@chiaroscuroverse / chiaroscuroverse.tumblr.com
We as a society will never get over “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” and that’s beautiful.
BUT, let’s not sleep on the raw power of the “Offer me money. Anything I want. I want my father back you son of a bitch” exchange because it sends me fucking feral exactly every time and only gets stronger.
Dear fanfiction readers,
Thank you for reading. Please don’t stop! Click on that fanfic that looks like it might suit you right now; read what you want to. Leave kudos if you want to. Or don’t; if you don’t like what you’re reading, or you’re not ready to add your name or your thumbs up to that fic today, or ever, that’s alright. You aren’t required to. There’s no payment required for reading fanfiction. You’ve honoured us already but being willing to be become our readers in the first place. That’s more than enough, as far as I’m concerned.
Almost all writers enjoy and appreciate comments, and they always will. Comment where you’re moved to, and never imagine that your contribution won’t be welcome. But please don’t let anyone shame you into commenting on a fic where you’re uncomfortable doing so. Interaction in fandom should always be by enthusiastic choice, never through pressure, or a sense of owing the writer anything, or guilt.
As a fanfiction writer, I welcome comments and reactions from readers who feel moved to comment and react. I have learned a great deal from these interactions, and I will be forever grateful for them. But I would never want a comment or kudos on a fic to come from a place of shame, duty, or sense of obligation. If writing fics causes that kind of negative experience and harm to readers, I for one would certainly stop writing. There is nothing for me to learn from that.
The vast majority of any fandom is lurkers. Those of us who do the talking may not understand the drive to lurk, but it would be foolish of us not to acknowledge and respect this form of being fannish. Being out front isn’t for everyone, or it’s not for someone just yet. And that’s okay.
I cannot speak for everyone who writes, and I know many disagree with me. But if you are a lurker and you want to read fics and not kudos them, like them on tumblr, reblog them, or leave comments on them, you’ve got my support. Read on, lurker friend. Read on.
an angel got her. it sent her back to victorian london where she worked hard to fit into society, and eventually was able to have a meeting with queen victoria, who, while she’d banished rose and the doctor from her world, took compassion on her situation and set her up nicely. she thought she’d gone mad when she heard that unmistakable wheezing, but sure enough, there he was. his tardis became stuck, and the two became quite close during the time it took to repair his ship. a different face, and a bit early in his timeline to meet her, sure. but he was the same man. and he fell for her just as quick as she did him.
eight + rose tyler victorian au requested by forever-is-my-promise-to-you
I think the thing that bothers me the most when people say things like, “How could the Doctor possibly fall in love with Rose? She was just a regular teenage girl and he was this ancient, amazing alien,” is that that, right there, was the ENTIRE point that RTD was trying to make through their relationship. You have this character, the Doctor, who’s been so many places and lived so long and is obviously brilliant, and you start thinking “yeah, he’s the best, he’s better than everyone else, he should only love/associate with people who are on the same level as him.” And then suddenly you have Rose — a lower-class shop girl with no A-levels — and the Doctor falls in love with her.
Rose breaks apart every elitist ideal, completely shatters the entire concept that some people are better than others because of their social status or profession or education or age, and her relationship with the Doctor shows that it isn’t these things that make people equals. Their story touches on what I’d say is one of the main ideas throughout all of Doctor Who ever, which is that every single human being (or alien) has the potential to do amazing things. That great deeds aren’t saved for the upper classes and the intellectuals. That people are equal because they are people, and if anything were able to make someone “better” than someone else, it wouldn’t be class or age or intellect. It would be the choices people make, how they create themselves. It would be kindness and courage, and sometimes cleverness — not book smarts, not education, just plain old ingenuity — all things which Rose has in multitudes and even rivals the Doctor in at times. You go girl.
The point that Rose and the Doctor’s story makes is that you don’t have to be a certain age or from a certain place or background etc. to be extraordinary and worthy of another, as well as that love has the amazing ability to look past all of those things and see people for who they really are on the inside. I mean, come on, it’s the oldest story in the universe:
And you only have to look to real life to see that love looks past age too. So of course an ancient, time-traveling alien can fall in love with a young shop girl. Of course a woman with more compassion than the ocean could hold can fall in love with a man who’s killed billions. Because love looks at what matters. It’s really good at that. And if you think otherwise, you’re missing out on the entire message the Doctor has been trying to tell us for the last fifty plus years. And in that case, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.
You’re welcome.
You have NO IDEA how much time I've spent imagining this...
- False face must hide what the false heart doth know
He had earned the director job fair and square. He’d done nothing wrong. So what if Duncan had been announced as director of Highland Industries? He’d been in the job nearly two years and the company had been struggling under his rule. But now he’d disappeared without a trace, and that was nothing to do with Macbeth, no matter what rumours were going around. It had nothing to do with his wife desperately wanting to move down to London, to take in the London lifestyle and night life. No, Macbeth was director of the company because he was the best man for the job. And he wasn’t about to let anyone take that away from him.
Modern-day Macbeth
Fancast Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth
for gallifreyburning
“Alright. As my mate Shareen says: don’t argue with the designated driver. I can’t exactly call for a taxi.”
#this scene. #the beginning of my love of this ship - ah those were the glory days. #he has lost everything. #he’s lost his planet and his people - he’s all alone in the world. #then he meets this girl. #this human girl who goes off with him without hesitation. #she trusts him. #the thing is - she’s starting to realise that she doesn’t really know anything about this mad man in a box so she questions him. #he’s so full of rage and pain that he can’t tell her - he can’t tell anyone. so he shuts down and closes himself off to feeling those emotions. #but rose gets under his skin and helps him to heal. #this insignificant human girl from a council estate in london. #this scene is the scene where all that began and i had to gif the moment when she does start to get under his skin. #christopher eccleston was an excellent doctor and his performance was subtle and powerful all at the same time. #you can see the doctor can’t help but smile in spite of the mood he flew into when he was forced to think about the war. #that’s what rose does to him.
YESYESYESYES! Those tags! YES! And also directly after that, when he gives in and takes the phone from her, and she goes into extreme-flirt mode. They banter some silliness back and forth— he’s flirting right back. I actually replayed this scene several times during my recent rewatch, wanting to catch some of these nuances. So glad someone giffed this.
Also can you please gush to me about Nine/Rose?? Like I love them and ship them but sometimes I struggle a little because Nine is so obviously smitten, but with Rose there's Mickey and Adam and Jack and she denies anything with Nine for most of the season. So I tend to favor Ten(too)/Rose because they feel more equal in affection to me, if that makes sense??
See, the thing is though, where we see how smitten Nine is, 90% of the time, he’s being obviously smitten where she can’t see. All those glances and the way he talks about her to others… she doesn’t get those indicators so to her perception, he’s probably a little confusing. He does things like tell her she’s beautiful and weighs the fate of the world against her life but he also tries to be super stoic when she tests the waters as to his interest. Plus she had to process the alien thing and doesn’t know if he would be interested in a human at all.
So she has Mickey who is safe and adores her and she’s reluctant to leave that safety net. Adam is a blip on the map to me. She wanted to show him up and thought he was a bit of alright but he was just a distraction, you know? And Jack? I think she was attracted to him and he’s a potent flirt but after that first meeting, they settled into a friendship that was more suited to them.
So Nine fell hard and fast and before Rose did but Rose fell in love over the course of the season and it’s Beautiful. They get closer and closer and trust each other and there are no declarations but they’re so Solid. They reach for each other often and depend on each other and laugh together.
Nine in general is just more subtle than Ten with his affection and therefore Rose is as well. They play off of each other and are still trying to figure out what is okay, how far they can take it, is it going to work. They think they have Time and they don’t and it makes me so sad. So yeah, they deny it but some of that is that they don’t know where the other stands. There’s undeniably something there but they aren’t sure if the other person acknowledges it, much less wants to act upon it.
They’re just so good for each other. He makes her braver and stronger and more confident and she is like a balm on his wounded soul and teaches him how to see the wonder in ordinary things again. Their jagged edges fit together so well but they still are jagged and they hurt each other but they’re together. His smile is never as tender as when it’s directed at Rose. Her’s is never as bright with anyone but him. They are all about the subtleties. (Until they’re not.) (Until he falls apart completely when he thinks she’s dead - unable to be angry or sad or anything… just numb and empty and devoid of her light.) (Until he sends her away and she refuses to give up on him and let him die so she takes the vortex into her, takes the heart of the tardis into her and goes to save him because she will not lose him.)
Like i understand why people ship Ten(too)/Rose more because it’s a more overt romance but it’s all built on how they grew together when he wore a leather jacket and slightly overlarge ears. They were building a foundation, building a friendship that could withstand regeneration and alternate universes. They were falling in love and watching that is what makes me love them so very much.
I’ve wanted to do one of these posts for a long time so here I finally am with what I hope is the first one of several, and the person I chose for the occasion is none other than one of my all-time favourite writers of any sort of fiction: @fadewithfury
Fadewithfury’s writing is as flawless as her ideas. She has the ability of making me interested in anything, she could literally publish half of her grocery list and I’ll be at her askbox asking about progress on the next part in mere minutes. I actually started watching Secret Diary of a Call Girl only so I could take the most out of her brilliant Hardy/Hannah fics (as I expected, the characterization was perfect)
The first work of hers I read was Bring Down The Sky and it didn’t take me long to realize I had to read every other piece of text of hers I could find, so I did (almost. I’m currently halfway through Temporal Obscura and I’m loving every word). Fics that are noticeably better (and not “as good” or “alternatively brilliant”) than the thing they’re based on are rare in my opinion, however I think even the creators of Somewhere in Time would agree that Elsewhere deserves a film of its own more, and Touching Wild Light is simply one of the best things I have ever read in my entire life.
Every fic of hers is my favourite and even though I’ve commented on some of them, and left compliments (anonymously and not) in her askbox before, I feel terrible for not showing my love for her work more often.
She’s not only a brilliant writer, but also an amazing person, blogger and artist (seriously though please do yourself a favour and go see all her art right now!). This could’ve easily been a “Human Appreciation Post”. So believe me when I tell you you haven’t lived until you’ve read Love Letters at night in bed for the billionth time, or accidentally missed your tram stop because you were too immersed on Here For You, forgotten why it’s Chris Chibnall writing Alec Hardy and not the author of Where Oceans Meet a few chapters in said fic, or experienced the utter joy of seeing a writing update on her blog.
Happy Fanfic Writer Appreciation Day! Thank you so much for all your hard work. Please never stop writing.
Gaaaaasssssspppppp I don’t know what to say. This is so unexpected and lovely!! Thank you!!
I think one of the things I love most about Doctor Who is how the companions transform from ordinary people into (super)heroes because of their experiences with the Doctor.
Toasty little heart-cockles.
Hardy/Rose // Paranormal Detectives Moodboard requested by anonymous
We needed more Nine and Jackie scenes.
