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crack_van2012-10-28 07:24 pm
elmey.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2012-10-28 07:24 pm
Entry tags:
Monsters by Azdak (PG)
Fandom: MAN FROM UNCLE
Pairing: none
Length: 3018 words
Author on LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
azdak
Author Website: Azdak on AO3
Why this must be read:
I was going to use this rec on Halloween, but since I might not have electricity at that point and forewarned being forearmed, etc. you're getting it today ;)
I may have mentioned once or thrice how much I love stories that dig into the unexplored corners of canon and let us know who the characters are, in a way that what happens on the screen doesn't. And let's face it, Season 4 is fertile ground for such explorations: so much darkness, so little clarity.
After Thrush Roulette Illya is adamant that the Thrush brainwashing he was subjected to, the brainwashing that would have used his deepest fear against him, was never completed. And when Napoleon presses him as they walk down the New York sidewalks at Halloween, surrounded by kids dressed as vampires, zombies and ghosts, Illya starts to tell his partner a strange little story...
Monsters is a fascinating, layered exploration of Illya's fears of having the essence of himself that he's always guarded so carefully violated, and of the larger question of Illya as a Russian; the tensions between his loyalty to ideals and his loyalty to a state. And finally, of his need for Napoleon, who knows how to hope.
Monsters
Pairing: none
Length: 3018 words
Author on LJ:
azdakAuthor Website: Azdak on AO3
Why this must be read:
I was going to use this rec on Halloween, but since I might not have electricity at that point and forewarned being forearmed, etc. you're getting it today ;)
I may have mentioned once or thrice how much I love stories that dig into the unexplored corners of canon and let us know who the characters are, in a way that what happens on the screen doesn't. And let's face it, Season 4 is fertile ground for such explorations: so much darkness, so little clarity.
After Thrush Roulette Illya is adamant that the Thrush brainwashing he was subjected to, the brainwashing that would have used his deepest fear against him, was never completed. And when Napoleon presses him as they walk down the New York sidewalks at Halloween, surrounded by kids dressed as vampires, zombies and ghosts, Illya starts to tell his partner a strange little story...
Monsters is a fascinating, layered exploration of Illya's fears of having the essence of himself that he's always guarded so carefully violated, and of the larger question of Illya as a Russian; the tensions between his loyalty to ideals and his loyalty to a state. And finally, of his need for Napoleon, who knows how to hope.
"Is that your worst fear, then?" prompted Napoleon, when the silence showed no signs of ending. "Death by torture?"
Illya shrugged. "Perhaps," he said, at last. "It would depend who was doing the torturing. There are worse things than dying."
"There are?" said Napoleon. "Name one."
"Living," said Illya. "When you should be dead." He looked at Napoleon's puzzled face and bit his lip in frustration. "Let me tell you a story," he said. "A Halloween story. But one without candy at the end."
Monsters
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