Faces part 9 of 9 and Epilogue

[tamoline]

Title: Faces (part 9 of 9 and Epilogue)
Author: Tamoline and Louisa
Rating: NC-17
Fandom: X-Men/Criminal Minds
Pairing: Emma Frost/Emily Prentiss

Disclaimer: Not my characters. Not my pairing.

Notes: Finally, the last part of Faces, the first decent length fanfic and femslash story we have ever worked on.  I hope that you have enjoyed it. Any feedback,

Comments

[jijibebe]

I liked how you developed Emma, and Emily was just lovely. And I loved their banter and dialogue. Really sad to see this end--I've enjoyed your story immensely. But hey I'm definitely looking forward to any and every companion piece!

[mauders]

I've just got back from Milan and caught up on your brilliant fanfic

[tamoline]

Thank you both for your comments, and we're glad that you enjoyed it

[nonpresence]

There is some irony in the fact that surrounding a word with asterisks is an old school bold tag... One that LJ is apparently too new-fangled to employ. ^_^

[ellienoname]

I know I said it in another comment, but I would've liked to see more of Emily, and look forward to anything you do post from her point of view.

I'll definitely be reading whatever else I can find from you, definitely a great read.

Also, I'm a bit frustrated by the lack of closure with Vicky, but in a good way, because you did a superb job with her.

Thanks for sharing!

[tamoline]

Thank you for the comments! I do appreciate the ones you added in the various parts. It's nice to know what other people are thinking as they read it. And you increased the number of people that we know read it to the end by 25%!

I was hoping to post the Emily prequel this weekend, but it's gotten a little longer than we expected. (Probably helped by the fact that my co-author has taken lead on it. She's a little more wordy than I am.) Still, hopefully we'll finish it this week.

I'm glad that you liked Vicky. We hadn't gotten any comments on her, so we weren't certain how she was received. It's possible we'll write a vignette at some point about her. She might even feature in a future story, but we don't have any plans in that direction at the moment.

Again, thank you for reading!

[nonpresence]

I enjoyed this story- thank you for writing and sharing it.

There aren't nearly enough stories that find that nice balance between slow development and hotness. I also appreciated how big a part wit and humor were between them.

I do hope you write that sequel you seem to have implied is in the works.

Cheers.

[tamoline]

Thanks for the comment!

As for the sequel, it kind of ran ashore on the rocky shores of The Hunt. We've more or less assumed from the lack of response that people don't like it. We're just not sure what people don't like about it.

In particular, if there's something wrong with the characterisations, then that's kind of problematic for the sequel, which is currently planned to be from Emily's perspective. (And builds on issues from The Hunt.)

Currently we're actually working on an unrelated original fantasy fic, which we're hoping to post in the next week or so. Whether or not this will be of interest to anyone, we're not exactly certain. But it's kind of fun writing it. :)

[nonpresence]

You're welcome, of course.

Ah, that's too bad about the sequel. Lack of response is a frustrating thing. It is possible that people were holding off on the prequel until the next arc started. I've been guilty of that... I haven't yet read The Hunt. I probably will at some point, and when I do I'll be sure to let you know what I thought. I can even be picky and verbose if you'd like (and I say this with a pleasantly wicked grin).

It is always best to work on whatever is feeling best to you. I wish you good luck and much fun on your current fantasy project!

[tamoline]

Maybe we were just spoiled by the response to Faces. :) A picky and verbose comment would be always be appreciated. Having some idea of what works and what doesn't is really useful when you're just starting out like we are.

We might well get around to writing the sequel at some point - it is at least roughly plotted out in my mind, though I'm not sure that as it stands it's quite up to the quality of Faces. Hopefully that's something that can be polished off during writing. (And let's be honest, Faces acquired some sub themes during writing that I didn't become aware of until after I'd finished.)

[scoutnabout]

Now that was quite an ending; much better :)
The things that love will make one do...poor Emily. Emma basically said that Scott was more important and did the same thing to Emily that she did to Scott (with the probable exception of telling her before she left.)
I'm glad that Emma didn't use her powers 'on' Emily even though she used them to 'read' her.
This part was pretty poetic and sad:
Every touch, every movement and cry of hers whispered: 'Stay with me.' Every one of mine said: 'Goodbye.' Neither one of us wanted to hear what was being spoken without words.
It seemed my question was implied to be answered as at least Emma was planning to be honest with Emily about her real life in the end.
Relationships are complicated, it seems that one needs to be quite the gambler to put themselves through them.
Great story, and great story length!

Vicky

[scoutnabout]

I was just reading through some other comments and one mentions Vicky, so I figured I could add another since you're low on feedback of her

Re: Vicky

[tamoline]

I think one of the things about Vicky is the only thing she has left at the moment is her pride, and it's hard for her to give that up. That and I suspect that experiences since she ran away have made it even harder for her to trust anyone.

One of the things about Emma I noticed from the comics I read whilst doing research is that she has a pattern of investing in proteges. And I can totally see that as a way of handling at least some stress. It's easier to push your own problems away when you're worrying about someone else's. And if you want to read into that reasons why some of your suggestions didn't even occur to Emma, well, I never claimed that Emma was selfless.

[tamoline]

Yeah, as relatively uplifting as the end of chapter 8 was, I couldn't end it there.

I think that you're a little harsh in your interpretation of Emma's actions, but they certainly weren't fair to Emily. The simple fact was that Emma wasn't in a place where she could engage in a relationship, exactly as she always maintained. She just fell into one anyway.