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"I'm the Doctor," said the man (being? time-traveler?) in front of her, who was currently posing dramatically against a railing.
Ruby pursed her lips, then scuffed one of her feet against the floor, purposefully making him wait. He stared back at her, offering no further information. When she raised an eyebrow, he only smiled back at her. Cheeky. She liked him.
There were many questions she had for him -- primarily regarding where they were both standing, which she was pretty confident was his means of time travel -- but they could wait. Instead, for now, she asked, "Did you set up that dramatic pose in advance?"
The Doctor burst out laughing. He seemed a bit caught off guard by his own expression of mirth for a moment, before smoothing out his expression and standing up tall. "Excuse you, I have every right to set up a dramatic pose! This is an important moment."
"Oh, I'm not denying that," Ruby said. She looked behind her to double-check that yes, the door was closed, before stepping forward further into the space. Her brain ached with processing the contractions of it all. How could this be accessed through the door of a tiny little police box? She shook her head, remembering the Doctor's earlier protests about something not being magic. It seemed that he had captured a little bit of magic for himself.
The Doctor was stepping forward as well, moving towards some kind of central hub. This only confirmed what Ruby had already suspected -- there was absolutely no point to standing where the Doctor had been when she entered. He was only being dramatic. The thought made her giggle.
"What?" he asked her, his voice bemused but not upset. "Why are you laughing?"
"It's just that you're a time traveler, and you were doing," she waved her hand, "all of that to try and impress me. You don't need to worry, you know. 'M already impressed."
"Oh." The Doctor looked at her, a contemplative glint in his eyes. "Well... sometimes it takes a bit of work. Showmanship." As he spoke, he waved his hands in the air and flashed her a performative smile.
Ruby shook her head, smiling playfully at him. After a moment, thought, it dropped from her face. She tugged on the sleeves of her jacket. "Does that mean, then, that I get to come with you? I mean, I don't want to assume -- but now that I've figured you out, no way you're getting rid of me!" She chuckled, hoping that her bit of bluster could cover up that bit of hesitation.
The Doctor stepped towards the central hub of the space and rested one of his hands on it. With the other, he made the universal "come here" gesture. She walked towards him. Her footsteps echoed around the wide, empty space. Eventually, she made her way up. He turned his body towards her slightly, gesturing to welcome her in to a side-hug. She stepped into it, letting go of her anxiety and trusting him. His arm rested atop her shoulders. It felt nice -- strong, solid. Everything that had happened today -- watching Lulubelle get taken, going up to the goblin ship, rescuing Lulu, then nearly being taken from time herself -- caught up to her in a rush, and she leaned against his side. As she rested her ear against him, something felt... strange. It wasn't anything she could consciously place. It was definitely enough to confirm her suspicions, though. The Doctor was an alien.
That should have felt like some kind of revelation, she remarked to herself. It really didn't.
"Where you are now, as I'm sure you've figured out, is my method of time travel." When the Doctor spoke at last, his voice was low and measured. "It's more than that, however. It's called a TARDIS, which stands for Time And Relative Dimensions in Space. This TARDIS here is my home. And she wouldn't open her doors for just anyone. Got that, Ruby Sunday?"
Ruby nodded into him, giving him a bit of a squeeze (as much as she could in her side-hug position), and then realized something. Quick as a flash, she pushed off to get a better look at him.
"Wait a minute! Doctor. Doctor, this is very important."
"What is it?" he asked, eyes wide and expression serious. She almost broke into laughter there, which would have given up the game, but she held strong.
"I need to know, and this is very important, Doctor -- where and when did you change your shirt?"
"Oh!" He chuckled and looked down at his shirt, which had indeed changed from orange-toned stripes to something primarily blue. "You noticed! The TARDIS has a wardrobe. She's adjusted to put it right next to the console room for me, since I've been more into fashion this time 'round. Do you wanna go look?"
"Yes, yes, absolutely yes," Ruby said, "and you better start taking me there right now, but -- what does 'this time around' mean? You can explain to me while I'm picking out my very important outfits for time traveling."
"Oh, I forgot," he said, clapping his hands together. "Right! Wardrobe first, then I'll explain."
He started off on one of the many ramps leading away from the console, and Ruby followed. She wasn't sure yet what the point was of the many different ramps. Some of them seemed just to loop right back around to the main console platform. Maybe the TARDIS rearranged them depending on what was needed?
The ramp led them to a hallway, which seemed to extend infinitely off in space. Ruby shook her head, deciding that she would deal with that later, and turned towards the Doctor. He was once again posing, this time against the wall next to a door. The door in question was made from wood and appeared old and worn. It was deeply incongruous next to everything else in the space.
"You first," he said. She reached out for the handle and pulled. The door swung open, revealing -- clothes! Clothes upon clothes. Her high school had had a large theatre department, and this reminded her of their costume storage room, except more.
"Oh my god," she said, turning to the Doctor. "When was the last time you organized this?"
"Let's go ahead and say never." The Doctor strode into the room. "I've never had the reason to! The TARDIS helps with picking out things in your size and style."
As the Doctor spoke, the wardrobe room rearranged itself with a selection of outfits that looked right out of her dreams! She enjoyed thrifting for her clothes, but it really could take ages sometimes to find a piece worth keeping. "Best time machine ever," Ruby said. She shrugged off her jacket, laid it across a nearby chair, and took a plaid wool jacket from its hangers. "This is gorgeous, and -- oh my god, it's a Pendleton! Vintage, but, let me guess, you picked this up back when it was brand new?"
"Yep," the Doctor said, cool as a cucumber and offering absolutely no further details.
Ruby shrugged it on. The plaid of the jacket didn't work at all with the skirt she was wearing, but that was fixable. The jacket itself fit beautifully. She gave a spin, checking out her appearance in a mirror that had arrived from... somewhere. "Thank you, TARDIS!"
Behind her in the mirror, she could see the Doctor smile. It had been the right call to thank the TARDIS, then. She noted that for the future, then turned around again to face him.
"Okay, so! We're in the wardrobe. You. Doctor." She rested her hands on a pile of clothes in front of her -- they held, thankfully -- and leaned forward, towards him. "Explain."
"Not going to let me out of this one, are you, Ruby Sunday?" the Doctor said, putting exaggerated stress on the syllables of her name. "To be honest, I forgot that you didn't already know this about me -- which is odd, I don't normally do that, forget that is, we've only just met but it feels like I've known you forever, it's a nice feeling, is this what it would've been like to have a sibling?"
Ruby tapped the clothes with her hands. The pile stayed stable, so she stepped around it, then sat on it, crossing her legs together. "Rambling, Doctor."
"Right, I am rambling. I do that sometimes." He flashed her that charming smile of his, and she shook her head, filled with fond exasperation. He was an incredibly charismatic time traveler, but also quite goofy. It made her feel steady amongst all of the chaos of the day so far. Yes, he was quite magical, but he was also still human. Or -- uh -- anyways, she meant that phrase metaphorically, not literally.
"This time around," Ruby repeated. "Which implies other times. Do you mean you've had other people come with you in the TARDIS before?"
"No," the Doctor said. "Yes, other people have traveled with me before, but no, that's not what I was referring to."
Ruby looked out across the wardrobe, thoughts bubbling up in her head about these potential past people. Surely some of these clothes must have belonged to them. She would ask later, though, she decided. She turned to look back at the Doctor, who was now pacing back and forth. Restless energy -- maybe that was what the excess ramps in the console room were for.
"I'm not human." (Ruby felt a bit vindicated at having already figured this part out.) "I'm... a special kind of alien," he said after some time.
The room was quiet for a moment. The Doctor kept pacing back and forth, pondering something. Ruby couldn't be sure what. At some point, he reached back a hand to run it through his hair, then caught himself partway through, as if remembering he had gotten it close-shaved.
Ruby turned over some words the Doctor had said earlier in her head, then came to a conclusion. "If I asked you what kind of alien you were, would that be a bit like someone asking me for the name of my birth mother?"
The Doctor paused in his pacing. A small, soft smile appeared on his face. "Yes. Yes, exactly -- thank you, Ruby."
"No problem," she said, smiling back at him. "So, what exactly's special about you, Magic Man?"
"Excuse you, I am not magic, and -- you're just poking fun, aren't you?"
"A bit," she conceded.
"Right. I have this thing I can do. When my body is very hurt, instead of dying, I change. Body, face, everything. It's called regeneration. I'm still in the early days of this one, and I hope to be sticking around a good while yet."
Ruby brought a hand up to cover her mouth, which had involuntarily dropped open. "Oh my god. That is, just... wow. You've had other selves. That's -- I mean, I don't even know how to process that!"
"It's a lot," the Doctor said, coming around to her and leaning against a nearby rack of clothes. "One time I was traveling with this incredible woman, her name was Rose, and I hadn't told her about it. Didn't think it would come up, honest! And then I ended up regenerating right in front of her. I can't say I was much better moving forward about telling people things, either." He paused, pulled out his screwdriver thing, messed around with some of the buttons on it. "I'm trying to be better at it now."
"Well, I appreciate you not springing that one on me." Ruby's mouth was running on autopilot, her higher brain functions still taken up by processing this revelation. After a moment, her brain caught up, and she asked: "Can I see some of them?"
"Ah, no," the Doctor said. "I would definitely remember meeting you before, which I hadn't. Can't risk a paradox."
"Oh! I hadn't even thought of that. I just meant pictures." Of course the Doctor had thought she meant actually going back to see them! What a crazy life she had jumped into. Not that she would have any interest in giving it up. No, she was going to hold on tight.
"Pictures!" The Doctor looked at her in surprise. "We can do pictures. I've never done this before."
"Done what?" Ruby asked. "Also, can I ask the TARDIS for a proper chair? This pile of clothes has terrible back support."
There was a tug in her ears like a change in pressure. As she looked to the right, she saw the TARDIS had materialized a plush sofa, coffee table, and what looked like a photo album. She walked over to it, sinking into the left side and whispering a thank you to the TARDIS; the Doctor took the right.
"I haven't done a getting-to-know-you," he said, answering her questions. "Most times, with new companions, we end up traveling right away. I'll ask them where they want to visit, past or future or an alien planet, and there we go! I'm sure there's somewhere you're interested in."
"Of course there is!" Ruby said. "No sense in rushing, though. You've got a TARDIS! It'll be there once we're ready."
"Clever, Ruby," the Doctor said; he kept talking after this, but Ruby wasn't fully listening. Instead, she reached out and snatched the photo album, holding it close to her chest. Ignoring the Doctor's affronted gasp, she opened up the first page. It really was a photo album, just like the one her mum kept, with photos printed on film and everything. The first page of photos featured only two different people; one of them was a man wearing a white long-sleeved shirt with a vest, and the other was a woman with red hair wearing a striped t-shirt. Ruby squinted at it -- the man had scruffy-looking hair that stuck upwards. It was certainly a choice.
"Which one of these is you?" she asked, scooting over on the couch and showing the Doctor the page she was looking at. (She had a suspicion that the TARDIS had created this photo album out of thin air for her. Which was just, well, incredible, but she was reaching her limit of new realizations that she could process today.)
The Doctor tapped one of the photos of the brown-haired man. "This is me. Appreciate you not assuming about the gender, though. I have been a woman before! It was fun. A bit confusing, since I kept forgetting. But still fun."
Ruby squinted at the page in concentration, trying to connect this face to the person sitting beside her. "Wow. He's so... different from you. Sorry, is that okay to say?"
"It's totally fine, Ruby," the Doctor said, leaning back against the couch. "English doesn't have all the tenses we'd need for a proper discussion."
"He does not have your sense in fashion." Ruby flipped through a few more of the pages. "That vest buttoned only once, combined with the square tie thing? It's a choice."
The Doctor laughed next to her, seeming caught in memories for a moment. "None of my past selves were good at fashion. One time I went around wearing celery on my coat."
"Please tell me that makes sense in the context of some kind of space trend?"
"Nope. It was just me."
Stunned a bit by this new information, Ruby looked up from the book to the Doctor. He definitely didn't look embarrassed -- he has so much self-confidence, she wasn't sure if anything could embarrass him -- but he did have a flush of self-awareness that told her he wasn't just making this up as a bit.
"So you just -- woke up in this body, and all of a sudden were like, I have to look stylish?" Ruby asked, attempting an impression of the Doctor at the end.
"Not immediately," the Doctor said, "there were some important things happening right then. But after the important things were taken care of, then, yes. Also, do I really sound like that now?"
"Oh, definitely not," Ruby said, her voice cracking a bit with laughter. "I'm rubbish at impressions. Please don't trust that."
The Doctor let out a breath of air, seeming genuinely relieved, which made Ruby laugh more, and then the Doctor was laughing, and then somehow they were collapsed on top of each other on the couch, still laughing. Just when she thought she could finally catch her breath, the Doctor started laughing again, which made her laugh, and then they were right back where they started.
"Is it alright if I think you might become my best friend?" Ruby asked, once she had caught her breath. "I have friends, course I do, just not really a best friend." Then, to herself: "Is it normal for your best friend to be a time-traveling alien?"
"No," the Doctor said.
"Huh?" Ruby said. (She had thought that if the Doctor was going to decline, he would have been a bit more nice about it.)
"Definitely not normal for your best friend to be a time-traveling alien," he said, and grinned.
"Oh -- you! Rude!" She went limp on top of him, collapsing her weight to make it harder for him to get up.
"I think you might want to get off of me," the Doctor said.
"Nope." Ruby flopped around her weight. "I'm staying right here."
"That's a real shame," the Doctor said, "because I was thinking about taking you to see a Beatles concert, and it would be difficult to do that if you keep me trapped."
"Meh," Ruby said, feigning disinterest. The idea of going to see the Beatles was amazing -- of course it was! It was too much fun to make the Doctor work for this though.
"A little farther back for the discerning time traveler, I see. How about dinosaurs?"
"I already saw a dinosaur today. It was a pigeon. Not very exciting."
"What? Not very exciting!" the Doctor exclaimed from underneath her. "Pigeons are amazing." He said this with the same full confidence he had used to declare Lulubelle a great name.
"Nope, they're boring, and you're wrong," Ruby said. She hadn't expected to end up debating the merits of pigeons with the Doctor, but found herself suddenly and firmly entrenched in her stance on this argument.
"They're gorgeous! There are so many different possible color varieties. They have iridescence! How can you call iridescence boring?"
"Easily, when it's on a pigeon."
"Now you're just being biased against pigeons."
"Yes! It's because they're everywhere."
There was a moment of silence as they both laid there, Ruby awkwardly sprawled atop the Doctor. She was well aware that he could have easily pushed her off if he wanted to.
"Why am I keeping you from getting up? I don't remember," Ruby said.
"I remember, but I'd like you to get up now, so I don't think I'll share that information."
"Oh, ha ha," Ruby said dryly, but she got up anyways. "Can we start traveling now? I thought I would need more time to process everything, but I think I might explode if we keep staying parked in London."
"Absolutely. Now, Ruby Sunday, where would you like to go first?"