Comments | marshwiggledyke: A Copper's Instinct: Chapter 12

marshwiggledyke

A Copper's Instinct: Chapter 12

Sep 03, 2010 03:51

Title: A Copper's Instinct
Fandom: Hot Fuzz
Characters/Pairings: Nicholas/Danny, Nicholas/OC, Doris, Bob, Andes, Saxon, Turners, OC
Rating: PG-15

( Chapter 12 )

fic

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jingee September 12 2010, 01:00:39 UTC

Had someone told me, ten minutes before I stumbled upon this fic arc, that Nicholas Angel would make a terrific werewolf, I would have been tremendously sceptical. Now I'm convinced that it was meant to be. Seriously, this was both entertaining, funny and sweet. I loved this, and its 'Butterman meets wolfman' prequel.

... and the collar almost slew me. Now I can't look at the film without thinking that Nick is missing something. XD Awesome work here, this has gone straight into my favourites for oh so many reasons.

marshwiggledyke September 12 2010, 19:52:02 UTC

Holeee crap you've linked to everything on your journal. That's a massive compliment all on its own. :D Thank you!

Well, it's a skeptifying concept, isn't it? Werewolves and Hot Fuzz? But I seem to favor the kind of werewolves that have just never existed in film- the kind of rational, scared people who have a few doggy habits and are nowhere near as universally terrible as their reputation suggests, peeking worriedly over the Hays Code.

Impressive collar, as Tony says in film.

jingee September 12 2010, 20:18:52 UTC

Well, I couldn't very well risk losing track of it, could I? :) If I could have a penny for every time I've "misplaced" a good piece of Internet fiction, I could buy an expensive meal. I'm not misplacing this one!

Your construction of the werewolves was something I found particularly enjoyable, too - especially since the reclusive, intelligent kind of were is so rare, in contrast to the maddened, slavering beast. Off the top of my head, the only other example I can think of is Aino Kallas's Sudenmorsian (The Wolf's Bride). Are you familiar with that? As for the combinanation of the were theme and Hot Fuzz, it doesn't really sound all that far-fetched once you remove the occult aura of evil. I mean, look at Sandford. That place is so absurd that a shape-shifter who contemplates oxygen availability in lockers is a positively sane thing in comparison.

Oh, Tony. From the mouths of the babes. (Pretend I didn't say that.)

marshwiggledyke September 12 2010, 21:30:34 UTC

Can't say that I have, is it any good? The only literary thing that comes close in my mind is the Discworld concept of werewolves. Fortunately Danny didn't have a sword to draw when he stumbled across Nicholas on four legs.

They can be slavering, maddened beasts, but only if they choose to be, just like humans.

jingee September 13 2010, 05:12:09 UTC

Well, it's not exactly modern, the prose can be a bit flowery and archaic and it features magical causation, but at the same time, it's curiously ambivalent. It's written in the form of a cautionary moral tale from times bygone, but what I got out of it was the story of a woman who was condemned for wanting more in life than her lot as a wife and a homekeeper. As far as I recall, the worst thing the werewolves did was kill some farm animals, and the objection people had to them seemed to be more about the dangers to the soul (or about fear and prejudice) than about the dangers of having a bunch clever lupines running around enjoying their long legs and the smells of the marsh. Once found out, the protagonist chooses a life in the wild rather than penance, but comes back for her husband and baby when they need her. Unfortunately, the husband is not exactly Danny, and she and their unborn child burn to death because he is made of jealousness and dumb. It's a tragic portrayal of human stupidity in the face of difference and I loved it ( ... )

marshwiggledyke September 13 2010, 05:59:54 UTC

Wow. Sounds an awful lot like a less hopeful version of the Moorchild (Eloise McGraw, srsly check this one out, it's for older children but I appreciated it more as an adult. It's about a girl who is rejected by her medieval village for being half-Folk, and as someone who grew up feeling very vulnerable due to feeling like more of a guy than a girl, ho boy do I get the fear and loneliness and stubbornness to assert her true nature ( ... )

marshwiggledyke September 13 2010, 06:14:36 UTC

Angua Von Uberwald - Probably my favorite piece of fanart ever of her, although she's usually much more retiring than this, more flight than fight. Must be that time of the month. She also wears a collar on her neck in both shapes, although hers is even more meaningful- her police badge hangs on it.

jingee September 13 2010, 11:56:00 UTC

I'm definitely reading that one. I looked up a detailed description too, but amusingly enough, it was the last remark that did it (I'm part of what could be called a subgroup of people who feel more like a guy than a girl, and oh yes, familiar bells are ringing). Another thing that struck me is that the author has included living, loving parents - a lot of young, struggling protagonists in books seem to lack this (Harry Potter being a prime example). Thanks a load for the recommendation!

I think I've read Guards Guards some years back, it shouldn't be too hard to pick up where I left off. It seems like worth it just for Angua, to be honest. My other contact with Pratchett comes mostly from Good Omens, which is largely about demons and angels and general blights on humanity, but still one tremendously funny book ( ... )

marshwiggledyke September 13 2010, 17:16:17 UTC

http://waffleguppies.livejournal.com/21364.html - Here's Alex Kinnell's childhood. And it makes me want to give the guy a hug, because he's never known what love is.

And oh my god, the loving parents of Saaski make me cry every time, moreso than all those abusive parents put together. Because she has such trouble understanding how lucky she is until the end, and the rawness of that love amidst all the abuse and we-don't-want-you she gets from the town is more painful than the way those other abused, unloved kids seal themselves off from the hurt just to maintain normalcy.

Good Omens is good, although I really wish I hadn't read the bit about the telemarketers. Aaaargh. *phobic of maggots* Interesting thing, though- Adam Young also grew up knowing what it is to be loved, and that's enough to conquer his inner nature when the programming clicks on at eleven ( ... )

jingee September 13 2010, 21:14:04 UTC

I'd just finished reading Sympathy for the Devil and let me tell you, the shift from the the epilogue of that to the Kinnell backstory was like a bucket of cold water over the head. He is still such a bastard, but mai gawd he definitely needs a big hug.

I need to read this Moorchild book just about right now. The local bookstore had better be stocking it 'cause the library sure isn't.

> Adam Young also grew up knowing what it is to be loved
All of this reminds me strangely of a Hathor Legacy article titled How Not to Raise a Rapist, which said something to the effect of "don't abuse your kid". Of course it was more complex than that, but it was the simplicity of the basic gist of it that got me. We might be onto something here, buddy.
Oooh, and about the telemarketers - that one stuck with me for a bit, too. Like the one Crowley did earlier, with the paintballers, except a tad more showy. (I once saw a comic that blamed Twilight on Crowley. He's just rife for puns like that ( ... )

marshwiggledyke September 13 2010, 21:53:26 UTC

:D for you liking it and D: *hugs* for Kinnell. Everyone is like yay ding-dong the witch is dead as he is dragged off, and then you read that drabble and you're like oh shit, he was in the wrong, but...

I've only got the Moorchild audiobook- which I could hook you up with, if that wouldn't be an issue for you. :)

Oh man I loved the paintballer bit, though. They were getting what they really wanted! And no death penalty (thanks to Aziraphale)! My favorite character is Newt Pulsifer ( ... )

Best werewolf revolution song I can possibly think of. marshwiggledyke September 14 2010, 06:13:28 UTC

So listen here, professor with your head in the cloud
It's often kinda useful to get lost in a crowd
So keep your universities -- i don't give a damn
For better or for worse it is the way that i am

Be careful as you go
Cos little people grow...
And little people know
when little people fight,
we may look easy pickings
but we got some bite!
So never kick a dog
because it's just a pup
You'd better run for cover when the pup grows up

and we'll fight like twenty armies
and we won't give up!

Re: Best werewolf revolution song I can possibly think of. jingee September 14 2010, 20:35:22 UTC

Funny darn song! Now I have an urge to take a boombox to the campus and harass professors and unrepentant Foucault-quoters with this. :D

Kinnell's a great character because of that - it's so easy to hate him that it really smacks you upside the head when you realise that he didn't just wake up one morning and decide to be an arse but has a long, nasty history that'd leave anyone off-kilter. I adore characterisation like that exactly because it rattles you by being all about shades of gray where you thought you had simple blacks and whites. A bit like the original ending for I Am Legend, if you've seen it (except that one's reversed, compared to Kinnell and Frank Butterman). Might throw you on the short run since it makes you feel uncomfortable about your own hasty judgments, but that just makes it much more interesting overall.

I've been wading through all your Hot Fuzz fic, by the way - I think Chutney on Toast was the last one I read (I laughed so hard and you wrote about people past their prime and I'm gonna have to read it ( ... )

Re: Best werewolf revolution song I can possibly think of. marshwiggledyke September 16 2010, 07:40:10 UTC

Les Miserables is a great musical! Because it's big and operatic yet catchy, about enormous social change with memorable characters in intense class struggle. My favorite song is 'End of the Day', wherein a lower-class single mother in pre-revolution France is slut-shamed out of a job by her boss because she won't sleep with him. It's pretty fantastic for a musical number- that sort of issue isn't usually brought up much in the genre. It's also Crowning Music of Awesome material.

:D Yep, Kinnell goes from annoying Golden Boy Gary Stu to downright evil manipulative bastard to... all that, and someone you feel really sorry for. Really, all he wants in life is a bit of approval. And who wants to watch a villain get an easy out, or try to escape responsibility by killing themselves? (Also an easy, annoying out. It's much more interesting to watch them suffer for it.) I actually started writing fics because of a redemptive villain plot I watched when I was fourteen or fifteen, and I've been writing ever since. I have heard of the Richard ( ... )

Re: Best werewolf revolution song I can possibly think of. marshwiggledyke September 16 2010, 09:24:51 UTC

To comment briefly on my overall impressions, I really like all these tangents and "what ifs" that you and waffleguppies play with.

That's because it's how we start. What if Nicholas was a werewolf? *writes story* What if some agent went after him? *writes story* Life on Mars was fantastic, let's do a back-in-time to the days of the early British Peelers. *writes backbreakingly long epic*

I did a serious amount of research concerning gay people- or rather, people who tended to get caught having sex with other guys, since 'gay' is a modern concept and lesbians were thought to not even exist- in the early 19th century. I love the moment when the little light flashes on in 1834!Danny's head as he puts two and two together. And the way Nicholas refuses to take his stab vest off in the pub made me think that if he were in a place where stab vests didn't exist, he'd bloody well make one. And going back in time without examining the social differences would be such a waste of unexplored territory ( ... )

Re: Best werewolf revolution song I can possibly think of. jingee September 18 2010, 16:14:54 UTC

I've been cautious about anything that has to do with Broadway after Michael Crawford sunk my favourite musical with cheap dick jokes, but it seems like I ought make an exception here ( ... )

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