[action/text]

[othersdie]

[action]

[Justin, looking older and more worn than usual, is in the garden. If his rumpled appearance or the cigarettes don't indicate a cursed state, his complete inaction should. He's seldom idle, usually, and the police force has been keeping him occupied lately.

But right now, he's sitting under a tree. Smoking. Looking either bored or blank--it's difficult to tell. He's not going anywhere soon.]


[text]

This again. And again, and again, and again. The details change but the plot repeats itself. Not just one weekend a month or even here alone. Listen to the clock. Each tick is just like the one preceding it, like the one following it. Tedious second after tedious second. Identical seconds, adding up to minutes and hours and days and years that blur together into a single unremarkable life until, finally, we have the privilege of dying.

I wonder why we bother living through the tedium.

Why do we consider life so valuable when it ultimately comes to nothing?


[ooc: Cursed with The Years That Never Were. This is a Justin I've been working on for a while, so there's an explanation for the curious. Responses will come from the curse journal, mostly.]

Comments

[ohcurses]

If you've got them.

[He smiles back, but it's not quite right and very short-lived.] Yes, sometimes it's necessary. To cope.

[iwasherefirst]

[Her brow furrows and she looks concerned.] You can talk to me if you want. Friend for the takin', yeah?

[ohcurses]

[She's got him there. It takes him a moment to find a response.]

Are you serious?

[iwasherefirst]

Yeah. 'Course I am. I can bring tea over. Or you can come over here.

[ohcurses]

You wouldn't want me around.

...But thank you.

[iwasherefirst]

Oi! I think that's for me to decide, yeah? Promise you aren't the scariest bloke I've been 'round.

[ohcurses]

Sorry. Yes.

[He's trying very hard to think of ways to deter her. Nothing's springing to mind.]

I'm not... great company.

[iwasherefirst]

S'all right. 'm brilliant company.

[ohcurses]

Okay.

...Where should I meet you?

[iwasherefirst]

You prefer somewhere quiet or somewhere public like a coffee shop?

[ohcurses]

Quiet, if you don't mind.

[iwasherefirst]

Not at all. If you head toward the fountain, there's a blue police box not far from it. Knock on the door and I'll let you in.

[ohcurses]

That can't be difficult to find.

[Just weird. In a few minutes, Justin's knocking at the police box's door.

[iwasherefirst]

[She's waiting on him so she opens the door almost as soon as he knocks on it. She's still trying to figure out exactly how to explain the TARDIS in the briefest of explanations. She starts by stepping aside and letting him get a good look at things as well as step inside.]

Welcome to the TARDIS.

[ohcurses]

[Fortunately, this version of Justin has been in the City for just as long as the normal one--long enough for the TARDIS's expansive interior to register as 'relatively normal' instead of 'physically impossible.' Being invited anywhere is far stranger.

That doesn't prevent him from being vaguely impressed by the TARDIS.]

You live here?

[iwasherefirst]

[Well the TARDIS is rather impressive.]

Yup. Beats a flat any day, yeah? Come on, kitchen's this way.

[ohcurses]

It's nice.

[Understatement. He trails after Rose.]

...Why'd you invite me over?

[iwasherefirst]

'Cause you need a friend.

[She's going to lead him down the halls to a living room of sorts.]

[ohcurses]

[He can't deny that... or think of much else to say. He's not much of a conversationalist, even cursed.]

[iwasherefirst]

[She doesn't mind.] You want some tea? Could have a cuppa if you like.

[othersdie]

[She's ridiculously generous.]

Sure. Thank you.

[iwasherefirst]

[She nods at that.] Kitchen's this way.

[She makes a 'come along then' sort of gesture and starts down another hall.]

'Least it was this mornin'.

[othersdie]

[He comes perilously close to smiling.]

Does it move often?

[iwasherefirst]

Sometimes. 'Specially if she gets cranky, bored or feels like we aren't paying enough attention to her.

[Yeah, the 'ship' is sentient. The kitchen is still in the same place though and it looks like a kitchen except for the coral walls.]

How do you take it?

[othersdie]

Oh.

What? Oh, the--plain, thanks.