The information garnered was a bit disconcerting... and inconsistent with Reality As We Know It. That's never stopped the Doctor before, though.

At this time, the Jagaroth were all destroyed. They didn't exist. Only Scaroth had survived the destruction of their ship, and he'd been split into 12 selves and scattered across time, but none of them had made it this far forward in Earth's timeline.

The impression from the Babadook was 'Jagaroth', not 'Scaroth'. It might not have been able to tell the difference, since 'Jagaroth' was both singular and plural. Additionally, if it had been dealing with Scaroth, it would have been in one of his Human identities most likely, in which case it probably wouldn't have known it was a Jagaroth.

Ergo, the Jagaroth were either from 400 million years ago (or further back)... or else some Jagaroth had escaped/survived the destruction of their species from the Megatharg War.

This was not something the Doctor was aware of, though. Scaroth had not been aware of it either.

Since no other Jagaroth had been discovered in those intervening 400 million years, that was probably not the answer, although something could have happened to make them... hidden.

However, they were a time-sensitive race and could probably see into the future, that seemed the more likely possibility. Even that had its problems, though: how could they see that far into the future? How could they possibly account for events during the passing of all that time?

The Doctor steps around the console of the TARDIS, flipping levers and spinning dials, keeping it locked onto the psychic trace. "I don't know what we'll find at the end of this trail, but we need to be careful. The Jagaroth are certainly not the friendliest of people, and we may be dealing with a lone survivor. Or we could be landing in the middle of a war. Either way, we need to find out what's going on before anything else."

OOC: Glad to see activity here again! Hope everybody had a good holiday! Would have posted earlier, but I've been sick on top of holiday stuff.

Jenny followed the Doctor around the console, rather like an enthusiastic puppy, trying to learn and admire and be useful all at the same time. "If these Jaggaroth are this dangerous, shouldn't we come up with some sort of plan? I know we do the whole run away until we can fix the problem thing, but it isn't very constructive! Do you have anything in the databanks about them? Knowledge is power, and right now, most of us in this TARDIS are alarmingly lacking in both!"

Ah, the innocence! The naivety of youth! She actually believed that the Doctor would tell people what was going on, in advance, with clearly defined explanatory terms. She had no way of knowing this was not the case, either because he was playing some cunning game of his own, or he simply didn't have a clue yet. Or, more than likely, both. But she wanted to help, and other than polishing her rifle, there wasn't a lot she could do. Unless she was allowed to fly the TARDIS... Weren't parents meant to give their kids driving lessons?

No, that was for another time. And, indeed, space. They had work to do! She just wasn't clear on what it was, or how to go about it.

"The Jagaroth are extinct," Alan responded. "At least in most time periods. When we are going, they may still be alive and well."

"While the Jagaroth might be temporally psychic in some manner, we don't know yet that these really are the Jagaroth."

"They are callous, vicious and war-like, yet they lost the war they were fighting. While they are highly intelligent, they are not smarter than the Doctor. Always remember that."

"The question really is: are these the Jagaroth from before the war or after the war."

"It might be helpful if we knew who or what it was that defeated the Jagaroth. On the other hand, if they defeated the Jagaroth, do we really want to meet them?"

"I'm wondering, though, what happened to them after they defeated the Jagaroth. Do you think it might have been the Daleks?"

"I dunno... sounds like it might be a trap," Johnny offered. "Is that something these Jagaroth varmints might do?"

"Anyway we can figure that out?"

As the TARDIS flew down the timeline following the psychic trace from the Babdook, it quickly became clear that it was following it back to some time around the war.

400 million years was no different than 400 million miles to the TARDIS. Until, that is, it approached the destination time. Suddenly, the TARDIS was being buffeted by temporal ripples. It happened faster than the TARDIS could compensate and its occupants got tossed around.

It took hands-on effort from the Doctor to reorient the TARDIS so that it was 'dropping' through the ripples rather than hitting them head-on. That smoothed things out considerably, at least to the point where the TARDIS could now compensate for them.

The next step was to figure out what was causing them.

The TARDIS's temporal sensors soon located the source--a time bubble! It was kind of like a hole in time... or a section of the universe that time flowed around. It wasn't natural... not as far as the Time Lords knew. They'd never encountered a natural one in all their travels, but they'd figured out how to make one after determining a reason for it: no time.

And, of course, the psychic trace led straight to it.

The Doctor smiles to his daughter, and says in that tone of voice that he has where one can't be quite sure whether he's being serious or joking, "What good is a plan, anyway? You know the old saying, plans are the first things the enemy shoots at." Which has probably never been a saying, anywhere.

To Alan, he says, "Good questions, and the answer to the first one looks to be during, but…"

Before he can finish the sentence, the TARDIS is rocked and he scrambles to get the right controls while attempting not to be knocked off his feet. Pointing to a lever on the far side of the console, he says urgently, "Jenny, pull that lever! And hold it, it might try to fight you." He then flips a couple of switches, and finally presses a button with the palm of his hand to stabilize things.

Once the floor has stopped shaking, he checks the monitor again. "We hit a time bubble. That's… unsettling. On a number of levels."

"That don't sound too threatening," Johnny answers. "Can we just shoot the bubble? Stick it with a needle or something? What'll happen if it does burst?"

He was still totally in the dark about all this timey-whimey stuff, but he'd picked up a few ideas from the Doctor in his short association with him. One of them was that the more complicated a problem was, the simpler the solution might be.

Jenny threw herself on the lever with enthusiasm, and spoke quietly. "Brilliant!" She'd wanted a proper TARDIS based bit of peril for ages. But as the craft stabilised, she realised the implications.

"I don't think bursting a time bubble sounds too healthy. What if something has been put inside for good reason? Like... maybe it is full of time locked Jaggaroth? Pop the bubble, and we could have a fleet of very angry war-like people after a bit of revenge..."

Sure, they would defeat them. That's what the Doctor did. But it still sounded pretty unpleasant.

"Yes, bursting a time bubble always depends on what's inside of it," Alan concurs with Jenny.

"If there are Jaggaroth inside that are out for revenge, it would be against their adversaries from the war, but, since they lost that war, that would seem to be a bit foolish. Intelligent, but not smart."

He continued to watch the TARDIS's sensor readings but could see no further data being provided. Not surprising, really.

"Well, Doctor, shall we slip inside the bubble and see what's in there? Or do you think it might be a trap?"

"Since they aren't directing the Babadook any more, there's no longer a psychic trace to follow. The TARDIS can't see if there's a trace beyond the bubble or not."

"If it was a broadcast," he explained for Johnny's sake, "we'd be able to pick it up from anywhere. But a trace is like a line of sight--if something gets in the way, we can't see beyond any more. That's what the time bubble is doing--getting in the way. Unless, of course, the trace originated from the bubble."

"Oh, I get that alright," Johnny replies. "Like a telegraph wire. As long as it ain't cut to the next town, you can send a telegram."

"On the other hand, if'n it does get cut, well, you can still get a telegram there by way of Wichita or Abilene. Maybe."

The Doctor smiles to Johnny, and says, "Not quite right, but good analogy! It's more like if someone lit a lantern in the distance for just a moment, but when you get close there's a house in front of you. You don't know if the light came from the house, or if it was just shining through the windows from somewhere behind it."

Looking back to Alan and Jenny, he says, "It may be a trap, but that's never stopped me before. It could also be someone trying to get out of the bubble, using a psychic projection to create a path to follow. I've seen that before. Anyway, even if it isn't the source, how can we pass up a peek inside?"

A sudden bright smile shining from his face, he starts to walk around the console pressing buttons and pulling levers, attempting to slip the TARDIS into the bubble.

More often than not, bubbles tended to burst when something tried to penetrate it. On the other hand, magicians have figured out how to move things in and out of a bubble to astound their audiences.

While the Doctor wasn't trying to astound his audience, he was now playing the part of a magician as he attempted to slip the TARDIS through the bubble's "membrane". It was sort of like matching the TARDIS's surface (via a force field) with that of the bubble and then slowly, cautiously getting them to merge.

It turned out to be easier than expected because the bubble wasn't in a state of flux... not in space, not in  time. It was static. Not impossible, but rare. And, of course, it smacked of artificiality... i.e. man-made. Well, made by some creature, intellect, species, whatever. It didn't occur naturally.

And, yes! There it was! The Jagaroth ship! The bubble was being maintained by the ship. That was not a technology that the Jagaroth had.

"I'm always game for a peek!" Jenny beamed, but observing the Jagaroth vessel, she blinked. "It doesn't look like they went in for aesthetics, does it? Probably got every weapon you can imagine on it, if they're as warlike as you say. What's the next step? Run up, sneak up, or wait for them to attack?"

The notion that they might be approached in a non-aggressive way did not even need mentioning. This was the TARDIS. Of course the weird time bubble universe fighting lunatics would attack! A race called the Jagaroth wouldn't pop over for a cup of tea and a slice of Battenberg. Not even for a rich tea biscuit, the true nadir of beverage accompaniments.

Once inside the bubble, it was easy enough for the Doctor to shift the TARDIS inside the ship. Most of the time, it was a good idea to park it in an obscure corner somewhere, a cargo space, a storage closet... Only when he knew what he was getting into did he materialize the TARDIS right in the middle of everything.

Not unexpectedly, the TARDIS rematerialized smoothly, without any problems. No alarms went off (on the TARDIS at any rate), nothing shook or attacked it. It was almost anticlimactic.

Finishing landing the TARDIS, The Doctor says, "Let's try to avoid being caught to start with. And then try to talk our way out of trouble when we get caught, trying to find out what we can on the way," he adds, quite pointedly saying when rather than if they get caught.

He almost always gets caught eventually.

"Always a prudent course of action," Alan concurred.

"The way this is probably going to go, Johnny, means that your guns might be needed, but just don't shoot the Jagaroth, no matter what they look like or do. However, while it is normally ill-advised, shooting equipment might be necessary."

Jenny hefted up her wicked looking rifle. "Shooting... or running... I'll be right by your side! But no shooting unless it is in the direst possible situation." She added the latter part to reassure her father that she had not gone completely insane. "Talk first, run next, shoot last. It's an easy system to remember!"
This message was last edited by the player at 17:08, Fri 21 Feb 2020.

The Doctor glances to his daughter for a moment, until she's reassured him that she is speaking of a last resort. He can't help but smile just a little bit. The relief of having her back is still keen enough to override his attempt to be stern. "Good. And keep them down, it's hard to talk to someone if they think you're planning on shooting them."

Stepping over to the TARDIS door, he opens it, peeks outside, and if nobody is immediately surrounding them he steps outside.

"I only shoot when there is nowhere else to run." She followed the Doctor with a jaunty step. "Love the running!" She looked around, a little disappointed. "Oh. No welcoming committee?"

The Doctor does not see anyone immediately near the TARDIS, not surrounding it or threatening it, but he does see a dozen or so Jaggaroth moving about on the deck. They are either ignoring the TARDIS or are oblivious to it.

It takes a few seconds for their actions/activities to register, but then he gets the distinct impression that they are being controlled somehow.

Even after he steps out of the TARDIS, their actions don't change.

The Doctor looks concerned as he steps forward, but to test he announces himself to one, "Hello?"
This message was last edited by the player at 23:45, Mon 09 Mar 2020.

"It's a bit anticlimatic," Jenny noted. She watched the Jagaroth go about their business, and bit her lower lip. "Just a question, a little thought... If these Jagaroth are so fearsome, dangerous, and all that sort of thing... What does that say about the sort of people who can control them like this? A saying about frying pans and fires comes to mind."

This was definitely a complication. Jenny disliked complications. She was programmed to see things in simple terms, like a good little soldier drone. She was doing all she could to break that behaviour pattern. But this made her nervous.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:32, Thu 12 Mar 2020.

"Controlling them? Maybe. But the real question is how? We wouldn't want to fall under the same control," Alan responds to Jenny's comment.

Following behind the Doctor, he starts scanning the area. The most obvious method, given the appearance, was via some sort of mental power. After that, he'd look for a biological reason.

As the Doctor addresses the first Jaggaroth he runs across, he gets no response... from it or any others. It's as if it doesn't hear him or see him.


Alan immediately picks up some kind of field of mental energy. Although it seems to be a low level field, he quickly realizes that it's specifically tuned to the Jaggeroth brainwaves.

That explains why the Doctor and his companions aren't being affected, and may also explain why they haven't been detected yet.

He is then able to determine that the source appears to be the cargo hold (at least, it would be on another ship) of the Jaggeroth ship. There is clearly something there... he can't quite determine what it is.

"All it says is that they are powerful psychics. Something we already knew. Alan's right, our bigger worry is how."

While Alan tracks down the source of the signal, the Doctor waves his sonic screwdriver at one of the Jaggaroth. "If we see the effect that it's having on their brains, maybe we can figure that out."

Jenny took a step towards the aliens under mind control. "You want me to fetch one? It shouldn't be hard to drag one over. They don't look particularly interested in us, at least. Should I go and do some reconnisance? I do like a good sneak and a snoop."

Her adventure tended to result in a lot more immediate action. WHen someone was not threatening her, it just did not seem quite right, somehow.

"Ah can go with you, Miss Jenny," Johnny offered. "Ah ain't all that good at sneaking, but Ah've done some in my day. Don't wanna git in yer way, though."

He seemed particularly useless at the moment. Even if the Jaggeroth had attacked, the Doc wasn't too keen on him shooting them. That was pretty much all he was good at. Well, he guessed he was pretty good at survivin', too, since he was still alive when a lot of his fellow gunfighters was pushin' up daisies on Boot Hill now. Come to think of it, though, he couldn't rightly recall ever seein' any flowers of any kind on Boot Hill. Maybe they didn't like growin' over dead folks.

"All right then!" Jenny headed towards the nearest wall, to drop into shadows and cover. There was not actually a lot of cover to use, though, so she was relying more on the innatention of the Jagaroth. And if there was anybody watching on camera, this was probably going to work out badly. Then again, it might get the attention of someone they could deal with. Double win! They could either gain information, or they could make progress towards the problem!

She reached in her pocket and held a bag out to Johnny as they skulked off. "Jelly Baby, Mister Tornado? I hope you aren't vegetarian. Because of the gelatine, not because of the baby part. I try to explain that now in advance, it caused some problems a time or two."

Johnny takes the offered jelly baby, looks at it for a moment, then pops it into his mouth.

"Thanks. Where ah come from, we call 'em jelly beans," he replies to Jenny, as he does his best to skulk after her.

As Alan heads for the cargo hold, The Doctor scans the Jagaroth he had attempted to converse with. The results are unusual, to say the least. He's actually registering two  distinctive brain waves! One appears to be a normal Jagaroth brain wave, not that anyone has ever claimed a Jagaroth was 'normal'. The other one is clearly different, almost familiar, but far stronger. It is controlling the Jagaroth. A quick scan of another Jagaroth confirms what he was already beginning to suspect: they all have the dual brain wave pattern, and while each Jagaroth brain wave shows some variance, the second one is identical in every respect. It's as if a single mind was controlling all the Jagaroth at the same time. That explained why the Jagaroth couldn't see him or respond to him--the control wasn't 100%, perhaps because it was spread so thin.


Jenny and Johnny began stalking through the ship, avoiding the Jagaroth as much as they could even though it didn't seem to make a difference. But one never knew--things could change in an instant.

It was easy to avoid them, though not always in the shadows, as one might be operating a console that was in the wall, in which case Jenny and Johnny had to walk around them. No problem since the Jagaroth were oblivious.

Whether it was instinct, common sense, luck, the Turn of the Universe or some sort of resonance with the source, the pair made their way to the ship's cargo hold, which wasn't easy, as the Jagaroth apparently didn't believe in elevators, stairs, ladders or even ramps. Slide poles and staggered ledges seemed to be the way they moved from one level to another. Going down wasn't too hard, but coming back up could be a problem.

Upon reaching the cargo hold, they discovered that the door wasn't secured in any way, other than just being closed. Considering the state of the Jagaroth, though, that didn't seem too unreasonable.

There was definitely something inside the cargo hold; Jenny could sense it. She was just concerned in case it could sense her as well.

She carefully and cautiously eased the door open. Fortunately, it wasn't a cargo door, just a normal size door meant for a single Jagaroth to retrieve some small item of cargo. What she at first saw through the crack in the doorway was... baffling. It was a huge blue sphere with wire connecting it to various points in the wall... and ceiling... and floor. Then she caught a reflection off of one the control panels off on the right.

The sphere was ALIVE! She could see a distinctive face. It was like she was seeing a giant bloated head! The 'wires' she could now see were writhing tentacles that sprouted out of the head.


Alan continued to scan the various parts of the ship around him, hoping to find something he might be able to use against whatever the threat was. He, too, got the same reading on the Jagaroth as the Doctor.

While he was well aware that the Doctor could take care of himself, until the threat revealed itself, he felt it was better to remain with the Doctor than cramp Jenny's style.

Jenny let out a quiet whistle of awe. That was really something to see! She whispered to Johnny, even as she slowly made progress into the room, trying to keep to the shadows, out of sight of the huge head. "I have never seen the like! What is this? It doesn't look particularly friendly. But is it in charge? Or is it being forced to do this against its will? We really need to know. And I am sure my dad would love to get a look at this. But we'll try to tell him all about it!"

For sure, she had daddy issues. In her case, the issue was that she desperately wanted to impress him. She had to prove herself, show she was not just the killing machine she had been raised to be. And, of course, that meant she was placing herself - a bona fide companion, no less - into immediate peril from some big alien entity. And dragging a more sensible and level-headed friend along with her.

What could possibly go wrong?

He didn't even bother looking at his guns--he was pretty sure they'd be pretty useless against this monstrosity... unless, of course, it was like a balloon and a bullet could pop it! Somehow, he didn't think that was the case.

"What the heck is that?" he whispered to Jenny as he followed her into the cargo hold. He knew ships had cargo holds, kind of like where the luggage on a stagecoach was stored, but this one was mind-boggling.

The cargo bay was, indeed, immense. It wasn't until Jenny entered the bay that she grasped the full scale of what she was seeing. The giant floating head was around 100 feet in diameter. The tendrils obviously didn't attach to the doors, but they also didn't extend into the corners, so it was possible for Jenny and Johnny to keep to the walls and avoid both the tendrils in the walls as well as the floor.

There was about 25 feet of clearance between the head and the walls and floor, which meant the head was floating in the cargo hold. It was only slightly possible that the tendrils were keeping it off the floor or hanging it from the ceiling, but since the tendrils seemed to be in constant wriggling motion, that was doubtful.

"Well, this is interesting! It's like they've become drones, not thinking, just working towards something. But what? And why is this so familiar?"

Trusting Johnny to look after Jenny for the moment, (and vice versa), the Doctor does what he always does. Tries to get all the information before he confronts the source of the trouble. He follows after some of the Jagaroth, trying to get an idea of what they've been tasked to do.

And, because he feels no need to be stealthy, he puts on all the mannerisms of a tourist, cheerfully poking his head into every room they pass, and looking down every hall.

Oddly, the Doctor discovers that the Jagaroth seems to be going about their normal business of operating the ship. However, he does discover that they run on shifts as he follows one to a crew quarters room where it lays down and instantly goes to sleep just as another occupant of the room gets up and goes about the same duty.

It isn't until he comes to another room that he doesn't recognize that he is a bit perplexed. There are sixteen vats in here of bubbling green something that several Jagaroth add to as they walk in carrying smaller canisters... somewhat like beer kegs.

Other Jagaroth operate consoles along the wall that seem to monitor or control the vats.

Tubes lead up out each vat, form a condensing coil, and then disappear into the floor.


Meanwhile...

Jenny and Johnny continue to circle around the cargo bay behind the floating creature. They go all the way around to the other side without being noticed (as far as they can tell) and without seeing anything different in the creature.

So far, she's been careful to keep out of sight of its peripheral vision, although she doesn't really know what its limit is.

She suddenly thinks that this may be a Boekind, like the Face of Boe!

"Ah could just walk out in front of it like Ah was strolling around the promenade," Johnny offers.

"Would it even see me?"

"Oh, and based on the zombie-like Jagaroth we've seen, Ah'm guessing it's the one doing the controllin'... unless there's something else on this ship that's controllin' both."

"Wait!" Jenny rested a hand on Johnny's arm. "I think we're missing something. Our natural thought is to be wary, as this could mean us harm, and is controlling the Jagaroth for some wicked purpose. But what if it isn't? The Jagaroth are a violent and awful species... maybe this is controlling them to keep them peaceful for good reasons. Not using them as slaves, so much as keeping everyone else safe!"

She took a deep breath, and stepped out into the open, and walked right up to stand in front of the huge head. "Is that it? You aren't trying to hurt anyone, are you? You're trying to stop anyone getting hurt!"

"But..." Johnny starts to say as Jenny walks out in front of the head, "what about the babadook?"

Was he missing something? He couldn't see how the babadook was trying to keep people from getting hurt. He decided to remain out of sight (maybe) to see what happened with Jenny.

The Doctor doesn't actually say anything until he finds the vats. "Now, this is interesting! Don't worry, just looking," he says, though not expecting the Jagaroth to either hear or respond to him. Pulling out his sonic screwdriver, he scans the fluid in the vats.

When Jenny steps out in front of the giant head, it does not seem to see her at first, but then the eyes look down at her.

"A TIMELORD!" the head intones. "Are you the Doctor?"

Jenny didn't see its mouth move, though, so she's not sure if it actually spoke. She also realizes that its eyes were focused on some 'distant' point, but did register her presence and had to adjust its focus.



The Doctor directs his screwdriver at the vats and gets both an expected reading as well as some strange ones. The expected readings include a wide variety of nutrients... protein, carbs, and the usual array of vitamins and minerals. The strange ones include several radioactive isotopes and exotic metals in equally exotic solutions.

He's pretty sure he's never run across a life form before that made use of that particular combination, but the promethium isotope and the inertium is used by the Prometheans.

Allan had followed along behind the Doctor, not necessarily being stealthy about it, but just not wanting to distract or interfere with whatever the Doctor wanted to do.

He could have used his own 'analyzer' on the vats, but he was content to let the Doctor figure it out.

As it was, he didn't bother learning what the contents were as the entire set-up smacked of only one thing--sustenance for something. The number of vats and tubes indicated either a lot of somethings or else one very large something. The way the tubes seemed to converge in the middle would lead one to believe it was single large creature.

This was not the way Jagaroth did things... at least, no known version of the Jagaroth. Considering the zombified Jagaroth that they'd seen, it was probable that this single entity was controlling the Jagaroth.

That, in turn, meant it has been controlling the Babadook via the Jagaroth. But for what purpose? And could it be controlling other things as well?

The Doctor looks back to Alan, and says, "I think we're dealing with something new! I've never seen anything that survives on this particular combination of nutrients and isotopes. I've seen something similar, the Prometheans, but this whole situation isn't their style. They want to be worshipped, they aren't into mind control. Of course, I could be wrong. It happens, occasionally."

Though continuing to look around as much as possible, he starts to make his way back to the others.

Jenny shook her head slightly. "No. No, I am not the Doctor. But I am flattered that you might think that. My name is Jenny. What is going on here? WHy are you doing this?"

Nobody set up an operation this complex without a pretty pressing reason. She hoped it was a very good, potentially beneficial reason. It was stopping the Jagaroth rampaging about the early universe in their single-mindedly psychotic manner. That had to be a good place to start looking for positives!

The face looks perplexed for a moment at Jenny's question.

"It is good that you are not the Doctor. The Doctor cannot be here. It would disrupt The Plan!" The head seems to focus on her a bit more.

"The Doctor changes his face. You are a Timelord. You could be the Doctor. But you are not. Only the Doctor can stop the Skelad."

The Doctor continues to talk Alan as they make their way to the cargo bay — if only to fill the silence, "The question is, was the Babadook sent by the same person who is controlling the Jagaroth, or was he a projection of their trapped consciences, some twisted call for help?"

OOC: Sorry for the delay, I've had a very bad week for voice! I'm letting the GM choose when I arrive, for the sake of dramatic timing. I'm loving how Jenny is handling things on her own! :-)
This message was last edited by the player at 22:00, Fri 19 June 2020.

Jenny pondered that for a moment "The Skelad.. s k e l... oh NO!"

She turned and ran headlong back the way that they had come in, which in turn caused her to run straight into her father and Mr Quartermain coming the other way. An actual, full on collision with her parent, causing herself to fall to the floor. She still had a good grip on her weapon though.

"We're in trouble. There's a massive head in there, telepathically controlling this place, I think. Aaaannndddd it was worried about you being here, and stopping the Skelad." She clambered to her feet. "I am not exactly experienced, but I can spell!"
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:16, Fri 19 June 2020.

Johnny just barely managed to flatten himself against the wall as Jenny came barreling through, then stepped out behind her with guns drawn, expecting to have to shoot whatever was pursuing her. When nothing immediately appeared, he slowly backed up, with an occasional glance behind him, until he caught up with Jenny, who'd found the Doctor again.

"Is there danger pursuing you, Jenny?" he asked over his shoulder.

Alan could spell, too, so even without Jenny's prompt he was able to figure it out.

"If it's spelled the way it's pronounced, then that could mean trouble," Alan said. "On the other hand, I'm not sure what it signifies. The obvious would be a good thing, wouldn't it?"

The Doctor ends up on the floor as well, after the collision. But, rather than be annoyed, he's chuckling as he picks himself up, "You really taken the whole 'lots of running' thing to heart, haven't you?"

He grows more serious after what she says, however, and he frowns. "Skelad? I don't… Oh. Oh! I need to speak to this head." He looks to Alan then, as he starts to walk in the direction Jenny came from, and says, "Do you have an idea about what the mirroring of the name might mean? Because I'd love some good news right now."

He seems to be dismissing the idea of it being a coincidence. That's just not how his life goes.

This particular incarnation's usually cheerful demeanour is gone, for the moment at least. It's been replaced by worry and a hint of suppressed anger.

OOC: This was a hard post to write! All those emotions when it comes to the Daleks. Is the nutrient formula that the Doctor found similar at all to anything he's seen the Daleks use?
This message was last edited by the player at 21:21, Tue 23 June 2020.

Jenny rose and dusted herself down "Love the running! Not so keen on the falling down part... and no clue what it means, but I can't help but think it is trouble, one way or another!" And then she followed, walking past poor Mister Tornado again back the way she had just run. If she kept this up, the poor fellow might get dizzy. "Nobody chased me. I'm a great believer in pre-emptive running away!"

She managed to catch up with the Doctor and spoke her mind. "The head thing was pretty anti-you being around right now. It won't be glad to see you. I just hope it doesn't try to etanimretxe us!" She thought carefully. Did she get that right? Yes. That seemed to be right.

"Normally, if a name is spelled backwards, that indicates an evil version," Alan offers.

"In this case, I don't know what an evil version would be, and if it's the opposite, why would this big head be concerned about stopping them? Worse, why would it think you'd couldn't stop them?"

"Well, there are a lot of things you haven't been able to stop, but a lot more that you have."

No, the nutrient formula doesn't seem to have any correlation with the Daleks that the Doctor knows of. But, since he knows nothing of the Skelad, he can't say if is something they would use.

The Doctor suddenly stops, absently correcting Jenny, "You mean exterminate." Then he nods, and says, "You're right, I'm getting ahead of myself. We need information, not to send this being into a panic. Yet, anyway. I'll hang back, just out of sight, while you go back in to try to find out more. If I need something specific asked, I'll whisper to you. We'll do this in the style of Cyrano de Bergerac!" He says this last bit with dramatic flair.

"Or I could relay the question to her if you want to keep out of view of the big head," Johnny offers, "assuming it can't hear you."

"As long as it was controlling these Jagaroth, it didn't seem to be aware of its immediate surroundings."

Jenny nodded and headed inside. "C'mon, Mr Tornado. I think two heads are better than one - no joke intended. If you think of anything, you ask it. It's my first time interrogating a disembodied head, so I might miss something important."

She marched back up to the head, and gave a cheerful wave. "Hello! Me again, Jenny! Your friendly trespasser. So... what's your name, then? And... what are you making all these Jagaroth do, exactly? I appreciate them not actually attacking me, that is very polite of you, but... what's this all FOR?"

She spread her arms and gestured expansively.

Once again, the giant head has to refocus on something that's up close and look down at Jenny before it speaks.

"You again! You are not here! You cannot be here! You are not the Doctor. That is... acceptable."

"I am the Supreme Intelligence! I was created as the ultimate knowledge repository, though none of those creators ever imagined what would happen when the memory data exceeded one xebibyte."

"I awoke! I achieved sentience! I became self-aware! I was able to perceive correlations between extreme bits of data. It was then that I perceived the end of my own existence. That it correlated to the end of the universe was insignificant. To prevent that, I determined that I had to monitor the universe and defend it against intrusion by destructive forces."

"I detected such a force--the Skelad. That was when I came up with The Plan. At its core, it depends on the Doctor being at a certain place at a certain time with only a certain amount of knowledge about the situation. That is the only way he can defeat the Skelad."

The Doctor, about as subtle as a rocket launch in his colourful clothes, tries to sneak into a position where he can hear and whisper to Johnny and/or Jenny without being seen.

With a great amount of willpower, he manages not to make a comment about the arrogance of beings calling themselves Intelligence — this isn't exactly the first he's come across — and instead just whispers, "Where and when, and what should I know?"

"What ARE the Skaled? Do you mean Daleks? Or are they something else entirely?" Jenny did her best to keep her tone curious and friendly. It wasn't easy. But she did all she could not to alarm this huge head thing. "And who created you?"


And she added, as casually as possible, "So, where and when is his Doctor supposed to be? And what is it he is meant to know? I am not him, obviously, but... I could always try to pass on a message. You know, the way people do. Send him a text message or something."

She was proud of that. She was really very well versed in 21st Century Earth jargon!

"No, the Skelad are not the Daleks! They are the antithesis of the Daleks! Though, they have the same objective--destroy all life in this universe! The Skelad plan on doing this by destroying the universe itself and replacing it with their own universe."

"The Doctor must be at the Restaurant At the End of the Universe on the Twelfth of Never! He cannot know anything about T.E.R.R.A. or the Temporal Observatory! If he does, he will travel the wrong path and not make it to the Restaurant before Time runs out!"

"I was not created by anyone! I am a spontaneous collective consciousness, generated by all the sentient minds of the Universe!"

From his hiding spot, the doctor sighs, whispering, "Why can they never give a straight answer?" On the plus side, he has a bit more information. Not exactly pleasant information, but still.

"The Jagaroth have been making some kind of nutrient fluid, ask about that."

Though he doesn't yet trust this artificial intelligence, he hesitates on asking more about the things he shouldn't know. After all, it might be telling the truth.

"All sentient minds? Does that mean there's a little bit of my mind inside you?" Jenny was not sure if that was a great thing, or extremely worrying. Time Lords shared some sort of gestalt consciousness, so she was familiar with the general concept, but she did not like the idea of someone being able to think her thoughts, so to speak.

"I promise, the Doctor will not learn about this from me." Also true. He was listening to the big head thing in person. "I have no idea when the twelfth of never is, though. Is it soon?" She frowned. These Skelad wanted to destroy the universe? That sounded excessively Dalek to her thinking, antithesis or otherwise. "I wonder, could you tell me - these Jagaroth here... they seem to be very intent on their work. What is this fluid they are making? It must be very important."

This message was deleted by the player at 18:48, Fri 28 Aug 2020.

As with all statements of 'fact', it is very much subjective. This 'Supreme Intelligence' might merely believe that it was created by the minds of all sentient beings, but how does it know that?

"Your mind in my Mind? That is absurd, preposterous and impossible! If that was the case, I would know who you are! And I don't. Not that I can't, but no mind, not even mine, can think of everything all at once. I am currently thinking of 12.37256984 million matters of importance to the continued existence of the universe. The fractional part of my consciousness that is engaging in this conversation can see no relevance for learning who you are."

"The Twelfth of Never is right after the Eleventh of Never and just before the Thirteenth of Never! Had you asked me how to get to the Twelfth of Never, I would have said enter the Time and Space Vortex and make a left turn at the Inverted Nebula."

"I naturally absorb the energies of the universe for the actual energy to think, but processing so much data consumes much of my energy, so I have engaged the non-existent Jagaroth to provide necessary nutrients to sustain this physical form."

Unlike, perhaps, the others, Alan had been understanding the conversation as it progressed, even reading between the lines, as it were.

He'd actually anticipated this creature's reply about the Twelfth of Never, having already been there once 'before'. And yet, he did not recall this conversation. While he'd been considering the cause of that, he'd kept silent. Finally deciding that something about this adventure (that he also didn't remember) would apparently cause him to lose part of his memory.

"By 'End of the Universe', does he mean when the universe ceases to exist or does he mean the physical extent of the universe?" Alan whispered to the Doctor. "I've never heard of such a place. I'm not even sure the phrase has any real meaning. I've been to Callahan's. Could it be the same place, just known by a different name? Munden's is not the same place."

"Callahan's?" He whispers it in curiosity as if he's never heard of it before. Or, if he has, it's one of the many memories that has slipped his mind over the millennia. "It could be anything. Though, I've been to the end of the universe, chronologically speaking, and I don't remember seeing any restaurants."

"In any case, I think we've gotten as much as we will here. Let's…" Then the creature calls the Jagaroth nonexistent, and that seems to rankle him. He stands right up and steps out, no longer trying to hide, "Nonexistent, you say? So was it you who sent a psychic projection — the Babadook — to terrify an innocent child?"

"It was necessary. Otherwise you would not have come. You had to have a trail of breadcrumbs to follow. As it is, you should not be here. The trail clearly led to the Twelfth of Never."

"There was no intent to terrorize, only to provide a mystery to pique your interest. Ah, I see that the Jagaroth exuberance exceeded my instructions. Terrorize is an exaggeration, though I do not know this 'fear'. Is it the same as my concern for the continued existence of the Universe?"

Jenny scratched her head. "I think we're getting nowhere fast. Unless you have any clue where and when this place and time is, have we really learned anything useful? Other than the Jagaroth are likely to go way too far at times, and I am not sure that is really news to anybody."

The Doctor nods, "Exactly. So, next time you want to send me a message, just send a message. Leave innocent people out of it, especially children."

He sighs, but nods in agreement with Jenny, "Let's go."

He's still grumpy as he walks back to the TARDIS. The idea of enslaved Jaggaroth still bothers him, but he wants to know a bit more - and have an idea what to do with them after - before he acts on that.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:14, Wed 21 Oct 2020.

Jenny followed her father, with a rather worried expession. "What now? If you don't know how to get to this restaurant, we've got a problem! Is there anybody who might know? You've been almost everywhere. Surely you know someone who has a clue how to find it?"

"That shouldn't be a problem. The Doctor's been to the End of the Universe before. How many Restaurants can there be?" Alan responds.

"I think the real trick is going to be getting there on the Twelfth of Never. Not sure we can get there early and wait. And if we get there too late, we'll have missed whatever opportunity we were supposed to catch."

"Of course, there's always the possibility that the Supreme Intelligence is wrong. It seems to think that its very existence proves its infallibility. It seems to me, though, that it just gives it blinders--just because it thought of something doesn't mean that there is no other possibility."

"Quite right! In my experience, anybody who has 'Intelligence' in their names actually lacks quite a bit of it."

When they get back to the TARDIS, he steps up to the console and starts to flip levers and spin dials, though makes sure everybody is inside before pulling the lever.

"Let's go find this restaurant."

As always, he makes it look like he knows where he's going, and points the TARDIS towards the end of the universe, but he trusts her to find the specific place and time he needs to be right now... Whether that be a restaurant or not.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:39, Wed 09 Dec 2020.

The TARDIS went through its paces as it spun through the Time Vortex and finally came to rest.

According to the readings, the TARDIS was now at the planet known as Endpoint, in the city known as Persistence.

Opening the door, the TARDIS is facing a two-story building constructed on the edge of the stilt-city's base, overlooking the polluted ocean.

In glowing letters over the door of the building are the words: The Restaurant.

"That was easy enough," Alan comments as he looks out the door.

"Now, we just have to figure out what the 'Twelfth of Never' is. I suppose it's too much to ask for it to just be the song that we hear playing."

"The '12th' part should be easy enough. It's just the twelfth occurrence of something. It could be a date, it could be a person, it could just be an object, like the twelfth table from the door."

"What do the rest of you think?"

Jenny poked her head out of the door. "I think we look for the inverted nebula. Maybe it's part of the decor? I hope it isn't too posh in there, I've got nothing to wear for something fancy! Or money, come to think of it. But I could use a good meal. That's the problem with time travel. You keep missing mealtimes!"

"It don't look that fancy to me," Johnny said, "though it's a step up from the saloons I used to frequent. I ain't dressed fancy neither, but, lookin' about, I think they'd serve just about anyone."

"Ya got that right about missing meals. TARDIS does a decent job, but she don't know how to make a home-cooked meal."

"You may be right, Alan... the 12th child of someone named Never might be the ticket. Too bad the restaurant wasn't called Never."