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"Seriousness is the refuge of the shallow."

Lady Gyr, this is where group-orders come in handy :3 You can always try etsy in other cases? They have millions of spats and you can order custom ones and all that jazz~

My, I think we might need a fashion thread xD (would that go in the RL-topic forum or chatterbox? I should know...shame)

And I agree with that last point 8D Y U M.

Here's another thing I like; When you can't tell who's going to "top". IT'S THE BEST. (and preferably this ends with them switching places now and then)

- Oscar Wilde.

INSIDE OUTSIDE U.S.A.

heart This is a cool thread. Well, my list probably won't be nearly as detailed and extensive as others, but I don have my peeves and loves!

Likes;
Intriguing Plot (a little bit of mystery added to a plot will suck me in like no other)
Masculine Guys with male pride
Dashing Gentlemen
Anger (in the yaoi world, it always amounts to tension!)
Angry Sex (xD)
Bondage
Some cliches are cliche'd for reasons xD
Round characters (not shape-wise)
s**t-faced characters (I'm just a sucker for the drunken a*****e character, in any show.)
The slightly abusive characters
Fights between lovers (they always add a bit of spice to the mix)
S&M (Oh hell, I'm a sucker for the classics!)
Cute freckles (I think of Ellis > w < )
Younger guys (I mean, I'm young, so I prefer younger guys)
Naaaziiiissss!
Humiliation & Hazing (I'm just a softy for torture I guess.)
Snazzy dressing
Cold and distant guys
Public Places (it makes more... bad, I suppose)
The BAMF manly couple!


Dislikes;
Whiny ukes (Whiny guys in general! :<)
Girly guys
Bara
Bland girls characters in yaoi (I know, being yaoi, that they're not supposed to be really big factors, but they're sooooo blaaand)
Bara (That's where it get's way to "manly", they just make oversized muscle heads)
Shoddy art
Gooey lovey dovey (I'm fine with romance, but it's always so stereotypical! Then again, that's the case with lots of stuff.)
Invis-o-c**k
Stories that become tedious (like JR season 2)
FURRIES >:[ (EWWW)
M-preg
Emo kids (I haven't seen it much in yaoi, but in novels and fiction they're always fruity emos with weird names! >:[ )

INSIDE OUTSIDE U.S.A.

I dunno, I think the whiny and severely feminin uke is a bit over used

Love:

--Size differences (where the seme is large and the uke is... not. By this token, some examples of chan or shota con are attractive to me, but generally, I prefer shota where both parties are younger, but intellectually advanced for their age.)
--Role-reversal (where the character most normally assumed to be the seme is the uke - Students topping their teachers, a choirboy pursuing a priest, etc.)
--Vampires (overplayed or not, there is something unbelievably erotic about a creature that needs to get up-close-and-personal with a person's fluids to survive. True to my above listed kink, though, I really only like it if the vampire is the uke.)
--Crossdressing (God, I love men in dresses. The frillier the better. Oh, yes. If the dude looks like a lady, I am there.)
--Magic, sorcery, and other supernatural bits (particularly when the uke is the one with the ability. Phenomenal cosmic power... and the bottom in bed. Delicious.)
--Tragic backstories (as overplayed as vampires, but oh, how I still love it if it's handled properly.)
--Non-con (but only when it is actually invoked as something horrible. Rape is not love, even if the sicko perpetrating it thinks it is.)
--Coercion, emotional manipulation, and blackmail (I love when the uke gives it up for a greater cause or reason. I know it's awful, but there it is. This can include drugging and mind-control sometimes, but normally, I like straight up dub-con. But again, only when it is presented as bad.)
--Historical/Alternative History (I love history and the cultures, fashions, and settings of long-ago places, so I love period pieces of pretty much any make, from the Victorian Era to Cavemen.)
--Adventure/heavy plot (Pirates, treasure hunters, space captains, smugglers, detectives - as long as there's an overarching story, I'm there.)
--Businessmen (what can I say? I go crazy 'bout a sharp-dressed man. Especially one who is wheeling and dealing and scheming and plotting. Especially if he's the uke.)
--Political intrigue (this doesn't have to be as boring as it sounds - think The Three Musketeers, or Code Geass.)
--Slavery/ownership (but only if the slave/pet/possession used to be a free person and still thinks of themselves as one. I don't like simpering ukes - I like strong, spirited men who stand up to abusive or bad ones.)
--Master and servant (this is wholly dissimilar to the trope above, because with this, I mean someone who is supposed to serve and protect the other party becoming the one involved with them. Kuroshitsuji for example - though the Indian prince and his butler exemplify this more than Ceil and Sebastian, for obvious reasons - or a BL version of Emma. This can include things like bodyguards to tutors to overly-protective childhood friends.)
--Emotional journeys and self-improvement/discovery (whether it's the hero's journey - a'la Joseph Campbell - or a bad guy redeeming himself - a'la Spike from Buffy - I love people to grow and change because of the relationships they've forged or failed.)
--Bittersweet endings (sometimes the relationships that help us grow the most aren't the ones that last until the end of time. People change, people grow, and sometimes, they die. But in any event, a story where the ending is not necessarily awful, but not storybook rings true to me. This is not to say I abhor snuggle ends, if they are justified.)

Dislike:

--Blood/gore/extreme violence (I'm just squeamish, so I don't care for these things. Violence when dictated by the plot is fine, but I don't care for torture porn and excessive beatings.)
--Flat characters (characters that exist just as stereotypes or tropes, with no depth. If the entirety of your character can be described in a handful of sentences, especially ones like 'He's a nice guy, unless you get him mad!' or 'is shy and quiet and needs someone to take care of him' with no other extrapolation forthcoming in the plot, I'm not going to like your story.)
--Weeping uke (I hate when the uke's sole purpose is to be sexed and abused by anyone he comes across. Let's see some spirit, some spunk, some sense of pride! I tend to hate ukes who follow the Good Wife and Mother stereotype where there's nothing to them but their desire to be nice little housekeepers and man-pleasers.)
--Rape is Love (this is the trope that destroyed my love for The Tyrant Who Falls in Love and so many other works. When one character is so 'overcome with passion' that he forces himself on the other, and the other is supposed to take it, love it, and change to accommodate the rapist. This does not sit well with me at ALL. As someone who was sexually assaulted by a partner for years, this makes me bitterly unhappy, particularly when played the way Koisuru Boukun does, where Souichi is portrayed as 'mean' and 'unkind' for disliking the fact that Morinaga rapes him. This is so frustrating and upsetting. As described above, if rape is treated seriously and negatively, then it is incredibly relevant to my interests, but not if it's hand-waved with 'oh, but it's lurvvvvvv')

Likes

Foreplay. Because... It's hot?
Actual releationships. Anything but rapist! and victim! Or twue love! I enjoy watching two characters fall in love gradually, or having one character fall in love and persue the other. I just want developement, basically.
Strong ukes. I noticed that wheneber I write BL/yaoi stories my "uke" characters tend to be stronger than the seme characters in at least one, if not many, ways. Often they are smarter, physically stronger, or have magical power that could blow the seme into teeny little bits.
Interesting characters.
Interesting worlds. Speaking as someone who loves world building. I mean, regular, modern Earth is nice and all, but I love a well-developed fantasy world.
Conversation/banter/arguments. Basically I love it when the two characters interact like normal people and actually see each other at times other than sex o' clock.
Interesting plots. Stories. I love them. They don't need to be super-complicated to be good. But they should exist. And it should be something in addition to "will they ever fall in love?!?!"
Bondage. One of these things is not like the others. But I enjoy this to some extent, as long as the participants are both willing.


Dislikes

Rape as love. Do I need to explain this? It disturbs me. Rape should not be considered the ultimate expression of love. Because it is not.
Every seme is mean and every uke is an angel. It's just annoying. My uke characters tend to be mean, so wimpy ukes bother me. I just want to smack them and tell them to grow up.
Every seme is twice the size of a normal man and every uke is half the size of an average man. Not only because it's over-used but also because this would be painful.
Everyone has a tragic past. Aren't there any normal people hanging around here?



There are probably more, but I can't think of them right now.

Likes-
-PLOT. PLOT PLOT PLOT PLOT. Strong plot. Good plot. Same with concepts and execution of stories and scenarios.
-Anything from the early 1900's to the end of WWII, which is my main area of interest as far as historical things go.
-Nazi yaoi Yeah. Say that, I'm there.
-Good characters- I want well-developed personalities. I don't care if one person is human and the other is from the ninth level of the inferno, if there are believable emotional characteristics to the characters, then I'll try it out.
-Action
-Mystery, I guess(?)
-Alternate history stories
-Supernatural stories
-Sci-Fi! :'D
-EPIC BATTLES!
-Must include blood and gore.
-I'm also for a few cute things too, though. P:
-Snappy dialogue and wit!! (ie- Shakespeare)
-Alternate dimensions! :'D
-Cool gadgetry!
-Art Deco... I like art deco...
-A tiny semblance of believability, at least.

Dislikes-
-Angst. I live with an angst machine. And I can confidently say, angst is excrutiating and exceedingly boring in mass amounts.
-Things that make no sense.
-Overdone cliche's. (Like I said, angst)
-Whatever overused rape-oriented story device people tend to use with reckless and terrible abandon.
-Poor writing or art- although if one or the other is exceedingly good in quality I can make exceptions to this.
-Men who look to much like women. I can get touches of feminimity, (ralphralphralphralphcoughhackcough) but men who are drawn/written as women is a no.
-Things that defy common sense or the laws of all that's right and good. Ie- m-preg=NO.

"Seriousness is the refuge of the shallow."

Oh, oh, I agree so hard on the "active submission" thing. I love it. It's so silly how it's always "forced into submission" or such. Like a guy can't be submissive because he feels like it. Like trusting another person enough to defer to them isn't macho enough or something. Bah.

Also, blood. ;D soon you'll be a regular guro freak, won'tcha? ♥

- Oscar Wilde.

I like:

• Sexy, roguish men together. It's hawt as hell.
•Men who aren't afraid of being vulnerable in front of their significant other. You know how long it takes some semes to finally break down in front of their uke and admit something's wrong instead of just brooding for an entire chapter and making the uke paranoid?
• Guys who switch positions during sex.
• As stated by Lady Gyr, I would also love to see a story of a knight sacrificing everything he owns for his lord. It sounds amazing. <3
• Two awesome couples from different fandoms that seem to mesh well (*cough*Sinbad/Dimitri*cough*)
• I will admit, I love mpreg when it is done well. Alas, that's a hard task to achieve, but IT IS POSSIBLE, I SWEAR.
• Gah, there are so many story plots I'd love to see pan out! I can't think of any more off the top of my head...
• Fantasy settings! Historical settings! Exotic settings! Anything that is not high schooler/regular salaryman, for the love of God! There's too many of those! gonk

I don't like:

• Weepy, girly ukes. I was happy with them when I first discovered yaoi, but now I'm starting to get weary of them. I swear to God, if I find any uke that can top Ayase from Okane Ga Nai with his hamster personality and his giant blue eyes that take up half his face, I will facepalm very hard.
• Whenever the seme is pretty much having foreplay with the uke, and the uke always moans something like, "N-Nyaaa, noooo don't go there, it's... dirtyyyyyy! Aaaah! @A@;;;". They're both MEN, for Pete's sake, you'd think they'd both want it just as badly instead of having the uke always, ALWAYS have to go this roundabout way of saying, "No! No! It's embarassing!" before he cums. Geebus.
• Overly angsty plots. Some angst is fine because life is not all sunshine and rainbows, but I'd rather read something overly fluffy than some tragedy-after-tragedy story.
• BDSM AND GORE. I know a lot of people seem to like it, but I'm not a big fan of it in my yaoi. neutral
• OT3s. Maybe I'm just a traditionalist, but I rarely like threesomes. Apparently, this makes me "close-minded" according to some people.