(Untitled)

[thetatrical]

A young man in flowing red robes is pacing the Nexus, head bowed slightly, hands clasped tightly behind him. There's a slight scowl on his lips,

Finally, he stops, straightens, lets his hands fall. His bearing is haughty and conflicted, pompous and vulnerable.

In clipped, aloof words, "Have you ever attempted to run away?"

Comments

[megthatcher]

"Never," says a woman dressed in a scarlet tunic. "Though you could say I ran to something."

[thetatrical]

"Oh? What was that?"

[megthatcher]

She gestures at her collar dogs. "The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, colloquially known as the Mounties."

[thetatrical]

His brow furrows. "Canada - Earth, yes?" A slight smile. "I rather like that one."

[packsakick]

A corner of his mouth quirks up in a half-grin. "At one point in my childhood I made a hobby of attempting it."

[thetatrical]

His lips curve, just slightly. "I imagine you caused quite a fuss."

[andiwilldie]

The Doctor smiles softly when he sees this younger version of himself. He hasn't been in the Nexus for very long, and this is the first such encounter he's had so far.

"Oh yes," he says, walking over. "All the time. Hasn't exactly been working out that well for me here lately, but... that's not important. Hello."

[thetatrical]

Theta peers at him, slightly disconcerted; there's a sense of...something like familiarity, hovering on the edges of his mind. "Hello." He's wary, but intrigued, and the latter always tends to win out.

"What went wrong?"

[andiwilldie]

"Ah, it's a, ah... well, it's a long story." The Doctor sighs a long sigh, during which he happens to be looking in a direction other than the one Theta is in. When he speaks again it is very slow and quiet.

"Someone who I thought was... a friend turned out to be anything but. I somewhat have found myself trapped, more or less." He turns back to Theta, this time smiling. "Though, I must say, suddenly finding myself with access to this place has somewhat lessened the whole 'trapped' bit!"

[thetatrical]

"It seems like it would." Theta knows the sort of smile. It's sincere enough, really, but there's so much churning beneath it, so much it conceals. It's a shallow sort of truth.

"It's tempting simply to stay here. Ignore everything."

[ppowerful]

In contrast, to the questioner, Molly is quite cheerful and friendly today. She beams down at him. (She's about twice her normal size at the moment, around 9 feet.) "Yep! I ran away twice. Have you?"

[thetatrical]

He looks up, eyes widening a bit.

"Yes, for a while. It didn't last."

[ppowerful]

"Why not? Are you glad it didn't?"

[thetatrical]

"...No. ...I don't know." He shakes his head. "It was a test, mostly. I wanted to know if I could come and go on my own terms."

[call_me_zed]

"I did." Says the non-brain eating zombie that looks human from his corner of a couch. At the moment, Zed sips from a cup of coffee. "Twice. Granted, I don't know if you count running back to get away from where you went the first time."

[thetatrical]

"...I'd call it bad taste, at least."

[call_me_zed]

"I call it realizing a mistake." He gives a wary glare at the man.

[thetatrical]

A faint smile. "That too. Thank goodness, too, a lot of people don't."