Who's that knocking on my TARDIS?

[whatifigetbored]

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.]]

Comments

[whatifigetbored]

"Very well then, Captain James Harper. We'll leave it at that, and we'll leave you...oh, no no no no no."

And then, almost as if Jack's worries about being taken to the end of the universe had jinxed it, the TARDIS's flight suddenly shifted, moving erratically through the vortex instead of to Cardiff, like she was supposed to. Her usual groaning noise shifted, mutating into something that sounded rather more unhealthy.

The Doctor darted around the consol, frantically flicking switches and pressing at buttons, trying to get the TARDIS back on track again. "Come on old girl, what's wrong? Hey? What's with you? Don't be like that, I know you don't like the Captain, but if you'll just get us to Cardiff, we can set him off, and then you won't have to go about carrying any more fixed points, I promise..."

[faceofbeau]

Jack's grip on the strut tightened as the old girl began to shake, and it was suddenly a lot harder to hide the grimace. So, just like the younger Doctor, the younger TARDIS was no longer used to him, trying to buck him off not for the first time. The only consolation was that at least this time, he wasn't clinging to the outside of the ship: death by Time Vortex was not a death he wanted to repeat any time soon. And while he wanted to help, instincts itched to go to the controls to lend a hand, he knew better, especially with the Doctor already so wary of him.

"I'll take anywhere on the planet, if you can manage it, in 2009 or shortly before," he offered. Anything within reason, where he could either wait it out, or call the team and let him know he was on his way.

[whatifigetbored]

Except this time, Jack wasn't hanging on the outside of the TARDIS, he was inside her - and not even flying to the end of the universe could shake Jack off.

"But I can't; I can't even land on any planet at all, let alone the Earth," the Doctor said, frustrated and worried and very concerned, all at once. "She's tearing through the Vortex, with no rhyme nor reason, and I can't get her to stop."

And yet he kept working at the controls, hoping that something would work. Finally, he shot a quick, angry look at Jack - a very quick look, for looking at the man still felt like ants under his skin - "It's you. You're a fixed point, an impossibility, and she doesn't want to be carrying you...and yet here you are, and she can't shake you off."