Fic: The Child Takers

[inkvoices]

Title: The Child Takers
Rating/Warnings: 15/R (to be safe, darker than my usual), highlight to view warnings, tell me if I’ve missed any or have been unclear: *child abuse, murder, violent murder, murder of children, things that explode out of people (aliens), implied rape, implied underage sex, implied sex as a means to get close and kill someone

Comments

[enigmaticblues]

This really was a gorgeous look at Natasha's origins. So very well done.

[inkvoices]

Thank you! I'm glad you liked it :D

[workerbee73]

Oh, I like this very much. The tone is dark and cautious and .. lovely somehow. And he never says a word. (Of course you didn't, Clint, you never needed to anyway.) And she stalks him after that. Love that. Love the slow build of this and the fact she follows him home. I love all the strange details you've woven in here, the vampires, the brothers in the dream, all of it.

Oh and the re-claiming theme you've woven throughout. My very favorite thing of all. :)

[inkvoices]

Thank you! :D Warning: comment dicussion ahead *grins

[workerbee73]

Ahhh! The rule of threes! **smacks forehead** Should have picked up on that.

I was talking to sugar_fey the other day about the theme of re-making, reclamation of women (by their own hand) in Joss's work. It's a beautiful feminist commentary in that way.

[inkvoices]

I like rule of three. I like it in long sentences as well. It has rhythm I guess.

YES. LOVE. :D He does seem to use it as a theme a lot, but it is a powerful theme.

[rosalui]

This was gorgeous and beautiful and was that the Eleventh Doctor?

*had not read the description above*

:'D

[inkvoices]

Thank you! Haha, yes, it was. Glad he was recognisable without having it pointed out! And glad you enjoyed it :D

[rayruz]

Is it sad that the strongest feeling I've come away from this with is a sense of mourning for the possibility of "what if" for her encounter with Eleven?

[inkvoices]

Not at all. That was one of the points, that Natasha has opportunities to leave, both good and bad, and yet she can't take them, either because she's afraid of leaving the monsters that she knows or because those monsters have made it so that she can't, and it's sad that she can't even tell. I wanted to add Eleven because he's definitely a good opportunity, someone who would show her the stars, treat her like a person, tell her that she's wonderful, and give her a childhood. It's great that in the end she walks away following Clint, but it's following another assassin into a life of SHIELD, an adult and painful life. Shame, isn't it?

[anuna_81]

After all of our conversations, messages, chats and your incredibly generous comments on things that I've done and written, here I am, with my own debt. Because I owe you a debt, and it's not just comments, so let me tell you a story. They say I'm kind of good at that

1/2 (because I went for it, whoop!)

[inkvoices]

I am...in shock and filled with excitement and flailing like a crazy woman that something that I wrote had this much of an impact on anyone! The fact that I in any way helped the ideas that then grew into the wonderfulness that is your fic? SQUEEEE AND FLAIL

2/2 (because I went for it, whoop!)

[inkvoices]

What happens with Clint is the fairytale conclusion - the one who doesn't try to take her away she voluntarily follows. It's also children's/teenage logic really, not doing what you're told, not conforming to expectations. There's the fascination, that of all of them Clint actually came close to giving her what she suddenly realised that she wanted...and then didn't. Then, out of all of them, he is the one most like her. But then he goes further, because he's able to kill the people who took her when she couldn't