The Assistant; The Middleman by Witling (R)
Title: The Assistant; The Middleman
Fandom: Angel: the Series
Pairing: Wesley-centric gen (with unrequited Wesley/Angel and secondary Spike/Xander, Angel/Spike)
Categories: action/adventure, angst, AU, dark, established relationship, horror, supernatural, vampire
Length: Epic (The Assistant ~28,000 words, The Middleman ~21,000 words)
Warnings: moral ambiguity; violence; torture; dark vampire topics including bloodplay, turning, thus character death/undeath; bittersweet ending: this is not a happy fic people, but despite that, the ending is rather hopeful
Author on LJ: witling
Author Website: Witling
Review:
When the world is about to end, yet again, and Wesley cannot make heads or tails of the obscure language of the prophecy, he calls in a favor to the council for an expert in the language. Instead he gets one Xander Harris.
This is a terribly dark series, and despite the fact that it isn’t necessarily a true horror story it has enough suspense and spine tingling to really make it horrifying. The author calls it AU, but really it’s more a shifted universe. The characters are all the same. It begins somewhere in season five canon of Angel, only Cordelia’s alive and Fred is Fred, married to Gunn and with a daughter. Which really doesn’t matter because Fred and Cordelia aren’t even in the first story and are in the second story for maybe a couple hundred words. Gunn is completely missing.
That’s really one of the main reasons why this story is so dark. This is the story of Wesley and a bunch of vampires, a family of vampires. Vampires with souls and without souls and with leashes on. Wesley is, potentially, the most interesting character in the whole Buffy-verse. He’s morally ambiguous, has a dark past, and really runs the gambit as far as emotions and personalities are concerned. This series shows just how alone Wesley really is, even when around others. And it ends with Wesley alone. A truly fantastic, bleak read.
The Assistant: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
The Middleman
Fandom: Angel: the Series
Pairing: Wesley-centric gen (with unrequited Wesley/Angel and secondary Spike/Xander, Angel/Spike)
Categories: action/adventure, angst, AU, dark, established relationship, horror, supernatural, vampire
Length: Epic (The Assistant ~28,000 words, The Middleman ~21,000 words)
Warnings: moral ambiguity; violence; torture; dark vampire topics including bloodplay, turning, thus character death/undeath; bittersweet ending: this is not a happy fic people, but despite that, the ending is rather hopeful
Author on LJ: witling
Author Website: Witling
Review:
When the world is about to end, yet again, and Wesley cannot make heads or tails of the obscure language of the prophecy, he calls in a favor to the council for an expert in the language. Instead he gets one Xander Harris.
This is a terribly dark series, and despite the fact that it isn’t necessarily a true horror story it has enough suspense and spine tingling to really make it horrifying. The author calls it AU, but really it’s more a shifted universe. The characters are all the same. It begins somewhere in season five canon of Angel, only Cordelia’s alive and Fred is Fred, married to Gunn and with a daughter. Which really doesn’t matter because Fred and Cordelia aren’t even in the first story and are in the second story for maybe a couple hundred words. Gunn is completely missing.
That’s really one of the main reasons why this story is so dark. This is the story of Wesley and a bunch of vampires, a family of vampires. Vampires with souls and without souls and with leashes on. Wesley is, potentially, the most interesting character in the whole Buffy-verse. He’s morally ambiguous, has a dark past, and really runs the gambit as far as emotions and personalities are concerned. This series shows just how alone Wesley really is, even when around others. And it ends with Wesley alone. A truly fantastic, bleak read.
The Assistant: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15
The Middleman