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Entry tags:
- !plot: send in the clones,
- daniel jackson,
- dr mcninja,
- dustin brooks,
- eleventh doctor,
- gaignun kukai jr./rubedo,
- hana asakura,
- hit girl,
- howard bassem,
- kang,
- kanoe zouichi,
- kon-el,
- lash,
- lex luthor,
- lord zedd,
- lord zetta,
- nightwing,
- querl dox,
- rory williams,
- ruffnut thorston,
- sakura haruno,
- tana moon,
- ter'thelas
"Listening to others, considering well what they say" (Part 3: Maingate Hotel)
The Maingate Hotel was pretty extravagant, and an entire section of it had been eked out for the crew's use during their stay. They had several suites, three communal areas, a conference room, their own kitchen with a chef on call if they required her.
They were all teleported from the main teleport pad of the hotel into the conference room, which was a large enough room to be able to hold a group their size and had plenty of chairs arranged in a circular pattern so they could mostly all face each other or whoever was in the middle of the room.
Everyone had to settle down so they were all able to talk, and the meeting itself would have to be carefully controlled so they wouldn't all talk over each other. But they were up for the task, right?
[ooc: Guardian Setup, General Mingling, Clone Checkup, Newbie Briefing, General Briefing, More Mingling, Back to the Meeting, and The Idea Guy sections are open. Backup characters introduced to the plot can join in the mingling subthreads if they want. The opening of new subthreads will be announced here and the ooc. Please read the linked OOC post for a plot timeline.]
They were all teleported from the main teleport pad of the hotel into the conference room, which was a large enough room to be able to hold a group their size and had plenty of chairs arranged in a circular pattern so they could mostly all face each other or whoever was in the middle of the room.
Everyone had to settle down so they were all able to talk, and the meeting itself would have to be carefully controlled so they wouldn't all talk over each other. But they were up for the task, right?
[ooc: Guardian Setup, General Mingling, Clone Checkup, Newbie Briefing, General Briefing, More Mingling, Back to the Meeting, and The Idea Guy sections are open. Backup characters introduced to the plot can join in the mingling subthreads if they want. The opening of new subthreads will be announced here and the ooc. Please read the linked OOC post for a plot timeline.]
Re: General Mingling
Rory was so gifted at giving out an aura of normal that it wasn't terribly difficult to pick him out from the rest of the crowd. The Doctor slid and shimmied his way past shoulders and elbows and people generally determined to mill right where he needed to go, giving a final squeeze through two people until he had a clear shot at Rory. The human was sitting down, sandwich untouched, notes spread out before him. He'd gotten a good idea of the situation just from the crew's conversations on the omnicomms and unfortunately, this was one of those things where it was much more common in the galaxy than he personally would've liked. Look at the Sontarons! Essentially a clone army, told from day one to fight and die just because they were afraid a good war might pass them by if they didn't. Nasty habit of conquering other planets for the "good fight", whatever that was.
It wasn't what the Doctor would've liked to show Rory but in a way, he needed to know. The universe wasn't just all the fun trips popping into the 1920's or showing his friends what body-surfing contests looked like on other planets. There were ugly complicated sides too. The Doctor plopped himself without asking across from Rory, reaching out to pull some of the notes to him so he could have a look.
"Hi," he said, in the biggest understatement of the century.
Re: General Mingling
He was honestly glad the Doctor was there, experience wise...well, even at his best his was grounded, limited. Tied to what he knew, to Leadworth and nursing and humanity. This was out of his area. Far outside of his area. But he wasn't screaming, or running away. Perhaps that was a point in his favor, that he was trying to grasp the situation and the best reaction he should have to it.
The Doctor knew things, knew solutions. Knew how to handle people at their best and at their worst, not just on an individual level, but a species wide understanding of preconceptions and reasoning. Rory couldn't look beyond what was being done to embrace the why, the Doctor could.
"What do you think?" Is it worth it? Is any of this worth it? Worth the conscious killing effects it would have?
Re: General Mingling
He left Rory with that remark, instead pouring through Rory's notes for the next few minutes, the top of his head the only thing visible above the sheaf of papers and really, he might as well have forgotten Rory was there at all what with how focused he was on the notes and not the future Mr. Pond sitting right across from him. To make matters worse, the Doctor was making an infuriating number of "hmm's" and "that can't be right's" and there was even a muttered "that would explain the nanites, wouldn't it?'s". After awhile, the Doctor looked up and fixed Rory with one of his stares, looking him right in the eye.
"Thorough one, you. I don't think I need to tell you it's all on the complicated side. Intergalactic politics usually are (annoying things!). And that's not even getting into the intergalactic, interdimensional part."
The Doctor was sorely tempted to point out that certain undeniable rights humans insisted were universal didn't necessarily apply to the rest of the galaxy, even if he personally thought some of humanity's ideas were brilliant. So whatever they did after the mess with the brands here, they couldn't try to use that card in the negotiations, not when even humans couldn't agree amongst themselves on their "universal" rights. Now, him. The Doctor wanted to talk to all parties involved, get a good sniff and lurk around and try to decide what to do from there, because to be honest, what he knew of this clone labor didn't sit right with him.
He folded the notes in his lap, lacing his fingers together primly as he studied the human sitting across from him.
Re: General Mingling
"I was representing medical, I needed to make certian I wrote down everything. I'll need to make a report to Doctor Henderson later." He met the Doctor's gaze, frowning. "What would explain the nanites? It won't be simple, either way, yeah I know. No matter what the crew decides. Even trying to remain neutral, we'll be forced to make a moral choice at some point."
He sighed, resting the hand on the arm of his chair. "Is that what you meant, when you said you'd show us the universe, Doctor? I thought we'd make more trips to Space Belgium." His fingers flexed against the wood, not breaking the gaze. "What do you think, Doctor?" The words were quiet, almost pleading. The Doctor had shown them so many things, but it had always been the Doctor guiding their perceptions. He knew that, but it was at times more comfortable to let the Doctor get excited and enthusiastic about sentient mold on the moon. Here, he didn't even have a starting point.
Re: General Mingling
The Doctor wasn't (too) offended. After all, babies were anything if not blunt and straight to the point, so if Molly said he had a big chin worth noting, he believed her. When Rory asked about nanites, the Doctor flapped his hand at him, one of those I'll tell you later hand flaps possibly mixed in with although given the circumstances, it's really the least pressing thing at the moment. Removing the nanites could be done -- or he thought so, at any rate -- but it could be...tricky. Very tricky. A "wee" bit dangerous level of tricky, as Jamie would say, only take "wee" and replace it with "super". After all, the crew that were tagged were nothing alike, and realistically, there might be different reactions to the nanites depending on the individual, so...right. Probably not the time and place to lay that all out in front of Rory.
He was quiet for a moment, instead taking the time to watch it sink in with Rory. He could see it in his face, a slackening of his facial muscles and then a slight tenseness, as if he was clenching his jaw. Humans tended to have their own tells when the reality sank in, whether it was the fact they weren't the only intelligent lifeforms out there and in fact weren't even the center of the civilized galaxy or, well, things like this. That the civilized galaxy wasn't going to match up to a human's idea of what "civilized" looked like.
Sometimes they had just as many of their own problems and lacking scruples as the humans could. He supposed humans seeing aliens like that found it somehow disappointing, as if they had expected something closer to gods.
"We would've visited Space Belgium more, if we had the time," the Doctor said. "I was going to show you all the mad, wonderful things out there, the things worth leaving Leadsworth for." He drummed his fingers in his lap and then went on, "But the universe is a big place, Rory, and it's not all fun. Sometimes it's like this." He nodded at the Maingate Hotel around them, and the city outside.
"Unfortunately, I can't give you the yes/no answer a human would want to hear. It's simple and yet oh so complicated." The Doctor frowned at Rory, voice gentle. This had to be hard to take in. "I'd like to talk to both the Galileans and this resistance Zouichi mentioned. Not in an official negotiator capacity, hardly qualified for that sort of thing, so probably in a less formal sense. All we have to go on is what the crew has been shown, so..."
He trailed off. In his opinion, now was a prime time to "wander" off and have a real look around without being hounded by a minder. They had the tech, the sparkling city, the bizarre ambush on the select members of the crew. What was missing was the voice of this resistance and the Doctor found it hard to believe every single Galilean on this planet didn't have a single objection to this, a single doubt.
So no, you couldn't paint every Galilean with that brush either.
Re: General Mingling
"Even time travelers run out of time..." He trailed off, looking away. "I know. I've gotten that much by now." His hand came up to rub his chest, quietly massaging away a non existent ache. "People do wrong, people aren't the best they could be, and sometimes things just...go wrong for no reason. Right? This..." He flexed his jaw, hand still pressed to his chest. "Can't all be vacation spots or Rio."
It was difficult, more than difficult. Lizard people had been easier than this, this was...this was medical technology used for it's best and worst purposes at the same time. This was healing and murder all tied up in the same thing, all done in the name of what? Health? Healing? Longevity?
This was everything he stood for gone utterly and completely wrong. "I'm a medic. On this ship, I'm a medic, a healer. No matter what happens, I have to look at what's best for the crew and not for myself. But this...Doctor. People like this created Molly, created Conner. Meant for them to be tools and not people. They can't even see that it was wrong to mark our crew-members. How can we change the minds of an entire society in such a limited amount of time? Even if you can find the resistance."
Only the Doctor could, he had seen him do it. He had seen him change everything for everyone near him without breaking a sweat.
He knew the Doctor could. Had to believe it.
And somewhere in the back of his mind, he wondered how he could look his daughter in the eyes when she asked what it meant to be a clone and why her father had only protected her, what had made her special enough to be saved.
Gonna wrap this up, okay? :3
The Doctor let Rory sort it outloud. It could be like that, yes.
As for the situation with the clones. The Doctor could definitely see Rory's side in all this. It was likely these clones were people, even if the majority of the Galileans and even possibly the clones themselves might not see it that way. Growing, literally, in this sort of environment could do that to a person. Make a person believe they were a non-person, simply because they were told that from the very beginning and everyone all seemed to agree on it, so surely it must be true.
"I'm not quite convinced they're as a united front as you seem to think," the Doctor said, fingers laced together in his lap. "Even without this resistance. And normally I'd disagree and say time isn't quite an issue, but..." he trailed off. There wasn't really an easy way to go back and give Galilean society a few nudges and tweaks here and there and anyway, that was almost as sketchy as something more direct. A big emergency thing, really. When you had no other choice and no time at all.
But right, Rory wouldn't remember that. After all, it hadn't happened to him yet. The Doctor had no idea if even Kazran and Abigail existed in Time at all, if the Ohm had gotten to their planet.
"Don't worry!" The Doctor got to his feet, leaning forward to slap Rory on his knee. He broke into a big smile. "Things have a habit of correcting themselves. Remember Amy and Molly, and everyone back on Earth."
He decided to leave Rory with that. Rory was his own man, perhaps excessively reasonable, but he could come to his own conclusions and sort out just what his long and short term priorities were.