For discedo.
discedo.
Name: Laura
LJ: momentarily
E-Mail: pink.sherlock[at]gmail.com
IM: hasRAZZMATAZZ
Characters played at Discedo: N/A
Character's Name: (the) Master
Series: Doctor Who
Timeline: Post-Last of the Time Lords/ignoring pre-End of Time.
Canon Resource Link: TARDIS wiki: the Master, TARDIS wiki: Simm!Master
Personality: Before we go into too much detail, it would perhaps be worth first summing the Master up. Thus--
The Master, regardless of where he is and who he has tends to have three grand aims and they are as follows:
If (one) is jeopardised in any manner, (two) and (three) can be bent and ignored as desired. For example, if he's placed in a situation where his death appears imminent, he is not above allying with the Doctor. As such, (three) would take a temporary backseat -- he will always, inevitably, betray those he allies himself with, linking back to (two), which is only postponed until the situation lends itself to his success.
If (one) is ensured, he will proceed with (two) and (three), often simultaneously. To achieve these ends, he most often:
Of course, in depth, it's not quite that simple. The Master, as the name might suggest, thinks of himself very highly. As with all Time Lords, the name he goes by is not his real one, it's more of a title, chosen by himself and accepted by other Time Lords. The Master views himself highly not just as an individual, but as a Time Lord, a race of people who 'watch over' Time and the universe itself.
The arrogance of Time Lords seems somewhat innate; each and every Time Lord to make an appearance in Doctor Who has some degree of arrogance owed to who and what they are -- a kind of institutionalised arrogance, if you will, that is far from discouraged. Races apart from the Time Lords and Time Aware races are referred to as 'lesser species' and this has undoubtedly contributed to the way in which the Master looks down on all other forms of life, holding himself up as superior.
As far as the individual goes, the Master is incredibly gifted, and has been since he was young boy. As a result of this and when combined with the other facets of his personality, there is no-one that the Master will place before himself. Despite the fact that he has died several times, sometimes seemingly irreversibly so, he has been brought back to life and has gone so far to imply that this, and his continued existence is a universal constant. He considers himself and his actions to be inherently 'right' and that he is above being reproached. In Last of the Time Lords, the Doctor remarks on how his actions will change the history of the universe and the Master replies with "I'm a Time Lord, it's my right."
On top of this, he even seems to consider himself as something of a god-like figure, which he enjoys flaunting to over-the-top proportions ("...and so it came to pass that the Human race fell. And I looked down, upon my new dominion as Master of All and I thought it good"). In short, therefore, he is vain and egotistical, and a megalomaniac.
Despite his intelligence and awareness of the universe and of science, he's far from mentally stable. This is a condition that has been evident from his days at the Academy and throughout each of his incarnations with the Time Lord High Council aware of what could happen. In his younger days, this instability manifested itself as an obsession with order, with correcting the chaos of the universe. He has always, evidently, had grand designs of creating a universe that is, in his eyes 'perfect', with him at the centre, as its architect. Originally, he offered the Doctor the same -- that they could govern the universe together and ensure that there was no war, no injustice, no chaos.
However, over the years, as the Doctor has rebuked and defeated him and as the Master's own sanity seems to have decreased, he has grown, it would appear, less interested in correcting the chaos of the universe and instead admits that he will create his own order, built upon an entirely different kind of destruction -- such as in Last of the Time Lords where he creates a paradox of cannibalised humans from the future decimate humans from the twenty-first century and on the eve of Earth's destruction, he announces how he's going to create a 'new empire'.
In his current incarnation, his actions are markedly more overt and manic than those of previous incarnations and he mentions the 'sound of drums', drums that call him to war and from which he can get no respite. It at first appeared that these drums were a symptom of his madness, rather than a contributing cause, however it's later revealed that the latter is true. His feelings on the drums are mixed: he seems to desire the recognition of their existence and yet acts as if he's pleased when the Doctor denies their existence, as if this very fact makes him special, better than the Doctor. This could be described as a metaphor for his current existence -- he's aware of, to an extent, his madness and whilst he enjoys what he does and how he does it, he's also aware that it's as much of a hindrance as it is anything else. This appears to be supported by the later episodes, End of Time, parts one and two, where the Doctor realises the existence of the drums and the Master rejoices and scoffs at the Doctor with a derisory comment of 'and you thought I was mad' -- he hates not being taken seriously, of being ridiculed and pitied.
Speaking of the Doctor, the Doctor is the one individual that the Master considers close to an equal. In an earlier incarnation, the Master commented that he 'missed' each of the rivals that he'd beaten and killed and that he'd miss the Doctor most of all. He considers the Doctor a worthy match of intellect and wit, and relishes their battles. In fact, it appears that the Master constantly seeks him out in each of his incarnations, enjoying the battle that the Doctor inevitably provides him with (in Last of the Time Lords, the Master appears to grow bored once he's in control of the Earth and has the Doctor kept akin to a pet), and fellow Time Lord, the Rani, comments on the manner in which the Master's plans inevitably involve the Doctor, whereas the Time Lord High Council refer to theirs as the 'enmity of ages'. However, whilst the Master enjoys and actively seeks to humiliate the Doctor, he never seems able to bring himself to entirely defeat him, which once again seems to return to the fact that the Master can't envision enjoying doing what he does without the Doctor there to witness it -- or try and stop him.
At the same time, however, the idea of an all-powerful Doctor, godlike and laughing at him, has been shown to be the Master's greatest fear. Whilst the Master is obsessed with humiliating the Doctor and proving his superiority, the reverse is what he fears most, even above his own death. This would be one explanation for the end of Last of the Time Lords, where a god-like Doctor gives the Master his forgiveness and proceeds to claim that he 'knows' the Master, and that the one thing that he could never do is 'kill himself'. Whilst this would be true in most situations -- the Master's main aim, beyond universal domination, is his continued existence -- when faced with a triumphant and god-like Doctor, his very idea of a nightmare, of Hell, if you will, he would prefer to die. It's worth noting, though, that the Doctor wasn't intrinsically wrong; the Master didn't kill himself, he was shot. He did, however, have the ability to save himself by regenerating but he chose not to and chose death. Despite the fact that I'm taking him from before this event, it is something that plays into his personality.
In this incarnation, the Master takes a sadistic and almost childish delight in the suffering he causes, laughing and clapping at the death of a woman who had figured out his true identity before he outed himself, and dancing with his wife as the Toclafane decimated the population of Earth. He loves extravagant actions; he gasses his cabinet after becoming Prime Minister simply because he can, and gives an aide the thumbs up as he chokes to death, exclaiming that '[he's] insane'.
Whilst he is sadistic, vain and in possession of a completely terrible personality, he can be incredibly charming when he wishes to be; he is perfectly aware of what are good manners and of how one should act in certain social situations. He did, after all, succeed in becoming a prominent member of the government and then, later, elected. However, he only employs these when they're necessary -- he'll drop them as soon as he deems fit. Furthermore, he takes great delight in annoying and frustrating those he deems unworthy of respect -- for example, his first meeting with the POTUS devolves into the Master childishly zipping his mouth shut, only to unzip it when the President makes a comment that requires a verbal answer. He doesn't consider the President worthy of his time, even as Prime Minister, and he's not particularly interested in how a human might perceive him; at this point in time, the only thing that interests him is his own entertainment.
Furthermore, this incarnation of the Master appears to have a great love for popular culture -- he dances to the Rogue Traders as he orders the slaughter of humanity, he sings the Scissor Sisters to an aged and decrepit Doctor and he enjoys watching the Teletubbies (however, it appears he believes the Teletubbies to actually exist and makes an offhand remark on how fantastic evolution is, as they've got 'TV in their stomachs'. In an earlier incarnation, he believed the Clangers to be a real species as well). So, whilst he enjoys popular culture, he's not always particularly adept at telling fact from fiction.
The Master is also almost laughably stubborn. Despite the fact that his schemes often follow very similar plans (pseudonym, the presentation of false aims and then an inevitable betrayal), they all fall apart towards the middle and end. The Master's short-term planning and actions are remarkable and his long-term aims are also impressive, if nothing else. It's simply the middle point that needs a little more work.
And by 'a little', I mean 'rather a lot'.
Despite this, though, he appears quite content to repeat this method until he gets it right, and in fairness, he almost does on several occasion, most notably with this incarnation and his designs with the Paradox Machine. However, his pride and his arrogance were his downfalls: he underestimated humanity and their power as a united front, and he overlooked the fact that they might be able to use the Archangel Network against him, reversing its purpose to frighten and intimidate into one that provided hope and ultimately, saved them.
He's also remarkably skilled at overlooking all the times that he's been defeated. Every time that he's died, every time that he's failed -- none of these have had an impact on his, frankly, quite remarkable ego.
However, that's not to say that he doesn't learn a little. Incarnations of old would often, when confronted by the Doctor, delight in telling the Doctor exactly how he planned on achieving his aims. This, unsurprisingly, would quite often give the Doctor something of an advantage and would aid in his defeat. This Master, however, is aware that this was something of a fault and says that he really, really doesn't plan on telling the Doctor everything -- instead, he later seems to take great delight in watching the Doctor work it all out, and in his inevitable dismay as it all slides into place.
Finally, whilst the Master has a great love for death and destruction, there are limits to what he can cope with. Although he appears to be envious of the fact that the Doctor caused destruction on such a grand scale so as to end the Last Great Time War and destroy Gallifrey -- permanently -- he admits that when he was resurrected for the purposes of the Time War, he 'was scared, so scared' and that it led to him escaping from the war, running to the end of the universe to hide as human.
Powers & Abilities: The Master is a genius not only by human standards, but also by Time Lord standards -- he has a vast array of knowledge on scientific and mathematical subjects, greatly surpassing that of the modern day (the relative modern day, that is). He's also an exceptionally gifted mechanic, particularly with TARDISes. To be quite honest, the show tends not to elaborate on the technical, scientific or mechanical side of anything, preferring instead to make it up, ignore continuity and simply have weaknesses and strengths pop up, disappear and be conveniently forgotten as the plot needs (Doctor Who: being cheesy, camp and nonsensical since 1963!).
So, yes, the Master has a really rather impressive knowledge of science, maths, technical, linguistic and cosmic stuff, although the boundaries are never really established. However, it is known that at the Academy, the Master would have studied a variety of subjects including, but not limited to: cosmic science (his speciality), telepathy, history (...yeah), stellar cartography, stellar engineering, cybernetics, temporal engineering, time flow mechanics and a whole host of other things.
Gallifreyans, externally, look exactly the same as humans, however they are also in the possession of: two hearts -- which beat at about 170 bpm, a respiratory bypass system (which effectively enables them to survive strangulation). In relation to their two hearts, some Time Lords have the ability to consciously stop their two hearts, creating the appearance of death. They can also survive for far longer than an average human without oxygen.
Gallifreyans can also enter a trance-like state which helps with rapid healing and lowers the need for oxygen, however it also leaves them incredibly vulnerable. Their internal body temperature is about 15℃, however when they enter this healing state their body temperature drops to below freezing. Even outside of this healing trance, they recover from wounds quicker than a human.
The biggest difference between Time Lords and humans is, of course, a Time Lord's ability to regenerate: if a Time Lord is mortally wounded or if his or her body is wearing out due to old age or general wear-and-tear (the former of which is, of course, far older for a Time Lord than for a human), they can regenerate which effectively means they grow a new body. In a sense. They replace the old with the new.
As well as replacing their physical form -- it's not known if it's possible for a Time Lord to change genders with regeneration (at least not according to Word of God. Expanded canon says yes, but it's ultra taboo) -- their personality also undergoes several changes. Whilst the underlying individual and fundamental personality remains the same and has the same memories as the former incarnation, there are aspects that change. For example, one incarnation might be calmer and more introverted, whereas another might be louder and more extroverted, one might have a fondness for technobabble and another might prefer, say, Jelly Babies. However, at the core, they're the same person.
The senses of a Time Lord are also greater than that of a human: they can see better in the dark and across long distances; they can hear sounds that are further away and outside the human hearing range; they can use taste to identify objects, blood types and chemical compositions. They can also use their sense of smell to identify where and when they are. And, whilst not strictly an ability, they require very little sleep compared to a human and can subsequently last days without sleep.
Furthermore, Time Lords also have several 'telepathic' abilities. Telepathic communication is possible via various methods, such as if the individuals have some form of contact (...or headbutting is involved). With this, they can share thoughts and memories. Hypnosis is also possible. The Master, in particular, is described as a gifted hypnotist and it's a gift he's developed since his days in the Academy. Its effectiveness does vary, however.
Röntgen radiation is entirely harmless to Gallifreyans, with Gallifreyan children playing with radioactive toys. They can also absorb Röntgen radiation into their body and expel it in a form that is harmless to humans.
Finally, Time Lords also have time- and spatial-related senses; Time Lords can perceive all possible timelines (past, present and future), they can sense distortions in time and can resist slow fields of time. They are also able to sense other Time Lords and who that Time Lord is (if they know them, of course), regardless of regeneration. In light of the episodes End of Time, Time Lords can also smell each other. For the most part, this will be ignored. Mostly because it really didn't come up until Rusty presumably thought it sounded awesome (hint: it wasn't).
In the Eighth Doctor Adventures series of novels, it's revealed that their awareness of Time and Space is linked to their second heart and that the removal of their second heart, whilst it wouldn't kill them or even force them to regenerate, would take away this ability. They can, however, regrow said second heart. Which is a little disturbing, ngl.
...They're also deathly allergic to aspirin. This isn't an ability, no, but all the same, the Master's really going to want to avoid aspirin.
-- Finally finally, because I almost forgot to mention this, Time Lords also have a linguistic ability that is once referred to as 'the Time Lord gift'. It basically means that they understand and can speak more or less every language ever.
What items will they be bringing with them? LASER SCREWDRIVER, BABY. Although I assume it won't work. Otherwise that's a rather unfair advantage. Also, his clothes. The Master desires to be dressed well at all times, okay.
Third-Person Sample: [From damned].
Waking up wasn’t particularly unusual, even if he rarely needed sleep, so that wasn’t what threw him once he slid into consciousness. Instead, it was the fact that he couldn’t recall going to bed, let alone falling asleep (and certainly not being knocked unconscious). He quite distinctly recalled being given the news that Martha Jones had been found. It had been exciting and on top of that, he more than recalled telling - gloating at - the Doctor, pitiful as he was, curled up in a corner of a birdcage, that she had been found, and that he was going to meet her, welcome her back to England. She’d been sorely missed, after all - mummy, daddy and dear old sis’ would want to say ‘hello’.
Thus, the question was begged as to why he’d found himself coming to in an unfamiliar room, staring up at an incredibly bland ceiling. His memory, debacle of fobwatching himself aside, was perfect (certainly better than the Doctor’s; he’d never had any embarrassing incarnations prone to amnesia, after all). The blankets felt cheap, as if they were designed to serve a purpose and that was all - there was no indication as to whether there had been any presence of mind to ensure that they were comfortable, or capable of doing their job well. Swinging his legs out over the edge of the bed, the Master sat up, taking in his surroundings.
Having reached the conclusion of ‘bland’ after appraising the ceiling, he found the description suited the rest of the room. ‘Sterile’ worked too - it had the faint air of a medical facility - the windows that served as windows in only the loosest of senses and, he doubted, would open the smallest amount so as to give those inside the faintest of tastes as to the outside world. There was another bed, he noticed, although it was lacking a body. Regardless, whilst the Master was fond of the idea of getting answers, he doubted, oh, he doubted whether someone in a room with him would be the greatest of sources.
His first thoughts had travelled to the Doctor, despite knowing full well that the Doctor wouldn’t be capable of such a feat - not then, not now, and certainly not in the position he’d been left in. That was disregarding, of course, the sheer sentimentality the Doctor was fond of, his ego. The Doctor wouldn’t have been willing to commit such an act without ensuring the Master was fully aware of it, fully aware of whatever alternative option the Doctor claimed existed, and fully aware of the Doctor winning. This? This was too subtle, too boring, and altogether too quiet.
Pressing his lips together, he stood up, expression flickering at the quite frankly terrible clothes he found himself in. The questions of ‘where’, ‘who’, ‘how’ and ‘why’ soon gave way to a new line of thought: what. There was something wrong; he felt wrong. After a moment’s pause, he mentally corrected himself - it wasn’t so much that he felt wrong (although he did, slightly - there was definitely something different), and more that his senses felt dulled. Time. At the sound of the room’s clock ticking, he glanced at it, running his tongue over his teeth as he once again considered the situation. He’d likely been drugged - somehow, he wasn’t sure how - and brought ‘here’, wherever that he was. He assumed the same drug that had kept him under had dulled his senses, had affected his awareness of Time. It was-
It was so human.
First-Person Sample: (When the camera clicks on, you're greeted by the image of the Master peering intently into it, a wide smile on his face -- he looks happy.) Peoples of Discedo, please attend carefully-- (There's a slight pause and, for all intents and purposes, he interrupts himself, clapping his hands together once and grinning in delight at the communicator.) Oh! I never get tired of saying that. The universe, Earth, a snivelling little backwater city in the middle of a useless star system. (Try not to point out that the scale of those stages differ in size rather drastically 8()
Now then, where to start? I have a very good feeling, Discedo. That things are going to change. Be restored. You might say that I'll be feeling that much healthier for one, and that much more willing to help out-- oh, that's right, you might be wondering, how does my health, how do my feelings play into this miserable little city? But! All in good time. We wouldn't want to spoil any surprises now, would we? (He falls quiet and presses a curled finger against his lips for a moment, feigning thought as he glances at the ground -- he just likes drawing things out, okay.) Um, now, what was it? My little message. (Turning away from the communicator, he drums his fingers against the table -- the same four-beat rhythm -- for a couple of moments before turning back to the communicator with a smug smile.) Oh, yes, I remember!
(His adopts a more serious tone, although it's evident he finds this to rank high up amongst what he finds 'entertaining' and 'fun'.) We've established that you need some help, Discedo. That you have no ambition, no desire, no reach. Living in squalor, you do nothing but pity yourselves, but worry not: that will change.
This city has grown stagnant and boring and complacent. Soon, it'll be time to make it a little more fun.
(There's another brief pause and he holds his hands out, palms facing up, towards the communicator, his expression all at once appearing more open and sincere.) Questions? Don't be shy. I'd love to hear what you have to say for yourselves.
Links: This thread. Because it is the most marvellous thing ever, if I do say so myself.