fandomhigh | History in Living Colour - Friday, Period 3 (Week 2)

"Okay!" the Doctor said, bounding into the room when the students had gathered. "No time for chatting, let's get to it. Get to what you might ask? If you are, you didn't read your syllabus! Ask Peyton or Dick for one if you missed out. They're you're TAs and in case you've forgotten, I'm the Doctor."

There were three doors in the room. "Pick a door, any door! Well, except the one leading out of the Danger Shop. One of these three doors, which will lead you to a turning point in history. This week is all about not messing with the turning points, the important stuff, the moments in history that make today the way it is. We're going to learn by doing the wrong thing. Do whatever comes naturally to you once you're on the other side of the door. When you're done, we'll talk about what happened as a result of your actions.

We're all a part of history in some way, shape or form, and there's a lot you can get away with when you're outside of your home time period - by the way, time travel happens, get used to it - but there are some things you should never tamper with. You'll see why. Or, if you read a lot of alternate history fiction, you'll already know. Go on, pick a door." He nodded towards the doors, then commented quietly to himself, "guess we did have time for chatting after all."

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The torch of the men could be seen far in the distance now.

Picking up a rock, Gwen threw it down the tunnel, hoping she wasn't giving away her position.

The men halted and backed up, not wanting to startle the man with explosives. Fawkes heard the noise and peeked back around the corner.

Still hiding in the shadows, Gwen threw another rock.

This time, Guy could see where it was coming from. He knew someone was there now, and knew that his time was up. He rushed to finish his job.

Conflicted, Gwen stayed in the shadows.

As the tunnel wasn't large enough to hide in when guards came barrelling down looking for traitors, Gwen was doomed. The men stopped squabbling amongst themselves and came down in force. "Seize her!" their leader ordered when he spotted her.

Well, bugger this for a lark. Instead of trying to protest her innocence, Gwen put her hands on her hips and started in on them. "Took your bloody time about it, didn't you? I should report the lot of you." she said in her best police voice, suppressing her accent. "Will too if you don't get your act together."

"What is this?" the leader asked, confused. They only intelligence about one person down here.

"The person covering your arses it seems," Gwen replied, not letting up on her act. "You think them in charge are going to be pleased if parliament gets blown up because you lot were too busy hanging back and gossiping like old women while Fawkes set his explosives?"

Knowing that his superiors were not answerable to him, the leader of the men glanced at his second, who nodded. They didn't want to get on the wrong side of these people and they'd heard that there would be others undercover to clean up their mess if they failed. "Your orders?" he asked her.

"Watch Fawkes in situations where a man would draw too much suspicion, but a woman would go unnoticed," Gwen replied crisply. "But not to engage him physically unless absolutely necessary. That's your job I believe."

The leader nodded. "What do you suggest we do?"

"He's still planting explosives," Gwen replied. "I believe the best thing to do would be to catch him in the act. Not exactly a huge burden of proof needed there."

"What will you have us do? My men are at your disposal."

"Well, since he's got enough explosives down there that even an accidental explosion would be nasty, I'd recommend entering with a certain amount of stealth, then massing Fawkes as soon as he's far enough away from the bulk of the explosives, that we can get between them and him," Gwen said. "In any case he needs to be taken out before things start blowing up"

"Agreed. We'll follow your lead, my lady."

"Right, let's go then," Gwen replied, heading down the tunnel.

The men followed her. There was a problem. Guy Fawkes had another way out. All of the stalling had allowed him to escape. The explosives were there, though.

And that would be Gwen swearing. Explosively.

The simulation froze. The Doctor climbed out of the side tunnel that Guy had made. "You let Guy Fawkes get away. Parliament was saved, along with all of the members, but Guy lived to fight another day. I'm sure you can imagine how a hostile takeover of the government went for the people."

"No, I was just cursing for the sheer joy of the situation," Gwen replied sardonically.

"Inaction can be as good as action sometimes. Well, as bad in this case."

"Maybe, but you're not one of those whose country that lot merrily annexed and started oppressing for a few centuries, are you?" Gwen asked. "There's not a whole of conflict there for you."

The Doctor resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Bad things happen. The point is that sometimes they have to happen. If events didn't unfold the way they did, you wouldn't exist and neither would any of the people you care about."

Re: Door 3

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