*River* Just a Holiday...

[Deleted]

"Okay..." The Doctor stood back up. "Carry on, then, um...right..." He walked off, pulling River along with him as he turned back into a passageway. "Alright, so we're in a castle with various objects out of it's time, with a mechanical suit of armour and maids who are terrified out of their wits for some strange reason, and the castle has markings on the top which are odd and we need to investigate...you haven't done anything with a future me that could have anything to do with this, have you?" he asked River.

[ada]

"If I had, would I tell you?" River shook her head at the Doctor. "But, no. I have no idea what's happened here. Future you hasn't done too much with golden robots and scullery maids." River sniffed the air for a moment, and hummed. "Why don't we see about those stairs? The roof with its markings might tell us something. Or, at the very least..." River spun around, looking at the room one last time, "we'll get a nice look at the countryside. Now, let's find those stairs, and get away from moody maids before those owners of the house show up."

River craned her neck to look down the hall, and smiled back at the Doctor. Time to stop looking around this place, and find the stairs. She thought she could see stairs down that way, far down the hall... Maybe it was time to go find it.

[Deleted]

The Doctor nodded. "Okay, stairs..." He headed down the hall until he came to a spiralling stone staircase that seemed to reach up a good distance. "I'd say we've found our way up," he declared. Taking his wife's hand once again, he started climbing up. He just hoped that a skeleton or something wouldn't jump out at them. That would be so cliched.

[ada]

As River took his hand, a chill went down her spine. But not the usual, girly romance movie chill. Something was definitely watching, but the Doctor's wife had a feeling she wouldn't have been able to see it even if she had turned around. Trudging on, she followed him up the stairs. With every step, a small creak echoed in the room. Normal, wasn't that? Creaky stairs were nothing to worry about.
"This place only gets stranger." River said with a scoff, clasping the Doctor's hand just a little tighter nonetheless. As they ventured up the stairs, she began to see the next level. Completely different from the other, this one was filled with gorgeous marble-work, as if each room had been carved from a single perfect piece of stone. Cold, cold stone. Where were they? What kind of place could look different on each level of the castle? That was, if it was a castle at all.

River let go of the Doctor's hand to inspect the marble. Sure enough, it seemed real enough. The Doctor would have to decide for himself, but as she touched it, River was quite nearly sure this was the real deal. But how? Walking a circle, she stared at the room. So familiar, so detached. As if it was a textbook in a school, this place was altogether knowable, and unknowable. A paradox, perhaps. A paradox in the 16th century, and they were at the center of it.
"Come along love," River called out. "Let's find some more maids."

[Deleted]

Upon entering the marble level, the Doctor's curiosity just grew. He inspected the marble with River, crouching and holding his ear to it, touching it, and tasting it. But it was real. There wasn't marble in these sort of castles in this time of Earth's history, was there? This just didn't fit at all. He did a quick though fruitless scan with the sonic.

"Do you think they could tell us anything?" the Doctor asked about the maids. Judging from the ones they'd already met, he doubted they'd find out anything from them. "Just hold on a minute..." Leaving River, he ran to a door at the end of the room, opened it and went through. He came back down two minutes later. "And the rooms get stranger."

[ada]

"Stranger how?" River wondered aloud, knowing that she'd surely see what was strange before she ever got an answer out of the Doctor. And sure enough, as she peeked through the doorway, the scene was strange. Strange, in the manner that it was nothing at all. Beyond the cold, stone doors was a black emptiness. Nothing like space and its vastness, for this was placed in very human parameters. The room was black, as if painted, or like hewn from trees who were black to the core. There was nothing in the room, not even a speck of dust. And not a single window looked out past the castle. Nor did it seem constrained by the usual bounds of space, for as River went to look in another room, it seemed far smaller inside than it should have been, while the other had been larger. Pulling her head back, she too a few steps back.

"Wherever we are,it's not supposed to be in the 16th century. Perhaps the lord of the house holds the answers?"

[Deleted]

The Doctor followed River back up to the room, and nodded at her comment. "Yes, though I wonder where he is." He went to one of the walls of the black room and examined it as he had done with the marble. "Oh well! Let's go find him." He said. Once again, he took River's hand and led her off.

[ada]

Lips pursed, River was dragged along by the Doctor. He changed his mind so quickly, jumping from one idea to the next. As they walked, her mind went to the different facts they'd uncovered about this place. Rooms with nothing in them. Blank slates, in the purest sense of the word. Then, terrified scullery maids and cooks, in rooms set out with food, and no masters to eat them. Master. No there was a word with history. And what about the food? So nicely prepared by those who had nothing. A circle of take, and take, with little give. Given a home. But what was a home? For the Doctor, it was a TARDIS. For her... a word. Words that made you think--But wait. Thinking. Maybe that was it.

There was always the chance that this entire building was an imaginary space. Something created in the mind. Maybe even her mind. But no, that was too easy. This place felt real, so someone had to believe in it. Someone, somewhere had faith in this structure, for all its strangeness, and had never questioned the rooms having something in them--thus they had never thought of what might be in them, explaining the emptiness. Yet it was all just a theory. River didn't speak her mind yet, not without proof. She'd wait for what the Doctor had to say.

[Deleted]

"So..." The Doctor prepared to go off on one of his rambles. "We've seen various things that don't fit into the time, we know that all the rooms are definitely real, and yet, I can just sense that there's something out of place. Lurking in the corner of my eye, where I can't see it, where it's hidden away...and the most interesting thing seems to be that robotic suit of armour. Could be a disguise for the machinery, or somewhere where it's been deposited, where the people in this castle would probably never look. Aliens lurking in a castle building robots in secret. But no, given the different rooms, that's unlikely. But there's still something about that robotic suit that makes me want to find out more from it. It can probably talk, we just have to make it." He took a deep breath. "Well, it feels good to let out a huge massive speech about what's going in my mind like that." Then he began to take in their surroundings, and where they were. Again. "And this is where the suit of armour used to be, isn't it?"

[ada]

"Used to?" River looked around. "Must have wandered off." As she looked around, the curly-haired woman realized that somehow, this building must have used teleportation devices. Or perhaps each hallway was a loop, and when you can to the end, you were back at the beginning. Turning around to look at the room one last time, River chose to speak her mind at long last.

"We're in some sort of loop, that much is obvious. something is being hidden." She cleared her throat, walking in a circle around the room. "Now, we can't know why they're being hidden, or what's being hidden. But think back to the maids." She turned dramatically and pointed down the hall, past where the suit of armor had been previously. "A workforce. The perfect workforce. They have been born vassals of their lords, and are willing to serve. So what are they making? Machinery of some sort, surely. Each room points to that, in its own way. There's the ornate furnishings, the workers, the marble rooms: something wants to keep its resources close at hand, without too much questions as to why they're here."

But, that was all she had. River wasn't really sure that what she'd spouted off made sense, but it was what came to mind, and what made sense to her. Maybe she'd figure this out in the end.

[Deleted]

As River was explaining about the loop, the Doctor felt something crawl up his spine. A warning, a sign, telling him that something was wrong. He looked around. There was something wrong. Something that neither he or his wife would want to encounter was here. But he didn't know what. And now he was fighting his own internal battle against his common sense: should they stay here and find out what was happening? No, no, it's too dangerous. Especially for River. He didn't know why, something just told him that it was..."Come on." He turned and headed back to the stairs. "We need to get back to the TARDIS."

[ada]

"What?" She spat out the word. "You can't just leave! There's people trapped here, in some age-old castle, filled to the brim with mysteries, and you're wanting to tail it back to the TARDIS? What's come over you?"

Normally, River wouldn't have been half so emotional, but this was downright weird. He never turned away an anachronistic mystery. And now he was rounding that corner, leaving. River shook her head, following, with a few choice words in mind.
"Doctor if you just run away when something odd pops up, how are you going to go about solving anything? Really, this is completely unlike you. Are you listening to me?" She had a distinct feeling that he wasn't. In fact, River was quite nearly sure of it. She wasn't going to be dragged along like one of this companions. No, she was an equal, just as great as he. Well, of that she wasn't sure, but still she was terribly annoyed. How dare he just expect her to tag along? With a "Hmph" River turned around and walked in the opposite direction. She had her gun, and her with, and she was going to figure this out on her own.

[Deleted]

The Doctor heard everything River said, but he didn't listen. He knew it wasn't like him, but he could also tell it would be stupid to stay here. He just walked on as she went on and on and on. This must be his version of what humans feel like, he supposed, when their wives don't shut up. But she managed to grab his attention when she started turning away. Though he didn't follow her, he looked at her as she was going. "River, I know it's not like me, but there's something bad here. Something that we have to leave alone, I can just sense it. I'm sorry. I want to help these people as much as you, and work everything out, but we can't. Please come back to the TARDIS."

[ada]

Stopping with her back turned, River's shoulder twitched. Was she being talked down to? The Doctor certainly had a lot of gall, and she would have called him back on it too, if it wasn't for the fact that he sounded legitimately worried. After taking a moment to crack her neck, River turned around.
"Fine. I'm coming."
Turning around, River tried to ignore the place she was leaving. The history, the mystery... there was so much raw adventure here. But no matter. She knew the time, the place. She'd come back, if he didn't come with her.

But no, River told herself, he was leaving for a reason. She didn't want to, but River felt it too. There was something dangerous here, something terribly wrong. With one hand, she parted her hair again, and bounded toward the TARDIS. She sighed, coming up next to it, ready to follow him inside.
"Well then, tell me what bad things you're sensing."

[Deleted]

The Doctor sighed in relief when she turned back. "Thank you." He went with her back to the TARDIS and opened the doors. He pulled her in with him. Then, at the last minute, he ran back outside and closed the doors before River could blink and locked them.