white_flowers | (no subject)

She spends more time outside than in, lately, drifting along the lakeshore or through the trees, a living ghost among so many others here at the ends of worlds. At night, the dark, dry-blood red of her gown seems nearly black, and the grey gauze veil over her hair and her lower face gleams coldly in the light of moon and stars. In the day, of course, everything is clearer. Only her eyes remain always unchanged, ice-blue and glinting with diamond brightness.

She has no need to return indoors, and for the moment she prefers not to. It's calmer this way, at least for now, while the gift she's been given continues its work upon her. Blodwen's all too well aware of the changes that have taken place and which are still slowly occurring. She can't quite recall, but she thinks she dimly remembers something like this happening once long ago, uncountable years and ages distant, when last she turned from a mortal life.

For some reason, though, it seems to all be so much more painful this time.

In her inattention, she strikes her foot against a stone. Blodwen hisses in a sharp breath at the jolt and moves past it, continuing along the faint path that she's following, her thoughts already twisting inward once more.

Behind her, the rock crumbles into gravel and dust.

[OOC: Note on appearances; note on abilities and weaknesses.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Then come with me," he tries again. "Just one trip. There's something I'd love to show you."

Fully aware of the nature of the power that she now wields -- anathema to him, he had called it -- she was about to offer the exact opposite.

His words stop the suggestion in her throat, unspoken.

She blinks, once, staring at him.

"Are you certain, Doctor?" A beat. "For if you are, and you are sure, very sure... then yes. I will."

Anathema, as far as the Doctor's concerned, just means 'bring an extra sweater'. He's never been one to avoid something just because it's bad for him.

"Oh, yes, I'm certain. It's something I'd really like to share with you." He offers her a hand again, half-turned toward the return path.

She hesitates, but only for the barest moment.

Blodwen takes his hand and moves to join him.

It's a short walk back to the TARDIS. He hadn't wanted to be noticed, so he parked farther back into the woods than usual. Far enough that the bar wasn't even visible through the branches.

He opens the door and follows Blodwen into the console room, pausing only to toss his coat over the rack before going straight to the controls and plotting the course. He knows just where and when he wants to go, so in only a few moments, the center column begins to pulse, and that cherished sound signals the start of the journey.

She startles a little at the noise, even though she has heard it once before, oh yes. Thin, pale fingers close tightly around the nearest railing as she braces herself for movement.

She tilts her head slightly back, watching him at the controls, and smiles.

He catches her watching and, in spite of the sadness that still clings to him, he smiles back. This is what it's all about for him. The journey, the sharing, the ability to bring to others a little of the joy and wonder of the universe that he has too long been without.

They re-enter normal space after only a few moments. The Doctor stabilizes the TARDIS, and heads to the door. "This is what I wanted to share with you," he says before pulling both doors back.

The TARDIS is in space, a funny blue box floating free in the midst of a massive swirling cloud of gasses encompassing colors not found on any terrestrial world. The Doctor stands on the threshold and gestures for Blodwen to join him.

Her breath leaves her in one stunned gasp as she comes to stand by him in the open doorway, staring out at the fiery glory beyond.

Chaos swirls before them in brilliant explosions of radiance, creation and destruction together at once, and Blodwen sighs in wonder.

"Oh," she breathes. "Oh, how beautiful it is."

"Welcome to the Orion Nebula," he explains. "Arguably the most beautiful sight in the entire galaxy outside of the Medusa Cascade. And this is a very special part of the Nebula. This is the star factory. What you're seeing out there is new stars being born. Right now, there is new light being created that never existed before."

Destruction may be easier than creation, but rarely is it as beautiful.

She slants a quick, searching glance at him.

"Truly, cariad?"

Lightly said, even as her gaze returns to the view beyond them.

"Oh, yes. The gasses compress, the fusion forms the star, and gravity sends it spinning away into the galaxy."

He looks out into the stellar nursery and stares for a long moment.

"You asked me why I fight," he finally says, not looking at her. "Why I struggle against the darkness. This is why. I want to be a star. I want to be... beautiful."

He may not be looking at her, but he has her full attention.

(fire to burn away the dark)

The blue-diamond brightness of her regard is focused completely on him, without even a flicker to spare for the nebula outside.

"To be beautiful," she murmurs, very softly. "And is it you think that you need be of light itself to have that?"

"Is it such a foolish goal?" He leans against the door and sighs. "I'm the last of my race, Blodwen. If I fall into darkness and despair, there's no one else to do the things I can do. And no one to stop me if I go too far."

"Now, and I did not say it was foolish," she tells him.

"But oh, so lonely it does sound."

The Doctor nods slowly. "Lonely doesn't begin."

She nods back.

"Perhaps it is that is why you visit that place, there at the ends of all worlds?" Blodwen suggests, quietly. "For there it is, to be sure, you can find others, even if not exactly like."

"Perhaps." Though, for him, it can be just as lonely in a room full of people as it is alone in the vastness between the stars. "It's a special sort of person who can find the way to the end of the universe. Not just anybody can make it, as I'm sure you've noticed. The best of the best, you might say. Exactly the sort of people I prefer to travel with. And except for Milliways, I don't come across them very often."

"A good reason that would be, to be sure," she murmurs. "And no, cariad, I cannot say you are wrong about that."

The Doctor stares out over the panorama for a few more seconds, and then sighs heavily and closes the doors. "I... should take you back," he says, though his expression says he'd rather do anything but.

She raises her eyebrows and looks up at him, straight and direct, with no sign of evasion.

"Should you?"

"Unless you've reconsidered my offer," he answers simply.

"To go with you?" she murmurs. "From place to place to place, throughout all of space and time itself?"

Blodwen hesitates, for long, long seconds, studying him with almost unfathomable intensity in her diamond-bright regard before she says,

"... if it is that you are sure, Doctor; that you are certain you mean it, that you wish it so--"

"--then yes, I will." She smiles, a little. "For at least a while."

He answers her small smile with a bright grin. "Time is just a series of whiles strung together with stretches of boring. Let's go find us one, eh?"

She laughs, clear and chiming with the musical ripple of silver bells.

"Oh yes," Blodwen agrees. "Let us do just that."