Fifty Shades of Debate (1/2)

[melissatreglia]

Title: Fifty Shades of Debate
Author: Melissa Treglia (gnosticdiva)
Fandom: Fifty Shades Trilogy/Griffin Unbowed (homebrew)
Word Count: 2487 (for part one only)
Rating: R
Inspiration: You really have to ask? Well, I've done this before with the Twilight vs. Forever Knight Debate Trilogy, but I realized I hadn't done a Fifty Shades debate fic yet. Also, I wanted to see what my original characters (Laila and Griffin) would make of Ana and Christian. Especially as Griffin's got a (somewhat) similar backstory to Christian. Turns out, my two are less than impressed by the Greys (shocker). Incidentally, this quickly got more serious than your typical debate fic, so apologies in advance if you wanted the funsies.
Warnings: Rated R for canon origins--includes disturbing canon themes and some strong language.

Summary: Laila Chadevsky (from my and my-coauthor's original vampire novel Griffin Unbowed) vs. Anastasia Steele-Grey of the Fifty Shades trilogy.

===========================

Ana Steele: I'm Anastasia Rose Steele-Grey, the protagonist from Fifty Shades of Grey, and its sequels Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed. The entire trilogy focuses on all the hot sex I have with my husband: the CEO of Grey Enterprises Holdings Inc. and a very Dominant man in the bedroom. If you get my drift. *winks* Everyone loves me; my story has sold millions of copies all over the world. Erika Leonard, who wrote me under the pseudonym E. L. James, is now a very, very wealthy woman.

Laila Chadevsky: I'm Laila Chadevsky, the love interest of Detective Griffin Blasko, in Melissa Treglia and Nicole Harvelle's original vampire novel Griffin Unbowed. Days, I'm a student of hematopathology at Mount Sinai Teaching Hospital in Toronto; nights, I'm one of the human “helpers” in the vampire community, and I earn a living by distributing discarded blood donations. Of course, the book hasn't sold anything yet, because it hasn't been picked up by publishers at this time.

Ana Steele: So basically, you and your authors are jealous of me and Erika because we've millions of readers, and you're still stuck in the slush pile.

Laila Chadevsky: No, one of my authors is livid that your trilogy sold so much when it's so badly written, when your author clearly had her hand down her pants the entire time, and it doesn't even perform its promised function of providing an entertaining read. My other author is more confused at all the noise over a crappy piece of porn. Both of my authors have been focusing on their world-building, plotting and the quality of their writing since they began their collaboration in July 2007—just a few months shy of eight years ago, now. They take a great deal of pride in their work and want to make sure every I is dotted and every T is crossed.

Ana Steele: Well, that's boring.

Laila Chadevsky: Writing is considered a career for a reason—people who truly want to tell stories dedicate their entire lives to it. Hacks just pump out a few books and then disappear when the world stops kissing their asses. Erika Leonard is a hack... and I thought you worked for a publishing company, so you should know how much effort a decent piece of writing may take.

Ana Steele: Still boring.

Laila Chadevsky: You find your dream job boring, and—I almost forgot—spend your entire time mailing raunchy emails to your priapic legalized master. You realize how many people would sign a demon's bargain to have the career you have? And how angry they all are that you have zero appreciation for your good fortune?

Ana Steele: My pria-what?

Laila Chadevsky: That's the only thing I've said that penetrated your gray matter? *pauses, then sighs* Never mind. Why don't we just move on to another topic. How about we talk about the men in our lives. That should be easy enough for you.

Ana Steele: Oh Christian is so wonderful! He takes me on trips and showers me with gifts and I have everything I ever wanted, and every time he looks at me that way, my Inner Goddess goes into an interpretive dance as I melt into a puddle of goo.

Laila Chadevsky: You realize you've only mentioned material things and nothing about his personality, right? *pauses, then boggles* Your Inner What?!

Ana Steele: My Inner Goddess. She expresses my happiness whenever my husband and I.... y'know... *whispers* ...do it.

Laila Chadevsky: So basically she's your Id after too many Red Bulls.

Ana Steele: My what?

Laila Chadevsky: *snorts* I thought you were the big reader, Miss My Life's Dream is to Own a Publishing Company Which I Achieved by Boning Mr. Filth E. Rich? *waves her hand dismissively* And anyway, you put those traits on your “Inner Goddess” because you're afraid to own up to the fact that you actually enjoy sex.

Ana Steele: No, I don't! I'm not afraid!

Laila Chadevsky: Uh-huh. So you're totally cool with me saying that me and my vampire boyfriend Griffin enjoy fucking like wild hares.

Ana Steele: Ugh, that so dirty. *disgusted*

Laila Chadevsky: Sex is always dirty if you do it right. That's part of what makes it so fun. Also? Griffin loves being tied up. I mean, he's strong enough to break just about any kind of bindings, so I had to get special titanium manacles for him... but he does love it when I boss him around, and he looks so sweet kneeling before me, with those big brown puppy-dog eyes of his.

Ana Steele: That is so wrong, for a man to be bound. A man should always be in control and never kneel. It's unnatural and wrong, and... *flails* No real man would want to do that!

Laila Chadevsky: *laughing uproariously* Oh honey! If you'd ever met Griffin, saying that would have never even crossed your mind! I can't even be insulted on his behalf, because your Victorian pearl-clutching is so over-the-top, it's just hilarious. *clears throat, calms down* Anyway, the point is... sexuality isn't an either/or concept, it's a continuum, and everybody's got a little masculinity and a little femininity in them. There are plenty of manly men who are in total control of their lives and everything else around them who like to surrender that control once they're in the bedroom. Why? Maybe it feels nice not to be the one making all the decisions for a change. And a girl gets to thinking all sorts of wonderfully naughty thoughts when she's got a big, strong, powerful man at her mercy. *grins* It's a hell of a charge, almost like you're the real power behind the throne. But you wouldn't appreciate that, being that you've never taken control of anything in your life, let alone your own sex drive.

Ana Steele: Christian knows what I want.

Laila Chadevsky: Does he? Because I'm pretty sure you didn't like the caning, said no to anal sex... and he railroaded you into both anyway.

Ana Steele: He knows my body, and he knows what I need.

Laila Chadevsky: Better than you do? Doubtful. More like he's convinced you that he knows what you need, and you'll never be able to find pleasure elsewhere. That he holds the keys to the kingdom and without him, well... you're screwed. And not in the fun way.

Ana Steele: You don't know anything.

Laila Chadevsky: What I know and what I don't know is another debate in and of itself. *fixes Ana with a laser-sharp glare* But the lady protests too much, methinks.

Ana Steele: “Methinks”? Who says “methinks” in this day and age?

Laila Chadevsky: The same people that use “all-American” to describe a smile. They're on the other side of this very very large pond, you see, and not actually here. Well, the ones that use it un-ironically, anyway. But I'm Canadian, so I can use both American and British slang with impunity, as well as slang unique to my own country. *grins* It's in our charter and everything; God save the Queen, and all. We were a property of the British Crown until we politely asked the Queen for sovereignty over afternoon tea and crumpets.

Ana Steele: ...I think you're having a go at me.

Laila Chadevsky: What was your first clue?

Ana Steele: *shakes her head* You are so middle-class.

Laila Chadevsky: You really gotta work on your insults, sweetie. Like this. *fixing her with another steely look* You, Ana, are the empty-headed, willfully-blind nouveau riche cum dumpster for a sociopathic sadist with a fuse the size of a pencil's eraser-head and the genitalia to match.

Ana Steele: *gasps*

Laila Chadevsky: I thought about calling you a concubine, but that would only insult the women who actually work to reach that position in societies that tend to frown on women possessing agency of any kind. *brief pause* You know, Ana, a lot more people would like you if you were just willing to admit your real life's goal is to be the kept woman of a wealthy man. There's no shame in that... unless you're the type to judge people for placing and meeting goals that aren't religiously or sociopolitically acceptable, even while no one is getting hurt and there's no secrets between you and the object of your.... ah, desires.

Ana Steele: *wibbles* But that's so.... wrong!

Laila Chadevsky: In who's lexicon? I mean, honestly—no sarcasm or joking here. You are a kept woman. Just own it. Own the hell out of it. Say to yourself, “Yeah, I'm a concubine for a wealthy man. It's my job to keep him happy, and I do it well and am rewarded handsomely. Ain't no shame in that.” I mean, for G-d's sake, it's 2015 already. Our society has come too far in the last century to be intimidated by sex anymore. And you're not helping the rest of us by being dishonest with yourself, because all the women reading your story? They've internalized all that fear, all that pain and all that deluded thinking. In fact, you're actually hurting the rest of us with your attitude. And I won't be a party to that.

Ana Steele: I'm not a concubine! And I'm not a whore! His mother was a whore! A whore who smoked crack and let him starve!

Laila Chadevsky: He went hungry for a few days because she died after years of battling a monster that she couldn't control; a monster that was probably introduced to her by her pimp when she was a scared young girl. And she was probably a sex worker in the first place because she had nowhere else to go and no one to help her. I've seen it happen way too many times before. So, tell me, Ana: what's the difference between fucking twenty men to keep the water running and to buy diapers, and fucking one man to keep yourself dripping in diamonds and visiting exotic locales?

Ana Steele: …

Laila Chadevsky: *all but Ketsploding* And how dare you judge her when you can't even begin to understand what it must've been like to walk in her shoes! That “crack whore” had a name. Ella, as troubled as she was and as tragic her life was, was one hell of a lady. She made the best of an impossible situation while trying to raise a small child on her own. She is more woman than you can ever hope to be. Without her, Christian Grey would not exist and you wouldn't be living in your gilded cage. You should fucking praise her, because she gave life to your abusive bastard of a husband and ensured he'd live long enough to fall into the lap of luxury! I've seen the kind of sacrifices good, loving parents are willing to make for their children—Ella should be canonized as a saint.

Ana Steele: He's not abusive!

Laila Chadevsky: I swear, do you have a wind tunnel for a brain? I'll put it in one sentence so you can understand—you're a judgmental, deluded idiot trapped in a loveless, abusive marriage. And, being middle-class and living in a time when the economy's in the toilet and the most populated section of North America was struck by a Superstorm that washed away thousands of homes and killed hundreds of people, you should know better than to have that attitude towards the poor and destitute. A lot of people are hungry and homeless these days; where's your billionaire hero now? Oh yeah, he's too busy thinking about profit margins, power lunches and pornographic blackmail material to care about those dirty, lazy poor people.

Ana Steele: …How'd you know about the blackmail photos?

Laila Chadevsky: How could you forget it? A normal man, even a very wealthy one, does not blackmail his intimates unless he's got something to hide. And I'm not talking about those little sticks of wood in his playroom that he likes to smack you with... I'm talking about the kind of thing that involves a body count.

Ana Steele: That's not true! Christian would never harm anyone!

Laila Chadevsky: Leila Williams would say different.

Ana Steele: She's crazy!

Laila Chadevsky: Because he made her crazy, you vapid amoeba! He admitted to you that she used to be a bubbly, bright and head-strong girl before he came into her life! Get it through your thick skull; he broke her, and he's doing the same to you!

Ana Steele: You're a liar! You don't understand our love!

Laila Chadevsky: It's not love, and you're lying to yourself! He's admitted he beats women who look like his dead mother, because he still has unresolved issues with her! GUESS WHO YOU LOOK LIKE?!

Ana Steele: I don't have to listen to you!

Laila Chadevsky: Fine. You don't have to listen to me, but at least listen to yourself! Stop drinking all your thoughts away; sober up and really think about what's going on around you! You've known this man for less than four months, and you're already married to him—you've made a life-long commitment to him at warp speed! You've moved too fast, and married a man you don't really know because you think your love can cure him! But a man like that can't change unless he wants to and, because he has the world at his feet and a wife who'll swallow every lie he tells her, he has no need to change!

Ana Steele: I'm not listening! *clamps hands over ears*

Laila Chadevsky: Uncover your ears, girl, and think for yourself for a change! When Jack failed to kidnap you, Christian was pissed that you left the apartment rather than being relieved that you were safe with your friend! He doesn't love you! He doesn't care! You are a possession to him, and he wants you to obey even if it means you have to die to do it! You would have more freedom if you were his dog!

Ana Steele: ..not listening... not listening...

Laila Chadevsky: All right. You want to stay in your little bubble, then fine. There's nothing I can do about that. It has to be your choice. *drops her card into Ana's purse* Call me if you need anything, anything at all. There are people who care, and you don't have to go through this alone. No woman deserves to go through something like this. Ever. *sighs* I just hope you can wake up before it's too late. Ignorance has a pretty high price to pay... and it may cost you everything that could ever be taken from you.

Ana Steele: *whimpering, eyes squeezed shut* Not true, not true... Christian loves me, I know he does... it's not true, it's not true...

Laila Chadevsky: *looking like she wants to cry for her* Good luck, Ana. You're gonna need it.

*Laila leaves the room, door quietly clicking shut behind her*

Comments

[xxburningsoulxx.livejournal.com]

That was awesome! <3 I love your character, Laila! She sounds so badass!

[melissatreglia]

Thank you! Part 2, with Griffin vs. Christian, is in the mod's queue right now. You'll see more of Laila in that part, too.

[namar13766.livejournal.com]

What I find most disturbing about Ana is that even if it's just a subconscious level, it seems like she knows what a horrible person Mr. Grey truly is. She's not like Bella constantly gushing about how awesome her 'twue wuv' is. Yet, if one were to save her from the situation she's currently in, she'd also be the one who would be angry with the person who broke her out of her fantasy.

[melissatreglia]

she'd also be the one who would be angry with the person who broke her out of her fantasy.

...which is why I characterized her the way I did in the debate fic. She's deluded, but somewhere deep down she knows he's bad news. People with delusions tend to cling to them fiercely, no matter what reality tells them.

[namar13766.livejournal.com]

If Ana never forgives her rescuer for the rest of her life, let's hope it's a long and healthy hate.

[melissatreglia]

If you're still interested (after all these years), Griffin Unbowed is now available on Amazon!