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selenak: (DarlaConnor by static)
[personal profile] selenak
For [livejournal.com profile] gehayi:


Five things Methos doesn’t regret, but can’t talk to Duncan or Joe about

1) The sheer amount of history accounts he falsified or destroyed, not just during his time as Adam Pierson, and not just while posing as a Watcher. He’s been at it from the time history was recorded in written form. The Egyptians made it easy, as there was always a pharaoh happy to take credit from his predecessor by having his predecessor’s deeds hammered out and his own name written all over the relevant temples, which offered great opportunities for hammering out other depictions as well. And why do you think there is no reliable contemporary chronicle of Alexander the Great in existence and all that came to us were accounts written much later, while eye witness memoirs like Ptolemy’s are lost? Not to mention that lost century or two before Charlemagne, though when conspiracy theorists wondered whether Charlemagne himself wasn’t invented by Renaissance historians Methos got worried a bit. It’s all for security, of course, but he is pretty sure both Joe and Duncan live in the delusion that not only are there not falsified records around in the world, but that somewhere, Methos keeps a chronicle containing the true story of what happened. Whereas even the “diaries” he had in his apartment for Kalas to find were fakes. What use is the truth to anyone anyway? Not as much as his continued existence is to Methos, thanks a lot.

2) On that note: he has told so many different stories about certain periods of his life, depending on who was listening, that in some cases, he doesn’t know which one is the true one anymore, and this does not cause existential angst or regret. He rather prefers it that way. But if course if he told this to Joe, Joe’s inner Watcher would insist on hunting for accounts that conflicted or confirmed with the anecdotes Methos indulges him with now and then, which might lead to Joe realizing 1) and going into a historian’s meltdown. And if he told it to Duncan, Duncan would probably insist on setting up something like a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Immortals, with Methos and Cassandra as the first two members. You see why Methos doesn’t say anything?

3) That threesome with Rebecca and Amanda back in the day. The reason why he doesn’t talk about this great one night stand is that describing sex with women of one’s mutual acquaintance, one of whom tragically dead and the other very much alive, is in bad taste. Not at all because Duncan or Joe would mention it to Amanda and Amanda would laugh and point out that this particular memory is an example of 2), and how can Methos be sure she’s not right about this, hm?

4) Being Methos, he’s good at avoiding duels – at least if he isn’t hanging out with certain boyscout trouble magnets – but every now and then, he meets a headhunter, and he never regrets winning and coming out alive. Not even if the Quickening of one particular occasion was one taken on September 2nd, 1666 and started the Great Fire of London. (Yes, the chronicles say it started in the bakery of Thomas Farriner in Pudding Lane, but see 1).) After all, what would London be now without all the buildings Christopher Wren got to be the architect for after the fire?

5) Outing himself to Duncan McLeod instead of hightailing out of Paris. This did cause a not yet ending chain of trouble but also revitalized him, and, well, brought passion back in his life. But frankly, if Joe and Duncan haven’t figured out he’s not regretting that already, they are dumber than Methos takes them for, so there is no need to talk about it.


For [livejournal.com profile] snickfic:

Five conversations Spike and Darla did not have

1) The one about the advisability of turning one’s relatives. Drusilla told Darla about the messy Anne business, and for a moment, Darla considered making it clear that adding anyone who could be a threat to her position as matriarch was a strict no, and wasn’t he supposed to be Drusilla’s new playmate and keep her occupied anyway? Then she reconsidered. She wasn’t too sure about young William anyway, and if he did have an aunt to turn somewhere now his mother was dust, they could simply leave him with her. Dru would find someone else. So Darla didn’t say anything.

2) The one about Angelus having been cursed with a soul. In retrospect, she wishes she’d have told both Spike and Dru, and had made it clear how important it was to keep that one gypsy family alive so she would have leverage. But at the time, admitting what had happened, admitting her own blind horror when sensing the soul in Angelus, admitting she had panicked like a mortal instead of acting with a cool head – it was simply unthinkable. She should have told them the truth after China at the latest, and this time remained silent for another reason. Explaining about the soul would mean revealing she had been desperate enough to take Angel back anyway. And that, too, just wouldn’t do.

3) The one where she asked him to turn her after she came back as a human and before Drusilla did. Darla did contemplate going to Sunnydale when she heard Spike was there. It would be somewhat humiliating to ask the kid for a favour, but at that point, she was desperate enough to ask any type of idiots, and Spike at least was of her own bloodline. In the end, she heard about the chip, and realised he’d turn her down anyway.

4) The one where she contemplated showing him the ropes of ghostly existence. Because of the manner of her final death as opposed to the rest of her life, Darla presented a dilemma for The Powers That Be, who couldn’t bring themselves to either consigning her to oblivion, putting her in hell or rewarding her with heaven. So she opted for being a ghost in order to be allowed to keep an eye on her darling boys. (That would be Angel and Connor, not Spike.) Granted, her one attempt at direct intervention wasn’t exactly a sterling success, but more indirect methods, like scaring Fred and later everyone else with visions until they realised the truth about Jasmine, worked out far better. (You didn’t think Jasmine really looked like a maggoty corpse, did you? Her true aspect was neither beautiful nor horrible but infinitely alien, given what she was, and probably would have evoked a non-reaction. But Darla dragged up a reliably scary image out from the world she had grown up in – just check those Elizabethan plays and poetry – and projected it, and it worked.) So when Spike showed up in Los Angeles, she considered giving him the ghostly what’s what. But then she remembered dear William getting them all hiding in a bloody coal mine and thought that Spike, in any form, should not have weapons at his disposal before he had some common sense knocked into him. So she remained silent.

5) The one where he asked her why she had never really liked him and she told him the truth. They were all formed by their mortal existence as well as their immortal one. No whore starts out rich enough to be thought of as a woman of property. No, she starts out as a street girl. And if there is something that makes an Elizabethan street girl grinding her teeth with impatience and antipathy, it’s a young well-to-do man whining about his lot in life and the hardship of not getting poems published or his adored beloved to love him back, especially if said whining is done in the company of a woman who has to have sex with at least six men a day to pay for her rent and the food in her mouth, and he expects the woman in question to play his mother as well which is so not what he paid her for. Darla’s Elizabethan contemporaries were long dust by the time she met Dru’s new playmate, but one look at him told her he was precisely the sort. She’d never tell him that, though. Spike would be immensely flattered to be compared to Sir Philip Sidney.

For [livejournal.com profile] callmesandy:

Five careers Connor could have had after Not Fade Away

1) The Rileys are disappointed and puzzled that given how well Connor did in school and in his first college year, he ends up working as a stuntman after suddenly dropping out of college. Some discreet enquiries among his college friends bring up a visit by Mr. Angel from Wolfram and Heart as the only unusual circumstance before the drop out, but Mr. Angel has disappeared from the face of the earth, so can’t be questioned. Connor says it’s what he wants to do. What he doesn’t mention is that it pays for a living and allows for enough time to patrol the night for demons and vampires. Which most other jobs don’t. Also, Hollywood is haunted like you wouldn’t believe. Sometimes, when his two sets of memories mingle too much, he wonders what Cordelia would say if she knew he’s in the movies as she once wanted to be, but then he recalls he can’t ever know whether it was Cordelia who mentioned this to him, or Jasmine, or both, and tries not to think of it at all.

2) He shouldn’t have let Tracy talk him into a trip to Cardiff when they were in England, on their great hitchhiking-through-Europe tour. And he should have ignored the dark-haired guy in a leather coat standing on a rooftop. But from a distance, Connor couldn’t be sure; also, Tracy was already in the hotel room, so Connor climbed up to the rooftop. Without considering this wasn’t possible for most humans. This got him classified as an alien and locked up by the guy in question, who wasn’t Angel at all but someone who called himself Jack Harkness, and wouldn’t be convinced Connor was human. Especially after some instruments revealed Connor had indeed spent most of his life in another dimension. In the end, it was working for Harkness or remaining locked up. Connor had a feeling this wasn’t an unusual recruitment method for his new boss, who added insult to injury buy slipping Tracy retcon pills that made her forget all about Connor and return to the States. The thing was, though, that it felt familiar, all too familiar, and though he wouldn’t admit it, he did miss his father.

3) When he later was asked who inspired him to become an astronaut, Connor grinned and made a geeky reference to John Crichton, which usually failed because not that many people had watched Farscape. But neither his fake nor his real memories contained Star Trek, and naming Winifred Burkle the one time he did it had resulted in her parents tracking him down and demanding to know whether he could tell them where she had disappeared to, and nobody had told him that, either, though he had a suspicion about Illyria. Still. Fred, in the summer Angel had spent under the sea, trying to help him adjust to her world, had taught him the constellation of the stars and how you could tell in which dimension you were instantly by looking at them, and this had started it all.

4) Drusilla had not featured in any of the stories Holtz had told him, and nobody at Angel Investigations had thought of mentioning her, either. He should have staked her when she showed up in college one night, but her talk of “daddy” and “grandmother” and knowing him before he was born made him curious enough to hesitate, and when she told him her story Connor was stricken. It was as if she was his sister twice over; herself, and Daniel Holtz’ daughter whom his parents had sired for Holtz to find, in one person. That was why he let his guard down and did not move when she opened her arms to embrace him. Which was a rather finite sort of mistake. Dru wanted her family back, forever, and Connor was all that was left. Before the night was over, she had a new son and brother.

5) Illyria was the one who told him Angel and everyone else was dead. She also said she needed a new guide, or she would bring havoc to this dimension for taking Wesley from her, which he would not wish her to. Connor didn’t feel qualified to be anyone’s guide, and he plainly refused to believe Angel was dead – not like this, never like this – but with his memories recovered, he dreamed of Jasmine more and more. His daughter, whom he had killed. If he had been better then, had managed to show her he loved her without being compelled to by whatever made everyone else first love and then desert her, that it didn’t have to be either worship or destruction, that they both could continue despite of what they had done… but he hadn’t believed it then, either. Now he did. Jasmine was dead, but Illyria was not. And all of his parents believed in doing something instead of just contemplating your regrets. So Connor said yes.

Date: 2009-02-18 11:07 am (UTC)
kathyh: (Default)
From: [personal profile] kathyh
And if he told it to Duncan, Duncan would probably insist on setting up something like a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Immortals, with Methos and Cassandra as the first two members. You see why Methos doesn’t say anything?

Yes, oh yes. The reactions of Duncan and Joe, not to mention the historians of the world, simply would not be pretty and might cause Methos just so much trouble he'd have to vanish again.

Spike would be immensely flattered to be compared to Sir Philip Sidney.

LOL. Yes, he would. That makes a great deal of sense from Darla's pov.

Before the night was over, she had a new son and brother.

Ouch. That is scarily likely.

Brilliant all of them.

Date: 2009-02-18 11:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com
Thank you! As a fellow fan of everyone concerned, I'm glad you find it all in character. :)

Date: 2009-02-18 11:18 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] honorh.livejournal.com
You know Methos so *well*. Those five are him--every bit the somewhat-amoral trickster he is. I fully believe he's been tweaking history for the past 5,000 years.

The Darla and Connor ones are spot-on, too. I especially like #5 for Darla, because that certainly would explain her dislike of Spike. It makes sense that she would've seen entirely too much (literally in every way) of young men exactly like William the Bloody. And you know I love #2 for Connor. Ending up working for Torchwood would be some sweet irony, especially with Jack's propensity toward acting like Angel. Up to and including shagging certain guys with cheekbones that could cut glass.

Date: 2009-02-18 12:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com
Methos is the curse of historians through the ages. And you know I'm a card-carrying member of the "when you write ambiguos characters, keep them ambiguos" campaign in any fandom.*g*

And you know I love #2 for Connor. Ending up working for Torchwood would be some sweet irony, especially with Jack's propensity toward acting like Angel.

And Jack needs a tense relationship with someone in his team now that Owen is dead. *sobs* Re: Darla and Spike, I've never held with the "she was jealous because Angelus was shagging Spike all the time" fanon, and we do know Darla has some leftover issues (see her killing the streetgirl and the thrifty gentleman customer in Dear Boy), plus she seemed more irritated than anything else, so this made sense to me!

Date: 2009-02-18 12:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] timeofchange.livejournal.com
These are just fantastic!

Date: 2009-02-18 01:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rose-griffes.livejournal.com
Oooh, I really enjoyed these! (Ouch, Connor!)

Date: 2009-02-18 01:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] callmesandy.livejournal.com
I really enjoyed this! :) (though I am not so sure Connor would not be able to tell Dru was a vampire - the senses plus being raised by Holtz?)

Date: 2009-02-18 01:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com
He CAN tell she's a vampire. He doesn't stake her because she mentions Angel and Darla as the first thing she says to him, and then makes the mistake of listening to her story. Hence the comparison to Holtz' daughter.

Date: 2009-02-18 01:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com
It's been too long since I've written Connor angst...

Date: 2009-02-18 01:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com
Thank you!

Date: 2009-02-18 01:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] callmesandy.livejournal.com
Ah, I see, I skimmed a little. I think I generally disbelieve stories where Dru or anyone is able to sire Connor - if only on the level isn't there the whole transfer of vampire blood sealing the deal and what exactly was human fetus Connor receiving through the placenta? Isn't he already kind of pre-exposed to the mystical siring qualities? And however Jasmine worked all of that, he seems a special case when it comes to these things.

Though I admit the siring of Connor (or Gunn) is a complete anti-kink. But I did genuinely enjoy the other nine btvs/angel ones! I always love the way you write Darla with so much respect for her many qualities and of course, the non-vamped Connor ones.

Date: 2009-02-18 01:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com
I love the idea of Connor having a natural immunity to vampire blood due to Darla's body nourishing him as a foetus! And you know, if we're talking full story, I'd never write one where Dru (or anyone else) sires him, either, because that takes away several unique qualities of the character and his function in the overall AtS narrative. But here when sketching five possibilities I wanted to present at least one dark future, to juxtapose with all the other ones. And suicide or death-by-foe-not-Dru just seemed WRONG.

Date: 2009-02-18 05:02 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kattahj.livejournal.com
I loved these. Although now I'm craving that Torchwood crossover. :-)

Date: 2009-02-18 05:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] callmesandy.livejournal.com
You know, I would totally believe Connor would commit suicide, or at least attempt it, a second time. (As his actions in Home read to me as suicide by cop where the cop is Angel, etc.) Studies show a genetic component to mental illness, I can easily see where Angel might pass down some sort of depression tendency, add in a mix of memories (and the remembered trauma of, well, his first 18 years alive) and I would absolutely believe a story where Connor suffered from clinical depression. Of course, difficult to write in a short take, and the kind of subject one wants to treat with respect - but, long sentence rendered short: suicide for Connor doesn't seem wrong to me.

(And I really did love the other ones, esp the stuntman one - if soulless demons really did exist, I can tell you exactly which paparazzi agency they all work for.)

When I first read Buffyverse fic, it was in 2004 and I read all in a huge lump and, I think, overdosed/quickly found cliche the kind of story where it turns out, in the end!, Giles was a vampire and he turns everyone in Sunnydale including the five cute puppies he sees in the store window!

(huh, though now I think I never did see a story where Giles was a vampire and that would be darned frightening to contemplate. Really smart vampires appear to be few and far between.)

Date: 2009-02-18 05:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com
He, I think I read one story where Giles was a vampire, and it was pretty frightening, alright. Alas, I didn't finish it, for it was Buffy/Giles - well, in a dark way, to be fair, and I can buy that Vamp!Giles would be that way, because of the other vampires and their incestous desires we've seen, but B/G in any form is still one of my big squicks, so I didn't read further.

Connor the stuntman comes from when I was rpg'ing and wondering which plausible jobs he could have. In the end, the stuntjob didn't happen because of other RPG circumstances, but that was where I got the idea from.

Agreed that Home was Connor committing suicide-by-Angel.

Date: 2009-02-18 05:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com
Jack: is newly in need of a skinny angry person with issues in his life.
Connor: has an Angel-shaped hole for someone who has an infuriating tendency not to tell his team the big stuff if he's not forced to, is seriously into fighting the good fight (complete with Messiah complex) but also sometimes can be a ruthless bastard, due to a past where he was a ruthless bastard all the time way more often, and is into wearing leather coats.
Conclusion: they're made for each other!

(I also think Connor would crush on Gwen a bit - she's bossy and fierce, and he has a thing for this type, see Faith, Cordy and the brief scene where he met Illyria and fancied her based on the fact she had just made Spike her bitch, as well as her costume - and would see Ianto as Wesley, Mark II, which is wrong and is not in terms of TW team dynamic.)

Date: 2009-02-18 05:46 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] callmesandy.livejournal.com
Giles is freaky smart scary vampire! Though, as with Gunn, I think I would be appalled if people who knew him weren't fighting to stake him. It would be so horrible for the Giles that was.

I've always thought Connor would make an excellent surgeon - speed, strength and endurance being important qualities, etc.

Date: 2009-02-18 07:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] skywaterblue.livejournal.com
Ah, I love the Methos one.

Date: 2009-02-18 07:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com
Glad to hear it!

Date: 2009-02-18 10:10 pm (UTC)
snickfic: Buffy looking over her shoulder (Default)
From: [personal profile] snickfic
Ooh, thank you for Darla&Spike! That fifth one, in particular, seems a very important bit of insight about the two of them.

Date: 2009-02-18 10:57 pm (UTC)
ext_47: a wolf looking at reflection in a lake (Default)
From: [identity profile] silverblade219.livejournal.com
I love the Connor ones, especially the one where he is forced into working for Torchwood and the one were he agrees to be Illyria's guide.

Date: 2009-02-19 12:11 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gehayi.livejournal.com
Thank you so much for writing the Methos story for me! I love it--well, I love them all! Yes, of course Methos would have wiping out history regularly since the beginning of time. And of course the Methos diaries were fakes! I can well imagine that Methos doesn't regret telling hundreds of different stories about his life, either; I think Methos must have been the first storyteller. (Though I rather like the idea of him becoming Sir Christopher Wren and rebuilding the city that the Quickening set on fire.)

As for the Darla and Connor ones, I especially like the idea of Darla considering showing Spike the ropes of ghostly existence and deciding against it and her realizing that Spike had more than a little in common with Sir Philip Sidney. (And she's right. He would be immensely proud of that.) And Connor as an astronaut! I love that idea.

Date: 2009-02-19 01:46 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rebcake.livejournal.com
Thanks for these! The Sir Philip Sidney one is a hoot, and the Connor ones are uniformly excellent and heartbreaking. Well, maybe the stunt man one was more uplifting than heartbreaking, but still excellent.

I've just read [livejournal.com profile] icemink's story wherein Spike does turn Darla (she has to slit her own throat for it to happen), and it's great fun! I recommend it, if that might be your cuppa.

Date: 2009-02-19 06:48 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com
You're welcome. We really don't have much canon to use when it comes to Darla and Spike, but I thought this makes sense based on what we know of them individually and what little interaction we've seen.

>

Date: 2009-02-19 06:50 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com
Back when I was still playing Connor at [livejournal.com profile] theatrical_muse, he and Illyria had some interesting interaction, which was when the Jasmine and Illyria parallels and contrasts and how that might affect him occured to me. And I do want someone to write the Torchwood AU. Someone who is not me, as I don't have the time.

Date: 2009-02-19 06:53 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com
I'm so glad you like the Methos ones! And thanks for the prompt. I had fun writing these. It's been so long since I've written Methos in any form. And half as long that I've written Darla and Connor, so I'm glad these worked, too.

Date: 2009-02-19 07:24 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] honorh.livejournal.com
He: is an immortal ex-conman with a taste for anything pretty.

He: is a supernaturally-conceived child with massive father issues.

Together, they fight crime!

Connor would totally have a Thing for Gwen. She'd find it sweet. Ianto would just be glad he's not providing more unnecessary temptation for Jack.

Date: 2009-02-27 12:03 am (UTC)
ext_6322: (Default)
From: [identity profile] kalypso-v.livejournal.com
Connor never thought of advertising, then?

Date: 2009-02-27 04:03 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com
LOL. No, he did not. *has absolutely no idea what Connor would make of the Mad Men ensemble*

Date: 2009-02-27 05:21 pm (UTC)
ext_6322: (Default)
From: [identity profile] kalypso-v.livejournal.com
Possibly, after the destruction of the law firm, Wolfram and Hart went into advertising. Or Connor thought they had gone into advertising, and scanned every campaign for possible demonic significance.

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