I forgot to say this before but I love your 13 art, especially the Assassin's Creed pieces - I've shoved them in so many people's faces I've lost count
Hiii, sorry for the latest reply ever, it that’s so sweet! Thank youuuu, it really means a lot to me to know that something I’ve made is so thoroughly enjoyed by another person ahhh
Maybe someday I’ll get back properly into Thirteen-fever and make some more! For now here’s a little doodle
(She is 10/10 the type to take the leap of faith not knowing if the hay pile will actually catch her haha)
In the corner, there was a first edition of Wuthering Heights that Caroline had gotten for Lena in 1847, and had the author sign it with her real name - not her pseudonym. Next to it was a grimoire of Ayana’s, the witch hadn’t wanted to give it to her - distrusting as she was of vampires, but if there was one thing that was true it was that Bennetts looked out for their own. It only took the two women’s hands brushing for Ayana to see her and Bonnie’s friendship. The Bennett witch hadn't wasted any time in handing it over after that.
It was strange, but perhaps not so surprising that the storage locker still existed. Caroline wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth; it was better to thank her lucky stars. She smiled as she looked around the space. It was a collection of items that spanned almost 2000 years of history (albeit of an alternate timeline). Caroline may have only spent 100 non-concurrent years in that world but she had accumulated a lot of stuff. Trunks of dresses and gowns from every era, back-ups of Roman centurion uniforms - because that’s all what Rory would wear, until they were forced to go underground. A gramophone, chests of her favourite jewelry - all of it here in Cardiff.
She should give the gifts to Bon and Lena soon, maybe they could go on a girls trip when Bonnie got back from visiting her dad’s side of the family. They could go to New York! Bonnie and Elena hadn’t been there before, and Caroline truly loved playing tour guide.
Turning, Caroline knocked into an end table and heard something rattle against it. It was a frame that was leaning against the table. Pulling away the cloth covering it, the breath left her chest, no small feat for a vampire who didn’t need to breathe. There, looking back at her was a portrait of herself and Klaus Mikaelson. It was one of the few portraits that he didn’t do himself, rather he got one of his friends - Hans Holbien the Elder no less - to paint them. Caroline had been trying not to think of him, which was hard enough when during the past few weeks, when her mum was sending her leads on his and Stefan’s whereabouts to give to Elena.
Shaking her head to clear the memories, Caroline reached for the nearest item to distract herself. She flipped open another book and almost dropped it. Staring back at her, tucked between the pages of sketches (many of them were of her), was a daguerreotype of Klaus, but that still wasn’t the most interesting thing about what she held in her hands.
It was not the fact that she had one of Klaus’ sketchbooks in her storage locker - but that on the next page there was a letter, unopened, addressed to her, in Klaus’ hand.
in s1e10 of doctor who “the doctor dances” captain jack harkness can’t get rid of the bomb without it detonating, the doctor and rose let him into the tardis and they leave the bomb where + when it was.
who’s to say that isn’t the bomb that Miraculously landed on the church in 1941?
miracles work in… miraculous ways
OR
if we want that captain jack harkness knows of/ is acquainted with the anthony j crowley, who’s to say he didn’t ask the miraculous menace themselves for help, or hand off the bomb for our fave demon to deal with as a last resort not to die?
In Personnel, Astra was showed around by the really excited girl. Were all Kandokans this weird or were all humans now? They were pretty weird to begin with. Corey walked quickly along the halls, but the immortal had no trouble keeping up. "Personnel is the least staffed section in the facility. Despite about 9,500 mandatory staffing for below, we don't need 500 employees to monitor them. The GroupLoops and the system do it really well."
The brunette slowed. "Wait, wait, how many organic employees overall?" she asked.
"About 9,563."
Chocolate eyes bugged. "There's only 63 people in this department?"
Corey nodded. "And a lot of them are working from home these days. Frankie took bloody coffee maker. And so I was really surprised we had a new admit. We don't really have a cubical free, or anything really since we haven't had a new employee on this floor in forever. So the only available spot is Mr. Slade's assistant."
Astra's face fell. She felt like she was back in the 1950s. Just be the secretary. Rolling her eyes, she followed the woman to the office, but thought deeply on the way. There was a quota and they weren't meeting it, but somehow getting away with it. As they turned the corner, Astra was deeply intimidated by the nothing. Nothing on the walls. One filing cabinet in the corner. A desk in the center. How was she supposed to look like she was doing something here?
The man at the desk looked up from his computer. "What is this?" he demanded, quite rudely.
"Your new roomy roommate."
Brown eyes fell to the annoying girl. "Bye." The girl left no problem and Astra sighed, facing her apparent boss. "I needed a job. The First Lady got us on here, check my file, and this is where they put me. What is the job description for Mr...." she leaned in, examining the name, "Jarva Slade?"
The man clenched his jaw. "You make rounds, like I do. You organize our notes in neat handwriting so I don't have to. And you stay out of my way."
Astra gritted her teeth and resisted another eye roll.
*
The home zone wasn't much of a home. It was an outdoors-like (did moons grow grass?) main area and they all hung out except the maintenance men. Graham was still uniformed up and leaning on a whole mop and bucket. But so was Astra. She had her clipboard for her assigned headcount and the extra sheets for odd reports. She had literally no training, but the paper was pretty straight forward.
"So, just to be clear. You found Dan's scanner crushed?" the Doctor asked after the alarming news from their friendly neighborhood policegal.
"I heard him yell and now there's no sign of him anywhere. We have to find him," Yaz insisted, obviously connected with him now.
"These were Delivery Bots like the Kerblam Man?" the Doctor was still questioning. Yaz nodded. "Not the TeamMates?" Yaz shook her head. The Doctor took her and Ryan's hand and the couple took each other's because why not. "You two stay with me." She looked at the brunette. "I need you to find out the history of the company." Astra nodded, already think on how. The blonde stepped up to the man mopping up a spill on cement. "And I need you to try and get some plans of the complex."
Graham stopped to listen to her, but as usual, he doubted the plan. "How am I going to do that?"
The Doctor stood a little stiffer. "You're perfectly placed. No one questions a cleaner. You've got unrestricted access."
"Yeah, and chronic skin irritation," the man retorted.
The brunette stuck her head between them. "I just want to point out, she switched your jobs so you got what the system thought would be the best placement for the alien among us with two hearts and how many brains do you love to brag about?" Astra asked, directing the question at the woman who was flustered at the reminder that he'd got a job meant for someone in better shape.
"Yeah, so I can't do it," Graham insisted.
Astra rocked onto her toes. "But what if you can?"
A very young man came onto the HomeZone and called up, "Graham, did you sort that spill?"
Graham swiftly came over to the rest of the group. "It's all right. All taken care of. Don't worry. Everyone, this is Charlie," he introduced his maintenance friend.
But one brunette, a Kira Arlo, Astra check her off, dneeded no introduction. SHe crossed their path and greeeted the man, her lunch tray in hand. "Hi, Charlie." But she bumped her leg into the seat and dropped it. "Oh no."
"It's okay!" the boy insisted, rushing to pick up the girl's mess.
They were very awkward though they didn't really say much, and the boy happily cleaned her spill, such the white knight. "I'm just such a butterfingers," the girl gushed.
"I love butter," Charlie replied uselessly.
Astra tightened her lips to hide a smile. THe Doctor cooed. Charlie and Kira both left. No one said anything else, turning to look silently at the immortals. Astra noticed and stood a little straighter.
The Doctor, of course, did not and turned and made for the entrance back into the facility. "Come on, we're going to file a complaint."
*~*
Slade's office was as bare as ever, only him and Judy on the opposite side.
"Dan Cooper has vanished. Maybe you should call the police," the Doctor suggested. Yaz and Ryan sat in Slade's seats and Astra stood by the door, both so she could run if anyone spilled blood and to keep anyone from running past her.
"There are no police here," Slade argued.
"The authorities, then," the Doctor corrected, lifting her arms briefly.
"We are the authorities. Kerblam is its own jurisdiction. We have responsibility for all employee welfare."
The blonde took that as a challenge and she walked up to them. "Then you'd better be worthy of the jobs you're holding because a man is missing and I don't think he's the first, not if this is any indicator." She handed them the packing slip. "This came to me in a delivery." She went back to pacing the office.
Slade picked it up, read it, then passed it to his partner. "What do you think it means?" Judy asked.
Astra glared at the older woman like she was stupid then winced, covering her face. "I didn't mean to make that expression out loud."
"It's not exactly cryptic," Yaz explained with her own sass.
"Somebody was worried about their own safety, and now we're finding that other people are going missing," Ryan spelled it out for them.
The Doctor stepped toward him quickly. "Who has access to the printing system for those packing slips?" she asked excitedly.
"Nobody. They're auto-generated during the order process. But they're placed in boxes by the workers in Fulfilment. Your section." Slade was hardly talking to them, speaking out the side of his face facing Judy. Clearly, he hardly wanted her to hear, but felt she had more right to know than they did.
Ryan sat proudly, fingertips connected like a Bond villian. "Have you tried working down there? There's no time to add stuff to slips. This was done somewhere else before it gets to Fulfilment."
"Aaand," Astra added, finally interjected. She licked her finger and rubbed the text. It wasn't pen ink, but toner. "It was printed onto the slip."
Slade glared at the woman. Astra smiled proudly.
"We'll look into it. You have my word," Judy responded, intimidated.
"Mine too," Slade added possible out of pure spite.
That didn't matter to the Doctor. "Those words better be worth something. And if anything happens to us, or our new friends, or anyone else here, you'll have me to answer to." With a great deal of sass, she picked up the slip and turned to her woman. "Too bombastic?" she asked, not sure of her social skills
Astra shook her head, her face flushed. She squeaked an 'mm-mh' in response. The blonde dropped her chin, the ghost of a smug smirk floating her features. She sunk her fingers into dark locks, up to her knuckle, and her thumb traced the heated cheek. "Doctor," she squeaked again, in protest, before turning away.
The other two stood up from their own threats and followed the couple out. The Doctor repeated her question: "Too bombastic?"
Yaz tilted her head. "Felt about right."
Ryan leaned in, admitting, "I kinda liked it."
"Thanks." She then called back, "Laters!" with the swift correction of, "Oh, I'm not doing that again. Sticking with bye." She stopped outside the door, turning to hold Astra's arm. "You head back to your normal work. We'll be in here after he leaves," the Doctor told her in the first not-English language she'd heard Astra use, just outside the translation matrix so anyone listening couldn't understand.
*~*
It seemed Astra had a stronger work ethic - or will - than Slade, as he wasn't going to leave until she did, but she didn't, always finding something else to do. Normally, she believed, there wasn't much, but he wasn't that great of a supervisor to not see the many problems with basic messages. The ones going through the system weren't. No one enjoyed their Home Zone anyway near as much as their Homes. And there was a persistent problem with all kinds of communication. Astra saw a lot of things that could have been performed better and she stayed late to work on them, she claimed. Whatever the excuse, Astra was there when the Doctor and the gang showed up after hours.
"What do we think, then?" the Doctor asked, after several hours of contemplation.
"If this is Slade's office, and everything in this company is automated, why does he need a clipboard?" Ryan asked curiously.
"Manual headcounts," Astra answered from the doorway. She had a clipboard of her own. She stepped further in. "And he does them five times a day."
"Hi," the Doctor greeted. Astra grinned over at her, echoing the greeting back at her. The cool hands of the bob-cut blonde reached up to cup Astra's face. "Fam, turn away," she ordered before kissing the brunette like that was something they did now, even out in the field.
Ryan, who had turned away, continued the search. "Why would he have a filing cabinet? And why lock it?" he asked.
The Doctor wasn't one to ignore you or even be focused on much not you when with you, but she was very good at multitasking. At least that's what she told herself as she whipped out her sonic to unlock it. She pulled away from the kiss after, taking in Astra's spacey expression with pride. She turned away from the brunette, pulling her along by their hands now joined. "Ooo, paperwork. Very retro. Now, what sort of paperwork does Slade keep locked away?" With her free hand, the Doctor reached into the drawer and pulled out a few sheets of paper. She laid them out on the desk and looked them over.
"What is it?" Ryan asked, rather wanting an explanation than getting in their space.
"Head counts," Astra repeated, but in an airy voice. "With the exact times staff went missing."
"You'd better have a very good excuse for breaking in here," a sudden voice interupted them. It was Judy again, standing in the doorway with her tablet. "Your GroupLoops told me you were back here."
"I feel like it wouldn't be harping if we mentioned the missing people," Astra commented slowly. She picked up the paper. "And, hey, whatd ya know, but here'd proof you knew and coulda done something,"
"There were no shuttles from Kandoka today. I checked. Who are you? Industrial spies?" Judy barrelled on.
Astra frowned at her. "We found missing employees, found proof, and you wanna try and kick us out?" she asked, almost offended.
The Doctor expressed as much sass and irritation as Astra. "I was being honest earlier. We got a message that someone needed help, and we came. People are vanishing, and Mister Slade," she came back to the desk to examine the papers again,"'is keeping a running tally." She leaned over the list of people and their IDs. "Seven people so far. According to these notes,it started four months ago with two workers. The next month, another. This month, four. The disappearances are on the increase." The Doctor looked at Judy and leaned away, accusatory
Astra crossed her arms and did the same, on the other side of Head of People. "How's that word from earlier? Or did it go missing too? That means something to me."
Like perfect timing, the lights of the facility slowly drained down to nothing, dim red emergency lights flicking on. It was a lovely distraction so Astra immediately took Judy's arm so she couldn't disappear.
"Another power drain?" Yaz asked.
Judy leaned back, noticing the matching stares directed at her. But she stayed certain, skeptical. "That's not a power drain. That's a total system blackout." She walked around the group to the side of the desk, where a built-in terminal was set up. It was easy to stay around her and it as they just had to change directions. Sadly, that put Astra behind the Doctor. Sadly went out the window when the blonde leaned over and chocolate eyes fixed to the set up like everyone else, daring to step up securely behind her girlfriend. "Power's drained right down to the Foundation levels."
The Doctor swallowed, looking over at the woman in glasses. "W..what's down in the Foundation levels?" she stammered out
"I can help with that," Graham's voice sounded before he entered the office
They all stood up straight to look at him and the young boy with him. The Doctor looked over at her shoulder, at the immortal invading her space. "You are playing a very dangerous game," she warned under her breath. It was low enough none of the humans would hear.
Astra used her finger to move a strand of hair from its rebellious position apart from its peers. "Have to play to win, she quipped with a grin.
"He's with me," Graham told them about Charlie, the boy
"And he's with us," the Doctor immediately backed him up. Astra loved their superior hearing a little bit and their ability to focus in an instant. They could get distracted and still pay attention
Graham held up a paper map, as if from the gang's time. "And they are the original plans for Kerblam," he said as he handed over what he was expected to
Judy was livid but she had no power against the group. "What are you doing with those? Those are company artifacts. Was this down to you?" She pointed at Charlie, obviously offended that it seemed she could trust no one.
"More urgent question,"' Ryan cut in. "If everything's automated and all the power's shut down, they all looked at him, wondering the point, "why is that robot still active? The point was at the end of his index finger and yes a TeamMate stood at the door, blocking any exit. Its eyes were alight. Battery?
"My God," Astra breathed, feeling her heart jump at the odd and, frankly, creepy visual
The Doctor stepped in front of them all, Astra right on her heels, a grip on her coat. "Oh, good question. Back behind me, everyone."
"It's like a clown in a haunted house,' Astra whispered. The Doctor smiled a bit over her shoulder, pulling out her sonic.
"Error reported. Error reported." The robot had the same voice as the delivery bot and the intercom which played constantly in the organic employee work zones. It just repeated those words and walked closer. The boy from the Home Zone moved to meet it
"Charlie, don't, mate," Graham recommended, a bit frightened
The boy looked at them over his shoulder. "I can er,"' he faced it again, "I can look at it." He grabbed its ear, but the robot swung on him, making sparks fly over where he'd wisely squatted to. Look
Now the robot changed its vocalization, holding Charlie against the wall by his throat. "Investigating."
They all charged the robot.
"Charlie!" the Doctor called in worry. She tried to sonic the machine, but received readings instead. She looked them over.
Astra held up a hand, slowly closing it into a fist. "Vidau," she casted.
The lights blinked off and the robot fell. Charlie fell the the ground.
Judy pulled his head off for give measure, in a single fluid move. She immediately went about comforting the boy. "This has never happened before with any of the robots."
The Doctor sntuck her sonic up the head's ass and Yaz leaned over the Kandokans. "You're wrong. When Dan Cooper went missing, there were three of those, dressed in those Postmen uniforms, walking the shelving. They came after me!"
Judy gaped up at her. Astra supposed they ought to get used to or be used to surprising people about their own lives. "That's not possible. The Delivery Bots never leave Dispatch. We'd know. The System would tell us."
"I would respectfully suggest that you can't trust your System," the Doctor interjected. The lights went from red to bright, almost white, blueish. "And we're back online. But the receptor cells on this are all blown out," she explained as she carried the smiling head to Slade's desk. The head sparked before she could set it down. She scanned it again, leaning away from the next spark. Next, she scanned the built in terminal. "Oh, it's as if the System suddenly channelled all its energy into this one single TeamMate."
Judy was working on her tablet which was working again like the lights. Astra stood beside her, suspicious still.
"The System's attacking us?" Yaz asked for clarification.
"It's like the System's gone rogue."
"Of course it's gone rogue," Judy snapped. "Nobody would do any of this deliberately."
The Doctor looked at her threateningly. "If I ever find out that you're lying..."
When the pixie cut blonde looked up again, she was no longer defensive but now hurt. "I have worked for years to make Kerblam more of a People-Powered Company. My career has been about bringing people like Charlie here. People who need a second chance. Haven't I?" she asked for backup.
"It's true. She's the reason most of us are here. She selects all the workers. We owe her a lot."
Judy nodded, staring at the desk before looking at them. "I've never seen these papers of Slade's before now. Those names, Zaff, Jax, Chinello, the others, they're active on the System. According to the System, they're still alive and working. There are 10,000 people here. I can't keep track of them all." She looked at Astra, who she knew was being her guard. But those chocolate eyes only showed more skepticism.
"So what do we do, Doctor?" Yaz asked.
"If I could get a copy of the original code, I could hack in, isolate the upgrades and see what it's up to," the Doc replied, looking at the bulbous screen.
Ryan rejoined his crush and the alien. "So you need Kerblam version 1.0."
"That'd be hundreds of years old, wouldn't it?" Yaz concluded.
"And I think we can help with that," Graham chimed in. It was just like with getting the map.
Summary: Virgil has ended up in a relationship due to his fears of abandonment, but between meeting the Doctor and fighting sontarans he might just find the courage to come out and change that.
/\/\
Fear is a normal feeling for Virgil. He fears being alone, fears abandonment, or people thinking that he's weird. He worries about whether he'd upset someone he didn't intend to or whether the positioning of his furniture is dangerous.
It's something he's used to listening to and trying to avoid his fears becoming reality.
And there's a lot of things that Virgil has done or agreed to because he didn't want to be abandoned any more than he wanted to ride that dubiously safe ride at the fair.
Including this relationship, and coming on this date when really he needs a break from people after a horrible day.
At least he's laughing now, finding humour in something that Anton seems horrified by, if the spluttering words about it being nowhere near Halloween and what the hell do people think there doing is anything to go by. Honestly Virgil thought it was brilliant, and he'd almost ask to join in with this out of season spook fest. Halloween definitely needed to last longer anyway.
Although the costumes were definitely not something he'd ever go for. Two guys with like paper mache puppet masks on that looked like they'd been made over a baking bowl or something and some plastic attempt at battle armour. Frankly Virgil couldn't imagine what kind of monster the teens, and from the size of them, they couldn't be older than early teens, maybe 15, were trying to be, especially since they had blue guns, because of course the weapon has to match the armour, what soldier doesn't do that?
The gun being fired by the left one and taking out a chunk of ceiling over their heads and getting them both covering their heads and ducking away. “So not just bad costumes, you also painted real guns to look fake!” Virgil yelled, sharply glancing around the cafe as he shoved Anton down under the table.
There was a door not far behind them, and another the other side of the teens with guns, which some blonde was coming through, whacking them both on their necks, with a yell.
“Hey, you two okay? Was anyone else in here?” The woman asks, leaning over the table a moment later, getting Virgil's attention from where he was trying to keep Anton calm enough to escape as well as figure out without popping his head too far over the table to see if the guys in plastic armour were actually unconscious and decide if this new person was any safer.
“Two staff, I think they both waitress and cook, went out back not long ago. I think they had a delivery or something.” Virgil explained quickly, not sure why he trusted this person, but at least she wasn't holding any weapons, not even whatever she'd hit the gunmen with.
She smiled. “We'll go that way to find them then. I'm the Doctor, who are you?”
“Virgil, this is Anton. Shouldn't we do something about the teens in costume?” He asked, standing now since she was acting as if it was safe to do so, and pulling Anton up with him, who immediately wrapped himself around him, hiding in his neck.
“Not in costume. That's just what a sontaran looks like. They'll be fine where they are for now. It's not like we have anywhere safe to imprison them or anything.” She explained, rooting through her pockets. “And I think my rope must have been left beside the console, damnit.”
It was very easy for Virgil to ask, “Console?” expecting some comment about a computer game console, but no reply came as the Doctor was hurrying away, only just avoiding running because she kept looking back as if trying the check if they were following her.
*
Anton was screaming again.
Of course that might be because Virgil had just launched himself out from the gap they'd sheltered in, racing straight towards the sontarans the Doctor had asked them to keep an eye on, a broken chair leg in his hand.
It was still very distracting that Anton was screaming, apparently not just to Virgil since the sontarans were trying to shoot at both of them, none of them just picking a single target. At least that left Virgil the opportunity to start whacking their necks.
“Much easier to keep an eye on war mongering aliens when they're unconscious.” Virgil decided, tearing the apron he'd found in one of the backrooms up into rope to tie them up and taking their guns away at the same time. “Plus it means none of them can go back to their ship or pods while we don't want them to.”
“I really want to kiss you right now. That's what heroes get after pulling shit like that off.” Anton stated, trying to turn Virgil to him.
He didn't turn, pushing a gun into the hand on his shoulder. “Only when they aren't potentially still in danger. I'm staying vigilant until I know whatever is going on is finished.”
*
“So it looks like they were the starting force to come in. Scouts, not an invasion.” The Doctor sounded like she was halfway through a conversation when she walked back in, looking over her shoulder. “There should only be the five that we've already... You've already captured. Was this a spontaneous plan, or had you already decided to knock them out before I left?”
Virgil glanced at the now angry and awake sontarans for a moment, “They spotted us. It seemed easier to keep an eye on them if I could get them tied up instead of run away from them.”
“I could have sworn that you said everything scares you when we were getting those cooks free. This is impressive.” She looked at the collection, waving when a few hurled insults such as vermin at her.
“Also said I have survival instincts and no desire to face my worst fears today. These guys do not stand up against those fears at all.” He stated, “What kind of alien race doesn't figure out a way to protect their weakness? If you're going to make armour, include a cover or something for a feeding vent that can knock you unconscious.”
The Doctor looked him over again, before checking on Anton. “And how are you holding up? Still coping with-”
A laugh from one of the sontarans had her turning. “We prepared for your interference Doctor. This place will explode and kill you along with us if you continue trying to thwart our plans. Release us and the people in this building may be spared.”
“Or we could leave you tied up, set of the fire alarms in every building we can get into to evacuate them and let you be the only mortalities of your actions?” Virgil offered, getting a sharp disapproving look from the Doctor.
“A warrior's strategy. Not as weak-hearted as the Doctor. You'd make a fine sontaran.” The sontaran replied, nodding in approval.
The Doctor held up her hands. “And not one we're going to do. I've locked your ship. It's co-ordinates are set and you're getting back on board it now! Whether that's awake or unconscious is your choice. We've got shopping trolley's.”
*
“So you both seem very concerned but not at all touchy with that boyfriend of yours. What's this fear that's more terrifying than aliens trying to kill you?” The Doctor spoke conversationally, even if she was huffing a little from the effort of pushing a trolley with two sontarans in it.
Virgil glanced at her, scowling slightly. He would have shrugged to dismiss his fear, if he wasn't also pushing a trolley of 2 sontarans through a muddy forest. “Abandonment, loneliness, however you want to describe it. Had enough people turn their backs on me, I really can't face anyone else doing that.” He decided to indulge her curiosity, if only because Anton was further back and couldn't go into a rant over how it's the least interesting inspiration for any creator to have and list about 20 artists Virgil had only vaguely heard of who overused loneliness as a theme in their works.
“Is that why you're dating him?” She asked, as if the connection was easily made. “It's just, you don't seem to actually want to be, even if it's like utterly obvious you love him. I've had friends like that before, always platonic and half the time letting allusions of romance happen meant I lost them sooner. But that's my life; travelling, surviving, changing my face to cheat death. I don't think it needs to be yours.”
“Don't make it seem like he's threatened to leave me to make me date him.” Virgil glared now, before smiling over his shoulder when Anton yelled to check if they were okay.
The Doctor waved back as well, “Wouldn't dare imply it. Just think you should try talking to him about what you want your relationship to be, and if that's not romantic at all, then he deserves to know.”
“Still scary. Let's deal with these guys and whatever bomb is in that cafe first.” Virgil ended the conversation there, putting more effort into his strides to go further ahead.
*
They failed to stop the bomb. There were people in a car park across the way from multiple businesses, all counting staff numbers and checking with customers that had been evacuated to see if there was anyone known to be missing. Virgil had heard a few people wondering over how fire alarms went off for no fire just in time to save them from a bomb. Anton had actually shaken hands with a security guard who'd tried to stop him setting the alarm off in a bar that was a few doors away from the cafe.
The Doctor's words from when they were taking the sontarans back to their ship were ringing through Virgil's mind still, and he realised that perhaps she was right, to some degree. Perhaps he could tell Anton the truth and still keep his friend in his life.
That was why when Anton came over, seeking comfort and the kiss he'd offered earlier, Virgil tugged them away from the crowd, closer to the still smouldering remains of the buildings.
“Anton, I know we've just been through, well, whatever that was, but there's something else we need to talk about.” Virgil exclaimed, barely turning from where the Doctor was clearly trying to get him to go over to her before he was focused on saying words he'd held back for months.
“About something other than aliens trying to kill us, destroying the entire building but somehow able to be taken out by baseball bats? You seriously think I can focus on anything other than how close to death you've insisted on staying following that mad woman around?” Anton ranted, gesturing wildly, flinging his arms back at the burning embers behind them.
Virgil shrugged, “Gotta speak while I'm still feeling brave, I guess, cause I don't wanna date you. I just don't want you to disappear from my life. Including apparently being killed by psychopathic potatoes. You're like brilliant, but I'm aro, aromantic. This dating isn't for me, hell sometimes it's completely uncomfortable and stops me relaxing with you. Before you wanted to date, you weren't people. I loved being around you even when all the pressure of society to have relationships wore me out, but with this dating relationship hanging over me, even while I'm scared of you leaving, I need to escape you sometimes.”
His boyfriend froze, blinking, turning around to the remains of the cafe they'd started the evening in. “Umm, okay, I knew you weren't entirely comfortable in our relationship, but you're talking like this is the most dramatic or scary thing of the entire evening. Chill, I'm definitely not letting the guy who saved my skin, even if that was by running towards the guys with guns, stop being in my life. We'll go back to being friends and I'll process heartbreak alongside nightmares over baked potatoes. Platonic love still?”
“Platonic love still.” Virgil nodded, before snickering, “Also who are you to decide what scares me? You get freaked out by special affects that reveal how they were done. Rejection is far scarier than guys who kept shouting their planets name.”
“Their planets name? Really, that's what sontar-ha! Is about?” Anton laughed now, looking skyward to yell, “Your war cry is stupid! Get something more interesting than your home's name, Dumbasses!”
Virgil snickered with him, patting his shoulder before finally heading over to the blue box the Doctor was waiting in front of.
“You going to be okay here? I know this stuff messes with people.” She asked, seeing his approach.
“Well, I'm not getting left behind by him; the rest, I guess, can't be as threatening as those guys.” He shuddered a little now, the thought of what could have happened beginning to properly settle into his mind.
The Doctor smiled, “Or you could come with me if you like?” She offered.
“Nah, I'd just be more terrified of normal life by the time you get me back. No need to give my social anxiety more power, right?” He declined, smirking still as he realised whatever she needed to invite people to join her, she'd seen in him.
