A/N: Hello there! This is a little experimental project based on the New Who series, in which the happenings of the story can - occassionally - be influenced by the readers. To find out more about that, please feel free to check out the profile page.

Let's start with the most important thing you should know about this; it's a fan-insert featuring an original character, who I'll try to keep as realistic as possible. Which means, a casual fan - someone like you and me, from a world very similar to our own - ends up in a fandom world.
Sounds like a lot of people's biggest dream come true, doesn't it?
But have you ever considered just what actually living it might entail? What if having to survive on your own in a foreign world, where no one knows you, turns out to be not all that easygoing and wonderful as you had always imagined?

That's the approach I'd like to take with this - to look at this concept in a more realistic way.

Phew, that shall be all for now! Just a final warning: this first part will be rather long and maybe a little one-sided, since there's a lot of introspection going on - there's some introduction to be done of the person whose point of view this story is told from, after all. ;)

Now then, thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy!

It had been a perfectly normal day.

She had been meeting an older acquaintance in a café in central London, catching up and making plans to go to the cinema and maybe clubbing afterwards the next day. Now she was on the way back to her dad's flat in order to prepare some dinner (because heaven knew he was a terrible cook), stepping out of the tube station and walking down a street on her right.

It was the third day of Lydia Rayne's annual visit to England. Ever since she'd become of age after the divorce of her parents, she took a one to two week holiday to spend some time with her father, who had returned to living in the UK. Lydia had stayed behind with her mother in Germany, where she had grown up, with the occasional family trip to England when she'd been younger.
The young woman quite enjoyed her time in London, where her dad had moved to three years ago, getting to know the city bit by bit. While she loved the German city she lived in, there was just something about the lifestyle in London that called out to her. If it weren't for her mum, friends and job back in Germany, she might have considered moving there.

She was just deciding on what she'd prepare for dinner, when something caught her attention from the corner of her eye. Lydia turned her head to her right, stopping at what she spotted. There was a short dead-end alley with dark brick walls between two buildings, with a few waste bins standing close to the right wall. Those weren't what had caught her attention, though; it was a strange, bright light, seemingly coming from the back wall of the alley.

Odd, she didn't see anything that hinted at a lamp... She didn't think an ordinary lamp would be able to shine quite as bright in broad daylight, anyway. An involuntary shiver ran down her spine at the sight, making the fine hair on her neck stand up and her brows knitting into a confused frown.

Curiosity piqued now (wich often tended to get the better of her, she had to admit), she cautiously made her way towards it, looking around to see if anyone was watching as she didn't know whether it might be some private property. Not seeing anyone, she stepped into the alley and came to a stop in front of the back wall.
Weird.
The light, which was wider than it was high and rather blinding now that she stood so close to it, looked like it came straight out of the wall...

Without thinking, she instinctively reached her hand up to trace her fingers along it and see if maybe there was something set into a hole in the wall.

The instant Lydia's fingertips touched the edge of the light, it seemed to shine even brighter and grow. It soon seemed to swallow her hand and didn't stop at that, swallowing everything around her and becoming so overwhelming that she had to squeeze her eyes shut and turn her head away. Yet even so the brightness was penetrating the thin skin of her eyelids, burning through the neural pathways as if she was looking right into the sun, making her clench her teeth through the pain.

Then, just for a second, it felt like she wasn't even standing anymore – was she falling?

A static like noise grew in her ears until it became almost unbearably loud. Her lungs refused to work properly in a rising twinge of panic; she was blinded by the whiteness and her eyes hurt, she didn't know where up and down was anymore and the noise in her ears was becoming deafening.

And just as she thought she couldn't bear it anymore, it all stopped as suddenly as it had started.

The brightness around her seemed to subside after a moment, and when she felt it safe enough to risk a look, she cautiously opened her eyes with a gasp, taking a shaky breath she had been holding. Blinking to get rid of the spots dancing in her vision, Lydia took a look around while lowering her arms, falling into a crouched position as her legs gave out under her.
When the spots had faded enough from her vision to actually see her surroundings, she blinked once more, this time out of surprised confusion. There was still the same alley between the brick walls in front of her, only that the walls looked a lot darker than before – and that the light was gone from the back wall.

It then hit her that it was darker in general.

Turning around, the young woman found herself looking at the same street she had been heading from earlier – only that it was dimly lit by street lights now, instead of rays of sun. Looking up on a hunch, Lydia's eyes searched the sky for the sun – only to find stars twinkling back at her.

It was night.

How could it be night?! It had been just around four in the afternoon only a few seconds ago! She found herself staggering back, her back colliding with the wall, bum landing on the ground, while her eyes were still glued to the clear night sky. How was that possible? Had she... somehow spaced out for a moment? Long enough for it to get dark?
With that thought in mind, she pulled her mobile phone out of her messenger bag, pressing a button on the side to activate the screensaver. 16:06. According to her phone's clock, only about twenty minutes had passed since she had last checked it. So how come it was so dark...?

Taking a deep breath, trying to calm the thoughts starting to run wild in her mind, Lydia stood up and left the alley, deciding to think on it on the way to her dad's. Better to get out of there anyway, what with... whatever had just happened. She was certain there was some logical explanation for it.

There had to be.

Was it possible that she had spaced out for a longer time without even noticing? The sun had been still high in the sky when she'd entered that alley, so she thought that at least a few hours must have passed for it to get so dark... 'My legs don't really feel like I've been standing for so long...' She thought she had been conscious the whole time during whatever had happened, too... A bit out of it (okay, make that a lot) yes, but still aware of things.

This was making absolutely no sense.

Getting more confused by the minute (and not to mention quite a bit scared, as well), she decided to just hurry up and get back to her dad's place as fast as possible, cursing her curiosity along the way. She couldn't help noticing how few people and cars passed her in comparison to earlier, which only intensified the feeling of it being late in the night. A fact that didn't really help her rising unease.

Relief flooded through her when she finally arrived at the street her dad lived on. She quickly made her way down the quiet street with its similar looking row houses and turned towards the one her dad lived at, quickly walking up the few stairs to the frontdoor. Fishing the spare key her father had given her for the duration of her stay out of her jeans pocket, she made to open the door. Yet as soon as she inserted the key, she knew something was wrong; it didn't fit all the way into the lock. Confused, she pulled it out to try again. When it still wouldn't go all the way in, she tried turning it anyway, which, of course, didn't help.
Ignoring that all the windows were dark, she pressed the lower of the two doorbells, really starting to feel scared now. A few seconds of silence passed after the doorbell could be faintly heard, and when there was still no movement after a minute, she tried the bell again. After a moment a light finally went on in the window to her right and shortly after the door was opened.

"Sorry, I—"

The rest of the sentence never left her mouth as she caught sight of the person who had opened the door. It was a middleaged woman wearing a pink dressing gown, a rather annoyed and confused expression on her face. Lydia found herself gaping at the unexpected view.

"Do you know what time it is?" the woman asked in a slightly crossed tone.

"I-... S-sorry, I..." Lydia stammered, trying to make sense of the situation while her mind went blank. "I'm, uh... I'm looking for Daniel Rayne?"

"Rayne? Here lives no one with the name Rayne, you must have gotten the house wrong."

The woman was about to close the door again, so Lydia quickly added, "But this is number fifteen, isn't it?" Of course it was! She recognised the building, the street. This was the correct house, she knew it. She still found herself asking, anyway.

"Yes. But there's no Daniel Rayne here, just the Browns and me and my son. I'm telling you you got the wrong house."

The door was being closed now, Lydia only caught a muttered "Really, kids nowadays getting so drunk they even get the homes wrong," before it finally fell shut in front of her nose.

For a moment the young woman simply stood rooted to the spot, staring at the wooden door, until her eyes found their way to the doorbells on her right. Dazedly, she pulled her phone out of her messenger bag, shining the light of its display on the nameplates. There, the upper one said Brown while the lower one said... "Williams," she whispered, not quite believing what her eyes were seeing.

Still dazed, she took a few staggering steps back until she found herself back on the pavement. She kept staring at the dark house in front of her for a moment, the single light in the window turning off again. Swallowing, Lydia raised her phone and opened her contacts in order to call her dad. Completely ignoring the apparent time of night, all thoughts concentrated on sorting out the confusion, she waited for him to pick up.

The call had been unanswered for long enough that she had already been anticipating the voice mailbox answering, when there was finally a short crackle and a gruff voice asking, "H'lo?"

Lydia's breath got caught in her throat – something about that voice sounded wrong.

When she didn't answer immediately, the gruff voice continued, "Who is it?"

This was wrong. That wasn't her father's voice. It was too different, even for being distorted by sleepiness.

She swallowed again, already fearing the answer to the question she was about to ask. "Is... is this Daniel Rayne?"

A groan, then: "No, you got the wrong number." Some muttering about being woken up at this ungodly hour followed, before the call was ended.

Lydia stared at the phone, the display of the light fading out after a few seconds, her heart beating wildly in her chest. What the hell was going on?! Had she gotten the number wrong? But she had called straight from her contact list, and just yesterday it had been working! Quickly she opened her contacts again, this time calling her mother. She'd ask if maybe her dad had changed his number or something... even if that didn't explain how the number could be taken up again so soon, but still. That was the only reason she could think of what had just occured.
A few seconds until the connection was established, then; the mailbox. Her mobile was turned off.
'Well, it is late at night... apparently.'

She'd simply have to call on the landline then. Squashing any guilt she might have felt about waking her mum up, Lydia dialed the familiar number, making sure to get the country code right. It took a few seconds again to establish the connection, and when it did, her heart skipped a beat.

A recorded message of a polite female voice informed her that the number she had dialed was not available.

Regaining her bearings after the initial shock, she tried again – and got the recorded message again. Heart beating even faster, she double checked the number – it was right! Country code and all! So why wasn't it available?!

Lydia decided to try one more number, almost afraid to fail again yet desperate to try at the same time. The seconds until the connection was established felt like minutes, but then the dial tone sounded and after only a few rings her call was answered.

"Hallo?"

Lydia's legs gave in in relief to the familiar male voice and she sank to the ground with a heavy sigh, switching to German. "Sorry for calling so late, Wolfgang, but there's something really wrong going on here..."

A brief moment of silence, then: "...Who's there?"

Hesitating for a second (why didn't he recognise her voice?), she replied, "It's me. Lydia."

"Lydia who?"

Lydia could feel the blood drain from her face. "Lydia Rayne! You know, your best friend?" she added with a nervous giggle that sounded more like a squeak to her own ears.

Another short pause. "Sorry, I don't know any Lydia."

Lydia gasped at that statement; he actually sounded serious. "What the hell, Wolfgang?! Please, this isn't funny, I—"

The call was ended.

Lydia stared unseeingly ahead of her, eyes wide, the beeping from the closed connection ringing in her ear. Ending the call on her side, too, she let out a breath she hadn't noticed she'd been holding.

Was this all some kind of sick joke...?

She opened her phone's menu and texted a message.

{Please don't joke with me, Wolfgang, this is really serious. Something happened, and I'm starting to get really, properly scared.}

Sending it away, she let her head hang between her jeans clad knees. This couldn't be happening. Wolfgang wouldn't pull such a bad joke on her. Just what the hell was going on?
Lydia took a few deep breaths, trying to calm herself. She was sure he was going to call any second now to apologise for scaring her and assure her that everything was okay.

Her phone alerted her to a new message after a few minutes, making Lydia snap her head up again. Her fingers flew over the display opening the message.

{Either you have the wrong number, or stop the stupid prank. No idea who you are. Please leave me alone.}

She stared unblinkingly at the words, trying to wrap her head around them. They began to swim in front of her eyes after a while, and only when a single drop hit the display did she realise that she was tearing up from the strain of not blinking. Her breathing was coming harder now. She was confused to no end, scared and felt completely lost.

This couldn't be happening. It just wasn't making any sense! Her whole world seemed to have gone crazy and she didn't know what to do!

She could feel her breathing spinning out of control, so she tried to calm down. Taking deep, long breaths, she just concentrated on getting it back under control for a moment.
When she felt like she wasn't about to hyperventilate anymore, Lydia slowly stood up, only to discover she was a little wobbly on her legs, thanks to the small adrenaline rush from the rising panic. Taking it slowly, she began making her way back to the nearest tube station, passing the now completely dark alley from before with some nervous unease. It looked perfectly normal and empty, though. No mysterious light to be seen, nothing to suggest that anything was out of the ordinary. So she simply walked on.

She decided to go home.

Screw having already paid for a plane ticket that would take her there in a week, she'd just buy another one. Or a train ticket, there were some trains to Germany that went to the city she lived in with only a single switching in Brussels. All she wanted now, was to go back home and be in the reassuring safety of her familiar flat.
Somewhere in the back of her mind she realised that she was probably being hasty and irrational, and should maybe just... try again in the morning, or something, but she just wanted to go home right now. That plan was the only thing keeping her somewhat grounded at the moment, she'd deal with everything else afterwards.

Arriving at the tube station, though, made her aware of a problem in her plans; she had forgotten that not all of the tube lines operated at night, being used to most of the subway lines in her home city running 24 hours a day. Lydia became even more nervous, as she wasn't very keen on walking around alone at night. To her relief she spotted a bus station with a night bus line nearby that would take her to Victoria Station. The bus arrived after only a ten minute wait, which she was rather glad about.

During the bus ride, Lydia considered her next line of action. She'd have to find a cashpoint and make a withdrawal for the train ride to the airport, since her Oyster card wasn't valid on the airport express to Gatwick and she knew she didn't have enough cash for a ticket on her right now. She tended not to take too much money with her when she went out without any real plans for the day, since she didn't like walking around with huge amounts of cash, and she'd already spent most of it that afternoon catching up with her acquaintance. The rest of the cash she had exchanged in advance in Germany was left in her room at her dad's place for safekeeping, but it wasn't like she could get to it right now...
She'd just have to deal with the high charges for another withdrawal then. For a moment she cursed her decision not to get a credit card, it really would have come in handy right now.

'That's right, keep thinking in logical, rational ways,' a small voice in the back of her mind advised. These were realistic problems, problems she could actually work out. So she concentrated on that line of thought to keep her mind somewhat grounded in this unexplainable situation she found herself in.

Arriving at Victoria Station, Lydia spotted a cashpoint after a little wandering around and made a beeline for the machine, pulling her wallet out. She put her bank card into the slot, waiting a few seconds for the machine to read it – before it was pushed out again with an error message shown on the screen. Frowning, Lydia pulled it out, making sure that the magnetic stripe was on the right side as it was displayed on a sticker on the machine. It was. She tried putting it in again, only for it to be pushed out again with the message that it wasn't readable. Her heartbeat was quickening again as she tried turning the card around and putting it in every other possible way. But no success.

What the hell, those were the kind of cashpoints she had withdrawn money from before! So it should be working with her foreign bank card! She tried another machine right next to the one she had been using, but had no more luck with it. Getting more anxious by the minute, Lydia looked for other machines in the station, trying out the ones she spotted, but with the same result, until she noticed some security staff taking an interest in her. When the man started making his way towards her, she felt like she was about to panic for some reason, not knowing how to go about the whole situation and explain herself without sounding crazy, and hastily left the station.

She turned down a street, walking quickly to get away from the security guard and any possible questions she was not quite sure she would able to answer in her current state. Maybe talking to some officials about her situation should have been her first approach, but somehow the fear of getting into trouble for spouting crazy nonsense with a bank card that was't readable was making her walk the other way. It didn't help that her line of thinking was beginning to drift towards less rational ideas and questions at that, either. If her contacts were wrong and her bank card too... what else could be? Her ID? Her home adress? Well, considering that her dad's apparently was...

Maybe she was afraid to be thought of as crazy because she actually was losing her mind…?

That unbidden thought made her stop dead in her tracks.

'No, stop', she mentally chided herself before her thoughts continued down that line. If she continued on like that and gave in to the panic, she'd be completely done for. And then she wouldn't be able to function at all in order to find a way out of this mess, and she just couldn't let that happen now. Taking a shaky breath, she pushed the thought away. She just had to go on, everything was going to sort itself out. Somehow.

Raising her head, she took a look around and noticed she was close to the Victoria coach station. There were several people milling around, tourists by the look of the suitcases most had with them, and as Lydia got closer to the station she could see more people behind the well-lit glass front, a lot of them sleeping on seats and some even in sleeping bags on the ground. The young woman bit her lip considering her next step. She wasn't very keen on wandering around the city alone at night. This seemed to be a fairly safe way to spend the night and wait for the morning, considering how many people there were...

Having made her decision, Lydia entered the building and found a free spot in a small corner of a closed shop that protruded from a wall, sat down, and leaned against the wall with her knees pulled up to her chest.
As she let her eyes roam over the various resting people, her thoughts soon returned to the mess she found herself in. How should she go on from here? Apparently she couldn't get any money, at least not from any machines... Then again, maybe there was just some technical problem with them or with her card? She'd been able to withdraw money from them last year... Or maybe there was simply some change in policies and they no longer accepted foreign crads? It might be worth to try her luck in a bank, ask what to do in order to get some money from her account.

So far, so good.

But after that, what? Was she really just going to go home, back to Germany? Without all her stuff? Without—

'Damn!' she mentally cursed. Her keys where in her suitcase at her dad's! Her mum had a spare one to her flat, but still... She lived a few towns away from her.
Lydia sighed, letting her head rest between her knees and running a hand through her dyed cherry red hair, further loosening some strands from the messy updo with the gesture.

Maybe she should just try her dad's place again in the morning, after all? Maybe she really had gotten the house wrong? Even if it had looked the same... Still, it had been dark, and she hadn't been thinking very clearly, so maybe she had really just gotten it wrong in her flustered state?
She felt that she was probably just clutching at straws, but what else was she to do?

Deciding to just give it another try later and then see where to go from there, Lydia tried to calm her frayed mind. The previous adrenaline rushes took their toll on her resting body, and after a while she found herself dozing off.

When Lydia woke up, it was light outside the glass front, the station bustling with some activity.
Massaging a kink out of her neck - that really hadn't been the best of positions to fall asleep in - she relieved herself in the toilet and redid her hair, before sitting down in one of the free seats and trying her mobile again.

She had been half hoping that she had really just been getting things mixed up last night, but when she'd tried calling her dad, the same foreign gruff voice from before had answered. Her mum's mobile was still turned off, so Lydia just left a voice message on the mailbox asking her to call back as soon as possible. She had also tried calling her acquaintance who she was supposed to meet again today, but the number hadn't been available. No luck with another friend back in Germany either.

Putting the phone away again and feeling oddly numb at the results, the redhead rubbed her arms. Her light pullover didn't provide much warmth in the morning chill paired with her just having woken up. She could really use a hot coffee right now. At the thought of coffee her stomach rumbled, reminding her that she hadn't eaten anything in quite a while.
Funny how she could still get hungry in a situation like that.

Taking her wallet out of her messenger back, she checked how much money she still had on her; around six pounds. Enough for some light breakfast, at least. 'Well, might as well go and make use of it.'
She tried convincing herself that she wasn't just trying to put off going to her dad's place again in fear that he still wasn't where he was supposed to be. She only succeeded partially in that.

Lydia only had to walk the streets for a few minutes until she found an open bistro that looked inviting – and not too expensive. Sitting down at one of the many free tables near the entrance inside, she checked the menu and ordered her coffee and some food she could afford.
Absentmindedly sipping the hot beverage, she found herself wondering about her numbness. Compared to last night she felt oddly... calm? Was that even the right word? Or was it rather 'disconnected'? In any case, she didn't feel nearly as panicky as before. Maybe the little bit of sleep had helped? Then again, maybe she just wasn't awake enough for the situation to truly sink in yet...

She was startled out of her musings when someone suddenly plopped down in the chair next to her. Looking up from her cup in surprise to face the person, she was greeted with an overly cheery "Hello!" – and froze at the sight.

Sitting there, giving her a toothy grin, was someone she instantly recognised from television; David Tennant. The fact that he was in his Doctor outfit - complete with pinstriped suit, tan coat and 3D-glasses resting on his unruly hair - considerably helped the quick recognition.

Lydia found herself gaping at him, mind going blank, as the man put some flashing device, that looked like a prop straight out of the series, in front of him on the table.

A few seconds passed like that, him grinning at her while she gaped at him unintelligently, until he spoke again, all business-like as if they were in a perfectly normal conversation.

"Where are you from then?"

She blinked.

What the heck was this about?! David Tennant playing Doctor to some random person? Had she ended up in some kind of hidden camera show?

Lydia took a quick look around the small bistro, not noting anything out of the ordinary. The only other customer was reading a newspaper at his table, the waiter working on a coffee machine behind the counter.
She returned her attention to the man next to her, finding him still looking at her intently. It could be, couldn't it? As far as she knew (which, admittedly, wasn't really much), the actor was known to play pranks on people...

A thought occurred to her then; this had to be the reason behind her current situation! It was all part of some huge, complex TV prank, with her friends and family playing along! Her pulse quickened at this conclusion, which pushed all other thoughts aside as she wanted to believe that to be the case.

A/N²: I admit I still have to get used to writing this version of Lydia, since this is sort of a fresh start for that particular OC. She's actually already a few years old and has been played in some casual tabletop roleplays by me for another fandom, thus her personality has been sculpted in certain ways that do not quite apply here anymore. But the basics are still the same, and I'll just have to re-invent her in this story based on them - let's see were we'll end up with that :)
I just wanted to let you know and ask for you to bear with me, should there be moments were she comes across a little weird. Thank you!