An Exercise in Futility [AtS; Wesley gen]

[quinara]

And now I get to read everyone else's stuff! Or at least I will in a bit.

Title: An Exercise in Futility
Author: Quinara
Fandom: Angel
Prompt: shapinglight's house of inbred aristos
Pairing/Characters: Wesley gen, with Giles/Olivia and the smallest smidgeon of Wesley/Fred.
Other Stuff: PG-13; just over 10,000 words; if you squint a bit it's a crossover with

Comments

[booster17]

Uh-oh. Working out the timeline involved, this explains so much about Giles's reactions when Ilyria took over Fred's body.

Loved it, was absorbed in it, until the end when I realised it was the end. It feels like it could do so much more - it feels like a beginning. Would love to see more of this.

[quinara]

Thank you! I'm intrigued that it feels like a beginning - I have no idea where I would take it, but maybe that'll become obvious in the future...

[rahirah]

This was just wonderful - the edgy, uncomfortable relationship between Wesley and Giles, the mysterious family, the plots and counter plots. Giles is terribly unsympathetic in this this one, and yet perfectly in character for the man who killed the Bringer before they could finish interrogating it.

Your stories always seem to take place in a larger world, and the only frustration is that I can't peek around the corners of that world.

[quinara]

Thank you! It was odd writing Giles in this, because I was thinking of all the stuff he gets up to around this time and ended up with 'so, he's being a bit of a bastard, really'.

I always seem to end up with the same issue when it comes to world-building, in that I can happily come up with really involved situations, but then when I'm writing the story there never seems to be a good moment for proper exposition (or at least any more than what I manage to get in there). It's an issue of focus/control, I think, or maybe lacking the confidence to slow the pace that little bit more. It's definitely something I need to actively start working on, in any case. (It didn't help that here I wanted there to be lots of things that Wesley wasn't picking up on.)

[ningloreth]

Oh, I enjoyed this, though I'm not particularly familiar with Wesley, nor with tough!Giles :-) The setting and the OCs are really compelling, and I loved Wesley's 'paranoia', your description of the ritual -- the golden writing! -- the finding of the hidden library, and pyro!Giles!

Have you ever read The Way of Wyrd by Brian Bates? Your green books made me think of that.

[quinara]

Thank you! I'm so glad you found it accessible. And I love the things you picked up on - one of my most favourite Wesley lines ever is when this demon that feeds off fear accuses him of being paranoid and he comments, "I've been accused of a great many things in my time, but paranoid has never been one of them... Unless people have been saying it behind my back." But of course, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean people aren't out to get you...

Have you ever read...

I haven't, actually, but I'm the biggest sucker in the world for any sort of mystical book or funny writing. The inspiration for the green books actually came from the notebooks I have for taking notes when reading for essays - it's all gibberish if you don't know why it's there!

[ningloreth]

It's very clunky as a novel, but it's based on a genuine Anglo-Saxon book (the Lacnunga) of magic/medicine/ritual. In the preface he explains that the pagans believed that the everything in the world was connected to everything else, as if sitting on a giant web. If something happened in one place, there would be a corresponding reaction elsewhere, so a 'wizard' would see a sudden flight of birds, say, and would know what had 'caused' it. I thought that Sir Benedict's notes about cattle might be a way of monitoring demons!

[quinara]

Maybe that was what he was doing! They were certainly observations to pre-empt any possibility that he might need that information once he found a prophecy later, but how they could be interpreted... ;)

[quinara]

Thank you! I'm not entirely sure where I'd take this story from here, but it sounds rather like something I should be thinking about!

[zanthinegirl]

That was fascinating! I'm always a sucker for Wes, but what a compelling story. You make me want to read more; I'm finding myself disappointed it over.

I like the way you wrote Giles. It really sets up later events in season five-- especially with Dana and with Illyria.

I enjoyed this very much!

[klytaimnestra]

And of course poor Wesley was always convinced that knowing prophecies could somehow help. I quite understand his fury at being cynically duped and used by the man he was hoping had, would, eventually come to respect him.

Re: I enjoyed this very much!

[quinara]

Thank you! Wesley's arc in S3 around the prophecy is probably my favourite bit of AtS - it as all the perfect bits of tragedy.

[quinara]

Thank you! I'm so glad you liked it - sorry that it clearly ended a bit abruptly!