Welcome to my perfumed garden

First of all, I have to say I adored Alpha and Omega when I read it as a WIP, and I can hardly wait to read it again now that the complete fic is up at 852 (I'm just waiting to get my laptop back, and for the kids to return to school on Monday!). The main elements I look for in fanfic are all there - H/C, copious angst, a tender and tempestuous relationship... ::happy sigh::. Plus you are such a very good writer technically, which always helps. I am not sure which bits you did and which bits Ali did, because as a collaboration it is seamless; plus the breadth of knowledge of that period you both have is obvious. Tremendous stuff, and something I plan to re-read a lot - exspecially those oh-so-tummy-hurty angsty bits... ::happy sigh::. More than anything I would love to se a wee bit more - and if I had any money to spend for Moonridge I'd ask you to write a little snapshot of them a little while later, when Blair is recovering from the privation and the stress and his injuries in Jim's tender hands...*G*. Alas, I am far too broke, but I want you to know, I like it that much :-)

And now on to the meta. I would tend to agree with you about using contemporary, 'natural' voices in a period piece, with the sole caveat that obvious anachronisms should be omitted. In some period fics, you occasionally find terms which are very obviously coined in another century entirely, with their etymological roots overtly in the modern age, which therefore do not fit. They are untransferable in the context - such as referring to technology that does not yet exist etc. I think the examples that your reviewer gave kind of work - and you've given a good justification for their use. I'm not sure I would have used them myself, but I don't think they are terribly out of place given the naturalness of the speech of the characters that results.

It kind of reminds me of something I noticed on the news media a while back. It used to be the case when someone from some foreign land was interviewed, a voice over would translate the speech. Nearly always, the voice used did not sound at all natural. No inflection, clearly reading in a monotone from a script, RP in accent, etc. Then, I began to notice that people - actors I presume, because of the more meaningful delivery - with regional accents began to be used as the voiceovers. Someone, say, with a strong Lancashire working-class accent to translate the words of someone from a similar background in, say, Russia. It suddenly made those people real people, rather than cardboard cut-outs that were hard to identify with. I see the use of modern language in period fics as serving the same purpose, essentially. It makes the characters accessible, and brings them to life in a way we can better understand and identify with. All IMHO of course :-)

So. Long winded way of saying I see your point :-D