(no subject)

[iniquiticity]

Anonymous asked
This question might not make sense but: can we still have a toxic ironflint relationship where Alex is being abused/manipulated by gwash when Alex is the dom and gwash is the sub? like I get alex's sub tendencies stem from his trauma but would dom ironflint Alex and sub gwash be feasible? I don't mean in terms of alex getting gwash to give in to his sexual desires but in terms of the sexual acts performed that are designated by dom sub roles

Do you mean this as Ironflint Washington as the ultimate power bottom?

I’m running under the assumption that’s the question you’re asking. If not feel free to clarify.

I don’t think that ironflint Washington could ever REALLY be a power bottom. This is not mean that i am not opposed to some NON-Ironflint evil washington/alex has unresolved mental illness situation where Washington IS a power bottom. I think it would be a super cool thing to address and I’d LOVE to read it. I realize that I actually say no to a lot of these “would ironflint washington….?” question, and that’s intentional because Ironflint Washington is a character of limits and control and while these limits have given him great power they also provide these enormous restrictions and hindrances to what he is TRULY capable of as a human. you can be an amazing capitalist but you’ll be completely lacking in other ways.

(please continue to ask me if ironflint washington would X.)

longer answer under ze cut.

I don’t simply don’t think that Ironflint Washington, among all other Washingtons, would ever make that leap. He could never trust anyone like that. You do have power as a sub. I don’t deny that! But the power is very different from the power you have as a Dom, and that power involves communication and vulnerability. In fact, Alex’s LACK of that power in canon ironflint - and this weird manipulative power that he has over Washington instead - is a huge chunk of what is so downright terrible about their sexual escapades.

I think that the leap that Washington would have to take to acknowledge a more healthy sub power would just be almost impossible. It would be more difficult to have a relationship that was as dangerous and manipulative and unhealthy and awful as Ironflint Wham if Washington was the sub, and I think the dynamic that is currently occurring with ironflint wham where Alex manipulates Washington into sexual depravity would be really hard to switch up. (I would love to read any tries at it.)

I do think there’s ONE exception and that would be that far in the future of the worst are filed with passionate intensity (heed tags), Washington and Lafayette are both out of jail, and they still fuck, and Lafayette is one of his senior advisors, and at some point washington has what is nominally an epiphany about that Lafayette serves him completely unquestionably and hungers for/wants/desires Washington to do all this weird shit to him and this powers him and makes him more devoted, but also stronger. washington might be curious about that strength that it brings lafayette and ask him about it. They could try something there. Washington knows Lafayette is so completely devoted that so much trust wouldn’t be required. So maybe you could have noncanon sub washington with ironflint washette, but this wouldn’t happen with wham.

Another reason I think this would be really difficult is there’s no way Ironflint Washington stumbles upon sub power before he stumbles upon Dom power, and it would be hard for him to leave Dom power once he knew it. He would have to sit down for a VERY long time and think about how sub power is basically worth giving up Dom power. I think that he’s too weak - and he’s too obsessed with his very particular type of control, and shallow and evil about it in the way that Alex notes mostly in interior decorator - for him to ever really be a power bottom. Because (as Alex has done), there is A LOT of power and strength in being a bottom. You learn a lot of different things about people. You control them, which of course is what Washington wants, in the end. But I just think that Washington isn’t - maybe self-actualized is the word? or a victim of his own ruthless, straightforward evilness and capitalism? - to both acknowledge and then internalize that process.

I don’t think that Washington could ever really accept or understand that the power a sub has is a real power because it isn’t equal to the actual events that are occurring. in his mind, having power over someone could never be being hit or fucked. These things are inherently and overwhelming submissive actions - you are relinquishing power. This is because he has a limited understanding of what power means, despite how much of it that he’s collected. (Another result of his limited understanding of power is how Alex is able to pretty easily manipulate him through sex. )

So. Probably not feasible in ironflnt. probably feasible in other situations that i would read the fuck out of. but being a power bottom is a whole different kind of control and power, and that power is intrinsically linked to vulnerability (alex also fails at this power, you’ll notice), and washington would never really be able to access that power because he views other humans as resources, and that’s a key element of his character.