Voice ---> Video | Life handed us a paycheck and we said, "... We worked harder than this!"

[pawnofrassilon]

[There's the sound of rustling far too close to a microphone, as if a thumb is being rubbed across it, mixed with ambient noise. The thudding of heavy footsteps and heavier breathing, the clatter of a glass bottle, the squeaking of some unholy thing in the dark. In fact, it sounds suspiciously like the Master is butt-dialing you

Comments

audio;

[hisoldgirl]

[oh Master. there's so many conflicting emotions, so many memories and thoughts and a jumble of pasts and presents and futures that it's difficult to keep track. there's love and hate and pity and fear -- she almost doesn't say anything, but what would that accomplish?

so she settles on one word. one simple, entirely too complex word]

Master.

video;

[pawnofrassilon]

[The Master lifts his chin a little, flattered and suspicious.]

Ah. There's someone who knows how to address me properly.

Go on. Show yourself. No fair hiding.

audio;

[hisoldgirl]

[she considers changing to video, but she's too used to hiding from him]

It is your name, after all.

[see how she ignores that second part?]

vid;

[pawnofrassilon]

Tell me yours and we'll be even.

audio;

[hisoldgirl]

I'm not quite sure what my name is.

[it's a falsehood of a sort. she's rather settled on TARDIS -- and, with the Doctor, Sexy -- but it's also not exactly a lie. and it's safer, at least for now. at least until the Doctor makes his move]

video;

[pawnofrassilon]

But you do know mine. That hardly seems fair.

audio;

[hisoldgirl]

I know quite a bit more about you than just your name, of course.

video;

[pawnofrassilon]

Firsthand experience, or wild rumours?

[He smiles]

Although I do like some of the rumours.

audio;

[hisoldgirl]

Oh both, I should think. We couldn't always keep track of you, after all.

Which are your favourites?

video;

[pawnofrassilon]

[It's the mention of 'keeping track', and 'we', that stops the Master cold and causes him to draw back as if from something dangerous, frowning. One of the High Council? Here?]

Tell me who you are.

audio;

[hisoldgirl]

I suppose I shouldn't fault you for not recognising me. After all, the thing that was stolen rarely speaks to the one who didn't steal it. Did you steal her, by chance? She never mentioned it, but then again, we rarely spoke. Though I'm curious; who do you think I am?

video;

[pawnofrassilon]

[That sounds suspiciously like a riddle, and the Master's in no mood for it. Still. He cocks his head, peers at the diamond as if it will help him see who's on the other side of the connection. A thing. Not a person, but a thing. A thing that was stolen. It dawns on him slowly; it helps that he's seen this sort of thing before, in one of the High Council's more ambitious experiments. Something that should never speak aloud, given a voice.]

Ohhhh.

Isn't that something.

audio;

[hisoldgirl]

[the experiments she's seen the Time Lords do on her kind are grotesque, to say the least, and yet she isn't far from it at the moment. more stable, certainly, but still a ship in a human form]

Well it can't very well be nothing, can it?

video;

[pawnofrassilon]

[The Master, this Master, cuts right to the chase. With something that is less a question than a demand for information.]

How?

audio;

[hisoldgirl]

What a terribly good question. I'll have to let you know when I've worked it out for myself. For now I suppose we can just say the Core did it and move on from there, don't you think?

video;

[pawnofrassilon]

[Of course. The Core gives the TARDIS a voice but doesn't bother healing the Master.]

Oh, I'm all for moving on.

[and he licks his lips]

My place... or you?