θ 4

[bit_impossible]

[the Doctor stands outside the library, Meredith's words of caution from the projection surfacing in one of his many passing thoughts:

"Be careful in the library."

for the Doctor, that's like slapping a big ol' "DO NOT ENTER" sign on it and expecting him to stay out. of course, it's a sign that he'll brazenly ignore and continue on his merry way just like he's always done.

but he has another reason for heading for the library besides some not-quite-so-amateur sleuthing...]

[to no one in particular:] Well, let's hope the bookworms haven't decided to revolt!

[he pushes the doors open with a flourish and heads in]

Comments

[bit_impossible]

[arches an eyebrow] I'd heard something about that. Bodies up in the top level, that sort of thing. [tries to recall what he has been told] Care to remind me?

[bonnypiperlad]

Aye. I've not ever seen so much blood in one place. And the bodies...there were hundreds of them. All beaten, as if a bunch of rocks fell on them. And they had these...wee wings. Some of them were bigger than others.

[He pauses for a moment, then corrects himself slightly.] Well, I think they were supposed to be wings, anyway. There were bones jutting out of their backs. And feathers.

[bit_impossible]

[frowns] Bones and feathers sticking out of one's back usually does lend itself that wing-like quality--well, not unless they've had a nasty accident in a pillow factory. But I wonder why some were bigger than others. Perhaps a correlation to the number of times they've died on the Plane?

[bonnypiperlad]

Well, your brother said it could be a mutation or part of a cycle. Or body... [What was that word again? Jamie frowns and tries to remember, and eventually comes up with not quite the correct word.] bopper-ing.

[It's body-beppling, for the record.]

But, if they were something that died here, maybe what ye said makes more sense.

[bit_impossible]

[almost automatically] Beppling, actually. That's also a possibility. [though he likes his own theory slightly more than Brax's]

Did you happen to see any of their faces? I only ask because those creatures were present at the onsen again recently, just before we were all able to go home.

[bonnypiperlad]

[Jamie also likes the Doctor's theory a bit better - it makes more sense to him. Still, he shakes his head.]

They weren't anyone I knew from here, if that's what ye mean. Mind ye, it was a bit hard to see what they used to look like, given the state they were in at the time.

[bit_impossible]

Then you were lucky, Jamie. Probably for the best, really. [he lets out a sigh]

Out of curiosity, did you vote?

[bonnypiperlad]

[quietly] Aye, I did.

[He couldn't very well leave his Doctor frozen in time forever, after all.] I needed to get back and get that wee box of levers to ye.

[bit_impossible]

[he nods, understanding Jamie's reason] I see. Can I ask who you voted for?

[bonnypiperlad]

Well, aye...but why do ye want to know, Doctor?

[bit_impossible]

Because Meredith said that only one of us voted for the correct person. I know who I voted for, so I want to see if anyone else thought the same as I did.

[bonnypiperlad]

Oh, I see. [That makes sense, Jamie supposes.]

Mine was for Sebastian.

[bit_impossible]

[thinks about that name for a moment] You know, I don't recall meeting a Sebastian here. What's he like?

[bonnypiperlad]

[Jamie rubs at the back of his neck, looking slightly uncomfortable.] Er...I'd not know, really.

[bit_impossible]

[frowns disapprovingly] Yet you voted for him?

[bonnypiperlad]

Aye. I did watch his video. [It's not like Jamie just randomly wrote his name down so he could go home. There's some reasoning behind it. Maybe not great reasoning, but it's there.]

I take it you'd not seen his, then. Ye did notice they were playing them on those screen-things?

[bit_impossible]

[slowly runs a hand through his hair] I did. I tried to catch every one that played. [he sounds annoyed with himself] Didn't even strike me as suspicious, not when he was holding a teddy bear--if he's the one I'm thinking of.

[or maybe it was because he could identify with yearning to get away from family...]

[bonnypiperlad]

Aye. That was him. There was a point, at the end, where he said something that struck me as a wee bit odd.

If we were all answering that question about what our price was, why would he have said that he didn't care? If I were him, I would have only said that my price was to get me away from my family. There's something we weren't allowed to see there, Doctor.

[bit_impossible]

Or something he didn't want to admit to--or that the whomever was on the receiving end of those messages in the computer already knew. I get the impression that the people who things around here know more about us than we realise. Which, well, brings us back to your point, Jamie. We're not allowed to see everything. I only saw one of mine, and yet I was in that room twice. Course, I could've missed the broadcast of my first time in there, but it wasn't anything special.

[bonnypiperlad]

Wait, ye were there twice as well? [He had noticed that with a few of the others, but not this Doctor.]

Aye, well, I thought that the way he was talking meant that he had been asked what he would want to happen to us in order for him to get his price. [As if the situation had been more along the lines of 'We will get you away from your family, but you have to pick a horrible fate for everyone else to go through in order to get that.']

But...it could have been anything at all, could it have not?

[bit_impossible]

[equally surprised and confused] I was, but hold on, you had been as well? [arches an eyebrow. this is certainly news to him!] What happened?

It could have been, yeah... [he frowns, thinking]

[bonnypiperlad]

Aye, after we were trapped here. They wanted me to choose between blind faith and suspicion, and wouldn't let me out until I picked one.

[And now that he's said that, he remembers that there was that time when he had to tell the truth around the Doctor. Suddenly, that makes so much more sense.]

Ohh...so that's why.

[bit_impossible]

Why...you had to tell the truth when you were with me? [he smiles very faintly] That does explain it, doesn't it? You chose blind faith, no doubt, and I was given a choice between truth and lies--and why bother with all the fuss that lies can bring? Probably for the best I chose truth, or else things would have become very annoying after a while.

[bonnypiperlad]

I did. [curiously]Did ye figure it out when we were fighting the zombies?

[Jamie nods as the Doctor continues.] Aye. Even if ye tried to find a way around it, it would have been a wee bit tricky. At least they didn't twist what happened around to ye very much, though.

[bit_impossible]

Well...[he starts rubbing the back of his neck]...considering your two options, it was pretty easy to figure out, don't you think?

[an eyebrow arches high on his forehead] Do you think so? People seemed quite angry with me once they realised they had to tell the truth and had no choice in the matter. Even yelled at me to stop asking questions--and when have you known me to not ask them?