Atlantis fic: De Profundis

[hth]

De Profundis
by Hth

My journey into OT4 continues. Not as porny as "Works and Plays Well With Others," not as musical as "Headbanger's Ball." This actually...didn't go at all where I expected it to.

There was no set of circumstances where that particular configuration of fire, electricity, cultists, gravity, and sociopolitical upheval was going to give anyone a good feeling, but worse this time than normal, because by that point Rodney had gotten used to all three of them and also kind of more or less fallen in love.

Comments

[zvi-likes-tv.livejournal.com]

I loved that. (Well, I am a whee bit disgruntled at the end where they leave Rodney ALL ALONE ON ATLANTIS, but everything else about it was great.) I especially like the bit where John almost apologized himself into a divorce. :)

[minnow1212.livejournal.com]

This was really interesting and unexpected; I liked the twists and turns, the ways their lives interwove, and felt both hurt and healed by the end, for Rodney going back alone but also having all three of them.

[toft-froggy.livejournal.com]

*CRIES*

Oh god all the way through I was clenching in my heart and going, *RODNEY*! *JOHN*! *TEYLA*! *RONON*! Oh god they all love each other so much and Rodney loves and loves. This was lovely and perfect. Now I will cry more.

[choisir-fate.livejournal.com]

I didn’t even know – that I had a chance. I didn’t know you liked...."
"Well, I didn’t know you did, either, until one day you turn up having sex with my best friend." "Oh, yes, let me see, that would’ve been the day after your wedding, right?
Marvellous - An OT4 because the OT2 don’t know how to communicate. It does not feel as if they are agonizing about it though, because they know they still have something as good if not better than if they had been exclusively together.

I like the way you have written all the different interactions between the team. Ronon’s reasoning when proposition Rodney, Teyla’s “if we did not know this morning which of us loves whom and why, we will not work it out here and now”

Even though they do not communicate very well verbally, they still ‘get’ each other. This story was sweet because it was not about the sex, rather it was about their feelings for each other, singularly and collectively. "Delenn! She’d be your Delenn." was just a perfect description of John & Teyla, even though I am a McKay/Sheppard lover.

The ending was lovely, it portrayed Rodney with great maturity, willing to be on his own so the others could all be happy, yet knowing that he would have a place with them when he was ready.

As usual with everything you write this is a lovely lovely story, thank you for sharing the joy.

[livrelibre.livejournal.com]

Bliss! I love your combinations and how much they say about each character and the uncontrived happy ending, all the love and the ties that bind in all the difficult and best ways.

[an-kayoh.livejournal.com]

Wah, so sad!

This is really good. One of things that OT4 stories are often missing is enough moments of both group and one-on-one interactions. But in this, there are plenty of private interactions between all "possibilities" as it were. Yay!

ow ow ow, but oh.

[kormantic.livejournal.com]

Althought my favorite line is Rodney felt that he’d missed out on American Idol through no fault of his own. He enjoyed music, and judgment. He thought he really could have been a fan. the whole goddamned thing made me cry all over the place. Oh, angeline, you make my whole heart just ache and ache for them; you make me love them so much. Almost as much as they love each other.

[kimberlite.livejournal.com]

Loved your characterizations and the complex interactions between the team. It was painfully obvious that they all loved each other and yet they couldn't quite communicate enough to get on the same wavelength. The ending was bittersweet and perfect.

[linabean.livejournal.com]

This is just fabulous. I'm still trying to figure out my reaction to it, because I got into it in a different way than I do most fanfic stories. I tend to think of fanfic as a place where I get to see familiar characters do stuff I want them to--I'm used to thinking of fanfic as like playing with paper dolls, basically. And, for me, good fanfic authors are generally ones who come up with interesting back-stories and insightful motivations for our shared dolls and then put them in creative and well-structured situations, and use a lot of skill in writing about all those things--but it still feels, on a certain level, like playing with dolls, deliberately using the characters for our gratification. And I really like that about fanfic! It's something I can't get from pro-fic, where the authors and readers don't share the characters the same way, so it can be uniquely satisfying.

With a story like this, though, it was so obvious that the characters had separate lives of their own, ones that overlapped in some ways and not in others--I couldn't feel, like with most fanfic, that the characters were focused on each other and on the events of the plot to guarantee a satisfying outcome for the reader and author because I believed completely that they were each immersed in their own worlds. And that made me ache for them, in a way I usually don't for the characters in most fanfic--there were parts where I just wanted to shake Rodney and tell him, "Stop letting yourself think of Ronon as Sheppard 2.0!" or "Teyla is not the pretty sidekick!" But, of course, all that made me feel so involved in watching how they started to surface and see each other better, and, though I couldn't feel like that or any ending was inevitable for them because they seemed more like real people who might end up doing any damned thing at random, I really appreciated all the clever technical/structural things you did with the story to help make that ending inevitable, so--yes. Very well done indeed.

(And, you know, it's a little strange to me, but even stories about missed chances usually really gets to me, I didn't really ache for how Rodney and John missed their ship--I was much more caught up in seeing them all realize how they loved each other, and their figuring out what that meant they'd do.)

Other things that struck me: I was so glad that Rodney knows how well Teyla sings, and that he's spent nights stargazing with her. And it's so great that you have people on Atlantis regularly using some Ancient words (because, come on, show-writers--why wouldn't they?). Oh, and I love how you made explicit Ronon's need for family; I think it makes great use of the newer canon from Season 3.

And, well, now I'm remembering part of the reason I don't really like trying to leave feedback, since I feel like I'm on the verge of just saying something like, "This is a good story, with many themes and developments....", so I'm just gonna finish up by saying that Rodney wanting to have been an American Idol fan because "He enjoyed music, and judgment" is my new favorite thing.

Thanks so much for sharing!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bettina_/]

Beautiful story!

[lamaudite.livejournal.com]

Beautifully written. So many good lines, witty dialogue and (un)expressed emotions! This third part is a wonderful addition to the "sessions".

[korilian.livejournal.com]

Oh now I remember you. You're that writer that keeps depressing the hell out of me. That's not to say your stuff isn't ridiculously goodlooking... it's just... a lot of it just keeps depressing the hell out of me. (that's a compliment by the way. Your fic invokes STRONG emotions in this one)

[hth-the-first.livejournal.com]

Heh. Well, hell, I'm just happy to be remembered for something, most days! *g* I will certainly take the compliment in the spirit in which it was intended -- but I have to say, I'm always really surprised when people tell me how sad they found "De Profundis." I swear to God, I thought it was a happy story! I mean, yes, sometimes I write things where Teyla shoots John in the head or Ronon suffocates to death, and I think, you know, okay, this one's just gonna be for me and the other angst whores. But this one...you know, I really wrote it intending to say something about all the times when you think something is the worst thing that can happen, and then it turns out to be not so terrible at all, really, and maybe even something wonderful. Apparently, that part didn't come across to a lot of readers. *g*

Anyway, you know, one of the most interesting things about writing is the way that later on you get to stand back and see your own work through somebody else's eyes, and it looks quite different to them. It's a nice reminder of how much of a two-way street all kinds of creative work really is.

To sum up: Thanks!