Tag: headcanons

Accusation: Manipulating Lucy


Send an accusation and the muse can only answer with “guilty” or “not guilty.” 

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       “Well, guilty, of course. You wouldn’t have ‘asked’ had you not already known.”  

The Master licks his lips and looks away, realizing that in this particular case even he isn’t tasteless enough to laugh.

Moreover using Lucy Cole as a pawn and prop in the perfect disguise of a respectable human politician was a massive miscalculation on his part, akin to his underestimation of Martha Jones.  Not only did she kill him once for courting and then discarding her; she also botched his resurrection, and was directly responsible for his dependence upon the Council and Court of Rassilon, inside the Timelock, to “cure” him (far from it, they only attached strings to him that he later had to painfully sever).  

Lucy has always reminded good old “Harry” far too much of Ailla.  

But once again, the subsequent company of the Doctor has given him cause to reach out to Lucy and her surviving family, anonymously, with donations of fiscal aid, and access to mental health rehabilitation services.  

He is not about to admit this “weakness” of compassion to a stranger, however.  

Accusation: Befriending someone, getting them to trust you and then breaking that trust, smashing it to bits.

Send an accusation and the muse can only answer with “guilty” or “not guilty.” 

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The Master’s legendary hubris falters.  Momentarily.

The accusation may refer to any number of people, but is likely to refer to Bill Potts.  She was his coup de grace of long-cons, a decade-long sting on the Doctor’s desire to be the salvation of all.  

And he is far less proud of that, in retrospect, than one might expect.  Long, painful conversations with the twelfth and thirteenth faces of the Doctor have resulted in something perilously akin to shame.

Because really, despite his nasty cracks at her “boring” personality, Koschei liked Bill. She was smart, easygoing, and far from petty in the way that humans ordinarily are.  He did, after all, learn all the mundanities of her personhood, in those ten years: her favorite toothbrush color and gum flavor.  The music she’d play while working out.  What gave her insomnia.  The name of the first girl she kissed.  

Which makes the whole betrayal ten times as horrifying.  He knows that.  He knows.  

        “Guilty.”  

Ooooh! Superheroes? Yes? No? And if you could have any superpower (except for being immortal and ones you’ve already had AHEM shooting lightning out of your hands) what would you choose and why?

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Mind control?  Surprisingly, too easy: not enough of a challenge.  No, it’s not enough for people to be obeisant; they have to want to obey him.  They have to worship him because they truly desire it.  

      “I would make it so others would see me only as I wished them to.”

There.  He could construct a desirable persona; a worthy persona; a self that had unequivocally earned the right to attention and love.  A way to finally placate  a terrible, insatiable hunger for validation.  And then others would choose to be his.  

“Someone told me you could be one of my future selves. She also told me a lot about you and I wanted to say that I can’t wait to be you!” The little boy, Koschei, smiled as he looked up at the Master.

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The Master kneels before his first face, and ghosts a thumb along the child’s soft, yet-unmarred cheek.  

       “Yeah.  I’m sorry, Koschei. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you better. When you’re told … to settle …to yield, or change, to make yourself easier to love … don’t fall for it.  Don’t fall for it, luv.  You’re worth everything, you: no one else involved.  All by yourself. You’re important all by yourself.  I promise.”  

Why the URL change

THANKS FOR ASKING!!!!!!!! *puts on my meta and headcanons hat*

So this is a play on the Master’s self-donned moniker.  I’m essentially inverting what most people assume to be the meaning of the term “Master”: control of OTHERS. Really, it’s control of SELF.  It’s based on this Ask that got me thinking about what I might be able to change the URL to in order to reflect how my Simm Master is unique from (or perhaps within) the canon, what things I want to emphasize, etc, and I came up with the notion that he strives to obtain “self-mastery.”  Meaning,  he wants to be wholly autonomous from others, from their thoughts, their expectations, their will, and, lately, even from the cage of his narcissism, and his need for the validation of others (particularly the Doctor).

At the same time, it’s a note of hope in keeping with Thirteen’s new era, in that anything and anyone can honor the past while changing for the better:  he can master his own destructive and cruel tendencies, if he cares to try.  

It also came from an rp I did a couple days ago with my main Doctor, @mostincrediblechange, in which Thirteen tells the Master that he needs to learn that he holds value that is discrete, self-contained and divorced,  from her or from anybody or anything else, that he can stop chasing the attentions of others, their worship and praise, in order to feel he has value.  As much as he professes to be independent, a defiant iconoclast and survivor, this is something he secretly struggles with and is still learning. Which loops back around to the concept of self-mastery again. :3 

What’s a unique headcanon about your master? hes so special to many of your partners because of your interpretation, but what’s something you might not have shared that makes him unique to you?

//There are a few things but I feel like I already rant about them ad nauseam on this blog, LOL.  

1) His tenacity to survive, and how that dogged denial of the odds eternally stacked against him is a form of perverse heroism, and honor.  Most Masters seem to focus on his cruelty and his manipulativeness, which are qualities he’s learned to develop in order to maintain the upper hand in power dynamics, and things I definitely need to deal with as a writer…but I feel every canon muse is a matter of what parts of the canon resonate with you, and you choose to emphasize.  For me, Simm Master appeals initially because he’s so fucking defiant.   Even when it shoots him in the foot or (literally) stabs him in the back, he will not yield when his own sense of self mandates that it’s foolish.  He self-preserves, and that is not inherently evil. What it is, is inherently alive.  No matter what The Doctor Falls tried to prove.  

2) Closely connected, as many have more eloquently detailed, such as @natalunasans and @modernwizard, my Master uniquely emphasizes the neurodivergent roots of his hurtful behavior.  As a child, and in every face, his telepathic abilities were uniquely sensitive, and rendered his psyche, his feelings, thoughts, and impulses more porous than those of other Time Lords.  This porousness–a kind of sci-fi trope for Borderline Personality Disorder, Sensory Processing Disorder, and maybe something on the autism spec–was a source of social ridicule, and also of paranoia, and finally, most importantly, a thirst for autonomy. For self–mastery.  Never once was he certain his own thoughts and convictions were his own.  So he forced himself to fanatically shut off others, to deny any attempts, direct or indirect, to exert control over himself (a terrible irony is that from childhood Rassilon was already doing this via “the Drums”).  

RICHER THAN JEFF BEZOS AND PROBABLY GOD I’M CRYING

//I actually LOL have this running gag that like, after the whole Harold Saxon scheme, which got him a LOT of attention both on earth and intergalactically, and after doing the same thing on Mondas pretending to be a politician on that one platform of the ship….the Master goes around CONSTANTLY being recognized.  

And LOL it’s gotten to the point where someone will walk up and just go “aren’t you–?” and he, VERY WEARILY, replies, “probably.” 

lmfao. 

Headcanons: Favourite food, favourite season, food he cannot stand, music he loves, does he like tv and movies?, does he UNDERSTAND tv and movies?, best time of the day for him, favourite animal, biggest pet peeve.

Favorite food:  Any sour candy, filet mignon (rare), seafood, whiskey or anything cooked in it.  

Favorite season:  Winter (he finds Christmas bizarrely fascinating) 

Food he cannot stand: coffee.  I know, right. 

Does he like TV and movies: Yes. A great deal, in fact.  He likes the melodrama and quaintness of black and white classics.  He also enjoys quirky cult films, horror films, the Jurassic Park and World series, finds the Alien movies hilarious, is deeply disturbed by E.T., and really REALLY likes Disney moves, lmao.  

Does he understand them: Now, yes. LOL. But twice in the past he’s mistaken children’s television programs as documentaries of advanced alien civilizations (Klangers and Teletubbies–and this is in CANON mind you XDDDD) and after learning the hard truth, ended up loving them. He’s a little suspicious still that the Muppets are fake, and probably loves Sesame Street more than an adult should.  He likes Oscar the Grouch and Gonzo best.  

Best time of the day: he’s a middle of the night to early morning person, then he sleeps during the day, if he can be prompted to at all, usually by a significant other.

Favorite animal: cats and mongooses.  Coincidentally, or probably not at all, these are the animals he most resembles.  He also REALLY likes sharks and tigers.

Biggest pet peeve:  Soooo very many.  People who are arrogant without being justified (like the mediocre, and idiots); disorganization and untidiness; lack of fashion sense; impulsivity; fickleness; laziness.  

masterfulxrhythm:

Random mainverse headcanons:

–The Master and the Doctor have merged their TARDISes (which is WHY she’s “done up” with a new coat of paint, it’s wild because @mostincrediblechange and I just wrote this happening on Skype and then this week…LOL…the TARDIS rematerializes with a new coat of paint) and also why the interior is “redecorated.”

–The Master is absent from the actual off-TARDIS “adventuring” because he has sustained some unstable Time Vortex energy from Missy’s stabbing, that should have caused him to regenerate.  His Regeneration energy is still unstable and if he leaves the TARDIS, where the Doctor has rigged him a wing to the Zero Room,  he’ll become very ill, or possibly even die.  So it’s kind of like a Shalka scenario, for the next several months.  

–The Master has agreed to stay behind in the TARDIS when the Doctor goes adventuring, and he makes the Doctor sack lunches sometimes, or puts crisps in her bum bag.   He has also learned how to make fried egg sandwiches.

– Of course he’s also composing whole piano sonatas (Missy’s grand piano is still downstairs), constructing laser everything’s, adding sonic components to his existing laser screwdriver, constructing advanced surveillance and monitoring technologies for the TARDIS exterior, hacking the computer systems of distant alien planets,  and, in this verse, taking care of his daughter with the Doctor, Zinnia.  

–He also frequently steals custards from the auto dispenser.  Which is why he’s developed love handles over the past year.  

–The Master is aroused by the Doctor doing Aikido on her enemies. Or just being aggressive and angry in general. Which is not unique to this Doctor, but has only …augmented lol.

–The Master likes Graham (and calls him “Graham Cracker”) because his devotion to Grace reminds the Master of how he feels about the Doctor.

–The Master likes Ryan because they share a tendency to self-isolate and defend themselves as “needing no one” when they’re in pain, and often over some form of disability (my Master is a spoonie). 

–The Master likes Yaz because she doesn’t take shit from anyone yet she transparently trusts and supports the Doctor, so he gives Yaz all the directives and “please do A b and C’s” for when he can’t come along on an adventure and keep an eye on his best friend and wife.