An adventure that shouldn't involve Theodore, yet here he is, and he's still baffled while munching on the loaded banger and mash hotdog that he found on the menu at the pub they stopped at on their walk, waiting word from Al, and across from him, Lila's munching on the Cincinnati style chili (no beans or onions) beer cheese fries that Theodore sneakily stole from when she wasn't looking.
"If radioactive statues are enough to bring you places, we'd be in trouble," Lila noted that it didn't make any sense for them being here, if the statue's a fake, and radioactivity inside it isn't dangerous enough to warrant lead coffins.
Sounded more like a police matter than theirs, honestly.
Theodore agrees with her, but they're there for a reason, even if Al doesn't know himself, so that said, they'll remain until they figure it out, as they always did, and Lila slowly nodded, stabbing three coated fries with her fork, yanking them away from their chili cheese imprisonment.
No point wandering the city without a clear plan, so here they are in a pub, watching football (soccer) on the big screens while munching away at their respected entrees.
The seasoned mash slowly oozed over the sides of the potato hotdog bun as Theodore took a big bite out of his banger and mash hotdog, his eyes fixated on the games broadcasted across from them, the ambiance of the pub cheering their teams louder than the games themselves
A swig of beer, Theodore wiped his mouth with the napkin before reaching over to steal a chip from Lila's plate, before he instantly recoiled, feeling something frightfully cold, turning his head, he sees that Lila used her cold glass to cool her finger, laying out a trap for the unknowing Theodore to reach for her finger instead of the chip.
"You're mean," Theodore denounced Lila's trick as she wiped her finger with her napkin, a triumph look, "I'll get you for that!"
Grinning ear to ear, Lila inquired, "And how will you do that?"
They shared a chuckle before Theodore whisked a chip away from her plate, devouring it whole before a sip of his beer.
While finishing their dinner, Theodore tried to reach out to Al, to see if he found anything else that warranted their presence, but found Al didn't respond, even when he tried again.
"Maybe he's writing another one of his love notes, again," Lila brought up that Al's probably neck deep in another sizzling letter to Bumble, enough to make fax machines burst into flames.
Let's say Lila had the misfortune of reading one of these letters when trying to find information on something during an adventure, where she spent minutes trying to get something she needed, and seeing the draft of a heart throbbing love letter to Bumble that Al forgot to put away before taking them on their adventure.
He's gotten better at not leaving his drafts on the screens above the console, but the kinds of things the TARDIS knows how to put into words in a graphical sense, mon dieu!
Might be banned in France for how sizzling his writing is, or become the best writer in the known world, for that matter, hard to say, but not writing someone wants to read while riding public transportation.
"I think he's getting better at it," Theodore commented that Al's improving his writing exponentially since he serenaded Bumble.
Shaking her head, Lila asked Theodore, "You actually read it?"
Shrugging, as he polished off his dinner with the rest of his beer, Theodore tells her after resting his empty glass onto the table, "I got bored."
To hear him say this with a straight face, Lila simply finished her beer, and the check came.
Paid it at the mobile kiosk, off they went, towards the marked area for cabs, planning on returning to the TARDIS, while waiting for more answers.
Despite it being almost nightfall, the blue tint shines through the cloudy skies, apparently it's a known quantity in this area since its inception, that when night comes, it'll still be tinted blue like the afternoon.
During mornings when the blue tint's at its brightest before darkening throughout the day, never seen the sun for no more a couple of glances, have to go further out of the city to see it.
Geography and the climate provided the perfect atmosphere for this blue tinted city and it shall remain until the inevitable.
Rubbing her eyes, Lila curses how she hates the unusual quantity of the area, it's confusing her body, and the one thing all and any who travel in the TARDIS knows this by heart, travel all you want, your body will still hate the sudden time changes, weather changes, constant day, constant night, name it, the body doesn't abide.
That includes the humble Doctor, even they're not immune, even some more than others.
"Hm, if you want, you can take a cat nap and I'll work out the details with Al," Theodore offered Lila a chance to sneak a nap while they have some off-time before Al figures out what the cause for their appearance.
Shrugging her stout shoulders, Lila modestly declined, saying that her body just hates her, it'll get over it, eventually, but Theodore gently nudged her with his elbow, as he reminded her that she's still human.
"And you're still tedi-senpai," Lila giggled at calling him his nickname, which Theodore found amusing, and as they're waiting for their cab, they noticed that it seems that cabs have a habit of not coming more than they should.
He reached out to someone next to them and apparently, it's part of the culture in this city where the individualistic cab drivers make their own rules of when they come to these spots to pickup fares.
If Theodore and Lila wanted a cab, they have to wait here, no one wants to risk a fine for picking up fares anywhere but the marked areas, despite their individualistic natures, that's one of the few things constant among drivers.
Buses can't come through here because the roads weren't designed for them and cannot be widened due to the buildings on the corners, thus either they get a cab, get a favour from a coworker, or hope they remembered they drove to work that day.
"Gee, you think we should just take a rift back?" Lila covertly talked to Theodore about their options, hearing the man casually tell them that it's not unusual for cab drivers pulling stunts like this, and everyone fine with it as if it's just another facet of life here in this city.
Thinking it over, Theodore mentioned that he felt the air around them, it's a good universe for him to drum one up without fear of sudden instability or the unusual nature of the universe taking offense to Theodore's doings.
Problem is, as he's glancing around, there's crowds around them, all waiting for a cab, queued up, and realizing that reasonably, there isn't any place for them to sneak off to for him to put up a rift for them to go through without anyone seeing them.
Even if they walked around long enough, Theodore can't guarantee they'll find a spot safe from prying eyes, and he's seeing how the nightlife looked from how brightly lit areas were, even alleyways, and it led him concluding that they're better off waiting for the cab.
Traffic's a bother, of course, but it'll be better than guessing where they can safely get into a rift without anyone noticing or something falling in with them.
Besides that, they're in the third spot of the queue, it shouldn't take long before a cab pulled up for them to take back to the area that the TARDIS hid itself.
Agreeing with his points, Lila stood beside him as they patiently waited for a cab driver to show up, which one did, and the first person in the queue got in, the cab pulling away immediately, and the next one didn't pull into the curb until the next thirty minutes, by then Theodore tried reaching out to Al, but he didn't respond, still.
"He's still working on that letter?" Lila's baffled that Al would've spent all this time on the letter, he should've realized by now that Theodore attempted to contact him.
Sighing, Theodore pats her shoulder as he tells her that it's one of the quirks of the TARDIS.
As she stood beside him, Lila mused, "Just as long as we don't have to get his checks under a pseudonym!"
Really don't want to be misidentified as the writer of Al's latest smut, but of course, Theodore saw humor in it.
Finally, a cab arrived and it was their turn to take it, Theodore gave the address and the cab driver acknowledged before pulling away from the curb.
Settling in their seats, the two conversed amongst themselves as the stream of lights from the cars pass by them as the cab melded into a line of traffic, heading back where the TARDIS landed.
Lila couldn't help but yawn from the sight and felt Theodore's long arm wrapping around her waist, gently pulling her close as she rested her head on his shoulder, her eyes heavy as the stream of lights in a rhyme made her drift to sleep.
Theodore stayed awake, watching the stream of traffic pass them by on the opposite direction as they hit the major artery in the city.
They're close to where they got a cab originally, but Theodore felt the jolt as the cab suddenly swerved, the smell of burning rubber in the air, and held Lila closer to him as she's jolted awake.
The cab driver managed to pull off to the side on a side street without causing an accident and ordered the two to remain inside while he went out to check, but as an insurance, he took the keys to the cab with him.
He warned that the lights in the cab didn't work except what's on the dashboard, so if he suspects any funny business, he'll flash them with a torch, he showed the heavy duty one that Lila's dad used sometimes on the ships during emergencies.
A subtle glare to them, as he warned them, the cab driver disappeared into the darkness of the side street, with dull lit street lights.
They heard him cursing, poking his head in as he says that a tire blew out, and he'll quickly switch it out.
Theodore offered to help, but the cab driver shot him a glare, before telling him that for their safety, he's doing it himself, and he closed the door to the driver's side, going around back of the cab to retrieve the spare.
"And here I thought cab drivers were supposed to be chatty," Lila noted their cab driver wasn't the sort to speak with them, much less trust them to help with changing out a tire, but Theodore mentioned it's probably part of the cab culture where they're weary of their passengers.
Stuck inside by the cab driver and no way for them to mess about, as there's a protective barrier that separated them from the driver's seat, chain link with as small of holes that's possible for the cab driver to hear his passengers and vice versa.
No way to open or remove it, the cab driver thought of everything when he took up the job, that Theodore suspects that he has hidden plates installed in his driver's seat preventing someone from trying to stab him from the back.
Overhead, they heard the driver slightly raise the cab, high enough he's able to undo the lug nuts and yank off the ripped apart tire.
While they're waiting, Lila rested her head on Theodore's shoulder once again, feeling her eyes heavy from the rhyme of the stream of car lights that lulled her to sleep before, as Theodore kept her close to him as he listened to the cab driver curse to himself in a different language.
Farsi, Theodore thinks, and the cab driver's upset that the department of transportation didn't do a good job sweeping through the streets late at night to make sure debris didn't get in the middle of the road, which he complained that a chain from a tread mangled the tire, probably fell from an unrestrained load.
Colorful choice of words from the driver, but he's slowly tightening the lug nuts after replacing the mangled tire with the spare, there's a thud from when he turned the mangled tire on its side for a moment while he focused on ensuring the tire stays on the rim.
There's another thud, the driver tried picking up the mangled trie, but complained that something's sticking out of the shredded rubber that almost got his hand, that he needed to go around back for the med kit.
Theodore wanted to call out to the driver, asking if he needed help, as in his nature, but knew better to try, else the driver would've gotten angry with them, again.
He couldn't see the driver with the opened boot covering the back window, but heard him rummaging around in the back for the med kit.
Guess he found it, because Theodore heard a pop from the med kit and the driver rummaging around the contents for bandages.
Another pop, from him closing the med kit, and a loud thunk as the boot's closed while the driver went around the side of the cab, getting back inside.
The cab began moving again and slowly reintegrated with oncoming traffic, the cab driver didn't say anything to Theodore, not that he wanted to try and converse with him, anyway, minding Lila as she dozed off with her head on his shoulder.