((OOC: Doctor is black, Rory is blue and Amy is red, and I am so sorry for this ridiculous tl;dr. But at the same time I'm not. Shhh.

One day there will be a non-tl;dr'y post.))

[ Once again, the Doctor appears to be fiddling with the bracelet when it starts to record. While at first very much focused on his face, the angle and distance to it soon enough changes and he leans in closer as if peering at the stone more than the screen, making a sound like “aha”. ]

So that’s how that works. Very useful, these things, all efficient and high-tech so why couldn’t they just let me keep my sonic screwdriver, at least? Would make my life so much easier.

[ With an irritated exhale, he pulls the bracelet off his wrist and puts it away on a table. On the sofa behind him sit Amy and Rory Pond, and perhaps they intend to sit next to each other but when the Doctor moves to sit himself, he ends up in-between them. Not on purpose, mind.

As soon as he’s seated, he grins as if he’s not bothered by a single thing and slings one leg over the other.

…and is that a piece of celery he’s hung around his neck like a necklace? ]

Hello, Travellers!

[ A pause, and he glances at Rory and Amy. ]

That is the word, yes? Never seems to really stick, for some reason. It’s not exactly an incorrect word, since we all travelled here. In a way. Involuntarily. It happens.

A lot.

Says the man who can’t even get us to Rio.

Oi! I got you to Venice! And it doesn’t happen that much.

[ He sniffs, and turns his nose up just slightly before he turns his attention back to the screen, clapping his hands and rubbing them together. ]

Right. Hello! Again. Let’s talk science!

Or we can talk about why you’re wearing celery right now. [ Rory reaches over to lift the string holding the piece of celery, furrowing his eyebrows. ] Either way, people may want to take notes.

Or just pay really close attention. [ A snippy comment from Amy's side of the trio. Can't complete the look without crossed arms and a glance across to Rory. Obviously a very attentive student in school. Obviously. ]

Really, really close attention. [ Whatever the Doctor has to say, it’s going to be long. May as well sit back and wait for him to ramble it out. ]

That celery is going to save our lives. Or at least mine. If the gods take my sonic screwdriver from me, I have to make do.

[ AHEM. Clearing throat. ]

First of all, that thing about the gods stopping time? That’s false. You can’t just stop time, then you might as well just say you break time. This is simple time travel and that means that you’ll easily enough be taken back to where you started off. No need to stop time for it and if the gods are the ones telling you so, I really don’t know why. Unless they actually think so themselves. Or maybe it’s just easier to say that rather than explain that you’ll just get right back.

You will, so no freaking out, no need to think time’s frozen. Don’t you think that’s more terrifying than it not being frozen? Time’s not a straight line like you people like to think it is. It’s there, every hour, every minute, every second, it’s always moving, and if you’re going to go back to when you were taken, you won’t have been gone. Simple.

[ Look, he’ll actually pause here. To let things sink in? Possibly. Or just to let you marvel in his superior knowledge. ]

That was the easy bit. Moving on – we’re talking about a “world tree” here, but I would much rather call it a universe tree, if it works that way. Can’t be sure, but— I’ll get to that. We’re not from different worlds, different planets, we’re from different universes, and that’s when it gets tricky.

I’m not new to new universes, or other universes. There’s E-space— But does that really count? [ A pause. ] And there are parallel universes, but this… There are people here that are from Earths that don’t really have the same rules as the Earth I know at all, it’s…

[ He moves his hands as if he’s trying to grab something, frowning all the while. If he seems almost troubled…

Well, he is something like it, possibly. ]

They’re not parallel. They’re alternate, they have to be, but I don’t think I’ve ever really heard of that. There’s been alternate timelines, but not universes. See, a parallel universe is formed when choices are made, when things happen differently, so people who are dead in one could be alive in another, a war could have been won by the other side compared to what we know. There are billions of parallel universes and I’d assume there would be billions of alternate universes too. They really do have to be alternate, but what I wonder is if there’s any connection and how we can all be pulled to one place like this.

Travelling between parallel universes is difficult and dangerous enough – I’d say impossible, but I’d be lying because I have travelled to one, but it’s almost impossible, used to not be, but now it is – and I wonder what sort of power you’d have to have to take people from alternate ones and put them in one place. And why alternate universes?

The thing is… Between parallel universes there’s a void, something that has no dimensions, [ he slowly moves his hands around in circles, ] and no… It’s just an emptiness that you can travel through if you crack the universe. But I’ve never heard of travelling between alternate universes, so what could there be there? There has to be something, even if it’s nothing. Or are they just hanging on the branches of a tree…

[ He silences for a while, pressing his fingers to his lips, forehead creasing again. ]

I guess it’s not completely far-fetched. A branch leads to a universe, and then you can say the twigs are like all the parallel universes on that branch. But I never would have thought— Parallel universes are connected, yes, and there is a… Well, there is a main universe. I first thought this Asgard could’ve been something in-between universes, something like a void, but it’s got a sky and during the night you can see stars so it is its own universe—

[ He jumps up from the couch and starts pacing, motioning with his hands and not really staying inside the range of the recording. ]

So is there like a main main universe, then? Not impossible. Because what holds a universe together? Maybe it doesn’t ever stop. Maybe there are more trees out there, and the whole creation is like a forest. A space time continuum like a forest! Maybe it’s all bigger than anyone could ever hope to understand!

[ Suddenly his tone is completely gleeful, as if he hasn’t been troubled at all or just put his mind at ease and he steps behind the sofa, ruffles Amy and Rory’s hair before he flops to lean on the sofa’s backrest. ]

Has to be that way, it’s the only way it makes sense. I wonder if this universe is the biggest. So is this the center of that universe? I wonder if you could get to alternate universes by going through this one. There has to be corridors, or shifts, something to connect it all, and the gods have figured out a way to use them. Maybe that’s what the outside of the universe is, Ponds! That’s brilliant. Sort of terrifying, but brilliant.

Now the question is, is there any way to gather proof?

[ Pushing himself back onto his feet, he wanders completely outside of the screen, seemingly having forgotten he was even recording anything. ]

... So, about that celery—