Fic: In the Hands of Yes

[hth]

In the Hands of Yes
by Hth

32,834 words of Aliens Made Them Get Married, and don't say I never gave you anything!

"There’s a ritual, Colonel! Do you know what *kind* of ritual? You have no idea! There could be – it could be dangerous, or, or – perverse!"

Comments

[damned-colonial.livejournal.com]

Wheee! *clickety-click* There goes my lunch break.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

it's cool to get feedback before the person has even read the story yet! *g* Hope it wasn't a waste of a perfectly good lunch hour.

[stungunbilly.livejournal.com]

Okay, now I love you forever.
I forgive you completely for killing the boy.
(Even though I actually love you for that too.)

I'd still like Ronon the Space Pirate, though.
I'm sad that way.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

I'd still like Ronon the Space Pirate, though.

Dude, I would, too! Who do you think we can find to write it for us?

And I'm glad I'm forgiven. I was worried I'd set off bad flashbacks for people, laying up Ronon in the hospital two stories in a row. *g*

Thanks for the love.

[abbylee]

One thing I love about sga, and especially most of the sga fanfic I read, is the (Rodney & John) banter and the humour. Oh my god, the humour.

I knew I'd like this story from the moment I saw your name on it. (And how can you go wrong with forced alien marriage?) But I didn't know how much I'd love it. John's inept jokes. Rodney's huffy indignation. Ronon's stoic wariness. Teyla's fussing. My team, oh my team.

They've only just gotten to Vacuna, but I'm already flailing in happiness.

(And that your Rodney/Ronon story seems to be 3POV John? So much love because I know there will be so much fun.)

[abbylee]

That was just.... yes. Thank you.

[shusu.livejournal.com]

You know how you cry at weddings?

I am BAWLING. Oh god. You make me want this pairing forever and ever.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

I love weddings! Can you tell? *g*

It's nice to get feedback that says a story made someone cry, and then doesn't threaten to send me the therapy bill. So thanks!

[exegesis.livejournal.com]

Gah! Loooooong fic! You've just made my day! There's aren't enough long fics in this world and your stuff always rocks.

*goes off to read happily*

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

This fandom does tend to write short. I don't know if it's because of the Total World Dominance of sga_flashfic, or if the internet is sucking all our attention spans as the years go by.

Anyway, I hope you've made your way through it by now and you liked it!

[diluvian.livejournal.com]

Completely by coincidence, I re-read almost all your SGA fic this weekend.

And now there's this, which makes me even happier, and even more impressed with your writing, and loving this pairing even more than I already did. And aside from the R/R, John and Cadman in particular had some really great moments.

So great, so much fun. Yaaaaaaaay!

And the ceremony was really interesting. Did you base it on a particular ritual or did it come entirely from your fantastic brain?

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

There was originally going to be more Cadman in this story, but somehow that didn't pan out. She was going to bug the shit out of Rodney a lot more *g*

I'm glad you liked it! As for the wedding ceremony, I guess that was pretty much invented. I took the idea of taking vows for things you wouldn't do rather than what you would from the Egyptians, who had a similar belief about how you'd be judged in the afterlife (i.e. by how much damage you managed to refrain from doing) and, weirdly enough, adapted the your wounds/your joy bit from the end of Practical Magic, but mainly I just kicked around what a warrior society might think of as the heart of marriage, so I wrote it with that emphasis on self-discipline, and my favorite part is the very last, because I just thought it would be cool if, for hardened warriors, the ultimate intimacy has to do with who you want by your side to patch you up after the battle. So like most things, it was kind of a pastiche of sources, put through the food processor *g*

Anyway, thanks for the feedback! Glad you liked it.

[brownbetty]

Hah! I love very much how the story is only partly about the happilly married couple, (they're happily married, after all,) and is instead about how it's scary when people grow and change and aren't who you thought they were.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was always meant to be as much John's story as anyone's -- because as you mention, there's only so much narrative oomph you can pry out of a happy couple -- although I think by the end, Rodney had more of a character arc than I'd planned for him to. Apparently, I can't stop writing ensemble casts even when I'm writing weddingfic *g*

Glad you liked it!

[2naonh3-cl2.livejournal.com]

i love ronon/rodney, and this fic, just rocked so hard. i love it. *adds to memories* thank you for sharing.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

It was my pleasure! Thanks for the feedback!

[myalexandria.livejournal.com]

this is excellent, very excellent. but oh man, poor John. Jesus.

I know how he feels. It's hard to be already invested in people and then find out that you're always going to be a very distant second.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

It is hard! Actually, part of what I liked about having a big fight near the end with him and Rodney was to make it clear that Rodney still is very invested in what John thinks about him, in their friendship. But, you know, it's hard anyway at first -- and I, unlike John, really do *always* have a problem with change, so I can say that *g*

I'm glad you liked it!

[livrelibre.livejournal.com]

This was unbelievably rich and real and dead funny and full of wonderful moments and great characterization. I am filled with love for this and want to wrap it around myself like a warm and fuzzy blanket. Its rightness is as apparent as macaroni and cheese and I am too busy feeling full and warm to give coherent feedback but here are just a few things I loved--the Teyla-talking-to in the gateroom, the Man Planet (!) Ronon fanciers (I kind of want there to be an epic song about Ronon), that whole passage of Rodney's thoughts on how he feels about Ronon, the details in the sex with the bowl spinning and Satedan, the bits about Kell and Rodney's awful childhood and marriage freakout, John's understated freakout which you can read as missed chances or that single-thing when your friends shack up (or bonus-both!), the Atlantis love . . .oh all right the whole gosh darned story!

[livrelibre.livejournal.com]

Oh! And I forgot to mention the videos and both Rodney and Ronon's surprise backstory (and man would I have loved to have heard the conversation that they had on the podium) and Rodney calling John out (and I think that conversation (and my usual John/Rodney filters) is what gave me repressed!John though looking at it I think it is more friends-changing freakout) and Cadman and Teyla riding herd as well. Ok, backing away from the keyboard now and going to cuddle some more. . .

[millefiori.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is so good!! (Is it the same universe as Thirteen O'Clock?) I loved the Ronon/Rodney (of course, I'm such a Rodney-babe!), but I think John is the best part of this story. You've made him so real and conflicted and nuanced, and his pain was so subtle and well-hidden, even (especially?) from himself. It's as if the story took him through all the stages of a grieving process, with acceptance/resolution at the end. I really, really loved all sorts of things about this story, but I think John's character arc is just really awesome writing!

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Is it the same universe as Thirteen O'Clock?

Yes! I'm glad somebody noticed! *g* Actually, it was huge, geeky fun to work all those tossed-off in jokes into the story, from the recurring argument about whether the first three months of their relationship count to John's friendly relationship with Food Services. (Actually, my favorite was making Jeannie say "he must be smart, or you wouldn't have the time of day for him," just because the time of day was exactly how Rodney figured out he *was* smart *g*)

I'm glad the John plotline worked for you. One of the reasons I wanted to write this story (besides, you know -- Aliens Make Them Get Married!) was because I was thinking about all those stories where two people on the team pair off, and how that really would shake up the emotional dynamics. So it was always pretty much John's story as much as anything.

Thanks for the feedback!

[maryjane7547.livejournal.com]

With it being all about Ronon, Rodney, and the Team! love this story pushed my so many of sga buttons. I'm deeply in love with it.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Cool! I am all about the team!love myself, so I was happy to hook you up. *g*

[mangst.livejournal.com]

This was just wonderful. I liked all the many views on love and marriage. The different reactions that friends can have. You made me think a bit, on what I think about love and marriage. To me that's when you know you are a successful writer, when you make people look at a subject from a view point other than their own. Great job.

Mangst

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

That's a very awesome thing to hear! I find relationships and commitments and marriage and that whole thing really fascinating, because of how we all sort of assume the meaning of them is clear, and yet in reality, we are all coming at them with our own distinct points of view. So you can get a lot of good stuff out of a story that lets the characters confront those differences, but it's even cooler to think you've gotten people who really exist to look at those issues in a different way, even just for the duration of the story. Very cool indeed. Thanks for replying to tell me that!

[sage]

*loves madly beyond all description*
♥♥♥
Yay romance! :D

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Yay, indeed! At times when I was writing it, I felt like this story was miserable self-indulgent, but you know what? I like writing the occasional long-winded romance wallow! And you apparently like reading them, so how great is that? Thanks for the feedback!

[spike21.livejournal.com]

well, I just loved that. It made me happy and it made me cry. I totally believe in this rodney and ronon. And john -- i know just what this feels like. so, yes. Loved.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Awesome! Thank you so much for the feedback -- it's nice to hear that from anyone, but particularly someone who can make the pairing work as gracefully as you did in "Kept By Ourselves..."

[maverick4oz.livejournal.com]

Oh Man...I don't even know where to begin. How about like this...there is not a single word in the that I don't love. You capture the very essence of what I love about Rodney/Ronon and illuminate it so beautifully that it makes me smile, cry and just fucking glow with it. Thank you so much for this. Just an amazing story from start to finish.

p.s. The databurst from Sam and Jeannie were in themselves perfect pieces of art. <3<3<3<3

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm so glad you liked it. And I'm particularly glad you liked the databursts, because writing monologues is a unique challenge -- they're easy to write, but they're even more easy to write badly *g*

[kitestringer.livejournal.com]

Oooooh, I absolutely adored this! The whole thing was brilliant, but I think this might have been my favorite part:

– you fascinate me, all those odd layers, your wit and your anger and your passion under all that steadiness and silence, I can’t puzzle through you, which of course makes me desperate to keep trying – it’s irrational how safe I feel with you, because I know you can’t always protect me, I know you haven’t always been able to protect me, but something about you makes me think constantly about my future and never about my possible lack thereof – everything about you succeeds where everything else I’ve ever tried has always failed, you’re the perfect cure, you touch me and I don’t feel weak or vulnerable or allergic or frightened or alone, I feel as strong as I did on the enzyme and ten times happier –

I just think it says so much about Rodney and his vulnerability, in such a perfectly Rodney-like way. *sigh* I also think you did a great job of keeping John sympathetic throughout the story. Really, it was just amazing from start to finish! *loves*

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Thank you! That was one of the challenges I set for myself with this story: to have a main character who *wasn't* completely supportive of the relationship, but that people could understand rather than just get mad at. Thanks for letting me know I hit the mark, as far as you were concerned.

[buddleia.livejournal.com]

Lovely. Just lovely. And I really like the homophobia and John being so crap about the whole thing - they seem quite likely. I think my favourite scenes are the one where Elizabeth already has the marriage certificates ready and the one where John drunkenly tells Ronon he didn't have to do it.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It was fun to let one of these characters that we say have rotten social skills actually display his lack of social skills! *g* I'm glad you liked the story.

[rike-tikki-tavi.livejournal.com]

Lovely, lovely story. Brain to blown away for better feedback.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Hey, that's all I really need to hear! Thanks!

[neery.livejournal.com]

Wonderful story. I especially liked how loving and affectionate the Rodney/Ronon relationship seemed. They may not know it yet, but they reall do fit together incredibly well.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Don't they just?! Somebody needs to knock their heads together until they figure it out! Or at least write lots of porn in the meantime. *g* I'm glad you liked the story -- thanks for the feedback!

[mirabile-dictu.livejournal.com]

I read this last night and ended up dreaming about the Rodney in your story, whom I loved. The combination of strength and uncertainty you gave him was irresistible. I also love your complex, sophisticated Ronon with his sly sense of humor. Oddly, the scene I keep thinking about is the one through John's eyes, early in the story, when Ronon and Rodney are eating, and John finds how they've bonded over food so amusing. Just wonderful how you conveyed so much information about all three characters yet none of them knew what your readers did. Thank you very much.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Even though I complain sometimes *g*, I do love Rodney, for that very reason: he's so relentless, so unable to let anything go until he's conquered it completely, and at the same time he's all too aware that he's been known to fuck things up in the past doing exactly that. So he keeps diving in, he keeps not backing off, but it's not in the dumb, unconsidered way that it could be. He's somebody who knows absolutely how accidents happen and how people like him get burned, and he worries about it, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter to him as much as the quest does. If it did, he wouldn't still live on Atlantis, you know? So he's just full of little unexpected corners and complications, which makes him a real joy to write. And I don't have to worry about running out of readers too soon, either *g*

Thanks again for the feedback! Yours is always so thoughtful and interesting.

[severusslave.livejournal.com]

Darling? I AM SO GIDDY WITH JOY! *MWAH*

Now: evil uni class, then: story!

[jssangel.livejournal.com]

Oh, that was great! It was such a long lovely read - my favorite kind.

I liked the journey that you sent the characters on. It was interesting the way the story was about John and Rodney and the different ways they come to terms with change and different kinds of love and commitment - rather than just about Ronon & Rodney as a couple.

Actually, you did a great job of leaving Ronon the gloss and shadow of his "otherness" that makes him so intriguing - partly from the pov choices you made, and partly by staying so true to his speach patterns from the show.

Thank you for sharing this story!

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Part of the reason I adore Ronon and haven't stopped writing about him for a whole year now (*g*) is that I have an irresistible attraction to that whole stranger-in-a-strange-land dynamic that creates his "otherness" -- not just because he literally is, but because of the way Jason plays him, so that while he says very little, he always *looks* really alertly interested in everything around him. You always get the sense that he's sorting constantly, trying to make sense out of this world that he's in, and while writing from his POV lets you delve into that (like your writing does so well), it's also fun to kind of take the show's perspective and let the other characters, and the audience, try to navigate him or crack him open. Because I often get the feeling that Ronon's having a lot more success figuring them out than they are with him. His inwardness keeps him "alien" to them, and with this story especially, I think it was fun to make Rodney take that leap of faith and let himself feel something for Ronon and trust him *without* understanding him. Anyway, I'm glad you liked it!

[torakowalski.livejournal.com]

Oh, this was such a lovely story, I enjoyed it very much. Your Ronon was a wonderful character and I especially loved the John POV stuff.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I get bored easily writing just within the bond between two characters, so I tend to go out looking for other people to help tell their story -- sometimes that tactic works better than others. *g* I'm glad to hear that the way I used John in this story worked for you!

[filenotch.livejournal.com]

Well, that totally borked my morning. Note to self: when hth posts a 33K fic, do not expect to be able to read it in pieces.

This was good, and deft, and funny. You write a deep Ronon, and you weave in canon, and in general get the people acting like complex people. Cadman's toast was a nice bit.

Thanks for this. My deadline is so screwed.

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Hee! Well, I'm sure your boss will understand.... No? Oh.

But you liked it, and that's the important part! To me. *g* Thank you!