trans_9 | Suitable Distractions [open]

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Suitable Distractions [open]

It was late afternoon, almost sunset on the tropical planet of Zokez II, the cloudless sky mellowing with hints of gold and mauve, the tide receding as much as possible with the gravitational equivalent of an extra moon now in orbit; most of the tidier shops were closing for the day, the stalls had long since packed up and headed inland, but across the street and deep into the square the Doctor spotted neon lights and flickering signs leading to shady corners and seedy taverns, where the late night crowd was beginning to gather in much tighter packs than the general mass of afternoon. This left plenty of open pathways, so long as one stuck to the right circles (and consequently didn’t plan on going anywhere in particular)—pathways which the Doctor was taking full advantage of in the face of yet another sleepless night.

Surely he was disappointed by recent events, yes, perhaps even more so by the idea that this time he was enclosed, this adventure he would have to play out in a normal, linear fashion, taking the path too well trodden by the more boring members of the universe not able to hop through the fourth dimension, as it were. But, as with what usually occurs with this incarnation, a chance for exploration and adventure quickly drowned out his worries, replacing them with youthful enthusiasm and breathless exclamations to random passerby.

Oh, and shopping. There was shopping involved.

Seeing as the TARDIS, though present, was currently inaccessible, the Doctor took it upon himself to gather some necessary supplies and what luxuries he could afford with his ‘pocket change’. Said pocket change went quite a long way, actually; the Doctor found that he was not only able to purchase more than enough electronic devices to keep him occupied for at least another month, if not more should Engineering provide him with a steady supply of parts to tinker with, but he was also even able to look around for some clothes in a vain attempt to rebuild his usual outfit. Now obviously there were stores with striped slacks and long-sleeved jumpers and whatnot, but in the end they all fell short of the Doctor’s expectations, and he ended up leaving with only a simple white dress shirt (he was lucky to find one with a red interior, but alas, no question marks upon the collar) and a pair of plimsolls. Well, those and a far more precious prize.

A casual pass into a sporting goods store—perhaps in the hopes of finding a more substantial uniform—had the Doctor come across a surprisingly well-made cricket bat, brand new and heftily priced. It took the rest of his allowance and quite a bit of bartering to obtain it, but it was definitely a worthwhile acquisition. Even if he was able to get into the TARDIS, that old bat rotting away in there hadn’t been oiled in several centuries and would probably break in half if it was ever used in any serious competition. This was for the best, yeah?

So now, strolling along the deserted pathway, a small bottle of linseed oil and a dirty handkerchief poking out of his coat pocket, the Doctor was busily tapping away at his prize with a bat mallet and a placid smile on his face. He might’ve been humming, but it was difficult to tell over the rhythmic pounding of willow wood and the background chatter of alien gulls. He was, all in all, extremely happy with himself, this new development, and with being able to completely forget that the rest of the world existed.

Perhaps someone should come remind him that noisily knocking in a cricket bat is not the most efficient way to escape the outside world, as the outside world will often be curious enough to investigate such racket in one form or another.

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There's a someone readily available, in the form of Jamie - who is still rather firmly in 'Follow a Doctor Around' mode whenever possible. Given time (and enough lack of sleep) he'll probably get to a point where he's willing to give the Time Lord more space. Right now, however, if he thinks he's spotted a Doctor, he's off and chasing after him...and it does appear that he's successfully found one of them.

"Doctor! Hey, Doctor!"

He comes running up, nearly overshooting where the Doctor's standing - and consequently having to make a rather abrupt stop as he realizes this. There's something in his hand as well, although it is considerably smaller and mostly hidden by his fingers. Jamie shifts his grip for a moment, and a metallic glint can be seen from the object in question.

The cricket bat is given a rather curious look. He knows what it is, but it's not really his sport, so he's a little baffled by the knocking in part. Or, more specifically, why the Doctor's doing so in the middle of some deserted pathway rather then back in the hotel room.

"What are ye doing?"

Ah—a familiar voice! The Doctor looked up, distracted for only a moment as Jamie skidded to a stop beside him, offering an open-mouthed grin before busily resuming his task. He was genuinely happy to see him, of course; Ten was right in saying that he wasn’t used to being alone, despite his habit to wander off (much like his companions). It was always nice to meet up with the others at the end of the day. You know, make sure they’re still alive and unharmed. That was a good place to start.

Once said assessment was completed in that brief, welcoming glance, the Doctor was once again absorbed and, thus, didn’t catch on immediately.

“Hmm?” He raised his brow and cocked his head, inferring from Jamie’s expression what the question probably was. He was usually right when this happened, but the answer might not have always been what the inquiring party was expecting. “—Ah, well. Just enjoying the atmosphere.”

The Doctor gave his cricket bat a few more decisive whacks, deposited the mallet in his other pocket (where it promptly disappeared into the depths), and held the finished product in front of his nose. He ran his hand gently over one of the sides, a somewhat pained expression crossing his face when he encountered a small dent, and out of the corner of his eye he spotted a glint of something shiny in Jamie’s grasp.

“Find anything interesting?”

Likewise, Jamie is also quite pleased to see the Doctor, for more than one reason. Even though the comment about the atmosphere gets a momentary disbelieving glance, he's still eager enough with his find that he wants to show off, just a little.

"Aye! There was this wee place that said it was a toy store, and they sold me something called a kazoo."

He uncurls his fingers, and sure enough, in his hand is a little metal version of the instrument. Two might have very well kept a kazoo in his own pockets, but if he did, he kept it far away from Jamie. Likely this was to prevent Jamie from quite happily starting an impromptu demonstration, which he proceeds to do now for Five.

He's picked up the knack of humming into it loudly enough that it makes a rather noticeable noise. This probably isn't going to help with keeping the racket in the area down. Or back in their room on Stacy, for that matter.

The Doctor didn’t have to even see what this device was—the very word “kazoo” raised all sorts of alarms in his head, causing a momentary flash of horror to cross his visage behind his cricket bat. He thought of reprimanding him ahead of time, giving the usual advisory comment, but then he wondered if Jamie’s musical sense might transfer over to smaller toy instruments.

He was…partially right. Maybe. But the real deciding factor was that this companion played bagpipes, thus it was less the tune and more the noise. Which, yes, the Doctors mortified reaction was a touch hypocritical considering the clamor he was making earlier, but when has this ever stopped him?

A less patient incarnation might’ve snatched away the tiny metal kazoo then and there, hiding it away into a remote pocket for later use. Luckily Five was not so unkind, merely pulling a face and sputtering somewhat over the cracked pitches blaring through the calm.

“—Jamie, perhaps you could save practicing for a later time!”

Lowering the kazoo, Jamie's lips press together in momentary annoyance, one side of his mouth showing this rather more clearly than the other. It's an expression he's worn plenty of times with his Doctor - seems some things aren't going to change. Just as quickly as it appeared, however, the look is gone and he's back to normal.

"Aye, all right." He puts the kazoo in his sporran before Five thinks better of his action and steals it away. He gives the cricket bat a rather pointed look before adding dryly, "I suppose that means ye don't want me to practice on the pennywhistle I picked up, either."

The Doctor chuckled good-naturedly, resuming the careful examination of his bat even after the mention of the pennywhistle. There were multiple explanations for this apparent increase of happiness, not limited to the fact that this was quite a bit more refined an instrument and slightly less annoying to have played on a calm beachside road; mostly it was due to more nefarious purposes.

“Only if you let me borrow it later,” he began, somewhat distracted; then a grin crossed his face and he put on his most innocent expression. “—Actually, I understand that my other self enjoys kazoos, why don’t you go play for him?”

"Ye can borrow it if ye like, but it's back at the hotel room," Jamie replies with a shrug. It does make practicing it a bit difficult at the moment. He hooks his thumbs behind the chain holding his sporran in place and cranes his head slightly to watch the Doctor inspecting the bat.

"Haven't seen him," he adds. "You're hard to track down when ye don't want to be found." Besides, since he's already found one Doctor, he's content enough, and showing no signs of going anywhere anytime soon. "Although," he continues, sounding somewhat thoughtful, "I may show him a wee bit later."

Jamie won't thank you, Doctor, if Ten decides to take the kazoo away from him when he does. In the meantime, however, he nods over at the bat. He's assuming that the Doctor actually wants to use it, if he's taking the trouble to knock it in. If he was going to just display it in their quarters, the Scot thinks he likely wouldn't have bothered.

"So now that ye have that, are ye going to set up something to play on Stacy?"

Ah, yes, not having the instrument in question on hand would make playing it more difficult than usual (if not impossible—I wouldn’t ask). The Doctor raised his brow in a fleeting glance at the Scotsman before resuming his examination of the bat and, after some pondering, he figured that Jamie would probably show his later incarnation both instruments later, where he would then have his satisfaction.

He was serious about trying that pennywhistle, though. At least before Ten found it—with his luck he would enjoy it about as much as Two did and would, therefore, play at all hours of the day and Five would never hear the end of it. At least in his care it would remain mostly silent, apart from the early morning when he deemed it necessary.

The Doctor’s brief reverie subsided as he removed a worn cricket ball from one of his inner pockets and, as if not sure what else to do with it, he placed it upon the flat edge of his bat and preoccupied himself with keeping it level and unmoving.

“Perhaps. That depends greatly upon how busy we are when we get back.”

Or, quite possibly, it's simply that Jamie just left it in the hotel room. The instrument's smaller than his chanter but, unlike the kazoo, it's still a little too long to easily fit in his sporran.

The chances of Five getting ahold of the pennywhistle are rather higher than Ten's, if the situation is given a wee bit more thought. After all, there is something to be said for sharing the same living space. Jamie still has the habit of leaving things just lying about, since it hasn't been long enough for him to adjust to having a roommate. And, unlike the bagpipes that are there, he'd be less likely to notice a missing pennywhistle immediately.

Mind you, he'll probably just happily hand over the instrument anyway if asked again when it's in his possession. It's not like he's going to think about it overmuch.

"That's true," Jamie replies, after a moment. "Have ye thought about if ye are going to join one of the departments? Or..." He eyes Five with a rather thoughtful expression. "Were ye going to talk to yourself first and try and figure out a way to stay away from each other while working in the same place?"

Edited 2010-06-22 04:48 (UTC)

Right—departments. It was something the Doctor had been considering since the announcements went out soon after the stasis release, but at the time he was too concerned with finding the TARDIS, making sure that he had a way out (and a good lay of the land, so to speak) before he threw himself into anything long-term. Now that he had a better idea of the sheer amount of time he would be spending on this ship, the Doctor was starting to settle in and was juggling around a new set of options available to him.

And, to tell the truth, the prospect of having his later incarnation also consider those same options (and act upon them in a similar fashion) hadn’t crossed his mind until Jamie brought it up.

This understandably made him very worried.

“—Well, yes,” he began, giving the space in front of him a pained look, “Billy has already invited me to look around Engineering, and it would be quite useful if I got to know all of the various departments and their current projects. As for the other me…”

The Doctor paused, flicking the cricket ball up in the air and capturing it with his free hand, thereafter stuffing it back in the pocket whence it came.

“…I’m sure he has similar—if not the same—plans; but, considering that we’ve managed to avoid creating any major paradoxes by being in the same place and time so far, working with him shouldn’t be too much of a problem.” He winced, as if he’d failed to convince himself that this was true. “—At any rate we can request separate projects.”

Well, if the prospect of Ten considering the same options has made Five very worried, Jamie's next words probably won't help improve matters one jot.

"Aye, there's a lot either one of ye can do in Engineering. Oh! I've not mentioned yet. Billy and Kaylee have been teaching me somewhat about repair, so ye may see me down there."

Granted, it's pretty much some very simple basics, but Five doesn't know that, and Jamie doesn't clarify immediately. Watching the cricket ball being tossed in the air instead, Jamie points, and opens his mouth - about to ask if he can take a look at it - when the ball is unceremoniously stuffed back in Five's pocket. There's a fleeting look of disappointment that is quickly turned into a slightly skeptical expression.

"Too much of a problem? Oh, aye," he comments dryly. "Ye weren't even able to look for the TARDIS without it turning into a bit of a stramash."

Oh how very true.

If the Doctor was wearing his new shoes he would’ve tripped over them; instead he kind of half-stumbled, flipping around to give Jamie an incredulous look as if he was the cause for his misstep, but the real meaning of that crinkled brow and squinted eyes was obvious. Jamie? Doing repair in Engineering?

No way. “…Jamie, what exactly does ‘repair work’ entail in your case?”

Of course the tables of skepticism turned against him several moments later. The Doctor huffed, frowning pointedly, though the expression could hardly be taken seriously. It usually wasn’t.

“—Talking to oneself is a sign of insanity,” he quoted matter-of-factly, folding his arms with the cricket bat cradled in the center, “You can’t hardly blame us for getting exasperated with one another.”

"Hey?"

There's a rather baffled blinking at that reaction, as Jamie really has no idea why the Doctor would be so surprised by the his revelation. He did say Billy and Kaylee were teaching him, after all. Jamie just assumed the Doctor would figure that he's not exactly at a point where he can do reactor repairs or the like.

"Kaylee showed me how to fix frayed wires, since I've seen ye do that a lot of times. They have me do that, and sometimes I hand them things they need."

Which really isn't much more than what he used to do to for the Doctor. How often was it 'Hand me this, Jamie', or 'Press these buttons when I tell you to, Jamie', anyway?

"Why, what did ye think I did?"

Edited 2010-06-23 22:59 (UTC)

…Well, it’s been a while. It’s been long enough that the Doctor, though he remembered the more general Jamie-like characteristics of his erstwhile companion, had quite frankly forgotten what he was capable of doing, and not just with him. Nearly all of his shipmates were far more intelligent and inquisitive than the Doctor gave them credit for, especially Jamie, what with considering the time period that he came from and judging from how well he’d adapted to life on Stacy so far. The fact that he was actually getting his hands into the finer parts of electronics only served to further prove this point—and at any rate, it was good to know that Jamie wasn’t taking on any large-scale projects at the moment. Faintly he got an image of the piper, clad in a welding mask and gloves, running into the control room in Neuropathy and announcing loudly, ”Hey, I’ve got an idea!...”

~~In conclusion, Five’s reaction had nothing to do with his mun’s distracted day at work and the consequent derpiness of all the posts she typed during this time.~~

On the other hand, though, there was a chance that Jamie was not at all interested in working on repairing frayed wires and holding tools. Perhaps he was simply finding a familiar way to occupy himself while on the ship, and found that the techs in Engineering were close enough Doctor-substitutes. Or perhaps it was a bit more specific than that; perhaps it only had to do with the person Jamie had mentioned just a few seconds ago.

The Doctor deliberately—and quite gracelessly—changed the subject. “—So have you been getting these lessons from Kaylee for a while?”

It's been rather less time for Jamie than for the Doctor. Still, if he had given it a bit more thought, he might have remembered that it is entirely possible the word 'teaching' might not have even registered with the Doctor and perhaps subsequently not gotten confused at all. At least, not on that. It's pretty much inevitable that something or other will confuse him at some point.

~~Apparently, distracted days at work appear to have been a common thing as this mun honestly hadn't even noticed any derpiness.~~

"A wee bit," he says, not at all fussed about the subject change. Non-answers to his questions aren't anything new. "When she got hurt during that Nightmare King business, she wasn't able to use her arm, so I offered to help."

Granted, this had started out as a rather impulsive, slightly-fueled-by-ale type of offer, but Jamie had made the decision to honor it anyway, in part because she really did need the help. However...there may have been some other motivating factors. It's not quite the same as it was for Victoria, but she does trigger a lot of his more protective instincts. There may be a little bit of attraction there, as well. He doesn't bother to try and hide any of these.

It's not the sole reason he's taken on those lessons, though. "But it's not just her, like I said, aye? Billy does help as well. Oh! Ye should ask him to show ye the RadBug sometime. It's a flying car that he built."

Engineering, after all, is one of the better places to see all sorts of interesting objects and inventions, even if Jamie has no clue about how half of them work.

As the sun disappeared from sight Nanashi stirred from a hiding place she had found, dark, damp, underground. Some abandoned apartment basement. She had to break in of course, but something small like that did not bother her. The important thing was that she would not be disturbed.

The sound of a cricket bat getting knocked around is most certainly a noise that disturbed Nanashi. She had heard it from far down the street and it was just getting closer. She slipped out of the tiny basement window she had shattered to get in and exited into the dark alley.

Clunk clunk clunk

Who the hell was making such a racket? She rushed out into the street, moving at her full speed, practically invisible to the normal human eye. It did not take long to find the perpetrator. She recognized him from the meet and greet right after the pod pop. She had liked him. But that noise.

She rushed him, grabbing the bat from his hands, standing directly in front of him to block his path. She looked monstrous in her anger. "Cease this maddening noise!"

Nanashi got very cranky when her sleep gets interrupted.

Ah, yes—invisible to the normal human eye, perhaps. But we all know that the Doctor is far from human.

He caught sight of a figure moving much faster than what he had come to expect, dashing some ways ahead of him, a simple glint of color in the quickly darkening street that he had wandered onto. The Doctor paused for a moment in his pounding, giving the now empty area a cautious glance over before he shrugged and happily resumed—

—Only to have the bat snatched from his hand and the previous figure snarling in his face. The Doctor started, hopping back and throwing his palms in the air as a submissive gesture, a startled, “Steady on!” escaping his lips an octave higher than his casual speaking voice. At this point he realized that the mallet was still clasped tightly in one fist now raised above his head, and he hurriedly dropped it into his pocket before resuming the aforementioned pose. He recognized who she was several seconds into the confrontation, which did not help much.

“—Now Nanashi,” the Doctor admonished, trying to sound level despite the frequent cracks in his voice, “You’ve taken my bat and I’ve put the mallet away, therefore I can’t make that noise very effectively anymore…”

The long black cloak she wore settled as The Doctor surrendered. Well, at least snatching the bat was effective, even if more effective than she needed. The noise had stopped, and she was fairly placated by this. Fairly.

Nanashi took a deep breath, savouring it's inexplicable calming effect. She relaxed a good deal, but was still cautious. "I will give you back your-" she realized she didn't actually know what it was, so she just said, "this," raising the cricket bat, "but I expect you to not make any more of that noise!" She held the bat out for the Doctor to take, rubbing her ear with her free hand. When you can hear a heart beat from across a room, a conversation from across a warf, a cricket bat tapping could be a rather maddening noise- not to mention it distracted from all other sounds.

She breathed deep again, explaining her irritation with, "I was sleeping. I am not a fan of being woken up." Just because she was being calm and civil did not mean that she was not still irritated.

And the Doctor breathed a sigh of relief, glad that this hadn’t ended the same way that it had the last time he encountered angry spawn of the Great Vampire, considering that this was a side of them that he was far more familiar yet much less prepared to deal with. Besides, if Nanashi wasn’t able to control her natural tendencies towards, you know, killing everything in sight, then Stacy probably wouldn’t have picked her up in the first place.

Oh, what a reassuring realization. The Doctor smiled carefully and took back the offered cricket bat, patting it as if he were comforting a small child. ”Now now, the scary lady’s going away soon, it’s okay…”

“—Ah—‘cricket bat’, yes,” he managed after this reunion, deciding that having his prize back put him in a better position for gentle criticism and correction, “I’ll try to be quiet, sorry—I wasn’t aware that I was passing through the living areas…”

A pause as the Doctor actually checked to see where he was.

“…Mostly because I’m not…” He raised his brow rather incredulously. “Pardon me for asking, but why exactly were you sleeping here?”

A cricket bat? What in all the worlds might that be? Never mind, if she did not want to be known here as a violent madwoman she ought to patch things up before asking idle questions.

Nanashi was not prepared to answer the question about her sleeping habits. She was not used to being asked such a question. "Oh... Well..." She looked around as if she did not know where she was before going on more sure of herself, "I do not trust the hotels of the area to provide safe accommodations for a vampire. I saw the rooms of three places, and they all could only offer rooms where light could easily slip through the curtains, or they had terrible security. If a human wanders in on me in my sleep and wanders to close..."

Nanashi paused. While she had no problem with killing people, she liked to have a reason, however trivial. However, in her sleep she was not quite as careful. "Let us say that unconscious instincts are activated. While it is unfortunate for the unwary individual who enters my sleeping chambers, it is an instinct that has saved my life more than once."

The Doctor listened attentively, taking on the usual stance of such occasions; he raised his brow, mouth slightly parted as if he were about to interject, leaning forward on the balls of his feet with his hands deep within his coat pockets. Well, hand; the other one was still cradling the cricket bat in the crook of his shoulder, making sure that he had a good grip on it this time around, should another quick assailant come from behind and attempt another kidnapping upon his new child. There would be no more of that nonsense, rest assured.

“Hmm,” was the first thing he ended up remarking, still glancing down the street at where Nanashi had appeared. His keen eye caught a shattered window to what looked like an old apartment basement—abandoned, obviously, but the Doctor knew that this area got fairly crowded during the daytime hours with people bound for the beach (and hoping to stumble across a shortcut that everyone else had already discovered; thus is the human mentality). His expression again turned mildly skeptical.

“—Yes, well, breaking into a vacated building on a tourist-infested island doesn’t necessarily ensure the best security or control over the elements, I’m afraid.”

Nanashi had an answer for that. Nanashi had an answer for everything. She just was not sure what it was yet. Oh, yes. "I had secured the door well enough that any passing stranger would just think it was locked and continue on, and I had moved this great metal cabinet against the broken window. Of course, it is not there now."

Looking the Doctor up and down suspiciously, she informed him, "You are terribly good at asking questions that most people do not think about."

In a way, that was a complement.

His expression remained roughly the same—still cynical, but, nonetheless, understanding. Her methods were solid, sure, but the reasoning behind them was somewhat questionable. The Doctor was about to point this out to her with various examples and solutions when she decided to…either insult or compliment him, it was difficult to tell with a statement like that. But we all know how the Doctor treats those kinds of statements, don’t we?

“It’s a natural talent,” he smiled, tongue-in-cheek, rocking briefly on his heels as he glanced at the still darkening sky. Even Five’s overbearing modesty knew when to back down—or at any rate, it had a healthy sense of humor.

Nanashi smiled, glad to have distracted him from that dangerous line of questioning. The Doctor's easy-going manner set her on guard. There was no way that someone this easy-going and so astute did not have at least a few tricks up his sleeve. Even more than the rest of the ship, Nanashi felt that she could not trust The Doctor.

All the more reason to keep him close, yes? "I apologize for my behaviour- what brings you out to this part of town?"

Funny—that’s how most people thought of him. Well, one or the other mostly, depending on incarnation and current position within a situation in relation to him. Five was a special case in that he usually got a mix of the two with all parties, which made things…exasperating at times, to say the least. But it also gave him an interesting perspective on both sides, getting to know their views without the automatic filters of flattery or distasteful bias; the lines between the obvious ‘good’ and ‘bad’ opponents became blurred, compromises became clearer, and though the third party job was difficult to perform, it was definitely worth it in the end.

Usually.

“None taken,” the Doctor nodded, finally deciding that he couldn’t stand still any longer and, thus, he started a casual walk down the path on the assumption that Nanashi would follow him, “—Ah, well. It seemed like a nice place for a stroll, don’t you think?”

It was not unusual to be distrusted by Nanashi, but to be distrusted more was uncommon. She picked only the people she saw as having enough power out as being more distrusted, and thus kept them close, trying to earn their favour, but constantly watching their actions. She often acted as her own spy back home, not trusting any spy enough to not double cross her. Here she felt no different. At least there was no direct objective she had at the moment which the Doctor was standing in the way of.

Falling into a casual stroll next to the doctor, Nanashi considered his question, looking around at the older buildings. Her upper lip twitched in disgust. She had trouble finding anything to them aside from disgust. They were not old enough to make the wear-and-tear charming, and too old to be shiny and beautiful. Then Nanashi's eyes were drawn to the sky and the moon overhead. There were only a few stars visible, likely because of the glare of light that surrounded the city, but still, "The sky is rather beautiful tonight."

It did not quite the Doctor's question, but it was close enough, without insulting anyone. Oh, politics.

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Suitable Distractions [open]

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So they meet again.

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Oh, I love the Doctor so much!!

He's glad to hear it, I'm sure~

Re: He's glad to hear it, I'm sure~

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