taxonomites | 2 [Accidental Visual | Location: Mount Perdition]

[ooc: Backdated to be after this, feel free to ask the Doctor wtf he is doing or poke/laugh at/check on the Master.]

When the tablet flickered on it was obvious that something was amiss. The Doctor and the Master were both in the frame, though the tablet itself seemed to be in the hands of a third, unseen person who hadn’t realised it was active, as there was quite a bit of floor in the shot as well. Both Time Lords were close together, their foreheads touching, and it was apparent that the Doctor had been part of the way through saying something when the tablet was activated.

“—sorry.”

Then the Master screamed like someone in agony, reeling back from the Doctor like he’d been burned, arms flailing wildly as though he was trying to fend off an invisible attack. The building they were in shuddered and whoever was holding the tablet dropped it, throwing the image into a disarray of walls, floor, and ceiling before it stopped, showing the Doctor. He rose slowly, his face an almost cold and distant mask as the Master continued to sob and scream, shouting the word ‘no’ more than once among the other sounds of his distress.

The room shuddered again and the Doctor was moving, picking up the tablet – his hand filling the screen for a moment – and running from the room, leaving the Master behind. Though the screams could still be heard as he raced through the building, the tablet broadcasting a confusing jumble of running feet, half-seen glimpses of ornate furniture and architecture, and the Doctor’s face.

It was difficult to tell, but there was something else strange in the way the building shook, doors banging open and closed like the place was home to a very upset poltergeist , and at least once the Doctor ducked as an unseen object flew across the room towards him.

A shot of a door loomed out of nowhere and there was a bang as he burst through it, yelping in pain as a flying object caught the side of his head. The sound of the Master’s tortured yelling finally stopping as the gloom of the building gave way to too-bright sunlight. The Doctor must have tripped then, as the sky suddenly became red grass, then sky, then grass, over and over as he rolled a distance and finally stopped, the tablet showing his slightly-bruised profile as he lay sprawled on his back staring at the sky and breathing hard.

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"Right, yes, good," the Doctor snapped back, twisting around to narrow his eyes at her. "And what will I say? 'Jenny, that's the Master, he's another Time Lord and dangerous and yes, he's done some horrible things to people in the past, but you mustn't go near him'? Do you think that will work, Martha? Do you really think so?"

He sighed, the exhaustion and pain coming back in a rush, and turned away again to stare blankly at the wall. "I'm sorry, I really am, and I wish things could be different. But they're not. There are some things I can't tell Jenny, or you, or anyone. It's just the way things are."

"I think it's better than leaving her to find things out for herself," Martha retorted, stubbornly. She didn't expect him to tell her everything. She didn't expect him to tell Jenny everything. But hiding from the problem wouldn't make the problem go away. Keeping Jenny in the dark wouldn't change the very real danger she was in.

Before she could continue the argument, she heard Jenny's footsteps in the hall.

"Could you put that on the table, Jenny?" she asked, stepping out of the bathroom and back into the living room. "You can sit down now, Doctor."

Jenny did as she was asked without a word, and then stood somewhat awkwardly, brushing her hands against her pants. She wondered if she ought to just leave. It might be best, seeing as how, upon reflection, she probably wasn't wanted here at all. She'd rather just demanded to know what was going on and barged in, and it had become fairly obvious that she wasn't meant to know anything about it.

But that just chafed, and she wasn't a child and she wasn't going to stand for it. If her dad wanted her to bugger off, he could tell her so himself. Otherwise, she was sticking around like a thorn stuck in her father's side.

Martha might think that, and she might also think (probably did think) that he was being too overly protective or concerned about things. But the Doctor would much rather keep Jenny in the dark about the Master if it meant she wouldn't do something like try and face him herself.

Unfortunately now he had to try and come up with something to tell her, otherwise she'd do exactly that. And he wasn't sure he'd much like the results of her running up against the other Time Lord.

He followed Martha out of the bathroom and draped his shirt over the arm of the couch again, settling down onto it with an almost mulish expression. It was hard to tell which out of him or Jenny was sulking more.

"I suppose I owe you an explanation," he said eventually.

She would have liked to disappeared downstairs and give the Doctor and Jenny time to talk on their own, but, unfortunately, she wasn't finished patching him up just yet. She moved silently to sit next to the Doctor, making use of the sterile water Jenny had fetched and cleaning the rest of his cuts as quickly and professionally as possible.

He supposed, did he? Jenny bit back a very snippy reply and just held his gaze, waiting. At this point, she was even less concerned with what the explanation actually was than she was with the fact that she was getting one. Which was not to say that she'd enjoy being fed another line, and that was precisely why Jenny was happy that Martha hadn't made herself scarce. If the Doctor lied, Martha wouldn't be able to school her reaction quickly enough to avoid giving him away. She was a human lie detector.

2 [Accidental Visual | Location: Mount Perdition]

[Location: Central]

[Location: Central]

[Location: Central] Finally back, sorry. :x

[Location: Central] It's fine :)

[Location: Central]

[Location: Central]