[073: Video]
May. 11th, 2013 00:57![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shortsightedlove[Private to Narvin]
You wouldn't happen to have the time to work on our... project right now, would you? [He sounds a little agitated.]
You wouldn't happen to have the time to work on our... project right now, would you? [He sounds a little agitated.]
[Private]
Date: 11/05/2013 05:33 (UTC)[He notices that agitation in Rassilon's voice, but decides not to inquire, not yet at least, although he is curious.]
Where shall we meet?
[Private]
Date: 11/05/2013 11:16 (UTC)[Private]
Date: 11/05/2013 23:04 (UTC)[And he doesn't trust Rassilon enough to let him into his TARDIS. It would be far too easy for Rassilon to knock him out and use it to flee the Barge. And if anyone could bypass his TARDIS security measures, he'd expect it to be the man who invented TARDISes.]
[Private] --> [Spam]
Date: 11/05/2013 23:49 (UTC)Very well.
[He arrives there quite soon.]
[Spam]
Date: 12/05/2013 03:58 (UTC)[Narvin greets him, opens the door to the lab and then to his particular space within the lab.]
I've been looking over all the information I have on the last days of the war. [It wasn't easy to read, and he had to partition away his feelings of sorrow and rage as he read it.]
Your idea of forming a link outside the time lock is essentially a good one, if there's any way possible to anchor it to something more stable than the Master.
[Spam]
Date: 12/05/2013 11:55 (UTC)[Rassilon can very much imagine how it must have been -- Davros may have been worse off after their little encounter, but to see all those things, to feel like he was back in the Time war wasn't easy either.]
I... don't think I can while in the time lock. It appeared to be a staple time loop with the Master, though perhaps we could find a way... But you aren't locked yet. Perhaps there's a way for you to do it. [He doesn't sound quite sure about either, and he doesn't like that.]
[Spam]
Date: 13/05/2013 09:59 (UTC)[He's scribbling notes as he speaks, just to keep a record of their ideas and counterideas.]
You seemed...uneasy when you contacted me, my Lord.
[Spam]
Date: 13/05/2013 10:12 (UTC)[He pauses.] ...You noticed. [And then, with some hesitation, he pulled out his communicator to show Narvin this.]
I... I never meant it like that. It's not what you think is it? What our people think? [He'd know by now, surely?]
[Spam]
Date: 13/05/2013 10:42 (UTC)I'd never much considered it before, one way or another.
[He taps his fingers on the desk uneasily, deciding how much to say about himself.]
My genetics were manipulated by Pandora for wholly selfish ends. That was how she was able to possess me, manifest herself through me, before when she attacked you and many others.
I'm told that Pandora required a mind that was quick, intelligent, and highly devious, and I was designed with those specifications in mind. I've sometimes wondered who I would have been if she had never tampered, if I might have ended up as a plodding archivist, or a dull, low-ranking technician. Perhaps Gallifrey would have been better off that way. Having no Chancellor Narvin formerly of the CIA sounds more than a fair trade for having no Pandora. But in the end, I'll never know.
For my part, I've decided that it hardly matters whether the configuration of my genetics comes from my parents, Pandora, or from you. This person now is the person I am.
Iris, I believe, values freedom above all else. Freedom to make her own choices, to live her life as she pleases. My values are different.
[Spam]
Date: 13/05/2013 10:53 (UTC)That was deliberately tampering with someone's genetics to use them later on, though. I only ever tried to give us what we need to survive, to be the best we can be. What's the difference between what I did and evolution, other than efficiency?
She was never going to have a choice about her genetics, no one has.
[Spam]
Date: 13/05/2013 23:30 (UTC)She finds it threatening to the core of herself, whereas I find it...[He searches for the right word]...reassuring. Luck has never been particularly kind to me; I'd rather trust in design. And it's a design that's served us well for a billion years.
If I tried to wipe all the genetic influences from my self, as Iris did-- yours and Pandora's both--I think there would be nothing of me left. I have to accept the tampering put upon me or I lose everything that I am. I believe that contributes to Iris and I having rather different perspectives on the matter.
[Spam]
Date: 13/05/2013 23:36 (UTC)But it is not common? This kind of thinking? [While he's almost certain that it isn't, the tiny sliver of doubt is enough to be upsetting.]
[Spam]
Date: 14/05/2013 04:40 (UTC)[Spam]
Date: 14/05/2013 10:31 (UTC)[Spam]
Date: 15/05/2013 01:09 (UTC)[Spam]
Date: 15/05/2013 01:20 (UTC)[His voice takes on a higher pitch as he says that last point and he's clearly thinking of something that distresses him.]
[Spam]
Date: 16/05/2013 09:40 (UTC)[He notices Rassilon's agitation rising. He's had nearly a year's practice back on that alternate Gallifrey at being a diplomat and Presidential adviser, so he remains calm.]
My lord. She chose to abandon Gallifrey and the Time Lord way of life a long time ago. She was never going to like you. And if she insults you, does it matter? No leader is ever loved by everyone.
[Spam]
Date: 16/05/2013 10:45 (UTC)I don't care if she doesn't like me, but that doesn't excuse her behaviour.
[Spam]
Date: 17/05/2013 02:52 (UTC)It's how she feels about it. Facts may be true or false, but her feelings about being part of the genetic heritage you created simply are. I believe you that you didn't see us as laboratory experiments, but that doesn't negate that she feels like one. And perhaps she has had unpleasant experiences as someone else's experiment in the past and it influences her opinion now. I don't know her history.
[He takes his guess and tentatively and subtly puts it forward. If he's wrong, Rassilon will probably look at him in confusion and Narvin can backpedal and pass it off as some bit of inaccurate ancient lore.]
Your own experiences as a test subject make the whole topic a delicate one, I'm sure.
[Spam]
Date: 17/05/2013 09:46 (UTC)Perhaps she should make a trip to the Divergent universe. I'm sure Keep would love to educate on her that topic.
And what was I supposed to do, anyway? the Pythia was the one responsible for making the looms necessary, I just made them as efficient as possible. And no one argued about getting regeneration. I'm not any more to blame than her own ancestors.
[Spam]
Date: 17/05/2013 11:16 (UTC)Angry as you are with her, she's still a Gallifreyan, my lord. And although she's broken laws, she's not a violent criminal like the Master. Wishing torture upon her for being willful and impolite is perhaps excessive.
You said once that you think of the Gallifreyans as your children. Well, that makes Iris the rebellious child. Shouting at her and insulting her views won't make her understand your perspective on the matter. The more you fight the more she'll dig in her heels against you.
[Spam]
Date: 17/05/2013 11:26 (UTC)She seems quite keen on not having me as a father. I don't see why I should accept her as my child.
And I didn't even have to do anything for her to be like that. I've hardly spoken to her and she insists on behaving like that. [The appropriate response to that is to pout.]
[Spam]
Date: 18/05/2013 09:42 (UTC)I believe good parents don't choose to love only their obedient children.
She's angry. One doesn't have to have met a person to be angry at them. I want to murder Davros and before the Barge I'd never seen him before in my life. But you can choose to perpetuate this anger she has, or you can choose to attempt to untangle it and ultimately dissolve it.
[Spam]
Date: 18/05/2013 11:55 (UTC)It becomes rather more difficult when it's an entire people that can trace their origins back to you.
And I don't know how. I just speak to her and she can think of nothing better than insulting and provoking me.
[Spam]
Date: 19/05/2013 10:12 (UTC)You don't need to agree with her, but if you respect her I dare say she'll stop insulting you.
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Date: 19/05/2013 10:59 (UTC)I'm not sure it's even worth my time. [And more pouting.]
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Date: 20/05/2013 10:35 (UTC)[Spam]
Date: 20/05/2013 11:00 (UTC)[Spam]
Date: 22/05/2013 07:58 (UTC)She's not making things up. She's simply expressing herself--loudly, and sometimes crudely, yes--concerning what she feels and experiences for herself. If there are major discrepancies between what she says and what you did, discrepancies of fact, not motivation or other things open to interpretation, it's entirely possible that as convoluted as her timeline is, her Gallifreyan history is slightly different from yours or mine. But if you never stop sniping at each other, we'll never know.
Iris is the sort of person who would never help out of patriotism or duty, but would give her life for the sake of a friend. She has a great deal of hands on experience with paradoxes and temporal knots and other such things that could be very useful in untangling the disaster that is the Time War. Befriending her would be a far more valuable use of time than fighting with her.
[Spam]
Date: 22/05/2013 08:27 (UTC)And has it never occurred to her to check if our timeline is the same before behaving like this? Or to check if what she thinks happened is actually true? We know the records are muddled and there are enough false rumours about me.
[Spam]
Date: 23/05/2013 10:34 (UTC)I'll ask her to refrain from name calling. For your part, I'd advise avoiding sarcasm with her for a while until you're on slightly better terms.
[Spam]
Date: 23/05/2013 10:41 (UTC)And why is it always me who has to give? People spread rumours about me, I should to deal with it. People insult me, I shouldn't feel insulted. People attack me, I shouldn't be angry.
[Spam]
Date: 24/05/2013 06:47 (UTC)And I'm not saying you shouldn't feel insulted. You have ever right to feel insulted. That's generally what happens when one has insults hurled at them. You're also free to feel angry, frustrated, incensed even. But how you feel doesn't need to determine how you act.
[Narvin is not good at following his own advice.]
[Spam]
Date: 24/05/2013 10:12 (UTC)[Spam]
Date: 24/05/2013 10:24 (UTC)[And Narvin's going to talk to her to try to assure that it will.]
[Spam]
Date: 24/05/2013 11:14 (UTC)[Spam]
Date: 25/05/2013 08:13 (UTC)[Narvin feels a tremendous thrill that he, Narvinekralonum, is insisting that Lord High President Rassilon Founder of the great civilization of the Time Lords, do a thing. It makes him feel terribly important.]
[Spam]
Date: 25/05/2013 09:25 (UTC)Fine. I'll see what I can do.
[Of course, the first thing he'll do is antagonize her again. But maybe he'll pull himself together afterwards. Maybe.]