[o] The Descending Battle (Tick. Tock.)

[docfoul]

I wish to make something perfectly clear.

I have never altered the natural progression of events, and I never will. I do not bug or fuss or meddle. All I do is nudge certain events in my world towards a more favorable outcome - as any good first guardian should, in fact. I never interfere to a degree where the future would be inevitably doomed, and I never would.

Neither should you.
That, for those of you not gifted with expansive knowledge or even basic reading comprehension, for there are those among you, is where my point lies.

If you forget that simple fact, I may be forced to do similar nudging outside of my world until balance is restored.
Are we clear?

[Locked to Birkin:]
[Once the event that prompted our deal comes to pass, I will send you the subject.
You will keep her for one of your Earth days, and then I will come pick her up.
You agree, yes?]

Comments

[timey_wimey]

Well, while I agree with you for the most part, in most universes time is made up of both moments in flux and fixed points. There aren't too many fixed points, not usually, but they have to stand as they are, there's no getting around them. That's not really destiny though, that's more like temporal physics, completely different thing. 'Course, the thing is that most people have no idea which points are fixed and which ones are in flux, so really it makes no difference to them and you might as well say all decisions are brought that way from people's free will anyway, regardless of the temporal aspect. There's always a choice, you just have to be prepared to accept the consequences of it.

[sandinmyboots.livejournal.com]

I can face the consequences. I don't fear them.

So, how can you tell a fixed point from an unfixed point? Can you make or unmake fixed points?

[timey_wimey]

The consequences don't always affect just you, you know.

No! Fixed points are just what I said they are, they're - fixed. Any attempt to try and alter them could have consequences for the entire multiverse if the point you alter is large enough, it could destroy some of them entirely or meld every timestream together in one big mess. Or worse, for that matter. First rule of time travel, never mess with the fixed points, especially if you don't know what you're doing. And doubly so if you think you do know.

... Sorry about that, I got carried away. Er, where were we. Oh yes, telling them apart! Well, that's the thing, not everyone can do it. It's a matter of having a time sense, and not all species have it. Some can develop it, over time, but it's not what you'd call a strictly learned skill, it just - is. It's like - it's like playing Jenga. Some blocks are loose and you can take them out easily and build the tower up and it doesn't really affect anything, but it means you get closer to a good outcome, right? And then you have the blocks which are a little bit trickier to move but if you're very very careful, you can still take them out without causing any damage. And then you have the blocks which won't budge no matter how carefully you try to tap them out, and if you're stubborn enough to keep trying then the whole tower wobbles and eventually collapses and all the blocks go everywhere and it's your own fault for trying to shift something that can't be budged.

You see what I mean?

[sandinmyboots.livejournal.com]

[He's writing this all down. And having one of his living books wiki Jenga for him. And once he's done, he stares at his writing, the Jenga wikipedia page, the Doctor, the wikipedia page again, and back at the Doctor.]

I think I get it. You develop a sort of intuition to tell when those are. And if you mess it up, time will collapse into jello and failure. Right?

[timey_wimey]

Pretty much, yeah. Although it's not just time, it's space as well. Time and space are inextricably linked, that's one thing human sci-fi got right with all their talk of a time-space continuum.

[sandinmyboots.livejournal.com]

So...if time goes wrong, it'll alter space. And if space goes wrong, it'll alter time. And if they separate, the pants of time will unravel as the two parts of fabric separate. Is that right?

[timey_wimey]

More or less, yep.