FURTHER ADVENTURES OF THE TIME MOPPET
Jun. 24th, 2006 08:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizbeeSo it turns out that this will have three chapters, not two. I know, I know, I'm only compounding my sins, but seriously, the pacing really threw me.
Cheer Up, Emo Time Moppet
Chapter 2: The Oncoming Snit
Summary: "I'm almost certain Gallifrey existed when I left N-space..." Cheer up, emo Time Mum.
Disclaimer: Characters, situations, robot dog and the physical universe itself are the property and creation of the BBC. Our tax dollars at work. Well, not my tax dollars. Not dollars, either. Sappy sentimental bits swiped straight from Russell T Davies, so there.
Notes: Oppression by Calvin Klein. For the fangirl in all of us.
Chapter One
Chapter One point Five
Cheer Up, Emo Time Moppet
Chapter Two: The Oncoming Snit
Dear Generic Human Adolescent Periodical,
Every time I try to get my mother to see things from my perspective, she starts talking about maturity and perception and implying that I don’t have these qualities. How can I make her see reason?
Yrs sincerely, Emo in E-Space
Livia marched into the console room. She found her mother engrossed the installation of a sub-dimensional stabiliser, and had to pointedly clear her throat twice before Romana looked up and said, “Good morning, Livia. Could you hand me a transfer link, please?”
“I’ve decided what I want to do with my life,” Livia announced.
“Oh, good. But none of us will be doing anything if I don’t get that power link in a hurry.”
“Here.”
When the stabiliser had been installed, Romana said, “Now. What was it you wanted to do with your life?”
Livia straightened her spine and raised her chin proudly.
“I want to go to Gallifrey,” she said.
There was silence for a moment. Then Romana said, “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous? I’m being perfectly reasonable! I mean,” Livia realised she was yelling and returned her voice to a normal tone, “you’re always talking about my education, and the need for proper discipline. Isn’t Gallifrey the perfect place for that sort of thing?”
Romana said nothing.
“I could be a Prydonian,” Livia added.
Romana looked like she was doubting that this was a good thing. It wasn’t at all the response that Livia had expected, and she felt her temper beginning to rise.
“I mean, really, Mother,” she said, “you didn’t seriously imagine I’d want to spend my entire life in E-space? Only ever meeting aliens, never knowing another Time Lord…”
“But … Gallifrey is full of rules,” said Romana. “Real rules, I mean, that you’d have to follow.”
“I can follow rules!”
“You simply choose not to when it suits you?”
“Um.”
“On Gallifrey, they take those things very seriously.” Romana turned an old bit of filament around in her fingers. “A lot of the rules are unwritten. When a Time Lord violates the rules – or expectations – the consequences can be – awkward. Your father—“
“Was exiled for years, I know.” Livia crossed her arms. “I’ve heard this story.”
“Then maybe you should learn something from it,” Romana snapped. “You’d start off in an awkward position. You’re the first unauthorised biological child in—“
“I know what this is about! You’re just worried that I’m going to embarrass you.”
“That’s not—“ Romana faltered. “Well, slightly. But I don’t think you’d be happy on Gallifrey. And I can’t say I’d be overjoyed to return.”
“Fine,” Livia snapped. “We’ll stay in E-Space forever, and I’ll just rot in here.”
She stormed out in a huff. She passed K9 on her way to her room.
“Do you want to stay here forever?” she asked.
He twirled his ear sensors in confusion. “I am not programmed to want things,” he said.
“Yeah. Lucky you.”
*
Late that night, Livia was woken by a knock on her door.
“What?”
“It’s me,” her mother called.
“Obviously. K9 isn’t equipped for knocking.”
Livia hadn’t quite intended that as an invitation, but her mother opened the door anyway.
“I’ve been thinking,” she said. “You’re right.”
Livia sat up. “Huh?”
“You’re right.” Romana activated the lights. “You do have the right to see Gallifrey, and learn there, and meet – people. I was being unfair.”
“Oh.”
“I should have known years ago that E-space would grow too small for you.”
“Mm.”
“I never realised how quickly you’d grow. I’m sorry.”
Livia would have liked to preen at what she was almost certain was a compliment, but she had just realised she was still holding a plush toy with three eyes and tentacles, and it wasn’t quite consistent with the image of maturity she felt she should be presenting.
*
Leaving E-space was the easy part.
“A few hours,” Romana said, “and we’ll be at Gallifrey.” She was wearing a defiantly scarlet jacket, and looked slightly pale. Livia was politely ignoring this.
One small problem, though.
“Check your readings again, K9.”
“Results unchanged, Mistress.”
“But that’s impossible.”
“Maybe we’re lost,” said Livia helpfully.
Her mother gave her a baleful look.
“No, really. This TARDIS was designed for E-space. It’s probably having trouble coping with positive co-ordinates.”
“I have no such problems,” said K9. He sounded slightly put out.
“But look at all the work we had to do to make sure you’d function in normal space,” said Livia.
K9 chirped with disdain. The technological indignities he had suffered were far too unpleasant to speak of, which was why Livia tried to raise them at every possible opportunity.
“There’s no mistake,” said Romana eventually. “Gallifrey is simply … not there.”
“What would make a whole planet disappear from time like that?”
“I don’t like to think.” But Romana evidently was thinking, because after a moment she added, “but I have a pretty good idea who to blame.”
*
“Gallifrey?” The wizened old storyteller sucked thoughtfully on her remaining teeth. “That’s a myth, isn’t it? Time Lords and that. The kiddies like it.”
“What happened to it?” Livia asked.
“They say there was a war…”
*
“Request information about planet Gallifrey.”
“Aren’t you a nice little doggie?”
“Request information about planet Gallifrey. Key words, Time War.”
“Oh dear. The Time War. That’s in the mythology section. Daleks and all that.”
Silence.
“Well there’s no need to beep at me like that.”
*
“I’m looking for a man—“
“Aren’t we all?”
“He calls himself the Doctor.”
“Oh. Him. Odd fellow, bit full of himself?”
“That sounds right.”
“He saved us from an invasion a while back. Little blond curls, big smile, coat like a cheap kaleidoscope?”
“Sure,” said Romana with a sigh, “why not?”
*
“Lonely god!” Romana closed the TARDIS door behind her with a slam. “Lonely god!”
“Oh boy,” Livia whispered to K9.
“When I’m finished with him, he’ll be too busy regenerating to be lonely!”
“Mother--?”
“I’ll give him ‘Oncoming Storm’!”
*
There was a memorial. Carved into a monolith on a desolate alien world, pictograms portrayed a war between flesh and metal, a war that transcended time and ended in mutual destruction, with one survivor walking away.
Beneath it, someone had carved, You are not alone.
“There must be someone else,” said Romana.
“Um,” said Livia.
“What?”
“Well, there is someone else. You and I. And, um, that’s my handwriting.”
Romana fingered the carvings. They were at least a millennium old.
“All those times I’ve tried to teach you about the dangers of creating paradoxes,” she said sadly. “And now I see there’s simply no point.”
They stood in silence for several minutes.
“Do you still have my cherry-red lipstick?” Romana asked.
“It’s in my bag,” said Livia. Belatedly she remembered that she had borrowed it without permission six weeks earlier, and then claimed she’d never seen it, but her mother didn’t appear to notice. Romana uncapped the lipstick and left a message of her own. It was considerably ruder than the one Livia would leave.
“I didn’t even know you knew those words,” said Livia later.
Her mother said nothing.
“I don’t even know what some of them mean.”
“Good.”
And that was all that was said about it.
*
Earth wasn’t living up to Livia’s expectations. For one thing, it was a lot greyer than she’d expected, and they’d been here a week, and not a single alien had tried to invade.
“Sugar?”
“Two, please, no milk.”
“I’m not sure if I can be much help to you.” Sarah Jane Smith sipped her tea thoughtfully. “I didn’t hear from the Doctor for years until I ran into him last month.”
“But he is alive?”
“Oh yes.” Sarah Jane leaned back, gaze flickering occasionally to Livia. “He’s regenerated again. He looks like a very attractive weasel. And I think he’s longsighted. The TARDIS hasn’t changed, though.”
Romana asked, “Is he alone?”
“He’s travelling with a girl named Rose, who says she’s not his assistant. But you can’t make any jokes about that, because I’ve already told all the good ones. And a boy named Mickey.” She stared absently over Livia’s shoulder. “It’s so strange,” she added. “I didn’t think that Time Lords—“
“They don’t,” said Romana. “In the usual course of events.”
“She looks awfully like him.”
“I know.” Romana sounded resigned. “It was impossible to miss.”
“I am in the room, you know,” said Livia.
“It must be difficult, raising her on your own.”
“Oh well,” Romana waved her hand vaguely, “there’s always K9.”
In unison, both women turned to look at the K9s, who were examining each other’s upgrades.
“It’s a difficult age,” Romana added.
“Teenagers love to think they know everything.”
“Excuse me,” said Livia.
Romana and Sarah Jane looked at her.
“Well, I’m not invisible,” she said.
“We’re trying to have a conversation,” said Romana gently. “Why don’t you take the dogs for a walk?”
On the whole, Livia decided, she was beginning to miss E-space.
*
The plan – not that Livia thought it should be dignified with that name – was to hang around Earth until something happened and the Doctor turned up. At which point, she assumed, there would be an unpleasant and embarrassing scene.
In the end, it only took a month, and in the meantime, her mother and Sarah Jane dealt with any number of incidents themselves. Livia was permitted to accompany them, but the thrill vanished surprisingly quickly when she realised that her primary job involved keeping a look-out and making sure the K9s were where they were meant to be.
Saving the world was so boring.
She was waiting outside a warehouse, early one Thursday morning, when a new sound interrupted the wails of sirens and marauding aliens. A TARDIS.
Aliens, humans, K9s and her mother could look after themselves. Livia began to run towards the new sound.
The TARDIS was deserted by the time she found it, an incongruously blue box sitting peacefully beside an overflowing bin. Livia lurked at the edge of the alleyway, considering. The key to her mother’s TARDIS hung around her neck. She fingered it absently. That TARDIS had been based on this one…
Her key was a perfect fit. The door swung open without hesitation.
To be continued
Cheer Up, Emo Time Moppet
Chapter 2: The Oncoming Snit
Summary: "I'm almost certain Gallifrey existed when I left N-space..." Cheer up, emo Time Mum.
Disclaimer: Characters, situations, robot dog and the physical universe itself are the property and creation of the BBC. Our tax dollars at work. Well, not my tax dollars. Not dollars, either. Sappy sentimental bits swiped straight from Russell T Davies, so there.
Notes: Oppression by Calvin Klein. For the fangirl in all of us.
Chapter One
Chapter One point Five
Chapter Two: The Oncoming Snit
Dear Generic Human Adolescent Periodical,
Every time I try to get my mother to see things from my perspective, she starts talking about maturity and perception and implying that I don’t have these qualities. How can I make her see reason?
Yrs sincerely, Emo in E-Space
Livia marched into the console room. She found her mother engrossed the installation of a sub-dimensional stabiliser, and had to pointedly clear her throat twice before Romana looked up and said, “Good morning, Livia. Could you hand me a transfer link, please?”
“I’ve decided what I want to do with my life,” Livia announced.
“Oh, good. But none of us will be doing anything if I don’t get that power link in a hurry.”
“Here.”
When the stabiliser had been installed, Romana said, “Now. What was it you wanted to do with your life?”
Livia straightened her spine and raised her chin proudly.
“I want to go to Gallifrey,” she said.
There was silence for a moment. Then Romana said, “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous? I’m being perfectly reasonable! I mean,” Livia realised she was yelling and returned her voice to a normal tone, “you’re always talking about my education, and the need for proper discipline. Isn’t Gallifrey the perfect place for that sort of thing?”
Romana said nothing.
“I could be a Prydonian,” Livia added.
Romana looked like she was doubting that this was a good thing. It wasn’t at all the response that Livia had expected, and she felt her temper beginning to rise.
“I mean, really, Mother,” she said, “you didn’t seriously imagine I’d want to spend my entire life in E-space? Only ever meeting aliens, never knowing another Time Lord…”
“But … Gallifrey is full of rules,” said Romana. “Real rules, I mean, that you’d have to follow.”
“I can follow rules!”
“You simply choose not to when it suits you?”
“Um.”
“On Gallifrey, they take those things very seriously.” Romana turned an old bit of filament around in her fingers. “A lot of the rules are unwritten. When a Time Lord violates the rules – or expectations – the consequences can be – awkward. Your father—“
“Was exiled for years, I know.” Livia crossed her arms. “I’ve heard this story.”
“Then maybe you should learn something from it,” Romana snapped. “You’d start off in an awkward position. You’re the first unauthorised biological child in—“
“I know what this is about! You’re just worried that I’m going to embarrass you.”
“That’s not—“ Romana faltered. “Well, slightly. But I don’t think you’d be happy on Gallifrey. And I can’t say I’d be overjoyed to return.”
“Fine,” Livia snapped. “We’ll stay in E-Space forever, and I’ll just rot in here.”
She stormed out in a huff. She passed K9 on her way to her room.
“Do you want to stay here forever?” she asked.
He twirled his ear sensors in confusion. “I am not programmed to want things,” he said.
“Yeah. Lucky you.”
*
Late that night, Livia was woken by a knock on her door.
“What?”
“It’s me,” her mother called.
“Obviously. K9 isn’t equipped for knocking.”
Livia hadn’t quite intended that as an invitation, but her mother opened the door anyway.
“I’ve been thinking,” she said. “You’re right.”
Livia sat up. “Huh?”
“You’re right.” Romana activated the lights. “You do have the right to see Gallifrey, and learn there, and meet – people. I was being unfair.”
“Oh.”
“I should have known years ago that E-space would grow too small for you.”
“Mm.”
“I never realised how quickly you’d grow. I’m sorry.”
Livia would have liked to preen at what she was almost certain was a compliment, but she had just realised she was still holding a plush toy with three eyes and tentacles, and it wasn’t quite consistent with the image of maturity she felt she should be presenting.
*
Leaving E-space was the easy part.
“A few hours,” Romana said, “and we’ll be at Gallifrey.” She was wearing a defiantly scarlet jacket, and looked slightly pale. Livia was politely ignoring this.
One small problem, though.
“Check your readings again, K9.”
“Results unchanged, Mistress.”
“But that’s impossible.”
“Maybe we’re lost,” said Livia helpfully.
Her mother gave her a baleful look.
“No, really. This TARDIS was designed for E-space. It’s probably having trouble coping with positive co-ordinates.”
“I have no such problems,” said K9. He sounded slightly put out.
“But look at all the work we had to do to make sure you’d function in normal space,” said Livia.
K9 chirped with disdain. The technological indignities he had suffered were far too unpleasant to speak of, which was why Livia tried to raise them at every possible opportunity.
“There’s no mistake,” said Romana eventually. “Gallifrey is simply … not there.”
“What would make a whole planet disappear from time like that?”
“I don’t like to think.” But Romana evidently was thinking, because after a moment she added, “but I have a pretty good idea who to blame.”
*
“Gallifrey?” The wizened old storyteller sucked thoughtfully on her remaining teeth. “That’s a myth, isn’t it? Time Lords and that. The kiddies like it.”
“What happened to it?” Livia asked.
“They say there was a war…”
*
“Request information about planet Gallifrey.”
“Aren’t you a nice little doggie?”
“Request information about planet Gallifrey. Key words, Time War.”
“Oh dear. The Time War. That’s in the mythology section. Daleks and all that.”
Silence.
“Well there’s no need to beep at me like that.”
*
“I’m looking for a man—“
“Aren’t we all?”
“He calls himself the Doctor.”
“Oh. Him. Odd fellow, bit full of himself?”
“That sounds right.”
“He saved us from an invasion a while back. Little blond curls, big smile, coat like a cheap kaleidoscope?”
“Sure,” said Romana with a sigh, “why not?”
*
“Lonely god!” Romana closed the TARDIS door behind her with a slam. “Lonely god!”
“Oh boy,” Livia whispered to K9.
“When I’m finished with him, he’ll be too busy regenerating to be lonely!”
“Mother--?”
“I’ll give him ‘Oncoming Storm’!”
*
There was a memorial. Carved into a monolith on a desolate alien world, pictograms portrayed a war between flesh and metal, a war that transcended time and ended in mutual destruction, with one survivor walking away.
Beneath it, someone had carved, You are not alone.
“There must be someone else,” said Romana.
“Um,” said Livia.
“What?”
“Well, there is someone else. You and I. And, um, that’s my handwriting.”
Romana fingered the carvings. They were at least a millennium old.
“All those times I’ve tried to teach you about the dangers of creating paradoxes,” she said sadly. “And now I see there’s simply no point.”
They stood in silence for several minutes.
“Do you still have my cherry-red lipstick?” Romana asked.
“It’s in my bag,” said Livia. Belatedly she remembered that she had borrowed it without permission six weeks earlier, and then claimed she’d never seen it, but her mother didn’t appear to notice. Romana uncapped the lipstick and left a message of her own. It was considerably ruder than the one Livia would leave.
“I didn’t even know you knew those words,” said Livia later.
Her mother said nothing.
“I don’t even know what some of them mean.”
“Good.”
And that was all that was said about it.
*
Earth wasn’t living up to Livia’s expectations. For one thing, it was a lot greyer than she’d expected, and they’d been here a week, and not a single alien had tried to invade.
“Sugar?”
“Two, please, no milk.”
“I’m not sure if I can be much help to you.” Sarah Jane Smith sipped her tea thoughtfully. “I didn’t hear from the Doctor for years until I ran into him last month.”
“But he is alive?”
“Oh yes.” Sarah Jane leaned back, gaze flickering occasionally to Livia. “He’s regenerated again. He looks like a very attractive weasel. And I think he’s longsighted. The TARDIS hasn’t changed, though.”
Romana asked, “Is he alone?”
“He’s travelling with a girl named Rose, who says she’s not his assistant. But you can’t make any jokes about that, because I’ve already told all the good ones. And a boy named Mickey.” She stared absently over Livia’s shoulder. “It’s so strange,” she added. “I didn’t think that Time Lords—“
“They don’t,” said Romana. “In the usual course of events.”
“She looks awfully like him.”
“I know.” Romana sounded resigned. “It was impossible to miss.”
“I am in the room, you know,” said Livia.
“It must be difficult, raising her on your own.”
“Oh well,” Romana waved her hand vaguely, “there’s always K9.”
In unison, both women turned to look at the K9s, who were examining each other’s upgrades.
“It’s a difficult age,” Romana added.
“Teenagers love to think they know everything.”
“Excuse me,” said Livia.
Romana and Sarah Jane looked at her.
“Well, I’m not invisible,” she said.
“We’re trying to have a conversation,” said Romana gently. “Why don’t you take the dogs for a walk?”
On the whole, Livia decided, she was beginning to miss E-space.
*
The plan – not that Livia thought it should be dignified with that name – was to hang around Earth until something happened and the Doctor turned up. At which point, she assumed, there would be an unpleasant and embarrassing scene.
In the end, it only took a month, and in the meantime, her mother and Sarah Jane dealt with any number of incidents themselves. Livia was permitted to accompany them, but the thrill vanished surprisingly quickly when she realised that her primary job involved keeping a look-out and making sure the K9s were where they were meant to be.
Saving the world was so boring.
She was waiting outside a warehouse, early one Thursday morning, when a new sound interrupted the wails of sirens and marauding aliens. A TARDIS.
Aliens, humans, K9s and her mother could look after themselves. Livia began to run towards the new sound.
The TARDIS was deserted by the time she found it, an incongruously blue box sitting peacefully beside an overflowing bin. Livia lurked at the edge of the alleyway, considering. The key to her mother’s TARDIS hung around her neck. She fingered it absently. That TARDIS had been based on this one…
Her key was a perfect fit. The door swung open without hesitation.
To be continued
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-07-03 04:02 pm (UTC)He looks like a very attractive weasel.
*chokes* Yes, that's it! That's absolutely it!