#Is Instagram a good place to start working with influencers?

[sociocosmos]

[thebearer]

follow me |carmen berzatto x reader|

prompt: the bear needs a social media rebrand. sydney hired you, and carmen gets more than just followers after meeting you.

an: bad descript i'm sorry lol. basically you're a social media manager and carmen likes you lol or how you and carmen meet <3 also thinking this will be a part 1???? lmk if you want a part 2!!!

contains: reader is a social media manager. language. carmen denying himself happiness ofc. mentions of mikey. fluff, fluff, fluff!!!

“What the hell is this?” Sydney’s voice raised, brow raised even higher to heighten her suspicions. Maybe her disgust. 

After Carmen looked at the snarl on her face, he decided it was definitely disgust. 

“What?” Carmen shrugged, looking at the screen in front of him. “It’s the, uh, The Beef’s old Instagram.” 

“Right.” Sydney said slowly, blinking at Carmen obviously. “The Beef, and we are not that anymore. We are The Bear.” She scrolled for a moment. “They also haven’t posted since twenty-twenty, which is-” 

“-Well, Mikey ran it, alright?” Carmen huffed, glaring at Sydney with annoyance. “I just found the fuckin’ password on a fucking gum wrapper in a folder labeled ‘important shit’ so I don’t know what to tell you.” 

Sydney nodded slowly, looking back at the phone, before sighing deeply. “I know what you should do.” She said, typing on her phone. Carmen grunted, still looking at the piles of order forms for produce in front of him. “You need a social media manager, because Carm, this? It's not gonna work.” 

“Social media what?” Carmen’s brows creased, shaking his head. “I don’t- no, I don’t need to do that. I’ll just, I’ll get Gary or fuckin’ Sweeps or Fak to run-”

“No, no, Carmen, seriously? Look at this. There’s- oh my God- there’s a thing here that says bring your own plate and you’ll get a free drink, Carmen… What the fuck?” Sydney sighed, shaking her head at him. 

Carmen nodded, running a hand through his hair. “Yeah, I-I’m thinking that was a, uh, a Mikey special.” He muttered, pinching his eyes shut. “I can’t afford to hire someone on the payroll for that long, ok? Not when I could hire another hostess or-or a runner.” 

“They only come in to revamp and get it started. Just a little kick start for now. To get us started.” Sydney explained, clicking on her screen. “Look, I have a mutual friend with this girl who’s really fuckin’ good, ok? She did Lobo’s that pizza place? Got them from two hundred to eighteen thousand followers in like two or three months.” 

Carmen’s eyes flashed, looking at Sydney with a raised brow. “Seriously? Fuck…” Carmen looked at the screen, the crisp photos, videos, fun and trendy- vibrant and alluring. He hated to admit it, but it was good. 

“Look, Carm, it’s free advertising, ok? You catch the influencers if it goes viral. Could really put this place out there.” Sydney countered. “It’d be a lot cheaper than paying for some shitty advertisement on the news that no one watches anyways. Could bring in a lot of business and attention.” 

Carmen’s fingers drummed against the counter, sighing sharply. “Fine, whatever, see if you can get her in and just… Just tell me how much I need to put aside, alright? I’ll push the new glasses until then.” 

Sydney smiled triumphantly, nodding at Carmen. “Yes, Chef.” She saluted, walking out of the office. 

Three days later, you were standing outside of The Bear, newly opened, freshly renovated, and steady but not booming. “Uh, excuse me?” You waved through the window at the man in the beanie, looking at you carefully. 

“Hey, we’re closed until dinner, alright? But you can-” 

“Oh, no. I, uh, I’m not here for eating.” You cringed, shaking your head. “I’m looking for Sydney? Or Carmen? I’m the new social media person?” 

“Social media?” The man repeated, pushing the door open further. “Oh, shit! You’re the girl who does the, uh, Lobo and Avec!” 

“Yeah, I am.” You blushed, walking into the restaurant. 

“I love watching those reels of the asmr cutting the bread. Ugh, I watch it every night before going to bed.” The guy laughed, locking the door behind you. “Oh, I’m Marcus by the way.” 

You took his extended hand, introducing yourself, while you took in the fixtures on the wall, the art, the overall ambiance. “I am going to get Carmen, but you can stay right here if you want.” Marcus grinned, pushing the sliding doors open. 

You set your things down, pulling out your notebook, and looking around the restaurant. You knew that this was once The Beef, Sydney had sent you a few things about Carmen’s credentials and you looked up the rest. Impressed was an understatement, a guy your age that had ran the best restaurant in the world? Quite possibly was the best chef in the world or at least Chicago and needed your help? You were nervous, to say the least. 

Marcus called your name, making you jump slightly as you turned around. “Uh, so this is Carmen. He’s the owner, the head chef.” 

“Hi,” You were met with piercing blue eyes, hidden under a stray blonde lock of hair. Carmen’s hand reached for yours. “Nice to meet you. Sydney, uh, she couldn’t stop tellin’ me about your work. Thank you for helpin’ us out.” 

“No, no, thank you.” You reached for his hand, strong, a little rough, trying not to stare at his inked fingers. “It’s a pleasure to work with you. She told me a little about you, about the restaurant. It’s very impressive. Surprised you needed me.” You grinned. 

Carmen bit back a smile, looking down to hide his blush. Fuck, Sydney said you were good at your job, she failed to mention that you were so fuckin’ pretty too. Carmen could feel his heart fluttering in his chest, taking flight like he was a middle schooler again with a school yard crush. 

“So, if you have time, I want to go over some goals with you?” You say, gripping your notebook tightly. 

“Goals. Right, uh,” Carmen looked through the back doors. “Sydney is on her break, and-and my sister, Sugar- well, her name is Natalie, she’s like our manager. Richie too, uh, shit- I’m sorry that’s a lot of people, I know.” Carmen shook his head, an anxious laugh pealing out from his lips. “Those are the people you need to talk to, basically. I can grab them, just-” 

“-But you’re the owner, right?” You asked, lifting a brow gently. 

“No, I mean, yeah, I am.” Carmen stuttered. 

“Then I need to talk to you, too.” You gave him a small smile. “I mean, you know this place better than anyone, right? All the ins and outs? And from what Sydney told me, you redid this entire place. Right?” 

“Yeah, I did.” Carmen nodded. Fuck, he kept staring at your lips, he didn’t mean to, he was just… he was distracted. 

“So, we can all meet if you want, or I can do it one at a time.” You pulled your pen out of your notebook, looking at him with a gentle smile. It had Carmen’s heart racing. “I just have a few questions about the vision.” 

“The vision?” Carmen repeated, swallowing around the growing lump in his throat. 

“Yeah, the vision.” You smiled. “Just… tell me about this place. Tell me about you.” You slid into the chair across from him. 

Carmen wiped his hands on his pants, turning to look at the doors, hoping someone would come to his rescue. He wasn’t good at talking, especially not to pretty girls, especially about himself. Still, he couldn’t leave you sitting there. He’d hired you after all, and you were here to help him. So he sat down across from you, hoping you didn’t see the way his knee bounced under the table, hoping you couldn’t hear how his heart pounded. 

“So, Carmen Berzatto,” You grinned, every syllable of his name rolling off your tongue so sweetly, Carmen was sure he was going to faint. “Tell me about The Bear. Why did you start it?”

“Well, it was The Beef before. And-And my parents owned it, then my brother Mikey did…” Carmen started, watching the way you scribbled, eyes flickering to him with a small smile.

“Hello!” You called, pushing through the back door. They’d given you the code a week ago, so you didn’t have to wait or pound on the front door until someone took mercy and let you in. “It’s content day!” You sang, cheery and bright. 

Carmen could hear the pretty trill of your voice, trickling down the hall and into the kitchen. Tina smirked, watching the way he stopped, turning to look at you, blush rising under his white shirt. “Hey, Jeff,” Tina smirked, his head snapping to her. “Your girl’s here.” 

The staff had been teasing Carmen relentlessly about how smitten he was with you. Something he’d been so reluctant to do, he now looked forward to. Carmen swore it was because of your work. You had taken them from the measly six hundred followers they’d had since they started the account in twenty-eleven to six thousand, strategic posts and tags and tagging a few buzz accounts that were Chicago foodies. Business had gone up, reservations filling slowly. Followers poured in from TikTok, from the reels, from the posts. One tag from a micro Chicago influencer had brought in a good chunk and was still, all because of a photo with the pretty light features and the dessert. 

“Where’s the Bear?” You grinned, passing Sydney, camera in hand, bag slung over your shoulder. You pushed open Carmen’s office, dropping your bag in there. He’d told you that you could keep your things in there, since you didn’t have a locker, of course- and not at all because that meant he’d see you before you left. 

“He’s in here, baby!” Tina called, smirking at Carmen. 

“C’mon,” Carmen shook his head, a deep breath to keep him from looking so flushed. It worked for a moment, of course, until you rounded the corner. All bright smiles and fuck, you smelled so good. Camren wanted to drown himself in your perfume. “Good morning, Bear.” You beamed. 

Carmen grinned, cheeks heating with every step you took forward. “Mornin’.” He muttered, looking at the clock. 

“It’s content day.” You grinned, shaking your camera lightly. “Tell me you got something good for me, Chef. What's the special this week?” 

“A lamb tenderloin with a gorgonzola sauce served over pasta- house made, of course.” Carmen answered. 

“Of course.” You repeated with a tiny grin. You turned on your camera, taking a test shot, before you looked at Carmen carefully. “Ready whenever you are, Chef.” 

Carmen bit back his own grin, clearing his throat lightly. “How do I start it? The same as last time?” 

“Yep.” You nodded, pressing the camera to your eyes. “Tell me your name, name of the restaurant, and then just this week's special.” 

“On your mark.” Carmen nodded, picking up his clean utensil. 

“On yours.” You laughed. “I’m already recording.” 

Carmen spoke to the camera easily, trying to stay trained on the lens and not at you. How you’d grin and nod encouragingly at him, zooming in closer as he chopped, seasoned, pulled the already prepared and finished product out of the oven. 

Richie crossed his arms, leaning against the wall next to Sugar, lips pursed knowingly. “I know you’re thinkin’ the same shit as me.” 

Sugar hummed. “That Carmen’s into her?” 

“Way fuckin’ into her.” Richie grinned, watching as Carmen blushed, grinning back at you, genuine and a little shy at your compliment. 

“Fifty bucks says he doesn’t make a move.” Sugar looked at Richie. 

Richie snorted, scoffing with a shake of his head. “Alright. I’ll take your bet. I say he does.” 

“Get ready to be out of fifty dollars, Cousin.” Sugar said smugly. “This is Carmy we’re talking about. Not Mikey. Carmen’s not gonna make a move on her.” 

“Eh, not so quick, my dear, Natalie. Carmen’s changed a little since this place.” Since the horrendous freezer incident with Claire. “He really likes her too, look at ‘em.” Richie nodded, watching as Carmen held the spoon out for you, blushing when your hand touched his to take it, groaning before smothering him in compliments. Tina looked at Richie, amused and grinning from across the room. 

“Carmen will seal the deal. It’ll be last fuckin’ minute and it will be a mess, because it’s fuckin’ Carmen, but… I believe in him.” Richie nodded. 

Natalie snorted. “I genuinely hope you’re right, Cousin.” She looked at Carmen with a small smile, watching the way he looked at you, eyes cutting like he was being so cool about keeping his feelings underwraps. “I really do.” 

That night, Carmen lied in bed, scrolling through his footage from the day, seeing the video pop up from @/thebearchicago. Set to classical music, snobby and dramatic, the cuts, Carmen’s voice laid over describing the meal for the week, and a particularly good close up of his hands cutting the onions fiercely. Carmen was shocked to see the number of likes… the number of comments flooding in. 

“the cameraman knew exactly what they were doing lmao”

“New necklace available!!!” 

“I will give you my vital organs and let you chop them up like that if you let me watch chef please” 

“What the fuck?” Carmen snorted lightly, shaking his head, scrolling through the comments. He clicked to the main page of the restaurant, seeing you were just a few away from ten thousand followers. Fuck… Sydney was fucking right. You were good. 

Carmen’s face fell, mind racing and screaming with the reminder that you were only there for a few more days. He’d only hired your for two months- two glorious fucking months. You seemed… permanent now. Like he couldn’t imagine you not coming in on Tuesdays and Thursdays and after three on Fridays. You were a staple there. The staff loved you, you were good, and-

And Carmen really liked you. Liked having you around. Looked forward to talking to you. To get the chance to lean over your shoulder as an excuse to touch you when you showed him a preview of a post. Or when you’d send him cute text messages, a funny comment attached, your text reading: “you’re a hit, bear! they love you!” 

It was like you could read his mind, your contact flashing across the screen at him. 

To: Carmen 

‘told you this would be a good one! the fans love you berzatto!!!’ 

Carmen grinned, the faint twinge of a blush on his face. He could feel his heart racing, fingers dancing over the keyboard, and worst of all- he could hear Mikey’s fucking voice in the back of his head. A nagging tone repeating over and over and over, “Let it rip, Bear! Don’t be such a pussy! Ask her out!” 

Carmen looked at his screen, fingers typing out the message, a short, less than smooth invite to make you a special thank you dinner and his place- a date. He hoped you picked up on it. Heat hammering in his chest, he could feel his chest tighten, ribs knitting together uncomfortably, stomach twisting in the worst way. 

So, Carmen did what he always did. 

From: Carmen 

‘Never doubted you. Thank you. The video was great.’ 

He watched as the blue sent, the delivered turning into seen, and followed by your thumbs up over the text. Carmen put his phone on the table, lying back on his pillow, but he couldn’t sleep. His stomach still turned, unsettled with regret. 

“Oh! Marcus stop!” You gasped, Carmen’s head turning at the sound of your voice. “You didn’t need to do all of this!” 

“Yeah, I did.” Marcus beamed. Carmen turned the corner, seeing a beautifully piped cake there, candles and icing cursive that read “thank you!” in the middle of the buttercream. “You’re cool and you got us on the map, girl. Plus, we’re gonna miss you.” 

“Yeah,” Sydney nodded, holding a small balloon that said that exact phrase on it. “We will miss you.” 

“I’ll miss you guys.” You grinned, hugging them both tightly. “This has been my favorite job so far. You guys have been so nice. Way nicer than a lot of these assholes around here.” You grinned. 

Richie stood on the wall, foot tapping, eyes darting back from you to Carmen. He could see his cousin’s stuttering movements, hesitant and careful, before retreating back into himself. C’mon, Carm, fuckin’ do it, Richie thought, shaking his head. Carmen wouldn’t though, wouldn’t let himself be happy. Richie took a deep breath, head shaking with annoyance. 

“Goddammit, Berzatto,” Richie muttered, pushing off the wall. “You know, sweetheart, it’s been so great having you. Seriously, you blew us all away.” Richie said, walking towards you. 

You smiled. “Thanks, Richie. I really appreciate it.” 

“And you know what, we want to really show how much we appreciate you.” Richie’s eyes cut to Natalie, a silent plea to help him out. “I had a cancellation for this evening, and I would love for you to come instead. Let us really cook for you, give you the whole experience. No bill, of course. All on the house, for you, my dear.” 

“Oh, I-I couldn’t let you guys do that.” You shook your head politely, eyes cutting to Carmen’s. 

“No-No, please.” Carmen nodded, finally speaking. Richie sighed silently in relief. “It would be great actually. Please?” 

You felt your heart melt, nodding softly. Before you could even reply, Richie was stepping up again. “And you know what? You gotta do one last post for us, right? The big chef spotlight one. The, uh, c’mon, Sydney what am I lookin’ for here?” 

“Oh, the one about the staff spotlights?” Sydney asked. 

“That’s the one. See, that’s it. And you’ve done everyone except the big boss.” Richie pointed at Carmen, ignoring the way the younger man’s face fell. 

“I didn’t get one-” Fak started, Richie shoving him out of the way. 

“You gotta end with Carmy, and it's funny because it’s gonna be real slow tonight anyways. Wednesday, ya know? And I think what better way to experience the night, really craft that staff spotlight thing, than with Carmen. The two of you, have dinner and get to talk.” Richie knew it was rocky, not at all smooth, but it was the best he could do. 

“What? Cousin, what are you-” 

“-No, you’re right, Richie.” Sugar added, stepping towards Carmen, and cutting him off. “And Carm, you were saying you wanted to see everything in action for yourself. You do the customer experience so you make sure everything’s good, and we’ll serve you both dinner. All the stops.” 

“How’s that sound?” Richie clapped his hands together, nodding at Tina, who grinned. 

“Jeff, it would be really nice to make sure we can work without your instructions. A good night for it too.” Tina added. 

“Yeah, and Sydney’s got it.” Richie nudged the girl beside him. 

“Totally, Carm- uh, Chef. I’ve got it.” Sydney nodded, catching on to Richie’s glare at her. 

Carmen felt like he could melt into the floor, face red and palms sweaty. His ears were ringing, tongue swelled thick in his mouth. You looked over at him with a small smile. “I mean, that does sound really nice. If-If it’s ok with you guys, you don’t have to-” 

“-Oh no,” Richie shook his head, walking over to Carmen to clap him on the shoulders. “We insist, don’t we, cousin?” Richie laughed, leaning down to Carmen. “Don’t fuckin’ stand there like a jagoff, say somethin’.” He whispered. 

“Yeah.” Carmen said, swallowing thickly around the lump in his throat. “It’s, uh, yeah. That-That sounds great.” 

“Wonderful.” Richie beamed. “Six o’clock sounds good for you kids? Give you enough time to get it together.” Richie looked from you to Carmen. “Maybe for some of us to take a shower.” 

Carmen could feel the heat rise from his neck to his cheeks, covering him in a furious blush. You giggled. “Definitely gives me time to get a blow out.” You laugh. “See you at six then?” 

“It’s a date.” Natalie added, practically bouncing on her toes behind Carmen. 

Carmen glared at her, before turning back to you. “Yeah, I-I’ll see you then.” 

[octuscle]

Gold and coal

Johannes was a passionate influencer. When he felt like it. Actually, he only called himself an "influencer" because it sounded better than "slacker" or "professional son". He actually made a good living from his parents' money, which he spent at parties, shopping and traveling.

"So, what do you think of my cute new hat? I found it at this very cool market here in Ankara. It goes well with the necklace, doesn't it?" There were fewer likes on the picture than usual. Comments instead. Critical comments. Why he suddenly has such a beard. Johannes grabbed his chin. He had no beard, he had no beard growth at all. And he had carefully retouched the picture before posting it on Instagram. There had been no beard. But still: the photo above the caption clearly showed a beard…

He would have to deal with it later. Johannes had a full schedule. Working out at a gym, which surprisingly enough actually wanted to pay him, a visit to a Turkish bath and cocktails and dinner at a trendy rooftop bar in the evening. Even though Johannes was a hedonist, he was usually well organized and punctual. But at the gym, his schedule started to slip. He trained harder and longer than usual. He felt full of energy. And the traditional Turkish bath and hammam were fantastic. He met super interesting people there. Surprisingly, in the two weeks he had been traveling around Turkey, he had picked up more Turkish than he thought he would. He struck up conversations with people and they got on with each other using their hands and feet. Actually, he should have been up on the roof terrace, styled and with a gin and tonic in his hand, when he left the Turkish bath with a real Turkish stallion. The two of them had shagged like Johannes had never shagged before in his life. Johannes' hair was still oily from the scalp massage. He was sweating. His stallion asked him if they wanted to have another cup of tea and a shisha. They did. And then Johannes was fucked again in the stallion's apartment!

"as-salāmu ʿalaikum, brothers! Today will be a great day. I'm going on a tour of the insider tips in Ankara with my brother Hakan today. But now it's time to pray. salla Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam."

There was a hail of question marks as comments. Friends asked whether he had gone mad. But he also received positive feedback. Because of his style. Because of his faith. These comments were mostly in Turkish or Arabic. Both languages that Johannes (or Yahya, as he called himself here) understood more poorly than well. But he recognized praise in every language!

Hakan and Yahya had a great day. In public, they were the typical machos, but Hakan knew the places in Ankara where there was good, hard sex. Yahya sucked a minister's cock in the station toilet. And got 200 US dollars for an obviously good performance. Enough money for a good evening in the hammam and a good shisha afterwards.

The apartment that Hakan and Yahya shared was small and stuffy. The housing shortage in Ankara was no different to anywhere else in Turkey. But thanks to their small extra income, they at least had three rooms. Pure luxury for two people.

For Yahya, Instagram and other social media were actually just full of sin and Western decadence. But of course they were important media for receiving news from his brothers. His own account existed. Nothing more. He followed a handful of fellow believers who posted frequently, but he didn't really have any followers himself. He still had an old account from his school days. His name was still Johannes. But he hadn't looked in there for years.

Working at the bazaar as a porter was hard and exhausting. But the bazaar was full of niches where you could earn money with services that his sheikh shouldn't know about. Although Hakan thought he had shagged the sheikh before. But Yahya didn't really believe that. But he didn't really care… The main thing was that he and Hakan had enough money and fun. They prayed for that. Not necessarily five times a day. But about ten times a week. If they sucked more cock, they prayed more often. And Yahya sometimes had to pray very often. He was grateful that he didn't stand out too much with his hairy body and bushy beard. But the blond hair was exotic. And many customers were willing to pay a lot for sex with a blond Muslim.

Yahya and Hakan were minor celebrities in the bazaar. Firstly, because they were oil wrestlers on their way to competing against each other for the title of national champion. On the other hand, because they were only simple porters. But they knew every corner, every trader and always knew everything. "Ask Yahya or Hakan!" was a common saying if you wanted to know anything. Or if you wanted a special service. But they didn't talk about details in the bazaar.

Pics made by @ki-kink

[wenellyb]

Bucktommy & The power of positivity

I've seen some people say there was a ship war between Bucktommy and Buddie shippers and "both sides were to blame".

The way I see it, Buddie shippers started sh*tting on Bucktommy shippers the moment Tommy was confirmed as a love interest for Buck and Bucktommy shippers decided to reciprocate by being petty and making fun of some of them (especially the ones who were tagging their hate as "Bucktommy").

But Bucktommy shippers aren't the ones harrassing the cast and the crew and writing nasty comments on the 911 official instagram page.

It might be seen as a "ship war" but one of the groups is not like the other.

Whether you see this whole thing as a ship war or not, what I wanted to say to the Bucktommy fandom is not to fall in the "trap" set by Buddie shippers and be influenced by their penchant for negativity.

We're in a good place right now, and our ship is in a good place and it's one of the reasons why they're so angry, but we have no reason to be as angry as they are.

I'm not sure, of course, but I think that one of the reasons why Buddie never became canon over the past years is because of the behavior of some of the fans who were constantly harrassing the crew members and acting entitled. No showrunner likes that. These extreme stans even drove Oliver Stark off of social media.

On the other hand, we have Tommy who was only supposed to be in 4 episodes and here we have him in 6 episodes, and I think it's due to all the positivity surrounding Lou, Tommy and the Bucktommy ship.

So we should keep up posting about Bucktommy, writing fics, making edits, spreading positivity and try to ignore the negative posts as much as we can (I know it's not always easy) because it seems to work.

It's so easy to fall into the trap of Buddie shippers, because they try to provoke us with the biggest lies, just so they can get a reaction.

We have to remember that the negativity is all they have left.

I've checked some anti-Bucktommy posts and honestly the notes don't even go higher than 20 or 30 notes, so it's really not worth paying attention to it.

We're in a good place right now and we wouldn't want to messs it all up just because we started playing the game some Buddie shippers are playing.

TL:DR: Let's not try to focus to much on the haters: they're hateful because they’re losing. Let's focus on the positivity and keep enjoying Bucktommy!!!

[applejuicefruit]

Hey,Can i Request a Rafael Leao fic where him and the reader are bestfriends and the reader is insecure about being chubby and Rafa asks after a bad game if he can take a nap on her chest or tummy and she says no and covers it up.And from then is just Rafa complimenting her and just basically a small love confession🫶🏻🫶🏻

rafael leao x reader

TW : insecure and self conscious reader, angst and fluff

Perfect

you knew you weren’t perfect. no, you kept comparing yourself to all the models and influencers that appeared on your instagram feed. you couldn’t help it. but things got worse when your best friend rafa kept introducing you all his conquests he made during parties. it was just too much for you to handle. you always had a crush on him but you knew you wouldn’t be the type he would date, you were just the type he would go to when he needed some comfort or when he wanted a chill night watching netflix and eating popcorn. it’s always been like this and you got used to it. you went to his games and supported him no matter what, looking so proud for what he achieved.

usually everytime rafael came to your place it was almost like a habit that he would ask you if he could lay his head on your stomach or your lap because you were comfortable. at first you didn’t mind, not at all, in fact, you liked the attention he was giving you but as the time passed by you got more self conscious about it. the way he would express his wants to you like “please let me lay on your tummy, it’s so comfortable” you started to hate it.

hate that your tummy was comfortable and not flat. hate that you weren’t as the girls he was used to date. you just started hating yourself even more and you didn’t know how to stop that feeling.

you were currently on your couch watching rafael playing as you told him before you couldn’t make it to his game because you had a late work meeting and you got lucky you got out of the building at the start of the match.

so now, you were eating popcorn and cheering for rafa and his team from the comfort of your couch.

the match wasn’t good at all. his team lost and you felt rafael sadness through your tv. you already knew that in an hour you would find rafael on your door, begging to be comforted and of course - who are you to say no? he was your best friend after all.

and that’s what happened.

“come here” you said opening the front door and letting him in “how are you?” you asked him, wanting to be sure he was doing well.

“i’ve been better…” he said sitting on your couch. you could tell he cried before coming here, it was an important match and he didn’t want to lose it.

“i’m really sorry rafa…i saw the match and you did all what you could, you even scored…” you tried to cheer him up.

“yes but it wasn’t enough” he said.

“that’s football…sometimes you win, sometimes you lose” you said and he let out a sarcastic laugh. you knew him too well and you also knew that it didn’t matter what you said to comfort him, he wouldn’t listen.

“can we watch netflix?” he asked and you couldn’t say no. you were currently watching together modern family so maybe it was a good idea for cheering him up.

“yes” you laughed and turned netflix on.

a few minutes into the episode he asked if he could lay on your stomach but something snapped inside of you.

“y/n…” he called for your attention “can i lay on your tummy? it’s always so soft and comfortable and warm…” he asked, thinking you were going to say yes like you always did but this time he was greeted with a cold no.

“why not?” he asked.

“i don’t want to rafa”.

“but why?” he continued “you never said no”.

“because i don’t want to, okay? i…i don’t feel comfortable doing it so drop it” you said, eyes back on the tv and ignoring the questioning look on rafael’s face.

but he didn’t ignore how you covered your stomach with a pillow and how you kept hugging it, almost as if you wanted to hide your body.

he pretended to see nothing so you could continue with the show.

four episodes later you both fell asleep on your comfortable but uncomfortable couch.

when you woke up you were greeted with the delicious smell of coffee and pancakes and you couldn’t help but smile.

“good morning beautiful” rafa said when you got into the kitchen.

beautiful? he never called you beautiful.

“i made some breakfast for us…i hope you don’t mind but we’re out of eggs” he smiled.

“it’s okay, as long as those pancakes are good” you joked.

“here you go gorgeous” he said handing your plate with the pancakes.

gorgeous? and beautiful? in less than ten minutes? what was going on?

and that day wasn’t the only day he complimented you.

he started with texting you good morning beautiful or good night pretty girl. he started complimenting every outfit you wore on your days out, every time you style your hair in different ways or every time you did your make up in a different way. but it was too weird.

“i never meant to make you uncomfortable” he said one night while you were both hanging out at his place.

“uh?” you asked.

“that night…at your place…”

“it’s been over a month rafa” you smiled.

“i know but i saw the look on your face and how i made you uncomfortable…i’m sorry, i never meant to hurt you and your feelings in any way possible…” he said truthfully.

“it’s okay…really”.

“no it’s not…i…okay don’t hate me for what i’m going to say but i know you, i’ve been knowing you for years and i know how you feel uncomfortable in your own body…” he started talking.

“rafa” you tried to stop him.

“let me finish please…i just, i just wish you could see yourself the way i see you y/n, you’re beautiful, your eyes, your face, your body, everything about you is beautiful” he took your hands in his big ones “i’ve always wanted to say it to you but i never wanted to make things uncomfortable between us because you’re my best friend but maybe we could be something more?” he asked, too scared of being rejected.

did he just confess his love to you?

“do you really mean it?” you asked.

“of course, come here” he said, his hands grabbing your face and your lips meeting his softer ones. it was a gentle and loving kiss but you felt on fire.

“is this real?” you asked him and he laughed.

“very real”.

“i like you…and i mean a lot” you joked and he kissed you again.

“we can take things slowly…i just want to be with you” he said looking into your eyes and you said yes, completely forgetting about the show you were both watching and melting into rafael’s arms.

[ncityprincess]

anything for you, princess 👑

pairing: actor/sugar daddy? jaehyun x influencer?/sugar baby? female reader 

plot: tldr; reader gets flown out by actor jaehyun and they have sexy time for the first time 😁

MINORS DNI

note: this is my first ever story. i’ve been sitting on this idea for a minute and decided to go for it. this is extremely self indulgent. happy reading! 👑🍭

she woke up earlier than her alarm had, given she’d spent the past eight or so hours tossing and turning in bed anticipating the next day. she shot out of bed and started her day with one thing on her mind: him. 

him being her latest beau jeong jaehyun. it had all started a few months back. it was spring time, and she decided she wanted to bring some romantic energy to her instagram page. feeling flirty, the woman had uploaded a photo of herself holding a single red rose, adorned in a blood red satin dress that flattered her curvy figure. nothing too out of the ordinary, as she frequently posted pretty pictures of herself. 

apparently mr. jeong, seoul’s most popular up-and-coming actor, felt the dress flattered her too. the oh-so handsome star wasn't the type to use social media outside of work purposes, as it wasn't really his thing, but the picture had innocently landed on his explore page. anyone with eyes would have clicked on the picture too–she was beautiful! even though he knew dating could interfere with his career, he still felt like there was something about her. he took the chance and sent her a harmless message. i mean, it’s worth a shot right? you were too alluring to pass up.

 “i’d send you 11 more to make it a dozen, beautiful🌹” 

she read the message with a bit of a shy, but curious smirk.

that was a good one she had to admit.

she typically wasn’t one to read her message requests, after all, those guys usually weren’t her type. creep after creep. loser after loser. no thanks. 

but him. 

there was something about him. 

she clicked on his profile picture to see who this @_jeongjaehyun guy was. she had to admit his follower count was pretty daunting, she'd never been approached by someone like this before, but she continued to investigate further, wanting to see what else this jeong jaehyun had to offer. based on his bio he was an actor in korea. she hadn’t been too familiar with korean films, but she figured he had to be pretty talented if he had this many supporters. scrolling through his profile made her even more intrigued as she dug further. tons of behind the scenes footage from his films, pictures of trophies he’d collected from numerous award shows, mysterious and endearing videos of him riding his bike around the city with romantic music playing. jeong jaehyun was an enigma. she wanted him. 

he was annoyingly handsome, had romantic features, an entire catalog of acting experience. she definitely liked what she saw, but she just had to dig just a little more. she eventually accepted the message request and thought of a witty enough reply, not wanting to seem too bold. 

“maybe i’d let you 💋”

from there everything fell into place. he was perfect. he was equal parts suave and dorky. he had the most elaborate, yet elementary jokes. he spoiled her ROTTEN. christian louboutin, prada, la perla, chanel. she named it, he bought it. he wanted her to know how sincere his feelings about her were, and chose to show it through sending her pretty little presents every so often.

"beautiful girls deserve the most beautiful things" he would say.

the months went on and on...

he understood her, he listened to her, they had a deep and genuine connection. even with her being in new york city and him in seoul, they utilized every bit of free time to connect. face time became their norm over the past few months, and while it was convenient, it just wasn’t enough. they needed to be with one another in person. 

so it was settled: he bought her a first class ticket to seoul, arranged to have a driver pick her up from her apartment and drive her to the airport, sent his own chauffeur to drive her to his pent house apartment in seoul, and the two would finally meet. because he had an afternoon schedule around the time she would land in seoul, he left a spare key for the front desk along with her full name, granting her access to his apartment. she felt a huge responsibility being left alone with his luxurious apartment, but she also felt comforted knowing he trusted her that much. 

“i’ll see you soon, baby” 

she grabbed her packed belongings, most of which being the pretty presents jaehyun bought for her during these few months of them talking. she figured he would love to see her strutting around in the gifts he bought for her. she endured the extremely long flight from new york city to seoul, knowing each minute would bring her closer to her lover.

once the driver dropped her off at his penthouse, she grabbed the key from the receptionist after giving her full name, and made her way up to the 127th floor. she stared out of the glass elevator windows, looking out at the sea of city lights. with each floor the elevator ascended her heart raced faster and faster. 

he had told her to make herself at home. “my house is your house baby, do whatever you need to do to make yourself comfortable while i’m out. i left my card incase you need anything. see you soon.”

she set her red luggage down and made her way into his bathroom. he had left out a towel and wash cloth for her, along with any toiletries she may have needed. she stepped into the luxurious rainfall shower and fantasized about how the next few weeks would go…

she had just finished applying her lip gloss when she heard the front door open. she looked over herself one last time in the big full length mirror in jaehyun’s closet and quickly made her way to the entryway. he pulled the door open and immediately made eye contact with her. they stared at each other passionately before he set his keys down and quickly pulled her in for a kiss. no words needed to be exchanged, it was time to let their bodies speak for them. she reached up and grabbed his face, kissing him back with urgency. she moaned into his mouth, releasing months of pent up energy. the moment she had been waiting for was finally here. he picked her up and wrapped her legs around his waist, inadvertantly knocking off her red bottoms he’d gifted her at one point.

“gosh jae, i’m happy to see you too” she giggled

he smiled against her lips and smacked her lightly on her ass. he finally made it to his bedroom and tossed her onto his silk bed sheets. she squealed when he dove right on top of her not wasting any time. his hands made his way to the hem of her crop top and ripped it off of her. he pulled back from her a little bit to look down at her riled up form.

“pretty, i bought this for you too huh?” he chuckled, tracing the top of her red lacy bra where her cleavage spilled out. “uh huh” she moaned. he grabbed her hand to help her sit up so he could take her bra off. he pulled off the rest of her clothes, along with the matching cheeky lace panties and gently laid her back down. he went right back into kissing her plump lips. the two lovers put their all into their kisses, making up for all the lost time. the months of phone calls, face times, letters, postcards, texts, naughty texts—the works. as amazing as these last few months were, nothing beats this feeling right now. finally being able to put their hands on one another. his hands massaged her large breasts, making electricity race through her body. his kisses slowly creeped down her cheek, her jaw, her neck, her décolletage, finally landing on her boobs. he kissed and fondled her chest with intense admiration. 

“you’re perfect”

she sighed and slowly tilted her head back into the pillows, fully immersing herself into the moment. all the nights she spent desperately yearning for his hands to explore her body and now she was living it. it was so much more than she could have ever imagined. he focused his tongue on her left nipple, swirling it around slowly. he wanted to take his time with her. savor the taste of her. the feeling of her. his beautiful girl. she moaned softly, running her manicured nails through his soft locks, encouraging him to keep going. his hand started to explore her body a little further, aiming for the spot she needed him most. his fingers softly landed on her clit, making her heart speed up. he looked up at her with her nipple still in his mouth and he gave her a cheeky grin. 

“this ok with you, princess?” 

she nodded eagerly, grabbing his hand and placing more pressure onto her clit, urging him to do something. he chuckled softly, taking the hint, and spread her plush thighs apart a little more. he wanted to make sure he had plenty of room to make her feel real good. he rubbed his fingers up and down her folds, getting his fingers wet with her arousal. she couldn’t believe how wet she was already. he made a noise of approval at her wetness and eventually his middle finger made it’s way into her warm hole. she instantly felt herself flutter against his finger. it had been so long since she’d been touched, it was all so overwhelming. she bucked her hips against his hand, asking for more. she whined loudly when his ring finger joined his middle inside of her. he kept his pace steady, admiring how gone she already was. 

“you like this baby?” jaehyun asked sweetly, with a hint of condescension.

“mmm so good jae, i want you so fucking bad” she moaned.

his fingers picked up the pace, hitting her sweet spot repeatedly. he pounded her with such force that she began rocking against his fingers greedily. she was so close to letting go. eventually she hit her peak and let out drawn out, lewd sound of satisfaction. she swore she was seeing stars.

“atta girl” 

she panted, making her chest raise up and down as she came down from her orgasm. as satisfied as she felt, she needed MORE. she was insatiable. she needed to feel all of him and she needed it NOW. she shot up and crashed her lips against his. jaehyun hadn’t taken his clothes off the whole time, leaving her aching to see him. she unbuttoned his dress shirt hurriedly and pushed it off of his broad shoulders. she pulled away to admire his muscular form. she couldn’t believe he was all hers. he gave her a smirk, gesturing to his body.

“like what you see, princess?”

with a bat of her eyelashes and a sweet smile, she unbuckled his belt and tossed it somewhere, then pulled off his pants and underwear in one go. jaehyun sat up against the headboard with his legs out straight, while she kneeled perpendicular to him, leaning over to touch his dick. she grazed the tip of his thick member with her finger tips. she leaned down and gave the tip a few sweet kisses and he cooed at her, stroking her hair. she finally licked a stripe from the base to the top of his dick and went to work with her mouth. she swirled her tongue all around his dick, wanting to make him feel good. he groaned and spit out a “good girl” through clenched teeth. she looked up at him with the most sultry bedroom eyes she could muster. her dark, smokey makeup she applied earlier definitely helped. he made a makeshift ponytail with his fist and bunched up her hair, not pulling but just holding it there. soon after he pulled her off of his dick, not wanting to cum that way.

“fuck, lay down baby” jaehyun said and got back on top of her. he placed a pillow under her head and her hips, making sure she was comfortable. he gave her one last kiss on her nose before lining his tip up with her entrance, slowly pushing himself into her warm hole. they both moaned out in unison, enjoying the intimacy of this moment. he began to pick up the pace, making her squeak and grab onto his strong biceps. her boobs bounced with each strong thrust, driving jaehyun absolutely insane. his eyes flickered from her beautiful fucked out face, back to her soft, voluptuous body. 

“you feel so good baby, can’t believe i finally get to have you like this. so perfect” jaehyun said while pounding her even harder. her hold on his biceps became stronger as she needed something to anchor herself onto. her moans got louder and louder, as did the sounds of their bodies crashing together. he grabbed her leg, placed it onto his shoulder, pressed a gentle kiss on her calf, then on her ankle, and finally the sole of her foot. she felt her soul leave her body as she begged him for more.

“please baby pleaseee” she whined.

he grabbed her other leg and placed it on his shoulder and thrusted at a deeper angle, really hitting the perfect spot. 

“fuck jae keep fucking me like that please baby”

he looked down at where their bodies collided and noticed her hand sneak down the front of her body. she played with her clit, desperately trying to reach her peak again. he grabbed both of her wrists, pinning them at the sides of her head and interlaced their fingers. their foreheads touched and they looked deeply into each other’s eyes. their lips met again, this time the kiss was passionate and needy. desperately wanting to finish each other off. finally, she felt the familiar sensation of an orgasm arriving and she let go, moaning her man’s name for the whole world to hear. he finished soon after with a guttural sound, emptying everything he had to offer into her. they laid there in bliss, waiting for their heart rates to return back to normal. 

jaehyun was about to pull out to get a bath started for the two of them but she wrapped her arms and legs around him, trapping him in place.

“no please, not yet” she said in a small voice, not wanting to ruin the intimate atmosphere. he chuckled softly, pressing soft kisses all over her pretty, flushed face. 

“anything for you, princess”

the end 💋

[binzlovenicetingz]

Idk if your taking requests for will or Luca but can you do one where the reader is saving themselves for marriage but is scared which will/Luca would leave them. Im sorry I’m feeling angst, fluffy. Not having a good day😭

hi hi yes i am taking requests imma a little slow with replies due to work but i will try my best and I’m sorry you weren’t having a good day. feel free to message anytime 🤎

I’ll give this one to Luca. You were honestly so scared to tell him that you were saving yourself for marriage because 1) that was still considered old-fashioned by some of your friends and 2) you didn’t want to lose him. the thought of your relationship with ending because you didn’t “put out” was always in the back of your mind every time a kiss getting too heated and you’d feel his need growing before you pulled away. If he was upset about it then he never showed it or was really good at hiding it

you shared this with some friends who shared story after story of their partner leaving or cheating because there was no sex. there advise only sent you spiraling further because what if Luca gets bored of waiting? he was a hot chef with tattoos and beefy arms, there wouldn’t be any issues with him finding someone who would be willing to give up all of themselves to him, you just weren’t one of them.

you thought that you were keeping it all together but Luca noticed a change in you for a while now. Opting to watch and listen until he started to ask what was wrong but you would push it off quickly, a small smile on your pretty lips wasn’t fooling him but you wouldn’t talk him and he could force you too

until one nice, his first night off in awhile and he just wanted to spend it laying in bed cuddled up with you. instead you were scrolling through your instagram, showing him every post that had a woman in a bikini or some tight athletic shorts, asking him if he thought this one was pretty or that one. he entertained you the first time but now Luca couldn’t stand seeing another influencers edit tits being shown.

with a tired sigh, Luca sits up, eyeing you carefully while you continued scrolling “what’s this really about, love?”

“about what?” you don’t look up, scrolling and liking post after post.

“what you’re doing now” Luca reaches over, taking your phone from your hand ad your quickly protest.

“you can’t just take my stuff like that!” you huff but quickly stop when you see the remorse on his face.

“I know and I’m sorry but I need you to focus on me, angel, please.” Luca gently cups your cheek, eyes filled with admiration and worry. “just..talk to me, please.”

you were a goner. instantly you were wrapping your arms around him, tears flowing and you tried to tell him about your insecurities, the worries and thoughts that go through your head.

Luca holds your close, letting you cry out but also soothing you. he couldn’t understand what you were trying to say but you softly whispering, “please don’t leave me” crushed him. after a few minutes, you felt yourself calming down while Luca gently rubbings small circles on your back.

“I’m not sure where this is coming from but I’m not leaving you.” he says gentle yet firm in his words, he makes sure your focus on him, “all those other people you showed me, there’s nothing compared to you, okay?”

you nod slowly before he places a kiss on top of your head. a sign leaving your lips, it was now or never, “I..um..Im-Im a virgin and I plan on keeping it that way until I’m married.”

Luca was slightly taken aback by your sudden confession and he must of looked surprised because you were quick to continue, word vomit claiming you as it’s next victim.

“I-I know it’s probably weird that I’m not putting out or whatever but this means a lot too me and I want to know that I’m g-giving myself to someone who truly loves me. so if you wanted break up or something then just do it now because I heard that if I don’t sleep with you soon, you’re going to find someone who will give it up easily to because that’s just something that’s gonna happen and-“

“whoa, who told you that crap?”

you shrug like a child caught but you still shared the name of some friends who told you those cheating stories. you can tell Luca was annoyed by that but he was quick to reassure you he’s not the type and that you might need to rethink some friendships if they aren’t being supportive of you.”

“I meant what I said, y/n. I’m not going anywhere”

for the first time in a while, Luca was able to see your perfect smile.

Satisfied that you were able to talk to him about your problems and work through them together.

[will80sbyers]

Brett unapologetically believes what he believes. This makes criticizing him less worthwhile to people, cuz if it doesn't affect him, then what's the point?

With Noah, it's clear he's a lot more apologetic about what he believes. We've seen how quickly he backtracks and it's cuz his beliefs were never that strong in the first place. He's a total sponge. He's not confident about his beliefs whatsoever in the same way Brett is because his beliefs largely stem from the beliefs his loved ones have, who he trusts to have good beliefs. This makes tearing him down a lot more entertaining to people that love a good downfall.

I remember after 10/7, there were a few days where Noah did not say anything. So many people were waiting for the ball to drop. I was curious how his Israeli friends were reacting, and low and behold they both had instagram stories that were very obviously directed at him, crying and saying how they were disappointed that someone who they thought cared about them, who has millions of followers, hadn't said anything. And predictably, the next day he started being vocal about it.

And now we just saw how quickly he took down his copypasta after filming started. Im guessing all it took was a few days filming on set among the cast, away from his family and inner circle, for them to talk some sense into him, because he. is. a. sponge!!

It's crazy to think how much appeasing the people around him has probably played a big role in this. And how him now backtracking is only going to make them hate him now too, all the while not even getting the people that hate him already to even consider forgiving him anyways.

I agree with you I think he's VERY easy to suggestion from other people and that's what brought him to say certain things, I feel like propaganda does work and people just undermine that or like to talk about it theoretically but then when they see someone that actually did fall for it or that feels pressured to do things and is clearly influenced they don't take it into consideration and start jumping to the worst possible conclusion that they are heartless monsters etc even when they didn't idk commit direct crimes themselves because of it

I also feel like ignoring that there are LOTS of people that take the meaning of Zionism with a complete different meaning than what we take it as (because of what it is doing in the practical way of expressing that philosophy) is being disingenuous

In the same way that people saying that "from the river to the sea" means that you're saying that you want Jewish people dead is disingenuous

There are two different meanings that people have and not all of them mean that in the sense that they want to kill or keep opressing the other side EVEN if that is born from that, you know people don't mean it in that way, especially people that are not even living in those places themselves, like if you know that - you have to explain to them why that name to you has the same connotation as for example "fascist"

If you think about it, the words fascist and other similar words of political movements are not born with the people giving them inherent negative meaning but that meaning got attached there because of what they did as a movement, which is the same thing that happens with Zionism, but people that are born inside that culture where you get told that that word has a different meaning OBVIOUSLY are not going to tell you that they agree with the negative meaning unless they have been freed from propaganda and can actually see that there can be no distinction anymore because of what they have done... But again we're talking about deprogramming someone, it is just not easy to do!

They will refute that idea because it's a complete shift of the belief system you had since your were born... It's obvious to me that you can't just throw them in a box of "evil" just because they fight to make peace with that idea or refuse it

And online there's a jump from rightly asking for clarification or an apology with accountability when necessary to literally wanting that person dead or in complete misery immediately and never forgiving them or at least letting them live their own life without abuse and harassment

No matter what they actually did or didn't do, like a serial killer is put on the same plane of someone that says a fucked up thing and to me that's kind of insane... I feel like we lost measure (?) idk how to explain this in a better way I just have started feeling like it's all too much online it wouldn't be how you help people to change in the actual real world

And to be clear I'm not against people being called out and having to demonstrate that they did change, (I'm not even a "non violent" person... when needed. Like, I would punch a nazist if I needed to for example) but I feel like now the type of harassment is extreme no matter the "crime"

and instead of it being about helping our world to get better it has become about piling on to pile on and have the most liked post at the same time and these people don't care at all if that person changes or not, they are in the "evil" list now and there they must stay

[izvmimi]

summary: ushijima has a sudden moment of weakness. this is a repost.

cw: breakup, angst otherwise sfw

“Mr. Ushijima, do you have any words you can spare for us?”

Questions like this don’t usually offer much alternative, he thinks as he acquiesces, taking a seat at the table while ignoring the flashing lights and the cameras on him. He taps the mic in front of him to test it, then clears his throat as politely as possible.

Post-game interviews are usually nothing more than nuisances for Wakatoshi and today is not much different. Yes, there was a period of time where he dreaded moments like this, about a year ago, when a reporter noticed he no longer wore the promise ring you’d gifted him, and more and more media outlets had started to notice your absence from the sidelines, from social events, from his life entirely.

But that time had passed and now that the novelty of being newly single had worn off, the reporters spent less time asking him what newest actress, model or influencer he was now setting sights on or what he did wrong, and focused more on his ability to perform on the court. Meaningful conversation.

“We played well tonight. While it was ultimately a loss, I do think that there was a good attempt put forward. We will reconsider our strategy and improve our athletic ability in preparation for the next game.”

Ushijima’s answer, as usual, is short yet thorough. The reporters scramble to keep the conversation going, and Ushijima notices a young man in the corner who seems a little flustered to even be in this space in the first place, and looks towards him. Now surprised with attention, the young man’s eyes widen, and then he steps up a little closer, thrusting his microphone an uncomfortably close distance from Ushijima’s face.

“Have any challenges in your personal life affected your play tonight?”

Ushijima doesn’t like questions like this but he doesn’t exactly hate them. They’re expected with the territory and this journalist seems to be working from a script anyway.

“None. Things have been going well.”

He’s lying. Despite the fact that it’s been so long since he last saw you, you still haunt his dreams every once in a while. He remembers those exact words you’d said when you’d decided to finally give up on him, on your joint relationship:

I can’t keep holding out hope that eventually you’ll become someone you’re not.

There are a million better things he could have said at that time other than what he decided on.

This is who I am, ___. I don’t know how to be any other way.

He could have said anything else, but his stubbornness and his pride spurred him in this awful direction. The truth is he was frustrated. He hates to lose, and to come back to you after long stretches of time being apart and realizing you were slowly becoming more and more impatient with him only reminded him of how much he was failing.

The reporter continues his line of questioning focused on the technicalities of a particular play, and Ushijima tries his best to answer politely, his mind elsewhere.

What are you doing now? Is the man he sees holding your hand on your Instagram profile treating you right? He doesn’t know why you stayed friends on social media. He doesn’t know why he even checks. He barely pays attention to it other than for sponsorships... and the times where he needs to remind himself that your absence doesn’t mean that you’re dead, rather he is dead to you.

What if he could tell you what he should have said then?

Without thinking, Ushijima interrupts the reporter and takes his microphone, directing his face at the closest camera.

“I don’t know if you’re watching this, ___. I understand if you’re not. There’s no reason you would be.”

The crowd around him seems stunned to silence, confused as to what this man is trying to do. Ushijima’s voice and demeanor has remained even the entire time - what he is doing may not be planned, but it is intentional. Ushijima pauses, sorting out his words again, staring at the camera. In his mind’s eye, maybe you are watching, seated on a well-loved couch, sipping tea from one of your favorite mugs, wrapped in a shawl as he often would find you when studying many nights in college. Maybe you haven’t really been paying attention to the television until you hear his voice, and your eyes widen as he speaks.

“I hope you are happy. I mean this genuinely. I miss you but I want you to be loved the way you deserve.”

Maybe if you’re seeing this, there’s a small furrow in your brow as you recognize his affections. Perhaps you unfold your legs tucked below you and sit slightly forward, ears perked up and listening.

“I wish I could have been the one to be that person for you but I admit my shortcomings.”

Maybe you bite your lower lip. Perhaps this would move you to tears. Perhaps you’d reconsider that he’s not good with words - far better than when you met him, but still in need of help.

Yet, you’d remember that he loved you more than anything else in heaven and earth.

“If you’re watching this, I hope you are safe and cared for by a better man than I.”

Maybe, just maybe, there’s a tear that falls from your eyes, the ones he always thought were beautiful, in mourning of your past relationship. If he’s delusional enough, he imagines that you think about him, and maybe there’s a bit of regret. You consider the possibility of loving him once more. You assess your willingness to leave a stable relationship and take another plunge with him again. You consider him once more, eschewing any care for the person you now come home to.

In his greatest fantasies, you’re willing to try again.

It’s nearly silent in the room now, and Ushijima takes upon himself to hand the microphone back to the shocked journalist, promptly ending the interview of his own accord. He gets up and leaves, ignoring the now frenzied shutter sounds.

He’s gonna hate the press in the morning.

However, none of that matters. All that matters is whether or not you hate him for not being good enough for you.    

[theeeveetamer]

If FE characters of your choice had YouTube channels, what would these look like? And what kind of content would they create?

Ooooh okay okay okay!

Dedue has a cooking channel where he gives recipes and teaches you how to do basic cooking skills and reviews cooking appliances and things.

Dimitri has a "can I break it" channel where people send him things and see if he can break it. He and Dedue cross over frequently when Dedue reviews appliances. Dimitri is a good durability test to see if they'll last. It does not take fans long to realize that they always use the same kitchen as a backdrop for their videos (they're married, I don't make the rules).

Leo reviews books, I think. It's really not fancy he just sits in front of a camera and talks. People come by for his aggressive sarcasm and dry humor.

Takumi insists he doesn't want a youtube channel but he always shows up on Leo's. People just assumed they were dating but they actually weren't for like... a good three or four years at the start there. There's much confusion among the viewers when they finally announce that they got together, because everyone just assumed they were and they just didn't talk about it.

Sylvain doesn't have a YT but he's an Instagram influencer. He's just as annoying as one, too. I bet he also models.

Felix is an unboxing channel but he only buys weird shit. It's not like toys or anything he's like "here's this vintage sword". He pretends like he's not excited about it every time. He's also really bad at hiding it.

Aaaaand for fun, I think Ingrid runs a channel where she just reviews food places. But like, not high end food places (at least not all the time). She's the youtuber who'll sit in her car and eat McDonald's and talk about it.

And Dorothea probably does song covers.

OH AND Alfred probably has an entire channel just dedicated to sharing his work out routines. Diamant doesn't have a channel but he does frequently pop up on Alfred's. They're ""gym buddies""

[lvebug]

LOVEBUG FIGHTING / MOVEMENT GUIDE:

climbing: after getting her powers it's near impossible for andie to continue rock climbing in a way that brings any satisfaction, since her powers fully interfere with it. still, the fact that she did this for years influences the way that she moves and climbs.

she doesn't move in a "crawling" motion, but will tend to mimick the way that someone would freehand climb for bouldering. this typically means following hand placement only after a foot placement has been found and most of her weight being carried in her legs. she'll rarely move both hands and feet at the same time which gives her a much more irregular movement pattern. while moving along a surface she also tends to be much less linear, following more of the swaying seen in climbing/bouldering & shifting to keep her weight near the surface she's climbing on. this is a mix of her still searching for those natural holds—even if they can look far different when the climber has the abilities that she has—and her leading with her hips to throw her momentum in the direction that she's trying to move in, as climbers tend to do.

fighting: we all know that andie doesn't fight in the traditional sense and there are a few key components to how this looks.

shock absorption: lovebug still frequently has to make close contact with her opponents, such as when swinging into them or throwing/flipping them. even these actions, despite involving direct contact, are places that she tries to reduce how much force she's actually using to connect with the other person? i don't have good phrasing for this? the best way i have to show this rn instagram reel of some dancers. the woman is throwing her partner, and she cradles his head as she does so to help protect him. lovebug does this too, including when that person is being thrown directly to the ground (which is usually the case i just don't have like specific video), she's putting herself better her opponent and the concrete. it's about stopping/subduing them, and not harming/knocking them out so even though they're fighting she isn't trying to hurt them at all.

similarly when doing the very classic swinging kick, she bends her knees as contact is being made which gets her up close quickly and knocks the person off balance, but tends not to do too much damage compared to keeping ur knees locked.

im linking some more instagram videos that came across my feed that i saved bc they gave andie vibe

i like this one bc the woman kind of brings the other guy down on top of her? andie would do that. minus the arm bar at the end

this one is kinda flashy but i think works esp in the sense that andie has just phased up through the floor idk

i am also kind of a big fan of this like wrestling move? even though idk how well it works for lovebug

the one handed cartwheel is very andie to me but also the way that a) it starts from a punch from the opponent b) andie could control their fall a little / protect their head

gymnastics: one of the biggest things that lovebug is is a distraction, so there's lots of cartwheels, handsprings, flipping through the air, and other such big distracting movements. it helps that she took years of gymnastics as a kid and that she's extra flexible from her powers stuff like this is both quite natural and effective for her, but also some of her flashiest moves.

swinging: of everything she does, this is probably the most fluid. i really dk how to explain what this is like at all but i suppose it kind of looks like peter in the first ps4 game? when andie first starts out as lovebug she doesn't have any webshooters because she doesn't know how to make them, so she doesn't rely on them as much. she tends to use single zip-lines and swing in wide fluid arcs that cover lots of distance when she's between buildings that she can run on or poles that she can swing on.

phasing: there are actually some tells for when she's about to use this. usually she will brace herself—if someone is coming at her she tends to square her shoulders a little more and bend at the knees slightly, if she's going to run through a wall she'll prep with chin dipped down and tilting her body forward. it comes more fluidly when built into another action like swinging first or if phasing through the floor she'll often dive down. this is something that requires concentration for her to use.

[nanowrimo]

30 Covers, 30 Days 2023: Day 3

Day 3 is here and it feels like things are just heating up. Today's feature is Code 51 by Jill Chapman, a Young Adult novel full of mystery. This novel cover was designed by the amazing returning artist, Cookie Redding!

(For those of you who don’t know, 30C30D stands for 30 Covers, 30 Days in which 17 Wrimos and 5 YWP Participants get the chance to win a professionally designed cover! The rest of the days are being filled by community features. We’ll be posting a cover a day throughout November, so make sure to check them out!)

Code 51

Jacqueline Kolby wants to get through her senior year in high school to get on with better things. She doesn't want attention in or out of class from anyone. Jac, as her friends call her, ignores headlines and surely doesn't want to be one. However, when an arsonist seems to target her family, staying in the background isn't possible anymore. Jac's dad gets burned in a barn fire after several of their corn fields are razed. Now she's had enough. The police and fire marshal don't have any suspects. Her mom is busy caring for her dad while her grandpa mourns the recent loss of her grandma. Jac and her two friends set out to solve the mystery before anyone else gets injured. Who would want to hurt her family? Why now?

About the Author

Jill resides in Southern Indiana with her husband of forty-five years. They enjoy their country lifestyle and visiting with their children and grandchildren. Her life centers around her family and her yellow lab, Indy. She is an avid movie watcher and loves Mexican food and watercolor painting. 

She has published a middle-grade mystery series titled The Bomb Squad. Code 51 will be her first venture into young adult mystery/suspense books.

Jill’s interest in books began in childhood when reading provided a wonderful outlet for her wild imagination. She loves to tell stories about her life experiences with humor mixed in to convey the sense of adventure she feels daily. Jill says her life is like a good plate of nachos, a tiny kick of spice, and a whole lotta cheese.  

About the Designer

Cookie Redding is an artist, designer and lecturer with the School of Visual Arts at the Pennsylvania State University and teaches courses in the Digital Art and DMD Programs. Her work encompasses the art and design world, with a focus on multiple media forms of expression.

Redding's influences are from a diverse array of disciplines spawning from the classics and antiquities, to history and tech. Her explorations integrate these elements into a study of symbols. The imagery she deals with within her work is a study from the beauty of words and by being within nature. Her explorations show how the literary world meets the natural work with color and texture. Check her out on Instagram and Facebook!

Cover Design Process:

This year. we gave designers the optional prompt to explain their design process for the cover! Here's Cookie's:

My process typically starts with some sketching, brainstorming and listmaking. Then I start to hone my composition concept while also searching for imagery that would be ideal for the cover. I went through around 8 iterations and then my concept adjusted a bit to include the grid--that's when everything fell into place! Thanks so much for letting me be a part of 30 Covers 30 Days again--it's the highlight of my design year!

[ghaniblue]

Red, White & Royal Blue recs, all Alex/Henry. I've been doing nothing but read rwrb fic all week. I'm obsessed with the damn movie. All recs are using book canon as the starting point. All fics are 50k+ and explicit.

If you have any recs, please share!

the poem you make of me by @omgcmere (91k, explicit)

Charming, happy-making AU

Henry writes gay erotic poetry (enough said)

check out the author if you're into explicit sub!Alex fics

After being discovered on Instagram as a teenager, Alex Diaz is thriving as a social media influencer and model who just landed a high profile, high fashion contract with Calvin Klein. Alex can get any girl he wants, and he’s loving it. Meanwhile, British poet Henry Fox has just arrived in L.A. to kick off a North American tour promoting his new, steamy book of gay erotic poetry, and he’s attracting a lot of attention.

Bad blood is immediately sparked between them when Henry blows Alex off at their first meeting. Several tabloid rumors and an Instagram tantrum later, Alex and Henry are reluctantly thrust together to make nice, resulting in a grudging friendship and a magnetism between them that Alex can't explain. Why is Henry's poetry making Alex feel like this? And just what is it about Henry Fox that gets to him so much?

all that glitters (is not gold) by @indomitable-love (112k, explicit)

(book)canon-compliant, post canon, established relationship, Alex focused

Sensitive exploration of mental health issues

Alex Claremont-Diaz has it all. His mom won the election, he’s got the perfect boyfriend. He gets to love Henry out loud. Everything is great. Perfect.

Except for the itch under his skin every time he goes outside, and the tightness in his chest when he goes online, and the fact that he can’t fucking sleep.

But it's fine. He's fine. Really.

—-

Or: after the emails, Alex Claremont-Diaz isn’t fine.

(our last summer) memories that remain by bleedingballroomfloor (91k, explicit)

AU, getting back together, dual timelines

love the setting and watching them fall in love twice over

Fresh out of law school and fresh out of a relationship, what Alex Claremont-Diaz needs is a goddamn vacation. He plans to spend his summer on a small island off the coast of Wales, three months of peace and relaxation and figuring out what the hell he actually wants to do with his life. But all that is thrown out the window when he runs into his ex-fling, Henry Fox, who just so happens to be running the hotel he's staying in for the next three months.

Four years prior, Henry Fox meets the most beautiful boy he's ever seen at an NYU party: Alex Claremont-Diaz. Henry soon finds himself whisked away to Texas with Alex, a summer full of poetry and skinny dipping and stolen kisses, and everything is perfect. Almost too perfect for a summer fling. Yet Henry can't stop himself from falling in love with Alex, falling for the lake house and everything Alex loves, even when he knows it's too good to last.

Two summers, two places of falling in love, one filled with memories of the last. It leaves Alex and Henry wondering: is this summer truly going to be their last one together?

With so much of my heart (that none is left to protest) by @kiwiana-writes (WIP 14/17, 56k, explicit)

Work in progress, AU, getting together

love the structure and Rafael Luna's role in this, hits a lot of the emotional beats of the book (without the outing)

Alex is a former child star struggling to make the transition into being seen as a serious actor. He jumps at an opportunity to perform on stage in the UK, seeing it as a way to break free from the typecasting and show what he can really do. But he wasn’t prepared to star alongside someone he hates.

//

Henry is a recent theatre graduate who accepts an amazing role in a queer reimagining of Much Ado About Nothing. And then it turns out his co-star is none other than the man he’s been hopelessly pining after for years—even though Henry made a terrible first impression when they met.

//

It’s… well, it’s practically Shakespearean.

>> more rwrb recs <<

[bootleg-b0i]

Just saw someone complaining about how hateful everyone was being about tumblr live, and in an attempt to skirt my own biases against tumblr live users, I decided to scroll down their account and lo and behold I managed to scroll back to the start of their account, which was possible because their account was only like a couple months old and had basically no posts before today… what makes that so funny is, this is exactly the reason we wanted this thing gone!!

At least, I for one, never liked that people who do not actually engage in the tumblr ecosystem could come in and co-opt this place just to livestream. Like, if you really were an average tumblr user than youre not the problem, but I would say, even if you are engaging in your hobbies and talking about fandom on live, Twitch is already better suited for that!! Instagram live also works if you’re so insistent on filming vertically, which tbh idk why you would be. These places are better suited because they are already tailored to the influencer-audience dynamic that streaming kind of inherently promotes - something tumblr notably does not have!

As an on-and-off twitch streamer, I definitely get the appeal of live streaming. This was just never the space for it and tumblr knows that. That’s why the feature is gone for good :3 hope that helps!

And staff, please stop trying to make tumblr influencers happen. They’re never going to happen!! That might be the one thing you had been doing right before live, let’s go back to that strategy

Good riddance tumblr live <33

[oftlunarialmoon]

Everything You Want to Know About “Kawaii” Culture- Kawaii Fridays

Originally posted to www.onlyfunthings.org on June 01, 2018

Ciao lovelies, Lunaria here! Today for Kawaii Friday I though I’d make a comprehensive post detailing all you could ever want to know about “kawaii culture”; where it came from, naming some fashions within it (I’ll do more detailed posts on each fashion later), giving some resources on good places to begin reading more/ youtubers to follow/bloggers/Instagrammers, and even telling some about my own personal experiences with kawaii culture.

Personal Experience with Kawaii Culture

As you may have noticed, myself and OFT are highly influenced by Kawaii Culture. Personally, I’ve been into kawaii culture since I was about 13 and a friend told me about Anime, Vocaloids, and the word “Kawaii.” Later I, thanks to the internet, discovered fashions like EGL, Decora, Hime Gyaru, Fairy Kei, and many others. My lifestyle and fashion style were heavily influenced by all these fashions and kawaii culture in general, and reflect these influences.

But enough about me, let’s talk about how it all started!

History of Kawaii

Etymology speaking, the word “Kawaii” is believed to have come from the word “Kawayushi,” a word dating back to the Taisho era (1912-1926) meaning loveable, shy, and small.

A big influence on what is seen as “Kawaii” dates back to the first shoji and kawaii illustrator, Yumeji Takehisa, in 1914. Takehisa merged Eastern and Western art styles in his Chiyogami (flat woodblock print patterns on paper) and used the word “kawaii” to describe them. He was one of the first to use wide, round eyes in his works. 

Another big influence on “kawaii” was shojo manga. Shojo Manga (Illustrated stories of a girlish nature), was said to begin with illustrator Katsuji Matsumoto, with the first Shojo manga girl being Kurukuru Kurumi-chan. She had big round eyes and a soft round face. (as seen in the pictures below). Kurumi-Chan was used as a source of encouragement for Japanese people during WW2.

Moving forward into more modern influences, as shojo manga developed we also saw the rise of Mahou Shojo (magical girl) genre of manga and anime. Characters like Sailor Moon brought forth the idea that kawaii could include flaws, and strong girls, but still maintained the air of childish cuteness.

What are some Fashions that are in the Kawaii Culture?

Some fashions in the Kawaii Culture include:

-EGL (Elegant Gothic Lolita). This style has evolved over the years to include Sweet, Sailor, Classic, and many other sub-styles, but it’s root was gothic Lolita fashion. Hence where it gets it’s name. For more info, see THIS post.

-Decora. A style dedicated to lots and lots of accessorizing.

-Fairy Kei. Lots of sweet pastels and childish themes.

These are pretty central to the Kawaii culture, of course there are more styles, but I’ll get into that later.

Some Good Resources for More Research:

Some Good Bloggers/YouTubers/Instagrammers:

Thanks for reading! I hope you learned a lot about Kawaii Culture today!

Remember to Stay Awesome and Love Yourself!

[jmdbjk]

2022: it’s a wrap.

2022. It’s been real. Too real. Not exactly how I thought it would unfold. But it’s the end of December and now we know. 

THEY knew 2022 was THE year. Time was working against them because of Jin’s age. But shit happened in the world, in their country. Or I should say, shit DIDN’T happen that they perhaps expected or hoped.

There was no brand new BTS comeback album, but a compilation which was wonderful, rich and retrospective. Each of the members reflected on their “proof” and why they chose the songs they did for the album. 

They teased PROOF at the end of the last PTD concert in Las Vegas in April. They knew long before that how 2022 was gonna play out.

Even though they hinted at the end of 2021 that there might be a world tour, there was no new comeback album and no new world tour for it, but as it happened, they gave us a single, amazing one-off concert that was free to the entire world. Immediately it was fraught with controversy, negativity and disorganization. But they pulled it off spectacularly in grand BTS style. Bangtan Bangtanned. 

The Festa dinner in June truly revealed their turmoil. It was a hard year for them and they worked and fought so hard to make it as good as possible for us. It was so heartbreaking to see them struggling to tell us they were committed to staying together but they needed to step away from the group in order to work on themselves as artists and to find out who they were as people. 

We started getting their solo work in the form of Jack in the Box and Indigo and The Astronaut. The individual artistic growth is already amazing. We already see Joon resolving some of the internal conflicts he was facing this past summer. The more we see him during interviews the more he is smiling and looks happy. It’s a big relief.

We will never know how truly heartbroken and frustrated they were this year. They may never reveal the reasons why they hinted at a world tour that never happened. And all the other bullshit they went through, especially Jimin and his privacy breach and how that may have influenced changes. I am so sorry and sad they felt they had to make the decisions they did but Jimin said they did EVERYTHING the best they could, ALWAYS keeping ARMY in their minds and hearts.

Their military service has been announced and is now underway. It has been a very emotional month for us and the members, seeing Jin off to begin his enlistment obligation.

Yes, we all hoped beyond hope there would be a military exemption. But they really set it up so we could process it little by little so that by October, when they made the announcement, we were ready to accept it even though we were still hoping they had an out somewhere.

As the announcement says: “...it is a promise, there’s much more yet to come in the years ahead from BTS.”

Emotional rollercoaster for everyone is the best description of 2022.

We saw some changes as far as social media presence on their parts. As far as the guys are concerned, Twitter has mostly been abandoned for Instagram and Weverse. The Weverse platform had a total makeover this year. 

Jimin, who used to be the king of Twitter selcas a few years ago, dropped off the face of the social media universe for a while and is now posting on Weverse more than he visits his Instagram account. Jungkook continued his very erratic usage, wiping his entire Instagram at one point, “just because,” and starting over. He posted on Weverse for Jimin’s birthday, his first post there since July 2019 on that platform.

Hobi and Namjoon are our social media kings on Instagram now. Followed by Tae, Jin and Yoongi. Useless debate still rages TODAY on how significant their social media usage is, who they post pictures of, who they comment or like, what does it mean, if anything?

Now we look forward to 2023. 

A New Years custom in South Korea is to watch the sunrise on New Year’s day. Throngs of people go out in public places waiting for the sunrise. 

It is an optimistic way of greeting the new set of twelve months. A fresh new year, a new sun, a new day. We need all the optimism we can gather. Take a deep breath. This is a kumbaya moment! (lol).

2023 will bring new thrills for us as we look forward to new solo music and appearances and content. New documentaries, new Run BTS! So many rumors flying about tv dramas and collaborations. There is a lot in store for them and us in 2023.

However, it will all be severely tempered with each new heartbreak watching each one of them finally take that big step and enter the military for their service (assuming they all go in 2023).

We will probably see less and less interactions on social media, of course especially after they all enter the military. We should expect nothing for birthdays, anniversaries, holidays or when milestones are reached or awards achieved. We will have to get used to their silence on social. 

All we can do is support them the best way we can. And stick together and try not to create too much negativity among us. When it gets overwhelming, just step away for a while, there’s nothing wrong with that. Take time, think about why you love Jin, Yoongi, Hobi, Namjoon, Jimin, Jungkook and Taehyung.

We already know we get to start off with a brand new episode of Run BTS!

ANYWAY! Happy new year to you all and I hope everyone gets to start it on their best note. So bring it on 2023! FIGHTING!