@alyssa most english-speaking people conceive of sex as a largely private matter to be conducted with a certain level of discretion, so it can be jarring for a story to transition into it to quickly without first appropriately setting up that intimate context

i mean this largely linguistically: people expect sexual thoughts or actions to only be present in situations of an intimate character voice or narration, where a certain kind of “closeness” with the character in question is felt; even in a fic about blatant exhibitionism the camera is usually positioned close to the protagonist and with a limited perspective; rarely is it “wide-angle” or “from afar”

but a limited, narrow perspective doesn't suit the story i am working on now. so i need to negotiate how i want to work sex into it in a way which doesn’t feel jarring to people who aren’t used to frank discussions of arousal and sexual acts occurring in a more open context, and hopefully in a way which is still somewhat aesthetically appealing

@Lady that is indeed very much the opposite of my problem. i am writing in a close, intimate perspective, and i'm thinking that perhaps, although the protagonist is somewhat repressed when it comes to the targets of her sexuality (at this point), that might not also be the case about the bare fact of her being a sexual being.