#I bet there's a ritual where they get whoever the sacrifice is to eat a bunch of shrooms to they're tripping during the ritual and are more

[the-voxel]

Is fake dating a thing in voxel media when *vague gesture at the stripes showing emotions*?

Is there a 'stripe change moment' trope when an enemies-to-lovers pairing starts getting into lovers territory?

Do they engage with a lot of non-voxel romance media or do they not 'get it' because it's reliant on humanoid expressions and body language instead of stripe colours?

What would a 'Beauty and the Beast' AU look like to them? Rival athlete AU? X-Men AU? The infamous coffeshop AU?

You can get away with fake dating if you're confident enough. If you're nervous people will find out, they'll all know you're uncomfortable and your nosy great aunt will dig to figure out why. But if you're good friends with your fake partner and relaxed and happy with them, people will buy it. And if you're a little extra giggly about getting away with it? Well that's just new love for ya.

Their stripes turning bright is very similar to when humans blush, so normal romance always has that first moment where their stripes turn very bright with each other. I bet in enemies-to-lovers there's a widely popular moment where one of them will have their stripes go from and angry deep color (say dark red) to a bright one (scarlet) and the enemy in question will suddenly realize everything. Everyone always waits with baited breath to see how the enemy reacts seeing the other has some kind of feelings.

There are a few xenophiles among voxel, who of course are not widely accepted or even known. They may still consider any other species with stripes as objectively beautiful, but not strictly someone they'd want to pursue. But occasionally you'll find one (such as Liithal) who are genuinely attracted to an alien and find their different expressions mysterious and alluring. (if a voxel got with a human, other voxel would consider them a monsterfucker, ESPECIALLY since humans eat meat that's like,,, MASSIVE monsterfucker energy) I have just realized this wasn't your question and will now go on to answer your question.

If they read standard alien romance, they likely wouldn't understand many of the clues and context, meaning all human romance books/movies feel like the kissing comes out of NOWHERE. Not only are human romance stories only set to a time frame of a few days to weeks, but they go through none of the familiar flirting and courting rituals and they go zero recognizable attraction clues.

Many AUs will be similar, but with added layers

'Beauty and the Beast' AU: would be the most different. Of course nothing would have to be changed about the trope for the entire structure to change. To voxel, a beast is something that eats flesh and subsequently has the power to damn a soul, being turned into a beast has MUCH darker implications for the prince. Because as a beast, he's not just "ugly" and outcast, he's essentially the devil of their religion. Quite literally. Their word for predator and their word for evil are the same. So he would be turned into a savage animal that consumes flesh and renders a soul to be lost in the Mirror World.

The Beauty could go a couple ways. Given herself up in place of her father would be seen as the ultimate sacrifice. Because the assumption would be that whoever stayed would be eaten by the Beast. (I can't imagine the father being very liked in this version.) She would start as this ultimate virtuous character, but her felling in love with the Beast would be viewed as her falling from grace. She would be accepting a monster.

Now, the story MAY go the classic fairy tale route, and have the Beast give up feeding because he loves her and refuses to hurt her, and he just slowly starves to death. This may let him die and be redeemed, or he could be transformed back into a prince for learning to love and put other people before himself. It may go the shrek route and have Beauty join the Beast and they become a villain couple to scare little kids into behaving with. Or they may go the disney style and she come to love and understand him more, and she makes him realize what kind of person he wants to be and he has a big heroic moment in the end where he puts everything on the line.

No matter what, this concept is highly complex, factory made to be filled with religious messaging, and can have endless variations.

Rival athlete AU: Not much to change here. Voxel have sports and they get competitive enough for rivalries.

X-Men AU: There may be some reluctance toward getting people to read this one, since the idea of superpowers isn't highly popular. But once you got an audience voxel would LOVE sending characters to the x-men universe. The idea of a voxel going to Xavier's school and being surrounded by humans would resonate with how many voxel feel about taking their place among the galaxy. It would have all the usual x-men themes of acceptance and equality.

The infamous coffeshop AU: Well, as they function on communism, there is a stark lack of shop to go with their coffee. Also, voxel don't really have an equivalent to coffee to be putting in these shops. It's probably more common to write about characters working in a brewery together. They can have to romantic tension over tasting for fermentation levels together, pine while watching each other suggest fine thick wines to a mother planning her kid's wedding, and of course there has to be that one scene where they get a lil tipsy and confess their feelings. Just all around, this is what they write instead of a coffeeshop.

#voxel literature