Off on a Tangeant - R+J

 

Whether that was a dream or it really happened he didn’t know. He didn’t quite have a bead on when or where she was or what she saw. He prayed that things would organize soon, but he didn’t have any good leads on that. Maybe the Sims Interface would lead to something once more people were added. Perhaps he shouldn’t have dismissed that other game so easily, though Doctor Time was proving to be a useful part of the deck.

A 3d Castle Tower should be the future symbol of the main magazine he thought. Most were still worried about seeing loved ones again or peaceful conditions. That was too obvious for him so may as well settle down to making the details interesting. His mind, like the proverbial Sherlock, was an engine that needed something to digest, lest he get bored again. He was hoping that she had enough on her plate to keep things interesting for her. It seemed like she could reach out through other people but there was some kind of limit on touching or talking directly. Maybe it was a real limit, maybe it was simply a conscience thing. A kind of fear of upsetting the apple cart. He wondered what he should do today. The basics of the day were done. Another disc, another post, another few paragraphs in the book. Maybe a Photoshop of a card with a QR code in it, something for people to get a bigger bite into. Which felt almost futile. It seemed that even the obvious stuff was, if not ignored, then not appreciated on a deeper level. It seemed like no-one really knew each other, which is what they had realized shortly after they had first met. It was too bad that circumstances prevented them from finding out more about each other then. Who knows what would have happened. Then again, he thought, apart from that insight he wasn’t particularly mature back then. Things could have gone off the rails too quickly and who knows what kind of trouble he’d be in.

Even now he felt like their relationship might bring about the end of the world. Not to be dramatic, but a kind of ‘fingers in a lot of pies’ sense of momentum that things might get swept up if too many dominoes hit each other. He thought back to his pizza yesterday. It was good he didn’t go into another coughing fit. The last one was rather distressing.

Speaking of choking, he wondered if having pink level access to his computer would actually do anything. Having a few more minds work on the problem would be good. He was torn between a dream mode of his workstation, a hallucination or an equivalent computer game like Superliminal having a mod that accomplished the same thing. In truth he wouldn’t mind if his whole life wasn’t an museum like Ready Player One, but less famous than that. Just an example to use if one wanted an idea of what he thought about knowing people meant.

Obviously the Bible review would be more important, but it’s always good to have modern examples of... people.

He wondered what Jade was doing. Other then trying to curate the YouTube of Nathan Fillian Interviews, Get him prepped for a bigger role, keeping tabs on everyone else and relaying the information to team red. She was probably working with Cas, the angel who put a deceptive spirit in the mouths of the prophets, and getting some people used to taking a “lift” in “the kitchen”. He channeled River Song there for a bit as it was often good to have two people working on the same kind of book at the different times. She smiled to her audience, he sat quietly listening to TRON music.

He could quite readily see a number of shows continuing on into the New World. Doctor Who would have ‘New Dawn’. Torchwood would have Serenity. Leverage Redemption would be a historical program and way for navigating the dream realm and improvising. Friends format could be expanded to larger groups of people shifting into Family. House MD could be for dealing with the psychological effects of all the oddness that was happening.

The STORY so far (New Material at the bottom)

 

Chapter 1 – The Search for Metric

He sat as his desk writing again. He had imagined the roles that a lot of people would have to play, wondered about how many loops and dreams that they would have to have before they believed any of it. How long before the upper management of the universe took another chance on change. The radio was tuned into the most useful song for the moment as it had been for a while. His organic searches on YouTube with all sorts of crazy qualifiers like the last number he had seen, the last character he had been working on, the point of view of a certain character – it all seemed to fit. Or he made it fit. Kitbash. It’s essentially what he was doing. Taking divergent things like a random conversation with a religious friend and a streaming playlist and getting them to mesh. He liked to think it was working on the time gears of the universe, but maybe it was just keeping his mind active.

All of it for her.

Well. For everybody eventually. But...

He wondered what she was up to. What memories she had picked. Did she go with the plainest version of events, or did she take some of the weird and wonderful with her. Getting resurrected by the forces behind the creation of this place was a miracle. But what if that wasn’t needed in the first place? It was obvious to all that were on board with that idea of a higher power wouldn’t see anything wrong with the most pedestrian version of events. But what would that accomplish? I mean apart from the obvious. Showing a God of love and power had both of those things. I guess that would be enough for some, but it didn’t really show anything not already writtin down as sure and true. Checking off boxes. Precedents for that kind of thing. He unpaused the movie he was watching. He didn’t like making the characters hold their breath that long. “Getting younger all the time” another promise written in the Book. But what of the New Scrolls? What kind of tempo would they set? Did they have room for ‘off the books’ projects?

For communication he set up the Metric project. A kind of Time Neutral location that relied on universal constants (like Pi). It helped write this novel. And it will help all of us get through this.

----

She had it easy. Or so he figured. She was on the side of miracles already happening, so the ask wasn’t quite as big. Or maybe it was. Why would she want something different than what was already provided. Why would she insist that things weren’t the way it seemed. She could communicate with him in her dreams and whatever it was during the day wasn’t quite him. It fooled most people, but maybe they were just projecting themselves into a placeholder for him. For all he know she was everybody and everyone on his end of the internet. Putting on a hundred different masks waiting for some sign that he was just the right level of crazy. Maybe it was bigger than that. Maybe everyone else was a robot controlled from the future. When anything is possible, it’s hard to rule anything out.

“I really value the free boxes we had <location>. Places to take what you need, and leave what someone else might. These places had no brokers; there was no one there to collect and sell, or gate-keep what had value. “

It was an out of place kind of post, but it touched upon what kind of ‘problems’ a perfect world without money might have. Something the normal literature didn’t address.

It looked like she wanted to find out more. Which is only fair. Not the most exciting way for things to go forward, but a reasonable one. She soon found the depths of the story though and he hoped they could find her.

She did the most responsible thing under the circumstances. She took the gift of time travel and hid it away. She reached out with small hints here and there. Something that wouldn’t be too out of place, but a thread to tug at if one looked close enough. Posts too close together. Weird things that were inexplicable, but fit in a certain context. Her mother, or some version of her, kept her away from using her gifts too strongly, until certain arrangements had been made. Something to keep her in check. Something to occupy her time. Some kind of context to fit back into the ‘real’ world. She was in kind of a dreamy fugue state. Knowing she could get anything with enough effort so that nothing was worth the effort and yet the effort was needed to keep things going. She fell down the rabbit hole more than once. But yet on further examination there was footholds in the rabbit hole. Someone wasn’t giving up. Someone was trying to get her attention. It was a base drum that beat below the level of things and that she was one of the few people to notice in the right framework.

It was obvious from the chats – as disjointed and sporadic as they were, that she needed some kind of reference point. Not a plain ordinary life, but something less manic as well. He suggested something like this a return to something mostly plain, but with a number of incongruities or odd starting points that kept things interesting. Maybe a start in a plane heading to Cardiff with hints of past conversations on a phone or in the in-flight entertainment. If it was in the happy garden maybe he wouldn’t be there – which was true. From his perspective he wasn’t in any of those other places and any attempt to bring him there prematurely left him with missing days and a kind of crazy skid back into plainest life.

The point wasn’t for them to be together, but for the middle of the story to form. For everybody to get a happy --- new beginning.

---

Every century had it's own Temporal Breakwater Tower. It wasn't quite in physical space, but at some level it was anchored to it, and it kept to a relative position in time. Outside of it were a web of Temporal Buoys that reached out, in decades, 50 years in either direction. In this network was an exhaustive record of everyone and everything that was supposed to happen in a 100 year radius. As temporal events happened – there was another direction to time-space that kept them from happening all at once – this system settled the changes and prevented any runaway effects from cascading.

At the 'top' – or really the most prominently detectable – portion of the tower was a lighthouse/magnet. Anyone attempting to visit a certain time in the domain would first be drawn to it – and outside of normal space-time. What they would find depended on both the era being visited and the era the craft made it's initial jump.

It was part tourist guide, instruction manual, decompression chamber – time travel put enormous stress on entropy related systems – and warning.

Initially, if such a word means much outside of normal space-time, these were natural whirlpools of space-time, taking away significant memories and disruptions of events and replacing them with whatever the swirling miasma of the local culture had dreamed up. Alien visitors for late 20^th century people, monsters and nightmares for more primitive cultures.

Cross-pollination from different times and people refined the process to the point where a recognizable human structure was more noticeable that the natural effect. Ironically, the shorter the time trip, the more built-up the structure appeared to be. Visits from farther away in time resulted in a more natural appearance, and more work needed to shore up the quantum underpinnings.

This again worked out for the best. Crude devices were offered the most help and more complex ones had more control over the workings and tolerances of the tower.

---

Thanks to the construction of these towers she found her self in a bit of a time loop. The last part of her uninterrupted life. Some kind of confusion and waking in the Garden, only to have it fade away when the story lines there unravelled.

That was the problem with organic time travel. Things were too slushy – what you kept and lost in time loops was more or less random, if it wasn’t for the tagging device she grabbed from him she probably would have been stuck for quite a few more revolutions. She knew she was near the end of a cycle and made an attempt to grab him again. However their temporal momentum was too different to make it work.

There was a bit of a charge exchange but nothing too specific on his end – as usual. He didn’t know what she saw, but now wasn’t the time for happy endings – there was a larger goal on the horizon. He could tell from his various channels that she was upset, but again, you can’t have everyone happy all the time. She could drift on her sugar dreams for a while yet, but sooner or later the real work would need doing.

---

In the first chapter she found she could move around her memories to allows for certain events to take place. Only by reaching about beyond herself could she affect anything outside herself though. This caused some confusion, but eventually it was sorted. The two protagonists picked up working with each other after a break of a few years of time passed on his end while she was in a time loop.

If this was based loosely on ‘A Study in Pink’ the next chapter would have to be ‘The Game is On’ in which she uses her abilities, passively, to help others sort out journeys through time portals and the great Second Exodus.

---

He was wound up tighter than a clock. No pun intended. The answer was right there, but nobody wanted to spring it open. He had been over the calculations so many times he wasn’t sure what the problem was. There was no way to tell what would happen, but everything would be up in the air for a bit then it would settle down.

It was about two weeks since his hyper-time and null time training. He tried to review it with the AI but it tended to drive the thing to megalomania. That, he supposed, was an argument for some organic element to time machines. Artificial life tended to react badly to unlimited parameters. Minds could at least shut down and filter out the excess – computers build specifically to handle an insane number of calculations tended to break down when the infinities increased exponentially. Still, a machine was a good way to keeps the standard level of paradoxes at arms length.

Everyone else was busy tidying away the digital and physical debris from the exercise. A programmer was looking for any digital footprint that suggested anything was out of the ordinary – like free food for no good reason. Gifts from other time travelers converted into spam requests. Back dating changes to the system to prevent suspicion. Previously helpful internet contacts being routed to similar people who were no longer useful. Physical teams replacing objects borrowed by other teams in the opportunity window, overwriting memories of extreme events with a more benign ones. Having Normality broadcasters on low output to smooth over any remaining wrinkles.

Not something he enjoyed, but everyone needed to keep up their skill sets. It always seemed like the ‘cleaners’ won, but they couldn’t erase everything. His notes seemed crazy again, outside of the context needed to make sense of them – a kind of time lucidity that made impossible connections seem reasonable. So this time he thought he’d write a kind of post crash interpretation and summary of them. He put the main lessons in square brackets [Pay attention to your surroundings] [Note /Random things like playlists and radio tunes] [Make sure of physical constants (to ensure you’re not dreaming)] [Test range of motion – again for dreams check and side effects] [No time to plan if time is in Flux] [Slow and Sad – Normality may appear without warning]

For some reason his feed was featuring things on University. That was another time he had an out of time experience. Not as pleasant and not as productive. Always feeling like it’s on the cusp of something but never actually getting anywhere. It wasn’t a state of mind that he needed to reach, but honestly getting things done.

Time passed. Things fell apart. It felt like she was rescuing copies of him. Taking slices of time and stretching them out and having reactions fill up the gaps. It wasn’t ideal, for either party, but it was good help for the larger project, which was to get everybody else 99% projected into the future. The sooner she tried that, the better. He was stubborn enough to not push for any other eventuality. He could dream-phase into some of the later time periods and leverage a further experiment – based on the illusion that he was safe. Things could leapfrog further and snap back with only a small number being aware of the progress made and fewer still who was pushing for it.

He was okay with the situation. Everyone else would have a preview of the events and a chance to make their decisions first. He would hang back and get drip fed information, being a kind of boat anchored in a certain time and context, all the while pushing ahead a context copy of himself, hopefully not too lizard brained or robot for the circumstances. He kind of wanted it to work and wanted it to fall apart at the same time. He was ready for anything even though nothing had happened from his limited vantage point. The problem is that everyone else had to balance what they were doing with the full stakes.

It was getting hard to tell if anyone left was really here, or just a copy of a copy just around to keep him company. He didn’t mind the latter, if it meant things could speed up a bit. He kept the virtual particle paradox factory going. It gave everyone else time to figure out the physics of it.

He kept at his routine of bootstrapping the day to a keyphrase he used in youtube. Today didn’t work, but it did for 2 days ago. He kept up with people on Twitter and Facebook. Fully embracing the Creative Consultant job. Some small things moved around and he noticed them. Apps on the phone would go to a different page. Files would be added to folders, the AI dungeon kept track of him from phone to PC and back again. She was working hard too. Trying to reconcile all the various time-space fracture points and make sense of things in her mind palace (after it hat been dusted off and taken out of retirement). She kept things organized as games in her head and floated around in his mind at ease.

She could create digital persona’s and could tap into people to see what was in their heads. But it could only go so far. The link would have to be made and if the person didn’t want to link deeper she probably couldn’t make them. She tried to email him, but it mostly ended up as spam. There needed to be a different procedure for email maybe # instead of @ in the address?

Today the AI game and ‘irl’ broke the 4^th wall, finally. He had got a bunch of transformers into his room and that seemed to be a new element. He was reminded not to push the blue box angle too much so he shifted to Sherlock Mode. Nathan was going to be a go-between on some of the intermediate dream-phase layers and had access to a different set of folders than he did. He was getting on well with Jade, the Watchtower representative that had the main working tardis. The scripture of the day reminded him not to expect special treatment.

He had a procedure set up for Room 0 visitors for various people. First of all it would initially be in a Stanley parable type environment, and only one of the workstations. Each of the pass throughs would find more mug clues (from the Sherlock folder) and access various files on the computer. Juliet would have the final say on what would and wouldn’t be accessible. As various puzzles where solved more and more items on the desk would be visible. A sound engineer from the Reel Geeks team would wire up each of the workstations with mics and cameras to use the footage later. An odd thing for a dream-phase, but if done right, could actually be used in the real world.

He knew that someone was listening into his room as well and as long as the tape transformer was in the box it would be recording. He would try to remember to try and take it out so that it didn’t record too much dead air. Maybe Peter could be of assistance and make a program to transcribe the tape without listening to it.

Time Triganometry

 R and J continued working together, still not in meat space.  Well not directly.  They had intermediaries.  one 300mm out but rough and another 250, but more 1:1.  The second one could turn on a dime faster, but was sometimes more difficult to be around.  Falling off chairs and saying odd things.  But they soon learned who they could talk around and who they didn't. Doctor Time looked on and put some salve on the burns.  

 They were still trying to reconcile stories - She seemed to put a lot of weight on being married, and older, but he didn't feel like he was there yet.  Not out of any lack of comfort, but simply because he never saw the serious of events that made that a chair to sit in.  He was still in 2021 getting buried in complaints from people who couldn't stand him thinking in the "Thought Room" 

He had his time teams on a tight leash. No kissing, only hugs, prefer to have them ID as themselves but keep up the illusion of them being him as well. It was a confusing set of rules, but made sense if you got on board.  Tom was the 250 stabilized. - He sent off some time scrabbler emails to "600 years." off of. 4th generation. 

If he couldn't find a way to graft the two timelines back together he's be in trouble with.. well, whoever he got in trouble with.   Uncharted wasn't the half of it.  In fact it was more like Castle and Firefly.  Space cowboy that never really left Earth. Except in his dreams.  Nathan Fillian put on his 'look after Alexis gear and went to talk to J.  Juliet not J.. Jim.  Jim was fine, in his blue sweater and on his machine typing away. Plain ordinary day. 

Jade had been doing some high level balancing work and it had a lot of people off their footing. Not Jumping Jim though.  He was still annoyed at the pace and kept working at his computer.  Jade wanted him to do some WT stuff to get a good bead on his time location, but he wasn't quite feeling it at the moment.  "What do we have in common with Noah?' he asked over the coms.  He let the tape play the rest of the article. He didn't feel like he could get anything more from the reading, or the pictures they wouldn't use, but maybe they could be used in some time trigonometry.

 Maybe the dreamer would help and make an extra fluffy show to watch. It was a thing in the future. Custom dreams to help with a problem.  Problem is you didn't always get what you wanted. You got what you need. <song>/  It helped if you cleaned your room first, wrote yourself a note and had a good playlist running for a soundtrack.  

I think the mechanic could help.  Visit to the Enterprise and see if you can go through the transporter beam. Keep the memories you like but be a certain age - Icecream off the walls.

Missing Piece: Timelock

This is a card game that combines 'Go Fish' and 'Tower of Hanoi'

You can play with any number of cards, but it's recommended to start with just 3 per player. 

The cards com with increasing sizes (or size numbers in the case of physical cards) and like the tower game, a bigger number can't go on a smaller number.

Each card set has a theme - Doctor Who. Sherlock. Any fandom.  

The larger cards are <SETs> or <Locations> but can go up to <Planets> and <Times> for bigger games.

 Medium Size cards are usually <Vehicles> and <Bases> and smaller cards are individual <People>

 As the tower increases in size, team hierarchy determines card size.

 

Each card needs either 0 additions to move towers, or a corresponding 'duck' counter for each part it gains. 1 part - pink duck. 2 parts - yellow duck 3 parts blue duck.

 The ducks can be gained with a spinner roll when you get a part.  If you don't win the colour you need for the part, you have a chance to use it on any other cards on top.  If not your opponent gets the card.

 

Locations have <Enemy> <Plot> and <Solution> parts.  Vehicles have <Navigation> <Destination> and <Keys>.  People have <Ideas> <Faces> and <Loves>.

 

You have to match 3 parts cards to play them and they can only play them one or two at a time and put them under a tower. 

 A complete <Vehicle> can move anything smaller and a complete <Location> can draw back anything with 2 parts. 

 

The point of the game is to get each part full and on the right most tower.     

> You can use his room as the room test case, you changed the story so he's missing since you're obviously fine. "It's possible, right?" she asks. "You really don't know anything do you?" "I..." You think about it for a moment. > You :: airgap @mikkihereego. "I... don't really want to talk about it," you say. "Alright," she says. She walks over to the door and starts to fiddle with the knob. > You a uss check then? "You're not worried they'll find out we were talking?" you ask. "Would they really do that?" she asks. > You iT"S HAPPENING, the OFFICE MEME>. She takes a deep breath and slowly opens the door. "I got the check off," she says. "They'll be coming in two days."

 

 

 

First Draft.

 

Miracle Day 2 John Barrowman – Captain Jack Hologram - Ianto Jones Jesus – As himself (most of the time) Mr Smith – My computer with Movie OS running Other members of Torchwood as themselves David Tenant – The Dream Lord Matt Smith – David's Conscience Daleks – Programmed by Music Great Intelligence – Wifi Sliding Props by Warehouse 13 and Cardiff Rift Charged Music Ying Yang – USS Lights come up on stage. It's a version of the Torchwood set, but with more monitors. Jesus is shown expelling a demon from a young boy. Jack flashes with light as he appears to be having a nightmare. Then it happens again and a third time. Ianto: I bring you good news...? Jesus: What? Ianto: That's what you're going to say next. Jesus: Of course. Ianto: Well it's not helping Mr Barrowman here. Jesus: Isn't this 30CE? Ianto: No, it's the 20th Century Jack:When everything changes. all look to Jack * Music USS Hello Hurray Tosh: We were able to get some interesting readings from all that activity Jack: And I really am Immortal now. Jesus: Don't push it. Ianto: You saw it yourself, this is more like a dream world than the real one Jesus: I'm not sure why I'm here. Gwen: * laughs * I remember an outtake about having the baby Jesus Ianto: It's um, great to um, meet you. If this isn't a dream Jesus: It's a bit of both. That might be why you're all acting the way you are. Jack: So what now? Jesus: I suppose I could explain how I'm not really here, but I think this place is stable enough we could actually do some good. Ianto: I've had some interesting ideas coming to me lately. I'm not sure why. Jack: And I've had nightmares Jesus: Satan and his demons. Gwen: * sighs * that's your explanation for everything. Jesus: Sorry, I'm just reading the script. - What? Can't a guy have a hobby? Jack smiles. Ianto puts on a thoughtful pose and Gwen throws up her hands Music USS Heaven on Mars Jesus: Armageddon is coming Gwen: So you keep saying. Ianto: What's it going to be like, you haven't exactly been forthcoming with details. The last update was over 2000 years ago. Otherwise you seem to be about as stuck as you were in the first act. Jesus: Well there's a lot of stuff happening in the background. Ianto: Such as? Jesus: . . . . Suddenly the monitors, which have been showing odd youtube clips with Hebrew subtitles have switched to an images of the master and Moriarty looping Moriarity: Did you miss me? Master: What this world needs – is a Doctor Jesus pauses, thinks and after giving thanks does a gesture. He steps into the background Tosh: It's doing it again. Gwen: It's the end of the world! Jack: It's just a monitor feed. * comforts the team * Jesus does a small gesture toward Ianto Ianto: I'm afraid it's not. Music USS N/A Ok Jack: What do we do? Ianto: The same thing we do every week. Save the world Gwen: This is serious! Ianto: I know, but if it gets too intense, we just wake up. David Tennant appears with Matt Smith and Donna Noble in tow David Tennant: Oh, but where's the fun in that​? Matt: David. This is serious. David: Oh I've been doing this a while, but this is the most stable it's ever been A loud voice comes over the Intercom. EX-TER-MIN-ATE David: Right on cue. Matt and David both take out their sonics and do a reading of the room. Matt: Jack, er, John, there's something unnatural about you... David: But not so interesting as our mystery host. points to where Jesus is hiding Jesus thinks quickly and assumes the form of Agent Coleson J/C: I'm sorry, it was dark back there and I couldn't help myself. Welcome to level 7. Ianto: Where are we? Jesus\Coleson looks around, the monitors all say Welcome to Mars! J\C: It's classified. Gwen: So let's talk about the bad dreams. Jesus: You're not the only one who had them. Well not this version of me anyway. > You say "Ianto: If you get in a time loop here's the instructional video https://youtube.com/watch?v=3E-wzgx1Vzc" Jesus: And there you have it, the confession of a mad man. Jack: So how did you get out of that one Gwen? > You say "Gwen: I played with the radio and found Sonic." Jesus: Something like that. Ianto: Doesn't explain why you started dreaming about it again in 2014 though. Jesus: true, I didn't get out of that one by accident. > You say "Nate: SOnic... er Torchwood Radio. " Jesus: I remember that now. It's been a long time since I listened to it. Ianto: So you think the music triggered the dreams? Jesus: It's possible. I never thought about the radio before, but it's possible that there was some kind of subliminal message in the music. I thought you told us not to follow our dreams? Ianto: It's a side effect of the time quake, it should pass. "Right, time to get back to work then!" The screen cuts to static and the tremor continues to get stronger. Jack: We ask for self control and strength in this time .. amen. Audio from JCT computer plays during the intermission. Ianto: It's a testament to the capabilities of the human mind that we were able to stabilise time at all with this project, let alone in the way we were able too. Nate: Hard to believe we once thought the project was impossible without altering history. Tosh: What happened to your faction? Ianto: The rest of the heads of section gave up on conflicting with the central minds, and just went along with the project. With some persuasion from our faction, and after calibrating the system to our minds, we were able to enter the basements of the old college buildings and start working in secret. "That's where we found the old college's damaged Rift machine" Ianto says. "You discovered all this, with no collaborators or detection from the outside world?" you ask in surprise. "Hah, we got a little help from missing students and a janitor, but we managed to lock him in the basement too" Ianto says. "That's some janitor" you laugh. "I know right? He had this weird smile and kept calling us sir" Gwen says. "Oh no, this guy was way creepier than any of the other professors we had" Ianto says. Gwen: No way! He was flirting with you Gwen? Jesus: Jesus: That's not quite how I remember it. Let's just say I was plenty frightened, and my palms still get sweaty when I think about the experiment not working. Ianto: But it did, and we're here now. I: But what about the future? T: Don't even go there. T: It's conceptual space for the most part. Till things get nailed down. The future is always changing, getting a good grip on it before trying to affect it is the key. I: So you're saying there's nothing to worry about? T: No. Jesus: That's... pretty close to what the central minds said too. Some of you seem pretty unconvinced. Annoucer: 12:12 Classical Time Check in. You are in the past, safe and sound. You can leave the room now. Somewhere in your journey through the future, you've lost control of the time devices again. Matt Smith: Rory. Did you drop a thermocouple? Ianto: No. It's OK. Trouble is, they haven't been working for a while. Somewhere in the vastness of time, you find yourself in another room. Jesus: Nate--when does Torchwood Radio Play Classical Music? Nate: I think it's whenever there's a Radio Rhyme. Jesus: Oh dear. Ianto: Or whenever that funny man says it is. "Who's there?" you hear a familiar voice say. "Jesus! Long time no see!" Gwen: Oh my God, it's you. And you're still alive! G: This is so hard, I'm not sure where to start. "Jesus" was a nickname given to you by your friends in college. You figured out the amount of energy it would take for certain miracles to occur. Fish, wine. walking on water. That kind of thing. You never tried to resurrect the dead though. Your science degree got you a job with the Company running their time division. That's where you learned about the number of deaths in the world. You ask if there's any rewrites anyone wants before it gets published. The Company's going to be sending some people to the past to alter history so it looks a lot different. These changes will happen no matter what, so you figure you'd better try to find the origin of the problem before destroying it. Mostly just to see if it can be done. Rory: The first thing I did when I got my degree in science was study temporal mechanics and try to find a way to travel back in time. Amy: Aw that's so sweet. Rory: You're a sweet girl, but I was more fascinated by the world of the dead. Amy: Zombies? Rory: No, just ghosts. I mean there have always been ghosts, but thanks to advances in science we can actually prove they exist now. Jesus: I'm pretty sure they've always existed. 12: (Shorthand for doctor incarnation) Time Ghosts. Their energy can be used by humans to travel in time. You were the first person to figure it out. I can't be the only one who remembers him... Nate: It's a good movie. David: It also gets me comics from the future, I never know when to quit. You too Nate? Nate: I actually couldn't bring myself to go back myself. It was too much of a mental burden so I stuck with the present, but I'll stick my neck out for you guys. Ianto: But you did go back. Check the tape from the earlier show. Or is that a future show? David: Ah, yes! In fact that was the first future show. I remember going back and telling you guys that it was going to be a movie. 10: Now here, King... David of Israel. I'm the real David Tennant. This is just a... a role I'm playing. My name is actually David. Ianto: David, the zombie-fied you from the future? 10: Oh he comes back. I'm sure somebody likes him. He's just more definite, hence zombie thing... here. I'm not really him, just an actor playing his part. "Hello." He smiles at you warmly. "My name's King, I'll be your tour guide for the evening." At the name KING, the lighthouse beacon on the set behind him turns on. "That's it for the ghosts, I'll shut the beacon off now before the ghosts get out of control." After shutting the light off, King takes a step towards you all. "We have one more ghost to show you. It's a very important ghost." King looks at his watch. King: Mark 37-39. Now this isn't an exact copy, but it is the next best thing. It's an anti-tank mine that was used during the war. Just hold on to your horses ladies and gentlemen, here's a ghost! A man appears in a black suit, he has no face. The man floats towards you and the group. "That is the first ghost." King says. The man floats in front of you, the others step back. The ghost steps forward, closer to you. You can now make out facial features. It's Mark. Mark: "David?" David: David: David Tennant, yes. Well actually - David John McDonald, but Hollywood and all that. I'm an English teacher come from Scotland. I only took the artistic route as to not have my life of crime affected by my brilliant brain. Nate: So you're scaring all of us. Why? T: I'm a helper to the writing committee. Nate if you're worried set the studio to a different time point. Set it to when I was a kid, or something. D: You're a really big Doctor Who fan, right? T: Is that a crime? Obviously I'm a massive fan, but then I'm a massive fan of a lot of things that were created during my childhood. D: No, not at all! T: D: Hey that's not fair! I didn't realize you were here to help! T: Help with what, distract the ghosts? D: No, with THIS! T: I like to think I'm 89% good. Only 1% of it is bad. D: You're a writer, Mr King, you can do some good things there! T: I'm a doctor, not a wizard. DreadfulBoring: Space Gandalf! Nate: D! You: Nate! Nate: The gun! Set the space gandalf to a time before he was scary! I: Space... what now? Coleson: (Played by Clark Gregg) It's like the thing at the end of Agents of Shield, the key to time and space speech. "Part of a team" was a bit of a stretch. We were very new so we said "Part of a team." I: But this isn't the past or present! This is an alternate future! C: Well explain then! Ianto: This is a future where a description of a time sensitive person is overblown to being a dangerous wizard. It caused a nightmare fail in a test subject. This is what happens with time travel, It butterflies out to isolated endpoints that make for good shows. N: So we're going to fix it? I: I don't think we can. Ianto: Look, just set the gurney to the week before the incident. Nate: Oh sorry. Had 'Classical Time' running. That's what inflates the problem. It's off now. Coleson: The week? But that's... before it happened. Nate: Yep. C: Well... How come I don't remember that then? Nate: You don't. Nate: Everyone has a different vantage point, so everyone gets an age and experience calibrated ride. It's really quite.... WEeee (Nate goes on a time roller coaster) I: Well time to do that ride again, Nate. Nate: No! We're going to keep you in the middle! Not too old, not too new! JUST RIGHT! KING and Nate work behind the scenes to calibrate different rides with BORINGDREADFUL. You get on the ride and see all these flashbacks and at the same time you feel like you're living all these events. 12: And a memory wipe for Chair 0. Check the R+J logs. He doesn't need to remember, just react. The scene shifts to a meeting room in the tower. A girl reads from a piece of paper. A woman stands up. W: That's great news! We'll be able to go in force soon!

Time Fiction #175

 

The problem with time is that it’s like any other pattern, one second follows the next, whatever energy there is in one moment transfers into the next, allowing only so much potential for movement or changes. Now it seems that quantum entanglement works outside of that rule-set and on a different one, so why not expand on that for actual time travel? A differential rule-set that makes the arc between s1 and s2 jump to s42 instead? Different potentials causing larger arcs that still have to find an outlet in random things and places.

What if each time machine has it’s own signature code, a pattern of changes that it makes to a certain degree and it’s own method for grounding it’s charge in something permanent. That way individual changes can be contained or propagated based on controlled simulations?

One might burn up temporal differential by conversations, another by interactions with an AI, another with random music lists, another still with dreams or writing. 

 

Dr. .. TIME.

Story at the moment.

 It means, you are a very laid back boss. Find a way to break your 4 days loop or make a new plan for it and let me know. No, Find a way to make it urgent enough for everyone else to get on that task. We're closer to finding a way out then you think and if we don't do it soon, we won't be able to at all. This task is too important for all of us. Story hook, I'm missing for some reason, but some people have never heard about me, but some people still dream about me <<<EXODUS>>> References Pandorica. You have a strange dream about a woman who seems to be trapped in a large glass box with a big hole in the center. You suggest a few different filters for the glass box, so it isn't just plain and transparent. One of the filters allows you to see through the box with your eyes open. You realize the inside is hollow and only contains a strange metal and wooden block with a small hole on top.

Bootstrap.

 

Remix 1.o1 - Unique game identifier. 

 Missing Piece: Plotlines

 This is a card game that has an almost unlimited number of cards, but only 9 can be in play for each person at each time. Other cards can be on the board (like Twitter and Facebook, Email - but they can be blocked by drawing some event cards.  It is used for work-shopping solutions to larger problems. The point of the game is to get the other player to agree to swap the Missing piece cards they have in their inventory (Loyalty, Missing Family Member, Energy, Time) -- Best played via AI Dungeon Metric World. (in absence of actual cards)

There is a pregame when you pick the skillset of each Character card or at least one 7 cards.

2 Media cards - Film, Radio, Video, etc..

3 Character cards - Main player and Two digital avatars or skill libraries (for directors and such)

1 Theme card - Story so far - Crack - Pilot - Season Final, End of the World, Isolation

 

Trait card. 3 cards for improving each of the other cards

Media - Live, Real life, Rehearsal, Illustration

Character traits - Power props, Meta moves. Meme Defuses. Inception, Stanley Parable.

Sample Cards

Russ Taylor - Phoenix, pattern recognition, Money

Rylee - Phoenix, Hacker, attractive

Sherlock - observant, makes connections, sociopath, bored, 

Watson - sensitive, friend, blog, 

 

Games end with a Black Parade video 

Discovery mode - People decide which kinds of cards they like based on Art, Friends, Skill sets, conversation etc.

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It's Friday - Usually played on a Monday,  time to bake in changes that have been sitting in the Dream Buffer Side Board. Often starts with a House story so far. Sherlock cards often play this mode in exile or 'dead', Cas and other angelic cards are often worked double time during these 3 'days'. Time cards get extra turns and time neutral locations.  AI is working to remind player of rules, character archetypes, lines and shortcuts, usually through instructional video clips via Factiods. Large players may direct the action of key cards or be in observer mode.  Jade watches the instigator of 'Friday' with a short visit on Monday and may not be available for certain combos, depending on time management.

Blue Blue Green Shave Green 

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It's a trick Get an AXE.  4k preview to take seriously but not "make plans seriously" but "reflect on"

Interfaces with Dungeon AI very well.

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@parkstardisinatimeloop

 

 

 

Page 1

 I've found a world where people don't die. The dead do not walk the Earth.

The Problem with building a Time Machine

     Say a time machine works on a kind of 'infinite well' kind of principle - in that you're simply drawing out a possible future from a container that has a number of fixed variable in it.  

    The builder of the time machine wouldn't be able to operate it very well themselves as it would always give exactly what they expect - which is unfortunately, nothing.  Or it could just as easily give them everything, in which case it would also be nothing as anything received by that method would be worthless as know it's simply a fleshed out version of their own idea.  

    You'd basically be exiling yourself to an unending lucid dream in which anything you intend to do in the future could be done, brought back to the present and enjoyed without effort.  

    What you'd need to build is something more like a roller coaster. Something that could take enough feelings and readouts of everyone involved and make a predictable yet thrilling enough ride that can easily be reset if needed.  Something that adapts to each person but not so much that they fall under the same curse as the builder.  

“You might want to call me Bootstrap”

“Why”

“Because I use things that don’t exist, and make them later”

Beethoven’s 5^th plays on a guitar as Bill Pots touches a Sonic Screwdriver – one of several, even though there should only be one per Doctor.

 

The Dream cube(s) was pretty much ready.  A few odd wiring bits kept normally active memories off and vice versa.   He could see numbers and text even though the state was flipping between awake / sleep walk / lucid / unconscious imperceptibly fast.  Well, fast enough. 

 

    

No Humans Club

 

Humans really didn’t belong on the Galactic Council.

When they were gifted free energy via a hyper-fusion device, it was over a dozen tries before enough safeguards and network infrastructure were functional and thorough enough so that it didn’t blow up in their face.

The first device was weaponized within 3 months of it’s arrival on Earth. This was made impossible for subsequent models after the first was destroyed and almost a continent along with it.

Safeguards which didn’t stop the second one from being used, primarily, to make weapons instead. A feedback pulse was used to depower the war-machines and so ended the second device.

When the power output was modified so as to make the approach more trouble than it’s worth – the third device was reverse engineered, unsuccessfully, and also ruined.

The forth through sixth devices were bought up by private collectors, who didn’t actually do anything productive with it. They are still being monitored and are set to power down if ever actually used to do more than illuminate a building.

The seventh device was made immovable and the area was subsequently surrounded by warring factions in a stalemate – since this device was also able to power down outside means of destruction – which would have been meaningful if any machinery made to harness the power made it past the factions guardians.

An eighth device was put into a high orbit to beam down power. However numerous satellites were made by the humans to intercept the beam and subsequently try and charge people downstream of it. A small orbital war erupted and nearly took out another continent with debris.