ext_8882 (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
elistaire.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
crack_van2005-01-28 07:34 pm
elistaire.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2005-01-28 07:34 pm
Entry tags:
The Gathering Dark by esjay (PG)
Fandom: HIGHLANDER
Pairing: none
Author on LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lastrega
Author Website:Swords Kiss
Why this must be read:
There are stories, and then there is…literature. This story has more layers than a croissant. Every piece crosses back onto another bit, recalling to mind the title, the middle, the set-up, the dialogue, the description, the pacing. On the surface, Methos and Duncan are trapped in a dark elevator, having a sincere sort of talk about life, death, the Gathering. And below the surface? Locating the bottom gets awfully tough. It’s the sort of story that will have you making connections days later--while eating soup and thinking you should start a load of laundry, and suddenly things will click into place and you’ll wind up finding there was yet one more layer than before.
"We are who we are, Methos. Even you can't deny that. We've both killed friends, lovers...brothers. Can you honestly say it could never happen again?"
And there they were, knee-deep in the crap that would always divide them, no matter what...no matter what. Deflection was always easier than a straight answer. "The way you put your head on the line time after time I won't have to." And maybe that was what it was all about, after all. If Duncan died in a fair fight with some random Immortal then it would be The Will of The Universe and no one he loved would ever have to take his head. The way he'd been forced to, time and again. And somehow, it was easier in the dark to come straight out and say, "That's it, isn't it?" into the musty silence than it would have been if he had to look into Duncan's face. "If some stranger -- some enemy -- kills you, it lets the rest of us off the hook."
"No." The calm in Duncan's voice was still there and someone who knew him less well might have missed the underscored tension. "I fight because I have to." A shuffle of movement and a long exhalation of breath. "Because there are things worth fighting for."
"And if you die for no damn reason?"
"Reason or not, Methos, I'd still be dead."
The Gathering Dark
Pairing: none
Author on LJ:
lastregaAuthor Website:Swords Kiss
Why this must be read:
There are stories, and then there is…literature. This story has more layers than a croissant. Every piece crosses back onto another bit, recalling to mind the title, the middle, the set-up, the dialogue, the description, the pacing. On the surface, Methos and Duncan are trapped in a dark elevator, having a sincere sort of talk about life, death, the Gathering. And below the surface? Locating the bottom gets awfully tough. It’s the sort of story that will have you making connections days later--while eating soup and thinking you should start a load of laundry, and suddenly things will click into place and you’ll wind up finding there was yet one more layer than before.
"We are who we are, Methos. Even you can't deny that. We've both killed friends, lovers...brothers. Can you honestly say it could never happen again?"
And there they were, knee-deep in the crap that would always divide them, no matter what...no matter what. Deflection was always easier than a straight answer. "The way you put your head on the line time after time I won't have to." And maybe that was what it was all about, after all. If Duncan died in a fair fight with some random Immortal then it would be The Will of The Universe and no one he loved would ever have to take his head. The way he'd been forced to, time and again. And somehow, it was easier in the dark to come straight out and say, "That's it, isn't it?" into the musty silence than it would have been if he had to look into Duncan's face. "If some stranger -- some enemy -- kills you, it lets the rest of us off the hook."
"No." The calm in Duncan's voice was still there and someone who knew him less well might have missed the underscored tension. "I fight because I have to." A shuffle of movement and a long exhalation of breath. "Because there are things worth fighting for."
"And if you die for no damn reason?"
"Reason or not, Methos, I'd still be dead."
The Gathering Dark