Somewhere in (fictional) Scotland -- Open to Jamie

[just_as_clever]

Verdant green hills rolled off in every direction, painting a postcard-perfect picture. But Zoe, sitting on a rocky outcropping near the crest of one such hill, was distinctly unimpressed. Not only had she seen all of this before (eidetic memory had, perhaps, its disadvantages), but there were far more important things on her mind. She glanced over

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[creag_an_tuire]

"Well I don't," Jamie says, picking up a pebble and throwing it off into the distance. He turns back to look at Zoe. "I know something's gone rather wrong."

[just_as_clever]

"So you've met some too? Real people, that is?" She shakes her head, looking out over the landscape. "I can't imagine how they've gotten here."

[creag_an_tuire]

Jamie nods. "Some chappie named Vila. I thought it was strange that he would be so far inland and not know he was fictional. 'What's the Mistress up to now', I thought, but when I went to help show him he's fictional," Jamie motions towards his dirk, "Found out he's real. And he's never heard of a TARDIS, much less traveled in one."

[just_as_clever]

"Well, the Mistress did say we ought to be looking for anything out of the ordinary -- I dare say we've found something."

[creag_an_tuire]

"Well did the Mistress give you any ideas on how to send people home? Because I'm sure eventually all of these people who are real will want to go home, and I'm fresh out of TARDISes, so your guess on how to do that is as good as mine."

He sighs. It probably isn't right for him to be taking all this out on poor Zoe. It isn't her fault, after all. He's not even sure why he's being like this. He'd thought he had gotten used to the idea of being fictional, of being based on the true story of James Robert McCrimmon, but not really being the aforementioned highlander. It's not Zoe's fault this Vila is here, just as it's not Vila's fault that Jamie was created here.

It suddenly occurs too Jamie that he and Zoe were speaking about 'they'. Plural. "Hey, hold on, ye said real 'people', more than one. So it's no just Vila then?"

[just_as_clever]

"I'm not entirely certain she actually knew what was wrong. She didn't specify that there were real people in the land..."

Zoe shakes her head, trailing off into thoughtful silence: musing over ways this might have happened, ways in which it might be reversed. She looks up with a start when Jamie speaks again.

"No, not just your friend Vila. I've seen three or four new arrivals at least now who certainly aren't any of our creations."

[creag_an_tuire]

"Three or four?" Jamie chews at a fingernail for a moment. That's worse than he thought. Finding a way home for one person was bad enough, but several? They might not even be from the same time or planet! "What are we going to do?"

[just_as_clever]

"...and not a Doctor among them," she adds, with a rather wistful smile. "And I really don't know. If we knew how they'd gotten here, perhaps we could reverse the process, but as it stands, I've not the faintest."

She glances up at him.

"We're just going to have to talk to the Mistress about it. She must have some idea."

[creag_an_tuire]

"But, Zoe," Jamie says slowly. "If... well, if random people are randomly showing up... well, ye dinnae suppose it has anything to do with the last intruders, do ye?"

[just_as_clever]

The thought had crossed her mind, but she was trying not to dwell on it. "They only arrived under rather unique circumstances. And even if they had returned, surely they would have made themselves known before now..."

She hopes, at least.

[creag_an_tuire]

"No," he says, shaking his head, "no, I dinnae mean it like that." Not exactly, anyway. "What if somehow when they came here it made it so other people could accidentally get here? Och, maybe it's just a daft idea, but what else could it be?"

[just_as_clever]

"When we're discussing something that oughtn't be possible at all, it's as good an idea as any, Jamie. I suppose they might have..." She trails off, lost in thought for a moment before returning to herself, to the green hillside, to Jamie. "It's no more unlikely than any other idea."

[creag_an_tuire]

"Aye, well, I hope not." He really hopes this has absolutely nothing at all to do with those creatures, as he's had quite enough of them for one lifetime, fictional or otherwise.

[just_as_clever]

"The Mistress will have some solution, I'm sure of it."

She has to, hasn't she?

[creag_an_tuire]

"She had better." Jamie picks up another rock and throws it. He honestly can't shake the feeling the Mistress won't have a solution. If she wasn't even sure what was happening in the first place... it just doesn't seem like a good sign to him.

[just_as_clever]

"Well, we won't find out what she knows or doesn't by sitting here."