for oncoming_storms prompt 144.1 & 144.3
1. Setting/scenario:
Hearing a voice that only you can hear
and
3. Writing:
Write a scene in the style of a famous author
In the whirl of the Vortex, all boxy and blue
The TARDIS sped on, as her wont was to do.
Rushing away to a where or a when
Or a here or a there or a now or a then.
The rotor rose upwards and downwards with vim
Trying to match with the Doctor's mad whim.
The room with the console was gleamingly bright
Tiles shaped like circles lining walls glowing white.
With his hand on his chin as he pondered their paths
The Doctor pressed buttons, pushed switches, did maths.
What great little place should he take them to now?
A sort of surprise only he could allow.
The gardens of Babylonian glory?
A planet where all people wrote a vast story?
Worlds where scaled dragons still ruled the skies.
A place without sun, where men had no eyes.
Or returning to Stockbridge, a summer or four
While the Doctor improved on his cricketing score.
So many choices spread out for the taking
But what an odd clamor the TARDIS was making!
The grinding and rasping were both being drowned
By the strangest, most curious, most bizarre little sound.
He flicked a few switches, slowed the ship down
And to Nyssa and Tegan he gave a small frown.
"Have we stopped?" asked Nyssa. "But there's no there to be seen!
We're stuck in the path of the Vortex, I mean."
"Shush," said the Doctor. "You must be quiet to find
the odd noise in the TARDIS. It's nearly a whine."
"I don't hear it," said Tegan. "Are you certain its there?
That you haven't misplaced a sprocket somewhere?"
"I know what I heard," said the Doctor quite primly
staring at his two young companions quite grimly.
"There, did you catch it? The word's rather clear."
But to Nyssa and Tegan there was no sound to hear.
"Should we pay more attention?" Nyssa suggested.
But for Tegan her patience was frightfully tested.
"I'll need some more time," said the Doctor, descending
on the console which Tegan thought needed mending.
For what sort of noise did he expect them to find?
Most likely a figment of the Doctor's own mind.
Was it a holler or a squeak or a cry or a yelp?
Through the hush of the room, came a small peep for "Help!"
"There," said the Doctor. "It's happened once more
And it's coming three feet from that corner of floor!"
He tweaked a few knobs on the right console panel
To amp up the sound and bring the voice to a channel.
From the speaker of the scanner a tiny voice boomed
"Please set us free or our village is doomed!"
"Your village is safe," said the Doctor, quite pleased.
"As long as you're not blown away by a breeze.
You are very small and space, very vast.
But it's nice to speak to you at last.
I'm called the Doctor. And these are my friends
Tegan and Nyssa. We'll help make amends."
"Our planet was caught in a whopping timestorm
but for our civilization, these things are the norm.
We alter our atoms, shrink them down one by one
To weather the storm until it's all done.
But this storm was a whopper, as already we've said
We fear the rest of our planet is dead!"
"So now we've a voice to beseech you at last
let us go to that corner of space, very vast.
We have nothing to live for, if our world was destroyed.
The worst sort of thing we wished to avoid."
"My goodness!" said Nyssa. "But what can we do?
"Isn't the Vortex a deadly place too?
If we let them all out and cast them adrift
what chance would they have among all those time rifts?"
She gave the conundrum a great deal of thought
Should they do as was asked, or do as they ought?
"We don't know if your world was felled by the storm,"
said Tegan who wondered why this was the norm
while going along with the Doctor's mad travels
because situations like this did their best to unravel
all of the fun and the wonder of a life lived like this.
And yet she knew it as a life she would miss.
"My ship's not as vast as the reaches of space,
but it's a dimensionally transcendent place.
There's room for a village, for a city or eight,
if you'd allow me the offer and you've the patience to wait
I can find your home planet or a suitable twin
for you to resettle your society in."
The Doctor waited for their answer, frowning his worry.
Wishing that they'd finish their discussion and just hurry.
"We accept your proposal," the booming voice said.
"But there is one other thing to discuss. Look ahead
to the future, to a corner of time when
we do not remember our benefactors then.
What story to tell our descendants to be
of the people who actually picked up our plea?"
"I don't think we're heroes or some sort of gods,
and thinking myself in such terms is quite odd.
You'll do best to tell them the absolute truth.
It may be a little crude and uncouth.
But if a story be told of the day you were saved
I'd rather you say that ordinary people behaved
the way that they ought. To give you a way
to live out your lives for all of your days."
The container Nyssa made to convey the small nation
to a suitable room was a bright innovation.
The village unshrunk, the villagers now eager
to thank the Doctor and friends with meals. Not meager
affairs but vast feasts of celebration.
And all through the town was a sense of elation.
A viable planet was soon stumbled upon
And the village prepared for their time to be gone
from the room in the TARDIS as huge as a moon.
And the people departed, though they thought it too soon.
It was time to move on, thought the Doctor with a grin.
A timeship, no place for a town to stay in.
The town was shrunk down for easier transport
to the new, unspoiled planet, more like a resort.
The sun was bright and warm but not steaming.
And the village square's tower sat in its sunlight all gleaming.
The Doctor and Nyssa and Tegan all thanked
but from the rooms of the TARDIS, some objects were ganked.
Small leather balls, wooden bats taken at will
Stumps set in short grass, the bails balanced with skill.
And during the summers with the warmth due to weather
the people of the village soon gathered together
to play the odd game the Doctor had taught
with the bats and the balls and the wickets, the lot.
The rescue of Tually soon passed into fable
but not the strange sport gifted them, as they're able
to celebrate their town's continued existence
with the playing of cricket, as per tradition's insistence.
Character: The Fifth Doctor, feat. Nyssa, Tegan
Word Count: 1161
Notes: With vast apologies to Mr. Theodore Geisel.
Hearing a voice that only you can hear
and
3. Writing:
Write a scene in the style of a famous author
In the whirl of the Vortex, all boxy and blue
The TARDIS sped on, as her wont was to do.
Rushing away to a where or a when
Or a here or a there or a now or a then.
The rotor rose upwards and downwards with vim
Trying to match with the Doctor's mad whim.
The room with the console was gleamingly bright
Tiles shaped like circles lining walls glowing white.
With his hand on his chin as he pondered their paths
The Doctor pressed buttons, pushed switches, did maths.
What great little place should he take them to now?
A sort of surprise only he could allow.
The gardens of Babylonian glory?
A planet where all people wrote a vast story?
Worlds where scaled dragons still ruled the skies.
A place without sun, where men had no eyes.
Or returning to Stockbridge, a summer or four
While the Doctor improved on his cricketing score.
So many choices spread out for the taking
But what an odd clamor the TARDIS was making!
The grinding and rasping were both being drowned
By the strangest, most curious, most bizarre little sound.
He flicked a few switches, slowed the ship down
And to Nyssa and Tegan he gave a small frown.
"Have we stopped?" asked Nyssa. "But there's no there to be seen!
We're stuck in the path of the Vortex, I mean."
"Shush," said the Doctor. "You must be quiet to find
the odd noise in the TARDIS. It's nearly a whine."
"I don't hear it," said Tegan. "Are you certain its there?
That you haven't misplaced a sprocket somewhere?"
"I know what I heard," said the Doctor quite primly
staring at his two young companions quite grimly.
"There, did you catch it? The word's rather clear."
But to Nyssa and Tegan there was no sound to hear.
"Should we pay more attention?" Nyssa suggested.
But for Tegan her patience was frightfully tested.
"I'll need some more time," said the Doctor, descending
on the console which Tegan thought needed mending.
For what sort of noise did he expect them to find?
Most likely a figment of the Doctor's own mind.
Was it a holler or a squeak or a cry or a yelp?
Through the hush of the room, came a small peep for "Help!"
"There," said the Doctor. "It's happened once more
And it's coming three feet from that corner of floor!"
He tweaked a few knobs on the right console panel
To amp up the sound and bring the voice to a channel.
From the speaker of the scanner a tiny voice boomed
"Please set us free or our village is doomed!"
"Your village is safe," said the Doctor, quite pleased.
"As long as you're not blown away by a breeze.
You are very small and space, very vast.
But it's nice to speak to you at last.
I'm called the Doctor. And these are my friends
Tegan and Nyssa. We'll help make amends."
"Our planet was caught in a whopping timestorm
but for our civilization, these things are the norm.
We alter our atoms, shrink them down one by one
To weather the storm until it's all done.
But this storm was a whopper, as already we've said
We fear the rest of our planet is dead!"
"So now we've a voice to beseech you at last
let us go to that corner of space, very vast.
We have nothing to live for, if our world was destroyed.
The worst sort of thing we wished to avoid."
"My goodness!" said Nyssa. "But what can we do?
"Isn't the Vortex a deadly place too?
If we let them all out and cast them adrift
what chance would they have among all those time rifts?"
She gave the conundrum a great deal of thought
Should they do as was asked, or do as they ought?
"We don't know if your world was felled by the storm,"
said Tegan who wondered why this was the norm
while going along with the Doctor's mad travels
because situations like this did their best to unravel
all of the fun and the wonder of a life lived like this.
And yet she knew it as a life she would miss.
"My ship's not as vast as the reaches of space,
but it's a dimensionally transcendent place.
There's room for a village, for a city or eight,
if you'd allow me the offer and you've the patience to wait
I can find your home planet or a suitable twin
for you to resettle your society in."
The Doctor waited for their answer, frowning his worry.
Wishing that they'd finish their discussion and just hurry.
"We accept your proposal," the booming voice said.
"But there is one other thing to discuss. Look ahead
to the future, to a corner of time when
we do not remember our benefactors then.
What story to tell our descendants to be
of the people who actually picked up our plea?"
"I don't think we're heroes or some sort of gods,
and thinking myself in such terms is quite odd.
You'll do best to tell them the absolute truth.
It may be a little crude and uncouth.
But if a story be told of the day you were saved
I'd rather you say that ordinary people behaved
the way that they ought. To give you a way
to live out your lives for all of your days."
The container Nyssa made to convey the small nation
to a suitable room was a bright innovation.
The village unshrunk, the villagers now eager
to thank the Doctor and friends with meals. Not meager
affairs but vast feasts of celebration.
And all through the town was a sense of elation.
A viable planet was soon stumbled upon
And the village prepared for their time to be gone
from the room in the TARDIS as huge as a moon.
And the people departed, though they thought it too soon.
It was time to move on, thought the Doctor with a grin.
A timeship, no place for a town to stay in.
The town was shrunk down for easier transport
to the new, unspoiled planet, more like a resort.
The sun was bright and warm but not steaming.
And the village square's tower sat in its sunlight all gleaming.
The Doctor and Nyssa and Tegan all thanked
but from the rooms of the TARDIS, some objects were ganked.
Small leather balls, wooden bats taken at will
Stumps set in short grass, the bails balanced with skill.
And during the summers with the warmth due to weather
the people of the village soon gathered together
to play the odd game the Doctor had taught
with the bats and the balls and the wickets, the lot.
The rescue of Tually soon passed into fable
but not the strange sport gifted them, as they're able
to celebrate their town's continued existence
with the playing of cricket, as per tradition's insistence.
Character: The Fifth Doctor, feat. Nyssa, Tegan
Word Count: 1161
Notes: With vast apologies to Mr. Theodore Geisel.