run, run, fast as you-- by branwyn (R)
Posting a little early this time, due to real life stuff. So nice to be early instead of late! Haha-ehh.
Title: run, run, fast as you--
Fandom: Welcome to Night Vale
Pairing: Carlos/Cecil Palmer, Carlos/OMC
Categories/Genres: Asexual, Romance, Drama, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Kids,
Length: Super Epic (106978 words)
Warnings: Stalking, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Threats of suicide, Threats of murder
Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: branwyn
Summary:
The night that his research partner (and sort-of ex) shows up at his apartment with a gun, Carlos decides to take a mysterious but exceptionally well funded two-year research posting in a town called Night Vale.
A story in which Night Vale is there for the people who need it, Cecil's propensity to wear his innocent heart on his sleeve is perceived as a threat (until it isn't) and no one is allowed to hurt the Scientist. No one.
Review:
I love branwyn's villain in run, run, fast as you--. Don't get me wrong though, I hate the character's goddamn guts. He's just one of those villains that you have such a visceral reaction to that you want to reach through your screen and wring his ugly neck with your bare hands. But I love the way branwyn has created him, a monstrous product of our world instead of Night Vale's, and the way he colors every single scene in the fic, present in mind if not in body. He's a malignant specter, a festering poison, and the perfect foil to the sweet purity of Carlos and Cecil's developing relationship.
And what a development it is. The story is told from Carlos' perspective, from the events leading to his decision to take the research position in Night Vale, deviating slightly from canon after the events of One Year Later, and culminating in the dramatic finale roughly one month later. It runs concurrent with the canon, a somewhat more realistic (by non-Night Valean standards) retelling of Cecil's slightly dramatized reporting. Through it all, Carlos struggles to move past the trauma of his previous relationships and their respective nasty fallouts, slowly coming to accept the sincerity of Cecil's feelings for him and learning how to care for Cecil in turn.
Some familiar faces make up the rest of the cast. Tamika Flynn is her usual stellar self. Old Woman Josie and Erika make a few charming appearances. Even Cactus June is fleshed out in the fic, beautiful as ever and bluntly forthright. But more notably, there are a few unique additions of branwyn's own creation, like the Orphanarians, the Librarian-like guardians of Night Vale's orphans. One of whom is a girl named Nijeia, who has been twelve for a long time and is only let out of the Orphanarium to work as one of Carlos' research assistants. She befriends Carlos and eventually Cecil, blunt and a little crass and very, very pre-teen, but still a child under her experience and bravado.
run, run, fast as you-- isn't without its weaknesses, though. The Carlos whump can seem overbearing to those who are sensitive to it, a byproduct of the narrated story actively focusing on all the worst experiences Carlos endures. Cecil is perfect, almost to the point where his perfection strains the suspension of disbelief. Also, the final defeat of the villain is rather anticlimactic, considering that it happens very thoroughly off-screen and was not nearly as violent a reckoning as I personally wished it had been.
But on the whole, branwyn's fic is one of the stellar works of the Welcome to Night Vale fandom. Don't let the tags scare you off, because this is definitely a must-read.
run, run, fast as you--
Title: run, run, fast as you--
Fandom: Welcome to Night Vale
Pairing: Carlos/Cecil Palmer, Carlos/OMC
Categories/Genres: Asexual, Romance, Drama, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Kids,
Length: Super Epic (106978 words)
Warnings: Stalking, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Threats of suicide, Threats of murder
Author on LJ: N/A
Author Website: branwyn
Summary:
The night that his research partner (and sort-of ex) shows up at his apartment with a gun, Carlos decides to take a mysterious but exceptionally well funded two-year research posting in a town called Night Vale.
A story in which Night Vale is there for the people who need it, Cecil's propensity to wear his innocent heart on his sleeve is perceived as a threat (until it isn't) and no one is allowed to hurt the Scientist. No one.
Review:
I love branwyn's villain in run, run, fast as you--. Don't get me wrong though, I hate the character's goddamn guts. He's just one of those villains that you have such a visceral reaction to that you want to reach through your screen and wring his ugly neck with your bare hands. But I love the way branwyn has created him, a monstrous product of our world instead of Night Vale's, and the way he colors every single scene in the fic, present in mind if not in body. He's a malignant specter, a festering poison, and the perfect foil to the sweet purity of Carlos and Cecil's developing relationship.
And what a development it is. The story is told from Carlos' perspective, from the events leading to his decision to take the research position in Night Vale, deviating slightly from canon after the events of One Year Later, and culminating in the dramatic finale roughly one month later. It runs concurrent with the canon, a somewhat more realistic (by non-Night Valean standards) retelling of Cecil's slightly dramatized reporting. Through it all, Carlos struggles to move past the trauma of his previous relationships and their respective nasty fallouts, slowly coming to accept the sincerity of Cecil's feelings for him and learning how to care for Cecil in turn.
Some familiar faces make up the rest of the cast. Tamika Flynn is her usual stellar self. Old Woman Josie and Erika make a few charming appearances. Even Cactus June is fleshed out in the fic, beautiful as ever and bluntly forthright. But more notably, there are a few unique additions of branwyn's own creation, like the Orphanarians, the Librarian-like guardians of Night Vale's orphans. One of whom is a girl named Nijeia, who has been twelve for a long time and is only let out of the Orphanarium to work as one of Carlos' research assistants. She befriends Carlos and eventually Cecil, blunt and a little crass and very, very pre-teen, but still a child under her experience and bravado.
run, run, fast as you-- isn't without its weaknesses, though. The Carlos whump can seem overbearing to those who are sensitive to it, a byproduct of the narrated story actively focusing on all the worst experiences Carlos endures. Cecil is perfect, almost to the point where his perfection strains the suspension of disbelief. Also, the final defeat of the villain is rather anticlimactic, considering that it happens very thoroughly off-screen and was not nearly as violent a reckoning as I personally wished it had been.
But on the whole, branwyn's fic is one of the stellar works of the Welcome to Night Vale fandom. Don't let the tags scare you off, because this is definitely a must-read.
run, run, fast as you--