Fic: Fans Fiction (G, Lizzie & Robyn & Hassan, 425 words)

[lurking_latinist]

Fans Fiction (425 words) by lurking_latinist
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Doctor Who (2005)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Lizzie Abel & Hassan Chowdry & Robyn Gossage
Characters: Lizzie Abel, Hassan Chowdry, Robyn Gossage
Additional Tags: Post-Episode: s15e02 Lux (Doctor Who), Metafiction, Experimental Style, Spoilers, Ficlet
Summary:

Robyn, Hassan, and Lizzie decide to rewatch the latest episode of Doctor Who.

Major spoilers for the episode Lux in this fic!

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I've been lurking here but haven't made a post in quite a while; RL got busier and I haven't been writing as much (or rather, I have, but for professional purposes :P). I miss posting here however and am trying to come back a bit. So I thought I would share this fic! I really loved Lux, and I've written what I think may be the first fic with these three characters in, at least on AO3.

Also... while I hate begging for comments, I did something a little unusual in this fic and would really, really love to know how it landed. (Including if it didn't make any sense!) So while I am always glad for people to read my fics with or without commenting, know that in this particular case, if you do feel motivated to say anything in response, it will be extra-super-duper appreciated. :-)

Comments

[shivver]

Hey there! I'm leaving a comment here, because I wasn't sure if you wanted to have a literary discussion on your AO3 comments feed. :D If you'd like me to copy this there, so all your comments are in one place, just let me know.

First, I absolutely adored "Lux" - I can't stop talking about it, and we've rewatched it once already, on Sunday; might do so again before the next episode. The fan scene was amazing, yes (and I cried at the end, both times), but I also loved the entire rest of the episode. But, that's not what I'm here to write about, and I'll get to it in my own journal soon.

Also, re: your note on the AO3 post, I also thought it was unrealistic that all three agreed that "Blink" was their favorite. (Especially considering that there was only one reference to "Blink" in the room, but a lot of references to the classic show.) I really wish that Robyn had answered differently (preferably a non-Fourth Doctor classic one like your suggestion "Battlefield" or for me, "The Caves of Androzani") and given Lizzie and Hassan a couple of lines to good-heartedly argue/mock/shush, like fans do. (On our first watch, I even paused the show after the scene was over and said as much to my husband.)

This little story was great, and these three definitely deserve more air time. And I always love your writing style. As far as the "unusual" bit, I love what you're trying to do -- build the world of fans one "Lux" view at a time and starting with the current reader -- but it didn't work for me.

To be honest, I'm not fond of second-person POV, so this was a hard sell for me. To me, it's uncomfortable, like the author is telling me how to think and feel. I think also in this case, there was this weird dissonance with me, the reader, watching this scene with Lizzie, Hassan, and Robyn, and then suddenly, no, I'm watching the episode and I'm now them meeting the Doctor. Or maybe I'm watching this scene with the three fans and I'm seeing on their TV the Doctor climbing out of the screen and meeting me.

I think what you were trying to do was interesting and innovative and beautiful, but it didn't work for me, and I don't really know what would make it work.

[lurking_latinist]

Thanks so much for replying! I'm really pleased to get your feedback. :-)

To be honest, the trippy meta "wait where am I" feeling you describe is exactly what I was going for, and it definitely makes sense that it's not something everyone would enjoy no matter how well I set it up. (ETA: And, conversely, I'm sure I could have set it up more subtly/effectively!) Sorry it didn't work for you, though, but it's good to know that you got what I was trying to do, I guess! But now I'm wondering if I should tag it better. I did use "Experimental" but do you think I should also use "Second Person POV"? I didn't want to add that because I didn't want to spoil the fic's twist for people who would enjoy it, but I also don't want to mislead people who would prefer to avoid this kind of thing. What do you think?

I realize I didn't say much about the actual episode here but oh my gosh, yes, I did love it, so much! I can definitely see it becoming a really iconic episode, like Midnight or, well, uh, Blink. XD And I think that's the first time we've seen Mrs. Flood in a different time period??

Again, thanks for your feedback and for reading my fic! :-)

[shivver]

Well, if that's what you were going for, then I think you achieved it quite well! :) I definitely wouldn't put a "Second Person POV" tag on the story, because you don't want to give away the twist. Also, it's a tiny part of the story, the rest of which is all third-person, and it's not really a trigger so you don't need to give a warning.

Thinking about it becoming an iconic episode, I just had a thought. That fan scene hit me hard because RTD managed to develop three characters within a space of a minute, giving them personalities and individuality, and then having them help the Doctor and bravely face their deaths. But I also feel like it was a love letter to the fans, saying, "This is how we see you all," and to me, it puts it on a par with "The Five(-ish) Doctors Reboot" -- as Sylvia said, "I have no higher compliment."

So my husband is absolutely obsessed with figuring out Mrs Flood, like, he even has kind of a dossier, listing where we've seen her and any clues we can glean from those glimpses. (He's not dumb about it, though. His conjectures always have good evidence to back them up.) The first thing he said at that scene was, "She can time travel?"

Edit: As I posted this, I realized, that doesn't have to be the same Mrs Flood. She could be multiples, or fragments of the same being. We saw something very similar in "City of Death" - Scaroth was fragmented across time, and the fragments could communicate with each other.

[lurking_latinist]

Love the idea of fragments! That would be kind of similar to what happened with Susan Twist - maybe they have something to do with each other?