The award show ended as a resounding success, the awards doled out to the winners for their outstanding performances, and now it transitioned into an after party with people mingling among the tables as waiters kept their glasses and plates filled.
Pete did well, being out of his element, Jenny enjoyed the show, with David filling in blanks with his helpful commentary, and it seemed they had a lot of fun with the award show in-person, rather than viewing it on a screen.
Hammond didn't share the same excitement except for the segments with Odette, but he did enjoy the food and drinks doled out by the waiters.
How that man enjoys fish eggs on small crackers, Theodore will never understand.
The fact he's sitting at their table, drinking wine and sharing insight on what pairs well with caviar, oh, how Theodore wished Hammond was normal like him!
"Oooh, it's time for our private meeting!" David noticed the time, retrieving his ticket with the pass on the back.
He looked towards Jenny with his soft chocolate eyes as he asked if she'd like to come along with him and meet Herman Tully in person, but she declined, saying that she didn't realize how late it gotten.
Realizing how late it's gotten herself, Catherine opted to leave, as well, and return to the TARDIS, and she might need to sleep off the drinks she partook.
Looking over, David asked if Pete wanted to come with and as he pulled on his cream-coloured jacket, Pete said that he's keen on going home, the event took it out of him.
It caused laughter from Jenny as she lightly touched her father's shoulder, telling him that he'd be more alert if it'd had been Daleks.
"At least I got my cardio out of it," Pete noted that all that running the Daleks made him go through certainly helped and inhibited him at the end.
It helped him look presentable to doctors (no pun intended) during his yearly physical, but the strain his body went through during the years ended up giving him nasty bouts of arthritis that gets worse in colder weather.
"I'll see you at the house," Jenny gave David a quick kiss on the lips and he shook Pete's hand before seeing them off, making sure Catherine didn't lose the key to the TARDIS, before rejoining Theodore and Lila.
Hammond wasn't keen on staying longer than needed after Odette and Ben left, so he'd gone home, not before warning Theodore not to cause problems, the nerve of this man!
With their backstage passes, Theodore, Lila, and David went behind the scenes of the award show, where they let in by a security guard.
His large hands in his pockets, David walked with Theodore and Lila towards a meeting area made for them, complete with chairs, a table, and an ash tray.
There's a faint aroma in the air, Lila noted it smelled floral, with Theodore commenting it smelt like lavender.
"Hm, just his personal blend," he heard a voice as he turned his head to see Jasper coming towards him with Lambert and Reese trailing behind him.
David mused that he didn't know Samito can sing, but Lambert said that they had to guess, their people weren't the singing types, but they managed.
"Where's Dom and Shale?" Theodore inquired where the Ko'gan gone as he glanced around.
Reese told him that they gone home, didn't much care for the affair, but only stuck around long enough to see the look on Herman's face when he sees the performance.
"I think he liked it, yes," Jasper noted that he thinks Herman liked the display, only for Reese to point out that it's hard to tell.
That man's face doesn't animate much, always tired-like, could be the stuff he smokes, who knows.
"I smoke with him, yes, but I'm not affected," Jasper pointed out that he smoked with Herman periodically, but he felt fine.
Groaning, Reese tells Jasper that the old Samito could've eaten license plates and felt fine.
"Well, at least you get along with him," Lila mentioned that the Samito get along with Herman, which Jasper says he's an old soul, something Jasper can relate.
For Reese and Lambert, he handled them like children, which's shocking to them, but Jasper mentioned he couldn't help himself, he loved them too much to think of them as adults.
They spoke with each other until the Samito excused themselves, there's leftovers that require disposal, and all that singing made them hungry.
After they left, it was only the trio, and they waited for Herman to show up, sitting around, watching people go about as they're working on taking apart everything pertaining to the award show, returning the stage to its normal state for another event.
The drinks finally started taking an effect on David's bladder and he excused himself from the waiting area to venture towards the loo.
"The things I do for love!" Exclaimed a man as he stretched out his arms, popping joints in his back as he yawned loudly. "All right, what did those moloca do now?"
It's apparent he's aware of their tricks and he stopped when he noticed two people waiting for him near where he usually smoked.
The change in time meant people weren't socially welcoming of smokers indoors, so Herman had to smoke outside with people from the crew in a designated area away from the doors.
Herman's older than the people working here and his lungs are as pink as rose petals. Yet, they act like him smoking from his wooden pipe's end of the world.
Staring at the two people looking up at him, Herman tilts his head confusingly, asking if one of them's the former show runner.
"Drinks got to him, he had to bleed the lizard," Lila tells Herman that David drank too much and it finally caught up to his bladder.
Snorting as his wooden pipe bobbed in his mouth, Herman responds dryly that he isn't surprised.
Haven't met anyone who can handle their drinks, yet.
"Ah, I don't know, chief, I think he drank some people under the table, literary," Lila commented that Herman's incorrect, as David drank more than enough to make alcoholics tell him to ease up.
Even the people in the table over couldn't match the amount of drinks David consumed!
Looking between the two, Herman introduced himself, shaking their hands.
"I don't know how she convinces me to do these things, but I wish she didn't. Gets annoying repeating myself eighty thousand times," Herman laments if not for his daughter's wicked ways, he wouldn't have to repeat his answers to every Dick and Jane that come up him asking questions.
Ah well, she's a good kid, so Herman let it slide, even if it's because of her he's suckered into this project for at least a few years, give or take.
"Daughters are known for their cleverness," Lila shrugs as she tells Herman that his daughter's skillful.
His wooden pipe bobbing in his mouth, Herman didn't disagree, but still.
"And sons," Theodore spoke up only for Lila to point out that he isn't clever like he thinks he is and reminded him of times where his bespeak cleverness gotten them into trouble more than once, which Theodore promptly objected as he pointed out that in most cases, it's Lila's fault.
Dryly chuckling, Herman commented on the sight, "Sounds like you're going to have interesting anniversaries."
Their eyes locked with him, Theodore and Lila questioned his comment, and he briefly took out his wooden pipe, pointing at them, saying, "You become perspective after a while."
Turning the conversation around, Theodore inquired about Herman's daughter, which he says's probably causing trouble of her own.
She's prone doing that, the little devil.
Guess Herman can't call her little anymore, she's taller, now.
The tall devil?
Nah, doesn't roll off the tongue easily.
"I'll tell you, those drinks… really do something," David yawned as he returned from the look, refreshed.
Lila called out, "Well, who asked you to drink three bottles worth of… whatcha call it… the thing Hannibal Lecter drank?"
Theodore clarified, "Chianti."
Pointing at him, Lila affirmed that David drank three bottles worth of Chianti.
That's before David corrected her, "Three bottles of Chianti and a Perrot Minot."
Shrugging her shoulders, Lila comments with, "Wine's wine to me, man."
Clasping his hands together, David asks about Herman Tully, and turned his head when Herman called to him, saying that he's heard stories about David.
Beaming, David says that he's known for his creativity, but it seems Herman's capable of the same feat.
"Hm, so they say," Herman turned his head to look at David as David held out his hand.
There's a shift in Herman's mood as he sees David's face, a quizzical expression appeared on Herman's face, before it shifted into perturbed, morose, and David noticed it instantly.
When he asked Herman what's the matter, he grew solemn, before turning away from him.
"I… sorry… I think I need a smoke. Dunno about you, but I need it," Herman morosely said as he went away from the meeting area, going to the back of the building where he took out his special blend, put it in his wooden pipe, started smoking as it plumed from the top like a smokestack.
Trailing behind, the trio followed him, curious what changed in Herman, he's already under the effects when he noticed them.
"Mr. Tully, I don't understand," David's baffled why Herman suddenly grew morose the moment he laid eyes on David and Herman apologized for it, it's just that he looks like someone he knew, only older.
Mulling it over, Lila brought up, "You said something about a friend?"
As he nodded, his dark curly hair stiffly moving, Herman said that she's correct, an old friend.
Describing him, Herman bitterly ended it with, "I haven't seen him in so long, I'm seeing him in some dolt I don't even know."
Tilting his head in fascination, Theodore inquires about Herman, causing him to snort, "Like I said, after a hundred years, you don't think much about that stuff, anymore."
It led into Lila broaching, "I'm guessing you're not bullshitting, are you?"
Shrugging his white dressed shirted shoulders, Herman replied, "Nope. Nobody believes me, though."
Nobody gave much stock in what he said, they'd laugh and joke about it, it's the first time someone saw some sense in what he said.
"They kept asking what I'm going to do for my fiftieth birthday. I already had it. I had some bangers for dinner. Forgot the potatoes," Herman shrugged as he informed them that he's older than he looked, but because he didn't look older, people mistook him as a man in his forties, even if he told them the truth, they'd never believe him.
This led David into asking, "What are you?"
Briefly taking his pipe out of his mouth and exhaling the smoke, Herman replied as he pointed at Theodore, "Same as him, only full blooded."
Leading Theodore asking him how he knew, which Herman said that he has his ways, he may be old, but he isn't senile.
Pointing at himself, David insisted that he's part Time Lord, too.
There's doubt in Herman's eyes, so David encouraged him to give a test, and Herman gave it, in a form of another question, this time, via telepathy.
"Who's your father, kid?" Herman telepathically asks him, causing David to respond with, "Mackie."
He sees the shift in Herman once again, solemn, before he went back to smoking from his wooden pipe.
Gesturing, David outwardly asks if Herman knew Mackie, leading him to say, "I taught him everything I knew. Everything the Council got rid of and then some."
There's excitement in David's eyes as he wanted to know more about his father, leading to Herman guessing that his mother's human.
Nodding, David says that she was and Herman gave his condolences, catching that, and David thanked him, saying it happened a while ago.
"Amazing, neither my father or uncle told me there was another Time Lord on Earth," Theodore's shocked that he never found out that there was another Time Lord among the populace.
Smoke pluming from his wooden pipe, Herman tells Theodore why he never found out until, now.
"Let's just say I'm old and very hated," Herman tells them that in short, Herman's not his real name, just something his daughter gave him. He couldn't use his real name anymore because of what happened, so he just stuck with it ever since, not worth the trouble of trying to regain something tedious as a name.
"What did you do?" Lila wanted to know what Herman did to earn his exile as the old Time Lord puffed smoke from his wooden pipe.
Shrugging, Herman responded bitterly, "I thought I was doing what needed doing, that it'd save lives, but they didn't see it like that, exiled me for what I done. I only wanted to help."
He tells them that he's responsible for the domes on Gallifrey, they're his creations, his undoing, he only meant well, but because of a grave mistake it cost him his name and everything else when the Council voted to exile him.
"I met your father when I was destitute and lived near the river, this was his parting gift for me before he left," Herman explained the significance of the wooden pipe to David.
The only thing he has left to his former name from Gallifrey, a simple wooden pipe, made with wood that's grown sparse and no longer sought useful for the Council, replaced by something else.
"What happened?" David wanted to know what caused the exile, leading Herman to tell him that during the domes's initialization, a couple of Time Lords gotten caught in the initialization, causing them to burn up.
It was a mistake, Herman tried warning them numerous times, but they wouldn't listen, and it was a costly mistake that forever stained him.
"I did what I had to do and for that I am hated, but I did it for my people, whether they hate me or not," Herman affirmed that he knows how much the Time Lords hated him for the mistake, but it was for their own good, as much as they want to pin everything on him, if not for his invention, Gallifrey would've fallen to the Daleks completely.
While everything outside the domes won't become habitable again for thousands of years, at least Gallifrey stands among the ruins, still, even if the Council wouldn't agree.
"Hundreds of years later and they'll still want to execute me," Herman shrugged as he summed his exile.
No matter how long it's been, the moment Herman returned, they'll seek his execution.
Coughing, Herman says that he knows it's not his sob story they're here to talk about, so he asked them what they wanted to know, which David asked, "What was my father like?"