bigapplesauce | [open x3] I'm not big enough to house this crowd

Current Location: Three different places
Current Music: January 12th, 2013

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[open x3] I'm not big enough to house this crowd

James is having a pretty regular day. They're planetside, on a lovely little world called Hedenex. He's taking an exploratory stroll, dressed in one of his three-pieces suits, walking through the complex cityscape they're visiting, enjoying the unfamiliar sky.

He's spent most of the day running around with Andrew, seeing sights, meeting people, testing the cuisine, and letting the dogs stretch their legs a bit too. But Andrew and the dogs only have so much energy, so James has left them to get some rest. James doesn't really need to worry about those things, so he's been getting some exploring done on his own. It's a very welcoming area.

He's just about to head back to ship, when he stumbles. This in itself is unusual, given how surefooted he normally is. But it only gets weirder from there. His systems go haywire, his vision and most of his senses cut out completely. There's a moment of panic, but he doesn't have long to dwell on it before he wakes up in an entirely different place. That is, places.

--

James, or rather the Ambrose part of him, comes to on a streetcorner on the Upper East Side, near Harlem. He's breathing, which is most unconventional. When did he start breathing? Up until a moment (or however long it's been) ago, he was completely robotic.

It's not the first time he's been put in a flesh body, however, so he manages to adjust fairly quickly, getting slowly to his feet. He doesn't much care for the cold, though. Perhaps this is just another Time Scoop, but it's usually less unpleasant.

But no... Because there's something missing. Great chunks of his mind are gone, and he feels strangely empty. Oh, not his memories. Those are still there. Not as organised and reliable now he's got a biological body, but there. His two imported personalities. The Doctor and the Master. They're gone. Yet somehow he can still sense them. As if they're here, but not part of him anymore. He's not sure what this means.

It doesn't occur to him how strange he must look, standing here in the cold, looking confused and lost.

--

Across town, the Doctor wakes up. He's in a café in the East Village, down on 10th street - though he himself doesn't know much more than that it's a café, and that he's currently slumped against the wall in a booth.

He goes through much the same thought process as Ambrose. They have the same memories of course, more or less the same mental capacities; the only difference is how they react to it. And the Doctor is worried. Deeply worried. If he's split free, that means the Master is probably also wandering around somewhere. He can feel that much. A presence in his mind, but far too distant and vague for him to pinpoint it.

First of all, where is he? His surroundings aren't much help. Back in his old body, he could've smelled it. He's not sure how reliable this new nose is, but he hasn't the memories to recall which place smells like what anymore in any case. It definitely doesn't look much like Hedenex, though.

He prods the shoulder of a random patron. "Pardon me, but could you tell me where I am?"

--

Meanwhile, approximately right between the two others, in the back of a dark McDonalds on 42nd street, right off Times Square, the Master version of James wakes up.

He, unlike the two others, is not quite so worried, once he's realised what's happened. In fact, he's rather delighted. His personality is often kept quite buried, at least compared to the other two. He's not so keen on finding them, though he feels that they're here somewhere, now he's finally got a body of his own.

He grins to himself, and pushes out the backdoor of the restaurant, out onto 41st street. It's not particularly crowded, but there are a few walking around. "You, human, where am I?" he asks one of them.

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James leans over, putting his hand on the back of Andrew's neck, resting their foreheads together and closing his eyes. He gently starts poking through Andrew's mind, looking for anything out of place, anything that feels wrong or iffy, without snooping too much, particularly not in his memories. Most of it is already familiar to him, though not really from Andrew's point of view. There's nothing there that would worry him, though.

He slumps a little when he breaks the connection, leaning back in his seat. He nods and gives a little smile to indicate everything's fine.

Lurking much closer to the surface than Andrew would like is the worry that he is the evil twin. He does his best to bury it, even as he performs the mental equivalent of following James anxiously from point to point in his mind.

"Is he part of me?" asks the other Andrew, having managed to calm down just a little bit. "Like the Master came out of you?"

Yeah, or not.

James notices the worry, but it reassures him. Better worry than absolute certainty that you're good.

"I don't think that's quite it, but I won't know till I compare," he answers, patting the seat on the other side of him for the other Andrew.

Andrew sits as the other Andrew gives him a smug look -- he's not been denounced, which must mean that if either of them is the evil twin, it's the one just tucking himself against James's side now, pulling up his feet before he even realizes he's mirroring what the other did earlier.

"I know I'm me," grumbles the newly seated Andrew.

James smiles reassuringly at him, and mirrors what he did to the other Andrew. The worry is much stronger in this one, which is only to be expected, given the first one has been declared alright. Beyond that, it's pretty much the same. It feels exactly like the mind he was just in.

This time, when he pulls back, he feels even weaker, though. It's really taken a lot out of him. He's tired three times over, as if his exhaustion just combined when he merged, and this isn't helping.

"You're both the same," he says as he pulls back, running a hand shakily through his hair and giving a tired smile.

"What?" The first Andrew to be mind-scanned sounds like he might actually be disappointed at this news. The second Andrew, for his part, looks relieved. He's also the first to notice how exhausted James looks.

"Are you alright?" he asks, already assuming the answer is 'no.' He glances at the other Andrew with a hint of sheepishness -- he still doesn't trust this doppelganger in his gut, but if James says they're the same, it must be true.

"I'm exhausted," he admits, closing his eyes for a moment. At least he feels safe that neither of the Andrews are secretly trying to murder him. He still doesn't know what's happened, but he assumes it has something to do with the rift.

"We should get off," he adds, as the train is pulling into yet another stop. He has no intention of leaving New York - particularly as it is likely to just lead to them being captured by Romac.

"We're a bit conspicuous at the moment," points out Andrew. Andrew nods, though he can't help but think James were more conspicuous earlier, with all that chasing and so forth.

"Still," says Andrew, hopping up and taking James's arm to help him up, Andrew belatedly following suit on his other side. "At least if we go back to the base, you'll have a place to rest." Versus going off onto the mainland and...what? Andrew's all for wild escapes, but what James needs right now is somewhere to recuperate.

James nods, getting up with their help once the train has come to a full stop, so he won't be jolted while he's trying to keep on his feet. Fortunately it turns out it's primarily mental exhaustion, and his legs carry him okay. Part of what's making it worse though, is how he's completely unused to dealing with, well, having a body.

He doesn't really have the energy to talk, though, but at least Andrew has himself to talk to, as they cross the platform to catch a train going in the opposite direction. Thankfully it doesn't take too long for one to come either. He's been lucky with trains today.

"Does your neck hurt?" one Andrew asks the other as they stand protectively on either side of James on the platform, each holding one of his hands.

"Not much," replies Andrew. "It looks like you might have a bruise," he notes, peering around James and using his free hand to rub curiously at his own throat. He's not the one who was held up by his neck after they split; despite how quickly the Master dropped him, it looks like the other Andrew is a little worse for wear. "Wonder what that'll do when we go back together," he muses.

"If we can figure out how," says the other, worried. He looks over as the train pulls in, glancing at its signage to make sure it's what they want, and Andrews gently lead James aboard.

Edited 2013-02-08 05:06 (UTC)

"Sorry..." James contributes guiltily, regarding the whole threatening Andrew with a knife thing. He remembers it from each point of view, and all of them are fairly upsetting. He's not quite ready to deal with it all right now, but he still feels guilty.

He drops down more heavily on the seat than he expected, frowning at the mild pain as he lands on the hard plastic. Definitely not used to pain. Thankfully this car is also empty. Not that much passenger traffic up here, apparently, or maybe it's just a slow time of day.

"It wasn't you," Andrew reassures him unhelpfully. One of him takes up on the seat next to James, cuddling up against him for what he hopes is mutual comfort, while the other stations himself in front of them as a sort of guard or lookout despite the lack of other people.

"What did the Master want with me, anyway?" asks the cuddling Andrew.

Very unhelpfully, given it was him, even if just part of him, which when pushed would go to quite a few lengths to get what he wants. Even if he never intended to seriously harm Andrew. He appreciates both of their ways of looking out for him, though.

"He loves you," he answers simply. "Because I love you. He -- I... wanted you with me. But I knew that I wouldn't let just one part of myself just run off with you, and that I would track me down. And I didn't want to go back to sharing a body - well, that part of me didn't want to. I was desperate..."

This isn't a confusing conversation at all.

The advantage of being this way is that Andrew can follow both of his urges when it comes to helping James. The standing Andrew is a bit jealous of the other, of course, all the same. The Andrew beside James lets out a sympathetic little sound and squeezes his hand. "I'm sorry," he says.

"How did you come apart in the first place?" asks the standing Andrew.

Even if Andrew isn't tall enough to be a particularly good look-out. He is big enough to be a nice cuddler, though.

"I arrived like that," he answers. It's slightly easier to remember things from the different parts of him when they weren't actually interacting with each other. "The Master in Times Square, where I found Daine. The Doctor in the East Village. And the last part - well, I dubbed myself Ambrose. Met a boy called Luke who joined me in finding the Doctor, then the Doctor and Ambrose went and found you and the Master."

He's used to being tall, okay, it doesn't occur to him that he's not as good a lookout as normal. The cuddling Andrew really has pulled the better duty here.

"How did you find us?" asks the lookout. "You said you could tell each other apart -- were you linked?"

James nods a bit. "Not very strongly, but I could sense the direction of my other selves, feel them in my mind. Ambrose particularly could, not sure why. Not telepathically, just... I don't know, a feeling."

"I've got nothing for him," muses Andrew, jerking his head at Andrew, who's been quiet for the past minute or two. Andrew snorts softly, shifting to get a foot out from an awkward position underneath him.

"I'm glad you found us when you did," he says. "You know, I didn't really -- I'd've gone with you. I still might have if you hadn't...."

Hadn't put a knife to his throat. Andrew falls silent, for once having enough tact not to say it.

James nods a bit. "I'm glad. It's good to know you trust me that much," he answers with a smile at both of them.

"You know... I didn't really know I could merge until I tried to," he points out looking from one to the other. "What if the two of you tried the same?"

Andrew hesitates, lifting his head from James's shoulder to look at the other Andrew. Andrew returns his gaze with the same veiled look of trepidation. Neither replies for a few moments.

"You said the Master didn't want to go back to being one person," starts one.

The other finishes for him. "...What was it like? I mean, he's still in there, isn't he? You remember being him?"

They're both Andrew, but wouldn't going back together mean that they'd sort of...stop existing? Or that one of them would? It's irrational (more obviously so from an outside perspective), but they're afraid of being subsumed by one another.

James can guess what's worrying Andrew. The fears are not entirely unknown to him.

"I remember being all of us. But it's different now I'm not a program, I can't really... I dont know," he shakes his head a bit. It's new to him and he doesn't know how to process is properly yet, and definitely not how to express it.

"But you're both the same. You were the same until a little while ago, you have nothing to fear from one another. And I'm fairly sure you don't want to stay less than a meter and a half forever."

"I could adjust," argues Andrew, though he does see the humor (and the problem) in remaining this height for the rest of his life.

"How come you got to stay full size when I'm stuck turning into a couple of hobbits, anyway?" asks Andrew, stalling before the probably inevitable moment when they're going to have to face up to it and try to put themself back together.

"How come I suddenly have a biological body?" he asks with a shrug, no answer to either question. "I'm not sure if there's any obvious logic to any of it."

Which is upsetting in itself. James likes logic, he likes the structure and the dependability of it. He's an ex-android, of course he does.

Andrew furrows his brow at James. "That's right," he thinks aloud. "I would have expected you'd be an android when you got all back together."

Andrew sighs and uncurls from James's side, letting his feet down. "You're stalling," he points out. He reaches a hand out, which the other takes, tugging him to his feet. Touch alone doesn't do it, as both of them sort of feared and hoped it would -- but a moment later, as they awkwardly huddle against each other with twin looks of concentration, it happens. Their forms seem to lose coherence for a moment, almost as if they were liquifying and flowing together. In the blink of an eye, though, Andrew resolidifies in one piece, looking a bit dazed.

James watches quietly, and a relieved grin appears on his face once the Andrews becomes one full-sized Andrew. He prefers it when it's just one of each, simple and nice and familiar. And he doesn't have to worry about making one Andrew jealous.

"Come here," he says happily, reaching out his hands to Andrew. This is the first time they've seen each other properly's since Hedenex.

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