ten_fwd | Hauted by inner demons - OTA Forward dated to early hours Friday

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Hauted by inner demons - OTA Forward dated to early hours Friday

The Doctor has a terrible secret that he has tried to keep somewhat hidden since his return.

He is older. Four point five billion years older. He might have mentioned it to a few people, but he hasn't properly explained to anyone how that all happened. "Stuck in a place" was probably as specific as he got. But the terrible truth was about to be revealed to everyone in the worst way he could imagine.

River might realise what's going on, at least in theory. But it had been very early days on Darillium when he had been forced to tell her. Even in his time now, that seems like ages ago. And for her... well... it had been substantially longer.

The Doctor woke to find himself back in his castle. He sighed heavily. It had been an odd dream anyway. Stuck on a ship that was pure fiction. That was almost worse than being stuck here. At least he knew how the castle worked now.

He got up, dressed and continued his search for Room 12.

He hadn't seen the Veil in some time. He checked the monitors and they showed it to be a surprising distance from him. Good. That means he had more time than he thought. Well, that was good. Maybe if he could confuse it enough, he could get more than his tested maximum of eighty-two minutes.

[ooc: The Doctor will be wandering all over the ship, thinking he is in his Confession Dial. Anyone who happens upon the Doctor will be infused into his nightmare. Some might take on the image of the Veil and others might become 'haunts' from other parts of the Doctor's life. Depending on how the Doctor incorporates your character into the dream will dictate his reaction to them. The goal, should your character choose to accept it, is to wake the Doctor. But, be aware, he believes his life is under threat from the Veil, so he is likely to do a lot of things to try to get somewhere safe. This includes but is not limited to hurting others.]

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Okay, River had been gathering all the information she could since her arrival. Whatever had happened to turn her hair red and her eyes green had been fascinating, and educational. She only regretted that while she seemed to learn a tremendous amount about anything she touched, she hadn't been able to track down and touch the Doctor. Then again, why ruin the fun? Far more interesting to learn it from him while making him think she already knew it.

So now that her hair was back to normal, and so were her eyes, she got herself a new dress from the replicator, holstered her squareness gun to her hip, tucked a lipstick into either boot and her Sonic and notebook into her belt. Properly accessorized, and with a new pair of earrings dangling from her lobes - it had been so easy to convince the merchant to make a little gift of those - she headed out to find her husband. Any of them.

So when she saw him, her lips curled up into a small familiar smile. "Hello, sweetie." She put her hands on her hips, fighting the temptation to teasingly scold him for how hard it's been to find him. Because something is wrong. Even as she speaks, even as she stops moving she can see something is wrong. Very wrong.

The Doctor looked up when River spoke, but his features contained no recognition. Only fear. He stared at her for a moment and the looked to where one of the instrument panels were located.

"Impossible. You can't be here!"

He pointed to the panel.

"You're supposed to be in the dining room, I'm in the hall outside the Study."

He frowned when he realised that he hadn't made up the voice either.

"And you've learned a new skill. Speaking. Of course you have. Well, if this is my personal torture chamber, it would make sense I wouldn't be the only one with a voice. But don't think that will get me to confess any easier. You will have to be better than that!"

The entire time he was speaking, he was slowly backing down the hallway. He's debating if he should run or not, but how the Veil could be in two places at once, is hard for his mind to comprehend.

Very wrong indeed.

"Personally by my count it is generally four, sweetie. Four of us allowed to torture you at any given time. The Tardis is on the list, but is probably the nicest of the four. You current companion whomever she might be, or he I suppose, is two, but they're permitted the least. Then of course there is me. Hello, sweetie," She was letting him back away until then. Once she to the fourth, she slowly began walking towards him again.

"And finally, there is the one person who should not be ever allowed to torture you, because it is the one who is best at it." She kept talking, trying to draw him into arguing her points, into engaging his mind, into THINKING. "But it's also the one person the other three of us can't stop. We do try. Some years I think that's all we do. But no one tortures you, and gets away with torturing you... more than you, my love."

She can talk all she likes. He's not thinking. How can he think about anything except escaping the now talking Veil?

"Your count is sadly small. The Daleks enjoy torturing me as well. And the Cybermen. And the Weeping Angels. And of course, Time Lords."

River's movements seem rather timed to the Doctor. Which only makes him think more about the veil.

"Well. I have enjoyed our little chat. But you're getting too close for comfort, so it's time for me to go."

With that he turns and runs. Runs where he always has run: Away. Just away.

She's run with the Doctor many times, but him running from her? Even knowing something was wrong, it hurt. Not that she'd let that show, of course.

She couldn't give chase. Wouldn't. But she was smart, she was clever, and at the moment? He was less so than he normally was. She had been busy, learning this place, and the touch that taught had been so useful for that. She knew where that corridor went. She moved to the side, checking with the computer as she moved to track him, to come out so that she was resting against a wall, ahead of him, when next they met.

"Now that was rather rude, sweetie. And the Daleks and Cybermen and countless others might enjoy it, but they are not permitted it. I will hunt them all down if you like. Every last one. I'd be the monster for you."

She knew he would never accept, not in his right mind, not as his right self. His reaction would tell her the most.

He's not surprised that she ends up ahead of him. Similar had happened in the Castle with the Veil. And if this was a newly personified Veil, well... Not surprised at all.

He chuckles at her last sentence. But it's not a pleasant sound. Not really amused, but not sardonic either. It has a dark undertone to it.

"Oh, you'll be my monster, will you? Convenient considering the information you're trying to get from me."

But he's already decided not to say any more on the matter. He will just have to find another way to get out without making any more confessions.

"And what information would that be?" she asked, still resting against the wall, not making a move to him since he wasn't backing away. "Why is it funny that I'm willing to kill for you? Why is it funny that I'm willing to die for you?" she asked.

She knew that last was a low blow, but if that was what it took, she'd deal that blow. She'd cause him one pain to spare him a worse one. She would even make him hate her, to save him from hating himself. Whatever it took, whatever the Doctor needed, she would do. Anything for him, everything for him.

Edited 2016-03-11 05:53 (UTC)

"Well. One good thing about you talking is I'm learning how stupid you are and what kind of an idiot you think I am. You know what you're programmed for and I've figured it out. So your first question is ridiculous."

But the last question catches his attention.

"Ooooo! Willing to die for me? That's new. Is that how I am to be rid of you? Is that my way out? The way to Room 12? Am I to kill you? Fine. How?"

"I know that somewhere in you, somewhere inside, you know who I am, sweetie. Maybe even better than I do. My being willing to die for you is something you've known since the day we met. Something you've known far longer than I've known it. If going that far is what it will take to bring you back to you. Fine."

She pulled her squarness gun from the holster and flipped it over, offering it to him, handle first. "Pretty sure that if you shot me through with this, that would end me. You can take it if you want. But the Doctor I know? Won't pull that trigger. I trust you no matter what dream scape you're in. If holding the power to kill me with a finger is what it will take to prove to you that you aren't where you think you are, to make you listen to yourself about who I am, then take it, my love."

"You're offering me a weapon? I've had plenty of weapons. Starting with the shovel. And now you're just going to give me one?"

He shakes his head.

"No. No more confessions. No more. You've got that weapon. Why don't you use it? Clara had said, 'Let me be brave'. So I will follower her example."

Too bad the only time the Doctor can properly remember her is in a dream-like state. He closes his eyes and prepares himself, he expects to die.

"You," she said, reholstering the gun, "are an idiot, my love."

"You're going to be brave then, just stand there, even if I close to attack?" she asked, walking slightly closer, to see what he'll do. "You're going to be that stupid?"

The Doctor rolls his eyes. "You are confused."

And with that he turns tail and runs away again. He never said anything about letting the creature attack him. He got it to put the gun away, which was all he needed.

Honestly. That man! She'd watch the turn he made, then again move to get ahead of him. A few false starts and mistakes before she finally manages it, leaning casually against the wall again, gun in hand. "I think you are the one confused, my love. But we can play a different game, if that's what it will take."

"Twenty-two minutes. You're getting faster. Which, according to your own rules of never moving faster or slower, is impossible. But, so was talking, until you started..."

His eyes narrow slightly. And he considers his reply.

"I'm done with games. You're not going to get the information out of me, so you may as well stop trying."

"And what if I don't want to get information from you? What if I wanted to give it? Would you stand still and listen?"

"As long as you stay where you are."

"Alright then," she said, as though she didn't have her squareness gun at the ready.

"Shall we begin? Susan. Barbra. Ian. Viki. Steven. Katarina. Sara." She was going to give him a list of reasons to remember who he was. To come back to himself.

"Chaplet. Polly. Ben. Jamie. Victoria. Zoe. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart." She stopped on that name, specifically, watching for a reaction.

There were a couple of names on that list that he didn't know. Not properly. Those had been taken from him by the Time Lords and it was a mistake to mention them.

"Rose, Jack, Mickey, Martha, Donna, Amy, Rory, River, Clara."

He rolls his eyes.

"I know my companions. Since you know what I should confess, I'm not surprised you can name them either. Get to the point, you're boring me."

"Back up one, and hello, sweetie," she said simply. That hadn't worked, and she was trying to come up with a plan that would. Then she smirked. "What if I brought one of them here?" she asked. If he was so intent on making her part of this delusion he was having, maybe she could break it, make him see where it failed.

"You're inside here."

He taps the side of his head.

"You took an image from my childhood. This is my bespoke torture chamber, why wouldn't my bespoke psychopath be here as well?"

He hadn't called her that ever in this body. He had thought his former body cruel for naming her as such, so to use it now? Yes. Something is very wrong. Basically, he needs proof that this isn't a delusion. But, good luck with that.

Still the same man. Wasn't that what she had told Beverly when they had spoken? That she was in love with the man, no matter the face, no matter how he changed, because he was always still him, would always still be him. There were moments when she saw who he had been under who he was, and moments she had seen who he would be under who he is. Life of a time traveler, life of the Doctor's wife. And it was a life she loved more than nearly anything. The only things she loved more than her life? His. Her parents. The three people she would do anything for, would die for, and would, in the end, live for.

Though childhood, really. That was a bit of a stretch, even given how long he had ben there. And now she was certain she knew exactly where and when he was trapped.

"If you think this is in your head, then nothing I can say that you couldn't convince yourself that you came up with. So, I'll have to do something you wouldn't think of, something that doesn't fit your idea of me, or the place you think you are."

She twirled her squareness gun. "River Song with a gun. That fits what you know. But does this?" She put the muzzle of the gun to the underside of her own chin. "Now, can you dare to take the chance that I might not actually be River?"

"Trick question."

He knows how this works.

"You expect me to come and stop you. I won't do that, because that would involve touching you. Which means you'll be touching me and I'll die."

He frowns.

"And yet, you are trying to appeal to my sentiment. My concern and my love for my wife. You are trying to create a situation in which there are only two options. Well..."

He pulls out his sonic specks and puts them on, activating the door behind him.

"Firstly, the River Song I remember would never threaten herself like that. More likely to kill me, actually. And secondly. I'm the Doctor, and I always find another way."

He sonics the door again to lock it once he was through. And he... finds himself in a cupboard of some kind. Great. Well. That didn't go nearly as well as he wanted. He leans his ear against the door, trying to hear what was on the other side.

She shook her head and holstered her gun. After a quick check with the computer - yep that was a dead end - she leaned against the corridor wall across from the door.

"Nice other way, my love. Do tell me how that's going for you."

Seriously. More likely to kill him than threaten herself? She would forgive him that this once since it was clear that he was very much not in his right mind. They would have words about this later, however.

"You didn't kill yourself and you can't reach me. I think that's what they call a 'win-win'."

Words later won't be needed. She was conditioned to kill him. He accepts that. It's fine, really.

Except she wasn't any more. She had rewritten her own programing when she fell in love with him, when she saved him from herself. "And you re going to escape, how, my love?" she asked.

She was going to give him a hard time for this until he realized he had been stupid, and thus he thinks. She knew once she could get him thinking, could break the pattern, that he'd come to himself again. Then she smirked.

"Actually.... I could reach you, if I wanted, sweetie." He forgot something. Sadly, so had she.

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This is going to be horrible. O.O

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