fic: The Quality of Mercy [Slings & Arrows, Geoffrey/Ellen]

[iamsab]

title: The Quality of Mercy
author: Sabine // iamsab
fandom: Slings & Arrows
pairings: Geoffrey/Ellen
rating: nc-17
length: 3761 words
acknowledgements: praise be to Punk, who helped figure the whole damned thing out and even let me get away with hair-pulling.
summary: The Merchant of Venice

Written for kink_bingo, row five, column two: biting/bruising

Comments

[fahye]

"I love you," he says.

"You're more talented than Rufus McAllister," she says.

This -- THIS is perfect. And hot. Love, blood & rhetoric.

[iamsab]

GUH, thank you. Love, blood, and rhetoric indeed. And it's a struggle right up till you go crazy.

This deserves better feedback than I managed here.

[likethesun2]

oh my FUCK I love this. This story is hot as hell in the sex scenes, sure, but you know what really got me going? How theatrical it is. How this kid came from Endgame and how you clearly know your Merchant and how, how, this:

"In the prime of our youth, the heat of our talent, performing the world's best plays in one of the world's best theater festivals."

"Fuck me," she moans. "God, Geoffrey."

"Hamlet, Ellen," Geoffrey says, over a creaking pleasured groan.

Yeah. Wow. Now that is talking dirty.

You wrote another S&A fic recently, yeah? I need to go track that one down, because I lost it over the weekend, and because you are so. damn. good.

Re: This deserves better feedback than I managed here.

[iamsab]

Hi, you already know you're my favorite, and I'm eagerly awaiting the Tennant Stoppard production --

But also, thank you so much. This is prob my favorite of my S&A fics, because of the punching and fucking and theater, as you pointed out. And, because, yeah. Finding out about Hamlet is the beginning of the beginning for them, all anticipation and lust and intellectual thrill... and then of course the breakdown, which has to happen when you're idling this high. I wanted to set this right BEFORE the Hamlet season, so I could capture them in their idealistic prime, you know?

I did, I wrote an Oliver-pov as my first of the five kink-bingos I'm doing. It's here and is set against the Macbeth season, with the kink prompt "teasing."

Next up! Geoffrey/Darren, "costumes!" That'll be Taming of the Shrew, I think. And then the last one, "begging," will be Geoffrey's Hamlet.

[siriaeve]

Hot damn.

[iamsab]

/fans self

Thank you!

[ubixtiz]

Oh, very nice. The sex scenes are hot, and I like your handle on Ellen's voice. I wasn't quite sure where it was going in the middle, but I quite like the way it draws together at the end, and the last paragraph gives me goosebumps.

[iamsab]

Hah, you know, I was wondering if all the play stuff would make sense if you were unfamiliar with Merchant of Venice. I used that of course to play the main story off of -- Geoffrey opens his purse for Oliver and hires Rufus, then he has to give up his pound of flesh for his actions, and, blah blah. Anyway, that was clearly me trying to bring the Shakespeare theory and using it to set up a big sex scene.

But I'm glad you liked it! And that the sex scenes were hot! It was a labor of love, tearing this shit up and making this punching, biting, Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, pounds of flesh, dangerous deals, the guy you helped out actually getting the girl, etc etc into one complete story. I used notes! And the original text! And scholarly articles! /giggles

All that for some biting/bruising porn, I SWEAR. *g*

[kerrypolka]

"Ding, dong, bell," says Oliver, from the doorway, as Rufus crumples to the floor.

Ellen kneels immediately, checking Rufus's face for bruises. "He's fine," she says. "You guys, he's fine."

"Thank god," says Oliver.

"Damn," says Geoffrey.

"Fuck off," says Rufus.

This as especially fabulous. You've genuinely captured both the voices of the characters and the beats of the show. And kept them up all through the scorchingly hot sex scenes! Well done.

[iamsab]

YAY, thank you so much!

This fandom is all about making Shakespeare hot. *g*

[iamsab]

I had a little roz_mcclure collision in my head just now; I came back here after your inauguration post because this response I left on your comment here has srsly been haunting me for six months although I never bothered to come back and clarify -- it's one of those things, you know, on the internet, where you click send and then are like, oops, wow, that is exactly not what I meant, but I will quietly not be drama-queeny about it and hope no one notices...? Yeah, that thing. Anyway, I choose now to clarify! I mean, seriously, "making Shakespeare hot"? *shakes head*

AHEM. "This fandom is all about making the act of performing these plays a porny act in itself!" Like in one of them I have Geoffrey and Ellen find out they're doing Hamlet, and just exhaling the word "Hamlet" makes them all tangled and sweaty.

Right?

MAN I miss Slings & Arrows. Also, thank you for your attention on this very serious matter!