08/19/15-08/19/15 : Premium Quality Narcotics, by UntemperedSchism
Part 2 of the Trajectory Verse
Rose insists on helping the Doctor heal the residual damage from a harmful radiation, with results neither of them would have predicted.
I read this initially in one sitting, then went back to review it, and still read it in one sitting lol. It was equally enjoyable both times. I LOVE this story.
The characterisations are BEAUTIFUL. So often when you read fic, it’s establishing a relationship, rather than boldly just jumping into an established relationship that naturally becomes something more. (This is as much of a spoiler as the M rating.) Two people who love and trust and challenge and support each other…what more could you want, really?
The Doctor is given several qualities normally assigned to Ten, which adds another facet to who he is, and really gives the whole idea of “same software different case” validity.
Rose is allowed to be young and an adult at the same time, to struggle with self-esteem and still go after what she wants. These rich characterizations are just so real. People in real life aren’t just one stereotype or another. The shining strength of this fic is its characters are allowed to have dimensions and contradictions that exist in real people.
It’s a fairly short fic that takes place immediately following Father’s Day. I’ve read a lot of post-Father’s Day fics and holy heck this one is my favourite. Please, please, do yourself a favour and read this!
- ascballerina
For all of you who’d like to read along with us ;-)
Journal of ascballerina‘s FF reading experiences (x) :
Could contain spoilers…
08/19/15 - Chap.1
08/19/15 - Chap.2
08/19/15 - Chap.3
08/19/15 - Chap.4
To learn more about the fic, Premium Quality Narcotics, through Quotes, Comments, Author’s notes or reviews (x).
To learn more about the author, UntemperedSchism, through Quotes, Comments, Author’s notes, reviews and fics rec (x)
Journal of ascballerina‘s FF reading experiences (x):
Premium Quality Narcotics, by UntemperedSchism (Chap.4)
View reading experience of Chap.3
Beware : Spoiler attack under the cut…
The Doctor is a sweetie. End of discussion.
Just kidding. It’s the climax and the last chapter of course I have a ton to say!
“I was thinkin’ a while ago that you might actually snog me into an orgasm,” she said. “And now I’m wonderin’ if you could just talk me into one.”
I like that line a lot. Usually it’s a line that we would think should be said to Ten, not Nine, and I think that’s why I love it so much. I could go on for awhile about how Nine and Ten can get stereotyped a lot, particularly in shorter fic, and I understand that, because it’s easier to write, but I love it when I get a line like that for Nine that I’d give to Ten by default. One of the reasons for this is because it’s the “same software, different case” thing. It’s nice to imagine that a lot of things didn’t change. And Nine, for all his taciturn grumpiness, can also talk your ear off.
“I’ll take that as a compliment and another challenge,” he chuckled, brushing his lips briefly over hers before pulling back enough to meet her gaze. She saw tender adoration in his eyes, knowing he was seeing the mirror reflection in hers. “Right now I want you to close your eyes and just relax for a moment. Just stop worrying, stop over thinking this. We love each other and we want each other, and there’s no right or wrong way to do this. Okay?”
#relationshipgoals
They’re so cute after sex too:
“Felt pretty sensitive to me,” he crowed, “But then I’m just a nine hundred year old alien who’s been celibate for the last sixty years, so what do I know, yeah?
hehe
The icing on the cake of course, is Adam’s reaction to seeing them the next morning:
He was snogging her like he’d been shagging her all night and was on the brink of doing it again. A minute or so later Adam backed slowly into the galley and closed the door quietly behind him, deciding he would finish his tea at the table.
>:D
And last, but not least, our two heros hatching a plan to embarrass Adam further:
“So you did,” he said, all sexy and persuasive. “I’ll even help you rub his little genius nose in how much he doesn’t know. Show him who’s the clever human. It’ll be fun.” His voice dropped in pitch and volume and he favored her that smoldering glance of his, the one that should be illegal. “I’m sure an imaginative mind like yours can find some way to return the favor.”
This fic is probably somewhere in my all-time-favourites category now. I think it’s how natural and easy and well…adult-like the relationship is. And when I say adult-like I don’t mean nsfw, I mean mature. It’s a relationship that’s developed and mature and strong. You don’t get to see that in much four-chapter fics.
I hear it’s a ‘verse. Guess what I’m off to do now…
Journal of ascballerina‘s FF reading experiences (x):
Premium Quality Narcotics, by UntemperedSchism (Chap.3)
View reading experience of Chap.2
Beware : Spoiler attack under the cut…
Well, the beginning of this chapter is a beautiful thing. The added dynamic of the telepathy that isn’t as defined as most fics make it is interesting too--this is one of the most natural, organic, normal fics I’ve ever read.
The entire gerbil section is ridiculous and adorable and I giggled through it.
The needing-to-use-the-loo situation is kind of refreshing. You don’t usually see prosaic stuff like that outside of some sort of crackfic, and it’s always awkward, but that whole section was like so normal.
And of course there’s this line:
“I promise, Rose,” he said, his grin fading as he looked at her. “I’m not going to leave you. I couldn’t. Not going to happen.”
I loved this line. It reverses the usual trope of Rose always being the one who’s insisting she’s never gonna leave the Doctor, and actually addresses that Rose has uncertainties about the Doctor leaving her. So much respect for each other, these two have in this fic. I love it.
She nodded. “But it started with me realizing just how close I came to losing you while I was just mucking about with Adam. Completely oblivious to the danger you were in,” she added with honest self derision. “I was just trying not to think about what Van Statten would have done to me once he’d killed you. Well, what he would have done to me before he wiped my memory and had me dumped someplace,” she clarified, her lower lip trembling. “I didn’t like the way the bastard looked at me.”
I’d not thought about this before. And Rose is probably right. And that added idea just booted Van Statten from “people I dislike but don’t care about” to “people I dislike and need to see murdered by a Dalek ASAP”
The “air from my lungs” thing is so ridiculous and silly and them. And somehow because it’s them, in this fic’s interpretation anyway, it’s also hot as all hell.
Journal of ascballerina‘s FF reading experiences (x):
Premium Quality Narcotics, by UntemperedSchism (Chap.2)
View reading experience of Chap.1
Beware : Spoiler attack under the cut…
It’s important to note that the Doctor is like, STONED for about half this chapter. It makes him unusually talkative, but also makes it clear that these are all things he feels anyway. As Rose notes:
She had known him to be a creature of extremes, capable of moods swinging from unadulterated joy to incandescent rage in an instant. What she hadn’t realized until now was the true depth of those moods, his larger than life emotions and how much effort it took for him to control them as much as he did.
There follows an absolutely gorgeous kiss, initiated by the Doctor. Of course, Rose gets guilty because she thinks she took advantage of his extremely intoxicated state. Oh, my dear precious baby, you need an ego boost asap.
The Doctor also brings up exactly what I was talking about last chapter when I said love is knowing little things about a person:
“You made my favorite, every bit of it.” He waved his hand over the tray as if to illustrate. “And just the way I like it too. The bacon is crispy, the toast brown, but not half burnt the way you like it, my eggs are just--” He sighed in profound gratitude. “You did this all this for me, Rose. And after I pushed that enter button and shut you in with it--” Guilt flickered across his mobile features but quickly faded, replaced by shy affection. “Sorry, I’ keep seein’ that button in my head. Probably gonna have nightmares about it too. I’m so glad you’re not dead, Rose. You just can’t imagine. What would I ever do without you? You’re too good to me. I don’t deserve you.”
There’s a favourite line of mine here that has absolutely nothing to do with anything so I’m just going to insert it here now:
Oh, and speaking of her abdomen and afterglow, there was the kiss to be processed.
hehehe
Maybe I like this fic so much because the characters act like I do, each in their own way. (although I have no idea what my response would be to being kissed by someone I’d imagine that I’d react to it with a thought something like that!)
There’s a beautiful little flashback Rose has when she’s using the dermal regenerator on the Doctor to when she was hurt recently and he took care of her. I’m just gonna paste it in because I don’t know that I’ve ever seen this particular conversation take place in quite this way before:
“When you were carrying me in here, I heard--” she paused, watching him tidy away the things he’d been using. “I heard your heart beating. It sounded really odd, different.”
“Hearts,” he said, closing the cabinet and turning to lean against the counter, crossing his arms over his chest. “Alien, me. I have two hearts.”
“Really?”
He turned, rummaging in a drawer and pulled out a stethoscope, beckoning her closer. He helped her put the stethoscope in her ears, opening his jacket in invitation. She inched toward him, pressing the flat disk against the left side of his chest. She could clearly hear a strong single heartbeat. He waited a moment then reached to cover her hand with his, sliding the disc over to the right side of his chest. At the halfway point she heard the odd syncopated sound before it resolved into another loud heartbeat on the right side of his chest. She could feel it beating just beneath her fingertips. She slid the stethoscope slowly back to the left. She met his gaze. He looked completely relaxed but she noticed a slight tension in his expression. He wasn’t completely certain how she was going to respond, she thought.
“Pretty impressive,” she said, pulling the stethoscope out of her ears. “No wonder my cardiovascular system gives you fits.”
I LOVE THIS LITTLE SCENE SO MUCH.
*ahem*
moving on
Rose does something truly brilliant in the middle of their fight that again, is not something I’ve seen before. (we’ve been over her inferiority complex a lot in fic) She asks the Doctor if he’s ever danced with a woman who was human before, and when he finally admits that he has, she NAILS him with this line:
“So if you’ve already indulged more than once in what is probably bestiality by the standards of your race, can you please explain to me how touchin’ me, or snoggin’ me or even admittin’ a need to have me in your life, as opposed to bein’ able to just take me or leave me, is such a horrific breach of your personal moral code?”
BOOM. (The Doctor thinks so too. He replies to this in really the only way possible. This is a fic after all)
Journal of ascballerina‘s FF reading experiences (x):
Premium Quality Narcotics, by UntemperedSchism (Chap.1)
Beware : Spoiler attack under the cut…
This is a looooong chapter. Not that anyone is complaining or anything. It’s a reader’s dream to tell the truth.
I loved how Rose was so sure of herself with Adam. The opening scene in the console room also features an adorable moment between the Doctor and Rose:
Rose rolled her eyes, lips curving into a wide smile that telegraphed ‘You think you’re so impressive!’ The slight widening of the Time Lord’s eyes and his body language very obviously sent the nonverbal response of ‘I am so impressive, and don’t you just love it!’
That’s the strength of this fic, most certainly. It’s the established, trusting, teasing, understanding relationship between the Doctor and Rose that makes it a pleasure to read, and something that I’ll come back to again and again.
Getting back to Adam: his cluelessness and arrogance give him all the qualities of a prat. It’s beautifully done. At one point in this chapter, Rose meditates on the fact that she doesn’t mind the Doctor’s arrogance, and wonders at how she finds it attractive in one and repulsive in the other. It’s clear to the readers that this is because first, the Doctor’s arrogance is founded, and second, because although he can be arrogant and rude, he never belittles Rose the way Adam does. I mean, look at this:
“Maybe it’s some kind of mind control,” he said in a very condescending tone of voice.
Here, he’s trying to figure out the TARDIS...and has essentially decided he knows more about it than Rose does! It’s worth noting that in this fic, Rose brings him along solely to take him down a peg or two. An interpretation I love by the way. And she handles him beautifully:
“Adam,” she said, impatience starting to creep up on her. “I think maybe were have a little communication problem, so let me be clear. I’m not telling you where my room is, alright? That wasn’t part of this invitation. I just felt bad for you and thought because of what you told me that you’d appreciate traveling with us for a bit. But you’re sleeping here, an’ I’m sleeping in my room. That isn’t going to change.”
I loved the moment where Rose communicates with the TARDIS to get the Doctor’s door to open. It was such a normal-person, organic way of doing it.
The flashback to the bunker scene was a thing of beauty (to read. Not for the poor characters). I mean look at this:
His arms tightened convulsively around her like he was never going to let her go. She lost herself in the sensation of being enveloped by him, protected and safe, finally letting herself cry. They clung together, hearts racing, so grateful just to be alive and together. She savored the closeness, forgetting everything else for a bit.
The established relathionship thing comes in again. Not an established romantic relationship, you understand, just a relationship between two people who know each other very well and the other’s habits and so on. It’s like those posts that point out that if someone remembers little things about you, you know they love you. They don’t do pointless arguing. The communication here is really something.
“Since I already know you’re goin’ to insist on takin’ care of me, the smart thing is to jus’ let you,” he said. His smile lingered as she continued to stare at him, completely unable to think of a suitable response.
Is that not adorable and safe and lovely??
This Doctor is also the perfect blend of Other and Normal, which can be a hard recipe to perfect. There’s a playfulness to him you rarely get to see with portrayals of Nine. It can best be summed up by this, I think:
“...I also tossed in a bath bomb that treats the all three of the types of radiation poisoning my body can’t tolerate, my own concoction as well, with bubbles.”
The progressing relationship between the Doctor and Rose, focusing on their intimate moments, what defines their love affair and how it withstands the test of all of time and space,
Tangled (TS)
Premium Quality Narcotics
Culpable (TS)
The Lift
The Very Embodiment of a Romantic Cliché (TS)
Designated Driver
One Street Away
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Part 2 of Trajectory Verse - Rose insists on helping the Doctor heal the residual damage from a harmful radiation, with results neither of them would have predicted.
Premium Quality Narcotics : MasterPost
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