Normal Nightmares?

You know, to be honest, I'm not really sure what a normal nightmare is. It's rare that I even have them, honestly. I'm not great at it but, most of the time when a nightmare starts, I'm pretty good at pulling a little lucid dreaming and change things around. The other night, though, I had one that for some reason has been sticking with me. Of course, it's a dream, so I'm sure that it's been influenced by a hundred and one other things that have been going through my head.

It started with a mine digging deep into the earth. Digging a new shaft, the miners uncover a wall. Not just thick rock, but an actual constructed wall of dense stones, it's covered in odd complex patterns, but nothing that is close to being recognized as a language. The order is given by the owner of the mine to destroy the wall and any evidence of it, since it would cause the entire mine to be shut down while archeologist would try to figure out what it was.  When the wall is broken, a green mist escapes, enveloping the first of the miner's. From there, the mist spreads, and then dissipates quickly into the bodies of the terrified workers. Within minutes, the infected are attacking everyone in sight.

From there the dream becomes a "zombie apocalypse" kind of dream, with a group of survivors and "uninfected" holding out in a nearby school gym. I still remember the sounds of the "zombies" running across the roof, the weight of the makeshift maul being used as a weapon, waiting for the end.

The thing I found most interesting was that the zombies virus wasn't really a virus. It was actually a quickly replicating cluster of nanobots. The initial hive begins as an airborne swarm. Once it enters a suitable host, though, it becomes blood-born. It's passed via bite, the mouth of the zombie becoming akin to a komodo dragons, only filled with the nanobots instead of bacteria.

Once the nanobots enter a victims bloodstream, they quickly begin replicating and attacking/rewiring the neurosystem of the new host. In the end, the victim's neurological pathways, including the brain, are converted, killing the host, but allowing the body to continue to move, driving towards more victims. In time, the nanobots begin to adapt to their new bodies, the more nanobots in a body, the more cunning they become. Unfortunately, the body cannot maintain it's state for a prolonged amount of time, thus the process of decay begins in a host. Also, attempts to nourish the body compel the nanobots to attempt to feed the body in an attempt to maintain the body, but since the body is dead, all attempts to provide substance fail, in grisly fashion.

That's the idea I've had stuck in my head lately. Not sure what else I could say or do about it, but I think it's kind of interesting.

Naming a Time Lord

So, the idea came to me, as ideas often do, in a total random timey-wimey sort of way. Actually, it was because my Wife and I are considering dressing up as the Doctor and Donna for Halloween. It caused me reminisce from days of yore, when I was a kid watching Tom Baker, his companions, incredibly long scarf, and jelly babies outwit a number of foes while I visited my Grandma Daley. During those days, before I found out about things like Role Playing games and video games were played on an Atari or Commodore 64, I often had imagining about putting myself into the shows and stories I read.

When it came to Doctor Who, I was fascinated by the idea of an entire society of time travelers. The new series has been a wonderful treat. My only disappointment is the fact that the Time Lords are, as a whole, gone. The Doctor is the last Time Lord. Well... except for the Master. Oh, and the ones that asteroid/moon thing ate in "The Doctor's Wife". So... maybe, just maybe... there are a few Time Lords running around.

Now, I've gone to the Doctor Who Wiki (because there's almost nothing that DOESN'T have a wiki) and looked up Time Lord names. You know... some of them make no sense. I realized that for a good Time Lord name it needs to follow some conventions.

First, it's not a "Name". It's a title. It should always be a title. Not an alias, not a nickname, nor a made up word, it needs to be a title, not even a profession, actually. The Master doesn't actually have a profession linked title, now does he? Well, unless you consider being a Master a profession (and I know that some out there might).

Second, it should fit nicely with "The" in front of it. Saying "I'm The [appropriate title here]" shouldn't sound forced, contrived, or make no sense.

Third, it should be two or three syllables. I mean, I guess you could have a Time Lord called "The Kid" or "The Priest", but I think they just don't have the same impact as something a little longer. (Though the idea that Gordon Ramses is actually a Time Lord called "The Chef" has crossed my mind.)

Fourth, it also shouldn't sound ridiculous just being blurted out by a companion when the Daleks turn the corner. A Time Lord called "The Herbalist" really sounds kinda cool, but "Herbalist!!!!" doesn't sound right.

Finally, it should really describe the character, in some manner. As River Song explained, "Doctor: the word for healer and wise man throughout the universe. We get that word from you, you know. But if you carry on the way you are, what might that word come to mean?". So, what would the universe get from your Time Lord?

With those ideas in place, here are a few Time Lord names I have come up with over the years:

The Inspector - This was actually the one I came up with as a child. He was, in my imagination, the actual inspiration to Sherlock Holmes. I liked, also, the idea of a sonic magnifying glass.

The Commissar - A Time Lord that hangs out in Russia.

The Baron

The Commandant

I know that this isn't my finest piece of work, but it's some ideas that popped into my head, which I have tried to express in a short amount of time. 
 

Back to random musings

It's been a while since I've posted anything. I'm really pretty bad about this sort of thing. So, I figure I should start trying to write again. Also, I have my Arthros Games site that I think is dead. May was well use this instead, since it costs nothing, and I can pretty much put everything here and I'm not too worried about it going away.

This is just a warning people's of the internet. I'm back... kinda. I think.