Body language by Dwimordene

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

B2MeM Challenge: B14: Femslash: kink
Genre I: romance
Magic and Real: The immortal
Format: short story
Genre: Romance. Deathfic. Kink.
Rating: A very definite M. Maybe higher just for the concept, in which case if it's a problem, I'll remove it to my journal.
Warnings: See everything above. See also summary.
Characters: Orcs
Pairing: OFC/OFC
Summary: Orcs in love. Be afraid.



Note: No, seriously, pull out now if you don’t want to be horrified.

Body Language

We were born together, they say; deadly even then, we killed our mother coming into this world.

That’s what they say, anyway. I wouldn’t know, of course – they could be right.

But we came up together, Dhargô and me, clawed our way up from nothing to fodder, and figured out right quick that together, we got on better. Lot of others died on spears and knives and swords – not us!

And so from fodder, we got to be… something, anyway. Captain marked us, made us his left and right hands: I, the hammer, and Dhargô, the blade. I was the law, and she the zeal. She broke our enemies and stole their words.

An artist, was Dhargô.

I mean, you haven’t ever seen someone who could make it last longer. The lads were in awe – and terror. All I had to do was threaten to send ‘em to Dhargô, and they’d spill whatever they’d done, I’d crack heads, hand out stripes, and it’d be over. You never saw a quieter, better-ordered lot than our company. And with Dhargô and me watching the ranks in battle, nobody ever ran, because Dhargô would tear strips off ‘em – literally.

Put me and Dhargô to work where there was trouble, and it’d get settled. Nothing we couldn’t do, and we didn’t need anybody else. Wouldn’t trust ‘em anyway –Dhargô’s the only one I’d have at my back.

She’s the only one I’d have. Ever. You come up through the ranks from nothing, you learn: you don’t leave yourself open. I was thirteen I saw some lads go after one of the new boys when he was out of armor. He squealed like a pig, walked funny for days afterward.

You don’t take a piss in the army without someone watching your back, ‘cause the lads’re just waiting to catch you with your trousers down.

You don’t lie down with nobody below you if you’re smart. Nor if you’re me and Dhargô. Because chances are, someone’ll bite something useful off just for spite and the hope that the captain’ll promote him. It’s a stupid idea, but nobody ever said people like that were smart.

So I suppose it’s pretty natural, when she got in a whelping mood, that Dhargô turned to me. And I’ll admit, for a second there, when she put her hand on my back that first time, I thought Shit, this is it, this is the end of the line!

Wasn’t though – I was so relieved, I laughed, and she growled and hit me for it. I hit her right back – I’m not the captain’s fist for nothing! – hard enough to knock her down, and when she sat up with that pretty bruise on her face, I just grinned, opened my legs.

C’mon in, sweetheart, if you can take me!

Dhargô could get anyone, I think, if she wanted to, so she got me, too. You know, you hear all that Elf poetry that people find in their ruins. All that pale flower skin, light-foot limb sentiment, and there’s always a line about flowing hair – stuff it, I say. Elves – damn immortals don’t know what they’re talking about.

My kind aren’t not much for poetry, but if it was me, there’d be a line on that broken wall about how it looks when Dhargô’s down on her back and straining, and you can see every muscle in her swell from what you’re doing to her. There’d be a line about feeling scalp under her hair, and the prickle from how short we keep it. I’d have something to say about how she presses just the tips of her claws over your teat when you’re breathing hard, so you get that delicious little sting…

And there’d be a line about her magic – about her cutting into your back with her blades to spell the words out that’ll keep you, while she’s got the other hand up you, and then her tongue running over those wounds afterward.

If you haven’t tried it, don’t knock it. Or get a thicker skin – then if you bruise or bleed, you know you’ve earned it.

Stupid Elves.

Anyhow, so that’s how it went. We always had each other’s back, bed or battle.

Then one day, captain’s different – heard they pulled old Gorbag off to the southern Tower with the Nazgûl. And the new captain’s got his own notions of who he wants to be his left and right hand, but being a bastard, he doesn’t want to face Dhargô or me and fight to get us out. So he got some others to do her while he had me taking care of some idiot who’d got in a fight with one of the guards from the Men’s units.

Go figure, it was at the latrines they got her, six of the lads. She clawed out the throats of two of ‘em right away. The other four were quicker. If I hadn’t come along, needing to piss after that long session exacting dues from that lad of ours, she’d have been dead, likely dumped in the cesspit.

But I got them off her, broke one jaw and another neck, and the other two ran – who wouldn’t? Hard to fight holding your trousers up with one hand, after all.

She was pretty torn up. And I thought then that I should’ve had her charm herself, or teach me how to do it for her, because she looked that bad. You get to know death pretty well around here, and she looked like she was sitting close company with it.

And if I didn’t do something about it, then chances were good we’d both be dead before dusk.

So I took her down to the Men’s camp, where they kept a healer of their kind. They knew who I was – I’d given them justice an hour earlier, after all. So they took Dhargô in, and I sat by her all that night while their man tended her best he could.

Now I know that the Elves in their songs sing about slaying ten of us to their one.

But we aren’t weak – we were never made to be weak. You show me an Elf-maid, or even a matron, if you like, who could’ve stood up to what my Dhargô did, and come through it for even an hour afterward, and I’ll show you the Orc inside that Elf if I have to peel the skin off myself! I know their stories – how their kind die for love and die for horror, and die for pride, and mostly just die. For immortals, you’d think they’d be better at living, and I’ve gutted my fair share of them, so I know. They die. They die a lot.

We don’t die. Especially not for something as low and mean and stupid as getting caught by the captain’s men at the latrine. And we don’t pine, either. We don’t fade.

We also don’t take it lying down if we can help it. So I sat through the night by her, and watched her breathe, and I’ll admit I did think I didn’t like the idea of being without her. We came up together, and who else was going to be there but Dhargô? Whether she lived or died, something had to be done.

I’m not a great planner; Dhargô’s better at it. But I was determined: it took some work, thinking it all through, but in the morning, when I knew she’d be staying, I went to the tent where the Captain of the Men, Pharnim, slept, and got myself let in. Men aren’t so bad, in a lot of ways. They’re straightforward about things, and I put it to him he owed me still for sending him the scalp of the idiot who’d ripped his man’s guts out. He thought about it, cocked his head, and then said he thought I was just doing my duty.

I looked him over, and figured, all right, it’s going to be that way. Fair enough. So I gave him something more than dutiful, and when I’d done, he said yes to everything I asked.

And then I went back to the healer’s tent, where Dhargô was sleeping, drugged up like a spider’s catch, and I tapped her smart between her breasts and told her not to worry, I was taking care of things for us. And I dug my claw in a bit, just a little pinprick, and I said the first word she’d writ on me – not enough blood for the rest, and I didn’t want to risk her. I figured, though, it was something to keep her – to keep us.

I slept beside her cot that night, and listened to Men passing back and forth, and when I woke, I found the healer there again. He cleaned Dhargô’s wounds, and afterward, I looked at his kit, with all of its smart little tools, all neat and clean and gleaming, and asked him what they were. He explained them all – clever things, practical, not that different, really, from what Dhargô used when she went about her business. You have to have the right tools, and whether you’re cutting to cure or to kill, if you want to cut bone, you’ll need something other than a paring knife. If you want to stitch, you need the right needles.

Nice kit, I told him, and he bowed and left.

Because there was a yelling outside, fit to wake the dead. It woke Dhargô, that was sure, and I had to move quick to keep her from pulling out stitches or jarring broken bones.

And so I know I said we aren’t weak, but that’s not saying we don’t get scared, and my poor Dhargô was a broken-toothed, glassy-eyed mess of fear.

“Don’t you worry,” I told her. “You’ll soon be well – you’ll see. We’re going to blow this off like an old scab, you and me.”

And just then, in came Captain Pharnim, and two of his guards, holding our new Captain, who’d come by invitation for consultation and got clapped in irons. He saw me, and he looked at Dhargô propped up on the cot, and then he looked at the pretty row of tools I was setting out on the surgeon’s table, and his eyes went wide and he started to yell.

“You want us to gag him?” the Men asked.

“No,” I said. “I want to hear what he has to say…”


I told you Dhargô’s the artist – she’s got a fair hand with knives and what not. But I’ve been the right hand of law in our camp these last years, and I’ve learned something about law: it’s bloody. But it’s got what you’d call a proportion to the violence. It’s geometry, really. And I could always figure.

So let’s say that I gave him back what he did to Dhargô – me. All of it. Right there, in front of her, I put it on him like he had had it put on her, and since I was just one, I had to work four times as hard. But it was Dhargô, and we came up together and we’ll die together, and so I did it. Broke a sweat like you wouldn’t believe, but it was worth it – Dhargô didn’t say a word the whole time, but she watched. And her eyes were shining.

And since law’s geometric where I come from, once I’d given equal for equal, I gave him more – got to try out all the surgeon’s tools. And though I’m no great sorcerer, I’ve learned a few charms here and there – a few curses. I used them all, and opened his veins, and took his eyes, and I sent him to the sun’s fire, there to burn for all the Ages.

So for the new Captain. And when I’d done with him, I went over to where Dhargô was, and after a moment, she lifted her broken hand and laid it on my knee. “Thank you,” she croaked.

“I’d’ve done him better than that,” I growled, for my blood was still up. “I don’t have your eye and hand!”

She looked past me to the bloody mess on the floor, and her nostrils flared. “What now?”

“Now I take an escort and drag him back home to the commander. And I give him Captain Pharnim’s greetings and tell him if he wants Pharnim on his side, he’ll take us back safe and sound. And he’ll give me the other two who set on you to settle with, like I did the captain.”

And with the captain’s fine example right at hand, there was no doubt he’d back me, because otherwise, he’d be next.

Dhargô thought about it. “It’s a good enough plan,” she said finally, though her face darkened beneath her bruises. “Wish I could do those two myself, though!”

“I can try to save one for you,” I offered. But she shook her head wearily.

“Too long. And so long as you do it, it’ll be as if I did.”

“Not hardly,” I snorted.

Her hand on my knee tightened just then, despite the bone slivers, and the bandage darkened a bit with blood. But she held on, and her thumb moved, stroked a little, and despite that gentleness and the morning’s work, I felt myself get a little hot to feel it.

“You did beautifully,” she said then.

So maybe I can rise to the occasion. It’s not poetry, but body language, I guess, if you like. And it worked – the commander paled like an Elf when I dragged our captain back with Pharnim’s men in tow, and he bowed to every word of my demands.

I did try to save one of the nasty little blighters for Dhargô, but it’s like she feared – it took her time to recover. You have to be healed up right well to do our job. She didn’t mind, though – gave me the best thank you I could’ve had the night she was well enough to come back. And I got a good night’s sleep for the first time since I’d hauled her over to the Men’s camp. I don’t know if we were born together, but that’s sisterhood, when you can close your eyes and trust you’ll open ‘em again. It’s like going into the Great Dark with someone, like a little foretaste of it – so they say. And I suppose I’ll learn whether it’s true someday.

But not today, though, not soon – and not easily. Because me and Dhargô, we’re keeping each other.

Comments

[blslarner.livejournal.com]

Ooh--now that's twisted love, orc-style!

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

Pretty much! No vanilla kink here... I hope, anyway.

[jay-of-lasgalen.livejournal.com]

I'd never imagined that kind of love, loyalty and devotion between orcs, but it makes a twisted kind of sense!

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

I'm sure there are plenty of rivals and hatreds, but they can't be an army of pure sociopaths or they'd never be able to get anything done. Plus, these are female orcs. Usually, in an oppressive society, women get the worst of it, and tend to have a different perspective on the rivalries of the men. Maybe male orcs are a lot more out and out egoist, while the women, though just as fierce, know on a visceral level, that they have to have allies to keep the men off their backs and any rival sister-groups away and that it just doesn't make sense for them to go it alone.

Ann highly, highly approves of this post!

[just-ann-now.livejournal.com]

Wow. It's twisted love, and it's love among creatures which we (brainwashed as we are, all on the side of what's good and clean and pretty) where we don't expect it, but it's love, and it's fierce and beautiful and understandable in its way. I really like the world-building you've done here. What this needs is fanart, lots of black leather and spikey hair and red lips and nails. *stops to think a minute about that imagery, and how surprisingly hot I'm finding it* Wow. A GREAT story, Dwim!

*back, after further reflection* I also like the radical feminist elements here - their rage after being reminded that, as powerful and successful as they are, as good at what they do, that they can be brought down through institutionalized rape. (Though I realize that one of your male characters was raped as well). It's a very visceral reaction, and to perfectly honest, after the past several months of anti-woman legislation and rhetoric, I'm feeling a lot like an enraged orc woman warrior myself. So THANK YOU for this. I know that femmeslash traditionally has a strong political element; I knew it intellectually, but never really felt it for myself. THANK YOU.

*sets out to kick the shit out of the Patriarchy* PATRIARCHY BETTER STAY OUT OF MY WAY TODAY

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

Feeling a bit orcish, are we?

I'm glad this was unexpected (God knows *I* wasn't expecting this), but that it does seem to make sense on its own terms. I don't think I can write this level of darkness without giving the orcs a world; it just feels too gratuitous and torture-porn-like, which is really not my genre.

I also like the radical feminist elements here - their rage after being reminded that, as powerful and successful as they are, as good at what they do, that they can be brought down through institutionalized rape.

Interesting point about the way patriarchy keeps the glass ceiling in place. I suppose for myself, I wouldn't call this critique of patriarchy directly - while writing this, in order to avoid the private transgressiveness of the torture-porn genre, I found interesting how very legitimized all of this became within the army society of orcs. The nameless narrator is the law! She's the sheriff in a noir film, walking into a den of thieves and taking them out. Her lover is an official army interrogator - she's an official torturer for the state, and together they fight crime... Dhargô was raped in the course of the powers that be trying to have her killed. That causes her lover to seek reinstatement and job security for them both. Since there is no collective bargaining unit, however, they do what orcs do: they bargain for themselves over somebody else's body to keep their places, and make sure that justice expresses their - geometric, since it's always geometry in revenge and state terror - rage directly. But it doesn't change anything; they aren't really being transgressive, either - they're not the girls at the end of Death Proof, and they aren't (I hope) torture-porn antagonists getting their private thrills from violently transgressing the law. They are the rule, not the exception, and they get their violent thrill killing their would-be killers in the context of a revenge whose legitimacy goes uncontested within the orcish power structure.

Where I aimed to give a more feminist twist to the whole thing was in their simply not thinking about themselves as exceptional. If I weren't writing for B2MEM, I never would've marked this as femslash - that would've given away from the get-go that the narrator is female, instead of letting that be a reveal partway through the story. The goal for me was to write this character (and Dhargô) in such a way that the reader's assumptions would incline them to see these two as male at first. And once it's shown that they're not, to let them be unapologetically violent, masculine characters who are female and don't have a second thought about that - this is all thoroughly normal to them, and they don't feel any gender-based alienation from their violent work or outlook. Aliens' Private Vaszquez was one model for this sort of hyperviolent female character; Kara Thrace in the BSG redux is another; and Pitch Black I thought did really well genderbending one of the characters so I tried to imitate that to a degree.

I kind of wanted to post about some of this last night, and talk about what kink means, but my brain was totally fried by that point, and I have to teach in about twenty minutes. Eep! Guess I'd better go do something about that class prep thing... Thank God for good notes!

Anyhow, would love to continue talking about femslash, kink, and politics later!

[just-ann-now.livejournal.com]

I've been reading The Lies of Locke Lamora series by Scott Lynch, so I had no problem at all identifying brutal female enforcers - his books are full of them. I glossed over the torture-porn aspects here (or it didn't strike a chord) but would have definely added bloodplay to the listed kinks (though I see from your comment to Aliana that you're de-emphasizing the kink aspects.)

I knew it was femmeslash going in, but now I almost wish I could have experienced it without that awareness! It will be interesting to see what kind of comments you receive when you post this independently of the b2mem challenge.

[engarian.livejournal.com]

A friend to watch one's back, and a lover to have on their back. The perfect duality. Nice. I'm not a femslash fan, but this one worked really well.

- Erulisse (one L)

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

Of all the femslash pieces, I'm sort of surprised this one worked, but hey - if it works, it works. Glad you liked this, um, charming story of love among orcs.

[aliana1.livejournal.com]

So. Wow.

A nastily excellent little interlude at the intersection of several sadly-neglected fanfic tropes: orcfic femslash sister-incest torture kink deathfic. I actually like that there's this edge of uncorrupted (okay, maybe not the right word) sisterly love and devotion that comes through... Maybe orcs aren't as depraved as we tend to think? I love the protagonist's assessment of elf poetry, with all its attendant paleness, slenderness, flowing hair, etc, and especially her statement that for immortals, elves seem to...die a lot. Absolutely no pining, wasting, or fading for these women--much the opposite.

If that's not love, I don't know what is.

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

A nastily excellent little interlude at the intersection of several sadly-neglected fanfic tropes: orcfic femslash sister-incest torture kink deathfic.

Don't forget romance! This is, above all, a romance.

(And that list is exactly why I hate labeling stories like this, because hanging all the labels on it in a way kills the story, by reducing it to an advertized laundry list of assumed transgressions.)

Maybe orcs aren't as depraved as we tend to think?

Nothing was evil in the beginning, saith Tolkien, and if his theology is in line with Augustine's and all Christian theology until relatively recently (I think... not totally sure on the contemporary position), nothing can be absolutely corrupt without ceasing to exist. Moreover, these two are acting not for pure egoism, but they serve others - Sauron in the First Age was less malign than Morgoth because he had someone to serve. I think the... committed... relationship these two orcs manage to have owes something to the fact that they're not in a position to make all their violence about their private desires. They're geometrically violent, but their violence has a level of proportionality to it that isn't set by the wielder of violence alone.

I love the protagonist's assessment of elf poetry,

Thanks - I so wanted that point! I love Tolkien's world, but could do with less of the Elf poetry and all its attendant issues and hair fetishizing.

Absolutely no pining, wasting, or fading for these women--much the opposite.

They may be homicidal and depraved, but darn it, they're good enough, smart enough, and they are going to survive!

[aliana1.livejournal.com]

And that list is exactly why I hate labeling stories like this, because hanging all the labels on it in a way kills the story, by reducing it to an advertized laundry list of assumed transgressions.

I hear ya. That's why I don't put specific warnings on my stories, beyond "violence" or "mature themes."

They're geometrically violent, but their violence has a level of proportionality to it that isn't set by the wielder of violence alone.

I think that's why this story, violent though it was, didn't feel gratuitous or torture-pornographic in any way.

Yeah, seriously; what's the deal with the hair, anyway?

[just-ann-now.livejournal.com]

didn't feel gratuitous or torture-pornographic in any way.

It absolutely didn't. The romance aspect, the bond between the characters was very strong.

[huinare.livejournal.com]

Damn, this is some original work if I ever saw it, and very awesome.

I love the narrative voice. It has some of the colloquialisms and a lot of the roughness one might expect from Orc speech, but also a level of insight and humanity that Tolkien (being invested in portraying the Orcs as stock minions and battle fodder) wasn't interested in accessing. Of course they'd not be forever talking about killing, maiming, and eating stuff; even in their violent society, they as sentient people would need to have some thoughts about the world and other cultures around them. The narrator's reflections on the Elves are both humorous (I'm not Arda's biggest Elf fan, myself) and genuinely insightful.

The narrator and Dhargô are both likeable, and I couldn't help being pleased for them when they got their revenge. As the discussion in the comments has already thoroughly enumerated, they're violent, but in an "eye for an eye" kind of way that stems from loyalty to each other.

THIS:
I don’t know if we were born together, but that’s sisterhood, when you can close your eyes and trust you’ll open ‘em again. It’s like going into the Great Dark with someone, like a little foretaste of it – so they say. And I suppose I’ll learn whether it’s true someday.
Love this.

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

I love the narrative voice. [...] Of course they'd not be forever talking about killing, maiming, and eating stuff; even in their violent society, they as sentient people would need to have some thoughts about the world and other cultures around them.

I was taking The Lauderdale as my role model here - she writes orcs like nobody else, and her work is amazing. If you liked this, and you haven't read her stories yet, go read them immediately. (Or as immediately as B2MEM and final papers allow...)

The narrator's reflections on the Elves are both humorous (I'm not Arda's biggest Elf fan, myself) and genuinely insightful.

I'm not that into Elves either at the end of the day usually. A good story about them can do a lot to help, but it's relatively rare for me to write Elves.

Glad my orcs worked well for you! Thanks for commenting!

[huinare.livejournal.com]

I think I read some of The Lauderdale's work back last autumn or summer or something, when I finally began stumbling onto Tolkien fic I liked, and I was duly impressed. (Y'know, I went several years writing my own fic before I realized there was other fic out there that was above the level of badfic? Evidently I really didn't know where to look, or was distracted by unfortunate RL circumstances, or something...anyway, my shambling into this fandom occurred much later than my own forays into Tokien fic began...Arr, I digress.)

Yeah, that's pretty much my stance, I do find a lot of great fic about Elves--and I will especially read them if friends write about them--but they're just not my personal cuppa.

But yeah, I really enjoyed your Orcs here, and to that end I'm curious...Is there any particular way you picture them? On the more human-looking side or the more warped-looking side? I seem to have had fanart lurking in my head since I read this, although what I picture often exceeds my abilities..

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

Oh good, you've found The Lauderdale. It would be sad if you had missed out on it this long.

.Is there any particular way you picture them? On the more human-looking side or the more warped-looking side?

I actually liked Lurtz's look in the movies, despite the fact that one could easily deconstruct his tropes. He e wasn't the little crouching, pustuled and misshapen mountain orcs or the orc commander in RoTK. Something closer to Lurtz's style perhaps for these orcs - functional and lethal, and which doesn't make any bones about showing off strength.

I seem to have had fanart lurking in my head since I read this, although what I picture often exceeds my abilities..

If oyu draw it, let me know. I only occasionally draw, and I'm not sure I could do a very good job with the orcs.

[rhapsody11.livejournal.com]

Absolutely brilliant! I can see how this character claimed her stage time to tell her life and story. And it read so smoothly. :)

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Rhapsody! Since this started out a set of drabbles, I'm glad that the piece doesn't just fall apart into little sections. Anonymous narrator was a pretty strong voice, which was good - without that, I think this piece could've been lingering on my hard drive for eons!

[thelauderdale.livejournal.com]

Oh my word. I just found this. I'm on my break at the moment, but this is going straight to the list (http://www.delicious.com/thelauderdale/middleearthorcfic) when I get back home.

That there isn't enough Orkish f/f out there goes without saying, but I will say it anyway. There is not enough. There is one story that is very near and dear to my heart (I feel like naming it in this context is a spoiler, but it is by Sharka (http://www.fanfiction.net/u/327173/Sharka)), but it exists in an unfinished state, and it never quite reaches that point, though there are intimations.

That the Orcs in this story are easily as brutal, fierce and coarse as any of their male counterparts. That violence, including sexual violence, is no respecter of gender in Orkish society. That the two Orcs' passionate, unbreakable bond with one another does not somehow make them transcend their Orkish nature or make them any less terrifying or monstrous - yet nonetheless demands our respect.

There are also just some killer lines in here. I loved the encapsulation of Elf poetry ("pale flower skin, light-foot limb"). And that follow-up gibe about Elves as well: "For immortals, you’d think they’d be better at living..." Pretty much any time an Orc is being snide about Elves I get a kind of smirk-by-proxy (even as I've come to be rather fond of some of my own Elf characters, so you see, people *can* be redeemed.)

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

:-D I am hugely complimented that you enjoyed this, Lauds!

That there isn't enough Orkish f/f out there goes without saying, but I will say it anyway. There is not enough.

There's not enough femslash, period, but yeah - I don't think I'd ever seen or heard of orc femslash being written before, and I've been around the fandom for awhile now. Over break, I'll have to check out Sharka's fic.

That the two Orcs' passionate, unbreakable bond with one another does not somehow make them transcend their Orkish nature or make them any less terrifying or monstrous - yet nonetheless demands our respect.

*bounce* Yes! I'm not a huge fan of "love magically transforms all" - no, it really doesn't in most cases. Orcs can be orcs and be in love, there's nothing mutually exclusive about these things.

Pretty much any time an Orc is being snide about Elves I get a kind of smirk-by-proxy

Hehe. I'm not a huge Elf fan - don't hate them, but I'm not usually moved by them particularly. I had a lot of fun writing those lines, and I'm pleased others have enjoyed them.

[keiliss.livejournal.com]

Okay. Two years late. Another B2Me challenge (2014). Review a fic from a previous March challenge. Spent a while clicking arbitrary links. Finally found this, which I'd not had time to read originally. Thought - okay. Good writer. Lots of comments. Try it.

I just read Orc femslash. And it was brilliant, and I was SO DAMN SCARED one of them would die at the end or something horrible and .... these girls are the BEST and I am so sorry it took me two years to meet them! Loved every grisly minute of this. Utterly original and somehow very romantic - loved it!

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Keiliss! This was certainly a challenge for me to write, so I'm glad others have found it works well.

[red-lasbelin.livejournal.com]

This is an awesome fic! (And I have now read and quite liked orc-femslash - so long fandom, I've done everything now!) I'm so glad there was a happy ending and they weren't parted.

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

I have now read and quite liked orc-femslash - so long fandom, I've done everything now!

Heh! Never say that - fandom will figure out something even more bizarre. Glad you liked the story.

[heartofoshun.livejournal.com]

I can't say I enjoyed it! But it is a very interesting read. It feels authentic and that is what matters to me here. I did feel sympathetic also to their loyalty and love for one another. In a sense orcs are crutches in Tolkien's world--almost like a flinch on his part for me, like drawing back a little from acknowledging the fact that humans are quite capable doing incredibly awful things (well, there is Numenor and human sacrifice). This very well done. Whether orcs come from elves or are some other creature entirely or from some other corruption of humanity, these orcs are clearly human. In the end it is a romantic story.

[dwimordene-2011.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Oshun. This was hard to write, given the prompt combination, and while I guess I could've tried for a species other than orcs, nothing else was coming to the fore strongly enough to work. I'm glad the protagonists feel authentic, that's always the goal.