Men, Kissing
Apr. 18th, 2005 03:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
So,
kangeiko, who just wrote a classy Centauri story from the point of view of the lady who donated her dress during the Na'Toth rescue in season 5, issued a challenge. She wanted kisses written, not kisses as foreplay to sex but as an end to themselves, and whom did she name as the people supposed to kiss
but Londo and G'Kar on the one hand and Jack Bristow and Arvin Sloane on the other. Four gentlemen I'm very fond of.
Now. The terms here were rather specific. Kissing and descriptions of same. But curse it, I'm the Victorian maiden of fanfic. (Not a pun on
kangeiko's first name.) I can do innuendo, I can do dialogue, I can do afterglow, but I suck at actual sex scenes, which is why I usually don't write them. Fine, I thought, but surely I can write kissing. Hah. Alas, the results were all dialogue and minimal kissing description again. Still. Here they are. Aliens first. Remember in season 5 when Londo leaves Babylon 5 for good, G'Kar hadn't told him he'd come along, explaining to Delenn he'd spring that little surprise en route. So this is what happens when G'Kar shows up in the transport to Centauri Prime:
When G’Kar sat down beside him, Londo groaned.
“Go away,” he said. “There is no necessity for this any more. After all, my people are the criminal outcasts of the galaxy, yes? No need for symbolism. Stay here with the righteous.”
“Your people always were criminals,” G’Kar corrected, “and that is why I am coming with you. You need a bodyguard, now more than ever.”
“I need to be left alone,” Londo muttered, and something in G’Kar clenched. He had accepted for a while now that it was his curse to care about what happened to Londo Mollari. Of course, he always had done, but indulging in happy fantasies about painting the station’s walls with your enemy’s blood was decidedly easier to bear than the awkward realisation that there was little he would not do to keep the most infuriating fool in the galaxy, who had above all a spectacular talent to make the wrong decisions, alive and well.
For a moment, his hatred for Londo was as sharp and fresh as ever. It had been easier the other way, and it would not have changed if the man hadn’t kept making demands for conversation and company when he had no right to. This weak and doomed man, who had sold his soul a long, long time ago.
“Mollari,” he said, and then gave up on speech altogether. Instead, he leaned over and put his hands on Londo’s shoulder. Londo looked at him, puzzlement and a strange expectation in his eyes. The memory came back, the memory of that image he had found in Londo’s mind when he had done his best to tear it to shreds; one of the shards had shown him his own face, years older, his own hands, strangling the life out of Mollari. The memory did not soothe him; if anything, it increased G’Kar’s anger. As if anything true would ever have been revealed to so decadent and unspiritual a people as the Centauri.
But there was no future which could not be unwritten, and G’Kar was writer enough to know it. He also knew fate gave you other tools to write with than just a pen.
Pulling Londo closer, he only intended to change that look in Londo’s eyes to surprise, to get an admission that not all things were pre-ordained. Instead he found himself breathing in stale brivari, the air of exhaustion, for Londo had not slept during the previous night, waiting for the testimonies, and some damnable Centauri perfume. And then he felt Londo’s mouth on his lips, sharp Centauri teeth making the too soft skin bearable. Taste of blood and defeat demanding to be licked away, and G’Kar unwrote both.
“You will never be alone again.”
***
Next we get to the Alias pair which isn't meant to be. See, on the one hand I don't see Jack 'n Arvin as slashy. Personally, I blame Victor Garber for giving off straighter than straight vibes most of the time, because they certainly have the long and convoluted backstory, the intense relationship (in season 3, it was my main reason for watching the show), the mutal betrayals and live savings tango, etc., etc. As of the the new promo, they even have a bathroom scene. So, on the other, every now and then I just want to see a good writer pull that pairing off, because on the page, or website as it were, we don't have the problem of Victor Garber. But I'm not that writer, don't look at me. I totally chickened out and went for the preliminaries again. But it did allow me to use an observation of
andrastewhite's about the relationship. This one is set post-Hourglass at any later point of the show you want it to be, including this week's promo-advertised bathroom scene. (Because we all know he's not gonna kill him.)
“Tell me why I haven’t killed you yet,” Jack says, and it’s a mark of his exhaustion that he asks. Arvin watches him, all dark eyes and focused attention.
“Because,” he replies in his reasonable, quiet voice, the one he uses for everything, from orders to torture and assassinate to invitations to dinner, “you need someone to forgive you.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Arvin moves towards him. He’s small for a man, wiry, yes, but even when they were young, it had never been difficult to overpower him physically during training exercises. And still, he never needed to resort to any of the more obvious psychological ploys to get the upper hand. That is the trouble with Arvin Sloane; he is never obvious. Cut off one of his limbs – which Jack has done –, stitch him back together – which Jack has also done -, and even his scars become weapons in a considerable arsenal.
“No, you never would,” Arvin says, and Jack stares at him in disbelief. “Beg for my pardon. You wouldn’t ask. But you need it.”
You had an affair with my wife, Jack thinks, but doesn’t say it. You took my daughter and made her into a killer before she was ready, but he doesn’t say that either. You betrayed your country, but that is almost an afterthought. His patriotism dried up bit for bit in the various cells his country put him in, and these days it is almost reduced to nothing.
He doesn’t flinch when Arvin’s hand, fingers broken and reset a dozen times, touches his face.
“There isn’t anything you’ve done,” Arvin says softly, the way he usually sounds when he’s either completely insane or about to reveal the results of an inspired masterplan, “that you haven’t done to me. But I don’t think any of the others is willing to forgive you, and even if they were, you wouldn’t accept it from them.”
The truly artful liar, their teacher used to say, lies with the truth. Jack looks at Arvin and recalls the savage satisfaction of putting him through his execution and of resurrecting him later, at his convenience. At moments like these, it is tempting to do that again. It’s strange, though, that it doesn’t occur to him to leave out the resurrection this time.
“I don’t need it from you, either,” he says, because he, too, is an expert of lying with the truth, and just because what he does need is to have the last word for once, he cuts of any further retort in the traditional way. Arvin, who never can decide whether to cast himself as Judas or Jesus, should appreciate it.
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
but Londo and G'Kar on the one hand and Jack Bristow and Arvin Sloane on the other. Four gentlemen I'm very fond of.
Now. The terms here were rather specific. Kissing and descriptions of same. But curse it, I'm the Victorian maiden of fanfic. (Not a pun on
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
When G’Kar sat down beside him, Londo groaned.
“Go away,” he said. “There is no necessity for this any more. After all, my people are the criminal outcasts of the galaxy, yes? No need for symbolism. Stay here with the righteous.”
“Your people always were criminals,” G’Kar corrected, “and that is why I am coming with you. You need a bodyguard, now more than ever.”
“I need to be left alone,” Londo muttered, and something in G’Kar clenched. He had accepted for a while now that it was his curse to care about what happened to Londo Mollari. Of course, he always had done, but indulging in happy fantasies about painting the station’s walls with your enemy’s blood was decidedly easier to bear than the awkward realisation that there was little he would not do to keep the most infuriating fool in the galaxy, who had above all a spectacular talent to make the wrong decisions, alive and well.
For a moment, his hatred for Londo was as sharp and fresh as ever. It had been easier the other way, and it would not have changed if the man hadn’t kept making demands for conversation and company when he had no right to. This weak and doomed man, who had sold his soul a long, long time ago.
“Mollari,” he said, and then gave up on speech altogether. Instead, he leaned over and put his hands on Londo’s shoulder. Londo looked at him, puzzlement and a strange expectation in his eyes. The memory came back, the memory of that image he had found in Londo’s mind when he had done his best to tear it to shreds; one of the shards had shown him his own face, years older, his own hands, strangling the life out of Mollari. The memory did not soothe him; if anything, it increased G’Kar’s anger. As if anything true would ever have been revealed to so decadent and unspiritual a people as the Centauri.
But there was no future which could not be unwritten, and G’Kar was writer enough to know it. He also knew fate gave you other tools to write with than just a pen.
Pulling Londo closer, he only intended to change that look in Londo’s eyes to surprise, to get an admission that not all things were pre-ordained. Instead he found himself breathing in stale brivari, the air of exhaustion, for Londo had not slept during the previous night, waiting for the testimonies, and some damnable Centauri perfume. And then he felt Londo’s mouth on his lips, sharp Centauri teeth making the too soft skin bearable. Taste of blood and defeat demanding to be licked away, and G’Kar unwrote both.
“You will never be alone again.”
***
Next we get to the Alias pair which isn't meant to be. See, on the one hand I don't see Jack 'n Arvin as slashy. Personally, I blame Victor Garber for giving off straighter than straight vibes most of the time, because they certainly have the long and convoluted backstory, the intense relationship (in season 3, it was my main reason for watching the show), the mutal betrayals and live savings tango, etc., etc. As of the the new promo, they even have a bathroom scene. So, on the other, every now and then I just want to see a good writer pull that pairing off, because on the page, or website as it were, we don't have the problem of Victor Garber. But I'm not that writer, don't look at me. I totally chickened out and went for the preliminaries again. But it did allow me to use an observation of
![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
“Tell me why I haven’t killed you yet,” Jack says, and it’s a mark of his exhaustion that he asks. Arvin watches him, all dark eyes and focused attention.
“Because,” he replies in his reasonable, quiet voice, the one he uses for everything, from orders to torture and assassinate to invitations to dinner, “you need someone to forgive you.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Arvin moves towards him. He’s small for a man, wiry, yes, but even when they were young, it had never been difficult to overpower him physically during training exercises. And still, he never needed to resort to any of the more obvious psychological ploys to get the upper hand. That is the trouble with Arvin Sloane; he is never obvious. Cut off one of his limbs – which Jack has done –, stitch him back together – which Jack has also done -, and even his scars become weapons in a considerable arsenal.
“No, you never would,” Arvin says, and Jack stares at him in disbelief. “Beg for my pardon. You wouldn’t ask. But you need it.”
You had an affair with my wife, Jack thinks, but doesn’t say it. You took my daughter and made her into a killer before she was ready, but he doesn’t say that either. You betrayed your country, but that is almost an afterthought. His patriotism dried up bit for bit in the various cells his country put him in, and these days it is almost reduced to nothing.
He doesn’t flinch when Arvin’s hand, fingers broken and reset a dozen times, touches his face.
“There isn’t anything you’ve done,” Arvin says softly, the way he usually sounds when he’s either completely insane or about to reveal the results of an inspired masterplan, “that you haven’t done to me. But I don’t think any of the others is willing to forgive you, and even if they were, you wouldn’t accept it from them.”
The truly artful liar, their teacher used to say, lies with the truth. Jack looks at Arvin and recalls the savage satisfaction of putting him through his execution and of resurrecting him later, at his convenience. At moments like these, it is tempting to do that again. It’s strange, though, that it doesn’t occur to him to leave out the resurrection this time.
“I don’t need it from you, either,” he says, because he, too, is an expert of lying with the truth, and just because what he does need is to have the last word for once, he cuts of any further retort in the traditional way. Arvin, who never can decide whether to cast himself as Judas or Jesus, should appreciate it.
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Date: 2005-04-18 02:39 pm (UTC)Stunning. Nothing short of gorgeous; your Jack and your Sloane never fail to amaze me. All these complexities, but you manage to capture so many in so few words.
Thanks.
(Now go read my ficathon entry. & ;-)
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Date: 2005-04-18 02:45 pm (UTC)(Absolutely, I'll print it out and read it en route to the shopping I have to do, and will write feedback when I come back).
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Date: 2005-04-18 02:40 pm (UTC)I also have extra special lusty love for the Londo/G'Kar one because of those sharp teeth. *shiver* Toe-curl, oh yes. And it's so sweet! *requires sweetness for whole body is sore and therefore sweetness is required by law, oh yes* Watching the end of S5 made me so teary, especially with so-incredibly-brave!Londo undoing his shirt in preparation. *sniffle* He definitely needed kisses and cuddles and someone to just be there for him and not leave him alone, because, well, because it all goes horribly wrong and fifteen years is an awfully long time. The last line just killed me, because it should have been wonderful and full of promise, but!! *sniffle some more*
I am very emotional today, and these were fabulous in all the right ways. *adds entire entry to memories*
*dances the dance of relief and feedback joy*
Date: 2005-04-18 02:50 pm (UTC)Poor both.*g*
Those two need someone to remove both their memories for a while. I think that they might actually die of guilt/not guilt/guilt because they don't feel guilty at some point...
New challenge: Amnesia!Fic for them...
The last line just killed me, because it should have been wonderful and full of promise, but!! *sniffle some more*
Andraste wrote some wonderful fluff for these two in season 5, so my curse of inflicting foreshadowy angst struck yet again. I really can't help it. And yes, Londo needs someone. Can't watch Fall of Centauri Prime without sobbing all the time...
*note to self: Prod Andraste again to finally finish her G'Kar returns to CP and has h/c sex with Londo epic*
Re: *dances the dance of relief and feedback joy*
Date: 2005-04-18 02:54 pm (UTC)Woohoo! *pause*
You first. :)
Can't watch Fall of Centauri Prime without sobbing all the time...
I know! Although, something's odd with my copy of it... it goes straight into the title sequence, without the teaser. It completely threw me. Then I was sniffling into a tissue, very discretely, I thought, until
*note to self: Prod Andraste again to finally finish her G'Kar returns to CP and has h/c sex with Londo epic*
Oo! Does prodding work? *acquires stick*
Re: *dances the dance of relief and feedback joy*
Date: 2005-04-18 04:53 pm (UTC)That's a general Region 2 fault. They also ignored the fact that The Corps is Mother, The Corps Is Father has different credits, the bastards. Don't know why, the American Region 1 DVDS are supposedly alright and show everything. Grrr. Argh.
Oo! Does prodding work? *acquires stick*
Most of the time, it works. Go ahead, beat her!
Re: *dances the dance of relief and feedback joy*
Date: 2005-04-20 12:59 pm (UTC)Oooo, I know. Have one or both of them mindwiped back to 1980. We know it's within the bounds of possibility in the Alias universe. Of course, that would be a way to cause them more angst. Starting with 'but I want to see my wife!' and going on from there.
Andraste wrote some wonderful fluff for these two in season 5, so my curse of inflicting foreshadowy angst struck yet again. I really can't help it.
The trick to the fluff, I find, is to start and end the story in the right places. I always think the angst sets in again about five minutes after the camera turns away from any of those stories *g*.
*note to self: Prod Andraste again to finally finish her G'Kar returns to CP and has h/c sex with Londo epic*
I come here for kissing, and find you encouraging people to beat me with sticks!
Re: *dances the dance of relief and feedback joy*
Date: 2005-04-20 04:31 pm (UTC)OMG, yes. Sydney probably would be stuck with having to explain to them what happened. They just might decide she's a Russian plant and that they won't believe her and try and escape this obviously faked environment...
I come here for kissing, and find you encouraging people to beat me with sticks!
Only in a Klingon Wedding kind of way.*g*
Re: *dances the dance of relief and feedback joy*
Date: 2005-04-22 12:59 pm (UTC)Syd would be rescuing them from the evil lab, clearly. Then they'd run away and she'd have to go find them before they could get themselves into serious trouble, what with them having no idea how to survive daily life in 2005, let alone do Spy Stuff. And it would be even better if Nadia was with Sydney at the time.
'I mean, they actually expected us to believe that you had an affair with my supposedly evil wife and got her pregnant. Who made up this crazy story?'
'Uh, well, Jack, actually ...'
Only in a Klingon Wedding kind of way.*g*
Should I ever have a hen's night, you will not be organising it.
Re: *dances the dance of relief and feedback joy*
Date: 2005-04-22 01:35 pm (UTC)What is this internet you speak of? And why does everyone have Star Trek communicators? (Sloane: "Undoubtedly a Rambaldi invention.")
'I mean, they actually expected us to believe that you had an affair with my supposedly evil wife and got her pregnant. Who made up this crazy story?'
'Uh, well, Jack, actually ...'
Hehe. Yes, absolutely, it must be set in season 4 so Nadia can be along as well.
"I'm still not sure this isn't all some scheme of your father's that went wrong. He's been keeping something from us for months."
"Your father hasn't been Mr. Openness, either, and anyway, if my father had planned this, it wouldn't have gone astray!"
Re: *dances the dance of relief and feedback joy*
Date: 2005-04-23 11:30 am (UTC)Exactly *g*. Not to mention the shock of going to bed aged thirty and waking up to find yourself in your fifties. They'd strain something the first time they got in a fight.
Hehe. Yes, absolutely, it must be set in season 4 so Nadia can be along as well.
And Irina would just have to show up at some stage, if only to increase Jack's already gigantic angst.
"Your father hasn't been Mr. Openness, either, and anyway, if my father had planned this, it wouldn't have gone astray!"
Hee. Their sisterly bonding sounds like fun already.
... and I can't believe I'm contemplating a story involving a character I haven't even seen in canon yet.
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Date: 2005-04-18 03:05 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2005-04-18 05:16 pm (UTC)Merci.
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Date: 2005-04-18 05:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-18 05:41 pm (UTC)Thank you, fellow representative of the Great Centauri Republic!
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Date: 2005-04-18 06:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-19 12:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-18 06:18 pm (UTC)This makes me long for the same tension-fraught Scorpius/John kiss, oh, yes, it does - though the lack provides me an excuse to write my own, fortunately.
Thanks, and...
Date: 2005-04-18 07:57 pm (UTC)Oh yes, and here's a visual (http://www.livejournal.com/users/nolivingman/68359.html#cutid2) for the Alias thing, i.e. some screencaps so you know which two guys we're talking about.
Re: Thanks, and...
Date: 2005-04-19 02:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-18 07:25 pm (UTC)The punchline being, as far as I know, Victor Garber, IRL, is gay!
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Date: 2005-04-18 07:39 pm (UTC)(I don't know whether you ever saw the tv recording of Macbeth with Ian MacKellen as Macbeth and Judi Dench as Lady M., from the 70s when all those wonderful actors were with the RSC. Anyway, the relationship between the Macbeths is played as intensely sexual, not via nudity, just via tone of voice, body language and magnetism, and the knowledge that IRL Sir Ian is gay does not take away one percent of belief when one is watching this.)
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Date: 2005-04-18 09:32 pm (UTC)Wonderful. I love the way you've captured all the tangled feelings G'Kar has for Londo in such a short piece.
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Date: 2005-04-19 05:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-19 09:18 pm (UTC)Thank you, and...
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Date: 2005-04-20 05:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-20 12:53 pm (UTC)"You will never be alone again."
*whimper* There are some fates that cannot be unwritten.
Arvin moves towards him. He's small for a man, wiry, yes, but even when they were young, it had never been difficult to overpower him physically during training exercises.
Somewhere, there are graveyards full of people whose last thought was 'well, he doesn't look dang-" Because Sloane has demonstrated a great capacity to judge the situation in such a way that he draws his gun first *g*.
Cut off one of his limbs – which Jack has done –, stitch him back together – which Jack has also done -, and even his scars become weapons in a considerable arsenal.
I just love that line, and it's so true.
Arvin, who never can decide whether to cast himself as Judas or Jesus, should appreciate it.
Heh. Yes.
no subject
Date: 2005-04-20 04:36 pm (UTC)Aw. Thanks.
Somewhere, there are graveyards full of people whose last thought was 'well, he doesn't look dang-"
Well, yes, quite.*g*
Heh. Yes.
*Hugs crafty old twisted spies and their issues*
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Date: 2005-04-22 09:07 pm (UTC)So, on the other, every now and then I just want to see a good writer pull that pairing off, because on the page, or website as it were, we don't have the problem of Victor Garber.
I'm jonesing for Jack/Arvin, and I don't really know why because I agree with you on the Victor Garber 'straight as straight gets' deal. Any recs for who that writer and those stories are, though?
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Date: 2005-04-23 10:53 am (UTC)