You use scented soap, huh?

There's a reason there have always been jokes that atlases do not exist in the United States. You have a culturally enforced nationalistic narcissism and on the whole do not care to know anything about the outside world. And your nationalistic elements benefit from that; it's easy to say the US is the best country in the world when you don't comprehend that your next door neighbour has fucking cities.

The idea that someone could sincerely not realize there's, like, big cities in other countries is utterly bananas to me.

Why would you not assume other places WERE like here, where we have cities and running water and so on? Why would you not just ASSUME that most places are basically the same level of varied as where you live, with urban, suburban, rural, and largely uninhabited areas all mixed in? I don't get it. Is it movies? That if TV doesn't show it to you, it isn't there? Were people not taught that TV stories are not real and the things that happen in stories are not the only things that happen and that some things are inaccurate because stereotypes are a thing?

I was a bright kid and read a lot, and I had a lot of privilege. But I really don't think that explains or excuses thinking there are no cities in places like Mexico. I was not taught anything about other countries when I was a child, I didn't read about other countries. Wasn't interested, was interested in animals and natural history. I needed geography and history classes. But even before that, like, I knew that other places have cities? That is fucking crazy to me.

We aren't any more stupid than anyone else, fundamentally. Like in terms of our capacity to know things. We are all human. So why are we like this? I don't get it. I hate it.

I will say I do think we have some areas of shittiness going on with our schools that people who have not lived here don't quite get. Maybe I'm wrong. But even assuming that is true, that doesn't explain all of it. It is neither explanation nor excuse. It could be TOTALLY true and not explain the lack of human curiosity.

I do not understand.

I don't get it. There's something wrong enough here that if it were, like, replicated in small scale, like all the USA was condensed to one town, I'd wonder if we all had fucking lead poisoning or something.

I want to remember it. Probably better we don’t.

SUMMARY: A storm's approaching, he had said. When the storm finally reaches them later that evening, Rose realises that the Doctor beside her might not be the Doctor she knows him to be. Ten/Rose

TAGS: angst, hurt/comfort, romance, stargazing, post 2.11 Fear Her, post 2.13 Doomsday, time lord victorious

Read ch.3 on AO3: victorious // (ch.1 here) (ch.2 here)

“So it’s a bad thing, that time’s been reset?” she asked, feeling as though she already knew the answer. Then she realised she wanted to strip it back further. “What does it even mean?”

He was quiet for a while, and she dreaded to imagine the plethora of information she was about to be assaulted with.

“It means the tape’s snapped.”

She blinked. “The what’s what?”

His responding laugh was dry. “What happened to the video when you kept watching that kiss between the Scottish guy and Gwyneth in Sliding Doors?”

Rose frowned, thrown off by the question. “It made the picture go all wobbly?”

“Why?”

“I dunno. S’what happens to videotapes when you rewind them a lot.”

“And why do you think that is?”

Rose shrugged. “I guess it just wore the tape away?”

“Exactly,” the Doctor said, snapping his fingers in time. “You rewound it and rewatched it so many times that eventually the tape wore away and the picture had almost faded completely. See time is just as fragile — it’s only meant to be observed once. Sure, you might be able to go back once or twice, maybe to catch something you didn’t before, but generally, you shouldn’t. If you do it too much, the membrane of time and space itself will wear, like the video tape. If you do it enough, well, the membrane will snap completely.”

Rose thought about it for a moment, and while she was following (sort of), it seemed far too ridiculous to take seriously.

“We called it temporospatial decay,” he continued. “Most of us always thought it was a bit of a myth. After all, you’ve gotta rewatch something a lot for the membrane of time and bloody space to decay completely.”

The words fell from her lips slowly, as she voiced her thoughts out loud. “So… you’re saying you came back to this point in time so many times that you… what, broke reality?”

“Er— yes, that’s pretty much the gist.”