thoughtformed | (no subject)

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An alternate reality? Well, it's not the strangest thing I've heard. If we can create technology that enables the user to enter the mind, it does not take any great stretch of imagination to believe that someone has developed the technology to enter other worlds. I may not agree with them on the... fictional nature of my existence, but that is irrelevant at this time. What matters is that I have been brought here, to New Moore, and with no apparent hope of returning to Whispering Rock.

There must be a reason. There is always a reason. I could not gather any information from the minds of these scientists, aside from the fact that they hold fast to their beliefs that we are all fictional. They are severely deluded. Unlike liars who set out with the intention to deceive, those who suffer from delusions genuinely believe the deception themselves. In fact, they believe in it so strongly, it could make a sane person question their own perspective. It is an extremely dangerous state of mind.

But no matter. There is much to learn about this place. I must take care to control my curiosity about these scientists until I know more about the cage in which we have been placed. As interesting a subject as alternate realities may be, I have no particular desire to stay.

Besides, they could at least have given me a lab.

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The Doctor takes a moment to close his eyes and refocus, build up his mental defenses again. He loved new people, but all the same, he hoped it was a while before he met another psychic.

"Yes. Yes, it would seem we do. I think both of our original questions were just answered, but regardless - why don't you come inside the TARDIS? The proper answer to your question is easily found within."

"The TARDIS?" Sasha repeated, looking dubiously at the police box. For all he knew, it could be a trap; but the surest way to find out would have been to read the Doctor's mind, and he wasn't about to try that again. He would just just have to take his chances.

"Alright, then. After you."

The Doctor took another moment, and then all his boisterousness and energy was back, and he grinned. From what Sasha could still feel from him, it was assuredly just an act, but it was one he was very good at. He even occasionally fooled himself.

"All right then. And off we go!" he said cheerfully, as he then spun on the spot and dashed back into the TARDIS.

Strange... and yet, not as strange as some of the people he had met. The ill-fated agent Cruller instantly came to mind. However, unlike Cruller, the Doctor's personality swaps were not the result of an irreparably fractured psyche... at least, not that Sasha knew of, anyway. For all he knew, the Doctor was just a mad man with a box.

"Go? Go where?" he asked, but for some reason found himself following anyway. "Do you intend to leave the island in a police box?"

The Doctor's voice is strangely muffled and distant for someone who should be within a couple feet of Sasha.

"Well, I'd like to, but unfortunately she's grounded. If there's anywhere on the island you'd like to go, though, we can do that."

A box that can travel from one place to another can't even leave the island? Well, that was odd. But to Sasha, the TARDIS' inability to transport them away from New Moore said nothing about the Doctor's failures and everything about the nature of the island. Everyone in this island was being held captive. By what, he didn't know; but it was obviously something powerful. And obviously something that required investigating.

"Very well then," he said, taking hesitant steps towards this mysterious traveling blue box. "Take me elsewhere. The location doesn't matter, as long as we're no longer at the station. I want to see what this 'TARDIS' can..."

And then he stepped inside.

And paused.

And he looked around at the impossibly spacious interior of the TARDIS, complete with more levers, buttons, and panels than could reasonably fit into an ordinary police box. Sasha took another minute to look around before he exited the TARDIS and circled around it, making sure that his mind wasn't playing tricks on him. Nope. It was definitely...

"Bigger on the inside," he thought aloud. Sasha was willing to believe that he was in an alternate reality, trapped by some invisible force on an island. But a box that was bigger on the inside? That was proving to be beyond him.

"Do you like her? She's gorgeous, my old girl. We've been all the way from the beginning to the end of the universe, outside it entirely, and even in alternate realities."

The Doctor grins.

"So, Sasha, does this answer your question?"

"You're a time-traveler," he concluded, although he didn't sound too sure of that. "But no ordinary time-traveler. You have a mind like nothing I've ever seen before. Could it be you've simply seen that much in your travels? No. The level of activity occurring in your brain suggests something more. It's almost... not human."

Finally, it dawns on him. Sasha re-enters the TARDIS.

"What are you?"

"A difficult question, to be sure. How would one simply describe humanity?

I'm a timelord, from the planet Gallifrey. As you noted, I am a time traveler, and I am 909 years old.."

Sasha was slowly coming around to the idea of a non-human entity (that looked very human, but hey, it takes all kinds). A non-human entity being hundreds of years old? And having traveled through all of time and space? That would need more time to process.

For once, all he could do was stand there and look on with an utterly baffled expression; and when he finally spoke, he said...

"I see," in a way that made him feel dumber than he had ever felt before.

The Doctor smiled.

"Don't worry, everyone gets a little overwhelmed at first. It's perfectly understandable - timelord civilization developed billions of years before humans evolved on Earth, and in close proximity to the untempered schism. We're a little ahead of the curve."

"The Untempered Schism...?" he asked, only to retract the question. "Nevermind. I believe that's enough questions for today."

Sasha rubbed his temples with one gloved hand, careful not to let his ever-present sunglasses slip.

"Alright, Doctor. Let's see this TARDIS in action."

The Doctor gives a slightly mischievous grin. "You asked for it."

Ten seconds and a few buttons and levers later, the traditional TARDIS noise is heard as the whole ship shakes and rocks back and forth. Seconds later, it's over.

The Doctor walks over to the Door and opens it. "After you."

Outside, they were on the slopes of the mountain, about a kilometer from the rim of the volcano. They were facing the city far below; it looked tiny compared to the island, which was itself dwarfed by the view of the ocean surrounding them.

Edited 2012-06-20 04:18 (UTC)

No sooner had the TARDIS started making its usual noises than Sasha clung to the nearest thing he could find and braced himself for impact, which... never came? Huh. Well, that was relatively painless.

"Does it always make that noise?" he asked, watching the Doctor cross over to and open the door. Sasha had expected to see another building―maybe the apartments, or some other mundane structure―but when he stepped out and saw that they were looking at New Moore from above...

"Ah," he said, the noise sticking to his mouth even as he uttered it. Sasha knew he was dealing with something he had no knowledge of whatsoever, and he couldn't help feeling like a fool. But even then, he would have been lying if he said he wasn't at all interested in knowing more.

"Every time! Brilliant, isn't she?"

He followed Sasha out, sounding faintly bored with their current surroundings.

"I'm afraid this is about as fantastic as it gets around here. Usually, on a first trip, I'd fly out to the Medusa Cascade or the Pillars of Creation, the formation of the Earth or the year 5 billion on New Earth. But the volcano is about as spectacular as it gets around here - unless you'd like to see the island from even higher?"

New Eart– no. And no more questions. Sasha had a feeling he didn't want to know the answer.

"In a minute, maybe," he replied, straying a few paces away from the TARDIS to look around. As he walked, his cigarette and lighter floated up from out of his coat pocket; once lit, the cigarette rose up to meet his mouth. Only at that point did Sasha bother to put in the effort of lifting a hand to hold it.

Getting a better view of the island could wait. First, he needed a smoke. Badly.

Seeing Sasha lighting a cigarette, the Doctor made a face and walked back into the TARDIS. Seconds later, it was already dematerializing.

"Doctor?"

Sasha looked over his shoulder as he heard the TARDIS whirring away; but by that time, it was practically gone.

"... ah."

Sasha stood there for a second, staring at the empty air once occupied by a blue box. He would have to find some other way back down... after he finished his cigarette.

At the precise moment when Sasha finished smoking his cigarette, the TARDIS began to reappear. How the Doctor knew exactly how long Sasha would be smoking is a mystery.

The Doctor walked out and continued the conversation as if nothing had happened.

"I don't know how you can stand those things," he said, aversion showing clearly on his face like a child forced to eat his vegetables. "What's the point, really? I've never understood it."

Edited 2012-06-20 19:09 (UTC)

Sasha was about to flick his cigarette butt away when he heard the TARDIS return. He had half a mind to make some sort of snide retort about not understanding the point of a bow tie; but in the short time it had taken him to smoke, he'd decided that he would rather not have to walk all the way back to his apartment.

"It soothes me," he said, and made a motion as if to drop the cigarette to the ground. Instead the air caught it, and it drifted over to the mouth of the volcano, where it finally fell to its molten death.

"Now then," he said, casually dropping the previous discussion. "Shall we be on our way?"

The Doctor hopped back into the TARDIS.

"Right, then. A higher view, yes?"

This ride is a bit bumpier, but soon enough it stops and they seem to have landed...

Until the Doctor opened the door once more, revealing that they were "parked", unmoving, about ten kilometers above the surface of the island.

Sasha was a little more used to the movements of the TARDIS this time around, although he still braced himself when they took off... and stopped? Huh.

"It doesn't take this TARDIS of yours long to travel anywhere, does it?" he asked, holding onto the door frame as he peered down at New Moore from the edge. All the while, he couldn't help replaying earlier parts of their conversation, still processing the idea of an ancient Time Lord with the whole of history at his fingertips.

"So, you can't leave the island? Even in the TARDIS?" Sasha almost looked like he was smiling. "How does it feel to have to experience the normal passage of time?"

"No, she's completely grounded by the force field - can't even take off - unless I set the parameters of the universe as the boundaries of this island. And then I obviously can't go further."

By the look on the Doctor's face, it appeared Sasha had hit upon one of the Doctor's current frustrations.

"It's just so... linear! Everything happens in the right order." [Dispairingly.] "I'm never going to get used to it."

He flicks a couple lever in frustration, but then looks up with a smile.

"And time does pass really slowly when you're not having adventures, but there are enough people to meet that I usually have someone to talk to."

Edited 2012-06-21 01:47 (UTC)

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