021 VOICE LIST NINE

[deadliestviper]

Fine.

You've all thought about it, even if you haven't said it: if you could kill anyone, or order anyone killed, from your world or here, who would it be?

If you feel like answering a bonus question, why? Unless you're extraordinarily brave, I expect your answer privately. No judgment.

Comments

[private]

[routemistress]

Rassilon. Zev's inmate. Not killed, that's been tried. I'd need 'im never to 'ave 'appened, and I'd need to do some very tricky stitchwork to keep the rest of us existing after that.

I'd still do it for two pins if I could see me way round it. Though I've got a tiny little hope this boat'll work its magic on 'im till I don't need to - 'ope, but not much faith.

I'm not private 'cause I'm scared. 'E knows what I think of 'im. The other wardens get narky if I say this stuff about an inmate, though. Call it tactful.

[private]

[deadliestviper]

Feeling a little gossipy? I'm surprised you said anything. [You can hear the smile in her voice.]

Complete eradication. That's nothing I could hope to help with. [There's a slight pause and rustle of fabric as she crosses her arms over her chest.] Do you mind if I ask what he did? You don't owe it to me to tell, but I'm curious. Yes, I'll answer a question in return.

Your secret's safe with me. [And it is. Even if she didn't like you, Iris, she's got no intention to share any of this information with anyone.]

Re: [private]

[routemistress]

'E didn't create our people, exactly.

[It still feels odd to claim Gallifrey as her people; with the current state of Iris' timeline, it's no more than half a truth, but nor is it an actual lie, either.]

'E made them what they are - a bunch of xenophobic, cosmic neat freaks with no qualms about wiping out or rewriting anyone that doesn't fall into their way of seeing things. There's a reason Narvin an' me could pass for human, you know, and it's the same reason humans're so common. Because anyone that set off 'Is Nibs' xenophobe trigger never got to evolve as far as tool using.

And then they brought 'im back to fight a war for 'em and everything got even worse. Good people driven mad, thinking creatures born to be planet-sized suicide bombs, whole timelines wiped out in the name of tactics, genocides that they don't even count as genocides on account of they never existed in the first place.

It backfired on 'em, of course. I'm missing some bits of the timeline meself. Narvin tells me 'e couldn't find one where they didn't wipe themselves out. 'E's not as good at thinkin' outside the box as I am, though. It's a big job, but I'm workin' on it.

[private]

[deadliestviper]

And I take it you'd prefer for your people to be somewhat differently designed. [In no way does that sound condemning, just prompting.]

...I still don't claim to understand your world or background at all. I trust you on this, but I have next to no idea what it means.

Re: [private]

[routemistress]

I'd like us to be free. They think they are because no one's powerful enough to take 'em down - which isn't even true, it's just written into them bonedeep to think so. Even me, and I've freed meself further than most. I thought I'd cut all them ties - a whole new past in a whole new universe - but the rabies jerked me leash and showed me different. I want it gone. No one gets to make me decisions for me. No bugger.

...I don't understand it as much as I could meself, Bea love. Cutting it out of meself came with a price. It's older than gods, uglier and bigger. Setting it free might make it over into something worse yet. I'd still take that chance, mind.

[private]

[deadliestviper]

During the Bargewell breach I worked for Narvin [it's difficult for her not to add a "mister" in front of that]. While I liked him well enough, he's definitely got a massive stick up his ass, and if that's typical to your people I understand what you mean about needing freedom. You shouldn't surrender to that.

What might happen?

Re: [private]

[routemistress]

[Iris laughs, soft and fond.]

The funny thing about our Narvin? Under that stuffed-shirt of 'is 'e's got the soul of a renegade. Maybe in a few lives or so 'e'll finally let it out. I 'ope so. I love that lad an' I never would've expected that before I come 'ere. Most of the rest of 'em are worse.

...aye well, there's me problem. I can't root out Rassilon and leave millennia of history just flapping loose. I mean, even if the rooting part were easy, and I'm not sure it's even possible. 'E's powerful and 'e's shaped and bent things so much. The timelines can 'andle a lot more paradox than people think, but that might be a bit much even for me.

Oh well. Maybe all I can do is cut meself out of it. That'd do me for starters.

[private]

[deadliestviper]

[A moment of silence, then a brief chuckle from her end.] Is that so? And here I was thinking he could've made any overbearing control freak in my universe look like a zoned-out deadbeat. It's rare I see that type of discipline.

If you can't eradicate him, is there any possibility you can neutralize him? And I don't necessarily mean kill.

What do you mean cut yourself out of it?

[private]

[routemistress]

Oh, I rewrote me own past without 'em in it. I'm from an alternate universe now. Too many friends on this side for it to take all the way, mind; quantum resonance strings don't cut as easy as pure 'istory. Then again, it means me friends still remember me, even if they don't all remember where from; I'd've 'ated to lose 'em.

I'm thinkin' on it. Graduating 'im might do the trick. I'll swallow me grudge if that 'appens.

[private]

[deadliestviper]

Blindness by science aside, I think that makes sense. Better to be a memory and a surprise visitor than only a memory, or not even that.

Here's hoping? Although between you and I, that wouldn't be as viscerally satisfying.

Re: [private]

[routemistress]

No, but I've swallowed worse things than grudges before now an' come up laughing. I'll cope.

[private]

[deadliestviper]

If he doesn't shape up, though, good luck.