a person could develop a cold

[hedda62]

Which I have, so apart from a few things I must get done it is all tea and reading The Wood Beyond (which is The One Where Reginald Hill suddenly (though ever-justifiably) became incensed by the injustices of the First World War, and there are about twenty ridiculous coincidences in the plot but it's still just wonderful and oh, Peter. Both of them).

Text exchange with son yesterday involving pictures of snow (him) and accusations of cold-giving (me) and then him: "Oh good. It's organic and fair trade and I knew you would love it." Clever-clogs snarky git. *hugs*

Speaking of which, I finished the Lewis story and it is off to beta. (So I may sit Aral and Ekaterin down for a chat today, yes. Depends on how good the tea is.) I did manage (is this thing on? Trying not to broadcast) to sneak a sex scene in, one which (unusually for me) I'm uncertain about the rating for, though I think R/M is sufficient (well, for first anon posting I suppose the mods will decide). The choice does seem to vary a bit by fandom as well as by individual preference, the number and type of words, and the body parts mentioned. (Relatively conservative, a few passionate but not terribly specific paragraphs, two of the most obvious.) I am not good at writing, posting, or commenting on the truly explicit, and tend to roll my eyes a bit at fictional anatomy lessons, though I will excuse a lot if there's good dialogue attached.

Surprisingly though not surprisingly, then, when I think over favorite stories of this year-that-is-not-over-yet, one that's consistently near or at the top is philomytha's First Aid (which is rated E though in some fandoms-not-Vorkosigan it might only be M, because really, not that detailed, nor does it need to be. I did leave a comment rather than cravenly hit "kudos."). The summary is "After Escobar, Simon tries to hold on to Aral" and there is a fair amount of literal and lovely holding-on and doing-things-to, but the core is all gut-wrenching love and loyalty and loss, which is why the sex works so well, not because they are hawt!!1! together (though. they are). Anyone can write the story where repressed people hold back and deny themselves and then finally give in and bang!wow (I have. Recently. Several times) but it takes a brave writer, in the fic world especially, to give us the pairing that isn't going to go anywhere, that we are in fact strongly invested against because another one trumps it, and yet make us feel oh, damn, why can't it work? It also takes a good set-up, preferably a canonical one, and a receptive audience, both of which exist in this fandom. (I'd try it, in Lewis, but I have a feeling I'd get drawn and quartered, or at least drowned in disappointed looks. Seriously, try writing second-season-out-of-six depressed-Hathaway-not-yet-saved-by-Lewis's-love and watch the comments you get. And then imagine writing it in season six.)*

I just have Doomed Love in my neurologic pathways, that's all. At least I can exercise it in original fiction *glooms*. (And, okay, in "L'oiseau qui vole," which is probably why it's my favorite of my own stories this year.)

ETA: Oh, and hurray and ha! Someone just did.

Comments

[philomytha]

Sorry to hear you have an (organic, fair trade) cold (I guess our nits are free range too, at that...), and I hope the tea and rest prove effective.

Writing sex, oh God, there's a reason that fic took the better part of two years to finish. But it was so very embedded in what Aral and Simon were communicating through their bodies - since a vast chunk of their communication is through body language in that, one way or another - that I had no choice but to give enough detail of who was putting what where, and crucially, why. I'm never sure about ratings generally, so I just go with a best guess, and there was, for me, a fairly high level of detail in that one. Admittedly not as much as the cracky Aral/Cordelia folk song one... I too get fed up with anatomy quite quickly, but it's easier when it's meant to be funny :-).

Doomed Love, oh yes. I imprinted on 'The Councils of Despair' when I found this fandom, and First Aid was sort of a response to that, a really close-focus look at what it's like to be giving and giving to someone who cares for you but is going to end up happily ever after with someone else. Conversely, a major reason AVD is not slash is because Aral and Simon's feudal relationship is not Doomed and I didn't want that unhappiness in it. But yes, the if only is very strong with Aral and Simon, and in a polar opposite to any other fandom, you'd be at risk of being quartered if you did do away with Cordelia (not impossible, mind you, but a very delicate operation).

And I hope your tea proves inspirational, because Aral and Ekaterin talking is an excellent idea!

[hedda62]

Battery nits sound like a much better plan, really, although I would rather not think about them either way. *hugs, careful variety*

and crucially, why

And this is the important thing, because the motivations are so very much not simply "get both of us off" but much more a reflection of what would be happening between them even without the sex. I love, love that "outplayed by a strategic genius in bed" line. But, like fortune cookies in reverse, you could take off the "in bed" and it would still work, and that's true of most of it, really. And they use body language with each other in their working lives together a great deal, I'm sure. I also like that you pointed up the difference between their feudal relationship and their sexual one in the fic (thank you for being morally frank, Aral), and yes, AVD as slash would have been depressing, and really in canon you could not replace the relationship Aral and Simon have with the one they might otherwise want to have. And, heh, when you did manage to kill off Cordelia it was Alys who took her place; Barrayaran cultural conditioning coming up with a very nice solution.

[philomytha]

I really must write up that author's commentary/fic post-mortem on First Aid sometime, because there were so many complicated things in that. It spent quite a long time as a gen fic before turning into a slash fic, and it really could have gone either way several times, as you notice. And it wasn't until I actually wrote that bit with Aral registering the difference between the feudal relationship and the sexual one that I really knew the slash option was possible without it being utterly depressing.

And killing off Cordelia for Reconstruction made me feel so horribly guilty that I'm not sure I could possibly do it again.

[hedda62]

Oh, please do write up the commentary! I'd love to read it.

[ailis_fictive]

Thank you for saying many of the things about Aral/Simon that I was thinking when I first read this and hadn't sat down to type yet.

I seem to have just discovered that I write sex by writing up to things getting going, and then writing the aftermath, and then going back and filling in as much of the action as is necessary to make the story go. Though that may be specific to this one piece (my first slash, egads), which had several other strange writing challenges going on as well.

And the Aral/Simon I'm currently working on is absolutely what happened when AVD, The Councils of Despair, and First Aid met in my head and went **bang**. I suspect it is going to be painfully obvious where its debts lie, but I'm also pretty happy with Simon's voice, and having a lot of fun with the actual story and pacing. (My subconscious helpfully handed me the key to the story--I realized this morning--in the melodramatic first line (and first thing I wrote) which I'm currently considering whether to cut. It's safe 'til the first draft is done, anyway. Which will be sooner if I stop writing about it and start writing it...) But...I do seem to share the penchant for doomed love with Our Gracious Hostess here.

(and I love that you "imprinted" on it--that's a turn of phrase I like and use regularly. I seem to have imprinted on "The Honor of House Vorkosigan"...oh, Piotr/Ezar. Speaking of doomed. And destructive...)

[philomytha]

I seem to have just discovered that I write sex by writing up to things getting going, and then writing the aftermath, and then going back and filling in as much of the action as is necessary to make the story go.

*grin*
I write almost everything that way! Beginning here, ending there, now what needs to go in the middle? It makes it into a constant puzzle to solve, but I like it that way.

As for Piotr and Ezar, oh dear, yes. Doomed and messy and complicated as hell. I find I can only write them in very small doses, since I generally like more softness in my romances and they have very little. But I do love writing Piotr's POV on the world.

[ailis_fictive]

I have not so far been brave enough to tackle Piotr's PoV--oddly, I find the dynamic between Piotr and Ezar quite comprehensible, and the individual characters...somewhat opaque. They are both--though not together--in the Aral/Simon piece, which may get me a little closer... If I end up with a story for them, I may just have to start in the middle and write out...

I tend to start with overall shape and opening line--sometimes together, sometimes sequentially--and then do a combination of write-straight-through and mosaic. Write the little shiny bits as I get them, while working thorough from beginning to end dropping in the shiny bits when I'm at the right point.