Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The apartment is silent except for the occasional creak of floorboards cooling. Jannik adjusts the camera lens manually - not because he has to, but because it gives his hands something to do. On the table beside him, the book sits like a provocation: matte cover, silver embossing, spine barely creased. Over a million five-star ratings. He’d checked. Twice.

He exhales through his nose and pushes the sleeves of his shirt to his elbows. A small act of containment.

The room smells faintly of bergamot and old paper. It’s lit dimly by the low amber glow of his desk lamp and the cool spill of the bookshelf LEDs behind him. One of the dogs from the upstairs flat thumps across the ceiling. Jannik ignores it.

He sits. Rolls his shoulders once. Then again.

The camera light blinks red.

He looks directly into the lens - not unkindly, but with the quiet resolve of a man who knows exactly what he’s about to do.

Channel: Chapter & Verse
📅 Uploaded: Sunday, 8:17 PM
🎥 Title: Escapism Deserves Better: Romantasy’s Worldbuilding Problem
📌 Tags: #fantasybooks #romantasy #worldbuilding #booktube

🎵 [Intro: Music & Visual Identity]
• Audio: Soft piano chord, fading quickly
• Visual: Deep green shelves, a warm lamp glow. Ambient quiet.
• On Screen: Jannik seated in a high-backed chair, sleeves rolled up, a hardcover romantasy novel in his lap - A Court of Thorns and Roses, visible but unspoken.
• Expression: Patient. Barely.

Jannik (dryly):
“If I had a coin for every time I picked up a romantasy and found another morally ambiguous prince with cheekbones and a sword fetish…”

[He lifts the book slightly, just enough for the title to be seen.]

“...I’d finally have enough to buy a plot with consistent internal logic.”

[Quick piano sting. Title card appears: CHAPTER & VERSE in serif font.]

[Cut to Jannik, leaning on one hand. His voice is quieter than usual — not hesitant, but precise.]

Jannik (on camera):
“I wasn’t going to make this video.”

[A long beat. He exhales quietly.]

“But I stayed up until 3am finishing a book with over one million five-star ratings. It’s being called escapism. Immersive. Transportive.”

[He looks up. Calm, but clearly done.]

“I think we need to ask what we’re escaping into.”

Voiceover (Jannik):
“A mossy forest and a moody man don’t make a fantasy world. They’re set dressing. That’s not worldbuilding. That’s aesthetic.”

[Montage of romantasy book covers. Blurred titles, fae crowns, glowing swords. Visually lush, narratively vague.]

Voiceover continues:
“When you dig beneath the romance, there’s often nothing there. No functioning economy. No legal system. No cultural tension beyond ‘the humans don’t like the fae.’”

[Cut back to Jannik, leaning forward slightly.]

Jannik (on camera):

“Fantasy has always been about systems. Structure. The rules underneath the magic. The friction between power and consequence. The best stories build worlds that would keep turning, even if the protagonist walked away.”

“A lot of romantasy doesn’t do that. It builds just enough world to get the main couple into the same fog-drenched room. And then it stops.”

[He gestures vaguely toward the book.]

“When the entire narrative hinges on a red flag with wings — an ancient, emotionally unavailable immortal who watches a mortal teenager sleep because he ‘can’t stay away’ — we need to stop calling that escapism.”

Voiceover (Jannik):
“It’s not morally grey. It’s just unhealthy. And dressing it in velvet and trauma backstory doesn’t make it any more nuanced.”

[Insert onscreen caption: “Please stop calling it romantic. He’s just emotionally unavailable in a cape.”]

Jannik (on camera):
“Power imbalance isn’t the same as narrative complexity. Dominance isn’t the same as tension. And a plot that can’t hold up without a shirtless man scowling in the background isn’t really a plot.”

Voiceover (Jannik):
“Comfort reads have value. But we should ask what kinds of dynamics we’ve learned to find comforting. Why these particular patterns keep showing up, dressed as fantasy. And who they’re serving.”

[Montage: blurred bestseller lists, Pinterest boards titled “dark fae x mortal girl.”]

Jannik (on camera):
“Le Guin gave us whole economies. Tolkien invented languages. Robert Jordan gave us an elaborate worldview based on the fluidity of time and global religion. Romantasy has six-foot fae men who growl when another man talks to you.”

[A pause. Not angry — just tired.]

Jannik:
“You can’t build a world out of tropes. You can only stack them. And eventually, they collapse.”

Voiceover:
“Escapism doesn’t mean you shut your brain off. It means you enter a world that’s worth holding in your mind — even after the last page.”

“A plot built on chemistry can’t survive scrutiny. And a world built on tropes can’t hold weight.”

[Black screen. White serif text fades in:]

“Escapism without architecture isn’t transportive. It’s decorative.”

[Outro music: faint piano notes, unresolved.]

The camera light blinks off. Jannik exhales, scrubs a hand over his face, and sets the book aside like it’s a spent match. The room is quiet again, save for the soft hum of the LED lights and the late-night shuffle of footsteps upstairs.

He doesn’t replay the footage. He already knows how it will land - tight, precise, maybe too sharp in places. But true. He meant every word.

He stretches once, spine cracking, and crosses the room to turn off the lamp. In the dark, the bookshelves behind him glow like a forest of spines and spines and spines. Shelves that hold weight. Stories that earned their escape.

Chapter Text

Carlos drags his ring light a little closer, then steps back to check the frame. The camera wobbles slightly because the cat has decided the tripod is a scratching post again.

“Please,” he says gently, scooping her up. “I’m trying to defend the right to emotionally imprint on shirtless fictional men. Can you not?”

She blinks at him, utterly unrepentant.

He sets her down on the bed, adjusts the heart-shaped pillow behind him, and throws a fluffy cream blanket over the messiest stack of books. The fairy lights in the background are a little lopsided - he considers fixing them, then shrugs. It’s part of the charm.

His laptop sits just out of frame, Notes app open, talking points loosely sketched in bright pastel highlights. His thumbnail is going to be ridiculous. Probably him holding a paperback dramatically, with a caption like “let me live??”

Carlos claps once, mostly to psych himself up.

“Okay,” he says, to himself, to the cat, to the internet at large. “Let’s be respectful. Let’s be kind. Let’s absolutely drag him just a little.”

He hits record.

🎥 Video Transcript – Carlos Alcaraz

Channel: Carlitos Reads Romance
📅 Uploaded: Monday, 5:42 PM
🎥 Title: In Defence of Escapism (and Also Hot Princes With Swords)
📌 Tags: #romancebooks #romantasy #booktube #inmyfeelings #respectfully

🎵 [Intro Music: Gentle indie acoustic – same as usual intro]
• Visual: Carlos in his usual cosy spot — soft pink hoodie, fairy lights glowing, heart-shaped pillow in frame. A paperback lies open in his lap.
• Cat crosses the frame immediately, tail in the camera lens. Carlos laughs and waves it away.

Carlos (grinning):
“Okay. So I watched a video last night that kinda hurt my feelings… respectfully.”
[He makes a pained face. One hand clutches his chest. It’s a bit.]
“Like, I know he wasn’t talking about me, but also… I feel like he was talking about me.”

[Cut to close-up – cat now perched on the pillow beside him.]

Carlos:
“If you’ve seen that romantasy worldbuilding video that dropped yesterday - you know the one - then you already know why we’re here.”

He pauses. Looks at the camera meaningfully.

“I’m not here to start drama. I’m here to defend the right to fall in love with emotionally unavailable sword men in mossy forests, okay?”

[Cut – Carlos holding up a heavily annotated paperback.]

Carlos:
“Listen. I love romance. I love fantasy. I love romantasy. Do I wish more of it came with tax systems, and infrastructure, and functioning governments? Sure! But I’m not reading about the dark fae prince because I care about trade routes.”

[Quick jump cut – he gasps dramatically.]

Carlos:
“...Unless it’s a forbidden romance between rival political emissaries! In which case: where’s the map??”

[Overlay: “Tropes are structure.”]

Carlos (sincerely):
“There’s this idea that tropes are lazy, or that soft romance stories aren’t ‘real’ fantasy. And I just... no. Tropes are storytelling scaffolding. You don’t get mad at a house for having beams, right? They’re what let the good stuff shine.”

Carlos (gesturing with hands):
“Like yes, okay, sometimes we get a morally questionable love interest who’s six hundred years old and emotionally constipated, and that’s a little weird when you say it out loud…”
[He gives the camera a “you got me” shrug.]
“…but it’s also fantasy. It’s a metaphor. It’s wish-fulfilment. It’s a safe space to explore messy dynamics without consequences.”

[Cut – he taps the cover of his book.]

Carlos:
“Escapism doesn’t have to be tidy. Sometimes it’s messy and dramatic and full of shirtless winged men who growl at you when another guy flirts, and honestly? That’s healing.”

[Cut – soft close-up, slightly more serious tone.]

Carlos:
“Not everything has to be high literary art to be valuable. Some of us read to feel. Some of us read because we’re tired. Because we want to be wanted. Because being loved loudly is something we don’t always get in real life.”

[Cat meows loudly off-screen.]

Carlos (without missing a beat):
“Yes, thank you, I am being profound right now.”

Carlos (smiling again):
“Anyway. If a book gives you comfort, or makes you swoon, or reminds you that love can be soft and sweet and just a little bit spicy? That’s not ‘low effort.’ That’s magic.”

[Outro – Carlos leans forward slightly.]

Carlos:
“So yeah. Respectfully? Don’t come for the romantasy readers. We’ve got tabs and we’re emotionally fragile.”

Beat.

“…Also I would absolutely watch a forty-minute video on elvish trade regulations if it came with a friends-to-lovers subplot. Just saying.”

🎵 [Outro music fades in – cheerful acoustic jingle]
End screen:
❤️ Like & Subscribe for more romance hot takes!
🐈 Cat of the Day: Frida, who thinks I talk too much.
📚 Next up: Ranking Fantasy Tropes By How Likely They Are to Ruin My Life

Chapter Text

💬 YouTube Comment Section — Under Carlos’ Video

📺 “In Defence of Escapism (and Also Hot Princes with Swords)”

[Pinned Comment by CarlitosReadsRomance]
✨ Yes, I’ve seen the Chapter & Verse video. Yes, I’m being respectful. No, I will not apologise for the prince. 💅
— edited

📘 @ACOTARandAnxiety
“If loving the red flag fae prince is wrong, I don’t want to be right.”

🔥 @emotionallydamagedinfaeland
“Carlos really said: yes, the power imbalance is problematic, now pass me the annotated paperback and shut up.”

🌿@softlitcrit
“Honestly love that this video felt like being gently tucked into bed while someone tells you why your trauma tropes are valid.”

📚@jessicasreadsalot
“I came here ready to be mad, and now I want to re-read Throne of Glass and also apologise to Carlos.”

🐈@booktokcatlady
“Cat of the Day supremacy. That man is unbothered, hydrated, and thriving.”

🥲 @bookishbisexual
“Honestly? I feel seen. I also feel personally attacked. But like, gently.”

🧃 @romanceisvalid
“Carlos didn’t just defend romantasy. He romanced it.”

[Comment Load More: (3.2K more replies)]

Somewhere across town, Jannik refreshes his inbox. Again.

Jannik doesn’t go looking for the video. He’s halfway through replying to a Patreon question about necromancy as a narrative device when his notifications start piling up. At first, it’s a Discord ping. Then Twitter. Then three DMs from mutuals, all variations of:

“So… have you seen the video?”
“i think someone made you a sunshine-shaped enemy 💀”
“he has a cat. you’re doomed.”

Jannik narrows his eyes at the screen. Types Carlitos Reads Romance into the search bar and immediately gets hit in the face with the thumbnail: soft fairy lights, heart pillow, a guy in a pastel hoodie looking aggressively huggable, holding a paperback like it just proposed marriage.

The video is titled: “In Defence of Escapism (and Also Hot Princes with Swords).”

Jannik doesn’t sigh. He exhales slowly and through his nose, which is practically the same thing.

He stares at the screen for a while.

He considers not clicking it. But curiosity is a stubborn thing. And so is pride.

Then he hits play.

The boy in the hoodie is smiling before he even says a word. There's a cat walking through the frame. The background is chaos. The vibe is chaotic good. And then—

“Okay. So, I watched a video last night that kinda hurt my feelings… respectfully.”

Jannik closes his eyes. Opens them again.

By the three-minute mark, he’s frowning.

By the five-minute mark, he’s opened a Notepad document titled Romance ≠ Fantasy??? and typed three bullet points. None of them make sense.

By the end, he’s just… staring.

Because Carlitos - if that’s really his name, and not a chaos demon sent by the YouTube algorithm to personally haunt him - is not just making a rebuttal. He’s making a love letter. To genre. To romance. To feeling things very loudly in forest clearings and metaphorical trauma towers.

He doesn’t come off as smug. He comes off as sincere. Even as he’s dragging Jannik gently across the coals.

And then there’s the part with the cat. The cat meows during his argument about wish-fulfilment, and he doesn’t cut it. He just nods and says, “Yes, thank you, I am being profound right now.”

By the end, Jannik’s left blinking at the outro screen. There's a “Cat of the Day.” There’s a Taylor Swift lyric taped to a bookshelf. The top pinned comment says, “he seems very pale and sensitive.”

Jannik isn’t mad.

He’s just… surprised. Because he thought he’d be angry. Thought it would feel like being misunderstood. Flattened into something unserious. But instead-

Carlos argued back. Kindly. Cleverly. With real points and real affection. With warmth, Jannik wouldn’t know how to fake if someone paid him.

It wasn’t a takedown. It was a conversation. A rebuttal without venom. A playful invitation to look again.

And – god - he’s not going to say it, but the boy is annoyingly pretty. Big, brown, eyes. That wide, open grin. Hands he talks with hands, like he can’t help himself.

Jannik scrubs a hand down his face. Sits still for a long moment, laptop open but idle, screen gone dark.

He can see his own reflection in the black gloss - just the shape of his face and the blurred mess of his bookshelves behind it.

Then, slowly, he opens a new document and types:
Escapism, Fantasy, and the Weight of Joy.

He stares at it. Backspaces all the way.

Types again.
Tropes Aren’t the Problem. But They’re Not the Plot.

He pauses, exhales. And, for the first time in a while, he doesn’t feel like he’s shouting into the void.

Just… maybe writing back.