| Date: 19 February 2008
Characters: Kathy Swanson, The Doctor Location: outside Link to IJ: thread #65524 |
 Kathy had swapped her usual smart clothes for more casual attire since she had arrived. She was struggling to relax into this place but at least there were interesting people around; it kept her from going completely insane.
If she wasn't already. She had just settled down on a bench in a nice secluded spot and was quite happily not thinking for the first time in a very long while. Maybe this break would do her good. |
 This place was quite odd. It seemed to be Earth, but the Doctor was fairly sure it wasn't, and there were a lot of people here wandering around in varying states of confusion - the Doctor was sure he...she had glanced one or two out the corner of her eye that looked awfully familiar.
She didn't appreciate being here. Oh, sure, she wanted to know what this place was, if she really had spotted the people she thought she had, all that sort of thing. But it was just another in the long list of things she really had to work out right now. Her gender being a top priority. She saw a woman sat on a bench, watched her out the corner of her eye as she walked past, then took a seat next to her, carefully trying to copy her posture. If she was going to be stuck as a woman for a while, she ought to learn... |
| Kathy turned her head as the woman sat beside her, smiling absently. There was something immediately quite odd about the way she was sitting, as though she was distinctly uncomfortable, and Kathy raised an eyebrow.
"Hi. Is everything all right?" |
| "No." she responded after a moment, because, well, it wasn't. "But it's nothing you need to worry about. I was just.." she waved a hand vaguely "Looking at how you sat. Sorry."
She frowned slightly at herself, that had sounded a bit more like her old self, but the distinctly feminine voice just served to irritate her even more. This new regeneration really was quite irritable, she was almost tempted to claim some kind of hormonal effects, but wasn't that the sort of claim that women usually got annoyed over? |
| "...How I sat. Right," she said, nodding slowly, speaking like one would to a mad man. Or woman. "Sorry. Is there something unusual about how I'm sat?" |
| "Well you're sat like a woman." she said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, and just a touch like Kathy was an idiot for asking.
She paused for a moment, then realised how strange that sounded "I just never think about yo..us women sit..." she explained herself pathetically, internally rolling her eyes. |
| "That may be because I am a woman," she said, arching an eyebrow curiously. "You've completely confused me now." |
| "Sorry." she said, her annoyance making her not sound very sincere
"Do you know anything about where we are?" she asked, changing topics to avoid any further hostility - on both their parts. |
| "Not much," she said with a shrug, tilting her head back to look at the clear sky as she spoke. She wasn't sure she liked this abrupt and strange woman. Perhaps she would have to make a run for it. Could be fun. "It's some kind of pocket... thing. Apparently people from all over time and space come here and are stuck until they stumble back out again, at which point we won't remember a thing about this dimension. At least, that's what Jack Harkness said. I'm not entirely sure how much to trust him but it seems to be about right." |
| "Jack's here?" she asked, brightening up for a moment, until she suddenly considered exactly how Jack would react were he to see 'him' like this, and her face fell.
"Anyway." she coughed slightly "So there's people here from all over time and space, hmm...interesting..." And it was, it was fascinating, she just wished she could really get enthusiastic about it, but she was still just feeling cranky. |
| "Something like that," she said, then paused and tilted her head to look at her with a glint in her eye. "You know Captain Harkness. Let me guess, you're from Torchwood? I swear this place has something to do with them." |
| "Torchwood. Hmm." she pursed her lips, she was still a little annoyed at Jack for that, he better have made it better like he said he had, though if this woman was right and they did have something to do with this place, the good captain clearly wasn't keeping his promises. "No, I'm definitely not with Torchwood."
The idea of her being affiliated with Torchwood almost made her smile, all things considered. |
| Kathy folded her arms as she studied her, interested by this strange person now. "But you've heard of them. I mean of course you've heard of them."
"I'm sorry. My name's Kathy," she said by way of introduction after a short pause of consideration. |
| "Oh I've heard of them." she said darkly.
She paused, nodding slightly "Nice to meet you, Kathy." she said, realising they'd forgotten that part. "I'm the Doctor." She frowned. That was the first time she'd introduced herself since she regenerated, it was weird, very weird, to hear that in her voice. |
| "Doctor of what?" she asked curiously. She could only imagine the woman worked with one of the services that dealt with Torchwood for her to know Jack Harkness. |
| She smiled faintly.
"Just the Doctor." she said simply. She really should have started using a different name. Oh sure, the confusion she got every time she introduced herself to humans was fun and all, but it was getting just a little bit old. She grimaced slightly, she wasn't sure she liked her personality this time round, she was grumpy. |
| "Right, okay then," said Kathy, secretly thinking that a bit pretentious. Still, she had no idea she was talking to an alien. In her own mind she had never met one, after all. "Well, The Doctor, where - and I suppose when - are you from?" |
| "It's not 'The Doctor' to... oh never mind." she sighed slightly, this was the first time she'd actually been called 'the Doctor' by someone and not just 'Doctor'. "I'm from..." she paused "Complicated question. I'm a time traveller. You?" |
| "I'm definitely not a time-traveller. I'm from Earth. Cardiff, in fact. Early 21st Century if you need that clarification." |
| "Oh?" she nodded slightly "I know it, spent a lot of time on Earth recently, actually..." |
| "Oh really?" she asked, offering something of a smile. "Just for fun or for something in particular?" |
| "Little bit of both, actually.." she shrugged "Visiting some friends, saving the world...more the latter, really." |
| "Saving the world. Sounds... interesting," she said, entirely unsure as to whether to believe her or not. "Was one of these friends Jack Harkness by any chance?" |
| "Well actually he sort of..." she stopped, that was a strange thing to explain "Yea, one of those friends was Jack."
That was easier. Much easier. |
| "And yet you have nothing to do with Torchwood?" she asked again. "That seems pretty strange. I have looked before; the man barely seems to exist outside of that institution." |
| She snorted in amusement. "Believe me, that wasn't always the case."
Pausing for a moment, she considered it "I don't exactly have nothing to do with Torchwood..." she said slowly. not for want of trying she added mentally. |
| "I'm being nosy," she said with an apologetic half-smile. She really had to stop treating things like an investigation. "I'll take it you haven't been here long? Where were you before?" |
| She just nodded. "Only a few hours, actually," she admitted "I was in the TARDIS, that's my ship, I'd just left...a planet you've probably never heard of." |
| "I've really only heard of the usual planets. Mars, Jupiter. That kind of thing."
She wasn't really comfortable with this. It was making her think 'extra-terrestrial'. She was quite happy to go on thinking every humanoid she encountered was, in fact, human, so she shifted uncomfortably in her seat and considered a polite way to leave. |
| She snorted in amusement "Usual planets." she repeated "Typical human."
It wasn't really derisive, more sort of a patronising fond amusement. |
| And that was her cue to quietly leave and suppress the 'oh dear god' impulse. She stood up quickly, looking utterly calm but for her fast movement, and turned too the woman on the bench. The Doctor. "I'm sorry. I've got to get back into town. You going to be all right? There's a hotel in the town you can stay in until you get back out again. And all the usual amenities." |
| The Doctor was almost amused at the woman's abrupt reaction. She nodded slightly to her, waving a hand vaguely "I'll be fine. Pleasure meeting you, Kathy." she smiled serenely. |
| "And you," she said, though that was a bit of a lie.
She could cope with this place, these strange people, and even the thought that aliens could exist but they could at least have the decency to be green. With one last little wave at the woman, she headed back into the town centre. |