Fic: Cardinality (Doctor Who, all eras, G)

[eve11]

A drabble! 275 words written for who_contest, for the challenge "Vast".




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"Bigger on the inside." Oh, how he loves when they notice that, but very few have asked how much bigger She really is.

It is a sign of the resilience of the human psyche that deep down, his companions don't really want to know. That they can step from room to room to room, counting each one from the dawn of Time until its death, and still they will not scratch the surface of her infinity.

Naturally it was the very first question he posed, scatter-shot across their brand new psychic link. His fingers grasping stiffly at her console for the very first time, his mind drowning in the continuum of her consciousness and grasping at anything. hello, it is so very nice to meet you was known then, instantly, and yet translated only centuries later. you cannot count them.

Dimensions unfurled, filled him to bursting like regeneration energy. How many rooms do you have?

you cannot count them.

But here is a room! Here is a door--

Fleeting pearl impressions. A half-moon projects to an infinite line. a room is for you. a fish needs no stepping stone in a pond.

True continuity is a mathematical construct. It cannot exist--

It was their first argument, over in a nanosecond and realized in every cell that ever had been or would be himself, The Doctor, through his years. For in that nanosecond she dissolved the constructs around him--rooms, doors, walls--and all that she was, was space and... and...

Time?

A parent smiles at an inquisitive child.

time is a pond.

Centuries pass, companions come and go, and he remembers.
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Comments

[gallif-migrant.livejournal.com]

Damnit, I feel dwarfed yet again. Well done. Extremely well done.

[eve11]

Thanks very much, glad you liked it :)

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

I really like this and especially time is a pond

[eve11]

Thanks!

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

MATH FIC! :D This is lovely.

[eve11]

:D And clocketpatch even gave me a lovely icon for it too! :D

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

Is it a Sierpinski TARDIS?

[eve11]

Not that specific; I just like the geometric design of the TARDIS in it.

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

It is very pretty. :)

[thisbluespirit]

Ah, this is so sharp & brilliant!

[eve11]

Thanks!

[liadt]

Lovely!

[eve11]

Thanks :D

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh!! Ohhh, this is beautiful!! Yes, the concept even Time Lords would have trouble grasping: infinity. And She IS Infinity. Gorgeous honey...just perfect!

*HUGS*

[eve11]

Thanks! And there are two types of infinity: countable and uncountable. Imagine like the real numbers, where you can take the smallest of small infinitesimal things and focus in and blow it up until it contains everything in the universe that you started with. That's uncountable infinity. That's her infinity. :)

Ha, your icon! :D

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, yes!! See, I LOVE that concept!! I was going to aim for something like that myself (which is why I stalled so long), except I couldn't get the damned thing to cooperate. You do it so damned well, though...DAYUM.

*Grins* Do love that one. Apt and funny all at once.

[profrobert.livejournal.com]

Nicely done. Writing that short is hard, and you manage to tell your whole story with all of its emotions right there (like the TARDIS, your story is bigger on the inside).

[eve11]

Thanks very much! Ha, I guess I do try to embody "bigger on the inside" with flash fictions. Aptly so for flash fiction about the TARDIS :)

[tangotabby.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, I have chills!!! I absolutely adore stories about the sentient TARDIS, and this is perfection.

(and "time is a pond. " at the end hit me right in the heart(s)....)

[eve11]

Thanks very much! :D