The Doctor let the TARDIS choose his destination, wandering aimlessly around the console room. He hadn't had an adventure in forever, and he was starting to get bored. The Ponds were taking a break, so he had no one to talk to, except for Sexy, and he was longing for a bit of excitement.
He popped his head out of the TARDIS, unsurprised to see a very confused man with a wine bottle in one hand right outside of the door. Sexy always did like to take him to meet famous people. "Hullo," he said to the man, beaming. "I'm the Doctor. Would you like to go on an adventure?"
The man blinked at him. He had dark black hair and even darker eyes, and appeared to be extremely inebriated. "I'm usually drunk," he muttered, turning away, "but this is the first time anyone's appeared in a glowing blue box." "Wait, don't go!" the Doctor called after him. "I'm not a hallucination! You're perfectly sane! Well, maybe not, with the drinking and all, but other than that." The man turned back to him. "You're not a hallucination?" The Doctor shook his head. "Isn't that what a hallucination would say to make me think it's not a hallucination?" The Doctor frowned, saying, "Are your hallucinations always that clever?" "Point taken," the man said, stumbling back towards the TARDIS. "Show me your box then, doctor man."
The Doctor paused for a moment, before ignoring his better judgement and helping the man into the TARDIS. The stranger's eyes immediately widened. "Dear God," he muttered, scanning every part of the TARDIS console room before taking another swig of his drink. "Fairly certain you're not hallucinating now?" the Doctor asked him, smiling crookedly. The man nodded, saying, "I need to paint this. Don't think I have the right colors though." "Ooh, you're an artist!" the Doctor said excitedly, racing to the console. "We could go to a museum, or just go meet the artists themselves."
"You can take me to a museum in this...box?" The Doctor looked back, nodding. "How about a history one?" The Doctor nodded again, frowning. "Take me to one about France in 1832," the man said. "Why 1832?" the Doctor asked. "There wasn't anything too important-" The man clenched his fist, cutting the Time Lord off and saying, "Don't you dare say that. 1832." The Doctor's frown deepened, but he set the destination anyway, also giving the TARDIS a command to search for notable events of the year 1832 in France.
The TARDIS set down outside of a museum several hundred years in the future. The man raced outside, hardly paying attention to the futuristic architecture. The Doctor stepped out behind him, directing them to the history museum. The man immediately ran in, the Doctor racing to catch up with him. What was so important about going to a museum? The only thing that happened in 1832 was...no.
The man came to a halt in front of the display for the June Rebellion of 1832. It was small, not even mentioning the names of those who had died. All of the tourists' focus was on the successful rebellion, not on the small one that accomplished barely anything. Not on the men who had died there. Especially not on the band of friends who had hoped to bring freedom to the people of France. There was nothing there.
The Doctor came up behind him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Who are you?" the time traveler asked him. The man whirled around. "A drunkard," he muttered bitterly, holding up his bottle of wine. "Don't lie to me." The Doctor's tone was harsh, and the man paused before replying, "...an artist. An artist who loved a god."
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Ancient Kinds of Sadness (Les Mis & Doctor Who Crossover)
Fanfiction"Who are you?" "A drunkard." "Don't lie to me." "...an artist. An artist who loved a god." ---------- When the Doctor finds a Frenchman in the year 1832, he never expected that he would be taking a famous revolutionary to his death. [Enjoltaire] [El...
