Eternal Contemplation
Title: Eternal Contemplation
Author: timsinister
Characters/Pairing: The Endless (Gaiman/DC Comics), the Doctor (indeterminate incarnation)
Rating: All/None
Spoilers: None
Summary: The Endless - known to the Time Lords as the Eternals - assemble to consider a certain renegade Time Lord
Disclaimer: Doctor Who and its characters belong to the BBC. The Endless were all created by Neil Gaiman and Co. for DC Comics.
To the lesser races of the Universe, the Time Lords were almost myths - the ancient civilisation of Gallifrey, self-declared Chronarchs, removed and detached from the universe they contemplated without intervention.
But even they have their own legends - myths, Gods of the old ways, that had influenced the earliest Gallifreyans when the universe was young. The Eternals, they were spoken of quietly if at all, even in this age of white-hot technology and limitless power the Time Lords had granted themselves.
Soon even had names - the Godesses of Time, of Pain, and of Death. When they deigned to intervene in the real world, from their otherworldly Eternity, they worked through their Champions. One of their most favoured mannequins was the renegade Time Lord to whom the very plight of the universe was owed...
----
As usual, Dream hovered on the edge of the group, deigning to pay no attention to the mortal creature that had momentarily fascinated his fickle family.
"Long-lived they may be - but even Time Lords die. You know this, Sister" he remarked, his voice drifting like a half-recalled memory, indistinct and whisphered.
The petite young girl he addressed shrugged, folding her pale arms and staring intently forwards. "He knows it better than anyone - but he carries on. You don't see that often." Her response was light-hearted, yet tinged with a kind of somber respect - like her appearence, a cheerful expression written on a chalk-pale face, fringed with hair dark as night.
"He loves to live. Those around him love him, despite the risk to their lives, despite everything in them telling them to leave - they stay, dancing around the flame of the Doctor like moths around a flame." Desire's brazen, sexual form writhed with barely-concealed glee, his or her beautiful features rapt in admiration. "He venerates me, as well he-"
Delirium pouted, twirling strands of her impossibly-coloured hair on her thin, long fingered hands. "Nonono, the Mad Man respects no one anymore, not since ever, always will...not since he chose to... stop wanting to need to...wait, when is he?" She pouted, her two differently-shaded eyes creasing in crazed confusion. "Time travel hurts my head."
Tutting in dismissal, the crouching flabby older sister shook her head. "You're wrong, Desire. And Delirium is right-" She was interrupted as the tiny Endless girl squealed, a whirl of multicoloured butterflies errupting into the air from her clothes "-yes, the Doctor resents authority, yet strives to exercise it. He loves his Companions, wants their company yes...but he hates himself for putting them in danger. A torn man, this Time Lord." The hooked ring on her finger moved slowly in the dim light of their conference, then absently slashed into her own cheek. "Something he hides from himself. Unless...someone brings it to the surface. Correct...Dream Lord?"
Despair's gaze was fixed on the older, apparently indifferent brother. Morpheus pursed his white lips, drew his black robe about his shoulders, and continued to gaze into the distance, away from his siblings. "You claim to be utterly uninterested, Dream. But you've meddled, brought more than ten lives of horror and guilt and hate up, and to what-?"
"Enough." The stentorian tones of Destiny cut across Despair's rasping query. "The Doctor has - knowingly or not, by his own volition or without his even knowing - paid court at each of our domains." The imposing, robed and hooded Endlss clutched the Book in one hand, gestured with the other, with his hidden face looking not at his siblings, nor their object of study but into the distance. "He has become one of the fewest inhabitants of their realm to have dealings with all of the Endless. He has been Champion of the very forces we are. He has become integral to the universe."
Destiny began to stride around his family, circling them, never setting a foot wrong though his blind face was never seen. "Consider him, Family. Ten Deaths, yet more alive, he Dreams of life and liberty, his actions become ever more Delirious, yet is plagued with more Despair than any mortal we have met - Desired by his companions and yet he must embrace loneliness to protect them, dictating their Destiny as he tries to control the intertwined destiny of himself, and the universe itself."
The robed Eternal stopped, and turned to face the gathered brothers and sisters. "Has there ever been a mortal so close to Eternity as he?"
Author: timsinister
Characters/Pairing: The Endless (Gaiman/DC Comics), the Doctor (indeterminate incarnation)
Rating: All/None
Spoilers: None
Summary: The Endless - known to the Time Lords as the Eternals - assemble to consider a certain renegade Time Lord
Disclaimer: Doctor Who and its characters belong to the BBC. The Endless were all created by Neil Gaiman and Co. for DC Comics.
To the lesser races of the Universe, the Time Lords were almost myths - the ancient civilisation of Gallifrey, self-declared Chronarchs, removed and detached from the universe they contemplated without intervention.
But even they have their own legends - myths, Gods of the old ways, that had influenced the earliest Gallifreyans when the universe was young. The Eternals, they were spoken of quietly if at all, even in this age of white-hot technology and limitless power the Time Lords had granted themselves.
Soon even had names - the Godesses of Time, of Pain, and of Death. When they deigned to intervene in the real world, from their otherworldly Eternity, they worked through their Champions. One of their most favoured mannequins was the renegade Time Lord to whom the very plight of the universe was owed...
----
As usual, Dream hovered on the edge of the group, deigning to pay no attention to the mortal creature that had momentarily fascinated his fickle family.
"Long-lived they may be - but even Time Lords die. You know this, Sister" he remarked, his voice drifting like a half-recalled memory, indistinct and whisphered.
The petite young girl he addressed shrugged, folding her pale arms and staring intently forwards. "He knows it better than anyone - but he carries on. You don't see that often." Her response was light-hearted, yet tinged with a kind of somber respect - like her appearence, a cheerful expression written on a chalk-pale face, fringed with hair dark as night.
"He loves to live. Those around him love him, despite the risk to their lives, despite everything in them telling them to leave - they stay, dancing around the flame of the Doctor like moths around a flame." Desire's brazen, sexual form writhed with barely-concealed glee, his or her beautiful features rapt in admiration. "He venerates me, as well he-"
Delirium pouted, twirling strands of her impossibly-coloured hair on her thin, long fingered hands. "Nonono, the Mad Man respects no one anymore, not since ever, always will...not since he chose to... stop wanting to need to...wait, when is he?" She pouted, her two differently-shaded eyes creasing in crazed confusion. "Time travel hurts my head."
Tutting in dismissal, the crouching flabby older sister shook her head. "You're wrong, Desire. And Delirium is right-" She was interrupted as the tiny Endless girl squealed, a whirl of multicoloured butterflies errupting into the air from her clothes "-yes, the Doctor resents authority, yet strives to exercise it. He loves his Companions, wants their company yes...but he hates himself for putting them in danger. A torn man, this Time Lord." The hooked ring on her finger moved slowly in the dim light of their conference, then absently slashed into her own cheek. "Something he hides from himself. Unless...someone brings it to the surface. Correct...Dream Lord?"
Despair's gaze was fixed on the older, apparently indifferent brother. Morpheus pursed his white lips, drew his black robe about his shoulders, and continued to gaze into the distance, away from his siblings. "You claim to be utterly uninterested, Dream. But you've meddled, brought more than ten lives of horror and guilt and hate up, and to what-?"
"Enough." The stentorian tones of Destiny cut across Despair's rasping query. "The Doctor has - knowingly or not, by his own volition or without his even knowing - paid court at each of our domains." The imposing, robed and hooded Endlss clutched the Book in one hand, gestured with the other, with his hidden face looking not at his siblings, nor their object of study but into the distance. "He has become one of the fewest inhabitants of their realm to have dealings with all of the Endless. He has been Champion of the very forces we are. He has become integral to the universe."
Destiny began to stride around his family, circling them, never setting a foot wrong though his blind face was never seen. "Consider him, Family. Ten Deaths, yet more alive, he Dreams of life and liberty, his actions become ever more Delirious, yet is plagued with more Despair than any mortal we have met - Desired by his companions and yet he must embrace loneliness to protect them, dictating their Destiny as he tries to control the intertwined destiny of himself, and the universe itself."
The robed Eternal stopped, and turned to face the gathered brothers and sisters. "Has there ever been a mortal so close to Eternity as he?"