001 - A Bad Day For Everyone

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[Misaki Kirihara appears on the plane looking very, very pissed. Her Sig P230 is unholstered and leveled at…

…no one.]

Tch.

[She lowers the weapon, very slightly, taking in her surroundings. Or rather, the lack thereof.]

Contractor!

[She turns in a slow circle, tension wrapped around her like a creaking spring.]

Contractor! Show yourself. You’re being stupid. Using your power on a member of the NPA will get you killed. It isn’t worth the laugh.

[A pause. She’s starting to get angry again.]

Show yourself!

[She looks up, down, around at the stars, and a pained expression crosses her face. Barely audible, she mutters,]

You people… know how to be cruel.

Comments

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[nods thoughtfully to himself] So the moon's gone, too. Thought so. Sounds like the sun is breaking through a bit, maybe. Or just part of the projection. Oh, the tides. Are the ocean tides all right? Any different?

How do you know the gate didn't malfunction, though? Do you know where they came from? Or who created them?

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[She rubs the back of her neck, coming to the border of what she's comfortable sharing.]

The tides seem to behave normally--though I'm no expert, so I couldn't tell you for sure if they've changed.

We don't know where they came from, who made them, or if anyone made them at all. As far as Heaven's Gate goes... There was a war. It was sabotage. A terrorist group. They sealed that Gate and tried to do the same to Tokyo. To all of Japan.

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[nods] The tides are controlled by the moon. 'Course, those gates could be controlling them now but that could also mean the moon is just fine and dandy beyond that illusion.

[but then he genuinely looks surprised and frowns] They sabotaged it? Some great big dangerous piece of technology they don't know about and they mucked it up just to use it against people? Japan's gate survived it?

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[Gah. Things getting complicated now.]

Not... exactly. They weren't able to complete the process in Japan. And they knew more than we did. Well. Than I did, at that point. They knew as much as the people who mattered, the people who controlled the Gate.

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[notices her hesitation growing]

Misaki, I know this is probably all very classified and it's your job to protect it but I think I can help if you tell me about it.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[She's starting to feel very, very fatigued and gives him a smile that shows it.]

You do this sort of thing often? Sweeping in to worlds you've never been to and trying to put things right?

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[smiles back and sounds quite happy about his work]

All the time. Not always worlds I've never been to, although those are fun and new. But can't tell you how many times I've saved Earth now. Not to brag or anything. [even if he is a bit. then he pauses, looking over her] A friend of mine sleeps here sometimes. Says it's quite comfortable.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[She snorts.] I'm that obvious?

What's your friend like?

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[laughs] I'm just very good.

Ah, Sam! He's sort of funny. I wonder if he's read Existential philosophy sometimes. But he's a good man. Dedicated to his job, a little high on his morals sometimes but it happens to all of us. Also apparently likes musicals, so I can't dislike him.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[She likes this man. This alien? He's weird, but it's a charming sort of weird. In some ways he reminds her of Li.]

Of course you are.

Sam--DI Sam Tyler?

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[the Doctor is quite enjoying Misaki as well. Especially to have told her as much as he did]

Yep! That's the one. Met him already, I assume?

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

Yes. He-- [And suddenly, Realization!]

He mentioned you.

[And then just as suddenly, Confusion.]

He said something about multiples of you. I've met Co-- people capable of projecting low-level psychic mirrors of themselves. Simulacra, for lack of a better word. They're only capable of basic interaction, though. I've never heard of someone who can inhabit three bodies at once.

[And the caution returns, ever so slightly.]

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[shakes his head slightly]

Nah, it's not like that. It's something we - my people - can do to cheat death. I regenerate every single cell in my body. It means I change everything completely. Hair, teeth, face, height, voice, bits of personality...but I'm still me. Let's see...my fifth is around, he's in a black cricket outfit. And my ninth, too. He'd be the short haired gent in the leather coat.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

So... which "regeneration" are you? If you don't mind. And how old does that make you, exactly?

[She gives him a headtilt, considering.]

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

Ah! Right, sorry. I'm the, erm, tenth. So right after leather jacket. And oooh, I dunno. I always say 900ish but I was thinking about it and the Rani and I were over 900 back in my...seventh. So I suppose I'm getting up there. [headscratches in slight embarrassment]

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[The fact that this man is almost one thousand years old doesn't register as quickly as "the tenth". She files the age away into her brain-break-for-a-later-date file.]

You're... Do you travel with a man called the Master?

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

Uhm, yeah, about that. [rubs his eye a bit in a way that says 'uncomfortable'] You seem smart enough, so just...if you talk to him, keep your guard up. The Master can be rather dangerous. Oh and right. He looks more or less like Sam in a black suit. He feels completely different to me but that's a good way of putting it.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

I've heard about him. Them. A little bit, at least. [Predatory Kirihara is predatory.]

You don't have to answer if you don't wish to, but why would you travel with someone like him?

[She checks herself and backs off.]

My apologies. You've been courteous. That was rude.

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[looks down a bit, suddenly seeming more tired than he was before]

That's...a long story.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[She suddenly feels like an incredible ass.]

One you don't have to tell. We all have our reasons for... strange companions.

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[looks back up, smiling slightly at her]

Well if you're going to be nice about it...We're the last two of our species. That's it. There was a war and my people lost. [glances around at the stars] Thanks to this place, we did find another survivor, though. A friend of mine, Romana. But that's it, besides the other versions. It gets quite complicated but there you have it.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[She doesn't really know what to say in the face of that, but she feels that she ought to say something.]

I'm... sorry. [She falters a bit, casting around for something else.]

Thank you.

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

It's not your fault. But thank you.

[topic jump!] So! How'd you get into this line of work?

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[She willingly jumps along with him.] I've always wanted to be a cop.

[She headtilts, smiling at nothing in particular.] I wanted to keep people safe.

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[smiles back] That's an admirable goal.