the devil you know.

𝗒𝗈𝗎𝗋 𝖼𝗋𝗂𝗆𝖾𝗌 𝖺𝗋𝖾 𝗐𝗂𝗍𝗁𝗈𝗎𝗍 𝗇𝗎𝗆𝖻𝖾𝗋 ⸺ & 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘷𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘺 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘥 .

[msetra]

*méǵh₂s — [ ... ] as in magnus ( "great" ) + -ester/-ister . 

#msetra . an independent, private & fairly selective roleplay blog for the master of the bbc's doctor who, inspired by their portrayal across the classic series & big finish's war master audio range + geoffrey beevers' performance as the decayed master in live action & audio. influenced by personal headcanon. primarily plot driven. please read the rules before following. written by nadiya ( she/her. twenty-nine. cest. )

rules, portrayal notes & verses below + dr. who multimuse sideblog .

Visit Original Link

( ¹ ) . please note, i have no interest in portraying the master as misunderstood or misguided, sympathetic or tragic. i don't buy into a lot of the fanon/fandom perception of the character so please don't expect my blog to adhere to your own interpretation of the master, i actively dislike a lot about their reputation in the wider fandom, especially in the tho/schei + academy era circles. i don't care for any moral relativism about the master's actions in comparison with the doctor's, nor any ship-addled perspective on their dynamic. i'm not against best enemies as a ship, but i'm a special little snowflake in my own small corner of the dr. who roleplay community.

this incarnation is my own original creation situated after alex macqueen's reborn master & either following alongside canon where applicable or going off script depending on the thread, all which can be plotted out through DMs or discord, which is available upon request. i've never been a fan of the revived series' take on the master & draw little to no inspiration from any of their portrayals thus far. beyond jacobi's war master & beevers' decayed, this master is most alike to her UNIT era counterpart. she is charming, suave & styles herself as a bond villain & secret agent in her own right. my portrayal builds off macqueen's in dark eyes & the master's relationship with the celestial intervention agency + their romance with sally armstrong.

( ² ) . doctor who is a family show & while certain spin offs dip into more adult territory, i won't bore you with too many warnings about interacting with a villainous character. i trust my followers are aware that the master is a megalomaniac who desires dominion over the whole universe & will stop at almost nothing to achieve that, including ( mass ) murder, manipulation, usually through hypnosis & torture. these are the triggers to watch out for. this blog will most likely never write nsfw material but if it does, it will be under a read more.

quickfire round of general rules: no god-modding, this blog only writes with mutuals, i prefer plotted threads & writers i click with ooc but this isn't always a prerequisite. i don't personally have any triggers but if you need anything specific tagged let me know! while i don't believe that callout culture is a death defying community issue, general tumblr mob mentality & the habit of jumping to conclusions without first engaging in private conversation does get on my nerves. if you engage in behavior that is bigoted or fetishistic of topics such as r/ape & in/cest do not follow me.

VERSES .

( ♤ ◦ κχ . ) 𝗏𝟢𝟣 « celestial intervention . — the master, given a new lease on life by celestial intervention agency head coordinator narvin (a newly weaved body for her emaciated form & a fresh set of regenerations), works as a special agent under the designation 'kappa chi'. after a false start involving interdimensional nodes & a hiccup with the eminence, she regenerates into a form resembling her first body, the one who graduated the academy, who pulled herself from the marble plated cradles of house stillhaven to stare in the eyes of her chatelaine in her first act of defiance.

she seeks to reinvent herself, return to her beginnings & chisel away at a history of failure to make herself victorious, through pragmatism & cunning rather than mere theatricality. this master is no less dangerous, but being a sharper instrument requires methods her prior selves would scoff at, & so she judges them in return. the master no longer desires to be a parody of herself, to obsess over her survival & her vengeance, but for dominion above all things, her fate first & foremost.

[main verse, set after big finish's boxsets UNIT: dominion & dark eyes 4]

( ♤ ◦ κχ . ) 𝗏𝟢𝟤 « world's best intern . — margaret harper (an alias utilized by the master to infiltrate UNIT's headquarter at the tower of london) is an unassuming intern in her late 40s who wanted her life to have meaning, to work for something greater than herself. landing herself an entry level position with UNIT's personnel division, working under edward southgate, margaret has made herself out to be a model employee since the very beginning. nobody would suspect the truth.

which isn't as nefarious as her presence might suggest, the master is here simply for information, to see how a beloathed organization has faired in her absence & just what kinds of alien incursions UNIT faces in the 21st century. perhaps in time & with interesting enough invaders at the gates, she'll succumb to nostalgia & attempt to take control of the earth again. but, for the moment, the master is content to use the tools at her disposal for personal amusement. office gossip can be deadly.

[secondary, set during big finish's UNIT: the new series range of audio dramas]

( ♤ ◦ κχ . ) 𝗏𝟢𝟥 « to lose is to win . — the time lords implemented many dark designs during their war with the daleks, among them was project revenant, an early misstep in a conflict that was to be without beginning or end. a method by which the minds of dead time lords could be repurposed from within the matrix & grafted onto new bodies to serve the war effort. the looms of the great houses ripped from their cradles & repurposed as factories for battle. first the dignitaries, then the soldiers, & when all hope was lost, gallifrey called upon its renegades to fight in its war.

the master is uncertain if she is the original or not. she wants to believe that it doesn't matter, that her identity is hers alone & any inner conflict is a fallacy to be overcome. but after succeeding in sidestepping the war & gallifrey's destruction, the murmurs of another self out there somewhere dig a knife in a crevice of emotion, they perturb her in a way that's wholly unfamiliar, & they halt all her plots & schemes. instead the master hides, she waits to strike when her other self is absent. a snake to a spider.

[secondary, set during the revival & inspired by war master: solitary confinement]

( ♤ ◦ κχ . ) 𝗏𝟢𝟦 « body politic . — [the following is an excerpt from the book of the war] the war king of gallifrey, its current ruler & acting head of the presidency, is the first to go by that title. a renegade & exile from gallifrey in the pre-war era, she was part of the first generation of gallifreyans to produce renegades: indeed, she may have been spawned by the same flaws in the gallifrey's looms which produced even more legendary transgressions like the morbius presidency & the grandfather of house paradox. but while morbius led a crusade in the name of military conquest, & the grandfather seemed to have a rather more philosophical agenda for subverting the time lord's authority, the young war king was a bored, amoral outlaw, dedicated to her own desires above all else, meddling in the affairs of the lesser species for no other reasons than power, personal gratification & perhaps even casual amusement.

the future war king originally left gallifrey at an early age, for reasons which remain unclear, & was considered the second-most wanted criminal among the time lords in an era when the notion of “criminals’’ had only just occurred to them. her people actually managed to capture her on a number of occasions, but never managed to imprison her for any length of time before her eventual escape, another trait she shared with the grandfather. she was notorious for hiring, manipulating & seducing a variety of lesser species, many of them mercenary or megalomaniac in nature, & it’s possible that it was through her association with them that she became aware of the imminent war—the first step in her gradual (& quite legal) rise to power.

[secondary, set during the war in heaven, inspired by faction paradox canon]

[msetra]

i was so excited for the rani/war doctor boxset only to listen to something clearly written by and for academy era fetishists... why does the rani know who torvic is-why does the rani know who torvic is? they namecheck spiridon from planet of the daleks

[corallapis]

[starwrittenfates]

@msetra said: “ Who are you? ” for Kira ↳ questions only sentence starters

Since leaving Gallifrey and traveling the stars, it had become her mission to try and find her parent in between her adventures. Following trails from different planets the Master had been to (and laid ruin to), her journey had finally brought her to Earth where she blended in as a school girl and happened upon UNIT. Kira was trying to sneak inside and obtain what files they had of the Master, only to find herself suddenly being stopped by someone.

Quick...think of some kind of excuse. "I'm Kira Oakdown. I went to the bathroom, but it appears I got lost and don't know where the rest of my tour went." After all, the Tower of London tended to get a frequent amount of tourists. It would pass, right?! "Haven't happened to see them around, have you?"

Could she tell them who's daughter she was, or would they just lock her up in a cell instead?

[msetra]

margaret peers down through her pair of spectacles, ever the hall monitor, even when she's under the pretense of an intern working for the personnel division. her eyes leer at the intruder with a sharp sense of annoyance, not because this girl is any kind of security risk—whatever her designs for sneaking in to UNIT's side of the tower—but because she'll have to waste precious time reporting this incident to security staff, lose the precisely calculated window of time in which she could sneak poison in the mess hall's supply of tea. nothing lethal, of course, just the right amount in the right brand so that a certain gaggle of pencil pushers call in sick for the next few days.

it seems her peace of mind is still beyond reach.

“ mm-hmm, ” it's all very drawl, as if one could get lost past locked doors & plenty of standing guards who keep tourists out of UNIT's offices. not to mention, “ there are no tours today. they work on our schedule, you see, so that we can minimize suspicioun with civilians around. ” margaret flares her nostrils, sniffing out the lie with ease. it's hardly worth the effort for mild dramatics. “ but nice try, i suppose, even if it's the only excuse within your panicking reach. ” she pauses, taking one step closer.

“ if you tell me why you're here, i promise to ask security to go easy on you. ” not that escorting intruders takes a great deal of harshness, not when they comply. “ you don't have to make this harder for yourself than in needs to be miss ... oakdown? that's the name of a holiday park near sidmouth, is it not? ” her eyes look upwards, searching her memory for an answer to her own question.

“ i hope you're not some heiress here on a dare from another spoiled brat. ”

[msetra]

i don't know where this thread of the master doing poorly academically compared to the doctor (that's present in nuwho & dark eyes 3) comes from, especially since this is the first conversation the doctor has about the master, in his first appearance

because it does treat academic achievement within the gallifreyan hierarchy as being indicative of intellect, rather than compliance with their people's social order, which is a more interesting parallel between the two characters. the master is outsmarted by the doctor time & again in almost every encounter, because the doctor is a subversive who fled their people's grasp, who has made it their purpose to be other than & better than whatever rulebound existence they would've lived as a high-ranking time lord. the master's pitfall is that while they similarly believe themselves greater than their own people, but they are bound to that hierarchy, only placing themselves at its highest point, while the doctor kicks down the ladder

it's why they win every time

[the-therapist-will-use-you-now]

Reblog This If You Are Comfortable With Brainwashing/Conditioning RPs

We know the type. Being indoctrinated, being conditioned to believe things, the false manipulative friend, the mind control drugs in the water, the subliminal signals to the brain through the tv, ect. 

[bleiddiaiddrwg]

His eyes widen then, though he isn't all too surprised. Few knew about what his father was like, and few had the gall to act in such a manner. Not even the Doctor would've dared. But for them to be. . . his own future self. Or from another timeline? "Then you should know what he was like. Why I care so little for his opinions of me." It was a small motivator, but disappointing his parents was indeed high on his list for carrying on in his life.

Despite saying he didn't want a lecture, he can't help being rapt by her words, drawn in. And he can't help the wince, turning away as if that would erase the visual of it from her mind. It's true, what he did, he did for the Doctor, almost. To get their attention, progress their constant battle across the stars. But what was he if he wasn't tied to the Doctor? "And why is that? It suits me just fine." He puts on a confident front, facing her properly again.

[msetra]

“ actually, ” she considers for a moment, this might be a card shown too early, but the small change in facial expression is the right kind of buzz—especially from some other version self. the master knows how difficult she should be to rattle & thus she perks up, uncharacteristically eager to divulge the exact point where their personal lives diverge, “ i do not, i've never had a father, ” a dramatic enough phrase, but the master continues beyond its confines, “ nor anything remotely similar. such a familial structure is a blight upon the reproductive cycles of the lesser species. ”

a brow is raised in her counterpart's direction & of course, she stares in judgement. there are purported lesser homeworlds out there, some locked away in bottle universes & others fizzling out of existence in oxbow realities, all meant to be relentlessly observed & cataloged for the future of gallifrey original. the master knows she is breaking the rules. “ my family was rationalized, each cousin laterally related by their biodata to each other, living under the watchful gaze of the house chatelaine. ” she realizes that structure is only one factor, & the conception of two parents & their offspring makes her reel in disgust, “ ugh, please don't tell me you've experienced something as aberrant as a childhood. ” it explains too much.

[msetra]

they're so similar, the master and lolita (the master's TARDIS), i could shed a tear

[bleiddiaiddrwg]

He swivels around to glare at her then, ceasing his fidgeting. "Oh, he definitely helped to ruin everything." If it weren't for his father's influence, the Master doubts he'd be. . . who he was.

He frowns then, unable to stop it appearing on his face. "If I wanted to be psychoanalysed, I'd visit the Doctor. And he was too interested in power, control. Needed everything to fit to his mould, punishing everything that didn't." He just grins then, all teeth and no warmth. "And is that supposed to stop me? I want to disappoint him. I want to be nothing like him."

[msetra]

“ oh, darling, who knows you better than yourself? ” the tip of a blade pressed gently, but dishonestly, she has no idea where to cut. it is true that the master is intimately familiar with the inner workings of her own mind, she finds herself on the very edge of sanity, able to rationalize & justify every action no matter how monstrous as a necessity in her schemes. her counterpart is rather a ways off, purposefully positioning himself against the doctor, the self appointed hero of the cosmos. the very idea makes her wince, the master never imagines herself as the villain.

“ i doubt mere words would make you reconsider. grandiose speeches are the tools of our rival, & we hardly need a soap box to get our point across. ” words are hardly necessary when you can possess another with the sheer strength of your will. “ but to live your life according to the doctor, even as his direct opposite, ” lip smack,

“ that's no life at all. ”

[msetra]

after finishing dead romance, i've decided the time lords of nuwho/big finish's time war ranges are limp dick losers, they don't have the sauce, i'd post the whole ending of the novel if it wasn't a massive spoiler

[soberfucker]

meow. two mean things in a row? it's like margaret is trying to make sam fall in love. she straightens her tie, standing tall over the exasperated intern, a little shit getting into bullshit-committing position. they watch harper's hand flutter upward, gesturing toward sam's utter irrelevance. well jokes on harper, then. sam despises being ignored. they've done worse than insist on a reimbursement assways to be acknowledged. "why bother the rich and glowerful when i can talk to someone who'll insult me in all the right ways?" if margaret harper wants to be a detective, fine. here enters a masc fatale with legs all the way up to the their hips and hips all the way up to their ribs and --- so on. you get the point. "it's my father, by the way. he's the owner of the coattails i'm riding." they bite a hangnail on their thumb, and drum their other hand on the top of harper's computer, acting oblivious to this obvious invasion of space. it might even be real absent-mindedness. "i know how to do it," they lie, to not-mummy. "why not let me show you? it sounds like this is your first handout. we can take it slow."

[msetra]

“ well, daddy is the one thing i can't be. ” unstoppable slithering creature, meet a seasoned traveler, the apex predator of all that wriggles & bites in the universe. she adds a teasing lilt purely for the sake of emphasis, of course, because sam isn't the only person in this office who knows how to cast a lure, but they're more likely to get their mouth stuck on a fishing hook. “ & if you plan on using company software, you will running back to him, without a two weeks notice. ”

margaret leans back into her chair & away from the intruder, arms crossed in the universal sign of self-satisfaction. it's not as if she's expertly parried their insistence such that they'd walk off with their hands in their pockets, but she's looking for weak spots, & family is the easiest pressure point. “ he must be used to that. ” notice how the insults keep coming, they flow so naturally out of her it's almost a relief. margaret has tired of playing nice with all many her wonderful colleagues, how nice of sam to walk up & offer to be a punching bag.

she raises an eyebrow, another invitation, “ or you could ask the boss for an advance, if you're brave enough. ” she'd love to see them try.

[soberfucker]

@msetra asked: "Why are you asking me for money? Why not just ask me for help?"

"money helps." not a very helpful answer. they dig their hands in their pockets, and try a hopeful smile. it's their best dance move. "i thought maybe you'd spare a dollar for someone trying their best." as if they haven't just asked for a total reimbursement when they've spent the company money the wrong way entirely. they run a hand through their hair and sway slightly. don't deny them, office lady. c'mon.

[msetra]

margaret readjust her reading glasses, brows furrowed & mouth agape in the exact kind of exasperation one expects of a middle aged woman forced to babysit a younger coworker. “ but that's the problem, isn't it? you aren't trying your best. ” she says it like it's a revelation, like she saw through this scheme like she's the lead of a detective noir. but sam doesn't try to hide their disinterest, the fact they've coasted through worse flashing that smile at every impasse, & margaret doesn't budge.

“ you're a nepotism hire, ” again, no great surprise, but she phrases it like she's spotted something they're trying desperately to hide. “ why not ask your father ... or your mother? or whatever relative's gotten you the job. i'm sure they have spare change. ” her hands dance into the ether. the answer she couldn't care less about.

“ i'm not mummy—i'm an intern, i can't afford to do handouts. ”

[bleiddiaiddrwg]

@msetra asked ; ❛ father always said you ruined everything , ❜ for the master

"Oh, tell me something I don't know." He rolls his eyes, shaking his hands out. His father never did have anything good to say about him, it was like trying to let blood from a stone. "It's rather ironic of him, though, don't you think?"

[msetra]

“ no, i believe he was right. ” not that she really understands, a version of her civilization that reverted to traditional modes of reproduction is as alien to the master as any of the lesser species. to trade in the structure & certainty of rationalized families in favor of the genetic lottery of childbirth, it only serves to weaken their stock, to waste precious time on raising an infant from its first cries until it is fit to join the academy. it's no wonder they lost their war. “ you've reigned fire wherever you thread & for what? ” she supposes one could approximate the relationship between parent & child to the one between cousin & house, or cousin & kithriarch, but then the master was always the favored daughter. in a family as large as stillhaven to stand out, to dare defy—deny the aid of your relatives & forge your own path in the dog eats dog world of the capitol, that was seen as strength.

the master hasn't ever wondered if they've changed their perspective, not until now.

“ a quick fix? that little buzz in the back of your mind when your impotent rage gives way to slaughter & you show those insects who's boss? i don't see the appeal, & father was always a military man, he believed in stern orders, in power & control above everything. he'd be ever so dissapointed. ”

[londonhq]

The picture of an idiot. From the askew tie to the sheepish grin. He shut the doors of his TARDIS with well-practised ease, making a show to spin around and very nearly bump into @msetra. Even the way the grin faded was comical. Perhaps he hadn't known, but he had suspected he would be about to come face to face with her.

Smoothed down the lapels of his jacket before he could speak. ❝ ....Hello Master. Still haven't got the goatee back then? Shame.❞ Burning through faces fast, wasn't she? Hadn't he just seen her? Blonde woman with the earcuff and the waistcoat.

[msetra]

she instinctively grabs hold of her chin just to check, because outside the precious moments one has to touch up themselves in the mirror, a time lord always forget the physical nature of their existence. smooth, as the master should expect, her devilishly handsome run of incarnations only came after her ascension ceremony. a purposeful addition to test out the limits of regeneration, completely antithetical to her original body. it feels foolish now, the weft threads with which new cousins of house stillhaven are weaved got it right the first time, & she can never claim a desire to return to a form more familiar to her & the doctor. “ well, one can't have everything. ” which is a more profound statement than either of them would admit, & given this doctor isn't one she recognizes, she won't yet hint at her recent shift in method.

instead she lightly taps him on his collarbone, her voice pitched between mockery & offence, “ you're one to talk. you look like a sophomore student at his first job interview, ill-fitting clothes that haven't been ironed & a stubble one gets after forgetting to shave. ” every word is pointed & sharply delivered, there are fewer joys greater that the doctor's reaction to being insulted by someone of equal station. the master bookends it by eyeing him bottom to top. “ & you've shrunk. ”

[shesnake]

Westworld season 4 episode 2 "Well Enough Alone" (2022) dir. Craig William Macneill

[msetra]

( ♤ ◦ κχ ) DIALOGUE PROMTS « 𝘈𝘊𝘊𝘌𝘗𝘛𝘐𝘕𝘎 . @cagedchoices « “ mercy is not your strong suit, is it? ”

she doesn't bother looking at him, always more invested by the myriad controls of her vessel, adjusting them in their flight from the planet obrion into the chaos of the vortex. the master instead looks upwards to the central column, enthralled by the intersecting motions of the inner tubing for just a moment, before breathing in the stale air & lowering her head, “ mercy is the affect of the weak willed. ” she responds, with the cruelty of a heartbeat flatlining. there's a veiled hypocrisy in that statement, because one might recall a few moments in their prior assignment where the master did show mercy. from the retinue of soldiers her & caleb masqueraded as to infiltrate the IMC's control tower, several were spared in the final assault, allowed to fill the vacuum of power they created when the IMC were massacred. because the people of orbion ruling themselves is immaterial, driving out the IMC was their primary objective, & the master had already calculated the violence necessary.

“ i'm surprised, ” she finally glances in his direction, in the way one might throw a dagger. “ when you were pulling the trigger you didn't discriminate between which red & black uniform was military or which was staff. ” in the heat of the moment the distinction doesn't matter, caleb is a soldier, he's good at following orders, it's why the master keeps him around. but like any veteran he begins to question them once the dust settles & if he finds his hands stained, he reaches for the bottle. she smiles, “ brutally efficient, i dare say—& why shouldn't you be? you've seen what the IMC does to the native inhabitants of every world they strip mine, it hardly matters if they direct the bombardments or carry the tea & biscuits. they're all guilty. ” it's a kind of offered comfort, one killer to another, an appeal to morality that is wholly beneath her but one she'd use if confronted. the master's methods are just that, methods, like every act they never incur a personal cost. all that matters is efficiency.

“ & were hardly done, anyway, the IMC is spread throughout this sector of space like a nest of rats. it's our mission to drive them out. ” to limit their influence, allowing other corporate entities to drill the planets they occupied—remove one parasite & replace it one that kills the host more slowly. “ we do as the CIA commands, of course, to preserve the web of time. ” the story changes, the ending remains the same.

[msetra]

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ways to trick my mutuals into writing with my fourth war king verse for the master: making them listen to philip madoc's excellent voicework for the war king in the faction paradox audios