This is going to be a lovely cycle of indignant, until one of them figures out what's going on.
"I wasn't looking," she scowls. "I can't help reading what's right on the surface. And anyway, I saw her taking the doodle angel back to the medical room. So there."
The Doctor really shouldn't be annoyed as he is, but he doesn't stop to consider that the cause of his annoyance might be something outside himself. Instead, he just stuffs the phone back in his pocket and glares at her.
"Well, you go barging into someone's mind once, they're going to make assumptions the next time they see you. Lesson you ought to have learned before now."
She's angry and anger doesn't function well in her brain (the Alliance tried to take it out - it wasn't conducive to a good weapon), so it's getting her all twisted 'round, too. She doesn't like when she gets crazier.
"I had to!" she shouts at him. "I had to know what to do! And you ran away like a scared little girl, so someone had to do it!"
"I have to!" She sounds a little like she's about to cry. "I have to get back. Need my crew. Go all topsy turvy and I'm going to fall off, brainpan's not right, I need them!"
She does, really. She won't actually stay sane(ish) here for long unless she has them. She can't keep hold on herself. Can't keep a sense of where she ends and the rest of the world begins.
"Well, you can't! I'm sorry, but you're stuck just like the rest of us." The Doctor stops and blinks, realizing that the anger and frustration he's feeling isn't his. At all.
Really, he should know better than this, and may be internally facepalming at himself.
"Wait, wait, wait," he says, flailing his hands at her. "Stop. Just stop it."
Because that explains absolutely everything, Doctor.
Actually, April's mind calls them "ellipses", and she sorta loses track on why she was ellipsing at him because there's a trail of dots and where are they leading, anyway?
Off. Out of her head. Reaching out to feel... too much. And then the dots scatter and she can't follow them back, and she doesn't have 'Lanna or Mark or Ryan to call her back and she's just sort of staring vacantly at the Doctor because her mind's up and gotten lost.
This doesn't normally happen. Because normally, she has her "family" to anchor her.
Too many new minds, drowning out the one she should recognize, the one she could latch on to. Not good.
"Oh, no you don't," he says, snapping his fingers in front of her face in an attempt to get her back. "Come on back. Please. I don't want to have to go find you."
He's really not in the mood to go poking around other people's heads right now. Especially not a psychic girl's.
He has no idea how much he doesn't want to go poking around in April's head. She's shattered. Literally shattered. The Alliance pretty much set the bull loose in the china shop, in her head, and didn't even bother trying to put it back together, except what basic things they needed for their own purposes.
She's put herself together, a bit, but it's like a little kid who's sort of good at puzzles trying to fix a shattered plate with stellotape.
It's cracked and confusing and April can hardly find her way around in it.
But she's lost, and she can't figure out where she's supposed to go back to, even though she knows she should, and she's scared. But she doesn't want to freak out. Because Ryan would want her to be brave. So instead, there's a mental string of Chinese that would make the most crude and hardened criminal raise their eyebrows in shock.
The Doctor watches her for a moment, trying to determine whether he'll be able to get away with giving her a minute to come back... No, apparently not.
With a sigh, he rests his fingers lightly on her temples, and closes his eyes. "Normally, I'd ask permission, but I don't think you're in a fit state to give it. But, like they say, easier to ask forgiveness..."
He steps inside her mind, and instantly his entire body tenses. It's wrong, and it's broken, and oh, he is angry. "Come on... where are you?"
She senses it, just a bit, the shift as someone else comes in. And at first, her instinct is to panic, stay away. They've found her, they're coming for her, they want her back.
But it doesn't feel right for them. It's just... too cuddly. She reaches out, blindly, trying to find her way back to it. Back to her.
"Shh," he says softly, eyes still closed, fingers still lightly against her temples. "It's alright, I'm right here."
His instinct is to fix her, to patch everything back together, but she's so shattered that he doesn't even know where to start. Pulling her back seems like a good start, though.
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And then he turns to look at her, giving her a slightly indignant look.
"Didn't anyone ever tell you to stay out of people's heads?"
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This is going to be a lovely cycle of indignant, until one of them figures out what's going on.
"I wasn't looking," she scowls. "I can't help reading what's right on the surface. And anyway, I saw her taking the doodle angel back to the medical room. So there."
Sometimes, April really is fourteen.
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"Well, you go barging into someone's mind once, they're going to make assumptions the next time they see you. Lesson you ought to have learned before now."
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She's angry and anger doesn't function well in her brain (the Alliance tried to take it out - it wasn't conducive to a good weapon), so it's getting her all twisted 'round, too. She doesn't like when she gets crazier.
"I had to!" she shouts at him. "I had to know what to do! And you ran away like a scared little girl, so someone had to do it!"
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She does, really. She won't actually stay sane(ish) here for long unless she has them. She can't keep hold on herself. Can't keep a sense of where she ends and the rest of the world begins.
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Really, he should know better than this, and may be internally facepalming at himself.
"Wait, wait, wait," he says, flailing his hands at her. "Stop. Just stop it."
Because that explains absolutely everything, Doctor.
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Blink.
"Huh?"
Yeah, she's real eloquent.
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Yeah, he's not good at that whole "explaining" thing. Pretty much ever.
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Lots of them.
Actually, April's mind calls them "ellipses", and she sorta loses track on why she was ellipsing at him because there's a trail of dots and where are they leading, anyway?
Off. Out of her head. Reaching out to feel... too much. And then the dots scatter and she can't follow them back, and she doesn't have 'Lanna or Mark or Ryan to call her back and she's just sort of staring vacantly at the Doctor because her mind's up and gotten lost.
This doesn't normally happen. Because normally, she has her "family" to anchor her.
Too many new minds, drowning out the one she should recognize, the one she could latch on to. Not good.
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He's really not in the mood to go poking around other people's heads right now. Especially not a psychic girl's.
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She's put herself together, a bit, but it's like a little kid who's sort of good at puzzles trying to fix a shattered plate with stellotape.
It's cracked and confusing and April can hardly find her way around in it.
But she's lost, and she can't figure out where she's supposed to go back to, even though she knows she should, and she's scared. But she doesn't want to freak out. Because Ryan would want her to be brave. So instead, there's a mental string of Chinese that would make the most crude and hardened criminal raise their eyebrows in shock.
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With a sigh, he rests his fingers lightly on her temples, and closes his eyes. "Normally, I'd ask permission, but I don't think you're in a fit state to give it. But, like they say, easier to ask forgiveness..."
He steps inside her mind, and instantly his entire body tenses. It's wrong, and it's broken, and oh, he is angry. "Come on... where are you?"
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But it doesn't feel right for them. It's just... too cuddly. She reaches out, blindly, trying to find her way back to it. Back to her.
Help me!
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His instinct is to fix her, to patch everything back together, but she's so shattered that he doesn't even know where to start. Pulling her back seems like a good start, though.
"Just follow my voice."
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