bigapplesauce | Bringing home strays [closed]

All this distress and muted panic is rather unpleasant for the TARDIS and a quiet unhappy sound rings through the room. She doesn't miss Andrew's difficulties with her console, but decides to focus on Daine first, her upsetness being the source of all this.

"I've left your mind, Daine," she assures the girl calmly. "I was only examining you; I will not touch the wall again." Though it is an interesting construct, and she'd rather like to know how Daine could even tell she was poking it. But she'll leave the questions to the Doctor, of course.

The Doctor nods, affirming the TARDIS's reassurances. "There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with you after what happened earlier, so there's no need for further examination," he tells her. He might have questions, but not right now.

"How about some tea, eh? Or cocoa?" he suggests kindly, and glances back at Andrew, giving a nod towards the doors leading to the kitchen. His distracting and slightly accusatory questions aren't really helping.

He also sends the TARDIS some comforting vibes, to counteract Daine's distress. Everything's fine, not to worry.

Daine frowns. She hadn't felt anything when the TARDIS had gone into her mind in the first place (until she hit the wall, anyway), and can only take her word for it that she's not still in there. It's not that she thinks the TARDIS is lying to her, but being unable to tell for certain that she's telling the truth makes it difficult for Daine to relax. The wall is still in place, at least - she can feel that much. If she was calm enough to meditate, she could check it for damage, but that will have to wait until she's back at the base.

Despite her continued uneasiness, she doesn't miss how the Doctor's going out of his way to reassure her. She lowers her hands into her lap and straightens out of the defensive hunch she'd curled into. She might still feel like bolting back into the Ramble, but at least she doesn't have to look like she's about to. "What's cocoa?" she asks, grateful for the distraction.

It comes to Andrew only belatedly that he's not doing much to calm Daine down. He feels sort of superfluous, really, and certainly out of the loop, though at least now that he's seen the readings he probably has close to as much information as either the TARDIS or the Doctor on what's going on in Daine's head.

He doesn't want to leave the console room when all this is going on, but he can hardly miss the Doctor's suggestion. "You'll like it," he tells Daine, forcing a smile. "It's chocolate you drink. I'll just go...make some. Now. In the galley. I'll be back." He gives the console a pat before reluctantly turning to scuttle off through the doorway, hoping the TARDIS will at least put the galley close.

Edited 2013-03-31 17:58 (UTC)

And of course she does, wanting to be nothing but helpful. She does think rather disapprovingly that some humans are just so skittish, but she likes Daine and is perfectly aware of what a delicate matter minds are, so she doesn't hold it against her. Besides, she hates to make any guest of hers uncomfortable.

The Doctor's reassurance is making her feel better already and the smaller lights in the walls twinkle kindly, hopefully helping to distract Daine rather than spooking her again. She also spares a comforting nudge for Andrew in the kitchen. That's everyone taken care of, right?

Yes, everyone's happy or busy. Good. The Doctor smiles encouragingly at Daine. "One of my favourite human inventions, cocoa. Chocolate in itself is pretty brilliant, but then they made chocolate you can drink," he tells her, straightening up and going back to the console, cheerfully latching on to the distraction himself.

"And edible ball bearings. Just these tiny silvery balls of sugar put on top of cakes, for no other reason than to be decoration on food. Amazing," he rambles about a familiar subject. Though he may be getting a little (well, a lot) stir crazy and tired of this place, so the excitement over these little human things is mostly for Daine's distraction.

Daine feels a brief pang of anxiety at Andrew's departure, but reminds herself that he did say he'd be right back. And with drinkable chocolate, no less. She has had chocolate before, though not in her realm - Yuri had been aghast when he'd realized she didn't know what it was and had insisted she try it.

She leans back in the chair, feeling a bit better now that the exam is over and done with, and lets the Doctor's chatter wash over her. She even manages a smile at the TARDIS's lights. It's quite pretty, now that she's less focused on the strangeness of it all. Her smile widens as it occurs to her, "Kitten would love it here. Prob'ly get into all manner of mischief, though," she adds, eyeing the console and imagining the little dragon clambering all over it.

Andrew finds the kitchen quickly and sets to work. It's a simple matter, of course, but it takes a little time to heat the milk. He puts in enough for everyone, including the TARDIS (even though he's not actually sure whether her humanoid interface eats and drinks), and then some. He tries not to think about his trouble with the console, or how abnormally normal it feels to be back here...but when he feels the TARDIS brush his mind he nudges back gratefully.

Edited 2013-03-31 22:54 (UTC)

The TARDIS has quite comfortably slipped into her usual role of observer, letting the Doctor entertain Daine and honestly probably getting a bit of a vacant look on her face as her focus drifts away from her humanoid form. The console hums contentedly to itself, glad that Daine is finally relaxing, even though she's talking about hypothetically letting loose some kind of mischievous kitten. She'd check her mind for clarification, but that's likely still off limits, and at this point she doesn't actually remember to just join the conversation herself. Instead, Andrew might notice a cabinet door popping open and revealing a package of Jammie Dodgers. Surely her Doctor won't mind them being used for a good cause.

Edited 2013-03-31 23:23 (UTC)

"No critters in the console room," he answers, lovingly flipping a few switches before going to flop down in the other chair. He glances up at the TARDIS's humanoid form and notices the vacant look, and gives a dismissive wave regarding it to Daine. "Don't worry, she does that."

"Anyway, we've got rooms for that. Got a whole zoo of endangered animals somewhere, not sure where it's got to. Oh, and the butterfly room, quite like that one. And there's bats living in the library. But none of them really venture in here. Well, in my time, anyway. Future me might've gotten lonely and gotten a cat again or something," he continues to ramble, not seeming too bothered about actually explaining.

Edited 2013-03-31 23:43 (UTC)

"Kitten's not a 'critter,' she's a dragon," Daine explains. "Skysong's her proper name. She wouldn't break anything, but she's very clever and curious." She rises from the chair so she can examine the console a bit more closely. Kitten would love it; there are few crystal-looking things that would probably light right up if the dragon did one of her whistling tricks.

The mention of the TARDIS containing a zoo piques her interest. "There are animals here?" She's not sure if she should be alarmed by the fact that the Doctor doesn't seem to actually know where they are. "Who's caring for them?"

Andrew turns when he hears movement in the kitchen, and obediently toddles over to see what the TARDIS has uncovered for him. A grin spreads across his face as he fishes out the biscuits and he lets out a cheerful, "Cheers!" for the TARDIS before remembering that the milk is about to burn and hurrying over to finish mixing the cocoa.

He emerges from the doorway a few minutes after he left, now burdened with a large tray on which he's put the coffee pot full of cocoa along with four mugs and the packet of Jammie Dodgers. The latter appears to have been opened and lightened; one might suppose he'd found it that way if it weren't for the fact that Andrew's still chewing. "Cocoa!" he announces through a mouthful of crumbs. "Which animals?" he adds after swallowing, having caught only the very last bit of their conversation.

Now that all the members of the group are back in the console room, it does occur to the TARDIS to join them as well, and life flows back into her physical form. She blinks once and tilts her head at Daine's question. "I am, of course." She doesn't think much of the idea of bringing a dragon inside, but then it could hardly be worse than the vortisaur, and Daine is likely more diligent about supervising her pets than the Doctor is.

When Andrew comes back up to the console dais, she turns to him and smiles, grateful that he thought to bring her a cup as well. It might not surprise anyone to know that she has a bit of a sweet tooth. "The ones in my zoos and gardens," she explains while relieving him of a mug and a biscuit.

The Doctor jumps to his feet and grabs two mugs, handing one of the to Daine, then takes the pot and pours for her first. "Careful, it's hot," he tells her, then pours for the TARDIS, Andrew, and finally himself. He also grabs a biscuit, considers it for a moment, then dips it in his cocoa before eating it.

"There's practically an entire ecosystem in here, so the animals mostly get along without help. Though, of course, the TARDIS looks after the ecosystem."

Daine turns to smile at Andrew upon his return, and accepts the mug from the Doctor with a quiet, "Thanks." She curls her fingers around the cup, enjoying the warmth, while she waits for the cocoa to cool a bit.

What the Doctor's describing sounds fascinating. The mages back home had been working on improving their majesties' menagerie with things like weather spells, to make each animal's exhibit as similar to its homeland as possible. If the TARDIS has managed something like that - or better - Daine would very much like to see it. If nothing else, she'd like to make sure the animals here are happy. She can't imagine they're being mistreated on purpose or anything unpleasant like that, but there might still be room for improvement.

"May I see it?" Daine asks. In case the answer is 'no,' she cautiously sends out her magic, listening for them. It's very strange at first: some of her friends outside the TARDIS are closer than any animals inside, and it takes her a few moments to reorient herself to the ship instead of the park. Once she has, her eyebrows creep up in surprise. She can hear the little bat colony in the library without trouble, but the menagerie is outside her range - which means it must be quite a distance away. Just how big is the TARDIS?

Andrew finds himself holding a tray with the pot, the biscuits, and his cup of cocoa on it. He frowns at the array as he realizes he can't drink his cocoa or eat any biscuits with his hands full, casts about for a moment or two, looking like he's thinking of setting it down on the console, and finally settles on putting it on one of the steps that lead up out of the console room. Problem (masterfully) solved, he takes up his mug and promptly burns his tongue on the too-hot liquid.

"'Course you can," he answers Daine, ignoring the fact that he is neither the TARDIS nor her pilot. "What's the use of having your own ecosystem if you can't show it off?"

The TARDIS is all about showing off, already deciding not to put the main zoo any closer so the Doctor has a tour to give. It's been a while since they've had someone new around to impress. And maybe that will lift Daine's unease about her dimensional transcendentalism and the Doctor can find out more about the girl's curious mind.

Speaking of which, the TARDIS is just about to try a sip of her cocoa when she feels a strange tingling tucking at her senses, a little like telepathy but not on any frequency she's ever seen. Then it occurs to her that the purpose of this disturbance may be unknown, but the texture of it isn't, and she fixes Daine with a surprised and slightly wary look. "What are you doing?"

The Doctor hides his annoyance at Andrew answering for him by taking a sip of the cocoa (avoiding burning himself mostly because he can stand higher temperatures), and just gives Daine a smile and a nod to affirm that he'd be happy to. He's about to comment on what sort of animals they have - some of them are from Earth, but the vast majority come from elsewhere - when the TARDIS asks Daine a question. He looks between the two of them with confusion, having not noticed anything himself.

Daine's pleased smile falters a little at the TARDIS's question, and she blinks at her in surprise. "Listening," she explains. "For the animals, I mean. I can hear the bats from here, but not the others."

Her brow furrows a little as she wonders how the TARDIS could tell she was doing anything; the only two-leggers back home who can feel when she's doing magic are mages, like Numair, and even he could only manage it when he was sharing her mind. "You said you weren't in my mind anymore," she says with a worried and somewhat accusatory frown.

"She's telepathic," explains Andrew probably too quickly, reaching down to grab the package of Jammie Dodgers and thrust it at Daine. There, biscuits, that should distract her. "Probably picked you up without meaning to."

Why is he making excuses? He doesn't want Daine upset, but if he were to pause and think about it, he'd be surprised at himself for understanding why she might be upset. He'd love to have the TARDIS take up residence in his head.

Once again Andrew will find himself the target of a rather queer look from the TARDIS, for his behavior and for making it sound like he was apologizing for her. There isn't anything to excuse, thank you very much.

That somewhat lofty disapproval carries over when she addresses Daine again. "I am not in your mind. You are in mine, in a manner of speaking. I comprise everything here." Maybe she hasn't yet entirely grasped how she's a ship and they're all currently inside of her. Not that Daine would be the first human to have trouble with that, and remembering the need for leniency in such matters makes her manner grow friendlier again. "I don't mind it, I was simply surprised because I was unfamiliar with your telepathy."

"I'm telepathic too, and I didn't notice," the Doctor points out to Andrew, returning to his seat, then expands on the TARDIS's explanation for Daine. "The TARDIS isn't just her," he points at the TARDIS's humanoid body, "She's this entire place. She's been my ship much longer than she's had a body to walk and talk with." Let's not consider the awkward implications of saying they're inside her - it doesn't really apply if you're primarily a sentient ship.

For a moment, Daine's surprised by Andrew's hasty explanation and having the little cakes thrust under her nose, but then the TARDIS's lofty tone makes it clear enough to Daine that she's made a fool of herself, somehow. She feels her face grow hot as she takes a Jammie Dodger.

Her blush deepens at the unneeded clarification that the TARDIS is a ship, too; she already understands that much. But a ship isn't an animal, so that doesn't explain how the TARDIS could have felt anything when Daine used her magic. "My magic only works on animals. I didn't think any of you would notice it."

Edited 2013-04-04 04:19 (UTC)

"You're not as sensitive," Andrew points out right back, taking a Jammie Dodger himself. It's a finder's fee, clearly. He sort of wishes it had been the Doctor rather than the TARIS who noticed, because then he could make a crack about the Doctor being an animal. He won't do that to the TARDIS, though, and not only because he thinks she probably wouldn't understand the joke.

"I am capable of noticing a great many things, particularly when they occur within my own structures," she explains more patiently than before, though she still doesn't see why that's so difficult to understand. "You may not have met anyone in your universe who is able to sense your telepathy, but that doesn't make it impossible."

She takes a sip of her cocoa, considering the matter further while enjoying the chocolatey taste. "I'm not certain I could feel it outside, it was rather faint even here." Maybe if she concentrated a lot, now that she knows what she'd be looking for, but it hardly seems like it would become necessary, so she shrugs it off and returns her attention to her drink. The Doctor's idea of dipping the biscuit inside strikes her as worth investigating.

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