#i might come back here and this time with an expanded f/o list ;)

[lxveandthunder]

Brain: remember how you said you only ever have one romantic F/O at a time?

Me: yeah… what about it???

Brain: you might want to add another F/O to the list

[lavishedinjimin]

all the good girls go to hell

— synopsis: The Angels made a deal with Jeon Jungkook, the son of Lucifer, to help them bring Y/n back to her good, prim and proper self. Even though Jungkook grants the atrocious plan, he leaves a lesson that no one should give their trust to a wicked devil like him.

↳ pairing: jungkook x f. reader

↳ genre: smut, very slight angst if you squint hard enough

↳ rating: m/18+

↳ word count: 10k

↳ warnings: religious themes, heaven and hell, angels, devils (this fic is not a correct representation of these figures and is purely fictional), alcohol intake, cursing, hard dom jk, daddy! jk, fingering, multiple orgasms, orgasm denial, squirting, unprotected sex, breathplay, spanking, face fucking, filthy dirty talk, rough sex, jungkook and his demon cock ehe

a/n: title is inspired by billie eilish’s song all the good girls go to hell. her title inspired me to write this fic! please ignore if you find any errors <3

“You’re not good enough.” 

“You look so pathetic, really.”

“Can you at least try to look hot?” 

“This is why no one likes you.” 

These words will forever haunt you until the day you die. 

It wasn’t your fault that you were raised very strictly, your overly-protective parents treating you like some kind of rare treasure that no one, no man, can touch. The fact that your parents still had to drive you home from school even at an age like this always irritated you to the brim of your existence. So now you can’t even have the freedom, the life of a normal young girl can have. 

Being raised strictly with a heavy-handed family – not to mention religious, too – has taken a toll on your mental health. There’s always the feeling of pressure wherever you go and whatever you do. The fear of not succeeding and disappointing your mom and dad is the worst feeling, like the Devil punching your gut repeatedly, as many times as he likes. 

Plus, some students at your school know you for your lack of “personality”, the boring one, the killjoy. You can’t even refute because it was all true. You never experienced fun, parties, how to have interesting conversations, how to interact with a large crowd, all because of your parents being so uptight in you. 

“Y/n!” The high-pitched voice of your mother calls from downstairs, and you were quick to scurry outside your room and find where she was sitting on the couch. “Yes, mom?” You say. 

She was dressed in a royal-blue dress that goes up to her knees, her hair fixed perfectly and the hairspray is clearly doing a great job of keeping her updo in place. She grabs her purse while your dad walks into view, dressed up in a neat suit. “We’re leaving for our business trip, Y/n. Didn’t I tell you that?” 

“Ah.” You sort of forgot about that. 

Quickly nodding your head, you force a fake smile that you know all too well, “Yes.” 

She gives you a weird glance before she fixes her makeup in a mirror, and your dad decides to continue for her. “We’ve hired a nanny to look after you, so that you won’t go out and about going behind our backs—”

“But dad! I really don’t need someone to babysit me,” You scoff. You weren’t a child anymore, what are they thinking! “I’m an adult. I can handle myself. Don’t you trust me?” 

Trust. Something they don’t have with you, whether they admit it or not. 

Your dad just sighs deeply and starts to walk closer to you. He places a hand on your shoulder as he looks straight into your eyes, giving you an authoritarian look. “Y/n, just do as you’re told and be a good daughter.” 

“I’ve always been one,” you scorn. 

“A good daughter doesn’t talk back.” Your mother retorts. 

This is why you can never argue with them. They never let you speak your own opinion or have your own voice. 

Your parents left exactly at 5 PM as they went on their flight to Madrid, leaving the house all to yourself only for tonight.

It was the next day, and you were sitting on the dining table, eating your cereal peacefully as you watched Netflix on your phone – until the doorbell rings. 

You stand up and quickly make your way to the front door, pouting when you already know that it is the person that was supposed to look after you. 

This is ridiculous. 

“Hello!” A bright, short middle aged woman appears standing on the doorway, her bright energy startling you. “Y/n! I’m May, nice to meet you!” She lifts her hand in front for a handshake, and you chuckle nervously, accepting it. “I’m here to look after you for ten days, hm?” 

“Uh, ah, yeah. C-Come in!” You tried to sound as positive and energized as you could to match her own energy, but you couldn’t. You step aside to let her in, pulling her luggage with her and she immediately takes up the design of the house. She was nodding her head, her arms crossed together while you accompanied her little journeys throughout the whole ground floor. You found her weird. 

“Uh, come follow me, my dad says you’ll be staying here at the guest room —” 

“Wonderful! I thought I was sleeping on the couch!” She claps her hands, excited that she has her own room. 

You look at her with big, shocked eyes, yet you can’t say anything. 

“O-Okay…” you mumbled, “Here,” you helped her open the door and she immediately set her things up. “May?” 

“Yes, my dear?” She stops unpacking her bags to look up at you. “I’ll be at the kitchen, okay? If y-you wanna ask anything, I’m right over there.” 

“Ah, that’s okay, Y/n. Your mother told me everything I need to know. Your bedtime is at eight and no midnight snacks!” 

Your heart drops down to the floor as you immediately encountered a wave of emotions. Why did it matter?! Why did your mom had to apply all these stupid rules when she’s not even around? You thought at the start that you’ll have some kind of freedom when your parents aren’t here, thinking that your nanny might be easier, but perhaps not. 

“Okay.” You say simply. 

How else can you prove to people that you can be better? You're sick of everyone seeing you as the boring one, but your parents were the only thing that was keeping you from having fun. So you decide to be a little risky. 

Step one: Sneak out the house. 

Isn't that what people your age do? Usually they sneak out to party, to go hang out with their friends and have the time of their life. But you had none, no ‘best friend’, but a couple of lunch friends here and there. 

“I should try clubbing.” You mumble to yourself as you sit down on the plush comfort of your mattress. Until you hear your phone chimes, signalling a text. You grab your phone from the bedside table and frown when you see who the text was from. 

Mom: Remember to go to church later, Y/n. 

You didn't reply, instead, it got you thinking. 

Nothing will happen if you skip church, right? You've always attended Mass every Sunday with your parents, so there's absolutely nothing wrong with skipping at least once.

Besides, you need to plot your plans for tonight!

~

“What is this girl doing?” Armaros says in a deep whisper, his well-shaped eyebrows furrowing deeply while he watches Y/n on her phone, laying down on her bed as if church isn't just five minutes away from starting. 

Armaros rushes to the other side of the room to get a better view of her human who lays on her stomach, a white wisp of smoke trailing behind him. He shakes his head, crossing his arms together in front of his chest. “Y/n, Y/n,” he tuts, “What are you doing?!” 

He decides to step forward and reaches forward for his hand to caress the crown of your head. He chuckles when he sees your eyes expand in a quick second, your body abruptly sitting up straight from the tingling feeling in your neck. Your hairs stand up, a chill running down your spine. 

This was Armaros’ way of mustering his presence onto you. Your dad always taught that whenever you suddenly feel a chilling sensation out of nowhere, it means that your guardian angel is there with you and trying to send you a message. 

And you clearly know what he's trying to say. 

There was a slight feeling of guilt – uneasiness, even. But no. You've already decided that you weren't going to follow your old routine. 

Armaros’ jaw drops when you don't move from your position on the bed, only making yourself comfortable even further. ”Don’t you dare skip church...” he slowly whispers to himself. But he quickly shakes his head side to side, trying to be optimistic, “It's just one time. Just one time.” 

Time passes by faster than you think, you sink your teeth down on your bottom lip, chewing on it as you try to Google clubs near you. It was ridiculous, feeling so overwhelmed from all of the options the Internet is showing you. 

There was a generous list of bars and clubs with different ratings. It was a humane decision to choose the best one, right? So you went for a nightclub called ‘Soap Seoul’. Although, you feel your stomach churn when you scroll through the images attached to it; seeing all of the strange blue and red LED lights, big and tight crowds, and an HD picture of their bar. The bar was long and almost occupied the width of the whole club. You don't even know if you can stand such a place like that. 

But no. You can't back out now! You had to show yourself and to others that you can have some fun too. 

~ 

The club opens tonight at 8 pm, letting yourself have two hours to prepare. Rummaging through your garments of clothing, you try to find an appropriate outfit.

“I have nothing!” you whined, eyebrows furrowing in dismay. All you had were simple t-shirts and countless skinny jeans and leggings. Your dresses were almost knee-length and suitable for church – not for a nightclub! 

Armaros stands at a distance, shaking his head at you. 

Until, you heard a loud knock on the door, “Y/n!” May's voice shouts from the other side of the room, “Dinner's ready!” 

Oh no. 

Quickly opening the door, you stared at her with big, worried eyes. “May! I-uhh, I-I’m not gonna stay for dinner…” you mumbled, looking at the ground. 

“Oh, why is that?” she asks, a faint sad tone in her voice. You felt so sad and regretful that you didn't say anything to her because she already cooked your dinner. 

“I-I have plans for tonight,” you hold your hands behind your back, slightly getting embarrassed. 

“Are you going out with your friends?”

“Y-Yeah!” You lie. You've never lied before. 

“Ah, I understand. Have you told your mom?” 

She doesn't have to know. 

“Yup.” 

And there it was again, the chills in your neck appeared while your arm and leg hairs stood up. Armaros touches your scalp, desperate to seek your attention and bring you back to your old, good self. The angel didn't like that you were lying, for he was perpetually accustomed to your good deeds. It was making him anxious for what's about to come. 

But you ignored his message. May nods when you told her that she can have the food to herself. 

You feel a pang of guilt rush through your body when you shut the door behind you, your heartbeat suddenly racing faster. The nervousness in you made your head hurt. Is this the right thing to do? No. It wasn't. But you had to show people that you can be different. Will it be worth it? Of course. 

Thankfully, you spot a white dress that you've never worn before. It was a gift from your cousins that was supposed to be another addition to your collection of church dresses but it was too short for your liking. 

“Hm, maybe this will work…” you quietly mumble to yourself.

You tried the piece of clothing on, carefully examining your reflection in the full-length mirror. The hem of the skirt falls right above your mid-thigh, too high for your usual comfort but for the sake of dressing up for a nightclub — there was no problem. The dress was snug, hugging your body so that it accentuates your curves.

The dress was plain white and was relatively simple. You don't really know what people usually wear for nightclubs but you were certain that dresses were a part of the code. 

You looked for your black three-inch heel that you last wore during your highschool graduation, slipping it in carefully. Doing a little bit of makeup and applying a thin layer of lip gloss, you grabbed a purse and walked out of your room. 

“May, please don't wait for me, okay?” you say after walking past her. 

“W-Wait, I'm supposed to–”

“It's okay. I'll be okay.”

“She's not gonna be okay!” Armaros declares, kneeling on one knee before Archangel Michael – the protector and the spiritual warrior, as he mentions Y/n's recent mischiefs.

After you've been to the nightclub the first day, you've never stopped. You became addicted. 

Sometimes you don't even tell May that you're going out, you just sneak out of the window and let May worry about you. You've happened to know how to drink as you get wasted every single night, hanging around with people that you don't know, people that are a bad influence on your good side. These past few days had you acting up like you’ve never before. You longed for alcohol and the feeling of it numbing your nerves, and there’s not a day where you didn’t get drunk.

Armaros’ power wasn't enough to stop you. Every single day he's been drying his best to send signals, to make you feel certain ways and speak to your consciousness that what you are doing is by far dangerous and wrong. But you never listened. 

You've skipped church, stopped talking to God, ignoring your parents’ phone calls, not doing your homework just because you're busy either getting drunk or making out with someone at the club. It's like you have been addicted to misbehaving. 

But for you, you thought you’re doing the right thing. 

“Armaros, are you doubting your powers?” Archangel Michael replies, running his fingertips along the sharp blade of his sword. 

“N-No, but, nothing seems to work. She's been ignoring my calls for almost two weeks. I just want the best for her.” Armaros’ voice fades at the end of his sentence. He was speaking with such sincerity because he really cares for Y/n. He truly loves her. “Why is she doing this?” He asks for help.

“Because, my dear, she's trying to prove something she's not for other people.”

“What?” 

Archangel Michael laughs quietly, staring at him endearingly. He points his sword at him, “She obviously tries to be immoral to fit in. She's rarely praying to God like she used to, rarely respecting the people around her. Ever since humans bullied Y/n for being herself – she starts to change. But the question is…”

He walks around Armaros, his eyes never leaving his. “Is this making her happy?” 

Armaros lowers his head and shakes his head. “I don’t know.” 

The Archangel grins and returns his sword back on the scabbard attached to his belt. 

“If I can't warn her to stop, then who else can?” The angel asks. 

Michael lifts an eyebrow up, crossing his arms together as he stands right in front of him. His mouth draws into a slow smirk, a hint of playfulness in his eyes as if a lightbulb appeared on top of his head. 

“You wanna have some fun, Armaros?” 

“What do you mean?” 

“Stand up, stand up.” Armaros quickly obeys his superior’s command. The Archangel places a hand on his right shoulder, preparing to speak. 

“I have an idea. We call Jeon Jungkook up and–” 

“No! Absolutely not! I will not allow Y/n to come face to face with the son of Lucifer!” Armaros bellows, instinctively pushes Michael's hand away from him. 

“Armaros! It's just an idea!” Michael chuckles, spreading his arms to the side as he shakes his head. “And besides, I have to ask permission from our Highness anyway.” 

“And what will he do? Taunt her? Provoke Y/n to be more sinful?” Y/n's guardian angel asks, referring to Jungkook. “We both know how manipulative and cunning he can be!”

“No, no. We'll make a deal with him, of course! No devil will do anything without receiving something in return.” 

“This idea of yours, not to be rude, but is really out of this world.”

Archangel Michael snorts from the out of the blue pun. 

“Do not be afraid. If our Lord agrees to our plan, I'll be watching. I always will. Give me your trust, Armaros.”

Armaros sighs deeply, yet smiles up at him right after. “Okay, I trust you.” 

“May, stop it,” you mutter angrily, pulling your arm away from her hold. May tries to block your way from going outside the house but you abruptly push her to the side. 

“Y/n! Your mom told you that–” 

“Told me what?! That I’m being independent? Unruly? That I should just stay home? I don’t give a fuck anymore, May. I’d rather hang out with friends than stay here and do nothing!” You bark at her. She was smaller than you and you were definitely giving off that intimidating vibes that you wanted to show. She isn’t the one wearing the pants in this house. You are. 

“Y/n, I will not tolerate this behavior!” May snaps, eyes glaring at you with her hands balled up into fists on her sides. 

Rolling your eyes, you let out a sour chuckle, “You sound like my mom.” 

May sighs deeply, the tiredness in her voice evident, “I’m just trying to keep you safe, Y/n. Just listen to me.” 

“I’m an adult. I can keep myself safe. Now, let me go and don’t wait for me.” 

“Y/n!” 

“Bye May! Have a nice sleep!” 

“Y/n! Where the fuck are you?!” Emilia, one of the new friends you've met no longer than three days ago shouts through the phone as loud, blazing music muffled her voice. “Sophia and I are waiting for you! Get your ass over here!”

“I'm almost there, save me a drink already!” you giggle, looking out from the taxi’s window. 

Sophia snatches the phone out of Emilia’s hand to speak to you, “Y/n, you still remember the bet we made, right?” 

“Of course! It's not a huge deal, c'mon now.” You roll your eyes, faking a laugh. 

“We'll see!” Emilia giggles. 

The driver drops you in front of the nightclub and you throw him a couple of dollars. Stepping out of the car, your high heels clicking on the cement. Upon entering the place, you were immediately greeted with your friends. They were both wearing a tight dress – glittery red and silver – whilst you wore a black one that reached down to your middle thigh. You bought the dress only a day ago, special thanks to your Amazon Prime account . 

“Hey! Here, drink this,” Sophia hands you a single malt whiskey and you swiftly drown it down your throat without any problem. You reminisce back to your first day where you can’t even take a sip of beer without gagging. Now look where you are. 

“Ahh fuck, that tastes good,” you mumble through gritted teeth. 

“Why are you late tonight, Y/n?” Emilia asks as she leads you to the bar to order more alcohol. Her high pitched voice mixing with the loud music,”You know it's always 9 PM. Sharp.” 

You breathe out heavily as you watch Sophia pour three shots of straight vodka into a shot glass. She distributes the beverage to the two of you. 

“Well, uh–” 

“What?” Emilia snaps.

“I couldn't find a goddamn cab, that's why!” you hide your falseness with laughter, hoping they won't sense your lie. 

“Alright anyway, let’s go get wasted and you, Y/n – will be our first player.” Emilia smirks as she crosses her arms together. She analyzes your body, eyeing you up and down. You didn’t like it, and you felt worried. 

Your eyebrows furrow, confused and slightly offended, “What, why me?” You take a sip of your newly-ordered beer, trying to get comfortable on the plush-covered stool. 

“Because,” Sophia answers for her, “we need to know your… capacities.” 

You snort, “Capacities of what? My capacity of having to get into a m-man’s bed? Pffft… easy!” 

Sophia’s forehead furrows, glancing at Emilia with a knowing look before focusing her attention back to you. “Sure. Anyway, let’s have fun first and then…” she leans closer to you, her face inches away from yours. You feel your face redden in embarrassment, “And then you can choose your man.” 

It wasn’t that bad. It isn’t bad dancing around the dance floor, beer in hand, as you danced all your worries away. Emilia and Sophia were out there – somewhere, but you didn’t care about them at this moment. You let your body go with the beat of the loud EDM music, holding your hands up in the air as you whipped your head left to right. You had a huge smile on your face, the alcohol kicking in like it was meant for your body to consume. 

Sweaty bodies were bumping each other from left and right, and you for sure stepped on someone’s toe with your pumps. Nevertheless, you didn’t care. You were having your fun. 

It was until the song changed from upbeat to a more sensual, heart-pumping song from the loud bass. As if there was a switch inside you, you turned into a sultry mess. 

Wasted. You were wasted like hell. 

Your eyes turn into little slits as you look around the dance floor to try and find someone to play with. Taking a huge sip of your drink, your throat burns yet you tried to ignore it. 

“Ah-hah!” you giggle, walking – or should we say, stumbling – towards a guy with black hair parted in the middle, nicely dressed in a black button up tucked in some skinny jeans. The man locks eyes with you, licking his plump lips as his eyes rake your body. 

“Hey there, gorgeous,” he smirks, making you blush in red as he holds your waist and tugs you closer to him. The song in the background was helping you a lot to get into that seductive, sexy mood that you planned to have. 

“Hey,” you smile up at him, “I’m Y/n.” 

“What a pretty name for a pretty lady.” He starts swaying your body to the beat, going along with you. “I’m Seokjin. Nice to meet you.” 

Seokjin tugs your body closer until he holds the back of your head with one hand, making you look deep into his dark eyes. “Y-You’re a new face,” you slur, “You don’t belong here.” 

Unexpectedly, your eyes grow big when Seokjin throws his head back as he laughs almost hysterically. “What?” you question. 

The man slightly leans down until his face draws near to yours, and you can immediately smell the alcohol in his breath. You didn’t judge though, you probably had beer-breath too. 

“Baby girl…” Seokjin suddenly speaks deeply, making your heart jump from the sudden change in his voice. There was a sultry look in his eyes that made it hard for you to keep eye contact. “Baby it’s you who doesn’t seem to belong. You don’t know who I am.” 

“Well y-you don’t know me e-either!” You try to retaliate, although it was messed up with your embarrassing stuttering.  

“You really wanna know?” he whispers, his lips right against your lips, almost touching yours. You couldn’t breathe properly, wanting to pull away but his intoxicating scent was forcing you to him. 

You nod your head, not trusting your voice. 

“I own this place, baby.” 

You almost tossed your cup right across the room from his sudden confession, totally not expecting such a young-looking man to own such a place like this. Your eyes expand, body staying still. 

’Wait! Be sexy… be sexy…’ you thought to yourself after an awkward five seconds of silence. 

You decide to chuckle, biting your bottom lip slowly as you draw yourself nearer to him. He lifts a brow up in surprise, wrapping his arms around your hips and he closes the distance between the two of you. 

“Really? Well then,” you mutter, “I want you to own me too.” 

“Oh, finally. Someone straightforward.” 

“Well I – oh!” Seokjin takes you by surprise when he quickly tugs your arm and leads you to the second floor of the club. You haven’t been in this area before, looking so luxurious and well decorated. Although what shocks you is the series of doors that passes through a long, wide hallway. 

“Seok...Seokjin,” you whisper, but he looks at you with a smirk, a playful glint in his eyes. 

“C’mon baby,” he opens a door and walks you inside, locking it behind him. “Let’s have a little fun.” 

Let’s have a little fun. 

Yeah. I should. 

This is fun, right? 

Before you can even process things, Seokjin shoves your body to a wall as his hands start to wander down your sides. With flushed cheeks, you look at him like you’ve just seen a ghost but he clearly doesn’t mind, grinding his hips into yours. 

“Mmm, what a cute babe I have in front of me,” he groans, leaning forward to pepper wet, gentle kisses all over your neck and down to your shoulders. 

Something feels off. 

“Y/n, right?” he asks, his forehead furrows and you nod. “Can I kiss you?”

Your heart starts to rapidly pump inside your chest, feeling as if it’ll burst at any minute. An uncomfortable feeling starts to overwhelm your system, sensing your palms getting sweaty. You can’t look at his eyes, looking anywhere but him. 

“Uh, o-okay,” you straighten your back as you try your best to look confident. 

This is the perfect opportunity to tell your friends. Having sex with someone like him will absolutely impress Emilia and Sophia. 

Seokjin chuckles, shrugging, “Alright then.” And without any warning, he throws you on the bed and he quickly hovers above your body. 

“Mmph–!” he immediately presses his lips into yours before you can even react to everything that had just happened. He caresses your cheeks with both hands, his lips moving softly with yours. You try your best to keep up with him and his pace, but you can’t. There was something stopping you from giving him your all. Seokjin grunts nevertheless, humping you. 

Seokjin’s right hand snakes down to grab the hem of your dress as he teasingly pulls the fabric up, then lets it snap back down. There was a weird feeling inside your stomach, and it did not feel good at all. 

His hand slowly starts creeping up your leg, and that’s where you couldn’t hold it back. 

“Mmm, n-no,” you mewl, pushing him away from you. Seokjin stares down at you with a frown, head tilted to the side. 

“Y/n?” 

Rapid heart rate, the back of your neck sweating, and chills all over your body occur all at the same time. You were panicking. 

“I-I…” immediately you stand up from the bed, hiking your stupid short dress down as much as you can. “S-Sorry,” furiously shaking your head from side to side, you stumble your way to the door. 

“Y/n, wait!” Seokjin yells, confused yet he felt sorry at the same time. “Let’s talk about it!” 

“No,” you whisper. You can’t do this anymore. There was no energy left in your body to talk, to process what just happened, to stand in this fucking club. Home. All you were thinking about was going home. 

You twist the doorknob open, trying to catch your breath as much as you can but you feel like you were going to pass out any minute. Making your way down the stairs, you run as fast as you can towards the exit of the nightclub yet a person catches your arm. 

“Y/n!” Your eyes widen when Emilia and Sophia stop you, observing your state. “What’s wrong with you?” 

“No…” you breathe tirelessly, “c-can’t do it…” 

“You failed?” Emilia snaps as she leans her body on one hip, resting her hands there. She looks at you with disgust, “But we saw the guy that you’re with! He was hot!” 

Sophia snorts, smirking as she stares at you sourly, “Proves our point. You’re nothing, Y/n. You had such an easy job, the guy’s already all over you and you just had to throw him? Where is he, let me get with him myself.” Sophia struts away, heels clicking as she flips her long hair over her shoulder, leaving you with Emilia. 

“What can I say, Y/n,” she smiles menacingly, the corners of her eyes crinkling, “You can never be like us.” 

Your whole body felt heavy, heavy like you were carrying a boulder behind your back. This isn’t what you had planned at all, everything was going so well until this! Your eyes started welling up with tears, blurring your sight. You had to go. 

Without saying a word, you quickly run away to the exit, ignoring Emilia’s insensitive laugh. 

What went wrong? Why did you feel that way? Negative thoughts were clouding your mind as you cried and cried to your poor, soaked pillow. 

Maybe you are just not enough. Perhaps you’re not meant to be like this. 

It was fun the first time around, and you were actually enjoying yourself. But the days passed and you sadly weren't doing this for your own pleasure anymore, but for the validation of other people. 

You should’ve stopped Seokjin from touching you when it clearly made you uncomfortable. There was a line and he crossed it, but you erased that line so you can finally say that you’ve slept with someone. But you guessed it wasn’t that easy. 

Grabbing your phone, you ignored all of the rude messages Emilia has sent you, blocking her and Sophia’s number. You turned off your phone, throwing it somewhere on the ground without care before you switched off your lamp. There was never a time that you’ve cried yourself to sleep, but tonight was your first. 

“And what do I get in return for this deal?” Jeon Jungkook purrs with a low, dark tone, crossing his legs together as he sits on his father’s fire-blazing throne. Even though he has his own throne for himself, thrones on fire were way cooler. He scans the frightened angel from head to toe through the strands that fell in front of his eyes. 

“The A-Archangel says you will obtain a soul. A soul that is longing for hell.” Armaros stutters as he tries to keep eye contact with the devil’s hard glare. 

Jungkook chuckles, hanging his head low. “You mean to tell me…” he starts to stand up and walks towards the angel. Armaros tries his best to keep his guard up and stand as tall as possible. 

Jungkook circles around him, arms crossed while his right hand plays with his bottom lip, “That I should convince this little girl to prevent doing bad, bad things to stop her from going to hell?” He laughs hysterically. “That’s quite… an unnatural job for a devil, isn’t it? It’s completely the opposite of what i’m supposed to do. Tell Michael that his plan is utter bullshit.”

Armaros takes a deep sigh, closing his eyes for a brief second before replying. “Firstly, Y/n is not a little girl. And second, this job is easy. You have the skill to persuade humans to sin – what’s hard with doing the opposite? Besides, you’ll obtain a soul either way.” 

His words made Jungkook ponder and deliberate with himself. He stops in front of Armaros and shows him his signature imposing smile. “I can have my way with the girl, right?” He bites his lip, “Anyway I want?” 

This made Armaros’ eyes go wide, mouth opening but no words seem to come out properly, “I-I… w-well, um… yes? Yes? P-Perhaps? Just don’t do anything bad to her.” 

Jungkook scoffs, running his long tongue over his teeth as he smirks, “Define bad, Mr. Angel.” 

“You know… hurt her.” He gulps.

The devil squints his eyes, absolutely loving Armaros’ reactions. “Oh, don’t worry. I’m not gonna kill her, if that’s what you mean.” 

“I’m done with this conversation.” Armaros quickly chirps as he unfolds his large, white wings. “Remember what your main goal is, Jungkook. I’m counting on you.” 

Jungkook stops him before he flies back up. “Armaros…” he says, dragging his name long in his tongue. Armaros looks at him, eyes impatient, arms crossed together. 

“You know I’m a devil, right?” 

The angel chuckles, scoffing, “Oh, I know that alright.” He scorns, eyeing Jungkook up and down. Although the devil in front of him looks intimidating and his eyes are jet black, Armaros keeps his calm. “I’m only following orders. I didn’t agree with The Archangel in the first place.” 

“Do you know what devils do to… humans?” 

Armaros nods fully. 

“And what I might do to… that precious little girl?” Jungkook growls deeply, walking closer to him. He tilts his head down, looking at him through his lashes, “There’s a huge chance that I might not control myself when I see her.” 

“What do you mean?” 

Suddenly, black smoke appears from Jungkook’s right hand, summoning something beside him. The smoke appears to subside and at once, Y/n’s appearance can be seen through the thin air. Jungkook rests his hips on one side, twirling his hand so that her image spins around. 

“This is Y/n, right?” Jungkook studies your face, watching you read a book inside your room. “I’ve never seen someone so beautiful before.” 

“Jeon Jungkook!” Armaros bellows, his tone loud yet sprinkled with fear. 

“I’m just saying, Angel. You can’t stop me from trying to do devilish things to her.” Jungkook smirks, prodding his tongue on the inside of his cheek. “You might have to reconsider this deal of yours if you don’t want me to have my way with that pretty little girl,” He taunts, already warning Armaros.

“Jungkook,” Armaros’ nerves seem to heat up, slowly getting irritated although he tries to calm himself. He looks down, shaking his head as he pinches the bridge of his nose in annoyance. “There’s no point in doing that. You think she wants to have an affair with someone like you?” 

The devil laughs loudly as he twirls his hand until your image disappears. This conversation further proves Jungkook’s argument that angels are actually dumber than they realize. 

“If you want me to help you, I will have my way with her. My job, my rules. Understand?”

Armaros feels defeated, but he can’t say anything but nod and agree to him. He can’t fight him anyway. Jungkook dismisses him, and with that, the angel ascends back up to earth. 

Jungkook can’t wait to have his fun. 

~

Prancing around, making friends, getting to know each other – Jungkook doesn’t want to do that. Instead, he’s very straightforward, saying words that he probably shouldn’t, he likes to say what he thinks no matter how bad it’ll probably hurt. 

That’s what he plans to do with you. 

If he gets his point clear, make you frightened, scare the shit out of you, then the job would be complete. 

Easy! 

You were currently on your laptop, scrolling through your pinterest tabs until you hear loud and frantic knocks on your door. “Y/n!” May shrieks, her voice quivering. “Someone’s at the door!” 

Oh no, you thought. 

Immediately hopping out of bed, you went out to see who it was with May following behind you. You peak out through the windows and suddenly, you inhale sharply from the man that you see. 

He was unfamiliar. Thankfully, it wasn’t Seokjin or Sophia nor Emilia, but rather tall, might you say handsome looking man waiting outside your doorstep. He was dressed in all black, his hair covering his eyes. 

“Do you know him?” May asks quietly. You shake your head slowly, “N-No.” 

“Y/n… I think you should just leave him.” 

“May, I can handle it. You can go now.” You say softly to her. 

“Are you sure—”

“Yes.” You spat a little harshly, blazing your eyes at her. May nods, sighing as she walks away to her room. 

Gathering the courage to open the door, you took a deep inhale and exhale, calming your nerves. 

Once you open the door, your eyes immediately fly to his dark ones. Your whole body suddenly shivers, the air around the place somewhat getting cold as if it was winter. 

You can't take your eyes off of the man. You have never met him before but it felt like you've known him for too long. There was a strange aura surrounding the two of you that you can't explain. 

“Hello.” He speaks first, giving you a sly smile. 

His voice. You've never heard such a dark and menacing timbre before. 

“Hi,” you gulp, “Who are you?” 

“May I come in?” Jungkook snaps, ignoring your question. He doesn't want to waste any time, that's for sure. 

You furrow your brows as you shake your head, “Answer my question first.” You blurt, blocking the entrance by placing your hands on either side of the doorway. 

“Hm,” Jungkook slowly shows you a deadly smirk, eyeing your body up and down. “You really wanna know?” 

What kind of a question is that? 

You quickly got annoyed, looking at him with a scorn. “Obviously!”

Feisty, Jungkook thought. 

“I'm the devil.”

There was a long pause, silence filling the air. This man is too handsome to be this dumb. You laugh hysterically, bending over as you hold your aching stomach. “A-Are you… oh my god… please tell me you're fucking joking!” you say with creased eyes. 

Jungkook already expected this reaction, and he only rolls his eyes without you noticing. 

“Mhm. You don't believe me?” he slowly pronounces his words, voice deep and sinister. 

“Nah,” you shake your head, giggling. 

“Aren't you religious?” Jungkook pushes you to the side without hesitation and enters, your eyes expanding slowly as his body suddenly comes in contact with yours. “Don't you believe in your God? You believe in angels, right?” He backs your body up and shuts the door loudly behind him. 

You felt a series of chills erupt from your system, his gaze locked on yours. You wanted to look away from his intimidating gaze, but you can't, for some strange reason. “Huh, Y/n?”

You gasp. “Wait, h-how do you know my name!?” 

Jungkook smirks at you, tilting his head to the side as he ignores your question again. 

Your body seems to move by itself, like you can't control your own limbs. The air thickens around the two of you as you feel your body submit to the man in front of you. 

Sighing, with a shaky voice you answer. “I do. I do believe in them.”

Although what shocks you is the way his eyes suddenly turn a bright shade of red. From deep black to red, his irises glow. 

“What the fuck–” you quickly back away, body shivering in fear until your back hits a wall. You rub your eyes, trying to see if your mind was only playing tricks with you. 

Jungkook grins and chuckles darkly, clicking his tongue. “Then…” he draws, walking closer to your frightened figure, “Can this convince you enough?” 

“S-Stop… stop playing games with me!” you whimper, feeling your palms get sweaty. “Your eyes are red!” 

“Hmm, I wonder why,” Jungkook snarls, forehead creasing, “Maybe because I'm the fucking devil?” 

And in a flash, Jungkook’s appearance changes from a tall, handsome boy into a dark red figure. Black, bat-like wings sprout from his back, long horns appearing from his forehead, a spear-like tail behind him. His lips and the area around his eyes were tinted in black while his fingers grew longer, sharper. 

You almost fainted then and there. 

“Oh— p-please,” your eyes turn watery as tears start to fall down your cheek, lifting your hands up to your mouth in shock, “please d-don't kill me!” Shutting your eyes to avoid the frightening image in front of you, your knees drop down to the floor with a loud thud. “I'm sorry, please f-forgive me! Don't k-kill me! Please!” 

“Oh, what a cute pretty girl you are,” the devil grins, his voice more gravelly now. He looks down at your frail self, amused. “I'm not here to kill you. I'm here to teach you a lesson.” 

You start to sob as your body shakes, “No! Please d-don't…”  

“Do you believe me now?”

“Yes! Yes I do!” you quickly reply, voice cracking. “I’m sorry s-sir, don’t hurt me!” 

Jungkook, satisfied with your reaction, morphs back to his normal human look within a few seconds. “Look at me.”

Slowly, afraid to anger the devil in front of you, you obey his words. You sigh in relief when he finally looks normal again, but you can't look at him the same way. 

“Stand up.”

You do so with wobbly legs. You felt so weak with your energy quickly drained so quickly. Wiping your tear-stained cheeks, you try your best to keep your composure. 

“Anyway, I'm Jungkook,” he gives you an award-winning smile, “I'm sent here to supposedly warn you from doing bad things.” He cringes, shaking his head. “Which, honestly speaking, I think is atrocious.”

He scans your body, biting his lip right after. “A good looking girl like you should have her fun.” 

You try to regain your senses back. A devil — a real devil appeared right in front of you. You can't seem to shake the thought away while he’s there looking so handsome in his human form. 

With a shaky breath, you ask him, “J-Jungkook? I'm really sorry. I don't know what I'm doing.” 

He snorts. Brushing his black hair away from his face. “Wrong. You know what you're doing.” 

“W-What?” 

Something in the air changes when Jungkook snaps his fingers. A thick, black smoke appears, capsuling the both of you in. “What is this?!” you question, terror overtaking your face. You watch your surroundings getting blurry, blackness covering the area. 

“Oh nothing,” he gives you a lopsided grin, “just making sure that your little angels can't see us.” 

Jungkook's eyes shine and his pupils enlarge, smiling as you notice how his teeth grow sharper. There were veins popping out in his neck, grimacing at you in pure excitement.  

“We can't afford your poor, guardian angel to stop us now, can't we? I don't want him to see us…playing.” 

“Playing?!” You gasp, eyes expanding in shock.. 

“Yes, baby. Angels are so fucking dumb, aren't they? Asking a devil to do their own work? Isn't that pathetic.”

You were locked to him like a magnet as your body seems to fill with utter desire in such a quick time. 

Was he doing something to you?!

A series of pleasurable chills erupt from your body, mouth getting dry as you look up at Jungkook with big eyes. 

His hand suddenly touches your bare arm, making you silently mewl from his chilling touch. He smirks at your reaction, “How dumb of them to trust the son of Lucifer himself.”

“Y-You… you're…” your voice fades, trying to process his words. 

“Mhm. Aren't you excited to play with me?” 

Maybe he's doing tricks to your mind, controlling your body – or maybe you’re just fucked up. Either way, you want him. 

You lust for him. 

“Yes.”

Jungkook draws his lower lip between his teeth, his hands finding its way to your waist, holding you firmly until he unexpectedly pulls you to his body. He lifts a single eyebrow up, “Really?” 

Your heartbeat quickens. 

“I've… I’ve never been more sure.” Words seem to spill out of your mouth without your consent, as if it wasn’t you who’s speaking. But you don’t try to take your words back.  

Jungkook laughs and starts to lift you up without struggle, finding his way to your bedroom while the smoke follows the two of you. “Bad, bad girl you are.” He lowers you down on the mattress, sending you a seductive wink, “I'm so fucking proud.” 

He preps himself on his knees, capturing your thighs in between. His eyes run down your body, chills running down your spine from how hot he looks. His figure was so big and muscular, making you feel like he can destroy your frail self. 

“Look at this, you look so fucking delicious baby.” 

His hand suddenly flies down to your armpits, roughly handling you as he carries you up as he sits down on the bed, his back pressed against the headboard, as he places you in between his legs. 

You hold back a whimper as he pushes your body closer to him. Hearing him growl deeply made your cunt throb, feeling a strange wet feeling down there. 

“Demons can't help humans,” he mutters lowly, his lips right against the shell of your ear. “They want you to sin and sin and sin until the day you fucking die.” 

His hands play with your shirt until in a quick flash, he rips the cotton material in half, your body shivering as it has been exposed to the cold air. “Ohh,” you whimper, covering your body with your arms. 

“Nu-uh,” Jungkook grins behind you, “Don't do that, baby.” He leans down and starts pressing wet and sloppy kisses all over your shoulders, running his mouth up to your neck. “Don't try to hide away from me.”

He sucks on the soft skin of your neck, his big dick throbbing in his pants from the way you were constantly squirming. You were so sensitive, and it made him so horny. He hums, marking your skin in bright red and purple bruises. 

“Ahh, Jungkook,” you moan, throwing your head back until it rests right against his shoulder. 

His hands suddenly fly to your breasts, his long and slender fingers pinching and twisting your hardened nipples. You bite your bottom lip as you can't seem to open your eyes from the feeling. It was until Jungkook suddenly digs his nails into your nipples, pinching them roughly that made you jolt right up. 

“Oh, t-that hurts,” you cry, the stinging feeling of his sharp nails pinching your buds. Jungkook watches your face contort, digging his nails even harder. He feels your body twitch, hearing your gentle whines and mewls. 

“Ohhh you don't like it baby, does it hurt too much for your sensitive, precious body?” he mocks a concerned tone. “Hm?” 

He was playing games with you, that's for sure. You nod your head up and down, trying to push his hands away. “Mhm…” 

Thankfully, he does stop but he quickly cups your breasts with both hands. He feels your rock-hard nipples pushing against his rough palms, kneading your boobs until he finally lets go. 

“Take these off,” he instructs you to pull your shorts down, and you do so. With trembling hands, you swiftly tug them off of your legs. 

“Mmm, fuck,” he grunts behind you, his right hand lowering down from your stomach until it reaches the destination right against your clothed pussy. His fingers slowly trace down your slick, feeling how wet you are through your panties. 

He smirks cockily, “You're fucking drenched, baby. Are you this horny?” he rubs your clit in slow, circular motions with just the right amount of pressure with the tips of his two fingers, your legs shivering. “Want something to stuff that little hole of yours?” 

He pulls your underwear down to your thighs, and you instantly shake it off with your legs. Jungkook pushes your legs apart, forcing your knees up with your feet flat on the mattress. Your cunt flutters around air from the exposure. You whine when his left arm possessively wraps around your stomach, his biceps flexing when he holds you tightly. 

“Stay fucking still,” he growls, his warm hand cupping your bare cunt. He chuckles, prodding his tongue against his cheek as he plays with your folds. He uses two slender fingers to spread your labia apart and you can feel your glistening arousal drip from your hole down to your ass. 

Jungkook hums in satisfaction, spreading your lips wider, making you emit a moan. “Jungkook—”

“No. I want you to call me something…” he elongates the pause in his sentence to suddenly insert the tip of his middle finger in your pussy, causing you to jump. “Something else, baby.” 

“Ah-ahh, what?” your legs couldn't stop trembling as he pushes his finger deeper, your walls sucking it in deliciously. 

You can feel him smirk against the skin of your neck, he snickers, “Starts with the letter D.” 

Your eyes squint in confusion, tilting your head up to look at him. Jungkook, with his glowing red eyes, scans your face with a quirked eyebrow expectantly. 

“Devil?” 

Jungkook scoffs loudly and instantly pushes the rest of his finger in your cunt, immediately pumping in and out at a rapid pace. Your hands quickly hold onto his arm that was wrapped around you, mouth agape from the sudden thrusts. “Ohhh!” your body shakes, leaning your head against him. Electric waves of pleasure run through your body, being new to the sensation. 

He growls as he removes his finger out to slap your pussy harshly, hitting your sensitive clit. “Wrong.” 

“Oww…” you mewl, your hips bucking up from the sting. He does this again, and again, and again, making your eyes watery. He tightens his hold on you, stopping you from squirming too much. 

“Daddy.” He purrs. 

Your body instantly feel a series of shivers. 

“Call me daddy.” Jungkook bites your neck roughly while he inserts his digits back, this time using his middle and ring finger. You hiss in pleasure, eyes tempting to roll back when he brushes the sponge-like texture inside your pussy. 

“Shit, right there daddy,” you curse, rolling your hips against his hand for more. “Right there!” 

Jungkook feels his cock harden even more, precum dripping down his tip as it twitches against his clothes. The way you pronounce that certain word drove him crazy. Jungkook loves how your body easily crumbles beneath him as you allow him to have all the control. He pounds your pussy faster with his hand, putting his bicep to good use. 

You were about to cum, the feeling of a tightness inside your tummy, a ball about to burst at any second. You warn Jungkook, “Daddy, i-i think… I think I'm gonna c-cum,” you sob. 

“I know.” He says simply, fucking you harder. Suddenly, he pushes his index finger in, three digits stretching your walls out. You cry loudly, thrashing around him as high-pitched moans carelessly leave your mouth. “Shiiiiit, d-daddy!” 

“Need to stretch this little pussy out for my cock” he purrs, “cuz’ we don’t want that tiny hole of yours to split into two, right baby?” 

Your toes curl, nails digging into the skin of his arm as you fail to warn him that you're gonna cum any second now. Although he can feel the way your pussy was pulsing around his long fingers. He angled his hand until your clit was brushing against his palm, “Daddy! Ohh fuck, just l-like that!”

Until it all stops. 

All of the pleasure stops when Jungkook pulls his fingers out. 

“Fuuuuuuuck!” you yell, never been more frustrated before as he denies your orgasm. You were about to cum so hard. Your legs shake uncontrollably, scratching his arms as your body shudders. Your poor cunt pulsates rapidly from the sour loss. You were a whimpering, sobbing mess. 

Laughing dryly behind you was Jungkook, licking his fingers clean as he watches your dignity wash away right in front of his eyes. 

“Fuck you,” you scowl, pushing away his arms and turning to face him. “Fuck. You.” 

But he wasn't bothered at all, of course. He was the devil after all. He had no remorse.

Before you know it, Jungkook wraps his hand around your throat and swiftly pulls you close to his face. You gulp, terrified from the intimidating look in his eyes. 

Jungkook thinks that he can easily kill you then and there. If it were a different person, he wouldn't hesitate to snap their neck like a stick. Usually he would feel tempted to physically hurt a person in this kind of situation. But no. He likes you. He likes you too much to kill.

“Take my cock out.”

Even though you hate him for denying your orgasm so brutally like that, you nod your head. Jungkook removes his shirt as you scoot down. You were careful to unbutton his pants, heart rate going faster from the thought of seeing his cock right in front of your face. By the look of the large tent evident, he was gonna be huge. Jungkook watches you with heavy eyes, running his hand through your hair softly. 

You pull the garment down and your mouth visibly waters from the sight. The outline of his cock was evident from his briefs, long and thick and was certainly rock hard. You were so afraid to even touch it as you let your hands sit right on his thighs. 

“Haven't done this before?” he asks, rubbing your cheek with one hand. You shake your head, afraid to look at his glaring eyes. 

Jungkook chortles, quickly pulling his underwear down by himself.

His cock immediately springs out and rests on his abdomen. With wide, surprised eyes, you notice his red tip leaking so much precum, dripping down his abs. You involuntarily whine and wiggle your hips in need, your wetness dripping down your thigh. 

“Take it in your mouth.” He orders, voice strict and demanding. 

“But—” 

“Did I stutter?” 

“No daddy.” You whisper, looking away and finally gathering the courage to wrap your hands around his girth. You clench your thighs together when you feel him against your palm – warm and heavy, yet the skin was soft at the same time. When you stroke his shaft up and down watching how his precum pours down to your hands, providing you lubrication as it coats his cock. 

Jungkook throws his head back as he smiles down at you, feeling so good. He bucks his hips up repeatedly, meeting your timid strokes. 

His patience runs out and slaps your hand away, gripping his cock tightly. Suddenly, he slaps his dick on your cheek, making lewd and wet sounds. “Open your fuckin’ mouth.” 

Obeying his command, you wrap your lips around his leaking tip. You taste the saltiness of his seed on your tongue, trying your best to take more of him. His thick girth was making it hard for you as your jaw immediately feels sore. 

His hand flies to grip your hair, making you whine around his cock, causing vibrations. “Look at that pretty little mouth tryna’ take this cock,” he smirks, “Go deeper baby. Gag around my cock if you don't wanna be punished.” 

Your hips swivel in need from his words, pussy soaking like a river. You slack your jaw as you sink down on his cock, trying to ignore the harsh gags when his tip hits the back of your throat. Jungkook growls loudly above you, seeing that the corners of your mouth were dripping in saliva. 

He uses both of his hands to force you deeper. Your eyes start to water when you swallow just half of his big dick, already being too much for you. The harsh and wet gagging sounds were music to Jungkook's ear, loving to see you struggle. “Mhm, fuck yes,” he grunts, “Choke on that big dick.” 

He keeps you down there, feeling sinister as his devilish instincts get the best of him. He ignores your cries and pleads, only focusing on the feeling of the sweet vibrations whenever you moaned around him. Or whenever your throat closes around his shaft when you choked, it was all too good for him. 

You immediately tapped on his thighs furiously when you can't take it anymore, but what did he do? He starts fucking your mouth with sharp thrusts of his hips. You whimper, closing your eyes tight as your nails dig into the skin of his thighs. He grabs you by your head as he uses your poor mouth for pleasure. 

Trying to breathe through your nose, you ignore the burning sensation in your mouth yet it feels too good. “Ahhhh holy fucking shit,” he grunts, feeling your throat tighten, “Look at that – fuck. Bad little girl aren't you? Mhm? You're my bad, naughty girl.” Jungkook mocks, watching the stream of tears drip down your cheeks. 

Finally, he pulled out and there were thick strings of saliva connecting your lips to his cock. He groans loudly, his cock twitching as it lays back on his stomach. 

“Ohh, c'mere baby girl, come here.” Jungkook whispers and pulls your body close to him. You straddle his lap, feeling his cock beneath your folds that made you hiss. He wraps his strong arms around you, his face inches close to yours. You try not to be intimidated by his menacing eyes, but he notices this and clutches your throat with one hand, squeezing it again that made you inhale sharply. Jungkook sees your pout, your lips bruised from your numerous bites, and he chuckles. 

He tugs you until his lips are right upon your ear. “You wanna cum, baby?” 

Your body shivers from how deep and alluring his voice was, although you nod your head. “Please, daddy.” 

“Oh but do you deserve it? Do you even deserve a cock like mine?” 

You hate how frustrated he can make you. You punch your hands down on his chest, whining, “I-I do…” 

Jungkook quirks a brow up, immediately forcing your hands behind your back. He roughly grasps your wrists together with one hand, surely leaving a red bruise. He bites his lip, “You do?” He swiftly lands a spank on your right ass cheek, making you moan. “Then sink down on my cock.” 

With a puff of your breath, Jungkook helps you align his dick to your sopping entrance. You couldn’t breathe properly, anticipating what will happen as soon as you slowly sink yourself on his thick tip. 

“Ohhh daddy!” Your walls stretch out as you take his tip in, making you feel a harsh, stinging sensation as he rips your walls. If it wasn’t with his impressive girth, it probably wouldn’t hurt as much. Jungkook grunts, his cock throbbing from the feeling of your cunt fluttering around him. 

“Fuck yeah,” he watches your pussy take him further, your juices coating his shaft. He tightens his hold on your wrists, slightly bucking his hips up. Jungkook lands another hard, loud spank. 

“Daddy you're so b-big,” you moan, almost halfway down his dick but you can't take more of him anymore. Jungkook gets turned on from the sweet tone of your voice, the thought of tainting such a girl like you made him chuckle. 

Jungkook feeds himself from the idea of corrupting you, letting you know how it feels to truly rebel. Who the fuck cares about what your parents think? Humans are all going to die anyway, there’s nothing wrong with having a little fun. 

You start to bounce up and down slowly, your pussy rubbing against him, feeling the thick protruding veins upon your walls. You dig your nails onto your palm, eyes closed shut as you prop yourself up to your feet. 

“That's it, baby. Ride daddy's cock,” he insinuates, watching your face contort in pleasure. With your eyebrows knitted together, eyes shut and mouth wide open, Jungkook’s cock throbs inside of you.

“Look at that fucking face, cant take it?” he snickers. 

“I can, I can,” you pant tirelessly, legs getting sore. Your brows drew deeper as you concentrated on the feeling of his cock hitting your sensitive nerves so good, already so close to an orgasm from how big he is. 

But Jungkook wanted more. He wants it harder, rougher. He wants to shoot his hot cum so hard and deep inside your fresh womb, filling you up. He wants to wreck your body until you break. 

So he releases your hands free and instead grabs a hold of your waist firmly, keeping you still. He plants his feet on the bed and starts to thrust his hips up like crazy. 

Your jaw drops into an ‘o’ shape and you release a particular loud squeal. Your hands hold onto his broad shoulder, throwing your head back as he continues to drill your abused cunt. His balls slap against your ass, creating lewd slapping noises. 

“Dadddyyyyy!” you shriek, eyes expanding so wide from the unexpected bliss of electric currents shooting down your spine. You can't handle it, your orgasm snapping in a quick second. “I'm—!” 

Jungkook groans loudly when your pussy squirts your cum all over his dick and gushes all over his stomach. He fucks you through your mind-blowing orgasm, your eyes rolling back to your head as your legs shake from the unexpecting feeling. Your mind seems to cloud in lust as he doesn’t stop fucking you. 

“Shit,” he laughs, “look at this poor little girl.” Jungkook caresses your ass before he spanks it roughly, emitting a whimper from your mouth, kneading the bruised flesh right after. “Squirting all over daddy. You love my big cock so much, huh? You horny, desperate little slut.” 

Before you can even process what he just said, he flips you over until you lay down flat on your stomach. He hovers on top of you, keeping his dick in without pulling out. You yelp as he wraps his big hand around your throat, tightly squeezing your jugular without mercy. 

“A-ahhh oh—” you choke, letting your forehead down to rest on the sheets as he continues to pound you from behind. 

He had absolutely no mercy, using you as his little fucktoy for his pleasure, abusing your pussy like it was made for his demon cock. He chokes you harder, almost making you see stars. 

Your cunt throbs once again, signalling that another orgasm is coming near. “Ohhhh fuck fuck fuck fuck!” you moan, heavy puffs of breath coming out of your mouth every time he thrusts into you. 

Jungkook feels his nerves getting hotter and hotter, his cock aching to cum. He doesn't think of anything else but the way your walls clench so tightly around him. “Gonna break this motherfucking pussy of yours,” he growls, leaning down until his chest presses against your sweaty back. “I'm gonna fucking paint your walls with my cum, baby. You're gonna take all of it, you're gonna take all of daddy's cum in that tight cunt.”

Your legs squirm, hands closing into fists as you hit the bed over and over from how sensitive you become. Your hands claw the sheets tightly, back arching from the breathtaking pleasure. 

“Ahhhh daddy! Ohh my fucking— ahhh yes, yes yes!” your body crumbles, mouth wide open as you scream while you cum for the second time. Your pussy pulses so harshly around his dick, coating it with your juices, making it more wet for him. 

He groans, removing his hand from your throat and slaps your ass again. “Naughty little shit right here.” It was so messy, just how he likes it. His cum covered in your glistening arousal, fucking you through your high. 

He immediately flips you around again, making you face him. He smirks cockily from your flushed chest and face, noticing that you were having trouble opening your eyes. 

He leans down and rests his forearms beside your head, “Take it baby, take it.” he murmurs roughly, his balls getting heavier. “Take my fucking dick.”

Your legs never seem to stop quivering, everything around you seems blurry besides Jungkook's face. How does he still look so handsome and perfect? His black hair falls down his forehead, swaying with every hard thrust, his deep dimples peeking through when he bites his lower lip slowly while he savors the feeling of your warm, wet pussy. 

“Gonna cum in you baby,” he pants, holding your cheek in one hand. “Daddy’s gonna cum so fuckin’ hard for you.” You notice a dark, sinister forming his lips as he looks down at you. There it was again, that intimidating, almost teasing look. 

He growls roughly, hips staying still inside you as he dips down to gnaw at your shoulder. You hiss, whimpering when he sinks his teeth so harshly into your delicate skin, leaving an ugly mark. “Ah-ahh, daddy!” His cock spurts out warm strings of his seed, filling you up to the brim. 

“Mmm, mmm, fuck yeah,” he moans, “take it, Y/n.” 

When he pulls his cock out, his pupils enlarge as he sees your arousal dripping out of your cunt and onto your bed. He chuckles, stroking his cock a couple of times to milk himself furthermore, not wasting any of his sperm.

The two of you were breathless, breathing heavily. Your legs feel so sore and you can't feel them either, your ass stinging from his numerous rough spanks. 

“Clean yourself up, Y/n.” Jungkook suddenly throws you a wet towel, about to ask him where it came from, although he just stares at you blankly with a quirked brow. 

Gulping, you nod and start wiping yourself clean. 

~

He can't leave now. Not after all of this. 

There was something that attracted yourself to him. You can't seem to grasp what it is – but whenever Jungkook looks at you in the eyes, you feel like submitting. 

It was like your body doesn't belong to you anymore. He possesses your body now. 

“Crawl to me, my love.” He whispers, and you were easily drawn to his beautiful eyes. 

Still naked, you do as you're told and crawl towards the edge of the bed where he stands. He wears his pants, thankfully covering his goods. 

He sighs and softly caresses your cheek with a warm hand, making you flutter your eyes shut whilst leaning against his palm. He hums delightfully, smirking. 

“Surrender.” He purrs, eyes drooping down as he looks at you with such gentleness, almost with care. He leans down until your faces are mere inches away from each other. “Surrender to me, my love. And I’ll take you to somewhere you belong.”

Your eyes shimmer, batting your eyelashes as you gawk up at him with eagerness. “W-Where I belong?” you repeat in question.

“Yes, Y/n.” He smiles, showing you his perfect teeth. “Where no one will judge you, no one will criticize you for you. You can be whoever you want, you can do whatever you want. Isn’t that exciting, baby?”

Mouth getting dry, your nerves heat up once again, feeling nothing but anticipation. “Yes.”

Jungkook holds your face in two hands, compelling you to stare unswervingly at his red eyes. “Submit to me, Y/n, and you’ll never worry about this earth’s dreadful problems.” His voice gravelly yet dark, somehow different to his normal human speaking voice. 

You didn’t know what he really means by ‘submit’, or where he was supposed to take you. But your mind was telling you to go. Your consciousness speaks to you like someone was whispering in your ear what to do. You kneel before him, still keeping eye-contact. The air around the two of your shifts and it suddenly grows warm as your body starts to sweat.

“Where are…” your voice was breathy, “Where are you taking me?”

Jungkook starts to chuckle, brushing your hair back with his fingers. Suddenly, your heart races when he presses a tender, wet kiss on your forehead. Your eyes widen, heart beating out of your chest when he continues to kiss you down to the bridge of your nose, until it stops right upon your lips. He hovers his mouth right against yours, feeling his warm breath.

He whispers the words so ominously that goosebumps appear all over your arms and legs. “I’m gonna take you down to hell.” 

Jungkook watches your face go pale, all the blood leaving your face as you gaze at him with such big, surprised eyes. Without warning, he presses his lips against yours. You can’t keep up with him, his kiss rough and dominating. You whimper when his hand goes to wrap itself around your throat, pulling you closer. His tongue easily slips in your mouth, causing you to gasp. Jungkook smirks through the kiss as he controls the way your mouth moves. The two muscles dance together with such need and passion, hands getting sweaty. 

He bites your bottom lip, chewing on the soft flesh while he gently rolls it against his teeth. Jungkook growls, eyebrows furrowing. He can’t seem to get enough of you, wanting you all for himself. He’s addicted to you; your scent, your beautiful eyes, your body, he doesn’t want to leave this earth without you. 

He needs you down with him. 

Jungkook pulls out as he watches your flushed face, all out of breath. There was nothing else that you could do but whine about the loss of his lips. You were craving more of him. You pout, hoping that he’ll give in but Jungkook just shakes his head with a smirk. 

“Answer me, baby. Go down with me, and I’ll treat you so good.” He insinuates, “I’ll treat you like my own fucking queen. Don’t you want that?” 

You nod your head furiously, “I do want that,” you say softly. 

He clicks his tongue, “Tch, louder.” 

“I want it, please. Bring me with you.” Jungkook watches your pupils dilate, growing bigger as you speak. “Please.” 

Jungkook smiles. And within a flash, the black smoke that was encircling the two of you all this time thickens and starts to wash over the two of you. You cough uncontrollably yet Jungkook just stands there and watches. The smoke fills your lungs until you lose consciousness. 

~

Sounds of the crackling fire fills your eardrums, and your body tries to accommodate the scorching heat of your surroundings. 

Opening your eyes, you see that you’re nowhere in your room, or in the overworld. All that your eyes can see was miles and miles of dark red and black hills, huge torches of fire everywhere, scattered all over the place. There were girls and boys dressed in all black outfits, walking around the place with blank faces, eyes having stripped off of their emotions.

You look down on yourself and thankfully, you were wearing clothes. A tight red dress that hugs your body perfectly, enhancing your curves.

“Y/n.”

A soft voice calls out your name, and you whip around to see Jungkook in his demon form, smiling at you as he sits on his throne. You feel a warm, familiar feeling in your heart as if coming home and going to bed from a long trip. His blazing eyes lead you to a trance.

He beckons you to him for he lifts his right hand out to you. He eyes your body up and down, fixing his posture whilst he runs his tongue along his bottom lip. The way your hips gently sways as you make your way towards him – not losing eye contact – and how your irises burn in desire, it was all that Jungkook asks for.

Your legs move without your permission, leading you up the stone steps to his throne.

His hand was warm when you grasp it, although it was rough and almost hard unlike his human skin, you touch as if there was no difference. You weren’t afraid anymore. Jungkook signals you to sit on his lap, and you gladly obey. With legs on either side of his thigh, you straddle him.

“You’re mine, baby.” Jungkook snarls, “This is your place now.”

“I…” you speak for the first time, “I can’t see my friends and family anymore?”

He shakes his head no with a sly grin.

You exhale, a big smile painting your face. You’ve never felt so content and happy in your entire life.

“Then I love it here.”  

Jungkook makes sure that your angels can’t and won’t look for you anymore. He swears that he’ll protect you in every way possible, promising to shield you from anything that will hurt you. Jungkook looks at your beautiful red eyes, feeling your arms wrap around his neck as you pull him close. 

The last thing anyone should do is trust a devil — and that goes for your foolish angels. 

[tomorrowxforever]

Dom! Yeonjun A-Z

Fem! Reader

Contains: Cups of smut. Well, not direct smut so, more insanely suggestive.

Warning(s): NSFW!!, dom! Yeonjun, bully! Yeonjun, mentions : cum play, degradation, impact play, bondage, breeding, spit, voyeurism, sir! Yeonjun, sadism, humiliation, exhibitionism

Notes: This is.. oof. I’m sorry bibi😅 I’m actually pretty fuckin proud of this one. Please keep sending in requests, October is the only month I write full fledge smut and not just suggestive.

—

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex):

Yeonjun is the sweetest baby when it comes to aftercare. He can get super rough when y’all are going at it ( especially if he has to punish you ) and he knows it so he makes sure to treat you like the most precious, fragile princess during aftercare.

Need something to drink? He’ll get it. Hungry? He’ll make you a sandwich. Wanna take a bath but can’t get up cause legs = jello? He’ll carry you. He will literally do anything to make sure you’re comfortable and then snuggle you like there’s no tomorrow.

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s):

Yeonjun is an ass man all the way. Sorry, but that’s just the truth🤷. So his favorite body part on you is your ass. But he doesn’t discriminate. Big booty, lil booty. It’s all the same to him:)

Yeonjun strikes me as someone who is secretly self conscious so I don’t think he really has a favorite part of his own body. I mean, the only part of himself I can see him being fully confident in is his shlong, and even that’s after being together for awhile. So maybe that??

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically):

Junnie is into cum play so...

Yeah.

He will cum anywhere and absolutely love it.

On your face, he’ll pick it up with his fingers and make you suck it off. On your tummy, get ready for round two while he rubs it around on your skin. On your pussy, he’ll finger you with it. In your pussy, he could sit and watch it drip out of you for hours. In your mouth, you better show it to him on your tongue and either swallow it or kiss him.

And he cums quite a bit...

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs):

He really wants you to dom him. Just once. Cause he doesn’t know what it’s like and he’s curious. But he doesn’t know how to ask you cause he knows your his subby lil baby. And what if he ends up not liking it?

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?):

He’s definitely hooked up a couple times, so he knows what he’s doing and he knows how to please you. However, you are the first person he’s been able really explore all his interests with and his kink list has definitely expanded since he met you.

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying):

Either missionary or doggy.

Yeonjun likes having complete control over you and everything you do. He also likes having you suffocatingly close while he ruins you.

It changes in the middle of a round a lot too. One second you’re on your back for him, the next he’s flipped you over and is pressing your face into the pillows.

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.):

He is goofy in a serious way.

Yeonjun is a bully dom, so he takes every chance he gets to make fun of you. Especially during sex.

He will tease you like there’s no tomorrow. He calls you all sorts of names and makes fun of the things you do and the way you sound, the like. He’s just straight mean.

But if you give him even the foreshadowing of the slightest lip, he’ll switch on a dime and be all jokes aside, serious Yeonjun.

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.):

He keeps himself pretty trimmed down there. Not fully shaved but not super wild. I feel likes he’s the only one who actually makes sure to keep up with the up keep.

And he definitely doesn’t expect anything from you.

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect):

He can be sickeningly romantic when he wants to. Rose petals, candles, slow sensual sex, the whole shibang. You cannot tell me that this boy isn’t at least a lil bit of a hopeless romantic.

And when y’all are going at it like usual he likes forcing you to look into his eyes, and he’s invading your personal space just a bit, so it’s pretty intimate.

But he can get pretty animalistic pretty fast.

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon):

He’ll only really wack off when he’s on tour, and even then he needs your help. Whether it be Skype sex, a phone call or just looking at pictures you sent him for time just as this one, he always has to either see or hear you is some way. Or he just can’t cum.

But other then that, he doesn’t really need to wank it🤷 He’s got you so why would he need to?

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks):

Buckle up kiddos-

Cum play

Degradation

Impact play (he will slap your face)

Bondage

Slight breeding kink

Spit kink

Sir kink

Voyeurism

Sadist

Humiliation kink

Almost exhibitionism

Or in other words, Yeonjun is one big kinky bully and we stan😊

L = Location (favorite places to do the do):

He’ll fuck you literaly any where. Of course, he’s not gonna start going at it in the middle of a family dinner or anything, but he’ll do it in the kitchen just a room away.

At the end of the day, he doesn’t care where or who’s around but ultimately he’s the only one who gets to see you like that.

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going):

He gets turned on by the simplest of things, if you blink at him in the wrong tone than he’s pulling you away to privacy.

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs):

He won’t do anything that will seriously hurt you. Sure, he’ll slap you around a bit and spank you, but he refuses to do anything that could have long lasting damage. For example, knife play.

He also isn’t 100% against sharing you with someone else, but he is hesitant as fuck.

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.):

He doesn’t have a preference. Junnie loves giving and receiving equally.

For the most part, you sucking him off is actually him fucking your mouth as punishment for mouthing off or something. And when he eats you out it’s as a reward. There are some exceptions but those are true for most circumstances.

And he is absolutely fantastic at oral. Like, he just may be the best you’ve ever had. Did you see him with the grapes?

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.):

Really he does both. As most things with Yeonjun, it depends.

He could be absolutely plowing into you one second, moving so fast and being so rough that you’re wondering if he’s even human. Then the next moment he’s grinding into you and being all soft and slow. Though slow usually comes with tons of teasing.

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.):

Oh, he’s all for it.

Sex is sex. And he knows how you have you crying and trembling within minutes.

Though he does prefer taking his time and torturing you, he doesn’t mind taking you quickly in a broom closet before a show or something.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.):

Jun will try almost anything once. He’s very open minded when it comes to different kinks and if he sees potential in it, he’ll do it.

And if you haven’t noticed from the previous letters, he had no problem with fucking you in a public place.

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?):

He last so long I almost feel sorry for you. He’ll just hold his own orgasm while pounding into you and making you cum over and over again. Sometimes he holds out for so long you start to wonder if he’s actually enjoying it. But then he finally cums. Hard. And you’re like, oh.

He can also go like two or three rounds before he gets tired and needs a break. But they are both long, torturous rounds soo... good luck❤️

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?):

Did someone say toys? Hold up, let’s go through his toy box.

Vibrator, dildo, restraints (many different kinds), gags, blindfolds, whips, and a few paddles.

Yeah, he might have just a few🤷

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease):

I-

Once again, good luck.

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.):

He doesn’t really moan a bunch. Mostly it’s just grunts. Oh, and he growls. Like 🥵

But he talks a lot so you get to here him make sound in the few and far between instances where he isn’t yapping your ear off (in a good way).

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character):

He lets you get away with a lot more than the typical dom would let their sub get away with. It’s mostly because he knows he can be kinda rough and mean, but also cause he loves you so much that he can’t find it in himself to actually get annoyed or upset with you sometimes. Also, your absolutely adorable when your acting up and ‘get away with it’.

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes):

Let’s all say this together, big dick Yeonjun.

We all been knew. Like, c’mon. He radiates so much big dick energy I think we’d be pretty shook if he didn’t have a third leg situation going on.

So, imma say about six and a half, seven inches.

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?):

He goes through fazes of having the highest sex drive in town.

Like, for two or three weeks it seems like he can’t get enough of you. It’s almost every night that y’all are doin somethin. Or he’s playin Wack a Jun.

But the he’s back to normal and has the sex drive of any average dude.

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards):

He try’s to stay awake until you fall asleep. But baby is just so worn out🥺

Y’all start cuddling and he’s out like a light.

[kakakakashi]

Oh my fucking NSFW alphabet and me not asking for Kakashi 👀

I knew he was gonna be first. I knew it. This one is LOOOOOOOOOONG, and idk if they’ll all be this long, but I couldn’t help myself. 

*NSFW under the cut*

A - Aftercare (What they’re like after sex)

It depends on what you did. Kakashi is a wild card when it comes to the bedroom. He likes a lot of different things, and he likes it rough most of the time. The aftercare varies accordingly, but he always makes sure that you’re good before he falls asleep. Please, do the same for him if you’re rough with him. The man will claim you don’t need to coddle him, but he’ll melt if you take care of him.

B - Body part (Their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

…….. Do you even have to ask me this question? The man has called your ass proof of some god’s existence at some point or another. He’s a fan of your legs too, especially in combination with your ass, but like… It’s the booty that gets this man going every time.

C - Cum (Anything to do with cum basically… I’m a disgusting person)

He loves a good facial. I just… I don’t know what to tell you. Like… it is what it is. You can’t convince me that it’s his favorite place to cum. Second favorite is inside you, but that’s another story.

D - Dirty Secret (Pretty self-explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

I don’t think Kakashi necessarily has a dirty secret that he’d never tell you. He definitely takes a while to open up about things, but like, once he’s open with you and you’re open with him, anything goes. I’ll expand on this later.

E - Experience (How experienced are they? Do they know what they’re doing?)

Kakashi isn’t necessarily experienced regarding the number of partners he’s had. I know a lot of people think he’s a sex fiend, but I just can’t see it. I think with his mental state, his fear of vulnerability, and the self-loathing and overwhelming guilt he obviously deals with on a day to day basis, somewhere deep down in his subconscious, he doesn’t believe that he deserves to be loved in any way, shape, or formed. I feel like that’s part of why he reads Icha Icha too. Like, he wants that connection, but he believes he can never have it. That said, Icha Icha opened a lot of doors for him. I think that because of that, he does know what he’s doing. It’s how he discovered a lot of his kinks in my opinion. He’s had a few partners at certain points in his life, but not an obscene amount. However, he does know what he’s doing. The man’s done his research.

F - Favorite Position (This goes without saying. Will probably include a visual)

I’m sorry. You expect him to pick one? It depends on a lot of things to him. I think he sees all the pros & cons of different positions in different situations and adjusts accordingly. I think he likes it best when you fuck him & have his legs over your shoulders, though. If he’s fucking you, though, he likes to take you from behind in front of a mirror.

G - Goofy (Are they more serious in the moment, or are they humorous, etc.)

Again, I think it depends on what you’re doing. Mostly, he’s serious, but he knows how to crack a joke at the perfect moment to make everything all that much better. He’s 500% going to tease you, though. That’s another story. He’s a little shit, so he’ll joke around in that sense.

H - Hair (How well-groomed are they, does the carpet match the drapes, etc.)

Okay, unpopular opinion here. I think Kakashi rocks a bush. I honestly do. If you wanted him to trim, he will, but I don’t think he’d go bare. This is mostly because he doesn’t have anyone to impress like ever, and nobody ever sees him naked like ever. Not to mention, he doesn’t necessarily have the time to keep up with grooming when he’s on missions and such, especially if he tried to go bare. Like, he doesn’t have the time or energy to deal with preventing ingrowns and taking care of the skin irritation. Therefore, I think he’s just to the point of “You know what? Fuck it.” The man doesn’t have time for that shit. He likes as minimal effort as possible. It’s actually really hot though, and it works for him somehow. The carpet does match the drapes as well. Down there is just slightly darker.

I - Intimacy (How are they during the moment, romantic aspect…)

Again, I think it just depends on the surrounding circumstances. Sex as a whole is already a really intimate experience for Kakashi. Even if it’s rough and dominant, it’s still intimate for him. When it comes to romance, it depends on the vibe between you at the moment. If he’s just come back from a mission where he’s so tired, but he missed you so much, and the both of you just want to hold each other, he’s the most romantic. However, if he’s calling you names while your cherry red ass is up in the air, it’s not necessarily romantic. However, if you’re pegging him and calling him a good boy or something in the “not necessarily romantic” category, there’s still an element of romance to it because you know that you care about each other, and that’s why you’re in the situation you’re in. You know Kakashi trusts you to make him feel good, and he knows you trust him in the same way. It’s a more of an unspoken connection where you care about each other’s pleasure as opposed to an empty rose petals and candles kind of thing.

J - Jack Off (Masturbation headcanon)

He loves it when you make him touch himself for you. He loves to make you touch yourself for him too. Also, I have a kind of specific hc about this, and it goes with what I wrote here. So, after you and Kakashi open up about what you do and don’t like, you set up boundaries & agree to certain things & all that fun stuff. Now, if you discuss it & consent to it, even as just an rp situation or something, I can 500% see Kakashi doing something along the lines of this. When he catches you touching yourself or even just changing or naked or something. He might start jerking off while you have no idea he’s there. I feel like watching you would make him so hard, and he’d just fuckin blow if he could get away with it without you noticing. Omg, and if you punish him for being a pervert after, god, the man’s in love.

Omg, and if you heard him come in or something, but just let him fuck his hand while you put on a show for him until he’s about to come before you tell him you knew he was there the whole time, he’s gonna spill as soon as the words leave your mouth. Like, it’s just so hot to him.

K - Kink (One or more of their kinks)

I think it’s easier to list kinks he doesn’t have? Anyway, I’m just gonna do some of them. He likes pegging, dirty talk, degradation, humiliation, praise, voyeurism, exhibitionism, spanking (both heavy and light), edging, overstimulation, forced orgasms, bondage, sensory deprivation, hair pulling, and many more. Lol.

He also has some more questionable kinks including his thing for feet that’s not quite the usual fetish, but like, if you suggested giving him a foot job, he wouldn’t say no. Not to mention, if you’re being dominant, he’s kind of into you calling him a bad dog while he’s tied up on the floor and humping your leg. Whoops. Did I say that out loud?

L - Location (Favorite places to do the do)

Tbh, Kakashi loves the risk involved with potentially getting caught. Idk why, but I just have this gut feeling. Like, it really just gets his rocks off somehow. So, he’d probably like anywhere semipublic. Like, in a bathroom or against a tree while you’re away from the campsite on a mission. He’s not going to shove his hand down your pants when people are around, but he likes there to be a slight element of risk. I think he’d prefer people to hear what you’re doing as opposed to potentially seeing anything if that makes sense. Although, other than that, I do think he’s partial to the bedroom because you guys can entertain more of your kinks in the privacy of home. I mean, you can’t really peg him while you’re on a mission. Ya know.

M - Motivation (What turns them on, gets them going)

Tbh, I think it depends. If you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, he’s stubborn, and he won’t give in. For example, if you’re on an important mission that has a lot of risks. Kakashi isn’t going to neglect his responsibilities for a quickie. If anything, I think he’d be kind of upset that you wouldn’t value the delicate nature of the situation. I also think that if anybody else tried to get him going other than his partner, it would be like talking to a brick wall. He has no patience or energy to even act like he entertains it. If it’s you, and you’re, say, at home and just existing together, the slightest thing can set him off. Just a glimpse of skin or even just a memory of you. If you wear his clothes, smile at him, or even just say his name in a specific way, he’ll be in the mood.

N - NO (Something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

I don’t think Kakashi would ever use any form of ninjutsu on you. Like, I think he would be too terrified to hurt you, and it would trigger a lot in him.

In my opinion, it also takes Kakashi a loooooong time to get comfortable with you. You have to know him for years as friends before you get together. It takes a while for things to move forward. It takes a while for you guys to have sex. He definitely won’t break out all of his kinks at once. He really needs you to be patient until he’s ready to bring them up. If you try to push him too far too fast, I don’t think he’d be okay with that. However, if you’ve been with Kakashi long enough for him to really trust you 100%, I don’t think anything is really off limits.

O - Oral (Preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

I think we all know Kakashi’s good with his mouth. The man’s read enough smut to have countless tricks up his sleeve, and he undoubtedly pulls out all the stops to make you squirm. He’s going to find all your sensitive spots, and he’s going to abuse them until you’re so wound up you could scream. Then, he’s going to pull back just enough that you can’t get where you want and start the process over again.

However, while he loves giving, he fucking loves a good blow job. The man will be putty in your hands if you put your mouth on him. And if you let him fuck your face? Well, he’s definitely not lasting long. He loves making a mess of your face when he shoves his cock down your throat. It’s one of his favorite sights in the world.

P - Pace (Are they fast and rough? Slow and sensual? etc.)

He can go either way depending on the mood, and I also think that he uses a combination of the two in order to drag out the pleasure as long as possible with you. He’ll start out so slow, but as things heat up, he’ll pick up the pace… only to slow down again and make you want to cry. He enjoys the same treatment very much as well.  

Q - Quickie (Their opinions on quickies rather than proper sex, how often, etc.)

You’re kidding, right? I don’t think Kakashi could ever say “no” to a quickie. The man loves them, especially if you might get caught.

R - Risk (Are they game to experiment, do they take risks, etc.)

The man will try anything once. He’s so game.

S - Stamina (How many rounds can they go for, how long do they last…)

Okay, so I think Kakashi usually only goes for one or two rounds, but he lasts for a time that’s above average. Not to mention, it also depends on what you consider a “round” because he does tend to prefer to give you more orgasms than him. He just feels that it’s what he should do. He’s really a considerate partner in my opinion, and he will keep going somehow until you’re both satisfied, even if he has to take a quick break in between.

T - Toy (Do they own toys? Do they use them? On a partner or themselves?)

The man has oodles of delicious toys. He loves using them on himself and on you. He also loves when you use them on yourself and on him. Toys are something he regularly enjoys using in the bedroom with you. He thinks they just bring everything to a whole new level, and they provide lots of fun and entertainment.

U - Unfair (how much they like to tease)

You pull out a dictionary and look up the word tease? You’re gonna find a picture of Kakashi Hatake. The man’s merciless, and it makes him so fucking smug.

V - Volume (How loud they are, what sounds they make)

It depends on where you are and what you’re doing. He can be loud when it’s really good, but he only lets those noises out in the comfort of home. He knows how to control himself and muffle the sounds he can’t contain. However, sometimes, he can be quiet as a mouse, all labored breaths and grunts into your ear. Either way, it’s a sound that shakes you to your core.

W - Wild Card (Get a random headcanon for the character of your choice)

Kakashi in lacy little panties… just… *chef’s kiss*

Also, I hc that Kakashi gets really pink & flushed while having sex. Like, it would be super cute if he wasn’t making you see stars tbh. 

X - X-Ray (Let’s see what’s going on in those pants, picture or words)

I’m going to leave this art by @dianaii here. It’s exactly how I’ve always pictured that dumb dork. Also this art by @rrrotten because it’s a close second. 

Y - Yearning (How high is their sex drive?)

I think Kakashi’s got a weird combo here because he’s very athletic, so I think it would be above average. However, the man is depressed af, and his mental state is just a cocktail of mental issues, so I’d think it was below average. However, he reads Icha Icha all the time, so I think that would have an impact. The only thing is that Kakashi has literally said that his favorite part of the book is the plot, so what is the truth? Overall, I think he’s a really flexible partner who can really match whatever you bring to the table.

Z - ZZZ (How quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

See aftercare. As soon as he’s sure you’re good, he’s gonna be napping. He’ll at least close his eyes and relax if his brain doesn’t quiet down enough for him to sleep, though. 

[cherry-selfship]

Who was your first fo?

Your most recent fo?

The fo you are with most often?

The fo you haven't been with in a while?

The fo that you're like... why are you in here?

First f/o? - man, if we go back to the past, the first one(s) i was introduced to were bill and ted. i watched that movie the first time around when i was roughly 10-12. I had a massive crush on ted ( which has expanded to bill as i've grown older ) - the first f/o i officially decided yes i love you this is a thing now was sam w.inchester. i started super.natural and immediately got attached, and then eventually just decided he was Boyfriend Material and that he was, in fact, Mine. ( we have since gotten engaged, whoo! )

Most recent f/o? - oddly enough, in a way, this could also be answered with bill and ted. i might have watched excellent adventure when i was younger, but i had no concept of self shipping back then, and just recently went to watch the movies again for some nostalgia, and that old crush hit me like a ton of bricks. i promptly gave both my goofy rockstar boys a ( poly ) spot on my list. - other than them, it'd be jerome valeska from gotham. i needed a loony crime boy to just have fun committing crimes with and jerome fit the bill perfectly. he was fun, and cute, and my brain got attached when i started gotham.

Who i'm with most often? - honestly, this goes through hyperfixation periods where i talk a BUNCH about one f/o and media, and then will gradually rotate to another, but i will say i've been attached to bill and ted, johnny silverhand, and jerome for a bit now. ( I need an excuse to love on my other boys! )

That I haven't been with in a while? - oh god, joseph seed. i love him very very much, but my fixations haven't swung back to far c.ry 5 in a while, which means he's been chilling in the corner ( alongside sharky ) watching everything else happen.

The 'why are you here?' - honestly, i cannot think of anyone other than 🐧 and 🖋. in his source 🐧 is kind of a bad guy and probably not the person most people would see and go "!!! dad!!!!" but i did, and then 🖋 is just kind of a goofball, and despite being a dad in his source, i never thought i'd come to see him as MY dad. more like a goofy friend, but my brain went DAD and now here i am.

[emospritelet]

I'm having massive anxiety attacks over COVID-19 so for the promptathon I'd like to submit 14, and I hope it hasnt been done yet. If it was, then 18 ;-) Thank you for doing this!

14: “I’m afraid there’s only one bed”

You know what I’m about...

This is a continuation of Curfew and is inspired by two posts on unusual words by @bibliosauruswrecks

Prompt list here

[AO3]

x

“Scrabble?” said Belle. “Are you sure?”

When Gold had asked if she wanted to play a game, she had agreed readily. The tiny grin he had and the gleam in his eyes was too intriguing to resist. If she was entirely honest with herself, she had been hoping he would propose something a little more shocking than Scrabble, and told herself off for her libido’s ability to twist the most innocent of statements. Face it, Belle, he was unlikely to suggest a game of who can orgasm the most in a single night. Which is a pity because I bet the answer would be you. 

“I thought, as a librarian, you might appreciate it,” said Gold, sliding the box out from the middle of the small pile of board games she had. “Perhaps we can teach each other some new words.”

“Well, I could never object to that,” she said, and he grinned, catching her eye as he stepped past her to the kitchen.

“In that case,” he said. “Perhaps you’d care to make things interesting. A small wager with the spoils to the winner?”

Belle followed him in, watching as he set the box on the table and pulled out her chair.

“What are the stakes?” she asked, and the smile grew, revealing the gold tooth on his lower jaw.

“Oh, I don’t know just yet.”

“You’re expecting me to agree to something without knowing the terms?” she asked flatly, and he shrugged.

“I did say let’s make it interesting.”

She couldn’t quite decide whether he was flirting or not, but either way she was feeling reckless, and she put her hands on her hips, raising her chin.

“Alright, you’re on,” she said defiantly.

“Good. In that case, shall we have another glass of wine?”

“Trying to get me drunk in the hope it’ll put me off my game?” she asked, and he grinned.

“You got me.”

“Well, it won’t work. I’m the Scrabble queen.”

“All hail Your Majesty,” said Gold, bowing his head. “But I won’t be prostrating myself at your feet just yet.”

“Huh.” She took a seat, reaching for the wine bottle. “We’ll see about that.”

x

“Oh come on!”

Belle huffed in irritation as Gold placed his final tile.

“Blatherskite? Are you serious?”

He smirked.

“Look it up.”

Growling under her breath, Belle reached for her dictionary. It had already been well thumbed during the two games they had played, for words both of them had used. It was one game each, and they were most of the way through the decider. She had been winning. Until Gold broke out ‘blatherskite’, of course. She grumbled when she found the word, and closed the dictionary with a thump.

“Okay, fine,” she said loftily. “You can have that one.”

“Very generous of you.”

Belle drank the rest of her wine, setting down the glass and totting up the score. She was feeling a little light-headed; they had finished one bottle and started on a second, and she had enjoyed their games. Gold was excellent company, highly intelligent, with a dry sense of humour that complemented her own. Sitting across the table from him hadn’t helped her deal with her rising lust, and her attention had wandered on occasion to what he might be hiding underneath those close-fitting suits. Gold seemed oblivious to her desire. Or perhaps he wasn’t remotely interested in her. Now there was a depressing thought.

Shaking her head, she turned to her own tiles, chewing her lip as she studied the board. Gold reached out to pour them some wine, and Belle’s eyes flicked between the tiles and the board. I can’t put that. Seriously, brain, is that all you can come up with?

“Do you forfeit, Miss French?”

Belle glanced up, a blush rising in her cheeks. He was watching her with a tiny grin on his face, lounging in the chair as his long fingers stroked the stem of the wine glass.

“Did you decide on the stakes yet?” she asked, and he shrugged.

“I’m still thinking that one through.”

“Huh. In that case I’m not forfeiting anything.” 

She inhaled deeply, reaching for a tile and spelling out O-R-G-A-S-M. Gold raised an eyebrow, his twisted smile growing a little.

“Really?” he drawled. “So early in the game?”

“We don’t all have to work up to a big finish,” she said, and he chuckled.

“Touché.”

Belle totted up her score, then took some more tiles and sat back, pleased with herself. He looked amused, and she took a sip of wine as she watched him studying his own tiles. Okay, I threw him a line and he didn’t run in horror, so that’s something.

“You stuck?” she asked cheerfully, and Gold glanced up.

“Not at all,” he said. “I’m just wondering whether I should spell out something innocuous or follow you into the gutter.”

“Hey, you can have a ton of fun in the gutter.”

“I imagine so.” Fingertips caressed the tops of his tiles. “Very well.”

He used five tiles, expanding on her word to spell out his own: S-Y-N-O-R-G-A-S-M-I-A. Belle sucked in a breath, and he looked up, meeting her gaze.

“Do you want to look that one up?” he asked softly, and she shook her head, her blush deepening.

“No, I know what it means,” she said. “Simultaneous orgasm, right?”

“Mutual pleasure,” he said. “Correct.”

He was still looking at her, and she could feel that low-down tug in her belly as her arousal grew.

“Well, I guess that’s one way to pass the time,” she said, and Gold’s eyes gleamed.

“One of many.”

Belle grinned, enjoying the flirting. Her eyes roved the board as she considered the tiles she had. Early in the game, when her tiles had been little but Qs and Xs, she had resorted to spelling out fell. The excess of vowels she now had would come in useful. Her eyes flicked up to meet Gold’s, and she licked her lips as she selected her tiles, spelling out her chosen word F-E-L-L-A-T-I-O. Gold’s grin turned wicked.

“Really?” he said. “What a promising choice.”

“Another way to pass the time, perhaps,” she said innocently.

“Indeed.”

She scored her word while he looked at his tiles, sitting back when she was done and taking a drink of wine. Gold was still glancing between the board and his tiles.

“What’s the matter?” she asked, and he shrugged, gesturing at her last word.

“I’m afraid I don’t have enough tiles to return the favour,” he said, and Belle giggled.

“Does that mean I win?”

Gold sat back in his chair with a secretive smile on his face.

“Perhaps.”

“You didn’t decide on the stakes in this wager,” she said. “What do I get?”

“What do you want?”

Belle hesitated, her heart thumping. She knew very well what she wanted, but although they had been flirting quite shamelessly for a little while, she didn’t want to make a fool of herself. He was watching her, a glint in his eyes, and she decided to go for it. If she totally misread the situation, she could always blame the wine. She took a deep breath, gesturing at the Scrabble board.

“I - I want to try another way of passing the time,” she said, keeping her eyes fixed on his. Her heart was high in her throat, but Gold smiled, drumming his fingers slowly on the table top.

“Very well,” he said. “In that case, let’s put the board away. It’s getting late.”

“Yes.”

He took a drink, and Belle did the same. Desire was rising in her, making her skin tingle and causing an insistent throb in her groin. Gold set down his glass, the tip of his tongue sweeping across his lips.

“You were very kind to invite me up here tonight,” he said quietly. “I’m grateful you offered me a place to stay.”

“Yeah, about that…” Belle put down her glass. “I’m afraid there’s only one bed.”

“I see.”

His eyebrows twitched, a corner of his mouth pulling upwards.

“Do you want me to sleep on the couch?” he asked softly.

“No.”

“Very well.”

Gold pushed back his chair, getting to his feet, and held out a hand to her.

“Shall we see how many ways we can find to pass the time?”

[imuybemovoko]

Some info about Aylaan

Since I use some of this conlang in my title thingy and the banner image, I figure it might as well be the first one I start to explain. 

Most of my conlangs are a part of a setting I’ve been slowly developing for years that’s an alternate future of Earth where some apocalyptic shit happens and it gets so bad that some people lose their spoken languages and replace them a few generations later. I might explain that more in a different post. Aylaan is a descendant of one of the languages that finds its origin in this time. I’ll discuss it at the time of humanity’s largest interstellar war to date, which is a war between a colony that fell victim to a cult’s control and the rest of our inhabited stars. It’s the most commonly spoken language in a large part of North America, centered around the southwestern United States but extending as far as the Mississippi River. Aylaan is written with the Hacik alphabet, which first came into use sometime shortly after the Great Collapse. I don’t have a good digital representation of it yet (the sample in the banner image was hand drawn in paint.net) so maybe I’ll discuss it in more detail later. The grammar gets kinda crazy so I’ll probably discuss it one piece at a time over a bunch of different posts. For now, I’ll just cover the phonology and the romanization and some other basics. 

Consonants: 

/m n ŋ p t k q t͡s t͡ʃ pʼ tʼ kʼ t͡sʼ t͡ʃʼ ɸ θ ð s z ʃ ʒ x ʕ h r l j/ <m n ň p t k q c ć ṗ ṭ ḳ c̣ ć̣ f þ ð s z ś ź ç ɣ r l y> /m n ŋ p t k q l/ may be geminate between syllables ...I go back and forth on whether to list [w] as a phoneme and the diphthongs involving it as vowel-consonant sequences or to list it as an allophone of /ʊ/ when it occurs in diphthongs. In my documentation I use w in the romanization but I go back and forth between w and u in actual practice, so a sequence [aw] may be written <aw> or <au>. I suppose I’d be more inclined to analyze some dialects one way and others the other way, there’s a bit of variation in how vowels are treated. Yes I romanized x as ç, it was an early aesthetic choice which I’m less sure about now but haven’t bothered to change, don’t @ me lol

Vowels:

Vowels vary somewhat by dialect. In most cases the vowels can be listed as simply /a e i o u/ with long and short variations, but in the standard dialect, short vowels have quality differences too and in western dialects, the quality distinction is used to the exclusion of length. (The further east you go, the more it relies on length, until in the far east, the quality shifts haven’t actually taken place and the sole distinction is length.) I will therefore list the vowels as they occur in the standard dialect: /a ɒː ɛ eː ɪ iː ɤ oː ʊ uː/ Diphthongs may only form in short vowels, and only pairs of short i or short u and a different vowel may exist (hence my indecision when it comes to listing these as vowel pairs or sequences of a consonant and a vowel.) I’ve used w and j in the phonemic transcription here, and I’ve also used the short-vowel qualities, mostly for my sanity. /ja aj jɛ ɛj jʊ ʊj jɤ ɤj wa aw wɪ ɪw wɤ ɤw wɛ ɛw/ <ya ay ye ey yu uy yo oy wa aw wi iw wo ow we ew>

Primary stress falls on the first long vowel or diphthong, before the first geminate consonant, or, if none are present, the initial syllable. 

Syllables can have an onset containing up to two consonants which either follow a sonority hierarchy or are a reversal of a voiceless stop /p t k q/ and a sibilant fricative /s ʃ/, i.e. a cluster like /st/ and an onset of up to two consonants which also follow sonority hierarchy. This may result in gemination if the onset of one syllable and the coda of the previous match and are single consonants. Long vowels never precede geminates. 

Word order is verb-initial with descriptors that follow what they modify, indirect object (...usually) last, and some complexity involving obviation and a person hierarchy. Basically, the lower one on the hierarchy must be after the higher one in the word order, then agent and patient is marked by direct or inverse voice. The lower in the hierarchy is typically marked with an obviate, but a special proximate marker only occurs in inverse voice. Subject pronouns most often drop in direct voice. I’ll give an example of each with the same nouns and verb: Mene þaayareň. seek-1S ring-OBV Menoþelir ňa e þaayareň. seek-3S-INV PROX 1S ring-OBV “The ring seeks me.” Since an inanimate object seeking someone is unusual, this takes a lot of funky marking to indicate that this is actually what’s happening. This is of course not a full explanation of this system, that would take a lot of space that I don’t want to use here. 

This language has been in progress for close to 15 months I think. It’s the most developed in its family. I started the proto-language sometime early last spring. I have several other languages that are related to this one and I’ve been slowly expanding the family. I’ll showcase its relatives, and my other conlangs, like this at some point.

[blessuswithblogs]

The Best Games of the Decade, By My Estimations

With only a good month (ACTUALLY LIKE A GOOD 24 HOURS HA HA I WROTE THIS BACK IN NOVEMBER) or so left of the 2010s (we are regrettably not quite far along enough to really start giving them jaunty names like "the Roaring Twenties" yet, but soon we will be free of this chronological no man's land) I find my thoughts turning to my enduring hobby slash interest slash everlasting shame: video games. While a decade is ultimately a fairly arbitrary point of reference, in the business of video gamesdom, ten years is a small eternity and some very significant games have graced us since the clock struck midnight on January 1st, 2010.

 I might still be too young for this kind of nostalgia, granted, but I can't help but think about the game experiences I've had in the last ten years that have been altogether Important to Me. I am less interested in ranking these titles than I am in exploring why they made such an impact on me, and why, if we were to borrow the esteemed verbiage of one Sid Meyer, they stood the test of time. ...or less so, if they came out more recently. Sometimes on these lists I sort of scrimp and scrabble to actually fill it up with enough games and I have to sort of cheat and put things on there I haven't really played, but fortunately I am not so destitute that I have only been able to play one new game a year since this decade began. To that end, this is more of a personal list than usual, that will have less to do with "well the game was kind of a Big Deal........" and more to do with "well the game was kind of a Big Deal to ME."

Dark Souls The First:

This game will likely find its way onto many such lists in the coming days, because it is such a singular thing. Honestly, I would put Demon's Souls on here too, but that was actually like. 2009ish? At any rate, its spiritual successor was a marked improvement in most ways, expanding upon the core design tenets that made the unassuming FROM software ps3 title such an unexpected success: deliberate gameplay that demanded players go slow and respect both enemies and environment until they were sufficiently skilled and experienced, boss fights against extremely memorable monsters and also sometimes trees, strange asynchronous multiplayer that worked in spite of itself, and a meticulously designed world filled with oddities, grotesqueries, mysteries, and tragedies. Dark Souls was a phenomenon. "The Dark Souls of _____" is dig at gormless games journalists that endures and is relevant to this day. It created a whole subgenre that remains fairly untapped because of how much of a gamble it is to really go in on what made Dark Souls good in a game without that kind of name recognition and marketing blitz, and it changed the way the zeitgeist thought about video games in a lot of ways.

Inscrutability is an incredibly important part of the Souls experience. Abandon all hope of transparency, ye who enter here, because you're not getting it. The games were designed with the intent of being a sort of collaborative community puzzle, where players who stumbled on secrets and treasures in the game could leave down messages for others to alert them to hidden prizes - or just try to bait somebody to jump down a bottomless pit. Patches does that. A lot. It's kind of this thing. There is a very specific mood and atmosphere that Miyazaki and company were going for with these games that creates a sort of artistic catch-all for complaints I would level at basically anything else. "These weapons are poorly balanced." Yep. It's not really trying to be balanced. "Half of these systems are unexplained and nonsensical." Oh boy are they ever. "A giant man-sized baby just invaded my world and tried to kill me with a ladle." Yes, yes he did. The bizarre, fever dream ambiance of Dark Souls is enhanced by all of this. It will put a lot of people off and I can't really say "oh you just don't get it." because like no in any other game this would be bullshit nonsense for idiots. Souls just kind of makes it work by being compellingly baffling.

This murkiness also serves to highlight one of the core conceits of the game: the simple joy of greater mastery. Dark Souls starts you out with very little. You have nothing, know nothing, are nothing, and all the npcs you meet are pretty sure you're going to fuck off and die pretty much as soon as you break line of sight. On your first time through, that's probably true, too. The skeletons in the graveyard are infamous. As you claw your way through the game, as you learn more about it, you start to see measurable progress getting made. What was once a bunch of very tired men in armor giving you unsettlingly sinister laughs is now the outline of a story, vague but extant, with more waiting to be discovered. Where you used to flail around and die to random hollows in the undead burg, now you dance circles around them and paste them in one or two hits with your fancy weapons (or enormous wooden club, depending). A world that was once borderline impossible to actually traverse gradually opens up and becomes more familiar. In Dark Souls, death serves a purpose, and that purpose is not actually to block your progress. Its purpose is to get you to learn the game and get better at it. It's actually very player empowering in a way a lot of 'press F to pay respects' theme park rides are not. I'm probably treading a very thin line between thoughtful analysis (ha) and "you cheated not only the game, but yourself." here, but I'm going to stand firm in my belief that the way Souls games endeavor to make you improve yourself over time is a legitimate and meritorious way to design a game.

Of course, Dark Souls the First is very rough around the edges in spots. The second half of the game is somewhat infamous for being unpolished and kind of slapdash. The online was questionable, the PC port was laughable until the community went in and fixed it, Lost Izalith is a whole fucking thing, the works. The fact that it's so good in spite of the rough spots is, I think, what made it such a singular game. I'm one of those hopelessly sentimental idiot bitches who thinks that things that are imperfect are kind of charming and compelling in ways that very cookie cutter, by the book, technically competent but aesthetically bankrupt things are not. Miyazaki had a vision when he made this game, and that vision created an enduring legacy. That's worthy of respect in a way not many games are. It's messy and flawed but those flaws are just kind of endearing because they're proof that the developers were trying to push boundaries and be ambitious and make something new and interesting.

Dark Souls The Second:

Dark Souls 2 has a kind of weird reputation in the online net-o-sphere. There are as many opinions about this game as there are people who have played it. Sometimes more, honestly. I spent a lot of time kind of convinced it wasn't that good until some things clicked and I realized it was HELLA good. That you kind of need the DLC to get the whole picture is... unfortunate, but such is the age we live in. Going into this game, I thought that a second Dark Souls was unnecessary. The first had ended satisfactorily, and I had no desire to see FROM get tied down to the world of Lordran. The quote B Team unquote that developed 2 seemed to agree with me, and created what is one of the most metacognitive games I have ever played. Now, let's not get ahead of ourselves. When I say metacognitive, I do not mean it in the usual facile sense of, say, whatever Jonathan Blow has churned out recently that beats you over the head with the fact that you're playing a video game and you should probably feel bad about it or the way Doki Doki Literature Club does the Epic Subversions! of visual novels by trying to convince you that the game knows it is a game, but failing because it cannot overcome the limitations that it has as a static, unchanging lump of code. Dark Souls 2 aims higher. And you know me - I always try to aim high.

Dark Souls 2 deals with cycles. Most notably, cycles of futility. Cycles that are so enduring and perpetual that it matters not how you choose to resolve it, it will simply keep going no matter what you do. Drangleic is a hollow simulacrum of Lordran - and that is exactly the point. The familiarity and design consistencies between the two games is intentional. The curse of life is the curse of want. It took me a long time to really understand what Dark Souls 2 meant by that. The World of Dark Souls 2 is a sort of unending purgatory. Thousands upon thousands of undead have made the journey, linked the fire, perhaps chose to become the Dark Lord instead, only for some other undying fool to go and light it anyway. Each time, a new order is built upon the bones of the old, and in time, joins its forebears in the ashes of history. When I beat the game the first time and felt that the ending was unsatisfying, I failed to realize that was, again, the point. If the game had shipped with all endings in it, I think I would have been less miffed, but, well, the curse of life is the curse of downloadable content. If you choose to take the throne, link the fire, you have essentially accomplished nothing. Another age of Fire will begin, and then end, and so on and on into the ages, an unending litany of suffering and violence, because people cannot let go of what once was. They seek and scrabble to claim scraps of glory in a systemic nightmare of self-fulfilling prophecies and false dichotomies. When Aldia eventually arrives with the DLC packs, things really start to take shape.

Dark Souls 2 is a commentary on itself. An admission of the futility of trying to recapture the unique spark of the first game, and the necessity of doing something -different-. The playerbase hated it on release. It was both not enough like the first game and too much like the first game. It wasn't like, reviewbombing on metacritic hate, but the consensus rapidly became that 2 was just worse than the first game and kind of a bummer, a half-hearted cashgrab by a "B Team" while the really talented developers worked on Bloodborne. So, basically, they proved 2's central thesis completely correct. A hollow cycle of just repeating and iterating on what has come before serves nobody. In the words of Straid of Olaphis, "it is all a curse." That is the true curse in Dark Souls 2. An undead might link the fire to try and preserve their fading sense of self and memory, but it is but a temporary measure, a prolonging of greater suffering by bowing to an order designed to oppress. Before the Ringed City was ever a thing, Agdyne and Vendrick were here telling us about how Gwyn was so covetous of his own perceived right to rule that he cursed all of humankind into a twisted state of mutually exclusive ideas. Die as a mortal in the flame, or endure as an undead husk in the darkness, bereft of heart and soul. Or... does it even matter? All of this has happened before. It will all happen again.

Those who slave away eternally under this paradigm are doomed to never find peace or fulfillment, because it was not designed that way. Gwyn's fear was so great that he got entangled in his own karmic vortex, reincarnating over and over again with his other lord friends in slightly different forms and circumstances that would continue, eternally, to make the same mistakes in the pursuit of the same misguided goals. Aldia, the Scholar of the First Sin, is presented as one of the few beings in this entire misbegotten affair with an inkling of what is really going on. Both he and Vendrick knew that Drangleic was destined for the same dreg heap as every other civilization built upon the power of the soul, but all of their efforts to prevent this fall were for naught, because they were all confined by the same twisted system in which there can be no change or joy. It is only after Vendrick loses his nerve entirely and fades away into a mindless hollow and Aldia loses everything in his increasingly unhinged and ethically questionable experiments that he realizes that they were doing it all wrong.

I think I've probably gone on too long at this point so I'll try to be brief: the "true" ending of the game, made available after all 3 DLCs were released, involves gathering the power of truly mighty souls in a crown and using them as a sort of... loophole. The empowered crown does not cure the curse of undeath. What it does is prevent -hollowing-. The degradation of heart and mind. And after the final battle, you leave the throne behind. But there is a very important difference here from the Dark Lord ending of the first game. By finding this loophole, and rejecting Gwyn's order entirely, you and you alone have broken free from the endless cycle of suffering, and by doing so, perhaps gained the knowledge necessary to take the first steps into forging a new path entirely. Beyond the reach of Light, beyond the scope of Dark.

So yeah basically it's like Dark Souls the First, with some improvements and changes and what have you, so it's got the same fun to play deliberate explorey dark holey kind of thing going on, it just takes the concepts and runs with it to places I never would have expected a game to ever go. It is legitimately one of the only metanarratively aware games I have played (that I can remember, anyway) that sticks the landing, because it is not obnoxiously explicit about it. Undertale was fun and a worthwhile game by any reasonable metric, but it falls into the same trap as all the others: when you are acknowledged as the player of a game in anything more than a briefly comedic bit of 4th wall breaking, any hope of cleverness or thoughtfulness goes out the window, because it brings to light an ironclad truth of the medium: you, the player, are just as constrained in what you can do as the NPCs in the game, who are also fake. When they start haranguing you about about brotherkilling or being a cheating visual novel boyfriend or possibly girlfriend or what have you, it's just. Meaningless. It is a contrivance of the developer, specifically included in the game as a programmed possibility designed to be experienced.

Dark Souls 2 gets around this by not engaging with the player on that level of metanarrative. It deals much more in metaphor and allegory. It's not, like, especially subtle, but it is subtle enough to let your mind draw parallels without immediately blaring at you in comic sans "THIS IS A VIDEO GAME, KID" and taking you out of it entirely. It's a fine line to walk. A barrier between worlds has to be maintained for these stories to work. I'm the kind of player who will never do a renegade run of Mass Effect because I hate being mean and nasty for no reason, even to bits of code in a game, because I try to engage with it all in good faith and do my best to let myself buy into the illusion that these bits of code are characters with thoughts and feelings. When an angry flower man pops up and says "OOHOOHOO LOOKS LIKE YOU JUST RELOADED THE GAME BECAUSE YOU KILLED SOMEBODY" my first thought isn't "wow fucked up..." it's "oh well there goes my suspension of disbelief" because like. If you're going to call me out on that then fuck I can just go into the code and make you say "there is a frightful hobgoblin haunting europe, and its name is ligma" and like. Yep. Bow before my mastery. I guess. I don't want to get into a slapfight like that with Toby Fox. He seems like a nice person.

I don't know maybe this is just something unique to me, and other people can deal with these stories without immediately becoming depressed by the deeply artificial nature of it all. It's complicated. I will say that I like Undertale a lot, but the reasons that I like it come very much from the character interactions, spritework, and music, and not the time Flowey closed my game. It's just the same pony island bullshit as its always been. "OooOOoOOoh uninstall the game or you're actually just going back and messing with events for your own perverse satisfactionNNNnNNnN" fuck off dipshit it's all fake garbage for idiot children and I am not causing a cartoon skeleton existential agony by considering that maybe I could play this fun game that I liked and payed cash dollars for again. Now, all this considered, my next game on the list might be surprising...

Nier: Automata

Okay so let's just get this out of the way. Nier does a very famous thing at the end when you get the true ending where you are given the choice to forfeit your saved data in order to help another player get past the final boss, which is... the credits. So how is this different? Well, for one thing, it's not like the central narrative conceit of the game. The sexy android psychodrama functions perfectly well without it. It's kind of its own thing. It's... an expression of hope, kind of. An admission that you -care- about the fates of these characters, in spite of being bits of code, because their personalities and their world and the way they interact are all compelling and endearing, and you would give up something of tangible worth and importance to maybe give them a chance for a better outcome in somebody else's game, too. It's a very strange thing that I can think of no real equivalent for. You even get to put a little personalized message on the extra shmup ship you send over to help some other player get through to the end. It's an act that... kind of exists outside of the story, but also kind of in it. I think the important thing here is that the conceit is that you are making this sacrifice to help somebody else, not because a small goat child said something Foreboding. It's a confirmation that if a game makes you feel things, makes you think, maybe it wasn't just a waste of time.

So enough about that. What about like the other 99% of the game? A lot of people in my peer group are super sweet on the original Nier: Gestalt game. I played through it. It was... okay. Like it absolutely had very charming characters and story and all of that but it was just kind of a slog to play through and I kind of wished the entire game was just that segment where you're playing a text adventure. Automata continues to have very charming characters and story and all of that, but it also actually like. It's fun? To hit the buttons? Like, that Platinum pedigree isn't just for show. It's not the most technical game they've ever made, but it's fun and varied (shmups! shmups!) and there's some fun character customization and you even have a self-destruct switch which is always hilarious. The real attraction is the narrative, visuals, and gorgeous music, but it's also just a solid swordswingy dodgy robot smashy time irrespective of that. So like. Yeah.

The story and characters are very interesting and well done and goes to some very dark and uncomfortable places sometimes about the nature of memory, artificial intelligence, the often arbitrary labels we give ourselves, and the implications of sexy robot men with no junk. The nice thing about Nier Automata is that the events in game are fairly straightforward and relayed in a way that people who don't compulsively watch lore videos can understand without too much difficulty, so I don't really need to go into a detailed summary of why it's genius because of tHe AlLeGoRy. It kind of speaks for itself, for the most part. Does 9S want to fuck 2B or destroy 2B? Maybe some other verb entirely! We may never know. Well, I do know. He wants to fuck her. That is obvious. But it does not preclude the other, which is a salient and disconcerting point the game tries to make with that whole sequence. 9S has really had a rough time of it, you know? All that stuff in his own game and then he pops up on the First only to get his face caved in by the Warrior of Darkness. Rotten luck.

Basically, Yoko Taro sets out to say some things with his strange brainchild about androids with very big butts, but when you think about it, the attractiveness of the YorHa androids is also kind of a statement, too. If you're building something in your image, wouldn't you want to make it as sexy as possible? I would. Like, if you could make your machine children smoking hot, why wouldn't you? It's only polite. Nobody wants to be an ugly robot. Maybe the machine lifeforms would be having a better time of it all if they weren't put in categories like "short stubby." Anyway. Saying things. He says things. The game is thought provoking and evocative and at times very very sad. I love to cry. More on that later. I feel like I'm coming up a little short on this after my small dissertation on Dark Souls 2, but sometimes you need to fuckin. Get that kind of thing off your chest. Automata is challenging, but not Souls 2 challenging, where you kind of have to look in all the nooks and crannies and paid DLC packs to really get what it's trying to say. Though I think you fight the president of Square Enix in one of the Nier DLCs. That's pretty intellectually formidable.

Bloodborne:

It is no secret that I love the Bloodborne. It's very fun, very tight, usually works right most of the time, blood vials are shit but what can you do, and is one of the most visually arresting games like, ever. Ever ever. Behold! A Paleblood Sky! indeed. It's got the Souls pedigree to make combat fun and challenging, but its also very squishy and visceral and kind of grody in a good way because it ties in heavily to the themes of what really separates people from "beasts" and how more often than not we're just fooling ourselves. We're all rancid beasts. Hunger makes monsters of us all. It is this thematic strength, and the uncommon aplomb with which the game takes a hard left turn into "wait what the fuck???" town, that I regard it so highly. It's a game with a lot to say, especially about our narrow view of "intelligence" and the imagined "right" it grants us to subjugate and victimize those we deem inferior. The Victorian setting is no accident - a lot of the horror in the game draws heavily from classic colonialist sentiment and the erroneous conviction that all things are there for the benefit of Mankind (Glory to them, see previous) that commonly defines that era. Also that architecture is some spooky shit I tell you what. Even when there isn't a large spider man with a brain for a head hanging off of it. There are those, in this game, by the way. You thought you were gonna deal with werewolves? Bitch your eyes have yet to open, strap the fuck in.

Bloodborne is the coveted "what a twist!" game I so laboriously search for. A game that expertly leads you to believe some things, then gradually shows you that you are a fucking wrong idiot baby and now there are mushroom men from mars running around casting magic missile at you. It gets this right in part because the clues were there all along, if you bothered to search for them. The first part of the game is fairly expected of what the promo material was all about, save for some weirdness with dreams and cryptic mutterings of "Paleblood." Then, you know, some shit starts getting wacky. You start running into giantass monster men clad in the trappings of the church. The NPCs you talk to start becoming more and more unhinged. Sometimes you will be randomly lifted bodily into the air and die and it is fucking alarming the first time I tell you what. Strange men with bags start appearing in random spots, and if they kill you, they don't actually kill you - they put you in the bag and kidnap you, the only way to reach a certain area of the game early. This hidden area is filled with more bagmen and some very angry giant pigs, because those are in this game too. Then you finally enter the big cathedral at the center of town and its lined with really odd looking statues of aliens and you touch a weird skull and you get a vision from the Mothercrystal about how to progress, and you tell the password to the gatekeeper, and he's like "ok cool get in here" but actually he is a fucking dessicated corpse and this isn't Dark Souls there ain't no undead here. Maybe. Are there?

Then you get into the Forbidden Woods and there are like, the weird mushroom men, if you go looking for them, and snakes, and really BIG snakes, and men who are made out of snakes and kind of give you weird nostalgic memories of Resident Evil 4 and the las plagas sphagetti heads. And there are more statues and giant fucking gravestones? That are really unnerving? And also if you went poking around you might have also met Patches again, who is back, but also a spider, and he'll show you how to get into college, except the college is in a nightmare and full of slime people, which is actually pretty normal now that I think about it, and then you can go out into ANOTHER nightmare, which is just another obnoxious poison swamp but the winter lanterns live there and those things are a fucking trip. Anyway you get to Bergynwerth eventually and there are weird insect guys and weird disheveled looking fellas that literally eat your brains if they get close and this awful npc hunter (the real horror of the night i tell you what) who casts fucking megaflare and you FINALLY get to the center of it all and jump into the lake except it's not the lake, it's actually like a fucking pocket dimension and there's just a big spider chilling out. You have to kill it to progress. And then when you do things just REALLY go to hell. And this is to say nothing of the Old Hunters DLC. This game is a fucking nightmare and it's great. Easily one of the scariest games ever made, genuinely frightening and weird and it doesn't just lose its edge when you realize the monster is a big goofy man with a flappy jaw. You are the monster, and that monster is a tiny squid baby. You're a squid now! Because you ate umbilical cords! Why!? I DON'T KNOW! INSIGHT, MOTHERFUCKER!

So what I just described is probably sounding completely absurd, random, and borderline early 2000s era monkeycheese style humor, but you gotta believe me, it is only absurd. It's actually very deliberately absurd. A lot of people will say that Bloodborne is one of the only games to get Lovecraft right, but I have actually read some of that dreck and I will say Bloodborne really only shares some aesthetic DNA and nomenclature with the racist tentacle man who ate nothing but canned beans. The themes are actually very different. Lovecraft wrote of a paradoxical contradictory world where Unspeakable Elder Things lurked behind every shadow, ready to emerge and destroy everything, but they were also very apathetic and noncommital about the whole thing. They didn't actually care that much either way, but they were still Bad, because they were weird and alien and inimicable to human life because of that foreign aspect. Like Nyarlathotep was originally envisioned as a travelling black guy who would go from town to town and show people some awesome inventions and shit and that was supposed to be evil. The dude's neuroses about race permeated -everything- he wrote.

On the other hand, Bloodborne takes a different tack. One of the central theses of the game is that the Great Ones are -not- evil. In fact, they're rather sympathetic by nature and will do what they can to help, if asked. The horror of the game comes not from the actions of the alien monstrosities who are actually nicer than most of the humans, but from what the human characters do in the pursuit of knowledge and power. Atrocities are committed by the dozen in some vague pursuit of higher understanding, against both the citizens of Yharnam and the supposed cosmic horrors themselves. This point is driven home by the fact that a number of the more alien entities you encounter in the game aren't actually hostile at all. Rom, the Vacuous Spider, will just chill out with you indefinitely at the Moonside Lake if you don't strike the first blow, and doesn't even really begin to actively defend herself until you prove yourself to be a determined murder machine. Ebrietas, the Daughter of the Cosmos, is found minding her own business in an out of the way corner of the Upper Cathedral Ward, mourning Rom after you, you know, killed her in cold blood. Again, she is completely non-hostile until you start shit. In the Old Hunters, Kos (or some say Kosm) is actually benevolent sort of mother goddess to the people of a small fishing hamlet. ...until the "scholars" of Bergynwerth murder her in the name of science, too.

All of the evil and horror and stomach-turning cruelty in Bloodborne comes from corrupt systems of power run rampant, not something as facile as the supposedly intrinsic malice of beings different from us. The terrors of the cosmos are nothing before the vile, willful depravity of mankind itself. That's the idea at the heart of it all. The Great Ones, who exist on a higher plane of existence, seem to have largely left this cruelty behind. Even the Moon Presence, the principle cause of the Hunter's Dream, is trying to help Laurence and Gherman - it's just that it's so different from humans, its idea of helping is a bit. Strange. It's this really fresh and unique take on the genre, this byzantine tragedy of miscommunication, good intentions, and mortal greed, that creates one of the vanishingly few games at are actually frightening. It doesn't even have to sacrifice being a good game to do it! No hiding in closets from the scourge of screen blur and heavy breathing here. In terms of gameplay, it's probably the most refined of quintet. I'm unsure if I should count Sekiro with them or not. It's a much different thing. Trick weapons and hunter's garb are iconic, extremely stylish, original, and honestly just fucking dope as hell. You've got a hammer that explodes when it hits things, a giant pizza cutter, a katana you coat with your own blood to empower, a gunrapier and a gunspear, a giant... wagon wheel... because Miyazaki just really likes those I guess, a bow that is also a sword, a giant fucking ship's cannon you just carry around with you, a portable flamethrower, an... eyeball, that shoots space rocks, for some reason. Like the weapon design and selection alone is worthy of considerable accolade. Bloodborne is fantastic, play it if you can.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I was a little bit kinda wishy washy on putting this on here, but I think overall that it deserves a spot. In terms of story and themes, it's honestly a bit whatever. It's Zelda. Don't be an asshole to your genius daughter who knows like ten times as much as you do about everything I guess. Prince Sidon is a nice fishman. Link is like, distressingly, "this is a kids game!!" hot when you put him in certain outfits. I'm pretty sure every configuration of sexuality interested in the act of boning probably at least went "hoo boy" when Link put on the gerudo outfit. That is, of course, not really enough to qualify for such a prestigious position as one of the best games of the decade. Where Breath of the Wild shines is its world design, music, and the masterful layer of melancholy it drapes everything in. The ruined land of Hyrule is beautiful and sad in equal measure, the vistas enhanced by a fantastic soundtrack with an incredibly rich personal voice. It takes a very certain kind of design philosophy, in my opinion, to create an open world that is actually meritorious and worthwhile and not just an excuse to spend a lot of time hoofing it through vast expanses of nothing interesting. There is enough raw Stuff in the land of Hyrule, from enemy encounters to happening upon NPCs to just finding something really weird and inexplicable that you feel compelled to check out, to justify the massive open world.

I think the enemy design in particular is worthy of some praise. The game gives you a whole lot of tools to tackle any given fight. Sometimes you can just whack something with your sword until either the enemy or the sword breaks and that will work fine. Other times, you can literally do the Tao Pai Pai thing from Dragonball and launch a treetrunk into the air, surf on it, and land it squarely in the face of some unsuspecting moblin. This is a very popular speedrun strat. The sheer amount of Weird Stuff you can do in the service of ultimately saving Hyrule is a lot of lot of LOT of fun, things not many other games would let you do. There's also something to be said for the moments where you're exploring, minding your own business, and find yourself face to face with something fearsome and big and dangerous, like a Lynel in the frozen north or one of the big cyclops guys. It's heartpounding and exciting and really hits that "oh hell yeah let's fuckin FIGHT" button. And fighting in Breath of the Wild is a hell of a lot of fun! Probably the most its been in any Zelda game. Skyward Sword please go away you're drunk this was never a good idea. To me, Breath of the Wild is kind of the platonic ideal of an open world fantasy fuck around game. That used to be Skyrim, but BotW sort of made me realize you can actually have a functional game on top of all the aforementioned Fucking Around, too, and that sort of enhances the experience.

This might be a little weird and personal and I apologize, but I think the one thing that really sealed this game as something very special and significant to me was the moment I entered the Rito village for the first time. I was greeted with an utterly gorgeous piano melody that gradually unfolded into a soulful, excruciatingly bittersweet arrangement of the Dragon Roost Isle theme from the Windwaker. I admit that I was not in a good place in my life when I was playing Breath of the Wild. I was still reeling from some bad brain stuff. Be that as it may, Breath of the Wild is the only game I have ever played - hell, the only piece of art I have experienced - that has brought me to tears with nothing more than a song. When I realized what I was listening to, when the memories of a time when I was still a child with hope and trust and innocence and any faith that life would ever be something more than cruelty and suffering came flooding back, I had to put down my switch, go lay down, and just ugly cry for a while. It's honestly making me a little misty-eyed just thinking about. It was such a personal, intimate, keening feeling of... I don't really know. Nostalgia? Longing? Melancholy? Now, believe me, I love to cry. I am a crybaby. Things make me cry all the time. But not like this. This was something else. Something I still don't really understand, or can explain. All I know is that if a game can do that to me with just a few notes, it deserves to be here.

Salt and Sanctuary:

This is probably the most niche game for me. Even people who share some of my more eclectic tastes and sensibilities didn't like this game that much, but there was just something about this Metroidvania mashed with a Soulslike that hit some very primal notes in my soul. The art style, a weird mix of cartoony and utterly deranged, the enemy design, the bizarre way the world is put together, some extremely creative boss battles, and above all, some masterfully done atmosphere dripping with poorly understood dread and a sense of complete disorientation combined to create an experience that seemed to be made for me, and possibly me alone. It's not a flawless game. The music is fine, but somewhat lacking in variety. The character progression system is a good deal more complicated than it needs to be by any stretch of the imagination, as is the weapon upgrade system. The difficulty curve is uneven, and the raw inscrutability of the whole enterprise can make progression difficult in ways that it never really was in Dark Souls and Demon's Souls, which at least had the courtesy to point you in the right direction from time to time. The ending is a bit on the weak side.

Even now it feels difficult to really like. Elucidate on why I like this game so much. Maybe it's because it was the heartfelt effort of an extremely small team with more passion than experience? Because it's so unique and bold in ways other games are not, even while being a self-admitted derivative of Souls games? I just don't know. It's just such a fun and plucky thing, even if parts of it are kind of bad. It's not like, Deadly Premonition or anything where the badness is also the primary attraction. It's like, overall a good game? I believe? It's just that if it wasn't also kind of weirdly flawed and broken in some ways I don't think I would like it as much. God, I don't know. Just. Play it if you get a chance and see if any of this makes sense. One of the weapons you can use is a giant ass ship anchor, which is just fantastic, and you can start out as a chef, complete with a goofy hat and an extra helping of salt. Salt is important. Gotta keep those electrolytes up. You can also put a pumpkin on your head, and there's a boss called the Tree of Men which is just this giant torture machine that hates you and everyone else. It's so weird! The lighting is so moody and unsettling! The Queen of Smiles doesn't have a jaw! You have to brand your ass with a metal iron to double jump! ...hand, not ass, to be fair. But ass would be pretty funny. And horrifying. If you join the Iron Ones religion your healing item is just bread. And that is a fucking mood.

Super Mario Galaxy 2:

This one barely makes the temporal cut, but it was 2010 when it came out, I'm pretty sure. As a Mario game that doesn't have paper in its name, it's also going to be a bit fluffier and lighter on actual substance than pretty much every other game here, and I don't have that much to say. It's just this gorgeously realized and scored platforming adventure that's so tightly tuned you could play Smoke on the Water on it. It is the still the best traditional jumpy wahoo boing boing Mario game I have ever played. It just makes you feel good about space, and going to space, and seeing all the wonderful things in space. Though there most likely are not charming little obstacle courses themed around bees and and toy trains in space, the various cosmic phenonmenon on display on the map screen and in the background of some galaxies are close enough to what you might expect to inspire a sense of wonder and awe. SMG2 is like the purest expression of Let's Just have a Good Time design in games I have ever seen. It induces good feelings. Not everything has to be deep and troubling and thought provoking. Like, I tend to prefer it when they are, but there's always rooms for exceptions like this. Just fantastic. And the music though holy shit. Honestly I think the only game on this list that doesn't have a fantastic OST is Salt and Sanctuary, but it's still like. Serviceable.

Darkest Dungeon:

Let me start off by saying that Darkest Dungeon doesn't always hit the mark with its central conceit of stress management and the importance of mental health in your small army of adventurers. Nobody is going to start screaming abuse at their comrades or start stabbing them to death in a fit of paranoia because a skeleton spilled some cheap champagne on them. That said, I think that it -tries- to address these things is admirable, even if it is fairly easily boiled down into a simple matter of resource management and cost/benefit analysis. The reason I like Darkest Dungeon so much is that it is a game that excels at emergent storytelling. In terms of actual plot progression and character development, there is very little. You can have a party of four Occultists, each with the exact same backstory and with the exact same pact to the exact same eldritch entity, killing the exact same boss several different times. If you want. The dungeon crawling primarily serves as a vehicle for two things: the first and most obvious, the primary gameplay experience where you command your brave or at least foolhardy group of heroes to engage the ancient horrors of Grandpa's Party House. By itself, this is compelling and demanding. A bit like Dark Souls, Darkest Dungeon is a game that is fairly exacting in what it expects out of you, and it will not let you make mistakes without slapping you on the wrist and saying "no, bad." Similarly, it is a game where mastery is rewarded, but both in somewhat lesser degrees because DD is much more random and capricious in nature. The difference between a new player and an old hand is obvious, but sometimes even veterans can get completely dicked over by things out of their control.

That leads us into the second purpose: having the Ancestor narrate your constant struggle against Murphy's Law while completely hilarious bullshit conspires to send all of your highly trained and well equipped adventurers to the grave. Let me tell you a tale. I was fighting the Countess, the extremely powerful and dangerous final boss of the Crimson Court DLC. Everybody was afflicted with some manner of madness, and things were looking grim. She had shuffled my party around into a formation wherein some of them couldn't act without switching places. I ordered my vestal to switch places with Dismas, my highwayman. Dismas, however, was currently under either "selfish" or "abusive" status and simply refused to move. This meant that my vestal could not actually act that turn, and simply doing nothing incurs a penalty of stress damage. This stress damage was enough to put her gauge to the maximum, give her a heart attack, and kill her. Dismas literally murdered the healer by being too much of an asshole. I was beside myself at the time, but make no mistake - it was fucking hysterical. I later fed him to the final boss as penance for his crimes.

Darkest Dungeon is a grindy game that takes time and effort to complete. This is one of the biggest complaints leveled at it, and it's a fair one. On normal mode, though, you are more than capable of going at it inch by bloody inch, throwing corpse after corpse at the eldritch monstrosities until they at last drown in the blood and give up. No matter how grievous the setback, you can come back from it, unless you're playing on stygian/blood moon mode, which adds a fairly strict time limit and a hard cap on how many hapless adventurers you can send into the meatgrinder before the Nameless Thing That Ends The World wakes up and gives you an auto-game over. It's designed to be a long, bloody slog where shit goes wrong. Hopefully, in the upcoming sequel which I am very much anticipating not being able to play because I am poor, Red Hook can perhaps find a better balance with this. I am, for my part, fairly forgiving of grindy games, and at times even enjoy them. They were going for something with the way they designed DD, and I respect that. If you have the proper mindset of "whatever will be, will be" and learn to embrace the senselessness of death, your adventures in the Darkplace Estate will be both rewarding and oftentimes absurdly funny because your Arbalest was too depressed to eat anything, took more stress damage from starving, and then died of a heart attack, which then further stressed out the rest of the party. If that sounds more "oh my god that's awful" than "hahahaha you fucking dipshits" to you, DD might not be up your alley. But if it is, it -really- is. It's sort of the Dwarf Fortress principle, though Darkest Dungeon is far more user friendly and nice to look at. ...you know if you payed him enough the narrator voice actor would probably do a dramatic reading of Boatmurdered. Just saying.

Stellaris:

Stellaris is kind of the odd spaceman out on this list for a variety of reasons, but it shares the same kind of compelling emergent storytelling that Darkest Dungeon has. It's just less likely to be about how your alcoholic bounty hunter missed every hit against a fishman and went insane, and more likely to be about how you found this really cool Orb in space but it was in another empire's territory so you basically fabricated Space World War 1 to take it for yourself. Maybe that was just me. Much like the many habitable planets in any given Stellaris game, Paradox's grand strategy space game falls in the Goldilocks Zone of "accessible for mortal minds" and "satisfyingly complex." I'm not a huge fan of most Paradox stuff because I don't really give much of a fuck about kings and their crusaders one way or the other, but I respect them for what they are. Stellaris was kind of a proof of concept for me for that - given subject matter I actually liked (space!!!!), the various nitty gritty systems of planetary management and fleet organization and robo-modding and gene templates became compelling rather than overwhelming. They were, granted, still pretty overwhelming at first. The game still receives robust free updates and DLC even as of this writing, sometimes drastically changing the way the game is played (alloys! consumer goods! aarrrggh!) and making my 500ish hours of playtime seem a little less nonsensical. Look, a lot of that time was idling on the galaxy map while I did something else.

It's just really polished and technically competent and -enormous- and there's space dragons and sometimes you get to fuck a black hole. Stellaris doesn't really have a narrative, per se, save what you ascribe to any given game, but that doesn't mean the game doesn't have writing. A lot of very interesting, well written, and sometimes really funny flavor text can be found in the various anomalies and in-game events your science vessels will encounter as they uncover more of the galaxy, or sometimes a planet will have a mysterious portal to Hell on it, or maybe it's actually just a huge egg for a terrifying voidspawn. The game also navigates the usual 4X/strategy game dilemma of securing an early lead and just kind of chilling for the rest of the game by introducing midgame and lategames crises. It's not a perfect fix, but the ever-looming threat of a khanate space uprising, an AI uprising either from your empire or another, or ravenous space bugs from beyond the cosmos ensures that you have to keep at least a little bit on your toes. The presence of spaceborne aliens that range from "a nuisance" to "well gosh that thing is actually eating that sun this could be problematic" also ensures that you need to pay attention to both military and domestic aspects of governing. Stellaris happens in real time (though you can thank god pause whenever you want to issue orders) so there isn't really a Civilization equivalent of "oh the tiny pissant nations are declaring war, time to buy seven tanks with my enormous hoard of gold and run over their medieval knights" in Stellaris. Stuff always takes time to make, and it takes time to get in position, too. Space being exceedingly vast, and all that.

The lategame can get simultaneously get very overwhelming and very boring, but there are systems put in place to help automate the process of ruling a huge interstellar empire and one of the nice things about Stellaris is that you can kind of just. Stop whenever you want. There are technically win conditions, if you're into that sort of thing, but a lot of the time I will just play it through until I'm like "hmm okay im good" and then just either start a new game as an extremely different kind of empire or play something else for a while. It's kind of nice. The idea of "winning" in these games is always so weird to me anyway. I kind of like the framework where it's just kind of like. You tell a story, rather than try to win a game. Recent changes have made it much easier to actually achieve victory, however. Part of the thing that kind of encouraged my "eh i'll stop when i wanna" approach in the first place was how unreasonable some of the old victory requirements were. Occupy sixty percent of the galaxy? Excuse me???? Fuck off. Also, it's not like. A really salient part of the game like it is for most other games on the list, but Stellaris actually does have a pretty nice soundtrack. It's much more ambient in nature and there's not really enough of it for the amount of Game there is, but what's there is nice, even if you will probably end up turning it off and listening to your own music instead eventually.

============================= =Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers= =============================

Alright so if you've like actually looked at my twitter or talked to me or to someone about me for more than two minutes, it's probably pretty obvious that I really like FFXIV. An unhealthy amount.  I will cop to that. FFXIV is an MMORPG. Let's start with the basics. I enjoy the game's gameplay a lot. I would not have put 6 years of my life into playing it if I did not, I'm not a Dota 2 player, for Christ's sake. I like to raid, and have actively done it in every wing except for the Sigmascape. I even managed to beat the final encounter of the current Edengate raids! I'm currently sort of gathering my courage to try the latest Ultimate Raid, the Epic of Alexander. Ultimate Raids are fights that are absurdly difficult by any reasonable standard and further winnow the playerbase from "hit level 80->does endgame stuff->does savage raiding->clears savage raid tiers->does Ultimate Raids->.00000001% of the player base that clears ultimate raids". Ultimates are for a very specific kind of player. I'm just sort of mentioning it for context purposes, it doesn't really factor in to my overall evaluation.

Now, despite the fact that I personally enjoy the gameplay a great deal, it is not actually why I think this game is so good. This might puzzle you. What else is there to an MMO? Is the sense of community especially great? Well, I would say that I really enjoy the community of people I play with, but on the whole, XIV's community is about. Standard, really. Which is to say "a fucking dumpsterfire" by any human metric, but just par for the course for online video games. What keeps me coming back to the game is that in between all the endgame stuff and grinding and crafting and going to die in Eureka, there is a bafflingly compelling and superlative singleplayer experience. The game is actually like unironically the best mainline FF title since at least XII. I would personally say it's on par with IX as a narrative experience, which is no faint praise because i fuckin luv me some ffix. But how can an MMO have such a compelling story? It's kind of complicated.

History lesson for the ten people who still don't know: FFXIV actually launched way back in like. 2011 or some shit and it was -arrestingly- bad. "Embarrassment to the franchise name" bad. So bad that they decided to literally drop a meteor on the game world, bring in a new director, shut the whole thing down for a year or so, and then relaunch the game as A Realm Reborn in mid 2013. People really liked this version. It was nothing short of a miracle. It also layed the groundwork for something important: a real and genuine dedication to worldbuilding (and worldending, too). The destruction and rebirth of the realm of Eorzea is metanarratively (theres my favorite non-word word again) baked into the very DNA of the game as it is now. Learning about the people who lived after the Calamity and how they survived is a direct parallel to how the dev team had to survive and adapt to make this complete boondoggle of a game into something presentable. A lot of heart and soul went into the bones of the world the game takes place in, because it's an expression of that dogged determination to make it work. Yoshida and his team probably crunched like hell to get it all done, and that makes me really sad, but what's done is done. I wish it didn't have to be that way, but it is, and all I can do at this point is praise the team's hard work and vision and try to support them as best I can.

So there's this really weighty sense of reality to the game world, and all of 2.0 is basically spent just establishing Eorzea and how it works. If you were an early adopter of ARR, like I was (2.1 is early right. it's gotta be.) then you grew to genuinely care about the place you spent so much time in and looked so pretty and was kind of obnoxiously laid out but don't worry there will be flying in the expansion. The longrunning nature of the game sort of necessitated a sort of serialized story. It had much more in common with an episodic TV Show than a usual Final Fantasy story, which for better or for worse are usually self-contained little things until somebody decides its fuckin Nova Crystalis time. It created a really unique sense of anticipation and participation in an ongoing story and evolving world. I think this is where a lot of people find their attachments to MMO style games, why people are still faithfully playing World of Warcraft 15 years on.

So FFXIV gets two expansions, Heavensward and Stormblood, and they were very Good, and added lots of neat things to the game and advanced the story and introduced new and beloved characters and also Zenos yae Galvus I guess and the long-running nature of it all started forging a kind of personal narrative of necessity, if that makes sense? Like, your own protagonist, who is mostly silent, who you created and customized and further customized and maybe turned into a lalafell once just to see what it was like to be so short, has been an important part of this world for so long your brain kind of just fills in the gaps in spite of itself. What would my character think about this? What would she do? Why would she do it? That kind of thing. The Warrior of Light, as one is called, has had a leading role in the game's story since pretty much day one, but one of the things that compels me about the character is how much work it took to get where she is today. Like, it's not a Diablo 3 style "hmm well you killed those zombies really good so i guess you're basically stronger than god and also satan put together" affair. You start out as a newbie adventurer, you do newbie adventurer things, like helping orange pickers keep the orchard clear of bees or deliver packages for guilds or whatever sufficiently adventuresome task needs doing. You gain notoriety for doing things that are, well, worthy of notoriety. You really get noticed when you defeat the primal Ifrit in a pitched battle, get recruited by some organizations, and you keep steadily working your way up from there.

As of Shadowbringers, the warrior of Darkness is kind of stronger than god and satan combined, but it took a fucking -lot- to get there. One base game and two expansions worth of life or death battles against utterly intractable foes and also Zenos yae Galvus I guess. It is beyond the scope of this piece to just give you a full plot summary of six years worth of storytelling, so I will just cut to the chase and try to explain what I'm taking five million words to say. Shadowbringers did something I thought heretofore impossible: it made me care about my tabula rasa cipher avatar as a character in a story and not just as an expression of digital self that I had grown fond of. Don't get me wrong - Dazzlyn Reed the adventurer is absolutely an expression of digital self that I have grown -disproportionately- fond of. I figure I'm a few more patch cycles from becoming that girl in the Jack Chick tract about Dungeons and Dragons who had a psychotic break because her DnD character died. However, for the most part, that affection was more of... kind of taking pride in her appearance and the outfits I put together and the achievements I had accomplished with her and stuff like that. Shadowbringers made me care about her as a character in her own right, which seems borderline miraculous to me.

It's sort of hard to explain without totally spoiling everything. And even with spoiling everything. In vague terms, I'll try to express it this way: the game put Dazzlyn in a situation where she had failed. Like, spectacularly. Everything she had done in the course of the expansion had gone up in smoke, and her own life was in real and severe danger. When you play these kinds of games, your first instinct when things go wrong in the story is pretty much always to just flippantly say to yourself "okay okay just calm down and let me fix it i'm like level a billion it's fiiiiine". Shadowbringers turns that on its head. You went to fix things... and you couldn't. Despite good intentions, it's arguable that you only made things worse. Everything you worked for since arriving on the First was just utterly undone, and the game lets you see the toll that has taken on your character. It's weirdly heartwrenching in a really uncommon and compelling way. Dazzlyn had been on the outside looking in at this kind of situation plenty of times before, and she had always had a nice and encouraging thing to say as she helped shoulder the burden and get things back on track for Alphinaud or Lyse or Cid or whoever. The game has, since antiquity, given you much appreciated little dialogue choices that don't really matter much in the scheme of things but let you kind of carve out your own characterization, and the way Dazzlyn turned out was somebody who just really cared way too much about all of her dumb stupid impossible friends who kept fucking up.

One thing that longtime players of the game have complained about quite a bit over the years is that your NPC friends never seemed very. Like. Personally close to you, with a couple of exceptions like Alisae. Shadowbringers both fixes that by introducing the Trust system, which lets you take your Scion buddies into dungeons with you instead of other players, if you are so inclined, and sort of turns it back around to be a kind of poignant narrative point. After everything she had done for them, unconditionally and with a smile, none of the Scions could actually find a way to help Dazzlyn when she finally ended up being the one who needed it. And this -fucks them up-, emotionally. Like, bad. Alisae nearly has a crying fit over it in one of Shadowbringer's more affecting scenes. And just watching the whole thing unfold fucked me up, too. Like, I hadn't signed up for this. I was (relatively) safe in the knowledge that they would not have the gall to actually kill off the player character in an ongoing MMO, but it wasn't necessarily the fear of something happening to her that was getting to me. It was more just this feeling of "god, she deserves better. this isn't fair." The emotional pain that, well, everybody involved is going through is extremely real, even if the threat of genuine death is not. I know (mostly) (please god) that Dazzlyn is going to be okay, but she doesn't. Her friends certainly don't. And even when she does miraculously pull through, it's not like all of this grief and fear and anxiety is going to just vanish like it never happened.

I really have to stress how completely and catastrophically wrong this could have gone if the writers responsible weren't sufficiently skilled. I'm pretty sure if I idly suggested a BFA era World of Warcraft storyline like this to somebody who still plays they would have an apoplectic fit. It would have been so easy for this kind of exercise to ascribe character traits and emotions to a very personal interpretation of the Warrior of Light that they would never have, for any one person's vision of them. The FFXIV writing team avoided this issue entirely, probably because they knew if they didn't people would go ape, by focusing the brunt of the expressed distress on your friends and just leaving you yourself some time to take in the enormity of how badly things have gone wrong in customary silence. A subdued facial expression here, a dialogue option there. No more than strictly necessary. The game encourages you to draw your own conclusions about what your Warrior is feeling, how they're coping, if they even have any hope left, but it does not overstep its bounds and do it for you. It's just... really masterfully done. The overall arc of Shadowbringers can be described as "intriguing, well realized, and competently done." The overarching ideas presented aren't like, groundbreaking or anything. What is groundbreaking, at least to me, is this miraculous giving of life to a character that was originally intended as as simple player avatar.

At the end of the day, everybody rallies around you, as they usually do, but it is markedly different this time. It isn't some facile repetition of the idea that the Warrior of Light/Darkness/Pants-theft is this focal point of hope given form and life to everyone. Instead, it's this... oddly touching expression of friendship. Commitment. It's all probably going to end in tragedy. There's nothing anybody can really do. But they're going to stay with you until the bitter end anyway, because they care about you. If nothing else, they can't bear to think of you dying alone and in agony. Even the citizens of the Crystarium, with whom you do not share a bond that goes back literal years, show up to give you some words of encouragement. They show up to tell you that it's okay that you failed. It's okay that you got hurt, it's okay that you're in pain, that you're scared, that you're vulnerable, that you don't know what to do. After spending such a long time in the game's lore as being kind of invincible and infallible except for the occasional matter of pesky Imperial Viceroys and Old Kung-fu Men, it's just... affecting. It's not often done in games, at least that I have played and seen.

Does this one story moment justify making Shadowbringers the game of the decade? Honestly? Kind of. To me, art has always been about emotional reaction. This kind of reaction is something special, even for a crybaby idiot bitch like me. Moments like these are what make or break truly fantastic experiences. Finally finding Vendrick in the Tomb as that haunting, off-key melody starts playing. Realizing the true nature of the Upper Cathedral Ward. Hearing a beautiful piece of music in Rito Village and thinking about what that song means to you. Admitting that you care about your Warrior of Darkness more than you thought. They're all quite different, running the gamut from existential despair, stomach turning fear, a deep and abiding nostalgia and longing for what used to be, to a sincere, melancholy affection for a game world I've been a part of for almost six years. There's one unbroken thread: a cascade of genuine emotion. Something that goes beyond the simple pressing of buttons and jolts of serotonin as the numbers go up or the bad guys die.

Fortunately for my general credibility, Shadowbringers is also just really good in general. Soken's soundtrack is, as always, kind of spooky in how high quality it is. The presentation is top notch as usual. Encounter design is probably the best its ever been in terms of balancing accessibility and challenge and having mechanics that actually Work As Intended and not nightmarish garbage like Digititis and Black Hole Walking. Royal Pentacle! Server ticks! Server ticks! Uh. Sorry. Going slightly feral there. Anyway. Overall, I think Shadowbringers is the most polished expansion so far, in all respects, and its narrative quality in particular is kind of transcendent because of what it accomplishes in regards to how players see themselves in relation to an unfolding story. Also, it has an unfair advantage, because it's also a continuation of Nier Automata now! That's two games of the decade in one! Now, due to the serial nature of it all, I will allow that if something goes... like, inconceivably, catastrophically wrong with 5.2 - 5.5 I might be a little premature in my assessment. That said, 5.1 was just as fantastic as 5.0 and I don't see a reason to assume that the quality will so drastically drop in the coming months.

If you're somebody who really likes Rankings, here is a pretty noncommital list of them going from least good to best good but they're all special damn it.

10. Super Mario Galaxy 2 9. Breath of the Wild 8. Stellaris 7. Darkest Dungeon 6. Salt and Sanctuary 5. Dark Souls 4. Nier Automata 3. Bloodborne 2. Dark Souls II 1. Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers

And here's a couple of Honorable Mentions just because!

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

To be honest, this easily could have taken the place of like. Breath of the Wild or SMG2 if I was just a little bit more into Sekiro's aesthetic. It's easily the most technical and best-playing game that Miyazaki's team has put out so far, with a very simple to learn, difficult to master system of fighting based more around swordfighting than "shove large axe into monster butt" its predcessors liked so much. It also has a well-told story about a fairly down to earth conflict between an independent fiefdom and Japan's internal ministry trying to conquer it, with a splash of supernatural weirdness to give it some spice. There are monkeys with guns. Sekiro is just fantastically put together, and I really did end up loving Wolf as a main character, despite my initial misgivings about one of these games without a character creator. Wolf is kind of a lovable chuuni dipshit who tries his best in completely unreasonable circumstances and having him as an anchor lets Sekiro's story be more personal and self-contained in nature than the heady cosmological epics of the Souls games, which was a nice change of pace. Ultimately, though, I just find ineffably weird nature of the earlier titles to be a bit more interesting than shinobi and samurai, which is why Sekiro gets an honorable menchie and not a top spot. Don't get me wrong though shinobi and samurai are dope and Sekiro is not a -worse- game for their inclusion. It's just a matter of personal preference, and I could easily see this game taking a top spot on somebody else's list.

Pokemon X and Y

I am a Pokemon bitch. I play all of them, except for black/white 2 and ultra sun/moon, which seemed too similar to their predecessors to really justify spending my precious, jealously guarded money on them. I feel that in general, X and Y has overall, the best mix of available pokemon, world design, music, Fun Little Things, and general game flow of all of them. Sword and Shield excepted I am still in the middle of that one. Pokemon is absolutely kind of video game comfort food, and its kind of just. There's not a lot to it emotionally, though it does have some fairly in depth mechanics and shit if you want to look into it. I don't know I just really liked X and Y. I felt like it deserved mentioning.

Blade and Soul

This game is awful I'm pretty sure but I have so many fond memories of playing it with people I love and creating a ridiculous titty oil monster and having adventures with her sorry i'm trash

So there you have it. A very personal (sometimes maybe probably too personal) look at the ten games that I found to be the best that came out in the last ten years. Now, I usually consider my opinions on these things to be fairly well reasoned, but in this case, I did rely a lot more on the touchy feely qualitative things that are really important to me over the necessary but lamentable "yes i suppose this game is technically competent and plays extremely well" considerations a more objective list of this kind would entail. So you're free to disagree and think I'm stupid and wrong. I would prefer it if you did not think I was stupid, though, but the fact of the matter is I cannot stop you. Here's to another ten years of wonderful games that make us feel things.

[psychotic-seth]

Depressed Yandere Kuroo Tetsurou - #2: Can’t Stand

After that day, (Y/n) (L/n) and Kuroo Tetsurou had became ... friends? Both had different image of the closeness between them are but one thing for sure is that both had became closer than before. 

They started messaging more frequently.

No longer are the messages restricted to information regarding the project, expanding out to talking about how their day are. Some days are more of Kuroo's day, others are of (L/n)'s.

Every fortnightly, (L/n) would receive texts from Kuroo while he broke down late into the night, searching for their comfort. During those long nights, (L/n) sympathise with Kuroo as much as they could. Staying up and texting back as long as Kuroo needed them to be while worry boils in the pits their stomach.

Most of the time, they could only sleep for an hour before they had to wake up to prepare for school. 

Kuroo and (L/n) did not have contact with each other, excluding a nod or smile in greeting, during school. If they had to stay back for project that day, (L/n) would express their concern for Kuroo when they meet. If they did not have to stay back, (L/n) would message Kuroo regarding his well-being.

Kuroo greatly appreciate what (L/n) had done for him. Although his sources of stress were not reduced, but he was able to release parts of them with the presence of (L/n).

He felt understood.

He felt that he wasn't alone any longer.

He felt loved. 

After the end of the project, Kuroo and (L/n) had kept in contact. Nothing changed from before the project to outsiders as they kept everything online and Kuroo began opening up more to (L/n).

Texts from Kuroo while he broke down became more frequent and irregular. 

It may seems stupid from an adult's point of view, (Y/n) (L/n) knew. However, being brought up by shows that revolved around the concept-'friendship is power' bull, (L/n) placed their friends high in their priority list. Every time they received a text, they would throw whatever they were doing aside and gave their whole attention to their lit phone.

Sleep, studies, health... all these were pushed aside for Kuroo. Because Kuroo is their friend. Is he...?

-----

Kuroo Tetsurou

Boo

[Ghost Emoji]

Wyd (What you doing)

Chillin

You?

Want to write something

But cant

Huh

Why thou?

Stressed

What happened? :(

...

-----

It was the start of his breakdown and (Y/n) stayed online, sympathising.

-----

Kuroo Tetsurou

...

Have you thought of going to the therapist?

I'm sure they will be able to help you more than I could

Im open to it

But does it needs money

I'm sure your parents would be willing to support

NO

They would just f***ing 'talk' to me 

They dont understand

Have you talked to them about your issues thou?

They wont understand

Try...?

They wont understand

Dont make me repeat myself

My dad smacked me before 

So hard that I fell to the ground

When I 'talked' to him

Omg...

It must have hurt

Does he still do that now?

Sometimes

Sht man

I'll try my best to help you

Thou  I can only listen... ;;

Its more than enough

Sorry to cut you off suddenly just now

About that...

Yeah...

I just...

feel useless

...

-----

Time flew by and both Kuroo and (Y/n) had changed due to the change in environment.

(Y/n) became irritable and were tired all the time. With the increasing stress from studies, teachers, parents and Kuroo, (Y/n) were not able to find anyone to talk to regarding their stress. Exams were around the corner and time with friends were lessening as each of them preferred to focus on their studies. School counselor were of no use, since ultimately the whole talk was, to put it simply, 'just focus on your studies'. Parents were a no-go for (Y/n) after a particular argument which they vividly remembered.

Kuroo, on the other hand, craved for the comfort of (Y/n) more often than before. However, he refused to meet up and breakdown in front of them again despite wishing to feel the warm hands of (Y/n). In front of them, he should be strong, so as to have a better chance of (Y/n) falling for him. 

However, despite his efforts to look strong in front of (Y/n), it wasn't working as he hoped. In fact, he found that (Y/n) were no longer starting conversations first nor inquiring for his state of well-being after a breakdown. The time taken for (Y/n) to reply to his first few messages became longer. It was instantaneous at the beginning before lengthening to a few minutes and a few hours in the present.

Unable to find immediate comfort, Kuroo felt alone once again until (Y/n) replied. It had worsen control of his stress. He started punching the wall of his bedroom to calm himself.

Why couldn't (Y/n) (L/n) be kinder? They had done it at the beginning. In fact, if you had known what Kuroo had conveyed to (Y/n) in the messages, issues regarding his studies, parents, friends etc, you would had pity Kuroo more than (Y/n).

Was it because Kuroo had not listen to (Y/n)? 

No, he did. He reached out to his friends about his problems, mainly Kenma, although significantly lesser than (Y/n).

He even went to therapist like (Y/n) suggested. Although it was after (Y/n) contacted the teachers and his parents despite him specifically mentioned to (Y/n) not to.

He was angry and betrayed when he found out after his teacher asked to talk to him, resulting in him not messaging (Y/n) for a few days.

After, he was pleasantly surprised that his parents brought him to the clinic without much questioning or talking to him on their part like he expected.

He ultimately understood that it was for his own good. 

He started messaging (Y/n) again, feeling grateful.

-----

Kuroo Tetsurou

Heyy

Ayee

About the therapist...

Oh?

You started going?

Hope your parents didn't make too much of a fuzz

Yea and no, they didn't

Suprisingly

So...

How was it?

Eh

Kinda useless

???

:O

Why?

What?

Wuhhhhh???

He don't understand :/

Elaborate...?

He just blamed everything on the relationship between me and my parents

Oh...

:/

Wyd?

In the therapist session

He's talking

ERM

EXCUSE ME

SIR

You're excused ;p

Listen to him man

[Thinking Face Emoji]

He might say something of help to you

Nah

He wont

Because he don't understand?

Yea

...

Did you talk to him about your point of view?

Whats the point

He wont understand

But still

Try?

For me?

Fine

Anyway

...

-----

Was it because they don't like Kuroo anymore?

No...

NO. That can't be it...

They promised to be there for him.

They said they would be happy to lend a listening ear whenever.

They did.

THEY DID.

...

...

No...

It can't be... right?

Maybe...

They got tired of Kuroo...

Kuroo felt more desperate as time pass by without a reply from (Y/n). At this point, his vision was almost permanently blurred from the wave of tears that weren't seeing the end soon. His throat were dry but he did not get up to get water. All he did since an hour ago was to sit on his bed, back to the wall and knees caged within his long, toned arms. He clenched his dark-screened phone in both his hands. Teeth biting one of his hands to prevent himself from screaming. Surely, a deep red bite mark was present in the flesh, it was a miracle his skin had not broke from the pressure he was applying on it. Maybe it was due to the multiple lanes of saliva that was running down his hand and phone currently. I wouldn't know, I ain't some science nerd.

*buzz*

Ripping his hands from his mouth with such force that his teeth had scrapped parts of his bitten hand, he unlocked the phone while aggressively wiped his tears away, smearing his saliva on his face in the process.

His happiness were crushed when he saw that the notification were only from the chatroom with his volleyball friends, asking about when the next match with other schools were on.

They weren't the one he waited for. Why did they come? Why is god not giving Kuroo the attention from the one he want?

Angered screams emitted from his dried throat, sounding much like a dying whale. His dominant hand freed itself from his phone and clenched itself before being slammed backwards into the wall behind him. 

Take a deep breath. Shhh. Shhh. 

Kuroo tried to get himself together.

Outside of Kuroo's door stood his mother. Her hand on the door knob, battling with herself which was the best course of action as more thuds were heard from the other side.

Tears from her worry overflowed as her heart broke along with the screams and thuds that sounded out.

Large, warm hands placed themselves on each of her arms, gently massaging the skin underneath their touch.

The thuds stopped and were soon replaced with repeated words that were clawed out from Kuroo's throat.

"(Y/n)... (Y/n)... You're here... (Y/n)"

Sighing, his mother gave in to the coaxing of her beloved as she let him guide her to the couch where she would calm herself before preparing a herbal tea to help her son's throat.

Worried, could no longer described how Kuroo's mother felt. She became paranoid. She knew that her son's condition is becoming worse but she no longer knew what was right. She had, in a way, baby-proofed their home. Any edges, such as tables, were covered in blue tacks. Glass and ceramic cups were stored in the bottom cabinet in the kitchen and were replaced by plastic cups. Knifes, the cutlery, were no longer used in their house. Meat? Momma would pre-cut them into bit sized pieces!

When her husband drove both her and Kuroo to the clinic, she would sometimes see Kuroo's hand clutching on the door handle, pulling it slightly. His eyes were... 'dazed'. 

In fear, she would press the button to lock all the car door. Sometimes, to her relief, no clicks were heard, meaning that the door handle were not pulled to the point of almost opening. While other times, a small click were heard from the back of the car, startling Kuroo. In return, Kuroo quickly removed his hand from the handle and stuffed both his hands into his pockets, now looking down to his shoes.

Kuroo's mother would try to make conversation with her son, asking about his day or how he was feeling. At times, she would talk about her day in hopes to get Kuroo to share his. Ultimately, all she got was a polite smile in the rear view mirror and a 'that sounds nice'. 

Kuroo refused to part with his phone during any part of his day, bringing it to the showers, counselling sessions etc. Constantly, he checked it despite having no notifications, unlocking and relocking his phone, typing something before erasing it completely. 

Dead into the night, when people slept, Kuroo had sleepless nights when he was too restless to sleep. On nights like this, he would message (Y/n) and he knew how (Y/n) would reply.

Go for a run?

And he would. He's an obedient boy.

He would take pictures of the areas he ran by as a way to prove that he was running despite (Y/n) never asked for any. 

At the end, he knew and came to expect to be praised by (Y/n). 

Kuroo would finally fall asleep. Not without sending a good night message to his angel.

Kuroo understood (Y/n). 

(Y/n) was just busy.

[psychologeek-blog1]

A to Z of Human Emotions

Let’s do a quick test: list every emotion you can recall without searching anywhere or asking anyone.

You ready? Go.

I’ll wait.

…

How many words did you come up with? 4? 8? 10? More than that?

Every day, you experience a wide range of emotions you aren’t even aware of (yes, even as an adult). Recognizing different types of emotions and facial expressions build up your emotional intelligence which is the key skill you need to thrive in the world.

(GIF by JosepBernaus on Dribbble)

In this post, I’ll give you an A to Z of of emotion vocabularies. You’ll find some of words from different cultures and languages (some of which are taken from Tiffany Watt Smith’s The Book of Human Emotions). Instead of trusting your memory, I recommend you to save this post to come back to it from time to time to increase your emotional awareness.

Now without further delay, here’s the list of human emotions and feelings arranged in the alphabetical order:

A

Acedia or sometimes called accidie, is an emotion that has no real equivalent today. It was a short-lived but disastrous emotional crisis, usually striking between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Its first signs were listlessness and irritability, but it didn’t take long to turn into desolation and despair.

B

Bafflement is a condition when someone faced too many options, particularly those poorly arranged in a disorderly heap, make it hard to follow, or know which direction we should proceed, leaving us feeling frustrated, or angry, even bilious, but most of all exhausted by a surfeit of information that creates a sense of blockage, and precipitates a feeling of existential angst for the random purposelessness of things.

C

Cheesed off is a form of irritation feeling; often described as being ‘browned off’. The expression ‘cheesed off’ can be traced back to the nineteenth century, used by the pilots comparing themselves to rusting engines. The reason why it became so popular among airmen remains a mystery. Some say it’s because cheese turns brown under a grill. Others, because cheese on toast was obsessively eaten while waiting, and the men were, quite literally, fed up with it.

D

Dismay is a feeling of horror and paralysis. It flattens us; it might make us cover our eyes. The term descended from desmaier–Old French, came to describe a feeling; in other European languages, desmaier morphed into words for falling unconscious; in Spanish, desmayo is a swoon; in Portuguese, desmaio is a fainting fit.

E

Envy is a desire to have the material possessions and advantages of others. It’s the sickness that comes on hearing another’s happy sigh, the ache of contemplating their success. As adults, we mostly feel it as a secret vice. It’s there behind the rictus grin that celebrates other people’s successes.

F

Fago is the pity felt for someone in need, which compels us to care for them, but it is also haunted by a strong sense that one day we will lose them. Fago comes in those moments when our love for others, and their need for us, feels so unexpectedly overwhelming—and life so very fragile and temporary—that we well up.

G

Gladsomeness describes the appearance of a glittering, shining thing. This meaning still lingers in the expressions “glad rags” or “glad eye”—the twinkle that attracts a lover. In the fourteenth century, gladsum, or gladsomenesse, began to be used to describe a brightening of the soul too, a sparky, bouncing feeling, which today we might be more likely to call joy.

H

Hesitant (rooted from Latin word, haesitant), is a condition when you’re slow to act or proceed (as from fear, indecision, or unwillingness). If you are hesitant, you do not do something immediately or quickly because you are nervous or not certain. 

I

If you are inquisitive that means you love to inquire; you're always asking questions. You are eager to know a lot about people or things, sometimes in a way that annoys people. 

J

Jealousy involves the fear of losing a person or their affections to someone else. It is triangular: me (the victim), you (the traitor) and the other (the thief). Such treacheries are all the more painful for the feeling of having been discarded. It is this threat that makes jealousy so inflammatory—and intimacy such a risk.

K

Keen came from the Old English word, cene, that translates to ‘bold and brave’ and while the spelling is now really different, the sounds are similar. If you are keen on doing something, you are very interested, eager, or wanting to do that thing very much.

L

Lenient means tolerant or relaxed, and is usually used when we’re talking about someone’s attitude toward discipline. If you're not overly strict, and you show tolerance and mercy when someone does something wrong, then you're being lenient.

M

Malu, roots from Bahasa Indonesia, is the sudden experience of feeling constricted, inferior and awkward around people of higher status than us. You might be experiencing malu if you clam up before your partner’s parents, or a conversation with a former headmistress leaves you staring at the floor and sweating.

N

The word neglect comes from the Latin verb, neglegere, which means ‘disregarded’. Neglect is worse than ignoring something. It's ignoring it, failing to care for it, and probably harming it in the process.

O

When something isn't fair, or offends you, it often results in your feeling outraged. When you're outraged, you're furious. When you're outraged, you're furious. You might be outraged over the rude treatment you get at a fancy, expensive restaurant.

P

Pathos is a quality that stirs emotions (especially pity or sorrow). A song with a lot of pathos hits you right in the heart. When someone tells a story about people suffering that makes you feel for them, that's pathos.

R

Came from an old French word meaning ‘carried away’, rapture is a feeling of emotional ecstasy so magical it's almost as if you've been transported to some other world. It's happiness so extreme that you just about float to heaven, complete with big goofy grin plastered to your face.

S

Serenity came from the Latin, serenus, meaning ‘calm or peaceful’, plus the English suffix -ity, meaning ‘quality or state of’. Serenity used to describe a state when your mind is still and perfectly calm.

T

Triumph came from the Latin, triumphus, which means an ‘achievement, success, procession for a victorious general or admiral’. It'll make you pump your fist and yell "Hurrah!"

U

Uneasy describes an uncomfortable feeling. You might feel socially uneasy when dining with your girlfriend's parents if they don't like you very much. Your stomach may also feel uneasy at that same dinner and gurgle in an embarrassing way.

V

If you spend all day admiring yourself in reflective surfaces — mirrors, pools of water, the backs of spoons — people may think you are conceited, or vain.

W

The German word Wanderlust describes a kind of longing for movement that runs as deep in the human psyche as love or fear. It’s the desire, as old as human life itself, to see what lies beyond the next mountain, or outside the boundaries of the village—and may leave us with the gnawing feeling that life only makes sense if we are traveling in some direction or another.

Y

A yearning is a strong desire. If you have a yearning to travel in Maldives, it means that you dream about it and intensely hope that one day you'll end up there.

Z

Zeal is dedication or enthusiasm for something. If you have zeal, you're willing, energized, and motivated. If you have passion for something, you have zeal, which is kind of a mix of eagerness and energy and devotion.

That’s all, folks! Isn’t it amazing how many of these emotions we already felt but didn’t know there was a word of it?

If you keep expanding your emotional vocabulary, you’ll be much more comfortable when dealing with your negative emotions and much quicker to appreaciate the positive emotions.

How many new words did you learn today from the list of emotions? Share this post with your friends with one new word you learned today.

[fyrapartnersearch]

Harry Potter or Pokemon Originals; M// or F//

To recap my last post, it's been quite a harrowing number of months since I've last made a post here. I got horribly sick in late December and a number of rocky events happen IRL that made me drop roleplaying for a bit to recover from it, and then, lo and behold, when I finally turned back to my RPs, I forgot my roleplaying email's password. If we were roleplaying in the past, feel free to contact me once more.

  My name is Jupiter, I'm 21, and I'm looking to roleplay original characters in HP or Pokemon with someone who is 18 or older, preferably 20+ as well. I'm fine with side pairings of any gender combination, but I'd prefer the main pairing to either be M// or F//. As a preface, I write a lot on average, so my post length varies between novella or multiple paragraphs. Third person, generally past tense, but I can do present tense as well if that's what you prefer. Doubling tends to be my default (but not a requirement!), so let me know off the bat if that's not what you usually go for!

  For Harry Potter, I don't have a concrete plot in mind, but I do have some things I'd be interested in exploring! A setting in modern times as opposed to the original late '90's, exploring how the wizarding world and wizarding laws have shifted with the advandement of muggle technology; I'd imagine it was much easier to keep magic under wraps before smartphones came into the equation.

  Something to do with prophecies could be interesting — after seeing all of those prophecies kept under lock in the Ministry (before they were destroyed, at least, lmao), it got me thinking of what the extent of prophecies were and if all of them were as severe as Harry's, or what another prophecy could be. It could be fun to explore something with our own characters in that vein? I've never done a "chosen one" roleplay before.

  I like the idea of exploring lives post-Hogwarts since the main series doesn't really get into that (excluding Fantastic Beasts, which I can't stress enough how uninterested in I am. Similarly, I'm very critical of the world-building JK's done with expanding the universe, particularly with how sloppily she handled other cultures and their relation with her lore, so keep that in mind). However, I'm definitely up for writing some Hogwarts professor OCs! I've never done that before, so I'm interested. I'd like to either do that or have our characters in their later years at school and map out their lives/the plot from there.

  I enjoy characters who are a bit different from the stock image of each house (for example, I have a bully/rude Hufflepuff, a lazy/friendly Slytherin, a cowardly/unassuming Gryffindor, etc) — that is to say, I enjoy characters who have more depth to them under the surface and aren't exactly what one would expect coming from the very basics of their houses. I'd also love to explore characters from Beauxbaton and/or Durmstrang as well! Going off of the books with both of them being coed schools, though. I have no idea why the movies made Beauxbaton a girls' academy and Durmstrang a boys'. Not required, but I'd love to have a Triwizard Tournament tossed in the mix. (I know it was disbanded after Cedrid died but shhhh.) Not as the main focus, but it could be fun to get into. Or maybe center the roleplay itself around either of those schools rather than Hogwarts and a few characters from different schools get wrapped in a nefarious plot of sorts? Exchange students could also be very fun. Ooh, and I've actually been really interested in somehow bringing a muggle into the mix? No idea how that'd work, but I just think it'd be really fun to have someone non-magical as a main somehow and needing someone without magic or something, haha.

  Basically I just have, like, a ton of very minor threads and ideas I'd like to explore. I enjoy serious/darker plots, so I'd like to have a bigger plot that our characters bleed into!

  For Pokemon, I also don't have a concrete lot in mind. I finally got my hands on Let's Go and Pokemon SWSH just dropped, so the nostalgia trip has been hitting me with severity; after binging Let's Go for the past week, I've been thinking of picking up other games I used to love when I was a kid, haha.

  Given that I have no real plot in mind, I'm open to practically anything. Like I said above, I typically prefer darker, larger plots, which is something I'll sway for this universe! We could have a light-hearted, feel-good roleplay in this scenario. Still a plot, of course, but I don't mind if the vibe is less serious. That said, a more serious plot is something I'm open to as well! It's what I like, after all, haha.

  I'm admittedly a big fan of trainer characters, but I think it'd also be interesting to have a character or two who use Pokemon more in their daily lives or for reasons other than training. I've seen people toss that idea out before but never really played into it before, so it'd be fun to expand my roles. Anyway, for characters and the plot, I'm sure we can come up with something together. I enjoy adventure/journeying plots, so something along that line at the very least would be fun.

  As far as smut goes: it's cool with me but not required, so again, let me know if you'd rather not have it involved. My limits are the basic sort: nothing with underage characters/pedophilia, incest, noncon, bestiality, gore, mpreg, A/B/O, toilet kinks, things of that ilk. I also prefer to play switch characters in bed. I've spent way too many years playing with partners who only play bottoms in smut scenes, so I'm a bit burnt out on that.

  This might sound rude, but don't come to me with one line or a few lines that basically just say, "hi I'm [Name] and I'd like to roleplay with you" since I'll just delete it. Tell me who you are, if you want to do M// or F// and if you want to double or not, if you have a plot or want to explore anything I've said or would like to brainstorm, what your limits are, your favorite sorts of characters/tropes, stuff like that. Just give me a solid idea of what you're looking for and what you're all about!

  Also, please like... write in a way where we can both interact and have your character pull their own weight. I've done a lot of roleplays where I'm making all the decisions and writing all the action/inciting incidents, so please actively apply yourself as well! Roleplaying is all about equal effort, after all.

  If you're interested in anything I've said or have your own ideas, my email is pieronhand@gmail.com. Feel free to contact me again if we have a roleplay that I fell through on, even if it wasn't an RP for what I've listed here. :)

[suzanneshannon]

A Guide to Console Commands

The developer’s debugging console has been available in one form or another in web browsers for many years. Starting out as a means for errors to be reported to the developer, its capabilities have increased in many ways; such as automatically logging information like network requests, network responses, security errors or warnings.

There is also a way for a website’s JavaScript to trigger various commands that output to the console for debugging purposes. These commands are contained in a console object available in almost every browser. Even though these features are mostly consistent between browsers, there are a few differences. Some of these differences are simply visual in nature while others do have slight functional differences to keep in mind.

For the curious, here’s the spec by WHATWG linked from the MDN console docs.

This guide covers what’s available in the console object of Firefox and Chrome as they are often the most popular browsers for development and they do have a few differences in various aspects of the console. The new Chromium-based Edge is essentially the same as Chrome in many ways so, in most cases, the console commands will operate much the same.

Quick Links

Logging

Clearing

Common Commands

String substitution

Styling the output

Assertions

Counting Commands

Listing Properties

Group Commands

Table Command

Time Commands

Showing Traces

Debugger Command

Console Utilities

The console.log command

The first thing we can do is log the console object itself to see what your browser of choice actually offers.

console.log(console);

This command will output the various properties of the console object as the browser knows them. Most of them are functions and will be rather consistent regardless of browser. If there are differences in the properties of the console object from one browser to another, this way you can see the differences. One such difference I can point out between Firefox and Chrome is that Chrome provides a “memory” property that outputs some basic memory usage stats. Firefox doesn’t provide this property and yet has a “name” property that Chrome does not have.

Thankfully, most of the differences between the browsers tend to be just as trivial. That way, you can be fairly confident that your code will output much the same regardless of the browser in use.

First things first: clear()

With heavy usage of the console comes a very crowded output of text. Sometimes you just want to clear things out and start with a fresh console. Browsers typically provide a button in DevTools that performs this task. However, the console object itself also provides a command to handle this:

console.clear();

This will clear the console and will helpfully inform you of that by outputting a message like "Console was cleared."

Common usage: debug(), error(), info(), log(), and warn()

There are five commands that at first glance seem to do the exact same thing. And, technically, they do. But browsers provide additional features tied to the five commands to give each their own distinct benefit.

These five commands are:

console.debug(); console.error(); console.info(); console.log(); console.warn();

I’m sure many of you have seen console.log() before (I mean, we just talked about it up top) and have probably used it before. Before we get into what you can log in these five commands, let’s see our first minor difference between Chrome and Firefox.

Chrome console showing debug, error, info, log, and warn

This is an example in Chrome of each command outputting a string, such as console.debug('console.debug()');.  Notice that some of them have a color treatment to give a visual indication of the type of output it is. The error and warn outputs have an additional icon for even easier identification.

Firefox console showing debug, error, info, log, and warn

Here is the same list in Firefox and, while it looks similar, there are three minor differences. For example, console.debug() is not color-coded and console.info() has an additional icon next to it. In Chrome, both console.error() and console.warn() can be expanded to show additional information about the output while Firefox only does this with console.error(). This additional information provides a trace of the lines of code involved to get to where the particular command was called.

One thing that is useful about these five commands is that the browsers provide filtering options to show or hide each type as you wish. Firefox has them right there at the top of the console above the output while Chrome hides them in a dropdown, labeled “All levels” which you can see in the earlier Chrome console screenshot. “All levels” is there because I have all five set to be shown. If you were to choose the “Default” option then the debug output (listed as "Verbose") is hidden while the others are shown. Unchecking "Info", "Warnings", or "Errors" causes the dropdown to display a different title such as "Custom levels" or "Errors only" depending on what is selected.

The intentions for usage of error and warn are easy to determine; how to use the other choices is up to you. If you do make extensive use of the different options then you might consider documenting the expectations of each as to not confuse things late in the project — especially if it is a team project.

Now, let’s discuss what we can actually log inside these commands. Since they all behave the same, I’ll just focus on logging as the example.

The simplest examples involve just passing a string, number, object, or array into the log command. Technically, any of JavaScript’s data types can be used, but for most of them, the output is much the same.

console.log('string'); console.log(42); console.log({object: 'object'}); console.log(['array', 'array']);

Chrome string, number, object, and array log examples

I’m showing these examples in Chrome with the object and array already expanded. They are normally collapsed but the output next to the arrow is consistent between both states. Firefox displays a little differently but, for the most part, the output is the same. Firefox does tell you whether it is displaying an object or array before expanding, but shows the same as Chrome while expanded.

One interesting thing to add is that you can pass more than one item to the log as parameters and it’ll display them inline.

console.log('string', 'string'); console.log(42, 1138); console.log({object: 'object'}, {object: 'object'}); console.log(['array', 'array'], ['array', 'array']);

Chrome strings, numbers, objects, and arrays examples

Often when I’m working with x and y coordinates, such as what can be outputted by mouse events, it’s useful to log the two together in one statement.

String substitution

The different console logging commands provide string substitution that allows inserting different values into the string for output. This is useful for describing a variable in the log to make it clear as to what’s being reported.

console.log('This is a string: %s', 'string'); console.log('This is a number: %i', 42); console.log('This is an object: %o', {object: 'object'});

Chrome string substitution examples

Here is a list of the data types that can substituted into the output string:

Data typeSubstitution symbol Objects and arrays %o or %O Integers %d or %i Strings %s Floats %f

The first parameter would be the string to output with the symbols placed in the appropriate locations. Then each parameter after that is the value to substitute inside the first parameter’s string. Keep in mind that you’ll have to keep the substitution types and the parameters in the specific order or you’ll get unexpected results.

If your console supports template literals, it’s a bit easier to get similar results as string substitutions.

console.log(`This is a string: ${'string'}`); console.log(`This is a number: ${42}`); console.log(`This is an object: $`);

Chrome template literal examples

Notice that the object is handled a bit better with the string substitution, so pick the appropriate choice for your requirements. Since it’s possible to insert more than one value in the output, let’s compare the two.

console.log('This is a string: %s. This is a number: %i', 'string', 42); console.log(`This is a string: ${'string'}. This is a number: ${42}`);

Chrome string substitution and template literals

With the string substitution each value is added as a parameter to be inserted into the output. With template literals, on the other hand, you add them wherever they need to be in the output. Also, you can combine them.

console.log(`This is a number: ${42}. This is an object: %o`, {object: 'object'});

Chrome string substitution with template literals

So, there are lots of options to pick and choose from so you can go with the best options for your needs. 

Styling the output

Another potentially useful and fun thing is that you can apply CSS styles to the console’s output. It works just like the string substitution method where you insert a %c variable for styles to be applied from the parameters.

Here’s a simple example:

console.log('%cThis is large red text', 'color: red; font-size: 30px;');

Chrome styling in the console

This time there is a slight difference in the Firefox output:

Firefox styling in the console

Not really that much of a difference, but something to keep in mind.

What essentially happens is that %c reads the strings in the parameters to determine what styling to apply. So, say there’s a second styling being passed, %c moves on to the next parameter, much like with string substitution. An empty string in the parameter list resets the styling back to default.

console.log('This is %cred text %cand this is %cgreen text.', 'color: red;', '', 'color: green;');

Using multiple styles in the Chrome console.

The styling properties available are rather limited when compared to typical CSS styling on a webpage. You can look at it as a sort of inline block of text that allow you to manipulate a limited set of styling properties.

With some work and experimenting, you could create interesting messaging within the console. One idea is to draw extra attention to a particular log, especially an error of some sort.

console.log('%cHello there!', `   background: white;   border: 3px solid red;   color: red;   font-size: 50px;   margin: 40px;   padding: 20px; `);

Chrome custom styling

In this example, we can see that the CSS is a bit verbose, but there is something we can do to mimic the class system that we leverage in CSS. The values of each parameter for styling can be stored in variables to allow for repeated use without having to duplicate the string of styles in each parameter.

const clearStyles = ''; const largeText = 'font-size: 20px;'; const yellowText = 'color: yellow;'; const largeRedText = 'font-size: 20px; color: red;'; const largeGreenText = 'font-size: 20px; color: green;'; 
 console.log(`This is %clarge red text. %cThis is %clarge green text. %cThis is %clarge yellow text.`,   largeRedText,   clearStyles,   largeGreenText,   clearStyles,   largeText + yellowText );

Chrome custom template styling

There are several things going on here, so let’s break it down a bit. First, we have a collection of variables that holds our styling strings. Think of each as a sort of class to be reused in the parameters of the console log.

We are also using a template literal in the log, which means we can have line breaks in our output. Then, for each %c in the text, there’s a corresponding variable used in a parameter to define the styles for that particular part of the output text. In addition to each variable that holds styling, there is also a clearStyles argument that can be used to reset styles to prepare for the next set of styling. You could just use an empty string as in previous examples, but I like the clear intention that comes from using the variable name. The last parameter shows that the variables can be combined, which opens up more possible ways of handling the styles.

Now, that’s a great deal of text covering essentially five console commands that only output text to the console. So, let’s move on to other commands of the console object. Although, some of these can still use many of the features described so far, we won’t focus on that aspect as much with the following commands.

Being assertive: assert()

The console.assert() command is similar to the error command mentioned previously. The difference is that asserting allows for the usage of a boolean condition to determine whether it should output the text to the console.

For example, let’s say you wanted to test the value of a variable and make sure it wasn’t larger than a certain number value. If the variable is below that number and the condition resolves to true, the assert command does nothing. If the condition resolves to false, then the output text is displayed. This way you don’t have to wrap a console.error() command with an if statement to determine if the error message is needed in the first place.

let value = 10; console.assert(value <= 7, 'The value is greater than 7.');

Chrome assert example

We can see that assert has the same appearance as the error command, except that it also prepends “Assertion failed:” to the output text. Chrome can also expand this output to show a trace of where the assertion came from.

The trace can be quite helpful with common patterns of functions within functions calling other functions and so on. Although, you can see in the example above that the line the assert came from doesn’t tell you how the code got to that line.

let value = 10; 
 function function_one () {   function_two(); } 
 function function_two () {   function_three(); } 
 function function_three() {   console.assert(value < 7, 'This was false.'); } 
 function_one();

Chrome assert with trace

This sequence is actually in reverse order in terms of the code. The last line shows an anonymous entry (which is an HTML script tag in this case) on line 78. That’s where function_one was called. Inside that function, we have a call for function_two, which, in turn, calls function_three. Inside that last function is where the assert is located. So, in this development world of functions sharing other functions; a description of the path to that point of the assert is quite handy.

Unfortunately, this trace is not provided in Firefox with the assert command, as it is with the error command.

Firefox assert example

Keeping count: count() and countReset()

Ever wonder how many times a certain thing happens in your code? For instance, how many times does a particular function get called during a sequence of events? That’s where the console.count() command can help out.

By itself, the count command is rather simple and has limited use. If you use the command in its default state you only get a simple count. For example, if we call it three times in a row, we get a sequential count.

console.count(); console.count(); console.count();

Chrome default count example

As you can see, we get a simple count from one to three. The default behavior means that count is merely incrementing the output by one each time it runs, no matter where it shows up in the code. You do get the line number in the code where it happened, but the count is a simple total no matter the situation.

To make this command a bit more useful, we can provide a label to keep a separate count for that label.

console.count('label A'); console.count('label B'); console.count('label A'); console.count('label B'); console.count('label A'); console.count('label B');

Chrome label count example

Even though using the count command with labels causes the output to alternate between labels, each one keeps its own count. One scenario where this comes in handy is placing a count inside a function so that every time that function is called, the count is incremented. The label option makes it so that a count can be kept for individual functions to provide for a good idea of how many times each function is being called. That’s great for troubleshooting performance bottlenecks or simply seeing how much work a page is doing.

There’s a way to reset the count. Let’s say we have a loop that gets called multiple times, but the number of iterations of the loop can be dynamic. This is done with the console.countReset() command with the same label from the count command.

console.count(); console.count(); console.countReset(); console.count(); 
 console.count('this is a label'); console.count('this is a label'); console.countReset('this is a label'); console.count('this is a label');

Chrome count reset example

Each count — with and without a label — is called twice and console.countReset() is applied right before another count instance. You can see that Chrome counts up to two, then restarts when it encounters countReset. There’s nothing in DevTools to indicate the reset happened, so an assumption is made that it did happen because the count started over.

And yet, the same code is a bit different in Firefox.

Firefox count reset example

Here, the reset is indicated by the count being set all the way back to zero. That is the indicator that the reset was called, whereas we have no such indication in Chrome.

As for label options, just about anything can be used. I suppose a simple way to describe it is that if you give it anything that can be resolved to a string, it’ll probably work as a label. You could even use a variable that has values that change over time, where count will use the current value of the variable as a label each time it is encountered. So, you could keep count of the values as they change over time.

Describe that thing: dir() and dirxml()

The main idea behind these two commands is to display either properties of a Javascript object with console.dir() or descendant elements of an XML/HTML element with console.dirxml(). It appears Chrome has these implemented as expected, while Firefox just uses both as aliases for console.log().

Let’s give console.log(), console.dir(), and console.dirxml() the same simple object to see what we get. Keep in mind that you normally would not log an object with console.dirxml().

const count = {   one: 'one',   two: 'two',   three: 'three' }; 
 console.log(count); console.dir(count); console.dirxml(count);

Chrome simple dir() and dirxml() example

Firefox gives us much the same, except the console.dir() is automatically expanded.

Firefox simple dir() and dirxml() example

Another simple comparison to console.log() is to repeat the object in the same command.

Chrome dir() and dirxml() double example

Firefox dir() and dirxml() double example

Not really that much different other than that Chrome doesn’t show the second object in console.dir() like Firefox does. Which makes sense because Chrome is trying to display properties of an object (ignoring the second) while Firefox is just aliasing everything to a console.log(). So, for situations like this with objects there is little difference between console.log(), console.dir(), and console.dirxml() in the browsers.

A useful benefit of console.dir() in Chrome that I can point out is how DOM elements are handled. For example, here’s how console.log() displays in Chrome and Firefox when given a DOM element.

Chrome console.log() DOM example.

Firefox console.log() DOM example

Now, I’ve always liked how Firefox outputs a DOM element inside a console.log(), as it gives you all the properties of that DOM element. So, when I wanted to look up a specific property of a DOM element to manipulate with JavaScript, it’s only a console.log() away to find it. Chrome, on the other hand, gives us the HTML code of the DOM element in the console.log() just like it would in console.dirxml().

To get the properties in Chrome, use console.dir() with the DOM element. I was quite happy to find that console.dir() in Chrome provides the properties of a DOM element just as I came to rely on that information in Firefox.

As for console.dirxml() in Chrome, it can be useful for displaying an HTML element and its children outside of the clutter of the DOM Inspector. You can even edit some of the existing HTML live in the console, but you won't have the same level of abilities as in the DOM Inspector.

Let’s get together: group(), groupCollapsed(), and groupEnd()

Here’s a simple one: Group different console outputs together to show a form of relationship among them. It is somewhat limited in features so its usefulness will depend a great deal on how you plan to use it. This is the console.group() command.

console.group(); console.log('one'); console.log('two'); console.log('three'); console.groupEnd(); 
 console.group('this is a label'); console.log('one'); console.log('two'); console.log('three'); console.groupEnd();

Chrome group() example

In the first block of code we call console.group() in its default state, have three logs, and then finally call console.groupEnd(). The console.groupEnd() simply defines the end of the grouping. The second block has a string as a parameter that essentially becomes the label for that group. Notice that in the first block without a label it just identifies itself as a console.group in Chrome while in Firefox it shows as <no group label>. In most cases, you’ll want a proper label to distinguish between groups.

Also notice the arrow next to the labels. Clicking on that collapses the group. In the code examples above, if we change console.group() to console.groupCollapsed(), they start collapsed and must be opened to see the output.

You can also nest the groups. The console.groupEnd() command simply refers to the last opened group.

console.group('outer group'); console.log('outer one'); console.log('outer two'); console.group('inner group'); console.log('inner one'); console.log('inner two'); console.log('inner three'); console.groupEnd(); console.log('outer three'); console.groupEnd();

Chrome nested group() example

Just as a quick note, if you want the group label to stand out a bit more in a list of output in the console, you can style it just as we did with strings earlier.

console.group('%cstyled group', 'font-size: 20px; color: red;'); console.log('one'); console.log('two'); console.log('three'); console.groupEnd();

Chrome styled group() example

Have a seat at the: table()

In previous examples, we’ve seen what happens when we put an array or object inside a console.log() or console.dir(). There’s another option for these data types for a more structured display, which is console.table().

Here’s a simple example with an array:

let basicArray = [   'one',   'two',   'three' ]; console.table(basicArray);

Chrome basic array table() example

Here’s the same example in Firefox for comparison.

Firefox basic array table() example

A slight visual difference, but pretty much the same. That said, Chrome does still give you the expandable output under the table, much like you’d see in console.log(). Chrome will also provide basic column sorting if you click on the heading.

The output is similar when passing in an object:

let basicObject = {   one: 'one',   two: 'two',   three: 'three' }; console.table(basicObject);

Chrome basic object table() example

So, that was a pretty simple example with basic outputs. How about something a little more complex and is often used in coding projects? Let’s look at an array of objects.

let arrayOfObjects = [   {     one: 'one',     two: 'two',     three: 'three'   },   {     one: 'one',     two: 'two',     three: 'three'   },   {     one: 'one',     two: 'two',     three: 'three'   } ]; console.table(arrayOfObjects);

Chrome array of objects table() example

As you can see, this gets us a nice layout of objects with repeating keys as column labels. Imagine data along the lines of user information, dates, or whatever might be data often used in loops. Keep in mind that all the keys in each of the objects will be represented as a column, whether there is corresponding keys with data in the other objects. If an object doesn’t have data for a key’s column, it appears as empty.

An array of arrays is similar to the array of objects. Instead of keys being labels for the columns, it uses the index of the inner arrays as column labels. So if an array has more items than the other arrays, then there will be blank items in the table for those columns. Just like with the array of objects.

So far, simple arrays and objects have simple output displayed. Even a slightly more complex array of objects still has a solid, useful structure. Things can get a bit different with mixing the data types though.

For example, an array of arrays where one of the inner array items is an object.

let arrayOfArraysWithObject = [   ['one', 'two', {three: 'three', four: 'four'}],   ['one', 'two', {three: 'three', four: 'four'}],   ['one', 'two', {three: 'three', four: 'four'}] ]; console.table(arrayOfArraysWithObject);

Chrome array of arrays with object table() example

Now, to see what is contained in those objects in the third column, we’ll have to expand that array output below the table. Not that bad, really. Here’s how Firefox handles the same output.

Firefox array of array with object table() example

Firefox just lets us expand the object within the table.

How about mixing the data types the other way, where we have an object with arrays as values for each key? It works much the same as the array of arrays. The difference is that each row is labeled with a key instead of the index. Of course, for each level of data type you add to the mix will result in a more complex looking table. 

This is all about: time(), timeLog(), and timeEnd()

Here we have a simple way to log how long something takes to complete. We call console.time() with a label, call console.timeLog() with the same label for an update, and call console.timeEnd() again with the same label to stop the timer.

console.time('this is a timer'); console.timeLog('this is a timer'); console.timeEnd('this is a timer');

The output for Chrome and Firefox is much the same. Here’s an example output with code that logs the time every second for five seconds and then stops.

Chrome time() example

Firefox time() example

Notice that the reported times are not quite the same, but probably close enough for most requirements. Also, Firefox is nice enough to note that the timer has ended while Chrome requires an assumption once the label stops appearing. The first four lines of output come from the call console.timeLog('this is a timer'); and the last line is from the call to console.timeEnd('this is a timer');.

Dropping breadcrumbs with: trace()

The console.trace() command is actually similar to console.error() and console.warn(). Calling this command will output a stack trace to the console showing the path through the code to that call. We can even pass it a string as a form of label, but other data types such as arrays or objects can be passed. The behavior of passing data like that is the same as what we would get from a console.log() call. It’s a simple way to pass along some information to the console without triggering a more dire looking console.error() or console.warn() call.

debugger

This is a simple command to trigger a pause in the console’s debugger, if it exists. It is similar to placing a breakpoint in the debugger, or the browser’s equivalent, to cause the same type of pause while executing code. Here’s a simple example:

function whatsInHere() {   debugger;   // rest of the code }

In this particular example, the open console’s debugger will pause code execution and the browser will open up the source file to show the line of code as soon as the function is called. It could be useful for easy breakpoints with some complicated projects.

Technically, the debugger command isn't a part of the console object in the browser. It's a useful feature that the console will respond to from JavaScript code.

Some additional console utilities

That’s a good look at most of the standard commands available to us in the console object. Each of these will work more-or-less the same across modern browsers. There may be some differences between browsers, as we saw in some of the examples. But there are a few more things I’d like to take a moment to point out, as they might prove useful in various ways.

The following examples can be considered more like console “utilities.” They are not a part of the console object like most of the previous examples. Therefore they are not called with a leading console object reference. These utilities are supported directly by the browsers themselves. They cannot be called from JavaScript code but must be typed directly in the console to be used. In some cases the utility might be unique to a particular browser, in others the utility is supported much the same way in several browsers. Your mileage may vary based on your browser of choice.

$0, $1, $2, $3, $4

These five commands are extremely handy. The first one, $0, represents the currently selected element in the DOM inspector. This essentially provides a shortcut instead of having to use more traditional DOM methods, such as getElementById or a querySelector. You can use it in various ways, within various console commands, or by itself to get information about the currently selected element. For example:

console.log($0);

The other commands in this set represent elements that were previously selected. Think of them as a form of selection history. $1 is the previous element, $2 is the previous before that, and so on. Although the first command is available in Firefox, the commands for previously selected elements are not.

$(‘element’), $$(‘elements’)

If you find yourself typing out document.querySelector('element') in the console repeatedly, there’s a shortcut. You can just type $('element') and it performs the same function. The shortcut might remind many of jQuery, but to select multiple elements reminds me of MooTools. To select multiple elements, you’d use $$('elements') instead of document.querySelectorAll('elements').

$x(‘//element’)

This is a shortcut for XPath that will return an array of elements that match the expression. An easy example is $x('//div'), which will present an array of every div element on the page. This isn’t that much different than using $$('div') like we did with $('element'), but there are many options for writing XPath expressions.

One example of a simple step up in a XPath expression is $x('//div[span]'), which would return the div elements on the page that happen to contain a span element. This is the equivalent of :has in CSS Selectors Level 4 draft, which isn’t supported in browsers yet.

These are just basic examples that only scratch the surface of XPath.

clear()

This is another version of console.clear(), but without the “Console was cleared” message.

getEventListeners(object)

This command, when given a DOM element, will report the event listeners registered to that element. For example, using the $0 example from above we can use getEventListeners($0) to get something like this:

Chrome getEventListeners() example

Expanding each item in the array provides various information about that event listener. This function isn’t supported in Firefox, but it does offer something similar that can be found in the DOM inspector.

Firefox DOM Inspector events information.

Clicking on the “event” badge next to the element provides a list of events registered to the element. Then each event can be expanded to show the code involved with the event.

That’s it for now!

 I’ll end it here, with a large amount of information detailing various commands that can be used in the browser’s console output or with JavaScript. This isn’t everything that is possible — there’s simply too much to cover. In some cases, each browser has its own capabilities or utilities that can be leveraged. We looked at the bulk of what we might find in Chrome and Firefox, but there’s likely more out there. Plus, there will always be new features introduced in the future. I invite you to dig deeper to discover more ways to leverage browser DevTools for your coding projects.

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BTS Fic Recommendations

There seems to be a weird divide in this fandom between reader x member and member x member stories, but I’m just here in the middle like “all Bangtan smut is good smut!” A good story is a good story and good writing is good writing. Some of these have no smut at all and some are so filthy that I can’t believe I’m recommending them, but, you know, BTS ruined my life and I have no shame anymore. 

I’ve probably read hundreds of BTS stories by now and these are the ones that I go back to over and over. I tried to pick only one per author, but all of these authors are amazing and you should go check out their whole masterlists. These are the authors that I personally fangirl over and stand in awe of. None of these are particularly similar to mine (eg. they are way better) and none of them are particular similar to each other. These are the fics that, for whatever reason, I couldn’t forget about after I read them.

Warning: Some of these are very explicit, so use caution. Anything marked with an M is definitely NSFW. 

Hope you enjoy!

New Recs! 

New as of 4/30/18

same damn hunger (M) by marienadine - Yoongi X Hoseok - I am weak for Yoonseok and this fic does an amazing job capturing the push and pull of their relationship. I think this might be my favorite fictional Yoongi I’ve yet read, striving so hard to be tough, but secretly and vulnerable softie. 

Dig Deep (M) by @johobi - Yoongi X Reader - Tentacle kink is not in my usual list of things I am interested in, but this was so enjoyable and weird and sexy and compelling that I actually sat in my car for 15 minutes not driving anywhere just so I could finish it. I love the level of world building in this tentacle porn. There are real characters and backstory and whole alien species with foreign biology. It is awesome. And the ending is so surprisingly sweet. I love how Jo kept all the things that can be sexy about this genre but made it all consensual and fun.

Completed Stories

All of these are stories that I’ve read more than once, and I am sad every time they are over. 

Transference (M) by @jeonjagiya - Hoseok x Reader - There is not enough Hoseok fiction in the world, but this story’s tantric therapist Hoseok goes a long way to making up for that. Probably my personal favorite male lead in a reader-insert story. Such an incredibly sexy story that feels real. I am madly in love with Iris and have read all of her stories more than once. Her sub!Jungkook story almost killed me.

In the Twilight Air (M) by @trilluvium - Yoongi x Jimin - Yoongi and Jimin are dorky best friends who lose their virginity together.  I don't think I've ever read a one-shot that made me feel so many emotions! It was so cute and sweet and felt authentic to what a good first time would actually be like. Originally this was a one-shot but Trill has expanded it and I am loving every new chapter. I have read Trilluvium’s whole masterlist and am in love with everything she’s ever written.

Good Boys Like Bad Girls (M) by @wildernessuntothemselves - Reader x Taehyung - I read this story and was hesitant to recommend it for a long time because it is so incredibly intense. All the characters are terrible people and the smut is both exceedingly hot and exceedingly disturbing. I cannot stop thinking about this story. It remains one of the stories that has stuck with me the longest after reading it. I care about all of its messed-up characters so much and the ending is devastating in such a perversely satisfying way. But seriously, don’t read this if you want all of your protagonists to be good people and do good things. This is not that story. I admire Moe so much for how unique and unapologetic her ideas are and have enjoyed a lot of her other writings as well, even if they all unsettle me in different ways.

Jasmine (M) by @btssmutgalore - Reader x Jungkook - Jungkook x noona is my favorite thing ever and he’s so well-captured here: nervous, but sexy at the same time. I’m also a huge fan of Business which is a very very sexy threesome with dom!Tae and sub!Jungkook. 

Playing to Win (M) by @tayegi​ - Taehyung x Jungkook x Reader - I am such a sucker for Taekook threesomes, but I particularly love this one because of “I hate you but you’re so sexy” thing going on with the reader and Jungkook. I haven’t a chance to read all of Lu’s astoundingly large masterlist but some of my other favorites of hers are her new MadScientist!Tae story, her Jungkook wolf stories, and this awesome fuck-or-die Jungkook story. Lu has an amazing ability to come up with such clever and unique fic ideas and all her stories are hilarious in addition to sexy.

Milage May Vary (M) by @crossfilth - Taehyung x Jungkook - Rix is the reason Taekook is my OTP (I have two OTPs and two biases, can’t help it). I love every single one of her stories. They are so incredibly sexy, but also so full of real emotion and great dialogue. This is Rix’s longest work so far and it is phenomenal, really sexy, but also really interesting character development and compelling love story. Her entire masterlist is amazing. 

Love at First Touch by @bagelswrites - Jimin x OC - I am such trash for soulmate AUs and this is my all-time favorite. The OC is so well-realized with her own flaws and struggles and you really feel for her throughout the story. This also has my absolute favorite fictional depiction of Jimin. I personally find Jimin very hard to write and he is so often written out-of-character, but this story really nails his signature blend of insecure, vulnerable manliness. The author did so much research to make sure this story lined up with BTS’s actual timeline in real life. Bagels is my hero. 

Thursdays are for… (M) by Arguileless - Taehyung x Reader x Jungkook - My favorite story in the “dating one member but really want to fuck a different member” genre. It’s all smut, but manages to reach 17,000 words. This version of Taehyung who is wildly adventurous and dominant is incredibly sexy. This story started my Taehyung as bias-wrecker problem.

tear the moon from the stars tonight (M) by euphoriae - Yoongi x Jimin - Historical AU with so much real research behind it, I’m blown away. At first, the “jimin is a slave” premise sounds ridiculous, but the rich context, attention to detail and world-building quickly make you forget about it.  I learned a surprising amount of Korean history because of this story, and the love story here is beautiful. One of the very first fan-fictions I read and it showed me how literary fan-fiction could be. 

Inc. (M) by @park-loins - Seokjin x Yoongi - BTS meets The Office. Had me cackling over and over, but also desperately rooting for the love story. Can’t believe this is the same author that also wrote the heart-breakingly beautiful Reprise.

you have 1 new message by bazooka - Namjoon x Jin - I think everyone in this fandom has already read this story, but on the off chance you haven’t, you should. It’s starts as totally hysterical and then becomes amazingly sweet. 

Love is not possession (M) by kuragecharms - Jungkook x Jin - More A/B/O because I am trash. I really love all of kuragecharms’ wolf stories. This author was also the first to sell me on Jin x Jungkook as a ship and now I’m a big fan.

Bloody paws in the snow (M) by pandorasumbrella - Yoongi x Hoseok - My all-time favorite A/B/O story. Does such a great job building an incredibly detailed world. This is the first work in an elaborate trilogy that is so beautiful it breaks your heart. 

Nirvana (M) by syubology - Jimin x Hoseok - Jimin and Hoseok struggle with their feelings for each other. One of the first fics I ever really loved. This story does a terrific job of depicting BTS as BTS and the possible ramifications of a relationship within that dynamic. 

In Progress

For where there’s sun you’ll find a moon by @bulletproof-dork-boys - Yoongi x Taehyung - I am huge a greek mythology nerd and I am super excited to see where this Taehyung as Hades, Yoongi as Persephone story goes.

SAVE ME (M) by agnes_viviane - Jungkook x OC - Adorably awkward OC befriends Jungkook on accident, then falls in love with him. Makes me cackle with glee and second-hand embarrassment every time I read it. Full of all my favorite things: awkwardness, angst and Jungkook. Agnes is the sweetest and taught me a lot of important things about the correct ways to address people in Korean and how to properly use Korean in my stories.

Touch Me, Touch You (M) by @deathbyyoongi​ - Yoongi x Reader x Hoseok - Yoongi + Hoseok + smut + angst + mild D/S… it is all the things I am weak for in one story.

The Fitting (M) by @noona-la-la-la​ - Jungkook x Reader - Noona-la-la-la writes really excellent, realistic but still super sexy smut and all of her reader inserts are adult women, often older than the boys. I also really really enjoyed Unexpected which is Yoongi smut and Conditioned featuring sub!Taehyung.

Grey Area (M) by @blushoseoks - Yoongi x Reader x Jimin? - Soulmate AU where everything is more complicated than it should be and so wonderfully angsty. Such an interesting take on the Soulmate AU.

The Purge by @jungblue - Hoseok x Reader - I just found jungblue and everything I’ve read from them so far is phenomenal! I love this fic in particular because it is such a different idea than anything I’ve seen before and stars Hobi!

The Unwanted Alpha (M) - by RedPantherVitality8 - Jungkook x Reader - Combines A/B/O with noona x Jungkook angst. No faster way to my heart.

Leave your mark (M) by @inarsics - Jungkook x Jimin - A/B/O is my big weakness/guilty pleasure. I love this story in particular for its interesting take on the genre, where all the alphas have gone extinct. Also, Jimin has a little brother and it’s incredibly sweet and adorable.

i like how desperate you seem (in the way you look at me) (M) by fatal - Jungkook x Jimin - A “classic” of BTS A/B/O subgenre. Super slow-burn that keeps you on the edge of your seat and desperate to know what happens next.  

your taste is so sweet on my lips (M) by @pinktteokie - Hoseok x Taehyung x Yoongi - My favorite polyamorous story. The slow-burn is so good and the way the relationship moves from a relationship between two people to a relationship between three people is fascinating.

read between the (panty) lines (M) by @lunaticmyngi - Yoongi x Jimin x Jungkook - I fangirl so hard about everything from TheHalesNyx. How she manages to write so many different requests and have them all be so well-done, I have no idea. This prompt started off so filthy, and became such an intensely emotional story. You feel so much sympathy and angst for all three members in this story. Her entire masterlist is amazing.

Obviously, there are many other amazing fics that I just haven’t read yet, or accidentally forgot about. As I find more, I’ll add them to this tag #fic rec.

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How much useful information is inside Make Him Fall Head Over Heels? Make sure you’re getting your money’s worth by learning more before committing – inside!

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Make Him Fall Head Over Heels Review – Does It Really Work?

Love besides the economic situation establishes the globe moving. The vibration you discover in the arms of your companion can be sometimes frustrating up until partnership difficulties at some point embeded in.

This is the moment when solemnity stalks you gradually like a hearthside feline or like water rising to your neck. Many pairs wind up quarrelling due to the fact that they can not get across the various other ‘bed o’ roses’ side, a lot of specifically women.

The weight of this crazy pet cat battles as well as outcries takes hefty toll on them. Plates are damaged, washing winds up not being done, as well as supper is burned or under-cooked … Primarily it dismantles them.

Are you reviewing this testimonial as well as you seem like words I talk concern you so deeply it seems like this overview is created for you? You remain in good luck. The item of Cupid in me, using this overview will certainly present you expertise on exactly how to transform your guy’s heart from sour to pleasant.

What is Make Him Fall Head Over Heels?

This Kymmie Krieger unnecessary program is extreme. Make Him Fall Head Over Heels is bent on almost offering you partnership recommendations that have not been recorded in the various other evaluations and also made your lovemaking sour and also stagnant.

This program will aim to provide you as the lady, the best section that will certainly obtain the love that your guy has actually kept back from you.

Obviously, there’s a fling that becomes something major thus you intend to maintain it due to the fact that it appears it will certainly lead you to the aisle. This Make Him Fall Head Over Heels will certainly reveal you exactly how to revive your partnership right into line and also just how to agreeably manage your connection problems by stating on:

Poor interaction abilities

Just how to comprehend and also accept your guy’s distinctions from your own.

That is Kymmie Krieger?

To have qualified skill and also competence on issues enjoy takes experience. That is specifically what symbolizes Kymmie and also his program. The writer is an expert dating and also connection train. He pays his expenses by placing in initiative in this area where he reveals pairs just how to connect the spaces in their connection.

Just how does this program job?

As I pointed out previously, Make Him Fall Heads over Heels immoral the reality that interaction is the center-lane for all points, excellent as well as negative in a partnership. The training course electronic book concentrates on describing just how to boost excellent interaction in between you as well as your partner.

The program discovers all angles of interaction that can fall apart a connection if it drops without. Likewise, it reveals you simply what stops briefly and also barges in your partnership you can restore you from significant disaster.

Make Him Fall Head Over Heels, as the program name illegal is implied to provide you the abstract formula to aid you make your male excessively connected to you; something that is unusual amongst the sterner sex that are much less clingy.

The program additionally shows you that there are various means to connect and also these are:

The acoustic type of person

The sensation kind

The Aesthetic individuals

The 3 stated ‘languages of love’ are the ones that you as the woman should certainly position optimum focus on. All of it exists completely in the electronic book. All you need to do is comprise your mind to obtain the whole overview as well as learn his 3 prominent love languages that have actually slid your understanding to name a few rewarding connection suggestions.

That requires the program?

Relationships do not included a handbook; love is extra like listing your manuscript. What exercised for somebody else may not exercise for you in the long-run or the other way around. You require a hand to raise you in issues partnership, specifically if you’re a beginner.

Relationships are wholesomely a bed of roses as well as additionally hurting you in the face like nettle. You may be bewildered by the disorder in your love circle as well as have no leave door aside from tossing words at each various other to go out your disappointments.

The writer recognizes extensive what spirals backwards and forwards a connection; his résumé checks out professional dating train, keep in mind? So when you obtain this overview you should take respite in him since this solution will certainly supply the most effective alleviation.

If you intend to maintain that stimulate that invigorates your partnership when you take advantage of it; could be the karat ring he provided you as involvement to him or it may be the soft kisses as well as cozy cinder accepts, you require to have this item. It absolutely is a hands-on program.

Is this program ensured to help you?

Prior to you endeavour in a program that guarantees to hold the best willpower to your connection obstacles, you initially might intend to gain access to whether make Him Fall Head Over Heels is a fraud or totally legit.

Allow me be the initial to place your fears to remainder. This magic program is able, unlike the various other inefficient ones from the evaluations you might have been teased to enjoy. Simply to reveal you that you’ll gain great deals of boom, allow me state for you on what the sensation type of love language can be clever to you.

You might boast being off the spinster’s entrapment however you do not recognize your male that well completely. The sensation kind is the desire person; enchanting and also straight-out reveals what he really feels for you. This sort of person requires you to be mindful f the love he offers you as well as likewise anticipates you to reciprocate.

This testimonial aids you comprehend this sort of man amongst both various other groups of males there is. This is simply a piece attack off the raw juicy steak; you need to obtain the whole training course workbook to discover whether it can aid receive your connection.

Does the writer provide any type of assistance?

The writer hols your hand throughout the program so to guarantee that at the end’ you’re a master at repairing turmoil that your partnership might toss at you by providing you the complying with assistance:

Routinely upgraded e-newsletter that maintains you approximately day with all the most up to date things released to enhance the program

Costs subscription where you obtain complimentary presents thanks to being a customer.

Final Verdict

Taking into consideration that partnerships now can last also much less than your age number, this Make Him Fall Head Over Heels is your ideal willpower to the bitter part in your love circle. No standards are defined when it involves your male; unless he places it visible what he is constructed from as well as what he desires from the fling.

This is unusual amongst guys so your ideal option is to take some time as well as examine his characteristics and also while you go to it, this testimonial will can be found in helpful for your demands.

Pros

– The writer illuminates on the 3 languages of love that you can make use of to recognize your guy far better.

– The consistently upgraded e-newsletters strengthen the program by showing you just how to better stick your guy on your side utilizing brand-new approaches in the writer’s bag of techniques.

– In instance you aren’t satisfied with what the program needs to use, you can obtain a reimbursement by means of the 60-day refund assurance.

– You improve at connecting with your guy after finding out the important function that interaction plays in any type of connection.

– The program aids you connect to the concealed side of your male you really did not comprehend previously and also makes you value him by obtaining complete understanding of it.

– You go to freedom to expand the period of your connection by years if you please since the program educates you exactly how to do so.

Cons

– The program isn’t totally useful so it takes some time to show up the guaranteed outcomes.

– Right here is no warranty that when you get on the program your connection will certainly outlive the partnerships you have actually had in the past.

– You need to have a comprehensive understanding of your guy initially which requires time lest you make the incorrect reasoning that does not comply with the program.

Summary

Prior to you place a great deal of initiative in your partnership, require time to initially comprehend your male’s essential as well as objectives for why you’re with each other. If your intestine speaks with you of a feasible future with the person, get this overview to all set on your own on just how to agreeably manage the coming difficulties

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SEW Interview: Clark Boyd on visual search

We recently caught up with Clark Boyd, a visual search expert and regular contributor to Search Engine Watch. We discussed camera-based visual search – that futuristic technology that allows you to search the physical world with your smartphone – what it means for the way search is changing, and whether we’re going to see it become truly commonplace any time soon.

In case any of our readers aren’t up to speed on what ‘camera-based visual search’ actually is, we’re talking about technology like Google Lens and Pinterest Lens; you can point your smartphone camera at an object, the app will recognize it, and then perform a search for you based on what it identifies.

So you can point it at, for example, a pair of red shoes, the technology will recognize that these are red shoes, and it’ll pull up search results – such as shopping listings – for similar-looking pairs of shoes.

In other words, if you’ve ever been out and about and seen someone with a really cool piece of clothing that you wish you could buy for yourself – now you can.

  First of all – what’s your personal take on camera-based visual search – the likes of Google Lens and Pinterest Lens? Do you use these technologies often?

I have used visual search on Google, Pinterest, and Amazon quite a lot. For those that haven’t used these yet, you can do so within the Google Lens app (now available on iOS), the Pinterest app, and the Amazon app too.

In essence, I can point my smartphone at an object and the app will interpret it based on what it sees, but also what it assumes I want to know.

With Google, that can mean additional information about landmarks pulled from the Knowledge Graph or it might show me Shopping links. On Pinterest it could show recipes if I look at some ingredients, or it can go deeper to look at the style of a piece of furniture, for example. Amazon is a bit more straightforward in that it will show me similar products.

I suppose that visual search is best summarized by saying it’s there when we don’t have the words to describe what we want to know. That could be an item of clothing, or we could be looking for inspiration – we know what the item is, but we aren’t 100% sure what would go with it.

Recently, I have been both decorating a house and planning my wedding. As a colorblind luddite with more enthusiasm than taste, I can use visual search to help me plan. Simply typing a text search for [armchairs] is going to lead me nowhere; scanning a chair I like to find similar items and also complementary ones is genuinely useful for me.

At the moment, this works best on Pinterest. It uses contextual signals (Pins, boards, feedback from similar users) to pick up on the esthetic elements of an object, beyond just shape and color. Design patterns and texture are used to deliver nuanced and satisfactory items in response to a query.

What’s interesting is that camera-based searches on Pinterest deliver different results to text-based searches for similar items. Basically, visual search can often lead to better results on Pinterest. That’s not the case on Google yet, but that’s where they are aiming to get to.

And that’s the key, really: in some contexts, visual search adds value for the user. It’s easy to use and can lead to better results. There are now over 600,000,000 visual searches on Pinterest every month, so it seems people are really starting to engage with the technology.

To my mind, that is what will give visual search longevity. It mimics our thought process and augments it, too; visual search opens up a whole new repository of information for us.

  Camera-based visual search has some fairly obvious applications in the realm of ecommerce, for example where you can see something while you’re on the go and instantly pull up search results showing you how to buy it. But do you think there are any other big potential uses for visual search?

I think there are lots of potential uses, yes; in fact, even the ecommerce example really only scratches the surface.

Where visual search comes into its own, and I think goes beyond the realm of the purely novel, is when it suggests new ideas that people have not yet thought of.

Pinterest’s Lens the Look tool is a great example. I could search for shoes and find the pair I wanted, but Pinterest can also suggest an outfit that would go with the shoes too. This then becomes more of an ongoing conversation.

The new app from fashion retailer ASOS will likely go in this direction too, and I expect sites like Zara and H&M to follow suit. IKEA has its AR-tinged effort too, which allows people to see how the furniture will look. Although in my experience, it will lie in a million pieces for days until I figure out how to put it all together!

We should always consider that visual search exists at a very clear intersection of the physical and the digital. As a result, we should also think about the ways in which we can make it easier for people to enhance their experience of our stores through visual search.

We have seen things like QR codes linger without ever really taking off here, and Pinterest has launched Pincodes as a way to try and get people to engage.

Google has started adding features like this to its Lens tool, and the recent announcement about voice-activated Shopping through Google Express is another step in that direction.

The core of this is really to get people on board first and foremost, and then to introduce more overt forms of ecommerce.

Beyond that, visual search can allow us to take better pictures. Google has demonstrated forthcoming versions of Lens that will automatically detect and remove obstructions from images, and input Wifi codes just by showing the camera the password.

What we’re really looking for are those intangibles that only an image can get close to capturing. So anything related to style or design, such as the visual arts or even tattoos (the most searched for ‘item’ on Pinterest visual search), will be a natural fit.

Search has been a fantastic medium when we want to locate a product or service. That input format limits its reach, however. If search is to continue expanding, it must become a more comprehensive resource, actively searching on our behalf before we provide explicit instruction.

  We’ve seen a lot of development in the realm of visual search over the past couple of years, with tech companies like Google, Pinterest and Bing emerging as front-runners in the field. Google acquired an image recognition start-up, and Pinterest hired a new Head of Search and started more seriously developing its search capabilities. What do you think could be coming next for visual search?

First of all, the technology will keep improving in accuracy.

Acquisitions will likely be a part of this process. Pinterest’s early success can be put down to personnel and business strategy, but they also bought Kosei in 2015 to help understand and categorize images.

I would expect Google to put a lot of resource into integrating visual search with its other products, like Google Maps and Shopping. The recent I/O developers conference provided some tantalizing glimpses of where this will lead us.

Lens is already built into the Pixel 2 camera, which makes it much easier to access, but it still isn’t integrated with other products in a truly intuitive way. People are impressed when their smartphone can recognize objects, but that capability doesn’t really add long-term value.

So, we will see a more accurate interpretation of images and, therefore, more varied and useful results.

To go back to the example of my attempts to help furnish an apartment, I don’t think where we are today is by any means the fulfillment of visual search’s promise. I can certainly imagine a future where I can use visual search to scan the space in my living room, take into account the dimensions and act as my virtual interior designer, recommending designs that fit with my preferences and budget. AR technology would let me see how this will look before I buy and also save the image so I can come back to it.

The technologies to do that either exist or are getting to an acceptable level of accuracy. Combined, they could form a virtual interior design suite that either brands or search engines could use.

A gap still remains between the search engine and the content it serves, however.

For this to function, brands need to play their part too. There are plentiful best practices for optimizing for Pinterest search and all visual search engines make use of contextual signals and metadata to understand what they are looking at.

One way this could happen is when brands team up with influencers to showcase their products. As long as their full range is tied thematically to the products on show, these can be served to consumers as options for further ideas.

In summary, I think the technology has a bit of development still to come, but we need to meet the machine learning algorithms halfway by giving them the right data to work with. Pinterest has used over one billion images in its training set, for example. That means taking ownership of all online real estate and identifying opportunities for our content to surface through related results.

The advertising side of this will come, of course (and Pinterest is evolving its product all the time), but for this to come to fruition it also requires a shift in mindset from the advertisers themselves. The most sophisticated search marketers are already looking at ways to move beyond text-based results and start using search as a full-funnel marketing channel.

    We’ve been talking about visual search mostly in the context of smartphones, as currently that’s the technology most immediately suited to searching the physical world, given that all smartphones these days have built-in cameras.

But what about other gadgets? We’re seeing a lot of companies at the moment who are developing smart glasses or AR glasses – Snap, Intel, Toshiba came out with a pair just a few months ago – could visual search find a natural home there?

I’m not sure we’ve seen the end of Google Glass, actually. I really don’t think Google is finished in that area and it does make sense to have visual search incorporated directly into our field of vision.

The most likely area to take off here in terms of usage in the short-term is actually for the visually impaired. There are smart glasses that use artificial intelligence (AI) to perform visual searches on objects and highlight immediately what they are seeing.

Those are from a company called Poly, who are doing a range of interesting things in this space.

We think of devices that we wear or actively use, but that may not even be the long-term future of visual search. Poly has also developed visual search technology that works in stores. It can keep track of inventory levels automatically, but also detects who is in the store by linking with the Bluetooth connection in their phone.

Things like face IDs on smartphones along with Apple/Google Pay really help to create this potential use.

So the visual search exists at a higher level, it detects who is in the store, and it adds items to their basket as they pick them up. When the person leaves, they are charged via Apple/Google Pay or similar. So a bit like the Amazon Go stores, but using visual search to scan the store and see who is there and what they buy.

The cost for doing this has reduced dramatically, so it would now be possible for smaller stores to engage with this technology. Where that has potential to take off is in its introduction of a friction-free shopping experience.

That’s just one potential use, but it highlights how visual search can lead to much bigger opportunities for retailers and customers.

How close we are to that reality depends on people’s proclivity to accept that level of surveillance.

  The most futuristic technology in the world is no good if no-one is using it, and we’ve seen much-vaunted tech advancements flop before – speaking of smart glasses, Google Glass is a good example of that. So what would you say are the immediate barriers to the more widespread adoption of visual search? What kind of timeline are we looking at for visual search entering the mainstream – if indeed it ever does?

With voice search, it was always stated that 95% accuracy would be the point at which people would use the technology. I don’t think there have been excessive studies into visual search yet, but that should come soon. With increased accuracy will come widespread awareness of the potential uses of visual search.

The short-term focus really has to be on making the technology as useful as it can be.

Once the technology gets closer to that 95% accuracy mark, the key test will be whether novelty use turns into habit. The fact that over 600,000,000 visual searches take place on Pinterest each month suggests we are quickly reaching that point.

It also has to be easy to access visual search, because the moments in which we want to use it can be quite fleeting.

From there, it will be possible for retailers, search engines, and social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest to build out their advertising products.

As with any innovation, there is a point of critical mass that needs to be reached, but we are starting to see that with voice search and the monetization of visual search sits rather more naturally, I think.

We want to understand the world around us and we want to engage with new ideas; images are the best way to do this, but they are also a difficult form of communication.

Our culture is majoritively visual and has been for some time. We need only look at the nature of ads over the past century; text recedes as imagery assumes the foreground in most instances.

Whether the Lens technologies are an end in themselves or just a stage in the development of visual search, we can’t be sure. There may be entirely new technologies that sit outside smartphones in the future, but image recognition will still be central.

I would still encourage all marketers to embrace a trend that only looks likely to gather pace.

  Visual search is still quite an abstract concept for most of us, so is there anything practical that marketers and SEOs can do to prepare for it? Is it possible to optimize for visual search just yet? If marketers want to try and keep ahead of the visual search curve, what would be the best way to do that?

Any time we are dealing with search, there will be a lot of theory and practice that can help anyone get better results. We just don’t have the shortcuts we used to.

When it comes to visual search, I would recommend:

Read blogs like Pinterest engineering. It can seem as though these things work magically, but there is a clear methodology behind visual search

Organize your presence across Instagram, Google, Pinterest. Visual search engines use these as hints to understand what each image contains.

Follow the traditional image search best practices.

Analyze your own results. Look at how your images perform and try new colors, new themes. Results will be evermore personalized, so there isn’t a blanket right or wrong

Consider how your shoppable images might surface. You either want to be the item people search for or the logical next step from there. Look at your influencer engagements and those of your competitors to see what tends to show up

Engage directly with creative teams. Search remains a data-intensive industry and always will be, but this strength is now merging with the more creative aspects. Search marketers need to be working with social media and brand to make the most of visual search

Make it easy to isolate and identify items within your pictures. Visual search engines have a really tough job on their hands; don’t make it harder for them

Use a consistent theme and, if you use stock imagery, adapt it a bit. Otherwise, the image will be recognized based on the millions of other times it has appeared

Think about how to optimize your brick-and-mortar presence. If people use products as the stimulus for a search, what information will they want to know? Price, product information, similar items, and so on. Then ensure that you are optimized for these. Use structured data to make it easy for a search engine to surface this information. In fact, if there’s one thing to focus on for visual search right now, it is structured data.

  Check our Clark’s presentation on visual search here.

SEW Interview: Clark Boyd on visual search syndicated from https://hotspread.wordpress.com

[oscarkruegerus]

SEW Interview: Clark Boyd on visual search

We recently caught up with Clark Boyd, a visual search expert and regular contributor to Search Engine Watch. We discussed camera-based visual search – that futuristic technology that allows you to search the physical world with your smartphone – what it means for the way search is changing, and whether we’re going to see it become truly commonplace any time soon.

In case any of our readers aren’t up to speed on what ‘camera-based visual search’ actually is, we’re talking about technology like Google Lens and Pinterest Lens; you can point your smartphone camera at an object, the app will recognize it, and then perform a search for you based on what it identifies.

So you can point it at, for example, a pair of red shoes, the technology will recognize that these are red shoes, and it’ll pull up search results – such as shopping listings – for similar-looking pairs of shoes.

In other words, if you’ve ever been out and about and seen someone with a really cool piece of clothing that you wish you could buy for yourself – now you can.

  First of all – what’s your personal take on camera-based visual search – the likes of Google Lens and Pinterest Lens? Do you use these technologies often?

I have used visual search on Google, Pinterest, and Amazon quite a lot. For those that haven’t used these yet, you can do so within the Google Lens app (now available on iOS), the Pinterest app, and the Amazon app too.

In essence, I can point my smartphone at an object and the app will interpret it based on what it sees, but also what it assumes I want to know.

With Google, that can mean additional information about landmarks pulled from the Knowledge Graph or it might show me Shopping links. On Pinterest it could show recipes if I look at some ingredients, or it can go deeper to look at the style of a piece of furniture, for example. Amazon is a bit more straightforward in that it will show me similar products.

I suppose that visual search is best summarized by saying it’s there when we don’t have the words to describe what we want to know. That could be an item of clothing, or we could be looking for inspiration – we know what the item is, but we aren’t 100% sure what would go with it.

Recently, I have been both decorating a house and planning my wedding. As a colorblind luddite with more enthusiasm than taste, I can use visual search to help me plan. Simply typing a text search for [armchairs] is going to lead me nowhere; scanning a chair I like to find similar items and also complementary ones is genuinely useful for me.

At the moment, this works best on Pinterest. It uses contextual signals (Pins, boards, feedback from similar users) to pick up on the esthetic elements of an object, beyond just shape and color. Design patterns and texture are used to deliver nuanced and satisfactory items in response to a query.

What’s interesting is that camera-based searches on Pinterest deliver different results to text-based searches for similar items. Basically, visual search can often lead to better results on Pinterest. That’s not the case on Google yet, but that’s where they are aiming to get to.

And that’s the key, really: in some contexts, visual search adds value for the user. It’s easy to use and can lead to better results. There are now over 600,000,000 visual searches on Pinterest every month, so it seems people are really starting to engage with the technology.

To my mind, that is what will give visual search longevity. It mimics our thought process and augments it, too; visual search opens up a whole new repository of information for us.

  Camera-based visual search has some fairly obvious applications in the realm of ecommerce, for example where you can see something while you’re on the go and instantly pull up search results showing you how to buy it. But do you think there are any other big potential uses for visual search?

I think there are lots of potential uses, yes; in fact, even the ecommerce example really only scratches the surface.

Where visual search comes into its own, and I think goes beyond the realm of the purely novel, is when it suggests new ideas that people have not yet thought of.

Pinterest’s Lens the Look tool is a great example. I could search for shoes and find the pair I wanted, but Pinterest can also suggest an outfit that would go with the shoes too. This then becomes more of an ongoing conversation.

The new app from fashion retailer ASOS will likely go in this direction too, and I expect sites like Zara and H&M to follow suit. IKEA has its AR-tinged effort too, which allows people to see how the furniture will look. Although in my experience, it will lie in a million pieces for days until I figure out how to put it all together!

We should always consider that visual search exists at a very clear intersection of the physical and the digital. As a result, we should also think about the ways in which we can make it easier for people to enhance their experience of our stores through visual search.

We have seen things like QR codes linger without ever really taking off here, and Pinterest has launched Pincodes as a way to try and get people to engage.

Google has started adding features like this to its Lens tool, and the recent announcement about voice-activated Shopping through Google Express is another step in that direction.

The core of this is really to get people on board first and foremost, and then to introduce more overt forms of ecommerce.

Beyond that, visual search can allow us to take better pictures. Google has demonstrated forthcoming versions of Lens that will automatically detect and remove obstructions from images, and input Wifi codes just by showing the camera the password.

What we’re really looking for are those intangibles that only an image can get close to capturing. So anything related to style or design, such as the visual arts or even tattoos (the most searched for ‘item’ on Pinterest visual search), will be a natural fit.

Search has been a fantastic medium when we want to locate a product or service. That input format limits its reach, however. If search is to continue expanding, it must become a more comprehensive resource, actively searching on our behalf before we provide explicit instruction.

  We’ve seen a lot of development in the realm of visual search over the past couple of years, with tech companies like Google, Pinterest and Bing emerging as front-runners in the field. Google acquired an image recognition start-up, and Pinterest hired a new Head of Search and started more seriously developing its search capabilities. What do you think could be coming next for visual search?

First of all, the technology will keep improving in accuracy.

Acquisitions will likely be a part of this process. Pinterest’s early success can be put down to personnel and business strategy, but they also bought Kosei in 2015 to help understand and categorize images.

I would expect Google to put a lot of resource into integrating visual search with its other products, like Google Maps and Shopping. The recent I/O developers conference provided some tantalizing glimpses of where this will lead us.

Lens is already built into the Pixel 2 camera, which makes it much easier to access, but it still isn’t integrated with other products in a truly intuitive way. People are impressed when their smartphone can recognize objects, but that capability doesn’t really add long-term value.

So, we will see a more accurate interpretation of images and, therefore, more varied and useful results.

To go back to the example of my attempts to help furnish an apartment, I don’t think where we are today is by any means the fulfillment of visual search’s promise. I can certainly imagine a future where I can use visual search to scan the space in my living room, take into account the dimensions and act as my virtual interior designer, recommending designs that fit with my preferences and budget. AR technology would let me see how this will look before I buy and also save the image so I can come back to it.

The technologies to do that either exist or are getting to an acceptable level of accuracy. Combined, they could form a virtual interior design suite that either brands or search engines could use.

A gap still remains between the search engine and the content it serves, however.

For this to function, brands need to play their part too. There are plentiful best practices for optimizing for Pinterest search and all visual search engines make use of contextual signals and metadata to understand what they are looking at.

One way this could happen is when brands team up with influencers to showcase their products. As long as their full range is tied thematically to the products on show, these can be served to consumers as options for further ideas.

In summary, I think the technology has a bit of development still to come, but we need to meet the machine learning algorithms halfway by giving them the right data to work with. Pinterest has used over one billion images in its training set, for example. That means taking ownership of all online real estate and identifying opportunities for our content to surface through related results.

The advertising side of this will come, of course (and Pinterest is evolving its product all the time), but for this to come to fruition it also requires a shift in mindset from the advertisers themselves. The most sophisticated search marketers are already looking at ways to move beyond text-based results and start using search as a full-funnel marketing channel.

    We’ve been talking about visual search mostly in the context of smartphones, as currently that’s the technology most immediately suited to searching the physical world, given that all smartphones these days have built-in cameras.

But what about other gadgets? We’re seeing a lot of companies at the moment who are developing smart glasses or AR glasses – Snap, Intel, Toshiba came out with a pair just a few months ago – could visual search find a natural home there?

I’m not sure we’ve seen the end of Google Glass, actually. I really don’t think Google is finished in that area and it does make sense to have visual search incorporated directly into our field of vision.

The most likely area to take off here in terms of usage in the short-term is actually for the visually impaired. There are smart glasses that use artificial intelligence (AI) to perform visual searches on objects and highlight immediately what they are seeing.

Those are from a company called Poly, who are doing a range of interesting things in this space.

We think of devices that we wear or actively use, but that may not even be the long-term future of visual search. Poly has also developed visual search technology that works in stores. It can keep track of inventory levels automatically, but also detects who is in the store by linking with the Bluetooth connection in their phone.

Things like face IDs on smartphones along with Apple/Google Pay really help to create this potential use.

So the visual search exists at a higher level, it detects who is in the store, and it adds items to their basket as they pick them up. When the person leaves, they are charged via Apple/Google Pay or similar. So a bit like the Amazon Go stores, but using visual search to scan the store and see who is there and what they buy.

The cost for doing this has reduced dramatically, so it would now be possible for smaller stores to engage with this technology. Where that has potential to take off is in its introduction of a friction-free shopping experience.

That’s just one potential use, but it highlights how visual search can lead to much bigger opportunities for retailers and customers.

How close we are to that reality depends on people’s proclivity to accept that level of surveillance.

  The most futuristic technology in the world is no good if no-one is using it, and we’ve seen much-vaunted tech advancements flop before – speaking of smart glasses, Google Glass is a good example of that. So what would you say are the immediate barriers to the more widespread adoption of visual search? What kind of timeline are we looking at for visual search entering the mainstream – if indeed it ever does?

With voice search, it was always stated that 95% accuracy would be the point at which people would use the technology. I don’t think there have been excessive studies into visual search yet, but that should come soon. With increased accuracy will come widespread awareness of the potential uses of visual search.

The short-term focus really has to be on making the technology as useful as it can be.

Once the technology gets closer to that 95% accuracy mark, the key test will be whether novelty use turns into habit. The fact that over 600,000,000 visual searches take place on Pinterest each month suggests we are quickly reaching that point.

It also has to be easy to access visual search, because the moments in which we want to use it can be quite fleeting.

From there, it will be possible for retailers, search engines, and social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest to build out their advertising products.

As with any innovation, there is a point of critical mass that needs to be reached, but we are starting to see that with voice search and the monetization of visual search sits rather more naturally, I think.

We want to understand the world around us and we want to engage with new ideas; images are the best way to do this, but they are also a difficult form of communication.

Our culture is majoritively visual and has been for some time. We need only look at the nature of ads over the past century; text recedes as imagery assumes the foreground in most instances.

Whether the Lens technologies are an end in themselves or just a stage in the development of visual search, we can’t be sure. There may be entirely new technologies that sit outside smartphones in the future, but image recognition will still be central.

I would still encourage all marketers to embrace a trend that only looks likely to gather pace.

  Visual search is still quite an abstract concept for most of us, so is there anything practical that marketers and SEOs can do to prepare for it? Is it possible to optimize for visual search just yet? If marketers want to try and keep ahead of the visual search curve, what would be the best way to do that?

Any time we are dealing with search, there will be a lot of theory and practice that can help anyone get better results. We just don’t have the shortcuts we used to.

When it comes to visual search, I would recommend:

Read blogs like Pinterest engineering. It can seem as though these things work magically, but there is a clear methodology behind visual search

Organize your presence across Instagram, Google, Pinterest. Visual search engines use these as hints to understand what each image contains.

Follow the traditional image search best practices.

Analyze your own results. Look at how your images perform and try new colors, new themes. Results will be evermore personalized, so there isn’t a blanket right or wrong

Consider how your shoppable images might surface. You either want to be the item people search for or the logical next step from there. Look at your influencer engagements and those of your competitors to see what tends to show up

Engage directly with creative teams. Search remains a data-intensive industry and always will be, but this strength is now merging with the more creative aspects. Search marketers need to be working with social media and brand to make the most of visual search

Make it easy to isolate and identify items within your pictures. Visual search engines have a really tough job on their hands; don’t make it harder for them

Use a consistent theme and, if you use stock imagery, adapt it a bit. Otherwise, the image will be recognized based on the millions of other times it has appeared

Think about how to optimize your brick-and-mortar presence. If people use products as the stimulus for a search, what information will they want to know? Price, product information, similar items, and so on. Then ensure that you are optimized for these. Use structured data to make it easy for a search engine to surface this information. In fact, if there’s one thing to focus on for visual search right now, it is structured data.

  Check our Clark’s presentation on visual search here.

from Digtal Marketing News https://searchenginewatch.com/2018/06/13/sew-interview-clark-boyd-on-visual-search/