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softquietsteadylove · 6 months

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So I just watched the vow and obviously I can’t stop thinking about Thenamesh in that context so here is my prompt for you — Thena somehow loses her memories and with it goes the memory of her marriage to Gil, but he helps her slowly and patiently remember their love 🥺

"Hey."

Thena jumped, whirling around to look at the doorway. Once again, guilt rose up in her throat as Gil held up his hand and made that terribly sad expression he had on most of the time.

"S-Sorry, sorry, I, uh-" he gulped in the middle of his sentence, stuffing his hands in his pockets. He kept doing that, perhaps to make himself seem less...broad. "I promised I would stop doing that, too."

No, it was unfair to him to make him knock on every door within his own home. She was the one who was jumpy and easily startled. The doctors said they didn't know how quickly it would or wouldn't fade. There wasn't much her doctors could promise her--them.

She had been in the hospital after the 'episode' for some time, anyway. As they explained it, it was a bleed in her brain, a stroke in not so many words. She had forgotten years of her life in a flash, lashed out in fear and confusion, even hurt Gil in the process.

He still had the scar on his arm from her attacking him. And yet he'd been the perfect husband through all of this, utterly and completely. If only she could remember him.

She thought maybe she would at least remember meeting him, knowing him in some way. But no, it was a stranger sitting beside her bed, cradling her hand between his, crying for her to be okay again. And she had done nothing but hurt him since.

Gil said that wasn't true.

He had been nothing but supportive from the moment she awoke. The doctors told them that her memories were fragile, and might never return in their entirety. He was a stranger to his own wife. Surely anyone would need to go through their own grieving process for their life in that way.

But Gil had looked at her far kinder than any stranger. He had given her the space she needed, understood that she didn't like people at the best of times, let alone when she was vulnerable. He did things like bring her changes of clothes, food that wasn't abhorrent, sit in her room with her while she tried to relax enough to sleep.

She did feel safe with him.

Safe enough to finally leave the hospital. They had done the physical therapy, the rehabilitative therapy, just about everything else. There was no more reason to keep her there, with exception to the gap in her memories.

"I left you some stuff I thought you might," he paused, gesturing from afar to the dresser by the guest bed, "like. I-I know you don't remember it, I just...I dunno."

"No, it-" she also choked on her words, nervous about what to say to him, "it's sweet, Gil. Thank you."

He smiled, just a little; he did every time she called him Gil.

She clutched at the shirt she was unpacking. He had brought her pajamas to sleep in while she was in the hospital, but they hadn't seemed right. And she had eventually deduced that they were indeed purchased brand new. What she had decided to sleep in more comfortably was an old shirt of his that had been shoved into a bag brought to her. "Come in."

He did so, shuffling into the guest room in their shared home awkwardly.

Her brows furrowed, even though it made her head throb. "You shouldn't have to be invited into a room in your own home."

He looked at her, his brown eyes so rich and soulful. But he smiled, "our home. And you need a space that's yours. Time to get used to...things."

Get used to him, he meant. And she hated that he was completely correct. She felt safe around him, but she didn't know this man (this sweet, kind, beautiful man).

"You decorated this room, anyway," he chuckled, looking around at the cream coloured walls and generic frames hung around the space. He clung to the walls, giving her a wide berth. "I wanted to turn it into an office or a place for a pool table or something."

Thena looked at the bed and then at him. "Wouldn't fit much else with that in here."

His smile lightened faintly. "You said that then, too."

She smiled as well, setting down her trusty shirt.

"And you were right, as always," he added, chuckling again. He arrived at the dresser, poking at some of the little things he had apparently brought and left out for her. "Kari crashes here sometimes."

Thena's eyes sparked at the mention of her. Gil looked both elated and wounded; they both wished she could have that level of recognition for anything that had to do with him.

Silence fell over them, and Gil looked down at his feet again. He was going to leave her to settle in, but she stepped closer to him, eager for more time with his company. She looked down at the dresser. "I remember this."

He smiled, picking up the little wooden cheetah and handing it to her with heartbreaking delicacy. "You love this thing."

"From when Kari went to Kenya for three whole months," Thena tilted her head at the little carving. She truly did value it. For all her insistence that Makkari was the trinket lover, not herself, apparently this little cat had called to her so clearly that she just had to bring it back to Thena.

Gil reached for something else, "what about this?"

She looked at the lovely little shell, but she didn't remember it. She stared and stared at it though, hoping she would. She just didn't want to admit to Gil that it didn't strike a single chord within her.

"It's okay," he whispered, forgiving her for something neither of them could control.

"Tell me about it?" she practically begged before he could take it back from her. Her palm tightened around the tiny little shell. It was so small and precious, she already felt protective over it.

He was obviously surprised, but she held his eyes. His face really betrayed everything he was feeling. She watched his expression melt as he whispered, "okay."

"Well," he started, moving them to both sit on the end of the bed. "You and I met...on the beach."

"The beach?" she balked before telling herself not to interrupt his very important story.

"I know," he chuckled, though. "You hate the beach."

He did know everything about her.

"But you were there painting, or collecting seashells, or looking for clay or something," he shrugged, the memory faded but precious for him. "I saw you at the end of the beach, kind of away from everyone. You obviously weren't looking for company but...I just wanted to exchange even one word with you."

"I jogged over, asked you if I could help you find something. You didn't talk to me at first, but I asked, and asked, and eventually you told me you were looking for a shell. And I mean it was probably just to shut me up," he added, making them both laugh. "But I said I'd help you look. Boy, the look you gave me--I'd still be dead and buried under that sand."

She offered a sheepish smile, but that was as much a lovingly remembered detail as the rest, for him.

"I found this," he tapped the shell in her hand. "I handed it to you and said, 'hey, you match!'. You gave me that look again, but I could tell you thought I was kinda cute."

She pursed her lips at that, but she had to admit that this man called her husband was undeniably charming. She could see herself very reluctantly admitting that he might not have been so bad.

"I saw you again a few times," he recounted, a different, dreamier, distant smile on his face. "Eventually you were out there with an easel, and I got to see you painting. You let me see it in progress and everything."

Perhaps she was already quite infatuated with him then, because she would rather fight to the death than allow something in progress to be viewed while she was working on it.

"I looked at your easel," he grinned at her, "and you had this shell sitting on the corner, like a good luck charm or something."

Thena felt herself blush faintly. It was a different her in the story, but she felt for that Thena's embarrassing secret being discovered.

"I asked you if you wanted to join me for dinner," Gil whispered, closing her hand around the little shell for safe keeping. "You said you didn't want to dine with me while I was all sweaty and in my jogging stuff."

Thena laughed. That certainly sounded like her (uncharming, unfunny her).

"I said okay, meet me here at sunset," he made a challenging face at her, and she could imagine how handsome it might seem in the right light. "You did and, well...history, right?"

History she wanted to remember.

Thena looked at Gil, sitting close to her, so warm and so solid. He was comfortable, she knew that much. She was no expert on physical closeness, but the times she had been in Gil's proximity via sharing an umbrella or letting him help her out of bed were nice. He had a gentle, calming presence.

He swallowed, his eyes flicking all over her face. She didn't even realise she had been leaning in until he moved his head quickly, stretching up so he could press his lips to her forehead. "You should rest, sweetheart. It's been a big day."

She felt both relieved and disappointed. The shell was still in her hand as he stood slowly, leaving her seated on the end of the bed.

He paused at the doorway again, lit softly by the lamp beside the bed. "You're welcome to anything, 'course--I mean everything, absolutely. But if you - I dunno - need help finding something or whatever...just wake me, okay?"

She already felt lonely at the thought of being in this room all by herself. And that was after weeks of being in the hospital, desperately wishing to be left alone. She nodded.

"'Kay," he smiled again, but it was back to being sad. He patted the wall, "night, Thena. I'll leave breakfast for you before I go to work."

He left gently, closing the door behind him, nothing if not a gentleman. To his own wife, in his own home. Thena flopped backwards on the bed, still holding onto her beloved little shell. She had been so desperate to have some time to herself in the hospital--really think about who she was and what her life was like.

But there was something undeniably lonely about the times when she was without him. Every time he came home for clothes or to shower or had to go to work, she had to admit, she was terribly bored without him.

Would it be terribly inappropriate to ask to sneak into bed with her own husband?

#Thenamesh AU #thank you for the ask!!!#I've changed a few little details I hope you don't mind #but I really like how this came out!#a little bit angsty #but listen #Gil is not the average romcom man okay?#yes he wants his wife back and for her to remember their life #but he hears that Thena doesn't know him #and it hurts him deeply #but he KNOWS his wife #if she doesn't know him she doesn't trust him #she's scared and alone in a hospital with a stranger all the time #so he puts a little distance between them #he brings her things from home #pulls the curtain around her bed and says he'll stand guard while she changes #he hovers while the doctors are checking her because she doesn't like to be touched #she's still Thena #his Thena #meanwhile Thena is like I do no know this man]#but he seems...nice #he's charming and sweet and he's so kind and g e n t l e #he got the guest room all set up for her #ever since she picked his shirt to sleep in he's started spraying his shirts with his cologne for her so they'll smell like him #he swaps out their pillows so she can smell his aftershave and he can smell her shampoo #pining but when you're already married #also Thena asks him if he'll take off his wedding ring secretly hoping he won't #he's visibly appalled by the question #that night Thena greets him after he comes home from work with a terribly awkward hug #she cringes at herself but he's practically crying from happiness

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six-demon-bag · 4 months

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finally found a bed the dog likes more than the floor! so different from our last dog who liked giant piles of fluffy things

#he favored the thin rug over the fluffy things #finally found a thin dog bed and put a piece of fleece over it and now he is happy #like it was very challenging to find a simple enough bed for this anti-diva #sixdemon nonsense #also i feel like I should have seen more gifs from Lila Lila on here??#maybe it’s not such a popular movie to gif #or maybe tumblr search messed up #that’s probably likely regardless #or maybe it’s the way everyone seems to favor the little grids for this one idk #idk shit honestly i was just surprised it had like the same amount as zookeeper #he’s just such a baby face again some more like always #tbf it is a little unusual for him to do a romcom so maybe that’s part of it #all of the sets are quite lovely and I appreciate them #the tag was just surprisingly sparse in general #though tbf I didn’t get much blorbo energy from him in this one

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poorlittleyaoyao · 10 months

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I truly think mxtx’s intention was to set up a romance where wangxian’s appeal was one being a righteous cultivator and the other being one that fell from grace and how society and perception

both their own perception of each other/themselves and how others view them

was the thing keeping them apart and how they were going to overcome both these things

very pride and prejudice

and that IS what happened

but I think what she ended up with was something more romeo and Juliet - where the story is toted as a romance but underneath that it’s a tragedy, and the ending of mdzs is just too tragic bc the only ones who are arguably happy at the end are wangxian when the cast is so FULL

and full of people who only got unhappy endings or death

that last ramble got me thinking maybe we, the readers, have been looking at mdzs the wrong way. maybe mdzs is meant to be a tragedy and it just got popular as a romance. but I think I read or heard somewhere once that that’s the appeal of Chinese romances - a tragic ending with the implication that the lovers will be happy together in the next life

I hope it's okay that I combined the two Asks since they're so closely related! (Also--and this goes to everyone--if you're messaging me not on anon and prefer an answer privately rather than on the blog, lmk!)

This is interesting to consider, because my own issue is the opposite, I think: it's not that there are too many tragic elements in the happy romance, but that there's too much silly goofy trope stuff in the tragedy! I love tragedy. All my favorite works are tragedies! My all-time favorite TV show is S1 of The Terror, which tells us in the title card that every guy on the expedition is going to die miserably. I don't want everyone to die miserably in every work of fiction, obviously, but it's tragedy and/or hard-fought happiness that sticks with me.

So with the novel... yeah, all this tragedy happens, but it feels to me that it's pushed aside whenever it's in danger of harshing Wangxian's squee. I've already talked a bunch about Novelxian's past not seeming to impact him overmuch, in which case: why do it? Why do any of the plot itself, really, since nothing involving NMJ's murder has anything to do with Wangxian beyond NHS's prodding of MXY? Why have this elaborate tragedy of conflicting loyalties and betrayal and emotional devastation if we're just going to go "huh! well, that wraps that up!" and not engage with the fallout?

R&J's a good comparison, not because R&J isn't a tragedy (it for sure is!), but because R&J also has a lot of stuff going on and people like to argue about whether it's REALLY a romance or not. And like... it is. Of course it is. Romeo and Juliet's relationship is the relationship the text prioritizes. We aren't really meant to question the two of them prioritizing each other above all else. There are other themes going on there--to me personally, the play is a tragedy of adults failing children, because none of this would have happened if literally ANY adult had responsibly supported these kids--but the play is a tragic romance first and foremost.

But unlike MDZS, R&J doesn't skip on past the damage to other characters. Mercutio's death singlehandedly switches the play's genre from comedy to tragedy. Juliet continually struggles with the fact that Romeo killed Tybalt, even though Tybalt started it and he and Juliet don't have a relationship in the text. The play even spares some moments of reflection for Paris, even though literally nobody cares about Paris. Contrast all that with WQ and JYL barely being mentioned after their deaths, or LXC's seclusion being a nonissue. MDZS feels more like one of those weird problem plays, where a ~happy ending~ happens after so much messed-up shit that you're left going ????

MORE EMPHASIS ON THE TRAGEDY SO THE HAPPINESS FEELS BETTER, BASICALLY

#I'm specifically thinking of like... The Merchant of Venice #which has this gripping plot about a Jewish man finally lashing out against the society that's oppressed him and his people #so to many modern audiences the climax is the trial scene--which if you're sympathetic to Shylock is a tragedy #bc he is brought low and publicly humiliated and forcibly cut off from his community having already lost his daughter and his wealth #BUT SHAKESPEARE DID NOT WANT US TO QUESTION THIS EVEN A LITTLE BIT #so after the trial you get an ENTIRE FINAL ACT of the most tedious goddamn romcom nonsense put to paper #with almost zero mention of the trial even from Shylock's daughter Jessica bc Shakespeare meant this as a comedy with a fun happy ending #obviously these are not equivalent scenarios bc MDZS isn't out here contributing to centuries of antisemitism #but the TYPE of tonal dissonance is the same and the placement thereof is similar

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pinchan · 11 months

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rip ijichi you wouldve done numbers as a girl in a romcom manga

#txt #we need to put him in romcom the same way we need to put yuji in a sports manga #but first im ordering estrogen for him

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phoenixkaptain · 2 years

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Kaichou wa Maid-sama is the funniest show, if only because it’s about a flirtatious demi falling for an accidentally charming pansexual. Usui gives off such ace vibes, whenever he is with literally anybody other than Misaki, he just does not care, he does not see them, he has a one-track mind and the track its on is Misaki.

But then there’s Misaki, who is just… she’s perfect. Her favourite days are ones where more girls come in, because she likes girls. She actively enjoys crossdressing because she likes that she can charm girls. She flirts with and takes care of and just genuinely seduces all the girls and she loves it because she loves girls. She isn’t shy about it, either! But, she also likes boys! She takes care of everyone, and while she doesn’t mean to, she charms boys just as well as she charms girls! She’s a casanova-

Usui and Misaki are such a duo. You have Usui, who is willing to kiss random people just because he wants Misaki to stop being incapable of looking him in the eye. He is just really not interested in girls or boys, he just zones tf out whenever people speak to him and honestly same. You have Misaki, who is effortlessly charming with girls and begrudgingly charming with boys and who likes to crossdress and supports other people crossdressing. You have two flirts, neither of whom are actually good at relationships, and it’s just really fucking funny to watch.

It’s a duo I’ve thought of: pan/demi. Just the opposites attract sort of thing, you know, but taken to the extreme. (As a side note, I really wish Usui would crossdress, can you imagine? All he had to do was crossdress and Misaki would have fallen for him immediately, she loves girls, okay, she just loves girls so much-)

This show isn’t for everyone. There is sexual harassment and dark themes and the regular early-2000s view of romance which is very… interesting. Also, it doesn’t feel like a show about teenagers, honestly. It feels like a regency show, sometimes. The school is really only there for the Student Council President aspect, as well as a few storylines about Misaki trying to get along with boys. That isn’t to say they don’t utilize the setting, they really do, it just feels like forty-year-olds in sixteen-year-olds’ bodies, if that makes sense. The characters are all so oddly jaded, it’s fascinating.

And it isn’t very kind to queer people, despite having one of the most openly bisexual characters of all time as the protagonist. Misaki’s attraction to women is played more as a joke, or we’re supposed to think she is only platonically interested in women. I’m pretty sure her attraction is sexual though. I mean, she doesn’t realize she’s into Usui for months. Would she really understand that she’s into girls? I think she thinks it’s just normal to occasionally think about making out with your friends. But aside from that, Aoi is treated quite poorly at times. I don’t know what they were going for, honestly, because it seems like a trans story but also seems like they just wanted him to crossdress for the fun of it, kind of like Princess Jellyfish style.

And, it’s really strangely sexist, at times? Most of the time, actually. It’s fascinating. It’s so sexist, yet so empowering at the same time? Or, at least, they were trying really hard to make it empowering and they occasionally stumbled pretty badly…

Anyway, all this to say, I really like the dumb romance show about a guy falling in love with a girl who scares the shit out of people with her violent tendencies. The romance is honestly legitimately sweet at times, especially further in. They learn what each other likes and they treat each other better. It’s nice. It has such intense scenes and then cartoony scenes, back to back. Usui is like a puppy. Misaki is the best. I like the show a lot but would advise patience with anyone who wishes to watch it.

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