#btas tenth doctor

[borrowedtimeandspace]

Master of Her Fate

AU: Borrowed Time (and Space)

Note: This is my first shot at writing the Master! The last couple months have been stressful, and it all sort of came out in this. So have a little mild fearplay, as a treat

~~~

Zepheera’s stomach lurched its way up to her throat, choking off the startled shriek that tried to escape her as her world flipped on its head.

The motion didn't stop there, and she struggled to get her bearings. Looking down (or, was it up?) at her foot, she found blunt fingertips pinching at her ankle, holding her suspended in the air. Quite a number of feet in the air, too. The grip on her wasn't painful yet, but just barely firm enough to hold her. Like at any moment, it could give way and let her drop.

The world had just begun to settle when the two fingers around Zepheera’s ankle rolled around it, causing her to rotate in place until she met the gaze of cold, unfamiliar eyes. Her blood ran icy as a rather feral grin spread before her, far too close for comfort.

It wasn't her Time Lord.

“Aw, isn't this one adorable?” The Master’s voice rumbled through Zepheera’s entire being at such close proximity, and its tone sent chills through her spine. Patronizing, with a hint of a bite to it that only reinforced the danger the borrower was in. She needed to get out of this position immediately, but she couldn't even properly look around. His wrist rocked back and forth in the tiniest of movements,which translated to Zepheera swinging dizzyingly in his grasp.

The only things she could comprehend in all the motion were those eyes, which seemed to focus on something beyond her as the Master continued his taunts. “Your pets get cuter by the day, Doctor. Couldn't you just eat her up?”

“Don’t!”

The relief that bloomed in Zepheera’s chest to hear the Doctor's voice was fleeting. The fingers tightened their grip on her ankle, and she didn't even have time to react to the pain through the all too quick backwards movement she endured immediately after. She clutched her head through the rush of blood as she was dragged up into the air, left to swing again when it all came to a halt.

“ ‘Don’t?’ Like I actually would. No telling what the little vermin’s been crawling through, what sort of diseases she carries! Wouldn't make much of a snack, anyway.”

Zepheera managed to open her eyes again, finding a long view down the Master’s arm as he held her overhead. Like a child keeping a toy out of reach from another. She didn't have to look far to see that the Doctor was not out of reach, having closed much of the distance between himself and the other Time Lord. The look in his eyes told the borrower everything, however.

Though he was within an arm’s reach of his companion, making a grab for her would more than likely end up with her in the middle of both their grasps. The damage that could be inflicted on her in such a situation might be too quick and permanent for her to recover in her usual fashion. No healing factor could save her from being crushed, and Zepheera and the Doctor both knew that.

So Zepheera watched the Doctor’s usually warm, yet now dangerous gaze drop from hers to meet the Master’s as he growled, “Give her back to me.”

Zepheera couldn't wait around for the Master to comply reasonably. She hadn't known about him for long, but that seemed a less than likely outcome. Looking back at herself, she lamented going without her glass-headed pin for this trip. Still, she was far from unarmed. Hidden in the boot that happened to be dangling free of the Master’s grasp was a small knife. It wouldn't do lethal damage by a long shot, but might just sting long enough to cause a distraction.

It was worth a shot, but grabbing the knife was easier said then done. Still gloating, the Master continued to swing Zepheera back and forth ever so slightly. Just enough to throw off her trajectory every time she swung herself up and reached for her boot.

The Master chuckled dryly. “Y’know, this is low, even for you. And here I thought you were scraping the bottom of the barrel with all those humans you love running around with so much, but this?? Talk about fragile!”

His wrist twisted more broadly and less gently, and Zepheera couldn't contain a startled cry. When she settled this time, she was angled more toward the Master’s inverted, unbearably smug face. He looked over her tiny frame with a growing smirk.

“Though, I can see the appeal. You can bring whole civilizations to heel, but there's nothing quite like having one entire life in the palm of your hand.” Glancing back at the Doctor only made him grin wider, to see the way he bristled. “Even you have to admit it, Doctor. Feels good, doesn't it? Holding her survival in the balance. Why else would you carry around something so weak, pathetic, and– Augh!”

Without the incessant swinging, Zepheera was finally able to reach her knife and give it the hardest throw she could manage from the awkward angle. It hit its mark, embedding down to the handle under the Master’s fingernail. It startled him enough to let go of Zepheera's foot, and rather than attempt to control her fall, she curled in on herself. She knew what was coming.

The Doctor, true to form, was primed and ready. He had seen what Zepheera was doing, what the Master was too caught up in gloating to notice. The second he saw Zepheera drop, his hand thrust out to catch her. It curled around her quickly yet gently, cushioning both her fall and the rapid backwards motion as he snatched his hand back and away from the Master. 

“Stronger than she looks,” snapped the Doctor, though he knew the Master wasn't listening. The other Time Lord was plenty distracted, trying to extract the tiny implement from its target.

The fingers around Zepheera unfurled, and the Doctor quickly looked his companion over. His scrutiny was much more welcome to the borrower, more concerned than anything. 

“I'm okay,” she insisted, though her attempt to meet his gaze didn't go well. She was still quite a bit dizzy from all the time spent upside down and her ankle was a bit sore, but was otherwise unharmed. Squeezing her eyes shut helped the world stop spinning, and she forced a humorless chuckle through it. “The real torture was listening to him waffle on.”

[sparxaf]

Top ten TV shows

Rules: Add 10 gifs from your favorite shows and then tag 10 people.

Thanks for the tag @mrsbsmooth!

I honestly spend 90% of my time watching Youtube videos and there aren't any gifs for my favorites, so these are mostly shows I loved a long time ago. In no particular order and with no explanations:

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Kim's Convenience

Trigun (1998)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Mystery Science Theater 3000

Daria

Supernatural

Project Runway

Doctor Who

Batman: The Animated Series

I'm not tagging 10 people. I'm too lazy to check to see if they'd already been tagged. So I'll tag @throughthejunobush and um... @lucas-koh and @longbobmckenzie. And anyone else who wants to do it.

[petrichormemory]

roleplaying history

The rules are simple! Post ten characters you’d like to role play as, have role played as, and might bring back. Then tag ten people to do the same (if you can’t think of ten characters, just write down however many you can and tag the same amount of people). Aside from that, please repost instead of reblogging!

CURRENTLY PLAYING:

Amy Pond (Doctor Who) 

Rose Tyler (Doctor Who)

Tenth Doctor (Doctor Who)

Gwenllian Pond (Doctor Who OC child)

Kol Pond (Doctor Who OC child)

WANT TO/WILL BE PLAYING (have blogs saved, just never started):

Vanessa Ives (Penny Dreadful)

Susan Sto Helit (Discworld)

HAVE PLAYED (I’m including blogs on indefinite hiatus here, just fyi):

Christina DeSouza (Doctor Who)

Margaret Kingsleigh (Alice in Wonderland novel)

Brona Croft (Penny Dreadful)

Stheno, eldest Gorgon (Greek Mythology)

Rowena Mac Leod (Supernatural)

Natasha Romanoff (Marvel cinematic)

Irene Adler (Sherlock BBC)

Harley Quinn (DC comic, BtAS, SS movie)

so very many D&D, Werewolf, and Vampire characters from tabletop days

WILL/WOULD PLAY AGAIN:

Any of them, really. I still have blogs for everyone here. And it might be fun to bring one particular Werewolf OC here someday. She was a treat.

TAGGED BY: Stolen from @theta-x and @masterfulxrhythm

TAGGING: everyone! Seriously, go on and do this. It’s fun.

[ao3feed-doctorwho]

Minisode: From Nothing

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2E93fSc

by The_Raconteur_24601

BTaS Canon: Yes Timeline: Within the first two weeks of Zepheera’s acceptance aboard the TARDIS

Words: 1409, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 3 of BTaS Prompts and Shorts

Fandoms: Doctor Who, The Borrowers - All Media Types

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Characters: Tenth Doctor, Zepheera (OC)

Additional Tags: giant tiny - Freeform, G/T, giant, TINY - Freeform, borrower companion

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2E93fSc

[borrowedtimeandspace]

will the doctor and zepheera ever meet the rest of the sprites like Rischa and scar and vel?

@neonthewrite and I haven't yet written those interactions in Borrowed Magic, but it would be inevitable that they'd take Bowman home for visits eventually. (Especially since it was sort of an accident that he ended up with them in the first place ^^; ) The Doctor and Zepheera would of course be interested in checking out Wellwood properly, and meet such important members of the community!

I jotted down a small prompt set in such a scenario called The Flight Home for G/T July '22; it doesn't go too deep into explorations of Wellwood or meaningful interactions since I wrote it without Neon and wanted to focus more on the slight scale difference between her sprites and my borrower. I had fun with it, and so far it's the one sneak peek into a Wellwood visit in the future.

You do remind me, though...

Way back when, Neon and I did write a short of a scenario in which Doc lands himself near Wellwood and doesn't run into Bowman first. No Zepheera around in that one to be a buffer between him and the new smols, either, so the first meetings are a bit different than in Borrowed Magic. Since they're not really related, maybe we'll post that short after the current story wraps up!

New chapter for Lost In Flight tonight! And here's a sneak peek of the as yet untitled prompt below the cut:

"Oh, oh no," Ara stammered out. She had fallen back in surprise and now sat with her hands over her eyes. Ralis had dropped to the ground and curled up with his wings stretched overhead. Looking like a plant wouldn't help in this situation, but he couldn't do anything else.

Rischa looked back at the man, though she couldn't retreat like the others. For some reason, her feet were frozen where they were.

“Oh!” The Doctor’s knee-jerk reaction was a wide grin at the sight of his discovery. People. Tiny little winged people hiding in a fern in the middle of the forest!

Now this was more like it!

[borrowedtimeandspace]

Borrowed Magic: Lost in Flight

There's something out of place in Wellwood forest, and a mismatched pair of someones chasing after it.

Bowman Leafwing wouldn't be the patrolsprite he is if he didn't investigate. It's hardly his fault that it leads to a much bigger adventure than he anticipated!

How could he plan ahead for travel through time and space?

Posting on Archive of our Own Thursdays @ 5pm Central Time

Cowritten by @borrowedtimeandspace and @neonthewrite

Artwork by the lovely @abookishweasel

[borrowedtimeandspace]

Heart to Hearts

28. Cursed

From this list of gt prompts

AU: A Patient, and Time (Donna AU); direct continuation of Clutter

~~~

The Doctor was quietly ashamed that he didn't see this coming. He'd known since the beginning that Zepheera had lived an abnormally long life compared to the rest of her people, and while that was a curious thing indeed, he thought it best not to look into it at the time. Zepheera had only just been rescued from people experimenting on her, and the last thing he wanted was to retraumatize her.

He was so wrapped up in the accommodations for their new companion that he hadn't given much thought to the implications. She, more than likely, didn't know at first about her ageless nature until what should have been later in her life. One could excuse mistakes they made in the past when they had the morbid comfort of knowing that life was too short to dwell on such things. Old age was the true catalyst for dwelling on past regrets and life choices, and Zepheera was at an age to have reached that point long ago.

Despite all the time they'd spent together lately, the Doctor and Zepheera had never really talked. He knew a lot about her recent trauma, but that was a six-month fraction of her 158-year-long life. This was the closest she'd come to opening up about anything that personal, with the Doctor at least.

So he got up, carefully stepping around the mess he'd made of the console room floor, and cleared a space to sit next to the chair Zepheera occupied. One shoulder gently rested against the seat, and one leg ended up dangling through a removed panel space. He wasn’t facing Zepheera head-on, but they were at least at a passable angle for conversation.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

The borrower’s gaze, angled up to watch his approach, turned down to let her short hair hide her face from him. Spotting the tension, the Doctor swung an elbow around to carefully place on the seat so he could lean in; not invading her space, but emphasizing his presence as slightly as he could manage.

He assured her, “You don’t have to worry about shocking me. Not to turn it into a contest or anything, but… Like you said, nine hundred years. Plenty of time to build a bank of regrets myself, you were spot on about that, too.”

Zepheera’s tiny shoulders slowly unwound their tension, and she gave a soft sniffle and brushed her hair out of her eyes without meeting his gaze. She took the time to breathe before she spoke up at last.

“I… When I found out that I was…that I wouldn’t… I was married.”

The Doctor’s hearts sank to hear those words. True to his word, he was hardly appalled, but that didn’t make the admission any less heartbreaking. Clearly, it was a heavy burden for Zepheera, as it took a few more breaths for her to compose herself enough to continue.

“I loved him so much,” Zepheera whispered, struggling to speak around the emotion threatening to close her throat. “And the thought of staying the same for God only knew how long while he…” She reached up to scrub at her eyes, visibly willing herself to keep it together and get this off her chest. “I didn’t know what to do, and I was so scared. All I could think to do was…run away. Didn’t even say goodbye.”

She paused to work up the courage to look the Doctor in the eye. Despite his words, she’d half expected to have made him uncomfortable with such revelations. She found him quite intent and engaged with her story, and the amount of understanding she found in his gaze encouraged more to come forth, along with fresh tears.

“But there's more. Because I didn’t just take away his wife. Without knowing it, I also took away his child. Our daughter." A small hand clutched at her shirt just below the neckline, as though saying what happened aloud broke her heart all over again to the point of physical pain. "And I ran away from her, too, the moment I could.”

The moment the words were out, Zepheera deflated. Her face was buried deep into her hands as she wept quietly, yet viscerally. The Doctor looked on, giving her the time and the space to work such intense emotions through her body. Despite her broken appearance, he knew that it had to be an incredible weight lifted off her heart to admit to.

He waited for Zepheera's sobs to start evening out before reaching a hand toward her. The tips of two fingers gently came to rest against her back for emotional support, ready to pull back if she seemed not in the mood to be touched. She offered no protest, so the Doctor stayed put.

"You asked me how I cope," said the Doctor, practically in a whisper. "I do and I don't, I suppose, if I'm being honest."

He felt the slightest pressure in his fingertips of Zepheera sitting up, still in the process of pulling herself together. He paid that little mind as he adjusted to her movements and went on. "Funny ol' universe, isn't it? Because out of all the people who could have rescued you or met you at any point in all this, we happened to meet. And I completely get where you're coming from."

"You do?" Zepheera finally dared to meet the Doctor's gaze again, and he gave her his best reassuring smile.

"I'm always running. Running from, running towards… can hardly tell the difference anymore. Seems we have that in common," he shrugged as his eyes drifted off to one side to follow his train of thought. "And plenty of times, I've had to grapple with the fact that the people I meet and travel with, they can't do that forever. Over time, they'll fade, and I'll still be here.

"But the main difference is, I knew that from the off. Time Lords don't age, you see; at least, not the way humans or borrowers do. Eventually, our bodies can wear thin, or if you live the way I do, things can happen to us that would outright kill other beings, but not us. Our way around death is to completely regenerate our bodies. Every single cell becomes new, and an entirely different body comes together to begin what's essentially a new life cycle.

"I've done this almost as many times as a Time Lord can physically handle. So many different faces and personalities over the centuries. Traveling a universe full of species with much shorter lifespans than myself, often makes me think that a Time Lord lives too long. I've looked at it as a curse, one only I bear because I'm the only one of my kind left." 

Catching himself rambling, the Doctor looked back to Zepheera. Now it seemed it was the borrower's turn to sit attentively, hanging on his every word. She made no move to interrupt.

"My point being… For lack of better phrasing, it sounds to me like you suffer a similar curse. Only, this long life isn't expected of your kind, so it isolates you from them in a way they can't understand." He watched Zepheera blink back more tears, but she nodded slowly in agreement. "That part's very different from my experience, but I know how that loneliness can feel. I know how those thoughts and those memories can creep up on you, because a part of you can't just forgive and forget. I can't exactly say I'm an expert in dealing with it all in a healthy manner, but… I do cope with it in my own way."

"How?"

A soft smile made its way to his lips, and his gaze slid over to the door that led outside the TARDIS.

"All that traveling… seeing what's out there, meeting all kinds of people and helping them out. I keep moving, and I don't walk away if I can do something when no one else will or can." Turning back to Zepheera, he gave a small shrug and admitted, "It's not perfect, and it won't change the past, but… it does make it all feel worth it, in the end."

Zepheera's gaze remained locked on the door as she pondered his words. It seemed odd at first, that all those adventures he and Donna went on could be a coping mechanism for the Doctor. Still, she could hardly discount it.

She thought back to the little community of borrowers she'd brought together decades ago. Stroke of luck, really; she'd happened to run into a group, and they were in need of a bit of organization. What started out as one good deed led to Zepheera being rather depended on, which was new. For so long she'd kept herself to herself, reasoning that the loneliness was better than having her heart broken all over again. Despite that, those lovely people wormed their way into her affections, and though she did try to distance herself from leadership of any kind once things were well established, she did stay near enough that she could be reached. 

Helping her fellow borrower had been the first proper gleam in Zepheera's life since…

"I want to try again," she declared, finding a strength in her tone of voice that surprised herself as well as the Doctor. Violet eyes reached out to his, imploring him with their stare. "Coming with you and Donna."

The Doctor hesitated only briefly before gently asking, "Are you sure?" He didn't want her to feel he doubted her, but considering her harrowing experience previously, he was concerned.

Zepheera nodded, slow and decisive. Maintaining his gaze, she scooted slightly to the side to place herself in the curve of his fingers. Such a small movement spoke volumes to the Doctor. 

"I think we are alike, as you said. Maybe seeing what you see, helping people the way you do… It could give me the strength I need to keep moving, and not just be stuck like I've been." One very small arm curled under one of the Doctor's awkwardly hovering fingertips, and he let her pull it closer. "I trust you. And I trust Donna. I know I'll be okay with you two."

Feeling the slightest squeeze of his fingertip, the Doctor swallowed past a lump of emotion. This was the most Zepheera had asserted herself in the time she'd been with them. Her final words on the matter very nearly pushed him over the emotional edge, and he knew that her decision was final.

"And…I want to help make other people okay, too."

[borrowedtimeandspace]

Clutter

11. Melancholy

From this list of gt prompts.

AU: A Patient, and Time (Donna AU); set after Abandoned

~~~

Breathe in. In a little more. Out slow…

Zepheera's favored breathing technique did wonders for her nerves these days. That, and mindful activities like her sewing. Under a small light that sat on the old seat in the console room, the borrower sat in silence as her fingers worked patiently.

The rest of the dim console room was far from silent. Half of the floor panels were pulled up, several boxes and trunks dug out from their depths, and the contents of those strewn about the rest of the floor. The Doctor sat right in the middle of it all, digging around for the right parts for a device that had come to mind in his boredom.

This was a time in which his companions would usually be asleep. The Time Lord would dim the lights to simulate a day/night cycle for them, and he would have eight or so hours to kill. Zepheera, however, was having a rather sleepless "night". 

She wasn't overly troubled or anxious, it was more subconscious than that. Something in the back of her mind wouldn't rest, and for some reason hit Zepheera harder tonight. At first she thought she'd go for a walk, perhaps wear herself out by stretching her legs. It only served to draw attention to how heavy her feet were, and something dense that sat in the middle of her chest. 

With her mind occupied parsing through the weighty feeling keeping her awake, her body seemed to have done some thinking for her, and she eventually found herself at the entrance to the console room. The Doctor was surprised to see her there, but unbothered by her insomnia-driven wandering. He acknowledged her arrival, and paid passive attention as she climbed her way up to the seat and settled in. He wordlessly fetched the small light for her when he noticed her sewing project come out of her borrowing bag.

They'd been working together a lot lately, going over methods for Zepheera to regulate her stress levels. That, combined with the heart-to-hearts talks she'd had with Donna during their time as roommates, had gotten many things in Zepheera's head to rattle around. It had been a very, very long time since she'd felt comfortable enough with anyone to be vulnerable with them. 

Now her mind, once a deeply packed drawer, was like the floor of the console room. Moments long past, scattered about without rhyme or reason, on full display and reminding her of things she wished she could forget. Things she'd pushed down for years and years because looking back on them was too painful and saddening.

"Doctor?"

"Yeah?" The Time Lord in question straightened from his hunched seat, glancing Zepheera's way.

Zepheera hesitated, gathering her disorganized thoughts. Maybe this was what she needed. There were some things that, as much as she respected the woman and treasured her friendship, Zepheera simply couldn't share with Donna. She wouldn't understand them, not in a way that would avoid making Zepheera feel as though she were burdening Donna with them. The Doctor, though…

"You said you were over nine hundred years old, right?" she settled on asking as her hands slowly lowered into her lap.

"I did," said the Doctor with a quirked eyebrow, trying to puzzle out where Zepheera was going with this.

Zepheera began to slowly pack away her sewing, hoping to prolong the excuse to not look the Doctor in the eye as she spoke. "Do you…remember it? All that time, all those years?"

Concern started to bubble up in the Doctor as he turned to face her more directly, tinkering forgotten. "For the most part. What's brought this–?"

"And the things you regret," Zepheera interrupted, her tone sharpened enough to cut through the much larger man's voice. "Do those memories… Does it ever get easier?"

The Doctor noticed the distinct lack of a question as to whether or not he had anything to regret, but he supposed it would be fanciful to think none would occur in nine hundred years. He also sensed that this came from personal experience.

His suspicions were confirmed when Zepheera finally brought herself to turn to look at him, and he noticed the slightest sheen of tears on her tiny cheeks, reflecting her little work light.

"Is there a way to cope with horrible things you've done, when they happened so long ago that they can't ever be fixed?"

[borrowedtimeandspace]

To Borrowed Time (and Space) Readers

Hello, lovelies.

To those of you who have been with me since this story began, to those who found it along the way, and to those who stuck with me for all this time: Thank you from the bottom of my hearts. What I’m sharing in this letter to you all isn’t exactly news, but more of an acknowledgement of changes I’ve made that have impacted my writing for a long time.

Tl;dr, While I am not planning any more full stories for the foreseeable future, BTaS is far from dead. It’s simply changed form. Regenerated, as it were.

Long version under the cut, and just a heads up, it gets pretty deep and in-depth. You’ve been warned.

When I started writing, it was more of an escape than a hobby. Taking worlds I loved and interacting with them through a proxy I could control (aka my OCs) granted me the freedom I lacked and sought desperately when I was a troubled teen. I especially enjoyed coming up with g/t scenarios, with The Borrowers in particular, to insert into media that was sorely lacking in size differences.

Y’know, like, all of them.

As is probably obvious, Doctor Who was a formative fandom in my youth. It brought me such joy, and combining it with the world of The Borrowers had all the makings of a delicious dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins pie. Thus, Borrowed Time (and Space), and my OC Zepheera, were born.

Zepheera started off as a self-insert mary-sue. I fully acknowledge and admit this without shame or judgment toward mary-sue self-inserts. She also came about during the Moffat era of Doctor Who, which I think affected my writing, and not for the better.

Before any flames start flying, I want it to be clear that I don’t think everything in the Moffat era was terrible, nor is any of this a comment, good or bad, about Steven Moffat as a person. I just know, looking back, that I picked up on some of his worse writing tendencies, in my opinion.

Suffice it to say, my writing style has changed significantly over the years. Since college, I’ve had far less time and energy for long form story writing. I began writing collaboratively with friends, which has helped give me accountability and long-lasting enthusiasm when I have someone to share it with. I also started a job that monetizes one of my other hobbies, which takes up a lot of my mental bandwidth and time.

As for BTaS, I’ve become far more comfortable treating it as a sandbox. It’s a lot easier for me to come up with scenarios under the premise of “Doctor Who but with a borrower companion” and churn out shorter stories within that scope. I’m sure this has been obvious since the majority of what I’ve done since 2016 has mostly been prompts and Zepheera-Visions in various AU spinoffs of BTaS. 

I think it’s time to admit that to myself, and let anyone who is still waiting on the continuation of the original story know that, at least for now, it’s probably not going to happen.

I will be finishing Episode 3: Lost Things Being Found. I got so close to the end, and I did have a plan for it, and parts of that plot will remain relevant to Zepheera’s character moving forward. Honestly, I barely consider most of the main original stories truly canon anymore, as my characterization and direction with Zepheera in particular has changed a lot. I don’t plan on rewriting them to compensate for that, so I’ll sum up a few points about the canon and continuity moving forward.

As I said, the original BTaS is now my sandbox, and any stories I write with Zepheera and the Tenth Doctor are part of that loose canon unless otherwise specified or set apart, like the Donna AU for example.

I don’t intend to hang on to the concept of Zepheera essentially creating borrowers in Episode One. At the time of writing, the only way I knew to write drama was to make big moves with little thought to the consequences, or what it means for the character.

The size-changing ring may stick around in the future, but honestly it mostly existed to be convenient for the plotline and little else.

I am keeping Zepheera’s original backstory involving her early encounter with an alien, with the exception of giving her telekinesis. At the time, I created a companion that existed as more of a plot device rather than a fleshed-out character, and immediately regretted it. All iterations of Zepheera have an unnaturally long life-span, and the healing factor she was born with.

I also don’t have plans for resolving Zepheera’s brain trauma, so that thread is also going to be dropped.

That’s all I can think of for now. If there are any questions, feel free to reach out!

I also want to take the time to put it out there that I am not looking for any new writing partners. The ones I have are saints for how patient they’ve been with me over the years. And I want to make it clear that I have a very loose policy for accepting writing prompts. I love suggestions, but forcing myself to write something that doesn’t spark my interest is generally counterproductive. So, unfortunately, not every prompt will be filled.

I’m still here. I’m alive, and I do care about this story. I’ve just realized that I and it both benefit from the flexibility of shorter stories rather than long, overarching ones. I hope you all understand, and will stick with me for as long as I am inspired to add to this concept.

Thank you all again,

Chel

[borrowedtimeandspace]

April Fools!

1. Pranks - Zepheera is bored. Shenanigans ensue.

Slowly working my way through these. Let’s see if I actually finish the list this time

Btas: Non-Canon

“Lose something?”

The Doctor paused in his frantic search around the console room, lifting his chin to find the source of the tiny owner of the tiny voice.

“You didn’t,” he growled as he squinted toward the shadowy tops of the coral supports surrounding the room.

A small shadow shifted overhead. “Who, me?”

“Zepheera. Where. Is. My. Sonic?”

As a little figure swung out under a branch of coral on a thin line, the Doctor turned to square off with it, crossing his arms and tapping his toe. The woman who lowered herself unto the dim blue-green light tossed her short brown bob oh so innocently.

“I’ve absolutely no idea what you’re talking about.” With her line attached to her belt, she allowed one hand to reach into her vest pocket and pulled out an absolutely miniscule device. She pressed the button and the tip lit up blue.

The Doctor’s eyes widened. “You SHRANK IT?!”

Zepheera smirked, letting herself hang upside down from her harness, waving the sonic and letting the light glint off the gold ring on her upper arm. The culprit for the shrinkage of the Doctor’s sonic screwdriver. “Sure did!”

“Well, un-shrink it!” the Doctor demanded, holding his hands out under the dangling borrower and his miniaturized tool. It distressed him to no end to see it no bigger than a grain of rice. “Why would you even take it, anyway??”

“Because,” Zepheera shrugged. She then let the sonic slip through her fingers, and quickly reached out the arm with the ring to point at it.

“April Fools!” she cried, flipping herself upright the second before the sonic landed safely in the Doctor’s hand, its proper size once again.

After a tender moment of holding his sonic close to his chest, the Doctor shot a flat look up at Zepheera and pointedly returned the device to his inside jacket pocket. “You do realize we’re floating in space, there’s no way to keep track of dates out here.”

Zepheera rolled her eyes and released the latch on her harness to allow herself to lower to the Doctor’s eye level. “It’s been days and I’m bored!”

“We’ve talked about this, we are social distancing!”

Asks and Prompts are open! | Submissions too! | Main Story

[borrowedtimeandspace]

So if The Doctor has pockets that are bigger on the inside, has Zepheera ever gotten lost in them? If she has, did she find anything cool inside?

She’d have a rough time navigating them, that’s for sure!

Personally, I don’t think the Doctor’s pockets are massively expansive on the inside, just big enough that he can fit way more than he’d normally be able to and not be bogged down. Still, that’s a lot of space for someone who’s only four and a half inches tall.

Zepheera would definitely be miffed to be pocketed, not to mention the significantly bigger drop than she expected. She’d rifle around trying to find a way to get back to the top, and probably find some cool stuff along the way.

She will demand they figure out a way for her to be able to hide in the pocket without having to fall all the way in and not be able to find her own way out.

[borrowedtimeandspace]

Senses

3. Panic

From this list of gt prompts.

AU: Donna AU of BTaS, a little while after a traumatized Zepheera joins the Tenth Doctor and Donna in their travels.

Trigger Warning: Panic Attacks

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zepheera couldn't focus.

Whenever her eyes weren't shut, her vision was hazy. Her breathing came so quickly that her shaking fingertips had gone numb.

If she strained to remember the last thing that happened, there was some sort of threat closing in, and then a hand completely engulfed Zepheera's vision. After that it all became fuzzy, the memory melding with ones from Zepheera's past. The capture of herself and her people. The physical and mental torment of experimentation. Too many hands reaching, grabbing, pinning, prodding.

Outside of the ball Zepheera had curled into, the air around her rumbled in a distantly familiar way. Eventually she would come to understand the thunder as words.

"Zepheera, it's okay... We're in the Tardis... I'm so sorry, they were coming and I couldn't..."

The Doctor.

It was the Doctor who had grabbed her-- her friend, not those awful doctors who had caused her such pain. With him, she was safe. She knew this after weeks of getting to know him.

So why couldn't she move? Why couldn't she breathe?

As though in answer to her unspoken questions, the world around her shifted. Zepheera tensed, clutching her head and curling in on herself even tighter. Gravity turned over and Zepheera felt herself flip onto her other side.

Now what he lay against was not a hand, that much she could make out. It was hard to tell by numb touch alone, and her eyes refused to open and tell her more. The voice was back, somehow even more all-encompassing than before despite being softer. Along with it, something like distant waves or gusts of wind made it through Zepheera's limited senses.

"Breathe..." the Doctor was saying, followed by two long gusts. "Try and match my breathing as best as you can. Deep breath in..." One gust... "Deep breath out..." Second gust.

Zepheera did her best. She trusted the Doctor. Even when her tight chest complained when she told it to expand and let in more air, she persisted. She couldn't match him yet, but it was a start.

The Doctor must have sensed this because he said, "Good. Keep breathing." In between pauses for deep breaths, he added, "When you can, try and focus on what's around you. Start with what you can see. Make a list in your mind, just a few things at a time. What can you see?"

It took several more attempted deep breaths before Zepheera managed to open her eyes. She blinked rapidly at first, the dim light stinging to behold. Something in her eyes combined with the fog in her head made her vision blurry. She could make out shapes, like the enormous person-sized pillars curling over her body. Flesh colored, three or four that she could make out.

One: fingers.

Underneath and past the fingers, she could make out colors at the very least. A white field beneath her, a mound of deep red with hints of light blue here and there, a streak of royal blue in the distance. Two, three, four.

She counted them again and again for a minute while the Doctor waited, eventually realizing the colors were his clothes. His shirt, tie, and suit.

"What can you touch? What do you feel?" the Doctor whispered.

Zepheera's eyes closed, recalibrating to this new instruction. Her attempts at slower breathing caused a tingle to return to her fingers, and as she shifted focus she took careful, objective note.

One hand was wet. So was the other, though not as much. Moving her fingers slightly, she could feel the tiny strands of her short hair. That was all she could feel while her hands remained clutched to her head.

It took effort, but she pried one hand away and pressed it to the white shirt she knew she leaned against. She could make out the weave of the fabric criss-crossing forever as she tentatively continued to reach.

Before too long, she made contact with something warm. Her hand jerked back, a motion that briefly excited the pins and needles again, but she tried again. It had a bit of give as she pressed her palm to it, feeling miniscule ridges along the gentle curving surface. The Doctor's fingertip.

He certainly felt that; a slight hitch came to his breath, followed by the huff of a relieved sigh that ruffled Zepheera's hair. "Good. Brilliant. Now, keep breathing and think of what you can hear."

By then, the roar of blood in Zepheera's ears had lessened significantly, making this list a little easier. The Doctor's breathing was obvious first. Then beyond that, deeper within the Doctor's chest, she could just make out a heartbeat. Ba-bump... ba-bump... No. That was wrong. Like an echo of the heart nearest her, another beat could be heard. Ba-ba-bump-bump. Ba-ba-bump-bump. Even further, past the Doctor himself, a gentle echo of the inner workings of the Tardis.

The next two lists came relatively quickly as Zepheera's breaths lengthened and her body slowly released tension. She could smell her own sweat, soaked into her clothes, and the familiar scent of the Doctor that was more comforting than she'd realized before. As for taste, she found salt against her lips when she stuck out her tongue. Tears that hadn't dried even though the flow had slowed down.

By the end of the lists, Zepheera could almost match her breaths to the Doctor's exactly. Soon she wouldn't have to concentrate so hard.

"That's it. Take your time. I'm here. Deep breath in... deep breath out..."

Rather than being a frightening cacophony, Zepheera took comfort in the gentle resonance of the Doctor's voice. Whether he was aware of it or not, the finger Zepheera had reached out toward had curled in to be close enough that she could press her forehead to it and wrap an arm around it for stability. After the exhausting hardship her body had put her through, she could very well fall asleep to the gentle rush of the Doctor's breaths.

[borrowedtimeandspace]

Borrowed Magic Excerpt

Bowman's eyes widened and he actually took his eyes off the creature to twist around and look the Doctor in the face. "You're not serious," he blurted, almost demanded to be true. But there wasn't a sign of a joke in the Doctor's expression, and Bowman threw him a look that said if things weren't so dire, he'd be bopping him right on the forehead that second.

[borrowedtimeandspace]

Borrowed Magic Excerpt

"And anyways, I was right!" he asserted. "Here you are, flying around in one piece, not even a nibble off you! Absolute sweetheart, she was, just a bit...hyper and distracted, that's all. Knew you could handle 'er just fine, no need to get your wings in a twist."

"Wings in a- Pray to a rock!" Bowman blurted, irate in spite of how well the situation had gone.

[borrowedtimeandspace]

Happy Pride Month from the BTaS Bbys!

Art by @Iamthetwickster, thanks again for a wonderful commission!

Partially inspired by the headcanon that the Tenth Doctor is demisexual, which I subscribe to. Credit to @tenscupcake for that <3 Zepheera, too, is demisexual as well as biromantic.

[borrowedtimeandspace]

Update Part 1

So it’s been a while since I’ve done much of anything on this blog ^^; School had consumed pretty much my entire existence so I’ve been behind on prompts and shirking the Zepheera-Visions, and I’ve also gotten myself deeply involved with the @brothersapart universe.

But that’s not all I’ve been up to.

Introducing Borrowed Magic, my first co-written AU in the BTaS universe!

Art  © @lotminx, a lovely commission of the babs

@neonthewrite has lent me her Bowman to join in the shenanigans of my borrower OC Zepheera and the Tenth Doctor in my crossover series Borrowed Time and Space. Fittingly enough, we’ve named this AU Borrowed Magic.

I’ve poked at ideas for AUs of BTaS before, mostly to allow for interactions with more of the Tenth Doctor’s companions, but this one has the potential for so much fun. Not only is Bowman a spitfire of a sassball, but it’s interesting to throw yet another non-human companion into the mix! His life in Wellwood has in no way prepared him for travel in time and space, and it doesn’t help that he’s the youngest and the smallest on board (due to the slight scale difference, Zepheera ends up a whole half-inch taller than the sprite, much to his annoyance). 

This is a young AU, but Neon and I do have plans in store for these dorks. I’ll start posting excerpts semi-regularly, and we’ll take any questions involving the AU!

For now, here’s a sneak peek at our first completed story!

"Zepheera, answer me!"

Who is Zepheera?

The insistent call deepened the concerned frown on Bowman's face. He watched the tall man with hardly-blinking eyes for a moment before registering that there could be another human out there. That made his wings fan open and closed as he scanned the forest for another giant nearby.

He was thinking he might have to fly a short distance to find another giant crashing around in the woods. Keeping track of all intruders was imperative for the safety of the village. Bowman turned, aiming to look behind himself first.

He did a double take at the sight of someone on the branch with him.

"Spirit's dance!" he yelped, flinching backwards. He stumbled off the end of the branch, but his wings caught him easily, flaring open and pulling him back up to hover level with one of the strangest people he'd ever seen. They had skin that looked a bit pale compared to his own, but not as pale as the tall human a distance away. Most important was the lack of any sort of wings on their back, despite otherwise being sprite-sized.

"What ... who are you?!"

Look out for Part 2 of this update, coming soon