The fic is Little Bit of Inertia, Little Bit of Momentum by ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
juice817, written for the Supernatural and J-Squared Big Bang. It's an RPS AU, which means it's an m/m fic about original characters, and the characters have been "cast" with the names and likenesses of real people.
[Edited to add, June 3rd. When I first read this fic, I came across some triggering content. I was upset, and went on a long ride to clear my head. I realized why some elements of the fic had disturbed me, and I tagged my bookmark of it on delicious with betrayal.of.trust involuntarily.being.tied.up involuntarily.being.shut.in.an.enclosed.space abduction involuntarily.being.held.down noncon/dubcon emotional.manipulation because those elements can be triggering to other people than me, and I thought someone might find the tags useful. I also commented on the fic annoucements with a greyed-out warning that the fic contained betrayal.of.trust involuntarily.being.tied.up involuntarily.being.shut.in.an.enclosed.space abduction involuntarily.being.held.down, I think. I no longer have the original comment. Now that might or might not be useful to other readers with similar triggers, but the fic was still bothering me. In an attempt to get it out of my subconscious, I wrote this entry which looks only at the triggering content, and which casts everything in the fic in a different light. It is a purely emotional reaction to triggering content, and not an attempt at a critical reading as some have assumed. It is a true and genuine reaction, but not the typical reaction or the reaction the author intended their readers to have. I welcome comments and discussion, but I will not put up with anyone harassing anyone else in my journal.]
The Ackles and the Padalecki family are good friends, and they introduce their two young sons, Jensen and Jared, to each other. Jensen does not want to go, and resists passively all the way to the remote cabin where the meeting takes place. Once there, he goes along with it so as not to hurt Jared's feelings.
The boys are brought together every summer. Jared seems oblivious to the arranged relationship, but Jensen is initially willing. One day they go walking in the forest surrounding the remote cabin, and get lost. This makes it clear that the cabin is indeed, very remote.
Jensen changes his mind about the arranged relationship when he learns that Jared has a girl friend. He's in college and living alone, and he cuts off all contact with the Padaleckis, and most of the contact with his own family. He refuses to spend his vacations with them, and screens his mail and calls.
Then Jensen's trusted friend and assistant goes behind his back and conspires with his family, to let his family know what his schedule is, and to make sure no one will miss him over the summer by clearing his schedule and telling his colleagues he's going on vacation.
Jensen's mom tells him he must come to the remote cabin, and he gets one chance to go voluntarily. Jensen refuses to go.
Jensen and Jared's brothers abduct Jensen, tie him up and shut him in the covered back of a pick-up truck and transport him to the remote cabin. Jensen's mom had arranged the whole thing, and is only angry that they didn't tie him up in the cab and put a seat-belt on him.
Everyone starts emotionally manipulating Jensen, and guilt-tripping him about cutting off contact. He can't avoid spending time alone with Jared. Jared is no longer oblivious to the arranged relationship, he very much wants it. Jared very much likes seeing Jensen hold a cute baby, Jared's nephew who looks as if he were Jared's son, and Jensen's sister tells Jensen that she will surrogate for him and Jared once they are together.
Jensen gets drunk, alone in a tee-pee with Jared (I don't know how he gets drunk, I was kind of reading between my fingers at this point), and when he wakes up, woozy and confused, Jared is forcibly holding him down, using a blanket and his body weight. Jensen very clearly says "Get off me", but Jared does not. Instead he symbolically consummates the arranged relationship with a kiss.
Scary, scary stuff. I especially found the idea of Jensen's support network outside of the family betraying and manipulating him viscerally horrifying. In the fic, Jensen is living alone and has a good career as a chiropractor, so there's no reason that he couldn't escape if he really wanted to, though it would mean saying goodbye to his family forever, except of course for the obvious reason that the relationship was arranged by the author and Jensen's family and his friend have only the vaguest of reasons within the text to act the way they do.
In real life, this sort of thing happens all the time, and the young people trying to escape arranged marriages, quite apart from the constant guilt-tripping and emotional manipulation, and the knowledge that people they trust may turn against them for their own good or for the honor of their family, don't have the resources to live independently in hiding. In western countries with laws that value individual rights over society's rights they can go to the authorities, if they can get away long enough. Then they just have to hope and pray no one discovers their plans before the can arrange their escape, and live in fear for the rest of their lives.
I find it very interesting and unexpected to read a fic written from the moral stand point of the betrayers/abusers, rather than the victim. The author presents it as a morally unambiguous romance:
The ending is happy, because once the relationship has been consummated and there is no escape, Jensen is "home again". The romance is "schmoopy". Someone is exhibiting "childishness" - is it Jensen for refusing to go to the cabin, both as a kid and as an adult, or is it the abduction which the brothers overdid in a childish way? I don't know, but "childishness and obliviousness too", by the way the two nouns are paired seems to indicate to me that the one who is childish is Jensen, since Jared is the one who is oblivious to his destiny for much of the fic.
I was scared and upset by the fic, though less so than I would have been had the author used canon characters or spent more time building up a relationship between Jensen and me, the reader. I firmly believe that an author should be absolutely free to write their metadata any way they please, with or without warnings, with or without details. Andjuice817 did attach warnings to their fic, just representing a different, equally valid reading.
Normally, I would not have done or said anything, but after the warning debate I've been following and taking part in, I have carefully considered my reasons for considering warnings voluntary, and for not asking for warnings, and I have also carefully considered how warnings can be useful to others. Perhaps in a case such as this, where the author has no reason to consider their fic horrifying noncon but I do, it would be a service to others for me to warn them.
At first I bookmarked the fic on delicious.com, but then I also thought it might be a good idea to put a warning in a comment to the master post. Then I decided it would be more helpful in the link from the comm. I don't know. I went for a long ride to clear my mind, but the fic just kept eating at me. I hope writing this entry about it will have moved it out of my subconscious, so I don't have to deal with it emotionally or in my sleep over the next several days.
ETA June 2nd: my comment with warnings has been deleted. I don't understand why, since I had greyed them out, but perhaps they hurt the feelings of the author?
juice817, written for the Supernatural and J-Squared Big Bang. It's an RPS AU, which means it's an m/m fic about original characters, and the characters have been "cast" with the names and likenesses of real people.[Edited to add, June 3rd. When I first read this fic, I came across some triggering content. I was upset, and went on a long ride to clear my head. I realized why some elements of the fic had disturbed me, and I tagged my bookmark of it on delicious with betrayal.of.trust involuntarily.being.tied.up involuntarily.being.shut.in.an.enclosed.space abduction involuntarily.being.held.down noncon/dubcon emotional.manipulation because those elements can be triggering to other people than me, and I thought someone might find the tags useful. I also commented on the fic annoucements with a greyed-out warning that the fic contained betrayal.of.trust involuntarily.being.tied.up involuntarily.being.shut.in.an.enclosed.space abduction involuntarily.being.held.down, I think. I no longer have the original comment. Now that might or might not be useful to other readers with similar triggers, but the fic was still bothering me. In an attempt to get it out of my subconscious, I wrote this entry which looks only at the triggering content, and which casts everything in the fic in a different light. It is a purely emotional reaction to triggering content, and not an attempt at a critical reading as some have assumed. It is a true and genuine reaction, but not the typical reaction or the reaction the author intended their readers to have. I welcome comments and discussion, but I will not put up with anyone harassing anyone else in my journal.]
The Ackles and the Padalecki family are good friends, and they introduce their two young sons, Jensen and Jared, to each other. Jensen does not want to go, and resists passively all the way to the remote cabin where the meeting takes place. Once there, he goes along with it so as not to hurt Jared's feelings.
The boys are brought together every summer. Jared seems oblivious to the arranged relationship, but Jensen is initially willing. One day they go walking in the forest surrounding the remote cabin, and get lost. This makes it clear that the cabin is indeed, very remote.
Jensen changes his mind about the arranged relationship when he learns that Jared has a girl friend. He's in college and living alone, and he cuts off all contact with the Padaleckis, and most of the contact with his own family. He refuses to spend his vacations with them, and screens his mail and calls.
Then Jensen's trusted friend and assistant goes behind his back and conspires with his family, to let his family know what his schedule is, and to make sure no one will miss him over the summer by clearing his schedule and telling his colleagues he's going on vacation.
Jensen's mom tells him he must come to the remote cabin, and he gets one chance to go voluntarily. Jensen refuses to go.
Jensen and Jared's brothers abduct Jensen, tie him up and shut him in the covered back of a pick-up truck and transport him to the remote cabin. Jensen's mom had arranged the whole thing, and is only angry that they didn't tie him up in the cab and put a seat-belt on him.
Everyone starts emotionally manipulating Jensen, and guilt-tripping him about cutting off contact. He can't avoid spending time alone with Jared. Jared is no longer oblivious to the arranged relationship, he very much wants it. Jared very much likes seeing Jensen hold a cute baby, Jared's nephew who looks as if he were Jared's son, and Jensen's sister tells Jensen that she will surrogate for him and Jared once they are together.
Jensen gets drunk, alone in a tee-pee with Jared (I don't know how he gets drunk, I was kind of reading between my fingers at this point), and when he wakes up, woozy and confused, Jared is forcibly holding him down, using a blanket and his body weight. Jensen very clearly says "Get off me", but Jared does not. Instead he symbolically consummates the arranged relationship with a kiss.
Scary, scary stuff. I especially found the idea of Jensen's support network outside of the family betraying and manipulating him viscerally horrifying. In the fic, Jensen is living alone and has a good career as a chiropractor, so there's no reason that he couldn't escape if he really wanted to, though it would mean saying goodbye to his family forever, except of course for the obvious reason that the relationship was arranged by the author and Jensen's family and his friend have only the vaguest of reasons within the text to act the way they do.
In real life, this sort of thing happens all the time, and the young people trying to escape arranged marriages, quite apart from the constant guilt-tripping and emotional manipulation, and the knowledge that people they trust may turn against them for their own good or for the honor of their family, don't have the resources to live independently in hiding. In western countries with laws that value individual rights over society's rights they can go to the authorities, if they can get away long enough. Then they just have to hope and pray no one discovers their plans before the can arrange their escape, and live in fear for the rest of their lives.
I find it very interesting and unexpected to read a fic written from the moral stand point of the betrayers/abusers, rather than the victim. The author presents it as a morally unambiguous romance:
"Warnings/Spoilers: Schmoop. Childishness and obliviousness too.
Summary: Jensen has been avoiding his former best friend Jared for nearly ten years, but with their moms being best friends too, it couldn't last forever. When Jensen is roped into a summer in the woods, he learns that things were maybe not what he'd thought way back when. And that maybe you really can go home again."
The ending is happy, because once the relationship has been consummated and there is no escape, Jensen is "home again". The romance is "schmoopy". Someone is exhibiting "childishness" - is it Jensen for refusing to go to the cabin, both as a kid and as an adult, or is it the abduction which the brothers overdid in a childish way? I don't know, but "childishness and obliviousness too", by the way the two nouns are paired seems to indicate to me that the one who is childish is Jensen, since Jared is the one who is oblivious to his destiny for much of the fic.
I was scared and upset by the fic, though less so than I would have been had the author used canon characters or spent more time building up a relationship between Jensen and me, the reader. I firmly believe that an author should be absolutely free to write their metadata any way they please, with or without warnings, with or without details. And
juice817 did attach warnings to their fic, just representing a different, equally valid reading. Normally, I would not have done or said anything, but after the warning debate I've been following and taking part in, I have carefully considered my reasons for considering warnings voluntary, and for not asking for warnings, and I have also carefully considered how warnings can be useful to others. Perhaps in a case such as this, where the author has no reason to consider their fic horrifying noncon but I do, it would be a service to others for me to warn them.
At first I bookmarked the fic on delicious.com, but then I also thought it might be a good idea to put a warning in a comment to the master post. Then I decided it would be more helpful in the link from the comm. I don't know. I went for a long ride to clear my mind, but the fic just kept eating at me. I hope writing this entry about it will have moved it out of my subconscious, so I don't have to deal with it emotionally or in my sleep over the next several days.
ETA June 2nd: my comment with warnings has been deleted. I don't understand why, since I had greyed them out, but perhaps they hurt the feelings of the author?