Fic: Aral Vorkosigan's Dog 7/15

[philomytha]

Title: Aral Vorkosigan's Dog 7/15
Rating/warnings: R, Shards-level sexual and physical violence
Length: 70k (this chapter 5600 words)
Summary: Illyan is assigned to watch Aral Vorkosigan during the Escobaran war. Soon he has to choose between his duty and his conscience, and the consequences rapidly get beyond him.

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Comments

[grey_bard]

I understand why he did it, and from the larger picture, I can't say he's wrong, but...

What's done is done? Oh, Illyan, he can always torture her some more. It's not like torture - or rape - gets any better. (Unless she's already dead.)

[philomytha]

Yeah. It is meant to sound like Illyan is groping around for an argument here and not doing very well.... Also, I suspect he is actively avoiding thinking about it or imagining it from Elena's point of view, for obvious reasons.

[squishydish]

This is great stuff. I've enjoyed reading some alt-canon work, but I'm just amazed here, at how you're working within canon, filling in backstory, not just avoiding any missteps, but making everything richer, deeper and even more intense. Thank you, and please continue.

[philomytha]

*grin*
That's pretty much what I love doing most in fic--going through the background and colouring it in--so I'm very pleased that you like it here. Thanks!

[hedda62]

This continues to be just fantastic. If horrifying (but then we already knew that, just different to live through it).

[philomytha]

Thanks! Yes, it is pretty horrifying. All the little hints are there in canon, but putting them together gives a rather grim picture.

[idancewithlife]

Any day with a new chapter is a great day. This is amazing work. Makes me wonder: do you have any writing that's not fanfic? I would love to read it Or for that matter, any fanfic from other canons.

Lola

[philomytha]

Thanks! No, all my original writing gets stalled after a few pages for one reason or another. And all my recent fic is at my AO3 page. I have some much older fic here at FFN, mostly Harry Potter stuff, but - well, I wrote most of it almost ten years ago and I like to think I've learned more as a writer since then...

[idancewithlife]

I'll take a look. Thanks!

[shimotsuki]

Wow -- still building and building.

I really like the way you've structured this chapter, with the contrast between the Serg/Beauregard and the Vorrutyer/Elena situations. In the first case, Aral finds out right away, and rushes to take action; Illyan, arriving late on the scene, can only react, but he does what he can to protect Aral, and in the end catches himself basking in Aral's appreciation. But then that very self-realization frightens him, and gives him the fortitude to stand up to Aral in the second incident. This also shows us Serg versus Vorrutyer, and (from Aral's perspective) success versus failure in rescuing the victim.

I agree with previous commenters that it's horrifying to see Illyan leaving Elena to her fate, even temporarily, but it's also somewhat understandable that he would make that decision in the context of this mission.

[philomytha]

This is actually the scene I wrote this entire fic to contain, to explain to my satisfaction why and how Illyan would force Aral to leave Elena to her fate. The parallels with Beauregard basically exist to stand as a warning to Illyan: Aral tries to interfere and it's almost a disaster; he's not going to want to see what happens if Aral tries it again. And the other strand is Illyan's growing loyalty and concern for Aral - as well as it being his orders not to let Aral do this sort of thing, he truly doesn't want to see Aral hurt as a result. Of course, eventually he's going to spot that not doing something hurts Aral worse...