Variations on a Theme – Genderfunky Giraffes of Two Varieties

This is for twisted_times‘s prompt in my call for prompts (posted here:
Most media depictions of bisexuals are that they are:

1. always promiscuous
2. sexually greedy
2a. necessarily dating persons of both genders simultaneously
3. just going “through a phase”
4. actually going to end up reverting to just being gay/straight (delete as applicable) by the end of the story.

I’d like to see writing that deals with bisexuality without managing to make use any of the above incorrect tropes.

*throws down the metaphorical gauntlet*

This was trickier to pull off in 150 words than you’d imagine, so I took two stabs at it.

Shiva and Nikita are from my webserial Addergoole, and the icon is of her.

Basil is from Stranded World ((and on LJ); he’s in the theatre club with the guys from 14th Shot and, of course Summer, from Meet the Parents

Story One:

“Do you miss being with a girl?” Niki curled up against Shiva’s side, nuzzling sleepily at her shoulder. He’d been peaceful, quiet lately, and today he couldn’t keep his hands off her.

She rubbed his back sleepily. It had been a busy, stressful week and she’d been grateful for his quiet. Now she wondered if it had been on purpose. “Miss being with a girl? That’s… well, that’s an odd question.” She shrugged, and kissed him behind the ear. “I’m with you, now.”

“Yeah… but do you ever wish I was a girl?”

She propped herself up on an elbow to study him, and wondered what had brought on this rash of insecurity.

“No, my darling dear. You’re plenty of handful as it is,” she teased, and then, seeing his expression fall, hurried to reassure him, first with a kiss, and then with a hand wandering down his body. “I’m with you, now, and you’re all I need.”


Story Two:

“So.” Alex sat on the prop couch Basil was busily staple-upholstering. “Straight now?”

“Nope.” Basil resisted the urge to staple Alex’s pants to the couch. He was a bad enough actor to start with.

“I heard you and Summer…”

“Nope.” Thanks, in part, to Alex, but Basil liked being Summer’s friend.

“Damn. And she’s damn hot, too. So still gay.”

Maybe he could staple his leg to the couch instead. “Nope.”

“So that rumor about you and Caleb the Green…”

“Depends on the rumor.”

“You know, you two were…”

“In a long-term monogamous relationship?” He placed a staple precariously close to the actor’s calf. “We were.”

“And you’re not with Summer.”

“She’s kinda busy.”

“And you’re not gay.”

“Does this involve ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ somehow?”

“Well, the blonde playing Abby is pretty hot, but I heard you and she…”

“Amber? No.”

“No, not her, um… Krista.”

“She’s playing Elaine Harper. And yes, we are. Since the close of Much Ado.”

“So like months. And still gay?”

“Nope.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/103207.html. You can comment here or there.

10 thoughts on “Variations on a Theme – Genderfunky Giraffes of Two Varieties

  1. I found the first very confusing, particularly the first line. Since it goes “direct speech – description of what Niki’s doing” it looked to me like Niki was talking. And did you mean to say she’s nuzzling her own shoulder? I don’t have words for the second. Funny and frustrating at the same time.

      • Oh. Then I guess it’s the names that threw me off course. (I was wondering about Shiva and Niki, but then read the introduction, and was sure that Nikita was a female name.)

        • (And Shiva is generally a male name, yeah). No, in this case Shiva is all female and Nikita is all male. I’ve been living with these two in my head so long, I forgot that would be a question, sorry.

          • *heh* Between yours and jerienhal‘s fanfic drabbles, I’ve been pondering differences between stand-alone flashfic, and ones using assumed to be known characters. Not that I have anything interesting to share, but, well, I guess I like rambling. XD

            • It’s a toss-up for me. I have fun writing both; my long-term readers like seeing characters that come back again and again (and, indeed, often request them in prompts), but new readers or passers-through seem to enjoy the one-offs more. No investment needed.

              • I guess thing is… flash fiction, being short, requires relatively much filling in by the reader. A fic written as a stand-alone uses things that are presumably known to most people to build on. The more a fic relies on knowledge of pre-existing universes to “work”, the less it works for new readers. (I’ve really noticed that with some fanfic I’ve seen which made no sense whatsoever to me because I was not familiar with the source material; it was apparently written for people for whom a name alone immediately called up the whole character.)

                • Yeah, I have a hard time reading fanfic for settings I don’t know. I see what you’re saying. Hrmm. Edited for way wrong icon.

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