meme!

[meretricula]

ganked from aramley. doubt anyone's interested, but hey, might as well.

Pick a paragraph (or any passage less than 500 words) from any story I've written, and comment to this post with that selection. I will then give you a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what's going on in the character's heads, why I chose certain words, what this moment means in the context of the rest of the fic, lots of awful puns, and anything else that you'd expect to find on a DVD commentary track.

you can find a list of all my fic here or in my memories. go on, play with me! all of us in the States have the day off tomorrow; you might as well distract me from the sound of my thesis not writing itself.

Comments

[aramley.livejournal.com]

I skirted very close to the word limit for this, haha. This is from one of my favourite fics of yours (Rafa/MAndy is a not-so-secret guilty pleasure of mine).

Somehow, he'd thought it would be more satisfying. He was the number two tennis player in the world, the highest ranked British (or Scottish, if you were going to get picky about it, which he was) man in the history of the ranking system, but it didn't feel any different. It should have been different, he thought irritably. He'd earned it, hadn't he, even though nobody would admit it: it was all poor Rafa and poor Rafa's knees, so sad, cry me a fucking river.

He just wanted some acknowledgment, that was all. Which was why he was still lurking in the locker room after his match, waiting for Rafa to get out of the showers. It was petty and childish and he didn't care at all.

"Hey," someone said from behind him, and clapped him on the shoulder. "What are you doing still here?"

"Hi, Novak," Andy said. Novak was smiling at him, but he looked faintly quizzical. "Yeah, you've caught me, I guess. I wanted to talk to Rafa, y'know?"

Novak's expression hardened: it was like a shutter had dropped over his face. Andy had known Novak for a long time, but he'd never seen him look like that, not even when they were facing each other across the net - like he would have been perfectly happy to kill Andy, stuff his body in a locker and leave it there to rot. "Andy, leave Rafa alone," he said flatly.

"What? I'm not gonna, I don't know, call him names or insult his mother or whatever," Andy laughed. "And he's a big boy, you know, I don't think he needs you to protect him from me."

"I mean it, leave him alone," Novak repeated, unamused. Andy stared at him in total disbelief, but before he could make a witty comeback (which would have probably been along the lines of, "what the fuck?") they were interrupted by a cheerful call of, "Hola!" from the other side of the room.

"Hey, Rafa," Andy said. Novak just waved, the murderous look gone from his face like it had never been there. The speed of the transformation was honestly a little scary.

"Oh, Andy," Rafa said as he dropped his towel and started rummaging in his bag for his underwear, completely unembarrassed by his nudity. "I never say you congratulations, for Montreal. You play amazing, no?"

"Thanks," Andy said. He would have done pushups in a hotel lobby wearing nothing but Kim's panties before he'd admit it, but there was a kind of warm squishy feeling in his chest that surfaced whenever Rafa told him he'd played well. "I hope I can keep it up, you know?"

Rafa pulled his shorts on, and grinned at him before yanking a T-shirt over his head. "No so good for me, no? But for sure, good luck. I gonna try and get you soon, no?"

[meretricula.livejournal.com]

oh, Rafa/Mandy. the hatesex would be epic. though to be serious, I really do see an unrequited crush on Mandy's side as plausible - most of the older players and Rafa have their epic crush on Roger, but I don't think Mandy or Nole ever did. I think if they went through an OMGHE'SSOAWESOME phase about another player, it was probably Rafa. and Rafa was probably completely oblivious. (that's why we love him!)

I'm actually quite curious about the dynamic between Nole and Andy, and I was trying to explore that a little bit here. I was very surprised to learn they used to be close friends, because since they've been jockeying back and forth for 3, 4, 2, it seems they don't get along at all. (Mandy made some seriously catty remarks about Nole when 3 and 4 flipped, I remember that.) bronze_ribbons mentioned the coolest idea the other day, you might find it interesting, that she was contemplating an AU where Nole took British citizenship. how bizarre would that have been? Mandy and Nole doubles for Davis Cup! (in my head, Nole would be desperately lonely and miss Serbia like crazy but it's better for his little brothers to have all the opportunities from the LTA so he doesn't complain, he just clings to Ana like a limpet at all the mixed tournaments. and she's pals with Rafa so that's how they really meet properly. I can't help being so obsessed with OTP!)

anyway, I can never really remember why I wrote things, except of course that the Montreal tournament happened and I needed to console myself. so here I spoiled myself with outsider perspective on the relationship, which I really like as a plot device, and also protective!Nole, whom I adore for obvious reasons. I think Nole here has been really worried sick about Rafa for a while, and he's stressed out about maybe having to play Rafa soon if the draw goes according to plan, and so he kind of snaps on Andy. he wouldn't normally be so obvious about it. (I actually feel really bad for Andy in this fic. I didn't when I started writing, but by the time I was finishing up I was like, wow, it really sucks to be him, he has absolutely no idea how to go about expressing his feelings. like, even less idea than the rest of these emotionally stunted idiot boys.)

oh, I do remember why I wrote this, actually! I was listening to a song called "No More Stones to Throw" on my way home from work, which is basically about the futility of war, and the band that sings it is Scottish-Canadian, and I thought, wow this song is perfect for Mandy. just, the idea that he's been working and working and working for this ranking for so long, and then he gets it and he realizes it isn't what he wants at all, and what he wants he can't get, at least in part because he did get the ranking. I write an honestly disturbing number of fics because I think of songs with lyrics that make good titles. that's where We Both Go Down Together and And I Am Standing Still both came from. someday I will get it together enough to write Rafa/Feli porn entitled "como se puede bailar (es un escandolo)". priorities!