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crack_van2004-12-01 01:28 pm
dodyskin.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2004-12-01 01:28 pm
Entry tags:
Manus by Kita (PG-13)
Hi there. I'm dody and I'll be driving the Angel crack van this December.
The guidelines said to pick fics that represented the fandom and were accessible to strangers. Angel's an angstarrific fandom. It goes with the whole eternally damned hero thing. It's big on death, blood, sex, and inappropriate wordplay. As with most fandoms, it has a massively complicated and contradictory mythology, with built in alternative universes, canon parallel dimensions, magic, demons, and confusing approaches to hair. Most of the people are, or have been, dead, and many have serious personality problems. It's marvellous.
But forget all that. What really makes Angel is the characters. I have twelve recs to make over this month so I thought I'd pick one fic for each regular character. And then I remembered about Harmony and Jasmine and Spike and then I remembered that they really did mean ensemble when they, er, said ensemble.
So I'm going to start with Angel and see how we go. Because, really, it's All About Angel. Our titular hero. Vampire with a soul. Plus, alphabetising makes me horny.
Fandom: ANGEL THE SERIES
Pairing: Angel/all his partners (Buffy, Darla, Spike, Cordelia)
Author on LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kita0610
Author Website: Slashing the Angel
Why this must be read: I had real trouble with this; mainly because I already recced it, so I'm all squeed out. I'm thinking the excerpt should grab you. This fic, quite apart from being gorgeously written, really focuses on Angel. It is a window into his mind: both what he thinks and how he thinks it. It is utterly, extraordinarily Angel. It pulls no punches. He's not a saint or a cardboard cut-out Hero. He's a troubled, dark person: haunted by evil, the worst of which is his own. But he tries!
Oh yeah. And it's about hands. Spoilers up until Angel season five Damage.
And Angel would beg for this: Forgiveness, grace. He thinks maybe he already has. He remembers asking someone to stay, remembers shock on a pretty face when he added “please”. He just can’t remember who it was, or what happened next.
Realities trembling like bird wings, and sleep and death look the same. He thinks he killed Connor. But they all come back. They always come back
(BuffyDarlaSpike).
Circles and symmetry, nesting dolls: Women who haunt him, and blue eyed boys who spit venom at him. Who crawl into bed with their mothers, take from him all the women Angel has loved, and only begrudge Angel respect while he beats the life out of them. Beautiful, bitter, broken boys whom Angel is only allowed to touch in anger.
Angel isn’t angry now. Just hungry. Desperate. Eighteen years worth of touch to make up for: diapers he never changed, cuts and scrapes he never kissed, tears he never even saw. Someone else taught Connor all the important things, how to love and how to kill.
All Angel has is this (leftover illusions, smoke and mirrors, paper moons) and there’s never enough time.
Fingers tangled in smooth hair, and another mouth under his own that tastes like family blood. Like mint and medicine. Mouthwash.
Manus
The guidelines said to pick fics that represented the fandom and were accessible to strangers. Angel's an angstarrific fandom. It goes with the whole eternally damned hero thing. It's big on death, blood, sex, and inappropriate wordplay. As with most fandoms, it has a massively complicated and contradictory mythology, with built in alternative universes, canon parallel dimensions, magic, demons, and confusing approaches to hair. Most of the people are, or have been, dead, and many have serious personality problems. It's marvellous.
But forget all that. What really makes Angel is the characters. I have twelve recs to make over this month so I thought I'd pick one fic for each regular character. And then I remembered about Harmony and Jasmine and Spike and then I remembered that they really did mean ensemble when they, er, said ensemble.
So I'm going to start with Angel and see how we go. Because, really, it's All About Angel. Our titular hero. Vampire with a soul. Plus, alphabetising makes me horny.
Fandom: ANGEL THE SERIES
Pairing: Angel/all his partners (Buffy, Darla, Spike, Cordelia)
Author on LJ:
kita0610Author Website: Slashing the Angel
Why this must be read: I had real trouble with this; mainly because I already recced it, so I'm all squeed out. I'm thinking the excerpt should grab you. This fic, quite apart from being gorgeously written, really focuses on Angel. It is a window into his mind: both what he thinks and how he thinks it. It is utterly, extraordinarily Angel. It pulls no punches. He's not a saint or a cardboard cut-out Hero. He's a troubled, dark person: haunted by evil, the worst of which is his own. But he tries!
Oh yeah. And it's about hands. Spoilers up until Angel season five Damage.
And Angel would beg for this: Forgiveness, grace. He thinks maybe he already has. He remembers asking someone to stay, remembers shock on a pretty face when he added “please”. He just can’t remember who it was, or what happened next.
Realities trembling like bird wings, and sleep and death look the same. He thinks he killed Connor. But they all come back. They always come back
(BuffyDarlaSpike).
Circles and symmetry, nesting dolls: Women who haunt him, and blue eyed boys who spit venom at him. Who crawl into bed with their mothers, take from him all the women Angel has loved, and only begrudge Angel respect while he beats the life out of them. Beautiful, bitter, broken boys whom Angel is only allowed to touch in anger.
Angel isn’t angry now. Just hungry. Desperate. Eighteen years worth of touch to make up for: diapers he never changed, cuts and scrapes he never kissed, tears he never even saw. Someone else taught Connor all the important things, how to love and how to kill.
All Angel has is this (leftover illusions, smoke and mirrors, paper moons) and there’s never enough time.
Fingers tangled in smooth hair, and another mouth under his own that tastes like family blood. Like mint and medicine. Mouthwash.
Manus