Two and a Half Memes

[maculategiraffe]

My internet situation is... somewhat complex, at the moment; I do not have internet on my laptop except when I can snag a wireless connection at a coffee shop or something, so while I can write all I want on my laptop in Word, and hop on quickly to paste-and-post before work, I cannot currently get on to do sustained internetty things like replying to all my comments in the thoughtful manner which they fully deserve. Please do not think I am ignoring you, my beloved commenter type people. I really will catch up, as soon as my internet situation has stabilized.

In the meantime, paste-and-post it is. Here is a meme ganked from morgan_cian:

List ten fictional characters you wouldn't kick out of bed (in no particular order) and tag five people to do the same.

1. Albert from The Count of Monte Cristo
2. Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
3. Mohinder from Heroes
4. Veronica from Veronica Mars
5. Luna from Harry Potter
6. Kaylee from Firefly
7. Sayid from Lost
8. Max from Dark Angel
9. Destruction from Sandman
10. Yves (what? I can pick my own characters if I want)

Tagging anyone who wants to play. :) Have at it!



And another meme ganked from thirdsouthobbi:



1. How about a brief introduction?

maculategiraffe needs no introduction! *jogs out on stage to wild cheering*

2. What got you into fan fiction?

I believe my first fanfiction was of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood of Make-Believe (I was a highly Gary Stu-ified version of Prince Tuesday who married Anna Platypus, was cruelly punished by my father King Friday for a crime for which I had been framed by the evil Lady Elaine, and was finally saved by the intervention of my mother Queen Sara, who I think was shacking up with Lady Aberlin) from which I moved on to Disney movies, the Bible (Pharaoh/Joseph OTP!), and Quo Vadis.

3. What kind of fan fiction do you write?

Right now I don't, much. I mean, I get ideas and all, but I'm more into the original fic at this point. I love my own characters too much to spend my time playing with others'. I do have this little Wonder Girl het thing I need to post at some point, but the first chapter debuted to crickets chirping, so I ran crying back to my boys.

4. Do you write for the same pairings/characters?

I try to keep a multitudinous cast around to scratch all my different itches.

5. What is your most popular fic/muse and why do you think people like it so?

This Slave Breakers thing I've been working on seems fairly popular. I can only assume people like it because they are interested in the same things I am. :)

6. Forget other people, what is the fanfic/post/prompt you've written that you're most proud of?

I'm proud of all my writing, honestly. I mean, I can look back at it and giggle a little and say "wow, that could be a lot better, and will when I rewrite it" but I'm just kind of proud of myself for writing at all, I think. I enjoy it so much, and other people do too, and that's cool. I really enjoyed writing that gen fic for unusuallygen, since it was a real challenge for me not to write any sex-- but I think maybe my favorite things I've written in terms of going back and reading them again were those flashback scenes with Yves and Holden. Those were just fun.

7. Do you find writing easy? Hard? What aspects do you struggle with?

Hmm. I can say that I enjoy doing it more than I enjoy pretty much anything else. I would write all day and all night if I could. I do find it challenging, but not hard, exactly-- although I get stuck sometimes, so maybe it is hard sometimes. I do a LOT of editing, a lot of revising, a lot of futzing around and making sure I haven't used the same adverb five times in a paragraph or something dumb like that, but that part's fun for me, too-- I like tweaking, and my inner copy editor likes to come out and play. Basically, there's nothing I don't like about writing. However, I do struggle with not weeping or panicking when there are no comments on a post an hour after I've posted it. :P

8. Write a few sentences of your favourite pairing or character.

Goodness. Just like that? Er. Hang on a mo'. I'll have that right out to you.


9. Are there any fan fiction trends/clichés you hate?

Hmm. I think, in terms of slavefic, this plotline tends to bug me:

SLAVE: Don't hurt me, new master! I'll be good!
MASTER: Aww, poor thing. I will not hurt you, or make you do anything you don't want to do, ever; my only concern is to nurse you back to health. Also, I want you to call me Fred instead of master.
SLAVE: Oh. Well, okay, then.
MASTER: Feeling better?
SLAVE: Much, thanks, Fred. Also, I love you.
MASTER: Aw, I love you too, sweetie.
AUTHOR: Hmm. We seem to be running low on the angst, here.
DIABOLUS EX MACHINA: *rapes the slave or menaces the slave or, like, tells the slave he's ugly or something*
SLAVE: Don't hurt me! I'll be good!
MASTER: Aww, poor thing.
READERS: ...We did this part already.
AUTHOR (helpfully): But now he has had a setback!

To be clear, I don't have a problem with setbacks, so long as a) the catalyst for the setback doesn't come out of nowhere-- there was at least some indication that this sort of thing might happen, and b) the situation in which the characters find themselves post-setback feels like a new situation, to which both master and slave bring new things they've learned in the course of the fic. What bugs me is when it feels like the author said, as my little sister used to say whenever we were playing with our dollhouse or our Barbies and a plot had run its course, "Let's start over!" To those fics, I say the same thing as I did to her, "No-- that was fun, but let's play something else now."

And I also hate it when masters have eighty-five million excuses for why they're slave owners, and spend half the fic angsting about how awful slavery is. Dude, have the courage of your genre. If it bothers you that much to write a slave owner, go write cowboy fic or something.

10. Are you guilty of any of the trends you hate?

Oh, totally. Holden's been angsting about the awfulness of slavery for like eighteen chapters now. I probably do the other thing too.

11. What was the first fandom you wrote for? Do you still write for it?

See above. I was a strange and perverted child, always. And, um, no. Please not to be making such suggestions to me; it will end in tears.

12. Name your OTPs and explain what it is about them you love to write.

I don't really have OTPs. I have OT6s. I do love Harry/Luna and Mulder/Scully; I think they are both soulmate-pairs, but even then my polyslutterous little heart starts going, "But what about Ginny and Skinner and Krycek and Neville? Are they just to be left out in the cold? Build bigger beds!"

I think that's one thing I like about writing in the context of sex slavery: the sexual relationship isn't based on love or choice by default, and that takes away a lot of the default assumption of monogamy, that if you are sexin' someone, you will keep you only unto them or else you are a ho. Masters aren't expected to remain faithful to their slaves, and faithfulness for slaves isn't based on a lot of romantic notions about monogamy, but on practical considerations like not getting beaten to death. So you've got your harems, and your married men who keep socially sanctioned sex slaves on the side, and all manner of sluttishness, and sex for all manner of reasons besides Pure True Love, and all manner of True Love that is not the least bit Pure.

I like this, because in essence, what I really love writing about are all the different ways people love each other. I find that topic endlessly fascinating. Tolstoy was full of it when he said all happy families are happy in the same way; exactly the opposite is true. There are as many different kinds of love as there are permutations of people in the world to love one another, and as much to write about. There are many different kinds of unhappy love, but just as many kinds of happy love, if not more. I love that.

See-- as a child, this was my habit when reading Trixie Belden, or the Boxcar Children, or the Mandie books, or Agatha Christie: the mystery book would present several suspects with motives and evidence for each one's guilt, and I invariably decided that they were all in it together. I never did really grasp how it was okay for the author to throw in all these other suspicious characters just for misdirection, besides the one person it actually turned out to have been-- I kept going, "But... but... what about the shrimp boat captain, with the dark stains on his overalls? Clearly he did it also! And that one dude who kept playing 'Three Blind Mice' all creepily on the piano, whither him?" You can imagine I nearly wet myself with glee at the climax of Murder on the Orient Express.

By the same token, I have never had any patience with love triangles, because I've never been able to understand why we can't all just get along. If you love the one dude, and also the other dude, why let either go to waste? If Arthur and Lancelot were such good buddies and loyal knight/gentle liege, surely they could suck it up and have a threesome with Guinevere? (And can I just say how much I hated that The Mists of Avalon had to go and wreck that by making Guinevere a milquetoasty little nun manquée who didn't even like watching her husband make it with her boyfriend in the marital bed?)

Now I do understand that there are many people (perhaps most people?) who dislike the idea or the practice of polyamory, and I'm certainly glad there is literature that caters to those people. But I get a big charge out of writing stories in which six or seven people who are sexin', and in love with, varying numbers of each other, are... all in it together. It's not an idyll-- they fight and misunderstand and fuck up and hurt each other and get scared and angry-- but they love each other, and it is good. At least, I think so.

...goodness, that got long. Er.

I write gay foursomes.

There, that was shorter.

13. What would you call your writing style?

Er... hmm. I actually don't know. I try not to be too florid or torrid, but... I dunno. What would you guys call my writing style?

14. Do you read other people's writing? If so, what do you find yourself reading the most?

I read like a... thing... that reads. A lot. I don't really have a preferred genre, although obviously slave fic tickles my spot.

15. Name one thing you'd love to write but have been too afraid or too shy to do.

Um, considering my subject... can't think of anything, honestly. Maybe pregnancy fic. I mean, I've written it, but I haven't posted it.

16. Do you feel uncomfortable taking criticism? Or worse, do you have the dreaded bloated ego?

I take criticism very seriously, which can be uncomfortable for me, but I think it's a good thing. I wouldn't say I take it badly, but I may take it too much to heart at times, though lately I hardly ever vow never to write again and to retreat from the internet in shame over a mildly critical comment.

I don't think I have the dreaded bloated ego. Can I have the galloping consumption instead? That sounds much more debonair.

17. When you write, is there anything that helps? can stop you, up to and including a cyclone picking up your house and flinging it into Oz?

Fixed that. And, no.

18. What inspires you?

Other slave fics. My twisted imagination. Everything, really. Songs; sometimes I'm listening to music and dreamily going, "Ahh, how sweet, this reminds me of the first time Alix and Greta had sex. Hey, have I written that yet? I should write that sometime."

What? Like you don't relate songs to your imaginary friends. Er, if you are a writer. And crazy.

19. Lastly, how would you sum up your fan fiction experiences and you as a writer?

The lovely and hilarious mistful told the tale once of hearing Anne Fine speak at a writing convention and explain how she started writing: there was an ice storm and she couldn't get to the library to get new books, so she wrote one instead. I think that's one of those Funny Because It's True things-- I think all writers, or at least most writers, write because we are, in some sense, out of reading material. Not necessarily literally, as in stranded in a house with no new books, but because we want to read something-- some one particular thing-- a story about cats with wings, or frustrated childless middle-aged married couples sniping at each other, or a story without all this fancy froufrou language, or a story with nothing but fancy froufrou language, or a story told entirely from the point of view of Grendel-- and such a thing is not available to us, so we write it instead.

I think fanfiction is an even more explicit working-out of this impulse, because fanfiction happens when something you read or watch almost hits the spot, but not quite. Chip!Spike lives in Xander's basement... and they don't get it on? Draco Malfoy is a high-and-mighty little git who sneers at the intrepid but lowborn Harry and has evil aristocratic parents... and that's all we know about Draco? The hell it is! Stop at the good part, will you, writer types? I'll show you! Here's what needs to happen! Here's what I wanted to read!

So what do I want to read? Well, good slavefic, obviously. I loves me some slavefic, especially slavefic with

-believable, dynamic, three-dimensional characters
-situations that feel organic and character/world-driven, not contrived for maximum angsty goodness
-angsty goodness
-sex
-love

So I write those stories. It's probably fairly obvious if you've read anything I've written that I love writing sex-- and physical affection and cravings of all kinds-- and that I love writing love, and that I especially like writing about the interactions and intersections of sex and love. You can have sex without love, you can have love without sex, you can have sex that unexpectedly leads to love, love that unexpectedly does not lead to sex, sex that makes you hate sex even (or especially) if you are in love, love that redeems sex from a loveless act to a loving one, and sex that clarifies how much you love someone, and in what way. Which I think is another reason why slave fic appeals to me so much-- it opens up so many more possibilities for what sex can mean (manipulation, violation, objectification, tender lovemaking, comfort, reassurance, domination, submission, redemption, animal lust, any combination of any of those that you like, and more).

Or, to be a bit briefer: Love and sex, mmmm.



And now I have those few sentences for you of my favorite pairing. morgan_cian, here's your boylove scene. You know I love ya, babe.









Yves woke up in the dark with a hand over his mouth. He didn't even squeak; he just blinked a few times before figuring out that the hand was too slender to be Jer's, so it must be his master's. He did make a small, muffled noise of gratification, then, and struggled a little; if Holden was in a hand-over-the-mouth kind of mood, he might appreciate a little fight. Yves hoped a little would be enough; he wasn't in the mood to get hurt.

The hand left his mouth a second before Holden's lips seized his. Yves moaned in his throat as his head was crushed backwards into the pillow and the cool, strong hands gripped his wrists, yanking them up to pin them above his head. Holden was kissing him too hard for Yves to kiss back; he could taste the faint metallic tang of his own blood as Holden's hips thrust hard against his groin, and he thrust back, harder, so it would register against the tautness of his master's body. Holden's hands clamped down harder on his wrists as he pulled against their grip, and Yves whimpered.

Holden kissed his way, hard, from Yves' mouth across to his ear, and said in a low growl that shot straight to Yves' cock, "Don't talk."

Yves shook his head hastily to acknowledge the command, and Holden licked his ear, then nibbled the lobe gently.

"Going to fuck you," he whispered in Yves' ear, then, in the same low voice, half menacing and half seductive, and Yves nodded, breathing hard. "Going to fuck your tight little ass for hours. Fuck you so hard you won't be able to sit down tomorrow."

Yves whimpered again and moved, just enough to feel his master's strength restraining him.

"Fuck you till I'm finished and leave you dripping," the dark voice rasped in his ear, "hard, needing, and then we'll see if I feel like letting you come. Or if I'd rather leave you so hard you won't sleep, so hard you'll hardly be able to walk to breakfast, and pull you down in my lap, kiss you, stroke you under the table till you can't breathe."

Yves was about ready to come already against the insistent friction of Holden's groin on his, more than ready to beg if he'd been allowed.

"I'll let you beg," Holden promised, and Yves shivered. "But not yet."

The weight lightened, the grip loosened, and Yves was pushed roughly over onto his face. He waited submissively, heard the drawer of the nightstand open, and relaxed, a purely physical response that he'd learned a long time ago. It wasn't difficult. Holden might hurt him, but he'd never harm him.

And the first well-lubricated finger-- only one-- was careful, probing, making sure Yves was relaxed enough before the second and the third impaled him, making him hiss and push his ass back against Holden's hand, wanting more.

"Slut," Holden growled, shoving his fingers deeply in, and Yves murmured happy agreement, making Holden huff out sharply in a voiceless laugh before he added, in softer, more sibilant tones, "You want my cock, slut?"

Yves nodded frantically, trying to fuck himself on Holden's fingers; he moaned as they withdrew and then sucked in his breath as he received a hard open-palmed smack to his ass.

"You take what I give you," Holden explained, almost gently, and Yves whined a wordless apology and plea, desperate to be filled, desperate as a slut for his master's hard flesh inside him, although the prospect of a spanking from Holden's hand wasn't exactly making his cock any softer.

But his master seemed to be satisfied with the warning; the bed creaked as he straddled Yves and slid carefully inside him, making Yves groan and go limp. He'd have to stay still if he wanted to come tonight, and oh by all the gods he wanted to get to come tonight.

Holden started slow, and Yves wondered with a momentary shiver whether he was really going to make this last for hours. Not that Yves would exactly be watching the cock.

Clock. Watching the clock.

Holden leaned down again to his ear as his thrusts picked up speed and more force, and Yves bit back a wanton moan, wanting to hear whatever his master had to say.

"Love you," Holden whispered, fucking Yves hard and rhythmically. "Love you so much, Yves."

Yves was pretty sure not many people ever got to be as happy as Yves was at that moment.