#moremetathanmeta

The Doctor needed to get down to the bottom of this. Whatever the Master was planning with this cannon (and he was planning something, it was just a matter of what the scale of damage would be on the town), the Doctor had to stop it. It didn’t make sense that the Master would be willingly giving up the citizens of the Pocket (read: potential puppets or playthings) because who could tell when the creators would replenish it with life? Boredom, when unquenchable, was the Master’s kryptonite.

Also, a tiny part of the Doctor hoped and wondered... maybe, just maybe--

Don’t get your hopes up, Idiot! he thought to himself, smacking himself on the face but not breaking his stride in his walk toward the Master’s house. He didn’t notice if anyone had seen that, nor did he care. 

Jack: So that... symbol of Gwen's. What do you think it looks like?

Jack: Because I know what she thinks it looks like, which by the way, is not it.

The Doctor had corralled his eleventh self to the forefront for the wedding ceremony. He’d been ‘in hiding’ so to speak for the past week and some change, but he was the one who was most excited about the wedding (and the party that was all to do with him and variations of him, which was a plus!) so he was the one who was going to experience it. His other faces viewed the ordeal in a range of ways, varying from ‘a fun party’ to ‘the single stupidest idea I’ve ever had, including destroying Gallifrey’. 

This version of him was so excited about the wedding that he’d run about the labryinth of the TARDIS searching for the perfect thing to wear (white tux, deep purple bow tie he’d been given from Bill Nye (the science guy). He looked sharp but also eccentric, not content to look like any other groom on any other wedding day. Now, it was just about time for him to make his appearance. He wasn’t even sure where John was making his entrance from, but the Doctor had his planned. 

Telling time in a linear way was -- not his strong suit. Which is the explanation for the Doctor bursting into the Funporium from the door/portal from his home, kicking the door in and dropping an effect that would cause smoke to billow up around him. Unfortunately for the Doctor, he breathed in as the smoke surrounded him, and he was sent into a coughing fit. He thought he did a pretty good job of covering it up when the smoke disappeared and he posed for what he thought were cameras but may have well been people on their mobiles. Seconds later, he was back to coughing - of course. 

You.... WHAT!?!?

THEY WERE IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, DOC!

It’d been a few days, maybe even a week, since the incident with the Pocket and everything that it’d made him and John believe a series of horrific events that they’ve done. Of course, neither of them really did it, aside from one detail, but Jack was pushing past it. He wasn’t blaming John, he wouldn’t dare to. He completely understood why his friend did what he did.

But that didn’t make it fair or right that John was now avoiding him. The Metacrisis might try to play it off and act as if he wasn’t, but the Captain knew, he always knew. And that’s what made it hurt the most. Especially since the Doctor had been playing this game with him longer than anyone else.

Sighing, Jack retreated to the break room and made himself another cup of coffee and sat in there for a little bit, it was well into the late hours of the night and he was beginning to finally feel the settling of actually being alone in the Hub. And as much as he’d never admit it to anyone, he didn’t like it.

Realising he’d finished his fifth cup, he stood up from the couch and poured himself another before resigning back to his office to continue doing work. That was until he noticed a shadow moving in the room. Freezing, Jack set his coffee down and cautiously made for the door, thinking that it might be Owen.

As much as Meg loved ridiculous things that tended to verge along the lines of annoying, she couldn’t help but to be highly suspicious of the shamble of a wedding that John and the Doctor were supposedly having. Plus, John was acting strange, which was saying something for him.

She hadn’t seen him in a while and as much as she liked her quiet time, she enjoyed having the half-alien around. That and the news of Jack’s mopery about John moving out of the Town Hall was more than enough to cause the demon to become concerned.

So, without a further delay, she reached for her jacket and slid it on before heading out the door of the bakery to go in search for her good friend. When she finally found him wandering around the park, the demon stood a few feet away as she crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. “You volunteer me to bake for your wedding-which is creepy by the way, marrying yourself, really?!-But anyway, you volunteer me and then you don’t even bother to come around to help.”

Moving closer towards him, Meg bumped her shoulder against his arm and looked up at him with curiosity and concern. “Okay, what gives, Doc. I know you more than you think I do and I can tell you that you’re not acting like you at all. So come back with me to the bakery or I’ll drag you back, your choice.”

Confidence was one of the Doctor’s best attributes. Or at least that’s what he told himself. That, and his sense of direction and mostly good looks. But to admit any of those out loud would not only grant him a few questionable looks from his companions, but it would also make him sound an awful lot like Jack. And there was only room for one of those in the town. And that was another thing, they were in town now. Something that he thought they’d never be able to say again, but definitely something he was grateful for. 

But those were things to discuss at a later date, as for now he was going to head his way into the home where he had claimed and rifle through his TARDIS (which he managed to get inside the house and on the second floor) for his Stetson and Sheriff’s badge. Once he found them and placed them on, after adjusting them several times as well as his bow tie, the Time Lord bounded down the stairs. Exiting the home, the Doctor made for a walk across the town, deciding to take in the atmosphere and scenery.

However, as much as he was planning on spending the day inside and working on his ship, curiosity got the better of him as he spotted his current companion making her way towards the center of town. Nearly calling out her name, the Doctor stopped himself as he realised that he wanted to make a show of his presence rather than just jogging up to greet her. So he quickly dodged behind a tree so that he could watch her stop near the Town Hall.