100 Themes Challenge -- #1. Introduction

This song reminds me of Doctor Who for some reason. I'm really not sure why. Especially these here lyrics:

clocks move splinters
the time goes forward
when them trees are leaves
your feet collect their memories
i guess all is safe.

Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Feb_J-qgasg Read the lyrics with it because it's hard to understand.

Now, on to the real blog post.

Well, I've officially gotten farther in this 100 Themes Challenge business than I ever have before. That is, I've completed exactly one theme. Yes, I know, I'm lame. But the first theme (Introduction) is difficult for me. But, whatever. It'll do. I've gone over and edited it a couple times since I wrote it, but I still don't know if they are in character or not. Critique encouraged!

Since I don't have enough of an imagination to write original things for each theme, I decided to write fanfiction. Doctor Who fanfiction, to be precise. Obsessed? What do you mean obsessed? [says the girl who just bought TARDIS earrings. yeah.] It will mostly be 10th Doctor/Rose, just cause she's my favorite, but I'll certainly put other pairings in there too. I'm not going to write them in chronological order at all - that is to say, one theme might take place during Series Four, and the next might take place during Series One, and they may or may not be related. It would just be too difficult to keep track of that - I'm not trying to make it a continuous story. Just random thoughts, mostly. 

Set just after episode one of the second series, after the Doctor has regenerated. I don't think it fits the theme quite right, but the way I got to it was: Introduction > meeting new people > new Doctor. So. Yeah. *shrugs*

Title: "New New Doctor"
Category: Doctor Who
Rating: G
Genre: Friendship
Words: 638
Pairing(s): 10th Doctor/Rose
Summary: She had just started to understand the old Doctor, and isn't sure what to do with this one.

He’s so different.

It’s not bad, exactly. At least he’s lost those ridiculous ears (though Rose had found herself becoming fond of even those) and the Northern accent has somehow vanished. But he’s not her Doctor, and not just because his face has changed. He said before that he doesn’t know what sort of a man he is, and that frightens her, because she doesn’t know, either. She had just started to understand the old Doctor, and she doesn’t know what to do with this one, this messy haired, cheeky, occasionally rude and always talkative alien with his pinstriped suit and tattered overcoat, an outfit she can’t imagine her Doctor wearing. No matter how she stares, she can’t find even a hint of her friend in his young face.

Yet she trusts him, somehow, enough to run away with him. Again.

“Are you listening?”

Rose jumps at the sound of his voice and realizes that he’s stopped fiddling with the controls on the TARDIS and is staring at her, his arms crossed over his chest and eyebrow raised. She must admit that she likes these new eyebrows, so quirky and expressive. “Sorry, what?”

“I was attempting to explain what that button does,” he gestures at a large, glowing green button to his left, “but either your human brain is too small to comprehend time travel, or I’m so handsome you just can’t take your eyes off of me long enough to pay attention.” He pauses, frowns. “I’m being rude again, aren’t I?”

She giggles. “Yes. But I forgive you.”

“I am quite handsome this time ‘round, though, don’t you think?” He flashes her a wide grin, and this Doctor’s smile is just an infectious as the old one’s. She doesn’t reply, pretending it was a rhetorical question. “You’re quiet today. Are you alright?”

Rose bites her lip. She isn’t sure how to answer. She could say something funny, something to get him talking again, because while he was talking he didn’t seem to pay attention to much else, but she can’t think of anything. She hesitates, takes a deep breath.

“Are you the same person?”

The Doctor sits down on the edge of the TARDIS controls, being careful not to sit on any important buttons, and rests his chin in his hand thoughtfully. “Loaded question, that. Could be taken any number of ways. It’s a completely new body, if that’s what you mean. New genetic make-up and all that.”

She looks away. “That’s not exactly what I meant.”

“I know.” He sighs. “I don’t have a real answer. I’ve been puzzling over that very question ever since I first regenerated, as did every other Time Lord, I expect. I’ve got all the memories of my other bodies. I remember who I was before. Part of them is still here. But I’m not them anymore.”

“And how many times have you done it? Regenerated, I mean?”

He counts on his fingers. “I s’pose this would be my tenth body.” Rose let’s out a breath she didn’t realize she was holding.

“You could have told me. About the regenerating, I mean.”

“Why?” He shrugs. “I’m still the Doctor. I’ve always been the Doctor. That doesn’t change from body to body.”

“I know, I know, it’s just…” she sighs and stands up, pacing back and forth a couple of times before sitting down again. “It’s just… weird.”

“Good weird? Bad weird?”

“Weird.”

“Right.” For once he’s silent, and it’s too awkward. She stands up and reaches out her hand. The Doctor stares at it, looking confused.

“Well. Whether you’re the same person or completely new…pleased to meet you, Doctor. Whoever you are.”

His grin is wider than ever. He grasps her hands firmly, and something about this hand feels warm, and safe, and right. “The pleasure is all mine, Rose Tyler.”