#and then max. did go below that number

[maxtism]

max/gp genuinely MOVES me okay like they move me. theyve been together since 2016 and both have said they would quit if the other left 🥹 gp named his dog after max and has a painting of them in his house — max straight up said he’d go if gp went 😵‍💫 they are very much a pair 🙂‍↕️�� gp picking max up after las vegas24 is so so special to me too like :(( thats his boy‼️‼️‼️ thats his boy‼️‼️‼️

[theemporium]

[3.5k] after his iconic first race win in formula one, lando gets to celebrate with his three favourite people. or, the charlandax smut i accidentally promised after a lando win with a lestappen podium. (smut)

note: this is fucking filthy and i kinda feel like i need to go to a confession booth. okay bye, nobody perceive me after this. she’s also unedited so beware (I’m too lazy to reread and edit rn)

.

Lando Norris felt like he was on top of the fucking world but maybe that was just how it felt from the top step of the podium.

It hadn’t really hit him yet, despite his ears ringing from his own screams and the cheers from the crowd and the fans and his own team. It didn’t feel real until the national anthem began playing through the speakers, until he heard his team singing along, until he realised this was his reality. 

He was a Grand Prix winner. 

Finally. 

Surreal was the only word to describe how he felt. After years of second-place and third-place podium finishes, of people telling him his time would come, of having so many close calls, he did it. He fucking did it. And he didn’t just skim a win, it was fully fucking his as he soared past the chequered flag.

And for once, Lando basked in the knowledge that all eyes were on him. It didn’t give him that prickling, itching feeling under his skin. It didn’t make him want to  hunch his shoulders up to his ears. It didn’t make the little voice in the back of his head send him spiralling over every little thing he could be doing wrong. 

He had just won the Miami Grand Prix and everyone was staring at him and he fucking loved it.

But it meant more than just a win to Lando, it meant so much more than a trophy to add to his collection back home. It was about the years spent achieving this dream. It was about the effort and the support he had from the team to reach this point. It was about sharing this moment and standing on the podium with two people who meant the fucking world to him with the third watching all three of them from down below. 

It meant the fucking world to Lando. 

It was a blur of happiness and excitement and adrenaline as he stood on that top step. It felt like he was in a movie when the trophy was handed to him, the number one staring back at him like it was reminding him he had done it. It felt like a fucking dream when the champagne celebration started, his hand barely wrapped around the neck of the bottle when Charles and Max drenched and drowning him in champagne.

It was completely fucking unbelievable this was finally his reality.

Time was a blur of big smiles, loud cheers and so many people congratulating him. It was overwhelming in the best way possible, it made something in his chest burst with pride as he felt his team slap him on the back as he walked through the garage. He felt like his life was complete when you threw your arms around him, tugging him close until your bodies felt like one.

“M’so cold,” he murmured as he wound his arms around you, holding you closer as he buries his face into your neck for some privacy, despite the countless cameras pointing at him.

“I’m so proud of you,” you whispered back, just loud enough for him to hear because he was the only one who mattered in that moment. “This is the first of many.”

He sniffled, feeling his throat close up a bit but he just squeezed you tighter when the words didn’t come out as smoothly as he wanted. 

However, you were pulled away from him seconds later as he was directed towards the camera. With media duties and team debriefs and many more commitments, he didn’t have time to stop and celebrate with the people he wanted. He had to perform for the cameras, for the fans, for the people watching before he could. 

And honestly, he couldn't complain. There were worse problems to have.

His brain was running a million miles an hour, so many thoughts and feelings and emotions to try and comprehend that he barely noticed the other person in his driver’s room until the door shut behind him and he felt a pair of lips on his. 

“I am so proud of you, mon champion,” Charles murmured against his lips, the kiss short-lived due to the huge smile on his face. He pulled back enough to look at Lando properly, his hands holding the Brit’s face. “So, so proud of you.”

Lando felt his cheeks burn. “M’glad you and Max were up there with me,” he admitted, that funny feeling in his chest returning before he glanced around the room noticing that Charles was the only one in his driver room. “Where are the others?” Pause. “How did you even sneak in here?”

“I have my ways,” Charles answered vaguely, his eyes glinting with mischief. “And I’m here to help you hurry up. They are waiting in the car.” 

Lando snorted. “And they sent you to hurry me up?” 

“I may have come third, mon amour, but I’m still fast.” 

Despite his words, it took a few more minutes of Charles pressing kisses all over his face and mumbling a load of French that Lando didn’t understand before he was finally able to grab his belongings and make it out of the McLaren motorhome. 

His whole body was buzzing with energy, far too hyped up to even care about the way his face burned when he climbed into the backseat of Charles’ race weekend car, unable to wipe the smile off his face. 

This. 

This was what he had been waiting for. 

This moment to be with the people who loved more than his heart knew he was capable of. A moment to be with the people who believed in him no matter what, even when the rest of the world doubted him. 

And if Lando was being so completely honest, he was so lost in the buzz of his win that he didn’t think anything about your hand resting on his upper thigh. He was still lost in the race a few hours ago, still lost in the feeling of crossing the line and hearing Will’s voice over the radio confirming he secured his first Formula One Grand Prix win. 

So lost in that moment that he barely had a chance to drop his backpack on the floor of Max’s huge hotel suite before the Dutchman was reaching for him. With the privacy of the hotel room door locked from the rest of the world, Max didn’t hold back as he raked his hand through Lando’s curls. His fingers twisted in his hair, tugging sharply as his teeth nipped the Brit’s bottom lip. 

Lando couldn’t help himself when he let out a whine.

“Fuck,” Max groaned, tugging on his hair again as he watched Lando’s eyes flutter shut. “Look at our race winner, hm? So pretty, schat.”

Lando’s lips parted but words were lost on him. Instead, his eyes darted where you saddled up against Max’s side, head resting on his shoulder as you looked at Lando with a massive grin. 

“I think you broke him,” you teased, a faux pout on your lips. “Guess that throws all our plans out the window.”

Lando blinked before quickly shaking his head. “I��no, wait, what plans?”

Max grinned. “Your reward, baby. Didn’t think we were gonna celebrate your big day, huh?”

“I—” Lando paused, feeling something deep in his stomach twist in desire. “I just…I don’t know. I thought we were gonna go out…or something.”

“We could,” Charles spoke up as he slipped in behind Lando, his hands on the younger boy’s waist. “If that’s what you want. We can go out and celebrate with everyone else.”

Lando swallowed. “Or?”

“Or,” you repeated, your eyes lingering on his kiss-swollen lips. “You let us treat you like a proper race winner.”

“And what does that treatment include?” Lando asked, because that was just who he was. That little brat in him that wanted to know his options, that wanted to know exactly how he was being rewarded, who wanted to know exactly what was getting done to him. The little brat in him that was mouthy and sassy and usually got put in his place—that wanted to be put in his place.

And Max knew that. He knew that if he reached down, Lando was probably half-hard already. He knew that no matter what he said, Land would be down for it. He could see the glint in the Brit’s eyes, that realisation of what he could have without realising it. 

“Anything you want,” Max murmured, his thumb lightly tracing along Lando’s bottom lip. “You’re the winner, Lando. Our winner.”

…

Anything you want. 

That was his limit—completely fucking endless. He had all the control in the palm of his hands to do whatever he pleased, whatever he desired, whatever he fucking wanted. 

But that wasn’t what Lando wanted. He didn’t want to be in charge. He didn’t want to be the person making the calls and decisions. That wasn’t his role in the bedroom and he never really wanted to be. He liked being the one who got to lay back, the one that people tried to tame and dominate only to realise he didn’t listen as easily as people wanted. 

He liked being the one that people worked to break. 

So, that was exactly what Max gave to him and Lando only slightly regretted his decision as he slumped back against the Dutchman, grinding his ass back against the older boy’s straining cock as he threw his head back against Max’s shoulder.

“Please, please, please,” Lando whined, trying to buck his hips forwards but Max kept his body in place, just where he wanted him. “S’too much.”

“I know, schatje,” Max mused, pressing a lingering kiss at the base of his neck just to hear Lando let out a small moan at the contact. “But look how pretty they look for you, all for you. You don’t want them to stop, do you?” 

But Lando couldn’t bring himself to respond. 

“None of that,” Max muttered, squeezing Lando’s sides to get the boy to listen. “Thought my winner was gonna be good for me, huh? Look at them, Lando. Look how good they are being for you. Look at how much they are enjoying this.”

The boy only managed to let out a whimper as he fluttered his eyes open, his chin tucking into his chest as he looked down at the sight Max was demanding of him. 

And, fuck, it made his knees buckle.

The two of you were absolute fucking messes. It felt like something out of a porno, one that would have Lando panting and whining and fantasising about because never once did he think it was realistic. And yet, here you and Charles were, looking like something out of his deepest desires. 

He couldn’t focus on one of you, it would have been a crime to not stare and ogle you both. The way you both looked utterly perfect on your knees in front of him, glossy eyes and flushed cheeks and looking so fucking blissed out as you both worshipped his cock—like you were fulfilling a purpose, like this was what the two of you were made for. 

And it was messy as fuck, something that maybe would have been gross to everyone else in the world, but Lando thought it was so fucking hot. The evidence of his previous orgasms splattered across you both, covering your lips and chins and naked chests. The way your lips wrapped around the head of his cock as Charles licked down the underside of his cock until he nosed Lando's balls. The way Charles had one hand wrapped around his leaking cock, pumping and stroking himself as you squeezed and played with your tits like it would give you some relief. 

But it wasn’t about your pleasure or Charles’ or Max’s. 

It was all about Lando. 

“Such good sluts on their knees for you,” Max muttered, lips brushing against his ear as his warm breath tickled against Lando’s skin. “Usually that’s you, schat. Getting on your knees for me, doing whatever I tell you.”

“Fuck,” he let out in a breathless whimper, turning his head to try and nuzzle his face into Max’s neck. 

“Do you like this, Lando? Like seeing them be such whores for your cock? So desperate and needy?” Max continued, his hands tightening on the younger boy’s waist as he looked down at you and Charles.

You let out a whine at his words, your thighs clenched together and your eyes fluttering shut as you traced your tongue along the slit of his cock. Your moans vibrated around his cock, leaving the boy a puddle underneath your touch as Charles placed wet, open-mouthed kisses along his balls. 

“Bet they would stay there all night if you wanted them to,” Max mused as his eyes caught teary green eyes staring up at him, desperation shining in the pretty colour of them. “Bet Charles would love to take your cock down his pretty throat, he always does it so well for me. Hm, amour? Think you could take our pretty winner’s cock like a good boy?”

The sound Charles let out was pitiful and straight out of a fucking porno.

“Max,” Lando breathed out, his hands reaching back to try and grab onto the Dutchman. “Please, I-I need…”

“What do you need?” Max questioned, squeezing his sides. “Need more than their mouths, baby? Or maybe you need more than that.”

Lando felt his whole face burn as he let out a shameless moan when one of Max’s hands began wandering, when his fingers brushed along his skin before squeezing the fat of his ass. 

“The champagne wasn’t enough, hm? Maybe we need to fill you up,” Max suggested, like it was something as casual as talking about dinner options. “Bet you’d feel so nice and tight around me, baby. Maybe let Charles fill your pretty throat instead.”

“Please,” Lando whined.

“Yeah, you want that?” He could feel Max’s smile against his skin. “Let our pretty girl bounce on your cock whilst we fill you up? She would look so pretty sitting on top of you.”

Lando nodded his head vigorously, his nails slightly digging into Max’s skin. “I need it, Max, need it so bad.”

Max’s teeth scraped along the side of his neck. “Beg for it.” 

So he did. 

He begged for it until his voice was hoarse and his legs were shaking and his babbles were practically incoherent. He begged until he felt Max’s lips on his skin, joined by Charles and yours moments later as you three kissed and worshipped every inch of his body. He begged until his face was burning red, his blush spreading down his neck and chest as you praised him—your race winner—until he couldn’t take it any more.

He begged for it as you held his face, prepping kisses all over his face whilst Max worked him open. 

He begged for it as Charles marked along his neck and chest to help him relax as Max slowly slid inside him, stretching him open until he was a whimpering mess.

He begged for it as you slowly sunk down on his cock, your cunt already soaking and slick with your own arousal as he buried himself inside you. 

He begged for it until his hands were gripping Charles’ thighs, nails digging into his skin as he urged his cock further down his throat until he felt fucking full.

“Fuck, baby,” you moaned, rocking your hips back and forth as you let your hands skim along his skin. Your fingers traced along the planes of his abs, watching them softly clench under your touch before you traced along his sides. You kept your hands moving, feeling the need to touch every fucking inch of him as he preened and squirmed under your touch. “You look so perfect like this.” 

Lando let out a muffled moan around Charles’ cock.

“Letting us fill you up, make you feel so good,” you continued, the walls of your pussy clenching around him. “This is what our race winner deserves. So pretty and fast today, baby, it’s so hot.”

One of his hands let go of Charles, blindly reaching out towards you until you caught the hint to intertwine your fingers together. You raised it to your lips, pressing a soft kiss onto the back of his hand and something about the soft gesture whilst his body was being fucked into an inch of his life made the boy spiral. 

He couldn’t do anything but just take it, let the overwhelming pleasure wash over him until his whole body felt like it was on fire. His nerve endings felt like they had been turned up beyond the dial, like every touch was more thrilling than he could ever imagine. The words of praise was a muffled mess around him, three voices all mixed together as he felt hands all over his body. He felt safe, he felt full, he felt complete. 

It was a blur of too much pleasure and excitement and gratification when he finally came, white spots dotting his vision as he felt himself completely spill inside you whilst your cunt clenched around him, as Max’s cock hit the perfect spot deep inside him with every thrust. He was so lost in his own orgasm, in his own moans and whines and noises to fully realise the domino effect he started. 

To really appreciate the sight of you coming on his cock, bouncing up and down on his cock whilst your tits moved with each thrust. To really enjoy the sensation of Max coming deep inside him, squeezing him so hard that he was sure his skin would bruise the next day. To watch the way Charles stroked himself a few more times before spilling over his chest, just for you to lean down and lick up the mess until you leaned down to kiss him senseless. 

To be completely honest, he was waiting to wake up and realise this whole day was a dream. 

But he blinked. And blinked once more for good measure. And your smiling face was still there to reassure him this was real, that everything about today was real. 

“Hey,” he whispered, voice a little rough and hoarse. 

“Hey, baby,” you grinned back at him as you raised your hand to gently cup his face, your thumb wiping away a few stray tears that slipped out. “How are you feeling, Mr Race Winner?”

And despite the exhaustion settled deep in his bones, Lando beamed at you. “Feel like I’m the king of this fucking world.”

You giggled. “Then our job here is complete.” 

Lando huffed out a laugh, his eyes fluttering shut as he tried to fight the urge to curl up and sleep for the next week straight. 

“Don’t tell me that’s you done for the night,” Max’s voice spoke from somewhere else in the room, somewhere away from the bed but Lando couldn’t bring himself to open his eyes just yet. “There’s a whole city wanting to celebrate with you tonight.”

“Ugh, being a race winner is so much work,” Lando whined playfully, reaching for you to pull you closer before you could pull away from him. “Let’s just stay here forever.”

“All a part of the title, mon amour,” Charles teased as he settled down beside the younger boy on the bed. He leaned in, placing a quick kiss to Lando’s forehead. “I heard the other drivers making bets on who could buy you the most shots.”

Lando let out a breath. “Fuck, they are gonna try to kill me.”

“We wouldn’t let that happen,” you assured him, but he could hear the smile in your voice. “I’m sure Max would join you.”

“Thanks, schat,” Max grumbled as he wandered back into the room, a wet washcloth in his hand. “We have a few hours before we are meant to meet everyone anyways. Have a nap, you can shower when you wake up.”

Lando blinked his eyes open, a cheeky smile on his face. “Alone?”

Max rolled his eyes. “It’s never enough for you.”

“I’m a high maintenance guy,” Lando replied. 

“We know,” you murmured with a snort, only to gasp when he pinched your side. “Hey!”

“You can’t yell at me, I’m a race winner,” he shot back at you, grinning wider when you rolled your eyes. 

“Yes, that is exactly how this works,” Charles snorted as he slumped down on the pillow beside Lando, reaching for the Brit to curl up beside him. “That and club blowjobs.”

“It was one time,” Max grumbled. “And it wasn’t even my idea!”

“I didn’t regret it for a second,” you smiled shamelessly at the Dutchman before raising your hand, trying to pull him down onto the bed with the three of you. “C’mon, we can clean up properly later. I wanna cuddle.” 

“So needy.”

“In the wise words of race winner Lando Norris, I’m a high maintenance guy.”

“Hell yeah, baby,” Lando murmured, his cheek pressed into the pillow with a sleepy smile on his face. “Someone stitch that onto a pillow.” 

“Please go to sleep before I gag you both.” 

“They would probably like that, mon amour.”

“You too, Charles.” 

“Always so bossy, Verstappen.”

.

[its-avalon-08]

hi could you write a story about Carlos Sainz x Wife!Reader, where they just had a baby and Lando comes to visit them in the hospital. He is Carlos' and the reader's best friend and he was there throughout the pregnancy. Maybe Carlos and his wife ask him to be the godfather of their child….

thanks

norris are you crying? (cs55, ln4 <3)

✦ pairing - carlos sainz x female!reader + lando norris (platonic)

✦ genre - just plain ol'fluff

The sterile white walls of the hospital room felt strangely sterile with the miracle cradled in Y/N's arms. A tiny, wrinkled face, a perfect echo of Carlos, slept serenely against her chest. Beside her, Carlos, eyes still puffy with exhaustion, held her hand, a goofy grin plastered on his face. Their daughter, Sofia, had arrived a few hours ago, a whirlwind of emotions and a head full of dark hair, just like her father.

A knock on the door, followed by Lando Norris' boisterous entrance, shattered the quietude. "Alright Sainz, let me see the little legend!" he boomed, his usual mischievous glint dimmed with a touch of awe.

Carlos chuckled, pulling Lando into a tight embrace. "Careful, mate. Still a fragile little thing."

Lando approached Y/N cautiously, peering down at Sofia with a reverence that surprised them both. "Wow," he whispered, his voice thick. "She's perfect."

Y/N smiled, her heart swelling. Lando had been their rock during the pregnancy, the shoulder to cry on during hormonal meltdowns and the voice of reason when anxieties threatened to drown them. He'd even taken it upon himself to become an expert on all things baby, bombarding them with facts and advice while Carlos, bless his heart, fumbled through assembling cribs and figuring out pacifiers.

"So," Carlos began, bouncing Sofia gently in his arms, "we were thinking..."

Y/N squeezed his hand, already knowing what he was about to say. They'd discussed it before, late at night with the nursery glowing softly beside them.

Lando looked up, a playful glint returning to his eyes. "Spill it, then."

"We were wondering," Y/N continued, her voice catching slightly, "would you do us the incredible honor of being Sofia's godfather?"

Lando's jaw dropped. He blinked, then a grin erupted on his face, brighter than any podium finish. "Are you serious?" he sputtered, his voice thick with emotion. "Of course! I'd be, well, I don't even know what to say. Absolutely!"

He reached out, his finger gently tracing Sofia's cheek. A tear welled up in his eye, quickly brushed away. "I promise to be the best damn godfather she could ever ask for," he declared, his voice firm despite the tremor.

The room erupted in laughter, a mix of relief and joy. With Lando by their side, they knew Sofia would be surrounded by love, laughter, and someone who would teach her the finer points of both go-karting and taking selfies (much to Carlos's future chagrin).

As the sunlight dipped below the horizon, painting the hospital room in a warm glow, Carlos leaned towards Y/N, his eyes twinkling. "Looks like we just made a champion a godfather," he whispered, his voice thick with love.

Y/N smiled, her heart overflowing. Their little family, this perfect trio, was just the beginning of their greatest adventure.

The jubilant atmosphere in the hospital room quieted as Lando pulled out his phone, a sheepish grin on his face. "Gotta share this one with the boys," he explained, dialing a number.

Y/N chuckled, knowing the waterworks wouldn't be far behind. Lando may act like a goofball, but his emotions ran deep, especially for his friends.

As the call connected, a chorus of voices filled the room. "Lando! How's the little one?" came Max's voice, followed by Charles' enthusiastic, "Is she a Ferrari fan already?"

Lando sniffled back a tear, his voice cracking as he replied, "She's... she's perfect. Tiny little human, guys. And guess what?"

There was a beat of confused silence, then Oscar's voice cut through. "Did you manage to convince them to name her after Ricciardo?"

Lando choked back a laugh. "Nah, mate. It's Sofia. But..." He paused, his voice thick. "They asked me to be her godfather."

A stunned silence followed. Then, Max erupted in cheers, Charles followed suit, and even Oscar let out a surprised whoop.

"Lando, that's amazing!" Max yelled, his voice filled with disbelief. "The Godfather Norris! Sounds posh, doesn't it?"

Lando let out a watery sob, a smile splitting his face. "I can't believe it, guys. I'm gonna spoil her rotten, teach her all the best pranks..." his voice trailed off, replaced by more sniffles.

Carlos, who had been pretending to read a magazine, couldn't help but overhear the conversation. A smile tugged at his lips seeing Lando so overcome. He leaned over subtly, catching Y/N's knowing look.

"Seriously, Lando," Charles chimed in, oblivious to the drama unfolding in the room, "don't tell me you're crying already. You haven't even been 10 minutes !"

"It's just... I don't know, man," Lando choked out, wiping at his eyes with the back of his hand. "It means a lot."

Carlos cleared his throat, drawing all eyes to him. "Sounds like someone's getting a bit emotional," he teased, a playful glint in his eyes.

Lando whipped around, his face instantly switching to a defensive scoff. "Who, me? Emotional? Absolutely not, mate. Just, uh, clearing my throat. Hay fever, you know?"

Y/N and Carlos burst into laughter. Max, Charles, and Oscar could practically hear Lando's blush through the phone.

Carlos, amusement dancing in his eyes, walked over to Lando and pulled him into a tight embrace. "Alright, alright," he chuckled, ruffling Lando's hair. "We believe you. You're going to be a fantastic godfather, just try not to scare her off with your... unique fashion sense."

Lando, still flustered, punched Carlos playfully on the arm. "Sod off, Sainz. Speaking of fashion, you're the one who wears those atrocious dad sneakers."

Y/N shook her head, a warm smile on her face. These two, with their playful rivalry and unwavering friendship, would make the perfect team for Sofia.

As Lando continued to chat with his friends, his voice regaining its characteristic bravado, Carlos couldn't help but feel a surge of pride. He leaned down and whispered to Y/N, "See? The best godfather a girl could ask for."

Y/N squeezed his hand, her eyes mirroring his sentiment. With Lando by their side, Sofia's life was sure to be filled with laughter, love, and maybe just a touch of healthy competition

The soft glow of the bedside lamp cast long shadows across the hospital room. Y/N lay sleeping, cradling their newborn daughter, Sofia, close to her chest. The rhythmic rise and fall of their breaths filled the quiet room with a soothing melody.

Carlos, unable to sleep, sat in the armchair beside the bed, his gaze fixed on the two most important people in his life. He reached out a hand, gently tracing the lines on Y/N's face with his thumb.

"She's incredible, isn't she?" he whispered, not wanting to disturb their sleep.

Lando, perched on the window ledge, turned his head, his voice hushed. "She's perfect, mate. Just like your missus."

Carlos chuckled softly. "She's something else, Lando. You know, throughout this pregnancy, I kept thinking I couldn't love her any more. And then she goes and pulls this off." He gestured towards Y/N and Sofia. "This miracle."

Lando smiled, understanding washing over him. He'd seen firsthand Carlos's unwavering devotion to Y/N. "She's strong, Carlos. Stronger than you give her credit for."

"Stronger than us all, mate," Carlos replied, his voice filled with awe. "She's been glowing these past few months, like an... an angel."

Lando raised an eyebrow. "An angel who craved pickles at three in the morning?"

Carlos laughed, shaking his head fondly. "Even then. No matter what, she's the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. And the way she looked at Sofia... pure love, Lando. Pure, unadulterated love."

He fell silent for a moment, his eyes reflecting the soft light. "I never want to lose her, you know? Never want her to stop looking at me like that."

Lando hopped down from the window ledge, placing a hand on Carlos's shoulder. "You won't, mate. You two have something special. A bond stronger than anything."

Carlos let out a shaky breath. "I hope you're right, Lando. I hope you're right."

He leaned closer to Y/N, brushing a stray strand of hair from her forehead. "Te amo," he murmured, his voice thick with emotion. "More than words can ever say."

As if sensing his presence, Y/N stirred, her eyes fluttering open. A tired smile graced her lips as she met Carlos's gaze. "Hey there," she whispered, her voice husky with sleep.

"Hey amor," he replied, his voice filled with adoration. "Just checking on my two favorite girls."

Y/N's eyes flickered to Sofia, then back to Carlos. Her smile widened, a silent testament to the love that filled the room, a love that promised a lifetime of happiness for their little family.

[darkenedroses-world]

Heartbeat Hazard — Pezzy x Reader

f!reader, gaming chaos, fluff, teasing romance, soft pezzy, heart rate monitor, request🦋

The glow of Pezzy’s gaming monitors bathed the small room in a mix of blues and purples. He was mid-stream, the guys’ laughter echoing through his headset as they explored the creepy halls of an abandoned asylum in their multiplayer horror game. His heart rate monitor was visible on the screen, the numbers holding steady at 80 BPM as he expertly dodged a ghost that nearly cornered him. “Pezzy, my guy, your heart rate’s too normal,” Droid teased. “I’m starting to think you’re immune to fear.” “Don’t jinx it,” Pezzy replied, his voice steady but focused. “Y’all know how these games go. One big scare, and I’m done for.” “Done for? Bro, you’d have a better chance surviving Y/N walking into the room looking—” Smii7y started, but he never got to finish his sentence. Because just then, the door to Pezzy’s gaming room creaked open, and you walked in. Fresh from the shower, your damp hair clung to your shoulders, and the soft, slightly damp robe hugged your figure in a way that made it impossible not to notice.

You didn’t think much of it—you were just popping in to grab a charger from the desk near him. But for Pezzy, the sight of you rendered him completely useless. His heart rate monitor spiked immediately, jumping from 80 to 120 BPM, as he froze in his seat. The guys noticed instantly. “Yo!” Droid shouted. “What the hell just happened? Pezzy, you good, bro? Did the ghost get you?” “Forget the ghost,” Puffer chimed in, cracking up. “Pezzy just died in real life. His heart rate shot up like 40 points in two seconds!” You paused, confused by the sudden outburst. Turning your head, you caught a glimpse of Pezzy’s screen, where his heart rate monitor was flashing wildly, the numbers climbing higher and higher. Then you looked at him, his face flushed and his jaw slightly slack as he stared at you. “Wait…” you said, a slow grin spreading across your face. “Was that because of me?” “Don’t,” Max said quickly, his voice strained as his gaze darted from you to the screen. “Don’t say it.” “Oh, it was definitely her,” Grizzy laughed, practically wheezing.

“Y/N, what are you even wearing? My man’s heart can’t take it!” “It’s just a robe,” you replied innocently, though the mischievous glint in your eye betrayed you. You turned to Pezzy, leaning on the edge of his desk. “You okay, babe? You seem a little… distracted.” His heart rate spiked again, and the guys erupted into another round of laughter. “Bro, this is better than the game!” Puffer howled. “We don’t even need the ghost to kill him—Y/N’s got it covered.” “I hate you all,” Max muttered, dragging a hand down his face. “And you,” he said, pointing at you. “Stop.” “Stop what?” you asked, feigning innocence as you leaned in closer, your damp hair brushing his shoulder. “I’m just standing here.” His heart rate monitor hit a new high, and Droid lost it completely. “Someone call 911! We’re losing him!” You couldn’t help but laugh as you straightened up, leaning down to press a quick kiss to his cheek. “I’ll leave you to your game,” you teased, heading for the door. “Try not to die, okay?” The door closed behind you, and Max let out a shaky breath, leaning back in his chair.

“Pezzy,” Puffer said through his laughter, “you’re the first guy to die in a horror game without even leaving the safe zone. Congrats, man.” “Y’all are the worst,” Pezzy grumbled, though the small, lingering smile on his face said otherwise. The game continued after you left the room, but Max was a shadow of his usual self. His responses were delayed, his movements clunky, and his heart rate refused to dip below 100 BPM. Every time someone teased him, it only made it worse. “Pezzy, focus up, bro,” Droid said between laughs. “We’re in the middle of a hunt, and you’re still recovering from Y/N’s jumpscare.” “She’s not a jumpscare,” Max shot back, his voice flustered. “She just—” “Walked in and broke your brain,” Grizzy finished for him, snickering. “It’s okay, man. We get it. Love does things to a guy.” “Shut up,” Max grumbled, trying—and failing—to regain focus. His character rounded a corner in the game, and the ghost appeared out of nowhere, screeching as it lunged toward him.

Max yelped, slamming his keyboard as his heart rate monitor spiked again. “He’s dead again!” Droid cackled, his laughter echoing through the headset. “Double kill—ghost and Y/N, tag team champions of the night!” Max let out a long, defeated groan as his character crumpled to the ground. “I’m done. I’m so done,” he muttered, leaning back in his chair. The guys howled with laughter as Max reached for his headset, muting himself as he leaned back with a heavy sigh. He glanced at the door, debating whether to follow you or finish the stream, but he knew he didn’t stand a chance of focusing with you still on his mind. “Alright, chat,” he said, unmuting briefly to address his audience. “We’re calling it for tonight. Thanks for hanging out, and uh… yeah, see you next time.” He ended the stream quickly, ignoring the flood of teasing messages from his chat. Peeling off his headset, Max stood and headed out of the gaming room, following the soft hum of music into the living room. You were curled up on the couch in your robe, scrolling through your phone, completely at ease.

“Done gaming already?” you teased without looking up, a playful smile tugging at your lips. “Yeah, well,” Max started, running a hand through his hair, “it’s hard to focus when my girlfriend decides to look like that.” You laughed, setting your phone down as he came closer. “It’s just a robe, Max.” “No, it’s a distraction,” he corrected, sitting down beside you. “You literally derailed my entire stream.” You tilted your head, feigning innocence. “Should I apologize?” He grinned, shaking his head. “No, but you should probably make it up to me.” You raised an eyebrow, amused. “Oh? And how do you propose I do that?” Leaning in, he brushed a hand over your damp hair, his smile softening. “Just stay here,” he said simply, pulling you into his arms. “No heart rate monitor. No jumpscares. Just us.” You let yourself relax against him, his warmth chasing away the chill from your still-damp robe. “You’re impossible, you know that?” And you’re dangerous,” he replied, pressing a kiss to your temple.

“But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

[vax-merstappen]

F1 boys falling for you <3

these got kind of long lol, but i thought you’d rather have more of a storyline than less of one lol. Prefs are below the line :)

Lando Norris

It was your first season as an f1 driver and you had been performing surprisingly. As both the only woman on the grid and a rookie, you were drawing a lot of attention from the media.

The media wasn’t the only one paying attention to you, however. “Lando, just go talk to her!” Carlos exclaimed, walking up to his former teammate. “You’ve been staring so hard your eyes are going to fall out.”

“Shut up, mate.”

“You like her, no?”

“Of course not!” Lando exclaimed. Carlos raised an eyebrow. “Well maybe a little.”

“Then go talk to her, mate!” When Lando didn’t move, Carlos grabbed him by the arm and started dragging him in your direction. You turned to the guys, an amused expression on your face.

“Y/N, this is Lando. Lando has had a crush on you for the whole season but hasn’t got the cojones to tell you about it.”

Carlos shoved Lando in your direction and walked away. His face was bright red.

“Was he telling the truth?” you asked.

“Yeah,” Lando admitted. “This isn’t how I wanted you to find out. I was going to tell you myself.”

“Well then tell me.”

“I, Lando Norris, have had a crush on you all season.”

You smiled at Lando. “Would you want to get dinner sometime?”

Lando’s face, less red now, lit up. “Of course.”

Oscar Piastri

It was the final concert on your tour and you were performing in Melbourne. Little did you know that a certain formula 1 driver who was a fan had decided to attend the concert.

The concert went amazing and you stepped backstage to see your best friend waiting for you.

“Y/N! You did amazing!”

“Thanks!”

“Omg you won’t believe who I saw in the crowd.”

“Who?”

Your friend smiled. “Oscar Piastri! He’s a formula 1 driver and apparently he’s a huge fan of yours. You have to invite him backstage!”

You couldn’t help but be curious about this guy and so you instructed security to go find him and invite him backstage. When he arrived, he clearly looked shy and a bit embarrassed to be there.

“You must be Oscar!”

“I am. And you’re Y/N.”

You nodded and smiled. “I heard you’re a fan of mine?”

“You could say that,” Oscar said with a gulp.

“What would you call yourself?”

“A guy who never imagined he’d be asked backstage by his dream girl.”

Max Verstappen

Max had just left his apartment to go pick up groceries when he saw you walking down the street, looking very lost. He walked up to you.

“Hey, do you need help?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m studying abroad here and I have no idea which way to go to get to the university.”

Max smiled and gave you the directions you needed and you thanked him and headed on your way. For the rest of the day, he kept thinking back to his interaction with you and how you looked so cute. He mentally kicked himself for not asking for your number.

A week had gone by, and you were still on Max’s mind. He had no way of finding you again and did not even know your name.

Fate must have been on his side, as when he walked out of his apartment that day, he saw a familiar figure walking down the street. He tried not to look to eager as he walked up to you. “Did you manage to get to the university the other day?”

“Yes! Thanks again for the help,” you responded.

“I had one problem with my directions the other day I realized.”

“You did? I made it there alright, so no worries.”

“I forgot to ask your name and number.”

Your mouth dropped open a little, surprised that the gorgeous stranger you met the other day had been attracted to you too. “Y/N,” you responded as you typed your number into his phone.

“I’m Max,” he said. “I’ll text you tomorrow and see if there’s a time we could meet up.

You nodded. “I would love that.”

Charles Leclerc

Charles was a childhood friend of yours. You had seen him grow up and become the incredible man he is today. You had always been close, but Charles had come to want something more with you. To take your relationship to the next level.

It was a warm day during his summer break where he invited you to spend the day with him. You had gone on a hike in the hills of Monaco and had laughed and chatted the whole way there. When the two of you got to the top, you stared out at the stunning view. But when you looked at Charles, you saw he was looking at you instead.

“Do you have something to say?” you asked.

“Yes. Every time I see you, I can’t help but think how beautiful you are. I want you to be mine.”

“How long have you wanted this?”

“Oh, a long time.”

“Why didn’t you say so?”

“I didn’t want to ruin our friendship.”

You leaned over and kissed Charles. “I’ve been wanting this for a long time too.”

He paused for a second before pulling you close and kissing you back. The rest of the afternoon was spent together, happier than either of you had been in a while.

Carlos Sainz

One of the perks of being an f1 presenter was the time you got to spend with the drivers. Of course there were some you preferred to interview over others, but you enjoyed getting to know them all. What you didn’t realize was that for Carlos, one of the perks of being an f1 driver was getting to spend time with you. Before each Grand Prix, he would look for your face in the sea of media personnel. It usually wasn’t hard for him to find you, as someone so beautiful easily stood out from the crowd. Every time he saw your name on his media schedule, Carlos would get butterflies in his stomach. For someone brave enough to drive an f1 car, you were enough to make Carlos nervous.

At first you didn’t notice, but Carlos began to come up to you before every race. He wanted so desperately to show you that he liked being around you and that he really wanted to take your relationship to the next level. After the fourth week of him speaking with you before a race, you finally talked to him.

“Carlos, fancy seeing you again. You’re not on my schedule for today,” you greeted.

“I know, but I’m so sick of watching you from afar. I love to be around you and I’m sick of wanting you and not having you.”

“Oh, uh…”

“Are you free tomorrow night? To get dinner with me?”

“Are you asking me in a date.”

“Yes, I should have done so a long time ago.”

“Well since you admit that, yes I am free.”

Lewis Hamilton

As a trainer in a celebrity gym in London, you often found yourself in the company of athletes of all sorts. However, the man who had recently started coming to your gym and asking you for advice had not stuck out as anyone in particular you should recognize.

The first week you had seen him, he had asked you to help spot him with the weights he was lifting. You had agreed and helped him, without making much conversation. The second week, you had caught him watching you as he ran on the treadmill but he did not come over to you. The third week, he had asked for some advice on which machines he should use even though you could tell he already knew what he was doing.

And this week, he had come up to you with a box in hand. “I’m sorry if this is a bit forward, but I’ve noticed you the past few weeks I’ve been in here and I think you’re really cute. Would you want to go on a date with me.”

Thinking he was cute, you responded, “Sure. I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name?”

“Lewis. Lewis Hamilton.” He flipped open the box to show you what was inside. “I got you this bracelet. I noticed you always fidgeting with your other one and I thought you might like another to go with it.”

You smiled. “How thoughtful! I’m y/n by the way.”

“Y/N. I like it.”

Daniel Ricciardo

For years, Daniel had disliked his media duties. Of course he would put on a smile for the press, but interviews were not actually super enjoyable for him. Until he got a new PR manager and he couldn’t help but look forward to press duties.

“Ok, Daniel. So today we’ve got the press conference this morning and then an interview with sky sports this afternoon.”

“Yep! Who else is at the conference?”

“Nico, Carlos, Fernando, and Oscar,” you replied. “I’ll sit off to the side and watch so we can debrief before heading to the next interview.”

“Oh, you’ll be watching me then?”

“Yeah, Daniel, like I always do.”

“Well I’ll be watching you.”

“What does that mean?”

“I can’t seem to keep my eyes off you. I know it’s unprofessional, with us working together and what, but going to interviews with you makes my day.”

“What are you trying to say, Daniel?”

“Would you go out with me? On a date? That’s all I’ve been thinking about lately.”

You looked down, your cheeks turning red. “You have a way of flustering me, Daniel.”

“Is that a yes?”

“Of course it’s a yes.”

Yuki Tsunoda

Had anyone asked Yuki who his celebrity crush was, he would have said you. As a famous actress, you had been in a good number of Yuki’s favorite movies and he could just never seem to get your face out of his head. Despite both of you having many connections, you had yet to meet in person.

It only took a twist of fate and a gala for a mutual sponsor to bring you together. You were starring in the latest advertising campaign for a brand that has sponsored AlphaTauri for the upcoming year. You walked into the event wearing a stunning red dress and Yuki was immediately starstruck. His celebrity crush was here in person with him.

His jaw dropped open slightly as you locked eyes with him from across the room. He had dreamed of this moment for years and he couldn’t quite shake the feeling that he was in fact dreaming. You waved and began to walk over to him and Yuki pinched himself to snap out of that stupor.

“Hi, you’re Yuki, right? The formula 1 driver?”

“Oh, um, yes. That is me,” he responded.

“I’m y/n!” you said cheerfully.

“I’m so excited to meet you! You are my favorite actress.”

“Am I really?”

“Yes! I watched all your movies!”

You saw Yuki’s obvious excitement and decided to chat with him for a while longer. A while longer ended up becoming the whole night and you and Yuki exchanged contact information to meet again.

At the end of the night he told you that you were his celebrity crush for a long time and you responded that it was quite obvious from the start.

Alex Albon

As an f1 driver, Alex was not home a lot. But somehow every time he came home, he managed to run into you. You both were neighbors, so it wasn’t exactly weird, but Alex was sure it was fate that you kept meeting. You see, Alex had what was comparable to an airport crush on you. He didn’t see you often and only from afar, but he couldn’t help but think about you after he had gone from home.

This time, Alex was going for a jog when he saw you struggling with a pile of boxes. He paused for a minute before crossing over to your driveway.

“Can I help you?” he asked.

“Oh, I’m fine. Just moving some boxes of donations to the animal shelter I volunteer at.”

The fact that you loved animals so much endeared you to Alex even further.

“Are you sure I can’t help? I was just going to jog, lifting boxes could be my exercise instead.”

You could hardly refuse the stunning man standing before you and he helped you get your car packed to go to the shelter. You found that you enjoyed his company.

“Can I be honest with you?” Alex asked.

“Of course.”

“I’ve come to like you since we’ve been neighbors. And I was wondering if you’d want to go out with me on a date? You’ve always seemed so nice.”

“Sure. Just maybe next time it can be something other than putting boxes in a car.”

Logan Sargeant

As a streamer for Quadrant, you regularly streamed and discussed Motorsport content. The only driver on the grid you had met was Lando, but little did you know another driver had been watching your content.

Logan had fallen asleep one night with YouTube on and woken up to one of your videos on his screen. He immediately loved how you looked and as he continued to watch, the thoughtful way you talked about Motorsport really resonated with him.

A few days later, after watching a bit more of your videos and one of your streams, he sent a message to Lando asking for your number. Lando, knowing the two of you would be perfect for one another, agreed to play matchmaker and gave you both each other’s contact information.

Logan was thrilled to be able to text you and soon the two of you hit it off. Logan couldn’t help but fall even further for you every time you messaged and his heart would skip a beat every time he saw you go live. Needless to say, the American man had fallen hard.

[heartkaji]

[ 𝐂𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐍 𝐂𝐔𝐏𝐈𝐃 ]

★ ── selfship event

❤︎ WHAT’S CAPTAIN CUPID ?!

hihi hello ! welcome to my selfship event where I, MARS, assign scenarios & headcannons to your selfships !

❤︎ HOW DOES THIS WORK ?!

easy ! all you have to do is send me an ask describing you (or your oc’s) personality ! it’s similar to a matchup event except you’ll specify what character you’re being shipped with. my job as cupid will be to assign a dynamic & scenarios based on you & your fictional other’s personality !

you’ll select a maximum of three questions ( or four for moots ) you’d like me to answer about your selfship, and i’ll do my best to answer based on my idea of what your relationship would be like !

❤︎ WHO CAN I BE SHIPPED WITH ?!

your fictional other should be a character from wind breaker, haikyuu, mha or blue lock only.

note that all characters will be written as adults (18+) by default (everything is still sfw !)

only one f/o per person

❤︎ ANYTHING ELSE, CAPTAIN ?

here are some guidelines when requesting :

anyone is free to join ! you don’t have to be a follower or mutual to take part.

on that note, all scenarios & hcs will be sfw or at best lightly suggestive, so everyone of all ages is free to join

you can send your requests on or off anon. i recommend sending it off so you’ll be notified, but it’s all up to you ! edit : if requesting on anon, feel free to assign yourself a name or emoji !

don’t be shy ! i feel like a lot of self shippers are shy when talking about their self ships because they may feel cringy or embarrassed. trust me i’m not judgy at all. i love reading selfship posts so describe yourself or your oc in as much detail as possible !

❤︎ PICK A QUESTION, ANY QUESTION !

note that before answering questions, i will provide a description of what dynamic i think your selfship would have !

if using an oc, please provide their name !

starred questions (*) have potential to receive slightly suggestive answers

remember you can only pick a maximum of three while moots pick four !

how did you first meet ?

who confessed & how ?

who fell first & who fell harder ?

first date ?

what do others (ex: parents/friends) think of your relationship ?

toxic things they do ?

toxic things you do ?

what do you often fight over ?

why/how did you break up ?

at what moment did they fall in love ?

at what moment did you fall in love ?

what do they not like about you ?

what do you not like about them ?

what do they love most about you ?

what do you love most about him ?

how was your first kiss like ?*

their favorite activity to do with you ?

their green flags in your relationship ?

how did they propose ?

what’s having a family with them like ?

❤︎ HOW TO REQUEST ?

to participate, you must first reblog this post then send me an ask following this template. starred (*) questions are optional. any requests that do not follow instructions will be deleted !

pronouns

*gender + any relevant information regarding gender identity (ex : perhaps you don’t wear certain clothing, or use she/her pronouns but prefer to be treated as male. this is to avoid me making you uncomfortable in descriptions

*sexuality (if unanswered, i will assume you are attracted only to the same gender as your f/o)

f/o + their fandom (refer to list of accepted fandoms)

what questions you want me to answer (3 or 4 max)

a description of you/your OC’s personality

*a description of you or your OC’s appearance (this is to make more specific & personal hcs, ex: them loving you/your OC’s freckles)

your perception of your f/o. everyone has different perspectives on different characters; so i’d like to see your f/o through your eyes in order to make more accurate hcs !

that’s all ! please remember i can only take a limited number of requests. i can’t guarantee requests will be answered on a first come first serve basis, but i recommend requesting as soon as possible ! when requests are closed, the prompt below will go from “start” to “end !”

TAGGING : @kaiser1ns @seneon @seumyo @caelivir @y2kuromi @17020 @megutime @bloodswrd

[ 𝐂𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐀𝐈𝐍 𝐂𝐔𝐏𝐈𝐃 ]

end.

© ─ heartkaji ; do not steal, copy, edit, translate or reupload

[tiredandoptimistic]

TSC Fandom Survey Results

The time has finally come for me to share my data! For those unaware, I've spent the past week running a survey in which people ranked TSC books, characters, and ships. In the end, 50 people filled out my survey, which is way more than I expected! About 23% of the people who looked at the survey filled it out, and everyone who started finished it.

First off I'll post the simple rankings from each category, and below the cut I'll show the more complex results with explanations for why people voted the way they did.

Best series: 1. The Infernal Devices 2. The Mortal Instruments 3. The Dark Artifices 4. The Last Hours 5. The Eldest Curses 6. The Wicked Powers 7. The Secret Treasons

Best main girl: 1. Tessa Gray 2. Clary Fairchild 3. Emma Carstairs 4. Cordelia Carstairs 5. Dru Blackthorn

Best main couple: 1. Will/Tessa/Jem 2. Will/Tessa 3. Clary/Jace 4. Jem/Tessa 5. Julian/Emma 6. James/Cordelia 7. Dru/Ash

Best side couple: 1. Magnus/Alec 2. Simon/Isabelle 3. Thomas/Alastair 4. Kit/Ty 5. Kieran/Mark/Cristina 6. Charlotte/Henry 7. Sophie/Gideon 8. Gabriel/Cecily 9. Helen/Aline 10. Grace/Christopher 11. Gwyn/Diana 12. Lucie/Jesse 13. Ari/Anna

Best side character: 1. Raphael Santiago 2. Lily Chen 3. Maia Roberts 4. Ragnor Fell 5. George Lovelace 6. Catarina Loss 7. Livvy Blackthorn 8. Jessamine Lovelace 9. Luke Graymark 10. Jocelyn Fairchild 11. Maryse Lightwood 12. Eugenia Lightwood 13. Jordan Kyle 14. Robert Lightwood 15. Jaime Rosales 16. Michael Wayland 17. Amatis Graymark 18. Camille Belcourt 19. Nate Gray 20. Charles Fairchild

Best younger sibling/child: 1. Max Lightwood-Bane 2. Rafael Lightwood-Bane 3. Mina Carstairs 4. Max Lightwood 5. Tavvy Blackthorn 6. Alex Lightwood 7. Zachary Carstairs

Best villain: 1. Sebastian Morgenstern 2. Valentine Morgenstern 3. Annabel Blackthorn 4. Malcolm Fade 5. Axel Mortmain 6. Asmodeus 7. Shinyun Jung 8. Benedict Lightwood 9. Tatiana Blackthorn 10. Belial

Best side book: 1. Tales From the Shadowhunter Academy 2. Ghosts of the Shadow Market 3. The Bane Chronicles 4. Secrets of Blackthorn Hall 5. An Illustrated History of Notable Shadowhunters and Denizens of Downworld 6. The Shadowhunter's Codex 7. Better in Black 8. A Sea Change

Huzzah! Putting this all together has been so much fun for me, and I want to quickly thank everybody who participated! I also want to remind everyone that this was just for fun, and no reason to get mad at anybody. We're obviously never gonna agree on everything, we just need to respect each other's opinions.

If you want to know the nitty gritty of how every character was ranked, how the different series measured up against each other across categories, and why people like or dislike various books and characters, then keep reading below the cut! I made a spreadsheet, please come gaze upon my beautiful spreadsheet.

Here we go, time for the real shit!

Be warned, you will probably read mean things about characters you love and nice things about characters you hate. Angry rants about how you can't believe anyone would think that way belong in DMs to your friends, not the notes of my post. I do welcome discussion, just nothing that's targeted at other people. Also, I will be doing my best to explain people's opinions, that doesn't mean that I agree with them. I'm just trying to document. If I'm sharing my genuine personal opinion on anything, I'll make that clear.

You'll be seeing screenshots from my big spreadsheet throughout this thing. Here's your key: Columns represent characters/ships/series, rows represent a ranking. Each cell shows how many people assigned that rank to that character (for example, the intersection of 3 and Sizzy will be the number of people who voted Sizzy as their second favorite side ship). At the bottom there will be the average rank this character received, which was calculated by the program I used for the survey. I have all the columns color coordinated by which series each character/ship belongs to, and each column will have one box outlined which shows the rank that character received most often (as in, the intersection of Sizzy and 3 is outlined because Sizzy got more #3 votes than #1 #2 #4 or #5). Some columns have multiple boxes outlined, in the case of ties.

Make sense?

Alright, let's go!

First off, it's everyone's favorite series. As you can see, TID was significantly ahead of all the others. TMI and TDA were neck and neck, frequently switching back and forth for that #2 spot. TLH was a bit lower than the other three, and TEC, TWP, and TST all ranked dramatically lower.

To explain why they liked TID, people talked about finding the series nostalgic, enjoying how the characters are woven into the plot, the historical setting, and how it expands the worldbuilding of TSC while still working as a contained story. People also mentioned enjoying specific characters like Will, Jessamine, and Gabriel. By far the most common comment though was just that people love Herongraystairs. The only negative comments came from people who said that they didn't find the concept interesting, and were disappointed by the lack of their favorite modern characters.

Talking about TMI, the most common positive comments were that the series was fun, nostalgic, and had the best cast of characters (specifically Alec, Magnus, and Simon). People also enjoy the modern setting, the interpersonal relationships (especially Malec), and how the world is seen to develop from where it was in the historical era. TMI has the fewest haters, but some people said that they just didn't find it as captivating as later series, or that they were put off by the incest plotline. I also received the criticism that the characters are annoying, and that the story could have been compressed into fewer books.

For TDA, a lot of people mentioned finding the characters relatable, enjoying the plot, and liking the Blackthorn family dynamic. The characters and ships who got specific shout-outs were Blackstairs, Kierarktina, and Mark. People also like the modern setting, found it to be emotional, and think that it effectively juggles a large cast of characters. Plus, people appreciate getting autistic representation from Ty. It has a solid number of detractors too, who say that they don't like Blackstairs (especially Julian), Thule, the Cohort, or the focus on Faerie politics. They also say that it has too many plotlines, takes itself too seriously, and that the last book (Queen of Air and Darkness) made them drop the series.

While TLH was ranked last of the main series, I'd like to point out that it has the same number of #1 votes as TDA, signaling that it has a similar number of intense fans. The difference really comes in with the lack of #2 or #3 votes, showing that people don't tend to be casual fans of the series. By far the most popular thing brought up by TLH enjoyers is the characters, and how they build an interconnected web with lots of fun dynamics (including developed family dynamics). People also like the number of queer and POC characters, the cozy vibe, the historical setting, the drama, and the ships (especially Herondaisy). The most common critiques all come back to the plot; that the main story is weak or even incoherent, and the series is stretched too thin across a number of side plots. People also dislike the lack of communication, and think that the characters don't feel like friends. Another complaint is that the world doesn't feel like a natural extension of TID, especially because the characters are so invested in mundane social structures like balls and reputations.

TEC is our first truly controversial series, and the main divide seems to be between people who think it's unnecessary fan service, and fans who feel serviced. The reasons I was given to like the series are the additional page time for Malec and the TMI gang, and that it fleshed out the TMI timeline. On the negative side, people say that it feels like a cash grab and that LBOTW didn't live up to the expectations set by RSOM. Overall though, the biggest reason that people ranked it so low was just that they hadn't read it.

Here's where we get into the series that were doomed to fail in the rankings because none of us have even read them. While TWP has a solid number of prospective fans ranking it in their top three, most people left it at the bottom because it hasn't come out yet. The people who expect to enjoy the series are the ones who enjoyed Dru, Kit, and Ty in TDA, and the ones who expect to dislike it are the ones who didn't enjoy those three in TDA.

So, TST was probably not fair to include in this list because I got a solid number of respondents who hadn't even heard of it, but I'm convinced that if it were ever to come out it would be in my top two series overall, and I want to see what the people think. While it didn't get anybody voting it #1 based on potential like TWP did, there were still some people saying that they would be excited to read it because of Waywood, the Luke/Jocelyn/Valentine drama, and the morally gray characters. On the other hand, there's the people who just don't care about the Circle and don't want to read about them.

For main girls, Tessa, Clary, and Emma were all pretty close in the average rankings. Cordelia and Dru fell a bit behind, but also had their share of committed fans.

When talking about Tessa, people brought up her intelligence, maturity, and their nostalgia for her character. They also like that she's a book lover, has cool powers, isn't annoying, starts out messy before maturing, and is strong-willed. By far though, the most common comment was that they found her relatable. The downside to this relatability is that her detractors say she feels like an obvious reader insert, and is overshadowed by more interesting characters like Will, Jem, and Jessamine.

Clary had the most positive comments, and people love that she's funny, creative, blunt, fearless, iconic, and handles all the bullshit the world throws at her. (My personal favorite comment was the person who called her "my beautiful unhinged princess"). More than anything though, people love Clary for her development. She starts out as a relatable 15-year-old, but over the course of six TMI books and all her later appearances, she grows into a hero. She's also of course incredibly nostalgic, since most TSC fans were introduced to the world by either her or Tessa. On the downside, people say that she works better as a side character than a protagonist, and that she's overshadowed by the rest of TMI. They also think that she made bad choices throughout the series, and find her annoying.

What people love about Emma is that she's strong, funny, complex, badass, and a bit of an asshole. They like that she's allowed to have an attitude and still be treated as a cool and compelling woman by the narrative and the other characters. Plus, she comes across as having a clear voice that makes her feel like somebody they could be friends with in real life. Most of the people with specific complaints about her either didn't like TDA overall, or thought she was treated as an extension of Julian who never fulfilled her individual potential. Some people also found her badass bad bitch persona to be more exhausting than endearing.

Cordelia is probably the most controversial character in this category, with long lists of both positive and negative traits given by the fandom. On the bright side, she's fierce, badass, kind, and relatable. People also like to see a woman of color thriving in 1903 London, and how she embodies the concept of a warrior. Looking to the negative, people largely just don't find her particularly engaging. They say that she's inconsistant, flat, and had no development after Chain of Gold. They also complained about her making bad decisions and having a weak relationship with Lucie.

Everybody had the least to say about Dru, and most people said that they ranked her last just because they don't know enough about her to like her more than the established characters. What her fans do enjoy is that she's relatable, blunt, sassy, and a fat goth girl who's giving 2015 tumblr emo. The only real complaint people had was that they found her annoying in TDA, but everyone who left comments like that also acknowledged that she was 13 in TDA and will probably be more engaging once TWP gives her time in the spotlight.

Moving into the main couples, TID continues to sweep as Herongraystairs takes the top spot (and came incredibly close to taking the entirety of the top three). After that, the couples are spaced out pretty equally and follow the same pattern established by the previous two categories.

Now, Herongraystairs received arguably the most bonkers majority in this entire survey. Nearly half of respondents ranked it as their #1, and only a couple outliers put it in their bottom three. What everybody loves about this ship is the angst, how willing they were to sacrifice for each other, the raw emotions, how perfectly the three balance each other, and the ideas about fate. They also like how all three of them are compelling characters on their own, have unique relationships in pairs (Wessa, Jessa, Heronstairs), and work even better as a complete unit. Will and Jem already loved each other, but they could only fully develop once they had Tessa; creating this tragic yet beautiful cloud of possibility. People also like the polyamorous aspect, and wish that they were a canon three way relationship. More than anything else though, what was commented again and again was simply "they loved each other so much." What else can you say? Well, I can say why a couple of people dislike the ship. The only reasons I was given was that the person didn't like TID overall, and that they prefer Jem and Will with a purely platonic parabatai bond.

Moving on to Wessa, people like their banter, the crazy build up to their relationship, and how they bonded over books. They also love how gutwrenching the relationship is, especially once you get to the epilogue of Clockwork Princess. The only complaint anybody had was that they aren't Herongraystairs, and the relationship is incomplete without Jem.

People of course love Clace for the nostalgia factor and how it's the relationship that introduced them to TSC, but most importantly people like how the two of them are just so horribly down bad for each other. They're cute, fun, and have good chemistry; forming the heart of the TMI gang and of the Shadowhunters world. What people don't like is that they're basic, getting overshadowed by other couples in their own series. The upside is that they get better in their appearances that came after TMI. There are of course also the people who don't like the incest plotline and felt uncomfortable reading about that era of their relationship.

Jessa was solidly in third for most of this survey, but Clace pulled ahead of them in the last day. Though they came in behind the other TID ships, they're still beloved by the fandom. People like their dynamic and enjoy Jem as a character. The downside is that the ship makes them sad because of the tragedy of their situation, doesn't include Will, and gets overused in the modern series.

As for Blackstairs, people see their relationship as beautiful, a good example of friends to lovers/forbidden romance, and worked in well with the plot of TDA. People also like the soulmate aspect. Their haters sure had a lot to say to counterbalance that though, and complained about how the relationship is melodramatic, overly intense, toxic, and codependant. I also got a few respondants who said that they just dislike Emma and Julian as individuals, and that Julian's behavior towards Emma is alarming.

Herondaisy is continuing TLH's grand tradition of coming in near the end while still maintaining a dedicated team of fans. The good stuff is how much James loved Cordelia, and that he spent so long unable to say anything, but once he was free from the Gracelet he never let her forget his devotion. Their love was powerful enough to break a hellish enchantment, but still felt like a friendship built on a shared interests like books and stories. The most common complaint about this relationship was miscommunication, dislike of James or Cordelia as characters, and not understanding why the two like each other (other than mutual attraction). There's also people who just don't like TLH and generally aren't invested in their story. The other main complaint was that the James/Grace and Cordelia/Matthew subplots felt unnecessary and overly drawn out (which of course connects back to the miscommunication issue).

Morgenthorn suffers from the same issue as the other TWP representatives, and largely got low marks because their books aren't out yet. Some people think they're shaping up to be iconic though, while others still aren't sold on the premise.

The side ships are where things start to really heat up. Based on their average rank, the pairs form a couple distinct tiers. First, is Malec, Sizzy, Thomastair, and Kitty (the fan favorites), next is Kierarktina, Chenry, Sophideon, and Gabrily making up the middle of the pack, then we have the less popular Haline, Gracetopher, Gwynburn, and Ghostwriter, and in dead last with by far the lowest score there's Arianna. (Sorry to the u-haul lesbians). I think it's quite interesting how most of the ships are clumped together with other ships from the same series.

I'm guessing we all knew that Malec was gonna come in first. People love the nostalgia factor, of course, and they also love how the ship is queer, iconic, and just generally sweet. It's a case of opposites attract where the two of them help each other grow and reach for things they never thought possible. Both Alec and Magnus believed that they'd never be truly loved for who they were, and yet together they were able to create a life and family. Not a single person had a bad thing to say about these two.

Continuing the popularity of the TMI gang, Sizzy came shockingly close to beating Malec for first. They didn't get as many #1 votes as the other top ships, but they were still voted highly by more or less everyone. On the surface this couple is cute and funny, but what people really love is how perfectly they match each other. While they look like opposites at first, they're actually incredibly well-balanced. Everyone expected Isabelle to break Simon's heart, but he's able to stand up to her without being a dick and he sees her for who she really is under all her defensiveness. Plus, they're great individual characters and encourage each other to grow. They only negative comment they got was one person who finds them annoying.

Next up, Thomastair comes in to prove that there are at least some parts of TLH that are pretty universally adored. People like how Thomas saw the good in Alastair from the start, and watching his schoolboy crush develop into a mature romance. They like how Thomas helped Alastair accept love into his life, and Alastair encouraged Thomas to become confident in himself. The two of them were able to create their own world in Paris, which allowed them to escape the roles they felt trapped in. The characters are of course loved as individuals, and people got especially attached to Alastair and think that he deserves good things. People also like their communication skills, in contrast with other TLH couples. The only real complains people had with the ship was that it's connected to a series they dislike overall, and falls into the bully x victim trope.

Kitty is another ship that anybody who spends any length of time in the fandom will not be surprised to see in the top quarter of this list. They're beloved as characters, and even people who dislike TDA say that they were some of the best stuff in it. Fans enjoy how Kit understood Ty from the start and Ty felt truly comfortable with Kit. They also like how Kit can't make amends with Ty but still keeps his secret (shout-out to the person who described them as being in "doomed yaoi purgatory"). People also say that they have great chemistry and a lot of potential. What people dislike is really just that they haven't had time to fully develop, since TWP hasn't actually come out yet.

The next top ship is Kierarktina, which is where we exit the "pure adoration" tier of this list. People like the characters and all their different dynamics, and think that there's a lot of potential for growth with them. They also like the fact that they're a canonically polyamorous ship. The complaints I got were that the relationship feels rushed, and that Cristina seems to fetishize Kieran and Mark's relationship.

Getting into the TID ships all nicely chunked together in the middle of this list, people like Chenry for their arranged marriage setup, where both of them love each other but saw their feelings as unrequited for years. They also like Charlotte and Henry's combined autistic swag. What makes people hesitate is their lack of pagetime.

For Sophideon, people of course love the individual characters, and especially appreciate how Gideon adores everything about Sophie. The only downside is how little of them we get on the page.

Gabrily came in lower than Sophideon but did receive more #1 votes and fewer #13 votes, proving that they have a higher number of committed fans despite being less popular overall. Those fans like how the two of them loved each other for what they were and always had each other's backs. Nobody had any negative comments about them.

Haline is another mid-tier ship that didn't get many comments. What I did hear is that people like how their struggles were worth it because they had each other, and ranked them low because of their lack of page time.

Gracetopher is probably the most controversial ship on this list. If we were just going off of who received the most #1 votes, they would be fifth overall (that order would be Malec, Kitty, Thomastair, Sizzy, Gracetopher). Unfortunately for them though, we are also factoring in all the people who ranked them dead last. As this form received more and more submissions, I watched this couple gradually climb from second-to-last to the dizzying height of fourth-to-last in the overall rankings. First off, what people like is how they truly see each other. Christopher was overlooked by his friends for his intensity and Grace was only ever treated as a weapon and a seductress, but they genuinely respect each other and bond over their shared enthusiasm for science. Looking at the negatives though, most people saw their dynamic as underdeveloped and unnecessary. Lots of people dislike Grace and don't believe that she should have received any redemption, and even people who are sympathetic towards Grace still dislike that Christopher was so quick to forgive her after how she treated one of his best friends. A few people also said that they like Grace and Christopher's dynamic when it's platonic, but ranked it low as a romance. People were also upset by Christopher's death, and feel that it ruins the relationship for them.

For Gwynburn, the only positive comment I got was a couple people saying they're cute, and the only negative one came from somebody who didn't like Diana because they felt she was an irresponsible guardian to the Blackthorn kids. Most people ranked them higher than the other ships at the bottom of this list, but unfortunately they just didn't have enough extremely high votes to pull them ahead.

Ghostwriter didn't get any specific positive propaganda, though some people clearly do enjoy them. Most of the negative sentiments came from people who just found them uninteresting and generally didn't enjoy TLH. They also see the pairing as having wasted potential, and felt frustrated by the lack of consequences for Jesse's resurrection. They saw Lucie as boring and dislike Jesse for his mistreatment of Grace.

Despite being ranked last, Arianna fans still came in to share what they liked about the couple. They enjoy the characters and Anna's butch swag, and some people who don't like them together still enjoy the concept. What people largely dislike about the two is Anna as a character, and how she treated Ari and all the other women she had flings with. While not everyone was ready to give up on them because of Anna's flaws, they were frustrated by how she didn't resolve her issues or try to be better by the end of the trilogy. There were also people who thought that the ship didn't get enough page time, or who didn't connect with Ari as a character. People were also disappointed in how Ari was punished by the narrative and by Anna for not being ready to come out of the closet when she was seventeen and dependent on her bigoted parents.

Oh boy, time to dig into the biggest category (which still feels incredibly cut down, my original list was over 50 characters). Side characters are obviously a point of hot debate, since everybody has their favorite guy who the narrative forgot about. The most popular overall characters were all old favorites introduced in TMI, then there's George, Catarina, Livvy, and Jessamine (who all swapped around a fair bit), before we get into a large chunk of characters who either inspire mixed feelings or get forgotten entirely, and bringing up the rear is two of the most hated characters in TSC.

First up, we have what I think is the biggest sweep of the whole survey; Raphael Santiago. He got about a third of the #1 votes, which isn't quite as dramatic a majority as Herongraystairs in their bracket, but far more impressive when you consider the sheer number of characters competing against Raphael for the top spot in this section. People think he's funny, iconic, and relatable. They love his sarcastic and grumpy sense of humor and his begrudging responsibility for the people around him. They also like his relationship with Magnus, as explored in "Saving Raphael Santiago" in The Bane Chronicles. The most common comment I got though was that people appreciate him being canonically aroace, and they remember him as their first experience seeing an aspec character in media. He received no negative comments (and few people left him out of their top ten).

Our second place goes to Lily, who got points for her iconic sense of humor, haunting backstory, and compelling relationships with both Alec and Raphael. She received no negative comments.

People like Maia but apparently don't have much to say about her. The only comments I got were that she's hot and a bad bitch, plus she overcame her difficult past.

Ragnor is appreciated how grouchy and melodramatic he is, and how he fits into the warlock friend group with Magnus and Catarina. I'd also like to shout-out his friendship with Raphael, since I love seeing them bond over their haterism. He received no negative comments.

George also didn't get many comments, but people grew attached to him very quickly and felt strongly affected by the tragedy of his death in TFSA, except for the person who said he felt like he got killed off for shock value.

People like Catarina's relationships with the other warlocks. I also want to point out her incredible selflessness and how she's even committed to helping people who hate her. She received no negative comments.

Livvy got the second most #1 votes after Raphael, and yet she's only #7 overall (ranked choice voting strikes again), and it looks to me like people either love her or don't care about her. What they love about her is the tragedy of her death and her relatable sense of responsibility towards her siblings, plus the continuation of her story in TWP. The only negative comment I got about her was from someone who didn't feel sad when she died.

Jessamine is seen as a fascinating and tragic character with a lot of potential depth who deserves more love. She got some low marks from her lack of page time though, and from people who found her attitude annoying.

Moving into some TST characters, Luke is noticeably higher than all the rest of his high school/fascist cult buddies. People like him for his dad vibes, and dislike him for his holier than thou attitude towards other members of the Circle. (Shout-out to my IRL friend who called him a DILF this morning).

Jocelyn didn't get many comments, and none that were positive. I'll chip in to say that I like how fierce and strong-willed she was when she decided to betray her abusive husband and raise Clary alone in NYC, and appreciate that she always tried to do what she thought would protect her daughter (even if it often wasn't actually what Clary wanted or needed). The people of the survey think she's a bad person and don't think that Clary should have forgiven her so easily for the way she lied to her. She moved up pretty far in the last day of this survey, but that was mostly due to other characters dropping in the rankings.

Maryse was behind Robert for most of the time this survey was gathering data, but her fans came in at the end to bump up her score. They like her relationships with her children, especially Jace and Alec, and are curious about her life before TMI when she had to deal with a loveless marriage and losing her brother to the mundane world. The only negative comment I received for her was someone who disliked how she treated Jace while he was being unfairly accused of working with Valentine.

While Eugenia is generally liked by TLH fans because she's funny, feisty, badass, and has a compelling relationship with Thomas; she scored fairly low overall because most people don't feel super attached to her due to her lack of page time.

The only positive comment I received about Jordan was that it was funny when he spent time with Jace and Simon. Mostly, people think that he was a toxic boyfriend to Maia and an awful person overall. They especially disliked that he and Maia got back together, even though he'd previously assaulted her after their breakup. Despite that, he's managed to make his way up from the bottom five of this list.

Robert is more controversial than his ex-wife, receiving more negative and more positive votes than her. People like his relationship with Michael as explored in "The Evil We Love," and how his personal issues with queerness bled into his relationship with his son. They enjoy both the angst of his difficult relationship with Alec, and the hopefulness that comes from his ability to grow as a person and try to be better for the sake of his kids. Folks who are less compelled by the angst just flat dislike him for his bad parenting. His ranking dropped dramatically in the last twelve hours, since I guess the people who can't forgive shitty parenting all showed up at the end.

People who like Jaime enjoy his attitude and see him as complex, and all the negative comments were about the age gap between him and Dru.

Michael is a character who seems to suffer from being nobody's favorite. No one had anything negative to say about him, but the only positive comments were in regards to his relationship with Robert, and the highest anybody ranked him was #4.

Amatis is somebody else who I believe suffered from not having any real fans. The only comment I got about her was that they ranked her low because they don't know much about her. The highest anybody ranked her was #6, and only one other character on this list has a highest rank that's lower than that. Nobody got mad at her like they did with Jordan or Jaime or Camille, but no one loves her like they love those three, so she ended up lower than them overall.

Camille got a fair number of high votes from people who enjoy her dramatic diva energy, and a lot of low ones from people who think she's just an awful person.

And here we have the first of the two most hated characters in this list. While he was dead last for almost an entire week, Nate finally managed to claw his way up to 19th place. Nobody had anything nice to say about him, and nobody ranked him higher than #7. I'll say that I find him interesting as an extension of Tessa's character and arc. People didn't have particularly complicated complaints, they just think that he's selfish, mean, awful, a traitor, a liar, an asshole, and completely irredeemable. Oof.

Even though he ended up in last place, Charles is distinct from the rest of the characters ranked this low because he actually does have a handful of fans who put him at #2 or #3. They think that he's an interesting character to study, even if he's an awful person. They also find his relationships with Alastair and Matthew to be compelling (though unhealthy) and relate to his place as an older sibling burdened by high expectations. As for the negatives, there's a whole laundry list. People see him as gross, annoying, selfish, awful, and boring. They hate his predatory relationship with Alastair in-universe, and which he was handled better by the author out of universe. I got one comment that said he felt like he was written by a straight woman, and in general people don't like how his arc was written.

Now that we're through with two of the largest and most controversial categories, let's move onto the one nobody cares about. I will admit that I included the children in this survey purely out of an interest in hearing if anybody had reasoning for preferring one small child over another.

Also, since we have two Max Lightwoods, I differentiated them using their middle inititals; Max M for Max Michael Lightwood-Bane, and Max J for Max Joseph Lightwood.

Okay, so what I have in the positive column for every single kid on this list is more or less just their association with their parents. People like the Lightwood-Bane siblings because they like Malec, they like Mina because of Jessa, Tavvy because of the TDA Blackthorns, Max J because of the TMI Lightwoods, Alex because of Gabrily, and Zachary because of Cordelia and Thomastair. Negative comments were also often linked to parents, like ranking Mina low because they dislike Jessa, or disliking the Lightwood-Banes because their existence feels like fanservice and they don't believe Alec would be a good father at age 20. Rafe did get the positive comment that his story in GotSM made the respondant cry.

Positive comments for Tavvy focused on people feeling like they know him better than other kids on this list, and being excited to see more of him and his relationship with Dru in TWP.

Max J got comments talking about how much more character he has compared to the babies, and how the tragic end to his story strongly affeced people. People got attached to him from his love of manga, and appreciate how he symbolized the innocence that Alec, Isabelle, and Jace needed to fight for.

Alex and Zachary were ranked last by almost everyone, though they all made it clear that they bear no ill will towards these kids. Zachary did get one committed fan who loves the way he brings Alastair's arc to a close, and is excited to see more of him on Thomastair's BiB story. I think it's noteworthy that they have the same number of #1 votes, Zachary got more #2 and #3 votes, and Alex got more #4 and #5 votes; showing that once you discount the people placing them in the bottom two, Zachary is in fact more popular. (I'm assuming that most people who put them in the bottom two don't actually prefer one over the other).

The villain category was particulary interesting to me, because reading everyone's comments made it clear that many of us are working off of different definitions of what makes a good villain. The biggest question was whether a character being sympathetic made people see them as a great villain or a terrible one. The other cool thing about this category is you can see that almost all the villains from the same series stayed next to each other in the ranking.

For as high as Sebastian ranked, he got relatively few comments. What people do like about him is that he was more relatable and redeemable than other villains because of how Valentine raised him, and yet he still went on to do unjustifiable things. They also think he was funny. The main complaint he got from several people was that the demon blood storyline made him a boring and badly constructed villain, since he had no free will in his own evilness. Also, y'know, the incest thing.

Valentine may not be ranked as highly as his son, but he did get far more specific compliments from people. They love to hate how logical, strategic, and pure evil he could be; as well as the way the story built up to him by showing the impact he had on the world. He was a skilled manipulator who convinced people to sacrifice everything in the name of his twisted values, and worked as a chillingly accurate representation of fascism. He also served the greater themes of TMI by allowing the leads to deny the violence and hatred passed down by their parents. Some people also just enjoy the Circle era characters. The only bad thing anyone said about him was that he's generic, one of a million bigoted middle aged white men in fiction.

Annabel and Malcom switched back and forth in the rankings a couple times while data was being gathered, since most people voted for the two of them as a unit. People like how tragic their storyline was, and how they served as foiled to Blackstairs because they too were people who loved each other enough to burn down the world. Ultimately, it was their sympathetic anti-Clave motivation that got most people to love them. The two points people held against them was that they're too sympathetic and thus not really villains, and that Annabel's potential was wasted in Queen of Air and Darkness. The folks who dislike TDA also dislike them on account of their association with the series.

Mortmain is our solidly mid tier villain. People across the board saw him as a simple pure evil force that the heroes had to win against, and the main question was whether people loved him or hated him for that simplicity.

The only reason anybody gave for enjoying Asmodeus was his association with Alec. The few negative comments he got were all about either his lack of page time or how his motivation being centered on his inherent evil made him uninteresting.

Shinyun is a more complicated character, and her reception was complicated as well. People like that she's associated with Alec through TEC, and that she showed how evil she was by rejecting redemption when it was offered to her. There were also some mixed feelings expressed about her place as a cult survivor, since that's a very human trauma that was not given enough dignity by the narrative. Negative opinions all came down to her lack of page time, and people who either never read or actively disliked TEC.

Benedict Lightwood might be the lowest anything from TID scored in this entire survey. People who enjoy him mentioned how he created realistic angst for Gideon and Gabriel, as a manipulative father they needed to learn to rebel against. What people think makes him a bad villain is that he's not a villain at all, just a generic shitty dad. Also, multiple people commented "worm" with no explanation.

Sadly for the villains of TLH, this isn't the way they were supposed to be the worst of the worst. While some people enjoyed Tatiana for her chaos and irredeemability, especially the way she abused her own daughter for years, overall she was seen as a boring letdown who could have been interesting if the narrative didn't treat her as pure evil. Maybe she could have had potential if she was allowed to be the main villain or if the story acknowledged the ways in which she felt abanoned by the Clave, but that's not the story we got.

As for Belial, nobody had anything positive to say about him. They thought that his plan was stupid (especially for a Prince of Hell), and that he was boring, annoying, and just generally underwhelming. He also received the same complaints as Asmodeus about how demons are uniniteresting villains because their only motive is their own inherent evil.

And here was have our final category: the side books! It's no surprise to me that the short story collections came in first, and that the unreleased books don't have a lot of fans yet.

Our most popular pick was Tales From the Shadowhunter Academy, which people love because of how it followed up on TMI storylines while also expanding upon the world. It gave readers a look into characters they enjoy like Alec, Mark, and James, and of course the most popular comment I got was people gushing about getting time with Simon. They love the Sizzy moments too, as well as Simon's friendship with Clary and the rest of the TMI gang. It also got points for George's heartbreaking death, and for how much fun it was to read when it was serialized in 2015. The two stories people mentioned as their favorites were "The Evil We Love" and "Nothing But Shadows," showing how people enjoyed getting to look at points in the TSC timeline that aren't explored by other series. The only negative comment it got was from a person who finds Simon and Isabelle annoying.

Coming in at a close second, Ghosts of the Shadow Market is beloved mainly for its connection to Jem and Jessa. People enjoy that it served a purpose in the overall TSC plot, and showed how love can be born of tragedy. The stories people brought up were "Every Exquisite Thing," "The Land I Lost," and especially "Cast Long Shadows." It received no negative comments.

While The Bane Chronicles was the least favorite of the anthologies, it still clearly won the love of the people. They enjoy it mainly on account of Magnus, especially for his friendship with the other warlocks and his romance with Alec. They like how funny it is, and feel like it has the same charm as the early TMI books. The only negative comment I got about it was that it's boring.

Secrets of Blackthorn Hall got points for the wholesome and iconic vibes, and the interesting format of being published through tumblr. Someone also described it as a home renovation show in a haunted house, and people brought up being glad to see characters like Mark and Mina and ships like Kitty and Blackstairs. Some people just didn't find it interesting though, and others disliked it because it had so much Julian and Blackstairs.

An Illustrated History of Notable Shadowhunters and Denizens of Downworld probably got the fewest comments in this category. The people who love it appreciate the stunning art and interesting details about the characters, and all the low votes came from people who haven't read it.

The Shadowhunter's Codex is the oldest companion book on this list, and clearly didn't hit like the later additions to the canon. The only positive comments I got were from people who enjoyed Simon, Clary, and Jace's comments written into the margins. Generally people just didn't find it interesting, and saw it as a textbook that didn't even provide new information about the the world of Shadowhunters. There were also people who either didn't read it or couldn't finish it.

Better in Black of course hasn't been released, but people are excited to see their favorite couples back in action. In this survey, I got specific comments from people talking about Herondaisy and Thomastair. It still ranked pretty low overall, mainly because none of us have read it yet.

A Sea Change was most people's bottom pick, just because it isn't out yet. (My theory is that it ranked lower than BiB because BiB got everyone hyped through fandom engagement when we all debated which couples would be included, and that BiB appeals to fans of ten different ships while ASC only has fuel for Matthew fans). Predictably, the people who expect to love ASC are the ones excited to see the next chapter of Matthew's journey.

And with that, we're done! I'd like to once again thank everybody who participated, especially the folks who gave long or detailed comments. I had to simplify and summarize a lot in this post, but I truly enjoyed reading everything you all had to say.

I also want to take some time at the end here to address some questions I got about why stuff in this poll was set up the way it was. First, I got a lot of people saying that Kitty should have been considered a main couple, either in addition to Morgenthorn or instead of them. I get that we (so far) have a lot more Kitty material and that most of the fanbase is far more invested in them, but I'm counting the "main couple" as the one that includes the main girl. I also got some people confused by my choice to include unpublished works like TWP and Seasons of Shadowhunters, and while I understand that perspective I still stand by my decision. I know it's not fair to the series and that people can't accurately rate things they haven't read, but I wasn't trying for that kind of accuracy; I was curious about how much people love or hate things that aren't out yet. I'd love to see how TWP and SoS factor into these rankings once we've all read them, but for now I'm happy just hearing what people expect to think about them.

Also, everyone who left random silly comments or told me their favorite characters and scenes, y'all are the real ones. I did this whole project out of my love for this series and my interest in learning why people think the way they do, and I've been amazed by the positive response. This series and world is so incredibly expansive, and I love that all of us are able to find the different niches of TSC that make us happy.

If you actually read through all this, you're awesome and thanks for supporting my passion for turning emotions into numbers. If anybody has any additional questions, I am here to chat!

Taglist:

@edwinspaynes @helenofblackthorns @whaliensdream @iovelaces @darcyolsson @sankta-wraith @magnus-the-maqnificent @blue-silver-hammer @ineedmoremalec @kingslayerzzzz @thevagabondexpress @cara0765 @uncertified-shadowhunter-14 @elytrianemrald @thomasslightwood @starrieshq @blackthornobsessed @alastaircarstairsismybff @angeldaisies @dissapointmentsrus @bananacakepie

[tin-wufborf]

Tin's Favorite Sterek Fics (Part 1)

Okay, so listen. A few months back, I mentioned the possibility of me doing a rec list of all the Sterek fics I like to re-read (basically my comfort library), right? Well, it turns out that what I thought was going to be a list of, like, 50 fics max is now, far, far, far, FAR longer than that to the point that I don't actually even have a number to provide due to the fact that I still finding more and more to add to the list. I really hate the idea putting them all in a single post--as someone who primarily engages with this site via it's mobile app, I personally find super long lists harder to navigate, especially when you lose your place and have to start from the top--soooo, I have decided to instead release my recommendations in a series of posts containing 15-20 fics/series each instead of dumping the whole library on you at once. This post marks the first of (almost certainly) many, so I hope you all enjoy!

List and links to next parts below the cut.

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DISCLAIMER: This is me warning you all that some of the fics I've included in this list may cover explicit, dark, and/or "taboo" subject matters. I cannot express enough how little I care what anyone thinks about any of that; all I want is for you to use caution when reading anything I've listed here and to please review and heed whatever tags the authors have provided in order to keep yourselves safe. Your experience from this point on is your own responsibility, not mine and not the authors'.

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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20

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The Boy Who Loved Wolves by orphan_account (NR | 1/1 | 1,522)

Stiles always loved the tamed wolves his tribe used for hunting. When he finds himself face-to-face with an actual wolf, an alpha no less, how will it change him? And how will his tribe react to his change? Based on Paul Goble's The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses.

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Will of the Weakness by Cheshyr (G | 1/1 | 2,248)

Whenever Derek threw Stiles into walls, he always assumed that the teenager didn't fight because he couldn't. Not once did he consider the possibility that Stiles was holding back.

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Making a Memory by beenwandering (M | 1/1 | 2,702)

Stiles was prepared for what would come after the bite. He knew what to expect and, despite his worries, he was ready for his new life. Apparently very ready. Or, “that one where Stiles can’t be anything other than Stiles, even when he’s a wolf."

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A Cottage in the Woods by FaeryQueen07 (G | 1/1 | 2,960)

“There’s a cottage,” Stiles’ mother says, and then she presses a kiss to his forehead before turning off the light.

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Tell Me, Are My Words Worth Less? by Cheshyr (G | 1/1 | 3,830)

Stiles is proud of his words. He loves to talk and tell and share and speak. And he absolutely, deep in his soul, hates his stutter.

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Little Lion Man by lyllytas (T | 1/1 | 5,029)

Sheriff Stilinski has just been fired from his job and is at a loss for his son's recent behavior. All he wants is the truth, so when Stiles comes to him with another crazy story, he's had enough of the jokes and lies. Unfortunately for him, this time Stiles was telling the truth. And Derek Hale is very protective of his pack.

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Love in the Groves series by Sheepnamedpig (3 works | T-E | 5,706)

1. The Oak Tree (E | 1/1 | 1,533) A forest spirit decides to take up residence in Derek's forest. 2. The Cherry Tree (E | 1/1 | 2,170) Derek and Stiles get married. And then they get married again. 3. The Ash Grove (T | 1/1 | 2,003) Stiles gets sick. Derek watches him carve the infection out.

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Knotting Expectations by chase_acow (E | 1/1 | 5,722)

Stiles gets an eyeful and suddenly getting up close and personal to a werewolf is all he can think about.

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go home, or make a home by lady_ragnell (T | 1/1 | 7,437)

In a world where Derek lets Scott kill the Alpha and get the cure, he has to figure out how to rebuild his life, with help from Stiles.

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Communication (And the Lack Thereof) by ProofOfConcept, wilddragonflying (M | 1/1 | 7,687)

Sheriff Stilinski has been waiting for this day for a long time. As he watches his visitor walking up the path, he thinks about everything that's happened in the past year and his fingers twitch for his gun. But he can't do that; he can't shoot this man, as much as he might like to sometimes. Maybe he can go one worse, though.

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Integral to Survival by placeholdr (M | 1/1 | 8,529)

Derek is in the cell for about ten minutes before the lone door opens and a new body is tossed in. The person hits the floor with a grunt, rolls, and stands as the door is clanging shut.

“That’s really not the way to treat a guest!”

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Ten Weeks by scarletsptember (T | 1/1 | 10,024)

They say no news is good news at a doctor's office. The news Stiles gets changes everything.

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adore to see your eyes fly by 1001cranes (E | 1/1 | 11,309)

stiles is a pyromanic, derek is a sociopath. a match made in some kind of heaven. teen wolf kink meme fill.

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Blood and Bonds by ProofOfConcept, wilddragonflying (NR | 1/1 | 20,595)

Stiles wants to lose his virginity, so Derek sets him up with a nice female werewolf at a pack mixer. Nine months later, the pack gets a rather stark reminder, and with it comes realizations, feeeeelings, and danger.

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Heat of the Moment by ProofOfConcept, wilddragonflying (T | 1/1 | 21,320)

I'm the alpha now.

Derek never wanted the alpha power. But now he could feel the alpha power thrumming through his veins, calling to him and the those it considered pack.

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The Wolfvengers (Are Not A '90s Boyband) series by someonelsesheart (2 works | T | 23,152)

1. Angry Birds Is Not Meant To Be Taken Literally (T | 3/3 | 12,917) Derek gets that he and Stiles are kind of on a Need To Know basis, he really does, he just thinks that Stiles' godfather being in the freaking Avengers counts as pretty Need To Know. 2. The Captain America Law (T | 3/3 | 10,235) For the record, Derek is not very fond of talking about feelings, up to and including discussing his personal life, anything that has to do with Stiles, That Time With The High Heels, and games that include having to convey feelings. On a completely unrelated note, who knew that Tony Stark owned a sexy nurse's costume?

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An Exercise in Trust by ProofOfConcept, wilddragonflying (M | 1/1 | 25,529)

Derek Hale hasn't been able to hold a steady job for quite some time, thanks to his past. When an ad is posted for a babysitting job, Derek(thanks to his experience with his large extended family) jumps at the chance to maybe start rebuilding his life.

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hyper heart alone by hito (E | 1/1 | 34,570)

When Stiles returns home to help his father recover from an injury, he discovers that things have changed somewhat in his absence: Derek is working closely with Stiles' father, around the house and underfoot, generally annoying and disconcerting Stiles with his presence.

Well, Stiles isn't sure you could call all the sex they end up having annoying, but he isn't really willing to call it anything else, either.

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By and By series by 1001cranes (3 works | T-E | 35,611)

1. hear his alibis (T | 1/1 | 6,628) creepy never looked so cute - or, how Sheriff Stiles accidentally adopted a juvenile offender. (another) pyromaniac au. 2. multiplied by seven (E | 9/9 | 26,340) Derek isn't exactly like other people. Stiles doesn't say that because he's in love with him, or whatever. He's not like Scott, who thinks Allison hung the freaking moon, or was the first girl to ever let a guy under her bra. Derek isn't like other people. Sometimes he's not exactly sane. psychopaths in love - the story from Derek & Stiles's side. companion fic to 'hear his alibis' 3. up to the highest high (E | 1/1 | 2,643) Kate takes a day to think it over, to plan her attack. She's good on her feet, but a little preplanning never hurt anyone. And if she's going to make Derek bleed, well - she needs just the right weapon. The right words. A thousand little pinpricks and cuts, because Derek isn't the type you can cut off at the knees so easily. You have to look for that dark, hidden place to plant a seed of doubt, and Kate? Kate's good at that. "He wants to be with a girl," she says. Like poisoned honey. "Or he doesn't not want it, am I right?" You think that curiosity won't get the better of him one day?" She's got her hands on him when she says it. She feels the beating of his heart, the firmness of his pectoral muscles, because, hey, this is precisely the way she swings. And Derek might keep it pretty well tucked up under his cap, but he doesn't exactly hate the female persuasion himself. Or at least he's attracted to them. Same difference in the end. "Better the devil you know," she says, and from the way Derek's gaze narrows she's got a feeling she's won.

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Blood in the Water, Fire in the Sky: A Love Story series by ahab2692 (7 works | E | 69,750)

1. God, How Things Change (E | 1/1 | 9,056) After killing Peter Hale, Derek and Stiles have to deal with the aftermath: Scott doesn't want to forgive Derek for taking away his chance for the cure, Jackson struggles with adjusting to his newfound powers, and Lydia remains in a coma. Derek has his own demons to wrestle, and the more time he spends with Stiles, the less sure he is that he'll be able to control himself.

2. The World Spins, Regardless (E | 1/1 | 11,006) Stiles helps Derek expand his pack, and the two of them take steps forward in their newfound relationship. Meanwhile, new enemies arrive in the form of a dangerous pack of werewolves from a nearby town, as well as a pair of mysterious hunters with an unknown agenda. (Sequel to "God, How Things Change.") 3. Cracks in the Foundations (E | 1/1 | 10,107) Preparing for the oncoming war with an aggressive werewolf clan, Derek and Stiles make efforts to secure their friends' safety. Derek put the pack through a rigorous training regimen, and Stiles convinces him to form a temporary alliance with the Argents. However, no one is able to foresee a shocking loss that has a devastating effect on the pack's stability. (Sequel to "The World Spins, Regardless.") 4. The Wicker Throne and the Werewolf King (E | 1/1 | 11,241) Stiles and Lydia travel to a distant mining outpost in the woods to try and kill the Alpha of the rival pack. Meanwhile, Derek and Chris Argent struggle to ensure the safety of the pack in the aftermath of Stiles' recent loss. (Sequel to "Cracks in the Foundations.") 5. Conversation (and Carnage) (E | 1/1 | 9,096) Stiles attempts to negotiate with the Alpha. Derek attempts to negotiate with Meredith Wakefield. Hidden agendas lie beneath the surface. Everything is not as it seems. (Sequel to "The Wicker Throne and the Werewolf King.") 6. ...And Hell Followed With Him (E | 1/1 | 10,080) Stiles emerges victorious as the new Alpha. Derek and Chris Argent launch their attack on Meredith Wakefield. Stiles and Lydia return home. (Sequel to "Conversation (and Carnage).") 7. God, How Things Change (Redux) (E | 1/1 | 9,164) Stiles and Derek pay a visit to their last remaining enemy. The pack recovers in the aftermath. Everything ends. Everything begins. (Sequel to "...And Hell Followed With Him".)

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[leithanienwnt]

Viviana Delta Mod Review/Analysis:

Three months ago I did the math to try to figure out if a Viviana burn module would be any good. Yeah it’d give her a way of reducing enemy res, but she’d have to get past that res to apply it in the first place and I wasn’t sure how that would go for her. I took a look at the other elemental delta mods, put together my best guess as to what she’d get, and did the math. My conclusion? Yeah it’d be busted.

Well, three months later, they actually did it, and it’s even better than what I simulated in that test.

Before we get into the damage numbers, let’s look at what they gave her.

Her mod is actually very different from the other elemental delta mods. Crucially, it is much more focussed on application of the status than it is on doing bonus elemental damage during the burst. In fact her bonus elemental damage to enemies under the effect of burn is by far the lowest of any granted by a delta mod at only 15%. However, while the others have 8% of damage dealt as build up in their trait, she has 9% in her talent, and that gets doubled with an elite or boss in her range. This is really, really good for multiple reasons. The biggest reason is that bosses require twice the build up to even apply the status in the first place. That can make all the others take significantly longer to trigger a burst, but when Vivi is up against one, she’s able to keep pace by doing double the elemental build up. And then for elites, she can still double it but against a regular elemental build up bar, resulting in incredibly fast triggers. But it goes beyond that too. For one, this focus on the elemental build up is actually perfect for burn damage specifically. Necrosis deals more damage (and DPS), but it lasts 50% longer (15 seconds to burn’s 10). Vivi being so good at triggering the status means that she can fit multiple bursts in one S3 activation against a wide range of enemy RES values (below 60 for bosses, below 80 for elites). So yes, necrosis deals 12k damage over its duration, but dealing 7k twice is still more damage overall. What’s more is that this isn’t just the initial burst damage, but rather increased overall coverage of the status (15 seconds for one necrosis proc vs 20 seconds for two burns). Because burn specifically reduces enemy res by 20, this means that not only does it increase the bonus elemental damage, but it also lets her (and her allies) better apply arts damage as well.

But enough about how it’s really well designed. To figure out how good it is, we still need to look at how it stacks up against her pre-mod state as well as the other units in her archetype. So, let’s look at the numbers:

[These numbers are calculated at max potential and investment for all operators, are for a single target, and were calculated with the average DPS over 25 seconds of skill duration (the duration of both Vina and Vivi’s S3s). I also calculated it with the assumption that both Vina and Surtr would gain the ASPD bonus from not blocking for the entire duration.]

Now, you don’t need a statistics degree to see that wow, Viviana sure does damage now. Against elites with 55-90 res, the mod more than doubles the DPS she was doing before (and at 90 res specifically, more than triples it). Bosses requiring twice the elemental build up does reduce the jump for them, but she still increases her damage against those with 30-85 res by no less than 60% (with that number climbing depending on burn breakpoints, peaking at a 114% increase against 80 res bosses). But it’s not just impressive because of how she compares to her own pre-mod damage, but also how she now stacks up against the other six star arts fighters. Against Elites, she out DPSes Surtr until 80 res, and is either ahead or in a dead heat against her with bosses up to the same threshold. In fact, when the lines are near each other, it is legitimately too close to call. Viviana’s DPS is not linear throughout her skill, but rather peaks with each burn trigger and dips during the burn build up, meaning that for certain enemy HP values, if the peak DPS comes at the right time, she will still be able to take them out before Surtr. Now, it is worth noting that Vina can still out damage both of them starting at 50 res against elites and 45 res against bosses thanks to her true damage, but I don’t think it needs to be said that out DPSing Surtr is a pretty big deal. However, that does begin to touch on each of their respective use cases, as if you’re familiar with Vina’s kit, you might be thinking about that 50sp cost that she has.

For the longest time arts fighters were just the Surtr branch, and unfortunately finally adding a second six star to the archetype did not change that. A well balanced subclass has units with different strengths and weaknesses, each with compelling use cases of their own. And Surtr definitely has her own drawbacks, primarily needing to wait for her 70 second redeployment timer in order to use her S3 a second time. But that was easy enough to work around given that her retreat would free up a deployment slow for another helidrop unit, and her damage was just so good that any drawbacks just didn’t matter; it was always worth it. Sure, if the boss had two phases, she’d be a bit before she could hop back in for round two, but there really wasn’t any competition for how well she could deal with those phases. This threw off the balance of the archetype in a way that I genuinely didn’t think could be altered. Even a very solid unit like Viviana with excellent survivability and skill uptime and good arts damage struggled to find use because that damage just didn’t compare. But now that Viviana’s damage stands up to the other two, finally all three six stars in the archetype have their own niches. Vina has a large sp cost for S3, but is a source of multi-target true damage that makes her indispensable for certain enemies and mechanics; Surtr has to retreat in between skills, but has guaranteed, helidroppable damage thanks to her undying talent, res ignore, and low sp cost; and Vivi is single target and needs to ramp up to reach her full power, but once she does, she has damage that matches or exceeds that of Surtr with 50% uptime and a ton of survivability. This increase in damage, though perhaps more than they really needed to give her (not that I’m complaining), finally lets the other strengths of her kit shine in ways that not even Surtr can replicate (just as she can’t replicate the specific ways in which Surtr or Vina shine).

But where does this leave her? If I’m honest, there’s already a blueprint for this. I’ve watched the community react to Eben’s module; I’ve seen what happens when a unit that’s underrated to begin with and widely regarded as a bottom-tier six star is given high tier damage, but can’t escape the overwhelming initial negative perception. You can already see it in the comments on showcases, and if seeing her out damage Surtr isn’t enough for the redditors et al, I doubt I will be able to change everyone’s minds. And they’re right that she has weaknesses, but let’s talk about how those actually play. There are a few complaints of her kit, but the main ones are that she’s weak off-skill, that she only deals single target damage, and that she needs to ramp up to reach her full potential.

I won’t argue that Viviana is weaker off skill than she is on skill. Most units are. In fact that’s kind of the point: you want a skill to be a big deal. But as a one block unit that can be particularly difficult to manage as it’s a lot easier for enemies to walk past her. However, this mod actually helps with that somewhat as well, as she’s surprisingly good at applying burn even off-skill, meaning that even if she ends up with an elite stuck on her during her (might I remind you: incredibly short) downtime, she can still trigger burn on elites up to 70 res in between skills.

Viviana is also single target only on S3, but that’s a lot less relevant now given that she kills most things so quickly now that it just doesn’t matter. Plus, if enemy numbers are your biggest concern, she has her S2 (which has even better uptime and is also quite good at applying burn, though I’m not doing calculations for that one as it has so much RNG that it’d require me writing a script to simulate it). Additionally, even sticking to just her S3, once you have a strategy for dealing with the map’s elites and bosses, clearing out the trash comes a lot more easily.

The third of these is the most interesting. Because yes, she definitely needs to ramp up to reach her full potential. Her first activation of her S3 only lasts for 15 seconds (as opposed to the subsequent activations’ 25 seconds) and hits enemies twice (instead of three times). Most stages start slowly enough that you have time to get her through that initial cycle early, but in the cases where you don’t, it could be pretty limiting. But, just to focus on that worst case scenario for her for a second, her mod affects that activation too. In fact, well, I think the best way is to just show you.

Depending on the target and its resistance, this initial activation now has an extra 50-100% DPS. In fact, the improvement is so extreme, that it now out DPSes her pre-mod full activation S3 at most res values, even against bosses. Yes, you read that right. The weaker version now has a higher DPS than the pre-mod full version. The total damage will still be lower, as the duration of the skill is shorter on that first activation as well, but it’s still plenty to tear through just about anything a stage can throw at you. For a quick example: with her mod she can clear phase one of the NL-10 Blood Knight on just the initial activation, only seven seconds after being deployed. It’s worth noting that it’s still a far cry from Surtr’s helidrop S3, and this isn’t to say that the ramp up isn’t a weakness, but rather to point out that it’s really not all that hard to work around it, and that the reward for doing so is incredibly high. After all, once that first activation is over, she’s right into her normal rotation, and from then on will be able to do her full damage with just a 25 sp cooldown. No 70 second redeploy required, and even if we ignore the now quite strong initial activation, the 47 seconds it takes for her to reach her full S3 is still less than the 50 sp charge time for Vina’s S3.

So where can you use Viviana? Well, she’ll be great in any casual content, but she already was great at that. Beyond that, elemental damage has been a staple of challenging content like CC and high difficulty IS since it was introduced. For IS, I think it’s worth noting that she scales better with buffs than either of the other six star arts fighters, as any increase to her damage affects both her arts damage and her elemental damage, letting her essentially double up on the benefits. For content like CC, her ability to shred elites and their lower elemental build up bar could also be huge given that pinch out and both CC battleplan events have featured elites as the biggest threats, not bosses (though she would also be very capable against bosses). Because of this I could definitely see there being a spot for her in advanced clears. That said, I do think that this is one of the very few places where her staying deployed might be more difficult to work around. In CC, with reduced deployment limits, it’s pretty common to focus on rotating helidrop damage units rather than keeping units out to recharge skills, but I still wouldn’t count her out entirely. Her damage is still very good, and her ability to negate damage with her shields could be incredibly useful when every enemy hits like a freight train.

In case you couldn’t tell, I think this is a great mod for Vivi. It’s definitely not the only thing they could have done (and arguably they didn’t have to go THIS hard on her damage), but I think it makes her into an even more compelling unit. Yes, she has her weaknesses and this mod doesn’t necessarily eliminate that, but I think she’s a lot more interesting for it. Any well designed unit has a degree of risk/reward to their kit when considering their use, a downside or challenge to manage in order to get the most out of their upside. Mods can either reduce the risk/downsides or increase the reward for managing those. While it strengthens her outside of her full activation, this mod is definitely mostly in the latter category, and I think that is the more interesting direction to go. And for the first time in the game, “who’s the best arts fighter?” isn’t a simple question, and actually requires thought about what situation you’re faced with, and even in my imagined best case scenarios for Vivi, I did not once think that would be the case.

[whitherwanderer]

Pride Backlighting Tutorial

A few people have shown interest in replicating the pride backlighting I did, so hey, here’s a quick tutorial below the cut.

Enjoy, and happy Pride Month. 🏳️‍🌈

STEP 1 — SETUP

First thing you’ll want to do is find a suitably dark background to bounce the light off of. I use the White Screen housing item dyed Soot Black, available from the Housing Merchant or Apartment Merchant in any of the housing zones for 3000 gil.

I line up 2-3 of them for coverage, but one will do if you're trying to be frugal.

If you don’t have an apartment or an FC room to use, try asking friends, FC mates, or even folks you share a Discord server with. You might even find someone who already has a studio space set up and is willing to let you use it!

Lighting in your studio space should be 0 (though you might have success at 1 as well), so make sure to adjust that or ask the studio owner if they can make that change before you start posing.

STEP 2 — GPOSE

Position your character(s) just a little ways back from the edge of the screen. You want some space between them and the screen so that the lighting can float there without casting a weird circle on the wall.

Hop into /gpose and bump up the “Manual brightness adjustment” to about 120 or whatever level allows you to see your character well enough to pose them. Pose to your heart's content.

STEP 3 — LIGHTS

Here’s the fun part. In the Light tab of the Gpose menu, switch all of your Light sources to Type 1, which has the shortest falloff radius (meaning it doesn't reach as far as Type 2 or 3). I also set all of my lights to one strong color to differentiate them while I worked on lighting—red, green, and blue, all maxed out at 255 (for now).

Swing your camera (still on all default settings) around to your character’s back and up above their head a little ways. This is where Light 1 (red) will go.

Now pan your camera down at about mid-back height and set Light 2 (green) there.

Pan your camera down one last time until you have a nice shot of your character’s butt and set Light 3 (blue).

Spin your camera back around and enjoy this nice little macaw-colored gradient.

STEP 4 — CAMERA

Set your camera angle.

The way FFIXV’s lighting works is partially dependent on how much light is in a shot. It will adjust a lot like your eyes do when you’re entering a dark room from a bright room, or vice versa. Your zoom level and camera angle are going to directly affect the lighting, so set this before you start messing with light strength and color. Sometimes this means weaker lighting will actually light your character better.

I ended up bringing my lights down to around ~160 and boosted the "Manual brightness adjustment" up quite a bit to get lighting I was happier with.

For a straightforward vertical shot, I like to have my Field of View (FOV) at 200 and of course my rotation is set to 90. Zoom in or out as needed. Remember to save your camera angle if you plan to pan around and fix things!

STEP 5 — COLOR

Make it ~queer~.

Take your flag of choice and pick out 2-3 “main” hues. Generally these will be the strongest hues in the flag, if not the only ones. Some flags, like the Pride/Progress/Intersex-Inclusive flag itself, are difficult to replicate for the sheer number of colors that are in it. You can loosely represent a rainbow with some adjustment to the RGB colors, if you’re determined to have a whole rainbow in there.

Shader Note: I recommend picking a shader preset that doesn’t mess too much with color so that colors are represented correctly. You may need to adjust light strength and “Manual brightness adjustment” to be compatible with your preset of choice. Bloom will also heavily affect the way your colors are showing up, so you may need to tone down the bloom FX or toggle it off entirely. This all depends on your preset, however.

If you’re not into RGB math, here are some cheat sheets! Not every flag is represented here of course, but I tried to cover as many colors as I could so that you could grab a color from another flag as needed! Please note that colors will need some adjustment for your own screenshot, presets, and preferences.

And that’s it, y’all! 🏳️‍🌈

(Open this image up in a new tab for more detail.)

These were taken using a heavily customized shader for that nice glowy effect.

[annebd]

winter warmers, day 15: roleplay. ~950 words. credit to @girlsdads' tags on this post for the idea!

When Max opens the door, he thinks that there must have been some sort of mistake. He’d called down to Jean-Luc, the concierge of the apartment building, earlier this morning because Max had a leaky kitchen sink and he wondered if Jean-Luc could recommend a repairman. Jean-Luc had given him a number of someone to call; Daniel, he’d said. Great guy, does good work, doesn’t charge an arm and a leg for a simple call out. But when Max opens his door and sees the man in front of him, he wonders if Jean-Luc hadn’t been having a laugh and given him the name of an escort agency instead.

Daniel is gorgeous, with big brown eyes and a mop of dark curls. He’s wearing a white t-shirt so threadbare that Max can see the dark shadow of his nipples through it and, if he squints, the outline of a well-defined set of abs. The t-shirt is also so long and his shorts so short, that below the hem of his shirt, all Max can see is the toned length of his legs. His thighs are colorful with a smattering of tattoos. He’s wearing an old pair of Vans, grey, with no show socks that only serve to further highlight the naked length of his tanned legs.

He’s carrying a small tool bag, which can’t be big enough to contain much more than a single screwdriver. There’s no way that he’s going to be able to fix a busted sink with that.

Max has been staring for long enough that the smile on Daniel’s face falters when he asks “Are you Mr. Verstappen? I’m Daniel; we spoke on the phone earlier. About the leak?”

Max shakes himself out of his thoughts. “Yes, that’s me. I’m Max. Come in, please.”

He steps aside and waves Daniel in. “The sink is just through here. It broke this morning, I think. It is leaking all over.”

They walk through the apartment to the kitchen, where the drip drip drip of the sink provides the only soundtrack to an otherwise quiet afternoon.

“Ah,” says Daniel. “Yes, I’ve seen this before. Quite common, actually. Let me take a look.”

He opens the cabinet beneath the sink and peers inside, to check the pipes underneath, Max assumes.

“Hmm,” Daniel says. “Yes, I see. Alrighty, let’s get in there.”

He stands up and, without any fanfare, removes his shirt. Max startles as he’s confronted with the high-def evidence of exactly what he’d suspected earlier: a perfectly defined six pack and dark nipples that wouldn’t look amiss with a bite mark or two around them. Daniel’s chest is lightly fuzzed, and Max imagines what it would feel like to run his tongue along the planes of his pecs. But still, this can’t be proper repairman protocol. “Why did you? What are you doing?”

“Oh, right. I just thought it’d be better this way, in case the leak gets worse, you know? Don’t wanna have to walk out of here like it’s a wet t-shirt contest. You don’t mind, do you?”

Max gulps, audibly. “Um,” he says. “No, no, I don’t mind. It’s fine. You should be comfortable. Um, thank you?”

Daniel winks. “Don’t thank me yet, mate. Let’s get this all fixed first.”

He opens his tool bag which contains, as Max suspected, a single screwdriver, and gets down onto the tiled floor to lay on his back under the sink. He’s got his knees bent and his legs spread wide, the combination of which gives Max a perfect view down the inside of his shorts leg. And a perfect view of the fact that he’s not wearing any underwear.

“Oh,” Max breathes.

“Everything all right there, Mr. Verstappen?” Daniel asks.

“Yes. I… yes. But I think maybe that we should-”

Max isn’t sure what he’s about to suggest. Perhaps Daniel won’t mind if Max takes this moment to rip those shorts off completely and swallow his cock, which appears to be rapidly hardening in his tiny shorts, to the root. Or perhaps he’d like to bend Max over the countertop and fuck him until he’s crying and coming and leaking more than the sink is. Or perhaps…

Before he can offer any of those suggestions, though, Jimmy leaps down delicately from the counter and lands right next to Daniel’s hip. He assesses the situation for a moment and then steps right onto Daniel’s perfect six pack and curls into a little ball on his tummy, where he promptly falls asleep in that instantaneous way that only cats can.

Daniel laughs. “Oh come on, JimJams. Are you serious? You’re ruining the mood here, bubs.”

Max has no choice but to laugh, too. If Daniel were a real handyman, Jimmy wouldn’t have anything to do with him. He and Sassy would have been ensconced firmly underneath Max’s bed and would have watched suspiciously until he’d left.

Daniel sits up and cuddles Jimmy into his arms. He deposits him right next to Sassy on the cat tree in the corner and smiles as they snuggle together in a beam of afternoon sun.

“Well, Mr. Verstappen,” he says, turning back to Max. “I think it’s fair to say that your leak is all fixed. Now, we’ll need to discuss my service fee. It won’t be cheap.”

Max grins and pulls off his own t-shirt. He loops his arms around Daniel’s neck and pulls him in for a kiss. “How about I pay you back with a bit of servicing of my own?”

“I reckon we can make that work,” Daniel replies and grabs Max’s hand to lead him back to their bedroom, where he makes sure to close the door behind them. No cats allowed.

[heartbeat-eras]

My 100th Post... (Stress Test Recording at bottom of the post)

Well I can't believe I have made 100 posts! It's one of those milestones that make you look back at where you have been and what brought you to this point. Now I'm a big nerd so I thought I would break down some numbers.

Of the 100 post.. (two had 2 Audio files and 1 had a video and Audio in 1 - Hence the 103 below)

61 had Audio Recordings

6 had ECG videos

4 were reblogs

32 were replies / word posts

I've been active for 260 days

I hit 559 followers (which I hope means you like my little heart)

I've had 277 comments

342 reblogs

4437 likes

A total of 5056 notes

Favourites (you really like the ones where I push her to her limits)

The Fastest She Ever Did Beat..

And She Keeps Getting Faster...

Just a little exercise.. right?

Locations

There are 11 recorded at Erbs

5 at mitral

44 at Pulm (surprise)

8 At Tri

Steth

17 were contributed by the Stemoscope

2 by my KindCare Cardio

26 by the Plum Littmann Classic

2 by the Champagne Littmann Classic

16 by the Cardiology IV

Beats

Fastest - 198

Slowest - 41

adding all the time together there is 16 hours, 17 min and 26 sec of my heartbeat posted publicly on this blog.

She averages about 93 on meds so that's approx 90,901 beats (I'm not nerdy enough to count 16 hours of files lol)

But while all this is fun to look at numbers and all the posts I've made along the way, going back through them made me remember the moments I've shared with you all. When new people popped into my existence and earnt real estate in this little heart. Before coming here I could barely express this Cardiophilia thing, and the posting and the people I have met have helped me really understand and explore it so it's now such a beautiful addition to my life. Despite never meeting them, I have made some epic friends, some of which I consider to be in my closest circle. Connecting with people on a "heart level" is something different and special. So I thank you all coz this community is all a part of making that a reality.

So with that being said, I know you're all here for this video and less words. So here I managed to get my 12 lead record an exercise recovery. We maxed out at 183 coz it is really hard to run with all those cables hahaha. I did my best to get the least amount of noise in the recording, but I hope you enjoy what I managed to pull off. Do you think she passed the stress test?

[chaosartic]

START OF THE SEASON SPECIAL

AUTHORS NOTE

Welcome to my first writing special!

This year will be my first full season watching F1 (and writing) and therefore I wanted to start a small special event. In the next two weeks you may request anything from the prompts below as well as any kind of headcanons.

This is also as a small thank you to everyone who’s been with me so far! In a bit under a month I meet some amazing people, made friends and joined a new community. I’m so grateful for everything and could’ve never imagined that I’d come this far.

Find out more about this event under the cut!

RULES

- deadline for this event is when the Australian GP starts aka 16th March

- please include no more than two prompts or one headcanon per request

- also please request for no more than two drivers at the same time, yes I write poly

- you may request as often as you want

- if you do not specify what gender the reader has I will automatically write with a female!reader. However I’m also open to write male!reader and non binary!reader if requested

- I write fluff, angst, humor and smut/suggestive, so feel free to request anything you like (if the headcanon isn’t a 100% clear on this please include it in your request)

- I only accept requests that land in my ask box. Comments, reblogs and private messages don’t count for this event

- I don’t have a fixed posting schedule so please be aware that it might take a bit till your request is posted

- I have every right to decline and not write any request if I don’t feel like it

If the prompts run out during the event I might add some more!

WHO I WRITE FOR

Alex Albon, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, Franco Colapinto, George Russell, Kimi Antonelli, Lando Norris, Max Verstappen, Ollie Bearman and Oscar Piastri

Do you want to request someone who isn’t mentioned above? Feel free to write me and I might consider it.

HOW TO REQUEST

with a prompt: prompt number (or what it says) + driver (+ setting and/or idea)

example: prompt #2 + Oscar (+ fluff/first date together)

for a headcanon: idea for headcanon (also type of fic if not clear) + driver

example: quiet night in with smut + George

PROMPTS & HEADCANONS

PROMPTS

1. “Please don’t ever stop touching me.” - taken with Franco (+ 11)

2. “I may have found a new addiction.”

3. “Do that again it feels nice.” - taken with Oscar

4. “Sorry for waking you up baby. Go back to sleep.” - taken with Kimi

5. “Shit. Shit, shit, shit, c’mere.” - taken with Ollie (+ 6)

6. “Hey, hey, shhhh. You’re okay.” - taken with Ollie (+ 5)

7. “Hey, lean on me. I can carry you.” - taken with Alex (+ 8)

8. “You did so good.” - taken with Alex (+ 7)

9. “I have a solution.” “Thank goodness.” “It involves fire.” “Absolutely not.” - taken with Lando

10. “Why are you hiding behind me? What did you do?” - taken with Charles (+ 13)

11. “Do you ever shut up?” “I thought you liked my smart mouth.” “ I do. When it’s shut.” - taken with Franco (+ 1)

12. “Do you need this back, or?” - taken with Ollie

13. “I can see you staring at him. You aren’t being very subtle, you know.” - taken with Charles (+ 10)

14. “You idiot.”

15. “Is that my shirt?” - taken with Kimi

HEADCANONS

These are just some ideas, feel free to request anything else that comes to your mind!

First date, love language, quiet evening together, random dates, how you cuddle together, …

[sailing-with-100-ships]

The amount of attention this post has gotten is something I did not expect and I cannot believe there are people who would want to read it. I am currently working on another Charlos fic which is based on Aus'25. It is something simple that I wanted to write.

I will be making a different headcannons list for the fashion show. This one is mainly how their relationship came to be and the pre-fic details basically. But if you wanna ask something regarding this AU, my ask is always open.

So here are some simple headcannons for the pre-AU:

1. Carlos met Charles in the beginning of 2021 at an event. He was already a Ferrari driver when he met him and this event an exclusive one with only selected people showing up.

2. Charles is a well known model in Monaco but is gaining a lot more attention worldwide after collaborating with a lot of high end brands like Prada and Gucci and he is also being recognised for his runway looks and walks.

3. So this event is a fashion event and Carlos is mesmerised by Charles when he first sees him there. He is wearing a Ferrari red suit and Carlos cannot look away from him.

4. They eventually meet at the event and have a brief chat. Charles is a huge fan of Carlos not only because of his looks but he loves his driving style as well. Carlos finds out Charles had done carting and raced against Max Verstappen as well.

5. They meet in a few weeks in Monaco after exchanging phone numbers at the event. They meet at a cafe and sit for hours talking about their job and life in general.

6. They meet a few more times as per their schedule and before you know it, Carlos is asking Charles to be his boyfriend and they make it official.

7. Their families are so supportive and the fans go crazy when they see them kiss for the first time in public and their Instagram is filled with so much support when they announce it officially. The negative comments are of course there but they ignore it because that is never going away.

8. They make their first public appearance in a race as a couple in Monaco 2021 where Carlos gets on the podium. Charles is so proud of his boyfriend because it is his first podium with Ferrari and he is cheering loudly along with the mechanics.

9. Charles is able to attend most races due to his flexible schedule. And throughout the years, you will see Charles at most of the races cheering Carlos on and Carlos would be spotted at different fashion shows to support his boyfriend. Even though his schedule would be packed, he would make time to go to fashion shows where Charles was participating.

10. When Carlos proposed to Charles in 2023, after he won in Singapore. It was a spur of the moment but Carlos proposed to him properly during the break. They get married a year later during the winter break of 2024. They get married in a beautiful cathedral with their friends and families present and everyone is teary eyed listening to their vows.

The outfit below is what Charles is wearing when they meet for the first time. I know it is from the 2024 fashion show but I only have my phone with me while posting it. I will maybe change this.

[thelonelyshore-if]

Skill Changes

I've been thinking about making a little post about the new changes to skills, now that they're live in the demo. If you're curious, thoughts and explanations are below the cut!

A few months ago, I did a poll and asked folks their thoughts on numerical skills vs. trait-based skills. After a fair amount of thinking it over, I decided I wanted to switch from numerical skills that can go up and down to pure trait-based skills.

Currently I am up in the air on whether you'll be able to improve these skills over the course of the game. I think it's really going to depend on how the game goes and if I feel it is necessary.

Here's a quick overview of how I'm doing things now:

At the beginning of the game, when you're doing your flashback scene with Willow, you'll be able to choose your skills as normal.

Now, however, there are two strong skills, three average skills, and one weak skill. (Previously there was a 'best' skill and a 'good', rather than two equally strong skills)

Each skill picked will give your MC the corresponding trait. It'll be the presence or lack of these traits that will be tested during skill checks.

I'm a pretty big believer in "failing forward", and so most of the time my aim is that, even when a skill check is failed, it opens a path to different content rather than being a punishment or an instant game over.

My plan is to (occasionally) add potential benefits to having a low skill. A skittish (low composure) character might avoid a dangerous situation that any other character would rush into, that sort of thing.

I made this change for a few reasons. One, because I don't really want this game to be one where you have to pay close attention to your skills and have to try and min-max them throughout the game. There's nothing wrong with stat heavy games, but it's just not really my goal for this game.

Two, this just plain works better than numbers in my brain while I'm writing&coding.

I'm not sure if this is the system we'll stick with forever. I like it on my end, but it remains to be seen how it works for players! So I very well might end up switching things up again at some point, but for the moment I'm pleased with what I've got c:

And, to finish off, here's a look at what the new skills screen looks like!

[bryngmemoney]

✁FASHION FLIRT✃

Megumi Fushiguro x Reader

⭑story masterlist link

tw:none

Writing in between messages!!

🪡Chapter Fifteen: 8-ball

“You have to show me him!” Yuki exclaimed as you adjusted her outfit, making sure everything fit well. “Well, I could show you a picture, but he’s gonna come in right after you, so you could stay a minute extra.”

You two were referring to Megumi, as Yuki had always been one interested in starting conversation on people’s types. You were no exception. She told you that the reason she did it revealed a lot about the person without them knowing, you could see what she meant to an extent but really only she knew what she was talking about.

“Ooo, like how soon after me?” You looked at the time displayed on your phone, seeing the lock screen show the song you were quietly playing in the background for you and Yuki, as you guys were the only ones around. The numbers at the top read the time 5:50. “Like in ten minutes maybe, he said he’d be here around six.”

You backed up, asking Yuki to spin for you, seeing that everything seemed to fit well. “Does anything feel off?” “No, it’s perfect actually!”

“Great! Well that’s really all, you can go and change again, are you staying for a few?”

“Well I am curious, i’ll stick around with you for a bit.”

6:20, and Megumi was no where to be seen. “Is he running late?” Yuki asked leaning her back against the table while she sat down, facing you who was standing up, peaking out the window of the studio room to see if there was any sign of anyone walking in.

“I don’t know, he hasn’t answered the text I sent him.”

“He usually shows up on time?”

“Most of the time, there was just once where he showed up late, but that’s because of something that was happening.” You turned back to Yuki, checking your phone just once again to see if there was any sign from him. “Like how late?” You placed your phone down, sighing before answering “40 minutes..”

“Oh, wow.”

“He made up for it though!” You defended, “He took me out to dinner, it wasn’t really a date because his friend was there too, but still!” Yuki just hummed seeming amused in your story.

“Okay, i’ll wait another 10 minutes max with you then, but if he still hasn’t responded or shown up, we’re leaving.” You yawned in response, not feeling tired because it was late, but instead because this week had really exhausted you with class work. “Can’t we make it 15?”

“Listen, he’s already done something like this before, and you’re tired, just tell him not to show up and talk it out later, but if I was you i’d go and take the fattest nap ever first.”

Megumi sighed after finally finishing his project presentation for his Photo Seminar class. He really needed to try on this assignment, as his last one wasn’t the best. He didn’t fail, but he wasn’t anywhere near where he wanted or needed to be. Stressing over it he was glad to have finally finished his preparation, feeling a weight being lifted off him that is until he checked the time to be 6:38, then it was replaced with panic, remembering he had promised to meet you around six today. He looked for his phone, only to find it and see a text from you already saying you left 7 minutes ago.

Author’s Note: date with megumi officially planned🗣️‼️

tbh i think beer pong is my favorite imessage game

hope you guys enjoyed!

Taglist below, feel free to comment or dm me to be added!!

TAGLIST

@iridescentrays @gumimegz @maya-maya-56 @mamafly @lunavixia @swissy23 @coltsgf @m00nglad3-mp3 @etsukis @xosren @qtnfer @oengleli @harek89 @y-sabell-a @morgyyyyyyy @getolvr @liliumaraneae @k3lbade @aiieera @dancedancey @get0sfav @chuyasthighs0 @hyssoplampflickers @kpopanimen @sad-darksoul @vivi-loves-penguins @kasumitenbaz @talkingsperm @nymphsdomain @inlovewithlondonn @rzcnlb @enchantingkitty @fuyuzemi @lysaray @ni-ki-ismyluv @reneny @frumira @mixzimi @miralunaela @dreamxiing @p3achiee @anianurst