Fresh air and Exercise [OPEN]

[no_nonsense]

Who: Susan and Anyone (But particularly Athos.)
Where: Outside in the (arguably) fresh air.
When: Monday the 22nd (Last Day of the Truth Event)
Rating: PG?
Summary: Wonder Land is incredibly stressful and Susan has decided she's taking a break. She's going to cheerfully ignore everything magical and distressing and try to have fun.
The Story:

Susan hadn't found Wonder Land particularly enjoyable, even when it was all new and innocuous. At first, its quirks an eccentricities were eerie, but not particularly troublesome. Over time, that had changed, and her opinion of Wonder Land had changed with it. Now that she'd been stabbed, subjected to Medical Intervention, evaded a sinister duplicate of herself, witnessed a Living (for the most part) Chess Match between two ridiculously clad Magical Monarchs, and had been sent to an eerily familiar, sinister, duplicate version of this bubble reality, well, she was far less enamored with the lot of it. The fact that she was all too ready to spout the truth at people, lately, was the final half-brick in the bicycle path of her tolerance.

Susan Sto-Helit was Done for the moment.

Teatime could be wandering about, stabbing people and waving her Grandad's sword like his own personal banner, horrors could be springing from the woodwork like particularly resilient, toothsome daisies, and her other self could be setting reality aflame, Susan didn't care. She was Done and now it was time to take a break.

With the steadfast determination of a schoolteacher on holiday, Susan went about finding an appropriate way to relax. She'd never held well with aquatic sports and she was healed up enough that the regular sort of fresh-air-and-sunshine variety of entertainment was once again open to her. This was fortunate for a great many reasons, but mostly because that sort of entertainment didn't usually involve much talking (and tended to allow people to hit others with sticks, something she'd recently felt very inclined to do). So, grimly determined as she was, Susan changed into something appropriately athletic¹, extracted a bit of sporting equipment from her Closet, and promptly stalked out onto the Grounds.



¹Meaning flat shoes and a skirt that came up just above the ankle. She drew the line at short sleeves, but she did forego the vest and tie in an effort to be more fun.

(OOC: I've dropped a few prompts in here for anyone who'd like something more specific, but if you have an idea and would like your character to run into Susan anywhere else, please have at!)

Comments

[selfrespecting]

While Martha had endured her fair share of rambles from the Doctor that went over her head, this still left her feeling like she was out of her element, like she didn't have all the information she needed to follow along with what Susan was saying.

She tried to make sense of it where she could, though. Start to finish. Something that had existed before the beginning of Time, and would continue after it. Was such a thing even possible? Martha had seen the end of the universe. She'd felt the desperation, the fear, the inevitability even as all of those humans had hoped for something more. That had all gone so, so wrong.

But then there were other universes, other streams of time. Martha didn't know if there would ever be a true end.

"I don't think I'd even want to live for a few centuries. Time takes its toll," she said, surprisingly open. "I've made a few friends who are hundreds of years old, and they all have this sadness, this... weight to them. I don't think that being eternal is really possible, is it?"

She'd never heard of such a thing. Time Lords died. Jack had eventually died. Time was the only thing that truly lasted forever.

[no_nonsense]

"It is," Susan answered simply, but her expression fell to a sympathetic sort of frown. She knew, all to well, what the sorrow of years looked like. In fact, she'd seen it coming and going, and it was always intensely disturbing. Each instance was different, of course, but there was always that sense of infinite melancholy that permeated everything.

"Rare, mind, but possible," Susan clarified and her brow furrowed as she thought. Before she could stop herself, she said, "I've only met three...well maybe not people, specifically, who qualify."

She paused and, honestly, looked a bit surprised that she'd said that. The urge to be truthful and forthcoming was one thing, but having a Personal discussion with someone she barely knew was something else, altogether. After her pause, Susan cleared her throat and settled her free hand on her hip.

"I'm sorry, we were talking about good Doctors and how hard they are to come by. They must be in abundance where you're from, if people are living hundreds of years."

[selfrespecting]

It's something that was difficult for Martha to swallow. How could it even be possible? How could something exist for that long, and that absolutely? She wasn't surprised that Susan specified that they weren't exactly people, because there was no way something could be conscious and present for that long and still be anything like a human -- or anything else, for that matter.

She wanted to ask more about it, get the details, but the way that Susan changed the subject on her made it fairly obvious that she didn't want to talk about it anymore. Maybe this wasn't the best thing to be discussing for a first conversation, anyway.

"Well, it's not humans who are living that long," Martha clarified. "I was speaking more of... other species. I've traveled a bit -- outside of Earth, that is, so I've met a few long-lived people." And non-people, but she was trying not to get too caught up in the terminology.

Normally she would have stopped there, but Martha ended up adding a bit more. "The person I traveled with is a Time Lord... he's at least nine hundred years old, I think."

[no_nonsense]

Considering the fact that Susan's sensibilities and dress clearly reflected an era before air travel was relatively common, she seemed strangely nonplussed about the idea of traveling outside of a world. True, this was partly due to the fact that they were currently outside any particular world, and partly due to the fact that Martha hadn't specified that she'd done so without magic. In any case, extra-terrestrial adventures didn't occur to Susan as a viable topic.

The way she'd said 'other species' was a bit odd, but the idea wasn't odd. Susan was from a place where the term People (and, indeed, human, usually) encompassed a wide array of creatures that most other worlds would have dubbed anything from Pests to Building Materials. Given that she was bound to be truthful, that area of conversation was, perhaps, best left untouched.

"A Time Lord?" Susan asked and couldn't keep a note of mild skepticism out of her voice. "And he's earned that title in only nine hundred years, has he? Bit of a social climber, eh?"

It was a terribly rude question and Susan looked apologetic once she'd said it. She couldn't help herself. Unfortunately, there was no going back and claiming she'd meant to say something else, so she winced and soldiered on.

"Ah, sorry," Susan added, a touch awkwardly. "What in the world is a Time Lord?"

[selfrespecting]

Martha took zero offense at the comment. In fact, she had come out with a similar response when she'd heard what the Doctor was. Not pompous at all, then, she'd said. It was a ridiculous title when she thought too hard on it, but she'd interacted with the Doctor for so long at this point that she was frankly used to it.

"It's fine," she said with a shake of her head. "Though honestly, that's just what his species is called. Time Lords or Time Ladies. They're from a planet called Gallifrey." A place that no longer existed, and that she'd never be able to see with her own eyes. But the Doctor had told her about it, and that had been enough.

"They have some amount of control over the flow of time, and they're also charged with keeping time in order... seeing to it that things don't get all mucked up, you know?"

Maybe Susan didn't. Maybe she hadn't encountered temporal problems before. But Martha could tell that Susan had at least seen her fair share of odd things, so maybe...

[no_nonsense]

"Oh," Susan said with all the polite surprise of a person who'd just watched the cogs of the universe snap, accidentally, into perfect alignment. The idea that there were people running around, making sure Time didn't get too carried away, that was one Susan was very familiar with.¹ Susan gave Martha a short nod of confirmation.

Then, with the air of a woman who had been told this directly, had verified the accuracy of it, and had no idea that the word had any other possible applications, Susan said: "Dongs."

She paused a moment and furrowed her brow.

"Or Jims. Something rather enlightened." Susan shrugged, casually, and shot Martha a knowing look, as one does when they believe that they are on the same page with the person they are speaking to. Unfortunately, as usual, Susan was reading out of another book entirely.²

"I hadn't heard 'Time Lords', but I suppose it's more respectable sounding than 'History Monks,'" Susan continued and added, rather chattily: "That Universe mustn't have a Time, or if it does, a very relaxed one, if people are allowed to go about calling themselves Lords and Ladies--Hang on.

"Nine hundred, you said? This person isn't a small bald man with a penchant for sweeping, are they? About so high? Quotes ridiculous folksy sayings on a regular basis?"

1 Daresay, Intimately.
2 One that had been taken from another section, in another library, on a distant continent, possibly off the restocking cart.

[selfrespecting]

Dongs? Jims? Just where had this conversation gone, and how had they gotten there? The moment that Martha felt like they might be on the same page, something sent her flipping forward or backward. It was the result of being from different universes, of course, but it could get a bit frustrating.

Either way, she didn't return that knowing look with anything more than a raised eyebrow.

"Well, time still has its rules. But it can certainly be molded or altered depending on the situation." Which was far too complicated to get into now, when this was supposed to have just been a friendly chat.

Susan seemed to have a nine hundred year old alien of her own in her life, but the description wasn't anything that Martha recognized. On the other hand, the Doctor switched faces and personalities on a semi-regular basis, so there was always the chance of it...

"No, he isn't, but the Doctor's changes his appearance from time to time. If he had a blue police box he traveled in, then that's definitely him. If not, then it may just be a coincidence." But the more that Martha heard about Susan, the more interested she became. She was going to have to get her story out of her at some point.

[no_nonsense]

Oh dear, a History Monk--rather, a Time Lord and a Doctor. Susan's expression went flat faster than an unlucky mouse during a Troll parade. The good news was that this Doctor didn't sound much like Lu-Tze, the bad news was that now she knew there were two nine hundred year old, self-satisfied men meddling in the affairs of Time and Space.

Lovely.

"I sometimes suspect that, of all things, the only thing that truly doesn't exist is Coincidence, but you may be right. I doubt they're the same person, in any case," Susan agreed with a short sigh.

Unfortunately, as she ran the conversation back, Susan found that she had additional questions. Additional questions would, inevitably, lead to answers and conversation. While this was generally the idea behind having a conversation, now was probably not the best time. Much as Martha was pleasant to talk with, Susan wasn't eager to discuss things that were so very nearly Personal while she was compelled to be forthcoming.

Case in point:

"This has been a lovely chat, but, frankly, I expect we've shared quite enough for one day," Susan said, despite herself, and fought the urge to cluck her tongue in disapproval. After a beat she continued, "So, I'll stop by and have you see to these stitches, then? Perhaps later today?"

[selfrespecting]

Susan made a good point. Very often, things that seemed like they were coincidence could easily come around and bite you if you weren't careful. Martha would have to ask the Doctor if he'd ever been bald, but the fact still remained that she was almost positive that Susan was from some other universe.

If given the chance, Martha could have asked loads more questions herself, but she didn't really mind when Susan cut the conversation short. They'd already delved further into all of this than she'd ever intended, and the fact was that she'd interrupted Susan's lacrosse practice.

"That's fine by me," she said in response to both things. "I'll make sure to be there, so feel free to swing by and we'll take care of that."

And maybe then, she could also determine if it was really safe for Susan to be exerting herself this much at this point. She didn't seem to be in all that much pain, but there were some people who were shockingly good at hiding it.

"Enjoy!" Martha said as a parting comment, offering a wave before she headed off to finish her walk.