When Night Comes Down by havocthecat (PG, Gen)

[havocthecat]

Title: When Night Comes Down
Author: havocthecat
Rating: PG
Pairing: None
Warnings: None
Word Count: 5,813
Recipient: leela_cat
Prompt: Vampires are being killed, mortals are being turned against their will, and the Enforcers have given Nick X number of days to find the culprit and fix the problem before they fix it for him.
Summary: Nick is trying to figure out who'

Comments

[leela_cat]

You created a brilliant AU from my prompt. I could have watched the season that sprang from this with a lot of joy.

That Divia would punish Nick by targetting those mortals he cares about is so very much in character for both of them, and it makes me wonder what was going on inside that sarcophagus and how much Divia knew about what Lacroix was doing during those millenia.

I love your Janette, who rules every vampire in Toronto by taking care of them and the community. And your Nick, of course, running that fine line between vampires and humans, which grows ever finer by the day.

Thank you so much for this lovely gift. If you haven't figured it out already, I really liked this story.

[havocthecat]

You created a brilliant AU from my prompt. I could have watched the season that sprang from this with a lot of joy.

I am so very glad that you like this story. I maaaaaybe spent some time flailing about it to some people, like poor wiliqueen. :)

how much Divia knew about what Lacroix was doing during those millenia.

I can only imagine, once she healed from having her head cut off, the only possible cure for boredom was listening in on Lacroix's life through the link that they had.

I love your Janette, who rules every vampire in Toronto by taking care of them and the community. And your Nick, of course, running that fine line between vampires and humans, which grows ever finer by the day. Thank you! You are absolutely right in your reading of my interpretation of Janette's character (it's one of my favorite things about her, though I have many favorite things about Janette), and poor Nick, things aren't going to be so easy. But he does keep going forward, doesn't he? It's one of his good points, IMO

[hoshi_reed]

I haven't seen the show in a while but they all came flooding back to me because your characterization is so good.

I like how you twisted the canon just so, it feels right (like it could BE canon I forgot) while still being AU.

[havocthecat]

Thank you so much! I had fun doing research and re-watching old eps to try and get that canon feel to it, while making the twists and turns to work the AU in.

[waltd]

Ooooo. Scary and frightening. I wouldn't want to have to deal with watching FK with Divia as the antagonist after midnight. I think getting rid of her would be an epic battle of Lord of the Rings or Star Wars size. Talk about a story arc!

I think sometimes it's assumed that LaCroix doesn't have a conscious. He does, but it's according to his own rules, modified by his Roman heritage. Divia has no rules.

Just what the world needs: a totally psychotic, sociopathic vampire.

Very thought provoking. An entirely new way to look at the series. Sends shivers down my spine just thinking about it. Whew!

[havocthecat]

Thank you very much! I am very glad you like the story!

Lacroix is very much a Roman patrician, and, if you look at him through that lens, everything he does is very, very understandable. Not necessarily right, or good, but understandable.

Divia, on the other hand, is the daughter of a Roman courtesan and/or madam, who was raised by a mother who cared for her, but was busy trying to survive as a woman of means in a society that was not kind to women like her, and a father who cared, but could not acknowledge her. More likely than not, at his age, Lacroix had a wife, not to mention a legitimate male heir and other children who, by law, had more right and claim to her father's affection. Plus there's the fact that he spent many a year very far away, gone waging war in Gaul.

What Divia and Qa'Ra called evil, I, from my modern viewpoint, call it "a girl who is in severe need of therapy." Of course she wanted affection from her father. Of course she considers affection, love, and sexuality intertwined. She grew up in a brothel

[waltd]

Arrrrrgggghhhhh! No, Not QA'RA!!! No, no, the horror, oh the horror!!!!

Seriously, it didn't occur to me that Qa'Ra could be loose, too. Geez, probably the one thing worse than Divia. If *that's* true, our only hope may be to make sure that they are both in Toronto and then nuke the place. Twice!

I'm not sure that LaCroix would ever have done much for Divia anyway. In his position as the Paterfamilias of a Roman family, his attitude would have been simply to order her to behave and then expect that to be done.

Check the legend of Titus Manlius Torquatus who executed his own son for breaking the rules. Would General Lucius have been any less generous to his daughter? I think he'd have killed her in a heartbeat (had she had one) if he thought he could get away with it. Divia's grievances were more with Roman society as a whole than with Lucius specifically -- which, no matter what the case, would do nothing to mitigate her animus towards Nick et al.

[havocthecat]

I know the story you're talking about. But Lacroix didn't have control over Divia in that fashion. He wasn't married to Selene; he wasn't the pater familias of that family. Remember, he asked Selene how her daughter was.

Anyway, we'll have to agree to disagree on where Divia's grievances lay.

Let's try this again, and from the right account this time, shall we?

[havocthecat]

Thank you so much! It's really wonderful to hear that from you. :) And thank you again for betareading; this story wouldn't have been as good without you to point things out to me.

I think Lacroix was interesting, but he put a lot of roadblocks in the way of character growth, and things veered far off the path they originally looked like they were going to take.

[chelseagirl]

Really excellent "what if . . . ?" Would love to see what happens next.

[havocthecat]

Thank you! I'm glad you liked it.