[She hops off the stump she had been sitting on, boots soundless. Still the victim of a vengefully inadequate wardrobe, she's got on a short skirt and a sweater, but she doesn't appear uncomfortable in it; she isn't shivering, and her nose isn't red with the frost.
( it's not the strangest thing that river has ever seen. it also doesnt get a comment -- she's not rude and as human as this girl looks maybe she isn't )
Shall we?
( she's wearing the outfit that clara first met her in and whilst it seems more layered it isn't that protective against the cold. good job temperatures don't particularly affect her )
[Clara response by way of setting off, boots crunching over dead leaves in a line for the trees. There's a sort of unsettled energy in her movements, simmering beneath the lid, in the way her shoulders square and her smile stretches.]
Love a good midnight walk in monster-infested woods.
( she's absolutely not serious with that question considering that there likely is a better time but river also has done this before. when you sleep very little you find things to occupy yourself with.
even though their last conversation was only conducted through text river is also far calmer than she was then -- no more frustrations irritating her body )
[Clara is certainly glad to see that whatever was plaguing River has apparently cleared up. She’s not sure she could handle any awkward advances, not on today of all days.]
It’s not home, but I miss the town. I’ve been aching for my bathtub and my kettle for weeks.
[A bit like Stockholm Syndrome, perhaps. But she’s always needed a few creature comforts, at the end of a tough day.]
( just dont ask what happened after the conversation with clara. though river doesn't need an aphrodisiac for awkward advances. it's almost her middle name )
Or a good bottle of wine.
( it might take longer for river to settle or feel 'home' (if she did) but she could still appreciate creature comforts. a good hot bath, some very nice food and good wine always helped. not that any of those things would make her like this place more, just feel a little more herself (or clearer headed) temporarily )
( river says it confidently as if she knows exactly what clara is talking about and whilst she has definitely had some wild nights they're probably not in the same meaning that clara has. her eighteen was never rightly timed )
Besides, travelling in a non-linear fashion makes it harder to keep count. That much I know.
( you could still keep track of the days but humans didn't -- too caught up in the adventure and excitement and then getting slotted back into their lives as if no time had passed. how did you manage that? )
[Clara smiles. At least she has someone to share that incredibly specific complaint with.]
I used to show up after an hour's lunch break with longer hair and a sun tan. And with all the times that happened, I guess I could really be years older. [Oh, the fond memories, though.] Everyone at Coal Hill just thought I was a nut.
( oh, she could relate. at university no one had particularly noticed and then she was her own entity (and barely around). in prison she'd always returned in different clothes and far too happy. they'd about given up )
Coal Hill?
( it isn't anywhere or anything she'd heard of before but her earth years had been very sheltered )
Ah. ( river nods. the only school she knows is the one she attended in leadworth. kovarian hadn't bothered that first time in america )
I never actually spent that much time on Earth.
( which is mostly a lie. half a lie. river did grow up there and had returned to visit her parents or the occasional time adventure but most of her life had been spent on luna, in stormcage or flitting about somewhere. and she had 24 years upcoming on another planet
but river offers the nugget sort of as an explanation and sort of so clara can know her a little. they both had to get to know the other better and this felt right. and whilst she's technically lying in terms of her life river song hadn't spent that much time on earth )
[Well, for someone like River - or at least, with all Clara assumes about her - Earth must be an afterthought of a planet. Primitive and dull. It’s still always puzzled and charmed her that the Doctor chose to spend so much time there himself, given what else he had at his fingertips.]
I lived there for twenty-four years, full-time. Then less and less, until I was only going back for work.
( once you've seen something so incredible how could you ever go back? she'd heard the same thing from her parents, that want of not missing out on their life and not wanting to lose the adventure. at least in the end they'd still had each other )
Why did you go back to work?
( it's curious. she's never had the attachment of home to never be able to give it up. with stormcage returning each time had been necessity and after her life had been her own, few attachments for anyone to notice her )
[She shrugs, not because she doesn't know the answer but because she's not sure River would understand.]
It kept me grounded.
[As long as that life was still there to go back to, she felt like she knew who she was, like she could keep herself in check. She felt human.]
I needed a place to come back to, I think. Traveling became my life, and the TARDIS was my home, but sometimes I needed to go back to my family and my apartment and my students, and remember where I came from. Get my head back on straight, I guess.
[And more than that, she felt like she owed it to Danny not to lose sight of herself. She felt like she owed it to him to keep teaching, to take care of the kids he had to leave behind.]
( clara is right in thinking that river doesn't understand. though she tries to imagine it that sense of belonging is something that she'd never had. though in her second childhood she'd tried to find it, having amy and rory there with her, it was never anything real. she could never be real and there was always that fear that kovarian would easily rip it all away.
she tries, though. imagining that home she'd always wanted, the people that wanted her, somewhere to tell her stories at the end of the day. purpose and family )
It must have been nice. ( and difficult. that part river understood, the loneliness of not being able to tell anyone what you were really doing or the other life that you had. seeing the stars, the people that you'd met -- who you were ) To have somewhere you wanted to see after all of that.
[The pain in River's reaction doesn't go undetected. Clara softens, slowing her pace.]
It was just sad, towards the end. [The wistfulness drops from her voice, leaving it flatter, more honest.] I'd changed too much to fit in there. Everyone knew something was off, but I kept lying. And I left them all worse off, after.
[She had said a few words to her dad and gran in the last year, at most. No one from Coal Hill could ever reach her outside of class hours. Even her kids started rumors about her increasingly eccentric behavior, all of her absences and excuses whenever a crisis struck. Everyone knew she was hiding something, and no one knew what.
And then came Trap Street, and she took all those secrets to the grave.]
Sometimes I think I should've given them a clean break.
( that same sadness leaves her feeling incredibly passionately on this. when her parents had known who she was she had enjoyed the time that she spent with them immensely, almost clutching to it even though it could never make up for all of her lost years.
but it had been wonderful.
she also knew that the same thing had happened with them. people had started questioning their lack of presence, missing events, friendships. it made her certain in her guess that had she not been taken from them that they likely would have stopped travelling with the doctor, that they would have stayed on earth to raise her. the tardis was no place for a child (a decision she'd also had to make).
but it was one thing to never know something, to never have people in your life and another thing to walk away from it, to lose it )
People are important. No one more so than the people we love.
[But what if, she wants to ask, I loved the one who took me away more than the ones I left behind? Her family was left with a lifetime of her to mourn, but if she had to choose...
She would have chosen him every time. Maybe, more than anything, she just wishes that she had told her dad and her gran, so that when her death came they could have known why. They wouldn't have been left with a dusty, long-untouched apartment and a stack of therapy bills and so, so many questions.]
I still lost them all, in the end. Guess I'll never know how much better or worse it could have gone.
[Bills stacked up in her mailbox. Fish tank vacated. Clothes missing from her wardrobe. The picture she stepped out of haunts her, six weeks later. It's not worth anguishing over, yet she still can't keep wondering, worrying.]
... There's a girl traveling with me who's been alive for millions of years. All the family she's ever had, she's lost and forgotten. Left them ages in the past. I don't want to become that, either. Maybe... maybe I'm wishing for something that's not possible.
( they've quickly approached territory that river has no idea how to handle. though she keeps herself distant, terrible at making connections to the people around her, river has lost people -- both those that are strangers and the people that she's loved. she knows the pain of it and honestly her response to it is not something she would advise on. she knows it isn't healthy but river also doesn't know any other way, a product of her upbringing.
but what about the other influences in her life, others that have also loved and lost? the doctor's response also wasn't healthy. her parents-- she'd been with them that summer, had heard so much from them even trying to keep herself apart from them. hearing about her baby self had been difficult )
You're someone else. I don't know you enough to say if you are but wishing for something different sounds like somewhere to start.
[Clara casts her eyes up, at the dark sky peeking through the treetops, and reels herself back in. It's hard, talking to someone who knows what it's like for the first time, who could actually understand why Clara hurts so badly, and trying to hold her tongue. Clara needs to say it, but River doesn't need to hear it.
She walks in silence for a moment, and takes a breath, filling up disused lungs.]
[It certainly does. She had always assumed River was like the Doctor, if not actually from Gallifrey. A member of some superior, future species, at the very least. And she's not sure where Leadworth is, but it sounds like England, matching River's accent.]
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[She hops off the stump she had been sitting on, boots soundless. Still the victim of a vengefully inadequate wardrobe, she's got on a short skirt and a sweater, but she doesn't appear uncomfortable in it; she isn't shivering, and her nose isn't red with the frost.
Stranger - there are no puffs of white breath.]
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Shall we?
( she's wearing the outfit that clara first met her in and whilst it seems more layered it isn't that protective against the cold. good job temperatures don't particularly affect her )
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Love a good midnight walk in monster-infested woods.
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( she's absolutely not serious with that question considering that there likely is a better time but river also has done this before. when you sleep very little you find things to occupy yourself with.
even though their last conversation was only conducted through text river is also far calmer than she was then -- no more frustrations irritating her body )
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It’s not home, but I miss the town. I’ve been aching for my bathtub and my kettle for weeks.
[A bit like Stockholm Syndrome, perhaps. But she’s always needed a few creature comforts, at the end of a tough day.]
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Or a good bottle of wine.
( it might take longer for river to settle or feel 'home' (if she did) but she could still appreciate creature comforts. a good hot bath, some very nice food and good wine always helped. not that any of those things would make her like this place more, just feel a little more herself (or clearer headed) temporarily )
That I haven't had luck with.
( the bath was (usually) an easier fix )
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That would be worth the walk back to town. I could drink a Tesco out of their wine aisle about now.
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I'd be willing to do it.
( also most definitely considering it right now )
The monsters aren't going anywhere.
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[Clara steps on an iced puddle, and listens to the crunch.]
... It’s my birthday this week. Not quite sure how old I’m turning, but you’re never too mature to celebrate like an eighteen-year-old.
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( river says it confidently as if she knows exactly what clara is talking about and whilst she has definitely had some wild nights they're probably not in the same meaning that clara has. her eighteen was never rightly timed )
Besides, travelling in a non-linear fashion makes it harder to keep count. That much I know.
( you could still keep track of the days but humans didn't -- too caught up in the adventure and excitement and then getting slotted back into their lives as if no time had passed. how did you manage that? )
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I used to show up after an hour's lunch break with longer hair and a sun tan. And with all the times that happened, I guess I could really be years older. [Oh, the fond memories, though.] Everyone at Coal Hill just thought I was a nut.
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Coal Hill?
( it isn't anywhere or anything she'd heard of before but her earth years had been very sheltered )
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[She misses it so dearly, and only the dark of the forest keeps it from showing in her face.]
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I never actually spent that much time on Earth.
( which is mostly a lie. half a lie. river did grow up there and had returned to visit her parents or the occasional time adventure but most of her life had been spent on luna, in stormcage or flitting about somewhere. and she had 24 years upcoming on another planet
but river offers the nugget sort of as an explanation and sort of so clara can know her a little. they both had to get to know the other better and this felt right. and whilst she's technically lying in terms of her life river song hadn't spent that much time on earth )
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I lived there for twenty-four years, full-time. Then less and less, until I was only going back for work.
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( once you've seen something so incredible how could you ever go back? she'd heard the same thing from her parents, that want of not missing out on their life and not wanting to lose the adventure. at least in the end they'd still had each other )
Why did you go back to work?
( it's curious. she's never had the attachment of home to never be able to give it up. with stormcage returning each time had been necessity and after her life had been her own, few attachments for anyone to notice her )
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It kept me grounded.
[As long as that life was still there to go back to, she felt like she knew who she was, like she could keep herself in check. She felt human.]
I needed a place to come back to, I think. Traveling became my life, and the TARDIS was my home, but sometimes I needed to go back to my family and my apartment and my students, and remember where I came from. Get my head back on straight, I guess.
[And more than that, she felt like she owed it to Danny not to lose sight of herself. She felt like she owed it to him to keep teaching, to take care of the kids he had to leave behind.]
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she tries, though. imagining that home she'd always wanted, the people that wanted her, somewhere to tell her stories at the end of the day. purpose and family )
It must have been nice. ( and difficult. that part river understood, the loneliness of not being able to tell anyone what you were really doing or the other life that you had. seeing the stars, the people that you'd met -- who you were ) To have somewhere you wanted to see after all of that.
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It was just sad, towards the end. [The wistfulness drops from her voice, leaving it flatter, more honest.] I'd changed too much to fit in there. Everyone knew something was off, but I kept lying. And I left them all worse off, after.
[She had said a few words to her dad and gran in the last year, at most. No one from Coal Hill could ever reach her outside of class hours. Even her kids started rumors about her increasingly eccentric behavior, all of her absences and excuses whenever a crisis struck. Everyone knew she was hiding something, and no one knew what.
And then came Trap Street, and she took all those secrets to the grave.]
Sometimes I think I should've given them a clean break.
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( that same sadness leaves her feeling incredibly passionately on this. when her parents had known who she was she had enjoyed the time that she spent with them immensely, almost clutching to it even though it could never make up for all of her lost years.
but it had been wonderful.
she also knew that the same thing had happened with them. people had started questioning their lack of presence, missing events, friendships. it made her certain in her guess that had she not been taken from them that they likely would have stopped travelling with the doctor, that they would have stayed on earth to raise her. the tardis was no place for a child (a decision she'd also had to make).
but it was one thing to never know something, to never have people in your life and another thing to walk away from it, to lose it )
People are important. No one more so than the people we love.
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She would have chosen him every time. Maybe, more than anything, she just wishes that she had told her dad and her gran, so that when her death came they could have known why. They wouldn't have been left with a dusty, long-untouched apartment and a stack of therapy bills and so, so many questions.]
I still lost them all, in the end. Guess I'll never know how much better or worse it could have gone.
[Bills stacked up in her mailbox. Fish tank vacated. Clothes missing from her wardrobe. The picture she stepped out of haunts her, six weeks later. It's not worth anguishing over, yet she still can't keep wondering, worrying.]
... There's a girl traveling with me who's been alive for millions of years. All the family she's ever had, she's lost and forgotten. Left them ages in the past. I don't want to become that, either. Maybe... maybe I'm wishing for something that's not possible.
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but what about the other influences in her life, others that have also loved and lost? the doctor's response also wasn't healthy. her parents-- she'd been with them that summer, had heard so much from them even trying to keep herself apart from them. hearing about her baby self had been difficult )
You're someone else. I don't know you enough to say if you are but wishing for something different sounds like somewhere to start.
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She walks in silence for a moment, and takes a breath, filling up disused lungs.]
Where did you spend time on Earth?
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( always travelling. there had been a few times she'd stayed in one place but, other than growing up, it had never been for more than a few months )
But mostly in Leadworth. It's where my parents lived.
( which possibly messes with clara's expectation of her given her earlier denial of being on earth that much )
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I haven't heard of it.
[A bit apologetic, but also curious.]
I'm from Blackpool.
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