April 15 // The Master, Robin

Apr 18, 2010 23:51

Date: BACKDATED April 15
Characters: The Master, Robin
Location: The Medical Lab
Summary: Robin, having installed a camera and microphone to keep an eye on the Master and his time vortex, receives a message from the future.
Warnings: Unexpected plot points, clandestine activity and shady deals after lights-out.

Robin sat on his bed, the top bunk, pillows shoved up against the wall and back shoved up against pillows. It was lights-out, not quite midnight yet, but he was already winding down, done with working for the day. As such he was dressed in a pair of the ridiculous footie-pajamas, which looked slightly more ridiculous, if possible, with the addition of his utility belt and mask. A portable sat open on his lap; he was most of the way through the first part of some movie called Kill Bill. Always the multitasker, he kept one eye on the T-communicator next to him. He never knew when Cyril might be up to something interesting with the vortex.

Meanwhile, in the medical lab, all was quiet. Behind the fridge, however, the vortex shifted slightly. There was a very faint hum as the capacitors inside the ring compensated and then, suddenly, a brief flash of light and a THUNK-klackaklacka as something hit the wall and clattered to the floor.

Robin was grinning a goofy half grin, nodding along to the music as he watched The Bride take on The Crazy 88's when a flash of light and a THUNK-klackaklacka from his T-communicator caught his attention. "What the...?" He quickly paused the movie, leaning forward to peer at the screen. He waited for a moment to see if anything else would happen; when nothing did, he frowned, snatching up the T-communicator and hopped lightly down from his bunk. Robin moved swiftly and silently through the dark corridors, keeping on eye on his communicator to see if anything else happened. He snapped the communicator closed as he stepped stealthily into the med lab, glancing around furtively before making his way over to the fridge and starting to muscle it away from the wall.

A small cylinder containing a small strip of paper rolled away from the wall as the fridge was pulled free.

Elsewhere in the colony, a quiet alarm sounded on the Master's portable, indicating that something had disturbed the vortex. He set down the small device he was working on, which resembled the chassis of a small remote-control car, and pulled the portable onto his lap, frowning. He'd been expecting someone to mess with it, and he had a fair idea of who it would be, though he couldn't figure out what he thought he'd gain from it. Flipping the portable closed, he stood and headed out towards the med lab.

Robin knelt down to pick up the cylinder, carefully avoiding looking into the portal... he found the vortex deeply unsettling. He frowned at the object in his hands, dimly lit by the time vortex's blue glow... he'd never seen anything come out of the vortex before, just Cyril chucking things in. Standing, he opened the cylinder, pulling the strip of paper out and reaching for the flashlight in his utility belt.

The paper resembled a fortune cookie fortune, and contained only one sentence, written out in very plain handwriting. "Never Trust a Time Lord."

"Never Trust a Time Lord?" he murmured under his breath. "What the heck...?" The Boy Wonder puzzled over the slip of paper. If he understood how the time vortex worked (and he wasn't entirely sure he did), this message-in-a-bottle had come from the future. But who had sent it? Was it meant for him? It wasn't his own handwriting, and certainly he would be less cryptic. But only he would know he'd be here... right? Robin glanced around quickly, then went back to frowning at the note. How seriously should he take this warning? Probably pretty seriously... 'Time Lord' could only be referring to one person: Cyril. The Master.

And, speaking of the Master, it was at this moment that he slid the door to the med lab open, spilling the faint light from the hallway into the room, revealing Robin looking at something with his flashlight.

"What are you doing?" he asked as he crossed the threshold into the room.

At the scrape of the door Robin turned, his body shielding his left hand as he slipped the canister and piece of paper into his utility belt, simultaneously bringing his flashlight up and around , intentionally aiming it at face level to obscure vision. ...Cyril. The Master. Of course it was.

"...Thought I'd get a closer look at the vortex," he replied. "...What are you doing?"

"What am I doing here?" He kept his pace even as he approached Robin, trying to see what the boy was doing, but he found himself squinting into the beam of the flashlight instead. "Didn't you think I'd know if someone was in here, poking around at what is, I hope you realize, a very dangerous hole into the time vortex." He kept his voice steady, conversational even, though there was a hint of anger masquerading as disappointment in the tone that Robin was not meant to miss.

Of course he had to have an alarm or something. The chances were pretty small he'd be here coincidentally. ...Nice of him to admit it. "Who's poking? Did I say poking? I'm just looking. It's fine if I don't touch it... right?" Robin managed to look just a bit uncertain at that last, as if in afterthought.

"You moved it," he said with a glance towards the fridge, his anger abating slightly. Robin didn't seem to be certain what he was doing in here, either, which was another mystery altogether. "If you had pulled the power cord... Put the bloody torch down, unless you want to blind me," he said irritably, finally putting a hand up to block it so he could stare down at him properly.

"Sorry!" Robin looked abashed, immediately lowering the beam to the floor. "You moved the fridge," he pointed out. "......What happens if someone pulls the power cord?"

"I know what I'm doing." He blinked, trying to make his eyes readjust to the dark more quickly. "If the power is cut off, the rift will decay and become more unstable. Not immediately, but it will only go one of two ways. Either it will snap shut, or it will widen into a schism." As he explained he began to look around the room, searching for evidence of Robin's motivations. Seeing nothing obvious, he turned to the vortex itself, focusing on the ring along the outer edge, still avoiding looking into its center, running his fingers along the etched script. None of the coordinates had been changed since he'd last touched it. "This is a strange time for night for a random curiosity," he said, turning back towards Robin. Maybe he really had come to look into it a second time. "Did you see anything interesting?"

"Schism? What does that mean, exactly?" he asked. He stepped back to give the Master room, watching him inspect the machine. "Not for me it isn't. I'm usually awake at this hour," he admitted. "I don't sleep much." He paused for a moment, not sure what to say... following his instincts, he went for something that was mostly truth. That was usually best. He frowned a little, letting the unsettled feeling the vortex gave him show. "...To be honest, I was trying to reverse engineer your mechanism. I don't like looking at the vortex. ...Or... maybe I like it too much...." he said, letting a bit of his confusion show as well. The Master would understand what he was talking about. Robin had seen how careful he was never to look at it either.

"A tear, in the fabric of reality." It sounded like it was meant to be ominous, but the tone came up short as the Master finished looking over the ring and began to turn the fridge back toward the wall. He stopped when Robin mentioned actually liking looking into the vortex, however. He grinned, then shifted to a more concerned look as he turned back to the boy. He had something he wanted, then. "It's been known to do that. You're staring at the raw power of time itself," he said, a note of wonder in his voice for added effect. "It's been known to drive some of my people mad, or to drive them away altogether. The power contained in that vortex is something that many have pursued." Through his explanation, he unconsciously tapped out the four-part rhythm where his hand rested on the fridge, barely audible but still noticeable.

Robin frowned. "A tear in the fabric of reality? And knowing that, you built it anyway? What if there's a power outage?" Robin pointed out, accusatory. He listened as the Master explained about the power of the time vortex. Hidden behind the lenses of his mask, his eyes slid to the Master's fingers, tapping out a rhythm. He'd seen the Master do that around the vortex before. An obsessive-compulsive behavior? He slid his eyes back to the Master's face. "...And you? What does it do to you?"

"Nothing ventured..." he said, quoting the other half of Robin's quip as he'd damaged the nascent TARDIS. "It's calibrated to compensate for limited power outages--you'll notice it wasn't affected by the blackout," he said pointedly. "But if someone had unplugged it and not realized." He left it at that, returning to the more interesting of the two subjects. "I find it inspiring." Which was technically true.

"Limited power outages," Robin replied flatly. "...Is there any way to turn it off safely?" Robin chanced a glance at the very edge of the vortex, pulled his eyes away again with some amount of effort. "...I'm not sure how I feel about it. It interests... fascinates me," he admitted truthfully.

"Yes," he stated with finality. "But that won't be necessary." He watched while Robin's eyes were drawn again to the vortex, gauging the effort it took him to draw his gaze away again, and decided to take a calculated risk. "Would you like to learn how to control it?" he asked, though at the same time he pointedly began pushing the fridge back into place--it would not be now.

Robin frowned just the tiniest bit, studying the Master quietly for a moment. "...Yes. I would."

“Very well," the Master said, but as he pushed the fridge back into place the blue glow of the vortex illuminated a small dent in the wall that he knew had not been there previously. He clenched his jaw, suspecting that this risk was already beyond what he'd counted on. He turned back around and sized the boy up again, but curiosity and some small part of boredom won out over his anger at him sending a message so brazenly to this moment. "Let me know when you're ready, but until then, let it alone."

Robin was still watching the Master, a small, serious frown on his face. His offer was unexpected. He wasn't exactly the sharing type. So why would he? "...Fair enough," he agreed, then added, "Thank you."

The Master nodded, carefully keeping his expression neutral. "Go get some sleep," he said, and headed toward the door.

Robin's only reply to that was a snort; he glanced at the glowing green digits of the clock... it was a bit after midnight. Like I could sleep now... too much to think about, he mused, following the Master and the beam of his flashlight out of the room... as if he needed it.

*log: closed, [doctor who] the master, [teen titans] robin

Previous post Next post
Up