Otter's Rock

sedoretuex has revealed, and I can now reveal that I wrote TWO stories! (I have not yet had time to read any stories but my own--I have been really busy this January--but I am planning on making my way through the collection soon.)

A sedoretu is a specific organization of a poly marriage created by Ursula K. Le Guin in her short story "A Fisherman of the Inland Sea" aka "Another Story" available in a 1994 short story collection of the same name. It includes four people and specific arrangements of the relationships inside it. All people have a "moiety" that is considered as inherent as gender; the two moieties are Morning and Evening. Sex with someone of the same moiety is considered incest. The expected relationships within each sedoretu are:
The Morning woman and the Evening man (the “Morning marriage”)
The Evening woman and the Morning man (the “Evening marriage”)
The Morning woman and the Evening woman (the “Day marriage”)
The Morning man and the Evening man (the “Night marriage”)
(i.e. two homosexual and two heterosexual pairings) Here is the Fanlore explanation of it and the E2 explanation.

I like sedoretus because they create such interesting dynamics, one doesn't often see poly arrangements with the more rigid structures and cultural weight that one tends to find in a marriage. And fitting them into the worldbuilding of whatever fandom is always an interesting challenge.

My assignment was a Star Wars Legends Luke/Mara/Han/Leia foursome. I wrote a getting-together story, because that was most obvious; problem is, I've already done a Mara poly getting-together story (though that one was Luke/Mara/Lando), and Mara's character arc was roughly the same in both, and although I like the fic in general I was not thrilled that I couldn't find some other driving force for her. I include a diagram at the end if you have trouble visualizing the structure of the relationship.

Title: Dawning Understanding
Author: Beatrice_Otter
Written For: SassySnowperson in Sedoretu Exchange 2023
Fandom: Star Wars Legends
Betaed by: Shadaras

On Squidgeworld. On AO3. Rebloggable on tumblr and pillowfort.

On Dreamwidth. On AO3. Rebloggable on tumblr and pillowfort.

Mara slogged out of the cave, every step squelching in the mud and sending up noxious gasses. None of it toxic, or they would have been dead long since. Just unpleasant. And the mud. Was. Everywhere.

( Read more... )

I just realized that there are several fics I've written recently that aren't here! They're on AO3, but not cross-posted, and since I am a fanatic about crossposting fic (being old enough to have watched with dismay as whole favorite ARCHIVES vanished into the mists of time), here they are! First, we have Introductions, a Lando and Luke piece.

Title: Introductions
Characters: Luke, Lando
Fandom: Star Wars
Author: Beatrice_otter
Summary: Lando's first impression of Luke Skywalker wasn't very positive. Dumb kid who stumbled into the Empire's crosshairs somehow and then wandered into an incredibly obvious trap and needed to be rescued by the very friends he was supposed to be rescuing.

On AO3.

( Lando's first impression of Luke Skywalker wasn't very positive. )

Title: Ghost Stories
Author: beatrice_otter
Fandom: Star Wars: Original Trilogy
Characters: Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, Han Solo, Anakin Skywalker
Summary: After Endor, Luke gets something he's always wanted

On AO3

( The thing about Force-ghosts—or whatever the proper term was, neither Obi-Wan nor Yoda ever said—was that they didn't feel like living beings. )

Here is a Star Wars question for you guys!  And I hope someone who's been reading the new comics can tell me if there is a canon answer for this. When Darth Vader learned about Luke, how much did he find out?  Like, did he think that Obi-Wan had been raising him as an apprentice, or did his agents go to Tatooine and dig up that Luke had been raised by his aunt and uncle on their moisture farm?

You know what's really frustrating?  Finding a fic with a really awesome, interesting, and unique idea, but so badly executed/poorly executed that I can't bear to read it.  Everything from homonym fail to characterization fail.  (But, like really weird homonym fail, too--more proofreading was needed.)  But it was a really great premise that I wanted to explore!  And there was so much promise; they'll probably be a really great ficcer when they get some more experience.  But this ... gah.  What finally threw me out so hard I stopped reading was when a Luke Skywalker who had been raised as a Jedi was more hotheaded and aggressive than canon!Luke had been in the same situation on screen.  Like, yelling and shoving people when canon!Luke just shrugged and ignored it.