Verayne Scribbles

art and fic for whatever obsession currently runs my brain. | AO3 | DeviantArt |

[veraynes-blog]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Doctor Who (2005) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Fourteenth Doctor/The Master (Simm)

Additional Tags: Saxteen, Master POV, Fourteen using his newfound honesty to devastating effect, the Master would trigger warn this for unwilling emotional intimacy, Bittersweet, semi-public handjobs, Failed Sex, No orgasm, the Doctor might have a sexuality now but that doesn't mean he knows how to use it 

Summary: If this new (old) regeneration has anything going for it, it's apparently the ability to say all the things he couldn't bring himself to say the first time around. The Doctor detours back in his timeline, determined to make himself heard.

~

AN: Surprise fic?! I kept saying I wouldn't be able to write anything while the specials were airing, but this is the magic that happens with a few days off work and the return of functional energy levels. Wanted to get it out before the last episode kills me dead. 🙃

(This is also my new headcanon for why tf Simm!Master is Like That in The Doctor Falls, just FYI.)

[galileosballs]

I do not like to consider behind the scenes stuff when talking about Art, but I do think that this episode fully sealed the deal on the 'Millie Gibson left the show unexpectedly for Some Sort of Reason so they had to cast someone else as a new companion on short notice and quickly rewrite completed episodes to compensate' theory.

That whole maternal bit with Belinda? Out of nowhere. Nothing to do with Belinda. Belinda got very little characterization overall, but none of it was that.

But let's say instead that the companion for this season remained Ruby. We get a little timeskip in between the two seasons, in which Ruby dates Conrad. Maybe the Robot Revolution initially featured him. Then we have a whole season in which none of the other stories (except a new version of Lucky Day) center around her, which makes a lot of sense because the previous season was all about her. She doesn't feel undercharacterized, because she had a whole-ass season of characterization already. Most of the season could have her in the place of Belinda with literally nothing changing, which, well.

And then we get to this finale. The Doctor and Ruby get magicked into a world where they have a magic baby, who looks just like a baby they met previously. Despite the fact that the baby and their life isn't real, Ruby can't possibly find it within herself to abandon - or forget - a child. It doesn't matter whether the child is really hers or not. It matters that someone needs to take care of her and that Ruby steps up to do it. That's a core Ruby character value! That's something that would follow up on a previously established theme!

So, the ending in which she raises the child isn't weird, it's the conclusion to Ruby's character arc. There's no extra character who needs to be shoved into a literal box. The UNIT reunion is a reunion of characters who actually know each other, unlike Belinda, who doesn't know any of those guys. Space Babies is retroactively vindicated.

I cannot believe this was not the intended model of the series. We know these two seasons were written and filmed concurrently. There's no reason for the result to be so awkward if there wasn't some bullshit afoot, given that there was ample opportunity to plan it properly. When Belinda was announced, RTD explicitly said that Varada Sethu was cast because they had already filmed 'Boom' and they knew she had good screen chemistry with Ncuti. She herself said that she was just offered the role out of the blue. This was a rush job. I really liked Varada Sethu as Belinda. She did a lot to disguise the patch here, and it's too bad that she couldn't do more. But we shouldn't think of these seasons as something that was designed to be this way. I'm pretty sure they weren't.

[yesokayiknow]

also shitposting aside it should've been a horror movie. belinda chandra should've looked down at that child and known she would've died for her. she would've killed for her. and known also that those aren't her feelings. this isn't her child. fifteen wanted this dream so badly that he rewrote belinda's whole life. this ending isn't just a tragedy for the doctor

[basiltheta]

wish world being like "its bad to force women into being nothing but mothers" and then the finale of her own season literally shoves belinda in a closet with a baby during all the action like okayyy

[veraynes-blog]

And also... you know... retconned her into being a mother this whole time...? What. 😬

[veraynes-blog]

your photo with david tennant is lovely also you’re so pretty!!

Aaw, thank you lovely!! 😊💕

[veraynes-blog]

What do you think 11 and Missy would be like with each other if they met?

Oooh interesting pairing 🤔 Uh, "manic, childlike sociopaths" springs to mind? I also think they'd flirt, but that it would be... weird. Eleven with his apparent thing for older presenting women... Missy with the Mary Poppins vibe to his manic pixie dream boy...

Not sure how successful those flirtations would be, on reflection 😅

Also, both Missy and Eleven seem to take the approach of ignoring anything that verges on painful. They kind of rewrite their own pasts to focus on the good/fun parts. Like Missy hyper focusing on when they were friends, and trying to be that again. Or mentioning a daughter, but no other details. And Eleven avoiding any mention of the Time War, refusing to confront his past or his losses, etc. What I'm getting at is that they'd probably fuel the cycle together, get caught up with the fun of each other even though they constantly clash.

Maybe they had a better shot at being chaotic friends than other versions...? 🤔

[veraynes-blog]

Hi Verayne! Reread Reclamation recently, it’s so good. Some of the best drarry characterisation I’ve ever read that builds on the actual potential between Draco and Harry in the books and not just fanon stuff (fuckk jk Rowling though that woman is evil and deranged). You’re so talented!!!

Hi lovely 😊 Thank you! I love the tension and potential they have as characters, so it's been fun to explore! I know the fic (and all my fics..) has been on pause quite a while now, but I promise it's not abandoned! 😅 I have the next chapter like 75% done...

[rowanthestrange]

I want the gold tooth to be someone’s backup plan. I want it to fulfil the role of an emergency cyanide capsule but positive. Will this save you? Who knows, but ripping it from your mouth and launching the Master from it like a Pokéball is gonna do something to the situation.

[veraynes-blog]

Off to the London comicon today! 😁 Hoping to see lots of lovely nerdy people and buy a bunch of tat I 100% don't need 🙃

[veraynes-blog]

Heeee! 😁

[veraynes-blog]

Off to the London comicon today! 😁 Hoping to see lots of lovely nerdy people and buy a bunch of tat I 100% don't need 🙃

[offonaherosjourney]

What keeps fucking me up the most about the latest Doctor Who episode (The Well) is not that the midnight entity won and escaped, but how it managed to win. The last time, the midnight entity lost because someone sacrificed themselves to keep it trapped. This time, the entity started killing people by following a couple of made-up rules that would guarantee that sooner or later it would manage to escape the planet. Because moving unto the person that killed it's previous host wasn't a rule, it was a choice, and thus, when the time came, it's ticket out. Finally, the time comes... and the Doctor is there. The only living creature that had met the midnight entity before and sabotaged it's plans is there. And... here is the part that fucks me up... the Doctor does what the Doctor does best, he finds a way to win, but he was so focused on finding a loophole in the rules that he never stopped to think about why the midnight entity had started to follow those rules.

[sphxxshthealien]

this is what i LOVE about the midnight entity. it opens up so much analysis! In midnight, there were so many questions about the mature of alien life. it actually has one of my favourite lines in doctor who:

“I'm glad you've got an absolute definition of life in the universe, but perhaps the universe has got ideas of its own.”

[veraynes-blog]

Ahhhh that's such a good point. And!! It immediately makes me think of the Eleventh Doctor saying "A good man wouldn't need so many rules." (Or something to that effect.) The Doctor still binds himself by the rules he's learned to keep himself good, and in that mindset it would be so natural to make the assumption that another creature seemingly following rules would be bound just as rigidly. It's such an easy, somewhat naive oversight.

[shegiles]

THE RESIDENCE  (2025—) 1x05 “The Trouble with Harry”

[rbarrysncream]

@davidtennan-t

not his circus, not his monkeys

[katestewartt]

The evolution of the Midnight entity.

[natequarter]

i think the tenth doctor is probably just a really bad shag. not that the doctor is always bad at sex but ten's just kind of mediocre in bed. even jack can't have good sex with ten because they're both too sad and pathetic and want it to be a kinky thing where the other one dominates them and tells them they're worthless but neither of them are willing to do the dominating. if martha had slept with ten her crush would've died instantly

[gumy-shark]

nothing scarier than being a fan of a fic and then becoming mutuals with the author. like hi shakespeare. big fan of your fake dating au

[sneakertin]

@veraynes-blog hey haven't seen you around in a while but that's lowkey how i feel about you xD

[veraynes-blog]

@sneakertin noooo that's so funny and nice, ty! 🥰😂

[veraynes-blog]

do you like dhawan master and that version of thoschei?? their dynamic as well as the way jodie & sasha portrayed their characters have to be my favourite thing about that era

I do like dhawan!Master! His energy and playfulness are great to watch, very intense.

And in some ways I like their more violent dynamic in that era too, very gloves off, particularly for the Doctor. But I find it slightly bittersweet for a few reasons. Dhawan!Master seems to be the saddest version of himself we've gotten to see so far, he comes across as broken and self-loathing under all the performance. And frankly I like when they're mutually obsessed with each other. While the Master has kept his obsession, Thirteen seems too tired and betrayed by him, she wants to hurt him and then be done. So while I find the era fascinating, it's a low point in their relationship for me.