#but Jack has more wibbly wobbly feelings about this | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

1ddotdhq · 3 years

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🏴‍☠️Sat 31 Oct ‘20🎃

Harry is sending out 150 Golden postcards (they appear to be numbered out of a batch of 150) from the Golden website! They all have the Amalfi Coast on the front, “You’re so Golden” written on them, and are signed, “ <3 HARRY”. Look, I thought that LOUIS had trouble with hearts, but Harry’s are, uh, somehow worse. It’s been gleefully pointed out that fans have been selling postcards for Harry’s singles for the last few months, and that Harry once again seems to be looking to us for promo ideas! Hey, if it works, it works, and if Harry wants to send me a postcard I’d LOVE it hahaha. Niall is taking a page out of Liam’s book and is rehearsing his show - which is in ONE WEEK (!) - and his band members continue to post pictures of their rehearsals. Love that! But lest you think it's a slow news day aside from Liam NO-- Zayn posted his annual halloween look!! A zelfie!!! Less elaborate than past years, maybe he's not getting enough sleep for some reason, but amazing (amazayn) nonetheless: he's angled downwards, pulling a funny face, with his freshly buzzed hair, earrings, and a Slytherin tie over a white shirt captioned, “Happy Halloween from Slytherin”. Liam’s chat when the picture dropped: “Zayn have you SLITHERED IN HERE???” Hope he enjoyed Tom and Liam's show...

And on to the main event: Liam has DONE IT AGAIN!! Despite some wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff with the event time (it started one hour and ten minutes later than planned), once Liam got started, nobody could drag him down! Lola Young, Carly Gibert, and Tom Felton were all charming openers, and, because of their very different styles, they all brought something new to the table. Then Liam, broadcasting from the London Dungeons (a spooky tourist attraction), started the show trapped in a cage (so HE’S the cage dancer this time!). The songs he chose from his own discography were ghoulish and grim and surrounding the topic of, uh, life and death. It did seem to be intentional, though, as this all led up to a moment when a masked guard led Liam out of the concert and into a bloody tribunal, where they accused him of “crimes against fashion” and “being a bad bandmate”. They had fans on zoom playing the prosecutor and defense. He was acquitted of the first crime after a fierce defense from a fan, but after a long list of joking accusations of him being mean to the other boys (it felt uncomfortably like a normal day on twitter, but Liam says no fighting about it!), the prosecutor convicted him (was I outraged?? YES! I WAS!), and the sentence was DEATH. Liam then did a bit of a costume change: he went from Jack Sparrow to ZOMBIE PIRATE, ie added some uncomfortable contacts ("guys I can't see anything").Then he came back to finish his set with Billie Eilish and 5SOS covers, and SEVERAL One Direction songs: Live While We're Young, Drag Me Down, One Thing, What A Feeling (can you believe this is only the SECOND TIME a member of 1D has performed it live? AMAZING!), and a cool personalized version of Midnight Memories (“the opening number has now become the closing number”).

And then the Afterparty!! Liam, as promised, involved MUA Abby Roberts in picking his Halloween makeup looks, the winner being a fantastically scary writing of “Liam Payne” on a fan’s face that was made to look like mottled scar tissue - UGH what an INCREDIBLE look! He also pulled up his “accusers” on zoom, told fans that it was all in good fun and to not send any hate, and admitted that he also felt bad for pantsing Harry. But, he insisted, it’s not his fault! Louis dared him to do it! And, as everyone knows, no one in that band was allowed to back down from a dare. Abby Roberts admitted to being a 1D fan - she even visited some popups! - and videographer Conor also spilled that he first met Liam at a 1D meet and greet. Liam thought this was the best thing, and reminisced about being at the very dungeon he was in ten years prior for Halloween with the (then brand new and still on the X Factor) band. A crew member then managed to scare up (heh) a picture, which was sweet and nostalgic, which was true of a lot of the show! Personally, this has been my favorite LP Show, and Liam has really raised the bar for what online shows can and should be.

Of course, like with all good parties, there was an AFTER afterparty, where he spilled some more tea! He streamed live on Tik Tok - is it time for me to concede and get a Tik Tok??? Sigh, the things I do for these boys. In his after afterparty, he answered some more questions about himself and the boys. He said he was glad to have done a show on the anniversary of the last One Direction show (sad), that he wrote several songs with Louis that have not been released, notable HideAway and even sung a bit of it: “Something in the way she moves...we just have to hide away”. He also said that he saw Harry last year at the Jingle Ball and that he had a slight American accent (“he said ‘AHND’ that way”), that his phone bill would be huge if he called Louis right now (hmmmmm), and that even if he DID call to prank him, Louis would just swear anyways, which was not what they were going for. Awwww, friendship!

#liam payne #harry styles #louis tomlinson #niall horan #zayn #guys we ROCKED OUT to this show at my place #my cat was very scared haha #also WHO WAS I for Halloween?? I WAS THE INTERN OF COURSE!#Full Costume #and im in love with liam but thats old news we knew that #what i do have to say is that i would not have wanted to be tapped by the people running the show to participate in the tribunal #that would have NOT been fun for me #also theres a rumor that i believe that Harry wrote Ariana Grandes song Obvious #and when i listen to it there is a sort of SV6 vibe that i really enjoy!#anyways!#song of the day!#Fast Car by Tracy Chapman but make it the passenger cover

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masterwords · 3 years

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The Story of a Lifetime

Notes: Written from a prompt by @unionjackpillow about Rossi feeling too old for Aaron and being pleasantly surprised to find it isn't the case. I sat on it forever trying to figure out how to do it justice and I'm not sure whether I did or not, but I did something. It's kind of chaotic in places, and the timeline is a little wibbly wobbly so my apologies. (Title comes from the song "Don't Worry" by Goo Goo Dolls.) This one goes out to all of my Hossi shippers who are sad that I keep writing Mortch/Hotchgan. I still love you! <3

Warnings: Nothing really? There is some allusion to childhood trauma/abuse, some alcohol, that's about it. This one is pretty tame.

Words: ~5k

You can read it on AO3 if you like, too!

As cigar lounges often went, the one Dave and Max found themselves seated in was dark and smoky. Hushed conversations, powerful men, almost like a secret society. They reclined in mahogany leather wing back chairs, a small round table between them displaying their scotch and a sampling of cigars they'd decided tickled their fancy. Behind them was the humidor, stocked from floor to ceiling with any cigar you could possibly want, even some that Dave used to have a guy who handled. Those days has passed. It was more convenient now, and legal of course, but he missed the intrigue, the way it felt to have a guy. Some changes were easy to adapt to, like moving from painstakingly handwriting a manuscript to using a computer, while others made Dave wonder at whether or not he was becoming a relic himself.

“You must be proud,” Max mused, reclined in his chair and Dave nodded, sipping his scotch. It had been too long since he'd had an opportunity to sit with his old friend, well over a decade if anyone was counting. They'd scheduled their meet up when news of Gideon's passing hit Ryan's radar and rescheduled it a number of times due to demands on Dave's time with the BAU. Both of them being published authors meant they occasionally crossed paths on the book tour circuits but rarely on personal time. This was, in both of their opinions, a rare treat.

“He's one hell of an agent,” Dave replied, and it was Max's turn to nod. What Max knew or didn't know about his relationship with Aaron was, at present, inconsequential. They were discussing the announcement that Aaron would be receiving the FBI Medal of Valor later that week at a gala, a medal he had argued against many times because he simply didn't think he should get special recognition for doing his job. The idea that not everyone was willing to put their own personal well-being in jeopardy for the sake of saving lives was entirely lost on Aaron, a fact that endeared him to those who knew him best and frustrated nearly everyone else.

“Does it ever feel strange? He was so young when you recruited him, and now look at him. Hell, look at all of us. You and I are old and gray, Gideon has passed on, time has certainly slipped between our fingers...”

Dave thought it a funny thing to say. Aaron was still young, at least he was young enough. He was training for a marathon with Morgan, even with the injuries he'd sustained just a couple months prior he'd managed not to miss out on his runs, only adapted them to accommodate his current abilities. He took Jack out every weekend and ran soccer drills with him until he could barely stand and he played one hell of a game of golf. No, Aaron wasn't old, but Dave had the crushing feeling that somehow he'd blinked and gotten old, much too old to be with a man like Aaron. The golf he could keep up with, but the rest he sat in the cheering section and even then he was ready for a nap just watching.

“How long has it been now, you two I mean?” Max asked, and Dave bristled a little. He wasn't sure why, maybe just the way Max had been talking about youth had gotten under his skin. It was apparent that Max had been informed of his relationship with Aaron, a fact that wasn't surprising, people loved to gossip, but not Max. The man had no tolerance for the stuff. He was barely interested in his own personal life of which there was very little to speak, exactly the way he preferred it.

“Two years,” Dave replied, swirling the liquid in his glass. He smiled in spite of himself. “Nearly as long as any of my marriages. So far so good.” Max smiled and raised his glass, a silent cheers as he veered off to the left again.

“And I understand you got a kid out of the deal?”

“Jack. He's great. Been through too much for someone so young, but then, he's been through a lot even for someone my age...” he let his voice trail off, and Max averted his eyes, not daring to touch the subject of Aaron and his loss without careful consideration of his words. Some time had passed but the wound never seemed to heal, not really and even Max knew to tread lightly.

“Is that what this Medal of Valor is about?” Max had been biting his tongue, waiting to ask. Dave just shrugged. He didn't like the question, didn't like the tone, as if Aaron didn't deserve it tenfold but he supposed it was just Max's way. His bedside manner left a lot to be desired, it was likely he meant no harm by it.

“Not exactly, at least the brass won't cop to it if it is. He's gotten himself out of it more than once, asked them to give it to someone more deserving but I suppose it was only a matter of time. We had a case in Texas a couple of months ago, there was a bomb and he was injured saving two hostages and three agents inside the building. It was the stupidest damn thing I've ever seen anyone do but I've gotta give him credit, he got it done and not even the unsub died. We spent an extra week in Texas at the hospital and he's got another month of physical therapy for his arm, at least, but we're making do and he's being rewarded for exceptional bravery in the line of duty.”

“Making up for the botched job he and Gideon did with Adrian Bale, huh? Well, good for him,” Max said, shifting in his seat. Dave overlooked the cruelty in Max's words in favor of keeping the peace. “Good for him.”

Jack was buzzing around the apartment with Aaron's cuff links cupped tight in his hand, cape flying behind him as he ran. He was almost ten and still enjoyed dressing up and playing, something Aaron took great pride in. That his son retained his youthful innocence as long as possible was of the utmost importance to him after everything he'd put the boy through. He didn't do it quite as often anymore, but when he did, Aaron couldn't help but feel the infectious happiness of a boy lost in his own world. “I got your cuplings back from Two Face, daddy!” he announced, leaping into the bathroom and revealing the prize in his sweaty palm. Aaron smiled and picked the treasures out of his son's hand, thanking him for his service.

“What would I have done without you, Batman?” he asked, pinning the cuff links in place. It was harder than it should have been, fingers slipping out of place repeatedly as he struggled to maintain pressure. He was still gaining dexterity back in his hand and the brace he had to wear didn't help matters, it pinched his wrist and pushed it painfully into a position that felt unnatural all while being assured it was helping. Still, he managed. Jack regarded the cuff links closely, eyeing the intricate markings, just barely making out a swirling letter H in the mix. “These belonged to my grandfather, your great grandfather. His father was a metal smith who made jewelry. They've been passed down, from my grandfather to my father, then to me and someday if you think you'd like it, I'll give them to you.”

“Tomorrow?!” Jack asked, grinning. Aaron smiled and shook his head. With as fast as time seemed to move these days, it might as well be tomorrow. Some days he was sure he'd wake to find Jack had gone away to college over night.

“Maybe not tomorrow, but when you're older. My father gave them to me when I was accepted to law school, along with my first real suit. I wore them when I married your mom, they're very special.” he said softly, a sweet smile gently easing the intensity of his feelings. He was cautious, never spoke ill of his father, focused on the things the man did that were worthy of admiration, kept the rest to himself.

“Does uncle Sean have cuplings too?”

Aaron regarded the question seriously, cherishing the mispronunciation. Normally he would correct the boy but he gave him a pass here, it was too sweet, his mispronounced words were few and far between anymore and by the time he had occasion to say the word again it would have naturally corrected itself, he was certain. “No, I doubt it. I don't even think uncle Sean owns a suit, but you know what he got? He got our grandfather's pocket knife. He made it himself.”

“Can I have that too?” Jack asked, and Aaron chuckled.

“I suppose you can, if uncle Sean gives it to you.”

“Oh, he will!” And Aaron thought Jack was probably right with confidence like that. From the other room they heard the door open, Jessica's warm greeting, and before Aaron knew it, Jack was dashing out of the bathroom and down the hall toward Dave in the doorway, looking just like Bruce Wayne in his tuxedo.

“Papa!” Jack called, swooping into the living room. “Do you have cuplings like daddy?”

Dave raised his eyebrow and pursed his lips, quickly working to decode the question. “Cuff links?” he asked, holding out his sleeves to show Jack his. “Like these?” Dave's were shiny, Jack noted, and looked a lot newer than his father's. He wondered why but didn't want to ask, maybe it was one of those grown up things that asking about would upset someone, he was quickly learning a lot about those sorts of things as he wandered through life. Jack touched one of Dave's cuff links, smiling.

“They're pretty,” he said before flying down the hall, back to his father in the bathroom before he missed whatever the next step in getting ready for a big fancy party was. He'd already been present for the excitement of shaving, and his father's difficult time taming his unruly bed head even with a fresh haircut, brushing his teeth, the whole nine yards. Next up, he was pretty sure, had to be the tie and he couldn't have been more excited.

Aaron listened to Dave speaking to Jessica as he looked in the mirror, adjusting his collar, fiddling with his cuff links nervously. He hated this. He thought about hosting parties in their home for politicians and holidays, fundraising events for people Aaron knew had dubious moral codes, caddying at the country club and listening to his father and their friends. These functions brought back memories he would rather let lie.

He was eight when his father brought him along to the golf course for the first time. He'd begged before that, desperately seeking something they could bond over, something he could do to make his father love him. The other boys his age carried their father's clubs, knew what each one specialized in, got fancy Italian sodas with lots of cream and umbrellas at the restaurant when they were all done. Aaron didn't mind if he didn't get the umbrellas, he was seeking the proud smile when he helped his father select his driver or his nine iron, knew the differences. He had spent hours memorizing each club, it's strengths and weaknesses, the nicknames. If his father was impressed by any of this, he never let on. Still, on the days they golfed, things were good.

“Your son is so well-behaved,” one of his friends had told him as they stood on the putting green. “He never steps out of line. You're going to need to let me in on your secrets...”

“You've got to start them young,” he would reply, winking at Aaron who just stood back with a blank stare. Start them young was code, he figured, from one old man to another. Start them young meant to strip them of their innocence, their youthful curiosity that got them into trouble, beat the enthusiasm right out of them. Start them young was code that Aaron wished he didn't understand. He handed his father his putter and stepped back, willing the ball into the hole with every fiber of his being. The better his father did, the better the trip home would be.

“How is he?” Dave asked, taking a seat on the couch beside Jessica. He'd been nervous driving over, wondering what sort of mood Aaron would be in, what he would find. Aaron hated FBI functions, avoided them as often as he could, and the fact that this particular function involved him receiving an honor and having to both hear speeches made about him as well as one he had to make, Dave thought it might just send him over the edge. They'd purposely kept it a secret that Derek had been asked to make the presentation, and he would be bringing Penelope with him. They thought it better left a surprise though Dave was feeling some regret now. Jessica just smiled and shrugged.

“Oh, he's good,” she remarked, sipping her coffee. “Jack told me he would make sure daddy was okay. That's why he's dressed as Batman.” Dave held his mug of coffee, steaming and fresh, wondering how Aaron was really doing. He had been complaining all week about this function that would zap his entire weekend, to which Dave rolled his eyes and called him dramatic. He knew what Aaron meant, he knew the man would be utterly spent by the time the night was over, drained of life for his Sunday that would inevitably involve a early morning run with Morgan followed by a tee time with lunch that they'd rescheduled the last three weekends in a row for work. Dave didn't even like golf but Aaron loved it and they would bring Jack along, let the boy caddy if he wanted to and sometimes even steer the golf cart. Mostly Jack liked to run around in the grass or lie down and poke at the bugs, and he loved the fancy dessert cart that came to their table while they ate. After lunch, soccer drills at the park with Jack's team would take up the rest of the afternoon and by the time bed time rolled around Aaron would be dead on his feet, ready to start his work week ready for a vacation. Dave had reminded him, as he rattled off the to do list for the weekend, that none of the things he had to do were unpleasant – it was all fun, with people he loved, and of course Aaron agreed but that didn't change the simple fact that it was exhausting.

Aaron breezed through the apartment moments later, desperately searching for the mug of coffee he'd set down an hour ago. “Dave,” he said, breezing by without stopping. “I'm running behind, I apologize. Make yourself at home, I should just be a few more minutes and then we can go grab the drink you promised me. Jessica, have you seen my co - “ he began, but she lifted the mug from the coffee table and handed it to him with a smirk. He accepted gratefully and swept back toward his bedroom, bow tie hanging loose around his neck.

“He seems flustered,” Dave mumbled and Jessica shrugged.

“He's fine, really. This reminds me of when we were teenagers. Dave...” Jessica said with a sudden air of wistfulness he found enchanting. “You should have seen some of the parties his parents would throw in their home or at the country club. He asked me to come with him once, when Haley was out of town with the choir. It was his family's annual Christmas party, there were actual famous people there. Maybe not really really famous, but politicians and TV personalities, people with fancy accents and dresses that cost more than my parents' car. I'd never even set foot inside of the country club, I couldn't believe he grew up like that.”

“Well,” Dave said in a hushed tone. “Smoke and mirrors, as they say.” She nodded somberly. Supposed she shouldn't be romanticizing the parties the way she did, but they had been the most extravagant and incredible things she'd ever experienced. Aaron would invite she and Haley, and they would dress up and eat the hor d'oeuvres and Aaron would name all of the really important people and she would watch his parents parade him around meeting everyone, networking, getting letters of recommendation for his college applications, and then they would leave, go find the nanny with Sean and take him outside and Aaron would run around in the grass in his dress clothes tossing Sean through the air, tackling him to the ground.

“I suppose they had everyone fooled, huh?” she asked, biting her lip. Dave nodded and sipped his coffee.

“People like that usually do.”

“They threw a party for him when the acceptance letters started rolling in, this big extravagant graduation party and celebration and they expected him to announce which school he'd chosen. Of course he didn't want to do any of it, classic Aaron. It was the talk of the town, and just before the party he got strep throat. He could barely talk, he was so sick and his mother refused to reschedule the party because family was flying in and the country club was booked out for months, so his father got one of the doctors in town to prescribe all sorts of things, this insane cocktail of medications – steroids and pain killers and Haley was so upset, she told him not to take any of it, to stay home and in bed but you know Aaron. He'd made the commitment already, so he took the whole mess of medications, it really messed him up. He chose George Washington University because they offered him a full ride which just pissed his father off because he'd wanted his son to go to Georgetown, said the money didn't matter, it was where the whole family went, it was a big deal. Didn't go over well. Not a great party.” She let her voice trail off for a moment and sighed.

“Talking about anyone I know?” Aaron asked, standing behind them as they gossiped on the couch. They hadn't realized he'd entered the room, apologized but he just smiled and shrugged it off. Dave thought he looked younger then, his eyes had a light he hadn't seen in years and he became acutely aware of his own age in contrast. That decade of life between them, usually inconsequential, suddenly felt insurmountable, like he was lying in a coffin.

Jessica watched Aaron in the kitchen, washing his hands and preparing a snack for Jack in his tuxedo and she thought about all of the invitations she'd stacked up for him to sort through, fundraising parties for political candidates and holidays and country clubs, and she knew they all ended up in the trash. His father would have attended as many as he could, eager to make his name known, and here Aaron was tossing them aside in favor of Friday pizza nights, Saturday morning cartoons and Sunday runs in the park. Strauss had told him many times he needed to make more of an effort to attend them, he was going to sabotage his own upward trajectory if he didn't get himself out there – he'd come into the FBI so strong, made a name for himself, gotten himself on everyone's radar and then settled himself in too deep when he joined the BAU. He liked the BAU, though, it had become home, he'd found a family, and he had no more real desire to rise higher. The work he did made him feel something, it was worthwhile and he already attended too many meetings as it were. There was an occasional acceptance, one he knew he couldn't brush off, maybe one that would be beneficial to him or his team in the long run if he just showed up and made the rounds, but he wouldn't prioritize his own name or ambitions anymore. That was a younger man's game, he'd lost too much to ambition. What he still had kept him honest, kept him home and if he had to let his tuxedo sit unused in his closet to work through hours of soccer drills or pitch the same fastball over and over again instead of attending some fancy party he was happy to do it.

Dave lost himself in thought while Jack ate and Aaron put the finishing touches on the speech he'd prepared. He glanced in the mirror, looked at at the graying hair at his temples, the crows feet, glad his goatee covered the depth of his smile lines. He looked old. He was old. Dave thought about the way Max spoke, as if they already had one foot in the grave, thought of Gideon waiting in the great beyond for him and he sighed miserably.

In his tuxedo, Aaron stood before the mirror, a final look before the night began. He raised his hands, a soft grimace passing over his features as he lifted his injured arm to adjust his bow tie and for just a split second he saw his father staring back at him. It was the briefest moment, the way his brow knitted and his mouth set in a grim pained line, stopping his heart as if he'd seen a ghost and then he glanced down at Jack beaming by his side and he softened, smiled. The smile broke the spell, his father became nothing but a memory and he reached down, patting Jack on the head.

“Your arm hurts?” Jack asked, watching with curiosity as Aaron grabbed his sling and slipped it over his head. He nodded, pushing his arm inside, feeling an instant relief from the tension in his shoulder.

“Yeah, buddy,” he whispered, adjusting the length of the straps and settling his sore arm in place. There was an ache from his shoulder to his fingertips, one that woke him early in the morning and didn't let up all day, a new pain, a constant companion he was getting used to. He was assured repeatedly that it would just take some time, healing takes time, but he was never an optimist. “I'm okay though.”

“I'm sorry we don't have time for a drink,” Aaron murmured, sliding into Dave's backseat. He felt ridiculous, pompous for arriving in such a stylish vehicle with a driver behind the wheel, nevertheless Dave had insisted there was no other way. Dave just shrugged and kept to himself on his side of the seat, wondering whether Aaron's running late had been somehow purposeful. He was feeling very morose all of a sudden, considering whether Aaron actually wanted him to be there, he'd been quiet and avoiding all contact for the majority of the afternoon. He took a deep breath, ready to ask Aaron if he'd rather attend the ceremony on his own when he felt his phone buzz in his pocket.

“ROSSI!” came Emily's voice, a full glass of wine in her hand on the small phone screen. “Are you guys coming?!” He saw JJ and Will lean in, and Spencer popped up between them grinning. Their faces filled the screen and brought a smile to his lips. They were in his home, probably hunting through all of his cabinets and drawers while he wasn't there to stop them. The thought didn't bother him as much as it might others, he hoped they found something that gave them pause. It would make for a fun story.

“We're running late, sorry Emily,” Dave said softly and he watched as Aaron's face fell, he hadn't realized the drink they were supposed to get was with their friends. “Don't go too wild and maybe we'll see you lot afterward huh?”

“Take pictures! A lot of pictures!” JJ called into the phone, as if she had to yell. Aaron smiled. He felt blindsided at seeing Emily's face, he hadn't realized she would be there, that they would have flown her all the way from London for the occasion. He should have known, but these sorts of things, shows of love from his team, never ceased to amaze him.

“I'm sure the bureau has that taken care of,” he said softly. “I apologize for taking so long to get ready. I didn't realize,” he started and Emily made a snorting noise and laughed. JJ burst out in laughter at the sound Emily made, Spencer giggling behind them. Dave wondered whether Aaron was suspicious at Derek and Penelope's absence, but if he was he said nothing.

“It was a surprise you donkey, of course you didn't realize. Geeze...lighten up! You're getting a freaking medal tonight!”

“Slow down,” Aaron replied, rolling his eyes. He was glad they were happy for him, that they thought he somehow deserved this medal, but he felt like he was just going through the motions. His team deserved it as much as he did, if not more, and the only reason he had acquiesced to accepting the medal was simply that he thought of it as a team effort. It didn't belong to him, it belonged to them. As they arrived at the museum, Dave excused them from the call and stepped into the crisp night air, extending his hand to help Aaron out of the vehicle.

The ceremony began, twenty people in all being honored and Aaron found himself right in the middle. He and Dave sat at their table, sipping their martinis and smiling and clapping for their colleagues, each of whom they knew deserved the honors bestowed. When the ushers came through to pull Aaron from his table, take him to the edge of the stage for his presentation, he gave Dave a soft, nervous smile and followed. He watched intently as Derek was called to the stage, as Penelope slid up beside Aaron and the look of surprise and horror spread over his features when he realized what was happening. That he was a seasoned profiler and hadn't put it together already made Dave feel momentarily proud of himself and their team. They weren't known for keeping secrets. Dave just smiled and pulled out his phone, started taking discreet photos and sending them to the team's group chat.

Derek's speech was heartfelt, it was funny and lively and sweet and brought more than one tear to Dave's eye as he recorded it. “When I was asked to present this medal, I gotta say...I got a little choked up. Y'know? I've been working with this jerk for too damn long I guess. I started thinking about how many offers I've gotten all over the country to run FBI Field Offices, tons...it's tons guys, you all want me. But you know, one big reason I've said no? This guy. Right here. I love the BAU, and I'm proud to call him my Unit Chief, I can't imagine going anywhere else. More importantly, I'm proud to call him my friend.”

When Aaron felt Penelope's hand on his shoulder, against his better judgment he glanced over at her and saw the tears streaming down her cheeks. The the grin on her face lit up the entire room. He'd been biting his lip, holding the flood of emotion back until he saw her, until he felt her hand, and suddenly his eyes burned with tears of their own and he stepped out onto the stage. Derek took his hand, shook it and smiled, and they nodded at each other with tears in their eyes before Derek handed him the medal and pulled him into a tight hug.

“I love you, man,” Derek whispered and Aaron just nodded. He couldn't have spoken then if he tried. “You better not blow off the after party, you hear me?”

Aaron nodded again, wiping the tears from his eyes. “Wouldn't dream of it,” he croaked, and Derek grinned and sauntered off the stage into the waiting arms of his date. Aaron sucked in a deep breath and stared out at the crowd of people, the wind having been completely knocked out of him. He apologized, said he'd had a great speech all prepared and ready, made a joke about being a lawyer and talking, but became somber when he spoke about how much it meant to him to hear Derek's words. He slid back into his groove after another moment, commanded the room with a speech about his team, the fact that he wouldn't be standing there now if it weren't for them repeatedly saving his life. By the end of the speech, he had everyone in tears and he got some small satisfaction knowing he wasn't the only one who couldn't seem to make the tears stop.

“You've been quiet tonight,” Aaron said softly, leaning toward Dave as someone snapped a photo of them beside the vehicle on their way to their little BAU after party at Dave's house. Dave just smiled and shrugged. “What is it Dave? I'm supposed to be the quiet one, not you.”

“It's nothing, Aaron,” Dave said with a soft smile. Aaron reached out and grabbed Dave's hand, pulling him to the side, just before the driver opened their door. With a careful glance around, taking stock of just who it was they were in eye shot of, he leaned in and surprised Dave with a kiss. Not just a peck on the cheek, a real kiss, the kind that sucked the air from his lungs and made his knees feel weak. When he stepped back, Aaron's eyes were wide, soft and sweetly pleading with him to smile, to be happy.

“Thank you for coming with me,” he whispered. “I couldn't have done any of this without you.” Dave felt a weight lift off of his shoulders. As they slid into the backseat of his vehicle, he finally stopped thinking about how old he was, whether Aaron cared about the age difference, knew he was being a silly old man. The kiss had wiped the slate clean and left him with only one thing on his mind – well, two: obtaining another martini and how to get more of those kisses.

#criminal minds #fanfiction #aaron hotchner #david rossi #derek morgan #jessica brooks #emily prentiss #jennifer jj jareau #spencer reid #hossi #tw abuse #tw alcohol #penelope garcia

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letmetellyouaboutmyfeels · 4 years

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(can you do #33 garcy pls)

Oh ho ho this is a great one! From the post September Prompts, number #33:

“Tear off the mask. Your face is glorious.”

Flynn found her reading on the couch again.

She was always up late at night, reading, studying, making notes. Trying to stay a step ahead of the enemy. Flynn understood. He had been the same for years, pouring over her journal, getting ready to steal the Lifeboat, and then afterwards, trying to stay ahead of Rittenhouse and the Time Team. Trying to keep ahead of her.

“Lucy.”

She looked up, saw the hot coco in his hand, and smiled. She was smiling at him more and more recently, and he coveted each one, like shiny pebbles he’d collected as a child and kept in a small cedar box on top of his dresser. “What, no coffee?”

“Not this time.” She didn’t need more caffeine. She needed to sleep.

He passed her the hot coco and settled on the far end of the couch, watching as she sipped it with one hand and flipped through a book with the other. Lucy clung to her independence, her sense of self, and now that he knew about her mother he understood why. And being in this bunker would drive anyone to fiercely carve out what individuality they could, when the rest of their life was no longer theirs. But he did wish that she would let herself be taken care of, sometimes. She was always so busy taking care of everyone else.

“How are you doing?” he asked. Things had been… interesting, lately, to say the least. Saving Rufus, and dealing with the wibbly-wobbly ball of timey-wimey nonsense that had resulted. Dealing with Rittenhouse now that Emma was in charge. Dealing with a Jessica who might or might not be defecting to their side and Wyatt’s understandable near-constant panic over the whole situation. Not that Flynn had too much sympathy, but he’d been a father once. He could relate.

You say you can’t be a father again but you can! You can!

Lucy sipped at her coco. “Oh. I’m fine. Tired, but so’s everyone.”

Flynn glanced around the empty space. “I don’t see anyone else up this late.”

“Rufus and Jiya might be up.”

“What Rufus and Jiya do in bed is very different from what you’re doing right now.” For one thing, more endorphins. For another, less stress.

Lucy made a note in her book. “Someone has to do this.”

“But it doesn’t always have to be you, and it doesn’t have to be all the time.”

Lucy looked up at him through her lashes, a move that he would have called coquettish if her gaze hadn’t been so piercing. “You don’t have to look out for me.”

“You’re right,” he conceded. “But someone has to. Anytime someone else wants to step up and do it they can let me know. But last I checked, everyone was a bit too fine with letting you do all the heavy historical lifting.”

“That’s not fair.” Lucy closed the book. “Rufus was dead, Jiya was trapped in the past, Wyatt–”

“Don’t talk to me,” Flynn said quietly, “about what the others are going through. We’re all going through something, Lucy. I’m going through something.” His grief had become manageable, an almost acceptable part of him, but that didn’t mean it had vanished. “But you’re going through something too.”

Lucy looked away, her cheeks pink.

He didn’t want just the pretty Lucy Preston, the competent Lucy Preston, the strong and put-together Lucy Preston, although he loved her strength, her fire, her knowledge. He wanted the angry, messy, furious, jagged-edged Lucy. He wanted her to be herself, even if in some moments that self was ugly.

They all had moments where they were ugly.

“Tear off the mask,” Flynn said quietly. “Your face is glorious.”

She looked up at him. “What’s that from?”

“A poem from the 17th century. I am born of the Sun. By Rumi. Your heart may be as cold as stone but I will warm it with my raging fire.” Flynn paused, a memory rising up in his throat. “It was my mother’s favorite poem. My father used to recite it to her. It was in his wedding vows.”

“That sounds lovely.”

“It was. They were.” Both taken too soon from him. His father before his mother, which was the cruelest of tricks, because Maria Flynn had already lost so much.

“You know, I could say the same to you,” Lucy told him. “You could… drop the sarcasm, for once. Drop the sass and the… the everything else you carry around like some kind of shield. Don’t think that I don’t notice. When was the last time you really let someone in?”

“São Paulo,” he shot back quietly. “You?”

Lucy set the book and coco aside, and for a moment he was afraid he’d overstepped, gotten too rough, shown his own jagged edges and cut her. “Every time I start to,” Lucy whispered, “they leave. Amy disappeared. My mom became this woman I could no longer… she wasn’t the mother I knew. Wyatt picked Jess–which he should have, I’m not saying he should’ve done it differently but–and then he made this big mess of it–and Rufus, we got him back but… he died.” She looked up at him. “Why would I take it off, Flynn? The mask is all anyone wants from me.”

His voice was rough, a rasp. “I don’t want anything from you except what you want to give. If that’s your mask, then fine. But I think you’ll be happier if you let yourself… be yourself. I saw you, in that bar, I saw your face. And it was… you were…”

He couldn’t say it, wasn’t even sure what it was he was going to say, and he looked away, feeling a coward.

“Were we something?” Lucy asked. He looked up. “In my journal. Were we something?”

“For a time,” he conceded. He’d held that back from her for long enough.

“What changed?”

Part of him wanted to lie. You chose someone else. I wasn’t what you wanted. But he owed her the truth after all he had, accidentally or not, put her through. “I died.”

Lucy looked like an invisible force had pushed her back slightly, and she stared at him with a slightly paler face. “Oh.”

“Gettysburg.” The journal didn’t go into details. It had been too painful for the other Lucy to write about. That was around the time the mantra started: we have to go back. We have to go back. We have to go back. Like Jack Torrance.

Lucy looked down at her hands. “Oh,” she said again.

He expected her to ask more questions, about how they got together, maybe, or about what he did when he first read the journal, but Lucy… Lucy didn’t ask him anything. Instead she carefully crawled across the couch, over her papers and books, and delicately, almost like a cat, settled herself in his lap.

Flynn felt like he was made of glass, like one touch would shatter him. “Lucy…”

“You said, what I wanted to give,” Lucy whispered.

Her lips were warm, and soft, and just a little bit demanding. And she made a very appreciative noise when he gingerly allowed his hands to settle at her waist. When she turned her head to kiss his jaw, he caught the faint scent of strawberries.

“I want to give this,” she admitted, the words sunk into the space between them.

Flynn looked up at her, at her eyes that were dark and endless as time. “May I… be permitted to give back?”

The corner of her mouth quirked upwards. “If you take off your mask.”

He at last allowed his arms to slide around her properly, settling her more firmly against him. “Deal.”

Her mouth sealed over his so quickly, he spoke half the word against her tongue.

#mads answers things #garcy #garcy fanfic #timeless #timeless fanfic #li'l ficlet #this turned out soft soft soft #my loves my loves my loves my loves my loves my loves my loves #my absolute darlings #they make me ache because I love them so #they deserve a soft epilogue dammit #also look at how Asher and Maria snuck a few feels in there #how dare they #I hope you like this nonny!#mads writes stuff

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takaraphoenix · 4 years

Note

Dr who for the ask game

Thanks for playing! This is also a big, fun one! :O (I do love that the majority of these asks hit target on my own biggest obsessions x3 We checked off like all the live action shows at this point, I think, the only things left are anime/animated xDDD)

Again with a cut due to the sheer size. ^^°°°

Top 5 favourite characters: CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS, Martha Jones, Donna Noble, The Doctor, Yasmin Kahn

Other characters you like: Rory Williams Pond, Graham O’Brien, Mickey Smith, Bill Potts, Sarah Jane Smith, Craig Owens

Least favourite characters: Rose Tyler by a landslide

Otps: not realy any actual OTPs but ships I guess I’m fond of would be Vasta/Jenny and Rory/Amy

Notps: every ship involving the Doctor, because I just honestly find it weird and uncomfortable to look at the Doctor as a romantic or even worse yet sexual being, but most of all Doctor/Rose and Doctor/River, also Jack/Ianto

Favourite friendships: I am living for the current team dynamic, 13-Yaz-Graham-Ryan are really good but my forever favorite is the Doctor and Jack, also the best team-up was the Doctor with Donna and Martha, that was perfect

Favourite family: THE FAM! 13′s team

Favourite episodes:oooh mmh, I do have multiple favorites, so let’s do this!

Blink: it is such a good episode, there was a time I just popped that one in when I had 40 minutes to waste

Utopia/The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords: for me personally, this is where Doctor Who peaked. My absolute favorite storyline and episodes and team-up - my favorite Doctor with BOTH my favorite companions in an episode with my favorite Master as the enemy. Amazing. There was a time when I would regularly rewatch this, just these three

Turn Left/The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End:Suuuch a satisfying conclusion for a four series plotline, all of the companions coming together like that? It was so good

The Lodger & Closing Time: I love Craig and I love how these two episodes switch things up!

Favourite season/book/movie: Rather obviously, series 3 - the return of Jack, the series where Martha is the companion, a series with my favorite Doctor and four of my favorite episodes in it!

Favourite quotes:THE ANGELS HAVE THE PHONE BOX! xD And the wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff! I got that one on a necklace even! *laughs*

Best musical moment: uuurgh the soundtrack of this show is actually so good? I listened to it on a loop for years. Series 3 and 4 being my favorites, they make you feel things, man.

Moment that made you fangirl/boy the hardest: Just this series when Jack returned. And let me elaborate to just convey how hard I fangirled at that, because it wasn’t just “oh a fave!”.

You see, Jack is... kind of why I’m here? I watched the first series with my mother back when it started airing in Germany. But they kind of... stopped dubbing it and it stopped airing in Germany and eh, I was okay with it because this show seemed weird like they just switched out the actor of the MAIN CHARACTER who does that what the fuck and I really liked Jack but he was gone now too so oh well.

However, then I read online about how Jack was in series 3. So... I went online and Doctor Who is genuinely the first TV show I ever watched in English, because I wanted to see Jack but there was no dub.

Then series 3 ended and both Jack and Martha left and I was very meh because I remembered that this is the show that constantly replaces its whole cast.

You can probably guess what happened next, but Jack was in the finale of series 4. So I went back into Doctor Who, rewatched what there has been so far all the way up to the series 4 finale - and that was when I was sold, because holy shit even with the switching of companions, they just bring them back! They just brought them all back! That was such a good pay-off.

Ironically, that was when I actually stuck around and started watching the show in real time instead of waiting for the next Jack appearance to bring me back from hibernation. Ironically because - well, that was the last we saw of anyone. (Aside from 10 in the 50 year special.)

That hard, hard cut from 10 to 11, no return of any companions...

Needless to say that when 12 came and went with no care for anything pre-11, I kind of... came to accept that this was it. Especially when they announced yet another hard cut - as in Moffat would finally be replaced and with the new era, both a new Doctor and new companions - I was so sure we’d never get to see anyone from the old crew again.

So when, after literally ten years, Jack Harkness returned and was so... so... Jack, I made the loudest, most unholy sound and the excitement of them actually acknowledging that he would be back for more and he would be there when the Doctor needs him? Tears of joy.

(but aso pls #LetMarthaMeet13 okay? Okay)

When it really disappointed you:YOU’RE MAKING A 50 YEAR ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL. YOU HAVE SOOO MANY GOOD COMPANIONS. BUT. BUT YOU BRING NONE OF THEM BACK. ONLY ROSE TYLER’S FACE. OF ALL OF THE FACES. OF EVERYONE I COULD HAVE SEEN AGAIN IN THAT SPECIAL, IT HAD TO BE BILLIE PIPER’S MEDIOCRE ACTING. REALLY? REALLY??

Saddest moment: When 10 regenerated

Most well done character death: Surprisingly enough, this show makes me care even about the one episode characters to the degree that I find their deaths frustrating. It’s pretty good at character deaths overall

Favourite guest star: Does Craig Owens count? Because he only had two appearances in total. And the second one was genuinely a surprise to me; I was sure that The Lodger would be a stand-alone, never to be seen again kind of deal

Favourite cast member: John Barrowman! David Tennant! Freema Agyeman! I love all three of them and seeing them in other things always makes me really happy!

Character you wish was still alive: I mean, Bill. Can you imagine if the lesbian companion had gotten to meet 13?? Death :D

One thing you hope really happens: Martha. I mean, come on. Jack is back, Jack warned the Doctor, promised to be there when needed. There’s no way Jack lost contact with Martha and Mickey, even with those two off in space fighting aliens alone. I’d love for this... very, very big plotline that is currently happening to include the Doctor’s old friends coming back once more to help.

Most shocking twist: I mean... I mean it’s gotta be this series’ Surprise Origin Story. Like, I still can’t quite comprehend that one.

When did you start watching/reading?: As mentioned above, when it first started airing in Germany

Best animal/creature: Does the TARDIS count as a creature? Because then Sexy wins!

Favourite location: THE TARDIS. I wish they’d show it more often just casually. I wanna see the companions hang out in there, I wanna see their rooms, see that indoor pool and stuff

Trope you wish they would stop using: "OH NO THE DALEKS ARE STILL ALIVE AFTER THE LAST TIME I TRIED GENOCIDE ON THEM *gasp*”... Like. The very first time they brought them “back from the dead”, it was really cool because as a newbie you never met them before but you get they are important. Then they were wiped out. And then they returned again. And okay, sure. So they were wiped out again. And miraculously survied again.

Look, I get it. Doctor Who has three recurring entities in the villain gallery who are like... obligatory - the Master, the Daleks and the Cybermen. But for the love of everything, stop trying to show it as a “surprise twist” that the bad guy is a Dalek like we all knew they’re coming they’re the cockroaches of the universe, they ALWAYS surprise, stop acting like we should be shocked that they’re back again.

Every time, the Doctor goes Pikachu meme but with sad eyes and like just... have the Doctor groan, kick a Dalek and go “not you again”, instead of “how did you POSSIBLY survive THIS? :O” because after the sixth miracuous survival of a genocide, it stops being a surprise twist... -_-

One thing this show/book/film does better than others: Clearly something, because it has me come back for more like a masochist despite me being a character-driven viewer - me, abandoning the show after the first series was very in character, because I’m attached to characters and if you routinely replace all the characters, that’s... not really my thing. Somehow, this show defies the odds there

Funniest moments: JACK FLIRTING WITH PEOPLE AND THE DOCTOR GOING “NO STOP THAT!” xDDD

Couple you would like to see: NONE. NO ROMANCE. KEEP THAT SHIT OUT OF MY DW!!! Urgh. Just give me fun found family space adventures. I swear ever since the cast announcement I have had a twitchy eyebrow waiting if they’ll push for Ryan/Yaz and so far I am sooo glad they are NOT. I just... want friendship and space adventures, no fucking romance. At all. Not with the Doctor, not between companions. No drama

Actor/Actress you want to join the cast: ...to stay in character, I have to say Dominic Sherwood. Partially because I am obsessed with him, but also because I WANNA HEAR HIS BRITISH ACCENT FOR A WHOLE ASS SERIES PLEASE

I would also like to see the return of James Marsters though. Time Heist teased by showing his face and acknowledging his existence in Doctor Who (it’s not like DW has acknowledged a whole lot of Torchwood canon so far, considering the catastrophic events TW has dealt with without the Doctor...), so that had me kind of hopeful he may at least cameo for an episode...

Favourite outfit: I looove Martha’s red leather jacket and Jack’s coat

Favourite item: The chameleon device

Do you own anything related to this show/book/film?: *clears throat awkwardly* ...Yes?

a metro card holder thingy with the TARDIS on it,

an I pin I have on my pencil case,

a necklace with a miniature TARDIS,

a necklace with the wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey quote in a swirl on it,

a necklace with a Weeping Angel pendant,

a mug with the 10th Doctor as a cat on it,

a lanyard with Police Call Box written all over and a miniature TARDIS dangling on it

a TARDIS dress,

a whoosh-sound making door opening TARDIS with size-fitting figures of the 10th Doctor, Jack, Martha, K9, Idris, 11, Rory and John Hart (it’s James Marsters’ pretty face, okay?),

a Funko Pop 10th Doctor,

another TARDIS but this one is smaller and can’t open,

a larger TARDIS that can open (and is the right size for my Doctor Whooves),

a Doctor Whooves (if that counts since he’s technically My Little Pony but also he’s the Doctor so like...),

a TARDIS-blue stuffed owl with Police Owl written on it,

the first four series on DVD,

a poster from the 50th Anniversary with the War Doctor walking away from an explosion and 10 and 11 on either side of him,

a pocket watch that is the chameleon device

What house/team/group/friendship group/family/race etc would you be in?: Mmmh I would like to be on the current team the most, I think? Generally speaking, their adventures were less intense than most others and I dig the family vibe

Most boring plotline: Boring, huh? There are always a couple stinkers, at least one in each series, but a really boring plotline was... Clara’s post-Impossible-Girl one. I LOVED her as the Impossible Girl, she was so interesting and I think that after she went into the Doctor’s timeline, the character should have been retired. Have her, I don’t know, dissolve there, since she is spread out through time. But that she stuck around was... not good, for her character? Her love drama with Danny was incredibly boring and not fun to watch (especially when she tried to kill the Doctor :D)

Most laughably bad moment: THAT FUCKING MOON EPISODE. THE FUCKING EPISODE WHERE THE FUCKING MOON TURNED INTO A FUCKING EGG AND AN ALIEN HATCHED TO THEN LAY A NEW MOON EGG IMMEDIATELY AFTER BEING BORN AND HUMANS JUST FUCKING SHRUGGED THAT SHIT OFF. Urgh. There are a lot of cringey things happening on this show, but this takes by far the crown. It was so stupid, so dumb, so ridiculous

Best flashback/flashfoward if any: Every time we learn more about the Doctor’s past *^*

Most layered character: I... I mean the Doctor. So many layers, so many lives, so many years

Most one dimensional character:Mh, this is harder... Among the not one-episode-off characters? I guess Nardole. Like, sure, good guy, but... not really all that deep that one

Scariest moment: Blink with the Weeping Angels. They lost A LOT of their scariness the more they were used - Moffat really overused them, in my opinion; they would have done better only appearing very rarely. But that first episode with them was just daaamn

Grossest moment: Cassandra?? Woman only made of skin?

Best looking male: CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS

Best looking female: MARTHA JONES

Who you’re crushing on (if any): Martha Jones

Favourite cast moment: John and David being cute behind the scenes is always amazing, but the bes moment is definitely the 500 Miles video!

Favourite transportation: The TARDIS, that’s not even a question!

Most beautiful scene (scenery/shot wise): Whenever we get to see (not destroyed) Gallifrey? It’s so gorgeous??

Unanswered question/continuity issue/plot error that bugs you:SO MANY AFTER THAT LAST SERIES. But also things like: Where did Clara fuck off to in her flying diner? What exactly is Jack doing now that there is no Torchwood anymore? How in the world did Torchwood ever even work like how was the Doctor just never around during these gigantic problems?? WHO WAS THE DOCTOR’S FIRST WIFE? And what was the Doctor’s child like? Because the only one ever even mentioned is the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan, but a granddaughter implies one more generation between. WHERE IS JENNY? Since she is also the Doctor’s daughter but also just fucked off into space and like why is she not trying to track her parent down??

Best promo: I mean, it clearly works when they show me Jack’s face so that’d be it for me :D”

At what point did you fall in love with this show/book: At the series 4 finale, as above more elaborately explained

IN DEPTH FANDOM QUESTIONS

#Doctor Who #In-Depth Fandom Ask Game #send me asks #fantasylover16

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uozlulu · 4 years

Text

Doctor Who "Spyfall Part 2" reaction and spoilers.

I’m glad that we’re seeing the companions on the plane at the same time as the Doctor in the strange alien synapse-like place because it reassures us that while everything we know might not be accurate, at least the Doctor didn’t dream up her companions.

Ada sounds like she’s experiencing astral projection or maybe alien abduction, which in fairness if the Master is involved it is indeed an alien abduction of sorts.

The downside to the Doctor being in alien synapse land is the electricity effects really. Doctor Who is more fun when I can actually look at the screen.

”This is my guardian,” sounds ominous.

”You told me everything was foolproof.” It’s the Master. The Master is a fool. So I suppose this is proofed by fool more than fool proofed.

The Doctor is now in 1834 and it’s like you can hear the TARDIS screaming internally already.

Oh good. The Master is here. I mean this both literally and sarcastically as always, which is why I love the Master.

I know that a lot of people are sad that the Master is like this despite everything Missy went through but honestly I would be shocked if any of that stuck. I feel like the Master’s narrative purpose is to show the audience how much trouble we could be in if the Doctor hadn’t looked at humanity and gone, “I love them.” Like if the Master were to come to terms with humanity and treat them as equals, then the Master would lose their narrative function. So, I think from the Master’s perspective (provided of course the multiple Earths last episode wasn’t an indication that he’s an AU version who’s lost his own Doctor and thus transplanted himself into continuity to fill the void Missy left behind), he’s tried being good, it was an interesting experience. Now he’s ready to do something more fun because life is too boring otherwise.

”You’re not in control of those creatures.” AU or not, the Master is still the Master. I’m surprised the Doctor didn’t see this fact coming from miles away. I love how gleefully smug her face gets about this too.

I mean he might have told her to kneel and call him Master, but really he’s probably here to bring her back to the present because he’s screwed up (yet again).

Frankly the ability of people to track me is one of the many reasons I keep my phone off 99% of the time.

Ah, multiple time periods not multiple earths. So Master is our Master, which is good to know.

This place Graham, Ryan, and Yaz are hiding reminds me a bit of the place Ten, Martha, and Jack were hiding during the Saxon stuff

I’m not sure how I feel about the Master in a Nazi uniform. Like he tends to be evil but mundane things like businessmen, politicians, cult leaders, etc… Also, there’s something a bit dubious about putting Dhawan in a Nazi uniform especially given the rise in neo-Nazism globally in the modern era. Now I admit that I’m not sure about western Asians in Nazi Germany, but I do know black people in Nazi Germany had to follow the Nuremburg laws though they were not rounded up in masse and taken to camps and eastern Asians were considered “honorary” Aryans. That said, it’s likely both parts of “Spyfall” were written before Dhawan was cast, but again, it does kind of bring up questions as to why they wanted to put the Master in a Nazi uniform regardless of who played him. I mean like, to me, again the Master narratively is a foil to the Doctor when it comes to humanity, so it seems like instead of picking sides in a human vs. human conflict, he would create his own conflict. Although I’ve not seen what he does in the extended universe so who knows. I just know it’s kind of throwing me out of the episode a bit here.

I do like that they are in 1940’s Paris, hopefully it will get people thinking and learning about World War Ii beyond what’s taught in school

I’m glad they’re doing telepathy without flicking the image to indicate it’s happening like they used to do in Classic Who especially if the Doctor was being telepathic with other forms of the Doctor.

”Where?” the Master asks like he’s forgotten how utterly dramatic the Doctor is. Of course they’re going to meet atop the Eifel Tower.

Oh good. The Master has suggested a better plan. No wonder he both thinks he wants the Doctor out of the way but isn’t actually getting the Doctor out of the way.

The Master does have a point. When does the Doctor pay attention to him unless he does something awful. Might also explain why the Master had to resume being the Doctor’s foil after Missy’s arc as well since there was no point to continuing to be less evil if the Doctor wasn’t going to even acknowledge it, which in turn would make things boring, which in turns leads to the Master seeking out ways to make things more fun.

Maybe Galifrey destroyed itself if the Master is telling the truth, which I’m inclined to think he is, which might have kicked off his need to screw with the Doctor to deal with discovering Galifrey ate itself whole. Or maybe the alien that was after the Doctor last series visited Galifrey and burnt it to the ground. That is also possible. If the Master is telling the truth of course.

I like that the Master was forced to live time linearly on Earth for the last like 77 years because the Doctor screwed with his TARDIS.

I like that this Master story ends with the Doctor giving the Master his just desserts because it underscores how dangerous the Doctor is after the Master shows us how dangerous the Doctor could be if the Doctor saw humanity the way he does.

Noor asks, “The fascists – do they win?” and the Doctor says, “Never, as long as there are people like you,” and that is very true and I do like this message despite the uniform debacle earlier.

While I’m glad that this means Dhawan!Master will be back later, I am not sure how I feel about this turn of events. I suppose this is why they put him in the Nazi uniform earlier. At the same time, I suppose given the manipulation of the drums, something like this plot was possibly inevitable considering it does kind of fit with IRL revenge we see in the news from time to time. I am curious though how we get from Missy to Dhawan’s Master. If that is how this goes. I mean it is possible, given that we’ve never really known any of the Master’s incarnations before Delgado that this is a bit wibbly wobbly. Hopefully we’ll gain insight into how this fits as this larger arc takes shape.

”Questions?” is so sharp, so maybe anxious.

Well, that went places I didn’t expect it to go and places I’m not sure how I feel about them. We’ll see how it goes. Hopefully it’ll all work itself out in a way that makes this two parter make more sense.

#reaction post #doctor who reaction posts #long post #i'm watching spyfall part 2 #wtf wtf wtf #doctor who spoilers #doctor who #i don't know what to tag this #ymmv

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pandoraborn · 4 years

Text

As promised, the flash to the past drabble of how Henrik came to meet the others!

This is at a time before they met Jack, they just know each other through forces beyond their control. And they know something’s up, and it leads to automatic trust and feelings of safety. Enjoy!

-----

It’s busy at the hospital. Henrik’s frazzled, feeling the strain of needing to be everywhere at once. He hates being so new at this hospital, when he can barely speak English, and everyone around him is rapidly speaking in terms and jargon he himself is learning. Or trying to learn, being more accurate.

He’d rather be performing surgeries and helping people, but since the hospital today is understaffed, he’d been shuffled over into caring for people with broken bones. There had been a lot of kids and teenagers coming in with broken fingers, wrists and ankles, and Henrik had barely been able to understand any of their parents. Less so, when said parents started screeching at him when he couldn’t respond to questions fast enough. It had taken a lot of self control for Henrik to keep his own cool.

One short lunch break later, and Henrik is looking over the records of his next patient. Some young man, only a few years younger than him, probably around twenty or so. Someone named Chase. Henrik lets out a heavy sigh, fully expecting this one to be a problem patient. There’s no picture attached, but his records say this Chase has been in and out of the hospital before for numerous broken bones.

Henrik’s not exactly looking forward to meeting him, but at least this one isn’t a child. Maybe this Chase will be more patient with Henrik’s stunted English.

He walks into the room and stops. The man on the table looks like a frat boy straight out of an American movie, with a baseball cap, pierced ears, ripped jeans, and a shirt that looks three sizes too big. He’s wearing a smarmy grin and…

Looks almost identical to Henrik.

He’d heard of doppelgangers before. Henrik had even heard that there were people who looked like him, all brought together by one person and some...some sort of magic, though Henrik had never thought too deeply about it. He’d always written it off as myth and rumor; it was unlikely he’d meet his ‘twins’ anyway. He never could properly explain this to Elisabeth, and every time he’d tried had always sparked a small argument.

But here, now?

“Holy shit,” the patient says, with a thick Irish accent. “Marvin wasn’t kidding when he said there was another one.” He laughs, taking off his hat. “What a coincidence, huh? The new doc at this place is another ego.”

“What is...er…” Henrik blinks slowly as he paces around the room, studying Chase up and down. “What is ego?” He pokes Chase’s arm, confirming for himself that this was real. “How did I know you existed?”

“We all know about each other,” Chase says. “Something, something, wibbly wobbly timey-wimey stuff. Marvin has more information, he’s magic.”

“Magic?” Henrik sets the file down on the countertop before pulling the stool up to the table. “You’re here because leg, ja?”

“Magic,” Chase says with a nod. “Real magic.” He waves his hands around, pretending to cast a spell. “Magician. Real charmer, you’d probably love him. Also, yeah. I broke my leg skateboarding. I think it’s my knee? I dunno, it all hurts.”

“Slow down,” Henrik quips automatically. He tenderly reaches out to grab Chase’s ankle. “I am in...surprise. I heard, but did not believe. My wife…”

“Oh, yeah.” Chase shrugs. “I don’t know how to explain it all either. All I know is that we’re someone’s creations. Like, in another world, or timeline, or some shit, I don’t know. I don’t think about it too hard. My fiancee doesn’t wanna think about it either.”

“Will I meet more?”

“Yeah! Actually, Jackie’s here with me. He’s out in the waiting room. After I get a cast, I can introduce the two of you. He’s a great guy, best friend anyone could ask for. You’d love him. Hey, since you’re one of us, can I call you by your first name?”

“My first name? Oh. It is Henrik.” He grins uncertainly at Chase. “Is...okay?”

“Yeah! I’m Chase. Nice to officially meet you, Henrik. I have a feeling we’re gonna be the best of friends.”

“Ja, it is good.” Henrik relaxes then, feeling far safer and more comfortable than he’d ever been in his life.

#writersofjack #doctor schneep #chase brody #fluff #first meetings #flash to the past #miishae writes #long post

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shellheadtmarc · 5 years

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actually, because i really need to finish my new theme and need new verse blurbs, here’s a more in depth look at my current/in-use verses, with links to full writeups as available.

mcu: this is boilerplate. i’m a canon tony, this is a canon verse. follows the events from iron man through infinity war for the moment, including the tie-in comics iron man 2: public identity, iron man 2: agents of shield, iron man: the coming of the melter, iron man 3 prelude, marvel’s avengers: age of ultron prelude - the scepter’d isle, marvel’s captain america: civil war prelude infinite, marvel’s avengers: infinity war prelude, and marvel’s avengers: endgame prelude. also includes the post-iron man 3 short about the mandarin. everything not covered/discussed in mcu canon is plugged with 616 continuity canon.

616: what it says on the tin. covers most of the runs from about 2008-present, including the new tony stark: iron man, against my greater judgment, though that may change in the future if it keeps tanking in story. in reality, this actually covers everything post-heroes reborn, but to make it simple we’ll say it’s wibbly wobbly because comics. also includes heavy snippets still in play from classic invincible iron man.

classic: from his first appearances in tales of suspense up to the inception of heroes reborn. or, if you prefer, original flavor tony stark, the cool suave businessman with the aloof nature, party boy ways, and injured heart, reliant on his rechargeable chest piece, as he also has a double identity as the golden avenger known as iron man. poses as his own bodyguard. jetsetter. people love or hate him, but most want to be him. if only they knew how much his bum ticker isolated him. a ton of fridged girlfriends. later physical ailments include: paralysis from the waist down. degenerative nervous system. a cranky ticker more than you can shake a stick at. literally dying and being cryogenically frozen.

616 meets mcu: this covers any time comicverse tony is thrown at mcu versions of the people he knows. things to note include being taller. he has blue eyes. his tech is more advanced. his speech patterns differ heavily. recovering alcoholic, coffee is fine no matter how shitty it is. he has more years as a superhero under his belt at this point. his fears and points of stress differ from mcu tony’s quite a bit, and his reactions are different. he and pepper are barely on speaking terms (generously speaking). he’s different, and it’s obvious he’s different.

broke: mcu-based verse that includes corporate espionage and tony stark having to keep his head down and learning to live under the table paycheck to under the table paycheck until he can muster what he needs to make a frontal assault on regaining what’s rightly his. a verse where tony’s at his absolute lowest, still determined to retain the phoenix metaphor and rise from the ashes of the misfortune thrust upon him.

superior iron man: hiding the fact that he’s still under the scarlet witch’s inversion spell, tony goes full tilt diva, his main concerns being money, power, and fame. he starts drinking again. he makes san francisco his own personal big brother state, where he watches the city like a hawk by day while shilling extremis as a beauty enhancer, and parties like it’s 1999 at his new home on alcatraz island by night. is still iron man, as long as there’s something in it for him. will partially be at fault for the destruction of the 616 universe (it gets better).

hypervelocity: tony’s attacked in his own lab by the mind-emulationware mechs known as “beautiful garbage”, and his newest iteration of the iron man suit forced an upload or a copy of his brain patterns to get him out of there. the wetware is damaged, and the suit dumps it before it bleeds out in the suit cavity, and thus that suit, with the ability to walk, talk, and think exactly like tony stark (albeit full of bugs) is born, to unravel the mystery of the attack and attempt to stop the emulation program that caused it.

ai: after being punched into a literal coma during a battle with captain marvel/carol danvers over the fate of miles morales and concerning an inhuman by the name of odysseus’s increasingly violent visions of the future, and with even hank mccoy being afraid to even draw blood on tony after seeing what tony’s been doing to himself over the years, tony’s ai comes online, as a mentor to riri williams/ironheart and to help against the clone captain america with those of the mount. he’s twice as sassy with quadruple the processing speed, and he’s got some weird feelings about being the recreated consciousness of a living person suddenly finding itself with no physical body.

noir: a businessman who likes to play adventurer for a men’s magazine, along with his best friend james rhodes and their new reporter pepper potts, writing under a male pseudonym, tony stark on the surface has it all in the late 1930s. beautiful women, exciting adventures, and loads of money. but all it does is hide his desperate search for a cure for his dying heart, as he’s forced to wear a metal chest piece that has to be charged frequently to even keep himself alive.

director of shield: mcu-based version of tony’s time as the director of shield. after everything that occurs after captain america: the winter soldier, and the fall of shield, an attempt is made to resurrect it with tony stark at the helm as fury’s replacement (hand-picked). he stresses transparency, he stresses equality, and most of all, he just wants to find a way to balance being iron man with having to deal with the day-to-day bullshit of international bureaucracy.

sorcerer supreme: based on the 90s “what if?” one shot comic. tony was the cause of the accident that injured stephen strange’s hands, and, feeling supremely guilty about the entire thing, searches for ways to give stephen his dexterity and life back. it leads him to becoming the sorcerer supreme, despite that inherent dislike of magic he has, and he combines the iron man technology with the mystical forces he gains a hold over in that quest for a cure.

guardians of the galaxy: mcu flavor for tony’s time as an active gotg. after civil war, on a break with pepper, and feeling about as great about things as someone laying facedown in a gutter possibly can, tony puts his mobile armory into space, tinkers together a suit for deep space exploration, and takes off, losing himself for a while among the stars. threat is going to come from there, sure, but there’s going to be opportunity, as well. it’s a useful thing to find out who’s friend, and who’s foe, and see what there is to see in the black expanses of space.

supernatural: the other family business. being a founder of shield and everything he took to his grave wasn’t the only secret he was keeping, and this was one maria was in on as well. too bad tony doesn’t stumble across it until after he’s already become iron man, where saving the world is so tied into his moral code he can’t look away. if he goes missing for a few days, it’s fine, it’s chill. he’s just taking a breather, not poking around at things he only still half-believes in even when he’s seen them with his own two eyes. the biggest skeptic hunter you’ll ever meet.

fallout prewar: mcu continuity up to the beginning of iron man 3, against fallout’s prewar as a backdrop. tony stark is who he is, he does what he does, but he also is someone certain government agencies would love to tear down, because he’s a rabble rouser against the war, and has no problem hogging the iron man technology for himself instead of sharing with the military. he also has no problem sharing the dirty secrets he finds out with the press. full write up can be found here.

fallout new vegas: tony as the infamous courier six. left in stasis in a vault in california, tony comes to years and years after the devastation of the bombs to a world vastly changed from the one he remembers, and in a vault full of ghouls. once topside, and once reoriented into the world, he ends up something of a jack of all trades until he takes that fateful job with the mojave express, and gets two to the head for his trouble. independent path with the yes-man aligned ending, details of choices and all dlcs available as needed until i get off my ass and do a full replaythrough and write up. keeps the spine from big mt, but his heart and brain are back where they belong. locked elijah in the vault. nuke launch stopped (ed-e repaired after). evacuated the sorrows.

fallout 4 sole survivor: still needs a full write up, but tony as the sole survivor. does not take the shock at the change in the world well at first. eventually pulls his shit together enough to get shit done, but can’t touch a suit, can’t think about the suit, will take some time to even toy with the idea of possibly touching a suit again before he actually can. minutemen and railroad aligned, destroys the bos and institute. peaceful ending with all far harbor factions. spares the mechanist. destroys the raiders at nuka world and turns the parks over to the minutemen. question information as needed until i get a full write up done.

fallout 4 companion: tony’s been in new york since the bombs dropped. there are huge chunks of it that are still uninhabitable, much like boston’s glowing sea, but the parts that are? he’s started on a grand rebuilding project, because he’s got nothing but time: the arc reactor’s kept his heart pumping well past its expiration date. when the bos slow rolls past new york, he follows them into boston, mostly because he’s paranoid and cagey (with good reason in the wasteland) and partially out of curiosity. available as a companion for sole survivors, some restrictions apply, please see this write up for more details.

fallout 76 dweller: locked up with a bunch of other big brains after the bombs, tony’s that guy. you know. the one you read about in the terminal. the one that kept hacking things. once topside again, he sheds that vault tec blue and yellow as quickly as he can and sees about setting things right. a member of the responders. a mole in [redacted]. fire breather. rebuilding the world has to start somewhere, so it might as well be west virginia.

dwemer: the last surviving dwemer, finally peeking his head out of his lab in its pocket plane of oblivion to find the nords are at it again, dragons are still doing their thing, his people have just flat out vanished, and that skyrim is still cold as balls. often gets mistaken as a very tall bosmer. still calls the dunmer the chimer out of sheer smartassedness. swung on rolf in windhelm and ends up in jail more times than you can shake a stick at.

single parent au: handed off a baby under some shady as hell circumstances, unable to find out anything and secretly glad he can’t find out anything about her in the end, tony pulls some strings and sophie stark ends up hitting the jackpot as far as adoptive parents go. tony had thought just being iron man was hard, but now he’s balancing ballet practice and pta meetings with saving the world.

#⚛ (array: verse info)#long post

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precise-magic · 5 years

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ENDGAME KILLED ME

Okay, so I'm just gonna rant and yall ain't gotta read jack squat. this is for me to find in a couple of years and hate myself for ;)

WHAT THE FUCKITY FUCK FUCK WAS UP WITH NAT DYING LIKE AND TONY DESERVED SO MUCH BETTER AND STEVE WENT BACK TO PEGGY AND TONY AND HOWARD AND LOKI LOKI LOKI LOKI LOKI LOKI LOKI LOKI LOKI

Okay. One thing at a time

I was a little bitch and found it online first, and then went to go see it in the theaters cause I had to work opening weekend and Spoilers are a botch. also, I knew i would be crying a lot and so I was able to pause it while I was at home so its fine don't worry about it.

But like.

the opening, with Clint, teaching his daughter to shoot a bow, and then his family dying. I was crying. weeping. wasn’t sobbing yet.

tony and nebula playing paper football was great. thank you. like we got to see tony and nebula interact and nebula was stiff and awkward but not trying to kill Tony and Tony totally let her win and I love him for it. so much. I'm crying again. it's fine.

!!!!!!!!!!!!! rocket and nebula holding hands was so sweet!! it really shows you how upset they are cause of !!!!!!!!!!! yeah and nebula lost her sister, and then the rest of the Avengers. she failed.she couldn't even avenge her sister. and rocket. lost Groot once? and now it's even more painful. and he lost the rest of the guardians. and they only have each other now and I'm going to die

tony saying “I lost the kid” came into my house and shot me point blank in the chest

Tony yelling at Steve and throwing a fit was not what I expected and it upset me cause it was like watching your parents argue before the divorce. but yeah he was justified i believe.

Carol showing up was great and i loved her and Thor interacting!!

The first 20 minutes came into my house and shot me in the head cause that’s not how i was expecting this movie to go and I love it

Thanos destroying the stones. it makes sense now but before i saw the movie i never would’ve thought of it!!!

A rat saves the universe. Okay but how did strange know that the rat would do it like??? time magic wibbly wobbly stuff i guess

Also scott being the one to come up with the plan!! Love it!! ANd poor cassie!!

TONY STARK HAS A DAUGHTER! SHES ADORABLE AND ID KILL FOR HER TBH

I WANNA SEE MORGAN AND PETER INTERACT OKAY BYE

I’m trying to remember the order it happened like?? its so much but im not complaining!!!

yeah just time travel. not what i was expecting

OKAY SO

Steve, scott, and tony go back to 2012-the first avengers movie. Loki gets the Tesseract, and he disappears. that prompts tony seeing his dad and steve seeing peggy in 1970

but

Thor and rocket go to The Dark World movie. who cares what year. but it’s after 2012-the avengers. YOU SEE LOKI THERE. how? why? did they explain it and i missed it? is loki going to pop back up somehwere? I’m confused? is loki going to end up alive like gamora did? its past gamora brought into the present? its past loki brought into the future by him not being on that ship when thanos comes for the tesseract? how does the dark world happen w/o loki? how does Ragnorok happen? I am confusion. time travel logic confuses me unless its back to the future time travel logic.

Okay so the hulk. I’m cool with this development, I feel like the last movies with the hulk were leading up to this and it wasn't just hastily written into canon unlike somethings *cough* clint’s family in Age of Ultron *cough cough* what with the hulk leaving in age of Ultron and then him Ragnarok and his character in infinity war

my dad, on the other hand, is not going to be happy. I already texted him. He’s not happy with me

Okay so the ancient one already knew about strange??? like?? But then it leaves her and bruce not fighting and she’s like, “ well he must’ve had a reason” and i respect that

also the wizards fighting in 2012 was wrapped up in a nice little bow

steve fighting steve was great

steve being a smart cookie and saying “hail hydra” was neat but now the hydra dude are going to be confusion? and poor past steve, he has to fight himself and he heard “bucky is alive” hell think it was a joke and then when bucky is alive the guilt;’( i would feel guilty anyways) also i expect lots and lots of fanfic for me to read about steve finding bucky faster

Tony getting to talk to his dad!! Im so happy!! It s so great!! if only he got to see his kid again before he died!!

natasha... and clint.... i....

i watched the first avengers movie when i was aboutttt 10? i remember seeing nat kick ass. I loved their interactions. I . I knew she was going to be the one to die. i knew as soon as i saw them and only them there. the writers weren’t going to kill clint cause he was trying to get his family back nad they already established that the avengers was nat’s family. i cried then. im crying now. but seeing thise two genuinely willing to die so the other didn't?? that’s some good shit you can @ me if you like. and i dont feel like it took away from nat’s character. did tony’s sacrifice take away from his? no. no it didn’t i just wish that there had at least been clint lighting a candle for her at the end of the movie. some form of recognition. but thats what fics are for i guess

also her words were “see yall in a sec” or smthg like that before they all went into the past and im not okay

this ended up being longer than i intened.... im not even finished yet... ill just hit the high highlights from here on out

loki. love him. can’t wait to see more him

they really hyped up captain marvel wayyyyyy too much for my taste but she’s still badass and i love her

the peter and tony hug i was very grateful for but at that moment i knew tony was going to die. and so i cried twice as hard

pepperoni being the strongest they’ve ever been and I'm fucking here for it

or well i was...

steve wielding thor’s hammer (i cant spell, sue me) was great and i was happy all the way Up until his shield broke

tony’s funeral as really well done. the arc reactor pepper gave to tony, Harley being there, everyone being there. it was good. i cried. really loud. so yeah. his hologram. he fucking planned for dying so im not okay

also strange and the whole “if i tell you it won’t happen” what did that mean? that if he tells tony that tony will die he won’t snap??? uhhh sounds fake but okay marvel

peter is so going to have a shit ton of nightmares from when he was hugging the gauntlet on the ground and then the badass ladies coming to save him

great scene by the way 9/10. would be 10/10 but no Natasha

i wanna see harley and peter interact and be great big brothers to morgan

Steve going back in time was some utter fucking bullshit. that deserves it’s own rambling post from me so watch out for that mess i’ll post at a later date

all in all(that wasn’t everything I assure you I'm just tired)

I loved the movie. It didn’t let me down like Age of Ultron did. It seemed, to me anyways, to have fewer comedy moments than many of the earlier movies which is to be expected. I did not see the plot line with the time travel and the five year time skip though. I was not expecting that at all. thoroughly enjoyed it though, cause I had no expectations on what was going to happen. They kept dead/present! gamora dead but replaced her with past! gamora which im cool with i want more sisterly bonding with her and nebula and i can’t wait to see her and quill interact again. no bringing nat back, which i would’ve felt cheap if they had tried. like she sacrificed herself so clint could be with his family. if they could’ve just brought back whoever had died, it takes the weight away from the decision and cheapens her death. same with tony’s. i hate it so fucking much but the symbolism and the poetics ending of him anwsering thanos’s “I am inevitable” at the end of the film (which past-in-the-present him parroted from past present him the beginning of the film) with “I am Iron man” from the first film I just.... fucking died and ascended. my body left my soul... I lovedit. And the parallels with peter and him and peter died last time, tony died this time. Im not crying, you are. and yeah..

I hated it so much. But they did it really well. and pepper told him he could rest now.

Basically. It was a great movie. was it perfect? no. but what movie is? This movie was great and you can fight me on it thank you and good night <3

#endgame #avengers endgame #avengers endgame spoilers #endgame spoilers #end me pls #spoilers

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teamrealitystanza9 · 3 years

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Doctor Who: Dalek Attack

SO! MANY! WORDS!

Check under the read more for this super in depth ride description love! [ written by the brilliant Pi on my Cake featuring art by the sharpie queen Tegan pilots a chicken]<3

~Loading Platform/Ride System~

Guests exit the TARDIS and enter into the cargo bay of a Dalek spaceship.

This serves as the loading station for the ride. Guests go forward and see Team Members in Torchwood Institute uniforms here to help them into the ride vehicles. [ The Torchwood Institute is a team of alien hunters and paranormal investigators based in Cardiff. They have helped the Doctor a few times before. ] The ride is a mini-EMV style system similar to Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Although both for capacity reasons and to add more motion/rotation, the ride vehicles are a bit larger. One other difference from Pooh is the use of showstops throughout to increase the ride time and enhance the experience.

Visually, they look like Daleks. The story reason for this is that we are using the shells of old, broken Daleks to be able to sneak through the ship undetected.

~Scene 1~

Guests begin their journey by being almost immediately stopped by a Dalek. The vehicles rotate to face the imposing, yet simple animatronic figure.

“HALT! THE DALEK SHIP IS ON FULL LOCKDOWN! ALL DALEKS MUST BE SCANNED!” - Dalek Guard

The Eleventh Doctor’s voice can be heard over a radio assuring us that the shells we are riding in will pass any scan. The Dalek’s weapon begins to charge as if he is about to shoot.

“Well, in theory they can pass any scan.” - The Doctor

“SCAN COMPLETE! CONTINUE ON, FELLOW DALEK! MORE GUARDS ARE NEEDED TO WATCH THE PRISONER AND THE ULTIMATE EXTERMINATOR!” - Dalek Guard

“Ultimate Exterminator? Don’t like the sound of that. But let’s focus on finding me first.” - The Doctor

~Scene 2~

Guests then continue on through the foreboding ship. A few other Daleks can be seen standing guard. Weapons seem to follow us.

This appears to be an armory of some sorts. Decommissioned Dalek shells broken down and scrapped for parts mixed in with new weapons and GunSticks [ the little laser doodads that Daleks have. ] This is a quiet scene. A calm before the storm. But tension is rising and seeing the Dalek armory raises the tension and establishes just how dangerous they can be.

~Scene 3~

Next is the Dalek Prison Block. Most of the cells are empty since Daleks don’t typically take prisoners. But we do see the 10th Doctor in a cell!

This is another showstop as our vehicles park in front of a large screen showing the 10th Doctor.

“Sending the calvary in repurposed old Dalek shells, brilliant! I am one smart fellow! Well, I will be one smart fellow. Well, I am one smart fellow and my future regeneration will be too. You know what, you all get the gist. Open this cell we have work to do.” - 10th Doctor

The cell opens up and The 10th Doctor steps out holding out the Sonic Screwdriver to scan the room.

“Now, the Daleks have some sort of super weapon and I’m gonna need some back up. One smart fellow is great, but two! That’s when things get crazy. Of course, the calculations required for two versions of myself to exist in the same time and place take a very long time. But if I start now I should be done in…” - 10th Doctor

The ride vehicles turn around to face a different screen where a TARDIS is appearing. As it is appearing, the Eleventh Doctor’s voice can be heard.

“...137 years, 2 months, 4 days, 7 hours, 6 minutes, and 42 seconds. Hello, me. Long time no see.” - The Eleventh Doctor

~Scene 4~

Alarms start to blare! Dalek troops are everywhere [ optical illusions and screens are used to make this section of the ride look much larger and much more full of Dalek. ] We see the two Doctors going around on the screens outsmarting and tricking Daleks to save us. It can be stuff as simple as basic pranks [ like the 10th Doctor tapping a Dalek on it’s right “shoulder” when really he’s on the left side ] to more aggressive stuff [ like the 11th Doctor knocking a lubricant on the floor and “This is Sparta” kicking a Dalek down down the slippery hall. ]

This scene is pure fun crazy chaos and absolutely captures the spirit of light-hearted, epic adventures that make Doctor Who so great!

~Scene 5~

Next we enter the room with the Ultimate Exterminator! A giant Dalek Super Weapon! Both Doctors are standing nearby gloating and exchanging some fun, cocky banter. This is another showstop in front of a large screen. They explain that the reason they captured the 10th Doctor was that they wanted to use the Temporal Energy generated by Timelords to power the weapon. But what they don’t understand is that time isn’t linear, but actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.

Since time isn’t simple and linear, anything using it as a power source can have that power taken away. A weapon made for explosions, can instead cause an implosion! All they need to do is reverse the polarity of the neutron flow!

This whole scene works as an homage to the technobable filled inspirational hero speeches the Doctor is known for!

Guests then follow a glowing pipe towards the engine of the Ultimate Exterminator.

~Scene 6~

As we head towards the engine for another show stop in front of a large screen, we see it already pulsing with energy and getting ready to implode!

Suddenly there is a big blast and wind blows through the room! A hole was blown in the wall of the ship! Daleks are seen flying out into space and the ride vehicles use it’s motion base to simulate the feeling of trying to hold on!

“Allons-y!” - 10th Doctor

“Geronimo!” - 11th Doctor

The scene quickly becomes a short simulator type sequence as we get sucked out into space! Daleks out in the void with us as well as a lot of debris. We see the TARDIS flying around in the distance. Although as we get a bit further from the ship things start to slow down leading to another slower scene.

~Scene 7~

This scene has a bit of peaceful stillness as everyone is calmly floating out in space. Lights line the room creating a beautiful starfield. A miniature of the wrecked Dalek ship is here creating the optical illusion of it being off in the distance. A couple of Dalek figures are floating in space [ the supports are hidden in the darkness. ]

The peacefulness is interrupted by the Eleventh Doctor’s voice over the radio.

“Beautiful, isn’t it? I’ve been travelling through here for a thousand years and the sight of the stars still hasn’t gotten old.” - 11th Doctor

The sound of the Doctor’s voice alerts a nearby Dalek that was aimlessly floating out in space. It starts to flail and panic and shoots it’s laser wildly hoping to “EXTERMINATE” the Doctor!

With a flash of light and a sudden jerking motion from the vehicle, it seems like the guests were hit! The vehicles start spinning as they careen into the next room!

~Scene 8~

This scene uses a speed tunnel effect [ basically a wrap around projection tunnel ] like Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. This allows the guests to be surrounded by a high speed space battle and hurtle through the stars as Daleks try to EXTERMINATE them! The vehicles are turned backwards here to help add to the chaos and excitement of this sequence.

Among the space debris flying by during this scene on the projections, Jmmy Neutron’s ship and George Jetsons’s ship can be seen as Easter Eggs to the past inhabitants of this showbuilding.

After a bit, the star projections give way to a time warp tunnel! With two TARDISes flying through it! The Doctors rescued us and we are now warping safely back to earth!

~Scene 9~

Guests then head to one final show stop facing the TARDIS in an alley behind the museum that served as the queue. The door opens and behind it is a screen with the Eleventh Doctor standing in the doorway here to say goodbye.

“You’ve done splendidly. Absolutely breathtakingly fantastic. Fantastic. Faaaannnntttaasstic. It sounds weirder when I say that then when I said it. Oh well. Point is, you did an amazing job and you saved a lot of people. Now, go treat yourself! You earned something special. Maybe get a nice fez. Fezzes are cool.” - The 11th Doctor

The TARDIS then disappears [ What we saw was just a Pepper’s Ghost reflection, so making it disappear is easy. ] After that, guests head towards the unload station which continues the alley theming. The voice of beloved Doctor Who side character and star of the Torchwood spin off, Captain Jack Harkness, comes over the radio.

“Before you head home, me and my buddies at Torchwood wanna check in with you. Just a quick debrief and you can be on your way. And I’m a master at debriefing.” - Jack Harkness ;)

This short message sets up the story for the gift shop and gives a nice segue for guests exiting the ride and heading to the store.

#long post

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galleywinter · 7 years

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In hopes that just getting things “out there” will help loosen some stuff up, I’m going to talk about my SWTOR characters because they’re mostly interconnected. As I’ve mentioned before, this is a shitton of Wibbly-Wobbly-Timey-Wimey and ignoring of canon timelines herein. Primarily, as I’ve also mentioned, because they gave me a family tree. I used it, I set everyone up, and only after I’d done so and these people had personalities and a story did I realize how interconnected each of the class stories are. Oops. But there’s also no going back now. So, @depizan and any of my other followers who are timeline and lore sticklers (which would also, admittedly, normally include myself), feel free to turn away now.

Family descriptions behind the Read More.

First there’s the matriarch of the crew: my Smuggler Aneliese Marguess (whether that’s her actual last name or one she made up for a job and particularly likes and thus continues to use, no one knows). Aneliese is the youngest of my PC crew, aged roughly 19 at the start of the Smuggler’s story. She’s a hot-shot, high-flying, cocky thing. And also damned good at her job. She is light-sided and loyal to the Republic, but she’s also a smuggler and so long as it doesn’t involve spice, slaves, or anything detrimental to the Republic (or the little guy), she’s usually got a price. As she goes through the story and essentially grows up, that price gets harder and harder to name. Corso’s influence rubbing off on her also didn’t help. Once I instituted the Wibbly-Wobbly precept, she became a contemporary of (and friends with) Hylo Visz and was herself known for being a bit of a blockade breaker, though nothing quite on Hylo’s scale.

Then come Aneliese and Corso’s girls.

First are the twins, Junaid and Caerwen.

Then there’s Maccolla (who prefers ‘Mac’)

And then there’s Aislyne.

When not on runs with their parents, all of their daughters were primarily raised on Ord Mantell, before the Separatist fighting got quite so bad (The W-W precept has the rumblings of separatism and the first few serious engagements starting in Corso’s childhood, but not coming to a full head until the girls are old enough to be contemporary with vanilla content. As the twins were actually my first characters in the game ever, they do largely - for the most part with perhaps some time dilation and a bit of date sliding - fit into vanilla content as it occurs. Mostly. Sort of.).

Once the twins were of age, they decided to enlist in the Republic army.

Junaid is SpecForce, dedicated and driven, but perhaps a bit too soft at times. She’d much rather give someone a chance to see the error of their ways, and she believes (perhaps a bit too much) in the Republic’s justice system and would always always rather bring someone in for trial than summarily execute them. She ends up falling in love with (and marrying) a Mirialan Consular, and they end up having twin girls of their own.

Caerwen is SpecForce, Havoc Squad. Like her twin, she’s dedicated and driven, but she’s also got that certain extra edge that made her well-suited for Havoc. Limits are nothing more than suggestions to Caerwen. She’s snarky and cocky and so self-assured it’s a wonder she hasn’t been court martialed for how often she ignores Garza’s direct orders if she feels those orders are immoral and/or unjust. However, she has no problem putting someone down like a dog if she feels they need it. She happily marries Aric Jorgan, and eventually they put down roots in Alderaan where they raise their small family of adopted war orphans.

Mac is my unexpected darling. I rolled up a Bounty Hunter specifically because the idea of romancing a Power Ranger made me giggle. And then I fell in love with her and I fell in love with Torian, and I fell in love with how they love each other, and here we are. So, really, blame Mac. I’ve written about Mac in some serious depth before, but short sweet summary is this: she’s a Hunter because she figured it was the best way to make a difference that didn’t involve going military. She figured that was the best way to take out Sith because Sith infighting means other Sith would be the ones placing the contracts. She didn’t mean to become Mando at first until Hedaar Soongh changed her mind. She falls in love with Torian - completely unexpectedly - and eventually convinces him that maybe his father had been right after all. They move to Rishi and have more children than any Mandalorian really should - seven in all - and have close ties to Clan Viszla and Torch herself.

Aislyne is a Consular. Sort of. She went to the Temple for training and to learn who to use her Force aptitude to its fullest, but she never quite fit. She couldn’t reconcile the Order’s teachings about emotions and attachment leading to the Dark Side when she grew up in such a large, supportive family and knew so many people who were still good. Compassionate, clever, and with a complete allergy to inaction, she tries her best to be a good Jedi, really she does, but she ends up falling in love with a Zabrak Knight. Things go a bit sideways for them both, but they eventually right it and have one child.

Sloane is my problem child at the moment. Sloane’s had a bit of a ride. She started life as “Jaeyca” once upon a yesteryear - I had no knowledge of Jaesa Willsaam when I rolled her up and didn’t think anything of it when that spelling was unavailable. I played her all the way through, and then decided that I liked her and her story enough to want to write it and FRAPS it (which I hadn’t done), and so she got a minor makeover and a name change to Kinsleigh. Except when I went to play her, I didn’t feel like the name fit her. There was a lot of frustration involved in yet another rename primarily because I was working within an extant culture - Mandalorian, where most of the names are based on Celtic names, which was also where the culture was initially drawn from - and with an extant last name: Cadera. So what I picked had to be of Celtic influence and sound good with Cadera. When I finally found “Sloane”, I was thrilled. But, of course, Sloane was taken on my server. Thank God, though, for the fact SWTOR lets you give your characters two names. Emrys Sloane is her official name, but she definitely goes by Sloane.

So now let me tell you about her.

Sloane and her twin brother, Aedhon, are Mac and Torian’s firstborn. Sloane and Aedhon are Force-using, but they aren’t Jedi. When Mac and Torian realized their twins could use the Force, it just brought home in one more way how good a decision “defecting” was. If they’d still been allied with the Empire, their children would have been forced into the Sith Academy. While the Jedi were no less likely to try to convince Mac and Torian to forfeit the twins to the Order, at least they wouldn’t outright kidnap the children as the Sith would have. And living on Rishi, where Jedi didn’t often come, didn’t hurt. Between their aunts and uncles, Sloane and Aedhon learned to use the Force and to master it instead of it mastering them. Thanks to their parents and Clan Viszla, they grew up Mandalorian and using the Force to deadly effect. Sloane knows she would make a terrible Jedi and doesn’t even try to be one. Being Jedi is so anathema to being Mandalorian that it’s practically inconceivable to her. Sloane is sure-footed in who she is, rooted in her heritage and with her parents and siblings. She’s cocky and headstrong and loyal to a near fault. She also falls completely, unexpectedly in love with Theron Shan. She’s my Outlander, and I do think that story is actually hers for me. I think. (As opposed to my characters who have run it, but for whom I know it isn’t “canon”. BUT THE ROMANCE CONTENT IS TOO GOOD TO PASS UP I AM A TOTAL JUNKY AND I ADMIT IT.) Eventually, she and Theron marry and have two boys, one of whom can use the Force (and holy crap the story for when Satele tries to get them to give him over to the Order is actually sort of epic and wonderful in my head.)

And that’s the bare bones of it at the moment. Sloane and Theron were the ones giving me pings the other day, and I can still sort of get pings off them today if I try. I just...look, I’ll admit it: the Star Wars fandom sort of scares me. And so much of this Legacy is already timeline breaking, and Sloane...I’m pretty sure her existence, even without the jacked up timeline, is lore breaking, and I’m just scared.

but i love her too much to ignore her.

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timeflies1007-blog · 5 years

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Doctor Who Reviews from a Female Doctor, Season 3, p. 3

Please note: these reviews contain spoilers for multiple seasons of the reboot, and occasional references to events from the classic series.

Blink: This is an extraordinarily good story, possibly the best individual plotline of any Who episode. I wouldn’t consider it the best episode of all time, as some do, because the focus on single-episode characters prevents it from having the kind of emotional impact that we get in episodes centered on the Doctor and companion. Still, it’s a thrilling story about the sheer possibilities—both exhilarating and terrifying—that are attached to the presence of time travel. Like many of Moffat’s scripts, there is an extraordinarily large number of pieces to the story, but watching them fit together is never burdensome and is consistently delightful, thanks in part to the introduction of a captivating new monster. Most of the attention given to this episode has been devoted to the Angels themselves, who are indeed extraordinarily creepy villains. The quantum-locked statues are great in themselves, and even better in the effect that they have on other characters. Having to avoid blinking in order to ward off attack is a perfect horror-story rule, and the prospect of being suddenly sent back to a different time is convincingly terrifying. The gradual advancement of the Angels, who get closer and scarier every time someone looks away, is wonderfully directed—there’s something marvelously frightening about seeing their before and after pose but not seeing them actually move.

To me, though, the spookiest pieces of the episode don’t involve the Angels themselves but rather the fragments of writing and speech that help Sally to piece the plot together. The literal writing on the wall that opens the episode is fabulously creepy, and the DVD Easter eggs are even better. The Doctor’s efforts to bring about his own rescue through these Easter eggs, sparking lots of analysis in internet forums, is an appropriately nerdy premise for the show, and I love the bits of those forum discussions that we hear about from Larry. He’s a pretty underwritten character, but I can’t dislike anyone who puts “The Angels have the phone box” on a T-shirt. Sally’s initial “conversation” with the Doctor is already fascinating in terms of how the dialogue lines up, but when she watches it again, says different things, and the Doctor’s lines still work in response, it’s pretty mind-blowing, so lots of credit to Moffat for figuring out how to make that work. The whole concept of the Doctor reading from a transcript of a conversation that he’s still having is both a brilliant piece of plotting and an interesting opportunity to think about how free will fits into the idea of time travel. Sally is clearly making choices throughout the episode, and yet everything is unfolding according to the script that the Doctor put together based on Sally’s own notes—the time travel dimension pretty much makes sense of everything, but it’s still a tremendous shakeup of how we usually envision cause and effect.

The characters themselves generally work pretty well. Sally’s relationship with Larry is never convincingly developed—and, really, neither is Larry himself—but she’s a vibrant and engaging presence, aided by the abilities of a not-yet-famous Carey Mulligan. She has more than enough charisma to carry an episode that features very little David Tennant, and while she’s smart and capable, the script avoids making her into an implausibly good character. She’s fun and adventurous, but also a bit pretentious—particularly in her observation that sadness is “happiness for deep people”—and she has a sort of self-serving tendency to push other people into her dangerous adventures. It’s difficult to tell how much of the character’s charm stems from the writing, and how much is just Mulligan’s impeccable screen presence, but whatever the reason, Sally is one of the show’s most memorable single-episode characters. The Doctor makes the most of his small amount of screen time: “Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey” is rightfully one of the most famous lines of the reboot, and I also enjoy his flurried reference to the need to deal with “four things and a lizard.” I don’t like that even in an episode that has very little Doctor and even less Martha, we still have time for how uncomfortable their relationship is. He practically shoves her out of the shot when she tries to be in the video, and I don’t really understand why she is supporting him. (It’s the 1960s, she’s a black woman, he’s a white man. Even if he got the exact same job that she did, he would probably get paid twice as much. And yet, the implication is that she is working and he is not. Why?) Their relationship is pretty typical of what it is in much of the rest of the season, but it’s still annoying. Otherwise, though, the Doctor manages to be likeable and impressively memorable, in spite of the lack of screentime.

It’s hard to tell whether we should see this as a magnificent little island of an episode, or as an important harbinger of things to come. While it introduces monsters who will return in later seasons, it’s also a perfectly contained little narrative. However, it also feels like a statement of arrival, more so than either of Moffat’s previous episodes (even if I did like his Season One two-parter a bit better.) His contributions to Season One and (sort of) to Season Two showed him to be a strong writer, but this episode gives us a clearer sense of the kind of writer that he is. I don’t say this because it’s a fairly plot-driven episode, as I think the notion that Moffat made the show more plot-focused is almost completely unfounded, but the intricacy of this story is a good indication of just how much attention Moffat demands from his audience. We’ve still got plenty of the Davies era left to go, but this episode is an early indication that eventually, we’re going to get six full seasons in which a necessary component of understanding the further adventures of the Doctor and company is going to involve keeping your eyes wide open like your life depended on it. A

Utopia: The string of good episodes continues as the Doctor, Martha, and Jack find themselves at the end of the universe. It’s a terrifying place, and probably the most interesting non-Earth planet that Davies develops. The Futurekind are scary in themselves, but the dark world with barely anything left in it is even scarier. Even in this cold, bleak place, though, there is still hope for a better world, and we can see brief moments of warmth between the humans as they wait for Utopia. The emotional investment that this creates for these humans makes their eventual fate even sadder, and their doomed hopes for a new world are really beautifully portrayed here.

For the most part, Davies does an astonishing job of blending a thrilling plot with some lovely character work. The one downside to this episode is that it doesn’t always serve its female characters very well, especially since Jack’s curiosity about Rose means that this episode gives us an extra helping of Morose Martha. I’m not sure what’s more annoying: Jack’s assertion that the Doctor doesn’t abandon his blonde companions (Martha, annoyed: “Oh, she’s blonde!”) or the camera repeatedly cutting back to Martha looking bitter while The Doctor and Jack talk about what happened to Rose. It’s not that I blame Martha, who is responding reasonably to the Doctor’s behavior, but having more than one reference to the stupid Martha-vs.-Rose dynamic in a single episode is too much. Chantho is mostly used as an end-of-the-universe equivalent to Martha, as the script goes out of its way to point out that “Look! Professor Yana has a woman quietly pining away for him, just like the Doctor!” She and Martha then strike up a cute friendship, though, so the episode mostly emerges from the boring treatment of women that we get at the start.

Other than inadvertently heightening Martha’s resentment toward Rose, Jack makes a triumphant return here. (So does the Doctor’s severed hand, which Davies does a wonderful job of weaving into the plot of Tennant’s entire time on the show.) He’s just as charming and fun as he was in the first season, and we get a wonderful discussion between him and the Doctor regarding the Doctor’s abandonment of him after the defeat of the Daleks. It’s such a brief moment in “The Parting of Ways” that it would be easy to gloss over it, so I appreciate that the episode takes the time to describe Jack’s experience and to let him confront the Doctor about what he did. The Doctor’s excuse—that Jack is a fixed point in time, and therefore goes against the Doctor’s Time Lord gut instincts—is understandable, but not really sufficient to excuse the Doctor’s decision to just leave him behind. Jack isn’t particularly bitter here, though; he’s honest about what he’s gone through, but he’s still kindly disposed toward the Doctor and (of course) somewhat flirtatious toward him. Tennant and Barrowman have excellent chemistry, and the scene gracefully and effortlessly conveys their extremely complicated relationship.

The highlight of the episode, though, is Derek Jacobi’s portrayal of Professor Yana/The Master. I wish there was time for him to be in more than one episode, but he’s brilliant here, both as the kind, self-sacrificing professor and as the newly-aware Time Lord. His interactions with the Doctor and with Martha are marvelously done, and the growing awareness of his real identity is just superbly plotted. The drumming in his head is not always well-handled in future episodes, but Jacobi plays this element of his character with a great deal of sensitivity. The big reveal is an especially fabulous moment: the watch, the drumbeats, and the various other bits of the story slot together perfectly, and culminate in a terrific showdown between the Doctor and the new regeneration of the Master. Chantho’s scared but determined resistance gives us a great final moment for Jacobi’s Master, and Simm’s performance is an immediately enjoyable piece of ham. The final scene, in which the Master takes over the TARDIS, leaving the Doctor and company trapped at the end of the universe, is a stunning cliffhanger.

The episode’s conclusion is so excitingly plotted that it’s easy to miss some of the quieter, more philosophical work that Davies does with the Master here. We never quite get a clear sense of what the relationship is between a Time Lord’s actual personality and the human created by the watch; the Doctor tells Joan that he is capable of all that John Smith was, but there are also pretty clear differences between the two. The watch certainly does quite a lot of rewriting, but it doesn’t seem to create a completely new personality, which means that there are at least some similarities between Yana and the Master. It’s a fascinating thought, as until his memories return, Yana is kind and self-sacrificing. It’s a bit odd to me that Tennant doesn’t refer to this in the next episode, but for purposes of this episode, I like the subtlety with which Davies sets up the possibility that the Master might have quite a lot of goodness inside him. (This wouldn’t have been the intention at the time, but it also provides a nice bit of setup for the Twelfth Doctor’s later confidence that Missy can be redeemed.)

This episode sometimes gets overlooked a bit because of the flashier ones that preceded and follow it, but I really do think this is a sensational story. It’s fast-paced and scary, we get to explore an eerie new place, Jack Harkness is back, and the Master gets a great new incarnation. There are a couple of scenes that annoy me, but of the three parts of the season finale, I would say this one is my favorite. A/A-

The Sound of Drums: This episode is already starting to show how much Davies is straining to pull the plot arc together, but it’s such an exuberant episode that it’s easy to overlook the problems for now. A lot happens in this episode, which necessitates a certain amount of rushing; this is apparent from the opening scene, in which the previous episode’s cliffhanger (The Doctor, Martha, and Jack are trapped at the end of the universe without the TARDIS!!) is easily resolved by Jack having a time travel device that will transport all three of them. The Jones family would also have benefited from a bit more screentime here—what happens to them is shocking, but we aren’t given enough of the intriguing situation of Tish working for the Master, or of their reaction to their eventual capture. We really needed to get a clearer sense of how the Archangel Network functions, or possibly just a different sense, as I’m pretty sure it just changes completely between this episode and the next. When the story does invest sufficient time and detail into its narrative elements, though, it’s tremendously fun.

Simm is charmingly evil here, and Davies’s script allows the Master to have a wonderful time taking over the world and messing with the Doctor’s mind. There are moments of extremely dark humor, such as his nonchalant murder of the entire cabinet with poisonous gas and his casual efforts to close the door on Vivien’s death screams. He has excellent chemistry with Tennant, particularly in the beautifully acted phone call, and it’s surprisingly delightful to see him watch The Teletubbies. He gets even more fun as he begins his strategy of cheerfully irritating the American president—a strategy that includes sitting down and pulling out some jelly babies. I love that in the midst of plotting world domination, he made the time to think “I’m going to bring the Doctor’s favorite snack to my glorious victory.” By the end of the episode, he is joyfully welcoming the Toclafane to the strains of “Voodoo Child,” and it’s just such an astonishing moment of silliness that it’s a perfect return for the Master. John Simm got stuck with some odd writing on this show, some of which shows up in the next episode and quite a lot of which appears in “The End of Time,” but this episode proves that when he is given good material, he’s an absolutely stellar Master. It helps that he has to spend much of the episode reining himself in just a little bit in order to plausibly function as prime minister, so that when he breaks into a much broader persona toward the end it really feels like a rise in energy and doesn’t seem like overkill. The constant drumbeat that he hears, which was approached with considerable nuance in the last episode, has turned into a cartoonish version of insanity; still, the episode makes no effort to pass this off as a realistic portrayal of mental illness, so it doesn’t really bother me. The scenery-chewing madness goes too far when he returns in “The End of Time,” but for this season, Simm does a good job of depicting an intentionally silly persona.

Our main characters’ fugitive status lets them stay near the main action but also separate from it, which gives us lots of time to just watch them talk to each other and react to the situation. Their conversation about the Master is one of my favorite scenes of the whole season—the Doctor’s description of the treatment of Time Lord children is beautifully written and performed, and there is a wonderful sense of sympathy between the three characters here. The Doctor ends the scene by distributing perception filters, which I always love—there’s something about the ability to make yourself unseen without actually being invisible that I find absolutely thrilling every time it’s introduced on the show. Granted, the Doctor then goes a long way toward undoing the scene’s positive energy by explaining that perception filters are like fancying someone who doesn’t notice you, making me immensely aggravated that his thoughtlessness toward Martha is now being treated as a joke. Still, there’s a nice moment between Martha and Jack as they realize that they’re both in the same position in terms of their feelings toward the Doctor. Martha gets quite a lot of good material in this episode; I especially love that she gets to be in the driver’s seat for the car chase, and while I think her family is itself underwritten, her concern for them is portrayed very well.

The Doctor’s relationship with the Master is the heart of the episode, and Tennant really sells his conflicted feelings of wanting to protect the world from the Master while also wanting to protect the one Time Lord he didn’t destroy. I don’t really understand the choice to avoid any mention of his own experiences as a human; the Doctor tries so hard, at first, to find a scrap of empathy in the Master that you would think “I went through the same experience of becoming human and forgetting my real identity for a while” would be a good approach. Nonetheless, his relationship with the Master is intriguing throughout the episode, and his determination to save the man who was once his friend seems incredibly heartfelt in spite of the Master’s over-the-top evil. I spend so much of the episode focusing on the Master and his interactions with the Doctor that the actual plot events fade a bit in comparison, but there are some good things here, especially the reveal that the Master has turned the TARDIS into a paradox machine. The Toclafane aren’t very interesting aliens until you find out who they are in the next episode, but they’re certainly a major threat and they give the Master an opportunity to really put on a show. The whole business with aging the Doctor doesn’t work very well and is an awfully random thing to do, but it’s the only real false note marring an otherwise sensational ending. The Toclafane have landed, the Master is dancing, and Martha is off to save the world on her own—not a bad cliffhanger to take us into the finale. A/A-

The Last of the Time Lords: I can get past plot holes. An episode full of them might not be my very favorite, but they don’t necessarily prevent me from enjoying the story. The worst kind of plot holes, though, are the kind that make the characters look idiotic, and we get an avalanche of those here. First, we have the Master, who comes across as so unbelievably stupid that I cease to see him as a meaningful antagonist. I get that he’s insane, and sort of a pantomime villain, but in the previous episode he at least looked like he had a sizeable streak of brilliance as well. In this episode, he’s got spies everywhere and a huge amount of leverage over people whose families he’s kidnapped, and yet he can’t manage to find out a plan at least some of which is known to most of the Earth’s population. Martha has spread the strategy of believing really hard in the Doctor during the countdown to what seems like millions, so the notion that the Master wouldn’t have caught on to this and would still be believing in the multi-colored gun plan just isn’t plausible. (I can sort of imagine him dismissing the plan, because he doesn’t believe in the power of human goodness in the way that the Doctor does, but I can’t imagine him just not figuring it out at all.)

Martha herself comes across as incredibly courageous here, but the nature of the plan just doesn’t allow her to shine in the way that I want her to. I would actually have preferred it if the plot twist had been close to the reverse of what occurs at the end. If Martha had let the Master believe that she was going around spreading the Gospel of the Doctor like a good little companion as a cover to hide the fact that she was using her scientific knowledge to help turn the Archangel Network against him, that would have been amazing, and not really difficult to believe. As a medical student, she’s had practice in trying to figure out what’s wrong with other people. (Just ask the patient, said the snotty, ill-fated teacher in Martha’s first episode.) She knows how to figure out the use of complex machinery by quickly consulting the manual, as we also learned in that same episode. She has very precise knowledge of the human body, as we can see in her precise account of the bones of the hand in her conversation with Joan. I can imagine an episode in which Martha traveled the Earth, pretending to spread the news of the Doctor’s magnificence but also making observations and asking questions about how the Archangel Network made people feel, consulting the network’s manual, figuring out exactly how the mind control works and how it could be redirected, and using that to surprise the Master at the end of the episode. Then we wouldn’t have needed floaty Jesus Doctor, there would at least be sort of a reason for the Master being flummoxed, and the whole season of Martha being reduced to an unrequited love plot would at least have a great resolution; I would genuinely be less mad at scenes like the “Rose would know” moment in “The Shakespeare Code” if we were moving toward a finale in which Martha completely subverted the expectations created by her feelings for the Doctor. Instead, she just goes around talking about what a magical, wonderful, sparkly unicorn the Doctor is, omitting all of the darker elements of his nature and treating him like an absolutely perfect hero. It’s a nice continuation of the idea of the power of words, as set up in “The Shakespeare Code,” but it would be a lot more meaningful if there wasn’t a lingering sense that she’s using her words to hide elements of the Doctor as often as to reveal the truth about him.

And then there is the Doctor himself. (I was really uncomfortable with the Doctor’s behavior in this episode, but was uncertain about why until I read the AV Club’s review, which makes a lot of the same points as what follows.) It’s bad enough that he spends much of the episode as Dobby the Elf/Gollum/whatever other fantasy creature you want to compare him to here. David Tennant’s odd, joyful presence is most of what makes this character work, so when he’s absent for much of the episode, it is sad. However, his return is constructed in such a way that it winds up being more aggravating than spending much of an episode without him. The Doctor has gone through an awfully dark period. He was in so angry and grief-stricken a place in the Christmas special after the loss of Rose that he killed off an entire species and would have accidentally drowned himself (as we learn next season) if Donna hadn’t stopped him. He was so infuriated at the end of “The Family of Blood” that he basically condemned four beings to eternal torment. He’s been so morose about Rose that he has mistreated Martha basically for the entirety of the season. He’s just had a couple of experiences that might be eye-opening to him: he’s had to hear about his abandonment of Jack Harkness from Jack’s perspective, and he’s gotten a reminder of the immense darkness in the one remaining Time Lord, one who was once his friend. He’s also seen the bleakness of the end of the universe, which might serve as a humbling reminder of his inability to actually fix everything. (The reveal that the Toclafane are humans is a pretty good moment of darkness, although the erasure of everything that they actually do in this episode does diminish this a bit.) The Doctor, until the Archangel Network nonsense happens, seems like someone who becoming aware of and at least starting to hold himself a little bit accountable for the problematic aspects of his behavior. There are a lot of ways to deal with this: there is something to be said for giving the Doctor a genuine crisis of conscience, and also something to be said for having him come to a partial realization of his own flaws and continuing to develop it more subtly over time. What you shouldn’t do, basically the one thing you definitely SHOULD NOT do in this scenario, is resolve your major seasonal arc by comparing this character to Jesus. Avoiding that should pretty much be your top priority. And yet, not only does the mass of strangers treat him like a Christ figure, he completely leans in to the comparison. His arms aren’t quite high enough to constitute an imitation of Jesus on the cross, but the position is close enough that the suggestion is there. When he starts floating around with his hands outstretched, looking like someone doing an almost-crucifixion pose on an invisible motorized scooter, smiling beatifically and extending his magnanimous forgiveness to the Master, it’s not just that it looks silly. (It does look silly, but the show’s made that work plenty of times.) It’s not even just that the Archangel Network, which appeared to be coded signals that used the four successive beats as a form of mind control in the previous episode, has now somehow become sentient enough to understand the words of people all over the world and to de-age him as a result; the Doctor claiming that he’s been attuning his mind to the network does nowhere near enough to make sense of this, but I could mostly overlook this if everything else was all right here. The main problem is that the Doctor has chosen to embrace his smug, morally superior side, at the expense of every bit of character development that has been in the works this season. He even suggests that humanity’s willingness to have absolute faith in him here, basically just on Martha’s word, is evidence of the greatness of our species, and I’m not sure that he’s ever had a more arrogant moment on this show.

It’s not that I want everyone to turn on the Doctor and hate him for the few flaws that trouble a generally wonderful personality. Forgiveness and redemption are important elements of this show, but in order for them to be have the kind of impact that they should, there needs to be a sense that they are bestowed or achieved from a position of knowledge of what has gone wrong. The people who Tinkerbell him back to looking like David Tennant know very little of the Doctor’s problems—I certainly don’t get the sense that Martha is giving them the full version of his story. The Doctor has had a lot of time in this episode to reflect on his own failings, but he concludes that reflection here through being redeemed by the faith of people who believe in him because they’ve been given the sugarcoated version of his story, and it’s just such an empty conclusion to the work of the season that it’s an incredibly disappointing moment. Having the whole world express their belief in the Doctor as the embodiment of the ideals that he’s been failing to live up to all season could be an interesting moment if the Doctor was at least aware of the dissonance, but he seems to buy into his own myth so thoroughly that the episode essentially erases everything the season has done to complicate his character. There are plenty of moments in this reboot in which the Doctor behaves in problematic ways, but usually these are individual moments, and he redeems himself fairly quickly afterward. There are, therefore, plenty of times when I don’t like what the Doctor is doing, but I generally still really like him as a character. This is the one moment in which I sort of question where I stand toward the character as a whole; he just seems so utterly oblivious of his own flaws and so self-indulgent that I’m not sure about whether he’s a character I can admire.

He does win me back quite quickly, as Tennant does a beautiful job of portraying the Doctor’s grief over the death of the Master. Lucy Saxon’s murder of her husband would be a better moment if the episode hadn’t done so much to telegraph that something was going to go wrong with her; her behavior early in the episode shows her to be just barely holding herself back from snapping, so it’s not much of a surprise when it happens. Otherwise, though, the death and funeral pyre of the Master are sublimely done, and I’m so sad for the Doctor as he cradles his dying rival that I can almost forget how annoying he has been in this episode. I do wish that he had saved a little bit of that grief for his separation from Martha, which he accepts with irritating equanimity. It’s a fantastic moment for her, as she decides to walk out for her own emotional health, and actually gets to leave the TARDIS on her own terms instead of the usual story of being forced out by disaster. Given that the Doctor nearly lost his mind after being separated from Rose and even Joan, it’s a little sad that he doesn’t have a bit more of a reaction to the departure of a woman who has just spent a year (an erased year, but a year nonetheless) traveling the Earth to help him. It’s still a good scene for her, and, in general, the episode’s last few minutes work much better than the nonsense that preceded them. Even with some really good moments, though, an episode in which the Master looks like an absolute moron, Martha saves the world but in a dull, clichéd fashion, and the Doctor loses all sense of perspective is not a satisfying end to the season. C+/C

#doctor who #female doctor #tenth doctor #martha jones #david tennant #freema agyeman #russell t davies #steven moffat #season 3 #reviews

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