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[broken-clock.livejournal.com]

[the Doctor's dream has changed, truly and utterly; you step in scorching shadows that smell of blood, stumble over corpses (some are strangers; some are old friends), hear desperate screams and deafening gun shots and furious roars

he is running through it all, bruised and bloody and battered, trying desperately to save a friend, and they keep changing, from a girl he can't remember to a boy he knows only after death to a man he should want to kill; sometimes he's carrying a vial, and sometimes he isn't

you may stumble into a burning lab, holding a mutilated madman and a pale, prone figure; it might even be you

every time he reaches the surface, the dream loops, and he's in the caves once more]

((Eventually, he'll be in the Eye again. Until then, have fun in the caves of Androzani. Mind the magma beast and try not to get shot.))

Comments

[gingersnark.livejournal.com]

[confused and wary] Doctor, I haven't gone home -- I don't even remember where my home is. And what would I be getting sick from?

[broken-clock.livejournal.com]

[stares] Yes, you did. ...But perhaps you haven't yet. Is that it?

[slowly shakes his head] And...Spectrox Toxaemia, of course. [he holds up his hand, suddenly ashen and blistered]

[gingersnark.livejournal.com]

No, not yet. We had just left Moscow when I was brought here.

[sarcastic] Oh, of course. [more earnestly] Doctor, this is a dream. None of it's real.

[broken-clock.livejournal.com]

Ah. Oh, yes, now I remember. You...we...

[stares] Yes it is. Perhaps not at the moment, but it is.

[gingersnark.livejournal.com]

We are stuck in the castle - Paradisa is playing games with us.

[a pause as he glances at their surroundings] I really thing we should be going.

[broken-clock.livejournal.com]

[just gazes at him, looking more than a bit lost]

But...they need me. What if it's using real people?

[gingersnark.livejournal.com]

They don't need you getting killed. Why would your dream be different from everyone else's?

[broken-clock.livejournal.com]

How do we know it is? How could I - I can't take anymore - and besides, I was already killed here.

[gingersnark.livejournal.com]

[crosses his arms defiantly] How many times has this dream looped?

[broken-clock.livejournal.com]

Hmm? It's a bit - why?

[gingersnark.livejournal.com]

How many times have you actually managed to change the outcome? If the castle is using real people, then the same ones are going to die every time this is looped, whether you try and stop it or not.

[broken-clock.livejournal.com]

It...it stops before the end, I'm always back here, but I know how it ends, I always save her.

[gingersnark.livejournal.com]

If you know how it ends, why do you keep running it?

[broken-clock.livejournal.com]

...

[faint smile]

Do stop making so much sense, Turlough.

[gingersnark.livejournal.com]

[wryly] I'll try my best, Doctor.