gotosleep_idiot | Mata Test Drive Memerz

That catches the Doctor's attention.

"So there's a way home, then?"

Which is all he cares about. But then the question about his hand.

"Yes, it is."

He doesn't expand the answer, even with his knowledge of time, the Galvan wouldn't understand - or at least the Doctor has decided he wouldn't.

Azmuth ignored the newcomer's question to focus on that flapping hand. It was driving him nuts, and if the stranger wasn't going to explain why it was so important, Azmuth would need to work it out for himself...if only to find some way to get the annoyance to stop.

Over the next few seconds, Azmuth was pulling in every scrap of data he had regarding time travelers, dismissing a few theories when they didn't seem to line up with his uninvited visitor, and narrowed down the possibilities. He noticed that the flapping was at regular intervals. That had to be important.

Time. Intervals. It brought to mind the ticking of the numerous clocks in the workshop the cricket lived in. Due to the nature of how they'd been flung into the faster-than-light space travel age directly from the early tribal age, the Galvan had never had to develop timepieces from scratch. A chronometer didn't display anything under a minute unless expressly set to, and most Galvans didn't do so unless running experiments.

Alright. He had a solid hypothesis. Now to test the theory.

"If your internal sense of time is thrown off so badly, perhaps whatever your communicator is can provide you with a chronometer. Otherwise I'm sure you might be able to convince the cricket to loan you one of his clocks."

The Doctor continues the clapping, but frowns at the statement. That was quick. Too quick. Not entirely wrong, but not entirely right, either.

"That's not the same. I'm used to feeling and sensing time. It's another sense for me, like sight or touch."

And for now, this is the only acceptable way to keep track.

"A watch is not physically feeling the passing of time. This, is."

Because he has to feel it. If he can't feel it, well...

Edited (html!) 2016-09-04 16:08 (UTC)

"Which makes you most likely someone like the Time Walker, a Time Lord, or a similar species such as the Chronosapiens," Azmuth reasoned, crossing his arms. "Unfortunately, I'm not entirely sure if that's a problem that can be fixed given the nature of this place. The Time Lord currently living in Nautilus has only been here around a month and hasn't had much time to restore his abilities."

The Doctor nods once.

"I am someone like that, yes."

But he's not getting specific about which of those he is.

"I think I've met him already."

It didn't go well.

Azmuth's eyes narrowed, very clearly vexed.

"If we're done dancing around your identity," he said in a clipped tone, "your question about being able to return home has a yes and no answer to it. Yes, you can return to your universe, and, no, you can't really go back without going back to Sleep. I trust that someone has already covered the basics of this plane?"

The Doctor doesn't care if someone is vexed or not. He will answer questions as appropriate. And most won't be appropriate.

"Covered them, yes. Doesn't mean I believe them."

Meaning, he thinks it's all made up and that there had to be a different way. He would find it. He would be reunited with the TARDIS.

"Then nothing I say will convince you otherwise. So what sort of evidence would you require to either prove or disprove their claims?" Azmuth asked, slipping into scientist mode without a thought. "What kind of experiment?"

The Doctor smirks.

"You're a scientist, then?"

He might like this odd little alien. But he'll continue on to answer the question.

"I don't know yet. I haven't been here long enough to know what I should and shouldn't know about it. But first, I need proof that this place is real and what was familiar to me was when I was asleep."

"I am," he said before tilting his head in consideration as the man spoke. Once he was finished speaking, Azmuth noted dryly, "You do realize the most expedient experiment would be in verifying your current state is awake and not dreaming."

"You do realise that no one knows they're not dreaming. Not for one single second of our lives."

Two can play at this game. Just because the Doctor has decided that the sciency bug might be okay, doesn't mean he's going to treat him any differently.

Excuse you, Azmuth is an amphibian, not an insect.

He rolled his eyes. "You're arguing philosophy. By that logic, you could argue nobody truly exists in the first place and that statement can be neither proven nor disproven."

Well, the Doctor can't be right all the time. And he didn't think 'insect' - the word was bug, there's a difference.

The Doctor grins. "Philosophy if you like. But when you've faced alien species that can weaponise your dreams against you, it becomes an important way of life."

"I'm not particularly fond of Cassiopian Dream Eaters either, but it's very rare for the nightmares they generate to include physical pain because that swiftly cracks the illusion. One might feel a physical strike as an echo of the memory of pain due to the mind expecting it, but subsequent blows dull the illusion because they haven't mastered how to perfectly replicate the sensation of new pain rather than reminding the mind of old. To be honest, most victims end up waking up because the agony of getting one removed far outweighs anything they might experience in a dream state," Azmuth noted.

"I am speaking of Dream Crabs. They keep you warm, make you think you're safe in a heavily realised dream-world. They provide anaesthetic. How do I know that this place isn't caused by a Dream Crab?"

Because it could be. Or it could be a psychotic break. Given his recent past, that's actually the more likely of the two.

Edited 2016-09-05 02:08 (UTC)

Azmuth tilted his head to one side. "One wonders how these 'Dream Crabs' are obtaining food then."

He tapped his foot in careful thought, taking his time over a possible answer. Though would that in itself be an answer? Could the figments of a madman's mind be able to question his own sanity?

Ugh. This was why philosophy was too imprecise for Azmuth's tastes.

The Doctor gives Azmuth a few moments. When he can stand it no longer, he provides the answer: "They stick the equivalent of a straw into your brain and drink you."

Like he said: anaesthetic. Good stuff to numb the pain of having your brain dissolve.

"I was trying to determine how to convince you that this was reality, but that information is useful regardless. The Dream Eaters of my universe technically feed on the adrenaline produced by bad dreams, not actual dreams. Their name is a giant misnomer."

He neatly folded his hands behind his back.

"Quite the conundrum though. Because they need to keep you sedated, they'd want to avoid any sort of adrenaline spikes, so the obvious answer is to put yourself in danger to prove the point. If you're saved by some bizarre coincidence, you're more likely to be in a dream. But you'd think the dream world was real by the fact that you could even make the attempt in the first place when it could be potentially a ploy to make you think you were awake.

"To be blunt, given that scenario, there's no way I can prove you're awake."

The Doctor nods his head several times as he listens to Azmuth. The creature gets it. Which makes for a nice change. Because he even gets it without the Doctor over-explaining everything. Good. His brain needs something to be easy.

"Of course not. Reading is about the only reliable dream-test I've found. But with how bending seems to work here, not sure that's such a great test."

He shakes his head once because of disappointment.

"I've always said that no one knows they're not dreaming. And quite frankly, the dream protects itself - it wants you to think you're awake so you can keep dreaming. It's how it stays alive, as it were."

"It's a waste of mental resources if you ask me," Azmuth grumbled. "Dreamless sleep is much more refreshing."

Spoken like someone with constant nightmares.

"Dreams aren't alive but I see your point. The uncertainty principle is at its most obvious when referring to dreaming: In trying to study your dream from the inside, you change it in that you start lucid dreaming. Given that possibility, Bending could be seen as a form of that."

The Doctor can relate.

"Oh, simple solution to that. Just don't sleep."

The Doctor does sleep. Just not often or for very long. And he grins at Azmuth's analysis.

"That's exactly my point. But, trying to get anyone else to understand that will be difficult. I don't think these are Dream Crabs though. Because even when I dream, my Time Sense functions. And in this case, it's not."

Which is the most worrying aspect of all.

"Ah, but using your logic 'no one knows they're not dreaming', what's to stop you from dreaming that you're not sleeping?"

And that was the crux of why Azmuth hated philosophy: You could use a philosophical argument to argue that your stance couldn't be disproven.

Still, he decided he liked this newcomer if only for the intellectual battle. It was rather stimulating to have someone challenge your ideas to give you a fresh perspective on things. It was one reason he valued the cricket's input even if Jiminy had a tendency to argue more from emotion than logic.

"Still, as a being from a species with no 'Time Sense' as you call it outside of what is the here and now, I admit that I don't know if it'd be possible to dream if it was still working or not."

Edited 2016-09-12 15:05 (UTC)

"Oh I agree with that entirely. Dreams within dreams. Happens more often than anyone would dare to think. Dream Crabs are masters of it. They've learned how to weaponise dreams."

The Doctor considers the last comment for a long time in silence. He hadn't really thought of it, because he had always known. But the important question was how had he always known?

"For me, it's no different than the ability to see or hear, or touch. On the one hand, if a dream was trying to establish itself as reality, it would be stupid for it to mess with such inherent senses. On the other, if my brain is somehow aware that this is a dream and trying to tell me it is a dream, that would be a good way to go about it."

Not all that different from what Santa had done when the Dream Crabs were attacking him.

((OOC: I've never run into where two characters debated if Nautilus was even real to begin with like this before. I love it.))

"Your Dream Crabs are likely close cousins of my universe's Dream Eaters then."

Dreams within dreams weren't all that uncommon even in Azmuth's universe. How many times had he "woken up" from one nightmare into another?

Azmuth listened carefully, shaking his head in some frustration. "Unfortunately I can't say that I fully understand. It sounds like trying to explain color to a Vulpimancer: Since they have no eyes, there's nothing that they can use as a baseline comparison. I can sense time via my own heartbeat but, as previously stated, I'm only aware of time in the sense of here and now with each pulse."

He paused, frowning in consideration.

"Unless..." he murmured half to himself, bringing a hand to his chin and starting to pace on his branch.

Edited 2016-09-12 15:55 (UTC)

[[ooc: if Twelve is accepted, we'll have to turn it into a log post so it can be game canon.]]

"Wouldn't surprise me. Wouldn't surprise me if they were actually the same creature just manifesting differently in the different universes. Because that's how universes roll."

The Doctor nodded about the passing of time. "For me, it's more than that. I can feel and taste time. Since I can't feel it right now, clapping is the only steady method. My hearts rate change if I'm standing still, verses running, verses sleeping. But clapping or tapping a finger, I can keep it steady."

The Doctor raises an eyebrow. "Unless what?"

no subject

Needed to review threads with Ten so I knew how much Azmuth needed to logic

I hope it was fun/worth it :D

Yup! I wanted to make sure I wasn't getting IC and OOC knowledge mixed up.

XD

no subject

no subject

no subject

Sorry for the delay, I was working on the app.

Totally fine! \o/

More or less have it done, just waiting to hear if Twelve is app-able.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Wow, DW. Thanks for the lack of notif.

I hate it when that happens :|

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

I'm giggling so hard right now.

XD