#but would love to be romanced)

[weirdsociology]

hey writers we have to talk.

if you've read any romance or fanfic in the past twenty years (i know you have), you know that there are a certain number of scents associated with hot dudes. you can probably recite the list of Things Men in Fic smell like in your sleep: leather, black pepper, pine, sandalwood, "something uniquely him", clean sweat, and if the character has ever fucking been within 50 yards of a firearm, something called "cordite".

here's the thing.

NO ONE SMELLS LIKE CORDITE.

cordite was a highly specific type of smokeless gunpowder developed in the 1890s by england specifically and used mostly in wwi.

if your good-smelling guy is not (a) english (b) using a very specific type of british rifle (c) dying in a trench in flanders, he does not smell like cordite. technically even if he does meet all those conditions he still doesn't smell like cordite because he smells like trenchfoot.

the point is, cordite is so far from universal that no one but the most hardcore gun nerds give a single shit about it. making your Sexy Hero smell like cordite is like naming a cassette-only bootleg live recording from the 1970s as your favorite grateful dead album. everyone at the party hates you immediately and knows you're doing it for clout. also, it's just factually... wrong. please stop. i know everyone else is doing it, but you can do the right thing here, i believe in you.

so what do people who are using guns smell like?

well if your story is set before the late 1880s, the smell of a fired gun is black powder, which, unfortunately, smells like seventeen flatulent cows have been shoved in a tire factory. trust me, you do not want your Hot Dude to smell like black powder. it's b a d.

if your story is set after the late 1880s, guns are using some variety of modern 'smokeless' powder - which speaking broadly doesn't really have a ton of scent when used. it does have some, but it's sort of non-descript: the best way i can describe it is the sweet, ozone, hot-plate smell of popping your car hood with a warm engine.

people who use guns a lot don't smell like fired guns all the time anyway, so while those scents might work in a fight scene, they're not realistic all the time. but there are some things that your Sexy Shootist will smell like basically 24/7 and that's metal and gun oil. metal you can go and sniff (i recommend non-stainless steel), but if you want a reference, most gun oils have a sharp, organic smell that's not dissimilar to canola oil but muskier and with a tang overtop. it's not unlikely leather is in the mix as well due to routine handling of leather equipment and gear. modern gear also tends to have a certain smell although it varies by production country and storage conditions - lots of opportunities there.

in conclusion: gunslingers and hired killers and military folks can be sexy and smell great on page, but i am begging you not to say "cordite" when you mean "gunpowder" ever again. we can do this. we are writers and therefore pedants. i believe in us!

[rendevok]

Moon dance 🌕✨

[housederiva]

Very brave of the devs to say there is no poly romance option like whatever Spite and Lucanis are isn’t a package deal

[sherurose]

Where you go, I go. What you see, I see.

I know I'd never be me without the security of your loving arms keeping me from harm.

Put your hand in my hand and we'll stand.

Let the sky fall. When it crumbles, we will stand tall and face it all together.

arcane (2021) // pompeii casts // the queen of the damned: chapter 4, the devil's minion // the two maidens // hasanlu lovers // lovers of valdaro // skyfall - adele

[howtomakeyousee]

[myrkulitescourge]

the way that one line from the new epilogue in an astarion romance is going to HAUNT me

just. what a profoundly intense thing to confess to someone.

like, just these six months of newfound happiness with you exerts a force on his heart equal and in direct opposition to two centuries of endless torment, the gnawing hunger and exploitation. this flashbulb-bright fraction of his long life holds the same gravity to him as years upon years of darkness and suffering.

in all likelihood, he hasn’t even known his lover for as long as his worst memory lasted, that year sealed away to go mad from starvation and sensory deprivation, yet he still tells them this brief time has been so fundamentally and powerfully important that the weight of even that unimaginable hell is vanishingly small compared to this present he has now and the future ahead of them both.

how am i supposed to act normal about this.

[vaguely-concerned]

the strength it must have taken for illario to not immediately go full 'lmao since when have you even had a kiss hello lucanis' sibling violence mode during the café talk. inspirational. rook and lucanis really were doing all that right in front of his salad huh

[drolta]

“No! You’ll kill her, Sehkmet. You’ll kill Annette. I don’t care about the world. I don’t care if we live in eternal fucking darkness. Leave her alone. Leave Annette alone!”

[ozziyo]

dove's turn to take her love interest to the memorial gardens

(it's not that peaceful)

[pineflowerart]

Rook and their short dwarf gf

[dreamerdrop]

one thing i do find fun about garashir is that due to the schrödinger’s couple state they exist in throughout ds9, you can write about them getting together or having been together for ages and you can set it at more or less any point within the show and it can still be almost completely canon compliant with minimal changes.

[saccharind]

from Prokaryote Season by Leo Fox

[companionquest]

Really is fun how in other Dragon Age games bi companions were often written to not talk about past same-sex relationships (sometimes unless they’re being romanced in a Gay way (see for example: Anders discussing Karl)), while in Veilguard I’ve gotten banter from nearly every single companion about their past gay loves.

Frequent reminders that they’re not “Playersexual,” but textually and canonically queer!! It’s refreshing.

[hextechmaturgy]

icarus hades 2 is so funny to me. a character you don't even meet until you reach chamber 20 or 30-something of the SURFACE (which you can't get to at all until you're a few runs into the underworld) is the reason the protagonist is missing a limb. he's the person making the hammers melinoë's fated to utilize (because daedalus retired) but he's like hehe don't mention it, and just the fact that he shows up at all is hilarious because he just? got in the mood to fight in a war that involves gods and titans? you see heracles fighting around too but fighting is kind of his thing. icarus has wings, a few bombs and a crush, and damn if he's not gonna be doing some cool shit with that

[howtomakeyousee]

[krstsole]

Just wanna say that I think Ekko and Mel slander makes sense when you understand that 85% of the Arcane fandom views both of them as characters less worthy of fandom attention.

In their eyes, they are afterthoughts to more interesting relationships, so when someone in the 15% dares to give them anything outside of dutiful lamentations ("Mel and Ekko deserved better!"), they can't help but feel those analysis would be better suited for a character they *actually* like and so they lash out.

Fans of both characters have to constantly argue that these characters have loved and have been loved. They want Mel "independent" because she doesn't "need love" and they want Ekko focused on The Tree and the unnamed Firelights because they want it to be easier to carve both of them out of the interpersonal narratives that attaches fandoms to characters in the first place.

They want Mel and Ekko to "save the day" because they don't want their roles in the story to interfere with other characters that they like. Better for them to beat the Bad Guys™ than to be given more material that would validate their personal connections with other characters in ways that the fandom would prefer to ignore.

And the fact that Ekko and Mel are completely different characters who have never once interacted with each other and yet somehow both of them are being treated the same way with how the fandom constantly diminishes their relationships with the rest of the main cast leads me to believe that it does have something to do with the One Trait they do share.