HELLO UNIVERSE.

tbc, i like nine's arc in series 1 as much as anyone (great stuff) but as somebody who loves classic who i think having the time lords around & kicking offers a lot more interesting stories than them being dead does tbh, especially considering they'd already done the angsty sole-survivor thing for almost a decade.

i've always preferred the time lords to be this living counter to the doctor, a reminder of why he's an outsider, why they've never truly fit in. as opposed to nu who's sanitisation of them as this wonderful society that so often gets referenced.

Bond. James Bond.

he thinks his hair is singed. his supposedly fireproof jacket is half-gone, an entire sleeve missing, god knows what happened to his helmet, and he's just watched something breathe fire and incinerate his colleague (or, at least, some kind of heat-induced hallucination that looked that way), and yet somehow it's the smell of burning hair that fionn finds himself stuck on, as a stranger pulls him into a blessedly fire-free room and talks.

he misses some of it; there are a lot of words, and fionn doesn't think his brain is working properly, at this very moment. the doctor barely even registers as an abnormal name, frankly. the guy may have just saved fionn's life; he doesn't think he's in any position to judge, right now. he gets a little more stuck on aliens and humanoids and your world, but his mind is a little staticky. give him a couple of minutes to process, and he's sure he'll have questions. many questions.

❝ that door's wood, it won't withstand the heat, ❞ he says, though he has to admit, standing in the doorway still, there's not as much radiating through as he'd expect. he touches a cautious hand to it, gloves also lost to the chaos, and frowns, finally turning around. and...huh. this room does not gel with what was outside the door. he wipes his forehead, and notices that his sleeve is gone. shit. ❝ okay. thank you. um, we need to find another exit. where are we? ❞

" oh, quite right. that requires a bit of explaining, doesn't it? well, " he clears his throat, " welcome to the TARDIS, that's time and relative dimension in space. " he chuckles a bit, that doesn't really explain much does it? shakes his head, continues on. " it is, among other things, a timeship, a spacecraft and my home. you'll be safe in here, trust me, nothing can get through those doors. not even fire-breathing rock monsters, try as they might. hopefully they tire themselves out. "