thirty-fifth.

[ice_echani]

Stoneface, I do not believe it would be wise of me to patrol today. I must [lots of pentaps] adjust to this new state before I am best able to carry out my duties, although I believe my physical combat skills have not been affected.

Ro Fred, when you are feeling well enough there is something I must speak to you about.

Comments

[burnt_orangesky]

[Fred's heart thumped distressingly, reminding her again that she only had one now, as Handmaiden identified which of Fred's memories she had witnessed--only in one had the Doctor called her by name. Which made it... the corners of Fred's mouth turned down slightly. It was perhaps the worst memory anyone else could have gotten, as far as Fred was concerned--she herself had no idea why she would not wish to go back to Gallifrey, which made it the one memory she could not even begin to explain. It still troubled her, on the nights she could not sleep.]

...I see. [She shook her head] I, too, have experienced another's memory before, and the crystal looked precisely the same as a normal one. There was no possible way you could have known. [She looked away slightly, and heaved a sigh, trying to regain her composure.] Thank you for telling me, Handmaiden.

[ice_echani]

[Handmaiden wishes that she had not experienced something so private--even if it had been a seemingly trivial memory, and this had not felt like one. Though she has no idea what was going on in Fred's life at that moment, the lack of context would not comfort her if their positions were reversed.]

It seemed right to do so. [But Handmaiden raises her eyebrows at that. She's never heard of it before--her first instinct is to ask about it, but checks herself immediately and modifies it.] But you say you have also had another's crystal... may I ask how it was you found it? That is, if it appeared somewhere apparently random as a normal crystal does.

[burnt_orangesky]

It appeared just after the fire, during the time I was forced to convalesce after... [She paused and cleared her throat lightly. Talking about her brush with death was a little awkward, even with the woman who had saved her life.] In any case, it appeared in my rations one day, without warning. I touched it without seeing it, so in all honesty I could not say if it looked the same as a crystal that would have given my one of my memories back. All I can say with any certainty is that it did look the same after it gave me the memory.