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crack_van2008-08-12 08:35 pm
palmaceae.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2008-08-12 08:35 pm
Quartet by Roseveare (R)
Fandom: ANGEL
Pairing: Wesley/Lilah, Fred/Gunn
Length: 170k
Author on LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
roseveare
Author Website: Freaky Alternate Universe
Why this must be read: Roseveare's had quite a few other fics recced here before, but I'm shocked no one's mentioned this one yet. Set in the summer post s3, LA's going to Hell, and it's up to Wes, Lilah, Fred and Gunn to stop it. This fic is as harsh and gritty as the Hell they're in, the characters are raw and real, filled with panic and fear and the personal hells Roseveare crafts for each character are perfect in their utter cruelty.
Someone grabbed her by the shoulders, pulled her away from Gavin, slapped her across the face and threw her back into the dust.
"You little whore."
"Wha-?" Her whole body was raw and she couldn't form words properly with her battered mouth.
Where the hell was Gavin? Because she wanted him back. Fine, her personal eternal torment was Gavin Park's scrawny little prick, so bring it on. Like, now.
She stared up at the owner of the accusing voice and shook all over. Noticed numbly how the oily-fingered breeze blew dust on the ground away to reveal tiles, their pattern distinct and half-forgotten, and sculpted the walls of an old hallway. "You're. Not. Here," she articulated with all the clarity she could muster.
Mother was crying. She'd always been good at that, in both her incarnations.
This version was younger as Lilah had almost forgotten her ever being, younger but still old, blue-checked house dress scraping the tiles, collecting up dust. "You'd prefer I wasn't. That I couldn't see how filthy you are. Offer yourself to any man who could pull you up another step on your glorious career. Was it worth it, Lilah? Now you've gotten so far, was it worth it? I knew you were dirty. I knew it ever since I came back and found you with him..."
A hallucination. It had to be. A hallucination, to know who she was and what she'd done. And surely she could tell a hallucination to fuck off-
"I suppose you won't believe me now any more than you did then that it wasn't actually by choice," she croaked. "I guess who cares anyway, when all the others were? Water under the bridge as they say and, in fact, he did me a favour. Taught me something about life, as the cliche goes."
"Don't you talk like this to me. You're still my daughter."
"Yeah? When did that happen? Last time I had a conversation with you when you remembered my name it featured considerable protest to the contrary. But, hell, you know I wasn't going to be poor. So what else was I going to do after dad died when you got with the fucking Bible Bunch full-time and didn't give a damn that the money was drying up while you were out crusading?"
"While you were out with your dirty men." Her bony hands wrung in the fabric of her dress. "Damning yourself."
"Yeah? You never did understand that it's all just skin. I was just trading in skin. Skin and bone and flesh and blood but, hey, I signed away my soul too, so I guess you were right about me after all, all those years. Does that make you happy?"
"I'll see you repent your sins if it's the last thing I do." Mother bent down and Lilah was forced to stand on bruised and aching thighs that shivered under her weight, the shaking memory of a fifteen-year-old's legs. "I'll take you to the priest, and you'll repent."
"The hell I will!" Lilah screamed and struggled against muscles powered by single-minded faith. "Get the hell off of me, you crazy old woman, get the hell off and leave me alone. You're not my fucking mother. In case you forgot, you forgot me, you bitch, you spent your life trying to make me someone else and when you couldn't you tried to forget I existed and then you finally fucking did! That money you hated so much is what kept you alive for the past six years and you don't know who the hell I am so leave me alone I'm not going with you and don't you fucking pretend you forgot me for any other reason than because you WANTED TO-"
Quartet
Pairing: Wesley/Lilah, Fred/Gunn
Length: 170k
Author on LJ:
roseveareAuthor Website: Freaky Alternate Universe
Why this must be read: Roseveare's had quite a few other fics recced here before, but I'm shocked no one's mentioned this one yet. Set in the summer post s3, LA's going to Hell, and it's up to Wes, Lilah, Fred and Gunn to stop it. This fic is as harsh and gritty as the Hell they're in, the characters are raw and real, filled with panic and fear and the personal hells Roseveare crafts for each character are perfect in their utter cruelty.
Someone grabbed her by the shoulders, pulled her away from Gavin, slapped her across the face and threw her back into the dust.
"You little whore."
"Wha-?" Her whole body was raw and she couldn't form words properly with her battered mouth.
Where the hell was Gavin? Because she wanted him back. Fine, her personal eternal torment was Gavin Park's scrawny little prick, so bring it on. Like, now.
She stared up at the owner of the accusing voice and shook all over. Noticed numbly how the oily-fingered breeze blew dust on the ground away to reveal tiles, their pattern distinct and half-forgotten, and sculpted the walls of an old hallway. "You're. Not. Here," she articulated with all the clarity she could muster.
Mother was crying. She'd always been good at that, in both her incarnations.
This version was younger as Lilah had almost forgotten her ever being, younger but still old, blue-checked house dress scraping the tiles, collecting up dust. "You'd prefer I wasn't. That I couldn't see how filthy you are. Offer yourself to any man who could pull you up another step on your glorious career. Was it worth it, Lilah? Now you've gotten so far, was it worth it? I knew you were dirty. I knew it ever since I came back and found you with him..."
A hallucination. It had to be. A hallucination, to know who she was and what she'd done. And surely she could tell a hallucination to fuck off-
"I suppose you won't believe me now any more than you did then that it wasn't actually by choice," she croaked. "I guess who cares anyway, when all the others were? Water under the bridge as they say and, in fact, he did me a favour. Taught me something about life, as the cliche goes."
"Don't you talk like this to me. You're still my daughter."
"Yeah? When did that happen? Last time I had a conversation with you when you remembered my name it featured considerable protest to the contrary. But, hell, you know I wasn't going to be poor. So what else was I going to do after dad died when you got with the fucking Bible Bunch full-time and didn't give a damn that the money was drying up while you were out crusading?"
"While you were out with your dirty men." Her bony hands wrung in the fabric of her dress. "Damning yourself."
"Yeah? You never did understand that it's all just skin. I was just trading in skin. Skin and bone and flesh and blood but, hey, I signed away my soul too, so I guess you were right about me after all, all those years. Does that make you happy?"
"I'll see you repent your sins if it's the last thing I do." Mother bent down and Lilah was forced to stand on bruised and aching thighs that shivered under her weight, the shaking memory of a fifteen-year-old's legs. "I'll take you to the priest, and you'll repent."
"The hell I will!" Lilah screamed and struggled against muscles powered by single-minded faith. "Get the hell off of me, you crazy old woman, get the hell off and leave me alone. You're not my fucking mother. In case you forgot, you forgot me, you bitch, you spent your life trying to make me someone else and when you couldn't you tried to forget I existed and then you finally fucking did! That money you hated so much is what kept you alive for the past six years and you don't know who the hell I am so leave me alone I'm not going with you and don't you fucking pretend you forgot me for any other reason than because you WANTED TO-"
Quartet