Players, beware of spoilers ! This episode is rather generous with them, and you should get the gist of the story in game soon (we just need 5 minutes without imminent danger…). So, on to those TARDIS nights ! this tardisode was played before episode 3 but happened after it chronologically…
AKA Time warped (again) ! /Lots of these Time Lords
“ Dear journal, today I went out in pyjamas, I met an interesting boy, but I almost accidentally killed him, silly me ! So, I reset him back to normal and went on to save the world/universe(s) without really understanding how… or perhaps paved the way for future disaster(s), who knows ? Stay tuned to find out in A Time thief’s (amateur destroyer of the universe) journal! “
Well, Archie wasn’t kidding when he said I would see some really strange things during this search… stranger things than fiction, indeed ! But let’s start at the beginning…
Your mission if you accept it : to stop this self-destroying TARDIS in x seconds !
While I was trying to sleep (who goes to bed before 2 o’clock ?! Besides, after everything that just happened, I don’t think I will be able to sleep easily anytime soon…) Archie called me to the console room.
Apparently, he had been redecorating/remodelling the TARDIS again to “better suit it to human needs” (perhaps also to be nice to us after our recent ordeal…) ! It is now more organic, in bluish tints and with fishes (apparently, some of them are real, I wonder how that works…).
I could have said that it was so peaceful it reminded me of “ The Big Blue” and its joyous atmosphere, but Archie was definitely too worried for that. I could not even asked any of the questions I had since our recent “Quantum Leap” !
Apparently, during his last change, he “lost” the context room which is the “file organiser” of all the versions of the different rooms of the TARDIS. So, unable to tell which room is the current “right” version, some of our own rooms could get jettisoned or some past versions, creating paradoxes, endangering the TARDIS and ultimately the universe (so, nothing too important then, this remodelling was totally worth it ! It seems the universe about to get destroyed is going to be our usual Monday !).
He wanted me to find it, and when I asked him why he didn’t involve the others, he explained that he thought I had the skills for the search (I really have to find out what he knows about my “second job” and my past exactly !) and that the more people would search through the jumbled TARDIS’ rooms, the more paradoxes could happen.
While I am flattered by his trust, I wonder where it comes from, especially after everything that transpired the day before ? Could the boy from the boiler room have been a younger version of the Archivist ?
Of course, it is also possible that he gives secret missions to everyone of us according to our skills, or that it is a kind of training (we would need it evidently !) or test ? No, it’s unlikely, Archie would not have changed the TARDIS architecture just for this and he would have said something in the end… on the other hand, Evelyn apparently also had some interesting encounters in the TARDIS that night !
So, he modified my screwdriver in order for him to detect the context room, asked me not to cause any paradoxes by talking to my eventual future selves and I went out to save the world in my pyjamas… he must not be a fan of pop culture as he did not seem to get my Star Wars reference… then again, he liked jazz, so he is probably a snob, it would seem logical with his time lord background ! Still, he does seem to get some of my plays on words and dry humour, so maybe he is not totally hopeless !
Anyway, I actually intended to respect Archie’s instruction (more or less) given the apparently circumstances, but you know how it goes…
Boxes, paradoxes and all that jazz !
As I started to wander around looking for the lost arch/room, I started to hear jazz music (Archie must really be a fan !) and then voices having a heated debate bordering on argument. At least one of the voices seemed familiar (like a dejà-vu or perhaps it was yet to come, like a futuristic dejà-vu or pas-encore-vu !).
While I tried to follow the music, I walked on a weird floor with wood panels and found out something weird underneath (a classical déjà-vu this time, as it looked exactly like the previous version of the TARDIS we saw during our Quantum Leap !)… a mysterious object (a box ?) surrounded by a cloth with moving motifs (chameleon properties ?) and the symbol of Rassilon on one side and a burnt symbol on the other…
At first I tried to be more careful than usual (we had too many brushes with death already !), but as touching the symbols with the cloth did not do anything, I had to touch both symbols with my bare hand ! When I touched the Rassilon seal, a man appears and scolded me for snooping around and ordered me to leave the “ box” alone (probably a future version of the Archivist, given the scene I would see afterwards)…
So naturally, I had to touch the other symbol (I hate being ordered around without explanation ! Besides, I do not trust the Archivist very much given what we have seen…) !
A mysterious woman with glasses complimented me on not listening to the man and affirmed that I would say to her (if the message was actually intended for me, but clues points that way with my discovery in my bedroom later, I have to check the letter) that “finding her was/will be the greatest adventure of my life !”. Well it would have to be quite something with everything we already went through !
Is she a Time Lady as well ? The symbol points that way… I have to find out who she is, I don’t intend to be used by her either ! She does appear less stuck-up than the Archivist, but she could be bad news like The Rani or someone like that !). So, I decided to go on and let this Pandora Box alone for the time being…
I arrived in a corridor with five doors. Unable to detect if one door was more like to lead me to the context room, I let chance decide and started to explore ! The first door was a strange cave seeming to lead outside (the sun appeared to be shining). But the screwdriver started to turn counter-clockwise and turning darker, so I decided to try other doors (see, Archie, I did try to be cautious !…
The second one was intriguing. It led me to a future version of the console room (with Archie’s new design) and with the same man that spoke to me when I touched the Seal of Rassilon (so, almost certainly another incarnation of The Archivist, probably the next one if we succeed).
He appears to be furious and about to use a cybergun on someone, saying “I told you to get out of my TARDIS !”. So, definitely not a pacifist at all times like The Doctor !
Why do I get the feeling it might be me he’s pointing the gun at me after finding out I helped the woman from the Box or some other things I hid/will hide from the others ? Maybe it’s only because he scolded me just before and I am being paranoid, but I will have to be very careful and hide the box very well, I would hate for this to be a self-fulfilling prophecy !).
Of course, I have got a good idea of what could probably happen: he was not angry specifically against me but against all of us for what we did, and he was probably aiming it at all of us after his “awakening”… We have not meet physically yet, but I already like him less and less !
The third door opened to a boiler room but with Time Lord technology. It seemed to lead towards the Context Room though, so I progressed until I saw a young Time Lord (swearing on the Seal of Rassilon) working on the engine. Given what Evelyn saw and what Archie told us the next morning, it was very probably another younger incarnation of the Archivist.
I did not want to create paradoxes (again following Archie’s advice !), so I tried to avoid being seen. I tried to distract him by throwing a pipe the other way while I advanced but this turned out to be a bad idea : a lot of smoke started to come out of the wall. I tried to put the pipe back in place, but I must have done a bad job as I saw the young man hurt in an explosion of metal and obviously in a bad way.
I could not let him like this, the paradox would have been terrible (besides it was, once again, my fault he was hurt, I had to repair the damages I had done…) so I used my screwdriver to “reverse” his state to full health. It worked perfectly but was rather taxing for my screwdriver I will have to be careful not to overuse this function (hum, I wonder if our artronic screwdrivers could not be a prototype of the kind of technology needed for the “Shredwinder”, I will have to be careful when using it !) ! Still, as a Time Lord, the young man was not too disturbed by this “slight” change in his timeline and wanted to thank me as soon as he saw me standing at the door of this huge boiler room (another thing to search in the database, what is this technology supposed to do ?). I uttered something about having “my own technical crisis to solve” and close the door before causing any more paradoxes !
Great disturbances in the Time Vortex
When I finally went out of this room, the five doors were disappearing slowly but I saw 2 huge metal doors in front of me. They appeared to blink in and out of existence, like some weird Schrödinger’s doors ! I did not like the atmosphere they suggested though (I had a bad feeling about them, as if my existence suddenly cried out in terror and was about to go silent), so I went to the other side of the corridor.
Finally, I arrived to the context room it looked like a beautiful forest under an orange sky (probably a reproduction of Gallifrey, The Time Lords’ planet) !
Another version of the Archivist (probably an “echo” according to Archie) was inside writing an equation on a chalkboard and he needed help.
He ask me about a mean of transportation (with plenty of techno-babble, The Archivist – and probably the entire Time Lord species– is definitely a nerd !), and as we were inside the TARDIS, I talk to him about the space-time vortex. “Time “ was apparently the right answer, and he asked me to write it on the board. As I did, he appeared surprised (“It was not supposed to do that”) as he and the entire Context Room were absorbed by the (Un)Pandora Box ! But the cloister bells stopped…
Archie contacted me and said that the crisis appeared to be over, despite not being able to find the context room anywhere and he did not understand how the TARDIS could function without it, but there it was… and apparently, I must have done good as I did not cause any paradoxes !
Still rather disturbed by all the strange things I had seen, I instinctively kept some “details” to myself (Ignorance is bliss !), like everything concerning the box or the young boy and the paradox I almost (?) caused… I need to know more about this box, his actual motivation in choosing us,etc. I would not want to cause another catastrophe by choosing to do something blindly !
As he was in good humour and rather grateful, I seized the moment to ask him about an access to the TARDIS database to “better understand/acquire the knowledge from our grafts”. While probably true, this was mostly an excuse to finally be able to look for some answers about things he did not tell us or things I would rather not share with anyone just yet… of course I will have to be extra careful not to get caught doing this (that’s me, caution personified ! Well, I’ll try…) !
I also found the strange box where the woman (Jynlnukua ?) told me it would be, in one of the new drawers with someone else’s clothes (apparently, this used to be her bedroom, I must look about TARDIS previous owners and visitors in the database !). There was the Rassilon seal on it, but the mysterious burnt symbol on the other side was lacking. On the other hand, there was a letter addressed to “me” sealed with wax. I’ll open it carefully, without breaking the seal if possible, perhaps there will be some much needed answers (but given how things have gone for me lately, I doubt it !).
New (and disagreeable) sensation for me, I felt kind of guilty for going behind Archie’s back… Perhaps because he saved my life and appears to trust me, in spite of the whole “temporarily destroying the universe” thing ? Or because he was so easily convinced by my pretext ? Then again, he could be lying to us about the Archivist’s nature (or simply not know everything about it) and using us for his own ends, there would be no way to know, that’s my point… in the middle of all these Time Lords, information is power, at least the power to chose with your eyes open.
Le chaudron créatif 