'Bout a million miles an hour... [OPEN]

[fallsoutofbox]

Who: The Doctor (Eleventh) and YOU.
What: Compulsion week, ohgod.
When: Anytime this week, from Monday to Sunday.
Where: Anywhere. Really, anywhere. Come up with a place and he'll have come up with a reason to be there and start bugging you. Or you can come looking for him, if you know him already.
Warnings: If you are a Jack Harkness of any kind,

Comments

Thursday, downtown

[psychic_belle]

She couldn't stop the voices.

To be entirely fair, she probably could if she really wanted to, put her shields back up and keep the voices from buzzing around inside her brain like so many bees. But, for once, Sookie didn't want to stop them. She wanted to hear everything that the city of Bete Noire had to think, like an addiction, almost. She had to know.

Today was no exception: whispers of murder, sex, love, hope, betrayal floated up and down in her mind as she passed through the crowds, and then -

- it was sort of like being hit by a train. Someone was thinking so fast, so much, it made Sookie gasp aloud. Words, concepts flashing by her so fast, so fast: she looked around, trying to find this person, half-tempted to tell them to slow the hell down, if only for her sake.

[psychic_belle]

Sookie nodded. "Yeah, I remember that. Couple months ago, right? I remember one or two people were freakin' out when they came in to Furor's, but they weren't in any fit state to talk about it - shakin' and cryin' .... this guy did that to them?"

[fallsoutofbox]

"Yeah." Really not the most fun thing to talk about. But it was important. "And there was a girl. Bonnie. He singled her out for some reason..." He set his jaw and stifled a shudder. "She's fine now. Most of the people he's attacked are... more or less fine, but at the very least he causes. Distress."

[psychic_belle]

Sookie nodded, mentally filing it all away. "Has he shown up again at all, or is it possible he's left the city?"

[fallsoutofbox]

He shook his head. In a way it was in answer to both questions. "He hasn't turned up again since Bonnie, and, well. Anything's possible, but I'd rather not assume." He frowned. One crisis at a time.

[psychic_belle]

"Right, get the food taken care of first," Sookie replied absently, then realizing a moment too late that he hadn't actually spoken that last part aloud. "Ooh - shit, sorry. That's a real bad habit for me to get into."

[fallsoutofbox]

"I don't mind it." But others might. That thought was intentionally broadcast.

"What's your name?" he asked, realizing he still didn't know. Could have gone digging for it, but this was much more polite, and he always preferred speaking aloud anyway. Even with other telepaths.

[psychic_belle]

"Oh, I'm Sookie," she replied with a smile and an offer of her hand, glad he hadn't dug around in her brain for it. She tried not to do it - normally, anyway - so she appreciated having the favor returned. "And you?"

[fallsoutofbox]

"I'm called the Doctor," he said, giving her hand a shake. "Just the Doctor."

Of course, he didn't know that touch amplified her abilities, but he was starting to put his own shields up anyway. Just so she wouldn't have to hear the constant chatter inside his head. Only his very surface thoughts remained open to her.

[psychic_belle]

She didn't respond for a moment, since for a moment - just a brief flash of a second - when their hands touched, all of his his thoughts got louder. It was like a city inside of her head, but then, mercifully, it quieted again. She smiled brightly, withdrew her hand.

"Hi, Doctor," she replied. "No last names where you're from?"

[fallsoutofbox]

"'Fraid I lost mine in the war," he said - an obvious joke, although the words Time War flashed unbidden through his head. "Terrible tragedy. Consonants and vowels strewn all over the landscape."

[psychic_belle]

Time War, she repeated mentally, because it sounded awful. She wasn't sure what it entailed, but any kind of fighting and time sounded like a real clusterfuck. "That's terrible; I'm real sorry to hear it. I know letters can be a bitch to clean up."

[fallsoutofbox]

"Never recovered, sadly." There was a flash of regret at having allowed that thought to pass, but it was brief. Then it was mostly astonishment. "You really are powerful, aren't you?"

[psychic_belle]

"You think real loudly," Sookie replied with a brief, apologetic look up at him. She didn't think she was particularly powerful, but then, she'd never had anyone else to compare herself to. "Was I not supposed to hear that?"

[fallsoutofbox]

"Just something I don't talk about normally." It wasn't the thought itself, not so much - he was only scolding himself for not being more guarded with his thoughts. And for underestimating her.

[psychic_belle]

She nodded. "Sounds bad. I can understand not wanting to talk about it." Everyone had their things that they didn't want to discuss, but they still thought about - few people knew that better than she did. Difference here was, most people didn't realize she still heard the things unsaid.