This is the third part of an episode, read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

This is the second part of an episode, read Part 1 here.

( In spite of the automated air conditioning systems throughout the building, despite the additional filters needed for that particular department, the air in the main science lab still seemed stale to Wesley as he opened the door and led Coral inside... )

Continued in Part 3

( First night back in Los Angeles... )

This is the second half of an episode, read part 1 here.
 

 
Guest Starring Rebecca De Mornay as Matron Fisher.
 

It's taken about a year and a half now, but the day has finally arrived. To recap, this is Still Falling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fik-AEf6oM, and the one in question has indeed been revealed, as seen in the previous post.


To go into greater detail...

TV shows come to an end. Sometimes, their time has come, their story told, their characters all grown up and wielding scythes and motivational speeches. But sometimes, a story seems to be only just beginning. Angel ended abruptly, only a year after a new lease of life, which, in these authors’ opinion, gave the show its strongest year by a mile, and a wealth of new stories to tell. We therefore decided to revive the show, beginning with a sixth season.

This is intended as an effectively canonical continuation – if you prefer Joss’ version, that LA went to Hell, Spike is Lord of Beverly Hills, every character ever seen on the show has shown up at some point, and Dawn is a giant because she lost her virginity, then fair enough, but we think he lost the plot a bit, and that we can do better, or at least give it a shot.

As a result, we are aiming to maintain the same tone as the previous five seasons, but obviously slightly adapted to the new medium. This means the language, sex and violence content will be about the same as the TV show, probably rated 15 (or PG-13 in the US). In keeping with this tone, Still Falling is not slash. Relationships will be portrayed just as before, the season will not end with all the characters miraculously paired up, and any romantic liaisons that do occur are unlikely to be the focus of the story.

If any die-hard shippers out there (admittedly, the category I usually fit into) still insist on looking at Still Falling in this way, then all hope is not quite lost, for what it’s worth, this promises to be the most complex Sparmony fic ever written.

As for the format, as with seasons 1-5, our season(s) will be divided up into 22 episodes, some stand-alone and some more arc-centric, with each episode likely to be 7-10 thousand words. We will post a new episode every two weeks, working in blocks of 5 or 6 – Once episodes 1-5 have been written, we will release one a fortnight, but not post 6 until 6-10 are all completed.

All comments on both individual episodes and the series as a whole are, of course, more than welcome and would make us very happy, be they critical or complimentary. However, as we want future episodes to remain spoiler-free, and leaving certain leading questions (like “Will Numfar be coming back?” or “How on Earth will Angel be able to get his soul back this time?”) unanswered might look rather suspicious, we will not be answering any plot-based questions until the end of the season. Please by all means still leave comments like this, as we like to know what people are thinking, but bear in mind that we will only respond to them once the season has all been posted.

For the same reasons, we will not be posting individual episode warnings – if A Hole In The World carried a label saying 'Warning: Major Character Death Follows!' then it would have ruined the episode completely. So bear in mind that just as with the TV show, no characters are invincible – Buffy died twice in spite of being the title character – and the subject matter certainly has its dark moments, after all, Angel Season 5 opens with a man planting a viral weapon inside his own son, so it won't be all shiny happy people and Gunn singing Gilbert & Sullivan.

We have also taken to casting actors that we imagine would suit the roles of the new characters we create – this is to make it easier for people to visualise. Obviously, no such aids would be provided with a novel, we considered this the most effective transfer from screen to print. After all, everyone imagines Angel being played by the same actor, it would seem consistent for this trend to be continued with new additions. And yes, we know most of the actors would be far too expensive to ever actually consider appearing in the TV show, but that’s one of the nice limits not placed on fanfic, and hey, our special effects budget has gone up too.

It is our firm belief that the Black Thorn mini-arc was placed on the end of Season 5 purely for the purposes of wrapping up the show, and that had the show not been cancelled, the Illyria storyline would have been dragged out for a few more episodes, making ‘Time Bomb’ the season finale. This is therefore the idea that we have taken as canon, however instead of reworking existing material that audiences are already familiar with, we assume that Season 5 ended with ‘Time Bomb’ exactly as seen on the show, without additional episodes preceding it.

Our one change to this will be to cut the final scene from ‘Time Bomb,’ with Angel instructing Gunn to give the baby to the Fell Brethren, as this is clearly the start of the Black Thorn storyline. The episode, and series, therefore ended with Angel telling Wesley that Illyria ‘might just make the team yet.’

As a result of disallowing the Black Thorn plot (no ‘The Girl In Question,’ ‘Power Play’ or ‘Not Fade Away’), a number of things have changed for the start of Season 6. To begin with, Wesley, Hamilton, Drogyn and Lindsey are not dead. Neither are Archduke Sebasis, who we’ve only met once (in ‘The Life Of The Party’), Cyrus Vail, Senator Bruckner or any of the other Black Thorn members. Not only that, but we don’t know that they are members of the Circle Of The Black Thorn. In fact, we don’t even know it exists.

In case it hasn't occured to you yet, I thought I'd point out that the work ethic, particularly with regard to deadlines, that Monotone and I share is somewhat suspect. By which I mean, erm, shit. Work on Still Falling has slowed to something slower than a crawl. We're not busy, we just don't seem to be doing any of it. There's only a tiny bit to go on the first batch. I think we made the mistake of over-planning bits of it - if a story is completely mapped out, writing it isn't half as fun. We've also been considering doing a similar series extension for the Harry Potter universe, but God knows how long that might take. So, Still Falling will be here sometime. In the meantime, here's the final cast shot, and a meme I stole from someone else.


Her! I know, Jesus, who'd have thought it?

Anyway, I saw this meme that said to post one sentence from each WIP. I'll post one from each Still Falling episode that we currently have bits of.

1. 'There Spike sat, the Blue Princess of Hell beside him, drinks on the table in front of him, on the hunt for information. '

2. 'He turned away from her slightly, so she could still see his face, but he was free to fix his eyes somewhere in the middle distance, encapsulated by the memories playing before them.'

3. 'What happened to “not about to let that happen”? '

4. '“Hold it right there,” she whispered fiercely, “or I'll scream.”'

5. 'He jumped, clearing the table in a bound, his hands, gnarled and pale, nails extended and bloodstained, reaching for Angel.'

8. 'One of those misguided self-help movements had since pillaged that phrase and completely bastardised the meaning, but the fact remained that he was a mess, and there was only so long he could go on living the way he did.'

10. 'So horrific was the extent of the injuries she’d suffered that Angel almost missed the worst detail of all.'

12. 'The car crawled down the long drive between tall laurel hedges.'





Out For Bloody Summer

'Morning all.

Our time is nearly here, Still Falling is almost upon us, and I am very proud to unveil the first glimpse of its heralded arrival, sighted here.

Better still, we've slightly altered our episode grouping system, so the first batch released will comprise of five episodes, rather than the six we had originally planned. This makes the story flow slightly better overall, and also means that rather than you having to wait for us to write episode six, the one from that group as of yet unstarted, we now only need to finish episode four. Which means it'll be soon, very soon, a matter of scant weeks.

So watch this space!

Or better still, watch the video again, I know I did.

One more cast shot to go!

Out For Bloody Summer

As of last Friday, I am no longer a student. No more coursework all-nighters, no more exams, no more classes. No more pencils, no more books, no more teachers...

So, now that both Monotone and myself are free from the shackles of our degrees and eager to face unemployment and starvation, we finally have time to work properly on Still Falling. Monotone still wakes up from time to time to find I've texted him in the night, if I've had a silly plot idea like Spike turning orange or Gunn growing a tail (no, not actually either of those things, you'll have to wait 'til episode 14 to see it, should be a bit of a twist, but I thought it was pretty cool, and just as fun as the two I suggested above). We've now written about 56,000 words, so don't think this is one of those things we've always talked about and will never actually do. This evening I wrote a whole sentence!

Back in September 2008, we said it'd be a couple of months. Now it really might be. If even that!

Hope you like the new cast shot, been looking forward to releasing that one.

Out For Bloody Summer



Oh yes, and a big thank you for nominating me in the last round of awards, didn't win anything, but I care far more about readers liking my story enough to nominate it in the first place, not judges and popular opinion, so thank you very much.