A heartfelt recommendation

[winter]

Some of you may have noticed that there are 260 comments on my last post. 240 of these are me and fyrie talking about a single story. She fed it to me by spoonfuls, killing me softly just as I was trying to work, or sleep, or just get the vampires out of my head by any means possible.

What Remains - Jossverse and Tanz der Vampire. After LA goes boom, Spike comes back to the last two vampires he knows who might take him in.

If I had to put a label on this, it'd probably be Hurt/Comfort. After the Angel finale, Spike is broken to pieces, and it's up to von Krolock, with Herbert's help, to put him back together. But gods, this is so sweet and heart-breaking, and there's one scene (which I won't spoil) that killed me dead.

Even if all you know about Tanz is that I blather about it a lot, go read it - all you need to know is that von Krolock is Herbert's dad, and that he's a sorcerer and occasional seer. All else speaks for itself.

(She's not finished with the first chronological fic in this series, but it will explain a lot if you read the two she posted previously - Until the Moon is Abed, slash and het Herbert/Spike, von Krolock/Dru, and then Unwritten Words, where pre-Buffy Season 2 Spike asks for advice on helping Dru.)

Comments

[winter]

Knowing the old(er) guy, he'll just find that curious and charming. Heh, she's doomed :D

*commences countdown to Spike's appearance or Dawn bringing up the letter*

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

Guess where VK is leading her ;) And guess where Herbert and William are hanging out...

[winter]

Oooh. There will be glomping? :D

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

If Senior will stop making her flustered with leet vampire manners :D

[winter]

I don't think even Senior will be enough to stop her from giving Spike a great big hug once she sees him :)

(Would be amusing if Herbert misinterpreted it á la Illyria...)

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

Letter's been brought up and glomping is about to ensue :D

[winter]

OK, going off to take a shower, hoping to have something to read before I have to head bedwards. Bloody midnight and I have to get up at 6AM!

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

Eep! Take care and rest! I shall spam you more tomorrow!

[winter]

But! One last bit? :)

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

*points up* :)

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

Or down. I got confoosed.

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

Dawn gave him a look. “If I say yes, you could be making me say that and if I say no, same thing,” she said. “That’s why I asked.”

“And you are only a delivery girl?” Directing her down a hallway with a nod, the Graf’s eyes never seemed to leave her face, which made her feel kind of squirmy but not in a totally bad way. “I find that difficult to believe.”

“Just a regular girl. Not a slayer or witch or superhero,” Dawn replied airily, looking around at the paintings lining the walls. “No biggie.”

“I remain unconvinced,” Von Krolock’s voice sounded like a purr, rolling over her senses and sending a tingle racing down her spine. No! Bad Dawnie! No messing about with the clients! Rule two! And undead clients at that! Rule one!

Deliberately eyeing the paintings to avoid looking back into those dark eyes, Dawn cleared her throat. “So... uh... you’re Mister von Krolock, right?”

“That is correct,” he agreed softly.

“The only one?” She looked around at him, and promptly lost the mental path she had been aiming for. “Uh... I... uh... I mean, you don’t have brothers or anything like that? Any other ones with that name?”

Von Krolock laughed softly. “Unless you speak of my son,” he murmured, “I am, indeed, the only one.”

“Huh.” Reaching into her coat pocket, Dawn pulled out the letter she had received, a little crumpled and bent, but still legible. “So, is this your notepaper, then?”

For a moment, the man - vampire, Dawn, vampire - went still, staring at the sheet, then looked at her, as if seeing her with new eyes. “It is,” he said, leading her onwards down the hall. “May I know where you found it?”

“Didn’t find it,” Dawn replied evenly, watching him now as intently as he had watched her. “It was sent to me. Not the Watchers Council. Me. From here.”

“Indeed,” von Krolock said quietly, pausing by a pair of double-doors. He loosed his arm from hers, his eyes on her face again, focussed, but not staring, definitely not staring.

Unsettled but unwilling to show it, Dawn lifted her chin and gazed right back at him.

“Indeed,” he repeated thoughtfully. Turning away from her, he laid his hands against the broad handles, gazing down at them. “Who do you think might have sent a missive to you?”

“I was hoping you could tell me,” Dawn replied.

Von Krolock raised his head, but didn’t look around. “Perhaps,” he murmured, then pushed the doors open and stepped into the biggest living room Dawn had ever seen in her life.

Following him, unconsciously reaching down to touch the cross at her throat, she saw two other figures already in the room, one of whom was sprawled on the floor in front of the fireplace, reading. The other was draped in a chair, also bearing a book, but his was not opened.

“Herbert, William,” von Krolock’s murmur was unnecessary, she noticed. As soon as she had stepped into the room, both of them had shifted, a subtle indication that they were both aware of a mortal in the vicinity. “We have a guest.”

The vampire that was lying on the floor seemed to go rigid and she saw its head turn sharply, silhouetted against the fire for a moment, shaggy hair falling around its face. A male, she decided. Not too big. She could take it down easily.

“Bloody hell!”

Or not.

On his feet, the vampire was staring at her as wildly as she was staring at him.

“Spike...?”

“Holy shit! Nibbles!”

In the thirty seconds that followed, she wasn’t sure which of them moved first or which of them moved fastest, only that they crashed into each other hard enough to knock the wind out of her and to tip them both onto the floor.

[winter]

Yay! :D

And Spike's grown his hair out, which is also yay. And btw, Dawn having trouble pulling her thoughts together around Senior is triple yay.

Incidentally, is Illyria around or has she ambled over next door to argue warfare with Dracula by now?

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

Spike's hair is going back to natural colours and length because Herbert asked nicely and when that didn't work, there was a week of torture involving feathers, handcuffs, a whip, a vice and some chocolate sauce.

And Illyria is still kicking around somewhere, but doesn't liek comfy snuggling in front of the fire ;)

[winter]

Mmmm, chocolate sauce... *hasn't had breakfast yet*

Can't imagine why ;) She can be nowhere near done with digging through the library by now, and there's no place for reading like a room with a fireplace...

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

Was kept semi-awake last night and coming to the realisation that as charming as VK is, Dawn going to get stubborn far too quickly. Buffy and Spike are both saying "Um..." over the guy. Willow is aflail. Everyone's insisting she should leave and quickly. She's rolling her eyes and enjoying his company too much ;)

Had this image of him trying to bite, but being repelled by the marks on her throat and even when he unweaves the protective charms, she's still marked and she's like "okay. I like you, but don't want eaten so here. I'll cut my wrist and let you have a sip and anything else, I smack you with my cross and several bottles of holy water and you know what it does to silk"

[winter]

Really, really not blaming her here ;) And I'm sure he'd be charmed by the forthrightness. For some reason I'm enamoured of the image of her cutting her wrist on his sharp fingernails - maybe taking his hand and putting it on her wrist...

Needless to say, much Dawnie love here :D

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

I just the fact that she likes a guy and isn't about to listen to any of the crap her 'peers' are spouting. It's a case of "Giles, you screwed my mother, twice. Yes I did hear about that. Spike, you screwed my sister and Harmony. Buffy you screwed not one but two vampires. Willow, you went black wicca. When you behave, you can tell me what to do."

Spike's about to get the surprise of his life when he's trying to glomp her proper and keeps on finding pointy implements hidden all over her :D Plus, she's got the standard Slayer uniform, whereby random bits of clothing are weapons - my favourite piece she's wearing is a belt made up of silver crosses all linked together (useful for throttling and toasting at once).

And she would definitely do that with his nails, because he has no idea where he can and can't touch her at this point without being scorched - all part of the charm, eh? :D

[winter]

She really doesn't have any authority she cares to respect, does she? ;)

She might find it difficult to stay in that uniform when staying with three vampires. Canonically, VK isn't particularly fond of even looking at a cross, never mind touching one. And oooh, if he ever gets anywhere with her, she will have to take them off one by one, according to what she wants to allow him to do :>

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

She's never really had a good authority figure, thinking about it - her father walked out on her when she was about 9, when she was 11, her sister ran away from home because their mother threw her out (technically), Giles brought magic and vampires and things to them, Angelus tried to kill her, Spike tried to attack her sister even if he did go good afterwards. Teacher-wise, she sees no reason to respect them when they are blatantly so ignorant about the world around them. Closest she got to respecting anyone really was Tara and (oh, yes, the childhood trauma) she was the one who found Tara's body after everyone else forgot, "oh wait, the kid'll be coming home. We should let her know someone tried to kill her sister and that there's a body on the bedroom floor".

Ah. there arises a problem ;) Taking off the uniform - not difficult. Having him remove all the many protection charms, easy. Bodily removing flesh-coloured ring of crosses that are tattooed around her throat - not so much. My thinking is that she almost got bit and since vamps always go for the throat, she would defend herself practically invisibly there, so if any other vamp did get close enough to bite, the shock of having his gob burned by her skin would give her opening enough to kill him. My Dawn has turned out far too cunning for her own good.

Oh and Spike's headdesking already, because if he even raises his concernsthat VK may be after Dawn, herbie's going to molest him and distract him so dad can do as he likes ;)

[winter]

Oh yeah, can't forget that bit. It's a wonder Dawn turned out as well as she did, really.

Well, that just means there's one place he can't touch her. I'm sure he's inventive enough not to let that deter their mutual enjoyment ;) Maybe she can put on a scarf or something so that she doesn't burn him in bed...

Spike might try and track VK down for a private tete-a-tete, but I think Herbert has good hearing. Then again, I just want to see VK going "Yes, and what of it?" after Spike asks if he's after Dawn :>

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

The way Dawn sees it, in a world surrounded by superheroes, she's got to do her best and prove that even if she doesn't have the natural niftiness that being a Slayer brings, she can kick ass just because she wants to :D Buffy realised that about her at the end of S6, when they fought together in a crypt. She went through an inadequate phase during S7 with all the Slayers, but now, all is well and she's amused that she can fight better than some of the younger ones, because she has been learning longer and has the cunning and guile, while some of the girls are as dumb as posts.

*grins* I was thinking the same thing - it's like anyone who wants to get it on with Rogue in X-Men. Strategically place some strips of silk and lo, you get a new sensation anyway ;)

Spike knows the private chat wouldn't help. He's presently standing, doing pupp-eyes and groaning that she is totally screwed in every which way (you should see the look on his face when Dawn observes that she'd be pretty useless for virgin sacrifices anymore, so no good eying her like she might be) :D (Plus, Herbert just wants to pin him on the table as distract him)

[winter]

Didn't Spike teach Dawn some of her moves? Either way, she's got the advantage of knowing how both sides fight, that shoul also count for something :)

Oi! *pokes* Also, pinning on the table is good and yummy and mmm. Plus, would give VK the opportunity to discreetly escort Dawn out of the room so that he can further charm her...

[fyrie.livejournal.com]

Definitely. Buffy assumed that because Dawn wasn't out on patrol with her every night that she was helpless. How wrong one sister can be ;) Spike was the one who initially taught her, so she knows how vampires think, where they aim for first and what is the best target to hit on them (hence the knuckle-duster from hell with spikes and crosses across it ;D Take out the eyes with that then work on clean up)

I'm also starting to suspect the seduction is going to take place over several days/weeks, while Dawn stays and hangs out with Spike, to catch up and do their old chummy thing :) She's missed him a lot after 3 years of his constant presence. Buffy and co. are going to get a random mail, which is when they find out that "oh crap! Dawn's gone and got snared by uber vamp"

[winter]

Oooh.

Have you got another excerpt?

(Also, I just got a tentative job offer and reserved EXCELLENT Tanz tickets for 5 shows. Today is a very good day.)