#so this is the classic rescue romance trope

[tinderbox210]

Luke 🤝 Kay

+ knight in shining Stormtrooper armor coming to save their princess

[cerusee]

I've never watched any Chinese dramas but I really enjoy your posts/gifs about them and it's got me interested in trying some! Do you have any recommendations for somebody who's totally new to them? Any tropes/background context I should be aware of? The historical/fantastical ones seem the most appealing to me.

Oooooh! My first thought on reading this ask was, “oh, I’m hardly qualified”; I’m only on my *stops to count on fingers* eighth cdrama, not counting the one episode I watched of the Wang Zhuocheng xianxia where he falls in love with a rock. (Long story.) There’s a lot of cdramas out there, and I myself have not even scratched the surface of what’s out there! That said, if you’re interested in historical/fantastical dramas, those ARE the ones I’ve been watching, so I still have some opinions despite being a total noob myself.

Do not start with The Untamed/Chen Qing Ling. Twas my first cdrama, like a lot of western fans, who were drawn to it in part because of the big censored-but-still-very-evident gay love story between the male leads, but honestly, as much fun as it is for the slash fans, it’s not a great jumping off point for either Chinese television in general, or even for its own wuxia-inspired genre setting. I say this as some who is still deep in the fandom four years later, and has immense love for the show: the first two episodes are flat-out bad, the overall pacing is bad (episodes frequently stop MIDSCENE), the worldbuilding is thin (a carryover from the novel it was based on), and without a larger context for why it’s made the way it’s made (stylistic choices, industry conventions, government censorship, genre conventions) a lot about it is confusing as hell to cdrama newbies, which is…so evident…a lot…in fandom wank I mean in the discourse about what story this story is trying to tell. Like, if you came to me and asked specifically, “I’m thinking of watching CQL. Should I watch CQL?” I would say yes, absolutely! It’s so much fun! I’m obsessed with the characters! I’ve written a lot of fanfic about the purple guy! But it’s not a good first cdrama, nor it is the best example of what the Chinese TV industry has to offer.

A MUCH better first cdrama especially if you like the historical/fantastical: The Legend of the Condor Heroes (2017), which not coincidentally was my second cdrama. It’s one of about a dozen television adaptations of the classic 1957 Chinese novel of the same name by Jin Yong, generally considered to be the inventor of the genre known as wuxia, which is a blend of history, fantasy, and martial arts. (One of the most well-known examples of wuxia in the west is Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning 2000 film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which you have probably at least heard of.)

Legend of the Condor Heroes (hereafter known as LOCH) has it all: romance, revenge, evil plots and daring deeds, people jumping off a burning mountain and being rescued by the worst CGIed eagles known to television or cinema, boat adventures, mountain adventures, grasslands adventures, a weird cult leader who lives on a spooky flower island (there will be math), murder, baby kidnapping, more murder, one guy inadvertently racking up a ridiculous number of martial arts teachers, sworn brotherhoods which invariably end with one guy stabbing the other, lots of VERY good martial arts fights, and, of course, Genghis Khan. Technically there are no magic/supernatural elements in this show—no ghosts, ghouls, magic, angels, devils, gods, etc—although the martial artists do have l33t skillz that might qualify as superhuman depending on how you slice your genre conventions, and are awfully fun to watch.

I’ve actually seen two LOCH adaptations (there was one in 2024 I liked a lot, with my favorite Guo Jing so far), but 2017 is a much better adaptation for newcomers as it tells a fuller version of the story and doesn’t skimp on or rush through or rewrite as many elements of the plot as other versions do; it’s meant to be a LOCH for people who haven’t seen half a dozen versions of LOCH already. It has a WONDERFUL cast, including my one of my favorite cdrama leading men, Chen Xingxu,* as the lead antagonist, Yang Kang, who is a trash fire of a person you just can’t root for, but he also can’t help it because he was raised by Wanyin Honglie. You can catch it on YouTube (I recall that there are couple of missing episodes from that playlist, but you can search on YT for those when you get there, to find them subtitled from other channels.)

*If you, like me, come away from LOCH 2017 with your mouth slightly ajar at how great CXX is, I have wonderful news for you! He’s been a lead in at least two other very good cdramas: the 2023 xianxia** The Starry Love, where he gets to play, like, five different characters (huge acting flex, and he’s great, although I would rush to stress I loved a ton of things about this show besides CXX himself), and the 2019 semi-historical drama Goodbye My Princess, which might actually be my favorite cdrama I have seen to date, and arguably THEE best well-made on a technical level, with phenomenal acting, a great script, and editing and directing I am constantly swooning over, but I am not entirely sure I can recommend to you unless you are a Tragedy Enjoyer.

(If you are a Tragedy Enjoyer, please stop whatever you’re doing and just start watching Goodbye My Princess right now, it is phenomenal. It is also available on YouTube. Watch the Director’s Cut, not the regular one! This is important. In its haste to get the main leads on screen together ASAP, the regular version does a Reader’s Digest version of stuff the Director’s Cut spends like five episodes carefully setting up, and it doesn’t make a lot of sense, nor does it flow well.)

**Speaking of xianxia! Xianxia is the high fantasy genre, full of magic and gods and demons and people dying and living multiple lives and whatnot. Important to note: xianxias are soap operas (complimentary). They tend to feature female protagonists, sweeping, epic romances, and put enormous emphasis on exploring the nuances of relationships and emotions. I have watched three that I loved (Love Between Fairy and Devil, The Starry Love, and Eternal Love: Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms), and while technically I could recommend all three, if you were going to watch just one, especially as a cdrama intro, I have to recommend Eternal Love, which really is the quintessential xianxia, the one all other xianxias are kind of shaping themselves around. I have watched it 1.5 times and I can say that it does not properly take off until like, episode 10, or whenever it is that the main couple finally, properly meet. IT IS WORTH THE INVESTMENT. This show made me want to spit blood. I cried multiple times watching it. It made me feel things. It has a wonderful immersive quality that’s hard to describe except to say that the entire show sort of vibrates on its own frequency. The casting is just kind of…perfect? Props to Maggie Huang for portraying the most perfectly hatable xianxia villainess of all time. Absolutely no one is doing it like Su Jin. No one should try. I believe this is available on YouTube, but after an abortive start, I realized it was on US Netflix, and watched it there.

As for tropes and background context: ehhhhhh. I mean, it’s an entire industry? I know substantially less about how it functions than I do about, like, American TV and film. I know government censorship is a not-inconsiderable factor, but I don’t know much of the nuance of how that plays out in terms of filming and airing. Tropes will vary according to subject. Idol dramas (shows built to showcase media personalities regardless of their ability to act) are a thing. Most cdrama audio is still dubbed (this one surprised me!), usually by professional voice actors and not by the original cast, for a confluence of reasons, some of which historically make sense (noisy filming lots rendering original audio useless), and some of which are really stupid (fans throwing hissy fits if lead actors don’t have the “right” kinds of voices for their characters).

Anyway! My recommendations are this: try The Legend of the Condor Heroes (2017) to start with, UNLESS you would prefer having your heart ripped out of your chest, in which case watch Goodbye My Princess (Director’s Cut, 2019), or UNLESS you love soap operas as much as I do, in which case watch Eternal Love: Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms (2017). All three are great shows, but they all hit differently/scratch a different itch.

Oh! Lastly! @dangermousie is a great source of cdrama recs. I should note she prefers dramas and tragedies and mostly does not vibe with xianxias. But she watches like eight million hours of dramas a week and reports her findings to us because she is a river to her people.

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - It's Wild Out There but the Kisses are Good

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

NOV 2024 Week 3

Ongoing Series - Thai

Kidnap (Fri YT) ep 11 of 12 - I’m really enjoying this show. But I will be glad when it ends next week. I’m ready. The motorcycle rescue in the middle of the kidnapping sequence was so absurdly bad I actually laughed. Meanwhile, in the hospital room did you notice Q’s dad used chan/nai with Min? I actually gasped out “oh, mad respect “ when he did. Papang it’s so damn hot, could he PLEASE get the lead in a BL? Please GMMTV.  

Love Sick 2024 (Sun iQIYI) ep 9 of 15 - I like Earn’s sincerity and open admission in the new version, and I like how genuine and delicate Noh is coping with someone crushing on him. Probably because he knows how painful it is from the other side. The conversation between Phun and Aim was much better and more kind in the new version, too. I'm chronicling my experience with 2024 as compared to 2014 here. 

Every You Every Me (Mon Gaga) ep 6 of 10 - I like this couple a lot, and not just because of all the sex positivity. I just enjoy their dynamic of artist and musician, introvert extrovert. Anybody wondering about that “up against the window blurring thing” with the shirt off the shoulder? That’s a very very old yaoi trope (mostly office yaoi from the early 2000s) that I haven’t seen in a long time. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it in Thai BL…… wild. 

Meanwhile, let the weird interweaving of the filming crew begin. The show within a show that we all suspected was due is now happening. I’m not sure about that. (I worry it will be some clumsy commentary on pair branding.) But how hot does Fiat look these days? 

Fourever You (Thurs YT) ep 7 of 16 - I really don’t like the second storyline. It find it unpleasant. I also don’t think the chemistry between Maxky and Bas is good. In fact I begin to suspect Star Hunter should cut Bas lose. Yes I said it.

Caged Again (Fri Gaga) ep 1-2 of 10 - Penguin escapes zoo by turning into a human. Gets trapped in a boys school and a panther falls in love with him. How does a penguin know how to read? OK I’m not gonna try to figure out the logic of this show. There is none. Do I like it? Not sure. I’m not mad about the dynamic or the setting but the main foundational conceit is…… odd. It’s not uncommon in BL, the “my cat boyfriend” thing has been done for many years now. So I know what to expect. It’s not that. Or is it? I do like how the actor playing Junior looks a bit like a bird. I also like how the actor playing Sun really does behave like a cat in his social interactions, it’s funny. I think…… I’m not wild about this so far, but I like it better than I thought I would. Love seeing Jaonine & Nokia in any form. 

Perfect 10 Liners (Sun YT?) ep 3 of 24 - I just don’t like Arc and Arm. Sorry not sorry. However, I do like the sides and future couples. So I’m sticking with this one. 

Jack & Joker (Mon IQIYI) ep 10 of 12 - Because I heard this episode was really rough and the world is a mess I gave this one a miss this week. We’ll see if I’m up for it next week.

Your Sky (Sun iQIYI) 12 eps - (starts tomorrow) A naive freshman and the campus’s popular senior agree to pretend to be a couple - but their fake deal begins to generate real feelings.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

My Damn Business (Korea Sat YT) ep 7 end - Ooooo counter lift!!! And caught in the act. Very nice. It was a really good final episode and an absolutely fantastic kiss.

In summation: 

Two men work their last few days together at a failing company. I like this but I’m not sure I should like it. This is a classic office romance, short even for Korea, with more than usual workplace harassment (even for BL) in the guise of aggressive pursuit from older boss to younger employee. (The optics are NOT good.) It reminded me of Jun and Jun only shorter, colder, and with more dub con. Now, I happen to be one of the few who truly loved Jun and Jun, it’s very much my style of KBL. I think that’s part of why I liked this one so much. But I suspect that might have given this show too much shine by association. Still, eminently rewatchable and it’s nice to have Korean IP drop on YouTube. 8/10 

Our Youth AKA Miseinen: Mijukuna Oretachi wa Bukiyo ni Shinkochu (Japan Tues Gaga) ep 2 of 11 - Another one that is about abuse, but for some reason I don’t mind it as much as I did Let Free the Curse. Maybe it’s Japan? Maybe it’s the disinterested nature of the director’s lens? This show is examining the inclination of teenagers towards spectatorhood out of fear, while simultaneously giving us a contrived spectator’s perspective with its style of the filming. For example: there is a lot of shots in alleyways and looking in and out of apertures (like doorways and windows) at Hirukawa. He’s often seen from a distance, because Minase thinks of him as distant and somewhat like a specimen. It’s very clever and what I expect from Japan. But it also makes me feel distanced from the characters and their story (intentionally, I believe) which means it’s less raw than Curse, and a lot easier for me to watch. In other words, I am observing this BL, not living it. But that’s the point. And because of that, I’m also liking it. But I’m extremely wary. Japan never drops a kiss early on in a series without some serious trauma to follow.

See Your Love (Taiwan Weds Gaga) ep 5 of 13 - I love them all very much. Carry on.

Blue Canvas of Youthful Days (China Sun iQIYI) eps 5-6 of 12 - So far as I can gather it was episode five that got this one censored and kicked off the air in China. So now we are in unchartered (and presumably only lightly censored) territory. Honestly? I have no idea how they get away with what they get away with these days. Onto the actual meet of the show. I don’t think the teacher should be flirting with the kid if he’s gonna blow hot and cold like that. He is ostensibly the mature one in the relationship. Although if he’s flirting with a child, that is clearly not the case. I get the conflict of the main characters a bit more. Because it’s all about class and the risks that you can take with your identity depending on how much autonomy you have in society. 

Teenager Judge (Vietnam Sat YT) ep 8 of ? - Basically this is just a narrative about bullying. And I’d like to get onto the revenge portion of the program, and that doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon. I do love that Dat asked for permission to kiss. Consent is very sexy. Also it was a good tentative careful cautious timid first kiss. The actors are older but it felt high school. (Although apparently Bach entirely kissed away Dat’s injury.) 

Love is Like a Poison AKA Doku Koi: Doku mo Sugireba Koi to Naru (Japan Tues Netflix?) 9 of 12 eps - Gosh I really do like this couple. And I like the legal proceedings. But I’m worried about whether this show is going to end well. 

Love in the Air: Koi no Yokan (Japan Sat Gaga) ep 3 of 10 - Frankly I didn’t want LITA the original, so I’m pretty sure I don’t want the Japanese cliffs notes version of LITA. It’s somehow softer, which I wasn’t expecting from Japan. But I don’t mind. The brevity and softness are improving matters, IMHO. I continue to unequivocally loathe the wardrobe department. I’m offended on the actors’ behalf. 

Eccentric Romance (Korea Weds Viki) eps 11-12 end - An odd and somewhat lackluster piece about two college friends, one Thai and one Korean, who get together and become boyfriends while investigating murderer - each speaking in their own language. Neither the BL component nor the murder component was well executed or engaging. It’s not terrible, but that’s no ringing endorsement. "Odd yet still somehow forgettable" is probably how I would put it. 6/10

It's airing but......

Love for Loves Sake got some kind of special supposed to air 11/9. Not sure what, why, or where. Only the rumor that it...... is. I'll believe it when I see it...... literally.

Bad Guy My Boss (Thai Sun Gaga) 10 eps - I DNF'd at ep 7, I couldn't make it. I am weak. Life is hard enough right now, this show is making it harder. It’s not what I want from my entertainment.

Secret Love (Sat YT) 10 eps - Another take on my beloved stepbrothers trope. Adopted into a rich family, boy falls in love. But when he is made the heir instead, everything goes wrong and he leaves. Now enemies the two boys reunite in uni.

DAMN IT! This is airing but in two minute increments on a proprietary app that’s mostly for Android, and it’s already up to episode 11. I’m not wild about this style of distribution, so I’m not gonna bother unless somebody cuts it together as a full piece. Although I do adore the premise.

Bad to Bed (Taiwan Sat YouTube) 10 eps - This is a little too low production value even for me. And just very very odd. DNF

Next Week Looks Like This:

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

November BL still to come:

11/20 Winter Is Not The Death of Summer (Thai Weds YT) ?? eps - Criminals who meet in prison fall in love

11/20 The Heart Killers (Thai Weds Gaga) 12 eps - Jojo directs FirstKhao & JoongDunk in an action romcom about assassin brothers (Khao & Joong) who meet a tattoo artist ex-booster (First) and a mechanic (Dunk). I'm highly amused that Joong plays the older brother to Khao and that we have a take on the Taming of the ShrewBL. I like that everyone is morally gray. This has all GMMTV's best chemistry in one BL and some fresh concepts that I've only seen tackled in m/m romance novels (check out Amy Lane's Racing for the Sun, thank me later). I'm excited. My only quibble is Jojo, I like his style but his characters can get unreliably messy so…... this gonna be interesting.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENT

Apparently I have feels about wardrobe departments this week, because, to use an old fashioned term, this look on him absolutely slaps. (Love Sick)

It's rare for Thai BL to beat out JBL in the fashion department.

(last week)

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @sunflower-positiiivity @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious @saezurumurmurs

[adventures-in-mangaland]

I'm going with 10 All Time Classics from the Captain America (MCU) fandom. I mean, they're all classics to me, at least. In no particular order:

1. This, You Protect by owlet

First installment in the Infinite Coffee and Protection Detail series, which are all amazing. It's a “Bucky escaping Hydra and rebuilding his sense of self” fic, which he does while spying on Steve. With eventual Avengers Family and a lovely cast of OCs bonding with Bucky in the meantime. It has a very distinctive perspective and writing style; Bucky's in constant internal (and sometimes accidentally external) dialogue with himself, making it hilarious and tragic all at the same time. I love it. I've recently been getting into The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells and this Bucky has a similar sassy-but-vulnerable vibe? Read this if you like that, anyway.

2. The One Who Knows by Dira Sudis (dsudis)

This is a Political Animals AU, in that no-powers Steve is inserted into the Political Animals world and Bucky is TJ. Discusses being outed and depression but is ultimately hopeful. The author is one of my all time faves and has written lots of great stories for this and many other fandoms.

3. Blue Scales by chaya

Steve is a merman AU. He's still Captain America, though. It's crack with heart, I love it.

Best line: "May your scales and your love story be our weird secret forever.”

4. Our Lingering Frost by eyres

AU where Bucky is rescued from Hydra in the 50s (?) and so is around for Steve to be found.

5. Assets Out of Containment by follow_the_sun

It's a classic to *me*, OK? Bucky goes undercover at Jurassic World just as that movie's plot kicks off. They're Hydra dinosaurs! It's just great. Also has a podfic and crossovers with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

6. Not Easily Conquered (series) by dropdeaddream and WhatAreFears

Some of the greatest fanfiction I've ever read, the whole series is epic. Anyway, it's a "Steve doesn't go into the ice" AU with added queer angst when (never sent) love letters from Bucky resurface. I particularly like the second installment in the series The Thirteen Letters, which are just Bucky's letters and are insanely well-written.

7. to memory now I can't recall by Etharei

Time travel AU! Featuring post-CATWS Bucky accidentally switching places with CATFA era Bucky.

8. If Wishing Made It So by Leveragehunters (Monkeygreen)

Genie!Bucky AU! This author is great at writing AUs with fantasy/genre elements, it was hard to choose. They've also written an excellent werewolf!Steve AU and a horse!Steve AU that I really love.

9. Into That Good Night by Nonymos

An Interstellar AU! Very angsty and tragic but with an eventual happy ending.

10. Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square by Speranza

Speranza must be one of the best writers in the fandom, so it was hard to pick just one of their fics. Other strong contenders were All the Angels and the Saints and The Fifties, so check those out too! But this one has a special place in my heart. Steve, Tony and Natasha accidentally time travel to WW2 London, leading to an accidental run-in with CATFA-era Bucky. The author does tragic and romantic time travel tropes so well, but with a happy ending.

I now realise that most of these are AUs, so here’s a bonus rec for a non-AU in-universe story that’s severely underrated and deserves more love:

+1

Heart, Have No Pity on this House of Bone by Sena

This story follows Bucky in-action in the Pacific Theatre. It’s very well written and, from what I can tell, well researched. Steve only appears in Bucky’s imagination and the story focuses on the horrors of war rather than romance, but it’s gripping! And it explores unrequited love, being closeted and period-typical homophobia, which I also enjoyed. I’m still holding out hope for a sequel.

[skzdarlings]

08. sharing a bed series ; skz ; i.n.

masterlist.

sharing a bed series part 8/8. because it’s the cheesiest most classic trope and it’s FUN. -

pairing: yang jeongin/reader content info: sexual content. enemies2lovers(&friends2lovers?), sharing a bed trope. reader is older than him but exact age difference is not mentioned. reader was previously married and the ex-husband is described as bad to her, though there are no detailed specifications of exactly what went on. reader going thru some growth, being rude to jeongin, resolving it. the sex is playfully rough, reader mentions "mafia" style romance novels for inspo lmao but it stays pretty tame considering that.

last chapter of the series :)

-

Of course it’s raining.  On top of everything else that went wrong, of course a torrential downpour would hit your party.   

There is a large expanse of wood on the vast acreage behind your house.   To break some of the social tension, someone suggested playing hide and seek in the woods on the property.   It wasn’t part of your plan but seeing as the party’s awkward tension was your fault, you agreed that an outside game sounded like fun.  With the springtime sun beaming down on you and your friends, it seemed like a fine afternoon diversion. 

You were already deep into the woods when the storm started.  You strayed farther from the main path, confident in your familiarity with the terrain.  It did you little good when the weather took a turn.  The rain was not slow-coming but an immediate sheet slamming into the ground like blocks of solid concrete.  You could barely see in front of you and the uneven earth quickly turned to a muddy sludge.  Unsurprisingly, you slipped and twisted your ankle.

Now you are stranded, alone in the forest and far away from everyone else, shivering in the pouring rain as your wispy white dress was not designed for such fickle weather. 

You seldom let your emotions get the better of you but today you let yourself cry.  The tears come as rapidly as the rain, leaving you gasping and shuddering.  You stumble towards a tree and slouch against it, trying to take the weight off your hurt ankle.   You doubt anyone would hear you screaming over the storm and from this far away, and you don’t have a phone because this stupid dress doesn’t have pockets so you left it behind. 

You are crying against the tree when rescue comes in the form of the last person you want to see. 

You lift your head to Jeongin.  He is also drenched but the thick denim of his overalls covers most of his body and his heavy-duty sneakers are marginally better than your flats.  His glasses are streaked with raindrops and his black hair is a mop on his head.   Still, he sees through the foggy glass and the messy bangs, his expression one of surprise and concern. 

“Are you hurt?” he asks without hesitation, because of course he does.  Jeongin is a good person.   You have never met anyone as genuinely sweet as him.  The guy is all dimple, his eyes constantly scrunched up with glee, always ready with a humorous comment and a steady hand on a friend’s shoulder. 

He also has every reason in the world to hate you.  You have done everything in your power to push him away, treating him like an enemy, no doubt convincing him of it.  

He never stooped to your level.  You are older by a few good years but you have undoubtedly been the immature one.  You wouldn’t blame him for abandoning you now.    

He doesn’t do that.   He rushes toward you, leading with his hand outstretched. 

“Where does it hurt?” he asks loudly over the rain. 

The emotional parts of you are especially vulnerable right now.  When he asks that, you stupidly want to gesture to your heart.  Ridiculous and sentimental, you know, you know, but true regardless. 

You point to your ankle and he dutifully looks down.

His bangs split unevenly when his long, ringed fingers push through his hair.  He shakes his head like it will clear his vision. 

“Okay,” he says.  He opens his arms.  “Come on.”

You hesitate.  You have no reason to distrust him but he should distrust you.  He should hate you.  You want him to hate you.  You know what to do when someone hates you.  You know what to do when someone treats you badly.  You do not know what to do with Jeongin, someone so sincerely himself, sincerely kind, sincerely good.   He looks at you with nothing but concern, his arms open with a desire to help. 

You suck in another unsteady breath. 

“Come on,” he says again, a little more forcefully but not unkindly.  He seems more perplexed than angry. 

You make a slight motion towards him, still hesitant.  He accepts it as an invitation and crosses that last step to swing his arms around you.  Your hands find his shoulders as his arm slides under your legs.  He hoists you into a bridal hold, so secure that you choke on more tears. 

You want to apologize.  You want to say so many things.  You just hide your face as he carries you away from the tree.

There is a moment of shared panic when he stumbles in the mud, but he finds his footing again.   He stops for a second under some thicker foliage, looking around, out of breath. 

Your tears have subsided.  With the pain alleviated from your ankle, your senses are slowly returning to you.  You recognize where you are in the woods: far from the main path and even farther from home, but close to the old hunting lodge.  You don’t hunt but your ex-husband did.  When you took over the property after the divorce, you turned the little lodge into a cozy getaway.  You haven’t visited in a while but it will provide a roof over your head until the rain subsides.    

“Turn up past those bushes there,” you say, pointing ahead.  “We can get out of the rain until the storm passes.” 

You can’t raise your voice too loud, still blocked by residual tears, but you are close to his face.  He hears you and does as told. 

You crest a small hill and the single-room cabin comes into view.   You swear it has never looked so warm and cozy. 

He puts you on your feet once you are under the awning.  Only when you are at the door do you remember you don’t have any keys on you. 

“Fuck,” you say, welling up with exasperation.  You slouch against the doorframe.  “I don’t have the key.  What was I thinking?”

Jeongin takes off his glasses and wipes his forehead.  He blinks at the door.

“Um.”  He looks at you sheepishly, raking his fingers through his messy hair again.  “Do you mind if I—”  He gestures with his shoulder to the door.   “I don’t want to break it but you’re hurt and—”

“Yes,” you say, cutting him off and looking away.  Those dark eyes are brimming with concern and you think your guilt might overflow.  You don’t want to cry again.  You wipe your nose on the back of your arm.  “That’s fine,” you say, steady as you can.  “I can get the locks fixed after.�� Just get us inside.”

He nods and folds up his glasses then awkwardly looks around.  He gives you another sheepish look before handing them to you.   You take them and hold them against your chest while hopping back on your good foot.  You get out of his way, watching him roll up his wet sleeves and mutter something encouraging to himself.  He cringes when he thumps into the door and it doesn’t give. 

Much as you want to get inside, you don’t want him to hurt himself.  After the second heavy thud, you reach out.  Before you can stop him, he determinedly throws himself against it. 

The lock finally gives.  It takes one more shove for the door to fly open.  He kicks the broken pieces of the shattered lock aside, too focussed on his task to notice how startled you are by the display.  You are still processing it when he scoops you up again.  He carries you across the threshold and kicks the door closed behind himself. 

It is blessedly dry inside the little lodge but it is also freezing cold from lack of use.  You are both soaking wet and the chill wastes no time stabbing its way to your bones. 

There is a small couch that folds out into a bed and Jeongin sits you on it.  He goes down on one knee as he gently places you down, mindful of your shivering.  You look at him, his face not far in this position.  

He ducks down, taking your hurt ankle carefully in hand.  You hiss, instinctively withdrawing, but he holds you in place. 

“How bad is it?” he asks. 

“Not too bad,” you say.  “Just sore.”

“Are you sure?”

You would say yes even if it wasn’t true.  Jeongin kneeling in front of you, holding your foot in his lap, looking so attentive and concerned – it’s all a bit much. 

You nod.  Satisfied, he moves onto the next thing and reaches past you to hit a light switch.   The room stays grey, lit only by the overcast light outside the windows. 

“Of course,” you say bitterly, groaning.  “Oh, of course the power’s out. Why wouldn’t it be?”

He snorts, his dimples deepening as he looks at you.  Your gut instinct is to recoil from the flicker of heat under your skin, to look away from his smile.   You let yourself hold his gaze a little longer than usual. 

“You’re funny,” he says with another smile.   He looks over his shoulder at the same time a shiver crawls up his spine.   He shakes his shoulders and looks back at you.  “Is that electric or will it work?” he asks, pointing over his shoulder to the unlit fireplace. 

“It will work,” you say.  You are about to explain how it works when he gets up and goes over without further preamble.  You are watching him work when you realize you still have his glasses.   “Jeongin,” you say. 

He looks back at you, those silver-ringed fingers once more raking through his hair.  His face is open as always, attentive, brows lifted.  He really is very handsome. 

“Yes?” he asks when you are quiet for too long. 

“Oh, uh, sorry,” you say and hold out his glasses.  “You probably need these.”

He smiles, his eyes crinkling up in that delighted way. 

“Thank you.  They’re just for distance,” he says.  “I can see everything in here.” 

He turns back to the fireplace and resumes his work.  It only takes another second for the flames to sparkle then roar, an orange glow flooding the room.   He smiles and claps his hands with satisfaction.

“Not bad,” he says.  He is still smiling but his eyes look glassy with faraway thought.  His breath of a laugh is not very humorous, smile softer when he says, “I’m not totally useless, I guess, right?”

You close your eyes.   You don’t want to see his face.  You don’t want to know if he feels good about throwing that at you.  You definitely don’t want to know if he feels bad for saying it, because he shouldn’t feel bad.  He did nothing wrong. 

Jeongin has been nothing but kind to you from the day you met him.   You have a mutual friend in common so at first you only saw him in other people’s company.   Then your husband hired a team to do some renovations in the kitchen and, by sheer coincidence, Jeongin was one of the crewmen.  You started seeing him a lot more often, and in your own home at that.   

He was respectful and distant, at first, as was appropriate.  Jeongin is nothing if not polite. 

Jeongin is also undoubtedly a young man with a strict internal code.  The better he knew you, the better he knew your husband.   Your husband’s moral compass skewed considerably contrary to the kind-hearted Jeongin.  You had thus far survived a bad marriage by pretending the worst of it away. Jeongin’s sudden affection and sympathy – his sudden acknowledgement of your situation being bad – was too much for you to handle. 

You reacted badly.   He only ever tried to help you but you were not good at accepting help; it meant admitting something was wrong.  Even when you finally got around that stage, you still recoiled from his kind eyes and gentle words. 

Jeongin likes you as more than a friend.  He liked you from the start, when he was puttering around the worksite and you brought him lemonades and laughed with him about nothing. 

You liked him too.  You still like him.  But Jeongin is young and sweet and hopeful and you…

You know it’s silly, but your heart feels used up.  Someone like him should be with someone younger and full of equal hope, not you with your mess and baggage and nonsense. 

You resented his kindness, his youth, his hope.  You didn’t know what to do with his love. 

You tried to convince yourself you actually hated him.  When that didn’t work, you tried to convince him and everyone else.  If you couldn’t hate him, maybe you could make him hate you.   Maybe if he hated you, you could both move on.   But Jeongin isn’t like that.  He just kept moving along, just kept smiling, just kept looking at you like he could see right through your nonsense. 

Today you went on a little tirade to your friend.  You complained about feeling obligated to invite Jeongin to your party because you shared a friend group.  You complained about Jeongin in general, describing things that weren’t true.  You claimed he was naïve and annoying and always in your face, but that for all his pestering he never actually did anything useful. 

You weren’t exactly careful about who was listening.  Apparently, most of the party overheard you. 

It was that foolish, twisted feeling: you wanted to be heard because you were bursting inside, but then you realized that was the wrong release.  It brought no satisfaction, only shame.  You embarrassed him and yourself, and for what? 

“Jeongin,” you say in a small voice, already knowing that any and all words will fall woefully short of rectifying the situation.  Still, you have to say something.  With your eyes still closed and arms still crossed, you sigh and say, “I’m so sorry.  You know you’re not— You know I didn’t—  You know I don’t—”

You open your eyes.  He is illuminated by the fire, all traces of his smile dissolved.  He shivers and it seems to pull him out of his trance.   He rubs his forehead, then he turns to you and smiles politely. 

“It’s okay,” he says with a forced smile.  “I’m sorry.  Um.  Miss.  I shouldn’t have said—” 

“Don’t apologize,” you say as firmly as you can.  “Or speak formally.  It’s fine.  Jeongin, you—  Me—  I mean—”

Your stammering is half emotion, half the cold.  His expression changes as he seems to recognize that.  You are shivering so much your teeth start to chatter.  You haven’t even dropped his glasses because it would mean uncrossing your arms. 

He gets to his feet so quickly that he almost falls, slipping in the puddle caused by his own dripping clothes. 

“D-do you have a phone?” you ask, to which he nods and retrieves it from the front pocket of his overalls.  “C-can you call or t-text one of the boys and t-tell them we’re okay?  We just need to w-wait out the st-storm.  Sometimes th-they last a while.”  You can’t bring yourself to meet his eyes, your gaze on the middle of his chest, but you can see he is shivering too.  “We n-need to w-warm up so we don’t get s-sick.  There’s sh-sheets— there—can we m-make a bed—”  You nod your head vaguely in the right direction. 

You close your eyes and rock a little, trying to warm up.  It’s useless with your soaking heap of a dress clinging to every wet inch of you.  

You can hear Jeongin bustling around, doing everything you asked.  When you open your eyes, you see he has made a makeshift bed out of blankets and pillows near the fire.  

He is facing away from you.  A proper little burst of heat sparks inside you when he takes a breath and starts unclipping his overalls.  He kicks off his shoes at the same time.  You look away as he strips down his outer layers, sensibly removing his soaking wet things and laying them out by the fire.  You open your eyes at the same time he turns to look at you, his hands on the waistband of his briefs.   His ears are very red, chest and cheeks likewise dusted pink.  

You think your mutual shyness might be providing more heat than the fire.

“Sorry,” he says, grabbing a blanket and covering himself.  “It’s just—we should probably take off—”  His voice squeaks and he clears his throat. 

You find yourself smiling in spite of yourself.  You nod. 

“No, you’re right,” you say.  “S-sorry for, um, looking.” 

“That’s okay,” he says with a relieved laugh.   He smiles and says, “You can look if you want.” 

Jeongin has a remarkable ability to flicker between shyness and confidence.  The sparkle in his eyes tells you that his comment was not a thoughtless blunder.   Especially because he doesn’t wait for you to look away before tying the blanket around his hips and reaching under to shuffle out of his last article of clothing.

You look away and back again.  You suppose he works a fairly laborious job and is in good enough shape to haul you up a small hill, but still.  You find your breath stolen by his lean, subtle musculature, an effortless elegance to the long lines of his body.  

He smooths down his hair.  Your eyes are on his hands when you realize he is looking at you.  You look away quickly. 

“Haha, um, here,” Jeongin says.  He holds up a sheet in offering and turns his face away, eyes closed.  “You should change too.” 

You stand slowly, arms still crossed though you finally drop the glasses on the seat. 

“Thank you,” you say.  “For everything.”

He looks at you, probably supposing it is appropriate because you are still dressed, but your thin white dress has soaked completely through.  It is plastered to every inch of skin, the vaguest sheen of translucent white pulled over every dip and curve from your neck down. 

His gaze jumps, surprised, dark brows lifting as he looks down the whole length of you.  His mouth falls open and he looks away with the tips of his ears flaming red.  He holds up the sheet again. 

“Sorry,” he says.  “I didn’t mean—”

“It’s okay,” you say.

“No, sorry,” he says again. “I know you don’t… always like me…” 

You lower the sheet but he still doesn’t look at you.  You say his name and he replies with a hum. 

“Jeongin,” you say again, heart pounding.  “You can look too.”

He fumbles and drops the sheet.  He leaves it on the floor and looks at you with surprised eyes. 

Despite your words, he awkwardly covers his eyes when you reach for the straps of your dress.  Your laughter is breathless from the cold, but he still paints a charming sight with his red ears and hand over his eyes, contrasted to just how lovely those big hands are, to the shape of him, to the flattering shadows cast by the fire. 

You peel the dress down and let it hit the floor with a splat.  You feel better to have it gone but you are still cold.   You instinctively cross your arms again, rubbing your biceps.  

“Jeongin,” you say. 

“Hello,” he replies, eyes still covered.

“C-can you help me?” 

“Oh.” He pauses for a second.  “Help you… get undressed?” 

You really are too old to act like a little girl with a crush, but you feel that way.  You don’t remember the last time you felt like this, if you ever have.  It’s nice, a little scary.  You feel vulnerable and it has nothing to do with the amount of skin showing. 

“Yes please,” you say.  “I can’t reach behind me to unclasp my bra.” 

“Oh,” he says again.  “Oh.  Okay.” 

You turn around.  You give in to your smile, helplessly charmed by his sincerity.  Then he is touching you, his proximity radiating warmth, and the next shiver feels like the cold leaving your body all at once.  He fumbles a little with the clasp but that might be because his fingers are still stiff, but he gets it undone.  He steps back while you remove it.  When you turn around, he is already holding the sheet in offering.  He doesn’t cover his eyes though he does make a point of only looking at your face. 

“Thank you,” you say, taking the sheet.   

Despite his undoubted gentlemanly politeness, you catch him sneaking a peek before you wrap the sheet around your body.  You tuck it under your arms and tie a little knot.  Like him, you shuffle out of your underwear from under the sheet. 

He gathers your wet clothes and lays them beside the fire with his own.  With a little limp, you approach the nest of blankets and pillows, all arranged cozily on the thick, fluffy rug not far from the heat.   Even though it is obvious you will have to share the makeshift bed, you still hesitate just outside it.  Jeongin is kneeling in the centre, stretching out the clothes so they will dry faster.   He looks up when he sees you waiting. 

He holds out his hand. 

“You should rest your ankle.  And warm up,” he says.  “You’ll get sick.” 

With only a little struggle, you manage to overcome your hesitation.  You take his hand and step onto the rug. 

You swear more heat alights under his gaze than from the fire. 

He shuffles back, making room for you between him and the fire.  You would try and argue, to offer him the warmer space, but you doubt he would let you and you are still so cold.  You sit down gingerly, minding the sheet.   Your movements are mutually stilted and awkward, but then you smile at each other and relax a little.   You lay down so you are stretched in front of the fire, Jeongin sitting upright behind you.   You gaze up at him, watching him look around the room. 

“This place looks different,” he says, an understatement.  The ugly little lodge has been redone, stripped of the hunting gear and tables and replaced with a little library and reading nook.  There are plants under the window and little paintings on the mantlepiece.  It is a lot more welcoming than before. 

Perhaps it is that gentle coziness that makes you suddenly braver.  This space feels safe.  You do not hesitate in raising your hand, in stroking a few fingers softly down his arm.  His skin does not feel cold anymore so when he shivers, you don’t think it’s from a chill. 

He looks down, blinking those dark eyes at you.

“It’s still a little cold,” you say.  You already know your next words are going to be so blatant and so cheesy, so you have to bite your lip to stifle your own amusement at them.  “Maybe we should cuddle up for warmth?” 

“Oh.  Yeah.”  He smiles, dimples deep again.  “Good idea.” 

There is some embarrassed, breathless laughter as you shuffle around.  He pulls up a thicker blanket to cover you both.  Even with your explicit invitation, he is clearly still uncertain about what you want.   You show him, taking his arm and pulling it around you, laying down with your back to him, pressed close and separated only by your individual sheets.  

You look into the fire, taking a few deep breaths.  You feel him settle around you. 

“Okay?” he asks. 

“Mhm,” you say.  “Definitely.” 

“Good.  Good.”

You smile, biting your bottom lip again. 

You lay there for a while, listening to the fire crackle, letting the heat wash over you.   He doesn’t budge an inch, as if scared jostling you will disrupt the peace.  His arm is slung over your middle and you touch his hand.  You trace your fingers over a ring.  He exhales. 

“Can I ask you something?” he says, his voice low.   “It’s a little serious.” 

Your heart races as you know there are a million serious questions he could ask you, but you nod.  “Of course,” you say. 

There is a breath of a moment.  His hand turns under yours, fingertips brushing yours. 

“Why,” he says slowly, “would you ever pick that wallpaper?”  He points to the far wall.  “It’s dark in here and it’s still so ugly it’s hurting my eyes.”

You burst out laughing, caught off guard.  Your laughter makes him laugh, his hand catching yours when you lightly slap at him. 

“Jeongin,” you say with a little whine, “don’t torture me.”

“I’m not!” he says.  “It’s a serious question!”

“Ahh!”  You laugh some more, rolling onto your back and covering your face with both hands. 

He laughs, tugging at your wrist to uncover your face.  You pout at him and he just smiles back.  He lays on his side and props his head in his hand, grinning down at you.  You take his free hand and trace the shape of his ring again, looking up as his goofy expression softens. 

“You’re funny too,” you say.  “I’m sorry for being an idiot to you. I was wrong and you didn’t deserve it.” 

“You’re not an idiot,” he says softly, looking down at where you are fiddling with his ring.  “You were going through a lot.”   

“Still,” you say.  “I’m a grown woman and I’ve been acting like a child, bullying the nice boy I like because I don’t know what to do with my emotions.”    

You thought that would be hard to say out loud, but once it’s out there you feel a lightness in your chest.  You take in a deep breath. 

“That’s not being an idiot,” Jeongin says after a moment.   He curls his fingers around yours and squeezes lightly.  “Maybe just a little stupid,” he adds.  

You laugh again, rolling to face him and his silly grin. 

“I really am sorry,” you say.  “I know it’s not enough to say it, but—”

“It’s enough,” he says.  “You know, I followed you when you came this way because I wanted to tell you that.”  When you cover your face with your hand, he moves it.  “Also,” he says, “you were running too far away from everyone else.  They wouldn’t have found you if you hid so far out here, you know.” 

“That’s the point of the game,” you say.  “It’s hide and seek.”

“Yeah, but…”  His free hand finds yours again.  He looks into your eyes.  “I don’t think winning like that is actually fun?  If you’re alone, and never let anyone find you again.” 

Oh.  Of course Jeongin would ask ‘a serious question’ to spring a joke on you, then sneak the truly serious topic in a discussion of hide-and-seek. 

You drop your gaze to your joined hands. 

“I guess,” you say.  “I guess also it’s… um, well.”  You figure you might as well drop the metaphor as it isn’t fooling anyone.  “You don’t get hurt when you’re alone, Jeongin.  And the happier something makes you, the worse it feels when it hurts you.”

“I would never hurt you,” he says, completely serious.  He squeezes your hand. 

You look at him, smiling gently.  You know that promise is a big one, and nearly impossible as people can hurt each other without trying.  The declaration is innocent but also heartfelt.  You understand what he means. 

He seeks your gaze to ensure you understand him, so you look at him and nod.  You feel a bit watery again. 

“I know you would try,” you say.  “Is it stupid how that scares me even more?”

“Oh,” he says, separating his hand from yours so he can cup your face.  You think he is going to say something tender when he just smiles and nods and says, “Yeah, probably.”

You snort with laughter, grabbing his hand and moving it off your face.

“You’re terrible,” you say.

“Maybe,” he says, a mischievous twinkle in his eye.  “But… you’re the one who likes me, or so you said…” 

“I take it back,” you say, starting to roll away. 

He grabs your shoulder and pulls you back, giggling.  “You can’t take it back,” he says.  “We’re sharing a bed so… that’s the rules.”

“Oh, really.”

“Yes.  Sorry.”

You find yourself endlessly charmed by him.   His cocky smile is cute, especially because the tips of his ears are still red.  You find yourself tracing the curve of that ear, his blush darkening with your attention.  His smile turns affectionate, his eyes creased with happiness.   The unremitted pleasure draws you in and grants you access to the more confident parts of yourself.  You let your body lead you, experience fueling instinct as you guide him onto his back and lean over him.

You touch the side of his face, fingertips tracing his jaw.  His mouth opens and he blinks away his surprise.   

“What?” you say.

“Nothing.”  His smiles widens.  He raises a hand to touch the side of your face too, surprising you in turn.  “You’re pretty.”

The simplicity of the compliment makes you a little shy.  You smile, leaning into his touch. 

“You’re cute,” you say, only for his face to scrunch up with theatrical displeasure. “What?” you say, laughing.  “You are!”

“Puppies are cute,” he says dryly.  “Babies are cute.  I’m not cute.”

“You are.”  You can’t help but tease, his smile encouraging you.  You poke his dimple.  “Soooo cute.  The cutest.”

You laugh until he slides one hand around the back of your neck.  With his hand protectively cradling the back of your head, he flips you over so it’s you laying under him.   You find yourself looking down the length of him, his chest and abdomen, the place the blanket parts.  You look up when his nose nudges your chin, tilting your head back.   You realize you were holding a breath and swallow one down, shaky. 

He laughs but gently. 

“You’re cute,” he says, voice barely louder than the crackling fire.

“I’m not cute,” you say, tipping your chin up.  “I’m older than you.”

“Sooo cute,” he copies you.  “The cutest.” 

You realize this game of one-upping each other could quickly turn into a torturous teasing session – each of you just looking, daring, goading the other into more without fully surrendering. 

You smile and tip your head, sighing in a feathery-soft voice and wetting your lips. 

“Am I?” you ask, lifting a leg so it separates your sheet.  You can see his breath catch. 

You have butterflies inside you, fluttering away like never before. 

You undo the knot of the sheet.  You watch his eyes lower as you slowly peel the whole sheet open.  All the playfulness leaves his face, his jaw gone slack, surprise once again taking over as he stares. 

“Wow,” he finally says.  “Wow.  You’re— wow.” His expression shows he means it. 

“You’re exaggerating.”  You turn your face aside. 

“I’m not,” he says.  His hands move to either side of your head as he holds himself over you.  It draws your gaze back to him.  “Stop hiding, okay?” he says softly. 

“I think I’m doing the opposite of hiding right now,” you say, a gentle joke that he answers with utmost seriousness: swooping down and kissing you. 

It is not a soft kiss, burning and wanting, his mouth a hungry thing against your own.  It feels like a kiss he has thought about, a kiss he can’t help but hurry towards. 

Just as desirous, you fall too, the kiss so hard that you find it hard to slow down.  He eventually guides you to a gentler press, closing his lips against yours, letting them linger. 

A breath passes between you.

“Remember when you hated me,” he says, smiling, “and you tried to convince me we were incompatible?”  He kisses you softly.  “I think you were wrong.”   

He doesn’t leave room for a reply.  He kisses you again, just as hotly as before.  This time he rests more of his body against yours and you can feel where he is already hard beneath the blanket.  You can also feel it is more than substantial, drawing a gasp from your lips as he presses against you. 

“Jeongin,” your voice comes out breathless.  It is still more coherent than his reply, which is just a grunt as he starts kissing down your throat. 

It is dizzyingly hot.  You have to close your eyes to stay grounded, arching against him, running your fingers through his already messy hair. 

You are still able to giggle when he struggles to remove the blanket.  He laughs back.  You can’t remember the last time you laughed during sex.  It makes you feel like you are floating, light and carefree, driven by pleasure and nothing else. 

He gets the blanket off but before you can look down, he is sliding his hand between your bodies.  Your eyes close again, head falling back as his fingers stroke your inner thigh.  He teases there for a long time, making you strain and buck and chase his fingers.  Finally you whimper and grab some of his hair, pulling his face close to yours.

“Are you trying to make me hate you again?” you tease.

He smiles against your lips, his fingers just barely brushing between your legs.  Your thighs part, making room, but he waits. 

“You never hated me,” he says. 

Your reply gets caught in your throat when he finally slides one finger against you.  It is torturously not enough. 

“Jeongin,” you say again, running your fingers to the back of his neck.  “Please.”

“Tell me you hated me,” he says, even while proving you very much do not hate him: gathering so much wetness on his fingertips, lightly circling them up and over the most sensitive part of you.  “Can’t you?” he asks.  “Let me hear you say it.” 

“I—I—”

“Hate me?”

You shake your head, opening your eyes to look at him imploringly.  You gasp against his lips when he slides that finger inside you.  There is a ring on the one beside it, the smooth ridge gliding against you.   You cant your hips up, wanting more while he teases you. 

“You don’t hate me,” he says, to which you shake your head again.  He kisses you, licking into your mouth at the same time his fingers sink deep inside you.   He is good with his hand, his fingers long and steady, working you up until you are soaking him and clawing at his shoulder. 

“Please,” you say, dizzy from the stars bursting in every place his fingers reach.  They curl inside you as if telling you to come.  Your head falls back and his lips go down your throat as he brings you over the edge with his touch.  

He doesn’t stop when you come, drawing the whole thing out so the peak seems to last minutes.  Tears of pleasure spring to your eyes.  Only when you are gasping does he carefully withdraw his hand.  

He looks at you with a smile then kisses your cheek.  With a smile, you lean in to kiss him, then he suddenly ducks.  His hands dive under your thighs and then his face is right there, tongue taking a swipe at your still distended clit, making your whole body shudder.  You dig your fingers into his hair, holding on and closing your eyes.  It feels so good but you are still sensitive and not good at coming multiple times in a row, so after enjoying his very adept movements, you tug on his hair to lead him back up your body. 

You grab his face and kiss him hard, tasting yourself all over his wet mouth.  He moans into your mouth and presses hard against you.  His hands cradle your hips.  You spread your legs around him. 

You feel lighter after coming.  Relaxed, not just physically.  Suddenly words are easier too, spoken thoughtlessly in such close proximity to his lips. 

“I wanted you so much,” you admit.  “For so long.  Even when I was pretending to hate you.” 

“I was here,” he says, kissing along your jaw.  “I’m still here.” 

“I know.” You tug on his hair, tipping his head back so you can kiss his face too.  You nip under his jaw, his neck, luxuriating in the sound he makes.  “This is going to sound silly, but I used to fantasize—no, never mind.” 

“Wha—”

You roll him over before he can ask, taking a turn to work your mouth down his body now too.  It sufficiently distracts him as your mouth dives down, down, down.  You pause for a moment just to look at him, your gaze one of admiration and maybe slight intimidation.  You haven’t slept with anyone since before the divorce and that was a while ago.  Jeongin is bigger than most of your toys.   When you put your mouth on him, you barely get past the head before you have to use your hand for the rest of him.  You try to take a little more but you are very out of practice, choking a little and drooling all over him. 

It used to confuse you: the idea anyone would enjoying giving pleasure this way.  For the recipient, it made enough sense, but not as the giver.  You realize now that difference in desire was partner.  When Jeongin moans and curls his fingers into the rug, thighs parting to make room for you to comfortably sit there, you understand.   Messy as it is, you eagerly dive back down, wetting him with your mouth and working him in your hand. 

When he closes his eyes and drops his head back, he misses the pillow.  The rug is plush and softens his landing, but you still hear a very heavy thump when his head hits the ground.  He hisses, his face scrunching up in pain as he reaches to cup the back of his head. 

“Oh my god,” you say, sitting up and wiping your mouth.  You try not to laugh.  “Jeongin, are you okay?” 

He gives you a thumbs up with his free hand.  Then he curses and sighs in exasperation. 

“My hand is stuck,” he says, jerking the arm that is folded under his head.  “My ring—is in my hair—”

“Oh nooo…”  You are laughing properly now, in a fit of giggles as you climb up beside him to look behind his head.  You help untangle the hair from the ring, though a few strands still get yanked out of his head.   The sudden swing makes his head bounce, thunking into yours.  You both groan in pain.  You grasp your forehead and sit back on your heels. 

“This is not how I pictured this going,” he mumbles. 

“Which part? The storm, the threat of hypothermia, or the multiple injuries?” you ask. 

He grins at you, then moves to kneel in front of you.  He kneels upright while you are sitting back, putting you close to eye level with your previous task.  You look there, reaching, but he takes your hands in his and holds them. 

“Actually,” he says, “the part that surprised me most was you saying you thought about us,” he smiles here, “and it was so bad you couldn’t even admit it.”

You try to cover your face but he holds your hands, still grinning.  You throw back your head and groan. 

“It’s not bad,” you say.

His hand runs up your arm to your neck, thumb stroking your chin as he gently pulls you forward.  You go up on your knees too, following his angle for a kiss.  He leans close but doesn’t seal it, saying, “You know if you don’t tell me, I’m going to imagine the worst.”

“It’s nothing,” you say, hiding your face in the crook of his shoulder.  He pats the back of your head, still giggling to himself.  You lean back to look at him again, pouting just a bit, then reaching between your bodies to take him in hand.  You smile sweetly at him.  “Can we fuck?” you ask, watching the flicker of surprise and desire cross his face.  “Birth control, so I’m good if you’re good.  Come on.” 

You go to lay down but he catches the back of your neck, pulling you back to him.  He lifts one eyebrow. 

“You’re not gonna let this go,” you say dryly. 

“I would never force it out of you,” he says, “but the curiosity is killing me.” 

“Well,” you say, tingling under the attention of his intense gaze, of his hand so strongly holding your neck, of his nonchalance.  He isn’t even trying.  You take a deep breath.  “It’s sort of what you just said.”

“What… killing me?  You wanted to kill me?” 

“No!”  You smack his chest.  “I hate you again.  No.   I just…  Not that I wanted to the truth forced out of me but…”  You look at his face, his expression curious but not judgemental yet.  “You know all those cheesy romance novels?  Like… mafia leader stuff?  That.”

“You wanted me to be Italian?”

“Genuinely gonna kill you.”

“I’m kidding, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, continue.”

“You know what I mean!  The button popping and bodice ripping stuff.”  You mime tearing his nonexistent shirt open.  “I liked you and I wanted to do something about it, but I also didn’t want to do something about it.  So I wanted you to do something about it.  No one needs to tell me what it’s like for a shitty guy to take advantage of you, so that’s not what it was—  I just—”  You sigh.  “I wanted it to be easy.  I wanted it to be you.  Because you aren’t a shitty guy.  You’re the best guy I know.  So I would’ve let you have anything, because you would be taking what I wanted to give.  And there would be no need to talk about it or work it out.  It would just be… easy.”

“I like talking,” he says, tipping his head as if studying you.  “But I think I get it.”

“Mhm?” you ask, a little dryly.  You quirk an eyebrow at his cheesy, dimpled grin.  “Sure about that?” 

“Yes,” he says, smiling so bright it goes right up to his eyes.  “I’m sure.” 

His grip tightens on the back of your neck, pulling you right up against him.  Your chests press together and you gasp, shivering when his lips graze your ear. 

“Like this, right?” he speaks lowly.  He threads his fingers into your hair, close to your scalp so there is a controlled, gentle burn when he tugs.  “Just take.” 

“Yes,” you say, rasping.  “It’s already yours.” 

“You’re mine?” he asks. His other hand is suddenly between your legs and this time he doesn’t tease, his knuckle parting your wet folds.  Two fingers curl inside you.  “Or this is mine?”  

He tugs your head back, looking in your eye as he finger-fucks you, all the playfulness gone from his expression.  His sharp features look suddenly more severe: the cut of his jaw, his cheekbones, his brow.   You swallow hard. 

“I can’t say,” you speak in a husky voice.  “My husband would be angry.  You should go before he finds you.”

His fingers move out of you, your thighs shaking in their withdrawal.  The hand in your hair stays steady.  Then he squints, looking almost cartoonishly fierce when he says, “I’m in the… mafia.  I killed your husband?”

“Oh.”  You bite back a laugh.  “You don’t literally need to be in the mafia.”

“You did say—”

“That was just, like, a genre example—”

“Oh, okay, I get it now.”  He nods his head.  “I’ll stop if you say stop.”  He clears his throat.   “You don’t want a guy like that.  And you don’t want your husband.”  He puts a hand on your lower back and tugs, sweeping you over.  His arms hold you safe as he spills you onto your back.  One hand skims your body, hooking under your knee to bring it up around his hips.  “You want me,” he says.  

The gleam in his eye seems very genuine. 

“That would be inappropriate,” you say, not needing to fake your breathy voice when he moves against you, the length of him hot and hard and close to where you want him.   You clench around nothing, your heart picking up in speed with anticipation. 

He smiles, not quite his usual smile. 

“It would be very inappropriate,” he says. 

Then his hands are on your hips and he is turning you onto your front.  You sprawl with some genuine surprise, getting your arms under you only seconds before his hand is back in your hair.  You lift when he pulls, his grip careful but strong.  He holds you there, up on your hands and knees.  He goes up on one knee behind you, careful when pushing inside you, then sliding in all the way and staying there. 

Oh, you feel him.  Not just because it’s been a while.  You let yourself enjoy it, happily sinking into pleasure with the secure knowledge he will listen if you ask to stop, that his pleasure is tied to yours.  So you let your mouth fall open and eyes close, let the heat of the flames brush over you, let him hold you how he wants.  You take as much as he does, soaking in all that sensation.  He fills you up and fucks you deep – fast then faster.   You squeeze around him, practically singing with how you moan and sigh. 

“Yes,” he says, pulling you back into his arms as he moves to lay on his side.  He stays inside you, drawing your leg up and fucking you like that. 

You look back at him and don’t mind at all when he breaks character, yet again, this time to kiss you sweetly. 

“It doesn’t hurt?” he asks in a whisper, slowing down.  “You’re so… small.”   

“I’m not,” you say with a little laugh.  “You’re just big, baby.” 

“Baby—okay.  That’s good.  I don’t want to hurt you.” 

“I know, Jeongin,” you say, hiccupping a little because he is still fucking you hard despite his gentle words.  It makes you feel a little insane in a good way, him so very nonplussed as he screws your brain out.   “Thank you,” you say. 

“For what?” he asks. 

“I don’t knooow,” you say, reaching behind you to hold onto him.  “Just thaaank you, auugh, it’s good.”

“Oh, I get it,” he says.  “For this. Okay.” 

How he’s simultaneously cute and insanely sexy, your brain will just never compute.  But he wraps an arm around you and puts his hips to use, fucking you until you can feel an orgasm building without even rubbing your clit.  You think to try but all you can do is cling to him, letting your worries fly away as he pants and groans and holds you steady in his arms. 

“Like that, like that,” you say, your last coherent sentence until you fall apart, repeating his name as he follows you over the edge. 

He holds you tight, kissing whatever he finds first.  He rocks you through the end of it, easing you into rest.  When he pulls out, you shiver, and it has nothing to do with the cold. 

You roll over in his arms, wrapping your arms around his neck.  He kisses your cheek and temple, then rests his forehead against yours. 

“I’m not cold anymore,” you say, making him laugh lightly. 

“Me too,” he says. 

“Thank you,” you say, leaning back to look at him.  “For everything.” 

He smiles that smile you love, cupping your face. 

“Thank you,” he says, “for showing me your hiding place.  Can I come here again with you?” 

Joking right after sex was never a habit before, but you find yourself bursting into a silly grin and saying, “Baby, you already know you can come wherever you want—” 

It makes him laugh too, the unexpectedness sending him over.  You laugh at him laughing so much, curling up close to him with the heat of the fire at your back. 

The cabin is warm.  Your clothes are probably long since dry.  The storm stopped a while ago and you only notice now. 

[murdertrashbabyrat]

Here’s a list of romance tropes named by the tv tropes site that I think fits the Deadpool & Wolverine movie:

❤️💛❤️💛❤️💛❤️💛❤️💛❤️💛❤️💛❤️💛

Act of True Love: an action done to prove one’s love for another

Aww Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: no matter how much they fight, they really do care about each other very much

Battle Couple: lovers who kick ass together

Belligerent Sexual Tension: two people are in love but they mask their feelings behind arguments

Birds of a Feather: a couple share similarities with each other

Can’t Live With Them Can’t Live Without Them: when you prefer to be alone but find yourself oddly attached to another

Eating the Eye Candy: eyeing up your Love Interest’s gorgeous body

Electric Love: love represented by literal sparks

Grand Romantic Gesture: a big elaborate event done for someone to show your love for them

Holding Hands: a classic romantic gesture is lovers locking hands with each other

Home Sweet Home: staying home to settle down with your Love Interest after a long adventure

I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On: unintentionally making someone fall in love with you

Imagined Innuendo: a character’s dialogue is misinterpreted as a double entendre by another

Implied Love Interest: this character has vaguely romantic subtext with the hero

Lacerating Love Language: expressing your affection through physical violence

Love at First Punch: falling in love with somebody who beat you up

Love Makes You Saner: a mentally troubled person becomes more stable because of love

Love Redeems: someone is made a better person through the power of love

Love Transcends Spacetime: when love is strong, the rules of the universe get bent

Maybe Ever After: did the hero and their love interest end up together in the end? Who knows.

Meet the In-Laws: meeting your love interest’s parents

No Accounting for Taste: There is absolutely no reason for these two to be lovers, one is or both are insufferable (it’s both of them)

Opposites Attract: they’re complete opposites but they love each other

Orbital Kiss: a couple kisses as the camera rotates around them

- (INCLUDING THIS BECAUSE I just realized the camera rotates around them as they hold hands to save the world while Madonna’s blowjob song plays. So. ORBITAL HAND HOLD because Disney would never let them actually kiss)

Race For Your Love: a character races to catch up with their love interest before they leave them

Relationship-Salvaging Disaster: bickering lovers make up with each other in the midst of a time of crisis

Rescue Romance: falling in love with someone who saves your life

Returning the Handkerchief: a classic romantic que where a character drops an item of theirs, and their love interest finds it and returns it to them

Road Trip Romance: two characters traveling together eventually fall in love

Second Love: the next person you fell in love with after your first love didn’t work out

Separated by the Wall: lovers meet up at a barricade that is separating them from each other

Sleep Cute: lovers or characters with ship tease fall asleep next to each other

The Power of Love: characters are empowered by their feelings of love they feel for each other, especially the romantic bonds with their significant others

Unbroken Vigil: a character keeps watch over their unconscious love interest

[zweetpea]

coming 2024 (hopefully 🥲)

(In an epic trailer voice) You’ve heard the stories

“The princess has been taken away by the dragon!” A villager cried.

You know the tropes.

“Fear not for I will save her.” The handsome knight proclaimed.

But get ready to witness a twist on the timeless classic.

“My fair lady I’m here to rescue you!” The knight yells up to the fair princess as she reads in a turret.

“No thanks!”

“…what?…”

This isn’t your grandma���s fairytale.

“Another one?” The dragon asked.

“Yep.”

It’s the story of a girl who wanted to be left alone.

“Don’t get why they keep coming by. My sister is more than capable tot running the country.”

And a lonely dragon looking for a mate.

“I’m expecting a reward for scaring them off again.” He teased.

“In your dreams.” The princess rolled her eyes.

“A truer statement than you know.” He smirked.

They’ve come together, to get the world off their backs.

“No feeling.” She looked up at him

“No strings attached.” He looks down at her.

So what happens when they fall in love?

He leans down to her height as she leans up to him…

Read to find out!

(This is similar to a story I heard about, but didn’t dig too deeply into. It was about a girl who was living with this dragon who could become human, and it was a romance. If anybody knows what’s web comic or manga I’m talking about please comment the name so I can properly give credit)

[wearethekat]

January Book Reviews: A Brother's Price by Wen Spencer

I picked up this book on recommendation from @booksandchainmail. In A Brother's Price, spirited and virtuous young man Jerin lives in a world where women outnumber the cosseted and sheltered men twenty-five to one. When Jerin rescues a princess near his family's farm, he falls headlong in love with her sister--but Jerin's status is too low to honorably marry the royal princesses...

Wow, was this book an absolute blast to read. It's effectively a gender-swapped historical romance, and it turns all the usual tropes upside-down. Spencer doesn't play the reversal cheaply for laughs, either. It's genuinely an excellent examination of gender-based tropes rooted in thoughtful worldbuilding, along the lines of Bujold's Ethan of Athos. Men are kept cloistered because their society has a history of desperate women kidnapping husbands, and because a brother's price can beggar a family of sisters. The focus on sexual purity is rooted in a society where polygamy is a necessity and deadly syphilis is endemic and incurable. Prostitutes are all female, but tend to dress like men for the forbidden appeal. And so on and so forth. It's all very well thought through.

The plot itself is pure classic romance novel fluff with a side of vaguely Old Western flavored political intrigue. Jerin himself is a sweetheart, and Spencer resists the temptation to flatten him into a silly caricature to make a point. When we meet him in the first chapter, we almost immediately learn that he's been single-handedly and highly competently running a household of thirty to forty people for at least a year at age fifteen, from the childcare to the cooking to the laundry. No small task, to say the least, and Jerin handles his suddenly changed circumstances with the same aplomb. I did find that the romances were a touch flattened, which is perhaps a side effect of having to write one for Jerin and each sister. However, I greatly enjoyed the later plotline, with Jerin getting his come-out in the royal city, while simultaneously we begin to realize that there's a long-standing plot against the royal family. Crunchy political intrigue is my favorite thing for spicing up a romance novel.

As soon as I finished reading this book, I immediately checked if there were perhaps four or five more romances set in this world, but to my great sadness, A Brother's Price is a standalone. Rats. A compulsively readable souffle of a novel that gently and thoughtfully examines gendered tropes in the historical romance genre.

[nocturnesheaven]

Chapter 2

Awakening Melodies

A/N: Hɪ ғʀɪᴇɴᴅs! Wᴇʟᴄᴏᴍᴇ ʙᴀᴄᴋ! Tʜᴀɴᴋ ʏᴏᴜ ғᴏʀ ʙᴇɪɴɢ ʜᴇʀᴇ ᴀɴᴅ I ʜᴏᴘᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴇɴᴊᴏʏ!! Aʟsᴏ I PROMSIE, Dɪᴄᴋ ᴡɪʟʟ ʙᴇ ɪɴᴛʀᴏᴅᴜᴄᴇᴅ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ɴᴇxᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ. Fᴏʀ ɴᴏᴡ ᴡᴇ ᴀʀᴇ #ᴡᴏʀʟᴅʙᴜɪʟᴅɪɴɢ

genre: angst, comfort, coming of age, eventual romance (love interest introduced)

character tropes: parentalfigures!dinahandoliver, eventual romance between fem!readerxdickgrayson

tw: mentions of abuse, night terrors, and talks of child experimentation

You were awoken to the sound of birds outside your window and the sun streaming in on the wood floors. It was a great way to wake up (and a very welcome change from the yelling of nurses to be up and out for headcounts).

In the last two months you were finally starting to adjust to staying in your very own room in Dinah and Oliver’s home. For the first time, you began to feel real comfort. The nighterrors weren’t plaguing you every night. And if they did, Oliver and Dinah were quick to come and check on you. You were surprised at just how well prepared they seemed to be at caring for you.

Your first week in the home, Oliver had offered to take you shopping. You’d only had a hospital gown when they’d rescued you, and while Dinah and Oliver had went out and tried to guesstimate what you’d like, They still wanted to make sure that the clothes and room you had here were personalized for you.

What they’d come to learn was that you’d never been shopping. Oliver had tried his best to explain the concept to you. Which he did so in a very enthusiastic and detailed way. Dinah summarized it much better. Once you understood, you found yourself filled with a warm sense of appreciation for them. It had been a nice gesture and though you were fine with how the room was, as anything was an upgrade from your small cell back at the lab, you’d obliged simply due to the fact that Oliver seemed so excited at his idea.

The ride in the car was fun, Oliver let you sit in the front and told you not to tell Dinah. Though you felt bad keeping information, riding passenger made up for it.

The music played from the radio and it was unlike anything you’d heard. The few times that they’d used music in your experiments at the lab it had been classical.

“Who is this?” you asked Oliver as you listened to the gritty sound of the guitar solo.

“This is Nirvana,” Oliver, who had been humming along and drumming his fingers against the wheel, was absolutely thrilled to divulge you on the lore of Nirvana for the rest of the ride and play you their discography . You made a mental note to remember Nirvana. You quite liked them.

You were excited to try out this shopping thing, that was until you had stepped into the store. That’s when you found yourself completely overwhelmed by the sheer number of options.

“You okay there, kiddo?” Oliver had asked as he pushed the shopping cart up next to you.

“Yeah, just… there’s so many things,” you replied in a tone of awe as you surveyed the store

Oliver chuckled to himself, “Well, welcome to the kingdom of home decor.”

You’d followed him around, allowing him to guide you through each aisle as you attempted to take it all in.

Everytime Oliver would hold up a piece of decor, you would just nod. There were some truly confusing items in the store. Each one more colorful and random than the last. Despite this you nodded and offered small comments to each item he offered you. It was all overwhelming. In your opinion, everything around you was simply nicer than anything you’d ever had. How were you supposed to choose?

About halfway through the trip, Oliver seemed to catch on to the fact that you weren’t exactly loving shopping. You both were in the pillow aisle and he was currently showcasing a plush white pillow and another that said “live, laugh love” with a rainbow embroidered overhead.

“They’re both… nice?” you shrugged.

What were you supposed to say? You were running out of “oh wows” and “mmhms”.

“I guess you guys didn’t do much home decor back home?” he offered a kind smile as he placed the pillows back.

You shook your head with a self-deprecating laugh, “No… not at all.”

“That’s okay,” Oliver offered your shoulder a pat, “we don’t all start off as gifted at interior design as I.”

You raised an eyebrow skeptically as he revealed an eyesore of a pillow. It was yellow and decorated with some sort of neon bird wearing a purple crown.

“Oh now see, this is a real treasure,” he held it to you with a very serious look on his face. As if he was an art connoisseur who had finally found the piece he was looking for all his life.

You laughed at his antics, feeling your trepidation melt away. You were okay. This wasn’t a test, this was just a shopping trip.

“Oh what you don’t think so?” Oliver feigned offense at your laugh, “fine, I suppose it is bit loud.”

After Oliver had lightened the mood, shopping for decor became a lot less stressful. You felt more open to sharing your opinions and Oliver didn’t judge you for it. Instead, he seemed to agree with you? Even if you were being picky, he encouraged it.

Choice wasn’t an illusion.

After checking out at the register, he had described this part to you in great detail when at home, you left the store with a plethora of items. Oliver allowed you to push the shopping cart back to the car, which you felt was a great honor.

Dinah and Oliver had been great at showing patience with you, making sure you got to experience new things but on your own time. And honestly? You had never felt more happy. Your apprehension towards them melted surprisingly quick. With each family dinner, movie night, shopping trip, and nirvana song Oliver played… you felt more at home.

One night after a movie, you’d fallen asleep on the couch instead of in your room. When you woke up you weren’t quite sure what time it was. The room was dark besides the kitchen light, where Dinah and Oliver were cleaning up dishes from the popcorn and dinner. As you laid back down to try and sleep again, you’d overheard them talking.

“She’s been great, Di,” Oliver had said proudly, “she’s making amazing progress!”

“I noticed that,” she agreed as she placed some cups in the cupboard, “I just worry about starting her training. I don’t want her to feel like that’s all we care about.”

“I’m sure when she’s ready she’ll let us know,” Oliver offered in support, “but until then, it’s fun getting to just be parents don’t you think?”

“It would be if you weren’t taking all the fun activities,” Dinah countered, “I’m serious! You always do it while I have to be at the Hall of Justice!”

“Alright, alright,” Oliver kissed her cheek, “I promise you can tag along on our next adventure.”

As you drifted off to sleep, you heard them laughing. It was a lovely sound. One that you hadn’t heard at the lab much. You’d once dreamed of having a family, a real one. Now… maybe you’d finally found one?

It was during one of the family dinners in your third month that you felt ready to tell them you wanted to start working on training. It wasn’t even that you felt pressured. You genuinely wanted to!

Oliver had made lasagna for the three of you, and you were already on your third plate.

Seriously, it was that good.

.The conversation was mostly about regular things, day to day things from their work. You didn’t want to interrupt their stories of the Justice League, as each story had you hooked, but you also felt you needed to tell them now.

“I think I’m ready to start working with Dinah,” you interjected as you took a sip of water

“Y/N,” Dinah placed her hand on yours, “are you sure? It’s only been three months since you moved in… there’s no need to rush-“

“No I’m serious,” you reassured her, “I think I’m ready.”

Dinah and Oliver looked between themselves. Oliver shrugged, though he looked happy.

“Okay,” Dinah looked back at you, “okay… if you really are ready, we’ll start tomorrow.”

So that was how it began. Dinah would drive you down to the Hall of Justice, which you’d come to find out was where you had awoken that first day out of the lab.

It was much more lively now that you were really in the building and not the infirmary. People stopped and greeted you and Dinah. You found yourself a bit nervous around all these people, mostly staying close to Dinah and offering polite smiles. Luckily, Dinah seemed to recognize your awkwardness and kept you guys moving.

After Dinah toured you around the grand marble building, she led you to a spacious room filled with gym equipment, weaponry, and a ring in the middle.

“What is this place?” you asked in a quiet tone

“This is one of our training rooms,” Dinah replied as she turned on the overhead lights, “if it’s alright, today I wanted to just show you around where we’ll be working so you can see that it’s safe?”

You looked to Dinah, appreciation for her clear on your face. She truly cared about accommodating to you. It made you nervous though… what if she was wrong about you? What if you couldn’t meet the expectations? What if you weren’t cut out to help people…

“Do you really think that I can be someone good?” you asked hopefully as you walked towards one of the exercise machines and tried to make sense of what it was.

As you turned back to your mentor, her face was empathetic. She crossed the room to you and knelt down at your level.

“I know you can,” Dinah said earnestly, “and I think you’re gonna see that too…”

Though you wanted to, you couldn’t quite accept her words yet. Regardless, you swallowed the lump in your throat and nodded. You wanted to try.

“Do you want to look around?” Dinah asked you to which you responded with a nod.

Days at the Hall of Justice with Dinah became your routine. Sometimes you’d follow Dinah around and keep an eye on the city from the control room. On your favorite days you’d train in the training room. Training with Dinah was a completely different experience than you’d ever known. She never got angry with you for not doing something she wanted you to. Never once did she scream at you that you were useless. Instead, she made you never felt like you weren’t good enough.

Your abilities were sporadic at best and when they did come through, they weren’t as powerful as they’d been at the lab. A lot of the time, in a desperation to prove yourself, you’d psyche yourself out while trying to use your sonic scream in order freeze things. You also noticed yourself getting distracted easily by other noises when you’d try to hear where someone was in the building…

Each and everytime, you found the words “failure” repeating in your head. Dinah tried her best to assure you, but you’d always get down on yourself..

“I’m just not good enough,” you grumbled once after a failed attempt at paralyzing one of the wooden balls Dinah had thrown in the air

“Y/N, don’t ever say that again,” it was the sternest that Dinah had ever spoken to you, “these things take time.”

“But I swear I could do it before at the lab,” you stated exasperated

Dinah thought for a moment. She believed you, she’d read your files. According to them, you had proved powerful at the lab. She had no doubt you’d be able to harness that part of yourself again without the need for those methods. You just needed to give yourself more credit. That gave her an idea.

“How do you feel when we’re practicing?” she asked

You thought for a moment. While it was certainly frustrating everytime that you got it wrong… it was when you were in the midst of trying to conjure up your abilities you felt something else. Complete anxiety.

To you, it didn’t matter that Bruce had invented earbuds for Dinah to wear during training so that she could be immune to your scream. There was little logic able to console the fear that would take over. You were always psyching yourself out when the thoughts would swirl in your mind that you might hurt Dinah if it went wrong. What if the earbuds didn’t work?

“Scared.” you would reply

Dinah nodded understandably, “Are you willing to try something for me?”

“What is it?” you asked skeptically

“I’m wondering if the doubt and fear you’re feeling towards yourself is throwing you off,” she explained as she retrieved the ball you’d been using from the ground, “this time I want you to focus on something else…”

“Okay,” you agreed as confidently as you could. You were a tired and frustrated… but you were also determined.

“Ready?” Dinah asked to which you nodded in response.

You watched as Dinah threw the ball again. You were going to get it this time. You were sure of it. You had done it before and you were going to do it now.

Time seemed to slow as you took a deep breath. Your mind flipped to thinking about the lab. How you had made it out. You had survived horrors, horrors that were unspeakable even to Dinah and Oliver. And while no one could explain why you had lived past the mass execution, the truth was you were here. You were here and you deserved to be here. When you let out the scream, even you were surprised by the noise. It was strong and steady, like an opera singers. But there was grit behind it too, and you watched as the sound waves extended towards the target. Causing it to freeze in the air. Even when your note cut off, the ball remained floating.

You’d done it.

You stood there shocked. Dinah had been on to something! When you stopped depriving yourself of the trust you deserved, you were shaky. This time you had been determined and sure, and you had done it! You quickly whipped around to make sure Dinah was okay, that had been powerful… what if the earbuds hadn’t worked? But when you met her eyes she was removing the earbuds and watching you with a proud smile.

“Girl, come here,” You were giddy as Dinah pulled you into a hug and twirled you around, laughing with glee, “I’m serious! That was freaking awesome!”

You had done it! Really done it! But you weren’t done…

After letting go of Dinah, you faced the still floating target. Now you needed to get it to the ground.

“Should I try to get it down?” you asked Dinah, looking to her for validation.

Dinah raised an eyebrow at you, signaling you into the choice of words you’d used.

“Oh… right,” you corrected yourself, “I’m going to get it down.”

Dinah smiled proudly as she put the earbuds back in. Giving you a thumbs up.

Over time, you had made great improvements. Once you’d figured out the source of what made your abilities stronger, it was much easier to tap into them. Target practice became a breeze, and your stamina was becoming impeccable.

At times, various members of the Justice League would come down to watch you train. They liked to claim it was to supervise, but Dinah knew they had all become at least slightly invested in the powerful girl from the lab mission. At first, you’d been nervous at the strangers but eventually it not only became routine but became easier to correct your negative thinking.

The constantly rotating audience allowed you to make new discoveries in your abilities. The more people in the room, the more you had to focus on tuning them out. It would be much worse in the outside world. You once had thought that tuning out others was impossible but J’onn had offered to help you find a solution.

“Your hearing is tied into stress. Learning to tune it out in stressful situations is not impossible,” J’onn had informed you on the day he’d been observing, “but it may take time to master.”

That only made you more determined. You had the support of so many people, and all of them had good intentions it seemed. It was such a different environment from the lab. Everyone brought a different thing to the table, offering advice and techniques. Eventually, your training began to move from the training room to various locations. Whether it be forests, deserts, mountains, beaches, or abandoned buildings, the goal was to get you adaptable to all types of surroundings and stressful situations.

There were still bad days of course, you had a lot to learn. Yet by the eight month mark, you’d progressed further than the lab ever could have even dreamed.

It even came up eventually in discussion to have you try crowd control on a smaller scale mission. Dinah was wary, she wanted to make sure you were ready… but you insisted you wanted to at least try.

No matter what, it was undeniable that your power was growing by the daily.

[nellasbookplanet]

Book recs: many worlds, portal fantasy edition

A typical portal fantasy follows a human from our world who steps through a portal into a magical land (think of narnia). But there are many fun variations of this trope! Sometimes it's the magical people who come to our world; sometimes we get to follow people who have returned from their adventures and are seeking for new meaning; sometimes our world isn't involved at all. As might be assumed, most portal fantasies are fantasy stories, but some lean more toward magical realism, others toward sci-fi. It's a fun spectrum!

I'm separating portal fantasies from alternate timelines/parallel worlds type stories (which will get their own rec post soon-ish). I also generally do not include stories where the character travels to fairyland/land of the dead/etc as those feel like a genre of their own to me, but the lines between them sometimes blur and this is, obviously, a subjective list.

(Titles marked with * are my personal favorites)

Other book rec posts:

Really cool fantasy worldbuilding, really cool sci-fi worldbuilding, dark sapphic romances, mermaid books, vampire books

For more detailed info on the books, continue under the cut.

The Magicians (Magicians trilogy) by Lev Grossman*

You may not have heard of this book, but you have probably heard of the scyfy series of the same name that crashed and burned a few years ago. This is the book it’s based on (pros: it doesn’t end in the same way; cons: it doesn’t feature the juggernaut ship of the show in any major way). For the uninitiated: features what is essentially a (secret) magic university for tormented geniuses. When he finds magic isn't enough to grant him happiness, main character Quentin goes digging into the truth surrounding his favorite childhood books searching for meaning, and finds out that the magical other world they describe might not be so fictional after all.

Stray (Touchstone trilogy) by Andrea K. Höst*

Young adult told through diary entries. Including this as a portal fantasy is a bit of a stretch, but essentially: Cassandra unkowingly walks through a wormhole and lands herself on another planet, where she has to survive on her own until she is rescued. Soon she finds herself embroiled in a war between creatures from dreamlike other dimensions and the people who saved her. Skirts the line between scifi and fantasy (it has psychic space ninjas!), but generally feels mostly like sci-fi. Absolutely fantastic worldbuilding.

In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan*

Young adult. Kids who can walk between our world and a magical one get recruited into a magical school that trains them either to be fighters or sort-of diplomats. Our lead decides that fighting is stupid and that he’s going to peacefully solve every conflict ever, all while being the most delightfully obnoxious little brat possible and getting incolved in the most bisexual love triangle imaginable. Very good, funny, and heart-felt coming of age story.

NPCs (Spells, Swords, & Stealth series) by Drew Hayes*

This one only counts as a portal fantasy on a technicality and on the fact that I love it and this is my list. Follows a group of DnD players whose characters immediately die, forcing them to make new characters, and, parallel to their adventures, a group of NPCs from the fantasy world who find themselves forced to take the place of a party of recently deceased adventurers. The two parties do cross path on occasion, but there aren't actually any portals involved as all characters (mostly) stay in their respective world. A fun and light-hearted adventure that turns a lot of the expected tropes of the genre and of character archetypes on their heads.

The Time of the Dark (The Darwath series) by Barbara Hambly

1982 classic. Medieval history student Gil and biker Rudy are complete strangers, but when they get mixed up with a wizard from another world the two must work together to survive and get back home. Fairly traditional fantasy with its fair share of issues, but! It has cool swordswomen, creepy lovecraftian monsters and also mammoths!

The Twelve Kingdoms by Fuyumi Ono*

Young adult, light novel. Yoko Nakajima is a regular high school student, or at least she was one until a strange man showed up in her school, swore allegiance to her and whisked her away to another world. As the two get separated, Yoko is stuck on her own in a strange world, hunted by humans and demons alike as she travels in search of a way home. Absolute high point of isekai literature, with an incredible main character and really cool and unique worldbuilding (also available as an anime, however I have yet to watch it and can't speak to its quality just yet).

Peter Darling by Austin Chant*

Novella. An older Peter Pan returns to Neverland after years spent in our world, only to find that everything is different. Before he knows it, he finds himself working with his lifelong enemy, Captain Hook. Very gay and very trans, with interesting takes on toxic masculinity. Made my heart ache in the best of ways.

A Curse so Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer

Young adult. A retelling of beauty and the beast, where 'beauty' is a girl brought in from our world to a fantastical one and the narrative focuses a lot on what actually happens to the kingdom when the royal family suddenly disappears, and whether it’s even possible to fall in love with someone you know is deliberately trying to seduce you to break a curse. This is part one of a trilogy, however I'm only really recommending the first book as the second did not work for me at all.

The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials trilogy) by Philip Pullman

Young adult/middle grade, fantasy but has a lot of sci-fi aspects as well. Already well-known and for good reason, the His Dark Materials trilogy starts as what seems a pretty typical fantasy with some cool unique aspects (everyone has a soul-bound animal only they can speak to as their best friend!), and soon veers into a truly one of a kind story. It has magical portals, it has strange worlds with equally strange inhuman creatures, it has physics, it has god murder, it has gay angels, it has tragedy, and it’s very much worth your time.

Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children series) by Seanan McGuire*

A tumblr favorite, the Wayward Children novellas feature a school open to children who have returned from adventures in other realms and now have trouble adapting back to regular life. Some installments are set in our world, others follow children as they have their otherworldly adventures. The main characters vary between books, but are generally pretty diverse with among others asexual, trans, intersexual and sapphic leads. Both funny and dark, it takes a closer look at the trauma many endure growing up different.

Otherside Picnic (Otherside Picnic series) by Iori Miyazawa

Sapphic light novel with a surreal and episodic horror vibe. Following the directions of an urban legend, university student Sorawo finds her way to a reality populated by horrifying creatures from ghost stories and modern urban legends (of which I'm sure you'll recognize many). Here she teams up with fellow explorer Toriko, both to both find out more about this strange world and to help Toriko find a missing loved one. Also available as a manga and (one season of) an anime.

Last Bus to Everland by Sophie Cameron

Young adult. Brody is dealing with a lot, but it all gets a little easier when he meets Nico, who shows him how to access Everland, a magical land where he feels less out of place. But when the doors to Everland start disappearing, Brody must choose which world is really home. I'd categorize this less as fantasy and more as coming of age with a fantasy slant. It's also very gay.

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Surreal and fairy tale-esque, The Starless Sea is stories within a story, following graduate student Zachary as he finds a strange book which, in-between other tales, tells a story from his own childhood. Trying to find out how this came to be, Zachary gets involved with a pink-haired woman and a handsome man who are doing their utmost to protect a strange, otherworldly library available only through magical doors. It's a book hard to put in words, but which I once described as "romantic without being a romance while stile having a love story at it's core", and which can be summed up only as "an Experience". It's also quite gay!

The Memory Theater by Karin Tidbeck

Listen, there’s a whole bunch of Swedish portal fantasies I read growing up that I'm dying to include here, but I'm not because they’re not available in English. The Memory Theater however is available, and is very good. Two children who were stolen into an otherworldly realm that wants them dead fight return to earth, and are followed by one of their captors across universes. The story has the feel of a dark fairy tale, and their captors, while not fey, are very reminiscent of them.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow*

Historical young adult, more magical realism than fantasy. In the early 20th century, January is living under the care of her father's employer while he travels the world searching for valuables and secrets. But both her father and her caretaker are keeping something from her, something about her own family's history. When she one day stumbles upon a strange book, one that speaks of other worlds, she finally sets out to find the truth. However, there are those seeking to stop her and destroy the doors between worlds, no matter what.

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher*

Horror rather than fantasy. After having divorced, Kara moves to stay with her uncle and help him run his museum of curiosities, until one day she discovers a hole in the wall of his house. The hole leads to a strange bunker, and beyond that, a dark and dangerous world beyond her understanding. In the company of a friend, she goes to explore this world, but quickly comes to regret her decision to do so.

The Unspoken Name by A.K. Larkwood*

The sort of portal fantasy you get when all the worlds connected by portals are fantasy worlds, and none of them are ours. The portals themselves become simply a part of the worldbuilding that the characters use to travel between fascinating places, and it's all really cool. It follows Csorwe (lesbian orc assassin whom I love), who grew up in a cult, indoctrinated as a child sacrifice to a god. But on the day she was meant to die, she instead chose to follow a powerful wizard and train to become his loyal servant and sword. Aside from being an excellent fantasy, it's also a close look at the hard path of unlearning indoctrination and the search for love and validation where you'll never find it, and learning to live for yourself.

Odin's Child (the Raven Rings trilogy) by Siri Pettersen

Norwegian (vaguely Norse mythology inspired) young adult. Fifteen-year-old Hirka grew up thinking she simply lost her tail to a wolf attack, but one day she finds out she never had one: she's an Odin's child, a human, sent from another world and rumored to spread rot and ruin wherever she goes. To keep her secret safe, she goes on the run, but there are forces hunting for her, wanting to use her in their war. This reads mostly as a fairly typical epic fantasy, with the portal aspect not playing a major role until the second book.

The Barbed Coil by J.V. Jones

1997 classic. Tessa is a young woman with little going for her, until she stumbles upon a strange ring that transports her to a magical and dangerous other land. Here she meets Ravis, a mercenary who takes it upon himself to protect her, and discover her own special abilities, which she must use against an evil king whose mind has been corrupted and taken over by his crown, the Barbed Coil.

Skeen's Leap (Skeen trilogy) by Jo Clayton

1986 classic. While most portal stories are fantasy, this one has a distinct sci-fi flavour. Skeen is master thief wanted in a myriad solar systems, until her spaceship gets stolen and she's stranded on a backwater planet. Here she hears rumors of ruins leading to a strange other land. Hoping for treasure enough to get her off-planet, Skeen goes in search of this place, but finds herself stuck and unable to get back. This one has a unique, almost stream of consciousness prose that takes a while getting used to, but rewards you with a one of a kind experience.

Inkheart (Inkworld trilogy) by Cornelia Funke

German middle grade/young adult, in which the fantastical other worlds are those told of in books. Young Meggie's father has the ability to, when he reads, bring things and people out of the books, or put other people into said books. However, once having done so, he knows of no way to put anyone back where they belong. Now, years after he accidentally brought the terrible villain Capricorn and his henchmen out of their book, he and his daughter must evade them at all costs or be forced to bring further horrors out of the page and into the world.

Bonus AKA I haven't read these yet but they seem really cool

An Accident of Stars by Foz Meadows

A teenage girl accidentally follows a worldwalker from her world to a magical realm on the brink of civil war. I believe this on has both a major polyamorous relationship and ace/aro characters?

The Sleeping Dragon (Guardians of the Flame series) by Joel Rosenberg

1983 classic. A group of college dnd players find themselves transported to the magical realm they previously thought just a game.

The Wandering Inn by Pirateaba

Webnovel. After having been transported to a magical world, Erin decides to, rather than become a warrior or a mage, start running an inn.

Honorary mentions AKA these didn't really work for me but maybe you guys will like them: The Marked Girl by Lindsey Klingele, The Summer Tree by Guy Gavriel Kay, Child of a Hidden Sea by A.M. Dellamonica, Spellsinger by Alan Dean Foster, The Shattered Gates by Ginn Hale, The Awakening by Nora Roberts, Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor.

[dani-luminae]

what the hell is your actual problem with Starboy???? Like I get not liking him but the whole "Starboy fans don't interact" thing seems like too much

Oh good, I get to rant! Incoming.

My problem is that 4 times out of 5 when I see art that involves Starboy it is almost always at least one of these three things:

1:

Perpetuating the lie that Starboy was going to be a romantic love interest for Asha. He wasn't.

HE WAS HER GRANDFATHER. In the early version of this story that the most popular "Starboy" came from, Sabino had already passed away and Starboy's design is based on a younger version of Sabino!!!!

He wasn't a "tribute to Disney Princes!" or anything like that. He was a Peter Pan-type character, more like the Genie. The whole "Asha and Star are soulmates!" thing is referring to the current Star. And that also reeks of "romantic love means more than family love" which is a whole other bag of worms. Like Asha's grandfather loved her so much he came down from the stars to help her realize her wish, to help others be free from Magnifico. Y'all wanna trade that for a twink that was ripped right out of Booktok?????

Also no, current Star's design wasn't for "marketable plushie" reasons. Current Star's design was based off cherubic stars that appeared in one concept ending for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, seen here, which were implied to be Snow White and the Prince's future children. So, souls - both unborn and deceased - are stars. "We are all made of Stardust" comes right back around, I suppose.

There's is also so much more dazzling Star concept art to regard but somehow, boring blonde boy is the one everyone obsesses over. Gee, I wonder why.

2.

Everything about Starboy is usually used to perpetuate the idea that the movie was "supposed" to be wildly different and more in line with all the tropes of Booktok, often slamming the movie we got. This speaks for itself, unfortunately, and often disrespects the people who actually worked on the movie itself.

No, a romance wouldn't have made a damn thing different in the movie. "Oh, but all of Disney's animated classics involved romance!!!!" Oh really? Someone better tell Pinocchio, Fantasia, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Oliver and Company, Treasure Planet, Moana... the list goes on.

3.

This is the worst one in my mind but I'll admit seems to be the least proliferous... but still so present that I come across it more often than I'd like. Starboy takes up the space that belongs to Asha as the main character of her own movie. And they made not even mean it, but it keeps happening.

Like, I saw an edit with Starboy in the At All Costs scene, where Asha finds Sabino's wish - except instead of Asha finding the wish on her own, Starboy found it and brought it to her. Because I guess it matters more somehow that the sparkly twink found the wish and got it for her than Asha sought it out on her own purely because she loves her grandfather so deeply?

There's also an underlying racism in it all. Why can't the brown-skinned girl be allowed to be her own protagonist and save her own people? Why does a random light-skinned sparkly magic boy have to be involved???????? Oh, because people are convinced it'll make the movie "better" somehow. Right. That sure makes so much sense /sar.

~~~

Misc. thoughts that I couldn't fit in this list:

I'm gonna betray myself here. I love the tropes of "magical being imprisoned and rescued by mortal love interest" and all the angst that can come with that. But I care about characters more, and so often the Starboy inclusion just cheapens Asha's character in order for it to happen. Also why the hell do we need a goofy Starboy? Aren't we tired enough of the "goofy/irresponsible white boy" trope? It's just Peter Pan all over again.

I've seen comments like "we could've had the next Rapunzel and Eugene!" or "the next Howl and Sophie!" and I just. Those couples are still right there???? Go watch their movies. They literally haven't gone anywhere. (Also calling any couple the next "Rapunzel and Eugene" is a wild insult, unless we're referring to the age gap...)

Please don't think for a moment that I'm saying romance weakens a girl's story. It doesn't. Romance is fine! It's just not everything that people say it is and this particular romance is (as a feature, not a bug) so often used to detract from the WOC that we already have as a protagonist just because people went "oooh those two look shippable!!!!" and never did any more research.

Also Simon and Dahlia are right there. Just saying.

~~~

I'd like to reiterate that I am not going looking for this stuff. Unfortunately as my "Realms of Wishes" manips get spread around in the fandom and I like to go glance at other blogs posting about Wish, I just keep finding this stuff. Ugh.

Also yes, out of spite, I did create that banner. Here, catch.

[aceofwhump]

How do you feel abut C-Drama? It's a bit of a tough start as it plays with established wuxia / xianxia tropes & worldbuilding, but The Untamed absolutely owns my heart and certainly isn't short on whump goodness. I mean, it starts with a bleeding, crying guy falling off a cliff (classic!) and "Good news, the fearsome [protagonist] has died! Rejoice!" What's not to love?

The CGI is alright to awful, the costumes are on point, and at least SOME characters will live in your heart and head rent-free. It's a movie mixing a lot of vibes: Murder mystery, horror, comedy, and (censorship-skirting) gay romance. There's quests and secret forbidden techniques, zombies, war, a ton of scheming, badassery / cleverness, and plenty of examples how society creates/destroys/divides heroes and villains, authority figures and outcasts in ways that may have little to do with a person's actual actions or motives... And in terms of whump? Okay, here's a non plot-relevant example: One of my favourite scenes in ep 10 is Wei Wuxian getting choked with a summoned/animated chain. That had me go "oh shit" and "oh yes" (and oh myyy) - and the reveal/payoff as well as the rescue make it even better - but in the long run barely even makes the list of Our Lad Is Goin Thru It.

You know some kind of media where you're fully aware of its flaws, but you love it to bits anyway, because the things it does well it does SO DAMN WELL? (I'm not going into the original novel here, which is awesome in its own right, but maybe not the best first choice for you in particular). The first 2 episodes are confusing a f, but stick with it and you're in for an experience. If you don't mind spoilers, feel free to browse my The Untamed or Wei Wuxian tags.

This got long a f, sorry about that! It's not easy to explain this beautiful desaster of a show. It's not for everyone but it might be just right for you if you've got the time. So I thought I'd ask

I'm totally down for a C-Drama! I haven't seen many but I'm up for anything :) And wow that's a whole lot of stuff going on! Sounds super interesting. Thanks for the rec! And yes I have my own shows that I'm aware are flawed AF but I adore them anyway lol. Just because something might be flawed or whatever doesn't make it not fun. Thanks for your rec! I appreciate people sharing things they love with me :D

Don't even worry about that! Please feel free to plug your blog! Especially if you've got stuff you think I'll enjoy!

[adnirod]

Book 3 for 2025 book bingo: "In the Lives of Puppets” (2024), by TJ Klune.

I chose this for the “Fantasy” square—it has the stage dressing of a far-post-apocalyptic US, with AI/robots and so forth, but it markets itself as a fantasy, and that’s much more its vibe. One of its blurbs calls it “Inspired by Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio, and like Swiss Family Robinson meets Wall-E”. That all comes across spot-on, and I would definitely add The Wizard of Oz, plus the Fallout video games.

It's the story of a young human, Victor, who lives in the forest of “Ory-gone” with his robot father Gio, and two robot companions Victor scavenged and repaired from the giant scrap heaps. The robot companions are a lot of the comic relief: one is Rambo, an anxious and childlike Roomba vacuum; one is Nurse Ratched, a big rectangular health care robot, who issues a lot of deadpan violent threats (especially to Rambo) a la GladOS from the Portal videogames. The inciting incident is Vic uncovering an unfamiliar masculine-humanoid robot in a scrap heap and bringing him home to repair, naming him Hap. Hap’s secret past ends up disrupting the safe forest haven, and they all have to go on a journey of rescue, discovery, and memory.

I wish I had enjoyed this book more! I really am in the mood for gentleness, working together, loving and helping one another, etc. And this book is primo Found Family from the get-go—conflict comes from the outside and from the past, while the group all tries their best to survive together and protect each other and all that good stuff. I liked the fairy-taleish touch to the sci-fi, with Vic repairing/creating robot power sources with elegantly shaped wood and setting them working with a drop of blood; it had some lovely imagery. I liked the depth and warmth of the father-son dynamic between Gio and Vic; I liked the Rambo & Nurse Ratched banter at first, although it’s so largely one-note that it did get tiring before the end.

But what I really missed was any actual characterization to the central pair (who become a pairing), Vic and Hap (Hap especially). I like a well done romance! But I didn’t enjoy this one, sadly. They don’t change from the start to the end, so there’s no motion to their dynamic, what should be a mutual discovery and coming-together. If this were fanfic, I might be bringing my own knowledge of the characters and pairing with me, but as it is, the book needs to construct it for me or give me the material to do so, and it doesn’t.

Hap in particular—he starts out as, and remains, a stereotype of a tall-dark-and-grumpy love interest, always surly and scowling (the word scowl is used SO MUCH in conjunction with Hap throughout the book that I was allergic by the end), while occasionally displaying a desperate (surly, scowling) desire to protect Vic. Vic is fascinated by Hap and physically flustered by closeness to him; Hap’s protectiveness makes him squirm and blush. Rinse and repeat. Eventually they kiss.

As somone who’s written fanfic of human/robot ships, this book could have been right up my alley! But it doesn’t seem to engage with free will at all, the question of AI and consent, robot subjectivity, etc. In fact, Hap’s only character note, protect Victor, is actually given to him explicitly very early on in the book by Gio! So how much am I supposed to understand Hap’s protectiveness as part of a personality and a harbinger of loving emotions, the way Vic reads it? The book doesn’t help me out there.

It has some classic tropes, especially “there was only one [confined space] and they have to snuggle in it” (a crate, a bed). But even though I do love me a trope, I wasn’t enjoying them here, which is disappointing. I wanted some of this unpacked, I guess… I wanted the characters to unfold and blossom, I wanted their interactions to become more complex thus making their connection more layered. But as with the sidekick robots, it just hits the same note over and over. So, if you enjoy big helpings of these particular single notes, you should really enjoy this book, and I hope you do.

@batmanisagatewaydrug

[samanthahirr]

Oooh, 7 or 20 for the writer meta asks, please! 💜

Thank you so much for this ask, Ani! Fun Meta Asks for Writers

#7 - What do you think are the characteristics of your personal writing style? Would others agree?

Oooo, this is a tough one! I did quite a bit of thinking about this topic at the turn of the year. After a lot of soul-searching, I’ve determined what I think my strengths are as a writer: I know what makes a satisfying story/plot, I can deliver strong pacing and structure and parallels and themes. I bring the unreliable narrators and surprises, and all the side characters in my stories have their own motivations. I work hard to develop tension and conflict and believable characterizations. 

But what’s probably most-distinctive about my writing “style” is economy. I sketch an environment with a couple adjectives and then move on. I drizzle in exposition only when it’s needed/relevant. I don’t stray down side-alley tangents or linger in descriptions and introspection; I keep the story moving. And my writing is (deceptively) straight-forward: similes are rare, and my prose is direct as opposed to poetic. But just because it’s direct doesn’t mean the narrator is impartial in his observations, or being honest with himself (cough * Off the Books * cough).

Also, my spelling & grammar are always ON POINT.

Would others agree? Fuck, I have no idea. Some yes, some no. Shout-out to all the readers who have commented on my believable characterizations and intense planning/plotting! Shout-out to all the readers who were swayed by my unreliable narrators’ opinionated perception of their world and ended up hating characters I didn’t mean to be hated! Shout-out to all the readers who missed my foreshadowing or didn’t understand the theme! All of these comments inspire me to try harder with the next story.

#20 - Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

I love this meta question so much! What a great opportunity to peek behind the curtain of the fics I’ve most-loved to write! A few months ago I posted a 30k hurt/comfort-and-pining story called Please Ask (for Help), and I’m really proud of the choice I made for the romance arc and the late additions I made to the story outline to develop it.

The story is set over 10 days, in which Q gets struck by an SUV on his cycling commute, and Bond cuts a mission short so he can support Q during his first week of post-surgery convalescence. Bond is already in love with Q since well-before the fic starts, and he spends those 10 days of intimate care-taking secretly pining for Q, determined to conceal his feelings from his injured coworker. 

I started writing the fic with a brisk, shallow approach to the pining, sticking solely to the present-day, taking it for granted that James Bond was simply in love. (I thought it would be a 15k story. Hah!) I wrote the opening scene of the fic, and Bond thinks to himself, “Four months ago, James would have voiced every filthy double entendre that crossed his mind.” And when I wrote that line, I knew it was a keeper…and also that I would have to eventually produce an answer for what happened “four months ago,” which meant another phase of brainstorming!

Clearly, four months ago was the moment Bond realized he was in love with Q, but what spurred Bond’s realization? Was it something dramatic—an action scene or a kidnapping or a brilliant rescue? Did Bond get jealous of Q dating someone else? Did he catch Q naked, or did Q put another agent in their place with devastating sarcasm, or did Q do something that reminded Bond of Vesper? So many classic tropes I considered. But this was going to be a quiet, soft story about building trust and embracing vulnerability, so I didn’t want anything dramatic or sudden or violent fueling the romance. 

Instead, I chose to base Bond’s love on Q’s fallibility; Q’s characterization changed to that of a man too young for his promotion, who puts up an arrogant front of unimpeachable competence around his coworkers as a defense mechanism—an aloof act so convincing that Bond didn’t even consider Q a friend for the first months of their acquaintance. Not until Bond glimpsed Q’s weaknesses, a few rare moments of embarrassment that made Q feel like a real person to Bond. Over the course of the story, I interjected four short memories, each building the backstory of what it was about Q that made Bond fall for him: Q laughing at himself over a wrong answer at a pub quiz; Q asleep and drooling at his desk; Q distractedly pouring salt into his tea instead of sugar; and Q so engrossed in his work that he doesn’t realize he’s wearing his jumper inside-out. All moments when Bond got to see the real Q behind his proud work facade, made Bond want to shield Q from embarrassment, and made Bond recognize Q as someone human and worth adoring.

So I wanted to highlight those four memories in this meta post because they add a rich history to Bond’s feelings, and it’s easy to miss some of them amid the stresses of Bond’s present-day care-taking and Q’s physical challenges. And Q’s fallibility as the source of Bond’s love juxtaposes really nicely with Q’s initial resentment and humiliation at being so helpless and vulnerable in front of 007 post-accident—a delicious irony I used to torture Bond repeatedly! But over the course of Q’s convalescence, Q grows comfortable being vulnerable in front of Bond (as Q never would have been at work), illustrating how Q’s feelings for Bond are developing. And I really love how that soft emotional story line plays out in the fic, supporting the convalescence arc and building to the inevitable get-together. 

[echoes-lighthouse]

I’d love to read about your BNHA world ships and dynamics! 💞☕️🛌🪐💘🙈 - rnm-magicspace-xsd (I also really love BNHA so I got a bit overexcited and chose a lot of questions, but I’m looking forward for reading your take on your life with those dear lovers/found family members!)

Thank you so much @rnm-magic-space-xsd!!! I'm super duper in love with this ask game so all of the questions are soooo welcome! I love imagining what the 'canon' version of these selfships would look like.

Because I have three different BNHA canons, I'll just do a quick little recap before I dive in!

Caregiver Echo: paired with Shigaraki, my self-insert is a magazine editor and the plotline is more about Shigaraki's recovery arc

Silvertongue Echo: paired with Toshinori, our romance is a background arc to the canon plot: my self-insert is a teacher at a school for the deaf/hoh

Cat's Paw Echo: paired with Toga but also in a polycule with most League members, aligns with the canon plot with some shifts: my self-insert is another member of the League of Villains

--

💞: Aside from with your f/o, who else would you commonly be shipped with? Why?

Caregiver Echo: answered here

Silvertongue Echo: hard to say! They're a relatively minor character: some people might pair them with Hizashi because of the sign language element. In my heart they should maybe be shipped with Nezu but I don't think anyone else would agree with that lol

Cat's Paw Echo: I think fans would just not really like them because they're a bit fanservicey?? But maybe they'd get shipped with both Toga and Ochako because Toga/Ochako is obviously OTP material so why not OT3 with the canon pair? Maybe also Mr. Compress because they get along well?

☕️: What are the most common plots of shipping fics between you and your f/o? 🪐: What would be your most popular AU and why?

I accidentally answered ☕️as 🪐 so here we go!

Caregiver Echo: Fantasy AUs are really popular for some reason? People are just really here for evil!prince!Shigaraki, I think. There's also a few childhood friend AUs or flipped roles where I'm evil and Shigaraki is just an innocent out there and I kidnap him >:)

Silvertongue Echo: mostly just a lot of different meet-cutes! People write about us meeting when Toshi's in hero form because we never interacted as Echo and All Might in canon. So lots of AUs where we meet with him rescuing me.

Cat's Paw Echo: non-Quirk High School AUs get written a fair amount, also a lot of omegaverse :V

🛌💘🙈 are under the cut because I'm chatting a lot!!!!! I really super appreciate this ask and it is so much fun to answer them beside each other!

🛌: What tropes show up in fics involving your ship?

I'm sooo bad at knowing what tropes are so I'm sorry if my answers suck :P

Caregiver Echo: I mean the whole relationship is a bit cliche so it's tropes all the way down! The fics go more into the kink stuff but it's a bit 50/50 on who they make the dom/sub in the pair. Aside from that, all the usual 'villain redemption' tropes!

Silvertongue Echo: People really lean into my mental health in the fics and write a lot of hurt/comfort with me struggling with depression and things that come with that. And as I said, lots of meetcutes.

Cat's Paw Echo: lots of romantic blood drinking and trauma coping and sharing sad backstories

💘: Why would people love your ship? Why would people dislike your ship? How might it start debates? 🙈: Why would your ship be thought of as cute/fluffy? Why would your ship be considered problematic?

Hahahahaha oh THIS is a fun one: I have to answer them at the same time because they're similar answers!

Caregiver Echo: A classic story of love and redemption!!! Take care of that sad crusty boy! The masses love to see it! As I mentioned, we're ambiguously romantic in the canon content (some fans interpret it as platonic) so we are a VERY debated ship. There's an age gap and Shigaraki is clearly not familiar with interpersonal relationships so some people argue it would be creepy to ship it romantically, while others say it's encouraging the 'afab character saves dangerous man from his own emotions' story

Silvertongue Echo: I think people who dislike this ship just think it's boring and unnecessary to the plot? Adding romance is disrespectful to the point of the story, etc. But I'm sooo charming that most people like the ship anyways: we've got a sweet plot and we win most people over to our side! We don't get a lot of discourse: some people pick a fight with our age gap but it's not really noticeable from our designs so a lot of people forget about it tbh and also I'm a proper adult so who cares aside from the real sticklers

Cat's Paw Echo: Ohohoho big discourse on this one! My character is two years older than Toga which technically makes it an adult/minor relationship and that is Big Discourse, and then other League members are even older, so that's double discourse for the people who ship it as a poly thing. Evil gay people is also a point of discourse between me and Magne and Toga being all canon queer and basically no canon queer heroes. All of that said, people who see themselves in the outcast group and just want to run around like feral villains and get loved for being themselves without making themselves 'normal' go wild for the League and also for our ship!!!

[parasprite]

my thing about the dark romance genre of fiction is that though i do think it's unequivocally a good thing that people (in this case usually straight women) have fun and safe outlets for darker, "taboo" sexual fantasies, i do not think modern dark romance fiction in itself is all that transgressive.

i feel like a lot of the tropes common in dark fiction (capable but naive, often virginal female lead; strong, masculine male lead who takes what he wants by force; obsession, jealousy, possessiveness; power differences; kidnapping; dubious consent; a beastly man being "tamed" by love; a delicate girl being protected or rescued) are things we've been reading about and seeing in plays and movies for as long as fiction has been around. in everywhere from old erotica to shakespeare plays to star wars. i think these tropes are actually very normalised in fiction. it's the same like, classic gender roles, objectifying women type of stuff that's been around in our culture forever.

i think most fans of modern dark romance would defend it by saying it's mostly written by female authors which is true and that's great, like, more power to these authors and their fans for finding a niche they love and enjoy. i still don't think dark romance is transgressive. twilight came out like two decades ago and it was an all-time best seller, and fifty shades was hot on its heels and nowadays i feel like a whole ton of young adult and new adult bestsellers fall into the dark romance genre - it's not that unusual or strange or taboo any more. it's mainstream, and on top of that its genre tropes have been mainstream forever. yknow? is it really that fresh and new for people to write fiction about these kind of fantasies? i don't think so. and is it really that feminist or countercultural to see these same misogynistic tropes play out, but this time with a female author? i don't know