Who Contest

Title: "Dead in the Water"
Fandom(s): Doctor Who
Characters: David Tennant, Will Sampson
Rating: T
Genre: General
Word Count: 8242

Summary: (The Actor AU #2) Nearly a month after "Sandcastles", David and Will are still at odds with each other. Perhaps getting out of the TARDIS and relaxing on a space cruise ship will help mend things between them.

Read it on AO3.

Author's Notes: You know, I only just realized that I don't have to tag Will as an "original character" in my own journal. I can list his name in the character list! I can also make him a tag! *evil giggle* Did you even know he has a last name? I also just realized that I still haven't, after nearly a decade, come up with a good name for this AU. :P

Anyway.

I finally wrote the resolution to David and Will's argument from "Sandcastles"! This story isn't what I had envisioned when I wrote that one years ago. I thought it would be just an argument scene, but though I knew how the argument was going to end, whenever I tried to picture what this discussion was going to look like on paper, I wanted to barf. People talking is boring. People arguing and trying to convince each other that they're right is even more boring. What I wanted was for Will and/or David to learn something about themselves that helps them resolve the problem.

I'd been envisioning the actual story here (without the argument) for years now and I realized it was exactly the right thing to teach them what they needed to learn. But I still sat on it because I had the beginning and the ending, but had no idea how to get them from A to B. Then my husband made a few suggestions of "let them go here first, and then over here later" and BAM! It came together.

Let me tell you, it was AMAZING having an idea I was passionate about and working on it for two weeks. My husband was actually concerned about how much time I was spending writing, because I haven't done it like this in a long time. And this piece is rather different from my other stuff, or at least very different from the tripe I've been putting out this last year. This has a plot. It has meaning. It probably isn't actually interesting to anyone else, but I'm rather chuffed.

Also, this is the first fic that I've used generative AI for! "Really? You had it write your fic?" I hear you cry. No, never. (Remember rule #2: Don't have AI do the things you enjoy doing.) I wrote the fic, from beginning to end. And then while editing, I found a word that I didn't like, so I asked ChatGPT to suggest an alternative, and it gave me a number of suggestions, with reasons why they might work better. I reviewed each one and eventually chose the one I liked. So yes, I used generative AI! And I'm not going to tag my fic with it! You are now challenged to identify which word it was. ;)

Set between Firefly and Serenity, because Alan Tudyk!

Apparently they have a script and animators, and the only thing they don't have is where it's going to be released. But, as Nathan Fillion says, "It's happening."

I've been doing more stuff with AI, to learn how to use it (because it really looks like if I ever get another job, it'll be AI-related in some way; also, I can list this learning on my resumé) and to see what I can do with it. But first, a funny.

( Or maybe not so funny. )

( AI in random stuff )

I've also been starting to use AI for work tasks, like building tools and testing, and I wanted to talk about that, but I've already spent way too long writing the above, so next time!