Fic inertia: the Leadworth AU
9 Dec 2010 05:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
promethia_tenkRemember a long, long time ago when I was working on a big, long fic with, like, plot and other uncharacteristic things like that that was all about a weird post-Big Bang AU in which Amy wakes up back in Leadworth and River and Eleven are her parents? Well . . . *cracks knuckles*
Long rambling, my first ever Amy/Rory scene, and a plea for Amy recs under the cut:
First off, for anyone who wants to catch up and/or remind themselves of what's going on, here's what I have already:
Part one. Two. Three. Four. Five.
I essentially gave this one a break for two main reasons. The first was that I needed to get a better handle on Amy and Rory. That's definitely still a work in progress, but I'm feeling better about it. Therefore I'd like to submit for your consideration the following scene between the two of them (Amy's going to reference a scene in the third link above, in which Rory's friend Brian asks about her Scottish accent):
This hairpin seemed promising. Amy held it in front of her nose, carefully bending it into shape. Rory, who was acting as her assistant, was standing by with a small screwdriver, also bent.
“That shed has been locked for years, why do you suddenly need to get into it now?”
“Because I like a challenge.” Amy paused, squinted at the pin, made another adjustment. “And because I suspect that my old red wagon--from when I was a kid--is still in there, and I want it back.”
“Oh, yeah . . . you’d make me ride down hills in that with you. You nearly got us killed . . . a whole bunch of times.” Rory winced in recollection. “We’re not doing that again, are we?”
Amy shot him a glare.
“No? Ok then. . . . No one’s tried picking that lock before?”
Amy thought for a moment. “Not that I know of. Dad lost the key so long ago . . . I guess we none of us ever really felt the need to get in, and Dad likes the excuse to go chat with the neighbors and borrow their lawn mower.”
“He’s been borrowing the neighbors’ lawn mower since you were a kid?”
“Yeah . . . I don’t think they know how to say no to him. On the other hand, he did help them out with their badger problem, so it’s not all one-sided.”
Rory nodded agreeably to this and handed Amy the screwdriver when bidden. Amy started in on the lock, and they went on in companionable silence for several minutes.
“Rory?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you remember . . .” Amy stopped her work to look him in the eye. “Do you remember in the car the other day, when Brian asked about my accent?”
“Yeah, of course . . . of course I do.”
“Did any of that seem weird to you? Like . . . I dunno . . . just off?”
“I . . .” Rory scratched his head, confused. “Maybe . . . I think . . . Brian apologized, didn’t he?”
“No, it’s got nothing to do with Brian. I mean me, and my mum and my dad. Did anything seem weird about us?”
“More than usual . . . you mean?” Rory said this very hesitantly, somewhat afraid of Amy’s reaction.
“Yes, more than usual, dummy!” Amy gave him a playful swat. “It was like . . . none of us knew why I have my accent. Why on earth would we not know that? That’s a pretty big thing to just not notice, isn’t it?”
“I guess so.”
The second reason I took a break is, essentially, the question of what this story is about anyway. I know the things that make me enjoy writing this story on a superficial level: the happy domestic fluff, the surreal Roald Dahl-ish-ness, the chance to make clever allusions to the particulars of everybody's "real lives" . . . . But the thing that always justified the story in my mind, from the very beginning, was my discomfort with how easily the issue of Amy's crack-eaten parents got dealt with in the show. One minute the Doctor is telling a disbelieving Amy that she really ought to have parents, the next she's successfully remembering them back into existence, and the next she's waking up in an apparently happy and settled and parent-filled life, the scars of having grown up without them healed and all the time she spent growing up as a lonely child relegated to dream status? Now, the sixth season may very well surprise me and come back to explore these things, but as the situation stands now, it all happened just a little too fast and pat for me. So, in my mind, this AU is a way to draw out that psychological resolution, to give Amy some time to explore the idea of having parents at all and to give her the opportunity to really "choose" her parents. I've come to see Amy's storyline over the course of season five as essentially being about defining relationships, of discovering the best, healthiest ways to relate to the important people in her life--specifically Rory and the Doctor--and so much of the season is spent with her testing out various ways of relating to both of them. And I'm satisfied with the way that area of Amy's interpersonal life got explored and resolved. I want this story to somehow do the same for the other half of her life--the relationship with her parents and the way the Doctor made himself into a surrogate father figure for her. I kind of want this story to be the "Amy's Choice" for that dynamic.
But I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to do that yet, which is why I want to ask for your help. Specifically, I need to do research to get my brain working, and I want recs. Anything you can point me towards (fic, meta, discussions, whatever) about:
Amy and her parents
Amy growing up without parents/growing up with Aunt Sharon
Parental-type interactions between Amy and the Doctor
And any fics from Amy's p.o.v. that you think do a really good job capturing her voice
Alternately, if you know what's the best Amy comm for me to start poking around in or if you know a particular "Amy expert" who I could shake down for recs, I would be most obliged. Thanks for any and all help.
I've also got a somewhat related concern about handling Amy and Rory's relationship in this fic. Basically, the fic isn't about their relationship, but it's not about not being about their relationship, if that makes any sense. Basically, for the purposes of this story I consider their relationship a settled question (because I think season five did a good job of settling it, and sure there's always more to explore there, but I'm not really the one to do it), but I can't really have Amy marrying Rory right now in story. The highly scientific mechanics of time cracks and universe resetting logically says that this story should open on Amy's wedding day in the same way that she woke up on her wedding day in "The Big Bang." But then there would be a honeymoon and presumably moving out of her parent's house and all that moving on to another stage of life type stuff that would pretty much destroy the entire premise of the fic. Basically for the purposes of this AU I want to assume that Amy and Rory are securely on their way to getting married in a few years' time. The question is, should I just write it that way and ask the reader to go along with it? Cause that seems sloppy to me. Is there some logical, character-driven way to justify the delay with the wedding? Any thoughts greatly appreciated.
Phew. That seems like enough for today. I'm glad to have gotten that down, though. Gives me a better idea of where things stand.
Long rambling, my first ever Amy/Rory scene, and a plea for Amy recs under the cut:
First off, for anyone who wants to catch up and/or remind themselves of what's going on, here's what I have already:
Part one. Two. Three. Four. Five.
I essentially gave this one a break for two main reasons. The first was that I needed to get a better handle on Amy and Rory. That's definitely still a work in progress, but I'm feeling better about it. Therefore I'd like to submit for your consideration the following scene between the two of them (Amy's going to reference a scene in the third link above, in which Rory's friend Brian asks about her Scottish accent):
This hairpin seemed promising. Amy held it in front of her nose, carefully bending it into shape. Rory, who was acting as her assistant, was standing by with a small screwdriver, also bent.
“That shed has been locked for years, why do you suddenly need to get into it now?”
“Because I like a challenge.” Amy paused, squinted at the pin, made another adjustment. “And because I suspect that my old red wagon--from when I was a kid--is still in there, and I want it back.”
“Oh, yeah . . . you’d make me ride down hills in that with you. You nearly got us killed . . . a whole bunch of times.” Rory winced in recollection. “We’re not doing that again, are we?”
Amy shot him a glare.
“No? Ok then. . . . No one’s tried picking that lock before?”
Amy thought for a moment. “Not that I know of. Dad lost the key so long ago . . . I guess we none of us ever really felt the need to get in, and Dad likes the excuse to go chat with the neighbors and borrow their lawn mower.”
“He’s been borrowing the neighbors’ lawn mower since you were a kid?”
“Yeah . . . I don’t think they know how to say no to him. On the other hand, he did help them out with their badger problem, so it’s not all one-sided.”
Rory nodded agreeably to this and handed Amy the screwdriver when bidden. Amy started in on the lock, and they went on in companionable silence for several minutes.
“Rory?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you remember . . .” Amy stopped her work to look him in the eye. “Do you remember in the car the other day, when Brian asked about my accent?”
“Yeah, of course . . . of course I do.”
“Did any of that seem weird to you? Like . . . I dunno . . . just off?”
“I . . .” Rory scratched his head, confused. “Maybe . . . I think . . . Brian apologized, didn’t he?”
“No, it’s got nothing to do with Brian. I mean me, and my mum and my dad. Did anything seem weird about us?”
“More than usual . . . you mean?” Rory said this very hesitantly, somewhat afraid of Amy’s reaction.
“Yes, more than usual, dummy!” Amy gave him a playful swat. “It was like . . . none of us knew why I have my accent. Why on earth would we not know that? That’s a pretty big thing to just not notice, isn’t it?”
“I guess so.”
The second reason I took a break is, essentially, the question of what this story is about anyway. I know the things that make me enjoy writing this story on a superficial level: the happy domestic fluff, the surreal Roald Dahl-ish-ness, the chance to make clever allusions to the particulars of everybody's "real lives" . . . . But the thing that always justified the story in my mind, from the very beginning, was my discomfort with how easily the issue of Amy's crack-eaten parents got dealt with in the show. One minute the Doctor is telling a disbelieving Amy that she really ought to have parents, the next she's successfully remembering them back into existence, and the next she's waking up in an apparently happy and settled and parent-filled life, the scars of having grown up without them healed and all the time she spent growing up as a lonely child relegated to dream status? Now, the sixth season may very well surprise me and come back to explore these things, but as the situation stands now, it all happened just a little too fast and pat for me. So, in my mind, this AU is a way to draw out that psychological resolution, to give Amy some time to explore the idea of having parents at all and to give her the opportunity to really "choose" her parents. I've come to see Amy's storyline over the course of season five as essentially being about defining relationships, of discovering the best, healthiest ways to relate to the important people in her life--specifically Rory and the Doctor--and so much of the season is spent with her testing out various ways of relating to both of them. And I'm satisfied with the way that area of Amy's interpersonal life got explored and resolved. I want this story to somehow do the same for the other half of her life--the relationship with her parents and the way the Doctor made himself into a surrogate father figure for her. I kind of want this story to be the "Amy's Choice" for that dynamic.
But I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to do that yet, which is why I want to ask for your help. Specifically, I need to do research to get my brain working, and I want recs. Anything you can point me towards (fic, meta, discussions, whatever) about:
Amy and her parents
Amy growing up without parents/growing up with Aunt Sharon
Parental-type interactions between Amy and the Doctor
And any fics from Amy's p.o.v. that you think do a really good job capturing her voice
Alternately, if you know what's the best Amy comm for me to start poking around in or if you know a particular "Amy expert" who I could shake down for recs, I would be most obliged. Thanks for any and all help.
I've also got a somewhat related concern about handling Amy and Rory's relationship in this fic. Basically, the fic isn't about their relationship, but it's not about not being about their relationship, if that makes any sense. Basically, for the purposes of this story I consider their relationship a settled question (because I think season five did a good job of settling it, and sure there's always more to explore there, but I'm not really the one to do it), but I can't really have Amy marrying Rory right now in story. The highly scientific mechanics of time cracks and universe resetting logically says that this story should open on Amy's wedding day in the same way that she woke up on her wedding day in "The Big Bang." But then there would be a honeymoon and presumably moving out of her parent's house and all that moving on to another stage of life type stuff that would pretty much destroy the entire premise of the fic. Basically for the purposes of this AU I want to assume that Amy and Rory are securely on their way to getting married in a few years' time. The question is, should I just write it that way and ask the reader to go along with it? Cause that seems sloppy to me. Is there some logical, character-driven way to justify the delay with the wedding? Any thoughts greatly appreciated.
Phew. That seems like enough for today. I'm glad to have gotten that down, though. Gives me a better idea of where things stand.
(no subject)
Date: 10 Dec 2010 04:42 pm (UTC)Yeah, the wedding. I mean, I'd always assumed as the season was going on that Amy was getting married so *young* at least in part because she was so otherwise alone, but the finale put lie to that, so I'm at a bit of a loss as to why things should be different in this situation.
(no subject)
Date: 10 Dec 2010 05:01 pm (UTC)Second, I worked on my idea! (actually I slept on it and it appeared this morning and it's still early so I may be totally incoherent) Part of why I see the pair getting married early is Rory's insecurities. He has this vibe of 'hold onto her or she'll run away' so in a reset universe where she 'grew up' with parents she's likely to be less broken and flighty so he's less likely to need to rush into it. 'Let's wait a bit' or even just still being boyfriend + girlfriend with an engagement imminent but not fait accompli yet would be less threatening with a less volatile Amy. So then, a longer engagement isn't unlikely either and could give you the time to explore the parents dynamic a bit more. So, yeah. Dunno if that would work for you -- but it's character-based even if not Amy.
That doesn't help with your 'wake up on the wedding day' dilemma, though.
(no subject)
Date: 10 Dec 2010 08:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 11 Dec 2010 09:09 am (UTC)Yeah that could work. I think a Rory who is a bit more confident wouldn't need the validation of marriage if he was more secure of Amy's affections. And if she was more stable I think he would be more secure (that's definitely the impression I get from him in the last episode), so I don't think he'd need the Doctor as validation but it would be an added bonus :D