(no subject)

[continuum_of_drs]

((Continued from http://community.livejournal.com/prime_education/24097.html?view=957729#t957729 ))

The outside of the vehicle was familiar enough. It never changed, really, except for the breif time it was an armoire, a pipe organ, and a set of doors on Telos....

The inside, however, was probably not what Jack was expecting.

Oh, it was still transdimensional. It was still imbued with a strange life in the very air itself, a sourceless light, a barely audible hum.

But wow.... had it ever gone ... sf. Gone were the organic struts, the gangplank, the metal deck, the wooden doors with the telephone on the inside. Everything surrounded them in white and gold. The console was a slick, eight-sided affair, dominating a more or less empty-looking room. Controls covered it in an orderly pattern not unlike that of a Concorde's panels, and the time rotor had become a salmon-lighted affair within a crystal-and-glass column.

"Well, this brings back memories," Eight muttered. Two spared him an unreadable look before darting through the door into the space beyond.

Comments

[molotovmartinis.livejournal.com]

"Done." Balthazar says instantly, but he's looking at the Doctor, not Jack. "We'll discuss the details of that later. What's important is, after all, the matter at hand."

With that smile, he could hardly fill his words with less sincerity if he tried. Still, he has a suddenly brisk way of moving that implies at least some sort of action taking place. He picks up the phone on his desk and utters four or five guttural, gratingly alien syllables into it -- hellspeak, people like Constantine called it. Mothertongue, Balthazar would say in his mockingly cultured 'normal' voice.

"Once we've hired the appropriate psychopomp and located suitable vessels, I'm sure you'll wish to oversee the procedure; shall I contact you, Captain? Doctor?"

[doctorbluebox.livejournal.com]

For his part, the Doctor isn't even listening to Balthazar, and is staring at Jack, instead.

"Wh..." It takes a beat for the Time Lord to put the enormity of the concept into words, as he suspects the human stnding in front of him hasn't considered this enormity.

"What did you just do? What if he removes the memory of who you are? Or your ability to remember things at all? The system redundancy of the human brain can overwrite a lot of things, but there are still things it can't recover from! Mine can!"

[capnhotness.livejournal.com]

"It's worth it!" Jack replied with an easy sort of passion he hadn't felt in years. "How do you know? Really? This whole universe is upside-down, with different rules and different physics and different everything -- how can you be sure?" He turned and grasped the Time Lord by the shoulders, fixing him with a hard stare full of an emotion that could only best be described as love. Maybe he hadn't considered the enormity of the decision, but obviously he didn't need to. It was a simple choice that he had made long ago: between himself and the Doctor, Jack knew who he would willingly sacrifice. "I'm not sure and I can't take that risk! You're the Doctor. What if he took something vital, something important, something...beautiful -- and you couldn't recover? I can't let that happen. I won't."

Jack inhaled deeply and let the Doctor go, having said all he could think to say without overstepping some boundaries. He turned back to face Balthazar, all emotion gone from his face and voice. "Yes. I want to know who this psychopomp is and what exactly the arrangements are as you're making them." Caveat emptor, after all. The Captain reached inside his jacket pocket and removed a business card with his contact information on it, offering it to Balthazar blankly.

[molotovmartinis.livejournal.com]

Balthazar reaches out for the card, shakily. Shakily because he's trying very hard not to giggle. It would completely ruin his image (what there is of it to ruin ... further ...?). When he has himself mostly under control, card safely tucked away, he offers Jack one of his own in return.

"I usually ask for a certain amount of choice from the ... donater," he remarks, laughter lurking in his voice. "Not complete freedom of choice, of course, as I hardly want to end up with the memory of the largest rubber band ball you ever constructed. But that would just be cruel now, wouldn't it? Don't trouble yourself, Jack, we'll work out those details in private, hmm?"

They make a funny little triangle, Balthazar looking at the Doctor, the Doctor looking at Jack, and Jack at Balthazar.

[doctorbluebox.livejournal.com]

There is no dissuading this man, is there? No, not in front of the ... half-daemon there is, anyway. The Doctor steps back, watching Balthazar with a gaze that's left alien geniuses shaking in their half-Dalek transport modules and waits.

[capnhotness.livejournal.com]

"Fine," was all he said to Balthazar and he didn't linger long in the funny little triangle they made. Balthazar has his number, so to speak, and the half-demon could be certain that Jack had Balthazar's. Briskly, he moved back to the elevator. God, he needed fresh air and Los Angeles wasn't the ideal place to find that.