- love for the elegantly homicidal -

[reenka]

It's funny to read two Harry-- er, and-- Draco fics dealing with the theme of spying and intrigue in the same night-- one angst, one fluff. One of them worked for me like a 4th of July firework, and that's cupiscent's `Firebrand', which is inventive, fast-paced, gritty and gripping. The thing is, it doesn't matter how far-fetched the scenario is if one develops one's core idea to the max, and Dee really does that with gorgeous rigor in a tight, effective short story.

I really love it when I read something different in H/D which avoids sacrificing characterization for ease of realization of the scenario and realistic character dynamics for romance, as well as having a fascinating plot. I can't help but love a story which features strong characters, less than nice characters-- and not ones who're 'nice' or 'not nice' divided along their roles in the story (i.e., the 'good guys' are nice while the 'bad guys' suck). It's just so tempting to make your favorite character into a beautiful misunderstood martyr, I know, but if you buck that impulse and write people as they honestly are, the result is often a thing of true beauty.

Dee's fic is vivid, unapologetic, fierce and meaty. It makes me happy to be a shipper-- someone who wants to see these two make it together because they need each other, against all odds, rather than is willing to believe in some easy fix-- much more than any shmoopy lovey-dovey romance with remorseful Draco and charitable Harry (who make sweet & passionate boylurve at first opportunity) ever could. Because while this scenario isn't necessarily any more likely than the one where Draco 'repents', one -could- project our boys as they are into it, without much need for a lobotomy. Always a good thing.

...Let's just say that the idea of Draco Malfoy in Vladivostok, wearing a grey sweater and holding an AK-47 isn't one I'll want to forget anytime soon. There's just something oddly fitting about renegade!Draco in Siberia. There is!! Also, this greeting by said sweater-wearing person--

"Hello, Potter," Draco Malfoy says. "Fancy meeting you here."

-- made me clap my hands in glee, which is a first. I just really love Draco sometimes. I just do. But especially when he's going for elegantly homicidal. <333 And I love them together, not even in a romantic sense, but in terms of bringing them into contact because they -matter- to each other-- whatever happens, whether they'd admit it or not, whether they realize it or not, they matter. This whole story is a vodka shot-- smooth and harsh and it burns all the way to your heart with seemingly effortless precision.

I do want to see 'what happens' later on, but I don't need to. The fic is more of an image-- a feeling-- a taste at the back of my tongue. Bitter, smooth, gleaming hard like steel and glitter-dry like dust in the sun.

EDIT - Incidentally, cupiscent's post on writing angstfic was rather helpful and inspiring, but I especially loved the bit about the writer not intending angst to make the reader cry but rather to strand them in helplessness or render them incapable of expressing an excess of seething emotion. That is rather what I've noticed about great tragedy, as well. Ahahaha, resolution is for wimps!! ;D

Comments

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Nah, it was just a rather weird thing~:)) Awww, Ross. *sigh* I'm this total dork when it comes to tv shows, man. Any couple I see first, I imprint on, so I totally ship them even when everyone else starts to think it's the lamest thing ever. Like, even when I forget their names, I'm like, 'oh, him and that girl he liked first' :> :> Oh, so, yeah, Ross&Rachel = OTP :> *laughs*

......Well, not, y'know... er... I don't want to like, beg or anything, except I know I couldn't do it justice like you can :D :D Butttt... I don't want to like... add on to your burdens. *looks shifty* But yeah, I'd love it if it you did, and was also offering you... er... something(??) in return, as in, name your price ;)) Ahahah. Though I don't want to interfere with your muse :D If anything, it sounds like something you'd write :>

...I come up with these killer lines I just can't use all the time, y'know. I still mourn, what with that "One day, Harry Potter woke up gay." Damn, that one just begs for a fic doesn't it ;))

[stellabelle.livejournal.com]

Well, I meant it in the best way possible, I swear! Haha. My love for Chandler is deep and unyielding, man. And yet, I feel as though I love Ross even more. Ross and Rachel, OTP for sure. I'm such a sap. ;) Heee.

No, it's alright, cause see, I totally have a title for it now, so, like, it must be written. Or something. I shall deem it 'Draco Malfoy and the Super Sexy Supersonic Mind-Rays of DESTINY' (or, How Potter Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Mind-Rays). Because, as we all know, serious literature such at this much have not one but two pretentious titles. Um...riiight. And now I have something to keep me from writing the evil shower sex. *procrastinates* Wheee! And when I post it, I shall demand to be Taken Seriously as an Artist, Goddammit. Heh. :) But what does it say about my writing that only a few posts ago we were like "OMG! So LAME!" and now you're all "You would TOTALLY write something like this." Ahahahaha!! I mean, I suppose it says that I am lame, which I already knew, but anyway.

I would totally demand something in return, but I can't think of anything...like, no fic ideas or anything. Bummer. I know, I totally come up with random one-line things too. I never get to use them all, so they just swim around in my head. Sad. Haha. "One day, Harry Potter woke up gay." LMAO! Heee, that would be hysterical, y'know.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Deep -and- unyielding :D :D Man. You talk my language~:))
"Harry," Draco said seriously, gazing into the other's eyes. He would've taken Harry's hand, except he was squirming away. Draco preferred not to focus on that, however. He cleared his throat. "My love for you is deep and unyielding." He paused. "Like the mountains are unyielding. Like the ocean is deep. Like the sky is blue, I am blue because you won't love me. And why won't you love me, Harry?? Am I not lovable?" He started getting into his subject now, his eyes burning with zeal. "When you prick me, do I not bleed? When you hex me, do I not ooze?? I ooze, Harry!! I ooze just like you would! Believe me, I ooze!!"


...I don't know where that came from, but I do know it's All Your Fault ~;)))

I love your title. In fact, I could -lick- it, it is so grand. And stunningly... grand. Fitting for Draco, really. In its... grandiosity. Yes.

No, well, see, some of the best things in life are... grand and yet, you know, lame. And it's like... someone has to be their messenger, and why not you??? It is not your only power, but it is one of!! It's like a single mind-ray from your grand(!) arsenal of, well, mind-rays!!! GO FORTH AND SHOOT!!! *cackles*

The problem with those one-liners (for me), y'know, is that when I try to write a fic, it's too easy to try and explain them away. The sheer process of making up a context takes away a little something, methinks ^^;; So sad. So... grandly sad. Alas.

[stellabelle.livejournal.com]

OMG! REENA! AHAHAHAHA I just died laughing OMG. ZEAL!! OOZE!! Heeee. Wheee, that was fun. <333 It makes me gleeful. Duuude.

All right, I suppose it's good to know that I can be grand in my lameness. Hah, no, I'm just kidding. :) I know what you mean. And, I'm like, I just posted a serious fic in my lj like last week, and so I convince myself that it's okay that most of the stuff I write is...um...dorky. See, but I don't mind! :)

I know what you mean about the one-liners. Usually they just come out in my writing, I think, cause my sense of humor tends to be kinda one-linerish. Or...something - ? Anyway. The good ones I think of I can never use, cause they just don't fit anywhere, and so. Alas indeed.