The Doctor nods. "Time and Space stuff. As far as I can tell anyway."
He spends a few more moments scanning and thinking. "Your universe is quite different from mine, though. But, I'd say in the wrong hands it would be very not good."
The Doctor takes off the sunglasses and pockets them. Then he finally turned to Vader. "How did you find it?
"Huh?" he was busy thinking of the 'very not good' bit and almost missed the question.
"There are people more loyal to me than to the Emperor... and Storm Troopers tend to gossip." Vader focuses back on the Doctor once again. "Tk:8008's cousin told him that he was being reassigned after... " Insert helpful air-quotes here "...The Lothal Disaster and this planet was totally safe because it was quarantined."
He pauses to take a drink. And no, he isn't telling you if it's caf or decaf.
"Obviously, 'totally safe' and 'quarantine' don't exactly go together... so I looked into it."
The Doctor doesn't need the details about the rest. He wouldn't like them anyway. And besides that, the whatever-it-is is being very distracting. There's a sort of vibration, like when you hum but without the sound.
"Hear? No. I feel something. There's an energy here. But, it's the wrong sort...."
He cuts off and looks back to the TARDIS.
"Oh, that could be very bad."
He rushes into the TARDIS to check settings and information. He doesn't close the door, he was too focused on checking readings. "Nothing. Well, not nothing, but stable. That's... That shouldn't be."
He's rather confused now. And starts to make his way back out.
Vader sighs inwardly and follows the Doctor towards the TARDIS... not intending to enter, but he would like to know what's going on. So maybe standing by the doors would be okay? The Doctor allowed him to do that before. He makes it almost to the door before stopping dead in his tracks.
"It's voices..." He's sure whatever the Doctor's talking about is important, but he definitely hears something like voices now. He just can't quite make out what they're saying.
Without waiting for the Doctor, Vader turns back toward the gateway. If he can get right up to it then maybe he can hear what it's trying to say. He has to know what it's saying.
The Doctor is still focused on the monitors. Slightly distracted. "Well, if the same TARDIS tries to occupy the same space at the same time, it creates a time ram. Which could punch a hole in the side of the universe. That sort of bad..."
He hears Vader mention voices and he looks up. And sees Vader walking toward...
"No, wait! Don't! You don't know what might happen."
On the plus side, he has enough residual respect for the Doctor to sort of listen to him, on the down side it's not enough to keep him from resisting the pull of the gateway entirely. Vader reaches out and pokes at the space within the opening and watches as the empty space ripples. It's like looking at water... if water didn't reflect anything.
"That's so weird."
Weird but not dangerous... maybe if he stuck his hand in?
The Doctor huffs and runs a hand through his hair. "I think you're being an idiot. You know nothing about it. Who built it? Why is it in this specific location? Why does it draw you towards it?"
Too many questions and not enough answers for the Doctor's taste.
He stops and thinks about the the Doctor's questions. Vader has gotten pretty used to not knowing what's going on when it comes to Force stuff... but the Doctor likes to have all the answers to all the things.
"It's a vergence in the Force." Vader knows he can't really answer the Doctor's questions, but he can share what little he does know.
"It's a place of great power, where the Force is unusually strong... and it's focused right there." He points to the empty space he just poked.
He doesn't know who first found it or why the Jedi eventually abandoned it. He's not even sure that's really important. What's important to him is that it's there and he can hear something trying to say something.
"Well, yes, it does take a great amount of power to transport from one location to another. Especially if time is involved. So, power is hardly unexpected. I mean, that's what it seems like to me, but I can't translate these runes and the TARDIS can't either. So, I'm not sure I can tell your more than that."
He shrugs. It's interesting and he wants to do something with the information, he just doesn't know what to do with it.
He gives them another look over... they hardly seem like they would qualify as writing as far as he's concerned. Basic might not be the most elegant writing system, but at least it looks like writing. But this just feels like stalling to him. It's there, the Doctor said it was stable enough and he can still hear something on the other side.
"If we had an archaeologist we could ask them, but I threw the only skilled enough one I know out of an airlock and then left her to burn up on a crashing prison ship."
Even if she survived that, he still wouldn't trust her within a thousand parsecs of here. But he didn't actively try to kill her the second time! He's at least not backsliding to wanton murder. Though he'd deny it has anything to do with the Doctor... he just didn't feel like making sure she was dead.
"I mean, it's a door... you walk through it. That's how doors work."
He takes another drink and tries to ignore the muffled voices and the temptation to just walk through and leave the Doctor behind.
The Doctor shrugs. "Maybe, maybe not. But I was married to an archaeologist for a long time, I picked up a thing or two along the way."
He approaches the door again. "Writing on any machine or near any door rarely has no meaning at all."
He's trying to not be insulting. But in his head he's begging Vader to thing about every door that had writing near it and if that writing was important or not (at least for the first time it's seen).
Vader crosses his arms, in part as an expression of his displeasure and in part because it just feels better on his arms. Durasteel gets heavy after a while. The Doctor would probably be exasperated knowing how many such mysterious doors he's just strolled through. A thought he finds slightly amusing.
He offers a slightly manic grin. "Same thing I ever do when I see a door."
He approaches it and looks around. Of course, it's not an actual door, so he stays close to the edge. He waves his hands along the stone work to see if he could sense a specific place. He doesn't so he raises his hands and finally knocks.
Vader isn't expecting anything the Doctor does to have any effect... but he's very definitely wrong. Whether it's because of the Time Lord thing with time or the fact that forcy things like this invariably have some sort of low level sentience, it responds. There's a brilliant blueish-white flash of energy. In its wake the once muffled voices become more distinct and he's aware that he's hearing-hearing them, not just sensing them.
He still can't quite make it out, there are too many voices speaking over each other... some sound familiar but not all. Vader looks from the Doctor to the thing and back, his head tilted slightly in curiosity and surprise.
More often than not Forcy things don't like him much nowadays. Light Side stuff especially, but meh... what can you do? It's not actively trying to repel him, even with all the Jedi influence here. There's still plenty of 'unwelcome' vibes from the temple ruins itself, but not the whatever-it-is. It's not exactly welcoming or unwelcoming... it just is.
"It is." Close enough anyway. "It doesn't sound like a go away either."
Vader can still feel it almost beckoning him/them through the Force. Not an invitation or a temptation exactly, but in a 'mysterious power' and 'hidden secrets' way. He looks around... a tiny backwater part of the galaxy and a temple razed to the ground just to expose this.
"Whatever the Emperor wants with this thing is probably on the other side."
Had he mentioned the Emperor was behind whatever was going on here? He can't remember with all the distraction from the whatever-it-is. Whatever.
Vader keeps looking at the door rather than the Doctor. He's said a lot of things, not all of them strictly true. Especially early on when he was more interested in manipulation than something more equitable.
"I said you couldn't use or feel it as I do. The Force interacts with whomever it chooses to."
He finally looks at the Doctor. They don't have unlimited time for this... eventually the Emperor will find out nobody is here and his secret isn't a secret anymore. But, he also doesn't wish to compound the damage that their last encounter did by dismissing or rushing the Doctor either.
"This also has Timeyness stuff going on. That's why I asked you here. I can't understand Time as you do."
There might not be trust, but the Doctor is the only one he can rely on for this. Power, secret knowledge... it was tempting to keep it to himself. But the Doctor was right about him not wanting to see his universe destroyed, that isn't the kind of power he wants. But it is the kind of power Sidious wouldn't mind.
"Who's the devil?"
Sorry, there isn't really an equivalent Vader knows of. He shrugs, it isn't really that important.
"Rebury it?" He motions to the excavation around them. "He'll just dig it back up."
The Doctor pulls out his sonic and scans the doorway again. He's listening to Vader, but isn't reassured. The Doctor thinks about how to explain the Devil as he scans. "The Devil is the master of all evil in the universe."
It's the simplest explanation. He hums as he looks at the readouts. "I don't like this. I want that to be clear. But... You may be right. Going through might be the only way. Since it seems to be a time portal, might be best if I go first."
He takes a breath and slowly puts his foot forward, past the threshold and then pulls it back. "That felt... weird."
Very descriptive of him, but he doesn't know how else to explain it.
He isn't being flip, honest... he just has no good frame of reference. It's not that the concept of demons and other such evil entities don't exist in his universe, and some of them are worshiped... but there's no over-arching single being like "The Devil" as the Doctor knows it. But, that is similar to how the skeleton face guy talked about himself.
"Duly noted." Vader watches with keen interest as the Doctor prepares himself to go through. He's gone though things like this but each one is different and he's never seen someone else do it. Will it even work? It's timey stuff so it should, right?
He can feel things shift as the Doctor's foot starts to cross the threshold. The way the Force of 'here' pulls away to reveal 'there', it does almost feel like a door opening... and then he pulls away.
"Bad weird, good weird?" It's a legit description as far as Vader is concerned. As much as the Doctor hates such vague answers when Vader uses them, sometimes that's just where you need to start. "or just weird weird?"
It might not make much sense to the Doctor, but it's important to know what sort of 'weird' they're dealing with. He'd rather good weird or weird-weird. He can work on describing it in more detail once he can figure out what kind of weird it is.
'Skeletor' doesn't ring a bell for the Doctor, but that's what you get with different universes. He has to think about how to answer Vader's Question. "Weird weird. But I don't know if that's just because I don't know precisely how time works in your universe, or if there's another reason for it..."
There are some strange other universes out there. Like the one with the talking ponies. The Emperor skipped that one.
"Good. At least it's not bad weird." He can work with this. "Something was happening. And it wasn't rejecting you, that would have been Bad Weird."
He looks over the whatever it is again as he thinks and tries to work things out.
"These portal thingies are always weird. What you felt... was it simply physical or did you feel it on a deeper level?"
Vader moves up to the entrance and sticks his own hand through. It's the same as when the Doctor did it, a sort of reality peeling away from him. Except this time he can feel it peel away from himself personally. He wiggles his fingers and tries to get a sense of anything on the other side before pulling his hand back.
Because when in doubt, check with the TARDIS. Which he is going to do. But sorry, Vader, he still doesn't trust you completely again yet, so the door closes behind him. He runs his scans and comes back.
"She doesn't know either. That's the problem with other universes."
He approaches the gate again. "If it affected you too, then the reaction isn't because I'm a Time Lord or from another universe...."
He sticks his hand through again. "Another dimension. Or another time." He looks back at the TARDIS. "As much as I'd prefer her, I'm not letting you go alone."
Vader stays put as the Doctor runs off to do whatever. It's just a return to the status quo when he shuts the door... protecting the TARDIS whether intentionally or not. Vader's just going to focus on the portal-thingy instead of the closed door. After all that's what's important right now.
"She must find it frustrating to be in the dark." He keeps his attention on the thing in front of them.
"No. But it might be why it accepts you. Those without Forciness aren't usually able to interact with these things."
It isn't until the Doctor says he isn't letting him go alone that he looks at him again.
"Of course."
No surprise. The surprise comes with stepping through into the 'World Between Worlds'. An endless expanse of blackness, yet they can see perfectly well. There are faint stars, even constellations helpfully outlined... but it's not enough light to explain how well they can see. Neither is the pathway that stretches out and branches, sometimes flat and sometimes curving off without regard to up and down. Leading off to other times and places... the past, the future, the now.
"Woah..."
Vader looks down, the only way to know the path is even there is because it's outlined with grayish white lines and where their feet touch the path the same light ripples like water.
"This is officially the second weirdest place I've ever been."
He looks where they came from... the stone is gone, replaced by a flat 'drawing' of it on the side of the path. That's when he properly notices the other ones spaced out along the pathway.
Excuse him as he grins like an idiot. Because well it's enjoyable to him. This is why he travels.
"Weird would be the wrong word now. It's... well, it's kind of like the Time Vortex. Only, you can walk through it. Pick different places."
The Doctor is pretty sure this is how the TARDIS views the Time Vortex. Except she knows what she's doing and where she's going. Where as he... not so much.
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ninetydegrees
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on 2019-07-17 07:08 am (UTC)He spends a few more moments scanning and thinking. "Your universe is quite different from mine, though. But, I'd say in the wrong hands it would be very not good."
The Doctor takes off the sunglasses and pockets them. Then he finally turned to Vader. "How did you find it?
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on 2019-07-17 10:05 pm (UTC)"There are people more loyal to me than to the Emperor... and Storm Troopers tend to gossip." Vader focuses back on the Doctor once again. "Tk:8008's cousin told him that he was being reassigned after... " Insert helpful air-quotes here "...The Lothal Disaster and this planet was totally safe because it was quarantined."
He pauses to take a drink. And no, he isn't telling you if it's caf or decaf.
"Obviously, 'totally safe' and 'quarantine' don't exactly go together... so I looked into it."
The Doctor doesn't need the details about the rest. He wouldn't like them anyway. And besides that, the whatever-it-is is being very distracting. There's a sort of vibration, like when you hum but without the sound.
"Do you hear something?"
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on 2019-07-18 03:49 am (UTC)He cuts off and looks back to the TARDIS.
"Oh, that could be very bad."
He rushes into the TARDIS to check settings and information. He doesn't close the door, he was too focused on checking readings. "Nothing. Well, not nothing, but stable. That's... That shouldn't be."
He's rather confused now. And starts to make his way back out.
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on 2019-07-18 05:13 am (UTC)Vader sighs inwardly and follows the Doctor towards the TARDIS... not intending to enter, but he would like to know what's going on. So maybe standing by the doors would be okay? The Doctor allowed him to do that before. He makes it almost to the door before stopping dead in his tracks.
"It's voices..." He's sure whatever the Doctor's talking about is important, but he definitely hears something like voices now. He just can't quite make out what they're saying.
Without waiting for the Doctor, Vader turns back toward the gateway. If he can get right up to it then maybe he can hear what it's trying to say. He has to know what it's saying.
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on 2019-07-18 07:41 am (UTC)He hears Vader mention voices and he looks up. And sees Vader walking toward...
"No, wait! Don't! You don't know what might happen."
He's probably too late. He usually is.
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on 2019-07-18 04:16 pm (UTC)"That's so weird."
Weird but not dangerous... maybe if he stuck his hand in?
"I think it's safe... ish."
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on 2019-07-18 05:53 pm (UTC)Too many questions and not enough answers for the Doctor's taste.
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on 2019-07-18 11:39 pm (UTC)"It's a vergence in the Force." Vader knows he can't really answer the Doctor's questions, but he can share what little he does know.
"It's a place of great power, where the Force is unusually strong... and it's focused right there." He points to the empty space he just poked.
He doesn't know who first found it or why the Jedi eventually abandoned it. He's not even sure that's really important. What's important to him is that it's there and he can hear something trying to say something.
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on 2019-07-19 02:43 am (UTC)He shrugs. It's interesting and he wants to do something with the information, he just doesn't know what to do with it.
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on 2019-07-19 07:05 pm (UTC)He gives them another look over... they hardly seem like they would qualify as writing as far as he's concerned. Basic might not be the most elegant writing system, but at least it looks like writing. But this just feels like stalling to him. It's there, the Doctor said it was stable enough and he can still hear something on the other side.
"If we had an archaeologist we could ask them, but I threw the only skilled enough one I know out of an airlock and then left her to burn up on a crashing prison ship."
Even if she survived that, he still wouldn't trust her within a thousand parsecs of here. But he didn't actively try to kill her the second time! He's at least not backsliding to wanton murder. Though he'd deny it has anything to do with the Doctor... he just didn't feel like making sure she was dead.
"I mean, it's a door... you walk through it. That's how doors work."
He takes another drink and tries to ignore the muffled voices and the temptation to just walk through and leave the Doctor behind.
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on 2019-07-19 09:04 pm (UTC)He approaches the door again. "Writing on any machine or near any door rarely has no meaning at all."
He's trying to not be insulting. But in his head he's begging Vader to thing about every door that had writing near it and if that writing was important or not (at least for the first time it's seen).
Sorry for taking so long!
on 2019-08-12 12:53 am (UTC)Vader crosses his arms, in part as an expression of his displeasure and in part because it just feels better on his arms. Durasteel gets heavy after a while. The Doctor would probably be exasperated knowing how many such mysterious doors he's just strolled through. A thought he finds slightly amusing.
"What do you wish to do?"
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on 2019-08-13 07:38 am (UTC)He approaches it and looks around. Of course, it's not an actual door, so he stays close to the edge. He waves his hands along the stone work to see if he could sense a specific place. He doesn't so he raises his hands and finally knocks.
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on 2019-08-13 07:37 pm (UTC)He still can't quite make it out, there are too many voices speaking over each other... some sound familiar but not all. Vader looks from the Doctor to the thing and back, his head tilted slightly in curiosity and surprise.
"Well that's... different."
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on 2019-08-14 02:48 pm (UTC)He frowns a moment trying to listen. "Doesn't exactly sound like an invitation to enter, though. Is that what you were hearing before?"
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on 2019-08-15 02:33 am (UTC)More often than not Forcy things don't like him much nowadays. Light Side stuff especially, but meh... what can you do? It's not actively trying to repel him, even with all the Jedi influence here. There's still plenty of 'unwelcome' vibes from the temple ruins itself, but not the whatever-it-is. It's not exactly welcoming or unwelcoming... it just is.
"It is." Close enough anyway. "It doesn't sound like a go away either."
Vader can still feel it almost beckoning him/them through the Force. Not an invitation or a temptation exactly, but in a 'mysterious power' and 'hidden secrets' way. He looks around... a tiny backwater part of the galaxy and a temple razed to the ground just to expose this.
"Whatever the Emperor wants with this thing is probably on the other side."
Had he mentioned the Emperor was behind whatever was going on here? He can't remember with all the distraction from the whatever-it-is. Whatever.
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on 2019-08-15 06:58 am (UTC)Yeah, the Doctor didn't forget that discussion. It's all coming to head now, isn't it?
"Perhaps not a go away, but sometimes, it's better to leave well enough alone. Last time the TARDIS couldn't translate something, I met the Devil."
Like the original. Original, like him. Ugh. Not a memory he wants to relive.
"And you think because the Emperor wants it, we should just walk through? Wouldn't it be better to rebury it?"
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on 2019-08-15 03:18 pm (UTC)"I said you couldn't use or feel it as I do. The Force interacts with whomever it chooses to."
He finally looks at the Doctor. They don't have unlimited time for this... eventually the Emperor will find out nobody is here and his secret isn't a secret anymore. But, he also doesn't wish to compound the damage that their last encounter did by dismissing or rushing the Doctor either.
"This also has Timeyness stuff going on. That's why I asked you here. I can't understand Time as you do."
There might not be trust, but the Doctor is the only one he can rely on for this. Power, secret knowledge... it was tempting to keep it to himself. But the Doctor was right about him not wanting to see his universe destroyed, that isn't the kind of power he wants. But it is the kind of power Sidious wouldn't mind.
"Who's the devil?"
Sorry, there isn't really an equivalent Vader knows of. He shrugs, it isn't really that important.
"Rebury it?" He motions to the excavation around them. "He'll just dig it back up."
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on 2019-08-16 04:55 am (UTC)It's the simplest explanation. He hums as he looks at the readouts. "I don't like this. I want that to be clear. But... You may be right. Going through might be the only way. Since it seems to be a time portal, might be best if I go first."
He takes a breath and slowly puts his foot forward, past the threshold and then pulls it back. "That felt... weird."
Very descriptive of him, but he doesn't know how else to explain it.
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on 2019-08-16 08:28 pm (UTC)He isn't being flip, honest... he just has no good frame of reference. It's not that the concept of demons and other such evil entities don't exist in his universe, and some of them are worshiped... but there's no over-arching single being like "The Devil" as the Doctor knows it. But, that is similar to how the skeleton face guy talked about himself.
"Duly noted." Vader watches with keen interest as the Doctor prepares himself to go through. He's gone though things like this but each one is different and he's never seen someone else do it. Will it even work? It's timey stuff so it should, right?
He can feel things shift as the Doctor's foot starts to cross the threshold. The way the Force of 'here' pulls away to reveal 'there', it does almost feel like a door opening... and then he pulls away.
"Bad weird, good weird?" It's a legit description as far as Vader is concerned. As much as the Doctor hates such vague answers when Vader uses them, sometimes that's just where you need to start. "or just weird weird?"
It might not make much sense to the Doctor, but it's important to know what sort of 'weird' they're dealing with. He'd rather good weird or weird-weird. He can work on describing it in more detail once he can figure out what kind of weird it is.
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on 2019-08-18 12:55 pm (UTC)Either way, he likes it even less.
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on 2019-08-19 03:46 am (UTC)"Good. At least it's not bad weird." He can work with this. "Something was happening. And it wasn't rejecting you, that would have been Bad Weird."
He looks over the whatever it is again as he thinks and tries to work things out.
"These portal thingies are always weird. What you felt... was it simply physical or did you feel it on a deeper level?"
Vader moves up to the entrance and sticks his own hand through. It's the same as when the Doctor did it, a sort of reality peeling away from him. Except this time he can feel it peel away from himself personally. He wiggles his fingers and tries to get a sense of anything on the other side before pulling his hand back.
"I can go through alone if you wish."
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on 2019-08-20 07:20 am (UTC)Because when in doubt, check with the TARDIS. Which he is going to do. But sorry, Vader, he still doesn't trust you completely again yet, so the door closes behind him. He runs his scans and comes back.
"She doesn't know either. That's the problem with other universes."
He approaches the gate again. "If it affected you too, then the reaction isn't because I'm a Time Lord or from another universe...."
He sticks his hand through again. "Another dimension. Or another time." He looks back at the TARDIS. "As much as I'd prefer her, I'm not letting you go alone."
He nods to himself. "Decision made. Shall we?"
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on 2019-08-21 12:22 am (UTC)"She must find it frustrating to be in the dark." He keeps his attention on the thing in front of them.
"No. But it might be why it accepts you. Those without Forciness aren't usually able to interact with these things."
It isn't until the Doctor says he isn't letting him go alone that he looks at him again.
"Of course."
No surprise. The surprise comes with stepping through into the 'World Between Worlds'. An endless expanse of blackness, yet they can see perfectly well. There are faint stars, even constellations helpfully outlined... but it's not enough light to explain how well they can see. Neither is the pathway that stretches out and branches, sometimes flat and sometimes curving off without regard to up and down. Leading off to other times and places... the past, the future, the now.
"Woah..."
Vader looks down, the only way to know the path is even there is because it's outlined with grayish white lines and where their feet touch the path the same light ripples like water.
"This is officially the second weirdest place I've ever been."
He looks where they came from... the stone is gone, replaced by a flat 'drawing' of it on the side of the path. That's when he properly notices the other ones spaced out along the pathway.
"Tell me this is weird to you too."
He doesn't want to feel weird alone.
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on 2019-08-23 06:25 am (UTC)"Weird would be the wrong word now. It's... well, it's kind of like the Time Vortex. Only, you can walk through it. Pick different places."
The Doctor is pretty sure this is how the TARDIS views the Time Vortex. Except she knows what she's doing and where she's going. Where as he... not so much.
"So what do you want to do now, Vader?"
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