Fandom [Episode 1] Companions

[mogy]

Israel couldn't believe it. He was completely and utterly speechless. He regularly fantasized about this moment, about what he would say and do if it truly happened, about all the conversations he was going to have with his weird man, about how it would feel to hug the man once again. However, now, when the blue box awaited for Israel outside his window, he couldn't get his feet to move.

The last time he had to make a choice like this one, he didn't have anything that held him back, so he went into that blue box, with the Doctor, expecting to travel beyond all of time and space. But now... Now was a whole different story. This time he had people who cared about him—actual parents—a real family, and he didn't really know what to expect. If he entered the blue box, would everything go back to how it was before? Would the Doctor even recognize him? Would Cyrus be there? All of those questions came to him the moment he noticed the blue box.

Israel stood in his room, barefoot, for what felt like 20 seconds, but was something more similar to 20 minutes. It was like he was trapped by his own thoughts, trying to decide between this life and the life with the Doctor. Thankfully, his hedgehog, Barry, started running in his wheel, snapping Israel out of whatever trance he was in.

Of course, after getting over the initial shock of the possibility of seeing the Doctor again, and thinking the whole thing through once again, Israel decided to go with the Doctor. Who could say no to all of time and space? Clearly not Israel Everett.

He packed a bag of necessities, like his toothbrush and shampoo, since hygiene is a must, a few sweaters, since you never know when or where you are going to go to, his little booklet/journal, in which he wrote about all of the adventures he had with the Doctor, and of course, spare glasses, in case the ones on his head broke. Before he left, he said goodbye to Barry and left a note on the fridge, in case he didn't come back the following day.

---​

As he entered the TARDIS, his mind went quiet, and sweat covered his forehead. Why was he nervous, when this was the moment he longed for the hardest? Why was this so hard for him? Why was it painful for him to see an old friend again?

He didn't know the answers to those questions, and frankly, he didn't have the time to find them out, as he was in the TARDIS already. He got the same adrenaline rush he had when he first entered the blue box all those years ago, only to find it bigger on the inside. He was ready to rumble, but one thing was missing—the Doctor. As he looked around the newly decorated TARDIS, he didn't notice any sign of the Doctor or any of his stuff.

"Doctor?! I'm back!" He yelled loudly, but the only thing he heard back was the echo of his voice. The Doctor was nowhere to be found. Before he yelled again, he felt the vibrations from the TARDIS, which meant that it was dematerializing to somewhere else. And since no one was controlling it, it was a bumpy ride, to say the least. Israel could swear he was more than 10 feet in the air at some point. Thankfully, the trip was over now....

 

[Epiphany]

"What's that?"

Celly stirred her tea absently as she looked out the window, distantly hearing her wife's question. Safely ensconced in the sealed balcony of their flat, the Manussan woman watched the rain trickling off the transparent aluminum protecting her from the elements and a fall of 200 stories. Beyond the hemispherical seal, she looked out over the vast enclaves of Neo Pacifician City. Towering trade starscrapers broke up the sea of metal, glass and plastic of the densely packed Resident Roof complexes where millions lived out their lives. The horizon was filled with skylanes, lorries, blazing lightbills, and the floating palaces of the Esteemed.

It'd become a familiar sight these past two years. Earth's 53rd century was a pale imitation of Manussa, given the latter was a Type 314-S planet and Earth was barely a 273-SG. Still, it was a beautiful planet with a growing civilization. A planet with a future. Unlike her own. Of course, Manussa itself would linger for millions of years more but Celly was native to 2212 by the old calendar...and she'd come to realize her empire only had three years of life left before the Mara overthrew it.

Now here she was, three hundred years in the cosmological future, on another world and life continued. A good life, actually. Her wife was a Time Crime Investigator but, thanks to the nature of her temporal work, was always home by 5pm every day. And as for Celly herself, she'd found good work with the Tinean Trade Combine, spearheading their thirty year Neo Pacifician Transformation Project. Not that using her knowledge of far more advanced manufacturing technology was something she did, of course. But Celly didn't mind steering them away from bad directions and using her project experience from the Vi Family to speed up their work.

"Did you hear that?"

"What?" Celly at last craned her neck away from the splendid view, in the direction of her even more splendid wife. Regina LaCroix was a tall, statuesque blonde woman who looked smashing in an Investigator's uniform. At the moment, though, she'd chosen a nice variwrap in a golden sundress configuration. It showed off that flawlessly creamy skin, such a contrast to Celly's own dusky skintone and ample freckles.

"It sounded like-"

And then Celly heard it. She saw it. Out the balcony, a hundred meters off, the hazy indistinct lines of a box just substantial enough to be blue. It'd been two years and all Celly could think was that it felt like yesterday. That was a Tardis and one in trouble by the difficulty it had materializing.

"Is he mad?" Regina leaned over her shoulder, gawking.

"Bloody hell, of course, he's-

"The Agency Chronostop's still in effect," said her gorgeous wife, as the other woman leaned towards the window. "I can't believe he's trying to come through the interference."

While Regina stared at the time capsule fading in and out of this time frame, Celly didn't hesitate a moment longer. She bounded out of her chair, touched her variwrap and switched her clothes to a jeans and tank-top configuration while snatching up her old traveling bag still hanging up on the wall. Slinging it over one shoulder, Celly turned and met her wife's eyes.

"I have to," she said, mouth opening to make an argument and then falling shut when she realized she had no other words to say.

"I know," Regina said, somehow looking wistful and pained at the same time. "Just-"

"I'll come-"

"-don't make promises. Just try, won't you? Just try, for me?"

Celly smiled through a sudden welling of tears, then clasped the taller woman and kissed her soundly. The strength of their connection thrummed through her body. And then she tapped the release panel of the balcony, opening their flat to the rain-soaked sky. Celly tapped a servicing code and had a lorry to her in ten seconds from the hovering fleet in the skylanes above. And she took it, straight across to where the shuddering, groaning Tardis strained for full materialization.

Despite her superior Manussan education, Celly didn't understand Time Lord technology. She did know she'd been linked to the time capsule, though. As the indistinct boundaries of the craft trembled in the air before her, she reached out and placed her hand against that boundary.

And a moment later, she was snapped through, pulled through opening doors that dropped her tumbling across the console room floor. A console room floor. Had he redecorated? Or was this even the Doctor's Tardis? Celly tried to climb to her feet but tumbled when the whole craft suddenly pitched on its side as the rotor groaned its way through a complete dematerialization. Now that it wasn't fighting the Chronostop, the journey suddenly leveled off.

But where was the Doctor?

"Hello?" she called out, peering across the interior. At which point she spotted a young man who...no, that couldn't be the Doctor, could it? "Um, are you-"

At which point the Tardis thudded to a landing.

 

[Eagleye415]

Grant evenly spread the butter on his toast as he finished assembling his breakfast. Over the last few years, he created a routine that he followed most days. The isolationist life helped him recover in so many little ways. After a long three years, he did not regret his decision to be alone. The memories of the war stayed ever present in his mind, but he now pushed them down with an ease that he wished for in the past. Grant took a careful sip of his coffee and let out a contented sigh. Life was good. Then, he heard it.

The sound was faint at first, but it steadily grew louder and louder. Was that? Grant hardly noticed that he dropped the cup as he walked to the window slowly. His mind flashed with the many times this sound greeted him before. He took a deep breath and grabbed the curtain, almost afraid to pull it back. Grant steeled himself and yanked the curtain to the side, revealing the street outside of his apartment. There, just across the road, stood the TARDIS. The Doctor was here? Why? It'd been three years. Based on his time with the Doctor, Grant understood very well that when they stopped traveling together that that was that. The Doctor and him wouldn't be chatting over tea or having house calls. He would never see the eccentric time lord again.

"This doesn't fit the Doctor's modus operandi." Grant thought as he shifted into the Library. "This is an anomaly in the Doctor's behavior. A social call can be crossed out immediately. I'm not a current companion nor am I a recent companion. It's also been three years. It'd be arrogant to say that he simply jumped three years in the future, to pick me up again in a better frame of mind. But the Doctor does not truly prefer any one companion's company. Aside from perhaps, Rose Tyler. No. The logical conclusion here was that the Doctor need help. Or rather, that someone in the universe needed help and by extension of getting the Doctor's help, needs my help as well."

Grant snapped back into consciousness when he thought of the only thing that the Doctor could possibly need him specifically to help with. Androssi. The planet never strayed far from his mind. If it was in trouble again, he would make damn sure to be there. He'd spilled with and for the people of Androssi and if they needed him, he would be there. Grant quickly made his way out from his kitchen and dashed to his room. It took him only 5 minutes to grab what he needed. Grant had never prepared for the Doctor's return, but he had little need for material things now. He briefly cast a look at his phone and pondered. Who the hell would he even call? Well, if he knew anything from traveling with the Doctor, it was that any and everything was useful. The phone joined his other items in his meager backpack. Grant ran through a mental checklist as he fumbled with his front door. He was heading off to who knows where? And doing who knows what? Inner peace had been hard to find and now he was going back to the source of his strife. Would he be able to hold it together? Yes. He had to.

Grant pushed open the door of the TARDIS and stepped inside. The look was drastically different from the last time he'd been here. And despite himself, he mumbled.

"He redecorated.. I don't like it." The door swung closed behind him and he heard the familiar sounds of the TARDIS de-materializing. Grant looked around and spotted two figures he had never seen before. "Well.. here we go again."

 

[Straw]

Georgie sat at her kitchen table, well she said kitchen - more like the corner of her room that had a sink, kettle and a toaster oven, waiting for her coffee to cool down. Her laptop was across from her, the screen almost seeming accusing as the bright blank white of the document burned her eyes, she was meant to be writing a dissertation about some historical monuments with mysteries behind them however it was proving to be a challenge. She couldn't exactly write that aliens had built them, that the Doctor had been there or that she'd seen them being built herself. For some reason she didn't think that Professor Duncan would accept witness testimony for this particular assignment. Not that she even wanted to be doing assignments, she didn't even want to be at University - not anymore, not really.

She could remember the day she'd been dropped off back home, years older than she had been but going home only weeks after she'd left - meaning there had been a ton of awkward questions she had to try to answer. The Doctor apparently hadn't thought, nor cared, about that when he dumped her on the side of the road. She could remember listening as the TARDIS materialised away, that familiar whirring sound that had then sounded like a taunt as he left - she'd stood by the road and cried and screamed for what felt like forever before the truth set in. He was gone, he'd dumped and left her behind. Saved her life, saved the world, showed her so many things she would have never been able to imagine and then just dropped her off back home like nothing had happened. Like she hadn't seen amazing things, things no one else in the world would have seen, seen the lives of people long since dead and also seen horrific things - monsters that moved in the darkness, cities rising and falling and stood on barren planets where even the air itself felt different.

Now she was slowly starting to accept it, reluctantly, she had a mundane routine and a job at a corner shop frequented by her fellow students. She had breakfast with a group of girls from her class on Wednesdays and went out most nights, it was all very mundane and normal. And it was driving her crazy. She stared at the laptop again, the hot steam from the coffee starting to fade as it went cold, desperately trying to work out what to do.

A noise caught her attention, a strange sound that she could have sworn was familiar, she rolled her eyes and got up to yell at her neighbour for blasting his TV once again but she froze. She knew that sound. She was shaking, she realised, it was the TARDIS. It was the magic blue box that had left her behind. He'd came back for her. Finally.

Her hands trembled slightly as she tried to pull out a bag from under her bed, not that she'd ever admit it to anyone - especially him, but she'd had a bag ready under her bed ever since he'd left. Just in case he realised he was wrong and came back for her. They were shaking so much it took several attempts to close the bag and sling it around her shoulder, shoving her laptop inside of it as she did so. She grabbed her keys as she surveyed her small dorm room and tried to take it in - she wasn't really intending to come back. With one last glance and a silent farewell she headed out of her dorm room, a post it note was quickly shoved under her neighbour's door, asking them to make sure no one broke in and telling them she was going on a trip as she left.

She practically sprinted down the stairs and ran out of the main door, nearly knocking over a girl in her first year in her haste and scaring the poor receptionist as she nearly pushed the doors off of their hinges. She ran towards the blue box and pushed open the doors, she expected to be greeted by the familiar sight of the TARDIS console and the Doctor but instead everything was different. She felt herself come to a halt as she stared at the new design before her attention fell onto the small group of people already inside, "Where's the Doctor?"

But before anyone could answer the doors closed and she instinctively grabbed onto the closest thing to her, the TARDIS started to groan and move again and she held onto the banister for dear life as the sound of the TARDIS dematerialising flooded the console room once again.

 

[_gallifrog_]

The lecturer stood up and closed his book, signalling the end of the day. Artemis jumped up from his seat at the front of the class and uttered some words of brief thanks to the lecture, who had in all fairness provided a very engaging and informative talk. He unclipped his skateboard from the special clips on his backpack. He slung his backpack onto his back, and his shoulder bag full of random things over his left shoulder. He pulled out his mp3 player and unwrapped the headphones before inserting them into his ears. Despite the massive leaps in the evolution of portable music technology he adamantly refused to use a MusXBx, but instead relied on this old, beaten up mp3 player.

He clicked into the playlist entitled simply "life". The track that came on was a fast-paced instrumental written hundreds of years ago by one of the classical Earth composers. He upped the volume, drowning out almost all outside sounds. He joined the streams of students exiting the university. Once he had made his way out of the ornate double doors, he ran down the steps two at a time, before jumping on his board and skating towards the sky city limits.

His check shirt flapped behind him as he skated through the sky city. Artemis knew this city like the palm and back and sides of his hand. His left foot, firmly tied into his converse hi-top, hit off the ground, propelling him smoothly forwards. The Sky City was moderately busy at this time of day, but it still means that Artemis had to keep his wits about him. You never could know just when someone or something could just appear.

Artemis made his way to the pedestrian tunnel, not wanting to wait in order to cross the road, and the crossing lights were notorious for not working. And besides, he had places to be and people to meet. He entered the pedestrian tunnel, yelling out to warn anyone who might be approaching.

The tunnel exited just a few hundred meters from one of the many intricate pedestrian bridges that crisscrossed from one circular ring of the city to another. But Artemis never used these bridges, instead opting for a more exciting, adrenaline-inducing- jumping the void. He had suffered many misses before while attempting the crossing, but as the saying goes, practice makes perfect. The trick was to go fast, jump highs dn never look down

He sped forwards, his surrounding becoming a blur, hetimed the jump perfectly, flipping himself into the air at just the right angle. But that was the only thing that went according to plan. Out of nowhere a very familiar blue box appeared in front of him. He doors opened just milliseconds before he would have face planted into them.

His eyes widened upon seeing the new interior, and the four others staring at him in shock and horror. The control console rushed towards him as he flew over the heads of the fours strangers. He tried to jump off the board, but his feet wouldn't move.

He hit the floor of the TARDIS with so much force that he bounced, his board flying to one side, his sketch book getting thrown in another. He smashed face first into the central column, with so much force that he knocked himself out in the process.

As his unconscious body slumped onto the control panel, the last things he was aware of was the truckle of blood running down his forehead and the realisation that it had happened again. Then darkness took him

 

[mogy]

As the abrupt movements came to a halt, Israel's legs trembled from all of the balance he had to keep while the TARDIS jumped around in the spacetime vortex. It definitely reminded him of the old times and gave him a nostalgic feeling, but he really needed to get himself in shape if he would be traveling through time and space again—and he was planning on doing that. He planned on doing that for a really long time but hadn't really realized it until he actually stepped into the blue box once again.

By the style of others walking into the TARDIS, it seemed that all of them were companions as well. Yet, out of all of them, Israel only recognized Celly, like the Doctor used to call her. As a matter of fact, Israel remembered Celly from his first ever adventure with the Doctor, because the Doctor had this really long monolog about how he loved to travel with the Manussan lady. After that, it was clear to Israel that he had some big shoes to fill. It was also a tradition that the Doctor compared Israel to Celly after every adventure, telling an anecdote from his travels with Celly, and after listening about someone for a while, you sort of end up becoming a fan. That was why Israel almost freaked out when he saw Celly entering the TARDIS. However, he had no choice but to keep his cool, as he didn't know what the hell was happening, or where the Doctor was.

Israel wanted to say something, to clear the tension in the air a bit but was beaten to it by the TARDIS door suddenly opening and a weird guy skating headfirst, right into the console. The loud bang of the guy's head against the console definitely turned on Israel's panic mode instinct. If somebody were to die on Israel's first day back, he wouldn't know what he would do. Probably find another Parabox and jump out of the TARDIS again. All jokes aside, Israel couldn't believe what he just saw, even though he witnessed a lot worse while traveling with the Doctor.

"Oh my god!" He shrieked before quickly rushing towards the guy who was clearly passed out on the control panel, or the floor beneath it, to be more exact. There was some blood, not as much as was to be expected when somebody would crash into something at that speed.

"TARDIS! Voice interface! Enable voice interface!" Israel shrieked again. He remembered that the Doctor used this when Cyrus had picked up some kind of a space food poisoning and whatnot and was suffocating on his tongue.

"Voice interface enabled."

"We need to help him! Quickly!" Israel screamed once again. He really needed to stop panicking and calm himself down.

After a second, a small metal drawer opened from under one of the control panels, only to reveal an ice pack and some bandages in it. Israel couldn't really focus on how cool it was, because of the unconscious guy in front of him. However, he did think it was extremely cool. He quickly took one of the bandages and pressed it against the guy's head, where it was bleeding from. Taking that first aid course really did pay off.

 

[Epiphany]

Celly's greeting of the young man already here was interrupted by the arrival of an older, harder man who took one look at the interior and dismissed it. Not the Doctor either then. And still the time machine was off once more.

Barely hanging on as the time capsule executed rapid arrival and departure, Celly blinked as a rather beautiful young lady joined them next. At the "Where's the Doctor?" she answered "The question of the minute, I'm afraid."

Further chitchat came to an end as the Tardis dropped in on another passenger, this one literally flying through the doors and into the console. Swearing under her breath, she hurried to the downed young man's side, joined by the first man who'd already been here.

"TARDIS! Voice interface! Enable voice interface!" shouted the first man.

"The TARDIS doesn't have a voice-" Celly wearily explained until-

"Voice interface enabled."

"What?" Her eyebrows shot straight up as she gawked. When the time capsule actually responded to the query with some medical provisions, Celly sat back on her haunches and stared. Seeing Israel already tending to the downed Artemis, she brushed wavy black locks out of her face before shaking her head and coming back up on her feet. "Right. We haven't landed anywhere else this second so let's do introductions. I'm Celly. Vi Enceledas actually but my friends call me Celly. Let's have some names then? I have a suspicion I'll be properly confused by this latest adventure anyway so it'd be nice if I at least had a name for each new face."

"And mention if you've seen or met the Doctor before," she finished. Then, having just shut her mouth, she frowned and opened it again. "Recently," Celly added. Then, again, spoke up once more by adding "For you. I mean, how recently...oh never mind. Bloody time travel."

 

[Eagleye415]

Grant.. was not sure what to think at the moment. With the latest addition to the TARDIS, there were now five of them all together. The boy had flown in on a skateboard and crashed hard. Though it'd looked like it could potentially be a bad injury, he did not rush over like the other two people did. Rather he gave himself a moment that was seemingly for nostalgia, that served the purpose of letting him collect his thoughts. Grant put a hand on the wall of the TARDIS and ran it over gently.

"The Doctor is not present." The Library whispered as it came to the forefront of his mind. When he focused like this, rejecting all outside interference and concentrating on one topic, he truly felt as if he became someone else. That's why he'd given it a name. "Five people currently reside in the TARDIS. Two of them displayed knowledge of how the TARDIS works. Counting yourself, you three could all be previous companions. All three of you also carry bags as if going on a trip. The other two individuals came in after and seeing as they also had to enter the TARDIS from the outside. The woman had a bag most likely for traveling. Another companion. The boy rode in on a skateboard with a bag. The Doctor had never ridden a skateboard while in your presence. Though he could have developed the habit for it. Still the conclusion is another companion."

Grant came back to life as one of the woman, Vi Enceledas, introduced herself. He turned away from the wall and faced the rest of the room. "My name is Grant Overbeck. I haven't seen the Doctor for three years." Short and simple. He didn't know these people and so for now, he would not give more away than he needed to. "Just for clarity's sake, who here has been a companion of the Doctor?"

 

[mogy]

Israel listened into the conversation between the other two while tending to the wounds of the guy in front of him. He kept his left hand pressed hard onto the bandage which was on the top of the guy's head, to ensure that the guy wouldn't lose any more blood. However, it had seemed that the cloth was just soaking up all of the blood coming from the wound instead of stopping it. He replaced the bandages once again, throwing the old, blood-soaked one, behind him, and pressing on the new one with his left hand.

It seemed to him as though everything that could be done was done in order of helping the unconscious boy in front of him, so he decided to join into the conversation. His hand shot straight up when the other conscious guy, apart from Israel, asked if anybody had been a companion before. Even though the Doctor didn't remember him, Israel did travel through time and space with him for solid 4 years, and it appeared that the TARDIS retained that information.

"I've been a companion before." he declared, "Two years ago. My name is Israel, but my, umm, friends, call me Izzy."

Israel couldn't feel the blood in the cloth, which could only mean that the other boy's wound finally stopped bleeding—a good sign. Now all he needed to do was wake up so the TARDIS could give him a magical potion to make all the boo-boos go away. And by boo-boos, I mean brain damage.

As Israel stood up, his legs were trembling. The whole thing, starting with four extremely athletically challenging TARDIS rides, and ending with helping the guy below him, was hard on Israel. However, he didn't complain. He didn't need to, because he absolutely loved not knowing what comes next. The TARDIS can take them to an amusement park at the edge of the universe or back to Earth's dinosaur days—the possibilities were literally endless.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Artemis's eyes fluttered open, he took in the surroundings around him before closing them briefly again. He was in the TARDIS that much was for certain. But it wasn't the TARDIS he knew. For a start, it was a lot cleaner. And a lot brighter. He found himself missing the grungy beat up TARDIS of his doctor. It may have been gloomy with questionable growths in the corners and on the ceiling, but it was strangely comforting in times of crisis. This one felt too open and clean.

The second thing he noticed was the four strangers. Two men, two women. He had never seen them before, nor had he heard the Doctor mention any of them or describe anyone that looked like them. Were they his replacements? They seemed to be talking among themselves.

The third thing he realised was that his face was cut, the cut seemed to stretch from his left temple down to his cheek. It was bleeding, in an effort to stop the bleeding someone had placed an ice-pack and badges on the area. He was lying on the ground under the console. This was all very, very familiar. He heard the TARDIS making a kind of whirring chattering noise, its equivalent of laughing. In his time in the TARDIS he had learnt to understand its sounds pretty well. He knew there and then exactly what had happened

Gingerly he sat up, his head spinning, fighting off a small wave of nausea. Luckily he knew exactly how to deal with this injury from the last time. Hetook the ice pack off his eye. He picked up the roll of bandage and wrapped a portion around his hand, forming a tight wad. He pressed this against his left eye and wrapped a strip of bandage around his head, forming a makeshift eye-patch. It looked quite weird, but it did the job.

He turned to the TARDIS console completely ignoring the other companions around him who were talking amongst themselves. He wanted to get one thing straight first"TARDIS that wasn't funny, you know" he was yelling, but in a half angry, half trying to co tain the laughter sort of way. The TARDIS laughed again, this time louder. "seriously though! That was a douche move to be honest. I know you like creative karma and all that, but did you really have to re-enact that whole scene again? It was painful enough the first time! And did you deliberately give me a new scar in almost the exact same place?"He paused, caught his breath and continued. "you do realise that you could have picked me up anywhere else? There was absolutely no need to do that!!"

A wide crazy grin was slowly spreading over his face. Artemis was glad to be back. But why? Why had he been chosen now? And then a second thought, a more terrifying thought- Drew was going to metaphorically kill him.

 

[mogy]

Israel walked around the console room, looking and touching everything, even though he knew he probably shouldn't. Touching the wrong thing could mean something very, very bad could happen.

While walking around, he decided that he loved the glass floors one part of the giant room had. It was very aesthetically pleasing, especially all of the pipes and wires, which could be seen below the floor, through the glass. The ceiling was also a nice feature since the TARDIS he traveled in didn't have such a nice one. All in all, Israel loved this new TARDIS interior.

A minute, maybe two, passed after Israel stepped away from the unconscious guy when the guy regained his consciousness and sat up. Judging by everything, that guy shouldn't, or rather couldn't even be awake so soon, but somehow, he was. He knew how to deal with the wound he received 5 minutes ago by wrapping one of the bandages around his head. That was the moment Israel noticed him—while the guy was wrapping his head. He was taken aback by the guy literally treating his own wounds knowing how to, without even flinching, which was why Israel didn't really say anything, he simply watched.

Israel also watched when the guy started talking to the TARDIS. Talking. To the TARDIS! Something must have been wrong with him since only the Doctor talked with the TARDIS, and this guy definitely wasn't the Doctor. Or was he? Nah, he seems way too ordinary to be the Doctor, even though he was practically shouting at the TARDIS. Probably a side effect after hitting his head.

Before the guy continued his dialogue with the TARDIS, Israel walked over to him, and intervened: "Hey, um, I don't think you should be sitting up, you know, after such a blow to the head." He gestured with his hand as he wanted to sound helpful and calm, but he kind of came off like he was bullying Artemis. The worst part about it was that he knew exactly how he sounded.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Artemis turned around mid-rant at the sound of somebody talking to him. Standing behind him he saw it was one of the unknown male companions- the guy who looked to be almost his age. He was saying something in a kind of snarky tone about how Artemis shouldn't even be up after his blow to the head.

Artemis couldn't help but roll his eyes slightly. This guy, whoever he was probably just freaked out after his accident. He had to admit, he would be too. Even his Doctor had been terrified by the injuries Artemis sustained on their first meeting. Artemis himself had sen the clip and had been shocked by how loud a noise his head made when coming into contact with a giant glass cylinder at speed. So he decided to give the guy a chance.

He held up his left hand, in a sort of wait one minute gesture, revealing that the second last finger was missing. "I'll be with you in a minute, once I've finished giving out to this one" he gestured at the TARDIS console. "I like her mischevious streak, but this time she has gone too far"
He turned back to the console, ignoring the expression of Israel. "anywhere other than in mid-air on my board would have been preferable! At the end of the day, you are kind of just hurting yourself and making a complete mess by spilling my lovely blood everywhere! I quite like to keep my blood in my body! And as attractive and sexy as my first scar is, I'm not really sure if two scars are better than one is true." as he spoke a crazy grin spread over his face. He also made a lot of dramatic gestures. "so basically, don't do that next time, I prefer an entrance that doesn't involve being knocked unconscious"

He turned back to Israel, and noticed that his sketchbook had flown behind him. Looking upwards he realised that his board had become lodged high up on the cylindrical ceiling tubes. He gauged the distance and jumped. He seemed to almost disobey gravity and landed perfectly on the one clear spot of the console. He shimmied up the central column, grabbed the board and jumped to the ground in one fluid movement. This seemed to be second nature for him. He didn't even have to think about the bizarity of his situation.

He turned towards Isreal. "Sorry, where was I?" a brief pause as he thought. "as yes! My injury! Don't worry about it. It's not as serious as it sounds, just a brief spell of unconsciousness, a minor head wound that will form nothing more than a long clean scar and a slight concussion" He grinned "this isn't the first time the TARDIS has done this too me. Oh and can you pass me that sketchbook behind you?" he asked, gesturing at an A4 pad, with pages spilling out. It was secured shut with elastic bands and had a protective leather cover.

 

[Epiphany]

Celly looked between the two men, then at the other two companions in the TARDIS. Then she shrugged and leaned back against console room paneling, wishing once more for a chair. Seriously, had the Doctor never invested in chairs?

"Right. You're all mad, you are. Let's try to focus if we can. Has anyone seen the Doctor since coming aboard?" Her eyes shifted to Israel, the only one she'd seen already here when she arrived. "Has he contacted any of you? Or has the TARDIS just...well, just turned up out of the blue?"

The Manussin woman smiled at the pun, still watching how the others interacted with the time capsule. She'd found herself with a passing familiarity in temporal navigation, owing to a few years spent traveling with the Time Lord as well as her own rather advanced education. But she hadn't enjoyed the same...rapport the Doctor had with his TARDIS, a rapport several of the others seemed to share in some measure.

"For that matter, any ideas on where we're heading?"

 

[_gallifrog_]

Someone else then joined in the conversation. It was one of the female companions. She started off by doing the logical thing and calling him crazy, he shrugged that off. He had heard that a lot, most people just didn't get the fact that he did crazy stuff for thrills as often as possible. He clipped his board back onto his backpack, glad to see that it was not damaged in any way.

She then started to ask questions, good questions too. The corners of his mouth twitched into a grin at her sly TARDIS joke. He pushed back his long hair and answered her questions.
"I've seen next to nothing after coming on board on account of my injury. I'm pretty sure I was the last one to enter. I haven't heard or seen anything of the Doctor for two years now." he briefly remembered that last day, and how emotionally screwed up he was. His eyes flashed briefly, almost imperceptibly, with pain. He shook his head and continued.

"the TARDIS did just turn up out of the blue for me. It appeared right in front of my face, giving me no time to react, hence my dramatic entrance. As for where we are heading, not the slightest clue, but I would suggest into troublee, because if the Doctor isn't here, then why are we here?"

A few seconds later, as if as an afterthought he added "I'm Artemis by the way, Artemis Wolfblood"

 

[mogy]

When the injured guy held his hand up right in front of Israel's face, Israel was, to say the least, confused. This guy, indeed extremely weird, didn't seem like the type of person that would do hand gestures, much like that one.

When the guy started speaking, however, Israel couldn't believe the things he was hearing. This guy must have hit his head very strongly if he thought the TARDIS could actually communicate. Israel remembered how the Doctor kept calling the TARDIS 'sexy' when he thought Israel wasn't around, and how the Doctor had that long conversation with him after Israel accidentally hit one of the console room fences. The Doctor told him that the TARDIS was a living being, with a soul, but Israel didn't really believe it as the Doctor liked to make all kinds of jokes like that on Israel. That was why he brushed it off. It had now appeared that the Doctor might have not been joking after all.

Seeing that there was no calming this guy down, Israel almost stood up from the crouched position he was in before the guy stopped talking to the TARDIS, and started talking to him. It had seemed to him that this guy didn't know the difference between 'not as serious as it sounds' and 'brain damage', but if he didn't want help, Israel wouldn't force it upon him.

Israel passed the guy's sketchbook to him because of his nice request, before looking at Celly, who started speaking. He chuckled lightly at the pun she made, and before he could answer her question, the guy answered it and introduced himself. Artemis Wolfblood. Why was that name familiar to Israel for some reason? The Doctor had never mentioned it, so where did he know it from?

"I haven't. I wasn't even sure if he was real before I saw the TARDIS outside my window." Israel answered Celly's question once it was his turn, but right as he said what he said, he realized that not everybody was aware of how his travels with the Doctor ended, so he just shut up after that, hoping nobody would question what he just said any further.

 

[_gallifrog_]

Artemis took back his sketchbook, relieved to see that nothing had fallen out, the last thing he wanted was for all these strangers to see his art, and how much of it related to his travels with the Doctor. He had more than one sketchbook obviously, including one he stashed somewhere in the T.A.R.D.I.S.'s library. And a whole box of them at home, but they were all school related.

But the one Isreal was handing to him, was his private one. It was more like a journal, and he had started using it as a way to deal with his nightmares. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but the years he had spent in the time loop had broken something inside him. After the Doctor left it was quite frequent for Artemis to wake up his family at night with his screams. Hence why he moved into student accommodation as soon as possible.

He looked at the people around him, none of them matched any descriptions if the Doctors past companions, and their names were not familiar to him. He turned towards Israel, who was admitting he waste even sure if the Dictor and the T.A.R.D.I.S were real. He couldn't blame the guy.

He sat himself down cross-legged on the floor. "no offence, but I have not heard of either of you from the Doctor during my time in the T.A.R.D.I.S., so I can only presume that you guys came after me." he paused and thought for a second, before speaking again. " How old was the Doctor you knew?"