| Date: 1 January 2008
Characters: Martha Jones, Koschei Location: outside Link to IJ: thread #23605 |
 Martha wasn't exactly lost. She wasn't certain it was possible to be lost when she didn't know where she'd been to start with, but she was probably as close to lost as possible.
She'd headed out of the hotel to try and get some idea of how big the town was, maybe get some fresh air (though the air seemed as still as ever), and following along one empty road should have made it easy to get back. Except heading back, she was sure she'd not seen those buildings before. Thinking hard, she stopped, sat down on the nearest seat, and looked around. There had to be something recognisable. Or maybe some one. |
 Koschei had just been wandering. Exploring since it seemed the he'd be here for awhile. It wasn't nearly as much fun exploring on his own as it would have been if Theta was with him, but he doubted that he could have convinced the older Theta to tag-a-long and do things that little kids did. He'd probably already put away childish things, after all.
Oh, that was a sad thought. But then he spotted someone, an unfamiliar face, and he couldn't help but smile as he wandered over, waving happily, "Hi!" |
| "Hi!"
Martha could hardly believe her eyes when she saw a child walking towards her. A little boy, out all on his own. Still, he looked pretty happy, and there'd been that child, the one on Malcassario, whatever their name had been, lost to memory after the horrors of the Toclafane. Anyway, that child had been working, so... "Are you all on your own?" |
| Koschei nodded at the question before pulling himself up to sit down next to her, swinging his legs off the edge of the bench, "Uh-huh," He said, glancing over at her with a smile. "I got separated from my friend. And he doesn't seem to be here. But it's OK cause this place is interesting. I like exploring. I'm Koschei. Who are you?" |
| Holding out her hand, Martha smiled. "I'm Martha, and I'm on my own, too."
At least, she was now. |
| "It's nice to meet you, Martha," Koschei said, reaching out and taking her hand, shaking it with a smile before he tilted his head to the side curiously to study her.
"Are you a human? I've never met a human before. Read all about them but never actually met one." |
| Martha blinked. All those months travelling with the Doctor, and no one had ever asked her that directly. Made rude remarks about it (mostly the Doctor), but never asked her. Still, it was a reasonable question.
"Yes," she said, laughing a little, "I'm human. What are you, then? You look human." Hopefully he wouldn't take that as an insult. |
| Much the opposite. He knew that he looked human, or rather, humanoid.
"It helps us blend in," Koschei said with a broad grin as he puffed out his chest proudly and pronounced. "I'm a Time Lord." Though, the proud went out of him a bit as he smiled sheepishly and shrugged his shoulders, "Or at least, I will be once I pass all my exams." |
| "Another one?" Martha blurted before she could stop herself, and then clapped a hand over her mouth. "Sorry, sorry, I just...there's been kind of a rush of them lately. Aren't you kind of young to be doing exams?" |
| Koschei blinked a bit curiously as he tilted his head at her, "There are around 9 million of us. But I suppose it would be a bit odd for a human to meet more than one. A sort of odd cosmic roll of the dice," He said before giggling a bit at her second question.
"Oh, I'm not doing exams now. We won't get to the first set of graduate exams for at least a hundred years or so." |
| "You're my third," Martha confessed with a smile, and stood up, holding out her hand. She knew, academically, that the Doctor was really old, but hearing from a child that he wouldn't be doing exams for a century..."And I'm just finishing my graduate exams. At least, back home I am." |
| "Wow," Koschei said, a look of delight sparking in his eyes as the gears started to turn in his head. "The statistical probability of that is astronomical!" He said, pushing himself off of the bench before reaching up to take her hand.
"You've got to figure the probability of a human meeting any Time Lord is high enough. And then narrowing down a specific individual from a field of..." Koschei trailed off, mumbling to himself, random numbers being heard in the mix of awed exclamations. "127.895672 billion to 1," Koschei said after a moment. "Give or take a decimal or two." And now that the issue was resolved, he turned his attention back up at her, smiling a bit, "I can't help but be jealous. We always take so long with everything. I guess it's something you can afford to do, we you live so long. But it's just... I'd like to LIVE a bit before I'm over two centuries old, you know. Books are all well and good, but there's more to the universe." |
| "That's it, though," she observed, slightly thrown by the accuracy or apparent accuracy of the calculation. "You live so long, so doesn't that affect the odds? And then, once I met one of you, it kind of made it more likely to meet more."
She started walking in the direction of the town, on the basis that there should be something recognisable soon, even if she'd taken a fork in the road without noticing. "There's so much out there to see, though. So much, it's amazing." |
| "Huh. Point," Koschei said, raising his freehand to scratch his head. "That would make the probability a bit less. But no matter. It's just maths," He said, grinning up at her before nodding.
"There is. I can't wait until I can get off Gallifrey and go see it all. Theta and I are planning on going together. At least for awhile, until we get used to being on our own. He's my best friend. He's here. Well, not really. He's here, but he's old and going by that stupid, stupid title that he insists on." |
| She hadn't meant to throw doubt on the calculation, at all, but the thought of a Time Lord who was old and insisted on going by a title was enough to make her stop, looking down at Koschei.
"Theta?" |
| "Yeah. Theta Sigma. That's a nickname as it is," Koschei said, frowning a bit. "He doesn't like his given name. Is a bit weird about it, if you ask me. But he's a good guy. Lots of fun." |
| Theta didn't sound like a title to Martha. In fact, it sounded more like a number, something Greek vaguely remembered from early med school classes. "Sounds like a nice guy. I mean, he must be if he's your best friend."
Martha started walking again, wondering if she was imagining that the buildings looked familiar. Maybe she was just walking in circles. "My sister Tish, she's weird about her name. I mean, she calls herself Tish, that's short for Leticia, but it's not even her real name, it's just her middle name. She thinks it sounds cooler or something." |
| "I bet that's it," Koschei said with a bounce in his step. "I bet he thinks Doctor sounds cooler or some rot like that. I still think it's stupid." |
| Still caught on Tish, Martha didn't register what Koschei had said for a few seconds. Then, she kept walking automatically, silent while she processed. "The Doctor? Theta - your friend - is the Doctor?" |
| "He's calling himself the Doctor, yeah. Tall guy, skinny, brown hair, kinda silly but his smile doesn't reach his eyes," Koschei said, the last statement provoking a thoughtful frown. |
| "Yeah, I...know him." And that description fit him too well, especially the bit about his smile. |
| "He says he's fine," Koschei said with thoughtful look up at Martha. "But I don't think he is. He seems...off. Burdened. I don't like it." |
| "Me either," Martha agreed without hesitation. "But he's been like that since I met him. Maybe longer." |
| Koschei frowned, "He doesn't need to be alone. He doesn't do well when he's alone. Never has. And I have no doubt that hasn't changed." |
| She wondered, for the first time, if maybe Koschei was older than he looked. If Time Lords aged slower than humans even in childhood. "How long have you known him?" |
| "Not long. I mean, we only started the Academy a few months ago," Koschei said, glancing up at Martha curiously. "But that's long enough, isn't it? When you're friends, to know each other? Isn't it?"
Koschei sounded worried. He wasn't sure. He'd never had a friend before. |
| "Of course it is!" Martha replied at once, squeezing Koschei's hand. "Of course it is."
Of course, she'd known the Doctor longer than a few months, and she had the impression that he'd never, never let her know him. |
| Koschei relaxed, smiling up at her. That was a relief. And he'd trust the information coming from a human. They had so little time to experience these things, after all.
"He's here somewhere," Koschei said, bouncing along next to her. "But it'd probably take forever to find him. It always does when he doesn't want to be found." |
| "We can try, if you like?" She sounded uncertain, though, far too familiar with the Doctor's ability to vanish. "Or we can go and find that hotel and have a milkshake. Do you have milkshakes on Gallifrey?" |
| Koschei looked puzzled for a long moment before glancing up at Martha, "What's milk?" |
| "Uh."
Well, she knew the chemical formula, and that would probably be sufficient for Koschei, but not any kind of explanation. "Well, on earth we have a lot of animals, mammals, they produce a liquid called milk to feed their babies, it's got lots of vitamins and things in that babies need, but adults do too, so humans drink a lot of cow's milk." ...which didn't sound very appetising, put like that. "And we make yoghurt from it, and cheese, and cream, and milkshake, which is like really creamy milk with fruit flavour. Or chocolate. That's my favourite." |
| "Chocolate?" Koschei asked again, the same confused expression on his face. |
| "You've never had chocolate?"
Martha stared in shock, until she remembered, yes, right, chocolate, not actually universally available across time and space. "Oh, my God. You're going to love it." And that made it more important to find the hotel, because that place seemed to have everything. |
| Koschei grinned up at Martha, almost laughing. It was so rare that you found that sort of enthusiasm about something that wasn't a complex scientific principle on Gallifrey. It was next to impossible to get someone to appreciate the small things that life had to offer.
Hell, it had taken long enough for Theta to convince him that Gallifrey had more to offer than the Academy's libraries. But he could appreciate it all now. And the idea of a new experience on the horizon was a delightful one. "I could say there's probably a lot you've experienced which I haven't," Koschei said as he bounced along next to her, tilting his gaze up to her. "You do have quite a few years on me, after all." |
| "Hey!" Martha objected, squeezing the small hand in hers, reproachfully. "You don't comment on a girl's age, right?"
And besides, given that apparently Time Lords aged slower, it could have been inaccurate. "Where I come from, that's rude. And how old are you, anyway?" |
| "Eight and a half," Koschei said, grinning up at Martha. "I'm almost nine! Just a few more months until my Nameday. I feel sorry for Theta. His Nameday's on Otherstide. I bet his family always forgets. Do humans have Namedays? Or do you celebrate birthings instead of namings?" |
| Martha made the mental translation of 'Theta = Doctor' and came up against a blank wall with 'Otherstide'. "Okay, so I'm a bit older than you."
Not that she was going to tell her age. She wasn't ashamed, but after spending all that time with the Doctor and Jack and being the youngest by centuries, it was really weird to find a Time Lord younger than her. "We have birthdays, yeah, though a lot less than your sort will." |
| "A lot less," Koschei said, grinning as he glanced up at her as he tilted his head to the side and studied her. "But you can't be more than 16. Right? I mean, I don't have much to go on humanwise, but you look like what we do between 16 and 300 or so. And you can't be 300, obviously." |
| "Closer to sixteen than three hundred," Martha allowed, with a grin. "I'm old enough to drink, drive and vote in my own country, and a few others." |
| Koschei just offered her another puzzled expression. "You have an age restriction on drinking?" Koschei asked. "How do your people survive? Don't humans need water constantly?" |
| "Oh," Martha exclaimed, realising the miscomprehension. "No, it's...okay, humans need water, yes, always, or we die, pretty quickly, but we've got laws about how old you have to be before you can drink alcoholic drinks." |
| "Oooooh," Koschei said with realization. "That makes sense," He said, smiling sheepishly at her. "Sorry." |
| "No," Martha told him firmly. "I'm sorry. I still think you're going to love chocolate, though. There's just no way to describe it." |