all-night laundromat blues (backdated to Monday morning)

[cricketycricket]

[Monday morning finds the Doctor stepping out of the TARDIS to go and get the milk for his morning tea, journal tucked under his arm...

only, the moment he steps out, he's surprised to realize that he isn't parked in his own room, any longer, but the laundry room. as he turns to go back in and move the TARDIS back to where it belongs -- it dematerializes without him, leaving him standing there perplexed in his pajamas and slippers]

Oh, dear. ... What's that all about, then, old girl? You've never done that before ...


((OOC: Loss involvement start! Five will be trapped here with Joshua until Wednesday!))

Comments

[ofhope]

Oh, so you're the one. Lucky me.

[cricketycricket]

"The one"? [he frowns a little, thoughtfully] I'm afraid I don't completely follow ... though I am beginning to have a bit of an idea ...

[he looks up at the ceiling, chagrinned. this isn't really as funny as you surely think it is, Paradisa]

[ofhope]

Try the door. Read the journal. Figure it out, I'm a little tired of explaining.

[ Back to his book and his cookies. ]

[cricketycricket]

[how wude, Joshua. but he will indeed try that door, conveniently expending a bit of frustration in his efforts to get it open. yes. decidedly trapped. he sighs resignedly, then upturns a laundry basket and sits down]

… still interested in stories, I see.

[ofhope]

[ Peeking out over hisbook. ]

This one's non-fiction, but I was reading a magazine earlier that had some fun stories.

[cricketycricket]

Perhaps I could just tell you a few. It'd pass the time for both of us, at least...

[and maybe he'll be able to glean something in the process. anything.]

[ofhope]

...Are they going to be interesting?

[ Because otherwise you can shut your face right now sir. ]

[cricketycricket]

I've been traveling time and space for nine hundred years now. Of course they'll be interesting.

[don't insult him, mang]

[ofhope]

[ Well, his interest is piqued. He hasn't lowered the book, but he's listening. ]

[cricketycricket]

Let's see. ... Shall I tell you about Castrovalva, the city that folded in on itself and shouldn't have existed? Or perhaps the spacetime wormhole that brought a Concorde jet airplane and a few dinosaurs to a distant planet ...

[ofhope]

Castrovalva.

trufax: most of my favorite icons are from this ep

[cricketycricket]

Alright. [he settles in, and thinks for a moment before beginning]

Castrovalva was really a lovely place - a citadel set on a rather high, steep cliff jutting out of a vast green forest. It was the sort of thing you see in fairy books, you know? All austere and serene, picture-perfect. ... Though, if you ask me, they could have done with a better path up to the top. I had to climb up the rock face with my bare hands - and me suffering regeneration sickness, at that ...

[ofhope]

What was it like inside? Were there any traps?

[cricketycricket]

Yes and no, actually, and that's the curious part. It's the sort of place that was absolutely idyllic ... the inhabitants didn't believe in violence in the least ... the only reason they still even hunted game was almost ritualistic, a way to keep themselves in shape. They put more value on knowledge and the fostering of a common good ... most accomodating people, down to the last man and woman.

It's the sort of thing that one appreciates immensely, until one realizes that ... that's not generally how things are supposed to work in the natural order of things ...

[ofhope]

[ Resting his book in his lap. ]

Were they brainwashed?

[cricketycricket]

In a way. Sort of. The entire place was a spacetime fabrication, brought about by a sophisticated means of technology called a Block Transfer Computation... one of my oldest enemies had constructed it as a trap for me and my companions.

So ... really, by the end of it, none of the people were completely real - all just figments. It was a pity, too - they really were lovely people.

[ofhope]

You mean you were inside a computer? How is that possible? You'd have to shrink way down!

[ His knowledge of technology is so limited okay, he barely knows how to use a computer and cellphone. ]

[cricketycricket]

Oh, nono. It -- you see, Block Transfer Computations work on a much larger scale, they effect the physics of reality itself. If one constructs something with a Block Transfer Computation, as long as the machine itself remains intact and the connection live, everything constructed is as real as you and I.

Once it's destroyed, however, it all folds in and collapses.

[ofhope]

So it's like a dream that can kill you.

[cricketycricket]

[he considers that, at length] A waking dream, yes. ... I do have to hand it to the Master in that regard ... creating a place that I thought would help me to heal, but in reality, was designed to obliterate me. He really does -- did -- have his moments of cleverness.

[ofhope]

Waking dream. I have those a lot.

The Master is your arch-nemesis? That name sounds cliché and not intimidating at all.

[cricketycricket]

Do you? ... Is it because of ... [he gestures vaguely to his forehead. DO THE HORNS DO THINGS TO YOUR BRAIN, BOY?]

Yeeeees, well, he chose it himself, I certainly tried to tell him it was ridiculous.

[ofhope]

[ Joshua just raises an eyebrow at that question, not quite getting it. It's normal for him. Isn't it normal for everybody? Oh well everybody sucks. ]

That doesn't sound like a very convincing speech. I would have chosen the other side, too, if that was all you offered me.

[cricketycricket]

[quietly] Believe me, it wasn't all I offered him. But I suppose by that point he was too far gone, too overwhelmed, to even consider it all rationally. .... Seeing all of time and space at once can do that to a soul.

[ofhope]

Not something I would know about. Is seeing a lot supposed to drive you crazy?