#i am loving throwing all the tropes i possibly can into this one woo

[lululawrence]

Snow In Love - A 2023 Advent Fic by lululawrence

Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson | 33k | 25/25 Chapters

Harry and Louis are best friends and have been for basically as long as they can remember. For the first time since middle school, they are both single for the holidays leaving them with the brilliant idea to take each other as their dates to work events. To make things easier they will pretend like they’re dating. But then they learn something funny.

People thought they were already dating. Weird.

An advent fic featuring childhood friends, fake dating turned actual dating, really horrible secret keeping, and a winter weather surprise.

☃️ 1 ☃️ 2 ☃️ 3 ☃️ 4 ☃️ 5 ☃️ 6 ☃️ 7 ☃️ 8 ☃️ 9 ☃️ 10 ☃️ 11 ☃️ 12 ☃️ 13 ☃️ 14 ☃️ 15 ☃️ 16 ☃️ 17 ☃️ 18 ☃️ 19 ☃️ 20 ☃️ 21 ☃️ 22 ☃️ 23 ☃️ 24 ☃️ 25 ☃️

Now Complete!

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[blackswaneuroparedux]

Anonymous asked: I love your long posts which make for great reading and I wish you could do more because you’ve got such a range of astonishing interests. I’m hoping because you’ve served in the military you would have studied military thinkers. Do you think the Art of War by Sun Tzu is way overrated by everyone? I studied him a bit for my masters but I still couldn’t get my head around him. Interested to know your thoughts. Thanks!

“To lift an autumn hair is no sign of great strength; to see the sun and moon is no sign of sharp sight; to hear the noise of thunder is no sign of a quick ear." - Sun Tzu's Art of War, Chapter IV - Tactical Disposition, Clause 10.

Sounds cool, doesn’t it?

But what the hell does this quote really mean? Do you know what it means? Can anyone else tell me?

Look, I enjoy a good Sun Tzu quote as the next person. Only recently I was exchanging thoughts with a fellow blogger whose studying Thucydides, Clausewitz, and Kissinger for an advanced course at the US Naval War College. Even he prefers Sun Tzu over Clausewitz. I can see why too. If you can make sense of chapter one of Clausewitz’s tome On War you deserve a Nobel Prize.

Unlike my very learned fellow blogger, there are lot of folk who don’t know Sun Tzu at all. They can quote him, but almost certainly out of context. As someone who partly grew up in the Far East and even learned Chinese and Japanese (a pitiful but functional degree of fluency) I’m embarrassed (not hard since I’m English) when I hear other Western compatriots romanticise and elevate Eastern icons to mythic status that the Chinese themselves have never done.

I am even more bemused than embarrassed after having hung up my military uniform for ‘civvy’ corporate clothing at how badly abused Sun Tzu’s book is in the corporate world. In my workplace I grit my teeth at corporate high flyers who mistake a balance sheet for a real battlefield by quoting Sun Tzu out of their arse, and then as self-styled ‘corporate warriors’ work themselves up in a lather of testosterone induced self-importance to crush their corporate enemies into the dust.

This is why the The Art of War by Sun Tzu has invited a jaundiced eye roll. And rightly so. I can see why many view Sun Tzu as over-rated because many easily impressed people go all woo woo over anything ancient and Eastern.

It’s become a familiar trope to say the art of ‘strategy’ as a science began 2,500 years ago with the writing of The Art of War. I would dispute this. Not that the writing of Art of War was the earliest written but whether I would call it a manual of strategy per se - more on this below in my answer.  However you rate or overrate the Art of War it’s important to have perspective and remember this book is written in 512 BC. Other than the bible and some religious books, there are not many books that can survived thousands of years and still remains a steady bestseller and enjoys a wide influence in military academies and army staff colleges today and even as far into board rooms.

The question behind your question is just as interesting to me: why did Sun Tzu and his Art of War gain such traction in the West?

Sun Tzu (544-496 BC) wrote the original text of The Art of War shortly before 510 BC. During most of the past two thousand years, the common people in China were forbidden to read Sun Tzu's text. However, the text was preserved by China's nobility for over 2,500 years. The Chinese nobility preserved the text of The Art of War, known in Chinese as Bing-fa, even despite the famous book-burning by the first Emperor of Chi around 200 BC. The text was treasured and passed down by the Empire’s various rulers. Unfortunately, it was preserved in a variety of forms. A "complete" Chinese language version of the text wasn't available until the 1970s. Before that, there were a number of conflicting, fragmentary versions in different parts of China, passed down through 125 generations of duplication.

Indeed at the beginning of the twentieth century, there were two main textual traditions in circulation, known as the (Complete Specialist Focus) and (Military Bible) versions. There were also perhaps a dozen minor versions and both derived and unrelated works also entitled Bing-fa. Of course, every group considered (and still considers) its version the only accurate one.

When I last visited China before the Covid pandemic for work reason, I had time off to go to a couple of museums that housed the fruits of a number of archeological digs uncovering the tombs of the ancient rulers of China in which sections of Sun Tzu’s works were found. These finds have verified the historical existence of the text and the historical accuracy of various sections. I understand new finds are still being made.

The first complete, consistent Chinese version was created in Taipei in the 1970s. It was titled The Complete Version of Sun Tzu’s Art of War." It was created by the National Defence Research Investigation Office, which was a branch of Taiwan's defence department. This version compared the main textual traditions to each other and to archeological finds and compiled the most complete version possible.

This work was completed in Taiwan rather than mainland China for a number of reasons. Mainland China was still in the throws of the Maoist Cultural Revolution, which actively suppressed the study of traditional works such as Sun Tzu. The mainland had also moved to a reformed character set, while Taiwan still used the traditional character set in which the text was written. Only today is the study of Sun Tzu in mainland China growing, interestingly enough, through the translation of Sun Tzu into contemporary Mandarin. Based on the archeological sources we have today, we are reasonably certain of the historical accuracy of this compiled version that is the basis of what most people use today.

Surprisingly, the Art of War only came to light in the West around the 18th Century.  

Historians believe it was first formally introduced in Europe in 1772 by the French Jesuit Joseph-Marie Amiot. It was translated at the time by the title “The thirteen articles of Sun-Tse”. Joseph-Marie Amiot (1718-1793) was not just a Jesuit priest but also an astronomer and French historian, as well as fervent missionary in China. He was one of the last survivors of the Jesuit Mission in China (he died in Beijing).

Many of the historical problems with understanding Sun Tzu's work can be trace back to its first Western translation in French. A Jesuit missionary, Father Amiot, first brought The Art of War to the West, translating it into French in 1782. Unfortunately, this translation started the tradition of mistranslating Sun Tzu's work, starting with the title, The Art of War (Art de la guerre).

This title, copied the title of a popular work by Machiavelli (a criminally underrated writer on military strategy), but it didn't reflect Sun Tzu's Bing-fa, which would be better translated as "competitive methods."

We cannot say what effect being translated by a Jesuit priest had upon the text. It was unavoidable that the work's translation reflected the military prejudices of the time era when war was both popular and Christian. It was also unavoidable that most future translations would reflect some of the first translation's prejudices. However, war was on the verge of becoming much less Christian in the West since this time was the era of the French Revolution (1789).

The work might well of slipped into obscurity after its initial publication, but it was discovered by a minor French military officer. After studying it, this officer rose to the head of the revolutionary French army in a surprising series of victories. The legend is that Napoleon used the work as the key to his victories in conquering all of Europe. It is said that he carried the little work with him everywhere but kept its contents secret (which would be very much in keeping with Sun Tzu's theories).

However, Napoleon must have started believing his own reviews instead of sticking with his study of Sun Tzu. His defeat at Waterloo was clearly a case of fighting on a battleground that the enemy, Wellington, knew best. Wellington’s trick at Waterloo was hiding his forces by having them lie down in the slight hollows of this hilly land. This is exactly the type of tactic Sun Tzu warns against in his discussion of terrain tactics.

After Napolean, Sun Tzu's theories made their way into western military philosophy. Many of his ideas are reflected in the ideas of work of Carl von Clausewitz. who defined military strategy as "the employment of battles to gain the end of war."

The first English translation of The Art of War is less than a hundred years old. Captain E. F. Calthrop published the first English translation in 1905. Lionel Giles, an assistant curator at the British Museum and a well-known sinologist and translator, attacked this early translation, and he published his own version in 1910. It soon began to be read alongside Clausewitz’s 8 volumes of turgid German military prose.

It wasn’t long before military thinkers were ditching Clausewitz for Sun Tzu because no one could get past Chapter One of Clausewitz’s On War. The “Clausewitz is dead, long live Sun Tzu” school was first championed by the influential British military theorist B.H. Liddell Hart in the 1920s.  Basil Henry Liddell Hart (1895-1970) was a captain in the British Army. He was a very influential military theorist and historian, and author of several books such as The Future of War (1925) and Strategy (1954). Having witnessed first-hand the mechanised onslaught of the Great War, Liddell Hart sought a philosophy of warfare based in the prudent use of technology, psychology and deception - and the avoidance of the 'total war' catastrophes of preceding decades.

The main idea of Liddell Hart is to bring the set of principles of warfare in a so-called ‘indirect approach’ to the enemy. His advocacy in his scholarly work of an ‘indirect strategy’ over direct, frontal operations, was a reaction to the high casualties of the Western Front in the First World War. But his ideas were not simply about physically outmanoeuvring an opponent. Instead he pushed for a psychological scheme: to strike from unexpected directions, to generate strategic dissonance, and to induce paralysis. Hart’s well-known thoughts are “Only short-sighted soldiers underestimate the importance of psychological factors in time of war”, “Originality is the most important from all military virtues”, and “The principles of war could shortly be condensed in a single word: concentration”. 

Liddell Hart believed that distilling historical insights of strategy and operations would offer the chance to avoid the costly disasters of modern war and ensure a more cost-effective route to success. He imagined technological solutions in the form of air power and mechanised land forces outflanking and shocking an enemy at the tactical level. This would be complemented by taking indirect strategic ‘ways’. Like his contemporary J.F.C. Fuller, Liddell Hart considered concentrations of air and armoured forces driving deep into enemy territory to destroy their ‘nervous system’. The psychological aspects of this were central, since acquiring an advantage demanded moves that were unexpected, with precise attacks at the most vulnerable points. As the most influential military writer of the modern age, revered and reviled by three generations of strategists, armchair and armipotent, his controversial theories of armed attack laid the foundation of the famed German Blitzkrieg.

Hart’s championing of Sun Tzu’s work as articulated through his own works got a new lease of life as the world gingerly settled into the ice bath of the Cold War. The rise of Communist China, against all the odds having defeated the well disciplined nationalist armies of Chian kai-Shek, was a wake up call for the West. There was a general befuddlement among western military analysts to explain the secret of Maoist success. There was an intellectual inquest in the 1950s and 1960s for some way to explain (and, it was hoped, learn to counter) Maoist military doctrine. Sun Tzu was seen as one of the historical and cultural sources of some particularly Chinese or Asian way of war, and his work made its way into Western discussions of counterinsurgency and asymmetric warfare.

Into the breach - and with fortuitous timing - appeared a new translation of The Art of War that was to become the defining translation right down to our day. Liddel Hart provided the foreword to Samuel Griffth’s 1963 translated copy of the Art of War. It was to quickly become a key text in US war colleges and this version is still to this day favoured by most of these institutions. We also studied Griffith’s translation at Sandhurst alongside Liddell Hart’s ideas.

There is no question that Griffith’s translation has become the standard go to translation to this day in military circles - that is until James Clavell’s more populist and looser translation came along in the 1980s. One can see why. Griffith’s translation provided a number of historical Chinese commentaries on the text. It should also be noted that Griffith’s strengths was his immense experience in the military and knowledge of military history as a brigadier general in the U.S. Marine Corps.

However, this was also his version's greatest flaw. Like many other critics I have the impression that Griffith did not really believe or understand all of Sun Tzu. Indeed he would often explain away Sun Tzu's direct statements without making it clear that this was his commentary and not what Sun Tzu wrote. The other main criticism and this one is stylistic and therefore just my opinion, Griffith was also not much of a writer. By our standards today, much of Griffith’s language can seem awkward and dated.

Looking back it feels ironic of the US military were wrapping their heads around Sun Tzu as way to get inside the Chinese communist mind (of Mao the military strategist especially). Unknown to them Mao had desperately tried everything to get hold of a copy of the Art of War from the Chinese Nationalists. Cambridge historian and doyenne of intelligence history, Christopher Andrew in his book The Secret World: A History of Intelligence, wrote that the theory that Sun Tzu’s The Art of War was critical to mastering contemporary warfare is propagated through the use of a tantalising anecdote: “During the civil war between Communists and the Kuomintang regime [Mao Zedong] sent aides into enemy territory to find a copy of it.” The ancient text, ostensibly, was of such vital importance that Mao was willing to risk men’s lives to obtain it, while Chiang Kai-shek vowed to protect it all costs. It’s a questionable anecdote at best as there are no historical evidence of it.

We can say that the notion that Sun Tzu’s slim treatise is considered both potent and slightly dangerous - providing the master key to unlocking victory in war through the ages - is a compelling myth that refuses to die. Mao most likely never ordered a clandestine operation to pilfer the text, nor did Chiang Kai-shek give any thought to shielding its contents from prying eyes. Both men certainly read it long before the start of their civil war, both most likely had ready access to it during the conflict, and neither man won or lost based on adherence or divergence from its teachings. But undoubtedly it set the hearts of Western military theorists aflutter in trying to unlock the secrets of Eastern military thought.

Sun Tzu and his ideas in a reincarnated form took hold of the wider public imagination in the 1980s. The 1980s was synonymous with Japan. With the perceived rise of Japan as a global economic power and the changes in post-Mao China, there was a Western (meaning American) search for more explanations. What was the secret of Asia’s rise? How were Japan and China ‘doing’ this?

In Western business circles it was for a time trendy to read it because of the perception that it was part of what made Japanese businesses so successful during the 70s and 80s. Management gurus and other corporate consultants certainly latched on to it and touted it as a way for Western businesses to re-orient their entire management and business philosophy. I don’t know if that ever actually was the case in Japan - my father who worked in both China and Japan in the corporate world at a very senior level said it wasn’t - but what is true is that in the West as the Japanese economy languished into the lost decade of the 90s so too did interest in Japanese business practices, and thus Sun Tzu.

The idea that The Art of War was a kind of how-to guide to ‘strategy’  was made especially popular by Hollywood in the 1980s. Oliver Stone’s iconic film ‘Wall Street’ seemed to typify the ‘greed is good’ New York capitalist scene of the 80s and 90s. Hollywood mirror imaged the rise of the corporate raiders and junk bond kings like Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken. Hollywood sent thousands of American businessmen off to read Sun Tzu to look for ‘leadership secrets’. This is part of a general Western fascination with ‘timeless Asian wisdom’, the American idea that ‘the mysterious East’ is possessed of secret knowledge. American and European businessmen were enamoured of the idea that “a battle is won or lost before it ever begins”, a saying that reinforced traditional American business attitudes about a winning mentality and a ‘can-do’ spirit being two keys to success.

Because Japan and China were trendy in the 1980s and 1990s it also influenced Western popular culture, not just fashion (think Kenzo) but also comic books (manga) and anime. In this Eastern friendly climate it led a number of popular fiction authors to release their ‘own’ versions of the work to capitalise on its newfound popularity. These versions were more about the pop culture of the era than Sun Tzu. Unfortunately, though popular, none of these versions took advantage of the work completed in Taiwan creating a definitive version of Sun Tzu's text by this time. These versions were based either on old English translations (the Calthorp and Giles versions) or incomplete Chinese sources. However, all of these versions remain popular today, despite their questionable sources and poor quality of translation.

In 1983, James Clavell updated The Art of War translation of Lionel Giles and published it in a very popular version. This started a very common practice in English translation: creating a ‘new’ version from other English translations instead of going back to the original source. Authors today continue to follow this practice, which only perpetuates and exaggerates the problems with early translations.

Thomas Cleary, another well-known author, did his own The Art of War translation with historical commentary in 1988. Again, his name recognition did much to increase awareness of Sun Tzu, even if his work did nothing to improve the general quality of the translation.

Looking back the whole Sun Tzu as a business model fetish in the 1980-90s was really pretty silly, rather like 80s shoulder pads. Of course, there are some similarities in leadership regardless of profession, but the basic goals and working environments of war and of business are so wildly different that applying Sun Tzu to business is superficial at best.

So to me the problem is not that Sun Tzu is ‘overrated’ per se, the problem is that every half baked author out there try to apply its principles to every problems that mankind have. The Art of War, as the title suggest, is not The Art of Managing your Business, the Art of Winning in Competition against your classmates, The Art of picking up Women, The Art of Living Life to the fullest. It is, and only is, The Art of War. It is ‘overrated’ only if you expect it to answer every problems in your life.

The Art of War is not the word of God. It is a war manual advocating common sense with pithy aphorisms - and a very good one.

It’s not that I think the Art of War is over-rated it’s that the more common problem is that many people vastly under-rate Sun Tzu. By misreading Sun Tzu thoughts and ideas, I believe many are in effect under-rating the problems which Sun Tzu is addressing, namely war, or the continuum of conflict resolution where divergence in interests of multiple parties extends to the possible use of lethal force on a massive scale. A lot of people trivialise this problem with idiocies like “what if someone threw a war and nobody came” (clue, they would win, then hunt down and enslave or kill everyone too foolish to contest the issue, as has happened countless times in human history) or “ban war” (said ban apparently enforced by throwing flowers at soldiers).

Understanding that war is a very real and intractable problem is necessary to fully appreciate the genius of Sun Tzu’s work, especially where it avoids fixed and easily definable tactics specific to the Warring States period and instead illustrates timeless concepts of out-thinking the enemy at every level of conflict. That the text is still mostly readily applicable or at least reasonably insightful after thousands of years is a testament to the inability of humans to push warfare beyond the fundamental aspects of conflicting interests and continuum of forcible resolution Sun Tzu addresses.

Still, the particular translation matters far less than having an appreciation that, in war, you have an active opponent who is trying to out-think and counter any moves you make, and having an appreciation of non-dualistic philosophical reasoning more characteristic of Chinese classics generally. The classic symbol of Yin-Yang (and a number of derivative versions) illustrates apparent dualism as being a part of a deeper structural unity which does not permit a fixed division into separate parts.

Hence the difficulty of applying the principles of the Art of War to artificial ideas of “winning/losing” (or war/peace, right/wrong, us/them) as categorical absolutes rather than negotiated possibilities in a continuum of desirability/costs. And it is very difficult, no one should sugar coat that. Humans sort and construct their perceptions of reality by appeal to such gross simplifications. Binary logic is an immensely powerful tool in many areas because it leverages the ability to simplify complexity and then build valid inferences based on fixed premises. But at some point you have to go beyond that to have a more fluid response to reality as it is. Which Sun Tzu does for the reality of war.

I would recommend anyone to read it. At the end of the day it’s a book of highly general aphorisms that effectively synopsise the essential insights that apply to all kinds of human conflicts. Turning an enemy's flank has the exact same effect in 2500 B.C. and in 2000 C.E. and it has the same effect in the boardroom, or public market as it does on the battlefield. Deception and intelligence are still used in exactly the same way, whether conquering foreign lands, or stealing market share from a competitor. It's a book about common sense; but common sense must seem profound to those who have none.

Overall, I think Sun Tzu’s Art of War is a worthy read and not overrated because in our society of over educated achievers, common sense is in as short of supply as it has ever been; if this book can provide the meaningful framework for educating very bright people in down to earth common sense, that can only be a good thing.

The value of the book then is to drive home the fact that, in human conflict, there really is Nothing New Under the Sun (Tzu).

Pardon the pun and thanks for your question.

[averykedavra]

91. “i’m not kissing you in the rain, we’ll catch our deaths!” with logince, if you’d like?

(A classic! I wrote a version of this here with loroyality, if you’d like to read that, too!)

Words: 3367

Roman knew that real-life romance wasn’t exactly like it was in the movies.

For one thing, kissing sleeping princesses was frowned upon, for obvious reasons. For another, dragons did not usually frequent college campuses. There was also a distinct lack of princes, although there was a tower for the astronomy classes, which could perhaps serve as a prison.

In general, it was highly disappointing.

Still, Roman tried to make the most of it. Some romantic tropes could still be employed--flowers, for instance, or surprise dates, or fountains.

The campus even had a lucky fountain! Toss a penny in at the beginning of the year, and you’d get straight As. Roman had done so, of course. It hadn’t worked. Maybe the luck came on a delayed schedule. Roman still believed.

Roman believed in a lot of things--lucky fountains, fairies, and a Disney-style romance. Just because they hadn’t worked didn’t mean they wouldn’t work! He just had to do them right.

The first two were difficult to tackle during a semester of classes, but the third was attainable.

Especially when his science partner was so cute.

Logan apparently liked science class, which made him a nerd, but Roman could forgive that. It had made their science labs far easier. And it was eclipsed by his cuteness, in a way that somehow made the nerdiness also cute. That was a powerful skill indeed, and one that Logan deployed without thought. Whenever he wrinkled his nose or rolled his eyes or slid into a tangent about physics, Roman found himself in a bubble of happiness.

In a movie, there would be actual bubbles, or maybe flowers. Or maybe just a glow. Things still glowed when Logan was nearby, but Roman was pretty sure that was all in his imagination. He sent a picture of Logan to Virgil, in order to check. You’re in deep, was all that Virgil texted back.

And yes! Yes, Roman was in deep, and he was not ashamed! He was in love. Well, like--he couldn’t quite be in love at first sight, or even fifth study session, because that wasn’t how real life worked. He liked Logan, though. A lot. He wanted to kiss him on the cheek and listen to him talk about space.

It was hard to tell if Logan liked him back. Real life, unfortunately, held the large possibility that Logan did not. But Roman used his incredible observation skills, and by the third time Logan flushed when they bumped shoulders, he was pretty sure.

Logan liked him. Roman liked Logan, too.

Simple--this was the ‘ride into the sunset’ part of things. Except that involved one of them telling the other, and Roman could just say he liked Logan, but that wasn’t what he was supposed to do! He was supposed to woo him! That was how love worked.

So Roman tried to woo his lab partner.

And it went, well, not as poorly as it could have. Logan didn’t do anything extreme, like throw up or declare Roman a fiend. He just--ignored it. He ignored every single flirtatious line Roman threw at him.

At first, Roman could reasonably believe he hadn’t noticed--Logan was a bit naive in social situations, which was incredibly endearing--but he slowly began to doubt that. After he sent Logan flowers and Logan didn’t touch them, Roman gave in. Logan must have noticed. He just didn’t seem to care.

Which didn’t match up with anything. Logan had been interested in him--Roman knew it, and all their friends agreed. So if he was interested, he should be enjoying this!

That was how it worked!

And yes, dragons weren’t real, and yes, lucky fountains didn’t work, but something had to be true. It was called true love for a reason. Roman was supposed to sweep Logan off his feet, kiss him, and like it. That was how the story went.

Yet Logan stubbornly refused to play along.

Roman worked through his entire list of pickup lines. He spent half their study sessions inching his way closer before touching Logan’s hand, and feeling Logan pull away. He bought cookies, was curtly handed back the cookies, and was forced to eat the cookies by himself in his dorm room.

And he’d stop if Logan said no. If Logan clearly said he wasn’t interested--because he could reasonably have changed his mind--or that he didn’t want Roman to do this. But he never said anything. He just acted like it never happened.

Maybe that was a no. Maybe Roman was just not taking the hint. He definitely didn’t want to make his friend uncomfortable, but he couldn’t believe this was it, that he was stuck loveless and embarrassed and barely following along with science class.

He gave himself one more day. One last study session of attempting to drop hints, and if Logan let them fall like lead balloons, he’d cut it out.

“Your shirt looks really cute on you!” Roman said.

Logan hummed and turned a page.

“Oh, that’s how it works?” Roman grinned. “I get it now! You’re so smart.”

“Thank you,” Logan said. “It wasn’t that hard.”

“Cute, smart, and humble. Triple threat!”

Logan shrugged a bit and returned to the worksheet.

“Aw, I don’t want this to be over,” Roman said as the sky darkened. “Do you want to meet up again soon?”

“We have class together next week,” Logan pointed out.

“No, like--on our own.” Roman held out a hand. “Like a date.”

Logan looked at his hand, back up, and closed his notes. “I should get going, I think it’s going to rain.”

Roman’s stomach sank as he watched Logan stand and gather his things. Eventually, he put his own books away. The library was quiet as he followed Logan to the door. He couldn’t find the courage to make conversation.

Logan pulled open the door and peered out. “It’s already drizzling.”

“I have an umbrella?” Roman suggested, pulling out his umbrella. “If you don’t have one, I can walk you to where you need to go?”

“Oh!” Logan smiled at him. “Thank you, Roman, I’d appreciate that.”

And see, this was what messed with Roman! Logan didn’t seem bothered by the flirting, as he still treated Roman normally, so was he mad or was he uncomfortable or was he oblivious or was he--

Roman opened the umbrella, held it over Logan’s head, and gestured to the door.

“A rainbow umbrella,” Logan said. “Of course.”

“I’m gay! I have to show it!” Roman winked at Logan. “Now, come on, Specs, where are you headed?”

“My dorm building,” Logan said, as they carefully stepped outside. Roman held the umbrella above both of them, his arm around Logan’s shoulders. Logan didn’t seem to mind. “Are you sure the umbrella will fit both of us?”

“It seems to work!” Roman shuffled forward, and Logan followed. “It’s like those three-legged races, we just have to step in unison.”

Logan nodded and watched Roman’s feet, his nose wrinkling adorably, like it always did when he focused. “Step now?”

“Step now!” Roman grinned. “Step, step, step in time, step in time--”

“No Mary Poppins.”

“But Julie Andrews!”

Logan huffed, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “I’m not going to sing it with you, I hope you know that.”

“Good enough for me!” Roman declared. “Step in time, step in time, never need a reason, never need a rhyme.”

The rain was already falling faster. They walked in awkward unison down the sidewalk, past the parking lot, and towards the dorm buildings. They sat like brick lumps on the other side of the quad. All the grass was already muddy, and nobody was around, except for a few freshmen running to the Humanities building with coats over their heads.

“I should have brought my umbrella,” Logan complained as the rain increased. “The water is dripping down my neck.”

“Oh, it is?” Roman shifted his arm. “Does that work better?”

“For me, yes.” Logan looked up at him. “I think the water is now dripping down your neck.”

“I don’t mind,” Roman lied, ignoring the sensation of cold water in his collar.

“Here, let me adjust it.” Logan stopped walking and reached for the umbrella handle. “If we both stand under the dome, we won’t get wet.”

Roman laughed. “Is there an equation for that?”

“I’m hardly going to etch it into the grass, am I?” Logan moved forward and pulled the umbrella off-center. “No, that’s worse. Stay still--”

Roman had no trouble with staying still, because he had just realized he was inches from Logan, one arm around his shoulders. He could lean forward and hug him, or tap his nose, or--kiss him. Yeah. That was what people did when they were close to people they liked.

The rain drummed on the umbrella as Logan adjusted it, fully focused. Kissing in the rain. That was definitely what people did. A romantic gesture.

Roman took a deep breath.

“Logan?” he asked.

Logan’s hands stilled on the umbrella handle. “Yes?”

“I--” Roman laughed a bit. “Your hair is damp.”

“Oh.” Logan batted at it, and only managed to flatten it further out of position. “That’s disappointing.”

“It looks cute,” Roman said.

And Logan flushed, just a bit.

That was enough of a go-ahead.

“You know what people do in the rain,” Roman said. He tried to sound a bit joking, but not too joking, and ended up squarely in awkward.

“I do?”

“Uh.” Roman steeled his nerves. “They kiss. It’s romantic.”

Logan blinked at him. “Oh. How is that relevant--”

Roman made a small, meaningless hand motion.

Logan’s mouth formed a small o.

For a second, it was quiet, the rain drumming on the umbrella.

“I mean,” Roman said, deciding to dig his hole deeper and bury himself, “most people do it in the rain. Like, all wet. There aren’t usually umbrellas involved.”

Logan looked affronted. “I’m not kissing you in the rain! We’ll catch our death!”

“We’ll just get a bit damp.”

“Absolutely not,” Logan said firmly. “I am not going out from under this umbrella, and I am not kissing you in the rain.”

“Okay, fine,” Roman said, cursing every word that left his mouth. “But what’s the verdict on kissing in general?”

Logan blinked again. Roman wondered if he’d attempt to ignore the situation again, or steal his umbrella and run. He hoped not. He liked this umbrella.

“I...” Logan let out a long breath. “I am not kissing you. Rain or otherwise.”

“Oh,” Roman said.

“I’m sorry,” Logan added quickly, and he did look sorry. “I hoped you would leave it alone, but it seems really important to you, and I’m sorry. I’m just not--interested.”

“In...me?” Roman swallowed. He was not going to cry. “You’re not interested in me.”

“No--” Logan started. “I mean, yes, but--” He stopped, looking frustrated. “I’m not interested in that. Kissing. Or rain. Or--romantic things like that.”

Roman’s eyes widened. He hadn’t expected that turn of events. “You aren’t?”

Logan shook his head. “I’m aromantic. I’m not interested in a romantic relationship with anyone. Well, actually, some aromantic people do pursue romantic relationships. More accurately, I don’t experience romantic attraction.”

“You can do that?”

Logan raised an eyebrow and gave Roman a look that told him he was on extremely thin ice. “Yes.”

“I mean, that’s really cool!” Roman said quickly. “And makes a lot of sense. I just didn’t realize that was a thing.”

“Yes, it’s a ‘thing,’” Logan said. “You can doubtless find more online.”

“Huh,” Roman said. Things began to make a bit more sense. “Oh, gosh, I’m incredibly sorry for flirting with you! I didn’t realize--”

“It’s fine.” Logan paused and coughed a bit into his hand. “I-didn’t-mind-that-much.”

“What?”

“I--” Logan looked embarrassed. “I didn’t mind. It was...nice.”

“Really?” Roman asked. “But you said you didn’t like romantic stuff--”

“You were only complimenting me!” Logan said. “You said I was--cute. I enjoyed it. I only ignored it because I knew you meant it in a romantic sense, and I didn’t want to lead you on.”

Roman stared at him. Now things made more and less sense. “You didn’t mind it when I called you cute, though?”

Logan stared at his feet. The rain drummed around them.

“You hadn’t heard of aromantic,” Logan finally said, “so I doubt you’ve heard of this, either. But--the word is queerplatonic. And it’s, um--” Logan waved a hand. He was definitely blushing. It was completely adorable. “Even though some aromantic people don’t experience romantic attraction, they still have queerplatonic partners. For me, it’s like--I don’t want to kiss anyone, or do many traditionally romantic things, but--”

Roman nodded, making a mental note to do a lot of research. And also to hug Logan, when they were less wet, because he’d just fully comprehended that Logan had come out. That took bravery! And Roman was a bit honored that Logan trusted him enough to share.

“But I still like people,” Logan said. “In a--non-platonic way. I want to spend time with them, hold hands...” His voice trailed off. “Call them cute,” he finally said, barely loud enough for Roman to hear.

“Oh,” Roman said, again, because he didn’t have anything else to say.

“And I like you.” Logan looked up at him. “I do, Roman, a lot. Just--not in the way you were hoping. I don’t mind kisses on the cheek, but I’m never going to kiss you in the rain, and I would never be a romantic partner.”

The rain was still steady. Roman was pretty sure his arm was outside the umbrella, since it was getting drenched, but he didn’t care.

“So I apologize,” Logan said. “For that, and for all the miscommunication, because I should have told you instead of--letting it happen.”

Letting it happen. Because Logan liked it, he appreciated it, he might have even become flustered--Roman called him cute, and Logan liked it.

And Roman should have been heartbroken, or at least disappointed. His crush didn’t reciprocate his feelings! Roman liked Logan romantically, and Logan didn’t return that. No romantic flowers or lucky fountains or kisses in the rain. Just another thing that real life lacked.

The rain soaked slowly through Roman’s sleeve. Logan was probably right, anyway. Kissing in the rain would be cold and not fun at all. Roman couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to--

Wait.

Was the rain the issue? Or was it something else?

Roman stared at Logan. His lab partner. Logan was cute and adorable and smart and incredibly sweet, and Roman liked him a lot, and Roman wanted to--

Roman wanted to what?

Kiss him on the cheek. Hold his hand. Watch him ramble. Compliment him and see him blush. Maybe spend time together at coffee shops, or get him a present for his birthday, or even live together at some point--be together.

And that was all romantic. Obviously.

Wasn’t it?

Roman mentally ran through all his daydreams about Logan. Lots of hand holding. Leaning his shoulder into Logan’s. Hugging, or cuddling, or dropping a kiss on the top of his head.

Nowhere on that list was a kiss on the lips. Or a romantic date. Spending time together, sure, but it was different, it was--

Oh.

Huh.

“Aromantic,” Roman blurted out. “That was the word, right?”

“Um--” Logan looked a bit surprised. Roman realized he must have been standing there for several minutes, completely silent. “Yes.”

“So it’s people that don’t experience romantic attraction,” Roman continued. “Do--is it possible for them to kind of want romance anyway? Or think they do?”

“I don’t,” Logan said, “if that’s what you’re asking--”

“No, I’m--” Roman blew out a breath. “I’m trying to figure something out.”

Logan watched him carefully, but nodded. “Yes, some people enjoy romantic activities while not experiencing romantic attraction. Or their romantic attraction may be partial or fluctuate--it’s a spectrum--or they could simply believe they need to do traditionally romantic things, because of society’s focus on romantic love.”

Roman nodded very rapidly. "Cool. So cool. Cool-cool-cool.”

“Are you...” Logan looked confused. “Alright?”

“Yes? Maybe?” Roman laughed a bit wildly. “I am really not sure. Can you give me a second?”

“Okay?”

“Okay.” Roman took a deep breath. Logan was still watching him, glasses flecked with drops of rain. Logan was a good friend. They’d be friends no matter what, and that wasn’t less than anything. Roman could happily love him as a friend.

Friends didn’t daydream about making each other smile.

Friends didn’t want to kiss each other--on the cheek, on the nose, in rain or not. And--and not on the lips. Not really at all.

Roman knew how love worked. He’d seen the movies. Fall in love, kiss, get married, ride into the sunset. That was how everyone did it. That was what he was supposed to want.

But movies also had dragons and lucky fountains and princes. None of those things were quite the same in real life. In real life, kisses in the rain were just soggy and cold and entirely un-romantic.

In real life, Roman didn’t want to kiss someone in the rain.

Or someone outside of it, either.

True love. Roman always knew what true love looked like. But maybe he didn’t understand love as well as he thought.

Maybe things worked a little bit differently in real life.

And maybe--that was okay.

“Uh,” Roman said eloquently. “You were saying something about--queerplatonic?”

“Yes?” Logan asked. “Why?”

“Uh,” Roman said again. “So, like--partners. Together. But not, like, dating.”

“Yes.” Logan’s expression tightened. “Roman, you don’t have to--if that’s not what you’d like, it wouldn’t work--”

“It is, though.” It felt like a dragon-sized weight had flown off his shoulders. “It is--I don’t think I ever wanted that stuff, everyone just told me I did, and I--I just kinda want to be with you. I don’t know if that makes me aromantic or what, and I can probably figure that part out at some point, but--yeah. I...like calling you cute, because you are. I like studying with you. And I like being with you. Rain or otherwise.”

Logan watched him with wide eyes. “You’re--serious?”

“Yeah!” Roman beamed. “You just, like, made my entire life make sense, which is kind of terrifying but also very cool and everything is different now and I still really like you.”

“Oh,” Logan said, quietly. “Oh,” he said again.

“So, uh--” Roman’s confidence fizzled a bit. “I dunno. But--would you be interested in going out to eat? Or doing something together on our own? Like--a queerplatonic date?”

“Oh,” Logan said a third time. He was blushing violently. “Er--yes, if you’d be amiable to it, I’d enjoy--”

“Yes!” Roman cheered loudly. “Thank you!”

“You’re welcome.” Logan adjusted his glasses. “It sounds...nice.”

“It really does, doesn’t it?” Roman smiled at him and adjusted the umbrella. “We should talk about this more, of course, but it’s still raining and you have places to be.”

“Oh! Right!” Logan huffed. “We’ve been standing together in the quad like a pair of fools.”

“A pair of fools basically sums us up,” Roman agreed. “A pair of fools in love,” he added in a sing-song voice.

“Hey,” Logan complained, blushing again.

“So cute,” Roman said. “You adorable nerd, and I can say that to you now, holy Hera--”

 “You certainly can,” Logan said, attempting to cover his face. “Congratulations.”

“Aww, no, come on!” Roman gently tugged Logan’s arms away from his face. “There you are!”

Logan wrinkled his nose. And on impulse, Roman leaned forward and kissed him on the forehead.

Logan’s squeak was the most adorable thing Roman had ever heard. He leaned back into place and gave Logan a second to compose himself.

“You know, I think I was right,” Roman said after Logan finally stopped malfunctioning. “Kissing in the rain is pretty fun after all!”

“Shut up,” Logan said. “And you said most people don’t do it under umbrellas.”

“You said we’d get cold!” Roman smiled at him. “Besides, I think I’m allowed to rewrite the story a bit.”

Logan smiled back. “If you’d like to.”

“I’d definitely like to,” Roman said, pulling Logan closer and holding the umbrella above them. “‘Cause this way, I feel like I’m doing it right.”

Give me a prompt, and I’ll write a short drabble!

[toshladuk]

Wandavision

...or is it WandaVision?!

I like the most of the world it seems loooove this show! As I write this there’s still just under 12hrs before the series finale is released which is 8am where I am. Annoyingly due to work I’m gonna have to wait to see it and as the internet is “the internet” I’m going to have to completely avoid any and all forms of social media if nothing else because someone somewhere will post about it and algorithms dictate that content will turn up on one of my feeds somewhere.

As for the show itself I could not have been more blindsided by how fantastic this series is. Of the 4 Disney+ Marvel shows we already have trailers for this was the one I was least excited by. I now find that bizarre because it was when the MCU decided to get more fantastical with its storytelling that’s what drew me in, using directors like Taika Waititi, James Gunn and Edgar Wright (even though he departed Ant-Man and you can still see his fingerprints all over that movie). I feel confident even though the tale is not quite finished that this will be my favourite MCU property going forward.

Just the care and the craft of taking these old American sitcom tropes and using them to pay homage without resorting to cheap parody. Weaving a genuinely moving story about Wanda Maximoff’s grief and what her character has had to endure while still producing some genuinely very funny sitcom moments. Also lets not forget they’ve been able to introduce at least 2 new major characters for the MCU going forward in the newly superpowered Monica Rambeau aka Photon or Spectrum and the deliciously naughty Agatha Harkness. They also managed to breathe new life into a couple of side characters with the now Dr Darcy Lewis and Agent Jimmy Woo. That’s a lot of heavy lifting for the show to do in such a short amount of time and it’s a testament to the writing that it has all seemed seamless. For the record I am well and truly aboard the Darcy Lewis & Jimmy Woo X-Files style show train!!!

What has really made the show so memorable though is the amazing central performances of Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany and Katherine Hahn. In a show with such a unique concept, so silly sounding from the outside for the actors to keep the material grounded and truthful, even if they are a cosmic witch and a synthezoid, just goes to show what talent is on display here. I loved finding out that as well as being a brilliant “serious” actor Paul Bettany is also a gifted physical comedian and that Katherine Hahn has far more range and subtlety than many give her credit for. The MVP though is Elizabeth Olsen, great comedic acting in the sitcom chapters of the show especially in the nuances of portraying the different eras as well as showing us some gut wrenching emotion as her ideal world starts to crumble around her. Every time I see her face crack or that bottom lip start to quiver I’m welling up.

The one thing I am wary of though is the possible backlash, because even though it’s been fun joining in all the theorising online some people seem to get so enamoured with their predictions that inevitably when the showrunners go in a different direction they get butthurt and start dropping crappy videos all over the internet about how the show was riddled with bad writing and plotholes etc etc. You know the type I mean, the bespectacled bearded men of YouTube who appoint themselves as gatekeepers for whatever fandom they believe themselves to be the king of! I call it Last Jedi-itus!

Despite the last paragraph I may as well throw a couple of my theories and wishes for how the show will end, but if all or none come to fruition I was glad I was along for the ride

- Wanda is NOT set up to be the antagonist of Dr Strange 2 because I think the MCU is becoming far more nuanced and subtle in it’s storytelling and I doubt Marvel and the shows writers want to fall into “emotional woman becomes baddie” trope.

- Hayward, though a dick, turns out not to be simply a baddie but someone acting out of fear and mistrust of superheroes due to the blip. Possibly a continuation of the anti-superpowered story arc started in Civil War?

- Tommy and Billy are real because even though conceived in the Hex through chaos magic Wanda still physically gave birth to them. 

- Agatha Harkness will remain a bad guy for the time being (she did kill Sparky after all!), I think she’ll kidnap and escape with the twins at the end, but I can see her long term MCU future becoming more Loki-like, sometimes mischievous, sometimes malevolent but always selfishly motivated.

- Vision will (hopefully) live on using White Vision’s body but I think this happens in another MCU project down the line. This is because I think Wanda is left all but broken by the end of the show.

- Monica will kick ass in the final battle but they are saving her spectacular stuff and full power set reveal for Captain Marvel 2

- The cameo is.... I have no feckin idea! I used to think it was Ian McKellen but I’m not sure now. 

- This is a one and done show, there’s no second season of Wandavision per-see though there may be spin offs. I hope thats how they do it anyway.

Anyway that’s my two cents worth. Whatever happens I’ve really enjoyed the ride and even if the ending is not what I expect or even want I have absolute trust in Kevin Feige, Jac Schaeffer and Matt Shakman and besides this is only the beginning of the so called Multiverse Saga, so I’m not expecting a neat ending with all loose ends tied up. There’s plenty of story left to tell.

[certifiedceraunophile]

Hello! I’m your Klaroline Swap gifter👀 I am sorry it's taken me this long to reach out but I've finally gotten to it! I am excited to be writing for you and wanted to ask a few questions about your gift. Wanted to know about your all-time favorite tropes and side pairings? Any Caroline friendships you like? Any tropes or pairings you don't like? Any pet peeves with KC fic? Any smut preferences? Anything you especially want to see or any info you'd like me to know? Hope you have a great day!💖

Heyyy!! Thank you for sending me this ask, and please don't apologize, it’s all good 💖 I hope you're having a great day too! So I’ll just jump in and answer all your questions ✌🏾✨

I am so so sorry it got this long, like so long, I really tried to condense it, but I have no concept of short and concise so now I have to put this below a cut 😭🙃😭

All time favourite tropes:

[see here's the thing I dont exactly *know* what tropes are so I'm just gonna yeet a bunch of HIGHLY specific prompt-thingies that make me tingle at you and you can do w them what you wish- like take out certain parts you want to use, or base other tropes off of them anything you wish really, even if you choose to ignore all of them I won't be holding it against you dw!]

Ok so I love love the "I was just captured by the bad guys and very harshly uh demanded to sell you out, but I didnt, bc even though I might posture like you’re the scourge of the earth and would gladly see you dead, I in fact, do not want you dead and will therefore not be selling you out and will handle mild -emphasis on mild please do not hurt either of my babies too much- torture instead and oops! look at that, you just overheard this exact exchange where I stand my ground and refuse to betray you, and now you’ve gone feral over your loyalty kink and are spouting promises of never letting go of me, which honestly I cannot bring myself to be mad at."

I love love love the forced bedsharing trope which then leads to accidental cuddling, where one party [caroline] is just very very annoyed that their body sought the warmth of a cockroach fucknugget being [klaus] and the fucknugget party is just very very smug about being the other party's personal space heater, and nuzzles them and cuddles tighter and asdfghjkl I'm getting tingly just thinking about it, and like says w a husky sleepy voice “don't move” and cuddles closer. jfc please I’m a basic bitch with very basic wants.

I absolutely LOVE the "we work on opposite enemy sides, but now we have to band together to defeat one common enemy and honestly I am NOT glad that I constantly wanna throw you against a wall, and not all reasons for said wall-throwing are strictly to inflict violence on you."

I also LOVE the "fuck youre bleeding/hurt/injured and fucking hell I dont know why my hands are shaking while I attend to your wounds but god it is, and now I'm not sure exactly how deep you've furrowed into my heart and stuck yourself there like a dickheaded leech."

Now I feel like I have given you many tropes, but I also feel like i didnt in fact help you at all, bc I'm not sure these are uh tropes?? but anyway those are some highly specific...scenes?? I have a very deep bias for

[you obviously dont HAVE to write ANY of them if you dont want to]

And also if I had to give you a clear cut trope to follow, I absolutely LOVE the enemies-to tentative allies-to lovers trope, in which one party is just working really really hard to get to the lovers part, and the other is working really really hard not to get to the lovers part, but caves later on, bc really the fucker grows on you. [Featuring Klaus as the "high key besotted already pursuing Caroline"-person, and Caroline is the "I am very very annoyed w this wooing, but I am more annoyed this wooing is working"-person. And also, I like my Klaus E V I L, But really really really *soft* for Caroline.]

Also if by tropes you meant settings, Like AU's, literally anything works, I have a personal bias for Crime AU's when it comes to enemies to lovers, and Canon is the ultimate enemies to lovers AU, but honestly you can use which ever one you want, I am not entirely sure myself if I have a specific preference here, AH, Fantasy, Supernatural, Scifi, it's all good.

[I however am not extremely fond of Historical Settings]

Again you are not required to follow any of these tropes at all if you don't wish to, I just require you to have a lot of fun writing and love the beauty you write yourself first!

Side pairings:

Ok I LOVE me some Kennett [kol + bonnie] but I also LOVEEE kolenzo [Kol and Enzo], I also am extremely just *heart eyes* at Bonenzo [Bonnie + enzo], but I absolutely DIE for Kennettzo [which is OT3 of Kol Bonnie and Enzo]

Kalijah is also a-ok w me, and I feel like I dont have any other side pairings I'd like die to see I guess. If you choose not to go with these side pairings its perfectly alright.

Caroline Friendships:

Ok this I can answer without rambling like an idiot, I love love love love :

Bonnie + Caroline [like i love this so much it physically hurts me, they both deserve so so so much better]

Kol + Caroline [I will literally touch a frog, and I have a phobia of frogs, to have one full conversation w these two idiots]

Enzo + Caroline [Honestly enzoline brotp makes me wanna sob happy tears bc they are so perfect together]

Katherine + Caroline + Rebekah [bad bitch meets head bitch meets super bitch, what could possibly go wrong]

Tropes and Pairings I dont like:

NOTPS:

Kolvina, stebekah, delena, stelena, datherine, steferine, Haylijah, Marcel+Rebekah, Matt+Rebekah, Bamon, Kai+bonnie, beremy.

And I think that's about it? mostly I just hate elena stefan damon and hayley and I am not fond of them w anyone, I hate all canon Rebekah relationships, and I dont like seeing Bonnie with anyone other than enzo or kol.

Tropes:

I am totally not fond of the Kill Liz for plot reasons trope, like seriously killing Caroline's mom is not ok w me, but I am totes fine if she's like already dead as part of Caroline's backstory, just don't show me Liz dying in the story as a part of the plot.

Any form of sire-bond-y or like sire-bond adjacent or like any form of deal/bargain/agreement that gives Klaus even a tiniest bit of power over Caroline's free will and choices, is just not for me, like at all, no matter how well it's done, I can't stand it.

not fond of any form of prisoner/hostage tropes, like klaus kidnapping caroline or caroline kidnapping klaus and holding each other hostage and stuff like that.

Death as a plot point doesnt work for me? and really I'd prefer if there were no major character deaths at all.

Friends to lovers trope is not for me, childhood friends to lovers trope is definitely not for me.

I don't like any sort of redemption arc really, anything that starts with Klaus as a “bad” dude and ends with him being a relatively “good” dude is not for me.

Any form of infidelity, like ofc especially in between Klaus and Caroline is just [shudder] hard pass, but like I also hate it when Caroline or Klaus cheat on anybody at all.

Also all the tropes and like themes I'm not comfy w that I mentioned in my original Gift Request still stand.

KC Pairing Pet peeves

ok This I can answer easily bc I have like a FEW,

I hate a woobified Klaus so much, like so much, I hate all TO!Klaus characterizations but this one is the worst, absolutely not here for it, I am not here to feel sorry for this mf I want to feel really deliriously GIDDY at how evil he is and how whipped he is for Caroline, but like concentrating on Klaus's manpain is not something I really wanna read.

Caroline excusing Klaus's bullshit, or like being a push over-y “it's ok, I understand why you did it” person is not for me, bc she never was one to begin w, she never did rationalize or justify Klaus's behaviour, she always held him accountable and told him what a difficult son of a bitch he is every chance she got.

I don't like arcs where Caroline is Klaus's redemption? like Caroline bringing Klaus into the "light" or whatever I am not here for it, like at all, I like Klaus staying evil while being endlessly in love with Caroline, and Caroline being able to be w a man she knows is a selfish evil ruthless grade A asshole, but will literally also choke himself to death for Caroline, cuz the man is whipped as fuck.

I also absolutely am not a fan of arcs where like Caroline remains "pure" or whatever, like that's just not for me, I am totally fine, actually MORE than fine for ruthless Caroline who is willing to do deplorable shit to get to her goal and protect her people, like Caroline being extremely almost evilly pragmatic just gives me a boner, and pretty sure gives Klaus one too. Klaus "protecting" Caroline's so called innocence is uh off putting for me personally. And her remaining this pure white light princess of good and Klaus being attracted to the *good* in her is um, nope.

Smutty Preferences

Honestly I’m very easy when it comes to smut [and u totally dont have to write me any if you dont want to]

I do not like:

non con/dub con, anal sex, Strict and/or elaborate Bdsm themes, [light undertones are ok], drunk sex, sex that’s basically infidellity [like caroline/klaus cheating on someone else w each other] , gagging, choking, Extremely rough emotionless sex, sex as a bargain, or as a part of a bargain.

Smut preferences:

I like reading oral sex, especially Klaus going down on Caroline

light bondage like being tied up [either Klaus/Caroline I enjoy both]

Sex toys are really really good, like love reading Klaus using one on Caroline, or Caroline using one on herself and Klaus watching

I do have a special love for praise kink, especially Klaus being really just in awe of Caroline during the do and expressing it uninhibitedly

Dirty Talk is GREAT

I enjoy both Klaus and Caroline in a dominant role, but I usually love it when both of them share the dominance equally, I’m just not into “Yes master” and “Yes mistress” level of dominance. I guess the word I’m looking for is Vanilla dominance lmao.

Bloodplay is also great if they're vampires.

And Klaus and Caroline leaving marks on each other is *swoon*.

I love reading possessive!klaus and possessive!caroline in equal measure so really your choice.

Hot and Dirty sex with a an undercurrent of emotion and devotion, want and need and all that nice stuff is great!

But I do have a list of words I’m not really a big fan of coming across when I’m reading smut:

Any word for vagina that’s not wetness, or folds or lips, is squicky, cunt is not a problem, pussy however is squick.

Clit is clit; little nub, bundle of nerves, all of that makes the med student in me really anxious lmao.

Any word for Cock that’s not cock is squick.

Juices, cream, semen are squicky, I just prefer come or release.

Ok these are seemingly innocent words but moist, engorged, gaping, drooling, sopping are not words I like seeing in context of smut.

So yeah that’s about it, I know hi, it’s been what, eleventy bajillion years since the beginning of this ask, I am so so so sorry for being this difficult, and really, LIKE SERIOUSLY, except for my squicks you are more than welcome to just skip past everything else, since I’m not really that hard to please, as long as the no-no’s are not there in what I read and the dynamic I asked for is even just vaguely followed I will be really really really happy and really I just want you to have fun writing whatever you feel like cooking up, I’m superrrr excited to see your interpretation of my request!!!

[Also Please please send me another ask clarifying you got my answer and also telling me I haven't frightened you with this long ass rambling list of okay’s and no-no’s bc honestly I am just anxiously debating if I should answer this ask like this or yeet half of it and vaguely rewrite the answer.]

Hope you have a great day lovely!! I am once again sorry for being this difficult. ✨💖🤝🏾

[kikis-writing-world]

Hi, lovely! If it's not too late, could I please request a Pedro character ship??? Big congratulations on your follower milestone, that is SO amazing, and it's very sweet of you to do this! 🌿💜

About me -- I'm Latina, on the short side, have blonde hair and blue-green eyes. Im pretty athletic -- I box, ski, swim and snowboard, and I love watching all sports.

I'm an attorney, so I'm pretty competitive by nature, and pride myself on being quick-witted. But I'm also soft as hell, love my friends more than anything, and love being there for them.

I love music of all kinds, and love to read. I love when it rains, and am a hoarder of sticky notes.

Thank you so much <3 Competitive and quick witted, athletic. I see you with Javier Pena. I can imagine when you two meet for the first time, he’d dislike you. You’d take none of his shit, and he’d probably call you a few unsavory things under his breath, but soon he’d realize he’s trying way too hard to impress you and oops he caught feels lol I can picture you being the kind of partner that makes a bunch of food on game day, all the guys come over to your place, and you watch the game with them, and I think he’d just love the shit out of that. Especially when you smack-talk a friend who is cheering for the other team.

I’d put the two of you in a Medieval AU. There’s some grand tournament going on for all the warriors/knights in the area and you want to take part. You find a way to go undercover as a male knight, and you vow that you’re going to win just to show them all.

Javier is one of the knights taking part, and he’s expected to do very well at the tournament. He’s great on a horse, with his lance, with a sword, plus all the women are enamored by him. You admit he’s handsome but you know you have to keep your eyes on the prize. He does make some lewd comments about the women throwing themselves at him, but other times he’s not half bad. Before a joust, he gives you a tip on how to take down one of the bigger guys who has been bragging the whole time about being the best. It pays off and you beat him.

A few nights before the finals, there’s a party for the knights in the tournament. You go as yourself, wanting to unwind and kind of bask in the glory but not wanting to keep up your façade. Javier talks to your throughout the night, pointing out there’s something familiar about you, and the fact that you’re not falling at his feet makes you interesting to him. He asks you for a kiss for luck, which you’re sure he’s asked just about every other woman, but you refuse. He jokes that if he loses, it’s your fault.

The final two come to you and Javier, which doesn’t surprise you. The two of you are to duel one on one, and you’re a little scared if you’re honest. He doesn’t know who you are, so you’re worried he would actually hurt you if given the chance. You try to tell yourself to yield if he gets too close to hurting you, but you don’t know if you’ll be able to in the heat of the moment.

It’s a hard fought battle. Both of you use weapons, shields, but you keep knocking them away from each other until you’re left with hand to hand combat. You end up getting kicking his feet out from under him, and knock the wind out of him, giving you enough time to grab a nearby knife and hold it to his throat. You stare down at him, demanding he yield. His eyes widen and he does. The crowd goes wild and you both stand, and he just stares at you in disbelief. Over the road of the crowd, you barely hear him say “It’s you.” You shock the crowd when you take off your helmet and prove you’re a woman. There’s an uproar of angry people, and cheering of people who just don’t care. The king is a little sour, but declares you the winner.

A few days later Javier shows up at your house, declaring you “the fairest knight he’s ever seen.” He teases that the reason you haven’t fallen for his charms is he wooed you as if you were a woman, not a knight. When you ask what that means, he tosses a sword your way and strikes at you without warning. The two of you go back and forth, and you’re admittedly having a great time. You end up on top of him, claiming victory and asking for your prize. He kisses you and you can’t help but kiss him back.

Post with the rules and possible tropes here. Join in the fun!

[mainadjacent]

Sticking to the Script (pt.2)

Pairing: Gwilym Lee x Reader, one-sided Ben Hardy x Reader

Summary: You are the star of the hit TV show, “Winthrope Manor” and you’ve just got a new costar, Gwilym Lee who happens to bring around his friend, Ben Hardy, to set. You develop feelings for Ben, but they’re not well received. Lucky for you, your costar is there to help make things better.

Author’s Note: I just want to say how blown away I am by this response! I truly am grateful to all of you who are reading, liking and reblogging. It honestly makes writing so much easier and faster when I know people are looking forward to reading what I write! I also wanted to point out that the whole plot & name of “Winthrope Manor” is legit from the episode of “Bob’s Burgers” entitled “Zero Larp Thirty” so there’s that. Lastly, if you want to join the tag list, just add your username HERE. If you’ve already messaged me or commented about being tagged, you’re good!

PART 1

PART 2

Things don’t get automatically better between you and Gwil, nor were you expecting them to, but things have gotten easier. You find yourself spending more time with Gwilym and you are actually enjoying it. He’s funny and easy to be around and he makes the long hours on set bearable. The other members of the cast take a liking to him too which is encouraging. The two of you gain some sort of familiarity with each other and you can tell it helps with your on-screen chemistry.

The only time you feel like the two of you have regressed back to your original awkwardness is when Ben is in the picture. You figure it’s because you and Ben may be approaching romantic territory and he feels awkward being the third wheel. You try not to put too much thought into it.

What you do spend a lot of time thinking about is what’s going on between you and Ben. The day after your initial lunch, he shows up on set and jokingly tells you he’s hoping to get your number before filming wraps that day. You are more than happy to give it to him. He showed up again, the next day and wooed the cast with fancy pastries from the “X-Men” superior craft services tent, which pretty much granted him free entry for the rest of his life.  It’s been a week since you and Ben had met and the two of you have been texting pretty much nonstop. Against your initial impressions of him based on the media, Ben is a true gentleman and has been nothing but respectful and sweet. The texts are pretty flirtatious in nature and that makes you scared but excited. You don’t want to jump into something or make assumptions, but you think he might be interested in you beyond a meaningless flirtation. Next time you see him, you decide, you’re going to ask him to hang out, just the two of you.

Hey beautiful! Mind if I stop by the set this afternoon? X

Not at all! You can finally see me and your boy in action! :)

_______

Despite having been filming for almost a month, you and Gwil are just getting around to the scene where your two characters meet.

Your character, Violet, is an avid suffragette and is attending a Women’s Rights rally in the city. The police show up and Violet flees from the scene and ends up running directly into Gwil’s character, Edmund, knocking him literally off his feet. The two characters exchange a “meaningful glance that shakes both of them to their core” before Violet gets up and keeps running. It’s a classic “Winthrope” scene, all dramatic and full of tropes so obviously, you’re excited to film it. And you can’t wait for Ben to see you in action.

You arrive on set that afternoon and greet Gwil with a warm smile. He smiles back nervous.

“You doing okay?” you ask.

“Yeah totally, it’s just that, it’s the first time I’m filming and not just rehearsing. Just a bit of nerves is all.”

You reach over to pat his arm comfortingly, “You are going to do great and lucky for you, you have one of the best scene partners in the biz.”

Before Gwil can respond to you, you hear someone bellowing your name from across the set.

“Ben!” you can feel yourself light up when you see the blond.

“Hello Miss Winthrope,” Ben says, slinging his arm around your shoulder, “how’s the most beautiful textile heiress in the world doing?”

You smile brightly in response and excitedly begin showing him around the antique street set, your nervous costar forgotten.

As everybody else filters in, Ben quietly slinks to the back, trying to respectfully give you the space to do your work. You, on the other hand, are accosted by makeup artists and costumer techs putting the finishing touches on your appearance. Gwil, who is suffering from a similar fate, catches your eye and you send him an encouraging smile and thumbs up.

The two of you separate and go to your respective marks as the extras are ushered in to be suffragettes and other background characters. You film the suffragette scene first, which is a lot of fun, you’re in your element in a crowd and feeding off of others’ energy. The scene is filmed in only four takes. You’re on you’re A-game which probably has something to do with your very handsome audience member.

The crew begins to reposition for the next scene: Violet running into Edmund. One of the most frustrating things about shooting scenes like this is that you can easily lose your momentum, so you try to talk as little as possible to keep in character.

Your director signals for action and you begin to run down the recreated streets of 1919 New York. You expertly weave through a throng of extras, your skirt bunched into your arms. You spot Gwil ahead of you, and just like you rehearsed in blocking, you run full throttle, into him. You land exactly as you were supposed to and out of the corner of your eye, you catch the camera coming in for a close shot of your face, inches above Gwil’s. You look deep into his eyes and you feel your heart stir as if a shot of electricity is going through you. You jolt into yourself and jump up, into your blocking. You run away from your camera and turn into an alleyway where another camera is already set up to film you from the other angle as you catch your breath. The “police officers” run past you and the director yells “cut!”.

You come out onto the soundstage to cheers and applause.

“We got the take!” the director exclaims. “That was great!”

You are smiling so much your cheeks hurt. Getting the scene in one take is an incredible accomplishment and you’ve never managed it before. You turn to Gwil, who’s approaching behind you, just as enthused. You rush over to him and throw your arms over his shoulders.

“That was amazing!”

He chuckles as his arms find your waist, “You were a great partner.”

The two of you are quickly ushered out of your embrace and off of the sound stage while the crew repositioned for a new scene. Gwil is pulled into wardrobe to change for the upcoming scene, you meanwhile, stick around. You still have another scene to film with your onscreen siblings.

You find Ben near craft services. “Did you see our scene?” you ask excitedly. He nodded silently, his lips press together.

“Yeah, you guys were great.”

You’re thrown off by Ben’s sudden coldness.

“Is anything wrong?”

“No, not at all,” he says quickly, “It’s just, er, I just got a call. I’m needed back on set for some more reshoots apparently, so I need to go now.”

“Oh,” you try not to sound too disappointed.  You realize that if you want to ask Ben out on a proper date, this is your last chance to do it. It’s now or never.

“Listen, actually, I was wondering—”

“There you are! We’re needed on set!”

It’s Melanie Todd, the girl who plays your younger sister, Alice. On screen, Violet and Alice are close, even though Violet is sometimes frustrated by Alice’s flighty nature. Offscreen, you care for Melanie as if she was your sister. The girl is only a few years younger than you are and you strive to take her under your wing. You usually love Melanie, but right now you hate her.

You throw Ben an apologetic smile over your shoulder as Melanie pulls you away.

“He’s cute, are you two dating yet?”

_____

You resolve that you’ll just ask Ben out the next time you see him, which will most likely be tomorrow. No sweat. Maybe it’s for the best.

Thanks for coming today! I hope you had a good time, you text Ben in between takes. Just as you hit send you kick yourself; you should’ve sent a heart. Or a smiley face. A kissy face, maybe? Were you there yet?

Before you can agonize over it any further, you pulled into wardrobe to change for your next scene which is supposed to be with Gwil and Melanie inside a jazz club.

Violet accompanies Alice to a jazz club, so she can rendezvous with her new beau (Alice was always falling in love and she seemed to have a new love interest each week) then, Violet miraculously runs into Edmund, the stranger from the rally earlier who identifies her immediately. The scene is meant to lay the framework for the relationship, so you pay extra attention to getting it right. You’ve read and reread and re-reread the script, marking the margins with sloppy notes and gone over the blocking a thousand times. You’ve gone over this scene so much you had dreams about it.  

You are ushered back to another sound stage, this one a glittering and golden night club already full of dancing extras and a full jazz band. Melanie comes and grabs your arm and pulls you towards your entrance mark as the two of you quietly run through dialogue. You run the initial scene a couple of times, trying a number of different angles. Then, Melanie runs her scene with Alice’s love interest a  few times while you stand at the periphery of the set.

Your scene with Gwil is rapidly approaching and he has yet to show up. You try not to let your confusion and concern show while you’re on camera, though. Around take seven of the scene, you spot Gwil being ushered onto the stage by some costume techs and for the first time since you met him you’re struck at how handsome he is. He’s wearing a dapper three-piece suit with tails, his hair groomed back showing off his sharp, angular face and you realize you’ve never seen him in eveningwear. It occurs to you that you might have been staring too long when his eyes find yours and he smiles discreetly, making you blush and look away.

Soon, the two of you are brought together for your scene. His character, Edmund, finds Violet on the edge of the dancefloor and asks her to dance. Violet doesn’t recognize him at first but agrees. While the two are dancing, Edmund confronts Violet about being the girl that knocked him over earlier that day, having been at the rally and Violet panics.

“So, you’re the girl from the rally.”

Gwil leads you in a waltz while a camera follows your movements through a close shot.

“I don’t know what you are talking about, sir.”

“There is no need to lie, I remember you. Beauty like yours does not escape easily from one’s memory.”

“What if it was me? I don’t suppose you are interested in turning me into the police.”

“On the contrary, Miss…”

“Winthrope. Violet Winthrope.”

“Miss Winthrope. I am a supporter of women’s suffrage and I want to know more about your opinion.”

“You tease me, sir.”

“Not at all. I am an editor for the Post. We’re looking for an interesting female voice to write a column of women’s politics for our opinion’s section. You’re a high society lady who risks her position by going to rallies in the city. That seems pretty interesting to me.”

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t say anything. Let me take you to luncheon tomorrow and we can discuss it further with some of my other editors. Stop by the Post’s office around 1 o’clock and just let them know you’re meeting with Edmund Nottingham. “

Gwil delicately places a card in your gloved hand and leaves you in the middle of the dancefloor.

“Cut!”

______

You run the scene with Gwil a few more times.  It’s interesting to see him transform. You know the silly, laidback Gwil that you’ve come accustomed to. On camera though, Gwil transforms completely into the mysterious and suave Edmund and you can feel both yourself and Violet being charmed.

You finish up filming for the night and by the time you are stripped of your beautiful costume, your intricate hair and your delicate makeup, it’s pretty late into the night. As you walk to your car at the edge of the lot, you check on your phone. Ben has yet to respond. Internally, you’re a little freaked out. He seemed weird this afternoon and now he was not responding to your texts. You try to placate the surge of panic by trying to convince yourself that he might still be filming, or his phone might be dead although you know how unlikely those two things are. Still.

“Hey! Wait up!”

Gwil jogs up behind you breaking you away from your panicked reverie.

“Oh, hi,” you say, slightly surprised, “I thought you would have left by now.”

It’s true, the men take much less time to get out of wardrobe at the end of the day than the female actors.

“I was waiting for you actually, I wanted to walk you to your car,” he says sheepishly.

“Oh, there’s no need.  It’s safe here, we have security patrolling.”

“Right, er,” he pauses for a second, running his hands through hair, “I also wanted to say that you were great today. Working with you was… really… You make falling in love with you easy.”

“That’s just the writing,” you shrug and smile noncommittally. “They don’t call it ‘award-winning’ for nothing.”

Your car beams at you from a distance.

“Anyway, this is me. Thank for walking me. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” You shoot Gwil one last smile before opening your car door.

“Right, see you tomorrow.”

TAGS: @xbarrjallenx @alexfayer @chlobo6 @softbenhardy @thathufflepuffbitch

[ripplesofaqua]

Black Emporium 2020 Letter

Dear Author/Artist,

Thank you for creating something for me! I cannot wait to see what you come up with! Please write/draw whatever you are most comfortable with, and feel free to follow your own ideas. But if you are in need of some prompts for inspiration, here are a few things I like (and dislike):

DNWs: major character death, underage, incest,  non/dub-con, depictions of abuse/homophobia/racism/transphobia/etc,  whitewashing or straightwashing, excessive gore/torture/violence,  serious illness, body horror, A/B/O, hardcore bdsm/kink, bestiality,  infidelity, angst without at least a hopeful ending

Feel free to  write whatever rating you’re comfortable with. If you do write smut, I  tend to prefer it on the slightly less graphic side, and always with  clear communication and lots of feels

Things I enjoy:   strong ladies and admiration between them, fluff, banter, angst with a  hopeful ending, humor, balanced and respectful relationships, mutual  pining, slow burn, repressed feelings, (rivals to) friends to lovers, hurt/comfort, oh no  there’s only one bed, huddling for warmth, secret admirer, long awaited reunions, Victorian/historical AU

Prompts: I tried to include lots of pairings, so that there would be plenty of options to chose what you’re most comfortable with. I hope it’s not too overwhelming! I love all these pairings, so please choose what you would enjoy creating for the most. If it helps jumpstart things, here are a few ideas and things I like most about these characters, but this is all optional of course!:

1. Cassandra, Josie, & Leliana: they’re so different, but are all so skilled and work well together as a team. Tender moments, repressed feelings, pining, romantic gestures, palace intrigue - feel free to throw all the tropes at these two! Or maybe think about their relationships before and after DA:I. How did they meet? Did they have to push aside an early crush to work together, except the crush doesn’t go away? Do they lose contact and reconnect after DA:I? Does one of them become Divine? (I generally prefer Leliana as Divine, but am open to other options as well - though please, not too angsty if you that route!

2. Even more Cassandra: just Cassandra being her heroic, grumpy, romantic, wonderful self with a bunch of other amazing ladies! Feel free to throw all the tropes at these pairings, as well!

- Cassandra/Seeker: I love the idea of having Cass rebuild the Seekers into something much better than they were, and going off to the Hunterhorns for some soul searching. Does she meet someone new there, or perhaps reconnect with an old friend from her training? Or do they send letters across Thedas while looking for recruits?

- Cassandra/Hawke: Disaster!Hawke, awkward flirting, banter, meeting heroes, smutty romance novels, secret admirer! How does their initial meeting at Skyhold go? Is there mutual admiration and awe, or sore feelings from Cassandra’s treatment of Varric? Or perhaps have them both at Adamant together.

- Cassandra/Inquisitor: Action packed adventure, romance, slice of life - how do these two get along? Are there repressed feelings, attempts at wooing, or perhaps a rivalry that slowly turns into something more. Does Cassandra reject the Inquisitor at first, and then realize she does have feelings? How would they reconnect after Trespasser?

3. Some more pairings:

- Lace Harding/Leliana: Glances from afar, hesitantly touching hands, working late together. By the end of Trespasser, Harding is one of Leliana’s most trusted agents - how does that relationship grow? Would Harding stay with a Divine Leliana? How would Harding’s optimism and romantic heart mix with a softening, but still hurting, Leliana? Would Leliana show up to Harding’s dance classes, or help her with her fear of heights? Does Leliana inadvertently send Harding into danger, and have to deal with the guilt alongside rescuing her (or have Harding rescue Leliana!)

- Shokrakar/Cassandra or Adaar: Sparring, banter, teasing, shenanigans, and valiant heroics! The letters Shokrakar sends, and her nicknames for Inquisition members, are absolutely delightful. What would happen if they met? What would Shokrakar make of Adaar’s new job leading the Inquisition? Alternatively, how did Adaar join the Valo-Kas? Did they start a relationship back then?

4. Vivienne: Vivienne being in her element and playing the Game with skill and finesse, making impressive use of her knight-enchanter skills, having deep feelings beneath her political mask, and being the nerdy mage that she is! Perhaps send her on some intrigue with Leliana or Josie or Cass - or maybe send them shopping, on a spa day, or to a fancy Orlesian restaurant! Would one of them go out of their way to hunt down a rare book or artifact for Vivienne? Or perhaps, you could have them work through the aftermath of Bastien’s illness.

5. The Avvar: Here are some screenshots if you need visuals! [X] [X] I’d love to see more of their world! Daily life, quiet moments and storytelling by the campfire, sunsets over the lake, blizzards, rock climbing, bears, and the warmest looking hoods! 

- Svarah Sun-Hair: I would love to see her being the badass, competent, confident leader she is - whether this involves fighting, negotiating, or daily duties. How would someone catch her eye and win her heart? The best friend she’s had from childhood, her second-in-command who’s not afraid to challenge her judgment, the Thane of a rival Hold with whom she must learn to work together to reach a common goal? If you choose to pair her with someone outside the Avvar, how would they work through their differences in culture and develop mutual respect and understanding? Would someone from the Inquisition get snowed in or injured and have to live with the Avvar for awhile? Would they fight of danger together, or perhaps work together to open trade in a way that benefits the Avvar? Also, Svarah really knows how to sit on her throne <3

- Cassandra & Storvacker: bear puns! Cassandra becoming friends with her natural enemy! ;) How would these two learn to get along, and what shenanigans (or heroics) would they get up to? (feel free to include other members of Stone-Bear Hold in this too!)

- Sigrid/Trevelyan: How would Sigrid react to a mage Trevelyan - would she agree to join the Inquisition? If you choose Josie for the war table mission, she receives a letter with some interesting possibilities for lecture-circuit shenanigans [X]. Would she and Trevelyan try to outdo each other with explosive results? Alternatively, how would Sigrid deal with leaving or reconnecting with her hold?

- Fullna/Gyda: Fullna is the Hold’s skald (vaguely like a bard), and responsible for keeping their stories and history alive. She’s only had the position a few years and hasn’t yet earned her legend-mark. Gyda is responsible for the Hold’s funerary rights. Would they nerd out together over lore, histories, and nature? They’re both fairly young and new to their positions - how might they support each other? Would they have an adventure (or perhaps something less grand!) that earns them their legend-marks? Would Fullna woo Gyda with a song?

- Linna & Runa: In Up and Away, Linna, a fisher, cannot find her cousin Runa, who got lost climbing. Perhaps you could show that quest from either of their povs? What is the relationship between these cousins like? Did they often get lost and cause lots of trouble sneaking out to climb together while they were kids?

7. Tragic Couples: I’d be happy with both angsty or fix-it fics for these! For easy reference:  the Saga of Tyrdda Bright-Axe [x], Ritts & Eldredda [X], Jehan & Fabienne [X]

6. The most adorable nerds: bonding over exploring and making discoveries, creative inventions, teaching, awkwardness, showing feelings by sharing knowledge.

- Colette/Harding: Adventure! Mayhem! Does Colette make a big discovery with Harding’s help, and finally get the recognition she deserves? Does she help Harding with her fear of Heights? What danger’s lurk around the Basin’s ruins?

- Your Trainer: she’s given up so much to learn dangerous rift magic, I’d love to see her end up somewhere safe and happy (and the same for Minaeve, too). What knowledge can she share? (Also, feel free to explore an ace or queerplatonic relationship relationship here - or really for any of my prompts, for that matter!)

- Belinda/Luka: adventure! explosives! mushrooms! I just love this multiplayer pair!

[ganymedesclock]

Got a question for you on the Lotor end given your view of his possible personality. So we know that in the first series, third dimension and force that he had this obsession with Allura. Do you think this will continue in this series, or do you think it will be down played significantly, and what sort of view point will he have on girl Pidge once he finds out, because that will inevitably come out at some point to him? Thanks for answering.

Honestly this is… partially “I think this is probable” and much more “I hope the case” but my speculative read on Lotor at this point is… I think he is going to be focused on Allura, and Allura specifically, but for reasons entirely unrelated to “heyy pretty girl” and I don’t think Pidge being a girl wouldn’t significantly change his perception of her.

I feel like if Lotor is going to be a flirt, it’s going to be… kind of how Lance is, where you get the feeling that he mostly just wants to feel validated and prop up his own insecurity and doesn’t really actively pursue or try to snare the attention of other people around him. Mostly because, considering Lotor’s position in the incredibly dominant Galra empire, I feel like any particular attitude of entitlement from Lotor would be an extremely uncomfortable attitude to see in a long-term antagonist. Even if Allura is not remotely beholden to his garbage, it would leave all kinds of nasty implications on various people who haven’t been able to refuse him, or, bit their tongue and offered themselves to him in the hope that it would protect them/people they cared about.

It’s just. really, really uncomfortable. And not in a way that sets up a meaningful antagonist. Especially because in DotU my understanding of Lotor’s attraction to Allura is a sort of “90s cartoon villain wants to date/kidnap/marry the Hero’s Girlfriend because of course”. He was set up as a nefarious rival to the heroic, straight-laced Keith and so of course he -nefariously- wanted Keith’s love interest.

It’s not what I would call an interesting or compelling thing. And basically it would be, I think, a flagrant reduction of Allura’s character how VLD has set her up if she goes from being opposed by villains who see her as both a potent figure for the enemy to rally around, as the leader of Team Voltron and pilot of the castle ship, and a dangerous threat in and of herself- to someone who simply lusts after her because she’s beautiful.

Allura is beautiful, but there’s ways to emphasize that narratively without throwing in a creepy villain.

Not to mention, I think that you would have to play a pretty arbitrary narrative dance to try and explain, if Lotor’s only focused on trying to woo Allura while attempting to fight her team, how he does not immediately just get decked by Allura- who, again, is every bit the dangerous and powerful fighter that the rest of her team is. The times we’ve seen Allura laid low by an opponent is when she’s facing odds that would’ve taken out any other member of the team as well.

Making Lotor powerful enough to not take Allura seriously isn’t just patronizing, it sends a really bad message considering Lotor’s going to have to lose against the characters somehow. It’s especially bad because at least from what I’ve seen, a lot of the DotU fandom kind of makes a joke that Lotor is a dork and we have scenes in the show that are tailored to support that read. 

I mean… a lot of people say and do a lot of things in DotU that make it very hard to take them seriously, like that time the entire voltron force stopped their precarious escape to argue about whether or not they should appreciate vultures more (I am completely serious) and a lot of it is just. that show has not aged well, but that’s pretty clearly, Lotor is supposed to come across as kind of endearing in a Team Rocket kind of way. His ostensible ally just stopping and taking some time to call him out as someone who wears shoulder pads to pretend he is buff.

Getting back on topic here: There’s basically no way to try to romance Allura and fight the rest of her team because Allura is an integral part of that team and if Lotor tried to amicably close with her without a pretty good excuse as to why she should hear him out, they would not be having an amiable chat. “Kidnap the Princess” isn’t just a trope that’s aged badly in general, but it just plain doesn’t work here.

I also would find it suspicious for Lotor to underestimate female opponents. I could be wrong about my assumption that Haggar is likely Lotor’s mother, but it remains to be stated that one of the strongest people in the Galra empire and someone who rather effortlessly has Zarkon’s ear in most situations, not to mention a sorcerer of truly terrifying power- someone who Lotor is clearly connected to somehow as she can simply order someone to send for him with the certainty that Lotor will come- is a woman herself.

That said- I do think Lotor has an angle to be fascinated by Allura and trying, ineffectively, to get a chance to talk to her. But I think this could well be divorced entirely from the one-sided romance concept.

VLD pulls a surprising number of things from GoLion, including the name of Takeshi Shirogane, the Galra, and Altea. In GoLion, Lotor’s counterpart, Sincline- is half-Altean, half Galra, and his fixation on Allura is partially because Allura resembles his mother. Now, GoLion takes that in an incredibly creepy direction, but, pulling back from that a bit-

As I’ve mentioned, I think Haggar is the most likely candidate we’ve seen so far to be Lotor’s mother. Which would, considering Haggar’s species, make Lotor half-Altean, just like Sincline.

Allura is a beautiful woman, yes- but also in VLD, she’s one of the only living Alteans, and the only known female Altean besides Haggar. And both Haggar and Allura in this continuity have long white hair- a trait traditionally that Lotor has.

My tentative read/hope, honestly for Lotor is that he is focused on Allura, but not because he wants The Hero’s Girlfriend. Some of that might come across, but I think largely because Lotor is going to be a deeply insecure person- in DotU he’s considered strange looking or even repulsive by Zarkon and it makes sense he is going to look unusual by Galra standards if he’s only half-Galra; and he’s also a basically redundant heir to someone who has lived for ten thousand years and has no intention of dying or abdicating the throne.

So Lotor probably wants validation. I wouldn’t put it past him to be interested in trying to get the attention of people he sees as pretty or desirable- a lot like how Lance flirts in VLD.

I think for the most part, Lotor’s interest in Allura is going to be, sort of like an antagonistic shadow of Keith trying to puzzle out his history and the muddled past that led to him being on Earth, with the Marmora sword- Lotor might be trying to work the opposite way.

We don’t know where in Zarkon’s thousands of years of life he’s come into existence- but it’s pretty likely he didn’t know Altea. In which case, it could well be that the other half of Lotor’s heritage shows, obviously- but he’s also able to do enough to blend in that it’s not something that majorly affects his relationship with others as much as the conscious effort to look “proper” and the knowledge that it isn’t really how he looks would be a private, but major conflict with his self-image.

Neither Zarkon nor Haggar are going to want to be resources for their hypothetical wayward son in this case. Neither of them like Altea or talking about it at all- in fact, I think it’s notable that while it’s Zarkon in s1e1 that talks about wiping out the last of the Alteans, while Haggar simply doesn’t comment- it’s Haggar in s2e5 that tries to make good on it by suggesting they focus on the castle while Allura is trapped, rather than free the castle to chase the Black Lion. That Haggar seemingly obstinately spends all time she possibly can in galran form does not suggest she has a great relationship with her homeland- something has deeply embittered her to the concept of Altea.

So if Lotor has never been given any means to understand himself beyond he’s a really weird-looking Galra with a strange ability that just further brands him as weird- and then he suddenly sees someone who might have those same under-eye markings or other traits he recognizes immediately in himself- he’s going to want to chase that- without revealing why. If he is the Weblum Galra, this would also tell us why, in-universe, he’d go for that stoic, helmeted persona- because Lotor is used to, and practiced at, trying not to be recognized under any circumstances. 

And, like any good antagonist, this could be used to pry loose more development from Keith because if I’m right that the Weblum Galra is Lotor- he now has a lot of ammunition and a good angle to start projecting that image problem on Keith something awful, because thanks to things Hunk and Keith discussed within the Weblum Galra’s earshot, it’s pretty clear Keith has both some amount of Galra lineage and a very testy relationship with the whole idea. And there’s clearly some layer to Keith’s appearance that we haven’t seen yet outside of s1e10- there was a reason they specifically had Keith get that burn, and realize it was there, but for it to disappear before anyone else sees it.

So Lotor could very well be the catalyst to that, because he’s hardly going to be focused on the Black Lion and Shiro the way Zarkon was- he doesn’t really have a personal relationship with Voltron, which means as an antagonist, he’s going to be trying to flex a completely different agenda, and focusing on different characters as a result.

[ambiguityisnoonesfriend]

May the 4th 2017 Letter

Dear Yoda,

I am so excited, you have no idea. I love all the iterations of the characters and relationships I’ve requested, and can’t wait to see what you’ve created for me!

Likes: toppy women and partners who are turned on by toppy women, humor, endings with hope intact, functional relationships, dysfunctional relationships, secret relationships that aren’t really a secret, canon divergence AUs such as what if they got there five minutes sooner, porn, fluff, friends with benefits

Specific art likes: two or three panel simple line comics, playing card or tarot card type imagery, setting a scene, magic and metaphor

Do not want: noncon (dubcon and sex pollen ok), scat, watersports, omegaverse, unrequested ships except as mentioned, non-canon AUs such as coffeeshops

Luke/Leia/Han

These are the characters who started it all. I ship them as one group and I ship the component pairs. I see Han as completely in love with both twins, and he has been since the first day. Luke’s first priority is Leia, no matter what, and what he’s got with Han is simpler. Leia adores them both but her first and truest loves are duty and freedom. She would marry someone else if she had to. She would stay single if she had to. She would prefer to be with the two of them. I prefer to see these three in a more or less functional closed triad trying to make things work and the audience knowing how it all ends. Force ghost sex is fine for fics set after TFA.

Prompts: - Sneaking around post RotJ. - Sneaking around during their time on Hoth together. - How Ben came along, and raising him together. - AU where things never went bad. - That one time they went to Planet Sex Pollen.

Depa Billaba & Mace Windu

I recently read "Shatterpoint" and now I am obsessed with this particular Jedi family. The old EU and new EU differ on what happened on Haruun Kal. In one timeline, Depa was left comatose after falling to the Dark Side. In the other, she was critically wounded in battle with Grievous and lost most of her troops as well as her self-confidence. Is Mace aware of both timelines? Did he do something to alter the course of the one we're currently in to save his "daughter"? How have they reconciled the no-attachments policy with the fact that they clearly love each other, or was a distance between them the price of living in the new timeline? Depa had a sister who died on Geonosis because they recast half the Council for filming AotC then realized the new actors didn't look like the previous actors and retconned in new characters, whom no one ever mentions. Why? Depa was the youngest person to be elevated to the High Council. Did she feel she earned it, or was she worried part of the promotion stemmed from who she knew rather than who she was, and how did that affect their friendship? How does Mace respond to Depa's choice in Padawans, and how much of her choices in how she trains Caleb have been affected by her own history with one of the most powerful Jedi alive? What would have become of them without Order 66?

Kanan/Hera

These two are amazing, Actual functional adults in a relationship without jealousy or artificial barriers? Who knew? I love how both of them are attracted to the other’s competence. I love the trust. I love that they are clearly business partners and best friends first, and that they have been for years. I love that Kanan works for her, and does whatever she needs him to do to accomplish their goal, and he trusts she knows what she’s doing when she sends him out. I love that Hera puts the rebellion first, and her team’s safety, over her own feelings, and I love that it’s hard but she believes it’s right. I love that the one time she didn't, it blew up in her face and she recognized it was a bad idea. I love how she views the rest of the team as their family they’ve put together and I love that he clearly agrees. I see the two of them as essentially already married, whether or not they ever make it legal, but they both like and need their own space. My headcanon is that every few months, the two of them take the Phantom out for a 2-3 day supply run, and everyone except Ezra knows this is code for “we’re going to go have sex.” (I received an adorable fic on this very topic, and love it to pieces!) Feel free to incorporate or ignore New Dawn as you like.

Prompts:

- It seems like the team has a lot less down time in season three than they used to. How much mission and schedule-juggling do Hera and Kanan have to do these days to find a little free time alone together? - They've got experience raising kids together. Do they ever talk about trying for children of their own? Do they even know it's possible? (I like both surprise!preg and planned!preg as tropes, but prefer "then we discussed this like adults" rather than "then suddenly everything was magically better/worse/comedic stereotype" as the result. I'm not asking for pregnancy fic, merely stating my preference if you do go there.) - Five times other people assumed they were married. Extra: And one time they were right. - Dealing with the chain of command as Hera keeps getting promoted. - That one time they went to Planet Sex Pollen.

Chirrut & Kanan

The one thing I walked out of the theatre from Rogue One with was the desire to know absolutely everything about Chirrut and Baze. The only AU I wanted was the one where the two of them managed to survive and went away to be space married together forever. This prompt can take place before Rogue One, or in the AU where the space husbands live. (Space marrieds meet space marrieds?) How much does Chirrut geek out at meeting an actual Jedi? Is Kanan uncomfortable at finding out about people who worship the Force? Do they have Blind Force Guy bonding moments? Do they go on a mission together to rescue their other halves?

Hera & Thrawn

Ever since I read this, I have been obsessed with the image of Hera and Thrawn playing space chess against each other with the Rebel Alliance and the Empire as their playing pieces. Thrawn was polite to her during her interrogation, despite Slavin's protests. Does he view her as an equal, or is he just showing courtesy to separate himself from his coarse underling? Does that change over the course of their interactions? What picture does Hera build in her head of this Imperial she's sparring with? Does she use his art appreciation against him, having Sabine leave false clues in her tagging?

Reylo

I love this pairing for all the potential. They are opposites. They are exactly the same. Each is incredibly jealous of the other. They keep being drawn together like two ends of a stretched spring, and the only question is if they’ll fuck, fight to the death, or both. My fondest hope is both. I love all variations of dubcon for these two, from The Force Made Them Do It and Sex Pollen, to Forced To Work Together For Reasons.

Prompts:

- Kylo defects to the Resistance. Rey has to deal with her hated enemy as a part of her team. - Stranded together! Handcuffed together! Forced to pose as a couple! Anything from the standard get-together trope set is fine by me. - Alwaysagirl!Kylo AU where everything is otherwise exactly the same, including her chosen new name. - That one time they went to Planet Sex Pollen.

Leia & Hera & Sabine

This mission happened. I don't know if it happened before or after the Battle of Yavin, or even several years after Endor, but it happened. Maybe they have to rescue other team members. Maybe they have to go woo new allies, or pick up supplies from a picky source. Leia and Hera are going to disagree about who is in charge. Sabine's loyalty on the topic may vary depending on who is annoying her more at that moment. Leia and Sabine may wind up with their very first hangovers, or at a later setting, maybe they're remembering same. For background pairings, I'd prefer Leia with Han, Luke, or both, and Hera with Kanan. Sabine is my little black femslash dress, although I don't ship her with either of the women in this prompt.

FinnReyLo

I see Rey as drawn to both of them in a classic triangle: Finn is the pull of the light, and Kylo is the allure of the dark, and Rey is fascinated by both. Maybe Finn is enough to bring both the Jedi to the light. Maybe Kylo seduces them both to the other side. Finn and Kylo carry a lot of baggage with each other. Do they set it aside at Rey’s request, or does it define how they both must deal with her and one another? In general, I ship Kylo with Finn, Rey, and Poe, separately and all together, so if you want to throw Poe in to the pile of naked, that’s fine but please keep the emphasis on the requested ships.

Finnlo

The First Order Virgins Club has two very messed up members. I love that they intersect in their lives coming from the opposite directions. Kylo had a family and a unique destiny, and he gave them up for power. Finn was raised without affection and trained to be expendable, and he chose independence and freedom. Their time in the First Order surely screwed up both their minds with regards to normal relationships, and until proven otherwise, I assume neither has had one before we meet them in TFA. In a scenario where Kylo defects, Finn’s the one who would understand him best, and vice versa.

Prompts:

- Kylo defects to the Resistance. Finn has to deal with the ex-boss who nearly killed him as a part of his team. - Stranded together! Handcuffed together! Forced to pose as a couple! Anything from the standard get-together trope set is fine by me. - AU where Finn doesn't defect and Poe still gets the plans to the Resistance. FN-2187 slowly melts the heart of his bitter leader with the power of love, and they run away together before Starkiller Base goes boom. - That one time they went to Planet Sex Pollen.

Leia & Han & Rey & Kylo & Ben & Matt

If you offered this one, I assume you're up for crack. Bear with me. No, I mean "bear."

Brave AU!

No, wait! Come back!

Rey is the daughter of career politician Leia and her well-meaning pilot husband Han. Leia has been grooming her daughter to serve in the New Republic Senate and take on more responsibility. She has fewer hopes for Rey's younger triplet brothers Kylo, Ben, and Matt. Her primary hope for them is they stay out of prison. Rey doesn't want to go into politics. She wants to fly ships like Han, and more. She's inherited Uncle Luke's lightsaber, and in her heart, she wants to be a Jedi. Conflict with Mom. Dad caught between adoring her and being proud of her, and knowing Leia's right. The boys being annoying but sometimes helpful. Meanwhile, out in Wild Space, there are rumors of a seven foot tall hairy alien with a strange connection to her family. This could be as cracky or as serious as you wanted, and could diverge wildly from the movie after the initial setup. The thought of Finn, Poe, and Jessika as suitors for Rey's hand, and finding out they have to best her in lightsaber combat would be funny but not necessary. Endgame ship preferences in no particular order: FinnRey, Rey not choosing anyone because she would rather focus on her Jedi career, Stormpilot, giant orgy.

If that premise is too out there, a less cracky approach would be that the Organa-Solos did have three boys who led very different lives, and Rey interacts with each member of the family, not knowing why the three young men look so alike because Leia and Han aren't saying anything. This could endgame as Reylo, FinnReyLo, ReyBen, FinnLo, DarkTech, or no pairings.

Note that my non-canonverse AU DNW can be stretched a little here.