marbleglove | Plot-bunnies: Highlander / Dresden Files

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Plot-bunnies: Highlander / Dresden Files

So I've recently been reading The Dresden Files books. I still think the tv show was fabulous and am horrified that it was canceled so quickly, but the books have a certain something. Anyway, since this is me, I have ideas that involve Methos being in that universe. Now,

aeron_lanart has already done a fabulous job of that with the Friends Like These... series, so I don't feel any particular need to fill the vacuum. However, one of the characters in the books is Mac McAnally. On Wikipedia, he's described as:

Species: Unknown, presumably Human

Occupation: Pub owner

McAnally, better known as Mac, owns and runs McAnally's, a pub frequented by the magical fraternity, which is intentionally laid out in such a manner to disrupt the flow of magical energies, with the aim of preventing any unexpected manifestations that might be caused by a large assemblage of potentially drunk wizards. It is also noticeably lacking in items of technology that might be found in an ordinary pub, due to the negative effects on technology caused by the presence of a wizard. Tall and of indeterminate age, McAnally gives off a sense of strength and wisdom that commands the respect of his clientele. Generally taciturn, when he does choose to voice an opinion, Harry generally considers that opinion to be worth listening to. McAnally makes his own dark microbrew beer and fantastic steak sandwiches, which he cooks on a wood-burning stove.

McAnally appears to be regarded with some degree of respect by other supernatural groups; his pub is considered neutral ground for all signatories of the Accords. This makes his pub a common meeting place for parties who are warring and want to discuss things. It also means that it is possible to run into some less than desirable creatures inside the pub. In Small Favor, he develops some degree of respect for Karrin when she defends Harry from a Gruff, and brings out three bottles of a particularly good brew afterward.

Does this not sound like it could be Methos' next identity?

One of the wonderful things about Methos being that you can give him drastic personality changes and shrug it off as reasonable because he's shifting identities.

Anyway, that's a basic character parallel that sprung to mind.

Not necessarily in the same story at all, an actual plot idea deals more with Cassandra, in part because there's not enough Cassandra fic that gives her character the complexity it needs. Too many people tell her to either simply get over her trauma or tell her that her extreme reactions are perfectly acceptable. There's a middle ground that says she was traumatized, it's not the sort of thing one gets over no matter how long it's been, and her survival not only demands that she somehow manage to move on with her life, her survival demonstrates that for long periods of time she has done so.

Anyway, she has a power of The Voice which allows her to command almost anyone to obey her will.

This is, incidentally, against one of the seven laws of magic in The Dresden Files universe. Breaking the laws earns an instant death sentence, execution by beheading. How then has Cassandra survived so long while using it so often?

My idea is that Dresden is about to clobber the woman who is so shamelessly breaking the laws when the magic tag on her makes itself known to him. It's the sort of tag a master wizard might put on a journeyman under his protection. Saying, pretty much, if you touch this person, you'll be seeing me next. So either, he goes to her master first or he waits to be ambushed.

Hmm. Choices, choices. If she's still around, chances are her master is pretty darn nasty and has dealt with all other Wardens who would have had the same choice. So he confronts her.

Cassandra: what laws? what counsel? How is it possible that I've never heard of them before?
After all, she might not notice the Wardens, since she's used to people coming after her with swords trying to decapitate her, but surely she should be aware of the community at large.

Dresden: possibly because they all avoid you like the plague, since you are so easily breaking the laws of magic. They don't want to be considered accessories after all. Plus, from the looks of it, your master is a pretty nasty dude. Who is it?

Cassandra pauses: My master? I don't have a master!

Dresden: Well, you have a magic mark that says you do.

Cassandra: Methos!!! I am not your slave any more!

In the confrontation with Methos:

Dresden: But you're not a wizard.

Methos: Nope.

Dresden: But you have a magic claim mark on Cassandra.

Methos: My brother Caspian was a wizard. Not particularly powerful but he knew what he was doing. He made the mark for me.

Dresden: But what about when Wardens come for you?

Methos: You don't need to be a wizard to kill a Warden. I'd think your war has taught you that.

Cassandra: Why have you done this? Why did you not remove your, your slave collar from me? If not when I first left, then when we met at Duncan's?

Methos: Well, first off, I'm not a wizard. I can't remove the mark. Second, well, you needed the protection.

Cassandra: I'm not yours!

Methos: No, I have no current claim to you, but that doesn't change that we have history. In this, you have my protection.

Cassandra: No!

Methos shrugs.

Dresden tries to rub away the headache.

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see, this is why I love you - even your plot bunnies make me squee. :D

I grin. Thanks!

Never read the Dresden files, but if you write this fic, I'll read it. I've always wanted to read satisfactory fic concerning Methos and Cassandra.

Yeah, they're not common, however if you want a few good Cassandra and Methos stories:

Days Forsaken by jacquez h. valentine
www.dementia.org/~jacquez/writing/hlfic/days_forsaken.html
is by far my favorite.

Quid Pro Quo? by Kai
http://www.seventh-dimension.org/stories/Kai/QuidProQuo.txt
is hilarious.

Once out of Nature by Selena
http://www.seventh-dimension.org/stories/Selena/OnceOutofNature.txt
is also good and a longer story with a more developed plot and character interaction

The link for Days Forsaken seems to be out of commission. Anther one is: http://archiveofourown.org/works/795

i do love qui pro quo it seems such a good insight into the two of them, petty revanches and strong ties

Yeah. They don't like each other, but boy do they have history which ties them together.

Interesting ideas, but I'm not sure how you'd make a full story out of them. Also, how do the Wardens find Methos without asking Cassandra? I have to wonder whether Cassandra is willing to comply with these laws of magic and stop using the Voice. Maybe she'll promise not to use it for a certain amount of time or only defensively while she investigates this hidden society?

Finally, do you have a different link for "Days Forsaken" than the one you mentioned above? It seems that the site is unavailable. The other 2 stories were good, and I'd love to see more of the moderate Cassandra. I haven't ever watched any Highlander movies or tv episodes so I don't have much of a valid view of her, but I think a lot of people thought that she was arrogant (or that's the impression I get from fanfiction anyway).

Oops. Days Forsaken is also at:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/795
And I think most fanfic writers try to bolster Methos' character by tearing down Cassandra's, on the theory that if he's our protagonist, then people who hate him must be awful themselves.

Anyway, I have this theory about how a magic tag would work: it's kind of attached to a magic-users aura with a link back to the owner. Sort of a "if found, please return to ___" type of tag. So anyone who can see the tag at all, can certainly track it back to the owner without bothering to ask the person tagged. Does that make sense? I also think that if tagged person dies, the tag does something to alert the owner and draw him to the killer. Generally placed on kids and apprentices, and slaves.

The conflict in the story developes because Cassandra absolutely does not want to be tagged as Methos' anything. The Wardens, on the other hand, are ready and waiting to kill Cassandra. They are not the type to make deals or even forgive past actions. So if Cassandra is in any way vulnerable, they'll kill her immediately. However, given that she's currently bearing the tag of Death of the Apocolypse, they don't want to start anything. So it's sort of a three-way stand-off:

Cassandra wants to be released from Methos, saying that she can protect herself, but the only way to remove the tag is to have one of the Wardens remove it with Methos' permission. The Wardens want to kill Cassandra but not offend Methos. Methos wants to protect Cassandra and not deal with the Wardens.

I do like some stories where Cassandra is portrayed badly, but many people just exaggerate it beyond belief. I also dislike the stories where the author tries to make Methos conform to modern-day ethics by saying that he was tortured by Kronos into joining the Horsemen and he's really a kind, gentle person. I'm more for that he joined/started the Horsemen willingly but things changed as time went on, as in your "Square Peg" story.

The idea of magic tags makes sense. I have no idea how the stand-off would be resolved though. I've read a few crossovers with the Dresden Files but not enough to really understand the series.

There have been a few really good (and really angsty) stories in which Methos has developed more modern ethics and so looks back on his past actions as horrific, but it really annoys me when the writers say that he should always have had those morals. For that matter, it pisses me off that that the canonical authors pretty much did that to MacLeod. He's four hundred years old, whatever his current thoughts, he hasn't always been a feminist, egalitarian, and humanitarian. I like the stories that show that these characters change and grow over time. Sure, their knowledge and experience can make them change society, but society also changes them.

The world of the Dresden Files is fairly complex, so hard to really grasp when you're just reading fanfic. Hard to grasp when you're reading the books, too, since the rules of magic aren't really consistently explained. However, regardless of the universe, I'm not quite sure how to deal with a stand-off like that. If it were set in another universe (Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings are both good fall-back "there's magic" universes), how would such a stand-off go? I'm still not sure.

How WOULD it go in a Harry Potter world? Would it even get to that point? I think in the HP world, Cassandra just have to disappear for a few centuries and then the wizarding world would forget all about her after dealing with the periodic Dark Lords and Dark Ladies. She'd have a problem every time they realize what her powers are all over again though. She'd probably be able to find someone in Knockaturn Alley who could remove the tag, assuming she could learn enough about the wizarding world.

heh, especially if you add the belief gives power thing... how many people believe in the old testament?
how much would that empower methos when dealing with magic?

i know very little about dresden files, and most of what i know comes from x-overs, but i hink that would be a very intgeresting thin... especially if nobody really wants to see the horsemen reformed

I keep waiting for someone to write a vampire story with Methos in it, in which Methos counts as a holy item. No vampire can touch him without being burned.

someone should really do i... by that i mean you....t

There may come a time when I am forced to do so. But I keep on hoping someone else will do it instead. (hint, hint)

wink, wink, nudge, nudge

Good point.

Okay, so say Cassandra goes to someone who's already breaking a bunch of rules, to get them to remove the tag. There's still the issue of, would Methos be able to sense the tag's removal and then come after the person who did it? So maybe she does find someone sufficiently dark to go ahead and do that, but then the Wardens think: Score. We're free to attack Cassandra. And Methos thinks, oh no, my tag is gone, this evil guy must have killed Cassandra. And evil guy thinks: score, I'm going to bolster my power by killing Death himself. Thus, we suddenly have a plot. And it's possible Cassandra thinks: shoot, I probably should have thought this through better.

Or, what is some wizard other than Dresden is part of the original confrontation. Cassandra then shows up on Dresden's doorstep asking for the tag to be removed. And Dresden is like: you want me to remove a tag from Death himself? Well, shoot, now is hardly the time that I'll learn to have any sense of self-preservation. So he goes ahead and does that. Methos then comes gunning for Cassandra, and there's mass confusion as they both think they're protecting her from someone evil. Meanwhile the Wardens are after Cassandra and eventually Methos and Dresden have to partner up and convince Cassandra to accept their help.

How would the evil guy bolster his power by killing Death? Is he just planning to increase his reputation, or does he think that Death has magic and that he can absorb it by defeating him? Or does he get more powerful by killing anything? I'm not sure about the magic in the Dresden Files so I don't know if a temporary death would do anything or if the bad guy could absorb Methos's quickening.

Shouldn't Bob be in there somewhere? As I understand it, Bob is supposed to be the voice of reason so he probably tried to convince Dresden not to remove the tag. I don't know what else he'd do though. The only way I can think of to protect Cassandra over the long-term is for her to be tagged again, but maybe she can be taught enough to protect herself?

The magic of the Dresden Files universe isn't particularly well defined, so it would be easy enough to say that the bad guy could take the quickening, or thinks he can, or do something else with a 5000-year-old guy to get power.

And you're right: Bob definitely needs to be in there. He's a spirit of intellect (also a perv with a thing for romance novels and porn) who resides in a skull.

My current thought is that, yeah, the only way to protect Cassandra is for her to remain tagged. So after all the trouble that took place with Dresden removing the tag, he then has to replace it on a very (very, very, very) grumpy Cassandra. And even without Cassandra stewing in her own frustration, Dresden is still having a hard time of it, trying to duplicate something that a self-taught wizard from the bronze age made up while using a lot of death magics.

Hmm. As I think of Bob, given that he resides in a skull and I have decided that Caspian was a wizard... what if Caspian was the one who first bound Bob to the skull?

ooh that would be interesting, especially if Bob knew a saner Caspian who after binding him kept him around for kicks and told him about his brothers

That would make the dialogue even more interesting, as Bob would know more than just vague facts about Death. Of course, he'd only know what Caspian had told him and who knows what Caspian considered important to tell Bob.

Hee. I hadn't thought of that, but it's hilarious: what would Caspian consider important information?

likely embarassing stories or anything else he could say to a captive audience, remembering the good old days where day had competitions on who broke a prisioner faster

Oh yes. And whether or not psychological or physical torture works best. And maybe complaining that Kronos always followed Methos' plan and ignored Caspian's.

Also, he could complain about that "heathen" Cassandra and talk about what the voices in his head are saying, if we go back to Caspian being schizophrenic.

Oh yes. And as history progresses, we're increasingly unsure if he was (a) schizophrenic, (b) god-touched, (c) seeing spirits which--according to Dresden canon--can make you crazy, or (d) some combination of the three.

just because of that one time he ened up unleashing a dragon... so not his fault...

And Silas had really liked the dragon...

getting him to part with it had been very hard... and Kronos had made Caspian do it because he couldn't really stand the kicked puppy aura Silas would project when h didn't get his way...

---
Horseman Spirit animals:
Methos: Cat
Silas: Dog
Kronos: Bear
Caspian: ?

Kronos as bear or komodo dragon? (It likes to bite its victims with its septic mouth and then follow them around until they die of infection.)

Caspian: magpie? (Hordes things. Didn't he have a hut of bones at one point? Or was that fandom? I can't remember.)

I went for bear because its a more typical animal...
but dragon would work too

and Caspian as a magpie is a good image... especially as he would be the magician trying stuff out
--- Horseman Camp, before raid ---

M: I am telling you their defences are strong, we need a distraction to take this ciy

K: What do you sugest?

S: something big, and panic inducing that isn't us of course... image gets a beating if only 3 horseman show up

C: Oh! I know I have the perfect thing...just one minute *dashes into tent and starts rumaging*

the remaining horsmen stare at one another

K: CASPIAN! No dragons!!!
S: I don't see why not... dragons are fun

C: No, not dragons just something I picked up on that raid we did against those people who wore blue and had really shiny hair

M: that was four centuries ago, how do you still have anything from it

C: I knew it would come useful... it goes kaboom if i can mix it right...

Kronos as the voice of reason makes me laugh. Ah the trials of trying to lead the four horsemen. Methos had it easy with just being the strategist.

yes!
no wonder he became a mass murderer!
Just the tensions of managing the three divas he lives with would drive a guy to distraction

How old is Bob? I never really considered it before, but getting his timeline could do all sorts of things. Is he older than the horsemen (and thus came with Caspian when he rode), about the same age (thus was made during that time), or younger than (thus made by Caspian after they went their separate ways)? Oh, the possibilities.

i think ko age is given, but he was owned by a poerful necromancer and he selaed those memories away...

a spirit of knowledge,,, maybe that was caspian's solution to keep his ADD brother methos entretained... and he got to preactice his magic binding stuff

Heh. That would be funny.

Caspian gave Bob to Methos in an attempt to keep him entertained. And was horribly insulted when Methos went off and left Bob behind.

Or, Methos did take Bob with him when he left the horsemen, and there's a whole story about when Methos finally lost him in some snafu.

Or, maybe Caspian kept Bob himself and only lent him to Methos on special occasions when Methos was being particularly irritating or Caspian needed a special favor. Otherwise, Methos would spend all of his time quizzing Bob rather than planning raids. But boy did Methos get whiny when Caspian insisted on taking Bob back.

Will Methos try to get Bob back from Dresden? How long was Caspian in the asylum? Maybe that's when Caspian lost Bob?

Well, Bob was with a necromancer back in WWI, and I don't think Caspian would have been in the asylum that long. Surely someone would have noticed the age problem, or lack thereof. On the other hand, surely that's not the first time he was caught and imprisoned. Or maybe someone just plain stole Bob.

I don't know about whether Methos would want Bob back. He might feel that he has time to retrieve Bob later when Dresden has no further use for him, in a few centuries or something.

maybe Methos only had bob occasionally when he showed signs of colour coding, then Caspian would give it to him to play

Methos being sneaky and having gotten used to Bob after having him for a while when Cassandra escaped (Caspian might have been glad that his brothers fake priestess was far far away, he didn't like her... and he wanted to see how long his mark would last) decided to take him to greece when he ledt the horseman

he was going to give him back but then... oops

I weep for my poor grammar and spelling skils

I've just looked at Wikipedia and this is what it said:

"Bob's full name is Hrothbert of Bainbridge. A powerful sorcerer, he died in 900 A. D., apparently in England. During his career he authored many grimoires, one of which fell into the hand of Justin Morningway, Harry's uncle. As Harry Dresden put it, there was "some pretty nasty stuff in there," including something called a "Doom Box." Harry burned Justin's copy after it came into his possession (episode 101, "Birds of a Feather"). During his life, Hrothbert fell in love with a woman, another skilled wizard (sorceress), by the name of Winifred. When she was tragically killed, he used black magic to resurrect her. For this he was condemned by the High Council to be a ghost trapped within his own skull for all eternity, unable to interact with the world in any physical way. According to the Morningway-doppelgänger, the story of Hrothbert and Winifred is legendary in some countries. Bob is still sensitive about the subject (episodes 106, "Soul Beneficiary;" 110, "What About Bob?")."

"Harry has since made a way for himself in Chicago, straddling the world of the everyday and the supernatural by acting as a private investigator and consultant for the Chicago Police Department on seemingly unexplainable cases, and Bob is his secret weapon in this. Not only does Bob contain a wealth of knowledge gleaned from his own wizardly expertise, the ghost has accumulated centuries of experience since being tied to his skull. In addition, Bob can take on the appearance of people given a piece of their personage, an ability that has proven essential to the happy resolution of several cases (episodes 103, "Hair of the Dog;" 104, "Rules of Engagements"). The ghostly wizard can also write in the air in glowing letters (episodes 101, "Birds of a Feather;" 106, "Soul Beneficiary")."

I vote we ignore it and continue on with Caspian making Bob. It looks like all this wasn't revealed until over 100 episodes in anyway.

Actually, I think we have a valid out on all of that back story because Bob is treated entirely differently in the TV show than the books. That backstory is from the TV show. In the books, Bob is a spirit of information or intelligence of something like that, and didn't even have a name before Dresden gave him one. He was never human, but the special effects needed to do that weren't available for the TV show, thus, Hrothbert.

well you have to admit that tv-bob is loads of funs so maybe meshing the personality and skills of tv with the our/books backstory might be a solution

funilly enough as i am posting this not logged in i have the captcha thing it says:
Include Both

Hah! The Internet is Alive!! And apparently paying attention to fandom issues. Hee, hee.

totally and giving good advice for solving them1

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Plot-bunnies: Highlander / Dresden Files

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