Neither Can the Floods Drown It

[5thofficial]

by lemongrasstea

Comments

[bustedflush]

This is fantastic, Lem. Very short and simple, but very thorough, at the same time. I particularly like (I mean, it hurts but it's great) the heavy air of almost totally aimless anger and loss and confusion hanging over the piece -- you create a very plausible feeling of what it must have been like in the early Post Jose (AJ) days for the ones who were attached, and of how completely useless (impractical?) everything they were feeling really was, as they tried to move forward.

[lemongrasstea]

Thank you. I was afraid that this was too short, and I do think there could be more added to it -- but the trade-off would've been the loss of the emotional punch. So much of the troubles in Chelsea were splashed across newspapers, one wonder at the stuff that was hidden.

[applegnat]

Oh, that's the longest short fic I've read in a while. Your style is quality, Lem -- it's forthright and direct, and yet it has the eloquence and even-handedness of the best sort of poetry, the sort that has shape and definition and ideas. The balanced you achieve between the sort of maelstrom of emotions that you capture here, and the overarching idea that binds this fic and its characters together, is fantastic.

There's something so special about all your Chelsea fic. It's like an emotional x-ray - you lay the inner workings of the machine so bare, the jigsaw that makes up the relationships and politicking and words-behind-words in what passes for conversation, and it's gorgeous. This one is no different.

[lemongrasstea]

Thank you so much for your comments -- I treasure them highly, and I'm glad you liked the fic.

For all that I flit away to write on other clubs, it's Chelsea that I keep returning to now, precisely because there's something so irresistible about peeling away the layers of the Abramovich-Mourinho era. I think this would've been a very different story had I wrote it from Drogba's perspective as I originally intended. Drogba... writes himself. I don't like Lampard as much as I love Drogba (and as a fan I am usually quite unsympathetic towards Lampard), but his was the right voice for the story I wanted to tell.

[verbigerette]

this is wonderful, quite poignant, affecting and bittersweet. it may be short but the length works perfectly, and i love your choice of words. i liked how it isn't just about the pairing but so much more -- the whole of chelsea, england, family, and the respective situations/issues therein.

And JT's kiss to his head still felt like a strange benediction, as familiar and as secretly desired as childhood dishes

despite the relative sadness of the fic this line made me smile :-) thank you!

[lemongrasstea]

Thank you. With Drogba especially, I think, it'll always be about something bigger, because of his personality and background. He's one of those who write themselves (at least when I attempt to write him)! Which can be a bit intimidating.

And I had to work that line in. ;)

[niloo88]

Wow, this is very touching :) This was my first EPL fic, and I really liked it.

Thanks for the author's notes, also . Awww Drogba embraced him and wept openly -- and it was rumoured that Lampard hid in the showers to cry.

[lemongrasstea]

I'm doubly honoured. :) Thank you!

One of the things I loved about Chelsea was how tightly-knit they were (and still are, even now). There used to be a lot of pictures of them horsing around in training, and it always did make me smile.

[saint_kat]

Wow. Your fic just blew my mind completely.

You present the complexities of their relationship rather well. To be honest, it's better than what I submitted for a Chelsea fic.