Fanfic / So You Aren't As Human As You Thought You Were

so you aren't as human as you thought you were is a Doctor Who fanwork hosted on Archive Of Our Own, in which "John Smith," a Chameleon Arched, human version of the Tenth Doctor, lives in 21st century London as a semi-functional graduate student with a solid friendship with canon Doctor Who character, Donna Noble. The story follows John after he inexplicably becomes a Time Lord.

The official summary is as follows:

John Smith. Sure, he's a bit eccentric. He can't resist keeping his friend Donna up at three in the morning with existential questions about the universe and toasters. He's prone to arguing with history professors about 'what really happened,' and what is up with his fashion sense? But he's a normal, human person.

A completely normal, one hundred percent human person.

But then again, statistics lie, everything is relative, and when John wakes up with the ability to see Time itself and the terrible feeling that the alien beat of two hearts in his chest where he once had one is somehow familiar, he finds it's worth revisiting his definition of 'normal.'

Due to mentions of the main character's theft of glass Tupperware containers For Science!, the fanwork has received the Fan Nickname of "the Tupperware AU" or more commonly, "tups."

so you aren't as human as you thought you were has been on Series Hiatus since January 6th of 2019, with an additional chapter published on May 12th of 2019. The first fic of the series has been marked "Complete" at 38 chapters as of August 11th of 2023.

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This fanwork contains examples of:

• Alternate Universe Fic: Sometime after series 3 of Doctor Who, the Tenth Doctor uses the Chameleon Arch once again to turn themselves human. Instead of leaving their amnesiac self in the early 20th century with their current companion as they did in the canon episodes, "Human Nature/The Family of Blood," the Doctor sets themself up to live in 21st century London, where they later meet Donna Noble.
• Amnesiac Hero: John doesn't have any recollection of ever being the Doctor - or ever being anything but human, for that matter.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: A main focus of the fanwork. Time Lords are aliens who are telepathic, possess two hearts, and have red-orange blood, among other things (including the possibility of not actually being humanoid at all). They also have Bizarre Alien Senses and are able to sense timelines, gravitational fields, chemical compositions of substances, etc., leading to Sensory Overload in John's case, as he still has an arguably human mind and perspective.
• Cloud Cuckoo Landers Minder: Donna puts up with so much for John.

• Kleptomaniac Hero: John regularly steals things from his university, as well as IKEA.
• Involuntary Shapeshifting: The transformation from being a human to being a Time Lord is not John's choice.
  • Just Woke Up That Way: Nor is that transformation even something he's entirely aware of. He falls asleep before he realizes that anything is amiss, thinking that he's just coming down with the flu.
• Present-Day Past: Chapter 10, "trio sonato," has a group of teens laugh when a barista yells "Adam!" - referencing the related Vine, though that social media platform will not be released for several years in the story's timeline.
• Tomato in the Mirror: John finds out he technically does not exist and his past was fake, merely memories given to him by something sinister. He has memories of living with his family but cannot be traced to having actually existed before 2004. He is a fake person who woke up in a body that isn't his. He has no past of his own and is condemned to die whenever the psychelock breaks and the Doctor returns.
• Musical Spoiler: The song paired with Chapter 3 is "Omen" by Mother Mother. You can imagine there's no good omens here.