[x] Position yourself carefully, you could trick this moving statue into smashing up the castle for you.
As slowly as you moved even at top speed in this armour, it wasn't like a giant statue that had only just become animated was all that adept at moving either. The cleaners the butler had up on the statue however had to move fast, racing to scramble down before they fell right off, with the Doctor rushing in to catch one who was tossed right off.
You kept on moving backwards, afraid to get out of this armour as doing so meant you'd have zero protection from being flattened. However, you soon noticed you were backing closer and closer up to that lone tower you and the Doctor had walked past before, and only then got the thought that a giant walking statue could smash into this tower and either make a new path, or if it toppled the other way, finishing itself off by having the tower collapse on it.
And sure enough, that giant statue then crashed right into the tower as you'd planned... but not before you had any time whatsoever to dodge. The force from statue made your armour collapse in on itself while you were still in it, giving you less and less room to move or even breathe till you were about to scream in fear of your life. The crushing of your armour fortunately stopped before then, with you having only barely enough room to still breathe, and you now couldn't move at all.
But you couldn't hear, or feel in the case of vibrations, that statue moving around anymore. You got your answer soon why when you heard the butler cry out at the wreckage of the tower, him screaming at apparently the statue "S-stop this! Those Above entrust me with their voices, but I've only gotten t-tricked into destroying their realm!"
The Doctor then came around to you and managed to get your armour, well more 'tin can' now than armour, open again. "Lavinia, tell me, was this 'trick the statue into wrecking the tower' business your plan all along?" she asked.
You weren't sure what to say at first. "Er, not really 'all along', but yeah, I did think it could work," you said, "And I think it has. I guess I was inspired when you so quickly thought to roll the vase into the armour, I-I thought I could come up with the plan like that."
"Now that was some quick thinking, Lavinia. However," the Doctor's smile turned to a sigh, "If you must try such stunts in the future, your personal future I should specify, try to have a tad more caution, if not leave things to the professionals. I don't mean to be a downer, but you were almost crushed to death, need I remind you."
You became so flushed that you couldn't even speak, instead you just nodded rapidly at what the Doctor told you. Okay, I... won't do that again, you thought instead, even if the Doctor hadn't strictly told you that.
"Anyway, you might want to see this," the Doctor said, as she then pointed to the butler's face... which was genuinely becoming less blurred, less like a mirage, less like a servant of Otrene. She then walked over to him and asked, "Tell me, do Those Above also ask you to abandon your emotions along with your memories?"
"What reason do you have to know?!" the butler snarled, "Are you scheming to have me demoted even further now?"
"I'll take that as a yes," the Doctor said. She then got to thinking, "If so, I may need to revise my assessment of these psychic powers animating everything. I thought they were your 'Those Above' but what if..."
"The true psychic powers are the suppressed emotional energy of this castle's servants?" a voice suddenly finished for her, belonging to another newcomer to the castle, a suited woman with a stern expression.
"I was about to say that, yes," the Doctor said, having to stomach such indignity.
"It is that science and knowledge progress, not who progresses them, Doctor," this woman said, her voice remaining cold and computer-like. "And if you are about to ask how I know you are indeed the Doctor, you still being in your past incarnation's outfit gave it away."
"Really? As if he was the only one in all the cosmos to wear a black Victorian longcoat?" the Doctor chuckled at her.
"That, along with ridiculous hijinks like crashing down a whole tower. Very Doctor-ish," this woman said.
"Doctor, is this someone you know?" you asked.
The Doctor had to think that one over, then finally said, "She rather acts like she is, but I can't put a pin on exactly who. I suppose I could hazard a few guesses."
"Are you trying to diminish me?" this woman asked, before her eyes then turned to you. "Well now, what's your name? I never saw you with that past Doctor, so I estimate you two have only now become acquainted."
You weren't sure what to tell this strange woman. On one hand, she hadn't been infected by Otrene yet and was someone who actually knew the Doctor. On the other hand, from their tones it didn't sound like the two exactly liked each other.
"She would be Lavinia Mortlake. Her and I have found ourselves in the same situation, suddenly swallowed up by this most discourteous of extradimensional castles," the Doctor stepped in and spoke. "And that is all you are entitled to know about to her."
"There is nothing science is not entitled to know about," this woman said, shooting the Doctor a cold look. She then brushed past the Doctor and said right to your face, "Lavinia, if you've only just met the Doctor, how can you be sure you can trust him- her? Do you want to see your loved ones die? Do you want to die, or find yourself stranded, brainwashed, or traumatised?"
"Stop it!" the Doctor said, her voice now forced to grow as cold as this woman's.
"I am simply informing Lavinia of the well-documented risks of associating with you, that is all," this woman said, "For those, you have none but yourself to blame."
"Doctor, no, none of that's true, it can't be!" you burst out.
The Doctor looked at you like she was thinking of something reassuring to say, but had to admit. "Lavinia, all of that is true. Now, I would say this woman is without a doubt cherry-picking her examples, you could come out of here with me and none of that would ever happen to you... but there's always the risk, yes."
She then glared straight at this woman and said, "Yet how hypocritical for the Rani of all people to criticise me."
"Not hypocritical at all, I have never once made pretensions to gallivanting heroism like you have," this 'Rani' said, "And how could you tell?"
The Doctor shrugged and said, "I doubt the Master could so quickly come back from having been an android, so given your comments on science, that left only one answer."
"Rani? Master?" you were now completely lost.
"Old college 'friends'," the Doctor told you, "Though unlike most old college friends, I'd have been perfectly happy if we had just drifted apart."
The Rani first muttered, "Saying I could be the Master, I cannot think of a greater insult," before she looked at you again and said, "The point is, you now know what I say about the Doctor does not come from nowhere. Also unlike the Doctor, who's been yet another abductee of Otrene, I came here in my TARDIS willingly."
The Doctor had to laugh at the Rani on hearing that. "My, how pitiable of you. That's like boasting about breaking into prison to not even bust anyone out," she smirked.
You could see the Rani grit her teeth at that remark, but she still calmly told you, "Lavinia, unlike the Doctor who sees Those Above as just another foe, or the butler and other servants who grovel beneath them, I and I alone see Those Above, Otrene, and these remaining psychic energies as a scientific project. Something we can study, predict, dissect, control for, nothing so 'Above' in the end."
"Something to provoke, irritate, think you know everything about, and bring down upon us too, no doubt," the Doctor cut her off.
"As if you are never guilty of those very things yourself," the Rani said back to her, then asked you, "If all you wish is to escape, then why don't you come back to my TARDIS, Lavinia? Unlike the Doctor with her crashed police box, I can have you back home right here and now."
She then walked over to the collapsed, fright-paralysed butler and said, "I shall certainly use this man's help, determine precisely how Otrene's 'miragification' works, possibly even open up a channel to Those Above."
"If by that you mean have him be your new guinea pig," the Doctor glared, before she turned to you and pleaded, "Lavinia, I promise my own TARDIS will soon be back up and running fine, the old girl's been through worse than this. And what assurance if any has the Rani given you that she will drop you home? With most of your memories gone, what's stopping her from dropping you anywhere and telling you it's your home?"
You clutched your head as your breaths grew more rapid. It took some time, but you finally decided:
[ ] The Rani could just have the butler, like you could care for him after he'd tried to kill you. You were staying with the Doctor though.
[ ] You couldn't let someone like the Rani just experiment on the butler, even after how he'd treated you.
[ ] The Doctor and The Rani couldn't afford to fight when Those Above were already a big enough problem. They needed to work together, settle any of their grievances afterwards.
[ ] You'd take the Rani's offer to go home, on the condition the Doctor went with you to ensure you weren't tricked.
[ ] Write-in
