There is literally no one I don't hate right now.

[notplaying]

Toby was in the council office. He had the door propped open with stack of his least favorite books, and numerous stacks of paper neatly set out in equal intervals around the table with chairs in front of each. He was at what he counted as being the fifth one. The order was: Council Parameters, Grievances of Property, Grievances of Person,

Comments

[sortofaman]

"So," the Doctor said, having taken in the books as a whole, and the thonking of the ball against drywall and concrete, "laws."

He'd come around to sit and be Council, because hell, someone might come in looking for the Andorran Consulate today, and someone would have to be on hand, but apparently Toby was already on hand to address such issues. That said, he wasn't entirely keen on the whole law idea and someone had to keep an eye on that. The word pork came to mind. And bureaucracy and the fact that to enforce said laws, there would have to be a lot more volunteers. Volunteers that, if his husband and friends had any say, would be him only in small doses.

The Doctor was not keen on sleeping on couches.

He sipped his coffee. "I take it the laws are doing nasty things to your GI tract?"

[notplaying]

Toby glanced up a the Doctor, pausing in his throwing of the ball, before resuming it, stifling a sigh as he did.

"Politics did that," Toby said, "so at this point, I have no way of knowing. "

[sortofaman]

"I'll ask Rob to have the scientists look into digestive aids," the Doctor said, tongue firmly in cheek. "Shite, that's a lot of papers. Do we have that much paper here?"

[notplaying]

"A lot of it's recycled," Toby said, voice lifting slightly at the end of his sentence, having a brief and unpleasant flashback to fights of an environmental nature. "And when I say recycled I mean I've written on the backs of all it, as well. Some of it is a history of the Ancient Western world."

[sortofaman]

"Could make paper. The Chinese did." The Doctor shrugged and sat down with his coffee, carefully avoiding books. "And it's not like the bookshelf isn't renewing."

[notplaying]

"de Worde does," Toby said, "grinds the pith, the whole nine yards. "I guess it's habit. I like to use paper until you can't, anymore."

[sortofaman]

de Worde would, the Doctor thought but didn't say. He didn't dislike the man, just noted a certain...diligence. Obsession. "Was that how things were done in the White House?"

[notplaying]

"Only in my office," Toby said, glancing down. His office. He missed his office. He missed everything one could possibly miss about home, even the things he swore he'd never actually miss about home. The strange thing was, he had more from home to miss that he had, actually, gotten from this place.

[sortofaman]

"Oh," the Doctor said, and looked down into his coffee mug. "Sorry. Well, it's good for the trees, yeah? I'd tell you about the trees I once dealt with, lovely people, but you probably wouldn't believe me."

[notplaying]

"....I might," Toby said, because he'd watched Dr. Who in the seventies.

"There used to be Jedi on the council. I could buy a talking tree. I had girlfriend who thought they could talk to trees. It might have been the drugs talking, though."

[sortofaman]

A talking tree. Maybe that was like those plastic fish on a board things that sang songs. Americans.

"They could talk to trees," the Doctor pointed out, looking over a sheet of Toby's notes, under Electoral Procedure, "but the trees wouldn't have talked back. And now you have a Time Lord on the Council. I just don't have one of those flashy lightsaber things. Just this," and he pulled out the sonic, clicked it on for the blue light function, then clicked it off.

[notplaying]

Toby glanced up, watching the lgiht go on and off, and said "I assume that is in fact more than a pen light."

[sortofaman]

"Sonic screwdriver," the Doctor said. "Used to do more than be a multitool, but these days it's just good for building. And seeing in the dark. Never was a lightsaber, though."

[notplaying]

"Sonic?" Toby repeated, then decided to accept it and shrugged, nodding slightly.

"That's too bad, I suppose. Light sabers are, ah, handy."

[sortofaman]

"Sonic." The Doctor smiled to himself and then squinted at the page. "I guess so. If you're into cutting things to pieces. I never could understand how those worked--how do you terminate a beam of light?"

[notplaying]

"Well, that was the beauty of them being science fiction," Toby said, "no one actually had to come up with the answer to that."