Totally normal enemies happening here

[sholio]

From Biggles in Mexico:

EvS: How are your three able assistants?
Biggles: They’re very well, thanks. I think they miss you. Life has been rather dull for them since you came over to our side of the fence.

Oh yeah, THEY miss you, life's been very dull for THEM. I bet they say to him ten times a day: Biggles, I really miss the days when Erich was trying to kill us. It's so boring now.

(Biggles, your crush is showing.)

I also really love how they both ask after each other's loved ones in this conversation. It's such a genuinely sweet interaction. I had somehow misremembered that Biggles in Mexico was several books after Hatchet, with some adventures in between, but actually it's the very next one. I love that Biggles does leave him alone for a bit to settle in on his own - but also stays away for the absolute bare minimum length of time that he possibly could, given publication schedules. It could be months later, but it could be no more than weeks.

Comments

[philomytha]

All day long Algy's been saying, 'if only von Stalhein were here things would be so much better! I wonder how he's getting on now'

(Am now envisaging a Looks Back-style conversation set shortly after Hatchet, Biggles moping around until Algy chokes it out of him that he can't stop wondering how von Stalhein's getting on:
Algy: for God's sake just go and visit him, you're driving me insane
Biggles: oh no I couldn't do that
Algy: if you don't stop moping I will drive you there myself)

[sholio]

"If only Erich von Stalhein would come back and try to kill us again, I miss those days so much" <--things Algy has never thought even once in his life

Am now envisaging a Looks Back-style conversation set shortly after Hatchet, Biggles moping around until Algy chokes it out of him that he can't stop wondering how von Stalhein's getting on:

This is definitely a conversation that has happened, and I really want this fic. :D

I mean, even in canon, he's obviously flinging himself like a velcro wall jumper on the nearest convenient reason for a visit. A GERMAN NAME, YOU SAY. WHAT ARE THE ODDS. CONVENIENTLY I KNOW A GERMAN TO ASK ABOUT IT. (Raymond, who has been keeping EvS's address handy for weeks just waiting for Biggles to ask about it: *immediately hands it over*.)

Biggles even asks why in the world he's being given this case! Clearly the answer is that his pining is so visible that Raymond even noticed it and gave him a case he could use for a pretext to visit Erich. :D

(Either that or Algy showed up in Raymond's office one day and asked if he could please give Biggles a Soviet-related case so he can just go see von Stalhein already and stop dragging himself around the Mount Street flat looking like a puppy left out in the rain.)

[philomytha]

Biggles even asks why in the world he's being given this case! Clearly the answer is that his pining is so visible that Raymond even noticed it and gave him a case he could use for a pretext to visit Erich. :D

This explains a LOT! It's probably a habit by now anyway, Raymond already plainly chooses all the Potential EvS Involvement cases as Biggles's business regardless of how tenuous the airplane connection is - I mean, there's no reason a regular British agent couldn't have gone to Jamaica to look for the missing documents in In the Blue, and he'd get there faster on a regular commercial flight, too.

As for the tenuous connections, I love that bit in Takes a Holiday when he hears the name Erich and he immediately goes 'Erich? MY Erich? Could it be?'

I am picturing Algy, Ginger and Bertie teaming up with Raymond to shove Biggles in von Stalhein's direction in the hope that this will reduce the amount of time they all have to spend listening to Biggles talk about him. Unfortunately for them, while this will cut the moping, it won't actually affect the amount of EvS-related conversation they have to put up with.

Relatedly, your truth serum fic is making me realise that I desperately need the reverse version, in which Biggles on truth drugs gets to tell the world what he really thinks of von Stalhein :-D

[sholio]

Relatedly, your truth serum fic is making me realise that I desperately need the reverse version, in which Biggles on truth drugs gets to tell the world what he really thinks of von Stalhein :-D

YESSSS. I want this so much. Biggles not shutting up even while EvS is dragging him out of wherever he was being interrogated, just trying to get in the last word about how brave and brilliant and really a very fine officer and gentleman he is!

As for the tenuous connections, I love that bit in Takes a Holiday when he hears the name Erich and he immediately goes 'Erich? MY Erich? Could it be?'

I KNOW, I love that. <3 Biggles, there are other people in the world named Erich! (Not for him, though.)

Raymond is definitely giving him all the EvS-related cases. It keeps him happy!

[sheron]

YESSSS. I want this so much. Biggles not shutting up even while EvS is dragging him out of wherever he was being interrogated, just trying to get in the last word about how brave and brilliant and really a very fine officer and gentleman he is!

Hahaha, second-hand embarrassment quirks aside, this does sound amazing ♥

[sheron]

I know I love that moment in Takes a Holiday. And then he pulls up this totally casual facade like it's normal to run into von Stalhein in any part of the world.

Ginger: *total shock*
Biggles: *nonchalance* Hi.

Erich, later: Did you see that?? It must have been shocking but he didn't let it show. *heart-eyes*

[sholio]

And then he pulls up this totally casual facade like it's normal to run into von Stalhein in any part of the world.

Honestly, at this point, it kind of is. 😂 Well, at least until he switched sides. No more chances of running into him in completely random locations halfway around the world! (Instead they can have dinner whenever he wants to, which I guess makes up for it and then some ...)

Erich, later: Did you see that?? It must have been shocking but he didn't let it show. *heart-eyes*

:DDD

Perfectly normal enemies.

[sheron]

I mean in between those books there's lots of other books where they don't run into him, so Ginger's shock is justified! Biggles just likes to impress von Stalhein with how unflappable he is. See Follows On:

He walked over to a settee near the lift, intending to sit and watch it for a while. It was occupied by one man, who sat at one end half hidden by a newspaper in which he appeared to be engrossed. Tobacco smoke spiralled up from behind the printed pages.

Paying no attention to him, Biggles sat down in a position from which he could keep an eye on the stairs, the lift, the lounge and the dining-room.

He was feeling for his cigarette case when his companion on the settee lowered his newspaper. His attention being elsewhere, he did not notice this until a voice spoke. He paused imperceptibly in the act of taking a cigarette from his case. Then he turned his head, to meet the sardonic eyes of Erich von Stalhein.

‘Good evening, Bigglesworth. I was hoping you’d look in.’

Biggles finished lighting his cigarette before he answered. He needed a moment to recover. ‘It was nice of you to come along,’ he replied. ‘Dear me! How you do get about.’

It's their private little game, not to let it show how much the other shocked/impressed them. :D

Von Stalhein does this too:

‘Okay. Let ‘em come,’ replied Biggles. ‘We’ll wait for them. Their faces, when they see us, should be better than a puppet-show.
...
Footsteps advanced.

Biggles walked to the door of the hut and looked out.

‘Good morning, von Stalhein,’ he said evenly.

There was dead silence as the advancing party froze in its tracks.

‘I am afraid you’ve come a long way for nothing!’ said Biggles.

Of the others, von Stalhein was the first to recover.

♥

Of course my favourite of these is when Biggles literally bumps into him and they stare at each other in total shock before proceeding to flirting XD

[sheron]

I know you've read it, but good god it was satisfying to read this exact thing in Sholio's story:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/43782594

*rereads on principle*

♥♥♥

[sholio]

:D

To be fair, I think that situation was more like Biggles asking Algy to drive him and Algy realizing if he refuses, that Biggles is going to hobble around the city looking for Erich until he collapses facedown in a duck pond halfway across Hyde Park.

If he's got to do this, Algy will very happily volunteer to do all the talking, however.

Biggles: NO NO NO, I will talk to him, you will drive
Algy: Or you could sit in the car while I go up and have a polite word with friend Erich about his recent--
Biggles: NO

[sheron]

But he definitely moped for a little while first hoping Erich visits him.

*heart cracks*

[sholio]

Oh yeah, all the moping. Moping for DAYS.

Biggles: He's just busy. It's fine. :(((((
Biggles: I'm busy too! :(((((
Algy: .......

[sheron]

💔

[sholio]

And this is ON TOP OF having had to deal with WEEKS of the sole topic of conversation being "Erich in Czechoslovakia, what do you think he's doing right now, is he warm enough, is he getting enough to eat, did he take his good coat with him because he still gets chilly after Sakhalin."

(Icon represents Algy.)

[sheron]

I'm picturing this as:

Algy: Listen, we can't take this anymore, you've been silent for days.
Biggles: I have not, I'm totally fine, I haven't even thought about how Erich is getting on in Czechoslovakia since breakfast.
Algy: It's 8am.

[osprey_archer]

Oh yes, it's the ASSISTANTS who miss EvS. Definitely the assistants!

[sholio]

OF COURSE IT IS. Plausible deniability? Don't know her.

... I also find it weirdly cute that he generally refers to them as Biggles's assistants or associates rather than friends. EvS, you weirdo, ILU.

[sheron]

I KNOW. They were just pining away for the excitement.

My favourite manifestation of this is how they both tend to say "we" when they mean "I".

Good examples of this, other than the above:

I have a sneaking regard for him; and, if we knew the truth, he probably feels the same about us.

- Secret Agent
(von Stalhein, having briefly held Algy and Ginger hostage and having no other exposure to them whatsoever at this point: "Us?" )


‘Fair enough. My car will take you into London. Let us know where you’re staying.’
‘You want to see us again?’

- Hatchet T_T

(Me, he means me.)

[rachelmanija]

Haha, that's amazing.

[sholio]

*crying forever over Biggles and EvS*

[rosemary_green]

On the basis of this post I have now read Biggles in Mexico :) This scene did not disappoint! I love this as a follow-on to the end of Buries a Hatchet.

[sholio]

Ohhhhhh! :DDD Isn't that scene good? It's honestly a great payoff for their first meeting after Buries a Hatchet; I love how they're cautiously feeling each other out, being genuinely friendly but still getting a sense of how to relate to each other as friends.