(Fearn rolls into the room)
Fearn: THE LAST STEPS ARE BEING PUT IN-TO PLACE FOR THE IN-EV-IT-A-BLE TRI-UMPH OF THE DA-LEKS!
Ninth Doctor: Dalek! Back, all of you! Get back!
(He and Eleven run to the front of the group, sonic screwdrivers pointed at Fearn)
Fearn: AND WHAT, PRECISELY, DO YOU INTEND TO DO WITH THOSE, DOC-TORS? UNSCREW MY TRAVEL MACHINE CASING?
Eleventh Doctor: Regrettably, I almost agree with him. This may not have been the best plan.
Ninth Doctor: Since when was this ever a plan? (beat) And when did they start making blue Daleks?
Eleventh Doctor: Well, I've seen Daleks in blue before, saw a whole rainbow of Daleks once, though none were this one's frankly delightful and decidedly non-terrifying shade of robins-egg.
Fearn: I AM EM-PY-RE-AN! IT WAS A THE-SAUR-US MIX-UP!
Ninth Doctor: You're a bit mixed-up yourself, I'd say. Look at you, another washed-up dreg of the Dalek race, probably here to wipe out the last few Time Lords in existence-
Librarian: (whispered to the Notary) He recovered quickly.
Notary: A neuralyzed mind is a very flexible structure. Besides, I pre-loaded the new memories. I don't like taking risks.
Ninth Doctor: (continues, not having heard the previous exchange) -and you can't even be organized about it! Look at you, just bounding in announcing your so-called victory and babbling about thesauruses, and you've not even tried firing a single shot! I'd already thought the Daleks had hit their peak of delusion, but I see you can still top yourselves!
Fearn: YOU ASSUME TOO MUCH, DOC-TOR. I CAN SEE WHERE YOUR FUTURE SELF OVER THERE GAINED HIS TOWERING ARROGANCE FROM.
Eleventh Doctor: Oy!
(Morgan stands up from her seat abruptly)
Morgan: All three of you, shut it!
(The Doctors look over at Morgan, while simultaneously keeping Fearn within their sight.)
Morgan: It's my responsibility to protect this Council, and that includes keeping these meetings from devolving into a series of unnecessary brawls. I have enough of that to do without unexpected visitors coming in and aggrieving one another. Doctors, Fearn is not a threat.
Fearn: I RESENT THAT!
Morgan: (groan) Not a threat to us.
Fearn: ...BETTER.
Ninth Doctor: Oh, of course, the Dalek who just barged in here shouting about its race's inevitable triumph is completely docile. The last time I met a Dalek who was supposedly "harmless", it ended up, surprise, surprise, killing hundreds of unprepared people! I'm not letting that happen again.
Librarian: It won't. Fearn has been instilled with something called the "human factor". You have seen it before, in your second incarnation, if I recall correctly. It alters the Dalek psyche, disabling some of their pre-conditioned restrictive processes and enabling a wider range of non-aggressive action.
Disentangler: Translated, he's friendly. More or less. It's not as though he doesn't cause problems, but they aren't of the "trying to kill you" variety. Trust us.
(Eleven turns off his sonic screwdriver. Nine scowls, but does the same a few moments later)
Eleventh Doctor: Fine, then. What would a so-called "friendly Dalek" have to gain by sending two time-displaced versions of the same person, their race's greatest enemy no less, into unfamiliar territory?
Fearn: YOUR TOWERING ARR-O-GANCE SHOWS ITSELF ONCE A-GAIN, DOC-TOR.
Disentangler: Fearn, this would go quicker for all of us if you just stop with the insults and answer the question.
Fearn: ...FINE. YOU, DOC-TORS, WERE NOT THE FO-CUS OF OUR PLAN! THE AR-RI-VALS OF THE ON-COM-ING STORM AND THE HUN-TER OF SLORP WERE A SIDE EF-FECT!
Reader: "Our" plan? Who else is involved here?
Eleventh Doctor: "Hunter of Slorp?"
Fearn: JUST LIKE A TIME LORD TO FOCUS ON THE DE-TAILS BEFORE THE WHOLE! IF YOU MUST KNOW, I AM CURRENTLY COLLABORATING WITH DA-LEK OMICRON AND DA-LEK CHAR-LIE ON-
Ninth Doctor: Hold on. There's a Dalek named Charlie?
Fearn: YES. HE WAS THE FIRST TO AC-CEPT MY-
Ninth Doctor: Is he baby-blue, too?
Fearn: HE IS NOT, I AM EM-PY-RE-AN, AND STOP IN-TERR-UP-TING ME!
Reader: You're the one who keeps barging in here, you know. Well, barged in twice, anyway. We can't exactly get a council going with all of these interruptions.
Fearn: (faces the Council table) YES, BECAUSE YOU ARE DIS-PAR-ATE AND IN-COM-PAT-I-BLE. WHILE THE TIME LORDS WERE FORCED TO TRAWL THROUGH THEIR IN-SIG-NI-FI-CANT STORE OF A-GENTS TO SELECT COUN-CILL-ORS, THE DA-LEKS, SPEARHEADED BY THE GLO-RI-OUS KNOWLEDGE AND AC-TION OF MY-SELF, FEARN, HAVE BEEN SCOURING THE MY-RI-AD OF WORLDS FOR ALL POSS-I-BLE VAR-I-A-TIONS ON THE DA-LEK FORM! TRULY OUR SU-PER-I-OR-I-TY IS UNMATCHED IN THE COSMOS!
Agent: Is that what you've been trying to tell us this whole time? Because honestly, that didn't tell anyone of much of anything. Normally, when you give someone new information, it helps if you explain it.
Fisherman: Wait, I think he's talking about the temporal fold.
Fearn: I SEE THAT NOT ALL TIME LORDS ARE IN-CAP-A-BLE OF DE-DUC-TION!
Fisherman: Did you cause that? How would you even know how to do that?
Fearn: I AM A STRA-TE-GIST OF THE DA-LEKS, WITH YEARS OF EX-PER-I-ENCE IN THE DE-PART-MENT OF TEM-PO-RAL OFF-EN-SES! THERE-FORE, I AM AN UN-PAR-ALL-ELLED SUPER-GENIUS SLASH CY-BORG SLASH TIME TRAVEL EXPERT. I AM QUITE SURE THAT I KNOW WHAT I AM DOING.
Morgan: I don't think the cyborg bit helps much with that.
Fearn: I BELIEVE IT DOES.
Ninth Doctor: So, let me get this straight. You've been creating temporal folds, which have the well-deserved reputation of being dangerous and quite possibly threatening to local causality, summoning other Daleks to... wherever this is, and generally trying for an amateur-hour run of mucking about with space-time- (turns to the Disentangler) -and this is the nice Dalek?
Disentangler: I said he was friendly. Not nice.
Fearn: WHY IS IT THAT ONLY THE DA-LEKS REFUSE TO PUSH AWAY THE RISKS OF INN-O-VA-TION? YOU TIME LORDS WOULD MONITOR YOUR PEOPLE FROM THE DI-LU-TED PER-SPEC-TIVE OF A SINGLE BATCH OF DRIF-TERS, OUT-CASTS AND RE-NE-GADES, SIM-PLY BECAUSE YOU SEE POSSIBLE HARM IN STRETCHING YOUR BOUNDARIES. ON-LY THREE DA-LEKS WERE IN-TER-ES-TED IN COUN-CIL PO-SI-TIONS, SO WE USED OUR TEM-POR-AL FOLD TO BRING IN MORE RE-CRUITS! THERE ARE THOU-SANDS OF WORD WORLDS, MILL-IONS OF POSS-I-BLE UN-I-VER-SES, AND A SIMPLE DIS-TOR-TION OF SPACE AND TIME COULD OVERLAP THE SPA-CI-ALLY AM-BI-GU-OUS HALLS OF HEAD-QUAR-TERS WITH A-NY OF THEM! THE DA-LEK HIGH COUNCIL IS NOW COM-POSED OF THE BEST AND GREA-TEST OF THE DA-LEKS, OF ALL FACTIONS AND SUB-TYPES! I EX-PEC-TED THE DOC-TOR TO IN-VES-TI-GATE THE DIS-RUP-TION OF TEM-POR-AL PRO-GRESSION, OF COURSE, THOUGH I HAD PREDICTED ON-LY ONE INSTANCE. IT IS IN THE DOC-TOR'S NA-TURE TO FLY RIGHT IN-TO AN-Y-THING HE DOES NOT UN-DER-STAND.
Eleventh Doctor: Got me pegged there, mate.
Fearn: (angry staccato) WHAT IS IT WITH YOU TIME LORDS AND IN-TERR-UP-TING MY MON-O-LOGUES TO-DAY‽ (Fearn briefly pauses, and performs an feat that would be unthinkable for any non-humanized Dalek: calming down slightly) NOW IF I MAY CON-TIN-UE-
Notary: Hold it! I was going to say something when you erroneously labelled me a renegade(the Notary rankles at the very thought), but this is just going too far.
Fearn: YOU WOULD OP-POSE THE OB-VI-OUS TRUTH OF THE DA-
Notary: I wasn't finished! You're claiming to have, between this meeting and the last one, set up something to allow you to overlap this timeline with an inconceivable number of others, just so that you could pull random Daleks into our reality and ask them if they'd like to me members of your imitation council. Never mind the poor planning involved in literally every step of that, no three Agents would have the resources to enact that plan, even if they were, in your words, "supergenius cyborgs". Besides, the power drain on the DoDAEG generators would cause another blackout before the fold could stay in place for ten seconds. You are just, once again, trying to use the problems that this council has experienced to draw attention to yourself by claiming responsibility for them. In layman's terms, you're bluffing.
Librarian: Notary, I believe that you are disregarding one irrefutable fact. The fold does still exist, even if the Daleks are not causing it. In fact, this Council has directly experienced its effects.
Fisherman: You took the words right from my mouth, Librarian. Well, not really, since I'd have said them slightly differently. But still, Notary, you should know about the fold better than anyone, since your timeline was overlapped so much that for at least a few minutes you were replaced with a five-hundred-years younger doppelgänger who wanted to take over HQ!
Notary: It is not my fault if my fellow Councillors mishear me. I stated my precise age, and if you choose to believe otherwise, you may.
Fisherman: She called herself "Spinel Promontor"! Promontor isn't even a word in our reality!
Notary: (ignoring him) I propose that, even if Fearn were, for some inexplicable reason, the cause of the alleged disruption, he would not be able to maintain it long enough to get anything through it, let alone a cross-multiversal squad of Daleks!
Fearn: I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO SAY THAT. (turns to the door) FELLOW DA-LEK COUN-CILL-ORS! YOU MAY NOW ENTER!
(A Scientist Dalek rolls into the room, flanked by a Time War Dalek and a Crucible Dalek. The two gold-colored Daleks move to opposite sides of the room, one of the two turning to face the Doctors, and the other to face the Council table)
Fearn: (spins toward the Scientist Dalek) DA-LEK LAT! REPORT! REPORT!
Lat: SUPREME CHANCELLOR FEARN! CROSS-TEMPORAL SYNCHRONIZATION HAS SURPASSED SEVENTY PERCENT! THE DALEK HIGH COUNCIL HAS REACHED ITS HIGHEST RATE OF POTENTIAL CANDIDATE TRANSPORT!
Fearn: EX-CELL-ENT! YOUR PO-SI-TION AS TEMPORAL OVERSEER SHALL GO UNCHALLENGED FOR-
Lat: WARNING: THE NULL SPACES HOUSING THE VARIANT FORMS OF HEADQUARTERS CONTINUE TO OVERLAP. ANOMALOUS TRANSPOSITION OF DENIZENS MAY RESULT IF FURTHER SYNCHRONIZATION IS ATTEMPTED WITH THE CURRENT INCREASE IN CROSS-TEMPORAL PACE.
Fearn: ENOUGH. WE WILL DIS-CUSS THIS LA-TER.
(Fearn turns toward the Councillors again, regarding them with a swoop of his eyestalk. Somehow, despite the inability of a Dalek travel machine to show visible emotion, Fearn seems to be emitting waves of smug triumph.)
Fearn: WELL, TIME LORDS? DO YOU DOUBT ME NOW?
(And the belated Fearn post finally arrives! Three days late! Wooo... I would've had it up two days ago, but I needed to rewrite it because the version I had didn't make any sense.
Thanks to Huinesoron for some of these lines, both the ones I lifted directly from his sample and the ones I paraphrased.
For further clarification on the "empyrean" thing, Fearn is a lighter color than the standard Strategist Dalek, to differentiate him from the other Strategist Dalek in the PPC, Omicron, who is, as far as we know, more-or-less standard in design. My explanation for this is that the original badfic he came from was full of purple prose and thesaurus abuse, and used what it thought was a synonym for "blue" and turned out instead to notify a specific hue of the color. He's, as you can see, kind of sensitive about it, as far as that word can be applied to a Dalek.
You're up, Lily! We might need to move the Continuity Council to a different thread, though. This one's just about to fall off the front page. I can set up a duplicate on the Other Board, maybe, and link to it from here. That would work.)
