allpurposescarf | (no subject)

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[Even within the confines of the TARDIS, the Doctor has never been the easiest to track down. Especially when it comes to the downtimes between adventures. Which are, admittedly, few and far between, but every now and then he seems to remember that his companions are somewhat less than tolerant of the breakneck pace he seems to prefer, or simply decides that there's no hurry to continue on immediately.

(The latter is, of course, the less common, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen all the same.)

Today is one of those rare occasions. The TARDIS hums silently to herself as she hovers in the Vortex and the console room is distinctly lacking in any sort of Time Lord presence. In fact, if and when Leela should happen to go looking for the Doctor, he doesn't really seem to be anywhere at all - an odd thing, when he usually seems to spend half of his time just sort of passively filling all available space with his presence. On the other hand, someone with a hunter's keen sense might just pick up the sounds of something large move through one of the nearby hallways. Something large and clawed, at that, given the soft and rhythmic clicking of something hard against the floor. And under even that, there's a the soft whisper of cloth brushing along the ground - whatever is in the TARDIS, it's a very strange sort of something.]

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[ It had become a bit of a game to seek him out and find him, but there is no Doctor where she looks, but she hears much that is not usual. It is a size thing, she thinks, silently padding down the hallway, her back to the wall as she stalks the sounds. Calling out, sometimes that is a good thing, but sometimes, she does not just for the challenge.

She hears it all, the noises, and it makes her curious, so yes. It is a hunter's stalking she takes to, moving like a shadow, following.]

[Whatever it is, it's not hurrying in the least - the clicking neither speeds up nor pauses. Which might not mean that it isn't a threat but at the very least, if it is, it's not a threat that sees an reason in hurrying along to its destination.

It's probably that which lets her catch up to the source of the sound, as she rounds a corner between on corridor and the next. There's what can only be described as a great lizard in the corridors, all over shades of brown, with a curly mane and a tail that ends in a similar puff of brown curls, and two great curling horns besides.

More interesting, perhaps, is the familiar scarf looped loosely around its neck - the Doctor's scarf, one end of it caught around the curve of a horn, but the other dragging freely on the floor.]

[It was unexpected, to find such a...large creature like this and she stepped lightly, keeping herself small and tight as she watched, deciding her actions carefully. That was the Doctor's scarf but she saw no sign of violence and the curls, that reminded her of the Doctor too much to ignore.

Her lips parted and she called out almost involuntarily.]

Doctor?

[The creature comes to a halt at the sound of her voice. It's not a startled sort of pause though. Merely the sort that comes of wanting to actually talk to someone, and it's already craning its great neck so as to be able to peer over its shoulder.]

Oh! Hallo, Leela.

[Odd though it might be, it is exactly the Doctor's voice coming from the creature's mouth, and the grin that follows is very much like one of his usual grins. Albeit with a slightly more terrifying set of teeth and set in a distinctly alien facial structure.]

[She stood there for a long moment, taking him in, thinking about it, her eyes a little wide. If it sounded like the Doctor like this, perhaps it was not an it and was a him. The grin, even if it was lizard-like, was his as well, and his eyes if she were being fair.]

You are not your [she pauses a little, thinking] usual self. Is this a normal thing?

[There's a moment of silence at that, and then a blink - which would pass almost unnoticed were it not for almost offended expression on his face.

(He is not, of course, genuinely offended. But even like this, he's ever been inclined to play at emotions, partly because he can and partly because it's habit.)]

This is my usual self! The other one is a... [he cants his head to one side, as he searches for the right word] convenience. You'd be surprised how many corridors aren't built properly.

['Properly' here read: not built with creatures his current scale in mind.]

Edited 2015-11-02 06:14 (UTC)

Oh. Well, I have not seen you do this. You cannot fault me for being surprised, Doctor. [She folded her arms and scowled at him.] What if I was suddenly a different shape?

[She glances at the corridor, eyebrows arched.]

If your people designed the TARDIS, they seem to have forgotten what you are.

Edited 2015-11-05 22:37 (UTC)

Oh, it wouldn't be any sort of trouble. These things do happen. [...says the alien shapeshifting lizard] ...Are you going to be a different shape?

[Sure, she might be descended from humans, more or less, but that doesn't really mean anything, in the long run.]

No, no, not here. [He turns to face her as he says it, and the action fits neatly, gracefully; not the cramped and awkward shuffle of a large creature trying to turn in a space that's halfway too small (and it explains some of the oddities of the TARDIS, besides; the way she seems built to hold a larger creature than just two simple humanoids - corridors wider, door handles just a little lower).] Elsewhere. Out in the universe. More humanoid species than draconoid, you see - you just can't get the corridors made right.

No. I have not changed yet, although I am no child now. [She ocks her head slightly.] Draco-- [Confusion spread across her face and then cleared. This must be what he was, then.] Ah. You are like the TARDIS. This form, it is much larger than the other one and you are both. [Her nose scrunched a little.]

The TARDIS cannot change itself to fit you properly, then?

Yes, exactly! It's a particularly clever bit of isomorphically locked trans-dimensional engineering. That's why some of the bits around the edges look the same, you see. Morphic resonance.

[By which he mostly means the curls, although they translate from a mane into a more human head of hair.]

She doesn't need to! She's fine just the way she is! [He pats the nearest wall fondly - and slightly absent-mindedly - with one clawed hand as he says it.] Besides, who'd want their ship changing all the time, eh? Especially when you never can tell what you might need to accommodate for any given day.

[Admittedly, the biggest thing he needs to transport on a regular basis is himself, but it's the point of the thing.]

And anyway, being able to be smaller doesn't mean I still don't think of myself like this. And if you can't feel at home in your sanctum sanctorum where can you feel at home?

Edited 2015-11-27 02:51 (UTC)

[Both eyebrows rise.]

You are what you are, still the same, and the TARDIS as well. [Leela shakes her head and laughs a little before reaching to touch his scarf.] Even if you are a different shape than the one I have known. It is you and that is good, Doctor.

Exactly!

[There's another of his grins to go with the comment, even as he lets his hand drop back down to the floor again.]

We are as we are, she and I, and I find that's usually enough.

[There's a pause then, and for a while it looks as if that's all he means to say - he even very nearly gets so far as turning back around. And then something seems to occur to him, midway through his turn, as he turns his head back towards Leela.]

I was thinking about stretching these old wings a little. It's been entirely too long, this last while.

[He doesn't say 'you can come, if you want.' It's not entirely the sort of thing he does. But the echo of it is there all the same: he'd most likely not have made mention of having wings (which he certainly doesn't seem to have at the moment) if he hadn't been looking to get some manner of reaction in return.]

Wings? [There was a definite note of curious excitement in her voice.] Ahh, then you can fly, too? This should be a good thing. Why did you wait for so long?

Of course I can fly! What would be the point of having wings, otherwise?

[Not that most Time Lords do of course, but he's never seen much of a point of not using them. They're there for a reason, he figures, and if most people back home can't be bothered to see that, it's hardly any of his concern.]

And I couldn't well wear them while I looked human! They would have been dreadfully out of place, and all the wrong size besides. Better to wait until I could get back to myself.

[He's already turned back towards his presumed destination and is moving slowly through the hallway; there's more than adequate opportunity for Leela to follow along either behind or at his side, if she cares to.]

I have seen things with wings that do not fly. [Her eyebrows arch a little as she catches up to him and comes alongside. She cants her head to the side, curious.]

...I did not mean. Doctor, you could have done this [Leela gestures.] at any time and stretched your wings. Why did you not do so?

It's not the same kind of flying.

[He offers it like he's an expert on the subject, and he might very well be. (He isn't, but he figures Leela isn't likely to know one way or the other.)]

And not everything has to have a reason. Besides, who's to say I didn't!

[He hasn't, after all, indicated how long it's been since he last stretched his wings out properly, and it's more than true that there are times where she's asleep and he's not, or times where he's otherwise proven to be hard to find.]

[She opens her mouth to argue and then just drops it. There is no sense in trying with this man, and she knows it. He going to talk circles and squares around her and she will still not have an answer.]

It will be good to do this flying again, then, regardless of when you last did or did not do it or what kind of flying it might have been.

Exactly! Now you're getting it.

[There's another of his grins at the comment, but - unsurprisingly - no further attempts to explain.]

It's through here a bit, what we're looking for.

[Here apparently being another mess of corridors, but at least that's not so out of the ordinary.]

[Leela made a soft pft sound and moved after him. There was not much more she can add to this other than an soft grunt of encouragement. So, she moves after, her strides quick to keep up with him.]

[Fortunately for the both of them, it's not long at all before they come across the door the Doctor has been apparently looking for, given that he comes to stop and pushes it gently open with one hand.

(And for all that said hand is taloned and scaled it's very much a similar gesture to anything that would have come out of his more human shape.)

The room beyond is really only so in name only - and in that it is, in fact, still inside the TARDIS. Beyond the door is nothing so much as a wide open space, apparently without end, the sky blue overhead and the grass perfectly green as it makes it way over rolling hills. And true, it may not be home, but he's never wanted to be carrying more of Gallifrey with him than he already is simply by the nature of the thing.]

[If it had trees and mountains, Leela said it would have been a good place for hunting, but the good kind of hunting, a place for testing one's skills as well as finding good meat. But this is not that sort of place. It is for flying, she sees that, now. Leela likes the hills. It breaks the landscape up enough that it is not boring.

She still scrutinizes it, putting it in her head the best she can.]

This place, it makes a good day and good weather and it is large enough to stretch, yes?

Oh, more than!

[Which is part of the point. There's very little way to get bored, out here, and he's certain that he's not yet seen even a fraction of what the room has to offer.

He steps in without a second thought, too, taking a moment to simply enjoy the sights before he turns back towards Leela.]

You may want to stand back, a bit.

[He waits a moment, after saying it and - once there's adequate space - unfolds his wings from where he keeps them when they aren't in use. They're large too, if a little plain, which no doubt explains why he asked Leela to stand back.

Especially given that he stretches them out properly before folding them back down towards himself - it's a gesture that as much done to show off as it is to shake off any residual stiffness.]

Edited 2015-12-16 00:32 (UTC)

[Stepping back further and makes a surprised sound that turns into investigative noises and she touches wherever she can. It was as expected - large, like the rest of him. The plainness is not a bad thing, it just makes her wonder what he'd look like with them painted up. It could happen.

And that would be fun.]

[He doesn't stop her from touching them. In fact, he seems to be perfectly alright with her doing so - they feel much the same as bat wings might, only writ (much) larger. And if she follows the bones all the way back to where they connect with his body, the connection is absolutely seamless, for all that they might not be something entirely natural to the Gallifreyan form.

He lets the silence reign for a moment or two, mostly so as to facilitate the curiosity, but after a while he turns to Leela as if something's just occurred to him.]

Leela. How would you like to go flying?

[He asks it as if this hasn't been pretty much on the table since he mentioned having wings in the first place.]

[She grins and it's ear to ear, like she's been waiting a very long time for it.]

I think that is a very, very good idea and I would like it very much.

[There's a grin of his own at that, like he'd expected that to be the answer and is still surprised all the same.]

Up you get, then.

[She is, however, going to need to find her own way onto his back, given that he doesn't seem to think to offer any sort of hand up.]

[She's good and quick about it, working her way up and choosing a stable spot to anchor herself.]

I am ready, TIme Lord. Find the sky.

[He doesn't need to be told twice. In fact, he doesn't so much as offer a comment in return, instead offering only a brief and bobbing nod before launching himself into the air.

It's nothing like what one might expect, either, although his ascent is reasonably smooth as these things go and it's not long at all before they're clear of what would have been the treetops - if there had been any trees nearby.

Nor does he seem to be inclined to stop just yet either, as he revels in the sheer joy of flight.]

[She cannot help her own whoop of glee as they soared. There was little not to rejoice in a flight such as this. This was fun.]

It is good, Doctor! [She patted him, pleased.] Faster? [Of course, she had to ask. ]

Of course it's good.

[Flight always is, and he says it as if it's an honest truth. For him it is, and that's enough. Whoever and whatever else tries to pull him in all sorts of directions no one can ever take this from him.

Faster is harder. He's never been the fastest flier, but he makes an effort all the same, picking up speed as they continue to rise.]

[There is the wind in her hair and she is high above the ground and it is a glorious thing. Leela, warrior of the Sevateem, shared the sky with her friend and it was theirs. This was a good faster, she thought as she leaned out, hugging herself as flat as possible to him else she would only slow them down. Had she said a thing, the words would have been lost to the wind itself.]

[The Doctor, perhaps unsurprisingly, seems to be quite content with the silence. Which is perhaps not to say that he couldn't find a way to manage, but neither is this really the kind of moment that needs anything to be said.

Instead, the moment simply continues on, the only sound the whistling of the wind and the steady flapping of the Doctor's wings. It is, in short, the sort of moment that seems like it could go on forever; just the wind and the sky and the two of them.

...And then the Doctor promptly spoils it by dropping what is easily a good dozen feet, if not more - it's mostly to help pick up a bit more speed, but it comes completely without warning and without any sort of explanation afterwards.]

[Leela hangs on tightly as her stomach attempts to exit her skull and for a moment it is just a strange explosion of emotion. He will not let her fall to the ground below, her is the Doctor, but it is a terrifying moment when her fingers start to slip. It would have been better if there had been some sort of riding harness to tolerate the drop. The air rushing by and the drop knocked her breath from her, and for while, all she saw were bright spots. Leela's fingers dug for purchase as she finally pulled in a breath.

Had the dropping stopped?

Oh, that had not been particularly fun, but she would be ready the next time.]

[Riding harnesses are, unfortunately, not really the sort of thing that are commonplace in Gallifreyan society. And barring that, there aren't very many places that would be willing to accommodate such a request even if he had wanted to bother.

(There is, of course, his scarf, but just at the moment it's not likely to be the easiest of things to grab.)

Still, the dropping has stopped, and he shows no signs of doing so again, for the time being.]

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