#i think a romance story can convey characters love each other without saying ‘love’ or kissing

[memcou]

tumblr hgsn fans, what are your opinions on the manga being bait? i’m rlly curious bc i heard some people say it’s pretty bait-y

#hgsn #the summer hikaru died #hikaru ga shinda natsu #imo i don’t think it is/is going to be? #i think a romance story can convey characters love each other without saying ‘love’ or kissing #that’s just me though #i’m curious how other people feel who’ve read the manga

[melanielocke]

Book recommendations: queer adult fantasy romance

This is a relatively new genre. Before, pretty much all YA fantasy books are heavy on the romance, but that's becoming more popular in adult, creating fantasy romance as a genre. I read mostly queer fantasy romance. Unfortunately, there aren't many traditionally published ones yet, I think the top rowin the left picture is all of them (if there are any I didn't know of, please let met know). I've excluded sci-fi romance for this post (which is why Winter's Orbit isn't here).

In indie books, I think there are some more, but I'm not super familiar with the indie market. The bottom three in the left picture are all indie books that also come in paperback (many are ebook only and I don't have an ereader). Most of these books I have talked about before but not all of them.

A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland

This is a prince/bodyguard romance set in a kingdom inspired by the Ottoman empire. Kadou is the queen's younger brother, and after a mistake puts him in a bad situation with his sister and the body father of her child, he has to help her uncover a conspiracy to do with forged money.

He gets a new bodyguard, which in this case has both the task of being a guard and being a personal attendant. Evemer hates Kadou at first. He's very duty bound and thinks Kadou does not take his duties as prince seriously.

But they will have to trust each other if they want to get to the bottom of that forged money conspiracy.

Evemer is a very stoic guy. He doesn't talk much. He can go entire days only saying 'Yes, my prince' 'no, my prince' or simply 'my prince' when he tries to convey he is annoyed or disagrees.

Kadou has very well written anxiety, and deals with this in numerous ways, including at first drinking far too much wine to dull his fears. Evemer is at first very judgemental, but over time he comes to understand Kadou better.

There's lots of discussion of ethics in this book, partially to establish how a relationship between them could happen without there being a power imbalance because of it.

Also by this author: several self published books, in 2024 comes their next trad published book, Running Close to the Wind, which is a queer pirate book pitches as Our Flag Means Death x Six of Crows

A Marvellous Light & a Restless Truth by Freya Marske I've already talked about several time

And yet I'm going to do it again. I love the each book features a different couple structure and I'd love to see this more often. It's a great way to have many different major characters but also give all of them their moment to shine and have properly development instead of trying to balance three romances in the same book.

The overarching plot in the trilogy has to do with the conspiracy Robin and Edwin begin to uncover in the first book, something that threatens all magicians of england.

A Marvellous Light features a himbo x librarian m/m couple. They're the softest, sweetest couple of the three in the trilogy to be sure, and I'm planning to reread soon.

A Restless Truth features a sapphic rake x wallflower couple. They're both very chaotic, and I love Maud's energy, as well as the whole sexual awakening arc she has in here, which is so funny.

The third as of yet unpublished book is a Power Unbound, featuring a couple that I think is grump x sunshine but in a asshole x asshole way and it sounds like it's going to be amazing so definitely keep an eye out for that one coming November.

A Strange and Stubborn Endurance by Foz Meadows

This is one I don't think I've talked about before. Before reading this, definitely check the content warnings. There's a pretty graphic rape scene very early in the book, as well as several moments of suicidal ideation. That said, this is a healing story, and the character this happens to is doing a lot better when the story ends.

Vel is a prince who ends up in an arranged marriage to a noble girl from a different kingdom. When his preference for men is revealed in a pretty awful way, his family is ready to disown him. But the envoy of his betrothed's family had a better idea, marry his former intended's brother instead.

But before Vel arrives at the castle of his betrothed, he is attacked and nearly killed by assassins who clearly do not want his marriage to take place.

When attacks keep happening after Vel and Cae have gotten married, they will have to rely on each other to figure out what's going.

I love queer arranged marriages in stories, like in Winter's Orbit, so I was super excited when I first found out about this book. This book ends with everything wrapped up, but there is a sequel coming out this December. Unfortunately, that's still pretty far away, but there has been a cover reveal and blurb. The sequel will feature the same main characters.

Then to the indie books

Prince of the Sorrows and Lord of Silver Ashes

These are the first two books in the Rowan Blood series, which the author intends to be an eight book series in total. But since it's an indie series and the author is a pretty fast writer, they come pretty fast after one another. The first one came out last March, and the second one October, and the author released a different book this February. The next book in this series is schedule for late spring somewhere.

This series is set in a fae world, with a parallel historical human world we don't see much of.

Saffron is a beantighe, which is a human servant who is raised in the fae world after his parents made a deal with the fae. His patron sends all these children back to the human world once they become too old, but Saffron wants nothing more to stay in the fae world. To do that, he'll need an academic endorsement from a fae so he can stay and study.

When he accidentally finds out the true name of prince Cylvan, the two strike a deal, Saffron will help him find a way to remove the power on his true name, and Cylvan will give Saffron an endorsement. The only problem is, Saffron has no clue what he's doing and barely taught himself to read.

In the meantime, beantighes are getting killed one after another by a mysterious person known as "the wolf" and it will be up to Saffron to stop the killer, because no one else will.

The first book ends on a cliffhanger, but the second is a bit more wrapped up so I'm not sure what's going to happen in the next book since there will definitely be more. Fortunately, the wait is not super long, but the release date and covers are released much later than for trad publishing

Last is the Fox & the Dryad by Kellen Graves

This book is set in the same world as the Rowan Blood series, but it is a standalone in the modern time period.

Briar is a ballet dancer, and while he enchants many people on the stage, he cannot get the attention of the one person they really want to notice them. So they strike a deal with a fae lady, if he can perform one perfect dance she'll make him the most enchanting thing on two legs. Of course, a dance is never perfect and now he's stuck dancing for the fae lady whenever she asks him too, despite him getting worn out and injured from it.

Malric is the son of said fae lady and used to be a dancer himself. All his siblings are artists and their mother abuses their talents to entertain people at her revels, all at their cost. Malric left, but he finds out his mother struck a deal with Briar, who is now his replacement. Malric wants to rescue Briar, and tries to help him posing as his new dance teacher in the human world as well as a mysterious masked fey lord at the revels. But then he starts developing feelings for Briar, and he has to ask himself if what he's doing is really helping him.

This book takes place a lot more in the human world than the main Rowan Blood series, which ballet playing a big role which I think was done really well. Briar is a masc enby and uses he/they pronouns, and use alters through the book. I think this is the author's best book so far and if you're not looking to get invested in a long unfinished series yet I would try this one first and maybe start Rowan Blood afterwards.

I'll probably do trans characters next as the Wicked Bargain has arrived and I'll start reading it tomorrow

@alastaircarstairsdefenselawyer @life-through-the-eyes-of @astriefer @justanormaldemon @ipromiseiwillwrite @a-dream-dirty-and-bruised @amchara @all-for-the-fanfiction @imsoftforthomastair @ddepressedbookworm @queenlilith43 @wagner-fell @cant-think-of-anything @laylax13s @tessherongraystairs @boredfangirl16 @artist-in-soul @beyondlifebeyonddeath @ikissedsmithparker

#a taste of gold and iron #alexandra rowland #a marvellous light #a restless truth #freya marske #a strange and stubborn endurance #foz meadows #prince of the sorrows #lord of silver ashes #the fox and the dryad #kellen graves

[fabled-lady-twilla]

I'm trying to think of the right tags to differentiate my hurt/comfort fic with dark themes but a happy ending vs. a hurt/NO comfort fic that has dark themes and an unhappy ending?

I want to tag appropriately so readers can avoid what they don't want to see but I'm kinda having I'm trouble thinking of the right way to convey the distinction between the two. There's a lot of crossover between these two types of fics and many people are okay with the former but want to avoid the latter. So I don't want them to avoid my fic thinking it's a massive angst fest without any payoff or juicy emotional comfort scenes.

Often times, the latter has dark, disturbing, non-con scenes as a feature of the romance rather than something awful/traumatic that the characters go through. Which is fine, because that's the kind of story some people want to write, and I respect their creative liberty to do so.

I feel like this is especially important because with a lot of ShigaDeku media and fanfiction, there's a lot of non-con that many people do not wish to read, but there is also many, many fics featuring full consent, soft and caring shiggy, and even full-blown Shiggy redemption stories.

But my fic features a toxic, tumultuous, 'mortal enemies to ill-fated lovers' type of start, but absolutely no non-con happens between the main ship. That's not to say it's 100% super healthy either, as there's some dark, disturbing, and mature themes (hello they're living in a literal dystopia where majority of villains are in power and are fighting to keep it that way), lots of emotional hurt/angst, kidnapping, captivity, and a sort of 'forced to interact with each other because we're soulmates' type of deal.

But it gradually grows into something healthy, loving, and ultimately helps both characters grow and mature as they navigate their new dynamic. Some huge themes in this story are character growth, relationship development, change and redemption, and exploring grey morality (what it even means to be a hero/villain and how the lines between the two often blur), and the real issues of hero society and all it's flaws.

The hurt/comfort is going to be REAL and Izu and Shiggy are going to earn their happy ending the hard way, lol.

Does anyone have any good tag ideas or something that might help me with this issue? Regardless, thank you for reading! 💚💚💚

#twilla speaks #shigadeku #tomudeku #shigaizu #sgdk #mha dystopia au #shigadeku fanfiction #shigadeku woes #i am a certified yapper

[zalrb]

You have posts about building up relationships, but they're all about tv shows. Are there ways to build up couples from strangers to stelena level love without the benefit of multiple episodes without the relationship feeling contrived - like rose and jack. If they weren't teenagers I'd be harder to accept their id die for you status even though we've only known each three days.

Oh, I have posts about movies too, they're just less popular.

Cecilia and Robbie in Atonement. When I read this ask, my mind automatically went to them but I felt like I should do a list since I have so many ships and sometimes I forget a few, not because I don’t ship them, but just because I have so many but I don’t know there’s something about Cecila and Robbie … it’s not just that I find their story beautifully tragic because there are a lot of beautifully tragic ships on this list, it’s McAvoy and Knightley together and as actors unto themselves, the way they hold the emotion of their characters and their relationship in their bodies

and the cinematography, the certain directorial choices that reinforce the romance

and romance and period of the film

like the fact that Cecilia was in the fountain

and so just to get close to her, just to feel something that’s touched her, Robbie puts his hand atop the water

and they gave us this scene!

It’s a beautiful film and they’re a beautiful ship.

or

OK well first of all, it’s beautifully shot with the soft blue lighting and it’s extremely sensual with the waves crashing in the background mingling with Chiron’s sighs, the close ups of the hands grabbing at the sand and then smoothing the palm over the sand,

and then there’s the context of this being the single most vulnerable, single most intimate moment, connection Chiron’s had with another person

[I think what’s so great and so heartbreaking about this confession is the second line where it goes from “you’re the only man” to “you’re the only one” so it’s actually not just romantic, he hasn’t had that kind of connection or intimacy with anyone else in any other capacity, it’s just and always has been Kevin.]

and then there’s the fact that this is an intimate, gentle love scene between two Black boys/men. I just love this movie so much.

There is such a weight to this movie and to the dynamics portrayed in this movie and there’s almost this cosmic connection between Chiron [Black] and Kevin

that I think the actors portray really well

because it’s a movie with very little dialogue so they convey so much without speaking and obviously a lot of that is the acting but a lot of it is also having the chemistry to pull it off.

or

(I mean, granted, they have three movies but still) and with Willabeth I kind of talk about how they're a great ship in pieces/different posts

by the way, when mindy kaling says “you can’t write chemistry”

this is what she means because it’s written in the script that will catches elizabeth and presses her against the wall

but it didn’t state that it would be like this

this, though,

they brought that shit to life

like there’s this perception of passion as being carnal rather than sensual or like strong emotion that brings about an intensity or a kind of ‘i burn for you’ type deal but when I think of passion, I think of shit like this

and Elizabeth and Will’s intense need to protect each other and stay with each other

I don't even care for this couple but I broke down how cinematic language can reinforce a connection between two characters and help the romance along

Their dance scene — which is beautifully shot — is a good example of a scene that uses certain cinematic language to enhance tension in a scene without relying on those things to create it,  like this [...]

and there are more.

[bluejaysandblackbats]

Hair Trigger

Fandom: DC Comics, Batfam, Superfam, YJ98

Summary: A junior at Gotham University, Jason finds it difficult to conceal his worsening mental health from his family and his friend, Jon Lane Kent. Family secrets are revealed and boundaries are pushed as Jason and Laney struggle to navigate through school, their romantic feelings, and their trauma. Could the reintroduction of Laney Kent be more trouble than it's worth, or is it just what Jason needed to confront the demons of his past?

I will also do trigger warnings for chapters and if there is smut I have the chapter(s) tagged so you don't have to worry about nsfw in the fic if you're just here for the story itself.

Chapters: 2/?

Characters: Jason Todd, Jonathan Lane Kent, Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent, Lois Lane, Cassandra Cain, Tim Drake, Conner Kent, Natalia Knight, Jonathan Samuel Kent, Cassie Sandsmark, Chris Kent, Bart Allen, Original Character(s)

Relationships: JayLaney, Clois, TimKon

Additional Tags: University AU, No Powers AU, Sharing A Bed, Romance, Angst

Chapter Two: Recap

Jason lay in bed until the late afternoon. He worried about how Bruce would react to the end of their conversation. He tidied up his apartment and allowed his phone to ring in the background until he could no longer tolerate the noise. "What?" Jason snapped as he answered his phone.

"Jason, you have no idea how worried everyone's been!" Dick yelled at him.

"How is it that I have to answer every single time one of you calls? I just want some time to myself—."

"Then say that, Jason! Jesus Christ! None of us know where you live, where you work, nothing! So, of course, we're all gonna panic when you hang up like that!" Dick chastised him.

"I get that, I do, but has it occurred to any of you that calling me four times a day every day to make sure I'm alive isn't helping me at all?" Jason asked. He heard Dick sigh on the other line.

"Why can't you just tell him this yourself? Why's it so hard for you to talk to him?" Dick asked.

"Because it's not his fault. It's nobody's fault but mine," Jason replied, "I just need a break. I'm tired."

"What are you tired of?" Dick asked the emotion rose in his voice.

Jason sat back on his bed and took a deep breath.

"I just want everyone to take a break from worrying about me all the time. I need a break from it... Aren't you tired, Dick?" Jason asked.

"Of course, I'm not. That's what families do. We worry about each other, which is the only way we can show that we love each other in this family," Dick whispered, "But if you need some time to breathe, I'll tell him that. We can give you that." Jason relaxed, and his shoulders dropped.

"Thanks," Jason whispered.

"But tell me one thing before I hang up... How was it hanging out with Laney after all these years?" Dick asked.

"It was fun... Like nothing changed," Jason replied. He caught himself smiling.

"Nothing?" Dick asked. Jason furrowed his brows.

"What?" Jason asked.

"Nevermind," Dick replied before hanging up. Jason went about the rest of his day, cleaning up and getting ready to go to the laundry room. Still, he wondered about all the cryptic messages Dick and Laney conveyed to him.

Jason decided to call Laney back on his way down to the laundry room, but he didn't exactly know what to say to him. "Ooh, he misses me," Laney teased.

"What did you mean last night?" Jason asked.

"I don't remember anything about last night," Laney answered without hesitation.

"Liar," Jason replied as he loaded the washing machine and put his quarters in. "Laney, when we were kids and got in trouble for sneaking into that movie, our dads told us we couldn't hang out anymore."

"It doesn't matter why anymore, Jason. We can hang out now," Laney answered sweetly, "That's all that matters, isn't it?"

"I'm starting to think that our parents told us two very different stories... Laney, please," Jason pleaded.

"I didn't know what I was talking about last night. I was just being my usual troublemaking self... I wasn't gonna tell you this, but I only got drunk because I didn't know what to say to you," Laney confessed, "I wasn't even sure if you would be anything like what I remember."

"Was I?" Jason asked.

"Yeah, I forgot how fun it was pissing you off. Except you're taller than me now, so instead of crying about it, you could just knock my head off," Laney laughed. Jason snickered.

Jason sat down on a bench while his clothes were in the wash. "Still an asshole," Jason laughed.

"Remember the day we met, and I made you cry?" Laney laughed.

"Yeah, you told me that veal was human meat," Jason replied. Laney hollered on the other line, still laughing at Jason. "I vividly remember throwing up immediately after you told me that."

"I'm sorry. That was terrible, but why did you believe me? Why would a restaurant serve human meat?" Laney took a deep breath.

Jason chuckled. "Okay, you have a point. Remember when I invited you to stay the night after that just so I could give you a wet willy while you were sleeping?" Jason laughed. "Isn't that how we ended up being friends?" Laney asked.

"No, we became friends after Christmas when—. No, it was New Year's," Jason messed with his hair.

"No, I'm pretty sure it was Christmas because you asked me why I was so mean to you all the time," Laney's voice softened, "You remember, don't you?" Jason didn't answer. Laney laughed uncomfortably. "I think your dad thought we were gonna end up killing each other before we made it to high school."

"I used to think about it before we were friends," Jason replied.

"Think about what?" Laney asked.

"Killing you," Jason answered casually. He got up and checked on his clothes during the awkward silence. Jason broke the silence with a laugh. "Lane?" Jason asked seriously.

"What?" Laney asked.

Jason kicked at nothing. "I haven't had fun in a really long time, but I had a lot of fun last night. Thanks for that," Jason mumbled, "And sorry for kicking you out earlier. It wasn't you—."

"Don't finish that sentence. Otherwise, I'm gonna think you're breaking up with me," Laney joked. He paused before changing his tone, "I know you, Jay. I knew you weren't okay when my dad gave me your number. I know you probably don't want me to come back today, but whenever you need somebody to just listen, I'm here."

Jason allowed the silence to flood in for a little while, and he found himself thinking about Laney's full weight on him as they held each other on the dancefloor that night. "Still there?" Laney asked.

"Mhm... Laney, you should come back later on today," Jason whispered. Laney made an affirmative noise.

"Ooh, should I wear my negligee this time?" Laney teased.

"Fuck off," Jason laughed, "What if I had terrible news?"

"Well, I bet you feel less terrible now. Do you think your dad will let us stay up past nine this time?"

"Bye, Lane," Jason rolled his eyes.

"Bye, Jay," Laney replied and hung up. Jason moved his laundry from the washer to a dryer, and he sat back down on the bench. A woman that lived on his floor came in and put her clothes in the washer.

"Having a yucky day again, sweetie?" she asked. Jason shook his head.

"I was, but I think I'll be okay now," Jason smiled.

The woman smiled and pulled two magazines out of her bag and handed one of them to Jason. She opened her magazine and held it up by Jason's face. "Have you ever thought about adding olive green to your wardrobe?" she asked. Jason chuckled.

"Are you telling me that I'm an autumn?" Jason asked. She nodded and looked back at the color scheme.

"I don't know about this orange on you, though... Or yellow..." She looked back and forth at him and the magazine.

"I hate to be weird, but how do you open up to an old friend when you haven't seen them for a long time?" Jason asked.

"That's a silly question. I have a better question for you. What is the risk of opening up to your friend?" she asked.

"I just don't want him to worry about me. I don't wanna feel weird about talking to him..." Jason trailed off.

"I think things might already be weird between the both of you. You seem like you're out of sorts today. I think if this person is really your friend, things won't be weird at all," she replied, "Do you still journal as we talked about?"

"I try to, but writing it down freaks me out. I just feel like I'm saying something dumb," Jason replied. They talked for a while until Jason's clothes finished drying, and he stayed to fold. After he finished folding, he said his goodbyes and made his way back to his apartment to make himself something to eat.

He felt a little sick to his stomach, being that he hadn't eaten all day. He made himself a sandwich and a cup of tea. He turned the tv on and allowed his mind to drift back to the day Jason and Laney got in trouble. He could only remember sneaking into the movie theater. Jason couldn't remember how they got caught or anything else from that day. That day seemed so important to him, and yet, he couldn't remember anything about it.

Jason got up, made himself some dinner, and soaked in the bath for a while. He closed his eyes and sank under the water, holding his breath and counting backward from one-hundred. By the time Jason got to zero, his head was clear. He pulled the plug and stood up slowly, grabbing his towel and drying his face.

Laney knocked on his door, and he wrapped the towel around his waist before going to answer. "You're early," Jason stated as he opened the door. Lane cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"What will the neighbors think?" Laney joked as he entered the apartment and closed the door behind him. Jason made his way back to his room to get dressed. "You went from being like four-foot-six to like six-foot-four. You gotta let me in on how you did that," Laney noted.

"Laboratory explosion!" Jason answered sarcastically from the other room. Laney put his bag on the floor and got comfortable on the couch.

"Some guys just have all the luck," Laney joked, "Listen, Jay... I'm gonna be straight with you. You know how our little brothers are friends?"

"Yeah..." Jason came out of his room in his pajamas and a t-shirt.

"The clumsy one... Uh, Tim, he told Conner that you haven't been home in months. He didn't say why, but he did say that everyone misses you," Laney admitted.

"Oh, well... I'm gonna tell you about that," Jason mumbled as he went straight to the kitchen. Laney kicked his shoes off and lay on the couch.

"If it makes it less awkward, I can tell you about something that I did that made my parents freak out," Laney replied.

"What did you do?" Jason asked. He smiled and turned around to look at Laney.

"That's just what my mom said," Laney laughed, "I got a tattoo. It says 'mom' in a heart on my back."

"No, you don't," Jason laughed.

"You're right, I got a belly button piercing as a gag," Laney replied.

"Got any other lies?" Jason asked.

"Ooh, one more... I didn't run away and try to go to your house after our parents said we couldn't hang out anymore," Laney replied. Jason's smile faded, and he turned back around to the fridge. "So, do you wanna tell me why you won't go home?"

"What?" Jason asked.

"Our brothers are friends. They talk," Laney replied. Jason shrugged.

"I had a rough time with a class last semester... It brought up a lot of bad memories, memories of things I thought I buried. Instead of telling Bruce that I was struggling, I kept it to myself," Jason mumbled. Laney leaned forward and made a noise to indicate that he was listening. "I figured once the semester was over, I'd be fine... But it was worse. We were gonna go on a summer trip, and I just wanted to stay home and be by myself... Get some sleep."

"What happened, Jason?" Laney asked. His voice was nearly unrecognizable to Jason.

Jason swallowed hard. "I couldn't sleep the whole time they were gone, and everyone came home early, asking how I was and what I was planning to do during the summer... And I snapped. I don't remember what happened in between, but I know that Bruce and I got into this huge fight. I don't remember what I said or what I did, but he checked me into the hospital. The day I was discharged was the last time we saw each other in person," Jason's voice broke, and he held his breath.

"Jason... Is that why you don't wanna go home?" Laney asked.

"I want to go home," Jason whimpered as tears streamed down his cheeks, "I just feel like I'm gonna implode every time I talk to him. I don't know why..." Jason couldn't talk through his tears anymore, and he felt a pair of arms wrap around him.

"It doesn't sound like anyone is holding that against you, buddy," Laney whispered. Jason turned around and held onto Laney.

"I can't go home," Jason wept. Laney let go and backed away.

"I used to think you were just messing with me, but you really don't remember a lot of things... Do you?" Laney asked. Jason wiped his face.

"What?" Jason asked. "What does that have to do with—?"

"It doesn't mean anything. I was just thinking out loud," Laney replied, "Besides, from what my brothers say, it sounds like your family misses you."

"It doesn't change what I did... Don't you ever wish you could go back in time and stop yourself before you do something stupid?" Jason asked.

"All the fucking time... But the thing is, we can't. Jason, he's your dad. I really don't think he cares about what you did or why you did it. I think he just wants you to come home," Laney suggested. Jason shook his head.

"It's not that easy. Every day, Lane... Bruce calls me every single day, two times a day in the least. Ever since I left home, I feel like there's so much pressure to go back and pretend that things are normal—."

"Jason, of course, you can't pretend things are normal. No one is asking you to pretend things are okay. Maybe they want to work on things with you," Laney replied, "And I get how you're feeling. I really do. I had a hard time telling my parents about my feelings... But once I did, we really got closer, and it was worth it." Jason sat on the couch and hugged his knees. Laney sat next to him on the sofa and turned the tv on.

Laney's phone rang, and he looked at Jason. "Mind if I get this?" Laney asked. Jason shook his head. "Hey," Laney answered, "Oh no, I'm not home right now... I will when I get home... Uh-huh... I said I wouldn't, Mom... I love you too, bye." Laney hung up.

Jason opened his mouth to speak, and Laney turned to look at him. "Lane... How come nothing's changed?"

"What do you mean?" Laney asked as he changed the channel.

"How is it still easy to talk to you?" Jason asked as he let go of his knees and planted his feet on the floor.

"It's because I get you," Laney replied calmly. He stretched out on the couch, throwing his legs over Jason's lap. "Also, you're not that different from how I remember you." Jason pushed Laney's legs off his lap and went straight to the kitchen.

"I can order some pizza," Jason offered.

"I already did, right before I left. It should be here any minute now," Laney replied.

As soon as the pizza deliverywoman came, Jason paid her and sat on the couch. "What have you been up to, Lane?" Jason asked.

"In the past eight years or—."

"Yeah, sure, Laney," Jason interrupted. Laney took a bite of pizza.

"Well, as you know, I was already on pretty thin ice with my parents when we were fourteen... So, they sent me away to go to school because they thought it'd keep me out of trouble. Fast forward like two years, they let me go back to regular school, and I'm pretty sure I went to my prom at some point... Oh, and I dated a friend of the family, which was kind of nice for a while," Laney replied.

"Oh? For how long?" Jason asked.

"Three years. We broke up two and a half years ago," Laney answered, "And what have you been up to? I know it hasn't been all bad."

"It wasn't. I was in a few plays in high school. I start working on campus pretty soon, and last year I got a xylophone... I don't remember why—."

"Do you still have it?" Laney asked. Jason nodded, and Laney gestured for Jason to go get it. Jason finished his slice of pizza and went to wash his hands. He went to his room and came out with a dark wooden xylophone.

"You can have it if you want—."

"No fucking way. Hold on," Laney replied, wiping his hands on a napkin and grabbed the mallets. "I had this roommate a few years ago that got a xylophone as a present from his parents because he said he was bored, and he was gonna throw it out, and well..." Laney played a tune on the xylophone.

"You play the xylophone?" Jason asked as he went back to eating. Laney nodded, smiling a devilish half-smile. For a while, Jason almost forgot they'd ever been apart.

As the night went on, Jason and Laney talked to each other about just about everything. Around midnight, Jason got up to turn the lights down, stopping as soon as he heard Laney mumble something. "Say what, Lane?" Jason asked.

"I didn't have any real friends until I met you. I mean, I've got some really great friends now, but you and me, we were partners in crime," Laney whispered. Jason smiled and nodded. "Did you really used to think about killing me?" Laney asked.

Jason grabbed some blankets from his closet and gave them to Laney. "Oh yeah," Jason laughed, "Remember when you put that rubber spider in my bed? I thought about smothering you with a pillow, but I wasn't sure I'd get away with it. Why? You never thought about it?"

"I never really got mad at you... Except for when you gave me a wet willy, that was disgusting, and you didn't have to spit on me after," Laney laughed, "I've never seen anyone that angry in my whole life."

"Oh, Lane, the couch is a pullout," Jason pointed out. Laney got up and looked at the couch.

"Oh, it is," Laney replied as he moved Jason's coffee table and pulled the couch bed out. "Turning in?"

Jason nodded. "Goodnight, Laney."

"Night," Laney replied.

Laney lay awake for a little while after Jason went to bed before sending a text to someone. By the time Jason woke up, Laney was gone.

#fic #batfam #superfam #yj98 #young just us #hair trigger fic #Jason Todd #Jonathan Lane Kent #Bruce Wayne #Clark Kent #Lois Lane #Cassandra Cain #Tim Drake #Conner Kent #Natalia Knight #Jonathan Samuel Kent #Cassie Sandsmark #Chris Kent #Bart Allen #Original Character(s) #JayLaney #Clois #TimKon #University AU #No Powers AU #Sharing A Bed #Romance #Angst

[jrhartauthor]

When it comes to writing contemporary romance, there are certain expectations that readers may have:

A happily ever after or happy for now ending (HEA or HFN)

Chemistry between the main character and love interest

Intimacy

But when it comes to the last point, it’s high time to recognize that intimacy comes in different forms. For one, not every book needs on-page sexual intimacy. Many writers choose a closed-door sex scene, or to have their characters go as far as kissing and stop short of anything past that. But as LGBTQ+ representation in fiction grows, and we start to see more asexual and aromantic rep in stories, it may not just be about what an author wants to share on the page, but also about what a character feels comfortable with doing with their partner.

When it comes to writing characters under the ace and aro umbrellas, it’s important to know that these identities aren’t a monolith. Some asexual characters are sex-repulsed. Some enjoy sex in the right circumstances. Some enjoy sex under all circumstances. Asexual simply means “does not experience sexual attraction.” It doesn’t necessarily mean the character doesn’t want to have sex. Similarly, asexual characters may have an identity anywhere along the ace spectrum. A character could be asexual, gray asexual, demisexual… the list goes on.

Aromantic characters could want a queerplatonic partnership. Some aromantic characters may be okay with a relationship where their partner is alloromantic, and experiences and shares romantic feelings toward them, even if they don’t share those feelings in return, and that’s okay too.

When writing your character, taking time to research their specific identity and make sure that you’re writing it authentically is a huge help. Spend time learning about the terms used within the ace and aro communities, and what your character might feel, think, and understand of sexuality and romance.

As I wrote The Heartbreak Handshake, I honestly wondered whether or not readers would be okay with an contemporary romance with hugging as the peak of physical intimacy in the story. While the series it is a part of—the Clover Hill Romance series—ranges from no sex on page to open-door fully descriptive sex, and I knew there was a place for it in the series itself, having space in a series and space in readers’ hearts is a very different thing.

It turns out a lot of my fears were unfounded. The reality is, pushing your character outside of their comfort zone will bother a reader far more than writing something they may feel is “tame” by comparison to other stories. And if they’re not a fan of where your character (and you) draw the line? They may not be your target audience!

Regardless of if you’re writing the spiciest of spice allo romance, or an asexual one, using inclusive language is incredibly important. In the same way that you wouldn’t want to say “my friend Taz likes both genders,” (if Taz likes men and women, you can say men and women without dismissing that other genders exist), using inclusive language when it comes to asexuality and aromanticism can be helpful too. Check out the difference between these two ways of phrasing things:

“After spending so much time with her, my hope is that one day, we’ll be more than friends.”

“After spending so much time with my best friend, my hope is that she’ll feel the same spark I do.”

Both of these sentences imply that two people are on the cusp of a potential relationship, and that maybe they’ve been friends in the past with a possibility the relationship may shift in the future. Now take this example into consideration.

“Judging by the way they both acted, I got the impression they were more than friends.”

“Judging by the way they both acted, I got the impression they were definitely into each other.”

Again, both sentences convey the same basic meaning. But once again, one conveys that being friends is “less than” being in a romantic or sexual relationship. This isn’t true! And for many, a friendship is equally (or more) desirable.

All it takes is a little shifting of your language to make it more inclusive, and make sure that you’re putting romantic, sexual, and platonic relationships on equal footing.

If you’re not asexual or aromantic, writing a character that is can be hard. After all, there are tons of misconceptions about asexual and aromantic people. Hiring a sensitivity reader within this community—especially if they share your character’s exact identity—can help you ensure the most accurate portrayal possible. Even if you are ace or aro, the reality is, different ace and aro people have different experiences, and getting a second perspective (or third! Or fourth!) can help you flesh out your character more realistically. Lived experience when writing will almost always be better than writing a character you don’t share an identity with, especially if that identity is a margilized one—like another race, sexuality, or gender identity. Keeping that in mind as you write can help you pick your character and what you’re writing to begin with.

No one will ever argue that beta reading isn’t difficult or time consuming, but unlike beta reading, sensitivity reading places a special burden on the reader, often on a marginalized reader. Sensitivity reads are often reserved for reading a specific racial, sexual, gender, cultural, or disabled identity, and this can put a huge emotional or mental drain on a sensitivity reader. As a result, sensitivity reading should be paid work whenever possible. That said, if a sensitivity reader is up for a work or goods exchange, by all means, that’s an option too. Just remember that a sensitivity read requires a very different skillset and level of effort than beta reading or editing, and should be compensated accordingly.

You don’t have to skirt around your characters’ identity in writing. Often, sharing character identity actually helps a reader find what they’re looking for, both as you write and as you market your work as a writer. Being unapologetic about your characters’ ace or aro identity can help you find the readers your book is after.

Understanding Asexuality-The Trevor Project The Asexuality Visibility and Education Network (AVEN)* Asexuality, Attraction, and Romantic Orientation-UNC Chapel Hill’s LGBTQ Center 5 Asexuals Explain what Asexuality Means to Them-Tinder (Video) 4 Demisexual People Explain what Demisexuality Means to Them-Tinder (Video) r/Asexuality and r/Aromantic on Reddit (Additional identities linked in Reddit Sidebars)** What it Means to be Aromantic-VeryWellMind Aromantic-spectrum Union for Recognition, Education, and Advocacy (AUREA)

*Please note: AVEN’s forums have sometimes been problematic. Your mileage may vary. Viewer discretion is advised.

**Reddit can often be problematic, especially outside of LGBTQ+ subreddits, but also within them. Viewer discretion is advised.

Please note Amazon links are affiliate links

The Heartbreak Handshake (cis m/nonbinary)

Goodreads | Amazon

Clover Hill Romance Series website | Goodreads | Amazon

Sex-repulsed asexual MC, nonbinary MC, autistic MC with sensory aversion to sexual intimacy, MC with ADHD

Content warnings: real-life aviation disasters resulting in death, autistic character faces unkindness for being autistic, referenced ace-phobia

Paxton McKee, Clover Hill’s rideshare driver and handyman, is known by his customers as responsible, dependable, and loyal. On first dates, though, he’s known by another word: boring. His dates never seem to appreciate his in-depth knowledge of famous aviation disasters or his LEGO expertise. His book club buddy, Mrs. Sawyer, keeps trying to set him up. But after so many failed dates, Paxton’s given up on finding someone who can accept him, special interests, stims, and all.

Hand-crafter Remi Sawyer put Clover Hill in their rear-view mirror to sell at craft fairs across the country. But being a traveling artisan is harder than Remi thought. With mounting bills, they’ve ended up back home. Being in their old teenage bedroom is weird. Even weirder, their mother keeps trying to set them up on dates, even after they’ve made it clear the homecoming is temporary.

To get Mrs. Sawyer off their backs, Paxton and Remi agree on a scheme: they’ll go on three dates. When it’s over, Paxton can pretend to be heartbroken, and Remi can get back on the road. They even shake on it. But awkward dates lead to the realization the two have a lot in common. Kissing is gross? Check. Spending quiet time doing projects together is enjoyable? Double check.

But Remi is still hell-bent on leaving Clover Hill again, and Paxton is dead-set on staying. Can they find a new vision that doesn’t involve Remi leaving their kindred spirit behind, or are they both destined to lose the person who might be their perfect companion?

–

Go Truck Yourself (cis f/nonbinary)

Coming Soon

Clover Hill Romance Series website | Goodreads | Amazon

Aromantic MC, nonbinary MC, Asexual MC, bi/panromantic MC, single parent MC, autistic child side character

Content warnings: attempted business sabotage, mentions of absentee parents, brief mention of a parent’s sobriety/rehab, brief mention of a deceased parent, mention of the death of a sperm donor/family member, minors using curse words, family member with dementia, mention of foreign exchange study programs in a positive light, mentions of travel social media and modern colonization

Between being a single parent and running a successful food truck, Myla Horan has no room for drama in her life. She's got her nose to the grindstone to make Tasteful Noods a successful noodle business year-round. But when her friend-turned-rival Zo comes back to town, they start to squeeze into her prime Clover Hill locations… and her profit margins.

After Zo moves back to town to care for their ailing uncle and starts a business of their own, they’re not surprised that Myla’s Tasteful Noods are faring better than their tiny food trailer, You're My Jam. After all, driven Myla can do anything she sets her mind to. Unfortunately, it also means all of the animosity they ended things with has resurfaced.

When Myla and Zo agree there's only room in Clover Hill for one of them, they make a deal: whoever loses the First Annual Clover Hill Food Truck Frenzy shuts down their truck. Forever.

But will serious sabotage leave them both truckless for the competition and threaten both of their chances at victory? Or will they work together as an unexpected dream team and find out they’re better as partners than rivals after all?

–

Getting Off (cis m/cis m)

Goodreads | Amazon | NineStar Press Website

Demisexual MC, biromantic/bisexual MC, gay MC

Content warnings: homophobia, homophobic slurs, bi-erasure, biphobia, sexual assault (on page), forced outing

JJ is certain he’s got everything figured out. He’s straight, right? He’s just not into the hookup culture prevalent on his college soccer team. But he’s trying to hide that to avoid getting on his team captain’s bad side.

Kade is anything but straight. Out and proud, he’s curious about how the “other half” lives… even as his best friends remind him there’s more to the LGBTQ+ community than just the “G.” Curious, Kade texts JJ a simple question: do straight guys ever get off together?

When JJ’s reply leads to a head-spinning sexual spark, he starts questioning everything he knows about his sexuality, both in terms of who he’s attracted to, and also why hookups have never been his thing. But when JJ endures trauma that confuses him more, he starts pushing Kade away. Kade has to learn how to be a supportive friend, and more than that, a supportive partner, or risk losing JJ altogether. And JJ? He has to fight for his team to be team players, even when they suspect he’s “playing for the other team.”

Please note: I haven’t read every book on the above lists, and cannot vouch for them. My inclusion of these lists here is not a recommendation of these books specifically, but instead an indication they exist.

LGBTQReads List of Books by Romantic/Sexual Orientation from @lgbtqreads

EpicREADS list of 23 YA Books with Asexual Representation from @epicreads

QueerBooksforTeens list of books with Aromantic Characters

QueerBooksforTeens list of books with Asexual Characters

Buzzfeed’s list of 17 Books about Asexual and Aromantic Validation from @buzzfeedbooks (cc: @buzzfeedlgbt)

Did you find this post helpful? Consider buying me a Ko-Fi!

#writing advice #asexual characters #aromantic characters #writing lgbtq #national hugging day

[borkthemork]

Started watching Miraculous after you reblogged a few related posts. Though I haven't gotten past season 2 yet, it looks like there's a pretty stark division between season 1/2 and the later seasons, and apparently season 4 gets real bad? Seems like you're all the way through - is it worth the time sink to reach what looks like some Cool Shit from the movie?

So the thing with Miraculous the series and Miraculous the movie would be that they're both separate entities, and have different canons. You don't have to watch the series to understand the movie, since they basically have different characterizations, interpretations, and overall divergent tones. Which is a good thing, because I would recommend Miraculous the series on the condition that someone recognizes that the writing is absolutely buck wild, and it's based on how much you're willing to cope through its buck wildness to see what's happening. So, when it comes to asking your question, Anon, I would have to go a bit more in-depth to at least showcase which one I would recommend based on your preferences. We can start with the movie, since it's quicker. [Warnings for some spoilers in the series, including the last season.] The Miraculous movie is pretty good. I can say that the composition, songs, fight scenes, and animation are quite beautiful, and a definite recommend for anyone who wants to get some understanding of the series, without being obligated to watch the show, and prefer a more "polished" look. Excellent designs, gorgeous lighting, I cannot stop thinking about the composition toward the piano scene. Stunning. It does lose characterization or mix up the personalities of the characters to make the story fit for a movie run — unfortunately, Plagg has been hit by this the most, alongside a few other characters like Alya. Marinette and Adrien, specifically, have had their personalities tweaked to match the tone of the movie, and overall, make the film complete, yet lose some of the complexity that comes from the series. If you're looking for a more action-focused, shonen-esque experience with a complete end, that would be the media I would recommend. If you're looking for a more magical girl-esque experience, with writing that makes you wonder what type of crack the team was on to give me an existential crisis while having this conveyed through zany shenanigans, the series would be more to your alley. There has been some discourse in the fandom regarding the quality of each season, and to be fair, a lot of this comes down to stuff I'm not really much invested in. Miraculous, at its heart, is a romance action show, so characterization and the romance (which includes the love square outside the two characters) will be that focus. Some characters that fandom want redeemed won't be redeemed, or are annoying, and I'm fine with that. As a casual viewer, I don't find myself seeing them as heavy flaws, unless the writing makes it too overbearing. I will note that, Anon, you're definitely correct that there is a difference between Miraculous's first two seasons compared to the current ones, and I think that's probably the main appeal for me as someone who listened in and then decided to watch again, since the tone transition is entertaining to watch during the course of the show. The seasons begin to go into a downward spiral in the best way possible. Details from past seasons get brought up. More of the monster-of-the-week is shown, and yet it gets more sinister with Hawkmoth's new power-ups and allies. You go from Chloe being your typical rich character in a show, to being manipulated in a massive political game to take over France using robotic infantry by the end of the latest season. You have characters like Plagg and Tikki — tiny creatures with the powers of gods — making multiple jokes of how powerful they are and sometimes how apathetic they can be to human suffering, and then have that be an actual pay-off within the show. This series is wacky, insane, and yet I can't help but enjoy the journey on how it dives into more serious undertones while also keeping its more wacky side to it all. It might not be everyone's tea, but if you're curious on how Season One went from that to (Motions to Season 5) this, then I think the journey is worth it.

#miraculous ladybug #asks #ml spoilers #Anonymous

[cirrus-grey]

20 questions for fic writers

Tagged by @magnetarmadda; thank you!

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

252, of which a full 227 are TMA

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

905,246

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Recently? TMA/TMagP, Discworld, and Good Omens. I'll jump into anything that gives me plot bunnies though, and there's been quite a few different ones over the years!

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Yesterday is Here

Déjà Vu

Misfiled and Misinformed

Humanity

Against All Probability

5. Do you respond to comments?

Always! I try to clear my inbox weekly and/or before I post a new fic, though I'm falling a bit behind right now with JonMartinWeek.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmm, probably Wedding Blues - it's a bad-ending Lonely!Martin fic

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

So, I write a lot of happy endings and I'm not sure how to rank them. Probably either Yesterday is Here again, or the Castaways series.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I think I've only ever gotten one hate comment? So no, not really.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I... try? I'm not very good at it and it takes absolute ages. It's been described as "very polite" smut, though I'm attempting to get a little raunchier with it as I get more practice.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Yeah, I've written a couple! The craziest is probably the first one I did, a Good Omens/Skulduggery Pleasant crossover that I'm still quite fond of.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yep, Unsent and Courage in the Dark have both been translated into Russian!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Nope.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

I don't know if I can give just one, honestly. For different reasons, both JonMartin (TMA) and Ineffable Husbands (Good Omens, primarily book not show).

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

This is a throwback but I still have notes for an epic, multi-part, 100k Gracious/Donegan origin story fic from back in my Skulduggery Pleasant days. I wasn't a good enough writer back then to finish something that ambitious and I doubt I'll ever get invested enough in the fandom again to go back to it... but it still lives on in my daydreams.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Hmm... I'm good at conveying character emotions in a scene, and with pacing a story to make sure each new development or twist lands the way I want it to. I like to think I've got a knack for making dialogue sound in-character as well, even if I've put the characters in a situation that their canon selves would never be in.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Action scenes. Balancing conversations between more than two people without having some of them drop off or dominate the scene. Keeping track of large casts of characters in general - I've written so many 2-person romances, I just don't have practice with larger groups.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I love it when other people do, but it's not something I've attempted myself. I'm only fluent in English and I'd worry that I'd written something completely inaccurate if I had to rely on google translate or similar.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Good Omens! (Book)

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Oh, do not ask me that, I beg of you. There are about a hundred fics I've written that could all qualify, depending on the day and what mood I'm in.

...I'll say Vous, et nul autre, for now, because I'm really proud of how that one turned out and the fact that I finished it at all - it's one of those that I had the idea for years before I was good enough to write it, and I really like being able to look at it now and see how far I've come.

Tagging... @my-lonely-angel, @fridayyy-13th, @grahamfolgersdeliciousnotebooks - only if y'all want to!

#of course now that i say that fic is never going to get written my brain is starting to spin the gears on it again... #thanks for the tag! #my writing #original post

[tirions]

I would really like to know more about your OCs. They are too interesting and I'd like to know more about what kind of relationship they have with the canon characters.

AHHH this is so sweet🥹🫶🏼 i’m still working on the specifics of my ocs’ relationships with the canon characters and am currently writing out their stories (at a snail pace), but without giving too much away…

zareen is a pure blood vampire who is part of vampire aristocracy.

i wanted to make a character whose story mostly takes place in pre-modern times and in the demon realm, before the sakamakis were born.

most of her story will revolve around her relationship with beatrix, which i’ll get more into soon! it’s very much of a “right person, wrong time” kind of relationship though. i did write something vague about them here, but have a lot more to cover.

as for other characters… she hates karlheinz and richter and doesn’t interact too much with christa.

cordelia and zareen do have some kind of half-baked relationship going on, but it centres on drowning out their own sorrows in each other, even if they hate each other’s guts. it’s toxic on both ends and unsustainable, but it goes on for much longer than it should because, in a way, they’re both in the same boat.

she’s only consistently interacted with beatrix’s sons, but has met all the sakamaki boys. she hasn’t seen them since they were kids though, and she didn’t much care about them in the first place (yeah she’s real swell💀💀😭)

tirion is just an ordinary human, an eighteen year old girl attending ryoutei academy.

i’m still working on her and her relationships with the canon characters, but i wanted to create a character who was hardened by her life experiences and very different from the boys/ what the boys would desire. she’s from a very average but hard background, and was financially independent prior to joining ryoutei due to sheer hard work.

she seems apathetic on the surface and has a very practical and more masculine-leaning appearance, but i also wanted to display through her character how difficult it can be, for a teenage girl especially, to hide your emotions through an uncaring facade. even more so when on the inside you’re uncertain and insecure about everything about yourself and the things around you.

i’m still piecing together a lot of her lore, but i think she’ll interact with most of the boys since they all go to the same school.

what i can say though, is that she’ll probably be involved with laito a lot. it might be because i think he’s the most interesting to write about and analyse, but also because he’s such a manipulative person. he can break down tirion’s walls in three seconds, and i guess that’s what i want to convey. as much as she can school her features to stay blank and act like she is all logic and reason, she’s still just a foolish lamb in his immortal eyes. it’s almost too easy for him to point aim at her tender heart.

i’m not sure if i’ll give her a romance yet. i’m not sure who she’d be a good pair with, but if you guys have any ideas, i’d love to know and explore them!

#thank you for your interest! means the world to me #diabolik oc #dialovers oc #diabolik lovers oc #laito sakamaki #beatrix sakamaki #cordelia sakamaki #diabolik lovers #zareen #tirion

[lyralit]

eee hii happy holidays lyra!! i love ur prompts and i was wondering how you'd personally better describe... i guess feelings? i was trying to write about someone watching fireworks with their s/o but it was extremely difficult. i feel like there's such a distinct feeling surrounding such a special event like that that i cant quite put such complex feelings into (intricate) details/words without it sounding kind of unnatural. like how do you even condense feelings that feel kind of out of body or like a fever dream into something that would even make sense? and writing ab romance is difficult because a character even simply looking at their partner opens a whole can of worms because i know there's a whole bundle of emotions that they should be feeling (affection, gratefulness, etc.) in that very specific moment but as a writer you have to convey that in a unique special non-corny way with lowkey intense detailing

I HOPE THIS ASK MAKES SENSE LOL pls help :,) but anyways i wish u nothing but happy days u seem so sweet n ur genuinely just such a good writer u inspire me sm!!

-anon

hi anon <33 happy holidays!

I think this could be one of the best places to insert the "show, don't tell" rule. you want the reader to feel the butterflies, or at least the same warmth, that the characters feel towards each other. if you outright say what the character thinks, the readers, in my experience, have a harder time understanding that.

another thing I'd like to add is that, when you're writing like this, you kind of want to be like Taylor Swift: and not necessarily in the style of writing, but in the way you insert your emotions into the story. write how you feel, and the right audience will recognize those emotions and relate to them—which is what makes the writing come alive.

finally: don't worry if the writing sounds clunky to you the first time. it's only the first time! and the people reading it see it in a whole new light, I promise.

#lovely person <3 #anon asks #writing tips #emotions #writing emotions #writing things

[ahiddenpath]

Do you have any advice for a-spec writers who struggle with writing allo characters or just allo things like attraction, romance, and sex?

OH MAN what a great Pride Month ask?!?!?! Thank you for trusting me with this. (For anyone who might not have the bg info, I'm a-spec myself, and I do write romance and sex).

There must be so many wonderful ways to answer this q, but I'll take my shot beneath the cut!

1.) Intimacy and sensuality

I think my biggest tip is to try to reframe how you think about romance and sex as intimacy and sensuality. Maybe an a-spec person doesn't relate to how it feels to be magnetically pulled towards someone, to feel their pulse beat faster when you see them, to want to, ah, engage in consensual adult activities with them. But maybe they do know what it feels like to worry about someone, to want to help them and see them smile, to want to experience the "feel good" hormones that are released from a hug. These things are also present in platonic relationships, but they're a huge part of romantic relationships, too! If you focus on them, you might be able to portray a romantic relationship in a way that feels comfortable and relatable to you.

For me, my favorite aspect of a relationship- any kind, really- is showing how it makes the characters feel as though they are home. They are safe, they are loved, they are accepted, they belong. It's an achingly human desire, and while this isn't the only way to portray a meaningful relationship, romantic or otherwise, I think it's a good way to convey what love is like without getting into sexy stuff and attraction.

I wrote a bit about this concept in the first two qs of this ask game, if you're interested!

2.) Songs and poetry

If you want to try your hand at conveying a character experiencing attraction, songs and love poems are an amazing resource! Obviously, don't plop lyrics and poetry lines in your work, I'm not asking anyone to plagiarize. But maybe google greatest love songs/poems and explore what language is used.

Attraction tends to be associated with physical signs like an elevated pulse, feeling physically hot, or being distracted. A character may act clumsy/nervous/shy around their crush, or try to do silly things to impress them, especially if they are young. You can try googling signs of attraction for writers, too.

These physical signs and "falling in love" behaviors are linked to powerful emotions, which is why I'm recommending the songs and poems. These feelings will move your readers far more than listing physical indications of attraction- those are mostly there to signal to the reader what is brewing.

3.) Utilize the off-screen sex scene

Real talk, it once took me over a year to write a 14,000 word sexy story. I usually update my fics with a 4-7k word update every other week. Sex scenes are one of the most challenging topics for me, is what I'm trying to say!

That's why the off-screen sex scene is one of my favorite maneuvers! You can imply that characters had a sexy encounter and discuss what it meant to them without getting into it. This is. So much easier.

4.) But what if I WANT to write the sex scene?

I don't think there's a quick solution for this- or if there is, I haven't found it. I start by writing what I want the characters to get out of their sexy encounter. How does the sex reflect where they are in their relationship? With their own body and physical/mental health? What needs do the characters have in this moment (physical or not), and how can they help each other fulfill them? If they can't, what does that mean for the relationship and the individuals?

I have no clue what is sexy/hot, and I don't experience attraction. But I do know that sex is a complex topic that means wildly different things to different people. Sometimes, people experience an urge that they want to scratch, without or without a partner or partners. Sometimes, people feel lonely or stressed, and sex can alleviate that. Sometimes, people like to think of fun scenarios and role play with their partners, or explore a new facet of their sexuality, or...

Man, I'm sure there are a zillion other things I could mention here. Basically, as a writer, you can approach sex from many different angles. Some of them might be comfortable/relatable for you, some might not. There's room to explore here and see if something works for you :D

I hope that helps! Thanks for the q, and happy Pride!

#a-spec #asexual #pride month #asexuality #aspec pride #ask hidden

[cold-reviews]

The Fire Within My Heart (Scarlet Cherie: Vampire Series #1) Review

Ayshen Irfan @thevampireaesthetic kindly sent me a copy of this book to review. I will start by saying I have immense respect for them as a self-published author. I think that’s frankly kick ass and incredibly inspiring. The last couple of chapters especially gripped me and I have a lot of thoughts I wish to convey. I’ll try to keep the first part spoiler free and then add some thoughts after going more in-depth. Disclaimer: These are just my personal thoughts, not aimed to hurt or offend anybody. If you disagree or have a different opinion that is just as valid. I'd love to hear your thoughts as well. I strongly encourage anyone to form their own opinions by reading this book regardless of what I have to say about it.

Review:

The Fire Within My Heart follows Scarlet as she is catapulted into the world of the supernatural after being horrifically murdered by a serial killer and next granted immortality when the vampire Nikolaus finds her before she can take her last breath. Throughout the book, we follow her navigating seeking justice for her murderer, her new supernatural existence, and her complicated romantic relationship with her vampire master.

The story unfolds in a rich universe mixing your classic vampires with high fantasy and the arcane. I’d say that for the most part, the lore of the world and the supernatural powers are explained and described in a way that makes it easy to follow and doesn’t feel too heavy.

It has a great cast of characters. I think it’s very apparent in the text that the author has a great affection for their characters and there are some great character dynamics. I especially loved the ragtag family dynamic that develops amongst the most unlikely of supernatural creatures. The strength of the story in my opinion is really the characters and their strong and yet at times troubled ties to each other.

There are undoubtedly some heavy themes in here of death and violence and very questionable morals at best but the book manages to balance it with humor. There are tropes in here that I loved as well. The main character and her vampire master share a special bond almost like a contracted demon in which they can feel each other's pain and emotion. I thought it an interesting layer to their dynamic and I’m curious to see how it will develop. That said, the romance here is not a slow burner and the attraction between the two is apparent instantly. Some people might enjoy that, although for me personally, it felt a little rushed and I didn’t quite buy into the justification that the vassal/master relationship justified the instant attraction.

Ayshen's iteration of vampires takes the symbolism of vampires and makes it very literal. The sensual and tempting are explicit. It’s described in various places how vampirism in this book is quite literally sex, orgasmic, all the guilty pleasures you know you shouldn’t enjoy but do. An iteration I’m inclined to think writes itself into a wave of continued contemporary vampire fiction. It’s an evolution in vampire fiction that I’m interested in but haven’t read enough contemporary works of this sort to form a conclusive theory on.

The language in the book I feel can best be described as purple although I know this tends to have a pejorative meaning and that’s not my intention. It’s very rich with descriptions. Illustrious with poetic and ornate metaphors and imagery. I find that it’s very much a matter of taste whether this style is something that engages you or not. Personally, there were some parts I loved and found beautifully phrased and cleverly constructed. In some scenes, I appreciated how detailed a picture I was painted to imagine. Without any spoilers, I can’t come up with examples but in general, everything has a very gothic and decadent vibe. Other times I found it a bit redundant. I didn’t always care to get a detailed description of every character's outfit and sometimes I felt like the description of rooms or feelings stunted the pace of the narrative. I’d forget where a conversation was going or had to be reminded what the characters were doing amongst all the beautifully described scenery. Towards the end, I felt it may have added unintentional suspended tension waiting for the plot to move on or for someone to reply.

I’m still not sure what to make of Scarlet, the main girl of the book. She seems like she has the potential to be a great strong female character. First-person narratives are hard because the narrating character is under the constant scrutiny of the reader. I loved when she’d put Nikolaus in his place and insist on her independence. That to me was the real meat of the story. At other times I couldn’t sympathize with her in scenes where I’m pretty certain I was supposed to. She seemed very self-aware almost as if the narrator anticipated the reader's judgment. In general, I think I would have liked Scarlet better if she wasn’t so carefully written to be sympathetic and likable, I found myself almost rooting for someone to corrupt her a little to make her more interesting emotionally.

My final thoughts will contain light spoilers, you have been warned.

This mix of vampires and high fantasy is something I’ve only encountered in Empire of the Vampire and I’d say it’s a fun subgenre of vampire fiction that can be fun to explore but It’s not a genre I normally gravitate to. I think that my experience with the book is very much affected by the fact that romance and fantasy are two genres I’m somewhat cautious with. I think people who are avid readers of these two genres are gonna love this book. For me, all the supernatural stuff about her exploring her heritage and powers just wasn’t that interesting to me and all the feeling of aura and metaphysical battles just got too aloof. I felt like some of the potential of the plot was wasted on it. I would have loved it if the serial killer wasn’t a supernatural creature for example. I would have loved it if there had been a point to his murders. I would have loved it if Scarlet’s gift for reading memories played a bigger part in finding him. I got very excited at first thinking they were gonna go around and revive the undead to read their memories and piece together a puzzle to catch the killer, like the vampire version of Pushing Daisies. Instead, she reads the memories of ten zombies in paraphrase just to practice and then subtracts the killer’s identity the first time she tries. Even that I thought could have led to more. Like when discussing altering a memory could prove fatal I thought “oh! She can’t just sit and watch the victim be murdered, she’s going to alter the memory!” but no. I’m left to conclude that some of these things might not get a payoff until later books perhaps and furthermore that the serial killer plot wasn’t the focal point of the story. As much as I would have liked a more intriguing mystery, the priority in the story was on Scarlet figuring out what she was, and to some people, that’s a riveting story too. Her being a nymph is almost more centralized than all the vampire stuff.

I found the most gripping part of the story to be the strange dynamic she has with Nikolaus. The climax of the book to me is the confrontation she has with him right after he kills her killer, robbing her of the justice they all worked so hard to get her. The way he reveals himself to her. Reveals that he takes pleasure in her fear, how she’s just another vulnerable woman to him who gave herself to him blinded by his beauty. The fact that he isn’t at all very different from the person who murdered her, he loves murder himself. There’s so much at stake here, one because she can’t sever her ties to him because of the master/vassal relationship, and two because not only has he revealed this but he also proved to be terribly selfish and emotionally inept in a situation where she needed his understanding and support the most. He turns out to be more harrowing in my eyes than the two-dimensional serial killer. This was a moment I felt actually had some weight to it because it was built throughout the book. Their lust at first sight, magical connection, and insecurities come to a collision. After this fight, when there wasn’t a confrontation later, no talk or apology, no consequence I was left looking at my kindle in disbelief haha. I really hope this goes somewhere in further books. There’s potential for some interesting outcomes. Either Nikolaus becomes powerful enough to control Scarlet and their love turns into hatred, or Scarlet somehow manages to become the master because her powers keep growing too, what would that do to his wounded pride and desire to own her? Maybe they do sever the connection, I can almost see a sort of Geralt and Yennifer dilemma here of not knowing if you’re in love or just under a spell. Or perhaps Nikolaus manages to admit his faults?

In conclusion: This is a typical contemporary iteration of vampires with an arcane fantasy twist. The plot is a little simple to give way to the main character's self-exploration. The mystery of the narrative is just a backdrop to project the complicated character dynamic between the two protagonists but it does hold its punch. For anyone who enjoys romance and fantasy with ornate language, this might just be your thing. I had some hesitations with the genre but ultimately still found lots of things to like about it and I’m curious to see how the story develops further.

Thank you again, very much for letting me read this. I appreciate the art you put into the world and the bravery it takes to share it. You can buy the book on amazon.

#cold reviews #vampire reviews #the fire within my heart #the fire within my heart review #scarlet cherie: vampire series #book review #self publication #vampire fiction #vampires

[animehouse-moe]

Dandadan Volume 3: Paradigm Shift

So, if you made it through volume 2 of Dandadan you're probably accustomed to the oddity of this series, but volume 3 presses the envelope of how weird is weird. Turning the school into a hunting ground for a Mantis Shrimp and Nessie hybrid alien? Budding romance that results in the oddest triangle out there? Playing baseball with a young man's wedding tackle? But the weirdest thing has to be how they manage to fit that all in while giving readers a riveting and exciting story with each volume, of which volume 3 is of course no outlier thanks to where it takes itself.

So, this volume obviously starts where the other left off, the Acro Silky was causing lots of problems for Takakura and Ayase. Of course, there's action and poses and cool stuff, but I think the best thing was how the Silky was brought back down to earth. Telling the story of her past and how she came to be like that.

I'm such a massive sucker for stories that are told without words, because at the end of the day they're only the approximation of what's actually happening. Removing that crutch from a story forces authors to dig deeper towards the source of what it is that they want to convey to readers, and Tatsu is able to do that incredibly well with the past of the Silky.

If there is one thing I'm going to complain about, it's that Tatsu's posing can be a little over the top sometimes. I think in certain moments it works really well to sell the intent very well, but other times it can come off a bit silly, like the Silky running in the rain in this panel.

It feels far too aggressive and put together to really sell the desperation and emotion the Silky is feeling in the moment. The determination absolutely overpowers the other emotions, and it's something that I feel like is rather liable to happen with the non-action pieces.

Anyways, feelings aside, we careen towards the comedic insanity of Dandadan at breakneck pace and get back to basics with the series.

Throwing a misunderstood romantic link into the mix adds just the right level of spice to the solidification of Aira's position in the story. Takakura and Ayase that are more so competitors or rivals than anything, Takakura and Aira which involves a confused and (potentially) one-sided love, and Ayase and Aira which centers around being mortal enemies who butt heads on everything. It's all so messy and all over the place that it blends perfectly with the ridiculous nature of the world and its characters.

And for those interested, this is the baseball game being played with Takakura's testicle. Just the right amount of excessive nature and creativity.

Since I had complained about it earlier, it's only fair to praise it now. Tatsu's posing and character acting is incredibly strong, so in these ridiculous moments, the characters feel even more amped up and expressive than normal. It's all so dynamic and aggressive, so when there's positive or "strong" emotions in play, they come off incredibly fun.

Moving on once more, would any shounen manga be complete without misunderstandings and tropes? I think not (even though it's not actually the case). This volume uses them as a springboard for both comedy and personal development, giving us some funny moments out of it and some good character growth that allows Takakura and Ayase to begin to trust each other some more.

While we're checking things off our list, I don't think I've brought up the Mantis Shrimp Nessie yet, have I? Well, it happens, and in incredibly odd fashion (since there's no other fashion with Dandadan).

Now, would I say I'm incredibly interested in this design? Not really, but it's more than acceptable in truth. I'm partial to the kickass nature of Takakura's transformation, but also the incredibly odd designs of the Serpoians. But this Nessie hybrid doesn't really carry anything quite like either of those, it's just a middle of the ground, solid design.

And it's also where this volume leaves off. Of course there's fighting to fill the gaps, dialogue to flesh things out, and comedy to get a laugh out of readers, but for the most part this is what makes the volume stand out. I think it does a good job of grabbing hold of all the little pieces that it's put into play in the last 2 volumes and finding a non-committal way to cobble them together.

Actually, quite similar to my commentary on Sakamoto Days, Dandadan does quite well when faced with the present rather than the future. Having a carrot dangled right in front of its face is far more effective than giving it a treasure map. Though compared to Suzuki's series, I will say Dandadan has much more potential as a written affair. The characters have a lot more material to work with and carve from, and Tatsu is doing a solid job of coaxing some appealing shapes out of them (though they're far from dramatic visages).

Considering how this volume fares, I think Dandadan is a great case for a 3 volume test run. The first volume is so out of this world you can't even stay in your seat, and the second works just as hard to keep you guessing. But with this third volume, you learn how to roll with the punches, how to catch the flow of Dandadan. So, if you've been on the fence after reading this far, I'd say that volume 3 is the point of no return. Still not sold on it? Probably not for you. But, if it has you in its grasp now, you're most likely going to be along for the rest of the ride. And believe you me, it's definitely going to be one wild ride.

#dandadan #ダンダダン #ken takakura #momo ayase #aira shiratori #manga review #manga recommendation #anime and manga #manga

[totowlff]

I've read your long review a while back and I've been meaning to do my own, but never really got around it. Don't think this will be it, because my initial idea would be going through the chapters, or at least the main turning points, but I'll try my best lol

I know English is not your first language, but you dominate it enough to make your sentences feel natural. There's not unnecessary structures, useless embellishments that make the reading too prolix. It's very comfortable. Actually, I'd say it's one of your "fortes", as they say. The comfort and naturality that you convey the human interactions and their feelings feels real. It's easy to relate to the characters, because even that you never got to live their life experiences, you still went through something similar. It doesn't feel forced or unrealistic, as we often see in fanfiction. They act humanly. I really love it.

I also love your attention to details. You frequently add real life events, so it's easy to identify the moment it's supposed to be, even without the dates. And it's just enough so you can picture it, but not feel overwhelmed with it.

Again, I love your story progression. Sure, one can argue they should just skip the chase and go for it, and that may be my love for slow burn, but I appreciate how their romance doesn't feel rushed. People react differently but even when I don't agree with their choices, I still understand them. I understand where their heart is, where they're coming from. It adds layers to their relationship that only makes it more solid. You understand why they fell in love with each other instead of just being together because that's what is expected. I love that they are partners instead of just a couple. Big fan of their relationship.

I also love they exist by themselves. Miss Lauda is a strong individual, she has a backbone, doesn't shy away from life even when faced with adversities. She is not just a character in love. She is a complex personality who happens to be in love. I love how you explore Toto. We expect to see the strong and smart leader we know from the media, but he is so much more than that. He also has some weakness, some doubts and still is passionate. He is as complex as her, so they do make a power couple. The side characters are also a universe of their own. They add so much I really couldn't see this story without them. Niki, for instance: what a guy, what a character. I miss him dearly. I wish I could hug him right now, I love their relationship. Feels truly father-daughter. Look forward to their adventures in the business world and their family time. And even the ones you don't really fancy, like Amelie, she may be an antagonist, but she is not a villain. She is a complex character by herself. I love that you don't take the cheap shot and make her the shrew. She just doesn't fit, but that's okay, because that's life. Really, I love it. (Does Toto ever find out that that moment was moment she was going to declare her feelings? Does he ever feel insecure and jealous about miss Lauda?)

The sex scenes also feel human. I mean, we all love a good smut and it's great to go freak from time to time, but man, don't one get tired with the amount of performance you read out there. Anyway, I digress. What I mean is: your sex scenes feels like sex. Nothing posed or overly theatrical. Like humans having human interactions and desires and attraction and sensations. It may be hard to capture that, but I feel you manage.

That's why I deeply prefer star-crossed to your other works. Not to take away anything from them, they are great and I do find myself reading them over and over again. It's just that the complexity you manage to pour into this work and yet make it so natural and easy to relate makes this one a masterpiece. I keep falling in love with them and discovering new things every time I go back. Things don't get added as a chapter filler, or just for the sake of it. Everything has a meaning. It keeps me fawning and anxiously looking forward for an update each passing week.

I hope this one offers you some insight. It's not exactly what I had in mind, but it is the truth. Congratulations on your work, again, I love it!

i took a long time reading this message over and over. a thing is to see people reading, liking and reblogging your work, but getting such a feedback is special. makes my heart swell and my eyes fill with tears. is a feeling of being seen and recognized and it has no price, specially when you dont feel confident with your writing, which is my case. so, first of all, i thank you for taking your time to write to me.

now, to your words

The comfort and naturality that you convey the human interactions and their feelings feels real.

as i said in other asks, i love to play with the reality and with real emotions, real situations. it was something that always enchanted me as a kid who preferred to watch the things develop socially instead of taking part. in the end, for a writer, it proved useful.

I also love your attention to details. You frequently add real life events, so it's easy to identify the moment it's supposed to be, even without the dates.

in my opinion, star-crossed couldnt exist without the real life events that guides them. in the end, that is what makes the fic, in my opinion, more realistic. of course there is some adjustments we need to do in order to fit all, however, is a pleasure to do it.

Again, I love your story progression. Sure, one can argue they should just skip the chase and go for it, and that may be my love for slow burn, but I appreciate how their romance doesn't feel rushed.

this was something i was discussing with my beta readers over the last chapter. i was deeply afraid of the story pace to be too slow and tiring to read. however, i realized that there was nothing i could take out of it. that was the story. all was there for a reason. as you say, everything has a meaning.

I also love they exist by themselves. Miss Lauda is a strong individual, she has a backbone, doesn't shy away from life even when faced with adversities. She is not just a character in love. She is a complex personality who happens to be in love. I love how you explore Toto. We expect to see the strong and smart leader we know from the media, but he is so much more than that. He also has some weakness, some doubts and still is passionate. He is as complex as her, so they do make a power couple.

i hate mary sues. to me, there is nothing more annoying to read than a character that have no flaw, no background, no layers. so, is fair to say that my characters aren't built like that. of course it takes a lot of work, research and even some self-analysis (considering how much of me are in them), but i love to do it.

about toto, there was some fear in develop his character, as we are speaking about a real person. as said before, long hours of research, reading interviews, watching videos, listening to podcasts and talking to my dear friends about him managed me to build him as the man we know, but with a lot more of depth. of course the man you read in star-crossed is not the real thing. but is a little insight of who i think he is. and im almost certain that i got him right.

And even the ones you don't really fancy, like Amelie, she may be an antagonist, but she is not a villain. She is a complex character by herself. I love that you don't take the cheap shot and make her the shrew. She just doesn't fit, but that's okay, because that's life.

aurélie was introduced exactly as a counterpart to miss lauda and i had a lot of work to write her as a woman that, like our protagonist, is a complex woman, with a career, feelings and goals. she is not a golddigger or merely the "french bitch" as miss lauda defines her. in fact, your description is perfect: she just doesnt fit.

Does Toto ever find out that that moment was moment she was going to declare her feelings? Does he ever feel insecure and jealous about miss Lauda?

as said before, aurélie is not introduced only for a cameo. she will appear again and for a important thing. and, about toto's insecurities and jealousy, it will also be explored in the chapters to come.

What I mean is: your sex scenes feels like sex. Nothing posed or overly theatrical. Like humans having human interactions and desires and attraction and sensations.

in fact, one of my biggest insecurities over my writing is the sex scenes. translating into words the scenes in my head is really hard, specially considering i want it to be realistic. im glad i've managed to do it.

Congratulations on your work, again, I love it!

and, again, i say thank you. thank you for reading and supporting me. hope you do your chapter-by-chapter analysis and send me, im very curious to see what you have to say about them.

#wlffanswers

[tcookies777]

TAOL related. But there’s kind of like a “war” going on the comment section of your latest chapter. Well, it’s not really a war but more like a discussion or debate. Based on some comments, I get the feeling a lot are anxious that either Sakura or Kakashi are to have sex with other people(?) in future chapters and they don’t want to read any of those or they’ll drop the fic(?) is what I am understanding. I mean, I understand that issue because I’m not a fan of reading those things. There’s also the concern when it comes Rin but I don’t understand the issue here tho.

I welcome any and all opinions just so long as they are expressed in a polite and respectful manner even in the face of disagreement. It's disheartening to see that which could have been a civil debate devolve into snide remarks and callous rebuffs.

On that note, it's also hard to say anything in response to all these theories and interpretations because that would require me to give away spoilers which ruins the fun for everyone.

I do want to reassure people that this is first and foremost a KakaSaku fic through and through. But it's important to understand that internal conflict is significant for the character growth of these characters, especially for these 2 who are very much inexperienced in love. A romance as forbidden as this one is not so simply resolved by confessing feelings like you would to a classmate. Because their feelings are forbidden, it is expected that they would try to fight those feelings. So, Kakashi's sex scene with that bar chick wasn't just written in for fun; the outline omitted details of the sex scene because I originally intended to have the sex scene be vague in detail and like a summary (i.e. "they fucked and he went home later to feed his dogs blah blah blah). But while writing the chapter, I found it was necessary to have the sex scene be detailed in description and I explained why in this ask. So it is confusing to hear that some readers take that one sex scene to mean that this whole fic will be about Kakashi and Sakura banging OCs instead of each other. I'm not trying to scam people here - this is indeed a KakaSaku fic. I don't throw in OCs without reason, but I'm also not going to spoonfeed those reasons to you guys in the story either. If people don't understand the purpose of a scene then that's on them, but it's also okay to not understand it just so long as they don't dismiss it as pointless. If I think a scene doesn't add anything substantial to the plot or character development then I cut it out as a deleted scene.

But if a reader does understand the point of a scene and still doesn't like it, then that's on them - I'm going to be direct to the point on that. But that is no one's fault - not the writer's or the reader's. It simply boils down to preference. And I am the kind of writer who prefers to intentionally write uncomfortable scenes (i.e. sexual assault, death, tragedy, etc) because my primary goal is not to fulfill readers' expectations and fantasies but to take a grounded approach. And for a story like TAOL which wrestles with mature themes, a grounded and sometimes gritty approach is needed to convey such themes. Because at the background of all this romance is a war veteran struggling with mental health issues and a girl juggling a doomed romance life with abandonment issues.

There's no easy route to a happy ever after because this story is meant to be a more grounded take on the forbidden student-teacher relationship trope. We have an underaged girl in an arranged marriage who falls in love with her teacher who is twice her age and suffers from a lot of trauma. There are many obstacles to overcome in their road to a happy ever after and I don't want to just Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo all the shit away just so that readers can get to their dessert of smut more quickly. There are many fics where teacher Kakashi and student Sakura fuck and ride off into the sunset within a couple chapters, and people can go read those fics instead if they want instant gratification (I sure as hell do that!). But this fic is tagged "angst with a happy ending" which means these characters (and me as the writer, ugh) have to work very, very hard to overcome all odds and challenges to their forbidden relationship in order to achieve that happy ever after.

I want that ending to pay off so that we, and the characters, all feel like it's well-earned and justified.

As for Rin - in this story, Kakashi's relationship with Obito and Rin is integral to his character just like it is in canon, so it's impossible to avoid writing Rin in. Sakura, if we remember, is also only 17 yrs old and has 0 experience in romance - in fact, the few boys who have asked her out always end up leaving her stood up, which is damaging to a girl's ego. If she sees a woman like Rin intimately touching Kakashi who tends to keep people at arm's length, of course she's going to wonder who this woman is to him. And again, given Sakura's young age and lack of romantic experience, of course she's going to feel insecure. I mean, imagine you're a 17 yr old girl who has never had a boyfriend and you're crushing on a super sexy 31 yr old professor whom all the women go gaga over. Wouldn't you feel insecure? So maybe it's cliché, but I find that's the more realistic, grounded approach and if that bothers some readers then that's totally okay - they can always quietly drop the story whenever they want, no excuses needed and no hard feelings.

Either way, everyone is free to interpret or theorize however way they want. But the story is still incomplete, so we must remember to take everything with a grain of salt until all truths are revealed. AND sometimes when a truth is revealed, there is still yet the explanation to be given. There are even some things set up in ACT 1 that won't be explained until the last ACT. And that's one reason why ACT 1 is a slow build is because it's setting up a lot of things for later on. You may have noticed that there is a B plot, a C plot, and even a small D plot going on in the background while Kakashi and Sakura have been having this whole drama with each other. Weaving all these plotlines together while juggling character development and romance so that they all coalesce in the end takes time and - unfortunately for me - a high word count. Which is why I warned at the very beginning that this is initially a slow build. If readers don't have the patience for a longfic like this one then that's okay because that's their preference, but I'm not going to skip the development just to get from one plot point to the other more quickly. People want to read a story - not a summary - and a story is what I want to tell.

So speculate away, but it helps to read the whole story first and get the entire picture before coming to conclusions. It's easy for the audience to see a drawing of a tail and assume the artist is painting a dog when it actually ends up being something entirely different.

But again, everyone has their preferences and they are always free to drop the fic whenever they want for whatever reason they have. No harm, no foul! What is harmful and foul are comments that lack courtesy and that is where I draw the line.

#cookie answers #taol #the anatomy of love

[upagainstthesunset]

OC talk

I wish i was a better writer to be able to convey one of the concepts i really want for heartbeat and metron. Itd be so easy to have a story about this guy who doesnt feel love or romance or attraction for anyone in the entire history of the whole damn multiverse until heartbeat comes along. And then she's so special that he falls in love despite himself. But that isnt what i want it to be. That isnt how it goes for them.

What i want is for heartbeat to realize that is what she wants. She hates to admit it but she wants to be the one that can change him. Maybe she tries, maybe she gets frustrated when it doesn't work, maybe her feelings get hurt along the way and it causes her to make some bad decisions.

But ultimately she would find that well, he didnt really need changing. Not in that way. And that as she realizes this, she gains a deeper appreciation of who metron is and what he's like, why he values things the way he does. She finds out she doesnt want him to conform to what everyone else is. And she starts to see that all the things that the other characters dislike metron for come from that nonconformity (well almost all, hes also kind of a jerk so theres that too lol).

So she's the one that changes. Her understanding and acknowledgement and acceptance of him gives her a new appreciation for him. So she develops in this way to think beyond her own desires and really see the person before her. And its hard bc does she even know what she was like before she got abducted? Was this something that she was never able to overcome in her past and its only now with these bizarre circumstances thay she has grown? Maybe it could play into that bc she still doesnt know who she was, only who she is now. And thats okay too.

And whats more, metron IS changed by her! How could he not be? Its just not in the way that she'd originally wanted. Its more subtle and natural and honestly has more meaning. He looks at things with a slightly different perspective, he tries to be considerate or her in his own weird metron way and that ends up bleeding into how he treats others, he surprises himself by caring about another without needing them to serve some purpose to him first. Idk if heartbeat will pick up on this change.

Maybe she will after some time. But whats important is that the audience understands. I want them to see that both have changed and yeah there is (unrequited) love involved mixed in there making things complicated, but at the end of the day its two people who got to know each other and impacted each other in a way that didnt end in romantic love, and that it didnt need to.

Somewhere i also want to explore the idea of metron being confronted with the question of what makes something love. He obviously cares about heartbeat more than others, he doesnt mind her being around (ie he's actually very fond of her), and he would be just fine with her staying on as his companion indefinitely. He can acknowledge that she is pleasing to look at in a conventional sense, but he feels no drive in that area, just completely neutral about it. But there are many different types of love and they dont require sexual attraction. So the question ends up being... Does metron love her in his own way? Or is it something else? If so, what is it? The lines of partnership and friendship and something else with no name for it get all blurred together. So while it doesnt feel right to say that metron loves anyone (bc he doesnt, he isnt sentimental like that and whatever he feels doesnt fit 'love'), theres something. And perhaps what heartbeat finds while shes coming around to the idea that it isnt romantic love like she wishes it to be, its just as powerful, and it doesnt need definition.

#i am nowhere near skilled enough to write this alas #metron is just so aro ace and as someone who isnt i want to explore that through hb's perspective #metron #ocheartbeat #metron if i fits i sits