RP for endlessdrums 'A year on the Valiant.'

[quitehomoerotic]

It was cold when Jack woke up. There was no blood on his chest, no wound other than a deep pain in his chest. That Lazer screwdriver had been the weapon, and it was a sharp pain, second only to that of the Dalek's extermination. The death had faded but the sting remained.

It had taken him a while to reorientate himself, to recognise the room around him as a section of the underside of the Valiant. He felt the metal around his wrists before he saw it, so cold it seemed damp against his skin. The corners of the shackles were sharp and bit harshly into his skin. But then, he didn't suppose they were built to be comfortable.

He tugged on the chains a little, to test their strength, but they were secured fast to the wall. He'd been put here to stay.

It was amusing at this stage. He didn't intend to be kept. Not when the Doctor might need his help. If he ever had motivation then that was it. He wouldn't let him down, not now.

He had expected that someone would come, that they might try and get information out of him (information that he of course wouldn't give), but nobody did. Nobody came that day and nobody came the day after. The only way he knew night or day was an LCD clock in the corner of the room. No light reached him, everything seemed to fade into one.

It became his focus though, that clock. Because someone would come, that much he knew, and when they did, he'd have something to say.

Comments

[endlessdrums.livejournal.com]

The Master hadn't visited that particular cell yet, he did of course, have it under careful surveillance. After all, a man who couldn't die was a very dangerous man indeed.

It did make for an endless array of ways to pass the time. Perhaps he should make a list and cross things off as he went along once he started. He idly tapped the drum beat on his knee as he watched a moment longer before making his way down into the bowels of the ship.

"So, I'd thought to bring you a housewarming gift but you might think me disingenuous. Also, I highly doubt that anything could spruce up the place." He sniffed, appraising the cell with a critical eye before giving a smile.

"So, how are we doing? Room service treating you well? I can always whip them into shape if anything is amiss."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack had noticed the little camera in the corner soon after waking up. The little red light beside it flashing on and off to show it's recording. He did his best to ignore it, but he's not infallible.

He'd sat himself down on the floor, his knees pulled back towards his chest; the chains that bind him trailed across the floor. They gave him just enough room to move, to pace back and forth, but not to leave. He moved his hand to his ankles to twist the shackles there and attempt to adjust them, to fruitlessly stop them digging into his skin.

As soon as he heard the bolt on the door slide open his back stiffened. He didn't show it though, no, he was good at masking that when he needed to. So when the Master walked in he looked utterly indifferent.

"Oh you know," he started flippantly, "could do with some hot towels, maybe some fresh pillows. You know you'll never get a five star rating at this rate."

His sarcasm faded though and he pulled himself to standing, to his full height, back straight and stance defiant.

"What do you want?" He demanded, strong.

[endlessdrums.livejournal.com]

Oh, how he did love a brave face to wake up to in the morning. So full of righteous anger and believing that there was still a way out of the nightmare. He was giddy, almost bouncing on his toes with utter glee.

Hearing the complaints about service, he pouted then put on a mock stern face. "I shall have to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Jones and sweet Tish afterward. Can't have any slacking around here. I won't stand for it. Cause I really want that rating."

He laughed then, coming close but he already knew the distance Jack could go on his 'leash' and made sure to stay just out of range. "So many ways to answer that question. I think I'll let you come up with a few ideas of your own first."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack's fingers balled into a fist at his side as he tried not to let his anger get the better of him.

"You leave them alone," he warned, though he knew it was without point. He wouldn't listen, but that didn't mean Jack couldn't still fight. Couldn't still say something.

"It won't work," he told him, pointedly as he stepped forward, as close to him as he can get. "All of this. You're wasting your time. You won't win. I'll make sure of that." He'd never stop fighting, he told himself. Never.

[endlessdrums.livejournal.com]

Oh, he saw that but he'll pretend for your sake that he didn't. He's still very amused at all of this.

"Is that an order, mon Capitan?" he taunts, careful in case he tried to do something rash. One could never be too careful with these stunted apes.

"Will you? I must admit, I'm curious as to just how you think you'll stop me. You've done a bang up job so far, flailing about like a great bunch of useless idiots."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"No," Jack huffed out, "It's a warning."

He shook his head and laughed, "You know what, you really are pathetic. Look at you, you think you're winning but you're not. You never will. Not really. Mark my words, you'll fail. You'll fail if it's the last thing I do."

His fist again balled at the side, but he held back, stopped himself. He wasn't about to give the Master the satisfaction of showing his anger.

"And come on? You're not scared of me? Please. If you're not scared of me then what's with the bondage?"

[endlessdrums.livejournal.com]

"Hm, forgive me if it doesn't have quite the dramatic flair you were after. It definitely wasn't shiver inducing. You should work on that."

"One-tenth of the population removed, parts of the Earth still burning and oh, oh you must mean dear Saint Martha tromping around on her own."

He laughed then. "No, you don't scare me, but a man that won't stay dead isn't a man I'm keen on letting wander my ship without a leash." Harold watched the other man. "That little girl scares me more than you do, you're easy to contain. But that pain she must be feeling? That anger? Oh I wonder how she'd use that if she had a chance."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

As the Master so proudly listed off his atrocities Jack felt something crack. He was angry, no, more than angry, he felt a wave of hate rush over him. Hate was a bad emotion, he knew, but God damn if he didn't want to punch this man in the face.

He couldn't hold back, his reaction was almost like a reflex. He pulled his hands up, forced the chains as far as they could go, stepped as close to the Master as he could, ready to lash out.

"See that's where you're wrong. You've got no idea about Martha. You've got no idea at all."

[endlessdrums.livejournal.com]

"After blood so soon? Tsk, tsk, I haven't even started yet." He chuckled, tone mocking even as he smoothly moved back a step.

"Am I? Is she so different? How long will her innocence last in this world I've created? You know she's not infallible, just like your team." He stopped then, for effect, watching his face closely for another reaction. He really couldn't resist.

"The one you left behind. If they knew that you were here, they would sacrifice everything for a rescue, just for you. Of course, that's saying that they haven't tried that already."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

If Jack ever had a hot button, the Master just pushed it. His team. His team that he'd left behind. That he'd left without him.

"Don't you go near them," he warned him through tightly gritted teeth. It was pointless, he knew, he was hardly in any position to stop the Master, but that didn't mean he'd stop fighting.

[endlessdrums.livejournal.com]

Oh, seeing that reaction gave him such a rush. All he'd truly needed was the right button and while he may be unable to permanently kill Jack, there was plenty he could do to all the people he cared about.

"Strike a nerve?" he asked, grinning. "I did send them off on a wild goose chase to keep them busy, but your merry band is quite brilliant. I heard rumors of their trying to return."

He put a hand over his mouth then, giving a gasp. "But that might've had something to do with a garbled transmission they 'intercepted' from the Valiant." says Harold.

"It was all rather vague. Let's see, there was Doctor, Harkness and a terrible bit about being prisoners and torture. I think they would've gotten the jist of it though."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"You won't scare them," he said defiantly. "They're a strong team. A team, oh that's something you don't understand. People helping each other. People caring about each other."

He got up in his face, as close as he could get. "You're pathetic." He hissed at him. Oh there was fire in his eyes, anger.

He stood there for a moment, almost challenging the other man. The man who seemed such a polar opposite to the Doctor. And then he turned away. He turned away as though he were bored of the other man.

"Well, if that's all..."

[endlessdrums.livejournal.com]

"To be honest, I haven't been trying yet. I'd rather get to know them, find their other weaknesses, besides you that is."

He doesn't back up that time, just watched him coldly. "You've said that. Come on, give me something new."

There's a dark laugh when he turns away, his footsteps retreated to the door, opening it to grab something from outside before returning. He regarded the man with his back to him a moment before tossing a small, worn hardbound book at his feet. A bit scorched and splattered with something that looks suspiciously like blood.

"Found that in the wreckage of a building in London. Records say it was an old storage facility for Torchwood One." He lowered his voice to just above a whisper. "My men may have gotten a bit trigger happy in an attempt to apprehend a suspect."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

As the book hit the ground with an echo, Jack's eyes gazed down. He saw it. Oh he saw it. But he didn't want to know it. He didn't want to recognise it. But he did. God damn it, he did.

He felt sick to his stomach, and acid in his mouth. He didn't turn back, no, he wouldn't look him in the eye, he wouldn't give him that pleasure. It was all smoke and mirrors anyway, he told himself. It had to be, he had to believe it.

"If you or any of your stupid little men have laid one finger one any of them..."

[endlessdrums.livejournal.com]

The Master didn't have to see his face to imagine the conflict he knew would be there. Of course he would like a reaction, but the breadth of silence was more than enough to please him, however short lived.

"Idle threats. I could drag each and every one of them up here in pieces..." he hissed, voice at his ear. "What, exactly, will you be able to do? Rattle your chains at me?!"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

At that Jack turned, he felt feral, and he hissed, "Oh you'd just love that, wouldn't you? What exactly do you think you're going to achieve here? You're not going to break me. You're just wasting your time. You're nothing, you know that? Nothing."

He turned away again, too repulsed to look at the man. "And you never will be."

[endlessdrums.livejournal.com]

That is what he loved, seeing people, strong people, reduced to the most basic, primal, volatile emotions. "Dear Captain, I have nothing but time, that is something the two of us have in common."

He placed a hand on his shoulder when he turned away again, in mock concern. "I'll leave you to your thoughts." he said, though he couldn't resist a final barb. "He talks about you in there. Quite often in fact. I wonder if he thinks it was something he did to make you leave."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

The touch of the hand made Jack stiffen. He didn't want him near him, and all his muscles reacted the same. Get him away. Utter contempt for the man. He glanced, briefly down at the diary but didn't respond to the Master. He wouldn't give him the satisfaction.

He waited until he'd gone, and then, and only then, did he pick up the book from the floor and clutch it to his chest.

---

Two months had passed and Jack had seen little more than the four walls of his cell. They'd tried to get free, near the beginning, but that was pointless, and achieved nothing other than putting them on tighter security. Jack's meals were cut down, he'd be lucky if he got one daily. It didn't always happen. He'd been killed of course, and taken to the edge of death, and left there to suffer (that was always worse), but he promised himself he wouldn't break. He wouldn't let it happen.

He sat there in his cell, throwing balled up pieces of paper at the wall, mainly as a distraction to the pain in his wrists and ankles where the shackles relentlessly dug in.

[endlessdrums.livejournal.com]

The Master would like to think he was anything but predictable. Since their first attempted escape, he'd tightened security even if the incident had thoroughly amused him. Hate and hope can only get you so far and he was curious as to how long his guests would last.

The doors opened and he stepped inside, carrying a tray of food. "The service has been atrocious lately, don't you think? So, being such a gracious host, I decided that you and I could dine together tonight." He was practically beaming.

"Isn't that fantastic?"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Whenever the door opened, Jack never knew what to expect. Sometimes it was a soldier, often one of the Joneses in their servants attire. But the worst times, the worst of all, they were when it was the Master. He was unpredictable, and Jack never knew what to expect with him. He had to be on guard, and it took a lot of energy, energy he didn't have.

As the Master stepped in Jack lolled his head to the side and looked up at him.

"Oh if it isn't our lord and Master," he hissed sarcastically before going back to throwing the paper balls at the wall, paying him no attention.

"Oh yeah, just peachy."

[endlessdrums.livejournal.com]

"Don't look so thrilled, you might break something." He goes over to just where the chains would stop Jack's forward movement and sits, something he rarely ever did considering the state of the cell.

"I won't tolerate rudeness, Jackie boy." he said, a hint of ice to his tone. We're sure Jack has grown accustomed to hearing it but the Master is back to that jolly act again. "I thought we would have a sort of picnic."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack turned his head and flicked his eyes up towards the Master. There were dark circles beneath his eyes, from lack of sleep and lack of food. He was tired, and he hated that it showed on his face and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Great," Jack grinned with sarcastic enthusiasm. "Hey if I'd have known, I'd have brought my teddy bear. And oh, maybe we can sing some songs."

The smell of the food was wafting in Jack's direction, and his needy stomach responded with a light growl and a stitch. He was hungry, and having food so close was practically torture.

[endlessdrums.livejournal.com]

"Wouldn't we need a campfire for that? I can work that sort of magic but I didn't bring any marshmallows." he shot back. Two could play at that.

Harold pretended not to notice that sound but took his time as he set everything out. He looked to Jack expectantly after he was done. "Well? It's going to get cold." he said, picking up a biscuit and taking a bite.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack didn't want to give him the satisfaction. He didn't want the Master to have the enjoyment of Jack giving in, even if it was giving in to food.

But the food did smell so good, and what could it really hurt?

So with a deep breath out he reached over and grabbed hold of one of the sandwiches, eating it as quickly as his body craved. It was nothing special, but it was sustenance, and sustenance was something he well and truly needed.

[endlessdrums.livejournal.com]

He continued eating, slowly, he did have his manners, least at the table. "I made that, I've found I actually enjoy cooking. Odd little things I've picked up on since I've been here." he muses aloud, not caring if he was acknowledged.

He'd have that satisfaction soon enough, even if it were in the form of threats and obscenities.

"Also, I've tried, I mean really, to get down here to see you but I just don't have the time that I used to. I hope you're not cross with me over it."