fandomhigh | Quantum Physics 123: Monday 17 October

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Quantum Physics 123: Monday 17 October

[The Doctor is slightly jacked up on coffee.]

Thanks to everyone who turned in their papers last week in such a prompt manner. I appreciate it immensely. You'll get your papers back on Wednesday. So far everyone's doing well enough.

So far we haven't done much with the practical application of time travel. I want to have you do some not-quite hands on work, some that won't involve having you create paradoxes and me having to fix them. It's a very big pain, trust me.

This week we're going to be doing assignments in pairs. If there's an odd number of students, then there can be one group of three. I want you to take a particular event that happened recently at Fandom High and theorise as to different possible outcomes. Be creative, but don't be outrageous. The hard part of this is that you'll have to check things against your partner's work, so I'd like you to work with people that you don't know as well.

Oh, and Mr Harkness, you're not in trouble, but I'd like to talk to you after class.

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I did? *mouth drops open* That's amazing! I mean, you hear stories about people running into each other at different points in their lifetimes, but I've never actually met anyone who did. Oh, that's just... okay, so I must have been a time agent, right? Yes! I mean, coming here was supposed to cement my application, but you never know, there are so many people who try to get a spot and I... am babbling. Wow.

[closes his eyes] Jack, I don't think the you I knew ever went here. Your records were fairly open book...for a Time Lord to hack, that is.

Which brings us to the big problem.

But that... doesn't make sense. If you met me when I was older, then it was after I'd come here. Unless... you think it was an alternate line, and we crossed here because of some property of this dimension that Fandom High is in?

Wait... you said 'Time Lord'? *bites his lip hard* Riiiiight. And I'm the Tooth Fairy. What is this, a joke?

[The Doctor watches him.] Either that or you're back from the dead. Shite...I shouldn't have said that.

And if you NEED a business card, I left mine back in the TARDIS. I am a...the last and only Time Lord. Thanks.

Time Lords are fairy tales. Comforting stories that time agents tell each other of a whoo-whoo race of beings who understand time like the back of their hand, and can fix any little screw ups that we puny mortals make. *Jack shakes his head* Come on, Doctor... you can't expect me to believe that, right?

*other comment sinks in* Dead? Um... wow, I was really old when you met me, right?

[The Doctor tries not to snap and fails, a trace of the Ninth Doctor coming into his tone.] The reason they're a fairy tale is because they don't exist anymore. And you want to know whose fault that is? Mine. Trust me, I'm the last of the bloody Time Lords from Gallifrey, and if I could change that fact, I would. And then you might bloody not question my goddamn authority.

Understood, Jack? And you were 38.

*Jack sits and blinks a lot*

You're not lying? You really are a Time Lord? But... how... I don't understand.

A lot of things about Fandom I don't understand either. But there have...were always Time Lords. Or at least, there's been me.

*Jack sits for a few moments*

So... you met me, we travelled with Rose... I've met Rose, she's nice... and then I died? Except you're pretty sure that the me you met isn't the me who's sitting here. Do I have that straight?

*is very carefully being logical and precise*

[He's calmed down a bit.] Pretty much.

But that would mean that my timeline spun off somewhere, because I would have recognized you when I was 38. And since you say you're pretty sure I never came here to Fandom High, it spun off sometime before now. *brow is very, very furrowed* :almost whispered: That would explain why I'm here, wouldn't it?

Well...not exactly. I've...changed appearance since then. But you'd probably be able to identify a time traveller who calls himself the Doctor and roams about in a blue police box.

Yeah, that's kind of... striking. *bites his lip, this time not to stifle laughter* So... how did I die? Or should I not ask?

I don't know if it matters. But you died well. A hero. [He decides it's best not to mention that Jack had been a bit of an arse before then.]

Well. That's good. *is very dazed*

You...look like you need a drink. Tea?

[Something about what Jack's said bothers the Doctor quite a bit...it takes him a moment to figure out what.] You said that the Time Agency said that coming here would improve your chances of getting a spot?

Tea? Yeah, that'd be fine. Um, yeah.

I'm... they said I shouldn't tell anyone, but who would care but me? They said that I had unlimited potential, blah, blah, and they were doing something unprecidented by picking me out so young to groom me for the job. It's what I've always wanted, and I'm getting my shot at it way earlier than I ever dreamed.

((How much of his past do you want Jack to know?))

[[Let's spread the revelations out. Jack's probably looking confused enough without finding out his childhood dream went sour in one timeline at least.]]

[The Doctor nods, but doesn't say anything. Jack was never particularly good at keeping secrets from him, and something about this smelled bad. Very bad. So he makes Jack some tea, exactly how he liked it once upon a time.]

*sips* This is so weird. No one ever explained how... *weird* it would be to run into the same person at two different times in their life. Except for I've only met you once, so it shouldn't be weird. But you know how I like my tea. *shakes head, sips again*

Time, Ja--Mr Harkness, is weird. And if any of us had sense, we'd never get involved with the whole business. But to some people, it's impossible to resist.

Just remember that there are always multiple sides to every story.

[Maybe he's not just talking about Jack.]

Yeah, but it's a hell of a lot easier to focus on just the one right in front of you.

Who ever said anything was supposed to be easy?

Who said you always had to do it the hard way?

Quantum Physics 123: Monday 17 October

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