elisi: (Alexander)
elisi ([personal profile] elisi) wrote2015-01-04 06:29 pm

Fic: The Death and Life of Rodageitmososa. Next Time Preview

For anyone curious, if you want more info see Cold Open:

Cold Open | Act One | Act Two | Act Three | Act Four

Title/Summary: The Death and Life of Rodageitmososa.
Summary: Roda knew, at that very moment, that she was going to die.
Authors: [livejournal.com profile] luckweaver (aka the_redjay - they changed their name) & [personal profile] elisi.
Warnings: Character death, grievous injuries.
Setting: Between 'Day of the Doctor' and 'Time of the Doctor'. AU 'verse. Set post-A Good Day and [immediately] post-Galimaufrey.
Spoilers: Day of the Doctor, A Good Day, Galimaufrey.
Rating: PG-13
Characters: The Seeker (OC), Roda (OC), the Doctor, Clara, the Master (original/author-created), Jack.


Preview

Roda sat in the Medusa Cascade for a long time; he lost track of how long. More than once he fell asleep, his head resting against the open door frame and only the forcefield around his TARDIS keeping him from tumbling into the endless black. The old girl had been possessive when Roda had returned to him, after a couple of days helping the Seeker with the body double, and the less than pleasant task of wiping one of his closest friend’s mind. He’d spent a few more nights with the Seeker as a sort of recompense for asking the impossible of him.

It wasn’t quite as though this regeneration of his minded being blunt and selfish, he realised with a bitter smile, but that didn’t mean he was entirely proud of himself.

The first thing he’d done after kissing the Seeker goodbye was return to Cardiff and make a beeline for his TARDIS. (Well, after going back in time and lifting Jack’s vortex manipulator from where it had been left in the grass on the Seeker’s planet. He’d taken the Seeker’s perception filter bracelet, too; a pretty little thing, that he knew the Seeker no longer used. It would probably come in handy at some point.) Either Jack hadn’t managed to find her, or the TARDIS hadn’t let him in; she’d been exactly where Roda had left her, and the Seeker had found her.

The door had opened before Roda even touched it and if Roda had thought the Seeker was relieved to have brought him back to life, the TARDIS was beyond ecstatic. Roda wasn’t going to be able to leave for days and honestly, he didn’t think he wanted to. Nearly two thousand years together… no wonder the old girl was hurting.

It had taken some convincing, but his TARDIS, too, had finally consented to the next part of Roda’s plan. He’d been modifying his TARDIS since the first day he left Gallifrey, but making it untraceable had been his biggest challenge. He was going to be making little repairs for his sins for a while, but it was worth it. If he was going to fake his death, and fake it properly, so that not even his closest friends could find him, then he had to be untraceable. For once being severed from the Matrix had come in handy; if no one in Gallifrey knew he had left the Time Lock - or whatever it turned out had happened - then they would assume he had died in the War.

And even if they didn’t, no one would be looking for a Time Lord. His regeneration couldn’t have gone any less smooth but it couldn’t have been better timed, either.

Not that there were many people who would question he was dead. The Seeker might - he, if no one else, knew exactly how many regenerations he had left - but he would believe his own eyes. The Doctor would struggle with the self-imposed guilt of having argued with her right before the fall. It was Jack that Roda felt the worst about misleading; after two hundred years of working and sleeping together, losing another friend to ‘Torchwood’ was worse than he deserved. And Roda realised with heavy hearts that he would miss Jack, the most. The Master, Roda supposed, would probably be too delighted by the news of her death to question his good fortune and as for Rassilon, there was no guarantee the Lord President would survive the War.

That was a worry for a much later date, but a serious one, all the same. There was a lot of work to be done, and it was going to be damn near impossible to preserve his/her timeline in the process. Roda wasn’t sure quite where he was going to start - he would have to start planning, like the Seeker always did. The thought made him grimace - but he knew for sure that it was going to take him a very, very long time...

enevarim: (Default)

[personal profile] enevarim 2015-01-04 07:04 pm (UTC)(link)
It wasn’t quite as though this regeneration of his minded being blunt and selfish, he realised with a bitter smile, but that didn’t mean he was entirely proud of himself.
This bitter smile, on the other hand, makes total sense. Nicely observed.

The Seeker might - he, if no one else, knew exactly how many regenerations he had left -
– Although we the readers do too, and I’m still wondering where the other / last six regenerations went. Some sort of future Valeyard!Roda making deals with the High Council, if it still exists, like the stolen two years of Jack’s life that I don’t remember ever being explained?

The Doctor would struggle with the self-imposed guilt of having argued with her right before the fall.
– Oh, Eleven. Of course he would.

Whatever Roda did next
– Still dead curious about what this will be!

[identity profile] luckweaver.livejournal.com 2015-01-04 07:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Hello! Just a note: elisi meant to make this private, as I had some edits to make but it was posted while I was de-shingling a wall at my house. Do you want me to send you a message when the edited/with additions version is posted?

This bitter smile, on the other hand, makes total sense. Nicely observed.
He's just realised how the Seeker feels when he's too clever for his own good.

Although we the readers do too, and I’m still wondering where the other / last six regenerations went.
Roda has... 4 regenerations left. This is her/his 8th body. I can give you a run-down of the major points of the past 7, if you'd like, although my next story will touch on a lot of it.

like the stolen two years of Jack’s life that I don’t remember ever being explained?
Roda's involved in some of that. She was on the peripheral but again, another story.

Oh, Eleven. Of course he would.
Guilt is sort of his thing.

Still dead curious about what this will be!
*waggles fingers*
enevarim: (Default)

[personal profile] enevarim 2015-01-04 07:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, please do.

Roda's involved in some of that.
– What what what? Okay. We need to figure out some sort of master fic list for shared universes across multiple platforms, now. Well, maybe not now this minute, but it feels like I keep asking questions to which there are already known answers if I only knew where to look them up.

[identity profile] luckweaver.livejournal.com 2015-01-04 07:38 pm (UTC)(link)
What what what? Okay. We need to figure out some sort of master fic list for shared universes across multiple platforms, now. Well, maybe not now this minute, but it feels like I keep asking questions to which there are already known answers if I only knew where to look them up.
Well I've not written it yet, but she's only involved in the sense of she first met him in those 2 years.

As for masterlist, elisi has one for her 'verse (which I'll let her link), and I have one for my 'verse, which is here (It's all on LJ too, I can look for posts if you'd prefer to comment there - really should make a masterlist...). Since this is a sequel on a sequel on a sequel I guess sometimes readers need to be wholly up to date for it all to make sense, but I touch upon Roda and Jack's pre-Torchwood past in .

I do apologise, I write in a very wibbly-wobbly way. I'm planning to tie up loose ends in prep. for 8th!Roda's big story.
enevarim: (Default)

[personal profile] enevarim 2015-01-04 07:59 pm (UTC)(link)
He's just realised how the Seeker feels when he's too clever for his own good.
– !!! Wry, very wry.

And hurrah for two master-lists in non-timey/wimey order. Excellent. Bookmarked. Thank you.

[identity profile] luckweaver.livejournal.com 2015-01-04 08:01 pm (UTC)(link)
By the end of today I'll have one for you compiled with LJ lists. I'm about 1/3 into cutting and pasting as we speak ;) (thank you for getting my backside in gear)

ETA: http://luckweaver.livejournal.com/400207.html It's currently set so that only you and elisi can see it - I'll make it public once it's completed, but here you go.
Edited 2015-01-04 20:10 (UTC)
enevarim: (Default)

[personal profile] enevarim 2015-01-04 08:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Excellent. Very useful for those of us who don’t think as clearly in a timey-wimey way as elisi does. Thank you.
enevarim: (Default)

[personal profile] enevarim 2015-01-04 08:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Excellent. Looking forward.
enevarim: (Default)

[personal profile] enevarim 2015-01-04 08:35 pm (UTC)(link)
This makes sense and is clearly canonical. It feels game-changingly canonical in the same way as the throwaway line in “Deadly Assassin”, though, so it may take me a while to get used to it. Both Three and Four (and Five and Seven, for that matter) might have been thought too seriously injured to regenerate, and yet they did, so... new canon, new rules! :)

[identity profile] luckweaver.livejournal.com 2015-01-04 10:30 pm (UTC)(link)
The way I've looked at it in the past - with regards a quote of Ten's from the Shakespeare episode - if you're injured enough that one of your hearts stops beating, it messes with regeneration. (Or at least, that's my headcanon.)
enevarim: (Default)

[personal profile] enevarim 2015-01-04 11:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes. Or – delving back into the murky Missing Adventures – there’s the one where Five and Tegan and Nyssa are dealing with a Time Lady who has turned into a vampire (it’s... a long story), and Tegan stakes her in one of her hearts, and Ruadh yells ”two hearts, ape! You need to stake both to kill me! Go on, try! Cut my head off; scald me with holy water, I’ll only regenerate!” Now that I’ve looked it up, I realize that is probably my headcanon, which explains why the new canon of Night of the Doctor isn’t immediately sticking. (Of course, Night of the Doctor *is* canon and the Missing Adventures aren’t, so I’ll just have to get used to it. :) )

[identity profile] ragnarok-08.livejournal.com 2015-01-04 07:33 pm (UTC)(link)
I love it so far!
enevarim: (Default)

[personal profile] enevarim 2015-01-04 08:19 pm (UTC)(link)
it was going to be damn near impossible to preserve his/her timeline in the process
– There must have been a time when the Time Lords thought that the Doctor’s timeline was the most impossibly complicated one of the lot, but then River displaced him and at this rate Roda will now displace her...

[identity profile] luckweaver.livejournal.com 2015-01-04 10:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, Roda's got... officially, 14 breaks of the non-interfernce policy. OFFICIALLY. You will see.