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Entry tags:
- altered carbon: takeshi kovacs,
- doctor who: clara oswald,
- knives out: marta cabrera,
- mcu: erik stevens,
- mcu: peter quill,
- one piece: rosinante donquixote,
- pacific rim: newton geiszler,
- pacific rim: raleigh becket,
- star trek aos: leonard mccoy,
- the 100: clarke griffin,
- the old guard: andromache,
- transformers: megatron
text | un: m.cabrera
[ turns out? space doesn't give a single fuck about your circadian rhythm. or maybe insomnia is just that attached to her that even the absence of a sun dictating her internal clock doesn't faze it, like an old friend you wish would just forget you already.
one night (?) late into the early hours (???) marta finds herself drifting out of the room she's come to assume will be hers for the indefinite future, passing through stark white walls with all the sterility of a hospital, but none of its familiar chaos.
she's still getting used to the earpiece. still getting used to hearing other people's voices in her head. she doesn't mean to add another in the void, but one of her own thoughts blares out too vividly as she stares out into an actual void: ]
βbut where are the stars?
one night (?) late into the early hours (???) marta finds herself drifting out of the room she's come to assume will be hers for the indefinite future, passing through stark white walls with all the sterility of a hospital, but none of its familiar chaos.
she's still getting used to the earpiece. still getting used to hearing other people's voices in her head. she doesn't mean to add another in the void, but one of her own thoughts blares out too vividly as she stares out into an actual void: ]
βbut where are the stars?
no subject
[ There's the sudden crack! of something sparking in the background of the Doctor's audio; it's clear that wherever he's speaking from, sleep wasn't a priority. Especially with the added, 'Ah! Stop that, you β' immediately following. ]
So. You're new then, I take it? Heard there were some fresh arrivals.
no subject
[ is it any wonder marta is still up? if she hadn't had issues with sleep before this, she certainly has plenty of reason now. ]
Sorry, are youβ You sound... busy. [ with something potentially dangerous is it really safe to multitask right now?? ]
no subject
You know, I visited a very hungry planet once. Had a mind of its own, I'd say. They called him the 'Grandfather'. [ Beat. ] Well, it wasn't so much a planet as a parasitic object. It did have its own orbiting asteroid belt, though, so who's to say.
[ Just in case you thought he might be joking, he is absolutely not joking. ]
Oh, I'm always busy. [ Another spark, quieter this time, like maybe he's got this thing (whatever it is he's tinkering with) figured out. ] Not to worry. How are you faring, then? You know, aside from missing the stars, which I can assure you, is something I can commiserate with.
no subject
[ or does she not want to know... ]
Considering everything? Not too bad. [ she hasn't had a full blown meltdown about suddenly finding herself in space, at least? ] It's been helpful, talking to other people.
[ well. now that he says it, it makes sense, wouldn't it? from what marta's been told, from what she's been able to piece together, it sounds like their last mission had left a good number of the team injured or needing bed rest.
why wouldn't the doctor be busy throughout all this? ]
Would you like some help? It's... It may not be much, but I have a background in it.
no subject
[ And it was a little uncomfortable, giving up the memories that he did to feed it. Definitely do not recommend an experience like that one in the future, but luckily that's all done and over with.
There's a very brief pause in the tinkering and the sparking, and then there's an unusual sort of buzzing sound that just happens to go along with a screwdriver. Not the sort that fixes cabinets, of course β well, mostly β but the other kind. The sonic kind. ]
Ah, do you? [ Hm. Well. Newt isn't here at the moment, so. ] How are you with fixing things?
no subject
Someone mentioned in the last mission... you were made to relive some of your memories. Was it a little like that?
[ this time, it's easy enough to chalk the sound up to medical instruments, now that she's more or less gotten some context to work with. is he operating right now? god she hopes not. ]
Good enough to be of help, I promise.
no subject
[ Well, if one can consider the complete disassembling of a control box in order to take some of the wiry bits out, and replace them with other better, more colourful wiry bits β then yes. He is absolutely in the middle of operating right now. ]
Well, all right then, let's see what you've got, eh? Do you know your way around the station yet?
no subject
I'm sorry that happened to you.
[ maybe it's the hour, maybe it's the accent, but the chipper quality to his voice feels so at odds with the melancholy marta had been carrying around since waking that she's a little stumped by it. enough, at least, not to find an immediate answer. ]
I know where the common areas are, [ she eventually offers. ] Should I head to the... infirmary?
no subject
[ He generally has that effect on anyone he happens to meet. It sometimes takes a little getting used to. ]
The Infirmary? Now why would you be going there? [ There's genuine confusion, and also a dash of distraction as the buzzing stops and another electrical snap! sounds over their communications devices. ] I'm just past the sunlight room, in the labs!
no subject
instead, she turns down the other end of the hall she's in, winding her way towards the labs. ]
I should be there soonβ
[ though, from the sounds of it, will there even be a lab left? ]
no subject
And when Marta enters the space, she'll find that most of the room looks clean and orderly, each object in its rightful place. But take a few steps more and head over to the right and she'll start to notice how the table has gotten a little more cluttered, a little more chaotic. Newt's table joined with the Doctor's is a right mess, but the chaos has purpose! Each item has its own reason for being there.
A man in large dimmed goggles is situated on a stool behind what looks like a hunk of metal plates kept together with a mass of wiring that resembles colourful spaghetti. A spark lights up, along with a familiar snap! like earlier β and then the Doctor realizes he's got company, and puts his tools down. ]
Ah! Hello! From the network, I presume?
no subject
[ had she said already? she can't even remember now.
the further marta walks into the lab, the more and more she thinks perhaps she had been mistaken about offering her help. while mccoy is more than within his right to have his side hobbies, of course, it'd been her foolishness to think what he was working on now had anything to do with his work.
still, she'd come too far. she may as well offer what she can.
but β first thing's first. ]
...What is that?
no subject
[ He pulls his goggles away from his face and runs a hand through his coif of hair to get it back to its perfectly respectable looking state.
And then he waves. ]
Ah, this? This β this β well, I think it's supposed to be a sort of ice box ... thing. Only without the ice, just the cold. You know, for frozen pops and the like, once we get frozen pops and the like.
[ It definitely ... lacks a kind of elegance and may even resemble a couple of the hunks of metal currently in the kitchen. (Though it can be said that the ones in the kitchen have since taken on better appearances, due to one meddling fellow orber with far too many names to count.
The Doctor's still a bit huffy about that, truth be told.) ]
no subject
I see... What was wrong with it?
[ he'd mentioned fixing, and of course now in hindsight marta can replay their conversation under a different lens and see where she had made her mistake. she can't say she's particularly handy, but at the very least she can help clean up around and after him. ]
no subject
Oh, nothing yet, but we'll see once we get it into action, eh? Yes β you see, there's this complicated little compressor here, and we haven't got the right condenser coils, I've just been grabbing bits and bobs here and there, so it'll take just a bit of improvising here β ah. Ah! [ Exclaimed like a lightbulb's just gone off in his head. ] Oh, ooh β wait. Shut up. Yes.
[ He looks like he could take off in any given moment before he realizes that the only thing keeping his little icebox experiment together are his hands. He gestures with his chin (which, yes, some have said is a prominent feature for this face) for Marta to approach. ]
Right, Marta. It's a good thing you're here, can you hold this in place? I think I've got an idea.
no subject
though, it's only when she realizes she's stuck there doing this that she realizes... she's stuck there. ]
Waitβ
[ don't get her wrong, doc, she trusts you're probably a very good doctor (maybe) but considering he just referred to his makeshift science experiment as grabbing bits and bobs... ]
This isn't going to explode on me, is it?
no subject
[ Is he serious? Is he being facetious? Who knows?
And then he's quickly dashing off to scramble through a nearby box of gadgets and gizmos, looking for the right something very, very specific. Something that will solve the internal bits, considering they aren't your regular internal bits but a sort of hybrid spacey-station-y assortment instead.
And he is determined to make this work. For ice pops. ]
Ah-hah! Found it! [ He holds a, well, coil-like tube of some kind in one hand, lifted up like he's won some kind of prize. ] Coily-woily. Suppose I'll need some clamps to keep that whole bit together too.
no subject
but she definitely pauses to look at the item in his hand. ]
Isn't that a slinky?
[ it looks like a slinky. but maybe they've got other uses in space, who knows. ]
Clamps would be nice, though. Unless you plan on keeping me here the whole time.
[ ha ha. he wouldn't.
right? ]
no subject
[ He stretches it apart with his hands, then lets it retract, and while it does have a very slinky-like quality to it, the tube itself is much thicker. If it wasn't, it couldn't do what a coily-tubey is supposed to do. ]
Yes, yes, I'm looking! [ He comes back over to set the coil down, then hops back over to the Box Of Things in search for some clamps; all the better to relieve his unwilling assistant with! ] You're welcome to stay for as long as you like. You did say you'd help, eh?
[ But he pokes his head up from a pile of junkparts and offers her a smile. ]
Glad you're here. I was getting tired of talking to myself the whole time.