Sorry-Grateful (Sailing Over a Cardboard Sea Remix), for sunshine_queen

[bsg_remix_mods]

Title: Sorry-Grateful (Sailing Over a Cardboard Sea Remix)
Author: nicole_anell
Characters: Caprica-Six, Gaius Baltar
Pairing: Caprica/Gaius
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: none
Summary: A short story about love.
Word Count: 2,860
Original Story: Paper Moon by sunshine-queen
Author's Notes: The name Saoirse comes from another sunshine-queen fic by that name.

Comments

[millari]

I'm just getting back to read the rest of the remix fics!

I was thrilled to be given a sneak preview of this. I felt a little bad that my beta consisted basically of saying, "Wow, this is really good!" but it really was. Utterly compelling, utterly them, and so full of hope and peace at the end.

There are so many lines here where you really get Caprica and/or Gaius in ways that stop me dead for a moment. Here are some examples:

or just a vague state of panic and pleading that spiraled out of the first event;

Wow, this is such a spot-on description of how Baltar experienced the entire series. :(

You were a light sleeper on the baseship; the slightest touch then could make you jerk upright.)
Ouch. You can just hear her guilt in that sentence. The sense of Baltar's terror implied in those lines is so affecting.

I love the way Caprica keeps referring to NC as "that dream of a planet". It's such a ironic way to refer to it, and yet also romantic and even ethereal, much like Caprica herself.

God, the line where she talks about feeling monstrous for dividing Gaius up into parts stayed with me for a couple of days after reading it. And she remembers the time he died? Wow. What a thing to live with. I often think about Gaius' guilt, but it's easy for me to forget about Caprica's. But she would have lots of guilt, especially regarding Gaius. This fic really reminded me of how much these two had hurt each other throughout the show. The memories of Gaius thoughtlessly asking her what it's like to die and the way she remembers him coming apart in front of her eyes on the basestar and telling herself he was her enemy, it didn't matter, are great examples of that.

And it took me by surprise when she assumed that Gaius was testing out the name Six to use on her. I wanted to hug her right then and there. It wasn't until then that I realized that she wasn't always an accurate observer, and it just made me love her more for her misunderstandings and wishful thinking.

You know, somehow I loved the line about Julius hearing and forgetting her name in exactly the same way as his son. I can't explain why, but it just got to me.

It's late and I'm sleepy, so my thoughts about this fic are a little rambly. But really, this was just exquisite.

[nicole_anell]

Thank you for the comment!! And you did help so much as a beta, believe me. :)

I realize especially with you mentioning certain lines, that something I came back to a lot in this fic is the fact that Gaius is a deeply traumatized person through a lot of the series. And I think really acknowledging that would cause her a lot of guilt.

It's such a ironic way to refer to it, and yet also romantic and even ethereal, much like Caprica herself.
Glad that idea worked! :) It's romantic in a totally off-base way but also an admission of the fantasy of it, I think.

Thanks again, anything that causes feelings especially of the wanting-to-hug-Caprica variety makes me really happy. <3