milliways_bar | (no subject)

Entry tags:

ace (pyro),
raven

(no subject)

There isn't an Ace in a bar.

There, is, however, an Ace by the lake. She's found a nice sun-warmed rock to sit on, and is staring out over the lake.

...

Maybe someone should convince her to come in for dinner.

(Summary: Claire comes with a picnic dinner, in the hopes that Ace won't take off again. Eventually introductions are made, Seth is his usually uber-adorable self, and they trade 'my life up 'til now' stories. Evidently Ace has been pretty sparing with the details. Then they discuss Tim - Claire tries to paint him in a better light than Ace sees him, but Ace is ~~terrified~~ skeptical.
Raven comes out to talk to Ace. Ace apologizes for her snappishness the day before, and they introduce themselves. Somehow the conversation wanders through dealing with Fenric, how Raven reminds her of the Doctor somewhat, how she's really Ace, even if everyone wants the old one back, and pyroism. It's a wide-ranging conversation. And Raven is really neat.)

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She shrugs slightly. Some things never change.
"Had some breakfast." She says non-committally as she offers a hand to little Seth. She's always had a weakness for babies. Something of a fear for handling them, but they are so awfully cute.

"Cinnamon toast, cocoa, and peanut butter sandwiches. Nothing really healthy for you, but. . ." she shrugs and starts to set out the food on a small table cloth. "How have you been the past few days?"

Seth gives Claire a reproachful look and latches onto Ace's hand, happily chattering away. Ace-love! You're being so silly not remembering. I am cute. You should remember me!

"Healthy can go hang." Ace agrees. She snags a slice of cinnamon toast with her free hand, since one is most definitely occupied. She's not sure what all that babble is, but at least the kid's not screaming.
"Eh." She shrugs in response to her question. In all honestly, it's been pretty horrid, but she imagines Claire doesn't want to hear that.

"Sucks doesn't it?" Claire nods. "Must be weird seeing all of these people who know you and you can't remember why."

Ace goes back to staring out over the lake, as if the answers to all of her problems are out there, somewhere.
"It's horrid. They're expecting someone else, and they get me. I've probably offended half of them, and driven the rest of them to pity. Can't stand either."

Claire nods again and takes a bite of a peanut butter sandwich, also staring out at the lake.

"Want to start over? I mean. . .I know an Ace, but she knows me too. So. . .it's sort of like we're both strangers sitting on this rock."

She holds out her hand. "I'm Claire Littleton. And this is my son Seth."

She carefully frees her hand from Seth's grip and shakes Claire's.
"Nice to meet you Claire. And you too Seth." She doesn't say what she's thinking though. She's thinking that the problem with that theory is that they aren't strangers. She knows, deep down, Claire is hoping that something will change any moment now, and her Ace will be back. And maybe, probably, she's resenting this Ace, who's taken her friend away.

Ace doesn't blame her.

Actually, what she's thinking is more along the lines of if they were able to be friends once, there's no reason they can't be friends again.

"I'm from Australia," she says. "Around 2004. I was in a plane crash on my way to the States, and about fifty of us survived on a deserted island. That's where I was before I came here."

"Ugh." Doesn't sound like Ace's idea of a good time. "Was this little guy on the plane too?" She'd be terribly impressed if he was - plane crashes and babies usually don't mix too well.

"I was still pregnant at the time," she smiles a little sadly.

"He didn't move for a few days and I thought. . .well, anyway. I didn't give birth to him until I came here. He's a bar baby all the way."

"Oh, wow... that must have been... mm." Terrifying. Horrendous. It's the only words she can think of. Though, she'll admit, maybe it'd be better for someone who came in completely new - then everyone wouldn't expect you to already know how to deal with life here.

So she nibbles on the cinnamon toast instead. A good excuse for not talking.

"Yeah," she says and keeps talking.

"Dangerous place that island. It was weird because my friend there had somehow managed to find this place and spent months here before I came here. So when I got here, things were really different. Lots of people knew me by name, but I hadn't met them before. That's a really weird feeling, huh? Lonely."

"Yeah." That peice of toast must be facinating. She's staring at it so intently.
"It is, rather."

More nodding. More staring at the lake.

"So anyways. I had the baby here, during an earthquake no less, and this place was a lot safer than the island so I stayed here. Got a job as a bartender. Fell in love. Oh, his name is Sawyer. He likes to mess with people. If he gives you any trouble let me know."

She pauses thoughtfully. "Peanut butter is my favorite food. I like tea. And my favorite color is yellow. Okay, your turn."

She gives Claire a slightly bemused look, after a bit of a nibble on the toast.
"But you know me already."

"Oh, right." she snorts.

"Because you're so free with the information. You know what I know? I know you're real name. I know what the TARDIS is, and who the Doctor is, and a story or two about your adventures. And I know about your life here the past five months. I don't really know anything about the person sitting beside me."

"..."

She's staring, just a bit.

"I choose to tell the strangest things." She conceeds that Claire might have a point here. So she sighs, and tries to think how to put it all.
"I grew up in Perivale, which is a dead-end town not too far from London. Didn't do terribly well in school, not even in chemistry. Logic puzzles always came easy though, for some reason. Got into trouble a lot. Parents were real bastards, let's leave them there. Got kidnapped... or something... from my room when I was sixteen. Ended up on the Ice Planet. Worked as a waitress there for a year or so, and then the Doctor showed up, with Mel. They were, of course, saving the galaxy, and I got dragged along. Mel ended up going off with some bloke, and I hitched a ride with the Doctor. We were supposed to go back to Earth, my time, but we kept getting side-tracked, until there really wasn't any point." She pauses. "I like peanut butter and marmite sandwiches, and my favorite color is blue." Blue like the TARDIS.

"I did well in school," she shrugs. "It was pretty much the only thing I had to do. It was just me and my mum and well. . . I managed to disappoint her plenty. I left as soon as I got out of school and stayed with friends for awhile. Met a boring guy. Moved in with him. Seth's father, by the way."

She shifts the baby who's been listening to all of this with interest. He lays his head on her shoulder and watches Ace.

"I wanted to be a ballerina when I was little. I guess I want to be a teacher now." She gives Ace a wry smile. "I'm pretty boring, really. No fun time traveling stories or anything."

"Can't be too boring, if we were friends." She points out, snagging a new slice of toast. "Don't think I've ever had a boring friend."

"Well, we'll see about that. I'm only interesting because I have interesting friends," she grins.

"Who all have you met here so far?"

"Well... there's this bloke in a hawaiian shirt... Wash? Yeah, Wash. He was nice. And then... there were these two barkeeps, but they kinda disappeared when he showed up, and I bolted soon after that. Then... there was a cowboy with these huge guns, said he's name's Cuthbert. Nice bloke. And a gal named Sara, I think she had some idea of what was wrong, but she wasn't telling. And then some bloke named... oh, what was his name..." She frowns. "I dunno. It'll come to me. Then I saw a Dalek, and I was going to blast it, when this red-haired guy stopped me. Evidently there's some rule against it. He's Benard, by the way. Nice enough, even if he does protect Daleks. Aaaaand, oh. A guy named Raven. He's nice. I don't think he knew me from before." She pauses, then: "Oh! Dobbs. That other bloke's name is Dobbs. Westley, I think."

"Bernard's really nice," she nods. "I don't know Sara very well, and Cuthbert I've only met once but he helped us take care of Seth and that was really nice of him."

She sips some more cocoa. "Who were the bartenders do you know?"

She shrugs.
"No. They never really introduced themselves, 'cause they thought I should know them. Or something. And then they scooted off. Wish they hadn't." She could have used a little help then.

"Hm, why'd they leave? Becausde someone walked up, you said?"

Her tone, while curious, is also a little defensive. If Ace had needed help. . . Ace should've had help. None of this 'scooting off' business.

"Didn't walk, he glided." She says, distractedly, as she tries to remember why, exactly, they had left.
"Dunno. They just kinda looked at each other, then headed off to other parts of the Bar."