Resurrection of the Author (short story)

Resurrection of the Author was a 2021 online short story written and illustrated by Aristide Twain and featuring the Faction Paradox character Auteur, commercially licensed from his creator Jayce Black.
The story was an official crossover between the Doctor Who universe and the continuity of The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids, on whose official website it was released as the final instalment of the series' 2020 Advent Calendar alongside a simultaneous Issuu release containing some unique content. Resurrection of the Author was the second DWU crossover published as part of the Advent Calendar and served as a prequel to the first, .
== Publisher's summary ==
=== Issuu version ===
Solo edition of the 2021 New Year's Day crossover between "The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids" and the "Doctor Who" universe, featuring a licensed appearance by the DWU character of Auteur. Written & illustrated by Aristide Twain. This edition contains additional material not present in the website version.
== Plot ==
Auteur is trapped in an empty oxbow timeline, left behind after the "Noble-woman" through whom he had created a twisted parallel world managed to put Time back on track. Alone and dying, he breaks down and cries ink, which he uses to scrawl some ancient glyphs on the pavement with his finger, which state that "This is only the beginning". He believes that, however long it may take, this will ensure that he eventually returns.
Centuries later, three Retconning Crocodiles arrive in the oxbow timeline, scouting it out to see if it would make a suitable base. They find Auteur and awaken him, physically regressing his body to an earlier point in his lifetime to be able to converse with him. They demonstrate to him that they have an understanding of the universe that is compatible with his and make an offer; they will resurrect him more lastingly if he agrees to help them try to get the better of the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids.
Flattered, Auteur agrees. Because they "want [him] at his best", the Crocodiles regress him back along his timeline once again, having him carry out the work during his imprisonment in the Shadow Spire. Once this is done, Auteur wakes up, alone but now in a revitalised body; he once again has his shadow-skin and his old grimoire has been returned to him. Surprised at the Crocodiles having seemingly made no attempt to trick him out of his just deserts, Auteur soon discovers that he has indeed been outsmarted; the Crocodiles have deposited him back where he started, in the crumbling oxbow timeline, which scholars will one day call the Sanctum of the Heretic.
== Characters ==
* Auteur
* Retconning Crocodiles
* Noble-woman
== Worldbuilding ==
=== Events ===
* The First Auction in Heaven happened during a period in the Third Universe's history that the Retconning Crocodiles call "its temporal Wilderness Years", an era characterised by temporal warfare, wanton retconning and plentiful "flotsam and jetsam of history".
=== Individuals ===
* Auteur's right femur is cracked, his ribs held together with nothing but "tape and wishes of good luck".
* Auteur likes to think of himself as "a dread villain".
* The Crocodiles wear silk robes and golden fezzes.
* The Crocodiles claim that the Creator of the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids was a genius, in Auteur's terms, as if "a lovechild of Urizen and Nikola Tesla" had "pursued a double career in robotics and biodata-manipulation".
* Auteur is described by the Crocodiles as having once been a Lord of the Third Universe… a Sun Builder", further defining him as "a living sprocket in its celestial machinery".
* David Bradley played Auteur thanks to a rubber mask in the 200th Anniversary Special of F[REDACTED] P[REDACTED] in 6267.
=== Locations ===
* Only "jagged silhoutte[s]" of London's buildings and skyscrapers are left standing in the Sanctum of the Heretic, with its sky "reddened by paradox".
* The Crocodiles determine by smell that the Sanctum of the Heretic is "off-brand" and one disdainfully refers to it as "Beetle dung".
=== Organisations ===
* One Crocodile refers to the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids as "the blasted cherubs".
=== Universes ===
* The Cupid Homeworld is a permanent pocket dimension.
* Although now dwelling in the Time Sewers, the Crocodiles claim to have originated in the Prime Universe, like the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids.
== Notes ==
* As well as being a prequel to , this story also acted as a sequel to the Faction Paradox story and the Aristide Twain-penned story A Better World, released as part of the official Doctor Who: Lockdown! event in conjunction with the tweetalong of in November 2020. In the latter short story Auteur attempted to prevent the Noble-woman from returning to her original timeline but she managed to thwart him. This story picks up immediately after, with Auteur trapped in a decaying Unreality.
* Cornelius Blanc revealed that while he was writing his own Doctor Who: Lockdown! story, LINDA United, he had intended for the titular Linda to have escaped through the same alternate version of Earth as created by Auteur. Aristide Twain later illustrated the sequel to this story, The Jack Who Stole Christmas. Pastebin
* David Bradley is better known to Doctor Who fans in the real world for having portrayed the First Doctor in various media from 2017 onwards. He is said to be active in the year 6267 and is addressed as "the Right Venerable Sir David Bradley, Res.", suggesting that Bradley has been resurrected by the 63rd century.
* The title of this story is a joke based on the term from 20th century literary criticism introduced by , "death of the author".
== Continuity ==
* Auteur is briefly regressed to a face he wore prior to becoming his familiar skeletal self: an old man with a grey beard, (PROSE: Going Once, Going Twice) as well as to his days of imprisonment inside the Shadow Spire. (PROSE: A Bloody (And Public) Domaine) It is while back in this period of his life that he writes an Abecedarium meant for the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids. (PROSE: Auteur's Abecedarium)
* The Retconning Crocodiles claim that they attended the First Auction in Heaven before erasing all traces of their visit from Time to avoid being drawn into its universe's then-ongoing temporal conflicts. (PROSE: Going Once, Going Twice)
* Auteur's universe is spoken of by the Retconning Crocodiles as "the Third Universe". (AUDIO: Quinnis)
* Auteur was played by [REDACTED] on the BBC television series, F[REDACTED] P[REDACTED], between 2067 and 7898. (PROSE: Auteur's Abecedarium)
=== Continuity to non-valid sources ===
* This story contained several references to NOTCOVERED: , which leant heavily on the events of TV: :
** Auteur was incorrect in believing that the Noble-woman would choose a world of her own over the life of her alien guardian, heavily implied to be Donna Noble and the Tenth Doctor respectively.
** Auteur had vandalised a "sad and ancient thing", implied to be the Doctor's TARDIS, in an effort to prevent the Noble-woman from reneging on her choice.
** The Noble-woman has suceeded in putting the timeline which Auteur had unravelled back together again, with her core memories returning to her original self in the main timeline.
* The Retconning Crocodiles mention they have been attempting to uproot or subvert the Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids "for years" to no avail. Prior hostile encounters between the two factions including those seen in NOTCOVERED: and NOTCOVERED: .
* They also note that it is as though the Crew's "story and identity are nailed down to the very floor of the Multiverse". The Crocodiles had previously broken the fourth wall in NOTCOVERED: in an effort to find out if they were the main characters, sensing that the Cupids were occupying that place if told no.
== External links ==
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== Footnotes ==
Category:2021 short stories
Category:Stories that crossover with non-DWU series
Category:Web-based short stories
Category:Stories set in London
Category:Stories set at New Year