[Private to Rassilon - Text]

[umgekehrt]

Your file's gone from my room, and my item's not responding to you.
I'm assuming you put a request in to the Admiral. Better luck not landing a type-one hominid for your next warden.

[OOC: As of this post, Stildyne and Rassilon are unpaired and Stildyne's warden-file has disappeared from Rassilon's room.]

Comments

[shortsghtedlove.livejournal.com]

I didn't put in any requests. I don't think the Admiral would care. Apparently he realized this was going nowhere all on his own.

And not even I would think as little of humans as a whole as I do of you.

[He wonders if he should say something about the file, but there seems little point other than taunting Stildyne and he's far too content with being engaged to be bothered with that. At worst, it'd just make Omega mad again.]

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

It has gone badly, hasn't it.

[shortsghtedlove.livejournal.com]

I find you detestable. [Oh, why not...] But apparently I had received your file in compensation. Even so, I still find you unlikeable. [Because he holds grudges like a boss.]

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

What do you mean my file. Wardens have files?

[He wants to know if anything sensitive is in there-- no, who's he kidding, of course it's sensitive. Some specific things.]

Out of curiosity. Anything about Captain Lowden in there? I don't know if he's been significant enough in my life to warrant a mention.

[Mostly true. Bar the one thing]

[shortsghtedlove.livejournal.com]

Yes. But I care little for such things. I would think most wardens have done... uh, immoral things.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

[Oh god the curiosity. But he won't push.]

Really? I tend to think the wardens here are a better breed as a whole than I am. I assume that most of them are good people.

[shortsghtedlove.livejournal.com]

You're foolish as well? ...Of course you are. Some of them may be good, but I wouldn't say that about the majority of them.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

I'd say I'm a pragmatist and you're cynical, personally. The ones I've met have largely been good souls.

[shortsghtedlove.livejournal.com]

You've not met many, then. Or didn't care too look. Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if our definitions of good people differ quite a bit.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

Well, I haven't met all that many. The Coordinator, the Doctor, Arkady, the Marquis. Others here and there. That other gentle who ended the universe. Something with an L. Loki. So perhaps you've got something there.

But considering that I don't have a problem with Coordinator Narvin or his choice in husbands I'd say our definition of 'good people' is at least two vectors removed and out of communications range.

[shortsghtedlove.livejournal.com]

My issues aren't about the sort of person his fiancé is, but about the species. But I see no reason to discuss this with you any further.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

Lord Rassilon, there's to a point I understand about that. If I'd been born Aznir there'd have been trouble about me preferring men. Significant trouble. To the point where I'd shut up and do my duty or be thrown out of my family and hopefully land in the arms of the Malcontent saint. If I preferred women I'd have been unlucky if less so to be born Chigan.

And both of those things seem a hair ridiculous to me, but Chigans are damn good fighters and engineers and the Aznir are richer than anyone deserves to be and I don't think the less of them.

It's a cultural thing that I can't understand from the outside. But from the outside I've got a great deal of sympathy from a man who's found his happiness where he can.

[shortsghtedlove.livejournal.com]

And I should care... why? What your people are like or are not like and what you understand or not is of little concern to me just as well. He broke Gallifreyan tradition and of all the aliens he could have chose, he chose a human. It's reason enough to disapprove.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

You could as well be telling me that he broke tradition by using the wrong kind of linen for his household sheets. You realize this.

He chose a human. A good, solid, loyal one good at combat. Not a great beauty but I wouldn't turn him down. Why that matters to you so deeply I can't say. I assume there's a way for them to have children-- the looms, was it-- or you wouldn't care so much but then maybe I'm wrong. Why the Coordinator chooses to bed matters so deeply when he's obviously still so loyal and dedicated to his people seems bizarre to me. But then so does the linen thing.

I don't know what you'll do if your next Warden is another person who doesn't share these cultural values of yours.

[shortsghtedlove.livejournal.com]

Aliens are worthless. Even with someone like Narvin, it should be beneath him to fornicate with an alien. [He knows he shouldn't say these things. He knows they make Omega upset. But right now, he can't bring himself to think of that.]

And I doubt whoever I'll get will be worse than you.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

[Stildyne holds up his hands] And it would be unfitting to give a guest in the house reedstalk linen because that's for poor farmers even if you happen to like the pattern of reedstalk. It's never going to make sense to me, Lord Rassilon.

But you're right. I doubt there's many on the barge have been quite as splendid bastards as I have. [He says because he doesn't know Eddie that well. Or Kay. Or the T-X. Etcetera forever.]

Your next one. Even if they don't understand Gallifreyan culture, they're not out to break, brutalize, and bond you. None of us are. If that file told you anything it's that I personally know how little right I've got to that kind of mental brutality. And if I'm the worst warden on the ship, then a better warden has to be even better about it. [Seems logical to him.]

[shortsghtedlove.livejournal.com]

Most of them are incompetent fools who I have no interest in listening to. I've my friends to tell me if they see something wrong and I've my friends to go to should I need help. They even understand my culture.

And whatever warden I may get shall be there for formality only.

Though... since you're not my warden, there's no point in keeping the knowledge you have so wrongly gained, is there?

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

I've already lost access to your file. Why do I have the feeling that's not what you mean in the slightest.

[shortsghtedlove.livejournal.com]

With all the telepaths on board, it shouldn't be all that difficult to rid yourselves of the memories, would it? And there's even two telepaths I trust here!

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

[There's a long silence as Stildyne thinks it over.]

Who are the two?

[shortsghtedlove.livejournal.com]

Omega and the Doctor, of course. The Doctor you know, with the wine.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

The Doctor I know. And trust. Let me talk it over with him and if he thinks it won't do harm to me, I'll take the procedure. It sounds a reasonable thing to ask.

[shortsghtedlove.livejournal.com]

I would think so. After all, you have been given information I wouldn't give to anyone against my will.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

[Privately he's not as sanguine as he's trying to make out about having his mind tampered with. But a little amnesia in the right place can be a blessing--he knows too well.]

I have. And as your warden I needed it. I'm not your warden anymore, and I don't need to continue the imposition.

[shortsghtedlove.livejournal.com]

Your insistence on repeating that ridiculous excuse is not going to make me think of any more favourably.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

[He chuckles ruefully]

Good thing the both of us don't have to worry about your opinion of me any longer.

[shortsghtedlove.livejournal.com]

It is quite pleasing. I wonder why the Admiral did this, though... He doesn't do it for other inmates.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

I've read back. He's done it unasked before, but usually there's some incident first. Some show of dangerous partiality.

Hmm. Tend to think it was when Agent Kay left you that thank-you note. I couldn't find fault with it but I knew I hadn't got the moral highground to make an issue of it. And half of it I wanted to tell you myself. I think that's when he felt I'd failed you sufficiently.

[shortsghtedlove.livejournal.com]

The Admiral actually tries to be useful? Who would have thought. Perhaps he'll finally learn how to drive next?

And the Agent is a fool, but I don't expect you to agree. ...Neither do I have any desire to hear what you have to say. It just proves how little you understand.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

Lord Rassilon, all I've got to say to you anymore is that I'm sorry I wasn't the help you needed. To which: yes, I know you think you don't need anything of the sort. But that's what I regret whether you like it or not.

And that I hope my next inmate is as willing to believe the worst in me. I've got a reputation to maintain.

[He regrets it more than he'd try to say-- he doesn't expect the Time Lord to believe it in any case. Better to at least take some humor with the disappointment in himself.]

[shortsghtedlove.livejournal.com]

It's a foolish thing to regret.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

Come on, now. If I weren't a fool, would I be here?

[shortsghtedlove.livejournal.com]

There are good reasons to be here.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

Yes, but this is me we're talking about. [He tries to tamp down on a smile. He'd always rather banter than fight.]

[shortsghtedlove.livejournal.com]

Indeed. How could I forget.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit hurt, of course, by somehow I'll manage. Maybe you were dazzled by my good looks.

[shortsghtedlove.livejournal.com]

I am already in a relationship, if you've forgot. And I tend to be quite loyal.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

They're short on irony where you come from, aren't they.

[shortsghtedlove.livejournal.com]

Oh, I understand the irony. But I don't think it's a good use of it.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

Why? We both know that we're equally eager to bed the other one, meaning not at all. And I've been joking about my looks as long as I've had them.

[shortsghtedlove.livejournal.com]

Ironic jokes or not, I don't appreciate the idea.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

All right. I'm not fond of the idea either, or it wouldn't be ironic.

I reserve the right to highlight my unique beauty, though.

[shortsghtedlove.livejournal.com]

Just do it in some other way. I don't cheat.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

And I wasn't implying you would, either. Not knowing your views on humans. The joke is that I'm ugly, don't read more into it then there was. It wasn't even a flirtation, ironic or not.

[shortsghtedlove.livejournal.com]

That doesn't mean I have to like it.

[der-umgekehrte.livejournal.com]

[A stifled sigh]

That it certainly doesn't. Good morning. Enjoy your fastmeal.

[A polite formality to end the conversation.]