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Braided Song
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There's some controversy over whether certain sex scenes were consensual or not. I'm going to try and state my case as clearly and thoroughly as I can, in hopes of resolving things without too much drama. Observe:
>>/quest/1115029
What's happening here is that Kol is being magically forced to experience unnatural emotions, while completely immobilized and incapable of thought, for an immeasurable period of time. He is being subjected to a unfamiliar sex act which is far more extreme than the mundane sex acts he agreed to in this scene, and simultaneously rendered completely incapable of protesting. And he was given no warning that this would happen to him. Thus, he did not and was unable to grant consent, explicit or implied, before or during the act. This is a problem because the scene was intended to be safe bondage/dominance play and is being treated as such, and other scenes in the sequence make a point to include consent which is absent here.
We did agree to other acts, which include providing sexual services and being displayed in public. Invasive mind control magic is something else entirely. Someone who wanted to justify it (I'm that someone, I really, really, really wish I could justify everything Argus did) could argue that Casey and Gabe were willing because, even though they didn't understand what was going to happen to them, they knew that something was going to happen and they chose to take their chances. But seeing it happen to Kol was the reason they learned about it at all; Kol himself had no such opportunity to refuse.
One might claim that Kol agreed by accident by agreeing to a bargain he didm't understand. I reject this notion. Based on the information we had when we made those agreements, events go as follows:
Before we signed the contract, we were told that it would entail acting in Argus's service, and "spending some time on display". An example of the latter can be seen during the previous scene in the arena; this is what we could reasonably expect our agreement to mean, based on how it was described prior to signing.
After we agreed, and were thereafter unable to withdraw consent, we received new information on what "being on display" actually meant. It was very different from how it was presented earlier, involving unfamiliar magic which was described in vague and poetic language which gives us lityle actual information. At this point, we know what it looks like to an outside observer, bot only that. Notably, we were not told when it would occur.
Finally, we reach the context for the above: Argus demands sex from Kol, adding that he won't be forced to provide that particular service if he doesn't want to be. Kol agrees. During an otherwise mundane sex scene, Argus suddenly forces Kol into the aforementioned magic, which he had not previously mentioned he intended to do during that act, nor explained at all, giving Kol no opportunity to accept or refuse until after it was over.
In summary, Kol could not and did not offer consent. He lacked the necessary information. Argus clearly didn't intend to be a rapist, and the author clearly didn't intend to write a rape scene, but that's what ended up happening.
Some argue that this doesn't match the tone of the quest. That is exactly the problem. If the events of a story don't match the tone the author wants to write, that means they shouldn't happen, not that they didn't happen. But once it happens, it happens. This is what happened here, and the only appropriate response is to address it.
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