entranceway | Fifth Experiment: [voice]

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Fifth Experiment: [voice]

[Whale can't sleep, and with good reason: there's been a lot for him to process lately. He's in the clinic, not that anyone can see since he chose to leave the video function turned off. He just needs to talk all of this out; it's how he thinks]

This is a chain reaction of complex emotions. Where do I even start? An immortal man who looks like me. That packed more punch than I expected. And now all of this... Gold's son, magic beans...

My head feels like it just ate a bunch of Pop Rocks and drank soda.

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[Martha's on her way to bed, hoping that all of this ridiculous speech nonsense will have worn off by tomorrow. She decides to check her mobile one last time before she turns in, and that's when she hears Whale's voice come through.

She's interacted, however briefly, with this double that he's mentioned. Not enough to have known he was immortal before now, though. It seems like there's a number of them, between beings like Loki and the angels and even Helen.

At that last metaphor, she can't stop herself from laughing.] Pop rocks and soda, is it? At least it doesn't feel like it just got a zap from a chameleon arch.

[She pauses, because she hadn't meant to say that and it won't mean much sense to him anyway. She sighs, moving on to the real point at hand.] Are you all right?

[he pauses when he hears Martha's voice. Even knowing her for a month, it still feels strange having someone who is concerned about him. He glances at his device, debating on turning it on so they can speak face-to-face. But he decides against it. She'll see he's in his office at the clinic, and he's not sure if he wants her coming down there.

He does at least answer her question, though]

I couldn't sleep.

[It seems easier to speak with voice only when she's already all curled up in bed, as well. So she doesn't mind leaving it this way, honestly.]

Insomnia, is it? That's as frustrating as there being no paper when you go to the loo.

[What a mood-killer. She groans in annoyance.] ... What's wrong?

[that gets a soft laugh from him, sobering when she asks her question]

Henry came back. He somehow made it to Storybrooke for a while, and... apparently a lot's been going on.

[It's an immense relief to hear that Henry's been found, or that he's back. Martha wonders if Emma's found him already, but she suspects that she has. What kind of mother wouldn't get to their child as soon as possible? Martha's curious to ask Whale what exactly has happened, but she wonders if now is the time for an in-depth conversation.]

Is he all right? [She's trying to keep her sentences short and to the point to avoid having to sound like a loon with everything that she says.]

I made sure to return him safely to his room.

[and then he went to the clinic and got drunk. Still might be a bit drunk]

[So Whale was the first to rediscover Henry, then. It's probably for the best, since he's responsible enough to see that Henry wouldn't get into any further danger.

Martha can't tell that he's drunk, not just from his voice, and so she pushes on. He wouldn't have made a voice message for everyone to hear if he didn't want to talk.]

What sort of things did he tell you about?

He said Storybrooke was almost destroyed. I almost lost my home... He says it's all right, but it was close...

[she probably doesn't know him well enough to realize just how big a deal it is for Whale to call Storybrooke his home]

[No, she doesn't, but Martha does know what it's like to have your home threatened. How many times has London been under attack, exactly? Or all of Earth, for that matter?]

That's horrible... like when you're really enjoying a book and then it's got an unsatisfying ending.

[That's about the worst metaphor that could have come out of her mouth in that moment. Here she is, trying to be comforting, and instead she says something completely daft. She sighs and winces her eyes closed.]

Sorry.

[that makes him pause, but then he immediately switches to a private setting. Even intoxicated, he has enough sense to keep this away from prying eyes. Maybe he's over-reacting and she doesn't mean anything by that metaphor, but he's drunk. He can't tell for certain]

Did someone tell you who I really am?

[It's really just a coincidence, honestly. Something that the mansion caused her to say, and his reaction is so pointed that Martha's not sure what to say for a few moments. There's a few seconds of silence as she realizes... she'd never asked who Whale really is. He's mentioned that he's not from the same world as Ruby, but he's never gone so far as to offer that one detail.]

No... I... no. [To her, he'd just been Whale, but now she's curious.]

[he's only told one other person, and he was desperate then to get Ruby's cloak. This is a different scenario. There is a pause, filled by the clink of a glass as he takes another drink. Whale probably wouldn't even consider telling her if he were sober, if he hadn't heard about what was happening in Storybrooke.

But he did hear those things, and he is drunk, so he will tell her]

Doctor Victor Frankenstein.

[It's not even as if she meant to pry it out of him. Martha hears the glass clinking and she wonders if maybe he's had a few. It doesn't seem right to be taking advantage of that, but she hadn't even realized...

And then he tells her, just comes out with it all of a sudden. Martha blinks, pulling her mobile away from her ear for a moment to stare at it.]

... Doctor Frankenstein? So it's like the story, then? You tried to bring someone back from the dead? [This isn't a metaphor anymore, apparently, it's just fact, and she's not sure what to make of it.]

I succeeded. [he pauses] Twice.

I'm a monster, Martha. It's just who I am.

[A monster? That's how the story goes, of course. Who's the true monster, the creature made by the doctor, or the doctor for attempting it? Martha swallows, lays in silence for a moment as she tries to process this.

But she'd stood by Ruby's side even though she's a werewolf. She isn't sure this is exactly the same, but she's not going to toss Whale aside so easily either.]

You should tell me about it. Maybe not now, but when the event's over with and when you haven't been drinking.

[Because she wants to understand it. She can see how someone would be desperate to bring someone back from the dead, but she wants to hear it from Whale before she assumes anything further.]

[no, this isn't the same. If anything, this is worse. Red's transformations couldn't be helped; Victor had a choice in what he did. Whale has read Frankenstein and knows there are some serious discrepancies in that story and the true tale. But she's right in that he should be sober first]

Not really the best topic of conversation for our first date, but all right.

[oh goodness, he just went out and said that, didn't he? Drunken flirting at its finest right here]

[As if trying to compare this Wonderland to the one in the book hadn't been bad enough, now Martha's stuck trying to do that with the Storybrooke residents as well.

Whale's comment might have come across as flippant if he'd been saying it while sober, but when he says it while drunk, it feels a bit awkward.

So it might be best to end things here, before he digs himself into a deeper hole.]

Look, I'll... talk to you later. [And she ends the call.]

[making things awkward and getting one step closer to ruining a relationship. It's how Whale rolls. Well, back to drinking]

[Don't worry, Whale, you haven't quite ruined things. This is just not a conversation they should be having when it's late at night and he's not sober, that's all.]

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