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

[ice_echani]

[Handmaiden recognizes Romana--of course, the last time she really interacted with the woman was in that incident after the Fire, but she's seen her now and then while she's on patrol.

She's alarmed to see how obviously exhausted the woman is and walks over quickly. It looks as though Romana had been running hard to get here.]

I have not--are you all right? We can sit over there if you would like.

[She gestures towards the benches. It wasn't any hotter than a normal summer day--still too hot for Handmaiden, although she knows others are more used to it--but she doesn't want anyone to keel over from heat stroke. She thinks now that maybe she should have just chosen the Wilderness, but the reports of a giant lizard monster made her rather wary about that.]

[burnt_orangesky]

Ah... good. [Fred gives into the temptation to bend over slightly and rest her hands on her knees. Oddly enough, it seems to help.] Mmm, I'm alright. I'm just not nearly as used to this whole being-Human business than I had thought, that's all.

[Fred was finding the day a bit warmer than perhaps she would normally, but she had decided it was an unexpected side-effect of her new situation. It wasn't unbearable, just a bit uncomfortable. At Handmaiden's gesture, though, she nodded.] Yes, perhaps that would be better. Thank you. [Straightening up again, she started walking in that direction.]

[ice_echani]

I would imagine that it is most unsettling to have such a fundamental part of yourself suddenly changed.

[Handmaiden walks with Fred--though she's concerned, her face doesn't betray that as she sits down... it's the same as it ever was. She does sympathize, though. This sudden change is deeply disturbing. Taking away the Force is one thing, but for the Sphere to change a person's entire species? Such an alteration... she finds it hard to forgive.

But this isn't the subject she wanted to speak to Romana about.]

A few days ago, I was... given a memory crystal. [Her tone is cautious. It was a strange meeting, and although she knows Romana is interested in the underpinnings of the Sphere, Handmaiden isn't comfortable talking about it with someone she doesn't know well.] However, the memory belonged to you. I felt that I should tell you this.

[burnt_orangesky]

[Fred only nods silently... for once, she is glad there are no other Gallifreyans in Edensphere. Bad enough that she only has one heart and suddenly needs to eat and sleep a good deal more; it would be horrible to know there was one of her people within the Sphere, and be unable to sense him or her. She fully sympathized with any of the many people who had abruptly found themselves in just that situation.

Sitting, she rests her elbows on her knees and laces her fingers together, prepared to hear Handmaiden out. She quirks an eyebrow at the odd phrasing--'given' a memory crystal?--but doesn't say anything. But when Handmaiden mentions that the memory she saw was in reality Fred's, her mouth falls open slightly. The idea of one of her memories being seen by another is something that Fred had never thought of, though she had known of the possibility of it happening ever since she had gotten Aurora's memory herself.

It takes her a moment to think of what to say. In the end, all she can manage is,] ...how do you know it was mine?

[ice_echani]

[It was a strange encounter, and although she would answer if Romana asked, Handmaiden would prefer not to. She waits patiently as Romana digests the information. Handmaiden can't help but feel guilty for having experienced something belonging to someone else, and something private... from what she could tell, it was not a happy moment in the other woman's life, a difficult time and needing to do something she did not wish to.

But the question she does ask is easy to answer, at least.]

The man addressed you by name, and now that we are speaking I can also say that I recognize your voice.

...I am sorry that it happened. Had I known that the memory belonged to someone else, I would not have touched the crystal. [She's genuinely remorseful over it, wondering now if there was some way she could have discerned "whose" crystal it was before activating it.]

[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.