#not ooc especially just a lot of how i imagine their backgrounds

[saeist]

it's not living if it's not with you ── s. itoshi

synopsis: if it's meant to be, it will be genre: ex2lovers, arranged/fake dating, celebrity!au, pro!au, fluff, angst with happy ending, sharing a bed, 2nd chances, ... word count: 12.3k warnings: reader and sae aged up 22+, implied sex towards the end, reader has a hint of social anxiety/claustrophobia, i think sae is a little ooc in some scenes, lmk if i missed some notes: THERE YOU HAVE IT SAEISTS.. MY 1K SPECIAL!! THIS IS THE SUPER SECRET SAE FIC I'VE BEEN TEASING EVERYONE ABOUT FOR LIKE A WEEK NOW AND IT'S FINALLY IN FRUITION! <3 here's a lil sae brainrot to show my gratitude to you guys ^_^ fellow saeists who also consume an unhealthy(?) amount of sae content...... this fic is also dedicated to the loml my bae aeri @saerins for taking ur time of day to beta-read and to my angel baby sage @invsu as well <33 ilu guys extras: i made a playlist for this bc i am insane like that and without further a do.. sit back, relax and enjoy! lmk what u guys think either in the tags or comments bc i rlly worked hard on this for like a week and i jus couldn't stop writing! talk abt a sae earworm... ++ if u guys find theres a lot of the 1975 references.. its bc i was listening to their songs as i made this lawl .. tmi!

001.

you didn’t really put into consideration how awkward it actually was to be working on a modeling gig with your ex boyfriend.

the pay was obviously really good that’s why you even agreed to book it in the first place, especially since it was for a famous luxury brand and their fragrance line

so imagine your horror when you walk into set and see your ex posing for the cameras.

you silently hoped that it was just his solo shoot and not with you because your manager did mention that you would be having a partner for this photoshoot

the photographer greets you with a hug and compliments your outfit for the shoot. a white, sultry open neckline dress. the theme of the shoot was it was set on the beach with a sunset background

he instructs you to lay on the makeshift sand and tells you to start posing for your solo shots.

after a couple of clicks, the photographer compliments you on your professionalism on set and then calls your ex boyfriend.

“sae! time for the couple shots i told you about” the photographer calls out to sae who was on his makeup chair. your eyes widened in realization that he was, in fact, your partner for today’s shoot

you tried to look at your manager for some help but it was no use. your manager was busy talking to other people on set. you can feel your heart beating faster by the minute as sae walks closer to you

he was wearing something similar to what you were wearing. dress pants and a white oversized unbuttoned polo. his exposed toned abdomen was probably the main highlight of his outfit with it glistening under the studio lights. 

you bit your lip and looked away. sae has always been eye candy, there was no denying that. you were surprised yourself when you managed to bag him during his rookie days, but now that he was almost, if not an A list celebrity with his elite status in the world of football, you can almost say that itoshi sae was totally out of your league

you come back to your senses when the photographer claps his hands and muses how you and sae have insane chemistry that he has ever witnessed. you let out a little huff at the comment.

‘if only he knew’ you think to yourself, avoiding sae’s gaze as much as possible

the shoot starts and the photographer instructs sae to hover over you while holding the perfume bottle. sae nods and does what he’s told, he’s a professional after all. he wouldn’t let his personal feelings interfere with his work. that was the golden rule in the industry

you locked eyes with sae for the first time in years. he still had those fiery teal eyes that gets you weak in the knees each time. your eyes slowly dart from his eyes to his lips.

“keep doing that y/n!” the photographer cheers, clicking away on his camera. did you do something in your past life that you would inevitably end up in an awkward situation like this. a situation wherein you and your ex lover, in a position where you two are posing like an actual couple

your eyes flicker back from sae’s lips to his eyes again. for a second there you thought you felt a spark, a connection, an old flame that has been rekindled at that very moment.

til it all comes back to you in a flash

you forgot you hated him. you hate itoshi sae and you could’ve sworn itoshi sae hated you too. 

the bitter taste is still in your mouth after all these years. how could you forget the man who broke your little heart in two?

it was childish really. looking back at it now, where you were merely just starting out as a rookie model and sae being the same, a rookie at his profession. just two kids having a similar situation in two whole different industries. it was hard not to get entangled.

you were always known to be sae's long time lover. you were always supportive of his games. present whenever you can, sitting at the exclusive VIP section of the stadiums, wearing his number on your back; and if you weren’t able to attend due to your own schedules, you would still manage to find the time to support him. may it be posting an instagram story that you were watching him on your phone while you were getting your makeup done or wearing his jersey on the day of the game

sae was the same. he would always be seen wearing the stuff from brands you’ve modeled for. from jewelries to exclusive clothing lines, sae would always be seen wearing them, his silent way of showing support in your own craft. 

you were proud of him, and he was proud of you too.

but as all things are, good things come and go. even in the most unexpected times.

there were already rumors circulating that you and sae were ready to tie the knot, some news outlets even stating that maybe you two have gone ahead and tied the knot at some island during your secret little rendezvous. (having been caught going to santorini for more than multiple occasions)

the public has always been supportive of your relationship throughout the years. even earning the title as the nation’s sweethearts with how they’ve seen your relationship blossom from puppy love to what they call as “true love”

with the news that the nation’s sweethearts have parted ways, the public was as heartbroken as you. 

sae suddenly called it quits after almost five years of dating. it was after he has been taken under the wing of real madrid’s division A where his career as a midfielder really took off. to make matters even worse, he broke it off at the same place he claimed you as his.

since then, you’ve sworn to hate him. you’ve resented him. you felt like all those years that you two have built was nothing. you couldn’t even believe him at first when he spat out the words “we’re over” like it was nothing. 

five years, five years worth of unforgettable firsts. five fucking years to unlearn everything.

you were absolutely crushed back then. you even took a hiatus with everything going on in your life. you were a mess. you actually can’t believe sae had no remorse over this. were the five years you were together nothing for him? all those tears you two have shed, the firsts of everything, all those precious memories, were they all nothing? 

it hasn’t even been a year or so but it seemed like sae already moved on, which added more salt to your already open wound. he was flourishing with his career while all of this was going on. sae has been photographed multiple times leaving clubs with lipstick stains all over his neck. 

it stung of course. seeing him move on with his life as if he didn’t just ruin yours. that very night, you swore to yourself that you will never forgive itoshi sae for what he did.

never again would you open your heart to someone like itoshi sae.

itoshi sae, the man who broke your heart into two.

“earth to y/n?” the photographer snaps his fingers in front of you, breaking your little trance.

you apologize to the photographer, your cheeks heating up at the realization that you really got lost in your thoughts the moment you’ve met eyes with sae.

“as i was saying,” the photographer eyes you and sae, “the shoot is over. well done” he bows, motioning the people behind the scenes to clap for you and sae

almost immediately you stood up from your awkward position from sae. intentionally avoiding his hand that was held out for you to take. (you hate how he was still a gentleman to you, even after all these years)

you look around for your manager and strut towards him.

“we’re leaving. now” you say with no emotion in your voice, even walking farther ahead from your now confused manager. 

he takes a look around on what could’ve made you pissed off but sees no one but itoshi sae in the flesh. 

“but y/n, itoshi sae is here-” your manager gets cut off when there was a loud slam of a door nearby. he winces when he realizes it was you. he turns around and bows his head at the people on set.

“i apologize for y/n’s actions” 

with that, your manager runs after you.

sae could only stare at your direction with mixed feelings. a part of him was relieved that he got to see you again after all these years, yet he doesn’t understand why he was feeling off to find out that you still resented him. i mean, that was what he expected for his own actions all those years ago.

with a click of a tongue, he goes back to his own manager so they can finally go home after a long day.

you don’t even know why you were crying. tears blurring your vision as you try to find the exit out of this damned building.

you harshly wipe your tears, opening the last door to your left. you were met with the harsh, cold air of japan. you weren’t looking where you were going, barely even noticing that someone was by the door til you bumped into them.

the steel floors were making it hard to walk in your heels. so when you bumped into the said stranger, you lost your balance. 

the stranger had quick reflexes. they immediately caught you by your waist and your hands flew to their chest to keep yourself steady. you looked up at the stranger to apologize only to meet eyes again with the same teal eyes that belonged to no one other than sae fucking itoshi

you don’t know how long you two have been in this position until you see a bright flash in your peripheral vision.

you have just been papped by paparazzi with your ex boyfriend and sworn enemy, itoshi sae.

002.

the headlines in both social media, news outlets and the such were exactly how you expected it.

it was crazy. 

the general public going wild, thinking that the once famed couple were now back together after how many years.

your phone was blowing up with emails upon emails. calls from friends and relatives to confirm the news themselves that you’ve been seeing sae again. you look at your manager beside you apologetically as he receives another phone call from what you think is another e-news outlet asking if the rumors circulating were true.

you have been summoned by your company for an emergency meeting as the whole situation was getting out of hand.

that was when you realize how big of a name itoshi sae was after all these years of blocking his name on twitter.

your PR team is currently a mess. they are currently working their asses off to put out a good story for your sudden reunion with the famed midfielder. 

“how many times do i have to tell you to be careful being papped after a shoot?” the head of your PR team, pinches the bridge of their nose. clearly this wasn’t the first time around 

“i was!” you defend yourself, “i didn’t even know it was him til i looked up..” you murmured

your manager facepalms at your response. how did you not know it was sae?

“so what i’m getting here..” the head puts their glasses on the table, “you didn’t “know” that it was the itoshi sae, your partner for this specific photoshoot, the famed midfielder of real madrid, itoshi sae?” they quote, looking at you like you just grew another head

you nod in content, “exactly” you grin, putting your thumbs up. in hopes it raises the mood. (it doesn’t, unfortunately)

“y/n, i hope you know this isn’t just something we can brush under the rug. this is not the same situation with yukimiya kenyu where you two were caught being cozy in his car” 

“yuki was literally just driving me home! and we’re close friends!” you defend yourself, yet again. 

“exactly! yukimiya is a close friend! while itoshi sae is not. that’s why this is such a big deal!”

you slump back to your seat. okay, maybe they were right. this was a lot harder to get around with especially since the public knows about your past relationship.

“luckily for you, we have talked things out with itoshi sae’s management,” it was your manager’s turn to talk. he stands up from the seat beside you and walks over to your PR team’s head. they exchange glances before nodding.

“we have come up with a way that this whole issue will be over soon” your manager starts. 

as if on cue, the doors of the meeting room suddenly open. you take a look on who could be entering this sacred room this late. surely it couldn’t be more of your PR team as they were all already present in the room. 

there stood with their hand still on the doorknob is no one other than sae, with his manager right behind him.

your jaw drops as you put two and two together.

you whipped your head towards your manager and the head of your PR team in both horror and disbelief.

no, it can’t be…

“you two will now be in an arranged relationship for the meanwhile. until your situation dies down” sae’s manager finishes, taking a seat next to sae, who took the seat next to you.

you could see your manager squeeze his eyes shut, knowing where this is going. you were about to have a fit right here right now.

“WHAT?!” you let out a loud scream. the whole floor probably heard you. 

sae also winces at how ear-piercing your scream was.

you abruptly stood up from your seat, snatching your purse from the table and stomped out of the meeting room. not forgetting to slam the door shut on the way out.

immediately you called up your two closest friends, reo and yukimiya to meet you at your apartment ASAP.

003.

“so you’re telling me– us,” yukimiya pauses, looking between you, who has mascara running down your cheeks and reo, who was busy rubbing circles on your back as he hands you another tissue for you to blow your nose on, “that you are going to be in an arranged relationship with your ex, itoshi sae.. am i getting that right?” yukimiya confirms, waiting for your response

you nod before blowing your nose and throwing the now used tissue on the rising pile of tissues behind you.

“this is the worst day of my fucking life” you cried out, reaching out to reo to cry on his shoulders.

“oh, y/n” reo sighs, pulling you into his embrace as you cry your eyes out. 

you pull away from reo’s embrace, “i mean, why him, why now?!” you rambled, words getting choked up.

both reo and yukimiya could only frown. after all, even with their power, money and status, there was nothing they could do to help with your situation.

your doorbell suddenly rings, catching all three of you in surprise. who could be at your door right now?

yukimiya took the initiative of opening the door, only to be met with the eyes of the itoshi sae. barely noticing your manager behind him.

sae raises his eyebrow at the man in front of him. who was he and why was he at your apartment?

“yukimiya-san! i didn’t know you were over..” your manager sheepishly greets yuki, trying to break the growing tension between him and sae.

“who’s out there, yuki?” you croak out, trying to take a peek at the door from reo’s shoulders.

“it’s me, y/n” you hear your manager call out. you look at reo in confusion. what was your manager doing here?

gradually, you slowly stood up from your kitchen island and walked over to your front door.

now, you just expected a scolding from your manager from your little fit back at the company, that’s why he was at your place or so you thought. what you didn’t expect that you’d see itoshi sae again but this time, in your own space.

“have you lost your fucking mind?” you shot a look at your manager, who only winces as a response. 

“y/n- i can explain-“

“i made him take me here” sae speaks up for the first time. you felt your breath hitched. it’s been so long since you last talked to him, let alone heard him speak. (you’ve done everything you can and blocked every single thing related to sae. that meant interviews, news articles, you name it, you had his name and everything blocked and muted)

sae invites himself inside your apartment with your manager following suit as you stand there at your front door, stunned. 

reo is equally as shocked as you are when he sees itoshi sae casually walk to your living room as if it was his. before reo could open his mouth to say something, you come running in, fuming.

“who the fuck told you you can come inside MY house” you spat. your attitude turning a whole 180. 

sae only raises an eyebrow at you. “our team” he casually says. he then looks at your manager and cocks his head towards your direction. like he was trying to get your manager to tell you something.

“what now?!” this time it was your manager’s turn to get yelled at by you. he winces again before checking for something in his ipad.

“since you um.. walked out at our meeting earlier today… both managements has come to terms that you and itoshi sae would be living together for the meantime”

silence fills the room, the entire apartment if we were being honest

your vision goes dark, the next thing you know and you black out.

as you slowly regain your consciousness, you hear some people talking. well, to you it sounded like they were slurring because you couldn’t really comprehend what they were saying. slowly, you open your eyes. the first person you see is a frantic reo who seemed to be fanning your face with yukimiya holding your hand

“where am i?” you grunt, feeling some dull ache on the back of your head and lower back. 

“you fainted” sae points out. staring at you who was on the ground. you sat up and stared at sae, wide eyed. “what the hell is he still doing here?!” you ask in distraught. you thought everything prior to this was all just a fever dream, or a nightmare as you’d like to call it

your manager, who was getting you a glass of water comes running to your aid. he crouches and tells you to drink up- to which you do.

“we were discussing your current situation with itoshi sae until you fainted… ” your manager starts, you choke on your water after hearing those words but thankfully didn’t start a coughing fit. you motioned your manager to continue so that you’d finally hear the end of this dreadful moment

your manager's eyes flicker between you and sae, “we’ve come up with an agreement that until the time being, itoshi sae would be living with you and you’d market yourselves as a couple. sae has already consented and agreed with the contract and your PR team as well…” he finishes, clutching his ipad close to his chest

reo, who was listening intently, felt like it was unfair for you to be in this type of situation regardless if it was an order from your company

“isn’t unfair for y/n though? she herself didn’t consent to this contract right? doesn’t this violate her own rights of code of ethics?” reo interferes, giving your manager a look. you look at reo and smiled. maybe you’ll ask him to contact the finest lawyers of japan that he knows after this

your manager was about to speak up but sae beat him to it.

“i was the one who suggested this whole setup, not their company. so technically, this isn’t “violating y/n’s rights of code of ethics” as it’s not even printed on a contract because simply, there is no contract” sae states, mocking reo’s tone of voice, giving him a side eye before turning his attention back to you. 

this time it was yukimiya who steps in. he turns to sae with his eyebrows raised. “isn’t there another way to get around this? not just by your means?” yukimiya pauses, pushing his glasses up, “i mean, why does it have to be like this where you’ll live with y/n for an issue that could be squashed with just a single article denying your relationship or involvement with y/n?”

sae sits up straight, staring yukimiya down with an icy stare. “this doesn’t concern you”

yukimiya and reo both stand up, “actually it does. y/n is our friend” reo hisses, glaring at the red head who merely just yawns and rolls his eyes.

was sae even taking this seriously? 

sae sighs, a bored expression on his face. “this is matters between me and y/n only”

finally having enough of his bullshit, you got up from the ground and walked in front of sae.

“what exactly are you planning, itoshi sae?” you narrow your eyes at him. this was the first time in years you’ve looked at him. you note how appearance wise, he hasn’t changed one bit. 

sae chuckles a bit, catching you by surprise. what’s so funny?

“drop the formalities, y/n. you know me better than everyone else in this room” he scoffs, eyeing you from head to toe.

sae won’t lie. he thinks you were still beautiful the day he left you. to him, you were always the prettiest in the room and from the way his heart raced after seeing you for the first time again in years, he knows himself that thought stayed the same.

he watches your eyes soften for a second before it goes back to your signature glare.

“actually, I don't,” you say dryly, crossing your arms. “so, tell me. what exactly are you gonna get out of this?” 

sae sighs. he doesn’t know himself either but he wasn’t just about to say that out loud. he doesn’t know what got into him all of a sudden. was it because he was curious about how you were doing? was he intrigued? did he somehow miss you all of a sudden because he saw you again?

a part of him always longed for you even after you two have gone your own separate ways. it was hard not to, considering you have spent a chunk of your lives together. not to mention, you two grew up with each other and built blossoming careers together hand in hand. 

it was only until he finally got recruited for division a of real madrid where he thought it would be best if you guys would stop what you have in order to be the best version of himself— wrong. 

he realized he fucked up that maybe that wasn’t the best option when he realized he needed you more than ever. you were his best support system. you were always there with him during the hardest times holding his hand but it was already too late. the damage had been done and it was irreversible. 

the day he broke up with you, or the day he fucked up everything was also the last time he ever saw or heard from you ever again. 

sae tried. he tried and tried and tried to reach out to you. he tried searching for your socials, your contact information, literally everything he can get his hands on. but even with his power and money in the world, it was still not enough to find you.

the only updates he had of you was the ads that were plastered all around social media and in the busy shopping districts of the cities he’s in. it was almost like a constant reminder of what he lost. 

so shocked was an understatement when you were his partner for the commercial shoot his manager had booked him for some random luxury brand. 

after all those years, he found you again.

to say the stars were on his side when you two got papped by the paparazzi is a bit selfish on sae’s end. as much as he fucking despises the paparazzi as they tend to ruin things for him, he’s quite glad that for once that they did something right.

they brought you back to him.

so sae couldn’t just let this opportunity of a lifetime slide. even if this so called “scandal” could easily just be cleared out with a simple denying of such rumor. but sae couldn’t just let this end like that. 

he wants to fix everything he broke. sae wants another chance.

“this is pointless” you deadpan, after waiting for sae to speak. he was just sitting there, staring right back at you for god knows how long that you begin to become conscious.

sae looked like he just snapped out of his train of thought as he shook his head before clearing his throat. 

“it’s a win-win situation for both of us” sae blurts, “you get more publicity out of this–”

yukimiya and reo both looked at him like he was crazy.

“excuse you— with or without you, y/n is already famous. hell, you don’t even know how many brands are waiting for her to reach back at them!”

“do you live under a rock or something? how do you not know y/n is one of the, if not the number one top model of the country?”

you were secretly thankful that you called both yukimiya and reo beforehand. not only you got an ego boost, but it gave sae a taste of your own reality that you are where you are now because he left you

a small smirk tugs on your lips when sae frowns. you watch him chew his bottom lip, a telltale sign that he was thinking of something to save his ass

“well, if you aren’t gonna get something out of this.. i have” you say, catching everyone’s attention, including your own manager.

your manager looks at you with his head tilted to the side. mouthing “what do you mean?”

“i’ll only agree to this if after this whole scandal is over, i don’t ever want to see you again” you propose to sae. it was only fair for it to end like this as one, he was the one who suggested this idea in the first place. two, you can never be too complacent with sae who apparently has no motive regarding this. this was sae we’re talking about, he’s bound to plot something and three, you can finally find the answers you’ve been yearning for after all these years. might as well use this as an opportunity to get your well deserved closure.

there was a glint of hope in sae’s eyes.

“deal”

you hear yukimiya and reo yell a bunch of lines like “seriously y/n?” but all you can focus on is sae who’s also looking right back at you.

your manager claps his hands in joy, immediately dialing your company about your decision. sae takes this time to call his own manager to probably tell him to bring his stuff in. 

did you make the right decision? you’re not too sure. only time can tell.

004. 

today was the first day of you officially “dating” sae again.

also the first day of living with sae, for the meantime

just a little after you’ve come to an agreement with sae with the set up of your rekindled “relationship”, both managements didn’t waste a single second on confirming the news that the nation’s sweethearts have gone back together

needless to say, both of your names are trending and is the current talk of the town

so your first agenda (from both PR teams) is that you both post strikingly similar instagram stories as if you were together the night prior. (in which, you two were.. force binded by a non-existent contract)

it was a good thing that you chose an apartment that had a spare guest room because god forbid you’d even dare to sleep in the same bed with your ex. 

you didn’t give sae a warning that you were already gonna post something. just a quick snap of your window, that holds the view of shibuya, with a little sunlight peeking through. you captioned it with a little “good morning indeed” with a cheeky emoji just to spice things up. 

sae, who was in the next room, was casually scrolling through instagram when he sees that you posted a new instagram story. he clicks his tongue in annoyance at the fact you didn’t even give him a heads up. quickly improvising, he took a mirror selfie from the vanity mirror that you have around in your guest bedroom. 

you started your day with making your own breakfast. not even bothering to call sae. hell, he can starve for all you care. after all, he was not your responsibility. you only agreed to do this because frankly you had no other choice from your company.

while waiting for your eggs, it didn’t take you a while to also notice that sae already posted his part of the agenda. thinking of it as nothing, you innocently clicked on his profile. his story loads and wow. resonating with your caption, good morning indeed!

sae posted a shirtless mirror selfie. he was still under the covers but made sure his torso was seen on the mirror. 

“take a screenshot, it’d last longer” sae says flatly, moving past you to your fridge. you jolt in surprise, almost dropping your phone in the process. “what the fuck!” you yell out, a hand over your chest. 

you hear sae chuckling behind you and the fridge opening

“you got all that money stocked up somewhere and yet you don’t even have groceries?” sae comments, noting your almost empty fridge. there were only some milk boxes and some of those edible collagen jellies that help you with swelling when you have early morning shoots and the such.

sae takes the last chocolate milk box you had that was hidden away at the back of your fridge

“well, my manager does it for me and i usually eat at reo’s or yukimiya’s– is that the last of my milk?!” you pried your eyes off your phone to see sae casually sipping on the last milk box you were saving

“so?”

“that’s mine” you argued, getting up from the kitchen island to snatch it from sae. you stomp over to him and tried to swipe it off his hands. unfortunately for you, sae is an athlete and that meant he had reflexes like no other. he raises his arm high just before you were able to grab the milk box from him.

“sae, give it back” you grit your teeth, standing on your tippy toes, trying or attempting to take the milk box from sae’s hold but the height difference is just something else. 

sae leans down and gets all over your face. “come on, you can do it,” he teases, eyes fixated on yours. 

this feeling almost felt too familiar. almost like a wave of nostalgia just hit you in the face. the memories you’ve been trying to suppress all coming back 

you snapped out of your little trance when you realized the position you two were in. 

“my eggs are burning” you lie, leaving sae dumbfounded. you scurry off to your stove to finish what you were cooking while sae goes and sits on your kitchen island. 

he watches you plate your breakfast and sit on the other end of the kitchen island. you actually felt him staring but chose to ignore him. the sound of his stomach grumbling breaks the awkward silence.

“where’s my breakfast?” he asks, voice small

you shrug, “i don’t know”

“you didn’t make me one?”

“why will i?” you raise a brow, happily munching on your bacon while sae could only look at you in disbelief.

later that day you two had your own schedules. he had practice and other stuff to do while you had another meeting about different commercial offers and a lunch date with reo and yukimiya just like you promised the two.

you got home later than sae. you were about to grab some water from the fridge when you notice that it was fully stocked with groceries. you can’t help but smile a little at the gesture. 

you did your usual night routine before getting comfy in bed. just before you were about to hit the hay, you don’t forget to send sae a quick message, thanking him for the groceries. 

[11:43] you: thanks for doing the groceries ig

[11:44] sae: i couldn’t just let myself starve here, can i?

you rolled your eyes at his reply. he’s still so sarcastic even after all these years

[11:45] you: whatever 🙄

[11:46] sae: i also restocked that milk you love so much. call it truce from earlier today

[11:46] you: who told you it was my favorite? 🤨

[11:47] sae: gut feeling, call it old habit

you raised a brow at his text. what did he mean by that? before you could type your reply, your phone notifies you that sae sent another message

[11:49] sae: jk. your manager told me

you didn’t realize you were holding in your breath. you let out a sigh of relief after reading his message. you were not gonna let him get under your skin. not anymore

you ended up not replying to him. instead, you shut your phone off to reflect on today’s events, hoping that this all ends soon. your phone suddenly dings again. it was a notification from sae.

[11:55] sae: i’m going to sleep now. goodnight, y/n

it’s officially been a week of living with sae and pretending to be a couple in front of the cameras and the public. to think you’d even last this long is an understandment on it’s own.  

for this day, both managements wanted you two to be seen out and about in public doing whatever you two wished to do. 

you were debating on what you two should do that won’t involve much physical contact like going out for shopping because that only meant that you two would be forced to hold hands which is something you don’t want to do for obvious reasons. you’d rather die than to be papped with sae holding hands

“what do you want to do today?” sae asks from the couch. you two were already all dressed up. intentionally matching your outits just for the sake of it. sae was wearing a maroon turtleneck with holes in them with a white long sleeve shirt underneath and some track pants? you don't question his outfit much further because why would you exert the effort to do so? 

you were wearing something similar. a maroon crop top with some leggings to match the laid back outfit of your fake boyfriend. 

“what can we do without much physical contact?” you pondered, a finger tapping on your chin. sae scoffs at your question, mumbling about what’s wrong with physical contact with him. you almost wanted to tell him “everything” but that would just start another argument today

“how about we get some coffee?” sae offers, unable to think of more activities to do in such short notice. you hum in agreement, coffee does sound good right now. you get up from the couch and grab the keys to your car

“what are you doing?” sae asked. you stop in your tracks and hold out your keys for him to see. “we’re taking my car” sae says, showing off his. 

not putting up much of a fight, you agreed. it was getting tiring driving yourself around anyway.

you two arrive at the coffee shop sae graciously let you choose in no time (by graciously, he meant that he’s good with anything you choose) you then decide on sitting by the window where you know the paparazzi will be in front at in no time to capture this date between rekindled lovers

you sit at your chosen table by the window while you wait for sae to order something for the both of you. telling him that you’re okay with whatever since this cafe was your favorite.

it didn’t take sae that long to come back with your orders. he sets the tray down and you find an abundance of sweets and pastries. you look up at him confused but he simply shrugs. he then places your drink down. you take the receipt that was hanging off the tray to read everything he has ordered.

looks like he ordered everything on the menu with the sweets and pastries, which is not surprising really. when you read what he got you however,

“you ordered me a spanish latte?” you ask, taking the drink from the table. 

sae nods, taking a sip from his own drink. “something wrong?” 

you shake your head no. you just can’t wrap your head at the fact he ordered your usual go-to drink.

“nothing, it’s just i'm surprised that you still remember what i usually order in coffee shops” you shrug, finally sipping on your drink. spanish lattes does always hit the spot for you

“do you think i have forgotten?” sae raises a brow, a slight frown forming on his lips. you rolled your eyes at his comment. 

“well, it’s been a while, don’t you think?” you retort, avoiding his hard stare. technically, it’s been almost two years since the breakup. one of you were bound to forget each other’s habits and the such. 

there was silence again after that. an awkward one at that

“let’s take our post now so we can leave” you say, taking pictures of the food in front of you while keeping sae in the frame. sae simply nods and does the same. the photo you decided to post was mostly all the food sae ordered with him in the background. you purposely cut off his head just for the thrill of it. you do tag sae in the instagram story though with the caption “coffee run” 

sae’s post was a bit different. he simply posted a candid shot of you taking pictures of the food in front of you. for captions, sae isn’t much of a caption person because he thinks they defeat the purpose of photos so instead he just adds a heart emoji with your username next to it. 

it didn’t take much for the paparazzi to find your whereabouts. just like planned, they were outside the window you two were seated in taking photos after photos. 

“do we go now?” sae asks, eyeing the amount of people that were outside the cafe. 

“yeah..” you trail off, not really expecting a whole crowd to form outside. sae must've sensed that you were tensed with the way he stands next to you when you two were leaving the coffee shop

the moment you two step foot outside, it was an absolute frenzy. the press were everywhere on your faces. asking questions from all sorts of directions that it actually made you dizzy. 

you were never one for crowded crowds. especially when they topple over each other just to take the perfect photo or get an exclusive. it was just never your cup of tea

you covered your eyes from the bright flashes that were all over your face, trying to maneuver around the paparazzi to get to sae’s car faster but the paparazzi was too much for you to handle. you instinctively leaned on sae for support as your legs start to feel wobbly. sae immediately catches on and wraps an arm around your waist securely, pushing forward against the hoarde of people in front of you guys

“get out of the fucking way!” sae barks, pushing the people in front of your faces. the group of paparazzi do make way for you guys as you finally reach sae’s car. 

sae unlocks the car and opens the passenger door for you to enter first. he shields any possible camera that was trying to capture your face with his body. even going as far as pushing them away making some of the paparazzi stumble and fall on their asses. 

once you were secured in your seat, he runs over to his side of the car and starts the car before speeding off. not wasting a single second for some short interview.

“you okay?” sae steals a glance at your slumped state, before turning his attention back to the road in front of him. 

“... yeah, just dizzy” you say meekly, rubbing your temples. “i’m gonna rest my eyes for a bit, sae” you murmur, leaning against the window before drifting off to sleep.  

sae sighs and speeds up faster so you two could get home sooner. ‘damn paparazzi’ he thinks to himself, not noticing how his knuckles have turned white with how hard he was gripping the steering wheel. 

the car comes to a halt when the traffic lights beam red. sae couldn’t help but look at your state. he always knew you were bad with crowds but yet you still fulfilled your lifelong dream to be a model. he wonders who took care of you during flash mobs when you were out in the streets. 

was it your manager? was it that reo guy? or was it yukimiya aka that person he doesn’t really like. sae hates how close you are with him. sae will also never forget your scandal with him. he can still remember it like it was yesterday when the news dropped that you may or may not be in a relationship with your fellow model yukimiya kenyu after being papped being cozy inside his car. 

practice was hell that day for real madrid and sae may or may not have punctured a soccer ball out of pure rage. 

the damned light finally turns green and thankfully you were at the last street before the turn to your apartment complex.

sae parks the car and turns to take a good look at your sleeping figure. you look too peaceful to wake up. so he gets out of the car and goes to your side to pick you up bridal style. 

he gently puts one of your arms around his neck (for safe measure) and loops his under your knees to carry you. with the help of the security guards around, he presses the elevator up to your penthouse suite. 

for once in his life, sae is thankful that he was an athlete as he successfully tapped in your passcode to unlock your front door with you in his arms. when he reaches your bedroom, he gently sets you down on your bed. 

sae was about to leave to make some dinner just before you wake up but was stopped by your hand reaching for his. 

“stay..” you mumbled, tugging his arm. sae hesitates for a bit, unsure if you were actually conscious or was just sleep talking. sae watches your eyebrows furrow when you notice he still wasn’t beside you. clicking your tongue in annoyance, you tug on sae’s arm harder so he gets the hint

“okay, okay” sae hums, slowly getting in your bed. he’s unsure himself on what he should do. should he stay still, wrap an arm around you, what?

to his surprise, you were snuggling next to him. your head nestling to his chest. sae lets out a small gasp. he definitely didn’t see this coming. 

coming to a realization that no harm would be done if he wraps an arm around you, he slowly drapes his arm over your waist. sae suddenly feels like he was on top of the world, like everything suddenly made sense to sae. 

sae caresses your cheek, brushing the stray hairs from your face. 

“you still look beautiful the day i lost you..” sae whispers. he debates on stealing a kiss. he weighs out the pros and the cons and figures that it was more of a liability if you ever find out he stole a kiss from you, especially when you were asleep. that’s gonna have to be for another time. 

sae was beginning to feel sleepy. he carefully drapes the duvet across your bodies. not even a moment later, sae is now fast asleep with you in his arms

you find yourself plush against something hard and warm. you try tossing to the other side but you were being held securely around your waist. your eyes shot up, now fully awake and aware of your surroundings.

“good morning” sae rasps, his morning voice sending shivers down your spine. 

“what are you doing in my bed?” you whisper-yelled, actually genuinely surprised to see him next to you. your heart was racing, like it was about to jump out of your chest. did something happened yesterday? you couldn’t quite remember everything after leaving the coffee shop. it almost felt like a hazy dream

sae reluctantly unwraps his arm around you and scoots to the edge of the bed. you almost pout at the warmth that disappears but you internally scold yourself for thinking of such things.

“you passed out in the car and i brought you here” sae explains, now sitting up. “i’ll go make breakfast. stay put” he pats your leg before excusing himself to leave your bedroom. you lay there confused because that wasn’t enough to explain why he was quite literally sleeping next to you. 

just the mere fact that you slept next to him sent you into a frenzy. you grab your phone and immediately dialed reo

“hello?” reo answers groggily, you checked your phone for the time and it was literally 8 in the morning. 

“reo!” you hushed, trying not to catch the attention of sae “something happened yesterday!” 

“what?”

“we slept together…?” your voice going up an octave, chewing on your lip as you await for reo’s reaction

a beat of silence passes by. you thought reo may have accidentally ended the call

“YOU DID WHAT?!” reo basically screams at your ear. you had to remove your phone from your ear from the impact of reo’s shrill scream. “DON’T TELL ME YOU GOT BACK TOGETHER WITH HIM IN JUST A WEEK’S NOTICE—”

“NOT IN THAT WAY, DIPSHIT” you say abruptly, cutting reo off. “i mean like.. we just slept in the same bed after yesterday’s turn of events…” you trail off, trying to remember every significant detail that eventually lead up to you and sae ultimately sleeping with each other.

“my guess is with the paparazzi. i just saw the photos” reo says, typing away on his keyboard. “not gonna lie y/n, you and sae do make a good couple” he adds, giggling

you huff over the phone, earning a hefty laugh from the other end. 

“talk to him. clearly you need it” reo advices. it was like he knows where this was going. “ i gotta go for now, y/n. i’ll call you back later. duty calls. ciao!” reo ends the call before you could even say something. 

you threw your phone on the other side of the bed, groaning as you put your head in your hands. what was happening to you

there was a faint knock on your door, probably sae was gonna tell you that breakfast was ready but to your surprise, he brought the breakfast to you.. in bed.

sae walks in with a little bed tray that you didn’t even know you owned filled with some breakfast. 

“was all this necessary?” you say in disbelief. sae simply shrugs and sits by the foot of your bed.

“i contacted your manager about your state and he says he’ll be coming over to check up on you later” he notes, typing away on his phone with one hand. sae turns to you and motions for you to start digging in. “c’mon, eat up” 

you feel your face heat up at his extravagant gestures. he was a man of service after all. even during your relationship, sae wasn’t the type to be vocal about his love for you. it was mostly through actions may it be subtle or not. you can feel the love with the way he does everything for you.

with a small smile, you start to eat the breakfast he made. 

“sae,” you call. he looks up from his phone, a confused look on his face. 

“need something?”

“come here” you motioned for him to scoot closer to you. to which he happily obliges. he is now sitting right in front of you. 

he watches you cut a piece of your pancake and stabbed it with your fork before holding it up for him.

“here,” you say sheepishly, not even looking at sae in the eye. sae looked at you like you just lost your mind. 

“can’t let you not eat your own cooking..” you mumbled, feeling your face burn in both embarrassment or something you can’t pinpoint. with a chuckle, he takes the fork from you. unintentionally brushing your hands together.

in an instant, you snatch your hand back as he quietly eats the pancake you’ve given him.

things are changing between you and sae and you’re not sure if you like it.

005.

it’s been a few days since the whole ordeal with you and sae in bed together. your management gave you guys a few days off just to keep things at bay with the paparazzi after the whole fiasco of you almost fainting because of the sea of paparazzi outside trying to take photos. 

your manager did end up checking up on you that day just like sae has mentioned. you told him off that you were fine and just needed more resting before you can resume with your work. he reluctantly agrees and goes ahead and reports your status with your company.

reo and yukimiya also came over for the past few days. just to check things up with you after your pictures were published for the public. you had a talk with your two closest friends about your current situation with sae. 

yukimiya was a bit unsure for you while reo advised that they’ll be there with you for every decision you make. he also opted that you two should have an open forum about each other’s whereabouts since the break up. clearly you still had unanswered questions.

sae was out again for his daily practice. although he did tell you that he’d be back around the afternoon. 

you take this opportunity of being alone to actually think about everything for the past week. 

this few weeks has been a whole rollercoaster. not only you’ve been reunited with your ex, you had to be in a “fake” relationship with him again for the media, and now it’s like you and sae were back to your old routines all those years ago. 

a part of you does miss being able to call sae as yours, not just for the sake of the cameras but just because you really do love him and you want to be with him, but this time for real. yet, another part of you is scared that maybe there’s a catch to this. maybe in the end sae was just using you for his own sake. 

you made a promise to yourself that you were not gonna have him play with your heart like that anymore. not again, never again.

but here you are, willing to take the same risk again. the things you are willing to do just to call him yours. 

because at the end of the day, it will always be itoshi sae.

no one else has your heart the way sae has it. 

you barely notice that sae has arrived back from practice til he was waving a hand in front of your face.

“y/n” he jabs a finger at the side of your head, an amused look on his face. “what are you thinking about?” sae hums, plopping down on the couch next to you. 

“nothing much, just about life”you hissed, clutching the spot he just poked you. you leaned back on the couch, stealing a glance at sae but you made eye contact instead. immediately you looked away, feeling your cheeks heat up.

sae snickers next to you, a small smile on his face as he takes a good look at you. 

“having a midlife crisis at your young age?” sae pokes your sides making you jump. you let out a little yelp, causing sae to smirk. 

“don’t even think about it sae itoshi— AH!” you hold your hands out in defense mode. you know that devilish look on sae’s face. sae’s fingers reach your sides before you could even finish your menacing (not) threat. 

your laughter fills the living room. 

oh how sae missed this. how he missed coming home from practice and to have you wait for him. how sae missed you.

sae stops tickling you to let you catch your breath. barely even noticing the position you two were in. he was on top of you, hands on each side of your head. your cheeks painted red, chest rising rapidly as you try to control your breathing. 

“can i kiss–” 

the front door slams open to reveal reo and yukimiya in tow with some food.

“y/n! we brought you some food!” reo happily chirps, setting the food down on your kitchen counter. sae’s eyes immediately widen and rushes to get off of you. he stumbles and falls on the floor, just right in front of reo’s feet.

reo and sae make eye contact. reo awkwardly smiles at the now embarrassed sae.

but sae being sae, he brushed it off like he was in the middle of push ups. 

“... and 50. 50 push ups done” sae puffs, pushing himself off the ground, pretending to wipe the non existent sweat on his forehead and ushers away to his room. not missing reo’s comment before he slams the door shut.

“i’m gonna just pretend i didn’t see you fall right in front of me” reo cackles, wiping a tear from his eye. “anyway y/n, we got you some food. i forgot that athlete was living with you sooo.. it’s up to you to give his share” reo shows you the amount of food he just got you.

yukimiya giggles behind him. he pulls reo to the side before giving you his infamous smirk

“reo, we gotta go now” yukimiya smiles slyly at you. he takes a good look at your ruffled shirt, flushed cheeks and messy hair. 

“what? we just got here!” reo complains, looking back at yukimiya, who points out your current state. he then whispers something to reo that you obviously can’t hear. you stand there with your arms crossed, eyebrows raised as you wait for your two best friends to fill you in

“i’m literally right here” you rolled your eyes.

“oh!” reo gasps, eyes wide as he seems to put two and two together. he covers his mouth like he just witnessed something scandalous. 

you were about to open your mouth to say protest against what allegations yukimiya has of you but both reo and yukimiya bolt out the door. yelling about how they were sorry for disturbing something while cackling. 

“those bitches..” you muttered, shaking your head. you walk over to the kitchen to go through what reo just got you. of course it was his favorite steak with some side dishes. 

“are they gone?” you hear sae call out from his room, his head poking out the door. 

you laugh, “yeah. you can come out now” 

you hear the door open and sae comes walking in the kitchen with nothing but sweatpants. you let out a squeak as your hands fly to your eyes, covering them from seeing sae’s half naked body.

sae scoffs at your reaction. “you’re acting like you aren’t used to it”

“was used to it” you correct him. sae’s mood drops a bit. you awkwardly fiddle with the hem of the plastic. taking out the plastic containers to at least lift up the now sour atmosphere. 

sae looks at the meals you’ve settled down on the counter. “from reo?” he asks, going ahead and taking out some chopsticks. 

he must be starving from coming home after practice.

you slid the plastic container that held reo’s favorite steak to sae. his eye widens and shakes his head. he pushes it back to you. it becomes a silent tug of war. sae ended up losing because you were starting to get upset and he can tell by the way your lips are jutted out and you were pushing harder, causing some of the sauce to spill out.

“okay, damn..” sae mutters, accepting his defeat. you let out a victory cheer by dancing a little in your seat. sae couldn’t help but smile. now here you were, watching him chomp down the food reo initially got for you.

“let’s head out somewhere” sae says, poking you with his chopsticks. you swat his hands away as you scowl at him. going out all of a sudden after he just ate?

“where are we going?”

“places” 

you look up at him unsure. you didn’t really want to go anywhere this week knowing that paparazzi might be up on your asses again. you weren’t gonna risk your health again for just some dumb post

“but we’re on break with posting though” you protest. was sae really serious about heading out? 

sae pouts and looks at you with pleading eyes. something he only pulls when he really wants to do something or get his way. something you couldn’t resist. you guessed old habits really die hard

“please?” 

you avert your gaze elsewhere because those teal eyes are only trouble for you. you hear sae sigh beside you and you realized that was your last straw.

“fine”

you look back at sae who had a small smile on his face. his face screaming “i know you still can’t resist me” and quite frankly you wanted to punch the living daylights out of his smug face. 

“i’m not gonna get dressed up or anything though. just a hoodie and a hat to keep our identities hidden” you say, getting up from the barstool to head over to your room to get an oversized hoodie and your hat.

“wasn’t counting on it” sae says, humming to himself that he got you to agree.

it didn’t take long for you guys to get moving. you two were now on your way to wherever sae was taking you. even if you kept asking where you two were going, sae simply shushes you and tells you to just sit back and relax

you were leaning towards the window, watching the city skies fade as you two drive aimlessly around the city. your phone connected to his aux, softly playing some tunes in the background.

your eyes peer over to sae who had one hand on the steering wheel, while the other was used to prop himself up against the window. you find yourself smiling at the memories going back to you. 

the old late night drives with sae just to clear your minds. 

the route sae was taking you felt awfully familiar. you sit up straight and looked outside to see that you were going up a familiar hill. you snap your head towards sae. sae catches your stare and winks at your direction.

the car eventually comes to a stop. sae silently turns off the car and gets out with you following behind him. there you realize where he took you. sae took you back to your favorite spot to get away from it all. the hilltop where you can get a whole view of the ever so busy city of shibuya. 

the same place sae asked you to be his,

the same place sae broke things off with you,

“what are we doing here, sae?” you ask, sitting on top of the hood of his car. sae follows suit. he sits next to you, observing the view in front of him.

“to unwind” he says flatly, putting his hood on. you can’t help but look at him. what did he mean by that?

“you looked pretty occupied today, so i just thought i’d bring you here-”

you furrowed your brows, “then why here?”

sae stays silent. the sound of the city filling your ears. you can’t help but think that it was now or never. it was the perfect time to get things across. for your own peace of mind, and for the sake of it all. 

it was silent between you and sae all of a sudden. you almost wanted to laugh at how ironic it is that you’d end up in this place again for the third time in a row with the same person. 

‘how nostalgic’ you think to yourself. you get up from the hood of the car and walked towards the wooden fence. just to get a clearer view and to get some air that you so desperately needed before talking to sae. 

“you know, this reminds me of the time you took me up here for the first time,” you start, kicking the rocks just by your feet. sae’s ears perk up at the sudden mention of the memory.

“i was so happy that day. to think we’d last for over five years. i was the happiest when i was with you, sae” you continued, smiling to yourself as you recalled everything.

sae can’t help but feel there’s more to what you’re saying. he can’t help but anticipate the bomb that you were about to drop.

“til one day, you brought me out here again. this time, to break up” you turn around to face sae who had an expression you can’t comprehend. his hands were stuffed inside the pockets of his hoodie

“you broke me that day, sae” you breathe out, looking up at the moon. “and to think not even two weeks later i see you with someone else” you let out a laugh. to sae it sounded forced. 

“i hate you, sae itoshi” you finally look at him again, sae averts from your hard gaze. 

“i hate how you took all my firsts, i hate how you talk to me with that voice, i hate how i know your morning routine better than anyone else, i hate how you always opt to cook because you know i suck at cooking, i hate how you know me like the back of your hand..” you list off, with every list you say, you take a step forward. 

“i hate how even after all these years, even after you hurt me, even how you broke me to pieces, i hate how i can’t ever find myself to hate you” you finish. a teardrop running down your cheeks. 

“i hate how i still love you..” your voice was shaky. your hands were trembling, here you were, confessing your heart to the guy who initially broke it. 

you broke your promise to yourself. 

with a deep sigh, you fixed your composure. you harshly wipe the tears that were running down your cheeks before turning your back on sae again to face the city you live in. 

“i just have a question for you, sae…” you take a deep breath. finally. you were gonna get the answers to your questions. those times you’ve doubted yourself, those sleepless nights wondering where it all went wrong, nights where you ask yourself if you were ever enough for sae.. 

you were finally gonna get your well deserved answers. 

“why? what did i do wrong? was i not enough for you?” 

sae silently moves towards you. he pulls your head to his chest where you freely the tears fall. 

you push him off of you, you were not gonna let yourself be fooled much longer.  

“was it worth it, sae? was throwing away our years together worth it?” you seethed, tears pricking your eyes.

sae’s eyes widened, “i–”

“you know sae, even if i was in a room with all the people i love the most. i’d still choose you and you all over again. i will always choose you, sae” you cut him off, trembling. words shaking as you are basically spilling your heart to the guy who broke it into a million pieces.

sae’s heart breaks at the scene before him. it was too late for him to realize the damage he has done to you. for you to act like this.

“that’s why i agreed to be in this fake relationship with you. i wanted to find out why you did this to me, to us” you admit, tears now fully flowing. “i just..” you weren’t able to finish what you were trying to sae as you sob in front of sae.

“why sae?.. just, why?”

you barely notice sae approaching. the next thing you knew, he pulls your head to his chest. 

“shh… let it out” he says, his free arm rubbing your back as you cry your heart out. finally, after all those years, it felt good to release everything. like a million bricks has been lifted off your shoulders. 

sae pulls away, cupping your cheeks as he wipes the tears pouring down your cheeks with his thumb. his eyes flicker from your eyes to your lips. 

“don’t look at me like that, sae..” you say in a low voice, almost like a whisper. peering away from sae’s eyes. 

sae slowly leans in and before he knows it his lips are just ghosting over yours. without a second, sae smashes your lips together.

your eyes widened. you wanted to push him away. you put your hands on his chest ready to push him away, but something in you is stopping you from doing so. 

how you missed this. how you missed sae

how sae missed this. how sae missed you

you pull apart, catching your breath. you look up at sae to see him crying too. he cups your cheeks, caressing them with his thumb.

“i’m sorry” was all he could say. he puts his forehead against yours, teal eyes fixated on yours. you can tell with his eyes that he was sincere. sae was also shaking as he holds you, his whole body language screaming guilt.

“i was young and stupid. i thought i’d be better off without you but i realized that i wasn’t. it was too late by then.” he explains, looking down at your feet instead of meeting your eyes.

you put your hand over his, squeezing them. relishing in the moment of two ex lovers putting the past behind them.

“i tried reaching out for you, you know?” sae brings up, laughing to himself at how stupid he sounded. “but knowing you, i knew you’d probably act like you never existed. i had to find out the hard way” he scoffs at the end. 

“eventually, the stars brought me to you again” sae finally looks at you in the eye. “i took that as a chance to try and redeem myself. i think it failed though,” sae admits sheepishly, “i was persistent. i wanted you back and i did everything i can just to keep you with me” 

you listen to sae stumble with his words. he’s trying. he’s actually proving that he was genuinely sorry for everything.

“i never stopped loving you, y/n” sae admits with a sad smile, “i never did” 

you tear up again at his confession. because frankly, you were the same. 

sae opens his mouth to say something but instead, you crash your lips against his. sae doesn’t move for a second but relaxes as soon as he realizes what was going on. he instantly wraps his arms around your waist, pulling you close as he can. 

“i love you,” 

“i love you too,”

you two find yourselves basking under the moonlight once again. fixing and treating each other’s wounds as you two try again. this time you two are sure that whatever you two have planned for each other, you two will make it right. 

006.

the sound of an alarm blaring through the room wakes you up from your sleep. you feel some shuffling behind you and suddenly the room turns quiet again.

“did i wake you?” you hear sae’s morning voice ring through your ears, sending a shiver down your spine. you let out a small whine, nodding your head yes. 

sae chuckles, and tightens his hold around your body under the covers. “good morning to you too, baby” he kisses your cheek. 

you open one eye before twisting your body around to face him. 

“morning..” you yawn, leaving a trail of kisses from his jaw to his adam’s apple.

“still didn’t get enough from last night, hm?” sae teases, rubbing circles on your hips. you feel your cheeks heat up. you slapped his chest before turning your back on him again. 

“our managers will kill us if we’re late” you remind him of your schedules for the day. you sit up, slipping on his shirt that was lying on the floor, recalling last night’s events. you looked at yourself from the mirror to see some love bites all over your neck up to your chest. a gentle reminder that you were now his again.

“they can wait,” sae murmurs, slipping his hands under your (his) shirt. you let out a giggle before pushing his hands off of you. 

“sae come on!” you tug on his arm as you two head out to your bathroom. 

after what seems like an hour or so due to sae’s rowdy hands. you two finally arrive at the red carpet of the luxury brand you two have modeled for. 

the screams of fans fills your ears as you wait in of the car and onto the red carpet where a line of reporters were waiting. 

sae, being the gentleman he is and a marketing genius, he obviously makes a scene for your entrances. he gets out of the car first and holds out his hand for you to take. the audience goes crazy as you two make your entrance. 

“sae, y/n! over here!” you hear a bunch of reporters yell out. lights, and flashes all around. 

you and sae stop at the first reporter on the line. he greets you guys with a smile before starting his short interview. it was the usual questions about the brand and you guys feel about being the new faces of it.

“well, clearly they have a good eye for casting both y/n and i as the new faces for their brand” sae answers for the both of you, his arm wrapped securely around your waist. 

the interviewer gushes at how cool his answer was and proceeds to ask you another question.

“my, my, my, miss y/n. you look lovely as usual but i can’t help but wonder, what does it feel like to be back together with sae itoshi?” he asks, intrigued, his microphone on your face. 

you look at sae for approval and he simply smiles and motions for you to say whatever you want to say. 

“well, it still shocks me til this day that i got back together with sae” you joked, making the interviewer laugh at your response and sae who fakes being offended. you laugh at his reaction before answering seriously, 

“but seriously. i guess it’s true that if it’s meant to be, it will be” you smile, showing off sae in front of the camera to which the interviewer loves.

“what an answer from, y/n! well you heard it here first folks!” the interviewer beams in front of the camera, “i wish you two never ending happiness. thank you for letting me interview you guys!” he waves off, finding another celebrity to interview. 

you and sae both smile and wave him goodbye as you two continue along the red carpet.

“do you really mean that?” you hear sae ask beside you. he was busy waving for the cameras. you let out a little giggle before waving around for the paparazzi and cameras around. 

“mean what?”

“what you said about if it’s meant to be, it will be” he quotes you, tucking a stray hair behind your ear sending the audience and the paparazzi in a frenzy again. 

“it happened to us, didn’t it?” you smile, motioning to your current situation. 

sae was yours again, and you are his. 

just how it should be. 

bonus!

you didn't consider how awkward it actually was to be working on another modeling gig with your boyfriend.

especially when the poses instructed by the photographer and way too intimate to be imitated in a semi-public setting for your liking.

“what are you being stiff for?” sae holds in his laugh, seeing how motionless your poses are with him. “it’s awkward when theres people around..” you say through gritted teeth, praying to the gods that this shoot will finally be over

“it’s not this awkward when we do this alone though..” sae seductively whispers, lowering his head just right at the shell of your ear.

the photographer squeals in joy at the amount of shots he got from that pose alone.

you feel your face burn up in embarrassment.

“sae!” 

[fatuismooches]

Reader is always sitting on dottore’s lap.. but what if dottore say on readers lap instead?I love the idea of reader holding one of the segments while they work just sitting on their lap <3 They will get antsy and flustered but you can easily fix that with a peck!! 😌

Something about being close and up and personal with dotty makes me feel so fuzzy and warm! I want to cup his face, kiss him all over, tell him I love him again and again!!! I just really really love the closeness for dottore :(

This goes for the segments as well because they deserve all the love too. Especially webttore!! Give that man a hug during one of his passion rants, no questions asked just do it.

And when I think of akademiya zandik & reader, I think of so much BECAUSE THAT WAS THE HONEYMOON PHASE!!!!! Just two dorks being in love and defending each other and trusting one another. Imagine reader with zandik after he tells them a bit of his past, his childhood, (A bit OOC but perhaps that could be the first instance where reader sees zandik cry for the first time..?) with reader reassuring him whilst embracing him.

I’d love to come back here and talk more!! Can I please become 🎨 anon? I do have troubles with speaking so I am sorry if this is a bit wonky. :1

There are certain words that you simply do not refer to Il Dottore as. Cute and submissive are two of these words, but you? You use them anyway. Because they are cute and submissive when they're all comfortable (although terribly embarrassed and defensive) in your lap. In the beginning, when you suggest the idea, Dottore and the other segments laugh at you because they think it's an amusing joke but, nope, you're 100% serious. It takes... a lot of perseverance and bothering and begging and pleading but!! Soon you'll have the segments fighting over who gets to sit in your lap, because well... it's comfy and soft and they get to be held by you for hours on end as they do their work... (Prime and Omega are obviously the last to give in, their egos are not handling this embarrassing treatment.) You always wrap your arm around him and ask him about his work! Giving him kisses when he starts to get irritated and working your hands into his shoulders and back... :( You're good at repelling the oncoming stress and headaches in this position.

Webttore's ego literally blows up whenever you show such blatant affection and interest in his rants, like yes please keep indulging because he WON'T stop as long as you keep doing it. You could be on the verge of falling asleep and all you hear is him continuing to tell his stories in the background. He wouldn't even notice at first because he gets very into his storytelling as to how he casually demolished a few dozen camps of enemies but then he realizes you aren't commenting anymore... oh you fell asleep :( all of this was probably too much for you to handle all at once...

HONEYMOON PHASE AKADEMIYA ZANDIK AND YOU... :( ugh you're so right 🎨 anon. That was when times were so much simpler... sure school is a pain but!! It was fun. It was when you two found love. Finding comfort, finding each other. It was when you two could simply be Zandik and [Name], no other titles getting in the way.

Zandik despised opening up about himself, much less his past so, he'd only tell you after like many years, and even then he kept it brief and acted like he didn't care and it didn't affect him, because he didn't want to be pitied, he doesn't want your comfort. And so you don't push the topic, but you know he was hurt by it, hurt by being called a monster since birth, being run out by the people who were supposed to be family. So when he does end up crying about it, you don't say a word, you just hold him even as he tries to cover it up, even as he curses you for being like this, because you love him.

[sleepy-pigeonn]

A Look Into My Hades Fan Animatic

I don't know to call this other than a collection of resources and reflections about the process of making the animatic. Hopefully it's interesting or helpful for someone. But feel free to ask questions if you'd like clarification/more info!

___

Inspiration (A non-exhaustive list)

It's possible that I've seen/read fan works that may have inspired me unconsciously, so there's no way I can possibly include references to them all. However, the ones I listed here are ones I recall looking back at repeatedly.

The fancomics "First Flight" and "Bonehead Boon" by Liana Sposto

Robbie Elliot Art's animation "Take Tonight"

Toastyglow's animation "Glitter & Gold" and PMV "This Year"

Storyboards posted by Paige Caldwell (@/papernewt) on Instagram

Zag admiring some of these beautiful fanworks.

The following sections are below the cut: References, Songs, Script and Thumbnails, Studies, Drawing, Editing, Random Facts

___

References

These were very helpful to creating the animatic!!

In-game references

Hades Wiki

3D Model of Zagreus by @/chunyou_ on Twitter

I also used screenshots I took while playing

General references

"How To Direct A Fight Scene" by Howard Wimshurst

Poses from the photo libraries of The Pose Archives and AdorkaStock

3D Model of Male and Female Heads by William Nguyen

I also just looked stuff up online or took videos of myself acting out some of the movements.

___

Songs

I thought of basing my animatic on any of the following songs:

"Icarus" by Bastille

"Dirty" by grandson

"Underworld" by CYPRSS *

"I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme)" by John Rzeznik

"I'm Gonna Win" by Rob Cantor **

"Could Have Been Me" by the Struts

They all have a varied degree of "Zagreus vibes" but I wanted a song that could be used to show as much of the game as possible. "Could Have Been Me" was the song that I could imagine more things for, so it is the one I ended up using.

* Look at this awesome Zagreus fan art based on this song

** Some of the lyrics for this song are so fitting for Zag but others are pretty ooc.

___

Script and Thumbnails

I've seen other artists annotate the lyrics to the song they are working with and attempted that here. But that process is a little confusing for me, so I kept these descriptions vague. It was helpful in keeping track of ideas, since some of them are faster to write down than draw. Especially for fight sequences.

I used Storyboarder for the thumbnails. I opted for this program because (1) it lets you add an audio file and (2) it has very basic tools. It can be used in a more nuanced way than I did. However, with 3 and a half minutes of frames to work out I needed something that helps me draft down ideas efficiently and without overwhelming me. And this was pretty good program for that.

The script and thumbnails happened in tandem a lot of the time. Think of it as brainstorming, both in vague writing and loose drawings. At this point I am trying to see if these ideas flow with the song, if they are readable, if they achieve what I had in mind.

___

Studies

Okay. So I am happy with my ideas. Now. How do I make sure the drawings are identifiable as taking place in the game?

This is where those in-game references came in handy. I looked back at my thumbnails and made a list of everything I would need. From characters to locations. Once I had these down, I made folders to make sure everything would be nice and organized.

I tend to avoid backgrounds like the plague. However, for some of these shots to work I need to give the viewer a sense of where the action is taking place. I know that I struggle imagining three-dimensional spaces while drawing digitally. So, using my thumbnails and the references I gathered, I did studies of all the locations I thought would be important using good old paper and ink. This also served to fine-tune shot compositions.

___

Drawing

The animatic itself was drawn using Krita. Usually, I worked on all the backgrounds using the studies as a base and then added the characters. My drawings started very rough for a couple of reasons. The main one was that with ~200 frames ahead of me I was afraid of letting my inner perfectionist get me stuck. I kept reminding myself that, being an animatic, the drawings could be rough as long as they are still readable. As I got more comfortable using Krita, I was able to create cleaner backgrounds.

Even so, I hit an art block around the two minute mark where I Could Not Draw. This is where I heavily relied on those References I Keep Talking About. They were my savior and are the main cause for the more "finished" look towards the end of the animatic. I think the best example of this was the shot featuring Thanatos. I was deep in the art block territory by the time I needed to go from thumbnail (top left) to final frame. No matter how much I redrew them, I didn't like how they turned out (top right). To work this out, I found references from The Pose Archives and used them as a guide (bottom left) to get a sketch that I liked (bottom right). I felt this look was more sketchy than I've would like so I ended up cleaning it. I followed a similar process for most of the frames following this one. As a result, the final frames of the video turned out cleaner.

___

Editing

Once I had all my frames ready to go, I imported them into HitFilm Express and made a composite shot where I basically just matched the timing of the frames to the music. Frames that have camera movements (like the very first frame) were made in their own composite shots. I ended up having to delete some frames so some sections didn't feel rushed. In the end, there's like 5 versions of the animatic because I kept making little changes. The biggest was adding Zag's dialogue at the beginning since I felt the video started up too quiet. I don't have any images for this stage. Please have this comparison instead.

___

Random Facts ✨

Adding color was a last minute decision, it was mainly because I thought a colorful sunset would be prettier. My original plan was to shift the gray tones of the background into more yellowish tones once Zagreus reaches the surface, but keeping everything monochromatic.

If you pause quickly on the very last frame you'll see I accidentally made Zag's leggings black instead of red. I was on auto pilot at this point. Adding color was worth it overall but so time consuming. My respects to people who do fully colored animatics.

I wish I made Meg a pinker (or blue) hue rather than purple. In my mind I saved purple for characters related to Nyx (hence why Hypnos, Than, Chaos, and Charon have shades of purple). But I guess it is a sweet detail because of how Meg confides in Nyx in the game.

I kept a log of all my progress. Apparently getting the thumbnails done took about five months (August 2023 - January 2024)?? Anyways I leave you with these entries.

___

Thank you for reading! I hope it goes without saying but I really appreciate all the support this animatic has received. All the hearts and comments and tags, they mean a lot.

[fivemillionkeys]

Hey all

I'm still looking around for an long time rp partner. I do have some storylines going at the moment but I'm still kind of figuring out what I want & the more possibilities the better.

Who am I:

My name is Dorian/ Dax. My pronouns are he / him - They / Them. I'm 26 and I have been in the rp community for over 12 years. I have done both long format storylines on rpg forum boards as well as rapidfire ones on Discord and telegram. I've always played fandomless only. I'm pretty flexible when it comes to setting/ rp style.

I am in the CET timezone. My first language is Dutch so it can be that I make small grammar errors when writing in English, especially when writing multiple paragraphs. I study creative writing, so sometimes my replies are a little less frequent when the semester is particularly busy. But I love to chat ooc as well, so you can always shoot me a message and I'll make sure to reply as quickly as I can ^-^

Most of my OCs are male. I currently have three female characters that stuck around. I don't mind writing female characters, I'm just not very good at it. But who knows, improvement might be inescapable fhfgddd. All of my OCs have an overachring background lore. They are all from the same universe. The lore of that universe can be included in our storyline but it's not necessary for the storyline to function. Basically it can be used if it enriches the story, but I have no problem with dropping my guys into any story world/ AU imaginable.

What I am looking for:

Fandomless rp only

Available on Discord or Telegram

I am 26, so I would prefer it if my rp partner is 21+

I'm okay with pairings of any and all genders. Friends, enemies, lovers; all is possible as long as it's plot driven.

I am very new to the term "dead dove" and am a little hesitant to partake. Not to say that I won't write any dark themes ever, but it's not specifically what I'm looking for right now. A plot can have its dark moments, but I am not looking for a fully dark plot.

I don't really mind whether you write multiple paragraphs, do one-liners or anything in between. As long as it's well structured, has substance and engages with whatever is going on in the plot, it's great. I love complex inner monolog about what your character is thinking/ feeling. I also really love it when people put detail and thought into the surroundings that the characters are in.

What would work great for me is if you / your character loves to explain things about their homeworld. Or if you/ your character would love to learn about my homeworld.

I love the bonding between characters that formers through learning / exploring together and one of them taking the other under their wing.

Fantasy worlds tend to work best for the dynamics described above but there are _a lot_ of variations possible (think: pirates, medieval, apocalyptic, historical, steampunk, victorian ect) and especially once we know which characters make a good match we can do endless AU's with them too!

I love plotting together and talking ooc. I am so for telling each other about our silly little guys & how they are 100% not prepared for the stuff we're about to throw their way. Please tell me why they would be absolutely insufferable together or super wholesome :3 Feel free to send funny memes about our guys or pictures about our storyworlds. On the other hand I would also like to get to know you & what's going on in your life. Being both friends & rp partners would be awesome! No pressure tho, it's fully valid that not everyone is comfortable or able to open up quickly.

2 - 5 replies weekly would be great! Though I fully understand that life is very busy and this won't always be possible. Communication is key. As long as the ooc contact stays on / periods of inactivity are communicated about before (if possible) or afterwards, it's all good. Rapidfire would be very fun to do for certain storylines but I understand that it takes a lot of time. So maybe we could try and arrange that on a weekend day.

I love it when people are overall enthusiastic, come up with ideas, engage with the plot, and engage a lot ooc.

Welp, this has become quite long and rambly despite my best efforts not to. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to let me know. Even if you are unsure if you match what I am looking for, just ask. Exceptions can always be made ^-^ But yeah, if you would like to rp feel free to DM me ^-^

[virgobingo]

hey! love all your jjk metas :)

just wanted to throw thoughts at you if you are interested!

so the very sparse info Gege provides for Gojo and Geto has, imo, some fridge horror to it. They must remain head-canon but I'm curious if you think my thoughts are a stretch or not.

child abuse cw

I wondered if Suguru snapping after finding Nanako and Mimiko was meant as a subtle hint at Geto, a child from a non-sorceror family, having childhood abuse background. His rampage at the village seems cohesive character-wise, but I always thought killing his parents felt a bit jarring and OOC at that point in his "insanity spiral." The first crime comes from outrage & hatred, while the latter is over the top cold logic- his explanation "it would be hypocritical to spare them" seems underwhelming to me.

2. Gojo having a bounty on his head throughout his whole childhood. He might have infinity but on a practical level, loved ones are vulnerable to blackmail or hostage situations. Logically they are a weakness and the more you have, the weaker you are.

I think Gojo has so many things going on that contribute to his isolation and inability to connect- (obnoxious personality, immense power, trauma from Toji attack) that this crazy aspect of his life is brushed off. I feel like in any other character, the bounty would be seen as a major contributor to their psychology.

We see throughout the story that anytime Gojo loves or shows humanity towards another (Amanai, Suguru, Megumi (even Yuuji)) he is narratively punished for it.

Cheers!!

hello!

thank you for sharing your thoughts! i'll try my best to explain my own. my thoughts on gojo are especially jumbled since he's such a complicated character.

(1) gege has shown himself to be the type to of artist to ground his fiction in reality. i think the narrative overwhelmingly points to jujutsu sorcerers generally being perceived as "freaks" by non-sorcerers. miminana are extreme examples of this, whereas the old man geto beat up in the hidden inventory arc is a milder one.

"how would parents react if their child told them they could see/hear things they couldn't?" -> that's the question i imagine gege asked himself when he wrote this detail into jjk.

i think geto's abilities were a cause of concern for his parents, with the potential for it to have actually translated into fear. he does seem to have a special place in his heart for chosen families. i think that suggests a difficult home life. we can only speculate how bad it was though. enough for him to go through with him killing his parents nonchalantly, as far as we know. abuse wouldn't be a wildly off-base assumption.

(2) i think gojo's character is definitely marked by his station in society. the good and the bad that come with it. people really don't tend to talk about the bounty on his head, bc it's such an "oh, by the way" fact that gege fits into the story. gege probably mulled over it though (he's a serious overthinker). so i don't think it's something ppl should dismiss when thinking about gojo's psychology. some of his self-imposed isolation can be traced back to instances like it.

as an older kid and a tween, especially. i would guess gojo was probably asking himself stuff like who can he trust in this world? who can he open up to? when the world is out to kill him. the bounty on his head also probably accustomed him to solve problems with power/violence.

i think this mindset was disrupted by geto in high school, though. gojo grows to be quite generous with his trust after him. he has a lot of faith in others as an adult. so i think geto, on top of everything, inadvertently helped gojo heal and process some of his pain from childhood.

i say this bc the disconnect gojo seems to refer to in ch 236, seems different. more a result of the higher state of mind he acquires. he basically tells geto in the afterlife that it isn't rooted in loneliness, after all. which i also take to mean, not necessarily in childhood trauma by that point. but a sense that no one can possibly understand what it means to be strong— and still be powerless.

that's why i believe gojo wasn't being punished for his humanity so much as being taught a lesson on how power can only take him so far— time and time again.

this whole lesson sets up the world to be able to move on without him. life doesn't ultimately hinge on one person and i think gojo knows this to be true, which is why he's always so.. relaxed when he's taken out of the equation. while everyone else scrambles to put him back in. (funnily enough, even fans do this). 

ppl look at him and think he's above them. when inevitably, he'll die, just as all beings do. which i think is what the following sequence was about, too. and what gojo mostly meant when he said "he alone is the honored one [to come to knows this]"(in contrast to when gege used it for sukuna(x) who goes on to distinguish himself from gojo in the way he only pleases/satisfies himself). the saying has several connotations (x).

hope that makes sense!

[vivalabunbun]

To start off, I'm sorry I'm such a boomer on Tumblr that even after years of using it all I know is how to follow, like posts, and post something myself 😭😭😭 So I don't blame you if you don't have the slightest clue of who I am. But on my part, I have been following your works for a while now and I just *absolutely* adore how you write.

I keep finding myself coming back to reread your fics despite already remembering the exact plot by heart after the first or second go 😭😭 I love how you characterize, not just Alhaitham, but the other character in the story extremely well. You explored all of their potential aspects and presented them all so naturally, and I can't imagine how much work you have to spend behind each fic you wrote. Especially with Alhaitham. Your Haitham is my canon Haitham, to simplify the progress of explaining how well you wrote him to me.

Your writing is poetic and expressive. It just pushed all the right button in me. And I absolutely ****love**** the little science-y facts and nerdy little details you put in your fic. Not to mention your taste is almost if not identical to mine too 😭😭😭😭 I'm very picky with Alhaitham's portrayal in his fanfics, yet yours made me completely settle my standards and patiently waiting for your next fic instead of searching for more.

So, I have been meaning to do a little something for my favorite writer-slash-storyteller. And here is a little Mareya fanart ✨ It's not much but I hope its up to your liking

P/s: I think that you have the tendency to get anxious about your work? I just wanna say that it's okay, you and your work doesn't have to be perfect everytime and always better than the last. Regardless of what you wrote, me and the others will still always support you 🌱 I know it's not much and it probably won't get rid of the doubts in an instance, but I will remind you of that as many times as needed ✨

P/s 2: House of Daena succs, background succs x2 ｡ﾟ(ﾟ´Д｀ﾟ)ﾟ｡

I feel so honored that you drew my lil story teller 🥹😭🙏 Thank you so much!!! It’s so good and the background is 💕💕💕

Thank you so much for your encouragement and support 🥹🥹 your words are like a nice hug

I do have a tendency to doubt my writing bc sometimes there’s just so many things I want to say/ try but it doesn’t work out all the time.

How I portray Alhaitham is always a concern bc I want to explore him but not be so ooc, but it look like a lot of people feel satisfied with the middle ground I’ve been tiptoeing.

Thank you for looking forward to my next works 🥹 life has been… life so my rate has slowed but hopefully my past pieces still evoke the same joy

Ahh I love your art style 🫶✨

[edgeray]

Hello Ray! (The anon who sent over the mad scientist! Reader + Arlevie and domestic Arle req here)

I realised that I forgot to put an emoji that you can use to ref to me, apologies (am too used to disappearing into the background irl). Can I be 🍅 anon?

The fluff on your work made me scream. Arle pouting? (Though I imagine it’s only visible to reader and the children from how subtle it would be, she’s not very expressive to begin with) Arle being soft?? Yes please, oh my goodness. She needs a lover, therapy, and proper rest (Have you seen her eyebags? 😭 They were there on young Arle too post Clervie death, she needs sleep)

“Let Mother take care of Father” I AM SOBBING. CRYING. TEARS OF JOY- it’s so soft!!!! She definitely deserves the care and oh boy is reader intending to spoil Arle. Especially with the children around. Loving parents who care for their children and nurture them properly? Sign me up!! Even if said children have to look the other way or pass the eye bleach around from their parents being soft around each other.

Though I do imagine it’s reader who starts the bathing together routine and not Arle - she might be conscious of her hands (which reader would absolutely not mind but treasure instead). I was thinking that it took a while before Arle felt comfortable enough to wear anything less than formal attire around reader, and the first time is when reader joins in on Arle working out. If reader were from HotH and saw Arle from young, it might have taken less time to get less formally dressed, but the bathing part is definitely reader initiated. Can totally see this becoming a habit of reader’s to ask if Arle’s ok with it/wants it though! It probably takes longer still for Arle to initiate it, but they definitely have it like in the fic. Just toothrotting fluff and adoration for one another.

Did I tell you I love the way you write Arle and reader? I love your characterisation of them!!! Although Arle is soft here in the way she isn’t really in canon (soft from romance I mean not soft as a character) it isn’t in an ooc manner!

On the Arlevie, my original hc was that reader is a homunculus similar to Albedo, and that they were from Khaenri’ah and were well versed in Khemia (that they then use to make the body that Clervie now is revived in, similar to how Albedo was created). To be honest, I based the Irminsul idea heavily off of the Aranara saying “We shall meet again in Sarva (Irminsul)” so my guess was that that is where the spirits of Teyvatians ultimately congregate when they die.

As for why reader did it, it’s based heavily off Frieren, that reader wants to learn more about humans and thinks that living the life of one would help them understand. And since Arle runs an orphanage as a single parent (effectively), reader revives Clervie to use as a bargaining chip to enter the HotH and live as a human child with both parents. As for the “mad” part of “mad scientist”, I was thinking more mad as in “not caring what the heavenly principles does to them and willing to try anything” than the “clinically insane/batshit crazy” interpretation, though I really do love to see it being explored (I might submit more hcs here, once irl life stops tying me down)

I absolutely love your idea of childhood friends!Arlevie and reader that you mentioned though!!! It gives a lot of meaning to why reader went insane - Clervie being the only person who could hold down and convert two borderline psychopaths would be a very Clervie thing! Though I would assume reader in this case would come under Dottore as an experimental subject (one who just happened to survive his experiments, albeit not being very human anymore) Reader totally seeing the gay before Arlevie even did, and when they come back from getting lobotomized by Dottore to find Clervie dead and Arle going feral they just snap.

This one is a bit long, it’s not a request but just some thoughts, feel free to build on it or stash it elsewhere for later use (idm, it’s always lovely to read, and that goes for anyone else who sees this)

But please rest up Ray! It’s always nice to have you around so do take care of yourself! Stay safe, hydrated, well nourished, and may the pillow be cold and the covers snug!

🍅 anon, hi, nice to meet you!!!! I'm glad you liked the silly little thing I wrote at like 3AM. I agree with you on the fact that reader does start the bathing together routine! The idea of Arlecchino slowly becoming comfortable with you, exposing her cursed body to you after months of insecurity and hesitation... makes me so soggy 🥹. I'm eating this up. I really want to write another piece of just this. Arlecchino deserves more hurt/comfort fics. Guys, she's fucking daddy and hot af but she is also a sad little meow meow, and we should better take advantage of this. 🥺

I'm glad you love the way I characterize Arlecchino and reader!!! I'm such a sucker for soft Arlecchino... of course, I will always love mean arlecchino (if the mafia au oneshot wasn't telling enough).

And ooooh for the arlevie, I love your ideas, especially the Frieren part. Thank you for the clarification on 'mad' for reader. I love your ramblings even though some of the lore flies by my head. 🫶

Thanks for the ask 🍅 anon!

[bentosandbox]

1 to 7 👀

take a guess before opening this (it's kind of long)

so actually when I rb'd the post I was thinking about Hoshichen tehe was it obvious (I don't actually hate it... I like it even..but I'm very particular about their dynamic) but I kind of have 3 other ships I basically feel same-y about

Specrene

FranLisk

SariaSilence

Their standard(??)/popular depictions basically have 'Webtoon CEO with yaoi hands harassing/forcing themselves on naive powerless guy' kind of vibes to me (This applies to a lot of Lapptex too I think) basically if you turn the 'bottom' into a kyaa noo stop type of girl with no agency...goodbye forever

What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?

See top but I guess more specifically Specrene: specter is treating her like a actual pet bird to torment/tease than a fellow humanoid(?) until the end of her op rec where she finally kind of acknowledges irene as a fellow 'human' like whaa

2. Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP?

Hoshichen but they're also like more than that to me im just going to quote my friend here and hope it suffices

uhh like. they know that they'll never get the other's full background and theyre (may be begrudgingly) fine with that (as opposed to chenswire thats like mutually 'i already know everything about you why are you still pretending otherwise' in all actions but speech)

3. Have you ever unfollowed someone over a fandom opinion?

man idk honestly lol... but i also rarely unfollow people over this kind of stuff usually I just mute words or just go hm interesting i guess (scroll past)

4. Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?

see top I think they're all popular/the 'default' ship (except for specrene)

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?

see top (and below...) chen sir is cringefail but not like a hollywood damsel please....

6. Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?

I wouldn't say hate but I used to be really ehhh on

1) Mos/Fia because (see top) but I love fail mostima and cringe fia I'm glad GA showed how pathetic the two of them can be

2) I kept seeing Lin/Swire with (see top) dynamic and i was like goddamn you guys did it to hoshichen and now them too COME ON.. JUST BECAUSE SWIRE APOLOGISED ONCE EVEN THOUGH SHE WAS BACK TO BEING QUEEN BITCH RIGHT AFTER uhh anyway. there was this weibo post I saw when Lin was announced that like awoke something in me it was kind of like a drabble or something...? basically something like 'lungmen quad is so nice because you have 2 police(chen & swire) and 2 underworld people(lin & hoshi <ex tho) so the dynamics is like wowww!! honestly it was kinda hard to read lol but it was basically like canon compliant imagining about after swires kidnapping when they were kids, they fractured fr fr because chen was like im going to 1000% train while lin feels awkward since swire got kidnapped by underworld guys or sth and her family and therefore she herself is part of the problem and it ended with the both of them butting heads while thinking "why wasnt it me that saved her back then?" (cause it was hoshi right lol) and i just went like MANNNNN. it's like the core of my wuxia/gufeng AU that's collecting dust in my folder sorry if that made no sense

3) hoshichen but see below first and then come back; JP fan interpretations just hit different man the biggest reason why i still eat this ship sometimes

7. Is there anything you used to like but can’t stand now?

see top but especially for HoshiChen because i don't really care for the other 3 ships lol. people depicting Hoshigummy like average yaoi mafia boss that forces themselves on the MC without an ounce of respect for either party when shes like actually perfect(to me...)

omake/bonus chart i made a while back before WWB dropped

hope nobody gets mad over my opinions though lol enjoy whatever you like even if its ooc!!! peace and love on planet terra

[moralesmilesanhour]

No talk about it because there are some really interesting ways in exploring a potentially unhealthy/not so wholesome relationship with Miles that are true to his actual character/personality and doesn't involve...idk turning him into the stereotype or ooc caricature. Like you mention Miles, as sweet as he is does have flaws that could rise problems in a relationship. Like even outside the flaws I think he also has a habit of placing those he likes on pedestals and idolizling them (see gwen)

Dont even get me started on 42 Miles because I think people really hit him with the 2D stereotypical abusive bf trope (which I think is solely due to his design/voice/assumed personality but that's a rant for another day) instead of actually really thinking deeply as to why he wouldn't be a perfect partner in terms of his background/character (and he has more to consider than 1610 miles, 42 miles would certainly have a lot more baggage and trauma that may manifest in unhealthy ways and impact any potential relationships he would have with someone. Like he may be distant, closed off, maybe a bit neglectful, dealing with stress of being the prowler and trying to provide his for his mother and protect his home all while being only 15 without his father

Of course I'm not knocking what anyone writes I mean like what you like but

There's just room for more complex portrayal (I'm sorry this got long I just have a lot of thoughts on miles)

RIGHT EXACTLY WHAT I WAS GETTING AT! Emphasis on the "there's ROOM for you to do this" because a lot of people may take these sentiments and read them as someone telling them what they can and can't write.

The thing with Gwen is especially interesting because like, Miles met one (1) girl that was sympathetic to him and who he interacted with for a few days max and decided he was in love with her just because they had similar circumstances (that's just my interpretation of what happened SHIPPERS DONT JUMP ME) 😭 I also agree that his eagerness to find community led him to trust people that ultimately failed him when it mattered. Notice also how he and Margo instantly formed a connection, partially because they both feel stifled and trapped at home. There is a LOT of material in just those two observations alone.

Lord even knows what kinds of attachment issues may arise in someone like Miles 42, whose isolation is even more intensified because he literally only has Aaron and his mother. That's IT (at least that's what we know rn).

And yknow like you said, I don't think that anyone is under any obligation to produce super layered and complex fanfiction because it's literally just fanfiction...

But also, it's FANFICTION! Being imaginative is the whole point! It's where people can fill in the gaps that the source material left open for interpretation or start a conversation with it. And Miles is arguably like, one of the most perfect characters to do that with. I haven't read all of his comics but I rarely see a moment where he himself - not conflict or trauma brought about by outside forces - is given real, genuine flaws that come from HIM and his own choices without veering into stereotype territory. I risk going on a rant about his character here so imma shut up now but yeah um we're all just sitting on a wealth of possibilities here. I don't care if you do tropes what matters to me is that they're interesting!!

[annabtg]

Hey, I hope you are doing well and wish you have a great time on your trip ❤️

I wanted to ask if other than James and Lily is there someone who you think would be a great partner to Sirius?

I also believe that Sirius and Remus would definitely it work and their friendship isn’t as strong as James/Sirius. In my opinion I feel as James is the glue of the Marauders and he saw something “unique” in each of his mates. He does have a heart of gold which at times can cause him to give too much trust into people (Peter Pettigrew and the Order, because I still don’t understand how the Order members didn’t do much with Harry)

Especially during those eleven years he was living at the Dursley’s like come on where was the welfare check? So many Hogwarts letters, but no one really bothered checking on a child? Hmm, seems like a parallel to real life issues with child protective services.

Anyways, back to the question. Do you think someone would be a good fit for Sirius, if you exclude James and Lily? Even excluding Marlene McKinnon, I don’t want to ship shame anyone at all, because at the end of the day all these characters are in fact not real.

I don’t really see Sirius with Marlene, and honestly fanfic/fanon just tries to create this couple who is all leather jacket and go above the rules, plus Sirius with tattoos? I don’t he would be covered in them, but that’s just me 🤷🏽‍♀️ (also what do you think of leather jacket Sirius? I for one am not a fan, I believe he has a different style since growing up in the House of Black)

I’ve read a few well written fanfics (sadly I forgot to bookmark) in which Sirius is asexual and it’s actually quite interesting. I did enjoy those fics especially since they stayed true to his character and not making him ooc.

[i realize i written more than i expected 😅😅 dang it i try my best to condense but i keep adding more. Then again, i would be ooc if I didn’t write so much lol 😂 Sorry, love to know your thoughts ❤️]

Hi there, my dear Nena! ❤️

Your ask is very interesting and poses a lot of questions! So let's see:

For one, I don't headcanon Marlene McKinnon as someone in the Marauders' age range. I sometimes use her when I need a throwaway character, and I don't mind it as a background ship, but overall I don't care about Blackinnon.

(As I've seen argued before: Lily, in her letter to Sirius, mentions "the news about the Blackinnons". If Marlene was someone who Sirius cared about, wouldn't she at least ask him if he's all right?)

And yeah I don't really care about pairing Sirius with a pureblood witch which is his mirror image. I can see it, and many people can make relationships work with very different people, but I tend to believe that Sirius would need a romantic relationship with someone he can be tender with, and who would have a softer personality. In the sequel of a story that's still unfinished, he was sort of getting interested in a Muggleborn girl who had a bubbly personality and wasn't super skilled - I felt like a young Sirius would be attracted to someone he'd feel the need to protect, kind of a knight in white armour syndrome. Not so much because it's her but because he's protective by nature and a situation like that just works for him, you know? Otherwise I believe that, if you asked him what his ideal partner would be like, he'd tell you about a strong personality, intelligent and with a sense of humour.

Btw for years I COULD HAVE SWORN THE LEATHER JACKET WAS CANON - apparently it's not?? But well, motorcycle drivers wear leather jackets for protection from the wind/cold so it makes a lot of sense that he'd have that sort of gear. Wizarding robes (the way I imagine them, like long dresses) shouldn't be very convenient on a bike. :p Tattoos - I don't really see him having any in canon, definitely not being covered in them. Though that's easier to swallow than him being short, for instance. :p

I am very on board with an aroace/demi/sapiosexual Sirius. It's basically why I see him so easily with James and Lily, because they are people who we know he cares about very much so he'd get into a relationship with them much more easily than with some random person. Other than that, I can very much see him as the person who just doesn't bother with the whole romance thing.

So that's pretty much the extent of my Sirius shipping preferences. I can see very interesting scenarios with other people (Snape? Bellatrix? Even Remus) but they are not the sort of thing I'd care to read.

[madame-ellunas-moonlit-readings]

SVSSS - Vol. 1 - Chapter 1 - Scum

Part 1

So I reached the first break line and wow, this MC is really something.

After reading up to the bit Shen Yuan where first faints after his transmigration, and I gotta say......his poker face? Legendary. His nigh instant adaptiveness? Amazing. His ability to subtly, quickly and easily settle his mind? Absolutely envious. Stellar acting skills and memory too.

Really makes me curious about his background. How he spent his life on Earth. I mean, I know he's the youngest son and second youngest child of a wealthy family, but surely it takes more than that.

I'll admit I prefer the donghua opening to this one. The bitchiness just makes it. But this one is good too. I have to agree with Shen Yuan (SY) on the harem aspect, I wonder what happened to all those women. Makes you curious about the other plot holes and red herrings he mentioned.

As for the upset over cultivators still eating and sleeping, I'm going to put it down to hedonism and the preservation of ones humanity and sanity. I mean, can you imagine a life without dreams or chocolate‽ Is it possible? Yes. Do I really need them? No. Am I going to stop anytime soon? Not a chance in hell.

It's interesting how they made Luo Binghe (LBH) a little bit crooked even before he meets the main villain, the first Shen Qinqqiu (OG!SQQ). It means the man doesn't have full blame for what became of the child. A lot of it, maybe even most of it, but not all of it. Now Shen Yuan as Shen Qingqiu (SY!SQQ) gets to deal with the ramifications of that.

I love how SY has a game plan for a potential transmigration. Now there's a fan for you. 😁 Interesting how it says SY suffered a high fever that made him sleep a while. I could swear I heard it was a qi deviation.

That System siren sounds awful. 100 police car sirens and a herd of divine beasts. Ouch. 😬 Poor man. Good luck with the OOC function. Guess that memory of his will be put to good use.

And Yue Qingyuan (YQY) seems to be a bit of an abuse enabler. A sweetie to SQQ, but a leader who's both knowingly and willingly allowing a child of his sect to be abused by a member of authority. I don't know if I like him yet. We'll see.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rest of the chapter (3 more parts) is under the keep reading link because 4 parts made for a long post 😅

Part 2

I love SY just internally squeeing at LBH despite how terrified the poor man is. Fanboy much? Such fancy compliments, if only Binghe could hear them.

The comparison of OG!SQQ to a courtyard-complex concubine is interesting. I wonder if he feels trapped. He's certainly bitter. And fearful for his position since the medicine excuse worked. How curious. It'll be fun to see where the story takes that character.

SY's thought process is funny. So dramatic. 😂 And at the same time as admiring LBH he's quietly analysing the situation and characters. Not to mention digging up the System's loopholes. He's quite the multitasker. Sharp minded.

Both LBH and Ming Fan are just there in the background going 'wtf is going on here, what happened to shizun'. If only they knew.

Part 3

"Shen Qingqiu was an easygoing person" No honey, you're a 'fuck it, so be it' person. Seriously though, adopting that name as his own already. So adaptable. I know I said it earlier, but this part really does show how well he assesses and breaks down a situation before setting up a clear game plan. He's definitely intelligent.

It'll be fun when he unfreezes the OOC function. Especially since others are already noticing his odd behaviour as it is. Not only was there Binghe and Ming Fan earlier, now his other disciples are looking at him with "wavering faces".

I know he said it was for self-defence, and he listed some very good reasons, but there is no way him wanting to try out is sword nigh immediately after an extensive cramming session wasn't him being a big child getting excited over a cool fantasy weapon. Boys and their toys, really. He went for the sharp leaves pretty quickly too. The leaves show his genuine love for worldbuilding too. Guy saw the MC woo ladies with a cool spell and went 'cool, what else can it do?'. Scared the shit out of himself with both too. 🤣

Ngl, it's hilarious watching him compare LBH to the side characters. Looks at Binghe, 'wow, what a mind, what a heart, such enlightenment, so bright I can barely look at him', looks at Ning Yingying (NYY), 'so young, so silly, little EQ, little IQ, so sweet but so slow', looks at Ming Fan and crew, 'very dumb, dumb and dumber, too pampered, headed for ruin, rip children'. Then there's his view of OG!SQQ. A creepy, old, lecherous hypocrite worthy of castration. A terrible authority who likes beating up young boys and trying to assault Ning Ying Ying. Best of luck Shen Yuan. That's you now.

His take on NYYs behaviour with LBH is curious. I wonder how much of it comes from his little sister, from PIDW or from webnovel tropes in general. I'm guessing it's mainly his sister from how he went into how little girls want a something of their crush's to feel special. There's also LBH's short responses towards her.

And PIDW, wow. I'm kinda curious how the author kept the story going for 200+ years. There's an achievement right there. Not to mention binging that brick in just 20 days. That's what? 10 years worth of story per day? And he still remembers these details? Even if they're a little suppressed at first that's impressive. I wonder what happened in those 200 years for SY to be so focussed on the fake jade pendant, sad origin story aside. LBH must have found it eventually for the frame of reference to exist.

It's kinda fun seeing him speak all fanficy, lingo wise. It's not something you usually see in a novel. He definitely reads fanfics. If he's not read any PIDW fics yet it's only because he died before he could get to it. You can't convince me otherwise. Don't even bother.

I am noticing the distance he's putting between himself and the story. Like when he watched the fight scene from the novels and treated it like peeking into the filming of a screenplay. He still seems fairly focussed on LBH though. And his expected behaviour being to abuse children. Compartmentalisation? If so that's interesting. That's a habit more common in those with anxiety, trauma and the like. So unless the transmigration is the trauma, that says something.

LBH has started noticing him back. First the medicine, now he's caught onto the bloody leaves.

Swapping one green treasure for another.

Part 4

Poor Shen Yuan. He's got his first beginner mission. No more laying about for him. At least he'll be able to shrug off the OOC restriction soon.

It is nice that SY has been able to relax and recuperate thanks to the Sect Leader's (in my opinion, overbearing) doting, and that SY is taking comfort in all the brotherly love. Unfortunate that he still can't see YQY as a person rather than a character. The man straight up got called a mission giving NPC. So the emotional distancing is definitely still there. Wonder how long that'll hold. It's fair enough though, it would be a difficult transition.

Ming Fan is surprisingly capable too, if he has some level of control of all the Peak's runnings. Guess he wasn't just given a good rank because OG!SQQ liked his bullying tactics. Pity he's a dumbass when LBH's around, or worse, when Ning Yingying's around. Guess he's at his 'dumb for girl' teen stage. Well, everyone gets a free dumb teen pass. Not for bullying, but considering the authority in charge isn't just ignoring or encouraging the behaviour, but straight up instigating, he at least gets a little leeway.

The random practicality that comes with the living part of living in a fantasy world is funny. Poor SY doesn't get to play with the flying part of his sword just yet. The System snarking back at Shen Yuan using Harry Potter and flying brooms as an example just makes that scene. And him asking if the System was involved with that story too. I love it.

I'll have to go look for some HP/SVSSS crossover fanfics later.

The worldbuilding that comes with that practicality is right up my alley. Love worldbuilding. Love adding feigned realism to utterly unrealistic fantastical stories. Love seeing the organisational systems of our main groups. Love seeing the interactions and impact of story elements on the world.

This part gives us why people don't fly anywhere, how and when the disciples of Cang Qiong Mountain Sect get their swords. Which showed us the practicality of passing down swords vs each member getting a fancy new one. That must save so much money. And a more developed if crude, Harry Potter-esque explanation on how and why the sword choosing works. Did anyone else read that 'the sword chooses the disciple' bit in Ollivander's voice?

We also got the idea of how the Sect travels with carriages and horses, their influence in the world, and their wealth. We're peeking into the wider world now too. If they're the top, who's under them? The trip to the city will show us more of the common world. And the new demon, the Skinner, that even Shen Yuan doesn't know anything of, will give us a good glimpse of what the cultivators are up against and what they consider training-wheels level.

This brings up five points, a look into OG!SQQ, behaviour on Qing Jing Peak involving LBH, the Skinner demon, Shen Yuan himself and the System as part of the world. I'll start with OG!SQQ.

This trip showed us what was normal for that man, or in Shen Yuan's words, the 'original flavour'. Several tea-sets, a jade chess set that goes everywhere despite it's rare use, any and all manner of comforts that shocks even a self-admitted wealthy second gen kid. Could just be me, but this guy reeks of a bourgeoisie. Not just the technical definition but the cultural one. The sort that gets rich after a poor or mundane life and overcompensates so hard they make a complete ass of themselves to everyone in what they think is a normal or acceptable display of newfound wealth and power.

Then there's the Skinner demon. We've not seen much of this one yet so I don't know much, but it is freaky. And also curious. 9 deaths thus far via a brutal method where the skin is removed from a body so cleanly it would make a surgeon jealous. Which is what got me curious. Do you think a Skinner demon could focus that skill on smaller selected parts for surgery? Like skin grafting or removing it out of the way for organ surgery. Especially if it can put it back just as cleanly. What a gruesome case for our sheltered MC to start with.

Next there's what counts as usual and acceptable behaviour on Qing Jing Peak under OG!SQQ's command. The disciples treat extreme abuse of Binghe as an expected everyday behaviour. No wonder PIDWs LBH was so vicious. When Shen Yuan found a natural way to put an end to it the ringleaders nonsense, he thought it was an encouragement of their behaviour. Which he then added onto later, moving from taunting to abuse, kicking up dirt into him and terrorising him. We also saw Ning Yingying felt perfectly safe and confident to call SQQ out on his bullshit to his face. LBH also showed us the effects of it, like his blanking face when waiting for more abuse from SQQ. The trauma is strong with this one. Followed by everyone's shock when LBH got a free pass onto the carriage.

Which leads us to Shen Yuan. He is sneaky smart. He was probably sassing the System because he's a ball of sass, but he was paying very close attention to how it worked, what he could and couldn't get away with. He did so well he even had well enough idea of it's weak points to flat out defeat it in an argument and get his way. It sulked later, that -5 points was pure pettiness on its part, but what a job well done. As sassy and critical as he is (poor NYY, may you never hear his thoughts), he's also such a fanboy! If only LBH could hear him, compliments everywhere and any excuse to see or help him.

My guy, you are not just scared of him.

Nor is Binghe for that matter. Such pretty and effusive descriptions of his good-looking Shizun. And the little heart prickle at Shizun's laughter and smile. Awwwww, so cute. You don't know what that feeling is yet but you will.

Lastly, there's the System and its place in the world. Thanks to SYs efforts we're getting an idea of its priorities and how it interacts with the world. He's even managed to get more information out of it. So now we know that the world isn't just the polished (published) version of PIDW, but also the notes, stories and whatnot that didn't make the cut. Having to experience all of it sounds ominous. The System also gave him mission information via files. At first I thought they were computer files but SY said they were all over his desk. Were they scrolls? Manilla files? I'm picturing manilla files. It'd be funny if so.

It's a very scary, knowledgeable and controlling existence with surprising humanity in its communication style. I swear it felt more rote-like earlier. Is it adapting to SY!SQQ?

In Conclusion

So in short, I am loving the worldbuilding, the characters and I find the System fascinating.

I think the MC, Shen Yuan, is intelligent, sassy and very adaptable, though is hiding being one hell of a mental block. Luo Binghe is in various stages of shock and is only in for more, The other disciples are also floundering at signs of what will be the new normal. Ning Yingying is very confident and bold, even in the face of her supposed abuser, though the story says that's naivety.

The System is spooky scary but also fun and interesting. It's also petty but that may or may not be part of what I suspect is it adapting to its user, Shen Yuan, partially through mirroring.

I'm also looking forward to how much this deviates from Shen Yuan's PIDW since the System said he would also see the unpolished, unpublished bits. I mean, I know Binghe becomes a hardcore monogamist for Shen Yuan, but outside of that.

[cerisahh]

WHAT'S YOUR NICHE

characters included — saiki, kaidou, kuboyasu, nendou, hairo, teruhashi, aiura, yumehara

request — what niche thing (fandom, shows etc.) would the saiki k characters like? - @hanjisungslag

tags — headcanons, yan sim mention, maybe ooc but i don't have the characters to talk to ON DEMAND so allow me some leniency, i actually think most of these are in character

cerisa speaks — hello j my dearest. enjoy your headcanons ♡

KUSOU SAIKI

・　ok hear me out... minecraft.

・　saiki likes the simplicity and how relaxing the game can be, he wears his germanium ring whilst playing so he can listen to the ingame music without being interrupted by voices in his vicinity.

・　saiki managed to watch death note before he could get spoiled mentally. he guessed some of the plot before it happened but overall he really enjoyed it. his favourite character is L.

・　very reluctantly watched attack on titan after kaidou found out he hadn't seen it (the entire plot got spoiled before he got a chance to watch it, why bother now?). despite knowing what would happen he actually enjoyed it. especially the animation. his favourite character is carla jeager because she reminds him of his mother.

・　mindlessly watches documentaries. he's doing homework? there's a documentary playing in the background. cooking food? documentary playing on the tv. walking home from school? he's got headphones on and is listening to a documentary. NEVER nature documentaries though. he hates them.

SHUN KAIDOU

・　no one on this earth could convince me that kaidou wouldn't be in a thousand and one fandoms.

・　i'm talking warrior cats, undertale, my hero academia, five nights at freddy's, bottom of the barrel fandoms, THE cringiest fandoms and by proxy a cringe fanboy (he loves them though).

・　he larps (live action role playing). probably founded a roleplay group in his area.

・　plays overwatch and thinks he’s hot shit because he bought a diamond account.

・　has an absolute temper tantrum when he actually plays on it and falls to bronze 2. tried to main reaper to further his jet black wings persona but got stuck on lucio when playing mystery heroes once and LOVED using him, so he decided to main him.

・　AND HE CLIMBED TO SILVER 3!!! he’s getting out of the trenches.

AREN KUBOYASU

・　aren would def play league of legends.

・　and he gets TOXIC as hell. just says the most diabolical shit imaginable. he has multiple accounts because he gets banned all the time.

・　aren is in a bunch of facebook groups about motorcycles. i think that’s the closest he’ll ever get to being in an actual fandom.

・　i lied in the above text. he def plays final fantasy and keeps up with all the lore.

・　oh and you just KNOW he’s into games like diablo 4, call of duty and gta. ESPECIALLY gta.

RIKI NENDOU

・　nendou plays minecraft like as soon as he gets back from school.

・　don't get me wrong nendou is a fucking moron -- but why can he build the most intricate builds ever??

・　like actual mansions, castels, and manors... they're really good??????

・　and yet at the same time he much prefers to create dirt huts and houses made out of pure diamond and gold blocks. whilst denying he went in creative.

・　is a part of a lot of childrens cartoon fandoms. the amazing world of gumball, aspongebob sqaurepants, and my little pony (his favourite character is discord).

・　still actively plays baldi's basics even though it died off years ago.

KINESHI HAIRO

・　hairo isnt actually in many fandoms.

・　i mean he's on the move all the time, he doesn't have time to be in fandoms.

・　loved the first season of physical 100 so much that he applied to be on the second. (he got in?)

・　plays fireboy and watergirl with nendou (hairo is wasd because nendou can only use the arrows).

・　kind of still watches cartoons from his childhood (doraemon and wonderpets mostly)

・　he does enjoy the occasional comedy movie from time to time - free guy, friday, deadpool, central intelligence, you get the picture.

・　apart from that, yes not much.

KOKOMI TERUHASHI

・　is one of those girls obsessed with the sims. spends more time in character creation and build mode then actually playing the game.

・　has a THOUSAND mods installed, but she has a good pc (courtesy of her brother) so it still runs well.

・　born to be a marvel girl, forced to play with barbie dolls.

・　is really big on collecting monster high dolls. she scours bidding websites daily to check if a doll that she’s missing has been listed. also makes sure her profile is public on there, sometimes people recognise her and give it for a reduced price. or sometimes free! being the perfect pretty girl has its perks.

・　owns all the monster high movies on dvd.

・　her favourite character is cleo de nile. she wishes she could act like she does.

・　plays love nikki religiously. owns a majority of the sets ingame and bases some of her irl outfits on clothes from it, it’s like her pinterest. she’s one of the richest players in her region.

・　i actually don’t think i’ve mentioned this yet, but she really likes monster high.

MIKOTO AIURA

・　aiura, when not reading fortunes, tends to spend her time playing horror games.

・　she's really invested in scp lore and even created her own scp original character when she was twelve.

・　HUGELY into true crime youtubers. buys those 'solve an unsolved murder' packages and discusses theories on reddit.

・　used to watch judge judy as a child after food and it’s still ingrained into her routine. she invites yumehara over one night for a sleepover and basically forces a watch session on her:

“hm?” yumehara watches as aiura fluffs up two pillows on the floor in front of the television, “oh! are we going to watch a movie?”

aiura looks at her incredulously, mid-fluff on the second pillow, “no, chiyopipi. now we will watch judge judy. since i was so busy with work and school im a whole two seasons behind!”

yumehara squints at the elderly woman on screen, not at all looking forward to this, “how long is it?”

“oh a couple of hours at least!”

she’s lucky she brought plenty of snacks.

・　obsessed with vampires and any media that’s vampire related, she thinks they’re the most attractive mythical creature. (objectively wrong, btw)

CHIYO YUMEHARA

・　similarly to teruhashi, spends a lot of her time playing the sims. she enjoys puppeteering the sims so they do her bidding though... it gets weird.

・　YANDERE SIMULATOR. was an OG player for SURE.

・　used to be really popular in the gacha life community before she just lost all interest.

・　flits from fixation to fixation, she never stays in one fandom for too long. it scares her to be still.

・　yumehara is absolutely an anime girl. especially romance, but she also likes action anime’s.

・　when she heard saiki and kaidou talking about attack on titan in class she decided to make an anime editing account on tiktok (it got successful) and she almost FAINTED when she saw kaidou showing the edit to saiki during class (he doesn’t know it’s her).

・　saiki does though, he actually thinks she’s got nice editing skills. he’d rather lick a foot than tell her that though.

© CERISAHH 2024

[bar-les-coucougnes]

nobody asked but i like to make the distinction between characters that are OOC in comparison to the original material but are still, in appearance and/or name and/or background and/or mannerisms and/or personality, etc. recognizable , and characters that are so OOC as to be unrecognizable if you just changed their name and apparance

take naruto for example

if you wrote a fic in which naruto didn’t lose his parents, but he’s still called naruto, still looks the same, i could easily imagine that his personality would be different (due to, you know, not growing up an orphan hated by the entire village), maybe he wouldn’t make the same friends, maybe he wouldn’t be able to relate to other people the way he can in canon because he knows what it’s like to be rejected and then he knows what it’s like to be finally accepted! of course, the author could still make it so that he somehow learns the clone technique and the rasengan, or not! and it’d make you think about how, in another universe where things are slightly different, naruto’s life would go in another direction! as long as it’s plausible and doesn’t completely take you out of it, i don’t really see anything wrong with a character’s personality being different from canon. especially if you can keep the core traits of this particular character

i was trying to think of an example of OOC characters that wouldn’t really fit the above, and i think an obvious example is when a character, who is generally a good person, is depicted as this sweet little angel who is innocent and naive and profoundly Good and anything complex or messy or unique about their personality is just shoved aside. yeah i’ve seen it in BL (coughukecough) but not only :) to be honest, a lot of fanfictions with pairings tend to end up doing this thing where they shove both parties into little molds that are easy to work with and if you replaced their names and appearance you might have a hard time guessing what characters you’re reading about

i’m not saying they’re bad and awful and people should be ashamed of writing or reading those fics. you’re telling a story because you want to. and i’ve definitely read fanfictions where the main character was unrecognizable but the premise and story were so interesting i just had to read it, and love it! (think, fics where the main character is “smart�� now and you see how they deal with the stuff that happened in the original material, even if the original character would not fucking be like that under any imaginable circumstances in canon)

[that-whatever]

so i found this in my drafts

i was gonna flush it out but now i think ill just post it as is, its my thought of how each of the vox machina gang reacted to the quote from bard lament (or at least one of that set) where vax said “He's family, and family leaves’  idk it just hit me hard in that moment how each one of the vm group could really relate to that, it gets longer with each member (as this was me sort of in character ranting at 3am) and its missing pike, again i planned on flushing this out but its been ages now, so, 

Keylet - her mom, left without a proper goodbye, on bad days hopes shes dead, at least that way it wasn't her choice, on better days that shes kidnapped and tortured, if she's alive out there shell have to exp a pain she doesn't want of abandonment and rejection she knows its wrong she does but if she finds out she's been out there all these years, never returning on her own volition, she doesn't know what she’d do

Percy - lost enough ppl to make him feel sick at night, a large family of parents, siblings, children god they were children he’s surrounded by loss but what hurts more than anything is that he left he left his sister to the fucking wolves to die even unknowingly he abandoned her, left her. the emotions he's plagued with and he consciously does it every day, she's breaking at the seam overloaded and overwhelmed with work, running a city he should be carrying, its the least he could do he tells himself she has more preparation for this, but he's not too sure that helps him feel better shes stopped asking him to come back to help her after his constant rejections, but he can see the pleading in her dark circles and graying hair he left her then, and he's done it every day since. out with his friends while his sister lies trapped in her castle with no knight in sight

Grog was never one for emotions, he's really only ever felt three, in his whole life, happy, angry and hungry, that's an emotion, right? Hell ask pike later. He hears vax and knows immediatley that its true, his herd left him bleeding out to die they walked away with his blood on their hands with not even a shred of doubt on their minds hes told keyleth once, and vax too at one point, that the herd isnt his family anymore, vox mochina is, and he believes that but he cant help but think its not all true, half of it is, he knows that much, vox mochina is his family, he fights harder hearing their war cries and strives to be better knowing they have his back, their blood runs through his viens, but he cant help thinking the other half isnt all true, no doubt its not all false either, but, part of him is still hung up on the herd leaving him all those years ago, when he fought kevdak, a large part of him wanted to knock him to the ground, to scream this is for all those years ago, look how ive grown see what ive become, better than I ever could be with you lot, the need to prove himself so inherent around the herd he almost forgot where he was, and no, they arent his family anymore, sometimes he thinks they never were, not family in the sense of what he knows it to be now, but it nags at him, they arent his family anymore but its still the tiniest bit painful, to look back on his old memories

Vax says it with an amount of resentment that surprises even him. when they went to live with their dad, vax was prepared to hate him, to push him away in favor of sticking by vex, so when they saw, truly, how despicable of a man he really was, vax couldn't help his apathy towards the situation grow, sure he was angry, but he found himself more angry that his father was so idiotic as to reject the love they had for him, that he wasn't even willing to open his arms to them, than anything else, it was him and vex against the world, always has been, what was the point of being bitter about some douchebag father. He's always known he was an emotional man though, far more than anyone else in his group, beyond Percy's brooding eyes and grogs dreadful lack of knowledge, he swears he heard him ask pike if hungry was an emotion the other day, and anyone who would dare call him cynical was just doing so based on stereotype, its not his fault he's inclined to wear all black and have a scorn on his face half the time, he's a hopeful guy, and he knows a lot of his dreams come from a place of hurt, he sits often and thinks of what he can hopefully have one day, the type of father he wants to be, to have kids who don't doubt for a second of his love for them, sick of hearing him say it all the time, supporting them through thick and thin growing a family so wonderful his heart is heavy with his contentment, waking up every day with a smile and tiny puffs of red hair tickling his chin,

Vex couldn't help the tears that fell at vax’s words, she's angry at Scanlan shes furious, he left them he knew what they've all been through and with a wound still fresh shes brought back to her pitiful excuse of a childhood, of a father she greeted with hope, who struck her down almost immediately, sparing no time to crush it down every chance he got, and even when her love for him depleted it never left, she wanted to prove herself to him, to gain his love pride and respect, never truly gaining it but always trying nonetheless. Anytime vax told her pleadingly to give it up she begged for one more day I can change his mind vax I'm sure of it. when they left she felt like a tree fell on her, she was drained exhausted from trying so hard and tired from having her emotions toyed with every waking minute, when they arrived back to their rightful home, to only be met with the smell of smoke, she cried harder than she ever thought possible, her entire childhood, every essense of her home, her mother her memories of being young all nothing but ash, she held vaxs hand as tight as she could, as if she could hold onto him so tight that the wretched rock of a planet they were standing on would stop spinning so fast for a few moments, let her catch her breath for a little while, that if she held on tight enough, he would squeeze back and neither would ever let go, this was it they were it, it was them two alone in the world they were all they had, their last hope an empty lot in a burned down town, she wondered how scanlan, who had lost people himself, could do this to them, put them through this, later she told herself if she truly believed that he knew what it was like to be abandoned, to do that to kaylie would be far worse than what he did, to give someone else the fatherless childhood he had, she and vax had, that would be far worse

Scanlan cant help but over hear him, he was only steps away from the door when vax opened his mouth, and scanlan cant help but smile a little looking over at kaylie, at his daughter, yes family leaves, god doesnt he know, but sometimes, sometimes they come back, they return and they love, he grips his daughters hand and they walk and he knows in his heart hes doing the right thing, months later, eating at a table far too big in a room far too small hes laughing with kaylie mouth wide and eyes streaming, for a second he listens as the table next to him goes into a story detailing the fight they saw at emon, his name comes up a few times but hes more innterested in the others, for the slightest of moments his smile falters and he leans farther down in his chair, but family returns, and maybe one day he will, on worse days when hes feeling more bitter he tells himself he shouldnt, its what they deserve, but he knows thats not true, in that moment he looks back up at kaylie, still reeling from his joke, rightfully so it was hilarious as all his jokes are, and his smile return full force, it was just the right thing to do, and he cant help feeling justified,

[handmeyourheart]

Hello! I like your work and I was wondering if you could do a one-shot idea for either Macaque or MK with a gender-neutral reader. The prompt idea is that the reader has a scar on their arm somewhere and the other person accidentally grabs on that part of the arm, causing the reader to shove them away and look startled/scared for a moment. But after a second they calm down and acts that it never happened and if asked by them they get unnaturally cold towards them and continue to say it didn't happen. (Sorry if the format is confusing/awkward I'm not used to typing online)

Imagines

Pairing: Six-eared Macaque and Romantic/Platonic Reader. MK and Romantic/Platonic Reader. (Separate).

Summary: Reader has unresolved trauma and the boys have questions.

Warnings: Maybe a bit ooc for Macaque, but otherwise no spoilers this time. I changed it from a Oneshot to Imagines because I was compelled to do both like you asked, so I apologise if it’s not what you hoped for but you’re free to request more!!

Notes: I really love angst— yes, feed me, indulge me in my bad habits. Gender neutral reader. It’s mainly platonic but you can infer romantic feelings if you’d like!! Non-specific. Haha Macaque's one doesn’t end the happiest, but it’s okay. Also I’m sorry in advance baha.

Words: 1.2k for Macaque, unfinished MK, there’s an explanation I swear.

Also gentle reminder my requests are open! Feel free to leave an ask!! It would be greatly appreciated. See my pinned post for more details!!

Macaque / Liu’er Mihou!

You and Macaque are something along the lines of partners, he’s one of your only friends and you’re one of the very small few he tolerates beyond his average scale. Work colleagues at least and very close at best, you help him out with his work because unlike some people you’re remarkably capable in your line of business, and he admires your achievements— there’s no mess he could leave behind that you can’t clean up. You’re something of an assistant to him, helping him organise his deals and collect his due when necessary, but on occasion you might lend an experienced hand in aid as an accomplice, your abilities are nothing to scoff at, after all, how else could you call yourself a friend of the six-eared simian if you went at least up to his own standard. Though you weren’t as competent as Macaque himself, you can hold your ground if need be, at least, which makes you suitable if not ideal for him to work with.

Though a lot of your background story is shrouded in mystery, he doesn’t really know what your deal is, but since you don’t ask him personal questions about his dramatic past, he respects you in kind and doesn’t ask anything beyond his bounds, he knows where you limit him. All he does know is that you’ve been in the industry for much longer than he has, whether it’s a cause for concern is yet unknown to him, but it’s not strange for folks like yourself and him to wind up in this kind of work. It had just simply been by matter of circumstance that you’d come to work together, whatever made it easier to earn more, you’d suppose.

Tonight however despite the careful, intricate planning considered beforehand, the job had been a total bust thanks to a crude but admittedly unintentional mistake you had made. You’d managed to escape outside through the crossfire and under the cloak of night, fleeing without a trace, they weren’t able to follow after you—

but Macaque would not be pleased with these results especially since your slip up meant he had to scuffle with the clientele himself because of it. You weren’t sure what impression to expect when you next regrouped, but you tried to keep your hopes low and pleaded with whatever god of luck may be lurking to pity you some and alleviate his anger, if only partially.

Fortunately enough though you were just glad you both came out unscathed by the ordeal, but tensions were high between you and your partner over it. With your back to the wall and head hanging loosely between your knees from where you sat positioned on the floor, you assessed any damage that might’ve occurred without your potential awareness, ignoring the sharp gaze of the monkey who's back turned to you, dismissing his mood as you surveyed your legs in concern.

“What was that?” He spoke, seeing how you weren’t going to indulge him with an answer to the night's prior events. With his back still facing you in an arrogant disposition that teased at his agitation, you didn’t really feel the most inclined to humour him, unwilling to put up with his attitude. In response to your silence he sends a dreaded, sharp glare toward you and you relent, shoulders falling in defeat. Maybe you could be an easy foe, but it’s been a long night, plus it’s Macaque. It's fine, be quiet.

“What was what?” You feign ignorance, swallowing dryly as his stare remains cold, exhaling through your nostrils forcefully in a strained sigh. “It was an accident, alright? Don’t get your tail in a twist, it wasn’t something we anticipated.” You dismiss, rising to your feet at his disapproval. It was a truly silly mistake, your cover was blown and the whole espionage went up in smoke and sirens, but it was fine, he just had to realise that. You just wished he’d suck it up for once, he’d made mistakes before too, maybe not as disastrous as today but it wasn’t fair for him to lash out on you for one failure when your track record with him was as solid as it is. “Are you alright, though? I would’ve stayed to help but I thought it would’ve only inconvenienced you further, I didn't want to anger you more by burdening you with my presence during a large scale fight like that.” You hesitantly approached him at that, the aftermath hadn’t been the prettiest and he had to get quite involved in order to escape the whole ordeal, so your concern did stem from a place of genuinity.

In return for your concern he shoots you a look, grabbing the arm that reached for him with a stern and increasingly tight grip. “Do you know how much money we lost—“

He was quickly cut off by your cry of distress, yelping at the sudden force against a very large, very personal scar that resided up the length of your inner arm. It was something mostly hidden from view, hanging at your sides with your arms in resting and wearing long sleeves can make the antique wound seem oh so unnoticeable. But the grief it had caused you over many years was triumphant and the potent memory of how it was received is still fresh in your mind, tender and as pulsating as the scar under his vice hold. You quickly lashed at him until you were freed, cowering back a few steps and wincing at the ripe sensation. It had never healed, and you assumed it never would no matter the amount of remedies you tried. Macaque had attempted to release his hold earlier upon your initial reaction, it was unlike you to flinch if at all and now you’d instinctively retreated away from him, a sullen but sure gaze of hurt in your eyes that shocked him.

You’d always been one to hold yourself to a high regard, you were admirable and courageous, and he had been sure to withhold his strength to a lesser extent— it definitely was not him that’d hurt you, right?

Seeing his surprise, you took a brief moment to recollect your composure, gently returning your arm to rest once more idly by your side with a disgruntled sigh. He seemed to sit in a silent anticipation, as if expectantly waiting for an explanation out of you, but you’d be damned if he were ever to receive one after he’d snapped at you, returning back with a smooth, even tone. “Whatever we lost I can compensate again later, even if it means taking on some of my own jobs to reimburse you for your damages if it’s just so important to you.” You’d note, dusting yourself off and brushing past him like the entire altercation hadn’t happened at all. He seemed rather perturbed, following your figure closely before he tugged on the fabric of your top to halt your exit.

“What was that?” He repeated, as if only an echo of the former anger when he’d asked the question earlier.

“What was what?” You’d parrot, forming a thin line with your mouth and turning away, leaving the monkey to welt in a small pool of guilt. He’d have to apologise, even if he was a little confused by the situation.

MK / Qi Xiaotan!

You’d been a rather long time friend of the newly named Monkie Kid, though you couldn’t hold a candle to the extensive history of he and Mei, but you’d met the two some time after they’d become besties and you were pretty much, without so much as a word of complaint, adopted into the now trio of hero hooligans. A mostly unwilling, low key thrilled to be included participant of their many shenanigans and various escapades. Of course you and Mei were close as could be, but if you had to understand a scale of reference you’d consider yourself maybe closer to MK, you’re often the one who convinces him to console in you when he needs someone to talk to and you’re willing to hear him out until the end.

Nobody really knew where you came from, though. One day you’d just up and appeared and you were great! So no questions were really ever asked, especially when there wasn’t a need to, they’d known you long enough even before MK had been crowned the official successor of the monkey king, you weren’t a suspicious person.

OK SO UM SORRY FOR THE SUDDEN CUT OFF LMAO I have a notice haha…

Well anyways I apologise for the cut off, I will update this when I can when I finish this but well, my house flooded a little while ago and it caused mold to grow under the floorboards so we’ve had to fix the plumbing and then organise for the floors to be stripped and replaced so the mold can be dealt with yikes, so I’ve been struggling with writing lol, but the show must go on so I’m posting this preemptively.

I hope this doesn’t sadden you too much, I will still be working on this and I won’t move on to another request until it’s done but please be patient with me. I posted pretty consecutively but my schedule will probably fall into a weekly/biweekly routine for updates at best!! Not sure when I’ll get it finished, but check back regularly and you’ll know. Love YALL, stay safe, don’t get your house flooded! xx

[thewarnerbrothers]

professional yaxxer, what are your preferences for characterizations of the boys? (i.e. is yakko fast talking and witty 100% of the time, unfazed by anything? or does have his moments where he’s caught off guard and fumbles with his words? or does he go completely head over heels and acts like a wreck around max? is max easily embarrassed and caught off guard by yakko’s antics? is he just a grumpy teenager that rolls his eyes and doesn’t take him seriously? does he get all lovey-dovey and makes a bigger goof out of himself?)

first of all, KDSFJAJDKFJDASDF PROFESSIONAL YAXXER SDFASDF anon i love you. gonna present the rest of this ask in a suit

BOY do i have a lot to say about this. more under the cut!

i try to keep at least some elements of their canonical personality traits when i think about them, but tbh as a crackshipper i do enjoy writing max and yakko in ways i consider OOC. the more outlandish the AU, the more OOC. playing with characterization amuses me greatly, but here's what i consider as 'core' traits based on details from their respective canon appearances.

as individuals

yakko: sarcastic. quick-thinking. punny. dense to certain social cues. prankster. flirty. overly-familiar with strangers. inappropriate. irritating. prone to teasing others. thrives on attention. protective/defensive (as a brother and bf).

max: energetic. sporty, otherwise uncoordinated. friendly. typically laidback with a flair for the dramatic. (did you see how he tried to impress roxanne? lol.) mildly to majorly insecure. some anger issues. can be moody. a somewhat hopeless romantic. loves his dad but easily embarrassed by him. literally just some guy.

both: likely to mimick tropes, gags, and characters associated with their parent companies. may or may not be intentional.

i mix and match traits from various canons, downplaying or playing up to taste!

together/getting to know each other

anon your scenarios are majorly cute and i think under the right circumstances any of those could play out!

in my mind yakko is the initiator 80% of the time

max is a corny sentimental guy who is not great at flirting. he will however banter with yakko as easily as he would with anyone else (if he's not freaking out too much internally)

he would also try to look cool but fail catastrophically 80% of the time

max can and will embarrass himself, but yakko will probably find it adorable or funny regardless

yakko is used to surface level flirtation so any like actual deeper romantic feelings will make him an uncharacteristically sappy mess

max is more likely to do big disney-like romantic gestures. pre-relationship yakko wouldn't want to show how much it affects him, masking his internal melting with humor. established relationship/post-relationship yakko would be over the top or cartoony with his reactions.

yakko knows max's disney nature makes getting reactions very easy so he'll poke at that

bi panic/questioning max is A++ in my book

yakko's zaniness would probably tire max out at times. i foresee communication issues, especially because the warners are generally only close with each other? this is a major relationship hurdle in my mind the older they get

max is definitely the more phsyically affectionate... at first. it takes yakko time to adjust to long-term contact. once he does, yakko becomes incredibly touch-y. lots of hugs and cuddles and nose nuzzles. max loves it

these two are huge dorks and would be doing incredibly dumb teenage boy shit all the time. in old age too. i like to imagine over time max's friend goup and the warners would get together for cute and chaotic shenanigans

max and yakko would endlessly annoy one another by virtue of coming from such different backgrounds. they love hanging out regardless

chilling with the warners would bring out more of the 'WB' in max, while hanging out with max and co. would bring out more of the 'disney' in yakko

tbh anon? my favorite dynamics to write these two in are

incredibly awkward and fluffy romance

bittersweet trying-to-make-this-work-against-the-odds in the long term

OOC shitposting

jesus that was so much text. for making it to the end you have won a cute screenshot of the warners