Doctor Who → Sinister, Dexterous

[pathologize]

Title: Sinister, Dexterous
Fandom: Doctor Who
Rating: 14A for violence
Word count: 4002
Characters/pairing: Braxiatel, Narvin, Leela, Romana, the Doctor (Eighth), K-9
Summary: It is a Time War. You do what you must to win, to survive. Braxiatel and Narvin are the left hands that hide what they do from the right.
Notes: A while ago, I promised a

Comments

[janeturenne]

Ohhhhh, I am having trouble finding the words for how much I love this fic. You have both of their voices so, so completely right. I have been needing Gallifrey Time War fic for such a long time and this fit the bill and then some: dark and yet sort of not, just the same way Gallifrey itself so often is, and perfectly characterized, and just. Just. I adored it kind of madly.

[pathologize]

Thank you very much. I figured I should probably get it done before new canon shoots it to hell.

[aralias]

<3 another excellent gallifrey fic - and so soon after the other (for me, at least). i fear you spoil us, and i will be subconsciously expecting another one tomorrow... (not really, although that would be great, obviously).

anyway, this is embarrassingly well written. i love romana at the centre of this, trying to do this her way and the moment of her choosing not to rescue leela is terrible as is the implication that she will one day find out what is going on but probably too late to care about it. also the doctor breaking down really obviously, and romana breaking down behind closed doors, and brax and narvin just getting more brittle. it's very good. i am envious and pleased at the same time.

[pathologize]

I would like to apologize to your subconscious.

Honestly, I questioned that Brax and Narvin were going behind her back when writing this, because Romana is a bamf lady (if a little insane, but for very good reasons) but probably the reason both she and Leela got sidelined was because of how everything is the sort of thing done without even the integrity of openness and honesty. Or at least that's how I comforted myself.

[bagheera_san]

This may sound like exaggeration, but you're writing the fic I've been wanting in this fandom since forever. Everyone is perfectly characterized, doing exactly what they would do and how they would do it, and everyone is brittle and depending on each other in complicated ways, and I love how Brax (and by extension this fic through his POV) achieves cool understandment while at the same time being his ridiculously dramatic self and listening to classical music and quoting Shakespeare to his covered mirror. I can't even. This is my definition of Idfic. Also, I normally don't desire the Doctor to appear in Gallifrey fic (there is so little of it that I prefer undiluted Gallifrey-ness) but I can't think of any fic where Brax comforts the Doctor like this and they're really, genuinely family to each other: without saying a single word. It's a wonderful little moment.

[pathologize]

I'm very glad you liked it. Brax really loves his mirror conceits, which is I guess acceptable given what he does with them, but one does sometimes facepalm when he whips out the Shakespeare quotes at crazy time-travelling aliens who are experimenting on him. I'm glad the Doctor presence works, since I also tend to prefer focused Gallifrey-ness in the little Gallifrey fic there is.

[neveralarch]

Ahh, this is so amazing. Brax and Narvin are always doing things behind Romana's back, and of course that would happen even more during the Time War. I loved they're both just trying to do their jobs, even though Braxiatel's comes with a little more finesse than Narvin's.

[pathologize]

I'm glad you enjoyed it! Narving and Brax seem to share method and motive in a lot of things and then act catty because perhaps it is in the DNA.

[x_los]

The Brax and Doctor interaction is easily and obviously compelling, but the characterization throughout is consistently interesting, and the story well-constructed. I really enjoyed this!

[pathologize]

I'm happy you did! I always feel a bit guilty about the Doctory bit because I cheated hard to avoid writing him as much as possible.