017 - Feet to the Sky

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

[Since the labyrinth was such a well received addiction to the Plane Reinette has returned -- with a new escort of sorts. A strong, sturdy tree, though that is only part of the story. Attached to it is a wide, carved wooden swing. There is a rope attached to it as well, designed to prevent the user from swinging too high. Though that hangs rather uselessly to the side. Reinette is in the swing, gently pushing it back and forth with a single satin shoe as she looks up at the stars]

Comments

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

Sometimes.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

[her eyes shadow for a moment, he seems to have surprised her. She pushes back on the swing again with a single foot]

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

I'd mention the weather, but it's not anything different. Why a swing?

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

I would hope it would not be the sameness but the insult such mundane conversation would bring.

[she smiles]

Because it brings me pleasure.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

There's little that's mundane if you have the eyes to transform it.

Well, I'll not begrudge you your pleasure, then. I'll just lean conspicuously against this tree in keeping you company.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

And yet you once accused the French court of being precisely that.

[she pushes back again]

Is that all the effort you put into company then?

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

Well it is, isn't it?

Does the company deserve more?

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

[she blatantly ignores the first question]

The company is inclined to believe so, yes. She has no issues with her own self worth.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

Oh, all right then, your self-esteem overcomes me. Only I don't think I have enough room to share that swing with you and I've no particular interest in sitting on it if you aren't with me.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

[She glances backwards once more. There was something quite off during their last meeting, and though she would never use the word -- she might have considered being concerned. So she offers conversation and distraction]

What did you speak of? About having the eyes to transform something?

[she stands, and for a moment leaves the Plane. When she returns she is not entirely herself. The swings were designed for the women of court and their elaborate dress. So she has changed. The dress is simple, and without hoops. A more confident, expensive rendering of something a peasant might wear. It is actually one of her many costumes]

You should swing.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

[He beams at the transformation, because he has always liked a costume and an actor who appreciates it is even better.]

If you think I should. Fortunate I'm not wearing the robes I picked up.

[he takes a seat on the swing]

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

[and eyebrow arches]

You have procured robes? What color?

[she too takes a seat on the swing. See! There is the proper amount of space]

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

[he wraps his hand around one of the ropes]

Scarlet, and orange. Prydonian colours.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

[she laughs]

Someone in interested in making their presence known.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

We Prydonians always make ourselves known. Even in the Capitol.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

Prydonians.

[she kicks back on the swing in a voice that says quite clearly -- explain]

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

Prydon was my Chapter at the Academy. And the Doctor's, of course. They say you can't take your eyes of a Prydonian or a second. They're devious. Clever. Dangerous. Politicians and renegades, the lot of them, and probably the CIA too, but you renounce your Chapter when you join the CIA.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

You are speaking in terms you know I have no knowledge of.

[she pushes back on the swing again]

And what happens then? When ones eyes are away.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

Oh, all right. I was hoping you might have picked up some of it from our minds. The Academy is where little Time Lords are taught to be prudish and stuffy and capable of complex mathematics but not anything imaginative. The CIA is the Celestial Intervention Agency - the Interventionists. They either keep time on its course or nudge History this way and that to make it what is best for Gallifrey. The CIA is the left hand, the shadow-face. The High Council and Gallifreyan society must not know what it does for its planet's protection.

[contributes the the momentum of the swing with his feet]

If that is enough, then I will say that we Prydonians, predictably, do whatever unexpected thing that will get us our desires. Steal Matrix data, or perhaps a TARDIS, murder the President and blame it on the nearest renegade...

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

[the line of her mouth becomes ever so slightly compressed, as she battles the sensation she disappointed the man next to her somehow. Which is utterly ridiculous. She kicks again]

There has hardly been enough time to see everything, as you are fully aware. Though yes, I do recall your school.

The unexpected. Yet surely you plan as well.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

[he turns to look at her sideways, then glances at the world before them]

Time, Reinette, is a web, an ever-bifurcating web that reaches out into infinity. To plan is to reach out into the web and select some threads to follow, some section of the thing to seek out. To act unexpectedly is to be willing to take the path unexpected, knowing that with yet more turns you can find the place where the diverging threads again combine.

So yes, I plan, but you must be able to plan if you're to do the unexpected and still get what you want.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

[with their combined weight the arch of the swing is both faster and higher -- the stars very nearly a blur]

I have lived the plan.

From the age of seven there has been nothing unexpected in my life, other than the Doctor and the monsters. And even they mostly existed on the peripherals.

[she smiles]

Do not inform him of this, of course. His feelings might be injured.

But now my life is nothing but the unexpected. It is the plan I seek.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

[the Master, almost like a child with a toy, plays with his weight and the swing of his feet in an attempt to create a perfect balance in the swing and speed - a constant, repeating arc that could be mapped out in a simple function. It's a challenge in balance and perpetuity, and is more difficult than letting the swing change its pace]

Have the unexpected things pushed the plan away? Or do they - consuming as they are - technically only exist in the peripheral of your plan?

That is, does anyone inside of the plan notice all the detours you've been taking?

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

[as she is never one to sit idly by, she first observes his intent -- and then with all thee grace her years of training in dance allows -- matches it. Her feet swing, actively engaged]

The plan, initially, was not my own. Yet once it was shared I met it eagerly. No one could question my dedication. And though it was suggested where I would be, how I came to be there was nothing but my own.

Yet Madame LeBon only saw so far. And now what was distance has both come, and come to pass.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

[he is impressed by her keeping up with it and not upsetting the balance he has created]

Then the question, Reinette, is this: what do you want?