Xanthe

So many people said how much they loved Bluespirit's amazing artwork for this story that I'm putting it up behind the cut without the story title text in case you'd like it as wallpaper. I've also received some simply gorgeous graphics from other people which I've put behind the cut too. If anyone else wants to send me their artwork I'll put it up here and also on the special Soul Deep Artwork Gallery I created on my website. Warning - these graphics are spoilery for the story!

( Story Artwork this way )

I've also put the complete story up in one file on my website for those who prefer reading that way.

I've also put up Pfyre's e-book formatted links as well (thanks Pfyre!). You can find them on the Soul Deep Story Page.

Thanks again to everyone who left me such wonderful feedback to this story. I was worried that it was so different that people wouldn't like it but the positive reaction really blew me away. It's been lovely sharing it with you!

Now, time to go lie down in a darkened room for a few weeks I think *g*.

Title: Soul Deep
Author: Xanthe
Fandom: NCIS
Genre: Slash
Pairing: Gibbs/DiNozzo
Categories: AU, angst, romance, hurt/comfort, supernatural
Rating: R
Word Count: 82,500
Status: Complete. I'll post in four instalments, starting on Thursday Sept 30th and finishing on Sunday October 3rd when I'll post the entire story to my website.
Spoilers: None - this is an AU take on the show as a whole, ranging in time from 1978 to 2006.
Summary: Most people never touch another person's soul...but when a 20 year old Leroy Jethro Gibbs meets an 8 year old Tony DiNozzo, it sparks an event that links them forever.

( Soul Deep - 1/12 )

Coming Soon! (I estimate 1 - 2 weeks)


Gorgeous graphic courtesy of bluespirit_star

Title: Soul Deep
Author: Xanthe
Fandom: NCIS
Genre: Slash
Pairing: Gibbs/DiNozzo
Categories: AU, angst, romance, hurt/comfort, supernatural
Word Count: 75,000 - 80,000
Status: Complete
Spoilers: None. This is an AU take on the show as a whole, ranging in time from 1978 to 2005
Summary: Most people go through life without touching another person's soul...but when a 20 year old Leroy Jethro Gibbs first meets an 8 year old Tony DiNozzo, it sparks an event that will link them forever.

Author's Notes: This story is set in an AU based on Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials series of children's books where everyone has an external soul in animal form, called a "daemon" (pronounced 'demon'). This story is not a crossover and no characters from the books appear in it - it's all Gibbs/DiNozzo all the way through. This story is also not set in one of the worlds Pullman wrote about. The universe in this story is structured very like our own, except for the fact that people in this universe have daemons. These daemons are broadly similar to the ones in the Pullman novels, but I have embellished them or tweaked them a bit to suit my own purposes.

I had enormous fun thinking up what form each person's daemon might take. Some, like Gibbs, were obvious to me, but others took a lot longer to figure out. You might not agree with all the choices I made, but I did give it a lot of thought! And the graphic isn't as much of a clue as it might seem *g*. I also deliberately chose a fairly non-spoilery extract to post below ;-).

Even if you've never read the Pullman novels, or seen the movie version of the first book - The Golden Compass - you won't have any difficulty understanding this story. For more information on daemons, here is a great little video on the topic. But it is all explained in the context of the story.

I haven't read any other NCIS fanfic stories that feature Pullman's concept of daemons, so I hope this is truly original within the fandom, but if not, I'm sure there's room for another take on it :-).

Extract:

The walk up Main Street in the pouring rain with Tony in his arms seemed to take forever. Leroy could feel the sweat running down his face as his injured leg protested, but he continued on, holding the child tightly against his chest, trying to protect him from the worst of the rain.

Jackson was waiting for them on the porch, Meldra clucking anxiously by his side, peering through the storm for sight of them. Leroy staggered the last few steps towards the store, and Jackson ran out into the street.

For once, Jackson didn't make a big fuss. He was often like this in a crisis. He'd tell Leroy off for something small and stupid, like being late home, and go on and on about it for hours, but when something big happened he was solid as a rock. He took one look at Leroy's face, and then at the almost comatose Tony in his arms, and his mouth settled into a grim line.

He moved forward to take Tony, but Leroy gestured him away with an impatient flick of his head. His knee hurt like hell, but he wasn't going to surrender Tony to anyone, not even his own father.