New Rome story: The First Prayers of Man

[destina]

For troyswann, a belated birthday offering. :)

The First Prayers of Man
Rome - Vorenus/Pullo
Spoilers for the entire series, but particularly Kalends of February

Comments

[svilleficrecs]

EEEEEEEEEEEe. OMG new Rome fic and it's GOOD!

Oh you are so recced. Awesome Vorenus, awesome Pullo, and just very very good. *hugs* Thank you!

[destina]

*hugs you!* Thank you so much, for this and for the rec! :D

[svilleficrecs]

Thirteeeeeeeeen!

[destina]

Thank you muchly. :) One of the best things about writing this, for me, was that I had to re-watch the last five eps. Oh, the torture. Oh, the pain. What a rough life. *g*

[20thcenturyvole]

Holy crap. That was truly amazing -- the interjections of prayer from Pullo really made it incredibly special. The characterisations were perfect, and the whole thing kind of made my throat close up.

Very, very well done.

[destina]

Thank you so, so much for the lovely comments. :) There's something about the image of Pullo praying, making an offering, that stuck in my head. It had to be pried out. *g*

[jenlev]

wow. the tone of his internal voice is mesmerizing. and he's very much himself in how he responds to pullo

[destina]

wow. the tone of his internal voice is mesmerizing. and he's very much himself in how he responds to pullo.

It was interesting, writing the two threads; this is one of the few pairings where I hear each voice distinctly, and there are very definite differences between them.

the layers of prayers in between the process of the story are so evocative. this is just wonderful and you've made me think about how the time they lived in bound them, just as we are bound by our own time. different bindings, different boundaries; but they are a very human creation and experience passed down through the centuries.*nod* I think this is what drew me to the show, to begin with. They are so very human; we see their daily lives, their pain, their flaws, so clearly -- it's like looking back in time at people who are just like the people in our neighborhood, complete with the lies and gossip and graffiti and bitchy neighbors and so forth, and I love that so. I love the threads of humanity that reach back over all those years

[jenlev]

i love how you show that difference between them, how they hinge on each other cognitively.

also, that's a perfect description of the experience of looking back into time and seeing these complete beings....not at all different from people today. :::happy sigh:::

and thank you, it's my pleasure; really it does help to keep my mind alive to read such fabulous stories/writing. so thank *you*. :) *hugs*

[troyswann]

Oh my god. I'm speechless. This is beautiful. This... *struck dumb* You have them right in the bones, the bond between them, Vorenus disillusioned, floating and finding structure where he can, and Pullo being Pullo following, doing, being, a man who lives in his hands. His prayer is just him. When I gave you that prompt, about Pullo's pragmatic piety, I knew you'd do something wonderful with it, but this... *flails helplessly*

Thank you. Thank you so so much.

Months blurred into years, compounding one on the other until he could barely remember the Aventine, as far from him as the heavens were from the fingertips of ordinary men.

Ah! I think of Pullo wondering if a man could crawl through the holes in the sky, and Vorenus telling him it's philosophy. This is a perfect way of marking Vorenus's changed relationship to things--or admitted relationship--to things cosmic, where philosophical "distance" can't be bridged by philosophy anymore and all that's left is distance (like the change in him was already there, waiting,

[destina]

You give such beautiful feedback, and you already know how thrilled I am that you like this. I had this image of Pullo, praying on one knee with a chicken in his hands, and it wouldn't go away. *g* Best. Prompt. Evah!

Pullo doesn't see a paradox and somehow, for all his violence, lives more gently in the world. I'd never considered as you do here that Vorenus's adherence to ritual and religion was a defense against secret disbelief. That's remarkable.

*beams happily* One of the things I love about Pullo is the vast array of contradictions he contains. And I believe he's infinitely more complicated than Vorenus is capable of understanding. Pullo is, in his soul, a gentle, compassionate, generous...killer. *g* Vorenus is this man who is bound up in right and good and true, and none of it really means anything, at its core, in the world he moves within. That's what Caesar taught him.

Dude, can I natter on, or what?