ᴅᴏᴄᴛᴏʀ sᴛʀᴀɴɢᴇ (mysticism) wrote in valloic, @ 2022-03-08 10:59:00 |
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Entry tags: | !: action/thread/log, ₴ inactive: melody williams, ₴ inactive: stephen strange |
Melody knew if she waited too long to meet with this Stephen Strange, she'd never meet with him at all. When she gave herself time to think about what she was allowing, it terrified her. She wasn't sure she trusted even the idea of magic. She'd never believed in it. River certainly hadn't. And then there was the thought of being studied. Mel didn't mind it on the surface, but it settled uncomfortably in her stomach, River's anxiety fueling her own. But she wanted to know what had happened to her, why there were two separate lives (and personalities) in her head battling for dominance. And perhaps most importantly, had it really stopped? She ran her thumb lightly over the characters on her wrist, now softly pulsing with warm orange light, reacting to her anxiety probably. It used to startle her, but she'd grown used to its changes. It did make her miss the Tardis some days, but it also made her feel closer to her somehow. Well. It was now or never. Honestly, Stephen hadn’t expected to get a ton of responses to his inquiry about medical research - he knew people were skittish about doctors for one reason or another, and he didn’t blame them for that. He was just in a weird place of being caught in between magic and science - he’d never be able to perform brain surgery again and so he’d turned to the arcane, embarking on a lonely sort of vigil where he vowed to protect the fabric of reality, the world, from certain menances. And now he was - also in the medical field? Straddling both, mostly because this world, Vallo, seemed to need healers and had enough Magical Heroes - a whole baseball team’s worth, really. He didn’t need to give up everything to protect the world - didn’t need to choose a world that never would be grateful, wouldn’t do him any favors even as he continued to stand guard on its behalf. So since he was dabbling in medicine and research, he figured he ought to do as much good as possible. And if that involved magic, so be it. When Melody told him about her tattoo, and the memories that seemed to be associated with it, he was curious - if he could help, he would certainly try. The lab space was clean and sterile - unfortunately not very homey, but maybe they could meet at the Sanctum next time. “Come on in,” he met her at the entrance, his research space scattered in with other personal offices and projects in the L-Corp building. “Melody, right? Nice to meet you in person. I’m Dr. Strange. Call me Stephen.” Was there a polite (or easy) way to tell the voice of your former/eventual self to shut up, Mel wondered, smiling tightly as she stepped into the lab. She was still favoring her ribs, but River's pain tolerance made them easier to ignore than they should have been. She could thank her for that, she supposed. “Stephen,” she finally answered, nodding, “You can call me Mel. Most people do.” This was exactly the sort of place River didn’t want to be. It brought back what little she still remembered of her childhood, part of her life she didn’t want to be reminded of. Melody tried to focus on her own memories instead. Thinking about Anthony usually helped, so she did that. He would have thought all of this was ridiculous, and at the same time insisted she tell him everything. After an obvious hesitance, she held out her left hand, palm up and wrist flat. The mark was glowing properly now, as she knew it would be. That tended to happen when she thought about people close to her. As she let thoughts of her brother fade, the brand would settle with them. “Can you see it?” “I - “ Stephen glanced at her hand, at her wrist. To him, the glow was hard to miss - the glow, the way it was orange and illuminated, reminded him a little bit of his own magic. Or of a little planet, some other galaxy’s sunset. “I can see it, yes. The color looks like Eldritch magic, at least to me.” To demonstrate, he swept his fingers across an invisible harp, the correct tutting dance to create a few geometric symbols - Eldritch magic that popped up in the air between them and then sank into the ether. His hands were always steady when he practiced magic - not always otherwise, which was why he had to say goodbye to his former career, but he managed to maintain a balance and keep himself functional. “Here, come have a seat,” he offered, pulling out a rolling stool to get comfy on. “So when the tattoo appeared, you started getting memories of - another life? Is that it?” Mel, who knew...absolutely nothing of magic, frowned. “Like the terrors?” Self-consciously, she pulled her hand back, folding her arm across her body. But his minor demonstration looked harmless enough. It was...fascinating. And alarming. Even as the tattoo dimmed, it still pulsed with orange light, vaguely like a heartbeat, an outward sign of her discomfort. Or any particularly significant emotion, she’d begun to realize. Sitting, she nodded. “Yes. As if I’d lived it. I know what she was thinking, what she was feeling. I could tell you what it was like to die.” And then to not die. But she didn’t especially care to talk about that. “There were physical changes, as well. Sharper senses, better reflexes, a second heart. For all intents and purposes, I became River Song. Except I’m not.” She gave a small, careful shrug. “I still remember being Melody.” “Oh - no, not like Eldritch terrors necessarily. My mentor once described magic as old as civilization itself, and otherworldly, I guess - since we pull energy from various dimensions of the multiverse to cast. That’s all Eldritch means,” Stephen said, also taking a seat. He had on a lab coat but otherwise that was the only ‘doctorly’ thing about him - beneath was a dress shirt and tie, bright red, a tie that was actually a transfigured Cloak of Levitation. It insisted on coming to work with him more often than not, and he couldn’t actually walk around the city with a cloak all the time. Well, he supposed he could (it was Vallo, after all) but if the Cloak was willing to be accommodating he wouldn’t knock it. Though he also had on the Eye of Agamotto, the relic sitting just above where his heart beat, on his chest. It was closed currently, the time stone nestled safely inside. “A second heart?” he glanced up. That was definitely the kind of physiological change he was talking about, in terms of what happened when you bonded with magical items. Interesting. The memories too, though he was hoping he could shed some light on that. “Did you experience any side effects with the addition of a heart?” Doing her best not to acknowledge the rest of the room, Mel kept her attention fixed firmly on him. He looked more like a businessman playing at being a physician than someone who might want to take her apart and find out how she worked. He reminded her a little of her brother, actually. Except that Anthony always looked to her like he was playing at being a businessman. This was a conversation, and conversations she could do. Her arm relaxed slightly away from her body, slipping down to her lap, though some anxious instinct made her cover her wrist with her opposite hand. She wasn’t used to it being so...noticeable. But his explanation at least reassured her it probably wasn’t malevolent. Or wasn’t necessarily malevolent. “Side effects? I’m sorry, sweetie, you’re going to have to be a little more specific.” But then she carried on anyway. “Of course it wasn’t just the heart, if that’s what you mean.” That would have been impractical, she imagined. And while she wasn’t a medical professional, she should think somewhat difficult. “I’ve a binary vascular system.” “High blood pressure, for example - or did you experience an increase in endurance since with two hearts you could, presumably, oxygenate faster and deliver blood twice as fast?” Stephen asked - he would think that would be the case, allowing for better muscle function. Certain athletes had strong hearts due to their own endurance training, hearts that pumped blood more efficiently than the average human. Someone with two hearts likely experienced a similar effect, but he was only speculating. He was just curious about it all, really. Did each heart serve a different part of the body, increasing blood flow and pressure to the parts that needed it - the legs for running, or the brain for other cognitive tasks? Fascinating stuff, even if the brain was more his area of expertise. “I was once a neurosurgeon,” he shared. “Had to give that up, but. I came across a lot of interesting cases in my heyday.” He really was a doctor, then. She smiled, rubbing her wrist. “Ah. I see. Well, to be honest, I thought it best to avoid doctor’s visits once I had two heartbeats.” How was one meant to explain that? At best, they'd think her mad. At worst, she'd become someone's lab experiment. “But yes. I think you could safely say both of those are true. It's also responsible for my respiratory bypass. In simplest terms, I can hold my breath for a very long time.” Mel let her hand slide from her wrist, seeming to come to a decision. He was trying to help her, wasn’t he? “River wasn’t entirely human. Obviously. She was a hybrid, an accident of conception helped along by genetic manipulation. I’m more resilient to...most things. Better senses, better reflexes. Two hearts. Lower body temperature. Telepathy. A perfect sense of time.” It was a bit more complicated than that, but she wasn’t really sure how to explain being a Child of Time either. Avoiding doctor’s visits because of two heartbeats? “Fair,” Stephen chuckled. The Child of Time thing caught his attention though, and his fingers itched to open the Eye with the correct dancing motions - the infinity stone was also warded, the same way it had been back in his world. If anyone else tried to get to the gem, they’d be burned - and this enchantment would also stick even if he was something, uh, killed. It hadn’t happened yet in Vallo but, honestly, who could say? “So I think I mentioned the magical rock aspect,” he added. “The rock I am personally the keeper of is called the time stone - it’s here,” Stephen motioned toward the relic around his neck. “But it does what it says on the tin - holds dominion over the forces of time. I was thinking maybe I could sort of connect to your marking and see what temporal aspects it holds? Maybe we can figure something out.” If she didn’t want him to, he wouldn’t - but he had a feeling it would yield something. "Speaking from personal experience then, were you?" But she nodded. "It's funny I've come to someone bonded to something called the 'time stone' when, as River, I was…conceived in the time vortex." There really wasn't a better way to put that, was there? "I have a…unique relationship with time." And despite her reservations, she offered her wrist up to him once again. "I admit, I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea of you…having dominion over it." It wasn't personal. She didn't like the idea of anyone having dominion over it. The Time Lords had been bad enough, but mostly, they were predictable. And she'd hardly had to deal with them anyway. Time wasn't something to be controlled. Nudged slightly here or there, perhaps, but that was entirely different. “I tend not to exert any dominance over time myself,” Stephen confessed. “The stone was just always guarded by the Masters of the Mystic Arts, one of our duties - it was kept within our Order until a genocidal maniac decided he wanted time to be his dominion. Along with all other aspects of the universe, but that’s a whole other story.” Thus, when the time stone somehow ended up in the hands of a now-extinguished coven in ancient Vallo, he knew it was his duty to look after it once again - to make sure that it was kept safe and secure. He barely took it out of the Eye of Agamotto - barely let the Eye open, that is. But he was skilled enough with time magic to not abuse it - he knew what it could do if that happened. Stephen had too much at stake here to be reckless with it. “And I have a great respect for time - whether it flows like a swift stream or a lazy river or whatever else, we’re in it. I don’t think it’s up to me to control it.” But if he could help someone, then he would. The Eye clicked open when his fingers tutted to cast the proper magic, and the stone glowed within - a brilliant green, an electrified emerald. Then he was sort of a conductor of some kind of arcane orchestra - green symbols floated this way and that, bracelets stacked on his arms, what looked like verdant smoke reaching for the mark on Melody’s wrist. It wouldn’t hurt at all, but magic responded to magic and the mark glowed too - apparently Stephen saw a few interesting things, because he made a thoughtful noise under his breath. “Did you know that mark is connected to...portals? Rifts in time?” "I've known a few of those." It was muttered half under her breath. Audible, but not really for his benefit. The Master couldn't have cared less about dominion over time, but genocidal? An argument could be made. Gleefully homicidal, certainly. "Time has its own course, its own set of rules. I spent much of my life ensuring certain events played out as they were meant to, as they already had. There are some things we don't get a choice in." Mel lapsed into silence as she watched him, practiced movements and symbols of light dancing in the air. As River, she'd seen a lot of things, but nothing that quite compared. No matter which personality she wanted to claim, they were both scientifically minded, and she didn't know of any science that would explain what she was seeing. She couldn't help being slightly unsettled. "Hmm? Oh. I do know I'd started to see them around. When I first arrived here, I thought maybe I'd gotten too close to one. I couldn't tell you where they led." She glanced back down at her wrist. "The rifts caused it? Why didn't everyone in Vegas have one then?" Another thought struck her, and she frowned. "The rifts, through time, you said. You don't think I might have been…displaced?" Her frown deepened. "Into myself?" The magic continued to glow, and he let the hazy time bracelets begin to stack up on Melody’s arm where the marking was, pulsing strongly and so bright that the green began to resemble neon light, the one lone peridot uncovered in a mine. Stephen still had control of it, steady hands hovering over the spell he’d cast - it was kind of like a scanner, really, seeing what he could pick up. Something particularly attuned to time magic or anything associated with that aspect of the universe. “It’s related just to you, I assume - which is why not everyone had one. But displaced into yourself seems like a good way to put it. I know that sometimes when people here receive new memories their other selves have lived through at home - since we’re in two places at once - they also gain physical changes here too. It...happened to me,” he admitted. “I remembered another version of myself on another timeline, and everything we could do. We merged. I was displaced into myself.” He didn’t have a mark to show for it - just a slew of bad memories and new spells, all the darkness he’d soaked into him because he’d been selfish. “Though it doesn’t look like it’s erasing any part of who you are. You’re still Melody. I’m still me. We just - have to figure out what that means for us.” But if River had been displaced...well, she was already dead. What did it matter? But if she’d been displaced, it also meant the Doctor had been displaced, and Jo was the oldest she’d ever seen him. Her. Were either of them even where they were still meant to be? “You’re suggesting I’m here and, simultaneously, I’m still back in Vegas?” Theoretically, if you were very good (and River had always been very good) time allowed for popping in and out of a moment losing only seconds. And branching timelines could be created, given the right set of circumstances, but they were usually unstable. She should know. “And River? If she’s here with me, she’s lost.” Looking up at him, she asked, “You said you merged? I assume that means he no longer exists.” She shook her head. “I don’t want to lose Melody, but I don’t want to silence River.” “He still exists on another timeline, we just merged here,” Stephen said. “There are countless versions of us, I think - all in their own bubble universes. Usually they don’t touch - they can’t, because they continue to expand and expand indefinitely and they’re moving so fast. But sometimes - things slip in. Like how he did. Or your mark,” he nodded toward the glowing green. The magic eased off then, bracelets skimming back toward Stephen’s arm - and he adjusted a few of the illuminated hologram dials; the time stone wouldn’t give him all of the answers but it seemed like a decent start. Hopefully it helped a little. “This is all speculation, of course - you’d probably know more about space and time than me personally,” he smiled slightly; it was rare he even got a chance to use the time stone for research though, and he was admittedly fascinated by all of this. “To be honest, I don’t think the other me is silenced entirely either - he’s a part of me. Like how I assume River is a part of you.” That wasn’t quite how her world worked. How River’s world worked? Bubble universes were short-lived, collapsing and dying quickly. Branching timelines became unstable, time somehow seeming to both stop and happen all at once, billions suffering, until again, an inevitable collapse. But it was an offer of reassurance, so she nodded anyway. “Do you have siblings? My brother and I aren’t terribly alike, but we both hate artificial grape flavoring, we both love the rain, and either of us would be the first to tell you the other jumps into things too quickly.” She was, in fact, going somewhere with this. “River and I both like olives on our pizza. Somehow, inexplicably, we both ended up as archaeologists. And we both decided a long time ago it was more convenient to call everyone ‘sweetie’ than to bother learning their names. But we’re different women.” With the magic retreating from her wrist, Mel folded her arm back against herself. “Do you...think like him? Share his emotions, his anxieties?” She was genuinely curious. He was the first she’d met outside of Vegas to admit to having merged with a different version of himself. It was the nearest she thought she was likely to get to her own experience. At the question about siblings, Stephen paused. A flicker of sadness passed over his expression - just for a moment. “I did, yes. I had a sister - she drowned when we were kids. But I know what you mean, with the comparison,” he said, and they didn’t need to talk about Donna - he’d rather talk about his other self, the one who was so unlike him yet wasn’t; they were both selfish, actually, or at least this Stephen had been once upon a time - only thing was, he’d evolved into a person who would sacrifice his own interests for the greater good. Other Stephen? Not so much. He just drew from the Dark Dimension, abusing magic to obtain what couldn’t, shouldn’t have been obtainable; he absorbed countless creatures as corrupt as he was, and he’d ultimately paid the price for it in the end. Eternal solitude in a gemstone prison still gave Stephen nightmares - that lavender glow, when he closed his eyes he saw it creeping in. “I do think like him though. We share the same anxieties and emotions too, to some degree. He lost the person he loved, and he’s what I could become - I see those possibilities. I see the bad parts in me too, and I know I’m capable of what he’s done. I don’t try to change it though - I’ve accepted it.” Mel smiled apologetically, her expression understanding. “I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.” Her life had been...gentle, but River’s hadn’t. She knew too much about loss and about pain. And she knew what it meant to always be at war with your own darkness. “I haven’t figured out how to do that yet. I don’t want to change her, I just...I worry I might lose myself. I love who she loved. I’m afraid of things I was never afraid of before, things she never would have admitted being afraid of, but she was. I think there’s a strong possibility I have the same conditioning, but not her ability to overcome it.” That alone was terrifying. “Some days, I still find all of this rather incomprehensible. Other days, I might tell you I’m a time traveller, married to a man who changes faces and has apparently recently regenerated into a woman.” A bit like she was swapping off. Like she was never sure who she was going to be that day, or in that moment. Just as she sometimes referred to River independently and other times shifted into first person. “It’s difficult, isn’t it? River wasn’t a bad person.” Though, the part of her that was River would have dismissed that. “She isn’t a cautionary tale to heed, or a darker side of myself I want to avoid. She was the Child of Time, and Time was cruel to her.” Stephen nodded. “It’s difficult,” he agreed, fingers swishing in their dance to let the Eye of Agamotto close - the glow of the stone faded, dormant once again. An infinity stone was a tricky sort of thing - the stones were sentient to some degree, and able to judge ‘worthiness.’ So far the time stone hadn’t given him any trouble and he’d definitely like to keep it that way. “And the idea of losing yourself, not having that control - can also be a terrifying thing. I don’t know you well so I don’t mean to make assumptions, but I think you can learn to co-exist. Find your new equilibrium - it seems like the both of you would be determined enough to make that happen,” he observed. It wasn’t meant to be a false reassurance or sunshine pumped up the ass - but rather, Stephen was the type to look at two possible options and reject the both of them, henceforth creating his own option. His own choices. She chuckled as she tilted her head to the side. “Stubborn might be a good word to describe us.” Neither of them had ever been easily dissuaded from anything in their lives. “I know what it’s like to lose yourself, to not have a say in your own story, not even how it ends. Because she did. I’ve been trying so hard to keep us separate, afraid of what’s already been done.” Releasing a surprised laugh barely louder than a sigh, she shook her head. “Oh, she must be so disappointed. I’m disappointed.” So she still had work to do. “My life has been full of choices, for better or worse. All I ever wanted was to know my life was my own.” Well, she could think of a few more things. A life with the Doctor the right way around, for starters. But mostly. “She can have that now.” All she had to do was let her. Melody had lived her life. It didn’t mean that she couldn’t still love the people she loved. River had always been flexible when it came to love, in all its forms. It didn’t even mean she couldn’t still be an archaeologist. Strangely enough, River hadn’t disliked her profession. She just had to accept Melody wasn’t Melody anymore. Acceptance was a big part of life - so was the beauty of unpredictability. Stephen also knew that you couldn’t create the right reality for yourself, whatever that entailed, without letting the wrong one go. Improving meant acknowledging what is - and of course it was really damn hard. “Whenever you’re ready to give her that, well - that’s up to you,” he said. “You get to decide how and when, and to what degree.” Figuring it out. Finding balance, equilibrium - if nothing else, Vallo was good for that. You had the space to let those things happen. When the island wasn’t trying to kill you, that is. Or kidnapping you into some other pocket dimension that left everyone in a tizzy. “Hopefully this - “ he gestured around them. “Helped a little? Next time we can meet at the Sanctum though, if there’s anything else you ever want to talk about. You can keep me updated about that mark - let me know if it does anything else.” Mel hummed softly. “Hers wasn’t a life of choice. Small choices, yes. In the moment. But the path she had to take was set out before she was born.” She didn’t have any particular religious beliefs, no belief in an afterlife. She didn’t believe in ghosts either. But she believed in inevitability. “She never got to decide. So if it’s my choice, it should be an easy one to give it to her.” She took another look around the lab. Yes, she thought different surroundings might be for the best. “Thank you. I think it’s done. Doing whatever it was meant to do, I mean. I remember her life beginning to end. Physically, we’re identical.” There was a hesitation as she stood. “I admit I’m not a fan of being...studied. I was something of a unique subject, and they took advantage of that. I can’t make any promises.” River’s anxieties and Melody’s lack of experience burying them made for a poor combination. “But if you’d like, you’re welcome to have a more in-depth look.” Stephen stood as well, so he could walk Melody out - it was the polite thing to do, and he wasn’t going to take up more more of her time since he could tell she was just not at ease in a medical lab (then again, most people weren’t). “I’m not one to take advantage - so whatever you’re comfortable with, I’ll go along with too,” he promised. “I’d definitely like to have a more in-depth look but next time I’ll leave the Sanctum doors open for you.” And instead of portaling her a card with the address (sometimes when people just randomly saw the sparks around them they got even more anxious), he pulled one of those cards from the ether - a simple sort of trick, nothing flashy. The Sanctum, in Vallo City, was hard to miss - but just in case. “Thanks again for coming by.” Research. It did give his charcoal briquette heart something of a thrill. |