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crack_van2004-10-15 09:52 am
hobsonphile.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2004-10-15 09:52 am
FARSCAPE/BABYLON 5 (PG)
Title: Playing Poster Child by Apathy
Pairing: Zhaan/G'Kar
Author on LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lemon_curry
Author Website: Unknown
Why this must be read:
The brilliance of Apathy's story, writted for Multiverse 2004, lies in her choice of context and setting. One would expect, upon being presented with the challenge of writing Zhaan/G'Kar, that an author would focus on each character's spiritual enlightenment. Apathy doesn't do this. In a wonderful twist, she focuses on both characters pre-enlightenment, when both were angry and violent revolutionaries. The result is absolutely superb.
We should never forget how far both of these characters have come.
Bitaal has always warned her against the dangers of practicing Unity before she is completely ready. That it's barely possible at her level, and certainly not safe; but then again, Bitaal has always been conservative.
The darker impulses are so difficult to resist, and she has no desire to do so. So intoxicating. Addictive.
She slides her mind into his, and at first, she is like a small child, reaching out in wonder and confusion. It quickly moves on, and now it is like the first tentative adolescent interaction, awkward and uncertain. Pleasurable, but also infuriating, and she curses her inability to perform the act without flaw.
Her worldly body trembles from the strain of keeping itself in an innocuous-looking position. Not full Unity -- the orientation is wrong, they're not touching, and she lacks sufficient training. Just a moderate bond, enough to allow them to communicate.
She ignores the sensation of vertigo as best she can, the distortions that come with a poorly-undertaken Union. Sends waves of gentle calm into her -- him -- them, doing her best to keep her anger safely locked away.
Hello?
He is not -- afraid, as such. Yet. Merely cautious, and she radiates reassurance.
Greetings. I am Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan.
And he knows this, of course, because -- at least on some level -- he is her. And he introduces himself in kind.
How -- ?
And she lets him know how, shows him images of her training, of her people. What they are capable of. What they will be denied if Bitaal and his cronies succeed in bringing about Peacekeeper control. And, by the Goddess, she hates Bitaal so much, can see herself bringing about his death in a thousand different ways. Strangulation is one attractive option. Or maybe by knife; she sends the image with a particularly vehement stab, lets him feel the cooling sap dribble over his fingers.
Or perhaps she'll just tear out his mind and feast on his soul. It would be more fitting.
G'Kar seems to approve.
He asks her about Bitaal. Whether she really hates him as much as she says. There's a knowing smugness to his tone, and she wonders if it's possible to hit someone within Unity.
Of course. Of course I hate him.
Uncertainty there, and she loathes herself for it.
You do not. It is understandable. But the man is a traitor, Zhaan. He would see your people beaten down into the dust, would ally himself with those who wish to join forces with my own enemy. There is a race that has a saying: 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'. I consider you my friend, Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan. We understand each other, understand the drive for freedom. And you know as well as I do that freedom does not come without a price.
She lets herself drink from his simmering anger, and it is slow, heavy, and sweet.
And she takes in the rest of him, too, explores all aspects of his life even as she gives hers to him. Examines his family, his work, his spirituality. A faith written in the blood of a million lost souls.
Seeing this, seeing how things could end for Delvia, she thinks that she's more than happy to play her part. More than happy to have a little guilty blood on her hands, if it will spare millions more of the righteous from mindless destruction. More than happy to succumb to a little madness, if that's what's necessary, because sanity is not an option when dealing with those who conquer and annihilate simply because they can.
She imagines Peacekeeper blood flowing through the streets, thin and red. Imagines their twisted corpses -- and for a moment, they have the strangest hair, and a word flits through her mind, Centauri -- sees them decomposing, vermin swarming over bloated flesh. Sees herself carried on the shoulders of her kinsfolk, her own dead body wrapped in sacred Delvian shrouds, a martyr to her people.
Death has never looked quite so beautiful.
Playing Poster Child
Pairing: Zhaan/G'Kar
Author on LJ:
lemon_curryAuthor Website: Unknown
Why this must be read:
The brilliance of Apathy's story, writted for Multiverse 2004, lies in her choice of context and setting. One would expect, upon being presented with the challenge of writing Zhaan/G'Kar, that an author would focus on each character's spiritual enlightenment. Apathy doesn't do this. In a wonderful twist, she focuses on both characters pre-enlightenment, when both were angry and violent revolutionaries. The result is absolutely superb.
We should never forget how far both of these characters have come.
Bitaal has always warned her against the dangers of practicing Unity before she is completely ready. That it's barely possible at her level, and certainly not safe; but then again, Bitaal has always been conservative.
The darker impulses are so difficult to resist, and she has no desire to do so. So intoxicating. Addictive.
She slides her mind into his, and at first, she is like a small child, reaching out in wonder and confusion. It quickly moves on, and now it is like the first tentative adolescent interaction, awkward and uncertain. Pleasurable, but also infuriating, and she curses her inability to perform the act without flaw.
Her worldly body trembles from the strain of keeping itself in an innocuous-looking position. Not full Unity -- the orientation is wrong, they're not touching, and she lacks sufficient training. Just a moderate bond, enough to allow them to communicate.
She ignores the sensation of vertigo as best she can, the distortions that come with a poorly-undertaken Union. Sends waves of gentle calm into her -- him -- them, doing her best to keep her anger safely locked away.
Hello?
He is not -- afraid, as such. Yet. Merely cautious, and she radiates reassurance.
Greetings. I am Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan.
And he knows this, of course, because -- at least on some level -- he is her. And he introduces himself in kind.
How -- ?
And she lets him know how, shows him images of her training, of her people. What they are capable of. What they will be denied if Bitaal and his cronies succeed in bringing about Peacekeeper control. And, by the Goddess, she hates Bitaal so much, can see herself bringing about his death in a thousand different ways. Strangulation is one attractive option. Or maybe by knife; she sends the image with a particularly vehement stab, lets him feel the cooling sap dribble over his fingers.
Or perhaps she'll just tear out his mind and feast on his soul. It would be more fitting.
G'Kar seems to approve.
He asks her about Bitaal. Whether she really hates him as much as she says. There's a knowing smugness to his tone, and she wonders if it's possible to hit someone within Unity.
Of course. Of course I hate him.
Uncertainty there, and she loathes herself for it.
You do not. It is understandable. But the man is a traitor, Zhaan. He would see your people beaten down into the dust, would ally himself with those who wish to join forces with my own enemy. There is a race that has a saying: 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'. I consider you my friend, Pa'u Zotoh Zhaan. We understand each other, understand the drive for freedom. And you know as well as I do that freedom does not come without a price.
She lets herself drink from his simmering anger, and it is slow, heavy, and sweet.
And she takes in the rest of him, too, explores all aspects of his life even as she gives hers to him. Examines his family, his work, his spirituality. A faith written in the blood of a million lost souls.
Seeing this, seeing how things could end for Delvia, she thinks that she's more than happy to play her part. More than happy to have a little guilty blood on her hands, if it will spare millions more of the righteous from mindless destruction. More than happy to succumb to a little madness, if that's what's necessary, because sanity is not an option when dealing with those who conquer and annihilate simply because they can.
She imagines Peacekeeper blood flowing through the streets, thin and red. Imagines their twisted corpses -- and for a moment, they have the strangest hair, and a word flits through her mind, Centauri -- sees them decomposing, vermin swarming over bloated flesh. Sees herself carried on the shoulders of her kinsfolk, her own dead body wrapped in sacred Delvian shrouds, a martyr to her people.
Death has never looked quite so beautiful.
Playing Poster Child
no subject
*bounces off*