Ulysses (4/?) [Ten/Jack/Rose - Firefly crossover - PG-13]

[aibhinn_fics]

Title: Ulysses (4/?)
Author: aibhinn
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Rose, Jack, Ten (will end up OT3); the Firefly crew.
Spoilers: DW through Journey's End, TW through Children of Earth, and all aired Firefly canon, including episodes and the movie Serenity.
Betas: larielromeniel and canaana, though I did some editing after I got it back from them, so if I messed it up, it's not

Comments

[gwynevere1]

Hi. I just found this through better_with_3 and ended up reading all four chapters at once, so forgive me if I end up referencing past sections.

I love the delicious irony that Rose is immortal and ended up married to a the mortal human!Doctor. I also may be very dense or you're an intricate storyteller (or both), but I completely did not understand River's prediction until events started to occur. Mainly, I had no clue who "Jones" was even though, in retrospect, it should have been obvious. A bit like Rose, I thought River was using "Jones" to distinguish the original Doctor from the Duplicate Doctor, who took the name "Smith." I was thinking it was maybe an allusion to Martha and her family.

Having Jones be Jack, though, makes perfect sense, given how we know that "Jack Harkness" isn't *his* real name and that Jack wanted to become a different person (again) after "Children of Earth". I like the idea that "Jack" selects of different non de guerre every time he choose personalities

[aibhinn_fics]

Thank you so much for the kind words! :)

Jack took the names of the two people he accuses himself of murdering: Stephen (his grandson) and Ianto Jones. Thus, Stephen Jones. He won't keep that name for the entire fic, because he's going to be reunited with the Doctor and Rose eventually (not really a spoiler, since you know it's an OT3 fic, grin), but I thought it was a really good indicator of his mindset at the moment. I'm glad you agree!

Re: River--I wrote the rest of chapter 3 and most of chapter 4 before I wrote her scene with Rose. It's reverse engineering, in a way; I wrote what River saw, and then I wrote her seeing it, trying to keep it both completely true and as dense as possible. My goal was to have people go back after having read the chapter and think, "Oh! THAT'S what she meant!" Because you're right: She has her own intense internal logic, and she tells the absolute truth. "Old men covered in blood; it never touched them, but they're drowning in it" is one of my favorite lines from Serenity for that very reason

[quean_of_swords]

Poor Jones!Jack. You almost had me crying. Great chapter!

[zions]

Right now? My heart is breaking.