"Excuse me. Have you seen a blowfish driving a sports car?"

[allfireburns]

Because I really need to write today, and _chibidragon_ encouraged me to after writing about... half of hers for my requests...

I will warn you that my muse for a lot of fandoms has gone, so... yes. Some things I may not be able to write.

The Alphabet Drabble Meme:
Below is a listing of the alphabet. Please comment with a letter of your choice (that has yet to be chosen), a word that starts with that letter, and a character or fandom pairing. I will then attempt to write a drabble ficlet from the word and pairing you choose.

A list of accepted fandoms is below the cut.

Fandoms: Any and all original verses/characters, outsideinn, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Burn Notice, Chess, Sports Night, Studio 60, The West Wing, Dirty Sexy Money, Firefly, Rent, Buffy the Vampire Slayer

A - Army - Outside Inn - Logan/Angua
B - Broken - Torchwood - Jack/Martha
C - Collar - Doctor Who - Martha and the Master
D - Damnation - Beyond the Rift - The Doctor/Martha/Des
E - Eternal - Beyond the Rift - Grace (and Des, John Hart and Robin)
F - Faerie tale - Bare - Peter/Jason (with some Nadia and Sister Chantelle)
G -
H - Hatred - Torchwood - Jack/Ianto
I - Inspired - Beyond the Rift - Becky/Annie
J - Jinx - City Magic - Tamara and David (with bonus Nate)
K - Kilts - Sports Night - Kim/Elliot
L - Late - Doctor Who/Torchwood - Jack/Martha (with some Doctor and Donna)
M - Master - Doctor Who - Martha and the Master
N -
O - Ouch - Rent - Roger/April
P - Permanent - Beyond the Rift - Sam/Jack
Q -
R - Rumble - Beyond the Rift/Outside Inn - Logan/Angua
S - Serene - The West Wing - C.J. Cregg (with bonus Leo, Donna, Josh and Sam)
T - Toast - Torchwood - Jack and Owen (with bonus snarky!Ianto, nauseated!Gwen, and adorable!Tosh)
U -
V - Valentine - Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Buffy and Angel
W - Wasted - Torchwood - Jack and (sort of) Owen and the rest of the team too (ZOMG SPOILERS FOR RESET)
X - Xenophobe - Chess/Doctor Who - Molokov/Walter (and the Master)
Y - Yellow - Beyond the Rift - The Doctor/Martha/Des
Z - Zenith - Academyverse - Ryan, Mark and Aradia (plus a snarky computer system)

Comments

M is for Master

[allfireburns.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking I'm just going to post the whole thing as one story on my fic journal when I'm done, so you get more commentfic for now.

*

Martha screamed. She didn't mean to, and she stifled it quickly, but here was the bogeyman, the man who had haunted her dreams since she and Jack and the Doctor returned from the end of the universe. Standing here in front of her with his Cheshire cat smile, like he'd won some victory.

And he had, she realized, if she was here at all. It was all over.

His hands were empty, no weapons, but that hardly made him less frightening. She didn't even have a clue what he might do to her.

Martha stumbled backwards, just to put as much distance between them as possible, forgetting the bed until she hit it with the backs of her knees and tumbled back onto it. She let out a slight, startled squeak and scrambled to the opposite end of the bed, pushing herself with her arms - her legs hurt too much to move them any more than she had to.

"You're not real," she said softly, so softly she wasn't sure he'd be able to hear her, standing in the doorway, across the room.

The Master raised his eyebrows, leaving no doubt about whether he heard her. Martha spoke louder anyway, feeling her voice grow stronger.

"You're not. You're a... a dream, or a hallucination. I hit my head and this is a bleeding nightmare."

He was still standing in the doorway, and she couldn't imagine why. In her nightmares, he was always lunging at her immediately, his hands around her throat, laser screwdriver in his hand. This wasn't the Master of her nightmares. The way he just stood there, one hand on the door frame, head tilted to one side in what could almost be concern and looking more like the man she'd believed Harold Saxon was than the insane, megalomaniacal Time Lord who had conquered the earth... This was much worse.

"I'm afraid not." He took just one step into the room, enough to set her heart racing even faster than before. She hadn't thought that was possible, and it didn't help with her headache. "If anything, the world out there is a fantasy. That you really thought you could run from me... Aren't you a little old for that kind of childish daydreaming?"

In the back of her mind, Martha kept thinking that if she curled up under the blankets on the bed, put a pillow over her head, he'd go away. He was just a nightmare, after all. A high, hysterical laugh forced its way up her throat, just barely bit back at the last second. Childish daydreaming indeed.

If the Doctor were here, if the Doctor was even still alive, he wouldn't be scared. Martha focused on that, clung to the thought as the most precious thing in the world, and tried to look less terrified than she actually felt. It might have even worked, a little.

"I managed for five months," she said, and somehow her voice didn't shake. "Not bad, all things considered."

(continued in the next comment...)

Re: M is for Master

[allfireburns.livejournal.com]

She glanced past him, to the door, the hallway beyond. If she could just get past him, run... She'd had a lot of practice running lately. But of course they would be on the Valiant, with nowhere to run to.

Her hand moved, automatically, to her wrist, fumbling for the vortex manipulator. She still couldn't ever get the thing to work exactly how she wanted, didn't understand most of the controls, but if it would just take her away, anywhere...

It was gone, naturally.

"Oh, come now, do you really think I'd be that careless? Eighteen months of arranging my conquest and I'm going to let a little girl get away because I overlooked a wristwatch?"

Martha's face flushed, hot with embarrassment at her foolishness, but she didn't speak, just watched as the Master prowled closer, like a stalking cat. Martha didn't like that metaphor, come to think of it. It was much too apt, considering how much she felt like a mouse cowering under the gaze of a predator.

"It's over, and I am sorry the Doctor's brilliant plans have all failed."

Another step toward her, toward the bed. Martha tensed.

"Because you were his last great hope, weren't you? Walking the earth, searching for a way to stop me."

He'd reached the foot of the bed now, much too close for comfort. But if there was no chance of actually escaping...

"Is there a reason you haven't killed me yet?" Now her voice shook, but she rather impressed herself even managing to say it at all.

"Oh, Martha." The Master stepped around the bed, moving along the side of it towards the head of the bed, and it was just like lying still waiting for the Toclafane to pass, wasn't it? Suppressing the urge to run, the fear, barely breathing while she waited... Except there was no perception filter now, and the Master could see her perfectly well. "I don't want you dead."

"Sorry I can't say the same for you," Martha said, lunging at his throat in a burst of energy. Time Lord or not, he was just one man, alone, unarmed, and maybe she wasn't in the best shape, but she couldn't just sit there in cowed terror.

Before she even reached him, the Master's fingers twitched, depressing some button concealed in his hand that she hadn't even noticed. Pain arced and crackled, electric, down her spine from the base of her skull to every other nerve in her body. She cried out involuntarily, curling immediately into a ball in a futile attempt to shield herself from the pain. The sudden change in position midair, from attack to curled around herself, sent her tumbling off the side of the bed, smacking her hip and shoulder on the hardwood floor. Fresh pain flared underneath the all-consuming fire that raced through her veins.

Whimpering, Martha lifted her hands to the collar again, tugging at it desperately. That had to be the source of the pain, there was nothing else... It remained firmly in place.

Just barely audible over the sound of blood rushing in her ears, she heard the Master's voice. "I really wouldn't try that again if I were you. And you can stop trying to get the collar off. Or keep on, if you like. It's a deadlock seal, so have fun with that."

He kept talking, but his words blurred together, as Martha's attention focused on the sound of her heartbeat. Too loud. Racing. And her entire body throbbed painfully in time with it, and the longer she listened, the more it sounded like the Master's bleeding drums.

Everything in her head faded to black, and this time, Martha was grateful for it.