a traveler from an antique land

The Doctor poked her head out of the TARDIS carefully. The distress signal she’d picked up had definitely come from here, but there weren’t any obvious signs of distress. On the contrary, everyone here seemed to be having a marvelous time.

She’d landed in an elegant restaurant, surrounded by white tablecloths and flickering candlelight over engraved golden holders. As she took this in, her eye caught on one diner a few feet to her right. His face was covered by a menu, but he looked like- but it couldn’t be, not again-

He set his menu down, a smile gracing his features. “I’m so glad you could make it, Doctor, I was worried I’d have to order without you.”

A groan. “Q. What is this?”

“Don’t tell me you’d forgotten, mon Docteur,” he pouted. “I do so hate to be forgotten.”

She crossed her arms and stared him down. “I’d have to have known about this to forget it.”

Unaffected, he smiled in the face of her glare. “Didn’t you get the invitation? No matter, you’re here now. Shall we start with an appetizer or go straight to the main course?”

“I’m not hungry.”

He pouted again. “I’m going to feel slighted if you keep this up, Doctor. Why do I inspire such distrust in you?”

“It’s a knack of yours, I suppose.”

( 'What would it take to overcome this wall you’ve put up between us? I know!' He brightened and snapped his fingers. There was a brief flash of light- she suspected it was mainly for show- and then they had a third guest.' )

Community: theatrical_muse
Prompt: 208 - Four
Word Count: 709
Guest starring: the Doctor, the Doctor, the Doctor, and Q!

It’s like the woods from a storybook, she decides, only more. The green is greener than green, the brown of the trees richer than brown, the water wetter than water itself. The triplet of suns in the sky are much too bright; she shuts them out and gently rubs the back of her head, where a headache is gathering in intensity and blood colours her hair. The creek a few feet away is loud and simultaneously soothing and painful. As she lets sound and smell wash over here, she understands, finally, what’s so very wrong and different. There is no Time.

Everywhere else she feels it, sometimes lazily drifting alongside her, sometimes rushing her on with adrenaline and excitement, sometimes relentlessly pulling her with it from one painful moment to the next. Here, it simply isn’t. Here, it is now, content to be now forever, and every now before and after besides. She opens her eyes with the shock of this realization, and, yes, if she stares at that tree closely enough, she can truly see it; a seed, a sapling, a mighty tree towering over the rest of the forest, an old stump withered and dying.

She turns away hurriedly, head splitting from the strain of seeing the tree’s life all at once, and instead watches the creek. “Doctor,” a voice sounds in the rush of water over stones.

“Who?” she answers cautiously.

“Listen to me, Doctor,” says the voice in the gentle roll of thunder from a storm far away. “Eternity. Darkness. Remember.”

She frowns. “What about it?”

( 'Do you realize you’re talking to yourself?' Another voice, new and completely familiar in a comforting way. She turns to it and finds a blue-eyed youth in a cricketer’s outfit, hands in his trouser pockets. )



Community: theatrical_muse
Prompt: 193 - Write a ficlet inspired by the following image: Forest & Creek
Word Count: 1,152