Entry Thirty-one - Le Bon Temps III

I woke up this morning in my usual fashion, by the sound of overly loud sighs coming from the door of my bedroom (at least I wasn’t being poked this time). Sometimes it’s a real shame that the Doctor doesn’t need as much sleep as I do because I really think I could do with a proper lie in. But, there’s things to see, people to meet, civilisations to save so I got out of bed, had a shower, and then eat tea and toast in the galley. The Doctor dug in the cupboard for about ten minutes to find a jam that neither of us had had before (no small feat) and ended up with this sort of plumy grapefruit thing. It was delicious so we put it front and centre in the refrigerator so we wouldn’t forget to use it again. I should probably mention that we’ve done that at least sixteen times and now have a row of jams lined in the front of the refrigerator which make it rather hard to get to the milk. I decided to label them by taste so instead of writing ‘Hobroxl Fruit’ I wrote ‘Plumy Grapefruit’. We’re very orgainised now. Of course, in order to label them we had to taste them all, which meant sticking our fingers in, which the Doctor seemed to enjoy a little too much.

We contemplated then visiting Germberger’s Confits and Preserves which he promised was about as amazing as it sounds, but we’d been having an easy time of it lately, floating around visiting; not much trouble. So we decided to leave off Germberger’s for a bit and randomise, which is still one of my favourite things to do. Like I’ve said before, it could be anything out there. So the Doctor kicked (literally) off the handbrake, the TARDIS jerked throwing me across the room, and off we went.

When we landed I was still trying to disentangle myself from some sort of tubing against the far wall of the console room. I’m not one to complain, but the TARDIS really is not the smoothest ride. I’m not entirely sure who’s to blame, the pilot or the ship. But after about two minutes of trying to unstuck some sort of sticky from the leg of my jeans the Doctor finally came over to help.

“Blimey you know how to get yourself tangled,” he said and I just sort of glared for a moment before breaking into a laugh. Couldn’t quite help it really, it was funny. And luckily it wasn’t just me cause the Doctor couldn’t get off either, until he used the sonic to loosen the glue. Then we were off.

Two things were immediately apparent when we opened the door. One, due to a familiar hum that I didn’t think we’d heard in a while, we were on some sort of space station. And two, I was grossly under dressed. People and aliens were milling around the place in what could only be described as black tie. They were drinking bubbly orangey red drinks, talking to each other, and laughing. We’d clearly just crashed some sort of party. And a swanky one at that. The Doctor and I stared for a moment before we glanced at one another, grinned, and popped back into the TARDIS. I asked him where we were and his grinny response was ‘Does it matter?’

I wonder sometimes if all the clothes in the wardrobe belonged to other companions. People from my past and future who’d travelled with the Doctor before things happened to them. Either they got dropped off back at home or chose to stay somewhere else, or else… well things probably happened to some of them. I couldn’t quite imagine the wardrobe ever being empty, but there must have been a time, once at the beginning of the TARDIS’s existence where there wasn’t anything in there. But, now it’s filled with things I couldn’t even imagine. Back on the Powell Estate I never would have had any use for a nice dress or jewelry or beautiful shoes, I wouldn’t have anything to wear to that party going on outside. But someone, once had, because I found a knee length black dress that would have done Holly Golightly proud, then I went to my room and found the shoes that Ariella had once given me made from literal stardust. They were a sort of gold and shimmered in the light, like glitter only more fluid and more beautiful. Looking at myself in the mirror I felt sort of grown up, not to mention a bit posh. When I got to the console room the Doctor was already looking impatient tapping the balls of his trainer clad, black now as he was currently wearing the great tux of doom, feet against the base of the jumpseat.

“Bout time, ....Tyler...., where’d you get that outfit an asteroid bazaar?” he said but smiled and then appraised my new look. “Not bad,” he said then jumped off the jumpseat and took my hand tugging me towards the door. “You’ll fit right in.”

I allowed my hand to be tugged at because, well let’s face it, I’m used to it at this point. “Nice choice of suits, Doctor, does that mean we’ll be fighting off a hoard of mighty beasts in a moment?” I can’t remember if I explained before but I call his tuxedo the Great Tux of Doom because every time he wears it something bad happens. Now, I am not saying that bad things don’t happen when he’s got on his pinstripes but so far that hasn’t been a one hundred percent ratio. I mean, he wears that brown suit pretty much everyday. The tux however… well anyway, he does look pretty good in it.

So off we went to this party where we blended perfectly. No one seemed to pay the TARDIS any sort of attention in the corner in the room. It’s weird, sometimes people notice it and sometimes they just don’t. I would think it’s to do with perception filters and all but I really just don’t know. Anyway, right now it was just being ignored; perhaps it was the fabulous party. We mingled and met a couple of nice folks from a human colonised moon in a system call Balaxibran. I thought it sounded a bit like a grainy cereal. It seemed as though this was the year 746,539 and that this station was commissioned by the colony ....Paris...., where we had those brilliant crustaceans that time. So everyone was speaking French around us, though I couldn’t tell as the TARDIS was translating everything anyway, still knowing made it seem a bit posher. We drank orangey red fizzy drinks that were sort of like champagne except tasted way better and danced cause everyone else was. It seems this version of the Doctor has moves just as good at the last one. Maybe better.

But really, if anyone thought we were going to get out of these evening without trouble then you don’t know us very well. Everything was well and good until the band took the stage at around ..23:40.. and it became evident that we were ringing in the Human Empire’s New Year. I thought that was a bit funny since we’d just done New Years, but that’s what happens sometimes in time and space. The band, who were a mix of races, some human and some sort of… well they had trunks like elephants and a kind of bunny ears, also something else that looked human but was completely red and gold, was pretty good really and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves until about five minutes till midnight and all the power went down. And I don’t just mean all the power in the room, I mean all the power in the whole space station; everything just sort of went off. There weren’t any lights but it also meant that doors wouldn’t open, save for the apparent manual override, and probably worse off the artificial atmosphere was siphoning off into the ether. Which meant that pretty soon everyone in this room was going to die. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t all that worried. The TARDIS was just over in the corner and I was sure that the Doctor would have some sort of brilliant plan like he always has, but when I looked at him he had a sort of stony expression on his face.

“C’mon,” he said taking my arm by the wrist and pulling me towards the TARDIS. Everyone was screaming and pounding on the walls and carrying on in the fashion you’d expect when you realise you’re about to die. We went over to the TARDIS, opened the door, and went inside. The Doctor went immediately over to the console and started pressing buttons.

“Alright then, what’s the plan?” I asked, twisting my hair around my hand and smiling. “What brilliant way are we saving the day this time?”

The Doctor didn’t look at me for a long time, long enough that I started to get a bit worried. When he finally did look at me it was with one of the saddest expressions I’d ever seen. “Rose, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry but we can’t.”

I wrinkled up my brow, “What do you mean we can’t?” I didn’t understand, this was what we did. We found people in trouble and we helped them. We fixed things, the Doctor fixed things.

“Do you remember when I took you to see your father and you saved him? The whole world broke apart trying to correct it. Some things are in flux, those things I can change, those things aren’t meant to happen. Other things happen, must happen, and have to happen. I can’t interfere. We can’t interfere. That space station, Le Bon Temps III, is the third of its kind. They keep getting bigger and more luxurious and more and more unstable. Thousands of people vie for spaces on them, invitations to their parties, rooms in their hotels. People get greedy; stop caring about the work put into the stations. This changes all that. The power goes off, they can’t get the doors open, and they will die. All of them, except three. Two oxygen starved humans and one Zzerfed. They get the doors open just in time to save themselves. They’ll go back to their homes and they’ll tell the story. Because of that sanctions are put in place, checks and balances. People realise they can’t just build and build and build until things get out of hand. Because of this tragedy things get better. This has to happen. It would be like if we’d landed on the Titanic, its history, Rose, and it has to be.”

I stood there for a moment, not entirely sure what to say. I understood, I did, but it wasn’t fair. All those people we had just met and danced with and shared stories and orangey red fizzy drinks, they were all going to die and there wasn’t anything I could do about it. “All of them,” I finally said.

He looked very sad for a moment and then nodded, “All but three.”

I could tell that there were tears threatening behind my eyes and I could tell that he could tell, but I couldn’t help trying to be brave. I turned and looked out the TARDIS window, people were still rushing about, pushing each other, pushing at doors, opening up side panels to try and jerry rig them open. There wasn’t as much screaming as people seemed to realise they needed to preserve their energy. Some were praying, others were crying in corners having already given up. I couldn’t look away, just pressed my nose against the window until the Doctor came over and put his hand on my shoulder.

“Come on, Rose,” he said and guided me over towards the console where I sat in the jumpseat. He pressed some buttons and spun us back out into space. I told him I wanted to watch, so we stood by the door for a moment with them open and watched as one small ship broke away from the space station into freedom. I couldn’t tell, but I thought by now the space station was probably silent. After awhile I turned and walked to my room, where I took off my shoes, changed my dress into pajamas, curled up in bed, and cried. It wasn’t long before I heard the Doctor from the doorway. “Rose, I’m sorry. I should have asked, I didn’t know.”

I knew that. But it was hard, it would never not be hard. There are so many brilliant things about travelling with the Doctor sometimes it’s easy to forget the terrible things. The things I have seen. The people I’ve met who have died. I forget sometimes because it’s easier than remembering. I sat up and nodded and I think he knew I didn’t blame him, couldn’t really ever blame him. He came over and gave me a hug and I cried into his lapel for a long time until I eventually drifted off into sleep.

Until next time.

Entry Thirty - Earth, Jacowitz, Eagle Nebula

I'm terrible. I know. I might have even forgotten I had a blog. Well, that's not entirely true, but like anything the shiny newness wore off and I was left with the thought that I HAD to post after a rather strenuous day of running from antlered alien creatures. That's a general example, not a specific one. Actually, I don't think we've run into any antlers for quite some time. Anyway, that's not the point; the point is that I forgot to write down my adventures because I was too busy having them. I'm going to try and improve, but I really can't make any promises. The real reason I've logged back on is because the Doctor hacked me again, and then told me about it. I thought I really should post.

So anyway, I will try and run down a few things we've done lately.

It's funny but before the Doctor jiggered and poked my computer into allowing me to stay on time with my superphone (ie, in my mum's time) it tells me when it's holiday and the date and everything. Mostly it's completely pointless but every once in awhile it's nice to know that Christmas is coming up. I mean, of course we can have Christmas whenever we want. And we do, quite honestly we have Christmas probably about eight times a year. I think the Doctor likes presents, but then again... who doesn't? Once we had Christmas for practically a week straight. It. was. BRILLIANT. But when Christmas comes round for you lot I always sort of get nostalgic for a good old Christmas. So, I packed up all my laundry and the Doctor begrudgingly took me back to the Powell Estate. I had to promise Jaffa cakes. He loves Jaffa cakes. Not as much as Jacowitzian banana doughnuts, but still.

We didn't land on Christmas though, which was fine cause it ended up being New Years. Not New Years Eve, just New Years day. Which is... not as thrilling but still sort of a nice time to make a visit. Mum complained endlessly cause she said she had nothing in, which is pretty much what she says every time. But... well we didn't have any Jaffa cakes, which didn't make SOME people very happy (he sulked for an hour). But then Keisha came by and begged me to come out with her and Shareen and both of their blokes. I sort of wanted to and sort of didn't, but I thought I should cause I never see my friends anymore and I was never the anti-social type. She said hello to the Doctor and asked him to come along but he pretended to be very engrossed in the telly, which he obviously was not.

It was a pretty typical night at the pub so there's nothing all that great to report there. Except I just joined Twitter (@Rambling_Rosie) not to long ago and the Doctor's on now too (@BBCDoctor) so we were tweeting back and forth at each other since he couldn't remember where the chippy was. Keisha said I'm obsessed with him, which is an unfair assessment really. I mean... honestly he's pretty much everything in my life. It's a sort of isolated way of living, travelling around forever. But you see amazing things, and I could never get bored of the Doctor. But I agreed to put the superphone away.

When I got home there was a bag of chips waiting for me.

Then we decided to go visit Queen Ariella for a day. I know she's awfully busy but she always manages to make time for us. Really all we did was talk out on her palace grounds, which are extensive and full of the lushest grass you've ever seen. It's like walking on shag carpet. She had a picnic brought out and we got those brilliant sandwiches and she packed the TARDIS freezer room with banana doughnuts. Oh, and we brought her a chocolate castle and chocolate bubbles which we ate in a spare room that she assured us didn't matter when it got dirty. Well, can we help it if chocolate bubbles are extremely difficult to eat? They're like regular blowing bubbles expect you then chase them around and eat them. They're well fun, really.

Then we decided to take a spin to the Eagle Nebula and watched the Hubble Space telescope take photos of the Pillars of Creation:


Space never looks real in photographs. Planets always look a bit two dimensional. I asked the Doctor once why that way and he explained it had something to do with re-fractional light or something. I really didn't quite understand but that happens sometimes. Still, the photos are beautiful, so you can probably imagine what it looks like in person.

I will write down a new adventure soon, I do promise. I like keeping a blog, it's just a matter of making the time for it. There's got to be a few breaks in save worlds, right? Anyway. That's all for now. See you soon!

Until next time.

Hacking, yet again...

Well, well, well. It feels like years since I've done this. Hello Rose-blog readers. I secretly like reading Rose's blogs too, to be honest, because it reminds me how brilliant I am. Which, let's face it, is pretty brilliant. ....

So, it seems Rose hasn't updated in a while. I do apologise for that, but when you have an amazing time travelling companion such as myself to spend your every day with, you end up either a) losing track of time or b) running out of time for things such as blogging. Let's face it, both happened to Rose.....

She promises to update soon. Probably. She always promises to update. Just like she always promises to call Jackie and forgets.....

To be fair to her, she did recently get me back on Earth, visiting Jackie. I was bribed. With Jaffa Cakes. Which I never received. Quite frankly, from now on, I'm taking payment up front. We arrived back and Jackie decided to snog me. Again. I have nothing against Jackie, really, but when she snogs me... not a good moment in my life.....

Anyway, so Rose went out that night, having been dragged out by Keisha and Shareen and left me alone, Jaffa cake-less and with Jackie. So of course I retreated to the TARDIS after dropping in on my friend Barbara who runs the chippy around the corner and up a bit.....

I didn't hold it against her of course. And we're currently on our way to visit the lovely Ariella, unannounced, just for funsies. ... Never saying 'funsies' again. ....

TTYN (Rose has had me watching Paris Hilton's British Best Friend. Not impressed)....

Oh, this is the Doctor by the way.....

Entry Twenty-nine- Ringgoolu

I told Heather Little recently the story about when the Doctor and I landed on this planet where they were having some serious issues with veg poachers in their growing fields and decided to fix the problem by building cyborg cows that shot lasers from their eyes when they sensed movement. Obviously the citizens of that planet could turn them off when they went picking, so they were figuring it worked out fairly well. Of course they hadn't really been planning on the TARDIS materialising in the middle of the field. Since, the Doctor has, understandably, not fond of cows.

And in case you're interested that story ended with us running for our lives with the Doctor turning every few moment in attempt to shut them off with the sonic screwdriver. My top got a bit singed. Such is life, with the Doctor. And here we are just for gratuitous outreaching to my... probably very small... audience. Hello!

And there was a point to that, cause we landed in the middle of a field on another planet (we know cause we checked) with grazing cows and a product that looked something like cotton, only it was magenta and much more flaxy. I wasn't sure if it was to make clothes or to eat. Maybe both.

Of course, and I may be telling this story a bit backwards, we weren't planning on landing on a field in on a planet with cows and flaxy cotton plants. We were trying to go to a planet call Crepsculo in Earths fifty-first century where a band was playing that the Doctor said was brilliant and perfect for a nice relaxing non-dream inducing fun time out. His words not mine.

"What are they called again?" I asked, zipping up my knee high boots, cause let's face it, I look foxy in my little denim skirt. I was trying to look cool, obviously, concerts on lounge planets and all. Cause apparently Crepsculo is like one big slinky jazz bar. Not that I've ever been to a jazz bar really, mostly pubs for me and mine, but that's what the Doctor said. Apparently he's been to many jazz bars, I get a very funny mental picture of him playing the saxophone with Miles Davis whenever I try to picture this. Though, this particular band was not jazz. They were just playing in a 21st Century Earth like jazz lounge type venue. I might be able to describe it better if I ever made it there. Which I didn't.

The Doctor, of course, was dancing around the console, flicking switches and and pulling levers no doubt already playing the songs of said band in his head. "Flodder's Gain," he answered.

I shook my head, "Flodder's Gain, what does that mean?"

He paused and pull that face he does when he's thinking... usually over something important but it's the same face. "You know, I have no idea."

I laughed and then he laughed and then he adjusted a few more dials and the TARDIS jerked it's way to what was supposed to Crepsculo and turned out to be the farming colony of Ringgoolu.

I laughed even harder.

But it was pretty clear that these cows were not bionic. In fact they looked a lot like this:

They sort of blinked at us, materialising out of nowhere was bound to confuse them… they saw cows are rather smart you know. Then they just went back to eating their magenta flaxy stuff. You could tell that it still gave the Doctor the hebegebes though, which was WELL hilarious. Same look of disgust he has for cats, really, after New Earth and all. But he didn’t have long to look upset because it was at this moment that a blue fellow appeared riding some sort of golf cartish hovercraft thing and started yelling at us.

“Why are you landing in the Websing fields?!” he shouted, “We have very specific landing regulations on Ringgoolu, you’ll find if you’ve read the brochure! You can’t just land willy nilly!”

The Doctor’s eyes sort of lit up and he did that grinny thing he does when he’s very excited and he said; “Ringgoolu. You don’t mean the Ringgoolu which is home to Zebdinger’s Zumulous Zweets?!”

“Of course I do!” said Mr Blue, “What other Ringgoolu is there?”

The Doctor looked like he was about to correct him but refrained cause I leaned my head towards him and said; “Zebdinger’s Zumulous Zweets?”

“Remember those chocolate bubbles we got at that bazaar?”

I did, they were amazing. They were like bubbles you blow but made of chocolate and we spent hours trying to catch them on our tongues. Which got the TARDIS, and ourselves, rather messy, but was soooo worth it. I nodded.

“Zebdinger’s Zumulous Zweets!” he said and I squeed. “And that’s not all they’ve got, they make hundreds-”

“Thousands,” corrected Mr Blue.

“Thousands of sweets, mostly chocolate. Guess she knew just what we needed,” he said and pat the blue doors of the TARDIS. “I don’t suppose you’ve got a tour, you know, maybe… free samples?” He did that ear tugging thing here.

“Of course we have, hence visitors. Now would you mind moving your vehicle? We’ve lost far too much of the Gurgle plant (magenta flaxy stuff) to spare any by people landing in the middle of our fields!”

I half expected him to agrue that the TARDIS was no mere vehicle but I suppose it was down to the power of chocolate that prevented him. We moved the TARDIS to the visitor’s parking and then started our tour.

And seriously, this place was like how I imagined Willy Wonka’s place to look like until I saw the film. There wasn’t a field of candy mushrooms or anything, but there was a chocolate waterfall. And they had a chocolate castle too, made entirely of bricks of chocolate. It was kept in a room that was temperature controlled so all there was to worry about was bites being taken out of it, which there were hefty fines for. It had a molten chocolate moat and everything. The Doctor looked positively horrified that he couldn’t eat any, but I read in the brochure that they sold replicas at the little shop. Think like this, only, well... life size:

I was starting to think that maybe we’d managed to land somewhere where we weren’t going to have to fix something or save someone or… run from a giant shaggy monster that flew out of a downstairs corridor that might not technically have been on the tour but was far too interesting, what with the Chocolate Experiments: Do Not Enter sign and the locked door which means nothing to a man with a sonic screwdriver. Alas I was wrong.

It sort of looked like a dog, but about the size of a council house and with tonnes of hair in thick ropes over it’s whole body. It didn’t even look mean, but it sure was scary what with the leaping and the growls and stuff.

We obviously took a wrong turn, it wasn’t like everything was labeled, so we might’ve gone right when we should have gone left because we were well lost right quick and the sonic doesn’t have a ‘locate chocolate experiments’ setting. Instead we ended up in some old abandoned underground tunnels that looked like they might’ve carried things in and out of the factory at some point but had been long out of use. Anyway it was at this point, as we were chatting about a chocolate pie eating contest the Doctor had been in a couple hundred years ago and how he’d only lost cause a Poraxian had cheated, that this thing came flying at us. I ducked, and am a little embarrassed to say I screamed, and the Doctor held the sonic in front of us like he could use it as a weapon at all.

“What is that?!” I cried.

He shook his head, “I have no idea.”

“Oh, great.” I said.

“Run!” he said back.

So we ran, and of course the Doctor had a brilliant plan about trapping him in the dungeons of the chocolate castle that involved using me as bait and jumping out of a window and directly into the chocolate moat while the Doctor sealed off the chocolate dungeon doors.

Turns out it was called a Tilden Woo, a pack animal used on a planet called Bumden Minor that has escaped it’s shackles while being transferred to an Earth Colony on Eros II and gotten loose on Ringgoolu, which wouldn’t have been too bad except for the fact that Websing was their favourite food, and also the secret ingredient to Zebdingers Zumulous Zweets… the cows ate it and their milk was sweeter. We were told this in secrecy and swore not to tell, but I figure not of my readers are going to be in that time or galaxy so I am fairly certain it’s okay.

As a reward for catching the Tilden we received a free years supply of Zebinger’s products plus however much we could fit in our vehicle (we both laughed profusely over that but didn’t share the joke, suffice it to say, having seen our vehicle, Mr Blue didn’t think it’d be that much). We took cart loads. Gifts, all that… plus, well they had chocolate bananas, I am sure you can see how that would go down. We waved goodbye to everyone there and the Doctor spun us into the Time Vortex before we exchanged glances and then ran to the new formed chocolate storing room to eat a chocolate castle complete with moat replica.

Until next time.

Entry Twenty-eight- Bolomo (3)

I never really thought that I'd ever get to the point my life where I had to go back to work at Henrick's Department Store. I mean, it wasn't so bad, at a time. Mum even thought it was a bit posh, but I'm a different person now, and going back to work in a shop after travelling and helping people and saving things and all that stuff that I'd done with the Doctor... it was the worst thing that I could imagine.


But I didn't have any other choice. I could have grieved for myself but I had much more important grieving to do. And I missed time and space, obviously, it'd become my life. and I missed every minuted of it. But I missed the Doctor more. Some nights I'd go back to the TARDIS and with a torch, the lights were never on anymore. I couldn't really stay away. I'd wander the halls, exploring rooms I'd never seen before, play dress up in the wardrobe, just like we'd done sometimes, when I begged. I slept in my bed sometimes. I never moved anything, it was all the way it had been when we'd been travelling.

I spent the majority of my time in the console room. It was bleak, depressing really. After Christmas, with the Sycorax, when the TARDIS hadn't been able to translate the language into my head, I'd asked the Doctor what the TARDIS would ever do without him. I knew they were connected, I don't know... physically or something. He said that she probably wouldn't. Time Lords are connected with their TARDISes and if the Time Lord dies the TARDIS has no purpose anymore, and will just... die of grief. Now, standing in the console room, I believed it.


Sometimes I would run my hand over her controls or against the coral columns and sometimes I'd feel a faint hum in my head that was either very faint or wishful thinking, but most of the time I felt nothing. She might've been even more hollow than me.

And life went on. As it must.

I wasn't happy, I wasn't content, I wasn't even myself anymore. And I could tell that people were concerned. Mum could hardly concentrate on anything else and Shareen would come by to watch EastEnders and Hollyoaks, but I couldn't figure out what was going on anymore. They were just actors doing... acting things on a screen. It wasn't important. We'd go out for drinks with Keisha, and they'd try on flirting with boys, but I couldn't react.

I knew that I had to snap out of it, and I tried. I didn't know when would be too long, when everyone would get tired to feeling sorry for me and start feeling annoyed. I didn't think it could be much longer. And I tried I really did, but I couldn't... I just couldn't move on.

And then one night, not any different than any other night, I was tucked up into my bed sleeping and I heard my name. Just once, and not loudly, not alarming, not anything except that it was obviously his voice.

I figured that I had to have been dreaming. But then the next night it was the same. He was calling me again, only this time slightly more urgently. And when I awoke from it, I forced myself back into sleep. He never said anything besides my name, and I knew that it was just my imagination, my mind hearing what it wanted to hear, but I started spending as much time as possible asleep. I called into work sick, I told mum I had a headache one day, a stomach ache the next. I knew that she was concerned, but I didn't care because as long as I was asleep, he'd be talking to me.

And then it wasn't just when I was asleep. One night when Shareen was over for EastEnders I was sitting on the couch eating chips when I heard my name again, clear as day. I stopped mid-chip.

"You okay?" Shareen asked me, and I just nodded. What was I supposed to say. 'My best friend, the most important person in the entire universe, you know the dead one? He was just talking to me in my head'? Hardly.

And then it wasn't just my name. It was "Rose, can you hear me?" or "You can do this, Rose, just..." or "Come on, Rose".

And then really weird things started happening. One day I walked into my bedroom in the Powell Estate and it was my bedroom in the TARDIS. I stared for a moment then went out and went back in again. It was my Powell Estate bedroom again. For an hour another day mum's hair was curly like it had been at day I'd saved and then lost Dad. Another the manager of Henrick's was the one that'd been manager when it'd been blown up rather than the one I had now.

And then Mickey came over. Mickey who'd been living in a parallel universe just the day before. And he acted like I was the mental one, like I was confused, didn't know what was going on. Which... I was starting to think was true.

Then finally, the inevitable. The sky filled with ships. Harriet Jones was Prime Minister again. Mickey had a gigantic gun I'd never seen him with before. Shareen had a baby she'd never given birth to. The Jagrafess was living in my ceiling, I screamed as a Gelth took over mum's body, Mickey was deleted and Keisha turned into a gold statue golem type thing. My head felt like it was going to explode.

So when the door to the flat burst open with choruses of "ex-ter-min-ate" I was hardly surprised. In fact, when they started speaking to me, I was annoyed. I didn't want to hear the ultimatums, I didn't care. Everything had been taken, and it was time.

"Daleks!" I yelled and they all stopped their chorus. "Remember your emperor? You wanna know how he died? That was me. Some stupid little human girl took all of the Time Vortex and turned him into dust! Now what do you have to say about that?"

Predictably, what they had to say was exterminate. Which had been the goal afterall. Because this wasn't right, there was something wrong, and if there was anything that could fix it I had a fairly good idea that this was it. I am not sure how many of them took aim at me. I closed my eyes, bracing myself for pain, cause I was fairly sure that it hurt like hell anyway. It did. My whole body seared and boiled and just before I hit the floor in a heap my eyes flew open.

I was lying in that room full of mirrors back on that planet with the factory and the Doctor was hovering over me, and he grinned when he saw my eyes open and said, "Bout time!"

My mouth fell open and I tried to sit but there was something around my head preventing me. The Doctor soniced it off and I flew into his arms. I couldn't quite believe that he was here, and he was fine and just... not dead. But he was there sort of laughing at me because I was sobbing into his lapel.


"Oh, Rose... it's okay now. All the equipment's off now and look you're back!"

I knew I must look a wreck, but I mean... I was well happy! It was only then that I sort of looked around and said, "What. the. Hell?"

"This," he said waving his arms around the room, "was the Dream Factory on the planet Bolomo. It was built so that people could come here for holidays or whatever and they'd go into dreams which the neurological enhancer would propigate into well... the best thing they could dream up. Cheaper than a real holiday and takes about .2 percent the time it would be if all that was acted out in real time. Bet it felt like months, nah, was just about ten minutes.
"
I shook my head, "That was no dream." I said, hooking a thumb at the equipment I'd just been attached to.

"No, it wouldn't be," the Doctor said, nodding, "no cause it all went wrong, didn't it. Like it always goes wrong when you try to take the easy way of things. They realised there was no way to block out the nightmares. People'd pay good money to come for a lovely holiday and they'd end up in their worst fears. Pretty soon the whole thing was overrun with nightmares, there was no stopping it. They tried to cut back on costs by using robotic workers who'd hone in on live humanoid creatures and hook them into the machines, there's feeding tubes and of course the neuroplastic helmet."

"Of course."

"Yeah. But eventually the corporation was given a red card and every living thing moved out, everyone knows now to go to Bolomo now. Well, there's nothing here but the Dream Factory, and that's what you're keen to avoid. Bit of bad lucky for us, I'd say. I thought for awhile you were going to be in there for hours and hours. I might've gotten awfully bored."

I rolled my eyes and then got indignant, "Well why didn't they take you?"

"Don't be silly, course they did. Hooked me in same as you, just got myself out sooner. All you've got to do is die. Of course... you have to realise you're in a dream first, I suppose. That's the trick really. But then again, I'm very clever."

"What did you see?" I asked him.

"Oh, you know, but what about you? Did the world end? Earth, I mean, Earth."

I shook my head, "The Earth was there. It was- well anyway, can we get out of here first. Please?"

He nodded, used his sonic on the helmety thing again, zapping it so that smoke rose. I figured he'd just knackered it. I supposed the whole place was safe now. Then he stood, took my hand and off we trundled to the TARDIS.

"Probably best," he said, "battling your head does work up an appetite and I've just remember the most fantastic nut sugar loaf you can only get at this tiny stop on this tiny planet in the Zolgi System. What do you say?"

I nodded, fiddling with my hoop earring and pretending to think about. "Yeah, nut sugar loaf sounds about right."

Until next time.

Entry Twenty-seven- Bolomo (2)

It's funny cause I always figured that dying would be the worst thing that could ever happen to me. The worst thing that could happen to anyone. Obviously, my lifestyle is a bit conductive towards the dangerous and there've been many instances where death seemed to be staring me in the face. But it'd always been worth it. I would never regret going with the Doctor, not ever, and there are some things that are just more important than me. Plenty of things I'd be willing to give my life for.

I was wrong. Death is merciful.

I could hear the whiring of wheels and the Daleks talking amongst themselves and was fairly sure that I had only moments left but I couldn't hear what they were saying and I didn't care. I was lying on the ground curled up in a ball, my hand still tangled up in the Doctor's, and my face resting on his chest. I kept thinking that if I just waited... I am very attached to this current regeneration of the Doctor's (as you probably know) but I'd prefer any regeneration to him just... lying there.

I waited for a long time, my face pressed against the Doctor's pinstriped suit jacket, until I realised that it was quiet. Too quiet. And when I turned my face to look towards where the Daleks had been they were just gone. I sat up then, looked around, couldn't quite believe it, considering it made no sense. They were supposed to kill me, instead they'd just left me there, which was about six million times worse.

For a long time I just stared, and then I started to cry. And I am not sure that I have ever cried like that before. There'd been times, back when everything went wrong with Jimmy especially, when I realised I'd never know my dad, when I lost him the second time those had been tears. I'd cried, and cried hard, but this was different this was like losing everything. I could sit here and try to explain what I was feeling, hallow, sick, chest compressions, all that stuff that is just words, there's just no way.

I don't remember pulling the Doctor back into the TARDIS and I don't remember activating Emergency Protocol One, but the next thing I knew I was in the same position I'd been in, only now the Doctor's suit jacket was covered in tears and Mum was knocking on the TARDIS door from the outside and calling my name. Maybe she could hear my sobs from outside, I couldn't tell, but she sounded worried.

And then somehow I must've opened the door cause she was rushing in, holding me and asking what had happened. I stayed where I was, sobs racking through my body, she stayed with me and hours later when my tears dried up but I still refused to move, she brought me tea that went untouched and then finally she put a blanket over me when I fell asleep.

I don't know how long I was there, but it was a long time. Even I could tell that it was a long time, but I couldn't get myself to move. The TARDIS got dimmer and dimmer until the lights went out all together and I could no longer feel her humming in my mind. And I still couldn't move. I think it was days. Mum kept bringing in tea and sandwiches, a pizza once, and I ate some but not enough, and she'd sit with me some and try to talk but I didn't respond, I couldn't say anything.

And then one day I got up. My legs would hardly move and my heart felt like it weighed about five tonnes but I got up and I got myself out of the TARDIS. It was parked down the street from the Estate, just where it'd landed when he'd sent me back from the Daleks that first time.


Then I went home. Mum was happy to see me out, obviously. She had a client when I went in, and I was sure I looked a complete wreck, but she hurried up to finish and then we sat down with a cup of tea and I told her everything. The tears came back then. She held me and we talked.

"But, I thought that when he was hurt he just changed his face," she said, genuinely confused so that I didn't fault her for asking even though it hurt.

I wiped tears off my face and shrugged a bit. We'd talked about it, the Doctor and me, after Christmas, when he'd been getting all his strength back, and we all exchanged gifts and did the domestic thing until he felt one hundred percent and we couldn't get out of there fast enough. He told me all about it, regeneration, and I thought I understood. Time Lords could repair themselves, change their whole bodies, twelve times, thirteen different bodies, so long as they were dying. Not dead. All those times he'd been scared, ready to die for the rest of the world, he wasn't being glib, he would die and not regenerate if it was fast enough.

She drew me a bath and I changed my clothes, ones that I'd left behind, old clothes, too big but comfortable. And then I went back into the living room.

"Mum, will you cut my hair?" I asked. And she didn't seem happy about it but she nodded and cut my hair into a short crop that went just below my ears, and gave me fringe, into kind of a twenties bob.

I wasn't sure how it looked. I didn't care how it looked. That wasn't the point, I just needed to change.

When it was time to go to bed I left the flat, took a torch with me, and went to sleep on the TARDIS. I knew it was a bit bleak, but I couldn't help it. I wanted to be near him, and I cried myself to sleep again.

This went on for about a week before I went back to the Powell Estate one morning and Shareen and Keisha were there. Mum had obviously spun them some story, probably near the truth but something involving South America which is where I was meant to be. We chatted and I might've smiled once or twice even.

Finally Shareen put both her hands on the table and smiled at me sympathetically. "Rose, they're hiring at Henrick's again. And I talked to Susan, down there and she said that cause you were on the premises during that explosion you'd be guarnteed a job," she looked between Keisha and mum then, probably for fortitude and then spoke again, "We all discussed it and we thought it might be best for you to start working again."

More later...

Entry Twenty-six- Bolomo

I know I'm rubbish, scold me it may make me proactive enough to post more often. But you try not being distracted while travelling in time and space!

Anyway, we headed out to the Vendala Cluster to watch one of the the stars turn supernova. I do accept that I'm not all that scientific-y but I must admit I was a bit wary about it, exploding stars don't seem like the place you'd like to picnic, but of course the Doctor assured me it was just fine, or 'more than fine it's brilliant!'. But apparently this particular supernova wouldn't be discovered to have occurred for over three hundred years, and then only because it would cause the creation of a whole new cluster itself. I asked how that worked if we were seeing it now, but he said tht we didn't count since we were only seeing it cause we knew about it after the fact, and that it'd be an abuse of our position as time travellers. But he said it was okay to tell mum and to blog about it since you lot are in the Vendala Cluster's past. Fancy that, I watched a star die today that wouldn't even have been born yet in the year I'm supposed to be living. It's all a bit timey wimey but I took a photo, here it is:


It was beautiful. Just space, as if 'just space' really exists, one moment and then the whole thing, well... expanded.

The TARDIS sort of blew sideways and we were both thrown to the side with the TARDIS door open. It was like the TARDIS was on water and we were going down a slide. Like what I'd imagine it'd be like going over a waterfall in a barrel. It was brilliant and gorgeous and a million different adjectives that I simply can not describe.

But after that we thought it'd be a good idea to go somewhere to land, the poor TARDIS did get a bit of a jostle and even though she'd very versatile we don't want to irritate her... she's rather important... and it was definitely time to find some sort of trouble. So we stuck her on randomise cause sometimes I'm convinced that the Doctor's seen everything but he magically sees it all again for the first time through my eyes. But on randomise we never know where we might end up, neither of us, so when we open the TARDIS door there could be anything on the other side. And that's a brilliant feeling, exhilarating.

This time when we opened the door we were in the middle of this great big grassy field just randomly sat there with no one else around. Nothing in the sky, nothing on the streets, and there were streets. Nothing just this gigantic looking factory type thing:


So, well... where else were we going to go? The factory thing was all but empty, it looked like thousands of people should have been working this thing but it all but empty. There wasn't a single soul inside so far as I could see. There was tonnes of equipment around and stuff, and the Doctor started going through it, all proper like, spectacles on and everything. I wandered into an adjoining room to do a bit of my own investigation. The whole room was covered in mirrors, which caused kind of a brilliant effect with thousands of Rose Tylers reflecting at me. And there was this sort of hospital bed in the middle of the room. Well I say hospital bed but it was really a sort of cot with IVs set up near it. It was a bit weird really, but I figured that this must be some sort of experimental facility, which could either be kind of cool or kind of terrifying. I tried on cool, but just then the Doctor practically ran into the room and grabbed my hand.

"I know where we are, Rose, I'll explain on the TARDIS, but we have to go, now."

Well I wasn't going to argue that, when the Doctor says we have to flee then we really have to flee, even if I didn't know what it was or what was going on the look on his face was enough to tell me that we needed going now. I just nodded and we both started running for the exit.

And we were about halfway across the main factory area when everything just went black.

The next thing I knew the Doctor, with the same panicked tone to his voice, was shaking me awake.

"Rose! Wake up, we've got to get to the TARDIS."

I wasn't entirely sure what had just happened, if I'd just passed out or blanked out or been knocked out I had no idea, but it was clear that I was gone there for a moment, which was more than a little weird, but I quickly forgot it due to the fact that the Doctor was still panicking us out of this place as fast as we could reach the TARDIS door.

The ground was sort of shaking like some sort of earthquake, though he said it was more like a haemovortic electrical storm. I slammed the door shut behind us and he gave me the sort of look that told me we might be in a hurry but please be careful of my ship and so I ran my hand along a column and heard her hum in my mind.

He started switching switches and cranking levers and was smiling like usual and running off some anecdote about Venusian Mangoes, which made me smile too. And it was just like usual. Until it all went pear shape.

Suddenly all the poor went out, and we both sort of stared at the time rotor confused. And then the door just sort of exploded from the outside in. Scrapes of the poor TARDIS went flying everywhere and so forcefully that we had to duck behind the console to keep from being impaled. And it was very very quiet. And we were very very quiet listening to whatever it was that had just broken through the TARDIS door because you knew that couldn't be good.

And then there was this little whiring of wheels and this sentence: "The Doct-tor and his com-pan-ion will leave the TAR-DIS." And so far as I know there's only one creature in the universe that sounds like that, and I was fairly sure that they were all supposed to be dead. I'd turned them all into dust. I thought. Now I obviously couldn't see myself but I was fairly sure that I was blanching, and I hadn't previously noticed that I was holding the Doctor's hand quite so tightly but I apparently was.

"Come on," he said, standing and getting ready to just walk out there. I didn't move. "Rose, they've just blasted open the TARDIS door, we can't just hide in here they'll just come in."

I nodded, he had a point really, so I stood and we walked out of the TARDIS together. Now I am not exactly sure what it was that I was expecting but it really wasn't an entire army of Daleks. A few maybe, not that it would matter, I'd once seen one Dalek take out two hundred people without a blink of it's eyestalk, but an army was... worse. Much worse. And they were all staring at us.

"You are the Doc-tor, you are registered as ene-my of the Daleks, you will be exter-min-ated."

The Doctor held up one of his hands and said "Well now wait just-" and then that was all he got out cause the Dalek that had just been speaking aimed his gunstalk and just... fired.

I was a bit out of body then, slow motion maybe. But I was aware of myself screaming my throat raw and the shot hit the Doctor square on the chest, his whole body sort of lit up like he was struck by lightening or something and then he was crumpled on the floor. He wasn't breathing, and neither of his hearts were beating. Just... nothing. And I really didn't want to think the word dead but at that point... what other word is there. I felt completely numb and my head was ringing. There'd been plenty of times travelling with the Doctor that I'd thought I was going to die, but I'd never known it before.

More later...