Masterpost: The Thirteenth Child

[hemrage]

Rating: NC17 Wordcount: 15,707 Warnings/Enticements: Arranged marriage, dubious consent, mpreg. Summary: In a world not too dissimilar to ours, there are three genders: male, female and carrier. Like women, carriers can bear children, but unlike women, bearing children is all they’re expected to do with their lives. The youngest of thirteen, a carrier born to a carrier, Jensen’s always known what was expected of him … didn’t mean he had to like it, though. CHAPTERS 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 Author’s Note: This was originally posted for a prompt meme over at spn_hardcore. The original story is here, though this version is a good few thousand words longer and (I hope) a lot more polished.

Comments

Comment, Part 1

[ladyeternal.livejournal.com]

I found this entire fic rather compelling, and I was pleased to see the triggery material softened with more skill than many of its kind. The motivations of both Js are tempered with genuine emotions, and the subject is treated with respect. The semi-reversal of the Js feelings on the idea of children at the end was a deft touch that did bring a smile to my face.

But... there was a lot for me that went seriously unresolved.

For starters, Jared is in love with the idea of Jensen, not Jensen himself, and that doesn't change anywhere in here. From start to finish, the reader doesn't get the impression that Jared really has any idea about who Jensen is, what his life or ambitions were prior to their marriage, or anything else, really. And Jensen, while enjoying the sex more once Jared has to be told by a doctor to make it pleasurable for him (something that still makes everything in me flare in anger), still doesn't know much about or seem to really care about Jared. I got the strong impression that their ephemeral bonding over mutually pleasurable sex and the pregnancy eclipsed many of the larger issues in their relationship, and Jensen living through the birth doesn't magically resolve them. Jensen's gratitude to Jared for trying to alleviate his fears wouldn't do much to ameliorate the fundamental lack of affection between them, either.

And then there's the huge minefield of the beginning of their relationship: months of marital rape, regardless of how tender Jared might have tried to be & including their first anal tryst; the total lack of consideration of Jensen's feelings or opinions for a huge portion of the fic; the mistrust over the contraceptive Jensen was taking and the undisclosed secret of the fertility drugs that Jared swapped in their place; not to mention the aphrodisiacs Jared was having mixed into Jensen's food in the first place to drug him into enjoying the sex. None of this really feels resolved.

In the wake of that much screwing with his hormones, I can see Jensen going into a serious bout of post-partum depression. Nothing life-threatening to himself or the children, but something that persists for months after the birth and affects his marriage to Jared right down to the core. Something that would make Jared push, because he's angry and doesn't understand, like most partners in even loving couples don't and thinking that yelling at Jensen to snap out of it will end it as though Jensen's on an extended moping session.

And then finally Jensen would push back (as I waited the entire fic for him to do; a person can only bend so far before they break), telling Jared what Jared needed to know all along: that Jensen is living a life he swore never to have and didn't want, a life forced on him by everyone, including his husband. That all the orgasms in the world can't change it, and that all the love he feels for his children doesn't create love for the husband who still technically doesn't think of or treat Jensen as anything more than someone to provide Jared heirs and a dinner party companion of moderate social grace.