Chapter 64
Why can't I stop looking?
The screeching was loud, and annoying. She could feel the Doctor wince in pain as they jutted back and forth from the bucking.
"Can it play any other tunes?" The Doctor asked dryly.
"Why, won't it go in there? Get in there!" Raven said in frustration. More crunching.
"It doesn't look good. It looks like you'll have to resort to using the clutch."
"I'm pressing the clutch!" Raven fumed.
"The clutch is the peddle on the left, not the middle one. That's the brake." The Doctor said.
"When I said I wanted to learn how to drive, I meant the TARDIS!" Raven fumed. "Not this box of tinfoil!"
"Raven, don't be so mean to her. You'll hurt her feelings." The Doctor said, stroking the padded dash of his purple, beetle car.
"It's a lump of metal. It's not like the TARDIS, it has no consciousness, and why couldn't you have picked a car with a quieter engine!?" Raven said as she pressed on the clutch and embarrassingly the gear lever moved silently into second gear. She put her foot on the accelerator and the car started bucking like a horse. She was alright until she came to a junction and stalled. She started the car again and looked left and right.
Conga-lines of cars spilled from either side.
"It's a lot busier than when I last passed through this way." The Doctor said.
Raven looked right. Car - car -car -car -car -car -car. -OPENING!
She looked left. Car -car -car -car -car -car -car -car- car - OPENING!
She looked right again, but her chance was gone. How could people drive? This practice was infinitely frustrating!
Car - Car -car -car -car -car -car - OPENING!
To her left. OPENING!
She shifted into gear to take advantage and...
The car jutted and stalled. The opening was gone. Car -car -car - car -car.
Raven rammed the handbrake up and flung open the door. "You drive it!"
"Rae-Rae, if you can't drive a car, how do you hope to fly the TARDIS?" The Doctor said.
"Easy. Ones a machine with hard to understand controls, no brakes, centuries on the clock, repaired by someone who I'm convinced didn't know what he was doing, and the other is the TARDIS!" Raven dived out of the drivers side. The Doctor shuffled back into the drivers seat and Raven flung open the passenger door and slammed the bugs door shut. It clanged like a metal tank.
"I hate this thing." Raven said as she clicked her seatbelt into position. It became increasingly annoying when the Doctor shifted into the correct gear and began to drive off, merging in with the traffic and making it across the cross roads. Why couldn't he drive the TARDIS as smoothly as he drove this relic from an age where air-conditioning was a luxury? Raven adjusted a vent by her leg to stop it blasting scolding air onto her leg. It was only lucky she was wearing her none-Azarathian garments. Jeans and a blue hoodie with a thin T-shirt underneath, or her leg would be cooking. "I'd rather walked."
"Well, I couldn't land any nearer Devils End. The TARDIS didn't seem to like it. But once we get there you'll love it. It's peaceful, its tranquil, a perfect place for a holiday. Just what the Doctor ordered for a powerful psychic like yourself. Just don't get tied to the Morris-dancers pole at the May Day celebration."
"I told you. I've disconnected myself from my powers. I will never use them again." She leaned against the cool glass of the door frame. "Never!"
The Doctor smiled, but didn't argue.
Bushes past by the car window as they drove in the boring English country side.
"It's been a long time since I visited Devils End. I was stranded on Earth and still worked for U.N.I.T." The Doctor said. "I'd crashed the TARDIS racing a temporal skpper and needed to effect repairs before I could move on."
"Hey, I thought you..." Raven paused. "Never mind." She was going to state that she thought he'd been exiled to Earth at that point, but still didn't want to reveal to him that she'd been inside his mind all that time ago.
Getting bored, Raven took out a book from her pocket and tried to read. It was difficult because the noise of the engine was distracting. Her feet rose up and laid, crossed against the padded dashboard until the Doctor swiped at her feet. Raven rolled her eyes in an 'Okay, Dad' kind of way before dropping them back down into the footwell.
The horrid suspension of this car made reading impossible, and she was starting to feel car sick. She put the book away, and wound the window down to get some fresh air, then wound it back up again when she smelt the English countryside. It smelt of cow shit.
"Don't play with the window." The Doctor said. Sighing, Raven started playing with the radio knobs on the dashboard and waited for something to leap out at her.
Music started playing. Pop songs of the era, -whatever era it was,- started blaring from the cars speakers. The music was... tolerable and was better than the Doctors smooth jazz collection. Amazingly, the Doctor made no attempt to change the channel.
"If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends,
"-Gotta get with my friends.-
"Make it last forever, friendship never ends.
"If you wanna be my lover, you have got to give,
"-you gotta give.-
"Taking is too easy, but that's the way it is."
Raven shook her head. She hated love songs, they always sounded so false. Raven subscribed to the philosophy of a man called Archibald Rimmer. "Love is a device invented by bank managers to make us overdrawn." Raven could add to that. It was just there to distract you from working on yourself by focusing on another. Specifically on either a stupid boy, for the sake of producing kids, -which Raven didn't want.- Or focusing on a girl if you were that way inclined, for the sake of companionship, -which Raven also didn't want. She didn't need anybody.-
Thankfully that song ended, and those thoughts faded.
Relaxing in her seat Raven tuned her brain into the next song. It wasn't as bombastic as the last one.
"She came from Greece she had a thirst for knowledge,
"She studied sculpture at Saint Martin's College,
"That's where I,
"Caught her eye."
She closed her eyes and began to sing with the chorus when it came around for the second time.
"I wanna live like common people,
"I wanna do whatever common people do,
"Wanna sleep with common people,
"I wanna sleep with common people,
"Like you."
That resonated with Raven. All she wanted to be now was like the common people. Not some magic monk from Azarath.
The song was essentially about a rich girl who'd never understand what it was like to be one of the 'Common people' because she came from a privileged position in society, and she only hung out with the 'Common people' because she personally saw poor as cool, retro and a lifestyle, a fashion statement rather than an inescapable situation for some, and ultimately, if the girl wanted out she could call her rich dad to pick her up, where the singer himself had no such person to pull him out of the squallier he was trapped in.
Raven came to the conclusion that any bad situation could feel somewhat attractive if you had the option to remove yourself from it. An echo of something the Doctor had said while in the Land of Fiction came into the front of her mind. Where he'd mentioned he was careful about how he interfered with history and human progress, because he stayed to help and it all went wrong he had the option to run away and leave them. A luxury the people he helped wouldn't have. The Doctor was the sort to cut grass and prim trees, but didn't hang around to care for them, because when you over-water a plant it can end up killing it.
Raven had collapsed onto the bed of the Bed and Breakfast pub they were both staying at. The Doctor apparently knew the bartender from a previous incarnation because though the man reacted to the name 'Doctor' he was confused by his physical appearance. But again, the Doctor worked his verbal magic; and flashing some correct currency from the time helped.
The room was small and was barely decorated. It had just the essentials, two beds, dressers, a mirror, a bathroom.
She held up a book to her eyes and just read while the Doctor unpacked from a suitcase he'd had on the back seat of the car. But his case did not contain clothes, though it did contain a jumble of devices. From the case he plucked out one thing in particular. Something he placed into a glass by the sink. A toothbrush.
"Are you going to spend our holiday in here reading?" The Doctor asked.
"I'd be able to do it peacefully if you'd go away." Raven bit a little. She was tired of all these distractions. "How long will it take you get your business over and done with?"
"Three days maybe more." The Doctor said.
"Fine then, I'll... three days!" Raven exploded. "What can you possibly do here for three days!?"
"Unfinished business. The last time I was here there was a psychic disturbance. The reason the TARDIS couldn't land here was because of that psychic turbulence." The Doctor said, "I intend to Earth that power and drain it away. Depending on the size of psychic pool it could take anything up to three days."
Raven collapsed onto her bed. She couldn't complain. She'd demanded to come with him, but this place was so remote and boring she doubted she'd be needed. Unless the Doctor was hunted down by a pack of evil sheep.
"Don't you want to go out there and meet people?" The Doctor asked, waving his hand to the sunshine outside. "Wouldn't you like to interact with kids your own age?"
"I'd rather meet the Cybermen again." Raven said burying her face under her book.
"There's a lovely tea room in the village." The Doctor said. Raven sighed.
"There's probably a large compost heap somewhere in the village too." Raven rolled her eyes.
"There's also a bookshop." Raven's eyes rolled over the top of her book. That had her attention. She'd only brought one book and she'd absorb this in a few hours.
From his pockets, the Doctor produced a velvet bag. He tipped the contents onto the table. Several coins, wads of paper and what looked like an electrical scarab beetle with wriggling legs fell out. The Doctor plucked out certain coins, including the electric insect and presented Raven with the money that was left.
"Thirty-six pounds and nineteen pence." He'd said. "That should be enough for a book or six."
"Thanks." Raven said with disinterest, her attention now back on her book.
"I'm just going out for a while. I might be some time, but don't worry." The Doctor reassured her. "And please, try not to get into any trouble." He said. Raven gave him a look one would give a hypocrite.
"Yeah, whatever you say, 'Dad'" she said in a mocking tone.
With that, the Doctor left the room and Raven was on her own. She looked out the window at the quaint English village. She could both hear and sense the world outside through the Aether. The chirping birds, the sounds of traffic, the laughing and playing children.
The world outside was happening and Raven was sitting here on her own, alone.
Perfect!
Finally finishing the book Raven now pondered on what to do now. Meditate? Sleep?
There was a small TV in the room and after flicking through a few channels on the idiot box she gotten bored and turned it off. Her thoughts went to what she'd seen through the windows of the beetle car. Raven was beginning to understand why Bram Stoker had a dislike of the countryside. It was vast, and you could easily get lost.
Looking back at the book, she considered maybe reading it again. It was a book called Pinocchio. The version she was reading was actually a re-telling and had different themes from it's original. In the original by Carlo Collodi, -which she had also read, naturally- Pinocchio was an awful little marionette, always causing mischief around everyone, even angering his creator, Geppetto. The book had a happy ending, but clearly the author originally intended it to be a tragedy.
The one she was reading was printed in the 21st century and was a story about an innocent Marionette who wanted to be a real boy. He was still mischievous but the theme of the book was more framing Pinocchio as an odd-ball whom everyone hated, not only because he was a wooden boy, but because his emotional development was lacking too, making him stand out. Oddly, Raven found herself identifying with this version of the funny little puppet. Pinocchio just wanted to be accepted by everyone around him. Half the people he met wanted to exploit him because he was a living puppet. The other half wanted to burn him as an unholy abomination. The only person who seemed to love him was Geppetto, his adopted father. The book still had tragedy and misery for the little marionette, and it had a bit of a sombre ending because in this version Pinocchio never became a real boy. He did find is place and people who loved him, but for the most part he just had to learn how to cope in the world he was in.
Pinocchio is was now her new favourite book, she had decided. But despite loving it, she had no interest in reading it again so soon. Anyway, in the book Pinocchio had a soppy romance with a girl. She dreaded to think of the mechanics of such a relationship, and considering Pinocchio didn't age, being a puppet, there would soon be a technical age gap. But Raven guessed it was a fantasy and you weren't supposed to think too deeply about it.
With nothing else to do Raven spent ages just staring at the ceiling or out a window mulling things over.
Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored! Her mind flashed as she looked into the ceiling at nothing in particular. She found some hygiene products in the Doctors case so she washed, cut her nails, brushed her teeth. She even had a go at flushing the toilet.
She'd read yesterdays newspaper, which had been left in the room. Nothing very interesting. The Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair was stepping down after causing a war in the middle-east. A New Book on Stonehenge had been published. Complaints about the weather interfering with a locally held rugby club, and stuff. None of it interested her.
Bored, bored, bored, bored.
Her eyes rolled to the closed curtains through which rays of sunlight still fell.
Should she go outside?
There would be people outside? But there would also be stuff to do. A girl can only meditate for so long before she got bored of it.
There was an itch irritating her and she didn't know what it was. The Doctor wasn't back yet. Maybe that was it. But she felt that no danger befallen him, so there was no reason to worry. In fact, the calmness of the area unnerved her. It was scary. It was so peaceful.
Okay, I'll go outside! She decided.
Opening the door and taking a key she walked down the stairs, attracted some looks from the pub's patrons as she walked out and emerged into the sunshine.
Raven instantly pulled up the hood of her hoodie up to shield her eyes and face.
The Doctors car was parked outside and looked at home in front of the village pub. God, the car was an ugly thing.
There weren't that many shops in this small village, but she did find the local bookshop. Nobody bothered her as she browsed the books, though the shopkeeper demanded Raven lower her hood for some reason. Not wanting to cause a scene she obliged, then she seemed taken aback at Raven's hairstyle.
The selection was limited. It was either tourist books about the local area, or else it was romance novels and kids books about stories she'd already read. Like Robin Hood.
Raven did notice that she'd caught the eye of someone. Three girls were clustered together in that way that 'normal girls' did. They didn't say hello, or greet her, they just gave her the cold shoulder and went back to whatever it was they were talking about. That suited Raven fine, she didn't really want to make friends with them anyway. They were probably judging her right now, that's what girls in clusters did. One of them was tall, and lanky with blond hair. The other short and squat and not very girly. She was more like a bull in a dress. The other had lovely, curly hair and stood with her back straight like she came from an upper class family. Raven's mind instantly went back to that song about the 'Common people.'
Eventually, Raven picked up a book that looked interesting but upon opening it she found it was a blank book with the engraving of a wolf on the cover. It was leather bound and really well made. There were several like it on the shelves with different engravings. She wondered if she could find one with a raven, or a crow, or an eagle or something like that on it. But no. There was a lion, a snake, a hedgehog and a badger, but no birds. Scratch that, there was a bird one, a rooster, but no way did she want that.
Her attention returned to the wolf book in her hands. Weirdly she felt like she had a connection with this animal. A lone hunter. A creature that was comfortable walking its own path away from the pack. It just felt like this was the right book to get. She also bought a pen too.
Just so the Doctor didn't moan at her for staying in the room all day Raven pulled up her hood, sat down in the park, opened her book and pondered on what to write. A diary? A story? Her experiences? Her thoughts?
She tapped her pen on the open book, but no ideas came to her head. Sighing she looked around the place for any inspiration. Some topic. Anything.
There was an old woman walking her dog. There was an old ruin to her right which looked like the remains of an abbey or a church. Across the road, two men stumbled out of the pub and began stumbling down the street.
To her left, there was a boy sitting on another bench with quite a large book on his lap and he was scribbling. He looked up, glanced in her direction and looked back down again and scribbled.
'What is that creep doing?'
Again, he looked up at her, back down again and scribbled.
'What is he looking at me for?'
He did it again!
'What is wrong with him?!'
He did it again! That was it! Raven marched over there with fury in her eyes and glared down at the boy as he looked up again.
"What? What is it?!" Raven fumed, she didn't know why she was approaching this guy when she could just go back to the pub. But she guessed she was comfortable where she was and didn't feel like moving because of this creep.
"Huh?" The boy looked clueless like he'd been snapped out of some dream. He reached up to a black wire which snaked from his pocket and up to his ears, from which two earbuds popped out when he pulled on the wire. "Sorry, can I help you?"
Raven pulled down on the paper to see what the hell he was doing. Raising an eyebrow she had to twist her head to see it properly. He was...
He was just drawing. It was a drawing of the town park with the ruin in the distance. Raven saw herself sat there with her book and the boy was just drawing in the details around her like the shop and brickwork.
"Umm, sorry." She said sheepishly, she felt her face go a little red. "I thought you were... never mind."
"Thought I was what?" The boy asked. He was at least her own age. Maybe a year or two older.
"Nothing. I'm just in a bad mood." She sighed, putting a hand up to her forehead and gently stroked the gem on her forehead.
"Why?" He asked. Raven decided not to answer and instead focused on his drawings.
Raven looked back at the book, then up at the scene, then back at the drawing. The likeness wasn't that bad. In fact, it was quite good. Raven noticed the detail he'd gone to on each individual person, including herself. He drew her eyes in a really striking way that looked both dark and mysterious from under her hood. Were her eyes really like that? It was quite flattering.
"Why do you do that? Why draw stuff?" Raven asked.
"Because I enjoy it." The boy shrugged. "It's what I do in my spare time."
"Isn't it kind of pointless?" Raven asked, weirdly she felt like she had to clarify what she meant. "I mean, can't you take a photograph?"
"Where is the art in that?" The boy asked.
"Art?" Raven said the word like it had no meaning to her.
"Yeah. Personal touches and interpretation. Sure, I can get everything quickly with a snapshot from a camera, but there would be no... no..." He rolled his free hand as he searched for the word. "Texture, no life to it. Do you see what I mean?"
"You sound like my Da... I mean the Doc... I mean..." might as well pretend, what would be the harm? "My Dad. He talks nonsense too."
She expected him to get offended, instead, he laughed. "I can see you're a no-nonsense kind of woman."
No one had ever described her as a 'woman' before, she felt grown-up for a second.
"Why have you drawn my eyes that way?" Raven asked.
"Don't you like them?" Raven shrugged, "I draw how I see the world, and I draw it in a way that expresses it. Your eyes look dark, mysterious, cold from the outside and yet I can see there is a hidden warmth to them just underneath. They're kind of pretty, like sparkling Amethyst jewels. So that is what I drew."
Bullshit! She instantly dismissed, but he was sincere, she could tell. Raven swallowed, why was she suddenly so nervous?
She didn't know what to say, but she felt like she wanted to say more.
"Umm... thanks. Umm... Do you sell these drawings?" She asked.
"Why, are you interested?" He asked.
Raven subtly leant away from him. "Maybe." She didn't know what to say.
"Well, it's not finished yet. But if you want to check out my drawings I'm usually in the coffee shop at eight AM most mornings." He suggested. "I also do portraits for a couple of quid."
"Umm... okay." She found herself saying. Now the boy held out his hand to her.
"My name is Hopkins, Russel Hopkins." He said. Raven looked down at the hand like an intrusive object. But strangely, she found herself taking and shaking it. Her mind had started to wander before she forced it back to the present. "I'm... I'm Raven," She blanked on her surname for a second, "Raven Hopki..."
FUCK!
"...Roth."
Just run with it.
"Raven Hope Roth. Just call me Raven, it's easier." She was struck by his eyes, they were a pretty shade of emerald.
"Raven?" The boy asked, "What an enchanting name."
"Yeah, umm..." Raven felt weird. What was this? Some kind of magic spell he was trying to cast? "I'll see you tomorrow, I guess..." Raven stepped away and nearly fell over a loose stone as she walked backwards to her chair and her blank book.
She tried to focus on the blank pages and force herself to write something. But her mind was only being filled with one subject. Raven held the book up to her eyes to hide them, but she kept peering over the edge of the book at the boy who was scribbling away. When he looked up she hid her eyes behind the book.
When he moved on to some scenery on the other side of the square she risked another glance.
Her heart rate increased as she looked and observed.
The boy had lovely, dark hair she noted which was a little spikey on the ends which gave his hair a kind of dishevelled life to it. He was slim, with broad shoulders and a developing barrel chest. He wasn't buff, so he could do with packing on some muscle. But he wasn't unattractive. Plus, his own eyes had an air of mystery about them too, and an almost familiar darkness, like there was a hidden depth to him waiting to be discovered, and she wanted to discover it.
Her mind went blank again. 'What does this all mean?'
'I guess he is kind of cute.' Raven admitted to herself, she tried to look away, but she didn't want to.
The penny was in the air...
'Why... why can't I stop looking at him?'
Then it dropped, and with a horrible clang.
Raven clamped her eyes closed in despair as her cheeks turned red. "Oh, god no! Please no!"
To Be Continued...
Authors notes: Part of the inspiration for this story arc was 'Give Raven a summer romance.' I admit this is unfamiliar writing territory for me, so I'll either be entertaining or it'll be an utter cringe-fest. Let's see what I can come up with.
Some inspiration also came from the Big Finish Audio, Circular Time: Summer. Where the character of Nyssa is also given a summer romance while the Doctor goes off and does his thing.
Before I get accused of making Russel a 'self insert character', I'll just quell it from the start. I happen to have unkempt, slightly curly, brown hair, not dark and spikey. I'm awful at drawing anything other than cartoon characters, and hoodies really aren't my thing at all, I prefer jackets. His appearance is based on a photo of a young Paul McGann I saw (They say girls seek someone who look similar to their dad/father figure.) plus some physical resemblance of both Robin and Beastboy, depending on what your preferred ship is. Though I will admit there are some aspect of me I am going to give him, but that is something relevant to the story.)
Devils End is the main setting for the Doctor Who TV story the Daemons.
I had to do a little bit of research into how tarot cards work, but on how to actually use them I could only find very vague instructions. So I admit some creative licence was taken in how you're supposed to use them.
EDITS[06/Jan/2020] Made the book Raven is reading Pinocchio.
Edits 19 March 2023: Overhauled the chapter, and added in the Doctor taking Raven on a driving test because I thought it was a fun moment for the pair.