NAME: AVAN TARKLU
ALIAS: FROBISHER SPECIES: WHIFFERDILL ORIGIN TIME-ZONE: 82nd-CENTURY ORIGIN WORLD: PLANET XENON LISTED OCCUPATION: PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR DISTINGUISHING TRAITS: "AS TRUE OF HIS SPECIES, CAN SHAPE-SHIFT INTO A VARIETY OF DIFFERENT FORMS. HOWEVER, FROBISHER SEEMS MOST COMFORTABLE IN THE FORM OF THE EXTINCT EARTH-STOCK ANIMAL, THE KING PENGUIN. REASON UNKNOWN." From the private tapes of the Save the Zyglot Trust. A quiet moment. In another time, another place... > RECORDING START INTERVIEWER: "This is Doctor Ivan Asimoff of the Zyglot Trust—" FROBISHER: "How 'bout now?" INTERVIEWER: "Speaking with Frobisher on the aforementioned subject of auditorial interest." FROBISHER: "Hence the dictaphone." INTERVIEWER: "No, auditorial, as in—Never mind. For the record, let's start with your good character—" FROBISHER: "If you want an optimistic picture, you'll have to find another painter, ace." INTERVIEWER: "Oh, uh, your meaning?" FROBISHER: "Are we getting into this? Alright, well—" INTERVIEWER: "Frobisher—" FROBISHER: "From the top. A lot of my childhood was spent in the Xenon slums, jack. Options were limited. I couldn't work in the IntraVenus traxis mines. I was too... erm... What's the word...? It'll come to me... A coward. That's it. Too much a coward." INTERVIEWER: "It's... dangerous work, so I'm told." FROBISHER: "No less than living hand-to-mouth as a street urchin. You find bolt-holes, sure. Little patches of dirt and permacrete to call your own, but nothing that'll keep your mind warm." INTERVIEWER: "You didn't have any friends, Frobisher? Any family?" FROBISHER: "Ain't we getting sidetracked?" INTERVIEWER: "Please." FROBISHER: "I had no one. Not a one. The city was big and it was easy to lose people. In every sense, there. The Doc and Peri are probably the closest thing to both, these days." INTERVIEWER: "Let's—er, erm—move on. Yes. You—You left Xenon, I take it?" FROBISHER: "Escaped, let's say. Got myself out into the Universe, sure enough. I've had a few jobs. Private investigator is probably my calling, though belts were worn tighter in the winter." INTERVIEWER: "Your file mentions you were married." FROBISHER: "Long time ago." INTERVIEWER: "Yes. Yes, erm, let's talk about your connection to IntraVenus." FROBISHER: "I knew I should've gone for milkshakes—This is about the Doc, isn't it?" INTERVIEWER: "The trust's auditors have queries about your donation. They seem to think it was awfully convenient for us to come into so much money when our former President, Professor Astro Labus, disappears." FROBISHER: "What? They think we offed him, so you could become President of the trust?" INTERVIEWER: "Erm..." FROBISHER: "Oh, nuts. That is what they think, isn't it?" INTERVIEWER: "They... ah... have unusually vivid imaginations for accountants." FROBISHER: "That money went into the trust. Not out of it. What? Do they think we're laundering money through you guys, too?" INTERVIEWER: "I know it came from IntraVenus Inc, but—" FROBISHER: "We didn't steal it. The Doc and I scored it from their Venus headquarters. Fair and square. Yeah... We made quite the team." INTERVIEWER: "How?" FROBISHER: "From his bounty. Josiah W. Dogbolter's massive bounty on the Doc's head. Just a little switcheroo, between the Doc and me, and voila! We got the mazumas and the old frog got egg all over his face. It was personal for the Doc. Humbling Dogbolter went a long way in his books." INTERVIEWER: "And this Peri, you mentioned?" FROBISHER: "A good friend of the Doc's from before my time. He picked her back up after a sabbatical on Earth. Longer than she expected, but it helped sort out some of the feelings around her Mom. She'd passed away recently." INTERVIEWER: "I'm sorry. And since then, Frobisher? Aboard the TARDIS?" FROBISHER: "Your auditors... You know what we've been up to? The Skeletoid Crisis was all over the GBC, we put paid to it. The Six Champions, they've been calling us. Stopped a generation ship's crew, aboard the Mayflower, from being sold into slavery, too. On Zazz, we relocated all those Servatron robots to the planet's moon on an old-fashioned rocket. And... And! We even dealt with the Cybermen on Sylvaniar and—" INTERVIEWER: "Good gracious, though! You've been busy!" FROBISHER: "Busy? Yeah. Yeah, I suppose we have." INTERVIEWER: "I'm not sure if I'll be able to find records for all of that." FROBISHER: "Does it matter?" INTERVIEWER: "Somehow, I don't think so. 'And'...?" FROBISHER: "'And' what?" INTERVIEWER: "You said 'on Sylvaniar and', what else have you been up to?" THE DOCTOR: "You may as well say, Frobisher. He has that writer's gleam." INTERVIEWER: "Doctor! Doctor, your face..." THE DOCTOR: "Hello again, Doctor Asimoff. Thought I'd indulge in a meeting of the clans. This is my young friend, Peri. She's been travelling with me a while now." INTERVIEWER: "Charmed. B-But your face..." PERI: "I know... Frobisher was just about to mention that." FROBISHER: "Ah, you say that, perp, but I'm not sure. I... Well... It ain't my place to..." THE DOCTOR: "Never you mind, my penguin chum. Never you mind. I'll tell you what, Ivan. Stop the dictaphone and I'll talk about Mandusus Chi myself. All the sordid details." INTERVIEWER: "Oh, yes? Oh! Yes. Fine. Let me just fiddle with that... H'rrm..." THE DOCTOR: "A few weeks ago, Ivan, in another time, another place—" > RECORDING STOP COMING SOON in MARCH 2024 |
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