Best Actor based on the Angel Universe - HETERO
Below are samples of writing from each of the nominees.
Please read the sample, then cast your vote in the poll at the_josscars
Best Actor based on the Angel Universe - HETERO
-- Actors based on or from the Angel Universe that is in a Non-Ship pairing. --
01.
I'm still uncertain as to why we're here at Wolfram and Hart. Certainly, we can use the resources for good, the library is definitely far more extended then I've ever seen and the money isn't bad either. But I can't help but wonder what possessed us to come here and work for the one firm we've been fighting for as long as I can remember.
Of course Angel decided for us that we should work here, and naturally we all agreed. Though for the life of me, I can't remember why. But if Angel says it's all good then who am I to doubt that. Not that the sodding vampire knows anything a corporate business such as this. He does have Eve to help him out, but I have to ask myself if she's really helping him out or only hindering him. I'd have to go with the latter, considering she's the liaison of the Senior Partner.
Sitting in my office, I look over several papers stacked infront of me. There's a memo from Fred about a weapon both our departments are working on. Fred, now there's something else I don't quite get. I thought I was over her, we've both moved on. But since I lost Lilah and she broke up with Gunn, I find myself attracted to her again. Of course she's more interested in this...Knox fellow. I'll just have to accept that the ship has sailed. She's not interested in me, only in a 'big brother' kind of way. It hurts, but I'll deal. I always deal don't I?
Frowning, I look at a file on my desk. Sunndydale. I asked Angel what happened there when he came back. He didn't say much, only that they had won. He looked a bit depressed, one would think seeing Buffy again would make him a bit more...well, happy I suppose. But he looked far from it. Of course later I found out that Sunnydale had been wiped off the map during the battle. I don't think I've ever seen such a fierce battle. They lost a few warriors during the fight, but then we all did. Cordelia is still in a coma and I don't think she'll ever come out of it. I have my hopes of course, but I'm not keeping them up to high.
This place is suffocating. I can practically feel the evil pouring through the walls as it were. "I need some fresh air," I mutter. Grabbing my jacket I pull it on and make my way over to the door. I keep my door closed most days, I don't like to get interrupted by what ever it is that is going on outside of my safe little room.
02.
After all the crap in LA, and after I did my part in the big battle and got my memory back I decided that being with my fake family was not quite as appealing as it had been when I thought they were my real family. But I also decided that I was going to attempt a normal life, I mean why not. I had a taste of it and it wasn't so bad. So as soon as I was old enough, I went to college and separated myself from my fake family and embarked on my new life.
School was ok, I decided to major in writing, it's something that I found interesting. You know, spreading stories, things people don't know and maybe should. Granted I was just a writer for the local paper, and a few magazines. But I had a book in the works.
All that stuff from LA is now years and years in my past and I am happy to leave it there, never need to have contact with any of that life. So here I am, at yet another party, wehre they have me wearing a stupid un comfortable tux, and rubbing elbows with people I don't care to know.
But that's when I saw her, and she was beautiful. She looked at me and I looked at her, our eyes met and she looked away. Something told me to talk to her, something I don't usually do, I've been known to be a bit antisocial...but there was something about her that I just had to discover. I moved smoothly over to where she was standing and I tapped her on the shoulder, she jumped about and that made me feel bad.
"Uh sorry to scare you but...ok so this is going to sound like a line or something...but I saw you from across the room and for some reason I felt that I just had to meet you. So...hi...the name's Connor. It's a pleasure to meet you." I stuck my hand out for her to shake.
03.
So, here I stood in a line of customers at one of the many fast food resturants in the city. People were all going about their own business and didn't bother to see the grin on my face as I neared the counter. Looking around, I still couldn't believe that I was back here in Manhattan. It had changed a lot since the last time I was here. Well, it also helps to actually be able to walk around people and not live in rat infested alleys. Big difference, I'd say. Plus, there was that whole thing where I could go outside during the day now. Yes, after the battle in L.A. it happened. Even after thinking that I signed away the Shanshu prophecy, it seemed that the Powers had another thing in mind. I couldn't help but have a boyish smile come across my face every time I thought about the way things had changed for me over the past year or so.
During the battle against the Senior Partners, I thought that we were going to be crushed. There were thousands of demons that we fought off. We started out strong, but we faded fast. Gunn died not long after the battle started, but Spike, Illyria, and I kept on fighting. Gunn.. I've thought about him, Fred, and Wesley a lot over the past year. Lorne even crossed my mind a few times. I'd always wondered what had happened to him after he left L.A. Knowing Lorne, he'd probably opened up another bar somewhere and back to doing what he did best.
Spike, Illyria, and I just kept fighting with the little strength we had left. While we fought, I kept having these surges of engery.. along with some pain inside my chest. A couple hours into the fight, we thought that it was over for us, but then something happened. There was this huge burst of light and and after the light faded, half of the demons we were fighting were dead on the ground. It was then that a flash of Cordy's face went through my head and I knew she had something to do with it. She had given us a fighting chance and we ended up pulling it off. After the fight was over, we pretty much split up - well, I think Illyria might have tagged along after Spike. From what I heard before I left, I think Spike and Illyria are still in L.A. fighting the good fight.
As for this ex-vampire, I had a nice little surprise a few days after everything was over and done with. I was sleeping in an abandoned hotel room when I woke up, sweating and my heart pounding. It took me a second to realize that yes, my heart was pounding. The next thing I realized was that strange feeling in my lungs. I was breathing, actually breathing. I think I sat there for a couple hours, just listening to my heart beat, and feeling my chest rise up and down. A little while after I woke up, I went outside and sat on a step, watching the sun rise. It had been the first time I was out in the sun - in this dimension anyway - since I had been human for a day. Thinking about that day made me just sigh. No one else but Doyle ever knew about that day.
04.
I made my way through the shadows of Rome's buildings, the sun was still dangerously high but I was impatient today. It wasn't a usual quality for myself, I'd spent months antagonizing Drusilla and driving her mad, and I couldn't wait another 30 minutes for the sun to set?
If Spike were here he'd call me pathetic and make a crack about hair gel. But Spike wasn't here, somehow before, knowing he was right beside me feeling near the same things I was, was somesort of strange comfort.
Now I was alone, it was how I knew I'd spend my days.
I had to duck into a small shop when the square was visiable, the light was a bit to bright and becomming dust at this point in my life? Let's say I've got things I've got to do before I let the wind take me away.
I saw her walking up, somehow surprised that she had come. The fire in the pit of my stomach grew when I saw her. She always did insane things to me, if most people thought her name was enough to set me off they'd never really seen how I reacted to seeing her.
She watched the sun set and I saw a sadness in her demeanor. Finally I pulled away from the shadows as the sun's glow disappeared over the horizon. My hands were in my pockets as I walked up to her. She turned to look at me before I could say anything.
"Hi." What did you say at a time like this? What did you say when you wanted to do anything but talk?
05.
"Oh... yeah."
"Yeah," I repeated.
Buffy didn't reply further for a minute, instead noisily crunching away on a granola bar that was no doubt ending half on my upholstery. I'd opened the subject, so now it was time to see what she thought about it. And I could be quiet just as well as she could. If not better.
Once we'd gotten thoroughly stuck in traffic, Buffy folded herself onto the seat and offered me a bit of her snack. I broke off a bit of the granola and did my best to get it from wrapper to mouth as neatly as possible.
"Well... so, what are you saying? That you... want there to be an... umm... us?"
Working at the bit of granola and thinking quite carefully-- ruminating in more ways than one-- I considered the question. I had to admit that the answer that sprang to mind immediately (which was 'I wouldn't have slept with you if I wasn't interested') was definitely not the way to go. This was especially true in light of Buffy's apparent not being convinced that I was of sound enough mind and clear enough heart to be getting involved with anyone.
She had a point, I conceded. I'd grieved for Fred to a depth I'd not known possible, and was not in the most well-adjusted and-- all right, entirely sane-- state when the battle with the Black Thorn had begun. And now...
Now.
Now, I was a man who'd all but died, and believing that he would, had made sure that the last thing he'd see was the face of the woman he thought he loved. He'd also hoped that she'd be the first thing he would see on the other side. But I hadn't died.
And the next thing I knew, Buffy had 'come to take me home'.
And now, somehow, when I thought about Fred, and even Illyria, it was very truly and surely in the past tense. If there was guilt or real fear about whatever it was that was happening between us, I didn't think I could feel it.
I took a deep breath and turned to Buffy as the car rolled forward another few car lengths, then stopped.
"I... I don't think it would be a bad thing." I took another breath. "Yes. Yes, I would. But to be perfectly honest, I think there already is an 'us'. At least the start of an 'us'."