New SGA story: Advantage

[resonant]

Hooray! A full-length story!

Advantage
McKay/Sheppard -- NC-17 -- 88K
This slave-owner thing was a lot of responsibility.
Story notes

Beta thanks to astolat, cesperanza, giddygeek, giglet, julad, and terrio.

Comments

[claire.livejournal.com]

Guh! That was just... yes.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Excellent! Thanks.

[firesprite1105.livejournal.com]

You have no idea how happy this makes me! :D

*scampers off to read*

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

[beams at you]

[aethereal-girl.livejournal.com]

Um. Wow.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[silviakundera.livejournal.com]

I've read quite a few stories with this plot, and I think yours is by far my favorite. A nice, crisp spin on an old cliche. Great dialogue, and fantastic Rodney characterization.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I've always liked reading slave stories. And when it comes to exploring how someone will act when someone else is completely under their power, Rodney's an especially interesting character, because he's generally well-meaning but also generally quite self-absorbed. He's a walking gray area.

Glad you liked it!

[nel-ani.livejournal.com]

Um. I'm just...wow. I don't know what to say. That story pushed all my buttons, a bunch of them I didn't know I had.

I *loved* that Shep was a bossy slave, because he so would be, and I love that McKay was more responsible than you'd expect him to be.

Well, okay, I loved pretty much everything about it.

Most of all I loved that you took a not-so-new plot and made it all fresh and new and pretty and hot.

Thank you.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

It was a button-pusher for me, too -- the "make me do this" sex was wildly fun to think about.

Glad you liked it!

[kitestringer.livejournal.com]

Oh man. This was totally brilliant. And heartwrenching. And *hot*. Parts of it made me whimper out loud, like this:

It would be impossible to lose John in the crowd; among these drably dressed people he was dark and shiny and dangerous as a knife in the linen drawer. Rodney couldn't take his eyes off him. He'd had that sleeping beside him. How could he not have known that it would end with his flesh stripped from his bones?

*whimper*

Just...thank you for writing in this fandom!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

My favorite line! Clearly you are a reader of taste and discretion!

So glad you liked it.

[lynnmonster.livejournal.com]

Wow.

Slave fic done so very, very right -- thank you for all the inner conflict and outer snark and the fabulous, fabulous ending.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Yay! So glad you enjoyed it.

[amalthia]

Wow this was such a lovely story. I loved the conflict Rodney felt throughout the fic and the ending was great. :) thanks so much for sharing, this was perfect.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm really glad you liked it.

[wickedwords.livejournal.com]

I love slave stories, and getting into them really takes some time. I'm glad you let it grow and didn't force it to stop too early to meet the Flashfic deadline; I loved watching the way it built and progressed. Rodeny and Shep's relationship in this is so interesting, and I really like your take on Rodney here (Not to mention the image of angry!shep there at the end, when he returns to the planet and speaks to the other slaves). Nicely romantic over all and it just make me very happy.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Good -- I'm glad this Rodney worked for you. There was a certain self-indulgence in giving these guys a (literal) connection -- they both seem to have so little closeness in their lives.

[saba1789.livejournal.com]

You won't believe how excited I was to see a new long McKShep fic popping up on my friendslist - I think I have a serious addiction problem here. *g*
Anyway, gosh this story was great. I enjoyed reading it a lot what with that little slave kink I have, the cool plot and the hot sex. I was nearly biting my nails though in fear of what would happen when John finally lost the virus. Fortunately it all worked out very well in the end so no worries were neccessary :-) .
Thanks a lot for writing and sharing this and posting it as perfect good night story! *beams*

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

It's been forever since I wrote anything this long! And, yes, I'm just as addicted as you are. Glad to have kept you in suspense!

[engenda.livejournal.com]

There was glee when I saw that you had posted a long SGA fic. There was this greedy delight. This was just...yeah. Rodney, that basic core of decency that he has, his desires overcoming his common sense. John, still snarking while giving him water.

Just...yeah.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Yay! Glad you liked it. I do think Rodney has a core of decency, in spite of everything, but it was tricky to make him decent but not too decent.

[mimesere.livejournal.com]

Oh, that was happy and fabulous.

*has the fantastic story happies*

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm so glad! Happy to be in the same fandom with you; has that ever happened before?

Damn it, this slave-owner thing was a lot of responsibility.

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

*jitters* new fic by you! I've spent the afternoon idly chatting and mentioning how you're the best and then I couldn't read it right away coz wanted to save/saviour but didn't hold out either, plus giving running commentary to friend on it, veering between awe and envy ;) ... I was going to make the too-many-quotes smaller but you don't like that so I'd rather annoy others with the size, hm ...

I like the acknowledgement that without John's negotiation by randomness/persuade-the-natives toolkit they could not succeed. How the whole slave-planet sucks.

I was going to say "bad bad scientists" but obviously John had his fun high-jumping. *g*

"I have an almost irresistible desire to come put lotion on your elbows." *ggg*

"Glowering damply". Yes. My kind of mental picture. I am awaiting your novel with more and more impatience, woman! Hell, send me the previous two versions!

"It was actually kind of fun to say 'I order you' to someone who took it seriously, and he got into the role a bit, giving a regal wave of his hand. Zelenka snorted behind him. Sheppard rolled his eyes and said, "Yes, sir," with amazing insincerity, and left."
I love you. No, I would never have your babies or marry you. But.

Bad, bad Rodney again. He does enjoy lording it over. Except when he's badgered, and even then:
"I don't jog," Rodney said. "I don't run for recreation. I run when someone's after me with a weapon."
"That can be arranged," Sheppard muttered, and then he lurked around Rodney's door for so long that Rodney gave in and went jogging with him just to get rid of him."

Of course it is better to have someone fussing over you because he likes you, rather than because he was under chemical compulsion. We want it all after a while. But until then, this is also wonderful:
Sheppard glared at Rodney. "You didn't jerk off."
"Jesus." Rodney covered his eyes with his hand.
"But it was the whole reason I left."
"Oh, you gave me fifteen minutes. How generous of you."
"You need longer than fifteen minutes? What do you do, interpretive dance?"
Mwuahahahaha! That ... that just slayed me more than anything. The image.

Glad when Shep gets some of his bite back, while Rodney persists in wonderful denial. Gladder still that Rodney is glad that John shakes his head and looked "satisfyingly tight-lipped and smoldery".
...
Except you smash that to bits and tell me it's just what Rodney yet again wants! And you are of course correct.

BTW: Backrubs were number three on my list of things-I-hate-in-fanfic, btw *eyes* and you had to make it ... this?! If you do footrubs and bubblebaths next and make me LIKE it I ... I ... dunno what I will do.

"Jesus, what good was an imagination if it was going to insist on a higher level of plausibility than his real life did?"
I appreciate how you keep adressing the issue of dominance, control over another, and don't leave it out of sight. Comparing it with the possible women Rodney might fancy *nods*

"if he was going to get his dearest wish, it would be for something that went deeper --
No. No. He was willing to be pathetic up to a point, but there had to be limits.
Sheppard's hands on his body, then, ..."

This is both guh and meta for me, both what he thinks and what I wonder about fic/romance.

Rodney forgoing the whining and bitching to enable Sheppard to save the kids is ... fine, he's fine. Could be on the show. Might be.
"Rodney thought they both must look pretty bad to make Carson volunteer to pilot the jumper."
Awwww. To all of them.

Re: Damn it, this slave-owner thing was a lot of responsibility.

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

Oh god, I've been waiting for this, Res's patented desperate longing:
"Sheppard kissed another spot, and another, none of them too close to the burn, all of them desperately sensitive and long-ignored, because there were a lot of things you could do for yourself, but you really couldn't nibble your own neck. Rodney had to close his eyes to block out the reflection of Sheppard's dark, bowed head and his own desperate face."

And I also don't want them to, noooo! Even if they want to and I want to read it.
"He was creative and exploratory, making happy snuffling noises."
*ggg* Stop it, I don't want him mind-controlled *helpless*

"Oh, jesus, Rodney," John was saying. His voice was scratchy, and Rodney didn't entirely like the thrill that gave him. "No, don't, you don't have to, don't --" But Rodney didn't have an obedience virus, and he never took advice; you could ask anybody. So he went on reveling in the great well-being that followed on the heels of the best orgasm he'd ever had in his life, and, slowly and curiously, licking at John's cock."
*thud thud thud
thud thud thud
thud thud thud*

The virus sure has them both. And is infecting me. Notice the break in my running commentary where your sex scene was.

I wonder if it makes me feel better when you insert the seeds of doubt again, like after the vindicating snark and the guh-sex, you say:
"He put his hand on the back of Rodney's neck, and Rodney leaned into the warm touch. Rodney tried to believe John did all this snuggling for his own satisfaction, but he suspected John had figured out that he was touch-deprived, which was just way too pathetic. So mostly he tried not to think about it. "I can't imagine why not. That's so characteristic of your normal way of thinking."
"The virus is probably making sure I don't worry about anything that doesn't involve keeping you happy." He said it like it ought to make Rodney feel better."

Or is it only you manipulating me into thinking I have a free will? Or that you are subverting the slave-owner thing? Or are you making me think this to distract me from it all being just what it is?

"John couldn't read his mind, he knew, but he could feel his distress, and he pulled free of Rodney's mouth -- god, he had to be about two seconds from coming, and it was amazing that he'd had the strength to pull back, pull out of Rodney's mouth, go against both of the things Rodney wanted so he could drop down on the floor and give Rodney the one thing he needed, which was comfort."

Yay for John taking their fate into his hands. I love how Rodney sees John in the crowd of slaves. It plays up on all my early love for the pirate, the unrecognised hero, the romantic underdog; "among these drably dressed people he was dark and shiny and dangerous as a knife in the linen drawer. Rodney couldn't take his eyes off him. He'd had that sleeping beside him. How could he not have known that it would end with his flesh stripped from his bones?" *whimper*

Happy happy ending :)

[fenris_wolf0]

Hee. Fascinating...

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[farwing.livejournal.com]

That was really, really good.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you liked it!

[lamardeuse.livejournal.com]

Oh man, once again there are not enough words to say how much I love your work. What's more, I think this is your best SGA to date, which is really saying something. You have Rodney spot-on, the voice is perfect, and you've hit the nail on the head when it comes to his personal relationships - he's not a supremely confident sex god, but a lonely, socially inept guy who's just trying to muddle through and do the best he can.

I could hear DH delivering a lot of these lines, but this one had me rolling on the floor:

"Oh, you gave me fifteen minutes. How generous of you."

And I loved the whole progress of this - John still remaining snarky and sarcastic throughout it all, and the way they come together slowly, fighting it until they can't fight any longer. I ached for Rodney here:

"No," Rodney whispered. He wasn't at all surprised when Sheppard ignored him.

Sheppard kissed another spot, and another, none of them too close to the burn, all of them desperately sensitive and long-ignored, because there were a lot of things you could do for yourself, but you really couldn't nibble your own neck. Rodney had to close his eyes to block out the reflection of Sheppard's dark, bowed head and his own desperate face.

God, I could see that. And this:

Maybe his bond to Rodney would loosen little by little. First he had to be in earshot, and then he could be in another room, and then he could be on a whole other planet. First this was love, and then just a nice warm feeling, and then a period of delusion that he'd look back on with disgust, like an ill-advised drunken pickup only without the mercy of a fuzzy memory.

Or maybe it would disappear all at once.

Fabulous stuff, simply fabulous.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! I'm so glad you liked it.

Some stories make me buy Rodney as a confident sex god, but it's pretty rare. People who talk that much are not usually people who are certain that they're being listened to.

[wildmachinery.livejournal.com]

That was fabulous and uncomfortable and heartbreaking and made me smile like a loon, all at the same time. Perfection. Thank you.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Wow -- that makes me so happy! Thanks.

[katyabaturinsky.livejournal.com]

Now this is a 4th of July celebration I can get behind...new SGA fabulousness from you. And long! Lovely!

As always, exquisitely wonderful characterization throughout; I loved everyone here, and Rodney's voice in particular was marvelous. The bickering was so completely them -- leave it to John to be the galaxy's most obstinate slave (talk about topping from below), and of course Rodney would give in to his worst impulses on the little stuff (oh, John is going to make him pay for the sock washing).

Beyond all the banter and the snark, though, the genuine feeling was eloquent in its understatement. You did a wonderful job of conveying Rodney's growing sense of impending loss as things progressed, and John was clearly a mess behind that battened-down facade. And I'll echo kitestringer's adoration of this passage:

It would be impossible to lose John in the crowd; among these drably dressed people he was dark and shiny and dangerous as a knife in the linen drawer. Rodney couldn't take his eyes off him. He'd had that sleeping beside him. How could he not have known that it would end with his flesh stripped from his bones?

The pain expressed therein is overwhelming.

Wonderful story -- thanks so very much for writing and posting!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.

You did a wonderful job of conveying Rodney's growing sense of impending loss as things progressed, and John was clearly a mess behind that battened-down facade.

Bless your heart. This is exactly what I was trying to say without hitting anybody over the head with it. John in particular is very difficult; the more he feels, the less he says, so that I found it impossible to get him to give everyone a status report on just how bad any of this was for him. You just had to know.

[barkley.livejournal.com]

That was awesome!

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'm so glad.

[ilexa.livejournal.com]

You're just my favorite person ever. Like, ever ever.

Cause oh so funny and fun at first, and then, hello, rip out my heart and dance on it with your little nanovirus-infected feet and then ohmygodyum.

That's just the best thing about my month so far.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Hee! Glad it put you through the same wringer it put me through. Thanks.

[ladyjestyr.livejournal.com]

Oh dear god. I'm halfway through reading it now and I just had to come back and gurgle about it right now because it's so fabulous.

*squee*

*goes off to read the rest...*

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Aww. Thanks!

[misspamela.livejournal.com]

Holy CHRIST. That was one of the hottest things ever, ever,ever. And? Funny! And? Angsty! There was just so much wonderful goodness. I thought the characterization of both of them was perfect, as was the feelings of the reader mirroring Rodney's feelings of being slightly disturbed but not wanting to stop.

Gah. Going to go read it again now.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Wow -- I'm so glad you liked it! Glad Rodney's ambivalence came through -- I don't really see how any real person would be able to have what he had and give it up. (Maybe Picard could.) Thanks!

[mergatrude.livejournal.com]

Lovely, masterful, blurring of lines. (I was trying to think of a gender-neutral word for masterful, but it's slave fic!) The sex, indeed all of it, had that wonderful topping-from-the-botton thing that's turned out to be a big kink of mine: John making Rodney make him! John being a servant, yet not servile (his whole (un)military posture). Rodney acting in a manner to keep John happy, to meet John's needs. Perfectly wonderful bad kisses. Also, the danger of coming so close to being trapped in the dynamic between them, how they both love and hate the roles, need each other but by choice not force. You ended it with perfect timing - still in charge of themselves enough to salvage themselves/each other out of the mess it could have become. Wonderful humour. And how you write the sex! Absolutely has me quivering. Thank you for a fabulous read.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I was trying to think of a gender-neutral word for masterful, but it's slave fic!

[snorkle]

I figure John has probably had lots of experience figuring out how to turn any situation to his advantage; I had lots of fun thinking of how he'd get something out of this one.

And, yeah, I wanted them in the situation just long enough to be absolutely unable to ignore what had happened or go back, but not long enough that it would be impossible to have an unpoisoned future. Glad that worked.

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

This was great! See, I am so happy, I got into this new fandom at just the right time to enjoy one of my favorite writers writing wonderful stuff.

I particularly liked that the virus seemed to be a sort of Jewish-momma virus - "eat, eat, you're not getting enough food, and don't you think you should stop straining your eyes with that computer and get some exercise?"

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

It's amazing who-all is in the fandom, isn't it? It's like -- wish I'd brought my autograph book!

And, yeah, it was that kind of virus. For some reason I just want to mother Rodney.

[morceau.livejournal.com]

There are just so many good things about this! I have a soft spot for the idea of one partner being so in tuned with another to recognize when they need something (outside alien influence notwithstanding). I found John's exasperation with Rodney--"Will you for crying out loud eat something that didn't come wrapped in foil?"-- endearing, and his sense of desperation at the things he couldn't control touching.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you liked it! I like them being in tune, too -- neither of them is the best communicator, and it's a deep pleasure to give them someone to understand them.