.049 [TEXT TOTALLY TEXT]

[timesbureaucrat]

[Friends(ish) Filter (minus Ardent who is dead and totally OFF this filter now)]

Has anything happened while I've been indisposed? [Yes, he's trying to get right back to work. And avoid talking about what happened.

[Private to Admiral]

Revive Ardent.

[then later, after hearing that Ardent is still a vegetable...Warden Filter]

The death toll

Comments

[Private | Text]

[timesbureaucrat]

So nice to have your approval; I'll make it a point to think about it even more than I already do. [Sarcasm is just not the same in text format. But the attempt cheers him up.]

Pity he doesn't have children. That rules out the traditional mode of revenge in situations like this.

[Private | Text]

[timesbureaucrat]

[Although he doesn't know about Brax's adventures off Gallifrey, he's not surprised that Braxiatel spends time contemplating his enemies' terrible punishments.]

Yes, the punishment must fit the crime and castration doesn't come close. [For a Time Lord, losing the ability to speechify is ever so much worse than losing the (non) ability to procreate. And given Ardent's worship of words, he suspects the same is true for Dwarfs as well.]

[Private | Text]

[timesbureaucrat]

I would think the absence of his mother was the most obvious obstacle to that plan, not fear of blood feuds.

Temporal retribution is a tempting prospect, but the technology here does peculiar things to chronon particle movements. Until I'm able to accurately predict the movements I'm loathe to activate a time loop.

A mindprobe would almost be appropriate. It's a shame I haven't got one.

[Narvin would never stoop so low as to suggest that Braxiatel has feelings. ("Never" meaning, not unless he was very angry at Braxiatel indeed.) But trading vicious plots for vengeance is a pleasant way of passing the time.]

[Private | Text]

[timesbureaucrat]

If I had, Sergeant Howie undoubtedly would have confiscated it all by now. He will never stop complaining about having his mindwipe taken away.

The CIA exists to quietly clean up messes, not put on a show. Not remembering the useful things the Oubliette has done is entirely the point.

[Private | Text]

[timesbureaucrat]

Well, if the CIA is no longer a force to be reckoned with, it's because your President decided that she wanted to play nice with our temporal rivals rather than put them in their proper place and keep them there.

[Timelooping enemies = Narvin's version of galactic diplomacy]

[Private | Text]

[timesbureaucrat]

I am not a xenophobe. In case you haven't noticed, these days some of my closest associates are from the lesser species. But it's foolish to allow races who are not suited to time travel free access to the Vortex.

[Private | Text]

[timesbureaucrat]

[Mockery and bickering is normal. Normal is good. Normal distracts him from the fact that he can't speak, he's going to have to kill himself soon, and he rather wants to watch--Death Zone style--a Yeti rip his inmate's arms off.]

A classic? What in heavens are you talking about? And I'm not married to a [He strikes that out, because that's just *asking* for mockery, but the words were briefly visible nevertheless.]

I believe that the younger temporal powers constitute a potential threat to the web of time. That doesn't mean I think they're all bad species or that I want to wipe them off the face of the universe.

[Private | Text]

[timesbureaucrat]

No offence is meant by the phrase. That's simply what the CIA has always called them. [It's so common that Narvin often doesn't even think about what the words mean when he uses them. (Obviously, or he'd never have uttered them in his "I'm not a xenophobe" speech.) Now he's wondering if he's ever called Kay a "lesser race" to his face.]

What do you typically call the collective non-Gallifreyan races of the universe?