Gallifrey fic

[bagheera_san]

Late fic for the Gallifreyathon at morepolitics.

Title: A New Refutation of Time
Rating: PG
Length: 2883 words
Characters: Brax
Prompt: atraphoenix's prompt was As Lord Burner, Braxiatel was ordered to burn "an old man and his granddaughter" from history. I'd love any story that elaborates on this. How did he warn the Doctor and Susan? What happened to Braxiatel in the

Comments

[aralias]

it is really good, nadja :) and i'm so impressed that you produced something that is really really good so quickly.

also - in the middle of a fic about something else entirely - we get the single best explanation for 'human on their mother's side' that i've ever heard and am likely to hear. and i love the idea of brax starting his collection with a load of essentially junk his mother used to own. it's a really brilliant idea.

i also like the subtle nod to the idea that he totally killed the master. it's really creepy - and i like the way basically none of it matters, he's just waiting until he can get out (but the thing about killing the doctor works a lot better now, particularly because none of the other deaths matter that much)(oh, and the hermit is brilliant. i like the idea of brax speaking to him instead - that seems to be a story in its own right, as well).

anyway - so this is really good. and i like the way you seem to be thanking your own aunt flavia in the notes.

[bagheera_san]

Ahaha, wtf did I write in that note... Although perhaps I should thank the universe for Erin's existence, and it'd be nice to have an Aunt Flavia. What I meant to convey is that Erin came up with the bit about Brax being his Aunt Flavia's intern (she seems to be sneakily inserting Flavia into other people's fic a lot).

Also, although I did write this story in two days, I spent the two weeks before that trying very hard to write similar ones - the main difference is that most of the other ones had Brax telling this story later in some fashion, or lying about it to various people (which is what made all my drafts so ridiculously complicated and confusing that none of them got finished), so many of its individual parts had some time to grow, like the bit with the hermit, the human on their mother's side bit, and the whole concept of how a burn edict works.

Brax vs. Master deserves its own fic, but I didn't write that one.

[aralias]

i really like the idea of brax lying about this and it being all complicated and weird, but i also think you were right to change it (it's complicated enough).

obviously - would read brax v master. although also, would largely read anything that had either brax or the master in it, so my opinion shouldn't necessarily be listened to, as i am easy for anything.

[atraphoenix]

I was really excited when I saw the prompt that you'd picked. It was the one I most hoped to see a fill for and I definitely wasn't disappointed. Like aralias, I love the idea of Braxiatel's mother starting the collection and the explanation for the half human issue was spot on. The story itself was a beautiful look at Braxiatel's incredibly complicated personality and every bit of it - particularly the decisions he made and the involvement of his other self felt very natural.

My favourite parts where the subtle nods to the Braxiatels that could have been and never where, as well as the chilling description of Braxiatel's long game as Lord Burner.

[bagheera_san]

I'm glad you like it :)

[janeturenne]

So, I have been sitting for hours trying to think of a better way to say "this is so good it makes me want to cry," but that is quite simply the way of it. This is just good writing, in every possible sense, and I really, really adore it, and it made me think and feel and do all the other things that good writing is supposed to do, and like everybody I am entirely smitten by the 'half-human' explanation, and by the moment where he's seeing possible futures. Just. This fic is gorgeous and really deeply profound and so Brax and I love it a lot.

[bagheera_san]

Thank you! It's good to hear that you find this moving, because looking back I think one of the problems with the earlier drafts was that I paid too much attention to writing a clever, complicated fic instead of one that's emotionally sound.

(Also, you have a proper Brax icon, I am somewhat envious...)

[x_los]

"But on the other hand, he knows that once you start to let the end justify the means, you can’t shy away from the end without collapsing your entire card house of choices."

This is a cool point.

the shimmer of light in the dark.

Gorgeously stated..

The whole this is really conceptually strong and beautifully written.

Also CURSES, my secret pro-Flavia initiatives discovered!!

Brax vs. Master deserves its own fic, but I didn't write that one.

That would be ESPECIALLY interesting with a dead Doctor between them. Or would the Master care less if the Doctor could be so easily bested? I like to think no, because the Doctor's as lucky as he is skillful, and the Master appreciating the Doctor based on his ability not to be offed (when *anyone* can be, if someone's determined enough to do it) would seem to cheapen things.

Also it's damn near impossible to write seriously from inside Brax's twistyturny head (I'm def. put off by the challenge), so well fucking done.

[bagheera_san]

In my head canon the Lord Burner thing happens after the D/M rift (it's kinda implied that it's the reason why One and Susan ran away, and I doubt the rift happened after that) so I don't think the Master's obssession is already so well-cemented that the Doctor's death would make little difference - he might be out for revenge, or he might be a lot less determined to impress/survive, but I think either way Brax wins this round by manipulating whatever emotions the Master has regarding the Doctor's death (in a sort of "Help me and we'll avenge the Doctor together - oops, did I forget to mention that my vengeance scheme includes me stabbing you in the back?" scenario).