Double drabble: Never-were

[10littlebullets]

Title: Never-were

Comments

[redjaywrites]

Oh god. I've read that short story, but I can't remember... is it Smoke and Mirrors or Fragile Things? EITHER WAY this worked and *shivers to the bone*

[10littlebullets]

It's called "Other People" and I believe it's from Fragile Things.

Glad to be able to share the "OH GOD NO" that crept over me when this plotbunny first bit. *evil grin*

[redjaywrites]

That's it. The one he based on Satre, I believe. I saw the reference as soon as I started reading though at first, the title reminded me of Neverwhere.

[10littlebullets]

Yep, that's the one--hell is other people, and it's orders of magnitude more horrifying if the other person is yourself. Especially if "yourself" is Ten at an absolute nadir of crazypants self-loathing.

Properly speaking the title is one of the eldritch horrors spawned by the the Time War that Ten mentioned in EoT, but since Gaiman wrote Neverwhere, and the Neverland arc in Eight's BFA audios is also full of temporal abominations and dark!Doctor doubles, I figured it was appropriate all 'round.

[lyricwrites]

Actually, the story is quite creepy and horrific even if you haven't read the Gaiman story (which I hadn't, before I looked at the comments). I mean, you don't really know what's going to happen, but between the Cloister Bell and the Time Lord Victorious, it really, really can't be good.

[10littlebullets]

Yay, thanks! Glad to hear that it has a certain amount of suggestive creepiness even on its own. In most cases I'd say, yeah, toss Time War!Eight at Ten on a low-functioning day and the results are probably worse if left to the imagination, but Gaiman managed to come up with something even more unsettling than the horrors that crawl out of most people's brains if you don't show them the monster. It is reassuring to hear that even in concept-drabble form, the story doesn't rest entirely on that gimmick.