Rec: "Critical Angle," by Calapine

[nonelvis]

Posting on behalf of Styrofoam monster on Teaspoon.

Story: Critical Angle
Author: Calapine
Rating: All Ages
Word count: 940
Characters: Tegan, Five
Summary: They say it's better here than anywhere else.

Recced because: Tegan is so well drawn here as the complex, confrontational and vulnerable person she is. This fic unravels the trauma that Tegan undergoes from traveling with the Doctor, tackles their complex relationship and how very distant and alien the fifth doctor can be. There are too many wonderful lines to list, but this one especially struck me: "She’ll think of Earth and he’ll tell her about all the wonderful places in the universe she’s never going to see because they’re too busy helping the not so wonderful places." Nothing is nice or neat in this fic. But despite that, it is the little moments -- Tegan dreaming of being a car mechanic, tea in the rain room, and Tegan's colonizing the cloister room -- that offer some humanity in the harsh and clinical prose.

A haunting fic.

excerpt: ( after the cut )

Rec: "Self-Preservation," by Memory Dragon

[nonelvis]

Posting on behalf of Styrofoam monster on Teaspoon.

Story: Self-Preservation
Author: Memory Dragon
Rating: teen
Word count: 16429
Characters: Delgado!master, Three, Simm!master
Summary: Running for his life with the Master, the Doctor finds someone he just can't leave behind.
Warnings: This fic is part of a well balanced diet of angst and cuteness. The Master gets a bit beaten up (off screen abuse of the insane on backwater planets) and there is a small bit of violence towards the Doctor, but I don't think it's anything major. Just a bit of choking, really.

Recced because: Self-Preservation features two incarnations of the Master, and Memory Dragon writes them both splendidly (though of course, anything Memory Dragon writes with the Master is guaranteed goodness). This fic shows the trust between the 3rd doctor and his master, something that has been lost in their later regenerations, and the mercurial nature of simm!master, and offers a believable explanation for how Delgado becomes who he will be. The story is very much one of contrasts, a moment of truce in a conflict that almost feels like a farce because it's obvious in this fic that Three and his master don't hate each other - rather the opposite. The concern the 3rd doctor and Delgado!master show for each other only underscores how bitter their battles will become. The conversation between the two Masters was also well done, with Delgado characteristically dismissive of his older self's melodrama. And the ending is excellent.

I could go on about it all day -- go ahead and read it!

excerpt: ( after the cut )