The Slash Spin Fix

[aubrem.livejournal.com]

I apologize if this is one post too many to this community. I'll try to restrain myself after this.

I'd like to talk about ending-fixes for the trilogy. Specifically, fixes with maximum slash spin. I'm not a writer so I can't take my pent-up energy and ideas and put them in fic. Instead I talk about them and throw them out to the community. I will put them behind a cut though. : )


I have been loving the fic in this fandom. Wonderful characterization and brilliant fixes I wouldn't have thought of - you guys are much better with how the fae works than I had patience for on my first read-through. I haven't read through all of the stories in this fandom yet but I'll cite some of those I read and remember. If I forgot one or didn't get to it and you'd like to point it out to me please do.

Problem? What Problem?

Having the guys basically ignore the problem and just talk about The Hunter in the third person works just fine because they understand each other. Yes, there's a danger of Damien forgetting and calling The Hunter Gerald but maybe they'd find it worth the risk. I think the idea that Gerald came to Damien at the end of "Crown of Shadows" indicates he wanted Damien to follow him works with this. Gerald would have been of two minds - afraid of the danger and afraid of the scary feelings they'd developed but on the other hand he wouldn't be able to stay away. So he let Damien know and then left it in Damien's hands to decide what to do.

alighiera's Tabula Rasa does this "what problem?" fix with refinements - Damien can call Gerald "Gerald" because that's the essence of his soul, not the Hunter, Prophet trappings that he left behind. Also, they can communicate through their bond because that's neither word nor deed. Still, there are slips when they talk but no one notices - not them, not whoever Gerald made his deal with, and we certainly aren't telling anyone. : )

Unseen Hand

Merry's Translation has Gerald having made his deal with an intelligence who also let him keep two things from his past - his books and Damien. At first this sounds like a hokey cheat but it actually works beautifully because it means not only is everything we love intact (including Gerald's ability to Work) but that Gerald and Damien now have a mission that will have them travelling together again - to find out who the mysterious powerful intelligence is. This story cries out for a whole bookshelf of sequels. : )


Gerald Didn't Know What He Was Talking About!

Gerald was wrong about the nature of his self-sacrifice. There are two ways to look at it that I've seen in fic:

First, that once you truly are willing to sacrifice yourself the job is done - all that's needed is the intent. It works in traditional morality and it works in the trilogy as evidenced by Damien's healing Gerald and not actually dying himself. THIS would be one of the reasons Gerald came to Damien - Gerald had to be sincere when he sacrificed his identity - but nothing says that Damien couldn't reestablish the formal ties. I wish I could remember which stories I read this idea in - if you know which have it please point me.


The second version I read in trobadors's Why I Sojourn Here and totally headdesked. Why didn't I think of this? Why didn't we all - it's so obvious and so right! that self-sacrifice is a Working - not a compact! This isn't a deal like Gerald cut with the Unnamed where there is an intelligence waiting to take revenge if Gerald reneges. Like, when Damien didn't die Gerald didn't suddenly have another heart attack. Or ... after Senzei sacrificed Ciani's library - if he'd found another store of her books that he didn't know about elsewhere would the brainsuckers have suddenly known Ciani was still alive? I think not. You make the sacrifice in order to have the power to carry out your Working. That power draw happens - it doesn't just unhappen. No?

Here is the slashy overlay that I can't get out of my head: Gerald wouldn't make this mistake. Gerald doesn't make mistakes - not ones to do with knowledge and the workings of the fae. He thought fast enough to figure out and make the self-sacrifice - he would know how it works. So. I think he knew there was no unmaking this new life once he got it. (Well, other than the usual way). I think his deal was for a break with his identity as Neocount, Prophet and Hunter - all those things he was vain about and that it was a self-sacrifice to give up. But Damien? Damien was connected to his core - the man that did survive in that new body. That's who Damien cared about.

So why did Gerald tell Damien otherwise? And why did he approach Damien at all? The love-hate fear-lust of slash of course. : D Book three was damn intense and those two came a long way with their relationship - it was extreme and words needed to be said that never were. There was never time or headspace to talk. I'm sure they wanted it like that because would either of them have wanted to have that conversation? No, they'd avoid it all they could. That's what Gerald is doing here - approaching Damien because he can't stay away (and because Damien really did deserve to know after all his hard work keeping Gerald alive) but on the other hand keeping him at the ultimate distance - "we cannot talk AT ALL." hahaha. I like that. Sort of, "Can we talk?" "NO!"

So, any thoughts?