as anyone else's.]

That isn't fair, Rose. To me or any of us. [With the anger fading out, it leaves only an air of disappointment that could be more with himself than her.] At least now you can make that choice here in Asgard that I denied you. Good luck.

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video • one • day 321

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