Pure Bodies and Clean Hearts by Speranza (Virgin Challenge)

[cesperanza.livejournal.com]

Title: Pure Bodies and Clean Hearts (26k)
Author: Speranza
Pairing: McShep
Summary: John gets a do-over.

Thanks to shalott, giddy, and res for beta beyond the call of duty.

Comments

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

omg...leave it to you to take a difficult concept (how to get folks in their thirties to still be virgins) and turn it on its head. i loved the making him a virgin again moment only to sdquee in delight about all the others not *needing* it!!!

and the john/rodney scene was marvelous, the best i love you i think i've ever read, hostile, annoyed, both in giving and receiving...

i loved the style you chose here, all lush and beautiful and your language is like the currents that are dragging john along...

thank you!!!

[cesperanza.livejournal.com]

Heey--yeah, why go halfway on something like this? *g* In a way, it's not difficult at all; I thought they could all quite plausibly be interpreted as canonically virgin except for John, so I took care of that. And I'm glad the "I love you" came off; it's a tricky thing, as you know. The lushness--actually, I overdid the lushness in the first draft, and resonant helped me cut it down; lushness not being my usual style, I needed some help with it! There are still a couple of wonky things in it that I'd probably work out if I felt like reopening it, but I don't. *g* That's the beauty of flashfic, really--it forces you to confront these interesting ideas (virgins! drugs! apocalypse!) and make SOMETHING of them in a limited time frame, trying to figure out what the specific instance of the general theme looks like--virginity in DS would be a very different thing, I think.

Anyway, thanks!--so glad you liked!