River Song (wifeofthedoctor) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-03-24 21:58:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, river song, twelfth doctor |
Who: River Song and Twelve
What: The Doctor and River meet and as usual it's in the wrong order.
When: Backdated: Mid February
Where: A Park near UC Irvine
Rating/Warnings: Family Friendly
Status: Complete!
River had a feeling that she’d had one of those dreams that everyone was always talking about, but if that were true then she’d been gypped. Her first dream and she’d died. Died in a library to save someone she didn’t even know for someone called The Doctor who she appeared to know, but he didn’t appear to know her. Upon waking up it had felt like there was more she should have remembered; as if she knew what had happened before she’d found herself in that library, but nothing came to her. It was an odd situation and she hoped that this wasn’t her only dream. She hoped that perhaps she’d have more dreams to fill in the blanks.
For the time being she had decided to grab a coffee before she spent the day grading papers and since she didn’t have a coffee maker yet, she had to go to the coffee shop down the street from her flat. On the way back she passed a park between her flat and the coffee shop and decided to stop and drink her coffee on a bench.
To say that Duncan was agitated was an understatement. His dreams had started again and he knew that somewhere in them, Clara would die. She had died on Christmas morning, an obvious effect from a dream she’d had. So he kept waiting as his dreams passed one by one, anxiety getting the best of him as he wondered just when and how her death would occur. It weighed on him both as the Doctor and as Duncan. In the dreams, Clara was his companion. In reality, she was his daughter.
So he was trying to distract himself, rather poorly, from his dreams, and he was in a park. He had some tea and a book, though he spent most of the time watching the people in the park. Which was how he instantly spotted her. He would recognize her anywhere.
River Song. Melody Pond. Amy and Rory’s daughter who had been a Time Lord, or something close to it, until she had used her regenerations to save him. They were always meeting in the wrong order, and this time was no different. He had recognized her on the Valarnet thing, but he had been careful to not give away that he knew who she was. After all, she probably hadn’t dreamed yet. But he may as well go say hello lest she slap him later for not saying hello once she knew who he was. So he mosied on over to the bench she sat down on, his fashion sense rather lacking with pants, boots, a t-shirt and a dark jacket with red lining. Someone could probably mistake him for being a magician.
“Is this seat taken?” Oh, he did have manners, it seemed. That was a good start.
River looked up at the question and shook her head, “Not at all. Feel free.” She moved over a little so that the newcomer would have plenty of room. She didn’t want to encroach on the man’s personal space after all. “That’s a lovely jacket, by the way.” It wasn’t something one might wear casually, but this man made it work.
Duncan’s fashion sense was very questionable, but he liked this jacket. He thought it gave him some flare. And hopefully distracted people from focusing on the fact he had angry attack eyebrows. At least that’s how he affectionately referred to them. He took a seat and looked at her, then at his jacket.
“Oh, thank you, I do appreciate it. I got it recently, kind of an impulse buy, if you will.” Not an impulse buy, but he wasn’t about to talk about dreams and gifts with her yet. No, he’d let her bring them up. So for now, it was Rule One: The Doctor lies. Or evades the truth in this matter.
River had read quite a lot about the dreams on Valar net, so if he’d started talking about dreams she probably would have asked him a number of questions about them. She’d yet to actually meet anyone in person who had these dreams; at least no one she’d met had talked about them upon meeting so as far as she knew she hadn’t met anyone who had the dreams. “Where does one get a coat like that? It almost looks like it was made just for you.”
Then there was a golden question. Duncan looked at her, wondering how similar to the River in his dreams she was. If the two were anything alike, she would be open to discussing the dreams, and able to handle the truth of how he came to get the jacket. But instead of hitting her over the head with a proverbial sledgehammer in stating such a thing, he opted for trying something else. “Would you believe that it arrived like a dream?”
River’s brows rose slightly at that question and she turned her body a little so that she was facing the man a little more, “A dream? You know, I think I’ve heard people talking about that sort of thing.” She found the dreams people spoke of on Valarnet very intriguing. Some were a little disconcerting, but as a whole it was interesting and especially now that she had apparently begun dreaming, she was even more interested in the dreams.
Yes good. This was a good start. “On that website thing, Valarnet, yes. It can read as a bunch of people having delusions of grandeur or waking nightmares, depending on the dream in question. But there is more to it than that. Since you are still here and not actively trying to call the authorities or anything, you at least find the topic intriguing?”
“I do actually,” River had never been one to interpret dreams or think that dreams actually meant something, but the way people on Valarnet had talked about their dreams intrigued her. “In fact, I may have had one of my own.” She still didn’t understand it, but it had certainly felt different than other dreams she’d had in the past.
“Did you? What makes you think you had one?” He would let her tell him all about it rather than start in with him blathering on about how he knew who she was in the dreams. Spoilers and all. Besides, if she had dreamed about their dream universe, the Doctor she dreamt about clearly wasn’t him. Otherwise she would’ve recognized him. So he would remain incognito for the time being.
“Because it felt different than normal dreams. Different than even the vivid ones.” River had heard many things about the dreams and it wasn’t until she’d had this one that she truly understood what everyone meant when they talked about them, “It felt more like a memory than anything else.”
“Ah, yes, that is the telltale sign. Sorry to say, but you’re suffering from vivid dream-memories of some other life, like the rest of us.” It was his way of saying ‘welcome to the club’ really. “What sort of place did you dream about? Was it filled with supernatural creatures and magic? Or were you on a distant planet in the distant future doing future-y things?”
“It was a library. The greatest library in the Universe, which was actually it’s own planet. That’s how big it was.” River couldn’t even imagine how many books and other texts must have been in that library in order for it to be that big. “I was an archaeologist, much like I am in real life, and I was with a group and we were trying to find out why the library had been deserted for over one hundred years.” She knew how crazy it sounded, but there was something about this man that made her think that he wouldn’t find it quite so crazy.
The library. Of course she’d dream about the library first. He didn’t like thinking about that time, but he could rest assured that he had saved her in the end. Managed to save her to the computer after taking years to devise the way to do it and to perfect it. “Now that sounds like a brilliant library. I would love to see that.” He was just going to pretend he didn’t know what she was talking about for the time being. And he didn’t poke fun at the archaeologist thing either.
“It was quite impressive. I would have loved to have had time to actually spend looking through the stacks,” River had no way of knowing that the man she was speaking to had any knowledge of the events she was talking about. He had a different face after all. A face she didn’t know yet and wouldn’t for awhile. “We had a bit of an incident that didn’t give us much time to explore.”
“I bet you could spend a lifetime in that library and still not get through the entire thing.” He did wonder if he would ever go back to that library in the future. The lure of the books was strong, but after the events that had occurred there, he probably couldn’t bear going back. “Ah, now that is something, isn’t it? Incidents keeping us from properly exploring and doing things we’re curious about.”
“Oh, multiple lifetimes. I wouldn’t even know where to begin though.” River had seen some extremely amazing and fascinating things throughout her career, but that library almost rivaled them all, “It’s a shame I probably won’t dream about it again.” She had died after all.
“I would suggest biographies. Always did enjoy biographies.” He may have taken that line from the version of the Doctor that River had just dreamed about, but the sentiment had carried through to his regeneration. “Pity, that sounds like nice place to get lost in.” Though he already knew River’s fate, and that he had saved her. Not to mention she would cross paths with him again after the library. Notably at Trenzalore.
River smiled at the other man and nodded, “Biographies are a good place to start.” She took a sip of her coffee, noticing her watch out of the corner of her eye, “I hate to cut this short, but I need to go. I have papers I need to grade before tomorrow.” She got to her feet and turned to the man, “I’m River Song, by the way.” She realized then that she had told this man all about her dream, with the exception of her dying, but they hadn’t exchanged names.
“Ah yes of course, don’t let me keep you. The luxuries of being retired, you don’t have to keep to a strict schedule if you don’t want to.” He said with a smile. “I’m Duncan Fletcher. It’s a pleasure to have met you, River Song. Perhaps we shall see each other again?” He well knew they would see each other again. He would, for now, wait and see if she recognized him as the Doctor first or if he’d have to give her some help. But for now, he’d leave it as it was. River Song had his attention just as she did in the dreams. Time would tell how this would play out.