((Continued from here.))

The TARDIS isn't far--nothing in the multiverse is--and it takes the Doctor less than two minutes to head back to where he parked her in a small nook hidden behind a multiversal seating arrangement. He enters, pushes the door closed behind himself and leans against it, checking his time sense.

One minute and fifty-seven seconds. Leaving him thirteen minutes and three seconds to get ready. Why is it again that he only asked for fifteen minutes? Most likely because he was worried that anything more would give the Master too much time to hatch some sort of plan to steal the TARDIS or otherwise cause trouble. Or simply lose interest. He wouldn't want the Master to lose interest. This has been the first distraction to cross his path in years.

( He pushes off the door and strides up to the console . . . )

Following the parlor thread.

When he steps out of the small room where he met the Stranger, any doubts the Doctor might still have harbored as to his change of location are dispelled--this is definitely not the Kerploxian temple district, or, for that matter, any other district or town familiar to the Doctor. Also, it feels different--in the presence of the Oracle, the Doctor's time sense had been a bit shrouded, but out here, he can very definitely feel the flux of an unfamiliar Vortex all around him. This is not his own universe.

( The Doctor's apparently not in Kansas anymore. )

I've been playing canon!Ten for a change. Poor bastard, he's getting ignored for the sake of his human AU. Anyway, dntfretprecious has a chatlog up in which canon!Ten meets a metacrisis!Master--created from the Master and Lucy after LotTL.

"If you decide to take without asking, you only get the things you're strong enough to break."

The Doctor leads Jack to his TARDIS and unlocks the door. This bit is always exciting, "testing out" a new companion, seeing if they can get along. How they react to the peculiarities of the TARDIS is usually an important indicator; however in this case, Jack's already met other Doctors. He probably knows what the inside of the TARDIS looks like.

"Mi casa, tu casa and all that," the Doctor says as he pulls open the TARDIS doors and gestures for Jack to step inside. As Jack passes him by, the Doctor has a very brief moment of doubt--this man's a soldier, he's military, or ex-military, and with the exception of the Brig, the Doctor isn't fond of military men. But then he dismisses these thoughts. He's always tried to keep an open mind, and Jack seemed likable enough when they'd talked just a moment ago. If they don't get along, the Doctor can always bring him back here to the multiverse.

"Now then." The Doctor pulls the door closed behind him and jogs up to the console, smiling at Jack. "Where would you like to go? Eridani 4, vast deserts and red mountains and a sister planet in such close orbit that it fills the whole sky at night? Nulelabaj, a planet covered in a thick forest of living, talking trees? Or maybe Aiqy, the 64th century party planet? Or-- do you like surprises, Jack? I can set the TARDIS on random. She goes anywhere in all of time and space, and if I put her on random, we could come out anywhere."