flowerbox | Who's that knocking on my TARDIS?

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Who's that knocking on my TARDIS?

Through all of time and space, the TARDIS flew. On the outside; a blue police box, on the inside; a console room of wood and steel and candles, with buttons and glowing lights all coming together to make a kind of gothic steampunk fantasy.

For the Doctor, this was home.

"Well?" he said, almost absentmindedly fiddling with the switches and the controls on the console. "Where to next, hmm? The reign of Emperor Taizong? The fifth age of the New Savannah? Or maybe...Galsec Seven? What do you think?"

The console's central column pulsed slightly.

"Oh, don't look at me like that, old girl. You can't blame me for a moment of indecision, can you? Billions upon billions of worlds, an untold number of people and places and peculiarities to see...it's a wonder I ever manage to get anywhere at all, with so much to choose from!"

The glow of the TARDIS, quite possibly, took on a slightly pointed edge.

"Oh alright, alright, if you insist! Let's go...oh. Now that's not right."

[[ooc: Okay, the idea here is that any characters tagging in are suddenly arriving in the TARDIS. How they do is up do you: they could just walk in the door, they could just suddenly materialise with no added explanation, they could have been hiding in the swimming pool all this time and have only just decided to show themselves - whatever you like! You can keep it simple or make it some complicated conspiracy, whatever takes your fantasy.

Also, if you need some references - the inside of Eight's TARDIS basically looks like this, and Eight himself looks like this.]]

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The boy who'd gotten stuck in an Ankylosaur body had had a phrase for what they all were. What was it...

She hadn't meant to jab him in the head, but she wasn't going to say it. :Yes it was. Sometimes reality stings! - you're not really hurt.: Or he'd have staggered around, at least.

Ah, there was the phrase. :I'm a parasitic entity made of unmoored thought-energy brainwaves. And a Quetzalcoatlus northrupi. What about you?:

"Yes, reality can sting, but I would have much preferred it if you hadn't helped it along like that..." the Doctor said, with one final rub.

"A parasitic entity made purely of thought energy? Now that is fascinating! Although I do hope that you are not causing any harm to your Quetzalcoatlus northrupi host there." If she was, then the Doctor might just have to do something about that. "And I'm a Time Lord - but you can call me the Doctor. Do you have a name?"

:I wanted to make sure you were solid.: That was as close as she was willing to come just now to an apology.

Janine moved her massive head in a way that suggested a shrug. :She's fine. Very passive most of the time, but I can't get too close to big predators or skim cliffs, that kind of thing.:

:A Lord and a the, huh? Hmm.: She regarded him with one eye, than the other. :All right. You can call me the Janine.:

"Well then, as long as you are taking care of her properly," the Doctor said. Fortunate, that her host wasn't sentient, and perhaps a good sign that she had admitted so readily to her parasitic. Still, the Doctor resolved to keep a careful watch on her, just in case.

"Or Gallifreyan, if you like. I'm afraid that my people are...well. Let's just say that words like 'pretentious', 'egotistical', and 'incredibly dull' are apt for describing them," the Doctor said, with a slight roll of the eyes. "A pleasure to meet you, Miss Jan - the Janine." The Doctor grinned, playing along with her obvious adoption of his own definite article. "An interesting name, for a Quetzalcoatlus. Or a parasitic being made of thought, in fact."

She'd started human. Human and in middle school. But there were things you didn't just tell weird happy people who stepped out of boxes into the age of the dinosaurs. Or anyone else, for that matter.

:Ah. You're compensating for your size, huh.: Head to toes he was about as long as her beak. Having little for scale, Janine had come to believe she was smaller than she really was. It was disorienting. Clearly, he was some kind of... leprechaun or elf and wow, that was a nerdy thought.

:And I like janines. Okay, information exchange - I'm here to find food. I have to eat every few hours. Why are you here, the Doctor?:

"Well I've been taller before, yes, but I assure you - I'm actually not short, for my kind at least," the Doctor said. His assertions was somewhat countered by the fact that he had to crank his next to look up at her with a small, wistful smile. "Although I suppose we must all look rather small to you, wouldn't we?"

And she was a very curious creature too, wasn't she? That was alright. The Doctor always liked curiosity. After all, he had rather a lot of it himself.

"Me? Oh, I'm a traveller. I'm not here for any particular reason. Actually, I wasn't even trying to get here at all, my TARDIS seems to have gone rather far off course...but that's alright. If she hadn't brought me here, I wouldn't have been able to meet you! Now, I can't quite recall...do you eat fish, or do you hunt on land?" There seemed to be some amount of disagreement about what exactly Quetzalcoatlus ate, if he remembered right. So why not take this opportunity to find out the truth in person?

She laid her head along her neck so she could look at him with both eyes at once, and snorted. It was a weird and almost explosive sound, thanks to the hollow chamber in her beak. :How tall is 'taller'?:

:I eat whatever I can find, however I can find it. Land or water doesn't really matter, but land's easier. Usually anything a little smaller than you.:

Her host was pretty clear that he was not too big to eat if it came to that. It was an observation rather than a plan, but just about anything she could pick up, she could thrash against a rock or something until it came apart into more manageable pieces. She elected not to tell him this.

"Well let's see...I was six foot three for a few incarnations, if I recall correctly. I'm five foot eight now - or is it five foot nine? - but I've been shorter too. I was five foot six, the last time around."

Yes, apparently the Doctor has a tendency for his height to go up and down and all over the place. Not that he has anything on Janine though, even at his tallest.

"I should thank you for not considering me your lunch; I do appreciate it, I assure you," the Doctor said cheerfully. It seems that it has, in fact, occurred to him that he is still a size that she could manage. "I would offer to help you find some lunch, only hunting is not really my area, I'm afraid. Unless you'd like some cake and biscuits?"

Janine blinked her milky inner eyelids. He couldn't possibly be five eight. She'd have to hold her head at the level of her shoulders to be on the same eye level. Remembering herself, she found something to say. :You change bodies or something?:

A lack of sweets was one of the regrettable things about the Cretaceous Period. :Dunno. I'd need a lot.:

"Yes, something like that. Not like you do, it's a different process altogether." And that was enough of that, because now it was time to find cake for Janine!

He hopped back to the TARDIS door, opening it. "I'll find something, I'm sure. Ah - can you fit through the doors, Janine?" If she couldn't, he'd have to find the cake and bring it out to her instead.

:Doubt it.: She stuck her beak through after him, and... didn't hit anything. Janine stretched her neck out and let her eyes adjust to the gloom, and blinked.

:The fuck.:

Her shoulders were a little too wide, her forelimbs a little too splayed. Janine could get the tip of her beak about twelve feet in.

"Yes yes, I know, it's bigger on the inside," the Doctor said, with just a little bit of impatience. "But you, I'm afraid, are bigger than they doorway. Now let's see, let's see..."

And out of his pocket the Doctor pulls out a small device - his Sonic Screwdriver - and starts pointing it at the frame of the TARDIS doors, where the end of it lights up and makes an odd ringing sound.

"...now if I can just...alter the transdimensional pathway between the TARDIS's exterior and interior, so that rather than being limited by the fixed dimensions of the outside, it instead adjusts to fit whoever is passing through it, then...ah ha! Success!"

Grinning from ear to ear, the Doctor steps back and turns off the sonic screwdriver. "There you go, try now! The doors should expand enough to let you in."

:You know,: she drawled, as dryly as she could, :I'm starting to suspect that you are kind of weird.:

She could feel the doorframe against her body shift. Sort of. For some reason she thought of an accordion, but that wasn't right, and she flung her neck up and to one side on instinct, to try and keep her balance -

- and she was in. Janine drew her head and neck around to peer back behind her with one eye, at the Doctor with the other. :Just a little.:

"Me, weird? Says the psychic Quetzalcoatlus!" The Doctor said, although his small smile suggested that he wasn't really offended. "And if anyone else tries to tell you that I am, in fact, "weird", well. You shouldn't believe them."

To give Janine a bit more space, the Doctor started darting about, pulling chairs and coffee tables and piles of books out of the way. "Now, we're after cake, aren't we? Now I'm sure I must have some in the kitchens, although whether it's enough for you, I don't...aha!"

And then, from out beneath what looked to be a chair, the Doctor procured a bowl of... "Jelly babies! Would you like some?"

:Hmph.: She strode cautiously around the floor, the small harsh scales on the pads of her feet and winghands scraping a little against the floor. Despite her size she was not clumsy, and knocked against nothing, though she came close here and there.

Janine was not a Brit. :Jelly whats now?: She had to angle her head around to see what was in the bowl.

"Jelly babies. They're a type of gelatinous confectionary. See?" He held one up where he hoped she'd be able to see it - hopefully Quetzalcoatlus had good eyes - before popping it into his own mouth. "They're very nice! You could try some, while I go and look for any cake...ah, what, exactly, is the best way for you to eat? Can you eat from a bowl, or should I get you a plate?"

Her eyes were good, but this was quite a small thing at close range.

:Nah, just leave it. I'll see what I can do.: The bowl was bigger than the tip of her beak.

"Very well then. Right then, I'll be back soon - just don't touch the console!" the Doctor said, yelling as he disappeared off into the TARDIS.

Ten minutes later, he reappeared, carrying a plate with a few slices of cake. "I'm afraid it looks like I haven't got much, but it's a start - how have you gone with the jelly babies?"

Of course, when he was out of sight she had to circle said console, peering here and there - no, not touching, though her breath whooshed across it a time or two. Janine was a contrary sort, but smart enough to pick when she actually disobeyed something.

:Hmm? I tossed some back, but they're too small and I can't chew.: There may have been some candy on the floor - "tossed back" meant picking up some in the tip of her beak and just pointing it ceilingwards. :Wild guess, whoever designed them didn't have pterosaurs in mind.:

Oh, the Doctor liked the contrary sort, but it wouldn't have been good if she'd accidentally set them in flight. Who knows where they could end up if that happened.

"Oh, you can't eat them?" the Doctor said, looking distinctly disappointed. "That's a shame, I was sure you would have liked them...well, shall we try the cake then? Will these be big enough for you?"

He held out the plate with the cakes, most of which had already had slices taken out of them. But they were certainly larger than the jelly babies (and as for their present location scattered across the floor, well, the Doctor didn't look to be at all bothered by that.)

:Can't chew and I don't salivate much. I can swallow them, but I don't exactly get anything out of it.: Janine moved head and neck in something like a shrug. :If you wanted an easy guest you should've invited someone else in.:

Now she eyed the cakes he'd brought, seeing a new problem to present to the Doctor and see how he'd react. :They're probably big enough, but! I can't chew, my tongue isn't very flexible, and I don't have cheeks.: For emphasis she shut her beak fast, with a sound like a clap. :And cake is soft. So if I'm to eat any of it you'll have to actually put it in the back of my mouth.:

"Yes, yes, of course, of course...although I do hope you'll remember not to bite my arm off. I'm quite attached to it, you know," the Doctor said, with a quick flash of a grin.

He set the plate of cakes down on the edge of the console (apparently, despite his earlier instructions to Janine to not touch it, doing things like shoving a bunch of cakes on it was alright if he was the one doing it), and picked up a slice. "Alright then, open up!"

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