#tidbitoftheday

[phoenixqueenwrites]

Tidbit of the Day (or... whenever)

Breaking the cardinal rule of content creation by posting after midnight. I don't care. I don't do this for the clout or for recognition. If I manage to make a couple of people grin or sigh or angsty or happy, then it was worth it. And even if I don't, I still did.

There is no context for this little tidbit; I just thought other people would enjoy my version of Ten... wasted.

Frowning, Donna glanced around them. "Hang on. Where are we?" "What?" The Doctor plucked absently at his bow tie, "Walking back to the TARDIS." "Thank you, Doctor Duh. I meant: ther s'no way we came all thi s'way w'th luggage. Where th'Hell ar—" She stopped, staring open-mouthed at him as a horrifying thought shot straight to the struggling arches of her feet. "Oh my god, you forgot where it is!" "She, Donna. She." "Righ'. Cause that was the 'mportant bit." She shivered again. "Ser'sly though, where's the TARDIS?" "She's 'round here somewhere. Can't be too far." The Doctor squinted toward the thickening trees, wobbling ever so slightly. "Jus' took a wrong turn at tha' tree back there. Come on." The Doctor strode off determinedly into the dark in what even the most charitable of folks would struggle to credit as a straight line. She trailed him as quickly as she dared, though the ground grew softer and pine needles poked over the tops of her slingbacks. Beneath the hard black strap of her left, the telltale sting of what she was certain was a growing blister spread further with every step. "HA!" Donna jumped, stumbling again as her gaze leapt up from the uneven footing. "There she is!" Tripping over a tree root in his haste to reach his ship, the Doctor staggered a few steps with arms outstretched before throwing himself melodramatically against the wooden corner. Donna winced sympathetically at the impact, but he didn't seem to notice how hard he'd slammed into the edge. "There's my old girl."

OK, admittedly, they're both wasted. And that's about all the context there is to this. I'm doing my usual "jumping around in a story and writing bits I like" thing. Not the most efficient way to write but it does produce some surprising results.

[phoenixqueenwrites]

Tidbit of the Day (or whatever at this point.)

So, I finished "Stitches in Time" last week, but I've been working on this piece for a while now, concurrently with everything else.

I am finally getting properly into my very ambitious AU. If you have read any of my Noble Family and Fourteen stories so far (which admittedly somewhat spoil the whole thing) then you'll already be familiar with my own personal take on the Doctor and Donna running into each other again later in life. It did not, exactly, land where I'd initially intended it to when I wrote "The Gift of Chance" back in 2024, but I've been very pleased with how these subsequent stories have turned out. However, while they have certainly charted an emotional course, they have been lacking in the adventure, mystery, thriller and good old "saving a few lives" aspects that are the hallmark of Doctor Who. Well... no more. I'm trying my hand at this finally.

So, without further ado, please enjoy a lovely string of technobabble from Fourteen. I have to keep reminding myself that I have a LONG way to go with this piece and I need to save some of this expositional rambling for later! But since my self-control is lacking, do enjoy:

From "Episode 1: The Power Within" Palladium… Not exactly like that was common element for organic life. At least in more than trace quantities. It was a simple enough catalyst. That's what they used it for here on Earth almost exclusively. All of those hydrocarbons. But for it to exist readily in the sample, that would mean the species had some way of biologically stabilizing it to keep it from reacting with free hydrogen in the body. Did they store it for some reason? Maybe a species that's exposed to toxins… a toxic atmosphere? Radiation maybe? A thin atmosphere… or a system close to a super nova. Or a neutron star. All plausible, but not particularly helpful. But they must come from somewhere with an abundance of the metal. Possibly a planet with rings? Or a solar system with abundant asteroids. Possibly a young system? Or a volatile system? Erratic gravitational fluctuations? No. A space faring civilization couldn't develop in that kind of environment. Although, show the universe a rule, and in his experience, the universe will immediately offer up a hundred ways it could be broken. Full of contradictions this wide, wild universe. Without genetic traces, he was more or less throwing darts at dart board that was all of space. "And why aren't there genetic traces? I mean salts, or metals I get but genetic code?! That's just—" He raked his hand roughly through his shock of brown hair. Familiar brown hair. 

I cannot say exactly when this will be posted on Ao3 but I'm hoping to leave *maybe* weekly tidbits on here, as my time allows. I want to get the lion's share of the story written before I start posting anything so I don't end up with month-long stints between updates. But this, if my outline is anything to go by, will be a long one.

[phoenixqueenwrites]

A Tidbit for you

This little bit doesn't really relate to anything in particular. I wrote it to set a mood but I ended up with like... half a dozen of these little paragraphs in my last chapter (Stitches in Time, Chapter 8) and I thoroughly enjoyed writing them. This one made the final cut but a few, less polished ones didn't. Their plot may show up in some other form some day. Who knows?

Taegin Prime was likewise a bit of a mixed bag. Sure, Donna had been overjoyed to discover they had actually materialized on a beach. A large, wide, beautiful beach with fine white sand and the most perfect breeze and rolling aquamarine waves ever so slightly tinged with green. For an hour, she'd taken in the salt air, the sun, let the warmth sink into her skin and pull out freckles that rarely ever bloomed. She'd even convinced the Doctor, for a brief moment, to kick off his shoes and enjoy the sand. How he'd managed to coerce her into building a sandcastle with him instead of sunning on her beach towel with a piña colada in hand, courtesy of the TARDIS' hospitality suite, she couldn't say, but what she ruled even more inexplicable was that she had actually enjoyed herself sculpting the fine grains of damp sand into poor approximations of towers while he poured all of his effort into a careful rendering of sedimentary crenelations. That was… until they found themselves, without warning, ankle deep in strong surf, the sand beneath their feet slowly tugging them away with a retreating current. A heartbeat later they were running, hand in sandgrit-covered hand, across the gently sloping beach, everything but the Doctor's shoes, forgotten. A great wall of sea water followed them through the open doors, which the Doctor slammed closed behind them. Donna barely kept her feet, soles shrieking against the rough, rusted grating, as the ship shuddered violently to the side. Narrowly grabbing the edge of the console, she flipped the dematerilization lever, ignoring the Doctor's protests. They were fine, safe in the vortex, if stinking slightly of brine. Both reflected, after some further investigation, that knowing the four hundred metre difference between high and low tides ahead of time might have saved them both the panic.

Anyway, if you enjoy this and want more Ten and Donna hijinks, heartbreak (platonic!), and a truly inexcusable amount of banter, pop on over, and check out Stitches in Time on Ao3. I have one chapter left and I'm half of the way through it right now. I hope to post it by the weekend and then move on to some other stuff.

And if you're interested in fics that exist in the space of "the secret third option," you can always check out more or less ANYTHING I write that isn't explicitly labelled as a pairing. I thrive on the energy of the secret third thing.

[phoenixqueenwrites]

A Tidbit

Been so insanely busy lately. And also... distracted. But as an apology for not yet updating/finishing "Stitches in Time" here's a tidbit from the opening of the final chapter.

Krillus IV had not gone as planned. She'd spent an hour picking twigs out of her hair before she could even think of showering. The drain had run with mud for far longer than Donna had ever thought possible, but given she'd looked like she'd taken a bath in the stuff and then rolled through a hedge when she got back in the TARDIS, that was hardly surprising. It turned out there was a reason she'd never seen the snakes in the TARDIS, and the truth did not reassure her in the slightest that she was in any way safe from the creatures. They did not, as it happened, reflect visible light, but a wavelength much further into the ultraviolet end of the spectrum. So… in essence, there was a part of Donna's mind that, for the time being, felt it necessary to remind her that she'd lived on a ship with several dozen invisible venomous snakes for better than six months.

This whole chapter is sorta of a mishmash of thoughts which do come together but it needs more time before I consider it polished but I figured I'd wait until I was on vacation before spending too much time on that. The degree to which I am actually just gonna lock myself away for like 5 days alone and try to crank out some writing in a pretty location... I'm so excited.

[phoenixqueenwrites]

A Tidbit

A very, very tiny one today, cause I haven't done one in a while and I want to. This little fraction of a sentence comes from a much larger piece that, due to its nature, and the nature of my life, I may never actually publish. Decided to reach this week with my writing into territories as yet unexplored. I followed a thread into the untamed darkness. I cast a net and caught a... guys, I wrote some smut. I'm romanticizing for dramatic effect. It has been an interesting adventure and fun to explore a new place I've never really let myself go. That said... I'm really not sure it's a place I will visit again.

(Unless it will help sell books when I *do* eventually publish.)

Anyway, there are some very good lines in it and this one in particular I was proud of.

She reminded herself that she'd always known that his smiles and laughter and easy confidence were a mask made up of half truths, so effective that it was easy to forget that they were, in part, lies.

What? You expected it would be a smutty line? Get outta here :)

[phoenixqueenwrites]

A Tidbit

Ye, I hath not the verbiage to properly express my sentiments upon this ill-considered passage. Prythee enjoy this modest foray into the future's entertainment.

An advert for the next episode of Failure to Launch played in the holo-matrix. Donna barely registered as the wrench-wielding Hermonia, angrily threw open the visor of Cedric's blast helmet, before the scene pivoted aggressively to a counterbalance giving way, sending a giant spool of metal cable crashing to the hangar floor, before yet another pivot to a brilliant tower of coils glowing red hot and the resident thickly-muscled, barely-shirted Newton Hectare punched a bulkhead in celebration.

This final chapter is absolutely chaotic, and with the lion's share of the setting within the TARDIS you'd think I wouldn't be doing so much world building. Alas, that is not the case.

[phoenixqueenwrites]

A Tidbit

Writing the final chapter of "Stitches in Time" right now, and can I just say, even *I* want to punch them. Humor takes so much longer for me to write, so unless this weekend is unexpectedly clear of obligations (unlikely) this will probably take me another couple of weeks. But anyway, I wanted to share a little bit of what I have so far.

Clearing her throat, Donna affected a little smirk, "Well, not the whole time. For a while, it was a scarf." "Hmm scarves," His lips twitched, as though a smile could at any moment break out, but he still seemed too taken aback to pay it much attention. Even so, he mused: "I've done scarves. Not the worst choice, but as far as escapes go, they get caught on everything." "Lucky I didn't go with that, then!" She gently slipped her wrist free, folding her arms around her middle, "Anyway, the scarf was for me. Not that it matters. Besides, if anyone on this ship needs something homemade, it's you." "Oh-ay! 'Need' seems a bit strong."

Leaning sideways against the console, she tapped her fingers on its rim. "Remind me which of us has a wardrobe of statement pieces and not a stitch to relax in." Donna flashed him a challenging look. The jumper hung limply from his hand, and he seemed strangely adverse to looking at it, "I told you before, my suits are perfectly satisfactory." "And I still say otherwise." "Hence this." The Doctor briefly lifted her months of knitting between them. "Yeah." she crossed her arms again, setting her jaw, "Obviously." "Right." he rocked back on his heels, "That's— I—" Pressing her lips together, she let out a harsh sigh, attention wandering to the base of the coral stanchions just beyond the edge of the central tier of grating, "Look if you don't want it, I'm sure we can find a charity shop or—"

This is still in early drafting. There is a lot for me to fill in. And far more dialogue to write and refine but so far I'm having fun with this. I cannot believe this whole piece came about because I put a note in a fic nearly 10 months ago "need gift object." Welcome to my messy headcanon everyone. I'm glad it isn’t Canon, but if you want it to be, I wrote it so it fits. Took great pains to do so, actually.

Pop on over and read the rest before the final chapter is posted: Stitches in Time

[phoenixqueenwrites]

Tidbit of the Day

It's been a little while since ive done this but since I still haven't managed to get this chapter up, I have a tidbit for you. These last couple of chapters are giving me some kind of hell, I'll tell you. Plus life has been crazy busy. An injured horse and elections are taking up a lot of my time right now. Anyway.

I can't really say "enjoy" on this one. It isn't particularly happy. Maybe live in the post-Library angst with me for a moment.

From "Stitches in Time, Chapter 7: Everyone Needs a Breath"

Bloody birthdays didn't really seem that important after you'd realized a decade of your life had happened in a matter of hours, in a few lines of code. Gone in an instant. Quick as blinking. A whole life reduced into tiny flashes in her mind. They weren't real. It doesn't matter. Just… let it go! She dragged a heavy hand over the simple, floral duvet. Was this really her room? Kicking aside a pair of black pumps, Donna sucked in a breath as though through the smallest of straws. Were those really her shoes? They awkwardly rolled a few centimetres and no more, resting still miles from her closet. Were those really her bags? Two open, soft-sided suitcases, tucked into the empty space between her door and desk, spilled their contents across the floor. She'd been home a few days. Enough time for the hunt for clean undergarments to make them a right mess. Not that she really cared. What? Was her mum gonna tell her to clean it up? It was her room. She bit her lip. Was it really? Her chin crinkled. Her nose tightened. Still, the sobs didn't break. They fell instead into the vast hollow in her chest where she should have been able to touch the feelings that held her captive. Instead, there was nothing. Some great divide, and she was very, very far away from that person who always knew exactly how she felt. Who let it rule her.

I know Big Finish did a whole "Donna takes a break after the Library," thing, and it did actually, in all of it's goofiness, handle that in a lovely way, and have some very real, non-humor based moments between Sylvia and Donna. And I very much appreciate that, but in typical me-fashion, I had to dig into some deeper psychology.

Hoping I can get this chapter up tonight or tomorrow, but we'll see.