A Doctor Who Reccing Community

Title: Animus Revertendi
Creator: QuokkaMocha
Rating: T
Word Count/Length/Size: 50k words
Creator's Summary: The Valeyard has come to Rohelian 4 to secure himself a new body, having lost his last one on Gallifrey. His plan was to land, collect his order, then skip off without paying but instead, he's caught up in a siege as the Rohelian Genetic Engineering Facility is held hostage by an alien war fleet.
Characters/Pairings: The Valeyard, OFC (pre-ship, but it's very slow burn across multiple stories, and this story is essentially gen)
Warnings/Notes: canon-typical violence, non-sexual slavery. This story follows on from QuokkaMocha's previous story Trial and Error, which establishes their version of the Valeyard's backstory but doesn't introduce the OC, and is part of the ongoing series Doctor Who: Darker Side. However, Animus Revertendi is perfectly readable alone.

Reasons for reccing: For the bingo space "Original Characters."

This fic features a post-Trial Valeyard who's trying to carve out his own identity: he's definitely not the Doctor, but he doesn't want to be just the Doctor's shadow either. Meanwhile, Solitaire was genetically engineered to be the perfect nanny, but was returned to store for flaws like "talking back" and "thinking for herself" and now works customer service for the company that produced her. The Valeyard initially wants nothing to do with her, but she sees him as a glimpse of a bigger life than she'll ever have. But then, of course, events throw them together...

QuokkaMocha's character writing is incredible. Solitaire is so alive, complicated and realistic. I love how she's sharp, clever, and emotionally intelligent, but limited by her limited experience of life. She and the Valeyard are on wonderfully parallel journeys, both trying to find an identity and a way of life outside the oppressive systems that created them, so although they have very different personalities they work incredibly well together. I particularly like that she doesn't start out with any very clear idea of what she wants to escape to, or even specific plans to run away--she just has this sense that there could be more to life, and then she responds with courage and curiosity as things kick off. I also like the Valeyard's slow exploration of the idea that there are ways to exist outside the framework of being either "the Doctor" or "the opposite of the Doctor." He starts out trying to be very self-sufficient, very much an island--snarky, prickly, pessimistic, and often unpleasant--but he slowly admits that while he never meant to take a companion, maybe he can have a friend...

Solitaire is perfect companion material and I love her. And if she gets the Valeyard instead of the Doctor--well, he needs her, and she wouldn't trade him!

Honestly, if I had to pick only one fic ever to reread, it genuinely might be this one. It would be a hard choice, but it might be this one.

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34803979/chapters/86663257

(My alternative rec for "Original Characters" would be Cheer Up, Emo Time Moppet by LizBee, but I recommended that fairly recently on a spree of Romana recs, so I won't repeat myself. Same goes for The Light of Neustern by GrafEdelweiss, come to think of it.)

(Note on tagging: I hope it's OK to use both the type: gen and type: het tags. The fic is tagged on AO3 in the gen category but also has the Valeyard/OFC relationship tag.)