The True Confessions of Raymond Doyle, or Sea-I5 -- story by Sarah K, artwork by Gvenanne

[tears-of-nienna.livejournal.com]

Title: The True Confessions of Raymond Doyle, or Sea-I5
Author: Sarah K/tears_of_nienna
Artist/Vidder: gvenanne
Genre: AU, historical, slash
Pairing: Bodie/Doyle
Word Count: 30,500
Warnings: Temporary character death.
Summary: When Raymond Doyle boards a merchant ship to America, he expects a tedious but uneventful journey. He does not expect mutiny, murder, and the likes of William Bodie. When desperation drives Doyle to join the crew, he finds that a sailor's life suits him well, but there are enemies on board who will do all they can to see him fail.

Thanks: To gvenanne--what amazing, gorgeous, incredible artwork. I am still atwitter every time I look at her illustrations. From the front cover to the back and everything in between--thank you from the bottom of my heart.

To squeeful for endless encouragement and historical fashion advice--any remaining errors are my own.

And to the mods at ci5_boxoftricks for being crazy brave enough to take on this challenge again. Thank you all so much!

Note: This story is based shamelessly on The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, by Avi. I'm pretty sure this one's in no danger of winning a Newbery Honor, though.

A brief explanation of ship's time, including the watches, can be found here.


Fic and Art at AO3
On Livejournal: Part One | Part Two | Part Three
Art Master Post on Livejournal

One more note: Make sure you click on the images, as they won't fit full-size into the text. And they deserve to be seen full-size!

Comments

[sc-fossil.livejournal.com]

It's great seeing your story unveiled. The art looks fabulous. I'm looking forward to reading your fic.

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

Congrats on getting another BB story sailed safely in to harbour.

I'm now singing "a life on the ocean wave." It's all right, I forgive you. *g* It could have been "In The Navy." Bugger, now I think I've earwormed myself.

[squeeful.livejournal.com]

Could be worse, I have "I Am the Monarch of the Sea" in my head,

[draycevixen.livejournal.com]

See, I would see that as a distinct improvement... although let's just pretend "I'm called little Buttercup" doesn't exist. Right? Right!

[tears-of-nienna.livejournal.com]

Thanks!!

I've had a Jimmy Buffett earworm off and on ever since I started this fic. :)

(Fortunately, it was a song I like...)

[krisserci5.livejournal.com]

The art is wonderful and I just converted and DL so I can read tomorrow between programs. . . .so looking forward to it.

[liriel1810.livejournal.com]

The artwork is gorgeous! I'm a bit scared by that warning... might have to build up my courage to read this story, but the artwork is certainly piquing my interest.

[tears-of-nienna.livejournal.com]

I sent you an LJ message with a (minor) spoiler if it that might help. If not, go ahead and delete it, it won't hurt my feelings. ;)

But yeah, isn't the artwork incredible? I keep going back to stare at it in awe. :)

[liriel1810.livejournal.com]

That helps tremendously. I can deal with that sort of thing! *g* Thank you for pandering to my wimpitude. ;)

[tears-of-nienna.livejournal.com]

It's not wimpitude at all! I'm a "wimp" about the exact same thing. :)

[jaicen5.livejournal.com]

this was a very good story. I really like AU's and I very much liked the part of history that you chose. The pictures by gvenanne are superb and fit your story wonderfully and tastefully. Thank you.

[tears-of-nienna.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I'm glad that you liked the historical setting. I had a lot of fun researching it. :)

Oops...

[catofwitch.livejournal.com]

Why can't I open the pictures? I've tried both sites, but... Sigh...

Re: Oops...

[tears-of-nienna.livejournal.com]

Oh dear! Are they not showing up at gvenanne's master post (http://gvenanne.livejournal.com/10361.html) either? This is the first time I've embedded images in a fic, so I don't know much about troubleshooting...

Re: Oops...

[catofwitch.livejournal.com]

There must be something wrong with the LAN, I've solved it by using VPN. And the pictures are gorgeous! It's a busy week, but I just can't wait to read your story. Thanks a lot!

[inlovewithboth.livejournal.com]

I loved this story, thank you so much for writing it, it's going to be a keeper on my E-Reader! The atmosphere of the story really grabbed me, I could see everything really clearly and really enjoyed the read. And the artwork, well, what a masterpiece! (P.S. I use Round Robins at work, when I want teachers to comment on a particular student - I never knew where the expression came from until now!)

[tears-of-nienna.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I'm really glad you enjoyed it and that the setting worked well.

And see, fanfic can even be educational! :)

[shooting2kill.livejournal.com]

The story looks fascinating and the artwork is stunning and does its job of beckoning the reader in to discover more within the text. Really looking forward to this. Thanks and well done!

[saintvic.livejournal.com]

*\o/* This looks brilliant, congrats on posting and I can't wait to read this.

[unoriginal-liz.livejournal.com]

I loved this story (I had a feeling I would when I saw the Sea-I5 in the title!). Such a fabulous AU - I really enjoyed the developing relationship between Doyle and Bodie, the tension on board ship, and the gorgeous art of course!

[tears-of-nienna.livejournal.com]

Thank you so so much! I'm glad that the wild AU setting worked for you, and that I got the relationship between Bodie and Doyle right. :)

[merentha13.livejournal.com]

Great story! I have a special love for tales of the old, tall sailing ships. You did a wonderful job with growing the relationship between Ray and Bodie - had me worried for a bit, though! And a very clever draw using Sea I5 as part of the title. *g*

The artwork is beautiful and goes so well with the story. Congratulations to both of you and come join the others of us "post-posters", sitting with our feet up, eating chocolate and drinking wine...

[tears-of-nienna.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I love the Age of Sail, too, so doing the research for this one was actually a lot of fun. :) I felt truly wicked for doing what I did to the lads, but but I hope they'll forgive me, since they did get their happy ending.

Oh, the life of a post-poster is lovely, isn't it? I'll be eating chocolate and curling up with a warm blanket and all the fics that I haven't read yet--because I've been freaking out over this one!

Thanks again!!

[milomaus.livejournal.com]

I shouldn´t have done it, still working on my art, but I just couldn´t resist and I read the story and admired the art work!
And enjoyed both totally. I like your story very much, though using all the agents kinda flipped my brain, looks like I have issues if there are too many of them in an AU.*g*
On the other hand it was lovely to meet them again!
I so very much enjoyed the storm, and Bodie coming to the rescue! What a genial twist, to make the only alibi Doyle has a "dead" man!

And the Art!! I love the way it´s kept so simple and I couldn´t take my eyes off the cover and the back, I´m just so in love with the sea and sailing!

Wonderful combination, great eyecandy and such a very lovely story!!
Thanks you two for taking the time and making the effort! It is appreciated!

[sineala.livejournal.com]

I have been looking forward to this story for a while and it has lived up to my expectations. Much like everything you write. :)

I haven't read the original novel, but I really really loved this. Apparently what I have secretly wanted is Age of Sail Pros, because this really worked for me. Bonus points for the inclusion of rum, sodomy, and the lash. (Actually, was there rum? Hmm. Whatever. The sodomy makes up for it.)

Basically, this was excellent and completely believable, characterization-wise and so on, and also now I have learned what a round-robin actually is.

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

I started this with some trepidation because Age of Sail isn't my favourite AU - but you carried it off very well and I believed in it all...(even, temporarily, in the bit that you warn for).And the sex was amazing. Lovely artwork, too! Thanks to both of you!

[murphybabe]

Oh, this was great! I really enjoyed the story, even though AU is not my favourite, and the images were beautiful! Very well done to both of you - enjoy the feet-up-eating-chocolate stage now!

[firlefanzine.livejournal.com]

I had a lot of fun reading this story!
It reminds me of some of our best Christmas tetralogies on TV (Tom Sawyer, Robinson Crusoe, Treasure Island...), because it has somehow the same pace.

And the art IS stunning!

Thank you both!

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

That was such fun, and a great read too, thank you!

AU isn't my favourite thing, but this is so beautifully written I knew I was going to enjoy it right from the start. I loved the historical details and the developing relationship between them - and your subtle warning at the beginning was a great help, otherwise I might have been panicking over Bodie.

And the artwork... wow! How utterly gorgeous. :)

Thank you again, for all your effort, and for sharing the results with us all.

[angel-ci5.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I love hitorical AUs and this sounds brilliant! Thank you very much! You've been kindled and I look forward to reading this as soon as life permits me!

[hagsrus.livejournal.com]

Just checking since you didn't leave any archive instruction: is it ok for Proslib (I hope!)?

Frances
Proslib business: proslib at gmail dot com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proslib
http://www.livejournal.com/users/hagsrus/

[margaret-r.livejournal.com]

Thank you for such a very different and interesting AU, with the lads still the lads:) I enjoyed your handling of their developing relationship, the scenes between them were lovely. And the art is gorgeous.

[przed.livejournal.com]

This is such a fantastic story, entirely as I'd expect from you. Your worldbuilding looks effortlessly perfect, and the plot is wonderfully constructed. Even though it's AU, Bodie and Doyle are perfectly themselves. And it was fab to see the other agents appear as sailors. Though I have to admit I was a bit sad to see Anson go. (I've always had a soft spot for Anson, but at least he was trying to do the right thing in the end.)

[rayknbenton.livejournal.com]

I loved Babylon 5 and I love Ray and Bodie! Interested to see how you manage to mesh this together....