#metacrisis doctor x rose Tyler

[gallifrey1sburning]

Musings on Another Life

“What’s up, spaceman?” Donna asked, setting a cup of tea in front of the Doctor where he sat at the wrought iron table in his back garden. He blinked, noticing for the first time that the sun was setting. It was odd that time could get away from him like that, now. An adjustment. So much of it was an adjustment, living like this. He’d thought that living linearly would make time feel so much more present, but it was the opposite, somehow. It ebbed and flowed and slipped away, like water.

“Oh, nothing,” he said, the answer still a reflex, before shaking his head. “No, sorry. Not nothing. A lot of things. I’ve been thinking about… a lot of things.”

Donna settled into the seat across from him, tapping her nails against the mug she’d kept for herself. “Care to share with the class?”

The Doctor took a slow sip of his tea—milky and sweet, just like he’d taken it the first time he’d worn a version of this face. He wondered if it was how the Other Him still took it. He swallowed. “I’ve been thinking about the Metacrisis,” he admitted.

“What about it?”

“Him,” the Doctor corrected. “The person. The Other Doctor. Well, the first Other-Doctor.”

“The part-human, you mean?”

“Yeah.”

“Right.” She studied him. “What about him, then?”

“I’ve always thought of him as a copy,” the Doctor admitted. “I told Rose that he was me, but… I don’t know that I really believed that. I thought of him as lesser. A facsimile of sorts. Oh, close enough for them to be happy together, sure, but not really me. But I…” he sighed and leaned back in his chair, setting his tea down. He scrubbed a hand through his hair. “I think I got it backward.”

Donna tilted her head to the side. “How d’you mean?”

“I think he was the real me, and I was what was left over.”

“Sorry, what?”

The Doctor met her puzzled gaze. “I don’t think it was a copy. I think it was a split.” When Donna just raised her eyebrows at him, he went on, “I mean, think about it. I was regenerating, but I didn’t want to, so I sent the energy into my old hand so that I could be what Rose wanted. And then I… I walked away into battle, and rather than being better now that she was back, I was worse. I was judgmental and cruel to my friends, and then to the Metacrisis, when all of you were doing the right thing. You were all doing what had to be done to save the multiverse, and I judged you for it. And then I… I just left them there. I abandoned Rose, the love of my lives, who I would have done anything to get back before then, whom I’d nearly killed myself over the loss of more than once, like what she wanted didn’t matter at all. I didn’t tell her I loved her, when it was all I’d thought of saying for years after I lost her. And then I became a monster. The Time Lord Victorious.”

Donna made a sound of protest, but he interrupted her. “No, I did. When I sacrificed myself to save your granddad? I’m sure he never said, even once we had you back and it was safe for you to remember, but I yelled at him. Called him a stupid old man who’d lived his life; told him, more or less, that my life was more important than his. That I was worth more than he was. Not in those exact words, but…” He shook his head. “And then I regenerated and I forgot. All of you, all of it. I went on like none of you had ever mattered. Barely thought of you. Never spoke of you. I was cold, disconnected. More alien than I’d been in centuries. I lost all of the lessons I’d learned in those past few bodies. Oh, sure, I came to love my new friends. Even River, in the end. But it was never the same. I was never the same. I think…” He wrapped his hands around his still-warm mug, letting the heat dispel the chill of the advancing evening. “I think that the parts of me that Rose healed went with her. I think that instead of staying the man she wanted, I became the man she wanted, and I saved the universe with you and then I told her I loved her and I gave her my forever. And I think that the person who stayed in this universe was what was left.”

“Oh, Doctor.” The Doctor felt Donna’s hand settle on his forearm. He blinked his eyes open. He couldn’t recall shutting them. The sky was darker now, and he could see stars shimmering into view in his peripheral vision. Donna’s eyes were damp in the reflected light shining through the sliding glass doors. He freed one hand from his mug and rested it over hers.

“It’s okay. It’s… I oddly feel more at peace with that than with the alternative. Is that weird?”

“Not really, I suppose. I mean, you wanted to give her everything, and you wanted to be with her more than anything. I can see how there would be peace in thinking that maybe you did, and you are.”

“But you don’t think it’s true?”

“I dunno. I wasn’t exactly there for the aftermath, was I? But I just saw you split in two in front of me not so long ago, and the next you clearly left a lot of his baggage behind—”

“Oi!”

“���so it wouldn’t be the strangest thing you’ve done even in the time I’ve known you, and it wouldn’t be terribly unbelievable, all things considered,” she finished, ignoring his protest.

He gave an aggrieved sigh. “I suppose that’s fair.”

“Do you think it’s true?”

The Doctor drummed his fingers against the back of her hand. “I don’t know, either. Considering that nothing I knew about myself or Gallifreyans or regeneration turned out to be true, it’s hard to say. It feels true. But it also feels like maybe I’ve finally grown it all back, in a way. Like maybe… maybe, after all those centuries, I’m finally me again.”

Donna smiled at him softly. “I think that’s all that matters then, don’t you?”

“Maybe so,” he agreed, smiling slightly back at her and squeezing her fingers. “Maybe so.”

On AO3

[angelqueen04]

Fandom: Doctor Who (2005) Relationship(s): Metacrisis Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler Character(s): Metacrisis Tenth Doctor, Rose Tyler Additional Tag(s): Breakfast, Conversations, Pete's World, The Doctor Loves Rose Tyler, Rose Tyler Loves the Doctor, Tumblr Prompt, Prompt Fic, Prompt Fill, Podfic Welcome, @doctorrosebingo Summary: The morning of the Doctor's first real day in Pete's World. Prompt: Role Swap

[bluebell-9]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Metacrisis Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, Tentoo/Rose Tyler - Relationship Characters: Metacrisis Tenth Doctor (Doctor Who), Tentoo (Doctor Who), Rose Tyler, Jackie Tyler (mentioned) Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Post-Canon S4Ep13, Friends to Lovers, Science Fiction, TARDIS Coral, Existential Angst, Eventual Romance, Communication, Name Selection, Fade to Black Summary:

There's only one Doctor. Which makes the life of Metacrisis Tenth Doctor, aka Corin Smith, somewhat confusing. And no one's more baffled by the whole situation than Rose Tyler, as she and the man she once knew as "The Doctor" struggle to forge a viable relationship on Pete's World.

An exploration of what might've happened in the months immediately following “Journey's End” (S4Ep13).

[nipuni]

Bad Wolf Bay

[inhonoredglory]

He's always been a queer bi trans demi ace pan genderfluid nonbinary being 🏳️‍🌈 (tenth doctor edition) [og post]

[lovelyinspiration1463]

Tentoo, on Earth Slang

[darklinaforever]

The fact that Rose Tyler is the only lover with whom the Doctor wanted to build a normal life, for whom he wanted to become human, that he imprinted on her to the point that she was the heart of his 10th incarnation, the only one for whom an incarnation was specifically made, that even the memory erased he remembered her name and her face, that she was more important than the Tardis, the only one to whom he almost said I love you several times time, the only one to whom he really ended up saying the words I love you, the only companion with whom he had ever been so relaxed, the only one described by the screenwriters as the love of his life.

[metacrisisdoctor]

TENTOOROSE APPRECIATION MONTH 2023

“A man is the sum of his memories, you know. A Time Lord even more so.”

[mulderscully]

That's the curse of the timelords. I have to live on. Alone. I've only got one life, Rose Tyler. I could spend it with you. If you want.

[chaoticrosesimp]

Lil fast drawing

Happy Halloween from Christine Rose And Phantom Ten

[northernfireart]

wife reveal

[ghost-bison]

part 12 here

[pigeonneaux]

My prompt for the tentoorose remix event on the tenrose discord<3

remix of Naaer's work; "Benediction"

The AO3 collection

[miss-carter]

TENTOO DAY GIFT EXCHANGE ► dimension hopping rose + an ogling doctor for @insomniac-101

[thirdeyeblue]

The Doctor and Rose attend a Vitex gala

[angelic37]

TENTOO DAY GIFT EXCHANGE ► milestones for @demdifferentstories-29 (Happy birthday Lily!)