ficpost: "Defy the Linear" Kennedy/River

[wisdomeagle]

Title: "Defy the Linear"
Fandoms: Firefly/Serenity and Buffy: the Vampire Slayer
Pairing: River/Kennedy
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Graphic and disturbing content, much like the source texts contain. Gender-screwiness. Non-prose. Overuse of scriptural allusion and Christian metaphor.
Spoilers: For "Get It Done" and Serenity.
Notes: For alixtii in the Kennedy round of femslash_minis.
Summary: A swordfight.
Words: 503



Defy the Linear

They roll with appetites, a taste for blood
they must live with this
they aren't human anymore
slayer/reaver
and they cleave together
and they cleave apart
worlds without end
beginning, receding, ending, the ebb of the 'verse
poet and poem:
the universe's ballad

the universe's ballast,
tossed overboard in the rough like Jonah:

Sisters in the blood, in the belly

mei-mei.

The wall that hangs between them is no wall;
it's only time,
and time, like an hourglass, shatters to become sand and glass (only sand itself, ground and glossed)
their feet crush glass, and glass slices their feet just as



Kennedy slices through the wall
and the cleft
is
woman-shaped
like the spread thighs of a Companion
or a whore

In Inara's quarters River sits, pretending patience as Inara rolls her hair into coils and her brocades into robes, silk that hangs from her arms to her feet like the tail of a meteor. River asked for training, asked to know, because knowledge is a binding, and River's ready for her brain to be bound.

(Inara's bound River's feet, but River's let her do the binding. River's free, River's choice. She never was allowed to choose.)

River's bound her feet.


on either side they prepare


[They take, they eat, they drink, they shower, they dry themselves and comb their hair and have their hair combed for them. They test their strengths against the strength of warriors. They train. They're taught in close quarters and at a distance. They're broken, they're healed, they are ready.]


on either side they prepare


Kennedy's bound her breasts.

Kennedy bends at the waist, hair falling to her ankles, untamed. The rest of her's tight and her breasts are bound; she's the androgyny of Slayerdom, the masculine spirit bound in the feminine body; the feminine body bound and desexed.

Some nights she's ready to defy expectations with lipstick and pearls, the prep school dropout on the street corner who will not turn tricks nor be turned but who turns the tables and upsets the money-lenders' booths. Tonight, she's bound her breasts and she's packing. Tonight, there are no surprises: what's between her legs is visible in the bulge of leather at her crotch, and what's in her heart is in her eyes; tonight, she will not need the element of surprise; tonight, come, for all things are ready. Tonight, she is a dyke.

Kennedy slices through the night like a weapon forged in power.



They burn, sisters, like fire
it is belly-passion,
the hunt
it is cunt-passion,
lovingkindness,
the blood-scent
of the Slayer


They open the jaws of time
break the clenched simile of
the linear
and
dissolve
the
mystery

nothing exists but the salt, the sweat
the firebrand of bliss
the scar of sword on neck the
cold hilt of passionless steel
that slowly
resolves
into
an ancient
scythe
the source
of
power

raped into them


dissolving
into
deathlust
bloodsex
the taste of
iron
_in
__ her
___ mouth.

___ in
__her
_cunt
the scent of
fear.

Defy the Linear

Comments

[debxena.livejournal.com]

*ambling past on friendsfriends* That ... that's incredible. Very powerful, evocative, strong and twisted.

the hunt
it is cunt-passion,
lovingkindness,
the blood-scent
of the Slayer


You've just completely blown me away.

[wisdomeagle]

Thank you so very much.

[celievamp.livejournal.com]

that was absolutely extraordinary. I loved it! [Goes to read it through again]

[wisdomeagle]

Thank you so much!

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Oh, Ari. You never go the safe route, do you? You always push yourself, challenge yourselve, go wherever the story demands. And fandom is so enriched because you do so.

Thank you.

[I'm having difficulty responding to the poem itself, not because I don't like it but because poetry isn't something I understand very easily. Luckily, as Eliot pointed out, one doesn't have to understood poetry to be moved by it, and I find I prefer poetry I don't understand completely. I will say the obvious, however: River's character really lends itself to a poetic treatment, especially with the emphasis on the nonlinearity we see here, and the way that the images of River and Kennedy are juxtaposed is effective. I particularly like the way that when the focus shifts from River to Kennedy the language becomes more linear, more proseliked, capturing the difference between them well.]

[wisdomeagle]

Oops. I kept meaning to go back and respond to the feedback for this and then entirely forgetting.

Anyhow, thanks so much, dear. I'm really glad that you enjoyed this and I was glad I was writing for you, because I felt free to take all the risks I needed to to write the piece that spoke to me.

And this was the piece I wanted to write. Hopefully at some point soon I'll post about the writing of this (not commentary-style, probably), but... this image was the first thing that came to mind, and this style the only way I could express it.

[lillianmorgan.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's really mesmerising. I'm going to have to come back to this many times over. I love how you gave such movement to the poem too, both in the language and in the form. That seems very appropriate to both of the girls.

[wisdomeagle]

Thank you so much.

[cadence-k.livejournal.com]

I'm with Alix on this one. You never go the safe route and WOW are we so incredibly lucky to be able to see the results!

I'm blown away by this. This is so complex and abstract at parts and yet, for Kennedy and River, it makes perfect sense. How the heck did you do that? Again, I'm blown away.

Also, I want your brain. You bring out the zombie in me? :)

[wisdomeagle]

Thank you so, SO much. Mmm, brainnnnnnsssssssses. :p

[voleuse.livejournal.com]

Wow.

[wisdomeagle]

Thank you.

[dariclone.livejournal.com]

That was incredible and beuatiful. I could definitly see River's thought patterns in that. Thanks so much for sharing.

[wisdomeagle]

Thanks so much.

You've been Nominated at Kinda Gay Awards!

[snowpuppies]

Since you've already accepted one nomination, the following have been automatically added to our current nominee list. If you wish to remove any of the nominations, let us know. :)

Defy the Linear http://wisdomeagle.livejournal.com/704143.html Kennedy/River NC-17 Best Ficlet

Gather Paradise http://wisdomeagle.livejournal.com/685152.html Fred/Eve NC-17 Best Heat

The World, Upside Down http://wisdomeagle.livejournal.com/733497.html Buffy/Faith NC-17 Best Drabble

Romantic Comedies http://wisdomeagle.livejournal.com/459739.html Buffy/Tara PG Best Platonic

[snowpuppies]

Fantastic. Utterly.

[wisdomeagle]

Thank you.