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Even Time Lords need sleep at times. It’s a way of resetting a tired brain, although there are ways around it. Lack of sleep is rarely if ever a fatal condition to a disciplined mind, and the Master has complete control of his brain chemistry.
He can’t sleep, and he knows who to blame. After weeks of careful work on his latest design, purging the toxic build up of chemicals in his brain isn’t enough, and he needs at least a couple of hours of real sleep, but she’s awake, and so he is as well.
They aren’t in the same temporal zone, they haven’t renewed contact in so long, she shouldn’t have this much influence over him, but of course she does. Their original link was made without mental shields or any care, before either of them had any control of telepathy. It didn’t fade as it should, and it harms him to this day. He hopes that it harms her too.
He can’t sleep, so he pokes at their link. If to encourage her to sleep as well, or just to make her as uncomfortable as he is, he doesn’t know. She might not even notice that he’s reaching for their connection, or she might ignore him, they’re too far away for him to even attempt to take control of her mind.
He keeps pushing his discomfort towards her until he feels his eyelids heavy, and can finally lay his head back to rest. Time Lords need to sleep, and whatever else the Doctor is, she needs sleep as well. Sometimes he just has to remind her, or she won’t even allow him rest.
That’s what she, his constant torment, he can never be rid of her, not even in his sleep. He’s not sure he wants to.
