The long-promised fic is here

[rosiespark]

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Title: Two Sides of the Triangle (part 1)
Author: rosiespark
Disclaimer: Not mine. For fun, not for profit. Etc.
Rating: probably R
Pairing: Lancelot /Arthur
Notes: Because I fell in love with Ioan Gruffud's Lancelot. Takes place between scenes in the recent film, on the night before the mission North of the Wall
Thanks: to fajrdrako for a thorough,

Comments

[semyaza]

O dear, poor Lancelot. Sigh. I have a terrible weakness for soldierly bonding fics, Alexander being my first great love. This is very satisfying, but what's going to happen next? Not having seen the movie I am even more gripped.

Ioan as Lancelot made this especially vivid. ;)

[rosiespark]

I'm really curious about how this came across without having seen the film - I wish I could hypnotise myself into forgetting the film and forgetting that I wrote this fic, and then read it with a comletely fresh mind. I think it was Peter Jackson who talked about wanting to be hypnotised into forgeting all his years of work on the LotR films so that he could watch them as new material.

Ioan as Lancelot looks very different from Ioan as Hornblower. I've said it before, the man is such a chameleon!

As for what happens next, well, they go on their mission and rescue the Pope's godson and lose a knight and rescue Guinevere and have an encounter with the invading Saxons and eventually return to the Wall. *g* That's when the second part of this is set, if it ever gets written properly. It only exists as some confused sketchy scribbles on a notepad at this stage. And it's Lancelot/Guinevere - another two sides of the triangle. Oh help! I don't know if I can write het! *g* Isn't that strange?

[semyaza]

Obviously, I can't say how this comes across to me as opposed to how you might have wanted it to come across, but it has its own internal logic which makes it comprehensible, in some form, without any prior knowledge of the movie. It fits into a pattern of relationships that one sees in fiction, and in history, also, I suspect

[rosiespark]

I'm a big fan of internal logic - I tend to apply rigorous standards to other people's fics, so it's nice to know that one of mine passes the test. I'm not sure where my take on the L/A relationship comes from - as you say, it's a rather twisted form of "soldierly bonding". *g* I didn't consciously set out to subvert Rosemary Sutcliffe's "Eagle of the Ninth"-type male bonding... Did you have any particular relationships in mind, when you said that you see a pattern that it fits in to

[glinda_north]

Oh my. This is wonderful! I've loved Arthur and Lancelot for as long as I can remember, and this is an interesting new perspective on them. So intense. Such an ill-fated pair, the poor boys. ::sigh::

Part 2?

p.s. Sorry I'm responding so late; I got behind on the flist and only found this just now.

[glinda_north]

[glinda_north]

[rosiespark]

Oh, fuck! Sorry! I didn't mean to spoil it for you. I am an idiot. ::beats head against wall in abject shame::

[sasha_b]

OOOOOO good lord.

Found this through your little response to a post Black Hound made.

Freaking gorgeous.

Being a rabid a/l slasher myself, this hit the spot. Poor Lancelot. And I love this:

Yet he is more alone even than I am. Without me, he would have no one. How could I leave him?

Urgh. Lovely. :p

I don't know if I think Arthur would be this callous, but I love your take on their little relationship, and would love to see more if you've written it.

Well done!

[rosiespark]

Thank you for the feedback - so glad you like it! Your comments made my day.

Lancelot really is torn in two. He can't abandon Arthur and he can't break his promise to return home. I think Arthur sees him as a friend, a companion, a fellow soldier, someone he occasionally fucks - all those things, but not as a lover. He's not being callous really - he just has no idea what's going on inside Lancelot's head! And Lancelot provokes him, as a way of getting his attention - and because the rough sex that ensues is "better than nothing". And ends up despising himself. Hence the anger that was evident in the film - the "talking to God" comment and the disliking "anything that puts a man on his knees". *eg*

I have the second (and final) part of this existing in my head and half-written on scraps of paper. It's Lancelot/Guinevere - with overtones of Arthur/Guinevere. If I do get round to finishing it, do you know of a good KA fic community I could post it on?

[sasha_b]

Well, funny you should ask...I run my own KA forum at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kingarthurfanfiction. Please come over and check us out! If you don't want to join, I'll be glad to post it for you.

or, if you join Knightgasm at eljay, they have some great stuff there too.

Good to meet you, and I really hope to see the rest of it soon.
Cheers, Ashley

[rosiespark]

Thanks for the invitation - I'd really like to join once I finish the second half of my fic. Which, I'm happy to say, has come quite a long way over the last two days. Might even finish it before too long! *snort*

[inlovewithnight]

Oooh. Rough-edged and very nice; very like the movie.

Just found it from your link on the cowboy-squee post. ;) Good stuff!

[rosiespark]

So glad you like. And late feedback is always such fun! :)

Rough-edged and very nice; very like the movie.

That's high praise - thank you. And I hope it improved on the movie by (a) making the slash explicit and (b) giving the characters some depth. That's my main peeve with the movie, the lack of decent characterisation. I watch it and find I have no idea what the characters are supposed to be feeling half the time. (Especially Clive Owen, who I find incredibly wooden as Arthur, but that's a separate rant.) So then I start wondering whether the director was floundering too. Which is most distracting to my watching the movie. Thank goodness for the riveting pretteh that is Ioan! *g*.

[inlovewithnight]

Oh, yes; one thing the movie was woefully short on was depth. And Mr. Owen seemed to just be kinda going through the motions. The Pretty, and the interaction between the knights, are the saving graces. :) Which is why all of my unwritten bunnies tend to focus on them. What they did with Guinevere COULD have been fascinating, if they'd gone all the way with it instead of waffling around...::sigh:: Fun movie, but it had potential to be SO much better.

And...er...I've totally lost what I was talking about. Yay! :)

[rosiespark]

You have unwritten KA bunnies? Ohmygodsqueee! What will it take to make you write them?!

As for Guinevere - there's quite a lot of her and Lancelot in what I'm writing now. Or rather, trying to write. Or more accurately, transcribing from a notebook and trying to believe that it's not utter crap. *sigh*

[nolivingman]

I really like your Lancelot here - he's got the perfect combination of bitchiness, neediness, and sentimentalism. And the sex is hot too - it's rough and angry and just perfectly Arthur and Lancelot.

I know you said that this is part 1 of 2, but it could end here, too.

I like to pick out specific lines to discuss.

Do you care so little for your brothers, Arthur?

That's our Lancelot. Such a little bitch.

Arthur’s breathing is uneven and his voice is like gravel

I like that you've got Arthur all riled up; only Lancelot can do that to him.

The air leaves Lancelot’s lungs in a gasp that is partly a laugh as a vast wild joy takes hold of him, and the pulse in his neck jumps under Arthur’s hot mouth.

This is hot. You can almost hear it, feel it.

And he knows a fierce exultation at the knowledge that this is his doing, that he is the cause of this brief but complete loss of Arthur’s famous control.

Oh, Lancelot. *shakes head* Only he would enjoy driving Arthur to distraction.

Lancelot’s answer is like the crack of a whip, but

[rosiespark]

Wow, lovely feedback - thank you!

Tho' it's part one, it is intended to be complete since part two is mostly Lancelot and Guinevere - two other sides of the Arthur-Lancelot-Guinevere triangle. I would like to finish it!

Arthur never asks about his own memories of home and kin. Never.

That doesn't seem like Arthur - to tell his own stories and not ask. He's kind of a stiff sometimes, but he does care about Lancelot.

Arthur cares, but not in the way or to the extent that Lancelot needs him too. That's their tragedy. In my head, anyway. :) In Arthur's view, he and Lancelot are comrades in arms and, well, fuck buddies. It's Lancelot who is looking for something deeper. No pun intended. ;)

Part two is basically my closet sadist playing with Lancelot - he loses Arthur to Britain, realises he wants Guinevere and promptly loses her to Arthur. Total angst-fest. ;)