scene xx

[decadenzas]

PHONE (public);

[the first words spoken are in French. it’s measured-sounding, clearly a recitation or something being read aloud.]  Ask, and it shall be given you; seek; and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. [the sound

Comments

C)

[coolbowtie]

[Hey guess who just came out of nowhere! And now he's dropping down on the ground and starts examining his choices.]

[decadenzas]

[it's standard fare for the classics and then a few things like Greig's Butterfly Op. 43 and Mignone's Valse de Esquina n.2 thrown in. ...basically everything depressingly minor keyed and suitable for a stuffy old man.]

Hello to you, too.

[coolbowtie]

Hello, Charles! Nice day to sit out on the street, isn't it?

[He picks up one of the records, licks it, and sets it back down before picking up another one.]

[decadenzas]

It's fair en-

[GROSS

GROSS ALIEN SLOBBER ON HIS NICE NEW RECORDS yeah he's jumping up to snatch that next one out of his hands before he has a chance to goober it up too.] Excuse me, the diner is right down the road if you're that hungry.

[coolbowtie]

[Looks scandalized.]

I'm not going to eat it! Are you mad? I was simply checking to see if it was, in fact, a properly dated human record.

[decadenzas]

You lose the right to ask someone else if they're mad the moment you lick their records. [picks up the licked record and holds it gingerly between a finger and thumb]

No one I know can taste the creation dates of things, so what else was I to assume?

[coolbowtie]

That I'm the Doctor and I know what I'm doing. And it's a Time Lord thing.

[Charles why aren't you impressed Vietnam would have been impressed...]

[decadenzas]

[he is too old and jaded and miffed that Mozart's face is slobbered on to be impressed...]

I'll be certain to keep that in mind the next time I have any valuable items that you might feel driven to lick.

...So, is it properly dated?

[coolbowtie]

Wolfgang hated when I licked his piano too. You humans and your aversion to licking.

[A pause.]

Well, yes. But also no. It is only a few years old, as it would have been in the fifties, but there is a distinct aftertaste which tells me that there is something else going on with the time here in this town.

[decadenzas]

[looks insulted!!] I shan't be lumped in with humans even if we've a similar aversion to having our possessions covered in spit, thank you.

Ah. Does it seem to be older or younger than it should?

[coolbowtie]

That's right, sorry. Sometimes you're so proper you make me think of humans. Hehehe, shan't. [He's teasing, mostly.]

That's the thing.

It's both.

[decadenzas]

[now he looks insulted and embarrassed] There isn't a thing wrong with my speech or mannerisms, it's perfectly suited to my time. [his time just happens to be ninety years ago, back when he was still a kid...] That aside, most humans aren't even half as proper as I.

How can it be both? ...I suppose not much about this town makes sense to begin with, but that's ridiculous.

[coolbowtie]

That's true. You've definitely out-propered humanity. Why, you're practically Time Lord in levels of proper stuffiness.

[He laughs and moves to ruffle poor Charles' hair because he feels bad about insulting him. Not the the embarrassment.]

Dunno. My guess is that this town exists partially in normal space and partially outside it. An aborted timeline perhaps.

[decadenzas]

[grumbles something and bats his hand away, his cowlick gives him enough trouble as-is!] I feel that isn't much of a compliment.

Aborted timeline? ...So this could, in essence, be a branch off from a main timeline somewhere that's met a dead end?

[coolbowtie]

Not really. But I'd take your company any day.

That's right, the creation of a separate timeline that broke off the original, but the ending is doomed for whatever reason. So time travel between that timeline and the original isn't possible. However, aborted timelines are difficult to sustain and generally collapse after a bit. Leaving only one timeline in the end.

[decadenzas]

...I suppose that's a suitable compliment. [but oh, that new information distracts him a bit. he absentmindedly prods at one of the records with his foot.]

So essentially we could be trapped in an aborted timeline, and we could very well still be here when this timeline collapses.