Tricky Marks [Valeyard]

[nyx]

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DESINATION; EARTH, LOCATION; ROME, DATE; 79AD

When you were looking for easy targets, who did you go for? You could traipse around markets, looking for rich people with more money than sense, and then lure them into a trap with a simple smile being sent their way, but that took effort. And money, to set it up, to look good and to lure them in. People like that could only be tempted by the idea of lining their pockets with more cash than they already had. Robbing someone was always an option. You could simply stride down a street and grab someone’s purse, or their bag, or perhaps even their head if they annoyed you too much, but that was no fun. The beauty of being able to take money off anyone, whenever you felt like it, was the game. That was the only reason John Hart was currently back on Earth.

Earth had a wonderful ancient history. He didn’t like the straight timeline, no, but jumping back through the midsts to land somewhere made of stone rather than concrete, to get something that wouldn’t ever be seen again. Like a dodo. Not that he’d ever taken a dodo off the planet, of course. He’d planned to...but one look at the pathetic creature had simply made him sigh, then shot it.

No, the best way to get money from this planet was by using the legends. Some legends were as old as the planet, and told of ancient powers and mystical items that must be found before they were forever lost in the midst’s of time. He’d created quite a few of those himself, when bored. He was a liar, after all, and what were legends, if they weren’t lies? Except perhaps the Time Lords...but until he met them, to John they’d just be another dead pompous race. The universe had enough alive ones of those, in all honesty.

The story of Pompeii, for example. Volcano day. Nothing he could do about that, what with it being a fixed point in time, an’ all, but the lure of the treasure that such an eruption could bring was enough to bring the marks flooding towards him. All you had to do was place some junk in the ground a couple of days before the eruption took place, weave stories around them, then zip forward, and let the requests come flooding in. Not foolproof, perhaps, but John didn’t plan things. He made them up as he went along. This one wasn’t even his, not really. He’d nicked the idea off someone else.

But hey, it had worked so far. They marks pay for the item, half up front, start digging it out, then oh no, aftershocks. Items lost forever, and the marks buried along with them if he was lucky. And the natural timeline was undisturbed because all evidence was blown away. Brilliant. He controlled the aftershocks, created by explosions from detonators he’d planted, and voila. Self cleaning. He wasn’t blamed. These idiots simply thought of him as being the hired help.

Which was why he was here now, really, a few days after the eruption, standing on the outskirts of a group, and watching a few diggers get covered in the ash and muck that would have probably killed a human so soon after an eruption, running through, in his mind, how much money he’d made.

And, of course, the taste of historic items always was a good one for Time Agents. And conning your own was much easier than finding someone new.

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TAG; valeyard
WORDCOUNT; 586
OUTFIT; the usual
CREDITS; coding, mine, lryics, KT Turnsdale 'Glamour Puss'
NOTES; hope this is ok ;)

[/size]

[the valeyard]

I'M ALIVE, NEVER WAS A GIRL WITH
A WICKED MIND BUT EVERYTHING LOOKS
BETTER, WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN

The Valeyard didn’t care much for the Time Lords. When he’d been the Doctor still young and hopeful about traveling the starts, he’d hated them. He‘d ran from Gallifrey, taking a young Susan with him, running and running and never looking back. Gallifrey had been beautiful, he couldn’t deny that. No other planet could ever compare to his Gallifrey, but they had been boring. Old men wearing colorful robes, saying that they didn’t interfere. Hypocrisy, that’s what he called it. They went around saying they didn’t interfere, but each time a new race bothered them they made sure it was buried. But they wouldn’t do it themselves, they always had someone else do the dirty job, that’s what they’d lost the war. They’d grown lazy, they no longer knew how to fight.

But even with his dislike for them, The Valeyard was still a Time Lord. At times, that part of his mind, that very Time Lord mind could fill when time was getting meddled with. Lately he’d noticed a few things, small things that most people wouldn’t even notice. But not the Time Lords. Sometimes a civilization would get their hands in some time traveling technology, most of the time the Time Lords would ascend and burry the technology and the civilization themselves. When the humans got hold of such technology, they ignored them for the most part. It was raw technology and they believed the humans wouldn’t be able to go too far with it. The Doctor himself had encountered an injured Time Agent, almost dying from having used the technology. But when the Time Lords perished the humans got better, the agency grew.

The agency itself didn’t last long after, but some of it’s members kept their vortex manipulators. he’d already encountered one of said members in his lifetime or the Doctor’s timeline to be exact. This members stayed out of trouble for the most part, but one or two sometimes went around meddling with time. As Time Lord this annoyed the Valeyard very much, this actions could look minor to them. Most of them went ignored, time fixed itself quickly and those affected went on with their lives. But Time Lords noticed this changes, time was part of their every cell. If any part of it was changed, even in a small way Time Lords too were affected by it. Every little detail was engraved in their mind, it was very troublesome when this details were altered. They ended up loosing track of things, confused until time was fixed once more.

For that same reason the Valeyard had began to track this changes in time,. Finally they had led him to Pompeii, just a few days after the explosion that he(no not he, the Doctor) had caused. A few flashes of red hair and fire, creatures of galaxies afar. He closed his eyes at the memory, those memories didn’t matter to him anymore. He and the Doctor were two different Time Lords know, he had his own body given to him by the Time Lords. What mattered to the Valeyard was today, what was happening here now. He opened them again, there was a group digging on the ashes of what had been a great city only days before. He frowned, Pompeii wouldn’t be dug out for centuries yet. This creatures were clearly not human, the ashes from the lava would have killed any human the breathed them in.

The Valeyard began to walk toward the group, his long coat blew in the wind. His dark boots were turning white from the ashes, but he continued to walk toward a figure. The only one who wasn’t digging, the leader he guessed. “You do know that interfering with time is very high crime.” The Valeyard spoke, standing a few feet away. He moved his hands forward, looking down at his nails and finally at the man.

WORD COUNT: six.seven.two
TAGS: john hart
LYRICS: make me wanna die - pretty reckless
OUTFIT: feeling like a boss
CREDIT: coding & graphics by me.

[nyx]

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DESINATION; EARTH, LOCATION; ROME, DATE; 79AD

John wasn’t an entirely reckless man. On some occasions, he could be quite serious, and careful, like now. He was watching the diggers with his sharp eyed gaze, making sure nothing went wrong. Not that anything would go wrong, really. He couldn’t come up with any possibilities of things going wrong, and anyway, that was negative thinking, which was something that he wasn’t fond of, really. It made you feel rather glum, that sort of thinking. And he wasn’t going to start going all deep or introspective over it, because he really couldn’t be bothered, but it wasn’t needed. Thinking bad thoughts made you feel glum, so he didn’t. He was just watching to make sure the diggers didn’t actually reach the junk. That had happened before. On a different planet, yes, but it had still happened before, and that had very nearly caused him to have to explain himself. Not a fun time, that.

The voice drifting through the ash laden air towards him attracted his attention. Not the voice of one of the diggers, he’d memorised all of those on the journey over. Listening to people screaming your name was a good way of remembering what they sounding like. It was also a good way of seeing whether you had the right name or not. Take John. John sounded ever so nice when they screamed it out. It was probably one of the reasons why he’d stuck with it for so long. He turned his brown head, the soft wind blowing a few loose strands of hair, making them dance just above his eyeline. Stupid curls. He’d have to get rid of them again soon, have them cut off. All the universe, all of time, and he still hadn’t found a way of getting rid of them for good.

The man walking towards him wasn’t one he’d arranged to come over here. That could mean he was a threat...but no, he’d mentioned time. That just sang out potential mark to the Time Agent turned conn man, really. Another time agent, perhaps? He doubted anyone else would have the same flamboyance as this one did. But he didn’t recognise him. Which was a shame, because he was cute.

“Good thing I’m not then, isn’t it, handsome?” he said, flashing a grin at the stranger. Hopefully not a stranger for long though...And although he was admiring the guy, he didn’t lose his focus from the diggers for a second, despite it looking quite like he was. His money counted on them not finding out there were digging for trash, and if they did, on him getting away before they could catch him.

Besides. He wasn’t messing with time. Simply making it dance a little.

“Ain’t seen you before. Mind introducing yourself, or shall I call those sweetheart’s lap dogs.” It wasn’t really a threat, that, just an idle comment. Not that the people digging were sweethearts. They were workers. The sweethearts were the ones letting them do the work, whilst lining John’s pockets. The greedy ones who had tried to see what else he would do for money. As if. Not like they could afford him.

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TAG; valeyard
WORDCOUNT; 586
OUTFIT; the usual
CREDITS; coding, mine, lryics, KT Turnsdale 'Glamour Puss'
NOTES; ---

[/size]

[the valeyard]

I'M ALIVE, NEVER WAS A GIRL WITH
A WICKED MIND BUT EVERYTHING LOOKS
BETTER, WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN

The Valeyard looked at the man, he was human. 51st Century so that meant time Agency for sure, with each meeting with it’s member the Valeyard disliked them more. If it wasn’t for all the trouble it would cause on the already weak thread of time, the Valeyard would be tempted to go back and stop them from ever existing. It wouldn’t be such a bad idea, plus it wasn’t something the Time Lords had never done before. If only they would still be around, at least to clean messes. It wasn’t like they bothered to be good at anything else. He smirked at the Time Agent, slipping his long hands began his back and looking around. “Nasty little job your doing here, all this aliens getting their hands dirty. But you see I was here during volcano day and there wasn’t anything that would get the attention. Pompeii reminds are for the humans that will discover it’s remains centuries into the future.”

He turned back toward the Time Agent taking a few steps forward, this Time Agent reminded him of another. The only difference was that to him Jack was wrong, he was a fixed point something that shouldn’t be. This was just smelled human, he wasn’t pure human. But by the 51st Century rarely anyone was pure anything anymore. Most species knew about engineering or interspecies relationships brought hybrids. His race had kept themselves pure for many generations, no outsiders were even allowed near Gallifrey. When the human girl Leela arrived it was the first time an outsider had even made into the Citadel. Even her marriage to a Gallifreyan had been a first time thing. But even they had been made outsiders for some time, Time Lords were too jealous about their genes.

“You Time Agents are so funny or so you believe.” The Valeyard smirked once more, he could feel the ashes in the air. Dust in his lungs, it didn’t bother him much but it would be hard to clean off later. “I’m met your kind before, he tried to trick us into buying something. Caused a lot of trouble for me to clean up after.” The Valeyard stopped more flashes of memories, he tried to keep away from his old companions, he didn’t like remembering them. “It seems that is a gene, maybe is mandatory to join the agency you have to be troublesome.” He finally moved his hands forward, wrapping them across his chest. He was taller than the other man, but he could see that he was fit. Time Agents were good fighters, even one to one the Valeyard would be on the loosing end of a fight.

“Your tinkering may go unnoticed to the humans, to other aliens after them. But I’m a Time Lord, you mess with time you mess with an important ;part of who I am.” He wasn’t sure how much the Agency knew about the Time Lords, but Jack had been slightly familiar with them and the Daleks when he first met him. It was rare for a human to know so much, of course Jack could have come across the information through other sources. Never less for a time traveler the name should at least bring something out, he just hoped it would benefit him and not the Time Agent. “I don’t usually like when humans know my name, I don’t really care. But you have been causing me some trouble, so I guess you can call me Valeyard. That way you remember why you shouldn’t meddle with things above your human capacity of understanding.”

He wasn’t afraid of the Time Agent and whatever he had stored away, guarding or whatnot. The Valeyard was ready for anything, he may not be able to win in hand to hand combat, but he had a few weapons in his pockets that could give him time for an escape. Or in a short distance even kill someone if necessary, he unlike the Doctor didn’t go out to investigate unarmed. “Now leave on your own accord, I don’t want to be enemies, not yet.”

WORD COUNT: seven.zero.four
TAGS: john hart
LYRICS: make me wanna die - pretty reckless
OUTFIT: feeling like a boss
CREDIT: coding & graphics by me.

[nyx]

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DESINATION; EARTH, LOCATION; ROME, DATE; 79AD

"Physical exercise. Digging in the dust is good training for mining when their older, you see," John said smoothly, without missing a beat. He was a liar after all, and even if he wasn't, why on Earth (literally, for once) would he tell this man. If he was a mark, it'd be like admitting to something, and if he wasn't...well, he might steal the idea from him. Which really wouldn't be very nice, would it? "Well, good job there not going to did anything up then, isn't it?" They wouldn't. There was nothing there but harmless junk anyway.

His eyes narrowed slightly at those next words. He knew he was a Time Agent. But John still didn't recognise his face, or his voice, or even his hair, so that was a little confusing. And then came the allegations... He snorted, and added a roll of his eyes for added effect. Nothing he'd never heard before, that. Only, usually they said 'addicts', which was more specialised. He didn't get angry about hearing that anymore. The Time Agency may have given him a life, even as their puppet, but it was gone now. And people talked odd things about that what was gone.

"No idea what you're on about, mate," he said, switching back to flirty cheerful mode, even as one hand slid into his pocket. They were starting to attract attention. Attention was bad. Attention might make the marks suspicious, and then John would lose his money. He wasn't going to lose out because of an interrfeering...hen.

He paused, raising an eyebrow, looking up at the taller figure. Everyone was taller than him, though, or nearly, so that really didn't mean anything. It was when people made references about his size that he got annoyed. It was just unoriginal. "Time Lord?" He wasn't sure what to think of that. It would be possible...and intriguing. But right now, he wouldn't let it intefere with his work. "Can we talk about that later? Bit busy right now."

Then he whipped the tazer out of his pocket and jabbed it forward in a well executed manovour. Taking him down would stop the others watching, hopefully. But it was that Time Lord line which made him not decide to use a knife instead. Even after being told what to do.

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TAG; valeyard
WORDCOUNT; 486
OUTFIT; the usual
CREDITS; coding, mine, lryics, KT Turnsdale 'Glamour Puss'
NOTES; sorry for the shortness...xP

[/size]

[the valeyard]

I'M ALIVE, NEVER WAS A GIRL WITH
A WICKED MIND BUT EVERYTHING LOOKS
BETTER, WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN

The Valeyard couldn’t help but rise an eyebrow, if he didn’t knew so such about the type pf person this Time Agent was, he would have fallen for the lie. It was a good thing that he knew them so well, not only because those were the types of creatures the Valeyard did most of his dealings with. But because the Valeyard also had those qualities, he had lied his way into the trust of the Time Lords. Allowed them to use him as pawn to bring the Doctor down. He could see the lie, it was well hidden any other alien, any other human would have easily fallen for it. Well hidden behind such charms, this man he was so much like Harkness. Jack had changed under the Doctor’s guidance and after he’d been left behind, molding himself under the Time Lord’s image. But he was sure that Harkness had been just like this before meeting the Doctor, just like this Time Agent.

“I hope they don’t what happened in Pompeii will remind forever lost, not even when the filthy apes dig it out will secret come out.” The Valeyard knew that his face was blushing bright red now, it always did when he was angry. “Don’t act like a fool, I know Time Agents, I know your type.” Time Agents, humans who had no idea of the effects of time, how each small little change could end up affecting things. Usually things wouldn’t change too drastically, but there were time that even one person missing their appointed death date, taking a wrong turn. Those small details could cause harm in the web of time.

But this were mare humans playing with big boy toys, they couldn’t even see into the web of time like Time Lords could, couldn’t feel the Universe move, changing. The Valeyard cached his hand slipping into his pocket, he wanted to keep his eyes fixed on that. But he also wanted to see the Time Agents face, he liked to read people faces. Their eyes, expressions those things gave things about the person away. He’d met so many different aliens, so many different things those were the thing he had to remember them. If not they became shadows in the background, things of no important to a time Lord that had a lifetime to travel the stars and more. He’d seen the start of the universe, he’d gone to the end faces shouldn’t matter, but they did.

That’s why he’d missed the taser, he’d been looking at the man’s face. This body was still too young, it hadn’t been so long since held regenerated. His control over his long limps wasn’t as good as someone that had been in a body for longer. “Yes, Time Lord from Gallifrey. Now how dare you ignore..” There was no time to finish his sentence, he was pulling back, tripping on the ashes on his own legs. The full electrical shock impacted his left hard, a human would have been more badly hurt. But Time Lords had an extra heart, one that was beating at full speed now. Bringing it’s brother back, even as he knew his hearts were trying to find their rhythm held fallen on the ashes. The spilled forward, he could state them on his mouth. Feel them on his skin and clothes, how hard it would be to clean that mess up.

The Valeyard could feel the anger boiling up now, that was bad. The Valeyard was more controlled than the Doctor had been, he was calmer only extra situations caused someone like the Valeyard to loose his calmness. “You’re actually more irritating that Jack Harkness ever was.” The Valeyard pulled his sonic screwdriver out pointing it one of the buried homes, since his twelve self he’d made a few modifications to his old thing. Now a sonic blast caused a minor explosion, nothing that would bring any attention to the location, but would hopefully cause the diggers to leave. “This is the shadow proclamation, I hope you filthy aliens are ready to deal with the punishment of breaking Galactic Law.” Now he only hoped that would work.

WORD COUNT: seven.one.zero
TAGS: john hart
LYRICS: make me wanna die - pretty reckless
OUTFIT: feeling like a boss
CREDIT: coding & graphics by me.

[nyx]

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DESINATION; EARTH, LOCATION; ROME, DATE; 79AD

"You know...my type..." John said slowly, looking at the stranger with an emotionless mask over his face. One that would mean that his next move, whatever he came up with, would be unexpected. This...stranger, the one who was claiming to be a Time Lord, and who was on his way to ruining all of John's hard wor, was not just doing that. He was looking down at him as well. I know your type... John hated it when people did that. No one knew his type, he was unique. Even in the Time Agency, he'd been the one they'd picked up and chosen rather than one to sign up. He was the one who'd much rather kill someone than look at them, if they were cute. Just because this...man...may have met other Time Agents, it did not mean that he knew John. No one understood John. And tht was fine, it really was. John quite enjoyed being missunderstood. He was insane after all.

"You do not know my type," he added softly, but in a dangerous tone, his eyes flashing with fury as he leant closer so his voice wouldn't be caught by the diggers...well, those who had been digging, but who were now watching them. "Everyone makes that mistake, of course. They all say they do. I found it lost it's entertaining value a long time ago."

Time Lord from Gallifrey. John had heard the name of that planet, the one that had been lost in the Time War, the one which had spanned the entirety of time and the universe. And he should care. He should feel, really, intrigued and fascinated and perhaps a bit in awe. That was probably what this guy was looking for, when he looked at him so closely. But John wasn't feeling any of those things anymore. Just irritation that the taser hadn't knocked him down, and anger at the fact that all his carefully stolen plans were going to dust even as they spoke. How dare he? And...wait, Jack Harkness? "You know Harkness?" He asked, one eyebrow rising. "Damn, why does he always meet the cute ones first?" No, no, stop those thoughts...that was distraction. Distraction was bad. Right. After all, he knew what he was doing, didn't he! Well, sort of, anyway, but he was an improviser. He made everyone up as he went along.

It was one of the reasons he was still alive. He'd used that skill to get out of tougher scrapes that this, and even now, his mind was whirring, coming up with ways to make this all work to his advantage. Tha stranger, this Valeyard (and what a silly name was that?) was trying to take control. Well, John would just have to snatch it back. Really, come to think of it...it would probably be easier this way. Less effort.

Quickly, too quick to draw attention, or too even make the act noticable, his flicked at a button on his wriststrap, initiating the timer on the detonators he'd previously set around. A cosmic blast...he new it was that, would affect them. But this guy didn't know that. And the whole point of this was that he'd be able to remove all traces after. "What the hell have you done?" he cried, his voice inflicted with just the right amount of horror, even as the ground shook around them, "This things still unstable...Run!" He said that last bit to the diggers, who were now staring, wide eyed, at the man. Shadow proclimation? As if they dealt with conn artists. But the marks new this was illegal, so he wasn't suprised when they dropped the digging tools and started running, even as one of his timers ran out, and a fresh explosion rocked this world already coated with ash and the dead.

The explosion did look just like an aftershock. Of course, he knew they were more common with Earthquakes, but these marks were stupid, and so didn't. And the stranger...well, if he was lucky, he'd think he'd caused this, because of that sonic blast. If he was unlucky, he'd be caught in it. Either way, John didn't care. He kept up the panicked, horrified look though, stumbling back even as a wave of ash and brimstone cascaded towards him, his hands flying to his wriststrap at the last moment and fumbling with it, errecting an air bubble around himself just in time. To anyone who didn't know him, which was really...everyone...all of that would have appeared like he had nothing to do with it, and had reacted like any coward would. Which was a very good thing.

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TAG; valeyard
WORDCOUNT; 743
OUTFIT; the usual
CREDITS; coding, mine, lryics, KT Turnsdale 'Glamour Puss'
NOTES;---

[/size]

[the valeyard]

I'M ALIVE, NEVER WAS A GIRL WITH
A WICKED MIND BUT EVERYTHING LOOKS
BETTER, WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN

The Time Agent was saying something but the Valeyard was hardly paying any attention to him now. One of the reasons why he tried to keep calm was that plans made under stress tended to backfire, a lot. Right now his little stun had brought a cloud of ashes directly at him. Not even his advanced respiratory system would keep him conscious with all the particles he was breathing in. He tried to make out the Time Agent in the cloud, but it was a bit difficult to see anything. At least he could see figures running in the distance, his little plan had been destroyed. The Valeyard doubted that it had anything to do with time anymore, he had been annoyed. It had been done out of spite, it brought a certain joy to do things like that. He’d had to think about it lately.

Forgetting the time agent, he began to walk towards the TARDIS, trying not to fall head first into the ground. His clothes felt sticky, the dark coat was almost white now and his hands didn’t look any better. He was completely sure that the TARDIS wouldn’t be happy with the cleanup afterwards. He tried to remove some of the hair that had fallen over his face, leaving a trail of black behind his fingers. It wouldn’t be of any use to walk like this, it would take longer and he wanted out of here now. He began to search inside his pockets, the Time Agent had probably already left. They weren’t the bravest bunch, jack during their first meeting had disappeared. True that he had returned and saved them, but he doubted this one as so kind.

He’d probably taken his little vortex manipulator and had taken off to another planet. It didn’t matter he’d find him, maybe. He had a lots of other things to worry about, maybe get a new companion. Unlike the Doctor he avoided humans for the most part, looking for more advanced races and at times androids that wouldn’t as to many questions. Plus it would help to have someone do the dirty work now and then, getting his hands dirty like this was not a job the Valeyard enjoyed in any form. Finally he found what he was looking for, a small silver watch.

To any passing person it looked like any other Earth watch, only the small Gallifreyan writing made it stick out. This watch didn’t give out the time thought, during the years he’d learned that a TARDIS remote could be very useful. The Rani herself had given him the idea during his(no the Doctor’s) Sixth body, then he’d forgotten about it. But now it was very useful indeed, to make a hasty escape or to bring her home if she was stolen. He pressed down on it, there was a flash of blue and at first nothing happened. Then the familiar sound of her materializing began. More ashes rose in the air, swirling and swirling as the noise grew louder. Then the blue object began to appear, just five feet from the Valeyard. At first she was hardly visible, but became more solid.

The Valeyard didn’t wait long after the sound ended, opening the doors quickly and walking in. There was no need to lock then with the Time Agent gone. He walked into one of the corridors, he began to remove the coat, shows and everything else. Leaving a trail of clothes that she would clean up by the time he returned to the console room. It didn’t take him long to watch of and get a new set of clothes, he began to walk back everything and been cleared off. It didn’t matter where she had placed them, right now he only wanted to dematerialize away from the rock. Maybe find a restaurant in 33th century Mars and eat and drink away the flavor pf ashes from his mouth.

NOTE: is a bit blank, but i wasn;t sure what do do. if you have a better idea just tell me.
WORD COUNT: six.seven.three
TAGS: john hart
LYRICS: make me wanna die - pretty reckless
OUTFIT: feeling like a boss
CREDIT: coding & graphics by me.