Clara Oswald is going the long way round (alwaysbeenthere) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2020-11-25 05:07:00 |
|
|||
Clara had spent much of the Halloween season as it were visiting all the different catacombs across the world. It was just the right amount of spooky but also interesting after all. But when the request to go to Salem was put in? Well. How could she say no. Clara always did love a good trip to the past.
True it was nothing like people thought. No burnings in Salem (that was a distinctly European brand of witch hunting) and well, they couldn’t actually interfere. But when it is Halloween, you travel to the appropriate times and locations for the season.
With the familiar sounds of arriving at their destination, Clara grinned to Ahsoka and went to open the door and…
Not what she had in mind because she had tried to ensure they arrived before any of the killings but there were…. Three women being hanged in front of a house and that definitely felt familiar but also inaccurate.
And a black cat just ran into the TARDIS just as it began to fade away before it arrived in a new location. Hopefully the one they were meant to be in. But as she opened the door, Clara was fairly certain the cat said something before running out of the TARDIS and the opened doors showed they were….not in the 1600s anymore but more like the 1990s.
“.....Did the cat just say something about virgins and a black flame candle?” That felt like a bit more important than being in the wrong time.
It had been kind of a fun idea, though Ahsoka had plans to grab a few people and have a private party without costumes or OC trickery on the actual Halloween.
Still, she was enjoying herself. At least until witnessing some hangings. “Uh. I thought they didn’t actually burn any witches here?” Or hang? Maybe it had been hangings, but it was still unpleasant to look at.
“What the…?” Ahsoka looked at the direction the cat had run off to, then at Clara, “Why does that sound really familiar?”
“Well...they didn’t burn anyone…” Nineteen people had been hanged in Salem, five had died in custody and one man had been pressed to death. But Clara had checked and double checked that the date she chose would not have coincided with any of those deaths. Then again, she didn’t recall anything about three sisters in front of their homes being hanged either in her research. Yes, the TARDIS had a tendency to decide to take someone to where they needed to go instead of wanted, but that was more the Doctor’s TARDIS than her own.
Plus the fact that well, they suddenly weren’t in the past. Okay they were still in the past just not as far back in the past. So no real time to go into that particular history lesson.
As for why it sounded really familiar?
“I don’t know but I’m going to guess that this is more of an Orange County thing and less of a TARDIS mishap.” Going back to the control room to see if she couldn’t get them back home? “Definitely an Orange County thing. Looks like we’re stuck in...1993 Salem, Massachusetts.”
"And here I thought leaving the OC and not wearing a costume would keep us from having an Orange County Mishap," Ahsoka replied casually, checking her jacket pocket for her lightsabers. Since it was always a good idea to come prepared, in the event there really was some kind of witch she'd have to fight.
And she'd fought witches. Well, technically, since others had had to deal with Nightsisters rather than her.
Unless Ventress counted.
"But why 1993? What could possibly be happening in 1993 in Salem?"
“One would think. Especially since we left the day before Halloween.” But Orange County would always be Orange County and throw wrenches into even the best thought out plans. Because of course the year that it decided to not have people turn into their costumes was this day.
And it certainly never hurt to be prepared. And since it was Halloween in the year 1993, well...it wouldn’t necessarily be odd and just seen as part of a costume. Looking around the cemetery that they stepped out into, the brunette shrugged.
“No idea.”
“I guess we’re gonna find out,” Ahsoka said, sticking her hands into her coat pockets. She wondered if they could pass off their outfits as halloween related -- and in fact she removed her watch and her glamour. “Rare time I can fit in by just being me,” She remarked.
That was usually the way of things Clara had found out. They could only just deal with what was happening, keep their wits about them and learn. And well, she and Ahsoka were definitely able to hold their own. Plus Clara’s whole technically dead thing. Watching as the other woman removed her glamour, the brunette smiled some. “There is also that.”
Wandering the cemetery, Clara felt herself drawn to one grave.
“Here lyes ey body of William Butcherson. Died ey 1st of May, 1693. Lost Soul.”
Interesting. Why was she drawn to that grave? Though it was during the witch trials so perhaps that was why?
Okay, that name really sounded familiar, and Ahsoka tilted her head. She pulled out her phone, then quickly realized that she had no signal and the internet didn't exist in the form she was used to. There would be no googling that name, or Salem, or anything else they might want to know.
"Why does this feel really important? Are there death records we could look up?"
She looked around. Halloween, a familiar grave, Salem. "I feel like I saw this in a movie somewhere."
Clara wasn’t all that sure if it was familiar or not. Then again, it wasn’t like Halloween was a huge thing back in England so she hadn’t been inundated with Halloween movies throughout her childhood.
Instead she contemplated the question.
“Well, country records offices. The TARDIS. So definitely something we should be able to look into.”
“Okay, since we don’t know where the records office is, we can check the TARDIS,” Ahsoka said, folding her arms, trying to rack her brain for why all this was familiar. She turned around, starting to leave the cemetery, still deep in thought.
Salem. William Butcherson. Halloween.
She heard running and on instinct pulled Clara behind a tree.
A kid, two teens and … a black cat ran into the cemetery. And was the cat talking?
“Oh for the love of … I know why that name is familiar,” Ahsoka whispered. “We really are in a movie.”
More than content to check the TARDIS, Clara blinked as she suddenly felt herself pulled behind a tree and saw the cat who had run out of the TARDIS earlier muttering about virgins and black flame candles was now with two teens and a kid.
It was Ahsoka’s comment that caught the brunette’s attention and had her look to her instead of the scene before them.
“Oh?”
“Hocus Pocus,” Ahsoka said, before realizing Clara probably hadn’t grown up in a country where that movie was played on multiple channels all through October. “Dark comedy about three witches who were hanged in Salem, coming back and trying to get eternal youth by sucking out the souls of children, starring Bette Midler and Sarah ‘my bi awakening’ Jessica Parker.”
As Ahsoka explained the movie they were apparently in, all Clara could do was nod. Definitely not something she was super familiar with. Not that it was a big deal. They were here now and apparently going to be stuck there now that she knew it was a movie. “Right then. Well. At least you have an idea on how things will play out?”
Never a bad thing to have a basic idea on what was going on after all.
“Yes.” Ahsoka nodded, “Kids’ll be chased here by the witches, who can’t enter holy ground. The witches will raise William there, who’ll chase the kids. There’ll be some hijinks but I forget what exactly, but the witches will get their books and the pretty one will sing to lure all the children so they can suck their souls.”
“Huh.” That was...interesting. And not something Clara quite knew how to wrap her head around. Oh she was used to all sorts of things thanks to her Dreams and Orange County. But something told her they wouldn’t be able to help the kids and that was one of the first lessons she had learned with the Doctor - you never run unless you have something precious to protect - like children.
“Yeah. Huh.” Ahsoka grinned. And sure enough before long, the witches arrived and things quickly proceeded as they did in the movie. Knowing that there ultimately was a good ending for everyone involved, Ahsoka still decided that maybe a little force nudge here and there. At least until there was the singing and she had so lean against the wall and sigh.
“You know the funny thing, that isn’t even usually my type? Quiet and broody and stubborn, or mechanically gifted and stubborn.”
Not ditzy and blonde. Or evil.
It was really really hard not to interfere. You never run unless you’re protecting something precious - a child. That had been what, one of her first trips with the Doctor? Protecting children, having been a teacher...it was hard not to stop what was happening. Ahsoka not doing anything that she could see at least said it was probably going to be okay.
Not to mention that they probably wouldn’t be able to do anything really.
Though seeing Ahsoka sigh over the singing? That was unexpected.
“Well, nothing wrong with some variety. Especially since movie character. Even if we’re here right now.”
Somehow sensing her hesitation, Ahsoka said, “Knowing how the movie ends, it’s easier to watch rather than interfere. Also these kids are really kind of hardcore. They remind me of me when I was a teenager, off to war for the Republic and burning witches.”
The sarcasm practically dripped from her words.
Watching and not interfering was a lot easier said than done. So she just nodded some.
“Right.” She knew that. She knew how the Dreams were even if they’d been done for years now for her despite the repeats. She couldn’t change the Dreams and she couldn’t change this and knowing it would be fine...well, it didn’t make it easier. But she would just deal with it.
The sarcasm was met with a quirked brow. The type that basically said tell us how you really feel.
“So, if we can’t interfere, and we can’t leave since we’re obviously going to be stuck here until...I have no idea. What shall we do to pass the time?”
Ahsoka tapped her chin as she thought about it. The worst part of Halloween for her these days was the kind of candy she could eat without getting violently ill was limited, but there were some things she could handle. Cheerfully, she said, “Crash a halloween party and gorge ourselves on candy and food until we’re sick?”
Well, it wasn’t like there was much else to do. And since Orange County was already messing with them, they didn’t need to worry about turning into their costumes. And as she had been prepared for 1600s Salem, she already had a ‘costume’ on. “Sounds good to me. Let’s go.”