The Daughters of Eve

[weatherfront]

Pairings: gen (perhaps Mal/Cobb, though it does seem more gen than anything else...)
Notes: GUYS HELP I have been sitting here for half an hour trying to think of a summary and I CAN'T, not only was I never very good at it, I am also really fucking out of practice, on top of which, this is one of those things that are hard to summarize without

Comments

[jibrailis]

This is a story about Mallorie Miles Cobb. This is also a story about womanhood and personhood and wanting and losing and courage and cowardice and what we should be and what we actually are. There is so much in it, tattooed through with allegory, and your Mal voice is as sharp as a letter opener breaking the wax seal. There is so much power in it, wolfish, Persephone queen of the underworld, and so much bitterness too, deeper than anyone can truly understand. And Mal, fixed between wildness and gentility, between mother and child, between wife and not-wife, who just wants to sleep forever and be fertile only for herself -- all of creation is selfish, and why not, don't we deserve it.

I've been waiting for this fic ever since you said you were going to write it, and wow wow wow. (My confession: I am so happy that this is the one you finished first, because secretly deep down it was the one I wanted most, because I thought if anyone can do justice to it, it's you).

Don't weigh her down with your grief, her mother says. Like you could

[weatherfront]

Oh, ahahaha, Nancy, you. ;_____; Thank you so much, you oddball. ♥ Back then, with the poll, the story really did sound like some sort of soap opera! DESPERATE HOUSEWIFE MAL SUFFERS THE INDIGNITIES OF GROUT AND INFIDELITY!! WILL SHE CLENCH HER JAW AND SMILE THROUGH ANOTHER DAY, OR FINALLY SHARPEN THE KNIFE OF REVENGE? TUNE IN NEXT TIME. But, well, this was the one that didn't require plot or structure, just words for the sake of words, and, you know, that's always the most fun, isn't it...! :')

[siriuslyjames]

Wow, I am so happy I decided to check my flist right before bed because this is seriously amazing. I'm just completely in awe.

I really love the religious imagery and the bit about Persephone and just all of it.

[weatherfront]

Thank you-- I'm so glad that you enjoyed it! :) Persephone is definitely one of those myths that are lots of fun to turn inside out, because she herself is just a token of exchange between Hades and Demeter, and really such a prop for the turning of the seasons-- but, you know! Maybe she liked the pomegranate seeds! Maybe she wanted to stay.

[anatsuno]

kqsdjflksjghls I have to stop partway through because I'm falling asleep and I'm not doing it JUSTICE but I needed to say something!

SO LYRICAL OMG. HOW, WHAT, WH-- IFRIT!! *flails*

(ma malheureuse / ma malchanceuse - AUGH You make Mal and her mom sound like my mother and hers. sdjfskg.)

I shall come back, though this might bee too much emotion to take. >:| Perhaps if I drink first? Anyone, after I've slept, at any rate.

IFRIT. YOU ASTOUND ME.

[weatherfront]

DRINKING FIRST IS ALWAYS THE RIGHT ANSWER *_____* And sleeping, that too, but mostly DRINKING, ALWAYS DRINKING TO FORTIFY YOURSELF. ANA I APPROVE. XDDD

[papered]

oh ifrit, this is lovely. my favourite thing about this whole story is the imagery, I think - it's dark and visceral and hits you like a punch in the stomach. I love the duality of mal, and the way you weave all sorts of stories into this - especially persephone and her fifty summers. I feel like this reads almost like a fairytale - not the modern versions, but those original stories that are poetic and beautiful but always slightly sinister.

[weatherfront]

Those old stories, omg yes, sssso ssssssinister. And ssssexual and ssssssssscatological. It's the ~dark underbelly of the popular imagination~, isn't it, the outlet for all that RAW PEASANT ID-- no, but seriously, I love those stories too, so much :DDD Thank you, bb Lizface ♥

[weatherfront]

You are so good to me, Sam, oh why. ;_____; Thank you so muchhh.