13th Wave

[tentacruelest]

[Spam for Above]

[It's been....decades since he was in London. Centuries, it feels like.

Jones stands on paved streets in hidden disguise, for all intents and purposes looking completely human. The Barge magic does its work well: no one gives him a second glance.

He's on firm, solid land again. Hates it: keeps looking over his shoulder to check to make sure the sea is still there. And London itself has changed. Hundreds of years have passed here in the blink of an eye. The streets have changed, old haunts torn down to make way for the new. Even old staples he believed would last forever were now changed - the royal family no longer resided at St. James's, but in a new castle. Somewhere called Buckingham Palace. Ridiculous.

To the casual observer, his height and expression seem to be enough to dissuade strangers from striking up conversation.

But to the Barge residents, it's clear that Jones is uneasy and mildly distressed. He doesn't belong here, in every sense of the idea]

Comments

[shakenandlimp]

[Bush looks very little like himself today; his pea coat, got in 1893, is thankfully still wearable-- in fact, he has been complimented on it, and military styling is everywhere when it comes to coats-- but beneath that, he wears new clothes, bought in the casual style he gleaned from the residents of the barge who know this era. His queue has been taken out of its ribbon and combed, gathered loosely by one tie at the nape of his neck.

He feels foolish, but knows that he is not remarkable-- he is trying to be easy and natural. He is managing to look at least like a man with much on his mind instead of completely like an interloper.

A glance at his compass steers him towards the innocuous looking man. Bush knows his face, but faces mean nothing; he knows that after being introduced to the Doctor. His warden item is a guarantee. ...likely Jones will recognize him more easily. ]

[tentacruelest]

[Indeed, Jones is able to immediately pick out Bush from a crowd. He looks the man over, attempting to associate the "modern" man before him with the warden he knows inside his head. He hesitates, feeling ridiculously self-conscious before he puffs out his chest importantly, as one captain does to another. Don't let your nerves show]

Captain.

You're looking diff'rent. Not so clean-shaven. Scruffy.

[shakenandlimp]

I thought I might catch less notice a little unshaven. It seems to be the style. No real beards in sight, everyone drinking coffee as if they haven't slept and don't intend to.

Good God, Jones, the last time I was here was Nelson's funeral procession along the Thames. That was in the year six--1806. It has changed so. There are signs for 'Trafalgar Square,' must be for the battle itself, and the royals living in the Queen's House...

[He shares a look with Jones, sharing his bewilderment.]

[tentacruelest]

No, none at all. I expect it's gone out of style long ago. Much like you and I.

[Jones gives a nod, looking deeply uncomfortable as he looks first to his warden and then to their surroundings.]

The last time I was here, I was human. Still a young man. Earlier'n the 18th century.

Everything's twisted around. And I'm not like to get used to the, the, um...

[He pauses, brooding, before waving a vague hand towards the cars and buses, as he's forgotten their names]

[shakenandlimp]

That one there, tall and red, is a bus. I know from Iris. These others... Like sloops to a frigate in size, don't know what you'd call them.

And I thought the price of things was bad in 1893-- every small thing costs a month's pay. Paper money was cheaper than gold in my day, now it seems pretty nearly worthless.

It's terrible. And beautiful. But terrible.

[tentacruelest]

I don't like it.

[This is hardly a surprise. Jones likes barely anything]

And with the entire Barge gone Below, there's not much t'do up here besides. Where do men like us belong in a city hundreds of years gone past us?

[shakenandlimp]

Well. I am going to see Trafalgar Square and find some lodgings.

After that... Well, they like the colour of my money here. It ain't Kingston but I am sure there's some way to enjoy myself. Like to join me?

[tentacruelest]

Considering I have no money of my own and the men up here ain't liable to trade anything I've got, I can hardly refuse, can I?

[Jones starts to shuffle, before realizing how odd it looks without his peg leg. Carefully, he starts to take steps, frowning down at the Barge magic that's causing it]

Almost hate to wonder what in the hell I look like.

[shakenandlimp]

You look like the man you were, largely. Though with a bit of a limp yet.

Does it feel any different? For it looks it.

[tentacruelest]

I feel the same. It's the reaction that's diff'rent.

[Seriously, no one is giving either man a second glance. Weird, but welcoming]

We're like to get lost here, you'n I.

[shakenandlimp]

Yes. Among these crowds. How many people must there be? I would almost rather be taken for a poor sailor than nobody at all. Even if we aren't poor.

At least we won't be left ashore when the Barge moves on. A few days in London, it's nothing we can't manage. And with money in our pockets we can buy a few luxuries and eat pretty well. Spending a fortune every day, it doesn't feel natural, but after Christmas I think I've had the worst of my shock.

[tentacruelest]

We look it. But then, I can't stand the fashions here. Even the suits are cut odd. Doesn't feel natural.


You're English, aren't yeh?

[shakenandlimp]

I am-- though it's two days travelling from here to where I was born.

[He looks at one of the machines roaring by and tries to calculate.] Well. It was two days travel. These things are faster than a horse or a river barge-!

[tentacruelest]

[Jones quickly steps back onto the sidewalk, scowling at the car as it takes off past them]

No doubt.

I expect we'd nearly have time to visit your stomping grounds, if we could enlist one of those...things.

[shakenandlimp]

[Bush now really considers the possibility-- of seeing a Chichester changed as much as London has changed. He realizes, abruptly, that if his mother's cottage is still standing, there will be strangers living there; that he might find the graves of his mother and sisters, and his sisters' children, and their children, and theirs-- he finds himself a man on a precipice of time, looking down at the ground where he once stood.

If he went to Smallbridge, would he find a Hornblower still in residence? Some great great grandson still the squire? He can stand on any ship's foretopmast without a qualm at the height, but this depth of time and displacement is too much for him. ]

...I don't think I want to see. London. London can occupy us.

[tentacruelest]

[He eyes the weight that settles on Bush's shoulders at the question, solemn and waiting. Yes; Bush can sense it too, now. The depth of no longer being a man of time. Jones felt it himself, in some small part, the first time he stepped back on land after years of the sea]

...London, then. We'll stay here.

[shakenandlimp]

[Now that he is firmly fixed on London and its dubious safety, there is nothing to do but plan the campaign; he pulls a folded pamphlet from his pocket.]

I have a sightseer's map here-- either this scale is off or the 'underground' makes better than twenty miles in the hour, but even by foot there is enough to keep us occupied. Trafalgar Square, of course, and across the river that great wheel is the London Eye... And near that, I don't know what. 'Sea life London Aquarium'. That's Greek to me.

[tentacruelest]

[Jones stretches to look over Bush's shoulder at the map, frowning]

What could possibly be in that building concerning sea life that I do not know?

[shakenandlimp]

We could find out, if we took this turn and went along-- by Jove, Whitehall! I know where we are after all, we will pass the Admiralty going that way. And then see about sea life as well.

[tentacruelest]

[He turns a perplexed eye to his warden, before looking around at the buildings, as lost as ever]

The Admiralty still stands?

[shakenandlimp]

I certainly hope so-! I cannot imagine it would ever have been abandoned.

[Nor has it-- though he will be disappointed to find it allocated not to naval affairs but to the uninspiringly named 'Department for Internal Development.']

Some of these buildings are familiar-- they have been kept up.

[tentacruelest]

Blame yer people's obsession with the past. I never saw the point of it.

[He begins to walk stiffly towards both Admiralty and Aquarium, and can't help but stare at some of the...fashions and advertisements of the new age]

Thank god I never lived t'see this.

[shakenandlimp]

It is like a foreign country. [That's agreement-- as distant as their times are from one another, they are both further from this new world, grown by its leaps and bounds.]

Everyone has little comms, have you seen? I wonder they don't do themselves an injury looking down at them. And coffee, man, it smells like heaven but it is three pounds for a cup. Three pounds!

But the food, man, just the smells walking down some of these streets. I have never eaten Japanese cookery--now, I didn't stick about in home waters, but I haven't tasted the half of what's on offer. There's even more than that fair in America. [They are strolling along as he talks-- and having turned onto Whitehall and gone down a ways, he sees the Admiralty, and attached Admiralty House-- and lets out an unconscious sigh of relief.]

[tentacruelest]

[A hundred years may separate Bush and Jones in their own times, but at least they can recognize and understand each other; here, it's nearly impossible. Jones eyes the comms and the shops and warily steps around both a fire hydrant and a phone booth, looking at the things without the slightest recognition]

It's too much. What the hell can a man possibly need so much for?

[He falls silent as they round the corner, eyeing the Admiralty as well. He doesn't know it and has never been to this part of London, but he recognizes Bush's expression and softens somewhat]

Still standing, then.

[shakenandlimp]

Still standing. Oh, you can tell things have changed, for it's peace and there isn't a crowd of half-pay officers lurking around the gates and hoping for preference, to be chosen for one of the few commands. Saw a good bit of that. I only know this part of London for the Admiralty-- never spent much time in the rest of it. Knew Portsmouth better, of course.

This area up ahead that it calls Trafalgar Square, that is what they called Charing Cross, I think?

[He frowns in concentration. Despite having visited a few times and being familiar with the area surrounding the Admiralty, he can't really claim to be very familiar with London.]