Look I love unconditional devotion love stories as much as the next person, but there's really something so deliciously raw about conditional devotion.
I have served you and I have loved you for decades, but I will not give up my principles for you. You cut out part of my heart and took it with you down that path that you insist on walking, but you walk it alone. Even when the bleeding, gaping hole you left in my chest kills me, I will not follow you.
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#miriam #fox #almia #🙂↕️one of my favorite tropes in chinese literature is when a guy’s wife is clearly a ghost/demon/fox fairy and he just can’t see it. i’m reading a story where this guy keeps getting arrested because his wife will just magically steal steal shit out of sealed boxes and give it to him as a present, and whenever someone is like dude i think something’s up with his wife he asks her and she’s like i’m literally normal. so he turns around and says yeah guys she’s literally normal
eroticising guilt is fun and reliable but let's not overlook the potential for eroticising lack of guilt. i don't feel bad about what i did and i'm helpless with terror in the face of what that says about me. of who i could become if i let myself acknowledge it without a firm hand to hold me back from going too far. without someone to restrain me. someone to unchain me. someone who'll take what i can give them.
my favorite genre of fictional character is like "i am terrifying to almost everyone, i'm very good at killing, i can endure anything, i've become exceptionally good at playing into my reputation, and if you try to give me positive social interaction i will react with confusion and cower in a corner like an abused animal. and i may try to shoot you. but there is also a chance i may imprint on you like a feral dog receiving its first loving touch! good luck."
#big tough characters who are confused and disarmed by affection my beloved#who are hypercompetent and know exactly what to do in everything except Positive Human Interaction#who follow you around cautiously for scraps#and are continually waiting for the moment you turn around and kick them out again#who are prepared to sleep on the cold hard floor and dont know what to do with themselves when given a bed#totally mystified
rigid lines drawn between "platonic" vs "romantic" relationships will kill the patient. she needs "okay but how important are they to each other" to live
i think it's great when someone tries to pull off a tragic self-sacrifice in a story and there's at least one guy who's just like "no this is fucking stupid actually. you're an idiot." about it. because it kind of is. i love a good tragedy but let's be honest with ourselves if a friend tried to indulge a noble sacrifice fantasy would you not be a little annoyed. like come on man.
ALTFIRST step to enjoying any media is getting attached to the character whose suicidal tendencies are the most obvious
Second step is shipping them with whoever they are most likely to become codependent with.
