This One's Temporal Experiment #1

[dee_lorean81]

Part II of Backie Birthdays -- you've got to celebrate the car at the center of it all, don't you? Especially when it's sentient and has the ability to take on human form. The decorations for Dee's party are similar to Doc's, but with toy DeLoreans of all stripes taking the place of the gears and extra balloons in shiny silver. The music's similar too, except with a focus on chase sequences and the main theme. At any rate, Dee would certainly be happy to see her friends -- and you wouldn't want to disappoint a face like that, would you?

Comments

[clockwork_doc]

Doc's got a simple box wrapped in bright red paper for his daughter this year, which he plops down on the table in front of her. "Happy birthday, Dee! Nothing too complicated, but I think you'll like it."

[dee_lorean81]

"You're Daddy -- I have to like it," Dee tells him with a little snicker. She proceeds to tear off the paper in a flurry of scraps. "Ooooh, cool! The Lego DeLorean! Finally decide to get rid your spare?" she asks the mun.

[crossover_chick]

"A) You're clearly spending way too much time around Alice, B) no, that's all yours," Vic replies, chuckling. "And, actually, I got you a bit of an extra too. . ." She pulls out a small, vaguely hourglass-shaped box featuring a prominent Lego Doc on the top. "It's one of the fun packs for Lego Dimensions -- featuring Doc and a mini time train! Technically not released yet, but I'm the mun, I can do what I want."

[dee_lorean81]

"Neat!" Dee gladly takes the new toys. "That'll be fun to build -- that the inspiration behind this stuff?" she adds.

[clockwork_doc]

"We did feel it appropriate given our Lego counterparts' prominence in the game," Doc nods, grinning.

[crossover_chick]

"Yeah, I'd let you see the game itself, except there's no PC version," Vic grumps. "Which annoys me, since it does look fun."

[clockwork_doc]

Doc pats her arm. "Well, maybe one day, if you ever decide you want to get a console. . ."

[crossover_chick]

"And I actually have the free time to play new games." Deep sigh.

[dee_lorean81]

"There's always the 30th anniversary edition of BTTF: The Game?" Dee suggests.

[crossover_chick]

"Don't remind me -- I really shouldn't, but damn it, they got original Biff and --" Vic's head goes thunk against the bar.

[dee_lorean81]

Dee looks at her, then at Doc. "I think she needs a vacation."

[clockwork_doc]

"I think so too." He ruffles her hair. "But anyway, happy birthday."

[dee_lorean81]

"Thanks, Daddy."

[alienlisa]

AL and the guys do their marching in thing and are in mid-conversation.

"She's human and I'm not," AL is saying. "Okay, I'm half, but the other half gives me the advantage. Though I'm not opposed to keeping a diary to document things."

And she notices they've arrived. Grinning sheepishly, she says, "Happy birthday, Dee!"

[dee_lorean81]

"Thanks!" Dee says, waving. "What were you guys talking about?"

"Have anything to do with the other half of the latest Who epic?" Marty adds.

[alienlisa]

AL nods. "Yeah. Even though Ashildr is now immortal and has an infinite existence, her memory is finite. So she kept diaries...enough to fill a library. Her life had gone on so long that she'd forgotten parts of it. I was saying that although I'm part human and my immortality was, technically, an accident that my alien half gives me better memory storage. Though, again, I'm not opposed to keeping a diary. Maybe that'll be part of my new canon once the alter ego gets to the rewrites. And the Doctor did mention Jack, by the way. He basically said he'd get around to her eventually." AL rubs the back of her head. "Ashildr had grown...what's the word?...she didn't care anymore about the human race after so many centuries. Mayflies, she called you. Smoke. She'd gone through so much because she's on the slow path; living her life day after day and never dying."

"Immortality isn't living forever," says Twelve. "It's everybody else dying."

"Yeah. She didn't even call herself 'Ashildr' anymore. She was only 'Me' because everyone who'd known her as Ashildr was long dead. She started to care again when another alien threatened the place she was currently living. And she used the other immortality device to help save England. So now she's going to go through time on the slow path..." She fidgets. "Kind of picking up where the Doctor leaves off when he leaves, isn't that kind of what she means?"

Twelve does a kind of half-shrug. "I'm sure we'll wind up meeting her again."

"I don't doubt it. But we don't know if we'll see the fellow she used the other device on." She shrugs.

[clockwork_doc]

There's a general silence in response to the update about Ashildr, finally broken by Dee: "Eeep."

"Yes, that does sum up some of the problems with immortality -- especially when you're the only one around that you know of," Doc agrees, rubbing his daughter's back. "The diary business is a good idea, though. Heh -- perhaps you could even use it as a framework for the stories!"

"Sheesh, imagine just calling yourself 'Me' because everyone who knew your original name. . ." Marty glances at Doc and leans up against him.

Doc pats him on the shoulder. "I'm fine. And in my case, it wasn't because everyone I'd known had died, it was because some bastard kidnapped me and then refused to use my actual name."

"I think 'aloof' might do for the word you wanted, though there might be a better one," Vic says. "Either way, good thing she started caring again. . .and I hope you run into the guy she made immortal, that's one hell of a plot thread to leave hanging."

[alienlisa]

AL pats Doc's hand. "Sorry...I forgot about that." Trying to lighten the mood, she smirks. "See? Too long a life, not enough brainpower to retain it." She chuckles. "Maybe that's my excuse for forgetting stuff and not simply being bonked on the head."

She lights up at Doc's idea, though. "Ooh, that's not a bad idea...she's put the stories she's written in chronological-to-me order on my side of the website anyway...why not? Though yeah they'd still be written in third person because rewriting all that in the first would be hell, but maybe we could establish me as a storyteller as well as a former doctor." Her wings twitch as she ponders this. And now I kind of want to work on my website...thanks, Doc. Note to self: redo AL's section first.

AL nods. "And that's just the 'in-a-nutshell' version of what happened. It was nice to see her realize that she did still care, though." She then grins. "Continuity? In my show? What is this madness you speak of?" The grin gets wider.

[clockwork_doc]

Doc nods at her, appreciative of the pat. "I'm fine, really. It's been quite a while since that, and it doesn't come up much around people anymore. Nobody can blame you for forgetting, due to long life or bonk on the head or anything else." Though he can't help glancing in Forgotten Vows's direction. . .

"I'm all right too," Forgotten promptly assures him. "At least her 'Me' was a self-chosen name. . .I assume, anyway."

"Glad to be inspiring, I suppose," Doc chuckles. "And that would probably work. Might as well have fun with it all, right?" (His mun would object to anything involving website design being 'fun,' but then she's kind of soured on Weebly's methods.)

Dee giggles. "Well, a time-travel show is probably the best kind of show for breaking it! Do they ever do like BTTF II did and go inside old episodes?"

[alienlisa]

AL winces at bringing up all this bad stuff. "Yeah, it was. Since the last time we saw her was in a selfie from the 21st century she may've changed her name to something more modern than 'Ashildr' but we don't know yet. Granted I've heard weirder names so maybe she'd keep it?" She shrugs. "Like I said, more'n likely we'll find out."

And then she thinks about Dee's question. "Um...not exactly. There was a 'what if' episode...What if the Doctor died because he didn't have Donna with him during the Racnoss - giant spider - attack on Christmas 2006? They portrayed a few scenarios from previous episodes without him around and everything was of course Really Bad." She taps a finger to her chin, thinking. "It was done in a novel the alter ego skimmed through once a long time ago - the story is that Eight loses his memory and has to visit his previous incarnations in order to get it back. She never finished reading it. And the alter ego herself was once trying to write a fic like that but it never got finished. So not to the BTTF II effect, no. At least not yet."

[dee_lorean81]

"'Ashley' or 'Ash' would work if she wanted something more modern yet still true to her roots," Vic suggests. "But yeah, we'll find out if and when she shows up again."

Dee pouts a little. "Boo. You'd think they'd be all over that. . . Suppose it makes our canon pretty special though," she adds, grinning up at Doc.

"I suppose it does," Doc says, ruffling her hair. "And to think the Bobs originally wanted to set Part II in the 1960s. . ."