Rec: ceremony for the living, by Branwyn

[aralias.livejournal.com]

Story: ceremony for the living
Author: Branwyn
Rating: All ages
Word Count: 1370
Author's Summary: The Doctor attends his own funeral.
Characters/Pairings: Seven, Ace, mentions of Benny
Warnings: NA canon (not necessary to understanding)

Recced because: I love the summary - that's brilliant. Another way of looking at that central conceit - the seventh Doctor eavesdrops on a conversation someone is having with him - shows it to be equally brilliant. He doesn't say anything, but he thinks many things and these are all exquisitely expressed: one of my favourite parts is below, but there are other really striking metaphors peppered throughout the story. The Doctor's prose is cool and lyrical, while the only dialogue is Ace's. Ace is a woman of short sentences and strong, very expressed emotion - her stuff stands out strikingly and rawly from the prose. It's very well done: a dialogue without two speakers. The conclusion is not unexpected, but that isn't the point - it still needed to be said.

Excerpt:

Time Lords know precisely what awaits them after death, which is to say, more death, and some life, and then nothing. Still, a seasoned traveler has to give some thought to the notion of cosmic balance, a reckoning of sorts. He wonders how, if some entirely hypothetical god were to weigh his soul now, whether he or she or it would consider the equally hypothetical unity of which his many personalities have been mere fractures, or if each chapter of his life is a story in itself, justified (or not) by its own conclusions.

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As part of pod_aware I have recorded yesterday's rec, Operator, Operator, which can be downloaded here. I hope to, with each author's permission, record all my recs this week (posting them a day after the rec). Sound quality is variable - as is quality of Doctor impression (both vary between not good and not bad). I apologise but hope you enjoy.

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, I love that one! Nice rec! *crosses it off own potential calufrax list*

[aralias.livejournal.com]

i have in the past wandered through your favourites list as you tend to have v good taste and i am lazy, but in this case i found the fic accidentally while looking for things about benny (there are not enough things about benny in the world), and thought very highly of it :)

[thisbluespirit]

Heh. I used to do that a lot whenever I found a new fave author on Teaspoon, too. It's a good way to find other cool authors. There aren't enough things about Benny, this is true. Why not? There should be!

That author is exceptionally good at Seven, who isn't always easy to get right.