#i just realised this isn’t entirely a torchwood post

[captainlynxx]

Got called out by my friend because my favs are always the gay nerds

[edelwoodsouls]

i still pick up at the sound of your call [fic]

"Is that a dalek on tv?" [or: Martha has some choice questions for the Doctor regarding the new Prime Minister's addess]

Inspired by this post

Word Count: 1,799 | Also on Ao3

"Oi, what the fuck is going on?"

The Doctor blinks. Pulls the phone away from her ear, to check the number again, check she isn't hallucinating. She'd hardly believed it when she saw it, hasn't seen those numbers strung together in years, though they're still burned into her mind.

Another life, another time.

Another friend burned to ashes.

She hesitates, for just a moment. Takes a deep breath. "Hey, Martha," she cringes instantly at the hollow lightness of her tone, only drawing attention to the lifetimes between their last words. "What's up?"

A heavy pause on the other end. The Doctor tries to imagine her old companion, for just a moment. She'd promised herself she would check up on her friends from time to time, make sure they were okay, if she could help them from the shadows in any way - but that promise has fallen between the cracks, lost along the way with everything she ever thought was true.

The last time she saw Martha, she saved her life. Moments before her own - his own, back then - had slipped between her fingers.

She'd looked happy. The Doctor could never have predicted Martha and Mickey of all people, but she was glad for them. She had ruined their lives in so many ways by crashing through them, by falling in love with Rose - this was the least they deserved.

So she imagines Martha like that. Curled up on the sofa, cornrowed hair and sparkling eyes. Legs tangled up with Mickey as they watch tv in the burnt orange glow of a dying London afternoon.

Oh, fuck. The tv.

"Uh, hi," Martha answers finally, wrong-footed and uncertain. "I wanted to speak to the Doctor, could you put him on, please? Sorry, I- uh, I'm Martha. Jones. I used to travel with him. I'm guessing you're the new companion? What happened to Donna?"

An unexpected lump rises in the Doctor's throat. Thousands of years - thousands - have passed since she last bothered to check in on Martha Jones. How many companions have been and gone in that time? How many have crumbled to ash beneath her fingers?

She swallows it down, files it under Compartmentalise, and Never Think of Again.

Sunshine. Enthusiasm. Energy. The tenets she's founded herself on this go around. She plasters a bright smile on her face, as if contorting her muscles will trick her tone into believing she means it.

"Just me, I'm afraid," she grins, skipping around the TARDIS to fiddle with the controls to keep her hands busy. "Had a bit of a change of face since you last saw me."

Furious whispers on the other side of the phone, far enough away from the receiver that even she can't hear them. She imagines Martha and Mickey, confusion and surprise warring with each other.

This reveal never gets old.

"Sooo, how've you been? How's Mickey? It's been, what, nearly ten years since you last saw me?"

"Uh, yeah," Martha returns to the phone, hesitant. She's never had to deal with regeneration, really. "I didn't know you could- I mean, when you said you change, I didn't realise that-"

"I can be anything I like! It's great, innit? I could have two heads or green skin if I felt like it. First time I've been a woman, though. Well, first time I remember, I guess. Still haven't been ginger, though. Maybe one day."

"Different face, same amount of energy," Martha laughs, and the sound lifts a weight from the Doctor's chest she didn't even know was there. "Mickey says hi."

"Yeah- hi!" A more distant voice echoes through the phone, startled at being addressed.

"Hi! It's great to hear from you!" She twirls the phone cord around a finger. If there's one thing she always regrets in her lives, it's the way her previous selves treated their companions. Each one with a different idea of relationships, of how things should be done.

This version of her thinks Mickey would be a great companion, if not for her Rose-tinted blinders.

"So, to what do I owe this call? Hope you kids have been keeping out of trouble, though somehow, I doubt it."

"Right!" Martha yelps. The whole regeneration thing definitely threw her for a loop. "Yeah, Doctor, what the fuck is going on? Is that a dalek we just saw on tv?"

"Ah, yeah... it is, yeah."

"And?"

"And I'm sorting it out?" The Doctor glances over her shoulder, towards the corridor the fam disappeared down a few minutes ago to get ready. They'll be back any second.

It's not that the Doctor doesn't want the fam to know about her old companions. They've met Jack, know she hasn't been on her own all this time, but- still.

Her companions don't have the best survival rate. It's selfish, probably, to keep having them, and yet she somehow never goes without them for long.

(She's lonely, she knows it. She's not a good person on her own. She clings to these fragments of knowledge and calls it reason.)

"But why is there a dalek on tv, Doctor? New security drones, that's what they're saying. Do they not remember the whole Earth-moving, twenty-seven planets, dalek invasion thing?"

"Or the Battle of Canary Wharf?" Mickey adds, words heavy with an underlying anger. Rose was lost to save the world from daleks, after all.

The least she deserves is to have her sacrifice remembered.

"I'm not sure, to be honest," the Doctor admits, flinging herself onto one of the crystalline seats near the console. "It's incredibly weird, actually. As far as I can tell, the entire human race has forgotten that aliens exist at all. No stolen Earth, no Titanic flying over London or Racnoss star at Christmas. No Battle of Canary Wharf."

"That's- I mean, how does that even happen?"

"I have no idea. Something to do with collective consciousness, I'd guess. Some manipulation from another race wanting to remove Earth's knowledge and wariness of aliens. The Arkangel network is still flying strong in your orbit, after all. It wouldn't be so hard to harness the technology. Maybe even your own governments, or some rogue branch of Torchwood. I never did find Torchwood 2 or 4."

"Then how the hell do we still remember?"

"Probably my fault. You're still keyed into the TARDIS's neural network, so she's protecting you from the effects. Sorry about that."

"No, it's- it's good," Martha splutters. "Are you going to try and fix it?"

"Maybe," the Doctor leans back in her chair, pulling the phone cord as far as it will go. "Once all of this is over, I might look into it. Just to check if it's malevolent or not. It's not a bad thing, necessarily. To forget. Some of things they must have seen..."

She shakes her head to clear it. Can't let herself stop and think for too long, or she might never escape the whirlpool's tide.

"Anyway," Martha says - she always was good at noticing her spirals, circumventing them. "How's Donna?"

Nevermind. She speaks the words lightly, but in a tone that says she noticed the Doctor's avoidance earlier and is bracing for bad news.

"She's great!" the Doctor manages a smile, glad to have something, anything to latch onto that isn't her own thoughts. "Happily married, actually. Won the lottery a few years ago, doing very well for herself."

"That's- that's really good to hear."

"She doesn't remember me." She lets the words fall, as much as she wishes she could hold them close and buried and gone. But Donna needs to be kept safe, and Martha reaching out to her would be- not good. "She doesn't remember anything that happened. I- I had to wipe her memory, after the daleks. It was killing her."

The silence stretches longer this time, and for a moment the Doctor is sure she's broken everything.

"Well, I'm glad she's happy," Martha says eventually. "There are worse fates, right?"

So many of your companions have had worse fates, she doesn't say, but the Doctor reads between the lines anyway.

"Yeah," she breathes.

"And how are you doing, Doctor? You're not alone, are you?"

"No! I'm great, actually. Got my fam. Yaz is really cool, you'd love her. Ryan and Graham are great. Jack's back in town right now, helped me out of prison-"

"Helped you out of where?"

"-and we're just sorting out this whole dalek thing! Should be all over pretty soon. Just, stay where you are."

"You know we can't do that, Doctor." If anything, Martha sounds amused. Determined. Ready to pick up her sword once again, defend the Earth from whatever might be coming.

In this second, everything is right with the world, and she misses Martha Jones in a way that hurts both her hearts at once.

"Well, stay safe at least. I'll call you back when this is done, to let you know."

"Thank you, Doctor. Maybe we could, I don't know- grab a drink, or something. Catch up."

"I'd like that," she replies, and they both know she has very little intent on following through.

Yaz appears at the end of the corridor, eyes bright, smile warm. She's chattering to someone, probably Ryan, completely oblivious, no weight on her shoulders.

The Doctor wishes she could keep Yaz like that, happy, delighted, laughing. Wishes that smile was just for her.

But she might have ruined it forever.

She's learnt to trust the TARDIS over the years, learnt that the TARDIS arrives when she thinks the Doctor should be rather than where the Doctor wants to be. She wants to trust that this, too, was for a good reason. The TARDIS has never led her wrong, in the end.

She has to believe.

"Well, I'll let you crazy kids go be heroes. Beat up some daleks for me, will you?"

"Of course, Doctor," Martha says. The Doctor imagines her smiling, linking fingers with Mickey. "Stay safe out there."

"Always," the Doctor grins. As Yaz and Ryan approach, she jumps up, throws the phone back on its hook and grabs hold of the TARDIS's controls.

"Who was that?" Yaz asks, wary, unsure of how to act around her. They need to sit down and talk, hash out the last ten months - and nineteen years - but now isn't the time.

Unfortunately, the time rarely seems to appear.

"Just an old friend checking in," the Doctor shrugs, avoiding her new companions' eyes. "There's daleks on the tv, haven't you heard? Let's fix that."

She throws the TARDIS into flight with a delighted whoop - after all these years, the thrill of flight never quite fades.

She's lost companions before, but as Martha’s call has reminded her, not all of them have met bad ends.

She refuses to let the fam down on that one, too.

[agent-jones]

In Defence of Gwendolyn Elizabeth Cooper

Okay, I want to start this out with a few DISCLAIMERS. First, this is probably going to be a long post, so buckle in. Second, I just want to say upfront that I DO NOT CONDONE the mistakes Gwen has made. Defending and understanding her are far different from actually condoning what she’s done and I figured I would put that blanket statement right here at the top. I know she did Bad Things. This isn’t to excuse that, it’s to explain, maybe, why she did what she did and perhaps people can gain a new perspective on Gwen Cooper in the process.

Okay. Leggo.

I asked for people to send their reasonings for not liking Gwen and I did get a few responses, so THANK YOU to those who messaged me! Everyone was very polite about it and I’m very grateful for that. The overwhelming reason people seem to hate Gwen is how she acted in regards to her relationship with RHYS. There is a lot to unpack there so I’m going to put all of the Rhys stuff in one section, and then move on to the other reasons I’ve seen about the fandom.

Rhys

Cheating on Rhys with Owen.

The thing about Torchwood is that they deal with the shittiest parts of the Universe. Suzie was right about that. Gwen came in not really knowing what she was getting herself into. Suddenly, she’s thrown into this chaotic, messy environment where she’s almost killed on basically a daily basis and she comes home from work and she can’t talk about it. She has to pretend to Rhys that she spent the day pushing paperwork, when actually the deadliest alien in the Universe tried to cut her head open with scary conversion tools and a member of their team ended up being the reason for it. She deals with trauma on a daily basis and the one person she should be able to talk to, who should be able to hold her and let her fall apart to him, isn’t allowed to know. Of course she feels isolated, wouldn’t you? Our partners are supposed to be the people we go to for support and help, but she literally cannot tell him a single thing about her life anymore. But she gets home and she has to it there and think about everything that scares her and all of the horrible things she sees, the death and destruction and tragedy, and she can’t say a single thing about it.

So, of course the idea of being with someone she can talk to is tempting, being with someone who shares her experiences and can truly empathise with her fears and help her through this new, and tragedy-filled, way of life. Why wouldn’t she want that? Owen offers it. Owen. Who knows she has a boyfriend, who literally says “I torture people in happy relationships,” comes to her and says “you can share these things with me.” And lost and unable to talk to anyone else but him, she gives into the temptation. Because, maybe this is better for her than having a partner who can’t be allowed to know the new Gwen Cooper: Torchwood Operative. Maybe she can finally have someone who will hold her and help her through things she can’t share with her boyfriend.

Flirting with/“Throwing herself at” Jack

Not going to lie, this one really bugs me when I see it. Why? Because Jack Harkness instigates pretty much every flirtation they have. The gun range scene: Jack sensually moving against her body to “show her the proper way to shoot.” Kiss Kiss Bang Bang: that cellar scene, where he caresses her arm and gives her this line about coming back for her [ after he had just said the same thing to Ianto so ]. Her wedding: the nostrovite was the one to lean in to kiss Gwen, the one to say “sometimes you meet someone who knocks your world off--” whatever the wording is. That nostrovite, using Jack, knew that he flirts with her like that, for it was the one making all of the moves. 

Jack is this enigmatic, BEAUTIFUL man who swoops into the life of Gwen Cooper, shows her that the Universe is bigger than anyone could imagine, and flirts with her, looks at her like she’s the most special human being on Earth. It’s no surprise she got a crush. It happens. But never, does she throw herself at him, in fact he always seems to be the one trying to do something, even though he also knows she has a boyfriend and consistently reminds her to keep hold of that life. Yes, she kissed him in Day One. But you know who else kissed Jack Harkness even though she had a boyfriend? Martha Jones. People make mistakes. It was the heat of the moment where Jack saved this girl that Gwen cared for and was so scared was going to die, she saw Jack act gentle and kind and yes, she made a mistake. But, it happens.

If you’re going to crucify Gwen for making very human mistakes such as this, it’s unfair to crucify her and not the men who played just as big of a role in it. They’re in no way innocent and to turn Gwen into this horrid, cheating slut and not condemn the men for knowingly throwing themselves at her despite her relationship status is really, quite frankly, sexist and a double-standard. 

Drugging Rhys

A horrible decision. Wrong. Yes, she did something incredibly invasive and absolutely not okay. She did it because she was spiraling. The thing with Owen had ended and I truly believed Gwen realised that she needed and loved Rhys, that he was the man for her and she needed to hold onto that. But, she was still holding back secrets, there were still things she couldn’t tell him. She was feeling guilty and wanted to tell Rhys the truth. But, if he left her because of it? That’s it. She loses her life outside of Torchwood, she loses the one thing keeping her grounded on Earth as the Universe tears into her at work. Of course she’s terrified and yes, it made her do something incredibly not okay. She took away Rhys’s ability to choose for himself.

She shows remorse for this, obviously, when she refuses to retcon Rhys at the end of Meat. She won’t do that to him again, won’t take away his right to know what he knows. And then again at their wedding. Jack offers them both retcon and Gwen says no, no secrets anymore. In that moment, Rhys’s face almost seemed disappointed that they weren’t going to forget that hellish day, that maybe he wanted to remember it in a way that didn’t involve aliens and their families almost being torn to shreds. But, Gwen has learned from her mistake. She won’t do it again.

Also. Gwen is not the only team member who has done something like that, in fact they all have:

Owen: took away the agency of two people by spraying them with a perfume that made them want to have sex with him. Two people who didn’t want to before they were drugged. That is date r*** and it is very bad. But, Owen is forgiven by the fandom for it. He’s loved and not bashed.

Jack: literally retcons anyone who talks to him for too long.

Tosh: dug around in the inner-most private thoughts of the people around her, invaded the deepest crevices of their minds and peered in on their secrets. This is absolutely not okay.

Ianto: clearly took advantage of and manipulated Jack in order to save Lisa. Got two innocent people killed, nearly got the entire team killed, and then allowed Jack to be given to slave traders and killed, before changing his mind and rescuing him. These are really horrible things, and yet he is the fan favourite. 

Gwen has done no more wrong than the rest of the team. This is the point of Torchwood: flawed human beings doing what they can to save the world and that “flawed” descriptor is for Gwen too. 

“She’s a Bitch”

Oh I’ve heard this one a few times and it always confuses me. She’s a bitch? When? When was Gwen ever mean to anyone? 

When she thought the thing about Tosh’s boots over jeans look being out of fashion? First, it was her private thought that Tosh had no business listening to. Second, it wasn’t thought in a mean-spirited way, she was simply making a fashion observation. We all do it. It does make us bitches to point out when things have gone out of fashion. Tosh was more of a bitch to Gwen when she found out about her and Owen in Countrycide “didn’t take you long to get your feet under the table.” That’s a bitchy and petty thing to say, but no one is calling Tosh a bitch.

Is she ever a bitch to Rhys? Not that I remember [ of course beyond the everything up there ]. But, there are moments where Rhys is a total ASS to her. Her new boss runs up to her saying there’s an emergency and that she’s needed, what does Rhys do? He screams at her “SIT THE FUCK DOWN, GWEN”  in front of her boss. That is not an okay thing to do, ever. Then, there’s the moment in Adrift when he says something like “sometimes I really hate you, Gwen.” He says this to his wife because she’s going through something very hard on her that is making her question the Universe and because it’s swaying her decision on if she wants to bring kids into the world, he says he hates her. At this point, he knows what she sees, knows what she goes through on a daily basis and doesn’t bother to take into consideration that she’s stressed and traumatised when trying to get her to make huge life decisions.

Gwen has emotions, but she’s never flat out mean to people, but there have been times where others have been cruel to her, and they aren’t hated for it.

“What she said at the end of Meat was uncalled for”

This is what she says:

GWEN: But none of you have any partners outside of this. JACK: But we understand how you feel. GWEN: No, you don't. No, you don't, Jack. You all think it's cold and lonely out there. But it isn't for me because I have him. 

She isn’t wrong. She doesn’t say anything cruel about the team. She points out the fact that they can’t understand what it’s like to have to hide her ENTIRE life from her partner. Jack and Ianto have a relationship, they’re partners yes, but they can actually talk about how hard the job is, they can talk about Torchwood and the shit they see and how it affects them. Is it so wrong for Gwen to say they can’t understand how she feels that she can’t? The entire team apart from her have been so entwined with Torchwood for so long that they don’t have lives outside of it, and that’s what she’s saying and she’s not wrong. Why hate her for pointing out the truth because she wants to be able to talk to the person she loves about the harder parts of her life?

“She acts superior to the team”

This one I see a lot. That people seem to think she somehow acts like she’s better than them, that she acts righteous somehow. But, that’s not what she’s doing. I’ve made a post about this before, but I’ll sum it up here. Jack hired Gwen because he needed someone with a new perspective, someone who could see how what they do affects civilians and help them use that to work better. He brought her in to remind them that they need to do better by the people of Cardiff. 

And that’s what she does,

She calls them out for being callous about Carys because that’s what Jack hired her for. The girl was dying and to her, it seemed like they didn’t care and so she spoke up, like Jack had asked her to do. She realises that she’s wrong in a way and she adjusts how she goes about it. Jack consistently reminds her why she was brought on, to call them out when they needed it and to remind them that there are human beings that are affected by what they do and they should care. And then when she does that, the fandom hates her for it. Don’t hate her for doing the job she was brought in to do.

Her Miracle Day speech

The Gwen in Miracle Day is not the same Gwen who peered over that parking garage barrier to spy on Torchwood. She saw the worst of the Universe, she watched as so many people died around her. Her friends all died horrific deaths. She was yanked by Jack into this whirlwind of a life, into the chaos and destruction that was Torchwood-- and then he left her. 

GWEN: Are you ever coming back, Jack? JACK: What for? GWEN: Me. 

He says nothing and leaves anyway. She begged her best friend to not leave her, after the last of her friends was killed, and he basically said she wasn’t worth staying for. How could she not be broken after that? As two people very close to me have said [ credit to @cxptained​ and @agent-sato​ ]: everyone else on the team was brought into Torchwood already broken, Torchwood took them in and put them back together again. Gwen came into Torchwood whole. She had a life and was happy. She lived, but she was SHATTERED. Torchwood took her and broke her. 

So yes, she says something that is horrible. She says that when everyone else died and she survived, she felt better than them. But sometimes we have thoughts that we don’t control, we have thoughts that we know are wrong. She knows it’s wrong. Eve’s acting? You can tell that she had those thoughts and that she felt horrible for having them.

Not to mention, she says this as she’s trying to get her baby daughter back from strangers who have kidnapped her. She’s desperate and terrified and angry and her daughter is in danger. Her mental space is horrible right now. She was abandoned by Jack, broken by Torchwood and when he appears again and she’s dragged back in? Her daughter is put in danger. But she also missed Torchwood and Jack. She’s terrified and lost and conflicted and she said something bad. But she knows she is wrong.

And So...

Gwen Cooper is a human being. She is a character in a show where ALL of the main characters are written to be flawed and complicated and to make mistakes while saving the world. She was put through so much and it seems as though she’s blamed for the fact that it changed her and led her to making decisions she may not have made had Torchwood not dragged her in.

She deserves more than how she’s treated by the fans.

[damnhardwork]

Writer Tag Game

Thanks for the tag @ectogeo-rebubbles

I’m not tagging anyone because I can’t keep up with who has been tagged and who hasn’t. So if you want a go, have at!

How many works do you have on AO3?

75 (hopefully soon to be 76)

What's your total AO3 word count?

351,611

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Okay, so if I do it by kudos totals, then it’s entirely dominated by Good Omens because magafandom. So I’m going to do top from each fandom (inc. ones I no longer write for), as that’s more interesting.

1) Pandora’s Box - Good Omens

2) The Storeroom - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

3) Old Magic - Harry Potter

4) Sanctuary - Buffy the Vampire Slayer

5) 100 Words of Seven - Doctor Who (1963)

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I have kind of a complicated relationship with comments. 

I try to respond to them, and I feel awful and rude when someone has taken the time to talk to me in the comment section and I don’t reply. But also (and I know this is super weird), sometimes comments - especially the very nice ones! - all get tangled up in my head and don’t play particularly nicely with the almost constant sense of imposter syndrome I feel. 

*someone leaves me a lovely comment*

Me: well, this is going to go badly when they realise I’m a total fraud...

Yeah, I know it’s stupid. No amount of reasoning with myself seems to change it, either. I’ve just got to leave them for a bit, chill out, and come back later. Sometimes quite a long time later.

So yeah. Sorry guys. 

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Hmmm, this one is difficult, as I’ve got a few that have angsty endings. 

Probably Epilogues (BtVS Comics)? It’s an angsty fic all the way through, as it deals with death and grief and guilt, but it’s probably got the angstiest ending as Giles isn’t ‘fixed’ at the end. He’s still dealing with his guilt, and he still has bad days and suicidal thoughts. 

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

Fingerprints (DS9), I think? It’s a Soul Mark AU with a very traditional Happy Ever After sort of ending. 

I don’t tend to do many Happily Ever After sort of fics, to be honest. Mostly because I tend to like to write the very first (mostly lust-filled) parts of a relationship, where they’ve not got far enough to have a a fantastically happy ending as opposed to just a hopeful one. 

Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve ever written?

Occasionally! I currently have one crossover up on AO3 - A HP/Discworld crossover I wrote as a gift for an exchange called Almost Like Magic. 

I do have a few crossovers on my harddrive (a Torchwood/DS9 crossover, and a Pacific Rim/Doctor Who crossover), but they’re probably forever going to stay as drawerfic, as they’re weird enough that they likely have an audience of exactly 1. Me. 

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

lol yeah.

To mis-quote Madeline Kahn:

Flames. Flames in the comments of my fics. 

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Is water wet? Are bears catholic? Does the Pope crap in the woods?

Just over half of all my fic on AO3 is M or E rated (39/75). So yes, yes I write smut. 

As for what kind, to be honest, anything that takes my fancy. Or seems like it might be a challenge. Smut is something I really enjoy writing. I think there’s a lot about the characters that you can explore by making them vulnerable like that. It’s another window into their lives, thought patterns, and relationships. 

Plus, like, it’s fun. ;D

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I’m aware.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have! By the lovely @rusblk! 

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I’ve been involved in a few collaborative projects before - such as Ladies of Letters with the fabulous @quaggy-fic , but nothing that’s the sort of co-writing project where it’s one seamless project rather than a back and forth. 

What’s your all-time favourite ship?

Difficult question!

And I’m going to clumsily avoid it by saying ‘I love all my ships equally’. Even the ones I haven’t written anything for yet!

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Lots of WIPs that have never left my harddrive, tbh. 

I’ve currently got two open WIPs posted to AO3, and I do plan to finish both. 

What are your writing strengths?

Errrrr... terrible puns and nob jokes?

What are your writing weaknesses?

Dialogue. 

I am SO BAD at it. I swear 90% of my time writing is spent re-drafting fucking dialogue.

And also falling down huge plot holes of my own making. Serves me right, really, for not finishing a story before I start posting it and inevitably writing myself into a corner. 

Siiiiigh

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Fine? =)

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

CSI: Vegas. And it has been lost to the void of the mid-00s internet. Thank god. 

What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

hmmmm, okay so I can’t decide and am therefore going to cheat and say two =p

Either Jerusalem (BtVS) because it was nice to write something about Giles’ childhood and his (good!) relationship with his Dad. Or Blue Ink (DS9) because it was fun as hell to write two madly-in-lust people utterly unable to just say fuck it and give into their desires because they can’t bear the thought of losing a completely made up and utterly inconsequential game to the other. Fun times. 

Fun. Times.

[oc-character-development]

Alright so at Doctor Who society this week we had a pitch your own adventure night and I thought I’d share my pitch.

Rules of the episode:

It could be literally anything. Any doctor, any setting, any companion, copyright laws were not applicable so you could have the Doctor vs Voldemort if you wanted (we had worse or better, depending on your point, one idea was the Doctor teaming up with Sherlock Holmes and Watson, Jeeves and Wooster to fight Cuthulu, the master and Moriarty in 1940 and another was the Doctor VS demonic Teletubbies)

So here’s my pitch (and prepare for ANGST I’m warning you. It’s full of it! oh, and some details are left out/ under developmened/ rushed as my notes got deleted on my phone literally right before I pitched the story) OH AND SPOILERS FOR ANGELS TAKE MANHATTAN, WEDDING OF RIVER SONG AND GOOD MAN GOES FOR WAR:

Title: Time Trap/Chaos (its a two parter)

Characters:

11th Doctor- Post Angels Take Manhattan and Pre Snowmen.

10th Doctor- Post Journey’s End and Pre Next Doctor

Captain Jack Harkness- Post series 2 Torchwood, pre Children of Earth.

River Song- Pre Angels Take Manhattan, during the time she’s investigating Angels and writing the Melody Melone novels.

Plot:

Part 1: Time Trap-

Starts with 11 distracting himself from the loss of the Ponds, Eating Jammie Dodgers, admiring Fezzes and Bow ties and what not above 19th century Earth and trying to have one last bit of fun before he retires.

Cloister Bell starts ringing and the Tardis is suddenly pulled forwards in time towards 1930s New York (that’s bad by the way if you haven’t seen the episode, it could cause a paradox and blow up the whole planet apart) and there’s nothing the Doctor can do to stop it.

So naturally he rings up the only person he can think of who is in the 1930s at this time who could help. His wife.

River immediately assumes it’s another attempt on the Doctor’s life by the Silence and so tries to send a message to some archeologists from the 52nd century who have some experience in stopping the silence and could help her with this problem. The message goes haywire and ends up being sent to the 10th Doctor who is taking Jack on a trip to cheer him up after the events of Torchwood series 2.

Ten, knowing who River is, but not who she is if you get my meaning, delays their trip and immediately goes to help, because it’s River and he always comes when she calls.

Jack and River flirt.

River explains the situation

The ground shakes, turns out this ‘meteor’ (really the Tardis) that is heading to earth is causing natural distaters and a paradox is already happening making reapers to appear.

The 11th Doctor meanwhile figures out its not the silence as they would not use this method of stopping him reach trenzalore. It just didn’t fit.

Ten realises that he needs the help of eleven and so he creates a ‘timey-wimey loop machine’ to get eleven out of there by using both River and Jack’s vortex manipulators (as they are the exact same device). This doesn’t work as something is blocking the signal.

Meanwhile the TARDIS enters earths atmosphere and starts burning up.

Ten realises this is something far bigger than the silence based on River’s explanation and realises there is only one being who lives to create this much chaos.

The Trickster.

Episode ends.

Part 2: Chaos-

Episode starts with Ten explaining to River who exactly the Trickster is (Jack and torchwood has had a run in with the Trickster brigade before) and how he works

Ten then realises that the Doctor is being targeted which means his future self must had been close to death and said yes and that they are in a lot more danger than just reapers and natural disasters.

Eleven meanwhile, realising that this is the trickster. calls the being forwards for a chat and comes to realise that the trickster had planted a subconscious message in the Doctors mind in his moment of desperation and grief for the Ponds. The choice to save them and condemn hundreds and thousands of people or grieve them and lose them forever. The Doctor had unknowingly said yes to the first option. The Doctor tries to trick the trickster to go back on his own deal to at least get some time for the others to fix it.

Ten reverses the polarity on his device, allowing him to come on board the TARDIS with River and Jack, without causing more chaos but accidently destroying River’s vortex manipulator in the process.

Upon getting there, Jack tries to trick the Trickster, by shooting the creature (which doesn’t work) and is ultimately killed because of it. He comes back to life instantly because, 1, he’s immortal, and 2, it just wouldn’t be a cap Jack episode of Doctor Who without him dying now he’s immortal 😂.

Eleven tries to break out of the Deal but is finding it harder than usual because he still desperately wants the Ponds back.

Ten realises that him, and Jack are both at risk from being manipulated as they are all at vulnerable places in their lives and that River is the only one who isn’t and is probably the only one capable of convincing eleven to go back on the deal.

River, who has at this point has realised something has happened to her parents considering they aren’t there and eleven is acting like he would if it had but she’s not entirely sure what, convinces the Doctor (along with Jack who reminds him that he lost Rose and got over it with time), that he has to break out of his deal or the world is at stake, people will die and that Amy would do the same thing if she was there and the Ponds would definitely not approve of his actions. Eleven says no to the trickster. The trickster goes away, hinting that he is going to Bannerman Road (implying he is kickstarting the events of unaired planned episodes of SJA titled the battle of Bannerman road) and the TARDIS stops hurdling towards earth.

River and eleven have a quick heart to heart as eleven is obviously distressed by this. Jack celebrates as well. Ten looks at the scanner and points out the reapers haven’t gone away. The Trickster has tricked them and got another hold on someone or someones in the 30s.

It’s the Ponds. He’s got a hold of the Ponds. Rory as an old man, has been given the choice of being young and seeing Amy again but at the cost of thousands or dying and Amy in the second she’s sent back in time, has been given the option of getting Rory back and staying in the present time happily or dying in the past.

Eleven has a chance to say goodbye to the Ponds. Convincing Rory that they’ll get him out of there and that he’ll see Amy again. Oh and River stays in the TARDIS with ten and jack to avoid spoilers.

When he arrives to Amy, it’s her who reassured the Doctor that it will be alright and that he shouldn’t travel alone echoing her words that will be on the last page. But now both the Ponds are free from the Trickster.

All is well. Time has fixed and they land in Victorian London where the tenth Doctor’s TARDIS had followed them to, ten questions eleven on who River is, Jack and River flirt again and then Ten and Jack leave.

River questions the Doctor on his choice and what exactly happened, knowing that they wouldn’t remember the exact events once they leave and he fixes her vortex manipulator telling her he would have condemned the universe if she hadn’t kept him grounded (earning a snarky remark from River) he tells her to go finish that book and that she’ll understand what happened soon enough. But River tells him to listen to Amy and not be alone. She goes off back to 1930s New York.

The episode ends with the Doctor sighing, looking back at the TARDIS, sonicing it away to the cloud in the sky he’d created and turning around just in time to see Vastra, Jenny and Strax heading towards him where as he’s just forgotten the events that have just happened, he informs them for the first time that he has in fact, retired.

Roll credits

Yeah, there’s a few plot holes and development is rubbish but like I said I lost the actual document with the whole idea on. But yeah, I just wanted Jack and River to meet and the actual Trickster in an episode of Doctor Who and a bit more closure on Rory’s departure. Oh and I love it when the Doctor is vulnerable in an episode.

[becumsh]

Oh hi, sorry if this is weird, but I've seen lots of post (reblogs?) you have about Guardian and... I'm intrigued. What is it? And do you know where I could watch it? (also I really like your blog so thank you!)

Sorry for the reblog shitposting, but this blog is nothing but a shitposting trashcan... But I’m glad I managed to pique your interest.

Guardian (zhen hun/镇魂) is a Chinese drama that has consumed my life and soul. I see it as a story about Chinese Torchwood that deals with supernatural creatures from the underworld. But absolutely no one in this fandom watches it for the sake of the plot due to the lack of thereof. I personally started watching it because Chinese is my minor, and I need some practice, but then I really got into it even though I really don’t want to be into it, but I’m very very very into it.

The show is based on a BL (boy’s love? yaoi? slash?) novel by Priest. The novel is about an epic love story between the Ghost King (an anthropomorphic demon-something being) and the Mountain God Kunlun, the drama unfortunately is very different and, as we say in Russia, tries both to eat a fish and sit on a dick, so it’s sort of Supernatural meets Torchwood meets CSI meets I don’t know what, it’s a bit of a mess. The series itself follows the adventures of the Special Investigation Department whose chief, Zhao Yunlan, is one of the two main leads of the show. At the beginning of the show he is very friendly, brave, devoted, and outgoing but has a cold heart. That is until he meets the second main lead, a polite and unassuming bio-engineering professor Shen Wei, who JUST HAPPENS to be the Black Envoy, the most powerful supernatural creature out there. It’s a little bit difficult to take him seriously because he’s wearing a black robe and wears a mask I can buy in a craft shop for kids down the road, so he kinda looks like a dramatic angsty goth teen going through a phase, but the actor manages to pull it.

Shen Wei (Black Envoy or what have you) met Zhao Yunlan 10 thousand years ago. Zhao Yunlan met him while investigating a murder in present day. Zhao Yunlan isn’t aware of that 10 millenium connection between them, and while Shen Wei silently pines after Zhao Yunlan, Zhao Yunlan falls for Shen Wei pretty fucking quickly. The rest is history, and you just need to watch it.

Before you say anything: it’s canon, and boi was I surprised just how much can you throw past the censors. I know, I was surprised too. I never thought that there can be the greatest love story never told in flesh and blood, not just only a queerbaiting delusional bullshit. And the love story is heartwrenching, you will bawl your eyes out.

Zhu Yilong (Shen Wei) is the most beautiful and etheral human being on the entire planet Earth second only to Cate Blanchett, Fan Bingbing, Eva Green, and Doona Bae, but let’s be real, those standards are unreachable, he might as well be the most etheral and beautiful person on the planet. I love him with all my heart. He deserves better roles, I cannot bear to watch the shit he stars in. He also is very meme-worthy, and random snapshots of him are hilarious, an opinion the fandom and I apparently don’t agree on, but like... I have a special folder on my laptop that says ��Zhu Yilong Meme Screencaps”.

Johnny Bai (Bai Yu) who plays Zhao Yunlan is a precious cinnamon roll of pureness and kindness, he singlehandedly restores my faith in humanity, I will fight for him, and his voice drives me up the wall. He has an upcoming drama called ‘Detective L’ which is like a Sherlock Holmes adaptation set in Shanghai 30s, a series I’m absolutely obsessed with even though it doesn’t come out until March 2019. 

I lost the track of thought and I forgot the question, but basically:

There’s more relevant information in this post by @andwebegin

To understand exactly how unapologetically gay it is, watch @nerjaveika‘s works, my personal fave is this crack. Every single line spoken in Mandarin is present in the original show. Every single line. I know.

You can watch it on Youtube. I downloaded the episodes from MEGA, the subtitles are also there (the subs there are not that great though)

Basically [2] the plot, integrity, CGI, anything is terrible in this show, it’s very cringy and makes my eyes bleed. But the love story between Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei is one of the best I have ever, EVER seen. And considering that creators couldn’t make subtext text because of the censorship (it’s China, so...), I just thing the show deserves a round of applause because it managed to show such profound love it leaves me speechless. (bbc go and fuck urself, i hate you even more after having watched this show, just go and fuck urself).

And the acting of Johnny Bai and Zhu Yilong is absolutely banging, also once you start digging in, reading the novel, reading interviews and readint the making of, you realise how much love and work went into the show, I love it very much.

P.S. I have to warn you that you will cry buckets and buckets and buckets, it’s just........ there are going to be a lot of tears, so if you are not prepared for a perpetual trauma and a gaping hole inside of your heart, may be watch it up to, idk, ep33 or whatever. I’m sorry, my answer is all over the place, I lost it xDDD

[mousedetective]

Happy Fanfic Author Appreciation Day!

There are so many amazing fanfic writers I have known through the years, and so many I love and adore now who I consider great friends. You uys are the best, and I wish you all much creativity through the next year!

I thought I would do something to show some of my favorite fanfics (that I haven't already reblogged) and highlight the stuff I love so much I bookmarked it on AO3. These are my "personal faves not written by me" fics, so to speak. I'm pretty sure I have everyone here on Tumblr's correct username, but if not, let me know!

The massive list below the cut...

CHESS

Endgame by @thegirlisme - What happened in Bangkok from Svetlana's perspective. (Anatoly/Svetlana, Anatloy/Florence)

DOCTOR WHO/TORCHWOOD

The last thing I need is to end up askew by Radiolaria - The mad monk they call him. (Eleven/River, Eleven & Clara)

the freedom built by stars by leiascully - How Melody Pond became River Song and saved the world. It isn't always easy to find your footing when you're hell in high heels. (Eleven/River)

The Adventures of the Doctor and Rory the Roman by jesterlady - Rory's waiting for 2,000 years. How many Doctors do you think he'd meet in that time? (Rory/Amy, Rory & the Doctor)

gaze into the abyss (and survive this viper's nest) by jadehunter - Written for au_bigbang. "Everything you've ever dreaded was under your bed but told yourself couldn't be by the light of day... They're all real." Supernatural!AU. There are no such things as aliens, but everything else is fair game. This is how it starts. (Jack, Ianto, Owen, Tosh, Suzie & Gwen)

The Time We Talk by @thegirlisme - This was the time they got to talk and it wasn’t sad at all. (Eleven & Idris)

Afterthought by Inkfire - "In Rory's dreams, there is a little girl that dances right beyond his reach, lost and found. " Some Rory insight about his relationship with his daughter. Includes references to Amy and Eleven. (Rory-centric)

ELEMENTARY

Compromising Positions by innie - Ms. Hudson might have witnessed a crime. (Ms. Hudson, Sherlock & Joan)

Lift Hill by amindamazed (hophophop) -"Congratulations on your new career, Watson." Perhaps she should have given the ramifications of her acceptance a little more thought. What happens after you throw a basketball at your new partner's face. (Sherlock & Joan)

ELEMENTARY/LEVERAGE

The Clyde Job by akire_yta - Sherlock and Joan have to team up with Team Leverage - cue Parker cooing over Clyde (Sherlock, Joan & Parker)

HARRY POTTER

THERMOS!, or, How a Muggle-Born Brought a New Age of Spell-Making to Hogwarts (Entirely By Accident) by susieboo - Muggle-born witch Phoebe McDevitt just wanted her tea to stay warm during class. She didn't expect to accidentally start a spell-making craze among her classmates. (Harry Potter OCs, McGonagall, James Sirius, Ron & Hermione)

MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE

Lather Rinse Repeat by eiluned - Natasha's hands are bandaged. Clint lends a hand. (Clint & Natasha)

Hallucinations by Laerkstrein - "So I am no more than another stolen relic, locked up here until you might have use of me?" (Frigga & Loki)

Knitting With Darcy / Knitting With Darcy - Family Edition by orphan_account - Darcy is a high quality knitter, accomplished scientist wrangler, the best daughter to an insane mercenary, and an expert assassin. She's also very protective of the people she likes. Mess with them, and you'll probably receive a box of knitted items as an odd but effective warning. Try it twice, and you won't be making it out alive. This is her journey as she meets and interacts with people from the MCU universe and more. Hope you like crazy, cause she definitely took after her dad on that part. (Darcy-centric)

MISS FISHER’S MURDER MYSTERIES

Things They Said by Sarahtoo - A couple of my writing buddies are doing this prompt, and we traded before I even reblogged it myself. (Multiple Pairings)

BBC SHERLOCK

Stories & Stories by @simplyshelbs16xoxo - Sherlock moves in with Molly and begins perusing her book collection, picking up random books that have interesting looking covers, and the next thing Molly knows he’s turned into a fantasy buff. (Sherlock/Molly)

Always Molly by LaMorenaReina - Molly Hooper is the Queen and she finally realizes it. The aftermath of the phone call. (Sherlock/Molly)

Super Hooper by @221b-hogwarts-and-the-tardis - Molly Hooper is Iron Woman, part of the Britsh Avengers, featuring Captain England (Mycroft Holmes), White Widow (Mary Watson) and Eagle-Eye (John Watson). Sherlock Holmes is desperate to get to know the identity of Iron Woman and is willing to go great lengths for it. (Sherlock/Molly)

Crimes of the Heart by @sobeautifullyobsessed - It's a Love Story, pure & simple. Because I truly believe that only a gentle, kindly, hopeful Soul would have the patience to plumb the depths of his beautiful, lonely heart. That it would have to be Someone unafraid of both living fully in the moment & of embracing their emotions--joys & sorrows alike--that could teach him it is okay to express things he'd forever locked away (Sherlock/OFC)

A Golden Celebration by theSapphireSky - A series of Gold-themed Sherlolly ficlets. (Sherlock/Molly)

It's Okay by majesticlolipop - Short little snippet of what I think Mycroft and Greg would be like early days in their fields and in their twenties. (Mycroft/Lestrade)

The Case of the Missing Presents by ami_ven - “The packages are gone. Someone removed them.” (Sherlock, Lestrade & John)

You Promised by @moonstone1520 - Sherlock promised to attend, but that doesn't mean he has to like it. (Sherlock/Molly)

Penny Drop by @moonstone1520 - Molly was always waiting for the penny to drop with Sherlock. (Sherlock/Molly, Molly/OMC)

Novacaine by @moonstone1520 - They never speak of the events that transpire during danger nights. (Sherlock/Molly - RATED M, POTENTIALLY TRIGGERING)

The Dominatrix and the Pathologist by @doctor-molly-hooper-holmes - A collection of Molly x Irene oneshots. (Irene/Molly)

Christmas Date by @creativereadingfanfiction - Sherlock and Molly have their first date on Christmas Eve. Pure holiday fluff. (Sherlock/Molly)

100 Ways To Say I Love You by WeLoveSherlolly - Inspired by this post over on Tumblr (Sherlock/Molly)

Obvious by orphan_account - Sherlock realises that Mycroft and Molly have feelings for each other and decides to do everything in his power to get them to realise it! (Mycroft/Molly, John/Mary & Sherlock)

Kiss It Better by @whclocked - It was not unusual for Molly to tend to Sherlock’s cuts and bruises after a case. And it was not unusual for her to be irritated at him for being reckless. But, it was different and Sherlock was baffled by her anger. One thing led to another and he found himself confession his feelings. (Sherlock/Molly)

Two Men and a Baby by @majesticlolipop - Mycroft Holmes and Greg Lestrade both want the same thing, and they aren't getting any younger. Mycroft has a proposition. (Mycroft/Lestrade)

Every Feeling Revolts by ONJ - The first time they are intimate Mycroft notices Anthea has a tattoo of a line from Emma tattooed on her ankle. She explains that the stories of Jane Austen hold a special place in her heart. So each time there have been gifts to be given, all of his to her have been tied to some Austen novel in some way, however stretched. (Mycroft/Anthea)

The Bottle of 1937 Glenfiddich by @wetislandinthenorthatlantic - Mycroft sees Sherlock kiss Molly enthusiastically even though he had assumed that Molly cared for him and so he goes home and drinks nearly an entire bottle of Glenfiddich 1937 (a $20,000 bottle of whiskey). Molly comes over when Anthea calls her, concerned, as she discovers Mycroft writing awful love sonnets in his study, and he confesses his feelings towards her. (Mycroft/Molly)

A Belstaff and Scalpels by @mel-loves-all - Sherlolly drabbles and ficlets (Sherlock/Molly)

Welcome to my world by @flavialikestodraw & Potix - A collection of one-shots written because of prompts on Tumblr. Fluffy, funny and romantic. (Sherlock/Molly)

Mother, Father by @lilsherlockian1975 - One night of passion after Sherlock saves Molly's life, then everything goes to hell. Nearly six years later, after Molly has tried to start over Sherlock and Molly finally have the talk they should have had all those years before. (Sherlock/Molly)

A Lifetime In a Moment by @chitarra10 - Molly Hooper is faced with the biggest decision she'd ever had to make, and as the seconds on the clock tick by, she suddenly finds her life flashing before her eyes as she searches her soul to be sure her decision is the correct one. (Sherlock/Molly,Tom/Molly)

The Two Year Secret by sherlockian87 - A different twist on what happened when Sherlock returned from the dead. (Sherlock/Molly)

Brother Dear by @whclocked - Mycroft had a conversation with the woman who changed everything. And he was glad to have known her and to have her part of his inner circle of friends and family. And yes, he had a heart after all. (Sherlock/Molly & Mycroft)

Placing Blame by @starlight-falls - Sherlock's friends are always assuming he's to blame for their fights. (Sherlock/Molly)

At Last by @ladysolitaire - Sherlock is trying to sleep when he hears drunken giggling from the sitting room. (Sherlock/Molly)

Murphy's Law by @doctor-molly-hooper-holmes -  Sherlock wants everything to be perfect for Molly's birthday. (Sherlock/Molly)

Question in the Night by @peeps-the-writer -  Sherlock talks in his sleep and accidentally proposes to Molly one evening. She stays awake all night thinking about it... (Sherlock/Molly)

Dear Sherlock by @ladysolitaire - Sherlock discovers a box filled with Molly's letters to him. (Sherlock/Molly)

The Last Night by @ladysolitaire - It's Sherlock's last night in England, and he decides to spend it with the person that mattered the most. Will he find the courage to tell her how he feels about her before he leaves for Eastern Europe? (Sherlock/Molly)

No More Blind Dates by MissMollyBloom - Sherlock and Molly have been secretly together (for want of a better word) for six months before John, Mary and Lestrade decide to set Molly up on a series of blind dates. Sherlock is, of course, not jealous at all. He just wants to make sure to do everything in his power to make sure every single date is a complete failure. (Sherlock/Molly)

I'll Be Your River by Writingwife83 - Molly finds Sherlock and Wiggins working in the lab and it prompts her to ask why he hasn't been coming to her for help as often anymore. Based off the theme of the song River by Emeli Sande. (Sherlock/Molly)

A Study In Comfort by Writingwife83 - Sherlock is a bit lost when it comes to dealing with other people's emotions. When he's forced to deliver some sad news to a client, he turns to Molly for help in that department...but he might just end up learning a bit himself. (Sherlock/Molly)

You Always Mattered by geeky__chick - In the wake of Moriarty's resurrection, Sherlock Holmes secures his friends and pays a visit to the one who always mattered. (Sherlock/Molly)

Masquerade by holyfant - It isn't really about the act of taking off clothes. It's about the idea of clothes as barriers, and stripping people of them one by one. (Irene/Kate)

Two Sugars by WridersRose - The importance of coffee and courage when it comes to one pathologist's smile and one consulting detective's return. (Sherlock/Molly)

Just Breathe by kedgeree - After Sherlock's return from "the fall," things aren't same with John, but John isn't his only friend, after all. Molly Hooper is trying her best to help when she and Sherlock find themselves in a tight spot. (Sherlock/Molly)

The way the cookie crumbles by killerweasel - Everyone knows the story of the gingerbread man, but they don't know how it really ended. (Moriarty)

Safe and sound by killerweasel - Mary arrives home and discovers an unexpected visitor. (John/Mary, Mary & Sherlock)

Two to Build, Two To Break by stillwaters01 - Lestrade knew what two words could do. (Lestrade & Sherlock)

Love is a Word I Don't Understand by eanor - You can't choose who you fall in love with. But you can choose whether to act on your feelings. (Mycroft/Irene)

BBC SHERLOCK/OTHER FANDOMS

Crossroads by killerweasel - John wants to make a deal with a demon. (John Watson & Crowley)

A Prince Worth Waiting For by dioscureantwins - “So you think you can all come barging in here, kill my dragon, ruin my chances of a true prince rescuing me and do a disappearing act?” (Molly-centric; Sherlock/Molly, Khan/Molly & Martin/Molly)

She Always Had A Type by billiethepoet - Mycroft turns to the only doctor he can trust to defrost Khan, but he underestimates Molly’s kindness as well as her attraction to danger. (Khan/Molly)

SHERLOCK HOMES IN THE 22ND CENTURY

Echoes of the Past by gardnerhill - There’s more than one way to connect with a previous century. (Sherlock & Beth)

SLEEPY HOLLOW

For the Greater Good by @thegirlisme - Introspection on Katrina's part following the events of 2x05, The Weeping Lady. (Ichabod/Katrina)

STAR TREK AOS

Drinking Crew by ami_ven - "I'm just not sure this is such a good idea, captain." (Enterprise Crew)

And I Love Her by ami_ven - Kirk’s dating advice hadn’t been as helpful as he’d thought it would be. (Spock/Uhura, Spock & Kirk)

STAR WARS

Sail Away Sweet Sister by goldenadagio - Luke Skywalker prepares a Jedi funeral pyre for his sister. He is joined by her son. (Luke & Kylo Ren)

[hypexion]

Journey’s End the bombastic big finale to Series Four. Sadly, it does many bad things and is thus not eligible for a trophy. But before we consult it’s array of failings, let’s consider the good parts.

The thing about Journey’s End is that up until a point, it’s a perfectly fine finale episode. Characters are divided up into subplots, but not too many subplots, and things move at just the right pace. There’s a careful build up, both to the Osterhagen Device, and Davros’ master plan. There’s fun little character moments and interactions, desirable amounts of Captain Jack, Mickey is back and the Torchwood cast are locked out of the episode. It’s packed full of good stuff, which is great.

On the villainous side of things, Davros’ plan has the stakes to match the energy of the whole narrative. For an episode that basically brings together every major charatcer from the revival so far, no mere Dalek invasion with suffice. For the greatest episode there must be the greatest threat: THE DESTRUCTION, OF REALITY, ITSELF! You really can’t have stakes higher than that. The plan even almost makes sense - turning off electromagnetism would destroy matter as we know it. Everything is thus set up for a big conflict to stop the Reality Bomb.

At this point, things start to happen. All the companions team up to tell the Daleks where to stick it. Davros, and the whole episode, then proceeds to have a completely normal one and goes off about how the Doctor turns people into weapons. Which you’d think Davros would approve of but instead he’s sort of judgemental. This is accompanied by a montage of people dying, most of who are being murdered by villains. Probably because Davros is... wrong, basically. The primary driver of all these people threatening to blow up the Daleks is the Daleks invaded and trying to blow up everything. Sure, the Doctor is maybe making his companions more able to fight, but against actual malevolent actors, rather than generic people. It ends up being a little hollow, although given that Davros is evil, that might be intended.

Of course, a somewhat minor thematic misstep isn’t enought to condem an episode. But after this point, Journey’s End proceeds to fly off the rails, in several unspectacular ways. It’s pretty unrad.

It all starts when the Doctor’s hand grows into a brand new second Doctor. A second Tenth Doctor, that is. It doesn’t become the Second Doctor, which would certainly be an interesting development. This provides a handy (ha!) way to save Donna and the TARDIS from being melted. Only the Doctor can solve the problem, so the narrative contrivies a way for him to be in two places at once. The “Metacrisis Doctor”, or TenToo, also provides an escape hatch for the Rose/Doctor relationship stuff. Now Rose can have her very own identical Doctor clone. Which sort of undermines the tragic aspects of Doomsday, but I guess she can have her presumably happy ending. (Until the expanded universe ruins it, as the apparent purpose of all expanded univeses.)

On his own, TenToo is a regular Doctor Who tier copout. He’s not a great way to solve the “everyone is captured“ problem, but things could be worse. And they are! Behold the DoctorDonna, something I already hate having to type. The DoctorDonna is Donna, except she also has all the Doctor’s knowledge and also his personality now. Donna gets zapped by Davros, unlocks hacks, and proceeds to solve all problems. The DoctorDonna is simply a Deus Ex Machina. Davros and the Daleks have won, so Russel T. Davis needs to insert a solution into the episode that by necessity comes from nowhere. Vauge forshadowing about Donna having some super cosmic destiny does not count as setup. The moment is not earned. This is not the endpoint of a character arc, because Donna was arcing towards being a more thoughtful and outwardly compassionate person.

Of course, the worst part about the DoctorDonna is how it completely destroys Donna’s arc. Being turned into the Doctor isn’t character development, it’s character derailment. And all the stuff about the Doctor and Donna having some sort of special cosmic connection simply comes off as a post-hoc justification for bad writing. If there’s a Donna arc, it’s about being nicer sometimes and learning the power of self-respect, but that doesn’t work on Daleks so instead we get the DoctorDonna. It is not a conclusion.

Then, once the denouncement happens and everyone is happy, being the DoctorDonna literally kills Donna. Apparently someone realised being able to stop the Daleks without any challenge or cost wasn’t great storytelling, so this was solved... badly. Donna gets her memory wiped, and goes back to where is started. Journey’s End doesn’t just undermine its own story, but the entire season. As well as generally murdering the positve emotions from saving reality, it’s an outright insulting end for Donna’s character. The possibility of a character arc with a good end is thrown out, all so Russel T. Davis can have the spectacle of triple Doctors.

Journey’s End should be good. Everyone is here. It wants to be good. Six people fly the TARDIS to save the Earth. It should be good. But instead, the ending eats the rest of the episode, because we can’t have nice things. It’s not even tragic, since none of the characters’ actual flaws lead to the bad things happening. It’s just misery for misery’s sake. Journey’s End has two endings - the happy, upbeat victory. But we forget that ending, the better ending, in favour of the worse ending. And that’s something that is tragic.

[gif of the Doctor being sad in the rain goes here]

[happynowidiot-blog-blog]

We got Indian food and it was delivered just as we were all on the verge of passing out because none of us had eaten all day. Myles was over an hour late because his meeting ran late. I went downstairs to get him and he smiled when he saw me and goes, “Someone’s looking good.” I could kiss my hairdresser. He asked what the occasion was and I told him I just wanted a change. We went upstairs and I grabbed glasses for the wine he’d brought over. He also brought a pack of Reese’s with three peanut butter cups in it. He said he got one for each of us but didn’t know if anyone was allergic and was hoping someone was because he wanted one. I laughed so hard I cried. That it so ridiculous. Penny was super tense all day. I know that it’s from being tired and resisting the urge to kill Shahida but it’s becoming irritating. She really just needs to relax a little bit. Shahida and I have also been in a pretty good place lately. We stayed up after Penny went to bed on Thursday talking and I think that really helped. I needed a reminder that this was the girl I talked to everyday over the summer and not the monster currently living in Penny’s head.

We finished the first bottle of wine and watched the Inbetweeners (which Myles has never seen somehow) with Penny attempting to buy us Harry Potter tickets and then getting irritated because we weren’t paying attention and no one would make a decision. London isn’t doing a midnight showing (of course not) so we’re going to a midnight show on Friday instead of Thursday night. I made the executive decision that we needed more alcohol so Myles, Shahida, and I walked down to one of the sketch little off-liscences around the corner. Turns out that this particular sketch little place is where Myles stopped to buy the first bottle of wine. His rapport with the cashier came in handy as it was almost 1 AM and there was no way this guy could legally sell us anything. We walked out with a second bottle of wine anyway.

Myles was wearing these ridiculous slightly furry gloves. He’s totally a baby about the cold but his reason for buying these particular gloves killed me a little. Apperently they make him feel like Grover. As in the Muppet. And when I looked at him in confusion (seriously? Grover?) he goes, “Oh alright, Cookie Monster hands. Whatever your Muppet of choice is.” I was dying. I know he has a seven year old sister but still. Hilarious.

I am doing my damndest to just enjoy being friends with Myles but he makes it difficult. At one point we were randomly counting in different languages and Shahida and Myles counted to like thirty in French. I could not deal. His French accent is actually really good. All I could think about was JGL and how much hotter he is when he speaks French. I thought Myles’s English accent made him hot. OMG him speaking French killed me. He then started counting in German and I had to look away. I have never considered German in any way, shape, or form an attractive language. Thank you, Myles, for ruining that for me.

Penny was all crabby and sleepy so we kept telling her to go to bed, that we didn’t care, don’t stay up on our account, etc. All that did was piss her off some more. I’m almost dreading tonight. She did eventually go shower and then went to bed a little bit after that. I have no idea what time this was. My phone was MIA most of the night and I still don’t have a watch. The three of us continued to drink our bottle of wine and talk about nothing. We ate the Reese’s and Myles literally ate the entire thing in one go. Shahida and I just stared. It was actually kind of hilarious. Oh, and I’m wrong. I’ve been telling people he’s 6'2’’. He said last night that he’s 6'4’’. That makes him an entire foot taller than me (and an inch taller than David Tennant). Oh! He also learned that Shahida and I read/write fanfiction. You could see the comments he wanted to make written all over his face. Jerk. Shahida and I are very touchy-feely in general. If I lean my head on her shoulder she’ll pet my hair, if we’re laying on the couch she’ll usemy legs as a pillow, etc. Everytime we’d jokingly do something like that last nigh Myles would yell, “Make out!” and when we’d respond that we were way to sober for that he’d literally get up to get the bottle of wine. It’s nice to know the boy is still human and would enjoy something like that. I almost mentioned that when he responded to my list of fandoms with, “Torchwood is all gay porn and you know it.”

We decided to put on In Bruges because I’d never seen it and Myles sat in between Shahida and I, throwing a blanket over all three of our legs. Shahida and I finished out glasses of wine and then split the rest of Myles’s because he said he wasn’t going to finish his. Wuss. I’m not entirely sure what was going on in the movie besides Colin Firth (or was it Colin Farrell?) being adorable and Irish and Mad-Eye Moody enjoying culture but I was enjoying watching Myles smile and laugh soflty to himself the minute before something funny happened because he knew it was coming. I eventually couldn’t keep my eyes open and dozed off against his shoulder. Before I fell alseep I took a breathe and all I could smell was Myles. He legitimately doesn’t smell like any other guy I’ve smelt before, as creepy/weird as that sounds. Oooohh. I knew something was off. I just realised that the reason I notcied how he smelled was because he did smell different. He does have a cologne or whatever that he wears out normally but he wasn’t wearing it last night. Now it makes sense. Now I feel like less of a weirdo for noticing the way he smelled so acutely last night.

Shahida and I both had to be up early so we went to bed around 3 AM and left Myles on the couch. We got into bed and the boy had texted her with “hi” and nothing else. From the other room. The hilarious thing is that we’d just been talking about how much we missed talking to guys at night. Those phone calls that last four or five hours while you’re lying in bed with your eyes closed, where you talk about everything and nothing just to be closer to the person on the other end of the phone. We both kind of fell asleep as we were talking and then were woken up about an hour later by what was either their obnoxious next door neighbors coming home, Myles talking loudly to someone of the phone, or a combination of both. It was probably just her neighbors but someone sounded just like Myles and I was irriatingly angry. The bad thing is that I wasn’t mad I’d been woken up. I was mad that he was on the phone with someone at 4 AM and it wasn’t one of us. I literally couldn’t sleep I was so annoyed. I did eventually doze off by never fully and then woke up properly at 5:15 AM. Shahida rolled over and smacked me as she stretched and then we were both awake. I was so tired I couldn’t sleep. When her alarm went off at 8:30 I almost attacked the phone. So too fucking early.

I was slightly hungover but I think most of that is from not sleeping. I’m still in this fucking library and hating my life but I have about half hour left anf then I’m going home and sleeping forever. I don’t give a shit if my roommate and her boyfriend and still there. My room too bitches. I’m in the sort of mood where I wanted to curl up on the couch with Myles this morning and never leave. I once again had a good time counting the shirts left on the floor (well, chair this time) and realising through a process of emlimnation that there couldn’t be any left on his body if there were three different shirts taken off (seriously though, who is he Sheldon? Or the 10th Doctor I guess. God he needs to be less comparable to fictional characters I find attractive).

I’m not sure how much progress I’m making in getting over him but judging by the number of times I’ve said his name in this post I’m going to go with not very well.