A Rose by any other name... (Closed, ask for Invite)
Who: Rose Tyler, Jack Harkness
Where: The Lobby
When: Early Evening
Summary: Rose Tyler wasn't expecting to find herself greeted by an old friend when she arrived at the Hotel California.
Every time Rose Tyler woke up alone in that big bed in their room on the TARDIS, she was certain she would die, right then and there. That realization would flood her entire being and she would lie there, gasping for breath against the onslaught of pain. But some mornings were easier than others. Some days, she'd jump out of bed and race to the control room, having remembered something in a dream, somewhere they'd talked about or a random half hour excursion for baked lemons on a stick on some random planet in a random year, and she would sail back there, clutching the panels of the TARDIS as they hurtled through time and space, and it was almost like he was there with her again, grinning as he fiddled with some loose control. But it never lasted long. The pain was always there, waiting, and she could never escape her grief.
She had never felt more alone.
Yes, it had hurt when he'd first left her in 'Pete's World', as they'd jokingly called it, but the pain of losing something you could possibly have was nothing compared to losing something you had already held close in your arms. Sure, she still had her mum and dad back on Earth, and little Tony who kept asking for the Doctor whenever she went around, but it wasn't the same. He had been her family, all that she'd ever needed, and now he was gone.
She wished they'd had children. Every day she wished it, because then she wouldn't have to be alone. The Doctor had pointed out, though, that small children were not conducive to hopping around the universe in a time machine, and she'd agreed at the time. But now she dreamed of hearing tiny laughter echoing through the TARDIS as tiny feet scampered through her halls. It all would have been so much easier if there had been a mini-Doctor running around for her to look after.
But still, a year had passed and she'd continued on with her life, because she'd promised him she would. She wasn't going to give up; he'd lost an entire planet, she could survive losing one man, even if it sometimes felt like, no, she couldn't.
Zipping up her boots and slipping on her leather jacket (a reminder of the Doctor as she had first known him), she greeted the TARDIS with a smile. It hummed at her, singing a song that only the Doctor had been able to fully comprehend. "Where should we go today, Little Girl?" she asked the living entity as she pulled the computer screen closer, looking through the directory stored in the data banks. It took a few minutes, she still wasn't as fast as the Doctor when it came to working with the TARDIS, cripes, she was lucky they'd gotten the ship to recognize her as a pilot in the first place, but finally, there. Perfect. The largest banana grove in all the universe, and apparently they made great banana daiquiris. It sounded like just what she needed right about then.
So the coordinates were set and she began the all-too-familiar dance around the central panels, striking things, pulling levers, and coaxing the ship across the universe. It was a matter of seconds before they landed and Rose was sent sprawling to the floor...
But instead of landing on hard metal grating, her shoulder met sand. Sand?! Banana trees didn't grow in sand, and there were very few forces in all of time that could have forcibly pulled her from her TARDIS. The TARDIS! Scrambling to her feet, sand clinging to her jeans and boots sinking into the drifts of sand, she looked all around her, but saw only sand and more sand. Her precious ship was gone.
"Not again," she mumbled, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket with a huffy pout. She even kicked at the sand, which only brought it up to smack her in the face as the wind grabbed it. Good one, Rose. Blind yourself with sand so you won't be able to find your home again. Because the TARDIS was her home, and she was nothing without it.
Well, at least there was a building out in the distance. It looked like it was falling apart from this angle, but if it had been completely abandoned, then the desert would have taken it by now, so there was bound to be someone inside. Maybe she'd be able to make some headway on this very odd situation. The sooner she got back to the TARDIS, the sooner she'd be on her way to a banana-flavoured, alcohol-induced stupor.
She trudged up toward the building, her heeled boots sinking into the sand and making it just that much more difficult to walk on the ever-moving surface. She hated sand. Really hated it. Ever since that first day at Bad Wolf Bay, she'd absolutely despised the stuff, and now she was completely surrounded by it. It was just the thing to make her day slide down into Miserable.
Ten minutes later, a very unhappy Rose was walking through the ultra posh lobby of the Hotel California, as the very strange concierge had called it, meaning she was on Earth. Some Earth, maybe a colony planet in the future or New Earth or... No, it couldn't be a parallel Earth. That was too impossible to happen even to her. Sighing, she looked down at the key in her hand, wondering if the man (who had disappeared, now that she turned to give him another look) had been speaking literally when he'd said they'd been expecting her, or if that was just general hotel talk. She hadn't been in a hotel in years, certainly not one where the people natively spoke English -- without the comforting presence of the TARDIS in her mind, she could tell that it was actually English and not just the ship's translation programs.
Stopping right in the middle of the ornately done floor, she stuffed her hands back in her pockets and bit the corner of her lower lip. She'd have to do some searching to figure out where her little phonebox had gotten to, and she was so not in the mood for it.
Where: The Lobby
When: Early Evening
Summary: Rose Tyler wasn't expecting to find herself greeted by an old friend when she arrived at the Hotel California.
Every time Rose Tyler woke up alone in that big bed in their room on the TARDIS, she was certain she would die, right then and there. That realization would flood her entire being and she would lie there, gasping for breath against the onslaught of pain. But some mornings were easier than others. Some days, she'd jump out of bed and race to the control room, having remembered something in a dream, somewhere they'd talked about or a random half hour excursion for baked lemons on a stick on some random planet in a random year, and she would sail back there, clutching the panels of the TARDIS as they hurtled through time and space, and it was almost like he was there with her again, grinning as he fiddled with some loose control. But it never lasted long. The pain was always there, waiting, and she could never escape her grief.
She had never felt more alone.
Yes, it had hurt when he'd first left her in 'Pete's World', as they'd jokingly called it, but the pain of losing something you could possibly have was nothing compared to losing something you had already held close in your arms. Sure, she still had her mum and dad back on Earth, and little Tony who kept asking for the Doctor whenever she went around, but it wasn't the same. He had been her family, all that she'd ever needed, and now he was gone.
She wished they'd had children. Every day she wished it, because then she wouldn't have to be alone. The Doctor had pointed out, though, that small children were not conducive to hopping around the universe in a time machine, and she'd agreed at the time. But now she dreamed of hearing tiny laughter echoing through the TARDIS as tiny feet scampered through her halls. It all would have been so much easier if there had been a mini-Doctor running around for her to look after.
But still, a year had passed and she'd continued on with her life, because she'd promised him she would. She wasn't going to give up; he'd lost an entire planet, she could survive losing one man, even if it sometimes felt like, no, she couldn't.
Zipping up her boots and slipping on her leather jacket (a reminder of the Doctor as she had first known him), she greeted the TARDIS with a smile. It hummed at her, singing a song that only the Doctor had been able to fully comprehend. "Where should we go today, Little Girl?" she asked the living entity as she pulled the computer screen closer, looking through the directory stored in the data banks. It took a few minutes, she still wasn't as fast as the Doctor when it came to working with the TARDIS, cripes, she was lucky they'd gotten the ship to recognize her as a pilot in the first place, but finally, there. Perfect. The largest banana grove in all the universe, and apparently they made great banana daiquiris. It sounded like just what she needed right about then.
So the coordinates were set and she began the all-too-familiar dance around the central panels, striking things, pulling levers, and coaxing the ship across the universe. It was a matter of seconds before they landed and Rose was sent sprawling to the floor...
But instead of landing on hard metal grating, her shoulder met sand. Sand?! Banana trees didn't grow in sand, and there were very few forces in all of time that could have forcibly pulled her from her TARDIS. The TARDIS! Scrambling to her feet, sand clinging to her jeans and boots sinking into the drifts of sand, she looked all around her, but saw only sand and more sand. Her precious ship was gone.
"Not again," she mumbled, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket with a huffy pout. She even kicked at the sand, which only brought it up to smack her in the face as the wind grabbed it. Good one, Rose. Blind yourself with sand so you won't be able to find your home again. Because the TARDIS was her home, and she was nothing without it.
Well, at least there was a building out in the distance. It looked like it was falling apart from this angle, but if it had been completely abandoned, then the desert would have taken it by now, so there was bound to be someone inside. Maybe she'd be able to make some headway on this very odd situation. The sooner she got back to the TARDIS, the sooner she'd be on her way to a banana-flavoured, alcohol-induced stupor.
She trudged up toward the building, her heeled boots sinking into the sand and making it just that much more difficult to walk on the ever-moving surface. She hated sand. Really hated it. Ever since that first day at Bad Wolf Bay, she'd absolutely despised the stuff, and now she was completely surrounded by it. It was just the thing to make her day slide down into Miserable.
Ten minutes later, a very unhappy Rose was walking through the ultra posh lobby of the Hotel California, as the very strange concierge had called it, meaning she was on Earth. Some Earth, maybe a colony planet in the future or New Earth or... No, it couldn't be a parallel Earth. That was too impossible to happen even to her. Sighing, she looked down at the key in her hand, wondering if the man (who had disappeared, now that she turned to give him another look) had been speaking literally when he'd said they'd been expecting her, or if that was just general hotel talk. She hadn't been in a hotel in years, certainly not one where the people natively spoke English -- without the comforting presence of the TARDIS in her mind, she could tell that it was actually English and not just the ship's translation programs.
Stopping right in the middle of the ornately done floor, she stuffed her hands back in her pockets and bit the corner of her lower lip. She'd have to do some searching to figure out where her little phonebox had gotten to, and she was so not in the mood for it.