(゜゜;)(。。;)

Uh…I don't know how it'll work, but his head looks like a toaster and you expect me to do NOTHING? (pretty sure it is really one of the used toasters).

PLZ don`t kill my funtime. Also, need more fics about this group.

You know, considering the show only fans' reaction to the Seanchean, if they do put Mat and Tuon together, they're gonna have to give her and them a LOT and I mean A LOT of character development. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Tuon shows up already with thoughts and doubts about slavery. Cause there's simply no way people are gonna be okay with it.

yeah i really do not envy them having to figure out what to do here, because EVERYTHING about mat/tuon and about tuon as a character is a giant landmine. (even just with casting, because the Head Slaver being a black woman is 🥴 especially if we then get scenes of her having to be told by a white man that slavery is bad. but if you DON'T cast a black actor as tuon then you've whitewashed a book-canonically black character. tuon's character design is the kinda thing where rj was trying to go for a ~boundary-breaking role reversal~ but it just really isn't a good look, and i don't envy the show having to deal with his choices there.)

anyway, i'm really hoping for tuon to be introduced at least a season or two before she meets mat so that she can have some development before they even cross paths, let alone begin having romance. (similar to how elayne, aviendha, and min were all developed through non-rand characters this season, which was a great choice.) one idea i'm quite fond of* is tuon showing up in nynaeve and elayne's storyline in s3 in an egeanin-esque role (tho not exactly equivalent ofc given tuon's and egeanin's differences in status/life situation/etc), so then she unknowingly befriends and comes to respect 2 ~marath'damane~, thus she has to start rethinking some things about seanchan culture when she finds out her new buddies can channel. and in s4 maybe she can have some kind of invented plotline to keep her development moving along, and s5 might be the time for her to first meet mat, and they can spend seasons 6 AND 7 together with the romance being a very slow burn. if the show just has tuon show up in ebou dar straightaway with the initial invasion rather than in a second wave after mat's storyline's been left out of an entire book, then she can meet mat sooner and they can leave sooner and have more time to spend together.

rj could have pulled off mat/tuon if he'd introduced her way sooner and had left enough time for their relationship to develop naturally and for HER to develop naturally, rather than breaking mat's characterization to cram him into a rushed relationship it makes no sense for him to want to be part of at this point in time. in WH it really does feel like rj was planning a whole meaty character development arc for tuon, but then realized between books that he wasn't gonna have enough time for it in the main series and came up with the idea of the outriggers spinoff, and in COT suddenly we have tuon being a completely static character and mat replaced by a pod person who's obsessed with her and has completely changed his views on slavery.

but the show has the benefit of knowing the endpoint already, so hopefully they're already planning for how to make the mat/tuon romance feel more believable. i think the only 2 options are a) introduce tuon way earlier and give her a proper redemption arc, or b) make it a political marriage which mat is putting up with for the greater good but has 0 romantic interest in tuon. because yeah, mat falling in love with an unrepentant slaver would make him absolutely vile in the eyes of all viewers, especially after how hard the show went on showing the vileness of the seanchan in s2. show viewers will not have forgotten the torture egwene suffered by the time mat meets tuon as easily as so many book readers apparently did.

*i'm also very fond of the idea of tuon being introduced in seanchan proper because i spent the whole series expecting us to see seanchan proper and the court of the 9 moons etc and felt SO robbed that we never did, so i'd loooooove if the show took us there and had tuon leading a plotline there before she leaves for the westlands. but purely in terms of getting her to start rethinking the damane system early on, this scenario wouldn't be as useful as the one of her meeting nynaeve and elayne in the westlands.

and finally, it's very interesting that they killed off every single notable seanchan character from s2. this could mean that they didn't want to leave any loose ends because the seanchan will be entirely absent for the next season or two, ooooooooooooor it could mean that they wanted to clear the stage for tuon to step up as our major seanchan character in the next season or two.

Hey, I've been enjoying going through your takes on various hp ships, and I haven't seen this one. Did I miss it? What do you think of Ginny/Luna??

thank you very much for the ask, anons!

i've hinted at my views on linny in various places, but they don't yet have a dedicated post. so let's rectify that...

while i have a lot of time for the idea of both ginny and luna as queer, i'm sorry to say that linny is a victim of my general view when it comes to luna-centric pairings: that fics in which it's presented as something which works depend on the presence of fanon!luna, who is a beautiful clairvoyant ray-of-sunshine, rather than canon!luna, who is a stubborn conspiracist with the vibes of a golden retriever which can speak.

i don't doubt that ginny is incredibly fond of luna - nor that luna's positive characteristics [like her resilience, loyalty, kindness, and courage] must have been an enormous comfort to her while they're stuck at hogwarts with snape and the carrows - but her fondness always reads as the same sort of fondness you might have for a friend's precocious toddler. it's nice eye-rolling, but it's eye-rolling nonetheless.

which i think adds a slightly condescending element to their relationship which often gets left out of its portrayals in fanfiction, in both the platonic and the romantic sense. ginny and luna become closer just as ginny approaches her hot girl era [and, may i say, the implication of canon is that they're barely acquaintances prior to order of the phoenix, rather than childhood friends], and ginny's interest in keeping her around is evidently rooted in the fact that she views luna as unthreatening - her making luna take harry to ravenclaw tower in deathly hallows instead of cho always sends me, because she basically says "luna, you're unfuckable" and luna jumps up like "right you are!" - to her during her teenage peak. it's not exactly giving "christ, i think you're gorgeous"...

except, of course, that this doesn't matter in the slightest because this is fanfiction - the entire point is for two characters to be shoved together and made to realise they think the other is beautiful! i am perfectly amenable to the idea that linny can be written in which ginny and luna like and respect and are fucking obsessed with each other and which also feels coherent to both of their canon characterisations - and i love that for anyone who's a fan of the ship.

i just don't entirely think i am...

[there's also the... slightly discourse-y point, which is that linny often feels thrown into fics as a secondary ship as a way to enable a harry-centric slash pairing in a way which doesn't require the author to think about unravelling harry and ginny's canonical relationship.]

[i don't think there's anything wrong with this, per se - i break hinny up all the time, authors should be free to do whatever the fuck they want with their stories, not all fics need to do a completely canon-coherent wrangling with the canon couples they're breaking up in order to have their blorbos kiss, and i am increasingly uncomfortable with how some of the discussion i've seen recently pushing back, rightfully, on the misogynistic treatment of female characters in slash subfandoms is starting to sound a lot like "our canon het is pure and good and their non-canon slash is incomprehensible and wrong".]

[but i do nonetheless think it's worth being aware of a fandom tendency to make femslash relationships a throwaway line in order to enable m/m slash ones - and to think about how just smashing two female characters together without exploring how the relationship would align with their canon personalities doesn't necessarily help...]

arospec

a poem(?), a collection of ideas, things i have been thinking about, about relationships and the platonic/romantic binary

some citations:

arospec wiki sources, amatonormativity, instructional manifesto for relationship anarchy, my favorite poem by alok vaid-menon, aromantic manifesto, amatopunk

full text below the cut:

screenshotted text from various sources over a galaxy background, spread across two images:

arospec, is an umbrella term

People on the aromantic spectrum may feel little to no romantic attraction, or feel romantic attraction differently, more rarely or

Loveless Aro describes someone who is some way disconnected from the concept of love, rejects the idea that they need to experience love

Quoiromantic (also called WTFromantic experiences may include:

Finding the concept of romance to be inaccessible, inapplicable, or nonsensical.

the questioning itself

becomes the identity

Disidentifying with the concept of romantic attraction - either as a social construct or as something potentially applicable to oneself.

a disidentification with the romantic/nonromantic binary,

They may consider themselves relationship anarchists.

Amatonormativity

to describe the widespread assumption that everyone is better off in an exclusive, romantic, long-term coupled relationship, and that everyone is seeking such a relationship.

[elizabeth brake]

Due to the ambiguous nature of romantic attraction, sometimes defined by the actions that one takes during a relationship, such as holding hands, kissing, or cuddling. However, none of these activities alone necessarily indicate romantic attraction.

The prefix nebula- comes from the Latin word nebulous, meaning "clouded" or "unclear".

Queerplatonic relationships (QPR) and queerplatonic partnerships (QPP) are committed intimate relationshisp which are not romantic

This way of thinking is also one that places certain relationships above others, such as Romantic relationships being viewed as 'above' or 'superior' to Platonic relationships. If two people are dating they are 'more than friends'. If they aren't dating then they're 'just friends'.

Amatonormativity prompts the sacrifice of other relationships to romantic love and marriage and relegates friendship and solitudinousness to cultural invisibility.

Amatopunk!

challenges amatonormativity, and how society views aspec people, polyamorous people, and others who do not fit into the "right" mold.

Relationship Anarchy (abbreviated RA) is the belief that relationships should not be bound by set rules, aside from the rules the individuals involved mutually agree upon.

sensualarians have relationships that are often "in between" typical relationships categories, whereas relationship anarchy completely breaks down all relationship categories

Relationship anarchy questions the idea that love is a limited resource

i want a world where friendship is appreciated as a form of romance. i want a world where when people ask if we are seeing anyone we can list the names of all of our best friends

[alok vaid-menon, friendship is romance]

queer liberation must abolish romance as its long term goal aromantics aspire to:

view queer intimacies as web-like counter-publics that reinforce rather than compete with and enervate each other.

transform queer intimacy into political solidarity and action.

[aromantic manifesto]

Relationship anarchy (sometimes abbreviated RA) is the application of anarchist principles to intimate relationships. Its values include autonomy, anti-hierarchical practices, anti-normativity, and community interdependence. RA is explicitly anti-amatonormative and anti-mononormative and is commonly, but not always, non-monogamous.

With one's relationships starting as a blank slate, the act of distributing physical intimacy, sexual intimacy, emotional intimacy, etc. is according to one's desires rather than preexisting "rules"

Queerness is a longing that propels us onward, beyond romances of the negative and toiling in the present. Queerness is that thing that lets us feel that this world is not enough, that indeed something is missing.

[josé estabon muñoz, cruising utopia]

also interesting because I just watched a video doing a rundown on the history of queerness in doctor who, which naturally had a lot dedicated to aro and/or ace reads of the doctor, which at one point discussed that ofc reading the alien character specifically as such can be alienating (not... that as an aroace person my own reads would be attempting to alienate... myself... although also here insert other discussion about how the aliens often are just the blank slate upon which non-normative behaviours are placed, so it makes sense to see the neurodivergent/disabled/queer/otherwise othered body reflected from them, while also understanding that this means the world views you as inherently alien, while also being like "sure, yeah, I always have done," while also knowing that's dehumanisation, while also...)

but, when it's consciously done, when does this alien being (whatever narrative we're looking at) resonate through the lens of xyz because we're interested in how social structures built Not on today's earth human constructs could end up in wildly interesting different spaces in which what is non-normative to us is presented as normative to them (thus making an argument of stop being such freaks against trans kids, for example), and also when do we read those characters as incongruent with their own societies (I think also here of star trek's the outcast and rejoined, which blend queerness as we recognise it in our societies with characters who break alien normative structures as expressions of an alien queerness, and then there's ofc left hand of darkness in which gender-and-sexuality is at the centre of the political narrative and it's queer on multiple in-universe and out-of-universe levels)

for example, the doctor isn't really an outsider timelord if we look at them through the lens of genderbending regeneration -- that's normalised in that society in canon, and the interesting thing there is usually how that interacts with human social constructs and politics of gender and as a scifi way of deconstructing and dissembling real life consturcts... but they are clearly an outsider in terms of many other things they do, for example seeming neurodivergent if looked at through a human lens and a timelord lens

so where do aromantic and asexual reads fit in there?

well to start with aro!doctor -- I am into the science-fiction ability to create societies with completely different expressions of "connection" that eschew simple human monogamous ideas and histories, but if we were to take that second lens as well of "what if the doctor is aromantic as an identity and not simply as an alien," the doctor continuously (with the exception of romana and the master) creates deep connections with beings that don't have a particularly long lifespan/aren't timelords, especially considering they're near-immortal. and with romana and the master there seems to be a different set of rules happening there than anything one might describe as uncomplicatedly romantic, bitter exes vibe of the doctor/the master acknowledged

the doctor interests me from the lens of "aromantic as non-normative/queer from the pov from both our and timelord society" because they seem to continuously struggle with people not accepting the connections that they're offering them. the doctor's way of having a relationship is often not "enough", isn't easy to describe/vague, and people get jealous or angry or feel betrayed for reasons that isn't the doctor's fault, because there simply seems to be a lack of language to properly describe it in easy digestible terms

that is... a very aromantic experience

and then sometimes the doctor will just have little non-romantic connections that work, like donna -- and, despite not being my favourite seasons, the bits where the doctor simply lives with/drops in on the ponds is very sweet. and the tardis of course. am a "doctor-and-the-tardis are a matching pair and one without the other is wrong, but it's not romantic" person at heart, beyond anything else

(I am interested in how this will play once my rewatch gets me back to 13 and I can watch until the end, because I know yaz confesses that she's in love with the doctor near the end, and the doctor has an interesting reaction from what I understand)

(I guess at this point asexuality is another post)

but yeah. I think I'm not saying anything new with regards to the writing of aliens (and android and otherwise non-human characters), in that obviously one would like to imagine some interest in exploring these forms of non-normativity outside of "well that's an alien" (she's an alien and he's gay) but also there's reasons we're all so into aliens

genderbending genderfluid regenerating aliens is all well and good, but it only becomes really interesting in this case when we see trans/non-binary/genderfluid/genderbending humans (as is coming up soon! and I hope we see many more actors of the trans and gender non-conforming persuasion on this show!) similarly -- while I do think we have had more than a taste (donna my heart and soul honestly) of that non-alloromantic queerplatonic vibes doctor-companion dynamic -- I'd be fascinated in what a consciously aro (and maybe ace also) companion opposite the doctor would be like, how that would restructure their relationship with the doctor, compared to others who had expectations that the doctor couldn't ever hope to fulfill, like rose, martha (although they did let down martha in many ways that had nothing to do with romance), amy, possibly yaz, (here the confession that I never did get much of what was going on with clara but maybe this watch will clarify for me), possibly sarah-jane, possibly river song although she seems to have just kind of gone with it I guess, possibly romana... heck, possibly the master (I guess possibly that american woman from the movie, I forget her name... I cannot remember rn if other companions ever expressed an interest like that in them, but if so, then them too)

also I just want to rub moffat's face in it if I'm being honest. writing snide commentary about what was described as "asexual" doctor pre-nu!who, in a way that very much encompassed aroness (because romance-and-sex has so often been and still is put under one header), and totally misunderstanding why fans were into it or why it's interesting, and then being obsessed ever since with his weird little crusade of making doctor who "sexier" and alloromantic and imo utterly failing, despite it all

Just want to share info on Faith in Elden Ring and Baldur's Gate 3 cause there's a few parallels.

Race: Numen is technically the race I picked in character creation, descendants of denizens of another world; long-lived but seldom born.

Faith would not inform the group of being a Numen since they have no understanding of the Land Between but i think it's safe to say Faith would just say they're human since there are so many non-human beings in Elden Ring. But they will talk about being a tarnished and Grace more often than not since Lae'zel, Shadowheart, and Gale have not so great experiences with their goddesses; Faith could relate on some level on how the gods punish to the extreme and how they suffer and either push through to gain the favor of the gods or overcome the need to gain the gods favor.

Which I'll bring up Faith's eyes. Faith isn't blind. They aren't like the potentional Finger Maidens you meet like Irina, and by extension Hyatta, who have weak eye sight. I took the idea of losing Grace a bit too seriously and how the Tarnished loses the gold in their eyes because of it. I also really dig the blank eye design...

Gender: Agender

Faith see themself more as a weapon than a human and doesn't care for gender roles at all. In Elden Ring gear isn't really pushed to fem or masc presenting like how it is in BG3. Faith's body type is feminine in BG3 cause of limitations.

Age: Young

Since the Rune of Death is sealed, the Faith and others cannot die, and I'm assuming cannot age. Faith stopped aging in their early to mid 20s because that's usually when soldiers are recruited. Depending on the events, of Marika ascending to godhood and when the tarnished tries to become Elden Lord, Faith would probably be closer to Halsin's age or even older.

Sexuality: *Shrug*

Faith is probably somewhere on the ace spectrum? Sex doesn't interest them, but they will do it if "prompted." They don't need to be romantically involved to do it but they also wouldn't just so it to anyone either. So, sadly, drow twins are a no go.

Romantically, they would be polyamorous. Especially around the BG3 cast. Being alone in their journey in the Land Between to suddenly having a group to support them, they might skew the idea of romantic relationships and platonic ones. Which doesnt help when all the cast wants to fuck you if youre friendly to them. Which would have to be another post of how they view the companions' advances for sex and romance.

Class: Confessor/Paladin

The Confessors are tarnished that turned from the Golden Order and then confessed for their sins and then made into spies to hunt down other tarnished that strayed. They have high faith starting stats and use a sword and shield.

I'm not gonna learn how to mod and port over this armor or weapons to BG3 but Faith would be wearing this throughout their Faerûn adventure.

They look so good so Faith would use those lol

It only made sense to be a Paladin, despite being a spy and can easily pick rogue also. Especially with the dark urge option about your class: The oath you awoke with is some faded instinct. Felt extra fitting as to Faith serves the Golden Order to persevere Queen Marika but along the way breaks their oath once they learn more through their travels. Would restoring the Golden Order be right? Would following the Three Fingers and burn everything into a frenzy to hope that something better be born anew be better? Is restoring death a better path?

Apparently playing as a paladin Durge you can talk to the Oathbreaker and he will state that he indeed knows you and you have broken your oath before.

And with Faith's lack of faith in the Golden Order would be breaking their oath with the idea of turning from it.

Lastly why they're in Faerûn:

Faith mentions to Astarion that they were fighting the Elden Beast and died during the fight and instead of going back to the last Grace Site they touched, they ended up being removed completely from their plane of existence.

I don't have it set in stone but I am playing with the idea that the Greater Will, or another Outer God, intervened since it is possible that it is an Outer God and probably has the power to do so. Faith isn't sure what is the best outcome for the Land Between and seeing that the tarnished the Greater Will chose might cause greater harm than good, it removed Faith completely.

I’m an author and I have a few questions, but if they’re not easy to answer feel free to let them go to the public as I would like their opinions on this too. One of my characters seems to be leaning towards being an aromantic lesbian, so I was curious on two things. A) what is defined as romantic attraction? Is it kissing, wanting to go on dates with someone, or something else? And b) how do non QPRs with allosexual aro people work? I want to get things right if I pursue this plot line. Thanks!

So as a community we tend to define romantic attraction as a pull towards a specific person that makes you want to do romantic coded things/be in romantic scenarios with that person, or be in a relationship that's defined as romantic. It can also feel like wanting them to like you in a romantic way too.

What is considered romantic can vary from person to person. It could be things like kissing, holding hands, going on dates, etc. A lot of times though it's very scenario based, so things like growing old together, staying up all night telling each other your deepest desires/biggest secrets, etc. Basically everyone has their own idea of what they consider to be romantic, and it's the intent behind the action that makes it romantic. I.e. you view this as/want it to be romantic.

One thing that may help for your character is breaking down romantic identity a bit. Attraction is one facet, but there's also:

Romantic desire, which is a general desire to do romantic-coded things/be in romantic scenarios, or be in a romantic relationship.

Romantic drive, which is how often/how much you want to indulge in romance, this can also be impersonal, like really loving romantic stories.

Romance repulsion, repulsion is negative feelings that appear involuntarily in romantic situations. A common example that happens even to alloromantic people is when a romantic couple nearby is being extremely gushy and you feel a bit nauseous. Many people experience romance repulsion in some situations, but aro people are more likely to experience in more situations.

Common ways for repulsion to manifest is a feeling similar to revulsion/nausea, irritability and anxiety (anxiety especially seems to be common for aro people, but an aro person may experience any of these emotions).

Repulsion can vary a lot from person to person, some people are repulsed by any romance, some aros don't experience repulsion at all. Some are very specific to certain situations, one common pattern is that people are more likely to experience repulsion in situations where they feel they have less control. How close or how far away you are from the situation can affect how you feel too, though this can work both ways. (So for example someone may not feel repulsion when watching romance in media, but feel it in they're in a real life situation, and someone else may be the opposite of that.)

So people can be anywhere on any of these spectrums, so for writing aro characters you can pick and choose what makes sense for your character and will resemble real life aro experiences. So for example maybe your aro character doesn't experience attraction or romantic desire, but they have a romance drive and makes them want to seek out and read a lot of shipping fanfic/watch romantic movies. Maybe they don't experience any attraction, desire or drive, and they're repulsed so they avoid romance entirely. Those are just a couple of examples but you can do what you think would work for the character.

My one big piece of advice would be to make sure it all makes sense, so for example if a character is repulsed in romantic situations and doesn't experience desire or attraction, it would be weird if they enjoyed being in a romantic relationship.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by non QPRs, like what other types of relationships would an allosexual aro be in? Or want to do? Aros can be in any type of relationship, though will vary a lot on what types they're actually interested in. One thing the community talks a lot about is being critical of relationship hierarchies, or classifying relationships in really strict boxes. In fact you'd probably find it really helpful to look up relationship anarchy and amatonormativity, which breaks down those concepts a bit more.

I'll throw this out to followers too, if anyone has their own advice/info/resources they think Anon would find interesting, please do share!

And feel free to send in another ask if you have more questions, Anon. Good luck with your writing!

omg i finally remembered to ask this X_X, anyways i remembered you left some interesting tags on one of my posts and i wanted to ask, how do you view yjh's gender identity?

i personally went with the masc-presenting trans lesbian angle since that felt the most "in character" and also had a lot of comedic potential in my au but im very curious about how you've characterized her since it seems like you see her as more feminine so to speak (feel free to make your answer as long as you want jdhfshfdsj i love talking about gender)

omg it's betawooper from transfem yoo joo au 😳 hiii!

Firstly I want to say that I ADORE your au!!! It's definitely influenced some of my headcanons on yjh's gender identity. I did see her as more feminine before but now I see her as comfortable with being masc-presenting and more androgenous. Secondly, I am biologically female and been comfortable with she/her pronouns and presenting femininely my entire life. However, after learning more about the lgbtqia+ community and doing some self-reflection, I realized that I may be under on the non-binary umbrella. I haven't really experimented with my gender identity much. Unlike my romantic and sexual orientation (aroace spectrum), which I felt a connection to as soon as i learned what it was, and felt the urge to do more research on it, my gender was more ambiguous to me. I didn't really feel a strong connection to it, or rather, I felt a strong disconnect to it. I feel like I should insert a cool metaphor here. It's like a cloud? I can see different shapes from it, but I can't get closer or touch it. It's amorphous and not solid, and I can't get a good grip on it. I like being feminine, but I like being referred to with they/them pronouns, and also get gender envy (?) from more androgenous male characters. I'm comfortable with having no labels as of now, but I'd like to experiment with my appearance and pronouns more irl if I get the chance.

All this to say that I started projecting onto Yoo Joonghyuk lol. Kinda funny because usually i project my aroace-ness and neurodivergence onto my blorbos, not my gender identity, but between Breaking the Sky Swordsmanship and the Punisher it was just too perfect. (actually I've noticed i've been projecting my gender onto more characters since I've fleshed out my headcanons for yjh. It's not a conscious decision, but if someone were to ask me what I thought of [character's] gender, I'd have to pause and go, 'Well, I'm not sure, but they're definitely not cis.' It's actually the same way I come up with my aspec headcanons: 'not sure where exactly you are on the spectrum but I like you way too much to make you allo.')

Another fic that inspired my interpretation of yjh's gender is this fic, https://archiveofourown.org/works/42593688/chapters/106989912, which I love dearly with my entire heart but might not be up your alley. It has a more feminine yjh and romantic yoohankim (if i may dump some more lgbtqia+ headcanons here I hc both yjh and kdj as aspec and yoohankim as a queerplatonic relationship but I am okay with romantic yoohankim mostly because there is so little qpr/aro representation in general. I am also a multishipper and I love your sapphic seolhyuk so much!) and it's a post-epilogue fic with yjh figuring out her gender identity with the support of Kimcom.

So to me, Joonghyuk's gender is similarly ambiguous in nature, the Amorphous Untouchable Cloud of Gender™️, Definitely Not cis, and she's androgynous-presenting. I think she would keep her hair short throughout the scenarios for efficiency, but post-epilogue she'd grow it out. Not a lot, but she would absolutely use her androgyny to fuck with strangers. I think Secretive Plotter with long hair would be great because she'd give me more gender envy than I already have. I don't think she'd have labels for herself. I think she wouldn't like makeup the one time she lets Seolhwa put some on her but everyone agrees that she looks amazing with eyeliner. I think she should be allowed to use Breaking the Sky Swordsmanship on transphobes. I think she uses any pronouns but prefers she/her. I think, had it been canon, her being trans would have added a whole new layer to her character arc and the meta-ness of ORV and its themes of breaking free from predetermined roles, to her role as "protagonist" and the way she breaks free from being a "character" and just... it would have been super cool and I can't write an entire essay on how trans yjh would have improved ORV but I want to.

Thanks for the opportunity for me to infodump about my headcanons lol! Just curious, what tags/post was it that made you ask?

Thanks for answering my ask.....if you don't mind me asking (again), who are your favorite romantic relationship's couples in books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series (can be canon or non-canon)? Sorry if you've answered this question before......Thanks....

No problem, I like doing these. These are some of my favorite couples though there were lots to sort through.

Percabeth (Percy x Annabeth) Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Just like my favorite character list, I love the Percy Jackson series but most important I love a certified wife guy. Percy chose Annabeth over a seat in Olympus. There are multiple points where in life threatening situations he thinks about Annabeth immediately. "A one way trip. A very hard fall" they fell into endless darkness together and came out together. They are the blueprint.

2. Satosugu (Gojo x Geto) Jujutsu Kaisen

This will be a trend but I'm a lover of angst as much as fluff but tragic lovers is a personal favorite thing of mine. Gojo called him his "one and only". The entirety of the events in the story revolve around Gojos choice to not kill him that day in 2006 and, when they met again, destroying the body. It's "Love is the most twisted curse of them all" vs "At least curse me a little at the very end". It's "my six eyes tell me you're suguru geto but my soul knows otherwise". No matter how Gojo held out his hand, there was no way for him, he who the world shifted upon his birth, to reach him. There something poetic about their relationship.

3. Royai (Mustang x Hawkeye) Full Metal Alchemist

They're basically canon. But I mean "When we're alone the colonel calls me Riza" like COME ON. Riza is a "loyal to a fault, dedicating their entire being to the other with little hope of ever getting an ounce of affection back cause she made up her mind and decided it doesn't matter so long as she can remain by his side" character and Mustang is a "self-destructive tendencies combined with +10 charisma and noble ideals who's ready to be viewed as a villain if thats what it comes to and as such can't understand why the other is so loyal." character. Plus its all about the way they hang all over each other when hurt and how she could so easily direct him when he was blind. That trust is elite.

4. Heromari (Hero x Mari) Omori

Another tragic pairing. It's heartbreaking how much they loved each other and even if we didn't get to see a lot of it in game we know from the way everyone describes them and the pictures. Mari's death completely changed the trajectory of Hero's life and although he may heal he'll probably never get over her. Everyday I curse at the sky that they didn't get to have their future together

5. Hualian (Hua Cheng x Xie Lian) Tian Guan Ci Fu

I'll keep this one brief. Tgcf said "only after meeting you did I rediscover that it's such a simple thing to be happy" and "to me, the one basking in infinite glory is you; the one fallen from grace is also you. what matter is you, not the state of you" and "there's no banquet in the world that doesn't come to an end, so i'll say what I want to say" and I went feral for every bit of it. Hualian is such a lovely couple.

6. Kaebedo (Kaeya and Albedo) (Genshin Impact)

Without going into too much lore(another reason why I love this couple). I love the idea of Kaeya and Albedo seeing their shared heritage in one another. Learning together to see it as creative and beautiful and not just a curse or an evil. Also I love the homunculus part, it aids to a lot of good drama and tension.

7. Akiangel (Aki x Angel Devil) (Chainsaw man)

Slightly new to the list BUT the dynamic between the two goes farther beyond the "out of touch, out of time" jokes. It goes even farther than the "man who hates devils falling in love with one". It's about the drinking imagery evoking a kiss, Angel being able to break from Makima for a brief moment because of Aki, and their shared moments of kindness. Also the fan art is fantastic.

8. Chidi and Eleanor (The Good Place)

I love them so much. And even if we only saw them as a couple for a brief period of time, I love watching adults fall in love and I loved watching them both get better.

9. Orpheus and Eurydice (Greek Mythology)

Their story is one of love. A love that could drive one into the underworld. Just gonna drop this "Dying a second time, now, there was no complaint to her husband (what then could she complain of, except that she had been loved?)"

10. Chili and Bandit Heeler (Bluey)

A wild pull but I genuinely could see this in my number 1 spot. It is so refreshing to see a couple that genuinely loves each other, their children, and their lives. I'm tired of the sitcom schtick where the husband and wives hate each other and their jobs and talk about how their kids annoy them by existing. I want more of them and I want what they have.

Some Honorable Mentions:

Ichigo and Orihime, Inuyasha and Kagome, Ninguang and Beidou, Edward and Winry, Luz and Amity, Vanilla Extract and Tumblr Polls, Joe and Cherry, Beau and Yasha, Twilight and Yor, Zelda and Link, Franky and Robin, Akechi and Persona 5 Protag

Your Thor metas are interesting. I agree that the neck-touching is very unusual and seems to carry abuse imagery throughout Loki's entire arc (and it's how Loki died by Thanos). I have siblings and I don't think I've ever touched their necks. I am not sure if you like being perceived, so let me know if not.

hi! thank you :D i don't mind being perceived - the reason i post in my own tag rather than the main ones is because there was a stage when i was making 30 or more posts a day and i didn't want to either a) get discoursed or b) get banned. comments questions criticism etc are all welcome :)

and yes, i don't think i've ever done that to my siblings either. but, then again, i've also never used "brother/sister" as a serious form of address. i'd say that, as a non-aggressive gesture of affection, it seems to be a lot more normal within an asgardian cultural context. we see it in a few other relationships:

thor to sif in T1. thor persuades sif to leave the battlefield when it becomes clear she can't win. thor is quite forceful here too - he fully turns her around to look at him, and he's clearly giving her orders - but there's no anger or threat in it.

thor to jane in TDW. they argue - jane actually hits him - and then thor puts his hand on her jaw/neck to tell her "fate has brought us together". thor is trying to get her back on his side, and to cover up his own nerves. (the latter doesn't entirely work.)

odin to frigga in TDW. this is just a gesture, no real tension, but it is a little possessive - he calls her "MY queen" at the same time - and authoritative - he's trying to dismiss her fears for him.

thor to bruce in T3, i think? i can't remember the specifics of this one, but at some point, thor uses it to try to keep bruce calm so he can stay in his human form.

which gives us an interesting bundle of connotations, even before we get to how it mingles with violence for thor and loki specifically.

it's a medium-intimate gesture (friends, family, fellow warriors, etc) that's meant to project an air of invulnerable authority, calm down the recipient, and impose order and social cohesion (which is sometimes a synonym for obedience.)

there are two couples on the list, but even disregarding loki and bruce, the presence of sif makes me pretty confident asgardians don't view it as romantic by default (the way some viewers seem to), since thor not having feelings for sif is A Whole Thing.

HOWEVER. i do think it's subtly gendered - we always see it done by a normative/ideal man to someone with less social power - a woman, or an "overemotional" man, or someone who acts outside their gender role (loki + sif)... etc. (not saying that's a hard rule, to be clear. just an interesting pattern.)

(and it's also relevant that the three recipients of this gesture in TDW - frigga, jane, and loki - all either die a sacrificial death or, in jane's case, very narrowly escape one. TDW treats (self-)sacrifice as a form of subjugation.)

[it's also interesting that there is, as far as i'm aware, precisely one reversal, where the gesture goes up the power dynamic instead of down (loki to thor), and it's in a *deleted scene* in T1. i know a lot of people like to take deleted scenes as canon, and sometimes i do too... but i also like to consider the fact that they ARE, deliberately, deleted. they could've shown us a break in this pattern, but they never did.

(i mean, this certainly won't be the main reason for deleting that scene, given that the motif was solidified in the avengers, but still... it could be a factor. and regardless of intent, the pattern is interesting.)]

[edit: i misremembered the deleted scene! it's STILL thor to loki in that one. so we have NO reversal at all...]

so ummm yeah! overall... in this story, it's not always overtly aggressive to touch someone's neck, but it IS generally pretty hierarchical. and it is pretty normal in asgardian culture... but of course, they're an absolute monarchy. a lot of bad things are "normal" to them lol.

as someone who quadrant analyzes on the regular, and as someone who has always viewed love and hate to be of equal importance, I would like to explain my take on the kismesissitude debate. First of all, anon saying that the canon examples were unhealthy would be correct. This isn't because they were hate-based relationships, it's because the people in the relationships didn't fully understand what a relationship is supposed to be. Of course a pitch relationship can be toxic if people use want-you-dead-hate as an equivalent to romantic hate, or if the hatred becomes too obsessive. Love based relationships can also become toxic when the love becomes too obsessive. These are children who don't know what a relationship is supposed to be yet. There are no adults to talk to about it either, they live on a planet with only kids. Next, I would like to give one (canon) example of healthy pitch flirting. When Terezi was flirting with John/June. She was calling them a nerd, a loser, laughing about it but not doing anything too bad. It was understood she wasn't serious, although the whole hate-flirting thing weirded John/June out, the gentle insults are what healthy pitch flirting is. as far as we know, this didn't really go anywhere, but it is still a non-violent example of pitch flirting. Playful teasing, sometimes sparring, kicking each other's butts in video games and contests, making dumb bets, the feeling of rivalry and closeness, that is what a kismesissitude is supposed to be. To spar and patch each other's wounds up afterwards, while the winner laughs and the loser claims they'll get them next time. A mutual fight where one falls to the ground and the other immediately drops everything to ask if they're okay before continuing. You aren't supposed to want your kismesis dead. You're supposed to want them to keep playing your games with you, to stay at an eternal stalemate where you both are constantly pushed to grow and get better. If you do feel like you want to seriously harm your kismesis, you should either break up with them, or get an auspistice. Of course, an auspistice can be to prevent enemies from turning into a kismesissitude, but can also be someone to join the relationship to calm things down and remind two kismesisses that they shouldn't kill or seriously hurt each other. If it was normal and accepted for kismesissitudes to be so violent, then why would auspisticizing for an unstable relationship be necessary? lastly, I would like to mention that quadrants often look like other quadrants. Sometimes pitch relationships look pale or flushed, because it's very individual what people want out of relationships. Sometimes both members of a relationship absolutely hate all the sappy stuff, so they look like the absolute most sickeningly sweet redrom pair to ever date, but they're embarrassing each other out of their mutual hatred in a pitch relationship. Similarly to moirails who look pitch because they tease each other, but they just give each other a hard time out of love. Everyone would have different boundaries, and there is a fine line between love and hate (that's why there's quadrant vacillation). Some pitch couples may physically fight on the regular, in a safe controlled environment, and that's healthy. Some might keep it entirely to teasing, insults, and mind games, that's also healthy. It is not healthy to want to kill your kismesis, or to seriously harm them. It is not inherently healthier to have a love-based relationship, and we know that love can easily turn toxic. Hate can just as easily be healthy. We just need to progress past the point of thinking love means 'I would die for you' and hate means 'I would kill you' and accept a more nuanced and full idea of emotion. After all, love and hate have the same opposite. Indifference.

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for the couples ask game #s 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 18, 24, 25, & 26 :)

thank you so much!!! can't tell you how excited I am to give these questions a spin :)

answers under the cut since there are a lot of them:

3. Have you ever written a soulmate AU? If you haven't, why would/wouldn't you write one?

Hm... sort of. I have an idea for a Witcher fic with a soulmate arc, though I haven't had time to actually write it yet. And there are elements of Heartstrings (my AHS Coven fic) that are similar to a soulmate plotline, though I've been trying to keep that one a little more "up in the air". I have complicated views on soulmate AUs and "fate" in general, so I tend to fiddle with the trope a bit when I do write it.

4. What's the fastest you've reached a romantic couple's first kiss (in words/scenes/chapters)? First "I love you"? Other landmarks?

Heartstrings has definitely been the fastest-evolving of all my fics, since we get an official first date in Chapter 3 and a slipped "I love you" in Chapter 8. However, I do think A Love Once New moves faster in terms of word count, since Heartstrings has longer chapters overall.

6. Have you ever started to write a relationship and had it develop differently than you expected? How so?

I was expecting Heartstrings to be more of a slowburn, and... well, as you can see from the previous question, it really didn't go that way.

7. Have you written any romantic couples that you think would be better off as friends? Or even enemies?

Not really? I have a lot of romantic couples that are also friends, because I love those sorts of relationships, but I think the romance there is also well-fitted.

10. [Couple] has just been struck by a magic spell, and now they're mortal enemies! What happens now?

Okay, you didn't specify so I'm just gonna pick one at random.... Ophelia and Peter. I feel like Peter would be less susceptible to the spell, since Ophelia's fairly morally-gray already, and he'd be the one to try and break the spell. And I feel like he'd succeed, though he'd have to survive Ophelia first - she's dangerous, and he couldn't stand to hurt her.

11. [Couple] has just stumbled into a fairy ring, and they've forgotten they ever knew each other! What happens now?

I'll do this one for Madison and Alex since I feel like that would be the most interesting. Neither of them are particularly emotional people, so it wouldn't be some "I've got a gaping hole in my heart and I don't know why" sort of melodrama, but I can't help but think that they'd start drifting back towards each other over time. Or hell, it's just as likely that the other X-Men would see what happened and try to mend things themselves, since they were so good for each other before.

12. [Couple] has just found an interdimensional portal, and one of them just walked in! Does the other go after them?

I don't think I even need to specify a couple for this one, the answer will always be yes XD

Strategies, now, that would vary. Some would plan, some would just dive in. Some would go immediately and some would waffle about the danger. But they'd always go after their loved one.

18. Pick a few characters you've written for (or, for a fun twist, asker chooses). Tell me about their relationship in three sentences or less.

Hm... I'll go with Quinn and Billy for this one. Their relationship is... really something.

Longtime friendship that was always a little more than a friendship. Power couple, but morality's still on the fence. They tease each other so much they almost don't seem like a couple... but nobody would ever doubt they're a couple.

24. When you write, do you focus more on the romantic relationships or the non-romantic ones?

I try to include a mix of both. In the nature of fanfic, there's a good amount of focus on the romantic couples in the story, but I do make it a point to build other connections between the characters. I actually put a lot of effort into making sure the romantic relationship is not the only relationship in the story - every character has family, friends, other connections outside their romance.

25. How important to you is the inclusion of sex in writing a romantic couple? Do you have any asexual characters?

So, I don't write smut. It makes me uncomfortable, and I just can't figure out how to make it sexy and not cringey. So that's the first thing - any spicy scenes I write are either implied or kinda dodge around the actual smut. Secondly, I feel like a good romantic relationship doesn't require sex at all. If it's well-written, the chemistry should speak for itself. Spicy scenes can be fun, but shouldn't be required for the relationship.

However, there are a few relationships where I don't want to leave it up to audience interpretation. This is generally in relation to my trans/queer couples, where I don't want anyone to willfully misinterpret their relationship. When I write those, I tend to be a little more candid about intimacy in their relationship, just because I don't want it to get written off or dismissed for not being cishet.

In terms of ace characters, my protagonist in Who Waits Forever Anyway?, Katherine, is outwardly asexual, as well as the character Adrianna in Heartstrings, Rae's sister Ginny in A Love Once New, Lita in Bolts and Blasters, and probably a whole host of other characters I'm forgetting.

26. Do you have any characters that are arospec or otherwise wouldn't enter a romantic relationship? How do they interact with the story?

Most of the works I write are romantic in nature, so at the moment I don't have any primary OCs that are on the aro spectrum, but Adrianna (one of Jasper's friends/derby sisters) in Heartstrings is aroace. In turn, she really values the friendships she's made in roller derby and view those as her most important relationships, though she's not above teasing her derby siblings for their romantic relationships. It's fun, right?

I want to talk about this song because I've completely fallen in love with it. (I apologize to my family for randomly singing this song every 5 minutes.) First and foremost, I enjoy songs from this time period. They're usually so boppy and fun.

But that's not the only reason why I love this song. I love it because, in addition to it being a 'vintage' song, it's also a very queer song.

The obvious reason is, of course, that Gideon, played by a woman, sings about a woman she's in love with.

But it's so much more than that.

I looked up the writer of this song, Daniel James Chan, and according to his Instagram, he's a queer man, married to a man. He stated that this song was a celebration of his journey and the pride he has over that journey. When I found out about this, I thought, of course this song had strong queer vibes, the man behind it is queer himself!

"We've been forced to hide away our hearts until a better day. Now we are breaking down the door." While there are many couples throughout history that were "forbidden", this feels very pointedly about same-sex relationships. After all, how many stories do we know of older same-sex couples that had to hide that they were romantically involved until recently? The answer is a lot.

"Stand clear, bearcats coming through." Now, this took me a while to understand. I didn't know what "bearcats" was referring to until I found out it's an early 20th century meaning a fierce or aggressive person. However, it's mostly used to refer to women. While being a "fierce and aggressive" woman isn't exclusive to queer women, they are words that you would apply, in the 1920s, to women who refuse to follow the societal norm. And for certain, a lot of non-heterosexual women follow this pattern.

Added to this very queer song is the fact that there is absolutely no contest that this is an Avalance song. It's played as the two are dancing, it mentions blue eyes, and it speaks of time and going on adventures. But it's obviously sung from the point of view of one of the ladies. It's clear to me that this is more likely to be Ava speaking about Sara.

First of all, the song mentioned: "to my genuine surprise." Where have we heard similar words? When Ava was reassuring Sara that she's still Sara Lance, even if she is in a human-alien hybrid clone body. "...and yes, the very surprising woman I fell in love with."

Ava helps Sara thinks through her actions and that they have consequences. Sara helps Ava realize that there are times when you have to let things go and go on an adventure. "Take me down the boulevard then round this crazy world of ours."

"Please don't say it's all a game." As much as Ava loves (maybe somewhat begrudgingly) being dragged through these insane adventures, she still needs some things to be steady and stable. And for her, that stability comes in the form of her relationship with Sara. We know that she is the first to bring up settling down. It's important to her. (Of course, back then she hadn't realized the stability can come from just being with Sara, no matter what. They don't have to have the white picket fence.) Ava wants to make sure that this is all real and Sara won't just toss her away once she's bored with her.

"In the present, future, and the past." While this is obviously about the fact that they are time travelers, it also suggests that they're, in their very own words, "co-captains for life". Now and until forever, their love is going to last. "Sweetheart our love is made to last."

I'm not an expert on music or history and there's probably a lot more I've missed when listening to this song, but these are the things that immediately jump out at me. These are the reasons why I'm so enamored with this song.

Ok so hypothetically speaking, about my favourite otp, the non-pairing Charlie x Artemis: maybe the numbers 20 (😏), 12 and 16 for the unusual otp asks. Hypothetically of course 🌸🍓

Hypothetically speaking, we both know that I (hypothetically) know what it is that you are hypothetically trying to do here… Nevertheless, thank you for asking 🌻🍋

Disclaimer: having gotten halfway through answering these, I’ve realised two things. 1: I enjoy rambling about these two way too much, and 2: everything I’ve written here is valid for them platonically anyway.

20. How tolerant is your otp of each member's ex(es)? Do they care? Do they get jealous when the topic comes up? If they're still in touch with their ex(es), how does the other feel about that?

Well, when you’ve known someone since you were twelve and went to secondary school together, you’re going to know a few of their exes, especially the first ones. The awkwardness here would come from the fact that Andre was Artemis’ first kiss, and Barnaby was her first boyfriend. That’s pretty much half of Charlie’s closest male friends she has gotten off with. She just needs to have a thing with either Jae or Ben, and you’ve got a trend. I don’t think this would actually bother Charlie that much, but he’d definitely bring it up. If you’ve ever seen Notting Hill, think about the scene where they are all petitioning who deserves the last brownie based on the circumstances of their lives. “You made out with all my friends” is not a bad ploy to use if you want to get your hands on that last brownie.

As for Charlie’s exes, my writing sees him have one fairly serious relationship when he’s at school - spoilers! - but after that, I can see him having mainly short-term relationships. It’s not easy to maintain anything when you’re working strange shift patterns and live in the middle of a dragon reserve in the Carpathian Mountains. Even so, I’d expect a (more than) healthy amount of death glares from Artemis if she were to ever meet them. Not so much from a jealousy point of view, but she is loyal to a fault: How dare anyone break up with Charlie? In her eyes at least, there’s no way he’d be at fault, so all of them must be the problem.

Artemis’ most serious relationship did not end well. Charlie knows that she was mainly at fault there, but he helped pick up the pieces anyway. That’s what friends do, right? Neither of them really talk too much about it, partly because Artemis kind of felt guilty for her actions, and partly because the day after the break up, Cedric died and Voldemort returned. Generally, it was a bad time, and Artemis doesn’t like to dwell on those. Most she’d do is make a sarcastic joke about it all, using flippancy as a defence mechanism.

12. Was/is it difficult for the members of your otp to realise their feelings? Were they okay with those feelings or were they in denial?

Artemis is not good at recognising or even registering her own feelings, particularly the ones she’d rather not address or ones that are complex emotions. Any time she has romantic feelings for anyone, she has to have them pretty much waved under her nose for her to realise them. If she isn’t forced to come to terms with her feelings, she will not do so.

As for Charlie, he’s much more self aware, but he is also the Senator of the 51st State: Denial. If he doesn’t want to think about something, he is very good at pushing that down, ignoring it, or running away from it. He’s also surprisingly stubborn for someone who is a people pleaser. If he doesn’t want to accept something, there is absolutely no way that anyone will ever get him to even entertain the notion of it. The more he’s pushed, the more he will dig his heels in, on principle more than anything. Maybe one day he will consider his feelings for Artemis and whether or not they are completely platonic. But he’ll have to do that in his own time and of his own accord.

16. If one member of your otp committed a serious crime, how would the other react? Would they forgive? Help cover it up? Go to the police?

“You committed a serious crime without me?! Rude.”

I'm having a really hard time believing that Alex and Addi didn't at least have a make out session before they started dating 😂 their chemistry was on another level even when they were just friends. It seems like their "friendship" is very playfully romantic so maybe one night they've had a bit to drink and they have at it and then Addi is all weird because... she's Addi, but Alex is all sweet and gentle and wants to talk about it with her. I'd love to know if that's something that you also think would happen between them xx 😘

(We've been hitting' pre-relationship hard lately, haven't we friends? ☺️)

Oh man Non. Got me thinkin'.

I know it seems totally implausible that nothing would've happened because of how affectionate they are in their platonic relationship, but like... it does happen 😂 I have honest proof of it. I have a friend like that and I shit you not, he was a saving grace during the pandemic. You know the point where you just need another living human body to cuddle with that's not family? Good cuddles for movie nights (especially the back to back National Treasure viewing where we took a sip of beer every time Nic Cage was sexist towards Abigail Chase 🥲). And still just only friends. No wandering hands, glances, or lip placements.

But I could see how given a group of friends and some free-flowing alcohol, how that line might get a little blurred. Because sometimes a group of close friends can get some pretty weird ideas when left alone to their own devices... and gin. Sometimes a group of adults can devolve into younger versions of themselves, and games they would've played in middle school or high school resurface with newfound enthusiasm.

Like Spin the Bottle. Or Seven Minutes in Heaven. Maybe as fate would have it, they got lucky during Spin the Bottle. Amid the various couplings that emerged, Alex and Addi didn't get pinned for it. In fact, maybe they kissed a handful of other people and the turn of the bottle didn't transpire for them. Shit, maybe they don't even think it'd be a big thing or weird for them to kiss during the spin the bottle. They weren't actively hoping they wouldn't have to kiss. It just didn't become a thing. Until --

That beautiful and slightly traumatizing little game -- Seven Minutes in Heaven. You know the one. The one where two people go into a closet and have seven minutes to do... I dunno, whatever they're gonna do (author's note: to be honest, I was too much of a nerd to be invited to parties where this game was being played). So Addi gets chosen first and she makes her way into the closet with a blindfold. Secretly she's hoping one of their mutual friends gets chosen to go in with her. They've been vibing all night and even shared a pretty hot kiss during Spin the Bottle. So yeah, she's looking forward to someone.

The closet door creaks open and she chews on her bottom lip in anticipation. Her body perks up a little bit when she hears the door shut, waiting to be swept up in another kiss. What she doesn't know is that the person standing in front of her is Alex. And for the life of him, he's trying to sort out a game plan here because his best friend is sitting cross-legged on the floor and he has to admit she looks pretty adorable. But again... this is the girl he calls his best friend. He wants to do the right thing.

"It's me, kid," he drops to his knees and contorts himself to be cross-legged in front of her. As soon as he's comfortable, he notices Addi's already taken off the blindfold.

She twists the fabric between her fingers shrugs, "I guess that's for the best." Her shoulders deflate a little bit. The alcohol coursing through her system was giving her enough courage to throw caution to the wind with their mutual friend. Now she likely wouldn't get the chance to. She darts her eyes to Alex with a playful and disarming smirk, "it's not like we're gonna kiss, old man."

"Why not?" He flashes a quick smile at her, "that's breaking the rules of Seven Minutes in Heaven." Scooting forward a little bit, he's shocked but not displeased that she doesn't retreat, "one kiss so we don't have to lie to our friends when we get out of here. You're a terrible liar,"

"Am not. I'm a great liar," her gaze upon him alters slightly to adjust for the fact that he's advancing a bit closer to her.

"Fine, I'm a terrible liar."

"You're an actor for a living. All you do is lie,"

He lets out a quiet huff. "It's just a kiss, slugger. It means nothing. I just kissed like three dudes out there during Spin the Bottle."

As he nears, Addi feels her heart rate pick up. Her cheeks go hot. Everything is bubbling up inside her, woefully excited by the possibility of whatever this is. But that's just it. What is it? As her body shivers involuntarily, she leans away from him. "Alex, no."

He pauses, bites his bottom lip, all the while not breaking eye contact. "Is that a real no or a nervous no?"

"Does it matter?"

There's a second where he says nothing at all just to allow the anticipation fade from his veins. "No, it doesn't,"

She exhales. "I know we kiss on the cheek and head... the lips is just different,"

He nods but he knows what he can say to get this backtracking. "So when you kissed Lindsey out there, that was different for you?"

Addi cocks her head to the side with her lips pursed. Oh, leave it to him to make this difficult, "Alexander. You're you. And a kiss on the lips between us is different. You know that,"

He nods again. They've been toeing this line for awhile now. This line that they both knew was more flirtatious than any other friendship they had with the opposite sex. The line that had been the reason for late-night cuddles in Germany and random naps in LA. The line that had also been toed when they divulged intimate details about their lives and what shaped them into being. A kiss between them was different than between anyone else in the room because no one else in the room knew them as well as they knew each other.

Alex backs up a tiny bit to give her some room. Not too much so she feels like he's retreating from her, but enough to give her confidence that he's not going to sprint past the thinly drawn line. "You know you're my best friend, right kid?"

She nods affirmatively and averts her gaze to her lap. They've only got a few minutes left before the timer outside goes off and one of their friends will come knocking on the door. And she figures a few minutes more isn't too long to hold out on this. But as the seconds tick by and they sit in silence, Addi starts to think. Having too much time in her own head is never a particularly great thing for her, but on this particular night, it's got her making a list of the reasons why a kiss really means nothing. She's kissed four girls and three boys tonight. One of those boys slipped his tongue into her mouth. And surely Alex wouldn't do that. Surely their kiss wouldn't be much more than a peck --

A sturdy knocking on the closet door yanks her from her thoughts. Alex stands and holds his hand out to her so she can use it to help her stand up as well. No sooner than she's on her feet and Alex is reaching for the doorknob, she whispers, "hey old man..."

He turns back toward her as she's leaping up on tip toes to reach him. And catching her by the waist, he leans in as if on cue to meet her halfway. The kiss is just as each of them expected -- only a touch longer than a peck. And by the time they part and exit the closet, none of their friends are wiser. In fact, they all steadfastly believe the two shared a rather uneventful seven minutes in a dark utility closet. But they know the truth (regardless of how minor that truth was), and Addi knows that after the kiss, Alex was a little more hands-on with her all night. Again, their friends couldn't have discerned the difference. It was so slight. A quick touch here, a gentle brush of an arm there. At one point as they all huddled on the back porch for night caps and cigarettes, Alex kept his free hand on her mid-back. Undoubtedly given confidence by the cover of darkness.

*Dusts off blog*

Well, earlier I didn't think I'd ever write paragraphs for Hospital Playlist as I am already too jaded with the writer and director duo's evil game of stringing the viewers along, making them invested and feeling lulled with their feelings and ships only to break them later. But tonight... yeah I have this urge to write paragraphs of things because at episode 10, I think they have made things more clearer and obvious so I just want to document my finding, lol. So yeah, excuse me. *insert Marge Simpson embarrassed gif*

(Caution: these are purely my own observation and personal interpretations. They are of course prone to be wrong and may be interpreted so differently than others)

HOSPITAL PLAYLIST EPISODE 10 THEME: ONE SIDED LOVES AND CONFESSIONS.

Seeing how the episode panned out and the song they performed - Confession is Not Flashy, I think the theme of the episode is one sided loves and confessions.

The writer director duo has regarded the song "Confession is Not Flashy" as a one-sided love song, based on their usage of the song in Reply 1994, episode 8 when the lights was out because of the rain and the kids were listening to the radio at the living room. The DJ narrated:

"Everyone, this is your chance. If by chance the person you love is next to you and if you are in a one-sided love, you should take advantage of this darkness and stare at the person you love as much as you can. I'll play a song for you. So until the electricity comes back, feel free to imagine being in a relationship with that person. Does it even matter? It's a one-sided love after all. That person doesn't know about it. Although you are in a one-sided love relationship, I hope you'll have a happy date during the 3 minutes of this song. This is a gift for those who are in a one-sided relationship and those who are lonely yet happy. It's 'Confession is Not Flashy' by Lee Seung Hwan. Everyone, end your one-sided love today. When the rain stops tomorrow, confess your love like said in the song. You never know, that person might be in love with you too."

I know this drama and Reply 1994 are totally different dramas, but I believe the writer-director's view on the songs they have chosen must still be the same. So when they use the same song in Hospital Playlist, their view on the song and what they represent should still be the same.

And true to their view about the song, this episode really is filled with one-sided loves and confessions (directly or indirectly) :

1. Chi Hong's one sided love towards Song Hwa, and his indirect confession despite her earlier rejection.

He was enjoying the few minutes alone time with Song Hwa during the NS lunch date and a little bit displeased when Dr. Yong turned up on time, lol. From picking up the strand of hair on her shoulder (which made her uncomfortable), to saying "I'll stay right by your side, Professor".

2. Min Ha's one-sided love towards Seok Hyeong and her direct confession in his car.

Girl got some gusto I like their scene so much I was squealing the whole time ajdjfjf. Her confession and what she said after to him was so cool, my heart fluttered!

3. Gyeo Wool's one-sided love towards Jeong Won and her indirect confession to him via her manager, Ik Jun. Haha.

Ik Jun is campaigning for Jeong Won to accept Gyeo Wool so hard. Why? Not really because of Jeong Won, but because of Gyeo Wool. He adores her as a doctor and as a person that he wants her to be happy and he said this himself. He knows that the thing that would make Gyeo Wool happy is by being with the person she likes, Jeong Won. As how it is, Jeong Won denied Ik Jun's assumption that he likes Gyeo Wool. As Jeong Won was looking at Ik Jun bemusedly for his suggestion, he was probably recalling his conversation with Jun Wan about Ik Jun being a nutcase and how he and Ik Jun are not seeing eye to eye (the Korean phrase can also be translated as "not like minded") and he can't figure Ik Jun's mind at all sometimes.

4. Ik Jun's one-sided love towards Song Hwa and his very smooth indirect confession.

The reason why I see it as one-sided from was because Song Hwa doesn't seem to view him romantically. Most of the time, the affection from her towards him seems to be purely platonic. She always hit him, threatening to punch him and chided him for behaving like a kid. She even refused skinship(?) from his end by kicking him when his feet were touching hers under the cafeteria table. The scene where they look domesticated at his house really is heart fluttering, but when he (so smoothly) indirectly confessed to her, she was startled and looked away. She seems wanting to avoid it, turned her face away, pretending to look outside and then change the subject, asking him to continue eating. It doesn't look like a positive reaction after a confession. But I might be wrong though.

5. Song Hwa's one-sided love(?) towards Jeong Won and her proposal as an indirect confession

(This one is actually so weak and I don't really think it's feasible but somehow there seems to be something, especially from Song Hwa's end that leaves some nagging feeling and suspicions)

Song Hwa doesn't come off as someone who would freely intiate affectionate and excessive skinships with the boys. She would just give them either some friendly touches on their arms, friendly or consolation pats (to Seok Hyeong and Jun Wan) or hitting and kicking them (to Ik Jun). But with Jeong Won, she seems to take the opportunity(?) to lean on his shoulder when he put his arms around her when supporting her purchase decision. But, this could also mean that they're so close that there's no personal boundaries between them. However, both of them were not portrayed to have that kind of dynamic. Song Hwa is a lot closer to the other 3 boys than Jeong Won but she was never shown to initiate such an intimate skinship with them.

After witnessing Jeong Won being so lovable with the little boy (look at how she looks at him) and enthusiastically talking about him and his brother, she proposed to him "Jeong Won, let's get married / marry me" (the right literal translation). He was startled, looking directly at her in surprise and then she backtracked(?), telling him to find a great woman and make babies as she imagined how cute it would be if he has his own children. Her random "proposal" might be brushed off as a joke, but Song Hwa doesn't seem like a person who would freely joke on such a matter either. If her proposal actually wasn't a joke as how she covered it to be, then it can be regarded as a type of confession too, no?

6. Jeong Won's non-romantic one-sided intention towards Song Hwa and his direct confession and proposal.

Jeong Won has one-sidedly intended for Song Hwa to take over his Daddy Long Legs project since spring. He confessed to her than he is in fact Daddy Long Legs (Grandpa Long Legs to her, lol). He proposed for her to take it over, and she accepted it.

Now,

I know Hospital Playlist is not the same as the Reply series as there is no 'who is the husband game' mystery. And it actually has a more similar vibe to Prison Playbook imo. But at the same time, Hospital Playlist is made to share the same formula as the Reply series: apart from the heartwarming small daily stories, the writer and director duo also deliberately hide and witheld certain POVs, make them opague and opening them up for interpretations which leads to people starting guessing games. Then they filled the show with small details and nuances to corroborate the interpretations and fuelling the guessing game.

It is the same as the Reply series where people were made to guess whom did the female lead like, whom would the female lead choose and ends up with.

But this time, the persons whose POV were hidden and making people keep on guessing are not only the female lead Song Hwa, but also Jeong Won. Will he really quit and becomes a priest? Does he like Gyeo Wool or not? Will he end up with Gyeo Wool or not? As for Song Hwa, it's the question of whom does she like? Does she have feelings for Ik Jun or not? Will she change her mind and consider Chi Hong or not?

Those sort of mysteries are established because both Jeong Won's and Song Hwa's insights were deliberately witheld and made to be opague. We have insight to Ik Jun's, Jun Wan's and Seok Hyeong's feelings. But not the other two. This witholding of POVs and insights to their feelings made things open for different interpretations, sparked the guessing games and established ships, just like the Reply series.