Life Less Ordinary, Part 2

[littlenotebook]

Title: Life Less Ordinary (2/2)
Fandom: Warehouse 13
Characters/Pairing: Artie/James; Mrs. Frederic and OCs
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 13,436
Summary: The story of Arthur Nielson and James MacPherson. Partners at the Warehouse leading to love and loss and maybe even hate. What their relationship was really like before they wanted to kill each

Comments

#2

[raedbard]

As I said above, ♥the record player♥, but also the slowly building sense that James doesn't think about the artifacts in the same way as Artie, that he recognises (misguidedly or not) their positive applications, that he's already started to use them for himself. And then how you build on that in the next section. AWESOME.

And then this, which is chilling:
“What about nothing then?” James said from behind him. Eeeek.

By which time, I had completely forgotten about Carol. And you drop the bomb on the reader exactly as it is dropped on Artie. DAMN. (And somehow juxtaposing that with Pandora's Box is killing me! Sometimes it's the little things. *g*)

James stared back at him, lips tight with a resigned expression on his face. “I didn’t want the Warehouse to touch her.”
This is a very telling thing for James to say, I think. And I guess Artie's reaction bears that out. I say again: GENIUS. I love how understated it is, again the subtext. Wonderful. Also how you're dealing with the Carol Problem, if you like! It's not an approach my way of looking at them at got to yet but I like it better than what I'd come up with.

(Also, re. loved ones and the Warehouse -- it always makes me wonder about Artie's dad and what the story is there, and whether his having been a Warehouse agent for however many decades it is has anything to do with whatever damaged relationship there is between them which I hope we get to find out more about next season! Wow, run-on sentence. *g*

“Only an Irish playwright’s work could do that to a person,” Todd exclaimed.
Between this remark and 'befuddled', I think I love you, Todd. *g*

“We were just talking,” James continued pointing to the store behind them and then to Artie, “in case you weren’t paying attention.”
What I love here: even when they're bickering, falling apart, they still sound like an old married couple. As per 'MacPherson'. Nothing like flirting with a guy when you're about to Bronze him. :D

“See,” Todd said pointing between them, “that’s what I mean; the banter and the ‘we know everything, watch us work’ thing which just seems to be coming back all of a sudden. Now, that is the normal you two. So I don’t know what’s been going on but if you two just keep talking about only what is at hand and not trying to educate me on 12th century Warehouse practices and whatever I may start to believe you’ve been replaced by exact duplicate normal people.” He paused with a huff and stared at them. “And we wouldn’t want that.”
Yeah. Definitely adore Todd. *G* Also, boys, you are obvious, please to buy a clue! ;)

“I love her.” Artie flinched slightly. “I love her very much but beyond that, I.... I don't want to hurt you, Arthur. The point... the point is...my feelings-”
Oh god, poor Artie. :(((

“How long have we made it work, Arthur? We still can. I promise. I'll prove it to you,” James insisted.
Ack. Beginning to shade in the more sinister sides to James now (or that's how it feels to me, simply because he won't let go, and it's emotionally manipulative, and cunning, and even though he does love Artie ... ARGH!). God this is good. *G*

Artie blinked rapidly for a moment at the word partner, forgetting for a split second that she meant partner at work.
Ahahaha. Awkward. :D

James did enjoy a good show, just a bit of twisting drama.
Yeah, definitely showing excellent cartoon villain potential here, James. You wanna grow a twirly moustache, maybe? ;)

Instead of hating her Artie turned around and began to hate James just a bit, even as he still loved him.
*sad* But, yes. Exactly. Ack, twisty love triangles.

...

#3

[raedbard]

“Oh, yes, of course, policy policy policy!”
It's fascinating, watching him devolve into the person he becomes in the show, just slow cracks forming. You've brought all that out brilliantly.

“You and I could get out of here and just live happily, not be agents anymore. We could take some of these artifacts to live on, have a normal life, and not have to worry about all of this.”
Oh god, this. So much this.

What James was really saying was ‘I know you love me, you love me enough to give me her.’
*heart breaks*

“Collateral damage,” James said, his face hard and angry.
And the transformation from unruly hero to charming villain is complete. Oh, James. :(

“It’s your own twisted obsession with the Warehouse and its mission to guard all the artifacts away from the world as though they were all such terrible blights upon it. You can’t see the artifacts as anything but problems to be contained.”
I love this philosophical wrangling on the interpretation of the 'good' of the Warehouse. I loved it in the show, and I love how you've used it here. When it becomes personal, argh, then it's tricky. *g*

“You forget, Arthur, those who touch the phoenix will be spared.”
I'm sure I'm not the only one clinging onto this line as an article of faith! This had better be true, WH13 writers/show-people!

“Why would you do this to me?” he asked, his voice sounding raw and angry.
“You did it to me first,” Artie answered, his voice just dead.
GAAAAH! DD: Oh, boyyys

Aw, man. This was utterly utterly epic and I'm SO HAPPY with it and THANK YOU so much for writing it. It's one of those fics that gives me thinky thoughts for my own writing and is, more importantly, wonderfully told and funny and poignant in all the right places. Gah. I love it. I love them so much -- huge love for this pairing now! Thank you. :D

(Also, I'm sorry this is a late explosion of squee into your comments! I was away over the weekend, but this was the best thing to come back to. *g*)

Re: #3

[sunnyrea]

Uhhhhhhhhhhhh, can I just say first off that you are the very best commenter in like, FOREVER!!!! I'm exceedingly happy about how much you liked this and how many of the little thing I put in that you saw, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THAT!

So yeah, let me say, I loved the squee explosion. Also very glad how I made you not sure if you liked James or Artie best.

OH AND As per 'MacPherson'. Nothing like flirting with a guy when you're about to Bronze him.
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who saw that because TOTALLY!

And yeah, I enjoyed writing this so much and thinking up things for artifacts to do and yes I totally love Todd too, he's like an early Pete and omg this was so hard and so wonderful to write and I'm so glad to have a worthy person to write it for.

So, yeah, glad you liked it and thanks for the UBER AWESOME comment(s)!!!!!