#octive culture isn’t | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

agnesgoesadventuring-blog · 7 years ago

Note

Complaining about people calling you a lesbophobe but you know, if it quacks like a lesbophobe. You're even talking AGAIN about lesbians and gay people having PRIVILEGE, just like you did with Beau. You were saying Beau, a gay woman, was privileged and entitled and here you are again talking about how we're privileged and have power so you can act all worried about us having a problem with people with actual straight passing privilege

Ask #2: Look, I’m cool with ace and bi people and I totally think you guys are part of the lgbt community, but you are saying that gay people have power just for being gay and that’s pretty homophobic.

Note: I have a policy of writing fic whenever I get hateful messages, so there’s Critical Role fic at the end of this post! If you want to read the fic but not the response to these asks, scroll down a bit!

There’s a lot of ignorance in these messages.

To start with, the concept of privilege is not some flat thing where a person either has it or they don’t. There are a lot of different kinds of privilege, as privilege is based on several different kinds of cultural and social power structures. A straight person has privilege over a gay person, but if that straight person is black, they do not have privilege over a white person. A white person has privilege over people of color, but if they’re poor they do not have privilege over the wealthy. Privilege, as I’m pretty sure I’ve discussed before, is a complex thing. A white gay person is going to have privilege over a black gay person. A white gay person will have a certain level of privilege over a black straight person, while the black straight person will have a certain level of privilege over him. Privilege comes from all kinds of things, from race, sexual identity, gender, wealth, mental illness, level of education. Sometimes those things impact each other. And ery, very few people are going to have privilege in every one of these power structures.

Every kind of community or segment of a culture/society is going to have power structures, and that includes the queer community.

I didn’t say that anyone has power just for being gay. I simply said that there are power structures that exist within the community, as there are in every community, that allow for the existence of a good deal of gatekeeping, exclusion, and erasure. That is not remotely the same thing as saying “gay people have power because they’re gay”.

As for Beau, you are, yet again, misrepresenting a discussion that was happening where people were discussing their personal experiences and how that effected their reactions to certain things. The most that was said about the canon of the show, aside from the person who sent the initial ask which led to the discussion, was that Yasha’s side of it was vague enough, based both on what she said and did in the scene and Ashley’s comments on Talks Machina, that it led to them having that uncomfortable emotional reaction.

There has been discussion about Beau potentially growing up with the privilege of wealth and how that might influence her behavior and interactions with people in different ways and in different situations, but as has been explained, it is not homophobic to recognize the privilege that a queer person might have in other areas of their life.

Just as people, many of whom were asexual, discussing how their personal experiences of having their agency, autonomy, and boundaries violated impacts the way they reacted to a specific scene isn’t homophobic, discussing the power structures that exist in a community that fosters gatekeeping and erasure/exclusion of certain identities isn’t homophobic, either.

The idea of “straight passing privilege” is, at best, flawed (here are some good pieces that talk about why).

To the person who sent the first message, perhaps your ignorance and lack of understanding of the complexities of privilege and the power structures that exist in all communities, whether willful or otherwise, is one of the things that’s making it difficult for you to accept bi and ace people as a part of the community. Either way, gatekeeping is pretty ineffective when you don’t actually know what you’re talking about.

To the person who sent the second ask, your approval of our existence in the community means very little when you’re fostering attitudes that lead to our exclusion.

Now, as per my “fluffy fic in response to hate” policy, here’s some fluffy fic. Since there were two messages, I wrote two fics. The first one is fjorester. The second is Beau/Kara. Follow the read more cut to the fic!

Love LineJester/Fjord. Rated T.

“Guess what, Fjord!” Jester said as she bounded over, skipping up to him with her hands clasped behind her back.

“What’s that, Jester?” Fjord replied, looking up from the map he was examining.

She plopped down in the chair next to him, smiling as she looked at him from under her lashes. “Molly taught me how to read palms.”

Fjord put the map down, turning his full attention to the woman next to him. “Did he now?”

“Mmhmm….” she hums out, nodding. “Would you like me to do you?”

Her voice sounds innocent, but he’s familiar enough with the way she talks to recognize the intended innuendo. He wants to respond in kind, say something that will maybe make her blush for a change, but his mind brings up nothing and his throat goes dry as he feels the heat rise to his cheeks.

Instead, he thrusts his hand out toward her, trying not to sound too off of his rhythm when he says, “Knock yourself out.”

She smiles at him as she takes his hand, placing it in one of her’s and dragging the finger tips of the other down his palm. There are jolts of electricity left in their wake that zip straight to chest, making it difficult for him to breath for a moment.

“Hmm,” Jester lets out, looking at his hand thoughtfully as she traces one of the lines with her index finger. “This is your life line.”

“What’s it say?”

“You are going to live for a very, very long time.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” he chuckles.

“You’re very healthy,” she continues, her finger still stroking back and forth over the line. “Very strong. And reliable.”

“Yes, that does sound like me,” Fjord replies, making his voice sound very serious. The giggle he gets out of her is very satisfying.

Jester’s fingers jump to another line in his hand. “This is the…” she trails off for a moment, tapping her heel against the floor in the way she does when she’s trying to think of something. “The money line!” she bursts out, looking quite proud of herself.

“I hope that line is really, really long,” he says.

“Not really long,” she says. “But not short either. You’re going to have just the right amount of money. Not too much, you know? Some people just have too much money. You’re going to have the exact right amount money.”

“Well, I wouldn’t want people thinking I’m greedy or anything.”

“Exactly!”

Her eyes meet his for a brief moment, her smile wide and her eyes bright. His smile softens as the look at each other, and the look on her face makes his throat dry again, so he clears his throat, looking back down at his hand.

“What about that other line?” He asks, motioning with his chin to where his hand is still resting in her’s.

“Oh, that’s the love line,” she says, taking her index finger and moving it down the line in his hand at an agonizing pace. Her voice drops in octive and volume as she leans closer to him, just a bit.

Fjord can’t help but swallow again, his throat now feeling perpetually parched. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she replies, her eyes flicking up to his for just a second before returning to his hand. “Your’s is really, really… really long.”

“Is it?” he croaks out, quiet and scratchy.

“Oh, yeah.” She’s smirking at him now, once again looking at him from under her lashes.

“Well,” he says, swallowing hard, summoning up whatever small amount of smoothness he can. “I haven’t received any complaints.” And then he winks at her, enjoying the way her smirk turns into a slow smile. She watches him for a moment, and for some reason that throws Fjord, her smile slips just before she looks back down, her finger stroking the line in his hand aimlessly.

“Do you want to know what else it says?” Jester asks, and the suggestive tone is gone. Her voice is smaller now, a little curious.

“Yeah. Of course.”

“It says that… sometimes you wait too long to take action. To act on your desires.” This is no longer flirty, confident Jester, who always seems to want to make him blush. “And, you know, those desires can only be patient for so long.”

Fjord’s throat goes dry again, but for a completely different reason. “Yeah. I know,” he’s finally able to push out.

“Do you?” she asks in a small voice, not looking up at him.

His hand closes around hers and he leans forward. He can’t see all of her face, but what he can see looks sad.

“I do,” he whispers, using his real voice.

That makes Jester look at him, her head snapping up, her eyes wide and surprised. She looks at him for several long seconds that seem to stretch on forever. Finally, she smiles. It’s not as big as he’d like to see, and there’s still a little doubt at the edges of it, but at least she doesn’t look so sad anymore. “Okay.”

Fjord squeezes her hand, and she squeezes back. Then she’s up like a shot, her pace fast as she walks over to where Beau and Caleb are sitting. “We should play some cards or something,” she says louder than necessary, and as she sits down, Fjord can see on her cheeks just the faintest blush.

He’s not at all surprised when, later that night, he discovers that Molly doesn’t know how to read palms.

ImpressiveBeau/Kara. Rated T.

“That was impressive.”

Beau whips around, the voice she hears only just familiar enough to keep from lashing out with her fist at the surprise. The tavern is quiet, with most of the people in town at the festival, and the voice is loud in the otherwise silent room.

It’s Kara standing there behind her, a smile on her face and an ale in her hand.

“Huh?” Beau asks, the fatigue in her bones from a long day of festival fun and fighting leaving her unintelligible.

It makes Kara chuckle as she sits down on the other side of the table, placing her ale on the table as she leans her chin on her palm. “The tournament. You and your friends.”

“We lost.” Her voice is blunt and defensive. She and the rest of the Nein had taken a hell of a beating in that last round and she wasn’t in the mood for sarcasm or mockery.

“You made it to the final round,” Kara responds. “You were one of the only two groups to do so. It’s not often that a group without much of a reputation manages to do that.”

Beau watches Kara, listening to her words carefully. She can’t help the sort of knee-jerk reaction of feeling like she’s being made fun of, but Kara’s words seem genuine, her tone warm and her smile reaching her eyes.

“Oh. Thanks,” she says after a long moment. She’s starting to get that weird feeling again, where she feels like she wants to say the right thing but can’t figure out what it is. As she wonders why she’s feeling that way, she looks again across the table and sees the way Kara is looking at her, with her cheek resting against her palm, a smile that feels, to Beau, private and secretive in a way.

Is she flirting with me? The thought has her filing through her brain, trying to remember the things Fjord and Jester had told about talking to people.

“Impressive,” she blurts out. At Kara’s raised eyebrow, she continues. “You are, I mean. Impressive. Too.”

Kara’s brow furrows in confusion, but her smile grows. “What did I do that was impressive?”

“Um…” Beau is floundering as she tries to remember the tips her friends had given. She thinks for a moment about trying to smile, but she remembers the reactions people have had to that, the way they seemed more scared or put off than anything else. So she keeps racking her brain, trying to think of something to just, at the very least, not ruin this.

She’s looking at Kara. Pretty, elven Kara who works for the Gentleman and helps to plan political coupes. And it’s then that she remembers something Jester had said to her. Just say what you mean, she had said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. If there’s something you like about them just say it.

“Working for the Gentleman.” She blurts it out in a hurry, then takes a deep breath to calm herself, hoping her next words come out in a bit more of a normal way. “I mean, he seems to trust you. And you’ve worked for him for awhile. So you must be pretty impressive if he wants to keep you around. Pretty special.”

Kara lets out a breathy chuckle, biting her lip as her smile stretches even wider across her face. Beau feels her own lips lifting at the corners, the smile coming on by itself rather than being forced. When Kara meets her gaze and sees her smile, she doesn’t look freaked out or put off. She just keeps smiling, her fingers playing idly with her mug on the table.

It’s at that moment that a very loud Molly bursts in to the building, with an almost-as-loud Jester and typically quiet Yasha on his heels. Kara looks over at the group for a moment, and then back at Beau. “Well, your friends are back,” she says, and lets the sentence hang in the air.

Beau feels like maybe she’s supposed to do or say something but she’s not sure what it is.

After a few seconds Kara stands. “I should probably go.” She leans over the table, placing her hand on top of Beau’s, getting as close to her face as she can. “Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow at the festival, yeah?”

Beau can’t help but notice the view Kara’s position gives her. It’s pretty modest, really, but she takes in the line of her neck, the delicate collar bone, and the soft skin that disappears under her dress. She swallows hard and meets Kara’s eyes, nodding. “Yeah.”

Kara gives her one last smile before she straightens up and walks out of the tavern.

As soon as she’s gone, Beau downs the rest of her ale in one gulp, then reaches to the other side of the table and does the same with the ale that Kara left behind.

So at least she’s feeling warm and fuzzy when the questions and comments start later in the evening, after the rest of the group has gathered around that table and Molly, with his smug grin, tells the rest of them what was going on when he walked in to the tavern.

Beau kicks him under the table and grumbles the whole time, but she has to fight to push down the smile that keeps wanting to climb it’s way up to her face.

#critical role #my metas #fjorester #beau x kara #my fic #biphobia #acephobia #Anonymous

31 notes · View notes