#krembull

Krem week day 4 —Family / Love

For every bloody battlefield, we'll gladly raise a cup.

Krem, Bull’s left eye and his right hand. Krem, his lieutenant, the person he trusts to lead the Chargers in his absence. Krem, a fully grown ass man with a fucking maul, watered down to someone for The Iron Bull to baby and take care of. It’s transphobia flat out, the portrayal of a trans man as a helpless woman or a confused child who needs guidance from an older man.

There are twice as many fanfics on AO3 featuring Bull and fucking CULLEN paired together as there are featuring Krem and Bull (154 to 75). I think in any other situation, people would be all over the dynamic between a leader and their second in command, especially people with as much chemistry as Krem and Bull have. They’re comfortable with each other, they make fun of each other but are so clearly protective of one another. Reciprocally. Bull will give up his whole life for Krem and the Chargers. Krem is willing to risk his own life for Bull, believing to the last that Bull wouldn’t let him down. But the idea of Krem as a fully fledged adult who could be in any sort of relationship with the person he trusts most in the world seems unthinkable to a lot of people. Even if that relationship is a strong friendship between people on equal footing. Even that’s too much.

Two of Your Finest Vints - E, The Iron Bull/Krem/Dorian. Bull and Krem shared a platonic bond deeper than friendship. But when they met Dorian Pavus, they both realised they wanted him. Like sensible people, the only solution is to share.

Red Skies at Night - M, m!Hawke/Isabela/Merrill. After fighting a dragon, Hawke gets badly injured. Isabela takes her girlfriend Merrill to check in on her boyfriend. Also, t4t4t!!!

From Ferelden, With Love - G, f!Cousland/Nathaniel Howe/Anora. After all they've been through, they found their way back to each other. And despite it all, they still love.

I started and then chickened out on writing Krembull. This was ten years ago! I thought that writing erotica about a trans man was, out of my lane, you know? But I wanted to. So badly. The allure was there, so strong but it was like I couldn't look at it, like a spectre in the corner of the room, and if I looked at it, it would pounce on me and devour my whole life.

But I felt guilt, too. Guilt that the concept of being trans (because of course I would put myself deep in the Krem perspective to write it) turned me on. If being trans was just some sort of fetish thing for me, then I couldn't actually BE trans, could I? I was just on some freak shit.

Looking back now, I want to take my nascent GQ self and shake them. "If being trans thrills you, turns you on, then maybe that's because YOU ARE TRANS!"

But, that younger self would reply, if I put my thoughts about what it means to be a trans guy out into the world, someone might tell me that those imaginings were wrong. And if I don't know myself, and someone else says those imaginings are wrong well... how could I possibly be trans? Better just not to know. Better not to look the spectre in the eye, better to keep my life from turning inside out. Ridiculous to let this teetering sense of self be knocked over by feeling horny about one fictional trans man.

Anyway, all this to say, I'm older and wiser now. If you have come to your transness through writing or reading erotica, that makes complete sense to me.

Open Tent Policy [Explicit] [Krem/Bull] [1202 words]

Sometimes he's what they want, and other times he's what they need, and a lot of the time he's both. He doesn't mind, and he thinks he probably has a Tamassran streak in him, even if he'd been steered down another path.

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