Asphodel

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Fanfiction
Title: Asphodel
Author(s): Misha
Date(s): 1997
Length: 21 pages
Genre: femslash, PGP, noncon
Fandom: Blake's 7
External Links: on the author's webpage

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Asphodel is a Blake's 7 Jenna/Servalan story by Misha.

It is the sequel to "Affinities", a Jenna/Tarrant story by the same author from Straight Blake's #3.

"Asphodel" was published in the Deadlier Than the Male fanzine in 1997.

Description from the Flyer

"Asphodel" by Misha ** -- "Jenna didn't have time to be puzzled. She managed to kick free of Avon's hands. Then she had Tarrant down, her hands wrapped around his throat. I could kill him, she thought. I've crushed windpipes before."

Author's Comments: 2003

My first femslash was nonconsensual, and it was the first femslash my editor found hot, leading her to change the rules on the gen-only zine she was putting together to allow adult as well.

It was "Asphodel," the sequel to "Affinities," Blake's 7 Jenna/Servalan. I just melted when Pat said it was the first femslash that turned her on. She was working on "Deadlier Than The Male," which was gen-only, but she decided to allow adult stories as well.[1]

Reactions and Reviews

1997

[Misha's] worth mentioning, anyway, since it's fairly rare for straight guys to do slash. His first published story was a Tarrant/Jenna in my Straight Blake's #3. He has a story with Jenna/Servalan (actually connected to the first one I mentioned) in Deadlier Than the Male, coming out at MediaWest, and he has a long and interesting Avon/Tarrant AU that was supposed to go into upcoming Tarrant slash zine, Angelfood, until I decided to cancel it because of the [redacted]. I hope he finds another good home for it, because it's a really great story. [2]

2002

Conversely, in Misha's 'Asphodel', Servalan's sadism has a practical purpose - raping Jenna to purge the cancers implanted in them by Zen, as an attempt to reincarnate itself - although Servalan also doses Jenna with an aphrodisiac beforehand and takes pleasure in her involuntary response.

<...> Three more stories separate sex and emotion, giving detailed accountes of sexual activity but withholding the characters' emotional reactions or reserving them until later in the narrative - a technique that works well for the unsouciant erotica of 'Window Shopping' but less well in 'If There Were Dreams To Sell' and 'Asphodel', where the descriptions of rape and sexual violence require more contextualizing.[3]

2016

Asphodel by Misha (21 pages) (femslash): Calling this femslash is both misleading and not misleading - pairings are J/Se (rape - explicit), J/Ta (relationship), previous A/J and A/B. I also both like and dislike this fic strongly - the plot (which loosely involves Jenna and Servalan having to have sex to grow another Zen) is nuts, but on the other hand it has been predicted by a rather well-written Carnell (for whom I am a sucker). There's also some interesting PGP stuff that, like the fic above, seems to have a lot more backstory than we are shown (Avon's dead while most others aren't - I have hardly ever seen this happen.) The final escape is good. Ultimately it's interesting, though crazy. The line they've quoted on the flier has absolutely nothing to do with the story.[4]

References

  1. ^ comment by the author in the post Four Fannish Truths and a Lie, 16 October 2003
  2. ^ from Strange Bedfellows (APA) #17 (May 1997)
  3. ^ This story was discussed in (Re)Making Space for Women: A guide to f/f slash in Blake's 7 fanzines, an essay by Nova (2002)
  4. ^ comments by Aralias at Deadlier than the Male, Powerplay 4 and 5, January 24, 2016