Fic: Malta Bright Chapter 7 and epilogue

[pennypaperbrain]

Title: Malta Bright (part two of Four Corners of the Western World) Chapter 7 of 7 (plus epilogue).
Author: pennypaperbrain
Fandom: Sherlock BBC
Betas: Chloe, eldritchhorrors
Rating: NC-17 for chapter 7 and the fic
Warnings for this chapter: mentions of bipolar disorder, BDSM
Pairing: Sherlock/John
Wordcount: 4,136 for Chapter 7, 657 for the epilogue, 30,608 for the finished

Comments

[mazaher]

It's amazing how you manage to weave the story tight around its inner rhythm. I acknowledge and honour the way it speaks of you without being about you-- like van Gogh's cornfield with ravens showed things about him without being about him. It reminds me of a tree, the leaves/words dancing in the breeze around the trunk/truth of the tale. E.g.: "...lethal. Yet, John says, vital". "You can't cure reality". "His personal feelings do count as data here". "I don't want to face everything alone" (like his mother-- thankfully he isn't going to). "Sherlock has become unfamiliar to himself".
There is so much trust and implied hope here. They are based on their relationship; they are also based on the larger scheme of things, because "compensation for malfunctioning genes" is indeed what sparks evolution's best inventions as well as possibly creative success in individual lives. (There is a story about a crippled springbok becoming the herd's best sentinel...)
I stopped short for a moment at John's wish to "Break (Sherlock's) spirit". According to the letter of the words, isn't this contrary to the aim...? But no, reading further I see that he wants Sherlock to give himself over, completely hand himself over to him, in order to know in his body as well as his mind and heart that he can switch off his controlling mind for a while, that he is *safe* with John, and can trust him to make choices for the both of them.
Thank you.

[pennypaperbrain]

<3 Thank you. I like the point about compensation from malfunctioning genes coming from you - I hadn’t thought that through beyond its utility as an idea that Sherlock clearly wouldn’t like, but re-expressed by an animal specialist it really does take on a certain clear sense.

My interpretation of ‘Break your spirit’ is a bit different. Like John insincerely threatening to put alligator clamps on Sherlock’s face, in the context of a BDSM scene this kind of exaggerated threat works as a reminder of both John’s power - he could do terrible things - and responsibility - what he’s actually going to do is pleasure them both. The first half of that is erotic if you enjoy fantasies of power exchange, and the second half is straightforwardly erotic.

John does want Sherlock to give himself over completely, but he’s saying in a meta way: ‘If you accept you have this fantasy of surrendering control, then we can play with it.’ To me, at least.

[mazaher]

Thank you for going to the bother of translating for me from a "language" I'm not familiar with!
I get the part about responsibility; I have my reasons to find power un-erotic and exaggeration confusing, so that part is not immediate for me to get.
The level/area of human interaction you are working with in this story is something I find very interesting, and I'm learning a lot, all the more so as you are willing to fill me in about what I miss or misunderstand.
Like PoL, this is a story I'll come back to again and again.