Black Forest Nightmare

"Don't worry, I know this feeling." Medwyn answered with a friendly smile, and took a look around.
Wherever they were right now, Medwyn would not want to go home alone though this sorts of streets by night...
It was silent, remote, and dark.
"Lovely place..." She commented, making sure no one was following them.
"I'm very sorry to hear that you do not even have happy memories about your home planet."
Sonya appeared to be a person haunted by sorrow - Just the way Medwyn started to feel like being haunted by Time Lords...
"Y'know - If I can do anything to make you feel better, just tell me - maybe I can find you a new and friendly home or so." Medwyn grinned a little.

"No, I'd rather stay here. I accept help from no one, I don't mean to be rude. But things like this... Its my job to deal with it. I prefer to fix things myself when I can." Sonya said quickly, looking over at her again, completely at ease as she passed out from under a streetlight and directly into the shadow after it. The dark hardly phased her, it was her preferred time of day, less eyes to watch her, and much easier to sneak around unnoticed if need be. Reaching up, she pulled her hair into a ponytail, keeping it from her face as another wind blew across her once more. "Come on, there's a storm setting in and I have to go several more blocks."

Medwyn nodded politely.
Of course, she understood that Sonya would prefer to accept no help - She obviousely did not even need help when remembering what she had been through.
She was a strong person, able to solve problems by herself, and Medwyn liked this in a person.
"Of course, I understand that." She answered smiling. "Don#t worry, I won't bug you - You however can always ask me for help if you like."
Following her Medwyn watched her for some time. "...A few more blocks - I'm surprised that you don't just use your ability to 'jump' for things like this, but don't worry, I'm not complaining."

"I only do it when I plan on traveling farther." Sonya laughed lightly, shaking her head slightly and looking over at her with an amused smile. "Whenever I do that, I Loose a month of my life. Not much, but still extensive if used too often. If I were to jump through doorways whenever I wanted to go across town, I'd be dead within a year or two." Laughing again, she looked up at the sky, a frown skittering across her face as several clouds began to gather overhead, blocking the stars from sight. "Ah, rain. I can't stand the rain..."

Medwyn surprised looked at Sonya.
This was unexpected and reminded her, that every edge seemed to come at a certain cost.
(She also wondered how old a Time Lord could become at all.)
"Dear, can't stand rain either... Luckily I'm from a place with weather control systems... but then again rain indeed is very London..."
With a little grin she looked at the skies.
"...But if we're really lucky maybe there's a thunderstorm tonight - I love thunderstorms, they're beautiful."

"I can't stand the rain, it makes things difficult for travel with me. The electrical currents in the air make it impossible to create a link in any of the doorways for miles around. It cancels it out for some reason." Shrugging slightly, she finally spotted the store up ahead and began walking faster, wanting to get inside before the ran began to fall. She hated being wet, the feeling of clothing sticking to her skin during the rain reminded her too much of her early years after the parents that adopted her had died.
Turning to look over her shoulder, she pushed the door open quickly and ducked inside the dark store, blinking her eyes slightly as they tried to adjust from the darkness outside to the dim lighting past the doorway.

Medwyn did not like the feeling of wet clothes on her skin either - especially not when they were getting cold.
The only way to enjoy wetness was in sweet-smelling a hot bath.
Following Sonya into the shop she raised an eyebrow - This was truly remote, but a part of her was amused - it was cool, and she enjoyed the tiny little dark shop.
"You were never telling me that you buy your stuff at Ollivanders." She said with an amused chuckling.
"So - What exactly do you need?"

"Just some things..." Sonya replied, distracted as she wandered over to a bookcase and began running her fingers along the titles slowly. Reading them to herself as she moved from one to the next. "This is the only shop I've found that ends up with Gallifreyan books somehow, the owner collects rare prints and since no one has been able to read them, he considers them valuable." Glancing over at the counter quickly, she checked to make sure they were alone for the moment before stepping next to Medwyn, leaning close so she could talk quietly. "I've been studying it, and little by little I've been able to crack it. I want to learn as much as I can about this thing called the Time War... So far I've only seen it mentioned. There is never any real description of what it was about. The one books that I've found with information where other species, never in Gallifreyan..." She cut herself off as a young man stepped in from the back room, his face lighting up in surprise as his eyes landed on Sonya's face. "Ah! My best customer, Sonya. How have you been?"

Medwyn nodded.
She was not surprised that Sonya was curious about the war.
Medwyn would have been as well if she was in Sonya's situation - And apart from that from a pure historic point of view Medwyn actually was interested as well.
She did a polite nod towards the young man who appeared next to them and seemed to know Sonya.
She did not want to disturb - especially since she recognized that Sonya did not want to talk about what she was searching about, so Medwyn decided not to do so as well
She remained silent, listened to them and grabbed for one of the books Sonya had put back into the shelf.
She could not read one damn thing... That however did not stop her trying to search for patterns within the writings. Gallifreyan writing was pretty after all.
"Very beautiful..." She mumbled - more to herself than towards the two.

"Oh, that's one of the newer ones... I found it on an island near Japan." The man said, peering over Medwyn's shoulder, a curious gleam in his eyes. "I haven't found one person that could decipher the writings in any of these books so far." Looking over at Sonya, he chuckled and nodded at the stack of books in her arms. "And as usual, you buy every single one like it that I have. She even grabs the ones with the odd circles scribbled in the margins. Any book that I have with it, she buys them." Walking over to the counter, Sonya placed the books on it and motioned for Medwyn over for her to add the book she had on the small stack there. "Alright then Sonya..." The man mumbled, typing some numbers onto a calculator before writing the titles of the books down. "Alright... That comes to seven hundred and forty three dollars, Sonya."
Pulling out her bag, Sonya slipped a small bit of paper through the scanner he had set up on the counter. Smiling brightly over at him, she waited as he ran the computer before printing out a receipt and handing it over to her. "A pleasure doing business with you, Sonya. As always."
With a small nod at him, she shoved the books into her bag and glanced over at Medwyn. "Ready to go?"

"Well, yes."
She answered - partially wondering partially amused.
She looked at the bag full of books and then at Sonya.
"You have an interesting taste."
She grinned a little, had a second little look around though the shop, but since she did not want to stop Sonya, Medwyn walked some steps towards her and nodded.
"Where do we go next?" She asked slightly smiling.

Looking up at the sky, a scowl flickering on her face as the rain started pouring down. "somewhere close for now, I suppose. Can't go anywhere right now with this weather..." glancing over at her, Sonya shrugged her shoulders and flipped the hood on her jacket up before pushing the door open and running out into the rain. "I really can't stand the rain." Sonya called over her shoulder with a scowl, her shoulders hunched forward as she began to make her way back down the road.

"Do you have some place to stay at least?" Medwyn asked thoughtfully.
She did not know if Sonya had something like a proper home. She however already feared that Sonya did not.
"...I don't have - At least not here, but if you like, we can go somewhere around..." She pointed into one direction down the street. "...there, I know a nice restaurant somewhere there, where we can sit and wait until the rain is over. also I personally could eat something right now, what about you?"

Sonya stopped at the end of the street, honestly she had been contemplating that exact thing on if she should try to sneak back into the hotel, or find some place to hide in until the storm passed. Turning back around, she held a hand out in the same direction Medwyn pointed in with a slight smile. "Lead on then, I wouldn't mind something to eat myself, been a little bit since I sat down to a real meal rather than grabbing something to go whenever I manage to think of food." Stuffing her hand back into her pocket, she started walking behind Medwyn with her head down, scowling at the water droplets as they fell from her hair onto the pavement below. "I hate rain with a passion. Soaks you through, your clothes are ruined if they're anything other than cotton, not to mention when they start to dry, they get stiff and chafe your skin." Sonya mumbled under her breath while shaking her head, scattering more water as she did.

"I should get you an umbrella for your next birthday then!" Medwyn answered with a friendly smile and looked at Sonya.
She seemed to take life with a lot of sarcastic humour, but Medwyn was not exactly amused - She rather felt sorry for Sonya's situation, even though she had to respect that she would not accept help.
"...What will be your next birthday?" Medwyn began to ask in a silly tone in anticipation to lighten up the entire situation. "...317 maybe? ...It's a lovely prime number if you ask me... And if you look at the sum of digits is's 11 - Another prime number, as well as the sum of... Ah, well, you get it, I guess..."
She gave Sonya a bright grin and pointed down another street they were crossing.
"I think I'll take something fleshy with sweet sauce. What do you usually like to eat?"

Sonya blinked at the woman and felt a shy smile cross her face before holding her hands up to count on the fingers for a moment, mumbling to herself as she followed her across the street. "406 actually. Give or take, I might have missed a couple of years in there somewhere, I don't tend to celebrate my birthdays given I've had so many, on top of that, I never stay in one place long enough to have a celebration at all." Shrugging her shoulders, she looked around the area curiously for a moment. "I don't really eat much, never really had to, but now and again I like to have a meal for the hell of it. I don't have a sweet tooth, I can tell you that. Sweets make me cringe, the way it coats your mouth- Blech." Sticking her tongue out, Sonya looked over at Medwyn with a comical expression, purposely trying to get her out of the mood she was in. "And stop thinking I'm some dark and depressed creature, I'm fine with my life, and if I am, you should be to because it doesn't affect you like it does me."

"I know that eating thing myself... I usually live from coffee and crackers. Glad to hear there's people out there eating less and worse than me."
Medwyn grinned, then forced herself to be more serious.
"Well, I never though you were some dark, depressed creature - I just wanted to make you feel content.
I usually suck at interacting with humans. Well... Guess I suck at making Time Lords feel comfortable when being around me as well. I'm not the social type of person I guess..."
Medwyn thoughtfully looked at Sonya for a moment. She already feared that her attempt to appear as sympathetic and human as possible made her appear worse than Medwyn actually was.
Of course Sonya was no one to feel sorry for - She was a smart and Strong character, and Medwyn actually liked her.
She moved some strands of hair out of her face until she finally continnued speaking.
"...But one thing you really should try to realize: Things we do, say or even the way we feel always affect the environment - It's impossible not to.
Never underestimate your own effect on people around - Trust the causality specialist on this one." Medwyn gave Sonya a wink, and finally pointed at the restaurant, which was already within visual range.
"So... 406... In Time Lord standards, what life stage are you? Teenager maybe? I really have no idea how old you people can become, the last one I met was around 900 and still behaved like a teenager"
She chuckled a little while holding the door open for Sonya.

Sonya grinned at her as she ducked inside the restaurant and shaking her head to rid herself of the water dripping from her hair before replying. "I suppose I'm about in my 20-25 age as a human I would guess. I'm not really sure, but I look about that age so its my best guess." Glancing around the building, she felt a smile flash across her face at the surroundings, dark, but not too dark, cozy seating and a quiet atmosphere.
"And by the way, I am content, your the one trying to hard to make me feel better. I've come to terms with my past and have admitted to myself that without it I wouldn't be the person that I am today." Reaching up, she grabbed her pony tail and wrung it out to dry it a bit more before her hair dripped all over the carpeted floor.

"You're technically younger than me then, I think." Medwyn answered amused, slowly walked through the main room and eventually sat down at a table within a silent, comfortable corner of the restaurant.
She liked this place. It was quiet, discrete, elegant and to her, all sorts of stress, sorrows and dissatisfactions always seemed to vanish when siting in the candlelight, being allowed to focus on what was important. Which was for now: A quiet place to sit and talk with her companion.
"...Well, just as I said - I'm terrible at interacting with people - I guess I lack empathy or something like that, but I'm trying my very best."
She gave Sonya a little smile, then handed one of the menus to her.
"I really can recommend the chicken curry - It's spicy, juicy and and sweet all at once, the Lasagne is brilliant as well: They use something they call minced meat combined with cheese. This era's specialities are fantastic..."
She held one thumb up, until she realized, that Sonya - actually living within this era - very probably knew all of those dishes...

Sonya chuckled lightly and glanced at the menu curiously for a moment before setting it to the side and folding her arms on the table, her eyes roaming around the restaurant curiously before speaking. "My favorite would have to be the Spaghetti. With lots of mozzarella." She said finally with a grin in Medwyn's direction, her fingers tapping on the table in time with the music playing softly over the speakers. Her eyes darting around the restaurant once more as she studied the others eating around them with curiosity. "I have wondered though, I am relatively young compared to the only Time Lords left here, A child almost it seems sometimes... I know so little, but I've lived more lifetimes than the humans on this planet. Yet, they all have lived their lives to the fullest, done more things than I have done. They've lived more than I have in the short time they live... It makes me wonder who ever said that more than one lifetime is better than one... I personally think if you know you have such a short time on this planet with the ones you care about, it makes you ambitious. It makes you want to live and do all the things you've wanted to do. Living as long as I have, you get lazy, you don't care if you ever reach those dreams because why worry about it now? You have time to do it later. Then once the time comes for you to die... You'll realize that all the time you put it off, you never once tried to achieve one dream of yours. And your life will have been a complete waste..." Resting her elbows on the table, Sonya cupped her chin in her hands and looked over at Medwyn and smiled wryly. "That is what I think about age."

(OOC: Sorry that my answer took so long, I had lots of personal stuff to do last days XD)

Medwyn thoughtfully listened to Sonya.
It was almost ironic, because everything Sonya told reminded her a little bit about her own situation.
Medwyn did not really live to the fullest by herself. And as far as she was able to tell for now, she did not even have dreams to achieve.
Medwyn actually never regret this, but she was able to understand what Sonya meant.
Silently looking down on the table Medwyn tapped several times on the menu in front of her until she looked back at Sonya.
"I wonder - Do you consider your own life as wasted yet? I mean, if you could - What would you change?
...I think I can tell from personal experience that an ordinary human life does not always equal a deep experience. I have an entire human life behind me and practically everything about it lacks meaning, sense or reason, and believe me I try to make best out of everything and prove myself as useful as possible.
Maybe it's not always the life span you have but also the outer circumstances.
You said it yourself: you're young. Why not getting around a little? I mean, you could see new worlds, meet countless other, new people...
I can recommend that - Helps to keep me sane now and then..."
Medwyn grinned - maybe even a little bit too enthusiastic.
"I think It does not matter how long your life span is, or whether you prove yourself as long as you're happy.
...And then again - Don't you Time Lords ever leave your planet(s)?
I mean, the ones I met usually were travelers. That's at least what I've discovered so far judging by the Time Lords who crossed my way over the last years..."
She gave Sonya a sneaky smile and waved for one of the waiters.
"Spaghetti sounds nice! I've never tried it!"

Sonya stared at the woman for a moment then shrugged slightly before folding her menu up and handing it to the waiter after making her order. "I never remember my home planet... I was a child when brought here. Earth is the only home I know of." Looking back down at the table, she studied her hands for a moment as they fiddled with the silverware sitting out at her place. "I'm more like a nomad than a traveller. I have no real home to stay, I travel from place to place looking for somewhere that I can sleep and rest for a few days then move on once again.
In all aspects of my life before I was brought here... I beleive I didn't do anything I wanted other than run away from situations that might make me stay in a place longer than I wanted. I made no real friends, I had no real job... I never really did anything." She lifted her head, the ghost of a sad smile hovering her lips as she looked the woman over, reading her expression with intrest. "I came here and ran into so many of this other woman's friends, they all thought I was her at first... And without even realizing it, they became my friends as well. But none of them stay in a place any longer than I do, so its actually... Normal for me. I'll run into one of them from time to time, we'll spend a few days or so together, travelling, then end up going our own ways again." Pausing, she closed her eyes and reached into her bag, pulling out the journal she kept with her always and set it on the table gently. "In here, she spoke of her life, her friends... Her love. I met him, once. He hated me because of what had happened. Then I met another version of him, younger and more carefree, granted, he has problems enough to make mine seem meek in comparisan, but he tries to stay happy, sane- for the most part. And... After meeting him, spending time with him, I realized, my life was empty, weak compared to the things I could have done."
Finally smiling brightly, Sonya leaned back in her chair and folded her hands behind her head, eyes still closed tightly as her face tilted up towards the ceiling. "He showed me a new way to live, and I will always be in debt to him for that."

Medwyn silently nodded and leaned back in her chair.
"I wonder - Why is this so? I mean - I saw you purchasing the books - You also could get yourself a little flat or so, or do you roam around to gather more gallifreyan things?
...I never even thought there was something like this on earth...
Anyway - I mean, you're intelligent, you're endearing - I guess if you'd try you could reach practically everything a human can wish for - Even in this... Sad... era."
Medwyn now leaned forward again, crossing her arms on the table in front of her and looking at Sonya.
"The other Sonya's friends... Are they... Well - Like you?" Medwyn seemed hesitant for some seconds. Not that she had problems dealing with Time Lords at all, but she did not want to appear as if she'd see Sonya (or possibly her friends as well) as something strange.
She did not want to make anyone feel strange at all. And even though Medwyn was strange herself, she did not see this as something like a compliment.
Looking at the little book Sonya grabbed out of her bag Medwyn remained silent for some seconds. It looked pretty. She released a little smile, while listening.
Suddenly her smile faded again, imagining what the incident with the two Sonyas might have felt like for her twin-self's love. (She did not have to try too hard imagining this, for it probably felt equally like what it felt like for Medwyn's ex-husband after she had changed and left him...)
"...His alternate younger version - What sorts of problems does he have?" She finally asked - Maybe even sounding a tad bit too emotional to be herself...
"I mean, you mentioned your life feels empty - Maybe you could help him.
By everything I have discovered so far, being useful is the best way to gain a meaningful life. Also maybe you two will find together as well..."
She grinned a little. She was everything but an expert on relationship tips...
"...I wonder who or what I'd be in this alternate universe... Maybe I'm proper..."

"Um.. No actually, most of them are human... Mostly anyway." Sonya chuckled reluctantly, running a hand over the book fondly as she stared down at the green surface. Her fingers tracing the Gallifreyan lettering of Sonya's name idly. "And honestly... I don't know whats wrong with him, I mean... In a sense there isn't anything wrong with him, he's had a hard life... His eyes just tell the story. He's seen so many deaths, lost so many friends... Its no wonder he doesn't keep any single person around him for so long. He's scared of loosing them too. He blames himself for things that were out of his reach and no one could ever change his mind on that." Looking back up at Medwyn, she forced a small smile and let out a low sigh, her shoulders raising slightly in a shrug. "I have no idea about anything else. I'm more of a in-the-moment kind of person, I don't plan things. In the past all of my plans always fell through, so I tend to do whatever comes to mind at that moment, instead of planning to do it later."

Medwyn grinned a little.
"It's ironic, for that reminds me of the old saying 'Planing replaces coincidence with error' - Funny thing, for it sounds bitter and cynical, but from everything I've discovered so far it's quite true..."
Leaning a little bit forward she tool a silent look at the book Sonya held in her hands before she continued.
"Sad to hear about your friend preferring to stay alone. I always wondered why especially the ones who hold the greatest need for company prefer to stay without it..."
Thoughtfully she shook her head for a second.
Maybe this was some very special reverse psychology or some self-defense mechanism Medwyn simply was not able to relate.
"...Let's hope he will be alright." She thoughtfully added while finally returning her gaze to Sonya's little book.
"Can I have a look at it?"