So, we're turning turning off wind engines for bat flight, right ? I'm not actually sure why but I think it has something to do with them navigating via sound and the windmill being a big thing that moves and makes a lot of noise. Probably very bad for a bat. I should look this up. Anyway, especially in places/times the bats fly, windparks will be turned off at night.
Shame for little vampire who would like to hang out with the big bad machine but unfortunately it is always asleep when they're awake. Bc they're a bat when they move outside. So people know there's bats in the area. Anyway the vampire probably goes to all the townhall meetings (evening townhall meetings) like "the bats don't even MIND the wind engines, we need to change to renewables and we're wasting precious resources." And everyone goes "shut up, you're a little weirdo who has moved into the abandoned building - in an overnight secrecy mission for some reason - that is technically too close to the windpark by all legislation."
And so they sit in their darkened room during the day, staring at the one window that doesn't have its curtains drawn where every few hours for some minutes they can see the windmill's wings zoom past as a shadow. And listen to the thunderous roar they make, trying to call back.
It's an unhappy love story. Of course it is.
Also, they're feeding by seducing oil and coal stockholders and drinking them dry :) They own so many stolen expensive cars and private planes, it's becoming a bit of an issue to store them all discreetly
Since you're the first trick or treater, you'll get a full drabble (well not an actual drabble, it's 811 words) of a scene I have had in my head for about a year now. I hope you like it!
Rating: Gen
Genre: Fluff and a little bit of angst
Warnings: mention of trauma, deliberate mis-identification of species
[ID: gif of Dan calling after a trick-or-treater to leave his house alone in the Halloween Apocalypse. end ID]
Dan had had his good share of Halloween visits. Friendly and cute ones with little children all dressed up in colourful costumes, annoying ones of teens and adults who were mostly looking to prank him, and once he had been abducted by a grumpy space dog. What he hadn't experienced yet - and frankly he would have given half the world to avoid the experience - was opening the door on halloween night, expecting trick-or-treaters and coming face to face with a Dalek.
He didn't scream, he didn't think, merely froze and the primary thought in his head was "my parents are upstairs". He wasn't quite sure whether that was a concern because they would be in danger right after his inevitable extermination or because he could have used them at his side - they had proven to be remarkably efficient alien hunters with the Sontarans after all. Just that Sontarans weren't even half as scary as the tincan currently training its gun at him.
"TRICK OR TREAT" the Dalek demanded and Dan did a double take.
"What?" he managed to get out and it was quite stupid probably, arguing with a killing machine instead of - you know - running away, but he was too puzzled to do anything else.
"TRICK OR TREAT" the Dalek repeated. "I HEARD YOU HAD SWEETS, IDIOT."
"Idiot?" Dan repeated in confusion. "That doesn't sound like a Dalek. That sounds like…"
Now that he paid closer attention, it wasn't a metal casing in front of him. Merely some cheap cardboard painted to look like a Dalek that someone had stuck a plunger and a whisk onto. And that voice, it was a good imitation, he had to give him that, but it had changed a bit on the last sentence, taking on the gruff undertone of -
"Karvanista?" he asked incredulously. "Is that you?"
"Well done, human" his dog soulmate-or-whatever appeared behind the Dalek mock-up. "You're smarter than you look, after all. Not like that's hard."
"Missed you too" Dan said fondly, but then he glared. "But did you have to scare me like that!"
"Come on" Karvanista boasted. "It was hilarious. You should have seen your face! Priceless."
"What are you doing here, anyway?" Dan asked. "Aren't you off, flying around the universe with Vinder and Bel?"
"Aren't you off, flying around the universe with the Doctor and Yaz?" Karvanista mimicked him mockingly and Dan shrugged.
"Touché" he admitted. "But seriously? Do I have to expect a big dog at my doorstep for every Halloween now?"
"I am not a dog" Karvanista growled. "I'm a Lupar!"
"Yeah, yeah" Dan said dismissively.
Karvanista rolled his eyes. "Can I come in now?"
"Jury's still out" Dan teased, although he was, of course, more than happy to welcome his friend.
Karvanista let the Dalek costume drop to the floor, revealing a steaming bowl in his other paw. "I've brought food."
"Well in that case" Dan opened the door wide, letting Karvanista step inside. At least he had the manners to wipe his boots on the doormat while sniffing the new surroundings curiously.
"This will be the most awkward 'meet the parents' in the history of the universe" Dan muttered, closing the door behind them. He could already hear someone approaching the stairs on the upper floor. "Not like we're dating or anything."
"Obviously" Karvanista agreed. "No offence, but I can do better."
"No offence?" Dan repeated incredulously. "You can't just say 'no offence' and then say something offensive like it's fine!"
"I just did, keep up" Karvanista pressed the bowl of food into Dan's hands. "Now be a good human and bring this into the kitchen while I say hello to your parents. I hope they are more agreeable than you."
"No way I am leaving them alone with you!" Dan said. "I don't need my parents abducted!"
Karvanista rolled his eyes. "They're not my assigned humans, remember? You are. Although technically, all of Earth are my assigned humans now but I am choosing to ignore that. You can fend for yourselves for all I care."
"I am sorry" Dan said softly putting a hand onto Karvanista's arm. He hadn't meant to bring up the death of the Lupari.
"Yeah, whatever" Karvanista huffed but he didn't shake off the hand. "Are you going to bring the food to the kitchen now? It won't taste good if it gets cold."
"Sure" Dan agreed. "Just, come with me, maybe. My parents are tough, but they shouldn't have to face a giant dog in the hallway by themselves."
"Not a dog" Karvanista growled but he followed him into the kitchen readily.
"By the way" Dan said while setting the bowl onto the counter. "Thank you for showing up for Halloween, it's nice to have you 'round."
"Course I'd come, idiot" Karvanista said, elbowing him fondly. "It's our day after all."
*putting on my clown make-up* the new season seems to be music-themed (Ruby being a musician, all the song numbers, that Jinx Monsoon character in a future episode) so they have to bring back River SONG, right? Right??? MELODY Pond. C'mon
Oh my God, yessss!!! You're so right!! I mean, much as I am annoyed by all the returns, RTD did ask Moffat to come back, didn't he? Or did I make that up? So not even that rumour that Moffat is the only one allowed to write for River on the show should hold us back 😍😍😍
Also have you heard Alex sing?? We could definitely have River sing with Ruby <3 (And we could totally have a dumb pun about the Ruby's Curse 🥰)
I have to admit that I am not caught up at all on the new series. Which has nothing to do with Ncuti or Millie, I am super excited to get to know both. It has everything to do with D*ney taking away my nice way to watch the show and me still figuring out how to go about that/kinda being mardy about it and not watching because of that.
So, like, I can't very much contribute to the clowning but I am applauding you so hard for it. May you get the vindication of being correct and not having clowned at all ❤️ 🍀
(@spacewivesinspacetime look, Pine over here giving us hope <3)
I wanted to send this as a dm but the interface there is awkward and attaching picturrs to an ask is much more convenient
So here is the card i printed out!
Here is how it looks in the pocket in the journal. This is my dw-themed antijournal. Every page there has a little dw-themed art prompt and you are supposed to do unexpected unconventional things with the pages. The writing at the top says "list things that are blue like the TARDIS on these pages". And here are all the other blue things:
I really wanted to put your drawing in this particular journal, but there wasn't a page where it would fit and i didn't know what to actually do with it and how to arrange it more creatively. So i decided that the old girl deserves to have a page all to herself and turned it into a card as a whole finished piece.
I wanted to experiment and print it on photopaper (a have a small pile of vintage-ish glossy photopaper) bc the size was perfect and i thought the quality of the card would be better. It was horrible! The first one i accidentally printed on the wrong side and in the wrong size. I think the paper wasn't made for inkjet bc when i put it the right side in the ink just remained liquid on top of the paper and didn't dry at all. I pressed it onto an old bookpage and got this cool image to play with:
I liked the quality of print on the first one so i adjusted the size and printed it on the back. But the issue was that glossy surface was practically allergic to glue and tape so i couldn't glue it on cardstock to make it more sturdy and suitable to write on. So, as you can see, i stitched them together by hand, and it gave a nice little frame to the picture.
In the end, i'm quite happy with the result, i really like it how it's all in blue-ish tones in line with the rest of the page, and the TARDIS peeks out of the pocket, and when you take the card out there's a pop of colour in the flag. Thank you again for the drawing!
Okay, first: I love love love the stitching?! It looks so neat and you're right, it makes such a lovely frame!! And idk how but it makes the image look more 'real' than the actual picture I have hanging in my room.
Then I am sorry you had so much trouble with printing but as I understood it was not really my fault? Anyway, sorry you had to struggle with that but thank you so much for the dedication!! ❤
The journal is SO COOL! Did you make it entirely yourself? That prompt looks very handwritten? (Also so proud of myself for getting the 'TARDIS' part before the translation - I have absolutely no hope for reading cursive though) And I love how you filled that page! Especially the moon and the butterflies! So pretty 😍 And is that real pressed lavender or something? Also, I have no idea why the cat is there but he's adorable :)
That print in the book is awesome, too. Please can I see if you ever make something from it??
Thank you so much for making something cool out of my art! It means a lot!
Thank you so much!! I will send you one, too, if that's alright <3
Still gonna talk about the cat fic because that's on my mind like every day right now.
Teeth: share a snippet that was difficult for you to nail down/required a lot of revisions.
Since I have not really done any proper editing yet, I can give you something I am not happy with yet? I might completely cut it from the work, actually, but it has changed already and probably will again. The main points are
I need to do a lot more research on dyspraxia because I want River to be a little supportive at least and not completely out of her depths like I am feeling
I should maybe not have Ryan talk about Yaz's love life behind her back? I know he's bound to be curious but I think he'd let her have her privacy and try not to get involved unless she asks him to. Idk I might keep it but make River bring her up instead? But like, I also don't think River would talk about Yaz to him behind her back and it could very quickly come off as objectifying - which she definitely isn't above but not with someone like Yaz who she genuinely cares about and who does not know her very well. Teasingly to her face? Maybe. But not behind her back.
"Mate, I'm just not sure I should be shooting a weapon" Ryan admitted. "Not that I don't want to, but - real life isn't GTA and I have not had proper weapons training - not like you or Yaz. And if you're actually going to shoot these aliens - I am not sure I can do that."
There was a small pause, then River said: "The Doctor would be proud of you."
"Yeah" Ryan said and Yaz could tell her was uncomfortable with the subject but secretly pleased. "Whatever."
"I'll just fetch you some defensive weapons then" River decided. "To be safe. And you can be the one to apply the memory stick while Yaz and I distract them."
"That means creeping around their station unseen" Ryan figured. "There were a bunch of ledges and ladders there."
"I know" River's voice was more gentle than Yaz had heard it before. "But you can do this. You'll take it slow and if you stumble, you get up again. We'll give you plenty of time. Yaz is good in a fight, I can tell."
"Thanks" Ryan said. He didn't sound completely convinced, but a tad reassured.
For a while they were silent, the only sound their rummaging around, then he asked something that made Yaz's heart stop.
"Do you fancy her? Yaz?"
"Obviously" River answered. "I have not been subtle, darling."
"Sorry if I originally assumed your taste in romantic partners was strange, being married to the Doctor and all" he deadpanned and she laughed loudly.
"Be careful, kid, don't disrespect your dad."
Ryan spluttered.
"I don't think of the Doctor as my dad!" he insisted.
"Oh, you do!" River said and Yaz had to bite her hand to muffle her snickering. "I've seen you two together. It's adorable!"
"Whatever" Ryan huffed.
"Why are you asking about Yaz?" River asked. "Want to give me the shovel talk? You should remember that you're talking to the most dangerous assassin of the 52nd century. I don't think you could threaten me if you tried."
"I could hide the whiskey?" he offered.
"And I was wrong" River claimed good-naturedly.
"See? I know all your weaknesses" Ryan said. "No, but seriously, I'm not giving any shovel talks. I know that Yaz can look out for herself. I guess I was just curious, her being my best friend and all. Don't want her to get hurt. But like, she can make her own decisions, of course. I'm merely ready to hold you still so she can punch you when push comes to shove."
"Noted" River said. "You're a good friend to her."
"I try."
Mmmhya, Idk. I think there is ample reason for Yaz to eavesdrop on them and I like the opportunity to show them together a little. I like to think that they would be best friends immediately, seeing as how they spent so much time together when River was a cat. So to generally HAVE this scene is a good idea imo. But I'm really unsure about the execution.
Fire: share a snippet with some dialogue you’d like to show off.
To be fair, I am not entirely sure, Yaz would say 'no biggie'. So I might have to look for an alternative there. But I had so much fun writing that bit of dialogue:
"Great" Yaz muttered. "The Doctor's wife has kissed me. No biggie."
"And she would do it again if you asked her to" River winked, pushing herself off the clothing rack and past Yaz, closer than would have been necessary. "Come on, darling, let's go save our wife, then!"
"She isn't my wife" Yaz called, hurrying after her.
River threw a glance over her shoulder, her eyes twinkling. "-yet."
"Stop it" Yaz huffed. This was all giving her way more hope than was good for her.
"Hah" River tipped her head back again, grinning at the ceiling. "Make me!"
Yaz shook her head to herself. "And here I thought you were insufferable as a cat."
"Oh, honey, you haven't seen the half of it yet!"
Just to clarify : Yaz loves Siren very much. The 'insufferable' refers to her aggressively shipping thasmin. Also, they haven't actually kissed. I mean, not like that. Really, for a shipping fic there have been precious few kisses so far. (but loads of platonic handholding and platonic (?) cuddling ❤️)
Hope you liked the snippets! Despite one of them being - let's say unfinished. But I am kinda thriving, having sent the Doctor away and giving Yaz and Ryan some time to get to know River before seeing them together. I think that was a good decision, for me personally mostly :)
I'll send it in as an ask bc replying in tags is too much of a hassle now, bit basically it was one of the best doctor/rose fics i've ever read, and i failed to save it and now i can't find it anywhere no matter how hard i try. Worst thing is, i can't even remember if o read it in English or in Russian, i was so invested in the story and the writing was so organic the language kind of melted away, it was projected directly into my brain. It had a motiff with stargazing and images you see on the Moon, so i think it was rpobably called something like Moon Rabbit, but there's nothing on ao3 with that title.
It starts with Rose and Ten golfing (i think) somewhere in space, and it's early days for Ten so Rose didn't have time to adjust to the change so she's a bit apprehensive and keeps trying to see Nine in him and it was all tied up into the Moon imagery somehow? Suddenly she gets a call from Mickey telling her to come home asap and not tell the Doctor, so she does, and there's Nine (!) alive and well. They meet up in secret from Ten and he tells her that "no Rose wtf i didn't just transform into another dude, i was beamed away from the TARDIS and this one's an imposter (basically confirming all of her fears from just after the regeneration) and he's civil with Mickey? couldn't be me" (ok this part i might've imagined afterwards lmao, but it's basically right, he convinces Rose by perfecrly matching Nine's character, which, for Rose, is more Doctor-y than Ten ever was so the latter has to be the fake one right?)
There's this whole angsty thing about how she missed him and how hard it was for her to adjust to the regeneration, and the matter of trust was explored really well bc she doesn't really know who to trust like 70% of the fic, and then there's the Doctor (Ten, who's the real one obv) who is hurt by the fact that she would just go against him like that but he understands why she would do that, the dynamics and emotions were just *chef's kiss*
Turns out that "Nine" is a unique model of a TARDIS from the Time War so it can shapeshift and pretend better than other TARDIS's apparently and also read minds (that's how it's able to trick Rose). Also turns out that TARDIS's could be male or female (i wasn't with the author on this one) and this new TARDIS was male and our TARDIS was female, so when the dude learned that most of the TARDIS's were gone after the war he came to the conclusion that he had to breed to make new TARDIS babies? (i'm even less with the author here, but when i'm describing it it sounds even worse than i remember, it was much more elegant and i guess reasonable in the original text) Of course our TARDIS doesn't want that bc the process kinda sucks, i guess it was dangerous for her? i don't remember. But yeah, once the Doctor and Rose sort their thing out they have to hunt the dude TARDIS down and get rid of him. At the end he passes through time i guess and an early human glimpses him in the sky like a fallen star and comes up with a fictional story about a warrior and a maiden this warrior was chasing or something, and that's how humanity started making stories.
This fic is SO GOOD despite the weird bits, and i will forever be sad that i didn't think to bookmark it or something. I'll leave this here, firstly bc i think it answers some of the questions you might have and retelling is better than nothing, and secondly because maybe someone will see this post and recognise the fic - unlikely but i can't pass up this chance of finding it
Oh wow that sounds amazing! Mostly the trust part! It would be SO easy to make a companion doubt that the other is the Doctor when you can perfectly pose as an incarnation they know better. Because they're human and us humans, we like to cling to what we know. That concept is just - Idk I feel like it's slightly blowing my mind and now I really want to read this fic.
I agree on the TARDIS thing. In my mind it is uncommon for a TARDIS to have a gender at all. I believe 'our' TARDIS does have a gender but she just ran with it and picked one because the human strays kept going on about it. So her gender's basically 'she/her' - pronouns plus the colour blue with some mischief sprinkled in - or something; you know what I mean.
Plus, I am a tentative fan of the loom thing so if timelords already don't get 'born' I do not believe TARDIS-s would mate for reproduction at all. I would rather assume a TARDIS gets made when there's an imbalance in the space-time-continuum on the quantic level that gets augmented by randomly appearing resonance and then the moment the TARDIS appears it has always been existing since the dawn of time. Or something along those lines. Probably the process can be fabricated some way and timelords have perfected exploiting it. Like they do.
Not like I have been thinking much about TARDIS genders OR reproduction, tbh. In my mind they just are 🤷♀️
Anyway, apart from those points that fic sounds absolutely amazing and I think I would also love those moon metaphors. So if someone knows it and could send it to us, that would be great? <3
I also totally get the 'I have no idea what language this was in' feeling, I have that all the time. Not with dw fic though because so far I have read 1 work in German and 1 work in translated Russian and half a work in French and all the other times I strictly stick to English. It just works better in that language for me and there is an abundance of fic in English anyway :) We are so blessed to be in a huge fandom. Although a tiny one WOULD make finding your fic a lot easier.
So it's not entirely blank, it's whole spread and i already did something on the left side (it's a movie ticket from when i went to see Twice Upon A Time in theater, with some packaging taped on top because i've noticed that the writing started rubbing off over the years, and the background is the inbetween bits from some stickers for some visual interest, because as a junkjournaller i don't throw anything away lol)
The prompt on top says "if a Time Lord is a sum of their memories, write down the equation" And there is this fun grid pattern with some numbers in the corner and another number in the other corner (hi Twelve). I feels like it wants something maths-related, but i'm hopeless in maths. I know that you like maths. Maybe you can help me, like with a smart math trick, and/or something related to Twelve, maybe a quote that might be fitting or just a nudge in a certain direction. It doesn't have to be an equation as the prompt says, but the main themes i'd like to reflect are memory, maths (science as poetry perhaps?) and Twelve's story/character to tie in with the ticket.
Any thoughts? No pressure to come up with anything big or deep tho, even just a hint might be helpful to figure it out
Firstly, thank you so much again for giving me this chance to talk about maths ❤ Also, I feel so honoured I get to contribute and spark ideas (hopefully?) for your beautiful, beautiful art project!!
Also, very sorry, but this will be very maths heavy, obviously. I'll try to put many pictures so you don't really have to understand anything; you can just go with the aesthetics.
That said, if you really do want to understand something, I will probably not put enough info here to do so. So, just ask, I can go in small steps and explain it from the start. Like, I love doing that. My mum regularily has to indulge me and let me explain higher mathematics until she (kinda) gets it.
But, I mean, most of these things I'm about to mention, you learn about after at least two semesters of intensive mathematics studies at uni, so...they're not that easy to understand.
Also, I will assume, that you only know high school maths, I hope that is alright? I don't actually know your level, please forgive me if you feel like I am treating you like a 5 yo. (I will basically explain this like I would for my family).
I'm gonna put this under the cut again :)
Sum Formula by Gauss
This is probably the simplest bit of maths that I am going to mention, so let's put it first.
'A timelord is a sum of their memories' obviously lets you think that you'll have to include a sum, somewhere. In mathematics, we normally use the greek letter Σ (capital sigma) to show that we are doing summation. All the things you want to sum are put after the letter and the start and finish are marked on top. Then
would be the sum of all (natural) numers 1 to n. If n=4, the above would read 1+2+3+4, f.ex.
Here, we want to sum over memories. So, obviously, we could find some sort of symbol or artistic interpretation of 'memory' and put it behind the sum, where the k is.
Or, what I would propose, we concentrate the 'memory' into the 'name' or rather number of the different regenerations. Because then, if the memories of the timelord 12 are the timelords Doctor 1 to 11, which would give us the above sum with n=11:
Here, I am just pretending, 'Timelord' is a function on natural numbers, defined by the sum on the right.
(Sidenote: A function is like a rule that takes some input and gives you an output, f(x)=x-1, for example would be a commonly known one or f(x)=x^2, or f(x)=sin(x). We often see them called f or g or something in school and make them work with numbers but technically they can work on any set and have any name and do anything. Quite cool :) )
The proper definition of the function would have to come first and could look something like this:
Which just means Timelord is a function that takes a natural number and gives you a result in the Universe. Which does not mean much mathematically, except for that you can plug only natural numbers into the function and get an element from the unknown set 'Universe'. Actually, the result would be another natural number, of course.
Now, there is a well-known formula for this specific sum, namely
that is all natural numbers 1 to n summed together gives n times n+1 divided by two. So, 1+2+3=3*4/2=6 for example. So you could definitely include that with like a little extra equation.
Also, you could obviously change this whole thing up a bit, because for now, we have not included the war doctor at all. Or the fugitive Doctor. Or any other forgotten Doctor or spin-off Doctor or or or - although admittedly, the Doctor IS missing those memories, so...?
But, there is one more neat thing with this formula, and that is that there exists a nice geometric visualisation:
So, here the idea is, that we want to add the numbers 1 to n and those are the green squares from top to bottom. See? there is one in the first row, then two in the second and so on and n in the bottom row.
And all together, the green squares are exactly half of the number of the squares in the right rectangle, which are n times (n+1) many.
Or, to see it another way: you could always add up two of the rows to get a full row of green squares. The top row with the last but one row and the second and third row. And then you always either have n+1/2 full rows (, i.e. n*(n+1)/2, like here) or n/2 full rows and one half row ((n/2)*n+n/2=(n/2)*(n+1)).
So, I think there are some themes and images here you could work with :)
Affine Transformations
Okay, so, this one is my favourite because of the WORDS :D (Also because I am taking discrete geometry right now and affine transformations are important there.)
So, first, let's have a little look at LINEAR transformations. Slightly simplified, those are functions between vectorspaces that fulfill certain properties.
What is a vectorspace? Some mathematical thing (Sidenote: also a very nice word, vectorSPACE :) ) where vectors live in. Vectors for our purposes look like numbers pressed between brackets, so for example:
would be three vectors. All from different vectorspaces because they have different lengths or as we like to say: DIMENSIONS :)
Vectors can also lie sideways like v=(1 , 2, 0, -3), but I am not a fan of that. And technically the difference is not big and unimportant for our purposes.
Okay, now the vectorspace we are interested in is called R^n, which is vectors of length n. So in the above picture, v is in R^2, w in R^4 and u is 'the origin' of R^3.
Then a linear transformation is a function from R^n to itself (it could go to another vectorspace, too but let's not overcomplicate that) which we write as:
And the linear transformation fulfills the rules:
(1) means, that if I look at the output of a function of the sum of two vectors, I get the same as if I take the sum of the output of both vectors on their own. So, L(3)=L(1)+L(2), for example.
(2) means if I look at the output of the function on the multiple of a vector, then that gives the multiple of the output of the function on the vector. So, L(2)=2*L(1), for example.
If the function fulfills this, we call it linear.
We often write linear functions as MATRICES. So, L could look like this:
which we often write more generically as
And then applying this function to a vector is a matrix-vector-multiplication, which again works with sums :D
Okay- this last bit is probably to much, sorry for that. The takeaway: We 'multiply' matrices and vectors with specific rules and then that fulfills rules (1) and (2) and gives us a LINEAR transformation.
If the matrix is INVERTIBLE - don't worry about what that implies - then we call the linear function BIJECTIVE.
Now, what is an affine transformation? It is a linear transformation with a fixed vector added and looks like this:
Look familiar? Yes, it's exactly the same as before, just with the vector w added! This actually comes from a linear transformation made simpler, where the linear transformation looks like this:
If you were to calculate this you would see that Lv with the little tilde thing really resulted in the thing in the brackets. Point is, if we forget the 1s, we get the affine transformation from before but like this we have one linear transformation again.
And now I am coming back to Doctor Who:
Affine transformations describe rotations, translations, scaling and like slight bending of the space.
And if the underlying linear trafo (gonna start using our neat little shortening from uni) is bijective, INVERTIBLE, you can retract it to where you started from.
And that sounds like memory? Like regeneration? We could assume L is an invertible transformation - regeneration or ourselves becoming different people throughout our lives? - so we could technically go back to who we were or that is still part of us and we can follow it back to the start, aslong as we retain the memory. BUT there is the affine part, too, that little vector w added. What if that was time? The part of the transformation that makes the trafo not linear anymore (at least unless we go to a higher plane of existence in R^(n+1)). What if that vector somehow prevented us from actually going back?
(That is not how it works in maths, I don't think, you could just subtract it, but let's imagine we can't)
Wouldn't that be some beautiful metaphor of changing and remembering and becoming something new? While moving through space and time? (You could technically also split that vector up into a space and a time vector if you liked :) )
Maybe you can do something with that?
Lie Geometry
My favourite part, because Geometry, but now we are entering the part of maths where I have to look stuff up as well. So, I'll try to keep it short and just give you some concepts and images.
Just, let me say that I love this because
Rule 1: The Doctor lies
This is all about spheres in ORIENTED CONTACT
Circles are 1-dim spheres, so CIRCULAR GALLIFREYAN?
Also they look funny, a little like hedgehogs:
So, ask me if you really want to know why but I'm not going to explain it here and I would have to look that up, too, but apparently we can represent 'normal' spheres (Möbius spheres to be precise) by their center c and radius r as the vectors
Don't worry about why the brackets suddenly are sharp, there is a meaning but it's not too important right now. It's still a vector. Then, c is a vector, too - giving us the n-dimensional point of the circles center - so this actually has more than 3 entries. (c,c) is the standard scalar product, just imagine this as the length of the vector c or how far away from the origin we are.
Takeaway here: Spheres are defined by their center and radius. Now that doesn't sound so bad, does it?
Now you may have noticed the radius r only appears as r^2. Lie spheres have an ORIENTATION however, that means they can have negative radius. Hence, we have to add an extra info (how long is our radius and does it go inward or outward?) as another coordinate:
If r>0 we will draw the arrows in the first picture outward, otherwise inward. Or the other way round. Honestly, that's just convention, it doesn't really matter. This is now a lie-sphere. They make up the points in the Lie quadric, defined by the Lie-scalar product. So they are all the points y fulfilling:
So we want that weird angly thing (Lie scalar product) on the left that translates to that rather long sum (yes, you could write this as a sum again, too) to sum up to 0.
This is all very difficult and confusing, I know. But pretty formulas?
Anyway, the thing called 'oriented contact' works with that angly thing, too. It means that two spheres meet tangentially - in exactly one point - and they meet such that their arrows point in the same direction at the contact point:
Like this, those are in oriented contact! (Please ignore my inability to draw circles)
The mathematical condition for that is:
Okay, what was all that? So, first the definition for the lie scalar product works slightly differently for two different vectors, but it fits together with the version we saw earlier.
And then I did some math tricks (or rather my professor did). It all just says in the end: For oriented contact, we need that the distance between centers is the same as the difference between radii.
And the y, y' are defined as:
Idk. I am not expecting you to get super into Lie geometry and its theory now. Rather that you might want to draw some circles with arrows?
What is also interesting is that these circles are often seen as gears. Because the radius orientation can represent a wheel that can only turn one way and then the oriented contact means if the other wheel touches on the outside it has to turn the other way and if it touches from the inside they will turn the same direction.
This also has a relevance to the problem of Appollonius if you want to namedrop, but I won't go into that now.
Markov-Chains
You asked for quotes as well (so sorry, I'm not going to explain what Markov Chains actually are, just know: Stochastics) and I really liked this quote characterising Markov Chains in 'normal' language:
In relation to the present the future is independent of the past.
Or something along those lines. I unfortunately don't actually remember the exact quote. But the above was the spirit.
Other symbols
Imo it is always a good idea to randomly write 'Let Ɛ>0.' somewhere or put little arrows like ⇔ or ⇒ wherever. Or put the little lightning bolt contradiction thingy:
(funfact, my ao3 name is 'hvis-og-bare-hvis' because that means 'if-and-only-if' translated, a phrase we use SO MUCH in maths and that is often abbreviated to 'iff' or written as ⇔)
Conclusion
I know this is all very MATHS now and also I didn't really explain anything properly. Except for the first point maybe. Feel free to ask any question about any topic, I would love to elaborate. I just can't promise it won't take weeks again to answer.
But I had a blast and I feel so honoured I get to weigh in on your art book! Thank you so much!! I hope I could help you a little!
HI, i finally cut out some time to infodump to you about my favourite Russian songs with Doctor Who vibes! Sorry that it took so long, exams have been rough.
I think the first ever song that planted an actual fic idea in my brain was Господин горных дорог (The lord of highland roads) by Мельница. It's a folksy sort of band, i really love their music and coincidentally it's one of their prettiest songs! It doesn't have a plot per se, but it's really vivid in it's description of a very particular feeling. Some choice quotes:
Ты слал в чужие сны то сумасшедшее видение страны
Где дни светлы от света звёзд
You were sending mad visions into other people's dreams, visions of a land where days are lit by stars.
Speaks for itself
Я ухожу вослед не знавшим, что значит слово "страх"
О, не с тобой ли все пропавшие, погибшие в горах
I follow those who didn't know what the word fear means. Oh, aren't they all with you, those who disapeared in the mountains?
It's like the experience of every companion once they realize they aren't the first ones.
Наша кровь уходит в песок, позабудь её, и она
Прорастет тугою лозой
Я хотела остаться с тобой
Я уже успела посметь
Пахнет снегом, прозрачная боль
То ли даль, то ли высь, то ли смерть
Our blood is seeping into sand, forget about it and it will sprout like a vine. I was going to stay with you, i already dared to. Clear pain smells like snow, is it distance, or height, or death?
It's like the curse of the Time Lords, everyone dies and the Doctor stays, shaped by the people in their life (gets a bit more abstract on those last lines, but it's more about a vibe really, the poetry of it all).
And the last one that made my fanfic writer's gears spin:
Пусть укроет цепи следов моих иней
Чтоб никто найти их не мог
Кто теперь прочтёт подо льдом твоё имя
Господина Горных Дорог?
Let frost cover the chain of my footsteps so that no one could find them again. Who will now read your name under the ice, Lord of Highland Roads?
So the name being secret already has some timelord vibes. In my head it would be a fic about one of Clara's fragments, living somewhere in a secluded mountain village. The Doctor would be Ten, way before he met Clara (Martha is there too and she and Clara are besties). They would have to team up and go higher up in the mountains to investigate a mystery, like people disapperaing or returning with no memories of where they'd been. It would turn out that the top of the mountain is surrounded by some sort of perception filter that erases people's memories once they leave its range, because it's guarding some sort of alien secret. For some reason or another the Doctor's name would end up out in the open, written in stone (maybe they would have to use it as a password Time of the Doctor style, or maybe it was the original secret, who knows). In this plot Clara has to die saving the Doctor and Martha (as per canon and song lyrics), her death would serve to further protect the secret, and the Doctor's name ends up buried under tons of ice and snow. Then he and Martha leave and forget all about that heroic girl, Martha forgets his true name so it stays hidden.
When i was imagining it, it was really fun and dramatic, but i never got any further than the concept, so now it just leaves in my head and sometimes i daydream about this plot when this song comes up in the shuffle.
Then there is a song that i did write a fic about. It's Последний джаз на Земле (The last ever jazz on Earth) by BlackBird or Чёрная Птица as they call themselves now. I love this band way too much, partially because they are from my town (this summer they performed at a festive event in our town and openly played anti-imperialist songs as a fuck you to current events, it was awesome and a bit scary). I can't find it anywhere where you can listen to it, and it's frustrating bc it's one of my favourites, but it's a melancholic jazzy song about loneliness, and there's an implication of immortality:
И птицы ждут, прежде, чем на Юг.
И слушают то, что я пою.
Без голоса… Двести тысяч лет.
Последний джаз на земле.
And birds are waiting before flying South, they're listening to what i'm singing, with no voice, for two hundred thousand years - the last ever jazz on Earth.
In my fic Twelve takes Bill to the very last jazz performance on Earth before the entire planet is evacuated to a colony (birds are waiting before flying south), a handful of remaining humans, who were last to leave because they were preparing the planet to be left behind, are sitting in a bar, listening to the music, everyone alone with their thoughts but united by this common experience. And the Doctor and Bill talk about hope, the unknown, music, and leaving behind and letting go. It's my early one, i don't think it's all that good, but the fic is here if you fancy checking it out. It's in Russian but you can put it through an autotranslator, they are so evolved nowadays that one would have little trouble reading translated fic (or if you'd like i can do a proper translation).
The next song is Память (Memory) by Fleur. It's a Ukranian band, iirc, but they mostly sing in Russian, and their music is hauntingly beautiful. The song has such thoschei vibes, it's hard to choose quotes because every single lyric is relevant, so i'll just take this bit from the middle:
Лишь для одной ослепительной вспышки,
Лишь ради нескольких звёздных мгновений
Мы будем плыть друг другу на встречу
Сквозь бесконечность и океаны забвения.
Странствуя между мирами,
Ты хранишь в себе память
О каждом моём воплощении.
И в назначенный час
Мы узнаем друг друга
По первому прикосновению,
Где бы ты ни был,
Кем бы ты ни был.
Just for a single blinding flash, for the sake of a few stellar seconds, we will be swimming towards each other, through infinity and the oceans of oblivion. Travelling between worlds, you keep memories of my each incarnation, and at the set hour we will recognize each other by touch alone, wherever you might be, whoever you might be.
They are soulmates, they will find each other in every world and in every version of reality, they are drawn to each other and their story will never end. And it's also just a beautiful song :)
Что ты расскажешь своим?
Что он встал в полный рост безоружным
Улыбаясь, как форменный псих
Сказал: "Идите домой"
И ты будто бы видел сияние
От каждого из пулевых
What will you tell your command and comrades? That he stood tall and unafraid, with a totally mad grin on his face? That he told you "Go home"? That you saw his every bullet wound glowing?
Chills.
Then there's Юпитер (Jupiter) by Евгения Теджетова. It's a modern band, but their whole thing is making neo-retro music, like something that you'd hear in an old movie, and this song actually tricked my mum, so i'd say they are really good at it. The song itself is a metaphor about how people are really far from each other, like planets, and have troube communicating and understanding each other, but when i listen to the chorus i can't help taking it a bit more literally:
Земля, Земля, я Юпитер!
Вы не спите, еще не спите?
Смотрите, смотрите -
Исчезает Млечный путь.
Земля, Земля, я Юпитер!
Подождите, не уходите -
Летите, любите,
А я - как-нибудь.
Earth to Jupiter, Earth respond to Jupiter! Are you asleep yet or not? Look, look - the Milky Way is fading away. Earth to Jupiter, Earth respond to Jupiter! Wait, don't leave yet - fly, love, and i will get by.
I'm thinking of a story where someone is stuck on another planet or in a spaceship flying away, at first they are panicking but then they come to terms with it and send their last goodbye to Earth and their loved ones.
This one feels a little bit like cheating, but i'll include it anyways. Хороший человек идёт на войну (A Good Man Goes to War) by Nemnogo Nervno is exactly what it sounds, it's directly inspired by the show. I'm mainly including this one for this masterpiece of a second verse:
Что ты расскажешь своим?
Что он встал в полный рост безоружным
Улыбаясь, как форменный псих
Сказал: "Идите домой"
И ты будто бы видел сияние
От каждого из пулевых
What are you gonne tell your comrades and command? That he stood tall and unafraid? that he told you "Go home"? That you saw his every bullet wound glowing?
Chills. It's less of that particular namesake episode and more just pure general essence of the Doctor as an idea, a character that out beloved timelord is trying so hard to play.
Oh my god, it's so much text! Thank you for letting me write a whole essay about music in your askbox! I hope you enjoy this little tour of my playlist, the songs are much less plot-y than those by Sebastian Krämer that you've sent me, but imo they are very evocative. I suggest giving them a listen even if you don't understand the lyrics, they sound really pretty.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! First of all for the beautiful music and second of all for those fic ideas?! They're awesome!!
Okay, let's keep some structure:
Господин горных дорог is really, really pretty. I love the flute so much! I don't understand a word, obviously, but I really enjoy it. That little playful bridge towards the end of a rather melancholic song? Gorgeous! And then the lyrics you translated are really evocative! I completely understand why they inspire fic ideas.
Coming to that: I have not read many but I love the idea of Echo!Clara fics and making Clara and Martha friends is an inspired idea. They would be so good for each other, actually. They are both kind and disciplined people and Clara would stick up for Martha when the Doctor treats her like shit again while Martha could definitely hold back some of Clara's destructive tendencies. Why have I never considered them before?
The plot sounds amazing, I love the mountain visuals (snow!! ❤ rocks!! and they fit the song so well!) and the preception filter/memory loss theme! And I love the tragedy of the Doctor and Martha forgetting about Clara. Perhaps, they could even have a keepsake of her that they don't understand anymore after they have left but that tells them something happened and they lost someone they loved. (You know a little like Amy finding Rory's ring? I loved that moment so much.)
If you ever write it, no matter the language, I definitely want to read it!
Then, I really enjoyed the Последний джаз на Земле fic, as you might have noticed :) The concert you got to see sounds scary but also like it could give you a lot of hope. I am very sorry and scared for everyone in both Russia and Ukraine and I hope you stay safe ❤
The lyrics of Память do sound very much like Thoschei and I really liked listening to the song, too. The voice is very beautiful and calming and I love when you pick at the guitar to make it little fleeting tones, it's my favourite sound in the world, I think.
The idea of Юпитер and also what you came up with reminds me a little of the Major Tom songs by David Bowie and Peter Schilling. I always loved that story. So sad and scary but beautiful in it's inevitability and acceptence in the end. I love how she is shouting for Jupiter in the chorus, that part is really neat 😍
And there is russion trock? That's so cool! I have no idea whether German trock exists but then again I am mostly interacting with dw in English so I wouldn't know anyway.
I was a little surprised how happy that song sounds, especially after the others and considering how dark the episode is. On the other hand, the Doctor really is just a silly guy and should always remember that, especially when they go dark. So the music fits them very well.
'That you saw his every bullet wound glowing' is some really amazing lyrics, it reminds me a bit of the 'what do you do with all that pain? you hold it tight until it burns your hand'. The Doctor is so damaged and they hate it but they also have to love it because it is what makes them who they are. And it is also what they will go through again and again because that is the only way they can continue. And the bullet wounds glowing is a great metaphor for that imo. Not sure it was meant that way but that's what it sounds like to me
I really, really enjoyed those songs! Thank you so much for sending them in and translating and explaining!
