#instead they are together a sort of symbol of the doctor's mourning for their childhood family

[intuitive-revelations]

Reading through Cat’s Cradle: TIme’s Crucible and there’s this bit where Ace sees a vision of the Doctor’s family memories - not a particular moment per say, closer to a kind of timeless musical diorama:

A tall woman slowly made her way across the grey plain. A grey shawl covered her head in the ancient manner. On her arm she carried a jar, a two-handled amphora decorated with figures frozen for eternity in a scampering dance. She reached the long black crack that split the plain across. Gently she inclined the jar. From its lip fell a trickle of dust.

As the endless, timeless flute melody played, she stood pouring the glinting dust into the bottomless crevasse. Just as the Mother Goddess of the Old Time legends had poured Time itself into the void of the empty Universe.

The same tune stirring different memories. The dust of Time glittering like falling mirrors, trickling like sand in an hourglass. To stop it you might more easily stand a Pythia on her head.

Uh...

A tall woman slowly made her way across the grey plain. A grey shawl covered her head in the ancient manner. 

..f*ck?