Chapter 10 – "Friendly Advice" – Arcadia Bay, Oregon, United States of America – 08:14 AM Local Time, 8th October 2013
The Professor looked over the relatively empty interior of the Two Whales Diner as he alternated between adding to his notes in front of him with a quickly dulling pencil and taking a bite from the delicious Belgian Waffle he'd decided to order for breakfast.
The Timelord put his pencil down as he took a long look out of the window over the scenic backdrop of Arcadia Bay; the sun had risen only recently; casting its golden rays across the seaside town as it climbed into the sky. The waves were calm, sloshing up on the beach gently as birds soared through the brightening sky above.
His eyes began to slowly scroll across the horizon towards the lighthouse, which seemed dormant on its perch at the top of a distant cliff.
It's unnerving how hard it is to escape that lighthouse...It's like everything in this town is drawn to it.
The Professor remained silent as he took another bite from his waffle, his mind wandering back to his peculiar vision about the super tornado. He drew a quick sketch of the storm from memory as he mentally placed himself back into the vision; the Timelord felt the wind whipping lashes of rain painfully against his face as he struggled to see clearly. He remembered the howling and unrelenting roar of the storm as it surged across the bay towards the unfortunate town in its path.
He remembered the pain he felt from the gunshot wound in his chest. The Professor stopped sketching the storm for a split second and contemplated the possible explanations for the wound, his brief pause led him to conceive about half a dozen theories; most of which the Timelord mentally logged to look over in detail later.
Returning to his sketch, the Professor added in the lighthouse close to the edge of the drawing as he took another bite from his waffle; appreciating the texture of the food for a few moments before swallowing.
The Timelord rubbed his temples and glanced at his watch, which was now woefully out of synch with the 'local time' thanks to the number of rewinds which had occurred since his arrival - three of which had already occurred this morning alone. He let out a low sigh and sat back in the comfy diner bench, looking around the interior of the diner - which had started to fill up by this point.
He raised an eyebrow as an odd looking woman sat down in the same booth as him, smiling at the Timelord as she sat on the bench opposite him. The Timelord took a final slice from his waffle, finishing it, before looking at the woman with a quizzical expression.
"Um...Hi?" The Timelord greeted with a forced smile as he started to chew on his final waffle slice; the slice catching in the back of his throat I'm such a way that the Professor took a drink from his cup of tea to wash it down - he hated when food got stuck in his throat.
"Why, hello there!" The woman exclaimed in such a way that the Timelord immediately felt that something was off about her, "I haven't seen you here before! You new in town?"
"Something like that..." The Professor replied as he raised an eyebrow, trying to get the waitress who was at the counter's attention with a subtle wage, "I'm here for a...temporary work placement..."
"Oh how lovely! I'm glad you get to see Arcadia when the weather's at its best!" The woman continued as the Timelord started force down his cup of tea, cringing slightly at how hot the drink still was, "What work brings you here anyhow?"
"Just...work..." The Professor said through gritted teeth, becoming increasingly annoyed with the woman as he picked up his cup and plate before hurriedly placing them on the diner counter, returning a few moments later for his notepad, "It's been nice talking with you but I need to get going...busy day ahead."
Ugh…I am not a people person…
With that half lie, the Timelord returned to the counter and paid out the cost of his breakfast, adding a noticeable tip before ordering another cup of tea; somewhat displeased with how quickly he'd had to chug his last one down. The waitress smiled, taking the tip with a word of thanks before moving to pour him another cup of tea.
Good thing I paid that ATM a visit earlier…The Professor inwardly commented as he sat down on one of the stools in front of the counter, I've got enough money to last me around a week here…
The Timelord tapped his fingers lightly on the top of the bar as he switched between watching the waitress, the two truckers that were talking one seat to his right and a clock on the wall which seemed to be broken; his thoughts wandering back to the tornado vision as he put his notepad down in front of him. He glanced over his shoulder to ensure that the strange woman who'd joined him at the table hadn't made an effort to continue their conversation, seeing that the woman hadn't moved since his departure from the table, the Timelord returned his attention to his notepad as the waitress returned with his cup of tea.
"Thank you," The Professor said with a courteous nod as he took the cup from the waitress' hands and put it down in-front of him.
The Professor cast a glance back at his notepad as he added some more detail to the drawing, rubbing his forehead briefly as he paused to think over the events of the last day. His thoughts were briefly interrupted as a police officer sat down beside him; the Timelord offered the officer a polite nod which the man returned before he ordered his breakfast.
Turning his attention back to his cup of tea, the Professor took a small sip from the beverage; holding the cup in his hands for a moment before placing it back on the counter and picking up his pencil again. He turned the page on his notebook and began a new series of notes; these ones based around the mysterious signal.
So we have eight unique sections which repeat every ten seconds without fail…The Professor jotted down a vague representation of what he'd identified as the smallest observable part of the signal: the second section. The fourth section was technically the smallest part of the signal but it seemed to have no recordable value.
The Timelord frowned as he thought over the possible meanings of a section of the pattern which could not be recorded. He skipped half of the page he was on as he brought up a mental image of each section of the pattern. The Professor then quickly etched eight identical underscores which ran across the width of the page and paused for a moment.
If I can't find an algorithm for this pattern…I guess I'll have to make my own…
The Professor started the process by giving the second section of the pattern a value of 'one' (as it was the smallest he could measure) and the fourth section a value of 'zero' (as it had no measureable value). He then rubbed his chin in thought before he continued.
If I'm remembering this correctly – and I have no reason to doubt myself – the first section had twice the intensity of the second…The Professor promptly wrote 'two' above the first underscore.
Now…The third section has exactly twice the intensity of the first…Which would make that a 'four'…
The Timelord scrawled the number four over the third underscore and paused as he looked over what he had so far.
Two, one, four, zero…Hmm.
The Professor's mind registered the sound of one of the diner's doors opening and someone entering – even over the sound of the music that was playing – but paid it little notice as he began to focus on the remaining four sections.
Section eight is equal to the combined intensities of section one and section three…Making it a 'six'. Section seven was exactly double the intensity of section eight…So that's a 'twelve'…Section six…Hmm…
The Professor paused for a split second as he looked at the numbers he had in front of him, he closed his eyes again as he brought up the mental image he had of section six.
Section six had a value equal to section seven plus sections one and two…Meaning it has a relative value of 'fifteen'. Last but not least…Section five…which had a value equal to section six plus sections eight and two…
The Timelord opened his eyes as he wrote 'twenty-three' above the fifth underscore. He looked over his finished work and smiled, taking a long sip of his tea as he began writing in notes to fill up the gap he'd left.
Two, one, four, zero, twenty-three, fifteen, twelve, six…It's not much…But it's a start at least.
The Professor looked back over the numbers as he tried to associate a systematic pattern with them, tracing his pencil between each number, then between every second number as he became increasingly frustrated.
There's no connection between these numbers…Other than an increase-decrease cycle every two sections…Perhaps-
A voice from across the diner snapped the Professor away from his train of thought; he turned his head to look over his right shoulder and took another sip from his tea when he saw Max talking with the diner waitress. After taking a relatively long sip, the Timelord put the cup down on the counter and waited for the waitress to walk away from the booth that Max was currently sitting in.
As the waitress turned to leave, the Timelord finished his tea with a final prolonged sip; putting the cup down with one hand and picking up his notepad and pencil with the other before he edged himself off of the stool and walked over to Max's booth.
The Professor crossed the distance between his stool and Max's booth in less than five seconds, pausing for a moment as he realised that Max had yet to notice him; the brunette was in the middle of taking a sip from her coffee as she looked out of the window to her left.
"Er…Max?" The Timelord asked as he cleared his throat and took another step towards the booth, letting out a low sigh as Max almost dropped her cup in surprise.
"Well…Someone's jumpy this morning…" The Timelord commented light heartedly as he leaned on the corner of the booth, pocketing his pencil as he held his notepad loosely in both hands, his eyes darting between Max and the waitress as he spoke.
"I-I just didn't see you…That's all…" Max replied quietly after a short pause, briefly making eye contact with the Timelord before looking back out the window and slowly looking over the coastline of Arcadia Bay.
"You sure?" The Professor asked as he cocked his head, "You seem…distracted by something…"
Max paused as she put her cup down on the table in front of her and rubbed her forehead as she let out an exasperated sigh, "And what could I possibly be distracted by, Professor?" The Timelord smirked as Max spoke, I love it when she gets sarcastic…This'll be good, "The fact that I can now rewind time? How about-" Nope. Boring…Rolling his eyes, the Professor briefly zoned out as Max seemed to go on non-stop for a solid minute, with only the final part of Max's sarcasm-fuelled rant catching his attention, "Or what about the fact that I think that Arcadia Bay is about to be wiped off the ma-"
The Professor held his hand up to cut Max off as he suddenly started to pay attention to what the girl was saying, "What did you just say there? The last thing?"
The brunette stopped mid-sentence and quizzically looked at the Timelord, her expression changing from annoyance to intrigue in less than a second as she looked the Professor in the eye.
"W-what?" Max asked as she looked slightly startled by the interruption, "About-"
"Arcadia Bay being wiped off the map, yes," The Timelord interrupted as he looked directly at Max and raised an eyebrow, "That's what you were about to say, correct?"
Max seemed to pause for a moment before she spoke, her voice much quieter as she continued, "Wait…do you know what happens? Being a time traveller and everything?"
"N-no…" The Professor replied as he sat down and put his notepad in front of him, "Just…What wiped Arcadia Bay off of the map?"
"A…a…" Max was about to reply before she stopped and shook her head, her cheeks blushing slightly as she sat back in her seat and rubbed her face, "No. You'll probably think I'm crazy or something…"
"Max…" The Professor muttered as he let out a long sigh, leaning forward in his seat, "You're sitting across the table from an alien. You really think that you'll be seen as the crazy one here?"
The Professor looked at Max, his face serious as he waited on the girl opposite him to continue.
"Here's your waffle, Ma-" Came the voice of the waitress as the Professor inwardly cursed his luck, he looked to his left and quietly sighed when he saw the waitress – who was looking extremely concerned by what she was seeing, the Timelord couldn't blame her: he'd be concerned as well if he saw a teenage girl being confronted by a much older man over breakfast – standing less than a meter away from the booth, "Oh…I didn't know that you knew Max…"
The Professor lightly scratched the back of his head, forcing a soft chuckle as Max remained silent, "I've been helping Max with her extra-curriculum activities at Blackwell recently…I just thought that it might be a good opportunity to…go over today's schedule since we're both in the same place…Saves time later on."
The waitress looked away from the Timelord and glanced at Max as she put the brunette's breakfast down on the table; not looking convinced by the Professor's story. She whispered a few words into Max's ear before leaving again to serve another set of customers in a booth somewhere behind them.
"Thanks, Joyce," Max smiled as the waitress left them before she took another sip from her coffee.
"As you were going to say, Max…" The Professor tried to pry further as he put his pencil on top of his notepad, "Wiped off the map by what?"
"A storm…" Max said simply as she seemed to gauge the Timelord's reaction, "I had a…"
"Very lucid vision?" The Professor finished as he cut across Max, causing her eyes to widen slightly as he continued, "Massive super tornado ripping the Bay to shreds? That kind of thing?"
Max almost froze in place, "How did you know that?" She mouthed as her eyes wandered down to the Professor notepad and widened further at the sight of what the Timelord was pointing at on his notepad: the sketch he'd made earlier of the tornado, "T-that's it? But how!?"
"You didn't by any chance have a rather unpleasant out-of-body experience yesterday evening, did you?" The Professor asked as he pushed the notepad across the table, his hand pulling a small corner off of Max's waffle on the way back and tossing it into his mouth before he continued, "Just before that bizarre snowfall?"
The Professor continued to chew slowly on the piece of waffle, admiring the taste as Max sat there speechless as she looked at his sketch, "I'll take that as a 'yes'…"
"Wowzer…I can't believe this…" Max breathed as she rubbed her forehead and proceeded to eat her waffle, "So what does that mean? That it's definitely going to happen then?"
"I'm not sure…" The Timelord muttered as he went to stand up, pocketing his notepad as he glanced over his shoulder in the direction of the diner's front doors, "But I'm going to do some digging…"
"On what?" Max asked as she carefully followed the Timelord's movements.
"That remains to be seen…" The Professor answered simply as he fixed his tie, "But Max?"
Max nodded as she chewed on her waffle, still noticeably in shock from the Professor's revelation.
"Can you at least try to keep the rewinds to a minimum?" The Professor half demanded-half requested as he stood up, "At least until I determine how they're related to what's going on…Seriously. Give those notes I gave you a read as well…I'd like you to at least have a basic understanding of what's going on here."
Max nodded again as she swallowed a mouthful of waffle she'd been chewing, watching the Timelord carefully as he began to make his way out of the diner.
"I mean it, Max…" He warned with stern look before he went to turn around, "Even I have no idea what we're truly dealing with yet…"
With that, the Professor quickly left the diner; frowning as he stopped just outside now that the tasty smell of the diner had vanished, after a brief pause and look over the diner car park he started to walk back in the direction of the junkyard: he'd need to grab a few things from the TARDIS storeroom before he could continue his investigation.
Hopefully the old girl still has enough juice in her to keep the storeroom running…
The Timelord had barely made it four meters from the diner's front doors when an aggressive sounding female voice hollered at him from across the car park. The Professor pinched the bridge of his nose as he turned his head to face the source of the shouting and let out a noticeably long sigh when he spotted that it had come from someone who looked like they'd just come out of a punk concert.
"Hey!" The blue haired teenage girl yelled as she crossed the distance between herself and the Professor much quicker than the Timelord had anticipated, "Hey! Asshole!"
Oh for crying out loud, The Professor inwardly sighed as he turned to face the girl, Give me a break…
"Yes?" The Timelord asked from behind a smile of gritted teeth as he slowly tried to hurriedly end the conversation and get back on track.
"Why the hell are you stalking Max, creep!?" The girl demanded as she aggressively pointed her finger at the end of her mostly covered but still easily noticeable heavily tattooed right arm at the Timelord, "You get a kick out of following high school girls around!?"
Great…Max must've told one of her 'friends'…Interesting, I didn't think that Max hung around with people like this.
The Professor crossed his arms and shot a look at the girl that caused her to momentarily hesitate in her advance towards him, "I'd advise that you stay out of this. You have no idea what's going on."
"I have enough of an idea to be hella concerned about what you're doing!" The girl shot back as the Timelord rolled his eyes again, "She's my friend you know!"
The Professor simply turned his entire body to face the girl, somewhat fed up with her attitude already. Time seemed to slow down for the Professor as his eyes darted over the girl's appearance, cataloguing every important detail as he tried to find a pressure point which could quickly shut the confrontation down so that he could get back to work.
Let's see…Appearance is dominated by the colour blue…Blue beanie, blue hair, blue fingernails…Jeans are also a shade of blue…Clearly a rebellious personality. Problems at home? Perhaps. Attitude would be synonymous with a childhood loss of some kind…But what? Best stay clear of that topic until I know more…
The Professor's mind continue to cycle through various possibilities and ways to end the conversation at lightning speed, the Professor's gaze darted back to the girl's face and came to a quick conclusion.
Facial structure is somewhat similar to that of the waitress inside the diner…Her mother? Possibly…
"I'd really love to stay and chat Ms…Price," The Professor said after a slight moment of hesitation as recalled a few names he'd heard tossed around in the diner relating to the waitress, smirking slightly as the girl flinched and took a small but noticeable step back, Gotcha, "But I have a really busy day today…And I think you're needed inside…You're mother made it sound like you were late for breakfast…Can't have that now, can we?" The Timelord made to turn around, "Hurry on then!"
The young Price in front of him opened her mouth to retort, clenching her fist for a moment before relaxing it and muttering an insult under her breath. The Timelord smirked as the girl borderline barged him out of the way as she made for the diner's entrance, he watched her from where he stood for a few moments before she disappeared from view and walked to the other side of the diner.
With a shrug, the Timelord made a mental note not to pry into Ms Price further and branded her as a potential mental timebomb before continuing on his course towards the junkyard. The last thing he needed was to potentially force a divide between himself and Max which would hinder his efforts in the future by agitating the girl: who was clearly a close friend of Ms Caulfield.
The Professor's inner frustration returned less than a minute later as he felt the tell-tale signs of a rewind kick in, he contemplated turning on the spot and storming back into the diner but quickly decided against such a brash action. Rolling his eyes in frustration, the Timelord looked back at the diner and sighed.
Kids…I swear, I've walked less than a block, Caulfield…Don't push it.
Shaking his head in annoyance, the Timelord merely continued to walk up the road with his hands in his pockets as time resumed its normal forward march: the sooner he solved the mystery of Arcadia Bay, the sooner he could distance himself from the headache-causing paradoxes that the town harboured.
Author's Sidenotes: Apologies for the slightly delayed upload today, I was away on a three day hike and only arrived back an hour ago. Hopefully you've enjoyed reading this chapter and the fic so far. As always, leave feedback with reviews and favorite/follow this fic if you're enjoying the story.
In regards to queries on the lengths of the chapters in this fanfiction, I prefer to write each chapter in one or two sittings (that's why none so far have crossed the 5000 word mark) however I have plans for later chapters to be much longer than that.
Expect Chapter 11 to be uploaded at some point on Monday - actually scratch that, Chapter 11 is turning out to be a lot longer than intended, expect a slight delay for the upload.