Werewolves of London (Professionals story)

Fanfiction
Title:	Werewolves of London
Author(s):	Rimy
Date(s):	August, 2005
Length:	12,500 words, 93K
Genre(s):	slash, Bodie/Doyle
Fandom(s):	The Professionals
Relationship(s):	Bodie/Doyle
External Links:	WoL at The Hatstand WoL at Circuit Archive Rimy's profile at Circuit Archive Rimy's profile at The Hatstand
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"Werewolves of London" is a The Professionals story by Rimy. It is a slash story with the pairing of Bodie/Doyle. It was written in August 2005 and posted to The Circuit Archive on September 16, 2005, and also to The Hatstand.

Reactions and Reviews

2005

[justacat]
I've just posted a story to the Circuit Archive called Werewolves of London, by Rimy. It's been up on the Hatstand archive for a few weeks now; I read it the day it was posted and fell totally in love with it, and I kept meaning to write about it, but with one thing and another I hadn't done it. Then yesterday someone began a discussion of it over on one of the lists, and it reminded me. I could post my comments on that list - and I did in fact make a comment there, and may make another - but I find I am generally more comfortable in this forum (indeed, I'd prepared a blistering few paragraphs about why, precisely, that is so - but I've decided to leave it be for the moment. I want this post to be about this magnificent story - it deserves a post all to itself, unsullied by negativity. :-)

Werewolves is a love story - and this is my woefully inadequate, but deeply heartfelt, love story about it.

[…]

In short, I love this story. I love it deeply, love it passionately, love it in so many, many ways, most of which I fear defy articulation. […]

Okay, where to start? Well, perhaps with the writing itself, which is simply gorgeous. It's probably no surprise to those of you who read this journal that I love writing that is, for lack of a better word, textured - not simple and concise and straightforward, not streamlined, but instead complex, full of curlicues and adornments, with sentence structure that is technically impeccable (I'm fairly forgiving in the fannish world, but boy it's nice to find an author who knows how to use a semicolon and is skilled enough to be complex by design rather than by accident) but sometimes requires more than one reading to fully absorb and appreciate. Not that Rimy's writing is fussy or complicated, not in the slightest - in fact, one of the joys of it for me is its precision, the way it makes me feel that every single word - even the curlicues and adornments - is exactly where it's supposed to be and is absolutely necessary. It's an incredibly, beautifully careful use of language, by which I don't mean that it feels "crafted" - in fact, quite the opposite; it has that rare quality, true, I think, of all the best writing and story-telling,of feeling entirely natural and inevitable, effortless, so the craftsmanship, the care, is practically invisible.

It's careful and precise - but that doesn't mean stingy, and it doesn't even mean streamlined. To the contrary, it has amazing depth and complexity, and it's amazingly rich, almost luxurious. This is a type of writing I adore: I love being able to luxuriate in the language, the words; roll them around on my tongue, savor them, almost taste the writing. The way Rimy puts words together is an art; the structure of each sentence conveys a meaning itself, beyond the meaning of the words. It's a very difficult thing to describe, and it's not characteristic of all good writing, but it's immensely, immensely satisfying to me personally. Every time I read the story through I notice and appreciate another little treasure, another way in which the author has used words to lead me down a certain path without my even realizing it, another gorgeous image or turn of phrase ...

But Rimy doesn't make it all that easy for the reader. She doesn't paint you a picture, doesn't lead you by the hand down that path. It's easy to miss things; it's a story that requires careful reading - and benefits from multiple readings (something that certainly cannot be said of all fanfic, or indeed of all fic). At times Rimy leaves the reader a bit in the starry twilight, leaves things a bit obscure and unspoken. She has a pretty uncompromising approach: she simply does not hand you things on a plate. She sketches things, hints at them - and then she almost twists away, twists and flickers and then throws another barrage of wonderful, witty, totally original prose or dialogue at you - prose or dialogue that almost certainly means more than you think upon first reading it, that is there for a reason and not just because it's looks good (though it definitely does do that).

[…]

What more is there to say?

I recommend this story with no reservations and my full heart. It makes me feel lucky to be a Pros fan - and it makes me want to fall to my knees and beg Rimy shamelessly for more.

[metabolick]
Yes, yes, yes! I think "textured" is a good word to describe Rimy's writing. I love it, too.

Here is my favorite line: "...as if Doyle's touch fell into a well of need so deep that Bodie had never felt it hit bottom."

I also loved the metaphor of skydiving foro committing themselves, not knowing what the other's reaction would be.

I must confess that the part where Bodie caught on to the fact that Ray returned his love confused me. I had to reread it several times and I still don't quite know what gave it away to him. Perhaps it is his reaction that confused me, since it is not what I would have expected.

Defintely not canon Lads, but that's okay. There are plenty of stories I enjoy where that is the case.

[justacat]
I struggled and struggled for the right word to describe the writing - "textured" really seemed to capture it. It's an almost tactile pleasure to read it.

As for the part where Bodie caught on to Ray's feelings - my reading is that Bodie figured it out from the way Ray said "I watch your back just like you watch mine. The same way, Bodie." The words are unremarkable - a nothing, throwaway comment, a truism. But something about the way Ray said it - or rather, something about the heavy, perhaps expectant silence afterwards, and the look on Ray's face - made it seem to Bodie that *Ray* thought he was saying something truly momentuous. So Bodie is a little puzzled for a moment - why would Ray give such weight to such an obvious, unremarkable point? It doesn't fit ... unless Ray means something else, something much more, by those words ... and he recognizes the look on Ray's face (by which I assume Rimy means a look of love, or lust, or both, that Bodie's seen on Ray before, but not directed at him). And then he puts it all together and he twigs. Or at least that's how I read it. Anyway, it worked for me, at least partly because of the foundation she'd already laid about their remarkable unspoken communication.

And ... I can see the argument that it's not canon Lads, but I always view canon as subject to interpretation. We don't see this kind of behavior from them on the show - but given what we do see of their characters, it's certainly possible to imagine that they could be like this (and I kind of like this view of them!). I've found that all sorts of characterizations can work for me in the hands of a good author, who bases the characterization sufficiently in canon that you can't dismiss it as fantasy, even if the weight of canon might tend to point in another direction.

If that makes sense *g*.

But all in all, a remarkable story.

[paris7am]
I have had a hard time figuring out what to say after reading your wonderful review. You *have* said it all! Thank you for expressing the delight and the particular pleasure which reading this story brings.

I also find it very difficult to chose 'favorite' parts to quote and have to resist quoting the whole text. You've chosen perfectly, in any case! Still, it's irresistable. Here are a few more...

Beautiful, Bodie thought, as he always thought. He'd never understood why he found beauty in that rebuilt face, nor what in his partner spoke to his own need to give, what in Doyle urged him to find out everything that Doyle wanted, then go and get it for him.

[…]

The writing is so breathtakingly beautiful, the emotions between them are so stunning - I read metabolick's comment on the skydiving metaphor and couldn't help but think that the experience of reading the story is rather like skydiving... not applicable to all parts (wasn't petrified to begin reading!) but the breathless exhilaration of the flow, circling down into the center of it.

2007

[justacat]
So today I'd thought I'd offer a tribute to writers who make me work for my supper - writers who make me think. I'm a re-reader, and assuming I like the basic story - meaning, in fanfic, that it's a good slash love story - I appreciate stories and writing that don't offer everything up on first reading, that continue to give me more, to yield more, each time I revisit them.

[…]

So here are a few of my favorite stories - or really, authors - who make you work for it a bit, but reward that work exponentially.

[…]

I must admit that Rimy is sometime too...oblique, even for me (though she can also be eminently accessible). I don't always get what she's doing. But I think her Werewolves of London is absolutely, stunningly brilliant. This is a story that requires careful reading and benefits from multiple re-readings; not until you've finished it can you even understand the basic structure, which is essential, really to appreciate the story. She has very carefully chosen when things should be disclosed to the reader, how the story should unfold; it's not linear, but it's logical and effective. nellhowell described this really well, so I'll quote her: "each new revelation leads us to keep altering our perceptions, to fit in more pieces, until finally we have the full picture" - if we're willing to work for it. At times Rimy leaves the reader a bit in the starry twilight, leaves things a bit obscure and unspoken. She sketches things, hints at them - and then she almost twists away, twists and flickers and then throws another barrage of wonderful, witty, totally original prose or dialogue at you - prose or dialogue that almost certainly means more than you think upon first reading it, that is there for a reason and not just because it's looks good (though it definitely does do that).

Again in keeping with our theme: here's a bit of Bodie having his own revelation...

[Callisto]
Yesss! *That's* what I was trying to articulate by talking about the "glimpses" she allows us, and why I love her so - thank you, as always, for having better words for what I'm on about.*g*

And I've just discovered Rimy during this proliferation challenge. What a wonderful writer, I wish there were more of her stories at the Circuit. Werewolves of London was.. unsettling at first. Then about halway through something 'clicked' and I stopped speed reading to see if I'd like it, went back to the beginning, savoured every bloody word and felt a new 'Wow' for another writer take hold.

[…]

Absolutely, and it's addictive.

20008

[justacat]
I haven't read it all that recently, but I know it practically by heart; I absolutely adore this story - love, love, love, love, love it. I even wrote a...review? discussion? paean *g*? of/to it right after it was written (in my LJ, […]

The writing in that story just blows me away. How I wish she was still around, and still writing...

[shooting2kill]
Many thanks, Justacat. Right, I’ve read this story twice now, once this week and once 3 years ago, and I *think* I’ve understood most of it (but who knows? And that’s not a criticism. I love stories which make me think, which have [the much discussed by some of us] layered ‘onion effect’, stories which leave me wondering and pondering aspects of it long after I’ve finished reading. Someone once said in a discussion re this particular piece of writing, that they didn’t like stories which forced you to read them more than once in order to understand them and I *can* appreciate that but I think there’s a difference between those kind of stories and stories which you read again and again because on each reading some new, different meaning is revealed - not because it was badly written in the first place but because it was deliberately written in such a way as to mean several things. Not a case of ‘clever-clever’ but perhaps clever and fascinating. Anyway, the bit I wasn’t sure about - nothing major but just something niggling away at me - is a flashback which comes just after the pub scene towards the end of the story. Bodie has strong suspicions that Doyle has enacted various forms of revenge on his behalf and so has overstepped his usual moral boundary. So far so good. Then the conversation appears to take on a secondary meaning and seems to be about Doyle revealing how much he really cares for Bodie and the kind of way he cares for him. If you agree with my interpretation, so far, then I’m really puzzled by Bodie’s almost extreme reaction to this knowledge, given that he feels the same way about Doyle. Is it just nerves? He seems almost repulsed by the knowledge, thinking in terms of ‘revenge’ - or has he really *not* thought about Doyle in this way before?

[…]

I could understand the whole scene a bit more if my interpretation was wrong and Bodie is simply reacting to the revelation that Doyle isn’t the ‘moral compass’ (that term is borrowed from you) he once thought he was, but is, instead, just as ruthless as Bodie. Which leads me to a lesser point, one which I might have missed, but are we ever shown *why* Bodie pushes the man off the roof in the first place? If we're not given any reasons is it just a device to show how ruthless Bodie is? But that action seems to go beyond the ordinarily-required ci5 level of ruthlessness to something bordering on sick/psychopathic.....(maybe I *have* missed or forgotten something that happened between Bodie and this man?).

Anyway, just wondered how you or anyone else interpreted this scene! And I enjoyed your review of this story. Many thanks.

[sc_fossil]
Interesting story. I'd not read it before. The pub scene is quite -- revealing. Not what I'd expect of Doyle at all, but strangely, it didn't bother me what he'd (supposedly) done. Bodie, I could see what he's done. He's more hard-edged. Doyle? I don't know. It was a bit OOC, but the romantic in me kind of bought into it. It's not love-romantic, more -- possessive romantic. Don't touch what's mine. That sort of thing. It's definitely well-written. The thing is do you (the reader) buy into what we're told/shown.

Or am I totally wrong about the entire thing. *g*

[kiwisue]
Thank you for posting this! I love Werewolves and, like you, I find new things about it every time.

I think that Bodie's 'extreme reaction' is partly to do with his initial suspicions about what Doyle has done, or caused to have done. That's strike one against his understanding of who Doyle is, his moral boundaries. Strike two is when he realises Doyle cares for him. Those two things, coming on top of seeing what happened to Krivas, then realising that what happened (whatever it was) to Willis and the bikers was part of it as well. I can see that unsettling him - Doyle has ever been his constant, until he takes "an unexpected turn down an unknown road". Cool as Bodie is, his autonomic nervous system must have been driving his stomach into his throat at that point.

I think he resolves it, too - the idea forming (maybe not in his head as such, but sublimely expressed by the author) that Doyle is "Atropos with a Swiss Army knife" - one of the Fates, making decisions, cutting threads that ought to be cut (lots of classical allusions in this, I haven't worked out half of them). Someone to be wary of, but to 'worship', to give oneself to at the same time?

[surreul]
oooh, I love this story insanely.

My interpretation is a bit different from what seems to be the consensus. I thought Bodie's negative reaction was almost exclusively to Doyle's revelation that he loves Bodie and wants a sexual relationship with him. He adores Doyle and has for a long time, it's something he's never felt before and it's now the ruling passion of his life and he's grown comfortable with that, figured out how to deal with it, accepted that he has a big part of Doyle and that's enough. Now Doyle rips his certainties apart, now Doyle offers something Bodie wants desperately and longs for... so now there's the possibility of losing it. Bodie even says that 'furious betrayal' would not have been his first guess as to what his reaction would be if Doyle ever wanted him back. But that's the way he feels because he's scared and in shock. In this story, Doyle is Bodie's moral compass, (nice phrase) and the very center of his life, his everything, and now he does something to change all that Bodie knows, that's terrifying. Bodie never expected and dreamed Doyle would love him, even now after they're lovers, after he knows what Doyle has done for him, he still only sometimes believes Doyle loves him.

Of course, that's just my take on it. :)

I really wish Rimy had written more serious fics, they're just incredible.

2010

[istia]
A wonderfully written love story, emotional, evocative, ironic, humorous, edgy: myriad aspects of Bodie and Doyle layered into a remarkable and delightful whole. Bodie and Doyle prowl the streets of London in guises not quite as familiar as seen in many stories, but resonating brilliantly with their canon selves.

The writing itself is sheer pleasure to read, with a classy style and a structure that collates different timeline incidents to slowly reveal the tight interlacing of matters that at first appear discrete.

The story is in Bodie's pov. This is a Bodie who exudes both vulnerability and tension while he deals with a crisis, but everything in his life centres on Doyle:

[…]

What I love most about this story is the way we gradually learn more details both about their personal lives and the incident at the heart of this story. Each new revelation leads us to keep altering our perceptions, to fit in more pieces, until finally we have the full picture. What we end up understanding is far removed from what we initially believe we'll discover before we can see the whole, and that applies to Bodie and Doyle as well as to events:

[…]

I have a fondness for stories that manage to show Bodie and Doyle as hard-edged, skilled--dangerous--yet also vulnerable, particularly in regards to each other. This story answers my desires brilliantly and it's a superb B/D love story.

2012

Why this must be read:This is a darker side to the men of CI5. The first time I read this I was amazed, I just wasn't sure if I liked it, but after a second time, I found the special nuances and fell in love with this. By now, you have figured out I don't follow the normal loves so be brave and give it a try.