Post by Ribs, Suthers' Pal on May 22, 2022 21:56:03 GMT
Something Like There
A Brand New Adventure with Doctor Who and His Amazing Assistant Penny
Penelope burst into the saloon, making way for the piano. She crouched beside it, and began loading fresh bullets into her revolver as she wiped the sweat from her brow.
“Deputy!” Doc Stanton hollered from outside as he moseyed through the doors. “I think we’ve reached the end of our little time together, haven’t we?”
Penny blind fired in his direction, but he wasn’t deterred as he made his way across the bar towards the far end of the establishment when Penny was plainly hiding.
“We’ve had some times, haven’t we?” Penny shot at a candlelit chandelier hanging above them, which after a shot or two came crashing to the floor, though nowhere near where Stanton approached.
“Ms. Primrose, please!” He had reached her. Trying to grab her, she finagled his way out of his hands and tried to make for the stairway.
Penny thought back to the entire wild adventure she had been on, and what Stanton had done to The Preacher and the Hex that had been placed on the town of Scorpion’s Point and how dear Philip Eubanks the banker had fallen victim to its malevolent ways. She thought of the specter of Flatts’ mine and the visit from deputy governor Hatfield. All of it, she figured, had led here: the inevitable confrontation between the chief lawman of Scorpion’s Point and it’s greatest rapscallion, his hands red with the blood of Sheriff Evans from his escape at the jail. She didn’t want him to win.
“I’m back!” The door kicked open as Doctor Who, intrepid traveler of time and space, entered, removing his sunglasses and placing them somewhere or other on his person. Stanton stopped in his gait and turned towards the door, and prepared to shoot at the surprise. “Oh, that’s not exactly what I expected.” He waved his sonic screwdriver around as though it would stop a speeding bullet.
“Doctor?” Penny asked.
“Who’s this?” Stanton demanded, listening to what Penny had said. “Another doctor?”
“Well, this town ain’t big-“ Doctor Who began to say, before immediately tripping and falling on his face.
“So much for the big bleedin’ hero. Just you and me here, missy.”
“Deputy.” She was at the top of the staircase, and he was on his way up. With Doctor Who there, Penny began to imagine that this was the final end she had imagined for her time here. She removed herself from cover and fired at the villainous Doctor, who certainly didn’t expect his story to end so suddenly. He dropped to his knees, releasing his gun as he clutched his gut. Penny fired a second time, clean through the head, sending him backwards off the stairs.
Doctor Who had just about gotten back up from his embarrassing fall. “Well, I’ve got to be honest, Penny,” he began. “Stories with me don’t usually end quite that way.” He approached her, possibly looking for an embrace, though more likely just hoping for her to indicate a desire for such a thing just so he would be able to refuse it.
“Doctor-“
“I know, I know, Penny.” He smirked. “You missed me. A few weeks in the Old West – it’s a lot for-“
“It’s been four years.” She cut him off.
He didn’t quite know what to say. He looked more closely at her features – he supposed that, yes, more time had passed then the few weeks he had spent on his way into The City to retrieve the emergency pills for Daniel Eubanks.
“Penny, I don’t know how- it’s just-“ he didn’t know where to begin. He knew he could be somewhat cruel and thoughtless at times, but mostly he was just befuddled. “I don’t know how that happened. I just- we took the TARDIS around the caravan, I could have sworn I never used it. Could four years really have passed?”
“Doctor- I’ve killed people.” Penny turned to the bar and began pouring herself something. “It’s been so hard being here, thinking you’ve left me behind. But – it was true. No matter how much you didn’t mean to, you did leave me behind, didn’t you?”
“I may have accidentally taken a brief trip- I seem to recall something about highwaymen…”
“Doctor, it doesn’t matter. You can’t go back and change it now. I’m here. I’m older. I have lost years of my life in a time that isn’t what I wanted.”
“Penny- Penelope, I am really just, I don’t even know what to say. What you’re saying is right. We can’t change the past. We just have to… continue on…”
Penny couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “And go off traveling with you again? Another adventure with the Master’s plans to steal the Canadian syrup supply? Davros’ good twin brother broke out of the mental asylum we put him in after he went bad?”
“I know you don’t want to hear it. But-“ he stopped, and made his way around the bar to make sure to look her in the eyes. “You’ve already spent so long here. I don’t think you want to spend the rest of your life here.”
“Why not? It’s my home! A whole lot more than that cabin you found me in, all those years ago now! We were supposed to go on so many adventures, and they just stopped as I was stuck with hard scrapes and you were off doing God knows what-“
“Doing a time heist…” he muttered. “Is what you’re saying true? Our time together is at an end? It ended four years ago and I didn’t even know it?” It was just an instant for me – days…
“Those days have been years of my life.” She now was looking him right in the eyes. She saw something deep inside them staring back. “I- I need you to promise me something.”
“I’ll come with you,” she said. “If you promise me we’re the only ones. I can’t have you traveling back and forth with that other lady in between our days together- one day you’re going to forget where you are, leave one of us behind, and not come back until we’re on our deathbed.”
“Which other lady? I can think of a few…”
She slapped him. He deserved it.
They made their way outside and around the main street drag of Scorpion’s Point. So many people had died in Compton’s rage that day, Penny thought. They approached Doctor Who’s time and space traveling machine, known as the TARDIS, a blue police telephone box that had a control room hidden inside.
“Penny, I think it’s time I told you something.” He said before they went inside. “A very long time ago I knew a woman named Lu Ping. We were the greatest of friends, and came to travel together. After I was killed, I stumbled into a paradox that allowed the two of us to have a wonderful few years living and working together attempting to stop The Master’s fiendish Pachinko Parlor empire in Hong Kong.”
Penny sort of understood the relevance, but wished he would just get to the point as the sun had long since set and the cold air of the desert at night began to settle in.
“Lu Ping was your mother, as I’m sure you know. The timeline where we were happy was aborted by a fiendish entity called The Birnam Witch who I have trapped in the Old God prison portals of Lincolnshire Fairground. None of it ever happened. But – by a curious and cruel trick of the witch’s games, we both remembered everything. The infinite possibility engine. That world continued to exist in our heads, running simultaneously to our own. Do you see where I’m going with this?”
“Even though your time together ended-”
“Our time together continued, in our heads. Forever and ever. When your mother was killed not long after our time together in that lightning accident- my engine didn’t stop running. Every moment, I can reenter that possibility that we are still there, together, in Hong Kong, making fun of Sergeant Benton, calling Bust on the Master’s sick gambling games.” He unlocked the door.
“I can see it now. We’re in our flat, and from around the corner-” He stopped, voice on the verge of shaking but cutting himself off just before. She could surmise the rest. “I know you’re going to ask - no, you’re not, and it never happened, if you’re wondering. But- in that other world- something like that.”
Penny was very uncomfortable around Doctor Who when he was like this. She didn’t have a clue who he was, really – but now she could begin to grasp some of the pain he reconciles every passing moment. “Doctor- let’s just settle in for a few days, I’m sure it’ll be all right.”
The Doctor forced a smile. “The thing is- those moments where I can see the engine going, and how I am in that other world…” The smile had turned genuine. “I just needed to try to get there, even if just a little bit. Something like there.”
Penny wasn’t quite ready to hug him as he removed his coat and threw it on the stand by the central console. He leaned on the console, and took a deep breath. He flipped a switch, and the whole room began to shift as a groaning, wheezing noise sounded.
Penny leaned with her back against the rails surrounding the console, watching him. He slowly moved a dial, turned a lever, and watched as the column moved up and down to bring them wherever they’re going next. He looked out the window to the Hong Kong skyline, and back at Lu Ping. They both were deeply unhappy, and yet, smiled.
A Brand New Adventure with Doctor Who and His Amazing Assistant Penny
Penelope burst into the saloon, making way for the piano. She crouched beside it, and began loading fresh bullets into her revolver as she wiped the sweat from her brow.
“Deputy!” Doc Stanton hollered from outside as he moseyed through the doors. “I think we’ve reached the end of our little time together, haven’t we?”
Penny blind fired in his direction, but he wasn’t deterred as he made his way across the bar towards the far end of the establishment when Penny was plainly hiding.
“We’ve had some times, haven’t we?” Penny shot at a candlelit chandelier hanging above them, which after a shot or two came crashing to the floor, though nowhere near where Stanton approached.
“Ms. Primrose, please!” He had reached her. Trying to grab her, she finagled his way out of his hands and tried to make for the stairway.
Penny thought back to the entire wild adventure she had been on, and what Stanton had done to The Preacher and the Hex that had been placed on the town of Scorpion’s Point and how dear Philip Eubanks the banker had fallen victim to its malevolent ways. She thought of the specter of Flatts’ mine and the visit from deputy governor Hatfield. All of it, she figured, had led here: the inevitable confrontation between the chief lawman of Scorpion’s Point and it’s greatest rapscallion, his hands red with the blood of Sheriff Evans from his escape at the jail. She didn’t want him to win.
“I’m back!” The door kicked open as Doctor Who, intrepid traveler of time and space, entered, removing his sunglasses and placing them somewhere or other on his person. Stanton stopped in his gait and turned towards the door, and prepared to shoot at the surprise. “Oh, that’s not exactly what I expected.” He waved his sonic screwdriver around as though it would stop a speeding bullet.
“Doctor?” Penny asked.
“Who’s this?” Stanton demanded, listening to what Penny had said. “Another doctor?”
“Well, this town ain’t big-“ Doctor Who began to say, before immediately tripping and falling on his face.
“So much for the big bleedin’ hero. Just you and me here, missy.”
“Deputy.” She was at the top of the staircase, and he was on his way up. With Doctor Who there, Penny began to imagine that this was the final end she had imagined for her time here. She removed herself from cover and fired at the villainous Doctor, who certainly didn’t expect his story to end so suddenly. He dropped to his knees, releasing his gun as he clutched his gut. Penny fired a second time, clean through the head, sending him backwards off the stairs.
Doctor Who had just about gotten back up from his embarrassing fall. “Well, I’ve got to be honest, Penny,” he began. “Stories with me don’t usually end quite that way.” He approached her, possibly looking for an embrace, though more likely just hoping for her to indicate a desire for such a thing just so he would be able to refuse it.
“Doctor-“
“I know, I know, Penny.” He smirked. “You missed me. A few weeks in the Old West – it’s a lot for-“
“It’s been four years.” She cut him off.
He didn’t quite know what to say. He looked more closely at her features – he supposed that, yes, more time had passed then the few weeks he had spent on his way into The City to retrieve the emergency pills for Daniel Eubanks.
“Penny, I don’t know how- it’s just-“ he didn’t know where to begin. He knew he could be somewhat cruel and thoughtless at times, but mostly he was just befuddled. “I don’t know how that happened. I just- we took the TARDIS around the caravan, I could have sworn I never used it. Could four years really have passed?”
“Doctor- I’ve killed people.” Penny turned to the bar and began pouring herself something. “It’s been so hard being here, thinking you’ve left me behind. But – it was true. No matter how much you didn’t mean to, you did leave me behind, didn’t you?”
“I may have accidentally taken a brief trip- I seem to recall something about highwaymen…”
“Doctor, it doesn’t matter. You can’t go back and change it now. I’m here. I’m older. I have lost years of my life in a time that isn’t what I wanted.”
“Penny- Penelope, I am really just, I don’t even know what to say. What you’re saying is right. We can’t change the past. We just have to… continue on…”
Penny couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “And go off traveling with you again? Another adventure with the Master’s plans to steal the Canadian syrup supply? Davros’ good twin brother broke out of the mental asylum we put him in after he went bad?”
“I know you don’t want to hear it. But-“ he stopped, and made his way around the bar to make sure to look her in the eyes. “You’ve already spent so long here. I don’t think you want to spend the rest of your life here.”
“Why not? It’s my home! A whole lot more than that cabin you found me in, all those years ago now! We were supposed to go on so many adventures, and they just stopped as I was stuck with hard scrapes and you were off doing God knows what-“
“Doing a time heist…” he muttered. “Is what you’re saying true? Our time together is at an end? It ended four years ago and I didn’t even know it?” It was just an instant for me – days…
“Those days have been years of my life.” She now was looking him right in the eyes. She saw something deep inside them staring back. “I- I need you to promise me something.”
“I’ll come with you,” she said. “If you promise me we’re the only ones. I can’t have you traveling back and forth with that other lady in between our days together- one day you’re going to forget where you are, leave one of us behind, and not come back until we’re on our deathbed.”
“Which other lady? I can think of a few…”
She slapped him. He deserved it.
They made their way outside and around the main street drag of Scorpion’s Point. So many people had died in Compton’s rage that day, Penny thought. They approached Doctor Who’s time and space traveling machine, known as the TARDIS, a blue police telephone box that had a control room hidden inside.
“Penny, I think it’s time I told you something.” He said before they went inside. “A very long time ago I knew a woman named Lu Ping. We were the greatest of friends, and came to travel together. After I was killed, I stumbled into a paradox that allowed the two of us to have a wonderful few years living and working together attempting to stop The Master’s fiendish Pachinko Parlor empire in Hong Kong.”
Penny sort of understood the relevance, but wished he would just get to the point as the sun had long since set and the cold air of the desert at night began to settle in.
“Lu Ping was your mother, as I’m sure you know. The timeline where we were happy was aborted by a fiendish entity called The Birnam Witch who I have trapped in the Old God prison portals of Lincolnshire Fairground. None of it ever happened. But – by a curious and cruel trick of the witch’s games, we both remembered everything. The infinite possibility engine. That world continued to exist in our heads, running simultaneously to our own. Do you see where I’m going with this?”
“Even though your time together ended-”
“Our time together continued, in our heads. Forever and ever. When your mother was killed not long after our time together in that lightning accident- my engine didn’t stop running. Every moment, I can reenter that possibility that we are still there, together, in Hong Kong, making fun of Sergeant Benton, calling Bust on the Master’s sick gambling games.” He unlocked the door.
“I can see it now. We’re in our flat, and from around the corner-” He stopped, voice on the verge of shaking but cutting himself off just before. She could surmise the rest. “I know you’re going to ask - no, you’re not, and it never happened, if you’re wondering. But- in that other world- something like that.”
Penny was very uncomfortable around Doctor Who when he was like this. She didn’t have a clue who he was, really – but now she could begin to grasp some of the pain he reconciles every passing moment. “Doctor- let’s just settle in for a few days, I’m sure it’ll be all right.”
The Doctor forced a smile. “The thing is- those moments where I can see the engine going, and how I am in that other world…” The smile had turned genuine. “I just needed to try to get there, even if just a little bit. Something like there.”
Penny wasn’t quite ready to hug him as he removed his coat and threw it on the stand by the central console. He leaned on the console, and took a deep breath. He flipped a switch, and the whole room began to shift as a groaning, wheezing noise sounded.
Penny leaned with her back against the rails surrounding the console, watching him. He slowly moved a dial, turned a lever, and watched as the column moved up and down to bring them wherever they’re going next. He looked out the window to the Hong Kong skyline, and back at Lu Ping. They both were deeply unhappy, and yet, smiled.