vatheon | The Doctor Arrives (again)

Entry tags:

The Doctor Arrives (again)

Who: The Doctor and You
Where: Standard Plaza Drop
When: Late Morning, just before Noon, November 24th
Style: Brackets preferred but I'll match
Status: OPEN

[A rather damp man in a tweed dress jacket and red bow-tie suddenly appears in the plaza next to the corral.

He spins around quickly, observing and taking in the scene before him in a rush of information.

He runs his hand through his hair nervously only to discover that it is wet.]

I'm wet. [He brings his hand down from his head and inspects it. Sniffs it. Then tastes it.]

Correction. [He looks down at the rest of himself and flaps his jacket out a few times as if to get rid of the excess liquid. He begins to straighten his bow-tie.] I'm soaked... [There is a pause.] with salt-water.

And I'm inside a bubble under an ocean next to an enormous piece of coral.

Ooookay. [He claps his hands together and tilts his head to one side and then the other.]

No TARDIS in sight. [He checks his pockets.] Sonic accounted for, that's good. [He removes his sonic screwdriver and takes a reading. There is a green light and an electric buzzing noise for a few seconds. It turns off and he flips the device up to his eyes to inspect the data.]

Well I haven't mis-aimed. There is certainly something odd about this place.

[He places the sonic screwdriver back in his waterlogged pocket.]

So here's a question. [He continues to talk to himself and walks in a semi-circle around the coral.]

Why does this feel oddly familiar?

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[Oh. She'd taken him for someone who would want all the facts, but maybe she was wrong? Time to do the usual, then.]

Here, why don't we go inside? You can dry off and I can make some tea, I'll tell you about the city. My name is Zelda, I work on the Welcoming Committee here.

[She gestures back towards the Welcoming Center.]

No, you see I'm the Doctor. [He says it as if that explains everything.]

I don't just forget things, especially when it comes to space and time.

[He continues to dry himself, a little more violently then he needs to. The smile is mostly gone now, replaced with a bit of stubborn annoyance as if he were talking to someone who wasn't as smart as he was.]

[The doctor of what exactly? Zelda eyes him as he scrubs at himself rather angrily. The condescending tone is not lost on her. Well, fine then. If he knows so much about space and time, she doesn't need to talk down to him.]

This place seems to exist outside of any proper concept of time. It pulls people from different worlds and times and then deposits them back home when it's done without missing a beat. I expect the memory loss that occurs when people return to their homes is some form of paradox control, or an attempt to limit the amount of new timelines that might be created if people took action based on the knowledge they might gain here.

[He simply stops for a moment and gapes at her slightly. No more drying, no more walking.]

Possibly, I guess. You could explain it that way. [As he says this he wobbles his head a little from side to side. Yes, it's a little mocking but he can't completely hide the fact that she impressed him.

He turns his head away and looks up to the "ceiling" of the bubble to mostly hide a grin. He looks back down to her with squinted eyes.]

What was your name again?

[What, he didn't hear her the first time? She's not particularly offended. It's normal for people to be out of sorts when they arrive, and goddesses knew she'd pitched an inelegant fit when she found out that she had supposedly been here before.]

Zelda. I was pulled here just like you - about a year ago, now.

[She's been trying to figure the place out ever since. Vatheon's library has done wonders for her knowledge on time travel. She'd already possessed some of her own, but there's something to be said for the things you can study in a city like this.]

That's right, Zelda. [It clicks better the second time around.]

Well Zelda, how is it that you know so much about time travel?

[Of all the questions he could have asked her, that was not the one she expected. No "what is this place called", no "why are we pulled here", no "how do we get home"... just "how do you know about time travel?"

Somehow, it makes her feel guilty.]

It came up back home, and it certainly seems to be a factor in our imprisonment here. I've been studying it.

[He has an eye for what doesn't make sense in a situation. He's been in plenty of insane situations, but rarely has there been anyone this knowledgeable or self-aware of the complexities of time travel. Right now, Zelda is the oddity.

He puts a hand on her shoulder as his pants drip water onto the ground. He senses he's touched a sensitive area for her, though he has no idea why. He removes his hand, switches topic, and begins talking in a light and cheery tone.]

You've been doing a bang-up job then. Your guess makes a lot of sense. I still find it hard to believe that I wouldn't remember this place or its effects.

I'm a bit of an expert on time travel.

Is that what you're a doctor of, then?

[Whatever guilt she was feeling before is replaced by an easy smile. Zelda motions towards the Welcome Center again, glancing down at her now slightly wet shoulder.]

Let's head inside. You'll catch cold standing around in sopping clothes.

Among other things. [He grins and follows her inside.]

[Right, other things. Well, he did say "and space". Zelda picks up a pair of white pants and a plain shirt that looks roughly his size, holding it out.]

Here. We have a bathroom right over there. You can get cleaned up if you like, or if you're particularly eager to talk about the city, you can just get changed and come right back out.

[He looks at the clothes a moment and then politely takes them. They're not his style at the moment, but he recollects wearing something like it many years ago.]

Thanks. I'll just get changed then.

[He moves into the bathroom and begins to change out clothes. Suddenly there's a loud yelp. He returns shirtless pointing at his right forearm.]

There is a mark on my arm! [He turns it so he can inspect it again. Then scratches at it.] It's not coming off!

[That sure is a shirtless man pointing insistently at his bare arm. If not for the fact that she'd been living with a rather shameless man for the past year (that would be you, Zelos), she'd be quite a bit more flustered.]

I'm afraid it won't be coming off, even if you try to cut it away. All the people who have been pulled from other worlds have those.

[Zelda undoes the collar of her dress to show him hers, situated right beneath the center of her collarbone.]

It connects us to the coral out there - the Lamufao, the local god.

[The Doctor has little modesty when it comes to finding interesting or unexpected things.]

Oh.

Well you could have mentioned something about it earlier. [Again he juts out his chin and wobbles his head slightly.

He begins to walk back to the bathroom but continues the conversation.]

What kind of connection?

[No need to act so childish!]

We're still trying to figure that out. I can tell you what we do know, though. The coral seems to be what keeps us alive down here under the water. If we don't touch it at least once a month, we begin to grow ill. It can be used in place of sleeping and will accelerate the body's healing somewhat. It's a power source of some sort. Whether it's actually sentient or not is still up for debate. The High Priestess Thalassino seems to think so, and has even claimed that it can communicate. The scientists running experiments here treat it like an experimental subject.

[She pauses.]

That does not really say all that much about whether it may be sentient or not, though. We are their subjects as well. Sunday at midnight you may notice that marking glowing. That indicates the beginning of a curse. The effects are varied, I have a list if you would like to take a look. They are non-lethal and last for one week, ending the next Sunday at midnight. While the priestess was missing, it became apparent that these curses use up some of the energy the coral produces as its power dropped after each curse. Just what that may mean has not become apparent yet, but I and a few others have been tracking its energy level regardless.

Even if you keep up with touching the coral monthly, you may end up falling into a coma at some point. The cause hasn't been determined, but other than a potential for bed sores they're harmless. Most last no longer than a month.

[The Doctor reemerges with his new outfit. He is putting on his still wet bow-tie.]

We're trapped down here with no apparent way to escape, there a giant all-powerful coral that may be intelligent and has tremendous possibly space-time altering powers, there is a secret group of mad scientists that are toying with everyone's lives, a priestess, and inexplicable curses that appear out of thin air.

[He finishes with the bow-tie and snaps his fingers to emphasize his last statement.]

Sounds like fun.

[He goes back to collect his wet clothes and sits himself at a table, dumping his old clothes in a wet pile behind his chair.]

[Fun? She looks at him incredulously, going to pick up the wet clothes and wash the salt out as well as put on a pot of tea. It sounds like a sarcastic statement, but somehow...]

Well, I cannot say that it's my idea of fun, but it isn't terrible.

[Just a quick rinse and she's drying them out with magic. It's easy to wick the moisture away with a spell. The salt? Not so much.]

Of course, who would think something like this is fun?

Pfff.

[He clears his throat and looks about the welcoming center a bit randomly.

He notices Zelda as she works with his clothes. His eyes squint.]

What are you doing?

Drying your clothing. Do you not have magic on your world?

[How in the world is he an expert on time travel without magic? That's impossible, isn't it? She can't even begin to wrap her mind around the thought.]

Right magic.

Look, I'm not falling for that one.

[He leans back in his chair and folds his arms across his chest.]

Underwater bubbles, giant god-like corals, the whole lot. I get it.

But magic? There's no such thing.

Edited 2012-11-26 05:08 (UTC)

Is that so?

[Zelda folds his clothes neatly and walks over, setting them on the table before him. Perfectly dry. There's surely a machine out there in the whole of time and space that could accomplish that, but she doesn't seem to be carrying anything.]

Well, there are many different terms for it. Mana control, artes, energy manipulation... whatever you call it when someone directly influences the energy all around us on your world. That is what I am doing.

Yes, that is so. [He says rather flatly.]

Psychokinetic manipulation of ambient energy is perfectly explainable. Magic is what silly people use to explain what they don't understand.

How did you do that? [He points at his clothes.]

I drew away the moisture by polarizing the water element in the area and setting the opposite pole to the drain in the sink. If I hadn't rinsed it first, the salt would have made your clothing stiff.

[She frowns slightly.]

It is a little rude to say that people who use the term "magic" don't understand what they are doing, don't you think? The meaning of a word is hardly universal.

Impressive and quite skillful. But it's still not magic.

[He's not angry but he does keep his arms folded over his chest for a moment.

Seeing her get upset about it, he backpedals slightly.

It's true that the meaning of words aren't universal nor are customs. Regardless, he remains adamant that 'magic', doesn't exist.]

Fine. It's magical. But there's still a perfectly good explanation for it.

[What was it about this man's attitude that made her want to stick around and argue semantics all day? She can't let herself sink to that level.]

You can call it what you wish. Here, read this over while I finish up with the tea. It's basic, but it is a good starting point.

[Zelda leaves the Doctor with a brochure, heading back over to the kitchen area.]

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