roll away your stone, I'll roll away mine

[cricketycricket]

[this afternoon's tea break finds Five in the TARDIS Cloister Room, parts and notes strewn about on the worktable. Tardy's gnawing away intently at a discarded bit of wire casing, so every now and then there's a contented, subdued "vworp" over the journals. setting aside the notes he was perusing, Five sips at his tea, then pulls the journal over within reach for a few filters]

[Filtered to Scientists With Access to the Old Patrol HQ, and anyone who's helping York & Allen with the Cryostasis]

Good afternoon ... I was hoping I might have your ear for a moment. I'm in the process of helping York develop a cryostasis system for those who - well, for lack of a more polite term - are temporarily dead. We've designs on using the old basement headquarters as a location for the equipment ... and I wanted to make sure there were no objections before we started converting some of the laboratory space. If you've questions, you can certainly direct them to myself or York.

Thank you for your time, and have a lovely day.
[/Filter]

[Kat]

Doing alright, then, I hope?

[/Kat]

You know, I've been thinking a lot lately, about these newer developments to the way our friend the Castle has been handling things. [he says "friend" neutrally enough, so that people can take it whichever way they please - ironically or not so much so.] Three years in one spot, in one linear timestream, is more than enough time to observe patterns of behaviour, and while most of them are still quite the same as when I arrived, I'm beginning to notice some rather marked changes. And I'm not just talking about those of us who've been shuffled off to other places and made to temporarily think they've lived there all their lives, either ... though that's certainly relevant. No, this ties in more to the concept of our souls as fuel, and how it might explain the shift in patterns.

[he sighs, gathering his thoughts together so that he can try and put them forth in a way that as many people will understand as possible] What if ... let's posit something else for a moment, shall we?

What if the castle's need for our energy and support comes not from a hunger, as we've hypothesized, but from some actual condition? In that case, the spirit of your average resident, as it were, is not fuel so much as it's ... a sort of remedy. A medicine. With that slight shift in perspective, I give you the following. Those of you who are medical professionals, or even slightly familiar with prolonged illnesses that require any sort of treatment, will know that after a while, the body becomes accustomed to some sorts of remedies, and they either become less useful, or completely ineffective. This could certainly explain why some stay here longer than others ... and it could also account for the sudden shifts in the castle's behaviour.

Put simply: given enough time, none of us may be as effective as we once were in meeting the needs of this place. Our collective clock may be ticking.

[one glance at James' copy of the letter from Libet is enough to tell him what to say next.]

And I'm not entirely sure I want to find out what happens if it stops. If worse comes to worse ... we may have to stop thinking of Paradisa as an adversary.

[Paradisa]

... Though it would be nice if you'd weigh in on the subject, just the once. I'm trying to think of all involved, here. That was quite the little stunt you pulled on Sunday. It's certainly not going to win you any points, if that's what you're hoping for.

[/Paradisa]

Comments

filter

[builds]

We've got labs in the basement?

filter

[save_the_souls]

Fifth Doctor? You're helping out too?

Filter forever

[whichwayyoulean]

Well, that sure solves the space problem.

Fifth Doctor;

[unnaturalpause]

[He's supposed to be playing dead but can't help talking about this. Because it's partly why he's out in the Dead Zone and just thinking.]

Most see the castle as a magical item, an artifact of some sort. Or at least that is the impression I have been getting, for your, idea to have merit Doctor the castle itself would have to be a living organism of some sort, would it not?

Fifth Doctor

[courageous_wit]

That's certainly an interesting new theory.

[inafadingcrown]

I do not take kindly to being used, whether it be for nourishment or a remedy. Paradisa has made itself an adversary, regardless of its intent. The only question that remains is how it is best dealt with. [Meaning she's not above pacifying it. But it remains an enemy.]

Filter

[encryptedlock]

Thanks for putting that out there. Hope it won't be long before we have things working.

Like it's developing a resistance to us, you think? But if we're a treatment, what's the disease--or, more importantly, how do we treat the root cause instead of the symptoms?

[cheerupemoborg]

What leads you to think this? It could simply be a change in appetite.

After all, who wants the same thing, over and over again?

Fifth Doctor

[inmylight_commander]

A lot better today then I was this past weekend. You? [A little tentatively, she's remembering their conversation from the camp as being somewhat ... odd.]

[cricketycricket]

Ah! Mr. Stark. I was hoping I might make your acquaintance again. Excellent. Yes, hello, laboratories, yes. In the basement. Quite sophisticated ones, though I'm afraid Dr. Brennan focused mostly on forensics in her studies. ... And you'll be wanting your suit back, I should think.

[cricketycricket]

I'm afraid it's just Doctor at this point, Allen, I'm the last of myself left. [he says it resignedly enough, though]

But yes, I am. York's a very dear friend, and when he put out the call, I couldn't help but answer.

[cricketycricket]

I should hope it does. As long as anyone who might still use the space agrees, of course. Does that mean you'll be helping us?

James, to end

[cricketycricket]

[ah, so there you are. he'd wondered, when he heard Helen was back. but he'll casually slide that into the conversation later, when he least expects it. like he does]

I've never seen it as anything but a living entity of its own, actually.

Hermione, to end

[cricketycricket]

[pleased] You see? I told you I'd think about it. ... What do you think of it?

[cricketycricket]

Believe me, nor do I. Never have. [it's part of why he left Gallifrey, after all, and why he won't be President there for all the tea in China, or leader of any Patrol of sorts again for all the wishes in Paradisa]

But it does need to be dealt with, and if we need to take a different tack in understanding it to deal with things properly and protect one another ... well, so be it, I say.

To end!

[cricketycricket]

But of course, York. All for one, and all that, after all.

I was thinking more that it's reacting to our building up a resistance to it. But that's more or less the same idea. If we can figure out why, exactly, it needs us - what we power, concretely ...

[cricketycricket]

[coolly] Oh, I don't know. Spiders have been known to do quite well with flies.

Kat

[cricketycricket]

[he's so relieved to hear from her, she has no idea] Much the same, really. Though ... I owe you an apology for the last time we spoke. Paradisa's sense of timing with its losses is as ill-conceived as ever.

[inafadingcrown]

On that we agree. It would be a poor leader indeed, who treated all threats as one.

[cricketycricket]

Indeed. How did that go ...? Ah, yes. "When the only tool you use is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail".

Fifth Forever

[inmylight_commander]

Is that what it was? I was very confused at the time. [She still has moments of odd confusion now.]

[cricketycricket]

And I only served to make that worse, I'm sure. ... I really am sorry, Kat. For an entire month, I couldn't remember any of my time here. It was as though I'd left and come back. So we were very nearly in the same boat.

[inmylight_commander]

You don't have to apologize for the castle's interference. I'm just glad you're here. [Considering, now that she had more of her memories back, she's more aware of the Eleventh Doctor's absence.]

[cricketycricket]

[everyone is, in their own way. he's definitely missed. ... Tardy takes that particular moment to gnaw on the corner of the page]

Oh, shoo, we've discussed this time and again. Not for parrots, go on, off with you.

VWORP.

[sigh] Thank you, then. For understanding. ... I trust York's told you who else is here, now? South, and ... oh, the other fellow, with the AI. Wyoming, was it? You know, sometimes I wonder if we'll eventually have all fifty states here.

[inafadingcrown]

[That earns a little chuckle.] Quite.

The question then becomes, naturally, how we are to determine the true nature of the problem.