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]

[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.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[Self-amusement.]

I certainly thought so when I was young. Everything is much easier when you don't know how hard it will be.

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[nods] Oh, yeah, sure but...you wouldn't want to do anything else, would you?

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

[An honest grin, this time.] Never. [It fades as quickly as it came on.]

Almost never.

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[nods] Ah, everyone gets tired sometimes. The point is being happy with what you do most of the time, I think.

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

Someone in my world has been killing children.

[And out it pops. She startles, surprised at herself--but it's only common knowledge, really, no harm done. Right?]

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[blinks, surprised for a moment before he frowns]

Not a normal serial spree?

[chasingstars201.livejournal.com]

Not in the least.

[Debate. Debate. Debate. Honesty for honesty it is.]

There are people, where I come from, who have certain abilities. It varies from person to person. They're an extreme minority group, though they've grown more prevalent since the attacks on the Tokyo Gate. They started appearing the same time the Gates did. They... [She rubs her neck, searching for a proper way to explain.]

We call them Contractors. Their abilities can be as simple as voice amplification or complex as matter transference. What they do... they have to pay an obeisance for it. Every time they use their powers, they must give something in exchange. They have no qualms about killing. They are entirely logical creatures, all but lacking emotion. Not all of them. But most.

That's the kind of person I believe is doing this. There have been signs. And I'm starting to think that the murders aren't the Contractor's goal--I'm beginning to think they're the obeisance.

[salvagestime.livejournal.com]

[listens carefully, then nods]

So the person doing this is doing it in exchange to use their abilities. Which were probably granted by the Gate or related technologies, then. Have you been able to match up disturbances of any kind with the deaths?