Far and Far From Land, by Sophonisba (Secret Superpower|Amnesty 2006)

[saphanibaal]

-title- Far and Far From Land
-author- Sophonisba (saphanibaal)
-challenges- Secret Superpower Challenge
-warnings- Mostly gen. Foul language, nudity, and mention of sex with other species. Rather tame, honestly. AU... but tracks the series fairly closely, at least in the parts mentioned. This thing stepped into a backstory; the full version of this story

Comments

[temporalrose]

So, this story is really cool. But it was confusing, so I went to the backstory, and now I'm posting here because OMG you've read Tigana!!! And you had Sheppard reference it!!!! I love that book and NO ONE I talk to knows about it or appreciates it as much as I do.

[saphanibaal]

Thank you!

//But it was confusing, so I went to the backstory,//

While the part posted in the community was the first to come to mind, once I started writing it I realized that it really wanted more in the way of setting up. So I set up, and I set up, and it overloaded livejournal, and after a quick check in the user guidelines I decided that I might as well post the most relevant portion into the community as well as provide a link to the full story.

Guy Gavriel Kay for the win. I actually prefer The Fionavar Tapestry and The Lions of Al-Rassan, but Tigana was my first exposure to him -- not counting the cleanup work he did on The Silmarillion, as I didn't even know he'd been a part of that until well afterwards -- and one of my first realizations that a really good book, a book I'd want to reread, could nevertheless break my heart.

[ellex42]

Utterly fascinating! I sincerely hope you'll write more - or have you written in this 'verse already, and I somehow missed it? Anyways - more, please!

[saphanibaal]

Well... I have, but it isn't particularly obvious. For instance, this takes place in a 'verse in common with "A Civil Contract" and "Holiday" but not the same one as "H. s. s. vialacteanus" (despite the fact that I used the Responsibility in both, and that Hssv also has both "A Civil Contract" and "Holiday" in its background).

[mecurtin]

I, too, really want to know what "the other thing" is! I love the many stories & literary references you've woven in, such as Diane Duane's "Door into Fire". I would love to see a story where Rodney is lost (presumed dead) for a year, and Teyla *does* bear his child. OT4 for the win, you know.

nit:
>watching the -- seel -- swim
did you mean not to write "seal"?

[saphanibaal]

Thank you!

//I love the many stories & literary references you've woven in,//

This is the way I think all the time, honestly.

//I would love to see a story where Rodney is lost (presumed dead) for a year, and Teyla *does* bear his child.//

So would I, actually, although I'd rather someone else wrote it (and if it happened in this continuity, there'd be... other issues).

//>watching the -- seel -- swim
did you mean not to write "seal"?//

Yup. I was trying to show that Teyla still doesn't recognize the word offhand (even in the long version, she'd heard it on one occasion more than a year ago) and is processing it phonetically.

[saphanibaal]

It's... this is the way I think, usually, so I'm glad it translated well to storytelling. I'm happy that it was a coherent whole; many times I look back on my writing and find that it wanders around and around a point without ever quite specifically getting there.

You're welcome; thank you for commenting.

And thank you for the link; I'll pass it on to my sister, who loves that movie much more than I do. ^_^

[akacat]

[saphanibaal]

Well, he would be, wouldn't he? It's not particularly useful except under certain narrow conditions, it's not something he's really emotionally invested in, and he'd have a better idea than most of exactly how unpleasant it would be to be a research subject.

The other thing... ah, would the terms enthymeme and a dicto simpliciter mean anything to you? Or the name "Alia Atreides"?