Fic: Walking After Midnight: the Music of Pain Remix [Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Angel, Xander; PG]

[addison-rock.livejournal.com]

Title: Walking After Midnight: the Music of Pain Remix
Author: aadler_
Summary: Sometimes the enemy you can count on is exactly the friend you need.
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Characters: Angel, Xander Harris
Rating: PG (language)
Disclaimer: All characters are the property of others more creative than myself. I don’t own them, I don’t profit from them. Angel and Xander belong to Joss Whedon, with rights also going to those companies and individuals who licensed them from him, of whom I am not one.
Original story: “Getting It” by bastardsnow
Notes: As with the original story, this takes place in Season 2, shortly after the events of “Amends”.

( Walking After Midnight — Part 3 )

Comments

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

Climbing inside Angel's head is always tricky. At first I was a bit put off by the wordy, overly dramatic style of the first few paragraphs. Then I realized that was exactly what the inside of Angel's head is like and slid into the rest of the story. Neither Angel nor Angelus have a clearly defined sense of porportion, always seeing themselves as more central players than they are. Viewing Xander, at least outwardly, as an annoying yippy dog. Positively startled when he's effective in a fight.

That gave a lot of punch to the Xander as Buffy's ace in the hole thoughts at the end. That the return resentment is based on a wierd type of respect really sells his perspective. Xander holding onto his animosity with the certainty of youth was dead on for Xander at that point.

Excellent read.

[aadler]

The main thing I focused on as soon as I decided to write this story was the contrast between Xander and Angel. I think I originally intended to compare them directly, but instead it came out as being all from Angel’s perspective. It would have been only too easy to bash Angel (or come across as if that was what I was trying to do); having Angel painfully conscious of his own perceived flaws just seemed like a better approach.

I was also doing my best to consider the characters as they were then. This was Xander not long after he had aimed Faith at Angel like a guided missile (during “Revelations”); it was Angel not long after his lowest low point on Buffy (the crashdown during “Amends”). Xander was most bitter and hateful during the reign of Angelus (his kill-pussycat-kill speech in “Passion”), but he never, ever lost his thorough disapproval of Angel. Done before Angelus’ return in Season 2, or after Angel had relocated to L.A. and removed himself as a source of distraction/peril in Buffy’s life, the dynamic between the two of them would have been very different.

I never really thought about Angel/Angelus sharing a disproportionate sense of themselves as the center of whatever story they happened to occupy. That’s a good thing to keep in mind. But overdramatic, yes, that was something I deliberately aimed for with Angel. I’m glad you liked it.

[texanfan.livejournal.com]

This really is the point at which the animosity between Angel and Xander was at it's height. Xander softened a tad in Amends but not by much.

I get the impression of Angel/Angelus' overdeveloped sense of their own importance mainly from Angel the series so it may not fit in the timeline of this story. Then again, Angelus believed it was his destiny to end the world by waking Acathla. How grandiose can you get? :)