Calufrax

Hello! Thought I'd close out the rec period with two REALLY different fics for the same pairing, to sort of--highlight Directions In/Ways With. (I may find a final gen/genish fic to properly close, because I feel fairly guilty...)

Story: Mercy
Author: Bagheera
Rating: Adult
Word Count: 3152
Author's Summary: “It's mating season for Traken males. The Doctor saves the Master's life.”
Characters: The Doctor (5th), The Master (Ainley)
Pairings: Five/Ainley!Master
Warnings: Explicit Sex
Recced because:

So this is some In Heat/Pon Farr fic—honestly, I wish Who fic played more with classic fanfic tropes? Not exclusively, obviously. I’m glad for the variety and the particularly of a lot of Who fic, but I still wish that we got our quota of the classics and new standards. Where you at, Cave Fic? Et tu, ridiculous A/B/O? I sort of feel owed these things, even where I don't particularly like the trope in question!

( More about why this fic's interesting )

(I swear the next rec is pretty gen, I'm sorry y'all, this is just the subset of fandom I know well enough to rec competently in.)

Story: The Sleepwalker
Author: Aralias
Rating: Adult
Word Count: 20082
Author's Summary: “One day the Doctor woke up. (Eight/Master - written for the Buffy 'Normal Again' prompt on Best_Enemies)”
Characters: Charley Pollard, C’Rizz, Grace Holloway, Romana II, The Doctor (8th), The Master (Roberts), LOTS of Eight companions, in passing
Pairings: Eight/Roberts!Master
Warnings: Explicit Sex, Swearing (I’d add major character death, self-harm due to the mechanism of a plot thing)
Recced because:

The Doctor keeps swapping between his life on the TARDIS and a mundane AU where he’s a physicist teaching at Berkley in 2001, married to Roberts!Master and surrounded by people he knows in canon, but with switched-around names. Is it a fluff piece about them being humans and married and the Master mostly not being a terrible person who’d kill people? Or is it really disturbing and sad, a set up predicated on psychological weaponry (the origins of the Daleks’ Nightmare Child project) from the start of the Time War? Perhaps that depends on how creeped out you are by the ‘which of these lives is real’ “Normal Again” dilemma.

( Why this fic is important. )

Story: Nonsense All Compact (The Community Theatre Remix)
Author: Neveralarch
Rating: All-Ages
Word Count: 12644
Author's Summary: “Braxiatel directs amateur community theatre in the small village of Gallifrey. Romana is the Council Leader in Gallifrey, and uses theatre as a political distraction. Eventually they hold hands. (Mundane AU of Gallifrey.)”
Characters: Irving Braxiatel, Leela, Narvin, Romana II, The Doctor (8th), Andred, K9, cameos from Eight’s companions
Pairings: Romana II/Brax, Leela/Narvin, Leela/Andred
Warnings: None
Recced because:

This is a mundane AU remix of Aralias’s excellent The Importance of Being On Stage, which is also about Brax having to rustle the denizens of Gallifrey into amateur dramatics and well worth a read. Neveralarch’s version is funny (how could anything about Gallifrey as a middle England town and Brax being dragooned into running its am-dram fail to be funny?) and lovely, with great world-building that uses all kinds of canon well and doesn’t leave you feeling left out if you don’t remember who Samson and Gemma are (don’t worry, the Doctor doesn’t remember who they are either). It’s an ensemble fic before it’s anything else, though its shippy elements are variously satisfying and amusing.

I think you’d even dig this story if you didn’t know the Gallifrey audios and had only a passing familiarity with Big Finish. Brax is the Doctor’s brother and he has a morally-dubious art collection and also does grandiose political machinations back on the Time Lord ranch and pines after Romana and nothing ever works out for him—there, you’re good to go, enjoy.

( Nice Ficbits Here )

The fact that this has 0 comments on Teaspoon and but two admirers on Ao3 is a travesty. THE CHARLEY CAMEO ALONE, PEOPLE!! Also, special prize for best use of a Monan Host. ...only use of a Monan Host.

Hello! I’m x_los here and on Teaspoon. I haven’t rec’d here before, and I solemnly swear I will lj-cut the many teal deers I have brought along with me.

Story: Kept Man
Author: Aralias
Rating: Adult
Word Count: 30953 words
Author's Summary: In Scream of the Shalka, REG!Doctor (the ninth Doctor who almost was) was seen travelling round the universe with a robotic Master for no apparent reason. The ninth Doctor (who actually was) has a much better reason for travelling with a robotic Master, given that his entire race are dead. This fic assumes that he was and that the Master just kept out of sight so as not to alarm anyone.
Characters: Jack Harkness, Jack Harkness, Martha Jones, Mickey Smith, Mickey Smith, Professor Yana, Rose Tyler, Rose Tyler, The Doctor (10th), The Doctor (9th), The Master (Jacobi), The Master (Other), The Master (Simm)
Pairings: Shalka!Master/Nine, Shalka!Master/Ten, Doctor/Master generally implied
Warnings: Explicit sex, swearing (goodness, there’s a warning for that? Huh.)

Recced because:

( A little about the author. )

Kept Man is relatively early but essential work from an essential writer in Doctor/Master and, really, the fandom. This fic tracks the first three series of the reboot, imagining that all along, an android version of the Master, built by the Doctor, lives in the TARDIS, preferring not to interact with the Doctor’s various human companions (a plot device that pulls on Scream of the Shalka’s presentation of the Doctor and an android Master voiced by Jacobi living together). It slots neatly into the show as we know it, but not in a facile, consequence-free ‘episode coda’ kind of way. ‘The Doctor keeps the Master on the TARDIS after the events on the Valiant’ is a big subgenre of Doctor/Master fic (especially the fic that came right after s3) (Kept Man is also probably a little influenced by Ariastar’s generally well-regarded Ten/Simm!Master alternate series—alternate series 4 and 5 are another sort of sub genre.). Aralias is engaging with that here, but pulling the trend/trope in directions that chime with her overall interests and sensibilities.

( A little about why this fic is compelling and important. )