It's all AU.

Simon was starting to slowly venture further and further out from his hotel without the need for someone else with him. It was still surreal but, so far, he'd not run into any trouble. He was starting to think that, maybe, this place was less about trouble and more about...he didn't know what. Something. It was definitely something.

Today, he was sitting on a hill just outside the busiest - if it could even be called that - part of the city, just staring out into the distance absently, wondering what the various people he'd met were doing here in this strange place, as well as how things were at home. He almost didn't notice someone close by.

John was going to wear a groove in the foyer floor of the old Hotel if he carried on for much longer. He was pacing angrily, stalking, spinning around sharply when he heard footsteps approaching. "I swear, the next person to fling their psychic crap around the place without warning is going to get a taste of my fist," he growled, apropo of nothing, stabbing the air with a half-empty vodka bottle to punctuate his words.

River came up to her (not) brother in the hotel lobby holding a handful of red berries.

"The ship grew them. I picked them. Like eating time. I missed you, Simon."

River bolted through the city. Back to the TARDIS, and her warm blanket affect, and people who were (mostly) safe.

Except.

She caught a familiar flash, and skidded around the corner, looking, because she has to know.

"Simon," she whispered.

One minute he was getting ready to go into The Academy again - better equipped this time, better prepared - and the next, he was looking around a city he'd never seen before. That...was definitely not things going according to plan.

This was actually very, very far from the plan.

He let out a breath and looked around, eyes wide. "What the - where - what?"