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"London Hellmouth" by Sylvia Volk
Oct. 13th, 2003 02:29 pmI spent the weekend studying for midterms and reading fanfic. (Oh, and eating roasted vegan marshmallows. They're really good!)
One story that I adored is "London Hellmouth" by Sylvia Volk, which you'll find here. It's set in 1905 and the pairing is Spike/Drusilla, but it really sort of revolves around later series events. It foreshadows Spike's redemption and Buffy love and it incorporates a lot of S7 slayer mythology. This story is just so well-constructed. One of the brilliant things is that, having seen all of BtVS, the reader knows what's going on, but the characters have no clue -- except Drusilla, who sees it in crazy Dru-vision and doesn't make sense to anyone else.
Another thing I really loved about this story is that it captures the Spike/Drusilla dynamic better than almost anything else I've read. I always felt that Dru was the real power in that relationship. When BtVS first introduced the characters in S2, Spike was going to die and Drusilla would be revealed as the real threat--Spike was just her boy-toy. They toned that down when Spike lived, but I still think Dru was the more powerful one in that relationship by far. Just look at School Hard--she throws weak little insanity fits whenever she wants Spike to do something--kill the slayer, talk to the annointed one, etc. She's the mastermind of that operation, and she does it so well by letting Spike think he's the one with the power, because that's how she gets him to do things for her and to take care of her. Yes, she's insane--but she also knows exactly how to get Spike to do what she wants.
So anyway, this story captured that really well. Both characterizations are quite layered, and once you get to the end everything makes such perfect sense. It's a great read, so go read it! :)
One story that I adored is "London Hellmouth" by Sylvia Volk, which you'll find here. It's set in 1905 and the pairing is Spike/Drusilla, but it really sort of revolves around later series events. It foreshadows Spike's redemption and Buffy love and it incorporates a lot of S7 slayer mythology. This story is just so well-constructed. One of the brilliant things is that, having seen all of BtVS, the reader knows what's going on, but the characters have no clue -- except Drusilla, who sees it in crazy Dru-vision and doesn't make sense to anyone else.
Another thing I really loved about this story is that it captures the Spike/Drusilla dynamic better than almost anything else I've read. I always felt that Dru was the real power in that relationship. When BtVS first introduced the characters in S2, Spike was going to die and Drusilla would be revealed as the real threat--Spike was just her boy-toy. They toned that down when Spike lived, but I still think Dru was the more powerful one in that relationship by far. Just look at School Hard--she throws weak little insanity fits whenever she wants Spike to do something--kill the slayer, talk to the annointed one, etc. She's the mastermind of that operation, and she does it so well by letting Spike think he's the one with the power, because that's how she gets him to do things for her and to take care of her. Yes, she's insane--but she also knows exactly how to get Spike to do what she wants.
So anyway, this story captured that really well. Both characterizations are quite layered, and once you get to the end everything makes such perfect sense. It's a great read, so go read it! :)
