The Iris & The Rose

[Iris Wildthyme]

OOC: Clearly, this is a thread for Iris Wildthyme and Rose Tyler. It takes place on Pete's World - the alternate Earth where Rose was left behind with the Meta Crisis Doctor. Please only join in this thread if your character is on Pete's World (I think that's really just Rose and Meta).

I would like this to take place before THIS THREAD - which means that Iris will be able to give Jack a ‘Rose update’ when she pops into 'normal' Earth's Cardiff to refuel her TARDIS.

Also, in canon, Rose said that she had been working for the alternate Earth’s Torchwood team, and since she’s from London, I’m assuming it’s Torchwood 1. If I am wrong, please let me know, and I will make any necessary edits. *HUGS*

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Iris Wildthyme could not make up her mind as to where and when to visit with her TARDIS, so she decided to set the controls for a random time and place, setting the autopilot to navigate through the Time Vortex. With that handled - more or less - Iris waltzed further on inside the vehicle, stopping at the full-sized bar to make herself a gin and tonic... Or two... Or three...

While Iris worked on elevating her spirits with a bit of alcohol, her TARDIS decided to throw her for a loop and mess with her a little bit - it had crossed over into an alternate dimension while its mistress was hitting the booze - boy, would she be surprised when she realized she had arrived on an alternate Earth, and not the one that Iris had come to know and love over the centuries.

Such a feat had been declared dangerous and impossible by The Doctor; however, Iris’ TARDIS was not your standard model. It was newer than The Doctor’s, and it had also been experimental - therefore, traversing through various dimensions was not nearly as dangerous or impossible as it would be for anyone else.

The TARDIS - a red, London double decker bus - parked itself alongside Torchwood Tower in London.

When Iris realized that her TARDIS had stopped moving, she disembarked. She pulled out a key chain with a fob on it, with a couple of buttons on it: there was one to Lock the doors, and one to Unlock them - though, you have to hit it twice to get the rear doors to unlock. Iris locked her TARDIS (which had not opted to go invisible, since it felt ‘at home’ in London) and began to walk around, trying to get her bearings and sort out where and when she had arrived - which would have been easier without having had those gin and tonics.

Iris soon sorted out that she was on Earth - London, specifically - and... Was that Canary Wharf up ahead?

But... It didn’t look quite right. This couldn’t be the Earth that she knew.

Iris sighed and glanced back at her TARDIS. “You did it again, didn’t you? We hopped dimensions...” She rolled her eyes and gave her TARDIS a smug smile before facing forward again and walking away from her TARDIS, ready to explore.

[Donna Noble/Rose Tyler]

London Torchwood 1 sounds fine...I think they closed down, but it's completely possible it was rebuilt! And I think Rose would be one to stay in London if possible.

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Not in a productive mood, Rose Tyler looked out of her window at work, her eyes lingering on the blimps in the sky. It had been almost a year here in the parallel universe...she still wasn't used to it. Not just the blimps...the atmosphere, the people...Torchwood...she couldn't get over that she working at Torchwood. But it was as close as she could get to the stars, to the Doctor, when she wasn't dreaming so she would keep doing so...and maybe use Torchwood's resources to reach those stars again.

She looked down again at her preliminary sketch for...well, what essentially broke down to a "parallel universe hopping machine." She had wanted to keep it a personal project, not wanting Torchwood to intercede and possibly take it away from her, but it was becoming clear to her that while she knew the idea and could generate up some specifics, there was no way she could build the contraption on her own. For that matter, even if she could build it on her own, there was no way she could build it without Torchwood finding out unless she had help.

Rose sighed and looked back out the window. God, I need to take a walk. Rose thought to herself. Getting up, she covered her sketch with papers and grabbed her leather jacket. Closing her door, she walked to the elevator and in a few moments was down on the ground floor. Giving a smile and a nod to security, she walked out the door and turned down the street.

Her walk was uneventful for the first minute. However in the second, she saw a flash of red appear across the street from her and heard the most unusual phrase...

“You did it again, didn’t you? We hopped dimensions...”

Turning, Rose saw a blonde woman walking out of the bus and starting down the street. She was sure Torchwood at this very moment had gotten a ping from their scanners and were bearing down on this very location. Quickly, Rose crossed the busy street, hurrying up behind the woman.

Stealing her breath, Rose brought up her hand to tap the woman on the shoulder, but changed her mind at the last moment, instead opting to speak.

"Excuse me..."

[Iris Wildthyme]

Iris heard someone say, "Excuse me", and so she whirled around whimsically to find a young woman standing there - a pretty blonde. She didn't appear to be addressing anyone else, so Iris assumed she was talking to her.

"Oh! Hello," she said brightly. "Can I help you with something, Darling?"

It felt odd to ask someone if she could be of assistance to them, seeing as she was definitely NOT from around here. But, the girl seemed to want to talk to her, or ask her something.

And... Was the Time Lady detecting a faint trace of Artron Energy radiating from this young woman? She thought so... And, that would mean that this girl had been through the Time Vortex at some point in her past.

Unless Iris was wrong - but she was rarely wrong about these types of things... And, she was starting to get terribly excited about finding out more about this girl.

[Donna Noble/Rose Tyler]

Rose opened her mouth to ask...to say...Rose's mind came to a screeching halt as she realized she had no idea what to say. Well, she knew what she wanted to say, but not how to present it and the woman was staring at her, her mind rambled on. Staring...STARING Rose, say SOMETHING.

"How did you jump from a parallel world?" she blurted out, mentally kicking herself for being so blunt. She just...she needed to know, she always jumped on the chance to see if she could ever get back to her universe, her Doctor. She needed to know...standing her ground, she fixed her gaze on the woman's face, not looking away.

[Iris Wildthyme]

"What?" Iris asked, a blank look on her face. Then, she realized, "Oh, you must have heard me - whoops..." Iris said with a slight shrug and a mad little smile. Since she had sensed that little bit of artron energy on the blonde woman, Iris hadn't been at all surprised at the timey-wimey nature of the question that she had just asked - in fact, Iris had been quite impressed, and she showed it with a beaming smile.

"Well... Most people would use a TARDIS for such a feat - which is what I did... Well, actually, my TARDIS went ahead and did it on its own - that's what I get for setting it on auto pilot..." Iris rambled.

"That is, I assume you know what a TARDIS is..." Iris said, pausing a moment to make sure she hadn't lost the girl.

"My TARDIS is an experimental model - it was, I believe, created for the primary purpose of safely traveling between parallel universes," Iris went on. "Whoever had been working on it had abandoned it - left it for dead... But, I saved her," Iris said with a big, 'proud mamma' smile. "She's a good girl."

"At any rate, I assume we're in London...?" Iris asked, continuing to mutter, "It looks like London... It feels like London... But, it's a bit different than my London..." Iris trailed off, and then thoughtfully added, "Not that I own London, or anything... That'd be ridiculous..."

"Oh! Please do excuse my poor manners, Dear - allow me introduce myself," Iris said a moment later, remembering her manners - she had just shared a lot of information with this girl (mostly because it just felt like the thing to do - she felt like she could trust the blonde woman), and they didn't even know each other's names yet!

"I'm Iris Wildthyme, "she said pleasantly, reaching out a hand for the blonde woman to shake - that is, if such a thing as a handshake was what people in this parallel universe did when meeting another person.

"Who might you be, Dear? And, how do you seem to know so very much about traveling to parallel worlds?" Iris asked, intrigued - and pleased that her TARDIS had picked what seemed to be a very excellent place to visit, so far.

[Donna Noble/Rose Tyler]

((OOC: so, I just figured out Meta can't be in on this since this is before Rose got stuck the second time with him, this is right after Doomsday and Meta doesn't exist))

The woman smiled, making Rose feel a little less awkward. "Well... Most people would use a TARDIS for such a feat - which is what I did..."

TARDIS...? TARDIS. She said TARDIS. Rose's mind rambled as the woman went on.

"That is, I assume you know what a TARDIS is..."

Her complete attention moved back onto the woman as the shock of hearing the word TARDIS faded slightly. Rose nodded emphatically, still not sure how to respond.

Experimental model...safely traveling between parallel universes...this was amazing...if what she said was true...maybe Rose could get back to her world...

"At any rate, I assume we're in London...?" Iris asked.

Rose nodded again as the woman continued to talk to herself. Rose liked her, her thought processes reminded her of the Doctor's...I wonder if she knows him...this is so confusing, I thought he was the last time lord left...

"I'm Iris Wildthyme, "she said pleasantly, reaching out a hand for the blonde woman to shake. "Who might you be, Dear? And, how do you seem to know so very much about traveling to parallel worlds?"

Well, that would be a bit complicated to explain. Rose clasped Iris' hand in her own. "My name's-"

A buzz in her pocket told Rose she was needed on the phone. It was her business phone, and it could only be Torchwood calling, especially about the spike of energy they would have seen on the scanners. Lifting it from her pocket, she looked at the screen and confirmed it was work.

Rose looked at Iris again. "I'm sorry, I need to take this. Give me just a second." Quickly, she turned away and picked up the phone in a hushed tone. "Hello?"

"Rose, we need you back here. We just got a ping on the computer," said a hurried voice that sounded like one of her colleagues, Philip. "Some very unusual energy just flashed up...it's gone now, but we need to check it out."

This was a chance...if she could get the location, she could play it off as if nothing had happened...investigate it herself.

"I'm already out, was it around here? What's the location?"

"On the corner of Upper Bank Street and Grime Street," Philip responded, his voice still hurried.

"Upper Bank and Grime? I'm already here! I'll check it out," Rose replied, hoping he'd let it go.

"Rose, you need backup. You can't go it alone."

"Philip, I can handle myself. You know that's true. I'll call if I need backup, but I haven't seen anything strange here at all. I'll keep looking, but it could have been a mistake in the computers, it's happened before." She held her breath.

There was a second of silence and then: "Ok Rose...but if anything starts to get hairy, you call," he said, his voice stern, hinting at concern. "Your teammates are here for a reason."

"I know, I will." Rose hung up the phone with a sigh of relief and turned back to Iris.

"I'm sorry." Rose put her hand out again to shake, hoping she hadn't alarmed Iris in anyway. "My name's Rose Tyler...and how I know about parallel worlds...it's a long story." Rose hoped the woman would stay around long enough for her to explain.

[Iris Wildthyme]

She had just been about to reveal her name, when it appeared that the lovely young lady had gotten a telephone call on a wireless earpiece. The girl excused herself to take the call, and Iris nodded her understanding. Meanwhile, Iris tried not to eavesdrop while she waited for the girl's call to wrap up.

Iris didn't have to wait long, and when the call soon came to an end, the young lady introduced herself as Rose Tyler and explained that she had quite the story to tell in regards to how she came to learn about parallel worlds.

Iris grinned. "Ooooh! Splendid! I absolutely love stories!" she crooned happily, clapping her hands together. "Have you got time to share your story with me, Rose Tyler?" Iris asked, her eyes dancing with excitement before she took a moment to glance around the general vicinity. "And, maybe we ought to go someplace with a bit more privacy...?" She knew that Rose had overheard her, and Iris thought it best that no one else overhear this particular story.

[Donna Noble/Rose Tyler]

Rose's face broke out into a smile at the woman's exuberance. "Plenty," Rose assured Iris, answering that she had time to share her story.

"And, maybe we ought to go someplace with a bit more privacy...?"

"Probably a good idea..." Rose replied, looking around herself. Biting the inside of her lip, she hoped what she was about to ask wasn't too forward. "Is your TARDIS nearby?" It probably was, but Rose wasn't sure what another TARDIS would look like since they were supposed to blend in...the Doctor never did get that right, did he? Always said he liked it that way, but it was more likely that the TARDIS was just being contrary. I miss that TARDIS...Rose thought wistfully.

[Iris Wildthyme]

Iris was impressed! Rose seemed to know so much - for a Human, that is - and it did not go unnoticed or unappreciated by the renegade Time Lady. She broke into a grin and nodded her head.

"Yeah, it's parked right over there - can't miss her," Iris replied, gesturing towards the red, double-decker bus that was parked a short distance away.

"We can go on inside and get cozy, and I can mix us a couple of drinks - or tea, if you prefer," Iris invited, knowing full well that Rose would take her up on the offer, since she brought up the idea and all...

"Come on, then - 'to the Batmobile!'" she cried, as if channeling Adam West and walking towards her TARDIS. She fished her keychain out of her pocket and pressed the 'unlock' button, which prompted the front door of the bus to open for the ladies as they drew near.

"After you, Rose," Iris said, welcoming her guest to head inside first, where Rose would initially recognize the similarities the TARDIS had to an actual London bus - but then, after she took a handful of steps, it would open up into what appeared to be the inside of an opulent manor house.

"Make yourself at home!" Iris called out when she followed Rose into her ship and locked the door behind her to provide them with the utmost possible privacy.

[Donna Noble/Rose Tyler]

Looking at the red bus, Rose immediately grinned. Not only was she itching to be in a TARDIS again, but she had never seen one other than the Doctor's...and this one was big on the outside...and had automatic doors.

Rose turned back to Iris, "Tea would be brilliant, thank you!" Smiling at the Batman reference, Rose followed Iris and stepped inside as she was waved in with a "Thank you."

Walking up the steps, she looked around, seeing the beginnings of a double decker turn into a lavish manor. She looked around, wide-eyed at how different it was in this TARDIS...she walked through the entrance-way, just stood, turned, and looked about the room for a good 20 seconds, then turned all the way back around to look at Iris.

"She's beautiful," Rose said, smiling a huge smile, but that didn't even encompass the extent of it. "She's magnificent."

((OOC: I don't want to make any assumptions about where things are in your TARDIS or I would have written more))

[Iris Wildthyme]

While Rose was checking out the inside of her TARDIS, Iris set to work on preparing tea for the pair of them, and also locating a tin of biscuits when Rose complimented her TARDIS. She smiled dazzlingly and replied, "Yes, she is - this lovely old girl's come a long way since I first met her." She sounded quite a lot like a proud mother bragging about her child's progress.

Iris brought the tea-things over to a parlor-esque sitting area and set them down on a low table set between two overstuffed, vaguely Victorian-styled chairs. In front of the chairs was a fireplace with a cozy, roaring fire in its hearth. Iris sat down in one of the chairs and began to pour out two cups of tea.

"Now, I don't mean to pry... But, I have to ask - who's TARDIS have you been on before?" Iris asked after Rose sat down. It was always interesting, and usually quite exciting, to find someone that knew someone else that she knew.

But, who had Rose traveled with?

[Donna Noble/Rose Tyler]

Rose followed and sat gently in a plush chair, the cup of tea steaming in front of her. The fire was a nice touch...it was beautiful inside this TARDIS...but the Doctor's held a special place in her heart...she had seen inside of it, though she didn't remember, and they had a bond between them. Her heart gave a sharp pang remembering the console room she once knew and loved, but she was so happy to be in another at the moment that the feeling quickly faded.

Rose picked up her tea with a smile of thanks and brought it to her lips. Hearing Iris' question mid-sip, Rose swallowed and placed her cup down again before clasping her hands together on her knees. Giving a small smile, she answered.

"I don't know if you'd know him...he always told me that there weren't any more Timelords or ladies, that he was the only one left," she said, her timid response soon turning into a flutter of hope...maybe she did know him AND her parallel world... "His name was the Doctor," she peered at Iris hopefully. "Do you know him? His TARDIS is stuck as a Police Box."

[Iris Wildthyme]

Iris lit right up into a big grin. "Oh, yes! I do know the Doctor who travels in a police box-TARDIS - lovey shade of blue, it is," Iris replied happily. "Wonderful, wonderful man - we go way back, but I'm quite a bit older, you know," she went on with that big grin still plastered across her face.

"I've no idea why he thinks he's the last, though," Iris said with a nonchalant shrug. "He can be a bit mad sometimes, you know?"

"I've even met some of his other companions - like Sarah Jane Smith, and now you, Rose Tyler," Iris said, beaming at Rose.

But then, Iris paused. "Wait a tic... How did you get here? My TARDIS is perhaps the only one left that is capable of harmlessly passing into alternate universes... How did the Doctor get here without destroying all of Time and Space?" she asked, mostly just thinking aloud to herself. "And... Where is he now?" Her mood had gone from elated, to concerned in a matter of moments. Iris had a terrible feeling in her gut that the Doctor had somehow, probably inadvertently or accidentally, gotten this lovely girl stranded here.

[Donna Noble/Rose Tyler]

Rose couldn't quite believe her ears. She just listened with wide eyes. She had hoped yes, but it was such a big universe...and there being more than one of them made the situation even larger.

"He can be a bit mad sometimes, you know?"

Rose nodded dumbly. Questions sprung to her mind, too many to process at once. But then Iris asked her question, the one that always needed to be explained but that Rose never liked to go over when asked - the story...the story of how she died always brought tears to her eyes. She looked down.

Maybe this will be the last time you have to tell it...she thought and took a breath.

"The Cybermen and the Daleks...they both snuck their way onto my world...the Daleks had hidden in a void ship. The Cybermen had integrated themselves into Earth's everyday life by posing as ghosts, and everyone believed it. The Doctor and I were away, we'd been to this planet where..." Rose stopped herself from going down memory lane. That wasn't important to the story, and she didn't want to think about the thing she missed most more than she needed to.

"We didn't know this was happening until it was too late. The Doctor was able to find where the "ghosts" were coming from. Torchwood. Parallel universe Torchood facility leading on Torchwood 1 on my universe. We had crashed here once before. We got back, but...The Torchwood on my world had no idea, but they were arrogant. They thought they could control the ghosts. They thought they knew what they were dealing with." Rose's voice held a hint of a bite in it. They may not have had any idea, but Rose still blamed them. The malice she had felt had faded, but it still sparked up when she told this story.

"They didn't. The Cybermen revealed themselves, there were millions of them around the world. The Daleks exited their void ship with a Timelord prison...bigger on the inside. Don't know how many Daleks were actually in there...but they opened it and plenty came out. To make the story short, we were able to make them disappear, we were able to...to suck them into the void by opening the machine the Cybermen had used to get through and closing the parallel world's opening. He tried to make me leave, go to the parallel world with my mum and dad before the void closed, but I wouldn't. He should have known better than to try, but he's the Doctor. He had to try..."

Rose looked up. "We set everything up, pulled both of the levers...the machine was working, sucking everything that had been through the void back. It was like a hurricane. We were only able to hold on because of some alien tech Torchwood had kept...but then my lever slipped, and the machine started to fail. It couldn't fail. It had to work. So I let go and grabbed a hold of it, pushed it back into place...I tried to hold on but it was too much and my hands slipped and..."

She glanced down again. "I would have fallen into the void if my dad hadn't come through at the right moment, caught me, and brought me back here with the parallel world jumper he'd made. Still don't know how he timed that or if it was pure luck..." Rose paused. "But the passageway closed itself. And I was stuck here."

She looked up once again, tears visibly being held back. "And I don't know where the Doctor is now, but I need to get back to him."

[Iris Wildthyme]

Iris sat back and quietly listened to Rose's tale. The poor dear had gone through so much: Cybermen... Daleks... a parallel world... And, there seemed to be no way for her to get back to her true home on her own.

Tragic.

Iris' eyes widened with empathy at all of the worst parts, but then... Rose had mentioned a parallel world jumper that her father had made.

"Your dad made a parallel world jumper?" Iris asked in disbelief. That was very far advanced technology. Even the Time Lords had a bit of trouble with such a feat - her experimental TARDIS had been proof enough of that when Iris had found it abandoned and dying back on Gallifrey, before she nursed her back to health.

"That's marvelous!" Iris said, giving a few claps of her hands in appreciation. "Why don't you use one of those to get back to your world and find the Doctor?" she asked, clearly not knowing how problematic those universe jumpers tended to be, and that they weren't really practical, at all.

"Or, you could always just come with me. Your family, of course, is welcome to come, too," Iris said, extending the invitation to include those who she assumed to be Rose's nearest and dearest.

"I believe this old girl," Iris said, gesturing around them at the interior or her TARDIS, "Can triangulate the Doctor's whereabouts. But... I've not ever tried to find another Time Lord before - never needed to... Never really wanted to..." she sort of rambled, not sure if her idea would work, or not.

But, Rose looked so sad... Iris so badly wanted to help her new friend!

(OOC: Continued on The Iris & The Rose on the new Role Play Whoniverse! site.)