#writing notice

[babeydollx]

🎀🎄 Kinkmas 2023 🎄🎀

So, I was going to do Kinkcember but, since I already know I won't be able to do all 31 days this month because of my schedule, I decided I would do Kinkmas instead. So, I will not be starting Kinkmas until December 14th. This way the 12th day will end on December 25th.

I will list below what I will be doing for all 12 days. (Dec. 14th-25th)

!THIS IS NOT THE MASTERLIST! JUST A HEADS UP/NOTICE!

01. BREEDING ♡ Billy Hargrove (dec 14th)

02. TIT FUCKING ♡ Damon Salvatore (dec. 15th)

03. THIGH RIDING ♡ William Afton (dec. 16th)

04. VIRGINITY ♡ Steve Harrington (dec. 17th)

05. NIPPLE PIERCINGS ♡ JJ Maybank (dec. 18th)

06. PRAISE KINK ♡ Mike Schmidt (dec. 19th)

07. SQUIRTING ♡ Maddy Perez (dec. 20th)

08. CHOKING + SPITTING + HAIR PULLING ♡ Eddie Munson (dec. 21st)

09. DEGRADING KINK ♡ Dean Winchester (dec. 22nd)

10. HICKEYS ♡ Sarah Cameron (dec. 23rd)

11. ROUGH SEX ♡ Kai Parker (dec. 24th)

12. ROLEPLAY ♡ Rafe Cameron (dec. 25th)

I will be posting other Christmas fics before December 25th and while I am doing Kinkmas so stay tuned for that too, xoxo 💗

[bluemoonbun]

Reader is implied to like feminine things, though gender identity is kept ambiguous.

Damian was a good brother. That’s what he always told himself. He was a good brother, a good son. He was cold, rude, and erudite, but he was able and willing to help anyone who needed it.

When he arrived at Wayne manor, Bruce told him the general run down of why you were to be avoided when it came to anything vigilante related. You were still pure, a year younger than Damian but without any of the pain. The only one in the Wayne manor that could have a shot at becoming a normal person. Damian envied that, but kept it to himself. His anger often boiled to the top, drops of green venom dripping from his mouth when you tried to annoy him into spending time with you.

Your complaints of him ignoring you was scalding water on his already raw nerves. Why would you complain about not being the center of attention for five damn seconds? He would trade anything for the life you had. A life where you could lay around after school and never worry about a rogue bullet lodging itself in your arm, or a poisonous plant releasing psychedelic spores into an open wound.

You could and would never join the Robins. You were weak; it was in your blood. Always sickly, always the pacifist. You wouldn't survive a day in his life. And you weren't living his life; you were living his dream.

But apparently the effort the family was putting in wasn’t enough.

He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t noticed that the manor felt… off about two weeks before the fight with Joker. He couldn’t trace it for the life of him at first. When he realized by the second week that he hadn’t spoken to you in days, or really seen you around the manor at all, he wrote off the worms writhing in his stomach. You must’ve been busy with a class assignment and had little time to annoy him with your demands of time together.

After the fight, however, he was a war of a thousand emotions. How dare you leave them? Why would you turn away an easy life fat on nepotism for a group of murderers, con men, the dredges of Gotham’s society?

Were you truly that desperate to be acknowledged that you’d turn your back on the family who did everything for you? He hopes you’re happy there, since you were clearly so upset at not being given attention.

Over time, however, things start to change. A few days after Jason made a full recovery, Damian looked at one of the drones Tim managed to get a chunk of code from. It took a lot of trial and error, and the development of an entirely new program to grab some of the code before it bricked itself, and enough all nighters and energy drinks that any doctor would faint, but it was managed. The code was dense, optimized to work with the least bloat possible, well tagged variables, and even a handful of comments in the code.

//Buy Bane those Boston Donuts from the donut shop on 5th //Why does this code need to be here so it doesn’t auto brick itself. What is in the code protecting it from the wrath of God //Louie likes Texas barbecue ribs. Possible treat? //DO NOT FEED THEM WHOLE RIBS. COOKED BONES BAD. //SINCE WHEN WAS THIS VARIABLE A STRING??? IT WAS AN INT 5 LINES AGO //Help the hopeless lesbians get together. //Would Harley and Ivy dating make Harley my mom or Ivy my big sister? Both???

His eyes skimmed the retrieved comments, laughing at a few. It seems that Bane, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn were the most common subjects of the notes, though a few mentioning the Iceberg lounge asking what non-alchoholic drink you’d like added, or Riddler offering you another puzzle to keep your mind active. Even Joker was mentioned, though it seemed mostly transactional.

It was strange seeing you in this light. You seemed to have a lot of spice in you, but a heart made of gold. You were definitely surprised whenever one othe villains offered to take you on some trip to amusement parks, regular parks, even just willingly watching anime with you. It was odd to see. Surely someone at the house did those things with you? He didn’t but he was extremely busy with school and vigilantism. Jason was legally dead, so surely he had all the time in the world.

“How was I supposed to relate to them? They’re what, 12 and into shit like that one with the cat looking dog thing and the robot girl. I have shit to do. Y’know, managing Crime Alley?”

Well, Dick had come over to hang out plenty of times. Surely he’d spent at least a few hours with you every now and then? “I have an entire team and criminals to manage of in another city, Damian. I don’t have as much time as you think to do whatever it was with them they’d wanted to do”

Maybe Tim? “I have college and stuff, Damian. And I don’t have the energy to put into hanging around them. I’d probably just be sleeping most of the time.

Bruce? “I have to manage you, Gotham, and the Justice League, Damian. I barely have time for myself.”

… Alfred? “I tried, Master Damian. However I’m constantly pulled thin between so many tasks. Besides, all you have is school most days, and you’ve had summer vacations and weekends. Shouldn’t you’ve had plenty of time to spend with your younger sibling?”

… He did have the most time outside of vigilantism. And it took him a week to realize you were missing.

You had to realize that they were under extreme stress though, right?He couldn’t spend all his free time with you. He had his own friends to hang out with. How were you two even supposed to relate?

One day at dinner, the thoughts were thrashing in his head, slamming against soft tissue and tearing through brain matter. He aimlessly poked at the food on his plate.

“You alright, replacement?” Jason asked, pausing in his extremely rare dinners with everyone else. Alfred had promised him a tray of fudge to take home this time around, and nobody made fudge quite as good as he did.

“… They were gone for two weeks.”

Everyone stopped eating as he continued.

“Two weeks. Two full weeks before they showed up at that fight. Did anyone here even know? I only noticed after a week and assumed they were just holed up in their room with a class assignment or something.” He was rambling. Everyone was quiet and looking at each other. How did it manage to slip past everyone? They were detectives, for Christ’s sake.

They were your family.

—

Dinner ended with guilt wrapping around their throats and pulling.

Eventually, all of them found themselves in your room. It had been emptied, but showed no signs of struggle. All the small items, the comforter, and your clothes were gone. But what was taken left something behind. Copies of photos of you winning state level competitions, letters requesting your attendance at seminars, photos of gold medals and blue ribbons spread across the floor. Most damning of all was the most recent photo. A certificate by some big time tech company being handed to you. Edward Nashton stood behind you, a firm, reassuring hand on your shoulder.

When had this happened? They never remembered hearing of something like this. A news clipping on the back told them it was maybe a week before you left.

“The Wayne prodigy stated that their family had more important things to see to than such an occasion. I can’t imagine something more important that either of my kids being recognized by a multi-million dollar tech company! I remember postponing an anniversary with my husband to celebrate our child placing second in the science fair. But I guess that’s just the Waynes for you!”

That’s just the Waynes to you.

But it’s ok. He can make it better. He can be a good big brother. He can spend time watching anime with you and decorating your room with lace and fairy lights and go makeup shopping with you. You just need to come home. Now.

---------------- Taglist! Ask to be added! Edit: It is now closed!

@jjsmeowthie , @jsprien213 , @ladyrosemone

[irafook]

Ok, but listen. Harry goes back in time and decides to get rid of Tom Riddle AU, but the sorting hat goes like ??? when it reads Harry's mind. Idk it just irks me how the sorting hat is so understanding in most time travel fics, at best it puts Harry in a house he didn't want to be. But just imagine if it actually tells on Harry, full great hall drama with the hat going like "HE'S HERE TO MURDER SOMEONE"

And ofc Tom is instantly obsessed with the murder boy.

Extra:

(ofc the poor hat is not broken, it's on the verge of a nervous breakdown)

[tossawary]

I just know in my heart of hearts that in "Star Trek" at one point, there was some moral panic somewhere on Vulcan (among the uppity sorts) because Human culture was "infecting" the local youth with their overly emotional, destructive, unproductive, frivolous, and uneducational ways.

And what was actually happening was that a bunch of Vulcan kids got really into 23rd-century "Minecraft" or something.

Small Vulcan child @ another Vulcan child: (in a tone that sounds flat to Humans but angry as hell to Vulcans) "You have compromised the optimization of my fortress. I am having an emotional urge to blow up your house... in Minecraft."

[rayactive-factory]

happy homosuck

[fandomfuntimem]

Dp x dc imposter but not really au.

Ok, so, basicly. Its the usual batfam member knew Danny as a kid au. He was close with them, basicly part of the family.

They get seperated for a while for whatever reason, and eventually they all see eachother again. But Danny is different. Tired, paranoid, he's far more grim than he used to be. His face never seems right, the shadows bend to bow to him, the stars shine to illuminate him, the air around him is cold. His smile is always too wide, too toothy. His eyes are too bright. His feet are too quiet.

The batfam comes to the only rational conclusion. Danny has been replaced or possessed by some demonic entity. Shenanigans ensue as they desperately try to exorcise this demon in every way they can.

Meanwhile, Danny didn't realise just how religious the Wayne's were. Crosses? Drinking holy water? Random prayers? Not even just one god, any god. Hmm, maybe they had some sort of religious awakening while he was gone. Who knows.

[baeshijima]

thoughts on being engaged to duke!sunday, the head of the oak family, an incredibly influential figurehead within society, the close subordinate of emperor gopher wood who brought him and his sister in and raised him like his own, and the villain who faces a tragic ending in a novel you recently finished — the very same one you just so happen to find yourself transmigrated into. he is as cunning as he is blinded, a trait which brought ruin to many in the empire, and one which ultimately brought ruin to himself at the hands of the protagonists.

as luck would have it, you became a barely mentioned side character from a marquis family, whose role was to be the villain's wife stuck in a one-sided love who, too, would get caught up in the tragedy alongside him. however, now that it's you who is stuck in this position, you're determined to try any means necessary to deter him from going down that path, all in an effort to escape your predestined doomed fate!

of course, you didn't expect it to be easy. the day of your arrival in this world was already the night before your wedding, so you had little time to prepare yourself for the nonchalance of your supposed family, how they viewed you as but a means — a tool — to boost their influence and prosperity, the dismissive mannerisms of the household servants, and the absolute beauty of a man you will be married to.

(seriously. the novel descriptions did not do him justice. he was like... like... like he was handcrafted by god himself! and not to mention his sister, robin, was the very epitome of an angel! perhaps you're destined to perish by the god-tier visuals instead...)

to say the least, the wedding ceremony went by quickly. safe to say you didn't spend the night; he was cordial and gentlemanly upon letting you know that he won't do anything until you're ready, that you can take this relationship slow, but somehow you ended up feeling a tad insulted. like, who leaves their newly wedded alone in a big cold bed as they walk out on their own? a sick bastard that's who!

well, whatever. it's not like you need nor want to consummate with him! besides, you have bigger things to worry about — things such as your impending death. and, of course, the only way to stop sunday that you can imagine working is by chipping away at his resolve bit by bit, and opening his eyes to reality.

he is a tragic character, one who cares more about the well-being of penacony and its people than anyone else, but was manipulated into getting his hands dirty in the emperor's stead. you knew this. you sobbed over his story, cursed out the protagonists, and even fought internet randos on novel forums about sunday's motivation and how,

no, he is not just a stupid villain. he is a complex character with flaws and humanity and was cruelly taken advantage of by someone he considered family. he was deceived through the suffering the emperor wanted him to see to make him easily manipulated, creating a rift between him and robin to have that prominent separation. you know what? maybe you're just a !%#@ who can't even #@?"% read properly!

and yet you still find yourself at a loss when faced with the walls he has in place. your initial efforts went as well as it possibly could have; you trying to earnestly help him, while he "kindly" dismisses your offers! well, "kindly" being more condescending since you could read between the lines of his mannerisms and amiable demeanour, but that's fine! you expected this! that just means you have to double down on your sincerity, get through to his heart (somehow), and help him realise humanity isn't as weak as he's led to believe!

you have three years until the novel's plot officially starts, and another year after that until your demise. that's plenty of time to get him to warm up to you!

it was easier said than done, but after your valiant effort and abundance of time put into this relationship, which admittedly you could do with some of that lost time back, you could give yourself a pat on the back with the progress you made! while you definitely could have done without a lot of the headaches, it's safe to say sunday has significantly warmed up to you in comparison to your wedding day. he now willingly eats all his meals with you with some real conversation, takes garden strolls with you in the early evenings, invites you out for dinner at a restaurant at least four times a week, hell he's even joked and laughed with you more frequently! but most importantly, he has begun asking for your opinion before finalising any decisions he is required to make. and he actually listens and considers your side! now, that certainly is the best outcome you could hope for after all this time, and it most definitely will help in your endeavour to save you both from the protagonists!

however, you've noticed he's been more... affectionate? well, at the very least he now willingly holds your hand when in private (not just in moments when you're in the public eye and he has to make sure the family's reputation is spotless), sometimes he will hug you out of the blue ("i just need to... recharge. you have a way of calming me down. i hope you don't mind." ...how could you say no to his supreme god-tier face card? that's just a losing battle you won't even bother fighting against.), oftentimes he opts to just gaze wordlessly at you (robin had mentioned over one of your tea times how it almost appears as though there is no one but you in the world when sunday gazes at you with, in her words, "the eyes of a man so deeply in love!" ...whatever that's supposed to mean...), but a more recent development has been his sudden interest in kissing you; well, more specifically giving you a kiss to the back of your hand or on your forehead — certainly not anywhere near the lips! (besides, he's probably just gotten comfortable with you, enough where he can freely act without judgement. nothing more, nothing less.)

well, either way, development is development! soon enough, the time for the main plot to start has arrived. it of course follows what you remember, from the organised balls to the protagonists meeting to the political aspects of it all. the only difference is sunday's less active involvement in all the schemes and the emperor's ploy. rather, he seems more focused on you and the future of your marriage and even displayed a sudden interest in your practically non-existent relationship with one of the foreign diplomats, aventurine— wait...

"[name]," he calls your name out so sweetly you nearly disregarded it as someone else he was talking to. well, perhaps you would have done had he not suddenly appeared before you, a tight-lipped smile tugging the corners of his lips as he steadily approaches you.

oh. he doesn't seem very happy, if his tense figure is anything to go by. you wonder if one of the nobles grated his nerves a little too much this time?

sunday comes to a halt a step away from you. "i don't like that... gambler being so close to you. it... it brings me a rather unpleasant feeling." there's a slight, trembling pause. not a moment later does he close the gap between you, one knee on the ground as he matches your seated height on the fountain rim, your hands gently enclosed in both of his.

you idly wonder if this is what robin meant by the so-called "eyes of a man so deeply in love" she constantly gushed about, for the way in which he gazes up at you is enough to render you breathless.

"tell me, [name]," he begins once more. there is an underlying desperation woven within his tone, one which has your head spinning and heart thumping wildly as his trembling gaze holds you in place. "tell me, what am i to do with this fervent love and overwhelming adoration i hold for you?"

oh.

...oh.

perhaps your impending doom should be the least of your concerns when you now find yourself in the arms of a clingy husband...

(though, it's safe to say you did, in fact, manage to prevent him from succumbing to his tragic fate! you just gained a loving, yet slight slightly emotionally challenged husband along the way.

well, you can help him work through it; you have the rest of your lives now to figure it out, after all.)

[asavt]

[ Your Truth. Your Lie ] (Comic Version.)

Hello hello! I come here to leave the little humble offering of the result of around three days of work (a little more if you take in count the fic version but aahhh....)

This has become an AU btw, not sure if I'll do the other parts since I still got to take care of my thesis and what not. But the other written parts are... in progress.

Anyways, here's the fic version too!

[bluerosefox]

Protective Instincts

Hmmmmmmmmm

Idea.

So we all mostly headcanon that Jason was around tiny Damian when in the League right? And if we do demon!twins or siblings Danny they meet too?

Well what if, now hear me out, what if while taking care of them Jason notices early on how Danyal, or as he likes to be called Danny, doesn't seem to have the heart to be an assassin compared to Damian. And even under the pits influence and the LOA teachings, Jason's protective instincts of protecting kids is still strong. And notices how... lack the protection around Danny is compared to Damian, the true heir.

What if, when Jason leaves the League to start his revenge against Bruce, he fakes Danny's death by killing off the little 'guards' he did have and takes the kid with him.

But as he goes to Gotham Jason has to decide.

Drop the kid off in a good family, give him a new identity and keep him hidden or keep the kid and raise them?

[terapsina]

I've noticed a lot of people advise writers to read their stories aloud. And I absolutely agree. But I've also mostly seen people mention it in like a 'you'll better notice where there are little mistakes, and where the phrasing is awkward' way. Which, again, is absolutely true.

But that's a 'read the story aloud to see what's wrong with it' advice.

And I think there's maybe an even more important reason to read your fic aloud.

It will show you all the things that are RIGHT about your story.

Because there inevitably comes a point where you've read your own story in your head so many times that all the words are a bland mush that will leave you convinced that there's absolutely nothing interesting or good in your writing.

And if you go back to it many months later, you might realize... oh, this is a pretty interesting fic. And that's because the brain has had time to forget every tiny detail of phrasing you came up with, and you can actually read it like a reader, not the author.

But that road takes months, and until then, you might be inherently convinced that the story is literally the absolute worst thing you've ever written.

But... WHEN YOU READ ALOUD, you automatically start giving the words inflection, inflection that, when you're reading something that you haven't written yourself, you kind of hear even when reading quietly. But for your own story, all that inflection and weight has been sucked out by way too many rereads while you were looking for grammatical errors. The fastest way to be able to see it again? To hear it.

Anyway, read aloud to defeat the monster on your shoulder telling you your writing sucks.

[quadrantadvisor]

Even after learning their secret identities, the hero community always insisted that there was something inhuman about the bats. No one doubted that their intensive training had a lot to do with it, but it never quite explained how they could evade a Kryptonian's super senses, how they could melt into shadows, how they could function so long with little food, little rest, little oxygen if need be. Most people dismissed their uneasy feelings, but there was something strange about the bats, something uncanny, something that made them different from the arrows and other vanilla human members. And, slowly enough that no one really noticed, it was getting stronger.

Until one day, during a diplomatic meeting with the ruler of the Infinite Realms, when High King Phantom turned to Batman and his brood and literally brightened. "Oh! I didn't know you had liminal members!"

Or: through a variety of factors (proximity to death, their own death/near death experiences, exposure to the Lazarus Pits, the favor of Lady Gotham, immersion in Gotham's own cursed ambient ectoplasm, being a close knit group who continued to expose eachother, etc.) the batfamily have been becoming liminal/ecto-contaminated without noticing. The powers they're developing have been subtle, and align with the skills they expect to have, so no one brought it up when they started being able to hold their breath beyond human limitations, or got so sneaky that they literally seemed invisible, or had a lucky miss when they expected a bullet to go right through them. And they always exuded an unsettling aura of fear, so no one else thought anything was out of the ordinary either. By the time they meet Danny, Gotham counts as one of the most fiercely defended ghost haunts on the planet, with so many territorial liminals patrolling the streets.

[generalsdiary]

Sunday mannerisms I noticed during the 2.7 livestream

when he finds something funny or amusing but doesn't laugh out loud - his right wing twitches

when he is happy or joyous - his left wing twitches

when he is flustered, shy or laughing out loud - both wings twitch

[dootznbootz]

Sorry, not sorry but I see this too often and it bothers me :)

Before people get mad: Notice how I put “Me and Penelope fans” there? I know there's others. this ain't about you <3

edit: This is about how people in the fandom prioritize Odysseus and Telemachus (and even Diomedes, who is not in the Odyssey) despite the Odyssey also being HER story as well. I've seen many fics about Odysseus and Telemachus in their youth, and never really seen that for Penelope.

[yois2aki]

you watched from across the room as caleb laughed, CALEB's eyes sparkling with amusement as he spoke to a girl from his class. her voice was high-pitched and bubbly, and she was leaning in just a little too close, making you feel an odd tightness in your chest. you didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but it was hard to ignore the way they interacted—so carefree, so… effortless.

you found yourself shrinking back, feeling small and uncertain in the corner of the room. you had always known caleb was popular, had always been the center of attention wherever he went, but something about the way he was so engaged with her made you feel… invisible.

maybe it was the way she touched his arm when she laughed or the way she smiled at him, a look that made your heart twist. you’d never seen that expression directed at you, not in that way. you couldn’t help but wonder if it was something that would eventually lead to more.

“maybe i’m just overthinking it,” you whispered to yourself, but the thoughts kept creeping back in. what if he liked her? what if he was just being nice to you because he felt obligated? your insecurities bubbled to the surface, a wave of doubt flooding your mind.

you tried to distract yourself, but your gaze kept flicking back to them. caleb was laughing again—genuinely, without a care in the world—and your heart sank lower.

you hadn’t noticed how much time had passed until you heard the door to the classroom swing open. caleb appeared at the threshold, a playful smirk tugging at his lips. he spotted you almost immediately, his purple eyes narrowing in amusement as he strolled over to your desk.

“what's up?” he asked, leaning down to rest his elbows on your desk. “you’re lookin' a little… off today. somethin' on your mind?” his voice was light, teasing, as if he could read your thoughts.

you avoided his gaze, your fingers nervously fidgeting with the edge of your notebook. “no, i’m fine.”

“really?” he leaned closer, and you could feel the heat of his presence as he playfully poked at your arm. “because you’ve been starin' at me all class like i’m about to jump off a cliff or something.”

your face flushed, but you didn’t say anything. should you tell him? you weren’t sure how to put your feelings into words, especially when the doubts swirling in your mind felt so silly.

caleb raised an eyebrow, sensing your hesitation. “you know, i’m pretty good at readin' people. and you,” he grinned mischievously, “you’ve got a whole storm brewing in that head of yours.”

you tried to force a smile, but it came out shaky. “it’s nothing.”

caleb straightened up, studying you with that intense look he always had when he was being serious. “come on, don’t do this to me. talk to me.” he was so persistent, but there was an edge to his voice, one that made your heart beat faster.

“it’s just…” you hesitated, unsure of how to phrase it. “i saw you with her, that new blonde girl from whatever class. and, i don’t know, i just… got a little worried.”

his brows furrowed, he paused for a moment only to let out a loud chuckle right after. “worried about what?”

“i don’t know, maybe that… you just looked so… comfortable with her.” you admitted, the words tumbling out before you could stop them.

a moment of silence made its way between you two, and when you looked up at his eyes, he had the boyish grin plastered on his face. “why are you looking at me like— you did that on purpose, didn't you?!”

you looked at him with a frustrated expression, like you had his scheme all figured out.

caleb blinked, stunned for a second, before his expression softened, and he spoke up with the most annoying voice he could. “what, are you… jealous?”

you shifted uncomfortably in your seat. “no.” you mumbled, back to avoiding his gaze. embarrassment filled your being due to falling for such an obvious plan.

you knew, deep down, that he would never willingly flirt with another girl. it wasn't his nature. yet, it felt as though he had purposely noticed your gaze lingering on him, and in that moment, allowed the attention of a girl with clear intentions draw near.

the realization settled in your chest like a weight, and you wished, with all your heart, that you could just disappear into the ground and hide the embarrassing turmoil churning inside.

caleb let out another soft laugh, but it wasn’t mocking this time around. it was warm, affectionate, like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “jealous? of her?” he asked, leaning down to look you in the eyes. “i was initially just messing with you, but you really think i’d choose someone else over my pipsqueak?”

you shrugged weakly, too afraid to look up at him.

“are you out of your mind?” he teased, shaking his head with a playful smirk. “do you really think i’m that dumb? you’re the one who has my attention, you know that, right?”

you finally dared to look up at him, seeing the sincerity in his eyes. he paused for a moment before adding, “i get that you’re insecure sometimes, but you have to know that no one can make me feel the way you do. i don’t even like her like that. she’s just a classmate. and if i’m being honest, i didn’t even realize i was making you feel like this.”

you felt your heart skip a beat at his words, his voice lowering into something much softer. “i told you i'm not getting a girlfriend anytime soon. and i keep my promises. always.”

the weight on your chest began to lift, your heartbeat slowing as you let out a shaky laugh. “you’re sure?”

caleb grinned, his usual confidence radiating in his posture as he stood up straight, running a hand through his hair. “pipsqueak, if you can’t tell by now, then i don’t know what to tell you.”

he chuckled and winked, his tone full of playful teasing. “now stop worrying about some random girl. you’re the only one i want. always have been. always will be.”

you couldn’t help but smile, feeling a rush of warmth fill your chest as he leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of your head. “there’s no need to compete with anyone. it’s always been you.”

“i guess i needed to hear that,” you admitted, letting out a sigh of relief. “thanks, caleb.”

“anytime,” he said, his smile softening. “now, how about we get out of here and grab some food? i think you owe me for doubtin' me.”

[ahsokalegend]

Love in The Apothecary Diaries isn’t loud.

Our society tells us love is in the grand gestures, in perfection, in physical attraction and loss of self in the pursuit of lust. In a way, not too different from Li’s society built on sex as commerce where people are used and thrown away. The desire of a grand romance played before a crowd on jealous onlookers.

But love, true love is understated.

Jinshi doesn’t come to Maomao’s aid with blazing guns but a song titled “Echo II”. He walks to Maomao. She steps towards him.

It’s in the way Jinshi immediately falls back into his true self around Maomao

How Maomao starts cracking the driest jokes with a tender smile

How she misses Jinshi’s confused concern over her antics

Jinshi reaching for her bruised cheek. Maomao not shying away.

It’s the quiet. The calm of two people existing in their own world like the echo of a forgotten memory. These little peeks into a beautiful relationship built on mutual respect and care for one another. A performance for no one.

The Apothecary Diaries is not a romance, yet it is rooted in love. Love of friends, love of strangers, love of family, and at the heart of it all, the quiet love of Jinshi and Maomao.

[chongoblog]

Writing tip: As you write your stories you might hear the voice of Jeremy CinemaSins saying something like “these two characters are talking in a cave? And yet they can see everything that they need to see for the story just fine?” When you do (and this is so so important), kill that voice with hammers