So I have been trying for weeks (at this point, maybe months) to figure out why Vox always seems to slip out of character in fics whenever sex comes up, even when he otherwise feels mostly in character. Obviously part of it is just people interpreting him differently than I do, or giving him fanon issues like internalized homophobia, and RadioStatic fics in particular tend to make him weirdly horny. And there are smaller things most people won't even notice if they haven't watched his scenes 20-30 times, like how sex jokes aren't a great fit for him because he doesn't do sexual humor. Most of it is explicable enough that I would probably just dismiss it as natural variation between writers if it was only showing up in some fics.
Instead, in almost every fic I've read, there's something subtly off about his approach to sex. And we're talking the level of subtle where it's like, word choices. Demeanor. "I cannot hear him saying these words in the way he's described as saying them". He's very casual and matter-of-fact in the way he talks about sex, he tends to be blunt about what he wants physically (as long as he's the one on top), and he just generally comes off as really confident and having a really high opinion of himself in bed. And I would say good for him if it didn't feel ever so slightly wrong.
I think I have finally put my finger on what bugs me about it. And it comes back to, of all things, people not taking him seriously when he's too silly.
I don't think I have ever seen anyone write him with canon-typical levels of self restraint. Even the fics that come the closest still make him a fundamentally serious person with (mostly negative) mood swings, rather than a fundamentally excitable person who's gotten good at being what he thinks other people want or expect from him. He never jumps on furniture and only rarely uses it in ways it's not intended to be used (sitting on desks, putting his feet up on things, etc). Even in fics where he's tagged as some flavor of neurodivergent, he rarely behaves in a manner one might consider embarrassing, or uncomfortable to witness.
I am judging all of you for that, by the way.
The problem is this: if you are going to make him less excitable, you need to remove all of the behaviors that only come out when he's in that headspace. Otherwise, the ones you keep are going to feel weird, because they are no longer in their proper context.
Case in point: yes! Vox gets verbally explicit. When he's excited. And it tends to manifest in socially inappropriate ways. I cannot think of a single instance in canon where he says anything explicitly sexual as a completely casual thing. And the one time he is casually sexual, when he's actually trying to start something, he talks around the subject. He's not being subtle, but he relies heavily on non-verbal cues to make his meaning clear.
So when you take that explicit language and cut out all the undesirable behaviors that accompany it. And then you make it the way he normally talks about sex. Yeah, it's technically in character. But it also just feels kinda generic to me. Especially if he's making sex jokes the whole time.
Like. Yes, headcanons good, write what you want, yadda yadda.
Still gonna judge every single one of you who intentionally sanitizes a blatantly and messily neurodivergent character for your own comfort.
(Y'all thought this post was about sex? No. Ableism be upon ye).
blakekathryn
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