Who Gave Us Delight

Fanfiction
Title:	Who Gave Us Delight
Author(s):	Sebastian
Date(s):
Length:	5300 words
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Facelift
External Links:	online here
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Who Gave Us Delight is a Facelift Zax/Bodie-clone story by Sebastian.

This story has a companion piece, Zax (Prologue).

Reactions and Reviews

A story about Zax from the Brit TV-movie Facelift that opens after the end of the movie: with Zax dead. Ina has taken his place as magician, but she and the audience both labour under their shared guilt for Zax's murder. Meanwhile, at the Centre, a new Number, an experiment, has been created: M4375. He's an oddity amongst the fair-haired, insipid Numbers: a dark-haired, dynamic Bodie-clone. Inevitably, the fates of Zax and a Number will again intertwine:

And as [M4375] walked the prismic laser paths to solitude, he wondered how he could explain his dreams to a mechanical mind which would not understand the compelling mystery of the wide-eyed sorcerer who waited for him at night with enchantment to offer; which, though bodiless, would never have a chance of comprehending how sweet the glide of skin, lying beneath a ruling tumblehaired fantasy that seemed more real than life.

My favourite Zax stories are ones that evoke the complex emotions that swirl around the Zax of the movie--despite the film's simplicity--and capture a sense of the darkness in both the character and his world. This story is rich with nuance and fine imagery, ah, so lovely to read! Ina's power and guilt bring Zax back and he takes up again his life in the theatre, but nothing will ever be the same:

And behind him, the pile ignited in a huge pyre, flames shooting to the ceiling in a sheet of yellow: Wax puddled into formlessness but Bob felt no heat, only a chill that struck through him as he realised the truth.

The old life was over; the new one begun.

And on a certain night, M4375 makes his way to the theatre for the first time....