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

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

Oh, it caught her attention. She turned wide grey eyes on him, lowering their joined hands and leaning a little closer. "Hope." She laughed a little, noticing that it didn't sound quite right and her voice seemed unnaturally high. "Hope's a good emotion." Oh look. Using the Doctor's phrase.

She took a deep breath, seeking her equilibrium again. "It's something to work with, anyway," she said, more steadily now. "Better than vague conjectures over entities that none of us can put a name to, eh?" Somehow she managed to pull out the old careless smile, the look-an-adventure grin.

[hear-the-drums.livejournal.com]

He knew that laugh fairly well by now, and it got a raised eyebrow out of him. "I don't suppose I'd ever thought of it as an emotion before." Safe to say he'd never really thought of it as such, not even when he was young. Someone else had for him.

He brought his free hand to her hip and let his grip do some of the talking for him. "One would have to wonder exactly what they would be getting out of this," he murmured.

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

The hand on her hip shocked her further back to herself and she looked down at it as if wondering how it had gotten there. Pfft. So much for discretion. She wondered if anyone either of them knew had gotten an eyeful yet and if so, how severe a shock they'd gotten.

Hell with it. She smirked a little and reached up to drag the nail of her index finger along his jaw, almost absentmindedly. "You said it yourself, didn't you? A laugh. Or perhaps it's simply the opportunity to use a bigger, more varied set of players than one universe could afford."

[hear-the-drums.livejournal.com]

"I was speaking more specifically," he admitted, turning his head to mouth at the nail of her finger. "You have to wonder how far they might see ahead. What they would predict on an individual basis."

Contrary to her perspective, he was forgetting the scenery more and more as they continued. Which was comical when remembering what an exhibitionist he could be.

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

"In other words—to refer to an earlier subject—what they expect of one?" she said. "There must be some kind of prediction or expectation, especially in the cases of those who come from the same place. I wonder if there was any expectation of what would happen when people from different worlds got thrown together? Or if the surprise and unpredictability was part of the ... charm."

Her finger trailed down his neck to the base of his throat with a gentle scrape. She pulled back a little then, releasing his hand and leaning back on her hands, extending her legs out and crossing them at the ankles.

[hear-the-drums.livejournal.com]

"I've had any number of encounters that have made me wonder if someone isn't trying to make a point to me," he said, just on the right side of sarcastic. His hand snuck down her leg, trapping her ankles together.

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

"And what point would that--" She glanced down along her legs. "What, precisely, are you planning to do there?" she inquired mildly.

[hear-the-drums.livejournal.com]

That question naturally encouraged his impulse to be ever so helpful. "Guess."

[una-harlequin.livejournal.com]

Eyeroll. Just a little one.

"I suppose it could be anything from trying to find out where I'm ticklish up to one of your special party tricks," she said. She tested his grip slightly. Probably could shake him off, although by now she knew that he was stronger than he looked, and it was probably better not to underestimate him.

[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."