001 | time here all but means nothing, just shadows that move across the wall.

[encourage]

You know, I have better things to do than daydream. Do I daydream?

[ Sakura has to stop and consider this, since she doesn't think she does so much anymore. Hadn't she been going to the store? The weird one, one of the first rebuilt after the attack, that'd made no sense when she'd stopped in to see how things were doing. Who had she even met at the time? Why had she come in again? ]

Not that it matters. Come on, wake up, stop staring into... oblivion? What kind of place is this to dream about?

[ Dreams are what make sense, if this is more of a nightmare after current events. No floor, endless stars? Points of light in darkness and buildings that feel more like child's building blocks strewn about an area, held up by nothing she could actively grasp as being there and concrete left her unsteady. What had -- been mentioned before? She pinches herself, flinches, and frowns. ]

Ouch! I knew that trick wouldn't work.

[ Things could stand to be a little more familiar. Sakura runs a hand through her hair, schooling herself into meditative breathing. Look. Observe. React accordingly. ]

All right, the stress has finally gotten to me. I'm standing in the middle of space, and there's an information booth. I wonder if it has any tips for how to locate your sanity when it's gone missing.

[ She makes herself stop again, largely because she's talking out loud to herself, and this isn't as helpful as she wishes it was. Time to pretend an audience! ]

Hey, if anyone can hear me, a little guidance would be appreciated! You've got a really nice place here, but there's a few dozen appointments I have to keep and a Hokage I need to check in on, along with most of a hospital to help run, and a war to prepare for, so as much as I'd love to stay, I need to get going.

[ Another pause, and she looks upward toward the sky that isn't the proper sky, and sighs. ]

Or I can use the information booth and file a complaint with whoever's in charge. [ Adjusting the gloves on her hands, she smiles. ] In a manner of speaking.

Comments

[encourage]

[ Pardon her pause. ]

I don't think anyone can really be in space.

[hisoldgirl]

No? Why would you think that?

[encourage]

It's -- space. There's no way to get there, and if you did, what would be there?

[ some worlds don't even dream of space travel -- yet. ]

[hisoldgirl]

Galaxies stretching for thousands of light years, birthing billions of stars. Stars dying and destroying entire solar systems. Planets and asteroids, civilisations each growing and fading away across the span of millenia. That is what space offers.

[encourage]

[ She blinks. ]

I... solar systems? Galaxies? Light years, as opposed to normal years? Stars are born?

[hisoldgirl]

You knew none of this?

[encourage]

None. Stars, yes, we're familiar with those, and the constellations they form, but the rest of these words don't... mean much of anything to me.

[ Which intensely bothers Sakura. ]

[hisoldgirl]

A solar system is group of planets circling a central star. Galaxies are the mass of stars, planets, gas and various spacial debris held in a general pattern by gravity.

[encourage]

Circling a central star? Circling?

[ This... makes sense, but -- like the moon does? ]

Then the sun is a star, too, that's what you're saying? And it's all held together by gravity.

[hisoldgirl]

Precisely.

[encourage]

This... is all more than I ever needed to know about space.

[hisoldgirl]

Why should you ever not want to learn these basic facts?

[encourage]

When are they ever going to be relevant to my life before right now?

[hisoldgirl]

The universe is always relevant.

[encourage]

Why?

[hisoldgirl]

Because it is the whole of existence.

[encourage]

That doesn't really tell me why it's relevant to anything I've done up until now.

[hisoldgirl]

I fail to see how it would not be.

[encourage]

Knowing all of that won't heal a child, stop a civil war, or change anything I deal with on a daily basis. So how is it relevant? It's interesting, but relevant?

[hisoldgirl]

A matter of perspective, then. I find those things meaningless.

[encourage]

Yeah... it sounds like it might be. I'm sorry. I'm Sakura. Who are you?

[hisoldgirl]

The TARDIS.

[encourage]

"The?"

[ Sakura looks confused, like she's not sure she heard that right. ]

Is it some sort of title?

[hisoldgirl]

It is my species and my purpose.

[encourage]

What is that purpose, in... easier to understand terms?