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grenegomeSlightly overexcited to receive my copy of Dark and Stormy Knights today, as I've been looking forward to reading Jim Butcher's short story from John Marcone's POV like you wouldn't believe.
I REALLY enjoyed this. I was worried I might have hyped it up to myself too much for it to be anything but an anti-climax, but it rocked.
A slightly rambling response to the story lurks under the cut. As well as spoilers for Even Hand, there's an allusion to White Night.
In no particular order:
Smart!Hendricks, which was one of my most loved pieces of fanon, is now canon \o/
I really want to know what his thesis is on. The companionable way he was plugging away at it whilst Marcone did businessy things at the next desk over was a nice glimpse into a "normal" day for them. I am in love with the idea that Hendricks has the most functional moral compass of the two of them, and yay for Marcone being able to read his thoughts from tiny gestures and looks. He expects Marcone to be better than he expects himself to be, which from Marcone’s reaction to Harry’s plea in the Deeps in White Night, it isn't something he gets from anyone else.
Dresden/Marcone - Oddly, not torpedoed by the fact that this story is essentially a dry run of How-to-Kill-Harry-Dresden. Partly because Marcone distinguishes very carefully between his emotional reasoning and business reasoning throughout the narrative, (with a massive blind spot for the idea that business rules such as "no children" are firmly grounded in an emotional knee-jerk response, and are just his way of pretending to be rational about the whole thing. John, you're about as rational over kids as Harry is about women) so I find it perfectly reasonable to think he'd have How-To-Kill-Harry-Dresden plans for a man he was busily stifling a sexual/emotional interest in.
I know it's to keep the regular audience interested, but I love that so many things link back to Harry. From the opening section, where Marcone's identity is partly based on "not" being Harry Dresden, then the fact that he considers Harry when planning how to appease his insurers (yay, more fanon now canon! And the doors he replaces are at "dramatic rather than tactical entrance points", which cracked me up. He knows his wizard), and he even makes a point of gathering information on People-Harry-Thinks-Are-Important so he doesn't accidentally cause them any harm. This is, of course, a purely tactical consideration.
The council have executed kids in Chicago, I'm sure. And wouldn't it be interesting if *that* was the issue that forces a final confrontation between Marcone and Harry?
Also: "Be a dear and set the building on fire." Wisecracking pyromania. Yeah, nothing like Harry at all. Loved the domestic sniping between Gard and Marcone :-D
Snippets that caught my attention:
“My deludedly patriotic youth” He WAS in the army then? Interesting.
“For most of my adult life, I've been known as John Marcone” Wait wait, what? That's not his real name?! Ok, so, I realise he probably changed it in the interests of dodging mortal authorities back in the day (decided the army wasn't run sensibly enough for him and deserted, maybe?) though I can't help but think he was always fated to play the role he does now, the Mortal representative in the Supernatural arena, because he's effectively nameless. He protected himself from all kinds of magic without even realising it at the time he made that decision. John Marcone, champion of humanity. I can see this coming.
The sword Hendricks held...is that something other than a normal sword? Or does Mag just freeze because he sees a giant guy holding a giant weapon?
Fic that totally needs to be written by someone that isn't me:
Marcone + Hendricks - I want epic gen fic for the two of them, in which they debate ethics and Hendricks tries to browbeat Marcone into reading the classics. Or enrolling in night classes in philosophy or something.
Marcone/Hendricks/Gard - What? Don't look at me like that! Threesome in which Marcone is told that he is not, under any circumstances, allowed to issue any orders for the rest of the evening, and he can just shut up and be taken care of for a while, damn it.
Marcone/Dresden - Where Hendricks decides Harry is good for Marcone's spiritual well-being, and conspires to get them together. Without exploding Chicago.
Marcone + or / Dresden - Somebody tries to kick start the endgame between John and Harry by playing them off against one another. Except Marcone's not an idiot, and instead the two of them team up as a force of freaking awesome.
Marcone(/Dresden?) - John gets fed up of everything in the Supernatural world being so damned messy and melodramatic AND TAKES OVER. Every supernatural entity out there goes from disbelieving scorn to gibbering terror. Harry is like "I told you so", and doesn't know whether to be scared, furious or amused by the fact that Marcone overthrows the White Council in an underhand fashion. If Harry accidentally ends up as spoils-of-war in the process, that would be hilarious.
I REALLY enjoyed this. I was worried I might have hyped it up to myself too much for it to be anything but an anti-climax, but it rocked.
A slightly rambling response to the story lurks under the cut. As well as spoilers for Even Hand, there's an allusion to White Night.
In no particular order:
Smart!Hendricks, which was one of my most loved pieces of fanon, is now canon \o/
I really want to know what his thesis is on. The companionable way he was plugging away at it whilst Marcone did businessy things at the next desk over was a nice glimpse into a "normal" day for them. I am in love with the idea that Hendricks has the most functional moral compass of the two of them, and yay for Marcone being able to read his thoughts from tiny gestures and looks. He expects Marcone to be better than he expects himself to be, which from Marcone’s reaction to Harry’s plea in the Deeps in White Night, it isn't something he gets from anyone else.
Dresden/Marcone - Oddly, not torpedoed by the fact that this story is essentially a dry run of How-to-Kill-Harry-Dresden. Partly because Marcone distinguishes very carefully between his emotional reasoning and business reasoning throughout the narrative, (with a massive blind spot for the idea that business rules such as "no children" are firmly grounded in an emotional knee-jerk response, and are just his way of pretending to be rational about the whole thing. John, you're about as rational over kids as Harry is about women) so I find it perfectly reasonable to think he'd have How-To-Kill-Harry-Dresden plans for a man he was busily stifling a sexual/emotional interest in.
I know it's to keep the regular audience interested, but I love that so many things link back to Harry. From the opening section, where Marcone's identity is partly based on "not" being Harry Dresden, then the fact that he considers Harry when planning how to appease his insurers (yay, more fanon now canon! And the doors he replaces are at "dramatic rather than tactical entrance points", which cracked me up. He knows his wizard), and he even makes a point of gathering information on People-Harry-Thinks-Are-Important so he doesn't accidentally cause them any harm. This is, of course, a purely tactical consideration.
The council have executed kids in Chicago, I'm sure. And wouldn't it be interesting if *that* was the issue that forces a final confrontation between Marcone and Harry?
Also: "Be a dear and set the building on fire." Wisecracking pyromania. Yeah, nothing like Harry at all. Loved the domestic sniping between Gard and Marcone :-D
Snippets that caught my attention:
“My deludedly patriotic youth” He WAS in the army then? Interesting.
“For most of my adult life, I've been known as John Marcone” Wait wait, what? That's not his real name?! Ok, so, I realise he probably changed it in the interests of dodging mortal authorities back in the day (decided the army wasn't run sensibly enough for him and deserted, maybe?) though I can't help but think he was always fated to play the role he does now, the Mortal representative in the Supernatural arena, because he's effectively nameless. He protected himself from all kinds of magic without even realising it at the time he made that decision. John Marcone, champion of humanity. I can see this coming.
The sword Hendricks held...is that something other than a normal sword? Or does Mag just freeze because he sees a giant guy holding a giant weapon?
Fic that totally needs to be written by someone that isn't me:
Marcone + Hendricks - I want epic gen fic for the two of them, in which they debate ethics and Hendricks tries to browbeat Marcone into reading the classics. Or enrolling in night classes in philosophy or something.
Marcone/Hendricks/Gard - What? Don't look at me like that! Threesome in which Marcone is told that he is not, under any circumstances, allowed to issue any orders for the rest of the evening, and he can just shut up and be taken care of for a while, damn it.
Marcone/Dresden - Where Hendricks decides Harry is good for Marcone's spiritual well-being, and conspires to get them together. Without exploding Chicago.
Marcone + or / Dresden - Somebody tries to kick start the endgame between John and Harry by playing them off against one another. Except Marcone's not an idiot, and instead the two of them team up as a force of freaking awesome.
Marcone(/Dresden?) - John gets fed up of everything in the Supernatural world being so damned messy and melodramatic AND TAKES OVER. Every supernatural entity out there goes from disbelieving scorn to gibbering terror. Harry is like "I told you so", and doesn't know whether to be scared, furious or amused by the fact that Marcone overthrows the White Council in an underhand fashion. If Harry accidentally ends up as spoils-of-war in the process, that would be hilarious.
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Date: 2010-11-10 07:20 pm (UTC)Yay indeed! Sadly you probably won't see it right away. I have a grammar beta, but I'm lacking a beta who's actually familiar with the source and I have Rules about posting prior to a good beta-ing. BUT YEAH ANYWAY. :talks your ear off, yap yap yap:
no subject
Date: 2010-11-10 09:04 pm (UTC)Hey, if you want another beta you're welcome to hit me up, though I couldn't claim an encyclopedic knowledge of canon as I've only just started my second read through :-)
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Date: 2010-11-10 11:29 pm (UTC)As I mentioned, I have the PDF of the book. If you'd like to make any requests, I think it's really easy for me to just copy individual pages as images so I could upload them for you. Lemme know if you're interested. Or if you think you may want the entire thing, I can SendSpace it for you.
I... very well might. Though that would be intimidating since you are pretty damn awesome at character voices and such. On the other hand, I don't ask a ton of my betas-- but lemme write at you, tell me when I write something that sucks, and maybe point out lame typos I make. That's about it. In truth, I just like having people to bounce ideas off. If that seems like something you'd like, um... Sure! 8D? If not, don't feel obligated.
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Date: 2010-11-11 12:02 am (UTC)I am totally up for beta-ing and idea bouncing is great fun, so that'd suit me fine :-D Let me know how/when you'd like to do things and I'm on it!
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Date: 2010-11-11 12:12 am (UTC)bookscasefiles is fun. 8DOh, okay, yay! If you wanna gimme your email and we can work sommat out?
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Date: 2010-11-11 12:26 am (UTC)I'm grenegome AT googlemail DOT com
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Date: 2010-11-11 12:28 am (UTC)Yaaaay, will ping you soon.
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Date: 2010-11-11 12:34 am (UTC)Coolio! Am off to bed now (UK time) but speak to you soon :-D
no subject
Date: 2010-11-11 12:35 am (UTC)Ooooh, conflicting time zones. I shall keep that in mind. Goodnight~!
no subject
Date: 2010-11-10 11:52 pm (UTC)Relevant Pages:
Dresden's Profile: 134 to 139
Gard's Profile: 148
Hendrick's Profile: 158
Marcone's Profile: 187 to 189
Murphy's Profile: 199 to 201
Occult Chicago Section: begin on 244
Specific Neighborhood Profiles: begins on 253
no subject
Date: 2010-11-11 12:04 am (UTC)