#defiantreader

[pearllikeme]

I make doodles of @cutebat reader in my style for fun (and idk what to do when I'm sick)

Also I love how she doesn't gaf abt her shitty family

[weebsinstash]

Not really sure what genre music you like, but honestly Cannibal by Neathan Apollo makes for a good Val x defiantReader song, recommend it as a listen :>

I've always had a weird relationship with music because I kind of grew up online so a lot of music tastes have been stumbled onto. Like unironically I love the music meme megamixes that switch tracks every few seconds or kind of joke around with certain chord progressions, or they like, mash-up video game music with popular artists.

Before we move on to some of my ideas, this song, right! It can almost apply to either Reader OR Val if you think about it, because from a toxic narcissists perspective Valentino may also consider you to be a sort of little manipulator capable of pulling his strings, but the line that jumps out at me is

"Time for my confession

You're toxic but infectious

You feed off my attention

Well? Starve"

I constantly think about, like, if Reader is just, someone who at least tries to be a nice person if it isn't as natural. And maybe Val gets a little too cozy and comfortable with how polite and sweet you are, running little errands for him, bringing him food and drinks when he asks, seeming to listen closely with interest and dedication when he speaks, and one day he fucks up. Maybe he's been teasing you yet it's nothing too awful but one day he mocks you in front of others about something you're insecure about and he can just see the shift in your expression, and from then on you're like night and day. You quietly set his drinks down and walk away instead of making eye contact and smiling and asking if he wants anything else. He texts you to fetch him something, and someone else brings it in your stead (maybe you even outright paid them because you didn't want to see the Overlord THAT bad)

One of those real "didn't know what you had until it was gone" kind of scenarios where maybe he starts getting pissy because he tells himself you're just having an awful attitude or being an ungrateful brat for no reason and he has no idea "what he did". I imagine he wouldn't take it very well. I can see him trying to crack a joke or make a comment that normally would have at least made you fake laugh and you just glance at him, say nothing, and look back to your phone, gritting his teeth before asking you what your fucking problem is, making it confrontational, and any further sass you display counts against you. The real salt in his wounds is if he catches you being nice and doing things for someone else that you used to do for him, because then he's getting fucking jealous and possessive and god forbid if you're trying to date someone during this time period, they will go missing, Val doesn't really want you dating anyone period anyways. Even if he is so much as keeping you as a groupie or a servant, you're still "his" and he doesn't like to share without some incentive

((As a side note can I piss and moan that tumblr made some sort of adjustment again and now I can't put anything in italics or bold without it doing it to the entire paragraph because it is so fucking annoying, why is it doing this???? Is it this new phone? I use italics a lot in my writing and this is so fucking obnoxious 😩 i basically can't use italics or bold anymore AT ALL without redoing it over and over and over and at some point i just give up)

But moving on to my suggestions, as someone who likes to get stoned and listen to music while I do my not-actually-writing writing-adjacent daydreaming, I've kind of found few songs that I think of stories for? Actually I found a really good one literally within the last I think two days? I was listening to Just A Waste by PinkPantheress and realized it fits a lot of the concepts and ideas I've had for a hazbin based Reader, while also having a very funky synthy vibe like the time period Valentino is from

How'd it ever get so wrong? Crying on the floor of a washroom stall (working at the club as a waitress only being able to really cry in the bathroom)

You don't know where I'm from, Don't know how I got here but I'm all alone (self explanatory and also works for ideas for a Reader who doesn't know how they died)

I've been waking up as lonely as I did before (works for a Reader who was depressed n shit before death)

A line from the second verse hits harder with "I never asked to be driven away in a foreign car, 'cause the bus will take me just as long, and now I gotta sleep with the lights still on now" like, this is peak, it fits so well. You took his help because you were scared and vulnerable but you really didn't have a choice in context, being freshly dead and alone and confused and panicking, and he was just RIGHT THERE, but after you're in his clutches you realize how dangerous and foolish it was and how maybe risking it on your own would have been as equally unsafe

I also tend to have just. Plotless "Reader getting frustrated and singing" sort of ideas which fits into, the vibe of Hazbin, they do just kind of break out into song, it's a cartoon, but also who doesn't vibe out to music and think of someone belting out to it? So sometimes I also think of the ever so elusive Male Reader, maybe you're kinda on the downlow, making yourself kind of boring and uninteresting because why would you try to stand out when your boss is a horny pansexual sex trafficker, and eventually enough little jabs and comments get under your skin and it's like "oh what, you want me to bounce my ass and shake my hips, put on a little show for you? Bitch I was a musician, I did this shit professionally, i could do this shit in my sleep" and you drop a bop or two or three where you're sassy and snapping your body to the beat just because you're frustrated and tired of being mocked and its like "whoops you kind of just dropped a really high quality performance out of basically rage and outed yourself as a potential asset he can use", this of course being intensified if you were lucky enough to get those Alastor esque showman powers where you can essentially summon little shadow goonies who love doing what you say/etc

Angel and Reader getting into it and Reader all "oh what, you think pole dancing is hard? Maybe 50 years ago, now white women taking yoga classes in strip malls learn that shit to be trendy, you aren't special" and Reader was like some pole dancing instructor in like a very sanitized downtown LA kinda way kwim and just to prove a point busts out some of the things they know and, oh joy there's Big V himself watching his two favorites getting catty with each other and enjoying it

Idk I just think of a lot of ideas involving music and dancing and things like that lol. Shit I've even been getting more into like drift phonk and more aggressive synthetic kind of music and sometimes I think of "imagine if Reader was waiting tables for Val and eas just secretly building some sort of massive career or online fame and one day Val is hanging out with his boyfriend and Vox has something on his phone playing and you just point like, 'oh hey that's my song, what do you like about it? I wanna come out with a new album but I'm looking for inspiration"

I guess this is kind of ultra specific but I also like the idea of like, Val clearly has no problem publicly mocking Vox and humiliating him, so I can just see like, Valentino shitting on Vox's taste in music, all "what, did a robot make that? How are you even supposed to dance to that? Cringe" and Reader is just kind of tired and annoyed with Mr big dick over here always pretending he has one over on other people and everything he likes is cool and everyone else is a loser, and you just, pop out of your seat and start shuffling, and if you remember the concept with Reader who can make their hair and or eyes glow, I like to think of Reader sort of pulsing on the beat, with all kinds of songs really. Imagine you're just trying to vibe on the dance floor at a club and your hips are swaying and light pulsing on the beat and it's like honey, your boss is a MOTH

I bet with Valentino it's a constant struggle depending on who you are. Trying to stay under his radar and not stand out too much but maybe needing some of his favor and protection where you at least need to be somewhat close to him. Not wanting his lust and possessiveness but maybe you're lonely or need some sort of acknowledgement you aren't completely worthless. Not wanting him to know you've got a specific talent but it being something so crucial to who you are that he finds out eventually, whether it's writing music or performing or dancing or writing or art or even skills that may help him in his criminal businesses like having magical powers or even having knowledge in chemistry or cooking drugs/making synthetics. Shit, I've even thought about a Reader who is a massage therapist or a chiropractor and next thing you know he has you becoming his personal "doctor", happy endings included.