some people think writers are so eloquent and good with words, but the reality is that we can sit there with our fingers on the keyboard going, “what’s the word for non-sunlight lighting? Like, fake lighting?” and for ten minutes, all our brain will supply is “unofficial”, and we know that’s not the right word, but it’s the only word we can come up with…until finally it’s like our face got smashed into a brick wall and we remember the word we want is “artificial”.
It's been a while; I haven't forgotten my AUs I've just been focusing on other things. I do have a second Spouse of Knowledge fic plotted out that I'll hopefully get done someday.
Ao3 version is here
A: Attraction (What do they find attractive in a partner?)
Pristine Milk finds curiosity attractive. The unwaverable appetite for knowledge no matter how useless that knowledge may be, the never ending search for little facts that do nothing for you other than just something to know. He also values someone who finds wonder in little things, like how a butterfly flaps its wings or the way the wind blows. He takes a lot of things for granted, so having someone who will stop to appreciate the little things is valuable.
B: Banter (How playful is your relationship?)
He can be very playful at times, especially after abandoning his title as the Fount of Knowledge. He loves playing minor pranks on his partner and adores it when they play them back on him. Without all of the stress of being an emissary he's become far more relaxed and shows it, even going as far as dragging his partner back into bed if he's not quite ready to start his day (and ignoring you pushing at his head to get him off).
C: Celebrate (How do they celebrate special events?)
Pristine Milk prefers his own milestones to be quiet (his "birth", for example), but if its a shared milestone or solely yours he goes all out. Star Sapphire and Sweet Apple help but he's the sole culprit behind planning. All of your favorite foods, decorations relevant to your interests no matter how odd, every gift he could possible think to get and buy, he even allows visitors to the Spire so you can have your friends with you (though… they are blindfolded by Star Sapphire and Sweet Apple when led there).
Overall he's still showy just like his corrupted variant would be, but it's less about him and more about you.
D: Dates (What are dates with them like?)
Dates with Pristine Milk are often quiet, reading together, watching a movie, taking a walk, mundane things that don't require too much energy or going out. Though he's not opposed to going out to restaurants or the whatnot, he just prefers quite time with you and him.
And, on occasion, the kids if its a family event like a theme park.
E: Entranced (What about you mesmerizes them?)
At first it wasn't much, but the more he got to know you the more it was everything about you. The way you talk about the things that interest you, the little habits you might not notice like chewing on your pen or your lip or the way you fidget with the pages of books, small little minute tidbits that can easily be overlooked by others are things that he zones in on now.
He focuses on the little things that make you "you".
F: Feelings (When did they get them?)
His feelings were a slow burn of over 400 years. You going from a simple curiosity and pet project to see if he could "rehabilitate" a so called "human" into a cookie, to a friend, to a lover.
His feelings built up gradually from just being excited to see you and relax and be a normal cookie and not a god to being genuinely upset if you were too busy to spend time with him. He doesn't acknowledge those feelings until you finally leave, and then it all crashes on him at once.
It's not that he was in denial, either. It's that he hadn't experienced any of those feelings before and couldn't recognize or categorize them.
G: Gifts (What gifts do they give you?)
Typically books, though he does branch out into things he'd crafted by hand (plushies, paintings, clothes). Everything is relevant to your interests and themed around them. He also favors useful gifts over pointless things that take up space, so the plushies were enchanted to be able to assist with small tasks.
H: Health (How do they take care of you when injured or ill?)
Being a former emissary he was actually baked resilient to diseases, so he gets clingy when you're sick and not feeling well. There is no getting rid of him when you're bed ridden, and he only teleports out for a few minutes to fetch you food and medication before rushing back.
With injuries he's even more clingy, as the risk of somebody realizing you aren't bleeding jam is far too great and he's not about to have some… unfavorable suspects target you for nefarious reasons. Due to your magical resistance healing magic is ineffective so he deals with your injuries the old fashioned way of "close the wound with dressing and ensure that it remains clean". Pristine Milk also no longer allows you to do much of anything that could put stress on the wound or your body and if given the chance would carry you around the entire Spire in his arms.
I: Idealistic (What is their ideal life with you like?)
Marriage with a small family, though he's already achieved both so he's technically living the dream. He'd prefer to move away from the Spire, but due to circumstances outside of his control (nightmares of corrupted versions of himself sneaking through one of the Spires time rifts and the Spire itself calling out to him) he just accepts that living in the Spire is a necessity. He at least still has his little family of you and his students, with plans of finding a way to have a biological child through magical means.
J: Jealousy (How jealous are they?)
It heavily depends on if its a mortal fling or not, with mortals he understands they're a small part of your life (maybe around 80 to 100 years) while he has you for eternity, but if its another immortal cookie flirting with you he becomes a bit more jealous.
Though he also has to deal with the knowledge that his own soul jam visits you in your dreams, but it's not like he can do anything about that jealousy.
K: Kiss (What are kisses with them like?)
Soft and sweet and most often chaste, he gives kisses often but they're so innocent it makes you giggly and giddy the rest of the day. His favorite places to kiss you are on the hands and anywhere on your face. He adores taking advantage of your height difference to press kisses to your forehead when you aren't paying attention.
Pristine Milk's lips taste a little like blueberry and are very smooth.
L: Love (How do they show that they love you?)
Little actions that show that he's thinking of you, things like making you coffee or tea, having the book you were reading moved to your favorite seating area before you even realize you forgot it, having a bath drawn when you look exhausted.
He also shows affection through physical touch, like resting his hand on your back when he's standing next to you or wrapping his arm around your waist.
M: Misunderstanding (How do they handle a misunderstanding in the relationship?)
Despite being like 2000+ years old Pristine Milk can be childish at times. He'll throw tantrums if you upset him too much or sulk if he gets too jealous, and it takes a lot of pampering for him to not whine about his "mistreatment".
Despite his childish nature he isn't stupid; he can parse when it's a genuine misunderstanding caused by miscommunication and will react maturely about it.
N: Nourishment (Who does the cooking and caretaking?)
Pristine Milk is the one who handles a vast majority of the cooking, this is in spite of the fact that he doesn't eat much or at all since the Soul Jam supplies most of his energy. He finds the act of cooking and cleaning to be relaxing, a menial task that doesn't require the use of his brain outside of remembering recipes, occasional conversions if he's making a smaller portion, or what cleaning chemical is safe for cookie use and what's only safe for him to use.
Of course he isn't opposed to you handling it, but will often distract you so he can take over.
O: Observant (How good are they at reading you?)
He's gotten extremely good at reading you over the centuries you've known each other, and he can always tell when you're upset before you've even fully registered that you're upset. He also recognizes the sparkle of curiosity or mischief in your eyes when you're about to go down a rabbit hole of useless information and prepares snacks and drinks accordingly.
P: Pet Names (What do they call you)
My love, my dear, my muse, all sorts of sappy shit. He does frequently use the possessive "my" but will sometimes drop it.
Q: Quality Time (How do they spend their down time with you?)
Reading primarily, though he does enjoy lazing about in bed with you as well. Takes full advantage of his portals to quickly and easily grab whatever could be needed, whether its food or drinks. He does tend to get pouty when your free time ends and you have to get back to work. Pristine Milk even goes as far as latching onto you so you're forced to drag him half out of bed to get away.
R: Romance (How romantic are they?)
Extremely romantic. Primarily in the little ways that show you that he's always thinking about you. Fixing your favorite beverage so its fresh for you, leaving your favorite snacks in your favorite reading spots, leaving you hand written notes wishing you the best day possible.
S: Sacrifice (What are they willing to give up for you?)
Pristine Milk gave up everything for you, his title as the Fount of Knowledge, his position as an emissary of the witches, he was even willing to give up his Soul Jam and live as a normal cookie with you. Pristine Milk was willing to sacrifice anything and everything to keep you, and went through with that promise by cloaking the Spire in mist so it's entirely hidden from all of cookiekind so he could run away to explore the world with you.
He was even willing to risk his very dough by locking it under the silver tree, just to ensure Earthbread was safe for you to enjoy to the fullest, though that thankfully ended up being unnecessary.
T: Temper (Do they get upset with you?)
Very rarely will he get genuinely upset with you, the last time was when you'd had arguments about giving up his title as Fount.
When he does get upset with you he tries to communicate it plainly, though if it's something extremely minor he will be a drama queen about it just to get more of your attention.
U: Understanding (How well do they understand you?)
He sometimes struggles to understand you due to cultural differences and the fact that you fairly regularly reference human things. He does absolutely adore learning to understand you though. He has a whole series of notebooks solely dedicated to writing down your odd habits and sayings.
V: Vent (How open are they about their emotions?)
At first he's still fairly closed off, but he has slowly learned to open up. Pristine Milk wants to value open communication, and that also involves he himself opening up about his emotions and feelings.
It takes a couple hundred years but he does eventually tell you about his full past, describing the witches and their roles.
W: Wild Card
Pristine Milk is constantly fighting for your attention; primarily due to the fact that the Light of Deceit, Light of Truth, and the Spire are all also vying for your attention and affections. The Lights regularly visit you in your dreams and the Spire itself favors you and shows it by shuffling the rooms to your benefit.
If Pristine Milk ever upsets you he immediately gets lost in the Spire with it moving rooms and adjusting hallways so he never makes it to his goal. It also changes every portrait in the halls to be of you, just to remind him he fucked up.
X: XOXO (How physically affectionate are they?)
Extremely affectionate. He loves holding you or touching you in some way, whether it be holding you from behind to rest his chin on your head or holding your hand and rubbing the back of it with his thumb. He gets especially clingy when jealous, practically wrapping himself around your body possessively.
He also loves it when you reciprocate, and fully expects you to shower him in kisses.
Y: Yearning (Do they miss you?)
Every day, every hour, every second you're away. He sends you constant letters when you're away and sometimes even teleports to you specifically to get his fill of attention, even if it uses up all his energy to travel to another continent.
Z: Zzz (What is it like sharing a bed?)
He's extremely clingy and loves spooning, so even if you try to push him away in your sleep he clings desperately. He runs a little on the colder side, so if you run hot when you sleep he's a wonderful sleeping partner. If you run cold you'll probably need extra blankets to survive.
He thankfully doesn't snore or anything, though he does drool a bit in his sleep.
I think a lot of people misunderstand why enemies to lovers is so popular. It’s quickly become one of the most pervasive tropes in many novels. Is it the banter, the tension? That’s definitely part of it. But if that were true, then friends-to-lovers and literally any romance with good dialogue and characterization would scratch the same itch. For some, it does, but for many…enemies-to-lovers just hits different.
My theory is that it isn’t actually about love, not really. I think it fulfils a fantasy that no other trope can provide: the fantasy of being seen as an equal.
Think about what specifically makes someone an enemy in fiction. It’s not just someone the MC dislikes, it’s someone who can affect them in tangible ways, maybe even have the power to ruin them, challenge their worldview, expose their weaknesses, etc. The relationship begins with conflict because the characters are fundamentally opposed in some way. It doesn’t matter why, but they’re fighting. There is a struggle for dominance.
I would argue that the most impactful enemies-to-lovers moments are never the romantic moments, they’re the scenes where power shifts. They BOTH lose: they’re forced into a position that would have horrified them at the beginning of the story. They end up needing (or wanting) each other.
That’s why I think people are often disappointed when a supposed enemies-to-lovers story turns out to be a milquetoast attempt where they’re just kinda mean to each other for a few pages, and then immediately start making out. Where’s the risk, the actual threat? If the characters aren’t capable of genuinely affecting one another, then the relationship isn’t actually transforming in a satisfying way. The appeal is in the fact that they have power over each other, because the eventual trust they build requires real surrender.
Because here’s the thing about enemies; they pay attention, and usually more attention than anyone else. They notice weaknesses because they’re actively looking for them, they notice strengths because they need to account for them. They notice habits, blind spots, ambitions, fears.
They study the MC with a level of scrutiny that borders (and later crosses) intimate, but unlike friends (or supporting characters in the MC’s corner) they’re not willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, they don’t overlook flaws out of affection. Which is exactly what makes the eventual romance so satisfying. It feels earned.
It’s easy to imagine being loved by someone who sees the best version of you, but it’s an entirely different thing to be loved by someone who has seen you at your worst. That’s why this dynamic often feels more convincing than romances where the characters are immediately into each other.
I imagine there are many who go through life feeling misunderstood, or worse, that the people who love them only love the polished, perfect version they present to the world, almost like impostor syndrome. But what if there was someone who couldn’t be fooled by this carefully constructed image?
When someone more powerful chooses someone, maybe the fantasy is protection. When it’s someone less powerful, the fantasy might be admiration. But if there’s someone intelligent and observant enough to see the MC as an equal, the fantasy there is the most intense and honest validation.
Which means enemies to lovers was never about turning hate/annoyance into love, it was about turning power into vulnerability – which is a terrifying loss of power, which THEN leads to intimacy.
Yeah, I agree OP. It's about power and vulnerability!
Enemies to lovers at it's best is a wonderfully versatile kind of romance, because in the good ones you get things like:
How do you navigate opposing world views? Who challenges your ideals and values to make you a better person? How do you compromise? Because, in a good enemies-to-lovers, it can't actually be that the antagonist was never right about anything or that the protagonist was perfect, or there wouldn't be that mutual respect/attraction. They affect each other. They change each other.
Sacrifice - it's easy to love your friends, it can be easy to love when it doesn't cost you anything, but loving an enemy? What would you actually give up for love? What wouldn't you? When is love enough and when isn't it?
Redemption - not in the 'sad backstory' way, but in the way that you can be forgiven and loved despite the most monstrous or shameful things you have ever done
All of these themes tie into vulnerability, our sense of self, and our power over ourselves and others.
In a good enemies-to-lovers story I don't think it can ever feel like they are just together because it's a romance story. You have to earn it.
Enemies-to-lovers interrogates what it means to love, and how we define love, in a way that I don't think other genres do as much. But I'm also hopelessly biased so!
some pills you’ve gotta take with food. some pills you’ve gotta take with fat specifically. if you’re not eating a normal amount rn, be careful and do research on your specific medications. also, substances, be that medications, drugs, alcohol, etc, can be absorbed concerningly rapidly if you haven’t eaten enough all day. sincerely, person who once took two caffeine pills at around 4p.m. while having eaten next to nothing that day and immediately was hit with a bought of major anxiety, trembling, jitters, chills, and a prompt emotional and physical crash that resulted in me being unable to hold a pen
Aka au where the “player” actually exists in the narrative as a witch that’s the true ruler of the Cookie Kingdom before Gingerbrave and company find it. (Based on a chat I had with a friend)
I’d imagine it’s a witch who has a hobby of creating tiny buildings, decorations and miny environments , but using magic and desserts to do so. At first it was just something they did on the side and nothing else, but after moving and discovering the ruins of an old kingdom made by cookies, they make it their project to restore it, or at least make it less desolate. They never expected actual cookies to move in.
Initially Gingerbrave and the rest are understandably terrified of them for obvious reasons, and as such the witch also keeps their distance to not scare them, but as time passes the cookies become more confident around them and begin to fear them less, to the point that they trust them to watch over the kingdom while they are out on adventures.
Same applies to the other cookies who move in eventually, though their opinions are more varied. Some fear the witch’s wrath and question if their help is actually genuine or has ulterior motives, while others take it more casually and treat them like a fellow cookie. Sometimes some offer to help them with various tasks and kingdom layouts or to offer to join them when there’s a celebration going on so they aren’t alone.
Most of the time the witch focuses on preparing new buildings and structures for the kingdom and doesn’t intervene too much in its citizens lives until it’s time to actually place their creations, or if the kingdom or anyone inside it’s in danger… not like anything really dares to lay a finger on it knowing it has what is essentially a god as a protector.
Due to the witch keeping mostly to themself however (and most cookies being so casual about it that they don’t really mention that they are a witch, just someone they know keeps an eye on the Cookie Kingdom),it’s common for intruders to not really know who they are or what they are up against until they see a giant, angry figure looming over them…
But in spite of this and how mysterious and threatening they look, the witch is pretty chill and adores their small citizens - and listening in on their antics - so when it comes to handling them they are very careful if for any reason they have to pick them up or move them out of the way when they are busy (sometimes they use those moments to tease them and fawn over them, but not for too long as to not overwhelm them).
Of course there are sometimes accidents where they are too rough or don’t really look where they are placing them, but by this point everyone knows they don’t mean to do any harm, and have healing spells ready just in case anything happens.
If your system doesn't account for the fact that Parents Are Going To Be Abusive/Neglectful/Insufficient then it objectively sucks I'm sorry I don't make the rules
Monitored bank accounts for those under 18. Requiring parental consent for medical procedures. Parental controls on personal devices. "We won't teach this at school because parents are supposed to address it at home." Anything that puts all of the child's power onto the parents' hand, anything that assumes parents are going to inherently do enough of a good job no one else needs to interfer, every single one of these IS going to be used by controlling, neglectful or unprepared parents and already are, and if the system did not account for that very real, tangible, dangerous tendency, then it's not worth fucking anything. You shouldn't make things "for the youth"/with children in mind if you are going to overlook this painfully common aspect of their lives u_u
I was think about Divided soul and absolutely LightMilk would keep this secret from all the other virtues.
He would have also kept it secret from you, but the scheming jester had already shown himself to you before Light milk could come up with a plan.
Shadowmilk is only staying away from the fellow virtues because he doesn't want any of them to help Lightmilk cookie.
There is a crack in his souljam, but he normally hides it from the masses and virtues by using illusion magic.
Sometimes Lightmilk wakes up more tired than when he went to bed, this is Shadowmilk's fault. Since Shadowmilk doesn't have a body of his own he gets very jealous and bitter over the fact Lightmilk can hold you.
Due to this he sometimes takes over at night, when Lightmilk is at his weakest, just to hold you and watch you sleep. He dosen't do this often, much to his dismay, since he doesn't want to get caught by Lightmilk.
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