Children of Time Awards, Part Twelve
As you know, the Children of Time awards are up for voting. And as there's so many fics up in each category - and only one vote per category, I'm going through the fics in a mad attempt to figure out how on earth I should vote.
I figured my notes might come in handy to the rest of you.
In Part One, I reviewed Chaos Theory, Six Stages, and Not One Line.
In Part Two, I reviewed The Devil You Know, Wolf Moon, Dulce et Decorum Est, and Passing Notes.
In Part Three, I reviewed Non-Linear Love Story, And So Things Go, and What Doesn't Kill You.
In Part Four, I reviewed You That Way, We This Way, Human Nature, Teach Me More, Coming Around, and Passing the Torch.
In Part Five, I reviewed I Had No Idea I Had Been Traveling (series), 9.8 Metres Per Second Squared, First and Last, and Tender Moments That Don't Last.
In Part Six, I reviewed 7 Words and a Metaphor, Illyria (series), and The Unsexy Sex.
In Part Seven, I reviewed The Bliss series, The Doctor Got Abducted, Ulysses, and There is No Peace That I've Found So Far.
In Part Eight, I reviewed To An Outsider's Eye, A Thousand Languages, Dancing Bananas, and Autumn Days That Make You Feel Sad.
In Part Nine, I reviewed Aftermaths, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Contagious, That Quiet Part, and More than an Echo.
In Part Ten, I reviewed I Ching, A Sky Without Zeppelins, I Believe in You, Dancing at the Sugar Shack, and Ten Times the Doctor Didn't Say "I Love You" (and One Time He Did).
In The Special Drabble Edition, I reviewed all nine drabbles nominated.
In Part Eleven, I reviewed Passing the Torch, Tidewater, Without a Doubt, Nothing But Sand, Fabric, and The Still Lost series.
Today I'll review:
Out of Joint by HonorH
So Close by rickmaniac101
The Loved 'verse by fid-gin, and guest appearances by unfolded73
Cheating Time, by Gillian Taylor/dark aegis & wendymr
Diamond Sea by whochick
Therefore, without further ado:
Why You Should Vote For This Fic:
Out of Joint by HonorH Link goes to Teaspoon
Characters: Nine, Jack, Rose, cast of Firefly
Rating: PG up to the epilogue, which is Adult
Details: Crossover with Joss Whedon's Firefly, chaptered and complete, action/adventure.
Why It Rocks:
The mark of good fanfiction is that it makes you want the original. I know it sounds backwards, but it's true, at least for me - I've found that after the best fanfic, I have fallen in love with the characters again, and want to immerse myself in their stories. While I saw Firefly, and the following movie, Serenity, and I liked them, I wouldn't call myself a die-hard fan.
This fanfic, however, makes me want to run out and buy the DVD, because I've remembered why I liked River Tam and Kaylee and Inara and Shepard Book and yes - even Jayne. A cross-over, improperly done, can feel forced, or rote, or worse - just plain stupid. But HonorH knows her characters, and she knows what they won't do, which is just as important as what they will.
Now, I'm familiar with the characters in Firefly. If you haven't seen it, you may end up being lost in the first few chapters, particularly in regards to who is who on board the Serenity, because there's a lot of them. (The Serenity is a Firefly-class starship, hence the name of the show, which sadly lasted less than half a season before spawning a movie. It's a space-age Western, and kind of fun, once you get into the later episodes.) That said, HonorH knows these characters as well as she knows the ones from Doctor Who. Each one of them - from Captain Mal to Inara down to Jayne - felt absolutely real and authentic. She even managed to get River Tam's odd proclamations sound right, and that's something of a challenge to say the least.
Actually, it's the conversations between the Doctor and River that I found the most interesting. River - and there are no River Song implications in the fic, so don't even bother looking - is too much like the Doctor for her own good. She's vaguely telepathic, and she's undergone a seriously traumatic experience, just like him. And like him, she feels the motion of time and space. But more so than just that - she gets the Doctor, in a way that is not only unnerving to the Time Lord, but to the ones who know River best.
[River] looked the Doctor in the face. “Two hearts, both broken. Two hearts, and she holds one.”
What Mal found most disturbing about all this was that the Doctor looked like River was making perfect sense to him.
Actually, it would probably be fascinating to see River aboard the TARDIS as a companion. I don't think she'd ever compete for the Doctor's heart - or Jack's - but she almost seems to fit there. In fact, she seems kind of drawn to the ship, as well as its Time Lord. She could very easily be part of it, someday:
River on the Doctor: She felt his presence. It was somehow heavier and more real than the others around her, like the gravity well of a planet as opposed to a moon. It drew her in.
As the rest of the crew begins to interact, we see the predictable pairs come out. Rose and Kaylee form a friendship, as do Jack and Inara. (Actually, Jack attempts to form "friendships" with just about everyone. Up to and including Wash and Zoe, which is probably one of the funnier on-going jokes of the fic:
Jack grinned. “Oh, don’t worry--one of my only hard-and-fast rules is that I never sleep with one half of a married couple. Now, both halves, on the other hand . . .” Zoë gave him her best un-amused look. Jack cleared his throat. “Noted and logged.”)
But, lest you think this story is a one-off, just a quick let's-throw-them-together-and-see-who-shags-who, it's not. River says, quite early on, that "Time is out of joint." She's right - there's an actual plot here, that pulls together both of the realities from the two worlds. The Reapers in the Firefly-verse are acting oddly, and it turns out they're under the influence of technology from the distant future.
As with any good adventure, the fun is watching the mix of action and reaction. And through interacting with each other, both crews come out a little bit stronger than before. River finds someone akin to her in the Doctor - a single entity, unlike any other in the universe. They're similar souls, she and he. And somehow, this comforts her in a way her brother has been unable to do. Jack becomes perhaps another wedge in between Inara and Mal. And Rose...
Well, that would be telling. But I think it's fairly safe to say that the gift Rose leaves with is certainly well-appreciated by all.
In short, vote for Out of Joint. It's fun, it's fast, it's got random Hitchhiker's Guide references and some genuine moments that make you gasp. It's got the Doctor and Jack riffing off each other, some very funny jokes, a little bit of Chinese, and a particularly satisfying slap. It's an excellent cross-over that will make you want more, and it totally deserves your vote.
*
So Close by rickmaniac101
Characters: Nine, Rose, Jack, Ten
Rating: PG
Details: One-shot, bit of timey-whimey.
Why It Rocks:
Do you remember the song that played the first time you danced with your beloved?
I'll be honest; I don't. But then, neither does he, so we're even.
Memories fade. It's probably worse when you're alive for several centuries, and there are so many memories to keep in your head. But the good thing about having a time ship, is that you can go back and relive them again, just observe, and catch the details you missed the first time. Or, in this case, remember which song it was that played.
The Doctor and Rose and Jack have just saved the world (again), and as a treat, the Doctor lets them drag him to a nightclub, where his young companions can dance off their excess energy and have a little bit of fun. He thinks he'll watch them gyrate on the floor for a bit, but just as he settles in, Rose pulls him into the dance, unwilling to let him stand on the side. And, of course, the music changes from the fast-paced song that played to something softer, as if the DJ has been waiting for him to join the crowd.
He has the strangest sensation that he should tell her he cares for her. He can't imagine why. He can't even tell himself that. Not yet.
The thing is - the Doctor isn't the only one observing them. By the bar, narrating the entire time though we didn't quite know it, stands a familiar (to us) figure, in suit and tie and overcoat, watching them with a wistful expression.
He tries to spin her outward, but when she comes back it's a bit off, and he catches her from falling. The dance they're sharing is awkward, but it's the sort of experience that will change how he sees Rose. I know this because it's already changed me.
It's been the Doctor, all this time, our Doctor, our Ten, who has been narrating for us. He watches Rose and Nine dance, and as he does, he remembers what he felt, what he thought, what he did, and he goes through it, motion by motion, almost by rote, as it committing the images he sees to memory once again.
Memories are tricky things, you see. What you remember, what you forget. The Doctor remembers what it felt like to have Rose dance next to his skin, to have her lips form a smile against his shoulder. But he can't remember the song that played in the background.
I need to promise myself that I'll never come back here again. I need to promise myself that I'll never think about them again.
But he doesn't - at least not before we leave him. Who knows how many times the Doctor returns to this moment, to this nightclub, to listen to a long-forgotten song again, only to return to his TARDIS, parked on yet another street corner, to cheat time again?
In short, vote for So Close. It's lovely and sweet and inherently musical. It's adorable and melancholy all at once, and it will leave you with a sigh in your heart. It's what every shipper knows it true, and it's even got Jack. It very much deserves your vote.
*
Loved 'Verse by fid-gin, with guest appearances by unfolded73
Characters: Ten, Handy, Rose
Rating: OMG NC-17
Details: AU after JE, where the three travel together. Smut-tastic. Lots of one-shots, and there's a chaptered story in the works.
Why It Rocks:
You have Ten. You have Handy. You have Rose. All three travel together. All three have hot smutty action.
Seriously, people, what's not to love?
Well, that's the short version of the review - but even pressed for time, I can't do short, so here's the long version. There aren't a lot of collaborative fics out there in the DW world - in the fanfic world, in general, really. Now, I do see that we tend to pair off, with sets of people writing and beta'ing for each other, but to have two people play in the same world isn't that common that I've seen.
Technically, the Loved 'verse belongs to Fid. But she's allowed Unfolded to have not just access to it, but to play whole-heartedly in it as well. And the amazing this is that it's very difficult to tell where one of them ends, and the other begins. Their writing is absolutely seamless, together or apart, and what they've given us is a full and complete world, not of just Rose and the Doctor, but of Rose and the Doctor and the Doctor.
Not the Other Doctor, either - because here, Handy is very much his own man. He has his own worries, and idiosyncrasies, and concerns, and fears, and wants, and desires. He lives with the Doctor and Rose on the TARDIS, but he's apart, too.
Biological metacrisis. He was the Doctor, and he wasn't. He told her of the disgust - at his own body, at his other self for allowing something like this to happen out of vanity.
Actually, I find Handy to probably be the most compelling character of the three. From the very start of the story, neither Doctor is quite sure what to make of the other. There's the obvious discomfort of having to live with yourself, of course - and the previous quote, in which Handy admits that he wasn't terribly fond of his Time Lord self either. But instead of hiding such jealousy and dislike, they let it all out in the open, right from the start:
[T]hey sort of size each other up for a minute. “So...are you married to the brown suit? Because I've got to tell you, blue isn't really my colour.”
Neither the Doctor nor Handy seem to quite grasp how to treat the other at first. It takes them a little bit to figure out exactly how *ahem* two slot As can possibly fit into a single Slot B.
So to speak.
Says Handy: "Rose isn't with me because I'm a more user-friendly version of you. She's with us because she loves the Doctor, and like it or not that includes me."
And it does take the Doctor a while to figure it out. Actually, I think he's still figuring it out. For him, there is quite a lot at stake in the odd threesome they've arranged for themselves. Possibly more than what is at stake for Rose and Handy:
“Half-human,” he said, almost as though he hadn't been listening to her at all. “I can feel you both aging. I can hear it.” The implication there: that she and the other Doctor had this in common, and when all was said and done, they'd leave him alone again.
It's this view of their relationship that makes the Loved 'verse such a compelling read. Neither man sees the threesome in quite the same way - and neither of them is exactly the same within it. As time goes on, Handy does grow into his own man - he strikes out now and then, he takes a stand, he steps aside. He is determined to mark himself as different - in very literal and not-so-literal ways.
Ten, on the other hand, draws inward. He is taciturn, and stubborn, and quick to recede into the background. When we know him as talkative, he falls silent. Where he is usually perceptive, he is dull. And yet - you never wonder what he's thinking, or that it falls into line with how Handy reacts.
Handy to Ten: "Please don't. Don't be so...so kind to me, I can't bear it."
"Why ever not?"
He almost choked on the answer. "Because a part of me still wants to take her away from you, have her all to myself."
"A part of me wants to let you. So that I don't have to watch you die. Watch your children, your grandchildren, die."
Rose, too, is vastly interesting, because of the way she's able to bring these two together. And they really do need some sort of glue. Rose's love is somehow enough to bind the three of them into a cohesive unit. The Doctor and the Doctor might not be willing at first to be near each other - but they suffer it for her. After all, they both do love her, and it's their love for her that allows them to find a sort of truce...of course, with Fid, nothing stays "truce" for long. And you may read "truce" there as "celibacy".
She felt [the Time Lord's] arms wrap around her, clutching her tightly. He said nothing, no apology, none of the words of endearment that were continuously spilling from the mouth of the other one. He just held her as if his life depended on it.
Make no mistake - this is not a story about Rose and the Doctor, and Rose and Handy. It may start out that way, but it does not end there. This is a story in which each connection is vitally important to the three of them - Rose and the Doctor, Rose and Handy, the Doctor and Handy. Each of them carefully pick through a path laid out before them, which brings them to their own revelations, and pulls them back together again.
"It was all three of us, wasn't it?" Rose said suddenly. Dreamily.
"Is. Please," the other, clothed Doctor spoke up, his voice faint and muffled.
In short, vote for the Loved 'verse. It's lyrical, it's lovely, it's smutty, it's sweet. It's three full and complete characters, with two authors who work seamlessly together. It'll make you oh-so-glad Fid and Unfolded found each other, and you'll never want to leave the world they've given us. It absolutely deserves your vote.
*
Cheating Time by Gillian Taylor (dark-aegis) and wendymr Also on Teaspoon
Characters: Ten, Rose, Jack
Rating: PG-13, save for one tiny smutty bit. AU after Last of the Time Lords.
Details: Timey-whimey, nine chapters, finished, angst-o-rama but of the awesome kind. (Yes, the first chapter says six. It lies.)
Why It Rocks:
So, before I write the reviews I post here, I leave a review for the authors to tell them I'm writing these reviews. I think you should all know that I've just left the most incomprehensible review of my life on Wendy's journal, where this fic is posted. Basically, I started off by saying I was speechless...and then I spent ten minutes not being speechless.
And how awesome is it, that I should read two collaboration fics in one afternoon, and both are brilliant, in the most different ways possible?
Angst is a great thing. Let's face it - half the reason we love RTD is because he gives us excellent reasons to have angst, and there is no character like the Doctor for a good old fashioned angst-fest.
And as far as angst goes, there's nothing angstier than Doomsday and The Last of the Time Lords. The Doctor's lost companions before, sure - but here, he's not just losing a companions. He's losing part of himself in Rose - he's losing his last link to home in the Master. And he'll never have them back.
Lost in this wandering, alone and oh-so-angsty, he goes back to the last point in time where he's been happy: he goes back to see Rose again, in the market just before they return to Earth, to find it overrun with an army of ghosts. And it's here that he falls into a trap of his own making - he kidnaps Rose in a last effort to take back what the universe has stolen from him: a chance to be happy.
Predictably, it does not go well. Rose knows something is wrong - the Doctor is frantic, looks at her as though she's been gone for ages. He won't look her in the eye when she asks to see Jackie. But it's when she takes a moment in her room, and discovers her crumbling make-up, that she realizes what's gone wrong. That the Doctor isn't exactly her Doctor. That the timelines are unraveling. That she's not supposed to be there. That the only reason he would have done such a thing is if the Beast was right, all along, and that she'd died.
There begins a race - against time, against desire, against the happy ending they both want. The Doctor, returning to Earth with Rose, discovers that his attempt to change history has done exactly that, only in a very different way than he's intended. The army of ghosts continued without his intervention, with predictable results. His desperation with Rose turns to grief and resignation. Rose, of course, has known this all along, almost from the beginning - this time isn't hers, and even if she has to die (or not die, as he tells her), it's not fair to the rest of the planet that she should be the catalyst to bring about their destruction.
There is so much pain in the world, so much grief, yet so much joy, too. It's a strange balance, really. For every towering joy, for every 'everybody lives', there's its exact opposite.
There is no such thing as a happy ending. Not for him. Not for her.
The angst in the fic is palpable. The Doctor is tortured, but fully cognizant of the fact that he has brought on his own particular hell now. Though he knows how to end it, it's obvious that he doesn't want to go, walking toward the inevitable with a plodding gait. Rose, steely determined to see this through, to return to her own timeline, even if it means leaving her Doctor forever, is equally torn.
Sooner or later, they’ll have to go back. Sooner or later, it’ll become a reality. Just... let it be quick. Painless, or not too painful. Oh, and what she hopes most of all is that the Doctor doesn’t have to see it happen. If he has to watch her die, if he has to stand there, helpless, unable to do anything to save her, it’ll tear him apart.
She knows that what will happen will destroy her Doctor - will, in fact, drive him to perform the insane act of crossing timelines and kidnapping her - but still the only person she thinks of is him, his comfort, his pain. Well...maybe not just him. When she learns that she'll have to forget this extra time with him, for fear of changing the future that is still to come, she takes this last moment, to grab what should have been hers all along.
He was going to say no - and she could probably list every excuse he’d use in justification - but then the tension disappears from his body, an expression fills his eyes that she’s never seen before, and he’s kissing her, devouring her, as if he’s dying of thirst and she’s water.
One of the reasons I think that Nine and Rose probably never actually consummated anything was because of the sure heartache that would have followed his regeneration. The same is true here - when the Doctor and Rose do finally get together, it just increases the coming heartache by about twenty. The fact that Rose will forget makes it all the more poignant (triggers to remember being a small consolation prize). And I don't know how they do it, but Wendy and Gillian seem to enjoy tormenting their readers, pulling out all the stops to make our hearts break in two. I think they probably spend very late nights devising which words are going to kill us faster.
This is the sound of his breaking hearts: her soft breaths against his bare skin.
You know how it ends, of course. It's not an angst fic for nothing. Rose goes back, the Doctor is alone.
The story changes, but the ending stays the same.
.....or is it?
It's only been a few hours since they last did this, but that was before they said goodbye. This, though. This is so much better. He always did like hellos.
In short, vote for Cheating Time. It's angst, and heartache, it's about ten boxes of empty Kleenex boxes on the floor. It's sad and sweet and you'll probably curse Wendy and Gillian while you frantically wait for the next chapter to load. You'll curse more when you get to the last chapters. It's one of the most incredible rides I've been on, and I loved every last horrible, reckless, jaw-dropping moment. It's brilliant, and absolutely deserves your vote.
*
Diamond Sea by whochick Link goes to Teaspoon
Characters: Rose, Mickey, Eight, et al
Rating: Teen
Details: First in a series, 17 chapters (finished), timey-whimey, AU after Doomsday.
Why It Rocks:
There is much within fandom about the fascination of pairing Rose with earlier incarnations of the Doctor - notably, with Eight. But for all that, we don't normally get long, very intense chapters about Eight. We might get a one-off, we might get a few fairly smutty stories here and there, but stories where Rose actually forms a relationship with Eight? Well, that'd be about ten kinds of AU, wouldn't it, considering that eventually, Eight turns into Nine?
Ah, you're forgetting there's such a thing as Timey-Whimey. And a Time War.
In Diamond Sea, Whochick gives us just that. We get oodles of Eight; we get the Time War; we get all the timey-whimey headache-inducing madness that anyone could ever possibly want. This is all wrapped up in a love story that isn't non-linear so much as it is an undertone - this isn't about Eight finding Rose Tyler, nor is it about Rose Tyler finding the Doctor. It's about the two of them finding themselves.
Basic story: Rose hates her life in the parallel world. She's not happy in the least, she doesn't know what to do with herself. She spends her days wandering the streets, looking for any sign of the Doctor. She's worrying her parents and Mickey, and frankly, she's just about worrying herself. Until one day - she hears the familiar whoosh-whoosh of the TARDIS, and races out the door to find it, sitting lost on the banks of the river. And waiting with it is not her own Doctor - but Eight, who doesn't know her.
That's the beginning - and in a way, it's the end too. See, they don't know it yet, but Rose and the Doctor are just on the beginning edges of the Time War. Yes, that Time War. Rose thinks that the Doctor is her ticket back to her own universe. The Doctor thinks that Rose is an odd person from his future, one with whom he might be able to forge...well, something. He isn't quite sure, but he has the sense she'll be important.
But neither of them quite know what the other is about.
Rose wanted a Doctor who would tell her she’d done a good thing today. She wanted to hear his voice warm with approval. She wanted to feel his arms around her as he told her he was proud of her...
Now, I don't have a lot of experience with Eight. (Darn BBC, refusing to release the movie for Americans! Curse you, BBC! *shakes fist*) So what I know of Eight, I know from online, from bits and pieces gleaned here and there, so I can't tell you how close to canon he is. I get the sense that whochick, however, has done a great deal of research. Here, we see an Eight who has a very full and very complete and very rich backstory. He comes equipped with two companions, a differently designed TARDIS console room, a very different speech pattern, and his own memories of the loss of Gallifrey - which, as I dimly recall, was lost before it was lost. This Doctor doesn't quite know what to make of Rose, at first. He's at turns intrigued and repelled (generally, both reactions due to the fact that she knows his future selves). And yet - he can't seem to let go of this girl, nor the mystery she presents him. Why does she know him? How'd she get trapped in this world? Why do things happen when they touch?
And how is it that for someone so young, she seems so lifeless -- and yet, for her, he himself seems to be more important than anything?
He noticed how the cold had brought colour back into her face and the way her pulse hammered through her as if her single heart was fighting to break free and remain here, far from earth, drenched in memories of a life she could never return to. Despite his inability to take her home, despite his broken promise, despite everything - she still had such faith in him.
Now, we know that time doesn't move linearly. It's a fairly compact ball of rubber bands, when you get down to it. And the Time War had to make quite a mess. But here's the odd thing about the Time War - it moves in jumps and starts, skipping from track to track. It almost seems to move backwards at times, and before Rose and the Doctor can even blink, they are thrust into it, and even what they've come to accept as fact in the few days since Eight arrived has all gone awry. Memories are overwritten, journeys are taken with no explanation, and suddenly, both are soldiers in a conflict neither of them quite understand, and yet they have a place in which they've obviously occupied for some time. It's only now that Rose and the Doctor realize they only have themselves to cling to, and they're the only ones dimly aware that the events proceeding are greater than just the two of them.
“We’re all mortal,” [the Doctor] said finally.
“Maybe. But some of us are larger than life,” [said Rose.]
It's curious, really, watching the two of them dance in circles around each other. Rose, when first confronted with Eight, is almost afraid of him, and of herself around him. She knows the consequences of telling him too much, but it's only after they're thrust into the war, that she really begins to change. Rose comes back to life - she's no longer the little girl, wandering the London streets looking for something she's lost. Not that she isn't aware that she's lost it - but now she's aware that she's lost much more than her Doctor, or her previous life. In the middle of a war, she's lost something greater: her innocence.
“I just want to go home,” [Rose] admitted quietly. “Except...I’m not really sure where that is anymore.”
But the funny thing about war, and loss of innocence, is what you gain in return. Rose gains the confidence to trust herself. Somehow, in learning to trust herself again, she enables the Doctor to trust in her, something he hadn't been able to previously do. After all, when he first met Rose, she was lost, and afraid, wandering the streets barefoot. Not a terribly good first impression. But now, finding her again in the midst of a war, he finds a woman grown, able to stand on her feet. Even able to make horrifically difficult decisions, ones he makes every day. She's his equal now - and because of this, he's able to find his way to thinking of her as such.
Says the Doctor: “We all need something to believe in. If you can’t believe in transdimensional quantum physics, then believe in Rose.”
On the whole, the fic is amazing deep and complex. One reading isn't enough to actually grasp everything that happens within it - nor is a single afternoon enough to really absorb the many divergent timelines that are running together. This is the sort of fic that you want to read again, just to pick up on what you might have missed the first time around. It needs to be savored, not hurried, and it needs no distraction. The writing within, however, runs smoothly and without faltering, and there's a few scenes in here that make you want to read them again, and again. (There's also a fantastically intimate scene between the Doctor and Rose toward the end - just before the final culmination of the Time War, and what makes it shocking in its intimacy is that nothing actually happens, and yet, you feel as though the Doctor and Rose have just shared something far more close than what deserves an R rating.)
In short, vote for Diamond Sea. It's a long, hard look at loss of innocence and loss of self. It's about being found in the place and time you least suspect. It's got old companions, and old enemies, and more technobabble than you can shake a stick at. It's thick and dense and just the sort of thing you want to print out and curl up with on the sofa, and maybe read with a cup of hot chocolate and firelight. The twist at the end will make you grin with pleasure - and don't think I don't have my own theories on what that TARDIS is up to, either. It's a mystery wrapped in an enigma set in a parallel world, but one mystery which remains transparent is that it completely deserves your vote.
*
On to Part Thirteen, which is probably the last to appear before voting closes, where I review:
The Long Path (series) by melissa228
Threshold by Aibhinn
No Wanderin' Off by jlrpuck/shrak
Incurable by rosa_acicularis
That's today's post - yes, I know, five stories only, but they're all quite long. And my brain is seriously wearied.
(Also, I just realized I reviewed Passing the Torch twice. I can't decide if I should sigh, fall over laughing, or just go to bed!)
There are only three days left for me to post before voting becomes a necessity. I can tell you now that as much as it grieves me (and please do believe that it does grieve me), I'm not going to be able to get to everyone. If there's a specific fic you'd like to see done, please let me know which, and I'll see what I can do. Thanks, and much love to you all for reading these.
I figured my notes might come in handy to the rest of you.
In Part One, I reviewed Chaos Theory, Six Stages, and Not One Line.
In Part Two, I reviewed The Devil You Know, Wolf Moon, Dulce et Decorum Est, and Passing Notes.
In Part Three, I reviewed Non-Linear Love Story, And So Things Go, and What Doesn't Kill You.
In Part Four, I reviewed You That Way, We This Way, Human Nature, Teach Me More, Coming Around, and Passing the Torch.
In Part Five, I reviewed I Had No Idea I Had Been Traveling (series), 9.8 Metres Per Second Squared, First and Last, and Tender Moments That Don't Last.
In Part Six, I reviewed 7 Words and a Metaphor, Illyria (series), and The Unsexy Sex.
In Part Seven, I reviewed The Bliss series, The Doctor Got Abducted, Ulysses, and There is No Peace That I've Found So Far.
In Part Eight, I reviewed To An Outsider's Eye, A Thousand Languages, Dancing Bananas, and Autumn Days That Make You Feel Sad.
In Part Nine, I reviewed Aftermaths, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Contagious, That Quiet Part, and More than an Echo.
In Part Ten, I reviewed I Ching, A Sky Without Zeppelins, I Believe in You, Dancing at the Sugar Shack, and Ten Times the Doctor Didn't Say "I Love You" (and One Time He Did).
In The Special Drabble Edition, I reviewed all nine drabbles nominated.
In Part Eleven, I reviewed Passing the Torch, Tidewater, Without a Doubt, Nothing But Sand, Fabric, and The Still Lost series.
Today I'll review:
Out of Joint by HonorH
So Close by rickmaniac101
The Loved 'verse by fid-gin, and guest appearances by unfolded73
Cheating Time, by Gillian Taylor/dark aegis & wendymr
Diamond Sea by whochick
Therefore, without further ado:
Why You Should Vote For This Fic:
Out of Joint by HonorH Link goes to Teaspoon
Characters: Nine, Jack, Rose, cast of Firefly
Rating: PG up to the epilogue, which is Adult
Details: Crossover with Joss Whedon's Firefly, chaptered and complete, action/adventure.
Why It Rocks:
The mark of good fanfiction is that it makes you want the original. I know it sounds backwards, but it's true, at least for me - I've found that after the best fanfic, I have fallen in love with the characters again, and want to immerse myself in their stories. While I saw Firefly, and the following movie, Serenity, and I liked them, I wouldn't call myself a die-hard fan.
This fanfic, however, makes me want to run out and buy the DVD, because I've remembered why I liked River Tam and Kaylee and Inara and Shepard Book and yes - even Jayne. A cross-over, improperly done, can feel forced, or rote, or worse - just plain stupid. But HonorH knows her characters, and she knows what they won't do, which is just as important as what they will.
Now, I'm familiar with the characters in Firefly. If you haven't seen it, you may end up being lost in the first few chapters, particularly in regards to who is who on board the Serenity, because there's a lot of them. (The Serenity is a Firefly-class starship, hence the name of the show, which sadly lasted less than half a season before spawning a movie. It's a space-age Western, and kind of fun, once you get into the later episodes.) That said, HonorH knows these characters as well as she knows the ones from Doctor Who. Each one of them - from Captain Mal to Inara down to Jayne - felt absolutely real and authentic. She even managed to get River Tam's odd proclamations sound right, and that's something of a challenge to say the least.
Actually, it's the conversations between the Doctor and River that I found the most interesting. River - and there are no River Song implications in the fic, so don't even bother looking - is too much like the Doctor for her own good. She's vaguely telepathic, and she's undergone a seriously traumatic experience, just like him. And like him, she feels the motion of time and space. But more so than just that - she gets the Doctor, in a way that is not only unnerving to the Time Lord, but to the ones who know River best.
[River] looked the Doctor in the face. “Two hearts, both broken. Two hearts, and she holds one.”
What Mal found most disturbing about all this was that the Doctor looked like River was making perfect sense to him.
Actually, it would probably be fascinating to see River aboard the TARDIS as a companion. I don't think she'd ever compete for the Doctor's heart - or Jack's - but she almost seems to fit there. In fact, she seems kind of drawn to the ship, as well as its Time Lord. She could very easily be part of it, someday:
River on the Doctor: She felt his presence. It was somehow heavier and more real than the others around her, like the gravity well of a planet as opposed to a moon. It drew her in.
As the rest of the crew begins to interact, we see the predictable pairs come out. Rose and Kaylee form a friendship, as do Jack and Inara. (Actually, Jack attempts to form "friendships" with just about everyone. Up to and including Wash and Zoe, which is probably one of the funnier on-going jokes of the fic:
Jack grinned. “Oh, don’t worry--one of my only hard-and-fast rules is that I never sleep with one half of a married couple. Now, both halves, on the other hand . . .” Zoë gave him her best un-amused look. Jack cleared his throat. “Noted and logged.”)
But, lest you think this story is a one-off, just a quick let's-throw-them-together-and-see-who-shags-who, it's not. River says, quite early on, that "Time is out of joint." She's right - there's an actual plot here, that pulls together both of the realities from the two worlds. The Reapers in the Firefly-verse are acting oddly, and it turns out they're under the influence of technology from the distant future.
As with any good adventure, the fun is watching the mix of action and reaction. And through interacting with each other, both crews come out a little bit stronger than before. River finds someone akin to her in the Doctor - a single entity, unlike any other in the universe. They're similar souls, she and he. And somehow, this comforts her in a way her brother has been unable to do. Jack becomes perhaps another wedge in between Inara and Mal. And Rose...
Well, that would be telling. But I think it's fairly safe to say that the gift Rose leaves with is certainly well-appreciated by all.
In short, vote for Out of Joint. It's fun, it's fast, it's got random Hitchhiker's Guide references and some genuine moments that make you gasp. It's got the Doctor and Jack riffing off each other, some very funny jokes, a little bit of Chinese, and a particularly satisfying slap. It's an excellent cross-over that will make you want more, and it totally deserves your vote.
*
So Close by rickmaniac101
Characters: Nine, Rose, Jack, Ten
Rating: PG
Details: One-shot, bit of timey-whimey.
Why It Rocks:
Do you remember the song that played the first time you danced with your beloved?
I'll be honest; I don't. But then, neither does he, so we're even.
Memories fade. It's probably worse when you're alive for several centuries, and there are so many memories to keep in your head. But the good thing about having a time ship, is that you can go back and relive them again, just observe, and catch the details you missed the first time. Or, in this case, remember which song it was that played.
The Doctor and Rose and Jack have just saved the world (again), and as a treat, the Doctor lets them drag him to a nightclub, where his young companions can dance off their excess energy and have a little bit of fun. He thinks he'll watch them gyrate on the floor for a bit, but just as he settles in, Rose pulls him into the dance, unwilling to let him stand on the side. And, of course, the music changes from the fast-paced song that played to something softer, as if the DJ has been waiting for him to join the crowd.
He has the strangest sensation that he should tell her he cares for her. He can't imagine why. He can't even tell himself that. Not yet.
The thing is - the Doctor isn't the only one observing them. By the bar, narrating the entire time though we didn't quite know it, stands a familiar (to us) figure, in suit and tie and overcoat, watching them with a wistful expression.
He tries to spin her outward, but when she comes back it's a bit off, and he catches her from falling. The dance they're sharing is awkward, but it's the sort of experience that will change how he sees Rose. I know this because it's already changed me.
It's been the Doctor, all this time, our Doctor, our Ten, who has been narrating for us. He watches Rose and Nine dance, and as he does, he remembers what he felt, what he thought, what he did, and he goes through it, motion by motion, almost by rote, as it committing the images he sees to memory once again.
Memories are tricky things, you see. What you remember, what you forget. The Doctor remembers what it felt like to have Rose dance next to his skin, to have her lips form a smile against his shoulder. But he can't remember the song that played in the background.
I need to promise myself that I'll never come back here again. I need to promise myself that I'll never think about them again.
But he doesn't - at least not before we leave him. Who knows how many times the Doctor returns to this moment, to this nightclub, to listen to a long-forgotten song again, only to return to his TARDIS, parked on yet another street corner, to cheat time again?
In short, vote for So Close. It's lovely and sweet and inherently musical. It's adorable and melancholy all at once, and it will leave you with a sigh in your heart. It's what every shipper knows it true, and it's even got Jack. It very much deserves your vote.
*
Loved 'Verse by fid-gin, with guest appearances by unfolded73
Characters: Ten, Handy, Rose
Rating: OMG NC-17
Details: AU after JE, where the three travel together. Smut-tastic. Lots of one-shots, and there's a chaptered story in the works.
Why It Rocks:
You have Ten. You have Handy. You have Rose. All three travel together. All three have hot smutty action.
Seriously, people, what's not to love?
Well, that's the short version of the review - but even pressed for time, I can't do short, so here's the long version. There aren't a lot of collaborative fics out there in the DW world - in the fanfic world, in general, really. Now, I do see that we tend to pair off, with sets of people writing and beta'ing for each other, but to have two people play in the same world isn't that common that I've seen.
Technically, the Loved 'verse belongs to Fid. But she's allowed Unfolded to have not just access to it, but to play whole-heartedly in it as well. And the amazing this is that it's very difficult to tell where one of them ends, and the other begins. Their writing is absolutely seamless, together or apart, and what they've given us is a full and complete world, not of just Rose and the Doctor, but of Rose and the Doctor and the Doctor.
Not the Other Doctor, either - because here, Handy is very much his own man. He has his own worries, and idiosyncrasies, and concerns, and fears, and wants, and desires. He lives with the Doctor and Rose on the TARDIS, but he's apart, too.
Biological metacrisis. He was the Doctor, and he wasn't. He told her of the disgust - at his own body, at his other self for allowing something like this to happen out of vanity.
Actually, I find Handy to probably be the most compelling character of the three. From the very start of the story, neither Doctor is quite sure what to make of the other. There's the obvious discomfort of having to live with yourself, of course - and the previous quote, in which Handy admits that he wasn't terribly fond of his Time Lord self either. But instead of hiding such jealousy and dislike, they let it all out in the open, right from the start:
[T]hey sort of size each other up for a minute. “So...are you married to the brown suit? Because I've got to tell you, blue isn't really my colour.”
Neither the Doctor nor Handy seem to quite grasp how to treat the other at first. It takes them a little bit to figure out exactly how *ahem* two slot As can possibly fit into a single Slot B.
So to speak.
Says Handy: "Rose isn't with me because I'm a more user-friendly version of you. She's with us because she loves the Doctor, and like it or not that includes me."
And it does take the Doctor a while to figure it out. Actually, I think he's still figuring it out. For him, there is quite a lot at stake in the odd threesome they've arranged for themselves. Possibly more than what is at stake for Rose and Handy:
“Half-human,” he said, almost as though he hadn't been listening to her at all. “I can feel you both aging. I can hear it.” The implication there: that she and the other Doctor had this in common, and when all was said and done, they'd leave him alone again.
It's this view of their relationship that makes the Loved 'verse such a compelling read. Neither man sees the threesome in quite the same way - and neither of them is exactly the same within it. As time goes on, Handy does grow into his own man - he strikes out now and then, he takes a stand, he steps aside. He is determined to mark himself as different - in very literal and not-so-literal ways.
Ten, on the other hand, draws inward. He is taciturn, and stubborn, and quick to recede into the background. When we know him as talkative, he falls silent. Where he is usually perceptive, he is dull. And yet - you never wonder what he's thinking, or that it falls into line with how Handy reacts.
Handy to Ten: "Please don't. Don't be so...so kind to me, I can't bear it."
"Why ever not?"
He almost choked on the answer. "Because a part of me still wants to take her away from you, have her all to myself."
"A part of me wants to let you. So that I don't have to watch you die. Watch your children, your grandchildren, die."
Rose, too, is vastly interesting, because of the way she's able to bring these two together. And they really do need some sort of glue. Rose's love is somehow enough to bind the three of them into a cohesive unit. The Doctor and the Doctor might not be willing at first to be near each other - but they suffer it for her. After all, they both do love her, and it's their love for her that allows them to find a sort of truce...of course, with Fid, nothing stays "truce" for long. And you may read "truce" there as "celibacy".
She felt [the Time Lord's] arms wrap around her, clutching her tightly. He said nothing, no apology, none of the words of endearment that were continuously spilling from the mouth of the other one. He just held her as if his life depended on it.
Make no mistake - this is not a story about Rose and the Doctor, and Rose and Handy. It may start out that way, but it does not end there. This is a story in which each connection is vitally important to the three of them - Rose and the Doctor, Rose and Handy, the Doctor and Handy. Each of them carefully pick through a path laid out before them, which brings them to their own revelations, and pulls them back together again.
"It was all three of us, wasn't it?" Rose said suddenly. Dreamily.
"Is. Please," the other, clothed Doctor spoke up, his voice faint and muffled.
In short, vote for the Loved 'verse. It's lyrical, it's lovely, it's smutty, it's sweet. It's three full and complete characters, with two authors who work seamlessly together. It'll make you oh-so-glad Fid and Unfolded found each other, and you'll never want to leave the world they've given us. It absolutely deserves your vote.
*
Cheating Time by Gillian Taylor (dark-aegis) and wendymr Also on Teaspoon
Characters: Ten, Rose, Jack
Rating: PG-13, save for one tiny smutty bit. AU after Last of the Time Lords.
Details: Timey-whimey, nine chapters, finished, angst-o-rama but of the awesome kind. (Yes, the first chapter says six. It lies.)
Why It Rocks:
So, before I write the reviews I post here, I leave a review for the authors to tell them I'm writing these reviews. I think you should all know that I've just left the most incomprehensible review of my life on Wendy's journal, where this fic is posted. Basically, I started off by saying I was speechless...and then I spent ten minutes not being speechless.
And how awesome is it, that I should read two collaboration fics in one afternoon, and both are brilliant, in the most different ways possible?
Angst is a great thing. Let's face it - half the reason we love RTD is because he gives us excellent reasons to have angst, and there is no character like the Doctor for a good old fashioned angst-fest.
And as far as angst goes, there's nothing angstier than Doomsday and The Last of the Time Lords. The Doctor's lost companions before, sure - but here, he's not just losing a companions. He's losing part of himself in Rose - he's losing his last link to home in the Master. And he'll never have them back.
Lost in this wandering, alone and oh-so-angsty, he goes back to the last point in time where he's been happy: he goes back to see Rose again, in the market just before they return to Earth, to find it overrun with an army of ghosts. And it's here that he falls into a trap of his own making - he kidnaps Rose in a last effort to take back what the universe has stolen from him: a chance to be happy.
Predictably, it does not go well. Rose knows something is wrong - the Doctor is frantic, looks at her as though she's been gone for ages. He won't look her in the eye when she asks to see Jackie. But it's when she takes a moment in her room, and discovers her crumbling make-up, that she realizes what's gone wrong. That the Doctor isn't exactly her Doctor. That the timelines are unraveling. That she's not supposed to be there. That the only reason he would have done such a thing is if the Beast was right, all along, and that she'd died.
There begins a race - against time, against desire, against the happy ending they both want. The Doctor, returning to Earth with Rose, discovers that his attempt to change history has done exactly that, only in a very different way than he's intended. The army of ghosts continued without his intervention, with predictable results. His desperation with Rose turns to grief and resignation. Rose, of course, has known this all along, almost from the beginning - this time isn't hers, and even if she has to die (or not die, as he tells her), it's not fair to the rest of the planet that she should be the catalyst to bring about their destruction.
There is so much pain in the world, so much grief, yet so much joy, too. It's a strange balance, really. For every towering joy, for every 'everybody lives', there's its exact opposite.
There is no such thing as a happy ending. Not for him. Not for her.
The angst in the fic is palpable. The Doctor is tortured, but fully cognizant of the fact that he has brought on his own particular hell now. Though he knows how to end it, it's obvious that he doesn't want to go, walking toward the inevitable with a plodding gait. Rose, steely determined to see this through, to return to her own timeline, even if it means leaving her Doctor forever, is equally torn.
Sooner or later, they’ll have to go back. Sooner or later, it’ll become a reality. Just... let it be quick. Painless, or not too painful. Oh, and what she hopes most of all is that the Doctor doesn’t have to see it happen. If he has to watch her die, if he has to stand there, helpless, unable to do anything to save her, it’ll tear him apart.
She knows that what will happen will destroy her Doctor - will, in fact, drive him to perform the insane act of crossing timelines and kidnapping her - but still the only person she thinks of is him, his comfort, his pain. Well...maybe not just him. When she learns that she'll have to forget this extra time with him, for fear of changing the future that is still to come, she takes this last moment, to grab what should have been hers all along.
He was going to say no - and she could probably list every excuse he’d use in justification - but then the tension disappears from his body, an expression fills his eyes that she’s never seen before, and he’s kissing her, devouring her, as if he’s dying of thirst and she’s water.
One of the reasons I think that Nine and Rose probably never actually consummated anything was because of the sure heartache that would have followed his regeneration. The same is true here - when the Doctor and Rose do finally get together, it just increases the coming heartache by about twenty. The fact that Rose will forget makes it all the more poignant (triggers to remember being a small consolation prize). And I don't know how they do it, but Wendy and Gillian seem to enjoy tormenting their readers, pulling out all the stops to make our hearts break in two. I think they probably spend very late nights devising which words are going to kill us faster.
This is the sound of his breaking hearts: her soft breaths against his bare skin.
You know how it ends, of course. It's not an angst fic for nothing. Rose goes back, the Doctor is alone.
The story changes, but the ending stays the same.
.....or is it?
It's only been a few hours since they last did this, but that was before they said goodbye. This, though. This is so much better. He always did like hellos.
In short, vote for Cheating Time. It's angst, and heartache, it's about ten boxes of empty Kleenex boxes on the floor. It's sad and sweet and you'll probably curse Wendy and Gillian while you frantically wait for the next chapter to load. You'll curse more when you get to the last chapters. It's one of the most incredible rides I've been on, and I loved every last horrible, reckless, jaw-dropping moment. It's brilliant, and absolutely deserves your vote.
*
Diamond Sea by whochick Link goes to Teaspoon
Characters: Rose, Mickey, Eight, et al
Rating: Teen
Details: First in a series, 17 chapters (finished), timey-whimey, AU after Doomsday.
Why It Rocks:
There is much within fandom about the fascination of pairing Rose with earlier incarnations of the Doctor - notably, with Eight. But for all that, we don't normally get long, very intense chapters about Eight. We might get a one-off, we might get a few fairly smutty stories here and there, but stories where Rose actually forms a relationship with Eight? Well, that'd be about ten kinds of AU, wouldn't it, considering that eventually, Eight turns into Nine?
Ah, you're forgetting there's such a thing as Timey-Whimey. And a Time War.
In Diamond Sea, Whochick gives us just that. We get oodles of Eight; we get the Time War; we get all the timey-whimey headache-inducing madness that anyone could ever possibly want. This is all wrapped up in a love story that isn't non-linear so much as it is an undertone - this isn't about Eight finding Rose Tyler, nor is it about Rose Tyler finding the Doctor. It's about the two of them finding themselves.
Basic story: Rose hates her life in the parallel world. She's not happy in the least, she doesn't know what to do with herself. She spends her days wandering the streets, looking for any sign of the Doctor. She's worrying her parents and Mickey, and frankly, she's just about worrying herself. Until one day - she hears the familiar whoosh-whoosh of the TARDIS, and races out the door to find it, sitting lost on the banks of the river. And waiting with it is not her own Doctor - but Eight, who doesn't know her.
That's the beginning - and in a way, it's the end too. See, they don't know it yet, but Rose and the Doctor are just on the beginning edges of the Time War. Yes, that Time War. Rose thinks that the Doctor is her ticket back to her own universe. The Doctor thinks that Rose is an odd person from his future, one with whom he might be able to forge...well, something. He isn't quite sure, but he has the sense she'll be important.
But neither of them quite know what the other is about.
Rose wanted a Doctor who would tell her she’d done a good thing today. She wanted to hear his voice warm with approval. She wanted to feel his arms around her as he told her he was proud of her...
Now, I don't have a lot of experience with Eight. (Darn BBC, refusing to release the movie for Americans! Curse you, BBC! *shakes fist*) So what I know of Eight, I know from online, from bits and pieces gleaned here and there, so I can't tell you how close to canon he is. I get the sense that whochick, however, has done a great deal of research. Here, we see an Eight who has a very full and very complete and very rich backstory. He comes equipped with two companions, a differently designed TARDIS console room, a very different speech pattern, and his own memories of the loss of Gallifrey - which, as I dimly recall, was lost before it was lost. This Doctor doesn't quite know what to make of Rose, at first. He's at turns intrigued and repelled (generally, both reactions due to the fact that she knows his future selves). And yet - he can't seem to let go of this girl, nor the mystery she presents him. Why does she know him? How'd she get trapped in this world? Why do things happen when they touch?
And how is it that for someone so young, she seems so lifeless -- and yet, for her, he himself seems to be more important than anything?
He noticed how the cold had brought colour back into her face and the way her pulse hammered through her as if her single heart was fighting to break free and remain here, far from earth, drenched in memories of a life she could never return to. Despite his inability to take her home, despite his broken promise, despite everything - she still had such faith in him.
Now, we know that time doesn't move linearly. It's a fairly compact ball of rubber bands, when you get down to it. And the Time War had to make quite a mess. But here's the odd thing about the Time War - it moves in jumps and starts, skipping from track to track. It almost seems to move backwards at times, and before Rose and the Doctor can even blink, they are thrust into it, and even what they've come to accept as fact in the few days since Eight arrived has all gone awry. Memories are overwritten, journeys are taken with no explanation, and suddenly, both are soldiers in a conflict neither of them quite understand, and yet they have a place in which they've obviously occupied for some time. It's only now that Rose and the Doctor realize they only have themselves to cling to, and they're the only ones dimly aware that the events proceeding are greater than just the two of them.
“We’re all mortal,” [the Doctor] said finally.
“Maybe. But some of us are larger than life,” [said Rose.]
It's curious, really, watching the two of them dance in circles around each other. Rose, when first confronted with Eight, is almost afraid of him, and of herself around him. She knows the consequences of telling him too much, but it's only after they're thrust into the war, that she really begins to change. Rose comes back to life - she's no longer the little girl, wandering the London streets looking for something she's lost. Not that she isn't aware that she's lost it - but now she's aware that she's lost much more than her Doctor, or her previous life. In the middle of a war, she's lost something greater: her innocence.
“I just want to go home,” [Rose] admitted quietly. “Except...I’m not really sure where that is anymore.”
But the funny thing about war, and loss of innocence, is what you gain in return. Rose gains the confidence to trust herself. Somehow, in learning to trust herself again, she enables the Doctor to trust in her, something he hadn't been able to previously do. After all, when he first met Rose, she was lost, and afraid, wandering the streets barefoot. Not a terribly good first impression. But now, finding her again in the midst of a war, he finds a woman grown, able to stand on her feet. Even able to make horrifically difficult decisions, ones he makes every day. She's his equal now - and because of this, he's able to find his way to thinking of her as such.
Says the Doctor: “We all need something to believe in. If you can’t believe in transdimensional quantum physics, then believe in Rose.”
On the whole, the fic is amazing deep and complex. One reading isn't enough to actually grasp everything that happens within it - nor is a single afternoon enough to really absorb the many divergent timelines that are running together. This is the sort of fic that you want to read again, just to pick up on what you might have missed the first time around. It needs to be savored, not hurried, and it needs no distraction. The writing within, however, runs smoothly and without faltering, and there's a few scenes in here that make you want to read them again, and again. (There's also a fantastically intimate scene between the Doctor and Rose toward the end - just before the final culmination of the Time War, and what makes it shocking in its intimacy is that nothing actually happens, and yet, you feel as though the Doctor and Rose have just shared something far more close than what deserves an R rating.)
In short, vote for Diamond Sea. It's a long, hard look at loss of innocence and loss of self. It's about being found in the place and time you least suspect. It's got old companions, and old enemies, and more technobabble than you can shake a stick at. It's thick and dense and just the sort of thing you want to print out and curl up with on the sofa, and maybe read with a cup of hot chocolate and firelight. The twist at the end will make you grin with pleasure - and don't think I don't have my own theories on what that TARDIS is up to, either. It's a mystery wrapped in an enigma set in a parallel world, but one mystery which remains transparent is that it completely deserves your vote.
*
On to Part Thirteen, which is probably the last to appear before voting closes, where I review:
The Long Path (series) by melissa228
Threshold by Aibhinn
No Wanderin' Off by jlrpuck/shrak
Incurable by rosa_acicularis
That's today's post - yes, I know, five stories only, but they're all quite long. And my brain is seriously wearied.
(Also, I just realized I reviewed Passing the Torch twice. I can't decide if I should sigh, fall over laughing, or just go to bed!)
There are only three days left for me to post before voting becomes a necessity. I can tell you now that as much as it grieves me (and please do believe that it does grieve me), I'm not going to be able to get to everyone. If there's a specific fic you'd like to see done, please let me know which, and I'll see what I can do. Thanks, and much love to you all for reading these.