Title: Jagged Little Pill
Fandom: James Bond
Pairing: James Bond/Q
Categories/Genres: Humor, Action/Adventure, Alternating POV, Angst, Romance, Emotional Constipation
Length: Long (36353 words)
Warnings: N/A

Author on LJ: beederiffic
Author Website: beederiffic

Summary:

Q's first impression of Bond isn't particularly favourable. It's bound to change.

Review:

When I was growing up, Pierce Brosnan was James Bond, much in the same way that Bill Clinton was the President of the U.S. and Andre Agassi was America's most recognized male tennis player. It was something I never questioned, never doubted. That's the way it was, and that's the way (I naively assumed) it always would be.

And then along came Daniel Craig and his ugly fucking face. To this day, I'm not ashamed to say that Skyfall was the first of his James Bond movies that I watched, and is the only one that I will voluntarily sit down and watch from opening to credits. Because honestly? I'm really in it for Ben Whishaw's delightful Q.

But I'm not made of stone, okay? Even though Craig has as face only a mother could love, once he gets going there's a kind of magnetic intensity about him, something raw and physical that draws the eye and keeps it. And in this, Jagged Little Pill's Q and I are of one mind.

Regarding James Bond, Q has this to say about the man: He hadn't been expecting this squat troll, face like a saggy old boot, stubbled and tired, broad as he is short and looking like he's been hit directly in the broken nose by the ugly stick one too many times.

And it only gets better from there. Q pulls no punches in describing Bond's appearance, nor in deriding the man's intelligence and age. But in that way of his, Bond manages to wiggle his way in through the cracks of Q's prickly facade and wedge himself firmly under Q's skin like an outsized tick. And he clings there, through better and worse, no matter the distance Q maintains between them, nor Bond's own attempt to extricate himself from Q upon realizing that he's let himself get too close. Because in the process of getting under Q's skin, Q has gone and returned the favor by digging his way into Bond's.

To be frank with you, I found myself enjoying Bond's POV rather more than Q's. He's blunt and delightfully wry, and beederiffic's writing captures him in a very physical way, anchoring his perspective in the sensations of his body far more than the thoughts in his mind. The aches of age and pains of a life lived hard and fast are compelling in their description. But every now and again there's a flash of fragility, of soul-deep weariness, that speaks even more eloquently of Bond's character and experiences.

Jagged Little Pill