atardisofourown | VIP Flood for Bianca (but open)

VIP Flood for Bianca (but open)

[Amata takes a few minutes to digest the Barge Facts 101 the Admiral seems to have helpfully dumped into her head. Fortunately, while no telepath herself, she's no stranger to telepathy, or transdimensional ships, although the Barge may actually top the TARDIS for strange and fantastic.

She looks around the suite she arrived in, without poking around, even though she knows that if this is indeed Koschei's quarters, he'd shrug and say she'd be within her rights to do so.

Then she flips on the communicator. People from all over the cosmos all on one ship, huh? No way she's wasting much time making her presence known. If Koschei is remotely typical for the passengers, the next few days will be far from boring.]

Hello, Barge. I'm one of the guests for this flood. My name is Amata, and I'm human, but not Earth born and raised. I'm originally from a pretty backwater colony called Kaitos, late 34th century. The last few years I've been traveling, mostly, some of it time travel. As far as Earth goes, early 21st century is the era I've spent the most time in. [There's no accounting for the taste of renegade Time Lords, as favorite time periods go, apparently, but she elects not to say that out loud.]

How are all of you this morning?

***

Amata is cheerfully wandering around everywhere on the ship she can reach that isn't obviously private quarters, and not shying from making use of Koschei's warden item (21st-century British passport, really, Koschei? See above: no accounting for taste). She'll talk to anyone who seems to welcome company, with open curiosity and warmth. Perhaps notably, once she works out what the Enclosure does, she's not very interested in it for itself, although she doesn't mind accompanying people who want to make use of it.

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[She nods sagely, grin still tugging on her lips.]

Ah, I think that puts us on approximately the same level, then, Fitz. Nodding along to analogies of variable helpfulness from the nerds and occasionally questioning wonderfully fun to say but otherwise probably bullshit neologisms like'timey-whimey'.

[Seriously, she loves slang, and sometimes the Doctor's simplifications are gorgeous word paintings. But it's nice when Koschei's in the same room and she can at least glance over at his expression as a way to fact check.]

Is your friend the mathy sort at least? I'm told there's all kinds of math involved in proper temporal navigation. And while I know a lot of people consider it just another language - the base language of the cosmos even, and I'm pretty good with languages - I just never got past calculus.

The analogies can be pretty good. Mostly it's just because he sulks terribly if you don't provide the cue. Me and Sam - she used to travel with us - would flip a coin on who had to say 'what does that mean' or 'what's going to happen'.

[He shrugs.] I don't think so, but he's sort of every sort. I'm not sure I ever saw calculus.

[It's no one thing that he's said so far, that makes her pause, more the shape of all of it together ringing bells.]

Wait, wait, wait. A Doctor of every sort, by chance?

[He laughs. They've run into plenty of time travelers over the last couple - whatever unit of time, and the barge crosses it's own universes, so he hadn't assumed anything. But he can easily believe it.]

The type of Doctor who manages to get away with being called that even in places where people should really raise an eyebrow at it?

I did raise an eyebrow, but Kaitos has its own history of being very serious about titles, so I was polite enough not to laugh at him. Or the Master.

[Growing up steeped in a flavor of neo-feudalism means Master does not strike her as inherently more ridiculous than Doctor, as titles go. But she knows academic hierarchy is palatable in a number of societies that are otherwise big on egalitarianism.]

1963, London. Two doctors about and he's the one who always wins the name game.

[His affection for the Doctor is almost at it's most evident when he's semi-complaining about him.]

It's been long enough I have to remember to occasionally be surprised that people just accept it. [He reflects on this a moment.] Of course, he's usually accused of something and there's tossing in cells, and once he's out they're usually too distracted to get into it.

[The Doctor does seem to inspire that sort of griping. The warmth in Fitz's tone isn't far off from what she's heard in Koschei's many times, even when Koschei's complaining can be more pointed.]

I think there's slightly less tossing in cells in the time I've known him, but then diplomacy is my wheelhouse, and he occasionally listens to Koschei where manners are concerned. [The Doctor never being able to completely predict the level of violence Koschei will use when he decides the Doctor needs rescuing might have something to do with it.]

And London - I'm not surprised. I haven't gotten around to that decade yet.

There's probably more threats of cells, than actual throwing. But the number of threats still means one of us gets locked up far more than average. or almost shot. He's still probably better at diplomacy than I am.

[The Doctor at his very worst is still far, far better at Fitz at diplomacy. On the other hand, Fitz is better at shutting up in the face of threats. Usually.]

Sometimes it seems he never leave. London, not the '60s. lot off time dropping in on the late 20th and 21st century. Usually still feels like London, except shinier. And you can't smoke inside.

That tracks. [London is certainly the closest thing to a home to the two Time Lords she knows.]

2010s is when I first visited and have spent the most time. What stood out most to me was how many large green spaces were in the city. Where I'm from - well, there was some real terraforming in the works by the time I left last, but Kaitos is on the dry, rocky, marginally habitable side. There's some cultivated gardens and lots of greenhouses, agricultural fields in the few flood plains with low enough salinity. Nothing like Richmond Park.

I've been to some places like that. Usually just before disaster strikes or terraforming goes wrong or the planet decides to eat us, but sometimes there's a bit of sight seeing first.

I didn't make it to the park that often, not really my scene. I used to work in a florist shop, before I met the Doctor. 'Course, that was just a day job.

[A florist shop. She's far too well traveled to show much reaction at this point, but in her formative years the idea would have been startling. People grew decorative plants, of course, for themselves, or devoted a part of community space for it. The royal gardens were famously extravagant, although as she'd just said, relatively tiny.

But you wouldn't just sell flowers as part of an impersonal transaction.]

Oh? A vocation, then?

No, it just paid the bills. I guess music was my vocation. These days it's music and hanging around a Time Lord who saves worlds using string and sealing wax.

I probably get to play to more screaming crowds, so that's one part of the dream.

[She'd been trying to ask him what his interests were if it's wasn't really his day job, so that works.]

What do you play? Do you sing?

All sorts of stuff, but mostly guitar. Yeah, I write, too.

What about you?

I had some singing lessons as a kid and my mother tried to teach me - I think you'd call it a dulcimer - but I wouldn't say I'm particularly musically talented.

My academic background is linguistics and literature, actually. But my late husband was a writer.[Evander's been dead a long time, so there's just a flicker of a bittersweet smile before she moves on.]

I assume you're a guest here, too? [Because surely Koschei would have mentioned the Doctor at some point, and even if he was oblique about it, he wouldn't hide that fact that he himself is a Time Lord.]

A shame you'll probably miss Koschei entirely. He's got a bit of thing for 20th century Earth music, at least in the body I know him, and plays the trumpet.

Recent arrival, actually. Turning up during this... flood probably isn't the most confusing way I could've arrived, but it's not the least, either.

Though I probably wouldn't have any idea who was around at this point, flood or not. [If he's going to be honest.]

The trumpet, huh. I've traveled enough that I'm better at not assuming that 20th century Earth necessarily means what I'm used to - even from Time Lords - but that's promising.

[Belatedly, she realizes that Fitz just might know some version of the Master, past, future, or alternate, and there's really no telling how that could predispose Fitz.]

I'll put that you're onboard in my notes for him.

[And if Fitz's name rings any bells, Koschei can do with that knowledge what he will. He'll appreciate being forewarned, that she's certain.]

[Fitz's shrugs, seems reasonable enough.]

I haven't met a lot of Time Lords. [And not for long, though saying that would be on the edge of an extremely tasteless joke. Even for him.]

From what you've said, I assume he doesn't go around constantly disgusted by the existence of worthless primate descendants, which already puts him ahead of most of them.

I've met precisely two of them. [Ssince she's already mentioned Koschei by title, even if she hasn't clearly connected the dots, the math isn't hard.]

I'd gathered arrogant, xenophobic asshattery is what we poor apes would get from most of them, yes. Koschei has, ah, come around.

You have that completely right, let me just say it wasn't a fun visit. I could see why the Doctor took off.

They almost make the Earth Empire in the 51st century look open to foreigners.

...huh. I can't tell if that's actually different in my universe, where I spent what little bit of time in the 51st century was unusually cosmopolitan, or if coming from one of the isolated lost colonies means I'm a little blind to human privilege or centrism.

[He pauses a moment, his most automatic memories are also ones he tends to try not to think about much, but he has other sources.] I don't know if there's any way to tell. The Empire was pretty big, I know some parts weren't as bad as others. I think it was worst at the center, but the Doctor gets all vague about it - you know the way he gets when he was involved with something big.

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VIP Flood for Bianca (but open)

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