stop the cycle, set me free ( capnhotness )
( clock is ticking while I'm killing time, spinning all around, nothing else they can do to turn it back )
It's a heavy thing to suggest, that one might actually find time to be bored during the end of the world, but the Doctor has somehow managed just that extreme an accomplishment. If anything, the Master seems to be avoiding him. The ( Read more... )
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Jack had asked himself the same question - boiler room, what the hell? - when he had been escorted down several days ago, wondering at the tactical advantage (or, really, disadvantage) of such a seemingly out of place aspect of design. While bored, waiting for the Master to pencil him into his busy taking-over-the-world schedule, Jack attempted to follow the pipes nearest to where he had been chained - a dank sort of corner, really, with not much to look at but pipes and the odd shades cast by the dark purple lighting playing across the steam - but to very little avail. Inexplicable Boiler Room, he'd eventually named the place, but the humor of the thing only lasted a few more hours ... until his slotted time with the Master ( ... )
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The Doctor is distracted enough by the presence of the boiler room that he spends a good few moments examining it once he exits the lift. The Gallifreyan inspiration of the airship's build is much less obvious in such a rudimentary and decidedly human-constructed place as this, so very out of place in the elegant design of the rest. The Doctor can't fathom what the logic might be in the Master choosing to include it ... unless there's technology at work that he'd disguised back in his days as Harry Saxon by tossing in a boiler room so that anyone without an engineering mind might assume that's how the airship functions. There are many possibilities ...
Eventually, however, the Doctor remembers what it is he was trying to do, and reorients his attention on the small psychic net he's been casting out since leaving the bridge, searching for Jack's presence. The furthest corner of the ship seems like an obvious place for a prisoner ... and, admittedly, the Master seems to be carrying things to a level of rather classic villainy. ( ... )
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"Nngh - " Maybe he'd drifted off, hadn't been paying attention to the sound of rushing footsteps or the play of shadow across the floor, but Jack only notices the presence of another when a hand touches his jaw and fingertips press against the pulse point at his neck. He jerks away, as if that's a natural reaction, and takes a somewhat frantic breath of air before he composes himself, shrugs off the annoying rush of fear, and actually looks up. Someone, apparently, tipped the world on its head and for a series of moments he's utterly confused at the fact that he's face-to-face with the Doctor.
"What ... what're you doing here?" Jack tries to ask, past the rough feeling of his throat, and realizes the last time he had any water was in Ears' cell. And he can't for the life of him fathom how long ago that actually was, having no method by which to measure the passing of days. (No sunlight, no clocks, no guard change.) "If this is a rescue," he goes for the more humorous approach, "you're sure taking your sweet time with it."
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For the Doctor, they might as well be back in that cell so many weeks ago, discussing tactics, with Jack selflessly offering himself up as bait to distract the Master from harming the Doctor. His hearts skip a beat at the thought, even as he tentatively reaches forward and tries again at touching the Captain, trying to comfort or soothing or something that he can do. His expression is immeasurably regretful, of his own inability or of Jack's blind, simple faith in him, even the Doctor isn't really certain.
"It's not a rescue," he replies quietly, although he nevertheless does look up to examine the chains, trying to determine if there's anything he can possibly do to pick the locks. There's nothing that the Doctor can do to help Jack actually escape, as such an attempt would only serve to make things worse, after the temporary relief of it. "I'm ... I'm sorry I didn't come sooner. I didn't forget, I just - I couldn't find you."
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