Timelord in Ten Forward

[thelasttimelord]

The Doctor is sitting on the window ledge again, one knee up and one leg hanging down, tapping on his absolutely, ordinary PADD. (That has been upgraded and hacked with a sonic screwdriver that would make The Sixteen Ways since Saturn12 split to retrograde pieces and stopped having Green Light Parties during the year of AppleBlackslash look slow even.)

There are more people, again. He doesn't need the PADD to tell him that. Every molecule of his body is attuned to every new rip of space and time that deposits them here. To every path being walked by every person who shouldn't be right here. (To the spot where Jack is, and everything is wrong.) To the nexus of this room, and the other parts of the ship that they are most drawn to.



The PADD can't tell any of Them any of that either.



But it does let him see what the Enterprise has on these new people so far.

Comments

[ethnobotany]

There's been a new rip recently, though this one has done more than the usual. Where usually the ship's crew is left relatively unphased by the people who come and go, relatively, there's a "new" face wandering around that has everyone on alert. If he's got enough access, he'll see that this time the ship's Chief Medical Officer was switched and a new, more traumatized version is here trying to settle in.

Settling in means keeping her distance for now. When Beverly isn't in the Arboretum or practicing Mok'bara somewhere quiet to meditate, she's spending short bursts of time in Ten Forward. Her typical fare seems to include a cup of tea, doesn't matter what kind, and a bowl of fruit. This she takes to a table, a different one each time, where she will sit long enough to eat it all, usually about an hour if she takes her time, and then she'll leave. Today is no different. Well, except for the person sitting close by she doesn't recognize.

Beverly offers a small smile and nods her head at his PADD. "Got some interesting reading?" she asks curiously.

She might also be one of the most interesting if he can tell that she's been pulled through space-time like this more than once.

[thelasttimelord]

The Doctor looked up, easy, widely manic smile for the red-headed woman. "Isn't it always?"

He ran thus thumb across it clearing the screen, even without looking away from her or setting free even a wrinkle from his face. "There's always something new to learn from it. No matter what you're reading, or how many times you read it."

It might have been a bit of a cheat that he could go back, talk to authors, talk to the people who'd just read the books for the first time, skipping through time and time and time, getting to have the next of whatever he wanted, or just being so far in the future it all already existed, long scattered as dust, like treasure to mine from time.

[ethnobotany]

"I guess that depends on how much you like what you're reading," Beverly comments, watching him as she picks up a strawberry. He's barely given her three sentences and she's already intrigued. That's rare. "May I ask what new thing you've gained from this reading?"

She isn't sure what she's expecting. Maybe an actual answer, maybe a turn around Deep Space 9's Promenade. Maybe nothing at all. Still, this is her hour or two today to talk to people and she has to admit she's curious.

[thelasttimelord]

The Doctor smiled, affable and easy, as he slid down from ledge and on to his trainers.

The brown coat billowing behind him in the riot of quick movement, all lively life in opposition from the still, contained focus of only a minute ago. Proper attention could not be paid to new people by being apart though, and she was still quite new by the look at the time trailing around her. It wasn't that simple -- none of it ever was here -- but that part, at least, was.

"Oh, you know." His grin goes wide. "This and that. New knowledge of the world, written in another words, showing you the world through their eyes, bestowing another viewing point and just like magic you consider things from a completely different point of view, learning on their context."

[ethnobotany]

Interesting words, interesting way of looking at things. As he approaches, she waves her hand at the chair across from her, clearly offering if he wants to sit with her for a time. She's very interested already and they've barely spoken.

"One might say that's a good way of looking at this situation entirely," she says carefully. "It's a learning experience. For all of us, displaced or not."

At this point, she has no idea who knows of her displacement and who doesn't. That has been a learning experience for her, too, figuring out who notices and who doesn't. Then again, she isn't wearing the right uniform, so that's a big red alert if anyone actually is paying attention.

[thelasttimelord]

The Doctor took the chair, twisting it around and dropping into it with a rustle of long trench coat around him and his nice suit, arms crossing on the back, bright expression. He liked this group well enough, and off the clock he didn't feel entirely like he needed to remain on ceremony. Not that he ever stood on ceremony, in any time, if it was between him and what he knew he needed to get done.

"True. Very true. There is a lot that could be learned and shared and come up with in this situation." That he might not like for all the ripping and twisting of time going on, but. "Things that might never be shared or learned in any other time or place. It's definitely unique."

[ethnobotany]

"You sound well-versed in this," Beverly comments, leaning an elbow on the table. Biting into a small piece of fruit, she fixes him with a calculating look. "Either that or you've just been here long enough to have grown used to the idea."

It could be either or both. For her personally, it's a touch of both after all. Who's to say it isn't both for a lot of other people here, especially those who have been here a long time?