{rp} Will you defeat them, your demons and all the nonbelievers, the plans that they have made?

[superiorspectre]

Suzie hasn't been to see Tosh. She hasn't even tried. If Tosh needs anyone around her right now, it's people she can trust. And Suzie's got no illusions there.

Instead, she's working at being useful, working out her story. She's got something no one else has when it comes to infiltration and deception -- her cover story, if she plays it right, is the absolute truth.

In her own timeline, she'd have betrayed Torchwood. It was only a matter of time. And, sickening as that thought is, it's her armour here and now. He can't spot a lie when there isn't one.

Gwen might've said she wanted to save that for when there were no other options, but right now, the best efforts of geniuses and aliens haven't brought her Captain back. Maybe a manipulative, backstabbing little bitch might have a chance.

After all, she thinks, she was good enough to fool Jack Harkness, in the future everyone else remembers. Maybe, just maybe, she's good enough to play Thane as well.

She knows a few things about what she's walking into; the kind of man she's dealing with, the way he likes having power over others... And her facade has cracks in it, places the old scars still show. She'd be stupid if she didn't think he'd exploit them. And again, she's better-suited than anyone else to go in -- she's been there before, after all.

And maybe, just maybe, this will count as penance, somehow, for the things she did that led to the things she didn't.

She's doing this. She won't be argued with. However, she does have a concept of chain of command, informal as that's always been around Torchwood. Ideally, she needs to speak to Gwen Cooper, but she's not keen on going right over Sam's head. And given what she's about to do...

Well. It might help if there's someone she can't lie to, to reassure (Tosh) everyone of her intentions.

So this is the plan: find Sam, then talk to Gwen, then... Do what else she needs to do. She's going to want a word with the Vesmier, but first, to talk things through with her commanders.

Comments

[definitivestep.livejournal.com]

If Sam were the type to pace, he'd be doing it now. What he tends to do, rather, is take up a position somewhere, and sit there, and think until the restlessness gets to be too much - at which point, he'll get up, move somewhere else to think for a while, and repeat the process.

At the moment, he's at a table in the kitchen, staring off at nothing in particular, glancing every now and then to his journal just in case... well, the prisoners may be back, but Thane's still out there, and Sam's just waiting for the next disaster. It's driving him a little mad that there's not much he can do but wait, unless he wants to talk to Marshall about building a circular sawblade launcher. He's almost considering that at this point.

He glances over when Suzie enters the room, and smiles a little in a tired, distant way. "Suzie." It's half a greeting, half a question. If she needs him for something... well, it'll be more useful than what he's doing now.

[anystranger.livejournal.com]

There's a suit of Chula armor discreetly stalking Suzie. Has been for a while, now.

It tracked her as she went to talk to Sam, then followed her progress up to Gwen's office, then positioned itself in the lobby, passive-scanning and mapping out potential routes.

Once again, there's nothing it can do. Can't accompany her without both endangering her infiltration and changing the course of the timeline. Can't prevent her from going without... well, doing both of the above, to a much greater extent. So what exactly it's stalking her for is an open question.

But, well, there it is.

[the-vesmier.livejournal.com]

The Vesmier is still in the cloister room, working at the Thane diagram. The TARDIS will direct anyone who wants to see him right over.

For all that the Vesmier is just sitting there, examining his incomprehensible 3-D map of the psyche, his shadow is... considerably more talkative than normal, parts of the vast pool darkness speaking in turns, its voice soft but echoing in the large cloister.

We didn't anticipate that it would be so fast, one part says. Or nearly so sudden. In the end, we're surprised to say, t barely hurt.

It certainly hurt enough, another part grumbles. And the exact neurological effects aside, you're ignoring the significance. We should not have died in the first place.

Certain things have to be ignored for the benefit of a higher functionality, a third part chides.

The plan was sound, argues the second part, the origin of the voice shifting toward a pillar. If the Doctor hadn't run in like a relk and started tearing things apart–

We cannot blame the Doctor for being what he is, the first voice protests.

We can hold the Doctor to the exact standards to which we hold ourself, the third spot says, a bit louder, now.

So long as we keep in mind his circumstance and character, the second grumbles. Which alone is enough to invalidate any comparison.

He was doing what we failed to do, the first shadow mutters. And what we are continuing to fail to do.

There is that, the second acknowledges.

We will find a way, the third insists, and then there's a pause from all three. The shadow flows a bit, a pattern of darkness around the cloister room, and regards Suzie where she stands.

Hello, the first bit says.