#LED advertising trends

[engagisau]

Why LED Screens Are the Future of Advertising

Companies' reach to the consumers has now changed altogether because of the fast pace of the new-age world. Old methods of advertising-on billboards and printed press-have now taken a backseat to a more dynamic, interactive, and engaging approach. One of the most revolutionary gifts in advertising has been LED screen development. With digital display boards, transparent LED screens, LED technology is changing every aspect of advertising and heralding a new era of visibility, interactivity, and flexibility.

The Rise of Digital Signage 

Digital signage in advertising has become one of the highly effective channels for display and conveyance of dynamic messages. In contrast with the static billboard or poster-type-which can be changed in real-time digital display-and targeted messages depending on the occasion and the interactive nature of the contents greatly improve customer engagement. Be it a crowded street or a shopping mall, the high-definition LED content brings advertisers out of their studios straight to the eye of consumers against allurements in favor of others.

LED screens are still shiny and vocally clear even when the sun shines. Hence, outdoor-level advertising is gaining mileage. If they don't move for legislation, outdoor boards will commercialize this phenomenon; LED billboards are paving the way into town and concrete jungles in style. This way, the LED display is a development option-aesthetics over price in operation, as opposed to maintaining a static advertisement that hasn't got any computerized adaptation for five years.

The Power of Interactive LED Displays 

LED displays transform advertising into interactive endeavors. With immersion in mind, advertisers are increasingly moving towards LED display technology, allowing consumers to be an interaction and engaging part of the brand experience. Instead of just watching the ad, people are now invited to participate in the brand. For example, in retail settings, consumers can interact with a digital signage display to scan product info, watch a video, or make a purchase.

The best feature of LED displays is that they are versatile. With far-out digital signage software tailored content can be programmed from a variety of angles-suit specific locations, days of a week, or customer segments. For instance, at a mall, an LED promotional screen might display offers from different stores based on patterns of footfall and customer activity. Because of the possibility of targeting an advertisement, LED screens can be called an usher for corporations' personal ad campaigns. 

Transparency and Ideas by Transparent LED Screens

Transparent LED screens are truly one of the most innovative discoveries bordering on the world of LED screens. These screens are changing the use of space for advertisers, conjuring up new design possibilities for innovative but functional displays. Transparent LED technology allows advertisers to display information on glass surfaces while maintaining visibility through the screen. This now opens up the doorway for digital signage in windows, shopfronts, and even on vehicles.

For example, a transparent LED screen on the side of a building can display advertisements without blocking the view of the cityscape behind it. In high-traffic urban areas where space is limited but the need for attention-grabbing advertising remains high, this kind of advertising is very popular. By embedding transparent LED screens into existing buildings, companies can achieve great-looking ads that blend into their environment.

Energy Efficiency and Sustainability

Energy efficiency is one of the plus points LED screens have over traditional advertising methods. They consume much less energy compared to the older neon or fluorescent sign display technologies. Not only does this help companies reduce their operating expenses, but it also helps to reduce their impact on the environment. In a world where being green is an increasing concern, using LED screens for advertising is a move towards meeting the demands for environmentally friendly solutions.

Furthermore, LED advertising trends show that the longevity of LED screens is a shrewd business decision. Provided maintenance is performed, these screens last for years, an aspect that makes them more durable than other high-frequency replacement advertising mediums.

The Future of Advertising: LED Screens Everywhere

Advertising applications of LED screens have been advancing in monstrous leaps. From remotely updated e-paper screens to advanced digital signage setups, advertising looks to be set on the digital front now. Businesses have never had so many choices to involve customers with dynamic advertising displays, interactive LED displays, or see-through LED screens in fresh and innovative ways.

If you're looking to elevate your brand and create captivating advertising experiences, LED screens are the way forward. Contact us today to learn how we can help you incorporate cutting-edge LED technology into your business and take your advertising to the next level. 

[theavaspriggs]

Ava's February Favorites

I know it's March 9th.

Milk Tea

I’ve always been somewhat of a tea purist, and considered milk in tea to be for indulgent hedonistic freaks, but I can’t lie, the black tea, ginger, cinnamon stick combination with a dash of milk will save you. This includes matcha, I’ve recently learned how to properly make the drink and its changed my life.

Led Zeppelin

The summer precursory of my senior year of high school, I randomly came across the song D’yer M’ker, and thus was my introduction into Led Zeppelin. A few months later i would find myself becoming Zeppelin obsessed (but at this period of my life I fixated and went through boy bands like a revolving door). The obsession soon faded, but 2025, the infatuation has come back full-force, and it’s consuming me, for better or for worse.

Every documentary, every performance, every picture. I eat all of it up. Day after day, night after night.

Unfortunately, and as always, my curiosities tends to lead me scary places, and i’ve learned things/rumors about them that I very much would liked to have remained ignorant on, and it brings me great moral affliction, on whether I should still listen to their music and like them the way I do.

Nevertheless, I saw Becoming Led Zeppelin in IMAX last week and it genuinely put me in a state of psychosis. There were multiple times where started flailing around in my seat, and bitting my finger in an unconsciously seductive manner. It was really weird. But really beautiful.

Jimmy Page playing acoustic guitar in velvet green pants, Jimmy Page playing guitar in a black leather jacket. What more could one ask for. There’s this person on Tumblr who makes fan-casts of Jimmy to unreleased Lana songs and they create such feeling of ecstasy within me, which I have to liken to being high on heroin.

Johnny Cash, the Folk/Blues Spiral

Like many others, I saw A Complete Unknown this past Christmas, and I thought it was a nice film, I love electric rock and roll, so it was somewhat exciting to me in that sense. But when Boyd Holbrook—Johnny Cash walked into frame and hit the crowd with his guitar-gun maneuver something really intense ignited within me.

Since then, I’ve been learning things here and there about Cash, and diving into his discography and artists of the like (Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Waylon Jennings, Bob Dylan, etc.) I’ve also been listening the influences of Led Zeppelin (Muddy Waters, Little Richard, etc.) and its been really disheartening to learn just how many nachos Zeppelin has stolen from these artists, and the very severity of those thefts…

Fashion/Lifestyle

A Pop of Pale Pink

Pink has really been doing it for me, especially when mixed with the grey. There’s not really much to say other than I think it’s cute. I also really like adding the pink when I wear my beige blouse (which clearly I wear quite often). But the beige/pale pink combination reminds me of Venus’s color palate. The pictures above are literally just me wearing the same scarf in different ways. My love for the color has even infiltrated my dinnerware.

My Dear Lockett

I recently got a locket this past winter, and her and I have been inseparable ever since. Inside contains a picture of Tom Blyth and Led Zeppelin (it is that serious). She stays on my chest at all times, and occasionally on my thigh.

I particularly like the locket and gold cross combination (unfortunate news, as of yesterday, the cross has been lost. I’d been wearing the locket and cross on my bad recently and I guess in my flailing of the bag, the cross flew off. #RIPsymbolicallyandliterally)

Putting Junk in My Hair/Fun things w/ Hair

What better way to have fun than throwing things in your hair, it adds jazz, spunk, personality to an otherwise quite dull part of the body. It also reminds me of Medieval/Caravaggio’s Bacchus/Pre-Raphaelite paintings (all of which bring me great joy.)

Greco-Roman/Egyptian-Antiquity Beauty/Fashion

It may not be necessarily reflective in the way I dress but I LOVE fashion/beauty from classical antiquity. I honestly think this section is more about using art as inspiration. It’s the closest one can get to feeling as the art itself; and the MET truly is the gold mine. I was in a perpetual state of gag-mentation (this is a really real and very true thing) in the Greek-Roman Art section. The amount of amphorae they have is truly mind-blowing. My thesis was originally going to be about how Roman Propaganda was spread through amphorae (until I realized all the amphorae I had in mind were actually Greek, not Roman) Nevertheless! I have a strong attachment to these vases/jars. Also they’re just sickening to look at.

I’ve also been watching many videos about Grecian drapings and the jewelry worn back then. Once again, these things bring me great joy.

There quite literally is inspiration everywhere for those with eyes to see. #ANTIQUITY4LIFE

(This doesn’t really have anything to do with the Greco-Roman world, but as I mentioned earlier, I love looking to Pre-Raphaelite paintings for fashion, make-up, and hair inspo, and there’s this YouTuber EvangelineMolly who specializes in mythological, art-based make-up looks. I’ve been loving her videos this past month as well)

Editorial Campaigns

This just might be the most controversial and albeit most embarrassing part of the blog thus far… but I really enjoying looking at brands editorial campaigns, particularly the likes of Rhode, Orebella, and sometimes Skims, but that’s typically around the holidays (i.e Christmas, Valentines Day, etc./please don’t support Skims or any Kardashian subsidiaries, I might go into detail in another entry).

I say this is controversial because, a few weeks ago, I saw a tweet of someone making fun of this girl for turning her home screen into a personalized time-square, with live motion clips of Vogue ads, Rhode campaigns, Sabrina Carpenter gifs, and other things of which I can’t remember at the moment. I personally thought it was really cute, but the comments all argued that its capitalist/commodification-brained, and that the person shouldn’t find enjoyment in it.

I won’t give my thoughts on this argument now, perhaps in another entry, but to be frank…

(MARKETING RANT BOOO TOMATO TOMATO TOMATO)

Back to the main point, I really enjoy looking through these brand’s campaigns and seeing the distinct vibe/aura they are trying to establish for themselves. Rhode has undeniably been extremely successful with this, as Hailey Bieber has cracked the code with how to leverage social media in a fruitful way: posting everyday (to my knowledge) having every post contribute to the distinct clean-girl image/aesthetic.

(I know people mainly associate the clean-girl aesthetic with the 2020 productivity era, but Hailey Bieber was undoubtedly the face of that era, and I think she knows that it’s her niche, and Rhode is a direct derivative of this aesthetic. Perhaps it could be considered as a little more messy with the “tacky” over application of blush, but the “Rhode girl” is ultimately always put together in some fashion. The hair is done, the skin is clear, the clothes are clean cut, etc.

Maybe what keeps them put together is having a good lip combo, using Rhodes’s most up-to date lip pencils)

In comparison to Orebella’s, which I feel is still trying to find their footing in the marketplace, given that they are a newer brand. I would say they have a distinct mythological, spiritual, wellness kind of vibe that Bella Hadid has been leaning into since 2020. I personally think the image that they are putting forth is really cool and gives something kind of new to the beauty marketplace however, (and this is to my knowledge) there’s still really no such thing as an “Orebella-girl” and again, this is very valid given that the brand just launched last year, but I personally don’t think they utilize social media as much as they could, and I’m talking about milking that shet. Maybe making posts about crystals, their different uses, and their correspond to certain Orebella scents, posting tarot readings, anything like that to be honest. I ultimately just think they should post more, and perhaps use girls in their editorial campaigns other than Bella Hadid. She, no doubt, has an amazing face for an editorial, but it would be nice if they would step their photoshoot game up and include different girls, rather than only having the influencers talk about the products on their social medias, and having the brand repost the reviews…idk

Perhaps I am capitalist bunny, I really do love advertising and marketing, which is a direct correspondence of capitalism, (and not to try and defend myself or anything) but I literally own none of these products, as I am too poor. Therefore, I exempt myself from the capitalist discussion. However, once I get my money up, I fear it may be time to revisit this conversation.

Dua Lipa’s 2024 Rolling Stone Cover.

It’s old I know, but I can’t help to admit, Dua Lipa is a very intriguing figure. She always looks gorgeous, she has a hot fiance, and she’s just having fun doing what she loves, traveling the world. The article is essentially about her goal to become Next Level Dua—wanting to learn as much as possible about the behind the scenes of the Entertainment/Music Industry. She talks of her Service95 newsletter (which I’ve recently signed up for, and typically browse through during my classes) and her Radical22 Production company (I just found out they produced a mini-Hulu series called Camden, and it has been saved to my watchlist.)

Anyhow, I find her to be highly aspirational, and although Radical Optimism was a bit of a commercial flop, it seems that she won’t be letting that dissuade her from being hot, successful, and having fun.

Don Quixote

I’ve been reading this book since early 2024, and I still in the process of reading it. I’m not going to say that much about it, because it already consumes me enough as is, with how long I’ve been reading it. But alas, the book is hilarious to me and every time I read it I LOL.

That’s all I have to say, if I’ve made an error, which I surely have, it will be adjusted in due time. Godspeed my beautiful friends

[g1rld1ary]

5 people james didn't mean to kiss (and one he did) ; james potter x fem!reader

➻ first james fic!! i love reviving old fanfic trends <33

➻ word count: 4494

➻ synopsis: says it on the tin baby!

➻ warnings: swearing, allusions to sex/dirty jokes, era typical homophobia (basically nonexistent)

════ ⋆★⋆ ════

James Potter was a very affectionate person, everyone knew that. His love language was absolutely physical touch — everyone knew that too. It was also assumed, therefore, that James Potter had an extensive list of kisses. That assumption wasn’t necessarily wrong, but a good chunk of them weren’t exactly what you imagined when thinking of the great James Potter kissing someone. They were often impulsive when he didn’t know how else to express his feelings. His very first kiss, for example, wasn’t exactly the cheesy, romantic soap opera that he often advertised providing for girls.

Sirius Black

The Marauders sat in their dorm room, early on in second year. While first year was packed with ridiculous adventures and the forming of their friendship group, second year brought a new awareness of girls, romance and especially kissing. That was the topic of discussion as the boys all packed into one bed, hypothesising about what it might be like. James and Sirius led the discussion with much bravado and false confidence whilst Peter looked decidedly scared. Remus, to his credit, just looked rather amused at it all.

“But where do you touch her?” James asked, eyes still wide and innocent and twelve years old, “I can’t just stand there with my hands at my sides like a twat!”

“Don’t be stupid, you hold her like this.” Sirius bent his arms in a direction that looked borderline painful. Remus huffed and climbed off the bed, pulling both the boys with him.

“If you’re gonna kiss a girl,” Remus instructed, “You have to hold her gently. Don’t push her around like she’s dead weight. James, put your arms around Sirius’ waist like that, now Sirius, you put your arms around his neck.”

“Pete’s gonna think we’re bent,” Sirius grumbled, a red hue on his cheeks.

“You are bent, you poof,” Peter quipped from his spot on the bed. He was right, of course, but that wouldn’t come to light until fourth year. James thought this was hilarious though, and began miming exaggerated — rather sloppy — kisses. And since James never failed to cure Sirius of his moods, he did the same. Remus rolled his eyes as the two boys acted out a passionate scene, loose tongues and all, until they were no longer acting.

All four boys in the dorm were frozen as James and Sirius’ mouths had accidentally connected in their stupidity, none of them sure what to do. Seconds passed as the two stood, lips locked against each other, no one daring to move. At least, until Remus let out a long, uncharacteristic wheeze, which dissolved into a fit of giggles that he would usually be mortified by, but there was no way he was outdoing the kiss anytime soon. Peter followed along momentarily, laughing so hard barely any sound actually came out, silent heaves punctuated by gasping breaths.

Released from their stupor both boys leapt apart, wiping their mouths with their forearms. Both had comical expressions of disgust, still slightly too stunned to verbalise any of it.

“We,” James heaved, “Can never speak of this again. Ever.” Sirius agreed in a heartbeat, still unable to completely wipe the blush from his pale complexion. He probably would have dwelled on those feelings if James wasn’t James, beginning to see the humour in it soon enough. By the end of the night it was an inside joke that would proceed to be referenced countless times within the walls of Hogwarts.

So although James would tell the story of his first kiss quite differently — he alleged it was with a Ravenclaw named Keeley a few weeks later, his proper first kiss will always have been with one Sirius Black in the Gryffindor dormitories on an otherwise unassuming Tuesday evening. And that secret was held onto dearly by all four marauders until, of course, Sirius’ best man speech at James’ wedding, where the anecdote received uproarious applause, loudest of all by James himself.

2. Remus Lupin

The Marauders had all known about Remus’ ‘furry little problem’ since their second year — first for the most perceptive of the bunch. Nevertheless, the group were insistent in helping Remus in any way they could, though it was a difficult task when his alter ego had no resistance to killing them. Until Sirius had come to them with the idea of becoming animagi. It was difficult no doubt, advanced magic far beyond the teaching at Hogwarts, but the four of them were exceptional wizards each in their own way, and the project seemed somewhat manageable with four brains chipping away at it over the course of two years.

When they finally did get it, hardly any of them could believe it, least of all Remus. He had never imagined that the human side of him was worthy of this much love and devotion, let alone the monster within him. However, despite how they tried to play it off, the achievement didn’t come easily to any of them. Sirius was the first to get it, big black dog accompanying the group around the castle and becoming an unexpected staple of the Gryffindor common room. You in particular liked to cuddle up with him on the couch and spoil him with head scratches when you were stressed from school — at least until the secret was revealed and you hit him upside his human head for deceiving you.

James was second to get it, though much less gracefully than Sirius. The whole group of Gryffindors had been hanging out together down by the Black Lake, enjoying the slowly warming weather after class one day. James had the misfortune of being sat between you and Lily, which made things very confusing for his hormonal body and brain. His eyes were trained on his hands, too afraid to actually talk to either of you and embarrass himself which was what usually happened. You and Lily, however, were hell bent on making that occur. While James had had a well known crush on Lily for the last few years, ever since you’d come back to school that year post-puberty you could both tell that James was both emotionally and physically confused. You both delighted in this and used it to your advantage, Lily finding him the most annoying man on earth and you delighting in his flustered expressions (secretly finding him actually pretty cute).

After thirty minutes of torture, James couldn’t take it. You’d made one too many dirty jokes directed at him and he was a blushing mess, fidgeting awkwardly between you and Lily laughing gleefully. He excused himself quickly and uncharacteristically quietly, hurrying off to be out of sight of his friends. You all laughed as you watched him go, and Remus reluctantly stood, muttering something about making sure James didn’t drive himself crazy.

Remus headed straight to the Forbidden Forest, knowing the privacy would be what James desired in the moment. Sure enough there he was, taking a moment to breathe against a tree.

“Easy there, Potter, don’t cum in your pants,” He joked, obviously amused by the whole ordeal. James turned quickly, devastated at Remus seeing him so sexually frustrated.

“Sod off, Lupin. It’s not my fault! They both just sit there looking so fucking good, talking about all these unholy things and you expect me to just be fine with it? It’s so—” Instead of the exasperated groan Remus expected, he was met with a stag standing tall in front of him. He couldn’t help his mouth dropping open, the animal far more magnificent than he could have expected out of the fourteen year old boy.

In a weird shift of figure the deer was back to boy, and James only had a moment of shocked stillness before he was whooping and yelling in the grass. Remus joined him, the two of them yelling and dancing around like idiots in their joy. James pulled him in for a hug, appropriately masculine until he pressed a kiss onto Remus’ lips, still grinning ecstatically as they pulled away. Remus scowled in a way he hoped was convincing.

“I hate it when you do that, Potter,” He grumbled as the two of them returned to their friends.

“Yeah, right,” James laughed, pushing his glasses up his nose. “It’s a blessing to be kissed by my sexy arse.”

3. Peter Pettigrew

While all four of the Marauders were undoubtedly exceptional wizards, that didn’t always translate into their grades. For example, being so ahead in the curriculum made James Potter get lazy, often submitting subpar essays simply because he figured it was already common knowledge and he was more interested in higher level magic. He always ended up with top grades from outstanding extra credit projects, but the point still stood.

Peter was similarly a great wizard. Perhaps not so much a prodigy like James or Sirius, and didn’t dominate the class ranks like Remus, but he did well for himself and was pretty exceptional in Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures. However, he was failing History of Magic. All four of them had chosen the subject for their OWLs, assuming it would be an easy O because of the ghost professor. They couldn’t be more wrong. Binns was a useless teacher and Peter especially found it difficult to teach himself the material just from the textbook, and was falling dreadfully behind, each essay earning a worse grade than the last.

James had offered to help tutor him before their exams, and the two buckled down in the library almost every day in the weeks leading up to exam season. Peter made pretty good progress, eager to catch up with his friends and prove he was on their level. Still, everyone was nervous for the test and its outcome.

When results were released, you and the Gryffindors were all together. Whilst you and the girls all got the reveal over and done with, the boys all waited with bated breaths. Most of the grades weren’t shocking — three of them knew they could easily get top grades from the little effort they put in, but they were all waiting on Peter’s History of Magic grade. The blond boy opened his paper with shaky hands, eyes scanning frantically over the information contained. Slowly he raised his head, nervous smile apparent.

“I got an A,” He said, and within an instant the boys were on top of him, congratulating him with strong hugs or by clapping him on the back. James grabbed both of his cheeks, pressing them together and pushing a kiss onto Peter’s lips.

“Prongs!” Peter moaned, pushing his face away half-heartedly.

“I’m just proud of you, Wormtail,” He cooed, appearing much like his mother whom you all adored.

“Oi, Potter,” You interrupted, waving your sheet of results around. “I got an O in Potions — where’s my kiss?” James immediately broke your eye contact, and you pretended you weren’t charmed by his embarrassed little smile. He mumbled a response that had his friends ripping him to shreds, egging him on whilst simultaneously teasing him and his alleged manhood. He pressed a gentle peck to your forehead and you raised an eyebrow.

“Not what I meant, but ok.”

4. Regulus Black

Regulus Black had a difficult relationship with the Marauders, to say the very least. By his fifth year — the rest of the boys’ sixth — Sirius had been at the Potter’s for months and Regulus was still reeling from the impact. He was noticeably quieter and more sombre than in years previous, and a dangerous resentment for his brother and his friends bubbled under his skin.

James Potter connected these dots quickly. However, he didn’t really know what to do about it. He wasn’t sorry that Sirius was living with him, but he didn’t like that Regulus was left all alone with their wicked parents, regardless of their personal differences. That brought James to you.

You sat together on the couch, his head resting next to your thighs, curls just brushing against your skin in a way that you couldn’t stop thinking about. He was lamenting about his mental struggles as you worked on your crochet, thinking quietly as he rambled on.

“Why don’t you just talk to him?” You asked suddenly, and James tilted his head to look up at you, holding back his laughter at your upside down appearance.

“What?” He asked, “I can’t talk to him, he hates me!”

“When has that ever stopped you before? Lily hates you and yet you bother her all the time,” You said, smile playing on your lips.

“That’s not true!” James protested, “I don’t bother her that much anymore!” You rolled your eyes playfully and turned back to your craft as James continued to ponder the situation.

As usual, he decided you were right. And so he sent a short letter to Regulus, asking for a meeting on the Astronomy tower at midnight. Surprisingly he’d agreed, and the two boys were standing awkwardly across each other on the tower. Regulus refused to start the conversation and so stood in silence, staring down James in an effort to scare him off. James wouldn’t be deterred.

“I just wanted to talk about what happened last year,” He said, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose nervously.

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

“C’mon. I know we’re not friends, but I also figured none of your friends are the talking type either. So, I thought you could talk to me — full confidentiality. I don’t know, blame me, yell at me, I just don’t want you to do this all by yourself.”

“How sweet, Potter,” He sneered, “But I don’t need to talk about any of my feelings.”

James Potter was nothing if not persistent.

“Ok, well if you don’t want to talk, how about you listen?” To his surprise, Regulus stayed. One perfect eyebrow raised, he slowly sat next to James, legs dangling over the edge of the tower. After a gesture for him to go on, James started. He began to talk about the process of having Sirius live with him, the feelings they both had about it, and the guilt they both felt about leaving Regulus alone. At that Regulus looked up, eyes pooling with hope.

Then without any warning, Regulus was talking more than James had ever heard before, spilling what he supposed must have been the younger boy’s darkest secrets and vulnerabilities. James was unprepared, not actually expecting him to engage. At one point James had put a comforting arm around Regulus’ shoulder, words failing to express any of the feelings he had inside. Regulus didn’t pull away as James expected, instead only starting to cry. James just watched in disbelief as Regulus cried into his chest. Awkwardly, James arranged himself to press a gentle kiss to Regulus’ forehead right as Regulus moved to look up and speak, resulting in a ridiculous kiss between the two of them.

They jumped apart in less than a second, both with horrified looks on their faces.

“Oh my God—”

“That was an accident I swear—”

“I’m really sorry—”

“I was just trying to comfort you—”

Both boys stumbled over their words as they clambered up to their feet, putting a strictly heterosexual amount of space between them.

“Um, I’m just gonna go,” Regulus settled on, backing up towards the door.

“I’m seriously sorry, Black. It’s just something I do — doesn’t usually backfire like that.” Regulus just nodded, leaving quickly.

“Potter?” He stopped halfway through the door and James looked up. “Thanks.” James didn’t get any time to reply as Regulus was long gone, leaving him to cringe on his own. Neither of them would be telling anybody about the incident. Ever.

5. Lily Evans

You and James had been doing your will-they-won’t-they thing for a long time. Not quite since you met, but once you’d both started to notice the opposite sex you’d been participating in a battle of who could resist the longest. Teasing and cajoling were staples of your relationship. Whilst it had started as a way to pass the time; James had been in love with Lily since second year and you just liked to tease, at some point the feelings crossed over into a real and dangerous territory. However, neither of you wanted to do anything in case the feelings weren’t reciprocated, and truthfully hadn’t realised the true depth of them.

You and James were the only ones not to see the obvious: the feelings were absolutely reciprocated. It was tearing your friends apart, trying to get one of you to finally confess before you finished school forever. There were bets in place, pep talks and everything else the Gryffindors could think of to finally cause the event they’d been hoping for. Eventually, Lily had had enough.

One day you were all hanging out in your dormitory, most of you doing your homework and Marlene fiddling with a record player, trying to get it to come back to life.

“So, what would you guys think if I gave James a chance?” Lily asked, too coy to be genuine, but you were caught off-guard enough that you didn’t notice. “I mean, I know I’ve said some terrible things over the years, but now that he’s backed off he’s actually a really nice guy.”

“But… James?” You asked incredulously, essay immediately forgotten.

“Yeah, why not? He’s the hottest guy in our year, and if all goes to shit it’s only a few months until we graduate and I’ll never have to see him again.”

“But it’s James!” The rest of the girls had caught on to what Lily was scheming and delighted in joining in.

“Why shouldn’t she? It’s not like you like him, right?” Mary asked, studying your expressions. You hesitated for a moment, trying to find the right words. And just when they thought Lily had finally succeeded in getting the ball rolling you answered: “No, of course not. You go ahead, Lils.”

What started as a ploy to get you to admit your feelings only snowballed from there when Lily realised she couldn’t just back out now. And so she hatched a plan. Everything was going perfectly; Sirius and Remus had made sure the common room was devoid of younger students so no unhelpful rumours could be spread, and Marlene had been hanging out with you all evening to make sure you stuck to the schedule she’d devised.

With perfect precision, you and Marlene entered through the portrait just as Lily came down from the dorms.

“Hey, Potter,” She called, and James looked up curiously from his game of wizard’s chess. The redhead marched over to him, cupping both of his cheeks and kissing him strongly. Your jaw dropped open. You couldn’t believe Lily was just going for it like that, but even more you couldn’t believe the sick feeling creeping up from your stomach. You looked at Marlene, who only looked marginally less shocked. A glance around the room proved similar. Although they all knew Lily’s plan, it was two entirely different things to hear about her scheme to get the two of you together and seeing Lily Evans kissing James Potter.

“I’ve, uh, gotta go,” You mumbled, somehow finding your footing to run from the room, desperate to get anywhere where you didn’t have to see that, and the subsequent (or so you believed) union of a happy couple.

Lily pulled away from the kiss, eyes immediately trying to find you and she was puzzled when she couldn’t. A look at Marlene told her all she needed to know and her heart sank; she’d failed. James was looking a little more dazed than the head girl, and suddenly looked terribly awkward in his seat.

“Look, Lils. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t feel that way about you anymore. There’s— there’s someone else, and I, I have to go.” With that James headed up to his dormitory, and the rest of your friends stood in a thick silence for several moments.

“I think I just made everything worse,” Lily said, and then the chaos started.

“What the fuck did you think was going to happen?” Sirius asked loudly, running a stressed hand through his hair.

“I don’t know! I just figured maybe they’d have an epiphany and both realise they’d rather be kissing each other!” Lily cried, throwing herself into an armchair.

You

Lily was right, she’d unintentionally made everything worse. You were upset at what you’d seen and the story you’d attributed to it, and even more so at your terribly timed realisation of your feelings. Because of this you’d started avoiding James in an effort to get over him, which only made you more miserable that you couldn’t talk to your favourite person. James, in turn, hadn’t seen you enter the common room on the night of the kiss and so believed —and dearly hoped — that you were blissfully ignorant, and so was equally perplexed and distraught at the space between you. He’d tried to approach you about it but you evaded him or turned him away every time.

“Hey, love, can we please—”

“It’s fine, James,” You interrupted him, “It was all just a bit of fun, right? All the flirting, the being touchy. But now you’re with Lily and I’ll back off, I get it, don’t worry. I wish you two every happiness.” You tried to sound as genuine as you could while sadness bit at your heart, and left James standing astounded in the corridor. Now he knew that you’d seen the kiss the issue was obvious, but the solution remained a mystery to him.

You’d taken to Marlene to get your feelings out, and she listened patiently as you rattled off a monologue about your childish jealousy and broken heart. Luckily, she’d discussed how to handle this with Lily — who knew you wouldn’t go to her because of her alleged involvement with James, and set off (hopefully) your friend’s last attempt to get you two together. She finally shook you out of it, frustrated with the lack of action.

“They’re not together,” She said, stopping you in your tracks.

“What?”

“They’re not together,” She repeated, making intense eye contact with you. “It was all this dumb plan Lily had to get the two of you together. She thought if you saw James getting with someone else you’d finally realise your feelings for him. And you did, but you were supposed to stick around to hear Potter reject her and say that he liked someone else, you.” You were shocked into silence, what could you say to that?

“So,” You started carefully, “What do I do now?”

James was in a similar situation with the boys.

“She saw Lily kiss me and now she thinks I like Lily when I like her! Plus, she won’t even be in my presence long enough for me to explain that it’s all just this huge misunderstanding and it’s her I want to be snogging!” James lay dramatically across his bed as the boys sighed.

“Prongs, isn’t it obvious?” Sirius asked and James cocked his head to the side, looking remarkably like a confused puppy. “Do something she can’t ignore. Make a grand gesture to prove your feelings for her.” James thought about it, it made sense. If you wouldn’t hear his explanation, he’d just have to make you.

“How?”

You and James went into the following Saturday with the same goal. It was Gryffindor’s quidditch semi-final, so there was a party being held whatever the outcome. It would be the first time you’d see each other since you’d realised your mistake since training was taking up all of James’ time.

Gryffindor had won, thankfully, which had both of you in higher spirits. The party was already in full swing by the time you got there, opting for a smoke first to calm your nerves. You’d spotted James almost as soon as you entered, always the heart and soul of a party. You marched towards him with a purpose, but as soon as he set eyes on you he jumped up to stand on a table. Someone had lowered the volume of the music — not silent, but low enough so you could hear him yelling over it. He said your full name, clearly and intentionally in a way that had surrounding people look at you curiously.

“I love you,” He said suddenly. “I am in love with you, not anyone else, and whatever made you think that’s not true was just a huge misunderstanding. Because I love you so much, and all I want to do is snog you until I’m the only name you remember, baby.” You let out a short laugh at his vulgarity and the cocky smirk that accompanied it, but a cheek-splitting smile won out when you thought about the preceding words and the sincerity he’d instilled in them. Before you even knew what you were doing you were racing towards him, gratefully taking Peter’s hand to join James on the table.

You honestly couldn’t tell who had initiated the kiss, but you were suddenly so intimately joined together it was like all the air had been sucked out of your lungs, compressing your body in an effort to fuse to his. His strong arms around you couldn’t shield you from the confetti being thrown around (for the match, of course, not just your kiss), nor the catcalls of your friends. You only pulled away when you felt James’ tongue start exploring a little too far, mindful that half the people you knew were watching. You wore matching grins as you parted, foreheads still pressed together and breathing heavy.

While it might have taken four years, innumerable (accidental) kisses and one failed set-up plan to get there, you were sure in your heart that James Potter was the only boy you ever wanted to kiss. And so you did, over and over for the years to come, and you cheered and applauded enthusiastically as the seemingly never ending list of friends and family told stories of receiving a coveted James Potter kiss throughout the years, knowing you were the only one who got to be his bride.

[liveontelevision]

Demon Barber | Lucifer X Reader

IT'S DONNNEEEE

FuCk i slaved away on this one but y'all wanted a novel, so here she is!

Content Warning: Smutsmutsmutsmut +18, a little bit of angst and fluff, and Lucifer and Reader being kind of shitty people

☆☆☆

Everybody knew how much of an icon Queen Lillith was. She immediately blew up any form of media when she started uplifting demonkind. As time went on and more sinners were sent to Hell, a ripple effect of styles and trends rang throughout the city. It was important to Lillith to stay up to date with them. She hated to admit it, but she couldn’t keep up. She decided to take the opportunity to bring a new face to her team. At that point, the Morningstar family had already hired a handful of imps to keep little things in line, but this was a position that needed the point of view of a sinner on the streets.

Lucky you, you were one of the first sinners to work personally with the most powerful couple in Hell! You weren't that different from anyone else, but you are a chronic people watcher. It was an important hobby that helped you keep up with what everyone was decorating themselves with. A perfect pair of eyes for adorning the most beautiful creatures in the realm in a modern fashion. You started your glamorous job a couple of thousands of years before the Hotel was built. Even with your immense age, you did a surprisingly good job at keeping an open mind and becoming knowledgeable in most cosmetic and costuming work. You managed to make it through every extermination and more in this career. The protection from being housed with royalty definitely had its benefits.

On your first day, you went through Lillith's already existing wardrobe, in awe at the quality and unique aesthetics that she had. Even with your praises on her gowns, she insisted she needed your knowledge of street style incorporated into her wardrobe. You definitely fit into the Pride ring of hell at that point. The queen of Hell needs your personal opinion on what she wears? That went straight to your head. You became the head of a team and were credited with dressing up Lillith in some of her most iconic outfits. It didn't exactly bring you any fame, you weren't advertised or really credited in any other form than writing. Sometimes, if Lillith was put in an outfit she really enjoyed and her makeup and hair lasted through an entire performance, she'd give a little shout-out. You didn't really mind, you loved doing what you did, and the sweet praises Lillith gave you sufficed your need for validation. It felt amazing to see her face plastered all over Pentagram City, and being able to say hey, I did that. The salary helped, too.

As time went on, you noticed how little Lucifer made public appearances. When he did they were exclusively with Lillith at his side. And of course, he looked.. He was definitely a handsome ruler, but he didn’t have a lot of variety in his wardrobe. And it wasn't exactly up to your or Lillith's standards. She would often suggest taking some styling tips from you, almost begging at times, but he would refuse every time. You did little things, steaming and restitching his wardrobe, doing some touch-up makeup for shoots, but his suit? It stayed the same almost every day.

One day, Lucifer suddenly had a change of heart. He looked disheartened but begrudgingly agreed to be dolled up for a shoot that was happening soon. You were almost as ecstatic as Lillith was, getting this chance.

"I want you to give it your all, dear. Maybe I can convince him to do some more in the future if all goes well..." She'd tell you in a hushed tone, the two of you standing in front of the double doors that led to your studio." Do what you do best!" She said cheerfully, her hand on the small of your back. She practically throws you into the room once it's open, leaving you alone with Lucifer. There was no music, none of your other artists had shown up yet, and the only thing you could hear was your breath shaking. You breathed in heavily, then put on your best customer service face as you exhaled. You played professionally at the beginning, but it's always easier having some personality and small talk when you're planning on being in close proximity to clients for so long.

"Your Majesty! I hope you're doing well today, I'm glad you decided to join us this time!" You spoke in your people-pleaser voice, trying to hide the nerves that suddenly washed over your body. "Why the change of heart?" You started questioning, in a desperate attempt to find some sense of small talk with the intimidating figure seated in front of you. As you spoke, you stepped in front of the vanity he was seated at, having to stretch by his crossed legs to lay out your supplies. "I'm doing fantastic. Obviously." He spoke in an aggravated tone. You sucked in your lips, unsure if you should laugh. Luckily he didn't need a response before answering your other question. "You've seen Lily, she can be quite convincing." He puffed out his chest in his seated position, insinuating something vulgar. Your eye twitched, trying your best to not let them roll.

That didn't stop your face from heating up, the image suddenly materializing in your head. You cleared your throat, turning your attention back to the array of makeup brushes and some colored powders you had picked out specifically for this shoot." She is a beauty, I agree." You felt the need to respond in some way before getting to work.

You loved doing your job. No matter who you worked on, you'd always focus on your technique before anything else, which helped calm you down while you delicately held Lucifer's jaw, twisting his head around to get a general idea of what you were working with. You examined a solid purple bruise that decorated his neck before he had the chance to stop you. "Oh! I just - ran into a doorknob. Yeeah.. I.. tripped." He rambled a pathetic excuse, learning away from your touch." Sure, let's go with that." You replied, finally rolling your eyes at his words. "But you said it yourself, the Queen is indeed quite convincing." You teased, twisting around and grabbing a brush. When you went to move behind his chair to start running a comb through his impossibly soft golden hair, you caught how red he had turned at your remark." Oh, it's okay, I'm just teasing. You know how long I've worked on Lillith, I've had to cover way worse." You added, genuinely thinking that would help calm him down. He let out a quiet groan of embarrassment, smacking his hand against his face.

It went silent for a while as you worked on his hair. You saw how it usually was put up, and you didn’t want to scare him with too drastic of a change, so you only added some subtle layers that left it a bit fluffier than normal. You’d stop every now and then, placing your hands on his shoulders and looking at your work in the mirror. He'd flinch at your touch each time, leaving you concerned at first, then just giving him a suck it up attitude for the rest of your session. You went on to do something that didn't need your full attention and looked over his shoulder to get a peek at his phone screen that he used as a buffer for the awkward silence. It displayed a little calendar, he swiped through each day mindlessly. "Looks like you have a packed schedule, huh? How's that been going?" He looked up and pulled his phone into his lap, a squint across his face. "It's fine, I'm handling it. It's my job after all, ya know. Important things." He didn't seem to want to get into too much detail, so you let out a nervous chuckle and agreed before immediately finding some music to play to cover your mistake. You were convinced he would fire you at that point. Or worse.

As you finished up, you viewed him from multiple angles, twisting him around in the chair. You leaned down a bit, your eyes at his level then reached both your hands out and took the pieces of hair that framed his face, curling them up a bit at his cheeks. You stepped back again and placed your hands on your hips, letting out a satisfied hum.

He definitely calmed down by the time his hair was done, leaving behind the crude jokes and little rude quips from before. Now onto the makeup. This was far more intimate, so you gave him a quick rundown as you rummaged through your things." Alright, you definitely don't need any makeup, since your skin is perfect, but there's a chance the cameras and the lighting could wash you out, so I'll just use a blurring effect with this pow - " you stopped talking when you saw his confusion." I'm.. I'm gonna doll you up. Basically.." You summarized it bluntly. It was clear to you how uncomfortable he was with being touched excessively, you did your best to accommodate. You applied some translucent powders to his skin, then brightened up the cute little red circles on his face, after mentally kicking yourself for thinking of them as cute. This is the king of Hell, knock it off. You cleaned up the heavy bags under his eyes, then noticed a tired purple hue to his eyelids. Going in with a lilac color, you emphasized them.

As you were gathering some other things, stepping back a bit, he turned his head to look at his appearance in the mirror. He was expecting some ridiculous and dramatic work, but he really just looked brighter. More alert, more alive. He shut one of his eyes to see the color you had added to his lids, "I.. like that.." He spoke quietly and sounded surprised as if he didn't want to admit that to you. You let out a little chuckle, the compliment completely going to your head, before passively scolding him for touching his face before you had finished. He let his hands fall back into his lap with a pout on his face. Adding any color to his eyes or lips required precision, so you were lifting up his face by his chin to do what you do best. You were honestly a little surprised about how well he handled the rest of the session. For someone who's refused any sort of cosmetics for literal centuries, he looked like he was enjoying the pampering.

You had only worked on Lillith before, and even if she was intimidatingly gorgeous, you adapted to being physically close to her. Going into a sort of auto-pilot mode, you held your breath, tracing out his best features. Pulling away to check on his full appearance again, you noticed that he seemed to be holding his breath as well. He finally let it out once you stepped away, his face already a little flushed. You didn't think too much about it, you were mainly annoyed that the composition of the makeup was being thrown off by this sudden blush.

"Well! Once wardrobe comes in, you'll be taken down to set. What do you think?" You stood behind his chair and spun him back around to face the mirror. He leaned in, making sure not to touch his face since you scolded him before. He moved his head around, even admiring the coverage of the hickey that Lillith so generously gifted him." Hm! I suppose this works. As long as Lillith likes it, that is." His voice wasn’t enthusiastic, but you recognized the satisfaction plastered across his face. He looked up to meet your eyes in the reflection of the mirror. "She's right, you are good at what you do, I'll give you that." You gave a little nod and began to pack up your things. "I'm glad it's acceptable, your highness." You pulled up some finger quotes as you spoke the word acceptable. "You were really nice to work on actually, your hair looks great and your face is already near perfection, so I didn't need to do much. Plus, you sat very well." You spoke nonchalantly, compliments like that coming as second nature in this field.

You turned once more and bowed your head a bit before sending a smile his way. His eyes were wide, and it looked like he was struggling to stiffen a grin. He cleared his throat, covering his mouth with his fist and looking to the side. "G-Good.. Glad you enjoyed the.. Uh - Enjoyed it.." His voice muffled behind his hand. You didn't overthink his nervous reaction since you were in a hurry to get Lillith ready next. "Oh, for sure! I hope I see you around more often! I'm sure the shoot will be great." You chimed in, finally dipping out of the room as a crowd of imps barged in, finishing up his look.

The rest of the day was spent getting Lillith ready for the shoot, which took considerably longer than Lucifer's preparations. The whole time you chatted with her about how Lucifer did, calling her out on the damned bruise that you had to cover up, and general catch-up that had become routine at this point. Once everything was up and moving, you floated around the set fixing up some small details on both Lillith and Lucifer's look when needed. And of course, the shots they got were fantastic. You couldn't stop yourself from admiring your work once the posters and advertisements were distributed.

That was the first time you worked with Lucifer. Not much changed after, you became a little more popular around the staff; getting complimented on how you dressed him and answered some silly questions about what he was like. You did see him around more often, and you’d make small talk. After a few weeks, while working on Lillith, she brought up another shoot that was proposed for a big event coming up. "And get this! Lucifer asked me to put him in the shoot!" She was absolutely giddy to tell you the news. "Well, of course, he wants to be in the shoot, it's because I prettied him up so well!" You bragged in a joking tone, making Lillith let out a sultry chuckle. She placed her hand over yours, a sincere smile across her already-painted lips. "Thank you, dear. He needs the pampering sometimes." You blushed at the sudden contact and grinned in response.

---

Lucifer did in fact join that shoot. The process was about the same, but he seemed to engage in conversation more and asked more questions about what you were doing at each step. It warmed your heart to talk about your passions, you were unknowingly gushing about your interests every time he asked.

As the years went on, he joined more and more shoots, accompanied Lillith to more public appearances, and generally just wanted your opinions on his looks more often. It didn't take long for you two to become close. He'd ask for help on outfits, sometimes becoming a nervous wreck about what to wear on dates. With his wife. It was adorable the way he worried about how he looked after being with Lillith for so long and essentially running a new world together. He seemed to really enjoy having his hair and makeup done, occasionally making a fuss if you weren't the one to do it. You would scold him, talking about how he's wasting your time, and that you trained each of your stylists, so he has to trust them. He pouted the whole time.

Being around the power couple of the century unfortunately had its flaws. Like having to witness its downfall. Both of them became quieter a decade or two before Lillith's disappearance. Any time you'd try and tell a funny story about Lucifer to Lillith, she would change the topic almost immediately. On the opposite end, Lucifer wasn't supplying you with the same amount of jokes and puns as usual and reverted back to flinching at your touch. You couldn't ask about what was going on, that'd be rude.. Right?

"You know, Lillith was just talking about some sort of Gala for the Sins, are you going with her?" You had some hidden intentions by bringing this up while you were fixing Lucifer up for his day. "A Gala, huh? Haven't heard anything about that, so - I guess not!" He blurted out, clearly irritated. Shit. " Are.. Are you okay? Is something going on?" You leaned against the back of the vanity, stopping what you were doing to give him your full attention." Well, if you want to talk about it, that is.. Aaand as long as I won't get in trouble by asking." You shrugged and crossed your arms over your chest. That happened once or twice, but it was for little things; spoiling an anniversary gift one time, or accidentally getting an imp fired when you were venting about workplace struggles. "Yeah, of course it's okay! We're fine. It's fine. I'm fine! Stop asking so many questions!" He got increasingly aggressive as he spoke, you threw your hands up, stepping away and returning to the back of his chair. "Okay, okay! I believe you, jeez!" You responded to it as a joke, hoping you could recover.

You didn't talk about it after that, lifting his mood a bit by asking about his projects and other little things. As you finished up his hair, you noticed him closing his eyes and leaning his head into your hands as you ran your fingers through his hair to coat it with some kind of styling product. He'd fallen asleep in the past, so you didn't worry about it too much. You went on to work on his makeup. He asked you recently if you wouldn’t mind coming up with a more subtle everyday look for him. Apparently he just really liked your work. Or, he needed the pampering. Either way, you couldn't refuse.

He was loving the treatment today. He would hum every time you used your thumb to brush a speck off his cheek, and would start leaning forward when you stopped touching him. You pushed him back by his chest mindlessly, just needing him to sit back in his chair.

You then started to apply makeup to his eyes. Covering the bags underneath them became increasingly difficult throughout the years. You pulled him in like usual, your hand lightly leading his head up towards your face. When you paused at some point to evaluate whatever you were doing, he suddenly opened his eyes, his gaze meeting yours, then flashing a quick peak at your bust that had been accentuated by your stance. He leaned back, a nervous look on his face.

"Um, hello?? I was kind of in the middle of something! That’s it. Tell me what’s wrong." You scoffed, confusion and irritation plastered across your face. He quickly dismissed it, letting you work again. He could feel your shallow breathing fan across his face as you went on. His breath was picking up, heart rate elevating as you kept this proximity. The leather on the armrests of his chair squeaked as he gripped his claws into the fabric.

After a while, you silently leaned back, only now noticing him falling apart. He leaned in slightly, dropping his jaw to let out a shaky breath. He would've hit your face if you hadn't stepped away. Possibly even met your lips.

"Uh – Your higness..?" You were oblivious, so you decided to question this behavior. He popped his eyes open and immediately leaned back into his chair." A-Are you done yet?" He squeaked out, examining the damage he had done to your chair with a nervous chuckle. "I'll uh.. I'll get you a new chair." He muttered, before looking into the mirror for just a moment. "Looks good to me! Excellent job as usual, my dear, I better get going, I have a meeting to get to so – " You watched in silent confusion, seeing him squirming and screwing up his words. He quickly stood up, not assessing how close he would be to you and how close your back was to the vanity. You stumbled backward, placing your hands on the vanity to keep yourself from falling any farther, and acting as a buffer between the counter and Lucifer. He tripped over your stumbling feet, his flailing arms landing beside yours. You were effectively trapped, his knee had bent between your legs while trying to find his balance.

A moment of silence. All you heard was the beating of your heart ringing in your ears. He looked down at you in a way that clouded your judgment. Neither of you said anything, but you fluttered your eyes shut subconsciously. He did the same, then cocked his head to the side and slowly lean into your face. He roped his arm around your waist, pulling you forward a bit, but not quite flush to his chest. Yet. You felt his shaky breath fanning over your lips, before snapping back into reality. "No! Nope - " You quickly broke free of his arms and began cleaning up your things, avoiding his gaze as it followed you frantically getting your things together. "You have a meeting, right? I just finished up, so you should be all good now! I'll just – I-I'll see you around! Have a good day, sir!" You quickly left the room, not letting him get a single word in. He reached out to you as you left as if that would suddenly draw you back towards him, but of course, it did nothing. "Well, shit." He let out bluntly, waiting for a moment in your own studio before b-lining it back to his office.

What the fuck was that?

You avoided Lucifer after the incident, and he seemed to respect that. He let one of your stylists do his daily pampering, knowing that stopping that routine would cause too much suspicion. He didn't enjoy it as much, but stopping altogether would make Lillith ask about it. Fuck. Lillith. A flood of emotions wash over you. In reality, you were closer to Lillith than her husband. You two gossiped and chatted on the daily. It was a struggle to face her after this, but what choice did you have? 

She was completely silent during her last few sessions, so you drowned out your guilty thoughts with music. She disappeared a few years after that. You absolutely panicked. So did many of the staff members, but your sole concern was if it was your fault. You were quick to find Lucifer after the announcement was made, only to see him in your studio, running his hands across the rack of gowns that Lillith had left. "Lucifer. What happened? Where did she go? What did she say?" You rambled approaching him, but being careful not to get too close. "She didn't say anything. She left a half-assed note, and she's just.. Gone." He pulled a dress into his arms and gripped it tightly before letting it drop to the floor. He let out a vicious roar, throwing the rack to the side." How could she do this?! What about the kingdom? What about Charlie? Dammit.. What did I do?? We slept next to each other that night.. The same night she left… I-I could’ve stopped her, I should've - She just disappeared..!" He rambled on, quickly unraveling in front of you. You watched his tail and horns start to form, and you hesitantly gripped his shoulder. He finally stopped, taking a deep breath before turning to face you. He hadn't looked into your eyes since..

His horns shrunk back into his temples before he let his head fall onto your shoulder. You almost stepped away, but.. He needed this. And you needed answers. "Sir.. Was it because.. Did she leave because of me..?" You spoke softly, your breath a cool sensation against his heated skin. He quickly shot up, planting his hands on your shoulders and looking at you with a stern expression. "No! No, I promise it wasn't your fault. Fuck, none of that was your fault. She.. I-I'm not sure why she left, but that's not your burden to bear." He spoke calmly, a stark contrast to the raging mess he just displayed moments ago. 

You two stood there for a while, his hands drifted down to hold your arms. What was he supposed to do now? He looked around the room for some kind of answer. Before he could realize what was happening, he was pulled into a tight embrace, his head just barely reaching the top of your shoulder. "It's gonna be okay.. I’ll be here, Lucifer. No matter what." It felt.. weird for a moment. This was the first time you'd gotten close to him this way. And actually, the first time you'd said his name without any sort of title. He let out another exhausted sigh, his hands snaking around your back and accepting the much-needed affection. As his head pressed against your collarbone, you stood there until he decided he’d had enough. You were there for a while.

It wasn't Lucifer's fault, but after that, you didn’t work much. There really wasn't a lot to do, without someone pushing public appearances and emphasizing the importance of image, you generally just mended and fixed up the staff's uniforms and Lucifer’s wardrobe. You were technically a stylist, but you've been doing this long enough that you could handle these jobs entirely by yourself. Actually, you did handle the job by yourself. Lucifer fired or sent most of the previously employed stylists away, along with most of the staff. About five years into Lillith's disappearance, the place had widdled down to a handful of workers. Some in the kitchen, basic housekeeping, a noisy secretary to answer some calls, and you. You started to question why he kept you around. You hated to admit that you still blamed yourself for Lillith leaving, but why else would she suddenly disappear? She was cold to you as soon as you kissed – almost kissed – Lucifer that day. You tried your hardest to avoid that thought process since you stuck around the mansion.

You were surprised to find out that Lucifer accepted an invitation to be on the cover of a magazine for Helluva Times. He hadn't needed makeup or hair done since Lillith left, and in reality, you barely saw him around. You were ashamed about how excited you were to see him again. Of course, it won't be the same as before, but you were looking forward to it nonetheless. You were taken to the studio where the shoot was being held since the one in the mansion was turned into more of a workspace for mending clothing. The studio was brightly lit and bustled with imps and some stylish sinners doing their part. You wondered if It was always like this, or if it was just because of Lucifer. You approached the vanity, the king of Hell seated in a movie set chair, with a golden star on the back, his name embroidered to the center. You were stopped in your tracks when you saw the dark circles that surrounded his eyes. Jesus, he was exhausted. You weren’t exactly surprised, more like distressed. Now that you think about it, Lillith really did a lot of heavy lifting when it came to keeping Hell in line.

"Your Highness." You gave him a little smile and nodded your head, beginning to display your usual setup on the vanity in front of him. "Heyyy! You..! Good to see you, Ahha.. ha.. h-how've you been..? How's... work been..?" He put on a fake smile and propped his head on his hand in a sad attempt to act casual. He switched to crossing his arms, unable to sit still and make eye contact with you at the same time. You didn't know how to react. The last time he was this nervous, he ended up pinning you to a table with his arms around you. You quickly got to work, trying to get the image of that day out of your head.

You go to comb his hair, recognizing that it's been a while since he let anyone tend to it; it was nearly grown to the bottom of his neck and wasn't exactly the cleanest. "Do you have wrinkle-free, clean, clothes every day?" You asked in response to his nervous ramblings from earlier. He nodded slowly," Then work is fine." You picked up on the sudden attitude you had, and it even surprised you. He quickly shut his mouth and started to spin the wedding band on his finger as a nervous fidget.

You had to put some effort in since he wasn't getting the same attention he used to. You gave his golden locks some much-needed attention, running a number of products through them and taking the time to restore it to its usual length. You found yourself peaking at his face every now and then, which he didn't notice. He was too indulgent to even keep his eyes open. You tried to stop yourself from looking at his relaxed expression, but you found yourself turning away only when he opened his eyes. You checked the clock, you definitely had some time for a more thorough session. You dug your fingers just a bit deeper into his hair, lightly running your nails across his scalp. In several swirling motions, you had him melting in your hands. You had to stop every now and then and push his head back up after it lulled to the side. It usually kept him alert for a moment, but it never lasted long. He let out a subtle hum every now and then, making you bite your lip in some attempt to keep whatever you were feeling at bay.

After you finished your little massage, you quickly finished up his hair, giving him a very-needed trim and styling it to its usual glory. You instinctively placed your hands on his shoulders once you finished and leaned in a bit to look at the results.

"So? What do you think? You needed a haircut, sir, you should… keep in touch.. If you need me, I'm here." A grin grew on your face and he couldn’t help but sigh at the sight of your smiling face. He turned his head to the left and the right, reaching up to touch his face delicately. He was less worried about messing it up and more worried about you scolding him for it. He let out a little huff and he opened his mouth, with no words coming out. It took him a moment." It's great, but uhh.. Could you do the – " He spun his fingers around his cheeks," you know, the.. Little loopy.. Bits..?"

God, what a cutie.

You let out a little chuckle and nodded, turning his chair to face you." My bad, how could I forget the loopy bits?" You teased, reaching out to either side of his head. Your hands lulled over his cheeks for some reason you wouldn’t explain. Finally, you untucked the bits of hair from behind his ears, pulling them forward and twirling them with your fingers. You placed your hands on your hips, still bent to be at his eye level.

"There. Ready for makeup, Lucifer?" Your words didn't come naturally, it took you a few seconds to debate whether or not to call him by his name. With his voice cracking in an attempt to respond, he just nodded, attempting to keep some dignity intact. You did your best to act professional, despite his lovely reactions. You started as you usually did, applying an easy base and highlighting his rosy cheeks. You never needed to do much to his face, and even after all this time, you still didn’t need to. Must be his angelic abilities, that his skin never really changes. You shrugged off the thought, getting ready to focus on his eyes. Instead of keeping his chin up, you took a light hold of his jaw, your fingers grazing his neck and your thumb placed dangerously close to the side of his lips. You both reacted to this new method, but you quickly went to work to prevent any more eye contact.

You took your time and it was clear neither of you cared to bring it up. He was past his call time, but when some poor stylist working for the news team came in to get him, Lucifer used his threatening status to give you both more time. After you finished covering the dark rings surrounding his eyes and prettying them up a bit, you mirrored your other hand and essentially cupped his cheeks. You did your best to make it look like it was for work purposes, but damn you were enjoying this. Such a beautiful creature in the palm of your hands, looking away because he was too embarrassed to meet your eyes." Look forward, please?" You spoke softly, lightly tapping his cheek to get him to follow your commands. He let out a huff, then finally prepared himself to look into your eyes. The noisy workers coming in and out of the room suddenly disappeared, the room going silent. He had your complete focus, and suddenly there was nothing more important than gazing into his red eyes. His hand moved to your wrist, holding one of your hands in place while he pressed his cheek against your palm. What a sight. You leaned in, not knowing what would happen, but also not really caring. Any chance to get close to –

"Alright your Highness, we're gonna need you on set in five." The harsh sounds of the room suddenly returned, a Hellhound making a more stern request to get this shoot over with. You quickly stood straight, taking up a brush and fixing up the small smudges you had created by holding him. "Rrright! Yup, pretty sure we're almost done, sooo... I'll be right there..! Thanks." He clenched his pointed teeth, as he thanked the brute, who walked off with a scoff. "Good golly – I'm their king! What gives that mutt the right to – " He stopped his rambling once he saw your sheer embarrassment. He took it as a sign that he went too far, that just maybe, he read you wrong.

He turned his head, looking back to his reflection and tracing his little curls with his fingers before letting out a satisfied hum. "Great work as always, my dear." He stood from the chair, stretching his stiff legs with a groan." I should uhm – I'm gonna get going, I have to.. Do the.. Thing – with the thing.." He walked backward towards the exit, pointing over his shoulder. "You mean go to set and get the shots? Hope everything goes okay, sir." You chuckled, going back to cleaning some things up. "Okay, well – oh! Thank you! Right, forgot that part. So, thanks..!" He just kept talking. Like he might never see you again once he left the room. "My pleasure, Lucifer." You hummed, still attending to your tasks. Oh, you should’ve seen the winded look on his face. He let out a wheezing chuckle, tripped over himself, then finally left the studio.

Once all your things were neatly tucked away, you were invited to the shoot. They had an extensive team of people behind the scenes, so you got the chance to just observe the process. They had him run through a number of poses, some regal, some more.. Provocative. Just for fun, they said. It made you cringe, it definitely wasn't his style. Finally deciding on a composition, he had his arms crossed over his chest, and he rested his thumb just below his chin, drawing your eye to his devilish smirk. How could someone who's been hurt as badly as he has, smile for the cover of a magazine?

You made some mental notes on his makeup and his hair, which they squished down with a comically oversized tophat. Trying to keep your mind purely professional became increasingly difficult when he kept looking over at you, his smile twitching every time. He must be tired. That’s clearly why he's acting this way.

"All right, we got it! Wrap it up, people!" An aggressive shout took you away from your phone screen, and you looked around at the rush of workers. You tried to catch anyone's attention to see if you could help with anything, but you never got anyone's attention. It was definitely a change of pace from your past experience, considering you were the lead on a team that really only dressed two people, even if they were royalty. By the time you got back to the studio, it was basically cleaned out, other than your little cart with all the supplies you brought from home. You assumed you were good to go straight home and find something to do other than feeling up the king of Hell; speak of the devil!

"Oh! I.. didn't know you were still here, I thought you left..?" A soft, and mildly raspy, voice came from the door, making you catch Lucifer's eyes in the reflection of the vanity you stood in front of. "No, I was enjoying the show." You leaned against the tabletop after turning to face him, a little smirk on your face. "You did good, by the way. The shots came out really well." You pulled up some of the shots that the company sent to your phone. "These are some very handsome photos.. You're welcome, by the way." You were gloating. He had walked forward to get a better look at your phone screen, squinting his eyes like he needed glasses, despite it being impossible for him to have poor vision. He scoffed at your comment, crossing his arms over his chest. "Well don't let it go straight to your head, dear, you didn't do all the work. I'm just naturally gorgeous, right? You used to say that all the time." He nodded his head to either side as he spoke like he was winning some argument.

"Well, I meant it and it's still true. So, don't let that get to your head." You responded like you were trying to one-up him. He immediately turned red. He can shoot his shots, but deflates at any quick or clever rebuttals." W-Well! I'll try not to.. T-thanks for being here. Not like, here, but like – helping with the shoot, and doing meee – my hair! Love my hair, came out great." Good job, Lucifer. You startled him by running your hands through his locks, attempting to fix up the mess they made by putting a heavy hat on him." Ugh, they ruined it.. It should be an easy fix, I guess... that stupid hat." You grumbled, running your hands along the sides of his head to smooth it out. He was biting his lip when you sent him a quick look." I-I like the hat..." He said weakly. You couldn’t help but let out a little laugh, beginning to pull your hands away. Clawed hands took hold of your wrists, keeping them hovered on either side of his face. "You said... that you'd be there for me no matter what. Do you remember that..?" He relaxed his face, but his hands were shaking just a bit. You nodded slowly.” Well, I’m - I appreciate that.. And you.. I-I appreciate you..”

“If you still.. I don't know, it's been a few years since – but if you still wanted to.. Ugh, dammit..! I don't know how to – " He stuttered over his words, becoming visibly upset, something stopping him from speaking coherently. You couldn't assume he was talking about the little incident from years ago, but if it was still on your mind after all that time, maybe it was still on his. He stepped forward just a bit, his grasp still lightly holding your wrists, keeping him close to you. Waiting for you to respond to a question he never really asked, he gulped, then let out a breathy, fuck it. In one fell swoop, he released your hands and immediately pulled you into a tight embrace. This wasn't like before, this wasn't to console him. His hands were wrapped around your back and cradled the base of your neck, leaving no space between the two of you.

Your entire body tensed, the breath you didn’t realize you were holding in was knocked out of you, and your arms were stuck with your hands pressed against his chest. He loosened his grasp as soon as he held you, but never actually let you go. His head had sunk into your shoulder, trying to hide some kind of adorable expression, you were sure. You had the opportunity to push him away, nothing was truly keeping you there. Physically, at least.

As you stood still, deciding what your next move would be, you'd feel him adjusting his head and turning it to plant his cheek on your collarbone, his breath hot against your chest. You knew he had to feel how hard and fast your heart was beating with how he was nuzzling into you. Focusing on one thing at a time, you tugged your arm out of his hold and lifted his face upwards, at least preventing him from being too close to your rapid heart rate. The next problem was your noses almost touching due to how close you were. His eyes were wide, full of some sort of desperation or fear, and a little bit of excitement. Your fingers still lightly hovered under his chin, and you could feel his pulse. Just as fast as yours, maybe even faster.

You felt him gulp, his face now heating up. Maybe the look in your eyes was too much for him to handle. You looked at the vanity that was just a few feet away. That should make him understand. Taking small steps backwards, which he didn’t understand, but also didn’t question, you kept moving until you felt the table hit your back. You leaned back slowly, forcing him to brace himself against the table to keep his balance. His eyes darted around as it clicked finally. You had put yourself in the same position that you were in years ago. His hands caged you in, and his knee sat between your legs for stability. You remembered it so clearly, you had no trouble bringing the two of you right back to where you left off. You took one of his arms and guided it to support you by the small of your back, then snaked your arms around his shoulders. Then, you closed your eyes and just waited. Just sitting there, anticipation bubbling in your stomach.

Before you knew it, he had softly pressed his lips against yours. You jumped at first, startled by something you were waiting so patiently for. You felt his lips pull away in response, but you were quick to pull his shoulders in, closing the gap again. He let out a little cry against your lips, as you pulled him even closer by wrapping your arms around his neck. He kept one hand at your back and sent the other to your outer thigh, slightly lifting your leg to sit against his hip. With a more secure hold on you, he leaned forward further, until you felt the back of your head hit the mirror with a light thump. "Mmph! Are you okay?" He pulled away for a moment to ask, which only upset you even more. You looked at him as if the answer was obvious, and fisted the collar of his shirt, pulling your lips back together. Clearly, you were fine.

Becoming intoxicated by your lips, he practically begged for a more intimate kiss. He placed a hand on your chin, pulling your mouth ajar with his thumb and quickly entering his tongue in your mouth. The sudden motion left you muttering incoherent praises onto his lips. He pulled away, leaving you in a daze. Once you regained your focus, you were able to reassess your situation. You had slid down the entirety of the vanity, your back fully against the cold material of the counter. One of his hands were propping himself up directly above you, the other still holding your leg, and keeping you from moving away as he pulled you impossibly closer. While letting you catch your breath, he sent a few kisses down your jaw and neck, making you grip his shoulders and hold your breath. He pulled himself away after pressing another quick peck on your lips. "Hey. Breathe. I'll take care of you, don't worry - " How dare he. How could he act so flustered when you did his hair and applied his makeup for literal centuries, then tell you to calm down? You scoffed and smashed your lips back against his, mainly to shut him up, but he wasn’t complaining.

He let out a little yelp against your lips, struggling to keep up with your sudden change of pace. Running your hands through his hair, ruining all the hard work you put into it, you lightly tugged at the hair at the nape of his neck. A shakey sigh met your lips, as you took control of the situation, taking the opportunity to explore his mouth with your own tongue.

After this went on for what felt like forever, which you didn’t really mind, you pulled away to breathe. Looking up to him, your eyes explored the lipstick that messily covered his lips. You tipped his head upward by his chin forcing him to look at himself in the vanity's mirror. He let out a pathetic little wheeze, looking back down at you with a suddenly confident smirk." Beautiful work as always, my dear." He spoke flirtatiously, "You missed a spot, though." Dipping his head back downwards and indulging in your warm presence for as long as he could.

You were clawing at his back, untucking his shirt as you struggled to keep a hold of him. Both your legs had spread, making your hips flush against his. He kept you close, as he nipped and kissed across your collarbone, his sharp teeth grazing your skin without hesitation.

Sucking on the softest part of your neck, you let out a breathy moan and arched your back into his chest. The sudden motion sent friction to his lower half, making him release his teeth and suddenly bolt upwards. The reaction made you nervous, "I-I don't - I haven't.. It's been… Awhile.." He stammered out, putting an emphasis on the word awhile." I know, It's okay." He winced at your nonchalant remark, remembering how often you witnessed his last relationship essentially fall apart, as you went back to kissing his neck. He gently pulled himself away. "Nono, it's been awhile- awhile… I hadn't been close with.. anyone… for a couple.. Decades..?" He spoke nervously like he was embarrassed to admit it. You sat up for a moment, making him question whether or not he should've said anything." But.. It's only been five years, right?" You weren't sure if this was the best time to be getting into this, but these are answers you’ve been wanting for years.

"I don't know what happened, sweetheart, but we lost what we had long before any of this. I'm sorry if you thought.. I can't have you take on that burden.. Okay?" He cupped your face, shifting to a more tender approach. You tried piecing things together in your mind, which was still cloudy from the past few hours. Of course, that still doesn’t make what you two did right. Of course, you blamed yourself after all this time. He pulled you out of your thoughts, by tucking a bit of hair behind your ear and keeping his tender hold on your cheek. You couldn’t help but smile and nuzzle your face into his hand.

"We can stop if you want, love." Oh how you wanted to say stop. To say that you were terrible people for even feeling this way after all this time, while he was with his wife. Who also happened to be your employer. How scandalous. "No, I want this." You said without a hint of hesitation in your voice. It shocked him a bit, but he didn’t have much time to react before you leaned forward, unbuttoning his coat and pushing it off his shoulders. You pulled him in by his collar again, continuing to remove his vest, then opening his shirt, letting it hang open loosely, his white skin just barely peeking out. He shrugged comically, before going back to working on your neck, pulling at the hem of your blouse that had already fallen to your shoulders.

He ran his hands along your curves, eliciting a shiver down your spine. You reached your hands into his open shirt, your warm hands trailing across his even warmer chest. Your physical pleasure was subdued for a moment, absolutely in awe. "You have beautiful skin, Lucifer." Your voice was breathy, he lulled his head to the side, melting at your words and intimate touch. After a moment he let out a sweet chuckle and shrugged his top completely off. "So I've been told." Implying your constant praises from before, he puffed his chest out.

Oh, he was loving this. You sat up, your legs just at the edge of the countertop as you arched your back into him, closing the gap between your hips. You started by pressing a little kiss on his cheek, his face heating up even after all he's done to you. You then, moved your way down to work your lips across his neck and collarbone. Gently tracing his spine with one hand the other traveled downward as you pulled his hips into yours. Messaging his hip and continuously running your fingers along the center of his back, you sent him into sensory overload. You weren't surprised by the sudden bulge you felt hitting your center, in fact, you reveled how that confirmed you were doing a good job. You began sucking and biting on the skin, stopping to let out breathy mewls into his ear. The massaging of his hip turned into you pulling him in, then pushing him away slightly, only to viciously repeat the motion, forcing him to start grinding against you. Your hand on his back continued to trail up and down his spine, only you started to drag your nails across his skin as well, digging in a bit harder whenever you heard his voice hitch. You let your fingers slip into his pants every now and then, the cool sensation of your hands making him let out a little whimper.

"Your skin really is perfect, Lucifer. You are entirely beautiful. You're absolutely stunning, my king." You hummed into his ear, your skilled hands continuing to drive him crazy. He could barely keep up, his head falling back whenever you'd reach up to run your fingers through his hair. "K-Kiss me.." You heard him almost whisper, making you pull back for a moment to assess his stature. He had his hands on your hips, to keep you close, but also to keep him standing on his swaying feet. "I-I need you to.. kiss me.. Please.." He spoke in choppy sentences, he was too lost in his own pleasure to keep his head up, so you kept it forward by cradling the back of his head. When his head would start to droop too far forward, you gave his hair a light tug to remind him where he was. Did he need permission? You enjoyed the 180 he had made from the flirtatious tease just moments ago, humming in thought and tapping your chin like you were still deciding. Like you were considering not kissing him as passionately as he could handle.

He was lightly grinding his hard-on into you but still seemed patient enough to wait for your answer. "Well.. Since you said please." You finally said after far too long. He let out a sigh of relief as you inched towards him. You left your lips just over his, only letting him feel your heated breath against his lips. He shifted his stance but never moved towards you. You brushed your lips against his, not locking them together, just barely grazing them. He let out an impatient groan, his eyes clenched shut as you teased him so cruelly. Who knew this is what would bring tears to his eyes? You ran your hands up his chest, then dug your nails into him as you went back down. You finally met his lips, deciding he had enough after you wiped away a tear from his watering eyes. You don't know how he still managed to keep the kiss so tender after acting so desperate beforehand. You continuously wiped the tears off his face, keeping your hands on his face and caressing his cheeks with your thumbs. As you pulled away, he followed your lips, disappointed in the sudden disconnect. He took the silence and the look on your face as a sign, that he needs to tell you what he wants.

He dropped to his knees, the warmth you had sitting between your legs was hit with the cool air of the room as he did. He kept his hands off of you and himself but fiddled with his thumbs to keep them busy in some way. He took in a deep breath, before speaking quickly," Can I taste you?" His voice was embarrassingly loud like he was just waiting and waiting to finally say it. It sort of shocked you, you assumed he’d be nervous after admitting he hadn't done this in a while. You pulled your legs together, finally feeling how wet you were becoming, but needing to commit to the bit. You crossed your ankles to furth prevent access. "I suppose so.. But what do you saay?" you reached down and tapped the tip of his nose, as you dragged out your words like you were speaking to a child. "Please..! I need to touch you, please.." He quickly replied, with no hesitation at all. "Good boy." That was it for you.

You realized you sealed your fate, as you felt him take a hold on your knees and pull them back apart gently. He moved forward until he could rest his head on your plush thigh, which he did for a while. He lifted your skirt up to your waist, then took a moment to appreciate the view. You were finally becoming a bit embarrassed, attempting to close your legs instinctively, but he pushed your legs farther apart, keeping a tight hold onto your thighs. When he looked up at you, his eyes were wide and innocent, as if he wasn’t keeping your legs apart and wiggling his hips to give some much-needed friction to his own growing problems.

He blinked, then looked back down, trailing his clawed finger across your wet underwear. You covered the sounds you were making with the back of your hand, still struggling to keep your legs open for him. He bent his finger and pressed it deeply into your still-clothed entrance. The sensation of the fabric digging into you made you groan, but that didn’t affect him at all. He licked his lips and began gathering spit in his mouth and he pushed your legs back in place, keeping them apart this time. Running his forked tongue across your panties, you squirmed under his touch. As he lapped at the fabric, the heat from his breath and the wetness he was coating you with caused you to fall back onto your forearms. "L-Lucifer - " You said weakly, quickly drawing his attention. "This is cruel." You pouted, continuing to let out a little whimper as he kept running two of his fingers across your underwear.

He cocked his head to the side as if he didn’t understand the damage he was doing. He was playing dumb." Oh? I'm sorry, love, how should I touch you then?" He was way too calm for your liking. He let one of his fingers just graze the hem, only touching a bit of your skin. You let out an annoyed groan, and move your underwear to the side, guiding the tip of his finger to your entrance. With your hand holding his wrist, you pushed his fingers inside of you, a strange sensation to say the least. It was embarrassing. He noticed your discomfort and finally dropped the act, sending you a sweet smile and kissing your thigh before starting to pump his fingers inside of you.

You let out a sultry moan, a mixture of relief and pure pleasure finally hitting you as you felt him add another finger without any real warning. You lulled your head back, not able to see his absolute focus on matching the rhythm of his fingers to the circling of your clit. Before you could fully comprehend, he pulled his hands away and back onto your thighs, delving into your center with a heated, open-mouthed kiss. Letting out a gasp, he delved into your folds, his tongue easily slipping from your entrance and back up to your clit. He lifted a hand to continue to slowly rub his thumb in small circles, so he could focus his tongue on thrusting in and out of your entreance with ease.

He showed no sign of faltering as you bucked into his face, desperate for more of him. Your hands moved to his hair, taking a tight hold as he hit right where he was supposed to. He scrunched his face, letting out a low growl as you yanked at his scalp, the vibrations startling you in a wonderful way. He only sped up when you started to babble about being close, letting your thighs tighten around his face as you finish into his lips. He continues his rapid pace, the adrenaline from being squeezed by your shaky legs taking over. You finally pulled his head away from you after the pleasure of overstimulation started to ache in your core. You sunk backward, your body twitching on occasion.

He planted a kiss on your thigh before rising back to his feet. He leaned into you, the fabric over his groin coated in your juices the longer he pressed in. He pecked your temple, looking at you, completely unphased." Too much? How did I do..?" He seemed genuinely interested in whether or not he did a good job." Y-you did.. Great.. It was g-good.. Felt good.." You gave a pathetic thumbs up as you caught your breath." W-what happened to the whole it's been a while thing? Fuck, Lucifer." You sat up finally seeing that he split the fabric of your underwear at some point to gain better access." Guess I've still got it." He said with a smirk, waggling his eyebrows at you. You couldn’t take him seriously. Your wetness and lipstick stained his mouth, the eyeliner you had applied had ran down his cheeks and rubbed under his eyes. Not to mention, he was covered in your marks. It's fine you can cover those, you thought. Even with his sudden burst of dominance, you took pride in the fact that this was all because of you. He was all yours.

☆☆☆

If you're curious, that one is pushing 10k words ;)

(Tagging some people who might appreciate it) @saints-wrapped-in-plastic @bat-boness @christineblood

[okdollface]

When Barbie debuted in 1959 of course, it shocked the world and was a massive success. So it's only natural that other toy companies would feel inspired by the first fashion doll and follow the path of success Mattel was paving.

Now let's meet Sindy! First released in September of 1963 in the UK by Pedigree she was immediately a huge success. Mattel's Barbie was relatively unknown in Britain at the time (due to low amounts of American toys being imported during the time) and there really wasn't anything else quite like Sindy in the UK toy market - Sindy was even the first UK toy to ever be advertised on British Television!

Her tagline was "The doll you love to dress!" and she was a massive success, in fact, Sindy was SO successful that in 1987 Hasbro acquired the license in order to make the doll more appealing to American consumers. Hasbro then returned the license to Pedigree in 1997 and the Sindy doll was relaunched by Vivid Imaginations in 1999 lasting until 2002. There were several attempts to relaunch afterwards by different brands but unfortunately nothing that really stuck.

If you're interested in Sindy, there's actually a museum in Sweden called The Little Sindy Museum! Here's their page on Facebook and here's a website where I got all my Sindy information!

Have you heard of Tanya? Tanya is an italian doll originally produced by Ceppi Ratti in 1971. She was made to rival Barbie at a more affordable price point - which is what most likely led to her initial success.

Tanya became a product of Giochi Preziosi in 1993 where it continued being successful in Italy and in 2000 in a press release they announced they had distributed Tanya to the United States & Japan and achieved great success. Giochi Preziosi often will change the face art and logo of Tanya in order to stay current with the trends and current popularity.

Tanya is still being produced today with the most recent version of her sporting manga-style eyes!

And finally, Dawn. Dawn was a very short lived doll line from 1970-1973 manufactured by Deluxe Reading and produced by Tonner Toys. They were unique in the fact that they were very small in size (6.5 inches) and had both rooted hair and eyelashes. Though they were quite successful they were only on the market for a short time as they were discontinued after the company went out of business in 1973. Mattel even made a rival to attempt Dawn by releasing a similar concept "Rockflower" dolls in 1971.

Dawn's catchphrase is "It's groovy to be a girl!" which I love I think that is so iconic. Over the years there have been several attempts at a revival, once in 2000 by Checkerboard for Dawn's 30th anniversary and then again in 2004 by Toy Mania but neither company was able to sustain reissues and quickly shut down productions.

[maikaartwork]

HOW TO FIND YOUR PERFECT COMMISSION ARTIST - BEGINNER’S GUIDE

There is a new trend of scamming fanfic writers that I was made aware of recently by an anonymous ask (I made a whole ass post about it) and the conversation about it led me to this post - how to make sure that an artist you choose to bestow your money on is as perfect of a choice for you as it can be, especially if you have no idea how to go about it. Being new in the world of commissioning can be stressful, so let me give you some friendly tips coming from an experienced commission artist to make the process at least safe and maybe a bit more comfortable.

This isn’t just for writers - if you just want random artwork to brighten your day, this might help, too!

Table of contents:

Basics of searching for an artist

What might be important to you as a client

First contact

Examples

Conclusion

BASICS OF SEARCHING FOR AN ARTIST:

Search in your fandom/ship community first - the best art to suit you will come from people that will actually know the characters they are drawing, people that like them, know how they act, the fanon and lore. It helps to get the correct emotions across. Scour the tags for #<fandom> art, #<ship> fanart and so on to see who is contributing. Check out the fanart channels of your local ship/fandom discord if you belong to one. Or just ask your fandom buddies for links to dope artists they like.

If that doesn’t pan out, search for simply cool art you like - experienced artists will know what questions to ask, how to guide the process to at least get to know your needs and learn about the characters you want portrayed. If your fandom is tiny or just lacking in the art area, keep your options open but raise the experience bar a notch, so you know that you’ll be working with someone who knows their stuff.

Art Vibe Check - you’ll know immediately (probably) if the art style speaks to you. Make sure you actually LIKE what you see - be it because of the style of drawing, the way the artist builds scenes, if in your mind’s eye you can imagine drawing in that style be something that represents your fic or that you’d be happy to hang on your bedroom wall and stare at every day.

ArtIST Vibe Check - go through the artist’s profile, check out what they post and reblog. You’ll want to look for someone that at least seems to be into things that indicate that they might be a cool person to talk to. You’ll probably be in contact with them for the duration of the commission, it’s at least nice to be able to talk to a nice internet entity, right? Especially if you’re thinking of commissioning in the future, you might want to choose someone you click with, who seems like they would get you.

Check if they have commission info - this isn’t something you should feel married to, some artists don’t advertise or just never did commissions before but again - especially for your first time, it’s good to have someone that knows their trade and will be able to guide you through the process. Commission info usually has some price ranges implied for you to gauge if you can afford them (NEVER PAY MORE THAT YOU’D POTENTIALLY BE COMFORTABLE TO AFFORD! - more on that later) and also things they’d be willing or unwilling to draw. They might have links in their profile bio to websites like carrd, ko-fi, patreon and so on, where they keep this info, instead of a pinned post or description. Please check the domain if you’re unsure what the website is before clicking any external links. Armed with this knowledge, you’ll know more what to expect when you actually reach out to them.

Keep your options (and mind) open - sometimes the artist you choose might not be taking new commissions at the time, be fully booked or will just decide they, for any number of reasons, are unable to work with you. Have some backup options ready, just in case. Also be aware that the artist might turned out to be a bit different in 1-on-1 conversation than you expected, give you different info than what they advertised (sometimes the posts are outdated because, you know, artists are humans and don’t always keep up with updating their profiles). In that case please keep an open mind but also be wary of changes.

WHAT MIGHT BE IMPORTANT TO YOU AS A CLIENT

Sometimes things that you might want to keep in mind when checking out an artist:

Price ranges - like I said, please be aware that a money exchange will probably be involved. Never spend more than you can comfortably afford to potentially lose. It’s the first time you’ll be meeting a new person, as nice as they might seem, sometimes shit happens and you might end up with either sub-par artwork you won’t want to use or nothing at all.

Payment method - please, please never give random strangers on the internet your personal data, your banking info or data that might make it easy to scam you. Make sure the artist offers secure payment options like paypal, ko-fi, etsy, patreon or other payment platform you actually know or can easily check out before making financial decisions.

Estimated time of delivery - if you’re on a time crunch, have a deadline in mind or just want to have your artwork asap, remember to keep that in mind. Some artists work faster, some slower, it would be a shame if you guys fell out because of a conflict there.

Work model/workflow - does the artis offer steps in their work schedule, like showing you a rough sketch first, then linework, then colors and so on? Or do they just offer a ready piece without the possibility of adjustments in the meantime? Think about how much you want to be included in the process, if you prefer to just let the artist do all the work and take what you’re given or would you prefer to have more specific control over the finished product? Sometimes you need very specific things that the artist might not think about while creating. Or you don’t have a clear picture in your head and will be happy with someone else taking control. Both are fine, but different artists might have different workflows that might not suit your needs and it’s good to have that at least figured out beforehand. Artistic freedom vs. process control and all that.

(Optional) Amount of changes that can be made during creation process - if you like to be involved, if you have a specific idea of a picture in mind or just feel you’d need them, make sure that you can have the option to request changes to the artwork. Some artists have their own ideas about the artwork they create or how much time they want to spend on changing stuff (it might be a tangible number of hours or change iterations) - because, let’s face it, time is money. Similarly, some artists simply like to include their client in the process and would feel bereft without your input. Lack of compatibility in this regard can cause friction and misunderstandings.

FIRST CONTACT

So you found an artist, think you could work with them and want to actually reach out to them but have no idea what to say? Here is what info you should have at hand to include:

Fandom/ship/characters - who, how many characters, is it a portrait, a full scene, half-body capture

Level of detail and style - do you want a simple sketch? A fully rendered piece with detailed shading? Just simple, flat colors with clean linework? A chibi version of your blorbos? This will help the artist to figure out how much time they have to spend working on your idea. You can have ready an example of specific artworks of this artist that you liked.

Description of the scene - think of poses, facial expressions, mood you want to convey, if you want background, specific props to include, text (if any) to include

If it’s a scene from your fic: relevant excerpt AND additional specific descriptions (for example of clothing, changes to the characters your fic made, you know, anything that the artist might not know without reading your fic)

Reference pics - if you have any specific poses in mind, facial expressions, props or backgrounds, it’s good to have at least rough examples at hand to help visualize what you mean. The artist is not in your head, they might not be able to get the idea or might not know niche nomenclature/props and so on. They don’t have to be fandom-specific, you can show them what you like from pinterest, other artists or just google

Deadlines you might have or any additional obstacles that you guys might face on the way, like difficulties in communication

Budget you have in mind - just in case, for when they give you a quote to compare if your ideas in that regard align

Any questions you might have for the artist, like about how they work, if they do half-payments (some artists, like me, require a sum up-front for their work, others just want to get paid after completing the piece)

Keep in mind that not all artists provide info up-front, that sometimes you’ll have to ask yourself. Please be respectful, try not to be too pushy (artistic souls spook easily) but make sure that you know what you’re getting, for how much and that you have at least a rough idea of how the commission will go time- and communication-wise. Make sure that you know if they’ll be reaching out to you and when (-ish, maybe a rough estimate of a timeline?) so you don’t have to wonder if they forgot about you or just ditched you.

SOME EXAMPLES OF A FIRST CONTACT CONVERSATION

EXAMPLE 1

<Client>: Hi! Are you open for commissions right now? I’d be interested in getting some art of <fandom and ship>.

<Artist>: Yep! Tell me more!

C: I need an illustration for my fic, <title>. I’d like a fully-colored and shaded scene of Character A piggy-back riding Character B, like a very happy, carefree scene in a park setting. Maybe a picnic blanket somewhere in the background? I don’t need the background to be super detailed but but I don’t want them to be just floating in nothing, you know? Something maybe like this:

C: <pinterest-photo-of-a-couple.jpg>

C: I really liked this picture you made: <art post link>

C: I’d like to post the fic by <date> so it would be awesome to have it ready by then, if it’s possible

A: Sure, I can do that! It’d cost X amount because of the deadline tho

C: That’s reasonable. Can you tell me more about your commission process? This is the first time I’m ordering art so I don’t really know what to expect lol

A: Okay, so… <details>

(And they got along great)

EXAMPLE 2

C: Hi! Are you open for commissions right now? I’d be interested in getting some art of <fandom and ship>.

A: ya.

C: I need an illustration for my fic, <title>. I’d like a fully-colored and shaded scene of Character A piggy-back riding Character B, like a very happy, carefree scene in a park setting. Maybe a picnic blanket somewhere in the background? I don’t need the background to be super detailed but but I don’t want them to be just floating in nothing, you know?

A: 600

C: …dollars or?

A: ya, $600

C: that’s kinda above my budget, I was thinking more along the lines of 180 - you have that in your info card

A: right now it’s 600 cuz I’m short on cash, you can venmo me.

C: ok, sorry, I can’t do that much, thanks for your time tho. Bye!

(Personal note: See the red flags there? Bad communication, price triple what was on the info card, a payment method requiring your phone number to be out there?

If an artist is rude to you or seems off in any way, be respectful but disengage asap. Don’t get into conversation or try being rude, please remember it’s easy to take screenshots and put them out of context, even if you didn’t have bad intentions. I hope very much that this will never happen to you, but as much as I’d like to pretend everyone online is a ray of sunshine, there are assholes out there and you should try avoiding getting in fights with them. Simply say bye and move on. Block them if you need to.)

IN CONCLUSION

I hope this post helps you guys to make informed decisions. Remember - be kind to each other, keep an open mind but watch out for suspicious behavior. If in doubt: your own gut is your best friend, if something feels right or wrong, chances are your brain already knows but don’t be afraid to ask for advice from friends, discord buddies or, if you feel lost in the sea of Internet - maybe someone in the comments of this post could help? The scammer post I did a while ago has a pretty good comment section so maybe this could become a good helping point with a signal boost.

Also: my commissions are open, too :D

[aa-predictions]

Pop Culture & AI Predictions

.　 . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

Deepfake AI outrage led by popular celebrities

starts lobbying and law creation for AI protection and defining rights and trademarks against AI

Porn strike where AI starts taking over porn star jobs

AI porn and gf movement among red pill guys

paid porn services increase

Male loneliness epidemic will be at an all-time high

Makeup trends cycle back to 2016

Heroin chic swings back in 

After the rise in Ozempic, we’ll have another rise in body positivity awareness

While also having more advertising for body enhancement

New social media app uprising (to fill the void apps are leaving)

AI-filtered dating apps (like AI resume-reading)

Massive scandal relating to biomedical/biometric data and AI

China and US space race 2.0 except for AI 

The next presidency after Trump will bring another feminist movement

We will swing back toward being liberal for 1-2 elections then public opinion turns conservative again

[sereneabyyss]

Posting this here for the sole reason for maybe someone will write this au before I am forced to by sheer peer pressure alone.

Anyway so idol au for hunters gonna lay low time. (Someone please write this I'm already too swamped in aus)

(will probably write this au anyway but as one shots of different scenes but I DIGRESS-)

So anyway idol au right? Cej debuted as an idol and his stage name was J, he was so popular because he always wore a mask as an idol which added this mysteriousness to him that everyone fucked with hard. This led to a trend of idols debuting with masks. He just wanted privacy.

So then flash forward three years after debut, his aunt gets sick, dies, he maybe gets injured, maybe gets sick, went to military service for a few years, had a midlife crisis, anything to fill in eight years, the aunt totally did die tho.

So like during those eight years he didn't keep up with idol culture and he was kept signed to his company without dissolving the contract (totally not legal btw, we ignore these things) in that time a new number one pop idol has come about, Lee Sa Young.

He comes to know of Lee Sa Young because when he first visited the hangover soup restaurant (yes that STAYS dammit) a new segment covering the tribute show lsy performed for J was playing.

Anyway so in this au lsy was a child dying from cancer that cej visited as J for idol promotion stuff but when he learned lsy didn't have any close relatives or anyone visiting, he would visit and even have a portion of his income to pay for lsy treatments. So then lsy gets better, debuts under the pado agency and he's the idol that gets them on the map. lsy is a solo idol with bww as his manager. BWW ONLY manages lsy. That's how much of a pr nightmare he is everyday.

Well anyway without j who was their only big star, his company went under and got bought by pado agency. But the paperwork for j kinda got lost so technically j is a pado idol, no one knows who he is tho.

Some other details: hangover soup restaurant is right next to all the idol agencies, a lot of the staff go there for lunch, rarely does an idol come, but you can sometimes see them.

Jung bin was a rising actor when cej was active, but after eight years he's only known for the infomercials his agency keeps having him do. You can often see his face advertising a juice juice brand or a flavor of water.

J has a very distinct style of dance. No one else has been able to replicate this. Lsy recognizes cej as j after seeing him dance when cej thought he was alone in the hangover soup restaurant.

OH ALSO the artisan dude is a highly sought after producer who doesn't care to work with most idols because he thinks their styles are boring. He can sometimes tolerate producing for lsy but even that gets boring. This all changes after he finds a video of some guy singing in his show with a really low quality mic but the voice is absolutely angelic and is the closest thing to J they've had in years.

(meanwhile cej had heard posting covers on YouTube could sometimes get you extra cash and he had an old video that his aunt took when he was practicing his part for an unreleased song back when he was active and figured that would be alright and not stand out too much but should gain some traction. He immediately freaked out when it somehow just suddenly went viral and deleted it.)

[heresmyfiddlestick]

Tumblr Dr. Who Poll vs Doctor Who Magazine Poll

It's been just over a month since the end of @adventure-showdown 's monumental survey of how Tumblr feels about individual Doctor Who adventures. Across ten rounds, we sorted the wheat from the chaff, the Quarks from the Rills, and the Cousins from the Looms. I wanted to compare the results of that huge bracket with the results from last year's Doctor Who Magazine poll, which ranked each Doctor's stories individually.

The methodologies for these two were quite different (though adventure-showdown did seed the bracket with a pre-poll that used the same methodology as DWM, but I'm looking at the final poll results for my data here), so comparing them is really interesting! I'm not a statistician, I just like making spreadsheets for fun. I think what can be seen from the trends and data below is a really unique picture of two somewhat overlapping but seriously demographically distinct fragments of the fandom.

Methodologies

Poll Methodologies

The DWM poll asked readers to rank as many televised Doctor Who stories as they liked from 1 to 10. The editors then took the resulting scores for each story and put them in a ranked list for each Doctor.

adventure-showdown began with a series of Google Forms with the same method as DWM, asking internet users to rank stories from 1 to 10. adventure-showdown lumped and split stories differently to DWM: The Key to Time was included as a distinct Four story to each of its individual parts, and each of the individual parts of Trial of a Time Lord and Flux were included alongside the overarching story. Utopia was also split from The Sound of Drums/The Last of the Time Lords.

adventure-showdown used the resulting rankings to create a series of Tumblr polls, moving from a group stage into a series of head-to-head matchups. They matched stories up roughly by obscurity (keeping advertisements and musical numbers separate from audio dramas and comics, which were separate from TV spin-offs, which were separate from the TV show itself), then Doctor or era. With each new round, the matchups were scrambled within melded groups, which ultimately led to a diverse distribution of all different eras and media under the umbrella of Doctor Who throughout the tournament.

My Methodology

In order to turn adventure-showdown's poll results into something that can be compared to DWM's, I created a spreadsheet tracking how each Doctor's stories were doing, separating them first into tiers according to which round they were eliminated in, then within those tiers by how many votes they had in the matchup where they were eliminated.

In the case of some particularly tough matchups, this means that the story that got the most points throughout the entire competition is not necessarily the highest-ranked story for that Doctor. For instance, The Happiness Patrol finished #3 of the Seventh Doctor's stories according to my reckoning of the Tumblr poll, being eliminated in the fifth round with 400 votes, less than the two stories above it (which were eliminated in rounds where they got 147 and 107 votes, respectively). The Happiness Patrol saw a vigorous campaign to increase its vote count, since it was up against Blink. The post for the matchup that eliminated it currently has 304 notes as of this writing. This is one of the fun quirks of this execrise.

General Trends

Where We Agree

The Ninth Doctor shows very stable story rankings between DWM and Tumblr.

On average, the difference in rankings for each episode of 9 is 5%, with only 2 out of 10 stories actually moving up or down the rankings at all. The Sixth Doctor is similar: only 3 of his 8 stories (included in the DWM poll, meaning not counting the individual parts of Trial) moved by more than 1 ranking. The Seventh Doctor only had 4 of his 12 stories move by more than 1 ranking.

On the flipside, Tumblr's opinions differ from DWM most regarding the First, Fifth, and Eleventh Doctors. The only stories that stayed relatively stable across both rankings for these Doctors are as follows.

For the First Doctor, only 4 out of 29 didn't shift by more than 1 ranking: #2 The Time Meddler, #5 The Tenth Planet (#6 in DWM), #18 The Keys of Marinus, and #20 The Reign of Terror (#19 in DWM) For the Fifth Doctor, we agreed only 5 times out of 20: #1 The Caves of Androzani, #2 The Five Doctors (#3 in DWM), #11 Frontios, #14 Black Orchid, and #17 Arc of Infinity (#16 in DWM) For Eleven, 5 of his 39 stories stayed relatively stable: #1 Vincent and the Doctor (#2 in DWM), #4 The Eleventh Hour (#3 in DWM), #9 Amy's Choice, #14 The Snowmen (#13 in DWM), and #39 The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe.

As you'll see further below, there is usually agreement between both polls about at least one episode that is in the top and bottom 3 or 4 for each Doctor, so these extremes represent the battle over ordering the ones generally ranked in the middle.

We Hate Daleks

As a general trend, Tumblr seems to think less of Dalek stories than the general DWM readership.

Out of 26 stories with Daleks as the primary antagonist, only 8 did not drop by more than 1 slot between the DWM poll and the Tumblr bracket (that is The Chase, Genesis of the Daleks, Remembrance of the Daleks, Dalek, Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways, Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks, The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar, and Eve of the Daleks). DIM/Evolution actually ranked 3 slots higher on Tumblr than the magazine, while TMA/TWF and Eve finished significantly higher on Tumblr than in the magazine, cracking into the top 5 for their respective Doctors.

We Love The Master

Meanwhile, out of 26 stories featuring the Master, either as the primary antagonist or as an important character, only two dropped by more than one place in the rankings (The End of Time and The Power of the Doctor), while the others either stayed put or increased their positions, some by quite a lot (e.g. The Time Monster (up 20 slots in the Third Doctor rankings), The Keeper of Traken (up 8 slots in the Fourth Doctor rankings), Planet of Fire (up 6 spots in the Fifth Doctor rankings), and The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar (up 9 spots in the Twelfth Doctor rankings)).

We Have No Easily Observable Feelings About the Cybermen

Out of 18 Cyberman stories, 9 fell in the rankings between DWM and Tumblr, while 5 stayed within 1 rank of the DWM poll, and 4 rose. If I had to venture a hypothesis based on my unscientific qualitative analysis, it looks like Tumblr marked down most of the Classic Who Cyberman stories (only The Tenth Planet, The Invasion, and Attack staying within 1 rank of the DWM poll), while the only ones that rose in the ranks were New Who stories (Rise/The Age of Steel, Closing Time, Nightmare in Silver, and Dark Water/Death in Heaven-- though of course this last one is also a Master story, which we know we love).

Superlatives

Here are the stories that showed the biggest positive and negative difference in their rankings between the DWM poll and the Tumblr bracket, for each Doctor:

First Doctor

Biggest jump: #10 The Sensorites (up from #27 in DWM) Biggest fall: #28 The Crusade (down from #13 in DWM)

Second Doctor

Biggest jump: #8 The Highlanders (up from #16 in DWM) Biggest fall: #14 The Evil of the Daleks (down from #14 in DWM)

Third Doctor

Biggest jump: #4 The Time Monster (up from #24 in DWM) Biggest fall: #21 Day of the Daleks (down from #11 in DWM)

Fourth Doctor

Biggest jump: #7 The Horns of Nimon (up from #40 in DWM) Biggest fall: #36 The Talons of Weng-Chiang (down from #5 in DWM)

Fifth Doctor

Biggest jump: #8 Planet of Fire (up from #14) Biggest fall: #15 Resurrection of the Daleks (down from #6)

Sixth Doctor

Biggest jump: #1 The Mark of the Rani (up from #5 in DWM) Biggest fall: #6 Revelation of the Daleks (down from #1 in DWM) [NB: not counting each part of Trial, since DWM didn't include them - though The Ultimate Foe ranked #10 on Tumblr while Trial itself ranked #4 in DWM, so that could be another option for this superlative]

Seventh Doctor

Biggest jump: #3 The Happiness Patrol (up from #7 in DWM) Biggest fall: #12 Silver Nemesis (down from #9 in DWM)

Ninth Doctor

Biggest jump: #5 The End of the World (up from #7 in DWM) Biggest fall: #7 Rose (down from #5 in DWM)

Tenth Doctor

Biggest jump: #17 42 (up from #31 in DWM) Biggest fall: #29 The Girl in the Fireplace (down from #7 in DWM) [NB: adventure-showdown split Utopia and The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords where DWM didn't, which both placed above these two stories.]

Eleventh Doctor

Biggest jump: #13 The Rings of Akhaten (up from #34 in DWM) Biggest fall: #36 The Crimson Horror (down from #18 in DWM)

Twelfth Doctor

Biggest jump: #20 The Eaters of Light (up from #30 in DWM) Biggest fall: #18 The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion (down from #7 in DWM)

Thirteenth Doctor

Biggest jump: TIE #1 Demons of the Punjab (up from #5), #2 Spyfall (up from #6), and #3 Eve of the Daleks (up from #7) Biggest fall: #15 Rosa (down from #4) [NB: not counting each part of Flux, since DWM didn't include them - though The Vanquishers ranked #29 on Tumblr while Flux itself ranked #12 in DWM, so that could be another option for this superlative]

Definitive Bests and Worsts

Here, then, are each Doctor's commonly agreed-upon best and worst stories: that is, those stories ranked in each Doctor's top/bottom 10% (minimum 3) in each poll, and where both polls overlap. Lists are alphabetical.

First Doctor (top/bottom 3)

Best Both agree: The Time Meddler Tumblr: The Edge of Destruction, The Romans DWM: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Daleks' Master Plan Worst Tumblr: The Crusade, The Savages, The Smugglers DWM: The Sensorites, The Space Museum, The Web Planet

Second Doctor (top/bottom 3)

Best Both agree: The War Games Tumblr: The Enemy of the World, The Mind Robber DWM: The Power of the Daleks, Tomb of the Cybermen Worst Both agree: The Dominators, The Space Pirates Tumblr: The Krotons DWM: The Underwater Menace

Third Doctor (top/bottom 3)

Best Both agree: The Green Death Tumblr: The Dæmons, The Three Doctors DWM: Inferno, Spearhead from Space Worst Both agree: The Mutants Tumblr: Death to the Daleks, Planet of the Daleks DWM: The Monster of Peladon, The Time Monster

Fourth Doctor (top/bottom 4)

Best Both agree: City of Death, Genesis of the Daleks, Robots of Death Tumblr: The Horror of Fang Rock DWM: Pyramids of Mars Worst Both agree: The Power of Kroll, Underworld Tumblr: Nightmare of Eden, Revenge of the Cybermen DWM: The Horns of Nimon, Meglos

Fifth Doctor (top/bottom 3)

Best Both agree: The Caves of Androzani, The Five Doctors Tumblr: Enlightenment DWM: Earthshock Worst Both agree: Time-Flight Tumblr: The Awakening, Four to Doomsday DWM: The King's Demons, Warriors of the Deep

Sixth Doctor (top/bottom 3)

Best Both agree: Vengeance on Varos Tumblr: The Mark of the Rani, Trial of a Time Lord (considered as a whole) Worst Both agree: Timelash, The Twin Dilemma Tumblr: The Ultimate Evil (specifically) DWM: Attack of the Cybermen

Seventh Doctor (top/bottom 3)

Best Both agree: Remembrance of the Daleks, Survival Tumblr: The Happiness Patrol DWM: The Curse of Fenric Worst Both agree: Delta and the Bannermen, Time and the Rani Tumblr: Silver Nemesis DWM: Paradise Towers

Ninth Doctor (top/bottom 3)

Best Both agree: Bad Wolf/The Parting of Ways, Dalek, The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances Worst Both agree: Aliens of London/World War Three, Boom Town, The Long Game

Tenth Doctor (top/bottom 4)

Best Both agree: Blink, Midnight, Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead Tumblr: The Fires of Pompeii DWM: Human Nature/The Family of Blood Worst Both agree: The Idiot's Lantern, The Lazarus Experiment Tumblr: The Next Doctor, The Shakespeare Code DWM: Fear Her, Love & Monsters

Eleventh Doctor (top/bottom 4)

Best Both agree: The Eleventh Hour, The Pandorica Opens, Vincent and the Doctor Tumblr: The Doctor's Wife DWM: Day of the Doctor Worst Both agree: The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe Tumblr: The Crimson Horror, Night Terrors, Victory of the Daleks DWM: The Curse of the Black Spot, Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS, Nightmare in Silver

Twelfth Doctor (top/bottom 4)

Best Both agree: Heaven Sent, Mummy on the Orient Express, World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls Tumblr: The Husbands of River Song DWM: Flatline Worst Both agree: In the Forest of the Night, Kill the Moon, Sleep No More Tumblr: The Lie of the Land DWM: The Woman Who Lived

Thirteenth Doctor (top/bottom 3)

[Villa Diodati gif included because there is no overlap in the two polls' top 3 for Thirteen, however this episode ranked #4 on Tumblr and #2 in DWM, so it is the closest overlap at the top.]

Best Both agree: None! Tumblr: Eve of the Daleks, Demons of the Punjab, Spyfall DWM: Fugitive of the Judoon, The Haunting of Villa Diodati, The Power of the Doctor Worst Both agree: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos, Orphan 55 Tumblr: The Vanquishers (on its own) DWM: Legend of the Sea Devils

...What about Eight?

Who said that? I thought you had all gone. You shouldn't scare me like that. Well, you see, the Eighth Doctor only has two televised appearances in which he features, and only one of those was included in the DWM poll. This post is about comparing the two polls. I can't really do anything...

Ah, alright.

Televised Appearances

We ranked The Night of the Doctor above the TV Movie. Night made it all the way to round 6, while the TV Movie was out in Round 2, losing with 266 votes to Jubilee, which then lost to Scherzo in the next round. Night lost to Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways, which had 344 votes to Night's 204.

Audios

Scherzo made it to the quarter-finals of the Tumblr poll! It lost out to Midnight 435 to 581, the first TV episode it encountered in adventure-showdown's very intricate media-segregating bracket.

Caerdroia made it to round 7, losing to Scherzo after it had beaten out Father's Day in round 6 (299-280) and the much-loved SJA episode The Curse of Clyde Langer in round 5.

The Natural History of Fear made it to round 6, finally losing out to Blink (253-352), and making it the top-scoring Eight audio to go out in this round.

The Chimes of Midnight also got to round 6, finally just losing to Remembrance of the Daleks (163-166); in the same round, Zagreus lost to Scherzo (131-210) just after it had beaten Genesis of the Daleks (132-103) in round 5.

The next highest-ranked Eight* audio is Solitaire (a Companion Chronicle, hence the asterisk), which was eliminated in round 5, losing to Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead (180-43).

It's worth noting here, that Doctor Who and the Pirates also made it to round 6, making it the highest-ranked non-Eighth Doctor audio. It lost to City of Death (170-78). The next-highest ranked audios are The Marian Conspiracy (lost in Round 5 to The Wedding of Sarah-Jane Smith), The Holy Terror (lost in Round 5 to The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances), and A Death in the Family (lost in Round 5 to The Natural History of Fear). Congratulations to Evelyn Smythe.

Novels

The EDA Alien Bodies managed to make it to round 6, finally being eliminated by Turn Left with 145 votes to 264. It had just beaten out Time Crash in the previous round. This makes it the highest-ranked Doctor Who novel overall, according to this Tumblr tournament.

The next-highest novel for the Eighth Doctor was Unnatural History, which was defeated in round 5 by The Chimes of Midnight.

Below that, there were five EDAs eliminated in round 4:

Interference (lost with 41 votes to Scherzo's 85)

Mad Dogs and Englishmen (lost with 38 votes to The Marian Conspiracy's 56)

The Adventuress of Henrietta Street (lost with 28 votes to A Death in the Family's 54)

Camera Obscura (lost with 27 votes to Lungbarrow's 47)

The Scarlet Empress (lost with 22 votes to The Chimes of Midnight's 102)

Comics

I hadn't actually been tracking any of this Eight stuff, so I'm having to squint through the backlog and this is already much too long. So you're only getting two: The Land of Happy Endings is the Eighth Doctor comic that made it the farthest in the Tumblr competition, being eliminated in round 3 by An Adventure in Space and Time (46 votes to 95). The Flood also made it to round 3, where it was eliminated by the Thirteenth Doctor comic Old Friends, gaining 39 votes against Old Friends' 47.

[crismakesstuff]

im so excited for invincible s2b now that it has an official release date… and that release date is march 14th

Let me talk about why that has me worried for the future of the show

‼️also no hate to any other shows mentioned‼️

I want to start with these two images :

invincible compared to the boys and now hazbin hotel has BARELY gotten any offical advertising on this level. The boys also got ads in times square for the promotion of s3 and the spin-off gen v im pretty sure but I could be wrong.

Don’t get me wrong I am rly happy to see an animated show get promotion at that level and I think more streaming services should do the same but why is it that invincible, a show on its SECOND SEASON gets nothing? The official invincible accounts have to do most of the heavy lifting themselves with generating hype on their twt,insta and tiktok. People complain that the accounts often make “an announcement for the announcement” but they have too! They literally have no other option! It sucks to see invincible show signs of a show thats clearly being tampered with by executive fuckery that has led so many other animated shows to an early grave.

Also I NEED people to realize that invincible’s release schedule NOT THE FAULT OF THE CREW

I see people regularly being rude and borderline aggressive to crew members online (which ive seen happen in other fandoms too) but the amount of people that were bitching and whining about the hiatus saying things like “this is why we shouldn’t let animators have good working conditions” and people agreeing with those takes were INSANE. The crew have no control over when the show drops or not, that is a decision left up to executives.

Now why could this delay be happening ?

a little bit ago amazon made this announcement to its customers:

this very well lines up with what many people began to speculate online as to why invincible had such a weird release schedule for season 2. They release the first half and get people hooked on the first 4 episodes ending on a massive cliffhanger and then release the second half after ads are introduced in hopes of making more money bc ppl don’t want ads in the middle of their shows.

Even then many people (myself included) think that it would’ve ultimately been better for the sake of the shows own hype to just wait to release them in March back to back all 8 episodes. Because the midseason break just kneecapped the hype the show had built up so hard and now many people are reasonably frustrated.

Because there was no clarity on when the show would be back. Most people assumed it would be a month long break for the holidays which shows have done for a long time. And then fake leaks came out that the show would come back in early January, and then the invincible accounts were virtually silent, and people were saying the break was intentional for fans to (recover) for ep 4. It was all over the place

What should fans do going forward?

Best thing you can do is stream the show legally if you can! TALK about invincible, don’t let the hype die out. Get this shit on trending ! Boost any official posts online showing that there is still a demand for this show! If you can, buy merch! Read the comics legally ! LET AMAZON KNOW WE STILL CARE ABOUT THIS SHOW!

again no hate to the other shows here bc ive watched all of them! I just want invincible to get some of that love too because this show is so amazing and you can tell how much love the crew has put into it <3

[the-outsiders-strawberry-farm]

-Newspaper-

I finished it!!! I’m probably going to make more drawings of this au, simply because I think it would be silly to have a drawing per oneshot and a oneshot per backstory :3

silly little notes to add:

-the sticker on the newspaper is a silly little head-cannon of mine, where people will put Starr stickers on stuff they think could have led to an outsider. Like an internet trend!

-in case you didn’t catch it, the other papers are references to other outsiders. While the Magic missing poster is pretty obvious, the other one is actually an advertisement for Bek’s former boss. The great magician Solomon who shoots Bek’s ear off. :)

[reminiscenthumanity]

I tend to spend New Years Eve at home with my companion. We like to take the day to review the major events that happened in the past year and prepare for what the next year will offer.

So I’m happy to report to you:

THIS IS THE MOST NOTABLE MOMENTS FROM THIS YEAR:

January:

For the first time ever Frostyfest was hosted in Splatsville!

Mincemeat Metalworks went through a redesign.

During Off The Hook’s final performance for their World Tour, Marina has a wardrobe malfunction on stage. Pearl immediately screams at the top of her lungs and causes the lights to break.

February:

Inkopolis Square had a mental health crisis where a bunch of people went into a mindless blank. This cleared up a couple weeks later.

Baggy Clothes bursts into popularity.

March:

Suffer No Fools by Off The Hook v Fire and Ice dropped

Toni Kensa got drunk at a party and posted on Squitter that ‘The Enperry Brand is a pathetic excuse of a brand.’ This trended for WEEKS. Pearl made a statement stating that ‘Toni is some snobby loser who gets no bitches.’

April:

Undertow Spillway went through a redesign.

Fans of C-Side and Squid Squad feud online over the song Splattack! This led to several c-side fans doxxing a group of squid squad fans.

Paul from Sashimori begins an ARG like event to advertise the band’s new EP that released later that year.

May:

A Makomart manager at the Inkopolis location was found guilty of embezzlement.

Owner of Ammo Knights, Sheldon, speaks out against Squitism Speaks, claiming it is ‘dangerous to the Squitism community.’

June:

New history unveiled about the great turf war reveals that Craig Cuttlefish and DJ Octavio were “very close friends” and even shared quarters with eachother on several occasions. Neither parties have chosen to comment on this findings.

Shellendorf becomes the most listened to musical since the Lionfish King.

July:

Scientists have discovered a treatment for “Fuzzification” so people infected can have better qualities of life. These treatments allow for those affected to be able to change their ink colors, allowing them to participate in Ink Sports and other activities.

August:

Baker from C-Side said a slur on national television.

Omega 3’s DJ, The Faithful Servant of the True Salmon Emperor Hizunamasu, learns how to play Tromebone, Clarinent, AND Flute just to get samples for the new song, Double Clickbait. Salmon Runners who worked at Salmon Jammin’ Junction said it “wasn’t very good” and “needed tuning.”

Local punk Spyke gets arrested for tax evasion. Is released by technicality.

September:

Salmonid Tribes attack the still under construction Grand Splatlands Bowl, causing Grizzco to put all hands on deck to collect over a billion eggs in order to drive out the Salmonids.

During this, a Salmonid rights activist is caught and arrested for attempting to set fire to Grizzco’s Splatsville branch. Grizzco officials said that the damage was minimal, but shocking nevertheless.

The Salmonid rights activist escaped prison. Grizzco has chosen to drop charges.

Grand Festival featuring the Squid Sisters, Off The Hook, and Deep Cut went off with a bang. The fest’s theme being Which is most important to you: Past, Present or Future. Team Past won.

October:

A young inkling splats another inkling as a “Splatoween prank”, cries when facing the consequences of her actions.

November:

Nothing ever happens in November.

December:

Salmonid Tribes attacked Wahoo World, and sends Grizzco under fire for their lack of management as a Goldie has been reported to be stabbing employees and civilians with multiple knives.

A large fight happened on Fiddler Tower ending with idol group Colorgraphic dropping a new remix of Calamari Inkantation. And later dropping a new single titled Re:UNIon. (Please listen to it, it made me cry several times)

[electronalytics]

LED Display Power Supply Market Overview, Demand, Key Players and Regional Outlook Study 2017 – 2032

The LED display power supply market refers to the industry that provides power supply solutions specifically designed for LED displays. Biomass Refining Market Biomass Refining Market Biomass Refining Market Biomass Refining Market Biomass Refining Market Biomass Refining Market Biomass Refining Market Biomass Refining Market, LED displays are widely used in various applications such as outdoor advertising, digital signage, stadiums, retail stores, transportation hubs, and more.

The market for LED display power supplies is influenced by several factors:

1.            Increasing Adoption of LED Displays: The growing popularity of LED displays, primarily due to their advantages such as high brightness, energy efficiency, and flexibility in creating dynamic content, is driving the demand for power supply solutions.

2.            Advancements in LED Technology: Ongoing advancements in LED technology, including higher resolution displays, finer pixel pitches, and improved color reproduction, require power supplies capable of providing stable and precise power to ensure optimal performance.

3.            Energy Efficiency and Sustainability: With increasing environmental concerns, energy efficiency has become a crucial aspect of LED display power supplies. Energy-saving features and power management capabilities are in demand to reduce energy consumption and operating costs.

4.            Customized Solutions: LED display power supply manufacturers are focusing on providing customized solutions tailored to the specific requirements of different LED display applications. This includes considerations such as power output, voltage levels, form factors, and integration with control systems.

5.            Emerging Markets: The LED display market is experiencing significant growth in emerging markets, such as Asia-Pacific and Latin America, due to urbanization, infrastructure development, and increasing disposable income. This, in turn, drives the demand for LED display power supplies in these regions.

Market Share and Size:

•             The LED display power supply market has been witnessing steady growth due to the increasing adoption of LED displays in various industries such as advertising, retail, sports, transportation, and entertainment.

•             The market size is influenced by factors such as the demand for high-resolution and energy-efficient displays, advancements in LED technology, and the growing popularity of digital signage.

Types of LED Display Power Supplies:

•             LED display power supplies are available in various types, including constant voltage power supplies and constant current power supplies.

•             Constant voltage power supplies are commonly used for LED displays that require a fixed voltage input.

•             Constant current power supplies are designed to provide a steady current output to LED displays, ensuring optimal performance and longevity.

Demand and Overview Analysis:

•             The demand for LED display power supplies is driven by the increasing installation of LED displays in various applications such as outdoor advertising, stadiums, retail stores, and transportation hubs.

•             LED displays offer advantages like high brightness, energy efficiency, and flexibility in creating dynamic content, which has contributed to their popularity and subsequent demand for power supplies.

Trends and Opportunities:

•             Energy efficiency and power-saving features are important trends in the LED display power supply market. Manufacturers are focusing on developing more efficient power supply solutions to reduce energy consumption and operating costs.

•             Integration of advanced technologies such as smart control systems, remote monitoring, and power management capabilities are creating new opportunities for market growth.

•             Increasing demand for smaller and compact power supply solutions to accommodate the trend towards thinner and lightweight LED displays.

Key Growth and Development:

•             Market players are investing in research and development activities to improve power supply efficiency, reliability, and lifespan.

•             Collaborations between LED display manufacturers and power supply manufacturers are leading to the development of customized power solutions optimized for specific display applications.

We recommend referring our Stringent datalytics firm, industry publications, and websites that specialize in providing market reports. These sources often offer comprehensive analysis, market trends, growth forecasts, competitive landscape, and other valuable insights into this market.

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Market Segmentations:

Global LED Display Power Supply Market: By Company

• TRC Electronics

• LEDSINO

• meh wei enterprise co., ltd.

• Shenzhen Chenglian Power Co., Ltd. Shenzhen

• Shenzhen Juneng Weiye Technology Co., Ltd.

• Shenzhen Huayun Power Co., Ltd.

• Shenzhen Rongdian Innovation Technology Co., Ltd.

• Changzhou Chuanglian Power Technology Co., Ltd.

• megmeet electric co., ltd.

• Shenzhen Depu Nova Power Technology Co., Ltd.

• Changsha Hangte Electronic Technology Co., Ltd.

• Delta Electronics Co., Ltd.

Global LED Display Power Supply Market: By Type

• Constant Current

• Constant Voltage

• Dimming

Global LED Display Power Supply Market: By Application

• Outdoor LED Display

• Indoor LED Display

Global LED Display Power Supply Market: Regional Analysis

All the regional segmentation has been studied based on recent and future trends, and the market is forecasted throughout the prediction period. The countries covered in the regional analysis of the Global LED Display Power Supply market report are U.S., Canada, and Mexico in North America, Germany, France, U.K., Russia, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, and Rest of Europe in Europe, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, China, Japan, India, South Korea, Rest of Asia-Pacific (APAC) in the Asia-Pacific (APAC), Saudi Arabia, U.A.E, South Africa, Egypt, Israel, Rest of Middle East and Africa (MEA) as a part of Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Argentina, Brazil, and Rest of South America as part of South America

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[carnage-cathedral]

i do wanna say about split that its often talked about as a standalone movie but is actually part of a trilogy that if i remember correctly was either a critique or parody of superhero movies! split alone is bad especially as representation but the whole trilogy together isnt terrible imo

okay my beef with split is mostly the misinfo thing. because (and I also know this context but most people do not and it was not advertised as such) it is supposed to be closer to sci-fi superhero stuff but (as I said) was not advertised that way properly so the average person who saw the movie or anything about it was led to the conclusion "oh that's the movie about the guy with DID."

and to say it's bad representation is (with all due respect) an understatement. because it's not just bad representation it's misrepresentation. some of the information and context in the film regarding DID is based in truth but most of it is WILDLY untrue to a point of the whole film losing complete credibility and making the disorder look silly and terrifying. can some alters be physically stronger than others, have different pain tolerance, etc., yes. can that happen to a point of CLIMBING ON WALLS AND ONE ALTER HAVING DIABETES WHILE THE OTHERS DON'T?? NO!

and my issue is that now a lot of people have based their idea of DID on this comic book film and either think we're crazy or terrifying or both. I have met people, who upon me bringing up DID in conversation, immediately mentioned this film. real life people have formed opinions about real life mental health issues on this comic book film and that is a problem

and honestly, writing a comic book villain whose evil superpower is a trauma disorder is kinda unfair representation because it just makes us look like villains or attention seekers when in reality we are just trauma victims. the trend of supervillains having superpowers that are based on demonized mental health conditions is not a coincidence, it's a very honest reflection of the way people view certain mental disorders in society

also would like to touch on the objectively abusive behaviors and tactics used against the DID character himself, such as manipulating child alters, the doctor character having an overly close personal relationship with her patient, frontcalling an alter (who is clearly a trauma holder) as a means of destabilizing the system and kicking out the "bad" alters, etc etc. those are things that are very bad for systems and a lot of what this movie did was just teach people that it's okay to treat us this way if you feel it's necessary (because let's all be real guys. most people with DID never kidnap people. most people are just gonna try this shit when they feel like they wanna control a mentally ill person)

all in all, I think that, as a person with DID (and psychosis, because that's actually what the summary of the movie on amazon prime describes it as) I found it entertaining while I was watching it, because it was fun to laugh at, but I've come away from it feeling angry and sick about the fact that we've been represented so poorly and so many people are just okay with us being portrayed this way because "it's just fiction"

[t00thpasteface]

hey! i was just curious if i could use your art in an artist study? i looked over your faq and i didn't see any mention of it so i just wanted to ask. it's okay if the answer is now, no pressure :)

(⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠) sure, if you credit me! i would be incredibly flattered!!

now that being said, i would also like to share with you some artists whose work i've enjoyed doing studies of! i find it's very useful to "follow the money" with artists you like, and go along the chain of inspiration to see how ideas and styles can change from person to person.

vincent van gogh is my BIGGEST inspiration in terms of color and composition! his unique style of brush work is what he's best known for, but i recommend looking at his works holistically too, and seeing where the eye is led and how he plays with light, color, and mood. if you want to go further, he was very inspired not only by prior impressionists, but also by japanese ukiyo-e artwork— try comparing "starry night" to "great wave off kanagawa" and seeing the similarities in the grand, sweeping movements they convey.

i'm sure i've said this a million times, but genndy tartakovsky has probably my favorite cartoonist style. it's at its peak in samurai jack— opinions are mixed about the narrative quality of season 5, but if nothing else, the art direction is absolutely jawdropping. one of my favorite scenes is the bit in the tomb, where jack is hiding in a sarcophagus, because the music and visuals are paying homage to a scene at the climax of "the good the bad and the ugly"!

in a totally different direction from those two... i'm a huge fan of gil elvgren's pinup girls! i've had a few different pinup calendars over the years, and at the end of the year, i like to cut up the pages individually for mini posters— i've covered pretty much all my available wall space in his illustrations. i love it when artists don't feel the need to sacrifice expressiveness for realism; his girls are SO DARN CUTE and they all look like they're having so much whimsical, cartoonish, flirty fun!

here's a post where i talk about more inspirations!

here's a post listing some other tumblr artists i like!

i'm also just very heavily inspired by 50s-60s print illustration... things like advertisements, "clip art" (which you had to physically clip out of a book and paste onto the page), and of course, tv cartoons. one big trend i love with that "googie" art style is how incredibly limited the palettes were, and how efficient the economy of line was. as much as i love the bold, blocky, dynamic shapes of styles like tartakovsky, who takes insp

also, please remember i'm entirely self taught and am NOT an expert, so just be aware of that if you see any weird stylistic choices in my work... i admire the work of a lot of professionally trained artists, but that doesn't mean i have any training or real right to go around teaching people stuff. i'm just some guy from a big crazy family full of artists, only some of whom went to school for it.

okay, that got way longer than i meant it to, SORRY! here's a pic of my cat Carmen as a thanks for reading this far ^_^