ATTN: Corin ∈ eclective
[The Doctor [!7]] Right, backstory.
There are a few things that happened in this whole great sequence {seq} of events. Unpleasant as it all is, I'll give you a overview from my perspective:
There I was, on Earth, going about my business when, imagine my surprise, something much like a floating brain trailing music I've never listened to appears at the edge of my psyche and says that my presence is requested by none other than my good friend the Vesmier and some other persons I've never heard of. Always curious, I jaunt off to see what it's all about, and meet none other than myself from a different universe!
More of my stories start that way...
I want my help to help a friend. I, personally, am a bit busy investigating strange events in San Fransisco, and say that if I want to help me with that, I'll be glad to help me help a friend. I agree. We set to work.
Then, of course, comes all this I-become-psychically-overwhelmed-get-better-go-back-in-solve-parts-wake-the-TARDIS-get-psychically-thrown-out-of-my-universe-try-to-reclaim-my-memories-watch-Kosch-get-injured-suspect-something-rotten business, but, you know.
For those of you following along at home, this comes near the end of my personal life story to date, and the beginning of my saga within this headspace.
The wonders of a nonlinear approach, eh? ...eh?
Sat, 29 Dec, 2007
8:52 PM rubaiyyat » [The Doctor [!7]] Though, note on world-saving and badgers, you haven't seen the Ves at his best, I think. Well, he really never is unless you push him. I think. Seriously; got into some trouble a while back, Daleks closing in on Earth, think they took the Chula as thralls, or something, scavenged time technology--and the Senate, you know, of course it wasn't any of their business. Earth as a second Skaro? "Meh," apparently. I get Kosch backed up against the wall, still can't remember how I convinced him, and /two hours later/ he's done something to the Senate and there's a full taskforce ripping the carpet right out from under our exterminator friends.
I swear, when he pulls out the stops.
trollopfop » *grins* Wouldn't surprise me at all.
8:53 PM Badgers are fierce things. ...especially when they've been a little bit mutated. I heard you got involved in that in your Academy days, as well?
rubaiyyat » Ah. Well. Now, that was the Rani, mostly.
8:54 PM I just sort of... made them a little bit of an, er, fact.
trollopfop » Over here, she made them, I just... ah... released them? Wasn't supposed to get quite so out of control.
8:55 PM ...It was funny!
8:56 PM rubaiyyat » Oh! Though. All that. You know I actually managed to park a TARDIS inside a TARDIS without creating a time ram? Finest moment! One of them.
8:57 PM trollopfop » Oh, had a bit of fun like that with the Master. Fascinating, really. When each TARDIS appears inside the other?
8:58 PM rubaiyyat » It got a bit out of hand, here. Wound up with a bunch of badgers popping into existence all over various planets, few people came after me, I had to go enlist the Rani's aid to get myself out of it. Not being Kosch, getting the Rani to help involved a lot of sneaking around the Rani's TARDIS and... creatively borrowing a few of her toys.
8:59 PM But, no; as it turns out, if you disconnect your TARDIS to its external physical interface and slave the materialisation circuits to the target TARDIS, you can create a second interface without breaking apart the universe.
9:03 PM trollopfop » Hmm. Interesting. Not that I've got another TARDIS to try that with.
9:04 PM rubaiyyat » Well, from what I've seen, there should be one drifting somewhere near he end of the universe. But that's probably not a place you want to be.
9:05 PM trollopfop » Though I may have to go have a look anyway. Not very fair to just leave it, if it's still active.
9:07 PM rubaiyyat » ...so, Doctor, here's a question: how many races do you know with a passive ability to influence the behaviour of nearby humans without attracting attention to themselves, who can also lock down a TARDIS from the outside?
9:08 PM And who can kill someone without any internal or external signs?
trollopfop » Thinking.... Skiera!
You know them?
rubaiyyat » Haven't run into them.
9:10 PM trollopfop » Sneaky little devils. Vaguely reptilian. About the size of a housecat. Immensely troublesome for their size.
9:11 PM rubaiyyat » Hm.
9:13 PM trollopfop » They tend to skulk about in the shadows. Find bigger things to do their work for them. Usually find them as stowaways... And they've got a sort of built-in perception filter. The one sure way I've found to tell where they are is to look exactly where you're least inclined to.
9:32 PM rubaiyyat » Ever been to the Mission District in SanFran? I gather my universe's is a bit different to this one's, but I think the general idea probably carries over.
9:33 PM trollopfop » *nods*
Been there a few times
rubaiyyat » Sam's home. Right in there. Brother was a painter; he had a decent bit of handiwork up and around.
9:35 PM A few odd little designs keep cropping up, never--well, once--together: http://adravet.net/misc/img/mission-symbol-inferior.jpg , http://adravet.net/misc/img/mission-symbol-superior.jpg . Didn't take much notice of it until they showed up on the door to the TARDIS. And I couldn't get in.
9:36 PM It was all supposed to be •normal•. Stop back, hang with the folks a bit, go on. We were going to Tranfalgatta next. Then--hrmph.
9:40 PM trollopfop » ...I'm sorry.
rubaiyyat » Lovely June day. Park the TARDIS off in a nice walking park, lodged between a few trees, head to her place. Should have noticed something was odd, the way her mother was acting. Love 'em all to bits, don't get me wrong, but this isn't a quiet family--if something's worth saying, it's worth saying loudly. I think her mother could actually shout down a Dalek. And there she is, being demure and sweet and quite a lot calmer than she is when her daughter usually shows up from travelling. Didn't even break out the klondikes.
9:44 PM Of course, soon as I set foot inside I have her brother attached to my arm and dragging me back out again to see this new gallery he's helped open. I go, I look--love the Mission, so bright, so full of life; that was the first place I saw that damn inferior symbol, right in one of his paintings. We come back three hours later and Sam is bumming around outside the house, more than a little concerned. Her mother is acting oddly--well, not that she was ever the pinnacle of normal.
trollopfop » nods
9:46 PM rubaiyyat » Got no energy to her. Seems constantly, pleasantly preoccupied. Forgets certain things almost immediately. Or Sam will ask a question, and it won't even occur to her to answer. Neither her brother nor her kid sister notice anything odd, but they're not leaking affect. Just her mum.
9:47 PM trollopfop » ...Odd question: Eating more, specifically sugars, or not at all?
rubaiyyat » I didn't see her eat at all. Then, I wasn't there for long.
trollopfop » *nods* Understood.
9:48 PM rubaiyyat » Did seem to have a lot of stuff in her kitchen. Rows of boxes of baking soda, big jugs of vinegar. Jeff thought she was starting her spring cleaning late. Seemed clean enough to me.
9:49 PM ...very bright, very sunny. All the drapes were removed.
trollopfop » Baking soda and vinegar. Hmm. Doubt she was suddenly interested in grade-school science projects.
9:51 PM rubaiyyat » Unlikely. Sam was the scientist--well, mechanist--of the family. Jeff does arts, Maddie is still in grade school, their mum was a marketer. Some home-improvements company.
9:53 PM Did poke around Jeff's studio a bit. Tiny little room; no idea what it was built for. Had a few sketches around, mostly with that inferior symbol. There was one, featured both, superior symbol, well, in superior position, but it was scribbled out. Well, he had that piece in the gallery; I thought those were rough drafts. Wasn't until I started seeing them around the district that I thought twice about that.
9:57 PM Any case, Sam decides that something is up. Smart girl, and travelling with me, she gets a nose for that. Knows her family, too. I head back to the TARDIS for my sonic, going to take a closer scan, when I bump into someone on the street. Rather, they bump into me; walk right in, smile pleasantly, walk right off, same expression as her mum. Linda, she is. Her mum. This sort of cargo-kine complacency. That's when I start watching; must be one in every thirty, thirty-five people. Same expressions, same sort of genial idiocy.
9:58 PM trollopfop » *nods*
rubaiyyat » I get back to the TARDIS and can't open it. Superior symbol painted in white over the whole door, and the key won't turn. I call Sam, tell her to ask Jeff what's going on, where he got that symbol from. And here's the kicker; it doesn't even register that he's painted it.
10:05 PM rubaiyyat » Right. So. Bit odd. All this stuff--it's like background noise to them. Passes right out of their perception. I head back toward the house, and halfway there, I see a catty sort of man carrying on a rather animated, if one-sided, conversation with one of our kine-folk. I head up to ask if anything is wrong--someone's noticed, at least--and he heads off down an alley. I go after, he vanishes. I mean, turns-the-corner, vanishes. I took some time, searched the alley. Quite nice murals, not much else. One door, quite artfully incorporated into a picture of a castle, actually, but it's locked securely. Inclision multiplier couldn't even budge the latch. ...which was rather frustrating.
10:06 PM trollopfop » I can imagine... *thoughtful*
10:10 PM rubaiyyat » Sam calls. Sounds a bit strained, now; asks me, very, very carefully, if I could "immediately proceed to our house on Bryant Street." Which they notably don't have. She reiterates: I need to go to the house on Bryant Street, now, it's very urgent, she hangs up. Or something hangs her up.
trollopfop » ...
10:11 PM rubaiyyat » ...and I suppose I should have listened. But the phone tracked her; she was still in her house on Oak, and I ran there instead. And she was already dead.
10:12 PM trollopfop » ...Again. I'm sorry.
rubaiyyat » Yeah.
10:13 PM trollopfop » Something's not adding up there, though. One Skiera wouldn't have that kind of control. At least, not where I'm from. A few humans, yes, absolutely, but not on that scale, not unless you've got a full-blown infestation.
10:14 PM Certain things are similar, yes.
But... This reminds me of something, and I can't think what.
10:15 PM rubaiyyat » It goes on.
10:16 PM trollopfop » Oh?
10:17 PM rubaiyyat » Her mother'd vanished entirely, and Jeff and Madeline were in hysterics. According to them Sam had called me and gone into a seizure, then she'd collapsed. But there wasn't any--there were no signs of a seizure. Not a mark on her. Blood oxygen was perfectly normal, adrenaline a bit increased but aside from that everything remarkably calm, no chemicals, toxins, virii, bacteria, no energy resudue, no strain on the heart muscle or any other muscle--nothing. Perfectly healthy 20something young woman, in the best of health for traipsing across the galaxy, had just keeled over and died for no reason.
10:20 PM No one'd thought to call the police. I was going to tell them not to, going to take her back to the TARDIS, but--well. Couldn't reach it. And I wasn't--warm, humid, San Fransico June day. Couldn't leave her there. Had to let them take her.
10:21 PM trollopfop » *nods*
10:25 PM rubaiyyat » I did go to Bryant street, finally, left Jeff and Madeline in police care. Must have walked the length of it. Oh, plenty of houses, plenty of house-like structures, a few murals and graffitis of houses here and there... either the trail had gone cold or I had no idea what I was looking for. Called the TARDIS. Complete lockdown, but you know there are bits that never shut down; of course, the TARDIS doesn't make great conversation, but the psychic signature... well, even it didn't tell me much. It was just... remote. Standing off. Not quite drawing back, just keeping a distance. Psychic interference, I thought. Couldn't get anything conclusive fro outside the old girl; if I could just get in to do some scans--you know.
10:26 PM trollopfop » *nods*
10:27 PM rubaiyyat » Her house was a crime scene, of course. I sort of snuck back in, psychic-papered the officers on duty that I was a detective. One thing grabbed me--that caution tape? Horrible yellow stuff? Someone'd markered that inferior symbol right on a piece. Tried to call their attention to it. They looked at me like I was an idiot. Said nothing about it.
And that's where you lot found me.
10:29 PM Ah--one other thing. Riffs on a theme but.
10:30 PM No one'd reported her mother as missing. Or tried to contact her. It just slipped everyone's mind.
10:31 PM trollopfop » ...It's all just Someone Else's Problem, isn't it?
10:32 PM rubaiyyat » Or it's not a problem at all. Honestly, Doctor, I don't think they know.
And these symbols. We're not talking quick doodles. Bilateral symmetry, masterful scaling, exact proportions....
10:33 PM I would think robots, cyborgs, at least, but... hang on.
I'll be right back. Have to hop in canon--half a tick.
10:34 PM FUCK. Fuck fuck fuck fucking FUCK. I should have seen that! I should have guessed that first!
trollopfop » What?
10:35 PM rubaiyyat » I just took a knife to one of those things. Didn't mar it!
That's not paint. Not literal physical paint.
10:36 PM trollopfop » ...
10:37 PM rubaiyyat » Someone is sticking the IDEAS of those symbols up around town. No wonder it's so easy for everyone to miss them.
10:38 PM Persistent psychovisual illusion.
•hits something•
10:39 PM ...and of course I only thought of it once I came here. So whatever it is, I've been affected as well. Wonderful.
10:44 PM trollopfop » Only thing that would explain that where I'm from would be a Skiera infestation. But in such numbers would be unprecedented. Unless they've got something to amplify them.
10:45 PM Could be something entirely different though.
rubaiyyat » Any classic signs?
10:52 PM trollopfop » People affected tend to tire easily. Thus, they tend to eat more in the earlier stages. Lots of sugar, quick energy rush. I mentioned that. There's a sort of obliviousness: you could strip naked and dance an Antarian jig in front of them and they'd just sort of smile. For the Skiera themselves, you'd want to look in smallish, out of the way spaces. Warm. They like warmth.
10:57 PM rubaiyyat » Hm. The contents of the fridge seem to be beer, mustard, a loaf of bread, a few /cans/ of green beans, a bottle of white wine, and takeout from someplace called... Jamal's? Never heard of it. The freezer has quite an impressive buildup of frost and a bag of frozen broccoli. From what I can tell, the shelves seem normal; some pretty sugary cereals, but Maddie loves those. Pasta. A few mixes.
10:58 PM ...no staples. None of the usual four-sugar-baking powder-shortening stuff. Of course, Linda never did much baking.
10:59 PM ...from what I've gathered.
trollopfop » ...hmm.
Not that, then. Not unless they'd been at her for a while and anything else just got used up.
11:00 PM rubaiyyat » Well, we know, or can assume, a few things. Psychics, given the behavioural changes and illusions. Passive psychics, or the TARDIS would have reacted.
11:02 PM trollopfop » *growls a bit* Something familiar... I know this! I know this! And I can't... *thunks the human brain he's translating through*
OW!
rubaiyyat » Targeting less than three percent. No obvious connection between them, not at first glance. What's that selective?
11:03 PM ...there's a change. These scribbles, the ones that Jeff did? I can erase them.
He drew these out.
11:04 PM No illusion here. But, still... hhh, idle hands.
trollopfop » Something using him as a focus...
rubaiyyat » Or something he's picking up on. Of that family, he didn't seem most affected.
11:06 PM trollopfop » Did he have anything useful to say about that symbol cropping up?
11:07 PM rubaiyyat » When Sam asked him? "Huh? They're just doodles," seemed to be his response. Never did ask about the ones out and about.
11:12 PM I'm halfway to the point where I'd trance and let my animal hindbrain take over. See if anything grabs me, makes me conform.
11:13 PM trollopfop » ...If Jeff's picking up on this, why not have him trance out?
See if he gets anything else?
Put him into a light trance, and let him draw?
11:14 PM rubaiyyat » It's an option. To be honest, I'm a bit worried about what will happen to him.
trollopfop » If he's remained unaffected so far... It is a bit dangerous, though. Not if you're not sure you can get him back.
11:16 PM rubaiyyat » Not only that. The only way I can explain Sam's death is that her mind was abruptly severed from her body. Which must take immense, or incredibly precise, psychic power. If I put him in a trance and ask him to help me against these, that makes him all the more susceptible.
11:17 PM And if they've been affecting my thought, no matter on how subtle a level, that means they may be mentally powerful enough to take on a Time Lord.
11:18 PM trollopfop » Trancing yourself, though... If they are mentally powerful enough to take you on, that's... Well, a bit suicidal, even for me. Not if you don't have someone to act as an anchor.
11:19 PM rubaiyyat » Which is why I haven't, yet. If I went searching, all they'd have to do is obscure the path back.
11:20 PM There's a bit of a... to use a human word in an idiomatic rather than technical sense, schizophrenic quality to this, though, wouldn't you agree? All that spillover into the general public, loose, haphazard, compared to the specific attacks against Sam, the TARDIS....
trollopfop » *nods*
11:23 PM ...If you can get me over there, I can anchor. Or... You and the Vesmier are both present in a mind over here. As much as I don't like to volunteer him, if there's anyone who could be a stable anchor, I'd reckon it'd be him. *still chewing over the rest*
11:24 PM rubaiyyat » If I could roust him out from Gallifrey. He seems a bit put-upon these days. To drag him out into all this... besides, I owe him too many favours as it is.
trollopfop » True enough.
rubaiyyat » Wish he believed me, when I told him it was better out here. He'd make a fantastic travelling companion.
11:25 PM And believe me, I've asked... but. If you've met him.
trollopfop » Oh, wouldn't he just? But he's trying to make a difference where he can.
11:26 PM rubaiyyat » Where he can't, you mean.
trollopfop » Someone needs to play the doomsayer, just like someone needs to play the fool. *small smile*
11:27 PM And that's where we disagree. If there's a chance, I can't fault him for taking it.
rubaiyyat » I'm sure that when Gallifrey goes the way of Rome, he'll be standing on the hilltops saying he told them so. Really, he probably won't; he'll be the first one picking up the pieces.
11:28 PM trollopfop » ...Who's your Lord President, right now?
11:29 PM rubaiyyat » One of Burusa's clan. Disorett.
11:30 PM trollopfop » Hmm. You ever have a Time Lady for a companion? Name of Romana?
11:31 PM rubaiyyat » Romana! lovely girl. Well, eventually. Actually managed to think for herself.
trollopfop » Yes! Exactly!
Got into politics, in my universe.
Actually became President, and did she ever shake things up then!
rubaiyyat » •L• You're kidding me!
11:32 PM trollopfop » You wouldn't believe the number of assassination attempts.
rubaiyyat » I think Kosch would actually have done a jig.
11:33 PM trollopfop » Only problem was, once she took the Presidency, she kept trying to drag me into one scheme or another. Clever girl. Got a bit inconvenient, though.
The last President... sigh
But, no sense dwelling on that.
11:35 PM rubaiyyat » She and Adric hit it off, here. I think he really was quite infatuated with her; bless her, she never even noticed.
Off in E-Space now. Working on Alzarius.
11:37 PM trollopfop » nods
11:55 PM rubaiyyat » Magnesium.
trollopfop » *looks up*
11:56 PM rubaiyyat » Knew I was being thick; I tested Sam's blood, but no one else's. Jeff and Madeline both have higher than normal concentrations of magnesium. That frost buildup in the freezer? Bit of magnesium in that, too.
11:59 PM trollopfop » Well, there's something!
Sun, 30 Dec, 2007rubaiyyat »
12:01 AM rubaiyyat » Yes, something. Something I'm missing. It was probably ingested; I doubt anyone would be proactive enough to inject them. If it was ingested, it must have got on their food, or in their food. It's in the frost in the freezer.
12:02 AM trollopfop » ...And if it's affecting people randomly... Where do they do their shopping, I wonder?
12:03 AM rubaiyyat » Few places. Big general supermarket, little Hispanic place. A bit of home-gardening. There's a thought; if it's in the water? ...no, it seems to hit-and-miss for that.
Unless that many people really do live off bottled.
trollopfop » Even if they're living off bottled, not that many people go to the extreme of, say, cooking their pasta in it.
12:05 AM rubaiyyat » Hold on. I'm going to go abduct one of the victims.
12:09 AM Normal magnesium.
trollopfop » Hmm.
Not widespread, then.
12:10 AM rubaiyyat » Or magnesium co-occurs with resistance. But that just makes more things not add up.
12:11 AM Two odd bents, opposing each other. ...I did say it seemed schizophrenic.
trollopfop » It does.
[...]
1:44 AM rubaiyyat » ...that didn't work quite as I had anticipated.
1:45 AM I, um, seem to be comatose.
1:46 AM trollopfop » ...what?
1:47 AM rubaiyyat » In my defence, everything I did seemed a perfectly good idea at the time.
trollopfop » It always does. Elaborate, will you?
1:49 AM rubaiyyat » Right. Went back to her house, decided to extract some of that magnesium. Scraped as much frost as would fit into a little saucepan, boiled it down. Left with a nice magnesium residue on the bottom, then it occurs to me that there's a reason, aside from cleaning, to have quite a lot of baking soda in a kitchen. If you thought you might need to extinguish a series of small fires. So, naturally, I... set the pan on fire. A bit.
1:50 AM trollopfop » Right.
Perfectly sensible.
1:51 AM rubaiyyat » It flashes, lots of smoke, brilliant white light, and then there's this sort of amorphous bipedal upright thing. Couldn't see it, before; seems to be reacting with the smoke. Anyway, it hoots--or howls, or gurgles, or something--and swings at me. I swing back. Reflex, you know. It catches on fire and goes screaming out the door, so naturally I run after it.
trollopfop » Naturally.
1:53 AM rubaiyyat » Now, this thing is fast. It heads south, three blocks away it's left me in the proverbial dust, and I notice that a few of the people whose paths we've just crossed seem to have fallen over and gone into seizures. I can't imagine this to be a good thing.
trollopfop » Not really, no.
1:55 AM rubaiyyat » At least people seem to be noticing. Screaming, calling the police, a few of them have just stopped and started staring. I render assistance; I go to the nearest one, and he's still breathing, so I very carefully take a very small peek inside. He's hanging by a thread--to himself, I mean. Like a balloon. And it's fraying.
1:56 AM I think, if I can stabilise that, not only can I save him, I might be able to see what's happened. I try, and then something conks me upside the head, and... things get a bit confused, from there.
1:58 AM I feel like there's something there, but I can't grasp it. Something should have happened that I can recall. But it's a... jumbled, nonsensical mess. Lights and colours. I come to and I'm standing above myself, and I seem to be sprawled out in the middle of the police cordon. I think. Living room.
Out of body experience.
Can't get back in, but I can come here. (At least there's one out for me, eh?)
(And I'm fairly certain that whatever-it-is won't follow.)
2:00 AM trollopfop » Well, that's something at least.
Of course, doesn't do your body much good.
rubaiyyat » No, not particularly.
I have to say, I'm somewhat offended. First they lock me out of my TARDIS, then my body
.
2:03 AM trollopfop » You know, I think I'm starting to understand why people find me exasperating.
No offense.
rubaiyyat » Hey!
2:04 AM I'm still in fewer than three pieces.
trollopfop » And I've burned a few more regenerations than you have, so it's not like I'm in any position to point fingers.
2:05 AM rubaiyyat » Ooh. I can phase through walls!
Sort of.
trollopfop » Sort of?
rubaiyyat » In that nothing physical is actually passing through them.
2:06 AM trollopfop » True enough
rubaiyyat » Which first? TARDIS or unopenable door in a dark alley? Heh, I crack myself up. UNOPENABLE DOOR IT IS!
2:08 AM trollopfop » Keep me posted, will you?
2:16 AM Wasn't gone long was I? Time dilation. Very odd. That thing is not a door.
trollopfop » No, not long at all. Ten minutes, perhaps. And what is it?
2:17 AM rubaiyyat » Can't pass through it; not from this end. I can walk around it, I can pass through back to front, but not front to back. If I go around it, it's an ordinary little corner shop. Nothing at all fantastic about it.
2:21 AM trollopfop » So if it's a door, it's not one that translates to anyplace physically there.
If it's not a door...
rubaiyyat » No.
I think I should check the TARDIS. Make sure I can get there.
trollopfop » *nods*
2:22 AM Be careful, Doctor.
...never thought I'd say that.
2:23 AM rubaiyyat » •doffs metaphorical hat• Trust me, I don't plan on dying until this is solved. ...or then.
[...]
5:10 AM rubaiyyat » [magi] Possibly I should sleep.
trollopfop » Sleep is a Good Thing.
rubaiyyat » Indeed. We shall have to continue our rambling! ...and I shall have to figure out what the heck happened to the Doctor. Srsly.
trollopfop » ...Yeah.
Ten is worried.
5:11 AM And feeling remarkably useless, and gnashing his teeth over whatever it is he's missing.
rubaiyyat » He and I both. I'm siccing magibrain on it. ...though, that doesn't always turn up wonderful things.
5:12 AM trollopfop » Not always. But shiny!
5:13 AM rubaiyyat » Yyep.
Hopefully, there will be a status report tomo--er, later today.
G'night!
trollopfop » Sleep well!
There are a few things that happened in this whole great sequence {seq} of events. Unpleasant as it all is, I'll give you a overview from my perspective:
There I was, on Earth, going about my business when, imagine my surprise, something much like a floating brain trailing music I've never listened to appears at the edge of my psyche and says that my presence is requested by none other than my good friend the Vesmier and some other persons I've never heard of. Always curious, I jaunt off to see what it's all about, and meet none other than myself from a different universe!
More of my stories start that way...
I want my help to help a friend. I, personally, am a bit busy investigating strange events in San Fransisco, and say that if I want to help me with that, I'll be glad to help me help a friend. I agree. We set to work.
Then, of course, comes all this I-become-psychically-overwhelmed-get-better-go-back-in-solve-parts-wake-the-TARDIS-get-psychically-thrown-out-of-my-universe-try-to-reclaim-my-memories-watch-Kosch-get-injured-suspect-something-rotten business, but, you know.
For those of you following along at home, this comes near the end of my personal life story to date, and the beginning of my saga within this headspace.
The wonders of a nonlinear approach, eh? ...eh?
Sat, 29 Dec, 2007
8:52 PM rubaiyyat » [The Doctor [!7]] Though, note on world-saving and badgers, you haven't seen the Ves at his best, I think. Well, he really never is unless you push him. I think. Seriously; got into some trouble a while back, Daleks closing in on Earth, think they took the Chula as thralls, or something, scavenged time technology--and the Senate, you know, of course it wasn't any of their business. Earth as a second Skaro? "Meh," apparently. I get Kosch backed up against the wall, still can't remember how I convinced him, and /two hours later/ he's done something to the Senate and there's a full taskforce ripping the carpet right out from under our exterminator friends.
I swear, when he pulls out the stops.
trollopfop »
8:53 PM Badgers are fierce things. ...especially when they've been a little bit mutated. I heard you got involved in that in your Academy days, as well?
rubaiyyat » Ah. Well. Now, that was the Rani, mostly.
8:54 PM I just sort of... made them a little bit of an, er, fact.
trollopfop » Over here, she made them, I just... ah... released them? Wasn't supposed to get quite so out of control.
8:55 PM ...It was funny!
8:56 PM rubaiyyat » Oh! Though. All that. You know I actually managed to park a TARDIS inside a TARDIS without creating a time ram? Finest moment! One of them.
8:57 PM trollopfop » Oh, had a bit of fun like that with the Master. Fascinating, really. When each TARDIS appears inside the other?
8:58 PM rubaiyyat » It got a bit out of hand, here. Wound up with a bunch of badgers popping into existence all over various planets, few people came after me, I had to go enlist the Rani's aid to get myself out of it. Not being Kosch, getting the Rani to help involved a lot of sneaking around the Rani's TARDIS and... creatively borrowing a few of her toys.
8:59 PM But, no; as it turns out, if you disconnect your TARDIS to its external physical interface and slave the materialisation circuits to the target TARDIS, you can create a second interface without breaking apart the universe.
9:03 PM trollopfop » Hmm. Interesting. Not that I've got another TARDIS to try that with.
9:04 PM rubaiyyat » Well, from what I've seen, there should be one drifting somewhere near he end of the universe. But that's probably not a place you want to be.
9:05 PM trollopfop » Though I may have to go have a look anyway. Not very fair to just leave it, if it's still active.
9:07 PM rubaiyyat » ...so, Doctor, here's a question: how many races do you know with a passive ability to influence the behaviour of nearby humans without attracting attention to themselves, who can also lock down a TARDIS from the outside?
9:08 PM And who can kill someone without any internal or external signs?
trollopfop » Thinking.... Skiera!
You know them?
rubaiyyat » Haven't run into them.
9:10 PM trollopfop » Sneaky little devils. Vaguely reptilian. About the size of a housecat. Immensely troublesome for their size.
9:11 PM rubaiyyat » Hm.
9:13 PM trollopfop » They tend to skulk about in the shadows. Find bigger things to do their work for them. Usually find them as stowaways... And they've got a sort of built-in perception filter. The one sure way I've found to tell where they are is to look exactly where you're least inclined to.
9:32 PM rubaiyyat » Ever been to the Mission District in SanFran? I gather my universe's is a bit different to this one's, but I think the general idea probably carries over.
9:33 PM trollopfop » *nods*
Been there a few times
rubaiyyat » Sam's home. Right in there. Brother was a painter; he had a decent bit of handiwork up and around.
9:35 PM A few odd little designs keep cropping up, never--well, once--together: http://adravet.net/misc/img/mission-symbol-inferior.jpg , http://adravet.net/misc/img/mission-symbol-superior.jpg . Didn't take much notice of it until they showed up on the door to the TARDIS. And I couldn't get in.
9:36 PM It was all supposed to be •normal•. Stop back, hang with the folks a bit, go on. We were going to Tranfalgatta next. Then--hrmph.
9:40 PM trollopfop » ...I'm sorry.
rubaiyyat » Lovely June day. Park the TARDIS off in a nice walking park, lodged between a few trees, head to her place. Should have noticed something was odd, the way her mother was acting. Love 'em all to bits, don't get me wrong, but this isn't a quiet family--if something's worth saying, it's worth saying loudly. I think her mother could actually shout down a Dalek. And there she is, being demure and sweet and quite a lot calmer than she is when her daughter usually shows up from travelling. Didn't even break out the klondikes.
9:44 PM Of course, soon as I set foot inside I have her brother attached to my arm and dragging me back out again to see this new gallery he's helped open. I go, I look--love the Mission, so bright, so full of life; that was the first place I saw that damn inferior symbol, right in one of his paintings. We come back three hours later and Sam is bumming around outside the house, more than a little concerned. Her mother is acting oddly--well, not that she was ever the pinnacle of normal.
trollopfop » nods
9:46 PM rubaiyyat » Got no energy to her. Seems constantly, pleasantly preoccupied. Forgets certain things almost immediately. Or Sam will ask a question, and it won't even occur to her to answer. Neither her brother nor her kid sister notice anything odd, but they're not leaking affect. Just her mum.
9:47 PM trollopfop » ...Odd question: Eating more, specifically sugars, or not at all?
rubaiyyat » I didn't see her eat at all. Then, I wasn't there for long.
trollopfop » *nods* Understood.
9:48 PM rubaiyyat » Did seem to have a lot of stuff in her kitchen. Rows of boxes of baking soda, big jugs of vinegar. Jeff thought she was starting her spring cleaning late. Seemed clean enough to me.
9:49 PM ...very bright, very sunny. All the drapes were removed.
trollopfop » Baking soda and vinegar. Hmm. Doubt she was suddenly interested in grade-school science projects.
9:51 PM rubaiyyat » Unlikely. Sam was the scientist--well, mechanist--of the family. Jeff does arts, Maddie is still in grade school, their mum was a marketer. Some home-improvements company.
9:53 PM Did poke around Jeff's studio a bit. Tiny little room; no idea what it was built for. Had a few sketches around, mostly with that inferior symbol. There was one, featured both, superior symbol, well, in superior position, but it was scribbled out. Well, he had that piece in the gallery; I thought those were rough drafts. Wasn't until I started seeing them around the district that I thought twice about that.
9:57 PM Any case, Sam decides that something is up. Smart girl, and travelling with me, she gets a nose for that. Knows her family, too. I head back to the TARDIS for my sonic, going to take a closer scan, when I bump into someone on the street. Rather, they bump into me; walk right in, smile pleasantly, walk right off, same expression as her mum. Linda, she is. Her mum. This sort of cargo-kine complacency. That's when I start watching; must be one in every thirty, thirty-five people. Same expressions, same sort of genial idiocy.
9:58 PM trollopfop » *nods*
rubaiyyat » I get back to the TARDIS and can't open it. Superior symbol painted in white over the whole door, and the key won't turn. I call Sam, tell her to ask Jeff what's going on, where he got that symbol from. And here's the kicker; it doesn't even register that he's painted it.
10:05 PM rubaiyyat » Right. So. Bit odd. All this stuff--it's like background noise to them. Passes right out of their perception. I head back toward the house, and halfway there, I see a catty sort of man carrying on a rather animated, if one-sided, conversation with one of our kine-folk. I head up to ask if anything is wrong--someone's noticed, at least--and he heads off down an alley. I go after, he vanishes. I mean, turns-the-corner, vanishes. I took some time, searched the alley. Quite nice murals, not much else. One door, quite artfully incorporated into a picture of a castle, actually, but it's locked securely. Inclision multiplier couldn't even budge the latch. ...which was rather frustrating.
10:06 PM trollopfop » I can imagine... *thoughtful*
10:10 PM rubaiyyat » Sam calls. Sounds a bit strained, now; asks me, very, very carefully, if I could "immediately proceed to our house on Bryant Street." Which they notably don't have. She reiterates: I need to go to the house on Bryant Street, now, it's very urgent, she hangs up. Or something hangs her up.
trollopfop » ...
10:11 PM rubaiyyat » ...and I suppose I should have listened. But the phone tracked her; she was still in her house on Oak, and I ran there instead. And she was already dead.
10:12 PM trollopfop » ...Again. I'm sorry.
rubaiyyat » Yeah.
10:13 PM trollopfop » Something's not adding up there, though. One Skiera wouldn't have that kind of control. At least, not where I'm from. A few humans, yes, absolutely, but not on that scale, not unless you've got a full-blown infestation.
10:14 PM Certain things are similar, yes.
But... This reminds me of something, and I can't think what.
10:15 PM rubaiyyat » It goes on.
10:16 PM trollopfop » Oh?
10:17 PM rubaiyyat » Her mother'd vanished entirely, and Jeff and Madeline were in hysterics. According to them Sam had called me and gone into a seizure, then she'd collapsed. But there wasn't any--there were no signs of a seizure. Not a mark on her. Blood oxygen was perfectly normal, adrenaline a bit increased but aside from that everything remarkably calm, no chemicals, toxins, virii, bacteria, no energy resudue, no strain on the heart muscle or any other muscle--nothing. Perfectly healthy 20something young woman, in the best of health for traipsing across the galaxy, had just keeled over and died for no reason.
10:20 PM No one'd thought to call the police. I was going to tell them not to, going to take her back to the TARDIS, but--well. Couldn't reach it. And I wasn't--warm, humid, San Fransico June day. Couldn't leave her there. Had to let them take her.
10:21 PM trollopfop » *nods*
10:25 PM rubaiyyat » I did go to Bryant street, finally, left Jeff and Madeline in police care. Must have walked the length of it. Oh, plenty of houses, plenty of house-like structures, a few murals and graffitis of houses here and there... either the trail had gone cold or I had no idea what I was looking for. Called the TARDIS. Complete lockdown, but you know there are bits that never shut down; of course, the TARDIS doesn't make great conversation, but the psychic signature... well, even it didn't tell me much. It was just... remote. Standing off. Not quite drawing back, just keeping a distance. Psychic interference, I thought. Couldn't get anything conclusive fro outside the old girl; if I could just get in to do some scans--you know.
10:26 PM trollopfop » *nods*
10:27 PM rubaiyyat » Her house was a crime scene, of course. I sort of snuck back in, psychic-papered the officers on duty that I was a detective. One thing grabbed me--that caution tape? Horrible yellow stuff? Someone'd markered that inferior symbol right on a piece. Tried to call their attention to it. They looked at me like I was an idiot. Said nothing about it.
And that's where you lot found me.
10:29 PM Ah--one other thing. Riffs on a theme but.
10:30 PM No one'd reported her mother as missing. Or tried to contact her. It just slipped everyone's mind.
10:31 PM trollopfop » ...It's all just Someone Else's Problem, isn't it?
10:32 PM rubaiyyat » Or it's not a problem at all. Honestly, Doctor, I don't think they know.
And these symbols. We're not talking quick doodles. Bilateral symmetry, masterful scaling, exact proportions....
10:33 PM I would think robots, cyborgs, at least, but... hang on.
I'll be right back. Have to hop in canon--half a tick.
10:34 PM FUCK. Fuck fuck fuck fucking FUCK. I should have seen that! I should have guessed that first!
trollopfop » What?
10:35 PM rubaiyyat » I just took a knife to one of those things. Didn't mar it!
That's not paint. Not literal physical paint.
10:36 PM trollopfop » ...
10:37 PM rubaiyyat » Someone is sticking the IDEAS of those symbols up around town. No wonder it's so easy for everyone to miss them.
10:38 PM Persistent psychovisual illusion.
•hits something•
10:39 PM ...and of course I only thought of it once I came here. So whatever it is, I've been affected as well. Wonderful.
10:44 PM trollopfop » Only thing that would explain that where I'm from would be a Skiera infestation. But in such numbers would be unprecedented. Unless they've got something to amplify them.
10:45 PM Could be something entirely different though.
rubaiyyat » Any classic signs?
10:52 PM trollopfop » People affected tend to tire easily. Thus, they tend to eat more in the earlier stages. Lots of sugar, quick energy rush. I mentioned that. There's a sort of obliviousness: you could strip naked and dance an Antarian jig in front of them and they'd just sort of smile. For the Skiera themselves, you'd want to look in smallish, out of the way spaces. Warm. They like warmth.
10:57 PM rubaiyyat » Hm. The contents of the fridge seem to be beer, mustard, a loaf of bread, a few /cans/ of green beans, a bottle of white wine, and takeout from someplace called... Jamal's? Never heard of it. The freezer has quite an impressive buildup of frost and a bag of frozen broccoli. From what I can tell, the shelves seem normal; some pretty sugary cereals, but Maddie loves those. Pasta. A few mixes.
10:58 PM ...no staples. None of the usual four-sugar-baking powder-shortening stuff. Of course, Linda never did much baking.
10:59 PM ...from what I've gathered.
trollopfop » ...hmm.
Not that, then. Not unless they'd been at her for a while and anything else just got used up.
11:00 PM rubaiyyat » Well, we know, or can assume, a few things. Psychics, given the behavioural changes and illusions. Passive psychics, or the TARDIS would have reacted.
11:02 PM trollopfop » *growls a bit* Something familiar... I know this! I know this! And I can't... *thunks the human brain he's translating through*
rubaiyyat » Targeting less than three percent. No obvious connection between them, not at first glance. What's that selective?
11:03 PM ...there's a change. These scribbles, the ones that Jeff did? I can erase them.
He drew these out.
11:04 PM No illusion here. But, still... hhh, idle hands.
trollopfop »
rubaiyyat » Or something he's picking up on. Of that family, he didn't seem most affected.
11:06 PM trollopfop » Did he have anything useful to say about that symbol cropping up?
11:07 PM rubaiyyat » When Sam asked him? "Huh? They're just doodles," seemed to be his response. Never did ask about the ones out and about.
11:12 PM I'm halfway to the point where I'd trance and let my animal hindbrain take over. See if anything grabs me, makes me conform.
11:13 PM trollopfop » ...If Jeff's picking up on this, why not have him trance out?
See if he gets anything else?
Put him into a light trance, and let him draw?
11:14 PM rubaiyyat » It's an option. To be honest, I'm a bit worried about what will happen to him.
trollopfop » If he's remained unaffected so far... It is a bit dangerous, though. Not if you're not sure you can get him back.
11:16 PM rubaiyyat » Not only that. The only way I can explain Sam's death is that her mind was abruptly severed from her body. Which must take immense, or incredibly precise, psychic power. If I put him in a trance and ask him to help me against these, that makes him all the more susceptible.
11:17 PM And if they've been affecting my thought, no matter on how subtle a level, that means they may be mentally powerful enough to take on a Time Lord.
11:18 PM trollopfop » Trancing yourself, though... If they are mentally powerful enough to take you on, that's... Well, a bit suicidal, even for me. Not if you don't have someone to act as an anchor.
11:19 PM rubaiyyat » Which is why I haven't, yet. If I went searching, all they'd have to do is obscure the path back.
11:20 PM There's a bit of a... to use a human word in an idiomatic rather than technical sense, schizophrenic quality to this, though, wouldn't you agree? All that spillover into the general public, loose, haphazard, compared to the specific attacks against Sam, the TARDIS....
trollopfop » *nods*
11:23 PM ...If you can get me over there, I can anchor. Or... You and the Vesmier are both present in a mind over here. As much as I don't like to volunteer him, if there's anyone who could be a stable anchor, I'd reckon it'd be him. *still chewing over the rest*
11:24 PM rubaiyyat » If I could roust him out from Gallifrey. He seems a bit put-upon these days. To drag him out into all this... besides, I owe him too many favours as it is.
trollopfop » True enough.
rubaiyyat » Wish he believed me, when I told him it was better out here. He'd make a fantastic travelling companion.
11:25 PM And believe me, I've asked... but. If you've met him.
trollopfop » Oh, wouldn't he just? But he's trying to make a difference where he can.
11:26 PM rubaiyyat » Where he can't, you mean.
trollopfop » Someone needs to play the doomsayer, just like someone needs to play the fool. *small smile*
11:27 PM And that's where we disagree. If there's a chance, I can't fault him for taking it.
rubaiyyat » I'm sure that when Gallifrey goes the way of Rome, he'll be standing on the hilltops saying he told them so. Really, he probably won't; he'll be the first one picking up the pieces.
11:28 PM trollopfop » ...Who's your Lord President, right now?
11:29 PM rubaiyyat » One of Burusa's clan. Disorett.
11:30 PM trollopfop » Hmm. You ever have a Time Lady for a companion? Name of Romana?
11:31 PM rubaiyyat » Romana! lovely girl. Well, eventually. Actually managed to think for herself.
trollopfop » Yes! Exactly!
Got into politics, in my universe.
Actually became President, and did she ever shake things up then!
rubaiyyat » •L• You're kidding me!
11:32 PM trollopfop » You wouldn't believe the number of assassination attempts.
rubaiyyat » I think Kosch would actually have done a jig.
11:33 PM trollopfop » Only problem was, once she took the Presidency, she kept trying to drag me into one scheme or another. Clever girl. Got a bit inconvenient, though.
The last President... sigh
But, no sense dwelling on that.
11:35 PM rubaiyyat » She and Adric hit it off, here. I think he really was quite infatuated with her; bless her, she never even noticed.
Off in E-Space now. Working on Alzarius.
11:37 PM trollopfop » nods
11:55 PM rubaiyyat » Magnesium.
trollopfop » *looks up*
11:56 PM rubaiyyat » Knew I was being thick; I tested Sam's blood, but no one else's. Jeff and Madeline both have higher than normal concentrations of magnesium. That frost buildup in the freezer? Bit of magnesium in that, too.
11:59 PM trollopfop » Well, there's something!
Sun, 30 Dec, 2007rubaiyyat »
12:01 AM rubaiyyat » Yes, something. Something I'm missing. It was probably ingested; I doubt anyone would be proactive enough to inject them. If it was ingested, it must have got on their food, or in their food. It's in the frost in the freezer.
12:02 AM trollopfop » ...And if it's affecting people randomly... Where do they do their shopping, I wonder?
12:03 AM rubaiyyat » Few places. Big general supermarket, little Hispanic place. A bit of home-gardening. There's a thought; if it's in the water? ...no, it seems to hit-and-miss for that.
Unless that many people really do live off bottled.
trollopfop » Even if they're living off bottled, not that many people go to the extreme of, say, cooking their pasta in it.
12:05 AM rubaiyyat » Hold on. I'm going to go abduct one of the victims.
12:09 AM Normal magnesium.
trollopfop » Hmm.
Not widespread, then.
12:10 AM rubaiyyat » Or magnesium co-occurs with resistance. But that just makes more things not add up.
12:11 AM Two odd bents, opposing each other. ...I did say it seemed schizophrenic.
trollopfop » It does.
[...]
1:44 AM rubaiyyat » ...that didn't work quite as I had anticipated.
1:45 AM I, um, seem to be comatose.
1:46 AM trollopfop » ...what?
1:47 AM rubaiyyat » In my defence, everything I did seemed a perfectly good idea at the time.
trollopfop » It always does. Elaborate, will you?
1:49 AM rubaiyyat » Right. Went back to her house, decided to extract some of that magnesium. Scraped as much frost as would fit into a little saucepan, boiled it down. Left with a nice magnesium residue on the bottom, then it occurs to me that there's a reason, aside from cleaning, to have quite a lot of baking soda in a kitchen. If you thought you might need to extinguish a series of small fires. So, naturally, I... set the pan on fire. A bit.
1:50 AM trollopfop » Right.
Perfectly sensible.
1:51 AM rubaiyyat » It flashes, lots of smoke, brilliant white light, and then there's this sort of amorphous bipedal upright thing. Couldn't see it, before; seems to be reacting with the smoke. Anyway, it hoots--or howls, or gurgles, or something--and swings at me. I swing back. Reflex, you know. It catches on fire and goes screaming out the door, so naturally I run after it.
trollopfop » Naturally.
1:53 AM rubaiyyat » Now, this thing is fast. It heads south, three blocks away it's left me in the proverbial dust, and I notice that a few of the people whose paths we've just crossed seem to have fallen over and gone into seizures. I can't imagine this to be a good thing.
trollopfop » Not really, no.
1:55 AM rubaiyyat » At least people seem to be noticing. Screaming, calling the police, a few of them have just stopped and started staring. I render assistance; I go to the nearest one, and he's still breathing, so I very carefully take a very small peek inside. He's hanging by a thread--to himself, I mean. Like a balloon. And it's fraying.
1:56 AM I think, if I can stabilise that, not only can I save him, I might be able to see what's happened. I try, and then something conks me upside the head, and... things get a bit confused, from there.
1:58 AM I feel like there's something there, but I can't grasp it. Something should have happened that I can recall. But it's a... jumbled, nonsensical mess. Lights and colours. I come to and I'm standing above myself, and I seem to be sprawled out in the middle of the police cordon. I think. Living room.
Out of body experience.
Can't get back in, but I can come here. (At least there's one out for me, eh?)
(And I'm fairly certain that whatever-it-is won't follow.)
2:00 AM trollopfop » Well, that's something at least.
Of course, doesn't do your body much good.
rubaiyyat » No, not particularly.
I have to say, I'm somewhat offended. First they lock me out of my TARDIS, then my body
.
2:03 AM trollopfop » You know, I think I'm starting to understand why people find me exasperating.
No offense.
rubaiyyat » Hey!
2:04 AM I'm still in fewer than three pieces.
trollopfop » And I've burned a few more regenerations than you have, so it's not like I'm in any position to point fingers.
2:05 AM rubaiyyat » Ooh. I can phase through walls!
Sort of.
trollopfop » Sort of?
rubaiyyat » In that nothing physical is actually passing through them.
2:06 AM trollopfop » True enough
rubaiyyat » Which first? TARDIS or unopenable door in a dark alley? Heh, I crack myself up. UNOPENABLE DOOR IT IS!
2:08 AM trollopfop » Keep me posted, will you?
2:16 AM Wasn't gone long was I? Time dilation. Very odd. That thing is not a door.
trollopfop » No, not long at all. Ten minutes, perhaps. And what is it?
2:17 AM rubaiyyat » Can't pass through it; not from this end. I can walk around it, I can pass through back to front, but not front to back. If I go around it, it's an ordinary little corner shop. Nothing at all fantastic about it.
2:21 AM trollopfop » So if it's a door, it's not one that translates to anyplace physically there.
If it's not a door...
rubaiyyat » No.
I think I should check the TARDIS. Make sure I can get there.
trollopfop » *nods*
2:22 AM Be careful, Doctor.
...never thought I'd say that.
2:23 AM rubaiyyat » •doffs metaphorical hat• Trust me, I don't plan on dying until this is solved. ...or then.
[...]
5:10 AM rubaiyyat » [magi] Possibly I should sleep.
trollopfop » Sleep is a Good Thing.
rubaiyyat » Indeed. We shall have to continue our rambling! ...and I shall have to figure out what the heck happened to the Doctor. Srsly.
trollopfop » ...Yeah.
Ten is worried.
5:11 AM And feeling remarkably useless, and gnashing his teeth over whatever it is he's missing.
rubaiyyat » He and I both. I'm siccing magibrain on it. ...though, that doesn't always turn up wonderful things.
5:12 AM trollopfop » Not always. But shiny!
5:13 AM rubaiyyat » Yyep.
Hopefully, there will be a status report tomo--er, later today.
G'night!
trollopfop » Sleep well!