fic rec of awesome
These Songs of Freedom by nwhepcat Awesome writer. I've been looking for some Xander-centric Buffy fic for the longest time. These stories by NWHhepcat are like looking for a Hallmark card and finding a winning lotto ticket.
Summary: Xander seeks a slayer in war-ravaged Liberia. But what he finds is two young women who change his life -- and a whole new relationship with the past.
Rating: R
Story Notes: Written for Luddite Robot's Scatterlings and Orphanages: the Africander Challenge ficathon. What an amazing time to be writing about Liberia -- the runoff election aftermath and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's inauguration unfolded as I wrote this story. It's difficult writing about a place you've never been, and particularly a place which has been on the US State Department's "I'd turn back if I were you" list for well over a decade. So much of this story starts with pieces of information that I could find and flies off into imagination. The reaction of Bindu's village to her and to Xander, and the actual workings of Claudie's hospital, are pure imagination (though I did affiliate Claudie with an actual organization -- one that I think does tremendous work). Helpful resources on the web included sites run by UCLA, U Penn and the BBC, and the website of a former Peace Corps worker, Philip Martin. Though he left just before the 14-year civil war broke out, his pictures and writings give a real flavor of day-to-day life upcountry, and his teachers' resource guide includes retellings of several marvelous folk tales of brave and resourceful young women, including "The Chief Who Was No Fool," which gets a Xanderized retelling here. The book The World's Most Dangerous Places by Robert Young Pelton was also a great resource, and it's absolute crack to read. The same can be said of French Fun: the Real, Spoken Language of Quebec by Steve Timmins, which helped me write Claudie. For those familiar with French, please forgive the absence of accents and carats, which make the entire letter disappear in this archiving program. Those not so familiar, be advised that Claudie's sacres are considered very coarse in Quebec, so Kids, don't try this at home!
some fav quotes:
When you find yourself happy -- even in short little bursts that have more to do with the color of the sky or the knock-you-down scent of honeysuckle on the breeze than anything that's going on in your life -- do you catch yourself waiting for the big kick in the teeth from fate?
Do you find yourself happy? I'm ashamed that I have to ask, Giles. I hope you'll forgive me for being oblivious so much of the time. When I think of you in the months before I left for Africa, it seemed you were -- content, at any rate. I want more than that for you, Giles, I really do.
Are you laughing now? Oh yeah, Xander's in love, in that "I want everyone in the whole wide world to be happy!" stage.
Not quite that far gone. There's still a select handful of people I could wish misery on -- well, more accurately, to sit happily by and watch. My wishes (made quietly when no potential vengeance demons are around) are specific to you, G-man. You deserve happiness a hundred times over. Why aren't people rewarded with happiness for the things they do for people who'll never know? Sometimes it looks to me like the shittier you are as a human being, the more goodness life heaps on you.
Whoa-la! (as Claudie loves to say) Not sounding much like Besotted Boy, am I? I just ask these questions. Why aren't you and Jenny Calendar raising a string of Anglo-Gypsy kids? Why is Buffy, last I heard, working her way through a boy band's worth of lightweights? Why has every one of the four of us had to bury someone we love? Who set the world up this way?
It's just a mood. Please don't worry.
You know what? I do want the whole world to be happy.
and
Claudie says, "It's not a sign that you're a thoughtless person. Young people are notoriously blind to the idea that their parents think about sex, and god forbid that they might like it. Or do it."
"No, Claudie, Giles is not my father."
She eyes him dubiously. "Oh, he's not?"
Xander blinks.
"These people you tell me about, they're the family you chose. Their love is important to you, and I can see how much you want Giles to be proud of you." She says his name the French way, Zheel. "You're discovering him now as an adult, the way we all re-map the territory of our parents. Suddenly we fill in the great blank stretches, and these hills and valleys are familiar, because they're on our maps too. Of course it's painful. We realize there were times they suffered and we weren't aware, and it makes us lonely for them. But you were there, even if you didn't know, and you were yourself, and that means more to them than you realize."
Summary: Xander seeks a slayer in war-ravaged Liberia. But what he finds is two young women who change his life -- and a whole new relationship with the past.
Rating: R
Story Notes: Written for Luddite Robot's Scatterlings and Orphanages: the Africander Challenge ficathon. What an amazing time to be writing about Liberia -- the runoff election aftermath and Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's inauguration unfolded as I wrote this story. It's difficult writing about a place you've never been, and particularly a place which has been on the US State Department's "I'd turn back if I were you" list for well over a decade. So much of this story starts with pieces of information that I could find and flies off into imagination. The reaction of Bindu's village to her and to Xander, and the actual workings of Claudie's hospital, are pure imagination (though I did affiliate Claudie with an actual organization -- one that I think does tremendous work). Helpful resources on the web included sites run by UCLA, U Penn and the BBC, and the website of a former Peace Corps worker, Philip Martin. Though he left just before the 14-year civil war broke out, his pictures and writings give a real flavor of day-to-day life upcountry, and his teachers' resource guide includes retellings of several marvelous folk tales of brave and resourceful young women, including "The Chief Who Was No Fool," which gets a Xanderized retelling here. The book The World's Most Dangerous Places by Robert Young Pelton was also a great resource, and it's absolute crack to read. The same can be said of French Fun: the Real, Spoken Language of Quebec by Steve Timmins, which helped me write Claudie. For those familiar with French, please forgive the absence of accents and carats, which make the entire letter disappear in this archiving program. Those not so familiar, be advised that Claudie's sacres are considered very coarse in Quebec, so Kids, don't try this at home!
some fav quotes:
When you find yourself happy -- even in short little bursts that have more to do with the color of the sky or the knock-you-down scent of honeysuckle on the breeze than anything that's going on in your life -- do you catch yourself waiting for the big kick in the teeth from fate?
Do you find yourself happy? I'm ashamed that I have to ask, Giles. I hope you'll forgive me for being oblivious so much of the time. When I think of you in the months before I left for Africa, it seemed you were -- content, at any rate. I want more than that for you, Giles, I really do.
Are you laughing now? Oh yeah, Xander's in love, in that "I want everyone in the whole wide world to be happy!" stage.
Not quite that far gone. There's still a select handful of people I could wish misery on -- well, more accurately, to sit happily by and watch. My wishes (made quietly when no potential vengeance demons are around) are specific to you, G-man. You deserve happiness a hundred times over. Why aren't people rewarded with happiness for the things they do for people who'll never know? Sometimes it looks to me like the shittier you are as a human being, the more goodness life heaps on you.
Whoa-la! (as Claudie loves to say) Not sounding much like Besotted Boy, am I? I just ask these questions. Why aren't you and Jenny Calendar raising a string of Anglo-Gypsy kids? Why is Buffy, last I heard, working her way through a boy band's worth of lightweights? Why has every one of the four of us had to bury someone we love? Who set the world up this way?
It's just a mood. Please don't worry.
You know what? I do want the whole world to be happy.
and
Claudie says, "It's not a sign that you're a thoughtless person. Young people are notoriously blind to the idea that their parents think about sex, and god forbid that they might like it. Or do it."
"No, Claudie, Giles is not my father."
She eyes him dubiously. "Oh, he's not?"
Xander blinks.
"These people you tell me about, they're the family you chose. Their love is important to you, and I can see how much you want Giles to be proud of you." She says his name the French way, Zheel. "You're discovering him now as an adult, the way we all re-map the territory of our parents. Suddenly we fill in the great blank stretches, and these hills and valleys are familiar, because they're on our maps too. Of course it's painful. We realize there were times they suffered and we weren't aware, and it makes us lonely for them. But you were there, even if you didn't know, and you were yourself, and that means more to them than you realize."