thoughtformed | (no subject)

"Quite so. You're on a roll; next you'll be asking me to teach you to fly the TARDIS!"

The Doctor laughs, looking forward to Arthur's reaction to the cordial.

When Arthur drinks it, he'll find the passage of time - not slow, precisely, but become clear, as if he can see each millisecond creeping past. Looking around, he'll sense that everything is in flux; he'll be extremely aware of the endless possibilities based on the choices everyone would make, and he'll sense all those possibilities collapsing into their reality as each choice is made.

Edited 2012-07-09 08:40 (UTC)

"... Could you teach me how to fly the TARDIS?"

He's only half joking, but he grins and takes a sip of the cordial, instantly becoming very, very still. His eyes glaze over for a moment, then he blinks and shakes his head abruptly.

"... Whoa."

"Maybe. It would take a while, of course, but then I suppose you and I have got time to spare."

The Doctor continues to smile wildly as he sees Arthur's reaction.

"There, now you know a little about how I feel all the time! This is how I see the universe.

It's too bad we don't have anything terribly interesting to look at right now, temporally speaking."

Arthur can't do much else but sit there feeling like he might shatter if he stands up. It's not the kind of thing someone like him was ever meant to see, though it does remind him rather keenly of several trips he went on in the 1980s.

"Bloody hell, Doctor.."

For a long moment, he stares at the man as if he gained an entirely new-found respect for him.

"... How do you live like this and not go completely sodding insane?"

"And who says I'm not?"

Then, much more seriously -

"Because that's who I am. My people evolved over billions of years of exposure to the time vortex, the untempered schism. I can't imagine seeing the universe any other way."

"Oh, come now--"

Arthur knows a crazy person when he sees one, having been one himself at one point, and he wouldn't believe for a moment that the Doctor was insane. Of course, he could be a whole different level of crazy..

The explanation is satisfactory though, and he nods, then shakes his head again as the effects of the cordial slowly begin wearing off. He'll take a moment, he thinks, before he tries it again.

"What was Gallifrey like?"

The Doctor looks up at that, gazing into the distance as if he could still see it.

"They used to call it the Shining World of the Seven Systems. The sky's a burnt orange. And on the continent of Wild Endeavour, in the mountains of Solace and Solitude, there stood the Citadel of the Time Lords - enclosed in a mighty glass dome, shining under the twin suns. The oldest and most mighty race in the universe. Looking down on the galaxies below - sworn never to interfere, only to watch.

Oh, you should have seen it, that old planet - the second sun would rise in the south, and the mountains would shine. The leaves on the trees were silver. When they caught the light every morning, they lit the forest on fire. Beyond that, the mountains go on forever. Slopes of deep red grass, capped with snow. "

He watches the Doctor in silence as he speaks, slowly rotating his glass on the table in front of him. Arthur has always had a weakness for being told stories like this, right back into his childhood, and he rests his chin lightly on one palm while he's given the description of the Doctor's home planet. It was something he couldn't ever remember really being that heavily touched upon in the show itself, save for in references to the Time War, and to hear it described with such a tone of longing..

Arthur sighs, gently, and gives a small nod..

"It sounds beautiful. I wish it was possible to see it now."

"It was more beautiful than you could imagine."

The Doctor sighs, coming out of his reverie.

"Which probably only served to cover up all the problems and the corruption."