Calm Like A [Reality] Bomb

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

[The Master, unlike many other people on the Plane, is in quite a good mood. Though he looks a bit worn, perhaps slightly charred, he is in a very good mood as he drinks a Dark Matter Mixer. It's a drink - really. The Master's good mood means he's sociable.]

So! I just committed genocide and blew up a fleet of warships. How is everyone else today?

Comments

[handysparehand.livejournal.com]

[surprised]

You would do that?

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

It isn't difficult.

[handysparehand.livejournal.com]

I know, I just didn't -

[pause]

What about your Doctor, he would be all right with that? Growing another TARDIS, this entire prospect, all of it?

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

Why does it matter? I don't act by his rules.

[handysparehand.livejournal.com]

So he's not? There has to be a reason then, doesn't there? A reason it shouldn't be done. You said before, he doesn't ha-he isn't like the other one as far as I'm concerned. So if he thinks it's a bad idea, then it's different than the other one saying that, isn't it?

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

Most days he says what I'm doing is wrong, and he says it for no other reason than I'm doing it.

[handysparehand.livejournal.com]

And that's all it is?

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

I also suspect jealousy.

[handysparehand.livejournal.com]

Jealousy? Over what?

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

You know how your assistants have been known to get jealous over one another because they're all essentially the same, interchangeable people who occupy identical roles in your life? Or so the theory goes. I've concluded that it's basically that.

[handysparehand.livejournal.com]

That's ridiculous. I'm sure he's not jealous.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

You all get jealous.

[handysparehand.livejournal.com]

Maybe, but that's an odd reason to get jealous. Besides, you just said you'd send me off if he didn't want me around. He's not jealous.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

He doesn't see you as I see you. But if I change you - if you become a Time Lord again - then you'll be him again, more or less. Then you're another him to take my time, instead of... I have no idea what he qualifies you as now.

[handysparehand.livejournal.com]

So does that mean he's jealous of the other one?

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

[looks genuinely surprised]

I would be. Wouldn't you?

[handysparehand.livejournal.com]

It's himself though, and yours has you, he's not on his own, why would he be jealous of the other one?

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

That it is himself makes it all the more dangerous threat. They're equal. Exchangeable. If I don't like my Doctor---if he upsets me---why, I can toss him away and go amuse myself with the other one. Ooh, you should see how angry he gets when I say he's boring. It hurts him, poor thing.

Why, it's comparable to your other self's anger about Rose Tyler and you. Not that that means much now, but understanding by analogy seems to make things easier for humans. It's the difference, I suppose, between envy and jealousy. One, the one the, shall we call him, lonely Doctor personifies, is the desire to have what someone else has. The other is a fear that what you have may be taken away. It's desire and fear. Complementary aspects, now that I think of it. Envy can lead to action that might justify jealousy.

The point is that the worst possible person to compete against is yourself.

[handysparehand.livejournal.com]

But you wouldn't do that to yours, would you? I'm sure he'd have to know that.

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

I tried to kill myself just to hurt him. He's lost friends - Saint Martha, the Fact - because he chose me, forgave me, after everything. Even the TARDIS is angry at him for... well, the thing never liked me, we both know that. What's a Doctor without his companions? He's powerless without people, and by choosing me, he loses so many people. Tragic, really. I've done a fairly good job of making him dependent on me, though I do say so myself, and when you need something, someone--someone so very set on forcing you into a lifestyle antithetical to your own--it does a bit of a number on you. I mean, how terrible is it to think you're replaceable? To think that you're replaceable to a person you need? It's about fear, not desire. The tragedy of the commons. That things are limited and that sharing means getting less.

Oh dear, I think I'm making myself want to taunt him.

[handysparehand.livejournal.com]

And me saying yes to you would be dividing you again, then? One third instead of one half?

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

So I've surmised. In fact, I think he'd love to have you travel with us as you are now, and hate to have you travel with us as the Time Lord you ought to be.

[handysparehand.livejournal.com]

He'd want me to travel with you?

[savagestime.livejournal.com]

[dryly] I think his ideal Team TARDIS includes you and Arthur Eddington, yes.

[handysparehand.livejournal.com]

So everyone that looks like him? Wouldn't that get confusing, everyone looking alike, more or less? I'm not complaining, I like Arthur well enough, but still, it would have to be confusing in the mornings I'd imagine.