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rainbowfic2013-03-04 03:58 pm
shadowsong26) wrote in rainbowfic2013-03-04 03:58 pm
Dove White #8, Dove Grey #9, Russet #3
Name: shadowsong26
Story: Differences
'Verse: Lux
Colors: Dove White #8. All marriages are mixed marriages., Dove Grey #9. And I would ask, who were you?, Russet #3. silken [Soft, cared-for hair.]
Supplies and Materials: bichromatic, paint-by-numbers (from Kelly), sculpture (the last part of First Kisses), fabric, novelty beads, yarn, glitter, glue ("You may find it difficult to accept the love that is being offered today as your personal world is peppered with complex dilemmas...Experiencing the spiritual dimensions of your feelings and letting go of your preconceived agenda make things easier to manage.")
Word Count: 1012
Rating: R
Characters: Lux, Mariko
Warnings: Discussion of alien reproduction, including forced pregnancy, and genitalia, some cissexism
Notes: Constructive criticism welcome, as always. This takes place a month or two after Arriving at the Station and is kind of infodumpy, I'm sorry. But I've been meaning to sort out and explain this for a while, and I'm not sure how else to do it, other than splitting it between a lecture from Gabriel, who would be even more infodumpy with less context, and porn, so.
"I envy you that," Lux said, softly, after Mariko finished telling her about the exhilarating catastrophe her relationship with Teri--and, in fact, that whole year--had been.
"Really?" Mariko asked, half-turning to look at her maybe-soon-to-be-girlfriend. Lux was braiding her hair, after all, and she didn't usually allow that from people she wasn't particularly close to, for all she liked the ultra-girly, bonding aspect of it. Or maybe because of that. "It was kind of a disaster, I'm not sure I'd do it again."
Lux pushed her head forward again. "I believe you when you say it was. Perhaps it would have been better to say I envy you the opportunity to be...so wild, without permanent, painful consequences."
Mariko blinked, but didn't turn back again. "What do you mean?"
Lux's hands paused, and she was silent for a moment, thinking. "It is...difficult to explain, because it is a fundamental difference in our species."
Which, in a twisted way, was utterly fascinating to Mariko from a cultural studies perspective, which was absolutely the wrong way to think about it. Still, she couldn't bite back the question. "Your people would do something awful to you?"
"It's not that simple," Lux said, and her hands started moving. "We are...it would take a great deal of rearranging one's mind to rebel like that, and we could never return to our former status."
"Rearranging your mind?"
"Yes." Lux was silent for another moment, and Mariko didn't interrupt this time. "Turn to the left please? I want to pin this up."
She obeyed, and almost asked for more detail, but Lux supplied it before she could.
"I suppose the best way for you to think about it would be to consider your species' first attempts at synthetic sentience. Are you at all familiar?"
"Sort of," Mariko said. Leyla had been--still was, as far as she knew--a robotics engineer, and of course some of that was covered in basic history lessons. But it had never been a focus or even a real interest of hers. "Not really."
"These machines, in the early days, before you refined the process, were limited. They could reason, they could make immediate decisions in situations that threatened their existence, they could consider details, but they tended to have a specific directive from which they could not deviate in any significant way, is that correct?"
"Right." All of that sounded vaguely familiar to Mariko, so she'd take Lux's word on it that it was true. Strange, that an Alien being knew more about human history than Mariko herself did.
"My people are something like that. Intelligent, and to an extent creative, but highly limited in our execution. Turn right, please?"
Mariko did. "Oh." It must be awful, having so little control over your own life.
"As I said," Lux said, probably guessing the general direction of her thoughts, "we can decide on details of how we pursue our directives, just not whether to follow the directives themselves. For example, there is a group among us whose primary purpose is the continuation of the species. Which is not to say the rest of us are infertile, just that we very rarely produce offspring. We have other tasks. Turn forward again?"
She turned, but didn't say anything, not wanting to distract Lux with a tangent.
"In any case, those of us who reproduce have some leeway. They can choose with whom they will partner, they can choose, with some restrictions, how often, though taking a break roughly equivalent to one full-term pregnancy between attempts is the most common. But...suppose that one of these beings had extreme difficulty carrying and delivering young. No matter how much they suffered, they could never decide to stop. The most they could do would be to allow the maximum delay--about the equivalent of three full-term pregnancies--before risking it again. Most of them could barely even formulate the thought that stopping might be a good idea. Until they are no longer fertile, they must keep bearing young, no matter how much they suffer." Lux slid the last few pins into place, almost viciously. Mariko managed not to flinch. "Of course, at that point, they might still be called upon to fertilize others, but that is less risky."
She blinked. "Wait, what?"
Lux brushed her shoulder. "I'm done, you can get up. And you are being anthrocentric again."
She flushed. "Sorry."
"It's all right." Lux stood to find a mirror, and clarified. "My species reproduces through mutual fertilization. We all have both a delivery system and functioning sperm and an incubator with functioning eggs. Here, what do you think?"
Mariko held up another mirror, studying the whorls and patterns Lux had braided into her hair. "It's beautiful," she said, a little pensive. All of her previous girlfriends had been human ciswomen, as had the few one-night-stands she'd indulged in, and she wasn't sure she was comfortable having sex with someone who essentially had a functioning penis.
But sex--while awesome--was only a small part of a relationship, and Lux was clearly female in every way that mattered, and there were other ways to be intimate without total intercourse. If this went anywhere--and, idly trailing a finger along one of the braids, she realized she still very much hoped it would--they could find a way to make the physical part work for them.
She smiled up at Lux, and, on impulse, kissed her. It felt...perfect. For all the physical and mental differences between them, this was perfect. Their lips touched for the barest of moments, then slid open at just the right tempo, fitting together just right.
This, Mariko realized, though she'd thought she'd found it before with Leyla, this was love, finding the being who matched her so exactly. Standing there, with her braids tight against her head and Lux, tasting like spice and the beginning of time, nothing else mattered.
Mariko broke the kiss and leaned into Lux's chest. "It's beautiful," she whispered again, and Lux's hand rested soft on her head, and Mariko meant that 'it' to be everything.
Story: Differences
'Verse: Lux
Colors: Dove White #8. All marriages are mixed marriages., Dove Grey #9. And I would ask, who were you?, Russet #3. silken [Soft, cared-for hair.]
Supplies and Materials: bichromatic, paint-by-numbers (from Kelly), sculpture (the last part of First Kisses), fabric, novelty beads, yarn, glitter, glue ("You may find it difficult to accept the love that is being offered today as your personal world is peppered with complex dilemmas...Experiencing the spiritual dimensions of your feelings and letting go of your preconceived agenda make things easier to manage.")
Word Count: 1012
Rating: R
Characters: Lux, Mariko
Warnings: Discussion of alien reproduction, including forced pregnancy, and genitalia, some cissexism
Notes: Constructive criticism welcome, as always. This takes place a month or two after Arriving at the Station and is kind of infodumpy, I'm sorry. But I've been meaning to sort out and explain this for a while, and I'm not sure how else to do it, other than splitting it between a lecture from Gabriel, who would be even more infodumpy with less context, and porn, so.
"I envy you that," Lux said, softly, after Mariko finished telling her about the exhilarating catastrophe her relationship with Teri--and, in fact, that whole year--had been.
"Really?" Mariko asked, half-turning to look at her maybe-soon-to-be-girlfriend. Lux was braiding her hair, after all, and she didn't usually allow that from people she wasn't particularly close to, for all she liked the ultra-girly, bonding aspect of it. Or maybe because of that. "It was kind of a disaster, I'm not sure I'd do it again."
Lux pushed her head forward again. "I believe you when you say it was. Perhaps it would have been better to say I envy you the opportunity to be...so wild, without permanent, painful consequences."
Mariko blinked, but didn't turn back again. "What do you mean?"
Lux's hands paused, and she was silent for a moment, thinking. "It is...difficult to explain, because it is a fundamental difference in our species."
Which, in a twisted way, was utterly fascinating to Mariko from a cultural studies perspective, which was absolutely the wrong way to think about it. Still, she couldn't bite back the question. "Your people would do something awful to you?"
"It's not that simple," Lux said, and her hands started moving. "We are...it would take a great deal of rearranging one's mind to rebel like that, and we could never return to our former status."
"Rearranging your mind?"
"Yes." Lux was silent for another moment, and Mariko didn't interrupt this time. "Turn to the left please? I want to pin this up."
She obeyed, and almost asked for more detail, but Lux supplied it before she could.
"I suppose the best way for you to think about it would be to consider your species' first attempts at synthetic sentience. Are you at all familiar?"
"Sort of," Mariko said. Leyla had been--still was, as far as she knew--a robotics engineer, and of course some of that was covered in basic history lessons. But it had never been a focus or even a real interest of hers. "Not really."
"These machines, in the early days, before you refined the process, were limited. They could reason, they could make immediate decisions in situations that threatened their existence, they could consider details, but they tended to have a specific directive from which they could not deviate in any significant way, is that correct?"
"Right." All of that sounded vaguely familiar to Mariko, so she'd take Lux's word on it that it was true. Strange, that an Alien being knew more about human history than Mariko herself did.
"My people are something like that. Intelligent, and to an extent creative, but highly limited in our execution. Turn right, please?"
Mariko did. "Oh." It must be awful, having so little control over your own life.
"As I said," Lux said, probably guessing the general direction of her thoughts, "we can decide on details of how we pursue our directives, just not whether to follow the directives themselves. For example, there is a group among us whose primary purpose is the continuation of the species. Which is not to say the rest of us are infertile, just that we very rarely produce offspring. We have other tasks. Turn forward again?"
She turned, but didn't say anything, not wanting to distract Lux with a tangent.
"In any case, those of us who reproduce have some leeway. They can choose with whom they will partner, they can choose, with some restrictions, how often, though taking a break roughly equivalent to one full-term pregnancy between attempts is the most common. But...suppose that one of these beings had extreme difficulty carrying and delivering young. No matter how much they suffered, they could never decide to stop. The most they could do would be to allow the maximum delay--about the equivalent of three full-term pregnancies--before risking it again. Most of them could barely even formulate the thought that stopping might be a good idea. Until they are no longer fertile, they must keep bearing young, no matter how much they suffer." Lux slid the last few pins into place, almost viciously. Mariko managed not to flinch. "Of course, at that point, they might still be called upon to fertilize others, but that is less risky."
She blinked. "Wait, what?"
Lux brushed her shoulder. "I'm done, you can get up. And you are being anthrocentric again."
She flushed. "Sorry."
"It's all right." Lux stood to find a mirror, and clarified. "My species reproduces through mutual fertilization. We all have both a delivery system and functioning sperm and an incubator with functioning eggs. Here, what do you think?"
Mariko held up another mirror, studying the whorls and patterns Lux had braided into her hair. "It's beautiful," she said, a little pensive. All of her previous girlfriends had been human ciswomen, as had the few one-night-stands she'd indulged in, and she wasn't sure she was comfortable having sex with someone who essentially had a functioning penis.
But sex--while awesome--was only a small part of a relationship, and Lux was clearly female in every way that mattered, and there were other ways to be intimate without total intercourse. If this went anywhere--and, idly trailing a finger along one of the braids, she realized she still very much hoped it would--they could find a way to make the physical part work for them.
She smiled up at Lux, and, on impulse, kissed her. It felt...perfect. For all the physical and mental differences between them, this was perfect. Their lips touched for the barest of moments, then slid open at just the right tempo, fitting together just right.
This, Mariko realized, though she'd thought she'd found it before with Leyla, this was love, finding the being who matched her so exactly. Standing there, with her braids tight against her head and Lux, tasting like spice and the beginning of time, nothing else mattered.
Mariko broke the kiss and leaned into Lux's chest. "It's beautiful," she whispered again, and Lux's hand rested soft on her head, and Mariko meant that 'it' to be everything.
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Yeah. This particular issue of how Lux's species is wired/thinks is so important--it feeds into a lot of why things with Simon happen the way they do, plus obviously Michaela and Lux--and there's really no way to explain it without the infodump. :/ And while I don't know how important the biology/anatomy stuff will be to the plot, I felt like it did need to be explained, so, yeah. It all got kinda packaged together.
I'm glad it works okay, at least.
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