April 21 // The Master, OPEN

[lord_and]

Date: April 21, shortly after the early lights-out
Characters: The Master, OPEN
Location: Kitchen
Summary: The Master makes some tea and watches children's television shows, because that's what you do when things get serious. (The finer details of the Master's actual thoughts during this will depend heavily on where this thread goes, so if the

Comments

[phdlancelot]

Sweets was having a hard time adjusting to his new life in space. Not only was he becoming more and more sure, as the days went on, that he was not in a convenient coma-dream or long-term hallucination but really, truly, impossible in space, but it appeared that he had arrived on this colony at a bad time. Gravity was behaving badly, and now the little routines that had been keeping him going were starting to break down. He had expected to have time to grab something to eat before the lights out, but it had come early. He made his way to the kitchen through the dark corridors feeling uncharacteristically glum. He'd been doing his best to hide it from the rest of the inhabitants, but he didn't think there was any danger of running into anyone with this new crisis to deal with.

To his surprise, however, the kitchen wasn't empty. The British man - Cyrus, was it? - the one none of the rest of the crew seemed to like or trust, was making a cup of tea.

"Is there enough water for two cups?" he asked by way of greeting.

[phdlancelot]

"I noticed that, when I saw you all in the control room, trying to work on a solution," Sweets said, approaching a question he'd been wanting to ask for a while as delicately as he could. The Master had provided a perfect transition to the topic, however, and Sweets wasn't about to pass it up.

"I've noticed that the people here don't seem to trust each other very much," he said. The implication, of course, was that they all seemed to distrust the Master. He wasn't going to come out and say it that baldly, of course. "I hope that's something I can help with a little bit, while I'm here. Working together, as a team." He sipped his tea, and then added in an undertone, "Of course, it would be easier if anyone would actually take me up on my offer of being someone they can talk to..."

[lord_and]

"What you mean is that they don't trust me very much," the Master said. Unlike Sweets, he wasn't going to dance around the topic. "You'll find that they don't trust the other alien here, either. If you'd like to make it your mission to convince them, be my guest," he said with a slight, challenging grin. "I'm happy to talk to you. I'm sure it'll be enlightening for us both," he continued, perhaps surprisingly, with no hint of irony.

[phdlancelot]

((AHAHA and I just realized I left this thread without a tag for so long, sorry *__* ))

"You're an alien?" Sweets asked, eyes going quite round with shock. He didn't doubt that the Master was telling the truth. Normally if he had heard someone making such a claim he would have been fascinated, of course, would have asked all the right questions to get a handle on whatever sort of delusion had gripped their fragile mind. In this case, however .... the presence of an actual alien wasn't out of the question. Considering that he was in space, with people from different versions of Earth, he was surprised the possibility hadn't occurred to him before.

"But-" he said, not wanting to offend but burning with curiosity, "But you look just like us. Is it a projection, or an illusion, or...?"

[lord_and]

"What?" he raised an eyebrow at him, amused. "Not even a little incredulity?" Not that Sweets was the first to take him at his word on this one particular point (of all the others they distrusted him on), but nearly everyone else here was human and the colony itself--it seemed that someone had gone to great lengths to make it seem human-made. But, he realized, this wouldn't be immediately obvious to someone from Sweets' era. Space itself was alien enough to them.

"You look just like us," he countered with a smirk. It seemed he'd hit upon a point of interest for the man. Judging by the immediate assumptions about how he was hiding his alienness, he guessed that Sweets was well-versed in science fiction. "Though we're different enough that I could prove my point, if you decide to take my word with a grain of salt."

[phdlancelot]

"After everything else, you being an alien hardly seems like a stretch," Sweets said with a small laugh, shaking his head. He had a sip of his tea before saying, indulgently, "Alright, I'll bite. Prove to me that you're an alien." It wasn't that he doubted the Master, but Sweets was curious how he could demonstrate the difference. He didn't seem embarrassed by the prospect or reluctant to go into it, so Sweets thought that his inquisitiveness wouldn't do any harm.

[lord_and]

Curious but accepting... the Doctor would probably love this one.

"Well then, Doctor Sweets," the Master said, gamely offering his wrist. "Take my pulse."

[phdlancelot]

Sweets, not sure exactly where the Master was going with this, reached out and took his pulse. He wasn't precisely an expert on the human circulatory system, but the tempo of this man's blood was definitely different than anything he'd felt before. It wasn't a steady beat, 1-2-3-4, but came in syncopated sets of two.

"That is too weird," he said, almost to himself, "What makes it do that?"

[lord_and]

The Master grinned, lightly moving Sweets' hand toward his chest. "Feel here," he said, timing his words to the beat of his hearts. "Two hearts." He tapped the beat out twice more, almost imperceptibly, on his wrist before letting go his hand.

[phdlancelot]

Sweets lowered his hand to his side slowly, thoroughly convinced that the Master was telling the truth. He was an alien, an honest-to-goodness alien.

[lord_and]

"Well?" the Master asked, shifting back to a casual tone, watching as Sweets' hand finished its slow-motion drift back to his side. "You look a little distracted, Sweets. It's probably the heat," he suggested.

[phdlancelot]

Sweets picked up his cup of tea, which had cooled down to the perfect temperature by this point. He was feeling a bit light-headed and tired, but that was to be expected with the lights out and the gravity going back and forth and the warm air and the quiet sounds of the metal corridors shifting their weight around him.

"Yes," he said, shaking his head a little to clear it, "I'm a little tired. I think I'm off, but it was nice talking to you." He waved a little, heading for the door.

[lord_and]

"Right," he said, waving back. "Get some rest, then. Good meeting you, Doctor Sweets." He smiled and waited for the man to leave, watching his exit carefully.