Mirrors - AU RP for alainn_aislinn

[thecricketer]

The Doctor is fairly certain he is going to crash.

He is, honestly, more worried about his ship than himself, and desperately tries to steady her as they rip through Time and Space and something else entirely, something he can't quite discern. Her distress pricks his mind like needles, and his fingers are going numb on the controls.

Eventually he realises that he's done all he can, and simply holds on.

When he opens his eyes he's still more or less upright, and those his swiftly beating hearts echo the state of the TARDIS, she is undamaged. With a quiet sight of relief he straightens, and crosses over to the doors.

He isn't sure where he is, and there's really only one way to find out.

Well. One proper way.

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[thecricketer.livejournal.com]

He was silent for a moment, eyes growing deeply troubled as his lips parted. This, now, was shock.

It held him in its grip for only a moment; then his expression was a mask of gentle, concerned curiosity. He stepped back again, giving her space.

"I'm the Doctor. You don't know me?" Perhaps she hadn't met him yet -but travelling through Time wouldn't have had such an effect on the TARDIS, not when she was well, and she was.

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

An arch of an eyebrow, taking in his shock, his surprise, her eyes traveling over him slowly before meeting his eyes again.

"No, I don't know you."

Her eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Did my mother send you?" It would be like her to send someone, though he didn't seem to be Sidhe and his disappearing box wasn't like anything she'd ever seen. But who knew what the court had come up with in her absence?

[thecricketer.livejournal.com]

He bore her searching gaze with both the quiet assurance of one used to being scrutinised and the discomfort of a someone confronted with the distrust of a dear friend.

"Certainly not, I've never met your mother." In that, at least, he could be utterly sincere. He only hoped it was apparent.

"I arrived here quite by accident, I assure you."

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

"Then how do you know who I am?" He didn't appear to be lying. His emotions weren't seeming to slide toward the lying way.

Almost by instinct she reached out, brushing over his mind with hers, searching, probing what he felt.

[thecricketer.livejournal.com]

His eyes widened, and a firm barrier just began to form when he stopped himself. That would only make her suspicious and...well, this was Aislinn, after all, whether she knew him or not.

"I've...we've met. Or we will meet. I think so, anyway, I'm not entirely sure what's going on."

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

He could have stopped her. That got her attention, her gaze sharpening. But he didn't, which was even more curious. It wasn't as if she could get more than emotions. But there was confusion, genuine, and affection that was even moreso and more confusing than the rest.

She crossed her arms across her chest, still looking at him challengingly.

"Explain."

[thecricketer.livejournal.com]

He sighed, running a hand through his hair as he leaned against the TARDIS, hands by his sides. It was one of the least threatening postures in his repertoire.

"I'm not sure if I should. There are things you shouldn't know yet. You shouldn't know me yet. ...Although, really, I shouldn't know you yet and I do." A pause, and a frustrated glance upward.

"Babbling, of course, won't solve anything. Would you mind telling me where we are, and when?"

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

She gave him an even more confused look, then sighed. Maybe he was some sort of insane mindreader who'd gotten her name.

"We're in Dublin. April 25th." She paused for a moment, watching him, then added, "2007."

[thecricketer.livejournal.com]

"Sorry," he said at the expression, knowing he wasn't making things easier for either of them, not at all sure how.

"Ah. Earth, then, in the same year I seemed to be in before. That's...that's odd." Perhaps Time moved differently, where he was, but...

"How - this may be a personal question and I'd understand completely if you didn't want to answer it - but how old are you?"

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

That made her pause, watching him again. To tell the truth would be to give away at least partly what she was. Not that passing for human mattered much to her, and she could always just walk away.

She was curious why he wanted to know.

"It's odd to be in the same year you were?" Maybe he was mad? "I'm 218." Let him think she was, too.

[thecricketer.livejournal.com]

His brow furrowed. "I believe you're around the same age as my Aislinn, then - that is, ah, the one I know."

A pause.

"You think I'm mad, don't you." He sighed, slipping his hands into his pockets.

"I can hardly blame you. Of course, you're the one who saw a big blue box materialise out of thin air." He attempted a light, teasing smile, expresion more hopeful than anything.

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

His Aislinn? Though that would explain the fondness.

The teasing, hopeful smile made her frown, moving a couple of steps toward him.

"Are you one of my artists in some...how do you know another me?"

[thecricketer.livejournal.com]

"Not an artist, no. A friend." He seemed comfortable with the closing distance, perhaps even assured by it. At least she didn't view him as an immediate threat.

"I...it's rather complicated." Regenerations and paradoxes were, he decided, a bit too much to go into at the moment.

"I met Byron, first?" Which was true.

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

Her face shuttered, a flash of aching, ripping pain and then nothing, eyes going almost blank at that.

"Byron has been dead for one hundred and eighty three years and one week." She could have told him the hours, minutes, seconds, but that really seemed like overkill.

[thecricketer.livejournal.com]

Automatically he stepped forward, reaching out a hand to her before pulling it back.

"...What?" Normally he would quell the slight tremble in his voice, the horrifed shock in his eyes, but he felt she needed to see that he cared. That he knew him.

"No, I..." He trailed off, his eyes widening slightly, a glimpse of understanding lighting them.

"Aislinn, please, tell me how he died."

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

Her smile was twisted, dark and bitter. He knew her, but didn't know that? It seemed doubtful, though his horror seemed genuine enough.

"Don't you read your history books? He fell ill of a fever, most likely malaria, though the idiot doctors couldn't make up their minds what it was. They bled him. Repeatedly, until his heart gave out."

That he had already been severely weakened from nearly 20 years with her hadn't helped, but her bitterness was real. It hadn't had to be that way.

[thecricketer.livejournal.com]

Slowly his hearts slowed again as the situation began to dawn.

"I could write several, and more accurately," the Doctor said; he regretted the comment immediately after, and spoke more softly.

"He didn't die in my universe, Aislinn. He's been alive for over a century."

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

She looked at him with something like hatred then, the first real emotion she'd shown.

"Don't lie to me. Humans can't live that long, and never ones as brilliant as he was."

[thecricketer.livejournal.com]

It hurt, he couldn't stop it from hurting, but he understood. He had to try to explain.

"He's not, Aislinn, not the Byron I know. He's something called an Immortal. He...he can live forever, barring beheading." Oh, this should never have happened, he should never have crashed here, he was hurting her, this was wrong...

"I'm not lying, Aislinn." And he opened his mind, truly, offering to let her find out for herself.

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

She slid in almost viciously, a dark wind not caring if she ripped through him, heedless of whether it hurt him or not. Her rage and pain and confusion were open and biting, because she couldn't hide and connect at the same time.

Another her. Another him. Another world and none of it made any sense and it hurt. Things weren't supposed to hurt like this, not anymore, not after everything she'd done to make it stop and then he just stepped through and went right for scars and ripped them open again and she might as well have been a girl screaming at her mother that it wasn't fair all over again.

[thecricketer.livejournal.com]

He drew a sharp breath, wincing, but didn't struggle against her, letting her see, knowing how much pain it caused and hating himself for it.

The Doctor reached out again.

Tranquility, affectionate and understanding, swelled in his mind, brushing hers, trying to soothe, to quiet.

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

She pulled back just as sharply as she'd entered, tears in her eyes as she started to back away slowly, looking at him with something like terror in her eyes, though whether it was from the caring or what she had seen, it was hard to tell.

[thecricketer.livejournal.com]

He wasn't sure if he preferred the ache in his mind or the one in his chest.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, and stopped himself before he stepped closer.

"I didn't...I didn't mean to hurt you."

[alainn-aislinn.livejournal.com]

"Who are you? Why are you here?" She wrapped her arms around herself tight, protectively, breathing quick and shallow.

[thecricketer.livejournal.com]

He, in contrast, forced himself to relax, a calm mask sliding over his features, though his eyes were still concerned, and kind - and guilty.

"I don't know, honestly, my...my ship, she crashed here somehow. I think this is an alternate universe." One of his hands found the edge of the shape they'd grown so found up, and gripped it lightly.

"I'm the Doctor. Just...just a traveller."