John Smith (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dreamtofbeing) wrote2009-04-15 03:22 am
dreamtofbeing) wrote2009-04-15 03:22 am
Entry tags:
Fic: Time Will Tell
~ 830 words on time, watches, the Doctor's fob watch and... randomness.
Considering the fact that every Time Lord possesses a time sense, the Doctor realizes that on first glance, it might seem surprising that the people of Gallifrey developed a device like the watch at all. However, realism on Earth is similarly remarkable. Most humans can see, and yet, realistic paintings enjoy great popularity among them.
At all Time Lord Academies, Time Adepts were taught about the universal history of time and timepieces. For years, they learned about the different ways of telling the time on all the different planets in the universe, observed races not blessed with the time sense struggling to bring an order to a chaotic cosmos--an order that every Time Lord can recognize intuitively, just like every human blessed with sight can intuitively recognize shapes and forms.
Watch-making was just a small part of the mostly academic unit on time telling, but the Doctor remembers it as one of his favourite subjects. Imitating other races imitating the order of the universe in an imperfect model the original of which every Time Lord can see when they closed their eyes--it fascinated him. It still does. Watches are time made tangible. Making a watch, it's like touching a scent.
Just like a realistic painting, a watch is easily identified as fake by an individual with a time sense. Watches don't tell the real time. They tell an aspect, the part of time that's important to the owner of the watch. Even that most watches do imperfectly. If you don't have a time sense, you need to watch your watch and watch your time to make sure they're in sync. If they're not, you're lost. You need to find another watch that expresses the same aspect of time your watch was expressing before you can fix your watch.
The Doctor used to love watches as pieces of art. He never realized how deceitful they are when you have to rely on them on a daily basis.
He has taken to carrying three watches on him at all times. One is a wrist watch. It's a narrow silver strip circling his left wrist, with a small display embedded that shows six small numbers--hours, minutes, seconds. Sometimes, he watches the steady changing of the two numbers indicating the seconds, trying to count the milliseconds in his head. Point one, point two, point three, point four, point five, but he can't count faster than that, so he's taken to counting in twos--point two, point four, point six, and so on.
The second one is his pulse. It's not a watch per se, it's not visible, but it's tangible. He can feel his single pulse when he touches his wrist. He knows that his average, human heart beat lies at around seventy beats per minute, so he can count and add up and measure time that way. It's shoddy and inefficient, but he can't lose his pulse or forget it or have it taken away. When his pulse stops, time will stop, too. For him, anyway.
The third watch he carries with him at all times is his fob watch. He knows it's not his fob watch, the watch that he made as a young Adept at the Prydonian Academy. That watch is now the watch of a young man who went to war and was made old by the time he measured with the watch the Doctor gave him. It looks the same, though. Exactly the same, which shouldn't be possible, because even Professor Yana's watch was slightly different. The Doctor should know; he made that one as well. Watch-making had been a bit of a hobby for a while back at the Academy.
He made this third watch, the fob watch he carries on him at all times--even the carvings on the lid are the same; Gallifreyan symbols he imprinted into the medal whose meaning is lost to him. He made this watch, and yet he didn't, because the watch he made he left with a boy so it would make sure he would become a man--there isn't a second one like it. Which is how the Doctor concludes that he must have made this second, identical watch as well. A part of him must have.
It doesn't tell the time, not consistently. According to the fob watch, it's always ten past midnight, provided you apply the space coordinates the watch displays on a smaller dial integrated in the clock face. The Doctor finds it harder and harder to do so. He's pretty sure that in a couple of weeks, the memories of how to read the coordinates will be gone completely, and the aspect of time the watch is telling will be incomprehensible to him.
When he realizes this inevitability, he stops opening the watch. But he still carries it with him wherever he goes. This fob watch is still a piece of art to him. Its style, however, is a lot less comprehensible than realism.
Considering the fact that every Time Lord possesses a time sense, the Doctor realizes that on first glance, it might seem surprising that the people of Gallifrey developed a device like the watch at all. However, realism on Earth is similarly remarkable. Most humans can see, and yet, realistic paintings enjoy great popularity among them.
At all Time Lord Academies, Time Adepts were taught about the universal history of time and timepieces. For years, they learned about the different ways of telling the time on all the different planets in the universe, observed races not blessed with the time sense struggling to bring an order to a chaotic cosmos--an order that every Time Lord can recognize intuitively, just like every human blessed with sight can intuitively recognize shapes and forms.
Watch-making was just a small part of the mostly academic unit on time telling, but the Doctor remembers it as one of his favourite subjects. Imitating other races imitating the order of the universe in an imperfect model the original of which every Time Lord can see when they closed their eyes--it fascinated him. It still does. Watches are time made tangible. Making a watch, it's like touching a scent.
Just like a realistic painting, a watch is easily identified as fake by an individual with a time sense. Watches don't tell the real time. They tell an aspect, the part of time that's important to the owner of the watch. Even that most watches do imperfectly. If you don't have a time sense, you need to watch your watch and watch your time to make sure they're in sync. If they're not, you're lost. You need to find another watch that expresses the same aspect of time your watch was expressing before you can fix your watch.
The Doctor used to love watches as pieces of art. He never realized how deceitful they are when you have to rely on them on a daily basis.
He has taken to carrying three watches on him at all times. One is a wrist watch. It's a narrow silver strip circling his left wrist, with a small display embedded that shows six small numbers--hours, minutes, seconds. Sometimes, he watches the steady changing of the two numbers indicating the seconds, trying to count the milliseconds in his head. Point one, point two, point three, point four, point five, but he can't count faster than that, so he's taken to counting in twos--point two, point four, point six, and so on.
The second one is his pulse. It's not a watch per se, it's not visible, but it's tangible. He can feel his single pulse when he touches his wrist. He knows that his average, human heart beat lies at around seventy beats per minute, so he can count and add up and measure time that way. It's shoddy and inefficient, but he can't lose his pulse or forget it or have it taken away. When his pulse stops, time will stop, too. For him, anyway.
The third watch he carries with him at all times is his fob watch. He knows it's not his fob watch, the watch that he made as a young Adept at the Prydonian Academy. That watch is now the watch of a young man who went to war and was made old by the time he measured with the watch the Doctor gave him. It looks the same, though. Exactly the same, which shouldn't be possible, because even Professor Yana's watch was slightly different. The Doctor should know; he made that one as well. Watch-making had been a bit of a hobby for a while back at the Academy.
He made this third watch, the fob watch he carries on him at all times--even the carvings on the lid are the same; Gallifreyan symbols he imprinted into the medal whose meaning is lost to him. He made this watch, and yet he didn't, because the watch he made he left with a boy so it would make sure he would become a man--there isn't a second one like it. Which is how the Doctor concludes that he must have made this second, identical watch as well. A part of him must have.
It doesn't tell the time, not consistently. According to the fob watch, it's always ten past midnight, provided you apply the space coordinates the watch displays on a smaller dial integrated in the clock face. The Doctor finds it harder and harder to do so. He's pretty sure that in a couple of weeks, the memories of how to read the coordinates will be gone completely, and the aspect of time the watch is telling will be incomprehensible to him.
When he realizes this inevitability, he stops opening the watch. But he still carries it with him wherever he goes. This fob watch is still a piece of art to him. Its style, however, is a lot less comprehensible than realism.
no subject
He hasn't figured the watch out yet, then, in this. Poor guy.
...And, uh, Master!account. I'M LAZY.
no subject
And no, he hasn't. This is still quite early, I think. He'll get less neurotic about watches and time telling, too, over time. Although he might start making watches again, at some point.
Oh, and re: accounts; if you're using Firefox, try this addon (http://ljlogin.e-space.gweep.net/). It's very convenient, even though you'll have to deactivate it if you want to use your LJ scrapbook.
no subject
And, hee, yes, I have login. I am just *that lazy.* And it amuses me to post to Ten's account with the Master. Muahahahahahahahahahah*choke*