#ghostling babbles

[ghostlingxbabbles]

"They leave. Because they should, or they find someone else. And some of them… Some of them forget me. I suppose, in the end…they break my heart." Tenth Doctor, The Next Doctor

The way that 10 is such an overwhelmingly human Doctor, to the point where he says "my heart" instead of "my hearts" because he doesn't feel a companion's loss like a Time Lord should, from some superior pedestal that stretches so high in the heavens, softening the blow. No, he feels the loss of a companion with an acute grief that could only be properly communicated through a human idiom, a phrase that contradicts his Time Lord physiology--as well as shrouds his perpetual alienation now that Gallifrey is gone--because that's exactly what 10's grief does.

It yearns for what this incarnation was tailored for: blinding smiles, clasped hands, family dinners. And it also highlights what makes the Doctor as a whole incredibly un-Time Lord: humor in the face of danger, action in the face of injustice, compassion in the face of fear. 10 was born to be human, in whatever capacity the Doctor can be, and so his grief is human, too.

[ghostlingxbabbles]

I'm doing something wild. controversial. audacious

I'm trying to cobble together a true Gallifreyan name for the Doctor (for my AU fic, mind you) and I'm reminded yet again how doing research on this hulking mass of a show (+EU) is even bigger-on-the-inside than the Tardis

Gallifreyan naming conventions, spousal recognition in names, marriage and divorce conventions, four Doctor wives? six? (might actually be one since I'm working with a relatively young incarnation), legal house removal from the Doctor's name (cause they hate him), potential house restoration to the Doctor's name (cause they hate him a little less), Theta Sigma as an Academy nickname? or given name?, that little bit at the end of Gallifreyan names that's just a handful of letters tacked on there with no discernible meaning, unique name conventions for renegades / time travellers MY GOD

Irving Braxiatel why is your name so different. What do you mean it's implied that you just found the Irving at some point and slapped it on there. Where are your extraneous syllables my boy

[ghostlingxbabbles]

Since we've seen the theme of 'fighting for what you have even if it is flawed / "wrong" / old' all throughout s1/s2--Job's children, Gabriel and Beelzebub's relationship, Adam with his friends, family, and life on Earth-- and in s3 we see the narrative and surrounding characters hammer home the point that even if they were both doing what they felt was right, Aziraphale leaving Crowley behind was a mistake, I find them discarding their first universe to be pretty whiplash-inducing.

Especially when you look back on the dilapidated Whickber St.; the closed down record store and cafe, grafitti lining the grungy alleys, Maggie and Nina long gone, the bookstore left to looting and rot if not for Crowley, agitating corporate construction slowly but surely consuming the adjacent buildings, it's all at least loosely attributed to Aziraphale leaving Whickber St., his home, for the potential for "better" in Heaven.

It makes me feel like a more true-to-form ending would've been to restore their original universe and to work with what they had, because even with all of the adversity they face, it's the universe where they fell in love. The one they have 6000 yrs of history in together, where they have friends and favorite places for dinner and established lives.

I'm willing to go either way on the 'No Heaven, no Hell, no God, no Adversary' thing, (especially because that part lends itself towards a theme of autonomy and free will that is equally important to the aforementioned theme) but I actually quite enjoy the idea of Aziraphale and Crowley becoming human. I just think it shouldn't have come at the cost of everything they were before. Maybe it's naive of me, but I think it's more impactful to show them becoming something new, not at the cost of everything that came before, but using it as a foundation. 6000 years of courting (of hesitantly referring to the other as their "friend", sharing innermost thoughts and vulnerable moments, sharing their homes and prized possessions "our car") and playing at being humans (Living amongst humans, indulging in food, alcohol, and games, and adopting greyscale moral frameworks), only to step into their relationship and humanity fully informed by the knowledge that those two things are more important than anything else. That even with a wish granted by God herself at their feet, they choose each other and their messy life of the bookstore, the Bentley, and a little community of friends in Soho over anything else that could be.

[ghostlingxbabbles]

If someone writes a fix-it fic for Gomens 3 I’ll make fanart of it. I wanna see the OG Crowley and Az happy and rebellious and them.

I want a make-up kiss, and a brilliant third option that they discover when fate is pressing in from both sides like it always does, I want the threat of Aziraphale potentially being erased from the book of life and I want Crowley to get a proper apology and there’s just so much potential left hanging it would be a crime to not capitalize on.

Please please please I’ll shower you with art

[ghostlingxbabbles]

I LOVE your fic, A Fish, A Human, And Something In-Between. Just wondering if any of the other characters (particularly Sarah Jane) have had encounters with or glimpses of merfolk?

Hi! I'm so sorry it took forever for me to get to this, I've been busy, then sick, then overconfident in my ability to finish the next chapter before responding lol.

I'm so glad you love my fic!!! Thank you for reading. The next chapter is in the works right now.

As for character interactions with merfolk, there are quite a few I hinted at, (and others I hope to actually write in) but here are some of my favorites!

A bit of a sad one to start, but it was a merfolk that drew Sarah Jane's parents to walk out into the sea. They both had a bit of mermaid ancestry, as many living near the coast do, and the creature at the heart of the storm was calling out for help. The mermaid's song drew them into the water because they had enough merfolk blood to hear the song, but not enough to resist the pull. It was mostly a matter of bad timing.

Rose doesn't remember much from when she got lost on the beach soon after she moved to the coast, except for afterwards when she came to in Sarah Jane's living room. She had a bit more help getting through the fog unharmed than she realizes ;)

Jack has most definitely slept with a selkie. a few times. He should probably expect to be presented with a coat soon.

Wilf swears up and down that he saw a scaled creature climb out of the sea last year--one with the shape of a young lady--but no-one believes him because he often tells tall tales about his days out at sea as a young sailor in the Navy. (Although they aren't as tall as most believe)

Pete, early in his time as a sailor, fell overboard once and nearly drowned. It was well into the night, on violent waters. His crew mates have always said it was a miracle he found his way back aboard, but he could've sworn he felt cold fingers guiding his hands to the ladder on the side of the boat. He didn't tell Jackie about it when he got back home. He bought her favorite flowers on his way, though.

Last one for now! Luke was found as a toddler in a seafood processing factory. No one knows how long he was left there, only that the workers had noticed a large amount of missing raw fish and found him while investigating the loss. Sarah Jane was in the middle of a money laundering investigation (and her own personal investigation on merfolk sightings in the area) when the workers found him. She took him in the second someone brought up an orphanage.

@sooty-bird tag for notification!

[ghostlingxbabbles]

Anyone else have older relatives who just don't understand the concept of doing something because you want to?

I was debating with a relative about the nature of art and why I hate generative AI, how capitalism exploits and limits people and how its saddening to see people turn to AI because they're convinced its going to fix everything, and since I am in great part a fan artist the topic moved onto fanart, then fanfiction and like...

At the crux of the convo, she asked me, "So why bother writing fanfiction or making fanart if you aren't making money from it?"

And while the legality of fan works, the how, is the kind of stuff that has a lot of grey area--things to do with copyright and civil law and free use and derivative works and commissions--when it comes to the why I feel the answer is incredibly simple and unyielding:

Even if I never sold a single work, drawn or written, original or derivative or whatever, my reason for making art doesn't change: I want to.

I like making art, even when I hate it, I crave it. I like seeing my favorite characters in goth fashion. I like making my imaginary dolls kiss and live happily ever after. I like tying my blorbo of the month to some train tracks and going, "oh no!" and then showing all of my friends. I know other people like it too, though that's more of a fun little bonus than my main source of motivation.

Admittedly, I followed the question up with something a lot less profound, something along the lines of "Ever heard of a hobby?" and this is far from the first time I've noticed how incredibly opposing our perspectives are, but I felt the need to get this out there in a way that isn't totally saddled with defensiveness and sass. Crazy idea, I know, but it's worth it to make stuff for yourself.