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Alex Reagan didn't have a coffee problem! She didn't. Okay, maybe she had a little of a coffee problem. But then again most people would if they hadn't had a good night sleep in three years. And they lived in Seattle, which was the coffee center of the world. Still, Alex is remarkably good at both makeup and dealing with her lack of sleep after all this time. But even then she's phased when there's the sound of a crashing, and a blue box literally just... crashlands in front of her.

"Oh my god!" The woman's voice is radio ready and distinctive, and still laced with a bit of her Canadian accent.

The blue box, whatever it is, misses the Pacific Northwest Stories studio, thank goodness, and seems to also miss every building on the street, but it's still there directly in front of her. Directly in front of her and everyone else around on the busy downtown street seems to be ignoring it. Thankfully for whoever was inside anyway, Alex Reagan, tiny and annoyingly persistent reporter, was never quite good at ignoring things that she really rather should. Seriously, she'd spent the last nearly three years working on a podcast that was full of things that she should actually have avoided.

Too late now though, and Alex has never been very good at listening to anything close to common sense, so still holding onto her coffee (a girl has to have priorities, and it's early enough in the day that her first reflex isn't to reach for the audio recorder that's practically an appendage in and of itself). Running towards the box, Alex quickly pushed on the door shouting, "is anyone in there?"

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Uh. Okay. That was. New. And something. Or Something else honestly. For a long moment Alex just watched as the three people and large quantity of smoke came out of the blue box, her eyebrows moving practically up into her hairline. Three people coming out of a smoking box and talking about how not good it was meant that Alex of course needed to attempt to look through the smoke before the door closed. Even if she couldn't see anything.

But the question wasn't even the weirdest one that she'd been asked this week (thanks Simon, actual stalkery mass murderer and escaped mental patient who has an obsession) so she's actually quite quick to answer it. "I'm afraid not. Seattle doesn't exactly agree with letting people carry around long swords and mirrored shields." The sword might be something that she could find in the Strand house, but that was forty-five minutes away, and he would argue with her that this wasn't happening.

"Why do we need them?" And it definitely was a we now, because there was no way Alex Reagan would ever walk away from something like this.

"Seattle, yes, wonderful place."

"Wait," Rory said, "Seattle as in America? We're in America now?"

Amy shook her head. "Forget that," she turned to Alex. "We?"

"We, yes, lovely word, come along Ponds, and you," he said to Alex. "I think we'll need a propper shop, some place where we could buy things, and maybe even stuff, if we're lucky. and I'm sorry, I didn't catch the year?" As if he was going to say "your name," but nope, said year.

Okay. Maybe this conversation was one of the crazier this week. Or at the very least the people involved seem to be. But when the tall ginger said week, Alex drew herself up to her full height (even if the Scottish girl did have ten inches on her) and nodded. Having spent the last three years with the most frustrating and annoying person she had ever met, Alex wasn't one to be pushed off by any means. And she just reiterated, "we."

But then onto the questions. "Uh, it's 2017. The end of August. And we're near Pike's Place market. If you need something that'd be the place to look I think. But I've never seen anyone there that sells swords that are actually swords and not like fan pieces." A beat, and she just reached into her pocket because yeah, she's a reporter. "Why do you need a sword, anyway."

"Oh no bother about the sword, thought we might have been in Greece is all, any biss of mirror will do for us, just don't look them in the eyes, look anywhere but the eyes, and always look at them. Always."

Amy, got a look in her eye. "2017, you said?" She stalked up to the Doctor who was suddenly walking more swiftly. "Twenty SEVENTEEN, Doctor. Two Zero One Seven. No one will miss us you said, back in five minutes you said. Between you and her and you can't be on time for anything, can you?"

He turned, tapped a finger against her lips lightly. "Calm down now Pond, no one's missed you yet, still be back for biscuits and cake. You'll see, could hardly have expected that to be crawling around by the pool now can I have?"

She narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms, unmoved.

Rory was smart enough not to get in the middle of this, thanks.

Yep, she's recording this. You're welcome. She's also going to clear her throat because honestly what in the world is going on right now. "Okay, hold on a second. How do you have a pool in the box? Is it like TANIS and is bigger on the inside? And two: what exactly is crawling around by the pool?" Alex is pretty fast when she walks now, because she's got to keep up with everyone having longer legs than she does, and she's definitely not being left out of the story here.

Even if no one is going to believe her (Strand) when she's done. Alex is still going to have it on tape.

"I have a compact mirror in my bag," she adds after a beat, because of course she does. "Anything bigger might be a bit hard to find and be mobile. Most of the stores that would carry something like that around here are antique, or extremely overpriced, so they're heavy too."

"Not so much worried about the money," he said to her, though he did notice the recording device. "And what is that, does it take photos and videos too, or just sound? And that's pronounced Tardis, actually, not Tanis. Time And Relative Dimension In Space. And we'll need mirrors a bit bigger than your compact if we're to trap it. The problem is, once we do, what," he asked walking from Amy to spin on her, "do we do with it? It's just one alone, hard to lock it in a quantum state unless one of us is immortal and very much enjoys boredom and staring contests. Not yet met anyone like that, have you?"

"TARDIS? No, I meant TANIS. The bigger on the inside dimensional cabin in the woods?" Alex just blinks a bit, because her friend got sort of locked in it for five days last year. But Nic is going to lose it when I tell him that there's something like it that moves." Even if technically Tanis does move. Just... not very often and all of that. Even though she produces Nic's show, it's not something that she gets involved with very often. She's got her own stuff going on.

However, she is going to remind him. "I still don't know what 'it' is. So no, not really, I don't have any ideas. Also it's audio. I'm Alex Reagan, I work for PNWS." Which is actually kind of a big deal, even if she's thrown her journalism ethics away and people think she's a nut because she believes in demons and the like. "It's not a demon is it?"

Please, please, please let it not be a demon.

The Ponds might be staring a bit. "Doctor, how does she know about the Tardis?" Amy asked. "Another friend you've not told us about?"

"I have lots of friends, loads, really, Pond. Get around a bit, I do, but you heard clear as day she said Tanis not Tardis. She knows about Tanis. Lovely place that, must visit some day, but other things first!" He clapped his hands, rubbing them together at the thought that this girl might know more than she was saying. After that mess with House, there was hope that maybe somehow a good one survived, possibly. But even not, he'd take the Master at this point now that the bug to find the others is in him.

"Now, sorry you were leading weren't you?" He asked swinging one arm around Amy's shoulder's and the other round Alex as a thought occurred to him. Nasty thought. Bit of a thought. Wonderful thought, but tricky. Would explain so much though, maybe Tanis wasn't a clue about others, but about himself. One never did know with regenerations, and if this was River before Mels or after being River... no before Mels. Must be. She'd have given some clue if it was otherwise by now, wouldn't she? Maddening she was, must get it from her mum, she certainly didn't get it from her husband.

So he might have been playing it up a drop more than usual as he answered her question. "No, of course it isn't s demon. Demons are easy, and why is it always Demons with Humans anyway? Anything scary must be a Demon. Demons can be talked to, reasoned with. They can even be killed, though I'd druther not if we can avoid that. We're not talking about anything so easy as Demons. We're talking about creatures that can't ever be killed, all hunger, only ever got to talk with one once and it had to kill someone to use their voice. Nasty bit of work, not that anyone remembers him anymore but Pond and I." And River, depending on when she was. Was this how River got that phrasing? Ohh, he did love loops like that. Time's little gifts to him. The only psychopaths in the universe to kill you gently, well, they kill most people gently, can't say much for those who've had snapped necks, but best not to think on that, not how they kill to feed and this one's hungry, has got to be, trapped in the library as it's been. See, no, not a Demon. As I said, Demons are easy. This is worse. So much worse. We've got to figure out how to stop an Angel." Deep dramatic moment, and without so much as a pause for breath he's back to eager puppy, "This will be the shop then?"

Edited 2018-11-10 05:05 (UTC)

Alex is just going to frown very very hard. Quite hard in fact. If Nic was around, Nic would call it the 'what did Strand do now' frown, but she's making it for multiple reasons, even as she's keeping up with them, and keeping her hand on her recorder. "I honestly wouldn't want to go to TANIS, it's not..." A beat and she finally settled on, "good. It's not good." Because honestly, it was very much not a good.

However, Alex's pale skin is going to get a bit more pale as he keeps talking about demons. Demons are the thing that Alex fears the most in the universe, and she's got good reason to. She may or may not have helped bring about the end of the world. Or Strand will do it in Geneva if they go. "...They actually can't though. Demons." Alex is going to stand her ground for a minute. "And they're trying to take over the world. It may be easy to you, but they're definitely not easy." She may have spent the last year trying to figure out how to stop them. But nothing so far.

"An angel." She's just going to give it as a statement rather than a question, because this entire time she's wondered where the angels were while they were dealing with all these demons and Tiamat and sacred geometry. "This is the shop. And if you need a mirror, couldn't you just do two mirrors and do the reflection thing where it's like reflected back forever?"

He decided to tackle that last first, because what fun was there in doing things in order. "Could, sure, except the first time a good breeze moves some leaves, or an earthquake, or someone moves the mirror and the Angel is free. No what we need! Ah! A helm! An Angel in a helm!"

Amy groaned. "You are going to make a helmet... for a Weeping Angel?"

He nodded. "It'll be brilliant."

"Doctor..." she said carefully. "Where are your tools?"

"Back on the... well, I've got the Sonic."

"Yes, yes you have, Can you weld with it?" she asked, voice firm and challenging.

"Um," Rory said, "Not sure you weld mirrors...."

"Not helping," she said sharply, not looking away from the Doctor. Her hands were up on his face, keeping him looking at her. "Doctor, this isn't Prisoner Zero, this is an Angel. There was an Angel in my room at that hotel. You are going to take this seriously, aren't you?"

"Oh, Pond." He pulled his atms free of the girls to put his hands over Amy's. "Of course I am taking this seriously, as seriously as I take everything."

"Oh great. we're doomed. Again," Rory muttered under his breath.

"Doctor, I mean it. You promised we'd be back before anyone noticed we're missing, we've a house full of guests for our anniversary. If either of us get killed or sent back in time or anything like that I will not easily forgive you."

"If we even get to remember it this time," Rory muttered.

This time Amy didn't pretend not to hear him. "If you're going to help, help."

"Pond," The Doctor said before Rory could say or do anything. "Ponds. I made you a promise, and I'll keep it." He kissed her forehead. "You're not the only one who would never forgive me, now are you?" he asked, and nodded his head back to Alex a bit.

She frowned, caught on, frowned deeper. "Doctor, are you sure?"

"Not a bit," he said, kissing her forehead one more time, before pulling her hands away gently. He was grinning like an idiot. "Alright, so we'll find some other way to get a helmet on the Angel, drop it somewhere no one will be for a while.... I could always... no wait, that one hasn't happened yet, and they've enough problems till we show up. Nevermind, first we catch the Angel then drop it somewhere. Then a quick pop to Tanis, that beach I promised you, then back for cake and no one the wiser."

He grinned back at Alex. "And Demons can. Besides, if they're only trying to take over the world that's not a crisis. That's a Tuesday, or is it a Wednesday?"

He let go of Amy's hands to put a finger in his mouth. He popped it out and held it up. "Ah. Monday. Ahead of schedule then! Come along, let's see what the shop has for us, shall we?"

Edited 2018-11-10 05:38 (UTC)

Okay. Alex is just starting to pass this entire thing off as that she's just randomly fallen asleep in her office again. Because there's no way that it can be real because some of those sentences are just... not sounding like words to her at this point. She's still recording however, because even in a dream Alex Reagan's gotta Alex Reagan.

"Mirrored helmet? I mean there's always like a disco ball. It's already mirrored and round. I don't think we want a store. I think we want to go to a glassblower shop. There is one here, because there's literally everything here." That was part of the charm of Seattle, the charm and the complete overwhelmingness of how strange things could be.

But nothing was as strange as the look between the man and the woman and the way he looked at her. "I am definitely missing something." It's not a question, however. It's a statement of determination: Alex is going to get to the bottom of whatever it was and there wasn't anything that was going to stand in her way. She was also going to argue with him about demons later. Because demons.

"Yes, like a disco ball, exactly, picture a disco ball, but inside out, and big enough for a head and all the mirrors are... no wait, that's rubbish, forget the disco ball."

Amy sighed and looked at Alex, if this was her daughter then this was before she knew all of this and it was time to act like a mother, since she never got the chance to, not while knowing it. And if this wasn't Melody then it was someone who needed answers anyway.

"Weeping Angels. You know those statues in graveyards? Tall Angels, hands over their faces, that always seem to move but never when you're looking at them? Those are them. Except that when they're hungry, they do more than just freak people out. The kill them. Mostly, according to the Doctor, they touch you and send you back in time. Make you live to death."

"They feed on the time energy that remains, all the days you would have had left in your own time stream, it's just dessert to them, big old time sunday with a cherry of misery on top." He started looking at the shops. "There was a time I'd have loved little shops like this, couldn't resist them. That was back around the first time I ran into the Angles." He glanced back at Amy and Rory. "Odd enough now that I think of it, that was late sixties America too. Moon launch in fact."

Amy and Rory exchanged a look, both getting a bit grimmer if that were possible.

"Anyway, right," The Doctor said, turning to Alex again. "Thing is. They're fast. Wait, Is there a DVD shop around, I can make this a bit easier..."

Alex is just going to stare at Amy as she explained, her eyes going even wider. "Well, at least it's not the weirdest thing I've ever heard." Angels from graveyards that move. Welp, she definitely couldn't wait to inform Richard of that. But there's other things that she needs to focus on right now. However, she can't help but to ask: "do they show up on tape?" The device in her hand doesn't do video, it's not equipped for that, but Alex Reagan always carries a fully charged cellphone and spare charger, just in case. One never knows when they might need it.

Besides, Alex Reagan would record the apocalypse when it happened; it would only really be the end if she stopped recording.

"How fast are we talking? And there's a used DVD shop a few places over. That'd be the only place to get them probably." No one really had DVDs in 2017; everything was Bluray, but that wasn't what he asked for. And then because it just needed to be said, she looked to the Ginger woman again. "You guys know you're seriously not making a whole lot of sense right?"

"He generally doesn't," Rory said.

"We just kind of get used to it," Amy said with a shrug.

The Doctor gave them a sour look, then headed for the DVD shop. "Good, couldn't remember when Earth moved away from discs. DVDs will be perfect, I can explain everything with a DVD a remote, and a screen." He stopped walking to face Alex. "Never take a photo or video of an angel. Never. That's just what they want, see? That's how we got in this jam in the first place, after all."

"Ah, Doctor, isn't that bit spoilers?" Amy asked, looking pointedly at Alex.

"Yes, well, simple answer for that, Pond. This isn't River."

Amy just stared at him. "But you just said..."

"Yes, but now I know. Not River. No gun." He grinned Alex. "Thank you for not shooting everything, though it might have made things a bit more and less complicated if you were the sort. Right!" he clapped his hands, the reached into his pocket and pulled out a list printed in the center of an otherwise clear paper. "We'll need one of these DVDs and a place to watch it. Oh! Probably should check on Sally, in case she had any more that she didn't share with me." HJe meant photos now, not DVDs.

Amy was rubbing at her face.

"My name is Alex," she said because whoever this River was, she definitely was not. Nope, just plain old Alex Reagan, possible end of the world causer and winner of one of the best podcasts of 2015. That was her claim to fame, and her face skewed up tightly at the mention of a gun. "I don't do guns." Guns were an American thing, and Alex Reagan was definitely not an American in this instance.

But she does take a look at the DVD list, reading it upside down and frowning. Well, okay. That was weird, because she's... "I've seen this before. It's got the weird bit in the middle, right?" And she's going to go very still for a second, the memory and the confusion on her quite expressive going into acceptance and realization. "Oh my god." She tends to say that a lot, actually. So, she says it once more for good measure.

"Oh my god, Nic made me watch that for when I was producing Tanis." Before demons ate her life a bit. "The English guy with the glasses and all of the spaces, right? He talked about 'the angels have the phonebox.' Nic wears that shirt all the time." But also focusing. Sort of, she's got to get in, "wibbly wobbly timey wimey? I say it when I need to drive Richard nuts." Richard Strand hates that. So she loves it when he's being annoying.

"Okay. I believe you." Alex was a believer, so of course she did. "Now what?"

"Ah good, saves me a bit of time then, yes. The phonebox would be my Tardis, and they did have it, but good for us they couldn't get in and there were four of them. Problem is, now there is only one and it is already in. The old girl's holding her at bay for now, but we need to bring her a bit of help. So! No mirrored sword, no tool, no... Oh that's a bit of nasty, what do you lot think would happen if the Angel touched one of the cubes, do you think?" he asked, but put a finger to Alex's lips. "Not you though you already know don't you? Taking all the fun out of the mystery, but we're still on it, don't worry. Ponds. Angels. Cubes. What do you think?"

"At a guess?" Amy asked dryly, "The Tardis would crash land a few years ahead and in America."

"Huh. Right. Well then. Maybe."

Alex is just going to cross her eyes to look at the finger on her mouth, something that many, many many people have probably wanted to do, but didn't. Yet anyway. Give Nic some time and he might try it. Or Richard. He'd probably cheer that someone did that to her. Instead, however, she's just going to pull her head away and frown at him. "I honestly have no idea what you're talking about but you can't be the same guy because he definitely was not you."

After all, Alex may be slightly predisposed to tall men wearing glasses and suits. Just a little bit. The smallest bit.

"What happened to the mirrored helmet idea? I thought you came here to melt DVDs, actually, because they're malleable and mirrored too. It'd be easy to make a helmet out of them, right, Ponds?" A beat and she just looked between them, her expression a little shrewd as she was putting pieces together. They were married, there was no doubt of that, but the other man wasn't, even if he was in charge.

And then she's just going to ask: "is Doctor like a title or something?" Alex can be slightly bad about staying on task. Occasionally.

"Regenerations, tricky business that. That was me when I was a bit younger." He considered, "and a good deal older."

"Wait... you're on a DVD?" Amy asked, distracted "As a previous regeneration? Can I see?"

"Later, Pond, priorities." He straightened his bow tie. Ht then turned to Alex. "Melting DVDs. Good idea, brilliant either. But won't work. Angels are Quantum Locked. They can't move when any living thing can see them, if something can look at them, then they're stone. Can't help it any more than you can help having one heart and weird taste in clothes."

"This? From the man in a bowtie," Amy said crossing her arms.

"Right, Rory, remind me to get a fez while we're shopping."

"I like remaining married, thanks all the same, Doctor," Rory said, dryly.

"Now, problem with melting down DVDs is that they're not reflective enough, too much distortion, melt them down and you just have a big datay mess. A soup of files and images. Mirrored helm is still our best bet, but you lot, you humans, you take so long to make anything, so we need something faster, another idea. What we need is a plan, a brilliant wonderful stunning plan that will stop the Angel short."

"A...fez? Really?" Okay, Alex is going to make a face at that because honestly: who in the heck wears a fez. Even if (or maybe especially if) he was a very old (or young? it was confusing) time traveller. Person. If he was a person. She didn't think that he felt very much like one at the moment.

The hope is evident in her voice when she asks: "do you happen to have a brilliant, wonderful stunning plan that will stop the Angel short like trapping it in a funhouse or something?" Because honestly if she was the only person who noticed the crashing TARDIS, then she didn't want to think how many people wouldn't notice the Angel on the loose.

Or how many people would video it to send it into her podcast for Strand's million dollar reward. That seemed like it would be very bad indeed.

"A fun house! See, this is why I love you humans, always thinking, always brilliant. Forget the helmet, what about a box of mirrors. Mirrors on all sides all closed in, great mirrored doors we close up once it is in. Then we can drop it on any uninhabited planet that doesn't have much for tectonic motion.Buy us a few thousand years that way at least." He kissed her on the forehead, grinning like the lunatic he seemed to be.

Alex is used to coming up with ideas and having people in her life immediately tell her how far-fetched or insane that they were. To be fair, they were about conspiracies and demons before the whole conspiracies and demons actually came up, but the point was that it was pretty constant in her life so validation is really nice. She beams with it, even if she looks a bit confused at the forehead kiss from someone who 1. isn't human, and 2. she doesn't really know. But right now she's going with it.

"Okay, so do you know where we can find a box like that? I mean maybe the Georgetown carnival, but how would we get it there?"

"Oh, I'd hardly think they'd let us borrow it if they had it. But this we could build." Or... nah, calling Unit was too easy. Too safe. Sure they'd come with tools and people to do the building, but then they'd have questions, which were fine, but they'd want to keep the Angel, which was not.

"So! Lumber, mirrors, Nails. Ni. Scratch that. Metal. No wood, can't do wood." He saw Amy open her mouth, "Not a word, Pond. So. What we need...." he looked around all the shops then grinned. "Junkyard."

Building something like this didn't seem like it was exactly doable to her, but she wasn't going to do much arguing with it. Instead she's just going to tuck her recorder under her chin and pull out her phone. Given Richard's assistant's penchant for reclaimed and recycled things, she shot a quick test. Thankfully, Ruby responded quickly, and Alex relayed the information. "There's a reclaimed lot like ten minutes away. Probably more useful than a junkyard considering how much we recycle here. But I honestly have no idea how we're going to get the thing back to your TARDIS."

There's a beat before Alex added, "I drive a subaru."

"Oh, getting it to the Tardis isn't going to be so hard, though it will be uncomfortable unless we build ourselves a platform under...." Oh! Oh! Yes, that was the way then. "I might have managed a little something as we were leaving, so getting back is no problem so long as the Angel hasn't started feasting on the old girl. Lead on, then!"

"And if the Angel has started 'feasting on the old girl?'" One can actually hear the quotes in her voice as she says them, but she does start leading them back towards her car, typing out a message to Nic while she is. Oh, she's not telling him what she's doing, she's just saying she's not going to be in today. Just in case. He assumes she's getting some sleep.

Everyone always assumes she's getting some sleep.

But she looks to Rory and Amy, "is it always like this?" Because she thought her life was difficult with the not sleeping and the demons and the possible end of the world and the whole arch nemesis thing.