IC Contact

[burnseternal]

"Greetings. This is Saint Walker. Do leave a message, and I will get back to you shortly."

Comments

[burnseternal]

Ah! Yes, he did go through a period of forgetfulness. To create a document ensuring that one's future self does not forget is a wise course of action, I think, and one that many here could benefit from.

[It would be odd, wouldn't it be? To look at a piece of paper, and read about those that you should already know and love?]

It does simplify matters that he has included me by name in there.

[He picks up one of the pots and slowly pours the liquid within into one of the molds lined up on the countertop.] Is there anything that he has left out that you wish to know, brother? To come here is disorienting enough without having time travel involved.

[regenereight]

I do have a question, if you don't mind. How did you arrive in this world?

[ Because future Doctor arrived via the Porter. Hazel arrived via the Porter. This Doctor...didn't. ]

[burnseternal]

Certainly! I was Ported here, and ushered through a government facility to this very house. Was that not how you arrived here?

[regenereight]

It wasn't. I arrived here with no warning but, strangely enough, in my future self's room and wearing my future self's clothes.

[burnseternal]

[That gets a frown out of Saint Walker.]

As far as I know, that is unprecedented. Is it at all possible that you had a run-in with another who possesses time travel powers? I have been told that people here possess a great breadth of superpowers, as our hosts call them.

[regenereight]

If there was someone with a superpower to reverse one's personal timestream or to create a localized time distortion like this, the future Doctor would have known already. As Time Lords, we're exceptionally sensitive to matters like that.

[burnseternal]

It is possible that one was ported in, and then was immediately placed in a different city from ourselves, [Saint Walker points out, but only so that they can exercise every option available to them.] Is your future self also familiar with every device in this place capable of such a thing? Did he, for instance, recognize the Porter as one of these devices?

[regenereight]

[ And again, the Doctor shrugs. ] What I have to go on is the video he left via his sonic sunglasses. He said I was ported in, don't bother trying to go home, some more things about the timeline which I'm sure you'd find terribly boring, find Clara, Hazel, and Saint Walker.

[burnseternal]

Most curious. And, I think, something for which we will find answers in good time. In the meantime, I think, this is an excellent opportunity to get to know each other. I hope you were not pulled here at an inconvenient time, Doctor!

[regenereight]

It wasn't as inconvenient as it could have been. I had just finished an important matter with Charley—trying to deal with a house that wanted to kill me, nothing too much to worry about.

[burnseternal]

It would be worrisome should you have been taken in the midst of it trying to kill you, but I do hope that you managed to befriend it.

[Okay, so maybe that's Saint Walker's solution to everything.]

And Charley... that must be your traveling companion, correct? Are they also from Earth?

[regenereight]

I'm afraid that the situation was a little too far gone for befriending. But yes, she is my traveling companion and she is from Earth.

[ and look at that smile, that's the smile of someone who just adores Charlotte Pollard so so so much. ]

[burnseternal]

I suppose you will be happy to know, then, that your fondness for the people of Earth extends well into the future. How did you meet her, if I may ask?

[Does the Doctor just pick up strays?]

[regenereight]

[ yes he does ]

I picked her up after an airship explosion. Charlotte Pollard, unintentional survivor of the R101 airship disaster, fated to die in the explosion. I liked her too much to let that happen.

[burnseternal]

And what of the rest of the passengers?

[regenereight]

[ a paaaause before ] Time's a bit testy—certain events cannot be changed. For instance, you can save one person from the sinking of the Titanic, but if the timeline is to continue, uninterrupted, the majority of the ship's passengers must die.

[ they dead, son. ]

[burnseternal]

And so only the one that you took a liking to was saved.

[He glances down, a moment of silence for those that were lost, and looks back at the Doctor.]

It is better to save one life than it is to save none, but it is still a tragedy nonetheless.

[regenereight]

If I could change it, I would, [ he simply responds, with a frown. ] But even saving one person's caused a bit more trouble than I expected. Time simply won't let you do things like that.

[burnseternal]

What were the repercussions of your decision?

[regenereight]

Well one of them was the house that tried to kill me that I mentioned earlier. It fed off the energy created by a paradox caused by Charley living.

[burnseternal]

I see. Well, that doesn't seem too bad, in the grand scheme of things!

[Their perspectives may be a wee bit off. This is what happens when dudes from space operas get together.]

[regenereight]

I just worry about cascading effects. One paradox now, we might run into another later, and then it's paradoxes upon paradoxes.

[burnseternal]

Are you not accustomed to dealing with such matters? The Doctor I know certainly seemed to be but you may, I think, be a great deal younger than him.

[He thinks about this.]

How much younger would you say you are? Or did he fail to include his age in his debriefing?