To be normal is the ideal aim of the unsuccessful.
Carl Gustav Jung
Chapter Two: Settings on the Dryer
Nothing was happening on earth. Well, sure, there were famines, wars, floods, earthquakes, fires, epidemics, accidents, and political debates, but according to Jackie Tyler, I had nothing to worry about because her daughter Rose Tyler survived.
***Spoiler***
She was right
Albeit a year prematurely
And that's just the first time
But still, she was annoying.
"Traumatized, poor thing—I've been trying to get to someone in authority. She deserves compensation." I took advantage of the mundane banter to investigate the flat. A fairly normal place, nothing to distinguish it from any of a hundred other places I visited.
A nail popped out of the cat door—from the outside. I didn't think cats used tools on this planet, but I squeezed out the door for a closer look. A man in a leather jacket knelt down to look through the flap. At that moment, Rose pushed it open.
"Hello." The man grinned. The Doctor was back.
Rose opened the door, and he walked right past her. "What are you doing here?" He asked.
"I live here. I would be at work, but somebody blew up my job."
"Is someone here, love?" Jackie called.
"He's with the papers, Mum." Rose looked back at the Doctor. "What are you really doing?"
"I'm trying to track down that arm." He flipped through a tabloid on the table. "Oh, that's never going to work out. Ah!—there's that arm." He took it and held it up to his neck. "Agg, it's choking me."
"You never said your name," Rose remarked. "Doctor…"
Any further remark was cut short when the arm began strangling him. He finally managed to wrench it loose—only for it to attack Rose. After a few moments of tumbling and tugging, the Doctor finally soniced it free. "Well, I'd best be going now." He took the arm and walked out the front door.
Rose ran after him. "Just a moment, that thing tried to kill me twice. I want an explanation."
"What is it with you humans? Think the world revolves around you. It wasn't after you, it was after me. You just happened to get in the way." He stalked off towards a blue police box.
"So, what you're saying is the world revolves around you?"
"Something like that, yes."
"And who are you exactly?"
The Doctor turned and stared at her. "Do you know, like we were saying, about the Earth revolving? It's like when you were a kid, the first time they tell you that the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it because it looks like it's standing still. I can feel it. The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, the entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty-seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go... that's who I am. Now forget me, Rose Tyler. Go home."
Of course she didn't listen. One trait of humans that continues to amaze me over the years is their sheer stubbornness. Sometimes that turns out to their advantage. Then there are other times…well, there's a reason they say "deathly stubborn."