Allison Is a Quick Study (R)

[deelaundry]

Title: Allison Is a Quick Study
Author: Dee Laundry
Pairing: House/Cameron, House/Wilson implied
Rating: R
Summary: 309-word prequel to Pillory. Prompt by jdr1184: In the Pillory universe, what is Wilson doing while House is having sex with Cameron? Does he watch? Does he fume in the other room? Does House only have sex with her when she’s in heat?

Allison is a quick study. Although she has been with her husband only a handful of times, she already knows well how to drive his passion, as one would drive sheep toward a new pasture. She knows the levels of his excitement, and how to bring him from one level to the other, and how to time the changes so as to increase her own pleasure.

She knows how to lengthen his time with her, draw it out. She is certain she would also know how to finish his pleasure in the shortest time, although she has no intention of testing this theory.

What she does not know, cannot fathom, is how to dispense with the eyes in the corner of the room that burn her skin. Every first wife has the right to be present as the husband attends his second wife. James is the first person Allison has ever met who exercises that right. Every time.

Greg’s attention never wavers. He has a remarkable capacity for concentration, when he wishes it, and as she moves with him, she feels that he is with her wholly. It is Allison who cannot block out the silent, unmoving presence of James.

It is the only time in her life that someone has hated her.

Her time with her husband ends always in the same manner. As his pleasure peaks, he grunts or groans, and then falls silent, his lips captured by James’. The kiss is long, and Greg draws away from her.

James helps their husband up, embracing him, supporting him. Greg smiles lazily, sated. Allison has provided the pleasure, but the gratitude is always for James.

The two of them head for the door, leaving Allison behind. “I pray for your fertility,” is the last thing she always hears, falling from James’ lips, and then she is alone again.

Comments

[secondsilk.livejournal.com]

It's a kind of slippery world, between the conventions of modern society and of fantasy medievalism.

The word pillory, pillories themselves, make me think of Rothenberg in German, where they have the Kriminalisches Museum - a history of torture and medieval law enforcement. It's dim and dark and slightly red tinged and so very medieval German.

And this story is not. There's something more dry, open, green about it. The rusticness makes me think of rural things, both Australian and American. And it clashes with the German-ness. Also, I've read a lot of fantasy, and this doesn't have that sense to it at all. It's very local to the place and people (possibly because it's fanfic, and the characters are more familiar than the world they are in (it's usually the other way around).)

I do get a similar sense of slipperiness from Nightdog's Roman AU, except that I recognise that classical world much more than this one.

Maybe I should have done literature.

[deelaundry.livejournal.com]

Maybe you should've done literature, because that's a very interesting analysis.

Pillories were also used early on in America - around the time of the Puritans.

The "place" of this universe definitely floats. Whereas The Annals is firmly rooted in ancient Roman times (Nightdog's betas help her keep true to that time), this universe is influenced my impressions of a variety of restrictive societies. I've been asked to expand on the story, and I have plot ideas for expanding, but some of my reluctance is that the world isn't fully set yet. I sometimes think that it's very agrarian and primitive, and sometimes I think it's actually advanced technologically, although isolated from the rest of the world.

[secondsilk.livejournal.com]

I think I'd like to write an essay on how social issues, like gender relations and sexuality, are presented in fanfiction. In some ways, fanfic is literary analysis, this universe works as fanfic because of the comment it makes on the characters' canon relationships, even though if you were to change the names the characters would not be immediately recognisable as based on House characters.

The idea of advanced technology but restrictive/primative culture is a very interesting one to play with. Then you're running into secondary fantasy, there, and there is space to play with those expectations.

I'm certainly not a familiar with any culture that has such restrictive gender roles that are not determined by physical sex.