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crack_van2004-08-25 06:01 pm
kraken-wakes.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2004-08-25 06:01 pm
The Ninth Circle by Mess (R)
Fandom: Angel
Pairing: Wesley/Lilah
Rating: R
Why this must be read:
Possibly one of the best openings to any story in the fandom. Mess doesn't just write, she plays with language and the whole thing is quotable. The characterisation is spot on for both Wesley and Lilah but her Wesley is especially good. The Ninth Circle is a very clever and thought-provoking examination of the nature of evil - and the relationship between Wesley and Lilah. I think this might be one of the best investigations into their relationship - Mess spares neither of them and the story is stronger for that.
"I'm not evil," he says, dispassionately, and he should be more sure of that, because he is Wesley Wyndham-Pryce and Evil is what he knows.
He has dissected evil and classified it - pulled out it's organs and mummified it and placed it in neatly-labeled sarcophagi for easy recollection. He is extremely well-read in the histories of Evil and other culturally significant bodies of Evil literature. He has sipped martinis with evil in ties and sunk axes into evil stinking of refuse. He is well-versed at least a dozen decidedly Evil languages. He has killed evil, saved evil, banished evil, summoned evil, condemned evil, committed evil, scorned evil, and tied evil to the bedpost so he could fuck it into the mattress. The ex-Watcher (ex-hunter, ex-son, ex-friend, ex-everything except ex Deus) has been steeped in evil from birth like a tea-bag, with any innate morality he once possessed diluted by his surroundings - a darker, brighter, more epic sort of world lurking just below the surface of society that alarmingly few people ever seemed to notice.
The Ninth Circle by Mess
Pairing: Wesley/Lilah
Rating: R
Why this must be read:
Possibly one of the best openings to any story in the fandom. Mess doesn't just write, she plays with language and the whole thing is quotable. The characterisation is spot on for both Wesley and Lilah but her Wesley is especially good. The Ninth Circle is a very clever and thought-provoking examination of the nature of evil - and the relationship between Wesley and Lilah. I think this might be one of the best investigations into their relationship - Mess spares neither of them and the story is stronger for that.
"I'm not evil," he says, dispassionately, and he should be more sure of that, because he is Wesley Wyndham-Pryce and Evil is what he knows.
He has dissected evil and classified it - pulled out it's organs and mummified it and placed it in neatly-labeled sarcophagi for easy recollection. He is extremely well-read in the histories of Evil and other culturally significant bodies of Evil literature. He has sipped martinis with evil in ties and sunk axes into evil stinking of refuse. He is well-versed at least a dozen decidedly Evil languages. He has killed evil, saved evil, banished evil, summoned evil, condemned evil, committed evil, scorned evil, and tied evil to the bedpost so he could fuck it into the mattress. The ex-Watcher (ex-hunter, ex-son, ex-friend, ex-everything except ex Deus) has been steeped in evil from birth like a tea-bag, with any innate morality he once possessed diluted by his surroundings - a darker, brighter, more epic sort of world lurking just below the surface of society that alarmingly few people ever seemed to notice.
The Ninth Circle by Mess