#problematic trope of jealousy

[kyouka-supremacy]

It's actually quite curious that I've never found a sskk fic where Atsushi was jealous of the attentions Akutagwa gives Dazai

IMHO, I think it’s bc jealousy like that would mean Atsushi wanted Akutagawa to feel about him the way Akutagawa feels about Dazai, and I don’t think that’s the kind of connection Atsushi would envy anyone having with anyone

That's... A very good point

[velvetures]

Hi baby!! I like your writing sm it's amazing 💓💓 If RQs are open I would like to request König stealing from readers dirty panties to use when he's self pleasuring~ she finds out and confronts him and one thing leads to another and next thing you know he's got her thighs locked on the side of his head while she rides his face so he can finally taste what he's been wanting for weeks. Thank you so much I know you'll do great with this req

Do Me?... A Favor

A/N: God, I love this! I had such a great time writing this and might've needed a lil' break halfway through. This trope has a special place in my heart. (I'm mentally unwell) So I hope you enjoy! Forgive me for being so late on this. Summary: König steals your panties and does dirty things with them. You catch him, and... well... you and I both know exactly what happens after that. T/W: !!NS/FW 18+ ONLY!!!, thievery of panties, male masturbation, fem-reader, dirty talk, fantasy mentions, face riding, exhibitionism if you have 20/20 vision, fem-recieving oral, spanking?, prob missed something... I don't proofread, ya'll better know this by now.

GIF and Story Below Cut

Extended missions with KORTAC usually meant that König would be within touching distance of you for days on end. Hearing you talk with his squad and watching you make jokes that got almost every single one of the stone-cold men melting with affection for you. There wasn’t a single one of them that didn’t absolutely adore you; Jump at the chance to help you, offer to take watches, ask to be paired with you, or just try and be the lucky one that got to either sleep with you or next to you. As Colonel, König always had his hands full maintaining order when the girl from the United States sector was sent to help them out.

On a personal level though, König struggled to hide the desperation and pathetically overwhelming feelings of jealousy he had when seeing anyone get that close to you. Having known you the longest, spent the most time alone with you, trusted you with his own mind and vice-versa, the Colonel -problematically- believed he had a bit more of a right to you than any of this men. Perhaps your own behavior towards him didn’t help out much either. So little and gutsy, you always liked teasing him. Tempting him to wrestle and always so confident you’ll win, and toying with his mask; begging so innocently to see the “handsome face” under there.

You’d been like that with him for so long, he couldn’t tell the difference between close friendship and flirting anymore. Blurring lines and also his own ability to control the compulsions to get just a little bit more of you. In any sick or twisted way he might be able to get his hands on. No man could resist your charms and beautiful little face. Especially König, who melted from a towering 6’10 to a weak and desperate boy crawling after you like a lost puppy.

He wasn’t proud of it. Then again, he didn’t care all that much. Especially when he found a way to satisfy his more carnal and disgusting desires for you that couldn’t even be tortured out of him.

In his defense, you’d been the one who started it. Calling out his name when you were in the small bathroom of the safe house and asking him to grab some clothes out of your rucksack, having forgotten to get them yourself. Half dazed knowing you were naked with just a thin, open, door between you had the Colonel making a beeline for your bag and ripping it open to do exactly what you’d asked of him.

Now… if any of his men would’ve asked him if he had a thing for panties, he would’ve very sternly disagreed with the whole idea.

But when he laid eyes on your panties, balled up and stuffed in a little side pocket in white, black, pink, and some cute patterns, the darker side of his mind slipped. Throwing him into an entirely different kind of temptation that he’d never entertained before. He’d hardly been able to deliver your clean clothes to you without incident, and spent the rest of the evening with his brain consumed with fantasies of what you looked like in all those pretty things. Surely your ass looked downright sinful with that material stretching over it and cradling your body closer than he’d ever have the opportunity to. Fuck… even your thighs would be that much more brilliant with the crease made that much more obvious by the hemline of the panties. The images kept flowing long into the night after he should’ve been asleep, his own watch hour ticking closer with each minute.

Struggling with the urge to palm his hard cock and just try to ease some of the pressure. Begging for some type of solution to his weakening self-control. König was up and headed to the bathroom, ready to take care of his painfully throbbing erection before he could even stop to think about how wrong it was to jerk himself off less than fifteen feet away from you and his men. The moment he unzipped his jeans and freed his drooling cock, his mask was shoved up so he could spit in his hand, and stuck his mask between his teeth to try and muffle his own sounds of pleasure.

Thoughts of what you’d look like gasping for breath on top of him, impaling your little body on his cock, spurred König to smear his own spit over his length. Fisting the head and rotating his palm around the tip with a deep rumble in his chest. He wished he could’ve seen you in the shower… soft skin wet and dripping with lathered soap. Rubbing those tiny hands over your body and rinsing away the sweat he’d seen soaking your shirt and running down your neck earlier during your rotation. His hazy vision cut to the shower, looking at it with a mental picture of you taking use of the handheld shower head. Putting it between your plush thighs and watching your tremor.

Only some small and purple sitting in the corner of the floor next to the bathtub froze his movements. Every muscle tensed at the sight of it, and while precum drooled from his swollen head, the Colonel couldn’t believe what he was seeing. The massive man didn’t even need to get off his seat on the toilet to pick up the delicate scrap of material and dangle it in front of his face. Taking into account his interaction with you, he couldn’t believe that your dirty underwear had fallen out of the balled up clothes you’d worn all day.

König’s cock twitched at the disturbed idea of smelling them. His body goading his mind to forgo the moral line of doing such a thing, and just do it. You wouldn’t know… his men would never find out… As long as he put them back in your rucksack before morning, there’d be no reason for anyone to question it. Besides, he was so turned on. And it wasn’t hurting anyone for him to just use a piece of your clothes to help let off some steam…

König ripped his mask off his head and let it drop to the floor next to his boot, and hesitantly lifted your panties up to barely touch he tip of his nose. The silky fabric was so damn feminine… so much like you in many ways. He rubbed them between his fingers, slowly moving his other hand up and down his cock; Nearly teasing himself with the full experience. Denying the satisfaction of experiencing your scent intimately. The otherwise self-composed Colonel couldn’t wait another moment, and buried his nose into your dirty panties with a lustful growl muffled by his hand.

His balls tightened with pure excitement, spitting more clear fluid down his shaft and filling the small bathroom with vulgar sucking sounds of his fingers sliding up and down with more desperation. Your scent was nothing short of a sweet and salty pheromone jolt of a daydream that made his brain go to nothing but static and arcs of electricity. His dick throbbed as his second inhale came as a much deeper and purposeful acceptance of this new and still very taboo action.

“F-fuucckk…” König had to whimper into your panties, his hips twitching up into his own fist.

“S-so fucking good…” Even with the very real risk of someone hearing him moaning, König continued whispering and whining his praise and pleads for you into the crotch of your panties. Going so far as to lose his willpower and reach out his tongue to feel the soft fabric and give his tastebuds one, lingering, taste of your sweet cunt. The tangy and candy-sweet remainder lingering in the threads of your panties utterly ripped König’s orgasm out of him.

His toes curling in his boots, his stomach flexing and his one fist tightening around the base of his shaft as thick and pearly release dripped hotly over veins and the between his balls before dripping in quiet drops onto the floor. The Colonel sat for full minutes, working over himself slowly and hiding his panting breath against your used underwear. He felt so goddamn monstrous for using you like this. Going behind your back and cumming over his fist like an animal in rut. Denying just how good of a release he had wasn’t possible either though. Not only had his most recent solo attempts been miserably unsatisfying, but his most horrific thought after cleaning up his evidence was that he wanted nothing more than to pocket your panties and keep them.

The Colonel blamed his own rotation on watch as the reason behind why he pocketed your panties instead of putting them back in your rucksack.

Two days later, you were still quietly in search of your panties that had apparently disappeared into thin air. You’d turned your bag inside out, went through the bathroom at least five times, and checked every other room of the safe house thinking someone might’ve found them and just tossed them somewhere they believed you’d see them. Searching came up with zero sign of your panties, and you felt like you were going insane. Not that it really mattered if they were gone… You had packed plenty of spares in the case you -for some reason- needed two back-ups for every day you were gone and couldn’t buy more. It was more so just the simple fact that you’d been so unobservant to misplace a pair of bright, purple, fucking panties.

Being surrounded by nothing but men only added to your silent mortification.

“You alright Sergeant?” One of the KORTAC guys paired on your rotation nudged your shoulder with his elbow, drawing your attention back to the -quite serious- task at hand.

“You look a little distracted, everything okay?” The look on his face made you think he was concerned that the cold weather was getting to you.

You shook your head. “M’fine. Just lost something, and I can’t fucking find it anywhere.”

He chuckled, adjusting his rifle against his chest. “Something important?”

“No. Not at all,” You sighed, seeing your breath fog up in front of your view of the forest and the heavy snowfall. “Just can’t figure out where it went and I’ve turned the whole house over.”

The Lieutenant at your side looked back towards the edge of the perimeter and then back to you with a little shrug. “Well, i suppose you could go in early. Get warm and have another look around. You’ve already had more shifts than plenty of the other guys.” He patted you on the back and jerked his head back in the direction of the safe house and outlying buildings.

You couldn’t help but grin under your face mask, eyes squinting to show your appreciation and giving him a quick ‘thanks’ before jogging back through the snow. You passed a few of the other guys out on rounds and either waved or called out a short word or two so as to let them know you’d come in for a few hours. Typically König was the one who dictated the different schedules to ensure no one got left out in the snow too long. Kicking off the frozen slush and snow off your boots, you waddled yourself inside and set out to get warmed up and find the Colonel.

Maybe he’s seen my underwear… You muse a bit mortified, unclipping your heavy overalls and yanking your tac vest over your head. God, it was a thought that made you shiver not just from the cold nipping at the wet cuffs of your winter layers and damp socks.

It wasn’t very secret that you had a very soft spot for König. He was just so damn sweet to you, and might’ve always given you a little bit of preferential treatment when you got sent to KORTAC on collaborating missions. Whether he did it because of his belief that you were a woman -and much smaller- than any of his men, or maybe for a more personal motive, you didn’t know. Really having the courage to bring up the topic was extremely intimidating. Joking around and teasing the massively tall and handsome solider was one thing. Asking him to lay out how he truly felt about you as more than an occasional partner was very different.

By the time you’d changed into some dry and comfortable clothes to hang out in for the rest of the evening, you noticed that the few guys lingering in the living room had left out. Leaving you alone, with the entire couch to yourself and a quiet house that gave leeway for a really good nap right in front of the wood-burning stove blaring heat right at you. Thank god for the KORTAC guys being so nice to you, and making sure that you didn’t have a hell-on-earth experience for your first winter in Russia.

You’d not really even gotten settled on the couch when you heard a somewhat loud thump from down on the other end of the house. Nearly like a head or hand smacking against the wall in one of the little rooms -made bedrooms- once you’d all arrived a little over a week ago. It didn’t happen again, and trying to just ignore whatever fools the guys could be making out of themselves outside to make that sort of noise, you just went ahead and closed your eyes again.

Thump.

Your eyes snapped open and stared at the ceiling, tuning your ears to the sounds emanating from the far end of the house. You waited patiently, and a third heavy and thud met your ears. Immediately you were up and on your feet, standing in the entry to the hallway leading that way, seeing that only one door was halfway shut, and it was König’s room at the very end. Eyebrows furrowed and hands resting on your hips, you stared at the door waiting for some kind of sign as to what exactly was happening. Surely one of the others weren’t setting up some kind of prank for the Colonel to come back to… right?

Oh god… he’d be soo mad. We’d all get ripped new asses if that happened.

And it wouldn’t have been the first time you’d faced König’s wrath for nothing more than someone thinking a harmless prank was acceptable. Even if the Colonel was extremely lenient on you, he wasn’t to be toyed with. He was a hard and cold man when it was called of him, and you really didn’t want to risk being thrown back out in the snow within the next twelve hours. What had your feet moving was another small and muffled sound, almost like a clipped and high-pitched sort of thing. It didn’t settle right, and you’d got to the door and pushed it open just a few more inches to tell whoever was in the Colonel’s room to get the fuck out.

You were the one struck speechless.

Through the small gap in the door and frame, you saw none other than König laying on the too-small cot with his shoulders propped up against the wall, mask rucked up over the bottom half of his face, and a distinct, purple, material pressed against his mouth and nose. The sensation of your heart and stomach jumping into your throat nearly choked you of oxygen. You could hardly drag your eyes away from his massive hand teasing his thick and hard cock. Once again, that thud reverberated through the room and it was nothing more than the erotic sight of him throwing his head back against the drywall with an -almost- silenced moan.

“Jesus Christ…” The whispered words fell from your awestruck mouth before you could stop yourself. Breathless, but damn sure loud enough for the Colonel to hear you and his dark eye to snap right to where you’d been peeking through the doorway. His whole body stiffened, and his hand stopped. Even dropping your dirty panties right into his lap. The purple fabric fluttering down to rest at the base of him.

“Shit!” You gasped, turning right around and hiding your face in your hands.

You could hear fabric shuffling and enough of a panicked movement to realize König planned on at least talking to you. Somehow having the sheer guts to not immediately act like nothing had ever happened. You heart thumped right at the back of your throat for what felt like and eternity before you heard the door behind your creak open and the distinct pattern of labored breathing. You jumped when his massive hand rested on your shoulder, nudging you to turn around.

“W-we… need to talk,” He mutters downright guilty. “About, what you just - just saw.” Swallowing the massive wave of conflicting feelings welling up in your mind, stomach, and in your pussy, you nod your head and wait until your hear König walk back into the bedroom before turning around and walking through the door to face him.

Right away your eyes fall down to his belt and take note of the -very large and still very hard- outline of his erection straining against his belt and the zipper of his jeans. Your face flushed bright red, realizing he’d pinned his cock beneath the leather strap around his waist to keep it as under control as possible. Before you could draw your eyes away, one of his hands falls down to shield his arousal, and you hear him clear his throat nervously. It draws your attention back up to his re-masked face. Noticing his eye darting anywhere but your eyes and the rise and fall of his wide shoulders. Comparing reactions, it seems that the Colonel is far more effected than you are.

Maybe you weren’t as… upset as you should be.

“I must apologize for my… disturbing behavior,” He blurts out with a raspy tone, visually shrinking a bit. “I… can’t begin to…” Trailing off, you watch him rub at the back of his neck, in thought and obviously tense.

“I just couldn’t help but - you’re just so…”

Eyebrows furrowed and your interest piqued, you take a step closer; Seeing your used panties tucked under his pillow and a small little glimpse of purple peeking out. Screams in the back of your mind make the very dangerous assumption that he’s still somewhat possessive over the item. It makes the growing wetness in your panties more significant, forcing your to flex your thighs together.

“I’m so, what?” You press softly, your head tilting up at him with the shortening gap between you.

The Colonel audibly swallows, “So… pretty.” You’ve never heard such a whimpering and weak sound from him. Almost like it’s a desperate thought he couldn’t help but admit to you. It stokes a fire inside your belly, and you’re very quick to push just a little more.

“So you stole dirty panties?” A low, gravelly whine escapes from under his mask as shakes his head.

“They were on the floor… And I was so frustrated, I didn’t mean for you find out. I just - just needed to know…” His voice stiffens, but he’s still struggling to defend his actions, and not totally own up to the fact that you’d caught him using your scent to get himself off.

“How many times have you used them, Colonel?” Your voice lowers a little, pussy clenching in anticipation of his answer; Fluttering wet walls that silently beg for more stimulation than the pressure your thighs can provide.

König squirms where he stands, sighing heavily. “Six. Six times… Fuck, I’m so sorry.” His head drops in guilt that actually squeezes your chest with sympathy. He’d always held the biggest piece of your heart, and seeing him so hard on himself for being -not only human- but having been no more desiring for you than you’d been for him… you just couldn’t stand letting him do this anymore.

“Well that just won’t do, will it?” You’re pulling your sweatshirt over your head and dropping it on the floor before König can look up and register what you’re doing. Halfway through pushing your pants down your thighs, you hear a sharp gasp and a little grunt of a sound.

“What are you doing?” His voice has flattened, and you peek up to see his wide eyes roaming all over your exposed skin. You just smile, standing there in a soft bralette and some panties and shrug like this wasn’t making your knees quake under your weight.

“I’m gonna give you fresh pair.” You lick your lips nervously, slipping your fingers under the waistband and begin to tug them down.

“Wait!” He almost shouts, taking a couple steps closer to you and grabbing your wrists to keep you from moving. “F-fuck… just, hold on a second.” He’s panting heavily, staring at you with dilated eyes.

For a long moment, you just stand there feeling his hot skin burning against your own. Silently staring at each other like trying to read the other’s thoughts without attempting to just do it the easy way and ask. You can smell the mint of his toothpaste and that all-too-comforting scent of sandalwood lingering on his body from some kind of cologne or deodorant you’d never quite seen him apply. You’re about to ask him a question when you feel his fingers trailing down your inner wrists towards your hips, and finally resting on the waistband of your panties. Heavy hands being much more gentle than you’d ever experienced, raising chills on your massive expanse of bared skin.

“Can I…?”

His eyes dart between his hands and your eyes with such an innocent look that you’re nodding your head before you actually think it through. Implicit trust had always made you and the Colonel a good pair on the field. Never pausing to think there might be a day like today were you’d test just how good things cold be in the bedroom. He’s down on one knee and nearly eye-level with you, fingers rubbing the fabric withholding the ultimate of your intimate regions… His face so close that it’s brushing against you stomach. Steadying yourself, you grab ahold of his shoulder; Needing some kind of grounding since you can’t really feel your bare feet on the freezing cold floor.

Squeezing the meat of your hips, the Colonel hisses.

“Always thought you were the tiniest thing… Wanted to know how someone so small could be so deadly,” His teasing evolved into slowly pulling at your underwear. Dragging them over the swell of your ass and leaving them there for a moment.

“Lucky me, knowing better than anyone how you can kill a man so slowly.”

He’s slow but purposeful in pulling your panties down your legs, his head following them instead of taking the first look at your bared skin. Reverently, he picks up your bare feet one-by-one and helps you out of the material, immediately rubbing the fabric between his long fingers. Your stomach drops when you realize that he’s purposefully feeling the crotch. Giving away the sheer arousal you’d collected there in mere minutes. It should’ve bothered you, made embarrassment floor your system. Only it just proved to make your legs feel weak under you. Almost visually shaking when the Colonel slid your panties under the hem of his hood.

“Want to tase what I do to you,” He murmured, giving you the exact answer of how pressed you were to find out what was happening under that bleached t-shirt of a shield.

“Need you to watch me…” Your cunt clenched hearing him sound so broken.

Nodding dumbly, your gaze never left König’s eyes. Seeing his heavy lids close, just to open back up drunkenly with a low groan that nearly penetrated your very bones. Wet sucking sounds emanating from under the mask, his tongue lapping at your soaked gusset and leaving no question as to just how fucking hungry he was for it. Spit-covered cotton sucked dry by one of the most powerful and intimidating men on the face of the planet; Down on a knee in front of you and literally lost to your taste. Lips parted and awestruck, you tried to force some words out.

“You look so hot like that, sir.” Breathless, it’s clear just how much it’s effecting you too.

Using his title has his eyes snapping up to you. Dark and dilated pupils, wide shoulders rising and falling quickly, and one hand still circled around your ankle to prevent your -impossible- escape from him. The Colonel is off his knee and has you lifted off the ground with only one arm before you can blink. Spinning you around and dropping you down on his cot; His massive body looming over yours. Downright terrifying save for the sight of your pink underwear hanging limply in his fist. That intimidating shadow of his erection -somehow- bigger than before, twitches against his belt. You’re driving him wild sitting so innocently with your thighs clenched together on his bed. Looking like you hadn’t the slightest idea just how badly he wanted to utterly destroy you right there and now.

“Sergeant?” Maintaining his composure takes every last fiber of concentration. Seeing your head tilt to the side in silent question and anticipation nearly doubles the weight of his balls.

“You must be so needy. Waiting so patiently for someone to give you satisfaction,” He steps closer, hips less than a foot away from you. Tempting your baser instincts to lean forward and swipe your tongue over a wet spot resting just over the tip of his cock.

“Your sweet cunt tastes like she’s been neglected… Have you been neglected Sergeant?” Almost mocking, you can’t begin to challenge him. Right away your nodding your head, flexing your thighs and crossing your ankles to attempt some small relief of pressure.

“König - I -” You’re fumbling for the right words when he chuckles lowly, bending just far enough to place his palms on across your thighs and squeeze just a little.

Meeting your forehead with his own, you’re right back to where you always felt with him. Safe and like he somehow understood everything about you without ever asking. Unique to König, he could always tell when something was wrong or you just weren’t quite on your game for some reason or another. You always thought it’s what made you such a good pair. And if you had to admit it, you’d have thought you knew just about everything about him too; But now after this, there’s a question lingering if all of his sweetness was just out of friendship, or something much more significant swirling around behind that shroud of a mask. Either way, you wanted to find out more. Get closer and explore the Colonel in a way you’d never believed possible.

“If you want this… me,” Just above a mere whisper, he paused to look between the small gap withholding you from him. “I need you to say so, meine perle.” Hearing your longstanding pet name in this connotation felt so very different, yet so much more impactful than on just your feeling of standard closeness. Giving you the suspicion that König hadn’t just thought it was a simple throwaway nickname.

“Please, please. I want you.” Your answer feels confident. Specifically choosing to ask for him, and him alone.

König met your lips with heavy intention. Cradling your neck with one hand and leaning your weight back against the bed; All the while crawling overtop of you. You could barely taste your own tangy arousal on his tongue, fighting for the chance to take the other fully. While König did try to resist your little bites at his bottom lip and your fingers prying at his shirt, it didn’t take long for him to finally happily give up. Rolling onto his back and pulling you to straddle him. Helping you along with the subtle movement of your bare cunt against his clothed cock and the ridges of his zipper.

“Mm,” He pulled away from you far too soon, admiring you sitting atop him so delicately. Pink cheeks, kiss-swollen lips, and a look in your eyes that made his whole body truly feel desired ****************and appreciated. Maybe even loved.

“Come here, meine perle. Let me give you everything you want.” Pulling your head down to meet his lips one last time, you sighed.

Sinking against him with so many fuzzy feelings of happiness and surreal recognitions of just how crazy this was. Of how one single change of your day had brought you to König’s room.

“Süßes Mädchen, ich will dich probieren..” It was the last coherent thing you could remember König saying as he effortlessly pulled your bare cunt closer to his face with an utterly wrecked look on his face and his tongue licking at his lips.

Hip flexors and thighs quivering, you could hardly keep your eyes focused on the Austrian below you. With your legs spread and framing his head and his hot palms cradling the entirely of your ass to keep you from squirming too much, König had spent the better part of half and hour with his tongue buried in your cunt. Snarling and growling like a hungry dog who’s chain had finally snapped. Between your almost totally fried nerves and the nudge of his thick nose rubbing against your clit while tongue-fucking your hole, you’d nearly pleaded and moaned yourself mute with a sore throat. ail scratches had been scraped into the drywall in front of you, and the strength in your legs had long faded into boneless mush that König hardly needed the endurance to hold steadily. The Colonel had been nothing but painfully patient and determined to give your more orgasms than your body could withstand.

You’d been ordered to count them, and it’d never been more challenging to count to four.

“Bitte meine Perle, komm, fick mein gesicht.” You never wanted to follow an order so badly. But fuck if you came again, you weren’t sure you’d ever resurface from the sensation. The previous had almost left you sitting full-weight on his face and blacked out in overwhelming pleasure. Mentally preparing wasn’t an option though. König wasn’t stopping for anything. Including your weak whimpers and whines that protested the command despite your desire to listen to him as closely as possible.

“C-can’t do it again-” Your voice cracks pathetically.

A loud crack of his palm smacking against the flesh of your ass releases a guttural moan from you. Spanking you firmly for the denial, and nipping at your swollen and abused little clit in punishment. You whine again, knowing your choice in the matter is being denied. König’s hunger for your release dripping out from the corners of his mouth motivates him to wrap his lips around your swollen bud and suck. Using the tip of his tongue to flick against the painfully sensitive end. That movement had brought you to release the first time, and it worked just as efficiently again to rip your pleasure out of your body right into the Colonel’s waiting mouth.

Your shaking and tears being to roll over your cheeks as König uses his own strength to help ride you through the aftershocks that cause your thighs to tremor and your stomach to flex and waver. The only somewhat meaningful things you’re able to do is use one hand to run your fingers through his hair and try to keep yourself grounded to the cot and König. By the time you feel sensation in your toes again, König has already gotten you settled back in his lap with his massive arms snaked around your bare body, holing you tight against his chest.

You feel slickness not just of your own between your thighs, looking up at the Colonel with a question tugging at your eyebrows. There was no mistaking that König had finished some time through your turn and he’d either been really good at hiding it, or you’d been totally inconsiderate of noticing.

“Schön, meine Perle. Das hast du so gut gemacht,” His wet lips press to your forehead reassuringly.

“Did perfectly, so good at following orders.” His hands cradle your flushed cheeks carefully.

Thumbs brushing over your cheekbones and sliding up until he can wipe the sheen of sweat clinging in the hair of your eyebrows. You look downright angelic to him like this. Raptured by nothing more than his own desire to give you everything he possibly could of his physical and emotional being. Giving himself the most intimate position to see just what he’d fantasized about for so long. You, being loved by him. Adored just for being yourself. Pleasured, because you deserved it.

“König… didn’t you..?” Your little pants and confused look made him smile, leaning forward to capture your lips in a sweet kiss.

He chuckled lowly against your mouth. “I did. Twice, actually.” He pecked the tip of your nose like a little praise for you.

You weren’t in any shape to fuss with the Austrian, however you did your best to put up a fight. “Let me… I wanna give you-”

“I’ve had just enough to satiate me for now,” His voice rasped a bit. “Besides, my men will be coming in for shift changes. And I don’t have enough faith in either of us to stay that quiet, meine perle.”

It was your turn to go shy and quiet, looking towards the shut -and locked- bedroom door, but forgetting that you weren’t the only two people in the area. Actually, thee was a good chance many of the men could’ve heard you making little to no effort to quiet yourself. One glance at the Colonel still holding you close to him, and you must’ve given him some sort of expression because he started laughing softly again.

“Kein Problem. Meine Männer reden nicht über uns.” You believed him.

But it was still a little intimidating. Now that it seemed everything was out it in the open, you had a lot of questions about what was going to happen, how things would work between you, or if there was even a possibility of somethingserious. The observant Colonel didn’t miss a single beat of your heart in that moment.

“Das bedeutet nicht, dass ich ihnen keinen Gesprächsstoff gebe, meine Perle,” His head nudged yours sweetly, despite his very flirty tone. “I’d like to keep you to myself. That is… if you’re okay with that?”

Nothing could stop the grin that spread onto your face.

“Ich liebe es, dein zu sein, mein König,” You wrapped you arms around his neck, kissing his ear softly. “Auch wenn du mein Höschen stiehlst.”

Reblogs & Comments are Appreciated

[mistress-of-vos]

I'd make a longer post (and maybe one day I will) but since Lore Olympus, the story that introduced me to webtoons is coming to an end I'd like to say something:

I can't believe it is considered problematic. It has to be one of the sweetest, fluffiest, simplest stories I have read (hence why I still like it, it's a relaxing read before bed) and somehow it got too "kinky" for mainstream. It's laughable.

Everytime I dare to click on their tag or look for the # on Twitter or FB I see people clutching their pearls as if Lore Olympus were brainwashing teenagers into marrying a non existent God of the dead and have babies with him. What the hell?

The fact that people think LO is too dark makes me laugh. A single episode of Rick&Morty, BoJack Horseman or HQS has way more explicit content and dialogue. In fact!!! If it were up to me LO would have gotten genuinely kinky!!! All it does is have some surface spicy tropes that get sugar coated to not make puritans awkward and tbh that's sad. LO and the author get terribly hated anyway for daring to portray the most common female fantasy.

And this all makes me laugh but also mad because you'd think LO at least has some genuine dark themes but no? At most we have Persephone's trauma due to Apollo's abuse and yet that topic is treated as a therapy pamphlet because people couldn't handle an imperfect victim. Hades is a wife guy who shows little to no anger. Hera was re written to be sort of a feminist so that people stopped being annoying about women having emotions.

LO is a sweet, simple story with tiny spicy things here and there that were eventually pushed aside because people couldn't handle it. I wonder how Rachel feels about this, because at the beginning the story was extremely spicy and the only crime was being published in a platform as webtoon, full of people who can't differentiate reality from fiction.

Is LO a masterpiece? Idk! I enjoy the story, it's very self indulgent for me, but I won't go and analyze every detail to see how it should be labeled as it's not meant to be a perfect media. It's meant to be an entertaining, nice story of romance and it does that job very well. This need to demand perfect writing while also crucifying authors over "dark" themes is ridiculous and contradictory.

And I keep wondering, if these people loathe LO so much, why dedicate all that time to the infinte posts they make about how they would have told the story? And all those re tellings are boring! It's always "So Persephone and Hades won't ever kiss here because she's a lesbian. Also he doesn't appear at all. And Demeter isn't an abusive mom! Oh and everyone is ugly because gods shouldn't be beautiful! And Apollo isn't evil he's uwu baby. And no toxic relationships here, Zeus is a good husband!"

Sweet Gaia, you guys wouldn't handle Saint Seiya having Athena in the body of a teenage girl with big tits and who's constantly in the edge of breaking her virginity vows. This attitude screams of jealousy and puritanism and both are disgusting.

TLDR: LO being too problematic for people is both funny and annoying. I wished it actually were as kinky and dark as people insist it is. I'd pay for a toxic romance, but that being said, I LOVE it very much as it is and it's nice to have a re telling that, while not pretending to be loyal to mythology, didn't go for a route of sanitizing all the myths. I hope that once it ends haters will move on and let real fans and the author alone. 🙏

[genericpuff]

Hello, brazilian anon here! So I have been following criticisms of LO for a while now, and Psyche and Eros caught my attention in special, because their relationship is legit a racist trope commonly applied to indigenous people: Woman of color is put in a arranged marriage or pressured into marrying a guy from her village/tribe but "falls in love" with a white dude who "saves" her from her abusive and "uncivilized" family. Think of Disney's Pocahontas. This trope is commonly used to dehumanize non-european/anglo-saxon cultures and portray them as barbaric, and is rooted in colonialism and its direct heir, imperialism, as a means for colonizers to justify and sugarcoat raping and forcing women of color to marry them. So not a good look for Rachel.

OH YEAH IT IS

(you just opened Pandora's Box by mentioning Pocahontas around me LMAO)

It's even more egregious when you consider how Rachel changed the original myth from Psyche undergoing trials on her own to her ... being turned into a nymph servant for Aphrodite. Like huh. Is that really your final draft, Rachel? Have you thought this through?

I made a very spicy post about this like a year and a half ago and honestly I think it's still worth talking about because it's incredibly telling that Psyche had her entire story uprooted and replaced with a version where she's transformed into a non-POC character to disguise herself as a servant to a woman who's already racist towards nymphs. It's got that issue of "take the black character and transform them into an animal/other being that isn't black so that we don't have to have a black character onscreen for more than 10 minutes."

And yeah, you can tell how much Rachel is absentmindedly taking from Disney without challenging what those stories were portraying or asking deeper questions to get to the heart of their messaging. Pocahontas is rightfully panned for being a very white-washed version of a story that was written in the blood shed by Native Americans at the hands of colonizers. "Pocahontas" herself, even, was not some independent native woman who fell in love with the "one good white guy" on the boat, she was a teenage girl, whose life was spared but made worse when she was forced to travel overseas to be used as a prop to justify their continued actions in murdering and colonizing the "savages" overseas; she was then forced into marriage and had to carry the children of her captors, all while being treated as an exotic spectacle by the people around her who would undoubtedly kill her at the first sign of disobedience.

Her name was Matoaka. Her life and story is not something that should be romanticized. It's a tragedy and much of what instigated it is still alive and well today. She only lived to be 21.

I don't know if Rachel intentionally referenced or ripped off Pocahontas in Lore Olympus the same way she clearly has with Hercules and Beauty and the Beast. But it's incredibly telling in how she treats the racial divide between nymphs and gods and how she's twisted the Eros x Psyche myth into what it is that even if she did watch Pocahontas, she probably never realized how problematic it is at its core in the way that it's told.

In the original myth, Psyche is a woman who's meant to represent the fickleness of vanity - the loneliness it can make one feel to be admired and not truly loved, and the destruction that can be brought about in jealousy - and her pursuit in finding genuine love in Eros, a journey she travels alone, thematically with the rest of the story.

In Lore Olympus, she's an illiterate woman of color whose only purpose is to be Eros' wife, robbed of all agency so that she can be a trophy for him to earn, a test for him to pass. It's boring and really icky when you really peel back the layers of it with Psyche's character design in mind. Even when she finally does get more agency in her task to bring down Apollo - or at the very least, keep an eye on him - it's still at the behest of Zeus who gives her immortality not as a reward for overcoming the trials she set out to pass, but so she can be his errand boy. So once again she's not capable of doing anything motivated by her own best interests (especially when she already knows how dangerous Apollo is, why is she the one who has to follow this guy around?)

So yeah, no, not a good look at all LMAO

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

I got a break from work so I’m gonna write this.

Hi, I was the anon that wrote about dimidue and emblaskr (guess that’s the ship name) earlier and the problematic biases underlining both (moreso with Askr and Embla).

Also, I absolutely do not hate Askr, he’s my favorite character, but I did want to hide my identity in that previous take as much as possible since Embla’s a pretty popular character. But it was cowardly of me. The rest of this post is going to elaborate on why Emblaskr is problematic and reflects racist trends in the media.

If Embla truly loved Askr, she would have never tried to hurt him so gravely. Invading his kingdom, trying to kill everyone he holds dear…that isn’t love. That’s obsession, jealousy, selfishness. When he died, I believe it was less that she cared about him, but more that she lost the chance to have someone unfailingly caring about her again. It’s a matter of possession and satisfaction. She can’t have Askr. When she dies she calls out his name, but again that reinforces not her love for him, but her desire to not be alone. It is inherently selfish because even as she dies she thinks only of how she is affected. She laments being alone, not how she cares about Askr. If she cared about him, would she have ever tried to commit such terrible acts of violence and hatred against him? Never in the story do we see her atone, see her feel guilt.

Embla is all about control. Controlling her people, controlling those that go to Askr, controlling Askr even. Because she doesn’t want him to be happier than her. She wants him at her level.

TV Tropes has an article called the Black Best Friend. Askr isn’t confirmed as black, but he is a poc character, and this trope can affect non-black poc as well. The details of this trope are quite similar to how Askr is. For the sake of length I’ll only go through a few.

Askr “is used simply as a means to make the white character look better.“ Without him, Embla would never have received her Freudian excuse. She would have been the equivalent of Surtr without Askr’s existence.

Askr is “flawless to the point of being unreal.“ He is unimaginably perfect. He has no flaws, no deep seated issues to speak of. One can argue he may not have been a good listener to Embla in their flashback, but the problem is that this isn’t an issue that is talked about or delved into. He is also a bit oblivious, but again, this is ignored. It would have been great if Bruno called Askr out for his ignorance and seeming apathy, but it doesn’t happen. What about how he and his sister suffered due to Embla’s bitterness? I would have loved Bruno calling Askr out for trying to paint a sympathetic picture of Embla in front of him, since his life was ruined by and ultimately taken by her later on. And I would have loved if Askr reflected on that, apologized, and realized that he himself does not deserve to be the long-suffering supporter of a woman who hates him and wants to destroy everything and everyone he loves. But this doesn’t happen, and Askr is glossed over to be genetically perfect. We can brush him aside so we can focus on more of Embla. This isn’t good treatment of Askr. Actively ignoring facets of his character to make him bland and generic compared to the “deep” and “complex” Embla is just a symptom of racism, in trying to make sure he doesn’t overshadow her.

Askr “revolves almost entirely around a white character.” (Found in the laconic tab). As before, he is merely focused on the white Embla. He should have been a prominent character on his own, but he is instead quickly killed off (see another familiar trope on the website, Black Dude Dies First). Askr is the first prominent casualty of the book on top of having less screen time than any of the other ocs. We even see Letizia more than him, alive at least. The following times he shows up is in her memories. He provides even more development and focus for Embla!

Askr only exists to uplift the Embla, to carry her trauma and help her process it, and to no benefit of his own. She belittles him, threatens violence against him, and it’s seen as…romantic? The white female character actively engaging in war viciously attacking him and emotionally abusing him is…romantic? If this was a relationship that existed in real life, Askr would be considered a victim of abuse. And there are relationships like this in real life, sadly enough. Embla is capable of her actions and I’m sick of seeing her woobiefied by parts of the fan base. And it is her own fault that she refuses to see past her flaws. She is long past being a victim. It is not Askr’s job to handle her emotional maturity and make her better. Embla is trying to, once again, COMMIT GENOCIDE. Against HIS people! He absolutely does not need to show her kindness, nor does he need to coddle her when HE is the victim! And the audacity to imply that Askr gaining independence and being strong enough to advocate for his worth and safety is “selfish”? (Speaking to the anon whose take was a response to mine). That is wrong on so many levels.

Most of the time, nonwhite characters in media have to be paragons to be even remotely palatable to the fan base. But white characters (most often men, but sometimes women) are often given more excuses for their actions. They can be war criminals. They can be violent and petty and make mistakes. And it is absolutely problematic to DEMAND Askr be there for Embla at all times at the expense of his own mental health. What about his suffering? His pain of being cast aside? The stress he must feel over having to be perfect because if he makes ONE mistake, she snaps? Because that’s what happened! One little misunderstanding and she was lost to her own wickedness. That is frightening to think about, and shows she really was never good. She just had the privilege of being surrounded by goodness and allowed to hide in its light. It is unbelievably disgusting and unrealistic to expect someone to be unfailingly devoted as they are repeatedly broken down by someone who supposedly “loves” them.

.

[animation-is-my-jam]

Least favorite Tobecky headcanon? or what some people like in popular tobecky ideas but youd don't?

(Oof, I missed this one a week ago, sorry!!)

But to your question, hmm... that's a bit tough since headcanon and ideas involving tobecky within the Fandom change over time. It's very noticeable from the time before the show got canned to the Twitter resurgence a few years ago. And what is my least favorite or what I don't like... then yeah, I could say, since apparently I'm the hot take Wordgirl blog/lhj

I'm mostly gonna be talking about ones from the old fandom/things I notice that I don't personally jell with anymore, so take that as you will. Remember, these are my opinions, and they don't define how a person should feel if they like these headcanons/tropes themselves. I'm just a genderfluid cartoon bee person on the internet.

One tobecky trope/headcanon that I *could* like but I don't particularly think is used well enough is when they want to make it a love triangle. Either with Scoops, Victoria, or if you're brave, Violet. I dabble in jealousy within tobecky since it's fun. However, early fandom was kind of obsessed with making either of these characters absolutely fladerized in their worst traits so Tobey/Becky could be seen as the better option. Like Victoria being more nasty and cruel to Becky for no reason other than Tobey is the one she's after. Which I gotta roll my eyes at two interesting female characters just fighting over a boy. And in turn, the villiazation some people made Scoops out in early fandom like jeez you would think he was a real jerk in the show if you only consumed early fandom art and fics. Yes, both Victoria and Scoops have their flaws, but they wouldn't be interesting characters without them and it's a shame for either of them to be portrayed as just meanies so Becky could lean more into Tobey (a little tangent here, this also is talking about how making all other characters in Becky's personal life incompetent too, ie Violet and the Botsfords so the only one she should turn to is Tobey. Yes, there are things Tobey could understand and connect with her that her family can't, but making her friends and family heartlessly naive to her plights is dumb. Or making it that they don't trust or love her anymore after an event. Wildly out of character and not in a good way).

And I don't even hate this idea or concept as much. We'll get to the ones I do, but this is the first one that I think could have potentially if done right. Kids have crushes, and they can be resentful to others close to the person they like. It's natural. But mostly, the problem does lie with character assassination. This is one could be fun (and I've seen recent good examples), but it comes down to the interpretation.

....

Another is Becky, basically being Tobey's therapist while also being his girlfriend. I think I've talked about before on my distaste for the (Becky has to fix Tobey) trope since it's the most obvious f/m enemies to lovers trope that I dread because the female character is just used as the ultimate emotional stability for a male character who has to earn his own sense of self (if the male character is the one who was antagonist, which is like 89 percent of them). Becky, to me, doesn't have anything under control herself. Yes, it might seem like it, but have you seen this girl? Lol. So her being Tobey's number one coddler is just not in character...at least for me. Especially if it's the show accurate ages of them or heck as teens. So Tobey being in a relationship with Becky, that's just her being his therapist or her needing to instill lessons like she's his teacher. Idk that's a highly unhealthy dynamic to me, folks. Not to mention how some could write Becky as controlling or manipulative to Tobey's unstable mental health.

And there's the reverse. Some might scream at me. 'What about Tobey being the one to emotionally help Becky? Isn't that also problematic?' Well...not exactly and I can explain why! Not only is it not a common trope, nor does it have origins in a very dubious romance trope that can be misogynistic. But knowing how popular the ideas of Becky being stressed or emotionally shutting off by handling everything herself (since we can infer in the show), then it wouldn't be a too farfetched idea of her needing that bit of help or reminder from a friend or foe. And I say 'a bit' because the reverse trope doesn't have Tobey downright baby Becky or become a therapist in what she does, nor be her only emotional dependency. And yeah, the idea of Tobey being more emotionally stable than Becky is unbelievable, but again, usually when I see this trope, Tobey isn't perfect himself, and he's also a bit messed up. I don't know if I'm explaining it right, but to peeps who read a lot of the modern fanfictions, you know what I mean.

I think the good mixture of both of these is them obviously being good for each other in an equal manner.

...

My final one is the one where Tobey basically gets rewarded for being pushy/crossing boundaries. "Oh, he had to blackmail her or threaten to destroy something so she could fess up her TRUE emotions." Or "he had to socially engineer his way to reveal her identity so she could like him" (this one is a trope that's done right when tobey literally gets hit with the big consequences as he should, we all know this, because it's half of the reveal plot lines in tobecky content) but for some reason a very few treat this as a necessary thing for him to do despite how very obviously bad it is. Becky should slap him if he does that and if thinks he's in the right.

...

And yeah, that's the ones I could think of. Again, like I said, this is my opinion!! If you like using these tropes, power to you, it's not my thing--and I have my problems with them. Again, I think there is potential for some of them to be done correctly or at least with a twist that can be interesting. I like my fair share of messy tobecky, I'm a messy bee. And this ship is interesting in many ways. But there's probably a reason why some have their issues.

Thank you anon for the ask!

[mutsky]

meet you at the blossom ep 5 running commentary

yas last ep of fun and games before we have to lock in for the rest of the season

-jxb talking smack and immediately getting back behind his wifey lmaooo

-is now really the time to talk about relationships

-his bundles the guy in the blue are NOT EATING

-ahh tweedle dee and tweedle dum

-i love the three stooges

-ohhh huaien is in LOVE

-hes acting like he wont be in the brothel in like 30 minutes

-they are so fucking cute oh my god

-thought that was gonna be a kiss but ill take the hug

-well that's bad

-:( dont punish my baby

-the parents homophobia is pissing me off

-HAS HUAIEN PUT ON THE HAIR ACCESSORY XIAOBAO GAVE HIM????

-ok feminist legend

-xiaobao is so precious he has so much love in him

-has the account book become the roster in the translations?

-"do you wanna marry a man?" yes he sure does

-between this and love sea... dads are really problematic

-jin bao?

-plot plot plot politics politics politics

-homophobia is killing dad

-LETS GET TO THE REAL STUFF

-underling 2 has his bun sideways

-thats why hes in the brothel???

-jin bao for your own good PLEASE shut up

-sorry jealousy and possessiveness in bl is one of my favorite tropes

-so its a misunderstanding

-damn they dead

-hehehehehe this is what im here for ngl cant wait for tomorrow 🤭

[mdhwrites]

how do you feel about the oppressed mage or super powered individual cliche? The cliche where mutants or wizards or vampires etc are discriminated against? I think there are some logical issues with the trope (how do you oppress magneto? Somebody please tell me- he could end the planet if he wanted to) but I want to see if people have issues with the social issues aspect- I have no idea if I'm phrasing this well. Do you think it's a potentially offensive cliche?

So I'm going to give a heads up that this is NOT a fun topic and it IS actually, genuinely problematic as allegory for racial discrimination which is what it is usually used for. Of governments oppressing people just for the status of their birth. Of the jealousy and fear that motivates so much of the irrational mindset of the bigot...

...Except that they're right from go.

Someone asked me at one point what flaw I would give a magical race so as to make bigotry justified towards them to make a work more nuanced and I bopped them on the head for missing the point. After all, bigotry is irrational. It's never right. It's always selfishly motivated and personally motivated, not logically motivated. Claims like "They're taking our jobs!" aren't because of the race of the person, it's because they have been made a scapegoat about economic anxieties the person has and they want someone to blame. This is in contrast to "Eat the rich because they're hoarding wealth and destroying everyone's lives," because that's factually accurate. You're not being bigoted when you are literally stating what is true.

So the big question for anything that tries to do this is the WHY of these characters being oppressed, not the how. You can come up with any how you want, it's the why that matters much more for your allegory. So... Why are these people prejudiced against in the first place?

"If they make one mistake with their abilities, an entire town is leveled and a monster runs free!"

This is literally the argument for mages in Dragon Age but it is the very common argument for this. That these people are essentially massive bombs. You yourself pointed this out in fact. Magneto can destroy the planet. Superman can destroy the planet. Ironman can ravage entire armies while staying untouched. They are blessed in ways that humanity has no way to match. People saying that they are inherently a threat to all of us, that even accidents by them are likely to cause devastating consequences (the collateral damage of any superhero fight for instance, or what happens if someone accidentally knocks Cyclop's glasses off) so they need to in some way be controlled and monitored like we would treat weapons.

The argument for why this is supposed to work is that anyone can go out and buy a gun. Anyone can build their muscles to a point where they can overpower just about anyone else so how do you regulate against something that is genuinely universal? Here's the thing though: That bodybuilder isn't bulletproof. That gunman still needed to go through the legislation and regulation we have to get a gun, which is why you don't see as many shootings in places with more restrictions. They are also just regular people who took drastic action in one direction, perverting an element of society and causing harm. They are not someone who can talk to a child who turns out to be a demon and then go on a rampage because now they too are a demon because Dragon Age is really fucking shitty about its allegory when it comes to mages. And honestly probably the elves too, I haven't dived that deep recently.

It's much closer to why we TECHNICALLY hold people like cops and soldiers to a higher standard than a regular person. We empower these people with the ability to do more harm than ANYONE in regular society on the preconception that they only use the privilege to them responsibly. Cops don't fucking do that almost at all, ACAB, and any privatized military out there is a fucking nightmare on top of the nightmare of being soldiers because now they serve capitalism and the dollar, not people. Fucking Christ, why is it like this!?

And if you want to know why heroes don't kill, that entire fucking paragraph is why they don't kill. The Punisher is not a good person.

Is there a way to do this right? I... Don't really know. I think the mutants, for the shit I've given them here, are actually a decent example since most actually have fairly benign powers. Ones that can be controlled and have to be abused so as to be able to hurt people. Angel isn't hurting anyone with his wings after all, they mostly serve as an inconvenience to him if they're out during civil life. There are real questions as to whether he should be regulated just because someone like Magneto exists. It also is complicated by the worlds they live in. Superheroes are just a fact to the Marvel Universe and yet the mutants get so much more scrutiny and hate despite not being really any different from Bruce Banner except that they were born this way, not made. That is genuinely an effective way to shift that dynamic.

Which is probably the core answer to doing this allegory correctly. Make sure that the world you make adds nuance to trying to oppress these super powered beings. That it is genuinely unfair compared to other people like them. Dragon Age's closest version to this is how the Chantry Templars are blessed with holy power and the like but stand unregulated, even to the point where that became a core conflict as the Templars chose to boost themselves with magic rocks to murder mages better. That still mostly fails, it's much closer to the cops deciding to buy rocket launchers which is not an even similar argument to what is going on with the mages but it's an attempt. Then again, much of Thedas is built on inequality so shrug.

But no matter what, even with these potential ways of making it work, there is a very easy way to figure out if it's not working: If the characters are making an argument that is simply factually correct for hate, you have fucked up and you need to stop. See you next tale.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[theflagscene]

Growing up is realizing how toxic TharnType was.. like really

🤭🤭🤭 Ngl, when I got this message a couple days ago I legit giggled. I was not expecting it, and it took me a second to figure out where it came from until I remembered my answer for day eleven of the 15 Day BL Challenge. Then the Booping happened and the next day I was at the hospital with my dad all day because he was going in for heart surgery—it went well btw—so I just got around to replying to this today. I apologize for that my dear anon 💕

I felt kind of lucky because I came into TharnType when the second season was about to air, so I had heard of some spoilers about the first season, plus I had seen Love By Chance multiple times so I was familiar with Type and some of the other side characters—Techo, Tum, Tar, Kengkla, Technic, etc.

I legit gave Mame a pass when watching LBC, not everyone’s first novel is great and the screenplay did what it could, ya know? But as time went on, as a queer person I started to get the sense that she was one of those rare hetero writers that actually do kind of fetishize gay men, which I really didn’t want to think was still happening in—at the time—2019.

But after I watched both TharnType seasons, and LBC and DSN, all of which have interconnected storylines and characters, I couldn’t help but not think that. Which is why by 2021, I sort of stopped giving her the benefit of the doubt as a writer even though I desperately wanted her to do better, so much better. And to be fair, Wedding Plan and Love Sea were both okay, I think those have been her least offensive scripts to date.

But getting back to TharnType lore, I remember actually writing up a ‘problematic trope’ list in my notes app whilst watching the series and oh boy, it’s a doozy! Let’s break it down, for anyone who (somehow) has not sat through the trash fire that was the highest heat BLs of 2019/2020 and the various storylines that tie back to TharnType that span four different series.

Heavy trigger warning for under the cut: SA/r*pe/DV/ped*phila/blackmail/ab*se/stalking/in*est/predatory behaviour/emotional manipulation and ironically enough, homophobia.

Right off the bat, the first thing in the very first episode was the comparison of gay men to pedophiles. Type was 100% allowed his trauma from what happened to him, but if Mame had done even an ounce of investigation into actual statistics, she’d know that pedophiles typically don’t identify as any type of sexuality outside of being attracted to underage people, that is their sexual preference. So no, a man assaulting a boy does not make him gay, it makes him a pedophile, full stop.

Violent homophobia: Not just outright blatant hate speech but Type is violent towards gay people, and specifically Tharn when he finds out that he’s roommates with a gay man. Also Type’s father literally chases him and Tharn with a machete when he finds out that Type is dating a man, so yeah.

Sexual assault and rape: Tharn assaults Type in the shower as a way to ‘get back at him’ for being homophobic, playing into the classic predatory gay stereotype. Techno is drugged, stalked, blackmailed and date raped by Kengkla (LBC). Tar is gang raped and was ‘so broken’ that he literally ran away to France (LBC/TT). Fiat forces a kiss onto Type against his will (DSN)

Domestic abuse: Type hits Tharn many times throughout their relationship, he constantly slaps, punches and kicks him and yet always is allowed to get away with it because of his traumatic past and jealousy issues. Uh, no, no no. You do not get to abuse your partner or anyone in your life because of your trauma, get thee into therapy!

Stalking: Kengkla is obsessed with Techno, he stalks him and often pays his best friend Technic—Techno’s little brother—to snap pictures of the older man when he’s sleeping or changing to give to Kengkla, as well many other things. It should also be stated that they are high school students whilst Techno is a university student, so they are putting Techno at risk with the law because Kengkla is underage. (LBC)

Lhong stalks Tharn for years, even going so far as to run off any potential suitors and hire bikers to rape Tharn’s—extremely underage—boyfriend Tar. (TT)

Fiat stalks Type and dismisses that he has a boyfriend, not caring about it because he’s convinced that he’s in love with Type after being treated by him for a sports injury (TT2)

Incest: Tum, Tar’s older half brother is in love with him and has been for many years. He hates Tharn for breaking Tar’s heart so badly that he ran away to a different country, not knowing about Tar’s rape. Tharn is the only one he tells and to Tharn’s credit, doesn’t tell anyone out of respect to Tar. Eventually it comes out and Tar tells Tum what happens and also tells him that his trauma from the event has left him sex repulsed and broken, unable to love or trust anyone… besides Tum that is! Of course, because Tar loved his big bro all along as well.

Emotional manipulation: Ummm *gestures wildly to every character* take your pick!

Blackmail: Kengkla and Technic—again I cannot stress this enough, Techno is Technic’s brother!—drug Techno during a party, strip him and then put him in bed naked with Kengkla. When he wakes up the next morning with a teenager in his bed and no memory of what happened, he rightfully panics. Kengkla then tells him that they had sex—up until this point Techno had no interest in men—and Kengkla promises that he won’t tell anyone what happened if Techno will sleep with him one more time, Kengkla wants to lose his virginity to him since they didn’t actually have sex, Techno was passed out due to GHB that had been slipped into his drink. As of TharnType2 it is heavily implied that Techno and Kengkla are still together, and that Techno has no idea about the truth behind how he ended up with an underage boyfriend his first year of university.

Dishonourable mentions: Kidnapping, slut shaming, toxic jealousy, racism, classism, misogyny, mishandling of mental health issues, a grown man being perversely obsessed with a teenage girl and extremely harmful LGBTQ+ stereotypes.

Seriously, nothing about TharnType was good or romantic. It was toxic waste and even as a trash/hate watch, I could not enjoy it. I don’t use this term lightly, but the whole series just gives me the ick. And remember those were just all the interconnected storylines that directly involved Tharn and Type, none of those touch on AePete, TinCan or PhugunCirrus. All of which have their own issues, many many issues, but it really does seem like TharnType are the atomic bomb of BL couple fuckery.

Whew! 😅

[thetempscommission]

AB’s Writing Blog / spatial-jump / thetempscommission

“No, my consciousness is fifty-eight.” — Five Hargreeves, the Umbrella Academy

BRIEF ABOUT ME:

Female, minor, Asian British (Indian), Pisces, INTP/INTJ, Gryffindor, daughter of Poseidon, reader, writer, procrastinator, grammar freak, likes aquamarine and royal purple, plays netball and badminton, is barely surviving A-levels (in Maths, Economics and Classical Civilisations), basically a British version of Five Hargreeves

SOCIALS:

Tumblr: Main

Quotev: Main, Writing Account

Wattpad: Main

AO3: Main

Pinterest: Main

Discord: ABADA17

FANDOMS I WRITE FOR:

(The universes I’m weak on are towards the end of the list.)

Harry Potter, Marauders Era, Fantastic Beasts, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Heroes of Olympus, the Umbrella Academy, the Maze Runner, the Hunger Games, Stranger Things, Once Upon a Time, Anne With an E, Divergent, Chronicles of Narnia

MY WORKS MASTERLIST:

(The list below is all my published works. All of my WIPs, both published and unpublished, can be found here.)

(Key: Q = Quotev, WP = Wattpad, AO3 = Archive of Our Own, Completed [note: none of them])

Harry Potter Universe: Is Anything Better Done Than Said? (Q), IT WAS THE NIFFLER ( a Time-Turner story ) (Q, WP, AO3), RUN. (Q), Sweetest Kind (Q), Did You See the Moon? (Q), Marauders: A New Tale (Q), Sisters of House Black (Q), Descendants of the Founders (Q)

Riordanverse: N/A

The Umbrella Academy Universe: N/A

The Maze Runner Universe: N/A

The Hunger Games Universe: N/A

Stranger Things Universe: N/A

Once Upon a Time Universe: N/A

Crossovers: Destined to Die (Q, WP, AO3)

Non-Fanfics/Quizzes: Reading Preferences (Q), SMUDGED INK. (Q), Reasons to Hate Dumbledore (Q)

REQUESTS:

I am more than happy to receive requests — though, fair warning, I’ll be more obliged for a one-shot idea than an actual fic, since my tendency to procrastinate and get writer’s block is astounding.

Any one-shots that are written, whether inspired by my own sheer will or another, will be posted on Tumblr, as well as the other platforms I operate on (linked at the top of this post).

RULES AND INFORMATION:

I will not write any smut.

I will not write any inappropriate ships or tropes (e.g. incest, student/teacher, romanticising the wrong things, e.t.c.).

I do not mind writing expletives.

I do not have any triggers, so I am pretty much open to anything! I will, of course, provide warnings for readers.

I will almost definitely write canon x OC requests. For canon x canon characters, it does depend on the ship itself.

I am highly averse to love triangles, so please do not ask me to depict those! Jealousy ones are fine.

I am British, so I may use expressions and/or phrases that I don’t realise are slang here.

It may take me three hours or three months to write your request, as my inspiration is incredibly volatile. If yours falls into the latter, please be patient with me!

I reserve the right to decline any requests. Please don’t be offended and take it to heart if I do (unless it’s problematic)!

On that note, thank you for visiting my writing blog, and I hope you enjoy perusing my works!

[heyyallitsbeth]

so i let the hyperfixation win.

over the past several hours i rewatched Sword Art Online and SAO 2.

(this time dubbed, last time i watched it subbed)

here are my thoughts:

-anyone who said the dub was bad is just wrong. Kirito's VA really shines in the more comedic or sweet moments (like when first meeting Yui), he reminds me of like a Peter Parker. and oh my lord, the breakdown by Suguha's VA was just a masterpiece. Still have chills from watching it.

-i have such a big appreciation for every character. This time it really shined through how good of characters Kirito, Asuna, and Suguha actually are.

Kirito's internal conflict throughout SAO2 is so good, grappling with their actions they needed to take in SAO to survive. and throughout all of it you can tell how much they truly loves their friends and family, and how kind hearted they really are. Asuna definitely fits into that role as well, being so ready to take care of Yui and so desperately wanting her to be safe and loved and cared for.

And oh my gosh Suguha. I remember people absolutely hated her arc because it is problematic, but the fact is, it's played entirely serious, her feelings arent taken as a joke. She has a genuine and real internal struggle for feeling things she feels she shouldnt, and how she feels those feelings arent reciprocated or cant be reciprocated, and having her heart broken twice by someone who she loves and someone who also does still genuinely love her. Its absolutely heartbreaking to watch.

Man, Sinon is still fantastic. She's still my absolute favorite, and I think she is one of the best characters in the show, and pretty much steals the show from her introduction. Her arc ties in so seamlessly with Kirito's and how they help eachother heal and grow is fantastic. Only complaint is we never got a scene of the rest of the Gals being jealous about the grenade hug she gave Kirito. After Kirito and Sinon nearly died, wouldve been some nice relief so you didnt feel like you yourself were dying.

-Speaking of, while there was definitely a ton of fanservice, the pseudo-harem aspect with the jokes were kinda cute, between characters seeing flirting happen around them, getting embarassed over it, its fun. Especially when people got jealous of Sinon flirting with Kirito over Excalibur. That part was very fun, since they did that infront of everyone else, almost like they were trying to get a rise out of them. Theyre not exactly the pinnacle of comedy, its definitely a trope, but theres something nostalgic about it that makes it kinda enjoyable.

-Speaking of the psuedo-harem, guys if all of you are constantly flirting with eachother (not just Kirito surprisingly, happens between the other girls frequently) and jealous of any affection with that, just start a polycule. You're a group of gamer girls playing MMOs together and all of you have slept in the same bed with eachother. Stop snipping at eachother and start dating eachother. Polyamory is pretty cool. Kirito and Asuna can still be the main duo and be the parents to Yui and Strea; but yall gotta work on the jealousy or just do what every other group of girl gamers does, polyamory. Lisbeth you should not be angrily drinking while watching Kirito and Asuna talk. (this is mostly a joke, im not actually saying they *have* to do a polycule, its more of a joke because of how tropey a lot of the flirting and jealousy is, and yknow, gay girls do polyamory, so dont take this part toooooo seriously.)

-Speaking of girls dating girls, the LGBT rep aint half bad. Argo canonically using both male and female pronouns is really cool! Most of the girls flirt with eachother a lot too, which is nice. Between the female avatar, the willingness to pretend to be a girl, the introversion, the desire to be an avatar in a virtual world more than irl, Kirito might be transgender. All good stuff here.

Overall, SAO is honestly way better than I remembered, even if some parts definitely show its age. You gotta piece it together a little bit with headcanons, but i do that with every show, nothing is perfect. Except Sinon. And a world where trans Kirito is canon. Those are perfect.

[emmatiedemann]

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

How does the series use dual-focus narrative as a strategic storytelling tool beyond heteronormative romantic pairings?

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend uses dual-focus narrative to highlight rivalry rather than heteronormative romantic pairings. For example, Rebecca and Valencia are pitted against each other because they share a love interest. Their “rivalry” plays out through song even though they eventually become friends. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s dual focus narrative deviates from the typical heteronormative “marriage plot” because although the conflict appears to stem from the shared love interest, the real conflict is less about Josh and more about generalized feelings of comparison, inadequacy, and jealousy. This “parallelism” that Stilwell mentions allows for the focus to be placed on the women and their journey from enemies to friends, rather than the typical heteronormative romantic coupling. In fact, the article mentions that “the drive created by a rivalry offers greater scope for expansion in an open-ended narrative like a television series”. This scope has allowed Crazy Ex-Girlfriend to subvert expectations of the genre—a Vox article even mentions that the show is “a complete deconstruction of the marriage plot”.

What are the the "inevitable" couplings within the series and how are they accentuated through "cinematic" similarities and contrasts?

Some of the “inevitable” coupling established in the beginning of the show is Rebecca and Greg. Greg is friends with Josh, the main love interest. This kind of trope–Greg’s interest in Rebecca while she’s preoccupied with someone else–links them as the heterosexual pairing. Their literal similarities appear in the first episode when they learn they have similar difficult pasts and darker senses of humor. Cinematically, Rebecca and Greg are depicted as normal characters which helps create their chemistry, while Josh is almost always depicted in a dramatic, romanticized way to mirror Rebecca's imagination and perception of him. He is often lit with dramatic lighting or appears in slow motion with some sort of fog machine. This cinematic contrast between Greg and Josh, allows for a more obvious coupling between Rebecca and Greg.

How does the series use musical numbers within and beyond the narrative world to replicate fairy tale, backstage, or folk musicals?

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend uses costumes, over-the-top choreography, and showy sets to parody famous fairy tale, backstage, and folk musicals. The show visually references numbers like “Cell Block Tango” from Chicago and “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, but uses its own original music instead. These obvious references to famous musicals are established so that the show can subvert and critique the original narrative. For example, when Rebecca is in jail, the song “What’s Your Story” is used as an obvious musical reference to “Cell Block Tango”. The female inmates are costumed with black lingerie over their orange jumpsuits, calling attention to the original number’s unrealistic over sexualization. Rebecca begins singing and demands the same sensationalized stories from “Cell Block Tango” and is disappointed to hear stories that are more complicated, sad, and distressing. By referencing memorable musical numbers like this one, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is able to call out problematic overgeneralizations and sexist stereotypes with humor and theatricality. 

[jackandthesoulmates]

That Jack's age is so obscure and not a graspable concept makes him the perfect canvas for all kinds of plots and tropes and clichés. And the Winchester brothers (and Castiel) make a perfect opposite.

All of them have a different approach to autonomy: physically, mentally, spiritually. All of them reluctantly gave up autonomy or it was forcibly taken away.

All of them have aged at different speeds: Castiel is literally ancient, Dean spent forty years in Hell, Sam has been in the Cage with Lucifer for nobody really knows how long.

All of them have different values and morals and views on the world. Sam has grown softer (or some would say, he partly surrendered), Dean has significantly hardened. (He held a gun to a girl's head FFS.)

All of them have very complicated feelings for Jack. Either it's like Dean who can't see past Jack's parentage and hates him for it, Sam seeing past Jack's parentage and loves him despite Lucifer being Jack's father and Castiel who discards Jack's parentage and takes fatherhood instead of Lucifer.

Each one of them has different motifs and motivations, while Sam feels mirrored by Jack, Dean feels repulsed and antagonised while Castiel feels like he is part of Jack.

Sam sees potential, Dean sees destruction, Castiel sees a boy.

Fight me on it, all of that makes it so damn easy for shippers to find an angle where these characters can be connected romantically or sexually. It can be problematic, it can be morally wrong, it can be a slippery slope, it can be abusive, but also, there's scenarios where it could work.

Personally, I love Sam with Jack, because I see Sam and Jack being paralleled as striking. I see Sam's will to teach Jack about the world. I see Sam's nature to protect Jack, I see Sam yearning to be someone's anchor. Not only Dean's.

I see Dean's jealousy being so universal, that it's not only about Sam bonding with someone else. It's about literally everything. Sam being physical with someone else. Sam loving someone else. Sam having another priority. You can't tell me this shit isn't fascinating.

It is. I won't argue about the fact it's complicated and morally grey and to be put in the taboo box immediately by some, because I understand why. But it's a very limited view of a character who is intentionally ambiguous. Think outside Jack's box.

[skloomdumpster]

Thank you for tagging me @crazycatfaery <3 I'm sorry I took so long 😅😅

Rules: How much do these tropes affect your decision to click on a fic?

-10 -> very dissuaded

0 -> don’t care either way

10 -> very enticed

nope -> if it’s a hard no and you’d never click on a fic with that tag or or you even have the tag blocked or you’d insta click out of the fic if it wasn’t tagged.

Bonus points for explaining the rating and whether it’s conditional

Age Gap: 7/10

I love it, but I'll only read it if the Dead Dove Do Not Eat tag is there. I want to read it from an author who's aware they're writing an age gap, especially if we're talking toxic/problematic ships. If we're all in agreement in this room, then HELL YEAH.

Codependency: 100/10

Love it. I love it between love interests, I love it between family members, I love it between enemies even. Characters who only exist and see themselves as a paired up thing with another character. If I see that tag in any work the chances of me clicking on it double.

Enemies to lovers: -5/10

Eh... Sure if it's okay enemies to lovers, as in they're actual enemies and they want each other dead and then we turn it back around. Alright, sure. But honestly? 9/10 times people are writing mild-annoying acquaintance to lovers. I hate that. And even when they ARE writing real enemies to lovers, sometimes the "lovers" part doesn't live up to the "enemies" part.

Enemies With Benefits: 10/10

It's rare and I love it, but it's a tricky trope to get right. You can't remove the "enemies" aspect from it. I've seen this done right (cough - John Ross/Pamela), but I've also seen it butchered many times.

Fake Dating/Relationship: 3/10

Cute and all, but I won't click on a fic because of it.

Found Family: -1000/10

Nope. Most of the time people mean "found nuclear family" and then I'm forced to watch as these characters act completely wacky and ooc. I adore a good found family, but seeing this tagged in a work is a surefire way to have me not click it. (also let's just please stop with the weird subtrope of putting the favorite-white-guy of the group as the "tradwife/mom"??? what the FUCK is this? I've seen it in Teen Wolf, I've seen it Fate, I've seen it in Fast and Furious... just nope.)

Friends To Lovers: 100/10

Perfection. You want pining? You got a forest of pines. You want yearning? You want italicized oh moment? You want harmless jealousy? You want hilarious cutesy moments? You want deep conversations? You want confessions that fix something broken inside of you? You want a love so deep and profound that it has grown and changed and it'll change again if you won't take me as a lover because a friend is good too, is great even?? You want STAKES because I-love-you-but-I-don't-want-to-ruin-this-because-you're-the-best-thing-in-my-life??? Perfect trope. No notes.

Friends With Benefits: 10/10

The same as above + sex. Can't go wrong.

Hurt/Comfort: 100/10

Bathe my blorbo in their own blood!! Whump the shit out of them!! Put them through hell!! Make the caretaker fear for their life!! Get the begging and bargaining out and the wheezing confessions through bloody coughs. Love this.

Love Triangle: 0/10

It sure exists.

Mistaken/Hidden Identity: 0/10

I don't think I ever read this, don't think I ever will either.

Monster Fu… Relationship: 5/10

Sure, but only if it's a werewolf. Team Jacob forever.

Obsession, Possessiveness, etc: 10/10

Fuck yeah. Yes in good, deliciously toxic ships, but also YES in good, healthy ships. The golden ships, made up of two righteous characters and you wouldn't expect this and then BAM. The other day I read fic that was like "[redacted] had often fantasized about reaching in and counting the teeth in [redacted's] mouth" <- most perfect line ever written.

Opposites (like grumpy×sunshine, etc): 5/10

Eh...? It can be cute, but sometimes it feels like too much. I'm actually more of a "they're both grumpy, but not with each other" or even "they're both golden, but can be at their worse with each other".

Poly: 5/10

Sometimes it's shoehorned in and I'm like... :/ you could've written something more interesting if you allowed the conflict to exist. BUT sometimes there's genuine sexual/romantic attraction between all parts and that's when this hits. I'll read an OT3 as long as it's not "author couldn't decide and decided to go the fluffy no conflict route even though it makes no sense for the characters"

Pregnancy: 8/10

I'll read it in fics, in all sorts of manners: cute family fic, kinky breeding fic, plotty dramatic fic, etc. But I don't like it in canon, movie or book. In fic I have the ability of getting bored and clicking out and reading one of the other 200 fics where there's no pregnancy or baby. In canon that's impossible.

Second Chance: 0/10

Sure, I'll read that.

Sex To Feelings: 5/10

IDK, when are we talking feelings? Is this a scenario where they're friends/enemies to benefits and then the feelings emerge? Because then yes. Or is this just a PWP and then I get some feelings at the bottom? Because then no. Or is this a character study while they're fucking? Because then YES.

Slowburn: 10/10

It's the perfect trope but watch out. I'm a firm believer of stories needing beginning, middle, end. I've read fics that are 80 chapters long and every time the characters are about to get together/realize another curveball is thrown their way. Once or twice I'm good with, but 50 different obstacles? Fuck no, I'm clicking out.

Soulmates: -1/10

This won't make me wanna read your fic. If you mean this as a "they are soulmates so X happens" ....nope. Not my thing. If you mean this as "they're always the endgame. In every universe, in every reality, these two are IT" (cough, Skloom) then YES!!! But also don't spell it out for me. I don't need you to tell me soulmates, I can guess that.

Tagging: @infp-obsessing-over-everything , @faithfire and @daisiehoney @astrid-v

[you-remind-me-of-the-babe]

Trope Grading Game

Thank you for the tags @aristocratic-otter and @artsyunderstudy! I really love hearing what y’all are into and why.

Rules: How much do these tropes affect your decision to click on a fic?

-10 -> very dissuaded

0 -> don’t care either way

+10 -> very enticed

nope -> if it’s a hard no and you’d never click on a fic with that tag or or you even have the tag blocked or you’d insta click out of the fic if it wasn’t tagged

Bonus points for explaining the rating and whether it’s conditional.

So the short answer is 0 for everything because I don’t read tags anymore because they never affected my choice to read a story the way a summary, snippet, rec or author gushing about their work would. But! even choosing with these methods the tropes bleed through so here are my rankings

Age gap: -1

I’m not opposed to it per se, I just don’t see the appeal. I just finished a book with side characters in a relationship with a big age gap and I tried to be open minded but it creeped me out a bit. Although I did write Baz as a 200 year old vampire so I guess there’s that! 😅

Codependency: +5

Yeah, give me two people leaning on each other. I think we suffer in silence too much. I think we need human connection. Gimme two people who aren’t afraid to ask for what they want. Yeah sure, it can be problematic but mostly I think it’s nice.

Obsession/possessiveness, jealousy: +5

I fucking love possessive Simon. Sometimes this trope isn’t done well in other stories but with Snowbaz I eat that shit up.

Opposites (grumpy/sunshine etc): +8

I looooove it. Working past your stereotypes? Becoming more open minded? Seeing someone on a deeper level? Grabby hands

Enemies to lovers, Enemies with benefits: +8

This is the majority of Snowbaz so obviously, yes. Sometimes I’m not a fan outside the fandom, but here it’s so good. And enemies with benefits??? Please. Cue me foaming at the mouth reading Restoration Ecology by @captain-aralias or it’s fabulous remix by @royalasstronaut.

Friends with benefits: +8

Yes please. As long as there’s some deep feelings involved, even if they come later, I’m there. And often with friendship you’ve got the platonic love there that sometimes builds to more so yes. More Than Friends by @fatalfangirl is an EXCELLENT example of this where they are just pining idiots from day 1 and I’m obsessed.

Sex to feelings: +10

FUCK YES. I will take it every time. I love sex, I love a good slow burn, I love sex with feelings. Make them earn it? PLEASE. Someone Wicked does this so well. @artsyunderstudy is the queen of sex with feelings.

Fake dating/relationship: +8

Yup, this is a goodie. even just fake friendship a la RWRB. Lovely. But yeah when their dating and they gotta kiss to sell it? And the other thinks they are faking but really that’s how they feel? Mmm hmm. Yummy.

Friends to lovers: +10

Y’all know this is my thing. I’ve written it several times. They love each other SO MUCH but they are too afraid to ruin their friendship so they feel they can’t make a move. The angst is right there and I love it.

Found family: +1

This can be great, but if that’s the whole premise I might pass. Fluff can be fun but if that’s all there is, I usually pass. But! If this is a theme in a longer fic with more complex plot? Then it can be really good.

Hurt/comfort: +1

Idk why but I associate this tag with shorter fics that just doesn’t actually hit that hard. Like, the hurt is little and immediately followed by the comfort. Give me the BIG angst. Hurt me good before you make it better. I looooove angst with a happy ending. So if that’s what we are doing then give it to me good.

Love triangle: -3

Meh. I always feel bad for the odd one out. I don’t like seeing the pining and angst without the pay out. And usually this is how it goes. If the third person is an asshole you just have to nudge out of the way, then maybe.

Poly, open relationship: -3

I’m actually quite curious about this and I bet it can be done right, but I usually go for a single OTP. Give me your recs though, I’d love to be convinced otherwise.

Mistaken/hidden identity: +10

Hell yes. They didn’t know it was that person all along? And they fell for them anyways? Fantastic. Even better is when they fall for the same person twice. Both hidden and not. And then! All is revealed and it’s the same person! Think love letters from a secret admirer, masquerade, etc. I mean there’s a reason network connectivity problems is the highest kudosed fic in the fandom.

Monsterfucking: +10

And bless this fandom for introducing me to it and going whole hog with our boys and their monster parts.

Pregnancy: -3

Been there, done that, don’t find it sexy. There’s some good mpreg fics in this fandom though so there are exceptions! Orange Juice by @orange-peony is a GREAT one that I really adored. This fandom just really delivers in any area.

Second chance: +9

Yes please! Unless own person is truly awful and doesn’t deserve it, but typically I love someone getting a chance to try and learn from their mistakes and try again. Don’t we all wish we could have a second chance at something?

Slow burn: +10

ITS SO SATISFYING! The payoff is so good after they’ve worked for it. My favorite.

Soulmates: +1

I love when characters can choose each other despite their destiny. I need conflict. I don’t know if I’ve read any Snowbaz ones. I think because I like them at odds and assume they won’t be. @artsyunderstudy is giving me recs to help me see the light LOL.

Who hasn’t done this? Tagging those above who haven’t done it plus a few more, if you’re up for it @whogaveyoupermission @iamamythologicalcreature @facewithoutheart @bookish-bogwitch @cutestkilla @thewholelemon @ivelovedhimthroughworse @ileadacharmedlife @raenestee @valeffelees

[lunatheseus]

Ships that I have some things to say about (warning: SPOILERS)

I'm SORRY but the Darkling x Alina has to be one of the most controversial ships ever. Don't get me wrong, they both have really really good chemistry, and the Darkling even asked for consent in that scene, but still. Looking at the big picture, sure, the trope was good, and the Darkling definitely had feelings for Alina, but let's not forget that the Darkling was really toxic and manipulative towards her. He also might've been in love with the idea of her rather than her. Idk.. it was definitely problematic.

Ben even said during an interview "We should be able to mark it as problematic and still find it interesting", which sums up the situation, honestly.

The thing is, I feel like the they could have done the thing where the Darkling loved her so much that he'd switch sides and become good. They had excellent chemistry already, why not buy into that (give Ben more screentime yk? lol) ? I feel like the Darkling was so consumed by his goal, he forgot to care about other people, and Alina could have been the one to save him. But no, she just stabs him, and he dies.

On the flip side, I also really hated the Mal x Alina ship too. The thing is, the TV show really skips over some of the more contentious portions of their relationship beforehand, which actually makes it better. They weren't that good of friends in the books? But in the TV show it was like they were each other's bestie. So it makes more sense in the TV show when Mal gets upset that Alina has to leave. So, I have to say, the TV show ship is definitely better than the book ship. Then it comes down to the acting/directing. The dialogue and delivery of the dialogue is almost perfect, Kudos to Mal, because he literally went to the ends of the earth to find Alina. HOWEVER, I don't think they had much chemistry romantically AT ALL. I could feel their bond when it came to their friendship for sure, but nothing more. (The only one bed trope is also hilarious in the TV show.) The thing is, the show took out the jealousy parts of the "love triangle" between Mal, Alina, and her suitors (which was a really good choice, tbh). HOWEVER, they replaced it with nothing, which effectively took out every and all tension that Mal and Alina could have had. So, we end up with small amounts of flirting and shy looks.

I honestly wished that they just kept Mal and Alina best friends, no romantic shenanigans, and Mal travels to the ends of the earth to find Alina (because that made me cry alone without romance). Then, Alina saves the Darkling and makes him understand his actions. And then they could do the thing where it's too late, and they have to find a way to reverse his actions. Idk it's a really complicated plot...

There's so much more I have to say, honestly, but I'm just covering one part of the story (where Alina doesn't fake her own death, and Mal doesn't suddenly decide he wasn't in love with Alina all along, none of the Nikolai engagement...)

This complicated and messed up plotline is why I stay on the Crows side of the story lmao, with Jesper and Wylan