Clara Oswald is going the long way round (alwaysbeenthere) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2018-10-30 13:01:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, clara oswald, william laurence |
Who: Clara and Laurence
What: Laurence comes across Clara’s diner - in a completely different city
When: Late August/Early September with a trip to 21 October 1805
Where: Clara’s TARDIS - only in Seal Beach and then to the Battle of Trafalgar
Warnings: Low
Status: Log | Complete
Laurence had not seen the cafe before, or, at least, he hadn’t seen it in Seal Beach before. He went for a run nearly every morning, and he was sure he would have noticed it before. That wasn’t to say that he had never seen it before. No, it took him a moment to recall exactly where he had seen it before, but he recalled that Clara had cafe that looked very similar, if not exactly the same, far from here.
He decided that he could take a break from his run, his curiosity peaked, and entered the restaurant, giving a slight start of surprise when he saw Clara behind the counter. “Miss Oswald,” he exclaimed, and then quickly recovered his wits. “What a pleasant surprise.”
The joys of a TARDIS, it could be a pop up diner where ever she so chose for it to be. Or more accurately, she’d decided to go on a little trip to the the coronation of Queen Victoria (apparently there was a rather strong resemblance between her and the then young queen) and when she put in the coordinates for where to return, she’d gotten the location wrong. Not that it mattered all that much. She at least had changed out of her Victorian attire (she did have quite a number of appropriate dresses from the time just from her dreams alone) and was in a more sensible outfit should someone come in while she was fiddling around with controls and the like.
But first she needed a break and had gone to the diner portion of the TARDIS to make herself some tea and as she waited she heard the bell announce someone entering and looked up as Laurence seemed shocked to see her, though he did seem to get his wits about him rather quickly. Meanwhile, the brunette just grinned.
“Well, good morning to you, Laurence!” As if this were the most natural thing in the world, having her ‘diner’ in...where had she landed again?
Laurence stepped inside, taking a seat at one of the stools at the counter and taking the whole restaurant in. It was remarkable, really, how close a resemblance it held to the other one, especially when it had popped up seemingly overnight. Try as he could to reconcile it, he couldn’t seem to make much sense of it.
“I had not realized you had a second location in Seal Beach, or I would have come to see you sooner,” he said, gently prodding for more information. “It’s truly remarkable how you’ve made it so similar to the other one.”
Oh poor Laurence. It really was hard to determine how much to tell him. He was on the network, he dreamt of dragons from previous conversations and yet…. To break his mind with the truth or not. Though he’d been around longer, perhaps he might be more receptive to the truth.
She could also tell he was hoping for some sort of explanation and seeing at how the diner hadn’t been there the night before….
“It’s a travelling location.” Ah and the water was ready, “Care for some tea?” Not an actual answer but she’d get there. First things first, tea.
“A travelling…” Laurence started, and stopped himself, not quite able to fathom how an entire building could just up and move from one city to the next. He hadn’t seen any sort of mechanism on the exterior of the cafe that would make such transportation easy.
“I would love a cup,” he said instead.
Yeah. This required an actual demonstration. But first things first, tea. So making herself a cup and then Laurence, she turned and handed him his cup before leaning against the wall as she contemplated the man before her some.
“Give me a time period or place, or both, and I can show you.”
She knew she’d sound mental but given where they were, was it really so far out of the realm of possibility?
“The Battle of Trafalgar, 1805,” Laurence answered automatically, it having always been a battle of great interest to him, especially now in light of his Dreams. It was only after he spoke that he realized the full weight of Clara’s words, and he gave her a puzzled glance. “Pray, what do you mean, you can ‘show me’?” he asked, frowning.
Grinning some, Clara had been about to head to the back when Laurence seemed to connect the rest of what she had said. Well, that certainly was one way to get him to the control room and give him more of an understanding of her travelling diner.
“This diner isn’t just any diner, but it’s also a space and time travelling ship. C’mon!”
No wonder the Doctor loved showing the TARDIS off so much. She had to admit, she really enjoyed showing people the truth of the TARDIS, like right now.
For a moment, Laurence was nearly convinced that he had misheard her, somehow, though try as he might, he couldn’t figure out from what he had misheard ‘this diner … is also a space and time travelling ship.’
“I beg pardon?” Laurence asked, rising from his seat and following Clara, slowly coming to grips with the fact that time travel, when put into the context of parallel universes with dragons, and dimension hopping demons might not be entirely impossible.
“TARDIS, or Time and Relative Dimension in Space.” Grinning, she pushed the door that should have led to a kitchen open and instead was a white room with a control panel in the center. So most assuredly not a kitchen.
“Dream thing. Obviously. Travel through time and space. Sometimes I forget where I landed or sometimes I just..end up where I’m needed.”
Time Lord technology, very complicated.
Laurence froze when he walked into the control panel, and it took him a moment to realize that his mouth was gaping open as he looked around. He could scarcely believe his eyes. It didn’t seem possible that a room this large was hidden away in the back of the cafe, but unless his eyes were deceiving him, that appeared to be exactly the case. “This is…” he said, searching for the correct word, “wonderful,” he added after a moment, not realizing immediately that he was using the word in the old sense, as his dream self would have, instead of its modern definition.
Spinning to walk backwards, Clara was able to catch Laurence’s expression and grinned. Really it was just a fantastic feeling to see someone getting to see the TARDIS for the first time and all that it could entail. And as she was quite used to being in the Victorian era from her dreams, she was more familiar with the old use of certain terms and it was easy to figure out what Laurence meant given the time and place he wanted to go.
“It really is.”
With a bounce, the brunette turned around quickly went into the control panel to put in the parameters.
“There’s a wardrobe so you can have appropriate clothing.” She’d need proper dress as well. At least it was about 90 years from some of the dresses she got specifically from the dreams and thus there was no risk of choosing a dress an echo version of herself had died in. The green dress was nice, and the barmaid one but again, about 90 years too late for when they were going.
Laurence made his way to the wardrobe to choose an outfit; he did have his Captain’s uniform from 1805 in his closet back at home, but he thought it would be rude to request to nip over there beforehand. In addition, it would likely be a terrible mistake to wear it. He would be questioned, no matter where they landed; if on land, he would be questioned as to where his ship was and why he was not engaged in battle, and if they were to land on another man’s ship, that would cause no end of confusion as to why he was there, and again, where his ship and crew were.
He eventually chose a jacket, and if the colour were not the deep bottle green of the aviator’s uniform, it was the nearest thing to it in the closet, and stepped behind a partition to change his clothes. He tied the neck cloth as though he had done it a thousand times, when in fact, he had never worn such a thing in the waking world. “These are quite impressive,” he said, stepping out from behind the partition once he had been changed, and admiring the cut of his sleeves. “Wherever did you find all of this? Is it all from the dreams, or did the TARDIS,” the name, now that he said it aloud, sounded familiar, though he had never watched much television himself, “come equipped with it?”
While Laurence stepped behind the partition, Clara looked over the dresses that she could choose from. She did appreciate that she wouldn’t need to deal with a corset this time around given the popularity of the empire waist in terms of dresses. Lots of fabric for shifts and the like, but no corsets. Always a win. Finding a dress in blue that would work, she waited for Laurence to come out and nodded in appreciation as he did.
“The TARDIS.” It was easier to leave it at that. Given the nature of time travel, it was just important to have appropriate outfits to not stick out. So once he was ready, she went behind the partition and put on her chosen dress and got her hair up in the appropriate hair style and came out just as it seemed that they arrived.
“Shall we?”
Laurence took a deep breath. This whole morning had taken the feel of some unworldly dream, and he was sure that at any moment, he might awaken. It was one thing to visit the 19th century in his dreams, it was entirely different to be there while awake. He realized belatedly that he would still be on route to China when the battle took place, and so even in his dreams, he would miss it entirely.
Clara’s voice pulled him back to reality, and he stood at the door for it to open and offered Clara his arm.
It certainly was a difference in dreaming about being in a different time period as opposed to actually visiting said time period in the waking world. But Clara had grown quite used to it after years in Orange County, as well as taking random trips. It would be criminal if she didn’t, and if she didn’t bring people along.
Grinning, Clara took the offered arm and the door opened and...they were in a storeroom in the galley with the sounds of gunfire and fighting overhead.
“Right. Should have seen that happening.”
“Oh dear,” Laurence said, as a cannon ball broke through the hull. It seemed to be moving slowly, deceptively slow, he realized instinctively. It seemed to be going slow enough that one could simply put their foot out to stop it in its path, and while his dreams hadn’t actually consisted of much of his time in the Navy before being transferred to the Aerial Corps, something in him told him not to try it. Sure enough, when the canon ball finally came to a rest, it had buried itself almost completely in the bulkhead.
He looked askance at Clara. He knew his dreamself would balk at having a woman on a ship during battle, despite his experience with the female captains in the Aerial Corps, but Laurence himself was hesitating for a different reason. Namely, what anyone would say if a gentlewoman appeared from the galley in the middle of one of the biggest naval battles in history. He would have enough enough trouble coming up with an excuse for why he, a man hitherto unseen and wearing civilian clothes, would be there.
“Perhaps you had best remain below,” he ventured.
Oh, Clara well knew that there was always the risk of showing up where she shouldn’t and having to find ways to get out of it. But she also wasn’t the type to just sit back and hide. It wasn’t even because she could be reckless, but she also used to being underestimated as sweet and little and she was neither, thank you very much. Well she figured Laurence was also more concerned about the how to explain her bit but she could figure that out.
“You say that as if you don’t know me. Don’t worry, I’ll handle it.”
It being whatever may come up because of her being there. Thank goodness for psychic paper. Never travel through time without it!
Laurence gave a curt nod. He didn’t hold the same prejudices as his dream self did in the matter - it was hard to, when there were so many capable women in all branches of the military these days - and if Clara was certain she could handle himself than he would believe her. In any case, she was the one with the greater experience when it came to time travelling.
“Very well,” he said. “Let’s go up top and see where we are,” he said, glancing around for the steps up. Another sailor was coming down as they reached the foot of the stairs, clearly in a rush as he came down toward the gunroom. He took a quick glance at Laurence and Clara, and then a second one as his brain processed what he had seen. Laurence couldn’t help but wince as he toppled the rest of the way down the stairs.
Clara had found that while there could certainly be the social and cultural prejudices, often times there might be some askance or confused looks but depending on the situation, those were often about it. At least they were on a British ship so that they wouldn’t be considered as spies.
Clara also winced as the man toppled the rest of the way down the ship. But again, they were in the middle of a battle. There really wasn’t all that much time to really question Laurence and Clara’s presence on the ship. So they could see where they were, help as they could and then head back to Orange County.
So long as the TARDIS didn’t dematerialize sensing a threat. That would make things a bit more complicated. Though she did have the sonic sunglasses in her period appropriate bag to call it back if that did happen.
Laurence made his hasty apologies, and stepped over the man to get to the stairs, narrow enough that he had to hurry up them sideways. He came up above deck, and then quickly ducked back down just in time to narrowly avoid a canonball. He came back on deck, and offered a hand down to Clara to assist her up, even as he looked for the Captain of the ship so that he may announce his presence and see where he was most needed.
“It seems as though we are in the thick of it,” he said to Clara, not glancing at her. It didn’t take him long to find the Captain, his two gold epaulettes gleaming on his shoulders. With a shock, he noticed the Admiral standing next to him. “Could we be on the Victory?” he asked, shocked.
Clara gave a quick apology of her own to the man and stepped over him before following Laurence up the stairs. Nothing like narrow stairways to have to get up above though she didn’t think too much on it. There was that ever present sense of adventure for her at present and now that they were here, it wasn’t like they could just stand back and see what happened. Taking the offered hand, Clara looked around the ship once she was on deck, noting the same
“I can’t say that I’m surprised by that.” How could she be? They were dealing with the TARDIS. Sometimes it liked to show up right in the thick of it. Though she probably should have anticipated being on The Victory as well. Oh well. “It appears that way.”
Laurence swallowed. Never in his life had he thought he’d have the distinct pleasure of meeting Admiral Nelson, perhaps the greatest British Navy man in history. He forced himself from his awe, and turned his attention to the Captain. Who was it again? Hardy, he recalled. “We must go pay our respects to the Captain,” Laurence said, since it was proper, though he was aware of a guilty part of him that just wanted to see Nelson up close. “It’s the Captains privilege to make the first address,” he added as an aside, to prevent Clara from making any embarrassing etiquette mistakes… Well, more than the fact that they were both there, in civilians clothes, in the first place.
Clara just shot a side look to Laurence. She was quite familiar with customs that were from the past. True most of it was more Victorian era but she still knew what lines she could cross without raising too much suspicion. Admittedly even then she could push the envelope (don’t be too clever or brilliant in conversation, and you must never show an interest in intelligence or politics) but she could also play the role.
“I’ve been a governess in the Victorian era, relax.” If she could manage that, she could handle this. So for now, she would follow Laurence’s lead. Thankfully the psychic paper would give this captain a reason that the two of them were there even if it was odd.
Still, knowing she’d have to go along with the more antiquated gender dynamics, Clara reached into her bag and handed Laurence the psychic paper.
“Present him with this if any questions are asked, it will give a believable reason for why we’re here that he can accept.”
“My apologies,” Laurence said, flushing a little. He had not meant to be condescending, though many of his fellow aviators in his own dreams seemed themselves ignorant to proper custom, and were quite blind to the horrified looks he gave them every time they overstepped, the aviator rules of etiquette being much more lax than the rest of society. It had given the rest of the world, who were not privy to their ways, a rather dim view of their discipline and way of life.
He was not blind to the looks of open incredulity that he and Clara were attracting, both from the other sailors and from the Vice-Admiral and Captain themselves, though Hardy continued issuing orders to his men for a moment or two before turning toward the two of them.
“And who the devil are you?” he snapped.
“Captain Will Laurence of Her - His Majesty’s Royal Navy, and Miss Clara Oswald,” Laurence responded. He wasn’t sure what to expect from the psychic paper, but he trusted Clara enough that he handed it over with no hesitation and a “These are our written orders.”
Clara shrugged. She didn’t take too much offense at the comment. It was just a reminder that this was hardly her first time in travelling through time and she could mind her manners for the appropriate era while also maintaining her sense of self.
Nor was she blind to the looks but she was used to those and knew that all they needed to do was act like they belonged even when they didn’t and people eventually would go along with it. Usually the other option was just too outlandish and it was easier to just accept it.
So she followed the rules of etiquette and allowed Laurence to introduce them and quickly dropped into a proper curtsy/bow of the time before straightening up. So long as the captain had an imagination (and given the whole captain thing he’d have to have an imagination) then it would come up with something he’d believe.
Hardy frowned at the orders in his hand, and then looked askance at the both of them. Laurence could hardly blame him - no matter what the letter said, the Laurence in his dreams would have an equal amount of trouble believing anything that came from two people, one of them a woman, dressed in civilian clothing who had most certainly not been on the ship when it had left harbour. To his credit, Hardy wordlessly handed the letter to Nelson, who gave it a quick read over and slipped the note into his breast pocket.
“Please forgive our rudeness, this is most unexpected,” Nelson said. “I’m afraid that we are unaccustomed to have a woman aboard, especially in the midst of battle.” Which, to Laurence, seemed the understatement. To punctuate his words, a cannonball sailed passed Nelson and shatter the gunwale behind him, splinters flying where ther barrier had once stood. “Even one with credentials such as yours. How may we assist you, Miss Oswald?”
When one faced an army of Cybermen and had to defend a base on the moon which become an amusement park, one didn’t really balk at cannon fire and the dangers. She’d had to convince soldiers there of her worth as well. Okay, there was a number of times she’d been in such a situation but the one with the Cybermen and the moon base was probably the most appropriate. Well that and all the dreams from when she’d been in the Victorian era.
“It’s quite understandable.”
Thank goodness her psychic paper was one of numerous pages so that she wouldn’t have to find a way to get it back. Either way, it worked and that was the important part. Clara did a quick scan of the decks. A quick calculation was made and she stated her supposed purpose and what they could do. Nothing that would change history, not at all. But they needed to be believable as well. And allow for Laurence to do his thing as well.
Laurence had to admit that he was impressed with Clara’s nerves. Though he was used to the blast of cannon fire in the dreams, it took nearly all he had to keep himself flinching at the sound.
Laurence didn’t know the rules of time travel, or if there were any at all. But knowing what was to come - that Nelson would soon be slain by an enemy sniper - he found it near impossible to not act. He shot a glance at Claire, not asking permission so much as it was asking forgiveness, and then, nearly shocked at his boldness, said “Perhaps you gentlemen would care to go below decks to discuss your strategy in the upcoming battle?”
Clara noticed the look that Laurence shot her and it took her a moment to realize what he was doing. She understood the desire, god did she understand the desire to save someone. But there were certain things that could not change and she had a very good feeling that Nelson surviving was one such thing. All she could do was a give a small shake of her head but it was too late. And of course she couldn’t outright protest either. Not with revealing the truth.
Though there was also the fact that there was a good chance that time would right itself. Or she hoped so should Nelson take Laurence’s advice given the fact that this was a slight different world from her own and so she could at least hope that they wouldn’t be able to actually re-write history no matter how much she wished that they could. But that would break time and that was something that would be a lot more difficult to fix.
And it seemed that there wasn’t time for Laurence’s attempt to change history to take effect as the melee started and things became chaos and everyone had to go about their orders and jobs, Clara doing her own bit to help.
Laurence ducked under a cannonball, it sailing close enough that he could feel the wind of it move his hair.
“Some other time,” Nelson said over the commotion. “To arms!” Laurence had no choice but to do as commanded, running to help man the cannons, peering over his shoulder every chance he could and wishing he had access to a watch so that he could keep a careful eye on the time. Even without such a thing, he caught the moment when a bullet took Nelson in the shoulder and severed his spinal cord. He found himself unable to move, watching until Hardy noticed Nelson was no longer beside him and ducked out of Laurence’s sight to Nelson’s side.
It really was only a matter of time, it was the unfortunate way of these things sometimes. So she had simply done what she could to aid in the effort until the inevitable occurred. History wouldn’t change, it would still be a success for the British. But it was always tough and when Nelson went down, Clara went to see if she could be of any help. She wouldn’t be able to save him, but she did have some experience in this.
Plus it was one of the roles women were expected to know and well...it was something. Even if it was just helping to ease whatever suffering he might have.
The feeling of numbness hadn’t quite left him, though he found himself coming back to his senses instead of just standing around uselessly. He left the cannon he had been offering his assistance at, and made his way back to Nelson and Clara’s side. He had hoped to save him, though he supposed there was a part of him that knew that he would never have been able to.
“Make way,” the Sergeant-Major, a fellow whose name Laurence couldn’t recall at all. “We must get him to the ship’s surgeon.” Together with the Sergeant-Major and another seaman, Laurence lifted the Admiral to take him below decks. “Perhaps you could…” he suggested mildly to Clara, his suggestion unfinished. It was, perhaps, shameful to request Clara to change history. Besides, he wasn’t even sure if there was something that could be done, and were it not for the miraculousness of time travel in the first place, he never would have thought there was.
Clara stood to the side to let Laurence and the Sergeant-Major get to the Admiral, knowing that she would probably be put to work with the surgeon if they stuck around much longer. Given all the chaos, it would be an opportune time to disappear but she was going to follow Laurence’s lead on that one.
She did know what he was referencing though and all she could do was shake her head. It was only natural that he would want to change history but this was a fixed point. History had moved on, to change this would change so much more as well. Which meant that they needed to allow the man to die. Not an easy thing, especially since time could be in flux as well. It all just depended on the where and when.
Laurence wasn’t sure what to do. Part of him felt as though it were his patriotic duty to go back to the deck and man the guns against the French, but even he knew that his presence was not needed for England’s victory, and while the sound of cannon fire and the creaking of the wooden ship were all sounds that were strangely familiar, the lack of the sounds of dragons during a major battle so close to shore was unsettling in a way that he most certainly hadn’t expected, never having heard an actual dragon before.
He met Clara’s eyes and frowned, then nodded toward the door. It seemed time to go home.
No, their presence certainly wouldn’t be missed. Nor were they actually required so getting out while they could was important. There was only so much Clara could do even with the psychic paper that allowed them access to the ship, to not being locked up or anything like that. But catching Laurence’s eye, she gave a small nod and it was back to the TARDIS in the midst of all the chaos and just as they came, so they left and returned to their own time.