madge the cosmetologist

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SUMMARY: A storm's approaching, he had said. When the storm finally reaches them later that evening, Rose realises that the Doctor beside her might not be the Doctor she knows him to be. Ten/Rose

TAGS: angst, hurt/comfort, romance, stargazing, post 2.11 Fear Her, post 2.13 Doomsday, time lord victorious

“So it’s a bad thing, that time’s been reset?” she asked, feeling as though she already knew the answer. Then she realised she wanted to strip it back further. “What does it even mean?”

He was quiet for a while, and she dreaded to imagine the plethora of information she was about to be assaulted with.

“It means the tape’s snapped.”

She blinked. “The what’s what?”

His responding laugh was dry. “What happened to the video when you kept watching that kiss between the Scottish guy and Gwyneth in Sliding Doors?”

Rose frowned, thrown off by the question. “It made the picture go all wobbly?”

“Why?”

“I dunno. S’what happens to videotapes when you rewind them a lot.”

“And why do you think that is?”

Rose shrugged. “I guess it just wore the tape away?”

“Exactly,” the Doctor said, snapping his fingers in time. “You rewound it and rewatched it so many times that eventually the tape wore away and the picture had almost faded completely. See time is just as fragile — it’s only meant to be observed once. Sure, you might be able to go back once or twice, maybe to catch something you didn’t before, but generally, you shouldn’t. If you do it too much, the membrane of time and space itself will wear, like the video tape. If you do it enough, well, the membrane will snap completely.”

Rose thought about it for a moment, and while she was following (sort of), it seemed far too ridiculous to take seriously.

“We called it temporospatial decay,” he continued. “Most of us always thought it was a bit of a myth. After all, you’ve gotta rewatch something a lot for the membrane of time and bloody space to decay completely.”

The words fell from her lips slowly, as she voiced her thoughts out loud. “So… you’re saying you came back to this point in time so many times that you… what, broke reality?”

“Er— yes, that’s pretty much the gist.”

1.06 · The Girlfriend