bakerstreet | My father has it, I have it, my sister has it

The (possibly AU) Sibling Incest Meme

Incest is, despite its taboo nature in most societies, actually a pretty popular convention in both romantic fiction and works of a more erotic bent, in everything from period or fantasy pieces to series taking place in places like modern day Japan. Still, the most common configuration in these fictions are the pairing of siblings. Perhaps this is because of the usual lack of age difference and power dynamic that exists in child/adult relative pairings, though this is not always the case. Because of this, a sexual or romantic relationship between siblings can almost seem, well, romantic in the right light. Of course, more often than not, there's a dark side under the veneer of forbidden love.

This meme is for those who would like to play out that, either the darkness or the light - or both.

HOW TO PLAY

-Comment with your character and preferences. Be sure to mention any hard lines you have.
-Comment around to others. PLEASE NOTE THAT IN ORDER TO FACILITATE CROSS-CANON TAGGING, THIS MEME WILL BE CONSIDERED AN AU FAIR GAME ZONE. Feel free to comment in with characters who do not canonically have siblings or comment to people from other fandoms.
-Be respectful of others.

PROMPTS

1. Feeling Strange: You've known this person your entire life, yet lately you've been feeling...different about them. These feelings aren't exactly familial, either.
2. Not as Normal Families: Whatever the specifics of the case may be, your childhood was not the norm, and thus the two of you have grown close that way.
3. Raised Apart: Scientists believe that when siblings are raised together under normal circumstances, they will not find each other sexually attractive; however, if they are reared apart, they may be highly attracted to each other when they meet as adults.
4. Only Kin by Name: Psuedo-incest between step siblings or adopted siblings is not quite as taboo, but you could still be looked down upon for harboring those desires for someone who is a member of your family by one way or another.
5. Defender: One of you is older and has always looked after the other, meaning that something has grown between you that is thicker than any blood.
6. Guilty: You feel terrible for these longings toward your own flesh and blood, and you do your best to stop them. But can you choose who you want to be with? And how disciplined are you when it's someone you care for in other ways?
7. Dysfunctional: You don't have a good relationship as siblings, yet your relationship as lovers is great.
8. There's Nothing Wrong Here: To you, incest is a casual affair and the "forbidden" aspect is lost. Sorry you were grounded, big brother. Here, since you can't go out, let me be your girlfriend for the night.
9. Like Looking in a Mirror: The two of you are closer than siblings: you're twins. You share everything, so why is your love any different?
10. Skirting the Line: Stolen glances. Lips only a breath away. You're walking a fine line here. You haven't become physical...yet.
11. Got a Secret, Better Keep It: Needless to say, an incestuous relationship is not one that can see the light of day. You'd better keep it behind closed doors.
12. Jealousy: You can't stand the idea of sharing your beloved sibling with someone else, yet it's hard to make this known without blowing your cover.
13. As One: The obligatory smut prompt, whether it be the first time or one of many the two of you steal away.
14. The Things I Do for Love: You'll do anything to protect your love affair with you sibling and make sure no one interferes. Anything.
15. And You'll Be My Queen: It may seem as though the light will never come, but you want to make promises to your most precious sibling that one day, you'll live as any normal couple.
16. Anyone Who Isn't Us is the Enemy: You're in a dangerous climate, and the only one you can depend on is your flesh and blood - bringing you closer together.
17. No Choice in the Matter: Your sibling is not a willing participant in your debauchery, but they endure your cruelty, grooming, and manipulation because you are their brother or sister.
18. No One Like You: There truly is no one who can love you like the person who is closest to being you, bone of your bone. You perfectly understand each other and your love is pure.
19. Where No One Knows Our Faces: You've decided to flee your current life and live as new people among those who don't know that you're related.
20. Out in the Light: A secret no more, the two of you have decided to bring your affair out into the open. You will face the world, no matter what it does.
21. Rejection: Someone - friends, family, etc - has found out what you two have done and are disgusted by it. Will you turn to each other for comfort?
22. The End: Being with someone so unattainable is tiring, and one day, you may grow weary of stowing everything away, locking your heart up, or feeling so shamed. This must cease. But can you go back to being just siblings?
23. Not Really Related After All: Perhaps the most cliche of tropes, though it's often used to "justify" incest. Turns out the two of you aren't really siblings! Now, you can pursue a relationship freely.
24. Part of the Same Whole: You're meant to be together, you firmly believe it.
25. Sick and Twisted: The fact that you two are siblings actually is a kink/fetish for you. You get off to all of this.
26. FREESTYLE

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ able to get gritty and grim with Future past if you like!]

[ Reylo preferred. Let's talk AUs! ]

[No Matthews, please]

👀

[come at me bro]

[ u have any prefs for scenario? ]

[How complicated do we want it to be? A few thoughts

- before Declan graduates, maybe even at Monmouth
- after he graduates and before/slightly after Ronan drops out - the Barns??
- D.C.

I'm good with any of those so if you're feeling one go for it.]

[ the memorial is a small one, just the lynch brothers, gansey and the others, their priest. the lynch family had always been private, and aurora hadn't known many people even before her husband's death. there's no body to bury--unmade like so much of cabeswater had been by the end--so it's an empty casket that goes in the ground, filled with a few precious things that she'd loved.

ronan feels a hundred miles away during the entire service, a faint whining in his ears, skin feeling stretched wrong over his bones. his last memory of her isn't as the woman she'd been, golden-haired and laughing, adoring her boys more than anything. it's red, flesh unraveling from bones made white and sharp as they crumbled to nothing. it's blood-stained curls and black like tar coating his hands as he'd tried, he'd tried to hold her together--

then they're home, and he's standing in the middle of the living room, feet sock-clad on the worn hardwood floors, jacket over the back of the couch. he can hear matty's feet thumping up the stairs, careless as always, and..

declan.

he takes a breath, what feels like the first in a long time, and it shudders out of him wetly. ] Declan, [ he manages faintly, hating how lost he sounds, and reaches, hands curling in his brother's shirt, brow pushing against his. ]

[Declan doesn't know what to do.

While he didn't ever expect Aurora to come back, to wake up, he didn't expect this. At least Matthew and Ronan survived. And Matthew seems... himself.

He's standing in the house they grew up in, the one he's spent so little time in since Niall died, the one that Ronan has reclaimed. He's staring at nothing, rolling over things in his head until Ronan's voice breaks the air. And seconds later, he can feel Ronan's head bumping against his.

He doesn't know what to do.

For a breath, he doesn't move. Then his hands slide over Ronan's arms on their own accord. He doesn't ask Ronan if he's okay.]

Ronan.

[ his fingers tighten in an effort to keep them from shaking, helplessly, shamefully grateful for declan's hands on his arms keeping him anchored to the earth. he feels like he's going to fly apart at the seams if his older brother releases him, and he hates this, hates the way his head works and that even now, when it's so important, he can't be better.

he knows matty's probably sobbing in his childhood bed, and he needs to go up and check on him, sit with him, but he can't stop seeing red, and he can't leave declan, either. ]

You're staying. Right? Tonight. [ as volatile as he and declan's relationship has been since niall died, suddenly all he wants is his brother's heartbeat under his ear, steady and familiar. and maybe it wasn't a good idea to come back to the barns today of all days, maybe they should have gone back to declan's townhouse in dc instead, but he's really not sure anywhere would be good right now. ] I don't.. know what we're supposed to do now.

[Declan tries not to remember the last time they were this close without hitting each other. It would be easier if Ronan was throwing punches. He knows how to handle that. He's willing to hit back.

This? This is different. He can feel his heart pounding and he tries to keep his breathing even.]

Yes, I'll stay.

[There is part of him that thinks he should take Matthew and go. But he can't just abandon Ronan. He has never been able to abandon Ronan.

Declan allows himself to run a hand over his brother's short hair. He turns his head a bit, lets his nose nudge gently against Ronan's cheek. ]

It'll be okay.

[Declan is a liar. But he is a good liar.]

[ no it won't. he's not sure how it can ever be okay again. their mother was murdered, gansey died, and ronan had to ask cabeswater to die to get him back. there's a part of him that wants to scream it, that always seems to want to fight with declan, because the other option is to be vulnerable, and he is so, so afraid to be vulnerable.

and yet-- here they are, pressed close together, still in funereal black. declan's breath stirs against his cheek, and ronan squeezes his eyes shut, chest clenching painfully tight with panic or some other emotion. he can smell declan's cologne this close, the scent of his skin, and he hates himself for how comforting and confusing the effect of it is on him.

his hands uncurl, sliding up instead to cup the sides of his older brother's neck, feeling his pulse in the center of his palms, thumbs resting against the sharp curve of his jaw. ] Why did-- [ his breathing hiccups in his chest. ] Why did Dad do this to us? [ why did he dream his wife? why did he have children with her? why did he get mixed up in something that got him killed, that left aurora comatose? why did he teach ronan nothing, give him nothing about dreamers, or how dreaming works? if he'd taught him, maybe ronan could have fixed cabeswater. maybe he could have found a way to keep aurora home. maybe, maybe, maybe. ]