Today We Get Pulled Off Course

[tendoctor]

Who:  The Doctor and Rose
Where:  Inside the TARDIS on it's way to Sunnydale (unbeknown to our intrepid friends!)
When:  It'll be afternoon when they arrive, so let's go with that
What:  The Doctor and Rose get pulled to Sunnydale to help out
Status:  Incomplete

Comments

[tendoctor]

"Actually, we would probably be beheaded, or just lynched, if the crowds were feeling particularly itchy at the moment." He had accidentally popped into the French Revolution once and almost lost his head for his troubles. It had not been pleasant at all. He'd rather avoid a repeat of the experience, thank you!

He was getting ready to set the controls to the seventeen fifties in France when the TARDIS lurched violently and almost knocked the both of them off of their feet. Yes, every ride is different, but it certainly wasn't supposed to do THAT!

"No, Rose, not usually," he admitted, going to the controls and fussing with them, trying to make them do something that they were supposed to, but they seemed to have developed a mind of their own, and was going to take them wherever they deemed necessary.

Another violent lurch knocked the Doctor right off his feet this time, sending him flying into Rose as they both crashed to the floor. "Sorry about that," he said. "I think the TARDIS is deciding where we're going today." And they seemed to be in for a bumpy ride toward it.

[rosecompanion]

Rose's eyes widened as she held on to the rail, literally for dear life. She trusted the Doctor, sure, but sometimes she didn't exactly trust his 'time machine,' which the Doctor had insinuated was actually alive. And she definitely believed that now.

She was flung into the control panel, keeping her hands up so she wouldn't accidentally press one of the buttons or knobs that did who-knows-what. She didn't have long to think about grabbing onto the rail when the Doctor was thrown into her, both of them crashing to the floor.

She made an 'ooof' sound, looking up at him as the TARDIS was still flinging them around. "It's okay," she said, pulling herself back up, gripping the rail even tighter. "I hope the TARDIS is taking us to another beach. Maybe it thinks we need another vacation?"

She could only hope. But, with their luck, it was probably taking them to some crazy planet, where all its inhabitants wanted to kill them. It certainly wouldn't be the first time. The TARDIS seemed to be bumping along even more forcefully and worry creased her brow, "Doctor? Is this going to stop anytime soon? And hopefully not explode?"

[tendoctor]

He pulled himself off the floor and grabbed onto a railing with her, since, the last time he had went for the controls, the TARDIS had thrown him away from them. Maybe it sensed that they were needed somewhere? It wouldn't be the first time something like that had happened. Did it always have to be something of a bumpy ride when it realized these things, though?

"Oh, I'm sure it will stop any time now," the Doctor said quickly to Rose as they continued to fly about in the ship. "Not so sure I can promise the part about not exploding, though." He didn't think it would explode, though, if that meant anything. Probably not.

Another final lurch knocked him down again before it finally stopped with a loud 'thud' that could easily be heard within the ship and for possibly miles away outside of it. He pulled himself off the floor *again* and went to look at the controls to see if they would tell him where they were at all. "I...actually have no idea where we're at," he admitted, frowning at the controls for a second before smiling again and looking back over at Rose. "Let's have a looksie outside and see then, shall we?"

He didn't hear anything outside, so that at least meant that there wasn't a horde waiting for them outside. This place had survived a mongol horde before, but that didn't mean that he wanted to do that again. He walked over to the door and popped it open, taking a peak outside.

It looked like they were in about what Rose's time was, but it wasn't England at all. Too sunny for that. "I think we're in America," he said, turning back to look at her again for a second. "Well, let's go and explore!" He was curious to see just what was out there. He didn't immediately recognize the place, but that didn't mean too much to him.

[rosecompanion]

Rose gripped the rail tightly, watching the Doctor with worry creasing her brows. Sometimes he didn't seem quite so sure himself about everything that was happening. "I'd really rather not explode today, Doctor," she told him, in a bit of a panicky voice.

She lost her grip to her now sweating, panicky hands and slipped to the floor with the biggest lurch. But, thankfully, the TARDIS seemed to finally stop. And now the biggest question: where did they land?

"Oh, great," she said, not mirroring the Doctor's eagerness to jump right outside. Something horrible and deadly was usually waiting on the other side of those doors. She pushed herself up off the floor as the Doctor opened the door, preparing for the worst. But, thankfully, all seemed well.

"Ooh, sunny? Did the TARDIS really take us to the beach again, then?" she said, eagerly with a hopeful grin. She dashed over to him to peer outside. "This place looks so….normal," she said with some surprise. "America, really? I've always wanted to go. Not that's it all that exotic, but my mum and I were always too poor to take the stereotypical touristy trip."

She nodded to him with a smile, "Let's go," she said, taking a step outside to get a better look, "Maybe we're in Florida or California," she suggested, judging by the weather.

[tendoctor]

The Doctor looked around for a moment "Maybe," he said about them maybe being at a beach. "And if you haven't been there, then it's plenty exotic," he pointed out to her "Sure, it may not be Paris, but you can have plenty of fun in America that doesn't all revolve around going to Disneyland and getting Mickey ears." He looked at her, cracking a smile at the thought of her wearing the little mouse ears.

"Oh, now that it looks like we're near a beach, you're all about exploring, huh?" He was teasing her, mostly. He didn't blame her for not having quite his 'devil may care' attitude about finding something to explore no matter how weird it might be or how dangerous. It was just kind of the way that he was.

He took a deep breath and smelled the air, and then started coughing a bit "OK, I think we might be in California," he told her. "I thought only Los Angeles was supposed to have the smoggy bits." Sometimes even the Doctor learned something new about a place. He was fairly sure that this place was a little too small to be Los Angeles, though.

"Hmm...think we should ask someone where we are?" he asked Rose, turning to look at her again. "Or would that be too weird?" Then again, this was California as far as he could tell. Was anything really that weird for a place like that?

[rosecompanion]

"We should go to Disneyland, so I can get Mickey ears for Mickey," Rose laughed, knowing Mickey would either be pleased she got him a gift or insulted just because he could be. He was so hard to please these days. Of course, he could just be generally angry that she was still gallivanting around with the Doctor. But, this was her life, not his.

She shrugged her shoulders, pursing her lips, though she knew the Doctor was teasing, "So? Sue me if I don't want to go running into some horrible aliens right away. Then again, knowing our luck, I'd run out to the beach and find some scary lobster monster." And that prospect really wasn't too farfetched in their lives.

She watched as he inhaled the air and did so herself. The place smelled pretty normal in her opinion. Well, it smelled like earth. Like a city on earth. Kind of like London, actually. "I don't smell anything," she said, honestly, "It smells normal to me. I guess I need enhanced alien nostrils to smell what you smell."

She nodded, realizing they had landed in some form of a park. There were a few people running or throwing a frizbee for their dog. "Sure, couldn't hurt." She stepped up to a man sitting on a bench, "Hi, 'scuse me," she said, "But, could you tell me what city or town this is?"

The man quirked an eyebrow at her, "Sunnydale, California."

Rose looked at the Doctor and shrugged since she never really heard of it, "And the date?" she asked the man.

"It's Tuesday, September 13, 2006," the man told her.

"Oh! So it's my time," she said, smiling and glad that she didn't have to adapt to anything too crazy. The man stared at the odd pair before returning to his book. She moved back to the Doctor, "So, should we explore or something? Get a bite?"

[tendoctor]

"Oh, I'm sure Mickey would LOVE it if you brought him back Mickey Mouse ears," the Doctor said with a slight chuckle. He also wasn't sure if it would make Mickey happy that she thought of him or miff him in some way or another like Mickey could get upset always. He sort of understood why the boy got angry with Rose and him for always running off, but, at the same time, he had offered to bring him along once and he had said no, so what could he do? Really?

"Oh! Don't you worry. No lobster monsters live on this world!" he told her with a grin. Sure, they live on a few other ones, but, as long as they weren't being invaded by them this week, she would be more than safe from any sort of lobster monsters. "Now, if we went to some of their home planets, then we might have to worry a bit."

He merely watched amused as she went about and asked for the city and date of the place. Of course, she could have ran about and grabbed a newspaper like he did usually, but it was fun to see if she would actually do it, and to watch the confusion on the other man's face as he had a pretty blond girl asking him for information that she should rightly know.

He smirked at her when she came back, asking if they should explore or get a bite to eat. "I think a bite to eat sounds lovely," he said to her. "I'm sure we can get a good old American cheeseburger or pizza or something of the like."

[rosecompanion]

Rose saw his expression as she headed back to him and playfully hit him in the arm, "Hey, picking up a newspaper is so boring. It's more fun to talk to the locals and make them a bit weirded out," she grinned. "That man probably thought we got hit on the head and have amnesia."

She linked her arm with his, noticing they'd arrived just as the sun was about to set, as they walked down the sidewalk. She glanced back at the TARDIS, trying to remember the exact spot they parked it, although she figured the Doctor could find it anywhere no matter where he left it.

"Cheeseburgers sound really good," she agreed as she took in the park around them before the two came to a main street. She spotted what looked like a fast food restaurant up ahead. She squinted her eyes, "DoubleMeat Palace?" she read the name as they neared. "Looks like they have cheeseburgers," she said with a slight shrug, "And it looks very American."

She looked up at him, "How 'bout it, Doctor?"

[tendoctor]

He just grinned at her when she hit him in the arm. "It is kind of fun to weird people out, isn't it?" He had been doing it for pretty much as long as he could remember. People usually did kind of look weirdly at you and think that you were a little light in the head when you walked around asking where you were and what the date was. Well, if you were lucky enough to land somewhere that didn't like, burn weird people at the stake. Those were always more trying times.

He would remember exactly where he had parked the TARDIS. He always did, after all. It was only when it got moved by someone else or it fell into the earth or something like that that there could be a problem of some sort. Hopefully, nothing of the sort would happen here. Usually the TARDIS was looked over by humans, unless they were smart and observant enough to catch it. In America, though, people tended, more often than not, to blame anything odd looking on being some sort of weird 'modern art' type of thing. Good for them, right?

He looked up at the fast food place that she was looking at. "DoubleMeat Palace...so does that mean a burger with two meats or something?" That sounded a little strange, but no stranger than anything else that he had eaten on other worlds. If Rose knew some of the things that he had sampled, she would just about lose her head over it.

"Sure, let's go inside and get something to eat then." Good for them that he kept some twentieth century American money on him, huh?

[rosecompanion]

Her stomach rumbled in anticipation. "Of all the places I ever thought you would take me, I definitely didn't dream about a fast food restaurant in America," she joked as the two headed inside.

Rose shrugged as he questioned what 'DoubleMeat' actually meant, "Beats me. It's probably best we don't think about it too hard and just enjoy our food rubbish."

She stepped up to the counter, trying desperately not to snicker at the bird/cow hat the poor cashier was wearing. Thankfully, she had never been in such dire straits that she was forced to work somewhere like this. Just boring old uniform-less retail for her, which was almost just as bad. Almost.

"I'll take a medley meal with a…Coke," she said, glancing up at the Doctor and waiting for him to order, suddenly realizing she didn't have American money. But, since the Doctor wasn't worried, she assumed he did.

[tendoctor]

"Can't say I imagined that I'd be taking you to one either," the Doctor admitted to her as they walked inside. He wasn't much on American fast food, but, then again, food was food, and he'd had plenty of strange food in his day. A combination of cow and chicken together, though, had yet to be one of them. He was obviously going to change that today, though.

"I'll have the same as her, actually," he said, fishing a twenty out of his pocket and handing it to the clerk, who quickly gave them their change. Fun thing about all the traveling that he had done in his lifetimes(s) was that he had collected all sorts of different monies, and kept them all in his pockets (Timelord technology allowed for very spacious pockets).

The clerk handed them two cups and pointed over to the large coke machine for them to fill up their own cups with soda. "Apparently we do this ourselves here," he muttered, more to himself than to Rose. He walked over and got himself a cup full of coke and took a sip. Soda wasn't really to his taste, but it was better than nothing.

"Now we just wait until our number is called on this little ticket," he said, looking at it for a second and memorizing the number.