32 // [Dream]

[neverendingbeat]

[The Master rarely sleeps. As an old acquaintance of his said once, "Sleep is for tortoises." And that's at least one thing he's said that the Master can agree with. Why sleep when there are so many more, interesting options for what he could be doing?

Of course, given long enough, he does need sleep, but that's not what's happening tonight. Tonight

Comments

One order for mild, forgivable evil?

[horrible_penny]

[Penny is still wandering aimlessly from dream to dream. It would be nice to wake up, but that isn't happening. Would it be polite to stop intruding? No, because she'd have to stay in one person's dream all day.

And so, quite by accident, she finds herself in a long corridor that, for all intents and purposes, seems to be connected to nothing else but other long corridors. There are doors everywhere. Would it be bad to look in one? Maybe she would at least be able to figure out whose dream she's stomping around in.

Penny opens an older-looking door with attractive antique knobs slowly, curiosity winning out over caution. It's just a dream, right? Nothing that bad can happen.]

I'll do my best!

[neverendingbeat]

Directly behind the door is a wall of electronics, less than a metre away. It has blinking lights, lines of switches and levers, and big spinning things on it that look like it's feeding tape. Although it's not obvious to 21st century Penny, it's a computer. It occasionally makes whirring and beeping noises.

It doesn't block off the entire way, however. There's an opening beside it into further computer-blocked pathways, leading deeper into the room from which a thrumming noise is emerging. If she chooses to go further in, she'll find herself in a grey and white room, long console block to her left and a white-haired man in velvet and a ruffled shirt slumped in a chair to her right, beside a strange, flashing device the same size as his chair.

You're awesome. :3

[horrible_penny]

Woah. Electronics. Penny doesn't recognize it as a computer; in her mind, computers are tiny things without too many complicated attachments.

Curious, she enters the technological maze. Where there's a maze, there's an end of the maze--which, in this case, appears to be a rather stark room. She doesn't recognize the man in velvet or the flashing thing.

"Hello?" Penny gently touches the man's shoulder. Is he the person who's dreaming? Is he alive? "Hey, can you hear me?"

Why THANK you! :3 ....may be getting a bit carried away, but w/e

[neverendingbeat]

The man in velvet doesn't respond, but there is a response. A door in front of her opens and a dark-haired, suited man with a moustache and beard hurriedly enters the room and bashes away at the console for a moment before rushing over to the man in velvet. And then, finally registering the presence of Penny, he pauses

Naaaah. ^_^

[horrible_penny]

Penny is, of course, startled by the new arrival. She watches him abuse the console, wondering if, perhaps, it would be in her best interest to look for another dream. Ah, but he's talking to her now. No running.

She isn't entirely sure how to reply to any of the suited man's statements. Of course she's out of her own territory. "Sorry... I didn't know there was an experiment going--what? Projection?" Penny is miffed. So miffed, in fact, that she neglects to leave. She gestures towards the man in velvet. "Is he okay?"

WHOA tensechange

[neverendingbeat]

The bearded man puts the stethoscope to his ears and then listens first to the left side, and then the right side of the man in velvet's chest.

"He'll be quite all right," he says, pulling the stethoscope off and tossing it to the side. "Only his left heart has stopped." He puts his hands together and pushes sharply, twice, on the left side of the man in velvet's chest. "And really, of course you're a projection. It stands to reason. This is a dream, and you're hardly here in actuality. If you were, you would have been at least moderately affected by my machine." He raises an eyebrow at her. "I'm afraid no-one is exempt, my dear. Everyone fears."

.__.;

[horrible_penny]

"Only his left heart? He has more than one?" Penny looks at the unresponsive man again. He looks human. Humans have one heart. Something isn't adding up.

But, as the other man pointed out, this is a dream, and people can have as many hearts in dreams as they like. Or something. "Oh, that kind of projection. Yeah, I am." She shuffles awkwardly. This guy is strange. "What does the machine do?"

[neverendingbeat]

"It depends on whether you'd prefer the truth or the balderdash," says the bearded man, starting to pat at the face of the man in velvet. "Doctor?" he says, clearly speaking to the other man. "Doctor, wake up."

[horrible_penny]

"Since it's a dream, it doesn't matter, right?" Wait. "Doctor? Like, the Doctor, Doctor?"

Penny has met the Doctor. He didn't look like this.

...the Master is messed up and having conversations with himself, idek

[neverendingbeat]

"That very one," says the bearded man, "Ah, see, now he awakens." The Doctor's head lolls slightly as he regains consciousness, looking deathly ill as he does so. "Doctor, we have a guest with us. Oh, and your heart stopped, besides, but you already know that, I expect." The Doctor focuses with some difficulty on Penny.

"Penny?" he asks hoarsely, his face pained and wet with perspiration. The bearded man laughs at him.

"Incorrigible liar! You're only pretending to know her because I do."

"Penny, it would really be in your best interest to leave," says the Doctor. "I care for your safety, Penny, you must know that and the Keller Machine--"

"Is completely ineffective against her," says the bearded man, a little bit smugly.

I love his crazy.

[horrible_penny]

This is terribly confusing. This Doctor is not the Doctor that Penny met, but he knows her name and apparently cares about her. The bearded man doesn't look like anyone she's seen but he knows her, too. Then there's the machine on top of all of that...

What isn't confusing is that the Doctor seems nice and he's not doing well.

"I don't know what's going on here, but you," she said, gesturing towards the bearded man, "really need to let him," another nod towards the Doctor, "go. Please."

[neverendingbeat]

"Oh, he may go as soon as he likes!" said the bearded man, smiling. "Oblige the lady, Doctor, on your feet!"

The Doctor's expression was unamused. "You know perfectly well that I can't."

"His energy's been completely sapped by fighting against the machine," the bearded man explained, patting the Doctor on the shoulder. "He'll recover eventually but at the moment, he can barely move." He contemplated the Doctor and then said, "One moment, please, my dear," and left the room again.

[horrible_penny]

That was just rude. Bearded Man was terribly unpleasant.

Penny watched Bearded Man leave (energy? machines? sapped? what?) and addressed the Doctor-Who-Was-Not-the-Doctor-She-Had-Met. "What's going on? Who is that guy?"

[ooc: Apologies again for the tense fail. x_x You can shoot me if you like.]

[neverendingbeat]

The Doctor was starting to look a little bit better. He was able to actually support his head, to look directly at Penny. "He's the Master," he explained, "and before you ask, yes, I'm afraid that really is his name, even if he's going by the pseudonym of Keller at the moment. It was only so that he might be allowed to construct his machine--this machine. He wants me to help him control it but I can't. It's far too strong for me."

And, of course, before anything really interesting is revealed, the bearded man--the Master--reenters the room, holding a glass of water. "But you must try, Doctor," he says fervently, "Someone must control the machine while I am not here." He walks over to bring the water to the Doctor's lips, looking actually quite a bit concerned. "Drink this. You need it: you were within an inch of dying." As the Doctor accepts the water and drinks it, the Master seems to gather himself together again. "Another fact I'm sure you already knew."

[ooc: I...didn't really notice. I've been switching as it happens in

[horrible_penny]

Unfortunately, the Doctor's explanation didn't help Penny out all that much (even if she did suspect--and she certainly did--that she should be having an epiphany). The Master... she thought that ought to ring a bell.
The Master returned before she could ask any number of burning questions, leaving her no more enlightened than she had been when he left.

Penny watched the Master and the Doctor, waiting to speak until the Master was through. "This machine kills people?"

[neverendingbeat]

"It's an experiment," the Master replied. "I am attempting to control a Mind Parasite."

"Unsuccessfully," commented the Doctor.

The Master gave him a look. "I might remind you that you were the one hooked into the machine."