theatrical_muse Prompt 232: Unkind Situations
Is there a situation where it's appropriate to be unkind?
On the fifth of October in the year 1930, a British airship crashed in France during its maiden overseas voyage to Karachi, called the R-101. A ruptured gas bag in the early hours of the morning caused the nose of the ship to drop and then a collision with a hill at 13 mph ignited the leaking hydrogen and set fire to the entire ship. Forty-six men died instantly, either getting severely injured at the impact or burning to death in the flames. Some of both. Two others died from injuries in the hospital.
Forty-eight dead.
Or rather, forty-seven.
Charley Elspeth Pollard, Edwardian adventuress. Eighteen-years-old, born on the fifteenth of April, 1912, the day the Titanic sank. Died on the R-101, surviving the impact but suffering in the flames before-...
No.
Charley Elspeth Pollard, Edwardian adventuress. Eighteen-years-old, born on the fifteenth of April, 1912, the day the Titanic sank. Saved from the R-101 disaster of 1930 by a man called the Doctor, a Time Lord that Charley would call "the oddest man I've ever met."
There was a loud creak of an old rusted door that was in clear need of a good oiling, coming from a completely conspicuous box in the middle of a field that was oversaturated with reds, yellows and greens. Two people stepped out, a man and a woman.
A loud, excited squeal burst out into the air, and the grass beneath their feet began to become flattened into the soil as Charley jumped up and down and a little bit sideways with an over-abundance of enthusiasm. "Oh, Doctor, this is amazing!"
He grinned, smiling at her effulgent happiness, even as he asked, "Do you like it? I don't know, I think it's a bit dull myself, we could have gone to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, you know. Much nicer scenery there... it's right next to Switzerland."
"Oh, but that's on Earth. I've been to Earth, Doctor! Lived there, in fact, if you hadn't noticed. This is so much better! I'm on a different planet, for heaven's sake, with different... well... everything! How many other people can say that they get to do this every day? I really am Charley Pollard, Edwardian adventuress."
"Hmm, yes... do you know, Charley, I've been thinking that you need a name change. 'Edwardian adventuress' doesn't seem to quite cut it any more, now that you're travelling in the most marvellous time and space ship in existence. You're not just having adventures, you're experiencing and I think you need a title that shows that."
"What, so you think it should be 'Charley Pollard, Edwardian adventuress... who also travels in time and space, experiencing things'?"
The Doctor furrowed his brow, contemplating for a moment before throwing up his shoulders in a light-hearted shrug. "Well, all right, I see your point there, but I just think that there's got to be something better in it. 'Edwardian adventuress' sounds like bit of a step down for someone who's met Alexandre Dumas."
"All right then. Edwardian adventuress who travels in time and space with the most wonderful man in the world."
"'In the world?' Is that all? I think I should rather feel insulted here, Charley."
She laughed. "Oh, fine. The universe, if you must."
"Thank you. I feel much better now."
"But really, Doctor," she said, suddenly, grabbing his arm and becoming serious. "Thank you. I would never have seen any of this if it weren't for you. I'd still be in the R-101, and I'd probably be dead." She smiled thankfully, resting a palm lightly onto his shoulder. "You saved my life. And then you showed me the universe. I owe you everything."
A silence festered between them, permeated only by the clicking of birds in the distance. Well, they were close enough to birds, anyway.
"You're welcome." he said, finally.
You're wrong.
"Now come on! New planet to explore! New grass, new trees, new birds. Not really birds, actually, they click rather than chirp and they're really quite carnivorous -- I wouldn't go near them, if I were you."
"Trouble to cause?"
"It's never far behind, is it?" He grinned. "Come on! We'll be late!"
"For what?"
"I don't know! But we don't want to find out by being late to it, do we?"
In the massive and incomprehensible sea of words, languages, books, and inane facts about the universe that was his head, he remembered hearing a quote from someone about relationships, whether it was a friendship or... something else. They had said that the beginning of a relationship was signified by a clock somewhere starting to tick, counting the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years... until it all ended.
Keeping Charley aboard the TARDIS went utterly against all of his better judgements, his rationalised thinking, and several laws of Time that he really could not break, but had anyway. He had saved a girl who was doomed to die on the R-101 but hadn't. A girl that was still existing that shouldn't. It was the most dangerous thing in the universe.
He could feel the strands of timelines breaking around her, fracturing into tiny pieces and leaving large, dangerous gaps that should never have existed, just because she was still alive, still breathing, still living when she shouldn't have been.
And yet, he couldn't let her go.
Their clock had already stopped from the moment they had met, only ticking on through borrowed days at this point. Every second was a baited breath, every minute a corner in a long hallway, hearts beating in frantic anticipation for someone to come and take her away from him, to leave him alone and helpless as they returned her to her rightful place on board the R-101.
But it wasn't right. It wasn't fair. That wasn't her rightful place, her rightful place was on board the TARDIS, with him. Where she could be alive, have adventures, experience things that no one had ever experienced. That was what Charley Pollard, Edwardian adventuress, deserved. She deserved a life.
She deserved this life.
And they'd never take it from her as long as he was alive.
He loved her.
If only he knew what that meant.
The Eighth Doctor
Doctor Who
982 words
On the fifth of October in the year 1930, a British airship crashed in France during its maiden overseas voyage to Karachi, called the R-101. A ruptured gas bag in the early hours of the morning caused the nose of the ship to drop and then a collision with a hill at 13 mph ignited the leaking hydrogen and set fire to the entire ship. Forty-six men died instantly, either getting severely injured at the impact or burning to death in the flames. Some of both. Two others died from injuries in the hospital.
Forty-eight dead.
Or rather, forty-seven.
Charley Elspeth Pollard, Edwardian adventuress. Eighteen-years-old, born on the fifteenth of April, 1912, the day the Titanic sank. Died on the R-101, surviving the impact but suffering in the flames before-...
No.
Charley Elspeth Pollard, Edwardian adventuress. Eighteen-years-old, born on the fifteenth of April, 1912, the day the Titanic sank. Saved from the R-101 disaster of 1930 by a man called the Doctor, a Time Lord that Charley would call "the oddest man I've ever met."
There was a loud creak of an old rusted door that was in clear need of a good oiling, coming from a completely conspicuous box in the middle of a field that was oversaturated with reds, yellows and greens. Two people stepped out, a man and a woman.
A loud, excited squeal burst out into the air, and the grass beneath their feet began to become flattened into the soil as Charley jumped up and down and a little bit sideways with an over-abundance of enthusiasm. "Oh, Doctor, this is amazing!"
He grinned, smiling at her effulgent happiness, even as he asked, "Do you like it? I don't know, I think it's a bit dull myself, we could have gone to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, you know. Much nicer scenery there... it's right next to Switzerland."
"Oh, but that's on Earth. I've been to Earth, Doctor! Lived there, in fact, if you hadn't noticed. This is so much better! I'm on a different planet, for heaven's sake, with different... well... everything! How many other people can say that they get to do this every day? I really am Charley Pollard, Edwardian adventuress."
"Hmm, yes... do you know, Charley, I've been thinking that you need a name change. 'Edwardian adventuress' doesn't seem to quite cut it any more, now that you're travelling in the most marvellous time and space ship in existence. You're not just having adventures, you're experiencing and I think you need a title that shows that."
"What, so you think it should be 'Charley Pollard, Edwardian adventuress... who also travels in time and space, experiencing things'?"
The Doctor furrowed his brow, contemplating for a moment before throwing up his shoulders in a light-hearted shrug. "Well, all right, I see your point there, but I just think that there's got to be something better in it. 'Edwardian adventuress' sounds like bit of a step down for someone who's met Alexandre Dumas."
"All right then. Edwardian adventuress who travels in time and space with the most wonderful man in the world."
"'In the world?' Is that all? I think I should rather feel insulted here, Charley."
She laughed. "Oh, fine. The universe, if you must."
"Thank you. I feel much better now."
"But really, Doctor," she said, suddenly, grabbing his arm and becoming serious. "Thank you. I would never have seen any of this if it weren't for you. I'd still be in the R-101, and I'd probably be dead." She smiled thankfully, resting a palm lightly onto his shoulder. "You saved my life. And then you showed me the universe. I owe you everything."
A silence festered between them, permeated only by the clicking of birds in the distance. Well, they were close enough to birds, anyway.
"You're welcome." he said, finally.
You're wrong.
"Now come on! New planet to explore! New grass, new trees, new birds. Not really birds, actually, they click rather than chirp and they're really quite carnivorous -- I wouldn't go near them, if I were you."
"Trouble to cause?"
"It's never far behind, is it?" He grinned. "Come on! We'll be late!"
"For what?"
"I don't know! But we don't want to find out by being late to it, do we?"
In the massive and incomprehensible sea of words, languages, books, and inane facts about the universe that was his head, he remembered hearing a quote from someone about relationships, whether it was a friendship or... something else. They had said that the beginning of a relationship was signified by a clock somewhere starting to tick, counting the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years... until it all ended.
Keeping Charley aboard the TARDIS went utterly against all of his better judgements, his rationalised thinking, and several laws of Time that he really could not break, but had anyway. He had saved a girl who was doomed to die on the R-101 but hadn't. A girl that was still existing that shouldn't. It was the most dangerous thing in the universe.
He could feel the strands of timelines breaking around her, fracturing into tiny pieces and leaving large, dangerous gaps that should never have existed, just because she was still alive, still breathing, still living when she shouldn't have been.
And yet, he couldn't let her go.
Their clock had already stopped from the moment they had met, only ticking on through borrowed days at this point. Every second was a baited breath, every minute a corner in a long hallway, hearts beating in frantic anticipation for someone to come and take her away from him, to leave him alone and helpless as they returned her to her rightful place on board the R-101.
But it wasn't right. It wasn't fair. That wasn't her rightful place, her rightful place was on board the TARDIS, with him. Where she could be alive, have adventures, experience things that no one had ever experienced. That was what Charley Pollard, Edwardian adventuress, deserved. She deserved a life.
She deserved this life.
And they'd never take it from her as long as he was alive.
He loved her.
If only he knew what that meant.
The Eighth Doctor
Doctor Who
982 words