Keptverse Meta: Jensen and Joe

[darkrosetiger.livejournal.com]

When I first started writing A Question of Compromise, one of my big concerns was that I didn't want to be retelling the story that poisontaster was already telling so well. There were obviously going to be some similarities, because I was also going with the body slave/reluctant master trope, but I wanted the slave character to be very different from Jensen. poisontaster's recent meta post about Jensen has shaken loose some of my own thoughts about Joe, and specifically the ways in which he and Jensen are drastically different--and very similar.



It goes back to their childhoods, obviously, but even before they were sold, they were headed in the same direction via different paths. Jensen, it's implied, is an only child from a poor family; he was seized by Commerce against his mother's will. Joe's family was poor by the time they sold him, but they weren't always that way.

My process for RPF AUs is that I like to keep certain elements of the character, both personality and background. For Joe, I liked the idea that real-life JFlan is one of eight children, and I could easily see how a family that large could get into crushing debt. The problem is that in the Keptverse, having that many kids if you're not already very rich is insane. So I decided that Joe's parents were rich and even had their own slaves until an investment went badly and they lost pretty much everything. They still might have been able to struggle through, but Joe's mother got cancer.

For Joe, this meant that by the time he was 5, he'd already learned to be a manipulator. He had to, if he was going to get any share of his mother's limited attention. More than anything else, this is why he's survived as a slave; the drawback is that he's not always subtle about it.

In case it wasn't clear, Joe's parents didn't want to sell him, but it came down to selling a child voluntarily or having one seized by Commerce. Joe was the youngest and they hoped he'd forget his family quickly. And he did, mostly because he deliberately refused to think about them. Even as an adult, knowing what probably happened and the horrible choice his parents had to make, there's still a confused 5-year-old boy in there who's sure he must have done something awful to make his parents sell him.

(As an aside, one of Joe's sisters was taken by Commerce a couple of years later, and a few months after that, his mother died. His oldest brother was in the military when Joe was sold; when he found out he cut off all contact with his family, because he couldn't forgive them. I have no plans for any of Joe's siblings to meet him in the future, because that would just be too heartbreaking, even for me in the Keptverse.)

Cruise (I can barely type his name without wanting to spit) bought Jensen when he was 7; the Neals bought Joe at 5, and that's the point where they really diverge. While Jensen was being taught that his master was the center of his world, Joe was learning that he was the center of Dylan's world. Jensen had the horrific "lesson" of trying to walk blindfolded across a floor strewn with sharp objects to teach him that a slave needs a master's guidance in every aspect of his life. Joe learned how to push Dylan's buttons; putting on his "slave face" was usually enough to make Dylan fall over apologizing, even when he had no idea what he'd done to piss Joe off. Cruise carefully groomed Jensen for sex; Joe had to talk Dylan through it the first time Dylan fucked him.

There were other, more subtle lessons. Cruise deliberately created a situation where he was almost the only source of emotional feedback Jensen had. Joe was the darling of the household, and got love and support from the adults who really ran things. That's another difference: in Cruise's household, there was never any doubt who was in control. With the Neals, Dylan's father was primarily interested in his job and in fucking his teenaged body slaves to bother with running things. Dylan's mother had never learned how to manage a household, and so the slaves pretty much ignored her and didn't respect her.

Joe learned how to be a body slave from school, but he learned what being a body slave meant from primarily from Kim, Mistress Neal's body slave. Kim was deeply cynical, and she passed that on to Joe, effectively subverting his training in school by teaching him that it was okay to be angry and resentful--the trick was learning not to show it. She was an expert at manipulating her mistress; with his existing tendency to be sneaky, Joe picked up on that part of his role immediately.

The other thing school did for Joe was to give him a chance to interact with other kids his age, which is something Jensen never had. From dealing with other slaves and with child masters, the lesson that slaves have to look out for each other that Joe got at home was reinforced. He also got to see firsthand that the owners didn't know everything, and were in many cases less intelligent and less capable than their slaves. Joe really does think that most masters aren't bright enough to tie their shoes without a body slave to do it for them, and the fact that most of them take their slaves at face value only increases his contempt. One of the things that has Joe a little off-balance with David and Jason is that they're not idiots, and they're not jaded enough to see Joe as little more than an expensive piece of furniture or a sex toy, so they don't take his bland smiles as a true reflection of his feelings.

poisontaster wrote about Jensen:

Because even with so benevolent a master as Jeff, any defiance, any growing pains, any expression of self Jensen goes through, it has to be tempered by the fact that he is still property. He cannot leave Jeff. His assertion of self is completely bounded by that fact: he cannot leave. He cannot be an autonomous being because he is always going to be a slave and dependent on his master and his master's goodwill. And it limits Jensen's ability to develop in perception as well as in any theoretical objective reality. The limitations are there and, more than that, Jensen is keenly aware of them. And Jensen is well-versed, or maybe well-trained is the better term, in binding himself in his limitations without the intervention (or even desire, in Jeff's case) of his master.

Joe is aware of the limitations that poisontaster describes, but his reaction to them is to push, to try to go as far as he can toward defining himself apart from his role and his master. On one hand, having such a strong sense of self is an advantage Joe has over Jensen. Joe sees being a slave as his job, and part of who he is, but he knows from observation and experience that the distinction between slave and master in this world is completely artificial. In the abstract, Joe would welcome manumission. (When he thinks about what he'd actually do, though, and realizes that he has no idea how to live on his own he gets scared--and angry.)

The problem is that this forces Joe to maintain the double-consciousness I talked about before. He spends most of his time hiding his real self. More than once, he's thought that if he could just accept his life and dedicate himself to being the Perfect Slave, because it would be less exhausting than always straining against the boundaries. In some ways, he envies slaves like Jensen who can focus on being good slaves without constantly trying to work the system.

poisontaster again:

The things that Jensen has always had going for him are still, unequivocally true: the will to live and the capability of feeling and expressing love. More than that, Jensen possesses the hopefulness of love; that if he gives completely and unselfishly from himself, there will come a time when someone--some master, because that's how Jensen's coded--will return it in equal measure.

Even more than Jensen's ability to accept and work within the constraints of his life, I think this is one of the biggest places where Jensen is arguably stronger than Joe. Jensen has a goal that he believes is reachable: that if he becomes the ideal slave, he will eventually find a master who's worthy of (though he'd never think of it in those terms, I'm guessing), willing and capable of returning his devotion.

Joe....not so much.

Joe had 12 years of stability with someone who loved him unconditionally--and who he loved in return--even though neither of them ever actually said it. He didn't have that kind of intense connection with anyone until Spader bought him, and in some ways, he was subconsciously trying to recapture what he'd had with Dylan. Joe really does believe that he was an idiot for believing that Spader really loved him. He simply refuses to accept the possibility of real love existing between a master and slave. Even with David and Jason, his goal is to gain security by playing on their liberal guilt. He doesn't even have the hope that Jensen does of finding some degree of happiness within the constraints of his life. He's incredibly brittle, and it's only his strong survival instinct that's holding him together.

Comments

[cookiemom6067.livejournal.com]

These are all fascinating observations, and I enjoy reading them, almost as much as reading the fic's themselves.

the frustrating thing for me is that no matter the motives or willingness of master(s) and/or slave(s) to understand and to empathize, never the twain shall meet. There is just too big a gap. Jeff CAN'T understand Jensen's point of view and neither can David/Jason understand Joe's, even if they want to fool themselves. What makes the two slaves fascinating to compare is that Jensen really WANTS Jeff to understand, while Joe is content to let David and Jason BELIEVE that they do.

Jensen is, therefore, a more honest character, but it is more difficult for he and Jeff to come to terms with their roles. David and Jason can believe that Joe WOULD say no, when he never, ever would do so, just because they are honestly liberal in their views. Joe is content to use that to gain the advantages that he wants. Jeff, on the other had, is honest enough about the system that he knows the pitfalls, having had his crisis of conscience with Chris as a young man, while Jensen honestly doesn't see a problem with the system.

[darkrosetiger.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reading, and for especially for commenting! It's really helpful for me to hear what people have to say about the meta, because it helps me sort through things.

What makes the two slaves fascinating to compare is that Jensen really WANTS Jeff to understand, while Joe is content to let David and Jason BELIEVE that they do.

I think it's less an issue of the masters trying to understand their slaves as it is of the masters' desire to maintain their own self-image. David and Jason want to believe that they're good guys, not the kind of assholes who'd abuse their slaves, or take advantage of the opportunity to have sex with someone who can't say no. Jeff, on the other hand, already believes that he's not one of the good guys--and, in fact, has spent most of AKB beating himself up for not being better.

I'm not sure I'd say that Jensen wants Jeff to understand, because both he and Joe would probably say that it doesn't matter--just for different reasons. Jensen believes that it's his job to give his master whatever he wants--and that it's his job to understand his master. Joe assumes his masters won't get it, and he doesn't really care, because as far as he's concerned, what they think doesn't mean jack--it's what they do that counts.

[devilc.livejournal.com]

Brittle -- that's a brilliant word to describe Joe.

For all that Jensen's had a huge learning curve at Jeff's, going there might break Joe. On the surface he would fit right in, but when he pushed against those boundaries and found that they were a lot less rigid and more flexible than anything he'd ever encountered he might end up pushing so hard that when they did rebound, he'd end up shattering.

[darkrosetiger.livejournal.com]

This is why I post meta, because I totally hadn't thought of it like that--but that's probably true. Joe's a lot like Mary-Louise, only smarter, because he goes out of his way to ingratiate himself with the other slaves, instead of pissing them all off like she does. At the same time, I can see the rest of Jeff's household being underwhelmed by Joe trying to manipulate Jeff and play on his guilt.

I do know that Jensen with David and Jason would be an unmitigated disaster. Which means a part of me wants to see it.