Oh my God, it's done. And posted.
L'oiseau qui vole, at AO3. (No, that is not Simon and Garfunkel. I changed my mind.)
Summary is![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
raven's prompt: Aral, in a fit of wickedness, assigns someone to follow Simon everywhere and keep notes, to see how he likes it.
Mature, dubcon, what I called "undermined d/s," warnings in the notes please read. 11.5K words which all came from deep in the id.
Yikes. It has a happy ending, though. Well, sort of.
And yeah, I don't usually explain my writing, but this one seems to call for an explanation. The prompt, at first glance, looked like it might produce an amusing story about Aral playing a joke on Simon. I hoped I could make it in-character and canon-compliant, because I don't crack-fic easily.
Then (when I'd already claimed it and it was too late) I started to think about it. Why, and when, and how? Aral having a fit of wickedness, hm. I have no doubt he did occasionally have them, but primarily in moments when they'd do no harm, like in bed with Cordelia. From the Regency on, he had too much power to have fits of wickedness lightly. And (since this fit was clearly in response to Simon's spying in Shards) I can't imagine him doing it years after the insult; it would have to be during that time after they returned to Barrayar yet before things got so tense he wouldn't bother. And probably after Cordelia's arrival, because he wouldn't have been able to muster the energy until then. But having someone follow Simon for a joke still seemed petty; he'd have to have some other motive.
Also, you don't hire someone to follow Simon Illyan unless you have a high regard for their ability to avoid being shot. So this would have to be a special person, someone to whom Simon would respond with something other than murderous urges. I considered making the follower a woman, but that didn't work for multiple reasons, especially the parallel that started developing when I decided (under the influence of certain people's fanfic, okay) that Simon was still having his own fits of unrequited (or oddly requited) love for Aral, and that Aral's only real fit of wickedness was to allow himself to be the dominant presence in that situation. But he still felt guilty, so his chosen spy was someone he knew would allow himself to be dominated by Simon, sexually if Simon so wished. Distraction, sublimation, whatever you want to call it. Also very Barrayaran.
From there, it was all writing and discovery.
L'oiseau qui vole, at AO3. (No, that is not Simon and Garfunkel. I changed my mind.)
Summary is
raven's prompt: Aral, in a fit of wickedness, assigns someone to follow Simon everywhere and keep notes, to see how he likes it.Mature, dubcon, what I called "undermined d/s," warnings in the notes please read. 11.5K words which all came from deep in the id.
Yikes. It has a happy ending, though. Well, sort of.
And yeah, I don't usually explain my writing, but this one seems to call for an explanation. The prompt, at first glance, looked like it might produce an amusing story about Aral playing a joke on Simon. I hoped I could make it in-character and canon-compliant, because I don't crack-fic easily.
Then (when I'd already claimed it and it was too late) I started to think about it. Why, and when, and how? Aral having a fit of wickedness, hm. I have no doubt he did occasionally have them, but primarily in moments when they'd do no harm, like in bed with Cordelia. From the Regency on, he had too much power to have fits of wickedness lightly. And (since this fit was clearly in response to Simon's spying in Shards) I can't imagine him doing it years after the insult; it would have to be during that time after they returned to Barrayar yet before things got so tense he wouldn't bother. And probably after Cordelia's arrival, because he wouldn't have been able to muster the energy until then. But having someone follow Simon for a joke still seemed petty; he'd have to have some other motive.
Also, you don't hire someone to follow Simon Illyan unless you have a high regard for their ability to avoid being shot. So this would have to be a special person, someone to whom Simon would respond with something other than murderous urges. I considered making the follower a woman, but that didn't work for multiple reasons, especially the parallel that started developing when I decided (under the influence of certain people's fanfic, okay) that Simon was still having his own fits of unrequited (or oddly requited) love for Aral, and that Aral's only real fit of wickedness was to allow himself to be the dominant presence in that situation. But he still felt guilty, so his chosen spy was someone he knew would allow himself to be dominated by Simon, sexually if Simon so wished. Distraction, sublimation, whatever you want to call it. Also very Barrayaran.
From there, it was all writing and discovery.
no subject
Date: 2012-09-07 01:52 pm (UTC)From:(Also, you rather neatly set up my own Aral-and-Simon-and-all-the-consent-issues-in-the-world story, with your little line about Ezar forcibly replaying Simon's chip and how Aral doesn't do that. Because ... well.)
no subject
Date: 2012-09-07 02:18 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2012-09-07 10:54 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2012-09-07 11:30 pm (UTC)From: