Comments | aternatopia: At a crossroads

owingnobody in aternatopia

At a crossroads

Jan 23, 2011 22:48

Who: Nobody Owens, and OPEN (with a hope for one Rose Tyler)
What: ...I don't even know anymore
Where: Standing in the middle of the street. Thankfully, there aren't a whole lot of cars in a hurry, or he'd be a pancake
When: Sometime on Sunday. Maybe just after dark
Status: Open, incomplete

( Peter Pan and Batman was probably not the best combination. )

*status-incomplete, nobody owens, !open, rose tyler

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notthelostgirl January 27 2011, 06:32:46 UTC

Rose was trying to make the best of her (hopefully temporary) stay in Aternaville. She hadn't needed to find herself a job yet, living comfortably on the contents of her bank accounts, but the resulting surplus of free time meant that she was very often bored. So, for lack of a better idea, she returned to the spot in the park where she had first arrived, lingering like some sort of lost puppy awaiting the return of her owner.

She was walking back from her near-daily vigil when Rose noticed the figure in the street. Sure, the town was fairly small and the roads were never terribly busy, but that didn't stop her stomach from filling with dread; she had seen too many people lost in accidents in places like this. "Hey! It's dangerous to be standin' there."

owingnobody January 31 2011, 02:52:51 UTC

At the sound of the voice, Bod's stomach jumped. He knew that voice, was so well acquainted with it... but he already knew it wasn't the woman he'd known, that he'd been so close to. Closing his eyes, he looked up at the sky. "I take it back, Aternaville," he whispered. "This, I'm not ready for."

Then, with a sigh, he looked down, then back at her. How had Harry dealt with this, with his own mother? Twice? "Sorry," he said, as he approached her. "But sometimes, I like standing in the middle of the street. It's almost like... like you can see off into the distance, and the whole of the world spreads out before you, and you could just... start walking, and the potential for adventure is simply endless..." Arriving at the curb, he stepped up to face her. "Hullo, Rose Tyler," he said. "I'm Bod."

notthelostgirl February 12 2011, 08:53:18 UTC

"Why don't you? Just take off, go for it." It was utterly irresponsible for Rose to say it, to suggest that he leave family and school for the unknown, but she couldn't help herself. The feeling that he'd described was one that she knew well. It was the same one that she got whenever she opened the TARDIS doors and later with every jump. "There's so much out there, things that are lovely or terrible or just plain mad, but all wonderful in their own way."

The knot in her stomach loosened when he was safely out of the street. "Hello, Bod." She ducked her head, smiling sheepishly. "Sorry for not rememberin' you. Suppose we have time travel to thank for that, makin' things complicated."

owingnobody February 13 2011, 05:22:47 UTC

Bod almost smiled. Almost. It was Rose, pure Rose, but it was Rose... before the Doctor had left her. Before she started 'hibernating' and never leaving the house. It was the Rose with the adventurous spirit, who had run off with the Doctor in the first place. He thought it would hurt to see her, but... seeing her like this, it was good. He hoped that his Rose, wherever she'd gone to, had reclaimed this spark ( ... )

notthelostgirl February 14 2011, 00:59:16 UTC

Rose grinned. She was curious, of course, about what he had stopped his wanderlust--finding purpose, love, a home--but it didn't really matter; he seemed more than content with what he'd found. "Good for you."

"What?" She glanced down; she hadn't given her marital status much thought since arriving. "Oh, I'm not." She paused, shaking her head. "Or I am. I don't know. It's complicated."

"I don't think the Doctor knows, so if you wouldn't tell him..." Her relationship with the Doctor was still awkwardly uncomfortable, even with Rose acting as if she were totally fine with the situation; that particular titbit would surely upset the tentative equilibrium they had reached. "Not that I'm askin' you to lie to him. Just..." She bit her lip. "Please don't mention it to him."

owingnobody February 15 2011, 02:39:36 UTC

Bod's stomach twisted, unaccountably. Her grin reminded him so much of Rose, but her reaction... it was such a sharp contrast to that day in the Teaspoon, when she'd kicked him in the shins for being awkward, and he'd told her... she was the first person he told, when he'd realized he was in love. Well, the second, but the first other person he'd told. Lulu hadn't even known, but that was hardly his fault, now was it? She had a certain best friend that Bod had assumed would tell her everything.

Of course she wouldn't have the same reaction. She hardly knows me.

As for the Doctor, well, that was a non-issue. "I'm not going to tell him anything," he said staunchly. "He left you here. Well. The other you. So he's not on my list of favorite people, really." He hadn't had the emotional attachment to the Doctor that he'd had to Rose.

notthelostgirl February 16 2011, 10:59:57 UTC

"I'm sure he had a good reason." Or at least what he thought was a good reason. Rose knew the Doctor, better now than she ever had while traveling with him, but she remembered being the girl on the spaceship, the one that had waited but still wondered. "Even if I didn't realise it then."

Her lips quirked up in amusement; he must have been fond of the her that'd come before. "Thank you, though."

She knew that the Doctor's strong personality tended to elicit equally strong reactions, both positive and negative, but she was also a firm believer in second chances. "Have you met the Doctor that's here now? He's... a different man. Maybe you'll like this him."

owingnobody February 20 2011, 05:16:42 UTC

Bod shrugged off her thanks. It would be hard to explain, without seeming creepy. Not the first time he met her. "No, I haven't met him," he said. "The thing is... I liked that him, too. He was... brilliant. I can see why people would drop everything to travel with him." With a sigh, he shoved his hands into his pockets. "I can also see how one of those people could spend years of her life thinking about him. Lose years, really. You can't take a person-- or, or, whatever he is-- like him halfway. And that's dangerous, isn't it?"

notthelostgirl February 22 2011, 08:46:16 UTC

Her lips pressed together into a thin line of disapproval. "If by 'person', you mean someone that you shouldn't judge just because he may not be human, then yes." Rose kicked herself off of her imaginary soapbox. This wasn't London, wasn't even in the same universe, and it wasn't fair for her to expect Bod to be used to all the madness that she took for granted in her life ( ... )

owingnobody February 22 2011, 21:34:13 UTC

Bod looked stunned as she snapped at him. "I didn't mean it like that," he said, putting his hands up defensively. "I only meant..." he trailed off. The Rose he knew would have known how he meant it, if only because she knew where he came from.

He accepted her apology with a silent nod that did little to ease his bruised expression. "I know you don't know me," he said quietly. "But I am the last person to judge someone who isn't entirely human." Clarice was proof enough of that, and she WAS human. Mostly. In fact, for most of his life, it had been the humans who mistreated him... Rose had understood that. And she'd understand it again, if you just tell her... But it all just felt so... Futile, all of a sudden. Could he dare to open up to this person a second time, knowing how much it hurt when they were suddenly gone ( ... )

notthelostgirl March 6 2011, 09:37:07 UTC

Seeing his reaction, Rose bit her lip, wishing she could take back her harsh words. You'd think age would have mellowed her reactions, taught her to think before she spoke, but apparently not in any useful ways.

God, she could really be an idiot.

She considered her answer carefully; she had hurt him thoughtlessly, and the least she could do was give him the best answer that she could. Her younger self would have been heartbroken, undoubtedly, but well and truly broken? Tyler women were no strangers to loss. "I think so, yeah, especially with a friend about."

Rose stepped back towards the park; the night was young and returning to her empty hotel room had lost its appeal. "Didn't mean to keep you." She paused, staring up at the sky. "I know how hard it is to meet a person that looks and acts like someone you care about, but isn't that person. I'm sorry that I'm not her."

(I am so sorry this is so late.)

owingnobody March 8 2011, 05:38:48 UTC

Bod shifted his weight awkwardly. "Ah, no..." he said, with a little sigh. "You shouldn't have to apologize. This isn't your fault. I..." he squinched up his face a bit, the stiff formality of his accent becoming more pronounced as he searched for the proper words to express himself. "...in every way that counts, you are her. And if I had never known her- you- before, this conversation would not be so awkward." Shoving his hands in his pockets, he lifted his sober gray eyes to meet her gaze. "The first time I met you-- you and the Doctor-- I told you about myself. Where I'd come from. And you were the first people, the first people I ever told, because it was so strange and because..." Because it hurt so much to be called a monster... Shaking his head, he said, "But you accepted it. And you accepted me. And because of that, I was able to tell more people- was able to share a part of myself that I never was able to before." The corner of his lips quirked, a tiny glimmer of a smile that seemed even more dramatic against the gravity of ( ... )

notthelostgirl March 21 2011, 07:43:52 UTC

Rose turned back to him with a half-shrug. "Maybe not, but it's not like this place'll be giving you one. And, let's face it, the situation kinda sucks."

"I'm glad that they--" She wrinkled her nose; time travel was always hard on the pronouns. "--we could help." It was gratifying to hear that her teenage self had had such a positive impact on Bod's life.

She shook her head. "Don't feel like you have to tell me anything. I can't promise to be the same. I was so young when you knew me, and time changes a person. Hopefully it's for the better, but it's still change." She dipped her head, a self-deprecating smile on her lips. "Maybe I've gotten all old and judgmental, spending my days chasin' kids off my lawn."

owingnobody March 27 2011, 04:28:29 UTC

"Were you?" he asked. "Were you really so much younger?" It was hard to tell, really; she was older than he was, either way, but she was still young, pretty, and blonde. And just thinking it sent heat creeping up the back of his neck, so he coughed and said, "I won't lie. Part of me would be really interested to see you chasing kids off your lawn. Would you use a cane, and shake it at them?"

notthelostgirl April 2 2011, 08:42:44 UTC

"Literally? I dunno. I think I'm nearin' thirty now, which isn't too old. I mean, Mum was already raisin' me at that age." Though Jackie Tyler had never been in more wars (starting, ending, or just passing through) than she cared to count or watched a timeline fall apart.

But none of that had any place in this conversation, so Rose just smiled and added, "I've tried to put a lot of living in the years since, so maybe that counts for something."

She tilted her head, considering it. "It's a classic, so why mess with it?" She hunched over, mimicking a body bent with age, and put on her best 'crotchety old man' voice. "Hey, you lot, geroff my lawn!" She brandished her invisible cane at imaginary vandals. "An' don't come back!"

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