FIC Torchwood (poem) - Adversary

[fajrdrako]

Title: Adversary
Fandom: Torchwood
Author: fajrdrako
Characters: Bilis, Jack
Genre: Poem #13
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Not mine, no claims, all property of the BBC.
Notes: Possible spoilers for "End of Days". Bilis' voice. Cross-posted to my LJ and torch_wood. With thanks to damalan and fatchickengirl for inventing the form. I hadn't planned it, but it seems beautifully apropriate that I am posting a poem about the episode "End of Days" on Easter Sunday.


Adversary

Elimination of the beast.
Never say I deceived at all.
Don't deny I helped you, Captain.

Of all things most you wished for death.
First I gave you love; a last gift.

Don't say I served your enemy.
Abaddon was part of my plan,
Yesterday's monster in our time.
See what I've saved for tomorrow.

~ ~ ~

Thirteenth and last in a series following Endings and Beginnings, Notes for Gwen Cooper, Time Present, Camping, Jasmine, Consuming, Mary, Danger Man, Silence, Aviator, Weevil, and Immortal Beloved.


~ ~ ~

Comments

[vands88.livejournal.com]

Bilis creeps me out beyond words and "see what I've saved for tomorrow" makes me quiver in my boots! Good stuff! :D

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Bilis creeps me out beyond words

Yes, me too, but in a sort of good way!

I'm so glad I was able to make you quiver. Thank you!

[raissad.livejournal.com]

Again, you've captured the voice perfectly. :)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It was fun to write.

[damalan.livejournal.com]

You know, if it weren't for Danger Man this really would be my favourite poem of the set. You've gone for a simple, credible and frightening extension of the events of End of Days, and in the process made Bilis - who is already highly disturbing - a whole lot more scary.

I just wanted to say that I am most impressed that you've had both the stamina and imagination to see this through to the end. And in the process examined the series from a lot of different angles. You've more than earned the right to claim co-ownership of this acrostic poem form.

Next stop all the other villains and victims of the series? ;-)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I found Bilis fascinating, and no less so because we don't ever learn his motives or his methodology, and we don't see anything about what happens to him at the end of the episode - presumably, nothing. Presumably he goes back into some niche in time of his own choosing, knowing what happened between Jack and Abaddon.

I'm particularly delighted that you found my take on Bilis scary!

It's been fun, poking at the different episodes from different viewpoints. I found that writing it as poetry was a whole different process than writing about Torchwood in prose - in some ways more challenging, in some ways less difficult, because it's a different mental process. Thanks for giving me the form and the idea in the first place!

I'm not sure what I'll do next. I think I need a dose of prose-writing for a break - but I'm not sure what.

[damalan.livejournal.com]

Bilis has been the best villain as you say: we know even less about him that we do his nemesis, Jack. In that sense they are made for each other.

Well, rest assured I shall be reading whatever else you move on to. Good luck!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

You're right, Jack and Bilis are sort of parallel mysteries: age unknown, point of origin unknown, motives unknown. And both are time travellers.

Nice connections there.

[damalan.livejournal.com]

If I were to plot a long-term arc for Torchwood, it would go something like:

Uncovering the truth that Bilis is human - just not from now; and realising that he is the greatest threat to the human race, the reason that everything changes in the 21st century. Jack's purpose can then be to defeat Bilis, even if that costs him his immortal life.

I can't decide whether it would be too corny for Jack to discover that Bilis is his future self, so jaded by his experiences as an immortal that he'd rather destroy everything, and never have been.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I like that as a long-term theme. I don't like the notion if Bilis as Jack - that's just been done, and seldom very well - but I do like the notion of a future connection between them. If Bilis, perhaps, was the Time Agent Boss who swiped Jack's memory because Jack was about to expose his corruption.... That would do.

[damalan.livejournal.com]

Ooh, a fellow Time Agent is an interesting link. Clearly something has changed him beyond Jack's recognition, and he has abilities outside the norm. That would also mean that the worship of Abaddon was a ruse designed for the express purpose of destroying the threat that Jack represents to him.

Of course I doubt we'll get something so coherent, but we can dream, can't we? :-)

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

a fellow Time Agent is an interesting link

I love the time-travel aspect of Jack's life, which has been largely ignored in the plotlines of Torchwood. But that was his life for a time - with fairly significant ramifications.

That would also mean that the worship of Abaddon was a ruse designed for the express purpose of destroying the threat that Jack represents to him.

Or a ruse to destroy Abaddon, if he knew how powerful Jack actually was. If Abaddon stood in his way. If Bilis were an ultrapowerful Time Agent who had learned to mess with timelines, and Abaddon was an obstactle couldn't overcome on his own - he manipulates Torchwood into letting Abaddon into their own world and time, and destroying him. So Bilis is free to do whatever it was he wanted to do.

Or he may simply have wanted Jack and Abaddon to destroy each other.