Oh, I've seen it all before in movies of myself

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((Closed for John and the Doctor, backdated to the day after the meeting))

The Doctor rapped sharply on the door to the Star Tours early in the morning and stood waiting, munching on an apple and humming the Star Wars theme.

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[always-confuzed.livejournal.com]

Aeryn was up and out already that morning, getting an English lesson from Daniel (she promised to come back later with food, which John was particularly excited about). He hadn't been expecting any visitors, and figured maybe Cayce had dropped by to talk about that upcoming Venture Underground.

Seeing the Doctor on the other side of the door made him smile, albeit in a slightly confused way.

"Aren't those supposed to keep you away?" he said, pointing at the apple.

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

The Doctor had planned a dramatic reveal in which he casually finished the last two bites of his apple as he leaned in the doorway, then tossed it aside and announced in a bright-and-yet-elegantly-sardonic tone; "Let me guess- that blue box travels in time and space?"

But this way? This way made him laugh.

"'Lo," he said when he was done chuckling. "Got a question for you. Can I come in?"

[always-confuzed.livejournal.com]

"'Course." John stepped aside and motioned toward the makeshift seating area near the fake spaceship. "What sort of question?"

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

The Doctor tossed aside the apple core as he stepped -the core was cleaned into nothing almost exactly the moment it hit the ground- inside.

"Where's the misses?" he asked, glancing around.

[always-confuzed.livejournal.com]

Answering a question with a completely unrelated question usually didn't bode well in John's world, but it was too early in the conversation for him to think much of it. "She's getting more English lessons from Daniel. I think she's pretty frelling good as is, but she's that kind of student; once she decides she's going to learn something, she soaks up everything she can get her hands on. She even watched Sesame Street on Earth."

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

"Ah, the old 'learn the language through the tele' trick." The Doctor grinned. "I remember those days. Marvelous thing, tele. Although I did once see one try to eat the world."

[always-confuzed.livejournal.com]

"A television?" Did John see that episode? He decided not to think about it too hard. "I may not have heard stranger, but I'm sure I could dredge up something equally weird, given a little more time."

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I know you could," the Doctor agreed mildly. He picked up a half-empty bottle sitting on a table and started turning it in his hands. "'Course, it wasn't really the tele itself; was actually just a creature of electrical energy making use of the only technology available to it at the time. Still, makes you think twice before sitting down for an episode of "Survivor."

[always-confuzed.livejournal.com]

John snickered (and was perhaps a little worried with himself, given that once the Doctor explained the television monster, it didn't sound nearly so strange to him), and went to grab the Doctor a fresh bottle of water. Not that turning one over in his hands meant that the Time Lord wanted one, but it was more instinct than a conscious act by now.

It wasn't that he didn't notice that the Doctor looked distracted. It was more than John noticed the Doctor was very good at avoiding a topic until he was ready for it. So John figured he'd give the guy a little longer to steal himself before asking about it.

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

He looked a little surprised at the appearance of the new bottle of water, but accepted it wordlessly and relinquished the one he was toying with.

"How did you know," he asked, fixing John with a rather piercing stare, "what the TARDIS was, that first time? Even Una didn't guess, and she's an expert by human standards."

[always-confuzed.livejournal.com]

It couldn't be helped if John's eyes got very alarmed very fast in a very telling sort of way. He hadn't been expecting that question. Certainly not in that way.

And that stare sort of made him feel the way he had when he'd accidentally ruined his mother's herb garden at the tender age of eight. All the years the Doctor had on him were suddenly so easy to make out.

But he wasn't eight anymore. So maybe he'd handle this better.

"How much thought have you put into what my answer might be?" His head was tilted down toward the floor, but he still managed to keep his eyes fixed on the Doctor's face. "I mean... I'm guessing if you're asking that it means you've guessed, which means that I should probably avoid beating around the...." Frell, John. Frelling hezmana to the nth power.

And perhaps because he really didn't know what else to say, the next thing to come out of his mouth was completely uncensored, no matter how softly it was spoken. "Heroes come in all shapes and sizes for people. Mine came in a blue box."

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

That wasn't any of the answers the Doctor had anticipated. He was silent for a long moment, and then decided to take a step back.

"I.... Sorry, that might've not been the best way to ask the question." He rubbed the back of his neck. "The Master and I are guessing tele program, yeah?"

[always-confuzed.livejournal.com]

John snorted a little at the first comment, then winced. "Yeah. Coulda told me you had already been discussing this with him, you know." It was weak, as reproaches went, but then again, he hadn't exactly meant it that way.

"I haven't seen this version of you, I should mention. Up to the eighth, far as I know." He wasn't about to say that the show had been canceled. For all he knew, someone picked it back up, and that's why he was seeing this version at all. Worked for Star Trek. "It's called Doctor Who. Which is probably funny to everyone except you, now that I think about it. Someone tip you off about all this, or were you just being clever?"

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

"Doc... Doctor Who?" the Doctor asked, increduously. "That's why everyone keeps saying that, because it's... it's... my programme's tagline?"

For some reason, knowing the name of the thing was almost more baffling than just knowing that there was one, -even- to the point that he was -distracted, for a moment, from that statement 'up to the eighth' and everything it could possibly mean- a little stuck on it.

"The neon talking tyranasaur wanted to squash him because he was an evil villian, and then he got excited when he heard Gallifreyan," he explained off-handedly. "No, we didn't need to be particularly clever." A hand through the hair. "This... this is weird. This is really weird."

[always-confuzed.livejournal.com]

"Uh...." He didn't really want to say yes, just because it sounded so stupid when the Doctor put it like that. "Well, it's also the mystery factor. Since you don't give your real name out. I guess."

John was starting to feel like a horrible person.

"Of course," he said awkwardly at the mention of T-Rex. "In this place it would be the giant green extinct talking monster that informs you of your fictitiousness." He sighed. "Look, you're right, it is definitely really weird, but you're in good company. We've got no reason to believe that all of us aren't fictional at this rate. And for what it's worth, I don't really think any of us are. I mean, we are somewhere, but not altogether. If that makes sense."

He really shouldn't bother discussing high science with a Time Lord, but at this point, John thought anything might help.

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

"It is my real name," the Doctor groused, apparently not placated. "It's not my only name, but that doesn't make it not real. I earned my name." A sidelong glance at John. "Suppose you know all about that then."

"Oh I agree with you," he continued, hand making yet another pass through his hair. "It's not that, it's just...."

[always-confuzed.livejournal.com]

Okay, apparently not the right way to go with it. John gave himself credit most of the time; getting people to open up to him wasn't usually that hard. But in this case, it was a bit more like D'Argo. Not the 'don't let him get close enough to give you a concussion' part, but he did have to tread lightly. "Sort of," he conceded, scratching the back of his neck. Which made them both look slightly comical, between that and the hair passes. "I mean, I remember something coming up about it, and about what they called you at school, but it's been a while. Anyhow, I didn't mean that it wasn't real in the way that you meant it. Just meant it's clearly not your original given name, which is what most people think when you say your name is the Doctor."

It probably wasn't really worth it to try and make the point.

"...just that it's unsettling to think that people have seen things that you've done in your life?" John shook his head. "Think we've all had that thought. It's not like you've really got anything to worry about; it's your show, Doc. It isn't a UNIT show, or one about the Master. It's yours." He hoped what he was implying was obvious. C'mon, you've got more ego about you than anyone. It's part of why people love you so much.

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

"My show," the Doctor muttered, and then laughed. "Oh, there are so many people who would be extremely annoyed by that." -he's thinking of his professors mostly, the ones who'd always thought he was (unimportant. and isn't it funny that this makes him, in a certain sense, more important than, say, Rassilon) useless. and there were his classmates, and more than a few enemies over the years (more important than the Eternals, hah! take that Black Guardian.)-

He opened the bottle and took a sip of water, mostly to have something to do besides stand there.

"So you like the show, then?" he -was still avoiding the bigger questions- surmised, an assumed lightness in his tone.

[always-confuzed.livejournal.com]

John can certainly take the joke, even if he's not aware of the particular people the Doctor is thinking of. The guy had certainly foiled enough evil schemes.

The question's more than a little uncomfortable for so many reasons. "I do. A lot of people do. It's like the English version of Star Trek. A genre staple would probably be the best way of putting it. Sort of."

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"Well, that's good anyway. I'd hate to be boring. Or one of those early morning programs no one ever watches." He tilted his head thoughtfully. "Probably started before you were born, though, eh? Sometime in the 1960s?"

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There was that ego he remembered. See, it wasn't so bad, was it? Maybe this conversation wouldn't cause any permanent damage and--

How the frell had he figured that?

John swallowed. "Huh. Uh, yeah. It did." It would be better if he just left it at that. Really, it would. "Can I ask, how...."

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

"Companions," the Doctor answered with a shrug. "There's a pretty distinct timeline that the majority of them fit into, actually." He tapped one finger rapidly against the bottle. "And that also explains how you knew all about the Master. It was you who warned Cayce, wasn't it? What did you tell her?"

[always-confuzed.livejournal.com]

Of course. The Doctor was too smart not to figure that. He'd started with companions from the 60s and and moved forward from there (minus a few that were pulled from other planets, if memory served). "Right. Any reason you think you did it that way? Or did you just like the century?"

He couldn't help but look a little sheepish at being caught. "I told her that he could control people's minds, and that she should try to stay out of his way." John pressed his lips together, and there was a change in his bearing, something that Aeryn would have recognized. It had appeared after living a year in the Uncharted Territories. "I have to keep my friends, my family safe. If something had happened to Cayce because she didn't know, it would've been my fault. I know it's none of my business, but I can't be sorry for that."

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

"Of course not," the Doctor agreed, in a manner that was only little too understanding to be dismissive. "I'd have done the same, in your position. Especially if the last you saw of him was back when I was curly and auburn and he wore shades?" A sidelong glance. "How... much attention did he get within the show, anyway?" he asked.

[always-confuzed.livejournal.com]

John decided it was best not to ask how he had come up with that. Clearly, he just wasn't fast enough to keep up with wherever the Doctor was going. "Yeah, it was around then. A little different from his last, uh, regenerations? in all the wrong ways. He was one of the reoccurring characters. Not the number one enemy, of course, but one of the... well, 'favorites' sounds sort of horrible, considering."

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A bark of laughter.

"Sort-of," the Doctor agreed. "Show ever follow him, you know, what he got up to when I wasn't around?

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"Only the stuff he did to mess around and/or try to kill you," John told him, trying his best to shrug at it. He gave a half-hearted smile. "Looking for insight?"

[a-lonely-god.livejournal.com]

The Doctor smiled sadly and huffed out a sigh.

"Sorry. I'm not going to grill you or anything, I just have to ask..." he already knows the answer, really, as much as he'd like to hope that the show had a half-hour background segment explaining exactly everything that went wrong with the Master and why. "Was there... was there ever any mention of drums, in relation to the Master?"

He looked down and the water bottle in his hand, seeming to find something about its contents worth a great deal of inspection.

[always-confuzed.livejournal.com]

Of course, John didn't have the benefit of knowing the shows future. He had never seen this Master or this Doctor before. He had no idea what the sound of drums did to a Time Lord.

"No, not that I remember seeing." Still, he got the sense that it was pretty important, especially if the Doctor was avoiding eye contact over it. "I'm sorry."

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"'S alright," the Doctor assured him. "Was worth a shot." He rolled his shoulders, and then tilted his head to one side, like he was stretching it. "Nice to know I'm appreciated, I suppose."

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"Nice. I guess." John scratched above his eyebrow. "Honestly, if it were me, I'd be furious. Someone getting to peek into my life, see all my most vulnerable moments." Why no, he didn't think of that when Harvey went poking around, not at all. "But you are appreciated. By a whole lot of people. Who you'll never know. I think that's either sort of incredibly awesome, or really frelling weird. Or both."