#the range of the stars academy style strikes once again

[askthesupersisters]

SO LIKE YOU KNOW HOW I RESPONDED TO THAT ONE ASK ABOUT STUDY-LIFE BALANCE AND IT WAS ALL PEACHY RIGHT

WELL UH LATER THAT DAY I WAS BROWSING THE GS ITALIAN SITE AND I FOUND THAT THE SUPERSISTERS 2 PREVIEW CAME OUT AND

Well tl;dr is uh I jinxed it in the span of a single day-- /j

(English doc is made by me, translation was made courtesy of plugging stuff into DeepL)

Anyway THEY LOOK SO DONE LIKE C'MON EVEN IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE ARTSTYLE YOU GOTTA ADMIT THIS IS HILARIOUS

And I made my own version of it too because how could I not HAHAHAH

[takivvatanga]

SENSES AND OTHER ODDLY SPECIFIC HEADCANONS    

ASSIRE VAR ANAHID

tagged by: @martyrsaiint thank you i love this meme

tagging: steal it fam

1. What does your muse smell like?

Olive leaf (peace and perseverance), rosemary (remembrance), and lavender (purity, silence, devotion, serenity, grace). It’s a very subtle scent that she mixes herself not for the purpose of impressing other people but because it’s calming and helps with her anxiety and we all know she needs that. 

2. What does your muses hands feel like?

Her hands were thin, marked with yellow spots, and her nails were broken and uneven, obviously bitten. (Baptism of Fire)

This is interesting because her hands kind of show her age? She’s in her 80s when she joins the Lodge (potentially younger, I worked it out once based on Cahir’s age and the fact that she is his grandmother’s sister, she could be as young as 70) , and while her face doesn’t show it her hands kind of do. Her skin is paper thin and she does have those age spots. Her hands are also very dry, her skin is dry overall but it’s on her hands that it’s most noticeable. There’s also lots of little scars on them, mostly burns and cuts related to alchemy.

3. What does your muse usually eat in a day?

Her eating habits are terrible tbh. I feel that Nilfgaard has their mages on rations? Like they get issued a certain amount of certain staples for the week and that’s it, unless they happen to have a generous employer who allows them the odd indulgence (which would be frowned upon). They’re not starving by any means because mages are kind of expensive to educate and maintain and they have to be able to work efficiently but it’s nothing above and beyond meeting basic needs. 

She exists on porridge and soup and bread I think, partly because she’s got limited ingredients to work with and partly because that’s the only things she knows how to make. She’s not a regular eater either, she kind of just eats when she either remembers or when she’s hungry and it’s not unusual for her to just forget to eat when she’s getting hyperfixated on something she is working on.

And don’t get me started on her damn instant noodles and granola bars in modern she’s terrible. 

4. Does your muse have a good singing voice?

“I accepted out of curiosity.” said the Nilfgaardian sorceress with an unexpectedly pleasant and melodious voice (Baptism of Fire)

Her voice is lovely tbh?! She’s got a really good range and a warm, vibrant tone. She used to LOVE to sing to herself and to her younger sister when she was a child, but she doesn’t sing anymore. It all stopped on the day she got caught singing while she was at the Academy (she hadn’t been there long, she was missing her family so much and wanted to cheer herself up, she was only little!) and she got severely punished for indulging in such frivolity. She’s never forgotten that and she never sung again. 

In modern (I gotta add modern verse things because I’ve legit done so much development for her in that verse) Assire and her sisters used to sing at church, those girls all have lovely voices and they harmonise really well so their parents had them up there leading hymns. When Assire left their community, she stopped singing because she associates it with church and her family and it makes her feel bad. She only starts again when she has her daughter and it’s like… a big deal for her because she gets to reclaim it for herself.  

5. Does your muse have any bad habits or nervous ticks?          

Oh man lmao does she ever. She bites her nails, and when I say she bites her nails she will take them right down to the quick if she’s feeling stressed enough. She does stop eventually but it’s the hardest habit she has ever had to break.

She also fidgets a lot, any loose threads in her clothing she has the overwhelming urge to pull and pick at them (don’t ever put her near clothing that has beading on it because she will pull those beads right off without even being completely aware that she’s doing it).

Oh and she low key hoards (in all her verses). She gets huge anxiety just thinking about throwing things away, it’s something that’s developed out of having nothing for so long and having so very little autonomy over herself.  

6. What does your muse usually look like/wear?

Completely depends on where she is at in the timeline obviously! Pre-Lodge she’s just in her standard issue black robes with the crescent moon and star embroidery that identifies her as a mage. I honestly can’t see her changing that even after she joins the Lodge – she would draw far too much attention to herself if she started breaking the rules regarding appearance. She does start taking care of her hair and hands more though and also she starts investing in shoes. She loves shoes. Again while she’s in Nilfgaard she has to be subtle about this but she goes from scuffed boots to like, really nice ankle boots with a little bit of a heel and fancy buckles.

When she’s attending Lodge meetings she definitely goes for gaceful and elegant, she actually has a surprisingly striking and sophisticated style once she gains the confidence to actually wear nice clothing. She’s always modest though, so it’s usually long sleeves and high necklines for her. In terms of colours she canonically prefers rich jewel tones, greens and purples and I also keep thinking she really looks good in yellow. Once she leaves Nilfgaard for good she never wears black again, it’s her way of separating herself from her past.

7. Is your muse affectionate? how much? how so?

Yes absolutely but she’s not tactile. She’s very reserved, she doesn’t like people invading her personal space and she will treat others as she wants them to treat her so she is not likely to initiate any kind of physical contact. The only exceptions here are family and significant other (and even there she takes a long time to get comfortable with physical affection tbh but once she’s there, she kind of thrives she just needs to establish emotional connection/intimacy first before she’ll be comfortable with physical touch).  

She expresses affection through acts of service and being present, she will listen intently to what other people have to say and she knows that sometimes you gotta listen for listening’s sake and not to reply. She’s good at reading people and doing thoughtful little things for them that she thinks they will appreciate.

8. What position does your muse sleep in?

She sleeps on her side curled up with her knees up against her chest. She also pulls the blanket right up over her head. She literally disappears. 

9. Could you hear your muse in the hallway from another room?

No way! She moves very quietly, she’s a quiet person all around. It’s both something that she’s actively developed in order to stay safe but it’s also her personality. She has NPC energy ok.

[elsinore-and-inverness]

Reprieve: From Gallifrey to Trenzalore

(In which the Master has recently regenerated into Missy)

Chapter Two. Escape.

She got most of the way down the corridor before the guards began their rounds at the other end. The girl who was inspecting the cell block, a small, waif-like creature who, by the appearance of her robes had recently dropped out of the Academy, immediately noticed the open door to her cell. Perfect. An opportunity to test if regeneration had affected her hypnotic abilities.

‘Where’s the Master?’ the Time Guard asked, making the fatal mistake of looking directly into Missy’s eyes.

‘He’s dead.’ Missy simpered truthfully, trying out her new voice. ‘He burned up too much of his life force. The Master is gone.’ She smiled wickedly. Such equivocation. ‘I did, however, speak to him before he perished. He related to me the time at which this world would cease to be. The end of the world, in Time War Stasis Standard.’

The girl couldn’t help herself. ‘And when is that, Miss...?’

‘Just Missy,’ Missy said. ‘Do you know the best part of knowing?’

‘What?’ the girl asked.

‘Not telling you.’ Missy replied. ‘Goodnight.’ She snapped her fingers and the Time Guard collapsed. ‘It may well be our last.’

If Missy’s calculations were right, there was a very large probability that the girl would never open her eyes again.

Missy needed to get to the Citadel. Already she was formulating a plan, but she needed to know more about the state of affairs and how much time they had left. Her extra senses were on full alert, feeling for electrostatic energy, Artron or Huon particles. As had been the case since shortly after first fleeing the Time War, she found herself in need of a TARDIS.

She crept down the dank corridor and pulled open the nearest broom closet. Inside was a row of brooms and she could feel one of them emitting Huon energy. ‘A chameleon circuit.’ she breathed. She hadn’t seen a functional one of those in centuries. She grabbed the broomstick. Well why not? And flew off into the deepening dark.

She advanced upon the Citadel swiftly, flying as she was at ultra-warp speed, the transmuted Eye of Harmony manipulating space itself. She slowed abruptly as she approached, hovering above the dome surrounding the Citadel. Below was a scene of carnage. The children of Gallifrey and Skaro lay dead in the streets. Crushed Dalekanium and dark orange-red stains covered the edifices of the battlements. She swept down through the entrance at the top of the dome.

On one of the main thoroughfares, Time Lords, or some other rank of Gallifreyans were burning clothes in the middle of the street. Someone else might have assumed they were infested with vermin or disease, but Missy knew her own history. They had run out of fuel. They were about to toss in a particularly excellent Victorian-style dress when she intervened.

‘Honestly,’ she drawled, ‘it’s not that cold. Have you never been to another planet?’

They shook their heads.

‘You don’t burn clothes to keep warm, you wear them.’ She grabbed the purple dress and went into the nearest abandoned building to change.

It took awhile. She wasn’t sure if she had assumed she would have some sort of natural instinct for how women’s clothing worked, but apparently such a thing did not exist. And Victorian clothing was more complicated than others. The abandoned building was evidently residential and she raided one of the bathrooms for cosmetics. She pressed her recently incarnadined lips together, turning her head from side to side. ‘As I expected. Practically perfect in every way.’ She tapped the broomstick on the ground and it transformed into an umbrella. Now to the high council.

She strode out into the ruined world of her childhood. She followed the Old Path down the slantwise streets. The Old Path they had followed long ago when the Time Lords granted Koschei of Oakdown a new set of lives under the impression that they were going to get the perfect weapon.

That lot really didn’t understand their generation. Especially the Deca. They were cowards, the lot of them. All cowards except... She tried to push the thought from her mind. The thought of the Doctor’s wan, fine-boned face and huge brown eyes, and his unfaltering belief in the goodness of people. Try as she might, the Doctor’s words drifted into her mind. You could be so wonderful. You’re a genius. You’re stone cold brilliant, you are. I swear you really are. But you can be so much more. You could be beautiful- A mind like that. We could travel the stars together. It would be my honour. ‘Cause you don’t have to own the universe, just see it. Having the privilege to see the whole of time and space, that’s ownership enough. She shook her head. There are two things as effective in destroying a conscience as being subject to the whims of Rassilon, pure evil and true love. She didn’t need a conscience. She needed a Doctor.

She pulled open the side door of the Grand Hall of the high council of Gallifrey. She hid in an antechamber, listening to their deliberations to be able to ascertain exactly how long they had left. She considered the nature of her world as she waited. Two suns, two moons, two hearts and a dozen faces. Duplicity was as much a part of Time Lord nature as honest was that of Vulcan.

It was one of the first lessons learned as a Gallifreyan child, to always retain a level of doubt. But Koschei had always found something else important. Belief. Maybe it was madness, but she had always found that was what separated her from the gentler of her kin. She infallibly believed in herself and her own abilities and never doubted for a moment that she would be able to get off the planet.

Then she heard the portentous phrase ‘the Doctor has the Moment.’ She inhaled deeply. He may have the Moment, but that meant they had an hour. She would have to act quickly. She needed to steal a hard drive. According to her plan, it would be instrumental to her escape as she would need to calibrate the resonance of the time stasis field, but there was another use she had in mind that was becoming increasingly appealing to her. Or perhaps stealing would not be necessary. She stood up and pushed open the door and strode in to the high council of the Time Lords.

‘You have an hour left to live, I suggest you listen to me.’

‘What?’ demanded the Head of Council, ‘What is the meaning of this? How did an outsider get in here? Who are you? Where did you come from?’

‘Oh, I’m not an outsider.’ Missy replied, archly, ‘I’m a Time Lady and I come from the end of time.’

‘Our world is doomed!’ the Time Lord lamented, momentarily putting aside the mystery of Missy’s sudden appearance. ‘No one else was mas enough to use the Moment.’

‘You need to do as I say.’ Missy insisted saccharinely. ‘I need a hard drive, preferably of the Micro-Monde variety.’

‘Y-yes Mistress,’ he stammered, managing to slip in one final question before slipping fully under her hypnosis. ‘But why?’

She smiled gleefully. ‘One thing you should probably know: I never explain anything.’

The Head of Council acted quickly, and soon she had her Gallifreyan hard drive and ‘remote control’, a multi-functional device that looked something like a smart phone. Amused by the similarity, she took a few selfies, then snapped her fingers. The Head of Council blinked, his eyes unfocused, not noticing her. He turned away and wandered off. He would remember nothing of his encounter with her, nor would any of the other members of the council.

She held in her hands a complex sphere of metal, covered in strange bumps and nodes. As she gazed up into the sky of Gallifrey’s last day, somewhere a bell began to toll. In that moment, panic finally overtook her. She would die there, on the planet of her birth, with no one to tell her tale, abandoned by her only friend. She felt the deep, ancient terror of dying forgotten and alone.

The bell rang eleven times. It was to be the world’s mortal knell, but it swung one last time and silence fell. The bell was poised in midair in a distant clock tower, clapper a fraction of a millimeter away from striking a twelfth time.

Missy instantly pieced together what had happened. He had saved her. Along with the rest of the world too, but she decided not to think about that. He had saved her. He had placed the world further removed from the rest of the universe, preserved in its own slice of time. You saved me, she thought, at once terrified, exhilarated and relieved. For a moment she had been at his mercy. He had commanded the power of the gods, he had control of life and death and the most powerful weapon in the universe. She had always feared that he would would become greater than her, that he would take his place among the gods.

But now she realized she had made a mistake. He was the same as the rest of them. He was a coward, and now one thing took precedence in her mind and her hearts amid the relief of escaping what would have been her final death.

Then, from somewhere out in the silence, through the dark void and the tangles of time, a crack opened in the sky and a voice resonated through the divergent universe to which Gallifrey was now confined. Somewhere, out in the vastness of space and time was a girl who was determined to provide an antithesis to the silent response to the oldest question in the universe.

‘His name is the Doctor.’ She said, her voice filling the sky ‘And if you love him, and you know that you should, then help him. Please. Just help him.’

Another of his Earth girls, she thought. Her particular Gallifreyan time-sense told her that this girl was an incredibly complex, almost impossible spacetime event, and that an outside force would be needed to bring and keep her and the Doctor together. An outside force, perhaps, with a penchant for Victorian clothing and an instinct that told her that the Doctor needed this girl.

The Time Lords heeded the human girl’s call and soon a wave of regeneration energy was coursing through the tear in the fabric of space and time. Missy seized the opportunity, raising her umbrella and riding the current out into N-Space. She knew the consequences of her action would be a temporary psychic link with the destination point of the energy.

She tumbled out of the vortex and landed in a snowbank. She stared up into the grey winter sky. ‘I am alone. The world which shook at my feet, and the trees and the sky have gone. I am alone now. Alone. The wind bites now and the world is grey, and I am alone. Can’t see me. Doesn’t see me. Can’t see me.’

She was approached by a pair of humanoid villagers. ‘Hello!’ the said cheerily, ‘You’re probably experiencing the last vestiges of the truth field. The cracks are closing now.’

‘Have you seen a man calling himself the Doctor?’ she interrupted. The villagers nodded. She wasn’t taking much note of them, or which one was speaking. ‘He was the defender of Trenzalore for centuries, but now there’s not threat from the return of Gallifrey. I’m afraid you’ve just missed him. Left in that blue box, just blew up an entire Dalek fleet, he did.’

‘Of course he did.’ She snapped distractedly. So they were both living on borrowed time now, literally.

‘We don’t know-’ one of them began.

‘I’m not interested in what you don’t know. I know where he’s gone.’ Missy knew what she was going to do now. She wanted her friend back and she was going to give him the best birthday present, even if she had to use all the dead in history... Actually, that was probably going to be necessary simply to triangulate his birthday. She was going to give him an army. An army to help him save the universe. The one thing he had never had. And maybe then he would see that they were the same.

[doctorwhonews]

Torchwood: Believe (Big Finish)

Latest Review: Writer: Guy Adams Director: Scott Handcock Featuring:John Barrowman, Gareth David-Lloyd, Eve Myles, Naoko Mori, Burn Gorman, Arthur Darvill Big Finish Release (United Kingdom) Running Time: 3 hours Released by Big Finish Productions - April 2018 Order from Amazon UK "We're responsible for everything we do, Val. Every book you've written for money that tells people what to think, every DVD you've produced for money that tells people what to change about their lives. Every speech, every assembly, every word - you don't get to do that and shrug away the responsibility." Upon learning of Big Finish’s successful acquisition of the Torchwood licence back in 2015, fans the world over – this reviewer included – immediately began drafting their personal wish-lists for the franchise’s impending audio continuation. What happened next after Miracle Day? Could Owen and / or Tosh return to the fold despite their demises in 2008’s “Exit Wounds”? Was it time to learn the fabled secrets of Torchwood Two? And no, seriously, when were we moving on from Miracle Day so as to get that failed US soft reboot’s sour taste out of our palettes? Perhaps the most pressing point on the agenda, however, was just how swiftly the studio could reunite Captain Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones, Toshiko Sato and Owen Harper for any lost missions beyond those we witnessed on-screen in Seasons One and Two. Well, we’ve waited three years – the Owen-less 10th anniversary celebration The Torchwood Archive notwithstanding – to discover the answer, but it comes in the form of perhaps the range’s most satisfying boxset to date, Torchwood: Believe. Isolating his latest scripts from both the sinister activities of the Committee in Big Finish’s monthly releases and Cardiff’s present apocalyptic state in Aliens Among Us proves a genuine masterstroke on Guy Adams’ part. Rather than forcing newcomers enticed by the return of all five Torchwood Three members to hit pause and purchase past releases in order to decipher what’s occurring here, the regular range contributor delivers a totally standalone affair, albeit one which still packs no shortage of emotional punches thanks to further exploring many thematic and character strands first established in the original show. Part of what makes this approach so successful from the outset is how comfortably familiar Believe’s opening moments will seem to those fans who’ve followed the show in all its forms since Day One (episodic pun fully intended). At first, we’re presented with a run-of-the-mill debrief led by Owen into the ongoing exploits of the Church of the Outsiders, a seemingly innocuous religious cult whose efforts to hasten humanity’s ascent to meet – and interbreeding with – alien species include stealing classified UNIT data, dabbling in illegal cyber augmentation as well as setting up their own TV channel, community centres and full-fledged indoctrinatory academy. It’s a quintessential sequence that feels ripped straight out of the TV show, with each cast member helping to remind us of the lead ensemble’s witty rapport: Owen (Gorman) righteously assured of his every move’s necessity, Toshiko (Mori)’s reserved tendency to serve as the voice of reason, Ianto (David-Lloyd)’s still-growing confidence within the team dynamic, Gwen (Myles)’s often gung-ho attitude tempered by the personal grounding that she brings to the agency and Jack (Barrowman) as enigmatic as he is charismatic. So far so Torchwood, then? Clearly, we’re in for three hours’ worth of Avengers: Infinity War-style crossover banter, right? Not exactly. As Adams and producer James Goss accurately highlighted in the midst of Believe’s pre-release marketing campaign, the show – in its on-screen incarnation – would often split up the team to achieve different goals within the context of the wider mission, thereby allowing time to explore how each character’s individual passions and flaws affected their outlook on increasingly hostile situations. Indeed, the same rings true here as Ianto pairs himself with one of the Church’s devoted disciples to further investigate their goals, Tosh pursues the sect’s resident accountant Frank Layton (brought to life with self-titled and loathsomely complacent aplomb by ex-Doctor Who companion Arthur Darvill) and Gwen meets Church leader Val’s introverted daughter Andromeda, all while Owen oversees operations from the Hub and Jack heads off to pastures unknown. Yet to simply describe Believe as but a scattershot collection of plot threads which eventually converge would severely undermine the scale of Adams’ achievement, not least in challenging each member of the team with dilemmas the likes of which they’ve arguably never faced before. The Church’s interstellar ambitions resonate in extremely different ways for each of our protagonists, with Jack for instance earnestly admitting his yearning to travel the stars as he once did with the Doctor, Ianto – as with The Last Beacon in April – once again forced to consider whether his ties with Torchwood Three threaten to rob him of any soul, hope or life meaning, and most notably the show’s beloved unrequited romance between Owen and Tosh taking the most disturbing detour imaginable. For make no mistake, the scribe who showed us Suzie’s darkest inhibitions in Moving Target and took Gwen on a high-octane car chase with her local counsellor in More Than This has no qualms about taking further bold risks this time around either. Much as Gorman and Mori looked overjoyed to reunite their wayward almost-lovers when posting about their recording experiences on Twitter, the pair – both as actors and characters – are put through the dramatic ringer and then some here, Tosh’s efforts to extract any key intel possible from Layton about his supposedly selfless church-turned-charity soon developing into Children of Earth-level territory which could uproot her budding romantic tension with Mr. Harper forever. Think of a fall from grace on the scale of a Greek tragedy and you'll only just scratch the surface what's in store, as one of the pair colossally oversteps their reach to devastating effect. Thank goodness, then, that both stars knock the ball out of the metaphorical park with captivating, psychologically intricate and often downright heartbreaking performances. We’ll avoid spoilers here for the sake of preserving your listening experience, save for that the Tosh-Layton storyline builds to an extremely unsettling crescendo, to a place where this reviewer isn’t entirely sure even the TV show would’ve dared to tread on BBC One / Two / Three. Heck, Big Finish themselves rarely tend to stray into territory as macabre as this, barring some of their early Doctor Who Main Release excursions like Colditz or the Doctor Who: Unbound range, but when the results are so painstakingly powerful and haunting as this, one almost wishes that they’d take the leap of faith more often. Such narrative ambition on Adams’ part doesn’t end there – it pervades Believe on a conceptual level as well. Ever since juggling verbose duck companions with religious satire in The Holy Terror, Big Finish have shown their complete willingness to interrogate faith, its cathartic and chaos-inducing consequences for its followers / opponents, as well as whether anyone has the right to brazenly dispel theistic beliefs. Believe takes this contemplation to another level altogether, as Jack’s met with the profound existential dilemma of knowing that the Church’s desire to have humanity mingle with aliens will eventually come to pass, while Owen considers whether he’s fuelling the mission out of mere ego or indignation at religious groups’ naivety surrounding the afterlife, and Ianto undergoes an epiphany surrounding that aforementioned intervention by Torchwood into the beliefs of others without any consideration for the victims left behind come the mission’s denouement. Rhian Blundell's superb work as Ianto's endearingly sincere and passionate guide Erin helps immeasurably in the latter regard, with her and David-Lloyd's characters striking up a quaint college romance of sorts that won't fail to take even the biggest Jones-Harkness shippers off guard. Two questions might justifiably have occurred to readers of this review by now: why didn’t Torchwood Season Two’s final episodes make mention of these character moments if they’re so pivotal, and where does the inevitable alien antagonist factor into processes? Let’s tackle those in linear order – unlike Believe’s refreshingly non-linear structure, with Episode 1 in particular zipping cleverly between Owen’s initial debrief and each teammate’s consequent mission. Considering that Adams’ exemplary three-part tale situates itself explicitly between the events of “A Day in the Death” and “Fragments”, that it’s so intent on progressing arguably unresolved threads from the show such as the extents of Tosh’s loyalty, Ianto’s increasingly challenged worldview and Jack’s tendency to withhold the truth even from his comrades might stretch the credibility of its status as a ‘canonical’ in-between-quel for some. Nevertheless, just as some of Big Finish’s finest Who productions took slight liberties with continuity in the name of ambitious storytelling, so too does Believe admirably follow that route so as to truly test our perceptions of these evolving characters in fascinating, often remarkably unsettling ways. That also brings us onto its aforementioned extraterrestrial presence – again, staying clear of spoilers, Torchwood’s finest hours frequently arose from dealing with the worst of humanity rather than alien foes, which affords Adams the creative licence here to pit the team against fallible but equally rational members of their species whose sympathetic motivations only further the personal stakes for both factions. So in spite of bringing together the Famous Five as well as temporarily restoring classic elements from the show such as the fully-operational Hub and – of course – the SUV, Torchwood: Believe fast cements itself as anything but your average all-guns-blazing detective drama. There’s no denying that its audacious character arcs, unspeakably heartrending performances from Gorman and Mori, and realistic shades of moral greyness will result in a challenging listening experience for long-term fans, but those elements also set the boxset apart as an awards-worthy tour de force in truly provocative science-fiction. Between the masterful Beacon and the game-changing Believe, 2018 could be the year where everything changes for Big Finish’s Torchwood range; if that’s the case, then one thing’s for sure – Guy Adams and his entire lead cast are ready. http://reviews.doctorwhonews.net/2018/05/torchwood_believe_big_finish.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr