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kaigouAnd if LJ eats it again, I'm just going to have to hurt someone.
First, go read this: This is Not About "Intellectual Property". Read the entire thing. There's a lot in there that's worth some serious discussion and thought, in any fandom. The entry post nails the point -- nails every point, for that matter -- but the issue at hand of value to fen is this part:
Keep in mind, the above section was written by a Head Editor at Tor Books. You just bloody well can't get much more credibility than that, and if I'd expect anyone to find fanfic irksome, it'd be an editor (who sees/deals/shepherds far more books than a single author). Yet even Teresa's willing to say flatly that what you write, you own, even if the characters, world, or essential premise were someone else's. It's still your time, your idea, your creation, your effort, your words.
Go, read, think. TNH & co rock my world.
And now, for the recs... trying again, and let's see if I can be even half as succinct as I was the first time. *cough*
Note: both stories are shonen and/or yaoi, and both are R at minimum.
Code of Silence
authors: TB & Marsh
Words cannot express how long I've been waiting for a multi-chapter, well-written, intense, thoughtful, non-stereotyped -- and most importantly -- non-bastardized 2x3x2. I'm well aware that in the series, Trowa gives Duo the constant slightly-annoyed smirk, while Duo seems to alternate between just not 'getting' Trowa and blowing him off. (When the two aren't doing the whole pissing contest thing, of course.) It takes some effort to make their friendship (let alone any relationship) believable -- at least, it does if you have canon still squarely in the front of your brain.
It also, as CoS finally proves, does not require bastardizing Heero into some kind of vicious control freak. And for that alone, would I appreciate this story -- yet fortunately for my reading pleasure, there's a lot more reason than just that.
The story's premise is simple: Heero and Wufei (as I recall; I may be off in a few points) are called to a crime scene, where they find Duo holding a gun and standing over the freshly-dead body of a major drug dealer. But Duo offers no explanations, no reason for being there, and assumptions get jumped, tempers flare, words are exchanged, and next thing we know, Duo's under arrest for murder. Not just murder, either, as the chapters unfold, but multiple murders: this is one of many such deaths, all with the same MO. Although Duo protests his innocence (to some degree), he makes no attempts to defend himself, and that alone raises eyebrows among the former pilots.
Most especially Trowa, who reappears and -- as we gather by reading between the lines (an especially wonderful part of the story is all that it leaves unsaid) -- tries to patch back together the relationship he'd had with Duo. It's never really stated outright why exactly they broke up; I got the impression Duo wanted Trowa to express his take on their relationship in a specific way, and when that wasn't happening, Duo left. I might have called it a flaw, in a published story, to never get a strong sense of what holds Trowa back -- but this is a story that follows from canon* -- so Trowa's reticence in the series is a thread pulling through this story, as well, and thus easily left unquestioned as a character trait.
* I'm actually assuming the story is post-One Year War; for the first five or six chapters, I wasn't sure whether it was a Law-and-Order AU, or a Preventers-canon. There's next to no mention of events from the series (a plus in my book, actually; I know few veterans, ten years down the road from wartime experience, who ever actually discuss their shared history with comrades -- it's enough that they all survived, no need to revisit the horrors). But, that said, the characterizations are so astutely canonical-feeling to me that I'd say it's post-EW, or just the most post-EW non-EW story I've read in a long time.
For the most part, the opening ten or so chapters are heavy on the police procedural -- including a visit from IA, who comes sniffing about at the appearance of a conflict of interest. It is Heero and Wufei, after all, who arrest and interrogate Duo in the first place (thus heightening the tension among the now somewhat-estranged five pilots). It's a well-written cameo of Noin, who doesn't get much love in the fandom but has her strong points.
Trowa, Heero, Wufei, and Duo all have characterizations that are fleshed out, flawed, and wonderfully complex. Trowa, at the outset, is implied to be the only one of the five who didn't 'go straight' at the end of the war -- he's forever coming and going on his own, little-known, purposes, and he does seem to know everyone and anyone on the wrong side of the law. Heero and Wufei joined Preventers, working homicide; Duo works narcotics, semi-undercover. Heero is work-focused, intense, purposeful, and delicately broken, willing to go head-first after a target and wishing he could follow his heart if only he could figure out what his heart's telling him. Wufei is prickly, competitive, but not stereotyped; he's dedicated, intense, and a good match for Heero. Their scenes together are excellent examples of a little bit being said and a whole lot being not-said, and yet communicated.
And Duo, too often knocked down to only one side of his many faces, swings from the cheerful, easy-go-lucky facade to the wary, street-wise snark without a ripple. His self-protectiveness, his snark, his determination to appear as though self-preservation is all that matters while simultaneously acting almost entirely out of a sense of loyalty, even to those who don't deserve the time of day -- it's all here. He does run and hide, but he's in the room the entire time, and it's sadly a rare writer in this fandom who can show Duo both retreating on one level but attacking on another, at the exact same moment.
I would say, though, that the author(s) remain somewhat uncertain about Quatre. For once, it was Quatre (not Wufei) who was almost a non-entity in the story. He appears, yes, and does assist Trowa as he can (and there is further tension between them, with more implied history which neither ever truly elucidate), but for the most part he plays next to no role in the story, really. On the plus side, I don't recall even one instance of him offering tea, nor is there mention of using one of his many mansions in every country, city, or mountainside two-bit village -- the authors get points, at least, for not falling back on that tired cliche.
And, too, another detail often left aside: Trowa's bizarre, up-down, politically-loaded, borderline-manipulative, relationship with Une. (In the series, after all, he goes from earnest young man being interviewed to cruelly decimating her.) The scenes between the two of them are positively delicious -- she gives no quarter, yet every inch he gives, he drags his feet and makes her pay for his cooperation.
Those are the good things, though I do have one issue. Perhaps the only sour note for me, but unfortunately, it's also the story's lynchpin. I whited out the font, so if you want to avoid spoilers, don't read -- if you do, then highlight to see 'em.
Eventually the murderer is revealed to be a vigilante, and in turn is deduced to be Wufei. Well, okay, Wufei does have vigilante elements, but then, they were Gundam pilots: they're all strongly vigilante, or they wouldn't have taken on that role in the first place. You have to have a sense of being willing to right the universe's wrongs, to take on a lone suicide mission -- which is pretty much what it originally would've been, had the pilots not met up and combined their strengths.
So, anyway: the thing is, I didn't feel like Wufei would've done that; not the story's Wufei, I mean. I'd had absolutely zilch clues prior, and while I like a surprise, I need those surprises to be grounded. When they find Duo, Heero is disappointed, angry, suspicious, mistrustful, confused, torn, betrayed -- and Wufei echoes every one of those emotions. And, too, as they thresh out what Duo was doing there, and put together the MO with earlier such murders, Wufei comes across as boggled-betrayed-angry as the rest.
Perhaps the foreshadowing of his motivation was too subtle, but my gut reaction was a sense that the story had simply reached out and grabbed the closest possible fall guy. Duo may be the fall guy in the story, but it's Wufei who becomes the authors' apparent fall guy -- and I've seen that one too many times before to really enjoy it again. He's so often the odd man out, the loner, when he's not steretyped as a self-righteous asshole or stuck-up prig or disapproving virgin-uncle type. He's the character we can sacrifice; fen don't want to see Duo unjustly jailed, but Wufei? Oh, well, he's like, he's around here, whatever, get back to Duo & whomever. Or just Duo.
Truth be told, I was halfway expecting it to be Quatre. He's so little in the story in the first place, and when it was first implied that Wufei was the murderer, I thought: no, this is just a cover for it being Quatre. It's got to be Duo protecting Wufei, perhaps, who'd been protecting Quatre... why else would it feel such an ill-fit for Wufei to have done this, especially with Quatre helpful but otherwise noticeably absent?
(I suppose this is one more example of how our practice in the active audience role can for/against us -- and for/against us as writers, too. We want to participate, and if a story requires mental tweaking, we have the practice. So... I will freely concede that it's possible my own biases made me miss a well-buried clue, or led me off to a different outcome so well that I missed the authors' road signs.)
The rest, I'll avoid spoilers, but I will leave this open for those of you who might want to throw at me your own interpretations of canon. In CoS, it slowly becomes clear that Duo not only know who the real murderer is, Duo's protecting him, for reasons he can't -- or won't -- explain. This is where I had trouble suspending my well-established personal interpretation of Duo, long enough to accept the story's point (and ironically, this is most likely because the story is so thoroughly solid and consistent, otherwise, in nailing a close-to-canonical characterization).
Of the five pilots, Duo is the only one with a history of clashing with authority. Heero kills with his assassin-mentor, but is otherwise isolated from society; Wufei is raised to be scholarly, and until his wife dies, he's managed to effectively isolate himself. Trowa loses his mercenary brotherhood through betrayal. Quatre's roughest spot doesn't come until he's 14 and realizes he's seen as nothing more than a spoiled, willful, ignorant child. It's only Duo whose introduction to death is through the betrayal of authorities in power. (Trowa's history is the closest to Duo's, bloodshed-wise, but his captain and remaining aren't killed by Oz/Alliance but by those members who'd gone turncoat and ambushed their former friends. OZ may have paid the bribes, but for Trowa, the loss comes through a presumed-compatriot's duplicity. That's not quite the same thing as men in uniform slaughtering the very innocents they claim to defend/represent.)
In canon, Duo sees firsthand the damage done by men with guns who do whatever they damn well please. The military has supplies but refuses to help the starving citizenry; the rebels put guns to the heads of Duo's 'family' and use him as sacrificial bait to get them a weapon. And, I seem to recall, not only does Duo lose his family to the rebels, but he loses again when the military retaliates for the crime he'd been forced to commit. O the five, Duo is the least likely, in my opinion, to protect a vigilante who is also in a position of authority.
That's the key: I could not see Duo looking at a fellow cop or Preventer (as it's implied, early on, that the vigilante must be) without seeing Authority. Even if he's part of that, himself, too -- and he does express some internal conflict over that. So he's not drawn as ignorant of the balance required, between upholding the law as he's told it's to be held, and his childhood understanding that sometimes, men with guns aren't willing to see the gray, aren't going to care about extenuating circumstances. Granted, Duo is as loyal as they come -- despite all Heero does in the series, Duo still treats him as a partner/equal -- albeit with a bit of exasperation here and there. Yet he has no qualms telling Heero off, either -- it's only with Hilde (a non-combatant, in Duo's eyes) that he closes his mouth & won't explain, or distracts her by playing the happy-go-lucky. I couldn't see Duo protecting if the circumstances are of an authority-figure with gun, and I did have to do a readjustment from the otherwise top-notch canonical characterization to include a newer/adult-ized version of a Duo who treats his equals/compatriots with the same "you don't need to know" attitude he'd reserved for Hilde and other citizens, in the series.
All that said, far more is good than bad, and it's worth the time to read. There aren't enough stories like this coming down the pipe in the fandom these days, so it's a joy to find something with a new, refreshing take -- who's also willing to commit the time to a good long write of a multi-chapter work.
I can't recall the rating, but I'd say it's an R for violence and language. The sexual parts aren't that explicit, and it's more oranges than limes, but that works for the story. Too much emphasis on the physical 2x3x2 (as opposed to the emotional, which did get plenty of focus), and it would've detracted from the delicious, multi-layered, ambiguous-meaning, hurt, damaged, confused, angry, betrayed, hopeful, disillusioned tensions between all five pilots -- and that, really, is the best reason to read the story: because, finally, someone's captured all the reasons the five wouldn't get along, despite all their best attempts otherwise.
To find the story: I read it on the GW-fan elist, though it's also posted on the GWA boards. What I can't figure out is that it's on the GWA forum, but not in the archives; the chapters are all posted in the section for GWA authors, but TB/Marsh has no "GW Author" tag on the profile, and I can't find any part of the story uploaded to the archives, even under a different author's name. I might just be missing it in the archives (some of us do have multiple names for multiple accounts, heh), but the most recent chapters are still on the forum's top page, so do a search and that should bring up all of them.
I think we need to schedule an intervention. Too many in the fandom start writing like this, and I just might find myself dragged back, and please, we can't have that. Bad things happen. So, if you're with me, please assist! Twenty hours nonstop of 4K short-shorts on fanfiction.net of Duo-as-girl and Quatre-as-bleeding-heart and Heero-as-Perfect-Soldier and Trowa-as-circus-boy and Wufei-known-only-as-the-Dragon*, and we just might be able to save the day!
ETA: This RTF-format for posting is cool, but how the hell do I change the lj-cut labels? Sheesh. Anyway, the following review's been edited, because NO ONE TELLS ME ANYTHING. Hmmph.
*see next review
Through the Furnace, Unshrinking
author: June
We've all read the story: gundam pilots as rent-boys. Naturally, Wufei is either stalking around as the lone straight guy who doesn't have to dress as a girl, or getting nosebleeds at Quatre's short skirt and Duo's flashy spandex. Trowa is either stoic and manly or femme and sappy; Quatre still offers tea but is just wicked with the lipstick. Heero's either utterly washed-out into a bizarre girly version of himself, or echoes Wufei in the too-masculine-for-you 'bodyguard' role... and Duo, of course, is all curls and tight shorts/skirts and thigh-high stockings and heels, and there's plenty of angst and sex with other people while Heero grits his teeth and blah blah blah.
I think someone forgot to give June the memo on How To Write a Proper Rentboy Story.
No, no, babe, you need to put down the DVDs of the series, and pay attention to the rulebook, or you'll never make it in the fandom! What's with this strong, brash, non-angsty Duo? This emotive, confused, wary Heero? This watchful, graceful, yet compassionate and quietly sorrowful Trowa? This conflicted Wufei who does his duty, torn between a sense of unworthiness and a wish to be accepted? And what the hell is up with your Quatre -- not only is there not a single mention of tea (what? what is the world coming to?) but he's also gentlemanly, educated, cosmopolitan, wide-eyed and gentle -- and utterly ruthless.
<strike>As the story opens, it felt both familiar... and not.</strike>
*cough* Apparently, I didn't start reading until about chapter four. Whoops, I had no idea. I went back and re-read the opening chapters, which do explain some bits (a tiny more) than the later chapters, but it's not too heavy on the exposition, though that's in there (as befits an AU fanfic -- pretty much comes with the territory). More notes in a bit, below.
It was like a strange mash-up of the usual rentboy premise, with each g-boy stationed at various points in a club. Music, smoke in the air, cheap drinks, tight clothing, provocative dancing, but with an undercurrent of a mission. I thought, is this another "we're Preventers and we're just pretending to be cheap rentboys" kind of ridiculous only-in-fanfic premise? Except, none of the opening itself implies such duplicity; there's instead a tired crassness to it all, a weary element in each boy's perspective -- especially once they've completed their 'mission': kidnap Quatre.
So, then, the story proceeds apace. Quatre is the cast-off Winner heir, sold to Gael, the kingpin who rules/owns the rest of them: benefactor, tormentor, boss, prison. Heero and Duo are long-time friends, raised on the streets with only each other to rely on -- yet their relationship is delicate in the face of change and the introduction of an unfamiliar person into their tight dynamics. Duo is far more protective of Heero, actually -- at least in terms of being willing to express it. Heero leans on Duo's strength, as much as he did in canon (and I'm thinking of the scenes in which we see Duo walking ahead, while Heero trails behind, wary and silent but willing to accept Duo's lead). Trowa is more of a mystery -- well, of all of them, he seems to get that treatment the most, doesn't he? -- but he remains one whose first impulse is self-sacrifice as a means to resolve otherwise untenable obligations.
Normally, I'd think: okay, I'm supposed to accept that Quatre's important enough to have him kidnapped & turned into a rent-boy, too, because, well, you can't kill him. He's one of the g-boys! ...even if, logically, I'd expect any Bad Sister worth her salt to know the little heir-brother you leave alive is a little heir-brother who grows up to be a dangerous not-so-little brother. (Ref., see also, Man of Means, by Okaasan.) But when Quatre falls ill, Trowa comes up with a way to make sure Gael doesn't throw Quatre away as useless -- and does it in a distinctly, damage-myself-worse Trowa-esque way.
It's what Quatre can do, and the subtle, sideways, throwaway implications of a history of doing it, that suddenly gave me a solid reason as to why Quatre's sisters didn't simply have him killed. (I am quite certain June must have memorized the scene where Quatre yells to the guards, "if you surrender, you'll live!" and when he's ignored, he proceeds to mow them all down with an AK-47, teeth gritted, and no sign of remorse.) The boy, really, is the most ruthless of the five -- and we see that, beyond any shadow of a doubt, in TtFU.
Meanwhile, if there's one thing that surprised me (of the many), it was that the first pairing to appear was actually a 2x5x2 -- and a believable one, at that. (I suspect June's been studying from the same tome as Maldoror, to recognize that the 02 v. 05 tension in the series would only become lust/affection under direct, compressed, intense circumstances, but that the resulting bond would be unbreakable. Both are too proud otherwise, but once loyalty's given, neither character would be shaken free.)
Wufei is proud, prickly, and conflicted, as in TB/Marsh's version, but he's given more time to be his introspective side, in June's story -- there are a few scenes that were almost reminiscent of a city-street version of Wufei pulling himself from the battle to stand on a mountainside, longing to join the battle but convinced of his unworthiness. To be acknowledged, to be treated as an equal, is really what he wants (in canon, and in TtFU), and Duo's street-smart brassy facade -- and its attendant assumption of knowledge -- gives Duo's assessment added credibility when he determines Wufei is a worthy opponent/partner.
Duo, for his part, is about as smooshy as canon -- which is to say, not at all. Certainly never in front of other folks, and only rarely when alone.
Never fear, you 1x2 fans, there's that, too, but the layers of long-term friendship (and the extra complexity it creates, to know someone for so long yet worry about what it'll do to 'want the next step') are well-done. Plus, Heero does have emotions, but without Duo to filter them (or Trowa, to some degree), he's a little confused as to how to interpret them. And, too, he's resourceful (they all are, in their own ways), so there's none of this automaton or perfect soldier crap, or the alternate Heero version of 'hopeless' (in the sense of 'despondent'), nor is he dependent. He's self-taught, self-ruling, and despite bonds with the others, still voted most likely to go off on his own to fight his own fights (with Wufei a close second).
I don't really have too many critiques about the story, on the bad side -- not that I can recall. In fact, the one major critique I might've had, June herself already undid, by posting a chapter, rethinking, and rewriting. (I can totally relate.) What had me a little fussy -- though not enough to stop reading, no way -- she fixed ten times better, and Quatre stayed his cool-headed, intent, eyes-on-the-prize, intelligent self. Yay.
Though in rereading, I did notice one peculiar thing: not once is Heero the Perfect Soldier, nor is Duo the Braided Boy -- and yet Trowa gets "the Frenchman" regularly, but Wufei gets it worst, with "the dragon" nearly every other sentence. Whoa, calm down on the misunderstanding, please: 'Chang' (zhang) -- Wufei's surname -- is a measure word. It's Meiran's surname that means dragon. Perhaps we need a good word that means "widower of the dragon", because Wufei himself is not a dragon. While it's a descriptive element in some respects ("rousing the dragon", "grumpy dragon") and a visual I don't mind, there is a limit to how much I need to be reminded.
As for Trowa, I do give points for -- finally! -- not giving him the whole "Hispanic" thing, that ridiculous fanon charge from years of old -- along with the other nonsense swirling around him, which I won't go into. Suffice it to say I find much of Trowa's fanon to be anywhere from misguided to outright illogical and unsupportable -- but at the same time, with a name like Trowa -- from the French trois -- I can totally get behind a soft French accent and the hint of a life in some French-speaking country.
(Although my personal theory is he represents the Western coast of Africa, and the French colonies -- land of mercenaries and much, much war. With Quatre being the inland neo-Laurence of Arabia, it creates a mirror. The long-time colonist, and the one who seeks to overthrow the overlords... but I digress. Point is, I don't mind the label of Frenchman, but again, it did get used a bit more than needed, although not quite as much as the repetitive 'dragon' reference for Wufei.
I guess that means, after having a chance to read straight through (as opposed to long pauses between chapters, which does make for gaps in comprehension if a lot's happened in the meantime in RL) -- that I'd have to say that while June did avoid 90% of the usual fanon, I'm a little surprised that she dropped so easily into it with Wufei, and to some extent, Trowa.
I have noticed the epitaphs are often tacked onto the characters the author likes the most (and therefore likes to 'nickname'), or those the author can handle the least (and therefore requires a 'handle'). Given Wufei's otherwise excellent characterization, I'd say it's an affectionate thing by the author... but still one that at times made me grit my teeth, on rereading -- because with no space between chapters, it's all too soon before I get more of dragon, dragon, dragon.
Not enough to make me stop rereading, no way!, but still enough to make me correct my earlier impression of pleasure that both authors had so clearly escaped fanon influence. Although it does happen to the best of us, and please, no one quote from Drums at me, okay? The number of epithets I used in that story make me cringe...
*cough*
Okay, edited insert over, now!
I'd rate it an R for the language, but the violence and sex are turned up to eleven, so overall I'd say NC-17. There are some pretty brutal parts, but they're not followed up with two chapters of angst, let alone wangst. (Damn it, again with not paying attention to the rulebook!) There are a few sex scenes, but be warned that some aren't anywhere close to the usual waffy limes -- these are full-on lemons, and may titillate but also disgust. These are rent-boys, and few punches are pulled.
Still waiting on the epilogue, but I've little worry it will do a jump to the left and turn them all into weepy emo-posterboys.
Where to find it: I read it on the GW-fan elist, but I checked on the last post and turns out June's also archived at raygunworks.net (Dacia's site). Go, find it, enjoy: a rentboy multiparter with snark, blood, fury, a smooth but scrumptious surface, and a crunchy vicious center.
[How's that intervention coming along? I have the earl gray ready, who has the hot water?]
I would've rec'd both of these much sooner, had I had time/energy to write up my comments. Hell, I was ready to rec both after the third chapter or so, of each: even if, for some bizarre reason, the authors took a nosedive, the openings of each story are so excellently tense and conflicted, with layers of unspoken histories and motivations swirling thick but unsaid through every line -- who cares if the rest did suck? I'd just be rereading the opening chapters over and over again.
But, happily, the rest did not suck, and the world is once again a good place to be GW fen. Here's to many more.
First, go read this: This is Not About "Intellectual Property". Read the entire thing. There's a lot in there that's worth some serious discussion and thought, in any fandom. The entry post nails the point -- nails every point, for that matter -- but the issue at hand of value to fen is this part:
Sample disclaimers:
None of this stuff belongs to me. :: Everything related to Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel is owned by Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy Productions, FOX, UPN, and their partners. :: All things Buffy belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. :: I don’t own anything, this is strictly for fun, Joss and someone else owns all this. :: Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy own all. :: The usual. All belongs to Joss and Mutant Enemy, and naught to me. :: I don’t own anything. Joss owns it all, damn him! :: I own nothing.
Wrong. The fact that a person or organization owns the copyright to a work doesn’t mean they own everything related to that work. It just means they have the legal right to keep others from making use of it. If some third party writes a new story which uses material covered by that copyright, the new story can’t be published or filmed or made into a game (unless the copyright holder grants them a license to do so.)
However, contrary to all-too-common belief, the copyright holder has no claim on that new story. The story itself—that specific configuration of words—belongs to the author. So does the plot, if it doesn’t infringe on the copyright. So do any other non-infringing original elements. So if you’re a fanfic writer, please stop saying you don’t own your own work.
I’m not sure disclaimers have any use or legal standing to start with, but if you must use one, consider saying something like:
The BtVS characters belong to Joss Whedon and associated companies. The story itself belongs to me. None of these characters belong to me. Only the words do.
What’s Joss Whedon’s is Joss Whedon’s, and the same goes for Mutant Enemy; but what’s mine is mine, including the original elements in this story and the words I’ve used to tell it.
Keep in mind, the above section was written by a Head Editor at Tor Books. You just bloody well can't get much more credibility than that, and if I'd expect anyone to find fanfic irksome, it'd be an editor (who sees/deals/shepherds far more books than a single author). Yet even Teresa's willing to say flatly that what you write, you own, even if the characters, world, or essential premise were someone else's. It's still your time, your idea, your creation, your effort, your words.
Go, read, think. TNH & co rock my world.
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And now, for the recs... trying again, and let's see if I can be even half as succinct as I was the first time. *cough*
Note: both stories are shonen and/or yaoi, and both are R at minimum.
- - - # # # - - -
Code of Silence
authors: TB & Marsh
Words cannot express how long I've been waiting for a multi-chapter, well-written, intense, thoughtful, non-stereotyped -- and most importantly -- non-bastardized 2x3x2. I'm well aware that in the series, Trowa gives Duo the constant slightly-annoyed smirk, while Duo seems to alternate between just not 'getting' Trowa and blowing him off. (When the two aren't doing the whole pissing contest thing, of course.) It takes some effort to make their friendship (let alone any relationship) believable -- at least, it does if you have canon still squarely in the front of your brain.
It also, as CoS finally proves, does not require bastardizing Heero into some kind of vicious control freak. And for that alone, would I appreciate this story -- yet fortunately for my reading pleasure, there's a lot more reason than just that.
The story's premise is simple: Heero and Wufei (as I recall; I may be off in a few points) are called to a crime scene, where they find Duo holding a gun and standing over the freshly-dead body of a major drug dealer. But Duo offers no explanations, no reason for being there, and assumptions get jumped, tempers flare, words are exchanged, and next thing we know, Duo's under arrest for murder. Not just murder, either, as the chapters unfold, but multiple murders: this is one of many such deaths, all with the same MO. Although Duo protests his innocence (to some degree), he makes no attempts to defend himself, and that alone raises eyebrows among the former pilots.
Most especially Trowa, who reappears and -- as we gather by reading between the lines (an especially wonderful part of the story is all that it leaves unsaid) -- tries to patch back together the relationship he'd had with Duo. It's never really stated outright why exactly they broke up; I got the impression Duo wanted Trowa to express his take on their relationship in a specific way, and when that wasn't happening, Duo left. I might have called it a flaw, in a published story, to never get a strong sense of what holds Trowa back -- but this is a story that follows from canon* -- so Trowa's reticence in the series is a thread pulling through this story, as well, and thus easily left unquestioned as a character trait.
* I'm actually assuming the story is post-One Year War; for the first five or six chapters, I wasn't sure whether it was a Law-and-Order AU, or a Preventers-canon. There's next to no mention of events from the series (a plus in my book, actually; I know few veterans, ten years down the road from wartime experience, who ever actually discuss their shared history with comrades -- it's enough that they all survived, no need to revisit the horrors). But, that said, the characterizations are so astutely canonical-feeling to me that I'd say it's post-EW, or just the most post-EW non-EW story I've read in a long time.
For the most part, the opening ten or so chapters are heavy on the police procedural -- including a visit from IA, who comes sniffing about at the appearance of a conflict of interest. It is Heero and Wufei, after all, who arrest and interrogate Duo in the first place (thus heightening the tension among the now somewhat-estranged five pilots). It's a well-written cameo of Noin, who doesn't get much love in the fandom but has her strong points.
Trowa, Heero, Wufei, and Duo all have characterizations that are fleshed out, flawed, and wonderfully complex. Trowa, at the outset, is implied to be the only one of the five who didn't 'go straight' at the end of the war -- he's forever coming and going on his own, little-known, purposes, and he does seem to know everyone and anyone on the wrong side of the law. Heero and Wufei joined Preventers, working homicide; Duo works narcotics, semi-undercover. Heero is work-focused, intense, purposeful, and delicately broken, willing to go head-first after a target and wishing he could follow his heart if only he could figure out what his heart's telling him. Wufei is prickly, competitive, but not stereotyped; he's dedicated, intense, and a good match for Heero. Their scenes together are excellent examples of a little bit being said and a whole lot being not-said, and yet communicated.
And Duo, too often knocked down to only one side of his many faces, swings from the cheerful, easy-go-lucky facade to the wary, street-wise snark without a ripple. His self-protectiveness, his snark, his determination to appear as though self-preservation is all that matters while simultaneously acting almost entirely out of a sense of loyalty, even to those who don't deserve the time of day -- it's all here. He does run and hide, but he's in the room the entire time, and it's sadly a rare writer in this fandom who can show Duo both retreating on one level but attacking on another, at the exact same moment.
I would say, though, that the author(s) remain somewhat uncertain about Quatre. For once, it was Quatre (not Wufei) who was almost a non-entity in the story. He appears, yes, and does assist Trowa as he can (and there is further tension between them, with more implied history which neither ever truly elucidate), but for the most part he plays next to no role in the story, really. On the plus side, I don't recall even one instance of him offering tea, nor is there mention of using one of his many mansions in every country, city, or mountainside two-bit village -- the authors get points, at least, for not falling back on that tired cliche.
And, too, another detail often left aside: Trowa's bizarre, up-down, politically-loaded, borderline-manipulative, relationship with Une. (In the series, after all, he goes from earnest young man being interviewed to cruelly decimating her.) The scenes between the two of them are positively delicious -- she gives no quarter, yet every inch he gives, he drags his feet and makes her pay for his cooperation.
Those are the good things, though I do have one issue. Perhaps the only sour note for me, but unfortunately, it's also the story's lynchpin. I whited out the font, so if you want to avoid spoilers, don't read -- if you do, then highlight to see 'em.
Eventually the murderer is revealed to be a vigilante, and in turn is deduced to be Wufei. Well, okay, Wufei does have vigilante elements, but then, they were Gundam pilots: they're all strongly vigilante, or they wouldn't have taken on that role in the first place. You have to have a sense of being willing to right the universe's wrongs, to take on a lone suicide mission -- which is pretty much what it originally would've been, had the pilots not met up and combined their strengths.
So, anyway: the thing is, I didn't feel like Wufei would've done that; not the story's Wufei, I mean. I'd had absolutely zilch clues prior, and while I like a surprise, I need those surprises to be grounded. When they find Duo, Heero is disappointed, angry, suspicious, mistrustful, confused, torn, betrayed -- and Wufei echoes every one of those emotions. And, too, as they thresh out what Duo was doing there, and put together the MO with earlier such murders, Wufei comes across as boggled-betrayed-angry as the rest.
Perhaps the foreshadowing of his motivation was too subtle, but my gut reaction was a sense that the story had simply reached out and grabbed the closest possible fall guy. Duo may be the fall guy in the story, but it's Wufei who becomes the authors' apparent fall guy -- and I've seen that one too many times before to really enjoy it again. He's so often the odd man out, the loner, when he's not steretyped as a self-righteous asshole or stuck-up prig or disapproving virgin-uncle type. He's the character we can sacrifice; fen don't want to see Duo unjustly jailed, but Wufei? Oh, well, he's like, he's around here, whatever, get back to Duo & whomever. Or just Duo.
Truth be told, I was halfway expecting it to be Quatre. He's so little in the story in the first place, and when it was first implied that Wufei was the murderer, I thought: no, this is just a cover for it being Quatre. It's got to be Duo protecting Wufei, perhaps, who'd been protecting Quatre... why else would it feel such an ill-fit for Wufei to have done this, especially with Quatre helpful but otherwise noticeably absent?
(I suppose this is one more example of how our practice in the active audience role can for/against us -- and for/against us as writers, too. We want to participate, and if a story requires mental tweaking, we have the practice. So... I will freely concede that it's possible my own biases made me miss a well-buried clue, or led me off to a different outcome so well that I missed the authors' road signs.)
The rest, I'll avoid spoilers, but I will leave this open for those of you who might want to throw at me your own interpretations of canon. In CoS, it slowly becomes clear that Duo not only know who the real murderer is, Duo's protecting him, for reasons he can't -- or won't -- explain. This is where I had trouble suspending my well-established personal interpretation of Duo, long enough to accept the story's point (and ironically, this is most likely because the story is so thoroughly solid and consistent, otherwise, in nailing a close-to-canonical characterization).
Of the five pilots, Duo is the only one with a history of clashing with authority. Heero kills with his assassin-mentor, but is otherwise isolated from society; Wufei is raised to be scholarly, and until his wife dies, he's managed to effectively isolate himself. Trowa loses his mercenary brotherhood through betrayal. Quatre's roughest spot doesn't come until he's 14 and realizes he's seen as nothing more than a spoiled, willful, ignorant child. It's only Duo whose introduction to death is through the betrayal of authorities in power. (Trowa's history is the closest to Duo's, bloodshed-wise, but his captain and remaining aren't killed by Oz/Alliance but by those members who'd gone turncoat and ambushed their former friends. OZ may have paid the bribes, but for Trowa, the loss comes through a presumed-compatriot's duplicity. That's not quite the same thing as men in uniform slaughtering the very innocents they claim to defend/represent.)
In canon, Duo sees firsthand the damage done by men with guns who do whatever they damn well please. The military has supplies but refuses to help the starving citizenry; the rebels put guns to the heads of Duo's 'family' and use him as sacrificial bait to get them a weapon. And, I seem to recall, not only does Duo lose his family to the rebels, but he loses again when the military retaliates for the crime he'd been forced to commit. O the five, Duo is the least likely, in my opinion, to protect a vigilante who is also in a position of authority.
That's the key: I could not see Duo looking at a fellow cop or Preventer (as it's implied, early on, that the vigilante must be) without seeing Authority. Even if he's part of that, himself, too -- and he does express some internal conflict over that. So he's not drawn as ignorant of the balance required, between upholding the law as he's told it's to be held, and his childhood understanding that sometimes, men with guns aren't willing to see the gray, aren't going to care about extenuating circumstances. Granted, Duo is as loyal as they come -- despite all Heero does in the series, Duo still treats him as a partner/equal -- albeit with a bit of exasperation here and there. Yet he has no qualms telling Heero off, either -- it's only with Hilde (a non-combatant, in Duo's eyes) that he closes his mouth & won't explain, or distracts her by playing the happy-go-lucky. I couldn't see Duo protecting if the circumstances are of an authority-figure with gun, and I did have to do a readjustment from the otherwise top-notch canonical characterization to include a newer/adult-ized version of a Duo who treats his equals/compatriots with the same "you don't need to know" attitude he'd reserved for Hilde and other citizens, in the series.
All that said, far more is good than bad, and it's worth the time to read. There aren't enough stories like this coming down the pipe in the fandom these days, so it's a joy to find something with a new, refreshing take -- who's also willing to commit the time to a good long write of a multi-chapter work.
I can't recall the rating, but I'd say it's an R for violence and language. The sexual parts aren't that explicit, and it's more oranges than limes, but that works for the story. Too much emphasis on the physical 2x3x2 (as opposed to the emotional, which did get plenty of focus), and it would've detracted from the delicious, multi-layered, ambiguous-meaning, hurt, damaged, confused, angry, betrayed, hopeful, disillusioned tensions between all five pilots -- and that, really, is the best reason to read the story: because, finally, someone's captured all the reasons the five wouldn't get along, despite all their best attempts otherwise.
To find the story: I read it on the GW-fan elist, though it's also posted on the GWA boards. What I can't figure out is that it's on the GWA forum, but not in the archives; the chapters are all posted in the section for GWA authors, but TB/Marsh has no "GW Author" tag on the profile, and I can't find any part of the story uploaded to the archives, even under a different author's name. I might just be missing it in the archives (some of us do have multiple names for multiple accounts, heh), but the most recent chapters are still on the forum's top page, so do a search and that should bring up all of them.
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I think we need to schedule an intervention. Too many in the fandom start writing like this, and I just might find myself dragged back, and please, we can't have that. Bad things happen. So, if you're with me, please assist! Twenty hours nonstop of 4K short-shorts on fanfiction.net of Duo-as-girl and Quatre-as-bleeding-heart and Heero-as-Perfect-Soldier and Trowa-as-circus-boy and Wufei-known-only-as-the-Dragon*, and we just might be able to save the day!
ETA: This RTF-format for posting is cool, but how the hell do I change the lj-cut labels? Sheesh. Anyway, the following review's been edited, because NO ONE TELLS ME ANYTHING. Hmmph.
*see next review
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Through the Furnace, Unshrinking
author: June
We've all read the story: gundam pilots as rent-boys. Naturally, Wufei is either stalking around as the lone straight guy who doesn't have to dress as a girl, or getting nosebleeds at Quatre's short skirt and Duo's flashy spandex. Trowa is either stoic and manly or femme and sappy; Quatre still offers tea but is just wicked with the lipstick. Heero's either utterly washed-out into a bizarre girly version of himself, or echoes Wufei in the too-masculine-for-you 'bodyguard' role... and Duo, of course, is all curls and tight shorts/skirts and thigh-high stockings and heels, and there's plenty of angst and sex with other people while Heero grits his teeth and blah blah blah.
I think someone forgot to give June the memo on How To Write a Proper Rentboy Story.
No, no, babe, you need to put down the DVDs of the series, and pay attention to the rulebook, or you'll never make it in the fandom! What's with this strong, brash, non-angsty Duo? This emotive, confused, wary Heero? This watchful, graceful, yet compassionate and quietly sorrowful Trowa? This conflicted Wufei who does his duty, torn between a sense of unworthiness and a wish to be accepted? And what the hell is up with your Quatre -- not only is there not a single mention of tea (what? what is the world coming to?) but he's also gentlemanly, educated, cosmopolitan, wide-eyed and gentle -- and utterly ruthless.
<strike>As the story opens, it felt both familiar... and not.</strike>
*cough* Apparently, I didn't start reading until about chapter four. Whoops, I had no idea. I went back and re-read the opening chapters, which do explain some bits (a tiny more) than the later chapters, but it's not too heavy on the exposition, though that's in there (as befits an AU fanfic -- pretty much comes with the territory). More notes in a bit, below.
It was like a strange mash-up of the usual rentboy premise, with each g-boy stationed at various points in a club. Music, smoke in the air, cheap drinks, tight clothing, provocative dancing, but with an undercurrent of a mission. I thought, is this another "we're Preventers and we're just pretending to be cheap rentboys" kind of ridiculous only-in-fanfic premise? Except, none of the opening itself implies such duplicity; there's instead a tired crassness to it all, a weary element in each boy's perspective -- especially once they've completed their 'mission': kidnap Quatre.
So, then, the story proceeds apace. Quatre is the cast-off Winner heir, sold to Gael, the kingpin who rules/owns the rest of them: benefactor, tormentor, boss, prison. Heero and Duo are long-time friends, raised on the streets with only each other to rely on -- yet their relationship is delicate in the face of change and the introduction of an unfamiliar person into their tight dynamics. Duo is far more protective of Heero, actually -- at least in terms of being willing to express it. Heero leans on Duo's strength, as much as he did in canon (and I'm thinking of the scenes in which we see Duo walking ahead, while Heero trails behind, wary and silent but willing to accept Duo's lead). Trowa is more of a mystery -- well, of all of them, he seems to get that treatment the most, doesn't he? -- but he remains one whose first impulse is self-sacrifice as a means to resolve otherwise untenable obligations.
Normally, I'd think: okay, I'm supposed to accept that Quatre's important enough to have him kidnapped & turned into a rent-boy, too, because, well, you can't kill him. He's one of the g-boys! ...even if, logically, I'd expect any Bad Sister worth her salt to know the little heir-brother you leave alive is a little heir-brother who grows up to be a dangerous not-so-little brother. (Ref., see also, Man of Means, by Okaasan.) But when Quatre falls ill, Trowa comes up with a way to make sure Gael doesn't throw Quatre away as useless -- and does it in a distinctly, damage-myself-worse Trowa-esque way.
It's what Quatre can do, and the subtle, sideways, throwaway implications of a history of doing it, that suddenly gave me a solid reason as to why Quatre's sisters didn't simply have him killed. (I am quite certain June must have memorized the scene where Quatre yells to the guards, "if you surrender, you'll live!" and when he's ignored, he proceeds to mow them all down with an AK-47, teeth gritted, and no sign of remorse.) The boy, really, is the most ruthless of the five -- and we see that, beyond any shadow of a doubt, in TtFU.
Meanwhile, if there's one thing that surprised me (of the many), it was that the first pairing to appear was actually a 2x5x2 -- and a believable one, at that. (I suspect June's been studying from the same tome as Maldoror, to recognize that the 02 v. 05 tension in the series would only become lust/affection under direct, compressed, intense circumstances, but that the resulting bond would be unbreakable. Both are too proud otherwise, but once loyalty's given, neither character would be shaken free.)
Wufei is proud, prickly, and conflicted, as in TB/Marsh's version, but he's given more time to be his introspective side, in June's story -- there are a few scenes that were almost reminiscent of a city-street version of Wufei pulling himself from the battle to stand on a mountainside, longing to join the battle but convinced of his unworthiness. To be acknowledged, to be treated as an equal, is really what he wants (in canon, and in TtFU), and Duo's street-smart brassy facade -- and its attendant assumption of knowledge -- gives Duo's assessment added credibility when he determines Wufei is a worthy opponent/partner.
Duo, for his part, is about as smooshy as canon -- which is to say, not at all. Certainly never in front of other folks, and only rarely when alone.
Never fear, you 1x2 fans, there's that, too, but the layers of long-term friendship (and the extra complexity it creates, to know someone for so long yet worry about what it'll do to 'want the next step') are well-done. Plus, Heero does have emotions, but without Duo to filter them (or Trowa, to some degree), he's a little confused as to how to interpret them. And, too, he's resourceful (they all are, in their own ways), so there's none of this automaton or perfect soldier crap, or the alternate Heero version of 'hopeless' (in the sense of 'despondent'), nor is he dependent. He's self-taught, self-ruling, and despite bonds with the others, still voted most likely to go off on his own to fight his own fights (with Wufei a close second).
I don't really have too many critiques about the story, on the bad side -- not that I can recall. In fact, the one major critique I might've had, June herself already undid, by posting a chapter, rethinking, and rewriting. (I can totally relate.) What had me a little fussy -- though not enough to stop reading, no way -- she fixed ten times better, and Quatre stayed his cool-headed, intent, eyes-on-the-prize, intelligent self. Yay.
Though in rereading, I did notice one peculiar thing: not once is Heero the Perfect Soldier, nor is Duo the Braided Boy -- and yet Trowa gets "the Frenchman" regularly, but Wufei gets it worst, with "the dragon" nearly every other sentence. Whoa, calm down on the misunderstanding, please: 'Chang' (zhang) -- Wufei's surname -- is a measure word. It's Meiran's surname that means dragon. Perhaps we need a good word that means "widower of the dragon", because Wufei himself is not a dragon. While it's a descriptive element in some respects ("rousing the dragon", "grumpy dragon") and a visual I don't mind, there is a limit to how much I need to be reminded.
As for Trowa, I do give points for -- finally! -- not giving him the whole "Hispanic" thing, that ridiculous fanon charge from years of old -- along with the other nonsense swirling around him, which I won't go into. Suffice it to say I find much of Trowa's fanon to be anywhere from misguided to outright illogical and unsupportable -- but at the same time, with a name like Trowa -- from the French trois -- I can totally get behind a soft French accent and the hint of a life in some French-speaking country.
(Although my personal theory is he represents the Western coast of Africa, and the French colonies -- land of mercenaries and much, much war. With Quatre being the inland neo-Laurence of Arabia, it creates a mirror. The long-time colonist, and the one who seeks to overthrow the overlords... but I digress. Point is, I don't mind the label of Frenchman, but again, it did get used a bit more than needed, although not quite as much as the repetitive 'dragon' reference for Wufei.
I guess that means, after having a chance to read straight through (as opposed to long pauses between chapters, which does make for gaps in comprehension if a lot's happened in the meantime in RL) -- that I'd have to say that while June did avoid 90% of the usual fanon, I'm a little surprised that she dropped so easily into it with Wufei, and to some extent, Trowa.
I have noticed the epitaphs are often tacked onto the characters the author likes the most (and therefore likes to 'nickname'), or those the author can handle the least (and therefore requires a 'handle'). Given Wufei's otherwise excellent characterization, I'd say it's an affectionate thing by the author... but still one that at times made me grit my teeth, on rereading -- because with no space between chapters, it's all too soon before I get more of dragon, dragon, dragon.
Not enough to make me stop rereading, no way!, but still enough to make me correct my earlier impression of pleasure that both authors had so clearly escaped fanon influence. Although it does happen to the best of us, and please, no one quote from Drums at me, okay? The number of epithets I used in that story make me cringe...
*cough*
Okay, edited insert over, now!
I'd rate it an R for the language, but the violence and sex are turned up to eleven, so overall I'd say NC-17. There are some pretty brutal parts, but they're not followed up with two chapters of angst, let alone wangst. (Damn it, again with not paying attention to the rulebook!) There are a few sex scenes, but be warned that some aren't anywhere close to the usual waffy limes -- these are full-on lemons, and may titillate but also disgust. These are rent-boys, and few punches are pulled.
Still waiting on the epilogue, but I've little worry it will do a jump to the left and turn them all into weepy emo-posterboys.
Where to find it: I read it on the GW-fan elist, but I checked on the last post and turns out June's also archived at raygunworks.net (Dacia's site). Go, find it, enjoy: a rentboy multiparter with snark, blood, fury, a smooth but scrumptious surface, and a crunchy vicious center.
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[How's that intervention coming along? I have the earl gray ready, who has the hot water?]
I would've rec'd both of these much sooner, had I had time/energy to write up my comments. Hell, I was ready to rec both after the third chapter or so, of each: even if, for some bizarre reason, the authors took a nosedive, the openings of each story are so excellently tense and conflicted, with layers of unspoken histories and motivations swirling thick but unsaid through every line -- who cares if the rest did suck? I'd just be rereading the opening chapters over and over again.
But, happily, the rest did not suck, and the world is once again a good place to be GW fen. Here's to many more.
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Date: 16 Jun 2007 07:08 pm (UTC)Haven't written anything GW in years, but I'm starting to feel the pull again.