| Date: 13 January 2008
Characters: The Tenth Doctor, Susan Foreman Location: a cafe Link to IJ: thread #34646 |
 So, he was in a strange nexus were people from all over time and space, and even alternate universes, kept finding themselves. No explanation. There was at least one alternate version of himself about. He didn't like to think about what he knew about that universe at all. Best to just go the other way, if he saw himself, until he'd had some time to digest this new information.Still, it was hard to tell how worried about this anomaly he should be, so he should gather some more data. The town itself seemed real enough. Maybe he could find a place to get a spot of tea, and find someone else to talk to. He wandered down the street looking for a shop with tea, and other customers. He wondered if he'd see any familiar faces, aside from his own. |
 Susan still hadn't attempted to look for an exit. At the moment, she was reclining in one of the cafes, book in hand and a cup of tea quickly cooling on the table in front of her. |
| He ordered some tea before really taking a look at the young woman at a table with a book in hand. He started to make his over to introduce himself when he saw. He stopped to look again, to make sure. "Susan?" he whispered. |
| Susan turned her gaze up from her book, beaming at the familiar figure as she kicked out the chair on the other side of the table for him, "Did you just get here, then?" Susan asked with an amused twinkle in her eyes. |
| Trust Susan to take a place like this in stride, and tease him as he floundered. "I..ah.". He rubbed the back of his neck, looking a bit sheepish. "Well, I did talk to this one young woman. Named Rose Tyler. She seemed to know an alternate version of me, but I didn't know her. First time I've met someone I know here. Much less someone from Gallifrey. Much less, you know, a relative." Oh, babbling again. "I'll get used to it." |
| "It gets easier the longer you're here, Grandfather. Trust me," Susan said, motioning to the person (android) that was running the shop, grinning as they brought a second cup of tea over to the table. "There are a few other people that will probably unbalance you here as well," Susan said, looking up at her Grandfather as she closed her book, smiling at him. "But I'm sure you'll tackle those hurdles when you get to them. When did you come in from, then?" |
| He sat down at the table, but let his tea cool for a minute. "Well, I was in 1953, London. England. Earth. Got this odd energy signature, turned out to be an energy being trying to use the TV broadcast system to drain people of enough energy to become corporeal. Couldn't have that. And I was heading back to London in 2007. Which is sort of home for me right now. And yourself?" |
| "A year after you left," Susan said, picking up her tea and sipping it slowly. "Not long after we finished the London reconstruction." |
| He took a sip of his tea, and wondered where exactly her universe split of from his. Not with his decision to leave her on Earth with David, obviously. Would she come back to Gallifrey during the Time War, like his Susan did? "Oh, and how is Earth treating you? How's David?" |
| "Well enough. It's definitely an adjustment, learning how to live linearly again," Susan said, smiling over at him. "But I can't complain too much," She said, sipping her tea again. "I do miss you, though. Terribly." |
| He nodded in agreement. "I know what you mean. I was stuck on Earth in the 1970s for a few years. It was, oh centuries ago for me, subjective time. And I've been living fairly linearly, with a few odds jaunts, the last few years. Needing to be back by a certain time, always double checking my coordinates. It's a bit odd." He paused and looked at her, smiling softly. "I've missed you, too, you know. Have you been terribly angry with me?" he asked hesitantly. They hadn't really had a chance to talk about such things, before she was just another in a long of casualties of war. That was one of his few regrets, that hadn't managed to spend time with her. |
| "Terribly?" Susan asked, shaking her head slowly. "I'm not pleased, no. You could have at least given me the option, Grandfather. And I suppose you could say that I'm annoyed. But terribly angry? No. I haven't gotten there. Of course, I probably just haven't had the time to." She turned her gaze up to him, "You never came back, either, did you?" There had to be some reality where he did. |
| Either? "I did! But it was very strange time. We were needed in different places, and didn't have a chance to talk like we should have. Not before - at any rate... We haven't really had this conversation. But you've had it with another version of me, haven't you?" |
| Susan nodded, "There's a few here," She said, looking up at her Grandfather with a slight smile. "A couple of you, one of the regeneration before this one, I believe. And a few others, I think. I doubt I've talked to all of them," She said. "Only one of me so far. Guess I should count myself lucky for that." |
| "So many of me about. I wonder why. Have you managed to work out the rules of this place? Is it a natural phenomenon, do you think? I've sort of been traveling about fixing some artificial temporal snarls, you see. This doesn't feel quite like one of those...." |
| "It's a natural phenomenon. Pocket universe, I think. Some sort of intersect dimension," Susan said, looking up at her Grandfather. "I have a few theories, but nothing concrete enough to say for sure. Though, whatever this is. It's stable... Even if it does feel...off." |
| "Hmm. That's sounds right. There is something definitely off, though. Well, I won't worry about that for a bit. Until something comes up that makes me want to worry." He peered at what she was reading. |
| String theory. It was amusing, at least, and it was giving her a few unorthodox ideas to deal with an unorthodox situation, "Until it becomes unstable, there's nothing to truly fuss over. Except for the puzzle. I always love a good puzzle." |
| He grinned fondly at her. "I remember. Runs in the family." He drank some more of his tea - that was soothing, and his head was still in a bit of a muddle from being dropped here, and finding out about less then pleasant alternate realities. |
| Returning the grin, Susan reached out and settled a hand on his arm lightly, "You get used to all of this, Grandfather. It takes time, but you do." "Is there anything else I can help you with?" |
| He brought his other hand up to cover hers on his arm. "Just let me sit and listen to you talk at me for a few minute while I finish my tea. And then I'm sure I'll be just fine," he assured her. |