fic: Wotan's Day 17/16

[filenotch]

Title: Wotan's Day
Fandoms: Highlander, X-files, Invisible Man
Rating:NC-17 overall, PG-13 this chapter.
Disclaimer: Don't own 'em. All money went to RAINN.
Background:The year is 2023. Methos, the oldest of the Immortals in Highlander, was living as a corporate lawyer in Denver. Alexander Krycek, the double-dealing ratboy of the X-Files, was

Comments

[mzlizzy]

Great story! I even love the ending, although I find myself wanting to know what happens next to each of them: Methos, MacLeod, Dana, Skinner and Krychek.

However I fully accept that this is the end of this story, and while the end is not neat and clean neither is life, and if you had wrapped up everything it would lessen the story.

What happens next is another story for each of them.

Thanks for writing this, and thank you for posting it. You've shown yourself to be a wonderful writer.

[filenotch]

You are welcome, and thank you for your kind words. This was quite a ride, both in the original writing and in posting it and revisiting each chapter.

I don't know what happens next, I only know how it ended. I suppose I'll write some story notes about how I got from an "I'm not going to write this story, but this opening image is in my head so I'll post it as creative writing therapy in the midst of work hell" to a complete novel. Maybe while I'm writing it, they'll tell me what happened.

Thank you for sticking with it.

[teenygozer]

ARGH! I keep trying to post but LJ is being a bitch. Third time is lucky?

I wanted to say that this is a beautiful, harsh story. I salute you for not being seduced by the allure of The Happy Ending, which would not have flowed naturally from these characters and this situation.

My one piece of (hopefully) constructive criticism would be:

You call this an epilogue, but it's not: it's chapter 17. By that I mean, this is a continuation of the story proper and that's not what an epilogue is for. Webword defines "epilogue" as "A short passage added at the end of a literary work", and the sentence showing how the word is used is given as: "The epilogue told what eventually happened to the main characters". Another reader, mzlizzy, noted in her comment that she found herself wanting to know what happens next to each of the characters. I find myself in total agreement, and believe an epilogue would have taken care of that and not left the reader feeling like she's been left hanging, which is kinda how I felt when I finished this bit. I

[filenotch]

You're right, and I changed it. I should know better.

You're also right in that there can be no happy ending here. Happy ending M/K or D/M stories never sat right with me because they seemed to ignore deeper and darker places that I saw in what I knew of Krycek and Methos on screen.

I don't know what happens next. Part of me wants Methos to go back and spring Krycek, and part of me wants Krycek to get out on his own and hunt Methos down, try to kill him, and end up staying with him. Duncan finds the person that tried to clone him, follows the conspiracy further, and, and, or, or. Hmm. Must stop thinking out loud.

As for websites, I don't know where I'd put this. 7th Dimension?

[vestafour]

I was completely amazed by where you took this story and by how seamlessly the characters slid from their original realities in to this one. I ended up feeling so sorry for Krycek but I always feel like he's too broken on some level to be honest. Too bad, he didn't get over his hopeless Mulder infatuation and tell Methos/Matty the truth long before. He might have been able to change if he could trust someone other than himself. Methos would be able to understand what he had been through. Maybe I want to see Alex's consciousness put in a young clone body - then Methos can release him from whatever lab he's in. But the world might not be ready for them full of "youthful enthusiasm".

I loved Bobby Hobbes and you captured him. All your characters seemed so fully fleshed out. I feel awful about Skinner but that's because I like him as a hero. Just a wonderful plot, now I have to track down all your other stories!

[filenotch]

I took the Krycek in large part from the episode where Skinner shoots him. The way he acts toward Mulder, it's clear he can't kill him. From that, I decided that even 20-25 years later, Krycek was still in love with him. Also, in that way that going to your parents' house brings back old behaviors, being around Mulder again brought out some of the old Krycek. I felt sorry for Krycek, too, in the long run.

I agree with you about Skinner. I thought long and hard before casting him in this role, but concluded that if he thought he could control it, it would be a good thing to have that army of Immortals. What isn't in the story is Skinner's plan B, which would have taken the Immortals (and Mulder) out.

Thanks for the feedback. I haven't written much in X-files or HL before (one X-files/Sandman crossover, and two short HL pieces). Most of my old fic that isn't SGA is here.

And I'm glad you liked Hobbes. I had no intention of I-Man in this, but he just showed up.

[teenygozer]

Ack! I also meant to add a thank-you for posting this for our reading enjoyment, and that I looked forward to reading more of your fic!

[filenotch]

You are welcome, and thank you for continual feedback. It helped me to know I was not posting in the void.

[britta54]

Very nice; felt right. I liked it.

Thank you!

$:-D

[filenotch]

Cool. I was afraid it was too grim for your tastes.

i like.

[anonymous]

hey...

i don't usually read fanfic, but got hooked on this one. i think you got the voices very right, especially Methos. And the voices of the various major characters are really different, something lots of authors have trouble with.

there's a certain chutzpah involved in writing first-person-shooter (well, swordsman) from the point of view of the sleaziest man in the history of civilization (and a good while before that).

bravo.

--ravyn

Re: i like.

[filenotch]

Thanks. It wasn't easy in the beginning to speak from the PoV of Methos. Then it became too easy to identify with a Machiavellian chameleon. Sleazy, though? It depends on the definition, I suppose. But, I'm glad you liked it.