rec [fic]: Annotation by nostalgia

[justmcshane]

Fic rec bingo (card) - today, filling the row one column one prompt 'secrets'.

Title: Annotation

Creator: nostalgia

Rating: All Ages

Word Count/Length/Size: 1042 words

Creator's Summary: "In this place there are rooms that are barely even real."

Characters/Pairings: Rose Tyler, The Doctor (10th), The TARDIS

Warnings/Notes: None

Reasons for reccing: Surreal and just a bit disturbing; in the best possible way. To say anything specific about it would be to ruin it, and every time I reread it I feel like I understand it just a bit more. I think it's making some really clever commentary on continuity - although really, it's hard to tell. There is masterful use of symbolism present in pretty much every sentence and it's just really well written on every conceivable level. The first time I read it, I did so very late at night, and when I woke up the next morning, I wasn't entirely sure if it had actually been real or not. Which I feel like is a testament to the skill of the author. Give it a go.
 

This room, the one that wasn't there yesterday, seems to flicker round the edges when viewed from corner of her eye. It's like some weird Victorian menagerie, all taxidermied animals and old furniture. In the centre of the room is a desk, with everything else laid out as if creating a path to it. There is no possibility that she's not going to follow the trail.

Something crawls past her hand as she leans on the desk. A creature like a bat, like a stick-insect with wings and a kangaroo face. She pulls away from it and stares. What is this place?

A flower sits in a vase next to the not-bat thing. A Harkness rose, says the label, and "he only had two years missing."

Just in front of the chair, the desk is covered in biros and pencils and a set square. An A4 spiral-bound notebook sits in the centre, invitingly, temptingly open. It's his handwriting, a somehow legible scrawl that leans forwards as though trying to get to the next idea before the current one is even finished. 

Link: https://www.whofic.com/viewstory.php?sid=5566