marbleglove | Holy Ground, Holy Items, Immortals, & Vampires

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Holy Ground, Holy Items, Immortals, & Vampires

And because I am trying to shed excess plot bunnies so that I can focus on just one or two, here's another one put to pasture:

Crossover between Highlander (ie. Methos, because he's my character of choice) and practically any vampire series (although I think I'll pick the Anita Blake series in this instance because something needs to be done to fix that series.)

Highlander style immortals don't fight on Holy Ground. it's taboo, anathema, generally considered a bad idea with no explanation given. (Although there are a couple of good stories that have good theories, none of them are canon.) However, there's nothing against killing someone wearing a cross or carrying a bible or even a relic, so the taboo only goes so far. The one thing that canon does do, however, is accept that there is such a thing as holy ground, created by any religion that has sacred grounds.

Likewise, vampires cannot stand on holy ground and are repelled by holy items. Now, in the Anita Blake universe, holy symbols can only be used by true believers to repel vampires or demons, but holy ground is holy ground regardless of whether any worshipers are present or not. Thus while representations aren't holy in and of themselves, it is possible for there to be ground and other items are infused with holiness and stand on their own, as it were.

Back with Highlander canon is the fact that Methos is Death of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as seen in the Bible, Book of Revelations. In that vision of the future, there are seven seals, each of which is opened by the Lamb. The Lamb is also a metaphor for Jesus. It's the end of the world and it's full of fire and blood and death and destruction, but it is also by God's will. So, the question is, do the four horsemen count as holy items?

They clearly don't count as Holy Ground, because they can be killed by other immortals. But neither are they simply symbols because no one would particularly recognize them and anyway they aren't representing anything other than themselves.

I imagine a story in which the four horsemen are holy and thus vampires cannot touch them without being burned.

Of course, that's just a premise rather than plot arc in and of itself.

Any plot arc I have would simply have to include Edward, called Death by the vampires of the Anita Blake universe and Ted by the civilians. Dear, dear Edward. He's an assassin.

I can imagine Caspian one of the other horsemen working with Edward on a joint project and then realizing that this man has sort of taken on his brother's name. Kronos, leader of the horsemen, would of course want to kill Edward for such presumption even if Edward would have no reason to know it was presumptive. Caspian wants to keep his colleague alive so that they can continue to go out and kill things together. In order to placate Kronos, though, Methos should come and give Edward permission to use the name.

There is possibly a scene in which some of the older vampires are mocking a captured Edward and some of the younger vampires too for the nickname. In some grand melodramatic fashion Caspian comes to the rescue bringing Methos along with. The laughter of the vampires is abruptly cut off.

"Did you really say, my dear Belle Morte," Methos nearly purred, "that you were going to kill Death?"

She hissed, uncertain what to do. She had known this man back when she had been a mere fledgling but then Christianity has risen and he had vanished. She had been sure he was dead. "Wouldn't you prefer he die, this pretender to your name?"

"If I wanted him dead, he would be dead and by my hands or by the hands of my brother. It is not your place to act in my name."

It had been a shot in the dark and it had missed.

"But come, come, why don't we kiss and make up?" His voice mocked her. She couldn't even look at him, the holy faith turning her eyes away. Any kiss would burn and disfigure.

Methos and his brother walked unchallenged through the vampires to Edward, releasing him from the chains that bound him. He, at least, she could look at, and she could almost sympathize with the look in his eye. His face was blank but it was a cover for the uncertainty that kept him balanced between gratitude and rage, that uncertainty that wondered who these men were who could walk so fearlessly among the monsters. And from whom the monsters recoiled.

Alternately, say Methos and some vampire want to have a relationship. Which is hard enough to do when one of you is edible to the other, even harder when one is deathly allergic to the other. So Methos is trying to become un-holy, but so far nothing is working. Then he discovers that there is another man called Death. So maybe he can transfer the holiness to Edward and get on with his romance. All he has to do is formally declare Edward his heir and then ... well, then discover that nothing is that simple. Heh. He may or may not be able to give Edward holiness but he can't get rid of his own. And can you imagine what being holy would do to a vampire hunter? It's all very good in a hand-to-hand fight, but it also repels the vampires so it's incredibly hard to get that close. Edward is not amused. Anita Blake is caught between finding it hilarious and horrendous. (She has all sorts of religious issues.)

Anyway, if someone writes this, I would appreciate it. Let me know.

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Because Edward is a big bad assassin who is entirely emotionless except for the pleasure of the hunt. And he tells himself (this is canon) that he only married Donna because he got a bit too lost in the role he was playing as Ted, except that he really did get lost in that role and he doesn't know how to stop caring for her and the kids even though he says he doesn't.

Unfortunately, I'm not really good at evil speeches. They all sound way too melodramatic, which they are of course, but it's hard to gauge the right level of melodrama to get it properly evil without going so overboard it's just stupid.

And maybe Belle Morte became a vampire to be immortal with Methos or maybe Methos had her turned into a vampire in order to keep her with him. Or maybe someone else tried to gain leverage against Death by turning his mistress but it didn't work out so well because Methos just slaughtered that entire vampire community and kept Belle with him until she had gotten beyond the fledgling stage.

What if Methos just likes change? That could explain a lot about his personality and the reason he's survived so long. He actively likes change so turning into someone new every decade or so is a bonus rather than a problem for him. And Kronos made the mistake of thinking the horsemen were forever and Methos knew that he would only stay for as long as they provided him new experiences. So he takes, among other things, interesting mistresses. Thus, he gets pissed off at Kronos when Kronos takes Methos' new toy Cassandra away from him. And he keeps Belle with him in order to protect her but it just raised her expectations even though he was never going to promise forever.

Oh yes, Edward is like a smoker who says I can stop anytime... this just a characters it doesn't mean anything I can quit in a flash if I needed too.

You could do an outline of an evil speech, you know from someone's point of view. If it is Edward for an example he would be looking for a way out during the speech and taking in the situation with his mind filtering in the important bits, which can a phrase here and another there. like.

"Dismember you with a spoon..." two vampires near back door, Anita, Richard and Jean-Claude held apart by six vampires each while pretending to be polite.
"...watch while I slowly peel away your wife's flesh..."
Knows about my family. Becca at home and Peter at soccer practice.
"I will have them here very soon"
and maybe Jean-Claude is trying to fast talk everyone's way out with possibly sacrificing only Edward (who he doesn't mind dead anyway)

Ohhhh I like that last one! Pick that!! I would love the idea that Methos was getting tired of the horsemen's gig and along comes a vampire to change his mistress and voilá! A whole new and challenging species to slaughter and terrify! and he now has a long lived apprentice to teach the art that is torturing and killing, taking someone apart by use of his words and acts.

And so he avoids boredom for a few centuries and then unleashes her somewhere on some poor country or vampire country, and killing weres and other difficult to kill things. Tells her to see if she can get along on her own and then vanishes for a long time.

I think that might even be after Cassandra, he has gotten used to having a witch serving him. Kronos realizes he is growing bored and gifts him with a fair captive to play with and to be only his to keep which would be Belle, who according to wikipedia is around 2,000 years old.

And let's face he and Kronos lasted a long time as a team, so maybe he knew that Methos liked change, and thought 'hey he loved power too, the world is different and everything is different maybe he would like to ride again with the new challenges of the modern age to overcome. Let's gather everyone!!!!

Methos loves change and maybe he would cycle back to what he was or maybe not, so even if he didn't promise forever he might have promised her 'someday'. And now that she is very powerful on her own right she wants that and he says "not yet"

Also I wonder if/how she knew he was alive if she couldn't track him, and if the vampires remember the ways of the bloody horsemen who killed many many of the old ones. At the first book there is a vampire guy who is millions of years old, and then the next eldest seems to be a few very much younger... though we know there is someone called Morte D'Amour and also someone who has never been seen named The Traveler and who didn't interfere when Oliver wanted to kill JC because Council members don't fight council members...

Good idea re: the evil speech. Not only is that a good way to not have to write the whole thing but it also breaks up too much narrative following just Edward's thoughts.

I wonder if this is the point where he finally admits he's addicted to love (as it were. Ha!) or whether even in his own head he still denies caring about Donna and kids and tries to ignore the fact that his stomach is in a knot and he has to concentrate to still the tremor in his hands.

I think Belle Morte probably assumed Methos was alive because she couldn't imagine anyone killing him. Then she discovered that *someone else* was going around with his name. So maybe he was dead after all because surely the man she had known wouldn't allow anyone else to use his name. And that's part of her hatred for Edward, not that he's killing vampires but that he's evidence for Methos being dead.

And then it turns out that Methos isn't dead but he's not the man she wants and he still won't accept her. Or possibly can't accept her, depending on what his holy status is. Then it could be this whole star-crossed lovers deal except with ruthless pragmatic psycho killers. Hee.

I can't remember who all the other Vampire counsel members are, but there was Oliver who was something like a million years old but I think that was significantly older than the rest. Because he's described as being physically different and all the others at least look like modern humans.

Then Traveler has the skill of being able to possess other vampires and walk around in their bodies. I'm not even sure if he has a body of his own or not. He has a human servant but the servant enjoys sleeping with whatever body is on offer at the moment, so I'm inclined to think he doesn't have a body of his own. (Now my theory is that since immortals take quickenings, they should also be able to take other free-floating life forces and if Traveler isn't terrified of Methos he should be.)

Is Morte D'Amour the one who has zombie tendencies and is terrifying in his/her ability to rot on command?

Then I've also heard some references to a Mother of Darkness who may be awakening. I don't know anything at all about her but from the sounds of it, she may have been stolen wholesale from Anne Rice.

I think he is still in denial, at least until he actually sees the kids in the hands of the vampires. then he may be forced to admit.

Well that would be a very plausible reason for her to be pissed at him. And Methos probably chose to work as his babysitter in order to see what the guy who was using his name was like (he did it with the fake Methos so why not here?). And how convenient for her that getting rid of the guy using that name fits perfectly into her plans for St. Luis and so provides an excuse for doing it.

Oh yes, the holyness would be a great complication, and he can console her with 2,000 years ago you were my slave, today my equal. what the next centuries will bring is not certain. So you know giving her hope once again, because he knows having her hate him or being mad at him would be unhealthy.

About Oliver, that was what I was getting into maybe a few thousand years ago the vampirc society was also significantly different and more numerous, you know before four men decided to make them their new play toys (Silas would get a kick of keeping weres, he loves animals after all).

The Traveller could be spying in BM and there and maybe he has run into Methos under some other name before and was almost assimilated but instead set a treaty with him in name of vampire/immortal relations.
Like you don't take me and I swear a magical oath not to allow vampires to feed on unwilling immortals?

I wouldn't be surprised if she had been stolen from A.Rice especially since it seems just another character to be interested in Anita and then be defeated
Yupe, Morte is the rotting guy which makes me wonder how the skills of a particular bloodline come about.

Methos and Traveler have this uneasy truce but Methos and Oliver probably stayed the hell away from each other. They both knew that if it really came down to a fight, they'd probably both die along with a large chuck of the landscape.

I think Oliver was probably having a hard time of it these last few millenia because he got so very powerful that he wasn't able to really use his power for fear of doing too much damage and possibly causing an extinction event. He would survive it, but it would by the time it settled down and something sentient evolved again he'd be both very hungry and very bored and he doesn't think he could stand to deal with that.

And maybe Silas is the reason why werefoxes in China are different from any other were in that their fox shape is the primary one. And they are all extremely beautiful. He kept a group of werefoxes but forced them to maintain the fox shape and after a few hundred years they just stayed that way even when Silas moved on.

I like the idea of Methos and Belle Morte coming to an understanding that they can't be together but who knows what will happen in the future. After all, he's only holy for as long as Christianity is a major religion. With the potential to live for a million years, there is a chance for them eventually.

This perfect background material. Especially with regards to Oliver and Methos staying away and what would have happened had they met.
And Oliver could have been growing bored, especially since he had become and ugly guy when surely he had been a very handsome Homo Erectus who though absurdly powerful couldn't use that because of boredom. And he must have gotten especially bored once libraries went into the church's control being located in Holy Ground. Poor guy.
he can't cut loose and party and has to do his plotting the old fashioned way, moving pawns around and with so few people to talk too... everyone who could understand him was either sleeping for a few centuries like the Mother or people who if ever met personally again would almost certainly kill each other.

Oh yes, I can see Silas doing that so clearly, they'd be treated well so long as they were animals if they shifted then they were fair game for Caspian's fun or for the whatever games they played with their slaves. The Foxes ended up being a carefully cultivated and controlled species for so long that they became it.
The bloodline being purified with every new slaves he took he thought might fit his vision for them.

There is the chance he would lose the holyness and she the homicidal tendencies... why burn a bridge when you can maintain it after all?

In any case can you picture them getting together and discussing or remembering the past over the conversation... you something like "well whenever I burned Babylon I always thought of you" or "I think I saw you during massacre at XXX" and the other (or someone else) is surprised and says "wait a minute that was you?"

You know that likely during the dark ages they were all living in comfort in the east or in the peninsula where there was comfort and beautiful things plenty.

There might well be a good but angsty fic showing canon from Oliver's point of view. Where really, he's been fighting to survive for so long but now he's really just fighting to die an respectable death. And it doesn't work and it doesn't work until he's finally fighting with these massive self-imposed handicaps and picking less and less reasonable fights.

A couple of really fabulous short stories about Methos in the future being his cool, good-by-choice psycho-by-nature self, are:

"Days Forsaken" by jacquez h. valentine
http://www.dementia.org/~jacquez/writing/hlfic/days_forsaken.html

"Methos by Firelight" by jacquez h. valentine
http://www.dementia.org/~jacquez/writing/hlfic/methosbyfirelight.html

Oh I had seen these before, but had never saved them *hugs* thanks for sending me those links!!

I love how Methos deals with his few absolutes and how he alternates one life to the other going from oposites.
it reminds of a challenge I saw at Highlander Fiction once that nobody answered: (http://hlfiction.net/challenges.php?chalid=5) where several of the identities would be confronted by meeting past friends of different times in the same place.

I do love those stories. They have such a great take on Methos.

"The Black Magician" by Shadows Dancing over on fanfiction.net is unfortunately incomplete and hasn't been updated for more than two years, but in it Hammond first meets Methos' newest identity (Methos having killed of Adam Pierson just recently) and thinks he looks a lot like a young man he met back in Vietnam (the identity before Pierson), then Daniel meets him and thinks he looks a lot like his old colleague Adam. Chaos progresses from there.

I've also seen a couple of fun stories in which Duncan meets an alternate Methos personality and is shocked. "But that's not like you!" "No, it's not like Adam Pierson, which is really the point." After all, if you don't want to be tracked, you have to change.

I have heard of that story but never truly read it. I can't remember why, I think it was something with the plot or the writing but since you are recommending it I will definetely give it a shot, it's in your favorites there right? The premise seems to be fun.

I love those stories where Duncan meets a new persona though I wish we could see him meeting the friends his other persona has (you know Methos has to have a rich guy identity lying around for when he wants his luxuries) and discovers that there is a persona who drinks wine and goes to the Opera .

Trying to explain how much change is good won't work for Duncan... he has kept his name all of his lives so changing personalities is a little extreme for him but Joe might get it.

One of the great things about fanfiction and the vastness of the internet is that there pretty much is a story for every need. Of course, when there isn't, then it's really annoying and one feels compelled to write it oneself. (ie. BtVS/Hackers) but:

"Champagne" by Lferion
http://hlfiction.net/viewstory.php?sid=1016

It's more of Richie being shocked by Methos' other persona, but it's a very cool story and I wish it weren't just a one-shot.

There's another story that I read a long time ago but failed to bookmark. In it, Duncan is saying something obnoxiously naive about people being innately good or bad. Methos asks Duncan if he ever met this one blacksmith back in the day? Duncan says, oh yeah, a great guy, more than a little crazy and rough as hell, but fun to hang out with. And Methos explains that he was killed in a challenge when his opponent's mortal girl friend snuck up behind him and hit him over the head. Duncan is furious and intent upon revenge for such a unfair death. Then Methos explains that the blacksmith was Kurgan and the winner was Conner MacLeod. Duncan is given a lot to think about.

I wish it were longer too, it makes such a nice point. I love how Methos compartmentalizes abilities as well as personality traits and how he has an identity of a rich patron of arts who is very reclusive and coincidentally needs a cane to walk.

Oh that story must have been awesome and so like Methos to twist the tale around so he can see both sides and show it to Mac so that the highlander can come up with his own conclusions!

I stumbled on this one just the other day, it was a great read but I lost the bookmark too.

I cant believe that the horseman survived 3,ooo years being killers all the time

even Caspian would have gotten bored or decapitated before that.

there was a lovely fic where the horseman who are killed aren't really Methos's brothers but other old immortals he and the other 3 manipulate into being there for the showdown.

I loved it

I actually re-found the first one recently.

It was "Sweet Vengeance" by liliaeth
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/246523/1/Sweet_Vengeance

The other one, was actually one of mine, unless you found a similar story (in which case, let me know, so that I can read it):

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1588441/1/Death_of_the_Four_Horsemen_of_the_Apocalypse

Nope it was yours....

well now you know how much I loved it, praising it to the author unknowingly!

Yay!

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Holy Ground, Holy Items, Immortals, & Vampires

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