Story:
Bright Shadow (The Don't Be Alone Remix)Author:
honeynoirRating: Teen
Word Count: 2692
Author's Summary: Amy Pond once said, 'Don't be alone, Doctor.' Vastra is the Doctor's best friend during the dark days.
Characters/Pairings: Amy Pond, Jenny Flint, Madame Vastra, Strax, The Doctor (11th)
Warnings: Angst, Character Study, Drama
We have hit the end of my two-week reccing period here at
calufrax - so this will be my last rec. They are all my favorites, but this one is rather close to my heart, so I hope you enjoy it just as much as you have the others. We started off with darkness leading to hope - so let us end it the same way, yes? Thank you for giving these fics a chance - and thank you for letting me share them! But I digress...onto the fiction in question!
Recced because: Once upon a time I wrote a fiction. That fiction was then Remixed by a brilliant author who did such gorgeous work, I should have honestly given her the idea and let her run with it to begin with. This is a selfish rec: honeynoir took a fiction that was semi-adequate (in my mind at least) and made it into a masterpiece of words. She honed and shaped and drew out any beauty within, taking my clumsy attempts at telling a story and creating a world within a world that is just breathtaking to behold.
This fiction is about the Doctor after he lost his Ponds. He has a dark road ahead (long and dark) and he feels no respite from his grief - an unexpected hammer-blow that drives him away from his Girl (also grieving) and into the streets of Victorian London. Lost, angry, confused and overwhelmed, he happens to run into an old friend. A friend that not only understands what he is going through, but also understand the dismay, the crushing surprise of what he has lost. She may not be able to hold the darkness and depression at bay forever, but she can give him a brief rest right now - and maybe someone to talk to when it gets to be too much.
This is a tale close to my heart. This is a fiction that speaks to me on a variety of levels that are difficult to comprehend, because the words used were derived from my own words - and lovingly repainted into a glorious sweep of color, music and vivid image. The author's insight and sympathy to the Doctor's pain is staggering (breath-taking, really), and she guides us on a journey of hope and light when there is none to be had. A hand to hold when the abyss is under your feet. She shows us how even those who are lost can find a way home again. All they have to do is look and one will be found. But don't take just my word for it. Read and know the beauty this author has brought to the page. I guarantee you will wish it never had an end...
In her rented hansom, when he hung his head and stared at the crushed vegetable matter coating his boots instead of rattling off a succession of overblown truths and obvious lies, she realised something was rather more wrong than she’d thought, and she hadn’t been overly positive in her initial assessment.
He hadn’t noticed she had followed him, but accepted her presence. He was silent, but he was there. Lost in his own mind, but there. Such a very old friend and she had never seen him like this. Had, in fact, hoped to never have to see him like this. He was poised to move, thighs and calves tense to the point of shaking; as if he was going to throw himself into the street, as if the only thing on his mind was to get away. No. Then he would not have come. She put a firm hand on his arm, as comfort, as warning: if you go, I’ll go.
The silence was light, yet oppressive, but spoken words would shatter it. She concentrated on her third eye; on the psychic part she rarely could put to use... only to be unable to form a link with the Doctor. He’d erected a mental block; a sloppy, fraying, tired block, but one nonetheless.
Ohhh, just lovely!! Truly awe-inspiring. And one last taste of the Darkness...with a hint of purity, light and hope to round it off gorgeously. Please stop and let the author know how much they have moved you. I know that would thrill them to no end (and of course, there is always the 'they'll make more' as a motivator).
Again, thank you all for allowing me to share with you these last two weeks. I certainly hope you have enjoyed all the fictions and authors I have reccomended here and I hope you have found a gem within all of these recs that speaks to you and keeps you coming back again and again.
Until Next Time!
*HUGS*
Mandy