(no subject)
I saw the Doctor Who contests community & joined it (as you do) I have a feeling that I'm about to become consumed, which is not a bad thing at all. Prompt was for "Vast" and this is what I came up with
Title: Vast
Characters: 10th Doctor, Reinette (The Girl In The Fireplace)
Rating: PG
Length: 500 words drabble
"Reinette, I need to look inside your mind to see why the Clockwork Men are after you," the Doctor said softly, bringing his palms up to either side of her forehead. He splayed his fingers against her pale skin and closed his eyes. "You've had some cowboys in here," he commented idly. Her mind exploded under his fingertips; fragments of memory and history swirling like the Vortex. The Doctor mentally sifted them - junk, gossip, the first time she'd seen him, her nightmares. The marks of the Clockwork Men were like jagged tears in the fabric of her thoughts, easy to follow, leading him right to the answer.
"Such a lonely boy." The Doctors' eyes snapped open, focusing on hers, "How are you doing that?" It shouldn't be possible for a human to slip into his thoughts. This mental contact was a gift of the Time Lords. No-one had slipped inside his mind since the Ma...he shook his head. Focus. Why were the Clockwork Men after Reinette?
"A door once opened may be stepped through either way," she reminded. Which was very poetic but didn't answer his question. The Doctor watched as she closed her eyes, feeling stumbling human footsteps walking amongst his thoughts.
"It is vast in here my lonely angel," she murmured, "So empty and alone." Images were sifted clumsily, like photographs being pushed suddenly, violently to the front of his mind. Under his bed back at home, crying. He was alone & the darkness was not yet beautiful. The Untempered Schism was the next day; Koschei was eager, he was terrified. The Pyrdonian Academy - Koschei in his Gallifreyan robes, stood perfectly still in the middle of the Great Hall while they bickered gently about politics. Koschei in his highest temper - the dark eyes that he had then, flashing with pure rage. The hurt he hadn't yet learnt to mask evident on his face. The Doctor mentally shied away from that image.
He felt Reinette dig around in his memories, like a blunt instrument. It hurt, but he drummed his fingers lightly against her temples, focusing on the task at hand. A knife twisted in his skull as the Time War flashed before his eyes. Time Lord bodies crumpled on the floors of the Citadels. Dalek spaceships.
Stars being born. Stars collapsing to dust and nothingness. Planets, thousands of them, flashing before his eyes like a slideshow. Skaro, Gallifrey, Xaros 5, Earth. The beings on those planets who had died for him, in his name. The ones he'd left behind. The Doctor found himself choking on the memories.
Reinette had fallen silent. Even her thoughts came slower, shifting fractionally under his mental filing. "What is your mind Doctor? All these images...they are too much for one soul to bear. What do I see?"
The Doctor gently removed his fingers from her temples, taking a deep breath. He forced his eyes open, to focus on the woman in front of him. "All of time and space."