OH MY GOD YOU. ♥♥♥ I just want to draw hearts around this comment because a) I was hoping someone would choose this, actually and b) what a coincidence, you write my favourite Johnny/Stephane!! Wot the hell, wot the hell. Just trust that I am doing this right at my computer screen okay.
So, general stuff about this fic: um, I'm very pleased with the summary? It's not by any means the last great performance of Johnny Weir's life, but it still ranks pretty high. <-- if there ever was a topic sentence for this fic, that would be it. This fic is about a lot of things: performance, retirement, the way they Johnny & Stephane are to each other, and lingerie. A few things off the top of my head:
1. Thinking about Johnny in lingerie is the most fascinating thing on earth. It's not as intuitive as it seems! I mean, yes, he's got the fragile bone structure and the fine red lip, and is an androgynous gossamer etc (all these descriptions always make me giggle stupidly) but when it comes down to it, he's an athlete. There are a couple of pictures which really reinforce that, he's got abs and biceps and thighs and ass and EVERYTHING, so wearing lingerie is a contrast. It's disconcerting how girly Johnny Weir is until he takes off his shirt and you're like, oh right. ATHLETE. I don't think I managed to translate the visual impact of that well enough, although there were some obvious sentences about that when Johnny looked at himself in the mirror.
2. Johnny's athletic body also made me think about how long that might last after retirement. This fic was also a little bit about how he might be coping with retirement. Not so much about career angst and how Johnny Weir might fill his days -- although I think there is a fic to be written about that! -- but also, what you do when no one's actually looking at you. Johnny Weir likes being looked at.
2a. Also, to belabour the point once more: if you don't train, your nice muscles go away. Johnny is vain enough that this would probably be something he actually thinks about.
3. Lingerie is also about performance & dressing up. Johnny Weir LOVES dressing up and performing. But by its very nature? Wearing lingerie during sex is inherently different from hamming it up for the camera. Performing for the camera seems like a very... bolshy thing to do, whereas sex (at least sex in the context of this fic and this relationship) is pretty intimate. The kind of playacting that Johnny does to the camera is basically something he shouldn't be doing during sex. And if he did, Stephane would see right through him, I think. They've known each other for a really long time.
3a. I'm still not really sure about how I handled the sex scene, uh. On one hand I didn't want it be, "sex is special when there are lacy things involved!" although my beta pointed out that I seemed to have forgotten the existence of the lingerie completely when they were having sex. So I added in a couple of lines.
long comment is long /o\ 1/2
Date: Wednesday, 28 April 2010 14:28 (UTC)So, general stuff about this fic: um, I'm very pleased with the summary?
It's not by any means the last great performance of Johnny Weir's life, but it still ranks pretty high. <-- if there ever was a topic sentence for this fic, that would be it. This fic is about a lot of things: performance, retirement, the way they Johnny & Stephane are to each other, and lingerie. A few things off the top of my head:
1. Thinking about Johnny in lingerie is the most fascinating thing on earth. It's not as intuitive as it seems! I mean, yes, he's got the fragile bone structure and the fine red lip, and is an androgynous gossamer etc (all these descriptions always make me giggle stupidly) but when it comes down to it, he's an athlete. There are a couple of pictures which really reinforce that, he's got abs and biceps and thighs and ass and EVERYTHING, so wearing lingerie is a contrast. It's disconcerting how girly Johnny Weir is until he takes off his shirt and you're like, oh right. ATHLETE. I don't think I managed to translate the visual impact of that well enough, although there were some obvious sentences about that when Johnny looked at himself in the mirror.
2. Johnny's athletic body also made me think about how long that might last after retirement. This fic was also a little bit about how he might be coping with retirement. Not so much about career angst and how Johnny Weir might fill his days -- although I think there is a fic to be written about that! -- but also, what you do when no one's actually looking at you. Johnny Weir likes being looked at.
2a. Also, to belabour the point once more: if you don't train, your nice muscles go away. Johnny is vain enough that this would probably be something he actually thinks about.
3. Lingerie is also about performance & dressing up. Johnny Weir LOVES dressing up and performing. But by its very nature? Wearing lingerie during sex is inherently different from hamming it up for the camera. Performing for the camera seems like a very... bolshy thing to do, whereas sex (at least sex in the context of this fic and this relationship) is pretty intimate. The kind of playacting that Johnny does to the camera is basically something he shouldn't be doing during sex. And if he did, Stephane would see right through him, I think. They've known each other for a really long time.
3a. I'm still not really sure about how I handled the sex scene, uh. On one hand I didn't want it be, "sex is special when there are lacy things involved!" although my beta pointed out that I seemed to have forgotten the existence of the lingerie completely when they were having sex. So I added in a couple of lines.