Two Roads Diverged : Chapter 5

[icedteainthebag]

Title: Two Roads Diverged (5/10)
Author: icedteainthebag
Word Count: 34,420
Rating: MA
Pairings: John Cavil/Ellen Tigh, Ellen Tigh/Saul Tigh, Laura Roslin/Bill Adama
Warnings: Dubcon, physical violence
Summary: Sometimes we make mistakes when we think we're doing the right thing.
Notes: See Chapter One, but specific thanks on this chapter go to tjonesy.
Artist: MrsDrJackson
Link

Comments

[i_am_davnee]

The last bit with Ellen in the shower was chilling. I love that you are drawing into sharp relief her pain and sacrifice on NC that we knew implicitly from the little we were shown but did not get a chance to see. This is one of the wonderful things about fanfic, this backfilling of the richness of these characters' lives, and you are doing it wonderfully.

And *insert wibble here* for Laura's letter to Bill.

[icedteainthebag]

I wonder if Laura ever let Bill read what she wrote on NC.

Thanks on the shower scene. She really is a survivor, enduring systematic abuse, and it's horrific and I tried to capture its impact upon her as much as I could. It is a great point you've made about how little we were shown; I like that it lends to creating your own reality about what these characters endured, and how they reacted to the situations, especially when dealing with New Caprica, that sweet hellhole. lol.

(((you))) Thanks again for reading and the comment!

[lavenderseaslug]

Again, with the details. Like Ellen wanting to rip Cavil's eyes out, the way Cavil will rip Saul's out. Everything little thing you add grounds it in the real world, and makes it believable and excellent and exactly as it would have happened if RDM&Co gave us more New Caprica.

Laura still risked going to the school to teach, but that was Laura, as far as Ellen had observed. She'd give up a little, but wouldn't give up all of it.

Favorite line in the whole thing (although it's always hard to choose.) I like this little dance that Ellen and Laura have going, where they keep giving each other a little, but then stepping back. You write their interactions so well.

She ran her hands over her body, reclaiming it as her own, washing the filth away. His touches, the words he rasped at her, the ache deep inside of her body, what he left inside of her-all of it, down the drain, back into the sewer where they belonged.

That line was also haunting and evocative. She too is giving up a little, but isn't giving up all of it. This is just so

[icedteainthebag]

She too is giving up a little, but isn't giving up all of it.
This, and the eyes thing... I love how much you get this... I can't emphasize that enough. I mean it's not that I didn't expect you to get it, but when a reader really gets it, picks up on all these things, it makes the author so so so so happy.

You write their interactions so well.
Thank you! I find the two of them so intriguingly awkward.

Thanks for reading and for the incredible feedback.

[whatever_lj]

Bad enough to have to service one Cavil. All those Double-sleeze twins and triplets... ew.

Love to see Laura interact with a woman. She's so awkward interacting with women... it's interesting to see....

[icedteainthebag]

Laura is awkward with women; I think that she's been characterized that way in part because we rarely saw her with other women on the show. But I think there's some truth to the idea that she's more comfortable around men--just given her occupations and who she's had to deal with through her life. The only women we see her truly getting along with are her sisters.

Yeah, I thought that Cavil idea was pretty sick myself. :)

Thanks for the feedback.

[boudiceaborn]

Oh Ellen :(. Cavil's such a prick - that line about how many of the brothers she had frakked was inspired.

Dubcon is such a hard thing to write, and you write both sides - the degradation she feels, but also the little negotiations and tactics she uses to get herself through it. Wonderful.

[icedteainthebag]

Thanks on the compliment on the dubcon. This was a really tricky relationship for me to deal with... it had to be handled sensitively, yet in enough detail to get across how horrible it was. I'm so happy that you found it well done.

[aka_plynn]

Ellen's shame is something that was glossed over, I think, out of necessity and time constraints on the show. It needs to be shown and expressed in order to have true sympathy for her, so it's not just "Ellen being Ellen". This hits every one of the right, discordant notes. And when she sees Laura and thinks, "She'd never do that", I wibbled. Ellen wants Laura's respect, and has never had it. Now she thinks she never will.

It was one of her few strengths-appearing happy when she wasn't.

So true. She's an actress, Ellen. Always on stage, except when she wants to disappear and can't.

This time he asked her if she even knew how many of the brothers she'd actually frakked.

"We all look the same, you know," he said with a chuckle.

Oh God. Oh GOD - this never even occurred to me. That is sodisgusting. Nice fucking job, throwing that in. Jesus.

[icedteainthebag]

It needs to be shown and expressed in order to have true sympathy for her, so it's not just "Ellen being Ellen".

♥ ♥

Yes... did she ever get the shaft. As did a lot of the characters, really, and I know that time constraints are a factor, but there was so much more that could have been done to show the motivations behind their actions and the consequences of them.

The first time I watched Ellen frakking Cavil I really thought, "What a whore." Until I realized, kind of like Laura did in the next section, that if it was going to save the only person I ever truly loved... I might do the same thing. You know? What a mindfrak. So you made such good points here on Ellen's shame and why people didn't feel as much sympathy as they should have for her.

Oh God. Oh GOD - this never even occurred to me. That is sodisgusting. Nice fucking job, throwing that in. Jesus. Yeah, I had to throw a few "OMFG SQUICK" moments in... because he is nothing if he isn't a sadistic motherfucker. It secretly, or not so secretly, makes me pleased that it