Video to Friends of the Doctors (backdated to 10/12 before event)

[spacepeterpan]

[The video starts on the Doctor, wearing that brown fedora given him by River (although it makes him look less like a rugged manly-man archaeologist, or even a curly-headed grinning maniac, and more like a nerdy teenager from the 1930s who wants to grow up to be a hard-boiled reporter), apparently in the singing meadow. As whimsical and silly as he looks (which is nothing new to those who know him), his expression is one of those half-serious faces which a few people in particular (Amy, Rory, River, his older self) know means he might actually be at his most serious.]

Got something to talk to you lot about, something important, important to me, and I'd like to think to all of you, as well. It's not a reproach, but a warning, try to bear that in mind.

[He pauses a tick, glancing downward, then back at the camera--then tilts its view downward, to his either passed out or very-well-faking-it previous incarnation. He keeps narrating as he goes, holding the camera there for a couple of seconds before turning it back to himself.]

...he'll be all right in a bit, defense against psychic trauma, Time Lord thing, well, lots of telepathic species have them, sort of like how your human immune system sometimes encapsulates pathogens, rather than destroying them or filt'ring them out, but telepathic instead of organic. Harmful memories, ideas, whatever you can't process, they get sealed off, locked in a box in a cupboard in an attic in a house you stay away from. Some of you know exactly what I mean.

[Which, really, in this case, mostly means his future self; or his younger self, if he watches this, later.]

I'm telling all of you 'bout this, because I think we all know what's been causing him problems. ...well, me, but that me, down there.

[He twists the camera again to indicate his younger self, then back to himself once again.]

Bringing back those memories can only make it worse than it already was--enough clues, and he might unlock that box, and--whew--all the troubles come out all at once, so, when I say foreknowledge is dangerous, I don't mean only because it risks paradoxes. I mean because we rarely understand it, and often we can't do anything about it, even without a paradox, even without a fixed point, sometimes there just isn't a better choice.

[A brief rhetorical pause, there.]

So, what's this mean, it means no more spoilers for Sandshoes, and it means you lot are going to have to be careful about what you tell him. It's hard, yeah, I know, been doing it for a while, but if you care about this face-

[He gives the camera another quick tilt downward to his younger self...]

-or about this face-

[...then back up to himself again.]

-I trust you all to find a way. You need to talk to someone, talk to me, pretty sure I'm from after all of you in my timeline, well... almost all, obviously. Let me know if you've got questions, complaints, doubts, all that sort of thing.

Comments

[im_with_stupid]

"Rose, you know I love you and all, but are you out of your mind?" [Amy was horrified and furious all at once.] "Maybe I should have kidnapped you first the other night. You and me, we need to talk. NOW."

[I'm sorry, you know what you said that triggered him to try to kill himself, said it again now to a later him with the same him out cold but possibly still able to hear? How drunk was Rose? She should know better, she was a companion, not a child. And if Amy had to reminder her of that, to protect her best friend, all three of him, so be it!]

[bigbadrose]

Bugger off.

[Nah, she knows for a fact, he's out cold, or 11 couldn't have even made the post he did.]

[And makes some gestures, looking hilariously like 12, though she doesn't know it.]

I'm not the one putting myself into sleeper comatose states so as to tell my friends what all they've fucked up. I'll do that to their face! UNLIKE SOME COWARDS!

[GROWL GROWL GROWL.]

[Yes, she means 11.]

[im_with_stupid]

"I'm sorry, WHAT? Did someone slip you something, Rose? Because this? This is not the girl I met, befriended, and trusted. Because that Rose? She wouldn't treat her friends like garbage, wouldn't lash out to hurt everyone in an emotional temper tantrum. You're talking about someone who already tried to commit suicide, someone who has always hated himself more than anyone else could possibly EVER hate him. This isn't about any message he's sending to us about what we did! This is about him doing whatever the **** he has to do to protect himself! And knowing the Doctor? He's probably only bothering to protect himself FOR US! I know you aren't this stupid, Rose Tyler. So stop, think, and come back to the brilliant woman I know you are. Because I've seen Daleks treat that man better than he treats himself. And I know he would do anything, ANYTHING in his power for us. Not just us Ponds, us his friends. All of us. That man would die for us. Any day. But he does the harder thing, the far braver thing. He lives for us. Every day. This... This is him doing something for HIM. And while I don't agree with it, at all.... I still respect that it's HIS choice."

"And if you truly love him, as much as I have always thought you do, Rose... you'll respect that too. Loving someone is the most worthwhile thing in the world, but it's also the hardest. He has always loved us. It's up to us to return the favour."

[bigbadrose]

[She flinches hard at that.]

[She doesn't say anything.]

[Just is red.]

[And nods.]

[Shutting off her phone.]

["Lives for us."]

[No, he didn't. That was what she was most mad at him about.]

[And she can't say anything... Just sits in the grass.]