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mask131 · 10 months

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Fantasy read-list: A-1.5

I thought I had concluded the whole “A” part of my big fantasy read-list last spring...

... BUT FATE WOULD HAVE IT OTHERWISE! In between then and now I found a collection of articles covering the evolution and chronology of fantasy literature, and they added a lot more of titles and informations that I think I will add to my “Fantasy read-list”.

My original “A-1″ post dealt with works of fiction and poetry that, beyond being masterpieces of the Greco-Roman literature, were the key basis of Greco-Roman mythology as we know it today, and massive inspirations for the later fantasy genre. Here, I will use an article written by Fabien Clavel asking the question “Is there an Antique fantasy?” to add some names to this list.

Not the names of works written in Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome however. No, when it comes to the great classics from “before Christ”, the same names are dropped - Hesiod’s Theogony, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Virgil’s Aeneid, Ovid’s Metamorphoses... The only antique work Fabien Clavel mentions that I did not mention was Lucan’s Pharsalia. Also called “On the Civil War” it is, as the name says, an epic poem retelling the actual civil war that opposed Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great. Why would a historical work fit into the world of fantasy you ask? Because this epic retelling is pretty-fantasy likes, with several omens and oracles of the gods (including trees that start bleeding like humans), and even scenes of necromancy where the ghosts of the dead answer the protagonists’ questions.

Fabien Clavel’s article, however, focuses much more on the modern fantasy inspired by the Greek and Roman myths, that he classifies into four categories.

1) The retellings. Works of fantasy that retell classic legends or well-known myth of Greco-Roman antiquity. You find in this category the works of the fantasy author David Gemmel, be it his Troy trilogy (retelling of the Trojan war) or his Lion of Macedon trilogy (a more fantastical version of Alexander the Great’s life). You have Gene Wolf’s Soldier of the Mist, about the titular soldier, cursed with both retrograde and anterograde amnesia, and forced to find his way home through mythical Ancient Greece. There is C.S. Lewis’ last novel, Till we have faces, his retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth from The Golden Ass. And in French literature, you have Maurice Druon’s Les Mémoires de Zeus, an autobiography of Zeus himself.

2) The “feminist” works - which technically are a sub-division of the “retellings”, since they are retellings of ancient legends and tales, but with the twist that the focus is placed on female characters, often side-lined or pushed away from Greco-Roman narratives. In this category you will find Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad (the Odyssey through Penelope’s eyes), Maron Zimmer Bradley’s The Firebrand (the Trojan War as told by Cassandra), Ursula LeGuin’s Lavinia (an exploration of the titular character, from the Aeneid). To get out of the English literature, you will also have the work of the Hungarian writer Magda Szabo, The Moment, or the Creusiad, another Aeneid retelling focusing on the character of Creusa.

3) The “appropriation” works. No, this is not used in a negative way but a neutral one. In this category, Clavel places all the works that are not a precise retelling of a given myth or legend, but rather a fantasy story reusing the elements, tropes, characters and settings of Greek or Roman mythology. You have Thomas Burnett Swann’s Trilogy of the Minotaur, Guy Gavriel Kay’s Sarantine Mosaic series - and in French literature you have Rachel Tanner’s Le Cycle de Mithra, an uchrony imagining what the world would look like if Mithraism had become the official religion of the Roman Empire instead of Christianity.

4) The “interaction” tales - aka, fantasy works that take elements of Greek mythology and have them be confronted by elements not belonging to Greek mythology. For example, there is the Merlin Codex series by Robert Holdstock, describing how Merlin the Enchanter resurrects Jason and the Argonauts in the Arthurian world. There is also in France Johan Heliot’s Reconquérants, an uchrony fantasy about a group of lost Roman colonizers who built a second Roman Empire in Northern America, and fifteen centuries later try to return to the “old world” they left behind only to find it overrun with mythical creatures. Finally, Clavel adds the Percy Jackson series, the new best-selling series of teenage fantasy fiction/urban fantasy a la “Harry Potter”, describing the adventures of an American teenage boy discovering the Greek gods moved to America, that he is the son of Poseidon, and that monsters of Greek mythology are trying to kill him.

Clavel concludes his article by saying how hard it is to pinpoint exactly where the influence of Greek mythology stops in the fantasy world, since elements of Greek legends are omnipresent and overused in the fantasy genre. To illustrate this he mentions the centaurs, that appeared in four of the classic works of fantasy for children that are however VERY different from each other: Harry Potter, the Narnia Chronicles, the Artemis Fowl series, and The Neverending Story.

As a personal note I will add to this list the recent success of Madeline Miller’s Greek mythology retellings, which I have seen regularly pop up in book shops and that some of my friends fell in love with (I never read them though) - be it her Song of Achilles (the life of Achilles told through the eyes of Patroclus) or her Circe (a novel about the life of the famous Greek witch).

#fantasy read-list #fantasy reading list #fantasy #book list #greek mythology #roman mythology #greek mythology retellings #greek myth retellings #aeneid #trojan war #ancient roman literature

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ohfugecannada · 2 years

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So I’ve been on a bit of an My Little Pony kick since I’ve been watching a few of youtuber Shunks’s MLP iceberg videos (which I highly recommend you check out if your an MLP fan btw) and somthing that struck me today is how there really aren’t any other examples of dedicated toy lines that fit into the “horse doll” niche My Little Pony fills.

I know that feels like a weird to say, but... i dont know. When I started researching it I assumed MLP had to have some competition in this market. Like, just look at the fashion doll world, for instance; Barbie came onto the scene in the 50s, essentially creating the fashion doll toy nice as we it today and now there are many individual brands like Bratz, Monster High, LOL OMG, Disney Princesses etc etc that have taken inspiration form Barbie yet still have their own identity, providing competition and maintains the fashion doll su genre of toys.

Meanwhile MLP just... doesn’t have that.

I mean sure there were a few toy lines that tried to replicate their style and success, like those “fakies” like the Lanard ponies, those Cabbage Patch Kids ponies, and those Bratz Ponyz etc. Plus you do see those funny dollar store knock offs from time to time. But for the most part, especially in the modern day, My Little Pony doesn’t have any other competition in the Horse Doll niche like you see Barbie has in the fashion doll niche.

Granted, there are a few good reasons for this; conceptually, I guess designers find it easier to think of possible themes for a n 11” female figure to explore, eith a horse, even a cute stylised one, I feel like they’d have more limited options when crafting a theme, backstory characters etc. (Though, i dont know if that’s entirely true. I’d say that the horse dolls we know, I.e. mlp, have only really fallen into the thematic category of “pet toy”, fantasy or slice of life play sets, but that’s for another post...)

the second bigger reason I think is that the competitors in the past I mentioned earlier borrowed to much from MLP and its style. The candy coloured coats and manes of the horses, the rump symbols, the posed bodies etc, they were basically identical to MLP without doing much to innovate or actually carve out an identity of their own. There was also the fact that these Pony or horse centric toys were spin offs or side lines to other more popular non-horse centric dolls (Ponyz and the Cabbage Patch Ponies being good examples) which meant they were often just used as accessories to capitalise off MLP’s success.

So yeah, long story short, I’m surprised to learn how few actual examples there are in the “horse doll” sub-genre of toys...

#my little pony #MLP #toys #toy lines #horse dolls #horse toys #dolls #fashion dolls

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ao3feed-sambucky · 1 year

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The Family Business that just keeps giving (in more ways than one)

read it on the AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/44006641

by just_chilllll25

It's the one time Sam voices his fantasy to his boyfriends that it somehow turns against him in the best/worst ways possible. Who knew they were okay actors and really wanted to impress him with their performance?

"This shit shouldn’t be as torturous as it is now, maybe he should’ve just kept it as one of his fantasies rather than roleplay it with Steve and James.

You might be asking why Sam regrets trying this with both of them. Well, they’re not in some sketchy port office right now doing mob stuff with very illegal things being transported without authorities knowing, matter of fact, they’re in their lavish office space right in their spacious house in the suburbs where they grill almost every Saturday for their cul de sac. Sam’s currently on all fours on their nice ass carpet with a collar on his neck, a gag nestled inside his mouth, with a cock ring and plug installed nice and tight on his groin. "

Words: 2352, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Captain America - All Media Types, Captain America (Comics)

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M, Multi

Characters: Sam Wilson (Marvel), Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes

Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson, Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson, James "Bucky" Barnes/Sam Wilson

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern: Still Have Powers, Meaning the Serum still exists, Bottom Sam Wilson, Top Steve Rogers, Top Bucky Barnes, Light Dom/sub, Sexual Roleplay, Light Bondage, Sex Toys, Rough Oral Sex, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Spitroasting, Spit As Lube, But lube is still used lol, Choking, Roughness, Deadpan humor, Bucky and Steve get too into character, Sam Wilson is So Done, Butt Plugs, Butt Slapping, Safe Sane and Consensual, not as sane as you think, Aftercare, Dirty Talking Bucky Barnes, Pet Names, implied switch steve, Blindfolds

read it on the AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/44006641

#Bucky #Captain America #Winter Soldier #Sam Wilson #James Barnes #Falcon #SamBucky #BuckySam #IFTTT

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ao3feed-stevebucky · 1 year

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Baby don’t give up on me now

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3uJGSKg

by Bittersweet_in_Boston

The doorknob on the entrance from the hall is turning, and Steve knows he’s out of time.

“I know this all sounds unlikely and scary,” he says. “But I have faith in you and I have faith that together we can fight against fear and hate and embrace the best in this country, and in ourselves.”

The door is opening. Steve puts his hand on his heart in a completely spontaneous gesture. “And that fight begins right now,” he asserts, as sincerely as he can. “The price of freedom is high, it always has been. But it’s a price I’m willing to pay. I hope you are too. God bless you all, and God bless the United States and may we keep believing in its highest ideals.”

A slow clap starts from the doorway as Pierce walks into the room.

“What a great speech, Rogers,” he says sarcastically. “Did you memorize it beforehand, or is that the kind of weak kumbaya nonsense you jerk off to every night?”

Words: 10313, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 6 of Hail to the Chief

Fandoms: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes, T'Challa (Marvel), W'Kabi (Marvel), Dora Milaje Characters (Marvel), Hydra Agents, Maria Hill, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Nick Fury, Alexander Pierce, Pepper Potts, Okoye (Marvel), Brock Rumlow, Peggy Carter, Helen Cho (Marvel), Frank Castle, Fox News Harpy, Sam Wilson (Marvel), James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Isaiah Bradley

Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Politics, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Sort Of, United States President Steve Rogers, War Veteran Bucky Barnes, Helicarrier (Marvel), Canon-Typical Violence, Explosions, Quinjets (Marvel), The Bucky-T’Challa Show, Motorcycle as weapon, Wakandan Technology (Marvel), A speech from the Oval Office, Hand-To-Hand Combat, Democracy vs. Fascism, Confrontations, Guns, Pierce is a fascist dickhead, Live video feed, Anxiety, Gunshot Wounds, Blood, Politics vs. ideals, Character Death, BAMF Peggy Carter, overwhelm, Escape fantasies, Fox News harpy being terrible, BAMF Okoye (Marvel), Steve-Okoye friendship, Courage, Dom/sub Undertones, Orders, Possessive Bucky Barnes, Blow Jobs, Riding, Anal Sex, Aftercare, Confessions, A new VP, Back to work

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3uJGSKg

#ao3feed #steve rogers #bucky barnes #stevebucky #stucky #steve/bucky #stevexbucky #fanfic

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our-flag-means-death-ao3feed · 2 years

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start an altercation

by shatteredhourglass

“Fucking – were you waiting for him to leave so you could pick a fucking fight? How childish are you, Bonnet, for fuck’s sake?”

“Now why would I do that,” Stede says, in a voice that undoubtedly means yes. “Maybe if you weren’t so combative, this wouldn’t be an issue. Have you tried not being a dick about everything?”

Words: 2431, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Our Flag Means Death (TV)

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Stede Bonnet, Israel Hands

Relationships: Stede Bonnet/Israel Hands

Additional Tags: Background Blackbeard | Edward Teach/Stede Bonnet/Israel Hands, Explicit Sexual Content, Trans Israel Hands, Vaginal Sex, Arguing, That Bitch4Bitch Antagonistic Stizzy Dynamic We All Crave, Vaginal Fingering, Dirty Talk, Fantasizing, Ed Isn't There But He's Part of The Fantasy, Creampie, Past/Referenced Rough Sex, Dom/sub Undertones, Top Stede Bonnet, Bottom Israel Hands, POV Israel Hands, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, They're Mean As Foreplay

source https://archiveofourown.org/works/41739498

#Our flag means death #ofmd

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marimopeace · 3 years

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there's a limit on how much you can be an isekai intellectual...

a bunch of analyses have been popping up before me all day so i wanted to throw my hat into the ring. all love to ppl who are exercising their creative minds + ppl like geoff here who just talk about these things because of fan interest but i feel like there reaches a point where exploring the "types" of isekai is pointless? i've seen ppl list out the different types of villainess revenge isekai or fantasy mmorpg isekai but eh why fit them all into separate boxes like that?

i think it's easier to think of isekai as a "type" (genre) of itself with only two categories: 1) a focus on isekai (lit. another world) 2) tensei (lit. to be reborn). this allows for a variety of applications and thus tropes that ppl see so many trends of!

with isekai - in another world

you see everything from:

pure fantasy (inuyasha, digimon wait maybe not the best example but in my childhood mind i count digimon as pure fantasy, fushigi yugi)

mmorpg inspired fantasy/adventure (.hack//legend of twilight, sao ugh, log horizon, overlord (LOVE OVERLORD!)

otome game-esque worlds >>> this is where it gets complicated with "villainess routes" since i admit there are multiple villainess tropes but this is why it's nice to not think of this as a "sub-type/genre" bc it frees you from those complications! (the saint's magic power is omnipotent, the white cat's revenge as plotted from the dragon king's lap soso cute!, the savior's book cafe in another world, i'm a villainous daughter so i'm going to keep the last boss wait i can't remember if she's reborn in this one lmaooo see this is why rules make everything hard)

with tensei storylines - being reincarnated/reborn in another world as *insert character/role*

you see...

the same tropes!!

pure fantasy (a returner's magic should be special, reminiscence adonis, the lady and the beast, light and shadow, i can't think of a manga off the top of my head for this ah)

mmorpg inspired fantasy/adventure (so i'm a spider so what i stan kumoko so hard, her majesty's swarm, can't name another off the top of my head ah i hate lists shorter than two things...)

self-insert based games/novels (fiance's observation log of a self-proclaimed villainess, who made me a princess, death is the only ending for the villainess, the villainess wants to marry a commoner, honestly games vs novels are different applications but i'm not in the headspace to try to remember a bunch of both lol)

*insert line break to give random ppl a break from scrolling but tl; dr just enjoy things for what they are no need to micro analyze*

similar variations occur in both genres (if ppl want to be super technical i guess i'm arguing that isekai itself is a massive genre that has the "another world" subgenre and "reincarnation" subgenre tl; dr) so i think it's honestly a huge pain to try to separate all these trends into so many different types of stories. for me personally it's easier to not get overwhelmed by this gigantic umbrella of "isekai" that spans light novels, manhwa, manga, and mobile games by just stripping each story down into its trademark tropes (aka character archetypes, story structures) and slapping "oh this is a person going to a world that's not ours" and "this person gets reborn as blank in another world". none of this "omg this power fantasy is such a this kind of isekai moment" or "there are 14 different types of villainess revenge stories and this series fits into this" bc AH labels! limitations! circle-jerks via ppl trying to compartmentalize everything and sound smart for leaving a comment on story analysis instead of ooh-ahhing over a character's face! dividing things into light novel manga vs manga vs korean manhwa ft. female characters!

the last bit is mainly why i feel frustrated by ppl's insistence to group everything?

the video linked at the beginning of the post (honestly good video essay, i enjoyed it, i just kept thinking in my head the whole time "marimo these are tropes do not take the genre talk literally") has a baby comment thread talking about "korean isekai manhwas" as a genre featuring nothing but reincarnated villainess' and i can't.

like i cannot acknowledge that as a genre of any sort. the energy i felt reading through some of those insights takes me back to 2012 when all yt americans discovered k-pop and deemed all korean music k-pop from then on! (ppl still do this now, yes you are seen and don't talk to me pls i don't like you. k-pop is korean pop music and nothing less and nothing more. take a few seconds and try to parse apart aspects of korean culture instead of slamming everything into a monolithic label that has the letter k and a hyphen.) it feels so odd to see a bunch of young ppl on ig and tiktok acknowledge korean media that happens to be in the form of a webtoon as "oh stories all about young girls becoming villains in stories they made/played" bc it feels so reductive u.u

(positionality disclaimer that i'm praying isn't actually necessary: i am a 3rd-generation korean of japanese descent do not fite me i am exhausted irl of ppl asking for validation/verification bc massive shove off.)

breaking news! korean manhwa...is just as multifaceted as japanese manga...bc how can comics as an art-form not have multiple genres...huh such a shocker?!?! same likely applies to media in other parts of the world like chinese manhwa and french comics--not my place to explain either of those i just know those industries exist bc of wakfu and donghua shows by Tencent.

at the end of the day it's not like analyzing any kind of isekai is wrong--absolutely not!! i think it can be super fun to think about how isekai elements complicate a story (MCs trying to go back home, ppl from the og world, reincarnation plot-twists) or maybe even bash a series for including some kind of other world element when they could have just written a super fun fantasy.

insert marimo's brief ramble that hey you can get sick of truck-kun's hitting disillusioned guys who happen to be super duper smart or girls who happen to be master chefs/craftsmen but transporting a fully-grown being into a fantasy setting is the ultimate cheat code for making mundane modern technology seem cool and overpowered, and being reincarnated as a fully grown person in a world with a pre-made story/game set-up completely bypasses the need for an author to slowly flesh out world-building in a natural progression so isekai is actually a really smart writing tool it's just that there are some series where the author didn't use it well at all and it's cheesy or clearly isekai was misused as a vehicle for character/story development and it was pointless *DEEP BREATH OUT*

in this essay i will argue...lol i am such a culture studies major!! if i were an english major i would be talking all about writing but here i am having a side-tangent about world-building via someone being reborn wow i love this for me (don't get me started on when an author has someone reincarnate as a baby and the story is mostly them having warm fluffy moments with their family--typically father figures--and getting lots of powers i could and would and probably will rant about east asian toxicity)

but anyway am i crazy????? like yes for being passionate about the technical use of a word like genre (i am a scorpio rising let me be fussy pls) but i don't think it's a lot to ask for ppl to not unironically see "villainess revenge isekai" as the definition of korean manhwa.

idk as someone who resonates with why japanese isekai is so popular domestically + why a lot of korean manhwa feat. the same tropes (it's not for great reasons lads it's actually depressing tbh) i'm just starting to feel kind of pained by the generalization and need to separate "cute japanese girl in an otome game"/"japanese boy finds a harem in another world" from "korean girl dies and comes back as a villainess" bc they are just! applications to the same story device!!

recommendations for any who makes it this far down below <3

// also gladly recommend any of the examples i've listed in the above rant as i've read/watched all of them and adore them v much! //

save me princess

super refreshing fantasy manhwa ft. a princess and her ex-boyfriend having to save the world!

the beginning after the end

an AMERICAN web novel turned into a comic (but see it being not korean/japanese doesn't really matter when you just consider isekai as a genre...isn't it nice to not overthink it?) ft. a super-powerful wizard king reincarnated into another world and starting from scratch--gives mushoku tensei vibes but huge twists!

the reason why raeliana ended up at the duke's mansion

love love LOVE this story--read the title and you'll learn how this girl reincarnated as the character raeliana in a book gets married to a duke!

trash of the count's family

such a good novel!! a guy gets reborn as a lazy oaf and he takes the hero of the story under his wing...plot twists come up later on!

this time i will definitely be happy!

v good and refreshing for a shorter series! she's been reborn 3 times and remembers every time the hero's stabbed her in the back, and now she just wants to break up with him!

silver diamond

older manga but v good adventure w intrigue! a boy who loves plants get sucked into a desert world with demonic lizards and a mysterious bodyguard by his side. shonen-ai not BL but wonderful vibes nonetheless + great side characters!

the princess imprints a traitor

adore everything in this from the world (not in that way this society makes me so angry) to the machinations at play and the dynamic between the fl and ml

#isekai #mother's basement #inuyasha #digimon #fushigi yugi #.hack//legend of the twilight #log horizon #overlord #the saint's magic power is omnipotent #the white cat's revenge as plotted from the dragon king's lap #a returner's magic should be special #adonis #the lady and the beast #light and shadow #kumo desu ga nani ka #her majesty's swarm #fiance's observation log of a self-proclaimed villainess #death is the only ending for a villainess #the villainess wants to marry a commoner #save me princess #the beginning after the end #the reason why raeliana ended up at the duke's mansion #trash of the count's family #this time i will definitely be happy!#silver diamond #see i normally put the raw titles for everything but the tiny korean/japanese part of my brain is so tired bc my english brain went off #the princess imprints a traitor #manga #manhwa #donghua

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takaraphoenix · 3 years

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random question but what's your favorite show genres and what's your favorite show in each?

Oh, I love random questions! Huh. Okay so full disclosure I do not know what really counts as "genres", so... let's go by the categories I use to distinguish between them! :D

1. Supernatural: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Supernatural shows are my favorite genre - vampires, werewolves, witches, hunters, demons. There's so often found family in it, I love magic, I love supernatural creatures. And among them all, BtVS absolutely takes the crown, no other comes close.

2. Fantasy: Relic Hunter

Okay, so... don't ask me to explain the difference I draw between supernatural and fantasy as a genre, since they can greatly overlap - both have witches and werewolves in this case. But... there's a difference, for me? Supernatural shows are usually darker, often with a hunt or be hunted element, with a hefty focus on the supernatural creatures. Fantasy are slightly more whimsical with more focus on the magic and magic users - elves, witches/sorcerers; I'd sort a "Harry Potter" into fantasy because the supernatural elements like werewolves are more a side note and the focus is on witches and a magical world, while "Buffy" has the witch-part more on the sidelines and the focus on the creatures of the night.

I prefer low fantasy over high fantasy, because most high fantasy is just... medievial AU but with dragons... So if I can add dragons to things, I'd prefer to see how they'd affect modern times.

I love Relic Hunter and shows like it - searching for magical artifacts. Childhood favorite that still holds up.

3. SciFi: Stargate SG-1

Okay, this genre is actually tougher. For one, because technically I distinguish it into two categories like I split supernatural from fantasy too, because there's a vast difference between a time travel/alien scifi show and a dystopian future on Earth kind of scifi show. Not too big on the latter, more a fan of the first. And then there are many.

For the longest time, I would have said Doctor Who and while I still very much cherish the 10th era and am enjoying 13 right now, I think that on the overall, the bad outweights the good at this point and if I had to choose only one singular scifi show to watch for the rest of my life, I wouldn't go with this anymore.

It's honestly Stargate SG-1 and I'm kind of surprised by that. Back when I watched it for the first time in 2018, I honestly meant to just waste a bit of time and I wanted something scifi and remembered my parents watching this when I was growing up. I never expected it to be as good as it is and while the last two seasons were a slight overstaying their welcome, it's honestly already impressive that there are 8 thoroughly solid seasons?

4. Comedy: Community

There are so many comedies and I guess you can sub-genre them with all other genres too, but if I had to pick, on the overall of comedy shows, I would pick this one, especially now that I've just finished my rewatch earlier this year and it's still hilarious and holds up.

5. Doctor Drama: Grey's Anatomy

Drama is like the vaguest genre possible, so I always split it up into the different categories - doctor, police, lawyer, fire fighter, family. Among them, medical dramas are my favorite and the clear victor here is Grey's Anatomy, I fell hard in love with the show when I watched it last year.

6. Con Arists: Leverage

This is such a nieche little genre and I only know a handful of shows that even fit into it, but there is something very particularly enjoyable about con artists and Leverage is definitely the best of them all.

7. Lawyer Dramas: For the People

I am so mad they cancelled this show after two seasons already. But yeah I love lawyer shows. And I am hoooping the upcoming one with Dom Sherwood is going to be so good it'll take my number one spot for this genre. Until then, the unique look into the different sides of lawyers and the dynamic among the characters makes For the People my favorite.

8. Magical Girls: Sailor Moon

This just ain't a competition. There have been many magical girl anime, but this is like... the OG. The big one. I will always love Sailor Moon.

9. Sports Anime: Haikyuu!!

Though I still harbor very strong frustration about the way the manga ended, after Sailor Moon this might very well be my most rewatched anime.

10. Cartoon: Recess / DuckTales (2017)

Recess has been my favorite cartoon since I was a child and even on repeated rewatches as an adult it still held up (though it's been a while since I last rewatched it), so I can not dethrone it in good faith, but I'd be lying if I didn't put DuckTales onto the top spot, the love and talent that went into that reboot are insane, the story is so good, it is so much fun and so engaging. Though, as with comedy, you could apply all the genres onto cartoons and do their own whole list honestly, but I generally go by my mood, what I want to watch, and when it comes to that, I've never gone for a fantasy cartoon when I was in the mood for fantasy. I have a specific cartoon mood and that can be satisfied by pretty much all sub-genres.

#About Me #I guess #Buffy the Vampire Slayer #Relic Hunter #Stargate SG-1 #Community #Grey's Anatomy #Leverage #For the People #Sailor Moon #Haikyuu!!#Recess #DuckTales (2017)

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gimmeromance · 3 years

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GimmeRomance Glossary:

We’ve put this glossary together to give you all definitions for some of the words you’ll see both on this blog and in Romance in general. If you have any questions or think we’re missing a word, please send us an ask!

This glossary is organized alphabetically.

A/B/O: Short for Alpha/Beta/Omega, this is... complicated, but we recommend you take a look here if you don't already know what A/B/O is. * Please don’t use the term A/B/O without the slashes -- Abo is considered a derogatory term for Aboriginal, and we honor the wishes of the Australian Aboriginal peoples who prefer that the term A/B/O not be used without the defining slashes.

Alien Romance: Usually, one MC is human, other(s) are from another planet. May include non-human genitalia and sexual acts.

Alpha: May refer to Alpha from A/B/O 'verse or Alpha of a werewolf/shifter pack. Generally sexually dominant. May also be shorthand for Alpha Hero.

Alpha Hero: One MC (usually the MMC) has a dominant personality.

Ancient World Romance: A Romance which takes place in an ancient civilization: eg. Ancient Rome, Greece or Egypt.

BBW: Big Beautiful Woman. A fat heroine.

Bestiality: Technically illegal on Amazon, but dinosaur erotica somehow still exists. Please don't make us go looking for titles to suggest to you -- though you might see the occasional Tingler on our lists!

Beta: Someone in an A/B/O 'verse or someone in a werewolf/shifter pack who's not the leader, but also not the lowest position in the pack. May also be shorthand for Beta Hero.

Beta Hero: A Beta Hero is the opposite of an Alpha Hero -- generally a man who is not dominant but softer and kinder.

The Black Moment: The moment (often around the 60% mark) where all hope of a happy ending seems lost. Often includes a temporary breakup.

Black Romance: Both (all, if it's polyamorous) main characters are Black.

BMWW: Black Man/White Woman. A specific sub-genre within Interracial Romance.

Bully Romance: One of the MCs bullies another one, usually before the romance begins.

BWWM: Black Woman/White Man. A specific sub-genre within Interracial Romance.

Chick Lit: A subgenre of Women’s Fiction which focuses on the trials and tribulations of a young woman and often includes a romance. Differs from Romance in that the romance is not necessarily the main focus of the story. Differs from Women’s Fiction in that the protagonists are usually younger and there’s often more romance. It's a fine line and some books are hard to precisely categorize, or may be considered to fit into multiple categories.

Clean Romance: We prefer not to use this term, but it can mean either Closed Door or No Sex.

Cliffhanger: A Romance which ends on a dramatic, unresolved issue. Common in contemporary romance trilogies where all books follow the same couple; rarely seen in historicals.

Closed Door: Sex occurs in the course of the story, but is not described.

Contemporary Romance: A Romance that takes place in the modern day.

Courtesan: A historical sex worker, usually on the expensive end of the scale.

Dark Romance: At least one MC who is not a good person. The romance can include such things as kidnapping, stalking, sexual assault, imprisonment, gaslighting, domestic abuse, and a whole slew of other things that are generally frowned upon in western society and might be considered illegal in some places. In the fandom world, stories featuring these themes might have the tags non-con/dub con, dead dove do not eat, and dark themes.

Dystopian Romance: Romance which takes place in a failed-state society where the government or the powers that be are often a totalitarian state and often end up being the antagonists of the series or story. Many of these take place in a futuristic post-apocalyptic world, but not all.

Equal Triad: A polyamorous triad where all parties have sex with each other.

Erotica: Sex is the point of the story and often is the plot. Happy endings aren't necessary in this genre, but they do often happen. Not quite a part of Romance but very closely related.

Fade to Black: A method in which sex is often handled in Closed Door stories.

Family Series: A Romance series which follows a family, each book focusing on a different member of the same family finding their love interest. (Like Bridgerton!)

Fantasy Romance: Takes place in another world (not to be confused with Sci-Fi Romance which takes place ON another world). There might be magic, dragons, or other mythical beasts.

F/F: Female/Female

FMF: Female/Male/Female. A polyamorous triad where the two women have sex with the man but not each other.

Gilded Age Romance: American Historical Romance, from about 1870-1900, usually among the wealthy upper classes (e.g. the Astor 400).

The Grovel: The moment where (usually) the MMC is brought to his knees by love and has to apologize to the MFC for all his stuff-ups. We love a good grovel here at GimmeRomance!

Harem Romance: One man/many women. Generally the women do not have sexual contact with each other, only with the man. Some exceptions. * In Manga, Harem Romance involves one man flirting with multiple women but ending up with only one. In Romance, Harem Romance involves one man ending up with multiple women.

HEA: Happily Ever After. A story cannot be a romance without either an HEA or HFN.

Hero: The male love interest of a Romance. Sometimes abbreviated as a capital H.

Heroine: The female love interest of a Romance. Sometimes abbreviated as a lowercase h.

HFN: Happy For Now -- not quite Happily Ever After, but the characters are together and doing OK at the end of the story.

Highlander Romance: Historical sub-genre, takes place in the Scottish Highlands. Can cover an enormous range of dates from ancient world up to early 20th century. The men usually wear kilts.

Historical Romance: A Romance that takes place at least twenty years ago.

Inspirational Romance: Usually explicitly Christian, a Romance that includes religion and/or faith playing a major role. Usually does not include sex, swearing, or a lot of violence.

Interracial Romance: The main characters are of different racial backgrounds to each other. Some people only count Black/white Romances as interracial; we count two people of any races.

Love Triangle: One of the MCs eventually has to choose between two potential love interests.

Mafia/Bratva/Yakuza Romance: The MMC (usually) is a member of an organized crime gang. These often fall into Dark Romance, but not always.

MC: Main Character

MC Romance: Not to be confused with the MC -- this is Motorcycle Club Romance. One protagonist is a member of a Motorcycle Club.

Medieval Romance: Takes place between 500 and 1500 CE.

Meet-Cute: Something cutesy which happens to bring the protagonists together for their first meeting.

MFC: Main Female Character. May sometimes be styled FMC. See also Heroine.

MFF: Male/Female/Female. A polyamorous triad where the two women have sex with each other as well as the man.

MFM: Male/Female/Male. A polyamorous triad where the two men have sex with the woman but not each other.

M/M: Male/Male

MMC: Main Male Character. See also Hero.

MMF: Male/Male/Female. A polyamorous triad where the two men have sex with each other as well as the woman.

New Adult Romance: One or more MCs is 'college age', generally 18-25.

No Sex: There is no sex in the book.

Omega: Usually only used in either A/B/O or werewolf/shifter. Generally either the sexual submissive or the lowest-ranked in the pack.

Open Door: Sex occurs on the page.

Paranormal Romance: A Romance that includes a supernatural element.

Pioneer Romance: 1760-1880, mostly American, sometimes Australian. The Romance version of the Old West.

Plus-Sized Romance: A Romance that includes at least one character (most often the woman) being plus-sized.

Polyamorous Romance: 3 or more persons find their HEA/HFN in a Romance. May include any combination of genders. * If you want to shorten Polyamorous, use Polyam rather than Poly -- Poly is a shorthand for Polynesian, and we honor the wishes of the Polynesian community who have asked that the Polyamorous community use Polyam instead.

Post-Apocalyptic Romance: Romance which takes place after a cataclysmic event that decimates human population and destroys our society as we know it.

Protagonist: A gender-neutral term for a main character.

Pseudo-Incest: Actual incest romance is banned on Amazon. Pseudo means step-siblings, a step-parent or grandparent, uncle/niece (no blood relation), etc.

Rake: A historical fuckboi.

Redemption Arc: The journey of one character who has behaved badly, to understanding what they did was wrong and making amends.

Regency Romance: Romance centered around the period when the future George IV was acting as regent for his father, George III. Technically the Regency was 1810-1820, but the genre includes 1795-1837.

Reverse Harem Romance: One woman/many men. Generally the men do not have sexual contact with each other, only with the woman. Some exceptions. * In Manga, Reverse Harem Romance involves one woman flirting with multiple men but ending up with only one. In Romance, Reverse Harem Romance involves one woman ending up with multiple men.

Rogue: A rogue is a character who misbehaves in some way. This includes characters who drink, gamble, and sleep around -- but also includes pirates and gentleman thieves. Not all rogues are rakes, but all rakes are rogues.

Romance: Stories where the romantic relationship is central and integral to the plot which end in an HEA or HFN. If a book does not end with the couple (or moresome) in a happy relationship, it is not a Romance.

Romantic Comedy: A Romance which makes you laugh. The best ones are especially failboaty. Often features sitcom or slapstick antics but many just feature funny banter. A lot of contemporary Women's Fiction gets classified as Romantic Comedy and at least one of our mods gets very mad about that because having a cute illustrated cover and/or having a cat/dog in it doesn't make it funny

Romantic Suspense: The MCs must face and overcome a serious external threat to life and limb while finding their way to a HEA/HFN. Often overlaps somewhat with Mystery and/or Thriller.

Royal Romance: At least one MC is a member of a (usually fictional) royal family.

Rural Romance: The Australian version of Western Romance. The front cover almost invariably features a woman wearing an Akubra hat.

Science Fiction/Sci-Fi Romance: On another world or in space. MCs are usually human, but this sometimes crosses over with Alien Romance.

Shared World Series: A Romance series where each book is written by a different author, but locations and many characters are shared in common.

Shifter Romance: A Romance that includes a character or characters who can shift into animals. Includes (but is not limited to) werewolves. Sex generally occurs when the couple is in human form, but there may be knotting or other animalistic characteristics.

Small Town Romance: A Romance that takes place in a small town, usually in America but there are some Australian ones out there. Tend toward the very white. Often part of series that include lots of characters from the same town.

Soulmates: Not usually an abstract concept in the Romance world. Regularly seen in Paranormal or Fantasy Romance.

Standalone: A Romance which is not part of a series. Or it may be part of a series, but you do not need to read other books in the series to follow the plot.

Steamy Romance: We prefer not to use this term, but it means Open Door or sometimes Erotica.

Sweet Romance: We prefer not to use this term, but it can mean either Closed Door or No Sex.

Taboo Romance: Pseudo-incest, Teacher/Student, Underage. A romance which may be criminalized or considered unacceptable for other reasons in various jurisdictions.

Time Travel Romance: A Romance where at least one of the characters travels in time (usually to the past). In order to have a happy ending, may end with the present character staying in the past, the past character coming to and staying in the future, reincarnation, or some other solution.

Tudor Romance: 1485-1603, during the reign of the Tudor monarchs (Henry VII, Henry VIII and his three children, to the end of the reign of Elizabeth I). Sometimes Romances that take place during the Stuart period (particularly before the English Civil War) are grouped here.

Uneven Triad: A polyamorous triad where two of the parties do not have sex with each other, but only with the third party.

Unknown: As used by the GimmeRomance Mods, we don’t know how much sex there is in the story. This may be because we have not read the book or it may be because we have read the book but don’t remember how much sex there is.

Urban Fantasy: A subgenre of Fantasy which takes place in a world that’s often somewhat like our own and often includes a romance. Differs from Paranormal Romance in that the romance is not the main focus of the story. It's a fine line and some books are hard to precisely categorize, or may be considered to fit into both.

Victorian Romance: 1837-1901, the reign of Queen Victoria.

Western Romance: Takes place in a Western state, usually rural. There's probably a ranch and horses involved. Someone's wearing a cowboy hat.

Women’s Fiction: A genre which focuses on a woman’s life and may or may not include a romance. Differs from Romance in that the woman’s individual journey is the main focus of the story.

YA: Young Adult. Fiction written for teens with teens as the main characters. May or may not be Romance.

—

This post will be updated as needed.

Last Updated: 06/05/2021

#Mod Post #Glossary #Info Post #romance terms #romancelandia #long post #queue me up

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jeannereames · 3 years

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What Genre IS Dancing with the Lion?

(N.B.: This post should not make anyone feel guilty for mislabeling the novels; I’m posting it because there seems to be some confusion.)

One of the most important parts of selling a book is getting it into the right hands: that is, to the readers most likely to enjoy it. And that involves labeling it correctly.

If you picked up Dancing with the Lion because you’re a fan of Alexander the Great or ancient Greece, the book’s genre probably matters little. I’ve read novels about Alexander in everything from lit mainstream to SFF to mystery to old-school Romance.

Yet such readers are a fraction of potential readership. For those with no particular inclination to a book about Alexander the Great, naming the genre matters. Will it meet reader expectations and appeal, or frustrate and annoy? That’s why authors worry about genre labels.

So, to answer the question: Dancing with the Lion is a mainstream historical coming-of-age novel with touches of magical realism and queer themes.

Below, I’ll explain in brief why it’s some labels and not others. But I want to stress that getting a book correctly labeled is NOT a diss at genres it isn’t. Again, it’s about getting it into the right hands so readers like it instead of hate it.

Novel: At root, two basic story types exist—those that focus on plot (romance, small /r/ = adventure story) and those that focus on characters (novel). I write both, incidentally; my current WIP is an historical fantasy adventure series. But DwtL is a novel. Characterization IS the plot, rather than characters moving the plot along.

Mainstream: Just means the book doesn’t fit into the plot conventions of commercial genre fiction. Saying something is “mainstream” therefore says mostly what it is not: not mystery, not horror, not Romance, not fantasy, etc. Some folks will subdivide it further into “literary” mainstream versus commercial mainstream with the distinction that the latter sells better and/or the former is more artsy.

Historical: A subcategory of several genres, including mainstream. Readers of historicals tolerate more historical detail and unusual names, although genre historicals can alter that. Too much historical detail in an historical Romance that slows down the love story can get an author in trouble. Mainstream historicals may include glossaries, character stemma, timelines of historical events, or other reader guides. Afficionados of historical novels are reading for that detail, not in spite of it.

Coming-of-Age: as the name suggests, this very old story archetype is all about the characters growing up. In DwtL, three characters have coming-of-age arcs: Alexandros, Hephaistion, and Kleopatra.

Magical Realism: Unlike genre fantasy, magical realism combines realistic/non-magical elements with supernatural ones. They also take place in this world, not a different fantasy world in which magic works. Yet the line between historical fantasy and historical magical realism can be fine because, in the past, people did assume magic worked, and the better authors of historical fantasy employ magical systems appropriate to that place and time. The biggest difference is that magical realism is subtler, and the supernatural elements may not be perceived by all, or even most characters. (So while Alexandros sees Dionysos, no one else does.)

Queer Themes: This is more than just Alexandros and Hephaistion as lovers. Especially in Rise, one sub-plot for Hephaistion’s coming-of-age is his own growing awareness that the way he experiences desire does not conform to the expectations of his society. He is what we, in the modern world, would call gay. I wanted to explore how it might feel for someone to be gay in a world that doesn’t have that label, and which might, on the face of it, seem more accepting…but really isn’t.

Now, for the genres it’s not, and why:

Not Romance: Capital /R/, Romance the genre has fairly locked-in plot arc expectations. The Hero and Hero (if it’s m/m) meet, go through trials and tribulations, then finally hook up in some sort of permanent way to live happily-ever-after (HEA) or at least happily-for-now (HFN). The focus of the novel must remain firmly on the Hero and Hero and their relationship. Other relationships and events should serve to frame the main one, never distract from it.

DwtL: Becoming simulates some of those things. The book does begin when the boys meet, and they go through a friends-to-more plot arc, but there’s too much Other Stuff, and in Rise, the story just keeps going even after they get together. Furthermore, Rise is not a Romance plot arc, even loosely. It’s all about Alexandros and Hephaistion entering the adult world of politics and war, and the larger theme (of the whole series, not just these books) asks what it means to be a moral/ethical sovereign?

Not YA (Young Adult): Although YA novels should have an adolescent protagonist and will often be a coming-of-age story, not all novels with an adolescent protagonist or coming-of-age story are YA. So what’s the difference? The themes and the language employed.

The plot of YA should focus on things important to that age group (13-18), not necessarily what could equally matter to someone in their 50s. That doesn’t mean adults can’t enjoy YA stories; about 55% of YA books are purchased by adults. Another aspect of YA is the vocabulary used and complexity of ideas. Sometimes adult coming-of-age stories are called more “sophisticated,” which isn’t a term I like. Intricate might be better, in characterization and theme.

Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, and J.D. Salinger’s A Catcher in the Rye are all coming-of-age novels, and some are even assigned in high school English classes. But they aren’t commercial YA in language or theme. In contrast to, say, Madeline L’Engel’s A Wrinkle in Time, Jane Yolen’s Pit Dragon trilogy, or Ursula LeGuin’s A Wizard of Earthsea. Yet I don’t think anyone would call those latter three “unsophisticated.”

In short, a teen protagonist and/or coming-of-age story does not qualify a book as YA.

Finally, most YA treats sex gingerly as they must be appropriate for readers as young as 13, 14, 15. They may have some romance or none at all, and they may have elided sexual situations light on description. It shouldn’t be shocking, but age-appropriate to adolescent curiosity about sex. (By contrast, the category of New Adult [18-25 readership] may have quite a lot of graphic sex in it, although in other ways NA resembles YA.)

When I wrote Dancing with the Lion, despite the age of the main protagonists, I made no attempt to moderate the language. There are also POV scenes from adults, and three of the chief thematic concerns—what does it mean to be a moral king [Alex], how does one support the powerful without losing one’s self in the process [Hephaistion], and how to exercise personal agency when one has none legally [Kleopatra]—are themes that can apply to any age group. Last, the sex scenes have no stop on them. If two are over fairly quickly with general/poetic description, the third is graphic because it needs to be as what they are doing matters very much to Hephaistion’s character arc. There is also reference to the rape of women and children in war; only the aftermath is shown, but still. While I realize emotional maturity can vary wildly, I wouldn’t recommend the second novel for readers under 15/16. (I told my niece not to let my great-niece read it yet.)

That’s why I’m concerned about Dancing with the Lion being labeled YA. An unsuspecting parent might buy it for their early teen child, only for that child to get a textual eyeful in book 2!

Also, readers who pick it up thinking it’s ___, get angry when it’s not. E.g., in an otherwise fairly positive review, at least one reader wrote:

“Because the western spellings/pronunciation are so ingrained using the stranger sounding Greek slows the pace even further and seems to over complicate things merely for the sake of it. This is clearly aimed at a YA audience and so I find the choice doubly baffling - Because you want to encourage teens reading not put them off by making this harder than it needs to be.”

But it’s not YA, was never meant to be YA, nor marketed or labeled as YA on the cover. Apparently, some folks on Goodreads labeled it that in their tags, so now “Young Adult” shows up as one of its genres…and I can’t get rid of it because I don’t set those tags (nor does my publisher).

In the above case, the reader mostly enjoyed it, but her perceptions affected how she reviewed it. Authors can’t always control those perceptions and expectations, but as we really do want readers to like the book (not feel deceived), we endeavor to use the right labels on them.

#Dancing with the Lion #DwtL #Alexander the Great #historical fiction #ancient Greek historical fiction #labeling fiction #coming-of-age #mainstream #queer themed fiction #magical realism #genre Romance #commercial YA #Jeanne Reames #don't want to annoy the readers

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blueorchidrp · 3 years

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LOOKING FOR NEW RP BUDDIES <3 [MXM || D/S THEMES || LITERATE]

Heya lovely people <3

(Brace yourselves, this is a long one! :D)

Recently, I've found myself in the mood to RP again after losing motivation during the beginning of the pandemic so I'm really hoping this ad will appeal to someone out there and I might find one or two new people to write with! :D

I'll go into detail about what I'm looking to RP in a second, but first of all, a little about me:

I'm female, 21+ and my time zone is GMT+1 (Central Europe). I'm an experienced writer and roleplayer of 10+ years. I exclusively write in 3rd person/past tense and would prefer for you to do the same.

English isn’t my first language but I’m pretty comfortable with it and I always try to keep mistakes to a minimum. Despite that, I hope you will excuse the occasional mistake! I would really prefer for you to have good spelling/grammar as well, but of course I’m not super pedantic about it and don’t mind typos from time to time. Nobody’s perfect, after all!

Usually I go for slower-paced RPs with longer replies since I'm not the fastest writer but recently I've really been in the mood for some faster-paced RPs and consequently, shorter replies. I usually aim for 300-1,500 words per reply but for this I would like to keep replies on the shorter side (at least on average and with no pressure from your side to conform to this, of course).

Obviously the length of the reply would still rely on what is happening in the RP - starters will naturally be longer than replies that heavily depend on how the other character will react.

I'm fine with having a short-term RP although I do enjoy plotting and also some occasional world-building (although admittedly I sometimes need a while to really pitch in with my ideas unless I'm already comfortable with my partners!) so long-term partners would be great!

I love chatting OOC, not only to discuss plot-related stuff but also to get to know who I am RPing with but it’s not mandatory and if you’d rather not that’s A-okay!

I prefer character-focused RPs, I’m not too good at writing action scenes and I tend to get bored of those rather quickly. I’d rather concentrate on my character’s feelings and his interactions with your character and focus on exploring their dynamic and thoughts.

I love conflict/tension in my RPs and I also love exploring more “philosophical” themes in them. I'm a huge fan of angst, (emotional) hurt & comfort, slow burn and similar genres but overall I do want an eventual happy ending. Occassional fluff is cute and more than fine as well, I just need some "meat" to the RP to keep me interested :D

Now, let’s go to what I’m craving the most right now:

I would very much like a RP that focuses on a (consensual) Dom/Sub relationship. I only do MxM pairings. I would prefer to play the dominant character for this.

I would prefer to involve at least some smut for this one (but we could also fade to black if preferred!) but overall I would really like to focus more on exploring the non-sexual aspects of the dynamic between our characters.

In general when it comes to smut, my characters tend to be switches who mainly top but if they do bottom they’re more along the lines of "power bottoms". In any case, they won’t just lie there and need your character to do all the work for them. (Obviously I can adjust that if you prefer to play the more dominant character)

For the D/s stuff I would ask that we discuss this more in depth in private, but in general I don't think I'm super kinky (I would rather not include too many "out there" ones) and my limits are pretty "standard" as well.

Broadly speaking my limits include: age play, bodily fluids, extreme kink/fetishes, mpreg, A/B/O, large age gaps, degradation.

Some key words of stuff I really enjoy (I'll try not to go overtly sexual):

- Devotion

- Obedience

- Praise Kink (!!)

- Collars/Leashes

- Kneeling

- Spanking

- Titles of Respect

- Terms of Endearment

- Begging

- ...

Some dynamics I enjoy (none of these are a must, of course! This is just to give you a general idea of what I might be looking for):

- the sub being a badass outside of the relationship and only being vulnerable around the dom

- the sub being physically stronger/bigger than the dom (!!!)

- the sub being rather shy/timid

- the dom being a little uncertain of what he wants in the beginning/needing to find himself as a dom

- also the dom in general also getting to be vulnerable

- the sub being super devoted/eager to please

- the sub taking care of the dom

- or: the dom taking care of the sub

- both being really in love with each other

These are the kinds of ideas I'd like to explore (Of course I'm also open to other scenarios/pairings as well, if you have something else in mind!):

Crime Boss x Right-Hand Man:

I'm really craving this one right now! I'm imaging this powerful mobster and his faithful right-hand man who is hopelessly devoted to his boss and willing to do whatever it takes to make sure his boss stays on top. I would prefer for the boss to be the dom and the right-hand man to be the sub.

Son of Crime Boss x Bodyguard:

Celebrity x Bodyguard:

For the first one I'm imagining that the son would be trying to make a name for himself and get out from under his father's thumb (and the bodyguard helping him). For the celebrity one I would imagine the celeb maybe being an actor or some sort of pop/rock star. I would prefer for the bodyguard to be the sub.

Royal x Servant, Royal x Knight:

This can be fantasy/historical (European/East Asian) or even modern. I'm imagining the servant/knight and the royal having been childhood friends and the servant/knight being raised with the knowledge that he would have to protect the royal once he grows up. I really enjoy the idea of one character swearing to serve another for the rest of his life. I would prefer for the knight/servant to be the sub and the royal to be the dom.

Elder Vampire x Fledgling Vampire:

Vampire x Human:

For the first one: Maybe the fledgling vampire was abandoned by his sire and the elder vampire finds him and decides to show him the ropes. For the second one: Maybe the human is a sort of ghoul (like from Vampire: the Masquerade) or human servant or maybe he's just someone the vampire stumbled across while out and about. I would prefer for the (elder) vampire to be the dom and the fledgling/human to be the sub here.

Best Friend x Best Friend:

I got the idea of these college-age guys that slowly discover that they like each other. Maybe they're childhood friends or maybe they've met in college. I’m happy to hear what ideas you might have for this pairing, of course, but a personal favourite of mine is to pair a more stoic (or even grumpy) leaner smart/sarcastic guy with a more jock-like/buff guy who is perpetually happy and optimistic who follows character A around and eventually endears himself to him through sheer persistence.

Soulmates:

I love exploring soulmate AUs, I’m a sucker for all variations of this trope but I’ve been thinking about an idea for a society that places each member of a bonded pair in one of two categories, and members of one category are treated as lesser in society/expected to serve their other half. For this I would definitely like to do some more world-building and really exploring the philosophy of this world as well! It would also be cool to have our character maybe fight against the expectations set by this society but I'm definitely open to other ideas as well!

Apart from that I enjoy a lot of different variations of the soulmate trope but my favourite is the classic idea that involves soulmates having a sort of mark on them that helps them identify who their partner is <3

Other:

Make a suggestion!

I don't have an pre-made OCs so I would come up with a character once we've decided on a plot but of course you can use whatever character you want! I usually don't use FC and just describe what I imagine my character to look like but if you can point me to some good FC ressources I would be willing to look for one if it's important to you! The ages of my characters depend on the plot/dynamic we're going for but they mostly tend to be around 20-45!

Fandoms: Harry Potter, Supernatural, Dragon Age, Detroit: Become Human, Vampires: the Masquerade, Marvel/Avengers, DC, Batman/Joker, Merlin (BBC), Shameless (US).

At the moment I really enjoy the pairing of Roman Sionis x Victor Zsasz (they're the inspiration for the Crime Boss x Right-Hand Man idea) so if anyone is up for that pairing as well, let me know! I also really enjoy the pairing Mickey x Ian (Gallavich) from the show Shameless, if anyone is interested in that one!).

I would prefer not to RP anything involving child abuse, underage characters in sexual situations, incest and similar themes. (I’m fine with these things being part of your character’s back story and your character dealing with the after-effects of them but I don’t want to actively RP them!).

I’m also exclusively looking for MxM pairings, so please don’t contact me if you’re looking for someone to RP a MxF plot with! And please be at least 18+. I don’t feel comfortable RPing with anyone younger, even if the RP doesn’t have any smut in it.

I mostly RP on Discord these days, but I'm also open to other mediums, mainly E-mail, tumblr or GoogleDocs!

I would prefer for you to already have a plot in mind (or at least a vague idea of what you want to roleplay) before contacting me!

Thank you for reading all of this! Have a great day & stay safe and healthy!

Contact:

Discord: blueorchid [hashtag] 8092

E-mail: blueorchid.roleplay [at] gmail [dot] com

Or message me here on tumblr! :D

#mxm #mxm roleplay #oc roleplay #oc #slash #roleplay #rp

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to44y · 3 years

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39 Role-Play Fantasies Every Gay Couple Should Try

By Alexander Cheves

39 Role-Play Fantasies Every Gay Couple Should Try

I snuck into the bedroom on all fours. I was tired. It had been a long day. My boyfriend at the time was sleeping on the bed. I started sniffing his neck until a sleepy grin formed on his face. When I knew he was awake, I licked him — a long, sloppy, wet lick up his cheek — then ran to the living room.

I heard him behind me. “Where are you going, puppy?” I was being bad. I was on all fours, shaking my ass on the sofa in his direction. He pulled out his dick and said, “Here boy.”

This is role play. Specifically, this is “puppy play” — a form of role play I love the most. Role play can be spontaneous or pre-planned, and as elaborate as you make it. At its simplest, role play happens when two adults consensually engage in an eroticized pretend game, a shared sex fantasy. And it is not limited to two adults — group role play offers some of the hottest sex experiences imaginable.

Everything in the world can inspire role play. You could do sofa role play and have someone sit on you. The most iconic gay role play scenarios have been done and redone endlessly by gay porn companies because they work — “Daddy and Son” will never get old — but that does not mean you can’t try them out for yourself. Try these 39 role play scenarios for the adventurous gay couple. Use your imagination!

A Word of Warning From Writer Alexander Cheves

My name is Alexander Cheves, and I am known by friends in the kink and leather community as Beastly. I am a sex-positive writer and blogger. The views in this slideshow do not reflect those of The Advocate and are based solely off of my own experiences. Like everything I write, the intent of this piece is to break down the stigmas surrounding the sex lives of gay men.

Those who are sensitive to frank discussions about sex are invited to click elsewhere, but consider this: If you are outraged by content that address sex openly and honestly, I invite you to examine this outrage and ask yourself whether it should instead be directed at those who oppress us by policing our sexuality.

For all others, enjoy the slideshow. And feel free to leave your own suggestions of sex and dating topics in the comments.

Hungry for more? Follow me on Twitter @BadAlexCheves and visit my blog, The Beastly Ex-Boyfriend.

1. Construction Workers

As I write this, the house next door is being renovated. If you listened to them, you would think a gay porno was being shot outside my window. Lots of laughing and group camaraderie with one poor guy (the sub) making pained, grunting noises. He’s being paddled with what sounds like a wooden paddle wrapped in sandpaper. Just when I think the mean top is about to ease up, the sound of an electric drill starts, and the guys start laughing again. They’re playing old school country music and I imagine there’s lots of spitting. One of them literally says, “It’s a bitch.”

Construction worker role play is a great group role play to get into if you can conjure up some buddies and orange vests — and you can even redo your kitchen in the process.

2. Sports Teammates

There seems to be more “locker room” gay porn than any other sub-genre. You know the scenario: a young freshman walks in the locker room among the beefy seniors on his football team, who have a nasty initiation ritual planned for him after practice.

Accouterments of this play involve sports gear (a fetish all on its own), knee-high socks, gym shorts, copious amounts of sweat, and that wonderful camaraderie that forms when the group’s submissive guy gets bent over a bench press.

3. Frat Boys

The gay porn site Fraternity X has capitalized on the fantasy of frat boy hazing. All their videos have the same basic narrative: a group of horny college guys are sitting around in a trash-strewn commons area drinking beer and watching TV when one bro starts running his mouth. Before long, his hands are tied and his mouth stuffed with someone’s underwear while everyone takes turns fucking him in a swivel chair. “Come on bro, it’s not gay if it’s with your brothers.”

4. Brothers

When my ex-boyfriends and I visited new cities where no one knew us, we would sometimes say we were brothers. It was funny sometimes, a lark — other times, it was really sexy. At the local gay watering hole, we would tell the guys interested in us that we were related and see how many of them believed it. I’m not sure many did — especially when we got a little drunk and started making out on the dance floor — but they wanted to. Many guys have a brother fantasy. This is an easy one to role play in the bedroom, and there are endless imagined scenarios available to you: Big brother is visiting home from college and has to share your bedroom for a night. You two are close and like to wrestle, and one day the wrestling goes a little too far when one of you gets excited.

5. Strangers

Anonymous public hookups are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Our mediated, digitalized hookup culture has all but replaced discreet staring contests in the gym and public cruising in parks and bathrooms. Many formerly cruisey places are more heavily watched now, and your success rate is inevitably lower.

Also, some guys have some discomfort with completely anonymous sex. The risk of sexually transmitted infections is a factor — although, to be sure, someone who says they love you poses the same risk unless they’ve been rigorously tested.

One solution to all these is to do anonymous role play with someone you know. If you want to play in public, plan to meet up somewhere that you are fairly certain will offer some privacy. If your fantasy is to anonymously pick up a stranger and take him back home, this is easier: just plan to meet somewhere (the gym, a bookstore) and watch him from across the room. Pretend you don’t know each other, and when the time is right, make that classic, subtle head nod — “Let’s get out of here.”

6. Coach and Player

Another common gay porn scenario: the gruff, frustrated football coach tells his star quarterback to stay after practice for some additional training. For obvious reasons, this scenario works great for group role play as well. Who says the coach only has one MVP?

7. Pup and Handler

Like many scenes in the world of kink, puppy play at its simplest is a form of role play. It falls under a broader category of role play types called “pet play.” In pet play, humans act stereotypically like different animals before and during sex.

Like all forms of role play, puppy play is as simple or complex as you make it. Some pups — myself included — love the pup headspace and extend it past the bedroom into daily life. We do this by wearing collars, barking at/sniffing guys on the dance floor, and sitting/kneeling whenever our handlers/boyfriends say, “Sit.”

There is an inherent power dynamic in puppy play, and many pups would say there is a Dominant/submissive relationship. Pups are automatically submissive to handlers. A good pup loves getting scratches, treats (sexual or otherwise), and led around on a leash by a handler. And while this is certainly not always the case, handlers are typically tops and pups bottoms (alpha pups being a common exception — see number 11).

Puppy play is implicitly, if not explicitly, a sex role play, but some pups and handlers have removed the sex aspect of it and turned puppy play into a practice more akin to yoga — a de-stressing activity that frees them from the daily rigor of life. While I’m certainly not one such pup, I think that reveals something important about role play itself. There can be a therapeutic aspect to adult pretend games, if only because they remove you from your daily headspace and allow you to be imaginative. We know the positive effects that playing has on children, but few cultures have spaces for adults to do the same.

8. Kitty and Cat Owner

This is like puppy play, but the submissive guy acts like a cat. This features of this role play are endless: rubber or latex cat suits, tail plugs, and felt mice dangling on a string.

9. Pony and Rider

Pony play follows the same basic form as the other pet play types. Human ponies love neighing, wearing bits in their mouths (ones designed specifically for human pony play, as actual metal bits will break teeth), and being taken for a ride. The rubber, latex, and leather gear for pony play gets pretty elaborate and very costly, but I know some guys who have an almost quasi-religious dedication to pony play and are willing to fork over the cash. If Equus and all the endless bestiality porn on the internet reveals anything, it’s that horses inspire something very carnal and sexual in us humans.

10. Pig and Farmer

In modern gay lexicon, a “pig” is a guy who loves bareback sex and male bodily fluids (cum, piss, spit, and sometimes scat), so it should come as no surprise that pig play has evolved as a form of pet play that typically involves all these things. Say “oink” when the farmer comes around with his fisting gloves — you’re in for a wild night.

11. Beta Pup and Alpha Pup

There is nothing more fun than pupping out with another pup, which means barking, roughhousing, wrestling, licking, and rolling around on the bed with another guy that shares the pup headspace. If you’re a beta pup (submissive), you hope to pup out with an alpha — one that gets dominant when you start sniffing his groin.

12. Slave and Master

The range of power dynamics in the world of kink can be explained by placing them on a spectrum. On one end, you have puppy play — a mild role play with a relaxed Dom/sub dynamic (some guys say there is not a Dom/sub dynamic at all). On the opposite end, you have Master/slave. Although extreme, Master/slave is still a role play — one that typically involves hardcore BDSM, leather, rubber, extreme bondage and restraint, temporary imprisonment, and long-term domestic service (washing, cleaning, yard labor, etc.), all in service of the Dom/Master.

13. Doctor and Patient

You’ve undoubtedly seen these scenarios in porn. The restrained male patient needs an anal exam from the rugged doctor, who is conspicuously naked beneath his white coat and stethoscope. Doctor and patient role play is enhanced by a plethora of sex toys and kink supplies that fall under the “medical fetish” umbrella — speculums, metal douching nozzles, anal probes, white latex gloves, etc.

14. Soldier and Drill Sergeant

This is a clear Dom/sub role play where the sergeant barks orders and the sub — I mean, the soldier — obeys. When sergeant tells you to drop down and lick his boots, you better drop down and lick his boots, private. Atten-shun!

15. Ransom Victim and Kidnapper

Ransom/kidnap scenes typically involve a lot of bondage and duct tape. The full parameters of the play should be discussed before starting. Some guys might think the idea of being kidnapped and tied up is hot, but after three hours in a closet with duct tape over your mouth, you might feel differently. In the pre-play negotiation talks, you should set clear limits and boundaries. This role play is one that can be taken to extreme lengths — some guys love getting abducted from a public place and thrown in the back of a car — so you should only play with someone you know and trust (not a stranger or someone you met online).

16. Daddy and Son

Many tops like being called “daddy” in the throes of sex, but daddy/son role play scenarios go a bit further. There is a lot of written and video daddy/son porn online, so explore the internet for ideas, because the scenarios are endless: Daddy sneaks into his son’s room at night while mommy is sleeping. Son comes home from college one day and catches his dad in the shower and decides to join. Son sneaks into his dad’s room one night to see his dad jerking off. Son forgets to clean his room and daddy decides it’s time for a spanking. Daddy and son are washing daddy’s car and they both get soaked and have to strip off their wet clothes. The fantasies are unlimited!

17. Merman and Fisherman

Don’t lie, you’ve fantasized about walking down the beach and coming across a poor mer-boy washed ashore who needs help getting back out to sea. He will do whatever it takes. You might need to carry him. But first….

Aretwork courtesy of Fred Lammers. See more of his work here.

18. Baby and Parent

Baby role play commonly overlaps with diaper fetish and sometimes scat (feces) fetish. An adult baby will crawl around, cry, and eventually need someone to change his diaper.

19. Intern and CEO

For all its wincing misrepresentation of BDSM relationships, Fifty Shades of Grey touched upon a longstanding role play with a clear Dom/sub dynamic — low-level intern and executive CEO. Business tycoon and office boy. “Cancel my 3:30 meeting and crawl under my desk, boy.”

20. Porn Star and Director

This one works great if you and your boyfriend like to film yourselves having sex. Strip for the camera as he directs you. He may eventually decide that this shoot really needs a second man, at which point he’ll begrudgingly have to step in as an actor/director. This role play obviously lends itself to groups, especially if you like to watch and direct others and be in control.

21. Santa and Naughty Child

Christmas role play! When Santa finds out how bad you’ve been this year, he’ll have something more than coal to fill your stocking with. While a santa hat and some black leather boots should get you started, a hefty amount of playfulness and creativity is all you need to get on the naughty list this year.

22. Cousins

This is like “brothers” role play, but considerably easier to accomplish if you do not, in fact, look anything like your boyfriend. Some guys are wigged out by immediate-family incest scenarios, but cousins? No problem. It’s perfectly acceptable to disappear off to the basement or woods during family reunions for some quality time, right?

23. Batman and Robin

The dynamic duo has been the source of superhero role play for much of the caped crusader’s long career. Their whole setup is kind of obvious, and pretty gay in itself: a wealthy older bachelor takes in a poor young house boy just to fight crime (in spandex and black rubber) every night? Please.

See more of Philip Bonneau’s great photography here.

24. Batman and Superman

This power couple has inspired a plethora of gay fantasies (who’s the top? who’s the bottom?) and if you’re into cosplay, this role play is an easy one to get into. Unsurprisingly, a gay porn parody of the recent Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice movie just hit shelves.

25. Uncle and Nephew

There’s a lot of gay porn modeled after the proverbial “gay uncle” that comes by the house and messes around with his in-the-closet teenage nephew. As you can see, anyone into incest fantasies has unlimited role play options to choose from.

26. Married Couple

This is only role play if you are not, in fact, married. Everything under the sun — including the sun — can be fetishized and inspire eroticism, especially a married couple (as opposed to boyfriends or simply two gay men who play together). This milder role play involves acting like a married couple before or after sex. If you’re non-monogamous, go out and introduce each other as your husbands the next time you’re in a new city, and interested guys will flock to you. Many guys, myself included, love being the third (or forth, or fifth) for a married couple.

27. Pirate and Cabin Boy

All hands on deck! This more imaginative role play goes great with costumes and props. What submissive guy has never fantasized about being the lowly cabin boy on a ship full of rough and restless pirates? The group scenarios are very sexy, and the role play necessitates a lot of rope and a gag — opt for a torn strip of cotton cloth instead of a ball gag.

28. Teacher and Student

The handsome, bespectacled professor needs you to stay after class. You’ve been misbehaving and it’s time for a lesson in manners. If you want to paddle your student’s bum over a wooden desk, do not use an actual yardstick, because they break easily. Invest in a good wooden or rubber paddle designed for the job.

29. Firefighter and Rescue Victim

You do not need to light your house on fire to enjoy this role play. It will simply require some creativity, and perhaps a firefighter’s costume, which you should be able to find at your nearest costume store.

30. Policeman and Criminal

“Officer, please don’t give me a speeding ticket. I’ll do anything.”

“Anything?”

This old-school role play scenario is not complete without a good set of handcuffs and a black police baton — or, even better, a baton dildo. Thanks to Tom of Finland’s Kake Comics, homoerotic group police scenarios will always be part of the gay canon.

31. Warden and Inmate

There is a lot of “prison” and “psych ward” porn on the Internet that typically involves groups, handcuffs, straight jackets, cages, and intense BDSM and ass torture (one particularly intense enema porn scene comes to mind). These should give you some inspiration when it’s time to teach your unruly prisoner a lesson.

32. Hitchhiker and Motorcyclist

This is another Tom of Finland inspiration — one that old-guard leather enthusiasts will be familiar with. Grab a pair of daisy dukes and stick your thumb out on the side of the road — your leather-clad biker boy will surely come along and take you for a ride.

33. Priest and Sinner

The darkly kinky undertones of penitence and adulation, glory through suffering, and asking for forgiveness on one’s knees has created an massive fetish sub-genre in which religious iconography is integrated beautifully into sex play. This darker role play can get very raunchy with a priest’s robe, a rosary, robe, anal beads, a good leather flogger, a gag, and an unbridled imagination — crown of thorns not required.

34. Rape Fantasy

Many forms of role play involve overpowering someone or being overpowered, but as soon as you add the word “rape” to any label, it pushes the descriptor into uncomfortable territory, and in the case of “rape fantasy,” intentionally so. “Rape” is a socially and politically charged word that automatically evokes something ugly and violent — as it should. While the kinky community has always embraced pushing the sexual envelope, we draw the line at consent. We stand by three tenets: play must be Safe, Sane, and Consensual.

That last tenet, “Consensual,” is one that does the most work combating the still-heavy stigma and misunderstandings that people seem to have for kink — namely that it is a culturally condoned form of abuse and rape. While this misconception is not true, at least for not the international majority of kinky men and women, it is simply a fact that many people fantasize about non-consent scenarios. Talking about them and addressing them goes into murky territory. If you engage in “rape fantasy” role play, it must be role play — that is, it must be consensual, a carried-out fantasy, a sexual pretend game. While you and your boyfriend can pretend that your play is non-consensual, and use bondage gear and other kink supplies to enhance that idea, you should also use safe words and establish and respect limits to make sure that what your are doing is safe and healthy.

35. Interrogator and Prisoner

Interrogation typically involves some degree of bondage and BDSM. We’ve all seen hot interrogation scenes in action movies, where the hero is tied in some kind of predicament while the bad guy and his thugs question him. He always escapes at the last minute, but while he’s tied to the chair, guys into interrogation scenes are intensely aroused. This role play may seem more like a performance than a sex play, it can also get pretty intense. Some questions can strike a painful and emotional chord in someone, especially if they are hooded and blindfolded. You should discuss beforehand emotional limits as well as physical ones: What “no-tread” topics can the top/interrogator not ask?

36. Home Invasion

You’ve see it in porn: the handsome thief in a black ski mask breaks in and sees the muscular home owner sleeping in bed (with an all-too-obvious erection beneath the sheets) and decides to take what he wants. Sometimes this scenario gets flipped on its head — the home owner knows Jiu-Jitsu or something and handcuffs the thief to the bed: “You’re going to pay for this, punk.”

While it certainly nudges closer to “rape fantasy,” some guys into home invasion are not aroused by the sex aspect of it. Some guys get off on being held up or mugged, and their fantasy may simply involve someone entering their home and stealing their money.

37. Airport Security

If you’ve ever had a fantasy of traveling to Berlin and being stopped by the German airport personnel, strip searched by seven muscular men in uniform in a sterile backroom, and rectally examined on a cold chrome table, you might be into role play scenarios involving airport security.

38. Fantasy Characters

The idea of being fucked by a minotaur is in the upper echelon of my hottest fantasies (their pantheon includes getting fucked by an faun, getting fucked by Rocco Steele, and being stranded on a desert island with all the guys from high school and seeing who makes me his bitch first). Fantasy and its counterparts — anime, comics, video games, mythology — are playgrounds of hot role play. Carried out, they might seem pretty elaborate and require some dedication, and probably some makeup and prosthetics, but what better weekend pastime could you have? Imagine the refusal texts: “Sorry guys, Danny and I can’t come downtown tonight, he wants to role play as a satyr so I’m dressing up as an orc and fucking the shit out of him.”

Orcs, by the way, are so hot.

39. Daddy-Home-Early and Yard Boy

This is one of the oldest in the book. Bill comes home from work, loosens his power tie, drops his briefcase by the door, and sees the new yard boy his wife just hired through the kitchen window — young, shirtless, and bent over transplanting sod. Bill gets stirrings he never felt before, and before long he’s stroking his enormous penis in the window when the young man turns and sees him. The two have an uncomfortable five-second staring contest, then Bill calls him in — perhaps for a glass of lemonade — and the young man struts and sweats across the yard and closes the screen door behind him.

And that, gentlemen, is how gay porn was made.

#gay #rokko steel #gay man #body

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ayzrules · 3 years

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10 Signs That You’re in an Ayz Novel/Project/Writing Collab/Rp/~Thing~

tagged by @homesteadchronicles <3! tysm for tagging me - i love these things!!!

1. SILK & STEEL MOTIFS - [ mai, rowena, camila (ish), all of proper young killing machines! ] ever since i was 14-15 and obsessing over book!sansa / book!margaery, and only enhanced by my gail carriger phase. maybe it has to do with the fact that i’m too lazy to ever get into a physical fight myself? LMAO but i love writing snakey political girls who don’t really do ~fighty~ stuff but absolutely are plotting something and will manipulate/backstab their way to getting it. and ofc they hide all of that behind perfect manners & designer gowns & high heels ;D. normally about working with the system & bending it to their advantage for w/e reason (revenge is pretty common lol), not necessarily destroying the system & making something new/better. which segues into:

2. ICE QUEEN TROPES - [ izzy, mari, yinmei ] i first started writing these girls as a direct foil to #1; i would say characters in both of these categories are just as ruthless as each other, but #2 are more obvious/overt about it and v v v blunt. instead of working with & manipulating the system, these girls tend to be the type to just break it apart with a sledgehammer, hahahha. sub-category/spinoff being the too-old/tired-for-your-shit-so-pls-fuck-off kind of vibe ;DDD

3. THE VERY MEAN VERY TERRIBLE GIRL W QUESTIONABLE MORALS IS A MAIN POV AND ALSO MY FAVORITE AND NO I WILL NOT APOLOGIZE - [ tess + camila, kyvana, tselvya aka the murder princess trio of lay them to rest ] ummmmm no excuse except i might be not 100% straight lmfaoooooooo. i just can’t resist ruthless amoral girls in flouncy ruffles & floral frocks ok next (!)

4. TREE-HUGGING SHIT / POETRY IN NATURE - [ verdínqa, dulcifera, of daisies & ddt, a bit of run devil run ] i’m an envi sci nerd & study something similar w my degree program so no surprise :D ever since high school i’ve been into subverting the light = life & darkness = death trope, just after learning about shit like eutrophication & hypoxic waters etc where growth/a surplus actually leads to death, and sort of the belief that death in nature isn’t inherently bad for the entire system (ecocentric holism & alla’ that). and also a point that’s been driven home countless times by lectures, talks, books, webinars, what have you - the earth as just a planet will be fine even w all the anthropogenic shit going on, it’s humans who will be fucked. so that makes its way into my work a ton!

5. REINCARNATED QUEEN BEES - [ jenny, chae ] idk there’s just something so iconic about that aesthetic. zombie girls in chanel & luisa beccaria ya feel. the absolute vanity/arrogance/haughtiness of your typical hs movie rich bitch TM meets oh shit im not really alive and also eating brains is gross (i once googled human brain nutrition facts. quora saved a girl but also my search history is wack lmfao)..... yea! :kermitdab:

6. DITZY PINK SIDEKICK WHO IS ACTUALLY PRETTY BOOKSMART - [ steph, lea, lyra ] to (sort of) go with above, i like writing the bubbly girly girls who can throw front tucks and scorpions and double arabians like nobody’s business but also aren’t your stereotypical ‘dumb cheerleader’ trope; they’re just thought of as ditzy because of how nice/sweet/outgoing they are. also 3/4 times they drive crusty mom vans. yes this is me projecting my own driving experience no i will not change

7. SARCASTIC IDIOT MEME QUEENS - [ chrissy, inferna/vicky, angie ] always obsessed with memes, usually obsessed with food/sbux, kpop, or both. these girls are fun to write bc it’s like, 2 brain cells and they’re all devoted to simping for girl groups or copping free food deals (yes i make them all blackpink fans yes i am basic no i do not accept criticism) which is just #same. usually tend to be pretty scathing & hotheaded, also with a bit of a too-tired-for-this-pls-fuck-off energy ;D and that’s highkey my entire internal dialogue so like..... :kermitdab:

8. GLITTER + GORE / MURDER PRINCESSES - [ robot unicorn attack & its spinoff ‘rua: guts & glory’, proper young killing machines, lay them to rest, this new hyper-girly pokemon yugioh-esque collab w loml <333 ] traditionally “”””””””girly/feminine”””””””” aesthetics meets murder/other very dangerous activities you should not try at home!

9. FACETIOUS REFERENCES TO RL - [ gem quest, robot unicorn attack, lay them to rest, other things im prob forgetting ] basically i’m super facetious and also a clown and i like to poke fun at stupid things in my own life hahahah. gem quest is very modern meme culture meets high fantasy fairyland (& it was a collab with fanfan! so literally just my aes meets hers ;DDDDD) in the way i wrote it (references to twilight, phineas & ferb, kpop, other memes in the fairytale setting basically); robot unicorn attack is allllll about that petty celeb drama (just with a glitzy cyberpunk backdrop & also unicorns) LMAOOO & it does have tons of similarities to the kpop industry! & lay them to rest - aka murder princess aesthetic heaven - has me pulling out shit like ‘picstagram’ and ‘versacci’ (versace + gucci lol i’m so lame). one of the murder-y girls is a social media influencer/beauty guru. yeah!!

& last but not least-

10. MORE AESTHETIC THAN PLOT - [ insert everything i’ve ever written ] look i can NEVER come up with coherent plot lines WHATSOEVER but at least my pinterest is popping & my prose is all overly detailed descriptions of dresses & flowers LOL

tagging: @bebemoon @vampirkaninchen @morningstar1399 @now-on-elissastillstands @atimefordragons @tudorgirl @lend-your-lungs-to-me @bulletgirl @unholieds @artless-whimsy @interluxetumbra @clarienanaberry << sorry i cant splel ur writeblr @n-eusex + anyone who sees this & wants to do it!!! <3 <3 <3

#my stuff #my writing #TYSM FOR THE TAG THIS WAS SO MUCH FUN

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rosecorcoranwrites · 4 years

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Villain Motivation and the Banality of Evil

Motivation in Fact and Fiction

As you know by now, I am a huge true crime fan. I've read books by FBI profilers and crime historians, am addicted to the Investigation Discovery channel, and have even attended a semester of my local police departments "citizens police academy". This is a professional as well as a personal interest, given that I am currently outlining a mystery WIP set in an alternate version of our world. Thus, I want to understand crime investigation, different types of evidence, and, of course, motive. It's this last one—the motivation behind a villain's acts—that many authors, not just those who write mystery—concern themselves with. And, after examining hundreds of real-life crimes, I'm here to tell you that it's not that important.

Ok, it's a little important, in that a villain needs a motive, but it's not important that it be extremely groundbreaking, or extremely relatable, or extremely anything. Motives tend to be common place, not extreme, no matter how shocking the other aspects of a crime.

For example, the excellent book The Father of Forensics: The Groundbreaking Cases of Sir Bernard Spilsbury and the Beginnings of Modern CSI, which I raved about previously, contains a number of sensational cases where the bodies were either hideously mutilated or, conversely, found without any scratch on them. To add intrigue to injury, the murders happened in the early days of forensics, when procedures for dealing with evidence were still being worked out and when more modern investigative tools like AFIS, DNA testing, and psychological profiling were still decades away. Every case was fascinating in its details and in its eventual solution. Almost every case had, as a motive, either money or getting out of an unwanted relationship. That was it. The oddities of the bodies were the killers' attempts at not being caught, but the reasons for there being bodies in the first place were as average as could be.

In fact, the three main motives, according to Lt. Joe Kenda, of ID channel fame, are money, revenge, and sex. The more headline-catching serial-killer crimes happen, it seems, due to a desire for power or a thrill. I would say these five motives sum up most murders, maybe even most crimes. Once you cut away the mystery and the gore, all you're left with are some pretty average human desires: money/stuff, vengeance/justice, sex, power/control, and thrill/excitement. When people talk about the banality of evil, this is what they mean.

Take the motive of "money". We're all familiar with the idea, in real and fictional crime, of robbing banks or killing someone for their life insurance. Writers seem to find this an acceptable plot point: villain wants a lot of money and thus does very bad things. Yet, if you watch enough crime TV, you will know that real murders happen for sums as low as $400 or even $40. There was an episode of Homicide Hunter: Lt. Joe Kenda where a man was shot and almost killed over an argument about 25 cents!

It also needn't be money, but material possessions. In one of the citizen's police academy classes, we learned about a local case where three teenagers broke into a man's house and stole, among other things, his corncob pipe. This pipe was the item he was most upset about, and often discussed in subsequent weeks. So the man lured one of the teenagers out to the woods and shot him execution-style. He was planning to do the same to the other two, and blame the whole crime on his teenaged lover. So that was one life ruined—and it would have been three others, had he not been caught—with the motive of revenge for a lost corncob pipe!

The Gap Between Good and Evil

I thus wonder why it is that we, as writers, tend to overlook such commonplace motivations. There's an unspoken assumption that the motivation of a villain must scale with their actions, so while sub-bosses or henchmen might get away with being in it for the money or the thrill, the Big Bad needs a more exciting or deep motivation. There's also a more recent idea being bandied about in internet circles that the villain should think he's the hero. I think both of these concepts are flawed, but let's take them one at a time.

Although I personally love "True Believer" villains that really do believe they are doing what is right, I don't think it's fair to say that all villains must be this way. After all, a great many real-life villains don't think they're doing something good; they just don't care. They want what they want and do what they can to get it without worrying about morality. I think the reason that this second sort of villain--the thrill-killer, the evil sorcerer, the bully--get a bad rap is that people (both readers and writers), don't understand evil. Yes, a villain who only desires evil is unrealistic, because, in fact, it's impossible to desire evil. But maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.

In the Catholic tradition, we hold that evil doesn't exist; it has no metaphysical reality. Evil is a privation, or absence, of good, similar to how a shadow doesn't exist, but is a privation, or absence, of light. Thus, a person cannot desire evil in and of itself, because they would be desiring nothing. Every evil act is done because someone is desiring something good, but disproportionately, or in a way that removes part of the good from that thing. Again, look at the five motives for murder. Each of those is a good, in and of themselves, but none justifies violating another person.

And thus we come to the other assumption about villains, that their actions must scale with their motives. I think, in fact, the opposite tends to make a more interesting villain. The motive can be something small--wanting revenge for some slight, or a peaceful life, or to be like everyone else. These might even be the same goods that the hero desires. What makes the villain villainous, and what can make them even more interesting, is what they are willing to do to fulfill these desires. Who or what are they willing to throw away? What rules are they willing to break? That distance, between what they want and how they get it is what separates them from the hero.

Types of Villains

This principle, that a villain must desire a good, but desire it disproportionately, can work for any type of villain.

Take the True Believer types: those that believe they are doing what's right. In this category, I would put people like Thanos (Avengers: Infinity War), as well as A.I.s like Agent Smith (The Matrix), VIKI (iRobot), and the Terminators (Terminator... obviously). Thanos is widely lauded as one of Marvel's best villains because he really does think he's doing the right thing. He is willing to throw away half of all sapient beings, plus the one person who he actually cares about, in order to save the other half. What he wants--peace and prosperity--is understandable, but while the gap between that and his genocidal actions is mathematically non-existent, it is morally huge. Similarly, the three A.I.s I mentioned are trying to save either robot-kind or human-kind, but are willing to murder thousands or even billions of humans in order to do it. Essentially, these villains are doing the classic Utilitarian trolley problem, but on a massive scale. They think they are the heroes, and truly do desire a good outcome, but the actions taken to bring that about are inexcusably evil.

Similar to the True Believers are a type of villain I will call the Desperate. These people are also trying to bring about good, but know that what they are doing is wrong. Mr. Freeze (Batman) is a classic example, as he commits crimes to get money and technology to save his wife. Actually, there are a whole slew of villains, mostly in anime and JRPGs, whose entire motivation is to save or resurrect a dead wife or girlfriend. They're trying to save someone they love, but they rarely brand themselves as saviors or heroes; Desperate types hold no such illusions. Sebastian, in my own series, is such a villain, in that he is willing to betray his friends and ally himself to bad people in order to save Chiaroscuro and make up for his past sins. He's willing to do evil that good may come of it, and actually uses the "I'm a bad person anyway" excuse as a justification for his actions.

On the flip side are those who don't care about whether or not they're doing good, which I will divide into three types: Dark Lords, Thrill Killers, and Egoists.

Dark Lords, obviously, include literal Dark Lords, such as Sauron and Voldemort, but I'm also going to throw in your average serial killer into this category. Why? Because they all want the same thing: power. The books I've read by FBI profilers chronicle the most gruesome crimes with motives ranging from rage to lust, but there is an ever present need of the killers to control, whether that's controlling their victims, the situation, or the police and firefighters (in the case of arsonists). Control is related to power, and power, in and of itself, is a good. This, in fact, is why it's wrong for these villains to take away the power or freedom of their victims. While a True Believer like Thanos sought balance, Dark Lords seek an imbalance, and want everything for themselves in an attempt to prove to themselves that they are more powerful, and thus better, than everyone else. These types of villains are, sadly, very realistic, but don't lend themselves to stories requiring a strong interpersonal conflict between hero and villain. They tend to act as a force of nature the hero must work against--whether in a fantasy against a Dark Lord or in a thriller against a serial murderer--and thus don't do much in the way of interpersonal conflict.

Better, in my opinion, are the Thrill Killer types, who see the world as a game, and are willing to do whatever it takes to have fun. Example of this are The Joker (Batman) and Mr. Sato (Ajin). Though The Joker is a bank-robbing thug, he's mostly in it for the laughs, and cares very deeply about whether or not things are funny. That doesn't make him any less abusive or violent, but the gap between his humor and his barbarity is what make him an interesting character. Mr. Sato, similarly, sees the world like one huge videogame, in which he has been given extra lives. Fun and games are a normal and natural good, but his villainy stems from what he is willing to do in this "game". Mr. Sato has absolutely no concern for human life, even his own, and kills hundreds of people (including himself, on multiple occasions!). The interest in this type of villain comes from watching their crazy schemes and then trying to figure out how the hero can possibly beat them. These villains are similar to Dark Lords in that they are something like a force of nature, but different in that the hero usually has to face off against them personally, outwit them, and deal with them as an individual person.

Finally, there are those who want something personally good, but have no regard for others. Technically, this could also describe Dark Lords and Thrill Killers, but here I mean really personal, as in specific to that person. Rather than something big like power or a crazy thrill, they tend to desire the utterly ordinary. Take the robot in Ex Machina. I'm not sure everyone would classify her as a villain, though she certainly did some evil things (it's up to interpretation whether she understands good and evil, though). What was her motivation? She wanted to go watch a crowd. She was, essentially, created to gather information, so that's what she went to go do. It makes sense that that's what she wants, but it doesn't justify what she did to the main character (even if he was kind of a doofus). Or Rezo the Red Priest (Slayers), who, in my opinion, has one of the best motivations of any villain ever. He was born blind and wanted to see. That's a totally understandable motivation. But he's willing to sacrifice the entire world to a demon lord in order to get that wish. Now that is a heckofa gap between a good desire and an evil action! And yet, is it really all that different from the sort of selfishness present in a man who would murder three teenagers over a corncob pipe? Real evil motivations are banal, and real evil actions are completely disproportionate to those motivations. Art, in the case of these last villains, is simply imitating life.

Asking What the Villains Want

Obviously, there are a million different ways of combining these villain type and motivations. Some villains want money so they can save a dying loved one. Some villains desire revenge because they truly believe they have been wronged. A Thrill Killer might find excitement in killing criminals. There is no one right way to write a villain, and there is no one motivation that is the only interesting kind. To anyone trying to write a villain, I suggest reading about or watching shows on real life criminals, from the Big Bads like Hitler, Stalin, and Mao to famous killers like Jack the Ripper and Ted Bundy to run of the mill criminals in your local newspaper. People don't become mass murderers or even petty thieves for no reason, but they also don't just do evil because it's the evil thing to do. Even the most gruesome atrocities were rooted in the desire for misplaced revenge, or disproportionate control, or a false belief in some so-called greater good. Then, I suggest reading and watching your favorite stories and asking what makes these villains tick. Is it the same as in real life? Is it different? What makes a great villain so great? You'll may just find that it's simply a matter of proportion.

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myhauntedsalem · 4 years

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9 Signs of Your Past Life

Have you live before?

Here are 9 clues you might find in your present life

The idea that our souls or spirits reincarnate reaches back at least 3,000 years. Discussions of the subject can be found in the ancient traditions of India, Greece, and the Celtic Druids. It’s a tantalizing belief – that our spirits are not confined to the seven, eight, or nine decades of life on Earth (if we’re lucky), but that we have lived before and that we might live again.

What do you believe? Do you believe that you have had a past life or lives, growing up, working, loving, and suffering in roles very different from the one you are now playing out? Perhaps you were a different race, socio-economic class, or gender. Some even believe you could have been another living species entirely – a dog, gazelle, or fish perhaps.

Those who believe in past lives suggest that there might be clues to what our past lives were in the various complex aspects that make up our current physical, emotional, intellectual, and psychological personalities. Here are some of them.

DÉJÀ VU

Most of us have experienced the eerie feeling of déjà vu – the sudden, surprising feeling that an event we are going through at the moment has happened exactly this way before. Psychologist Arthur Funkhouser has broken down this phenomenon into sub-categories: déjà vécu – an event already experienced or lived through; déjà senti- already felt, perhaps triggered by a voice or music; and déjà visité – a place so familiar we feel we’ve been there before.

While scientists and psychiatrists insist there are neurological explanations for these phenomena, others wonder if these strange feelings could be vague, fleeting memories of past lives. You enter a house or building, for example, in a town you’ve never visited before. Yet every detail of that place is familiar. You know what’s in the next room and up the stairs. You have the overwhelming feeling that you’ve been there before. Have you – in a past life?

WEIRD MEMORIES

My daughter has “memories” of childhood events that we know never really happened. Is she just remembering a child’s fantasy, misunderstanding, or even a dream that she now interprets as reality? Or is sheremembering something that happened to her before she was born into this lifetime?

Human memory is a fraught with error and incongruities, and I’m sure many of us have memories of things that family and friends can attest never occurred. So the question is: Is it faulty memory or a remembrance of lives past?

DREAMS AND NIGHTMARES

Recurring dreams and nightmares also have been suggested as being memories or at least clues of past lives. I have experienced this type of recurring dream. There are two locations with specific details that crop up in my dreams several times a year, yet they are places I have never been to.

The first is a large city and I am walking down the street… there is a candy/magazine store on the corner, and I go in any buy something… then I go farther down the street to another building, and in the lower level is a small restaurant where I meet some friends and make the acquaintance of some girls… and later I think that I must go back to that place to see if the girls are there again.

The second is a smaller city – I get the distinct feeling of a “college town” – and I can see the specific view of a specific corner, how it looks, what’s there, how the street slopes down, etc.

These are not memories of places or events that have happened in this life, yet they recur in my dreams often. Are they memories of something important that happened in a past life?

Likewise, can nightmares be reflections of past life traumas that have clung to our spirits and haunt our sleep?

FEARS AND PHOBIAS

Where do your fears and phobias come from? Fear of such things as spiders, snakes, and heights seem to be built into the human psyche as part of our evolved survival instinct.

Many people suffer from phobias that are completely irrational, however. Fear of water, of birds, of numbers, of mirrors, of plants, of specific colors… the list goes on and on. People suffer from all kinds of bizarre phobias.

While several years on a psychologist’s couch might get to the root of those odd fears, those who believe in past lives wonder if they are carried over from a previous lifetime. Does a fear of water indicate a previous death by drowning? Could a fear of the color red suggest, for example, that a person was struck or killed by a red streetcar?

AFFINITY FOR FOREIGN CULTURE

You probably know a person who was born and raised in the United States but is an ardent anglophile – a person who is interested to the point of obsession with British culture. You might also know someone who can think of little else but getting dressed up and acting the part for the next Renaissance Fair or Civil War reenactment.

There are “philes” for virtually every culture on the planet, both modern and ancient, affecting people who seem to have no rationale for their obsessions. Why? Are they merely trying to find familiarity in a culture in which they lived 100 years ago? 1,000 years ago?

PASSIONS

Here is a related subject. It’s good to have things that we are passionate about, as long as they do not become obsessive and debilitating. But from where do passions arise for books, art, antiques, fashion, gardening, theatre, cars, trains, aircraft, the paranormal – or any number of other subjects?

Intense interest in a specific subject might be totally natural, of course, but might there be a past life connection in some cases?

UNCONTROLLED HABITS

The dark side of passions are those uncontrolled habits and obsessions that take over people’s lives and can even marginalize them in society. Obsessive-compulsives and hoarders fit into this category. A man who has to turn the light switch off and on ten times before he leaves a room; a woman who collects newspapers into six-foot-high stacks throughout her house because she cannot bear to get rid of them.

Each of us has at least one bad habit, from fingernail biting to gossiping to procrastination. The extreme forms include addictions to everything from television to Facebook to drugs. Again, psychological explanations can be found for these uncontrolled habits, yet those who believe in reincarnation say they might have roots in past lives.

INEXPLICABLE PAINS

Do you have aches and pains that the doctors cannot quite pinpoint or find a medical explanation for? You might be labeled a hypochondriac – a person who imagines his or her ailments. Or, as past life proponents suggest, those mysterious pains, sores, cramps, and more could be reflections of suffering you endured in a previous existence.

BIRTHMARKS

Birthmarks have been touted as evidence for reincarnation. In one fascinating case, an Indian boy claimed to remember the life of a man named Maha Ram, who was killed with a shotgun fired at close range. This boy had an array of birthmarks in the center of his chest that looked like they could possibly correspond to a shotgun blast. So the story was checked out. Indeed, there was a man named Maha Ram who was killed by a shotgun blast to the chest. An autopsy report recorded the man’s chest wounds – which corresponded directly with the boy’s birthmarks.

In a similar way, various other physical traits – even deformities – have been suggested as having their precedent in a person’s former life.

#9 Signs of Your Past Life #paranormal #ghost and hauntings #ghost and spirits

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thecleverdame · 5 years

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Control and Release - 12

Series Masterlist

TEDTalk!Sam x Reader

Summary: With the rest of the staff caught in a snowstorm, you find yourself acting as a personal assistant to the notorious Sam Winchester.

Warnings: Dom/Sub, humiliation, embarrassment, sexual objectification, mutual masturbation, spanking, cum play, fingering, anal play, orgasm control, dub-con, nipple clamps, breath play (more warnings as the story continues)

Words: 5k

Beta: @ilikaicalie

Parts 13, 14 & 15 are currently available on Patreon for a monthly pledge of $2.50. This includes early access to all my stories and Patreon exclusive content. >> CLICK HERE <<

You spend the weekend naked and fucking in nearly every room of his house. Sucking his cock in the middle of the kitchen, laid out over his sofa on display while he reads the paper, spanked until your ass is bright red. By Sunday night you’re tied to his bed frame and looking forward to the work week so you can get a few nights of well-deserved rest. It’s almost midnight when he sends you home, patting your cheek in appreciation then standing in his doorway, watching as you walk toward the waiting car.

There are faint black and blue marks around your wrists, leftover reminders of being bound and gagged. You look out the window, pressing on one wrist and enjoying the fading pain as the moment comes back in vivid detail. Sam can make your body respond, even when he’s not there.

There a question flickering to life in the back of your mind - how long can this last? But you push it down, refusing to acknowledge it.

Five Months Later

“What is going on down there?” Rolling your chair back, you glance down the hallway.

“Brent is getting axed.” Millie wheels her chair toward you, and the two of you sit side by side listening to the commotion down the hallway. There’s muted yelling coming from one of the conference rooms.

“Really?” You know he screwed up, it was bad enough for Sam to bring up in casual conversation. “I liked Brent, he wasn’t a total ass like the rest of them.”

“That’s probably why he didn’t last,” Lexi chimes in, walking up behind you, resting her hip on the corner of your desk. “I heard he got called up to the attic this morning. Word is, he told Sam that it wasn’t even him that mixed up the dates, it was Tobias but they blamed him.”

“You think that’s true?” you ask, listening as the yelling escalates and two uniformed security guards come trotting down the hallway.

“I don’t think Sam Winchester does anything unless he’s one hundred percent sure about it.” Millie offers and you shift in your seat.

While your arrangement with Sam has grown into itself, it still makes you uncomfortable when anyone else talks about him. It feels like they’re going to find out your secret just by the look on your face.

Life has been split into two categories. The normal work week, which is usually boring and predictable - you go to work, go home. You get the occasional text from Keith Campbell, a little homework every now and then but for the most part your professional life has turned into just that, strictly professional.

It’s the weekends that you indulge in each other. From Friday afternoon until Sunday night you live in a sexual fantasy, engaging in whatever wonderful torture he decides to inflict. He was the one who talked of compartmentalizing his life but you’ve done the same.

Bang.

The door to the conference room flies open, hitting the wall with a thud. All three of you jump. Brent is hauled out of the room by the guards, who are now joined by four more, as they wrestle him out of the building.

“Poor guy,” you mumble, looking away.

“Another one bites the dust.” Millie shakes her head. “We’ve got it good. We stay under the radar and just do our job.”

“We should head over to the auditorium.” Lexi taps the back of your chair.

It’s Sam’s monthly employee meeting and everyone is expected to be in attendance. Grabbing your coat, the three of you head out of the main building to the staff auditorium. There are always refreshments and snacks if you get there in enough time and you wander around, talking to other employees and sipping seltzer.

You’re discussing Lexi’s upcoming blind date when there’s a tap on your shoulder. Turning, you find Pepper, looking as irritated as always. “He wants to see you. Now.”

Sam hasn’t called for you in person, during work hours, in months. You’re taken off guard, looking sideways at Millie and Lexi who are both as surprised as you are. You’ve done your best to keep the fact that you occasionally meet with him a secret. As far they know you’re just another low-level assistant

“Come on!” Pepper snips, grabbing your arm and hauling you off. You follow her backstage, winding through a labyrinth of hallways until she stops at the door to a small room. You step inside and she closes the door.

Sam is standing, one hand in his pocket eyes fixed on his phone. He looks up, smiling when he sees you. “Hello.”

“Hi.” You clasp your hands together.

“You look surprised. Am I interrupting something?” He cocks an eyebrow, stepping closer. Every action he makes has a purpose, especially the way he moves.

“Not at all.” You tilt your chin up toward him. “I was just caught off guard. You don’t mix work and us these days. I’m always happy to come when you want me.”

That last statement makes his eye twitch, nostrils flaring.

“I’m glad to hear it.” He inches nearer, eyes dropping down your body. “I wanted to make sure that you don’t have plans this weekend.”

“Do I ever have plans?” you counter, watching him lick his lips. You know one thing for sure, the longer this has gone on, the hungrier he is for you. And the feeling is mutual.

“Yes, but today is your birthday. People normally celebrate with friends. You don’t have anyone coming into town?”

“No,” you nod, holding your head high. “I’m all yours.”

“Good. Be ready tonight at eight. Wear a dress, something nice. I’ll pick you up.”

“We’re going out?”

He hasn’t taken you anywhere other than his bed since San Francisco. In fact, some weekends you never wear anything at all, naked from Friday to Sunday. You wonder if this is for your birthday or one of his social engagements. It’s not uncommon for him to take a date, but as far as you know it’s always Pepper who accompanies him in public. He says it’s cleaner that way. Everyone knows she’s his assistant so there are no misunderstandings.

“Yes,” he confirms. “No panties, hair down.” His eyes linger then he steps back, smoothing down his tie.

“I look forward to it.” You watch as he leaves the room, always left in a wake of excitement and expectation.

It’s almost eight as you look in the mirror, adjusting your dress. It’s black and tight, falling just above your knee. The neckline is lower than you're used to but nothing scandalous. It’s the back that’s the real show stopper, it’s open all the way down to just above your ass crack. You hope it’s not too much, Sam will occasionally comment on your clothing choices but you think you’ve got a handle on his taste. Above all else he prefers class.

His car pulls up just before eight. You’re waiting by the front door of your brownstone apartment building, hurrying down the steps, eager to find out what’s in store.

The driver opens the door and you slide in next to him.

“How are you tonight?” he asks, his hand already on your knee, slipping between your legs.

“Excited. I haven’t been out in a long time.”

“Well, let’s hope this evening lives up to your expectations,” he purrs, hand sliding just a little further up your leg. “I hope you’re not too hungry, we aren’t eating until after.”

“After what?” You look up, his fingers pressing into the warm flesh inside of your thigh.

“You’ll just have to wait and see.” He grins, giving you a squeeze and removing his hand. “Before we go any further, I need to tell you that I allowed Pepper to choose a second assistant for the Tokyo trip next month. I expressed my preference for you, but she chose Lexi.”

“That’s no surprise I guess.” You can’t help but be disappointed. “I mean, I’d like to see Japan, but you know better than anyone Pepper hates me. We don’t work well together.”

He chuckles. “She’s not one to hide her feelings.”

“How long will you be gone for?”

“Two weeks. Don’t worry, I’ll have you report to me every night. You’ll have a list of tasks for while I’m gone.” He holds his stare and you get lost in the moment, drowning in those eyes that you’ve come to know oh so well.

“I look forward to it.”

“I would expect nothing less. We’re here.” He points out the window as the car pulls up to the Boston Museum of Modern Art.

“We’re going here?” you ask looking back at him. “It’s closed.”

“Not to us,” Sam corrects you, allowing the driver to help you out before following. You feel his hand on your naked back, sliding down to the dip in your lower back. He leans down to whisper in your ear. “Excellent choice.”

“I thought you might like it.” You smile, taking his arm and walking toward the entrance. The thought dawns on you like a bolt of lightning. “This is the Yayoi exhibit.”

“You said you wanted to see it didn’t you? The timing was perfect.” He looks proud of himself as a porter opens the front door for you.

“I said I wanted tickets-” You’re dumbfounded, looking around at the empty museum.

“This is better. A private viewing without the distractions.”

There’s a man bustling toward you with several people following.

“Mr. Winchester!” A short, sharply dressed man extends his hand. “We are so honored to have you here. I’m Cecil Baton, the general director. On behalf of the entire board, we want to extend our heartfelt thanks for all the support you’ve offered over the years.”

“It’s my pleasure.” Sam nods in confirmation, slipping an arm around your waist to pull you forward. “This is Y/N, she’s very much looking forward to seeing Infinity Mirrors.”

Cecil takes your hand, shaking it vigorously.

“We are thrilled to be able to repay your generosity by hosting a viewing for you and your lovely friend.” Cecil makes a tsking sound and a uniformed waiter steps forward with two flutes of champagne. “May we interest you in a glass of Dom Perignon?”

“Thank you for the gesture, I don’t drink,” Sam affirms and looks to you. “Go ahead.”

You hesitate for a moment before taking the glass off the tray and then the two of you are whisked down a hall, as you explore the wonders of each colorful, unique room.

By the time you’re done, you’ve finished three glasses of champagne and are floating on cloud nine as Cecil chatters away, walking you out. He goes on and on about how wonderful Sam is. Leaving you to ponder exactly how much money he must have donated to get a reception like this. You probably don’t want to know.

“What did you think?” he inquires as you walk back toward the car.

“It was...better than I could have imagined. What an experience.” You feel like you’re vibrating with happiness. While you’ve never lived through any kind of cruelty, you’ve also never been pampered in any sense of the word. This is a scenario you could never have imagined. You turn to him, stopping in your tracks and gripping both his arms. “Thank you so, so much.”

“It was nothing.” He shakes it off, giving your elbow a squeeze. “Come on, we’ll be late for dinner.”

Dinner is at a French restaurant called Mistral.

He orders for you, but he’s better at it now than he was in the beginning. He’s come to know your preferences, even ordering you a fourth glass of champagne, toasting you with his seltzer water.

“Sam,” you start, looking from the tuna tartar. “Is there a reason you haven’t touched me yet tonight?”

“I touched you in the car,” he smirks.

“Yes, but you didn’t touch me. I mean, you are going to, aren’t you?”

“Don’t worry,” he chuckles, sitting back in his seat, one arm resting on the table. “It’s your birthday. The one day of the year I’m going to leave it up to you. Start thinking about what you want tonight. It’s your choice.”

You can’t help your grin, giggling a little as you sip from the flute. “I’m not sure I even know where to start.”

“I’m sure you’ll think of something.” With a genuine laugh, he goes back to his salad as you talk about your favorite part of the exhibit and the various other artists you hope to see in your lifetime. When you finish he’s quietly watching you, seemingly satisfied to sit and listen as you ramble on. “Do you have anything on your bucket list? I know you have more money than God, so you can probably see and do anything you want but there’s gotta be something.”

“Hmm,” he indulges your question, really giving it thought. “I want to see the northern lights. I’ve never had the chance.”

“That’s a good one,” you agree as your empty plate is swapped out for a giant tower of chocolate and raspberries. You almost squeal, a little tipsy and having arguably the best birthday of your life. “Come on, try some. One spoonful of sugar won’t kill you.”

“No.” He shakes his head, face lit up in amusement.

“Oh come on Sam, it’s my birthday. You said I’m in charge tonight...one bite.”

He contemplates your request and just when you think he’s going to tell you no he reaches over and spoons a bite of your dessert. Popping it in his mouth and wincing, “too sugary.”

“Your loss,” you laugh, digging in.

“Have you decided?” Sam's teasing, watching you blush in the low light of his bedroom.

“Yes,” you nod. “There are several things I’d like tonight, but first I want you to take your clothes off.”

He raises his eyebrows, but compiles immediately, toeing his shoes off and reaching for the buttons on his shirt. You do the same, stripping down until you’re both nude and staring at each other. He’s already half hard, cock thickening right before your eyes.

“In a little bit, I want to suck your cock. Then I’d like you to spank me, not too hard though.” You explain, biting your bottom lip as he nods in agreement.

“We can do both those things.”

“But first I want you to lay down on the bed.” You clear your throat, not comfortable giving the instructions. This is his territory.

He walks over to the bed, sitting down before laying back on the pillows. You crawl over him, straddling his legs, then moving until you’re sitting across his upper thighs, his erection standing tall against your stomach.

“I want to touch you,” you admit, watching him blink in response. You reach up, placing your opens palms over his chest, feeling him twitch under your touch. Fanning outward you sweep your palms over his chest and toward his shoulders, sliding over warm skin. Both his hands are resting on your thighs. He sighs when you run your nails through the hair on his forearms and then lean forward to suck on the skin of his neck.

A low groan leaves his throat as you nip at the juncture of his neck and shoulder and before you think better of it you place a kiss just under his ear. It’s a lingering touch and then you do it again and again moving downward until you find yourself under his jaw, scraping teeth over his five o’clock shadow. When you raise your head to look down at him, his eyes are closed, popping open seconds later. Staring at each other, his hands slide around to cup your ass cheeks, rocking upward as his cock rubs over your stomach.

You shift forward and rub your clit against his cock, nose pressed into the side of his cheek.

“Fuck my mouth,” you whisper.

Sam moves in record time, flipping you onto your back as you yelp in surprise. Getting off the bed he grabs you by the ankle rolling you onto your belly then turning you in a half circle until your head is hanging over the edge of the bed.

“Open.” Your jaw falls slack as he slides the head of his dick past your lips and you suck hard, as he slides forward. “Take it,” Sam purrs, reaching down to stroke your cheek as his cock hits the back of your throat. You hum around his dick, let him push forward until his balls press into your chin. “Just like that.”

His deep voice conveying words of praise go straight to your clit, throbbing between your legs, triggering the slick that’s leaking from your sex. You let him fuck your throat looking up as he stares down at you with forced concentration. Without warning, he pulls out of your mouth leaving a trail of spit as he taps your shoulder like he’s tapping out of a fight.

“Roll over,” he commands, big hands turning you over as you comply without hesitation. Head tilting backward over the edge of the bed, upside down. He places one hand at the side of your face, the other on his cock as he pushes back between your lips. “Open up.”

He slides his cock over your tongue and past your uvula as you swallow him whole. Pressing forward he watches the bulge in your throat, then reaches down to rub the outline of the head of his cock as you choke around him. “Fucking perfect.”

He holds himself there for a five count, you know it well. He’s rough, but consistent which helps for things like this. The next one will be longer, but if you count to ten you know he’ll give you relief.

He pulls out, drool leaking over the sides of your face as you gasp for air. Holding his spit-wet dick in his hand he rubs the head over your face, tapping your cheek several times before sliding back inside, right back into the deep stretch while you concentrate on breathing through your nose.

This is one of your favorite things. While you knew you liked sucking dick, having him fuck your mouth as you lay on the bed is a whole other level. Your pussy is slick, throbbing with excitement as you gag around his thick shaft.

“I can see my cock in your throat,” he observes, rubbing the bulge with two fingers. He pulls back, leaving you a mess of spit and tears, eyes watering, but you eagerly open back up, tongue out as he thrusts back in. “Do you like this? Choking on a cock?”

“Uhhh,” you rattle, vibrating around him, unable to do little more than make desperate gurgling sounds.

“I know you do.” He strokes your cheek, rocking forward, getting just a tiny bit deeper. “What do you say?”

“Huh ooo,” is your version of thank you as you swallow him whole.

“Where do you want me to cum?” he grunts, pulling out. You look up at the sight of him holding his cock in his hand, inches from your face.

“In my mouth,” you confirm, clamping your thighs together. “I want to taste you.”

“Open wide.” Reaching forward he gives your nipple a hard squeeze before jerks himself with the head of his cock on your tongue. A half dozen strokes later he's cumming warm and salty as you suck and swallow with fervor. “Keep sucking, just like that,” he instructs as your tongue gently swirls around the sensitive head.

When he’s really into it he can stay hard after he cums. He’s done it plenty of times before. He can’t always get off again, but he can damn sure fuck you into next week.

You carefully attend to his cock, rolling his balls in your hand until he’s sufficiently aroused and then he pulls you off his dick by your hair.

“On your hand and knees,” he instructs, gesturing toward the bed. You scramble into position, feeling your pussy ache as he knees his way between your calves. “You want me to spank you?”

“Yes, please.” You look back at him, arching your back, widening your legs.

“You’re going to get a spanking while my cock is in your pussy,” he huffs, running a hand over your lower back, down the crack of your ass. “Make sure you ask before you cum. No more rule breaking, not even on your birthday.”

You swallowed his load before he told you to, part of you was wondering if he’d punish you for it.

“I understand,” you confirm feeling the thick head of his cock sink into your slippery pink cunt. It’s an easy slide despite his size, but you're wet enough to take him to the root on the first stroke. He holds himself deep, balls pressed into your mound and then his hand comes down on your backside.

Crack. Crack. Crack.

It’s perfect. He knows your body to a tee, knows exactly how hard you like it. His harder spanks are saved for discipline and his softer ones are teasing, but this is the perfect sting.

“It’s your birthday, twenty-nine would be the tradition, wouldn’t it?” He strokes in and out, nestling back inside before bestowing three more smacks on the other cheek.

Crack. Crack. Crack.

“Fuck,” you breath, clenching around his shaft.

He pulls out, only to thrust back inside and then they come in rapid succession. Too many to count. All you can do is howl, twisting on his cock until he finally stops, both hands gripping your ass, squeezing.

“Would you like to cum now?” His inquiry is accompanied by a series of shallow thrusts.

“Yes.”

“How? Like this?” You’re not used to being asked for your preference and hesitate before answering.

“Yes, but I want you to hold yourself deep and rub my clit.”

He snorts, leaning over your back. “Anything for the birthday girl.”

Pressing forward he stuffs your cunt until he’s right against your cervix, sending out those little sparks of pain you love so much. His middle finger finds its way to your clit, making soft circles and you’re already there.

“May I cum?” you pant, eyes shut, mouth hanging open.

“Yes.”

It’s the only permission you need before falling over the edge and cumming around his cock. You jerk, moaning and whimpering as you tighten around his shaft. He takes his hand away from your bud but holds himself inside you until your orgasm begins to fade. He pulls out only to slide back inside again, thrusting slow and even, two hands gripping your hips.

“We’re going to get one more out of you tonight.”

You’re sweating.

You flex, blinking awake trying to figure out why you’re overheated only to find Sam wrapped around you, his chest pressed against your shoulder blades, soft belly at the small of your back.

It’s not the first time. He often slings an arm over you in his sleep, but he’s never cocooned you before. You wiggle backward, testing the waters and his grip tightens as the arm over your side curls under your stomach, pulling you back into him.

If he woke up like this you’re not sure what reaction he’d have. The two of you live in a strange world, a weekend relationship devoid of soft affection but always intense. The two of you have slipped into a safe space, an agreement and routine that seems to be working. This isn’t moving backward or forward, you’re stuck in a loop of sex and gratification that never fails to leave you somewhat crestfallen as you head into the week. You spend your time waiting until you’ll see him next, hoping for a little more.

You lie there, half awake, body hyper aware of him holding you for nearly two hours. It’s morning when he finally rolls away, grunting in his sleep and flipping onto his stomach retreating back to his side of the bed.

Sam’s sleeping belly down in the bed, mouth open as his back slowly rises and falls with his breath. You lay there, unmoving, watching his relaxed features, that handsome face looking almost boyish with his pink-flush cheek smashed into the pillow. He’d never let you gaze at him like this if he was awake, so you indulge while you can.

There’s no need to look at the clock to know it’s early, the way the light filters through his windows shifts depending on the time of day. That and he’s not up yet. It must be before six if he’s still out like a light.

The clock confirms it’s five forty-five and for once on a Saturday morning, you’re willingly awake before noon. He normally let’s you sleep in while he goes for a run and does a few hours of work. You give him one last look and gently crawl out of bed, pulling on white cotton panties and foregoing all other clothes, heading to the kitchen to make tea.

You’ve just taken the kettle off the stove when you hear it, a shuffling behind you. It’s impossible to explain how you know it’s not Sam, but you do. You can sense it. Every hair on your body stands up on end and when you turn around you’re faced with a stranger standing in the middle of Sam’s kitchen.

He’s tall, not as tall as Sam but a big guy and you’re instantly frozen in place, practically naked, blinking at the man in front of you. His shirt is spattered with blood, the red stains that are unmistakable.

“Well shit,” he smirks, a grin tugging at his mouth as he eyes your naked tits. “He always had good taste.”

“Um,” you stammer, taking a step back. “Um, who-”

You can’t find the words, your brain shutting down as he gets closer.

“Look at you,” he whistles, sauntering around you as you turn in a slow circle to keep him in your line of sight. His eyes dropping down the length of your body, head to toe. “How much does a guy like Sam pay for a girl like you? Do you charge by the hour or the night? I mean, I’ve been to Vegas, fucked my fair share of working girls but hot damn sweetheart, you are something special.”

It’s at that moment that your thoughts come together to form a coherent thought. This is Dean, Sam’s brother.

“Pleasedon’thurtme,” you squeak out in one quick utterance.

“Don’t worry sweetheart. My brother has never been very good at sharing anyway.” His eyes hone in on the fresh bruises on your hips, leftover handprints.

“Wh-what do you want?” you stutter, now shaking in fear. Dean closes in and you back up into the counter, trapped by his advance.

“Don’t worry,” he eyes your tits again. “Nothing you can give me, at least not right now.”

“Get away from her.” Sam’s voice booms from across the kitchen, standing bare-chested in a pair of pajama pants, eyes on fire. He looks from Dean to you, extending a hand. “Come here.”

“We were just getting to know each other.” Dean offers a lopsided grin.

Eyes glued on Dean, you inch sideways until you can scurry across the kitchen, letting Sam pull you to him.

“Sam,” you look at him, eyes wide.

“It’s okay.” He takes a half step in front of you, putting himself between you and his brother. “What are you doing here, Dean?”

“Did I come at a bad time? I understand if you wanna be sure you get your money’s worth before we get down to business.”

“She’s not a hooker,” Sam clarifies, tilting his head, eyes never leaving his brother.

“Yeah,” Dean smiles, making a production of leaning to the side to look at you. “Didn’t think so. Good for you, getting back on the horse after all these years. I’m happy for ya.”

“Cut the shit,” Sam steps forward and you move with him, pressing against his back. “What the hell are you doing in my house? Are you trying to get me arrested?”

“Trust me.” Biting his lip, Dean chuckles to himself. “This is the last fucking place I want to be. But I need you, Sammy, there’s some bad shit about to go down. End of the world type stuff. Dad and I need you.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Sam snorts, his posture softening. “No.”

“Tell you what. How ‘bout you put your girl back to bed and we talk about this alone?”

“How about you get the hell out of my house?” Sam counters. “You must be high if you think I would ever do anything for you or dad.”

“Just hear me out, Sam.” All the playfulness drains from Dean’s face. “Dad went on an a...hunting trip. He hasn’t been home in a while.”

“How is this any different from any other time?” Sam shakes his head. “You know this feels familiar. It’s been fourteen years since the last time you showed up with this same story. I went with you and Jess ended up dead. You ruined my life and Dad showed up when he damn well felt like it. So no, there is no way in hell I’m going anywhere with you.”

“We need you.” Dean’s mouth pulls tight. “I know you’ve got a whole white collar thing going on and a life, a girlfriend. I wouldn’t ask if I had a choice.”

“There’s always a choice Dean. I made mine a long time ago. Dad said if I left not to come back and I haven’t. So get the fuck out of my kitchen.”

“Sam,” Dean takes a step forward. “This is your family.”

“No,” Sam spits back. “Family was an illusion. A convenient guilt trip to get me to do what you and dad wanted. I don’t have time for family, Dean. My life is full up.”

“Okay,” Dean looks at the floor, before leaning to the side to look at you again. “Nice to meet you-”

“Stop talking to her.” Sam’s voice is colder than you’ve ever heard him, venom simmering under his words. “You stay away from me and you stay away from her. You hear me, Dean?”

“I hear you.” Dean waits for a beat, looking from Sam to you and then he’s gone just as quick as he came.

“Sam,” you sputter as he turns to you, placing a hand on each shoulder.

“We need to talk.”

#Control and release #sam winchester smut #sam winchester x reader

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