Life's Hidden Forces (can only be discovered by living) - Team Epilogue

[hdcup_mod]

Title: Life's Hidden Forces (can only be discovered by living)
Team: Team Epilogue
Author: kabal42
Prompt: Strength
Wordcount: ~17,600
Rating: R (going on NC-17)
Warnings: BDSM in main pairing (not particularly explicit, but a key element of the story), polyamory, cheating/infidelity (for a while), positive view of Ginny
Summary: It is never easy to love

Comments

[tomatoe18]

If anyone looks at the warnings, starts to feel apprehensive, decides not to read and wants to get away from this fic as quickly as possible... well, I would say to them to please give this fic a chance. Read the story, go with the flow and find hidden joys

[kabal42]

If I recall correctly, this comment made me a bit misty-eyed when I first read it.

The fact that you like this, despite avoiding BDSM normally (I'm so glad I put that "warning" about Ginny up!) really touched me. I want to write a long, rambly, happy reply to you, but I think I can sum it up like this:

You really understood what I wanted to say about love in BDSM. The scenes you point out are probably the most important ones. Harry and Draco may feel the crying is to them, but I don't necessarily agree ;-) Neither do you, it seems.

Thank you so, so much! *hugs*

[nonajf]

I really liked this story and how the prompt was woven into the BDSM aspect, as well as a part of each character.

I really liked your exploring the emotional side of the kink. Ginny perhaps got over her fears and disgust a little quickly, but Harry did a good job of relating the kink to more vanilla sex. It was also nice to see Ginny playing a role in the H/D dynamic.

I also liked how you played the 'all was well' quote.

Good job!

[kabal42]

Yay for you liking that :-) I was very keen to get to write Strength because I felt it fit a BDSM line so very well, exactly because it's a kind of relation that demands a lot of all involved. I'm thrilled you liked that.

She did, yes. I agonised about that a lot. If I'd had more time there would have been more scenes to show her coming to terms with it and over more time, too. (Just as I'd have liked a few more flash-backs.)

:-D I really, really wanted that quote in there. I'm very glad you liked it.

Thank you so much!

[aquila_star]

I liked it a lot too. Very intriguing and hopeful. I love how they came together...all three of them. :D

[kabal42]

Thank you so much :-) I'm glad you liked the happy (mostly, at least) threesome!

(I love you icon, btw! :-D I've been dying to tell you that.)

[aquila_star]

You're welcome. :)

And thanks...my daughter is addicted to Mythbusters...good taste for a three year old. ;)

[kabal42]

That is incredible taste for her age, yes. I see a great future ahead of her :-)

[outofthisplace]

I feel like you havn't fleshed out the H/D relationship enough at the point where you state that Harry loves Draco--so far, all we've seen is one BDSM session, which really doesn't say love at all.
The dialoge's well done, certainly, but I feel like you do a lot of telling instead of showing, through the dialogue.
My, my, Harry is a selfish thing, Draco is right. Who's he to think he can have his perfect family and his perfect lover, and everyone'll be happy?
WOAH! Ginny watching?? This is an interesting twist, I'm very interested to see how this goes down

[kabal42]

Hi there :-) Thanks for the comment! It means a lot to me that you took time to leave this, especially since it clearly wasn't your favourite kind of story.

I have to disagree, though, that BDSM doesn't say love. To me, nothing says love as much as that - and this is what I was trying to show. I'm sorry if I failed, though.

But you are so right that Harry is selfish! I'm not sure he really deserves what he gets... The strongest person in this fic is, in many ways, actually Ginny because of her ability to overcome her difficulties and try for happiness for all involved. I was trying to show that all the characters here are strong and carry a lot - not just for themselves, but for each other. Even Harry, selfish as he is, wants what's best for everyone.

Like I said to zanzou_chan I'm very sorry you felt the characterisation wasn't sufficient. To me, this would never have worked with any other characters, so that's something I'm going to work harder on another time.

[outofthisplace]

I have to disagree, though, that BDSM doesn't say love. To me, nothing says love as much as that - and this is what I was trying to show. I'm sorry if I failed, though.
Oh, no, I don't disagree with the fact that BDSM can say love, I just feel it takes longer for it to do so than in just one session, which is how much you give us before love shows up. But I suppose you were just trying to show it in a different way. And it was definitely successful in a number of places :)

[kabal42]

Oh, I'm glad, then :-) Thank you, again!

I know I only showed one session, but more than a year passed and the second scene was meant to imply that this was a very regular thing. I usually believe in the "show, don't just tell" idiom, but frankly, a long series of scenes might've got a bit boring ;-) At least to me.

[maya231]

I liked this story and I think it's the first Epilogue-compliant via polyamory fic I've seen. Because I liked the story, I would love to see/have seen more of the development of H/D relationship and Harry's understanding of his own sexuality. As well as seen a bit more struggle on Ginny's part--I liked that she came to an understanding and was open-minded, but acceptance was very quick, in the end, and felt a little too easy. The way the epilogue was worked in was great!

[kabal42]

Wow, I'm someone's first at something :-D That's a hard one to make in fandom *G*

I completely agree that the story could have done with more exposition and I would have loved to write it longer. I had to cut it short, mostly for time restraints, so I tried to make the ends meet, so to speak. I'm very glad you liked the story anyway :-)

I loved writing the epilogue bit, so thanks so much for telling me you liked that! :-D