Fic: A Most Intriguing Proposal.
Like a lot of my flist, I was left slightly discontented by the ending of FotD. I was planning a post on the subject, but this came to mind instead...
Title: A Most Intriguing Proposal
Author: lyore
Fandom: Doctor Who / The Thursday Next series, and an implied guest appearance by another fictional archaeologist.
Spoilers: Spoilers for Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, general spoilers for the existence of a certain literary agency.
Word Count: ~ 340 words
Disclaimer: Anything you recognise doesn't belong to me.
Summary: Post FotD, River Song's perfect existence is interrupted.
Author's notes: Unbeta'd, comment and concrit welcomed.
River Song smoothed her hand across the children's bed covers. Downstairs, she could hear Miss Evangelista arguing the philosophical implications of theoretical physics with Anita (and there was a relationship she didn’t see coming), while the Daves engaged in an energetic two-man game of cricket, scuffing the perfectly manicured lawn. Temporarily, of course; River knew if she looked outside in an hour the marks would be gone.
She sighed. While domestication had been a nice change from her less-than-peaceful life, unending marital bliss was becoming a little… well, boring, frankly. She loved her husband and her children, of course, but she missed the intellectual stimulation - and the adrenaline rush - of exploring the galaxy. Of saving the galaxy. Not that she wanted to do that again, and besides, it would probably be hard to save a galaxy she couldn't interact with anymore. No, she would settle for a purpose outside these walls; anything larger than this house. But there weren't many job openings for archaeologists in a created library-world.
Someone knocked on the door.
River willed herself downstairs. There had to be some advantages to living in a virtual reality, after all.
Two strangers - a man and a woman - stood at the front door. River frowned. Neither of these two matched any of the existing patterns Cal had on file, and Doctor Moon normally warned her when there were new additions to the hard drive.
"Miss Song?" the female asked.
"Professor," River corrected automatically. Not that she had been doing much professoring lately, but it was the principle of the thing.
"I'm sorry. Professor?"
River nodded.
"My name is Thursday Next. I represent an organisation known as Jurisfiction." The woman paused. River saw her sharp eyes flick across the room, absorbing details like words on a page.
Then, "May we come in?"
River stood back from the door. The man in the hat flashed her a charming grin, and the woman elbowed him in the ribs.
Somehow she got the feeling that her afterlife had just become a whole lot more interesting.
~
Title: A Most Intriguing Proposal
Author: lyore
Fandom: Doctor Who / The Thursday Next series, and an implied guest appearance by another fictional archaeologist.
Spoilers: Spoilers for Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead, general spoilers for the existence of a certain literary agency.
Word Count: ~ 340 words
Disclaimer: Anything you recognise doesn't belong to me.
Summary: Post FotD, River Song's perfect existence is interrupted.
Author's notes: Unbeta'd, comment and concrit welcomed.
River Song smoothed her hand across the children's bed covers. Downstairs, she could hear Miss Evangelista arguing the philosophical implications of theoretical physics with Anita (and there was a relationship she didn’t see coming), while the Daves engaged in an energetic two-man game of cricket, scuffing the perfectly manicured lawn. Temporarily, of course; River knew if she looked outside in an hour the marks would be gone.
She sighed. While domestication had been a nice change from her less-than-peaceful life, unending marital bliss was becoming a little… well, boring, frankly. She loved her husband and her children, of course, but she missed the intellectual stimulation - and the adrenaline rush - of exploring the galaxy. Of saving the galaxy. Not that she wanted to do that again, and besides, it would probably be hard to save a galaxy she couldn't interact with anymore. No, she would settle for a purpose outside these walls; anything larger than this house. But there weren't many job openings for archaeologists in a created library-world.
Someone knocked on the door.
River willed herself downstairs. There had to be some advantages to living in a virtual reality, after all.
Two strangers - a man and a woman - stood at the front door. River frowned. Neither of these two matched any of the existing patterns Cal had on file, and Doctor Moon normally warned her when there were new additions to the hard drive.
"Miss Song?" the female asked.
"Professor," River corrected automatically. Not that she had been doing much professoring lately, but it was the principle of the thing.
"I'm sorry. Professor?"
River nodded.
"My name is Thursday Next. I represent an organisation known as Jurisfiction." The woman paused. River saw her sharp eyes flick across the room, absorbing details like words on a page.
Then, "May we come in?"
River stood back from the door. The man in the hat flashed her a charming grin, and the woman elbowed him in the ribs.
Somehow she got the feeling that her afterlife had just become a whole lot more interesting.
~