Azzie's corner of madness

Fic: Where the thoughts did wander (Doctor Who)

flowsoffire — Tue, 11 Sep 2018 05:15:57 GMT

*gasps* Oh look, I made words again.

*falls*

*is poked with a stick*

What even is happening?

Enter your cut contents here.

Title: Where the thoughts did wander
Author: flowsoffire
Fandom: Doctor Who
Pairing/characters: Twelve, Missy, hovering presence of River Song if you squint and know me well
Genre: Angst/Drama
Rating: K+
Word count: 424 words.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Summary: One moment within decades. The Doctor thinks and Missy observes.
Author's note: Written for who-contest.

“Missing your little pets?”, she asks, archly.

He doesn’t grace that with an answer, at first. The question hangs in the air between them. It hovers there—she spoke it—but fails to coalesce into communication.

(She mocks, he shrugs. She complains. He smiles, softly, until she quietens with an exasperated sigh.)

Today he is not quite looking into her face; there are days he can and days he can’t. She notices that, he knows, but never comments. He wonders, sometimes: of the infinity of things her intellect perceives, how much is she capable of comprehending, truly?

He wants to hope. He longs to hope, clings to hope, holds on to it with white fingers and breathless hearts. It is something, it is there. Possibilities, he and she, and the universe unfolding around them as for once they stand still.

(London through the decades. Rain on his coat, whose smell never enters this chamber. Tea and biscuits and magazines and silence. Hope, enduring.)

He can feel her eyes on his face, piercing through the skin and running deep. If he turns and catches that gaze with his, will she be able to tell what he is thinking? He doesn’t, shouldn’t want her to—just a second ago his thoughts were of this private quality he so carefully shields from her, knowing her jeers would cut like blades. (My condolences might have been worse.) But that connection, there and not there, fleeting and maddening, is the only thing he has left now.

(He could tell her he misses the stars. It is also true, though not the truth of that specific instant, when he mourns a much closer loss. And it could build a bridge between them. Couldn’t it?)

No. Her cold, clear blue eyes tell him clearly. She would not do him the courtesy of buying half-lies. She demands more, strips him bare of any and all protection with a tut and a raised eyebrow. She may not understand, but she understands enough and the amount of that knowledge can be turned against him in a moment. He must not forget he leaves her no other toys to play with.

“Well, aren’t you full of interesting conversation today,” she huffs, demanding his attention.

This time he can smile, tasting the more playful tonality. There is something here, like an offer of conciliation, and he can tell.

“Very boring,” he murmurs.

“Exceedingly boring. And centuries of this yet. Oh Doctor, Doctor, whatever shall I do with you?”

(There are days when he wonders exactly that.)

“And vice versa.”

Icons #16—a bunch of 34

flowsoffire — Tue, 01 Aug 2017 16:58:17 GMT

Oh look, here are some icons again! I figured I would finally go through with my thing of doing all the classic Doctors :) So here you have a bit of everyone: Six, Seven and Eight, Peri, Mel, Ace and Grace—the stranger at the end, India Fisher, plays the lovely Charley Pollard in Big Finish audios.

Enjoy, and snag if you wish :)

Love !

1 - 5

6 - 10

11 - 15

16 - 20

21 - 25

26 - 30

31 - 34

Icons #15—a bunch of 57

flowsoffire — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 17:01:05 GMT

Ahum, hi? So basically I've had a bunch of icons lying around for months that I'd never gotten around to finishing, so I tweaked them a bit lately and here you go. ^_^ Most of these are from the Five era, with a few of late!Four (the Adric days, with Romana and Ainley!Master), a few from Husbands of River Song and a few of the delicious Bedelia du Maurier from Hannibal.

Love to everyone! *waves*

1 - 5

6 - 10

11 - 15

16 - 20

21 - 25

26 - 30

31 - 35

36 - 40

41 - 45

46 - 50

51 - 55

56 - 57 + alts

Icons #13—a batch of 31

flowsoffire — Sun, 22 May 2016 21:12:18 GMT

*falls off my chair*

I KNOW. I haven't made icons in forever and some of those have been sitting forlornly on the back of my computer for weeks months probably, actually. But tonight I wanted to do a thing, so there you go—icons, and a bit more motivation to be working on the vid again in the future, maybe. (Mind you, the thing I should be focusing on is work but anyway…)

Half on the Three era (Four and Five will follow sometime in the far-off future if I can gather the motivation), half random new!Who, mostly a ton of River. Oh, and the first three are because I once entertained the thought of doing a "one episode, one icon" thing. That did not last long XD

Enjoy! (And forgive the occasional flaw.)

Say something nice.

To everyone who was asking

flowsoffire — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 06:06:47 GMT

Okay, safe, nowhere near Paris and the attacks. Utterly shocked. o.O

Pimp!

flowsoffire — Thu, 20 Aug 2015 12:33:15 GMT

Just popping by to let y'all know that my novel's paperback version is now available :)

Of course it's in French, so only French speakers will be interested but you never know. ^_^

Love y'all! ♥

Companion Chronicles 1.01—Frostfire (Vicki Pallister)

flowsoffire — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 20:30:26 GMT

So BF is AMAZING ♥ As I already knew from the one adventure I'd heard before. But yes, it fully lives up to expectations.

I was pleased as punch about the first three—Vicki, Zoe and Liz Shaw! Well, those are only favourites of mine. Vicki's was fantastic, although I was very slightly unsettled by Maureen O'Brien's voice at first, because naturally, she aged a bit since 1964 and one can tell. XD But I got used to that very soon; her "voice acting" was fantastic, if you can call it that, and I died a bit at her First Doctor impersonations. She sure noticed Hartnell's very specific way of ending sentences with "hmmm?" :D It's funny, when watching the show I always saw characters as, well, characters, and didn't give the acting performances a thought, whereas when I'm hearing audios I'm always so much more aware of how good the actors are being, bringing it all to life with their voice alone. Mind you, BF has wonderful sound effects that add a lot to the atmosphere, but really, Maureen O'Brien did a fantastic job. They probably all do ;)

The writing and story were also excellent; beyond the actor's performance, a lot of the overall effect rests on the writing, I suppose, and it was just really gripping and powerful. Like the other BF story I'd heard before, I found the story very intense and unafraid to edge into a bit darker territory than the show itself does. Family show. The fire and ice themes, Vicki's terror of the phoenix egg, Lady Georgiana's possession—it all gave me chills. And I wonder if this is a pattern in the Companion Chronicles, the fact that the character first appears to be telling the story to an outsider, but everything turns out to be connected with quite the clever twist around the end. The Cinder was a very creepy and interesting presence, and I liked seeing its connection with Vicki. The narrative being post-TARDIS travels also shed some light on what Vicki's life turned out like afterwards, clearly addressing the fact that she would find it ever so difficult to adjust to life in such an ancient place as Troy, with people whose state of mind were thousands of years behind her own, and who would view her as some strange and foreign person and often act wary or hostile.

Character-wise, we had Jane Austen, who was just fantastic! ♥ (And the Doctor danced the gavotte with her!) Also a little bit of Steven/Vicki-ish fun, because Miss Austen assumed, and Vicki was both like "but no, he's like a big brother!" and "well, I'd never thought of it like that". That was entertaining. I rather think he had a bit of a crush on her at least, I think I remember his calling out for her in some wound-induced delirium in The Daleks' Master Plan after her departure? Steven was not so very prominent in the story, that aside, but then again, he often did the action-y bits and little more in the show, too, as far as I recall. Which is why I vastly prefer Ian and Jamie to Steven and Ben—deeper characterizations… But he was nice, for the little he did. ;)

Overall, BF is marvelous and yes ♥

Classic!Who s9—The Mutants

flowsoffire — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 20:47:46 GMT

The Mutants!

That was a nice ep, and one that, again, dealt with a colony and humans being entirely dreadful to the native population. The villain was, once more, perfectly hatable. The Time Lords sent the Doctor and Jo about to do their bidding. Why they wanted to help the local population when they pointedly usually don't get involved in the politics of other planets, you ask? I do not know, but it made for a nice adventure. The characters were nice, with Ky the native, and the two guards who rebelled and helped the Doctor and Jo instead, one of which died, aw.

The whole thing about the mutation the local people underwent, that was supposed to be perfectly okay and natural in the end, but that went very much wrong due to the influence of the humans' actions, was a pretty interesting bit. Of course most of everyone would automatically assume those big insect-y creatures were monsters and not a normal stage of evolution. Except they were the latter. The character of the professor who studied that was good too. But the ending cracked me up—after being insect-y creatures, the natives' end states was some kind of technicolor rainbow angel with superpowers, it was just hilarious. Talk about the butterfly coming out of its chrysalis ;)

That will be all, I didn't have many thoughts or many notes on this one. It was nice though, there were just not that many points that noticeably stood out.

Oh yes, there was one! Everyone is obsessed about food in this show. The beginning was Jo whining to the Doctor that they were late for lunch. XD Well, what with the whole adventure, lunch got postponed awfully. Poor darling.

Tiny quotes:

Three: "Genocide is a side-effect? You ought to write a paper on that, Professor."

Three: "The slightest accident in this stage of the proceedings and we'd all reverse instantly into antimatter. […] We'll all become unpeople undoing unthings untogether. Fascinating."

Investigator: "You are a Doctor, I take it?"
Three: "I am, yes."
Investigator: "Qualified in?"
Three: "Practically everything."
Investigator: "Ah."

Icons #12—a batch of 18

flowsoffire — Sat, 11 Jul 2015 20:31:53 GMT

Look, there be icons! I know it took forever but at least I got to that Second Doctor post EVENTUALLY. Here they are: Two, Ben, Polly, Jamie, Victoria, Zoe and the Brig. Snag if you like and credit flowsoffire or eyes_afire pretty please, let me know if you like/which you like best, etc. They are nothing much but I had fun making them. Now I can move on to Three, though it should be slow as always.

18 usual icons, 18 b&w alternates because old!Who is a thing :)

1-4

5-8

9-12

13-16

17-18

And b&w:

1-4

5-8

9-12

13-16

17-18

Classic!Who s9—The Sea Devils

flowsoffire — Sun, 05 Jul 2015 20:54:02 GMT

Well, that is another much-belated review. But a delightful Master story! Seeing the Doctor and Jo pay a visit to an imprisoned Master was pretty much the best thing ever. I quite loved the two sides of that—first, the pretence of a reformed and pretty much overpowered Master, guarded by a staff that had been trained to resist his hypnosis. (His intense hypnotism face went almost cross-eyed. XD His frustrated face wasn't bad either.)

The pleasantries of their encounter were just amazing, the Doctor/Master fun went beyond all limits again, not to mention the amazing humorous tidbits such as the Doctorʼs first and first-glance remark being that the Master had PUT ON WEIGHT of all things. Boy, youʼve been looking at his body for sure XD There was also the Master working out (Time Lords are such shallow fuckers XD), and the Master watching kiddo TV and taking it very much too seriously. SIMM AND THE TELETUBBIES WERE A TRIBUTE, GUYS. My life is made.

But yes, well, the Master was actually not very repented at all, but doing anything he liked, down to requesting TV in his room. XD And he was completely manipulating Trenchard, who was in charge of the prison and thought he and the Master were allies up until they werenʼt. And then he got killed off. Interestingly, the Master manipulated him by using his patriotic streak and making him think he was doing stuff against enemy agents, blah blah. This actually couldnʼt be more wrong, since the Master is plotting against the humans and wanting to get the Sea Devils on his side and cause war between the two to annihilate the human race because the Doctor likes them. Very valid reason. (Dysfunctional OTP alllll the way.)

In the meantime, Sea Devils are a cousin species to the Silurians, and the ending of that one story comes to hit the Doctor in the face: “Last time you tried to negotiate a peace, how did it end?”. We-ell. But this time it is the Doctor who, when the peace fails (theyʼve been trying to do treaties forever seriously, new!Who hardly got such an original concept as Eleven made it sound with his “whoa, my friends are negotiating a peace treaty” attitude, bless him), has to blow up the Sea Devils, the very thing he got quite mad at the Brigadier about when it was him doing it. (Side-note to say that UNIT and the Brig are rather absent this season, first episode and maybe the last. Jo and the Doc are cool on their own but I miss them.)

There is also the swordfight of legend. There is the Master getting a captive Doctor to work alongside him, which is not at all a pattern of his. Then the Doctor corrects the Masterʼs errors loftily, and the Masterʼs little smile is a precious thing, but then he claims credit for the whole thing. Never mind that because the Doctor tricks him all the way through. Priceless I tell you. But both of them can still be remarkably clueless around the other for sheer plot reasons, such as the Master not triple-checking the Doctorʼs work to make sure it shall not purposefully go boom, and the Doctor leaving someone to watch over the Master, HE WILL USE HYPNOSIS, FOOL! As I said, plot reasons.

Because there were other people in this episode but the Master and the Doctor, I will say a word about Jo Grantʼs cuteness and epicness, her skill in escaping and freeing the Doctor and her wonderful teamwork with him. The little "After you." as they were escaping, the handshake—I canʼt even.

The Doctor, ungrateful bastard that he is, shamelessly stole a plate of sandwiches from her later. Stealing sandwiches is a thing in this show. Channelling Yates, Doctor! (And he even told her off for wanting them in the first place, too, JUST LIKE YATES.)

Also, Joʼs outfits look utterly lovely and yes, thereʼs girlcrush time involved. SO CUTE.

The side characters were also fun: Trenchard, and the horribly gross and obnoxious official called Walker, who acted like he knew better than everyone, pushed for open war against the Sea Devils, treated everybody like shit, was sexist and even physically gross (demanding food and tea while trying to launch a war/annihilate a species), then acted like a complete and hilarious coward when things got bad and he became a prisoner, looking like a sorry little chicken while Jo and captain Hart were actively trying to escape and get shit done. The caricature semi-villain, semi-just-a-godawful-human-being characters are really a thing, and they often are headdesk-worthy bureaucrats as well, who thinks theyʼre so much better than everyone else, you will notice.

Quotable lines:

Three: [about the Master, at first glance] "My word, he's putting on weight."

Master: "I am the Master and you will obey me. You understand? *You will obey me.*"
Guard: "You'll let us know when you've finished with the book, sir?"

Three: "Is there anything that I can do for you at all?"
Master: "There is one thing. Please come in now and then to have a chat." /NOT SHIPPY AT ALL

Jo: "You felt sorry for him, didn't you. You wanted to come down here and see that was all right."
Three: "Well, he used to be a friend of mine once. A very good friend." [♥♥♥]

Master [to Trenchard, because he is totally an overpowered prisoner]: "I wonder, do you think I could have another television set? For the bedroom. […] Colour, of course."

Master [about the TV show he's just been watching]: "It seems to be a rather interesting extra-terrestrial life form."
Trenchard [slowly]: "Only puppets, you know? For children."
Master: "Oh."

Sailor Guy #1: "What's that noise?"
Sailor Guy #2: "It's a mermaid. She can't resist us."
[It was a Sea Devil. Pretty sure Guy #1 died.]

Jo [about the radio the Doctor is working on]: "Hmm, I've seen things like that in a modern art exhibition. You don't honestly think you can transmit with it, do you?"

Three: "Well, though I say so myself, I think that's a remarkably efficient piece of work." [stuff blows up in his hands]

Three [getting uncuffed]: "How very kind of you."
[getting cuffed back to the chair] "How very unkind of you!"

Hart: "Well, I presume you're a trained diver in addition to your other accomplishments then, Doctor?"
Three: "Naturally."

Walker: "Your opinion is quite immaterial, Captain Hart."

Walker: "Murder? War always is, my dear. Where on Earth's that girl with my toast?"

Three [to the Master]: "In about ten minutes from now the whole place should go up. Enjoy your revenge."

Master: "But--but we'll both be killed!"
Three: "That's right. Unless we can both escape."
[together or not at all, all the way]

Three: "I reversed the polarity of the neutron flow." [He does that a fair bit, I'd gathered]

Classic!Who s9—The Curse of Peladon

flowsoffire — Tue, 23 Jun 2015 20:57:43 GMT

So this review has been a bit overdue. I actually finished that ep over ten days ago, but I have been either too busy or too lazy to type and post this ;)

Anyway, Curse of Peladon was a very good episode, I really enjoyed it! It started with Jo getting ready for a date with Yates, but then being accidentally stolen away by Three, and the TARDIS landing on the edge of a cliff and then, naturally, falling off the edge. That was already very promising. (DID I MENTION EXTREMELY CANON JO/YATES ♥) Then it had lovely planet politics: the young king struggling to find the right way to rule and the best future for his people, the two opposed advisors who were also mentor figures he felt very close to, yet one of which killed off the other and was doing shady things behind his back for what he also believed was the greater good of the planet (and mostly, protecting the old ways). Said young king proceeded to fall for Jo, who had been introduced as an Earth princess and one of the two ambassadors that had been awaited and very conveniently only turned up at the end. Galactic negotiations were going on, which involved aliens with hilarious voices: Arcturus, who was a snarky bastard I loved to bits, Alpha Centauri the hilarious coward with the shrill little-girl voice, and ICE WARRIORS! Ice Warriors whom Three misjudged and initially blamed for the obvious foul play going on, but later he came to realize that the species was really a lot more complex and layered than he'd given them credit for. Jo also helped with that, listening to the Ice Warriors' perspective and realizing they really were not so bad (they helped them out quite a bit, in fact). And this was also part of the General Jo Epicness, as she ROCKED the princess part with splendid and unsuspected acting skills, got things done, especially when the Doctor got thrown in prison and couldn't, handled the group of aliens and kicked their arses (or equivalents) when they really got too disgustingly cowardly, and also handled the king and the clear attraction between the two of them while inspiring him to follow his heart and do what was right. Jo was just so good. ♥

There was also a good beastie the Doctor mesmerized with a Venusian lullaby, and Three had a pit fight! Which he won!

I think that's all, or that is all I remember/that my livetweets mention. It was lovely ^_^ There will be a Sea Devils review next, since I am currently at the beginning of The Mutants. And poking at the idea of finding somewhere to get my hands on some Big Finish of the Doctors I've seen, but idk if that is available to stream/download anywhere, ahem. *coughs* Being broke and all, you see.

Quotable lines:

Alpha Centauri [about Earth]: "A remote and unattractive planet at best." [Thanks, little guy. Just look at you though!]

Jo: "Which way now?"
Three: "Which way indeed? Eenie, meenie, mynie, mo."
[cue roar in the distance]
Jo: "Meenie?"
[they head away from the roar]

Arcturus: "I am delegate Arcturus. You are late."

Jo [princess act begins]: "Doctor, I do not deal through intermediaries. Kindly present us to our royal host."

Jo [full princess act, about the TARDIS crash]: "The whole affair was most deplorable. The pilot was exceedingly inefficient."

Jo [later]: "Thank you. That would be very nice. See you later." [or how havoc and strong emotions make one lose focus]

Jo [later still]: "Phew, that was a bit close, wasn't it?"
Three [pointedly]: "Are you all right, Princess?"

Jo [about Alpha Centauri]: "No, I think he's rather sweet. Or is he a she?"
Three: "Neither. She is an it. It's a hermaphrodite hexapod."
Jo [with the cultural adjustment face]: "…oh."

Fic: Backwards the clock goes ticking (Doctor Who)

flowsoffire — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 21:05:55 GMT

Title: Backwards the clock goes ticking
Author: flowsoffire
Fandom: Doctor Who
Pairing/characters: River Song, mentions of the Doctor and Amy Pond
Genre: Angst/Drama
Rating: K+
Word count: 495 words.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Summary: Sunlight burns and water gleams, and River Song stands suspended. Lake Silencio, twice.
Author's note: Here is my (early) entry for the Sun drabble challenge on who_contest. Should be exactly 500 words, or pretty near that, my wordcounts won't agree. Enjoy :)

The sun is beating down on her shoulders, suddenly, blinding her eyes and burning her neck through the heated tangle of her hair.

It takes a split second for the whole world to shift on its axis. One minute she was lying on the sand, laughing lazily and sipping wine. One minute it was just a picnic, a slice of time handpicked and held close, when her husband knew who she was if her parents somehow didn’t. Out of sync and charming, like a bittersweet bubble—one moment, out of all those that make her life.

Then past and destiny stepped out of the water, and she knew exactly where she was.

She remembers now, like a lost, broken bit of her snapping back into place. It came slipping out of the haze, the slice of limbo on the edge of her mind where quiet demons lurk and hissing voices populate the dark. This is the place where the Silence still stands, and she looks away so she won’t have to remember, because she so chooses. Of this day, she wants to recall standing on top of a pyramid, her love beamed out to the universe. She will recall a world inside an eye, and hope, and freedom. Not this. Never this.

But this is her; here she stands, and here she stood, her frame a drenched prison.

She remembers this sun, though it did not touch her. Everything is back, overpowering: the great dark immensity that pressed her in its liquid embrace—the fear seeping all the way inside, into limbs that would and could not obey her—the odd vibration in her bones as the suit’s inner system moved her upwards, mercilessly.

She could not look up. She only saw the shift in the shade of the water, the subtle luminescence, its beauty yet lost on her. Then she was breaking the surface, and the sun was shattered diamonds in every drop cascading across the bulk that was not her body. Her eyes hurt through the one-way visor of the helmet.

Her eyes are hurting now, blurry; she finds it hard to breathe and conceal her shock. She watches the distant, foreign shape, unbearably wrong on the radiant beach. She seems so small under this sky that blazes blue, boundless. A little puppet. She did not shoot.

The Doctor’s shoulders are slumped with the burden of years, of life and death and resignation, as he strides away and yet to her. He stands there a long time, longer than she thought.

Sweat is prickling down her neck, and the weapons fire and Amy screams in a high, wrenching keening. She doesn’t know if she shouted, herself, cannot hear her own voice over the rumbling in her temples. She isn’t sure who she is, where is the truth, where is the lie.

Tick-tock. Tick. Tock.

There is only the sun and the water and the helplessness, once more, always.

She shoots; that is all she can do. Again, and again, and again, and again.

Fic: Vacuum (classic!Who)

flowsoffire — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 19:51:50 GMT

Title: Vacuum
Author: flowsoffire
Fandom: classic!Who
Pairing/characters: Zoe Heriot
Genre: Angst/Drama
Rating: K+
Word count: c. 1000 words.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Summary: Something is missing in Zoe’s mind.
Author's note: This is my entry for the “Classics” one-shot challenge on who_contest, set post-War Games. See note at the end for a few tiny specifics.

When she starts awake at the middle of the night, Zoe knows there is something off.

For her, this is not highly unusual. She sits up in bed, rigid and taut, and attempts to ease the feeling of wrongness—to coolly convince herself that no, there has been no terrible mistake in anyone’s calculations, that there shall be no tiny glitch in the system, no catastrophe, no impending doom. To rationalize the wild coiling in her insides, like metallic cords pulling at her gut, squeezing, squeezing—process and eliminate the fear, clean away the disturbances and leave only simple, obvious fact. Come on, she thinks. You know better than this. Just calm down, just calculate—if you go through each and every function of the ship, one by one, and check everything in your head, then maybe you can go back to sleep. Eventually.

Tonight it doesn’t come as easily, like an automated pattern snapping into place, a long-rehashed tune. Zoe thinks and thinks, yet she can’t settle and focus on one specific cause to blame for the anxiety. It takes an awful few seconds until she manages to call to mind the basic functions of the wheel, even—like there is a blank, a void in her mind, and she must summon the knowledge from some great distance. At the notion, the panic rises dark and smothering, yet slower than she is accustomed to. Is this it? she thinks. Is her head failing her, too big a brain for such a frail little machine? Is she finally losing touch, drowning in the great sea of data that’s the only thing that feels right and real, that feels anything like home?

Her heart hammers, nightgown clinging to her back with sweat. Mindlessly, she reaches for the heavy tome of advanced quantum physics on her bedside table. The weight of it feels familiar across her lap—embarrassingly cumbersome when all serious scientists use feather-light data pads that can hold an infinity of volumes hanging between two fingers, but for all of her clear-cut and icy-cold rationality, Zoe must have her little fetishes and the great ancient thing feels good to her. She opens the book, yet her eyes do not instantly home in on the exact line where she last stopped. The text is familiar, but feels faraway somehow.

This is all growing alarming. She does her best to concentrate, yet her brain feels sluggish, like it has lost all of its bearings, its instantaneous reflexes. Even when moving back to some old project after a while of working on more advanced features, she usually snaps back to it way faster than this. She is a neat little robot, Zoe is, yet here she scrambles in the dark and it feels wrong. Like she shouldn’t be this way. Like she is being sent back to something she’d left behind, something stifling small, when the very notion is laughable—what could she ever have but knowledge, and what could there be that’s wider and more fulfilling?

The book is no longer a friend, and it takes ages to get back to sleep.

The next day, Zoe logs in to the wheel’s archive. She skims through pages upon pages, dozens of fields she’s read up on. She has forgotten nothing, she reminds herself constantly—her mind is still every bit as sharp, as quick—she simply feels disconnected. She solves a few equations on the sideline of her head as she attempts to settle on a good, challenging read. She scrolls faster, swallowing as she browses the titles blindly. Another part of her wants to push back the screen and talk to someone, and that is quite new—that is frightening.

She should opt for something solid, deep and enlightening, something that will be a productive use of her time and abilities. She always does that—she has no time for trivialities—gone are the Karkus days, the comics and adventure novels that used to keep her hooked for hours, in-between advanced physics, algebra and programming. She is no more child, and if all she has is her brain to get anywhere in life—if she is a prodigy more than a person, inadequate for anything social or indeed human—then there is no use daydreaming about mad quests.

She tells herself that, quite firmly, and still switches to the library labelled “Fiction”.

One hour passes and finds her sitting there, somewhat breathless as she clicks a file shut. Silliness, she decides, again. Highly surreal silliness, that indeed drew a fair few giggles out of her, yet that hardly changes the fact. She dimly wonders what kind of hallucinogetic substance the author must have consumed before producing any such work; a potent one, surely, not that she would know about those things. Still. How silly, and how sweet; how dazzling and how dark, and how wonderful.

Her work seems a little small after this, her life a little dull. She may think, invent, progress and analyse the complexities of space for years on end, and yet she will never have seen anything.

She can read, she supposes—in her free time—to make up for this. What else is there for her? Once upon a time, she used to delve into the classics. Deeper, greater men and women would hold her transfixed—she has long neglected their words in favour of figures and calculations, yet she remembers them well, as all things she has ever learned or experienced.

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught…

Not taught, perhaps, but discovered for sure. She can discover anything if she sets her mind to it, if she just dismisses the daze… If she stops feeling so small and scared, carried away by irrational mind tricks. She is Zoe Heriot, young astrophysicist extraordinaire, and she can do anything she wants.

Not that she cannot spare one hour here and there for a book, she supposes. No need to feel too guilty about this. It could relax her brain, and widen her perspectives, perhaps. It could even help her grow a little.

A half-smile twists her lips as she pushes herself away from the desk, still coiled tight from nerves, yearning for restless activity. There is much to do. So much, and no time to waste.

Yet she will not forget Wonderland.

Author's note II: My knowledge of Zoe is all from the show’s material, though I’ve also poked at her entry on the TARDIS Wiki for extra insight, and my view seemed to fit the spirit of some BF audios featuring her somewhat. The quote in italics is from Oscar Wilde, whose full works Zoe did read, still according to BF and the Wiki. Karkus reference from The Mind Robber; the Alice in Wonderland parallel is mine.

Classic!Who s9—The Day of the Daleks

flowsoffire — Thu, 11 Jun 2015 20:42:28 GMT

Quick review, yes!

This was a very nice one. It felt more… more sci-fi, if that makes sense, with the whole mystery bordering on ghost story at first (hello again, magic vs. science themes!), and all the business with the timey-wimey. I loved seeing Three and Jo encounter themselves at first, Jo all being like "WTF??!!" and the point Three made later about ghosts coming to them from the past and future—which seemed to refer to that appearance at the time, but really was fairly good foreshadowing to the following events of the plot, in hindsight. Conveniently, Three no longer minded the concept of ghosts, but just as a manner of speaking.

SO. The Daleks were ruling Earth again in the far future—I thought The Daleks Masters of Earth had sorted that much, but apparently not! And it's just very clever and very tragic that humans just set out their own demise, reaching into their own past to try and undo the events they thought had caused it all, but actually creating a paradox by becoming the source themselves. This is a bit of a time travel trope, the undoing tragic historical events, but a good one. The Doctor's dynamic with those rebels was interesting, and also, Jo's. As in The Daemons, Jo showed much credulity by Three's standards—being completely spooked by the ghost story atmosphere at first, and all too ready to believe in those things, then trusting her terrible first impressions of the rebels instead of hearing out their story, and later allowing the controller to manipulate her, just because he was polite, decent and showing apparently genuine concern, whereas the rebels were desperate people and a bit near the fanatical edge. Mostly she was human, and fearful and using her instincts or what was easy/comfortable to believe more than her head, but this time Three managed to express his disagreement and/or disapproval without treating her like she was a waste of space, which is fine by me, let me tell you. ♥ (I was shaking my head at her a little bit, myself, but getting scared and not thinking straight is understandable to some extent.)

What else? There were One and Two cameos, when the Daleks used the mind analysis machine to recognize Three despite his regeneration. Three got manhandled roughly; this happens to him a fair bit. (From memory, in Inferno and Terror of the Autons.) The controller who worked with the Daleks proved more layered than he seemed at first glance, traumatized by the wars and thinking he had no choice if he wanted to survive and maybe do small things to help other humans if he got the chance, but mostly watch out for his own ass. He even turned around and betrayed the Daleks in the end, so the Doctor could stop it all from happening in the first place, and lost his life for it, bless. (While I think one of the actual rebels turned around and sold him to get his place. HUMANS ARE NOT ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM.) On another note, we had Three waxing lyrical on wine, and Yates trolling Benton by going all haughty-superior on his ass while Jo was offering him food during his watch, only to… take the food for himself, the lovely bastard XD

The Brig also did another "Doctor! Come back here at once!", followed by a dismal little head shake. And the Doctor did some Venusian karate, and took the time for a sip of wine between two moves.

I started The Curse of Peladon also and it looks very good. *nods*

Quotable lines:

Three: "Do you believe in ghosts, Brigadier? […] Oh, my mistake. I was forgetting the unimaginative nature of the military mind." [This is even more rich after The Daemons.]

Three: "Yes, the temporal feedback circuit has overloaded."
Brig: "The what's done what?"
Three: "In your terms, Brigadier, the thing's blown a fuse!"

Three: "You know, one thing you can be certain of with politicians is that whatever their political ideas they always keep a well-stocked larder."

Jo [about the Doctor]: "Well, at the moment, he's carrying on rather like a one man food and wine society."

Three: "Do you know, I remember saying to old Napoleon. Boney, I said, always remember an army marches on its stomach."

Three: "there are many different kinds of ghosts, Jo. Ghosts from the past and ghosts from the future."
Jo: "Well, what kind did you have in mind?"
Three: "What's more to the point is, have they got us in mind?"

Three [to gagged Jo]: "You know, I've got a good mind to let you stay like that. So much more peaceful. In any case, even if I released you, you'd probably ask me a lot of fool questions."

Three: "Look, try and use your intelligence, man, even if you are a politician."

Classic!Who s8—The Daemons

flowsoffire — Sun, 07 Jun 2015 21:21:32 GMT

So. The Daemons! Well, that was not my favourite episode in the history of ever. It had several good things, and also several weird things, and I donʼt know, I was a bit confused and WTF for quite a bit of it. I guess one canʼt like everything ;)

The beginning was pretty good; I liked the atmosphere of the village, with the hilarious white witch, Miss Hawthorne, and everyone being like “Whatever, you madwoman” at her. Also liked the reports about the archaeological dig, with the BBC basically trolling itself through the sarcastic, go-away-you-ignorant-fool-ish professor snarking at the BBC journalist who just wanted a good report that would draw viewers in. There was an interesting premise about credulity and what looks like a miracle, but is actually science. Three was making faces at Jo for being too gullible for his tastes, which was still funny at that point. He repeated his scorn a bit too heavily later, but I will get back to that. =P

There were also the UNIT guys watching the events on TV, and being on a watch of sorts and kind of bored to death while the Brigadier went to some kind of fancy dinner event? And Benton and Yates looking at each other like “Look at our lucky bastard of a superior”. Later on they were just watching sport. XD There was more room for Benton and Yates in this ep, specifically because they got more action while separated from the Brigadier, I believe. Yates in particular is my favourite and still being quite shippable with Jo; those two are cute. Later on, the Brigadier couldnʼt seem to be reached during an emergency situation and he was IN BED. WE SAW THE BRIG IN BED. WHAT. EVEN. He also got very awake very fast, and very annoyed, upon learning that Yates and Benton had taken his helicopter. XD For most of the episode he was out there trying to reach the village and being stopped with a heat shield. And not being very much good, in fact. His guys tried to make up a machine to help and it blew up, aw. Three told them to reverse the polarity of… something, too—not the actual catchphrase, but it was fun to see. ;)

What else was there that was nice? Ah, there was the Master being a vicar that obviously didnʼt have much spirituality in him. XD He did interesting mind manipulation to the crowd of the villagers, and showed he knew a creepy amount of personal stuff about them. The Doctor used a Venusian lullaby as a pretend spell against a live gargoyle, and that shit worked! He clearly loves Venus. There were hilarious May dances, and people trying to burn the Doctor at the stake, and which Miss Hawthorne stopped them by telling them to stop, fools, they were trying to harm the great wizard Qui Quae Quod! This is legit! And completely like her. (Beforehand she knocked a guy out with a crystal ball. I rather loved the woman.) After that the Doctor made a demonstration of magic that was actually Benton shooting things from a distance. More about credulity and what you see vs. what is actually going on. Another magic trick was Bessie just driving around by herself, which was trolling Jo, Benton and pretty much everyone from start to finish, until the grand ending of the Master trying to escape in her (Bessie gets the she pronoun from me now) and being duly driven back. Bessie is cool. Remote control ftw?

Also, someone random thought Three was wearing a wig. He was Not Amused.

And UNIT had a scientist named Osgood! And well, it was a guy.

Those were the good things. *nods* The rest, um… I was a bit confused/WTF about what was actually going on with the Daemons and their huge influence throughout the history of mankind. I guess I just found that headscratchy. The Masterʼs satanic rituals were kind of fun, but kind of got a little old after a while, the voice of the Daemon got old VERY FAST too. God my ears. It was interesting to see the Master seem actually scared and completely out of his depth for a moment, like “WTF did I just summon?”. The Daemon did not think much of him either. The whole episode was kind of belittling for the Master overall, like he was good at tricking a bunch of dumb and/or corrupt villagers, but many people knew better and the creature heʼd been trying to get to obey him was actually like “go away you scum. Well, there is another creature of your species, bring him to me at once”. It's the last episode of the season where he's recurring villain, and well, he did not go out with a bang. Bring me The Sea Devils and swordfighting already.

I also got a little annoyed by Three repeatedly bitching at Jo about being a silly, credulous little girl and Not A Scientist. Okay, so Jo wasnʼt too far from buying the whole devil thing herself, or believing in magic, and I 100% get why he would be annoyed, eyeroll a lot, and snark at her, but it felt like he was being a bit too contemptuous a bit too often, or telling her off for stupid reasons, like criticizing the Brigadier by telling almost freaking verbatim the very thing the Doctor said five minutes before. Um, so Three is entitled to telling the Brigadier heʼs being idiotic, but Jo can stfu because This Is Not Her Place. Good! (Benton kind of seemed like he wanted to smile there—then Yates gave him a Look. It was kind of squee.)

At the end of the ep, Jo saved the day by being irrational and trying to give her life to save the Doctorʼs, which… was apparently such a weird idea the Daemon just couldnʼt deal with it and blew up? The Doctor didnʼt quite say it had been really stupid but well, yes, he did say it actually. (I donʼt think he said thank you, but he acted gruffly embarrassed and fond, which was cute enough so Iʼll forgive him.) Earlier on the Master had wanted to sacrifize Jo, I forgot! (Poor Jo also got a nasty knock on the head, thought the Doctor was dead for a while, and yes, poor thing went through seven shades of crap throughout this episode. Thank goodness she had Yates to at least look after her a bit, though well, he did also call her an idiot for running off on her own to help the Doctor after having been bedridden. He did have a point but canʼt they all stop it already?)

I donʼt think I forgot anything? The gargoyle creature looked really very bad. The Daemon kind of did too. Okay, Iʼll end this there and proceed with the funny or remarkable quotes! There are a lot! XD

Quotes (this bit is positive!)

Three: "You know, really, Jo, I'm obviously wasting my time trying to turn you into a scientist."
[It begins.]

Three: "Well, I just know, that's all. Everything that happens in life must have a scientific explanation. If you know where to look for it, that is. Excuse me."
Jo: "Yes, but suppose something was to happen and nobody knew the explanation. Well, nobody in the world, in the universe. Well, that would be magic, wouldn't it?"
Three: "You know, Jo, for a reasonably intelligent young lady, you do have the most absurd ideas."

[Bessie drives around like it's the new cool thing]
Three: "Bessie, how dare you go gallivanting around like that." [honk] "Are you sorry?" [honk honk] "Very well, I forgive you. Now go back to your parking place before I change my mind."
Yates [a minute later]: "I know there's a good explanation for all this but I just can't think of it for the moment."

Professor: "Six inches behind there lies the greatest archaeological find this country has known since Sutton Hoo."
Journalist: "Would you like to explain that reference, Professor?"
Professor: "No. And at midnight tonight-"
Journalist: "Sutton Hoo, of course…"
Professor: "Never mind about Sutton Hoo. This is what your precious viewers are interested in."

[two minutes later] Professor: "You know, you ought to have done your homework before you came on this dig."

Master [being a very progressive vicar]: "The soul as such is a very dated concept. Viewing the matter existentially, I…"

Miss Hawthorne or This Lady Knows Her Shit: "Oh, why should I believe you? A rationalist, existentialist priest indeed."

Three [guess to whom! That's right, Jo, because the episode praised her intellect a lot]: "If you look at the map the right way up, we might eventually get there."

Miss Hawthorne [to Benton, who just rescued her from the chest she was locked in]: "Oh, very perfect gentle knight."
Benton: "What?"
Miss Hawthorne: "Well, your damsel in distress may be a bit long in the tooth, but she's very grateful."

Three [waking up from near-death]: "Eureka!"

Three: "Jo, did you fail Latin as well as science? Magister is the Latin word for Master!"

Brigadier: "I see, Yates. So, the Doctor was frozen stiff at the barrow and was then revived by a freak heat wave. Benton was beaten up by invisible forces and the local white witch claims she's seen the Devil."
Benton: "Yes, sir. I know it sounds a bit wild."

Three: "Well done, Jo. You're being logical at last. I'll turn you into a scientist yet." [Yes, I would have bashed his head in after the fifth one and I don't care how many times he actually had a point.]

Brigadier [still completely unable to access the places where shit happens]: "Now, what's going on there?"
Yates: "Quite a bit, but I don't think you'd believe me, even if I told you."

Yates: "I see, so all we've got to deal with is something which is either too small to see or thirty feet tall, can incinerate you or freeze you to death, turns stone images into homicidal monsters and looks like the very devil."
Three: "Exactly."

Brigadier: "Well, what? Now I'm not going to sit here like a spare [pause] like a spare lemon waiting for the squeezer." [And really he did just that all along.]

Brigadier: "Twenty thousand pounds of UNIT money gone up in a puff of smoke."
Three: "You've got the mind of an accountant, Lethbridge-Stewart."

Osgood: "Simple? It's impossible."
Three: "Yes, well, according to classical aerodynamics, it's impossible for a bumblebee to fly!"

Brigadier: "Well, when will you be ready, for heaven's sake?"
Three: "About next Christmas, I shouldn't wonder. At a rough estimate, of course."

Brigadier: "Do you know what you're doing?"
Three: "My dear chap, I can't wait to find out."

Brigadier: "Do you know, Sergeant, I sometimes wish I worked in a bank."

Miss Hawthorne: "You must learn the art of waiting, Sergeant. The Doctor will come, or else he won't, and that's all that can be said. Now, milk or lemon?"

Miss Hawthorne [looking at the crystal ball with which she just knocked a man out]: "On these occasions, the outcome's a certainty."

Daemon: "We gave knowledge to man."
Three: "You certainly did. Thanks to you man can now blow up the world and he probably will. He can poison the water and the very air he breathes. He's already started."

Miss Hawthorne: "Sergeant, we must do the fertility dance to celebrate."
Benton: "Oh, no, I'm sorry, ma'am. I'm still rather busy."

Clara vid omfg awesomeness

flowsoffire — Sun, 31 May 2015 20:30:11 GMT

I'll just leave this here.

I've had more trouble connecting with Clara in s8, or since the specials actually… But this just blended everything that made her character perfectly, from the first introduction as Oswin to what she is now. It showed all the layers in the character, all that I love in her, even though I'm not always delighted with how she's handled. It was just amazing. And so, so beautiful.

Hi there, I did an interview!

flowsoffire — Sun, 31 May 2015 20:05:44 GMT

I don't have very much to share rn—I've been working, and it's going well, and I'm still nearly up to date with fandom things, and Mother's Day went well and my mother loved her gifts, which was nice. But there's one exciting thing: like scripsi, I got interviewed by The Doctor Who Fanfic Review! You can find part 1 of the interview here :D

It was so much fun. I rambled. A lot. ^_^

I hope you're all doing well, love y'all loads ♥

Classic!Who s8—The Colony in Space

flowsoffire — Sun, 31 May 2015 20:00:33 GMT

That's right, here is an exceptionally fast review :D Five days for a six-part episode. Being up to date with fandom does that. ♥

And this ep was lovely too! It started in a very enthralling way, with the Time Lords appearing, if briefly, and using the Doctor as their device to stop the Master, pretty much. ^_^ Then it carried on to Jo showing great disbelief at the idea of the TARDIS ever working again… only to be caught in an impromptu trip two minutes later, as the Time Lords went and sent the TARDIS where they needed it. Her "bigger on the inside" moment was very nice. ^_^ But the really interesting stuff was when Jo realized that yes, legit, they had left Earth, alien planet out there. This was so new for her—there's always been UNIT before, she was with the Doctor having adventures, and it might be dangerous but she had never been so out of her depth, thrown into something tremendously foreign. She was just distressed and longing for reassurance—but she would not be getting that, and there was really interesting tension instead, as Jo just wanted to stay in the TARDIS or get back home as soon as she could, but the Doctor had longed and longed to be able to travel again for such a long time and it was out of the question that he wouldn't go out there. It's one of those moments when you can feel the alien, there was something deeply unbending in him, opposed to Jo's discomfort and fear. And it was she who bent, who took a leap of faith and followed him out there, into a new adventure.

Back at UNIT, the Brig walked in just in time to see the TARDIS leave, and barked "Doctor. Come back at once." This was epic. I'll get back to that :D

Then plot. The plot was interesting: I like the way the different factors played together and were connected, the colonists, the IMC people, the primitives, and the Master—each working for their own goals, and coming in conflict. Most of the IMC people were fairly one-dimensional but there was Caldwell, who was a decent guy but had to deal with his company's awful ethics and do as he was told, struggled and protested for a while, then realized he had no choice or he would be done for, and then was torn between helping individual people when he could and trying to harden himself and just do his duty. So his moral struggle and distress were interesting. The colonists weren't bad, little Mary was a fierce one. I didn't believe for one second that the colonists had really tragically been blown up in their ship near the end, though it would have been Tragedy—but Ashe sacrifizing himself to save the others was a good bit of Tragedy. The primitives spent a good first half not seeming very relevant but then it was revealed that they actually were at the core of everything, since their ancient civilization held the weapon that the Master was looking for and that had also made the planet so inhospitable for the colonists. But the weapon had ruined what had previously been a rather advanced and interesting civilization and made them backslide dramatically.

And there was the Master. :D Not right away—but what with the regular references to the Adjudicator's arrival, I really had a good enough idea of who that would be. :D I just cracked up when the Doctor tried to reveal he was an impostor and the Master was all like "Haha, but my fake credentials are better than your absence of any credentials, how's that?". Delgado was glorious as always. We saw the Master's TARDIS. (It looked pretty much like the Doctor's, but with added poisoned gas.) We saw the Master reviving the Doctor after the use of said gas, and being delightfully snarky, before proceeding to threatening Jo's life to make him do as he was told. (That one never stops working.) And that gave us the Doctor and the Master teaming up again (if grudgingly), being prisoners in the primitives' cell together, sharing knowledge about the primitives' history, working together. And it was the Master who got them a way out. Then we had the most glorious part yet, with the Master offering an alliance with the two of them ruling over the universe thanks to the Doomsday weapon—that was just a really intense confrontation, and I relished the way some new!Who key scenes echoed that. (Ten's "You don't need to own the universe, just see it" was Three's line verbatim with just a change of pronouns, Missy offered Twelve the very same, creating an empire to enforce good and peace… except she didn't mention the ruling together part, mm.) And his frustrated rage at the Doctor's refusal was gorgeous as well. ♥ I also kind of loved the Guardian of the primitives screeching at him "You are not fit to be a god!"

On a wholly different note, at some point Three distracted a guard with a magic trick for an escape. It worked. Classic!Who guards are truly terrible. XD Three really proves to be an apt fighter at other times besides. Venusian karate ftw.

The very ending was a fair bit of squee, with Three's cute little sign to tell Jo "Let's pop off into the TARDIS", their coming back to UNIT at the SECOND the Brig had ordered them too, and the latter's oblivious snark. Three might have given his abilities to grasp time travel a bit of credit, but it gave him a nice little "You and me know something the rest of the world doesn't" moment with Jo, which was especially lovely after the ep's difficult beginning in that regard :) So, yay.

Quotable lines:

Jo: "You don't seriously think you'll get that thing working again, do you?"
Three: "Oh, no. No, I've been doing all this work for fun."

Caldwell: "Are you some kind of scientist?"
Three: "I'm every kind of scientist. Now, if you'll excuse me."

Jo: "I don't believe it! It's bigger inside than out!"
Three: "Yes. That's because the Tardis is dimensionally transcendental."
Jo: "What does that mean?"
Three: "It means that it's bigger inside than out."

Caldwell: "Well, it's still murder."
Dent: "Back on Earth, tens of thousands of people die every day. Traffic accidents, suicides, pollution, epidemics."

Jo: "Doctor! You haven't lost the Tardis?"
Three: "Well, no, I haven't exactly lost it. Let's say it's temporarily mislaid."

Jo: "Well, I took a course in escapology once." [Is she kidding or is this an actual UNIT thing, I do not know, but I greatly enjoyed the deadpan, sweetly innocent tone of this regardless.]

Guardian of the primitives [about Jo]: "[…] although the creature with you is of no value."
[They were also about to trade her against food. So nice.]

Master: "My credentials are immaculate."
Three: "Forged, of course."
Master: "Of course, but immaculate."

Three: "My dear Jo, a Tardis can change its shape, you know." [That, and the haughty tone it is delivered with, is where he forgets that his can’t because he’s rubbish like that.]

Three: "You realise, of course, it can be extremely dangerous taking you to the Primitive city?"
Master: "Don't worry about my welfare, Doctor. Keep thinking about Miss Grantʼs."

Master [about the Doomsday weapon]: "Well, it seemed an awful pity not to make use of it, you know? But of course that's typical of the High Council of the Time Lords. Know everything, do nothing."

Master: "We could be gods!"
Guardian of the primitives: "You are not fit to be a god."

Master: "The point is that one must rule or serve. That's a basic law of life."

faints

flowsoffire — Mon, 25 May 2015 20:45:34 GMT

I FORGOT THIS PIECE OF EPIC

I know ♥

waves

flowsoffire — Mon, 25 May 2015 20:30:23 GMT

Heya, guess who it is :)

*deep breath* I'm up to date! Holy shit wow. (Almost. Two days' delay to reply to fandom stuff sounds very reasonable, given the way it keeps pouring in anyway, it's useless to want to have absolutely everything done.) I'd forgotten what this feels like. Mostly VERY STRESSLESS. This is just the best timing ever; I'm resuming work just today, and I got a lot of things out of the way that I needed done (fic, the classic review etc), and I want to keep being good with stuff like checking out world news headlines and listening to the radio for language practise. So it means I can do all that stuff, and then only have a bit of fandom and not the stress of being behind and getting more behind every day, and actually get some time for me to just sit back and watch Doctor Who for MORE THAN 5 MINUTES IN A ROW, and post an update or some positives once in a while XD This was actually meant to be a positives post, but it was all variations on the same theme: doing good progress on the new translation + getting back to good habits for the news + being up to date = yes to productivity, no to stress!

So yeah, there has been a new translation getting started—Lost Man's Lane by Anna Katharine Green, first American female writer of crime novels and inspiration for no less than Agatha Christie :) It's been working out well so far, though the style is more literary than what I'm used to with my author—I'm still managing to keep a steady rhythm. And it's really pleasant work so far.

I don't have many more things to say except this squee; I hope everyone is doing well, and I'll run off to respond to a few more posts now while I've still got the brainpower, then actually *breathes* just watch some Who without being like "well, now that you've relaxed your brain, how about you get back to doing some of the 245 things that need to be done?"

(Colony in Space is so good ♥)

Love y'all!

Fic: Clashes (classic!Who)

flowsoffire — Mon, 25 May 2015 19:27:41 GMT

Title: Clashes
Author: flowsoffire
Fandom: classic!Who
Pairing/characters: Delgado!Master and the Third Doctor
Genre: Angst/Drama, I guess.
Rating: K+
Word count: c. 300 words.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Summary: The Master and the Doctor duel.
Author's note: Written for the “Blade” challenge on who_contest. My first attempt at Delgado!Master ;) I’d heard about this scene, but not seen The Sea Devils yet—I hope the extract I watched was enough to do justice to the atmosphere. Enjoy ;)

Metal clangs against metal, sharp and clear as a punch.

He rushes, headlong. His whole body throws itself into the struggle, muscle fierce and sinew taut; from head to foot he is one single, furious motion, one quivering purpose. He strikes and the Doctor strikes back; he grabs, twists, and lets the adrenaline pull him as it will, hearts frantic as bursting supernovas. His mind is blazingly clear. Death rings in his skull with each impact, courses down his spine and tightens his fingers—one death, the Doctorʼs, always.

For one moment his prey eludes him, and he is breathless, the universe still and yet falling away before his eyes. Searching, searching as ever—but as ever he is there, the battle only delayed, and there they go again. It is and is not rage that seizes and drives him. A rage of a unique sort, anyhow. There is ownership in the impetuous wrath, deepest contempt and truest regard, rejection and greed. It is a thousand things melded into one, constant as time and equally inescapable.

Every impact of the blades is a rush of timelines racing by. He could stab him into one regeneration after another, drain him dry and then finish it. Bodies created at his fancy and just as soon extinguished. Back in the Academy, they used to combat this way, when they didn’t yet know the peculiar wrench of passing and renewal, its terror and its power. Even then they were rageful.

They have always been driven by yearning, really.

Then the point is at his throat, and he frozen still, awareness sharpened along the smooth line of the blade, into every triumphant crease of the Doctor’s features. His old enemy laughs. “I always find that valiant exercise makes me hungry. Don’t you agree?”

He does, undeniably—the longing is almost an overpowering haze over his mind. Obvious, though unspoken.

Their gazes lock as the blades collide, before dancing away.

Classic!Who s8—The Claws of Axos

flowsoffire — Sun, 24 May 2015 20:44:19 GMT

Hello! *waves* Here is a review!

WThe Claws of Axos was a pretty good ep. It had fun secondary characters working as an addition to the usual team: random American agent Bill Filer, who was a bit action-y, friendly with Jo and the outsider to side-eye the Master and the Doctor working together all like "you sure about those two?", and government arsehole Chinn who just served as obnoxious agent with cue comic relief. Chinn was thoroughly and delightfully despicable—annoying, narrow-minded, greedy, overly ambitious yet highly mediocre, and getting very nicely trolled by his own superior, who was not above reminding him he was nothing. Then he ran off to play little head of things and soothe his wounded ego. Bless XD He was fun.

The plot was nice; the Axons were interesting aliens, the idea of axonite as a thinking molecule capable of recreating any given item was quite fascinating. Naturally it appealed hugely to human greed, whereas the Doctor was like "wait, wait, stop that. Can you seriously not smell the trap? …no?". It was a no.

So, good plot. Who am I kidding, mostly we all care about the Master here ^_^ The Master was both a prisoner and an ally of the Axons, only to turn against them as promptly as possible, which was very nice; obviously he only serves his own interests, and that of trolling the Doctor, which is only to be expected of him. The way the episode unfolded in that regard was interesting, as in, for a rather long part the Master and the Doctor never ran into each other and were each doing their thing. They were in the Axon ship together, but never saw each other, left at different times, and by the time the Master got captured by UNIT, the Doctor was off again. That involved the Master being directly confronted to the Brigadier, which had never happened before, so the clashing of those two characters and will was rather interesting. They had to work together against the Axons—common interests ftw. There was the most hilarious part in which the Master was working with the aid of the TARDIS and copiously badmouthing it.

Then the Doctor came back, and we had more Master/Doctor working together! It seriously happens all the time, and don't tell me they don't love it! (If s9 makes Twelve and Missy work together in a good way I'll be crowing with joy, but that is another question.) Others were faintly uncomfortable; Filer is downright not liking the look of them. Jo is like "Oh, no, stop it". Then the Doctor leaves with the Master, making everybody else believe he's abandoning them to save the skins of the two Time Lords present—only telling Jo he will miss her. He also plays the game with the Master: cue very interesting, delightfully edgy scene I could quote three quarters of, mostly for the parts about being allies and their fates being united, yadda yadda can it get any more shippy? I doubt it. It has a lot of tension, the Doctor being unhappy and the Master assessing him, but the subtext seriously. Then the Doctor carries on to make the Axons think he can ally himself with them for the sake of siding with the winning side. He is just playing the cynic through and through, and the most delightful thing about this is the way you can tell the Master is not quite buying any of it, yet he plays along with the Doctor's game up until his own security goes on the line. Then the Doctor does Da Clever Trick and gets everyone trapped in a time loop with a Dramatic Sacrifice to go with it—just in time to avoid UNIT getting butchered by the Axons'… servant creatures? Which seriously looked so freaking terrible by the way. Except that naturally, the Doctor himself miraculously escaped, and the Master also did because he just does that. Also, the dramatic effect was completely ruined by the shot of the Doctor crammed in the console room with a bunch of the servant creatures whose costumes were just really that bad-looking XD

Then it was Return of the Prodigal Time Lord on Earth, because the Master might have got the TARDIS to work again, but the Time Lords had still set it to automatically return to Earth. Woe, stuck to one little planet!

Next up is Colony in Space, with TIME LORDS, the TARDIS working again and super-tense first trip in space for Jo! I've only seen like ten minutes of it but I'm a gleeful mess.

Epic lines:

Three: "Yes, tremendous material advantages, but I doubt if even Axonite could increase the growth of human common sense."

Chinn: "Minister? Will you scramble, or shall I, sir?"
Minister: "Just your report, Chinn. I'm sure that will be quite garbled enough."

Minister: "Just remember, it's your head on the block, Chinn, not mine"
Chinn [to Winser, five minutes later]: "But understand, the slightest hint of delay or sabotage, it's your head on the block, not mine!"

Hardiman: "Are you trying to tell me you can absorb the total output of this complex in a police box?"
Master [pauses]: "Yes."

Master: "Oh, I suppose you can take the normal precautions against nuclear blast, like, er, sticky tape on the windows and that sort of thing."

Master: "My dear Brigadier, I promised to help you, not sort out all your problems."

Master [in the TARDIS]: "Oh, hopeless! Overweight, under-powered old museum piece! / You may as well try to fly a second hand gas stove!"
[later] "Now then, you old antique, keep working!"

Three [with cue hand gestures]: "Well, it's perfectly simple, Brigadier. A time loop is, er. Well, it's a time loop. One passes continually through the same points in time. Passes through the same. Yes." (Wibbly wobbly timey wimey?

Brigadier: "This time loop…" [pulls a face] "…thing."

Three [with all the perfect last lines]: "It seems that I'm some kind of a galactic yo-yo!"

Fic: Hunger and Wrath (Doctor Who)

flowsoffire — Mon, 11 May 2015 21:01:52 GMT

Title: Hunger and Wrath
Author: flowsoffire
Fandom: Doctor Who
Pairing/characters: Amelia Pond, aunt Sharon, Mels Zucker, Rory Williams, the Doctor
Genre: Angst/Drama/Friendship/Family ;)
Rating: K+
Word count: c. 2800 words.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
Summary: Amelia Pond is a thief. A story of longing and elusive realities.
Author's note: Written for the “Stolen” one-shot challenge on who_contest. Enjoy =)

**********************************************************************************************

The first time it is aunt Sharon’s watch.

It lies forgotten on the counter where she left it earlier, neglecting to pick it back up when she walked out of the room. Amelia stands there, alone and she’s quite busy with the cooking, thank you very much. They were supposed to do it together, but aunt Sharon isn’t that good at it, really; she has no patience, her gestures are brisk and she just wants everything to unfold exactly like the book says, to be so neat and orderly, not a single thing out of place. They are supposed to be having a nice time, just the two of them, until she snaps and Amelia snaps back, sometimes she’s not quite sure what about.

She can feel the disapproval every time she gets something even slightly wrong. It’s not wrong, anyway—it’s just not precise, just a bit messy, and she doesn’t care, but aunt Sharon does. Aunt Sharon wants her to be a good little girl, she wants a nice dinner and a reliable, accurate recipe. She takes it all so seriously, since itʼs her responsibility; she takes care of everything and keeps the house running like it can fill the empty space.

The grease sizzles and spits in the pan, and from a distance she can hear the hushed words from the living room as she clutches the spatula in her fist. She swallows and pokes at the meat a little viciously—then she turns and, despite herself, inches closer to the door. She pricks her ears, heart beating in her throat. She doesn’t want to hear.

She must. She does. She has no choice.

Her aunt and the latter’s friend chatter and sigh, bonding over child-rearing. She hears her own name, of course. She tries to focus, looking over the shiny surfaces, eyes catching the silvery glint of the watch. Time ticking away. Dinnertime soon, and then homework time, playtime, and bedtime.

“I do try to push her into more activities, you know,” aunt Sharon says. “It isn’t healthy to be dreaming so much all the time. Always off in her own little world.”

Itʼs always the same words, always, but god, her world is not little. Her world is too small and too wide all at once, mundane and bewildering, bizarrely overwhelming. She isn’t dreaming, she’s seeing things that are actually there, only nobody else seems to realize—or sheʼs making stories out of a part of truth, about a man sheʼs actually seen. No one ever believes her. But maybe she just doesn’t want to be healthy, not in the way aunt Sharon wishes her to be. She makes the word deeper and bigger than it is, like some important standard Amelia fails to live up to.

No one listens, and no one sees, and no one ever really seems to care. They will smile or sigh or pat her head, but they will not listen—there’s always better to do, and she’s balling her fists so tight, something hurts in the hollow of her palm, squeezed too hard and digging into the flesh. She turns, and runs off to her room.

Later, in the night, their dinner has burned and her makeshift blue box is lying in the corner of her room, an angry heap after hitting the wall, but the watch is still glinting silver on her nighttable. She stares it down, trembling without knowing why. Seconds slip by, all kinds of fancy hands pointing to irrelevant details. She waits for the whole night to pass her by, counting hours in her head for something to think about that isn’t the whispers. It feels better than with her clock, or worse; it’s like revenge, and cuts both ways.

Her aunt finds her asleep with her head on the floor, half kneeling still, half fallen. She sees the watch too, and Amelia doesn’t hear the end of it.

It’s just a little too hard to convincingly act contrite. She wishes she’d hidden it away. She wants to just keep something, once in a while, even something that isnʼt really hers. She is owed that, isnʼt she?

**********************************************************************************************

It is for the stealing that they send her to the shrink for the first time.

She keeps saying the shrink, even as the years go by and there is a second one, and then a third. It is the same even when it doesnʼt seem to be; the very poised, very soft-spoken lady is akin to the serious elderly man with the glasses, and the younger, slightly more energetic one is no different. Each one of them she loathes on sight. They all call her Amelia, drawling the name so importantly; they all act like they understand; sometimes they smile, sometimes they nod, they ask questions they clearly believe to be ever so clever, and most of all, they are under the delusion that they know her better than she knows herself somehow, when she’s only just walked into the room. They see that she’s angry, but how could she not be? They only notice that, that and what they’re told, and then they assume. How could she not rage? How could she not be defiant, have that attitude?

“Tell me why you’re here,” this one says, and she retorts: “You know that already.”

“Yes, I know, but I wish you would tell me how you feel about all of this. I hear that this is not your first time seeing a psychiatrist, Amelia. Apparently it is not your first time stealing, either. You are not here to be punished for it, but I want to help you understand. Will you help me as well?”

She curls her lips in response. Like hell she will help that man. Like hell she will talk to him, when everything she says is twisted and turned against her eventually.

I hear you have an imaginary friend—

Why did you do that, Amelia? Why did you lash out? Why did you shout? Why did you take those things?

Why are you angry?

Why are you angry?

She didn’t mean to take anything, but then she did. She isn’t angry, but something is roaring in her chest and there is a smothering haze clouding her mind, making everything distorted and unbearable. She isn’t delusional: she knows things, she understands what is real and what is not. Her life is real, her house is real, the people around her are real. Her wall is real. Her nightmares are. Her memories are.

Everything is real around her, so steady, so quiet, so still, and she crashes into cold stone and pliable people everywhere she turns.

“Amelia? Will you answer me?”

She won’t. She won’t. She only curls her fists.

“I’m not a thief,” she spits. She doesn’t take things, they are taken from her.

**********************************************************************************************

Together, they run until their lungs are aching and burning, until they collapse together near the roots of an old tree, too breathless to speak or even laugh.

There is a creek dancing and gurgling closeby, singing to them only. This moment is theirs, this place and this rush of liberty; there’s nothing else like it. She pants for air and squeezes her eyes shut, drinking it all in.

Amelia knows she’ll be yelled at, a notion faraway yet still somewhat present, making her stomach clench just a little bit—more than she cares to admit. Were it only about her, she would face recriminations with her chin tilted defiantly high. But there is Mels, drawn to trouble like moth to flame, a little more each day—and most of all she fears that they will try to pull them apart, throwing around words like “mutual negative influence”, “mischief” and “learn to behave”. She scowls at the mere idea. She feels like she’s behaving painfully well, most of every tedious second, and people never even seem to notice. Mels understands—Mels feels the same restlessness, though she is even worse than her in fact, in many ways.

“You okay?” Mels says, because Mels sees.

(Which can be annoying, too, mind—)

There is a moment or two before Amelia can answer in more than a wheeze. “I’m fine,” she retorts then, with as much dignity as she can muster. “You’re not that much faster, you know. I can keep up with you any day.”

“Yeah.” Mels starts laughing at that; Amelia shoves her, but she doesn’t stop. She giggles wildly, and then shakes her head. “We don’t need to go back,” she says. “We can live here, by the creek. We’ll drink the water and steal apples from that tree we saw on the way, and we’ll never need to do as we’re told again. Just you and me. It’ll be fun.”

Amelia laughs at that too, though she has that tiny, strange feeling that Mels is serious, or very nearly so. “Yeah, right,” she drawls. “We’ll be found, and it’ll be hell. Or we’ll get cold, anyway, and get all sick and it won’t be fun anymore, it’ll be stupid.”

“You coward,” Mels quips back, “coward, coward, coward.”

Amelia hits her side again. “Don’t call me that!”

“You’re being one, right now.”

“Not true. And you are just a silly person who never thinks, Melody.”

She snarls: “It’s Mels.”

Amelia doesn’t push it—she gets that one. Considering her point made, she scrambles to sit up instead, gazing stubbornly into the leaves of the tree. She counts seconds in her head until she can peer back into her friend’s face, not wanting to look like she’s letting her have the last word.

Mels is impossible. She’s annoying, and as stubborn as she is, but not even Scottish to get away with it—she has crazy ideas and always wants to be right. She’s a terrible pain, really, but Amelia is still her friend and she can’t even help it. There is that bond between them and it is the way it is, no questions asked.

They have that, and nobody is taking it away. Certainly not any pesky grown-ups. Mels isn’t going anywhere even when she’s bouncing all over the place, aching for wildness.

Amelia doesn’t dwell on that too much. She doesnʼt have that many certainties and they never seem to hold.

“I’d do it if there was a point,” she speaks again, deciding to pretend she’s talking up at the tree.
“But they’ll get us back, anyway. And you know that. It’s like you want to get in trouble.”

“Maybe I do.”

“Well, you do it alone then. I’m not stupid. I know that’s not the way to do it if you want people to leave you alone.”

Mels scoots closer and grins at her cheekily, poking her until Amelia deigns to look down at her.
“Maybe I don’t want to be left alone. Maybe I don’t care.”

Amelia doesn’t answer that, and Mels rolls back over and sighs. “But it’s nice here,” she carries on, “and that’s all I care about, you know? I’ll go where I want, and I’ll do what I want, because I can.”

“Well I can’t!” Mels can’t very well either, actually, and she must know it, they both do—so why does she push? True freedom is just stories. They are stuck in the real world, the two of them, where they donʼt fit.

Amelia doesn’t want the knot in her throat, the taste of tears. She’s tougher than that. She told herself she wouldn’t cry anymore, when things like this happen—things unreachable, things impossible, slipping through her fingers.

Then Mels’ head is resting against her arm, and she can’t trust her face or voice, so she just stays exactly where she is and gazes up, up, up. The wind is on her cheeks, her forehead, ruffling her hair like gentle fingers. The air smells strong and sweet, water and rocks and grass and soil all mixing together, and she closes her eyes so she doesn’t have to see how it’s all so familiar.

For now, they are here, and they are free, and there is no one to tell them what to do. She has that; she can hold it close. She can remember this moment, silly, childish, useless as that is, because it’s like one tiny taste of running away. Stolen time, small defiance.

It takes forever before any of them moves, each just clinging to the next second. It almost hurts to be so still. She could be like a fish in the water, sliding away, but she’s not and she canʼt ever be.

Stupid fantasies of hers.

**********************************************************************************************

Something old. Something new. Something borrowed—

Rory has always been there.

She can’t recall a time without him there—she can’t recall a time when he hasn’t been with her, somewhere, somehow. Around her, on her heels, in her corner. It didn’t always show—but she would turn, and there he was, and in a way, that was both the most normal thing and an ever-renewed surprise. Rory Williams, shy, clumsy, wry, comforting Rory. How he annoyed her sometimes, when they were kids. How she could wish that he would just go away, because he didn’t understand—

Rory doesn’t claim things that aren’t his. He doesn’t rage against the world. He doesn’t long to cut free of his roots. Rory is grounded and sensible, just taking things as they are—the rocky shore to her stormy sea, a constant thing, forgotten beneath her feet as she runs and runs. Yet he is not going anywhere. Little Amelia longed for something, anything that wasn’t going anywhere, even as she loathed the stillness and trembled with longing, feeling trapped and untrusting.

Amy doesn’t know what she’s running from. It could be the village, or people’s eyes, or the long white dress and the mutual claim of forever. She doesn’t recall who first had that notion, and people stare when she says that, so she stops saying it and just twists the ring around her finger, again and again and again until she just pulls it off and keeps it tucked in her palm. It is hers and does not belong to her. It might have been stolen, somehow, from a different girl, one that can say “I do” without her throat closing around the words.

Rory is Rory and she can be herself with him, but she will not be Mrs. Williams. That’s just fine, he says, why should he care—and she shakes her head and tries to laugh. It’s not the point.

Amelia Pond is a stranger, no matter how she twists and turns the name around. How can she be herself when everything dissolves around her? There is no one to give her away but what would there be to give?

Amy doesn’t know how to give. Take she can do, as a thief does—quick to grasp and quick to deny, heart roaring in her ears. Steal and be stolen.

It is only a temporary thrill, but all things in this world are temporary.

**********************************************************************************************

They steal many things he insists are just borrowed, hand-picked through time and space at a whim or an urgent need—really, really, he can drop them back just whenever he likes.

It is still stealing. He just snags things, people, and seems so thoughtless about it, it’s almost like it doesn’t matter. It does, Amy knows—if it didn’t he would not snap quite so tightly, all flaily hands and angry, defensive sentences blurring together over the controls. He would just laugh it off, and he does try, but she sees through the pretence like through a clumsy, misshapen mask, easily torn away. He changes the subject and flits to the next thing, elusive. He throws glances at her when he thinks she’s not looking. He’s been like that for a little while now; maybe it’s since Vincent, though she has the feeling it was somewhat earlier.

Maybe it is the guilt. He stole her, too, sank into her leaving seeds of longing, and reeled her in after years or, he insists, seconds. She doesn’t mind. It feels good to be stolen, rather than the grasping hand, always empty.

She has both roles in his wake, the fugitive and the prize, all of the rush and none of the responsibility. She has no one to tell her off. She has no one to be good for. All of time is there at her fingertips, if she only asks; no need to dread the ever-looming end, the dream fading, reality coming to call. The dream is real. Her adventures are hers. Nothing has to fade away or be snatched back.

It’s funny, how she’s never felt so light. It could be scary. It is a life, not the one she’s supposed to have and yet entirely hers. An opened door. Alice tumbling down the hole, deeper and deeper and deeper.

So light, she doesn’t want to stop and think. She doesn’t want to read into their giddiness.

She is there, she is. She owns this—and what if there is something missing? She never had much to leave behind, anyway.

Icons #11—a batch of 19

flowsoffire — Sun, 10 May 2015 21:19:54 GMT

God! I thought I'd never get around to posting those. Well, the initial plan was a big batch of all companions for One, Two and Three. That… *laughs* did not happen. Yet. But I'm honestly getting so sick of things lagging, I decided I might as well show my One icons now, and the rest will come sometime later. It's been five months since I last posted icons, for god's sake =P

Without further ago, here goes:

1-5

6-10

11-15

Just in case some of you like the good old black and white better, here are b&w alternates:

1-5

6-10

11-15

And these were made as special gifts for irishvampire13 and a_phoenixdragon:

Well, here goes. Enjoy =) Please drop me a comment if you like them and wish to take any of them, and you can credit flowsoffire or eyes_afire if needed. Thanks :)

Classic!Who s8—The Mind of Evil

flowsoffire — Wed, 06 May 2015 21:38:20 GMT

Hello! It's me! And well, this is not an update. But this was long overdue, so it's still good?

So. Mind of Evil, and I shall try and remember things to say even though I actually finished watching over three weeks ago, whoa. Livetweeting helps ;)

The plot first: pretty interesting, I like the way the two separate plotlines connected, UNIT handling the peace conference and the missiles while the Doctor is at the prison with the alien mind parasite in the evil machine—and joining the two, the Masterʼs evil plan of doom. =D The Doctorʼs outrage at the Keller machine that was to drain human beings of the evil in them, and the experiments on prisoners, was pretty nice—loved his fire! And the result was Barnham, who was a bit heart-breaking in his utterly innocent naivety and vulnerability. I love the way Jo took to taking care of him, being so sweet and protective. His being able to work as a shield against the mind parasite, once the latter had decided that obeying to the Master was not cool and going on its own rampage was much better, was a great twist as well. And then he died at the end and Joʼs face was heart-breaking :( The poor thing.

Character stuff was all the great stuff. Iʼll start with UNIT, which were really fun. The Brig had a really nasty temper for a good part of the episode, it was pretty fun, except when he was being bitchy at Benton, who was really not to blame for being attacked and unable to resist stuff like the Keller machineʼs long-distance action. Poor Benton. But he made up for it by the end by trusting him with important things, so the Benton appreciation was nice. While Iʼm on the Brig, he also fell asleep at his desk at one point, and had a hilarious fake accent at another, during a mission. He made very good WTF faces, when the Doctor started talking Hokien and charming the hell out of the Chinese representative whoʼd just been incredibly unresponsive to the Brig, and later when Cosworth was unthinkingly kind of taking over mission planning, delivering all the ideas, and the Brig just stood by looking like “Excuse me, I wonʼt throw a fuss to make a point about being the boss, but really I am the boss and clearly you have forgotten that I am the boss. Decent planning though.”

There was also Yates who was quite funny and probably my favourite of the UNIT team as of yet. We shall not say crush but we might have thought it. Heʼs a lot of fun, and his trolling with the Doctor and being yelled at by the Brig for his Cheshire cat grin at times itʼs considered uncalled for was delightful. =D

Jo is a cutie, and had more room to do stuff and be interesting in this episode that was not her introduction; the introduction was good, but she grows and shows all the different sides of her personality, and so it always gets better. Her connection with the Doctor is already very nice, they make an epic team for action-y stuff such as escape plans, sheʼs also very brave and yet also concerned about safety and being WTF at his way of handling things sometimes, but still trusting him. She also acted really sweet and concerned at a time when the Doctor was sick, and cared for him, and it was quite adorable. Her caring side was also highlighted with Barnham, as I mentioned. Bless her, sheʼs just full of sweetness and good things. At some point the Doctor was telling her stories about his past adventures and I squeed a fair bit =)

Then there is the Master and eeeee. ♥ There is a lot to say about this. First about Delgado being so delightfully smooth, there was a scene with him changing back into his suit after being disguised or something, I donʼt remember exactly but just the way he arranged himself and got so tidy and neat… *flails* Well, I will try not to embarrass myself after a few lines already. Most of all and hotness taken aside, this episode featured a lot more Master + Doctor time and their actually working together! Actually a mix of the Master tormenting the Doctor and their working together, so what can a girl ask for, really? =) I love how it was the Master who made the Doctor undergo the Keller machineʼs actions, and yet he seemed to freak when the latter was unconscious and close to death, rushing up to him, restarting one of his hearts with a little slap (♥) and overall being remarkably touchy-feely. Then with the dark relief in his eyes when he awoke, and the tiniest tremor in his voice, plus the “welcome back”—but very soon afterwards he was back into harsh!mode, and, interesting, quite prone to losing his cool, which made him all the more delicious. After that, we got to see the Masterʼs greatest fear, which was the Doctor laughing his head off at him, and later at some point they were both suffering the after-effects of the machine, albeit on a very different scale (after all the Master didnʼt have a certain someone tying him to a chair to be subjected to the machine for a prolonged amount of time, ahem). This gave me feelings.

I mentioned the working together already; also very noteworthy was the look on the Doctorʼs face after that when the Master ordered him taken back to his cell. Like somehow, some part of him expected something else, even without truly believing it. Fastforward to the cell, and Jo and the Doctor delightfully trolled the Master together by playing checkers and ignoring him while he was trying to speak to the Doctor. The Master just sighed at that. Then proceeded to threaten Jo to get the Doctor to help out. That worked.

There was more plot in the middle, which was nice, and the last episode had the Doctor moping a lot about his worry regarding the Masterʼs plans. The Brigadier responded with “I'll leave the machine to you, and you can leave the Master to me,” which was lol-worthy of course, as good as the Brigadier is. There was a Doctor/Master phone call, which made me think about Simm vs. Tennant and smirk—this one was not quite so close to phone sex but it was still wonderful. :D The Doctor and the Masterʼs last face-off included the most hilarious moment about Bessie, see lower.

As a side note, the Doctorʼs fears involved a nice Inferno reference and some Daleks. Yay continuity!

Fun lines:

Yates [about Chin Lee]: "Mmm, pity. She's quite a dolly."

Brigadier [full bitch mode]: "You're too delicate for intelligence work, Benton. You'd better go and lie down."

Three: "I see you're in your usual sweet affable mood, Brigadier."
Brigadier [who totally is] [and shouty, too]: “When you've quite finished grinning like a Cheshire cat, Captain Yates!”

Three [later]: "Yes, it's going to be one of those days. Cheshire cat, Captain Yates, Cheshire cat."

Summers: "[The machine] has extracted all the negative impulses from his brain."
Jo: "So what does that make him now?"
Summers: "It depends how you look at --it. An idiot, or a saint."

Three [having lost at checkers]: "Yes, well, the trouble with this game is that it's too simple. In any case, I'm more used to playing three dimensional chess."

Three [having just been rescued]: "Thank you, Brigadier. But do you think that for once in your life you could manage to arrive before the nick of time?" "I'm glad to see you too, Doctor."
(This reminds of Ambassadors of Death and how the Brig should just let the Doctor get loose on his own since heʼs never happy anyway!)

Brigadier [leaving Benton in charge by the end of the ep]: "Oh, Benton?"
Benton: "Yes, sir?"
Brigadier: "Don't get any delusions of grandeur, will you?"
(Itʼs all in the smiles. Earlier bitchiness = forgiven.)

Master: Very strange form of transport, Doctor. I hope you're not going to try anything silly.
Three: No, of course not. No, it's just that Bessie had broken down.
Master: Bessie?
Three: You know, Bessie? [mimes steering]
Master: Oh, yes!

Three: "He's got his Tardis back. He's free to come and go where he pleases, while I'm stuck here on Earth. with you, Brigadier!"
(And with that final piece of pleasantness, the episode closes!)

This will be all. By the way, Iʼm sorry about the elusiveness, like pretty much always. Iʼve been working obsessively (in past-daily-maximum-is-now-daily-minimum mode, and thus making quite good progress, actually working so fast it almost scares me and makes me angst about quality, lol), and just finished reading Der Prozeß in German so yay progress! On top of that, I havenʼt been too bad at keeping up with everyone, and sometime soon I should have icons to show (First Doctor, a tiny post because some of those have been done ages ago and I need to just finish that batch already, it's been a ridiculously long time) and fic (Amelia entry for who-contest that has been hazily floating at the back of my brain for days, but motivation didn't want to come—Iʼve made myself set aside time to write every day this week, so things have eventually started getting done). Sooo yes. And now I shall crawl off to bed because itʼs already past my bedtime and Iʼve been waking around 6:30 to read or write a bit before I get online and check out stuff and work, so midnight is probably a bad idea. *waves* See you all! Take care!