fic post. for real this time.

[cesario]

ceremony for the living
by Branwyn

fandom: Doctor Who, Seven/Ace
notes: spoilers for NA novel Love and War by Paul Cornell

dedicated to doyle_sb4 and synaesthete7 for providing me with canon fodder. thanks to lizbee and synaesthete7 for audiencing.

summary: The Doctor dies for his mistakes one after the other, and he’s always making new ones. You might call it unfair, if you had the

Comments

[doyle_sb4]

*wibble* Just wonderful: too many perfect lines for me to pick one, but I especially loved Time Lords know precisely what awaits them after death, which is to say, more death, and some life, and then nothing. I love the idea of him looking for assurance that Ace will forgive him one day, even if it's not till after he's dead. Beautiful stuff.

[cesario]

*g* thank you.

[phlegethon_vii]

Ouch, that was heartbreaking.

Brilliant stuff...and this from somebody who loathes the NAs beyond any sense or reason, lmao.

Would you hate me too much if I start poking you with pointy things for more Seven/Ace fic?? We need to redress the balance after all :D

[cesario]

poking me with pointy things is unnecessary. there are definitely more ace/seven stories up my sleeve, if i can just shake them out.

[phlegethon_vii]

Are they all going to be NA angstfests, or can we have some squigy ones too??

I love angst as much as the next person...but sometimes you just gotta have upbeat shippy fic...okay, and the occasional hot n heavy, furniture-breaking sex scene *massive grin*

[cesario]

chances are good I won't be writing the furniture breaking sex, but a touch of light hearted silliness might be in order. :)

[randomalia]

This is wonderful. I felt that you got both Ace's voice, and the Doctor's, just right, which is a difficult thing to do. It's a very atmospheric story, and very potent with the Doctor's judgements and the way he stood listening to her, and went to hear her forgiveness first.

[cesario]

thank you verra much :-)

[infiniteviking]

A smile comes to the Doctor involuntarily, like a cramp.

*shivers*

The Seventh Doctor scares me, and your story is an excellent example of why. Poor Ace -- it's heartbreaking.

To put it another way: good work!

[cesario]

Yeah, the seventh doctor is scary. That's part of why I'm so fascinated by him. I was really going for a balanced depiction of how his darker side is inextricably intertwined with the depth of his love for Ace, so I'm glad that came through to some degree. :)

[prof_pangaea]

Moving and creepy all at once; you have upheld my expectations most certainly. Ace's musings are so exactly right, and I could hear her voice as I read them. Also:

“Maybe this Doctor is a smug prat who uses people and doesn’t care who gets hurt as long as he gets to save the world. Doesn’t think twice about dragging people through the mud or forcing them to re-live their worst nightmares. Orders people around and never tells them anything, never answers their questions till it’s too late."

If she ever does meet another incarnation of the doctor there'll be a moment where she just looks at him and says, "So... I was pretty accurate, then."

The Doctor's motivations in this story are so ambiguous and vaguely disturbing. As they should be, of course! I found it much weirder when it is revealed that it is actually Seven, and not some other regeneration. Nice.

I look forward to more Doctoral goodness in the future.

[cesario]

Ambiguity and creepiness is exactly what I was going for and I'm delighted they came through. :-D