InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Give me all your bananas."

The Doctor (notginger) wrote in mirage_rpg,
@ 2008-07-22 23:51:00

Entry tags:

complete, day 8, katara, the doctor

Who? The Doctor & Katara
Where? The restaurant.
When? Evening.
What? The attempted teaching of science/technology.
Rating G, probably.
Status Complete.

After barely managing to successfully order a room-service brunch through a lot of giggling, the Doctor had decided that he would venture down to the restaurant to collect them something for dinner rather than go through another one-ended conversation with a golem on the phone. It was just easier when they could at least nod a confirmation to him. So, he had dressed in his suit trousers and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, deciding to leave off the tie and suit jacket due to the change in resort. Finally, the planet was making him give up on the full suit, which was something of a miracle, although Rose's relaxing influence might have had something to do with it. He no longer felt the need to use his suit as a protective shield, stopping anyone from getting too close.

He headed into the restaurant, picked up a menu and ordered them some pasta to go - it felt like it was way too hot for chips, but he was sure Rose would disagree, so he ordered a portion of them as well, and headed over to a nearby table to wait for his order to cook. He fished Rose's mobile phone from his pocket; he'd promised to take a look at it and see what he could do about it's inability to call any other planet. He pulled the back off and examined the device he'd inserted into it to give her universal roaming; perhaps if he just tried to increase the signal even further he might get somewhere. He took his sonic screwdriver from his pocket; this was exactly why he needed the suit jacket, carrying everything in his trouser pockets was a little awkward. He pressed the tip against the roaming device inside the phone and turned the screwdriver on. It emitted a blue light, and gave an electronic sound, something like a mixture between TV static and a dial-up internet connection. He moved the blue tip along the edges of device, concentrating hard as the phone started to heat up in his hand. He doubted that the signal was the problem, but it was worth a try nonetheless.

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k_waterbender
2008-08-07 09:36 pm UTC (link)

“I’ve lived in my world my entire life. The closest a person ever got to leaving it was traveling to the Spirit World, but that’s still connected to the living world, and the body is left behind as the gateway back. I’ve never been there before, so taking this huge leap into another Planet that I supposedly can never leave is… a lot for me.” Katara admitted.

“I wish I could better explain how I do it. All I can say is what I said before. There’s life energy that flows through every person called qi. Benders harness this energy and flow it out of them to control an element. I have a natural affinity with water, being from the Southern Water Tribe and having a blood line that runs solely through the Water Tribes. It’s hard to explain, but I can feel the power I have in bending. For waterbenders, the moon cycles control how powerful our bending is because the moon spirit is from who the first benders learned. When the moon is full my bending is at it’s peak, but when there’s a lunar eclipse I can’t bend at all. Not all benders are affected this way. The firebenders are more powerful when the sun is out, but they lose that power during solar eclipses. Airbenders and earthbenders aren’t affected at all by the solar system, though. We all have to be able to move our limbs to bend. If our qi is cut off from someone who knows the pressure points to hit, or if our arms and feet are secured, we cannot use our abilities.” She hoped she explained it thoroughly enough his time, but she couldn’t be sure. If the Water Tribe femme hadn’t grown up knowing all about these things, she might have been confused, too. Little kids were rocked to sleep with stories of benders and things like that, though.

In a way, the things the man told her did make sense. For instance, she had no clue what a space-time continuum happened to be, so she couldn’t understand what messing it up would cause. When he spoke of being the only one of his kind left, she frowned a bit as she looked at him. Katara didn’t believe anyone could possibly be comfortable being the last of their kind left, as she’d experienced Aang’s anguish at being the last air bender. “It must be hard,” was all she offered to this man, knowing he probably didn’t want to delve into it, yet needing to show that she felt compassion for his experience.

“Oh. That’s actually what I meant. I didn’t mean time didn’t even exist. That would mean no one really had a purpose. I meant time ‘as we know it’ is an illusion.” She smiled at him, though it was a bit strained. In this place, neither of them had a purpose. Her purpose had been helping people recover their lives in her world, as his had been to try to maintain balance within the universe. They could do neither one here. Katara said nothing about this pessimistic thought, though, as she didn’t wish to upset him with it.

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notginger
2008-08-09 09:03 am UTC (link)

"Must be a bit of a culture shock. Happens to the best of us, but for what it's worth you seem to be doing just splendidly," he told her quite sincerely. He'd seen a whole variety of reactions from his human companions, and the adaptability of human beings never ceased to amaze him.

The Doctor rested his chin in his hand, his eyebrows pulled together as he listened to Katara's explanation of the waterbending. He could understand it to some extent; much of it sounded rather like his own people's use of psionics at times. "I see. So, it's sort of in tune with nature. I suppose that makes sense; if the moon can manipulate the movement of the ocean, I don't really suppose it's much of a leap to suppose a human could harness that sort of energy in themselves."

He gave her a sort of sad smile as she offered a little comfort to him. "Yeah. It's got easier though, with time," he shrugged. He was a different man (both figuratively and literally) since the Time War. Rose had helped him heal so many wounds, and grow into a more stable man once again. It still hurt when he let himself dwell on it, but it was more of a dull ache now than a blinding agony like before.

"Oh, good!" he said chirpily. "I suppose I've always known it to be... something fluid, something that can be manipulated... I suppose it's just what you're brought up with," he suggested. His people had often looked down upon humans as lesser species, but it was hardly their fault that they didn't fully understand time. They'd never had anyone to explain it, they'd never be given a reason to believe it was an illusion.

As he finished speaking, a golem approached the table and placed his order down in a paper bag. "Oh, thanks! Lovely," he grinned before turning back to Katara. "Well, I suppose I better take my friend her dinner. It's been lovely chatting to you... and if you ever find yourself bamboozled by this world, I'd be happy to try and explain anything I can," he told her, moving from his seat when he suddenly realised he'd missed out a vital piece of information. "Oh! I'm the Doctor, by the way. Nice to meet you!"

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