Spring in Imladris (LotR, Arwen/Eowyn, Pic Drabble)

[lavendertook]

For my fellow A/E shipper, the delightful ithiliana, and as a late entry for the International Day of Femslash celebration this past weekend.*

Title: Spring in Imladris
By lavendertook
Fandom: LotR
Pairing: Arwen/Eowyn
Rating: NC-Purple
Form: Illustrated Drabble; 100 word Picfic
Disclaimer: The characters are Tolkien's, not mine--I'm just borrowing them. I didn't make these cool dolls--Toybiz did. However, the setting is of my own arrangement. Ain't no money in playing with dolls, so no worries about that.
Click on any pic for embiggment
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They slid from the bench into the yielding green of an Imladris spring, no longer guarded by old enchantment, yet numinous still in the unfurling leaves' and emerging blossoms' newness.



Eowyn lay enraptured in her Elven lover's arms:



"It was but yesterday when the finest fingers cupped my chin, and but a breath above the Bruinen's song, you said,



'Think you the Evenstar's love so faint, it cannot shine on you as well?'



I was stunned beyond all reckoning."



Arwen smiled, "We share so much--our troubles, the burdens of our peoples. Why not this joy? Why not this joy?"

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Text only:

Spring in Imladris

They slid from the bench into the yielding green of an Imladris spring, no longer guarded by old enchantment, yet numinous still in the unfurling leaves' and emerging blossoms' newness.

Eowyn lay enraptured in her Elven lover's arms: "It was but yesterday when the finest fingers cupped my chin, and but a breath above the Bruinen's song, you said, 'Think you the Evenstar's love so faint, it cannot shine on you as well?' I was stunned beyond all reckoning."

Arwen smiled, "We share so much--our troubles, the burdens of our peoples. Why not this joy? Why not this joy?"

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*Like many other folks in fandom, I have some issues with the term "femslash," for making the feminine the marked category once again. Personally, I'd prefer "slash" to be an all-inclusive term for any romantic/sexual/bonded pairing or groupings written by fans of a text/performance/public persona, even including het and relations between beings of any currently designated or imagined genders, or lack thereof. But I do recognize that in current use in online fandom, it seems to be used more often to refer to male/male pairings, hence the marked designation for female/female pairings, and the lack of widely used designations for any gender variations that don't fit those designations neatly. So I'm working with what we've got while I grumble about it.

Comments

[trouble]

... It never occurred to me to ship Arwen/Eowyn. WHY? WHY DID I NOT SEE IT SOONER?

IOW: Love!

[lavendertook]

Hehehehe! Answer: not enough f/f being written!

Yay! Backatcha! (-:

[esmeraldus-neo.livejournal.com]

Huh. Pic drabble is an entirely new form of fan art that never would have crossed my mind.

I am SO getting the USS Flagg. Just as soon as I have six feet of floor space going spare.

*Then I, too, could make pic-thingies. With my GI Joes.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Pic drabble is an entirely new form of fan art that never would have crossed my mind.

*plants flag* I come in peace for all Fankind.

*awaits paparazzi, expects credit in fan wikis and all studies to follow, is sued by an unrecognized predecessor, writes book to set the story straight, realizes should have just stayed in bed*

Then I, too, could make pic-thingies. With my GI Joes.

Yay! I have influenced my peers!

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

Now that's an intriguing pairing and one that I'd not thought of very often. Hmm..What if Frodo and Aragorn ran off together, leaving Arwen relieved and free, and Eowyn left Faramir, leaving Faramir free to go off with Legolas or Pippin and Eowyn to pursue her happiness, and you could have an entire epic fic here! :))

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Could very well be--write it!(-:

In the particular world I'm imagining this story being set in, Arwen has come to love Eowyn, and still loves Aragorn. Though Arwen and Eowyn are new at being lovers with each other here, Aragorn and Arwen's pairing is not exclusive. Though I don't know much about any of these characters' sexualities yet, Aragorn and Arwen are a trusted prime pairing, so I'm not imagining an exclusive or even prime lesbian pairing between Arwen and Eowyn here, though it could be if set in another world. Aragorn has other lovers as well. Eowyn and Faramir have problems--big barriers to work out. This world is contiguous with my current "Bingo in Tol Eressea" storyline. All of the Fellowship have been lovers--those cold nights on Caradhras and piling blankets together and everyone so fond of each other and under fire, it was inevitable, and no big deal. And Bingo has been lovers quest/post-quest with Aragorn, Arwen, and Faramir at different times in the past, though he does have a prime pairing with Sam, but Sam is still with Rosie right now, her prime pairing. Being with Rosie and Sam wasn't working out for Bingo (more because of his PTSD than jealousies and barriers and sex wasn't the problem here), hence Sam's being split in two because he needs both these hobbits as prime. Sam will sail, but hasn't yet.

So that's the setting. In our next episode of "All My Hobbitlings" . . . (-;

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

Oh wow! I can't wait to talk about this universe in person! :D

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

A willing discusser of this? Yipppeeeee!!! *runs in circles*

[mews1945.livejournal.com]

Lovely pictures, and a sweet ficlet. I really enjoyed this.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Yay! Thank you, J. (-:

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Oh, you deserve a comment ten times longer than "how beautiful and romantic and perfect!" but I am racing the clock. So.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you! Yay!!!! Stupid clocks.

[romeny.livejournal.com]

This is beautifully written, Lav, I don't know that I've read anything by you before. I also see I didn't spend enough time looking at your doll collection. Theese dolls are exquisite.

I'd prefer "slash" to be an all-inclusive term for any romantic/sexual/bonded pairing or groupings

I wasn't familiar with the term femslash and assumed all slash was just that slash. But you're free to use any term you like aren't you or is that frowned upon?

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! That's my first drabble. Before I started doing these picsfics last year, most all of my fan writing has been done in role play--some on my own, but most of it collaborative--a mix of dramatic dialog and first person narrative, and that's how I mainly used Bingo's journal from 2002 until last year. So I haven't really done any traditional formatted fanfic. Arwen,Eowyn,and Galadriel are definitely Toybiz's best work in the LotR line. The quality of the dolls themselves aren't as good as Sideshow (though they gave them a run for it with the quality of these gowns, and Sideshow hasn't made dolls of these characters), but they're still way cheaper to get.

You are, but it's good to know how other people are using a term, so you can be understood and understand them, anywhere, not just fandom, right? Then you can decide how you want to influence the usage. I wanted to participate in the International Day of Femslash other fans have organized and get this story done for it, so I needed to engage with the term they're using.

[romeny.livejournal.com]

it's good to know how other people are using a term, so you can be understood and understand them, anywhere, not just fandom

Makes perfect sense. So any change would have to be universal then. I'm only familiar with LJ fandom where people note the type of slash/pairing the story is about.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

Oh no, I just meant the mutual understanding of a term thing is the same deal in fandom as in any community of language speakers. I have metafandom on my flist to get an idea of issues across sf/media fandom on LJ--they cover some stuff on IJ and DW as well. It gives you a cross section for a part of fandom on these journals, so that's what I'm using as my general reference for context, since the only fandom I really participate in regularly is LotR.

[smithkingsley.livejournal.com]

I absolutely love the contrast between no longer guarded by old enchantment and the unfurling leaves' and emerging blossoms' newness. And that last line is indescribably beautiful. Repetition of words in a drabble is just gorgeous, when they mean so much.

[lavendertook.livejournal.com]

*blush* Thank you for your kind words! (-: I hear Liv Tyler saying it in that low sonorous and emphatic purry tone she used for Arwen.

In some ways it doesn't make sense to me for slash to refer to lesbian and gay pairings alone, and it leaves me wondering where characters who aren't m or f fit.

[moit.livejournal.com]

*g* I love this!!! I love doll!stories and this was cute, and so passionate. :D :D