Two Roads Diverged : Chapter 10

[icedteainthebag]

Title: Two Roads Diverged (10/10)
Author: icedteainthebag
Word Count: 34,420
Rating: MA
Pairings: Ellen Tigh/Saul Tigh, Laura Roslin/Bill Adama
Warnings: Character death
Summary: Sometimes we make mistakes when we think we're doing the right thing.
Notes: See Chapter One. Everybody frakkin’ rocks. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Artist: MrsDrJackson
Link to Art: banner

Comments

[i_am_davnee]

Thank you for a beautiful journey with a character that I don't usually pay a great deal of attention to. Your Ellen was stubborn, strong, and sensitive all at once. I love that you let her and Laura connect. It is comforting to know that they each had someone who understood just a little bit the quiet suffering and sacrifice of the other. ♥

[icedteainthebag]

Thank you for reading and for saying such sweet things about it. :) ♥ I'm really happy you enjoyed it.

[boudiceaborn]

So sad that Laura doesn't know about Ellen until Bill tells her - such an analogy to how cut-off she often is amongst the fleet, she tends to be on her own rather than being in a community like Bill.

This ending also brought to the fore for me the pointlessness of Ellen's death - why she had to be killed, as opposed to all the NCP. Everyone but her and Baltar (and Jaffee) got tabula rasa.

This whole thing was just crackingly written - and it's hard to write so tightly and yet get a 20,000+ word fic actually completed! Marvelous.

[icedteainthebag]

Thank you so much for reading and for the wonderful feedback. You have a really good point about the analogy about Laura being cut off. It's sad, but true, and I'm sure it made for a lot of these moments of sickening realization for her.

It is really interesting to think about why she had to be killed--to try and make myself feel better, I try to think of her resurrection as a sort of rebirth, out of that old life of struggle, and into her position as the mother of all Cylons, which is not such a bad gig, despite the realization that you've been frakking your son.

Thanks again... I'm really happy you liked it.

[aka_plynn]

*slow clap*

That was one hell of a ride. Really hard to read in certain points, and I've never had to take a week off from a fic before. Your descriptions were all so evocative, though, that it was incredibly intense.

I really love that you wrote this. It needed to be written, and it was written remarkably well.

And, with that last line, you end a story about pain and fear with a scene so tied to Ellen's terror, and manage to end it on such a triumphant note that I can't quit grinning.

Slow fucking clap, my friend.

[icedteainthebag]

*hugs* Thank you for your awesome feedback and for reading all the way through. ♥ ♥

I needed to have her triumph at the end. She deserved it. And now watching that scene from No Exit is so horrifying (yet also, very redeeming). It actually made me cry when I thought about it within the confines of the little story I wrote here, but I am a sap.

Thanks for the clap.

Ha, gross.

*hugs* again.

[cavgirl]

I'm here via bsg_bigbang and have just read the lot in one go. Really, really enjoyed it - the characterisation is perfect, and I like the idea that Ellen and Laura could have come to some sort of uneasy understanding. They may still not actually LIKE each other, but NC would create a bond. After reading this fic I'm disappointed that Ellen was 'killed' and then we had the long wait for her resurrection... it would have been so interesting to see how the Ellen/Saul Laura/Bill dynamic would shape post Exodus II when three of those four have that experience behind them.

[icedteainthebag]

This is terrible, but I'm just seeing this comment now and I'm so sorry it took me so long to respond. Better late than never, right?

I appreciate your feedback and am so glad that the story was enjoyable for you (two years ago... headdesk. :)) I agree... seeing that dynamic would have been SO interesting had Ellen not been killed. I have mixed feelings on the Ellen that came back, too, so it's definitely something to ponder. :)

[shyboots]

Amazing! I loved how you drew some parallels between what Laura was going through and what Ellen experienced too, I never saw them in that way before but it totally works and really makes me feel for Ellen more than ever before! Like someone said in a previous comment, this is the Girlactica we never saw but should have!!

[icedteainthebag]

Thank you so much! I truly enjoyed receiving your comment on this story. Writing Ellen this way made me feel for her like I'd never before felt, either. She took over the story; I didn't mean for it to happen but I'm glad it did. Thanks again for reading. :)