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a passing thought
I've just read a very good fic that demonstrates (among other things) that consent and good communication can be extremely sexy indeed.
But (and this is not a criticism of that fic, to be clear), it occurs to me that in every fic I've seen do that, the communication is always ultimately yes, and the consent is always ultimately given. Maybe there are issues, maybe someone's traumatized about something or just plain nervous, and overcoming that to get to a place of joyous consent and pleasure is the point.
What I don't think I've ever seen--and I admit I haven't been looking for it, or indeed reading much fic at all for a long time--is a fic that's focused on communication and consent, but where the communication is no. No, I don't want to do this specific act. No I don't want this, I don't enjoy this. And (this is the key part) where the result is still good joyous loving consensual sex. (NB I'm not talking about fic where a character is asexual and doesn't want to have sex at all. That's its own category; I mean characters who want to have sex together but where certain things are off-limits.)
No doubt it exists, because everything exists somewhere in fanfic. But I'll bet it isn't nearly as common as the other kind.
By the way, the very good fic in question is this one. It takes a premise I absolutely do not believe, that I think is implicitly but strongly contradicted by canon (Stede as sexually experienced with men) and makes it work. (The fic is from Ed's POV; it would have been a lot harder to make it work in Stede's POV, I think. But Mia_ugly writes Ed amazingly well, and I can believe inexperienced Ed from her even though my read of Ed in canon is very much the opposite.)
Buttercup (13819 words) by mia_ugly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Our Flag Means Death (TV)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Blackbeard | Edward Teach/Stede Bonnet
Characters: Blackbeard | Edward Teach, Stede Bonnet
Additional Tags: Porn with Feelings, Mutual Pining, Bad Sex, But Then Better Sex!, First Time, Inexperienced Ed, Experienced Stede, how the turntables, Pirate-typical violence, Blackbeard-Typical Angst, post-reunion, terms of endearment, Happy Ending
Summary: The thing is, when you’re Blackbeard you’ve got kind of a reputation to uphold. When you captain a ship, when you lead a crew, when people look up to you, tell stories, build a legend – parts of that legend are always more accurate than others.
But (and this is not a criticism of that fic, to be clear), it occurs to me that in every fic I've seen do that, the communication is always ultimately yes, and the consent is always ultimately given. Maybe there are issues, maybe someone's traumatized about something or just plain nervous, and overcoming that to get to a place of joyous consent and pleasure is the point.
What I don't think I've ever seen--and I admit I haven't been looking for it, or indeed reading much fic at all for a long time--is a fic that's focused on communication and consent, but where the communication is no. No, I don't want to do this specific act. No I don't want this, I don't enjoy this. And (this is the key part) where the result is still good joyous loving consensual sex. (NB I'm not talking about fic where a character is asexual and doesn't want to have sex at all. That's its own category; I mean characters who want to have sex together but where certain things are off-limits.)
No doubt it exists, because everything exists somewhere in fanfic. But I'll bet it isn't nearly as common as the other kind.
By the way, the very good fic in question is this one. It takes a premise I absolutely do not believe, that I think is implicitly but strongly contradicted by canon (Stede as sexually experienced with men) and makes it work. (The fic is from Ed's POV; it would have been a lot harder to make it work in Stede's POV, I think. But Mia_ugly writes Ed amazingly well, and I can believe inexperienced Ed from her even though my read of Ed in canon is very much the opposite.)
Buttercup (13819 words) by mia_ugly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Our Flag Means Death (TV)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Blackbeard | Edward Teach/Stede Bonnet
Characters: Blackbeard | Edward Teach, Stede Bonnet
Additional Tags: Porn with Feelings, Mutual Pining, Bad Sex, But Then Better Sex!, First Time, Inexperienced Ed, Experienced Stede, how the turntables, Pirate-typical violence, Blackbeard-Typical Angst, post-reunion, terms of endearment, Happy Ending
Summary: The thing is, when you’re Blackbeard you’ve got kind of a reputation to uphold. When you captain a ship, when you lead a crew, when people look up to you, tell stories, build a legend – parts of that legend are always more accurate than others.
And maybe you just let it slide, some of the things people say. Some of the things they assume. Maybe you swagger around and wear black leather and are a handsy bastard and let the stories tell themselves.
Maybe you don't want to talk about it.
no subject
The closest I can think of off the top of my head is this RQG Zolf/Wilde piece, in which Zolf is the kind of grey-a person who's extremely not into being touched sexually himself but, they establish, into doing the touching:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/29742129?view_full_work=true
no subject
The fic you linked to doesn't quite work for me in that respect--we're in Wilde's POV, but I don't think we really see what he goes through emotionally, how he comes to accept that a lot of sexual stuff he's used to and enjoys and values is off limits. It's sort of taken for granted from the beginning that the trade-off is worth it to him, and he just has to convince Zolf to believe him. But, like I said, given how big the off-limits territory is, I wasn't convinced that it would be that quick and easy.
To be fair, I have that complaint about a lot of fics: problems are too easily solved with half a conversation and a sex scene.