249 - Fourth Wall Post

[impure_tale]

I suppose one last shout into the ether would not go amiss.

Come speak to me, my darlings. The universe is lonely without you in it.

Comments

[buywithme]

Keep him waiting a little longer, though?

[Prefect says this a little too quickly, and there's a kind of quiet, soft edged urgency in his tone.]

Come and visit us first, Comrade. It's hard to think about you leaving there... hard to think that if I ever go back to it you won't be there to meet me.

[impure_tale]

...Of course, dumpling. I would be happy to visit with you.

[ There's something left unspoken, some thought that crosses his mind and sets his brow knitting with worry. ]

[buywithme]

[He sees the crease of unhappiness, and his own smile finally fades a little as he tries to decipher it.]

I... I don't mean to be demanding, Comrade.

[He sort of does.]

You don't-- I mean... of course, if you really don't want to be delayed, then I wouldn't want to stop you.

[impure_tale]

It's no bother. It...may also be my last chance. I don't know how much I can negotiate, really.

[buywithme]

What do you mean?

[impure_tale]

Once I'm back in the land of the living for good, I don't know if I'll be able to go back, or visit with friends across worlds.

[buywithme]

I... I have found that, yes. Now that I'm here... I don't even know exactly how I'd find the Admiral again, if I needed too.

I only believe that if I really did need the Barge again, that it would find me.

[impure_tale]

That sounded almost religious.

[buywithme]

It's not. It's just... an observation, Comrade. The Barge always found me before. Never left me behind, even when I wanted to be left behind.

[a ponderous pause.]

[Private]

Do you ever feel as though... as though you know it, Comrade? Perhaps this is insanity, but it changed so much while we were on board... it grew so much around us, that sometimes I feel that just as the Admiral spoke much and yet remained a stranger, the Barge itself became like an old, strange, Comrade.

So I do think that friend remembers me, even as I remember you.

[Private]

[impure_tale]

...I agree.

Unfortunately if that holds true it means the other Barge remembers us too.

[Private]

[buywithme]

True.

Just probably not so vividly.

[Private]

[impure_tale]

I'm worried.

I haven't told anyone else this, but I trust you, Prefect. The Barge has been -- meeting with that one, more frequently. The last time it happened -- the last two times -- he wasn't alive.

He was still there -- it's hard to explain. I don't remember all of it well. I think someone killed him and no one's voluntarily raised him.

And I'm leaving this place knowing there is nothing I can do about this.

[Private]

[buywithme]

Marquis... Comrade... the best advice that I can give is to tell Iris. Or... if there's a Doctor on board, one of the good ones, like the one with the scarf? Tell the Time Lords. If any of us have a chance of getting back to that place outside of the Barge, then it's them.

Where I am now... Comrade, we spend so much time in such... flux, that you wouldn't believe how small the universe becomes when we finally stop. I can't even begin to imagine how I could reach that place from here.

[Private]

[impure_tale]

You are right, of course. Which is why I told you.

Why such a thing as that place exists, I'll never know.