Spring Cleaning, Round 2 [Backdated to just after podpop]

[fantastix]

Who: The Doctors, their assistants and friends, some visitors [Open], and the Master.
Where: The TARDIS, the blue police box located in the Hangar.
Summary: Somebody's made a mess of the old ship. The Doctors are very unhappy. Time to dig in and clean up! Also, there's some necessary hashing-out of titles and ownership between three men who happen to be the same person. And a bit of a problem arises...
Warnings: Possibly mild swearing on Nine's part.


The Doctor and his immediate successor with the long coat had run straight from the Observation Deck when they'd learned where the TARDIS was and gotten their bearings. They'd been whisked through the uncomfortable transport tubes, spilled into an arsenal of ships, and been left to search. Luckily, as diminished as their abilities were, they could still sense the old girl. It wasn't long before she was found.

They wasted no time in opening the door, winding up in a console room that could never fit inside the seemingly small exterior of the police box without some serious dimensional shifting. It was a wide space, well-lit, but definitely not the room the two new arrivals were used to.

Here, they'd finally find this other Doctor the other crew members have told them so much about. And with any luck, they'll have some answers too.

Comments

[makeherblue]

Maybe it wasn't in his genetics, a predisposition for wrenching or anything that even looked a teeny-tiny bit like wrenching. And that was the Doctor being charitable, too. It was almost as painful as watching Jamie trying to twiddle with electronics.

"Could be! I haven't had a chance to catalog it since the last time and I'm not quite sure where the library's got to by now," The Doctor said with a sigh. It had to be several months, right? Time was wibbly even by wibbly standards on Stacy and even he wasn't sure anymore. Maybe he ought to give up being a Time Lord -- not much good if you couldn't even tell basic Time! "Anything in specific you're looking for? I could check."

Hopefully when the library was napping or they had enough Doctors to get it under control. Once he was sure it was safe enough, he could always invite Gerald to have a look himself. He did have that look about him of a man who would appreciate books and loads of them!

[theprophet]

Tarrant, no doubt, came from a long line of people who Did Not Wrench. He didn't even look interested in trying.

"I'm not looking for any information in particular, unless it concerns our current situation with the Ohm and Daligig. But I do enjoy reading. And research. And I expect that the amount of information at our collective fingertips now is... well, virtually without limit." And for someone as hungry for knowledge as Tarrant, that was an enticing prospect indeed.

"To be honest, I hardly even know where to start." Well, that was half-true. Technological advances, for example, were a given. But should he begin with experiments on timeflow on the ship? Genetic experiments with the flora and fauna? So very many options.

[makeherblue]

It was downright shameful. The Doctor would just have to wrench enough for the both of them to make up for Gerald.

"Afraid I won't have any information on those two," the Doctor said. He might be a Time Lord, but he hadn't ever been to this specific dimension with the Daligig and they hadn't mentioned the Ohm back on Gallifrey, when it was still around. "I'd say virtually-without-limit is accurate, yeah. Half the fun I'd think, not knowing where to start."

He beamed at Gerald, trying very hard to ignore his Non-Wrenching. Just like Jamie had a paradox over his shoulder, Gerald had a cloud of Inability to Wrench At All. He was probably rubbish at twiddling too. Still, he had just said he enjoyed reading and that was always a good start.

[theprophet]

"Unfortunate," said Tarrant, though he hadn't really been expecting otherwise. That would have been much too easy. His tone was a little disappointed, though. He would have thought that a man with a nice library like the Doctor's would have been a little more all-encompassing in the type of books he'd chosen to acquire. Dramatic sigh.

"But I suppose you're right. The pursuit of knowledge can be as rewarding as the end result. If not more so." Tarrant was a pretty fair hand at pursuit himself. In a manner of speaking.

[makeherblue]

The Doctor had to agree: definitely unfortunate, but he liked to think of it as a challenge to add information on both instead of focusing on the negatives. Besides, it wasn't often you had the opportunity to see different dimensions these days.

"Oh yes! Very! You know, you're very good for a human," the Doctor sounded properly impressed. "Good head on those shoulders."

[theprophet]

Well. It had been quite some time since anyone had called him human. He smiled. "And you're not a human? Thank you for the compliment, all the same. People don't always appreciate what I have to say."

[makeherblue]

"Oh no. No, no, not this time at least. Long story." Depending on your version, Gerald could either get ghost snakes or watches and scarecrows - take your pick. The Doctor waved his hand as if he's swatting away at a fly. "Why? You seem intelligent, reasonable. Although I suppose sometimes there's such a thing as too reasonable..."

The Doctor trailed off, inspecting Gerald and maybe measuring him up to Rory's Reasonable Scale, which is probably a 10 as in Excessive Reasonableness.

[theprophet]

Tarrant gave the Doctor a slight shrug of the shoulders. "Who can say? Maybe they found me too reasonable, as you said. Or maybe not reasonable enough. People can be very difficult to please. Personally, I'd settle for some reliable help."

He'd note the Doctor's not-so-helpful answer for later.

Would it be cool if we wrapped this up in a bit? :3

[makeherblue]

The Doctor was finding it difficult to understand why people wouldn't like Gerald: he seemed just that level of reasonable to him himself and either he was just that good or he was good at giving all the right answers. Still, he had a point. Reliable help was always hard to come by, whether you were on Earth or trying to not get shot by some space pirates or even some space farmers with a bad first impression.

"There's bound to be some on the ship. You can't go wrong with a Scot, I've found."

we can wrap now if you like

[theprophet]

Tarrant smiled. "I'll keep that in mind." Watch out, Jamie.