#ruins of gallifrey

[ihavestolenyourkneecaps]

So, I tried to translate what was in the new sonic screwdriver with the Sherman's Gallifreyan.

And it's a bunch of non sense, it thanslates to "the bonguj fgifeet the nefechachp fa the otshavvi the bepnefeba fa".

There are some letters that are ambiguous "the bonguj fgife(e?)t the nef(e?)chachp f(a/e?) the otsha(vi/vvi?) the b(e?)pnef(e?)b(a/i?) f(a/e?)".

Taking the frase that is ment to be "the sharpness of the tongue defeats the sharpness of the warrior", the writing becomes:

Which is doesn't looks like the sonic, just the 4 "the"s that are equal, and it's supposed to be written in Kinyarwanda, also known as Ikinyarwanda or Urunyarwanda, that's the language spoken in Rwanda, but the meaning that the show gives us translates to "ubukana bwururimi butsinda ubukana bwintwali".

Which is nowhere close to the writing in the sonic.

With that said, I think the people who made the sonic searched a little in the fandom for our way to write in gallifreyan and then took what they found pretty and merged together because it looks like gallifreyan and the system is 99% Sherman's Gallifreyan but there are some discrepancies.

If you look in the second symbol what was supposed to be "ngu" is written wrong, the circle has 4 lines but the maximum amount is 3, I consider that to be "ng" + "u" because normally we would merged together the line of the "u" with another symbol of take it to the border or merged it with one of the lines in the "ng".

You can see as well in the third that between the "fe" and the "b" there's something, I read that as and "e" but it doesn't really makes sense if you consider that it has before it another "e", when there are doubles of a letter we just make it twice.

The sixth and eleventh are equally strange, it seems to be an "f" with something, it could be an "o" but it's too big and not close enough to the border, the only one I could think that its close enough it's the "a", because it's quirk is that it's always far but for the outside, this one is "far" but for the inside.

The eighth it's as well interesting, in what was supposed to be a "vi" the way is written makes it look live a "vvi". And the last, the tenth has what looks like a "ba" but looks like it has a dot in it but there aren't any single dots only two or three dots, so I just ignored it.

And I'm not even gonna talk about the slashed "e"s because that formed a pattern and I just assumed it's on propose.

In conclusion, or I'm dumb and can't read or they just put something inspired in the Sherman's Gallifreyan to look pretty and make us go slightly crazy but in the end it's just the the normal gallyfean that doesn't means a single thing.

Ps: sorry for any wrong words or terms, I'm brazilian and my english isn't perfect.

EDIT: I'M DUMB, thank you @mesimees and @typeforty for explaining the actual way of reading this, @mesimees rebloged this with a pretty simple explanation on how really to read this, thank you for the correction and it's really fucking awesome to discuss conlangs linguistics

[gotyouanyway]

never not thinking about “leela, you’ll kill leela!” and “she’s my wife!!” thank you andy coleman

[synthient]

actually, does that mean the guy who stayed behind to sacrifice himself was fine after all ?

[lerios]

soldier obscura is such a weird idea to me 👀 an hour straight of just brax and ace? why are brax and ace even hanging out in the first place? why is brax's outfit so shit on the cover art? 🤔 questions abound

[natequarter]

all the memes about theta ligma and his shitty boytoy costco turning up to ruin things on gallifrey with their centuries-long divorce are funny, but by zagreus the eighth doctor is literally no longer in this universe and the master is as dead as he'll ever be. no, the problem for yon average time lord in this era is romana. isn't the president literally two years old? what do you mean she has a past incarnation? what do you MEAN she started a civil war??? i log into tarbis.com to complain about the president airing her divorce from the only alien on gallifrey all over the capitol but before i can type anything i am turned into a zombie. when i wake up it's to find that the head of the secret services has started a temporal conflict and president nimon or whatever is STILL busy airing her relationship drama all over the capitol and also the media has stopped writing headlines on every time she nearly kills herself because it just happens so often these days. fuck loser and braxolotl and marvin i just want a lie down

[that-cool-queer]

The Ruins of Arcadia

guess who drew gallifrey again >:D

[clowns0cks]

so, I got asked what's the spymaster timeline argument and why do I argue about it so much and keep defending spymaster lol so I wrote a long ass thing that I want to share with you.

SO. there are different arguments for people I argue with

1. having the master back as evil ruins Missy's arc and they hate him

2. having the master back as evil doesn't make sense after missy but would make sense before missy

3. They just fucking hate him god knows why.

4. A mix of these

Now. I have strong opinions, and those strong opinions are that I don't have a problem with dhawan master at all. I think he simply fits in after missy in the most normal way possible. I never saw a problem with it and I find it confusing that people do. Cause?? Imagine dying, then regenerating and realising the doctor has left you alone, but fair, cause he didn't know. So you go on gallifrey, hoping he shows up. While you're there you start hacking into the matrix for fun, cause you're the master and you like having a bit of fun. You discover horrible things. The doctor is not who they think they are, the time lords are not what you thought they were and all of your species including yourself is a product of the doctor's DNA.

This places the doctor as some kind of god. The origin of the time lords. They weren't time lords before the doctor, just gallifreyans, with no real power or anything to make them important. He's simultaneously angry at the time lords for lying about their identity, and at the doctor for being the most important time lord of them all, for being THE time lord, the original. Ultimately, for being more than him.

Now. The master has a certainty during the entirety of the show. The doctor is his equal, they have opposite moralities, but they're equals. Now, the security in this statement he believed in all his life shatters. They're not equals. He is who he is only because of the doctor. Thinking back to missy, she was the regeneration that absolutely wanted the doctor to see her as equal as well. She wanted to be like the doctor cause she missed him, and felt like he was the only one like her. So she tried to be like him, she accepted to be imprisoned in a vault and basically be changed to have the same beliefs of the doctor. But she did it willingly. Cause she wanted them to be the same. Now this entire arc feels wrong to the master (dhawan) , cause now he knows he could never be like the doctor, how could he? The doctor is much more. He thinks missy was his biggest mistake, he humiliated himself to be something he could never be. He gets out of the matrix and throws a tantrum, killing everyone on the planet for having lied to him (and to the doctor). When he sees the doctor again he hates her. He hates her cause she's just there, being her usual self, while in reality she has a bigger role in everything than she could ever think. He hates her cause a part of her is in him, and that means he's less. He's lesser than her. I also remember one scene where he was like "did I ever apologise for that?" (basically killing the doctor making them fall on the ground and regenerate, lmao) And she was like "no" and him "good". I think about it often in relation to missy, cause he was definitely saying it because of her. Why any other master should have apologised for something? Only missy was apologising for stuff she did. It might be a big reach but I like to think it's about her. And he's like "good" cause he regrets being missy and trying to redeem himself, like I said before. Anyway the follow up from here is simple, he hates her and stuff, but he also feels bad not letting her know why. So then he decides to show her her story, all he can. No one should live without knowing their origins. so he shows her, and then he says he would like to show her more, but there's nothing else to show. It's the only moment in which he's doing something kind for her. Cause I believe in some way, he's also mad at the time lords for lying to the doctor. And here's part of why he decides to use their dead bodies in such an unworthy way. They have to pay not only with their life but also with their dignity, so he turns them into cybermasters.

This is also a way to cope and create his own race, to feel a little more on the doctor's level. She created the time lords, he destroyed them and created another species with their bodies. Then it's not enough and he decides that the only way to be equals is to become her. At this point he's gone completely insane, like, we see that. But it's totally understandable for him to act that way. His whole worldview changes. Everything he believed in is not true anymore. He doesn't know who he is anymore (I also just thought about this identity crisis he was having and how he stole Rasputin's identity, but this is an analysis for another day).

Anyway this got off topic cause I had to explain only the missy/dhawan thing but then started talking about dhawan in general so forgive me lol.

Other than this, if we take big finish in consideration there's the lumiat, that comes between missy and dhawan and her story really helps some people accepting the change (for some people it's still not enough though) and in the 2021 annual is confirmed that dhawan comes after missy, as we have the doctor and the master talking about the master's story from delegado to dhawan and thirteen says "I quite liked you as missy" and he replies that she spent too much time with him and it's something that should never happen again.

anyway. I've made my point on why the missy -> spymaster regeneration simply makes sense. It's just a normal timeline, I don't know why people think it doesn't work.

update to this post; in the audio "self-help", the master mentions stabbing himself in the back just when he thought he finally knew who he was. Referring to simm master stabbing missy, of course. giving us another confirmation of his position after missy in the timeline.

[gallifreyinstituteforlearning]

How bad did things even get during the Time War anyway?

How bad was the Time War?

The Last Great Time War was a complete breakdown of cause and effect, logic, and everything that made the universe vaguely comprehensible. It lasted 400 years linearly, but in reality, it was an eternal, ever-shifting conflict fought across countless time periods and alternate timelines. By the time it ended (sort of), even the concept of victory had stopped making sense.

🌀 The War Broke Time Itself

⏳ Time was rewritten constantly. Battles weren't just fought in space—they were fought across entire timelines. Victory could be erased retroactively, and some battles lasted for centuries in one version of history, seconds in another, and never even started in a third.

🧬 Entire species were unmade, then remade, then unmade again. Some were wiped out so thoroughly that no one even remembered they had ever existed. The Daleks seeded themselves throughout different epochs to ensure their survival in multiple timelines.

📖 History itself became a battlefield. Some battles ended before they began, and some never ended at all. Some were fought, won, and then rewritten so that the losers always won instead.

🧠 Conceptual warfare existed. Imagine an army that only exists if enough people believe in it. Imagine ideas being used as weapons, timelines unravelling into paradox knots, and reality breaking under strain.

💀 Millions were killed and brought back to life every second. Time Lords and Daleks alike resurrected their own forces on an industrial scale—a never-ending cycle of death and rebirth, ensuring the war never ran out of soldiers.

💀 Unthinkable Casualties

🔥 Planets were burned from time. Not just destroyed—erased. No ruins, no survivors, no memory they had ever existed.

🌌 Entire galaxies were reduced to cinders. Some were aged into dust in seconds. Others were trapped in permanent time loops, reliving the same devastation forever. Some were sealed in paradox bubbles, their populations stuck in an infinite moment of destruction.

👥 Whole civilisations were conscripted, wiped out, or worse. The Time Lords and Daleks weren't the only players—countless other species were caught in the crossfire. Some were recruited without their knowledge, and entire populations were twisted into warriors who never knew they had fought.

🚀 Refugees couldn't run. Because the war wasn't just happening everywhere; it was happening everywhen. Some tried to escape into the past, only to find it had already been rewritten. Others fled into the future, only to arrive at their own extinction.

🌠 Species were erased just to remove them as a strategic variable. The people of Ysalus were completely wiped from history, while others were forcibly rewritten into weapons of war.

🔬 The Weapons Were Insane

💀 The Time Lords built weapons that erased you from history before you were even born. Some of them removed individuals so thoroughly that even the concept of them ceased to exist.

🌪️The Daleks created time winds that could strip you down to raw possibility. They could reduce a being to nothing but potential energy, scattering them across history as stray thoughts and fragmented echoes.

🛡️ There were living weapons that thought and felt, cities that consumed invaders, and paradox bombs that collapsed entire timelines. Some planets developed sentience mid-battle and chose to self-destruct rather than be conquered.

👁️ The Nightmare Child, the Army of Meanwhiles and Neverweres, the Could-Have-Been King…

🧩 The Time Lords created battle TARDISes that were piloted by soldiers who could be resurrected indefinitely. The War Council threw entire fleets of Time Lords into battle, knowing they could die, be revived, and die again.

👑 And the Time Lords Became Morally Dubious

⚖️ Gallifrey abandoned every principle it stood for. The Laws of Time? Gone. Ethics? Forgotten. Anything was permitted in the name of survival.

🎭 The High Council became so desperate that they tried to destroy all of reality just to win. In the end, the only way they saw to "defeat" the Daleks was to end the entire universe.

☠️ The Time Lords nearly became as bad as the Daleks. Some would say they were worse.

👑 Rassilon returned, and his idea of victory was ending the entire universe. He saw Gallifrey's survival as the only thing that mattered. If everything else had to burn, so be it.

🧩 Entire divisions of Time Lords went rogue, forming resistance movements against their own leaders. The War Master, the Barber-Surgeon, and Morbius all saw the war as an opportunity to further their own agendas.

🏫 So ...

It wasn't just a war. It was the apocalypse, written and rewritten over and over again, until the only solution left was to burn it all down. And even that didn't quite work.

Related:

💬|⚔️⌛How did the Time War start?: The complicated origins of the Time War.

💬|⚔️🔒How does the Time War time lock work?: The extent of the time lock and its current status.

📺|⚔️🪖The Could’ve Been King with his army of … etc.

Hope that helped! 😃

Any orange text is educated guesswork or theoretical. More content ... →📫Got a question? | 📚Complete list of Q+A and factoids →📢Announcements |🩻Biology |🗨️Language |🕰️Throwbacks |🤓Facts → Features: ⭐Guest Posts | 🍜Chomp Chomp with Myishu →🫀Gallifreyan Anatomy and Physiology Guide (pending) →⚕️Gallifreyan Emergency Medicine Guides →📝Source list (WIP) →📜Masterpost If you're finding your happy place in this part of the internet, feel free to buy a coffee to help keep our exhausted human conscious. She works full-time in medicine and is so very tired 😴

[hobgoblinns]

it’s wild how martha was maybe the one the doctor opened up to fastest. we never even see the doctor mention the name ‘gallifrey’ to rose. and maybe that’s why he treated martha so dismally — she knew so much about him. by the second date he was telling her all about his home world. in 42, he admits to her i’m scared, i’m so scared. in family of blood he literally entrusts her with his entire life while he’s an amnesiac. so much of his power over other companions relies on him being mysterious, untouchable, inhuman. normally he lets the others in gradually, but he basically just trauma dumped all over martha immediately, and i think he knows it. i think he realised he was dangerously comfortable with her, and it ruined his whole facade. it made him seem fallible and maybe even human. in his post-rose grief, he found someone he could pour out his soul to, and then panicked and shut her out whenever she in turn tried to get close to him.

[gotyouanyway]

still trying to figure out not only what the hell annos was talking about here but why he was talking about it like that

[lilbeanz-wibblywobbly]

The Hybrid would stand over the ruins of Gallifrey and unravel the Web of Time, breaking a billion hearts to heal its own...

Together and united, the two halves are home. Chaos will reign should one half find themselves alone.

[lezbogosian]

kinda wish we could’ve seen thoschei beat the shit outta each other into bloody pulps before falling into each other’s arms sobbing. maybe in the burning ruins of gallifrey too for extra angst maybe

[twelvemonkeyswere]

watching more of Ace and 7th, I'm delighted by their unmatched dynamic:

the Doctor built a gigantic weird grey square thing to substitute Ace's boombox, which was destroyed by the Daleks (awww)

while spying on some nazis, Ace sneezes. the Doctor immediately fakes bird sounds so nobody suspects there's a human there

when Ace sprained an ankle, the Doctor adamantly insisted on helping her himself and gave her a small speech about how she has to take care of herself

while spying on the nazis, the Doctor asked Ace if she ignored his instructions and has explosives in her backpack. she says she's "a good girl" and does as she's told, so he says "excellent, blow that vehicle up." she's SO thrilled about it

Ace has defended the Doctor with all her heart every time someone accuses him of something because that's her Professor and she rescued him from the street and gave him a forever home. she defended him even though he refused to explain his past and a cryptic lady teased that the Doctor had deep secrets that couldn't be revealed without grave consequences, and there were hints that he was involved in the creation of Gallifrey in the Time of Chaos. Ace said "fuck the lot of you this is my old weird little guy go find your own" and stood her ground

Ace made friends with a girl in a town who had her exact same energy. they began talking about nitroglycerine so Ace told her they should talk outside. when her new friend asked why, Ace said "he gets upset when I talk about explosives" loud enough for the Doctor to hear her laugh. he let her go without another word

in that same episode, Ace meets another female soldier who was now commanding Brigadier, as well as Brigadier Stewart's wife. They all went out on a girl's night, leaving the house chores to their respective male companions. The Doctor was beaming at the women while leaving and very cheerily said he'd cook something for the men left behind

sometimes the Doctor is trying to figure something out and Ace chimes in to ask questions that prove the Doctor has been teaching her about physics

the 7th is very vocally anti-war and anti-violence yet has immediately resorted to death threats the moment someone's even sniffing at Ace. I've seen him use a sword, several types of guns, and maybe a bomb? All to prevent Ace from being slightly threatened

Ace accidentally destroyed a madman's lab while being attacked by some creatures. The scientist was all "YOU RUINED MY LIFE'S WORK" and the Doctor turned proudly to Ace and said "that's my girl"

one time they sat at a bar and Ace tried to order alcohol. the Doctor growled a warning "Aceeeee" and she sheepishly changed it for a lemonade

the Doctor boops Ace's nose several times as a sign of affection, and Ace smiles and accepts it, which I'm CERTAIN she would never take from anyone else

Ace has repeatedly dragged the Doctor around when he was being stubborn, sometimes even using his own umbrella, which I'm CERTAIN he would never take from anyone else

the Doctor keeps sending Ace places where she will be out of harm's way and Ace keeps finding direct and indirect ways to put herself in harm's way, which makes the Doctor then run after her to help her. this is literally what most episodes are about.

Ace repeatedly refuses help and compliments, but never from the Doctor. she also talks with insolence to most adults she encounters, but never to the Doctor, even when she's angry or talking back to him

the Doctor encourages Ace to be brave about her fears. there are very few things that truly scare Ace and make her feel insecure, and he is honest about what makes him scared and insecure, to show her he wants her to get through this

one time they had to return a magic sword to its place, and they were doing a ritual about it. Ace, who took it out in the first place, held the sword insouciantly to put it back and the Doctor says "Ace, don't you have a sense of the moment? this is important" and Ace just flatly says "no" and smashes the sword back

after a long day of being hunted down by creatures the Doctor paces around to monologue and when he turns to Ace, she's fallen asleep on a couch. so he smiles and gently pats her cheek with the back of his hand

truly the most duo of all time

[hauntingcryptids]

Pumpkin Dreams

Simm!Master x Reader

Summary - The Reader begs for some Autumnal decorations, but The Master is not a fan of The Reader’s plans.

Prompt(s) Used - Pumpkin Patch - A fic involving pumpkins, a pumpkin patch, pumpkin carving or Jack ‘o’ Lanterns and Ghoul - A fic involving decorating for Halloween or Halloween decorations

Warnings - None That I Know Of. If I missed something, then message me and I will add it here.

Word Count - 3082

A/n - Gender Neutral Reader. No use of Y/n. Not Requested. Proofread but not beta read. I hope that you enjoy! :)

--------------------------------------------------------------

The Master held a thousand years long (or however old he was) reputation for being cruel, demanding and authoritarian. His desired image was on full display in the title he gave himself alone, his multiple plans for universal takeover only proved a point. He always had to have his way; if people did not immediately listen, he would take what he wanted. He didn’t care who he hurt, who he killed, or how he left in the ashes of his destruction. Despite his carefully curated image, this longstanding reputation of The Master’s wasn’t always in line with his emotional needs. 

The Master could be kind, soft, and reasonable if in a safe environment with people he felt comfortable with. He showed you this softer side countless times and you knew he would show you his more raw, personal emotions again many times more in the future. The Master was kinder to you than anyone you had in your life previously. He would always rebuke your comparative praise by stating that the bar for Humans was in hell (a phrase he only used because you used it). 

He adored your praise of him, though, because The Doctor believed The Master to be incapable of any kind of thought and he loved proving the idiocy of his previous friend. But The Master did hate being compared to Humans and for anyone other than The Doctor to know this other side of his personality. The Master couldn’t help but hate you at first when you would occasionally run into him when he was pretending to be Human. After The Doctor ruined his plans again, The Master did take a chance on you. He hoped to manipulate you, though you ended up charming your way into the old Timelord’s hearts. He abandoned all of his plans to corrupt you (except for a little teasing) and strove to prove himself worthy of your kindness.

Since moving into The Master’s TARDIS, you became acutely aware of the divots and dividends stowed away and hidden behind many facades and trick mirrors in your alien companion’s personality. Despite the fruitfulness of his personality that he hid well, The Master still had to be convinced of very many things, especially the things that he did not think up himself. He was a proud being, inside and out. After much trial and error, you did learn how to craft manipulations of your own. By begging (prettily, as he described) or convincing The Master that he came up with an idea before you did, then you usually could end up getting want you wanted within the week. Your quickest attempt took 13 Earth days, which given how stubborn The Master could be at times, you took as a win. All you could do was hope that you wouldn’t have to fully manipulate your way into getting what you wanted this time. In your opinion, you had just a small request. At most, it would only take a small amount of begging, surely.

You bounced into the console room with a light step. This wasn’t the first time you attempted to convince The Master of something very Human in nature and you expected that it wouldn’t be the last. The Master had also been in a jovial mood recently, having plundered multiple pirates, squashed many rebellions on planets that he (previously to you joining him) ruled, and solved many childhood treasure hunts ‘in all time and space’ that the old scholars of Gallifrey placed on their students, expecting that they would never be solved. His cheerful nature resulted in less worry for you compared to some of the previous attempts where you ambushed The Master with questions on one of his bad days. But for the completion of your plan and The Master’s emotions, you did try to make yourself seem more carefree and unbothered. Based on previous attempts, you know that if you were too passionate or persistent there was the very probable chance that The Master would deny your request out of spite, which was contrary to the outcome that you wished to receive.

The Master didn’t look up from the console screen he was monitoring as you rounded the ship’s terminal. You had become used to the fact that he was usually aware of your presence, even though he wouldn’t interact with you first. So, you stood behind the alien and watched the screen he studied, unable to understand the potential seriousness of what your host was looking at. Tentatively, you placed your chin on The Master’s shoulder, allowing him the opportunity to initiate the conversation when he was ready.

“What do you want, Human?”

“What makes you think that I want anything?” The Master didn’t respond, he didn’t need to. All he did was turn his face in your direction with a blank stare and a raised eyebrow.

“Okay, I do want to ask you something.”

“What is it this time?” You huffed, slightly affronted that he would think you to be so superficial. But your reaction only caused The Master to chuckle. You paused for a moment before asking your question in an attempt to regain your composure in the presence of a nearly all powerful alien. 

“Can we get some pumpkins?” You asked the alien hopefully, bouncing on the soles of your feet absentmindedly. 

“Why?” The Master dragged out the word, which gave you hope. When The Master drew out all the syllables of a short (typically one-word) question, it usually meant that he was legitimately questioning your desires. If he were to answer with a curt “why” or a fully articulate question, however, you learned that those options were basically a “no” as far as the alien was concerned.

“It’s Autumn. Halloween is coming up soon. They are nice decorations.” 

“No.” The Master spoke coldly. You couldn’t help but be shocked. You thought that you did everything correctly, or as well as you could given The Master’s sometimes (often) temporental tastes. 

“What? Why?” You pulled back from The Master’s shoulder and tried to look him in the eye, but he wouldn’t face you. 

“They go off. I don’t want mouldy squash in my ship.” The Master’s tone was reasonable, at least, as he moved around The TARDIS console to press more buttons.

“I will compost them or throw them away before they get like that.” You tried to your best to plead with The Master, but for some reason, you weren’t doing your best. 

“And if one gets lost in this labyrinth of a ship?” The Master’s head shot up to look you in the eye, and then he froze, waiting for your answer. His hazel eyes were piercing. 

“I won’t lose any of them.” You tried to sound convincing, but The Master’s faux sympathetic grin told you that you had not convinced the alien.

“My answer is still no.”

“Please. I’m not asking for 13-foot-tall skeletons or glitter garlands.” The Master couldn’t help but make a face at the thought of the presence of glitter in his TARDIS.

“It’s just a handful of pumpkins, Master.” Your alien host turned to face you again, this time with a triumphant smirk on his face. You hated that you knew that you lost this time.

“You need to work on your begging, Human.” You groaned, petulantly and stormed off back to your room for the day.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Many days passed with many stops periodically throughout time and space. Some were casual pitstops, others were more serious, but The Master hoped that the more places he took you, then the less focused you would be on your request to decorate his TARDIS. Every time he thought that you had forgotten your want or moved on from your pumpkin idea, you would not so subtly indicate that you still wanted to decorate The Master’s TARDIS with pumpkins. It didn’t help that his ship was conspiring against him and took you and The Master to many planets with pumpkin-like plants blooming and growing throughout.

During one outing, you had almost snuck a small gourd (or what you would call a gourd) onto The TARDIS through your bigger on the inside coat pocket. But The Master saw your sleight of hand and was aware of the item you stole from the planet. You weren’t aware of The Master’s knowledge, but the alien’s eyes had rarely left your frame as of late. He was always watching you. He wasn’t trying to be creepy (which he probably would been on Earth), he just loved watching you in non-Human environments. 

That was his excuse, though; The Master’s TARDIS, maturely, described The Master’s feelings as love. He loved your little quirks and the idiosyncrasies that made you you. Yes, you were Human, but if The Doctor used Humans as temporary comfort, then why couldn’t The Master find a constant companion in a Human? It was unlikely that you would ever be able to deceive The Master ever again because The Maser knew you; you consumed every fibre of his mind and soul. The TARDIS, self-satisfied in their accomplishment, knew that there was no turning back now. They helped you and The Master fully realise your feelings for each other.

The Master, upon the two of you arriving at the door of his ship, pulled you by your arm out of The TARDIS doorway before your foot could fall on the ship’s metallic floor. He held his other hand flat outward toward you as he stared down at you unblinking. You couldn’t help but pout; you assumed that you had gotten away with your theft. You sighed as you placed the alien gourd onto his palm.

“Nice try, Human.” The Master smirked, releasing your arm and allowing you to enter his ship. He then tossed the gourd over his shoulder before nonchalantly entering his ship. The Master then piloted the two of you away from the planet you had visited, while telepathically scolding his TARDIS for trying to aid you Humanly sympathetic. 

“I’m going to bed.” You spoke. Your voice sounded sad; The Master noted. He hated when you sounded sad, especially when he was the main cause of your depleted emotions.

“Fine. Dream your sweet pumpkin dreams, Human.” The Master tried to joke. It was evident that the alien failed to make you laugh, though, much to his disappointment.

“I really hate you sometimes.”

“No, you don’t.” The Master did feel your legitimately strong negative feelings toward him, but he chose to not dwell on the fact that he upset you for too long. Instead, he focused on attempting to form a plan to make you happier. He genuinely wanted to make you happy. If you temporarily felt defeated, he could handle your bad temper because he knew that he had so much more planned for you.

You stuck out your tongue petulantly. The Master responded with the same gesture before smirking again and wishing you a proper goodnight.

The Master hated seeing you unhappy. Normally, with others, The Master would keep refusing a person who wanted something badly enough to repeatedly ask, just to upset them more. With you, though, this routine was getting boring. A couple of denials were fine, it offered suspense, but he never wanted to treat you like just any other person. You were special.

Now The Master would have to plan something that would surprise you, something that would make up for his bad attitude. But he didn’t want pumpkins, squash, or gourds, Human or otherwise, on his ship except for the kitchen. He wasn’t even fond of having houseplants on his ship: which reminded The Master of something.

The Master recalled when he first invited you to stay with him on The TARDIS. However, upon hearing you say something, he almost told you to stay at your Earthly apartment last minute. You had surprised him by exclaiming that you needed to retrieve your bonsai tree. You had run off to retrieve the bonsai tree before The Master could stop you, having been weighed down by your many travelling bags. You surprised the alien again, though, when you arrived by his side with a Lego bonsai tree, not a real one, in your hands. The Master only sighed at the time, allowing the plastic tree into his ship without notifying you of his initial complaint.

That previous instance caused a ball to roll in his mind. You never directly said that you wanted real pumpkins. There had to be alternatives that wouldn’t decay and stink up his ship that would also make your wish reality. So The Master set to work.

--------------------------------------------------------------

You woke up despondently. Why did The Master have to be so fickle? You understood that The TARDIS was his ship, and he could allow or not allow whatever he wanted. But you didn’t understand why you couldn’t add some personal touches outside of your room. You weren’t even asking for decorative changes all the time, just around certain holidays that you liked to celebrate. If you were on Earth, and The Master was staying with you in your flat, you knew that you would allow him to add his own flair to communal areas. Did you just care about him more than he cared about you? Or was this just a simple miscommunication? No matter what was going on between the two of you, you were still upset with the alien.

You rolled out of your bed, yawned, stretched, and then rubbed the granules of sleep out of your eyes as you stumbled toward your private kitchen. You moved around the space on autopilot, unaware of the new decorations that appeared in your space overnight. You weren’t ripped out of your oblivious state until The TARDIS beeped frantically. 

You held a large mug in one hand, about to pour in your favourite hot, caffeinated beverage when she halted your actions. You questioned her, and she beeped again. She sounded astonished. You looked down into your mug and to your surprise you saw a small felt pumpkin. You placed everything in your hands onto your kitchen counter and plucked the pumpkin out of the mug. It was a cartoonish orange with delicate felt leaves attached to a dark green stub of a stem. The little item was so cute that you couldn’t help but smile from ear to ear. Finally, you looked around and saw that your room had been decorated with a variety of fake pumpkins. You understood why The TARDIS was so shocked. You walked all the way to your kitchen without noticing any changes whatsoever.

You excitedly ran out of your room, still holding the first pumpkin, and grew even more exuberant the more that you saw. In your sleep, The Master fully decorated his TARDIS with creative pumpkins. There were fake pumpkins of every colour, cloth jack-o-lanterns, and pumpkins decorated with famous artworks and interesting Halloween-themed designs. There were even pumpkin garlands hanging throughout the halls and on the walls. None of them were real pumpkins, there was no worry of them going bad. The Master even made sure that there wasn’t a hint of glitter on any of the decorations. 

You then began to search for The Master. You wanted to thank him for everything he did and all of the work he put into this. Eventually, you found him lounging in the library. He was reading on a sofa with his back facing yours, the stem of a pumpkin pillow only slightly visible over the back of the sofa. You ran up to The Master, as quietly as you could, and threw your arms around his shoulders.

“Thank you, Master.”

“Don’t mention it.” You hummed, disappointed, as you removed yourself from The Master. You were hoping for a different, more reciprocating, response. Maybe you weren’t as expressive and grateful as you could be. You wished that there was a way for you to meaningfully thank him. You squeezed The Master’s shoulders before rounding the sofa to sit across from the alien. The Master didn’t look up from his book. You looked away from the strange person before you, instead inspecting the decorations in the library from your seat. You smiled again at the decorations. Not because of the decorations themselves, but because The Master did all of this for you. 

“It looks really nice.” 

“It pains me to admit it, but yes, it’s nice.” The Master was staring at you when he spoke. He was watching you as soon as you looked away. He didn’t care about the pumpkins. They were a nice addition, for a short period of time, but he couldn’t care less if they were there or not. He was just happy that you were happy. You were still observing the new additions to your environment, but if you were looking at The Master you might have seen his mask slip. You might have seen his true feelings for you, if only for a second. If only you were looking at him.

“Maybe you should keep them even after the passing of the season?” You asked hopefully. 

“Just because you got your pumpkins, that doesn’t mean you are going to get everything you want around here, Human.”

“I’m not trying to get my way -” You turned to face The Master in an attempt to defend yourself.

“Sure you aren’t.”

“It just looks nice. It fits this space. And they won’t go off, so you don’t have to worry about mould.”

“No. I’m a renegade Time Lord, not a comic book villain.” The Master said coldly as he gracefully stood from the sofa to retrieve another book.

“Just one?” The Master sighed lightheartedly at your persistence. Is this how other people felt around him when he was dead set on something? 

“Your room is your room. Do what you want with it.” You congratulated yourself on the new victory, unaware that The Master could see you out of the corner of his eye. He couldn’t help but smile but he quickly covered it up with a smirk. He didn’t know how to directly tell you his feelings, he didn’t feel confident enough in his ability to communicate how he felt. At least The Master could still flirt in his own way, though; by teasing you and riling you up and surprising you with gifts.

“But I won’t make any promises to not throw all these pumpkins into a supernova as soon as the first of December occurs in your year on Earth.” 

“Master!”

[natequarter]

we should bring the time lords back to nuwho, not to actually do anything with gallifrey, but for the unparalleled comedy which is some random time lord with no specific affiliations turning up to ruin the doctor's life for an episode and then leave. it's just not the same when the master does it

[presidentdisastraofgallifrey]

Companions Ranked by how Much the Rest of their Life was Ruined

Not included: companions who only went on one or two adventures or popped in and out of the story on their own

Also not included: Dan and Ruby (not enough info on the aftermath)

Also also not included: Mel (not to the end of her run yet) and Ace (not to her at all yet)

1. Bill: had a good time traveling but then was kept prisoner in a creepy hospital for 10 years and then turned into a cyberman so she still wins

2. Adric: blew himself up at like 15 trying to impress the Doctor, who had been a decent parental figure but then changed and was never around when he was needed and not at all supportive. Also he got tortured a lot

3. Romana: held prisoner and tortured for 20 years and then had to lead Gallifrey through some of their most chaotic episodes with no trauma support at all. To be fair that wasn’t really the Doctor’s fault, but he also didn’t offer the support she needed

4. Peri: had a terrible time traveling where he insulted her constantly and never took her discomfort seriously. Then was not just left behind she was straight up abandoned mid-adventure when she was about to be killed for science. And then she didn’t get an explanation and he didn’t come back and she had no way to get back to her own planet or time so really her only practical option was to hitch a ride from the sleazy blood thirsty warlord who wanted to marry her. And this was only supposed to be a fun 3-month trip, not even a way of life for her

5. Stephen: this isn’t really the Doctor’s fault, but the eu is awfully hard on him. He was a king and had a family only to lose a child, see the others tear the family and kingdom apart, and become a depressed hermit

6. Dodo: the eu is just as hard on her. Apparently she ends up institutionalized, interrogated by the Master, homeless, and then assassinated

7. Martha: gets points for having been completely alone in a hellscape that never happened for a year, and for having to recover from that with her family, but the rest of her life was pretty alright actually

8. Zoe: she was smart enough to realize she’d aged two years and pretty much destroyed her own life and ended up at the center of an experiment conspiracy because she was so desperate to remember

9. Clara: honestly she’s only this high because of the making the Doctor forget her bit. Being stuck dead is awful, but also she has a companion and a tardis and full run of the universe first and that’s really the only way her story could end without her actually staying dead

10. Nyssa: her life was hard but in a way she chose and she got to help people

11. Amy and Rory: It sucked being thrown back in time but they got to stay together and live out full lives

12. Sarah: she’s the type of person where regular life could never bring her joy again after everything she’d seen. Also she did pretty regularly get stalked, kidnapped, and shot, but she brought most of that on herself

13. Donna: gets some points for the initial impact of her ending where she lost all the confidence and experience she had gotten and went back to an aimless and unsatisfied life. But she did find love and have a kid and eventually get her memories back so she ended up alright

14. Susan: she’s in the middle because she did live a decently full life but she also lost her husband and son in horribly violent ways and then got drafted into a universe-wide war where a lot of people saw her as untrustworthy because her grandfather was a draft dodger

15. Rose: got trapped in an alternate dimension but like, with her mom and dead dad and eventually fake version of the guy she loved. Overall it wasn’t that bad for her

16. Jamie: he lived a fairly normal life but apparently as an old man ended up the weird guy on the edge of town that everyone thought the war had driven mad because he’d remembered the Doctor

17. Vicki: she was sort of fine, but also living that far in the ancient past had to be pretty hard on a daily basis

18. Harry: I don’t think the Doctor had really any effect on his life. He’s only this high because he did vanish fairly young

19. Tegan: by all accounts the rest of her life was completely uneventful and she hated every moment of it

20. Yaz: it was sad but in the way you know she’ll be ok and find happiness

21. Polly and Ben: their lives were kind of rough but in very normal human ways so it’s fine

22. Turlough: literally nothing ever happened to him again. I think the eu forgot he existed

23. Victoria: lived a pretty quiet and normal life

24. Jo: there are differing canons on whether or not she got divorced and how many kids she had, but she was alright

25. Graham and Ryan: they were good. They got to be each other’s family and the world’s heroes

26. Ian and Barbara: they were fine actually. I don’t even think their careers suffered

27. Liz: I think she actually ended up better off because of her association with the Doctor