#deconstructed - an arranged marriage mafia romance | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

snickertoodles · 4 years

Text

Megalist of Tropes and Themes to Tag Your Story With

If you’re prone to staring at your tags on AO3 wondering “what the hell do I put here?”, knowing you want to add a tag like “friends to lovers” or “found family” but not remembering all the popular tropes and themes everyone is into, this is for you. I basically spent an entire night on this so I hope it helps.

Notes:

I tried to keep it general and avoid really obscure tags no one would ever use.

This is made for AO3 and thus there’s a lot of fandom or fannish stuff in here.

I didn’t include any “inappropriate” tags. Feel free to make your own list.

Romance tropes and themes at the bottom. (Not all of them have to be romantic, but if they’re generally associated with romance and there are very few gen fics with that tag, it went there.)

Under cut because I’m probably going to edit this often and I’d like reblogs to be up to date. Please suggest any ideas you have.

Genre: Action, Adventure, Apocalypse/Post-Apocalypse, Contemporary, Comedy/Humor/Parody/Satire, Coming of Age, Crime, Cyberpunk/Steampunk, Drama, Dystopian/Utopia, Fairy Tale, Fantasy/High Fantasy/Low Fantasy/Urban Fantasy/Isekai, Family, Friendship, Gothic, Historical Fiction/Alternate History/Period Piece, Horror/Slasher, Mystery/Murder Mystery, Paranormal, Philosophical, Poetry, Romance, Slice of Life, Supernatural, Surreal, Suspense, Sci-Fi/Science Fiction/Space Opera, Spiritual, Thriller/Psychological Thriller, Tragedy, Urban, Western

Genre (Fandom): Angst/Light Angst, Case Fic, Crack Fic, Crossover/Fusion, Dark Fic, Fix Fic/Fix-It/Deconstruction, Fluff/Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Kid Fic, Podfic, Missing Scene/Gap Filler, Self-Insert, Shipping, Sickfic, Songfic, Whump

Length: Drabble, Ficlet, Flash Fiction, Short Story, Novella, Novel, Epic, One-Shot/Two-Shot/etc, Series/Duology/Trilogy/Saga/etc, Long, Short

Pairing: M/F - F/M - M/M - F/F - F/F/M - You get the idea. Also [Character] x [Character], Slash, Yaoi/Yuri (if people still use those...)

POV: POV Alternating, POV Multiple, POV First Person, POV Second Person, POV Third Person, POV Outsider

Ending: Happy Ending, Sad Ending, Bittersweet Ending, Ambiguous Ending

Diverse Characters: Gay Character/Nonbinary Character/Asian Character/Disabled Character/Autistic Character/Jewish Character/etc.

AU/Alternate Universe: (I do not have the time to list out Coffee Shop AU/High School AU/Canon Divergence/What-If/etc, I assume if you’re writing one then you already know to tag it lol)

Abuse

Adoption

Afterlife

Aftermath

Aged Up

Alcohol

Aliens

Amnesia

Androids

Angels

Animal Transformation

Anti-Hero

Awkwardness

Babysitting

Backstory/Origin Story

Band of Misfits

Best Friends

Betrayal

Blood

Bodyswap

Bodyguard

Bonding

Bounty Hunters

Bromance

Bullying

Canon Compliant

Character Development

Character Study

Childhood Friends

Children

Chosen One

College/University/Higher Education

Corruption

Criminals

Crying

Curses

Cute

Death

Delinquents

Demons

Depression

Destiny/Fate

Disability

Domestic/Curtainfic

Dragons

Dreams/Dreamscape

Drugs

Education

Ensemble Cast

Epilogue

Fanon/Headcanon

Father Figure/Mother Figure

Feelings

Feels

Fights

Flashbacks

Forgiveness

Found Family

Freedom Fighters

Frenemies

Future

Genderswap/Gender Change

Ghosts

Gods

Good Versus Evil

Gore

Grief/Mourning

Growing Up

Healing

Heartwarming

Heroes to Villains/Villains to Heroes

Holidays

Homesickness

Hospital

Hurt

I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping (A very legitimate tag.)

Imprisonment

Injury

Introspection

Illness/Sick Character

Immortality

Isolation

Jealousy

Kidnapping

LGBTQ/LGBTQ Character/LGBTQ Themes

Light-Hearted

Locked In

Loss

Love

Mafia

Magic

Magical Girl(s)

Major Character Death/Minor Character Death

Manipulation

Medieval

Medical

Melancholy

Mental Health Issues

Mentors

Merpeople

Mind Control

Military

Misunderstandings

Modern

Monsters

Morally Grey/Ambiguous Characters

Murder

Mythical Beings & Creatures

Mythology

Neighbors

Next Gen/Next Generation

Nightmares

Original Character/OC/OCs

Orphans/Orphanage

Out of Character/OOC

Parenthood

Past Lives

Peggy Sue

Pen Pals

Pirates

Platonic Relationships/No Romance

Platonic Soulmates

Plot Twists

Politics

Possession

Post-Canon/Pre-Canon/Mid-Canon/Bad Ending/etc.

Prompt Fill/Prompt Fic

Protectiveness

Rags to Riches

Rebels

Recovery

Redemption/Redemption Arc

Regret

Reincarnation/Resurrection/Rebirth

Rejection

Relationships

Religion

Rescue/Rescue Missions

Restaurants

Reunion

Revenge

Revolution

Rivalry

Road Trip

Robots

Roommates

Royalty

Sad

School

Secrets

Secret Identity

Self-Discovery

Self-Harm

Shapeshifting

Siblings

Single Parents

Slow Build

Soft

Spies

Spoilers

Substance Abuse

Suicide

Superheroes

Sweet

Sympathetic Villain

Teamwork

Team as Family

Team Bonding

Team Dynamics

Teenagers

Tension

Time Loop

Time Travel

Training

Trapped

Trauma

Travel

Undercover

Unreliable Narrator

Vampires

Villains

Violence

War

Weapons

Wedding

Wilderness

Witchcraft

Worldbuilding

xxx to Friends (Rivals to Friends/Enemies to Friends/etc.)

Zombies

ROMANCE TROPES

Battle Couple

Blind Date

Breakup

Confessions

Dating

Divorce

Dorks in Love

Drunken Confessions

Established Relationship

Eventual Romance

Falling in Love

Fake Relationship/Fake Dating/Pretend Relationship/Pretend Couple

First Kiss

First Love

Forbidden Love

Heartbreak

Idiots in Love

Long-Distance Relationship

Long-Term Relationship

Love/Hate

Love at First Sight

Love Confessions

Love Potion/Love Spell

Love Triangle

Marriage/Accidental Marriage/Arranged Marriage/Marriage of Convenience

Marriage Proposal

Mutual Pining/Pining

OTP

Pregnancy

Rarepair

Secret Relationship

Sharing a Bed

Slow Burn/Slow Romance

Soulmate/Soulmate AU

Tsundere/all of the other -deres

Unrequited Love/One-Sided Attraction

xxx to Lovers (Enemies to Lovers/Friends to Lovers/etc.)

#tagging #archive of our own #ao3 #tumblr #tropes #trope list #tag list #tag ideas #writing #writing resources #toodles talks

306 notes · View notes

ariannafraserwrites · 1 year

Text

Read the first two chapters of Deconstructed - An Arranged Marriage Mafia Romance!

You wanna read them? I’d love your input!!

When I went hunting a monster in the Black Forest of Germany, I discovered someone far more challenging than just the lunatic with an unusual diet. There was a girl, chained in his basement. When I tried to rescue her, she nailed me in the back of the head and escaped, leaving me with one hell of a migraine and really pissed off. Letting her get away? That's on me. She's the angriest girl I've ever met. She likes to run. Well, I like to chase. Aren't we a match made in hell? Because when I catch her, I'm keeping her. Deconstructed - An Arranged Marriage Mafia Romance contains dark themes and is for 18+ readers only.

Prologue

Cora…

It’s been three weeks.

I think.

I scratch a mark on the stone wall by the horrible little toilet in the corner every day. I don’t want him to see the marks, so it seems like the right place. He is fastidious - and there’s an irony - and would rather switch to a vegan diet than get near anything related to bodily functions.

He comes to see me every day. I think it’s every day though I can’t prove it. There are no windows in here, just stone walls, a stone floor, and the mattress in the corner opposite the toilet and sink. The single light bulb above me always stays on, a thing I’ve come to see as a privilege since I spent the first few days in the pitch black until He made me promise to behave.

I hear footsteps down the hall outside my metal door, and I steel myself, He’s coming.

The evil bastard.

The fucking troll.

Bringing fresh clothes and a little food and water, He smiles as if greeting me is the highlight of his day.

“Hallo kleines, little one,” He says fondly.

“Hello, Herr Schmidt,” I reply through my teeth, gritting them against the waterfall of obscenities that want to pour from me.

He smiles down at me fondly, just out of reach of the length of the chain attached to the floor and the manacle on my ankle. He made that mistake just once, coming within reach and the thick scabs down His left cheek and neck are still healing.

“And how did you sleep, kleines?”

“Quite well, thank you.” I almost gag as I say the words.

“Good, good!” He says warmly, “Because I have a surprise for you later. Why don’t you tidy up?” He chuckles at my expression and leaves, the steel door clicking shut behind him.

My legs are water and I fall to my knees, wrapping my arms around my midsection, pressing my forehead to the rough stone.

I will get out of here.

I will kill Him.

Chapter One

Dario…

“Soaring Eagle, are you in position?”

There was a click in my earpiece and an exhausted sigh. “Really, Dario?”

I chuckle, checking my ammo clip. “Stealth mission, brother. Refer to me as Big Daddy D.”

“I am not calling you Big Daddy D,” Yuri Morozov snarled.

“You just did,” I said gleefully. “Is your team in position?”

“Yes,” Yuri hissed, “west and south points. Also, I’m going to beat the shit out of you when this mission is finished.”

Shrugging, I said, “If it’s not to the death, it doesn’t count.”

“And you wonder why no one ever wanted to spar with you at the Ares Academy,” he said. “Perimeter alarm disabled.”

“Syncing time and coordinates…” I murmur, checking my digital readout.

Looking up at the six men with me, I remind them, “Extraction. Do everything you can to keep the target alive. He could be an invaluable source of information. The fucker’s not the only cannibal on the dark web, he can lead us to countless more, along with crucial information on where he’s sourcing these women.”

Cracking my neck, I look at the impenetrable forest around us. It’s midnight, and the trees soar up so high, they’re blotting out any light from the moon.

“You’re going to want to shoot this motherfucker in the gut when you see what’s inside.” Nodding to our newest team member, who is sweaty but determined, “Casey, you’ve got Carlos and Mikhal with you. Pull every scrap of data you can before we detonate the charges.”

“Why don’t we take this freak, but leave his little cannibal palace for the German Federal Intelligence Service?” Casey asks, “Schmidt needs to be exposed for the sick fuck he is.”

I chuckle mirthlessly. “Because a member of his fucked-up flesh eaters club is in the F.I.S. We just don’t know who. They’re more likely to find out about us if we leave anything behind.”

He nods rapidly. “Gotcha. Sound logic. Agreed.”

Putting my hand on his shoulder, I ask, “Can you do this?”

Casey snorts. “I’ve got your two best guys covering me. I’m wearing a badass tactical suit that makes me look like a ninja. Yeah. I got this. Really,” he insists when I raise my eyebrow, “I look fucking great in this tach suit.”

Yuri swore this guy was the best…

“On my mark,” I raise my hand, watching the digital readout. “Three… two… one…”

Clenching my raised hand into a fist, I fight back the tidal wave of adrenaline.

“Go!”

***

Left to my own devices, I would have blown the front of this motherfucker’s mansion clean off the foundations and swept through, shooting anyone who wasn’t his captive. My older brother Giovanni, the Don of the Toscano Mafia and the most boring asshole alive, insisted on the stealth approach.

“Schmidt’s notorious for booby-trapping the hell out of the forest for a 1,600-meter circumference of the house,” he’d warned me. “And once you get in, there’s a dozen failsafe options guaranteed to kill everyone he’s holding hostage. Take the time to plan this out.”

Smug bastard.

However, he was right. We took much longer than I wanted to, mapping the area to make a safe approach - this asshole had landmines and deadfalls seeded everywhere around his estate - but we’re finally here. Three trucks drop us off at the far perimeter wall and head for the pickup point by the main gate.

Between the Morozov Bratva and the Toscano Famiglia, we have twenty men here. Schmidt is not getting past us.

Racing quietly through the brush, I circle my hand over my head, spreading my men out around the house. This hellhole is in the middle of one of the most magnificent forests in the world, but there’s not a scrap of vegetation around it for several meters; just sterile concrete with pressure pads to alert him of anyone approaching. It is a black steel and glass monstrosity, three stories with a tower that soars nearly above the trees. Casey’s disabled the exterior surveillance cameras and we have exactly five minutes to get from the cover of the brush into the house before we’re spotted.

The dark glass surrounding the house actually gives it a closed-in, paranoid appearance, as if Schmidt is constantly watching for intruders in every direction.

I had seen him once at an auction to purchase young women. He has pale blue eyes, so pale they look like weak, skimmed milk.

Maybe I’ll start his questioning by plucking one of them right out of his skull, I think, grinning in a way that makes one of my own men flinch as he looks at me.

My team is going down to the lower level of the building, as Yuri’s men move upward, scaling the walls to enter through the roof. There’s a helicopter perched there, and I watch Yuri’s lieutenant wire an explosive charge to the engine.

There’s a faint click in my ear as Yuri murmurs, “There are three guards patrolling the roof and upper floor.”

“The intel shows he usually keeps ten here,” I said. “I’m sending my second team in to the garage to disable his cars. We took down two guards on the perimeter, with your three, there’s at least five unaccounted for. I’m heading into the basement now.”

“Good luck,” Yuri said grimly. I picked the lower level because we know any captives Schmidt keeps will likely be there.

“Remember,” I murmur into my team’s earpieces, “kill the guards quietly. If there are captives, we don’t want them screaming and alerting anyone. Our team’s job is to get them out safely. That is your first priority.”

Looking over my shoulder, I see their grim determination. We may be from the Famiglia, but there are far more evil fucks in this world than us. Most of these men have wives and children of their own, it’s too easy seeing the faces of the people we love when encountering the victims of monsters like Schmidt.

The massive steel door leading to the lower level is blast-proof, fireproof, and opened by a biometric scanner. Casey steps up and pulls up a handheld device. He’s created an AI version of Schmidt, with a perfect voice, fingerprint, and cornea match. He flashes me a grin when the indicator switches from red to green.

I pat him on the cheek and nod to his backup. “Keep him safe.”

They head up the stairs while I stare down the long hallway. The bright overhead fixtures send light reflecting off white enamel walls, floor, and ceiling and it’s almost blinding. There’s a lingering scent of hospital-level antiseptic and a feel of almost grotesque sterility. Ten doors stretch down the hall, five on each side.

“How many girls do you think Schmidt’s got here?” Lorenzo, my second, looks at me, his mouth tight with disgust.

I put my hand on his shoulder and shove him out of sight as two of Schmidt’s guards come clattering down the stairs.

“You think he would share,” one grumbles, “it’s not like he’s fucking them.”

Whatever his partner’s answer might have been is cut off as I end them both with a quick bullet. Looking up, I see the amber light blinking on the security camera. Good. Casey’s inserted a video loop, it will take fifteen minutes or so for anyone monitoring the security feed to spot the anomaly.

His next step is remotely disabling the biometric locks on each door. I take one side of the hall, and Lorenzo takes the other while our other men guard the stairs and entryway.

The first two rooms are empty, both grey stone rooms fashioned to look like a dungeon, right down to the chains bolted into the floors. The next door opens and Lorenzo’s breath leaves him in a sigh. “We’ve got one, but she must be gone. These injuries… there’s no way. I’ll check her vitals to be sure.”

Rooms four, five, and six are empty. Room seven is not.

“Ah, cazzo, fuck!” I hiss. “Edoardo, get in here! I think this one’s still alive.” He’s our medic, the horror on his face makes my heart clench as he pushes past me, kneeling by the mattress, picking up her limp hand to search for a pulse.

Rooms eight and nine hold the lifeless remains of this monster’s games, the stench of death not quite covered by the aggressive antiseptic smell from the hall. I’m at the last door in the nauseatingly white hallway and about to open the door when gunfire sprays down the stairs.

We all take cover, and I dive through door number ten.

“Sorry brother, you’ve got eight guards charging down to the basement,” Yuri’s voice crackles in my ear.

“Yeah, thanks for letting me know,” I snarl, shooting one of the new men wielding an AR-15, and then the one behind him. “Where did these fuckers come from?”

“Through the front gate,” he said grimly. “We must have missed one of the pressure sensors during the approach.”

“Get Schmidt and go,” I said. “Pull the charge off his helicopter and fly him out. You’ve got your pilot with you, yes?”

Yuri snorted, “Don’t waste your time getting noble on me now. We came in together, we leave together. Can you take out those eight?”

“Oh, yeah,” I assure him.

My men are barricaded in the doorways, shooting back at the newcomers as I shout into my headset, “Cover your ears!”

Whistling, I pull a flashbang grenade from my belt and hurl it down the hallway. The resulting shockwave of noise and light shorts out my earpiece, and I’m a little disappointed I can’t hear the screams of Schmidt’s men as my team mows them down.

As the gunfire dies down, I turn to sweep the room, rifle up and I see her.

Painfully thin, her ankle horribly bruised from her shackle, and enormous green eyes. Too wide, like a spooked horse.

I clicked on my headset again. “We have a survivor!”

Pre-order now... on Amazon September 1, 2023.

#Arranged marriage #Deconstructed - An Arranged Marriage Mafia Romance #Dario's one hell of a loose cannon #Organized crime romance

8 notes · View notes