#involuntary partial regression moment

[princeminnow]

helping a customer and feeling my regressed voice pop through and feeling like i have to go HELLO? IS ANYONE THERE? into an empty house bc excuse me??

[black-butler-meta]

Why Ciel Being a Minor is Crucial

Something that constantly catches my attention as I read Black Butler is the emphasis on Ciel being a child. It’s brought up constantly in how other characters perceive him, and it also presents itself at times within his behaviors, particularly during traumatic events. It’s intentional and vital to the story and the themes and messages within it would not be the same if Ciel were an adult.

Ciel’s childlike nature and presentation is an integral part of the overall story and his development as a character. It serves three purposes:

It symbolizes that he is not yet past the trauma he endured when he was younger.

It serves to contrast against his more mature qualities and how others underestimate him because of it.

The presence of both mature and immature qualities provide symbolism for the transient stage of adolescence and how adults respond to it.

For the first point, Ciel’s persisting youth serves as a symbol of being stuck in one’s past trauma. He is thirteen years old, and yet he looks younger, likely due to his time in captivity where malnutrition was one of the many cruelties he endured. Additionally, he maintains some child-like characteristics within his personality and actions, such as being carried often by Sebastian, having Sebastian watch over him as he falls asleep, and an avoidance/ignorance around sex/sexuality. His childlike behavior is heightened during traumatic events, such as witnessing the slaughter of children within a replicated space of where his trauma occurred (Book of Circus arc), his near-death experience with Sebastian where he had to be forcibly restrained to receive treatment (Green Witch arc), as well as when he has PTSD nightmares. He comes across as very sheltered and avoidant of topics around sex, which at least partially correlates to his cultural upbringing within Victorian era England; however, his blatant lack of awareness of sexual topics/concerns pushes even beyond his cultural restrictions into the atypical (this will be expanded upon in a separate post).

Most, if not all, of these moments show a behavioral age regression in response to trauma. He may be 13 in the present, but the scared 10 year old still lives within him.

Age regression is typically divided into two types: voluntary and involuntary.

Ciel demonstrates both of these. He demonstrates voluntary age regression by allowing Sebastian to carry him around, as well as explicitly ordering him to watch over him while he sleeps. Although I’m not entirely sure on what are considered typical butler duties, one might even see the act of dressing and washing as babying, although this also seems an appropriate duty since I’m sure Ciel never had to dress himself as a young child. Still, none of us can deny that the act of dressing and washing are an intimate and personal form of care between Ciel and Sebastian, regardless of what side of the ship/no-ship fence you’re on. The number of frames/scenes of Ciel being dressed/undressed are evidence enough that these moments hold weight for both characters. Within all of these situations, Ciel is in control; he decides how he wants to be treated, and anyone who oversteps that boundary is met with hostility (e.g., Sebastian attempting to spoon feed him). By contrast, the involuntary age regression occurs during moments of trauma, which was already described above.

Either way, the childishness of Ciel communicates the message that while trauma may happen in a specific place and time, the impact of it is lifelong and takes years to overcome.

For the second point, it’s also important to recognize that while Ciel is childish in many ways, this youthfulness of him is always put in contrast to other aspects of him that are very mature. He’s an earl and has the responsibilities of an adult, the heaviest of which is to fulfill the Queen’s orders as her watchdog. Additionally, his intelligence and wry humor are very mature for his age, partially thanks to Sebastian’s influence and education - we saw on the flashbacks how little he knew at first and how much Sebastian had to teach him. If it weren’t for the childlike aspects present (physical smallness included), he could easily pass as an adult character.

The fact that he is technically a teenager and not a preadolescent is an important one. He knew early on that he would be perceived as a younger than he was due to his small stature. In order to carry out his vengeance, Ciel knew he had to integrate adult society. He had to work particularly hard to grow up as quickly as possible, which was why he allowed Sebastian to educate him so strictly. It worked; the queen recognized his position and maturity and allowed him to take his place as her watchdog, granting him the ability to pick up his father’s mantel and become part of the dark, seedy (and very adult) underworld.

However, it goes without saying that his youth is never forgotten amongst the adults that surround him. He is constantly looked at/treated as a child by others, including his enemies, and as such, they think they can either manipulate him or don’t see him as a threat. Ciel uses this to his advantage to best his enemies with his superior intelligence and Sebastian’s supernatural skills. He’s throwing their assumptions of him back into their faces. He isn’t a child; not anymore, and especially not after what he went through. Within the world of Black Butler, children are often treated as less than human, not worthy of respect or autonomy. They’re often compared to tools, dolls, or animals. Children are ‘things,’ created by adults and for adults. It’s a beautiful irony that it’s the cruelty of adults that has transformed Ciel into the very thing that’s going to destroy them (i.e., the adults responsible). Their hubris and the fact that they underestimate him due to his youth will be their downfall.

Of course, the conversation of whether Ciel is a child or adult is, in a way, a false dichotomy. The reality is that he exists somewhere in the middle; Ciel is neither fully a child nor fully an adult, and it’s this power struggle between his trauma and the world he lives in that provides symbolism for what it means to be an adolescent. Adolescence is a transitory period that is often overlooked or de-emphasized, particularly in western culture. Adolescence is often lumped in under the category of “child” with emphasis on the younger years of childhood, especially when it comes to topics of sex/sexuality (again, this will be discussed in a separate post). As such, there’s an invisible divide that exists in western culture between being a “child” and being an “adult.” This, of course, does adolescents a disservice, as adolescents are also going through major physiology changes, as well as dealing with a change in expectations from those around them. It’s a combination of adults restricting personal autonomy and self-identity for the adolescent paired with the pressure/expectation of the adolescent to behave as an adult and provide adult-level results.

This is what makes Ciel and Sebastian’s relationship so interesting. Due to the nature of the contract, Ciel is the one in control, rather than Sebastian. It’s a strangely balanced relationship between them, where Ciel is the master and Sebastian is the servant; and yet, at the same time, Sebastian is the mentor/guardian and Ciel is the mentee/apprentice. Sebastian is able to teach and establish rules that follow his role as his butler and play along with the game of upholding Victorian values (mostly), but in the end, Ciel is the one who has the final say on what happens. In this sense, their dynamic grants Ciel the autonomy and control that he craves, while also providing him with the support that he continues to need. In this way, Ciel is able to exist in both spaces at once: being a child in some ways, and being an adult in others. Both are central to who he is, and both are important.

[adhdbisexualramblings]

Regressor FLOWEY headcanons!

-Involuntary and trauma regressor. Enough said.

-He cries a lot. He was an extremely sensitive child, and the extra things he’s gone through (and did himself) don’t make that better.

-It’s not so much regression as it is…acting his age? Flowey doesn’t really ‘act’ like a child at all. When he lets himself do so, he can be more tolerable and sweet. I guess he’s be closer to an age dreamer, then.

-But give him a pacifier and he will slip into a much younger headspace. We’re talking toddler to infant.

-Regression means he doesn’t have to think about RESETs or timelines or anything past the present moment, but he’s also a really big crybaby.

-His regression fluctuates a lot. He could switch from infant to little kid at the flip of a coin. It’s hard to track what headspace he’s fully immersed in.

-The only ‘gear’ he has is a pacifier Papyrus gave him one timeline (which he has subsequently stolen every other timeline). He cherishes it and panics when he loses it. It’s pastel orange with a red race car on the front.

-The only people he’s felt comfortable with were Papyrus, Sans (Papyrus left them alone together one time and they have actually formed positive bonds some timelines) and, later, Frisk (though that’s only on extremely rare occasions when neither of the skeletons are available).

-When he was alone, to shut down his regression - which was often confused with memories and sentimentality - Flowey would just…kill things until it went away.

-Either that, or shoot bullets at whatever he could find that wasn’t a monster.

-He hates when Toriel or Asgore try to do anything with him while he’s regressed. It’s partially because it brings back dangerous memories and partially because neither of them are what he needs or wants most days.

-He can be very quiet and shy one second or fussy and demanding the next. It really depends on who’s taking care of him.

-Can and has sobbed about multiple of his old genocide runs out of the blue.

-Regression is almost like traveling to the past for him, which has a 50/50 chance of ending horribly. He doesn’t understand where his older sibling is or why he’s not being called by his name some days, which freaks him out.

-He’ll respond to ‘Asriel’ absentmindedly.

-Regression is strange to him. It’s like reaching for a memory you know used to be there. He can act as lovey-dovey and sweet as when he was Asriel, but whether that’s genuine is debatable. After he gets back into a more sensible headspace, Flowey wonders about his lack of a SOUL every time. It feels genuine, sure, but why? Memories, going back to a time where he was happy, shouldn’t be enough to alter his physical state. He’s SOULless, and therefore can no longer do things like that properly.

-He has auditory processing disorder and prefers hiding under thick clothing like sweaters if he’s being carried around. It muffles noise.

-Papyrus is his main caregiver. Or Sans, if they’re on good enough terms.

-Flowey despises the very feeling of regression. Every. Time. It just makes him angry when he notices it. Asriel is dead, should be dead. So why is he still just some kid? Why does he still crave what he decided was meaningless RESETs ago?

-When Toriel was sleeping in the RUINS, he would pop out of the floorboards occasionally to watch her or, if he felt particularly uneasy, rest with her in bed.

-Asriel was an extreme people pleaser. He was taught to be kind, which led too often to him being a doormat. Regressed Flowey is similar, and won’t like outwardly saying what he needs.

-Sans once found out Flowey was Asriel one timeline and called him ‘little prince’ when the flower regressed at his house. Flowey has attempted to erase all remnants of that RESET to no avail.

-Sans will also call him little prince/prince by instinct, which Flowey feels mixed about.

-He loves coloring and plush toys. However, the sharp thorns on his vines makes crayons and stuffed animals difficult to grab without hurting them, so he…doesn’t get many opportunities.

-There are times where he regresses for a full day and does nothing but sleep. He’ll fall asleep in the patch of golden flowers and panic when he wakes back up.

-Papyrus understands that his friend doesn’t like being public with his thing-Sans-also-does (Sans is a flip but shh that’s another post), so he tries very hard to take care of Flowey privately when he can. When they were in Snowdin, Flowey would stay in Papyrus’ room.

-Only Papyrus, Frisk (and by extension Chara), and oddly enough Toriel consistently know he regresses. Others have forgotten across SAVEs.

[agerefandom]

only seen s1 of the TV show but my iwtv friends have dubbed me Claudia Understander for my revolutionary thoughts on transfem claudia. anyway! not the point. agere related thoughts. if they suck then blame the fact that I've only seen s1 so far

i get the feeling that claudia both adores and hates the idea of regression. even though in hindsight she sees that louis and lestat didn't really see her as a person of her own at that point, those years of playing house together were at the time so uncomplicatedly joyful that there's part of her that yearns for that easy happiness. but then, she's so infantilised against her will, both by everyone around her and her unchanging body. she'd hate feeling like a child, acting like a child. even for the joy it gives her

that would only get worse with anyone else around, too. if she did regress, it would be alone.

anyway this isn't even a request im just rambling. i love her. she's basically gang with abigail hobbs to me (<- guy who has been spoiled on Claudia's eventual fate)

- @sleepy-lil-kit-kat (rare me signing things moment)

YES I have many thoughts about Claudia and regression; most of them are about book Claudia because FIVE YEARS OLD is so very different from fourteen -- but I do completely understand and respect the need to age her up for the tv show.

For Claudia, I'm super interested in the idea of involuntary regression, because... how frustrating would it be to be stuck in this infantalized state, and now your own brain is "teaming up" with the world to deny you your adult mind? Making you younger than your body, even? The resulting endless simmering resentment: partially for Louis and Lestat, partially for herself.

And yes, keeping it hidden from both of her 'father figures' because she fights so hard for either of them to take her seriously, and she would be so scared that it would undo all of her work. It's almost worse for her to think that Louis might enjoy it, as the rift between them widens: that he would appreciate the chance to have his daughter back, no matter how fleeting. That daughter that's too young to resent him, too young to have her own thoughts and opinions. Once again, regression and resentment just tangled up in each other. She wants Louis to take care of her, but she doesn't want him to want to take care of her. How can she let herself feel those contradicting emotions without guilt?

I also have season 2 opinions about Claudia as a caregiver so let me know when you watch it for sure >:)

[chickpea0]

ask game!! 4, 5, 16, 20 - for aziraphale from good omens :p

The ask game Thank you for the ask(s)!!

4. is their regression more voluntary or involuntary? do they ever regress without realizing it?

hmrrnrr  I think it's a mix with a lean on voluntary. Az/ira/phale occasionally feels it coming on, and he can either welcome it or shut it down quite easily, depending on the situation; I think he almost always embraces it unless his colleagues are being pesky or there's some serious armageddonning occurring. Though I think there have been times where it's come on without him realising it, as well as when it's impractical, quite honestly, with how oblivious and uncaring the other angels (and demons) are, they wouldn't pick up on it and at most put it down to their preconceived assumption that Zira's quite odd, and they'd shake it off.

5. do they ever find themselves only regressing partially, or do they fully drop when they regress?

I think it's pretty balanced! I don't think it's uncommon for him to organise his bookshop half-regressed, feeling light and floaty. I feel like knowing that Heaven has a tendency to drop in at any moment without notice (albiet rare) might actually make the poor angel hesitate to fully relax into it, though it doesn't stop him. Especially when he needs it.

16. where do they tend to regress? do they mostly regress at home, at the park, at a specific friend's house? do they have a specific place they like to go once they're regressed?

Mainly his bookshop, of course! He mostly spends his regression away from the areas where the public is allowed, of course. I think he has a specific room that he lovingly decorates with peacefulness in mind, but he isn't too fussy.

20. what is age regression to them? what do they like/dislike? are they proud of their regression, or feel a bit more insecure about it?

Angels and demons don't have childhoods, but they do have a youthful period with a lack of experience and less baggage. Zira, I feel, spent a lot of his youth anxious and confused. He seems to overthink a lot during flashbacks, and so regression, for him, is a sort of way to give him back some of the comfort and peacefulness of 'childhood'. I think his regression is subtly different compared to if he were human (being different entities and all that), but he does take a lot of inspiration from human childhood because of how beautiful it can be.

He adores children's books, typically the more vintage or traditional ones, hosting book clubs or tea parties, and generally prefers toys that replicate everyday life or have some sort of tactile or sensory play aspect like sorting, music boxes, and paint sets. I'd like to think that he generally has a positive mindset towards his regression and cherishes it, though I think sometimes he gets a bit insecure about how much pressure he is under.

[kobiksplayroom]

Agere Headcanons: Cassie Howard from Euphoria

Thank you to @regressor-wicked for the prompt list. Moodboard is mine but pictures are from Pinterest.

Tw: talk of trauma

🩵 how did they find out about age regression? did they stumble upon it online? did a friend tell them about it?

Cassie learns about it in therapy. Her therapist mentions that she thinks it would do her some good and at first she brushes it off. But later on she does some research and decides to try it out.

🎀 do they have a specific age or range they regress to, or do they just go off vibes?

I'd say she regresses to ages 2-5! Sometimes older like to 10 but it depends

🩵 why do they regress? is it trauma or stress related? do they regress to go back to simpler times, or to create new memories? what causes them to regress?

It is definitely stress and trauma related. She wants to go back to the happiness she felt being an ice skater and not like an object for men. But she also wants to create nice memories, memories with a safe father figure. Memories where she feels loved.

🎀 is their regression more voluntary or involuntary? do they ever regress without realizing it?

It can be both, when she's upset and having a meltdown it is involuntary. It's usually then that she doesn't realize she's regressed. But she also likes to intentionally unwind with a cartoon and some milk in a sippy cup.

🩵 do they ever find themselves only regressing partially, or do they fully drop when they regress?

It depends how upset she is, sometimes she can be fully regressed. When she's doing it voluntarily it is usually partially.

🎀 are they a stuffie or a blankie kid? both? neither?

She still has a bunny stuffie she had as a kid. Now as an adult she gets herself an ice skating bunny stuffie. And a nice cozy blanket in blue.

🩵 do they have a caregiver? are they a caregiver/flip?

At the moment no but she gets one. I like to think maybe her bestie (and gf) Maddy is her caregiver/big sister. And eventually they get a shared caregiver so they can both be little at the same time and someone is there to supervise them.

🎀 in what ways are they different when they're regressed? do aspects of their personality or interests change at all? are they similar to how they were when they were an actual kid, or completely different?

She's pretty similar to how she is when she isn't regressed. Cassie is naturally a pretty sweet and innocent person. I think it takes a while for Cassie to get her passion for ice skating back but when she does it's like she lights up and that same little girl from all those years ago are back.

🩵 do they identify with any specific labels (regressor, flip, pet regressor, etc.)?

She's just a regressor! I can see her liking being a bunny sometimes too tho.

🎀 do they have any regression gear (teethers, pacifiers, diapers, specific toys or outfits, etc.)? do they try to hide it from friends/family?

She has soooo many pacis and sippies and toys. So so many. I think she'd try diapers. At first she hides it but when she moves in with Maddy she doesn't hide it anymore.

🩵 do they fall into any 'regressor stereotypes' (baby talk, loving disney movies, liking pastels, etc.), or do they diverge from the 'norm' (liking horror media, regressing to an older age, etc.)?

For sure, I can see her baby talking and she does like Disney and pastels. She's like a stereotypical little girl tbh but that isn't a bad thing at all!

🎀 do they have any specific nicknames for when they regress? how about nicknames they've given to their caregiver(s) or friends?

Maddy calls her little bunny, Cassie Cass, Ice Princess, Sissy. Cassie calls Maddy Mads, MooMoo, and also Sissy.

🩵 what do they like to do when they're regressed? do they like to play pretend, watch tv/movies, color, etc.?

It takes her a while to be comfortable playing and stuff. In the beginning she sticks to watching cartoons and other kids shows. But once she's comfortable she plays with her Barbie dolls and stuffies, color, dress up. She loves dressing up in costumes and having tea parties.

🎀 what kind of snacks/drinks do they gravitate towards when regressed? do they use a sippy cup or bottle? how about those little divider plates/trays?

Cassie likes warm milk with some cinnamon at bed time and those fruit punch on pouches during the day a lot! She usually uses a sippy cup but when she's extra little she enjoys it when someone feeds her with a bottle. And yes she loves those divider plates! She has a Cinderella one.

🩵 what do they wear when they're regressed? do they have specific clothes, or do they just wear whatever is most comfortable? do they have a comfort article of clothing?

She pretty much wears the same things as when she's big. Sometimes she'll enjoy a onesie at nighttime.

🎀 where do they tend to regress? do they mostly regress at home, at the park, at a specific friend's house? do they have a specific place they like to go once they're regressed?

When she's alone at home is when she most often regresses. And when she's with Maddy. Those are the places she feels the safest to regress.

🩵 do they prefer to play indoors or outdoors? do they get upset when it rains?

During winter she loves to play outside because it means ice skating on the lake! And she in general likes playing outside. She likes to do her cheerleading tumbling. But she isn't too upset when it rains because it means she can get all cozy and snuggle with Maddy.

🎀 do they take naps? if so, do they take them at a specific time, or just nap whenever they feel like it? do they get fussy over having to take one?

I can see her being a little fussy when it's nap time, but she does enjoy taking her naps. It's always in the afternoon after lunch that she'll lay down for a nap 🥹

🩵 what kind of things do you associate with their regression? is their a specific aesthetic or general 'vibe' you think suits them and their regression?

I definitely see a dollette/dollcore aesthetic for Cassie. She likes being a pretty princess and when she's little that doesn't change. Lots of dresses and bows. Those kinds of things make her happy.

🎀 what is age regression to them? what do they like/dislike? are they proud of their regression, or feel a bit more insecure about it?

She does feel insecure about it sometimes. I picture her exploring agere after high school so in her head she's an adult, why does she need to act like a child in order to feel safe? Which just causes her to regress more because of the stress. But over time with her therapist and Maddy she starts to accept it. She likes that it lets her reclaim her childhood and heal her inner child. The only thing she dislikes is that she gets triggered easily into the headspace.

[adollchild]

Hey, apologies if this comes off as too much, I'm very very new to regressing and I wanted to ask a bit of advice. How do you know when you're starting to regress? As an adult, I'm having a very hard time understanding when I do and it tends to happen at bad times and I don't know what to expect.

I can tell sometimes by what I feel like doing in the moment but other times, I just cannot gather my thoughts to be focused on the adult things I need to do. Do you have any tips?

Hi anon

This question is a bit tricky to answer since it can vary a lot from regressor to regressor how it feels to regress. For me, I tend to get more emotional the more regressed I am. My vocabulary also tends to get smaller the younger I regress, and my thoughts may also get more simple. (Keep in mind though that I am a permaregressor and always at least partially regressed, so my experience is probably different from someone who isn't a permaregressor.)

As for regressing at inconvenient times, that can be pretty hard if not down right impossible to control for some regressors. I don't really have any tips on how to "unregress", but know that you're not the only one experiencing it. In fact, there's a whole term for it called "involuntary regression" that I'd recommend checking out.

[shycloudagere]

🔤🪀👔🐣 for da ask fingy :)

Hi, I’m answering this while big, hope you don’t mind that. Also, I ended up saying a lot more for the last answer than I thought I would…

🔤 My favorite name to be called when little kind of changes depending on my age, mood, and the overall context, but I always like being called “little one” cause it makes me feel small but in a way that isn’t too personal. However, if a fellow age regressor is talking to me while regressed to a similar age, I think that stuff like “buddy” and “friend” make more sense.

🪀 I don’t play with a ton of toys while little, but I enjoy some games on my iPad, and I like coloring/scribbling/filling out worksheets. I love my pacifier, even though it’s not a toy.

👔 I don’t have any specific clothes for when I’m little because 1) I don’t have anywhere to hide clothes that are very obviously for littles, and 2) I usually regress at the end of the day when I feel too tired to worry about my clothes. When I’m home I usually have on an oversized hoodie with shorts or leggings, which is pretty good for regression anyway.

🐣 This is gonna be a long answer in case it’s helpful for someone reading it.

Some of my regression is at least partially involuntary, so things that bring up really bad memories or are just really scary in the moment can cause me to regress once I’m alone and able to process my thoughts/feelings. I can also involuntarily regress a bit if I’m shopping for something childish, like I buy certain dolls that I like when big or little, but I sometimes regress a bit when I’m at the store buying them. Also, places like aquariums make me feel smol sometimes because there’s so much cool stuff and is largely geared toward being family friendly and making fun spaces for kids. Also, I’m always in such awe when I see how beautiful fish are, so I think that adds to the general feeling of being little.

When I’m voluntarily regressing, I usually turn on kids’ shows. Most streaming services have a default kids’ profile, so you can use that even if sharing with family or add one without them noticing cause they’ll assume it was already there. I have certain coloring books and a notebook just for little me to use. Certain apps on my iPad are used mostly when I’m little. Tumblr can be good. I had a Pinterest account but it’s taken down, and I need to contact their help thing, but that used to help a lot.

Honestly, a lot of times I will make myself regress a bit if I’m having a hard time processing negative feelings or if I need to take care of myself because it’s sometimes easier to be a pouty baby who grumbles and scribbles with crayons if I don’t have another outlet, and it’s easier to convince myself to go to bed if I feel like a little kid being told they have to rest.

Oh, I also have a littlespace playlist, but I honestly don’t use it much because little me doesn’t often have an interest in listening to music. They would rather watch tv or just play a game that makes noise. If I’m not fully regressed, I will sometimes explore AO3, but I have to read stories I found when big cause it can be hard to navigate to Sfw things, so little me doesn’t explore, only reads what’s already saved for them.

I also try to reduce what’s available to read because I can usually read at least a little bit at any age (probably because I learned at a very young age), but that can feel kind of confusing and overwhelming to little me because it feels like there are words everywhere and they’re too big for someone so smol. So I start by playing games with little to no dialogue and color, then I can do things like explore Tumblr once I feel like the reading part of my brain has turned off a bit, so I don’t always have to read every word I see, and I can disregard proper spelling. It eliminates stress, if that makes sense. Also, I don’t talk much when little because there’s no one here irl to listen, but if I do talk, I encourage myself to use a childish voice and way of speaking, and I let myself grumble and pout without actual words. I used to have a speech impediment and it’s sometimes still present, so I let that become more obvious.

My best advice is to essentially compartmentalize things as much as possible. Have your apps on a separate page of your device, have toys that you use when little, have coloring pages for when you’re little. Maybe even have a favorite cup and snack. I’m not currently at a point in life where little me can have a dedicated space irl or lots of toys just for them. So I set aside what I can, and I avoid using things while regressed that big me uses often. For example, I have two toys that are legitimate baby toys. They’re sensory stuffed animals. I never use them while little because the main reason I own them is to take to overwhelming places (like Disney world) where it would not be safe to regress. And little me gets to wear certain slippers and hats but rarely cat ears because I don’t want the cat ears to make me feel small at school.

[syrenslure]

Eliade’s List of Fandom Kinks, Clichés, Tropes and Fetishes 1/2

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Abuse (sexual, emotional, and/or violent childhood abuse; past abusive relationships; character A's abuse drives character B into arms of character C; the wounded child as an adult archetype)

Abduction as seduction (beloved captives)

Accidental stimulation (proximity and friction; involuntary arousal; situations of adrenaline and reflexes)

Adrenaline and crises (pre-, mid-, or post-crisis sex; speed-freaks or adrenaline junkies; near-death experiences; the shadow of impending death--hours, minutes, or moments; see also Situational engineering)

Age differences (e.g., older man/younger man pairing)

Age regression (mental and/or physical regression; childlike behavior caused by brain damage; characters met before in the past; high school AUs; time-travel)

Aliens make them have sex (fuck or die; fertility rituals; intoxication; taking one for the team)

Alpha males (alpha/beta male pairings; alpha/alpha pairings; het alpha males)

Amazons and strong women (warrior women; women as soldiers, law enforcement figures, or leaders; goddesses; tough, butch, or muscled women; lesbians or dykes; quasi-masculine characteristics in general, such as a boyish body type: slim, athletic, and small-breasted; forcefulness or brusqueness)

Amnesia

Anal penetration with foreign objects

Anal sex (face to face, from behind, bottom riding top; standing; bent over desk; gay or straight; girl-on-boy with strap-on; girl-on-girl with strap-on)

Anal/butt plugs (during sex; worn under clothes in public)

Angst (see Emotional themes)

Animalistic behaviors and characteristics, dominant (snarling; sniffing; scent-marking or biting; other claiming acts; territoriality; predatory stalking; cuffing; forcing the partner's neck down; claws and other features)

Animalistic behaviors and characteristics, submissive (feral characters or behavior; domesticated pet behavior such as sitting at owner's foot and cheeking their thigh; purring; licking; characters objectified as animals, e.g., ponyboys)

Animal themes or fetishization (physical transformation, e.g., animagi or werewolves; animalistic features; hirsutism as a fetish; tentacle sex; quasi animal forms such as centaurs, merfolk, intelligent dragons; pets, wild or domesticated; familiars; men showing affection toward animals, e.g., holding kittens, or nuzzling their horses; see also Otherness)

Anonymous sex (clubbing; glory-holes; alley sex; alien fertility rituals; one-night stands)

Anti-heroes (sympathetic villains; villains with principles; noble demons; enemies who keep their word)

Aphrodisiacs (see Intoxication and altered states)

Aristocracy (aristocratic behaviors, characteristics, and/or identity; chivalry and noblesse oblige; royal blood; elegance or effeteness; dignity; royal courts or castles; imperial cultures; Greco-Roman classicism; dynastic families; gentlemen; aristocrat pairings with houseboys, stable-boys, or secretaries)

Asphyxiation (asphyxiophilia; autoerotic asphyxiation; scarfing; choking; breath play)

Ass-play and/or fetishization (ass lifted in the air for penetration; emphasized by harness or blue jeans; ass slapping; spreading cheeks; rimming)

Attention (singling someone out; treating someone specially in front of others; making a point of showing respect to or interest in someone who doesn't usually receive it; observing, studying, or analyzing someone to understand them)

AUs (alternate characterizations and situations; sex between alternates of one character or between different characters; alternates as catalysts for realization of desire; role reversal; darker mirror universe characters; mistaken identity)

Auctions (slave or slave charity)

Bad boys (punks, rebels; see also Rogues)

Bad girls (dirty girls; naughty schoolgirls; femme fatales)

Bar and club scenes (dancing, cruising, etc)

Barebacking

Baths and water (tubs or jacuzzis; hot springs; bath houses or steam rooms; the ocean; swimming pools; see also Washing; Shower sex)

BDSM

Beards or stubble

Beauty (movie-star looks; unearthly beauty; a character who is highly desired by many others; beauty as a barrier to approachability or as a cause for comparison and insecurity)

Begging or offering (begging or pleading for mercy, for sexual release, to be taken; a character offering himself; neediness)

Beloved enemies

Beloved hostages (royal, diplomatic, or business hostages; see also Abduction as seduction)

Bestiality (see Animal themes)

Big guy/little guy (also seme/uke)

Big men (tall, broad, muscled; giants; Conan or Fezzik characters; see Warriors)

Biological imperative (pon farr or mating drive; being in heat)

Bisexuality

Biting (marking, nipping, chewing)

Blindness (see Voyeurism and vision themes)

Blood (fetishization of wounds; blood-play; blood as lube; vampirism)

Blow-jobs (oral sex, fellatio)

Body fetishes not listed elsewhere (ears, muscular arms, breasts, bald heads, collarbones, cheekbones, bare feet or chest, etc; fatness, plumpness, softness; skin, e.g., weathered, tanned, soft)

Body modification (geek-to-jock makeovers; physical enhancements such as wetwear; alien transformations; scarification and piercing; forced feminization or castration; see also Otherness)

Body-painting or inkbrushing on someone's skin

Body swap

Bodyguard scenarios (See also Protectiveness)

Bondage

Bonds (telepathic or empathic; psychic links; mating or soul bonds)

Bottoming

Boys (pretty boys; bishounen/bishonen; boyish types; pocket-sized cuties; puppies; Persian Boy characters; houseboys or stable-boys; toyboys)

Branding (erotic or non-erotic)

Breath (as a caress; hitching or ragged; indrawn breath or gasps; sighs)

Brothels

Bruises and other wounds

Bukkake

Canon (canon elements/canonicity heightens characterization or scenario)

Castration (full or partial; castratos/eunuchs)

Catalysts (e.g., character A shows interest in character B, which makes character C realize how hot B is; or other catalytic events bringing about such an epiphany)

Celibacy (e.g., someone's celibacy as a challenge to seduction)

Charisma (see Powers of attraction)

Chastity devices

Childish characters (brats; little princesses)

Childlike characteristics (innocence and simplicity; trustingness; truth-speaking, playfulness; boyishness and mischievousness; wounded child characters; orphans)

Children (i.e., as their presence reflects on a character, e.g., tough men gently holding babies; men who are/aren't good with kids; devoted single dads; Ripley characters/scenarios; pregnancy)

Cinderella stories (rescuing someone from servitude or cruel family; going from rags to riches; Pretty Woman scenarios; fairy-tale romances in general)

Claiming or establishing ownership (private or public; by gesture, word, or ritual; with sex; with a collar and leash; with scent-marking or by biting)

Clams (i.e., characters who are stoic, terse, repressed; see also Talking and communication issues; Silence)

Climax (e.g., described in detail)

Closeted partner(s) (see also Orientation issues; Society)

Clothes fetishization (of any kind, e.g., uniforms; leather gear; worn blue jeans; thigh-highs; stilettos; leather jackets; tuxedos or GQ wear; constricting or modest clothes; boxer-briefs; going commando)

Clumsiness (awkwardness; overeagerness; during sex or in general)

Cock and/or ball fetishization (uncircumcised cocks; large cocks; heavy balls; durable erection; deep dicking; very hard/rigid erection; trouser bulges)

Cock and/or ball torture (whipping, stretching, catheters, etc)

Cock bondage (cock rings; harnesses and straps; leather ropework)

Cock worship

Collars (slave)

Come-marking (letting it dry visibly on the skin)

Coming in one's pants

Coming in or on one's partner (in ass or mouth; in hair; on body; on face, i.e., facial)

Coming out of the closet (see also Gayness; Orientation issues; Witnesses)

Coming quickly (premature ejaculation or knee-jerk reflex response)

Coming without being touched

Competence

Conditioning (taming or breaking a character; training; brainwashing; Stockholm syndrome)

Condoms

Confessions (revelation of love/desire; of other secrets; truth or dare games. deathbed confessions; revealing truths when feverish)

Conflicts and challenges (war and combat in general; sieges; Die Hard scenarios; jousting; gladiatorial games; wrestling and sparring; duels of honor; bets and sports competitions; romantic rivalries; seduction viewed as a challenge; misunderstandings and fights; break-ups; traded insults; stormy relationships; family strife; personality clashes; cultural differences; philosophical disagreements)

Courtesans or geishas

Courting and dating (courtship rituals; dating; blind dates; personal ads; traditional gestures such as flowers and chocolates; unusual gestures designed to win someone's attention; showing off or displaying prowess; rivals seeking a character's favor; see also Seduction)

Cross-dressing (forced or voluntary; drag queens or transvestites; see also Gender themes)

Crossovers (characters thrust into other universes; canon universes merged; sex between characters played by same actor)

Crush or unrequited love

Crying, sobbing (erotic and non-erotic)

Cuddling (see Touch)

Cunnilingus

Cyber themes (cybersex; virtual reality scenarios; e-mail/chatroom interaction, including secret admirer scenarios; see also Techno)

Daddy themes (fetishization and role-play; difficult father-son relationships; sugar daddies; paternalism in general)

Damsel in distress scenarios (danger and rescue; damsel character need not be female)

Dancing

Dating (see Courting and dating)

Death (fatal illnesses; heroic death; character death in general; survivor guilt and grief; ghosts and haunting; vampires; Thanatos as the personification of death; Thanatos as the death wish; death orgasms; gothic aesthetics; immortality or aging as it relates to death; reincarnation)

Deep-throating

Delayed gratification

Depilation (waxing, shaving)

Dildos (dildo gags; harnesses; strap-ons; ritual phalluses)

Disabilities or infirmities (limp; damaged or missing limb; chronic pain; deafness; stutters)

Discipline or punishment

Discomfort during sex (rough edge of a table as counterpoint to pleasure; cold stone versus hot flesh; position is uncomfortable at first but then becomes perfect; penetration is painful, then pleasurable)

Disorders (phobias; neuroses; obsessive-compulsive disorder; see also Insanity; Emotional themes)

Docking

Domesticity (moving in together; nesting; shopping; building a family or meeting the family; getting a cat or dog; kidfic)

Dominance and submission (See also Submission; Servitude; Master and slave, etc)

Double penetration (anal, vaginal, or oral)

Drugs (recreational drug use; Viagra; self-destructive addictions; addiction as a by-product of pain management; alcoholism and sobriety)

Dystopias (apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic worlds; alien invasions; pandemics; computers take over; settings in Hell, or earth becomes Hell)

Ejaculate, come (heavy loads; pre-ejaculate slickness; messy orgasms)

Emotional themes, emo-kink (angst; wallows; darkfic; emotional damage; psychological trauma; tragic pasts; broken characters; guilt and shame; mental instability; sadness and grief; abandonment or fear of same; characters who can't go home again; fear in general; nightmares; loneliness; broken-heartedness; failure; insecurity; self-hatred; self-mutilation such as secret cutting; suicide; see also Insanity)

Endearments (see Names)

Enemas

Enemies working together

Ensembles (elite teams of explorers, spies, law enforcement figures, etc; sentai; military squadrons; skilled teams operating like clockwork, such as when pulling off a heist; bands of rebels; families; surrogate families; outcasts, e.g., freaks and geeks; carnival troupes; motley characters thrown together by fate; alternatives to society e.g., Robin Hood and his Merry Men, Peter Pan and the Lost Boys; see also Witnesses)

Erotic torture

Exhibitionism

Exoticism (fetishization of Far Eastern culture and aesthetics, which may be adapted and generalized for fictional worlds; e.g., harems and harem culture; veils; silk clothes; Turkish baths; pleasure pavilions; royal courts; lush gardens; island paradises; opium dens; casbahs and bazaars; tents; imperial royal figures such as sheikhs or sultans; köçek troupes; court figures such as dancers and storytellers; floor pillows; furs or skins as rugs or bedding; feasts; tapestries; Persian rugs; oil lamps; wild animals as pets; opulence, decadence, and sensuality in general)

Exposure (with or without eroticism; feeling physically exposed, such as with legs open; a woman's shirt being opened to expose her breasts; characters being forced to undress in public; someone opening a door on people having sex)

Face-fucking (blow-job)

Face-sitting (straddling for blow-job or cunnilingus)

Fake rake (a man falsely rumored to be promiscuous, who isn't; romance novel term)

Falling (falling from grace; going bad; turning to the Dark Side; Faustian deals; succumbing to temptation or addiction; degradation and descent in general)

Fantasies (shared or solitary; role-playing)

Feminine terms used for males (e.g., calling a man a bitch, calling his ass a pussy; using condescending endearments such as honey or precious)

Femmes (effeminacy)

Fetishes for objects not listed elsewhere (shoes, cigarettes, lipstick, coffee cups, eyeglasses, motorcycles, canes, etc)

Finger-fucking (as preparation, foreplay, accompaniment, or main act)

First times (first time between two individuals; losing virginity/cherry; first time doing a particular act; first time with a particular gender)

Fish out of water characters/scenarios

Fisting (anal or vaginal)

Flirting (conscious or unconscious; with glances or touches; banter)

Food (feeding one's partner; romantic dinners; food as foreplay or flirting; food used during sex, such as whipped cream or chocolate)

Forbidden pleasures (love affairs or trysts; in general, wanting someone or something that's expressly forbidden)

Forced feminization (see also Gender themes)

Forced orgasm

Foreplay

Friction or frottage (naked or clothed; masturbatory or with partner; cocks rubbing together; tribadism; intercrural sex; someone rubbing off on sheets while giving head or being fucked; itchiness and scratching; chafing clothes; friction while on horseback or riding a motorcycle; accidental contact)

Friendship and affection (gestures of friendship; epic friendships a la Gilgamesh/Enkidu or Alexander/Hephaistion; friendship as pre-slash)

Friendship sex or buddy-sex (fuck buddies)

Fucking machines

Fuck or die

Future fic

Gags (ball-gags, scarves, mouth bits, etc)

Gayness (self-identification as gay; gay pride; queer culture; homophobia; see also Orientation issues)

Geeks and nebbishes (Peter Parker or Clark Kent characters; computer geeks; lab rats; nerds; intellectuals; personal secretaries; beta males; sidekicks; men in glasses; oddballs and eccentrics)

Geek/jock pairings

Gender themes (gender confusion; sex changes; genderfucks; hermaphrodites; cross-dressing or other forms of genderbending; drag queens and transvestites; androgyny; forced feminization; butch/femme; tomboys)

Gentleness (tenderness; kindness; concern; gentle natures; characters who display sensitivity to fearful children, animals, the weak, etc; gentle responses at unexpected moments)

Getaways (romantic weekends; tropical vacations; ski chalets)

Girls (dancing girls; cat-girls; schoolgirls; bishoujo; magical girls; cheerleaders; see also Bad Girls; Good girls)

Going native (see also Primitivism)

Golden showers

Good boys (law enforcement figures; gentlemen; characters who prompt a desire to corrupt or provoke them, or to get them dirty; priests; prim schoolteachers; angels; nice guys; virtue and nobility in general)

Good girls (nice girls; daddy's girls; schoolmarms; nuns)

Grunge (dirty and sweaty, needing a shower; actual mud/dirt elements in a sex scene)

Guns and gun-play (guns as fetish objects; gun-battles as flirting or foreplay; guns used for sexual penetration; games of Russian Roulette; see also Military fetishization)

Hair or fur fetishization (buzz-cuts; long hair; hair-grabbing during blow-jobs; coming in someone's hair; pubic hair; hairy chests; underarm hair; hair all over e.g., Wookies, werewolves, yeti, etc; see also Animal themes and fetishization)

Hand fetishization (big strong hands; steady hands; rough knuckles; calluses; fists clenching in sheets)

Hand-jobs

Happiness (startled joy; passionate gratitude; ecstasy; comfort; happy endings)

Harems or seraglios

Healing or comfort sex (post-rape or abuse; affirming life in the midst of death; captives turning to one another for comfort; one character soothing another who is deeply upset or fearful)

Heat (hot lazy summer days; steamrooms; sweat-slick skin; tempers rising with the heat; urgent fucking a la Body Heat)

Hero/sidekick pairings

Heroes (knights and champions; superheroes; samurai or ronin; super-soldiers; ordinary characters becoming heroes and characters overcoming fear with bravery; rebel/underground heroes; saviors and liberators; avengers; see also Heroic gestures; Good boys)

Heroic gestures (nobility; self-sacrifice; risking self to save someone's life; Gift of the Magi scenarios; taking the partner's place for torture; trading sexual favors to guards to procure food or medicine for partner; heroic deaths)

Historical and period settings

Homosocial environments (i.e., all-male or all-female, such as prisons or harems)

Hot spots (a special spot that make someone crazy when stimulated, such as the vampire spot on the neck, the backs of the knees, the inner arms, navel, or earlobes)

Human furniture

Humiliation (erotic or non-erotic)

Humor (funny banter, screwball comedy, etc)

Humor as a mask (characters who hide pain behind humor)

Hurt/comfort (emotional and/or physical, including torture of all kinds and degrees, and any form of caretaking)

Ice princesses, snow queens (cold characters who may or may not succumb to melting; need not be female)

Immobilization and/or helplessness

Impotence

Imprisonment, erotic (cages, cells, closets, coffins, etc)

Imprisonment, other (see Prison scenarios)

Incest (including brother/sister complex)

Insanity (involuntary or false committal; characters appearing insane when their beliefs or fears are real; sedation and restraints; asylums; dementia; therapy)

Intelligence (quick wit; street smarts; Machiavellian cleverness; Sherlock Holmesian deductive powers; geniuses; experts; criminal masterminds; see also Special powers and skills; Geeks and nebbishes)

Intercrural or interfemoral sex (i.e., thrusting cock between partner's thighs)

Intimacy

Intoxication and altered states (aphrodisiacs; drugs or alcohol; sex pollen/spores; substances or devices that create arousal, affection, or dependency; speaking or showing the truth while intoxicated; visionary states)

Jewelry (decorative and/or symbolic; wedding rings; earrings; slave bracelets; piercings)

Journeys (odysseys and quests; time-travel; being lost and trying to get home; road trips; pioneering and exploration, including space travel)

Kissing, necking

Knives and knife-play

Lady and the Tramp pairings (see also Rough behavior; Rogues)

Lesbians or dykes (includes lesbianism as erotica for men)

Loss of control (emotional, physical, situational, erotic, etc)

Love and passion (falling in love; love at first sight; one true love; eternal love; unconditional love; star-crossed lovers; tempestuous passions)

Love/hate relationship

Magical themes (love spells; magical characters or creatures; magical lands or settings; predictions; curses; possession; fairytales; magical girls; see also Special powers and skills)

Make-overs

Make-up and/or nail polish on men (see also Gender themes)

Make-up sex or reunions

Menservants

Marriage (of arrangement, convenience, or necessity; accidental marriage; group marriage; traditional marriage or partnership ceremony)

Masks

Masochism

Masquerade (a character pretends to be someone else, or something he's not, e.g., a nebbishy nerd must convince goons he's a ruthless arms dealer or assassin; a cop goes undercover in prison; a spy infiltrates an agency; a good guy pretends to be his AU evil twin; Cyrano scenarios)

Massage

Master and slave (erotic or romantic slavery, or otherwise; see Power issues)

Masturbation (solitary or as performance)

Medical scenarios and fetishization

Messiness and markers of arousal (mussed hair; flushed cheeks; swollen mouth; displaying bite marks or hickeys; clothes in disarray; sprawling; come-spattered skin)

Military fetishization (competence; guns, knives, and other weapons; uniforms, dog-tags, thigh-holsters, etc; authority; soldiers and rebels; paramilitary figures such as cops; brothers in arms as a romantic concept)

Mindfuck, mindgames

Mirrors

Mistaken for gay (character A concludes that character B is gay based on spurious evidence, e.g., overhearing and misinterpreting a conversation; may also believe that character has a crush on him; or an ensemble believes two characters are gay and together; other similar scenarios)

Misunderstood (i.e., he's not really ____, he's just misunderstood)

MPREG (male pregnancy)

Multiple orgasms (See also Sexual appetite or excess)

Multiple partners (sequential/serial sexual encounters; orgies, gang-bangs, or group sex; puppy-pile cuddling; see also Sexual appetite or excess)

Mummification and/or sensory deprivation

Muscled bodies

Music (singing; playing an instrument such as guitar or piano; composers; rock stars or bands; groupies; song lyrics)

Names and address (endearments: sweetheart, honey, mine; nicknames: chief, kid, sport; terms that assert power: boy, cunt; insulting terms that may hide some affection: monkey-boy, Your Worshipfulness, you big furry oaf; using someone's name as a sign of intimacy; using only formal modes of address: Sir, Major)

Nautical themes and fetishization (ships and the sea; rum, sodomy, and the lash; cabin boys; navy/pirate conflicts; colonialism; desert islands and buried treasure)

Neck fetishization (nape of the neck, throat, hickeys, etc)

Nipple play or torture

Noise (screaming or yelling during sex; whimpering or sobbing; purring, growling; slurping or moaning enthusiastically during blow-jobs)

Non-consensual or semi-consensual sex (sexual extortion; bribery; reluctant or ambivalent partner; bondage and struggle; no means yes; other consent issues)

Oral fixation or fetishization (lips, tongue, or whole mouth; french-kissing; licking; oral displays using food or beer bottles; smoking cigarettes, cigars, or pipes; biting or chewing one's lip(s))

Orgasm denial

Orientation issues (confusion; discovery and coming out; self-hatred; two-beer queers; homosexual panic)

Original characters (i.e., pairing someone with an OMC or OFC)

Otherness and outsiders (alien identity or transformation; mutants; demons and angels; hermaphrodites; eccentrics; elves and other magical beings; exoticism; half-human hybrids, e.g., the offspring of humans with demons, vampires, aliens, elves; racial difference in general; clones; twins; see also Secret identity; Special powers; Exoticism)

[thelostdocter]

When I say I'm into everything I mean everything!

((Here are a list of kinks)) Absence makes the heart grow fonder Abuse (sexual, emotional, and/or violent childhood abuse; past abusive relationships; character A's abuse drives character B into arms of character C; the wounded child as an adult archetype) Abduction as seduction (beloved captives) Accidental stimulation (proximity and friction; involuntary arousal; situations of adrenaline and reflexes) Adrenaline and crises (pre-, mid-, or post-crisis sex; speed-freaks or adrenaline junkies; near-death experiences; the shadow of impending death--hours, minutes, or moments; see also Situational engineering) Age differences (e.g., older man/younger man pairing) Age regression (mental and/or physical regression; childlike behavior caused by brain damage; characters met before in the past; high school AUs; time-travel) Aliens make them have sex (fuck or die; fertility rituals; intoxication; taking one for the team) Alpha males (alpha/beta male pairings; alpha/alpha pairings; het alpha males) Amazons and strong women (warrior women; women as soldiers, law enforcement figures, or leaders; goddesses; tough, butch, or muscled women; lesbians or dykes; quasi-masculine characteristics in general, such as a boyish body type: slim, athletic, and small-breasted; forcefulness or brusqueness) Amnesia Anal penetration with foreign objects Anal sex (face to face, from behind, bottom riding top; standing; bent over desk; gay or straight; girl-on-boy with strap-on; girl-on-girl with strap-on) Anal/butt plugs (during sex; worn under clothes in public) Angst (see Emotional themes) Animalistic behaviors and characteristics, dominant (snarling; sniffing; scent-marking or biting; other claiming acts; territoriality; predatory stalking; cuffing; forcing the partner's neck down; claws and other features) Animalistic behaviors and characteristics, submissive (feral characters or behavior; domesticated pet behavior such as sitting at owner's foot and cheeking their thigh; purring; licking; characters objectified as animals, e.g., ponyboys) Animal themes or fetishization (physical transformation, e.g., animagi or werewolves; animalistic features; hirsutism as a fetish; tentacle sex; quasi animal forms such as centaurs, merfolk, intelligent dragons; pets, wild or domesticated; familiars; men showing affection toward animals, e.g., holding kittens, or nuzzling their horses; see also Otherness) Anonymous sex (clubbing; glory-holes; alley sex; alien fertility rituals; one-night stands) Anti-heroes (sympathetic villains; villains with principles; noble demons; enemies who keep their word) Aphrodisiacs (see Intoxication and altered states) Aristocracy (aristocratic behaviors, characteristics, and/or identity; chivalry and noblesse oblige; royal blood; elegance or effeteness; dignity; royal courts or castles; imperial cultures; Greco-Roman classicism; dynastic families; gentlemen; aristocrat pairings with houseboys, stable-boys, or secretaries) Asphyxiation (asphyxiophilia; autoerotic asphyxiation; scarfing; choking; breath play) Ass-play and/or fetishization (ass lifted in the air for penetration; emphasized by harness or blue jeans; ass slapping; spreading cheeks; rimming) Attention (singling someone out; treating someone specially in front of others; making a point of showing respect to or interest in someone who doesn't usually receive it; observing, studying, or analyzing someone to understand them) AUs (alternate characterizations and situations; sex between alternates of one character or between different characters; alternates as catalysts for realization of desire; role reversal; darker mirror universe characters; mistaken identity) Auctions (slave or slave charity) Bad boys (punks, rebels; see also Rogues) Bad girls (dirty girls; naughty schoolgirls; femme fatales) Bar and club scenes (dancing, cruising, etc) Barebacking Baths and water (tubs or jacuzzis; hot springs; bath houses or steam rooms; the ocean; swimming pools; see also Washing; Shower sex) BDSM Beards or stubble Beauty (movie-star looks; unearthly beauty; a character who is highly desired by many others; beauty as a barrier to approachability or as a cause for comparison and insecurity) Begging or offering (begging or pleading for mercy, for sexual release, to be taken; a character offering himself; neediness) Beloved enemies Beloved hostages (royal, diplomatic, or business hostages; see also Abduction as seduction) Bestiality (see Animal themes) Big guy/little guy (also seme/uke) Big men (tall, broad, muscled; giants; Conan or Fezzik characters; see Warriors) Biological imperative (pon farr or mating drive; being in heat) Bisexuality Biting (marking, nipping, chewing) Blindness (see Voyeurism and vision themes) Blood (fetishization of wounds; blood-play; blood as lube; vampirism) Blow-jobs (oral sex, fellatio) Body fetishes not listed elsewhere (ears, muscular arms, breasts, bald heads, collarbones, cheekbones, bare feet or chest, etc; fatness, plumpness, softness; skin, e.g., weathered, tanned, soft) Body modification (geek-to-jock makeovers; physical enhancements such as wetwear; alien transformations; scarification and piercing; forced feminization or castration; see also Otherness) Body-painting or inkbrushing on someone's skin Body swap Bodyguard scenarios (See also Protectiveness) Bondage Bonds (telepathic or empathic; psychic links; mating or soul bonds) Bottoming Boys (pretty boys; bishounen/bishonen; boyish types; pocket-sized cuties; puppies; Persian Boy characters; houseboys or stable-boys; toyboys) Branding (erotic or non-erotic) Breath (as a caress; hitching or ragged; indrawn breath or gasps; sighs) Brothels Bruises and other wounds Bukkake Canon (canon elements/canonicity heightens characterization or scenario) Castration (full or partial; castratos/eunuchs) Catalysts (e.g., character A shows interest in character B, which makes character C realize how hot B is; or other catalytic events bringing about such an epiphany) Celibacy (e.g., someone's celibacy as a challenge to seduction) Charisma (see Powers of attraction) Chastity devices Childish characters (brats; little princesses) Childlike characteristics (innocence and simplicity; trustingness; truth-speaking, playfulness; boyishness and mischievousness; wounded child characters; orphans) Children (i.e., as their presence reflects on a character, e.g., tough men gently holding babies; men who are/aren't good with kids; devoted single dads; Ripley characters/scenarios; pregnancy) Cinderella stories (rescuing someone from servitude or cruel family; going from rags to riches; Pretty Woman scenarios; fairy-tale romances in general) Claiming or establishing ownership (private or public; by gesture, word, or ritual; with sex; with a collar and leash; with scent-marking or by biting) Clams (i.e., characters who are stoic, terse, repressed; see also Talking and communication issues; Silence) Climax (e.g., described in detail) Closeted partner(s) (see also Orientation issues; Society) Clothes fetishization (of any kind, e.g., uniforms; leather gear; worn blue jeans; thigh-highs; stilettos; leather jackets; tuxedos or GQ wear; constricting or modest clothes; boxer-briefs; going commando) Clumsiness (awkwardness; overeagerness; during sex or in general) Cock and/or ball fetishization (uncircumcised cocks; large cocks; heavy balls; durable erection; deep dicking; very hard/rigid erection; trouser bulges) Cock and/or ball torture (whipping, stretching, catheters, etc) Cock bondage (cock rings; harnesses and straps; leather ropework) Cock worship Collars (slave) Come-marking (letting it dry visibly on the skin) Coming in one's pants Coming in or on one's partner (in ass or mouth; in hair; on body; on face, i.e., facial) Coming out of the closet (see also Gayness; Orientation issues; Witnesses) Coming quickly (premature ejaculation or knee-jerk reflex response) Coming without being touched Competence Conditioning (taming or breaking a character; training; brainwashing; Stockholm syndrome) Condoms Confessions (revelation of love/desire; of other secrets; truth or dare games. deathbed confessions; revealing truths when feverish) Conflicts and challenges (war and combat in general; sieges; Die Hard scenarios; jousting; gladiatorial games; wrestling and sparring; duels of honor; bets and sports competitions; romantic rivalries; seduction viewed as a challenge; misunderstandings and fights; break-ups; traded insults; stormy relationships; family strife; personality clashes; cultural differences; philosophical disagreements) Courtesans or geishas Courting and dating (courtship rituals; dating; blind dates; personal ads; traditional gestures such as flowers and chocolates; unusual gestures designed to win someone's attention; showing off or displaying prowess; rivals seeking a character's favor; see also Seduction) Cross-dressing (forced or voluntary; drag queens or transvestites; see also Gender themes) Crossovers (characters thrust into other universes; canon universes merged; sex between characters played by same actor) Crush or unrequited love Crying, sobbing (erotic and non-erotic) Cuddling (see Touch) Cunnilingus Cyber themes (cybersex; virtual reality scenarios; e-mail/chatroom interaction, including secret admirer scenarios; see also Techno) Daddy themes (fetishization and role-play; difficult father-son relationships; sugar daddies; paternalism in general) Damsel in distress scenarios (danger and rescue; damsel character need not be female) Dancing Dating (see Courting and dating) Death (fatal illnesses; heroic death; character death in general; survivor guilt and grief; ghosts and haunting; vampires; Thanatos as the personification of death; Thanatos as the death wish; death orgasms; gothic aesthetics; immortality or aging as it relates to death; reincarnation) Deep-throating Delayed gratification Depilation (waxing, shaving) Dildos (dildo gags; harnesses; strap-ons; ritual phalluses) Disabilities or infirmities (limp; damaged or missing limb; chronic pain; deafness; stutters) Discipline or punishment Discomfort during sex (rough edge of a table as counterpoint to pleasure; cold stone versus hot flesh; position is uncomfortable at first but then becomes perfect; penetration is painful, then pleasurable) Disorders (phobias; neuroses; obsessive-compulsive disorder; see also Insanity; Emotional themes) Docking Domesticity (moving in together; nesting; shopping; building a family or meeting the family; getting a cat or dog; kidfic) Dominance and submission (See also Submission; Servitude; Master and slave, etc) Double penetration (anal, vaginal, or oral) Drugs (recreational drug use; Viagra; self-destructive addictions; addiction as a by-product of pain management; alcoholism and sobriety) Dystopias (apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic worlds; alien invasions; pandemics; computers take over; settings in Hell, or earth becomes Hell) Ejaculate, come (heavy loads; pre-ejaculate slickness; messy orgasms) Emotional themes, emo-kink (angst; wallows; darkfic; emotional damage; psychological trauma; tragic pasts; broken characters; guilt and shame; mental instability; sadness and grief; abandonment or fear of same; characters who can't go home again; fear in general; nightmares; loneliness; broken-heartedness; failure; insecurity; self-hatred; self-mutilation such as secret cutting; suicide; see also Insanity) Endearments (see Names) Enemas Enemies working together Ensembles (elite teams of explorers, spies, law enforcement figures, etc; sentai; military squadrons; skilled teams operating like clockwork, such as when pulling off a heist; bands of rebels; families; surrogate families; outcasts, e.g., freaks and geeks; carnival troupes; motley characters thrown together by fate; alternatives to society e.g., Robin Hood and his Merry Men, Peter Pan and the Lost Boys; see also Witnesses) Erotic torture Exhibitionism Exoticism (fetishization of Far Eastern culture and aesthetics, which may be adapted and generalized for fictional worlds; e.g., harems and harem culture; veils; silk clothes; Turkish baths; pleasure pavilions; royal courts; lush gardens; island paradises; opium dens; casbahs and bazaars; tents; imperial royal figures such as sheikhs or sultans; köçek troupes; court figures such as dancers and storytellers; floor pillows; furs or skins as rugs or bedding; feasts; tapestries; Persian rugs; oil lamps; wild animals as pets; opulence, decadence, and sensuality in general) Exposure (with or without eroticism; feeling physically exposed, such as with legs open; a woman's shirt being opened to expose her breasts; characters being forced to undress in public; someone opening a door on people having sex) Face-fucking (blow-job) Face-sitting (straddling for blow-job or cunnilingus) Fake rake (a man falsely rumored to be promiscuous, who isn't; romance novel term) Falling (falling from grace; going bad; turning to the Dark Side; Faustian deals; succumbing to temptation or addiction; degradation and descent in general) Fantasies (shared or solitary; role-playing) Feminine terms used for males (e.g., calling a man a bitch, calling his ass a pussy; using condescending endearments such as honey or precious) Femmes (effeminacy) Fetishes for objects not listed elsewhere (shoes, cigarettes, lipstick, coffee cups, eyeglasses, motorcycles, canes, etc) Finger-fucking (as preparation, foreplay, accompaniment, or main act) First times (first time between two individuals; losing virginity/cherry; first time doing a particular act; first time with a particular gender) Fish out of water characters/scenarios Fisting (anal or vaginal) Flirting (conscious or unconscious; with glances or touches; banter) Food (feeding one's partner; romantic dinners; food as foreplay or flirting; food used during sex, such as whipped cream or chocolate) Forbidden pleasures (love affairs or trysts; in general, wanting someone or something that's expressly forbidden) Forced feminization (see also Gender themes) Forced orgasm Foreplay Friction or frottage (naked or clothed; masturbatory or with partner; cocks rubbing together; tribadism; intercrural sex; someone rubbing off on sheets while giving head or being fucked; itchiness and scratching; chafing clothes; friction while on horseback or riding a motorcycle; accidental contact) Friendship and affection (gestures of friendship; epic friendships a la Gilgamesh/Enkidu or Alexander/Hephaistion; friendship as pre-slash) Friendship sex or buddy-sex (fuck buddies) Fucking machines Fuck or die Future fic Gags (ball-gags, scarves, mouth bits, etc) Gayness (self-identification as gay; gay pride; queer culture; homophobia; see also Orientation issues) Geeks and nebbishes (Peter Parker or Clark Kent characters; computer geeks; lab rats; nerds; intellectuals; personal secretaries; beta males; sidekicks; men in glasses; oddballs and eccentrics) Geek/jock pairings Gender themes (gender confusion; sex changes; genderfucks; hermaphrodites; cross-dressing or other forms of genderbending; drag queens and transvestites; androgyny; forced feminization; butch/femme; tomboys) Gentleness (tenderness; kindness; concern; gentle natures; characters who display sensitivity to fearful children, animals, the weak, etc; gentle responses at unexpected moments) Getaways (romantic weekends; tropical vacations; ski chalets) Girls (dancing girls; cat-girls; schoolgirls; bishoujo; magical girls; cheerleaders; see also Bad Girls; Good girls) Going native (see also Primitivism) Golden showers Good boys (law enforcement figures; gentlemen; characters who prompt a desire to corrupt or provoke them, or to get them dirty; priests; prim schoolteachers; angels; nice guys; virtue and nobility in general) Good girls (nice girls; daddy's girls; schoolmarms; nuns) Grunge (dirty and sweaty, needing a shower; actual mud/dirt elements in a sex scene) Guns and gun-play (guns as fetish objects; gun-battles as flirting or foreplay; guns used for sexual penetration; games of Russian Roulette; see also Military fetishization) Hair or fur fetishization (buzz-cuts; long hair; hair-grabbing during blow-jobs; coming in someone's hair; pubic hair; hairy chests; underarm hair; hair all over e.g., Wookies, werewolves, yeti, etc; see also Animal themes and fetishization) Hand fetishization (big strong hands; steady hands; rough knuckles; calluses; fists clenching in sheets) Hand-jobs Happiness (startled joy; passionate gratitude; ecstasy; comfort; happy endings) Harems or seraglios Healing or comfort sex (post-rape or abuse; affirming life in the midst of death; captives turning to one another for comfort; one character soothing another who is deeply upset or fearful) Heat (hot lazy summer days; steamrooms; sweat-slick skin; tempers rising with the heat; urgent fucking a la Body Heat) Hero/sidekick pairings Heroes (knights and champions; superheroes; samurai or ronin; super-soldiers; ordinary characters becoming heroes and characters overcoming fear with bravery; rebel/underground heroes; saviors and liberators; avengers; see also Heroic gestures; Good boys) Heroic gestures (nobility; self-sacrifice; risking self to save someone's life; Gift of the Magi scenarios; taking the partner's place for torture; trading sexual favors to guards to procure food or medicine for partner; heroic deaths) Historical and period settings Homosocial environments (i.e., all-male or all-female, such as prisons or harems) Hot spots (a special spot that make someone crazy when stimulated, such as the vampire spot on the neck, the backs of the knees, the inner arms, navel, or earlobes) Human furniture Humiliation (erotic or non-erotic) Humor (funny banter, screwball comedy, etc) Humor as a mask (characters who hide pain behind humor) Hurt/comfort (emotional and/or physical, including torture of all kinds and degrees, and any form of caretaking) Ice princesses, snow queens (cold characters who may or may not succumb to melting; need not be female) Immobilization and/or helplessness Impotence Imprisonment, erotic (cages, cells, closets, coffins, etc) Imprisonment, other (see Prison scenarios) Incest (including brother/sister complex) Insanity (involuntary or false committal; characters appearing insane when their beliefs or fears are real; sedation and restraints; asylums; dementia; therapy) Intelligence (quick wit; street smarts; Machiavellian cleverness; Sherlock Holmesian deductive powers; geniuses; experts; criminal masterminds; see also Special powers and skills; Geeks and nebbishes) Intercrural or interfemoral sex (i.e., thrusting cock between partner's thighs) Intimacy Intoxication and altered states (aphrodisiacs; drugs or alcohol; sex pollen/spores; substances or devices that create arousal, affection, or dependency; speaking or showing the truth while intoxicated; visionary states) Jewelry (decorative and/or symbolic; wedding rings; earrings; slave bracelets; piercings) Journeys (odysseys and quests; time-travel; being lost and trying to get home; road trips; pioneering and exploration, including space travel) Kissing, necking Knives and knife-play Lady and the Tramp pairings (see also Rough behavior; Rogues) Lesbians or dykes (includes lesbianism as erotica for men) Loss of control (emotional, physical, situational, erotic, etc) Love and passion (falling in love; love at first sight; one true love; eternal love; unconditional love; star-crossed lovers; tempestuous passions) Love/hate relationship Magical themes (love spells; magical characters or creatures; magical lands or settings; predictions; curses; possession; fairytales; magical girls; see also Special powers and skills) Make-overs Make-up and/or nail polish on men (see also Gender themes) Make-up sex or reunions Menservants Marriage (of arrangement, convenience, or necessity; accidental marriage; group marriage; traditional marriage or partnership ceremony) Masks Masochism Masquerade (a character pretends to be someone else, or something he's not, e.g., a nebbishy nerd must convince goons he's a ruthless arms dealer or assassin; a cop goes undercover in prison; a spy infiltrates an agency; a good guy pretends to be his AU evil twin; Cyrano scenarios) Massage Master and slave (erotic or romantic slavery, or otherwise; see Power issues) Masturbation (solitary or as performance) Medical scenarios and fetishization Messiness and markers of arousal (mussed hair; flushed cheeks; swollen mouth; displaying bite marks or hickeys; clothes in disarray; sprawling; come-spattered skin) Military fetishization (competence; guns, knives, and other weapons; uniforms, dog-tags, thigh-holsters, etc; authority; soldiers and rebels; paramilitary figures such as cops; brothers in arms as a romantic concept) Mindfuck, mindgames Mirrors Mistaken for gay (character A concludes that character B is gay based on spurious evidence, e.g., overhearing and misinterpreting a conversation; may also believe that character has a crush on him; or an ensemble believes two characters are gay and together; other similar scenarios) Misunderstood (i.e., he's not really __, he's just misunderstood) MPREG (male pregnancy) Multiple orgasms (See also Sexual appetite or excess) Multiple partners (sequential/serial sexual encounters; orgies, gang-bangs, or group sex; puppy-pile cuddling; see also Sexual appetite or excess) Mummification and/or sensory deprivation Muscled bodies Music (singing; playing an instrument such as guitar or piano; composers; rock stars or bands; groupies; song lyrics) Names and address (endearments: sweetheart, honey, mine; nicknames: chief, kid, sport; terms that assert power: boy, cunt; insulting terms that may hide some affection: monkey-boy, Your Worshipfulness, you big furry oaf; using someone's name as a sign of intimacy; using only formal modes of address: Sir, Major) Nautical themes and fetishization (ships and the sea; rum, sodomy, and the lash; cabin boys; navy/pirate conflicts; colonialism; desert islands and buried treasure) Neck fetishization (nape of the neck, throat, hickeys, etc) Nipple play or torture Noise (screaming or yelling during sex; whimpering or sobbing; purring, growling; slurping or moaning enthusiastically during blow-jobs) Non-consensual or semi-consensual sex (sexual extortion; bribery; reluctant or ambivalent partner; bondage and struggle; no means yes; other consent issues) Oral fixation or fetishization (lips, tongue, or whole mouth; french-kissing; licking; oral displays using food or beer bottles; smoking cigarettes, cigars, or pipes; biting or chewing one's lip(s)) Orgasm denial Orientation issues (confusion; discovery and coming out; self-hatred; two-beer queers; homosexual panic) Original characters (i.e., pairing someone with an OMC or OFC) Otherness and outsiders (alien identity or transformation; mutants; demons and angels; hermaphrodites; eccentrics; elves and other magical beings; exoticism; half-human hybrids, e.g., the offspring of humans with demons, vampires, aliens, elves; racial difference in general; clones; twins; see also Secret identity; Special powers; Exoticism) Pain (with or without pleasure/endorphins) Pampering (spoiling someone rotten with gifts or money; physical pampering such as massage and grooming; giving someone a novel or unexpected degree of emotional or sexual care; catering to someone's every whim, e.g., someone who is in the hospital; harems as settings for pampering) Paraphilias not listed elsewhere Patience (e.g., showing patience toward a character who is brain-damaged or who is struggling bitterly with being recently crippled; or to a character prone to irrational fear or outbursts; patience with children; see also Gentleness) Penance or reform (bad boy turns good; evil seeks to change; performing acts of atonement or restitution; self-mortification; martyrdom; selflessness; apologies or apology sex) Physical imperfections (scars or burns; acne pits; heaviness; outsized features such as ears or nose; jolie-laide/ugly-beautiful characters) Physical responses (face or ears burning; little hairs lifting on the scalp or neck; gut tightening; pulse quickening or missing a beat; lashes fluttering or lids growing heavy; mouth coming open; dick or pussy throbbing) Pillow biting Playing hard to get Ponies (human ponies) Pornography (magazines and videos; character was previously a porn star or fluffer) Possession (by alien entity, spirits, or another person) Possessiveness or jealousy Power issues (inequities in beauty, rank, or class; power games; BDSM; power reversals; sheikhs, sultans, princes, and other royal figures; teacher/student pairings; magical powers; abuse of power; blackmail; romantic slavery; liege/lord pairings; issues of respect; sexual scenarios such as a dominant character giving his partner to others to use, or a character kneeling beneath a desk and blowing someone who's on the phone) Power issues, sociopolitical (colonialism; alien invasion or rule; institutionalized slavery; totalitarian states and rebellion; powerful secret societies, e.g., the Illuminati or Watcher-style organizations) Powers of attraction (characters such as sirens and Veelas; vampiric thrall; pheromones; magnetic and charismatic characters in general) Predator/prey pairings Preferential treatment (e.g., making a point of showing respect towards someone when no one else does; showing a soft side only to them) Pretending to be gay (cops or spies going undercover; a charade to deflect unwanted attention from a stranger; a ruse to avoid ritual marriage to aliens) Primitivism (dropping technologically advanced characters into exotic/primitive settings; medieval societies either magical or non-magical; nomadic and desert cultures; warrior cultures; jungle tribes; the noble savage; Androcles/lion pairings; the social intimacies of tribes/camps; bacchanals; culture clash/shock; unusual practices/rituals, e.g., feats of skill and strength or marriage as treaty; schizo-tech cultures, as when a seemingly feudal pre-industrial society has high-tech elements; see also Roughnecks; Animal themes and fetishization; Animalistic behaviors or characteristics; Exoticism) Prison scenarios (prison rape and/or protection; cruel guards; punishment; hard labor; deprivation; prisoners of war; camps and barracks; false imprisonment) Prizes (characters who are eroticized as prizes or spoils of war) Prostate pleasure Prostitutes (call-girls and hookers; rent boys and hustlers; escorts; paying one's way through school with sideline hooking; juvenile past on the streets) Protectiveness (physically or verbally defending someone; caretaking in general; big guy/little guy pairings; bodyguard scenarios; mysterious benefactors or protectors) Public displays of affection, PDAs Pushy bottom Rape (single assailant; gang rape; partner rape) Rape recovery Religion (sin; faith and lack of faith; priests, monks, nuns, etc; shamans; biblical characters; angels and demons; gods and goddesses; saints; monastic or convent culture) Rescue (danger and rescue in general, e.g., abductions) Restraint (pinning someone down; pushing someone's arm up behind their back during sex; covering or clasping someone's hands to prevent movement) Restraints (handcuffs, leather ties, chains, etc) Restraints, full-body (stocks; suspension harnesses; fisting slings; rape racks) Reversal of role or fortune (loss of love, power, rank, etc; hunter becomes prey, master becomes slave; a strong character is made weak; role-reversal games; Flowers for Algernon scenario) Rimming or tongue-fucking Rogues (outlaws, highwaymen, mercenaries, pirates, gangsters, hitmen, etc; black sheep and royal bastards; Han Solo characters; tricksters; see also Violent and dark natures and Rough behavior) Romance (see Love and passion; Courting; Seduction) Ropework (intricate/artistic erotic bondage) Roughnecks (cowboys; Tarzan figures; relatedly rough characteristics and behavior, such as scruffiness, rudeness, crude language, uncouth habits, etc; see also Lady and the Tramp pairings; Primitivism; Rogues) Rough sex (quick and dirty sex; hate or grudge sex; angry sex; fighting/wrestling; jackhammer fucking; sex with no or little lube) Sadism or sadomasochism Sandwich sexual position or chain fuck (threesome) Scars or scarification Scent as an erotic element Schmoop School themes and fetishization (boarding schools; dojos; scholarly gowns and uniforms; sailor fuku; prep school chic; teacher/student pairings; donnish or professorial characters; prefects/head boys; caning; schoolboy hijinks or sexual discovery; military academies; tutoring and teaching in general; see also Conditioning) Secret admirers Secret identity (superheroes, slayers, immortals, mutants, etc; disguised gender; spies) Secrets, other (dark or criminal past; double lives; previous marriage and/or children; unspoken feelings) Seduction (one-on-one; two-on-one; verbal or physical; intense erotic courtship or teasing; see also Courting) Sensory overload or enhancement Sex change (gender swap; forced feminization; see also Gender themes) Sex in public or semi-public places Sex in vehicles (cars, taxis, limos; planes or space shuttles; motorcycles; carnival rides) Sex is interrupted Sex on, against, or under furniture Sex on horseback Sex outdoors/outside (in a field; in a rainstorm; with snow falling; on the beach; in a graveyard; in an alley) Sex slaves or mates (concubines, catamites, etc) Sex standing up (including against a wall) Sex with aliens (xenophilia) Sex with clothes still on or partly on Sexual appetite or excess (hypersexuality, i.e., high sex drive; sex addiction or compulsive behavior; short/no refractory period; multiple orgasms; multiple partners; indiscriminate sex or sluttishness) Sexual discovery (of one's orientation; of new kinds of pleasure; of one's partner) Sexual experience or expertise (high number of partners; wide variety of sexual experience; demonstrating experience by taking the lead in sex or teaching one's partner) Sexual frustration (orgasm denial or being unable to come; blue balls; enforced abstinence; self-denial; inability of two people to touch) Sexual hang-ups Sexual movements (back arching; hips lifting; thrusting back; writhing, jerking, bucking; clenching; grinding or rocking; trembling or shivering; hooking legs around shoulders; pressing someone's legs back toward the bed; riding someone's fingers) Sharing (sharing a beer bottle, joint, or bucket of popcorn; loaning someone clothes; a character letting someone stay in their home; sharing confidences; sharing a woman) Shower sex Shyness (embarrassment; blushing or stammering; body shyness or dysmorphic disorder; cultural modesty) Silence (slave silence; silence as an erotic element in sex; trying to be silent during semi-public sex; going nonverbal or speechless with arousal; traumatic mutism; selective mutism; sign language; gestures used to convey feelings rather than words; see also Clams) Simultaneous orgasm Situational engineering (the conscious or unconscious manufacture of events that give an emotional or sexual pay-off which can't be otherwise achieved; in particular, perilous situations; for example, character A puts himself in danger in order to receive fussy attention from character B; pay-off can be simply seeing someone, or hurt/comfort touching, intimacy, adrenaline sex, etc) Situational homosexuality Sixty-nine (69) Size queens Slavery (see Master and slave) Sleep and bedding themes (sharing a bed by necessity, such as in a hotel with only one room left; sharing a sleeping bag for warmth; sex while drowsy or sleeping; sex as a sleep aid; autonomic arousal from proximity; morning wake-up sex, falling asleep against someone's shoulder; watching someone sleep; dreams; nightmares; dream lovers, e.g., succubi; exotic or romantic beds, e.g., canopied; furs as bedding; silk sheets) Slow and/or prolonged sex Smarm (intense friendship with physical closeness but no actual sex) Smiles or laughing Snark Society (social mores and morality; laws; institutional regulations such as Don't Ask Don't Tell; elaborate rituals or ceremonies; social events such as feasts and parties; decorum; formal or deferential modes of address; see also Witnesses) Spanking (over the knee or lap, etc) Special powers and skills (superhero powers; magical powers; telekinesis; shapeshifting; hyperdeveloped senses; combat expertise; sharpshooting; eidetic memory; computer hacking skills; thief skills; temporary gifts of power from drugs, alien devices, etc, repercussions of which could include delusions of godhood, dangerous physical or mental overload, and so on) Spooning Sports themes and fetishization (sports rivalries; uniforms and jock-straps; wrestling and sweaty exertion in general; locker-room or shower scenes; team gang-bangs; swimmer/surfer body types; pool and billiards games) Straight or straight-acting partner(s) Straight-guy sexual scenarios (comparing dick size; lending a helping hand; circle jerks; watching het porn together, with or without masturbation; practicing dancing, kissing, or romantic conversation in preparation for one character having a date with a woman) Striking with implements (whips, belts, riding crops, canes, paddles, etc) Striptease Submission (obedience; submissive behaviors such as boot kissing, crawling, keeping one's eyes lowered, or kneeling for master; believing in cultural dictates of submissive behavior; abasement in general) Surprises Swallowing (come) Swords and sword-play Talking and communication issues (dirty talk or verbal seduction; sweet talking; reciting poetry; talking someone to orgasm; talking during sex; pillow talk; phone sex; speech becoming broken as one is aroused or upset; being inarticulate or articulate; aphasia; talking fast; miscommunication and misunderstandings in general; lack of a shared language; see also Silence; Clams; Voice fetishization) Taste as an erotic element Tattoos (decorative, symbolic, or slave; barcodes) Teasing or tickling Techno (technophilic themes; artificial humans; character is copied or downloaded into mechanical host body; other ghost in the machine scenarios; androids and cyborgs as sexual partners; wetwear enhancements; cyberpunk aesthetic; VR or Matrix scenarios; see also Otherness) Telepathy (see also Bonds and mental abilities; Special powers and skills) Temperamental personalities (driven or obsessed; hot-tempered or testy; moody; misanthropic or bitter; abrasive) Tentacle sex Threesomes (M/F/M, M/M/M, etc) Top/bottom pairings (also seme/uke) Topping Topping from the bottom Touching (stroking and caressing; cuddling or nuzzling; huddling for warmth; hugging; holding hands in public; touching as UST; brief brushes of contact either deliberate or accidental; PDAs; thighs brushing under a table; comic physical entanglements; someone gripping a wounded character's hand) Toughness (machismo or hyper-masculinity; physical stamina; a hard surface covering an inner softie; resolve; survival skills; teeth-gritting acts such as pulling an arrow out of one's own thigh, etc; see also Rough behavior; Bad boys, etc) Toys and devices (sex toys of all kinds; feathers, ice cubes, hot wax, etc) Tragic flaws Trapped or stranded together (on another world; on a desert island; in a cave-in; in a cabin during a snowstorm; in an elevator) Triangles (love triangles) Triangulation of desire (two men express their desire for each other through a female intermediary; sexual rivalry for a woman is actually homoerotic interest) Trust and vows (promises are kept or broken; loyalty or betrayal; absolute trust or doubt; fidelity or infidelity; blindfolds or bondage as trust symbols; commitment or fear of commitment; acts of devotion; marriage vows; unconditional love; blood brothers and oaths; showing trust/faith in someone's abilities) Underage partner or chan (adolescent) Underdogs Undressing (undressing in front of someone for the first time; one character undressing another; fumbling clumsily to get undressed; stripteases) Urgency for sex (begging to suck cock; desperate to fuck; greedy bottom) UST (unresolved sexual tension) Vaginal/female genital fetishization (wet, tight; virginal; aching/stiff clit; wide lips; multi-orgasmic) Vaginal penetration (e.g., deep dicking) Vaginal penetration with foreign objects Vampires Violence (see Conflict; Death) Violent feelings (hatred; murderous rage; need for revenge) Violent and dark natures (sadists; assassins and murderers; sociopaths who make twisted, scary displays of affection, conflating love and violence; criminals and villains in general; characters who are ruthless, merciless, casually vengeful; soulless demons or vampires; monsters in general) Virgins or inexperienced partners Voice fetishization (cracking or broken; husky, low, throaty; purring; accents; whispering close to someone's ear) Voyeurism and vision themes (character A secretly watches B and C have sex; character A is forced to watch B and C have sex; character A watches character B perform/masturbate; viewing one's beloved in general; taking pictures or video; eye contact, especially as flirting; establishing authority with a look; closing eyes as a trust gesture; character A feeling that character B truly sees him, when no one else does; the quality of light, e.g., characters lit by moonlight or candlelight, or gilded by the setting sun; being in the dark; temporary or permanent blindness; gazes as objectification) Vulnerability Warriors (see Heroes; Amazons and strong women; Toughness; Primitivism; Rogues; Military fetishization) Washing (washing one's partner, body or hair; bubble baths; shower scenes; slave service in bath; cleaning/cleansing someone who's been raped, degraded, or who is injured) Weapon fetishization (gun fu; trademark weaponry: Lara Croft's dual pistols, Duncan's katana; exotic weapons: war fans, whips; embedded: Wolverine's claws; magical/symbolic: Sting, Excalibur, Narsil; sentient or empathic; hiding a multitude of weapons on one's body; concealment in general: derringer in garter, boot knife; see other individual listings; Military fetishization) Well-fucked (being fucked out; fuck-dazed; sated and sleepy; wrecked; softened and debauched) Western scenarios and fetishization (cowboy gear; campfire and trail scenes; horses; gunslingers, lawmen, card sharps, etc; train robberies and bank hold-ups; posses; saloon brawls) Wet dreams or erotic dreams Wish-fulfillment Wings (wingfic) Witnesses (families, friends, or others watch the development of a relationship; play matchmaker or serve as confidants; think the characters are involved when they're really not; constitute the public eye; disapprove, gossip, give advice; are the audience for a coming out drama; are witnesses to such things as flirting, public arousal, public sex) Woke up gay Worry (one character worrying anxiously about another; going crazy with worry) Writing (love letters or notes; secret admirers; e-mail and chat; wills; poetry; storytelling; tracing words or figures on skin, or writing, as with an inkbrush) 

[agerefandom]

system/REGRESS.Steven

Fandom: Steven Universe

Characters: Big sister Amethyst, regressor!Steven, Spinel, Pearl, Ruby, Sapphire 

Words: 3,100

Summary: Slight AU of the Steven Universe Movie: What if the rejuevenator worked on Steven, sending him into a regressed state that he can’t get out of? Amethyst dodges the hit and becomes the one who has to bring everyone together. 

Warnings: Lots of swearing from Amethyst’s internal dialogue. Canon-typical violence. Involuntary regression. Conditioned subservience (rebooted Pearl). Mentions of diapers and accidents. 

This fight is a shitshow. The strange gem, who Amethyst has nicknamed ‘Pigtails,’ moves like no one she’s fought before. Pigtails’ form can warp to absorb their attacks and dodge their blows: Amethyst hasn’t even managed to uncoil her whip, she’s so busy running after their opponent as she bounces across the grass from one Crystal Gem to the next.

Pigtails lands a solid hit on Steven, sending him sprawling, and then her body begins to stretch. Amethyst runs after the stranger as she wraps herself around the lighthouse. She isn’t afraid of this weirdo, not as long as her friends are beside her.

“No!” Steven yells from behind them, and Amethyst realizes Pigtails’ plan the moment before she releases the tension in her body and ricochets back towards them, her scythe a blur of light as she spins it.

Thanks to Steven’s warning, Amethyst manages to dive out of the way. The others aren’t as lucky, and Amethyst hears herself cry out as Pearl and Garnet’s forms are dissolved, their gems dropping to the ground with a sound that Amethyst never wants to hear again.

That’s no standard weapon, if it took two Crystal Gems out in one hit. It must be older gem tech, from the war. Amethyst rolls to her feet, finally unfurling her whip, but Pigtails doesn’t even spare her a glance as she makes for Steven with the glowing scythe raised above her head.

Steven gets to his feet, summoning his shield and meeting the stranger halfway. Her weapon slices through Steven’s defense and passes right through Steven’s body. Lines of sparking energy start to cross Steven’s skin where the blade has touched him, and now Amethyst is sure that it’s gem tech. She’s seen Steven take hits like this before, made to dissolve gem’s corporeal forms.

“Who are you?” Steven yells, catching the gem’s arms as she tries another swipe. “Why are you doing this?”

“You should know!” screams the stranger, pulling free and bringing her blade up for a wild strike.

Seeing Pigtails unbalanced, Amethyst moves. Her whip wraps around the handle of the scythe and pulls it from the stranger’s hands. It spins through the air, a blur of crackling energy, and Amethyst manages to pull it from the air without touching the blade.

Pigtails spins around, her shifting pupils setting on Amethyst with absolute hatred. “You,” she hisses.

Amethyst runs forward, stolen weapon in one hand. Pigtails tenses and looks around for an escape, but Steven wraps his arms around her middle and holds her tight. Snarling, the gem stretches her arms towards Amethyst, but she manages to slide underneath the gloved hands and comes up swinging, the blade slicing neatly through Pigtails’ stomach above Steven’s arms.

The gem’s eyes widen, and her arms retract back to her sides. For a moment, she stares into Amethyst’s eyes, and then her form dissipates and the gem falls to the ground.

“Pearl! Garnet!” Steven calls, stepping over the pink gem and bolting for the place where they fell. Amethyst watches him run, the remaining lines of the weapon’s energy slowly fading from his arms. He’s limping slightly, one hand over his gem as he runs up the hill. He’s hurt.

After a moment of confusion, Amethyst finds a switch on the side of the scythe and sighs in relief when it folds back into itself and stops glowing. She tucks it into her gem for later and follows Steven up the hill to their discorporated friends.

Steven is holding Pearl when she reaches him, crying hard enough that his shoulders are shaking.

“Steven, it’s okay.” Amethyst puts a hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently. “They’ve just been forced into their gems. They’ll be back soon. That thing was probably some kind of destabilizer.”

“Sorry.” Steven wipes his eyes. “I- I can’t stop crying. I don’t know why.” He makes a pained sound, and Amethyst watches him double over, Pearl toppling to the grass as both hands go to his stomach. A crackling pink energy expands from his gem and then recedes again.

“Steven!” Amethyst kneels down, and he falls against her. She catches him easily enough, peering over his shoulder to see what’s happening. The familiar lines of gem-tech are still coursing through his gem, fluctuating with crackling white light. Shit. This is bad: that isn’t what destabilizers usually do to Steven. “It’s okay, I’ve got you.”

“M’sorry,” Steven sobs, curling into himself. “I can’t- I’m-” The words break into tears, the kind of wails that Amethyst only hears when Steven is regressing.

“It’s okay,” Amethyst says, in what she hopes is a soothing voice. “It’s okay, kiddo, I’ve got you. You’re safe now.” Steven reaches out for her, and Amethyst tugs him into her lap, rubbing circles on his back. “You’re okay,” she repeats, trying to sound calm as her eyes scour the grass for Ruby and Sapphire. She sees both of them, whole and unharmed, and she relaxes slightly.

She hasn’t seen Steven regress on the battlefield: he usually manages to make it back to the beach house. But Steven hasn’t seen the other gems discorporated in a while. It makes sense that it was a trigger. Or maybe the ongoing pain from the scythe has an impact: Amethyst can still see the lines in his gem. Usually, pain prevents Steven from regressing, but maybe this is the opposite? Ugh, she wishes one of the others was here. She’s good at being a babysitter, but she thinks of herself as more of a playmate than a real caregiver. Big sister material. She’s good with the diapers and the feeding and all that, but she’s never been great at figuring out what Steven needs or wants when he’s like this.

“Okay, kiddo, can you sit here for me?” Amethyst asks, patting Steven’s shoulders. “I’ve got to get our friends.”

“Nnnn!” Steven wraps his hand in Amethyst’s shirt and pulls. It’s a feeble yank, but enough to let Amethyst know that she’s not going anywhere without a fuss.

“Alright,” she says grimly. “I can do this.”

Amethyst scoops Pearl up from the ground, ready to stick the gem in her waistband. It’s not ideal, but it’s not like Amethyst has any pockets. She can usually carry anything she needs in her gem, but it would be a horrible violation to stick Pearl in there.

Just as Amethyst shifts to put Pearl in a safe place, though, the gem starts glowing.

Back already? Amethyst obligingly places her gem on the grass, scooting backwards with Steven in her arms to give Pearl the space to reform.

Sure enough, her gem lifts into the air, and a shape takes form in the light… a shimmering oyster.

Huh. Amethyst blinks up at it. That’s weird.

“Please, identify yourself,” a voice says. It does and does not sound like Pearl.

“Amethyst?” says Amethyst, who isn’t entirely sure what else to do. Is this some new defense mechanism? She’s seen Pearl reform a dozen times, and it’s never been like this.

“Greetings, Amethyst,” says the voice. “Please state customization options.”

“I- what? Just be Pearl!” Amethyst says, keeping one arm around Steven. He’s stopped crying, at least, and is staring up at the glowing oyster with curious eyes.

“Default setting selected. Please stand by.”

What the fuck is happening?? Amethyst asks herself, unwilling to swear while Steven is regressed next to her.

The shimmering shape around Pearl’s gem drifts towards the ground, and glows brighter. Finally, a familiar body begins to emerge, and Amethyst relaxes.

“P’rl!” Steven babbles excitedly, clapping his hands.

The light solidifies, and Pearl steps onto the grass. She’s wearing a dress that Amethyst has never seen on her, knee-length and made with soft pink gauze. She glances around the hill before her eyes land on Amethyst, and widen.

Immediately, she drops to one knee, bending her head low enough that her hair nearly brushes the grass.

“My Amethyst,” she says. “Thank you for bringing me into the world. I am at your eternal service, as your new Pearl.”

There is a ringing silence.

“What the fuck, Pearl?” Amethyst manages, forgetting about the baby beside her for a moment. “Is this your idea of a joke?”

“A joke, my Amethyst? I can tell one if you’d like,” Pearl says, bringing her eyes up to meet Amethyst’s. “I seek only to bring you pleasure.”

Right. Amethyst gets to her feet, pulling Steven up with her. Steven stumbles, clumsy in his regression, and Amethyst steadies him with an arm around his waist. “This isn’t funny, Pearl. Steven is hurt. Can you tell what’s wrong with him?”

“I can try,” Pearl says, and gets to her feet. She drifts over to Steven, her little slippers hardly touching the grass. Everything about her is unfamiliar, wrong. The way her hands are clasped in front of her, shoulders down, her eyes flickering to Amethyst and then back to the ground. It’s all a show of subservience, and it makes Amethyst’s skin crawl. This isn’t a joke. This is something else.

Pearl begins inspecting Steven, pulling up his shirt to peer at his gem and then running her hands over his arms. She seems curious, pressing her fingers into his shoulders and looking surprised at the feeling of his skin.

“What is this ‘Steven,’ my Amethyst? He seems to be partially organic.” Her face crinkles slightly as she looks at Steven’s tear-stained face. “And… leaking.” She produces a handkerchief from her gem and swiftly cleans Steven’s face, dropping the handkerchief to the ground with a dainty flick of the wrist. “There, that’s better.”

Okay, Amethyst thinks. It’s still Pearl, somehow.

“Don’t you remember Steven?” Amethyst asks, drawing closer to Pearl. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Remember?” Pearl echoes, sounding confused. “I have no memory, my Amethyst. You created me. I have extensive databanks on gem etiquette, of course, and a working understanding of the systems of economy, conquest, gem production, and anything else you may need me to assist in organizing.” She lifts Steven into the air and turns him over, checking him at all angles. “However, there is no ‘Steven’ in my databanks.”

“He’s half-human,” Amethyst sighs. “He needs a caregiver.”

“It that why you brought me into the world? To care for this ‘Steven’?” Pearl asks, putting Steven back on his feet. Steven is giggling a little from being spun around, clearly a bit dizzy.

“I… yeah.” Amethyst nods. “Take care of Steven. He needs a diaper, and a pacifier, and….” None of this will be in her databanks, she realizes. Shit. “Just keep an eye on him for now. He’s… fragile. Don’t let him run off a cliff or anything. Hold his hand.”

Pearl nods and immediately takes a firm hold of Steven’s left hand. “Yes, my Amethyst. I will ensure the Steven isn’t harmed.”

“That’s- good. Thanks, Pearl,” Amethyst manages. Now that Steven isn’t crying every time she runs off, she can make sure Ruby and Sapphire are safe.

The moment that she takes a step towards them, though, she sees Ruby rise into the air and reform. It’s always strange to see Ruby and Sapphire apart, especially after a discorporation of their fusion.

“Are you alright?” Amethyst asks, running up to hug Ruby. It’s weird to have her arms around a gem who’s shorter than her: even Steven is taller than Amethyst, these days.

“What are you doing??” Ruby shouts, squirming against Amethyst’s grip. Amethyst immediately lets go of her, stepping back.

“Sorry! I was just worried.” She rubs her hand on the back of her neck, embarrassed by her over-reaction. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Ruby says, and then salutes. “Where’s my assignment?”

“Your… assignment? You mean Sapphire?” Shit, they’ve ALL lost their memories! Amethyst realizes. What the hell was that thing?

As if summoned by her name, Sapphire emerges from her gem with a soft sigh, shielding her eye against the light of the sun.

“Hey, Sapphire,” Amethyst says with a wave. “Do you remember anything?”

“I don’t,” says Sapphire serenely, and Amethyst’s chest aches. Sometimes it sucks to be right. “But I’m sure that you and I will be good friends.” She reaches out to touch Amethyst’s elbow, and Amethyst damn near starts tearing up. Okay. None of her friends remember her, but… at least Sapphire is friendly. Not that Pearl wasn’t friendly, but…. Yikes. That was a whole other kettle of fish.

“Yeah.” Amethyst pats Sapphire’s hand. “We will be. It’s good to see you.”

“My Sapphire!” Ruby salutes again, this time in Sapphire’s direction. “As my sworn duty and sole purpose, I promise to protect you with my life.”

“I know you will,” Sapphire says. “That’s why I predict you won’t last more than a day.”

“Huh?” Ruby tilts her head to one side.

“What?” Amethyst echoes.

“My Amethyst!” Pearl’s voice echoes. “I’ve found another gem!”

“Oh, shit!” Amethyst takes off running. She forgot to bubble the enemy gem once she’d been discorporated! How could she be so stupid? Her eyes find Pearl and Steven, with Pearl still firmly holding Steven’s hand. In Steven’s other hand is the heart-shaped gem of the stranger.

“Steven! Drop that!” Amethyst yells.

Steven’s eyes go wide and he drops the gem onto the grass. It’s too late, Amethyst can see it starting to glow.

“Get him away from here, Pearl! Go stand with the others,” she commands, trying not to feel like she’s taking advantage of Pearl’s… bonding or whatever the hell happened. Pearl scoops Steven into her arms and runs off to Ruby and Sapphire with admirable speed.

Sure enough, the gem rises into the air and begins to form. It slowly rotates, as if it can’t decide which way to form, but eventually settles point-down. Wasn’t that different from before?

Two arms stretch out of the glow and over Amethyst’s head. She pulls out her whip, grimacing but determined to protect the others as much as she can. Already, she knows it’s hopeless. The gem isn’t even fully formed and she’s already arcing over Amethyst’s head towards the others.

“Look out!” Amethyst yells, and the strange gem latches onto Steven with a distinctly squeaky noise.

“I’m so excited to meet you!” the gem shrieks happily, wrapping her arms around Steven several times.

“A Spinel!” Pearl gasps. “Aren’t you the lucky one, Steven?”

“Sp’nel?” Steven repeats, poking one of the hands that’s latched onto his shoulder. It makes a squeaking sound again, and Steven giggles.

“That’s me!” Suddenly, Spinel is moving again, spinning in front of the group with a wide smile. She looks different, Amethyst realizes. Her hair, her gem, even her eyes are different. “I’m your new best friend!”

“Fwend!!!” Steven babbles, reaching out for her. Spinel immediately goes to his side, booping his nose and then petting his hair with a wide-eyed curiosity.

“You’re so soft!” Spinel says approvingly. “I love it!” She hooks her arm into Steven’s, since his other hand is still held by Pearl, as instructed. She glances around at the other gems. “Hi, everyone! Is this a party or what?”

“What the hell is going on?” Amethyst wonders out loud. Spinel must have also lost her memory, so obviously it was a function of the gem tech scythe she’d brought. Speaking of gem tech…. She turns her eyes back to the spaceship Spinel had arrived on. There are bubbles rising in the bubblegum-coloured liquid, the drill churning as it pumps it into the earth. That’s probably not good.

“Do you wanna go play?” she hears Spinel asking the others.

“Steven is very fragile,” Pearl says. “He needs to hold my hand.”

Okay. Amethyst puts one hand on her chin and tries to think. No memories, no friends, one big weird spacething.

Her eyes drift to Little Homeworld on the horizon. Oh, duh! Bismuth might be able to identify this gem weapon, that’s her specialty. And Peridot can probably figure out the controls of this spaceship.

“Okay, guys!” Amethyst says, turning back to them. Ruby is standing in front of Sapphire, eyeing the other gems suspiciously, but the rest of them turn their attention to Amethyst when she speaks. She walks towards them, tucking her whip away. Spinel doesn’t seem to be violent, although she is currently clinging to Steven like a backpack or an affectionate barnacle. Both of them are grinning. “We’re going to take a trip on the warp. Everybody, follow me! Pearl, can I take Steven?”

“Of course, my Amethyst.” Pearl deftly untangles Spinel’s arms from Steven, ignoring her indignant “hey!”. She carries Steven over, her hands under his arms like she’s carrying a misbehaving cat. Steven looks happy enough to be carried, kicking his legs in the air. Amethyst is too short to carry Steven, so she just takes his hand when Pearl deposits him beside her. She can already tell that he needs a change. Poor boy, it’s been a long day. She’s surprised he isn’t more confused by everything going on, but he must be pretty heavily regressed.

I wonder if it’s related to the rest of them losing their memories? she wonders suddenly, and feels stupid for not realizing it before. Steven never regresses when he’s in the field, why didn’t it occur to her earlier? This must be part of the damage this weird weapon did to him when he was hit.

“Come on guys,” she repeats. Pearl is already beside her, arms behind her back, but the other three haven’t moved, Spinel pouting on the grass where Pearl had left her.

“We’re not goin anywhere with you!” Ruby growls from her position in front of Sapphire.

“We will follow them to the warp,” Sapphire corrects, resting one hand on Ruby’s shoulder. Ruby straightens, her face reddening as she stares at the point of contact between them.

“Uh. Yeah! We’ll follow you to the warp!” she shouts, and starts stomping in their direction, her eyes flickering back to Sapphire to make sure she’s following.

Amethyst feels a smile tug at her lips. Those two haven’t really changed all that much. Spinel runs up and grabs Steven’s other hand, wide eyes blinking up at Amethyst.

“Where are we going? Is there a slide there? Are we gonna play a game?”

Steven nods at Spinel’s questions, his eyes getting bigger and more excited.

“We’re going to meet some friends,” Amethyst explains, and starts leading the group down the hill towards the beach house. This is a weird day, and she seems to have two kids to take care of, but they’re all here. And they can figure this out. Amethyst believes in her friends.