Plot bunny dream time
Oct. 30th, 2011 10:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI either have a whole plot bunny for a Doctor Who story or I have a bundle of derivative rubbish that xovers elements from Farscape with The Doctor. Also there's a major plot twist that hangs on the quest for a working toilet. And there's some hitchiking. And political unrest involving secret police. ... possibly I would need to thin out this plot.
Okay, so, it starts with the Doctor and Rory, but without the TARDIS and Amy. My point of view was as someone the Doctor had just met, so he didn't confide in me what had happened. But we were on a planet with no space travel, none of our own, and most people didn't even believe it was possible. Could be Earth, looks a lot like it, but it isn't. But there was a ship, a beautiful curvy ship, and there was a group of us that thought we could hitch a lift. Including the Doctor. There were all these tiny big eyed aliens that looked a bit like blue monkeys, and they climbed all over us and poked our pockets and then stood guard like meerkats while we bundled in to the pod that would take us to the ship. It was the most exciting thing ever. Space! In a spaceship!
Once we got up there, less with the exciting, more with the screaming. The ship already had other visitors. And possibly we should have extrapolated somewhat from the way those blue monkey meerkats stayed behind.
So, after the running part (there's always a running part), we found a safe room to hole up in. The Doctor got the door locked, mostly. It was very jiggly and easy to open from the inside. Sometimes you had to lean on it and shove the bolt back in. So that was the kind of fun that's not. But mostly there were about a dozen of us, complete strangers, all human looking, including the Doctor and Rory. But not all picked up at the same time from the same place. Some of them had been there years. And they knew things about surviving up there. Unfortunate things. Like why you shouldn't ever leave the room at meal times.
So there we were, in a suite with only one sofa and one bathroom, a dozen people, mostly trying to avoid each other. The Doctor went around talking to everyone by turns. And I wasn't feeling very well. Not since the 'crew' nearly got me. I was feeling most peculiar indeed. And it seemed like I spent most of my time in the bathroom, or wishing someone would hurry up. It was very inconvenient timing, always two people needing it at once. So eventually someone got fed up enough they just decided to go to the one across the hall.
... this did not work out so very good. Screaming. More running. Possibly less people on our side of the corridor. But lots, lots more crew in the halls. And it was lunch time.
... hopefully that guy just locked himself in the other bathroom. He might have. For a really long time.
But then it got quiet again, and the waiting was worse. You knew there'd be screaming and trying to break in, but in the meantime people kept trying to make small talk. Who are you? How are you doing? Why did you want a lift? Oh, I'm a Reverend, I'm a vegan so I don't think much of the crew's idea of lunch, and I wanted a lift because who wouldn't? Yourself? Rory, nurse, don't think anyone likes the buffet. Looking for someone. That's nice, found a lot of someones right here. Not quite the right ones...
And there's quiet in the corridor, quiet quiet quiet, until someone suggests, we could see if he's doing okay over there. And someone pokes their head out. And someone comes back looking very green, having hung an out of order sign on the other loo.
We all sit around being a lot quieter. We pass around the three magazines and a paperback we brought between us. I need the bathroom a lot and we start flipping coins for who goes first.
So then when I come out there's someone new in the room, and I flip out. A blonde girl explains she knows him, he's been there longer than her, two years now, he can help. But I start screaming at her, get him out, get him out of here. He's the bloody head of secret police! He's personally questioned, what, hundreds? Thousands? One a day, how does that add up, even one a day. Do you remember loyalty checks? Do you remember when they meant screaming yourself hoarse? I do. I remember. Get him out!
So the Doctor takes me aside and Rory sits with me on the sofa rubbing my shoulders and I sit with my head in my hands trying not to know.
And then the Doctor starts pacing and figuring things out aloud. "There's something about this ship, well, a lot of somethings, things that don't quite make sense."
And I interrupt, and tell him they make perfect sense. And speaking very fast and saying 'well' a lot I explain: Take a ship, a living ship, and fill it's holds with liquid Flesh. The doppelganger stuff. What happens? When you reach your destination, a quick zap, and tada, extra copies, extra living ships just like you started with. It's like packing extra shopping bags folded up small, only better, because spaceships don't usually fold. Bring an entire fleet with you, sloshing around the ductwork. Only you have to pay for fuel, pay to haul it there, pay for the Flesh in the first place, which is a bit pricey. So you buy a bit less than you need, and just let it feed. Feed it all the way there. Do the maths right and it still works. Of course do it wrong and you get half a copy, or a copy and a half and the best bits chewed out of the original, and you always have to keep the crew away from it or things just get weird. So after a while people decide it wasn't such a great idea. It should have been done with decades ago. But this ship... this ship has been out here a long, long time. And I think the crew got a lot too close. Not just the crew, either. All these extra people, all these passengers and hitch hikers, you'd never do it with so much so hungry around. Something went wrong, the whole thing went aggressive, went looking. Those pirates we saw, they were probably the first. Triggered a fight response, drove the crew to desperate measures, either dropped them in it unknowing or, or, someone thought, copies of themselves, they could send the copies to fight and stand a chance. Only it didn't work out that way. And this flesh was never meant for human use. You copy a ship, you copy the ship control room, you can walk people in there to take control. Copy a human? You lot don't come with controls. Every single flesh out there, all scared, all alone, all of them hungry. So hungry.
"Don't," says someone. Someone else agrees, "yeah, you'll start us all off," and he gets elbowed in the side.
The Doctor is crouching now, looking at me.
"What? It makes sense."
"I know," he says. "I know about the Flesh. We were there at the beginning, when the Flesh first knew itself. But that was on another world, and human. Rory's the only human here."
"Yeah, but you're all human looking."
A chorus of 'you're Sto looking' or 'Trion' or a dozen other places greets him. Rory puts his hands up in surrender. The Doctor and I just look at each other, don't join in.
"So..." he says.
I say: So the ship, she doesn't know what to do, her crew gone, confused, flesh, tearing each other apart. She keeps going, looking, for people like her crew, someone who can figure it out, tell her what to do. She doesn't know what to do, Doctor.
"It's alright. Trust me. I've a living ship of my own, I know, it's not easy, trying to look after all these tiny little people, running around your insides. Trying to obey them too. Did they send her places?"
Sometimes. Places they knew. Remembered. You've got to understand, they're so, so hungry. It's hard to think when you're that hungry. It's hard to think anyway, so noisy in here. Always noisy.
"Yes. Everyone thinking at you at once." The Doctor understands.
I look away. I curl right up. I understand too, and I don't want to.
"But we got her back. We got her away from them." Rory seems kind of invested in that. He doesn't want to let go.
"I'm sorry," The Doctor says. "I'm so sorry."
"What? What do you mean?" Someone asks.
"It's a terrible thing, what has happened to you. But you know there is another way."
"Happened to her? What do you mean? Wait, is she one of them? One of those things? We let her in here! She could have killed us in her sleep!"
"But she didn't, did you? Our resident vegan. What do you eat, around here? Do you eat at all?"
"There's nothing. I won't... I wouldn't. I don't... I don't think... I'm a Reverend. I made vows. I wouldn't... Doctor, please, tell me I wouldn't. Tell me I didn't eat her."
"I don't know. If the mind were still connected, if there were racks involved... but the ship never needed that. You are a very fresh imprint."
"I ate her. Her mind. Her soul."
"You didn't know."
"Oh, god, I keep on eating. How did I know, Doctor? Was it your mind, this time?"
"You are not eating my mind. Picking up on me, telepathically, yes, but that's a very different thing. And it's a thing we can use."
And then there's adventure and excitement and running around the ship to find the control room and the fear of gradually losing oneself to the cacophony of other voices in the flesh. And probably in the end heroic sacrifice, to finally finish the cycle. Because the ship isn't hungry. The ship can get along fine. Just her engines and some ice rings and she's good for years. So the way to save everyone is to get the flesh outside, to unpack the shopping bags. But with so many minds accumulating in it, it would take a lot of strength of will to carry that to consensus. To get them to move to the next life. The Doctor thinks he'll have to do it, have to show them regeneration, lend that part of himself. They're dying like this, by parts and pieces, and they could be fine with a whole new body. But the Reverend has other ideas. She's been picking up on so much anyway. She leads them to it. Out of the airlocks. A leap of faith.
And then, because it's Doctor Who and I want a happy ending, the new form is a ship and her pilot, and the Reverend in her living ship goes off to explore all of space.
It was a bit abrupt when I dreamed it. But you could pad it out and make it interesting because she's mirroring each character, picking up aspects of them. Which is why she always needs the loo when they do, which is silly. But she'd also be good for highlighting character facets. So she'd make connections with Rory, who is fierce and searching but mostly wants to look after people. If this story goes in the gap when they're looking for Amy then the ship and Rory are both searching for their other half. ... and the story ends with two living ships together. Happily ever after?
So you'd have to have lots of possibilities, like thinking it's all a political plot or a weird psych experiment by secret police or a way of collecting aliens to prove... some political or religious point, I could make plenty up. But then there'd be white goo in the walls, familiar to Rory and the Doctor, and they'd try and keep people away from it. And then it would turn out to be gangers. And about living ships being put to work like slaves, same like gangers.
I'd need some distance to untangle it, and make it have plot logic not dream logic, but I think it has a lot of interesting parts. Yet also the part involving the mary sue to end all, because there's nothing quite like absorbing everyone's best character traits to make one outshine where one shouldn't. Should be best and worst then. The Doctor's anger, Rory's jealousy, that kind of thing.
Best for de-sue-ing would be to have a whole set of companions, like with 5 with a big Team TARDIS, and by the end realise this new person only has their traits combined. Then they're the team in one body, so when they do the best shiny thing it's still about our usual characters. If they start with any unique trait of their own and then out Doctor the Doctor what you end up saying is this unique trait would make him better, and really, if the trait is religion, no. The Doctor has his faith. His faith is in people.
... so that should be simples to work into the story then...
Or make it about the absorbing the Doctor-and-companions traits that compensates for the unique trait, make it start as a disadvantage and only really work when combined with what the Team brings.
There's definitely ways to keep the focus on the regulars. Even when the dream was about me...
Okay, so, it starts with the Doctor and Rory, but without the TARDIS and Amy. My point of view was as someone the Doctor had just met, so he didn't confide in me what had happened. But we were on a planet with no space travel, none of our own, and most people didn't even believe it was possible. Could be Earth, looks a lot like it, but it isn't. But there was a ship, a beautiful curvy ship, and there was a group of us that thought we could hitch a lift. Including the Doctor. There were all these tiny big eyed aliens that looked a bit like blue monkeys, and they climbed all over us and poked our pockets and then stood guard like meerkats while we bundled in to the pod that would take us to the ship. It was the most exciting thing ever. Space! In a spaceship!
Once we got up there, less with the exciting, more with the screaming. The ship already had other visitors. And possibly we should have extrapolated somewhat from the way those blue monkey meerkats stayed behind.
So, after the running part (there's always a running part), we found a safe room to hole up in. The Doctor got the door locked, mostly. It was very jiggly and easy to open from the inside. Sometimes you had to lean on it and shove the bolt back in. So that was the kind of fun that's not. But mostly there were about a dozen of us, complete strangers, all human looking, including the Doctor and Rory. But not all picked up at the same time from the same place. Some of them had been there years. And they knew things about surviving up there. Unfortunate things. Like why you shouldn't ever leave the room at meal times.
So there we were, in a suite with only one sofa and one bathroom, a dozen people, mostly trying to avoid each other. The Doctor went around talking to everyone by turns. And I wasn't feeling very well. Not since the 'crew' nearly got me. I was feeling most peculiar indeed. And it seemed like I spent most of my time in the bathroom, or wishing someone would hurry up. It was very inconvenient timing, always two people needing it at once. So eventually someone got fed up enough they just decided to go to the one across the hall.
... this did not work out so very good. Screaming. More running. Possibly less people on our side of the corridor. But lots, lots more crew in the halls. And it was lunch time.
... hopefully that guy just locked himself in the other bathroom. He might have. For a really long time.
But then it got quiet again, and the waiting was worse. You knew there'd be screaming and trying to break in, but in the meantime people kept trying to make small talk. Who are you? How are you doing? Why did you want a lift? Oh, I'm a Reverend, I'm a vegan so I don't think much of the crew's idea of lunch, and I wanted a lift because who wouldn't? Yourself? Rory, nurse, don't think anyone likes the buffet. Looking for someone. That's nice, found a lot of someones right here. Not quite the right ones...
And there's quiet in the corridor, quiet quiet quiet, until someone suggests, we could see if he's doing okay over there. And someone pokes their head out. And someone comes back looking very green, having hung an out of order sign on the other loo.
We all sit around being a lot quieter. We pass around the three magazines and a paperback we brought between us. I need the bathroom a lot and we start flipping coins for who goes first.
So then when I come out there's someone new in the room, and I flip out. A blonde girl explains she knows him, he's been there longer than her, two years now, he can help. But I start screaming at her, get him out, get him out of here. He's the bloody head of secret police! He's personally questioned, what, hundreds? Thousands? One a day, how does that add up, even one a day. Do you remember loyalty checks? Do you remember when they meant screaming yourself hoarse? I do. I remember. Get him out!
So the Doctor takes me aside and Rory sits with me on the sofa rubbing my shoulders and I sit with my head in my hands trying not to know.
And then the Doctor starts pacing and figuring things out aloud. "There's something about this ship, well, a lot of somethings, things that don't quite make sense."
And I interrupt, and tell him they make perfect sense. And speaking very fast and saying 'well' a lot I explain: Take a ship, a living ship, and fill it's holds with liquid Flesh. The doppelganger stuff. What happens? When you reach your destination, a quick zap, and tada, extra copies, extra living ships just like you started with. It's like packing extra shopping bags folded up small, only better, because spaceships don't usually fold. Bring an entire fleet with you, sloshing around the ductwork. Only you have to pay for fuel, pay to haul it there, pay for the Flesh in the first place, which is a bit pricey. So you buy a bit less than you need, and just let it feed. Feed it all the way there. Do the maths right and it still works. Of course do it wrong and you get half a copy, or a copy and a half and the best bits chewed out of the original, and you always have to keep the crew away from it or things just get weird. So after a while people decide it wasn't such a great idea. It should have been done with decades ago. But this ship... this ship has been out here a long, long time. And I think the crew got a lot too close. Not just the crew, either. All these extra people, all these passengers and hitch hikers, you'd never do it with so much so hungry around. Something went wrong, the whole thing went aggressive, went looking. Those pirates we saw, they were probably the first. Triggered a fight response, drove the crew to desperate measures, either dropped them in it unknowing or, or, someone thought, copies of themselves, they could send the copies to fight and stand a chance. Only it didn't work out that way. And this flesh was never meant for human use. You copy a ship, you copy the ship control room, you can walk people in there to take control. Copy a human? You lot don't come with controls. Every single flesh out there, all scared, all alone, all of them hungry. So hungry.
"Don't," says someone. Someone else agrees, "yeah, you'll start us all off," and he gets elbowed in the side.
The Doctor is crouching now, looking at me.
"What? It makes sense."
"I know," he says. "I know about the Flesh. We were there at the beginning, when the Flesh first knew itself. But that was on another world, and human. Rory's the only human here."
"Yeah, but you're all human looking."
A chorus of 'you're Sto looking' or 'Trion' or a dozen other places greets him. Rory puts his hands up in surrender. The Doctor and I just look at each other, don't join in.
"So..." he says.
I say: So the ship, she doesn't know what to do, her crew gone, confused, flesh, tearing each other apart. She keeps going, looking, for people like her crew, someone who can figure it out, tell her what to do. She doesn't know what to do, Doctor.
"It's alright. Trust me. I've a living ship of my own, I know, it's not easy, trying to look after all these tiny little people, running around your insides. Trying to obey them too. Did they send her places?"
Sometimes. Places they knew. Remembered. You've got to understand, they're so, so hungry. It's hard to think when you're that hungry. It's hard to think anyway, so noisy in here. Always noisy.
"Yes. Everyone thinking at you at once." The Doctor understands.
I look away. I curl right up. I understand too, and I don't want to.
"But we got her back. We got her away from them." Rory seems kind of invested in that. He doesn't want to let go.
"I'm sorry," The Doctor says. "I'm so sorry."
"What? What do you mean?" Someone asks.
"It's a terrible thing, what has happened to you. But you know there is another way."
"Happened to her? What do you mean? Wait, is she one of them? One of those things? We let her in here! She could have killed us in her sleep!"
"But she didn't, did you? Our resident vegan. What do you eat, around here? Do you eat at all?"
"There's nothing. I won't... I wouldn't. I don't... I don't think... I'm a Reverend. I made vows. I wouldn't... Doctor, please, tell me I wouldn't. Tell me I didn't eat her."
"I don't know. If the mind were still connected, if there were racks involved... but the ship never needed that. You are a very fresh imprint."
"I ate her. Her mind. Her soul."
"You didn't know."
"Oh, god, I keep on eating. How did I know, Doctor? Was it your mind, this time?"
"You are not eating my mind. Picking up on me, telepathically, yes, but that's a very different thing. And it's a thing we can use."
And then there's adventure and excitement and running around the ship to find the control room and the fear of gradually losing oneself to the cacophony of other voices in the flesh. And probably in the end heroic sacrifice, to finally finish the cycle. Because the ship isn't hungry. The ship can get along fine. Just her engines and some ice rings and she's good for years. So the way to save everyone is to get the flesh outside, to unpack the shopping bags. But with so many minds accumulating in it, it would take a lot of strength of will to carry that to consensus. To get them to move to the next life. The Doctor thinks he'll have to do it, have to show them regeneration, lend that part of himself. They're dying like this, by parts and pieces, and they could be fine with a whole new body. But the Reverend has other ideas. She's been picking up on so much anyway. She leads them to it. Out of the airlocks. A leap of faith.
And then, because it's Doctor Who and I want a happy ending, the new form is a ship and her pilot, and the Reverend in her living ship goes off to explore all of space.
It was a bit abrupt when I dreamed it. But you could pad it out and make it interesting because she's mirroring each character, picking up aspects of them. Which is why she always needs the loo when they do, which is silly. But she'd also be good for highlighting character facets. So she'd make connections with Rory, who is fierce and searching but mostly wants to look after people. If this story goes in the gap when they're looking for Amy then the ship and Rory are both searching for their other half. ... and the story ends with two living ships together. Happily ever after?
So you'd have to have lots of possibilities, like thinking it's all a political plot or a weird psych experiment by secret police or a way of collecting aliens to prove... some political or religious point, I could make plenty up. But then there'd be white goo in the walls, familiar to Rory and the Doctor, and they'd try and keep people away from it. And then it would turn out to be gangers. And about living ships being put to work like slaves, same like gangers.
I'd need some distance to untangle it, and make it have plot logic not dream logic, but I think it has a lot of interesting parts. Yet also the part involving the mary sue to end all, because there's nothing quite like absorbing everyone's best character traits to make one outshine where one shouldn't. Should be best and worst then. The Doctor's anger, Rory's jealousy, that kind of thing.
Best for de-sue-ing would be to have a whole set of companions, like with 5 with a big Team TARDIS, and by the end realise this new person only has their traits combined. Then they're the team in one body, so when they do the best shiny thing it's still about our usual characters. If they start with any unique trait of their own and then out Doctor the Doctor what you end up saying is this unique trait would make him better, and really, if the trait is religion, no. The Doctor has his faith. His faith is in people.
... so that should be simples to work into the story then...
Or make it about the absorbing the Doctor-and-companions traits that compensates for the unique trait, make it start as a disadvantage and only really work when combined with what the Team brings.
There's definitely ways to keep the focus on the regulars. Even when the dream was about me...