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Coordinates? Nah! We've got the telepathic circuits. Much more effective. [He gestures Phoenix over to the panel of squishy looking organics mixed in amongst the general chaos of his console.] Fingers in there, think of where we need to be and try not to think anything rude - might show up on the screen!

Edited 2015-11-11 05:54 (UTC)

[The thing about Phoenix is that he's seldom thinking anything that isn't rude. Especially when asked not to do so - like someone saying 'don't laugh' when one needs to be absolutely silent. Certain things just pop into his mind.]

Riiight. [It doesn't help that the organics are sort of sensual, in a weird way. And Phoenix is not averse to weird. He pushes in his fingers and focusses on the Lady Empress and her location. A realm known as La'Zralae, on Keldra - 500 years into the future.] the realms on my world are kinda strange. Just think of dimensional layers wrapped around the planet; they're not like the continents or countries of Earth.

[Just ignore that brief image of naked males with pale blue skin, as they wade around in the surf, at the background of Phoenix's mind.]

Edited 2015-11-12 17:18 (UTC)

[Ignore them? He wants to meet them - there are very few species in the world that pull off that hue of blue, if he's being honest. What are they? Where are they from? Oh, he'll be grilling Phoenix later for all the details.]

[The fact that they're naked doesn't really cross his mind. He starts fiddling with knobs and levers, some the same as their first trip, others different. The TARDIS can handle anything; dimensional layers, alternate dimensions where she shouldn't even be alive, pocket dimensions that are falling apart.] Not to worry, you just keep your thoughts on home and we'll get exactly where we want to be.

Well, somewhere in the vicinity of it, anyway.

[When the TARDIS comes to a halt the Doctor helps Phoenix extricate his fingers from the telepathic circuits and makes for the door. He throws it open, steps outside, and lets his eyes scan everything in the area around them.]

Always love visiting planets with a local - they know all the best restaurants. We'll have to come back when this is over, have a look around.

[In all fairness, the sirenian races of his world always swim naked. It's so much easier to partially shapeshift from legs to tail that way.]

[Phoenix does manage to focus on the coast of La'Zralae - a new paradise realm created for the exhausted immortals in which to raise their children and stop fighting wars.]

S'okay, I can gate us anywhere once we're in the right time.

[As the door opens, they're on a long stretch of beautiful beach which is overhung with caves. There are long spacesof beach open tot he sky, and long spaces of cavernous overhang in beautiful sandstone shades.]

[Off in the distance, the shapes of people can just about be seen in the surf. Sun shining on blue skin just enough so that one can tell their skin is not the tone of any of Earth's natives. Some are in small boats. Their village is tucked out of sight.]

Nicely done. Ylaia's cavern's over there. [Phoenix points towards the area with the people in the sea.] I'd call this pretty accurate.

Edited 2015-11-13 16:21 (UTC)

[The Doctor lets himself look around, just a quick scan of the area, before he's setting off toward where Phoenix had indicated. There are those fantastic blue people in the surf again, and it's a good thing there's a poisoned girl unconscious in a hospital bed, because if there wasn't the natives would be getting harrassed by a very curious Doctor full of all kinds of questions.]

[Still, his curiosity doesn't end at differences in anatomy. He feels compelled to explore this new world in every way. Biology, culture, language. He wants to know it all.] Ylaia. Never heard that one before, what's it mean?

Edited 2015-11-17 05:11 (UTC)

[He's been prepared to teleport them wherever they needed to go, but it's gratifying that the Doctor seems to prefer walking. So many people are dead lazy, and they miss out on the scenery.]

It's a name. Ylaia Narumi, the Lady Empress of Keldra... and a whole bunch of other titles. Those are sirenians. [He points to the people in the water.] Her people. She likes to hole up in the cave to get away from it all.

[As they gradually get closer, it will become clearer that most of the people have white hair. Some of them are fully humanoid, and others have tails, in the same way mermaids do. The tails are not scaly and fishlike, but mammalian and reminiscent of elongated dolphin tails. Some are shapeshifting in the deeper water and wading out on normal legs. Well. Normal, apart from that pale blue thing they have going on.]

[You don't see a whole lot when you go teleporting around everywhere - naaah, travel on foot is the best way to get a feel for a new place. See the sights, smell the smells, hear the ambient noise.]

[The Doctor lets his eyes linger here and there, not ogling, just letting himself commit the details to memory.] I guess she's the boss, then. What are you to her to be on a first name basis with the Lady Empress of Keldra? Or is she just the casual type? Not one to stand on ceremony?

[Phoenix lets go of a short, somewhat sheepish chuckle.] A reluctant boss, yeah. She's kinda like my mother, in that she raised me. We're not born the same way as any other species I know of.

[He glances from the sirenians back to the Doctor, offering a bit more information.] She can be a bit regal at times but she's tired of ruling.

The last forty years have been one long hand-over to new governments throughout the realms. After the last war, we Kayori finally decided the rest of the world is better off under its own governance.

[The Doctor makes a sound of interest. As a member of a species that used to give birth in the conventional sense before catastrophe led to a new way of reproducing, he is very curious. Keenly, even. He makes a note to ask about it later.]

Kind of your mother who wants to quit being Empress. Right. Can hardly blame her, really. No fun, ruling. Too many rules.

I'd probably hermit myself away in a cave, too.

[He'll be happy to wax lyrical about that. And may even show the Doctor an old birthsphere.] Yeah, she's pretty worn out with it. Same with the rest of us, really.

[Phoenix grins, raising a hand to return greetings from some of the people in the water, as they draw closer.] It's kind of a classy cave though.

This way. [And he leads the Doctor through another rocky overhang, moving back from the sea and deeper into the rocks. The cave they will enter is large and has been sculpted. Pools left by the receding tide are clear and cool. Stairs have been carved into the hard sandstone, and will take them up a level.]

[The Doctor returns a few waves too, winking once to see if the locals blush - and what color they turn if they do. He follows Phoenix into the cave, letting out an impressed whistle. It's gorgeous.] Well, if you're going to be a hermit, do it in style.

[He ascends the stairs, getting ahead of Phoenix for a moment in his eagerness to see more of the cave, letting one of his hands drag along the stone wall to feel it. He considers licking it to taste the composition of the stone, but decides against it. No need to go making strange first impressions on Empresses. Rose had always given him such looks when he would lick things.] How old is this cave?

[Some of the teenage -looking ones do, and they turn a delicate shade of violet.]

You like it? [Phoenix grins, delighted. It's nice to impress a Lord of Time.] Not so old. Say forty years? The mother nebula made us this ream after the Hell War. The internal structure was carved out by Maeridia Gaimar, one of us. She's got this whole seismic thing going on.

[New hobby: making the locals blush.]

[His eyebrows jump in surprise - forty years? Now he does lean forward to lick the rock, impressions be damned.] That's incredible - how did she make it? Can I meet her? Is she the one you called Danae?

[Sack the Empress, he wants to meet the sentient nebula that created an entire realm forty years ago. He wants to know what the Hell War was, and he wants to know what Phoenix means by "seismic thing."] You know, if someone's life wasn't in the balance, I would be asking a lot more questions right now.

[Now that right there licking thing is new on the angel. It also leaves him thinking unwholesome thoughts about the Doctor's tongue. He looks on, curious, before replying.]

Danae is the nebula herself .. she doesn't have corporeal form. [Not true, but none of the gods know that.]

But yeah I can totally bring you back here to meet Mae, and we'll show you 'round the place some more. Mae's element is 'earth', only we call it kelde. The empress's thing is water.

I fully intend on holding you to that tour. [The Doctor does tend to inspire unwholesome thoughts from time to time. It's a gift. It's just that licking things is so handy. He straightens away from the wall, brushing his hands on his trousers.] And what's your thing? Assuming you have one.

[Always with another question to ask, the Doctor. Never satisfied. Always with his unquenchable thirst for knowledge.]

I'd consider it an honour. [He's as bad as Jack Harkness, honestly, but would love to show the Doctor his world.]

Fire's my thing. Clan of the flame. My older brother's chieftain of house Kaelen, so I'm not even close to his kinda power.

[He holds open his hand, fire seems to ignite from his fingertips morphing into a small controlled ball of flame. It hovers just above Phoenix's palm.]

[He waves off the honour, because why should giving him a tour be one? He's just a traveller who stole a time machine.]

[But the fire draws an interested Hello.]

Oh, that's fantastic. [The glasses are out of the pocket and on his face, and he leans in close to the fire to examine it, holding his hand by it to feel the radiant heat.] When do these abilities manifest?

[The ball floats a bit and Phoenix ends up spinning it on his finger.] Just for the record, I'm totally showing off.

Kinda starts happening when we hit adolescence, which can get a bit nuts, but then it usually disappears 'til we're about five hundred and start coming into our full powers.

When that happens, things can get even more crazy... 'til it normals out and we learn to control it.

Well, I don't like show-offs, [they do tend to distract attention from how impressive he is,] but I do like learning new things about people. So, carry on.

What's your average life span? You seem to know about us Time Lords, how does it compare?

[He looks a little chagrined, but forms the ball of flame into a sort of cube, before dismissing it]

I only just turned nine hundred, but Ylaia is closer to three thousand. There's only a handful of us, so we don't have much to go on. Not sure how to compare it to your people. We've encountered different versions of you from different universes, but our databases are limited.

We don't uh, what's that thing you do? Reincarnate.