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Tweak says, "For the love of moldly oats!"

Rose M. Tyler (jeopardysfriend) wrote in vas_captio_rpg,
@ 2009-07-21 00:06:00

Entry tags:

!complete, day 16, location: carnival, rose tyler, the doctor (ten)

Who: John 'The Tenth Doctor' Smith and Rose 'Not As Oblivious As I Look' Tyler
What: Probably? Keeping Rose out of trouble...
Where: The Carnival
When: Day 16, afternoonish
Rating: PG
Status: Complete!

It was rather irritating being told what to do. But honestly? Rose was used to it. The Doctor had a knack for telling her where to be and when to be there, and she was pretty good at following directions. Mostly because, with him, if she didn't it was life or death. So when Dr. John Smith told her to get to the gas station to seek out food, she listened. Also sort of life and death. Starving and all.

But Rose was also known for her exploratory nature getting the better of her. She was good at it, frankly. It usually got her into trouble before it got her out of it, but she often got answers because of it, too. And it was only her first real day in this strange new city. The day before had been spent with Dr. Smartass and then finding Remy and the Doctor and being introduced around. She never had claimed her grand tour with Remy, but she was honestly just as happy to do it herself.

And honestly, who wasn't attracted to a giant ferris wheel in the middle of nowhere?

Though the map said to go to the left, Rose followed the trail to the right, arriving in front of what was apparently a long abandoned carnival. But even if nothing worked, what girl wasn't drawn to the carousel and the ferris wheel and...oh god, was that a tunnel of love? Rose couldn't help giggling. Even if there was something seriously messed up about this place, it pulled her in just the same.

Gas station? What gas station?

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jeopardysfriend
2009-07-22 12:19 pm UTC (link)

Her eyes widened at the offer of his arm. That hadn't been what she was expecting. If girls were giving an award for mixed signals, the handsome bloke with the spiky hair would win. Oh, he'd drive Shareen crazy, Rose knew. If he didn't drive Rose mad first.

Still, it was a sweet offer. Gentlemanly. Who said chivalry was dead. Turning on the charm, Rose accepted and slipped her arm through his. "You seem to know your way around here," she informed him, letting him lead her wherever he so chose. "How long have you been here?"

She had a vague idea. After all, Remy wasn't exactly quiet when it came to most information. And she appreciated that, really. It was rare that people were so honest and upfront when she arrived in a strange new place. But it was always nicer to hear it from the source.

That, and in that land of varying accents, it was sort of nice hearing a nearly posh London sound. He had a nice voice, especially when he wasn't berating her with it.

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fromgallifrey
2009-07-22 12:45 pm UTC (link)

It was hard for the Doctor not to give mixed signals. In all honesty he had to give them for the sake of his own sanity. He couldn't run around pretending to hate her; that would just be impossible and contrived. On the other hand, he couldn't let her know just how much he fancied her, either. So, back and forth the pendulum would swing; well, at least until she'd make it stop.

She threaded her arm in his and it felt very nearly like old times: Rose in a pink dress hopping off that moped. If he could figure out a way to grab her hand without being completely obvious he'd do that, too. It was hard knowing what he knew and not capitalizing on just this smallest of opportunties to spend time with her. Even if that time was fleeting. Especially when he knew it couldn't and wouldn't last forever.

"Two and a half weeks," He said, looking off ahead of them as they rounded a bend and were back out onto the main thoroughfare, the gas station quite in sight.

"So, how long've you been travelling with that Doctor of yours?"

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jeopardysfriend
2009-07-22 12:56 pm UTC (link)

He was comfortable, she had to give him that. It'd be so easy to just lean on his shoulder and laugh the way she did with the Doctor. But that would also be terrible awkward, wouldn't it? This man didn't give off the flirtatious vibe that Remy did, and no one could compete in that area with Jack.

So instead, she just smiled up at him, shaking her hair out of her eyes while she contemplated an answer. "A year or so, I guess," she considered, tilting her head thoughtfully. "It's sort of hard to judge with him. Time...passes differently when you're never in one place."

Why was she talking so much? He didn't need to know. He'd only asked how long. But Rose didn't shut up. He was quiet, maybe she thought she needed to fill in the gaps. "He saved my life, actually. S'how we met. Dunno what I would've done if he hadn't come along."

The gas station was in full view, now, and looked...well, like a gas station. Rose didn't know what she was expecting, but since nothing seemed to be as it was here, she'd thought maybe it'd look like anything but. It reminded her of the second Grease movie, actually.

Oh. Right. That would make sense considering the seventies clothes in the thrift shop.

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fromgallifrey
2009-07-22 05:06 pm UTC (link)

Comfortable as an old pair of Chuck Taylors. Well, he ought to be for her, anyway. He wanted to be, anyway. Even the way they walked together was like it'd been done before, comfortable and easy. Of course it was, he knew her gait. He knew how she favored starting off with her left foot. He couldn't help what he knew, could he?

"I know what you mean," he said with her reference to time. "What was the last place you and he traveled to?" He looked genuinely curious, a slight raise to his brow, that gentle upturn at the corners of his mouth. He wanted to know when this Rose Tyler had come from. What she'd seen, who she'd met, everything. He could put his memories to the test that way. Which Rose had he managaed to have dropped into his lap?

"Saved your life?" Alright, so that was less a question than a confirmation. He had saved her life. This same bloke whose arm you're holding on to saved your life, too, Rose. Lots of times. "Regular heroic genuis." A little bit of self inflicted ego stroking was to be somewhat expected.

"Here we have it, the Petrol station. Still gas in the pumps, though no power to get at it." He was leading her around to the entry where he held the door open and waited for her to head inside.

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jeopardysfriend
2009-07-22 08:50 pm UTC (link)

"Shame, that," Rose said in reply to the powerless petrol pumps. "All you smart people around and you haven't figured out how to get in there, yet?" But her smile was wide as she skirted around him to step inside the old store, looking plenty less full than it probably used to.

She considered his question. He'd been good to her so far. And he was clearly a gentleman. "Can I be honest with you?" she questioned, glancing up to meet rich brown eyes before turning to the goods before her. "It's weird that I feel like I can, I guess, but...it happens."

Taking a deep breath, Rose turned to face him dead-on with a smile. "The last place I visited with him was a satellite, thousands of years in the future. At least, in my future. Probably everyone here, too, but there's weird things with time going on in this place." Her face clouded over, remembering the Dalek's words and his last message to her. "Thought I'd lost him, honestly. Then I get here and he's right as rain."

She broke her eye-contact with him and began circling the room, marveling at what was in it. Her steps were slow, more from the revelation she'd just dropped than any need to take in her surroundings. After all, there wasn't a great deal to take in.

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fromgallifrey
2009-07-23 02:48 pm UTC (link)

"We haven't really needed to," the Doctor volunteered. Truth was they hadn't. The Generators in the carnival ran on Deisel, as far as he could tell, and the only thing the gas station had was unleaded. While in theory he could modify the small motors to take unleaded it would take a fair amount of time. Time he ought to be spending working on the modulator. Exactly what he should be doing right now, actually.

"Of course..." He said, his words slipping over hers. He was working on putting back on his prickly-face when she looked up at him like that. Like she was looking through him. Like she almost knew.

When she turned to face him, his back up against the wall near the door with his hands shoved deep into his pockets he was looking her right in the eyes. Yes, Rose Tyler, you had his attention and he wasn't even fidgity.

He listened, looking away, trying to place just where she had been. When she had been. Satellite 5, obviously. She'd been there. He remembered going there with her. That had been the first time he'd ever thought he'd lost her. Thought she'd been turned to a pile of dust. The Doctor's face actually went a bit muddied there as well. That was not the thought he was going for. He looked back up to see her features turn, to hear her say she'd thought she'd lost him. It must have been the second go 'round. It had to have been. To look like that and think she'd lost him? Must have been.

She looked away, started taking in what wast here to pick apart; and the Doctor knew it was probably because she was unsure how he'd react. How did regular, run of the mill people react when they'd been told someone time travelled? Well, the Doctor never really paid attention long enough to really have this part down.

"The future? A satellite?" He couldn't make his face contort into disbelief, so Rose would just have to settle for a look of amusement. "Looks like you didn't lose him, though," he volunteered. Haven't lost him, haven't found me. Oh bugger.

He reached around the counter and held out a bag for her. "Now's as good a time as any for shopping," back to the task at hand. "We've got standard military fare today; a bit of candy... Bottles of water in the back..."

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jeopardysfriend
2009-07-23 05:46 pm UTC (link)

Not really the reaction she'd been expecting, but then, this place was full of people from different places and times and walks of life. That much she'd been able to piece together. So the question became, where, exactly, had Dr. John Smith come from?

So Rose only glanced behind her to take the bag from him. "Somehow, when I picture shopping? This isn't what I have in mind. Never thought I'd miss regular, every day grocery shopping." No, what she'd done that morning was a bit more her style. Browsing various shirts, dresses, shoes... Granted, all were from the seventies or earlier and none looked to be in terrific shape, but it was still clothing. Much more her speed.

"Looks like he's just fine, actually. He always does skirt out of danger," she added, placing a couple of cans of things she wouldn't ordinarily touch into the bag. She suddenly missed the TARDIS' kitchen with a vengeance. Talking about it with Sarah Jane hadn't helped that longing much. "Wish I'd been there, though. Shouldn't have left."

Ah, well. These were things the poor man beside her didn't need to be bothered with, and she shrugged as if it didn't matter in the slightest. Instead of dwelling, she added a candy bar or two, some she'd never heard of, to the small bag of goods. "You never did say where you're from."

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fromgallifrey
2009-07-23 08:04 pm UTC (link)

Of course his reaction hadn't been what she'd expected - because he wasn't an extraordinarily good liar when it came to his friends. So, he couldn't just put on a show for her - he was too used to Rose being able to see right through it. She know when he was trying to pull that wool over her eyes, though, it helped when he had some sort of distraction other than a scantily inventoried convenience store.

"You left?" Of course you'd left, Rose. I made you leave. He scratched his head to illustrate confusion.

She kept piling items into her bag and the Doctor just stood back and watched as she circled the aisles. "You can't tell?" His accent, he supposed, could be fairly easy to pin. Mostly. Kind of. "I'll give you a hint, it's not Spain."

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jeopardysfriend
2009-07-23 09:41 pm UTC (link)

Rose giggled at that and twisted the top of the bag together. That'd be plenty to get her through several days, if rationed. A few less, if her sometimes-less-than-practical Doctor hadn't made his own way over here, but hopefully they wouldn't have too very long to wait. They were all hoping to be out of there before much longer.

"Really, senor?" she teased, turning to face him again. "Thank you so much for pointing that out, I never would've known!" Grinning, she squeezed his elbow and then made for the door, but not without another peek around the room. Not for supplies this time, but just to take in the sight of something so terribly old-fashioned. "I rather meant what city. Since you're determined it's so small no one has ever possibly heard of it except you and the short-strawed Smith clan."

She pushed the door open and fully expected the clinging of a bell above the door. It was just that sort of store, really. On the other hand, she didn't want to get into how she'd left. He'd tricked her, sure, but she'd known him long enough and well enough to have known better. She should've seen through the charade. And the fact that he might've died without her there wasn't something she wanted to dwell on to an otherwise friendly newcomer into her life.

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fromgallifrey
2009-07-27 10:14 am UTC (link)

At least even when she wasn't quite his Rose he could still make her laugh that was regarding to the Time Lord. "Well, you can never be too careful when telling people to guess where you're from. You could have said spain or you could have said Tokyo," he quipped with a grin.

An odd look swept over his features when she reached out and squeezed his arm. It would have been subtle of course with it's full onslaught withheld until she'd turned around and headed for the door; but, when she'd turned around she'd catch the tail end of it if she managed to swipe her eyes across his features. There was a certain look of glee that tapered away into the ether of restraint. It had started in his eyes and worked down through his cheeks and had started burgeoning a smile until he'd contained it. It'd felt for a moment like they might go running off on some sort of adventure any moment now. What a silly idea.

He was right behind her on the way out the door snaking his arm around to hold it open for her, still quite mute about where he was from. She'd catch him if he lied, and he knew it. She was sharp about those sorts of things. Besides, who was to say she didn't know someone who knew someone if whatever-town he was about to make up? "Smithton," he quipped, jokingly of course.

Back out on the road again he was already piloting them back toward the museum. "Your Doctor and I, we ought to have us all out of here soon enough," he said hopefully.

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jeopardysfriend
2009-07-27 02:15 pm UTC (link)

She couldn't have described the expression that crossed his features if he'd asked. All she knew was that it wasn't a look she saw often. So many emotions wrapped into one, sweet and handsome but otherwise simple face. Had she said or done something wrong? Maybe he wasn't the touchy feely sort. But he'd been so gracious about offering his arm earlier that it had only made sense. And she was comfortable with him. Rose typically expressed that however she could.

She let him hold the door open, but she'd fallen relatively quiet, at least, quiet for Rose. Holding the bag close to her chest, she all but closed herself off from him. Not intentionally. It wasn't that she didn't want to talk to him. No, John Smith was an enigma in some ways, and Rose always wanted those to talk. From the different races she'd met on that first voyage with the Doctor all the way to her fellow contestants on the futuristic Big Brother, Rose wanted to know everything about everyone she met. But this one felt different. Like he knew something about her.

For a moment she walked silently, her eyes on the ground. Already she knew he was dragging her back to her museum dungeon. Rose Tyler didn't do confinement well. "You keep calling him 'my' Doctor," she pondered out loud after plenty of thought. "Why is that? It's not... He's not technically mine in any way. I just travel with him, that's all. He's...everyone's Doctor. The Doctor. It's just who he is. What he does."

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