#seduce and kill

[sunderwight]

Scum Villain AU where Shen Yuan and Shen Jiu transmigrate by swapping lives (i.e. Shen Yuan wakes up in Shen Qingqiu's body on Qing Jing Peak, post-fever, while Shen Jiu wakes up in Shen Yuan's body in a hospital in modern China) but it doesn't quite work right.

The system glitches or something and they end up having to jointly time share their lives. Every time a certain moon phase or something (cyclical) comes around they abruptly switch back.

So they spend the entire time trying to undo everything the other one has been up to while everyone around them is just desperately attempting to figure out wtf is going on. Shen Yuan does the skinner quest and stops Luo Binghe's abuse, and Shen Jiu gets a job with a rival company and starts showing up Shen Yuan's brothers. Then they switch back and Shen Jiu is like "it's woodshed o'clock for the beast" and Shen Yuan resigns. Then they switch back again and Shen Yuan saves Liu Qingge's life and gets poisoned defending Luo Binghe, and Shen Jiu creates his own start-up and blackmails his eldest brother about the mistress he's just uncovered. Then they switch back and Shen Yuan gets his brother and his sister-in-law into couples counseling and Shen Jiu embarks on a quest to either cure himself without Liu Qingge's help or die trying.

Eventually they just start leaving bitchy messages for one another to find and doing things that won't cause lasting damage but are incredibly petty. Shen Yuan keeps trying to tell Shen Jiu to read PIDW but Shen Jiu takes one look at his merch-filled bachelor pad and immediately decides that his opinions aren't worth anything, so it takes him a while to actually do it (he is really mad about this when he finally opens the novel and it turns out to be extremely relevant information).

[avelera]

In 999/1,000 universes, Jayce is the proud wearer of a “Viktor’s #1 Cultist” t-shirt for the three months before the whole world gets nuked

[notbecauseofvictories]

also I've spent the last couple weeks reading some older historical romance novels, and my made up, wholly unverified hypothesis that in the 2000s romance authors finally grasped that the old-fashioned "no, don't! stop, you brute" etc. scenes were not really landing with audiences anymore. So they faced a conundrum about the future of the genre. Ultimately, I think they chose to quietly stop writing those heroes, and switch them out for a more sensitive model. Still dark and brooding! But with limits, often a Heart of Gold, and more general emotional intelligence.

Still, somewhere out there is a parallel universe where these authors decided to take the opposite approach---to write heroines as unhinged, cruel, impulsive, and emotionally ignorant as their heroes. I don't know if I want to live there, but I wouldn't mind a trip to their library sometime.

[twolovelyberries]

don’t you want me baby?

[paleode-ology]

madhel vampire au. is this anything

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

character zhang liao 张辽 (aka zhang wenyuan张文远，wenyuan is his courtesy name) from code: kite/ashes of the kingdom代号鸢 （coser cr 津岛梦海 female coser, doll cr 哑铃哑铃哑铃）

[pruneunfair]

Characters I think would've gotten along with Rashta.

Helena

She's such a sweet heart! 🤧 this was the same girl who had a change of view of og Eris who she was resenting for mistreating her, after seeing her crying and even when she was treated horribly she still had a heart of gold. So if she met Rashta (albeit at the right moment) I know she would've extended a hand. They probably would be besties.

Ruby

Honestly Ruby was a whole new perspective of the typical og fl or in general damsels who are often made fun of for not being badass. I've even seen some people say she's like the good version of Rashta so yeah, Ruby would definitely have empathy for Rashta and would probably bond over their hardships.

Aisha

Aisha is literally the good old fashioned saintess with a kind personality and the belief that everyone deserves a chance. She would have understood the situation and as long as Aisha met Rashta before she started going too far in protecting her position. Aisha would've helped Rashta steer back to her humanity and let her improve who she is as a person.

Adelaide

Adelaide is a true girls girl, the moment she learned what Diane was going through she didn't see her as an enemy and even felt a little bad for her. So let's just say it was Karl who brought over Rashta as a mistress, and Adelaide finds out at some point that she was a slave. First off she'd be calling for slavery to be abolished given that she was proven to be upset that the poor people were living in such dangerous conditions, second off she'd probably show Rashta more understanding and it could bloom into a sisterly relationship.

Pereshati

I love her so much!! Not only is Pereshati a girls girl but as a very motherly figure herself I just know she would have reigned absolute hell over the Rimwell family after hearing about the dead baby they gave Rashta after she gave birth. Just saying if she was able to deliver justice to her step family even when it all seemed hopeless then she would put Lotteshu in his place. Shs would've been an amazing aunt to Ian and Glorym 😢

Edith

like a lot of these characters, It would really depend based on WHEN Edith meets Rashta but if they met when Rashta was still a concubine and had yet to commit any crimes I think they would've gotten along. Edith was already treating Rhyse with the utmost respect and friendship so I could imagine Edith would feel for Rashta. Ngl I could see them shopping together.

Yerenica

Those 2 would be great friends plain in simple, Just two silly little girl failures. Plus I think it would be very in character for Yerenica because her whole thing is trying to stop a depressing future where most of her favorite characters die so becoming friends with the villainess so she doesn't end up on a dark path and her so her children don't wind up being ashamed of their mother would fit well with Yeni.

honestly in another universe this trio would absolutely slap.

[fiannans]

Now that I've had time to think about it, I love the idea of virgin Lucanis actually, if only because it's a fun role reversal from my canon Warden's romance with my other favourite murder husband, Zevran, in DAO. My Cousland was a virgin before she caught feelings for the stupid sexy assassin sent to kill her and Zev was her first, just as my far more experienced Crow Rook is Lucanis's first in Veilguard.

I don't know, I just think it's a neat little role swap.

[unreliable--narrator]

[image id: a split screen with kim dokja from the omniscient reader’s viewpoint webtoon on the left. he is a thin korean man with dark hair and eyes in a white coat and black pants, looking battered and scuffed. to the right is lee gilyoung from the omniscient reader’s viewpoint webtoon, a smiling young korean boy in a backwards baseball cap and green hoodie with light brown hair and eyes, also looking scuffed. kim dokja has a speech bubble that says “looks like we can’t mansplain, manipulate, manwhore our way out of this one…” lee gilyoung has a text bubble that says “then it’s time for manslaughter.” /end id]

[justanotherhh]

something i enjoy about blitzø as well is that he's not a typical leading man for an action show, nor is he a typical leading man for a queer show. he's capable and got that "extremely bad at communication" thing down you might see in a lot of narratives about straight guys (especially straight guys who shoot guns) but i think is less explored with queer men, and he's also incredibly camp without any shame attached to queerness itself, he crossdresses, he's a punky goth gay, he flirts relentlessly (and often unhealthily) to get what he wants, he's got that kinky switch energy, and he's exuberant, and emotionally closed off, and incredibly rude, and very sad, and very caring, and very action-hero/anti-hero, and all in a narrative that explores these dynamics from an explicitly queer point of view.

i think it's amazing that he's as well-received as he is, considering how much he exists outside of clear categories for what people think a character "should" be, but i've seen him play well for bro-ey types as well as the most faggoty audience members (that's me), and the translation isn't for the queer audience to make, it's for straight audiences to get onboard with a complex queer character and it clearly works!

there's really something to be said about the queer lens for both of the shows, but i do think blitzø has such a specific fascinating pov for what one might call the "badass action guy who's also great at seduction" type character. he's really hitting some extremes for the spectrum of how one typically allows characters to exist

a queer masculinity in a genre show

[sarafangirlart]

Danaë just can’t catch a break good god…

[abyssal-ilk]

comphet lesbian tabris 🤝 zevran arainai

figuring out together that they don't have to pretend to be attracted to each other anymore at the exact same time and going huh. well what was all that for.

[casino-lights]

illario says "this is crow business" to the future first talon, who was always rumored to be the future first talon, the favorite son of the favorite son as it were, as if he isn't even a crow anymore. he says this in front of zara, the woman who reinforced his warped desire to be the rising underdog, the one true heir to the throne of first talon, the best crow in house dellamorte - and at this point, with lucanis' possession, the only crow in house dellamorte.

zara expects illario to emerge victorious because she doesn't bet on losers. she expects him to be loyal to her. she expects the power she shared and the hatred she fostered to win.

and then illario kills her. no hesitation, no fear, no second guessing, because despite everything he told her, all the grievances he aired, and all the time they spent insisting he could only be first talon once lucanis was out of the way, illario loves his cousin -his brother - more than he ever needed or wanted zara.

zara lost, and lucanis won, and illario fooled them both.

[pruneunfair]

a little late for this specific trend.

first time making an actual video.

[phoenixinthefiles]

Every once in a while I remember how Mirage shapeshifted herself into Kory and fooled everyone including Dick

And then Dick got called a “slut” as if he wasn’t literally sexually assaulted by that woman

And she JOKED about it, yet they never expounded on it???

[sonnburntskies]

Oh no, the more I think about Fadel & Bison being born upper class, the more I'm questioning why they were basically kidnapped so easily.

Even if they had no other family members to look for them, when anything happens to rich people, law enforcement and the media act like it's a national emergency (anyone remember OceanGate???). But Lilly snatched up those nepo-babies as though they'd never even existed!

You know who would have been way easier to steal with basically nobody noticing? Lower class kids with no one to look for them.

Reverse Hitman AU where Lilly takes Kant, Style and Babe instead of Fadel, Bison and Keen.

Kant and Babe would be so easy to kidnap. Their parents are already dead and kids get lost in the foster system all the time.

Or, if one wanted to keep the element of Lilly killing the parents, she could have either orchestrated the plane crash or used it to pass the hit off as a tragic accident when in reality she poisoned them before they even got on the plane.

Kant has already been shown in canon to submit to the wills of authority figures and he was willing to break the law to support Babe financially. A young and impressionable Kant could be manipulated into killing if it was for his brother’s safety.

Babe wouldn't be as useful to Lilly right away since he'd literally be a toddler, but she could look at him as an investment. The future, perfect hitman that she could mold from infancy who would be loyal only to her. In the meantime, he'd make for excellent insurance to hold over Kant's head to force him into compliance.

Style's mother has already died of cancer, and the loss causes his father to ‘shut down’ for a time. His dad is deeply grieving and works in a hazardous profession. Lilly could make it look like an industrial accident or even suicide over the loss of his wife to get him out of the way.

Style does have a list of relatives who would notice him missing, but from the outside it would just look like the death of both his parents drove Style to run away from home. It's unlikely any extended family members would have the resources to look for him, let alone take care of him. The police would just label him as a runaway who'd come back on his own eventually, so they could quickly write him off rather than waste resources looking for him.

Style might be harder for Lilly to control, since he's an unpredictable loose cannon and a pacifist at heart. But in the show, Style goes along with Kant's scheme even after he learns the truth because his greatest weakness is his fierce loyalty. All Lilly would have to do is encourage the family angle and get him attached to Kant and Babe for him to fall in line, following her orders as long as it's for their sake.

Style is such a good actor and a smooth talker, he would be great at schmoozing the marks and getting their guards down. And well, we’ve already seen how weirdly comfortable he is holding a gun.

Her perfect hit-men candidates. Children who fell through the cracks of society. Children who no one would miss.