The Hanged Man, part 1 of 2

[mithrigil]

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How Mithy got her groove back, I suppose! Here's that London thing.

Title: The Hanged Man
Fandom: Tokyo Babylon...technically. An AU based on the premise, "what the story of TB would read as, set in London." This can be read as original work, I hope, and I have tagged it as such.
Rating: R, for britishisms, innuendo, understated violence, 90's

Comments

[thenakedcat]

Oh Clow, you batshit perverted old man. I really wish you and Doctor Jack had sat down over a glass of wine and discussed fuxxoring with the lives of innocent schoolchildren the multiverse over.

Also, the idea of Seishirou as golden--obscuring, burning light--really works here.

[mithrigil]

I got to that section and was all "wait, do I want to britishise Yuuko" and then it hit me that I DON'T HAVE TO.

He and Jack and Sei really do need to have a tea party.

[thenakedcat]

Points if Yue is serving the tea!

I have to say, though, that British!Yuuko would be very awesome, although she would probably suit the Elizabethan period more than the present day. BUT TO SEE SOMEONE FINALLY TAKE THE PISS OUT OF CLOW!

[mithrigil]

Britishised Yuuko would be a little on the not-so-pretty side--her archetype is something else in that context, I think.

[rose_erato]

This has to be one of the most unique AU I've ever read ^_^ In other words, I love it.

[mithrigil]

Thank you! Am so glad~

[byzantienne]

"...the bite of ash and cologne - it paralyzed me like the poison it was."

This is, first of all, a beautiful line. Striking and lyrical, almost synaesthetic, but not innately so, synaesthetic out of Atlas' confusion and attempts to explain himself.

It is also an encapsulation of everything you're doing with this; so much of the piece is about internal change, internal absorption. About Atlas slowly being poisoned, about his willing -- or at least somewhat willing -- acquiescence to that poison. That change.

I am very interested in how much more knowing Atlas is than Subaru; some of that is a function of the POV's time-placement, but some of it is innate -- innocence means something different here, innocence and purity both.

Also, the gilt/guilt thing will never not be amazing. Mmm. Gorgeous golden Jack indeed.

[mithrigil]

Is the innocence here, as Reed said, delusion or self-delusion?

That would be the question, really. How innocent was Subaru? He was selfish and self-distancing already, but how much of his lack of world-knowledge was really naivete?

[akatonbo]

...I should try to read this when I actually have a working scrap of brain, but in the meantime I'll be over here snerking in the corner over Crowley and Waite. Doubly so, over Subaru's full name, actually -- have you read Good Omens?

[mithrigil]

I have, and the notion of Sauntering Vaguely Downwards was too ironic to pass up.

[shadow_piper]

I think I'm in love with your English personification of Seishirou. Part-Indian with British accent? DO WANT. Just sayin'.

Once again, I am highly impressed by your writing. I think you made the Japanese-to-English transition very nicely. It's different, but considering vast cultural differences, the parallels are fitting. Do you find it interesting that there's nothing that's quite the equivalent of an onmyoji in western culture?

And one last thing. Clow fucking Reed ♥

[mithrigil]

I do find that interesting, actually--but then, in Wester Culture we don't value balance or elemental harmony quite the same way. Western cultures tend to place value on ascendancy, in terms of heaven and in terms of material wealth--trying to transcend the environment, not become part of it, and the idea of an onmyouji is the outgrowth of a culture for which balance is the way to accomplish. So yeah. I think it says a lot about Western culture in general that we don't have anything quite like that. Except perhaps shaman.

And ha yeah, Reed. SIR CLOW FUCKING REED, KNIGHT OF THE PAEDERASTY.