WEEKLY DRABBLE/SKETCH CHALLENGE ONE HUNDRED

[aralias]

Hello, yes. Welcome to the ONE HUNDREDTH WEEKLY DRABBLE/SKETCH CHALLENGE*! On this day, the day of the ONE HUNDRETH WEEKLY DRABBLE/SKETCH CHALLENGE** we have decided to do something different. This idea largely courtesy of x_los. We would like the com to collectively write/draw:

ONE HUNDRED DRABBLES AND/OR SKETCHES. I have a lovely table that I yoinked

Comments

Death

[dragonofmemory]

((Mem is cheating slightly, since the majority of this was something that was cut from another fic I wrote. However, I liked it too much to disregard completely and this gives me a reason to bring it out. <3 ))

The Doctor almost couldn't remember a time when the Master wasn't afraid of death. When they were sixteen, Theta managed to get his hands on the blueprints to a primitive form of time travel that some alien race had created to manipulate the vortex. Primitive, but working, and it was enough to give them a rudimentary knowledge of how to build their own long before they were allowed to do so.

They'd spent endless nights making it. Koschei finally got it working during a study hall, but he hadn't waited for Theta to get back from tutoring to test it. He'd been impatient and proud, and simply pressed the button to take him away to some strange planet so that he could gloat to Theta later. He ended up in the middle of the bloodiest battle of the first Yestradi civil war.

Theta had raised the alarm when he saw that Koschei was still missing by the end of the day. Koschei had to be brought back by an emissary of the High Council, and they'd both gotten a very thorough scolding and punishment for it. All of that had been worth it to get a glimpse of the outside world though, or so Theta had thought.

His excited questions about the outside world had all been hushed, though, when he saw the look in Koschei's eyes. Theta could only hold his friend tightly as he haltingly described the horror of the aliens who couldn't regenerate. That night, Koschei swore he would never die.

That was why the Doctor wasn't sure who he was angrier at, as he watched the flames where his enemy had stood mere seconds before. The Master, for breaking his promise, or himself for not helping to keep death at bay? At night as he lay awake in bed, all the Doctor could hear were Koschei's screams from the nightmares that the Doctor now lived in.

Re: Death

[blackrose42]

I love this! Very realistic, I can really believe this happening.

Re: Death

[dragonofmemory]

Thanks! I think Time Lords are very sheltered from death in general, so it was fun playing with a little culture shock.

Re: Death

[dragonofmemory]

*blushes* Thanks! I was a little worried about the framing, to be honest. The original bit felt naked without the rest of the fic and it seemed to need some sort of frame. So I tried Ten and the funeral pyre and Eight/Nine with the Time War before settling on Five and Planet of Fire as the one that seemed to suck the least. I wasn't sure if it really worked though. ^_^;;;

Re: Death

[narwhale_callin]

Very nice. Somehow this small little drabble manages to carry a lot of emotional weight, especially at the end. Well done!

Re: Death

[dragonofmemory]

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it. XD It's nice to keep things short, every once and a while.

Re: Death

[aietradaea]

Oh, wow... I love this - the idea that young Time Lords are so cut off and sheltered from what goes on in the rest of the universe, that they take their own ability to regenerate for granted so much that seeing it not happen could terrify them like that...it's not often you see the cultural mindset of Time Lords properly being explored.

And maybe this incident could have had something of an impact on the Doctor too - the first seeds of deciding not to just stand by and watch what goes on out there... Well, that's what I'm getting out of that last paragraph, anyway.

Re: Death

[dragonofmemory]

Thanks! I've often wondered what the Doctor thought when he first saw a real death. I mean, if he's expecting to regenerate, death isn't something a Time Lord can really understand off hand. I also like imagining him having to explain it to Susan. XD

Oh, I think it definitely had an impact on the Doctor as well.

Thanks again for the comments!

Re: Death

[aietradaea]

Oh yes, that would have been an interesting talk...especially if Susan was too young to have been to the Academy and learned properly about other worlds. :/

Very welcome for the comments! :)

Re: Death

[badflameb]

Love. Just plain love. That last line broke my heart a little.

Re: Death

[dragonofmemory]

Thanks!

Also, yay for chocobos!