For Eileen <3<3
Apr. 19th, 2011 01:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pawnofrassilonOn a cold spring evening in Wiltshire, in the year 2011, a man falls to Earth.
Some children look up and think they see a shooting star that night. Adults, knowing that whatever it is is far too large, think it might be a comet or meteor. Or else they assume it's a trick of the eyes, an afterimage of a headlamp on the road. Some, oddly enough, think of angels. News reports are non-definitive.
Much like the film, the man isn't quite a 'man' at all-- not by the twenty-first century Earth definition, anyhow. He's alien, though it's only by the doubling of his pulses and the nature of his abrupt appearance in the first place that any human could tell.
Unlike the film, he isn't particularly concerned with saving his home world. Not anymore.
The Master lies very still for a long time, heedless of the fact he's crumpled up in the middle of an open field. He's fallen quite a distance, even for a Time Lord. And many of his injuries are much, much older than that. His clothes are little more than rags, torn to shreds and singed to the point of near purposelessness. If it's even possible, he's dirtier than ever. Exhausted. Parched. Hungry. So hungry.
Eventually it's the hunger that gets him up and keeps him moving. Feeling the click and slide of bones that are likely dislocated if not broken, the Master struggles to his feet, heaving and wincing in pain, his skin becoming momentarily translucent with the effort. He's in trouble, his energy stores dangerously low and his body in real danger of being ripped apart. But it's nothing a little snack won't fix. Taking a great whiff of the night air, he cracks a grin just short of sanity... and lets his nose lead him staggering through the darkness.
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Date: 2011-09-08 09:26 pm (UTC)"You," he hisses. "This is all your fault!" It probably isn't quite as grateful a response as she hoped.
"You led them straight to me." He'd grab her by the shoulders and shake her, hard, despite the retching-- if he didn't still have the cuffs on.
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Date: 2011-09-16 06:01 pm (UTC)"Oi," she near growls. "They followed you to my world, and my base, and killed my people, and you think they wouldn't have eventually found you? How thick are you, anyway? Would you rather I have left you there?"
She stands up shakily, and backs away, looking around at their surroundings.
"Where are we, anyway?"
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Date: 2011-09-16 10:12 pm (UTC)He wriggles pathetically in the grass, trying to get to his feet and only ending up dumping more energy into his bindings.
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Date: 2011-09-19 05:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-21 05:51 am (UTC)Now that he's more mobile, the Master takes a better look around. Far off in the distance are some faint lights-- a city, perhaps. He sniffs the air, speculatively, and even with his hands bound behind his back he has a hungry, predatory leer on his face.
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Date: 2011-09-22 07:39 pm (UTC)"Fine," she says. "You want me to go? Brilliant. I saved you from the Time Lords... you're on your own. Good luck."
With that she started walking toward the lights of the city.
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Date: 2011-09-28 09:06 am (UTC)"Where do you think you're going?" he protests. "You can't leave me like this!"
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Date: 2011-09-28 05:20 pm (UTC)To what degree has the Master used up that chance already?
Finally, she sighs.
"All right." She goes to him and takes his upper arm. "I'll take you to the city. Then you're on your own."
There's no way in hell she's taking those cuffs off.
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Date: 2011-09-29 06:31 am (UTC)"Uncuff me," he demands, straining weakly against her grasp.
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Date: 2011-10-04 05:21 pm (UTC)"No. I'm responsible for you, at least until I can hand you off to someone else."
With that she tightens her grip and keeps walking.
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Date: 2011-10-11 10:20 pm (UTC)"No." He pulls back, hard. Actually, he starts to pull back, but the cuffs don't let him get much further than that, and he falls the rest of the way, letting gravity do the work for him.
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Date: 2011-10-18 05:46 pm (UTC)"What am I to do?" she wonders aloud, half to herself, half to the captive Master. "After everything you've done, how am I to trust you? Why shouldn't I just leave you here, cuffs and all?"
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Date: 2011-10-21 09:50 am (UTC)That word is "Please."
A woman's gasp is audible, somewhere close by, and the Master turns his head to the side to see, eyes suddenly alert and hungry.
The girl steps out from the shadows, holding a dim lantern and creeping uncertainly forward. But she doesn't look frightened. No, she looks awed. The Master blinks, irritated, as she shines the light directly into his eyes.
"It's you," she breathes. "Oh, they said you'd come!"
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Date: 2011-10-21 02:29 pm (UTC)"They? Who's they?"
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Date: 2011-10-22 02:00 am (UTC)"The Seerlings will be so pleased," she tells him, just keeping a respectful distance. It seems she's barely able to contain herself. "Wait here." The girl finally lifts her head to acknowledge Rose in that order. And then she realizes she's made an order and blushes.
"I-I'm sorry. Please, I'll get the others. It'll only be a moment."
And with that the girl rushes off back toward the city, without leaving either of them much of a chance to get a word in edgewise.
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Date: 2011-10-24 06:14 pm (UTC)"Well, they know you," Rose says to the Master, crouching down to look at the cuffs and see how they work. "Do you know them?"
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Date: 2011-10-26 09:54 am (UTC)Or it could be an old enemy.
He'll never tell Rose Tyler how relieved he is when she moves to the cuffs.
"Yes," he hisses urgently. "Let me loose. Before they get back. We can escape together." Or he can eat Rose and escape all on his own. Choices, choices.