TEAM SPACE: under the sun, "Control"

[trobadora]

Title: Control
Author: busaikko
Team: Space
Prompt: under the sun
Pairing(s): McKay/Sheppard
Rating: NC-17
Word count: 9,749
Warnings: (highlight to reveal) torture: non-consensual body modification
Contains: (highlight to reveal) orgasm control
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Summary: John returns from a mission remote-controlled.

Once you've read the story,

Comments

[fanficfan123]

A provocative story, in the pain and horror of John's violation and permanent physical alteration by torturers, but provocative in other, more productive ways, too: John and Rodney begin talking about their sex lives, however awkwardly and incompletely, when they are just friends, and while they continue to communicate and acommodate--verbally and nonverbally--about their sexual needs and relationship even after John's impairment. A model for what people with disabilities or age-related issues--ranging from mild to godawful--do when they have caring, knowledgeable, and trustworthy partners. And a further indication of the rapport and love that Rodney and John share.

I realize that this disability framework is not the primary one here. Torture has created and warped the issues of trust and having/ceding/exercising control into a different kind of beast. But the remedy (not a cure, but a palliative) seems to be the one that applies to disability/age impairment. And the message given and received by Rodney and John both pre and post John's torture that "kink" is not bad if it is shared and consensual is another life-affirming one in an objectively grim plot. This all works, of course, through skilled writing: the descriptions of Rodney's observing John; the account of ways in which John perceives pain, sex, and different kinds of want, arousal, and satisfaction; the spot-on dialogue, especially in the final scenes on the beach planet.