Leela has mixed thoughts regarding the reverse-projection. It was designed by students under Brax’s instruction, and given to Leela so that she could accompany Romana as part of a security detail off-world. It’s a gift, but one that makes her more useful to Gallifrey; it allows her to fit in physically, but it is dishonest, like hiding. It’s different enough from native Gallifreyans that she still can’t blend in, and wearing it seems like giving up her humanity and giving in to the will of the Time Lords. But! It can be awfully fun—it’s fast, and strong, and she can speak to her peers on their level. There are perks to existing comfortable in gallifreyan spaces, but even so Leela doesn’t wear it often, only when there is a definite advantage that she can’t overcome by being her usual capable self.

 Ace doesn’t have Leela’s super senses and can’t adapt to a reverse projection as well as Leela can, but that’s not a deterrent. She thinks its cool as hell, and she does have the tenacity to learn. She’s more likely to wear the projection casually than Leela, but she tends to be clumsy so won’t wear it when finesse is necessary.

The tail is a Problem for both since humans don’t have one; everything else kinda has an equivalent (heavy on the kinda, ears are iffy, ha) but not that tail.

An excerpt from a fic that will never get finished regarding tails:

“Oh,” said Tessith, “most of the autonomic responses are automated. That includes your nictitating membranes.” She swiped her own for emphasis. “I had to put the tail on the same sort of program; there’s nowhere on the human brain to map those functions. You lost it all. I suppose you needed the space for figuring out how to balance on those little feet.”

It is 100% not necessary for any non-gallifreyan, and really, it would be weird if they did—harder to keep an eye on the aliens if they look like you. There are VERY few permanent non-gallifreyan residents (just Ace and Leela reall). The reverse-projects are a pet project of Brax’s and a tool gifted to special individuals.

That sentence contains many, many fic requests.

I don’t have even vague directions for some of those because, being a terrible fan, I haven’t given some companions much thought. Worse, when asked about specific companions I usually have to rewatch several episodes before I can answer because I don’t trust my memory for characterization or for events (I don’t trust myself for characterization at all, in honesty).

I do have two (three?) answers for you, Three and the Rani featuring Liz Shaw by Fishpaste (that links to ao3) and a bit I wrote with Leela here (and there’s another version by asoldandtrueasthesky called Scarves, and I still am in awe that others have written for this AU, thank you everyone!)

There are a couple of companions I do know find out shortly into their adventure, or before it. Amy knows because a lizard climbed out of a box in her backyard and she fed it beans; Adric and Tegan know the proper draconoid shape first as well (and nyssa is one so that’s no shock for her); Barbara and Ian learn when they start investigating and the doctor drops the projection as soon as they’re inside the TARDIS.

A bunch more i’m iffy on, or haven’t thought about it enough, or keep jumping back and forth; does nine tell rose before they leave Earth because they trust her, or does Rose find out after Dalek, with Nine acting humanoid beforehand to fit in? Peri knows but finds out in the audios and I don’t know when (unless there’s a good opportunity in Planet of Fire that I’m forgetting—possible). When does clara know? how does her fracturing play into that? Does Martha find out before she starts working for UNIT? and there are so many EU characters…it’s an impossible question to answer all at once, and I love and encourage input!

Donna finds out immediately. She’s transported into the TARDIS while the doctor is all alone, and wearing the projection alone would be like…not wearing sweatpants on the weekend. The initial conversation is similar, except that ten ducks under the console to turn on their projection and then pretends like there wasn’t a giant lizard here just now. Donna insists there was, between insisting this is some sort of prank, until she opens the doors onto space and asks the doctor if they’re an alien. ‘Yeah,’ they say.

‘And there was a big-’

'Yeah.’

'That’s you, huh? A big-’

'Yeah.’

There’s a fraction of a silence in which Donna is probably blocking this information out.

'It’s freezing with these doors open.’

And everything continues as usual. She does refer to them a 'horse’ on several occasions, to their confusion.

The scene where Bill learns is here!

selfie time! graham should still have those lovely sunglasses on though…

We did know so much about Grace though, in so little time; you know soon that, oh, she’s too good, too kind, too fearless to live through this episode (when she goes back into the construction site… oh that’s when I was hurt, bc then you KNOW)

The Doctor says a couple times that they’re an alien before they pass out, and coupled with them being obviously benevolent and really rather friendly, there’s not been incentive for them to be scared or suspicious, and nobody ever acted that way. The most apprehensive is Graham and he still runs after everyone! Sometimes you see a weird pod in the woods, sometimes a cable monster attacks the train, sometimes there’s a big alien lizard passed out on the couch.  Grace was awed by the Doctor’s artron glow and their double pulse, but otherwise unphased, and after the night they’ve all had, this might as well happen, right?

yep, they were brassy-gold growing up!

Haahaha, I’ve been thinking on this ask for a while,and the answer has changed a few times. The hand in a jar is a Space Dragon, so if the metacrisis uses that as its template then it’s a Space Dragon with human characteristics of some sort. Probably boring characteristics, like human kidneys and bone density and gross bodily mortality. Rose is left with a Space Dragon at Bad Wolf Bay and even with a perception filter its Awkward.

Alternatively, and this is the Answer I’m going with, is that the metacrisis uses Donna as the template for the overall shape, because there’s more information in a Whole Body, so ‘tentoo’ is now a Donna clone that’s more gallifreyan on the inside. DonNot, if you will. The Doctor sends Rose off with DonNot since they behave mostly like the metacrisis did in canon—ha, Doc comments sometime on how it wigs them out, seeing Donna who doesn’t ACT like Donna.This situation leaves Rose/Metacrisis as a less heteroromantic ship than it was, bc no matter how nonbinary the doctor or any clone-beings of theirs are, that ship is painfully straight and that’s got to change even if Rose and Donna are magnificently incompatible—but hey, it’s DonNot so it could work!

(I have little hope of it working)

Gallifreyan machines are smart. The doctor knew this when they were shot. They knew this when they were brought into the hospital, when they were sedated, and they knew it when they warned the surgeons. Human machines are stupid. Humans are stupid—oh, but they’re trying—oh this is 

         dark 

Everything in the surgical theatre shorted out. Madame Butterfly died in a sharp hiss of static, lights popped, monitors blanked. Nobody could discern why, though the engineers later said it was like a lightning strike had come from inside the room, and even they couldn’t understand why the backup systems failed. The staff were dazed. The equipment and the patient lay dead.

(It was the projector that did it, the little bit of technology that allowed Gallifreyans to pass unnoticed on less advanced [read, ‘all other’] planets. Blasted the surrounding electronics to bits to keep the less advanced from getting too close.)

Gallifreyan machines are smart, but they’re not immortal. In the cold, when their host is dead, they die too. Their host is their battery, and when the reserves run out… 

          cold 

When they woke they were cold. Cold, dark, and alone are the three worst states to be in when recovering from Death, since they’re hard to distinguish from the previous condition. They also slow motor functions, and because the carts in the mortuary weren’t designed for dismounting, the cold and the dark made for enough noise to, if not wake the dead, to mortify the living. Though, in honesty, when confronted with 600 pounds of confused, sheet-clad green lizard pounding their way through several inches of steel from the wrong side of a room full of corpses, fainting is really the most intelligent option.

Have we mentioned that Gallifreyan machines are smart? It takes a while, a few empty corridors that echo with clacking claws and an incoming coastal storm, but the machines get their act together. They have a job to do, while their host is out loopy, after all. All is well. Relatively speaking.

(It’s not their fault they don’t come programmed with clothing.)

Gallifreyan claws aren’t really long enough for sheathes in everyday settings; they do wear garmets, like

and have been know to use armour 

but their nails don’t get their own jewelry; it’s hard to walk if there’s a bunch of stuff on your fingers.

long nails are unprofessional; personal grooming is paramount!

(I have thought about some sort of writing implement that is worn, but I’m not sure how it would work, and I’m not sure it would be necessary as anything other than a stylus for electronic screens. I’m also not sure how they go about writing at all. don’t have a headcanon for the mechanics of it. yet.(

Thanks! Love to hear from people

I have drawn her before, but it’s soooo old so here’s a new sketch ;D

that’s good to hear, ha!

[obligatory zoomed version]

Lots of brushing. it’s been speculated that the Gallifreyan invention of time travel was provoked by the sheer amount of time consumed by brushing.

but hey, you can’t conquer physics with a rat’s nest on your head

don’t know yet! isn’t it exciting?! there’s hasn’t been a good opening in the show yet, i eagerly await more (and if there’s not a eureka moment, I’ll have to think about it a bit)

Bill is gonna be chill with it though. as chill as someone can be while asking 2000 hard-to-answer genre-savvy questions. ‘Can you breathe fire—or, no, ice. No, lemme guess, it’s lightning’ or something along those lines

they’d need one in a bit of a larger size

definitely a clawed hand

bubble bubble bubble

Nonverbal insults! this was fun.

(there’s no universal ‘okay’ sign; head dips, psychic impulses can be used, and different groups may have their own signals)

i have so many regrets

accepted

i’m so glad i haven’t emptied my trash folder in months, look what was still in there: dewlap brax

[insert romana’s unimpressed face here]