#i can't articulate. just. absolutely perfect.

[silversnowblossom]

I think what really gets me about kaveh's character story 5 is that a lot of people seem to think that alhaitham is cold. but like, the fallout of their friendship happened because he cared too much. because alhaitham was worried about kaveh and the self-destructive pursuit of his ideals/spiral he was trapped in thanks to his guilt, realized that this idealism would cause problems for kaveh in the future, and tried to warn him about it. and kaveh didn't take it well.

and yeah, he was probably too blunt about it as usual, but i'm sure kaveh telling him that he regretted ever being friends with him (considering they were best friends - also, that confirmation from mhy that is canon is great - and kaveh is likely alhaitham's first friend) must've deeply hurt alhaitham. because yeah, he's intelligent and rational and doesn't outwardly emote much when he's not arguing with kaveh, but he's still human. he still has feelings. and it's kaveh that crossed the line and destroyed what they had between them (which i'm sure he'd regretted later, something that probably only added to the immense guilt plageuing him). we all knew that whatever happened between them had to have been explosive, given the hints from alhaitham's character stories, but ouch.

honestly, poor alhaitham. and poor kaveh. </3

just. mhy really went all-in on the angst with kaveh's character stories, and it's delicious. absolutely adore what they did here

[kingdomoftyto]

Finished IwtV season 2 tonight and I need,, I just need a freaking minute to Recover from All of That™️ before I can bring myself to venture into the tag to forage for memes

[foxy-eva]

Spencer Reid x Reader Headcanons - Mutual Pining

(requested by anon and @khyleereads for my New Year's Celebration)

The first time Spencer lays eyes on you he is absolutely blown away by your beauty. With every day passing it becomes harder for him to form coherent sentences around you.

Whenever you're sitting close to him or casually touch his arm his cheeks take on a lovely rosy shade and his heart almost jumps out of his chest.

He pays attention whenever you mention details from your personal life. Even though the team agreed to not profile each other he can't help it when it comes to you.

More than anything in the world he loves to see your smile. Whenever he manages to make you laugh he couldn't be happier himself.

He notices instantly when you're having a bad day. Even though he has a hard time articulating his feelings he deeply cares about you and always tries to show you that he is there for you.

He makes it a habit to bring you coffee and little treats on long work days. Sometimes he even takes a couple of your files to help you with your paperwork.

The whole team notices long before the two of you that you are perfect for each other.

The issue is that even though Spencer is nice to you, you notice quickly that he barely ever talks to you and often looks away when you try to make eye contact. It takes you a long time to realize that the usually so eloquent doctor seems to be shy around you.

Even when you very obviously start flirting with him he still doesn't get the hint. Somehow he convinces himself that you're just being friendly.

The truth is that Spencer is terrified of ruining your friendship if he confesses his feelings. It becomes clear that you'd have to be the one to take the first step.

When you finally get a moment with him alone and take your chance to kiss him, it takes him almost too long to reciprocate the kiss because he is so shocked. But when he finally does, your kiss turns into the best thing you have ever experienced.

Masterlist

Please like, reblog and leave a comment! I need your lovely words to stay motivated to write more stories.

Taglist: @nomajdetective @reidsbookclub @gspenc @samuel-de-champagne-problems @matthew-gray-gubler-lover @malindacath @reidselle @alexxavicry @frickin-bats @spencersprettyslut @sebs-oxygen @happymangospot @cynbx @melifluorei-d @hotchandspencearedilfs @emiliaserpe @thenerdthatwrites @velvetthunder93 @saturnstringz @missabsey @guacam011y @hugyourlungs @reiderwriter @enamoradax @hales-17 @cham9ions @loaksulluyswife @ecneremili @xserenax-13 @grumpyy-bearr @luredwithpretzels @castiels-majestic-wings @super-nerd22 @pleasantwitchgarden @yeonalie @r-3dlips @evvy96 @torigorie @khyleereads

[hymn-to-mercury]

✨🪐Astrology observations🪐✨

These observations are all based off my own personal experience and are mostly generic - don't take it to heart if you disagree <3

🪐 No one seems to fully understand how Aquarius Moons work, including Aquarius Moons themselves.

🪐 I love how heavy Mars influence shows up in people's physical appearance! I’ve always noticed that people with a lot of mars dominance in their chart have a big forehead and/or a widows peak, as well as rosy cheeks or a naturally reddish/pinkish undertone to their skin.

🪐 Undeveloped Virgo and Sagittarius placements absolutely do not give a fuck about your feelings. They can be extremely self centred I've noticed to almost a dangerous detriment.

🪐 A lot of people give Scorpio women the Mean Girl rep, but honestly I think that title should be lent to Virgo women too 😭 They tend to have this hangup about perfection, and I think when undeveloped it shows more as an aversion to anything 'weird' or against the status quo.

🪐 Cardinal Mars signs (that's Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) reallyyyyy can't hide their dislike for things 😅 people, food, celebrities, whatever. If they don't announce it verbally then you can at least tell by their face lmao.

(I once had to put on my ~emergency socks~ when I was wearing heels on a night out, and every time someone came up to me to tell me how nice my outfit looked I would say thanks and then just not stop yapping about how the socks were not originally apart of the outfit 😭 I couldn't let people think I approved of socks and sandals alksjdgfsjdh)

🪐 Scorpio placements can dish it but can't take it. Cancer placements will sneakily dish it under the guise of a joke and then start crying if you try to dish it back.

🪐 People with Leo Moon tend to 'perform' their activism a lot. That's not to say that they don't practice what they preach, but I think when they do speak up their image has something to do with it

🪐 If you were born under a Mercury Retrograde it might feel like you were destined to be misunderstood no matter how well articulated you are 🙃 I don't think it's a problem with yourself as much as it is with the people you encounter through your life though. Your biggest 'ops' might be people who are very particular and specific about word choice - think Gemini and Virgo Placements (if you are a Gemini/Virgo yourself, this may manifest for you as harbouring some self-hatred or significant self-consciousness).

🪐 Pisces want very badly to be carefree, but a lot of the time they severely struggle getting over their need for outside validation. Being carefree is also a trait they might find attractive in other people.

[not-poignant]

Raphael has a very poetic and grandiose way of speaking that is absolutely not the norm for day-to-day life. How do you get in the mindset to come up with his dialogues? They're perfection and I just can't even imagine how long it would take to do one paragraph of the way he talks, but you're writing an entire story with him...

Oh I love this question because I can answer it, lol sadlkjfsda

Okay so, Raphael's character is tough for me.

Normally I do a lot of dialogue research before starting to write a character in fanfiction and original fiction, but Raphael actually gets proportionately very few lines that really show his full emotional range (compared to say, Astarion), and he's got an incredibly specific way of talking that sounds similar to Astarion but at the same time is very different.

They share enough similarities (calling people darling and dear for example) that it's easy to fall into the trap of giving them the same 'voice.'

I find Astarion's voice a lot easier to 'get' and I feel like I can hear him better when I'm writing him. But Raphael I'm taking into emotional spaces we simply never see in the game, and then I have to really guess how he'd sound (like coming up with the idea that the theatricality vanishes when Raphael is genuinely panicking).

I ended up listening to a lot of interviews with Andrew Wincott, the Voice Actor for Raphael who is an incredible actor and extremely articulate. He was very clear in one of his interviews that one of the reasons he was selected to play Raphael was because, in part, he already sounded like him. Obviously there's differences / skill in changing cadence and more, but for the most part, Andrew Wincott uses similar vocabulary and talks in a similar manner to Raphael naturally, so I had an abundance of interviews that I could then listen to in order to get a feel for Raphael's voice. I picked the things that felt more 'Raphael' and added them to my dialogue notes.

I often have to go back and edit Raphael's dialogue. Sometimes it's very simple things, I had him say 'much more' in the chapter I'm editing right now, and I edited it to 'far more' because I think he'd just phrase it like that. Sometimes I expand a sentence into an entire paragraph.

I've also leaned a lot from Korilla's transcripts in the game, which have been super useful. They really cement, more than anything, how much he loves lullabies, nursery rhymes, children's tales and more.

HOW TO DO DIALOGUE RESEARCH:-

If you're new to dialogue research, it mostly involves listening to - and watching a character and then literally taking notes of how they talk. The things you observe are:

The tone of their voice - Fast or slow. Loud or soft. Musical or flat. Theatrical or matter-of-fact. High or low. Questioning or complete statements. Considered or hedging (i.e. very well constructed sentences, or a lot of pauses, ellipses, broken sentences). Rambling or concise.

How often they talk - Some characters actually say a lot with very little. Raphael is actually a lot of observation and facial expressions and eyebrow movements in between his dialogue. Little smirks, hand gestures and more. Do they interrupt or let people finish their sentences? Are they comfortable with silence? I find Raphael oscillates between long theatrical paragraphs, single sentences or words, and then a lot of silence. He's actually not very conversational, in that you can have a conversation with him, but I doubt he'd see the point of two hours of small-talk. (At this point you might be realising that dialogue research is also character research, how a character talks tells you so much about a character.)

The words (and metaphors/subjects) they use - This is a big one and I'm going to break this down a little bit more:

How they pause if they don't know what to say. Is it 'um' 'uh' 'ah' 'hm' 'mm' 'mn' or nothing at all (or something else) because they've mastered self-control over their dialogue? If Raphael says 'ah' he does so on purpose.

Filler words. Things like characters saying 'like' in a sentence. 'He was like, 'I can't believe it'' etc. This is very similar to how they pause, but it's the things people say to get from point A to point B. People who don't do this have often had training or think very hard about what they're going to say before they say it. But people say 'like' or 'and then' or 'well' or 'i realised that' or 'i thought that' etc. to carry them on. Some are more acceptable than others (people do just have realisations for example).

Profanity. How often do they swear, and how intentional is it? Some characters only swear when they get hurt or stub their toe or get angry. Some characters swear all the time for fun. Some characters only use some swear words and not others. Be specific. Be aware that some swear words are cultural! This includes blasphemy. In Faerun they use 'gods' and 'gods damn it' more often than we use 'god' or 'oh my god.'

Vulgarity. This is useful for Raphael (and Astarion) because he's very happy to be vulgar. This is like... how comfortable are they talking about sex, about sexual subjects, being crude, being seductive, flirtatious? And if they use it, do they use vulgarity to shock, seduce, scare, threaten, or for humour?

Salutations and farewells. How do they greet people? Silence? A calm hello? (A lot of greetings are omitted in dialogue but this is still good to know). How do they say hello, goodbye. How does that change between friends and enemies and strangers?

Single word sentences. This might sound weird, but sometimes when a character hears something that shocks them, or needs to acknowledge something, they may say anything from 'huh' to 'yeah' to 'fuck' to 'okay' to 'all right' to 'sure' to 'go on' to 'indeed' to just laughing out loud. The list goes on. Raphael is team 'indeed' lmao.

Sentence structure. Raphael's sentence structure is - when he's most comfortable - gently provoking, teasing, vaguely threatening, and makes liberal use of simile, metaphor, fairy tale, rhyme, sayings, colloquialisms and more. Raphael talks like someone who knows someone could quote him at any moment lmao. But from here, how a character structures their sentences can be helpful to know. Go back to 'the tone of their voice.' Those notes will give you an idea of structure.

Emotionality. How emotional are they? Do they have rage rants? Joyful giggling dialogue? Do they infodump with little emotion? Or with sheer excitement? Does their dialogue feel fake or real? Opaque or transparent? Some people wear their hearts on their sleeves, and others will never be able to say 'I love you' in anything other than actions. Raphael's emotionality in dialogue is more present in his anger and irritation, and also when he feels triumphant and/or turned on.

The symbols, sayings, colloquialisms and metaphors themselves. Not all characters use these. But some people/characters will talk through analogies, colloquialisms. This is actually Raphael's biggest dialogue departure from Astarion, imho, aside from the fact that Astarion is a lot more emotional with his dialogue.

Take into account their culture, ethnicity, conceits, upbringing, education and the people they're close to:

This one is vital. Firstly, some people tend to 'absorb' elements of those around them. A person raised by affluent people will often 'sound affluent' and a person raised in poverty will often have dialogue that reflects this and if they don't there will be reasons for that. It might be a conceit (some people self-teach themselves different accents), it might be education, it might be training, it might be the subculture/s they've entered into, and so on.

~

When doing this research, you'll end up with a kind of master-list of actual words and probably some sentences you've written down, along with a lot of notes. You can also do this for any original characters you're making at all, you're just then making it up based on the character, and this research will also give in many ways the shape of the character.

It's a fun exercise and I highly recommend everyone tries it literally for people who don't exist and also observe your friends and family, and do a dialogue cheat sheet for some of them. It's pretty eye-opening! Even one page will teach you more than nothing at all. You can go deep and write many pages, or you can do what I do and keep it lean at 2 pages. Anyone who struggles with characterisation I suggest at least try this exercise, because anyone can put on a YouTube video and/or streaming service or even a favourite Tiktoker and start doing dialogue research! It's a way of building a character from the top down while also getting information about their foundations.

[m1ssunderstanding]

Get Back Rewatch 55 Years On: Day Three

Literally saw the orange sweater and my heart sank. Here we go.

George's hair!! I hate him.

Also literally WHY does he have to lend them his own personal recording equipment? It really is ridiculous how bad the record company treated them considering they were the fucking BEATLES.

Magic Alex! Honestly though why is half of me like "Yes! Scamming king! Take their money and RUN!"

"My Imagination" is physical cringe level.

"The rhythms in the guitars anyway." It's a callback to their earliest days when they had to say that to hustle, but I think part of them really did believe that back then, and part of Paul still does. That the four of them are all they need.

And then in response to that callback to early days to convey current not-articulable feelings, John responds with one of his own. His mini rant about how stupid it is to use three mikes and never come together and sing as a GROUP. It's like he can't bear the thought.

Paul singing his guitar and drum ideas. Apparently my sexuality is women and unhinged men. There's nothing to be done about it. Poor George literally can't get a word between all Paul's "Downownownowneernernerner" and "chuchuchutah ba Ta. Ba." And if I was a good person I'd be annoyed. But no. It's too hot.

"Corny's alright on this one though because what he's doing's corny." Be fucking nice to him. He needs you to be like you were on 909 about every single thing he does because he cares so much what you think. Of course they don't talk about that kind of thing so Paul has no idea. But look at his face!

I also like "the same old shit," George. "Don't Let Me Down" is so fucking sexy idgaf what anyone says.

But here's the other thing is that John is SO down for all of these wrong suggestions Paul's making. If they're not literally saying the same thing at the same time, it's instantly "Yes. Exactly. Yeah."

So John says "alright girls" and sounds like he's just so above Paul and George squabbling and bickering and couldn't care less except for the fact that they're annoying him. Because that's his macho front, right? But then look at his face while they're fighting, eyes darting and full of love, sorrow, and what honestly looks like fear.

Ringo stays the hell out of all of it. Good for him.

Shortly after Paul says "I can't frickin do it on camera either" John starts strumming. And soon George joins, while Paul's pacing and gesturing. And at first I was confused like "they're not being very good listeners that's not very nice" but they're trying to cover up the dialogue for Paul's sake. Trying to take away the cameras if he can't do it with them. "Forget about candy camera." It's very loving, very protective, especially from George. John, we expect this kind of thing from, when it comes to Paul. But George is literally in a fight with him and protecting him at the same time and I find it to be so beautiful.

Gosh, there's so much in this little rant though. "I always feel as though I'm tryna put you down and stop you playing *voice cracks and goes higher* but I'm not." How he looks at John when he says "and I never get any support or anything" and the "and you know it's right." I usually find the 'Paul's the mom, John's the dad' analogy reductive, but boy is it perfect here.

But really, Paul, you've got to just let George do his thing. "I can only do me, you know." George is absolutely right in this argument. He's actually very emotionally mature for being the youngest.

Ugh it's hard to leave them on this note. But I'll pick back up tomorrow

[crimeronan]

Thinking about "Amity and Hunter being deranged and causing immense bodily harm to one another" Just how aware is Luz of the extent of the harm because they're obviously both keeping it from her for obvious reasons.

I can see Hunter straight up being "Well I can't let Luz know Amity did this because if she were to get mad at Amity or concerned for my safety and worried she might do it again... and that would seriously bum her out given the whole 'weirdly massive crush she can't articulate' thing going on." (and also general 'Can't let Luz worry about my injuries/nearly dying' based thoughts )

Amity is just convinced that if Luz knew about 'the time she sent half of Hunter's ribcage into his lungs she would be out of the castle or worse and knows that people posing a threat to Hunter's life have a habit of peacefully having heart attacks in their sleep. And in truth if she were anyone else that might not be a silly fear.

(I love the genuinely terrified with good reason of, to seeing you're safe with them to lover pipeline)

For a while she doesn't get that she isn't 'anyone else' and that a) Hunter genuinely likes her company, and b) Luz both likes her and respects Hunter's autonomy to not throw out his murder bestie even if she didn't... (even if she'd prefer he not be nearly dying all the time)

So for a while she is convinced Hunter is holding onto it as perfect blackmail material for whenever. I do think it's funny if they just... never tell her just how brutal their fights could be, or only tell her when they're all in their fourties or smthn

luz ABSOLUTELY does not know about the Matchstick Bones incident. and neither hunter nor amity are willing to tell her. i do like the idea of amity worrying about blackmail.... but i'm ALSO really fond of the thought that, like. the possibility of luz-related blackmail evaporates Really Fucking Fast. because hunter is so aggressively and edgily insistent that amity not mention this to luz.

so like. it seems like HE might be in trouble with her if he tells. mutually assured destruction!

amity Does have a vested interest in lilith not finding out, though. darius is not a snitch so no worries there, but hunter is a bitch. ultimately i don't think he Actually would tell her, because he doesn't actually expect lilith to give a fuck. but amity clearly believes lilith would give a fuck. hunter can use this

^worst boy In The World.

as for amity fearing luz finding out... i don't think she'd be Super afraid of luz exiling her or killing her for it. unless it's maybe in those first very fraught days after belos dies. she'd be way more scared if hunter had ended up with permanent injuries, but he's fine, so no harm no foul, right??

she IS worried luz will think less of her. and worried luz won't trust her / will think she's dangerous.

the thing about hunter and amity's fights -- both the physical and verbal ones -- are that they're mutually, equally vicious. both of them are really Going For It. amity accidentally hurt hunter but he could Just As Easily have snapped her spine or cracked her skull by accident.

it's less "luz is gonna think i'm torturing hunter" and more "luz is gonna think we're irresponsible and stupid." which. THEY ARE.

meanwhile on hunter's end, as usual he doesn't want to stress luz out. and more importantly, he doesn't want her to tell him to stop, and she Absolutely Fucking Would if she knew how dangerous things were getting. luz being like "can't you guys spar with some ground rules and cushions????" and hunter like "actually we're both so filled with formless aimless rage that if we don't do this we're probably gonna go on some kind of serial killing spree instead. i don't expect you to understand tho 💕" and luz like "You Are Right. I Do Not."

anyway. they've pulled the worst of their punches since darius yelled at them, at least. if luz ever finds out it'll 100% be when they're in their forties and amity or hunter references it as a fond adolescent memory, forgetting luz was out of the loop.

and luz is like. h. Hello. Excuse Me??

[blakbonnet]

curious about your favorite underrated artists/fic writers/creatives on here?? and maybe your specific favourite underrated fanwork??

Ooh. I love this question so much, anon ❤️

Underrated gif maker, and I say this with no bias, is definitely Ida @bizarrelittlemew because she just puts in so much effort in all her gifs. Ida looks through tutorials and then also does so much on their own, but mainly: if you look at all the recent gifs, they have such a unique Ida ™️ vibe to them. From rotoscoping (still don't know what that is) to playing with blending, Ida deserves to be right up there with one of the most creative gifmakers this fandom has produced recently.

Unfortunately I just very very rarely hang out reading ofmd fics T-T (I'm mostly in the hobbit and sandman fandom side of ao3) and there are a few writers I love and I tend to stick to them (xoxoemynn, forpiratereasons being the main ones) Most of what I read and like in the fandom is when a mutual ends up writing something that isn't modern au.

Having said that, underrated writer to me 100% is @palavapeite because their writing just never fails to transport me to whatever setting they're talking about. Listen, I just don't read modern AUs, they don't do it for me (def a me issue, I'm sure there are brilliant modern au writers in this fandom but it's something I filter out) but I would absolutely recommend this fic as something that brought me so so much joy, is fast becoming my more reread fic, because it did a perfect job with getting Stede's voice right. I can hear every single thing he says in my mind, it's SO good. Also their fic with priest!stede lives rent free in my head and I would soon find the time to read their non blackbonnet fics.

Another one is adamarks who, again, has such a good grasp on Ed and Stede's character that it doesn't matter which AU Jay has picked, it just always always works somehow. My favourite is this fic tho which is just so them that I might as well weep.

For artists, my recent faves (and I think they're underrated) are Lilo @harrylovesspaezle who's so so talented and I still can't get over that sketchbook tour - the growth and love for this show ough, @ofmderapolag whose pieces are just so so dreamy, and also @spookynadja whose style just floors me every single time.

I'd also like to shout out one underrated category, people who write such amazing text posts like @ourfag who obviously has the s3 scripts and is only sharing them with us in small increments due to the nda and @tulipseason for the currently unpublished book of "1 million ways I will articulate how much I love hit television show our flag means death"

and then there's my favourite most beloved cheerleaders who are always lifting up new writers and artists too like @marbledwings and @insteading ❤️ I especially love that everyone has a beautiful story with these two, you could ask any small or big writer in the fandom if they've been made to cry by wings or insteading and yeah, they're just lovely.

[fandomwritingbit]

Hi!! I don't know if you think about this or done something like this, but I've having HORRIBLE teacher William or professor since school started, idrk. But like horrible brainrot on professor!william shoving a remote controlled toy up reader and you just gotta sit through class like that if this is just ass, please free to throw this away as fast as you can <33

Hi there, I haven't done a proper teacher william fic yet because, tbh the last time I was in education, I was underage lmao. Anyhow...

Professor William x (gn) reader.

I hope this is decent and tickles your fancy.

Warnings: smut, public sex acts, voyeurism, power dynamic.

"But, Mr Afton..." You struggle to get your thoughts out, you mind balanced in want for this fantasy and the reality if doing it. You're sitting on his knee, his hand securely placed on your inner thigh and running his thumb over the sensitive skin. He holds the toy, turning it over to let you see it. It's imposing but what's more so is the fact he wants you to keep it inside and sit through his lesson like nothing could be wrong.

"...this is a bad idea." Is all you can vocalise.

Your professor sighs, completely removing his touch from you, delighting in the whiney noise you make immediately.

He slides you off his lap, leaving you to stumble before gaining your footing. "You asked for a coursework remark?" He makes you wait an awkward pause, a small grin on his face. "I'm a busy man... but I could do that for you if you're willing to show dedication to the course." He turns the toy on as he speaks. It's silent, or at least close to it, and that's a small comfort to you.

Biting your lip, you nod. Unable to deny how your stomach knots... and how much you need the extra marks.

~

It's impossible to concentrate on the lesson. Hell, you couldn't even say what the topic of his lecture was about, it's all meaningless diagrams that you force yourself to look at in an effort to not focus on the steady buzzing between your legs.

Your stomach is twisted in an attempt to not let yourself get lost in the vibrations, but it's hard, especially when he keeps catching your eye from the front of the class, wearing a ravishing smirk.

Still talking to the room about articulated joints, as you've come to discover, you watch as his hand darts inside his pocket, clicking up the intensity of your companion. Your hole clenches around the toy, the new speed absolutely perfect. It makes you bite down on the insides of your cheeks to keep your pleasure to yourself. Your legs press together tightly by instinct, making the rush of pleasure worse.

You're very aware of sweat coating your hands, and it's ridiculously hard to keep hold of your pen. Your face feels so hot, the mix of getting close and embarrassment making blood flood your cheeks.

"Y/n," Mr Afton calls from across the room, heads of classmates turning towards you in consequence. "Makes sure you're paying attention. I'm only going over this once." You nod frantically, begging for the eyes to be off you so you can go back to squirming in your chair.

He knows you can't listen to him right now. It's by design, fail this module, and you'll have to prove your 'dedication to the course' all over again. He continues going through the material, gazing at you frequently to watch as you come undone. It's difficult to keep his attention on the lesson with the thought of playing with that used little hole after this. It must be torturous for you.

That doesn't stop him from again turning up the intensity.

[merakiui]

MERAAA AHH YOUR WINTER WOES !!! And I thought I was devout to Azul.. 🛐

Okay; Let me start thinking how I can articulate and express my feelings about this fic.

#1 The dialogue. You HAVE to understand, I was kicking my feet up, giggling so much. The way you incorporated Jade's down bad behavior into his thoughts which slightly differs from his dialogue- AH ┻⁠┻⁠︵⁠ヽ⁠(⁠`⁠Д⁠´⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠︵⁠┻⁠┻ I LOVE IT !!!!

#2 Deception. YOU REALLY CAPTURED JADE'S PERSONA HERE. His mildly hidden deception > < ) Oh the chokehold he has on me rn cause of ur fic!!! Bro was lying straight from his gaping serrated maw 🫶 And it was perfect! I was jumping up and down every time I saw the contrast in his thoughts and words, I can not STRESS the fact that I ended up laughing so heartily on that scene where he straight up lied to MC about the possible pregnancy; You're way of story telling and build up is so 👌✨ *chef's kiss*

#3 The interaction. Between Y/N and Jade is so 😩👉👈💗💓💘 Surprisingly, this is one of your most gentlest Jade in the Jade multiverse and it was certainly a treat. I feel like I was just fed a full course meal for free. Definitely an unforgettable experience (⁠๑⁠♡⁠⌓⁠♡⁠๑⁠) I mean, as IF Jade would ever let you forget about what happened. THE BANTER ?!?! The banter. Golden. MC's genuine concern vs Jade's hornybrained desperation (⁠*⁠˘⁠︶⁠˘⁠*⁠)⁠.⁠｡⁠*⁠♡ Yummy !

#4 Jade. Of course. GOSH, I wanna sit here and yap to you all about how startling soft and sappy this made me. Which really shows how amazing your writing issss!!! Who else can spread Jade propaganda like this but you 😔 Azul Nation stay strong ! ୧⁠(⁠ ⁠˵⁠ ⁠°⁠ ⁠~⁠ ⁠°⁠ ⁠˵⁠ ⁠)⁠୨

Anws I'm scared of absolutely bombing ur inbox so I'll stop it here > < ) Like Jade, I also still have some self control. Take care of urself <333 Ty for the fic !

- I can't choose an emoji; A garden flower.

( ≧ᗜ≦) AAAAAA THANK YOU SO SO MUCH, GARDEN FLOWER!!!!! Please never be scared of bombing my inbox!!! You can yap as much as you want!! I'll always be grateful to read your words!!!!! <3

I'm so happy all of those aspects of the fic were enjoyable!! I wanted to try my hand at writing another version of Jade who is soft and sweet. Writing from his pov is so fun, especially when he's in his mating season and is so very desperate and down bad. >:D as someone who is also very dedicated to Azul Nation, I fear Jade is trying to creep his way into my heart...... more than Azul!!!! >_< truly, we must all remain strong for tako!!!!!!

I really can't thank you enough for your kind words!!! I loved writing this type of Jade, and I think his relationship with the reader is very cute. Reader who is genuinely concerned for him contrasted with Jade's own one-track horny brain. I had fun writing all of his moray behaviors!! The gaping maw and the need to hunt an absurd amount of food for you in order to provide for mate. orz aaaaa his rizz is questionable, but his heart is in the right place (mostly ;;;; he's still lying about a few things, but that won't matter once you're knocked up).

I think a Jade who is vulnerable like this is very wonderful. He plays submissive just to better manipulate you, but it's difficult to tell where the line between act and truth is. <3 what a menace...... orz

[gogesimp]

I had this idea last night, I replayed it in my head a few times and then this morning I saw this absolutely beautiful thread which had an uncanny resemblance to what I had thought of.

I contemplated whether I should bother writing what I had down and posting it somewhere. I haven't yet done it for this ship.

But what urged me to go ahead was the fact that this was more like a headcanon rather than an AU, and hence I wouldn't be adding to my very long list of wips.

So here goes-

This is set in the canonverse and both Satoru and Suguru are in Jujutsu High. The timeline is maybe before the star plasma arc or let's say something like that doesn't happen here.

Either way, both of them are sort of in love with the other. They have not outright confessed yet, because that'd be cheesy and Suguru's never gonna be the one who brings it up. But sometimes he feels he wouldn't have to.

Especially at times like these, where they are all alone in Suguru's dorm room, lights out with only the moon's beams to illuminate them and their tangled limbs.

Suguru's clothes are scattered around, some lying on the bed while others have been deposited on the floor. Satoru's haven't even made it to the bed where he is lying over his precious Suguru, just pausing to take in how beautiful he looks.

Long black locks splayed out on the pillow, skin dewy with sweat and a blush slowly spreading across Suguru's lovely cheeks down to his neck.

Satoru looks like a dream as well, if one were to ask Suguru. He loves lying on his back because from his vantage he can take in the ethereal form of his lover. In the dark, his eyes glow effervescent, the blue shining like sapphires. His white hair is tousled and sticking up at odd angles. On his milky skin Suguru can spy the blush sitting high on Satoru's cheeks & he can't help but turn a deeper shade of red when his eyes track down that thick, corded neck to his defined chest and muscled core.

He doesn't need his eyes to deduce how well endowed Satoru is so he brings them back up. His gaze gets locked with that cerulean one and he feels a big calloused hand gently cradling his cheek. Soft caresses are bestowed on his face. The other hand is wrapped around Suguru's cinched waist, holding him delicately, thumb brushing against the hip bone.

A silly thought enters Suguru's head. Before he can articulate it though, Satoru starts introducing a lubed finger and soon Suguru trades moans and whines for coherent speech.

The bed creaks in time with Satoru's thrusts. He doesn't go too fast or slow. It's like this man is taking his time to unravel the beauty writhing under him. Suguru's high pitched moans and breathy whines find a perfect complement in Satoru's guttural groans and huffing.

It's only after Satoru has finished and is now slumped over Suguru, using the soft warm body as a comforting bedding for himself that Suguru's mind brings forth the thought he had a few moments ago.

The smile stretching his lips seems instinctual, so does the way in which his hand finds its way into Satoru's hair and gently starts carding his fingers through the soft white locks, adding a scritch intermittently.

"Satoru...!"

The answering hum resonates within his body given the way Satoru is draped over him.

"I wanted to tell you something, a silly thought I had."

There is a stir and the body lying on top of him moves. Using his elbows to prop himself up Satoru stares into Suguru's violet eyes.

The hand which had been petting Satoru's hair slips down to now hold that handsome face.

It is indeed silly.

The way his heart picks up speed as he gets lost in the depth of those ocean blue eyes.

The way his heart clenches at how Satoru makes love to him, gently and tenderly. Treating each inch of Suguru as something precious and worthy of being cherished. Of being held close to and looked after.

It is indeed silly that Suguru finds the strongest sorcerer, the ruthless man he knows that Satoru is as cute and adorable.

Well right now he does look like a cub with the way he is staring intently at Suguru, expecting some reward or trinket.

"What was it Suguru?"

Snapped out of his trance he decides to not divulge his prior thoughts.

"Nothing really, just ignore I said anything."

Satoru pouts and Suguru just has to look away for his own health because his heart can't take anymore hits today.

"Awwww.. but I wanted to know."

"Stop pouting now, it really wasn't something big. What? You don't believe me?"

There is a certain glint in those blue eyes and Suguru feels just a tad bit nervous.

When Satoru still doesn't elaborate Suguru's unease increases and he tries to fill in the silence.

"Come on Sat-- umph"

Soft pink lips descend on his and they move gently. And Suguru can't help but sigh.

He feels so ....

It's right there, on the tip of his tongue. It's what he feels when Satoru's strong hands wrap around his waist.

It's the emotion bursting within him and making butterflies' wings flutter in his tummy.

As the lips retreat and warm breaths of air fall on his sensitive, tingly lips he hears the low rumble of Satoru's voice.

The words are spoken right against his parted mouth, eyes fixed on his and staring straight into his soul.

"I know. I know Suguru. And it's ok."

The lips move down to his neck where Satoru mumbles against the marked skin.

"You can take your time."

Suguru has to use all of his willpower to not let anymore of his tears fall. He realized a bit too late when one or two stray drops had leaked away and flowed down to his ears.

Satoru can probably sense them but Suguru still wills the tears away.

After Satoru has settled himself once again on top of Suguru, he finds his hands gravitate towards the man lying over him.

His fingers find the tresses while the other draws patterns on that broad back. His head slowly angles itself closer to Satoru's and that's how Suguru falls asleep.

He sleeps peacefully even with Satoru draped over him.

And as for Satoru, the gentle heartbeat of his beloved was the only lullaby he needed to make his eyes heavy.

His heart feels full, knowing that even though the words haven't been uttered what they feel for each other is tangible.

It might take time but they'll eventually get to a stage where verbal confirmation of their mutual feelings will come easy to both.

But for now this is enough.

This is it.

Thank you for reading this word vomit. Honestly this isn't exactly what I had thought of. It was waaaaaaaay better in my head. I wonder why I bother writing 🙃 but here we are.

[felixcosm]

Thought about your Edgar post for like 5 seconds too long, and I wanted to say how much I think that it seems that Mike is really judging their characters based on personality rather than actions if that makes sense?

They've both done some truly awful and heinous things - Edgar especially - but when not caught up in time travel bullshit, Edgar is a genuinely kind and compassionate person. Something that, as his boyfriend, Mike sees a lot of. Mike on the other hand, can be a bit of a bitch sometimes. (said with all the love in my heart of course)

Obviously Mike Walters is the true champion at seeing his loved ones through rose-tinted glasses with Edgar being one of the two most blatant examples (the other being Anne imo), but I do think there's something about the Mikes saying that the truth is what they feel to be emotionally true. They have flaws that they don't like about themselves, whereas Edgar is someone they love, and someone who loves them back. They see a lot of cruelty from the both of them, but they also see a lot of kindness and love from Edgar. Therefore in the Mikes' eyes, they are a worse person than Edgar.

Not sure if I quite articulated this great, but your post got me thinking!

(also when I say Mike, I mean Mike Walters as a species)

No no you're absolutely right and I am obsessed with how Mike says things that feel true in the moment even if they are blatantly wrong or impossible to prove (him telling Matt he loved him may be a bad example since later Mikey says he was only trying to be nice but I feel like there is certainly more to that whole scene than Mikey was willing to admit to Matt or his podcast listeners at the time)

And I feel like even though Edgar has obvious personality flaws as well, like he can be petty and mean (re: Rugby) he often speaks over Mike as if Mike's feelings don't matter (making decisions for him, disregarding his opinions and emotions during missions, treating him like a warm body to be sent out into the field), or manipulating him (Dylan mentioned in the commentaries how often Edgar puts Mikey in a position where he's the "adult" and Mikey's the "petulant child" re: 118) - and it seems like the Mikes do sort of know about it. Like Michael's still holding a grudge about Rugby so he's clearly not blind to Edgar's less than savory moments.

But that won't matter to them because in the end they will look past facts.

I'm also fascinated at how much of an unreliable Narrator Mike Walters is. Even when we have an episode where he's speaking to other Mikes or to himself, we can't fully trust what he says because he will apply his emotions to a situation and make decisions based on that.

We rarely do see Edgar and the others alone in scenes where they are themselves without Mikey interjecting with his own narrative. Which makes sense, as this is WOE.BEGONE and its the story of Mike Walters, so we see the world through their eyes.

I think you can probably say Edgar is a better person than Mike though and I am completely agreeing with your points. But at the same time I do think its funny how Mikey leads us to believe that Edgar is perfect and holy while his boyfriend just can't fucking wait to get his hands dirty.

WOE.BEGONE is a show about power and how it can corrupt someone and I think Edgar is just as good of an example as Mikey. Mikey might've started as someone who was very happy to get into the time-travel murder game as he accuses himself of being in Episode 21, but Edgar goes from being scared and unsure to the actual leader controlling the fates of all of Base.

[darkpoisonouslove]

HotD S02E01

Many thoughts, head full, zero ability to articulate so I'm just gonna scream about it... on main. That'll end well.

First thing I have to say is that the atmosphere and tone definitely work very well here. You can feel the tragedy in the air, the way that it's already happened and it just waits to unfold, to be witnessed in its full glory. Everything is so eerie and bleak and everyone keeps going but they cannot escape the framework of the war. They're trapped in it and you feel it.

Daemon is... he kind of surprised me ngl. There are definitely layers of emotion there that isn't just rage or bloodthirstiness. I didn't want to strangle him the entire time so that's a positive.

Emma D'arcy was amazing in this episode and (I could be missing something; too lazy to check but) she only had that one line??? And still, you feel her grief. That was certainly an interesting approach and it worked for them!

Aegon is such a contrast to all the other characters! I know he's supposed to look completely out of place and incompetent but damn, I am On. His Side! He's ready to be so generous to the small folk. He's trying to compensate on what he missed with his own father by spending time with his son. He has no idea how to interact with Helaena but he's trying his best and goddamn, if that's not a summary of his character! 😭😭😭😭😭😭 (this is an Alicent AND Aegon stan account now, I guess)

(that scene of him and his buddies drinking in the throne room has such fuck boi vibes and yet, SOMEHOW he was utterly hilarious and still sympathetic in it (I'll talk about the place of that scene in the plot later))

@ Otto and Larys: STEP AWAY FROM THE CHILDREN!!!!!!

The scene with Otto and Alicent was surprisingly touching. They finally reach some kind of understanding... and then he turns right around and continues to scheme behind her back. Sure, what he was trying to accomplish with Aemond is in line with his talk with Alicent but he's going to have his own agenda 100%. This wasn't just a strategical decision because Aemond is mad at Alicent rn and wouldn't want to hear any of her opinions even if they're also Otto's opinions.

Which leads me to THE SITUATION BETWEEN ALICENT AND AEMOND AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!! I. Am. Screaming (as you can see)! They are both so hurt and angry at each other 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 And I can't even take a side because both of them are correct in different ways. What Aemond did is actively hurting the whole family because it certainly exacerbated the war proceedings. But he's also right to be upset that Alicent would (seemingly) place her old friendship with Rhaenyra above her love for her children. She should feel vindicated that the one that mutilated her son is now dead. But instead, she's angry and has turned away from Aemond. When she was the only one who stood by him (and vice versa) on that awful night when his eye was gouged out????? The disappointment that they each feel in the other is KILLING ME!!!!!!!!! (I have to say that I hadn't thought about the possibility of Aemond being angry but it makes perfect sense and it hurts me so badly. Look at the contrast of this and this)

And now for the absolute fuckery of this episode (pun unintended). I have zero problems with Alicent and Criston fucking. Good for them! Love the moral dilemmas that are 10000% going on in their heads. HOWEVER, the decision to make them have sex while Blood & Cheese is going down? More anti green propaganda from the writers and I am SICK of it. Alicent was originally part of the scene, she was there to experience the horror of it first hand and they choose to switch that for her having sex????? You know the same thing that Rhaenyra and Daemon were doing when the whole fight between the kids in 1x07 was going down and they got no shit for it whatsoever but, of course, Alicent and Criston are going to be torn apart about this, I am 100% positive about that! Once again, the writers are trying to manipulate the viewers by going "See! Not only is Alicent being a hypocrite because she said she wasn't going to do this with Criston again, but that's what she was doing when her grandson was getting murdered" when originally she was bound and gagged and had to watch the whole thing happen in front of her. You could say that they spared her that trauma but they literally could have had her doing anything else if that was the intent. I am ANGRY about this. Not to mention the fact that Helaena literally interrupting Alicole while they're having sex adds an obstacle to Alicent offering her comfort. At the very least she has to get dressed first before she can hug her and try to provide some kind of feeling of safety, which inserts awkwardness if not downright shame into Alicent's actions and choices during that night. (Oh, and this will probably make her stop having sex with Criston, which is going to be another big L; let her be marginally happy and have orgasms, goddammit!)

Let's go back to Aegon now! So while Alicent and Criston are too busy fucking to be any the wiser about what's happening with her grandchildren (even though they literally couldn't have known anything like that would happen), what is Aegon doing? (Probably) drinking and stroking his ego by trying to come up with titles for himself... as the assassins are walking past him, right under his nose. Don't think he's not gonna get shit about that by fans if not by the writers themselves! They have set everything up so perfectly to blame all the Greens for allowing this to happen (since Otto and Aemond are so ready for war and yet were nowhere to be found during this either) but what about the Blacks, who organized all of this? Well...

They are whitewashing Daemon now by making Jaehaerys's murder be the idea of the assassins themselves. You see, Daemon would have never gone after a 4-year-old! He was only going after Aemond! And this is yet another misunderstanding like with Lucerys' death, except that this was way more deliberate but you cannot blame the Blacks when the people that they hired acted on their own. I hate it here! The writers are cowards and cannot commit to the actual characters that they're supposed to be writing so they're just doing whatever they want. And doing it badly at that! (That whole sequence was so fucking disjointed and lackluster also so congrats to whoever wrote this on the terrible job that they are doing!)

Poor Helaena! She's literally not going to get anything in this season. They already did Blood & Cheese so now they're just going to make her lose her mind and give her nothing else to do. I hope I'm wrong about this but I don't think I am given their track record.

Anyway, go team Green!

*I already bitched about this in the tags of another post but the fact that in the extra ("inside the episode" or whatever it's called) they had the gall to say that Alicent was in a "marriage that was loving but not exactly romantic or physical for quite some time" is a fucking insult. HE CALLED HER BY AEMMA'S NAME! HE USED HER AS AN INCUBATOR AND COULDN'T EVEN BE BOTHERED TO CARE ABOUT HER OR THEIR KIDS. SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!!!!!

[raleighrador]

There is no real Star Wars, it is all real Star Wars

I have never much cared for debates over what "real" Star Wars is.

I don't particularly care what George Lucas (or any author) intended or what he (or anyone else) has said in interviews.

I think this is because I got into Star Wars when I was a literal child and the thought of reading reviews or watching interviews didn't occur to me until I was in way too deep; and I was always a huge fan of the EU - I quite literally read every single published novel - and enjoyed them just as much as the movies.

So for me Star Wars always went beyond some kind of narrow "canon" and was always inclusive of basically whatever published (slop or otherwise) material I could get my hands on.

I have also always been very comfortable picking and choosing what I enjoy and care about. I have no issue with a book or move being bad/not to my taste/not in line with my preferred interpretation and just... not really caring about it.

Any long running & expansive fictional series will inevitably throw up mixed quality and contradictions. Even with a single author. The good thing is literally none of it is real so who cares.

In fact this gives readers/consumers a lot of freedom. We are under no obligation to engage with all of it or try and build some kind of perfectly synthesised "correct" interpretation that takes into account absolutely everything that has ever been portrayed.

No one (despite what it sometimes feels like) is marking your homework. There is no pass or fail. You can't enjoy something incorrectly.

How fandom - and I have in the last few weeks been far more active on Tumblr, the only social media site I post on - interacts with Star Wars does bizarrely feel like some kind of peer reviewed pseudo academic process.

However, it feels like a peer reviewed pseudo academic process which - and this sounds unbearably arrogant so please forgive me - is envisaged by people who have limited experience of how academia treats textual studies.

My majors were history and literature (and I went to Universities in the Global South that were VERY dubious of the distinction between those two). Literally none of the academics I studied under believed in some kind of single correct interpretation of any text.

Any text. Fictional or historical.

So why would the most massive science fiction IP in history that has been consumed by billions of people, which is the aggregate effort of dozens or hundreds of people lend itself to some kind of single correct interpretation?

In fact kind of a big part of academic textual studies is deliberately re interpreting texts through multiple lenses and logics. Just to see if you can. Just to see if it fits.

Historiography is a necessary element of any historical study & you could argue the same is true for fictional texts. We should definitely keep authors biases and intentions in mind when engaging with a text.

But we do not, and cannot, know the inside of their minds. The idea that even what they say in interviews is somehow a perfect articulation of their "true" intention is flawed.

To whit - if you believe an author perfectly expressed the definitive articulation of an idea in an interview (a spoken format where even if they knew the questions before hand they are giving their answer somewhat off the cuff), why do you NOT believe that a movie script or novel manuscript that they have worked and reworked and edited and proof read and reedited and redrafted for hundreds of hours is any less perfect an articulation of an idea?

So all we can do is acknowledge what we think we know of the author and decided if we care and how much weight to give it.

But the text is the text and the evidence is the evidence. We can weight it differently or dismiss it or whatever we want but ultimately we either believe the text itself has independent value or what are we doing here?

We seem committed to prioritising textual evidence over historiographical evidence otherwise we are in a self defeating exercise. We need not watch the movie, we need only watch cast interviews. We need not read books, we need only read the author's blog.

There would be no viable interpretations of Beowulf because we can't speak to the author.

It defeats the very idea of ideas - that they are independent, transmissible, intelligible, far beyond the reach or remit of the people who had them.

Some are good, some are bad, all are out there, and we can pick and choose as we wish.

So do so.

[mythosidhesdollhouse]

Fair warning up front this post is going to be a bit of a ramble XD

Soooo where to begin? Poor health has put me in a decided weird mood over the last few weeks, which has extended into my recent doll collecting activities. My continuing boredom/dissatisfaction with the current 1/6th-ish fashion doll landscape has pushed me into considering other types of dolls I normally wouldn't pay much attention to. The doll featured in this post, Littlelistas Baby Lily, is a perfect example. As an adult collector I have a rather fraught relationship with baby dolls, for reasons that could (and likely eventually will) be the subject of an entirely separate post, but suffice to say for the most part I tend ignore or even avoid them.

But THIS one. I came across her while I was poking around the Purpose Toys site in search of info about the new wave of Naturalistas, and when I saw her my heart just melted. I've spoken a bit in the past about being mixed and growing up without any Black dolls, and how the internalized racism that fostered has affected me into adulthood. In a way I can't quite articulate my instant connection with this doll felt like another small step towards healing all that. As a child I know I would have absolutely adored this doll...so I bought her, for my younger self.

(More introspective rambling, and some crafty stuff--)

Once baby Lisa, or as I quickly renamed her, Charlotte (Lottie for short) arrived, I was even more charmed by her than I'd been by her stock photos; and beyond that, I started to get inspired. Almost immediately upon unboxing her I began to have ideas for ways to embellish her (regrettable not removable) outfit. I remembered I have a spool of craft lace in a very similar shade of pink, and by the end of the afternoon I had stitched a row of this to the hem of her skirt. But why stop there? After I finished with the lace I sat down to have a dig through my supply stash, assembled an assortment of complimentary beads, and even turned up a small quantity of ribbon roses to add to the mix.

(I changed out the white seed beads for pink ones I found after I took this photo)

Below you can see the additional progress I've made over the past couple of days. It's slow-going, but honestly hand-stitched beading and applique is a welcome change from crochet, which I must confess I've been growing rather bored with as well. This little side project is a fun variation from my typical crafting outlet. I used to do this sort of thing all the time to embellish my embroidery projects, but since my vision has become increasingly worse with age it's been quite awhile since I made use of my needlework skills. I've missed it.

Not quite sure where I plan to go from here--it's been a bad fatigue day so I'm having a rest while I ponder what I want to add next. In a way it feels like I'm making this doll 'special' as a gift to my inner child, which sounds unbelievably cringe as I write it, and yet is probably the most genuine sentiment I've had in quite some time. The past few years have been a huge learning curve for me as I figure out how to have patience with myself as I get used to navigating life with chronic illness/disability, and maybe giving myself space to do this kind of slow, contemplative, relatively simple project is part of that process as well. Healing the child and the cantankerous middle-aged woman at the same time XD

[saintsenara]

Absolutely no pressure if it really does make you uncomfortable to talk about but I would LOVE to hear about why dramione pisses you off... first and foremost because I'm a card-carrying dramione hater and there's nothing quite as enjoyable as a fellow hater articulating their haterade. Please. I'm handing you the mic. Go to town. (If you want!)

thank you very much for the ask, anon - and it's very sweet of you to ask whether dramione makes me sincerely uncomfortable [it doesn't, and if there's ever a day when i find harry potter shipping preferences that deep i shall face god and walk backwards into hell]. i subscribe to one belief in fandom above all others - that you can write yourself into, and out of, the most nonsensical premises if you are willing to engage with your characters in their full spectrum and if you have enough nerve. which is to say, there is almost certainly dramione out there that i would regard as interesting and well done, which feels coherent as a premise within which to situate both hermione and draco's canon selves, and which does so by being unsparing in how it deals with the whole "he thinks she's literally subhuman" thing...

but the reason i don't like dramione as a pairing is because i've never actually seen it done in a way that actually is interesting.

i'm on the record as a straightforward hater of fanon!hermione - the preternaturally perfect, incandescently beautiful "brightest witch of her age" [lupin means by this - please, i am begging you all to understand - that she's clever for a fourteen-year-old, not that she's some sort of epoch-defining intellect] who makes you wonder if we've all forgotten the early-00s flame wars over mary-sues. i am also on the record as a hater of the classic draco-in-leather-pants version of the other half of our pairing - draco is an insecure, pointy little dickhead whose jokes always flop, and he is so much more fun in this form than he is as the suavest man alive.

and, obviously, dramione is famous for being beholden to these characterisations [something, if i may, which is really letting harmony and snamione off the hook...]. and that is just so boring! even in a setting in which an author doesn't want to deal with the context of blood-supremacist prejudice - and good for them! why not! - i would much rather see fics think interestingly about how mashing draco and hermione's personalities together would actually go. how would he handle her constant need to debate things? how would she handle his fits of crippling jealousy? how would he handle her stubbornness? how would she handle his self-interestedness?

and i think something quite striking could actually come of this... as i've noted elsewhere, draco's narrative mirror is ron, who is obviously a ride-or-die hermione stan, and there is - therefore - a way set out within the arc of canon for thinking about how hermione and draco might interact. it could be a genuinely fantastic piece of enemies-to-lovers fun, but this would involve both hermione and draco's canonical characteristics being thought about [and harry and ron's: the former always seems to come around to dramione really quickly, while the latter is written as a death-eater-adjacent boor who doesn't want the woman who "belongs to him" to be happy], and i'm afraid that the vast, vast majority of dramione writing seems to have no interest in doing this when "just make him suave and her perfect" exists...

but, of course, there is a second major objection which i know many people have to dramione: that he is a member of a terrorist organisation which believes in eradicating people like her, and that he believes wholeheartedly in that organisation's beliefs.

and my feelings about this are more complicated.

because, to be frank, as someone who has - only this week - written harry having a sensual little snog with his parents' murderer, i can't really get up on my high-horse about people shipping the heroes with the villains. and, indeed, i won't - another fandom [and life!] principle i have is that the potential of redemption for everybody is one of the most important things about humanity; that even the most evil people can repent and repent sincerely; and that love is strange and unpredictable.

i do think something interesting could be done with draco having to unlearn literally everything about his life, and with both him and hermione grappling with their personal limits when it came to remorse and forgiveness as they realise that, against all the odds and no matter the heavy weight of the past, they want to make something together. but, once again, the standard move in dramione seems to be a sort of "nooo, he didn't really mean it!" or a "hermione gets over it immediately because he didn't rat them out when the snatchers caught them!" [no - he didn't rat harry out. he doesn't seem to have a problem with hermione getting tortured by bellatrix...] or a "well harry using sectumsempra means i'm over the fact he called me a mudblood" or "uwu he was sixteen". and, once again, i think it's dull!

and this, of course, brings us to the other category of dramione - the one in which she's a dirty little fucktoy for a sadistic pureblood lord. while this is at its worst in other hermione/death eater ships, we've all seen the fics: hermione is given to draco as a forced bride; hermione is given to draco as a sex slave; hermione is given to draco to be degraded etc.

i have no moral objection to people wanting to read and write this stuff, because i'm neither a cop nor a priest. my objection, once again, is that this is dull.

i think there is something really, really interesting which could be done with draco finding himself attracted to hermione despite what he's been raised to believe about her, above all for the way this could be used to play with the gendered dynamic we might expect to find when this trope is used.

discrimination is justified by societies - again and again throughout the course of history - with the claim that it protects women [and men's claim to them]. we can imagine easily that this is the same in the wizarding world because voldemort literally tells us so - in the opening chapter of deathly hallows he explicitly equates tonks' marriage to lupin as the cause of the "rot" in the black family tree, before he goes on to murder charity burbage while accusing her of supporting miscegenation.

what we see less frequently is the idea that men need to be protected from the other - societies are much more amenable to seeing men's behaviour as hypocrisy [and tolerating this] rather than moral corruption, and we can assume in the wizarding world that it would be perfectly acceptable for a pureblood man to have a muggleborn mistress or a half-blood love-child in a way it never would be for a pureblood woman.

so how does draco justify his attraction to hermione to himself? how does he keep her a secret? how does he think of women more generally, if he has a pureblood wife at home and a muggleborn woman he cheats on her with? does he see nothing contradictory about sneaking off into broom cupboards and then strutting into the slytherin common room and telling pansy parkinson that hermione is a digusting mudblood dog?

or, does he get the other side of the coin? do lucius and narcissa think he's being corrupted? is his temptation all-consuming? will he lie about hermione attacking him to save face? will he turn on the tears and place her in unimaginable danger and then feel only the slightest hint of regret?

and i just think that has so much more potential than your standard "draco's sadistic but, more importantly, he's hot" stuff.

because i will read things that are objectively baffling if they are, at least, interesting. dramione nation, i'm begging you... just be interesting.