Pros Novel Read-Along - Waiting to Fall by Rob - Chapters 26-30

[byslantedlight]

Slightly later than scheduled, but its a gorgeous weekend here, and there's not usually many comments until late Sunday anyway (and Monday morning, when I'm back at work!), so I let myself be lazy (or not-lazy, as I've been out in the garden and cleaning and things!)

So - Chapters 26 to 30 today.

Comments

[tinturtle]

Doyle was running for the phone booth at the end of chapter 29, so byslantedlight may still be one chapter behind

[byslantedlight]

Yes, it looks like my printer did stop at the end of Chapter 29 again, and argh for spoilers for Chapter 30, cos lj-notifications don't come under a cut! So I've not read what you said except for the first couple of sentences when I realised what you were saying and then stopped. And I'm replying quickly so that you can't edit any more, cos every time you do the spoilers hit me again!!!

[byslantedlight]

Okay, read Chapter 30 now, so just read your summary - it's quite different to mine (which I added to the post)!

[tinturtle]

I feel as if I don't have a lot to say about these chapters

[tinturtle]

I also thought it was really weird that Cowley and Elizabeth Walsh sat and waited for Bodie and Caine to arrive with orders to murder her. What on Earth was Cowley's plan? Sure, there were probably ways Bodie could prevent her being killed, but most of them would ruin his cover, which Cowley presumably didn't want. It was only the reluctance of Caine/Williams to be involved that made the situation work out.

[jat_sapphire]

*sigh* I really have a hard time understanding any of the characterization, really. Or how this AU is supposrd to work. Why would Miss Walsh be on the list to murder? Why can't we even know why Doyle does not want to say he loves Bodie? What made Doyle refuse to just TELL Accomodations, "Hey, you do know I was recently wrongly imprisoned, right? So why am I in a flat with BARS on the window?"

Why are there two characters named Williams? A doctor named Willis?

Are there even reasons?

[tinturtle]

Well, to be fair to Rob, the MI6 agent from Spy Probe really is named Williams, and one of the agents killed in The Purging of CI5 is also really named Williams. The headscratcher is naming another CI5 agent McWilliams, which is not a name that appears in canon. This might be an effect of writing such a long story in installments-some parts of what came before weren't clear in Rob's memory. I know I'm having that issue.

What made Doyle refuse to just TELL Accomodations, "Hey, you do know I was recently wrongly imprisoned, right? So why am I in a flat with BARS on the window?"

This seems like a plausible enough reluctance to admit that he has fears he can't control. I don't have answers for your other questions.

[gilda_elise]

I'm having a really hard time reading the story, because I find Doyle extremely infuriating. And I don't have a clue as to why Bodie loves him. He's selfish, obstinate, and clueless. How he manages to stay in CI5 is beyond me. The more I read, the more I think that Cowley is as big a fool in this story as Bodie is. What Bodie sees to love, and what Cowley sees for an agent, is beyond me.

And the fainting is just another nail in the coffin as to Doyle being unfit to be an agent. I don't have a clue as to how Rob could tie this all together in her mind.

[tinturtle]

Be brave. There are only two more sections. (I think.)

[byslantedlight]

Lol - yup, there should only be 31-35 and 36-40 to go. I'll try and get my printing straight again this week too!

[byslantedlight]

Yeah, I know what you mean, and it doesn't seem to get better, only worse.

Doyle fainting from the stress of thinking he's going to be shot? Yes, okay - exceedingly stressful, and I don't like to imagine what I'd do, but as you say, how is that the reaction of a CI5 agent? It's a horrendous thing, but how often to do we hear stories of people in a firing line fainting before they can be shot? Or some mafia or other joking about how the guy they stood up and shot fainted first, so that they had to bring them around again before they could execute them? Just... no, that's not how our bodies react to that situation - in fact I imagine that the physical rush of adrenaline would probably fight against any urge to faint...

I can only think that it's the whole h/c thing taken to very great extremes (and Rob's hardly the first/only writer to do it), perhaps because their subconscious is focusing more on the ultimate comfort outcome than the reality of what the characters are doing in order to be hurt first...