Conjugal Visits

Fanfiction
Title:	Conjugal Visits
Author(s):	taselby
Date(s):	2001
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Highlander
Relationship(s):
External Links:	here (offline, unarchived) AO3
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Conjugal Visits is a Highlander slash story by taselby.

It was published in Futures Without End #4 and is online.

Reactions and Reviews

Eva said on ODM I mentioned this one - actually it was Kamil, who characterised it as a h/c story. I'd have to disagree with this. Massive hurt, but very, very little comfort, this story is the literary equivalent of a having a bloody good cry. You feel absolutely wretched in the throes of it, and sad afterwards, but somehow, the intensity of the experience is worth it. It's an angst fest par excellence.

There is a slight congruence of themes in this zine - several deal with the post-Endgame fall out, and two, 'Conjugal visits' and 'Kindle' by Julia both have Duncan and Methos as lovers separated by the implacable pursuit of an enemy who is using Duncan to get at Duncan. Both suffer very slightly from plot implausibilities, and it was only on the second reading that I really could get a sense of the back story of Taselby's story (but that probably owes more to my speed-reading habit than any flaw in the writing). 'Conjugal Visits' is set nearly 130 years in a bleak, overcrowded, natural environment denuded world, and Duncan and Methos have endured 50 years of persecution by fellow Immortals and Watchers alike (it's the timescale of this which I find a tad unbelievable).

As we meet them, they are on an annual camping trip in the outdoors (a conjugal visit), and they are both hurting. Big time. Told from Duncan's POV, he rages and fights against the dying of his love and his life, and Methos' perceived indifference to his pain. You're expecting a happy ending? Think again - this is the author of 'The book of Lost Days' after all, although this is *not* a death story. The boys aren't dead, but they are dying from the situation they find themselves in. Duncan batters himself and his lover in an attempt to re-establish the human contact which was so brutally ripped away from them - and he succeeds, but at what a price. Everything has cost them too much - their lives, their freedom, and even the ending, which might by some be seen as the end of their dilemma comes at much too high a cost in terms of lives lost, ideals lost. Years of pain and agony and desolation for everyone.

This is *not* a happy read. But it is an exquisitely beautiful one, every phrase weighed for maximum sensory impact. Methos looks at Duncan "with eyes the decayed green of aging pecan leaves." So much about what has changed in their world is economically conveyed:

***

Methos crouched by the fire and fed it twigs one at a time, apparently lost in thought. It was a waste of effort, a waste of wood. The sun would clear the summit soon, and the wind would die, the freezing becoming another muggy, stagnant, sweltering dar. Duncan made a conscious effort to relax and let it go. Dry wood was plentiful enough if one knew where to look and unlike other things, cost only the effort of collecting it.

***

Everything in this is powerful - the descriptions, the emotions, the horror, the pain and the love. Not the most comfortable time you can spend reading fanfic. But one of the most worthwhile to come out lately.

9 out of 10

T had mentioned taselby's "conjugal visits" and i went to that one first. it again is well-written, well-thought out, realistic, truthful, so many good adjectives, but it was so sad. i began to cry at the end (like duncan) and my husband said, hey, i thought you liked this stuff. and i said it was just so bleak. believable but bleak. i then read 'chelle/kamil's story, and they wrote happy sex and i laughed and my husband said that's it. the light is out, elvis is leaving the building. so i went to bed.

btw, T. i read Conjugal Visits first thing because you mentioned it, but i had taken some of my heavy-duty super-duper cough syrup AND some cold meds, and i just got into a crying jag (like duncan at the end of the story) and my husband said, "This is supposed to be enjoyable. No more slashzine for you!" and took it away. taselby did that to me w/her two dead-duncan stories too (there is a little too much alliteration there, neh?). so i feared that skimming the zine while i was so "downed" made me think everything was a downer. i am so glad i woke up on saturday and the sun was shining and i reread Concurrences. i felt down when i read it the first time, but enjoyed it immensely the second. i know what you mean about the tangled tongue syndrome right after the magic penis effect. but what the hey, somebody has to write slash so that i can read it. i liked the bit being from duncan's POV in the shop; i liked the change of scene from joe's and the barge. and the dialogue was just fine in the sunshine in my eyes.