(Untitled)

[themistermaster]

The drumming. The endless, ear-splitting, brain-numbing drumming, which was currently doing a wonderful job of giving the Master a rather agonising headache. In search of a little peace, he’d found a quiet spot a short way in to the newly-appeared jungle - more tiresome little games by the Island - and was sitting with his back against a tree,

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[historyisme]

He decided after his midnight run-in with Glitch to finally explore the entirety of the damn island. It took away from research time, but he was hardly making any progress with that, so it made little matter in the end. The simple fact was, however, he did need to know how to get around if he ever did wake up in a portion of the island that was not his own

[themistermaster]

He'd managed to catch the words "useful" and "trinket" over his music, and could guess the gist of the rest of the sentence. He pulled out one of the earbuds. 'Oh, yes,' he said, giving the screwdriver a twirl with a lazy smile. 'Happy to demonstrate it on you any time.'

[historyisme]

Oh, now that drew an amused smirk. At least he wasn't pouty like Peter. "I'll be certain to keep that in mind."

[themistermaster]

'Do,' he said, with a cold smile, and changed the song on his iPod, pausing for a moment at a particularly vicious stab of pain. 'Should you ever feel like a slow and painful death, I'm your Time Lord. Full range of options, no torture too grisly. Is it dead already?' he added, frowning at the snake, which lay twitching faintly on the ground. 'Should have used a lower setting.'

[not_the_chav]

"I don't think that was poisonous," Martha pointed out from her place in the shadows, as if that might have made any sort of difference to whether the Master would have killed it. The way he looked was worrisome, and while she wasn't as inclined to stalking so much these days, she'd been quietly watching him for some time.

After hesitating a brief, indecisive moment, she asked, "What is it?" Almost immediately, she realised he couldn't hear a thing she was saying and probably was still unaware that she was there at all.

Mindful that he had the laser screwdriver in hand, she crept forward, kneeled beside him and pressed the pause button on his iPod. "What is it?" she repeated, obviously concerned.

[themistermaster]

He was startled for a brief second when the music cut off; he'd been too busy concentrating on the snake and his iPod and the drumming to notice her. Careless of him, really.

It took him a few moments longer than usual to manage a smile. 'Just a headache,' he assured her, slipping the screwdriver away.

[not_the_chav]

Unconvinced, Martha pressed the back of one hand to his forehead, although the climate had become so hot and humid recently it was difficult to tell whether he had a fever or not.

"Have you been drinking water?" she asked, fully in doctor mode now as she peered intently back at the Master. "It's easy to get dehydrated out here."

[themistermaster]

It was rather amusing, in a way, to see her all worried over him. 'Yes, I've been drinking water; no, I'm not dehydrated,' he said, with a theatrical roll of his eyes and a somewhat more good-natured grin. 'And no, I'm not about to die of jungle fever,' he added, pulling her hand gently away from his forehead.

He hesitated for a moment, not entirely sure whether to tell her the real cause - he never liked admitting to weakness - but it might be of some use, he decided. 'It's the drumming,' he explained, quite casually. 'The never-ending drumming.'

[stranded_ford]

Ford looked at the dying snake and grimaced. He had nothing for or against snakes, or random acts of cruelty, but the whole thing reminded him that he certainly had something against random acts of cruelty committed against his own person. Hanging around someone who called himself the Master probably wasn't helping his almost flawless track record of pain avoidance, but at least the conversations were interesting.

"Ew."

[themistermaster]

'If you think that's ew, you have an extremely low threshold for gore,' the Master said, pulling one earbud out of his ear. He hadn't actually heard what Ford said, but it wasn't exactly the hardest syllable to guess.

[stranded_ford]

"That's not gore. Gore usually involves more fluids. And it's more the whole association thing with it. Not that I'm comparing myself to a snake, but the whole writhing thing brings back memories. I don't like writhing." He'd done it a few times under less than pleasant circumstances. But that was the problem of Ford's existence, either people liked him or they tried to end that existence as soon as possible. He would have really liked some ambivalence every now and then.

[themistermaster]

'I do know what gore is,' the Master said. 'I have plenty of experience. But if that disgusts you, you must run screaming at the first sight of blood. Although I'm not personally fond of writhing, either,' he added, thoughtfully. 'I enjoy it in others. Of course, it depends on the type of writhing.'

[unit_girl]

Jo wasn't particularly fond of snakes, so she wasn't entirely happy to see one on the island. Whether they'd always been here or whether they'd appeared when the whole place had changed she wasn't sure.

Even with something she disliked, she hated to see a living being in pain. She was too busy watching the snake to take much notice of who had killed it. But that didn't stop her from shouting, "Was that really necessary?"

She stood, hands on hips, but not too close to the snake, just in case.

[themistermaster]

Well, well. If he wasn't very much mistaken - and if the Island wasn't playing around with duplicates again - standing before him was none other than Jo Grant. Yet another one of the Doctor's little pets. The Island seemed to have a fondness for them.

And of course she had no idea who he was, which just made it all the more fun. Grinning, he pulled out one of the earbuds and innocently asked, 'Sorry, what was that?'

[unit_girl]

She looked up at him, trying to work out what the white earbud was for. Some sort of hearing aid perhaps, although why would he take it out? Sam didn't have one, she would have remembered seeing it, and she was fairly sure the Master wouldn't need one. Which made her wonder if this was someone else entirely who looked like Sam.

"What did you do to that poor innocent creature? It never did you any harm." If it had he probably wouldn't still be standing here.

[themistermaster]

'And?' he asked, contemplating the still-twitching snake. 'I much prefer my way of doing things.'

He gave her a cheerful but somehow cold grin. 'The Island seems to be gathering quite a collection of you,' he said. 'The Doctor's little pets. Bit of a pointless hobby for whoever's doing it, really, I'd have thought.'