Comments | shaggydog_swap: Fic: This Is The Life

remuslives23 in shaggydog_swap

Fic: This Is The Life

Nov 16, 2011 13:59

Title: This is the Life
Username: xkeijukainenx
Art: calico_lupin’s Almost Blue
Word Count: 16,116
Rating: R
Contains: *AU, prostitution, drug use, lots of swearing, scenes of a sexual nature and an overly sweet happy ending in the form of a horrifically soppy epilogue*
Summary: After the war, Sirius becomes an uptight, high-ranking Ministry official; but when an old ( Read more... )

fic: this is the life, artist: calico_lupin, author: xkeijukainenx

Comments 37

bearshorty November 16 2011, 14:36:56 UTC

This was a wonderful AU. Very engaging. I felt for Remus here and his circumstances and his attitude to life and death. And it was good to see that they help each other - Sirius helps Remus not to die, and Remus helps Sirius to be alive.

I also enjoyed the dialogue, especially Remus' voice.

xkeijukainenx November 16 2011, 22:03:16 UTC

I'm so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks so much for your kind words. <3

escribo November 16 2011, 16:24:46 UTC

Holy sticks I'm not even sure I can say how much I loved this but know that it's REALLY A LOT. Everything--the dialogue, the pacing, the characterization, the epilogue (of which I am a HUGE fan since I like to know and then what happened). Seriously this is fantastic. I love it to pieces.

xkeijukainenx November 16 2011, 22:06:12 UTC

Arghhhhh thank you!! I'm so glad you liked it. <3!

I am one of those people who gets incredibly frustrated when fics just leave me hanging, and for my own characters I generally know exactly whats going to happen... so I decided to include the epilogue though I did try hard not to let it be TOO sappy...

ANYWAYS thanks so much for reading.

escribo November 16 2011, 23:26:43 UTC

Yes, yes epilogue! I didn't think it was sappy at all (or perhaps just the right amount of sap?). The idea with the pocketwatch was BRILLIANT. I've been thinking of it all afternoon, that and how you described Sirius' magic. I loved it all.

brighty18 November 16 2011, 20:57:44 UTC

What a fantastic story! Yes, you were fortunate to get one of the coolest pieces of art in terms of storytelling, but what you did with it was fantastic. I love that picture, the way it speaks of secrets and intrigue and mysteries in the past. I love the ragged Remus and sexy, uber-sophisticated Sirius, but you took it to a whole new level. This story was at once sexy and exciting and fun, but most of all exceptionally well-written.

You had me from the very beginning here: Sirius Black had a secret.

It was a thrilling thing, at nine years old, to have a secret. Especially when one had grown up with an entire family tree breathing down one’s dignified, respectable, starched white collar. I adore reading about Sirius’ boyhood and you did an exceedingly wonderful job with those parts. His meeting Remus was sweet and hilarious. Football? James Bond? You captured the innocence well and allowed them to be adorably boyish. That worked very well. This bit broke my heart a little, but it was such a fine set-up for what might come later: ( ... )

brighty18 November 16 2011, 20:57:57 UTC

I also have to say that you use magic very well, and I loved how your world has rules and overarching magical theory: Sirius pressed a kiss to the top edge of a scar on Remus’s chest. “Hmm. Magic doesn’t live in a wand,” he explained, tracing a path down one scar and across another with a gentle finger tip. Remus shivered slightly underneath him. “You know that, of course, you can do magic without one.” Exactly. It was like Rowling’s world - only with delicious boys and sex.

And, speaking of sex, this was one of my favorite passages in the whole thing: He undressed his second oldest friend right there on the Italian artist’s balcony under a moonless sky and shivered in ecstasy when Remus, starlight glinting in his eyes, pressed into him with practiced ease. It was easy, with whiskey still coursing through his veins, to forget the multitudes of men and women that Remus made a living doing this with. It felt different, somehow, to what that business must be like. They were raw and naked and very much alive, and when Remus shuddered ( ... )

xkeijukainenx November 16 2011, 22:02:07 UTC

*blush*

Wow, I'm so glad you liked it. I can't tell you how glad I am. I've been agonising over this story for so long, it really was a constant labour of love, and I was petrified people wouldn't like it.

I'm also especially glad I didn't kill the feeling with the epilogue. I'm a sucker for a happy ending and I think the epilogue went through about 20 versions before I felt it was suitably realistic.

Thank you thank you thank you for your lovely comments, I think I blushed and squeed all the way through. It's so touching that you would take the time to write such detailed comments. Thank you again. ;) <3

lady_luthienne November 17 2011, 03:46:45 UTC

Wow! This is both tragic and defiantly hopeful. I love each character and their burning connection, both rebels in their own right, both vulnerable in ways they wouldn't like to admit. Sirius is adorable and Remus irresistibly sexy!

xkeijukainenx November 17 2011, 11:25:56 UTC

Thank you for your beautiful words. I'm so glad you enjoyed it!

ithinktsdashing November 17 2011, 10:56:42 UTC

I don't even know what to say. This is FANTASTIC, it's everything I could hope for and so much more! I'll try to be coherent here, but I can't promise anything.

First off, the beginning. I love this idea of Sirius having a secret "muggle" friend, a secret not even James knew about. And I have to admit, you made me laugh here;
“Nah. Don’t want to climb a stupid tree anyways.”Is it bad that I loved that? Lol, it's just so typical and transparent ( ... )

ithinktsdashing November 17 2011, 10:58:08 UTC

And then, you have me laughing again.
“Gods, Remus, is there anywhere you don’t work?”
“I take offense to that. I don’t work in the government, for instance
This is the part where my mum looks up from her sudoku, frowns and asks what's so funny. I was closer to tell her "Remus is a whore and he doesn't work for the government" than I'm proud of. I didn't, though.

I love the way you used my picture. When I made it, my main goal was to put as much into it as possible, so there was a few things to chose from for the writer. I love how you used so much of it, it was unexpected. Especially this part made me smile;
He’d obviously been asleep against the door, huddled down in a cardigan that looked ten years old, with patches in odd places on the sleeves. Sirius recognized it as something he’d donated years ago to Dumbledore’s clothing drive. Help to keep the unfortunate and the ones dispossessed by this war warm, Dumbledore had said. Not everyone fighting for us can transfigure themselves a coat.That's heartbreaking! I don't even... That's ( ... )

xkeijukainenx November 17 2011, 11:25:14 UTC

Wahhhhhhhh!! *mad crazy blushing* I'm reading your comments at work and the guys I work with are all, What's making you giggle like that?! And clearly I can't tell them. So. Gah ( ... )

ithinktsdashing November 19 2011, 16:57:46 UTC

*blush* Well, we both got lucky with the lottery there. Like I said, I couldn't possibly have asked for a better story.
I did listen to it, only to realise I've heard it before. Now I'll never hear it again without thinking of this story, haha. (Oh, and that's a good thing by the way. It fits really well)

I was nervous people would be like, wtf are you doing to our boys?!?!
Admittedly, I did wonder what was up with Remus at one point, haha. But that's thing about AU's, without the same background story, they can't possibly be the same. If they are, then that becomes wrong. Your Remus was a different one than who we meet in the books, but it was still the same person, if that makes sense (and it only proves how important the other marauders really were to him). The important thing is that it all adds up in the end, and it did. Brilliantly so.