There's a trick with a knife I'm learning to do.

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

It was yet another sunny morning. On the lake's grassy bank near Frontierland, Una Persson lay stretched out on her stomach on a beach towel, wearing a blue maillot and reading a pristine first edition of Du côté de chez Swann that she'd borrowed from the Doctor. A blue silk caftan lay neatly folded nearby. As she read, she ate an apple, cutting slices off with her clasp knife, and reflected that unnerving though the park's absence of insect life was, it was pleasant to not have to worry about ants for once.

She'd always wanted to read À la recherche du temps perdu, but she'd never had the time. Now, having nothing but Time of a sort and the TARDIS library at her disposal, she reckoned she should take the opportunity. But between the oddly soothing quality of Proust's prose and the soporific warmth of the day, Una soon found her eyelids growing heavy. She took off her sunglasses and put her head down, thinking to rest for just a moment. Soon she was dozing like a cat in the sun, the breeze occasionally ruffling her hair and the pages of the open book, a half-eaten apple and the open clasp knife near her elbow.

((Some small number of days after Una's latest confab with Starbuck. Closed to Una and the Master; of course, as long as they're outside, passersby who might conceivably be in the area could easily catch sight of them, but it's probably best not to interfere.  ^_^))

((ETA: *facepalm* Do I really have to say anything, warning-wise? We should know better than to leave them around sharp objects...))

Comments

[hear-the-drums.livejournal.com]

His grip tightened. "Trying to shake me off already? Do I really worry you that much?" His gaze drifted skyward as though something had caught his eye. Nothing above his head but the clouds, though.

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

"You always worry me, darling," she said, the obvious subtext being and that's a significant part of the fun. She followed his gaze and, seeing nothing, looked at him with an expression curious, amused, and just a little wary.

[hear-the-drums.livejournal.com]

Eyes still turned up, he said, "If you could make people do anything, absolutely anything, what would it be?" His thumb slipped along one calf.

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

"Stop them being so bloody thick, for one thing," she said, with surprisingly little hesitation. "Give them the decency and humility to see what fools they are and can be and make them stop pretending to be stupid." That came out a little vehemently. "Beyond that, it depends on the individual, doesn't it?"

[hear-the-drums.livejournal.com]

He looked back down at her then, wincing dramatically. "But that's so... so...." He searched for the most eloquent way to put it. "...bloody humane."

He leaned down closer. "Imagine you're meaner. Shouldn't be too difficult," he teased.

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

Humane. She had to laugh at that. And that would be the difference between us, wouldn't it?

"And you would know, wouldn't you?" She patted his cheek, the gesture just a little too emphatic to be merely teasing, and brushed her thumb across his lips. She had a vague notion or two of where he might be going with this, but decided to play along for the time being.

"Well, let's see." She ran her hand through her hair. "Intent might remain the same. It's the methodology that would be different. Torment them with their own weaknesses, perhaps. Expose those vulnerabilities and little self-deceptions for what they are. Turn them on themselves. It's a subtler form of torture, don't you think?" Oh, that came out just a little too casually, didn't it?

[hear-the-drums.livejournal.com]

"And isn't that just," he murmured, tilting his head momentarily to the side to barely brush those lips across her neck, "what seems to be going on here? As far as defining the purpose, I mean. All these people with power, but most of it's not compatible and it has little-to-no affect on the current environment. So what does that do. It makes everyone doubt their usefulness, their intentions, their desires. It makes them redundant, lazy and ineffective."

His eyes narrowed, flashing a shade darker than brown. "And if you were essentially omnipotent... mightn't that be funny to you?"

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

Her throat tightened at the brush to her neck and she swallowed hard.

"Essentially omnipotent and not very empathetic ... why yes, it'd be utterly hilarious. Just as—" She broke off; a slow grin spread across her face and she let out a short laugh. "It's like the people from the End of Time—my End of Time—in their near-omnipotence. They kept menageries. Whenever a stray time-traveller got stuck there, they'd vie for the chance to keep them." She'd had to fend off a few curiosity-seekers more than once; usually they left off as soon as she said she was a friend of Lord Jagged's. Although some simply assumed she was a particularly wilful part of Jagged's own menagerie.

"A menagerie. A toybox. Pieces on a four-dimensional chessboard."

[hear-the-drums.livejournal.com]

"That's... ever so slightly different from the End of Time in our universe." In fact it couldn't really compare. He shrugged off a uncomfortable feeling settling in his chest. "Still, that's about the shape of it. Like keeping a pet store."