Chapter 2
"Did perpetual happiness in the Garden of Eden maybe get so boring that eating the apple was justified?"
― Chuck Palahniuk
The first room they had entered wasn't exactly the epitome of adventure. The Doctor was fairly disappointed, in fact to find that the first thing that the TARDIS had provided them was the kitchen. He walked inside, letting go of Rose's hand.
"The kitchen…" he murmured, placing a hand on the cupboard closest to him and opening it.
"Ooh, crisps," Rose said, her head peeking over his shoulder, "Got'ta love crisps," she grinned, stepping closer and grabbing a bag. She turned towards the Doctor, "Why'd we go here?"
The Doctor shrugged, "I don't know. The TARDIS, knowing her, has probably got something planned. Don't you, old girl?" he said. A faint humming sound filled the room.
"'s that bad…Doctor?" Rose said, pausing before saying his name.
He felt the TARDIS's presence in his mind. Nothing about the signals she was emitting felt mischievous. In fact, he sensed she felt quite calm. That was a good sign. Even if the TARDIS had the ability to shield all her thoughts to him, she usually warned him before something bad or even relatively bad was going to happen.
"Nah, I don't think so." He replied, "But we better take all of this just in case," he said, grabbing all the bags of crisps. Rose nodded, taking some as well.
Suddenly, a low rumbling emitted from their side. They turned at the same time, finding a new door, colored a light red. The Doctor shared a glance with his companion. He wasn't surprised to see curiosity in her gaze. She was his friend, after all. A fellow TARDIS-traveler—which meant that she had a trait that all his companions had too. Curiosity.
"You can go first, if you want," the Doctor offered as the door opened dramatically. Rose nodded and entered the room, the door closing behind her.
Must be motion-censored, the Doctor thought. After a few seconds, the doors of the mysterious room opened again. Rose was waiting behind the door, her eyes lit up in disbelief, "C'mere, it's even bigger than the control room!"
The Doctor raised his eyebrows, following her inside. As he observed his surroundings, he was hit by a sudden wave of déjà vu. They had stumbled upon what looked to be, the theatre. It had been ages since he'd even set foot in this room!
It was a big dome-shaped place with a stage in the front and hundreds of rows of red plush chairs before it.
"You had a theatre-a theatre!" Rose exclaimed, setting down the crisp bags. He watched her survey the room.
"What do you even watch in here?" she said, "There's the cinema room, but that's just a projector and some blankets but this is…a huge room…for plays? Musicals? Ballads?"
"I don't know," the Doctor said, he smiled at her, "But the TARDIS gave us nibbles," he signaled to the crisp bags, "So we can safely assume that there should be some sort of presentation starting."
Rose simply nodded and took a seat. The Doctor plopped into the one next to her as music began playing, reverberating from invisible speakers. Suddenly, a dark blue humanoid shape strode onto the stage.
Hologram, the Doctor knew immediately. The theatre showed plays via hologram. Oh this was brilliant, really. He explained the mechanics to Rose.
"Oh this is brilliant. The TARDIS, you see, makes use of deoxyribonucleic-holograms, very advanced technology requiring the use of actual DNA, but the TARDIS can find bits, spare bits of DNA molecules in the air from whichever timeline it's in, which is in every timeline technically, and use it to structure holograms that perfectly imitate the form and sound. The hologram is dark blue now because it needs time to c—"
"Doctor," Rose said, "I don't mind the science talk, really, but I can't concentrate on the…" she trailed off, gesturing to the stage where, just as he had figured, the blue form had taken shape into a perfect copy of William Shakespeare welcoming the 'audience'.
"Oh, right. Right, yes. Sorry," the Doctor amended, shifting in his seat. He opened a bag, trying to enjoy the play but his mind kept drifting elsewhere. He had seen the play before, of course, with the actual Shakespeare and found it marvelous but he really wasn't one to watch things twice. This new body didn't like repeats. He briefly wondered why the TARDIS chose this stage play when she knew that he had seen it already.
He glanced to the side, catching Rose's eye. He raised an eyebrow questioningly, but she just looked away.
"Macbeth!" the hologram-ghost of Banquo cried onstage.
The Doctor sighed and twiddled his fingers. When that wasn't enough to entertain him, he began swinging his feet. When he eventually got bored of that, he started holding his breath to see how long it would take until he needed air. Then he began playing thumb-wrestling with himself, then chess (in his mind, of course), then tic-tac-toe, then…
"Doctor, if you're really that bored, we can go." Rose said. He jumped, surprised, and turned to face her. She was staring at him, her eyes showing almost the equal amount of boredom.
"Ah, no," he said. Rose stared at him, puzzled.
"No, I meant that, um, yes I am quite…unentertained but we can't go."
"Why?"
"Because that would just confuse the TARDIS. Remember what I was saying about deoxyribonucleic-holograms?" he said, "Well, the air around us has already been modified so that the hologram projectors won't accidentally use our DNA. If we go out of this room, we might trigger some sort of DNA-flux and either we get mixed DNA, and I don't want to know what would happen if we do, or the hologram projector might explode."
"Oh." Rose said, simply. She paused a while before letting out a little chuckle, "Well, that's a bit bad because I'm completely lost."
"With what?" the Doctor asked, then his eyebrows rose in realization, "Oh, oh, the play? Well, I could tell you, but it's bad luck, you see, to say the name of the play…during the play."
"What, Mac—"
He shushed her, putting a finger to his lips quickly.
"Oh, right sorry," she laughed, leaning closer, "I didn't know you were one to believe in luck, Doctor."
"I don't, Rose," he said, then smiled at the dubious expression she was giving him, "Names have power. There were these, in lack of better human terms, witches, you see, who existed at the beginning of the universe. Carrionites, they were called. You know how humans use math and science to make sense of things? Well, these Carrionites, they used words and sort of…I don't know how it happened, should find out someday, but they put a curse on the name of the play."
"Oh." Rose said, "So how long have we got 'til the play ends?"
"Maybe…half an hour?" the Doctor said, staring at the stage.
"And the TARDIS can't just stop the play."
"Oh, I think she can…but she won't." he said.
"Why?"
"I don't know."
Rose groaned and slumped into her chair, "Oh, that's fantastic. We have absolutely nothing to do for half an hour except watch Ma—the play-which-shall-not-be-named?"
The Doctor chuckled, "No, Rose Tyler."
Rose snapped up at the sound of her name. He licked his lips, liking the way the name rolled off his tongue.
"You have absolutely nothing to do, whereas I can just continue playing Find-Four with myself."
"Oh is that what you were doing," Rose rolled her eyes, "No, I'm not allowing you to leave me here, bored out of my mind, Doctor. We do something, whether Tic-Tac-Toe or Dots or Rock-Paper-Scissors. We do something together, or not at all."
The Doctor stared at her, unblinkingly for a few seconds, and then broke out into a wide grin.
"Well, I suppose Rock-Paper-Scissors is no fun alone."
"Better with two," Rose whispered, repeating the words he had once said in a body not so long before.
Author's Note
Yay, 2 favorites and 4 follows! No reviews yet though :c I'd really appreciate it if one of you left one so I'd know if this storyline is, if only vaguely, interesting.
Oh, and if some of the science stuff are wrong or if some of the things the Doctor says are...not fact, then please forgive me! I'm only in my first year of high school and I really don't know much about it!
Disclaimer: Doctor Who and its characters belong to their respective owners!