Fic: Liminal (McKay/Sheppard, NC-17)

[sgasesa_admin]

Title: Liminal
Author: viva_gloria
Recipient: cathalin
Pairing: Sheppard/McKay
Rating: NC17
Word Count: ~56,500 words
Summary: AU. England, 1946: the war is over, and John Sheppard has nowhere to go. The new Atlantis community, founded by Mrs Elizabeth Weir out on the bleak east coast, is as good a place as any ...

LiminalPlease note, due the length of this story,

Comments

Brace yourself for a really, really LONG comment. Or two.:)

[cathalin]

Okay, first of all, the writing in this story is unbelievable. I went searching for my favorite passages, and it was hopeless, because they are *everywhere*. So, I realized, let's go back to the beginning, which pulled me in and gave me that rush of, "in the hands of a master writer." Check out these for first lines omg:

Everything was different, on the ground.

Major John Sheppard had overflown this stretch of coast more times than he could count. Coming in hot with Luftwaffe fighters on his tail; coming in easy with the sun setting, glorious gold, to his left; coming in at night, the slow waves wrinkled with moonlight and the beaches fringed with white foam. He'd soared northwards, homewards, free.

Now John Sheppard, plain Mister, had no home, and every yard of the long straight road ached in his bones. To his right, snow and straw tweeded a ploughed field. The soil was dark and rich: good farmland. To his left, black birds - crows? - quarrelled and alarmed in the rimy hawthorn hedge. The air glowed pink, and the North Sea stretched like slate to the horizon.

Honestly, I almost felt choked up reading that, because I knew this was going to be something extraordinary, from those first lines.

And it was. I read the early parts of this in spurts, forced to deal with real life in between. Then I stayed up late finishing this *amazing* story last night, riveted and breathless as the truth of what was going on became apparent to me.

But before we get to that, let me talk about the characters: first, Teyla and Ronon. OMG, I adore well-drawn portraits of them, and the sections where they narrated were genius gems. The back stories for each of them were fantastic, and their narration and portrayal omg. (By the way, you have no way of knowing this, but I am a *big* history fan, so Teyla being an escapee from Revolutionary Russia *did* things to me; that was an incredibly awesome idea and beautifully executed). Teyla and Ronon's voices and observations as they narrated were just priceless and totally in character.

So, John and Rodney. John was...perfect. I loved the first glimpse of him, as I noted above, and my love for how you portrayed him just grew and grew... And then, to figure out that he has a special thing going on with the location, with Atlantis, aslfkhdasfldkhfdsl!! I loved the little touches of canon you worked into this, and found the bet with Holland over whether Holland would finish the book before the war was over particularly touching. Also, hee, and I *think* you did this on purpose, lol, he had a BUG ON HIS NECK.*g*

Rodney. Perfection, with his equipment and his leaving his lover behind when he helped with the bomb. Such a beautiful job with the details of his car, lol, and his cluelessness and yet fundamental good-heartedness! And by the way, I loved how you so deftly showed that each of these people didn't quite fit into the world around them, just like the canon characters.

(contd. in next comment...)

Re: Brace yourself for a really, really LONG comment. Or two.:)

[cathalin]

I loved all the callbacks to canon in this fic, and I'm sure I'll discover more on a re-read (which definitely will be happening!). The beds fit for only one person, lol (and what great use you made of that, with John and Rodney!), Simon/Wallace lol!, etc.

And then, on top of all that, you gave me the "hot sex" part of my request, but did it in the way I most love: you delivered a beautifully-written and totally engrossing love story between John and Rodney. You built the tension between them masterfully, which I *love*, and then delivered every step of the way. Their encounters were all gorgeous and sweet and yes, hot, in the great way. The oasis in the seedy hotel was wonderful -- hell, all of them were, and I felt like I was right there with them.

Hee, one more thing I have to mention: I'm pretty damn sure you included some things in here as shoutouts to my fic, which, that's just incredible. When I hit the Moonlight Sonata, I decided it was pretty likely you'd read The Price That Life Exacts, and I thought maybe the mentions of the gulls harked back a little to that as well. You seem to also have figured out that I love musical!Rodney, and included music throughout this fic in really awesome ways, including Miko and Zelenka being musicians, which might be another shoutout, or alternately just really cool!

Finally (though don't be surprised if I come back with more comments as this all sinks in, lol), "liminal" and everything it stands for. I looked up the exact meaning of the word after I finished reading, and I am just...awestruck. The way you worked in what is going on in this fic is *amazing*. It felt totally organic, and as I said above, I was breathless by the end.

When I get a chance, I'm reccing this on my journal: if you follow it (and I have a feeling you do *g* ), you'll see it soon. This is truly an amazing, amazing fic, and I feel honored to be its recipient.

Re: Brace yourself for a really, really LONG comment. Or two.:)

[viva_gloria]

and yes, there were definitely shoutouts to 'The Price that Life Exacts', which -- though I am a useless and rude reader, primarily reading offline and seldom leaving feedback -- I adored. The mention of the Moonlight Sonata was a 'hello!' (though the gulls are unavoidable at Bradwell, so that's more coincidental). And I love the idea of musician!Rodney, because all that focus, all that passion, turned on music ... one day I'll write the one where John is a talented prima donna soloist and Rodney's the conductor who brings out the best in him.

'Liminal' was really only a working title but it fitted so well with the on-the-edge, crossing-place feeling I was going for ... and then my betas said it worked.

Re: Brace yourself for a really, really LONG comment. Or two.:)

[viva_gloria]

I hate it when real life interrupts just as you get into a fic! Thank you for staying up to finish it!

I had no idea you were a history fan -- so the AU version of Teyla as a Russian Revolutionary was serendipitous! And I do like playing with their voices, their narrations: I could so see Ronon as a tough street-wise East End kid.

And yay to canon :) The bug-on-neck was just irresistable, and I really want his connection with War and Peace to mean something (as in shaenie's 'Harmonic Function').

I hadn't realised at first that I was writing about a bunch of misfits -- but they are, they so are, and this was the furthest they could get from the world around them.