Clockwork, Steam, and Flux Capacitors

It's been months and months of hard work and reconfiguring according to any regular calendar. Even according to their messed-up flow of time (where days repeat endlessly and weeks crawl along), it's been a good long while. But then, what Doc's been planning is not something you want to mess up.

Especially not when you know what happened the last time.

Yup, Doc is attempting time travel again. This time, of course, he has a potent ally in the form of Dee. After all, she's a living time machine -- one that's able to help direct him both in getting her time travel-worthy and in figuring out a way to travel through time safely. (Apparently she's got a bit of an internal time sense -- she says their world feels a bit like molasses when she's in DeLorean form.) Of course, the stakes have also been raised this time around. Now he knows that trying to time travel in this dimension means a risk of being thrown into another world entirely. That's how they got Dee. And if this goes wrong, she could be stranded -- temporarily or permanently -- in another world.

Which is exactly why he's going with her.

He takes a deep breath and heads out onto the street. Time to make history -- or pray they end up in a world where their PINpoints work.

Doc's excited. It's a very special day for him. Today, he is going to finally take a step toward realizing his lifelong dream. The car is fully wired, and everything checks out on the preliminary tests. The DeLorean is finally, FINALLY ready for time travel. Granted, Doc is still a little iffy about the time-dilation effect in place on the pocket of reality he now calls home, but he figures that he can at least try a short time trip, just to see if everything truly works. Just to achieve the dream.

Of course, a moment like this must be shared with one's closest friends. Doc promptly sends out a message over the PINpoint to Marty and Alice, asking them to come to his world, before going to the apartment next to his and knocking on Victor's door. "Hey Victor!"

[Locked To Dan]
An update on that Mr. Fusion we've found:

I've been tinkering with it, and succeeded on getting one of the containers we found attached to the bottom. Wanting to see what would happen, I placed some trash inside and turned it on.

It gave me an "Ineffective radiation shielding" message and turned itself off again.

So I suppose it TECHNICALLY works, we just can't use it for its intended purpose. Though, really, the safeguards are a good thing.
[/Locked]


[Locked to Gladys, JD, Farley]
How are all of you doing?
[/Locked]


[Private]
Note to self -- next time, check the radioactivity potential of an object BEFORE you buy it!
[/Private]

(The following is both written in Doc's Rift Journal and sent to his Nexus friends via the message option in his PINpoint. The Rift people who respond can't see any Nexus responses and vice-versa -- I'm only doing it this way because it seems redundant to make two identical entries.)

Well -- it's my birthday today. I'm turning 66. To the best of my knowledge, at any rate. (Damn Fae time, not working in the normal linear fashion. . . .)

As a nice little birthday gift to myself, I've managed to finish my flux capacitor model! I bought a camera from the hotel gift shop so I could take some pictures.



It even lights up! Doesn't do much beyond that, of course, not without the proper wiring, but it's still progress. (My apologies about the quality of this next picture -- it's surprisingly hard to get a photo of something flashing.)



Anyway, maybe I'll see some of you around. I plan on getting cake at some point. What's a birthday without cake even if you're stranded?

(OOC: Pictures are thumbnails, because they're FRICKING HUGE. I gotta figure out more about the size options on my camera.)

(Note: This entry deals with For SCIENCE! and That sound. Plotsplosion entry will be later.)

Aubrey and I are still working on the Skid together. We started earlier this week, and it's been -- to put it colloquially -- a blast. Our current goal is to make the Skid roadworthy again. It's a long process -- the Skid was pretty smashed up during its entry here, and we're still working things out with the owner of the local junkyard -- but we're making progress. I'm very glad not all of my Fae-based magic was removed when I came through the Rift. This process would be a lot harder if I didn't have my "Brief Glamour of Repair" and "Blessing of Perfection" abilities. The Skid really likes the latter. Oh, did I really have to

Anyway, it's been good times with Aubrey. Xe has some real talent when it comes to building and repairing things. I was surprised to learn his official science is ecology! I've never thought much about that particular branch, I admit. It was interesting to hear xem talk about it, though. I like having a friend I can talk about this sort of thing with. I've been meeting a lot of science-related people lately, but Aubrey's the one I've gotten closest with.

Speaking of meeting people, it was good meeting you, Donna. Even if I worried you a bit with my temporary case of nerves. Really, nothing major -- just a sudden, somewhat unpleasant memory. I'm hoping we can talk again -- hopefully about the more pleasant aspects of time. I know there's a lot of sadness involved, but it can't be all destruction and loss. (Of course, I may be biased. I'm trying to invent my own form of time travel, so I don't want to hear about how awful the flow of time is.) Things will be all right someday. That's what I keep telling myself.

Oh, and the Doctor? She let spill about your little secret. Wanderer indeed. I should have suspected something more the instant you said the TARDIS was your ship. Time Lord, then?

[Locked to Self]STOP THINKING ABOUT HOW PRETTY DONNA IS. Yes, she's a fairly attractive woman. Yes, she's intelligent and can see the flow of time. But you are in another universe. Relationships should be the last thing on your mind. Besides, I thought I was done with trying for a mate after the fiasco with Jill. Just make friends![/Locked]

Had a wonderfully productive day. I met a -- kid, I suppose, that's fairly gender-neutral -- called Aubrey down in the Rift Room. Xe was working on a system for alerting us basement residents whenever something comes through the major Rift in there. Though I don't know much about computers, I did my best to give xem a hand with what technological skill I have (and a quick "Blessing of Perfection.") Heh, you should have seen us once we got the device working properly. I think we would have scared off any visitors with our enthusiasm. Xe also gave me a quick primer about computers and programs over some omelettes -- thank you for that, Aubrey.

Great Scott, I've -- I've missed this. Being able to work on the projects I want to work on, being able to talk to people about them, being able to share things with someone. . . . I didn't have much of that back home, or any of it in Arcadia. . .until --

Oh, don't get me wrong, working was Aubrey was great -- I love being able to work on new projects and learn more about this whole computer business. (Damn you, Andrew, for taking me away from that!) But I can't deny that talking with xem brought up some somewhat-painful memories. (I think I did the same with xem a bit, sorry.) Not to mention that some of xes physical characteristics. . . .

I want need miss Marty. I want to introduce him to everyone here (I think you'd like him, Aubrey -- he's not a technical wizard, but he likes to help -- and you should hear his music!), want to make sure he's okay, want to --

want to hold him again. . . .