Topic: A Step Out Of Time

Silana

Date: 2011-07-09 17:59 EST
The human mind is a wonderful thing. It can notice the most commonplace things in the world with all the fascination of surprise. On the other hand, it can utterly disregard something so totally unusual as to be outside it's sphere of experience. Quite what the human mind would make of what was happening in a quiet street of the city wasn't easily predictable, however. A strange repetitive sound, a metallic, breathing heartbeat, sounded itself just on the edge of hearing, and a door made itself known, set in an expanse of brick wall that had been bare only a few minutes beforehand. It stood there as nonchalantly as a door can be, endeavouring to look as though it had been there for years.

Gabriel didn't notice the door right away, despite it appearing out of nowhere just a few feet to his left. He was busy zipping up his trousers and humming a tune when it first appeared. When he turned, he assumed it was the door to the tavern the wall happened to be connected to and walked forward, placing a hand against it in an attempt to open it with a firm shove.

The door opened under his hand, swinging inward to reveal a cluttered but very comfortable living room, set with a variety of armchairs and couches, tables and bureaus, nicely appointed around a stone fireplace in which a happy wood fire was crackling away. There were no windows, but the room was lit with variations on oil lamps and candles. A book had been left on one of the tables, face down and open, evidently put there only recently, and sounds of movement were coming from beyond an open door across the room. A voice called out as he entered. "Tea?"

The light was a shade brighter than that of the tavern and quite a bit more than the dark outside. He blinked, squinting through the night and looking around at the sound of the voice. "Eh?" he asked, wrinkling his nose. "Ugh, no, hate that stuff. S'bitter'n nasty'n hot."

"I can do you something else," the voice offered. It was discernibly feminine, and somewhat distracted. "I'm sure there must be something else here ....juice" Oh, no, I gave that to ....I forget ....Perhaps there's some wine around here ..." There was a metallic clunk from beyond that open door, and something made a chittering sound, accompanied by the skitter of rodent paws on a wooden floor. "Don't poop in the transcendental engine again, or you're going back in the forest."

He closed the door and took note of the scenery at last. "This isn't the pub," he observed, creeping around to find the source of the voice. "Coulda sworn the pub was 'ere."

"Oh, no, this isn't a pub." The owner of the voice came to the far door, revealing itself to be a young-seeming woman with a slightly abstracted smile, carrying a white teapot and an orange for some reason. "Hello. Wrong turn?"

"This door's right up against the pub wall," he replied, pointing in the direction of the pub. "This is s'posed t' be a pub. Why isn't it' Who are you?"

She blinked for a moment, her brows rising. "I've landed in a pub?" After another moment of staring at him blankly, she put the orange down on a counter beside her, moving out of the doorway. The teapot, somehow, disappeared into a pocket of her long velvet coat as she walked across the living room, opening another door hidden among the clutter of the room. "Well, come on then, if you're coming."

First things first. Oranges, he liked them. Quite a bit. Couldn't remember the last time he'd had one, fruit didn't grow well in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. So, he leaned over to snag said orange before blinking at her. "Where?"

She glanced back at him, her expression more than a little distracted once again. "The control room, of course." She stepped out of sight, leaving the door open behind her as her footsteps faded away.

Silana

Date: 2011-07-09 18:01 EST
"Ye got beer in there?" he asked, peeling away at the orange as he followed her through the door. "S'a weird pub."

She was out of sight before he reached the door, but what he was presented with was hardly without its charms. From the doorway, a dizzingly long hallway stretched out, all high vaulted ceilings and marble flooring, multiple doors opening off the corridor. It stretched further than the eye could see.

His brow furrowed as he peeled away more of the orange and plopped a piece into his mouth, starting down the hallway while his eyes went up and down to drink in the sight and try to comprehend it all. "Must be one o' them dreams again."

"Seventh door on your left ....no, your right," the woman called from somewhere along the hallway. Even as she did, there was an odd lurch. It wasn't a physical feeling; more the sensation that your mind had been jerked from one place to another without your body's consent.

He turned left, then right, then stood in place and blinked, shaking his head before moving through the door. "Where are we" An' who are you? Got anymore oranges?"

The room he entered was blindingly white and silvered metals, starkly empty but for a hexagonal console that stood in the centre, covered with knobs and levers, and various flashing lights. It was over this that the woman was frowning, fiddling with a dial here and there. Eventually, after a long while of frowning, she gave up and thumped the panel in front of her. There was a whirring sound, and the internal section began to rise and fall rhythmically. It was only then that she looked up at him.

"Oranges?" She blinked blankly for a moment before looking at the peel in his hand. "Oh ....oh, I'm sure there are more. Somewhere."

"You on somethin', lady?" he asked, peering at her suspicously. "What's this place anyhow" An' what the hell is your name?"

"Now what would I be on?" she asked with a delighted smile. "I am standing on the floor; or perhaps you mean what is the floor on, in which case the answer is rather more complicated than you might be looking for; or alternatively there's always the soles of my boots. They're rubber, if that helps." She turned to face him, a charming smile on her face.

He stared for several minutes and began to smile back before shaking his head. "No, I mean, like, drugs, or alcohol. You been drinkin'?" The weight of that stare could crush worlds.

"Why, yes, I am partial to a hot cup of tea," she offered happily. "Did I offer you tea" I'm sure I have a teapot around here somewhere." She began to pat her pockets thoughtfully.

"...I mean beer, whiskey, tequila," he tilted his head. "Nah, you're standin' too well. Must be crazy. Got any oranges?"

"You should be careful of oranges," she warned him, with every appearance of sincerity. "You never know if they're pomegranates masquerading as satsumas. Can give you nasty indigestion, you know." She blinked, straightened, and gave him a cheerful smile. "Hello, I'm Silana'natulion Drovska'Falatharnir. You can call me Silana." She reached out a hand toward him. "And you are?"

"Silana....nutrition...Drovska...faaaaalhahar," he struggled with the name and succeeded in butchering most of it, so decided to take her suggestion. "Silana," much easier. "M' Gabriel," he reached out and shook her hand. "What's a satsuma?"

"A form of flying fish on the seventh moon of Fargos," she answered smartly, her tone very authoritative as she shook his hand. "They have uniquely poisonous flesh for humans; if you eat just one mouthful, you'll speak in nothing but riddles for the next four months or so."

"You eat one recently?" he asked, arching a brow at her curiously.

Silana looked quite startled at that. "No," she answered him straight. "Of course, it wouldn't have the same effect on me as it would on you, but that's beside the point. You wanted a pub?"

Silana

Date: 2011-07-09 18:03 EST
"Why not' You said it affects all humans, ye look pretty human. An, I dun' know, now, ye got somethin' to drink 'sides tea?"

"I've gone to the trouble of bringing us to my favourite drinking place, the least you could do is look at it," she said with a shrug, neatly avoiding the first question. "Come along, don't dawdle." Stepping past him, she moved back down the corridor toward the door they had passed through.

Opening it, she paused, surveying what looked like a full civil war battle in progress. "I could have sworn I settled that a couple of centuries ago," was murmured thoughtfully as she closed the door, and picked another at random. This one opened onto the first room he had entered by.

He turned to follow and paused to stare out at the civil war, blinking at her and turning to look over at her again. "What the hell was that' That a war?"

"Yes, they've been going at it for almost four hundred years now," she sighed, leading the way through the living room and opening the door onto a street that certainly wasn't the one he'd been walking down when he'd entered her strange house.

"Four hundred years?" He stopped in the doorway, flabbergasted. "You're insane. Where are we now?"

"Stratford-on-Avon, England, Earth, 1594," she smiled, gesturing for him to step out through the doorway. "Just around the corner from the King's Head, one of the finest public houses it has ever been my pleasure to frequent."

"1594?" That just about did it. "You'll have to repeat that, I'm pretty sure it's the year 2137."

She dug in her trouser pocket, pulling out a complicated pocket-watch. There were more than three dials in the face, each showing a different time, year, and numerical system. "No, it's definitely 1594," she assured him. "April 7th, at around half past four in the afternoon. Second thoughts?"

"How?" he blinked again, squinting at her and the watch.

"Beg pardon?"

"How can it be 1594" An' how are we in England, for that matter?"

"I brought us here." She leaned against the wall outside the door, offering a nod to a passing couple. If their costume was anything to go by, she was telling the truth.

He turned to eye the passing couple and their attire, then went back to squinting at Silana. "How'd you bring us 'ere" We were in a weird, pub, house, thing."

"A ....what?" She peered back at him for a moment before comprehension dawned. "Oh, you mean my TARDIS." Raising a hand, she patted the doorframe he was still standing in. "She's my home, my ship."

"Ship?" he stepped out, turned, and stared. "Looks like a door."

She laughed, delighted by his confusion. "The door is just that, a door into the ship," she explained. "Her chameleon circuit is a little rusty, but she manages to blend into her surroundings easily enough."

"Chameleon...what?" he blinked. "Ya know what? Nevermind, they got drinks there?"

"The finest ale north of the Thames," she chuckled, clapping him on the shoulder. Her fingers took hold of his shirt, steering him along the street to a building characterised by the swinging sign hanging over the door. It showed a rather poor artist's impression of a man wearing a crown. "The King's Head. In you go."

Silana

Date: 2011-07-09 18:06 EST
He stumbled and wrinkled his nose at the swinging sign and pushed the door open, stepping in and glancing around the establishment. "Where'd you come from, with that weird door of yours?"

The place they had walked into was rather spit-and-sawdust, but the tables were clean, and the patrons loud but not violent. The innkeeper looked up as they entered, a wide smile creasing his face as he saw Silana. "M'lady! S'been a while since ye graced us with yer presence ....and with comp'ny too, I see."

Silana chuckled, patting Gabriel's shoulder in a friendly manner. "This is Gabriel, John. He needs a stiff drink - on my tab." As the innkeeper nodded, turning to see to this order, she moved over to the hearth, settling comfortably in one of the wooden backed chairs, hands folded over her stomach. "Gallifrey, of course. Where else would I get a TARDIS from?"

Gabriel dropped into a chair and stared at her, dumbfounded. "...where's Gallifrey' What's a TARDIS?" He shook his head, glancing around again, deciding it was not a mysteriously well put together ruse.

The innkeeper came over, laying a leather mug of eye-wateringly fine whiskey down in front of Gabriel. He nodded to Silana again with a grin as she thanked him, moving back about his business. Silana herself turned her smiling face back toward her confused companion.

"It stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space," she explained obtusely. "And Gallifrey is in the constellation of Kasterborous, at co-ordinates ten-zero-eleven-zero-zero by zero-two from galactic zero centre."

"Speakin' gibberish," he replied, waving at her dismissively as he scooped up the drink and took a swig, eyeing her from over the table with open suspicion and confusion.

"Only to the uneducated ear," she chuckled. "Your perception fits the way you live; who am I to argue with that?"

"M'perception fits sanity. What's all this talk about constellations and galactic centers an' all. You tryin' to say you're from space?"

"No, I'm from Gallifrey, a planet in the Kasterborous constellation," she explained again, little more coherently for him this time. "Why, where are you from?"

"Think I was born in what used t' be Spain, but I dunno, it all looks the same."

"Ah, so I have brought you home," Silana declared delightedly. "Well, more or less. Would you like to see Madrid, perhaps" Or maybe Barcelona, although, of course, that marvellous cathedral hasn't been finished yet."

"What marvellous cathedral?" he quirked a brow at her.

Her jaw dropped. "You have never seen the Catedral de la Santa Cruz y Santa Eulalia?" she demanded with some shock. "And you, from the 22nd century?"

"Ye must not be familiar with the timeline, there was this big war, somethin' opened in the sky while the men an' women killed each other, and fire washed over the Earth. There's nothin' left but people with shattered minds an' mutants."

She frowned thoughtfully. "You'll have to show me sometime," she told him. "Admittedly, my grasp of Earth's history is not as complete as some others I could mention, but that's besides the point. Enjoying your drink" Do you like to swim?"

"It's good," he replied with a nod. "I...dunno, waters all irradiated, never had a real chance to. An'...I don't think it's a place anyone would like t' go visit."

"I didn't say to visit," she pointed out, tapping her nose mysteriously. "Just to show me sometime. You have to accept that everything comes to an end, everyone leaves, or else you'd go utterly bonkers."

"Why bother showing it to you? It's just a wasteland, burnt plains, tainted water, cannibals."

"Because unless a Time Lord - or Lady - actually lays eyes upon it, there will be no record of it happening in the Matrix," she argued, patting the table. "Drink up, it's past time I was getting you back to your grubby little street in Rhy'Din city."

"So you're what? One o' these time persons then?" he sipped his drink again and nodded slowly. "Takin' me back then" Why's that?"

"Time Lady," she corrected, rising to her feet in a sudden burst of energy. "Well, you don't honestly believe it's allowed, do you, to remove someone from their timezone without the proper permissions and suchlike" I wouldn't dream of going against the President's orders in such a manner ....why, I'd have to turn renegade, and that wouldn't suit me, oh no, not at all."

"President?" he blinked, jumping back and nearly falling out of his seat as she stood so suddenly. "What' Permission' Well, I didn't say no, and didn't you already do that anyhow?"

"To alter any facet of the web of time is to begin ripples that will have far-reaching consequences," she shrugged. "Come along, don't be all day. If I have to, I'll leave you here for a year or so while I discuss my misbehaviour before the Council."

"Fine, fine, hold on," he grumbled, stood, and turned for the door. "Pushy woman, aren't ya?"

"If you must barge into my ship without invitation, you must take the consequences, mustn't you?" she laughed pleasantly, moving to follow him to the doorway. But even in that laughing warning, there was a gentle reassurance that, barring circumstances utterly beyond her control, those consequences would not harm him if she could possibly help it.

((Many thanks to Gabriel's player for this scene!))