RP for darkdoctor

[alainn_aislinn]

It had taken some convincing, but Melissa had always been a persuasive girl. Aislinn liked her, wished Devin hadn't been stupid enough to break up with one the Morrigan had taken an interest in. It could have done him good to reconnect with those in Faerie. But he'd been frightened, and he had left, and she had maintained a quasi-friendship with the girl for her own purposes. The gift. The mark. The way her brown eyes saw things.

And now there was this request, and here she was, lingering in a coffee house, sipping a cup of tea and listening to poetry not even a muse could fix, waiting for an alien who didn't believe in fairies. Well, she didn't believe in aliens, but she was willing to trust the girl's judgment, at least as far as being willing to meet this Doctor she was traveling with.

She'd been amused enough to dress for the occasion in the most fairylike garb she could get away with in a human public. Her auburn curls were pulled half back, tumbling down her back and over her shoulders. She let just enough of the glamour slip so that her skin was whiter, eyes greener and tilted just a bit. She left her ears human-looking, but the hint of a point was there. Her dress was dark green and black, velvet and something silk-like. It was a sundress of a sort, clinging to her skin here and there where it should, and flowing free in other places. Her earrings and necklace were delicate jade leaves, carved by the finest dwarven craftsmen.

Sighing, Aislinn tucked a stray strand of hair back and added more cream to her tea, then glanced around, watching the door for someone who looked like an alien. Hopefully the evening wouldn't be boring, at the very least. And if he really was an alien...A calculating look flashed in her eyes.

Well, that could be very interesting, indeed.

Comments

[darkdoctor.livejournal.com]

The Doctor paused at the door, pensively resting his hand on polished wood. This was an odd venture; he was here to be convinced, to listen, to learn. Usually it was the other way around, or it was he who sent his companion to broaden their horizons.

He might have stolen a glance through the windows, but the glass was distorted, only revealing plays of colour and light and movement. He could ascertain only that it was a peaceful environment, and he'd known as much.

After a moment, he pushed the door open. He would fit in well enough; the frock coat wouldn't seem odd here, nor would the colours. Everything was black, save for his gloves and shirt - thin, smooth, white.

His eyes began to scan the crowd immediately, automatically; swift and thorough, disregarding the stuttering youth on stage.

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

He didn't look like what an alien should look like, in Aislinn's mind, but he was different, at least in energy if nothing else. Something that vibrated out of sync with the people around him, and his eyes were very old. He was Other, at least, and that intrigued her.

Tilting her head, she let a friendly enough smile curve her lips, letting her eyes stay shadowed as she lifted her hand to catch his attention.

[darkdoctor.livejournal.com]

The movement caught his gaze immediately, and he allowed his eyebrows to rise slightly.

Well, looked the part well enough, but it was something else that drew him, that guided his steps, sustained his smile. She was different, in a way he couldn't quite understand.

That was more than enough to intrigue him, whatever it meant.

"Hello." His voice was soft, affable, curious.

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

She didn't rise, head falling back a little to look up at him, lips staying curved. She didn't mask her voice as she spoke, letting it be soft and melodic, hinting of her home.

"Hello," she said in response. She waved a hand at the chair next to her with an elegant gesture of invitation. "I'm Aislinn."

[darkdoctor.livejournal.com]

He offered a slight bow in response, with grace born of experience. It seemed the right thing to do, and sometimes he still followed impulse. My, already he was affording rarities.

"A pleasure," he said as he sat, resting his hands on his lap.

"I'm the Doctor, as I'm sure you know?"

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

The bow seemed to please her, her smile flashing quick and bright as he sat.

"That is the name Melissa gave you, yes," Aislinn said with a curious look. "It seems more like a title than a name. Have you another?"

Her finger traced the rim of her teacup still studying him, trying to pinpoint just what was different.

[darkdoctor.livejournal.com]

His gaze was equally searching, but there was a softness to it, a subtlety that stopped it being harsh, impersonal.

"Not for some time. I've gone by 'Doctor' for centuries now; it's as good as my name, perhaps better."

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

Aislinn frowned, inherently not trusting someone who didn't offer a name. Names had power that titles did not, and if she'd known he wasn't going to play fair with them, perhaps she might have given another.

Because he was Melissa's friend, however, she smoothed the frown away, and gave him a curious look instead. Perhaps, after all, he didn't know and no insult was intended. "Why?"

[darkdoctor.livejournal.com]

His brow furrowed slightly; obviously he'd made some indiscretion, and he'd an idea what it was. Perhaps he could make it up with sincerity.

"I gave up my given name when I left my home. It's meaningless to me now." A faint smile.

"Oughtn't the power of choice be considered?"

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

That surprised her, that he would try to ease anything. "Centuries" and "home" were noted and filed away, with suspicion still lingering.

"Choice should always be considered," she said with a slight shrug, though she was not sure if there was any power in it at all.

But none of it answered the question she had asked. "But why?"

[darkdoctor.livejournal.com]

He tilted his head slightly, a smile touching his lips. It wasn't something he'd been asked for a long time; instead of being irritating, it was interesting.

"That wasn't who I was anymore." Quietly, "It takes me some time to remember that name, that child."

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

"You can never fully escape the child you were," Aislinn declared, one eyebrow arching. "No matter how much you might try to move beyond it. It always forms the base of who we are, the core and crux."

[darkdoctor.livejournal.com]

His smile merely widened at that.

"I'll admit we have some in common, still, but I'm quite literally not the same man."

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

Her brows knit together in a frown again as she studied him. "How so?"

[darkdoctor.livejournal.com]

He considered, for a moment, but they were both here to reveal, weren't they, to explain.

"When a member of my race dies, we regenerate. Every cell is transformed. We retain our memories, some aspects of our personality, but in essence we become a different person." A pause.

"This," and he gestured to himself, "is my fifth body."

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

"But what of the soul?" She asked simply, because, after all, that was what she dealt in. The soul, the creative essence of a person. "If the transformation is mostly biological, but you are still...the Doctor," It felt so odd to call a person that, "Then you, at your core, in that place that truly makes up who you are, you are the same, aren't you?"

It surprised her even that she wasn't questioning his base assumption of being something else. She could see quite well that he was.

[darkdoctor.livejournal.com]

He looked genuinely bewildered for a moment, before his expression became thoughtful.

"Time Lords aren't ones to examine the soul, really. I've no idea if it changes as well, or how it would."

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

"Time Lords." She tested the word out on her tongue, with all that it encompassed. "So much outer knowledge, and none of the inner world?"

[darkdoctor.livejournal.com]

He stared at her for a moment, before a soft chuckle escaped his lips.

"I think that sums us up exactly."

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

"How sad," she commented, draining her tea cup. "To know so little of yourselves must be a very limiting world."

[darkdoctor.livejournal.com]

He answered first with a slight nod.

"Time Lords forgot the use of true introspection some time ago, I think."

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

"Don't you find that highly limiting in achieving your aims?" She wasn't trying to be difficult, but was genuinely curious, given her involvement with some of the most introspective men in history.

[darkdoctor.livejournal.com]

"That, I believe, is one reason they've remained stagnant for so long." He shook his head.

"I believe I'm rather better at it than most of them. I did realise I didn't belong there, after all."

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

"Mmm." It was a noncommittal sound. "And cast off the name they gave you, attempting to release their power over you?"

[darkdoctor.livejournal.com]

"Precisely." Something bitter twisted his lips into a thin smile.

"Not to say they don't try to exercise it, but that's neither here nor there. What is your home like, Aislinn?"

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

The change of subject made her lips curve in amusement, but she allowed it, for now.

"Beautiful. The Sidhe coexist with nature instead of trying to tame it like mortals. There are homes made of trees and others of stone, grown up from the ground and shaped into palaces with gem studded walls..." Sometimes she missed it.