War and Peace - the review pt.1 (SORRY). Killer roller-coaster opening. Because of the artwork and setting, I was lulled into expecting another Mission Miss giving Sheppard her all (or attempting to...) and the initial dialogue had the essential off-world snark with:"the scientist had pretty much two classifications for their off-world missions: useless and deadly (Great line by the way - utterly Rodney) and then you totally Tabula Rasa-ed me with spooked-out and confused Rodney, and I knew it was all going to hell for him. It had real impact and I knew then that we weren't dealing with another off-world flirtation leading to romance.
One of the things I adored about this story and your style, was the way you intimated so much about John and Rodney's emotions and internal dialogue with brief and incomplete thoughts and phrases. It was effective and extremely powerful. I could quote reams, but the ones that really hit me were:
[John]"If you lost someone important to you and had to look back, would you be happy with the way you lived your life to that point?" OUCH!
[Rodney]"I have no intention of losing you..."
and Rodney's "Rodney couldn’t allow himself to touch John, not even to say goodbye, because he wasn’t going to spread these things, not to someone he… Not to John." Oh Rodney...
Both of them were very IC, and I liked the way that you built on ideas and characteristics that are all there in canon. With John, I liked the glimpses of math!John - working out the periods and cycles in a couple of seconds, counting while running, etc...I could see his intense-eyed, lip-biting stare when you described this scene:John tried to listen to the man’s hasty, whispered explanation of the ritual’s process, but inwardly, he was seething. I could SEE him in that moment. The same with the way he switches to a military pragmatism when he has to cut through debate to make himself clear to Rodney: “Damnit, Rodney! Okay, screw this, there isn’t time,” John exploded. “You have to listen to me, and I don’t care if you don’t believe me—you’re going to try this anyway.”
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Date: 2008-06-02 12:48 pm (UTC)Killer roller-coaster opening. Because of the artwork and setting, I was lulled into expecting another Mission Miss giving Sheppard her all (or attempting to...) and the initial dialogue had the essential off-world snark with:"the scientist had pretty much two classifications for their off-world missions: useless and deadly (Great line by the way - utterly Rodney) and then you totally Tabula Rasa-ed me with spooked-out and confused Rodney, and I knew it was all going to hell for him. It had real impact and I knew then that we weren't dealing with another off-world flirtation leading to romance.
One of the things I adored about this story and your style, was the way you intimated so much about John and Rodney's emotions and internal dialogue with brief and incomplete thoughts and phrases. It was effective and extremely powerful. I could quote reams, but the ones that really hit me were:
[John]"If you lost someone important to you and had to look back, would you be happy with the way you lived your life to that point?" OUCH!
[Rodney]"I have no intention of losing you..."
and Rodney's "Rodney couldn’t allow himself to touch John, not even to say goodbye, because he wasn’t going to spread these things, not to someone he… Not to John." Oh Rodney...
Both of them were very IC, and I liked the way that you built on ideas and characteristics that are all there in canon. With John, I liked the glimpses of math!John - working out the periods and cycles in a couple of seconds, counting while running, etc...I could see his intense-eyed, lip-biting stare when you described this scene:John tried to listen to the man’s hasty, whispered explanation of the ritual’s process, but inwardly, he was seething. I could SEE him in that moment. The same with the way he switches to a military pragmatism when he has to cut through debate to make himself clear to Rodney: “Damnit, Rodney! Okay, screw this, there isn’t time,” John exploded. “You have to listen to me, and I don’t care if you don’t believe me—you’re going to try this anyway.”