#except instead of them being forced together it’s more of a mutually consent thing from both parties

[hiddensneker]

I depend on you

Kai and anacondrai curse for my anacondkai au!!!

Inspired by the twitter meme!

[bunnygirlkate]

Truth or Dare: Tokoyami x reader

Genre: Fluff (but with sexually suggestive themes)

~1.9k words

Setting: you're in the UA dorms with the rest of your classmates just hanging around, watching videos, playing cards, etc. It's after dinner but too early for bed.

"Guuuyysss! I'm so boorrreeddd" groans Mina. I wanna play a game, something we can all play!

"I'm down for a game, what should we play?" asks Sero. "How about truth or dare?" says Mineta, with an eyebrow raised and that annoying sexually suggestive tone in his voice. Tsu, Ochaco, and Jiro scoff at him, knowing he's thinking something perverted. "Actually… that’s not a bad idea, it could be fun" Mina says. Mineta nods and smirks. He's about to say something but Ochaco jumps in first:

"I’m fine with that, but only if we play a pg-13 version…". 

Everyone in the common area shrugs in agreement, with the exception of Mineta who looks defeated.

 "I'm not usually one to take part in such social games, however, I've got nothing better to do since Shoji and I ran out of card games. I shall join just this once" says Tokoyami.

You like the idea of playing truth or dare, but you're a little nervous. You have a secret crush on Tokoyami. You two have been in the same class for a while but it wasn’t until recently that you started developing a crush on him after you two were paired up for an assignment. To avoid any awkwardness, you try to hide your feelings from him and your other classmates. You're afraid of someone asking you a truth or daring you to do something that would make you look foolish in front of him. Nevertheless, you join the circle with your classmates to play the game. Since there was so many of you (pretty much the whole class), the circle was fairly big.

"Alright" Mina says, clapping her hands together once to get everyone's attention. "Here's how we'll do this… I'll be the host, which means that I'll be asking the questions or giving out dares, but you're welcome to speak up if you come up with a really good truth or dare for someone. Once you receive your truth or dare, you must go through with it! No changing your mind or chickening out! And as Ochaco said before, everything has to be pg-13." Everyone glares at Mineta and Denki who are sitting next to each other in the circle, quietly plotting loopholes through the pg-13 rule. Everyone then nods in agreement to the rules.

Mina goes around the circle asking each person "Truth or Dare" first is Ochaco. She picks truth and Mina asks her who she thinks has the lamest quirk in the class. She's reluctant to respond in fear of hurting anyone's feelings, but eventually she reveals that she thinks Aoyama's quirk is the lamest. Mina quickly goes through Hagakure, Momo, Iida, and Jiro, who all pick truth. She gets to Denki and he's the first to be brave enough to pick dare. Before Mina can talk. Jiro asks her if she can offer the dare.

"Denki, I dare you to… charge my phone!" everyone laughs while Denki, looking very unamused, takes her phone and cord to charge it.

Bakugo is next and of course he picks dare. Instead of making him do something stupid, Mina dares him to 'smile like he means it'. Bakugo is irritated by the boring request and gives a sheepish, forced smile. "Jeez dude, is like you’ve never smiled before…" says Denki, with the phone cord still in his mouth. "shut up, phone charger! I know how to smile! … I just don’t want to". Responds Bakugo, muttering under his breath toward the end. Everyone lets out a soft chuckle.

Its Shoto's turn now and he chooses truth. Again, another student besides Mina offers up a question. 

"I got one for ya, Todoroki" says Denki. "you have to answer honestly. I'm sure we've all been wondering this… do the curtains match the drapes?"

"Hey! That’s not pg-13" yells Mina.

"It’s not like I’m asking him to show us!" says Denki! "It’s just a yes or no question." he smirks. 

"Fine, I'll allow it" says Mina as she crosses her arms.

Shoto stares at Denki for a few moments then responds "I don’t think I understand the question" 

"I believe he is asking about the interior design of your home." says Iida.

"No man, he's asking if the color of your pubes matches the hair on your head" explains Kirishima. 

Shoto blushes slightly and looks down to the floor. "I don’t know why you'd want to know that, but since I'm required to respond truthfully… my pubic hair is mostly white… I think there's a few strands of red hair" he says, still looking at the floor and rubbing his neck with his hand. 

"That was a bit more truth then I was asking for, but okay!" says Denki. 

Shoto looks around the circle to see averted eyes and slightly blushed cheeks (mostly from the girls).

-----------------------------------------

Mina goes through a few more classmates before she gets to you. "Truth or Dare, Y/N?" 

"I'll try a dare" you say, after seeing that the previous dares weren't so bad and the truths were getting a bit to invasive for you.

"Sure thing, but I gotta be honest, I’m getting bored of my own prompts" Mina says, throwing in a fake a yawn. "I'm gonna give you something a little more…interesting." she says with a devilish look on her face as she stares you right in the eyes. 

Your brow starts to sweat as you become anxious at what she may ask you to do. "Y/N, I dare you… to kiss . your. crush. " she says, spacing out the words and saying them in a slightly melodic fashion.

Your face turns beet red as you realize, not only is she asking you to kiss someone (let along the person you like!), but she's also asking you to reveal your feelings to him and everyone watching. You look at her, your mouth open in surprise. 

"You have to do it! It’s in the rules!" Mina says. 

You look down at your lap, still beet red. "I know, I know" you respond. 

You pick your head up and purposely avoid eye contact with Tokoyami, who is sitting across from you in the circle. You and your classmates sat there in silence as you tried to figure out how you were going to do this in a way that was least awkward as possible. 

You finally say "Okay, I’ll do it. But I need everyone to close their eyes, actually, cover them with your hands too so I know nobody’s peeking. While your eyes are closed I'll walk over to the person and sit in front of them. Then I'll tell you when you can look… and that’s when I'll… kiss them…". 

You look around and everyone expresses understanding in some way. Some nod, some give a thumbs up, some say ok. You make sure everyone's eyes are covered. Before you stand up to make your way over to him, you look at Tokoyami covering his eyes with both hands, sitting cross legged, slightly slouched over. So many thoughts rush through your mind as you admire him from afar.

'I can’t believe I’m about to do this. He’s so cute. How do I kiss a beak? What if he doesn’t like me? What if he thinks it’s weird that I have a crush on him!? Oh my god I can’t do this. Ugh. No. I just have to get this over with'

You finally stand up, making your way over to Tokoyami slowly and quietly so that your classmates can’t use their other senses to try and guess where you are. You quietly sit down in front of him, trying to keep your breathing light so he doesn’t sense you're there until your ready. You look at him with his eyes still covered, admiring his appearance up close. You want him to know you're there before everyone else sees. So before you tell everyone to open their eyes, you gently reach up to touch his hands that are resting on his face. His hands twitch slightly, probably because he's surprised that his hands are being touched, or surprised that your sitting in front of him. 

You take his hands into yours and move them away from his face. He opens his eyes, blinking a few times, his beak slightly gaped open. He looks you in the eyes, they're wide with surprise. Your face is still red, but you offer him a small smile. 

"Ok, you all can open your eyes now" you say.

Everyone eagerly looks toward the direction of your voice. Some look surprised, others express a mix of joy and awe. "I knew it!" Mina exclaimed. 

'So this was just a set up, huh?' You think to yourself. 

Tokoyami clears his throat "Y/N, you must be mistaken, I think you’ve got the wrong person…" he says. A bit of confidence flowed through you as you said

"No, I think I've got just the right guy.”

Someone in the circle begins chanting. "kiss, kiss, kiss!" Your eyes meet his again, silently asking for consent. Tokoyami nods to express consent, though still looking surprised. Your hand reaches up to caress and hold underneath of his beak (where his chin would be). As your face moves closer and closer to his, you both close your eyes, and you plant a firm yet gentle kiss on the tip of his beak. It was a bit more then than a peck, lasting about 3 seconds. Everyone cheers.

You end the kiss and take your hand away from his face. Tokoyami looks a bit flustered, its difficult to see him blushing, but you notice that the base of his beak is a bit brighter and slightly more orange. "I'm truly honored, Y/N" Tokoyami says in his deep voice. You give him another small smile, then make your way back to you empty spot on the other side of the circle.

The game goes on, you and Tokoyami share glances every now and then as other students answer their truths or perform their dares. Once Tokoyami's turn came around, he chose truth. 

"Tell us Tokoyami, who do you have a crush on?" asks Mina.

You were partially excited for him to say he has a crush on you, but you were also prepared to have your heart broken. There were so many other people at this school, he could have a crush on any one of them, and you two only had one true close interaction a few weeks ago.

"Well…" Tokoyami started "I'm not really the type to possess a crush on someone, but ever since I got to this school there's someone I've had my sights on". 

You listen with anticipation as he drags out his answer.

"and now I've realized that the feeling is mutual". He says, finishing his statement and giving you a short and flustered glance. 

Your heart filled with joy, although he didn’t directly answer the question by saying your name, you know he was talking about you. Many others in the circle didn’t understand, thus sitting in silence and confusion. Suddenly, Dark Shadow pops out and yells "He likes Y/N!" the class cheers for both of you again as you sit on opposite sides of the circle looking equally happy and embarrassed.

Authors Note: This is my first time writing anything like this, actually my first time writing fiction! I hope it’s acceptable.you can give feedback if you’d like.

[phoenixyfriend]

Vader Tries to Help

People encouraged me to share the dead dove concept! Yay! It’s a horrible concept with an undertone of comedic absurdity in the sense that you keep waiting to see what awful, incredibly stupid thing Vader is going to do next. Like it’s horrifying but it’s also very dumb.

By moving forward into the fic, you acknowledge that this is intended to be dark and liable to be upsetting, and that you are taking responsibility for your own engagement with the material.

This AU was helped along on discord by several parties but tbh I’m not sure how many of them actually want to be named.

Warnings: Mutual Extremely Dubious Consent (forced by a third party), drugging, irrational behavior (Vader), nonconsensual body modification, forced pregnancy, imprisonment, threatened torture of a child (not followed through on)

----------

Vader captures Obi-Wan a few years into the Empire. Because Vader is Anakin, but even worse on the emotional bullshit, he decides that he needs to keep Obi-Wan safe but harmless. Vader also got Luke in the whole 'capturing Kenobi' situation, so part of what Vader's thinking about all this is that Obi-Wan tried to protect The Baby and so Vader kind of owes him, obviously.

Palpatine lets him keep Obi-Wan "safe," because threatening Obi-Wan is a convenient way to make Vader shut up and do what he's told. Palpatine can kind of tell that threatening the toddler would make Vader lose his shit and attempt to kill good ol' Palps, so threatening the middle-aged depressed alcoholic being kept in Vader's guest room with Force-nullifying cuffs is pretty good. It's an additional layer of emotional torture on top of the electrocution of Vader himself!

Vader has Obi-Wan taking care of Luke, mostly, because Vader has Obligations and A Job, and Obi-Wan wouldn't hurt Luke, duh. He might try to escape with the kid, but he won't be successful, and Obi-Wan will definitely put Luke's safety first, so that probably won't happen.

This is all fairly normal for a variety of AUs, granted, and not very dark.

But see, Obi-Wan behaves. He's aware of how tenuous the situation is for him and his charge, so he plays nice. And Vader decides to reward that.

By giving him Cody.

There's an implied thought process there that Obi-Wan was fond of Cody, and Cody was fond back, and now that the Jedi aren't around, they can follow through instead of worrying about some silly Code. Vader's nullified the orders to kill all the Jedi, of course, possibly dosed their food with an aphrodisiac so they don't try to talk themselves out of What They Obviously Want.

Now, we’re going to make it a little darker, because why not make things worse by having Vader try to make things better?

Vader somehow twisted himself around to encouraging them to have a baby. This is accomplished through a combination of Sith Magic and nonconsensual surgery, and lots of questionable drugs.

Obi-Wan just wakes up in a hospital bed with a womb one morning, and is informed of the surgery then and there, after it’s already happened. The droid telling him about it is just like "in the Lord Vader's infinite kindness--" and Obi-Wan just.

Anakin.

What the fuck.

What in the actual fuck made you think this was a good idea.

(The Sith Chemicals, probably.)

I feel like Palpatine would maybe even order the pregnancy induction just to torture them by proxy because that's like eight levels of Fuck No and he barely has to do anything except tell Vader that he'd like to see what kind of children a Jedi Master like Obi-Wan has.

Luke needs friends, doesn't he?

Obi-Wan is having some very complicated emotions about all of this because Vader is, in his own absolutely insane way, trying to help.

Anakin wanted babies and Padme wanted babies so clearly, if Obi-Wan and Cody are in love, then they also want babies!

Cody and Obi-Wan very well might not be in love. Anakin definitely could have misinterpreted. It’s probably more angsty if they're just friends who ended up in this bullshit together.

(He's taking baby fever to new and somewhat horrifying heights, because... he would adore Obi's kids.)

(His family button is suprisingly large for a mass murderer.)

Vader Kindly Informs Bail That Obi-Wan Is Alive And Unharmed. Bail was a friend of Obi-Wan's, telling him this is only helpful and will keep Alderaan from getting more rebellious out of personal insult. Obviously.

Vader is almost offended when Bail implies he might hurt Obi-Wan. He kept his son safe, he owes him. Speaking of, don’t you have a child? How old is she, again? It would be Good for her to make friends, wouldn’t it? :)

Palpatine is just like... sitting back and eating evil popcorn as Vader runs around, ruining people's lives by trying to be less of The Worst than before.

Palps barely has to do anything, Anakin's fucking it up on his own!

Could have been just a sly "Kenobi is so attached to young Luke, but now that you've been reunited with your son, perhaps he'd be happier with a child of his own?" Come at it from both "make Obi-Wan happy" and "protect your relationship with Luke" angles.

Vader: I can't have babies anymore due to what you did to me on Mustafar. Obi-Wan: So you're punishing me by forcing me to have them instead? Vader: No! Children are a gift that you have been cruelly denied by the Order that held us in its chains! Obi-Wan: ...oh, right, you're insane. Forgot about that. Somehow.

Big dramatic speech about how the Jedi Order spent so long making them take lives, he’s giving Obi-Wan a chance to create it! To put something good and bright into the world!

Poor Cody is like. "General, I am very fond of you but I'm having a million panic attacks at the same time because of the mind control, and also Vader is under the impression that we're in love and I need to be your stud? I wasn't aware you could have children--" "I can't. Or at least, I couldn't, but Anakin is... creative." "...what."

I don't want to actually objectify Cody in the narrative past the point that Obi-Wan himself is, because nnnnngh racism and clone stuff, so I'm going to say Cody was in love with Obi-Wan, and would have been okay with at least discussing the whole baby schtick if not for the absolutely horrible circumstances.

Like if the war had ended normally, and Obi-Wan had expressed a desire to retire, unlikely as that was, then Cody may have suggested a dinner, and they could have gotten married and then eventually adoption...

(Cody had a lot of fantasies he didn’t let himself think about too hard.)

But no. It's this... weird Vader-inspired bullshit.

I'm just so invested in Vader trying to help but making things legitimately a million times worse.

He wants to help :) Oh god, he wants to help.

Why aren't people more appreciative of how hard I'm helping them? - the Anakin Skywalker story

With less time to stew and also getting handed what he wants, Vader could absolutely flip on a dime the second he saw Luke being protected, and go from “I hate you” to remembering that Obi-Wan said he loved him, and now he must keep Obi-Wan safe out of debt and he just... he’s playing house. 

Vader throws Obi-Wan a baby shower after the pregnancy is confirmed. Bail is invited, because Obi-Wan doesn't have a lot of friends still alive. Vader decides Bail is top of the Obi-Wan’s Friends List.

This is the first time they've seen each other in two years. Obi-Wan is heavily pregnant despite Bail knowing full well he didn't have the plumbing for that before the Empire rose. Cody is there and emotionally exhausted but more lucid than most troopers. Luke is running up to Leia because New Friend!!!

....there may be MORE of the 212th and 501st at the baby shower, with “kill all Jedi” orders revoked, of course. But it will keep the children safe!! And Cody and Obi-Wan can see their surviving friends!!

Cody: I'd be much happier to see my surviving troopers if they didn't all still have chips in their heads. Obi-Wan: I feel much the same. Vader: [404 error]

Bail and his family might be there at blaster point, but aren't you happy to see them, Obi-Wan??

Obi-Wan's endless trauma is honestly somewhat curtailed by the incessant need to facepalm at Vader’s bullshit

Obi-Wan and Cody both outwardly have a very "there are much worse people I could be stuck with in this situation but obviously I wish I'd had a choice, no hard feelings" attitude at each other.

Internally, Cody is suffering because this is NOT how he wanted his crush to be realized, and Obi-Wan is just suffering, period.

Cody: How did he even choose which of us ends up pregnant? Obi-Wan: He thinks I need to be protected, and that he needs to keep me safe. Cody: ...he does realize that you're better at-- Obi-Wan: Cody, he's completely lost it. No! He doesn't realize!

I feel like over the course of the year or two this plot unravels towards Palpatine getting murder-deposed and Anakin getting locked down, part of the driving force to Vader not being Vader anymore is that Luke actually really loves Uncle Obi and always starts fussing and going "Ben's sad" whenever Vader dismisses what Obi-Wan wants in favor of what Vader thinks Obi-Wan wants, and Vader can't deny his child anything.

Luke cries because Palpatine Feels Wrong like, once or twice, and Anakin goes “oh, okay, assassination time.”

[inkmyname]

The Ember Island Players: performing toxic masculinity and narrative complicity in propagating misogyny

Initially I wasn’t going to respond to concerns about Katara’s racist/misogynistic portrayal in the Ember Island Players with anything more than snarky tags, but apparently I can’t keep my mouth shut, so I’m posting my response as a standalone meta about how the writers’ insistence on creating drama for drama’s sake leads them to--in lieu of actual character development--fall back on lazy narrative shortcuts whereby a performance of toxic masculinity against a gendered heternormative background is used to create tension in a romantic relationship, presumably with the goal of keeping the audience invested.

The Ember Island Players is problematic for a lot of reasons, not least of which is the pervasive tone-deaf misogyny, including racialized misogyny, directed at Katara. There’s a lot of meta on this, so I’d like to focus on something different: Aang’s relationship with gender and romantic attachments.

Aang seems so uncharacteristically chagrined the whole episode: “I’m not a woman!” Based on his previous characterization up to this point:

The Fortuneteller. This is the same Aang who makes a necklace for Katara when she loses her mother’s. Observe how he responds to Sokka’s jibe about jewelry-making, which can be seen as a feminine pursuit: Sokka: Great, Aang. Maybe instead of saving the world, you can go into the jewelry-making business. Aang: I don’t see why I can’t do both. Femininity isn’t presented as being mutually exclusive with narrative pursuits like saving the world which have traditionally centered male protagonists (especially if we take the entire canon of anything every written in any genre that’s not specifically, say, something like shoujo or jounen which are directed and young girls and women, the narrative focus on male personalities is overwhelming).

The Warriors of Kyoshi. Oh, and this is the same Aang that dressed up in full Kyoshi gear, kabuki makeup and all, without complaint. Why would he? After all, she was him in a past life. (There’s a whole meta here about gender-critical analysis of kabuki productions where male actors typically assumed female roles and how Avatar both takes inspiration from this real-life kernel and subverts it in Rise of Kyoshi where Kyoshi’s signature look is not only an homage to her parental heritage but also a reimagining of who can inhabit what roles. Her legacy, though imperfect, is also notably feminist, taking face paint worn typically by men IRL and expanding it into war paint for women warriors.) (There’s also great headcanon-adjacent meta here about gender non-conformity and non-binary identities in Avatar. Avatar was not overtly explicit about its feminist or gender-progressive mindset outside of episodes like The Warriors of Kyoshi or The Waterbending Master, but it was still way ahead of its time. If anyone was to be presented or headcanoned in such a way, it would be the Avatar who’s lived a thousand lives, inhabiting a thousand skins and a thousand identities, including gender identities. There’s also cool crossover meta here about the Legend of Korra depicting a female Avatar in Korra with masculine tendencies and visible muscle vs Aang as a male Avatar with a gentler pacifistic spirit and gender nonconforming tendencies.)

The Cave of Two Lovers. Aang wears a freaking flower crown and is generally wholesome and adorable, even leading up to the “let’s kiss lest we die” scene with Katara. He’s not pushy or overly concerned with appearing masculine and it is in fact Katara who suggests the kiss and Aang makes a fool of himself. From the transcript: Katara [Shyly, blushing.] Well, what if we … kissed? Aang [Very surprised.] Us … kissing‌? Katara See? It was a crazy idea. Aang [Dreamily.] Us … kissing … Katara [Fake-jokingly.] Us kissing. What was I thinking? Can you imagine that‌? Aang [Fake-jokingly.] Yeah. [Awkwardly laughs.] I definitely wouldn’t want to kiss you! [Beat.] Katara [Insulted.] Oh, well! I didn’t realize it was such a horrible option. [Angrily.] Sorry I suggested it! Aang [Realizing his mistake.] No, no, I mean … if there was a choice between kissing you and dying … Katara [Disgusted.] Ugh! Aang [Desperately.] What? I’m saying is I would rather kiss you than die - that’s a compliment. Katara [Enraged.] Well, I’m not sure which I’d rather do! [Slams the torch into his hand and storms away.] Aang [Miserably.] What is wrong with me … Aang, sweetie, this is not what you say to a girl you want to kiss, but generally, this is Wholesome™ and narratively, this is Good™. Eventually, they do kiss and that’s perfectly acceptable because there’s a whole conversation beforehand with humorous romantic framing. There’s consent and communication and initiative by the female protagonist. So solid A on the sensitive writing.

General Air Nomad culture. We don’t get a lot of Air Nomad culture in the show (and what little we do get what presented in such a misguided way, especially the whole commitment to forgiveness/pacifism which was handled in such an amateur black-and-white way from a writing perspective in season 3). But I digress. I really, really don’t think that Air Nomads who were so concerned with the spiritual side of bending and general existence had stringent notions of gender and romantic relationships–at the very least, they had very different notions of these issues compared to, say, the Northern Water Tribe. Canonically, even though AN philosophy emphasized detachment, Air Nomads practiced free love. Same-gender romance was freely accepted unlike in the homophobic Earth Kingdom (which even Kyoshi, a bisexual woman, wasn’t able to change) and the militant Fire Nation (Sozin outlawed homosexuality after declaring world war, essentially). And though the temples were gender-segregated, it seems that the burden of raising children fell to the entire community instead of just the women. Both male and female Air Nomads are revered. In the case of the former, Guru Laghima who unlocked the power of flight through achieving complete detachment from the material world. And in the case of the latter, Avatar Yangchen, who has statues everywhere because she came to be revered as a deity not just among Air Nomads but in the physical world in general. Nowhere in Air Nomad philosophy is the concept of gender, romance, love, sexuality, relationships etc. etc. tainted with jealousy and possessiveness (especially towards women) or rigid binary heternormativity.

So this was Aang for the better part of the first half of the series. Not overly concerned with gender roles. Pretty much fumbling his way through his first crush like a lovesick puppy and it’s all very wholesome. Supposedly a classic product of Air Nomad upbringing.

Meanwhile, Aang in EIP:

Checks out Katara’s butt as she’s sitting down.

Gets mad at being portrayed by a woman.

Accuses Katara of being the racialized misogynistic version of herself depicted on stage ([sarcastically]“Yeah, that’s not you at all.”).

Nods in agreement when the misogynistic stage production of Katara presents her as the “Avatar’s girl.”

Unable to differentiate between fiction and reality and puts the onus on Katara to do the emotional labor to justify something she never said (”Katara, did you really mean what you said in there? On stage, when you said I was just like a … brother to you, and you didn’t have feelings for me.”)

Assumes they would just… fall into a relationship… just because he forcibly kissed her at the invasion and again pressures Katara to do the emotional labor to justify why their relationship is not how he wants it (“But it’s true, isn’t it? We kissed at the Invasion, and I thought we were gonna be together. But we’re not.” / “Aang, I don’t know.” / “Why don’t you know?”)

Forces a non-consensual kiss on her even though “I just said I was confused!”

So, there’s so many things wrong with this, most of which are a laundry list of behaviors typical of toxic masculinity:

Ogling

Outdated misogynistic humor (what’s wrong with being a woman?)

Verbal abuse

Offloading emotional labor

Gaslighting

Pressuring a potential romantic partner

Lack of direct communication about romantic desires

Lack of sensitivity

Lack of active listening

Lack of emotional intelligence and empathy

Lack of consent and sexual assault

I could go on and on.

My question is Where and when did he learn these toxic behaviors? What happened to the wholesome boy making necklaces, wearing flower crowns, and generally being adorable in a kid with a first crush kind of way when it comes to romance?

Now, you can argue that EIP players Aang has been through a lot, including being shot by lightning and actually dying, and after the failed invasion, he’s stressed out with the weight of the world on his shoulders and maybe not expressing himself or his desires in the best way and taking out all of his frustrations on Katara.

Except… that is all just conjecture because the actual writing of the show doesn’t put in the hard work and make those connections. Instead, they fall back on misogynistic tropes and toxic heternormative romance tropes and a forced love triangle subtext and they just, to put it politely, fuck it up, two and a half seasons’ worth of work, gone, in the space of one episode. And even if it weren’t conjecture, it would still be wrong of Aang to act the way he did.

Let’s list Aang and Katara’s interaction in relation to each other in season 3:

The Headband. “Don’t worry about them. It’s just you and me right now,” Aang says as he pulls Katara into a dance. I have qualms about the writing of this episode: the creators wasted a golden opportunity to flesh out the Air Nomad genocide because they were too busy playing footloose in a cave, they wrote Katara–the same Katara would said fuck you to Pakku, freed enslaved earthbenders from a Fire Navy prison, and became a spirit goddess ecoterrorist to help a village in an enemy nation–as uncharacteristically shy just so Aang could sweep in and pull her into a dance. But like fine, whatever. It’s cute and really well-chreographed and there’s actually appropriate romantic framing here for once and at the end of the dance, look at Katara’s face–she’s happy! Positive Kataang interaction, and I don’t actually mind it. 7/10.

The Day of Black Sun Pt.1. He forces a kiss on her on the mouth, taking her completely by surprise. A chaste kiss on the cheek and a wistful pining last look and “Be safe” might have been acceptable, but given Katara’s shocked and uncomfortable body language, the kiss on the mouth was not. Worse yet, the show just… forgets… to follow up on it for several episodes and when it’s brought up again, it’s used as a sledgehammer to punish Katara for not magically being with Aang. 0/10.

The Painted Lady. Let’s look at the transcript: Katara [Using a disguised voice.] Well, hello Avatar. I wish I could talk, but I am very busy. Aang Yeah, me too. I hate that. [Looks at Katara’s face from behind the veil.] You know, you’re really pretty, for a spirit. I don’t meet too many spirits, but the ones I do meet, not very attractive. [Looks at Katara suspiciously. Tries to look under the hat.] Katara [Giggles nervously.] Thank you, but- Aang You seem familiar too. Katara A lot of people say that. Aang [Suspicious.] No, you really seem familiar. Katara Look, I really should get going. [Covers her face and runs, but Aang uses his airbending and blasts her hat up into the air, exposing her.] Aang Katara? Katara [Guiltily.] Hi, Aang. Aang [Shocked.] You’re the Painted Lady? [Pointing at Katara.] But how?Katara I wasn’t her at first, I was just trying to help the village. [Takes her hat off.] But since everyone thought that’s who I was anyway, I guess I just kinda became her. [Drops her hat on the ground.] Aang So you’ve been sneaking out at night? Wait, is Appa even sick?Katara He might be sick of the purple berries I’ve been feeding him, but other than that he’s fine! Aang I can’t believe you lied to everyone, so you could help these people. Katara I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t have … Aang [Happily.] No, I think it’s great! You’re like a secret hero! Katara Well, if you wanna help, there’s one more thing I have to do. Aang gives her a curious look. Cut to the Fire Nation factory. Aang and Katara run along the river’s edge toward it. Aang looks at the polluted water. Aang You wanna destroy this factory? Katara Yes. Sokka was just kidding, but he was right. Getting rid of this factory is the only way to help these people permanently. He helps her blow up the Fire Nation smelting plant! Yes, he does call her pretty, but more importantly, this is one of the few times he acknowledges her faults (lying, deception, putting the mission at risk to help the enemy nation etc.) and still thinks she’s so fucking cool. He calls her a secret hero! There’s a lot of admiration and support here from Aang. He’s raising up Katara (instead of putting her down as in EIP) not because he sees her as a potential love interest but because he admires her and her compassion! This is great. Solid wholesome Kataang interaction. 10/10. But all good things must come to an end…

The Southern Raiders. I’m not going to spend too much time on this because there’s a million pieces of meta on this episode. He’s completely out of line asking Katara to be forgive her mother’s killer, the source of her greatest trauma as a victim of targeted ethnic cleansing. Given that he’s a victim of ethnic genocide himself, although he personally wasn’t there for it/didn’t actually witness it unlike Katara, he should have understood. He does say “You need to face this man,” which is good and supportive and he should have stopped there, because he continues on to say, “But when you do, please don’t choose revenge. Let your anger out, and then let it go. Forgive him.” Stop. Stop stop stop. No one should tell a traumatized victim of ethnic cleansing how to deal with their trauma. By the end of the episode, Katara doesn’t kill him–but she crafts a third path as the conclusion to her hero’s journey and it is not the path of forgiveness that Aang preaches. Ironically, it is Zuko, who also confronts Ozai, the source of his greatest trauma, who never tells Katara what to do but follows her lead instead: even though he redirects lightning at Ozai and could have killed him, he doesn’t go through with it. He understands Katara and he understands that she needs to this. Kataang interaction rating: 0/10.

So that’s where we are with Aang and Katara in Ember Island Players. Some positive interactions that are appropriately romantically framed and some that are just wholesome and good… but all ruined by forced kissing and moralizing about Katara’s trauma instead of offering understanding. So that still doesn’t answer when Aang would have learned all of the toxic masculine/heternormative behaviors he displayed in The Ember Islands Players.

The only answer, I’m forced to conclude, is bad fucking writing, where the creators were not only tone-deaf in portraying Katara in a racist/misogynistic way or, you know, in writing solely for the male gaze because fuck half the audience, I guess, but they just wanted to create drama for drama’s sake. They completely disrespected their female lead and I would argue they disrespected Aang’s character too in making him a stereotypical self-insert Gary Stu who displays toxic masculine behavior without consequences because that’s what’s expected of a toxic heternormative romantic plot device.

And worse yet, they never follow up on this, just like with the kiss at the Invasion. In the last five minutes of the finale, Katara looks up at him with admiration for saving the world and then kisses him. This is not only a missed opportunity for character development for Aang, but also a big fuck you to the female audience because the message is clear: the guy gets the girl as a trophy for saving the world, and fuck input from the female half of the partnership because that’s just not important and is not worthy of screentime. But I guess screentime dedicated to displaying toxic masculine/heternormative behaviors without ever condemning such behavior as a follow-up is just fine! :)))

If the EIP was supposed to make an argument for Kataang, then it failed. but more important:

By the show’s own high standards, The Ember Island Players is a failed episode, full of bad writing and worse characterization. For a show that was so ahead of its time, this episode is a narrative black mark, a failure of progressive representation and a disservice to its main characters.

There’s some wholesome Sukka and Zuko/Toph interaction, but even that doesn’t manage to save this episode, especially given there’s no resolution to the central conflict: the relationship between Aang and Katara. The entire unnecessarily OOC and forced Kataang drama drags it down.

We know Aang is capable of lifting up Katara and being supportive of her, as he was in episodes prior. We could have had honest, supportive, and open dialogue between Aang and Katara that actually followed up on the Invasion kiss, with Aang clearly expressing what he wants, Katara expressing that maybe she didn’t want that right now, and Aang completely respecting that and them hugging at the end because their friendship/connection is much more profound than pre-teen romance. This is an instance where Aang could have chosen to center Katara’s feelings, for once, instead of his own out of selfless love. If this happened, I would have been okay with a Kataang ending. But that isn’t what we got, obviously.

Part of what appealed to me about Aang as a male protagonist in media aimed at young audiences is that he–at least initially–did not start out as a toxic self-insert Gary Stu lifted from every problematic heternormative romance film ever. In fact, given his playful trickster archetype, general kindness/gentleness, and his stance against violence (a typically masculine trait), he both subverted expectations of and expanded the boundaries of what a male protagonist in children’s media can look like. Unfortunately, the creators don’t go all the way with Aang. In fact, they took a step back with his portrayal in The Ember Island Players, where the creators not only rely on misogynistic tropes to create drama but also make him complicit in propagating said misogyny. And that’s just a damn shame because we could have had a wholesome Kataang storyline and a sensitive male protagonist who cares not about your outdated gender roles and respects his partner’s autonomy!

[firelxdykatara]

I personally dislike kataang but narratively they were built up (no matter how weakly) were built to end up together. How was Zutara built up honestly ... no offense

How so? What is your definition of ‘narratively built up’? Is it ‘thematically of course they have to get together, because Aang is the hero and the hero gets the girl’? Is it ‘Aang had obvious feelings for her from the start, so obviously she’d have to eventually return them, regardless whether or not the work is put into the narrative for it to make sense’? Neither of those things count as build up for me so much as ‘this is the goal the showrunners had in mind, and they were willing to force it even if, narratively, it no longer made sense by the end of the show’.

For me, narrative build-up requires attention to be paid to both characters in the relationship. Both characters’ feelings need to matter, get narrative focus, and be developed through the story. It just doesn’t work if only one character gets any focus, even the main character, unless the other is a side-character who exists only to be a romantic interest. This, obviously, doesn’t apply to Kataang (though it could have applied to Maiko--there didn’t need to be much beyond ‘Mai still likes Zuko’ on her side, but unfortunately, Zuko’s feelings were never developed on-screen either; this seems to be a running problem with the main relationships in atla, although sukka managed to be the exception), which is a relationship between two main characters. Both of them are main, viewpoint characters. Both of them have eps dedicated to their own individual arcs.

But, for some reason, only Aang’s romantic feelings were considered important enough to actually develop.

How, again, does that count as ‘narrative build up’? Or, for that matter, how does that count as more narrative build up than Zutara, which is a relationship built on mutual development? It is a relationship arc that spans the entire series, where Katara’s feelings towards Zuko are just as important as Zuko’s feelings towards her. Katara doesn’t just change her mind and forgive Zuko because he wants her to--Zuko goes out of his way to prove himself to her, and she makes the decision herself when her feelings do change. A process we see happening on-screen.

We never get to see how Katara goes from ‘I’m confused’ and being upset that Aang kissed her without her consent to making out with him on that balcony. That, to me? Is the opposite of narrative build-up.

As for how Zutara was built up? You could obviously make the argument that everything about their relationship arc was platonic, and that’s your right--canonically, the romantic potential was never followed through (although, as members of the fandom, we reserve the right to reject canon’s reality and substitute our own; that’s what transformative works are all about). But that doesn’t mean the foundation wasn’t there. That doesn’t change the fact that the final Agni Kai is one of the most romantically-coded scenes in the show. (And before anyone comes back with ‘he would’ve taken that lightning for anyone’, but he didn’t. He took that bolt of lightning to the heart for Katara, and it was written, storyboarded, colored and animated in the most romantic way possible, from the slow-motion shot of his reaction realizing that Azula was targeting Katara, to his screaming ‘no’ as he leapt in front of the lightning bolt, to him being reflected in Katara’s eyes as the world falls away behind her, to her screaming his name and completely forgetting about the incredibly powerful firebender who just tried to kill her, because all she could think about was getting to Zuko’s side to heal him, to the focus on both of their hands in turn as they reached out for each other.......none of that shit happened by accident.)

It also doesn’t change the fact that the story of Oma and Shu is explicitly paralleled to Zuko and Katara’s narrative journey. It wasn’t an accident that Oma and Shu were red and blue coded, despite being Earth Kingdom citizens in a show where the different nations are heavily color-coded, and came from warring peoples and built a path to each other, where they were able to meet in a cave of glowing green crystal, and then, centuries later, Zuko and Katara were from warring peoples and came together in a moment of instant and intense emotional connection in a cave of glowing green crystal.

Nor does it change the fact that Zuko was the one who understood the depth of Katara’s grief and trauma and what she would need in order to heal--far better than Aang or even her own brother did. It wasn’t an accident that Zuko was the one to take Katara on that trip, and it wasn’t an accident that the scene where she makes the choices not to kill Yon Rha parallels the scene where Zuko made the choice not to kill the source of his trauma--Katara let the icicles hang in the air before releasing them harmlessly, and Zuko redirected his father’s lightning blast and sent it into the ground at his feet instead of killing him.

If none of that is ‘narrative build up’, then I have to ask you, dear anon--what is?

[floraone]

So, September is coming up, and with it smutember, and we’re doing it again! (At least I hope you’re with me, lol).

Just like last year, it runs alongside to the official daily word prompts on the official smutember blog: Smutember is an event that runs all throughout September for all fandoms. The following is meant as an addition, not a replacement. If you want to do daily prompts, please use the official words prompts (linked above). However, since daily prompts can be a bit intimidating (especially for a fandom corner that’s 25+ years old like ours and people in it have busy lives), as the resident smut advocate in our fandom, I again customized an alternative that can still incorporate the official themes.

Just like last year, down below you have a list of TROPE AND THEME PROMPTS. They’re a remix of sorts of last year’s tropes, with some you’ve seen before and some new ones, meant to spark a variety of ideas. The idea is that with these you can post once (or twice) per week instead of daily.

Be it for fanart or fanfic or any other sort of fanwork, tropes can be combined, (and they can be combined with the daily themes too), whatever floats your boat. Also, specifically: This event isn’t Usamamo-centric only. I will reblog any Sailor Moon content of any pairing as long as it follows the rules! (See below)

The aim of this event is to create sex-positive content together that celebrates a healthy depiction of consentual sexuality. Erotic fanfiction is a beautiful art, especially in a fandom of ours so largely cultivated by women and for women, as well as a strong inclusive focus on queer and gender-queer content and their creators!

What’s new: I’m taking a page out of the mini-bang’s impressive book, and when smutember is over, I will compile all entries that followed the rules into an online-only e-zine! This also means that art that may be too explicit for tumblr can still be included in the e-zine!

Here are the weekly trope challenges:

Reinvent a trope!

WEEK 1 (September 1st - 7th): Pick 1 or 2

🍋 Reunion Sex 🍋 Sex Fails 🍋 Second Chance Sex 🍋 You Talk In Your Sleep 🍋 Unresolved Sexual Tension 🍋 New Old Flame 🍋 Go Seduce My Archnemesis 🍋 Bedsharing 🍋 Sex with the Ex/Break-Up Sex 🍋 In Public 

WEEK 2 (September 8th - 14th): Pick 1 or 2

🍋 Make-Up Sex 🍋 Battle Couple 🍋 Mission Sex 🍋 Work-Out Sex 🍋 Accidental Pervert 🍋 Bathing/Shower 🍋 Pool/Onsen 🍋 Sexual Fantasies 🍋 Blind Date 🍋 Aroused By Your____ (pick a feature) 

WEEK 3 (September 15th - 21st): Pick 1 or 2

🍋 Established Relationship 🍋 “Thank God We’re Alive” 🍋 Caught In The Act 🍋 First Times 🍋 Introduction By Hook-Up 🍋 Pining 🍋 Locked In Together In A Small Space/ Trapped Together 🍋 Huddling For Warmth 🍋 Socially Distanced Sex 🍋 Stupid Sexy Friend 🍋 Caught In The Rain 🍋 Living Food Platter/Eating Off You 🍋 Shunga

WEEK 4 (September 22nd - 30th): Pick 1 or 2

🍋 Mutual Masturbation 🍋 Awkward/Clumsy Sex 🍋 Oh Crap There’s Fanfic Of Us 🍋 Talking In Bed 🍋 Fidelity Test 🍋 Fake-NOT-Dating 🍋 Mindlink 🍋 Sex Games 🍋 Tinder 🍋 Blackout/Quarantine/Disaster Warning/Weathering The Storm

RULES

1. Rating: These fics don’t necessarily need to be M or, in the case of Ao3, E- rated. Obviously, they are very, very welcome to be explicit for this event, but you can also go T-rated and stay in lime or ‘blacked out’-territory if you’re uncomfortable with writing explicit scenes! Both is perfectly and absolutely welcome! This of course also goes for fanart - your fanart may depict sexy scenes, but does NOT have to be explicit! (It can, though! Be aware that for tumblr’s guidelines, when sharing your art first, you may have to clip your images as a sort of preview. The original can then be sent to me privately to include into the e-zine!) 2. Minimum Age of Characters: Since this is a community event, if you do go explicit M rated material: age them up where necessary! So that everyone can be comfortable writing and reading these, let them be 18 at the minimum if they’re going to openly and explicitly wohoo. (16-17 is the global average age of consent worldwide, and also the average age for first sex among girls in many western countries. However, since most fanfic readers are located in the US, where the age of consent is 18, we’re going with 18 so that everyone can be comfortable reading!) If you go for canon fics at a time they are below this age, where you do not want to age up (say you’re going for an episode fix!) please stay in T territory for this event. 3. Off limits: Depictions of sexual acts that contain harmful, violent and non-consenting behaviour with non-consenting individuals (or those that aren’t able to consent, for instance because of their age, or state of mind among else!). If it doesn’t fly by law or the ICD in real life, please refrain from depicting it in the context of this event. This means that dubcon and noncon will not be reblogged for the event, so that people can be safely consuming the content without being triggered. All content will be screened in this regard, and I may contact you regarding trigger warnings. This is not at all to censor content, or that this content is in any form less valid (as long as it is properly tagged and not including characters that aren’t of age), but simply to ensure a safe environment for everyone reading. 4. Tag your triggers. Except the aforementioned limitation of harmful content, nothing is off limits. Explore your kinks! But if you write something that might be offensive to your readers, please tag it. This is ALSO a good way for your readers to find exactly what they ARE looking for! On Ao3 this can be done directly on the fic tags, for FF fics and fic links you can do it here on Tumblr via the fic post tags or in ANs. This is in consideration of your readers. 5. You can obviously post art for this event too. All previous rules apply here, as well. Unfortunately, Tumblr is now against tasteful nudity. That doesn’t mean you can’t link to a deviant art or similar account though, should you want to. And, since this year will include an e-zine at the end of it, all art will still be included fully in it. Here too, please tag your triggers. If you still want to post art on Tumblr, choose a T rated image - clip them where needed, or keep them (semi-)clothed, show us a heated kiss, etc! (Obviously we would love ALL the art and the nude body is a beautiful, wonderful thing, but obviously Tumblr doesn’t agree with us anymore!) 6. Have fun! Celebrate sexuality in an open, sex-positive way with us, try to be unapologetic about your likes while you write this, and appreciate the beauty that comes in the form of content with a largely female-gazing creator-base and audience! Smut in fanfiction has been beautifully put as the subjectification of sexuality (as opposed to  objectification). So let’s celebrate this art form together! 7. Reviews: No one is forced to review. It can be uncomfortable to review a fic that contains sexual acts for any number of always valid reasons. Keep in mind, however, that much like a Burlesque dancer on stage, putting out sexual content can also be very intimidating to an author, and nothing is more discouraging than silence when baring yourself to an audience like this. That being said: Both Ao3 and FF have the option to review in anon mode. That means you have the option to remain anonymous while cheering the author on all the same. Just like the Burlesque dancer, your resident smut authors prefer to go on stage to loud cheering - it makes it all less awkward for them, and feels a little more like a big celebration!

If you’re unsure what sex positivity entails and want to read up, I wrote a post about it here.

This event is not supposed to cause harm. This means that I will screen all content before I reblog it here, and include it in the e-zine. So that everyone of age can feel safe reading the fanworks in the event, dubcon and noncon will not be reblogged and included in the e-zine, and accurate tagging and content warning will be watched. This does NOT MEAN that you cannot post this material: your own desire to write it and someone else’s desire to explicitly read this material are valid. I do not entitle myself to censor. It just means it will not be reblogged and shared through the event so that everyone may feel safe to read to the best of my ability. (But, of course, remember that I, too, might be biased, and not discover subtle forms of it, either. We’re all, in the end, a product of our upbringing and society, and I cannot be completely unbiased.)

During the event, I will be posting all Sailor Moon Smutember contributions in this format on my blog if you @ me to the post.

The official hashtag for the event is #smutember2020 hosted by the official smutember blog. Using it helps people find the content who search for it as well as those who wish to block it!

[beholdme]

All the Many Shades of Gerry - Chapter 18

Chapters: 18/19

Fandom: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Gerard Keay/Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist, Martin Blackwood/Gerard Keay, Martin Blackwood/Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist, Gerard Keay/Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist

Characters: Martin Blackwood, Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist, Gerard Keay, Tim Stoker (The Magnus Archives), Sasha James, Gertrude Robinson, Elias Bouchard

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Library AU, Librarian Jon, Artist Gerry, Trans Male Character, Trans Martin Blackwood, Canon Asexual Character, Asexual Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist, Ace Subtype - Sex Positive, Polyamory, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Romantic Fluff, Falling In Love, Boys in Skirts, Kissing, Demisexual Gerard Keay, Minor Character Death, Past Character Death, Canon-Typical Child Neglect, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Flirting, Minor Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist/Tim Stoker, Adventures in Hair Dying, Happy Ending, Banter, Gerry has a lot of sass, Gerard Keay is Morticia Adams, Jon is a very grumpy Librarian, Martin adores them anyway.

Summary: In which Gerry is a kaleidoscope and Jon and Martin can’t help falling in love with him.

He happens to love them back.

Find it on Ao3

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]

They cook, they feed him, they chat away about inane things. Their presence soothes Martin and their voices fill him with the warmth sucked away by his unexpected encounter.

Gerry helps him make tea after dinner, and they all sit at the table together, even the cats sleeping nearby, cuddled up into one big, grey and black fluff ball.

"I think," Martin begins, voice croaky, "That I would like to tell you now."

"We're ready to listen if you're ready to tell us." Jon offers softly. Gerry reaches over to take one of his hands, turning it over to kiss the palm sweetly.

Martin talks, voice quiet and even.

"In the beginning, it was just a normal relationship. Except for the fact that he was almost twenty years older than me, and about a million times richer. I didn't know that at first, of course. He was just a middle-aged man I met in a gay bar, who didn't seem to mind that I was trans. I felt secure in our relationship, if not exactly nurtured or adored. I had never felt very secure before, and it seemed like enough, you know?

"He took me out, brought me a few things in the beginning. He was very dominant, sexually, but I was a lot less sure of my own preferences back then and I thought it was fine. He never even blinked at my trashy flat or cheap clothes, and I didn't even realise just how much money he had for a long time. Maybe I just can't really comprehend that much money, even now.

"When I was twenty-two, my mother died, and…" He huffs out a shaky, emotional laugh. "Well, I was a real mess. I lost my job, and almost my flat. Peter started paying for things, my rent, clothes, meals. He said that I needed somewhere to live and had to eat and look presentable, and it was his pleasure to provide those things for me. It made me feel a bit gross, but I struggled to find another job, and so I accepted it."

Martin hesitates here, before continuing. "The problem started when I wasn't interested in sex one night."

"He forced you?" Gerry interrupts to ask dangerously, threat explicit in his quiet words. His eyes seem to glow faintly in the growing dark of the room, as the sun sets. He wishes, more than ever, that he had helped Jon kick the shit out of Peter Lukas, instead of stopping him.

Martin sighs, eyes pressed tight closed for a second. "Not exactly. He simply pointed out that he paid for me to exist. So I made myself interested."

Gerry's hands tighten into fists and he moves them under the table where Martin can't see them anymore. Jon suddenly looks very pale. They share a look, neither able to see much difference between 'forcing' and what sounds a lot like financial abuse to them.

Martin pulls his legs up to his chest, curling around them as he goes on. "Our relationship became a lot more transactional after that night. I disengaged whatever feelings I had left for him and simply drew all my emotions down deep into myself. I wasn't ashamed to be getting paid for sex, but I felt like I had lost my own consent in the matter. Peter honestly seemed like he had gotten exactly what he wanted. Money was nothing to him, and he had someone to take out on his arm or shag whenever he wanted, without the work of a real relationship, or the complications of unfortunate attachments.

"So, if I needed something, I told him. He set a date, took me out, fucked me. He gave me however much I needed."

Martin shrugs, looking down at his hands. "I honestly hated it. Not because of the prostitution itself, sex has always been very nurturing for me, and I sometimes caught the idea that it was only another way to care for people, and being paid for that is perfectly fine, if you're doing it for the right reasons. The real issue was Peter himself. He had this way of making me feel… bereft and hollow, even before the money came into it."

A few tears track down his face, although his face remains rather blank, in a numb way. It's only as he admits the next words that his voice breaks and the heartbreak works its way out again.

"I was very foolish. Looking back, I can see that I was still a child in a lot of ways. I put myself into a situation that damaged me, but I accept the consequences of those actions, both then and now. I- I-"

"Martin," Jon whispers, warm love clear in his voice. It's nothing but an offer of support, one that he desperately needs right now.

He presses his eyes shut, forcing away the stutter and the lump of tears. "I knew I wasn't going to be able to get out of it, even if I got a crap, minimum wage job that I was qualified for. So I started applying for any work that was available. I made every application exactly what they wanted, and I hoped for the best. When Elias offered me the job at Magnus, I took it happily. Since then I found out that Peter knows him, and probably arranged the job for me, but at the time I had no idea. Looking back, I know that it's a miracle that I got out of it at all. Peter could have chosen to make my life a living hell. Instead, he accepted the several firm rejections I offered him.

"He promised me that we weren't done, that I would be back, but he left me alone. I was done. I moved on with my life, even if I had to lie to do it." Martin sighs, shakes out his shoulders, the most difficult part over now.

"I had always planned to be open about it with my next relationships, but they were so fleeting that it never even came up. By the time I fell for Jon, it had become a secret, one I was loathed to dig up for a relationship I was convinced wouldn't last. I thought to myself, 'Why ruin something that makes me happy?' I assumed it would fall apart anyway, and it was easier to allow it to be in the past.

"But I am sorry. I'm sorry that I never told you. I'm sorry you had to find out from him. I'm sorry that we've been together for more than a year and we basically live together, and I've put you in this position. I love you both, very very much."

"When did you eventually decide that our relationship was going to last?" Jon queries, genuine curiosity in his voice.

There's a beat of hazy silence at the abrupt change in tone and topic.

"Oh, ah-" Martin stumbles over his words, unsure how blatantly honest to be. He chooses the real truth, no matter how unfortunate. "The day that I got Luna was the first time I really accepted that you both loved me."

Jon simply raises an eyebrow, completely unconcerned. "What about you, Gerry?"

"With you," Gerry responds easily, "at the hospital in Morden, when I was so panicked that I couldn't decide if I wanted to kill you or handcuff us together for the rest of our lives. With Martin-"

He breaks off with a laugh, colouring slightly. "It was the day we dyed my hair purple."

"The first time we had sex?" Martin asks, surprised at such a hedonistic answer.

He laughs again, more confidently this time. "No, actually, although that was spectacular. It was afterwards, when you braided my hair for the first time. That was the first time anyone had ever braided my hair. It made me feel so… So honoured. Like I was the most precious thing to you."

"Gerry, you are the most precious thing to me. You both are." Martin whispers, tears creeping back into his voice.

"Good, because the feeling is mutual, and we desperately need you around to keep us in line," Jon tells him, voice unusually firm and confident.

"What about you?" Martin remembers to ask him, at risk of floating away in his post confession haze. "When did you know?"

"With Gerry, it was when we were teenagers. I kissed him for the first time, and he laughed at me. I just knew he was my soulmate." Jon rolls his eyes at this, but his voice is full of blatant affection. "With you, Martin, it was- Well, to be quite honest with you, there was no one special moment. It was a million tiny moments, all of them special and perfect to me. Every cup of tea, every frown while you were writing poetry, glasses pushed haphazardly up into your lovely hair. The easy, glorious look on your face the day you met Gerry for the first time, as if you weren't even capable of not falling in love with him, just as I hadn't been. It was especially the days that I would come out of the library and find you waiting for me after work. This weight of total surety would fill my chest and leave me gasping, needing you."

Jon sighs, his own eyes a little bright. "I suppose it was really the night you kissed me in the rain, and every soft moment since then has only affirmed the way I knew you were it for me."

Jon smiles at Martin so beatifically that he forgets to breathe for a moment.

"We love you too, Martin," Gerry tells him, reaching out to grasp a hand. Jon takes the other. "And we wouldn't want you any other way."

***

The next morning, Martin wakes to find Jon eyeing his phone intently. Gerry is asleep on his other side, and he feels warmly cocooned between them. Gentle cloudy light fills the space, encouraging the comfortable cozy atmosphere of their bed.

"What's wrong, love?" Martin asks sleepily, snuggling into his side.

"I got-" Jon pauses, utterly flummoxed. "I got paid a bonus."

"What?" Equally perplexed, Martin takes his phone, squinting as he tries to read the screen.

The banking app is open, and there is indeed a deposit there, Jon's normal salary amount, but on completely the wrong date.

In the purpose box, it simply reads 'Entertainment Value'.

"You don't think," Jon starts, hesitant, "that Elias paid me…"

"For hitting Peter Lukas?" Martin finishes, "His own husband."

They blink at each other, bewildered.

"Does that seem… slightly cursed, to you?" Jon whispers as if Elias might hear him. Even worse if Elias could hear them, and would probably enjoy being accused of having a cursed relationship.

"Yes, completely cursed. What is up with those two?" Martin looks as if he's smelled something bad.

"We absolutely cannot spend this money, right?" Jon asks. "Lest we are cursed with their relationship dysfunction."

"Correct," Martin responds firmly, shuddering. "Can we donate it to the animal shelter?"

"I think that's a wonderful idea." Jon's relief at this resolution is palpable.

He does it straight away, as if even having the money in his bank account might ruin their lives.

They let out a simultaneous sigh as the transfer goes through.

"That is wild," Martin mutters as he snuggles back down.

Jon tosses his phone away, no longer interested in it. Instead, he wraps his arms around Martin, burying his nose in his lover's hair. It smells of bergamot and tea leaves and the ocean in winter, just like Martin himself, and Jon luxuriates in the moment.

"I love you, Martin K. Blackwood." He whispers into the soft air.

"Even if I don't actually have a middle name?" Martin whispers back.

"Especially because of that." Jon chuckles.

They lay together, the gentle moments of the morning flowing around them. Later, they get up and shower together. They drink tea in front of the big windows in the living space. Martin reads a book from Gerry's shelves, his own books still packed, and Jon wanders off to play his piano where it is randomly set up, right in the middle of Gerry's typical painting area.

Gerry himself appears downstairs, still sleepy and bleary-eyed. He curls up with his head in Martin's lap, listening to Jon fill the flat with gentle music.

It's the soft sort of moment that each of them had been wishing for all their lives, full of love, and family, and a home of their very own.

[ships-and-what-not]

The fact that we never saw more of zuko and katara after the agnai kai with azula is actually very dumb. It was such an intense pivotal significant moment, in which they would have been feeling very emotional and vulnerable with one another, with such heightened emotions spiraling, and relief of having each other come out of it, and the intimacy in holding each other afterwards... katara being their to support zuko with what would be conflicting and sad to see his sister in that state (like how zuko was there for katara with her conflicting feelings after finding the man who killed her mother), but also the relief he would have of having katara be ok, the relief katara would have of him being ok, and how she would feel after just having him take a fucking bolt of lightning, jumping in front of her and risking his life for her, on top of him already being there for her, supporting her, respecting her boundaries, needs, decisions and feelings. The mutual respect and admiration they have for each other, the feeling they would have afterwards while standing side by side, katara helping to support him and looking at each other, tell me their hearts wouldn't have been racing and an unspoken pining for each other wouldn't have been shared. Tell me once katara took him back to tend to his wound that he didn't reach for her hand to thank her again, him saying how scared he was of something happening to her, tell me she wouldn't have cupped his cheek in her hand looked into his eyes before reaching up to kiss him gently, tell me he wouldn't of been taken aback for like point 5 of a second before being over taken with his mutual feelings and kissing her back pulling her close against him with her hair clasped between his fingers and his other around her back to draw her closer, tell me when they slowly pull away that she wouldn't second guess herself and apologize before he stopped her to bring her in again and softly kiss her, and that they weren't flushed in the face and katara almost speechless struggling to think clearly stuttering out about going to get some healing supplies, that they didn't spend the time together smiling at each other, blushing and katara sticking to him like glue while healing him, tell me she didn't lie down with him after she had finished all she could with the wound being exhausted, and they didn't drift off in each others arms and wake up remembering what had happened and specifically between them, maybe feeling vulnerable and exposed, katara going to tend to his wound again, or maybe being sleepy and after having been so close then stayed there laying by each others side sleepily gazing softly into one another eyes, katara gently tracing the outline of his face, a form of contact that we've seen him not let anyone do except katara, and zuko gently running his fingers through her hair and placing his arm around her while they lay there for a moment.

Or that there wouldn't have been at least some unspoken mutual pining for each other while katara helped heal his wound, that they wouldn't have had stolen glances, pauses and moments of physical touch that lead to blushing or fast heart rates, and feelings that would've confused them both that would've lead to not being confident in the canon pairings they were paired off with, leading to katara not kissing aang in the final episode, but instead a group gaang hug, zuko gone to talk to mai face to face openly and honestly after learning that face to face communication is always best from his previous misstep, and that mai would sigh and say she already knows, him having no idea how but her saying she was going to break up with him anyway because there's someone else she's caught feelings for, he asks if he knows him and she says you know her, zuko momentarily taken aback and then smiling saying he's glad they could end things mutually and wishes her the best. That mai would go and find ty lee who's in her kiyoshi warrior attire and struggle to tell her through blushing how she really cares about her as a friend but also more than that, and ty lee taken aback at first before super thrilled throws her arms around her kissing her before pulling back to say she loves her too, and smiling in each others embrace with their foreheads gently pressed together. Tell me that katara and zuko wouldn't continue to have moments of stolen glances, prolonged eye contact, blushing and tension between them, tell me there wouldn't be a gradual build up of them clearly liking each other, and that aang wouldn't gradually let go of non-reciprocated feelings, that he wouldn't be focused on other post-war matters, that he wouldn't find another girl his age who he would fall for, tell me that as him and toph grew older and had more moments of them two together that they never had soft moments, of them having fun together, of them meditating together, going for walks in nature together, of sparing and practicing together with moments of aang airbending who into the air catching her off guard and swooping up and catching her smirking at her, tell me that as she got older that she wouldn't have started to blush at stuff like that, that she wouldn't yell at him for cheating and calling him twinkle toes and that he would catch her off guard when he smiled and kissed her cheek instead of pushing back against the name, that they wouldn't talk again about what happened with appa and how bad she felt and him assuring her he understands it wasnt her fault and that he's glad that she cares for appa, and she let's him know she also cares about him, and how glad she is that he found her and let her join them, how glad she was to have gotten to be with him, and that they wouldn't have felt vulnerable and connected, a paused moment of eye contact before aang leans down and softly kisses her, the way they mutually saw and felt about each other gradually shifting as they got older.

Look all I'm saying is opportunities for realistic character interactions and moments, and character relationship development were robbed, and they didn't have to not have katara and zuko just never talk about one of the most intense scenes and moments they shared together that was literally life or death type life changing. I'm sorry but as if they wouldn't have talked about what happened, and him literally risking his life for her, in addition to their chemistry and mutual respect for one another, as if that wouldn't have lead to then having feelings for each other that are finally realised between them.

Mai and zuko don't work, and aang and katara don't either, not the way their characters interactions and moments together had been written throughout the series, it just makes making them canon in the end super forced felt. Aang shouldn't have gotten with katara, katara deserved to be with zuko, and zuko deserved to be with her, both mai and zuko deserved to be in a healthier more compatible relationship rather than a forced one that feels like plot convenience or at least bad writing if they had been intended to be canon, same applies to aang and katara, if they were intended to be canon then they were extremely poorly written. Not to mention what katara and zuko have that aang and her just don't have in terms of passion, mutual pining, compatible ideologies and maturity levels, the whole yin and yang symbolism, the political power couple they would make with post-war reparations, etc., and how soft they would be? There would be nothing dark and edgy about them at all, they would be such a sweet soft couple, zuko would be so caring, responsive, thoughtful, respectful and soft towards her. And she would have someone who was her equal, who understood her and worked well together, someone who would carry their weight and try to help out when they can, someone who would take her with him if and when he had to go and wouldn't leave her alone for periods of time, someone who would make sure she didn't feel left out or hurt, who would have the emotional maturity and awareness to pick up on things like that after he himself has grown so much and can tell things like that. Someone who would love her but never be forceful or entitled about it, someone who would love her selflessly without expectation of reciprocation, someone who wouldn't kiss her without consent or when she clearly is not ok with it, someone who wouldn't let other girls flirt with him right in front of her because he knows how that hurts, happily show off his amazing water tribe lady to the world. Someone who would respect and learn about her culture rather than expecting her to do so for his without much reciprocation, someone who would make sure all of their children feel loved equally and unconditionally as he knows very well what it feels like to feel like there's unequal love and regard with siblings, and he would make sure they all feel loved and cared for equally without any favouritism, and he would actually make sure that's the case as he would actively want to not repeat generational trauma/abuse.

[my-life-is-an-open-book]

To all the boys I’ve loved before (and currently): #6

TW: SA

Dear J,

You graduated a year before I did. We had a lot of mutual friends in our small private collage. I knew of you when we were still in school together but I never really talked to you because we were both in committed relationships around the same time. By the time it was my turn to graduate, we were both single. The first time we started flirting was when you were at the pool party thrown by my roommates and I, to celebrate our upcoming graduation. We flirted heavily during this time, and my roommate liked the idea of us possibly dating. The following day, there was another huge house party to celebrate the upcoming graduating class, and this would be the day that would change my life forever.

I had been to a lot of parties before, but never to one this crazy. There was way too many people, a lot of drinking, a lot of stripping and a whole lot of drama. I spent majority of my time around you at this party. It was four in the morning, I was tired, and I was graduating that same day. I just wanted to go home at this point, but I was waiting for one of my roommates to finish socializing so we could all go home together. You then offered to give me, a ride home and I was still pretty hammered, and the next thing I knew, we were in your apartment’s parking garage hooking up. I wake up the next day still in your car, half naked with you nowhere to be found. I went up to your apartment to wake you up, and you begrudgingly dropped me back to my place. When my roommates greeted me back home, I just told them that I spent the night in your apartment, rather than in the the backseat of your tinted car. I got ready to go to my graduation ceremony, and it was also the final day for me to move out of student housing, and Mother’s Day. Needless to day, I didn’t have enough time to collect my thoughts and reflect on all the events that had happened to me that night.

The following day, you explicitly told me that you weren’t looking for anything serious, and I agreed to those terms. We were friends with benefits for 5 months, but with every passing day, I was quickly falling for you. We had deep talks about our failed previous relationships, childhood traumas, our fears and hopes for the future. We related when it came to work, physical fitness, hobbies and similar sense of humor. We had a lot of fun adventures together. We grabbed dinner often where we would take turns paying, went to conventions and fairs, bars and clubs, and hung out with each others friends. You took care of me when I was sick, and you’d give me the biggest hugs when I was feeling down. We had a lot of playful banter, and I was very comfortable being myself around you. 

Our relationship was very detrimental for my mental and physical health but I didn’t know it at the time. I spent the night at your place almost every night for three months, and we had sex two to three times a night. You’d wake me up in the middle of the night for sex, and even when I was half asleep, you’d still force yourself onto me. Sometimes, I’d fall asleep in the middle of sex, because I was so tired from my 12 hour work days. I was always hesitant but I blame myself for never saying no. I’d let you have your way with me to avoid having the conversation about consent. After you’d finish, you’d turn your back to me and go straight back to sleep, and 2 hours later when my alarm for work would sound off, you’d pursue sex, yet again. Occasionally, I would come over with the mentality of just hanging out as friends, and just to get to know you as a friend without the pressures of sex but end up leaving your apartment in shame because I’d let you use me because sex was your main destresser. In my mind, I was thinking that maybe the more I spent time with you, and the more I let you inside of me, you’d eventually feel the same way as I felt for you.

Throughout our relationship, I really got to know your friends. Some pulled me aside and said they’ve never seen you this happy, and they liked me for you. You never saw that. Our entire relationship was push and pull. As soon as I knew I had feelings for you, I asked you if you wanted to date for real. You were hesitant and said you set a deadline for yourself to come to a decision about us, but ultimately you shot me down and I was distraught. I still kept being your friend which in hindsight was a really stupid idea. 

My birthday came around, and I invited you to go clubbing with me and my friends. At the end of the night, you got belligerently drunk and almost started a fight at the club. You left angrily and that’s when I realized I had left all of my personal belongings with you, so I had no choice but to go on a wild goose chase to track you down to retrieve my items. Eventually, you went back home and that is where I met you to grab my wallet and keys. We talked and you asked me to date you, but this time I was the one that shot you down. We were both still drunk, and the next thing I know, you're kissing my neck and taking off my dress. I shouldn’t have sent my friend back home. I should have gotten my things and left instead of listen to you regret the fact the you shot me down first. Maybe then, I would have less shame in myself for being weak and letting you play with my body and feelings over and over again. I shouldn’t have indulged you in your drunken state.

The reason I say all of this in detail is because you claim to forget what happens when you’re drunk. At this point, I still don’t know if you’re just using alcohol as an excuse to use me without repercussions or if you legitimately have a drinking problem. You have called drunk and put me down for being a stoner, for still living under my mom’s roof and for not being free to hang out when you wanted me by your side. You have called drunk and told me what an amazing person I am and how stupid you are for not taking me seriously. You have called drunk and detailed your adventures barhopping downtown and put yourself in danger by getting behind the wheel. 

I want you to know all the details, so you know how much you’ve hurt me. 

J, I don’t regret a lot of things but you are the only exception. I have lost so much of my self-respect because of my decision to be involved with you. I have spent so many nights crying over you. I believed I was never worthy of love. I have been nothing but a compassionate and empathetic person to you. I've done nothing but put you on a pedestal.

I didn’t accept it until a few months later, that I had been sexually assaulted. You don’t know this, because I never told you. In your eyes, we were merely friends with benefits. How we initially got together should have been a warning sign for how you’d treat me throughout the duration of our relationship, but I was blinded by your reputation of being the all-American boy that all the girls at our college pined for. 

I could only count the fingers on one hand, the people I’ve told the real story to because of all the shame I am harboring within myself. I’m still healing, but my relationship with sex has changed forever.

J, I loved you, but from now on I love myself more to never be treated the same way that you treated me. I loved you, but maybe it was just Stockholm Syndrome.

[teddystrap]

Drama CD: [黒吉原メランコリア] The First Night: Agumo Hibari - Part 1

Heyyy everyone I’m back~~~ with a series that is not like all the rest... except for the recycled seiyuu (#Rejet #eye-roll) and the setting (Yoshiwara; well at least this time you are not the courtesan).

The story revolves around a *rumour* that mermaid tears contain powers of eternal youth/life. And to test this out, a game has begun in the black quarters aka. ‘Kuro’ part of Yoshiwara. The rules for the players are as follows:

You must enthrall her.

You must not hurt her.

You must not let her escape.

The one who successfully achieves the three criteria above is the winner, and he can make the mermaid (i.e. YOU/the listener) his wife/mistress and wield the power of her tears. There are six players in total, including the game creator Agumo Hibari (cv. Toriumi Kousuke).

So, let the game begin.

*

NB. Each story in this series has two discs, so to keep this from becoming too long I will be doing a two-part synopsis and giving my thoughts at the end. 

[Disc 1] 

You can't sleep and are arranging flowers in your room, when Hibari comes over. He helps you and starts reminiscing about your first days here in Yoshiwara:

...It was the end of plum blossom season, the birds are chirping and the weather is nice. Your pimp (/guardian who raised you) brings you over to Kuro Yoshiwara in a horse-drawn carriage, and Hibari comes out to greet you. You glare at him in anger, and he's all like: 'Instead of hating me, why don't you hate your useless debt-ridden parents for selling you off?' #he’sgotapoint #burnnn

He promises your life will change now that you have come to Kirarou, the top house of Kuro Yoshiwara. Taking you up to the rooftop, he shows you the panoramic view, pointing out the burgundy gate of Yoshiwara - he warns that if you try to escape, you will face harsh punishment and possibly death.

He introduces himself as an old-timer/factotum and #1 oiran: Agumo Hibari. And oh btw he was the one who spent a fortune to get you into this place. ...But there's no time to be mad at him. You have to hurry up and get ready to serve the clients.

...Ofc he's not really going to make you perform hooker duties. He takes you into the lounge and blindfolds you, claiming that you are not allowed to see the customers' faces. But! Tonight *it just so happens* that there are no clients. So he's gonna evaluate you to see if you are a good fit for Kirarou.

Before he even starts, you hit him, and he bear-hugs you to restrain your movements. He starts assessing your appearance, mumbling to himself that he can't believe that you are actually a mermaid with the blood of the mythical Happkyaku-bikuni and who's gonna win this game---

He gives you your courtesan name: Nanami, which means 'the seven seas', in commemoration of your origins. You try to kill yourself by biting your own tongue, and he stops you and knocks you out to prevent any more funny business. Thus concludes your first day in Kuro Yoshiwara...

*

After putting you to bed, the barkeep brings Hibari the old newspaper he asked for, and informs him that there are suspicious characters hanging around the brothel quarters. The papers reveal news about a boat that capsized near the coast of Kumano, and a girl who drifted to shore with all her memory lost.

He speculates that this girl is Nanami, but cannot be sure that you are the rumoured mermaid, since your anatomy is fully human. He decides to investigate further.

Next morning, he makes you promise not to take your own life again, before loosening your restraints. He comments that your hands feel cold and are covered in scars - probably from your previous fishing job.

He tells you that he, too, was sold to this brothel just like you. However, he did not despair, and eventually became the Top Host here. He can afford whatever he wants and is allowed to exit the gates freely as he pleases. He admits that, if he ever quits, he has no relatives left and hence nowhere else to go.

He gives you a dried specimen of the oiransou plant - so named because its aroma is similar to the powder used by courtesans - and asks you to put it in his room if you make up your mind to become the next oiran; he would be your mentor.

After his morning nap, he bumps into you near the dressing mirror and asks you to sit down. He proceeds to... do your makeup. He wants to take you out to Asakusa for the day, to lift your spirits and prepare you for courtesan training.

*

It's your first time in a big city and, upon arrival, you almost get run over by the tram, so he holds your hand to keep you by his side. First he takes you to his acquaintance tailor and acquires a yuuzen uchikake-kimono and some casual wear for you; he insists on paying for them as part of his mentor duties.

After the dress fitting, he takes you to a newly opened parlour, and you both try this thing called an 'ice cream soda' for the first time. You stare at him as he shows you how to eat it, then you finally crack a smile when you get your first taste of this treat.

He remarks that you look more childlike and approachable when you laugh, but warns you not to show this side of yourself easily to clients if you want to become a good oiran.

As a special treat, he takes you to Ryōunkaku, the tallest building in Japan at the time, and the first to have an electric lift. You ride up to the 12th floor to see the panoramic view of Tokyo (the lift scares you half to death XD), and he points out all the landmarks to you: Sumida River, Sensou-ji,...

With the coin-operated telescope, you notice a disturbance near the gates of Yoshiwara. The two of you hurry back via rickshaw. There has been a disagreement, and some women tried to escape but were caught. They could neither return to the brothel nor start over elsewhere, as a result, they were forced to either seek death or take a medicine that would render them invalids.

Hibari warns you to be careful not to end up like them.

*

In the middle of the night, Hibari is awakened to news that Nanami has tried to escape. He rushes to the dungeon where you are held captive and asks you why you're doing this, despite his repeated warnings.

You attempt to bite your tongue again, but he stops you and claims that, since he's the one who bought you, you are not allowed to escape nor die without his consent. He calls you a 'caged bird' and explains the origins of the 'pinky swear':

For the courtesans of Yoshiwara, the only path to freedom is to rise through the ranks and become an oiran, who would then have unrestricted mobility and the ability to choose her clients/work.

In the past when a courtesan fell in love, she would *work extra hard* in order to be an oiran. During this time, she would make a pinky promise with her loved one: even though her customers may do whatever they want with her body, her heart belongs to him alone.

And so Hibari offers his pinky, in order to show you how committed he is to making you an oiran. He gives you the option to bite it off, but your *inner vampire* is off that day. Before he leaves, he asks if you still want to die, and seems content to see that you have wavered a little.

*

You knock on his door the following night, dressed in the yuuzen robe he bought for you, and hands him the dried oiransou to signal your resolve.

Aaaand you are on your way to courtesanhood. First things first, he will teach you some basic rules of Yoshiwara. He starts off with the toko-sakazuki: the practice of a mutual toast between newly-weds before their first night together - this tradition is also observed at Yoshiwara for the first time between a courtesan and a client.

Hibari tries to make up excuses for using amazake (a type of light, sweet wine), but later admits that he can't hold his liquor - although he is still Top Host without being three sheets to the wind every night. As the two of you drink, you share your childhood stories, and he thinks living in a fishing village sounds like fun, with surprise items floating to shore that make every day feel like a treasure hunt.

He tells you that he's already been sold off to Yoshiwara since he was old enough to remember, and so he's always been curious about life outside of these gates. While he has no complaints about his current situation, he isn't exactly ecstatic about it either.

As he gets more inebriated, he studies your face and says that you will become an oiran very soon, you've got what it takes. Men will be fighting for you, and he advises you to *snort in the face* of those you don't like, until you find the one that you really want. You are his chosen pawn in the Kuro Yoshiwara Game, and he wants to see you achieve happiness with your own two hands.

Finally, he plants a couple of drunken kisses on you before passing out... Whoever said romance was dead? ;3

[dcomposing]

jumin route rewrite???

ive had.... Issues with jumin's route since the first time i played it and im waiting out a 3 hour layover which means its time to self indulgently fix all of those problems right now in excruciating detail

for the record, i dont mean any disrespect towards cheritz -- i love mysme dearly and this is purely a self indulgent experiment to see what my ideal jumin route would have been! if you like his route as is thats totally fine! it just wasnt for me lmao

this was super fun to write and if this picks up i might do another route rewrite (and i might do it even if it doesnt because it was just that fun lol)

anyways this is REALLY long (literally its like 3k words all in outline form) so its gonna go under the cut lol

okay so: issues i had with jumin’s route that i want to address:

it moves WAY too fast — i mean all of the routes do to a certain degree; they’re only 11 days long but like... you’re literally engaged to him by the end of it which iirc, is something that is only replicated in seven’s normal ending (and even then i think its only implied?) and i get that the point is that jumin goes all out for the people he loves and is VERY certain that he loves you but it just feels... way too soon for my liking ESPECIALLY because you’re his first love! it just makes it feel like he’s caught up in the rush of being in love for the first time and isn’t thinking things through which... isn’t exactly the making of a great relationship lol. so for this re- write we’re gonna slow it WAY down because... oof. 

the sarah and glam plot line happening concurrently with the mint eye/possessive jumin one makes the route feel overly busy. i actually have a similar issue with the echo girl/mint eye overlap in zen’s route but that’s a topic for another day lol. so i’m gonna try to delineate between the two a bit more so there’s less overlap.

SPEAKING OF possessive jumin lol... maybe its just my Personal Background bleeding in, but possessiveness is a really big red flag/trigger for me and i felt like it went WAY too far in his route. dgmw, i understand that its meant to be a character flaw and something he’s meant to overcome but i just feel like there are simpler ways to show that side of him without it becoming... as scary as it got. i wasn’t sure how to deal with it though -- i think it would best be expressed through smaller actions and the minutia of dialogue with the others (e.g. jumin refusing to send a photo of you into the chat room when zen asks if you’re alright, locking up elizabeth, etc.)

the canon first kiss with jumin happening both without your explicit consent AND just to drive sarah away is.... icky to me. especially because he MAKES EYE CONTACT WITH SARAH while kissing you??? i hate that cg lol. it just takes what should be a moment about the two of you and turns it into him using you to prove a point and i don’t like it at all. it’s not romantic and it feels... out of character for jumin to use someone he cares about like that. i have similar issues with the proposal happening right after he exposes glam and sarah. so lets make the kiss more genuine and nix the proposal entirely because it happens too quickly for comfort anyways.

with all of that in mind, i decided a fake dating plot would probably work best (and like i said, this is self indulgent and i’m a SUCKER for fake dating stories sooooo). it makes sure we hit all the beats of the glam/sarah plot line without shoving him and the mc into a relationship too quickly. it also means we can keep their first kiss as a big “fuck you” to sarah, but this time mc gets to be 100% in on the joke AND they get to have a “real” first kiss later on! that’s two (2!) kisses for the price of one folks.

i also decided that in order to streamline the plot a bit, the glam and sarah plot should end earlier, allowing for the mint eye plot to take center stage instead of being shoehorned in around a larger love triangle plot line. also glam and sarah are annoying and i don’t want to deal with them for six full days. the only downside is we don’t get to see v dunk on sarah at the party :-(

in lieu of a proposal for the necessary Big Romantic Gesture at the party, i thought it would be nice if jumin whisked you away from the party to paris or somewhere far away for a ridiculously extravagant first date literally in the middle of the party. not only is it ridiculously grandiose in and of itself, but in abandoning the party halfway through, it shows that jumin has grown into a more relaxed and spontaneous person through knowing you! he’s ready to throw caution to the wind and have fun with you (plus, Big Romantic Date cg!!)

day 5:

VN mode where we essentially get the exact same scene of chairman han telling jumin he wants him to marry sarah to make the merger with sugar round go more smoothly BUT this time jumin blurts out that he’s already with someone and that he didn’t want to go public with it yet. he assumes his father won’t press further, given that they’ve always had a mutual respect for one another’s privacy, but at glam’s insistence, chairman han says he wants to meet jumin’s partner. oh no!

jumin laments his situation to the rfa, resulting in pretty typical responses. zen laughs, yoosung is sympathetic but also kind of wishes it were just that simple for him to meet a wife. jaehee is worried that the inevitable fallout of this will result in more work for her. everything is business as usual until seven is like “ur so rich why don’t you just pay someone to pretend to date you lolol” and jumin (being, well, jumin) runs with it 100%. because they don’t have time to vet candidates (they’re supposed to have dinner with his dad tomorrow night!) he decides it should be someone he knows, but the majority of the other rfa members are already acquainted with his father via rfa events, making it more likely that he sees through the ruse. mc, however, has never met him, making them the perfect candidate! who would have thought lol

so they decide to move you into the penthouse that evening BUT before that can happen, they have to clear it with v because bomb, hacker, mint eye, etc. (yes this is how i’m choosing to do the bomb reveal lol). bonus, v gets to chide jumin about his dumb lie and we get a fun bff conversation with them!

final VN where you show up to the penthouse and you and jumin establish the parameters of your “relationship”. you decide that you’ll both sleep in his bed, just in case a cleaning staff member walks in and notices that he and his partner sleep separately and it ruins everything. establish what physical contact is and isn’t cool, etc, etc. you also decide that when the time comes, you’re going to tell his dad that the entire debacle with sarah put so much strain on your relationship that you had to break up. the hope being that chairman han will feel so bad about ruining things for jumin that he won’t try to force him into something like that ever again.

days 6-8:

you have dinner with his dad and answer pretty typical “meeting the parrents” questions. he asks what you guys did for your first date and jumin tells a 100% fake story about taking you to dinner on top of the eiffel tower and kissing you beneath the stars and the chairman is satisfied. that doesn’t mean that glam and sarah are though. they decide to do some sleuthing to prove that you guys aren’t really dating.

this is the fun part where we get to hit most of the beats of ur typical fake dating story! you and jumin get to know each other really well, albeit kind of superficially (favorite foods, fun childhood stories, etc. etc. nothing too heavy yet.) you guys cook together for the first time, cue cg of jumin with like... idk tomato sauce on his cheek or something. you watch a movie together and elizabeth falls asleep on your lap and jumin dies on spot idk

this is also where your first kiss happens, and pretty much in the same way except its much more mutual and he doesn’t look at sarah this time because his focus is on trying to make it look like he doesn’t even care that she’s there because you’re the only thing he cares about. (which.... isn’t actually hard for him to do at all)

chatrooms are pretty typical for this timeframe — you guys all know the drill. the other members are like “wow they seem really close” and speculate on whether or not you guys are actually together. zen is worried that jumin is going to force himself on you (wolves, etc.). yoosung is jealous that jumin gets to hang out with you. jaehee is upset that jumin is neglecting his work.

VAGUE mentions of weird activity on the messenger, but nothing too serious sounding. just enough to make jumin nervous -- esp with sarah and glam on his back still. this is when he locks elizabeth up. 

 day 8, the chairman learns that sugar round is worthless and that glam and sarah have been duping him the whole time. they’re disgraced and are never heard from again so... problem solved but this also means that you and jumin no longer have a reason to stay “together”... and you’re both kind of falling for each other so obviously that’s no good. you spend one last night in the penthouse before resolving to break things off officially in the morning. the other members talk about how sad you guys both seem to be parting.

BAD STORY END 1:

if you shy away at the fake intimate gestures (hand holding, hugging, etc), and pointedly answer incorrectly when asked a question about jumin that you should know the answer to, your ruse fails and you guys are caught faking the relationship. to avoid the scandal breaking to the press, jumin winds up marrying sarah anyways.

the branch point for this one would be right before the kiss scene, if you’re on track for the good end then the kiss happens, if not, you’re forced to shove him away when he goes in for it, revealing to sarah that you guys are frauds.

the cg would be him and sarah at the press release for their engagement announcement. sarah’s all smiles and jumin is... pretty understandably miserable looking. a reporter asks him about the other person he was in a relationship with prior to his engagement to sarah, and he reads off a line about how sarah captivated him like no one else ever could in an emotionless voice.

BAD RELATIONSHIP END 1:

if you do fine during the VN portions, but aren’t active enough in the chats, then the fake relationship plan works, but afterwards its just... really awkward. once the whole mint eye thing ends you’re pretty much just excommunicated from the rfa since you... didn’t really seem to like them all that much.

day 9:

a huge attack on the messenger happens, coupled with explicit threats directed at mc, sending everyone into such a panic that ending your fake relationship is the last thing on anyones mind. jumin is so fucking scared that he’s going to lose you, and muses in the chatroom about why he’s more scared for your safety than he would be if it were, say, yoosung being threatened (cue yoosung’s crying emoji lmao). everyone else is like “well clearly its because you’re in love with them”

anyways. they decide its for the best if you continue to stay at the penthouse and in spite of everything, you’re both... kind of relieved lol. 

everything is all fine and dandy until elizabeth III runs away, ramping jumins anxiety up to 11 like... right away

this is where we really start to see behavior more along the lines of what happens in his route, you suggest the two of you leave and search for elizabeth, and he refuses to let you go, etc. etc. 

it sort of turns into a fight, but it all works out in the end. he tells you about rika and elizabeth and why she means so much to him, and you guys talk about how fear of losing someone important to him can’t rule his life, and that its one thing to be careful, but another entirely to try to control someone else’s behavior because of fear. 

you convince him to get some sleep, assuring him that elizabeth will turn up soon and that he’s going to be alright. you guys fall asleep next to eachother without even thinking about it. its not until jumin mentions something about waking up next to you in the chat the next day that the rest of the gang is like “uhhhh,,,, why are you guys still sharing a bed”

MEANWHILE lol seven and yoosung arrive at mint eye and find elizabeth, just like what happens in canon. they decide to bring her back tomorrow.

BAD STORY END 2:

obligatory mint eye ending. if you’re too aggressive and forward with jumin and don’t give him time to properly process his feelings, he doesn’t offer to let you stay at the penthouse, relying on seven’s assurance that the apartment is totally secure (it’s not). saeran breaks in and takes you away.

this branch happens pretty early in the day, before elizabeth escapes.

i thought about a cg for this one but tbh... there are so many saeran and mc at mint eye BE cgs that idk what i could come up with that wouldn’t be super derivative lol

BAD RELATIONSHIP END 2:

again, because you’re only talking to jumin and not the rest of the rfa, he assumes that you don’t like being in the rfa very much BUT he still likes you... a lot and is very worried about your safety re: hacker, AND because he still hasn’t really dealt with his issues regarding v/rika/emotions, you guys decide to just straight up leave lol. you move to a different country where he can pretty much continue doing his work remotely while keeping you safe.

the cg for this one is the two of you in a different cushy apartment somewhere. you’re making dinner while he works. its... stable, but noticeably stiff. neither of you are talking much and his dialogue is pretty stilted. its pretty clear that he regrets abandoning his friends and is unhappy.

day 10:

3AM chat with zen where he speaks entirely in thinly veiled hypotheticals about you guys. (“well, if i thought i could have a shot with someone i really loved, i think i would take that chance and tell them, even if i might get shot down. and even if that person was a huge ass who my sexy white-haired best friend hated. i would tell them how i felt”)

seven secures the messenger again and the threat is declared neutralized! you’re safe to go home but neither you nor jumin want that at all.

yoosung brings elizabeth back around 9, and it proceeds pretty similarly to what happens in his route: he’s wary about taking her back because he feels that he’s mistreated her, you’re like “whoa buddy you’re going too far in the opposite direction here” and you and v have to convince hm that its going to be okay. the only real difference is that v doesnt also have to convince him to let you go. he just says something about how the two of you seem to bring out the best in each other, and that jumin is brighter when you’re around. 

later, jumin (tries) to make you lunch using the cooking skills you taught him a few days ago as a final payment (since you refused actual money) for all of your help, both with his father and with elizabeth, but he winds up ordering in instead. its very cute BUT its super awkward because neither of you has said anything about not wanting to leave.

finally you have to face the music and pack your bags. you hug jumin goodbye and make him promise to still get lunch with you sometime before heading back to rika’s apartment sadly.

everyone is like “yo what the fuck???” and its actually yoosung of all people who is finally like “this is ridiculous. you two clearly have feelings for each other and you need to deal with it” 

jumin is absent from most of the chatrooms for the rest of the day  though, so he doesn’t really see anything until he forces himself to log on later that night and is like “oh”

and YES of course this is going to culminate in a typical romcom scene where he has driver kim race to the apartment so he can pound on the door and apologize to you and tell you how he feels!! maybe it even happens in the rain just to maximize romance. the important thing here is that you finally kiss him for real this time and its perfect.

BAD STORY END 3:

pretty much jumin’s BE2, if you werent assertive enough with him re: his possession/control issues on day 9, he never gets over them. when elizabeth is returned he locks her back up and insists that you continue to stay with him as well, canon BE2 ensues.

i gotta hand it to cheritz. its a really good bad ending and theres not much i wanna change about it. its so scary in a calm sort of way, which i think is the perfect vibe for a dangerously unhealthy jumin. if only people would stop fetishizing it lolol

party (GE ver):

you and jumin mingle with the guests and the other members for a bit, but as the evening goes on, jumin gets restless. he pulls you aside and tells you that, while you did a wonderful job planning the party, he can’t help but regret that your guys’ first

date is technically a work function. especially when the fake first date you told his father was so perfect. he then decides that the two of you have been there long enough to fulfill your obligations, and that no one could really begrudge you if you “took off” a little early. you guys fly to paris that night and have that dinner on top of the eiffel tower.

the ending cg isn’t a kiss one, but a more simple, sweet one of the two of you in a dimly lit restaurant, jumin listening to you talk with the most tender, loving look in his eyes.

party (NE ver):

you and jumin mingle with the guests and the other members for a bit, but as the evening goes on, jumin gets restless. he pulls you aside and tells you that, while you did a wonderful job planning the party, he can’t help but regret that your guys’ first date is technically a work function. especially when the fake first date you told his father was so perfect. he laments the fact that if he was caught shirking responsibilities to take you on a real date, the press would have a field day with it, but promises to make it up to you, and take you out on a proper one tomorrow.

this cg is the two of you dancing at the rfa party, jumin resting his chin on the top of your head and daydreaming out loud about everything the two of you could do on your real first date.

[charminglatina]

Riverdale Couples and Ships as Romantic Tropes (Part II). 🌹

Here is Part II of the list!

#11. Bughead (Jughead Jones & Betty Cooper; ROMANTIC TROPE: CHILDHOOD FRIENDS ROMANCE)

Childhood Friend Romance

Childhood Friend Romance is a part of romantic plots, when characters develop romantic feelings for someone who they spent their childhood years with. Often the pair will see each other as Just Friends (and may even deny accusations that they might have a different type of relationship); then, when puberty hits or when they meet again after being apart for some time, they will realize that the other is all grown up. If the pair goes through a Puppy Love phase from the very beginning, a Childhood Marriage Promise may be involved. Resistance to see a childhood friend as a potential romantic partner is known as the "Westermarck effect", a theory that claims that people who grew up together before the age of 6 are likely to become hardwired to think about each other Like Brother and Sister, with a Stupid Sexy Friend squicked reaction to the notion of romance. (Other studies question this on the basis that though few of the people they examined had major romantic relationships with childhood friends, many had crushes and romantic feelings that just didn't make it.) Subtrope of Childhood Friends. See also Patient Childhood Love Interest, a subtrope common in Harem Series. Compare also with High-School Sweethearts. Often benefits from First Girl Wins.

#10. Veggie (Reggie Mantle & Veronica Lodge; ROMANTIC TROPE: SLAP-SLAP-KISS)

Slap-Slap-Kiss

"[Punches Hiccup on the arm] That was for kidnapping me. [Kisses him on the cheek] That was for everything else."— Astrid, How to Train Your Dragon

This trope is nothing but universal in romantic stories. It frequently brings to a close the Will They or Won't They? phase of a Romance Arc. When a male and female character spend a lot of time bickering, it is all but inevitable that sooner or later he will interrupt her in mid-rant by suddenly grabbing her and kissing her. (Less frequently, she grabs and kisses him.) The kissed one rarely resists, and usually responds wholeheartedly. Usually this is triggered by their hostilities reaching a climax that results in an exchange of slaps, followed by a moment where both stare at each other in combined confusion and shock, after which they dive into the kiss. Either way, the kiss prompts both to realize that they've been in love all this time — the rationale being that they wouldn't argue so much if they didn't give a damn about each other. Normally results in some kind of permanent change in their relationship. The concept is related to the theory that hate is not necessarily the opposite of love so much as its twisted twin; its opposite would be apathy. Ergo, lots of contained emotion towards a person might be translated into lust given the proper catalyst. Pulled off successfully, it can be... quite satisfying. Otherwise, not so much. This trope is a major factor in Foe Yay shipping, since such arguments between those characters in the actual shows are often similar to examples of this trope (or even get Why Don't You Marry It? reactions). It should be noted that in Real Life it's not exactly a sign of a healthy relationship, with the exception of a little roleplay between consenting adults. Note that this trope is mostly Exactly What It Says on the Tin. If there is no kiss, that's Belligerent Sexual Tension. Dating back at least to William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Compare "Shut Up" Kiss, Love at First Punch, Belligerent Sexual Tension, "Take That!" Kiss, Vitriolic Best Buds, and Destructo-Nookie. Often considered in similar terms to Foe Yay. Tsunderes are often involved on at least one end. Kiss-Kiss-Slap is this in reverse (kissing, then fighting).

#09. Jarchie (Archie Andrews & Jughead Jones; ROMANTIC TROPE: HO YAY)

HoYay

Homoeroticism, yay! Those moments of plot, dialogue, acting, etc., that fans delight in interpreting as homoerotic. It probably originates from the old days, when the homosexuality taboo was serious enough that every gay pairing was considered a Crack Pairing, so when authors wrote same-sex characters as very intimate with each other, audiences largely accepted that they are just very good friends, and moved on, or when authors wrote outright references to homosexuality, most just laughed at the sheer absurdity of the thought. With the gradual dissolution of homophobic moral codes, more and more writers have been able to publish and share their work uncensored, changing media forever. Nowadays, Yaoi Fans and Yuri Fans willingly interpret any interaction as potentially gay, for characters without canonical orientations and even for those specifically stated by their creators to be straight (in which case the author may be very annoyed by the fans' insistence otherwise). Cultural differences also have their say here. The level of accepted physical intimacy between close friends and adult relatives is hardly constant across various eras and nationalities, so, for example, the hugs and kisses which seemed mundane for an antiquated reader may appear blatantly erotic in the eyes of a contemporary one. In particular, the concept of Romantic Two-Girl Friendship — and Romantic Two-Guy Friendship — highly intimate yet platonic, only began falling out of use in the latter half of the 19th century. When this is done intentionally, it's Homoerotic Subtext, or possibly Implied Love Interest or Ship Tease. In the related trope called Foe Yay, even rivals or mortal enemies can get this treatment by fans and writers alike, especially if they have a more friendly past together, or one is inordinately obsessed with the other. In Fan Fic, this is the direct cause of many a Slash Fic.

#08. Choni (Cheryl Blossom & Toni Topaz; ROMANTIC TROPE: OPPOSITES ATTRACT)

Opposites Attract

"Strange extremes meet in love's pathway."—The Scarlet Pimpernel

Strong relationships, in both TV and real life, thrive on how each member compensates for the other’s weaknesses with their own strengths, and vice versa. A Motor Mouth just isn’t as funny if he doesn’t have the Straight Man to torment. Similarly, only when a sweet, shy person is paired up with an equally jerkish one is their kindness and shyness made all the more noticeable. It is all but guaranteed that the characters’ differences will cause more friction than harmony between them. That’s what gives the Odd Couple its fuel for Slap-Slap-Kiss, Will They or Won't They?, and Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other situations. Bickering and mushiness in one package. What’s not to like? The Odd Friendship also has elements of this, but tends to focus on how the differences make them see each other, and maybe the world, through new eyes. Perhaps the serious one is Not So Above It All, or the Shrinking Violet has an inner strength they never knew they had. A Moe Couplet also does something similar to this, focusing on how each half of the couplet brings out the other's endearing or nurturing traits. Opposites attract has become so widespread in buddy cop shows, in the form of Serious White Guy meets Loud Black Guy, that it branched off into its own subtrope. About the biggest challenge in creating a day-and-night dynamic is to keep the attract and repel cases relatively balanced. When the pendulum swings too far toward the repel side and the characters seem more interested in torturing each other than helping out, it’s no longer cute to watch; it’s just masochistic. The key (both in fiction and in Real Life) is to watch the pair's goals. If they want the same thing but use completely different methods to achieve it, it's this trope. If they want different things entirely, it's a divorce waiting to happen. If you add a third-party mediator for balance, you get a Power Trio. Contrast Birds of a Feather. Compare Too Much Alike.

#07. Cheronica (Cheryl Blossom & Veronica Lodge; ROMANTIC TROPE: VILLAINOUS CRUSH)

Villainous Crush

"Just fear me. Love me. Do as I say, and I shall be your slave."— Jareth the Goblin King to Sarah, Labyrinth

This trope applies whenever a villainous character has romantic and/or sexual feelings for a heroic one. If this crush takes a turn for the perverse (and most such crushes tend towards this), this can lead to tropes like I Have You Now, My Pretty, Forceful Kiss, Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me, And Now You Must Marry Me, Scarpia Ultimatum, and Go-Go Enslavement where the villain tries to force their desires upon the character, although none of those require a Villainous Crush. Additionally, the villain may become a Stalker with a Crush. If the crush itself is a motivating factor in their Start of Darkness, then it's Love Makes You Evil. This trope isn't always negative, though. This trope can conversely be a very humanising trait for an Anti-Villain. The heroic character may become a Morality Pet, and can be fairly certain that their villainous admirer will never harm them or allow harm to come to them, barring certain exceptions. They may even step in to protect them from other villains who have fewer compunctions. Taken all the way, it may become Love Redeems. If the feelings are mutual or an actual relationship develops, then it's Dating Catwoman instead. When this is purely subtextual, see Foe Romance Subtext. The specific variant when the Evil Empress captures the hero to seduce him is Villainesses Want Heroes. Not to be confused with Foe Yay, which are purely audience reactions.

#06. Archosie (Archie Andrews & Josie McCoy; ROMANTIC TROPE: BIRDS OF A FEATHER)

Birds Of A Feather

Grace: My mum always said opposites attract. Rich: That's magnets. We're people.—Skins

Relationships, particularly romantic ones, tend to thrive when the people involved are similar. People are simply more likely to get along if they share common interests, values, beliefs, and goals. Thus people with similar personalities will often flow together easily, whether romantically or not. The dynamic of this pair differs widely from Opposites Attract pair. Their personalities can often be interchangeable and both of them can have a same role if they are a part of a group. However, their common obstacle is having a harder time to compensate for each other's weaknesses. Be warned, writers: while often Truth in Television, this trope can sometimes be seen to create a poorly written Love Interest who just happens to be a Gender Flip of the main character. When the commonalities are much fewer but still create a bond, see Commonality Connection. Contrast Too Much Alike.

#05. Beronica (Veronica Lodge & Betty Cooper; ROMANTIC TROPE: ROMANTIC TWO-GIRL FRIENDSHIP)

Romantic Two-Girl Friendship

"It was perfectly acceptable at Baker & Inglis to get a crush on a fellow classmate. At a girls school a certain amount of emotional energy, normally expended on boys, gets redirected into friendships."—Middlesex

At the beginning of adolescence, there is a time when friendship is emphasized, usually junior high/middle school. These friendships can have very strong emotional bonds, and, when two girls develop a close bond, it will almost appear to be a romance. They hold hands. Getting together to do something is a "date." Fights are treated as a "break-up." They're willing to sleep next to each other in the same bed (and maybe even cuddle). They're also sometimes capable of moving and speaking in perfect unison. They may not actually be in a romantic relationship, but it is emphasized in such a way that if they were, you'd assume it'd look this way. In the Western world, this was far more common up until the late 1800s, and applied to both men and women, even into adulthood. It was referred to as "romantic friendship." This practice waned at the turn of the 20th century as adults, particularly men, did not want to be mistaken as homosexual. Note Generally, it still only occurs between young girls, where it is more socially acceptable and not indicative of sexual orientation. In Japan, this is known as "Class S" and is far more common than in the West. Due to the influence of Western female literature,Note the Japanese developed a belief that young girls are expected to have friendships with each other that emulate boyfriend–girlfriend relationships. This is considered a temporary but wonderful part of adolescence, which they can later "graduate" from to "real" relationships with boys. To remain in a "Class S" relationship past middle school is seen as a sign of immaturity, although it is expected that these friendships will continue into adulthood without the romantic elements. The possibility of one or more of the girls involved in a "Class S" relationship being truly invested in the other romantically is usually ignored. If the romance starts to become too passionate, parents may try to intervene to separate the girls. This should never become physical that way; it would "corrupt" the Incorruptible Pure Pureness, which is then traded in for marriage. If the girls do cross the line into sex (or even passionate kissing), they are no longer this trope, instead becoming Schoolgirl Lesbians, and are treated differently. Compare Heterosexual Life-Partners, where it just doesn't seem as romantic but remains a tremendously important personal bond, above and beyond a genuine romantic relationship. Also compare Experimented in College.

#04. Varchie (Archie Andrews & Veronica Lodge; ROMANTIC TROPE: UPTOWN GIRL)

Uptown Girl

"She's a rich girl, she don't try to hide it, Diamonds on the soles of her shoes. He's a poor boy, empty as a pocket, Empty as a pocket with nothing to lose."—Paul Simon, "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes"

You know the story. It's a love story. Our lovers are from different worlds — one wealthy, one not. The poor girl has fallen in love with the Gentleman Snarker, or the Unlucky Everydude secretly courts the daughter of the richest man in town. And she loves him too. Maybe it was Love at First Sight. Maybe she has a habit of slipping out to the seedier side of town for a night of fun. Maybe they've been friends their whole lives and the difference in status never really mattered. Will their love be enough to let them be happy together?

In any case, this is usually played out in one of three ways:

The poor guy and rich girl mutually fall in love, and neither one cares about their differences in wealth. People around them, however, do, and conspire to interfere with True Love.

The poor guy falls for the rich girl, even though he knows that she's out of his league. Undaunted, our hero engages in some Zany Scheme to get her to notice him or be impressed by him. This usually ends with the girl revealing that she doesn't care if he's rich or poor, and that she loves him for who he is.

The poor guy and the rich girl fall for one another, but he doesn't know she's rich at first. When he finds out, he's either intimidated by her wealth once he finds out, or else doesn't think he's good enough for her. As before, she doesn't care about such things, and has to convince him that he's the one she wants.

When the rich girl wants nothing to do with the poor guy, but slowly warms up to him, it's a different trope entirely. Note that the roles aren't locked by gender: a working-class girl who loves a rich boy also fits this trope, as do two lovers of the same gender.��A relationship variant of the Odd Couple and quite often overlaps with Nobody Thinks It Will Work. Also often leads to cases of I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me, either with severe case of insecurity (like the third type above), or simply the poor guy being constantly feeling lucky and appreciative that someone so rich could fall for him. If it's not just the fact that she comes from money, but that he feels like she's above him, she's a Peerless Love Interest. Compare with All Girls Want Bad Boys, which often follows the same socioeconomic groups (or the inverse, if the girl is The Ingenue and the boy is an Gentleman Snarker or Spoiled Brat). Can overlap with Single Woman Seeks Good Man as it is the guy's personality that wins her heart (as is the case mentioned above). Not to be confused with the Brittany Murphy film Uptown Girls, which doesn't use this trope. Not to be confused with City Mouse either. This is transitioning into Dead Horse Trope territory, since interclass marriage is no longer shocking, and the expectation that men should be the breadwinner in the family is much weaker today than it used to be. On the other hand, it may become an Undead Horse Trope with the emergence of culture wars and new waves of social stratification. For the non-romantic variant, see Interclass Friendship. For the version endemic to India, see Type Caste, although that trope is not restricted solely to marriage and relationships.

#03. Falice (FP Jones & Alice Cooper; ROMANTIC TROPE: UNRESOLVED SEXUAL TENSION AKA UST)

Unresolved Sexual Tension (UST)

"To repress one's feelings only makes them stronger."— Yu Shu Lien, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Two people are obviously attracted to each other, but some element of the story is keeping them apart. This tension is frequently referred to as UST in fandom, where it is pronounced "oost" or Yu-Ess-Tee. Also known as "Long Unresolved Sexual Tension". Belligerent Sexual Tension is a way to keep the UST by having the couple fight each other too much to actually get together. They Do is when it gets resolved (Literally Falling in Love might help). Shipping Bed Death and Strangled by the Red String are when it gets resolved badly. Compare All Love Is Unrequited, Will They or Won't They?, Just Friends, Moment Killer (a staple of a UST relationship), Maybe Ever After (a more uncertain version), Cannot Spit It Out. Contrast Official Couple, when the couple is already together, and Friends with Benefits, where the primarybond in the relationship is sex.

#02. Barchie (Archie Andrews & Betty Cooper; ROMANTIC TROPE: WILL THEY OR WON’T THEY?)

Will They Or Won’t They?

"Pam is very attractive, no question. If I didn't have an award show to host, I could easily see having two or three seasons of will-they-won't-they sexual tension that ultimately goes nowhere."—Conan O'Brien, Emmy 2006 opening skit, after crashing, The Office (US)

Two characters, often combative but with obvious Unresolved Sexual Tension, resist going into a full blown relationship for a rather long time. Usually the two characters will be presented so that "they will" is the conclusion to root for; only rarely is the question of whether the writers think they should in any real doubt. Actually ending the dance is a tricky business. It is difficult for shows to recover from the loss of a major source of dramatic tension represented by an unrequited relationship. Many shows Jump the Shark or suffer Shipping Bed Death when the two characters finally get together. A common problem is that the show suddenly becomes about the relationship rather than remaining true to its original premise. Sometimes an attempt is made to introduce a new source of dramatic tension, but it is frequently cheesy and lame. To avoid this, many shows choose to answer the question and end the show nearly simultaneously via a Last Minute Hookup. Of course, the opposite can also occur. Shows can go out of their way to avoid resolving the relationship, making ever-more-desperate narrative leaps. In longer-running shows, they may even have the characters hook up for a little while, only to split up over and over again, until by the time they finally let the characters get actually, technically married, the show has lost its viewership anyway. Belligerent Sexual Tension is often a victim of this. Sometimes a Love Epiphany can be used to have a character realize his/her feelings, but still not resolve the question, just add a new dynamic to it. A fundamental Shipping-inducement strategy. See also Almost Kiss, Held Gaze, Relationship Upgrade, Moment Killer, Everyone Can See It. When a series ends without even a hint of resolution to will-they-or-won't-they, it's No Romantic Resolution. If it's more ambiguous, it's Maybe Ever After. Contrast Friends with Benefits, where they definitelydo it, but without the emotional baggage. Compare Just Friends and They Do. Contrast Platonic Life-Partners and Ship Sinking — they won't. See Just Eat Gilligan if it's a major plot point. See also Break-Up/Make-Up Scenario when they separate for some dramatic reason, spend a time apart, then reconcile (usually with a kiss, which breaks the Will They Or Won't They)

#01. Jeronica (Jughead Jones & Veronica Lodge;  ROMANTIC TROPE: BELLIGERENT SEXUAL TENSION AKA BST)

Belligerent Sexual Tension (BST)

"Wonderful girl! Either I'm gonna kill her, or I'm beginning to like her!"— Han Solo about Princess Leia Organa, A New Hope

There's a couple, usually a sometimes sweet, sometimes grouchy female (Tsundere) paired with a secretly-kind jerk (Jerk With A Heart Of Gold), who are not able to admit their feelings. At the top of their lungs. Despite the conflict, there is an attraction. This is usually obvious to everyone around except the couple. Confront them with the obvious, they'll deny deny deny. Sometimes they will progress to admitting their friendship but insist they are Just Friends. Eventually, they can admit their feelings to practically anyone except their loved one. It ends up where both characters dance around admitting their feelings as if the words "I love you" are some sort of death curse, much to the frustration of the audience and the other characters. Older Than Steam, since this is used in Much Ado About Nothing, and has varying degrees of popularity at different times. If there is a Love Epiphany with one of these characters, expect it to change nothing, at least in the short term. This can even be true in established long-term relationships; see Like an Old Married Couple. If the whole relationship is defined by the belligerence, it can become The Masochism Tango. If a pair of outright enemies has this sort of attraction, it's a case of Foe Romance Subtext and when it ultimately goes from subtext to text, then it's Dating Catwoman. See also Slap-Slap-Kiss, No Accounting for Taste, Well, Excuse Me, Princess! and Defrosting Ice Queen. If we're lucky, at the end we may get to see a moment of Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other. Expect this couple to be either extremely popular or completely hated by the fandom. For the platonic version, compare Vitriolic Best Buds and With Friends Like These.... Not to be confused with Hate at First Sight, although it may overlap.

[seventeen-scenarios-blog]

[DRABBLE REQUEST] SoulmateAU!Wonwoo (T)

Request: Angst where Wonwoo cheats on the reader Requester: zaza anon Genre: Angst, Soulmate AU Word Count: 2,097 Warnings: I tend to realise these AUs tend to rip the soul out of me so be warned, I guess? And OH IT’S RATED T FOR IMPLICATIONS. VERY STRONG SMUT IMPLICATIONS. Do approach with discretion

A/N: AIGHT GUYS, I just wanna let you guys know that even though I’m writing this, I do not condone cheating in any way, I threw in the soulmate AU to make it marginally bearable for me to write. CHEATING IS NOT OKAY UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. IF YOUR PARTNER IS CHEATING ON YOU WITHOUT CONSENT, LEAVE THEM. Let’s stop romanticising this and live with healthy happy relationships filled with sunshine and rainbows (says me who is rotting away on a shelf ahahahaha ineedaboyfriend hahahahahaha:”D)

wooed<3

“Wonwoo…”

You are trying so hard to keep your voice mild and level, for a single drop of emotion would send you crashing into desolation. You thought your eyes had been playing tricks on you at first, he hadn’t intended for you to find it out at all, but the sight of the mark on his skin was unmistakable. The man stares back at you, his eyes glittering with guilt as his hand clutches the back of his neck.

A dry swallow. “Please, just show it to me.”

He whispers your name, broken and defeated. But you don’t take back your words, steeling yourself for what’s to come. Finally, he sighs, lowering his hand to reveal his nape to you.

And there it was, the bright silver strip etched across his neck. It shines at you almost mockingly, and you slowly draw in a shaky breath, letting the sight of it sink in. “When?”

It was a question without any context, but Wonwoo knows clearly what you are asking about. He dips his head, unable to meet your eyes. “Two days ago, on a subway. We brushed shoulders by accident and it just… happened.”

You nod solemnly. “And? Did you go after them?”

His face contorts, eyebrows furrowing in a moment of confusion. “No, why should I?”

Did you really have to spell it out for him? Or is he still trying to avoid what’s already painfully obvious? You reach out, placing your hand on the groove between his neck and shoulder, prompting him to look at you once more. “Wonwoo, they’re your soulmate.”

“And you’re my girlfriend.” His response was curt, as though his one statement quells all of the issues at hand. “Gaining my mark doesn’t matter to me, it shouldn’t matter to us, at all… You know I stopped believing in soulmates a long time ago.”

He was sincere, you know that, and you’re compelled to believe him. But that’s just not how your society is programmed to work.

“If what you said was true… why did you even bother hiding your mark from me, then?”

“It’s because I didn’t want to hurt you… I thought we’d be better off pretending it never happened,” he admits. “I’m sorry, I should have been honest with you.” He curls your hair behind your shoulder, revealing your own mark on your neck. While his shone in brilliant silver, your mark was as black as night, except that it will never see the light of day, ever.

You were just twelve when it happened. You were coming home from school when a searing pain erupts along the back of your neck, causing you to stop and grab it in agony. Your friends were beside themselves with excitement, believing that you’ve chanced upon your soulmate, and darted around like excited meerkats looking for them. But you knew something was wrong.

Gaining a silver mark has always been described as just a rush of electricity-like adrenaline coursing through all your veins, and that your “blood starts singing with longing”, or something equally pretentious-sounding. The pain you had been feeling was akin to being stabbed by a flaming branding iron, leaving a burn that will scar you for life.

And when your friends point out that your mark was jet black instead of the conventional silver, your suspicions were confirmed. Your soulmate has died.

Your mother had burst into tears when you’ve informed her of this tragedy, pulling you into her bosom as she comforts you, and for some odd reason, you had cried too, hard. You didn’t know why you did, it just seemed like the only thing you were able to do at that point. Yet no amount of your tears seemed to alleviate the turmoil you are going through. You never thought the death of someone you’ve never seen in person would cause such grief, it was a lot more than what your young body could withstand.

Your soulmate had died before you even met them, and left you to spend the rest of your life alone.

Or that was what you believe your life was subjected to, until Wonwoo came in, a best friend of yours from early childhood. Unlike your other wide-eyed, innocent peers that had practically drank up the whole soulmate ordeal, Wonwoo had always been skeptical, and he never wanted his life to be dictated by a simple mark on his neck. Your soulmate’s death was what convinced Wonwoo to completely abandon the idea of having just one fixed partner for life, much less having them decided for you from the get-go.

He had swooped in to free you of your mourning, showering you with words of comfort, and essentially brought you out of that dark period of your life. Granted, you were both twelve at that time, and his care for you was mainly fraternal, much like a brother caring for his hurt sibling. But as time went on and you both grew older, you noticed that your mutual affection had blossomed beyond that, and you find yourself looking forward to his company more and more.

He had went against the societal norms when he confessed his romantic feelings towards you a couple of years ago, and was surprised to find out that you reciprocated them. You yourself had no idea that you were able to develop such strong passionate emotions towards someone other than your soulmate. You wondered if it was wrong, but Wonwoo had quickly dissipated all doubts in your mind with a happy kiss, marking the start of your relationship.

Wonwoo was nothing short of sweet and sensitive, always looking out for you, always there to tend to your every need. Your relationship hadn’t gone off without a hitch, however, the aftermath of losing a soulmate lingering deep within your subconscious; there were times when you’ve woken up in cold sweat and tears, having re-lived the pain of losing them. At those times, Wonwoo was a quick phone call away, soothing you with his calm, husky voice assuring you that he’ll be there with you always.

Oh, you had been a fool to believe him back then. You should have known that your time together with Wonwoo could be cut off in a moment’s notice. While you had lost your soulmate forever, Wonwoo has never experienced anything to do with his. All it takes is the tiniest form of contact with a total stranger for everything the both of you have meticulously built to utterly fall apart.

And of course, that day has come. Your boyfriend may not believe it to be so, but you knew that you’ve already lost him forever. You wonder how long it would take for Wonwoo’s bravado to succumb to the sheer power of the destiny predetermined for him.

That night, Wonwoo took you into his arms and showed you just how much he loved you, how much you mean to him. With every kiss on your bare skin came a whisper of sweet nothings. Wonwoo was so passionate. His touch was so gentle and loving yet… you could feel in his every action some undertones of desperation, powering him, and you’ve experienced the strength you never knew he had in the two years you’ve spent in a relationship with him.

It was as though he was trying to reassure himself that nothing has changed. You knew that he wanted you to forget. He wanted you to know that he will never leave you, even for his soulmate. But it seems like he was having trouble even convincing himself.

You teared up at that realisation, feeling his lips travel down your nape. You want to lose yourself in his fervorous eyes and get drunk on his lips as they danced across your body. You could let yourself be ignorant and continue letting the both of you live this lie.

This man meant the world to you. All you wanted to do was to love him as hard as he was loving you right there and then. That night, you were so scared, but you decide to seize every last moment you can have with him. That night, you made love to each other.  

He fell into deep slumber afterwards, leaving you alone with your thoughts. You wanted to let go and feel the same way you did before. Even in the darkness of the room, you can still see the glow from the strip of silver skin brandishing his neck, glaring at you. You hate to admit that it sickens you deep to the core, knowing that someone else is bearing the same silver mark, and knowing that they should be in your place instead.

Everything is wrong.

When you see him hunched over the bed, his face buried in his hands a few days later, you already expect the worst. Still, you find yourself slipping to the seat next to him, offering your comfort, just like what he had done for you when you were both twelve. You wrap your arms over his broad shoulders, leaning against his frame, shocked by the sheer force of the sobs silently but violently wracking through his body.

“I met him again,” is the only thing he stutters out, his voice shattered to pieces.

You know that you had absolutely no right to feel the harsh stab through your heart, so you suppress with all your might the tears stinging in your eyes and the bile rising up your throat. You knew that it was inevitable for Wonwoo to see his soulmate again. You had already mentally prepared yourself for this moment.

“And?” you prompt him as gently as you can, rubbing soothing circles between his shoulders.

Soulmate or not, boyfriend or not, Wonwoo is still someone precious to you. Seeing him this broken sends your heart through a wringer, and you want to stand by him and support him. But you didn’t expect his next statement to hurt so much.

“We kissed. I kissed him.”

And that was it. Even though you promised yourself to tough it out, your hand instinctively withdraws back to your side, as though burnt. Wonwoo almost whines at the loss of your touch, lifting his head to meet your eyes with his bloodshot ones.

“I didn’t want this.” And you know he meant it. He had never intended for this to happen to the both of you, never intended to hurt you in any way. He would have never cheated on you. It is just a cruel game of fate that had been hardwired into your society for generations.

And by staying with him, you’re prolonging the pain you’re both experiencing. Wonwoo is destined to live out his own happily ever after with another person, while you are supposed to spend the rest of your life alone without a soulmate to call your own. That is the way things should have been from the day your mark turned black.

You should not have fought against it. You should not have gambled with fire.

You cried in each other’s arms, completely at loss of what to do at that point of time. Neither of you spoke a word, but you both knew that this was the last night you can spend together.

Come morning, you make the decision for the both of you.

Packing up every single one of your belongings, making sure to leave none behind, you slip your way out of the bedroom. You’ll disappear from Wonwoo’s life. You know that it was the best for the both of you.

But you can’t help but steal one last glance at the man you never thought you could love, still fast asleep, his arm outstretched into the side of the bed that had once accommodated you. He seems so lonely now, his curled-up figure so small against the mattress. The selfish side of you wants nothing more than to lie down next to him again, but you know that one day, that empty spot in the bedroom will be filled once more.

So you silently wish him well, and maybe it was just your imagination, but Wonwoo’s sleeping face looks more serene and at peace at your final resolution. Perhaps he’s wishing the same for you as well.

A last glance with a bittersweet smile, and you’re out of the apartment, for you are afraid that lingering anywhere longer than necessary would send you crumbling with regret. You bid a fond farewell as your eyes scan across the house once more, before closing the door to your relationship for good.

“Goodbye, Wonwoo.”

[alltheshadesoftruth-blog1]

Lannisters, Sex, and Power

“Everything is about sex except sex. Sex is about power.” ~ Oscar Wilde

Perhaps I’ve shown my hand a little too soon — perhaps I should have left you hanging. But sex is a key means by which Lannisters in A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF) cement and legitimise power.

Tywin and Joanna

For Tywin and Joanna, this is particularly interesting. Their marriage was not so much a dynastic match (although it had a pertinent symbolic value in ensuring that the world knew that the Lannisters stood together now, and these two young, powerful nobles were its future) as a love match. While it may be tempting to characterise Joanna as someone who is gentle (another example of the “fix-it” ship, where one heals and softens the other — whilst it’s true that Tywin hardened after Joanna died, that does not mean that either of them were gentle before then, except with each other), Tywin does not respect gentleness, does not respect conventional “womanly” attributes. And, again, that is not to say that Joanna did not follow her duty as a lady to the letter (ruling Casterly Rock in her husband’s stead, providing him with counsel when appropriate, bearing perfect golden twins, a willingness to bear him more children) — simply that she should be treated as a person in her own right, and not subjugated to Tywin’s narrative and thematic needs.

Joanna, as I picture her, is very similar to Tywin in her ambition (I think she was going to be married to Lord Lefford before the match with Tywin was proposed? That may be fanfic though — in any case, as a Lannister from a lesser branch, finally making it to the Rock is a dream come true) and in her means. And then, are we really to assume that a woman who has Tywin’s ambition, pride, and commitment to the idea that the end justifies the means would consent to be the King’s mistress? The stories of the mistresses of Aegon IV would have been well-known — not only for their bastard-born children, but for the way in which they were cast aside when the King had had his fill. The idea of being the King’s mistress may have seemed like it had power (and, if your bastard grew ambitious enough, it did, although this is a negatively-coded power), but not as much as one could have as 1) Lady Paramount of the Westerlands, a position matched in prestige only by the Lady Paramount of the North and the Queen Consort, and 2) as a trusted Lady Paramount whose lord was away ruling the kingdom. For all intents and purposes at this time, Joanna would have been ruling Lady Paramount of the Westerlands, far more important than an ordinary wife.

Sex would have been, then, a way for both of them to cement their legacy. Partly because, well, Lannisters are canonically sexually desirable — in the books, Cersei is described as the most beautiful woman in the world, for all her sneers, and Jaime as her twin fares no worse. Even Tywin, aged 58 at the time of his death, is described as broad-shouldered and trim, and was described by Stannis as having been everything that the realm would expect of a King. But also for the potential power that an heir would bring them both, materially and symbolically. Materially, of course, it meant that the succession was secure, and that both Tywin and Joanna had done their marital duties (although whether they truly felt like duties is debatable). But there was a great deal of symbolic importance to this as well. In providing House Lannister with both a healthy son and a healthy daughter, Joanna not only highlighted the ideal of fertility/virility always connected to House Lannister; but also the dynastic potential — in Westeros, loathsome as it is to our modern sensibilities, a daughter is a useful carrot to be dangled in front of unruly lords (if any remained after the Reyne-Tarbeck Rebellion), and a son, especially if warded with one’s vassals, as Jaime was at Crakehall, would be a nod to tradition, to legacy, and to present prosperity. Just like now, Westerosi economic and political arenas hate uncertainty.

Tywin and Joanna’s marriage was, then, both mutually beneficial and beneficial to House Lannister in terms of present and future prestige and standing in the noble community of Westeros. And it would, therefore, be seen as the benchmark against which all other Lannister marriages were measured.

Kevan and Dorna

As one would expect, we have less canon information about Kevan and Dorna’s marriage, as they are tertiary characters at best, but their marriage represents an important union in Westerlander politics. After the War of the Ninepenny Kings, Tywin demanded hostages from any debtor who could not afford their repayments: to ensure that they would remain true and that they would remember that House Lannister would no longer tolerate insolence or refusal to conform to the responsibilities of a vassal. Indeed, Harys Swyft is said to have said, on learning of Tywin’s demands, “The lion has awoken.”

Dorna Swyft was one such hostage — we can only imagine how she would have felt, mostly because GRRM doesn’t tell us — and it was in this situation that she became betrothed to Kevan.

Kevan is obviously cut from a different cloth to Tywin — one not unlike their father, Tytos. More willing to follow than to lead, gentler (though not necessarily kinder) and more willing to appease than to demand. Whether he and Dorna grew fond of one another or whether it was simply an arrangement by Tywin to ensure that Lord Swyft stayed loyal, Kevan would have obeyed without question, no matter his personal feelings. We can glean two things from this:

1) Kevan and Dorna’s marriage is a sign of the power of House Lannister. Not dissimilar to the threat faced by women in places plagued by Dothraki warriors, the fact that House Lannister can both take the daughter of a vassal and then marry her to one of its menfolk is a clear sign of dynastic power: liege lords asserting their dominance in the feudal system. No matter how happy in marriage they may have become by the time the books begin (and let’s not forget, we only have Kevan’s reflection on that), their marriage would have continued to be a sign of Lannister dominance. But we can see something else in this example.

2) Kevan and Dorna’s marriage is a sign of Tywin Lannister’s power over the lives of others. In linking himself so closely with the fortunes of House Lannister, its dominance heightens his own. Part of it is because of the differences of character between Kevan and Tywin (Kevan would be more likely to obey anyway, regardless of who it was); however it is largely down to Tywin’s own forceful and uncompromising nature that this match was made, and it is another sign of Tywin’s dominance in every area of Lannister life. Again, however happy in marriage Kevan and Dorna may have become by the time of the books, one of the most important decisions in a feudal society was made by Tywin and they have been living by it ever since.

Genna and Emmon

Genna was betrothed to Emmon Frey at the age of 7 and wed to him as soon as she had flowered, and she has been making him pay for it ever since. We know from the text that Emmon has been overpowered by Genna and that she has never let him forget that she is his social better and that he is not worthy of her. Genna and Emmon’s marriage is another example of how potentially disastrous Tytos’ “reign” was. If marriages can be seen as yardsticks for the power of a house in a feudal society, then marrying your only daughter, your key “carrot”, to the second son of a minor and ill-respected house from another Kingdom instead of to one of your principal bannermen (such as the Reynes, which would have avoided so much bloodshed) was a major blow to House Lannister’s credibility and a major blow to Genna’s own reputation: even with Jaime’s assertion that she is “all Lannister”, and even if Emmon were to die and she could remarry, her reputation would be tarnished by the dishonour of a marriage below her station.

That said, I think Genna would have remained faithful to Emmon — the consequences of being found guilty of infidelity would have been far worse than being simply married to him, and there are other ways she can avenge herself on him. By allowing the rumour to persist, she is slowly eroding his reputation, while the fact that he is so intimidated by her means that there is little damage to her own reputation, as he does not challenge her. In doing this, she reminds him that he is not worthy by both Westerosi standards and by her own, as he cannot please her (he has never been satisfactory, and he never will be, and in such a cutthroat environment as House Frey, where we have literal child murderers running wild, looking like you can’t even control your wife is not an option).

Another point to note in this, although it’s not so much linked to sex and marriage as it is to Westerosi gender and feudal expectations: the fact that Genna is described as laughing and joking with household knights etc. mirrors strongly with Ned Stark’s much-praised style of operating, whereby he invites a member of his household to sit at the high table to talk about their business. One could argue that, in this sense, Genna is not only showing that Emmon is not satisfactory, but that even she, a woman, can be a better lord.

Tygett and Darlessa

If we only have a little bit of information about Kevan and Dorna’s marriage, we have less about Tygett and Darlessa, as at least Tygett is dead before the series begins. However, what information we do have suggests that they were not as fortunate as Kevan and Dorna in their match. Lord Marbrand, aside from being Tywin and Tygett’s uncle, is one of the most important bannermen in the Westerlands, as shown by the continued importance of Addam Marbrand in Jaime’s life — their sons are cultivated as friends and allies to the heir, their daughters seen as worthy wives. So on paper, a match between Darlessa and Tygett is only natural.

Despite the apparently beneficial nature of the match, they only had one son. Looking at the age of Tyrek (apparently about 13 at the time of Myrcella’s departure for Dorne), there are two options left to us:

1) Tygett and Darlessa married relatively late for a Westerosi noble couple. (Westeros is early compared to our own medieval average marriage ages). This in turn means that either Tywin specifically reserved Tygett for a Marbrand bride, waiting until Darlessa came of age (and Tywin’s draconian control over his life can only have grated with Tygett); or that Tygett tried to “pull a Blackfish” for as long as possible but, significantly, failed. Which could compound the seeds of resentment already present since their youth and Tywin’s conduct in the Reyne-Tarbeck Rebellion.

2) Tyrek was born very late in their marriage. This could either have been a calculated example of resistance on Tygett’s part (Tywin may have forced him to marry, but he wouldn’t be able to force him to have sex with his wife any more times than was necessary); or another example, in the Westerosi mindset, of why Tygett just didn’t quite match up to Tywin. Either way, we can see clear signs of how the relationship between Tywin and Tygett fully disintegrated (having already been partway there following Tygett’s horror at Castamere, which doesn’t seem to have been shared by any of his siblings).

Tywin creates such an unliveable goal that it would have been very difficult to live up to. This would, of course, cause further conflict, as Tygett is expected to conform to the Westerosi ideals of masculinity, and all that entails — having to occupy a dominant position in literally every aspect of his life, having to essentially roleplay as Tywin, would have been just as personally damaging as every other part of Tywin’s influence.

Tygett and Darlessa’s marriage can, therefore, tell us a lot about the more coercive nature of marital culture in Westeros. This was a marriage which had power exerted upon it from outside since the beginning, and this did not stop until Tygett’s death from a pox (interesting in itself — it’s not specified what kind, but if it were a venereal disease, Darlessa is not recorded as having had this or having died from it herself; which could suggest that he took it upon himself to relieve his unhappiness in a way designed to remind Tywin of their father…but then that failed too, and led to his death).

Gerion (featuring Joy and the Sailor’s Wife)

Gerion’s an interesting case — despite the fact that he doesn’t ostensibly fit into half of this piece’s remit, Gerion’s attitude to marriage, from what we can glean from the text, is very telling about his character and his relationship with Tywin.

For a start, Tywin is likely the only ‘Lord of the Rock’ that Gerion has ever really known — of course, Tytos was still alive when Gerion was born (indeed, Gerion’s wetnurse became his new mistress after Jeyne Marbrand died — but Gerion himself says: “My lord father would have made a splendid innkeep, but old Toad would have been a better lord”), but the main authority figure in Gerion’s life was…Tywin. This, and the age gap between the brothers, highlights some key aspects to Gerion’s relationship with authority and what this means for his attitude to sex.

1) Gerion’s the youngest of five siblings, the fourth son of Tytos Lannister. He is unlikely to ever have a keep and is therefore not that much of a dynastic catch, despite having the last name “Lannister”. So Gerion is really the only one of the five siblings who can enjoy being a Lannister, with no responsibilities or expectations. He doesn’t even have to attempt to make a name for himself from under Tywin’s shadow, he can kick back and relax. Which, in turn, means that he has a much more relaxed attitude to sex, since he has no form of dynastic responsibility

2) Joy is a key example both of the friction between Tywin and Gerion and of Gerion’s attitude to the world. We never hear of Briony except for the fact that she gave birth to Gerion’s bastard (was she provided for? Perhaps, but certainly not at the Rock, after Tytos’ own mistress — Gerion poked the sleeping dragon, he never stabbed it with a pitchfork) and she and Joy were separated. This last was probably at Tywin’s behest (‘fine, have a bastard, but she will be a Lannister bride with all the responsibilities that that entails’) but Gerion certainly, then, showed no signs of taking responsibility for her. He may not have power in any conventional sense, but he still takes his rights as a Lannister and as a man in Westerosi society.

3) The Sailor’s Wife is also interesting in terms of Gerion and his view of sex. It’s not really clear from the text why the Sailor’s Wife has to marry her clients: but it is quite telling from Gerion’s perspective. For him, because he has no dynastic responsibilities, marriage is a means to an end, and he probably didn’t even think of what would happen after he left and went on to Valyria. He drifts in a way that skips over the line from naivety into thoughtlessness.

4) Every canon piece of information we have about Gerion seems to directly clash with what we know about Tywin: Tywin, proudly connected to Casterly Rock vs Gerion, who seems to have spent as little time in the Rock as he could as soon as he was able to travel; Tywin, who desperately hid any sign that he had extra-marital sex vs Gerion who has two known bastards both bearing his look and one named for the emotion he feels his brother lacks the most; Tywin, desperately committed to legacy vs Gerion, who vanished without a trace. So we can suggest that there is something slightly Freudian, perhaps, in the way that Gerion rebels against everything that Tywin stands for: symbolic patricide.

[floraone]

Ok guys, the official smutember prompts came out today, and this will be A THING.

Smutember is an event that runs allthroughout September for all fandoms. The following is meant as an addition, not a replacement. If you want to do daily prompts, please use the official words prompts (linked above).

However, since daily prompts can be a bit intimidating (especially for a fandom corner that’s 25+ years old like ours and people in it have busy lives), as the resident smut advocate in our fandom, I decided to customize an alternative that can still incorporate the official themes.

Down you’ll have a list of TROPE PROMPTS (note that these can be COMBINED with the official word prompts from the official blogs, but don’t necessarily have to be combined!). The idea is that with these you can post once (or twice) per week instead of daily.

Tropes can be combined, and they can be combined with the daily themes too, whatever floats your boat.

Here are the weekly trope challenges:

Reinvent a trope!

WEEK 1 (September 1st - 7th): Pick 1 or 2

🍋 Totally Into Your Alter Ego 🍋 Only One Bed 🍋 My Partner is a Badass / Action Girl / Battle Couple 🍋 The Bet 🍋 Blind Date 🍋 Caught In The Rain 🍋 Enemies/Friends/Partners to Lovers 🍋 Established Relationship 🍋 Sex With The Ex 🍋 Oh Crap There Are Fanfics Of Us

WEEK 2 (September 8th - 14th): Pick 1 or 2

🍋 Fuck Or Die 🍋 First Times 🍋 Fidelity Test 🍋 Forbidden Fruit 🍋 Flirting Under Fire 🍋 Go Seduce My Archnemesis 🍋 Magical Healing Cock 🍋 Happy Ending Massage 🍋 Intoxication/ In Vino Veritas 🍋 Introduction by Hookup 🍋 In Your Dreams

WEEK 3 (September 15th - 21st): Pick 1 or 2

🍋 Just Tonight 🍋 Just Friends / She Is Not My Girlfriend 🍋 Kink 🍋 Indirect Kiss 🍋 Lust At First Sight 🍋 Sex on a Mission 🍋 New Old Flame 🍋 One Night Stand 🍋 Mistakingly Overheard Conversation 🍋 (Secret Mutual/Unrequited) Pining 🍋 Accidental Pervert

WEEK 4 (September 22nd - 30th): Pick 1 or 2

🍋 Pretend or Secret Relationsship/ Fake Dating  / Fake Not-Dating 🍋 Snowed In/Storm Hits/HAVE TO STAY NOW WETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT 🍋 Sex Education/Teach Seduction 🍋 Stuck In A Small Place / Elevator / Closet 🍋 Telepathic or Emotional Bond/Mindlink/ Magic Bond / Mindlink Mates 🍋 Texting / Sexting 🍋 Talking In Bed 🍋 Unresolved Sexual Tension 🍋 Working Out Together Is Kinda Sexy 🍋 You Wake Up In A Room

RULES AFTER THE CUT

RULES

1. Rating:These fics don’t necessarily need to be M or, in the case of Ao3, E- rated. Obviously, they are very, very welcome to be explicit for this event, but you can also go T-rated and stay in lime or ‘blacked out’-territory if you’re uncomfortable with writing explicit scenes! Both is perfectly and absolutely welcome! 2. Minimum Age of Characters: Since this is a community event, if you do go explicit M rated material: age them up where necessary! So that everyone can be comfortable writing and reading these, let them be 18 at the minimum if they’re going to openly and explicitly wohoo. (16-17 is the global average age of consent worldwide, and also the average age for first sex among girls in many western countries. However, since most fanfic readers are located in the US, where the age of consent is 18, we’re going with 18 so that everyone can be comfortable reading!) If you go for canon fics at a time they are below this age, where you do not want to age up (say you’re going for an episode fix!) please stay in T territory for this event. 3. Off limits: Depictions of sexual acts that contain harmful, non-consenting behaviour with non-consenting individuals (or those that aren’t able to consent, for instance because of their age, or state of mind among else!). If it doesn’t fly by law or the ICD in real life, please refrain from depicting it in the context of this event. 4. Tag your triggers. Except the aformentioned limitation of harmful content, nothing is off limits. Explore your kinks! But if you write something that might be offensive to your readers, please tag it. This is ALSO a good way for your readers to find exactly what they ARE looking for! On Ao3 this can be done directly on the fic tags, for FF fics and fic links you can do it here on Tumblr via the fic post tags or in ANs. This is in consideration of your readers. 5. You can obviously post art for this event too. All previous rules apply here, as well. Unfortunately, Tumblr is now against tasteful nudity. That doesn’t mean you can’t link to a deviant art or similar account though, should you want to. Here too, please tag your triggers. If you still want to post art on Tumblr, choose a T rated image - keep them (semi-)clothed, show us a heated kiss, etc! (Obviously we would love ALL the art and the nude body is a beautiful, wonderful thing, but obviously Tumblr doesn’t agree with us anymore!) 6. Have fun! Celebrate sexuality in an open, sex-positive way with us, try to be unapologetic about your likes while you write this, and appreciate the beauty that comes in the form of content with a largely female-gazing creator-base and audience! Smut in fanfiction has been beautifully put as the subjectification of sexuality (as opposed to  objectification). So let’s celebrate this art form together! 7. Reviews: No one is forced to review. It can be uncomfortable to review a fic that contains sexual acts for any number of always valid reasons. Keep in mind, however, that much like a Burlesque dancer on stage, putting out sexual content can also be very intimidating to an author, and nothing is more discouraging than silence when baring yourself to an audience like this. That being said: Both Ao3 and FF have the option to review in anon mode. That means you have the option to remain anonymous while cheering the author on all the same. Just like the Burlesque dancer, your resident smut authors prefer to go on stage to loud cheering - it makes it all less awkward for them, and feels a little more like a big celebration!

I will be posting all UsaMamo Smutember contributions in this format on my blog if you @ me to the post.

The official hashtag for the event is Smutember2019 hosted by the official smutember blog.

[coppermarigolds]

If you don't mind me asking, what are your thoughts on reylo, and how has TLJ changed them?

I’m glad you asked, actually! That’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot since seeing TLJ, so thanks for giving me an excuse to get said thoughts down in written form. 

I’ll start by saying that I personally did not ship Reylo after The Force Awakens, though I can see why plenty of people did. They’re pretty; they have chemistry; he swoops her up in his arms and carries her off to his ship like Hades and Persephone. The interrogation scene in particular was a pretty charged sequence. The moment when Kylo takes off his helmet and the camera zooms in on Rey’s startled face, it was really easy to interpret that as an oh crap, he’s hot expression. Even I half-interpreted it that way and I didn’t even ship them. :p

The primary reason I was pretty iffy about the pairing after TFA (aside from thinking, at that point, that they might be related), was because of the whole vibe leading up to and during the interrogation scene. He forcibly renders her unconscious, abducts her, then invades her mind and uncovers personal information without her consent while looming over her and saying “You know I can take whatever I want” as she is physically restrained and crying. I don’t know if the screenwriters were intentionally drawing parallels to rape threats or not, but it’s uncomfortable and was actually quite upsetting to me the first time I watched the film. That she turns the tables on him and ends up reading his mind saved the scene for me, but still doesn’t entirely negate the previous creepiness. 

In TLJ, on the other hand, Rey essentially has all her agency back in their interactions. It’s interesting to compare and contrast their scenes in TFA versus TLJ:

In TFA, they both get into each other’s heads, but there’s that inherent underlying violence and power struggle. In TLJ, they have this mental Force connection to each other through most of the movie, but the fact that neither of them initiate it or can control it puts them back on equal footing. (Granted, there’s still a manipulative aspect to it if Snoke is telling the truth about being the one who established the Force bond, but in that case, Kylo was being manipulated just as much as Rey.) 

In TFA, Kylo abducts Rey without her consent. In TLJ, she basically mails herself to him of her own free will. Side note: I loved that her motivation in this was two-fold and that it was prompted by a Force vision. It would have been easy for the filmmakers to portray it as a clichéd “good girl tries to change bad boy with the purity of her luuurve” thing. But while Rey does have compassion for Kylo/Ben and wants him to be redeemed, she also has the purely practical motivation of wanting his strength in the Force to benefit the Resistance instead of the First Order, and she has a reason (the Force vision) to believe it will work rather than just blind naiveté. 

In TFA, they have a big lightsaber battle against each other. In TLJ, they fight together against mutual enemies. This illustrates another area where the filmmakers subvert what might be the typical toxic trope. After Rey defeated Kylo in TFA, conventional masculinity would dictate that Kylo be enraged and humiliated at having been beaten by a girl, and an untrained girl to boot (see: all the dudes post-TFA who insisted until they were blue in the face that Rey was a Mary Sue). But instead, after having his ass handed to him, Kylo changes his tune from threatening and domineering to restrained and even respectful. He recognizes her power and wants to add it to his own rather than freaking out, feeling threatened by female strength/competence, and immediately wanting to undermine or quash it. (Refer, again, to that certain noisy subset of the fanbase.)

In TFA, Kylo says “the Supreme Leader is wise” right before killing his own father in hopes that it will please Snoke. In TLJ (which takes place, like, three days later), Kylo chops the Supreme Leader in half rather than obey his order to kill Rey. 

The magnitude of that is actually pretty significant when you consider how long Snoke has been influencing Kylo/Ben. He’d been in Ben’s head since childhood, at least. I haven’t read any of the tie-in books (except Phasma which, unrelated side note, is awesome), but apparently one of the novels actually suggests that Snoke first started influencing Ben before he was even born? In which case, that he was able to break free from Snoke’s influence at all is pretty miraculous, and that Rey was the catalyst definitely says a lot about how he feels about her.

In TFA, Kylo is all about imposing his will on Rey. In TLJ, he asks her to join him. He even says ‘please’!

So yeah, overall, their interactions in TLJ make the idea of Reylo far more appealing and more in line with the pairings I usually ship. There’s still one caveat, of course, which is the now-infamous scene where Kylo tells Rey “You’re nothing…but not to me.” 

There seem to be two popular ways to interpret this scene. One is that Kylo is using a common abusive, manipulative tactic in which the abuser tries to get his victim to depend on him (e.g., “no one will ever love you but me; you’re so lucky that I’ll even have you”). The other is that the scene is something reminiscent of the Pride and Prejudice proposal scene in that Kylo is a conflicted, misunderstood, awkward guy, himself a victim of Snoke’s abuse and manipulation, who is trying to express to Rey how he feels about her in the best way he knows how and kind of royally mucking it up in the process. 

I personally fall somewhere in the middle on this scene. On one hand, I’m really hesitant to label a guy flatly telling a woman “you’re nothing” as in any way romantic or sexy. We’ve gotten enough of those problematic messages from the Twilights and Fifty Shades of the world, and if Rey had accepted Kylo’s offer at that point, I would have been upset. On the other hand, I do think it’s important to take characters’ entire contexts and histories into account when analyzing their actions, and I can see how interpreting Kylo as a Mr. Darcy-esque figure kinda works here. (Also, I love Pride and Prejudice.) And, Rey is not swayed by anything he says at this point, which is HUGE!!! I love that she sticks to her principles and refuses to compromise them. 

Anyway, I could probably say more, but it’s late and this post is already way long. So in conclusion, I would currently label myself as “cautiously shipping Reylo.” Some of the less-than-comfortable aspects I’ve mentioned here make me hesitant to completely and totally embrace it, but at the same time I recognize that there’s never going to be any such thing as a completely perfect ship with completely perfect characters. (That would probably be boring, anyway.) And there’s still a whole ‘nother movie for Ben to get his issues straightened out and become the person Rey deserves,* so there is definitely potential there.

*As much as that is possible, because Rey is the pure shining angry compassionate wonderful cinnamon roll moonbeam of my life and no one could ever be good enough for her lbr