Talk:Always: Time Will Bring Their Hour

Yuletide Comments

The following are the comments that were made to the original Yuletide post in 2007/8:

From: tetsubinatu Date: 10/02/2008 I never even THOUGHT of Charioteer fan-fiction - and then to come across a piece of such quality! Thankyou so much! I recently re-read the book and was reminded of the book's key note of dissatisfaction, of 'settling' for what is available, striving for light in the shadows. You have really captured this feeling in your work.

From: Lferion Date: 01/10/2008 This is a beautiful and moving piece, and entirely satisfying (though a tad confusing at the beginning) to me, even though I have not yet read Renault -- Thank you. Alec and Sandy are very vivid and alive.

From: Lorie Date: 01/02/2008 I still adore this; you've done something wonderful for all the Alec fans -- and I think your story will create Sandy fans. Bravo.

From: wychwood Date: 12/31/2007 Oh, I do like your Sandy here; you do a great job of showing why Alec cares for him, and some of the things that keep them together. It's a salutary reminder of how very young they all are, too. Poor Alec.

From: Isis Date: 12/29/2007 This is wonderful. The cadence and word choice is spot-on Renault, and the story is a lovely illumination of the tensions and affection between Sandy and Alec, and how all relationships are strained by wartime exigencies.

From: Geoviki Date: 12/28/2007 This was such a great, and almost necessary scene. I think you've bridged the unwritten gap of these two characters terrifically. I love how you characterize them with their flaws and graces both. And the language and tone match the original to perfection.

From: Midge Magpie Date: 12/28/2007 *cheers*

This is brilliant. I'd never really understood the dynamic between those two, but you explicate it perfectly. Thank you!

From: Cori Lannam Date: 12/27/2007 The language is so utterly perfect, rich and vivid. The characters are just as Renault wrote them, and yet much more. What a gorgeous story. From: Mme Bahorel Date: 12/26/2007 Oh, that was beautiful! I do so love Alec and Sandy, and the descriptive sections were so lovely.

From: Shezan Date: 12/25/2007 SO fantastically perfect and such a clever and sensitive description of the dynamic between Alec and Sandy. I love that Alec sees the youth in Sandy; the sugar metaphor is in such contrast with Bunny; and your careful exploration of Ralph's throwaway "you don't know as much about Alec as you think." I could quote lines and lines like "It wasn't something they had discussed, but rather an inevitability made conspicuous by their dedicated avoidance of it", etc. Brilliant!

From: Shezan Date: 12/25/2007 SO fantastically perfect and such a clever and sensitive description of the dynamic between Alec and Sandy. I love that Alec sees the youth in Sandy; the sugar metaphor is in such contrast with Bunny; and your careful exploration of Ralph's throwaway "you don't know as much about Alec as you think." I could quote lines and lines like "It wasn't something they had discussed, but rather an inevitability made conspicuous by their dedicated avoidance of it", etc. Brilliant!

From: athousandwinds Date: 12/25/2007 It is entirely inappropriate to respond to a Mary Renault fic this way, but anyway:

OMGOMGOMGSOPERFECTILOVEYOU.

Your writing style is spot on: it has the thick, complex description of human emotions and understandings that MR does (that description of Bim's death? Note-perfect, so vivid and evocative). Alec's grief vs. Sandy's grief: they both try to repress their emotions but for such different reasons.

Some of the points you've made here I recognise from discussions on maryrenaultfics, and it made me so happy to see them expanded on and made into an indelible part of the Sandy/Alec relationship. The fact that they do love each other, but for radically different reasons: Sandy doesn't understand Alec and loves him for it to the point of blindness; Alec understands Sandy all too well (though with perhaps a touch too much cynicism, a darker part of Alec's character that you've brought out delicately and brilliantly) and loves him despite himself. The fact that at least part of Sandy's desperation comes from the fact that he knows - they both know - that they won't stay together, so he wants to make an ineradicable mark on Alec's life.

And all the little things you do to show how their relationship is: Sandy saving sugar and milk for Alec; Alec being uncomfortable with what he sees as Sandy's servitude; Sandy learning what Alec likes; Alec going and getting that damn whisky just to piss Sandy off (and Sandy hardly registering it). But of course, what I liked best is the moment at the end, which is the moment you realise exactly why they do stay together, despite all the troubles and annoyances they cause each other. Alec reassuring Sandy broke my heart a little, too, because it's a reaffirmation of both how much he does actually care and how little time they have left together.

All in all, an absolutely wonderful Yuletide gift. Thank you so, so much for this; it's made my Christmas. :D