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claire winchester is not your typical superhero ([info]goallbuffyonus) wrote in [info]colligo_threads,
@ 2010-10-30 21:50:00

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Entry tags:claire winchester, the master

WHO: Claire Bennet and The Master
WHAT: Chatting. What? The Master's behaving. For now.
WHEN: Early evening
WHERE: Claire's video store.
RATING: TBD
STATUS: In Progress

Claire hated inventory. It seriously sucked. The last time it had come around, she'd hired Connor. He was gone now, though. So was Randal, which sucked twice as hard. He might not have been great at his job but he was fun to have around. He kept her on her toes, which she appreciated. If nothing else, he had been good at making the time pass while she'd been stocking shelves and counting tapes. As it stood now, it was just her. Alone.

She knew if she asked, Ben would help her. She could probably get Elle to swing by and pitch in some too. But Claire really didn't want to impose and, with the store being pretty much deserted for most of the night so far, it wasn't all that horrible having some time to herself. She had felt queasy most of the day after mistakenly drinking some chocolate milk (which now had her thoroughly convinced that chocolate and milk were both horrible and combined they were downright evil) but was finally starting to feel more like herself.

Sitting on the floor in front of the counter, she had various piles of tapes surrounding her. Some went out on the floor. Others to the stockroom. Then one pile - consisting mainly of new episodes of Doctor Who and Supernatural, with a mishmash of various others that were fictional here but not elsewhere - that went into the locked closet in her office. They were the ones that others didn't need to see. Ones that involved people who were here, who didn't want their stories broadcast over every television. It sucked that they had fictional recounts as it was. The least Claire figured she could do was to keep the general public from seeing it.

Glancing down at one of the Doctor Who DVDs, entitled 'Victory of the Daleks', Claire startled a little at the soft dinging that announced the front door opening. Quickly she stood, DVD case still in hand, and turned toward the person who had entered. Her smile faltered when she saw who was standing there. She froze on the spot, swallowing hard before finally forcing out, "Is... there something I can help you with?"


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[info]cantyouhearit
2010-10-31 04:00 am UTC (link)
"So much of it is just so mindless," The Master said, frowning at the shelves. "Reality TV, song contests, slapstick. And why you are all that interested in the lives of people you don't even know just because they happen to make a movie or two, baffles me. Utterly and completely mindless. It really is no wonder that you're still a Type Five." Scooping a box off the shelf, he flipped it over, staring at the print and half mumbling. "Music's not so bad."

He had had to spend months on the Earth, posing as a human, blending in in the best ways that he knew how. Adapting to various cultures and societies in order to make himself accepted was an old hat for him, but it never meant that he actually enjoyed what he had to do. And there was so much about the Earth that the Master couldn't help but hate. Even if most of the loathing was because the Doctor seemed to love it so much.

Replacing the box on the shelf, he stepped back, scanning them again, "After so long a time, you get used to the tedium. But that doesn't ever make it make anymore sense."

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[info]goallbuffyonus
2010-10-31 04:06 am UTC (link)

The Master was standing in her video store, looking at shelves of movies and chatting away. If the situation weren't a serious one, Claire would have sworn she was dreaming. Or maybe it was a nightmare. That was the problem. With the Master, there was just no way to know until it was too late. Normally that wasn't much of an issue for her but now that she was pregnant... she had to stop herself from placing her hands protectively over the slight swell in her abdomen.

"If there's nothing that interests you, why did you come in here?" A dangerous question, Claire realized, now that she'd asked it. Especially if he hadn't come in for a video at all. She thought of her PDA and swore mentally. It was sitting behind the counter, well out of reach.

All she could do was hope she had enough time to dive for it, if he snapped. For now he seemed calm enough though. Claire wasn't going to relax but she wasn't going to get hysterical either. She simply watched him, hands at her side - the Doctor Who episode still in her grasp - and waited to see what he would say and, more importantly, do.

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[info]cantyouhearit
2010-10-31 04:20 am UTC (link)
"What makes you think I have ulterior motives? You know, other than the fact I'm me," The Master asked, a touch of amusement playing on his voice. "Because it really rude to be suspicious of customers. It's one of the ways that you fail to get repeat business," He said, plucking 2001: A Space Odyssey off the shelf and pivoting back towards her, a slight quirk in his eyebrow going up as he looked her over. "There really is no reason to stand there like you're prepared to be mowed down at any second," He said, holding out his arms with the DVD still clutched in his hands. "I'm not armed. You can check if you like."

Even as much as going out without any defenses worried him, this was hardly the place for them much less the situation. Building trust required a slow and methodical process of controlled praise and subtle mental manipulation. Even if shoving a weapon in someone's face was faster, his more recent exploits had lacked the grace and beauty of some of his older ones.

Better to try and go back to the old ways when it came to acquiring something that would do him a world of good. Then there was no chance of losing it to a mislaid gun and a bullet to the gut.

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[info]goallbuffyonus
2010-10-31 04:27 am UTC (link)

Claire eyed him for a moment as he offered to let her check for a weapon. "I'm just really not sure why you're here," she said honestly. Why bother lying? She wasn't very good at it and the truth worked just fine in this instance. "Like you said, you're you."

She shook her head, ultimately declining because, well, if he did have one she probably wouldn't find it anyway. "If you say you aren't armed, fine." She didn't say she believed him, because she didn't, but it was close enough she thought it would at least work. And then she paused, because what else was there to say?

"I'm just going to get back to work now," she finally offered. With one more somewhat wary glance his way, she purposefully turned her attention back to the dvds she'd been sorting. Her stomach churned a bit as she turned her back to him, but it gave her the chance to set down the episode she'd been holding on top of the others. At least her hands were free, now.

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[info]cantyouhearit
2010-11-02 01:15 am UTC (link)
"This is a place of business, is it not?" The Master asked, a hint of confusion in her voice as he looked over at her. It made the cover a lot simpler, of course, that she was in an area open to the public, but he doubted that that would last for long. But hopefully it would last long enough for him to get her to trust him...at least in part. "Besides, if I had ulterior motives, I would have done something a bit more dramatic, wouldn't I? Not just stop in and rent a few tapes," He said, furrowing his brow as he plucked another off the shelf. "No. DVDs. Hard to keep up with how fast you lot change that."

"You know, you really don't seem the type I would expect to find in a place like this," The Master said with a vague amusement in his voice. "You strike me more as the type fit to run PR, political campaign manager, spin doctor, journalist, anything in that range."

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[info]goallbuffyonus
2010-11-02 01:33 am UTC (link)

Claire paused when he spoke to her again. Well, he'd continued speaking, really, but her gaze hadn't moved from the DVDs she was sorting until he mentioned her choice in occupation. Going still, she slowly turned her attention to him with a vaguely amused look. "Me?" she questioned. "In public relations? Right." She snorted softly and picked up a stack of DVDs.

"I'm a terrible liar and I've seen enough of politics to know that it's not for me," she said simply as she began putting the DVDs up on the shelves after a quick glance at the title to make sure she was in the right spot. She glanced over her shoulder at the Master.

"And I... inherited this store, I guess you could say. The original owner was sent home," she explained with a slight shrug. Idly she wondered why she was even saying any of this. It wasn't as though he honestly cared. Surely he couldn't be that bored, could he? Then she thought of Sherlock. She thought of the dead body she'd found and how she'd just known that would instantly cure his boredom. If he was made bored so easily by this place, it made sense the Master would be too.

But that didn't explain why he'd sought out her store to alleviate said boredom.

Still, she had no proof and he was right. She was running a place of business and he was a paying customer. As long as he behaved, he had as much of a right to be there as anyone else. Yes she could tell him to leave anyway but she really didn't think being rude was the best way to handle this particular situation. She'd just see how it went, for now.

With that thought in mind, she turned back to the the pile of DVDs she was putting away, turning just slightly so she could still see the other pile of DVDs a few feet away that weren't for rent.

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[info]cantyouhearit
2010-11-02 03:09 am UTC (link)
"Lying is hardly the same as creative storytelling," The Master said with a vague smile. "Spinning a yarn from the truth in order to suit the demands of a public that don't need to know everything anyway is a lot simpler than it seems. And besides, you're attractive enough," He said, glancing over his shoulder. "For people that care about that sort of thing." All of the PR representatives he'd had had been attractive. It helped to distract the more persistent reporters. Male and female. He always tried to keep an open-mind.

"You could always try administrative assistant. Yet another position you'd likely be more suited for," The Master said, slipping around the shelves and staring down at the pile of DVDs that hadn't be shelved. "You certainly put off a far more executive vibe than minimum wage drudgery."

Pausing for a moment as his eyes narrowed, The Master reached over and plucked one of the 'not for rent' DVDs from the pile and scowled at the cover, "What in the world am I wearing? A hoodie, blond hair, and...ugh, stubble. This is so not funny."

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[info]goallbuffyonus
2010-11-02 03:23 am UTC (link)

Claire frowned thoughtfully as she purposefully focused on shelving the DVDs she was holding. "I'm owner of a pretty successful video store, not the weekend help," she finally pointed out. "I don't have a boss and I make my own hours. The only reason I'm working right now is because of-"

She stopped speaking as she glanced over her shoulder at him, realizing too late that she'd taken her eyes off the pile of DVDs on the floor for a second too long. "... the DVDs I specifically said that weren't for rent that you're now looking at," she finished her statement with a soft sigh and quickly shelved the remaining cases in her hand before crossing to where the Master stood.

"I don't know, I thought it was a pretty good episode," she said mildly as she eyed him, arms folded across her chest. Again she felt that same odd jolt, at speaking to someone as though their life were fictional, but in this instance she appreciated the fact that she could. It wasn't regaining control over a situation she'd never really controlled to begin with but it at least let her feel like she had something to say.

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[info]cantyouhearit
2010-11-02 04:58 am UTC (link)
Flipping the box over, the Master furrowed his brow, trying to make sense of what he was reading. It was cryptic, half embellished, and didn't really explain anything. So much for expecting the blurb to tell him what he needed to know. Looking up at Claire, the Master quirked an eyebrow before frowning, "So, you know more about me than I do. That's not entirely fair, is it?" He asked, barely concealing the rage that was bubbling up in his voice. But there was hardly a way that he could get this past her without her noticing, was there? Not unless he hypnotized her and left her a baffled shell for a few minutes, and that, that would totally mess up the end game for a temporary issue that might not even be worth it in the end.

Tapping his fingers against the box unconsciously, the tapping taking up that rhythm that was ever present in his mind, the Master stared across at her, sizing her up for the longest moment before asking.

"What would it take for you to pretend I never picked this up?"

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[info]goallbuffyonus
2010-11-02 05:20 am UTC (link)

Her stomach tightened as she recognized the tapping for what it was, swallowing hard while he stared at her. Her arms fell away from her chest, hands sliding into the pockets of her jeans, and she resisted the urge to shift uncomfortably. Just when she was nearly ready to speak, he got there first.

She couldn't believe what he said, though. Was he actually trying to make some kind of deal with her, for the episode? Seriously? Claire's forehead furrowed slightly as she took a moment to size him up just as he'd done to her. Finally she spoke.

"You don't need to see what's on that DVD," she stated with a little shrug of her shoulders. "Even if I hadn't been asked to lock them up, I'd know that much just from seeing what I have." She tilted her head slightly. "Why do you want to see?" she questioned suddenly. "You can't change it. You won't even remember it, if you leave here."

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[info]cantyouhearit
2010-11-04 08:20 am UTC (link)
"Because it's my life," The Master said, a vague annoyance in his voice at the very thought of a human telling him what was best for him. Even if he probably would regret watching it if it ended badly like everything tended to for him, it was still information. "Why should people like you know what happened when I'm left in the dark?" He had very little true control over his life as it was. It was ridiculous to think that now he was being denied parts of it. "Maybe I'd be better off not knowing. Maybe I won't like what I see. But even your specie knows that not liking it is always better than not knowing."

Because it's the not knowing that kills you, slowly, until you can't take it anymore, and he'd already done that more than his fair share in the course of his lifetimes.

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[info]goallbuffyonus
2010-11-04 09:38 pm UTC (link)

Why did he have to make sense? Why couldn't he have answered in some flippant way that involved a rant regarding drums, or the unfairness of the universe, or any of the other five hundred and forty-three things (or roughly thereabouts) that he typically waxed poetic about instead of just answering a question when asked? Why did he have to say something that not only was logical but also reminded Claire far too much of her own feelings on the subject? It really wasn't fair.

Not that Claire thought he should see the episode he was holding. Nothing he said would make her think that was a good idea. But she could relate to his frustration and knew, were the situation reversed, she'd be just as determined to see the episode concerning her life. After all, it was her life. Just like the episode he held showed his.

"There's no maybe to it," she repeated out loud, not about to put her thoughts into words. Especially not her doubt. That, she knew, would be a bad idea. So she focused instead of what she knew for sure. "You're better off not knowing and you probably won't like what you see."

And yet...

The words hung, unspoken, in the air between them. Claire cleared her throat in a vain attempt to re-focus her thoughts elsewhere. She failed miserably of course and, after a few seconds of simply standing there, finally sighed heavily.

"Nothing I say is going to convince you not to watch that, is it?" she asked in a resigned tone.

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[info]cantyouhearit
2010-11-05 02:14 am UTC (link)
He'd already realized that much, and he honestly didn't expect to like it, but that didn't lessen his desire to see what he'd missed. Or, more to the point, what he'd yet to experience. So when she asked whether there was anything that she could say to convince him not to watch it, the Master just shook his head, "Not a thing," even if there was perhaps a few that he could think of, but whether knowing exactly what the episode was about, it was better to keep them to himself lest he accidentally stumble upon a reason that was present within the episode.

"But you're welcome to try."

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[info]goallbuffyonus
2010-11-05 02:25 am UTC (link)

If asked, Claire wouldn't be able to honestly say that she'd tried all that hard to change his mind. She supposed she should feel a little bad about that, and maybe someday she would, but in the heat of the moment she really saw no reason to even try to change his mind. She knew, instinctively, she wouldn't succeed. Elle possibly could. The Doctor too, more than likely. And if she could access her PDA, she might be able to ask either of them for some help on the matter. But she couldn't, and she frankly didn't know the Master well enough to have the first clue what to say to stop him. And that was assuming he was lying when he said there wasn't anything she could say. If he was telling the truth, she was beaten before she'd even begun.

So rather than launch into some huge diatribe that would get her nowhere and would really just be a waste of her energy, she simply sighed softly then fixed him with a stern look. "You are not," she said in a flat, no nonsense tone that just dared him to disagree with her, "leaving the store with it."

Pausing for a split second, she turned on her heel and moved to the front door. Flipping the sign around so it read 'CLOSED', she took a deep breath. Then she locked the door, turned back to the Master, and nodded toward the counter. "The DVD player is back there. The remote's beside it," she stated flatly. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

She knew she could also have let him use her office, but the TV hanging from the ceiling in the store was going to have to do. What she was doing was insane enough without adding 'and then I sat in a small room, with the Master, and watched The End of Time' to the list.

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[info]cantyouhearit
2010-11-05 06:19 am UTC (link)
There was a brief flash of bafflement across the Master's features as he watched her actions, the words not quite hitting home until she gestured towards the counter. He'd won? He'd won that argument without so much as a twisted statement or a low level of hypnotic influence? He'd won that argument by doing little more than telling the pure and unadulterated truth? Well, that made for a change. He could just hope that it wasn't the start of a pattern.

The bafflement faded almost instantly as Claire turned back to face him, replaced by a sudden glee, the type that one might find adorable in a child but in a fully grown man was just off-setting. With a hop and a pivot, the Master had turned back to the counter, placing a hand and leaping over it and landing in a crouched position to put in the DVD.

"There's always dangers in life," The Master said, popping his gaze up over the counter as he peered at her with a playful grin. "What's the fun in it if you're not pushing some of the limits?"

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[info]goallbuffyonus
2010-11-05 06:36 am UTC (link)

Claire blinked, only a bit taken aback at the Master's reaction. The one good thing about seeing the show was that she could anticipate, at least to an extent, how he might act. However she was far from an expert and wasn't sure she'd even seen all of the episodes he was in. She just knew enough to know that right now he was pleased as punch.

Unfortunately, she doubted that was going to last.

But for now he was happy which meant she was relatively safe. So far he hadn't demonstrated any violence toward her. Claire knew that could change at a moment's notice but was hoping that allowing him to at least see the episode would ensure he didn't turn any unpleasant feelings he might have because of it, onto her. Or it could completely backfire and he could wind up blaming her. For the sake of her unborn children, though, she hoped that wasn't the case.

Unable to help herself, she snorted in faint amusement when he spoke again. With a slight, bemused shake of her head she crossed to the TV and, raising up on her tiptoes, pressed the power button. As the screen flickered to life, blue in colour as the machine read the DVD it was about to play, she looked back to the Master.

"You might want to get comfortable. It's just over two hours long," she commented as she grabbed a bag of chips off one of the displays and opened it before crossing over to the counter and hopping up on it in lieu of hauling a chair out of the office in the back. "Help yourself," she added as she motioned toward the drink stand, bags of popcorns, candy, and chips available typically for purchase. It was going to be a long couple of hours. She figured there wasn't any reason she couldn't try to enjoy it in some small ways, even if the situation as a whole was more surreal than she could wrap her mind around.

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