VID: Rain King

[promethia_tenk]

Title: Rain King
Fandom: Doctor Who, Twelfth Doctor
Music: 'Rain King' by Counting Crows
Length: 4:11
Download: coming soon!

On Tumblr, On Ao3

A/N: For Owls, who taught me how to love series nine. And for Elisi, who taught me how to love vids and reached through the internet to make this happen.

-----------------------------

I'm the Doctor. I've lived for over two thousand years, and not all of them were good. I've made many mistakes, and it's about time that I did something about that.

-- Twelfth Doctor, 'Deep Breath'



Just as the one-eyed merchant, seller of currants, melts into the Phoenician Sailor, and the latter is not wholly distinct from Ferdinand Prince of Naples, so all the women are one woman, and the two sexes meet in Tiresias. What Tiresias sees, in fact, is the substance of the poem.

-- T.S. Eliot, Notes to 'The Waste Land'



Water always wins.

-- Tenth Doctor, 'Waters of Mars'

"Doctor Who: Rain King" (Watch on YouTube)

When I think of Heaven, deliver me in a black-winged bird
I think of flying down in your sea of pens and feathers
And all other instruments of faith and sex and God
In the belly of a black-winged bird

Don't try to feed me
'Cause I've been here before
And I deserve a little more

I belong in the service of a queen
I belong anywhere but in between
She's been crying, and I've been thinking
And I am the rain king

And I said, "Mama, mama, mama, why am I so alone"
'Cause I can't go outside, I'm scared I might not make it home
Well I'm alive, I'm alive, but I'm sinking in
If there's anyone at home at your place, darling
Why don't you invite me in?

Don't try to bleed me
'Cause I've been here before
And I deserve a little more

I belong in the service of a queen
I belong anywhere but in between
She's been lying, and I've been sinking
And I am the rain king

Hey, I only want the same as anyone
Henderson is waiting for the sun
Oh, it seems night endlessly begins and ends
After all the dreaming, I come home again

When I think of Heaven, deliver me in a black-winged bird
I think of dying, lay me down in a field of flame and heather
Render up my body into the burning heart of God
In the belly of a black-winged bird

Don't try to bleed me
'Cause I've been here before
And I deserve a little more

I belong in the service of a queen
I belong anywhere but in between
She's been dying, and I've been drinking
And I am the rain king
Well I said that "I am the rain king"
Well I said, "I, I, I, I, I, well I am the rain king", yeah

Comments

[elisi]

[promethia_tenk]

[juniperphoenix]

...Am I right in thinking this is your second vid EVER? This is amazing. I need to watch it a hundred more times.

[promethia_tenk]

You are correct; it is my second vid ever.

In my defense, I make them in my head and all the time . . . It just takes some extraordinary motivation to actually do one. But Twelve just leaves me all verklempt and I couldn't very well let the era pass without doing something, so. Vid it is.

Thank you for your extremely kind words. I hope you enjoy!

[owlboy]

You did it! And it's wonderful! <3

[promethia_tenk]

Take that, pathological laziness!

Thank you <3

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, this is gorgeous!

[promethia_tenk]

Thank you so much!

ETA: and thank you very much indeed for the rec! I'm honored.

[thisbluespirit]

My pleasure! I recced it with glee, and it's here (since it's not at my journal and someone's just left a lovely comment on it which I should think you'll want to see.)

[promethia_tenk]

Thank you! I was not familiar with the community, but I've joined now!

[maia]

THIS IS AMAZING AND AWESOME AND BRILLIANT!!!

[promethia_tenk]

Thank you <3

I had really hoped that you would like it.

[maia]

I've watched it several times now and every time I watch it I see more in it and find it even more powerful. Thank you for making it.

[elisi]

She will write proper notes for it all.

Or maybe I'll write them and she'll correct them. But there will be notes, because there is SO MUCH THERE. ♥ (She made the vid I always dreamed of about Twelve. Because she is magical.)

[promethia_tenk]

I think I'd better write the notes. I don't think I ever mentioned half of what I was thinking about as I did it.

Though, that said, it might be an extremely interesting exercise to see what you'd write for it . . .

[elisi]

Ahahahahaha, no, you write. Evil English major.

[promethia_tenk]

Spoilsport.

[elisi]

*waves towards 8 years' worth of meta*

I've done my bit.

[promethia_tenk]

lmao

Fair.

[promethia_tenk]

Thank you!

I put . . . as much as I possibly could in there. I did, I admit, have slight fears that I'd made an unintelligible mash out of it : )

[ravenskyewalker]

I just saw lost_spook rec this, and it is beautiful. As one who often feels like the only one who loved Capaldi's Doctor, I thank you.

[promethia_tenk]

Aww, thank you so much. PC's run was rather difficult and challenging. I'll admit I didn't really know what to do with it for years, so I get why it may have put a lot of people off. But I feel so sorry for them for what they're missing. I find myself at a complete loss for words to describe exactly how moving I find Twelve and Twelve's character arc, but then, this is why we have vids ; )

[ravenskyewalker]

I related to his Doctor a lot -- I get too spiky for my own good instead of just talking and expressing feelings, and am quite snarky. Also, his battle against the wall in "Heaven Sent" had a lot of paychological resonance for what feels like my life, except I'd be bashing my head against a brick wall, LOL. Maybe his character arc is something best understood/processed by older adults, one of which I appear to have become? (Or maybe just socially awkward people, one of which I've always been.) Anyway, it felt important to get his Doctor during a tough time in my life.

[promethia_tenk]

Sometimes the right piece of fiction just comes along for us at the right time and it is always such a gift. I hope I managed to bottle just a bit of that in a more pocketable format ; )

Maybe his character arc is something best understood/processed by older adults, one of which I appear to have become?
I do rather wonder how this run played with the younger crowd. But it's too late now. They've made it, and they can't take it away from us!

[kaffy_r]

This is absolutely magnificent, promethia_tenk. I can't think of a better adjective. This is Twelve, with the ones who loved him more than he deserved, probably. Guest starring One and War and Ten and Eleven ... I suspect I'm only going to gibber at this point.

tl;dr: Thank you so much for all the effort and everything you put into this.