The Doors of Perception (Blake's 7 story)
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Doors of Perception |
| Author(s): | Elviraprose |
| Date(s): | September 2015 |
| Length: | |
| Genre: | slash |
| Fandom: | Blake's 7 |
| External Links: | The Doors of Perception |
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The Doors of Perception is a Avon/Blake story by Elviraprose.
The story was published in September 2015 by Aralias in Pride and Prejudice, a Blake's 7 zine.
Reactions and Reviews
Ouch! That's really sad. He gets everything he wants and nothing at all.This is a very clever idea, done well, which is why it's so painful at the end, I suppose. Funny, really, that the whole universe isn't enough to compensate for never having Blake's touch in his own reality. Or so I read it. Ah well, I've never found asking an author for a sequel to be successful, and in all fairness I can't see how this is actually leading to one.
It's still very clever and well done.[1]
This is a neat, fresh idea. It adds something to the fandom (at least I can't recall any close corollaries) and is well-executed.[2]
this is such a good idea, and you've executed it brilliantly :D it's a lovely spin on the time travel idea, the ability to correct a single mistake - both in the way that avon does it (which is very blake's 7, very computer expert, etc) and in the way that he corrects that mistake. which is to do nothing, because essentially he did what he could for blake while he was alive, whenever he was asked - but it is the mistake that brings everyone down at GP and throughout the show - lack of trust, and fear of commitment/fear of looking stupid.one of my favourite bits is young avon's reaction to hearing himself basically betraying himself - and he's like KEEP PRETENDING. YOU CAN COVER THIS. JUST KEEP TRYING. it's such a human reaction to keep pretending even once it's clearly far too late, and i love our avon's reaction to it. and of course 'ah. well' and the helplessness. he was so completely unprepared for the narrative becoming happy. horizon is a great episode to set this around too, because it is exactly the point where avon is right to feel like everything's hopeless. blake is clearly very angry with him, and they're hurtling towards star one and gan's death. BUT THEY WOULDNT HAVE TO IF THEY TALKED ABOUT THEIR FEELINGS/and if blake knew that control wasn't there, obviously.
all the avon/orac stuff is great, too. i wonder how orac feels about avon when his human-emotions subroutine is off. because they're living together now in that space forever... i guess avon isn't really avon any more. or not in a way that my trivial human mind can understand - i love that you laid this ending right at the beginning btw, and that avon chooses it at a point where he isn't needed any more. he can rest, and go onto something greater, and perhaps escape from blake - but also be everywhere etc. anyway - the ending and the way that avon goes back in time, and how he exists inside orac, is a nice skiffy concept and very well executed.[3]
It makes an excellent ghost story so the ending is perfect. And it shows just how much Avon has learned and changed (and how much he's affected by GP), that he can now say what younger Avon could never come out with.[4]
This was a really great fic, and a really nice end note for the collection too. I'm really impressed by the concept. Avon, literally, becomes the ghost in the machine. It's very well done. There's time travel, and ghost story tropes (reading this around Halloween, those seemed very seasonally appropriate), and also very good stuff about Blake and Avon's relationship, and what Avon actually wants out of the universe. He's always said that he wants safety/wealth/luxury/etc. but here what he really wants is redemption, and then, having obtained that, he seems far happier with the idea of exploration and wonder than he ever did at the prospect of wealth.Avon being able to touch Blake as a machine ghost, but not able to actually affect him in any way was achingly sad, as was Avon's realization that he could replay the past and give another him a second chance, but he can never have that chance. *stabs me in the heart*
Also there's a lot of really interesting Avon and Orac stuff (and my Avon/Orac shipper heart will take what it can on that front). I wonder if all of this wasn't just a scheme on Orac's behalf to finally get a companion of his own intellect and understanding to explore reality with.[5]
Oh, this was...really beautiful, and painful, and beautiful. One of the best, most honest fix-its I can imagine. Your Avon voice is a miracle, so spot-on in its dry combination of direct simplicity and obliqueness.[6]
I am completely blown away, this is a wonderfully audacious idea splendidly carried through. Not every B/A fic has any actual science fiction, eh? But this picks up one of canon's discarded threads about Orac's not-conventionally-natural powers and is perfectly logical and, of course like B7, the Worst That Could Happen. Avon loves Blake so much! Well, of course he does.[7]