Fic rec: "The Slave Breakers" series. Now with more fun fandom memes on top!
It's meme time! Taken from driley1
Give me a character from any fandom you know that I know and I will tell you:
a. My favorite thing about that character.
b. My least favorite thing about that character.
c. One person I would ship them with in their own verse.
d. One crossover ship for them I think would be neat.
e. One crossover universe for them I think would be even neater.
f. Their ship from hell.
g. Their song.
h. The title of their biography or autobiography.
i. The last bad dream they had.
j. How they're gonna shuffle off the mortal coil, if they haven't already.
Extra points for using characters from these fandoms, as they're my main squeezes: Gundam Wing, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XII, Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2, Gankutsuou (yay, new fandom!), Yami no Matsuei, Rurouni Kenshin, Star Wars, Star Trek: TOS, .hack//G.U., Fushigi Yuugi, Saiyuki, anything Clamp, or Naruto. Extra-extra points if you let me wax romantic about one of my favorite characters.
Please, please, please ask! I can think of so many awesome answers for you. :DDDDD
A-well, I woke up tonight and said, IIII'm gonna waste my life on the Internet! My EdTech professor said he'd have a podcast up for us by four PM, and when I emailed him at five thirty, it still wasn't up. I lost my momentum when he said it would be up "later tonight," and it's still not up even now, so I think I'm allowed to be distracted! I need to get up and transfer my Utada Hikaru discography from Heero to my external hard drive, Naruto, so I can listen to my current favorite song of hers (Apple and Cinnamon), which is on my iPod, but I want to listen to it on the computer. Stupid, I know.
A few days ago, I started reading a series of original fics by maculategiraffe, called " The Slave Breakers" Series. Before you freak out at the title and the content, let me tell you that although there is institutionalized slavery in these stories, it's not glamorized. It's not a story about the beauty of owning slaves, and how this society is benefitting from the exploitation of an entire segment of its population. Slavery has an economic reason in "The Slave Breakers" series, beyond just rich people wanting pretty toys; in this universe, poor families can sell their children once those children come of age at fifteen, in order to settle debts or help themselves out of poverty. The author has built a more realistic view of slavery than most fics I've read, which don't bother to explain the inner workings and how wrenches in the machine are handled. In this world, there are ugly aspects, but abuse of slaves is not sexualized or condoned by any of the main characters. Although the title character of the first story, Bran, was abused in the past, the author never feels like s/he needs to go into detail about it with gory flashbacks or dramatic fanfare. This, I think, is tactful. Instead, Bran talks to his new slave trainer about what has happened to him - even when he has to be urged into revealing his experiences. It gives the character a voice and a personality that I think so many eagerly submissive or feisty and defiant slaves out there don't have in stories.
I was getting sick of reading slavefics in which a slave was either of those stereotypes, and sick of masters being either total sadists or such tooth-rotting sweethearts that they could put you in an insulin coma. Holden, the trainer/master in "The Slave Breakers" series, is neither. He's a human being with failings, weaknesses, bad days, and plenty of mistakes, which is as a character should be; his relationship with his slaves and his wife is given room to grow, even if the first fic focuses more on how Bran sees him than on how the other slaves see him. Bran isn't drooling at the prospect of slavery, even if he does seem happy to be Holden's slave at first; he has a difficult relationship and history with his status in the world, and has made multiple escape attempts without being whiny or angsty about it. He accepts that he's failed to run away and decides to suck it up and go on. I like Bran; he doesn't seem tough, but inside, he has a solid core.
One of the best things about this story is that it breaks away from the typical "slave falls in love with master" routine I've grown so accustomed to, and am getting tired of reading. Although I'm always up for a good slavefic, they're scarce. This one is good. I won't spoil it for you, but I will say that unrequited love takes a toll on several characters over the course of the series, and sometimes, it is never requited; that's the way love and emotion works. Characters fight and don't make up, while other characters can reconcile their differences fairly quickly. Some relationships are simpler than others, and I believe that's true to life: a slave's relationship to his master might seem simple, but it would never be simple in reality, whereas a wife's relationship to her husband's sex slave is overtly complex and should be treated with respect in a story. maculategiraffe does so much right with the interplay of relationships and the dynamics that a house run by slave trainers and their own longtime slaves would have twisted throughout it.
I wish I could write more coherently to tell you everything that's fantastic about this story, but I do think y'all should read it for yourselves. It's explicit slash, with some less explicit het and femmeslash, but every last dollop of sex in it isn't just some rehash of the last chapter or the last fic you've read. I'm a jaded old bastard when it comes to sex scenes and the ones in this series are legitimately sexy. ;x I love Bran and continue to love him, but I also love Yves and Holden, and I have a difficult time picking a favorite character. I also have a tough time picking a favorite moment, but I think it comes from the second fic chronologically, "Jesse." (Go through the story index, linked above and here, to get to the stories; it's far easier that way.)
One last annoying reminder: please hit me with your best shot that meme?
"It is better to emit a scream in the shape of a theory than to be entirely insensible to the jars and incongruities of life and take everything as it comes in a forlorn stupidity. Some people swallow the universe like a pill; they travel on through the world, like smiling images pushed from behind. For God's sake give me the young man who has brains enough to make a fool of himself!"
(It was on the homepage on Wikiquote and I liked it, so I had to use it, non sequitur though it is.)
ETA: Thanks to des_akazim for the Cherry Filter download links! ^__^
Give me a character from any fandom you know that I know and I will tell you:
a. My favorite thing about that character.
b. My least favorite thing about that character.
c. One person I would ship them with in their own verse.
d. One crossover ship for them I think would be neat.
e. One crossover universe for them I think would be even neater.
f. Their ship from hell.
g. Their song.
h. The title of their biography or autobiography.
i. The last bad dream they had.
j. How they're gonna shuffle off the mortal coil, if they haven't already.
Extra points for using characters from these fandoms, as they're my main squeezes: Gundam Wing, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XII, Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2, Gankutsuou (yay, new fandom!), Yami no Matsuei, Rurouni Kenshin, Star Wars, Star Trek: TOS, .hack//G.U., Fushigi Yuugi, Saiyuki, anything Clamp, or Naruto. Extra-extra points if you let me wax romantic about one of my favorite characters.
Please, please, please ask! I can think of so many awesome answers for you. :DDDDD
A-well, I woke up tonight and said, IIII'm gonna waste my life on the Internet! My EdTech professor said he'd have a podcast up for us by four PM, and when I emailed him at five thirty, it still wasn't up. I lost my momentum when he said it would be up "later tonight," and it's still not up even now, so I think I'm allowed to be distracted! I need to get up and transfer my Utada Hikaru discography from Heero to my external hard drive, Naruto, so I can listen to my current favorite song of hers (Apple and Cinnamon), which is on my iPod, but I want to listen to it on the computer. Stupid, I know.
A few days ago, I started reading a series of original fics by maculategiraffe, called " The Slave Breakers" Series. Before you freak out at the title and the content, let me tell you that although there is institutionalized slavery in these stories, it's not glamorized. It's not a story about the beauty of owning slaves, and how this society is benefitting from the exploitation of an entire segment of its population. Slavery has an economic reason in "The Slave Breakers" series, beyond just rich people wanting pretty toys; in this universe, poor families can sell their children once those children come of age at fifteen, in order to settle debts or help themselves out of poverty. The author has built a more realistic view of slavery than most fics I've read, which don't bother to explain the inner workings and how wrenches in the machine are handled. In this world, there are ugly aspects, but abuse of slaves is not sexualized or condoned by any of the main characters. Although the title character of the first story, Bran, was abused in the past, the author never feels like s/he needs to go into detail about it with gory flashbacks or dramatic fanfare. This, I think, is tactful. Instead, Bran talks to his new slave trainer about what has happened to him - even when he has to be urged into revealing his experiences. It gives the character a voice and a personality that I think so many eagerly submissive or feisty and defiant slaves out there don't have in stories.
I was getting sick of reading slavefics in which a slave was either of those stereotypes, and sick of masters being either total sadists or such tooth-rotting sweethearts that they could put you in an insulin coma. Holden, the trainer/master in "The Slave Breakers" series, is neither. He's a human being with failings, weaknesses, bad days, and plenty of mistakes, which is as a character should be; his relationship with his slaves and his wife is given room to grow, even if the first fic focuses more on how Bran sees him than on how the other slaves see him. Bran isn't drooling at the prospect of slavery, even if he does seem happy to be Holden's slave at first; he has a difficult relationship and history with his status in the world, and has made multiple escape attempts without being whiny or angsty about it. He accepts that he's failed to run away and decides to suck it up and go on. I like Bran; he doesn't seem tough, but inside, he has a solid core.
One of the best things about this story is that it breaks away from the typical "slave falls in love with master" routine I've grown so accustomed to, and am getting tired of reading. Although I'm always up for a good slavefic, they're scarce. This one is good. I won't spoil it for you, but I will say that unrequited love takes a toll on several characters over the course of the series, and sometimes, it is never requited; that's the way love and emotion works. Characters fight and don't make up, while other characters can reconcile their differences fairly quickly. Some relationships are simpler than others, and I believe that's true to life: a slave's relationship to his master might seem simple, but it would never be simple in reality, whereas a wife's relationship to her husband's sex slave is overtly complex and should be treated with respect in a story. maculategiraffe does so much right with the interplay of relationships and the dynamics that a house run by slave trainers and their own longtime slaves would have twisted throughout it.
I wish I could write more coherently to tell you everything that's fantastic about this story, but I do think y'all should read it for yourselves. It's explicit slash, with some less explicit het and femmeslash, but every last dollop of sex in it isn't just some rehash of the last chapter or the last fic you've read. I'm a jaded old bastard when it comes to sex scenes and the ones in this series are legitimately sexy. ;x I love Bran and continue to love him, but I also love Yves and Holden, and I have a difficult time picking a favorite character. I also have a tough time picking a favorite moment, but I think it comes from the second fic chronologically, "Jesse." (Go through the story index, linked above and here, to get to the stories; it's far easier that way.)
One last annoying reminder: please hit me with your best shot that meme?
"It is better to emit a scream in the shape of a theory than to be entirely insensible to the jars and incongruities of life and take everything as it comes in a forlorn stupidity. Some people swallow the universe like a pill; they travel on through the world, like smiling images pushed from behind. For God's sake give me the young man who has brains enough to make a fool of himself!"
(It was on the homepage on Wikiquote and I liked it, so I had to use it, non sequitur though it is.)
ETA: Thanks to des_akazim for the Cherry Filter download links! ^__^