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the-lady-hestia · 3 months

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I watched the Dr Who season finale, Empire of Death, and I have thoughts!!! Mostly about the end/the season as a whole

Spoilers under the cut

He mentions 2005. Even after all this time he still thinks about Rose. That woman changed his life so fundamentally that even at the death of creation, the doctor still thinks about her specifically.

And oh god that pained scream. He feels the universe die and it tears him apart.

Life inevitably brings death

Death inevitably fosters life

Sutekh in his pursuit of death revives the universe

And the doctor, the champion of life, must kill him

“She was important because we thought she was important” this is RTD’s thesis statement in my opinion. Ruby’s mom wasn’t some big reveal or massive cannon altering thing, she was just a woman. She was 15 and needed to keep her baby a secret. She just happened to do it so well that even a god couldn’t figure it out. RTD continues the chorus of “anyone is important. In the whole of time and space, value and importance come from what we, the silly little humans, believe” and I love him for it.

“In the end, the most important person in the universe was the most ordinary.” Bravisimo. I might get that tattooed across my face that’s such an incredible line.

And at the end of it all, we get a true treat. Ruby isn’t dead, she’s not trapped in a parallel world, she doesn’t get turned into a cyberman or get zapped by a dalek. She just lives her life.

Oh and also Mrs. Flood says some spooky shit again and the Christmas special is teased (yay we don’t have to wait a full calendar year anymore!)

This finale was corny and silly and a little bit weird but you know what, I think it was perfect. Ncuti is quickly becoming top 3 doctors in my opinion. He’s so emotive and passionate. Every time he laughs it’s infectious and every time he cries I feel it in my bones. Incredible acting, incredible man, I love him so much. This whole season felt like a return to form (except for the shorter episode list. I deeply yearn for the days of 12+ episode seasons). Little stories each with hints to the finale, a good mix of goofy, spooky, harsh political criticism, and deeply emotional (examples/highlights in each category: The Devils Chord, 73 yards, Boom and Dot and Bubble, and Rogue [my beloved])

This episode and this season have been truly quintessential RTD Dr. Who. 10/10 in my book all around. I cannot wait for Christmas and I cannot wait for the next season

#Doctor who #ncuti gatwa #ncuti!doctor #doctor who spoilers #dw #dw spoilers

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abbatoirablaze · 6 months

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Angels & Demons, Chapter 6

Word Count: 1.9k

Warnings: mentions of torture/graphic depictions of violence/torture imagery.

“DO IT!” Alastair screamed, “DO IT!”

“Please,” John all but whimpered as the tears streamed down his face, “please. Just let her go!”

Alastair smiled, getting a genuine reaction from the man he’d been torturing for over a century, “you’ve been up on that rack for over a hundred years, John…wouldn’t it be nice to come down? Deal out some of the pain that you, yourself…I would gladly put down my razor, if you were the one to pick it up! Even just once.”

“FUCK OFF!”

Alastair’s smile only got wider, “no…you don’t want to dole out the pain. You just want me to stop torturing her, don’t you?”

Although he was bloodied and mutilated, he didn’t care about his own pain. What he did care about was the woman who had been screaming, strapped to a table across from him.

“Dolly...”

Her eyes opened and her head lulled. John felt every bit of his breath leaving his body as she softly mumbled his name, “John...i-is that really you?”

“Dahlia…”

“Dahlia, Dahlia, Dahlia,” he laughed, “you know, at least it’s more of a reaction from her than it was with Mary…how is that, hmm? When I was torturing the mother of your children you had the stiffest upper lip...but with her...with the daughter of hell...you’re different. You’re fracturing, John. I think she might be your truest weakness after all.”

“SHUT UP!”

Alastair rolled his eyes, and suddenly the corpse of Mary Winchester was in front of him in her nightgown from the night she died, glaring at Dahlia.

“Mary-“

“You chose me, John…” she growled in an almost animalistic tone as she turned towards her husband while pointing at the love of his life, “she was supposed to be out of our lives. She-“

“John never chose, Mary,” Alastair corrected, cutting the animated soul off, “Dahlia left him behind because of what she was. She chose to leave him because she knew that you were pregnant with Dean...because despite cupid marking the two of you as soulmates, their bond would always be stronger!”

“STOP!” Mary screamed, covering her ears.

“It’s all because of what she is. John would never leave his precious Dahlia behind.” he laughed, “hell, he even let her regress back in age so that she could grow up with dear old Dean and Sammy...did you tell her that, John?”

“Don’t listen to him, Mary!”

“It’s true,” he grinned, “dear old hubby here didn’t say a word when Sam showed an interest in her. He let her date him...let her kiss Dean. Let her run away to school with Sammy...think he was serving your boys up to her on a platter because he got too old for her!”

“HE’S LYING!”

“You came down off the rack, Mary…and today, you get to get your revenge!” he offered, holding a scalpel out to her, “I know that you’ve thought about this for centuries...you’ve thought about carving her up in front of him!”

“LEAVE HER ALONE!” John screamed as he fought against his restraints, “TAKE ME! HURT ME, MARY! I’M THE ONE THAT MESSED UP! I TRIED TO KEEP DOLLY CLOSE DESPITE HER PUSHING ME AWAY!”

“SHE’S NOT EVEN REAL!” Mary screamed back. John blinked, and all of a sudden there was no one strapped to the table across from him, “EVEN WHEN SHE’S NOT REAL YOU STILL WANT TO PROTECT HER THOUGH. SHE’S NOT HERE! SHE’S LOCKED AWAY FROM YOU IN A CAGE!”

“What?”

His throat went dry, despite the blood that was slowly slipping down the back of it from a previous interaction from Alastair.

“YOU STILL WANT HER, EVEN THOUGH YOU’RE TRAPPED DOWN HERE!” she screamed in his face, “EVEN THOUGH YOU KNOW THAT I’M HERE. THAT WE COULD BE TOGETHER IF YOU JUST GOT OFF THE RACK AND-“

“I DON’T LOVE YOU, MARY!”

Mary stilled, and Alastair clapped his hands together, “oh, brava. Bravisimo. I have to say, this is more delicious than I could have possibly thought of. It’s not your classic flapping of flayed skin or sizzling flesh, but the emotional vivisection-my god, it’s better than sex. You may not be spilling her blood, John, but this is some advanced psychological torture right here!”

John paled, “I’m not torturing anyone!”

“No, John, you’re not,” Alastair frowned, “but Mary here is torturing herself. She knows that you aren’t in love with her. She knows that the only woman you’ve ever cared about, ironically enough, is a woman that was born here, Lucifer’s very own daughter…and yet, she still pushes, still wanted to get off the rack so that she could see you! You see, she thought that despite all of that, she could somehow talk some sense into you and make you come down off the rack.”

“Torture me all you want, Alastair…I’m not going to give in!”

“Oh, we already got Dean to cave, John…whether or not you break doesn’t really matter to us anymore.”

“Dean?” John asked nervously, “he-he’s down here?”

“Not anymore, unfortunately,” the demon scoffed, “made quite the deal with a crossroads demon, you see. For little Sammy Winchester of course. You know how big brothers are…how you raised him to be. To protect him with his life…well, he lived out his contract, and got pulled under. But then somebody reached down and pulled him out.”

“Wh-what?”

“I know, we were as shocked as you were to find out. It’s only been a rumor that someone could get pulled out of hell before he was,” the demon chuckled, “and yet…it happened.”

“So Dean’s okay?”

“Topside…don’t worry, I’ll give him my regards when I get up there!” he chuckled, “not that it matters much anyways.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Ah, ah ah….no spoilers, John.”

“WAIT!” he yelled, seeing that Alastair was turning away from him. The demon turned back around, the smallest of smiles gracing his features, “di-did Dean-“

“What, John?”

“Did Dean really come down?”

“He did...and I must say, I was nervous before,” he admitted, “I thought that if I couldn’t get you to break, there was no way I’d get his son to crack. Thought daddy must have taught him too well and I’d have two of you on my conscience for the rest of all eternity...”

“But Dean...he-”

“He failed. Miserably I might add. Could see the fractures in his soul after the first few times...truth was, it only took him 30 years, John….” The demon smiled as he turned to leave.

Dahlia glared at Alastair.

The demon’s jaw twitched, but he didn’t move a muscle.

“What are you doing?”

“She’s been pulled from the cage…”

Lucifer looked between his daughter and the demon.

“Prove it!” Lucifer commanded, looking at Dahlia, “no one gets out. No one knows how-”

But she only shook her head, “fuck off, Alastair!”

“Lilith is allowing you to leave the cage, Dahlia…” Alastair replied firmly, “and you know how firm she normally is in her punishments. I would take her up on the offer.”

Dahlia looked at Alastair for another minute before agreeing to stand, and move towards the cage.

Part of her had expected to run into the bars, but they parted for her when she went towards them. Stopping, she looked back at her father, “what did you do?”

“Do you really think that I would be in here if I could still do that?” he growled, “no. The powers keeping you in here are from the demons that put you in here when you got pulled under. I’m here through much more ancient rights. They need to break sixty-six seals.”

She took a few more steps forward, and the cage closed up after her, refusing to let Lucifer out when he stood and started towards the same place she’d just come from. In anger, he hit the bars, and she jumped ever so slightly.

“There are…special provisions that apply to you, sir…” Alastair frowned, “you are, the lord of hell after all.”

“So…why the jail break, Alastair?” Dahlia asked curiously.

“You’re needed…” he frowned.

She smirked, “jokes on you. I don’t’ give a damn about what you guys need. I’m going to-“

He snapped his fingers and instantly, she stood in front of John Winchester.

She gasped.

He looked like a mess.

He was covered in what looked like layers of dried up, caked on blood. He was kneeling on the ground, looking beyond exhausted.

“John,” she whimpered softly, unable to stop herself from running to him. The oldest Winchester looked at her in disbelief as she fell to her knees and stroked his cheek, instantly cleaning and healing him, “Dahl…Dahlia, is that you.”

She nodded, but the words were unable to form past her mind. She went to open her mouth to speak, but Alastair interrupted her.

John started screaming in agony, and she noticed what looked like invisible knives dragging down his chest as the skin and muscle tissue split, blood pooling from the wounds.

“Follow the rules, and we don’t torture John, Dahlia.”

She looked away from him and he stopped screaming. His head hung and his breathing grew deep and long. His eyes were closed.

It was obvious that he was being sedated by something she couldn’t see, only reacting when Alastair spoke.

“Let him go…”

“Like I said, Dahlia…you have to follow the rules…” he reminded her, “you do that, and we’ll give you John Winchester. Do we have a deal?”

“How do I know that you’ll follow through?” She asked, “how do I know that you’ll let me and John walk free.”

He chuckled, “oh I never said that you would walk free, Dahlia. You are daughter of hell after all. And the apocalypse is just beginning. No...you’ll come back to hell, but you’ll be promised safety in the palace. Provided that you stay there. Don’t worry, your mother is there too. We haven’t hurt her.”

“But you won’t pull John. You won’t torture him?”

“On that, I can give you my word!” he smiled, holding his hand out to her, “get the job done, and we’ll make sure that you and John are protected in hell.”

She looked at him, her heart aching as she nodded, “we have a deal, Alastair.”

John looked up at her, his tired expression seeming to briefly clear. He reached out and stroked his cheek once more. He whimpered as her fingers danced through his scruff. With a wince, he raised a large hand, and put it over hers, “Dolly...tell me you’re real.”

“I’m here, John...” she agreed, a few tears slipping down her cheeks as she leaned her forehead against his. She could see the relief washing over him as his other hand reached up and he held her face in his hands, “you’re coming down off the racks...”

“No-no,” he said groggily as he shook his head, “i-it’s a trick. I won’t. I won’t torture someone to-”

“John...I made a deal!” she replied as she held onto his face. His eyes closed as she kissed him, taking away his pain and breathing a renewed health into him, “they’re going to take you down. You’re not torturing anyone...but I-I have to go.”

The pain in his features returned as he shook his head once more, “no...y-you can’t go. Dolly they-”

“I have to help them if I want to keep you safe,” she admitted with a frown, “they’ll put you in the palace...just-look after my mother while I’m gone...make sure that they stay away from her.”

“Dolly-”

“John....I have to do this!” she answered. Her hands fell away from his face and he looked nervous until Alastair snapped. His head lulled forward and he returned to his almost comatose state.

“Well what are you waiting for?” she growled, “let’s get this over with!”

Chapter 7

#supernatural #angels & demons #john winchester #lucifer #alastair #angels #demons

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