[for rude_not_ginger] what you see will defy explanation

[galeforcehero]

When someone like Dorothy Gale is faced with a situation almost entirely beyond her control, it brings with it an obscene amount of stress. When it involves someone she cares about, it triples. And because she is the way she is, it stays internalized, churning around inside the pit of her stomach, and keeping her up at night. Since the Doctor

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[rude_not_ginger]

He's out in the vortex. Sometimes, he just sits out here, the TARDIS in stasis, and thinks. Sometimes, he sits in the library and reads and lets his mind go off to a variety of places, just remembering the things he does.

And sometimes, he plays ping-pong. He's set the table up near the console room so he can bounce the ball off of the wall and play with himself over and over and over again and not think at all. It's a brilliant strategy, until he hears the blip of an incoming message. He misses the ball's return and it hits him squarely in the forehead.

"Ow."

He picks up the phone and before he's even really registered it, he's set the TARDIS for Kansas. Dorothy's bedroom, to be precise.

[galeforcehero]

The TARDIS starts to materialize inside her bedroom, which is unusual even by Dorothy's standards of the word, but she doesn't hurry overmuch in what she's doing-- putting her jeans on, one leg at a time. By the time the familiar blue box has fully appeared, she's standing ready, her little silver key in her hand.

"You're out of your mind, landing inside the house." She closes the door behind her and strolls up the ramp, hanging her knapsack up on the coatrack as she passes, almost like an afterthought. When she pats the console hello and gives its pilot a great big hug, it's much more deliberate. "No way my Aunt and Uncle didn't hear that. I'm gonna have to explain to them what you were doing in my bedroom."

[rude_not_ginger]

He hugs her back, taking a little longer before he lets go than normal. He's missed her. He's missed her more than he'll probably admit to her. He gives her a smile, then a teasing shrug.

"Just as long as you don't tell them the truth," he says.

[galeforcehero]

"Oh, the tales I'll tell," she grins back, and pulls back just far enough to take his hands in hers and give them a squeeze. There's a beat of silence, then, where she momentarily considers what exactly she could say that Auntie Em would accept as truth. Uncle Henry would eventually conclude he just doesn't want to know.

"So, here's the deal, Stringbean," Dorothy declares with a mock grandiosity, leaning her hip against the console and gesturing gracefully around the room. "Obviously you and I both go a little cuckoo without each other around, and don't bother denying and trying to tell me that you're always cuckoo, I mean more so than usual. That's clearly not gonna work for either of us, so I propose we don't do that anymore. The being-apart-for-too-long, I mean. I've been thinking, and I really believe it's the best thing for our mental health."

[rude_not_ginger]

"You keep saying things like that, Dorothy Gale, and I'll start thinking you fancy me," the Doctor says, reaching out a finger to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear.

He certainly fancies her, but you won't catch him admitting that.

"I was thinking...Poosh."

[galeforcehero]

"And so what if I do? I don't see you complaining about it any." Before his hand leaves her ear, she turns her head quickly to press a quick peck to his palm. Those hands. Butterflies, every time. He's got to be crazy if he thinks she could just walk away from those hands. And then he says a word that she doesn't recognize, and she blinks.

"You're thinking what?" She smiles sideways at him. "Sounds like the sound you get dropping a watermelon into a swimming pool. What's Poosh?"

[rude_not_ginger]

Her kiss makes him smile. The simple intimacy of it.

Yeah, he's missed her a lot.

"It's a planet!" he says, grinning and racing away from her to circle the console. "The farthest planet in the Demawhore galaxy. Tragically named galaxy, yes, but they've got a lovely set of habitable planets, last of which is Poosh, which I think I mentioned! But! I've always wanted to go by there, but I never have. New place for the both of us, what do you say?"

[galeforcehero]

Dorothy can't help but laugh a little at the unfortunate name of the galaxy, but it's hardly their fault that it means something unsavory in English. It's such a tricky language, anyway. She bounces over to the opposite side of the console from the Doctor and circles her finger over a random switch.

"I say..." There's an instant where the desire to just flip it nearly wins her over, but she snatches her hand away and folds it behind her back just in time. "Absolutely. To Poosh!"

That's not something she's gonna get sick of saying anytime soon.

[rude_not_ginger]

He tugs on the brakes and holds on tight as the TARDIS begins throwing them about through the void. He wants to focus on Dorothy for a bit, he thinks, but moving, traveling, never stopping, that's them. Right now, he needs them to be themselves.

"Hold on tight!" he says.

[galeforcehero]

As if he even needs to tell her. If she isn't used to being tossed around the console room like a tennis ball at this point, she's at least learned to enjoy it. It's like a rollercoaster, only slightly less dangerous, and you don't end up in the same place you left from. Dorothy thinks it's way more fun that way.

There is a moment where she does nearly slide right across the floor, but clinging onto a piece of railing helps keep her upright until the TARDIS eventually lands, and calms to a standstill. Dorothy dusts off her jeans and beams warmly across the room to the Doctor.

"Never gonna get sick of that." It's less of a walk and more of a skip over to the coatrack near the door, where Dorothy gathers her trusty knapsack and slings it over her shoulder. She grabs her jacket on the way. "Poosh. Poosh Poosh Poosh. We get to see Poosh. It's not snowy, is it? Can we breathe on Poosh?"

...Okay, maybe she just likes saying 'Poosh'.

[rude_not_ginger]

"Of course we can breathe on Poosh!" he says, grinning at her madly. "We can breathe and hike and maybe not swim, not with the acid content, but we can certainly see the sights."

He hops around and grabs his coat before hopping back to grab her hand.

"Allons-y," he says.

[galeforcehero]

Of the many things she's never going to admit to the Doctor (at least out loud), probably number three on the list is not knowing what 'allons-y' actually means. The first two are things that will not be listed here, for reasons of totally derailing this thread into a place that frankly the Doctor does not want to go.

At any rate, that little mischievous spark takes its rightful place in Dorothy's eye, and once he's got his hand where it's supposed to be (in hers, naturally), she practically drags him out the door.

She does her best to never have expectations of the planets they land on, but somehow they're always exceeded, no matter what. Once her silver shoes make contact with the rust-red silt-like earth coating the ground of Planet Watermelon-In-Pool-Onomatopoeia, she stops to close her eyes and take a deep breath. Every single planet has a different turn, an individual vibration. It breathes differently, and maybe it's a little indulgent, but Dorothy absolutely loves to just stop and listen to it a little once she gets

[rude_not_ginger]

"I don't know," he admits. "I think we should definitely find out."

He takes her hand and starts towards the hills. Poosh is brand new to him. He saved the moon, once, but the rest of it is exciting and spectacular. He grins at the sky and the sights, ecstatic.

"And red is an excellent term for it. Ruby, maybe? Nah, red is more concise."

[galeforcehero]

"I'd say it's more... vermilion." And that vermilion dirt beneath their feet seems so rich and moist, it's like the kind of potting soil you can get from the highest of high-end plant nurseries. It seems like it'd be the kind of earth that all kinds of flora would flourish in-- but there doesn't seem to be much of anything, other than the weed-like dark green shrubs. Interesting.

"Doctor," Dorothy pipes up as she hustles along towards one of the higher hills. A better vantage point would help immensely. "Is Poosh s'posed to be inhabited? Or did we just land in the middle of their version of the Sahara? 'Cuz aside from these plants, I'm not feeling a whole lot of... well, life."

[rude_not_ginger]

"It is, actually," he says, surprised. Poosh, while having a lovely silly name, was supposed to be one of the most densely forested areas in the universe. It was part of the reason he wanted to bring Dorothy.

The Doctor hadn't even thought about that, he'd been so wrapped up in the newness of the world. He pulls out his sonic and gave the dirt a wave.

"Highly nutrient rich," he says. "Even a plethora of mycorrhizal fungi strands, but no plants attached. Nothing but these shrubberies.

[galeforcehero]

"And there's a lot of them. But nothing else wants to grow..." Dorothy crouches down for a second, gathers up a loose palmful of earth. Peering very closely at it, she wonders. Maybe... She gives it a sniff, and then drops it right back where she found it. Dusting off her hands, she stands, and takes a deep breath.

"Okay! Well, I'm stumped. Maybe we oughta find some people? I don't think I'm gonna get any answers from the shrubs." Not that she's asked-- it's just something about the area gives her the creeps, and she's just the tiniest bit afraid of what they might have to say.