let's set d o w n some (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
groundrules) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
westwhere2022-08-13 03:17 pm
groundrules) wrote in westwhere2022-08-13 03:17 pm
Entry tags:
- 2ha: chu wanning,
- arc iv,
- asoiaf: daenerys targaryen,
- baldur's gate: astarion,
- doctor who: river song,
- doctor who: the doctor,
- game of thrones: jon snow,
- kingdom of the wicked: emilia,
- kingdom of the wicked: wrath,
- legend of fei: xie yun,
- legend of fei: zhou fei,
- mo dao zu shi: xiao xingchen,
- oh! my emperor: beitang moran,
- oh! my emperor: su xunxian,
- original: red,
- owl house: eda clawthorne,
- penny dreadful: vanessa ives,
- serthica,
- shadowhunters: magnus bane,
- star trek: jim kirk (aos),
- star trek: leonard mccoy (aos),
- star trek: una,
- star wars: finn,
- the gifted: marcos diaz,
- tian guan ci fu: xie lian,
- touken ranbu: kanesada,
- umbrella academy: allison,
- umbrella academy: five,
- warcraft: anduin wrynn,
- warcraft: wrathion,
- word of honor: zhou zishu
serthica: war & peace
Clockwork Serthica’s arrival event stretches til around 3 September. You’re welcome to hit up this log or make your own entries. Characters not assigned to a region can still access it, as long as they’re discreet.
Please share cool plot clues via network — and have fun!
SUMMARY: The Merchant assigns the group to determine if the dead lurk within Serthica’s adversarial halves. Eidris and Minaras hold a summit to normalise trade within Serthica’s elusive Neutral Zone — while a resistance movements attempts to capture Minaras lead figure Arabella. In Eidris, locals must calm a maddened dragon and her cohort and retrieve her hatching eggs. Minaras hosts its eerie civic indoctrination that seeks to extirpate physical and moral decay.
FAIR FORTUNE
The party at sea is smuggled into Serthica with help from false passport papers secured by their Mouse House companions. The two groups meet at Serthica’s port customs, in time for the Merchant’s private transmission:
”Good afternoon. I salute and thank the efforts of our recent additions. You performed exceptionally.
You will hear Serthica is sundered by war, sickness and irreconcilable differences. In truth, she is likely divided by the interests of those who weaponise fear and manipulate opportunity.
In Eidris, they claim Minaraians are not human. In Minaras, they speak the same of Eidris. Disgust, dismay and paranoia have created a… system of profound physical avoidance. If this is mere fearmongering, it is distasteful, but inconsequential. However… if one of the citadel’s halves has succumbed to the dead, who now know to feign they yet live… this marks a dire escalation. You must study this.
Your transportation beacon sleeps in the holy grounds of Vassarizhia. It will light within months, when the Heart’s clock quiets for its annual winding. You may visit the grounds during the upcoming trade summit.
While in Serthica, your only objectives are to survive until the beacon’s eye opens, and to discover the dead present. I pray but question you will prevail.”
You will hear Serthica is sundered by war, sickness and irreconcilable differences. In truth, she is likely divided by the interests of those who weaponise fear and manipulate opportunity.
In Eidris, they claim Minaraians are not human. In Minaras, they speak the same of Eidris. Disgust, dismay and paranoia have created a… system of profound physical avoidance. If this is mere fearmongering, it is distasteful, but inconsequential. However… if one of the citadel’s halves has succumbed to the dead, who now know to feign they yet live… this marks a dire escalation. You must study this.
Your transportation beacon sleeps in the holy grounds of Vassarizhia. It will light within months, when the Heart’s clock quiets for its annual winding. You may visit the grounds during the upcoming trade summit.
While in Serthica, your only objectives are to survive until the beacon’s eye opens, and to discover the dead present. I pray but question you will prevail.”
SWITZERLAND
After a lengthy inspection of their passport papers, the party is steered towards the Sanctuary of Serthica’s Neutral Zone — a vast institute near Serthica’s great clock tower. Here, representatives of Eidris and Minaras assemble at midday for peaceful negotiations to improve distant trade relations.
- ■ The Merchant recommends mingling to broaden your investigation into Serthica’s dead. Even Minaras leading figurehead Arabella will attend.
■ For peace-keeping, entrants to the Sanctuary must surrender their weapons or allow them to be sealed, if they want to carry them in. Weapons are released on departure. Physical enhancements that characters cannot remove (ex: vampire fangs) are excepted.
■ Those who are unwilling to give up or seal their weapons can head on to Eidris and Minaras.
■ Summit attendants receive badges reflecting their Serthica identities, or can divert the greeting droid and liberate the insignia of a delayed delegation. Higher-ranking badges earns you more lenient treatment and higher security clearance.
■ Eidris attendants receive golden armbands or scarves, those of Minaras dark blue.
■ In bustling halls, officials negotiate grain exchanges, new train railways, the currency exchange rate and the saddening conditions of Mouse House exiles. Alas, if only someone (not them) could help.
■ Those drafted into the talks are toasted with a green, mint-like potion — an unadvertised truth serum intended to keep negotiations honest. The potion’s effects last two to four hours, compelling truth but not speech. But do talk: candour wins answers.
■ Artisans display their finest novelty items in the main reception hall. Aggressively enthusiastic traders seek testers and investors for their wares — potent opiates, goggles that show you the world in 10 years’ time, even detailed plans for luxury teahouses offering droid companionship. Extricate yourself with as much coin and dignity as possible.
SLEEP, CHILD, SLEEP
- ■ The great clock of the Neutral Zone strikes 18:00, triggering a light three-minute earthquake and the rise of nocturnal Minaras.
■ The Sanctuary loses all electric power. As servants rush for candles, you might notice some native summit delegates behave peculiarly: their eyes look glassy, faces trapped in an expression of comical, exaggerated dismay. Many are frozen in tense positions. Others move in sluggish, uncoordinated and jerky spasms. One might catch your wrist and attempt to speak in staggered, guttural croaks.
■ Lights return once the earthquake finishes. Locals resume regularly and do not seem to have noticed any erratic behaviour.
SLEEP, CHILD, SLEEP
CONTENT WARNING: TERROR ATTACK
- ■ Starting her speech, Arabella of Minaras calls a tribute for those lost to the great Culling sickness that struck Serthica mere years before. The vigil is interrupted by a fusillade of rifle shots fired from outside, through the Sanctuary’s wall-long windows.
■ The bullets exclusively target Minaras delegates and do not contain gunpowder, but a thickened, pale liquid. Once shot, those wounded experience a hysterical, incontrollable terror and the certainty that their greatest fear is hunting them. Many of the shot delegates develop an instant flight response and seek to claw their way out of the Sanctuary, with no care for whom they trample in their path. This terror lasts 30-60 minutes. Please content warn if you graphically describe your character’s greatest fear.
■ As rifle gunshots die down, a voice from outside introduces the Remembrance coalition, pledging safety if the summit surrenders Arabella.
■ The Sanctuary activates emergency measures: protective magical wards start to slowly reinforce, while attendants risk their lives to return characters’ weapons.
■ You could team up and help Arabella’s few remaining guards to escort her to safety in Minaras. Drop a line if you take this route.
■ Outside, you find the Sanctuary’s grounds have been drenched in a thick fog that barely allows you to see steps ahead. Your senses dull, and you are gradually prone to sleep — while masked men close in with rifles and vicious droid hunting hounds.
■ Help Sanctuary guards take out the assailants — and submit your character for a RNG draw to interrogate a lone captive.
■ Characters who later investigate the Sanctuary can find some of its windows have been very carefully pricked, fissured or even minutely holed, easing the way for attack.
Crawl back to your home base in Eidris or Minaras — you need the beauty sleep.
EIDRIS | THERE BE DRAGONS
Eidris’s relaxed atmosphere might balm your rattled nerves after the Sanctuary’s disasters. Startled citizens gather to offer you help settling in, while dragons seek you out to curl up and nuzzle.
Eidris is governed by natural order and harmony, achieved through firm etiquette, consideration and reminders to slow down. You can hole up in a room in one of the many abandoned and repurposed villas, or group up to take a whole house. Local technology is a blend of mechanical gears and magic that substitutes fuels. Sorcerers are frequent, boastful and admired.
Dig deeper, and you’ll find the people of Eidris are unwilling to linger on negative experiences and gradually lose memory of them. If queried, many natives have normalised intermittent amnesia, with some using their link to their dragons to stay anchored in the present.
- ■ Acclimate to your roles in Eidris and enjoy the sweet welcome of neighbourly gifted meals and knitwear and a personal, signed letter of support from king Thivar.
■ Eidris prepares for the rare hatching of dragon eggs, lain by the beautiful fire-breathing Aiva — one of the fewer martial dragons used by Eidris’ military. Two weeks into your stay (around 25 August, forward date at will), word spreads that Aiva’s mate has been deeply injured by a Minaras scouting ship during the 6:00-7:00 overlap period when the two citadel halves are both overground.
■ A panicked, distrustful Aiva collects her silver-shelled eggs from the formal nest quarters, hiding them on the rooftops or in the balconies of tall, dangerous buildings. Several other martial dragons assist Aiva by guarding these hideaways until the young dragons can hatch.
■ Eidris calls back most transport dragons to avoid altercation with their fire-breathing, paranoid brethren. This might strand some riders on the nearest decrepit rooftop, while testy dragons fly by. They don’t initiate attack, but are more prone to warning tail sweeps or light charring, if you come close.
■ Dragon lord Cain d’Ubiq urges riders that can reconnect with their dragons to help retrieve the 1m, 50-kg eggs and deliver them back to the dragon grounds nest before they hatch by sundown — terrorising the baby dragons that wake alone and ripping into local architecture. Other riders are needed to spread a trail of deep incense smoke in the air that can soothe dragons from their outburst. Lend a hand!
■ Characters who enlisted for dragon riding on arrival could be middling riders by this point.
■ Aiva’s children hatch moments before the clock ticks 18:00 and Minaras also surges overground. Characters linked to a dragon feel the birth: first as an overwhelming exuberance, then as an all-consuming and irrational dread that briefly reduces them to inexplicable tears.
MINARAS | EYES ON YOU
A sharp departure from Eidris’ laissez-faire is watchful Minaras, where citizens obsess with schedules, orderliness and time — as if every second is both borrowed and wasted.
Newcomers can choose between one-person 2.5x2.5m ‘sleep units’ in packed industrial homes, or pool funds to rent small refurbished alcoves that once served as hospital or science halls. Space is a luxury, silence a myth: helper droids constantly fuss after their masters, steam engines cough outside, and the gentle thrum on the streets betrays the current-shifting omnipresence of large Watch ships.
Civic sound systems periodically bleat reminders for citizens to STAY HALE, STAY WHOLE, alongside tips for basic droid care, the latest in scientific discoveries, paid ads and reminders not to park your robotic carriage near hydrants.
- ■ Quickly learn the ropes of your assumed identity, as Minaraians have a duty to report peculiar behaviours.
■ Watch ships prevent lawbreaking while Minaras is overground. Crime rates spike rapidly when Minaras falls underground.
■ More than violence, Minaraians appear to fear their pocket watch times being wrong, filth and sickness. The smallest cough earns a stern glance and a wide berth.
■ As part of Minaras’ periodic social indoctrination, you are robotically escorted alongside your peers and other unrelated Minaraians to a civic integration centre. Here, you take turns before a mechanical droid sphinx labelled ASCLEPIOS that asks, ”What rots you? and compels an honest answer (this can be emotional, mental or physical sickness, minor or severe).
■ A painless tattoo appears on the back of your hand, listing your Decay (ex: ‘malnourishment,’ ‘a choleric temper’). Others in the indoctrination centre must help you mend through acts of care (ex: cooking you a meal, helping you meditate). The tattoo fades after 72 hours, or once sufficient acts of care have ‘cured’ you.
■ After one week (around 20 August, but feel free to forward date), a transmission from Arabella informs watch, aerial, military and health units that Minaras is changing the daily schedule of its scout ships. The last scouts will now be deployed at 4:15am and return to base by 5:00am.
no subject
[ Boring has never suited either of them. Even during their long night on Darillium, they'd never quite achieved domestic, and she hadn't expected it, really. But she senses they've found level ground beneath them once again, in this place, strange as it may be, finally on the same page once more. How she's missed that.
Maybe, just maybe, they can allow themselves to be happy. ]
Of course I was at the summit, Sweetie.
[ Does he even know her at all? ]
What did you make of all that? Apparently they wanted our lead delegate.
no subject
[ Her predictability is comforting, if nothing else. It would be so easy to lull himself into thinking she'll just always be there. And in a way, she will be, though not with him. Yet, this strange little world they find themselves in now affords them an opportunity unlike any they've ever known. ]
I was actually doing a bit of work myself, before the attacks. Negotiating. Very well, actually. [ Not very well at all, in fact. In fact, he was dismissed, but he got his point across at least. ] I'll have another crack at them soon enough.
[ He certainly won't be backing down when it comes to advocating for these people, though his patience will run out soon enough. It already has, in fact. ]
Those who attacked, they could have killed so many, but they chose to shoot with bullets that induced some sort of madness. They hurt people, but in a different way. The point of it was chaos. [ Unfortunately, he was hit with one of those bullets himself, though thankfully there's been no lasting effect. He would happily forget it ever happened, too. ] Effective, of course, when you're trying to get to a delegate.
no subject
Settling comfortably back into his space, she smiles all-too-knowingly, amusement lighting her eyes. Oh, he's very good at talking, but negotiating? ]
I'm sure you will.
[ She'll let him have his moment. ]
Effective. [ She nods her agreement, but her thoughts seem to be elsewhere. ] But too well planned, if that's all they wanted. I'm sure I could have found a quieter way to remove her. Distraction has its place, but you're right, this was chaos. I think they wanted people afraid. I think they wanted people questioning.
no subject
Distraction, yes - exactly what they wanted. Chaos and distraction. The madness started right after that strange business with the power going off and some of the delegates acting absolutely bizarre. Unnatural. Robotic? Controlled by something? One of them grabbed me and tried to speak - trapped in its own mind? [ Now he's just off and away talking to himself. Feel free to interrupt, River. ]
no subject
You noticed it, too. Doctor, have you ever played with a wind-up toy?
[ She almost wonders why she's asking. It seems just the sort of thing he'd play with, then likely try to improve if he didn't manage to break it first. ]
What if the droids are only basic models?
no subject
[ Almost - almost offended. Well, not really, but he loves to make a good show of it. As if that point is the most important part of the conversation. ]
Okay, yes, I see where you're going. I was getting to that, I was there slightly before you, in fact, I think. You beat me to it, but not by much - remember that. [ He paces around a little now, slowly turning in a circle. ] Basic model, and these others are far more advanced. Then you had the others milling out, pretending not to notice. Somewhere in all of this, we have a population of undead inhabitants to uncover.
no subject
Yes, that's the man
childshe married. ]Of course, Sweetie.
[ And she can be such an indulgent wife. ]
Maybe they're hiding in plain sight. You didn't happen to notice if the affected were mainly from Minaras or Eidris, did you? [ Minaras might make more sense on the surface. They certainly have the technology and the fear of death. ] There's a centre in Minaras, you know, an integration centre. [ Her words flow out in a rush to rival his, so as not to offer too much time for him to dwell on how what she's saying might apply to her. ] They only have one question. The question they ask, Doctor- What is your rot? They're terrified of illness, decay, death.
no subject
That I did. Near me, at least, they were nearly all from Minaras. A particularly insufferable lot, too.
[ At her mention of the integration centre, his brow furrows curiously. For a moment, he's so focused on what she's telling him and this puzzle they're trying to work out, that he forgets she's there herself. In Minaras. His mind does so wander. ]
What is your rot. Well, that's comforting and pleasant, isn't it. [ Quite the opposite, of course. ] It reminds me of a conversation I had with a little boy here in the Mouse House. He spoke of illness as well, of being banished here, not being allowed to go above as the locals feared being infected. [ Which won't do, in his mind. He's been upset about that ever since. ]
[ Then his mind finally catches up- ] This integration centre - they ask this question and then what? [ What happened to her, more to the point. She would naturally do anything she could to avoid it, but it's not that simple. ]
no subject
She's just gathering the breath to ask him about the boy, about his illness and who had banished him, if he's still ill, when his own question makes the words stick in her throat. Smiling, she takes a step back, shaking her head. Of course, she's told him about the question; he'll hardly believe she doesn't know what comes after.
Lifting her gaze to meet his, she takes a breath, keeping her tone light when she answers. ]
You answer.
[ The words dragged out of you whether you mean to speak or not, compelling you to admit truths you would never voice otherwise. ]
And then you're branded, so everyone might know what ails you and try to cure it. All very neat and painless. [ She shows him the, mercifully unmarked, back of her hand. ] Mine's only just faded. It takes a few days.
no subject
When her hand is shown to him, the Doctor takes the opportunity to snag it, wrapping his fingers around her wrist, though his touch is light, not forcing it. He wants to see, even with nothing left there to observe. He needs to see for himself. He'll be the judge of that. He needs to be sure, turning her hand over. ]
Painless. I doubt that. Physically, yes. But when they ask a question like that, they want to compel suffering, don't they? They want to pull it out of you, banish the sickness, make you whole again. That can't happen without a terrible purging.
[ He runs his thumb briefly over her unmarked skin, only guessing at what was there, though he has some ideas, of course. ]
So, tell me. It's just us now. What was it?
no subject
Her smile wavers, the faintest crack in her armour, but she still looks him in the eye. He must realize this is worse, that telling him is worse than telling an entire room of strangers, worse than having it tattooed on her hand for anyone to see. After a lifetime of hiding the damage, admitting any weakness to him always hurts worse.
She could tell him anything, that she'd had a headache that day. It's probably what he would do. But she can no more lie to him now than she could have to Asclepios in that moment, not about this. ]
Solitude.
no subject
That flicker of her smile, though; he's not blind to it. He knows what he's done, but it's for the best. He's here with her and he hasn't let go of her hand. Surely that counts for something (in his mind). ]
Is that all? That's everyone, though, isn't it? Solitude, loneliness.
[ He doesn't explicitly say himself, though it's implied. But, he's side-stepping honesty in return, while asking it of her. ]
And the cure - well, here we are. You've got me!
[ As if that fixes anything. It's a tonal shift in his momentary tenderness. His reaction is, perhaps, overly dismissive and blithe, which is precisely his way of dealing with most serious things until he's forced not to. Of course it would be solitude for her. It couldn't be anything else. Condemned to it as she's been, for so long. Here again, his fault, and he gets wrapped up in dwelling on it in his mind, while putting on a smile and a good show, like nothing's very wrong at all. ]
no subject
For all she's built up her defenses, walls high enough and dense enough to keep most anyone else out, she's dedicated lifetimes to moving carefully around him, guarding his emotions better than her own. But the Doctor, every face she's ever known, and she's known all of them, is inherently selfish. He feels so much, cares so much - she knows that better than anyone - that he only knows how to protect himself. So that's what they do, the two of them, what they've always done. They push past the difficult feelings, sweep them aside. If they can make a joke of it, all the better.
She sees through him, hears what he doesn't say as plainly as what he does. ]
So I do. Too bad you weren't around three days ago when I needed the damn thing off my hand.
[ She manages a hint of mock accusation.
He's here and he hasn't let go of her hand, and that counts for everything. Even this young, he's still her husband, always her Doctor. It should be enough to keep the loneliness at bay. But when has she ever been able to count on him staying? Only once. In what might have equalled centuries of marriage for all either of them bothered to keep track.
Her life isn't something they talk about. A child raised to be a weapon, a girl without a family, half a lifetime in a cage. And then in doing the one thing she hadn't wanted him to do, he'd finally given her a family, if not the way she wanted it. She'd never wanted a life that didn't include the Doctor. Now they've been taken from her, too. She hadn't even realized how much that hurt until the words had spilled out of her.
He hasn't let go of her hand. ]
This city won't keep us separate forever. [ It's a demand as much as a statement. ] Then no one will accuse either of us of being lonely.
no subject
She is one of the most painful truths of his life. Because she's a constant for him in every way, she is also a constant reminder of failure. He tries so very hard not to dwell in his memories, he tries to forget the way he purports to on the surface, and yet there are times he looks at River and hears the echo of her mother, What is the point of you. Words said in a dream, in a moment of pain, caught between truth and reality, and yet, they were some of the truest words about himself that he's ever known.
Here in this place, whatever it is exactly, he has a chance to just be with River. That's terrifying and yet, hopeful as well. He doesn't know what it means to just be with her, he doesn't know what that entails, what it will look like or feel like, but he isn't running. He can't, actually, so he's forced to face it. ]
Oh, you'll forgive me, you always do.
[ Again, the nonchalance of his words belies the inner turmoil. The presumption in them as well isn't necessarily earned either. He won't know exactly what she went through in those moments, when the rot was branded on her hand. He can pry it out of her if he really wants to, but it's not necessary. She's said enough. He should do more to comfort her, he thinks, but he's still trying to figure out how that works, too. He's good at the comforting, he thinks, he has been, but it's somehow very different when it's River. ]
Quite right. [ Here, now, he rewards her with a tender, almost proud and fond smile. Where it comes from, he's not sure, but he feels some inexplicable emotion swell up within him. ] I know you've been busy - naughty, more like - haven't you. Of course you have. What else have you uncovered?
no subject
He has a chance now to start making up for so many others. She wonders if he'll take it, if he even can. He may be young, but sometimes she sees the man he'll become. He's still that man. She knows he loves her, even if he hasn't learned to show her yet. ]
Not nearly as much as I'd like. There are eyes everywhere, Sweetie. And do you know, for some reason, they think I'm a military hero.
[ That might be overstating it slightly, but her position and rank do seem to be widely known. Everywhere she goes it seems someone wants to hear her account of the last battle between the forces of Minaras and Eidris. She never tells the same story twice, and it makes no difference to the number of people who ask her to tell it the next time. ]
Serthica seems to be of two minds. Eidris is too at ease. Minaras, the opposite. Rigid, horrified by disorder and disease. You should see how often they check their watches.
no subject
Well, not the first time anyone's been wrong about you. They got me in one, though. Negotiator.
[ They couldn't have picked a better person for the job. Right, River??
Of course, he moves on quickly from her role specifically in the military, given his own feelings on the military. In some ways, it's a bit on the nose for her, too, with her past. ]
Yes, the two halves are on opposite extremes. Not only is Eidris too at ease, they forget, well, quite a lot. Anything negative, they ignore it, like it never happened. Minaras remembers, Eidris forgets.
I'm still working out this sickness. It was unsurvivable for the people it infected. Many in the Mouse House came down here after the sickness swept through. I'm not sure anyone actually did survive. Perhaps death took a different form here and everyone is coming to life backwards, in various stages of undeath.
no subject
Of course. Remind me again, Sweetie, what is it you're negotiating?
[ Considering she hasn't heard of any unexpected uprisings and he's still (to her relief) his usual charming self, she'll assume it's gone well regardless of his success. ]
It might explain why death doesn't seem to leave its mark here. But why allow half of the city to remember, while making half the city forget?
[ Given her upbringing, she can almost be glad most of her time has been spent in the stricter Minaras rather than forgetful Eidris. ]
Unless it's an unfortunate side effect.
no subject
Very important things! Better conditions for the people down here. The people up above with all the power and the money, flaunting it without a care, they think I'm through talking with them. I've only just begun.
[ Little do they know, he's more than happy to persist and he doesn't really care who he upsets. Let them be upset. They're all living so comfortably while the people who need help are just barely getting by. He knows his limits, though; well, he likes to think so in any case. ]
Side effect, I think. My working theory at the moment. I don't know, and I don't like not knowing. [ Said almost, almost petulantly. Possibly with the barest hint of a pout. He's completely out of his element here. No TARDIS, no sonic screwdriver, none of his usual abilities. But, he is tenacious, no matter what, and he won't let being unsure of anything stop him. ]
no subject
He has no idea of his limits. He never has. And he'll always fight for those who need him most. It's why she'd fallen in love with him so long ago. ]
No. Neither of us has ever been very good at not knowing. [ Her expression turns momentarily serious. ] Doctor, how is your memory?
[ She wants, no, needs, reassurance that the memory loss is confined to the local population, that it isn't something in their environment. Especially if she can't stay with him. ]
no subject
He knows why she's asking and he should reassure her immediately; he should, but first- ]
My memory? Mine, of all people? I've won the intergalactic Simon game competition ten years and counting now! That little game humans love, it's gained universal popularity. Got the trophy and sash to prove it. You don't win that not having the best memory in the whole of the universe. Nothing cracks this, dear. [ He taps the side of his head for a moment with his index finger.
But then, at last, more seriously - because he can't entirely ignore the look in her eyes, not when she's in front of him and he truly has nowhere to run to at the moment - he squeezes her hand softly. ]
I do mean that. You have nothing to worry about.
no subject
Still, her touch lingers, part of her afraid if she lets him out of her sight, he won't be there when she comes back.
The worry doesn't leave her eyes, even as she smiles indulgently with a soft, 'Of course, dear.' But when he finally gives the answer she wants, her smile softens. ]
I always worry, Sweetie. It just doesn't show.
[ Maybe that's risk enough. So many years of hiding the damage, but there's nowhere for either of them to hide now. And frankly, for a time, she'd gotten used to not needing to, to both of them being on the same page for once. ]
no subject
[ He's not as good at the sentimental side of it, despite the feelings being quite real and there, inside of him. It's the pulling them out and showing them that he struggles with. But she knows that. They know each other so very well by now.
Where does that leave them, though? Well, here. Right here. Facing each other. Not running, because they can't.
He is, similarly, reluctant to let go of her or let her out of his sight, though it helps that there's so much else to focus on now, too. So much to figure out, people to help. He can worry about River, but he can do so much to fix what's going on here, too. He always needs that purpose. ]
They may have separated us physically, but they can't actually keep us apart the way they think they can. I wouldn't let them.
no subject
His admission still catches her off-guard.
Oh, she's forgotten how much more open this face can be, for all his uncertainty and awkwardness, his emotions so much closer to the surface.
She laughs, a barely-there sound, almost relieved and heavy with the weight of her own emotions. Where does that leave them? Maybe where they've always been. Two people who love each other too much to hold onto each other for fear of the inevitable loss. Except there isn't anywhere else to go, and neither of them is walking away. ]
You won't, will you.
[ It isn't a question and no doubt hides behind her words, but the relief seems to settle over her with the acknowledgement. ]
I know how to look after myself. Better than you. [ Her voice is soft, lightly teasing, but when she meets his eyes, there's no mistaking her sincerity. ] I'm not going anywhere, Doctor.
[ Whatever else she may have left behind, she won't leave him. Not again. Not as long as she has a choice. ]
no subject
Her next words are exactly what he needed to hear, without knowing or fully realizing he needed to hear them. But that's the nature of their relationship, isn't it? Knowing each other so desperately well, always being one step ahead of the other, being able to recognize the needs they both have without the other needing to say it at all. ]
Now, I'm holding you to that promise, Professor Song.
[ Though he doesn't say the same words back, he means to do the same. Not go anywhere at all, as long as he can. This is their last chance, the only time he'll ever have again to just be with River Song. His wife. He won't let it just slip through his fingers without doing everything he can to hold it tightly. ]
no subject
His reassurance is in his worry, in the way his fingers wrap around hers and the way he looks at her.
He may be her undoing, he has been already, but he's also her constant. No matter where or when, no matter what face he's wearing, when she really needs him, he's always there. He's her home, her safe place to land, her other half. And he's going to stay right here with her. ]
I wouldn't dream of breaking it, Sweetie.
[ She bunches her fingers once in his jacket before gently smoothing it out again and reluctantly letting her hand drop back to her side. ]
Then I guess it's time we go our separate ways. I'll find you again in a day or two.
(no subject)
(no subject)