Fic: Maps Written In Code

[lyricwrites]

Title: Maps Written In Code
Rating: G
Word Count: 1325
Warnings: angst
Spoilers: through "The Angels Take Manhattan"
Characters: Amy Pond, Rory Williams, Melody Pond
Summary: How do you connect with the most dangerous and paranoid child on Earth, especially if she doesn't want to be found?

Author's note: Brit-picked and beta'ed by Persiflage.

Comments

[a_phoenixdragon]

You have broken and fixed me all at once. This makes such perfct, total sense...this is the way it happened. This is how Mels found them. This exactly. And you have brought me such joy. Amy and Rory from two different lifetimes, guiding their hurt and lost daughter. I just...there are no words adequate.

*sobs with happiness*

Thank you...

*HUGS*

[lyricwrites]

Thank you! I'm so glad that this works as an uplifting tearjerker, if that makes any sense.

*hugs back*

[redjaywrites]

^ this. Exactly this.

[lyricwrites]

Wow, thanks! *hugs*

[ladymercury_10]

Oh, oh.

...I'm just going to sit here wibbling, because I really don't know what to say. It's lovely, though, and very brave.

You know the G.K. Chesterton quote about how stories aren't there to tell children there are dragons, because they already know that, but to tell them that dragons can be killed? Or something like that? That would be the kind of story that Amy and Rory would send out for their lost little girl.

[lyricwrites]

Not only do I know that quote, I keep thinking of it every time Doctor Who starts reflecting on stories. Because that's really what the show is about, isn't it? The idea that there are horrifying, scary monsters out there, but they can be defeated-and defeated by ordinary people who choose to become extraordinary.

I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[ladymercury_10]

Indeed. In ways both big and small. I think part of why Doctor Who has meant so much to me is that even though the monsters and predicaments are often quite preposterous, the emotional and personal struggles of the characters feel very real. And the way to overcome them is one and the same--to keep carrying on, to choose to be brave when you're scared and to be clever when you're at your wits' end, and most of all, to hold onto love. I might not be a kid anymore, but those are still the sorts of dragon-killing stories I want. elisi and I were talking about the whole Doctor Who and G.K. Chesterton thing very briefly the other day, because of the "Doctor Who is how we warn our children that there are people in the world who want to eat them" Moffat quote she found.

[stars_inthe_sky]

Oh, my. I hadn't thought about how hard it would be for the Ponds to find little Melody, even if they all made it to the same city at the same time, but what a perfect way for them to all find each other. And so fitting with the overarching theme of storytelling!

[lyricwrites]

Thanks! Yeah, this story came to me after I realized how very much "The Angels Take Manhattan" was about stories. The book, River and the Doctor writing to each other across time . . . everything.

[honorh]

Damn. Now I want to read that book.

I love what you've done with them all here. Amy, for all her hang-on-by-her-fingernails stubornness, has to face that finding Melody just might not be possible--but that does not mean she's giving up on her, not by a long shot. I love her solution. It's perfect.

[lyricwrites]

Thank you! I've been loving all the stories where Amy and Rory find Melody in nineteen sixty-nine, but it also occurred to me that the goal was never "finding," not really; it was "helping." And there are all sorts of ways to reach out to someone without coming face to face, as Amy already demonstrated by writing an afterword for the Doctor.

[docjanf]

You nailed this bit of it so perfectly. The "helping" rather than the "finding" and the sheer stubborness of Amy Pond in her love for her family.

[lyricwrites]

I'm so glad you enjoyed it!

[joking]

Oh, Amy and the power of stories. I love her delight in getting her book banned, because she delights in controversy and pushing people's buttons. And I do so believe that little Melody could find comfort in a story from her mother, even if it's bleak and frightening, because that's the world she knows.

[lyricwrites]

I think that little Melody would actually get more out of a story that's bleak and frightening. Anything too comfortable would be a bit too alien for her, but stories about girls who face terrifying monsters and come out triumphant? That's a lifeline. That's like a voice whispering, yes, you can do it, and considering the way the Silence must have tried to fill her up with voices that said, you're our creature and you'll never escape-I think she would need that affirming voice. A lot.

I'm glad you liked Amy's reaction! It occurred to me shortly after I wrote it that that bit might be somewhat meta; Doctor Who itself has been the target of people claiming it's Too Scary For Children and A Herald of the Downfall of Civilization. But I think Amy's glee makes perfect sense in-story as well as in a self-referential way.

Anyhow, I'm delighted that you enjoyed the story!