kill. smile. cut it out for me this time.

quinn saying “and other ways” but not being able to publicly name those other ways makes me pretty certain that he’s alluding to something sexual. bert can be a really pushy aggressive person and i can totally see quinn having unsure feelings about whether what he experienced was assault for multiple reasons 1. quinn topping in that dynamic and being bigger than him and the fact that bert’s sexual advances towards him would never include quinn being penetrated so it wouldn’t really fall under his typical definition of “rape” which i think would be very hetero-centric and focused on unwanted penetration and 2. if you’re to believe with me that he and bert were having casual sex pretty often, while drunk or high, they wouldn’t be “asking for permission” to touch each other, lets say, nine or ten years into an intimate relationship.

i think quinn had very stereotypical masculine heteronormative (<- edit: better word) views of he and bert’s relationship wherein he saw himself as the Man and he saw bert as something akin to a girl because bert bottomed for him and bert was a lot smaller than him. quinn was absolutely strong enough to punch bert’s lights out but he couldn’t ever bring himself to hit him in the face (despite bert punching him in the face) and i think his view of their dynamic had something to do with that. i can see him having a very hard time admitting to himself that something like sexual coercion is abusive, like bert touching him and begging and not taking no for an answer. he was hesitant to Really Hurt Bert, and he had to be pushed very far to do so, so i can see him giving in to bert’s unwanted advances if the only way to get him to stop would be to like actually punch him or something. i also think there was a lot of emotional manipulation and guilt going on and a lot of very messy drunk sex where there was cheating and hurt feelings and fighting and it was just a disaster. that’s how i see it “really happening” in a non fanfic sense. and also i just have to make it clear: in these situations bert would not even have rapey intentions i just think he would feel entitled to quinn’s body and like they’re close enough that he doesn’t need to ask for permission. and then quinn would have those complicated feelings after of like “allowing him” to do it and getting off even though he wasn’t really in the mood and being strong enough to have stopped him so maybe it’s his fault. maybe it doesn’t really count.