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]

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?

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

[for a moment she falters, and the swing falters unevenly. But her recovery is swift]

To see. To know.

Before I decide.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

[he looks at her and smiles; he doesn't feel the need to say what she already knows]

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

[her features hardly alter, even as they do. It is one of the things she likes best about him]

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

We will go to Keterlan. My own planet, crafted by my own design. I'll duel to the death to win us access to the court, and then I'll have the pleasure of seeing you adapt to the new playing field.

If you can squeeze that into your plan, of course.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

[she continues to swing, eyes sparking briefly at the promise of a new challenge. And at his understanding of her need to entertain]

I should most likely not flatter your ego and suggest that not only will I edge you into my day, I might be inclined to clear it entirely.

Not that it is required. But the gesture is often important, I think.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

Particularly for people like you and I, hm, Madame?

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

[she laughs, the sky swallowing the sound]

Precisely.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

[when the swing hits its height, he pushes himself off it, jumping away and landing on the ground. (He only stumbles a little!) He turns, then, to watch how she deals with his absence]

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

[she watches him, amused.

And for the moment is quite content to swing on her own. One does not always require a partner]

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

[he watches her, mind sinking into mathematics. The Plane is often very still -- too still, because it is too large, and everything is taken in and lost in its eternity. Her movement is all the more brightly charted in his mind as he observes her swinging on her own]

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

[the loss of her companion has altered the feel of things greatly. She is without her skirts, and the world is moving at a remarkable speed. She laughs]

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

Pop quiz! Tell me all you know of Gallifrey.

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

[the swing eases slightly lower, so as to inspire actual conversation]

I know it has a vastly complicated and dramatic educational system.

[and then]

I know more of emotion than actual fact. More of what I have seen. I know that you are both of there. And I know that it is gone.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

Those are all the important parts. All that has stood the test.

What do you know of swingsets?

[ambitious-woman.livejournal.com]

[she considers this. She has never seen one, but it might not be for the most obvious reason]

I would think? That they do not exist.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

No? No lined up rows of swings to make it a group activity? Little children gathered together on constructions of - well, in your time, constructions of wood and rope, their laughter filling the palace courtyards?