Video: When Props Attack

[timesbureaucrat]

[The communicator comes on with the sound of a hard crack, like the buttons are being smacked instead of pushed. The communicator bounces with the force of the blow.

On the screen, Narvin is looking wild-eyed and hair askew. He swears in Gallifreyan and runs a frustrated hand over his head.

Well, now that the communicator is on, he might as well explain.]

One of those vile pests has got into my room. If there's an exterminator around, I would pay good emeralds to see the blasted thing put out of my misery. I last saw it disguising itself as a communicator, but where or what it is now...

[He scans the room, sees something moving out of the corner of his eye.]

No don't--! [And runs off chasing after the Prop, communicator still on, but left on the table.]

Comments

[timesbureaucrat]

Humans tend to be plentiful, with their high breeding rate and a strong instinct to expand across new territories and claim them--whether someone else is already there or not. I suppose it's not too surprising that humans are both the easiest sentients to find and those most likely to agree to travel to an unfamiliar universe on a whim.

[...maybe not the most flattering way to talk about humans. But at least he's not calling them a 'lesser species.' Still, he attempts to insert a bit of tact and adds:]

With all due respect.

[frontier_doktor]

Usually when people say that they don't actually mean any respect. They just realized they were insulting you.

[He just sounds a little disappointed as he says that, not even in an angry way. It's as though it's something he's come by before.]

[timesbureaucrat]

[Narvin looks embarrassed at having been found out.]

For what it's worth, I didn't mean to insult you. I haven't had much experience with humans, save one, before I came here. Quick to spread throughout galaxies is...well...the reputation they have as a species, not just on Gallifrey but among many of the time faring races.

[frontier_doktor]

Well, I can't help what people think of me or my species. All I can help is what I do. [He still smiles a little in spite of it being a usual sting, even if it's a touch sad and he turns his bad side away to rub his neck when he does.]

So there was something you wanted to discuss before? Since I'm stuck here it might as well be something I start putting thought into now.

[timesbureaucrat]

[Narvin jumps on the subject change, glad to leave his faux pas behind. Diplomacy was terrible difficult, especially when alien species were involved.]

Yes. I have a...condition, of sorts. It isn't a naturally occurring virus or genetic malfunction. It was something that a doctor gave to me, inflicted on me, very intentionally. I suppose you could say that it's a fatal condition, in the long run. I don't know if it's reversible, but while I have unique technology and medical expertise at my disposal, I want to at least explore the possibility.

[frontier_doktor]

Your a Gallifreyan, right? But unlike the Gallifreyans here.

What exactly is the matter? [He happily focuses on that, choosing finally to sit in a chair rather than stand awkwardly and wait for the invitation to do so. Though he looks like he's ready to bolt back up out of it at a moment's notice.]

[timesbureaucrat]

[It never occurred to Narvin to invite Visscher to sit. Or to take offence at him sitting without invitation. The social nicety just doesn't come to him naturally.]

I'm Gallifreyan, yes. A Gallifreyan with the genetic alterations set down by Lord Rassilon, including the genes governing regeneration.

About a year ago, my nuclea lingua symbiotica were drawn off. My regenerations were removed.

[frontier_doktor]

Which the Gallifreyans here also have, except you have other differences?

[timesbureaucrat]

I haven't seen a genetic comparison yet, but on the Gallifrey I came from--an alternate universe from the one I was loomed into--my DNA was found to have slight variations unlike the local Gallifreyans. It's probably caused by generations of exposure to temporal technology. Everyone on my Gallifrey is imbued with temporal radiation, even if they never fly in a TARDIS. The transduction barriers that surround and protect the planet put out strong chronon emissions.

The Gallifrey I was living on, and the Gallifrey here, they don't have temporal technology. No time tech, no chronon emissions, no temporal genetic mutations.

[frontier_doktor]

So any regenerations that they have could only be a base.

[He lifts his chin and scratches at the scruff of his beard, inadvertently looking apish despite his polite and mild demeanor.] Is it the exposure to the temporal technology that alters them, though? Because with some negotiation the fix could be simple. You could be embued with their regenerations and when you returned they would alter naturally.

[timesbureaucrat]

[Narvin frowns a little at the beard scratching. He can't deny that it looks itchy to him, but if it itches he doesn't know why Visscher keeps it. He assumes that people with beards are trying to hide their face, but Visscher doesn't seem like a liar and a cheat like the Master is, so he wonders why Visscher is hiding.

Then the answer hits him. And he swallows his desire to criticize the beard out loud.]

It's possible that they could grant me a new set of regenerations. If they had a mind to. That sort of gift is very rare. It must be ratified by the Inner Council and is usually only offered to those who have performed an extraordinary service. Or have something the Inner Council desperately wants.

These Gallifreyans don't even know who I am. Convincing them to grant me a full new regeneration cycle could be difficult.

[But Visscher has started wheels turning in Narvin's mind now. Difficult is not impossible, and this is the best idea he's heard so far.]

[frontier_doktor]

Yes, but for the moment you're at least interesting to them. You have an edge. You can tell them about other Gallifreys.

Its worth a try. It's the easiest solution and it might be the best to pursue first. If you can get them, we can see if we can apply them here. It seems like a more difficult thing to build from scratch.

[He has a look around.] It looks as though your room is otherwise pretty safe. Perhaps the Andorian has left by now. [He stands again and fusses over himself primly.] I'm sorry that you were inconvenienced and I couldn't help you. [With the prop, anyway.]

[timesbureaucrat]

On the contrary, you've helped me tremendously, Doctor Visscher.

[Getting those regenerations will be a matter of playing Gallifreyan politics. And Narvin understands Gallifreyan politics. There's a chance it might actually work. For the first time in a long time, things are starting to look up.]