Five Things (1)
First result for the Five Things Meme.
Fandom: Doctor Who
Prompt by nightrider101: Five times the Master wanted to let the Doctor go during the Year That Never Was.
1.
The first week was worst. It must have been the long absence that made the Doctor so talkative. Which was bullshit, of course - the Doctor had always been talkative. But now he insisted on talking about them. The good old days at the academy (boring, repressive, though playing around with Theta had been kind of fun in retrospect, not that the Master would ever admit it), their first encounters as enemies, when their fights had still been somewhat innocent. He deliberately left out all the times their meetings ended in bitter tragedy for the Doctor’s friends, or the occasions when the Doctor’s resentment of what the Master had become was a hair’s breadth away from turning into hatred. Instead he was reminiscing, as if he could bring the Master to change his ways and let go of his evil plan by reminding him of what they had been, and could be again if they both wanted it.
Well, tough! That would never work. The Master was quite happy with what he was now (= ruler of the world) and with what the Doctor was (= his aged, helpless prisoner) and the way things were between them. The Doctor thought he could talk him into caring? The Master didn’t care! No way! Never.
At the end of the first week, the Master was half a step away from letting the other Time Lord go, just so he wouldn’t have to listen to him anymore.
2.
Eventually the Doctor found out about the Toclafane and fell silent. For a while the Master was happy. He mocked and he taunted, and did his best to provoke the Doctor into some sort of reaction. The Doctor wouldn’t be provoked. He stayed stubbornly wordless, often refusing to even acknowledge his Master’s presence. It quickly got boring, then frustrating. Soon the Master even considered giving his only worthy enemy a chance to escape, just to see what he would do to stop him. Everything had to be better than this passive silence.
3.
“I need you,” the Doctor said. And “Don’t leave me, please,” and “I’ll do anything.” Stockholm syndrome was a wonderful thing, the Master thought as they lay entangled on the sheets, after the Doctor had been good and obedient for so long that the Master thought himself justified to de-age and reward him. And hadn’t the Doctor been grateful.
Stockholm syndrome was a wonderful thing, and the Master was tempted, oh so tempted to take his chances and release the Doctor, offer him to rule the world at his side, and create a new time lord empire from its ashes.
The Doctor was cupping his face and looking into his eyes, so eager and needy and desperate. But when he looked back, the Master saw the betrayal hidden beneath all that and knew that even now the Doctor would choose the people of this planet over him.
4.
At one point the Master invited the Doctor to a game of chess. Not the boring, two dimensional earthly kind of chess but the Gallifreyan equivalent of the game - a game whose name no one but him and the Doctor still knew, and by unspoken agreement neither of them would say the word, or any other of their language, while anyone else was there to hear it.
The rules were complicated, and one game could take more than two Gallifreyan weeks to complete. It wasn’t the first time they had played against each other, and as usual when it came to them, the winner would be the one who was better at cheating.
“If you win,” the Master told his opponent, “I will let you go. I’ll send you back to the surface of the planet and you can watch my majesty with the rest of them, from below. And I will watch you try to reach me, try to stop me from down there, and laugh.”
He was still a little surprised when the Doctor lost, quickly and with an air of determination.
5.
The only good thing of having a human girl as the main threat was that the Doctor constantly worried about her and the Master could worry him even more by throwing life threatening dangers in her general direction. But in the end she was too distant, and the Doctor was so quiet and restricted up here that the Master spent a lot of time during his rule over Earth being kind of bored. He took it out on the freak, and his other prisoners, and on Lucy, but in the end he had to admit that fighting the Doctor had always been more fun than actually winning those fights.
So he made a decision: he would keep the Doctor until he started his fleet, so there was no risk of him dying down on the planet, and then the Master would let him go. And the Doctor would make his life interesting again, while all the time, when they fought across the galaxy, he would know that the Master had defeated him once, and that he was only alive because the Master allowed him to.
Once this decision had been made, the Master felt almost giddy with anticipation. It got dampened, just slightly, when his big day arrived, with the countdown counting down and all his minions and prisoners assembled to witness his final triumph, and Martha Jones started to laugh.
March 9, 2009
Fandom: Doctor Who
Prompt by nightrider101: Five times the Master wanted to let the Doctor go during the Year That Never Was.
1.
The first week was worst. It must have been the long absence that made the Doctor so talkative. Which was bullshit, of course - the Doctor had always been talkative. But now he insisted on talking about them. The good old days at the academy (boring, repressive, though playing around with Theta had been kind of fun in retrospect, not that the Master would ever admit it), their first encounters as enemies, when their fights had still been somewhat innocent. He deliberately left out all the times their meetings ended in bitter tragedy for the Doctor’s friends, or the occasions when the Doctor’s resentment of what the Master had become was a hair’s breadth away from turning into hatred. Instead he was reminiscing, as if he could bring the Master to change his ways and let go of his evil plan by reminding him of what they had been, and could be again if they both wanted it.
Well, tough! That would never work. The Master was quite happy with what he was now (= ruler of the world) and with what the Doctor was (= his aged, helpless prisoner) and the way things were between them. The Doctor thought he could talk him into caring? The Master didn’t care! No way! Never.
At the end of the first week, the Master was half a step away from letting the other Time Lord go, just so he wouldn’t have to listen to him anymore.
2.
Eventually the Doctor found out about the Toclafane and fell silent. For a while the Master was happy. He mocked and he taunted, and did his best to provoke the Doctor into some sort of reaction. The Doctor wouldn’t be provoked. He stayed stubbornly wordless, often refusing to even acknowledge his Master’s presence. It quickly got boring, then frustrating. Soon the Master even considered giving his only worthy enemy a chance to escape, just to see what he would do to stop him. Everything had to be better than this passive silence.
3.
“I need you,” the Doctor said. And “Don’t leave me, please,” and “I’ll do anything.” Stockholm syndrome was a wonderful thing, the Master thought as they lay entangled on the sheets, after the Doctor had been good and obedient for so long that the Master thought himself justified to de-age and reward him. And hadn’t the Doctor been grateful.
Stockholm syndrome was a wonderful thing, and the Master was tempted, oh so tempted to take his chances and release the Doctor, offer him to rule the world at his side, and create a new time lord empire from its ashes.
The Doctor was cupping his face and looking into his eyes, so eager and needy and desperate. But when he looked back, the Master saw the betrayal hidden beneath all that and knew that even now the Doctor would choose the people of this planet over him.
4.
At one point the Master invited the Doctor to a game of chess. Not the boring, two dimensional earthly kind of chess but the Gallifreyan equivalent of the game - a game whose name no one but him and the Doctor still knew, and by unspoken agreement neither of them would say the word, or any other of their language, while anyone else was there to hear it.
The rules were complicated, and one game could take more than two Gallifreyan weeks to complete. It wasn’t the first time they had played against each other, and as usual when it came to them, the winner would be the one who was better at cheating.
“If you win,” the Master told his opponent, “I will let you go. I’ll send you back to the surface of the planet and you can watch my majesty with the rest of them, from below. And I will watch you try to reach me, try to stop me from down there, and laugh.”
He was still a little surprised when the Doctor lost, quickly and with an air of determination.
5.
The only good thing of having a human girl as the main threat was that the Doctor constantly worried about her and the Master could worry him even more by throwing life threatening dangers in her general direction. But in the end she was too distant, and the Doctor was so quiet and restricted up here that the Master spent a lot of time during his rule over Earth being kind of bored. He took it out on the freak, and his other prisoners, and on Lucy, but in the end he had to admit that fighting the Doctor had always been more fun than actually winning those fights.
So he made a decision: he would keep the Doctor until he started his fleet, so there was no risk of him dying down on the planet, and then the Master would let him go. And the Doctor would make his life interesting again, while all the time, when they fought across the galaxy, he would know that the Master had defeated him once, and that he was only alive because the Master allowed him to.
Once this decision had been made, the Master felt almost giddy with anticipation. It got dampened, just slightly, when his big day arrived, with the countdown counting down and all his minions and prisoners assembled to witness his final triumph, and Martha Jones started to laugh.
March 9, 2009