maskormenace

[ Oh, look, it's Kitty Jones. She seems a little tired - though you'd only know it by looking at her. Her voice is unchanged from normal. Indeed, she speaks with her typical firm bubbliness - a cheerful, kindly tone and an adorably youthful London accent obscuring the fact that her speech is (as usual) a bit on the manipulative/calculating/forceful/aggressive side. ]

Hullo, all. First, a job offer. I run a charity garage. It does pretty good work - we fix up and build really, really good cars, and sell 'em to the richer members of the local populace, and then the proceeds go to fund public transit in Heropa. Anyway. I recently... [ Just a little flicker in her smile. ] Lost an employee. So if there's anyone out there who's good with cars or mechanics or whatever, I definitely want you.

[ And now to the less businesslike portion of her announcement: ]

Anyway. Obviously there's been a lot of talk of elections lately, and there's also been a lot of cynicism about the whole electoral process. For obvious reasons. Since there are some politicians who are lunatic idiots. So I guess I just wanted to throw this out there, 'cause all of you have so much different experience from different worlds.

Who had power, where you're from? What was the government like? And were they good - just - or unjust? What do you think's the best form of government? How much power should the people in charge have?

And if you could build a government, build a country from scratch, what would it look like? Would you limit the freedom of the press, or would everyone have the right to speak? Would you build social programs, or would you leave people to fend for themselves? Would you go after warfare and expanding your borders, or would people live in peace?

[ These questions are a little bit leading. Perhaps. ]

Anyway. Share your thoughts, please.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

What question? I've gotten a lot, you understand.

How are you a nuisance?

Aside from dodging the presidency a few times? It's a little bit of bothering, a different bit of annoyance, a strong dislike of bureaucracy and a tendency to meddle.

Tell me more about meddling.

Well, I travel. And sometimes when I travel, you get nasty corporations and corrupt leaders that you need to deal with. That's when the meddling happens.

Uh huh. Well, give an example of what you've done, won't you?

I'm two thousand years old, Kitty. Picking one example's gonna be the hard part.

I've got complete faith in your abilities.

[ there's a pause before the Doctor answers with, ]

Let's go with the mummy on the Orient Express—space Orient Express, mind you. And it's a bit of a space mummy. I was bothered for a while to check out the Orient Express, due to the mummy rumors. Turns out that everybody on the train was brought there in order to study the mummy: figure out what it is before the space mummy kills everybody. Turns out the mummy wasn't really a mummy, but a soldier kept alive through malfunctioning future tech. A statement of surrender was enough to relieve him of his duty.

So there we go. Meddling turned into letting a poor soul have his well-deserved rest.

Huh. And then he passed on?

Yup. Kept alive for eons due to the malfunctioning tech, all it took to help him was someone saying "we surrender."

Hm. Poor thing. He must have been half-mad or more.

He was, [ the Doctor can't help but admit, with a frown. ] All the chap wanted was just someone to relieve him from command.

I assume that's not a terribly common sort of thing. Being trapped by that technology in that way.

Thankfully it's not. [ and wow does he sound a bit relieved with regards to that. ] Technology's drastically changed, but not in that sort of way.

Edited 2016-10-23 02:18 (UTC)

[ A slight hesitation, then she offers: ]

It's the sort of thing that happens a lot where I'm from.

What, being trapped by technology? Sounds like your world needs to work on it's technology.

No - by magic, rather than by technology. But...Being trapped. Forced to carry out tasks, being kept alive forever...It's a wicked, awful thing.

Kept alive forever's definitely rubbish. Everything deserves the right to die. But forced to carry out tasks...well, that's a situation where it all depends, doesn't it? Soldiers are forced to carry out tasks just as much as salarymen.

So what? I don't see how it depends at all. No one wants to be forced to do anything, and everything gets miserable if you've got to keep at it long enough.

So that's gonna happen in your government? Nobody being forced to do anything?

Meaning an end to slavery? That's what I'd like. Yeah.

[ He's teasing slightly as he continues. No matter what Kitty might think of this, the Doctor's taking this little tete-a-tete as simply a mind joust. ]

Oooh, points off for Kitty! Slavery isn't exactly forcing to just like forcing someone to do something isn't exactly slavery.

[ And Kitty - no surprise - answers his lightness and joking with ferocity. ]

That's exactly what slavery is. Stripping someone of their agency and free will. Compelling them to do something and offering them no alternative. In this world, we tend to talk about institutional slavery - institutions robbing people of their freedom of choice - but slavery can also be technological - [ She gestures to the Doctor - ] Or magical. [ She gestures to herself. ] No matter what form it takes, though, it's still slavery.

[ Sorry Kitty, he...is not taking this as seriously as she is. ]

Or salaried employment. Or things required for your position. Or being a dad. You've got all sorts of options here if you just apply the tiniest bit of nuance.

video;

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