#trying to capture the vibe of the kind of character they would tease in an upcoming mmorpg expac and everyone

[spiribia]

wolf charr

[magicalbats]

YES more pathetic boys sadly cumming in their pants is exactly what I need and desire ｡ﾟ(｡ﾉωヽ｡)ﾟ｡ did you have any characters come to mind? I'm personally a little hyperfocused on wind breaker boys atm...

Oooh, can you clarify what you mean by wind breaker boys? I don’t think think I’ve heard of that before and now I’m curious!

And hmmm, tbh I think there could be a few different flavors to this. The sort of pathetic simp boys you’d kind of expect this behavior from anyway and the sort who come as a surprise. Their demeanor makes you think they’d have better self control than that but whether because they’re particularly weak for you, specifically, or because they’re so repressed and touch starved they just can’t help it!

I think Scar falls into the latter category of being specifically weak for the person who’s captured his obsession, and he’d kind of ride that line of being pushy and confident while also being incredibly pathetic about it at the same time. 🤤

For HSR I see Sunday firmly residing in the repressed and touch starved camp fkekdkdksk and imo he’s especially delish to think about for this because he’d try his damndest to reject it and keep up the pretense of not being so easily swayed by the urges of his body right up to the very moment he’s staining the front of his pants. Extremely shameful and embarrassing for him.

Could also see Sampo being very easily teased to that point too, especially in the sense that like … he hasn’t exactly been shown to have simp tendencies in the game but I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility for him and tbh I think he’d very much enjoy being on the receiving end of his favorite persons attention like that. He’s got that vibe about him imo that sets him up to be either the predator or the prey and he’d have fun either way. 🤭

And finally the big ace up my sleeve … I REALLY think Blade would do this, completely by accident and against his will. He’s so touch starved and isolated that I could see him losing hold of his self control very quickly if you started teasing or rubbing up on him. He’d be big grumpy about it ofc but that’s what I meant by different flavors. There’s many physiological factors that might lead to a man cumming in his pants!

For Genshin, I think both Xiao and Diluc would be similarly affected by even just the slightest bit of teasing and yes, they’d be grumpy about it! Like Blade, they’re not totally thrilled about showing their own weakness like that but the proof is quite literally in the pudding.

Thoma is one of those guys you’d kind of expect it from, he’s just so sweet and unassuming with submissive male-wife leaning tendencies. You really wouldn’t even have to try very hard to get him riled up and excited, and even less effort to have him making a mess of his clothes. Tbh I’d also categorize Kaveh here too, except you can fully expect him to cry about it afterward. 😮‍💨 Hell, maybe even while it’s happening.

I think Neuvillette could easily fall into the repressed and touch starved category too, but actually getting him to soil his clothes like that might take a bit more effort than the average man. 🤔 Same with Al-Haitham tbh. Which is not to say he’s repressed in the usual sense but rather that his self control is so strong he’d present a real challenge but … I not only think it’s very possible he could be made to cum in his pants, I also believe that’s what he deserves. lol

Honorable mentions; Aventurine, Argenti, Gepard, Itto, Childe, maaaaybe Wriothesley if you got him worked up enough. 😏

[quinloki]

How would Kid, Marco, and Zoro like a role play kink? Specifically some sort of Captured marine and big bad pirate character play? Could you also do primal play and femdom too? Please and thank you! I like this prompt a lot!

Oh man, if you want some Really Good Captured Marine and Kid vibes you need to go read The Captive by @abysscronica I can promise you won't be disappointed (It's a series too - book 1 and 2 are done and I believe 3 is ongoing.)

That said, I'll certainly give my two cents on the idea as a Role Play session \o/

Let's do this... hm, I think by kink.

Primal Play is kind of a hunter/hunted vibe. It's the dom/sub dynamic often without explicitly written or verbalized parameters.

Captured Marine / Big Bad Pirate RP:

Kid - FUCK Yes - Kid loves role-play - well, most of it. Some of it. There's a love/hate situation going on with it, he's either going to be all in for an idea, or just plain not keen on it. The more extreme the role dynamics the better, and he loves playing the bad guy. You tease him that it's almost like he thinks he needs the practice, and he probably does. He's no saint for sure, but he's not nearly the monster the Marines would have you believe.

But those teasing remarks fade away, when you get into the rough and tumble of the scene. He plays the villain well, and you find yourself feeling more and more defiant the better he plays his part. It actually gets a little bloody, but neither of you call it, the next morning though you're listening to Killer read you the riot act cause you cheek swelled up and you needed House to patch some bruises.

Marco - Sure - As long as it's not doctor/nurse he's willing to give it a try. There's emotions deep behind those lazy eyes, and that half lidded gaze, and the zing of it dances through you when he levels a truly cold gaze at you. The sound you make, caught between aroused and nervous changes his expression and he dives into it. It's more an emotional battle of wills than anything loud and physical. There's no defying him, no chance of biting back, he folds you like a house of cards and when you wake up the next day you almost half-expect to find yourself shackled to him in your early morning haze.

Zoro - Yes - The Pirate Hunter turned pirate has been in the shoes of a few roles in his short life thus far. He's not inclined to a lot of different roles, but he's certainly willing to fill the role of big bad pirate for the naughty, pardon, haughty marine who wandered into his clutches. Walking a line between Marco and Kid, he plays the role of the villain well, and he does a good job of ignoring your protests and only listening to your safe words as the scene progresses. It's not too much later after your first role-play session that he gifts you a maid outfit while he's wearing a suit.

Primal Play - I feel like, given the variances of this, for simplicity we'll focus on actual hunter/hunted roleplay:

Kid - Oh god you don't even know - Kid's not keen on the idea of "the chase" in terms of chasing you down to woo you or anything like that, but within the concept of a hunt, that's a different story. Kid has no issues getting down and dirty, and the idea of just taking you after tracking you down - the whole predator/prey concept - has him running as hot as his temper. It'll take you a good week of healing afterward, not because of any terrible wounds or anything like that, but just because he will have had his way with you until every muscle in your body was exhausted. You lose track of your orgasms by the end of it, probably lose track of your senses too, the entire thing likely to plunge you into subspace.

Marco - Yes - He's willing to give it a try, and he certainly ends up liking it. All he needs to track is you, and your safe word. Marco doesn't have Kid's particular brand of "kindness", he searches for you in the skies after giving you a decent head start.

It ends up becoming a game of cat and mouse - or more appropriately maybe Owl and Mouse, since Marco can fly. By the time you're caught you're both breathing heavy, sweat and thundering hearts, but Marco's eyes are open and wide, full of light and fire and while it's not something you do often, it is a game you repeat.

Zoro - Sure - Zoro tends to hold back in this. The hunter/hunted thing is good by him within a certain set of parameters, but the open setting of primal play is a little too unstructured for his tastes. It's too close to real, or combat, and he internally worries about keeping himself in check. He has a lot of control, and a lot of skill, so it's mostly an unfounded concern, but he knows how easily he could accidentally hurt you. So he holds back a bit, and doesn't quite get into it.

Maybe with time, he'll change his tune.

Femdom:

Kid - FUCK Yes - Oh I hope you don't think you're actually going to dominate him? This is role play sweetheart, and the closest you're going to get is trying to top him. He's going to be a complete brat through it, but he won't pull any of his dom cards for this. He's enjoying himself entirely too much. Let's see what you can do, let's see if you can actually bend him to your will?

Chances are it's going to turn into him power bottoming you more than anything else, but he loves the outfit and the little bit of reversal. With practice maybe one day you will manage to tame him, but he won't make it easy. And he will, at least, enjoy every minute of it.

Marco - Oh god you don't even know - He's not exactly a switch, but he's not not a switch either. Marco is delighted by the idea of you dominating him. The point is mutual enjoyment by the end of things, whatever the details of those things are, and if you want to guide him and boss him around, he's here for it. He's not a masochist (not that you could hurt the phoenix anyway), but you can imagine the sly smirk on his face if you're a little rough with him.

Marco doesn't seem like the kind of guy who pays you back at a later date, but surprises are surprises because you don't expect them.

Zoro - Yes - I think I've said before, but Zoro always strikes me as someone who is untested in sex until he meets you, so sure - if you want to teach him the ways of dominating by example, then please do so. He's a good student, after all, and it's only proper that the student eventually surpasses their teacher.

And if the role of who surpasses who happens to trade back and forth a few times? Well, who's he to complain? The best way to learn is by doing, and he has the stamina and focus to keep going.

Kinky One Piece Head Canon

[courtofmatchups]

You're out here doing the lords work, and I need to thank you for scratching the itch in my brain lol. Good fortune for you and your loved ones, may the lines you encounter always be short, and may you have endless creativity. Hell yeah, brother.

Could I ask for a Tokyo Debunker matchup? I'm willing to do a trade, too, if you're interested! I've only written for a few characters between Obey Me and tkdb, but I'd def love to repay the kindness.

So, hi. I'm Birds, or Birdy. She/her, bisexual/maybe ace? gray-ace? one of those, at least.

Appearance: 5'9, pale, super wavy dark blonde/light brown hair, and hazel eyes. I have a deceptively cute round face and big glasses. i've been told that I give off a naturally sweet and impish impression because of that. I'm also fairly slim, but there's definitely a layer of chicken nugget insulation for warmth and comfort.

MBTI/Zodiac: INFP and Gemini

About me: I tend to spend most of my time in my head, and I can easily come off as ditzy or standoffish. I have inattentive ADHD and I'm really introverted, so typically I try not to speak up unless I have something worth saying. I keep a few close friends and tend to unload all of my thoughts from the day on them (and as quiet as I am, I talk a mile a minute when I'm excited or explaining something interesting.) Multiple people have told me (to my face c':) that they were shocked by how intelligent I actually am. And yeah, maybe math and spelling aren't my thing, but for the most part, my silly goose hat is a choice. I have trouble speaking my thoughts out loud, so I'm a big fan of burying my negative emotions as deep as possible until i'm a walking shell of a person, self-sabotaging, and using swear words or memes to express myself. But what I lack in, like, everything else, I make up for by being as good of a friend as possible. I love making the people I care about laugh just as much as I love messing with them and I'm willing to make myself look like a fool to make them smile.

Hobbies: Writing, reading, sewing, and then whatever little hobbies I pick up and then forget about in a week. A fun fact about me is that I once spent over 8 hours on the phone my best friend doing nothing but discussing our oc's.

Likes: spooky/whimsical things, fairy lights, making my loved ones laugh and/or roll their eyes, small, comfortable nooks to hide in, music (any genre, it's just gotta match the vibes), dating sims, fandom history (putting together a legit presentation on the history of zines in fan studies rn), and holding hands c:

Dislikes: Loud places, bright lights, speaking to people without being able to prepare myself, not having headphones somewhere on me, people who go out of their way to be mean, objectively dumb opinions being said confidently, and any perceived wrong done to my loved ones

Qualities I look for: Patience and physical affection. I'm a forgetful mess and I'm mean enough to myself without someone else getting frustrated with me, and casual affection like hugs and hand holding give me something to ground myself with. They'd need to see me as a partner and best friend rather than Conventionally Attractive Girl, too. My Manic Pixie has been Dream Girl'ed more than enough.

Thank you again!

It seems to me you've captured the heart of...

Haku Kusanagi!

I could see a few others being potential matches, Like Alan or Haru, but I feel like Haku would be the best match for you. Hear me out: I feel like he'd be initially drawn in by your silly and whimsical nature. Haku likes being around sharp and witty people. He's pretty easygoing and will tease you, but he doesn't go out of his way to be mean. He does tease you about being in the clouds at times, but he does like that dreamy side of you. He's not too picky about appearances when it comes to partners, so even more reason he's a great match for you.

As for your tendency to yap about anything that interests you, you can bet that he would like to see you get so animated about the things you like, but you might need to slow it down so he could understand what you're talking about. He will tell you though.

Haku doesn't really have a set preference for hobbies, he just enjoys making memories with his partner, so any hobby either of you choose to do would be a fun and stimulating experience.

Haku is also pretty emotionally intelligent, so he'll be able to help walk you through the emotions you're feeling. He's a patient man, and will understand if you mess up for one reason or another. He'll also help if that happens. And don't worry about physical affection, he will shower you with that in the event you're feeling down and cannot articulate your feelings in a way other than "I need a hug right now."

All in all, I see a happy relationship between the two of you

[atwooozi]

gojo x original character

Chapter 7: Trust

summary: At the end of a demanding week, Ai is invited to a wrap party, where she reluctantly agrees to mingle outside her comfort zone. Amidst the laughter and banter, Ai observes the real dynamics of the cast and crew, capturing fleeting glimpses of the man behind Gojo's public persona. Her determination to uncover the authentic Gojo fuels her, but as the lines between professional distance and personal connection blur, Ai faces an inner struggle—can she maintain her integrity while digging deeper into Gojo's guarded life?

genre: modern AU, slice of life, comedy, eventual romance, eventual smut, some angst

A/N: So before posting these chapters I like to think about what songs I'd like to pair with them because it's fun for me and I had a really difficult time deciding what songs would "fit" this chapter. Anyway, I landed on two songs that I think would be great for this chapter. Oddly, I think they kind of work together.

First is I CAN'T STOP THE LONELINESS by Anri. I love this song when I picture this fic as an anime I always pic this song as the opening. The second song is Good Luck, Babe! by Chappell Roan. I love her 80s synth vibe that she brings to her music it really fits the energy that I picture whenever I sit down to write this fic. My interpretation of the lyrics could be off, but I always read them and thought of the person that Chappell Roan is singing to is closeted. It doesn't necessarily fit the narrative that I've created here, but I think the sentiment is there? Hopefully you get what I'm trying to say.

READ ON AO3

The first week of following Ai’s assignment was at an end. Just as she had gotten used to Gojo’s schedule but today, production was wrapping up, everyone seemed to be in a much better mood, except for Gojo. Gojo always seemed to be in a decent mood, whatever the circumstances. Ai wasn’t sure if that was an admirable trait or if he was just rather disconnected from everything.  

“Are you gonna go to the wrap party or are you just gonna hide in here some more?” Gojo asked as he tried to take a peek at Ai’s notebook.

The “here” that Gojo was referring to was his dressing room. At this point, it served as Ai’s de facto office space as well as Geto’s photo studio. The usually sparse dressing room now had different lighting and camera equipment placed in the corner of the room, while Ai’s and Junpei’s laptops sat on the table along with their scattered papers. It was something that Ai would usually feel bad about, but Gojo seemed to enjoy the three of them in his space even if it did feel cramped. 

Ai jumped a bit and brought her notebook to her chest as she gave him an unamused look. “I’m gonna head back to the hotel actually.” 

“Bo- ring ~” Gojo teased as he stood up straight. “You guys are gonna come, right?” he asked Geto and Junpei, jutting out his lower lip and batting his lashes. 

“I have some stuff to do, but I’ll make an appearance,” Geto shrugged as he snapped a quick shot of Gojo. Geto tsked as he looked down at his camera screen. “Satoru, stop looking directly at the camera.”

“But the camera loves me, Suguru.” Gojo pouted at his friend, batting his lashes.

Geto rolled his eyes in response and put his camera down.   

“I-I can come?” Junpei pointed to himself in disbelief, bringing Gojo back to his earlier conversation. 

Gojo clapped Junpei on the back and laughed. “Of course, Junpei-kun!” 

“It’s going to be at a bar not too far from here just in case someone changes their mind , ” Gojo glanced at Ai and playfully stuck out his tongue, reminiscent of a petulant child, before adjusting his blindfold over azure eyes. 

Ai narrowed her eyes at Gojo’s antics. “I don’t think so, but I hope you all have fun.” 

Gojo left the dressing room without looking back, his laughter echoing down the hallway as he waved carelessly. 

Once he was out of sight, Ai thumbed through her notes. The pages were filled with different scribbles from her week. She felt like she held a wealth of information in her hands, but hardly any of it was straight from Gojo, which stressed her more than she’d care to admit. As she scanned the pages of her notebook, she smiled to herself. During Gojo’s downtime, Ai noticed he liked to play the Digimon card game online. It made her laugh when he would get called for a scene in the middle of a game because of how conflicted he would look. Ai sighed and shut her notebook, she didn’t want to dwell on it too much. She was sure that once she did a proper look-through, she would see that she had more to work with than she expected. 

“Are you sure you don't want to go?” Geto approached Ai as she was packing up. While she wasn’t completely sure, the expression on Geto’s face looked a bit devious.  

“It's not really my scene, besides, I wouldn't want Gojo to feel like he has to filter himself because I'm there,” Ai said meekly.

Gojo snorted in response. “Trust me, Satoru won't care. See it as a networking thing.” He grabbed Ai's bag and slung it on his shoulder along with his own. “Leave your work at home for once, Ai-san.”

Ai narrowed her eyes at Geto as he gave her an innocent-looking smile in return.   

Junpei nodded in agreement. “Geto-san is right,” he said falling in step behind them as they made their way to the car. “It’s going to be fun!”

“Why thank you, supervisor Junpei.” Geto hummed.

Ai wanted to fall to her knees in despair when she heard Junpei agree with that demon . Somehow the menace of a photographer had turned her sweet kouhai against her. There was no way she was going to be able to weasel out of it now. 

Uncertainty spread across Ai's face as she listened to Geto and Junpei bicker about the pictures and lighting issues throughout the day. As much as Ai wanted to sort through her notes, she couldn’t really pass up the opportunity to talk with Gojo in a more natural setting–for the article , of course.  

“Fine,” Ai said, sealing her fate as she climbed into the car.

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Ai wondered if she was right to want to stay at the hotel like she initially planned. When she arrived at the bar with Junpei, everyone was already a few drinks in. The energy in the room was lively and inviting, but she felt a bit out of place. 

Ai had always tried to skip work drinking parties since she and alcohol never seemed to mix well. She cringed inwardly as she thought back to the office New Year's party where she slurred her way through Anri’s “I Can’t Stop the Loneliness” at the top of her lungs. That could not happen again. 

Unlike Ai and Junpei, Geto had arrived separately. He was happily sipping on sake and picking at some yakitori near the corner of the private room reserved for the Jujutsu Kaisen cast and crew. 

While Ai couldn’t be certain, it seemed like Geto had made nice with the restaurant staff because despite being sat in the corner, fresh plates of food always seemed to travel his way first. She figured that it must've been one of the giggly waitresses since they would always linger a bit longer than they needed to after setting the plates down, blushing and smiling when Geto gave them a quick wink. 

Ai walked over to the table where Geto sat, Junpei following behind her. “You seem to be enjoying yourself,” she said as she and Junpei took the unoccupied seats next to Geto, the apparent womanizer.  

“I almost thought you changed your mind again.” Geto hummed as he took another sip of his sake. 

Ai shook her head. “I got a phone call from my boss.” 

“Everything good?” Geto asked, easily shifting from comfortable and relaxed and back into work mode. 

“Yeah…” Ai nodded as she got more comfortable. “He just wanted to check to see where we were with the story.” 

Geto nodded as he listened, lighting a cigarette. “Is he always so hands-on?”

“You smoke?” Ai ignored Geto’s question as she eyed the cigarette. 

Geto raised an eyebrow at her. “Is that a problem?” He brought the cigarette to his mouth before exhaling a small puff only moments later. 

Ai shook her head. She didn’t mind, she just didn’t think it suited her image of Geto. In her mind, he would smoke using a kiseru-style pipe much like a monk or a samurai did back in the 1800s. For whatever reason, cigarettes seemed too modern for him.

“So about your boss…” Geto trailed off, waiting for Ai to get back on track.      

“Oh right,” Ai pursed her lips and thought and looked at Junpei, who just shrugged in response. 

The thing is, Ai wasn’t even sure. With all her previous jobs she had always reported to someone under Yaga. When she got the call from her boss earlier, her heart felt like it was going to stop. She wasn’t sure how he could have found out, but she was almost positive he had somehow discovered her crush on Gojo and was about to fire her. However, Yaga gave no indication that he knew about the crush because any sane person would know that it was impossible for him to even know that. In actuality, he called just to check in and see how things were going. Yaga had much more important things to deal with than Ai’s nonexistent love life.

“No, this is just a big story for the magazine.”

“Well of course it's a big story. It's about me .” Gojo butted in as he sat himself between Ai and Junpei. 

Ai couldn’t help but roll her eyes at Gojo's comment as she scooted over– then again, she couldn't deny the truth of it, either. 

The man was truly everywhere--on magazine covers, on billboards, on keychains, he was inescapable. She passed him each day on her daily commute to the office--promotional images of Gojo plastered inside the station. If she paid attention, she could make out lipstick marks and encouraging post-it notes littering the promotional pictures. If she paid more attention, she would notice the lipstick and notes increasing with each passing day. The love for the man’s character was unreal.    

Gojo shoved his phone in Ai’s line of sight. “Look, they’re making another figure of me. It’s beautiful, but I think I’m even prettier.” 

“You’re so humble, Gojo-san,” Ai said dryly as she poured herself a beer, getting a chuckle from Geto and Junpei.

She knew that drinking probably wasn't the best idea, but between Yaga talking her ear off and Gojo being Gojo, she needed something to help her unwind a little.

“Thank you, I know,” Gojo replied, not even missing a beat as he started to pick at the various plates that littered the table.  

Gojo leaned back in his seat, draping an arm casually over the back as he took the room in. “So what were we talking about before I so courteously interrupted?” 

Geto glanced at Ai, asking for permission to share their conversation. She nodded as she took a sip of her beer. It tasted awful, but she continued to drink it. 

“Work stuff, nothing too exciting, you really didn't miss much,” Geto explained as he took another drag from his smoke.

Gojo raised an eyebrow and looked at Ai from above his glasses, clearly unconvinced. He graciously let the subject drop and pushed a plate of yakitori in front of Ai's face with a charming smile. “Have some. It's good stuff.” 

Ai pushed the plate out of her face. She leaned forward to check on Junpei and let out a sigh of relief when she saw him talking with Yuuji, Megumi, and Nobara. She didn’t even notice him getting up and going to the other end of the table. She was worried that Junpei might have felt obligated to pal along with her, but she was glad to see him interact with others closer to his age. 

Gojo glanced in the same direction as Ai and smiled. “They're good kids.” 

Ai couldn't help but smile at Gojo's comment. Despite his usual obnoxiousness, there was a genuine warmth as he looked on at his younger costars. He almost looked fatherly with the way he spoke about them. There was an obvious care that went beyond the typical working relationship. 

“They are,” Ai agreed as she rested her cheek against her fist. She felt a warmth spread in her chest. She supposed it could be the beer making its way through her system or the pride she felt as she watched her shy kouhai laugh and smile so freely. In her mind, it was a bit of both.

“They work really hard.” 

“Oh yeah?” Ai glanced back at Gojo.

Gojo nodded as he bit some chicken off a skewer. “Mhm, I’ve been pushing them to train more.”

“Train more?” Ai sat up a bit straighter. 

She cursed herself for not bringing a notepad with her to write anything down. Of all times–why didn’t she take her notebook with her? She quickly fumbled for her phone so she could at least type some quick notes down for later.  

If Gojo noticed Ai acting like a frantic mess, he didn’t give any indication because he continued to speak calmly and affectionately. “Itadori and Kugisaki are pretty new, right? I mean, Gumi-chan is too, I guess...” he shrugged. “Anyway, I’ve been pushing for them to train more so they can do more of their own stunts.”

“How come?” Ai asked curiously. It’s not like Jujutsu Kaisen had a tight budget; they could easily afford as many stunt doubles as they needed. They just finished making a blockbuster movie with a record production budget.

“It might be a load of crap, but I think it’s necessary to truly understand your character,” Gojo explained rather matter-of-factly as he tried to steal some gyoza from Geto’s plate.

“Do you feel more connected to your character because you do your own stunts?” 

Gojo pursed his lips as he continued to try and steal from Geto’s plate. 

“Satoru, just get your own,” Geto complained as he started to fill a plate for Gojo himself.

“But I think the ones you have look the best,” Gojo insisted as he easily swiped Geto’s plate with a smile, causing Geto to glare at him. “Anyway, as I was saying, I think it just flows more naturally if you do it yourself.” Gojo shrugged as he started to eat his newly acquired food.  

“What do you mean by ‘flows more naturally’?” Ai asked curiously as she struggled to type as much as she could before Gojo continued. When she glanced down at her phone screen the text was riddled with typos. What the hell did ‘I’ve been psy9ny for them to twin more so they dan fo their own stunts’ even mean? She hoped that Junpei would help her decipher it all later. 

“I mean, it just looks better,” Gojo stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “It opens up so many different possibilities in terms of shooting fight sequences and aside from what Itadori and Todo have to do, the choreography isn’t that difficult.” 

“Are you sure it’s actually that easy?” Ai questioned. “I mean, of course, it’s easy for you –you were a professional fighter before an actor.”

Gojo put his chopsticks down and looked over to Ai with a cat-like grin, dipping his glasses down his nose to see her more clearly. “Ai-chan, have you been looking into me?” 

Ai blinked at the man. “I mean, that’s literally my job.” 

“Oh yeah.” Gojo chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. “I forgot.”         

Ai rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t help but smile to herself. Internally she wanted to throw her hands up in the air and cheer. She had finally gotten something more from Gojo. She made a note to herself to thank Geto and Junpei for convincing her to go.

The night carried on and Ai seemed to relax. The worries of work melted away as she drank more and more beer. She felt her body noticeably relax as time passed. She wasn’t sure if it was because she had some more workable material or if it was the alcohol making its way through her system. The only thing she could wonder now was when had she become so stressed that her whole body seemed to ache with tension. 

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On the trip back to Tokyo, Ai decided to use the two-hour ride home to sort through her notes despite her mild hangover. She wasn’t ready to start writing the article yet, there was still too much work that needed to be done, but this would help keep the information fresh in her tired mind.

She skimmed through her notes and prepared to transfer them to her laptop.

He hides behind smiles, but maybe even unbeknownst to him, his giveaway when he’s stressed is the way he tends to clench his fist. 

Ai frowned as she looked over that particular note. She recalled jotting it down when there was a technical malfunction on set, but she noticed him doing it whenever Gakuganji didn’t like a particular take of his. It was too wordy or maybe it was just that it wasn’t that interesting to begin with. She didn’t like it at least. She frowned as she transferred the line into her word doc. As a writer, she’d find a way to rework it at a later time. It could be the future Ai’s problem. The dull headache she had made it difficult for her to do much else anyway.  

Ai leaned back into her seat and stared out the window, taking in the blurring scenery. She was still having a difficult time pinning Gojo down. She couldn’t really make a whole article based on their brief conversations. It was difficult for her to discern what was real and what was just an act he put on. She only could capture brief moments of the person beneath the character; that was the nature of the game with actors, but she wanted to dig deeper. 

Most actors put up a front. It was all part of the job for them. It didn’t matter how famous the actor was. Ai remembered when she interviewed Nobara, the girl put up as much of an act as Gojo did, but unlike Gojo, Nobara was able to reveal her caring nature and sense of duty to her craft without much trouble. It did take some work, though. It was when Ai finally convinced Nobara that she wouldn’t write about her more-than-platonic relationship with one of her female co-stars that she seemed to really open up. 

Given that there was a large shipping culture around Jujutsu Kaisen characters, Ai decided to ask Nobara about her thoughts on same-sex female pairings. She expected Nobara to give a diplomatic answer, but she answered rather casually. Ai tried to remember what the actress said. It was something like, ‘Honestly, I think it’s great that people can see themselves in the characters they love. If I saw that on TV I’d probably come out to my grandma.’ Ai wanted to include that in the article. But since Nobara wasn’t fully out to her, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she hurt someone like that–even if she was trying to encourage others in the process.

Besides, it wasn’t the type of story that Ai wanted to write anyway. Ai did her best to be professional; she wanted her subjects and sources to know that they could safely talk with her. Yes, she was a reporter, but her integrity as a person meant more to her than any story. She would like to believe that didn’t need to rely on such underhanded tactics to get readers. She just had no idea how she’d convince Gojo of that…

It felt like whenever she was getting closer to gaining his trust, he’d immediately put a wall up. It was frustrating, honestly. She scoffed as she thought about it. People always said she rarely let people in, but she'd argue that Gojo might be worse. 

Ai frowned as she crossed her arms over her chest. She generally didn’t like getting too friendly with the people she was writing about–it was just easier that way. It probably would be safer for her if she kept Gojo at a distance anyway. She didn’t want her feelings to grow into anything more than a crush. For the sake of her sanity, she couldn’t allow that to happen. After all, these stories weren’t about the relationships she formed with her subjects. The articles Ai wrote were about her subjects and her subjects alone. 

Ai would have to make a special exception for this case. In order to get something tangible from Gojo, she would have to offer a bit of something in return. It was the last thing she wanted, but she didn’t have much of a choice. How else could she get Gojo to open up to her if she didn’t open up a little herself? She could stand to be a bit more vulnerable if that’s what he needed to trust her.  

As the train carried on towards Tokyo, Ai couldn't help but feel some anxiety stir within her. It felt like electricity was traveling down her arms and into her fingertips. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on her breathing instead. The tingling soon dulled and she opened her eyes again to stare out the window. She could see her reflection in the window and frowned as her tired face stared back at her. 

She could do this. Ai sighed and rubbed her temples, the faint throb of her headache still there. She refused to let it slow her down, though. 

Her gaze drifted back over to her laptop. “One step at a time,” she muttered to herself, as her hands moved swiftly over the keys. As time passed, Ai had amassed pages of notes, each line a fragment of who Gojo was. The pieces were coming together but she still couldn’t see the whole picture. 

Ai glanced out the window once more, the skyscrapers of Tokyo coming into sight. The train began to slow, and a voice came over the speaker alerting passengers of their imminent arrival. Ai quickly saved her work and shut down her laptop. 

She glanced at her reflection once more. The same tired woman stared back at her, but now there was at least a flicker of confidence. “You’ve got this,” she whispered to herself, standing up and preparing to disembark.

[chirpybirdy]

hboww2 rewatch prompt 4! im sorta happy with it lol i did exactly what i meant to do tho like alex has a "artists will love your body like youre a painting" vibe and buck has more experience because im on team all-austin-butler-characters-sleep-around

ANYWAYS no warnings, just gentle kissing. also included below the cut:

Alex had been thinking things with Major Cleven were going much better than could be expected when a hand lands on his knee. “Is this that kind of… since there’s no women around? That…?”

“You think you’re that pretty?” Buck teases.

“I think everyone thinks you're that pretty. Not that I’m calling you a woman, Major.” Alex winces. “Sorry, Major.”

Buck laughs it off, “Don’t worry about, Lieutenant. 'Sides, I don’t really mind about that.”

“I suppose you don’t have to.” Alex breathes out.

“What’s that supposed to mean, Alex?”

“It’s all good things,” Alex evades. He eyes Buck, wondering if the major will let him drop it, and it seems he will. “Hey, Buck,” Alex starts.

“Yes?” Buck hasn’t moved his hand from Alex’s knee since he placed it there, but the heat has spread faster than a prairie fire.

“You were suggesting, uh,” Alex laughs, “I don’t think I can say it.” Buck’s hand reaches over for Alex's. With a jolt, Alex drops the charcoal he was using and instinctively mourns the mark it leaves on his paper.

Buck helps him forget. He draws Alex’s hand up to his mouth and gently guides him to brush his fingers against his bottom lip. Charcoal dust shades in his five o'clock shadow.

“You don’t have to pretend I’m someone I’m not, Alex. Tell you the truth, I’d rather you kept looking at me the way you are now. No hiding your good-looking self, either.” His tone is serious and his face is warm.

Alex nods slowly and tries to remove the nerves from his smile. “Am I looking at you like I think you’re really pretty?”

Buck grins almost like he’s shy. Almost. There’s a dash of smugness that Alex would look forward to trying to capture with charcoal.

“Alright,” Alex bites his lip and plays the flirt, “I can do that.” He moves his hand to the back of Buck's neck, sketching a thin line across his cheek as he does so. Buck lets go of his hand real fast to hold Alex’s neck, and they pull each other close.

“I’m not trying to hide,” Alex tries to admit.

“If you do, I’ll hide with you.” His mouth brushes over Alex’s and his tongue slips daintily across his lip. The action buries the rush of excitement of getting out of the Stalag with excitement of a different kind. “Sounds nice.”

Buck keeps Alex tight to his side but gives Alex the power to deepen their kiss at his own pace. To touch and be touched, to be the one who toes the line and the one who decides where the line is. Alex kisses Buck like he’s learning how to draw a woman’s curves. Moving his hands to know how to define her waist. Mapping the shapes of muscles and give of skin with careful, physical study. “Where are we going to hide?” Alex asks, in the short moment where Buck’s tongue isn’t in his mouth.

“Gotta figure that out, don’t we?” Buck’s hand travels down to his hip and encourages Alex closer. Alex throws his leg over Buck’s thigh and this no longer counts as sitting side-by-side. Buck’s arm winds around Alex's shoulders and the other hand moves further down his hip to rub up and down his leg. Alex holds Buck's face in his hands and thinks, This is new. The man appearing in his sketchbook whenever Alex wasn’t wary enough, drawing Alex onto his lap.

“Your sweat smells good.” Alex pants. He feels Buck’s fingers trail up his side and he thinks about how this will make his art better.

“Mm, used to be complimented on my aftershave.” Buck sighs.

“They didn’t know any better. Not as smart as me.”

Damn, Buck seems to like his confidence, “That’s right,” he pants, “know that about you, Alex.” He nips at Alex’s lower lip and licks it better in the same moment. Tentatively, Alex finds Buck’s and matches his action with a bite and a lick of his own. Their kiss rises in intensity yet the passion can’t come close to the volume of discovery that rushes out between them.

"Saw a woman dance once," Buck whispers. "In a dark bar in the early morning, smoke from last night had finally sank into the walls and our clothes. You know how it hangs in the air? Anyway, she was dancing like she was born from the smoke and dark and didn’t care about her parents. No agony of birth, either, just the songs they sang that night. Running her hands all along up and down her body. Turning slowly like how you turn the page, all careful of what she’d done before, and trying something new. Sketching herself a body so sexy." His lips are wet from both their tongues as he presses them against Alex's firmly for a moment. "Think about her sometimes."

Alex observes that Buck takes things slow with no frustration in sight. Kissing him is like floating with someone nice in calm water on a warm day; touching him is like making ripples that go on for miles with not an answering wave in sight. "What were you doing a bar that early?" Alex asks, and immediately wonders why he asked—might as well have asked what he was doing in the Stalag. “Don’t guys usually move onto something else by now?”

Buck’s answer is breezy but not dismissive. “You understanding why I fell in love with the B17s?”

Alex chuckles. He shifts in Buck’s lap. “I get why you flew point. You like leading men on, Major Cleven?”

“Oh, you’re quick.” Buck grins. “Yeah, I like taking my time. What about it, Alex?” His grip tightens around Alex’s waist despite that. Those P51s are a tight fit with a small seat—and all skills are transferable. His experience lends itself well to grinding on Buck’s lap now. Something clicks right and when Alex lets out a gasp, Buck is right there with him. They both start breathing a little faster as Alex moves. The air thins between them. Buck spreads his legs a little and Alex shifts up to let him do it.

Looking down at Buck, Alex thinks men weren’t meant to get this high this fast—not even fighter pilots. He gets deep when his mouth dives down to meet Buck’s. His tongue plummets into Buck’s mouth and his hands are as rough in Buck’s hair as Buck’s hands are on his ass. His dick presses against Buck’s stomach and Alex wants to know, “You want me?” It was tough work to get his mouth free to ask, and Buck doesn’t take the chance himself. His refusal to make his agreement possible seems to be the only way he wants to give it.

Alex’s undershirt is removed, slowly, like it’s a silk negligee. His dirty shirt feels sensual as it slides off his skin and Alex moans with the sensation. The usual chill of the stale library air is now foreign to their corner. It smells of Alex and Buck only—and it’s warm. Buck breaks away from Alex’s mouth to kiss down his neck desperately to his chest. Alex hasn’t been here long enough to lose all his weight, and Buck is eagerly taking advantage before it’s gone. Gripping Alex’s bare skin like he’s a gift. When his hands loosen, just for a second, Alex wriggles back.

“No, let me hold you," Buck reaches for him, begging.

Alex smiles, amused and proud. "You’re shaking," he notes. Buck’s hands do tremble slightly as they hang in the empty space Alex created. “Here I thought you only like me for my maps.”

Buck lands his shaking hands on Alex’s thighs. “Don’t say that.” Alex had been about to say he was joking but Buck continued on. “You told me what it’s like out there. I like knowing.” He pauses. Gets a contemplative look on his face. “Guess I just like knowing.”

A bell sounds and Alex wrinkles his brows trying to recall what it’s for. Buck sighs, giving Alex’s thighs one last fondle before letting him know that was the dinner bell.

“Not sure I’m hungry.” Alex huffs ruefully as they stand to leave.

“Eat.” Buck orders. He trails his fingers across Alex’s waist, following the guidelines of his belly hair to his treasure trail. “Don’t miss meals.”

Alex feels his face heat up under the attention. “Yes. I won’t.”

Buck nods at this, and now it seems his Major Cleven persona is fully back on. “Don’t dally, Alex.” Alex is about to say yes-sir but Bucks stops him with a quick kiss. “I’ll be looking for you.”

[amazingphilza]

twitchcon :: cc!multiple x reader

fluff , platonic , gender neutral ! some mcyt headcanons if you were to attend twitchcon w them

cc’s included in order: tommyinnit , tubbo , ranboo , wilbur soot , philza , technoblade

cw: kinda lengthy for the minors (i think), not as much for the hags LMAO /hj

tommyinnit

this man is so excited to be at his first twitchcon & being able to hang out with all his best friends makes it a hundred times better

when he isn’t at a panel or doing meet & greets, he’s dragging you everywhere to see the whole convention center (clingyinnit)

he is just so at awe despite this not being his first convention to attend

you’d be surprised he gets tired pretty quickly & stops over to the partner lounge

you both rest for a bit against a wall in a pretty packed hallway despite it being an exclusive area to twitch partners

every time a famous streamer walks by he will yell it out and record it then vlog your reaction, even if they’re surrounded with bodyguards & trying to get to another place quickly

he’d zoom in his camera to their face at a horrible angle and be like

“oh my god it is THE ninja. ninja famous fortnite player, HELLO.”

but he gets completely ignored

then the camera pans out to you, still really zoomed in that the capture is blurry

“ninjainnit?”

“EH?”

tommy is so confused, forgetting the bit ninja did on his twitter where he renamed himself ‘ninjainnit’ for a split second

okay tommy isn’t that athletic but he will chase you and the rest of your group down a hallway if he had to

he’d probably find a toy gun from the artist alley/seller booths and shoot you and wilbur with it

but if tommy stumbles across any of the dream team, it’s about to be minecraft manhunt but irl

and he will def play his stream music while walking or smth when he’s bored (or trying to jump dream & sapnap)

** DO DO DO DO MANHUNT MUSIC **

oh my god,, now thinking about it he’s probably the one to open like random doors of empty rooms and steal stuff while you film him

like he will take a random empty glass, a bunch of pens, a freebie t-shirt, everything he sees he takes with him and you’re just panic

“tommy we’re literally not supposed to be here, and i’m stuck here filming you. it’s surely a felony in action”

“well, it’s their fault for leaving the doors open! plus this is great content. who’s the dirty crime boy now, HM?”

you’d tell wilbur about this and he’d scold tommy and threaten him with the same pen tommy stole

tommy probably would also drag you some weird event happening outside twitchcon along with tubbo and ranboo

“pokimane is giving out free pizza to everyone if we go to this one restaurant down the street!”

“we are literally gonna get bombarded. have you forgot you’re like three of twitch’s top streamers? i’d rather pay for all of our meals than try getting free pizza from pokimane against all her other fans”

“DEAL! let’s go to five guys then!”

you unfortunately end up paying for all 3 of their meals and picking on their food instead of buying your own

even with all of them making way more money than you, they still happen to be cheapskates

OR tommy will end up getting a burrito from a taco truck, immediately making a mess of himself, then proceed to complain how messy the food is to eat despite knowing what he was getting himself into before even ordering

“shit my clothes are all ruined now!”

“well that’s your fault you got a burrito, as if it’s your first time having one”

“i mean the food is good, i’m not complaining about that but i don’t think it’s that good that it’s worth costing my red and white shirt, im just saying”

tubbo

same with tommy, he is so excited

i don’t know why but i imagine him overpacking his suitcase and you making fun of him for it

anyway tubbo has his irl backpack on and streaming EVERYTHING

probably spends a lot of time at a bunch of different booths, checking out all the pointless gadgets he could buy for his stream

you’re the one to stop him from doing so

“TUBBO IT’S LITERALLY OVER TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS, STOP. DONT GET IT.”

“WHY NOT?? IT WILL BE COOL FOR MY STREAM AND I WILL USE IT EVERYDAY”

“okay theoretically speaking, how the hell are you going to even bring it home? which—let me remind you—is across the country for you and not to mention the giant ocean separating america and the uk”

“free ship-pang!!!”

“i hate to break it to you tubbo but there is no way you can get free shipping on a FIVE FOOT PC. it’s nearly as tall as you! what are you even gonna do on it, hack the government???”

the arguments are all lighthearted but eventually you give in and let him splurge over a thousand dollars in different devices he claimed he “needed”

i could honestly see him visiting the beaches in san diego and going for a swim or even renting out a boat to use for a bit :D

also he’d bring benson along with him and taking a bunch of scenic photos with it in them

i have a feeling he’s the type to schedule a spontaneous meet & greet because he was bored & gets in trouble for causing a mob in a certain part of the convention

he’s like “oh god, i did not expect this many of the bois to show up AHAHAH oops”

tubbo would def pull a lilypichu and bring his melodica or ukulele and play themes while following random people/cosplayers

at the end of the day, you’d find his bag just stuffed with crap he either got for free or bought in the convention

“how did you get all that stuff? i was with you all day??? and it’s only the first day of the convention, hello?? it looks like you’ve been collecting as if twitchcon has went on for a week already!”

“HA i have my ways, do not underestimate my powers”

lani would probably tag along for the vacation honestly

like whenever someone comes up to her giving her gifts/asking for pics, you and tubbo would tease her about how famous she is

and i dunno but something about tubbo just gives me this amusement park energy and going to legoland and spending the whole day there since it’s near by and because he can

ranboo

he is like a beacon in a sea of people, that’s it .

i honestly just see him causing as much chaos as the other two

ranboo would probably like take someone’s camera whether if they’re streaming or if it’s for the vlog, hold it up high, and point the camera directly above someone’s face

it did not matter how tall you were and if you had platform shoes on, ranboo was a skyscraper next to you

“HAHAH this is how i see you from this height, this is funny”

then he shows you the vid of the recording of him getting like an aerial view of your face

like you see your nose and all your pores and just overall a bad angle to be captured in

“OH GOD RANBOO DELETE THAT, ITS HORRIFIC”

i dunno why but i feel like he’d jump scare every person that was cosplaying as his minecraft character from behind for some reason

“BOO!”

“ranboo i’m not even remotely dressed as your skin—”

“don’t worry i’m practicing it’s fineee”

“you’re like the height of 2 people combined, i think you will be fine as is. you even intimidated the security at the front”

i feel like if he had his own panel he’d like pull up some undertale song in the middle of it and scare all the people in the crowd

“lore but in real life”

probably would get some matching keepsake with you from artist alley/the booths!

i could imagine like a cute keychain or smth :D

i feel like he’s the type to like randomly volunteer as a participant for those mini events in a booth thinking it would be funny but regrets it the moment he’s on stage

after introductions the presenter is like “okay ranboo, you will be given a random meme prompt above your head you won’t be able to see until after and you will have to make a random face to compliment it!”

and you can just tell by his facial expression he’s just thinking

oh god what have i gotten myself into

what is this game? who came up with this idea?

you’d laugh at him the whole time, even after he’s off the stage and finished with that small fiasco

“that was horrible. never again.”

“AHAHAH IT LOOKED SO AWKWARD YOU DID GREAT”

“I CROSSED MY EYES AND PUFFED MY CHEEKS BECAUSE I COULDNT THINK OF ANY OTHER FACIAL EXPRESSION. THE PROMPT ENDING UP BEING ‘WHEN TWITTER CANCELS YOU FOR USING PLASTIC STRAWS.’ AND WHEN I SAW WHAT IT WAS—LITERALLY WHAT KIND OF GAME–”

“I GOT PICTURES AND EVERYTHING ITS PERFECT AHAHAHAH”

wilbur soot

honestly with wilbur it’s slightly more chill

he already experienced twitchcon before so he’s just glad to see his friends again after so long

insists that you explore the convention yourself rather than sticking with him the whole time but you do anyway!

wilbur would probably have like a mini concert and gets you front row seats with the rest of the group

but that doesn’t mean before it that you’re not helping him set up

“y/n please– my amp is so heavy, i can carry it”

“don’t worry! i’m strong” :D

and musically talented or not, he will probably bring you and the rest of his friends up to stage to just vibe and sing a bunch of random acoustic songs

it’s not like some big concert hall stage,, i imagine more like a casual thing w a slightly higher platform from the ground yk?

after spending a long day at the convention he’d also bring everyone across the city to la jolla or smth !

you’d all probably have dinner there and chill, watching the pretty sunset

“this place is really pretty but oh my god im gonna lose my breath hiking up this stupid hill, please slow down”

and wilbur is like ??? because he’s completely fine with his long legs and everything

“just walk faster”

“no, you walk slower”

AHAHAH and for context traversing through la jolla by walking around the town is a bit hard since it’s basically on a bunch of hills (walking up from the beach to a restaurant actually is actually sm work, trust me ive been there)

wilbur honestly doesn’t spend that much time in the actual convention center, he’s probably sightseeing a bit of san diego with you instead

but i could imagine him staying at the tabletop games area playing dnd or smth

“c’mon y/n, come join!”

“uhh i’m not sure, i’m not the best at roleplay and...”

“it’s fine don’t worry!”

he’d pull you in with him and end up enjoying yourself even if it was your first time

and if you’re of age, you’d be wilbur’s +1 at the twitch partner party and make sure mans doesn’t too drunk

if it’s not too late in the night, you two would chill at the beach after the party

it’s just a nice, calming moment after all the loud music mixed with hundreds of conversations at the party

also something about like taking polaroids pictures with wilbur just seems to go hand in hand for me

i’m not sure why but you will be taking lots of pics with wilbur for sure (not necessarily you both in the photo, but of sceneries as well while you’re together!)

philza

literally a dad on vacation with his children, it doesn’t matter how old you are

need sunscreen? surprisingly has it

want a snack? probably has a small granola bar somewhere in his bag

but same with wilbur, he’s more chill like this isn’t his first time at twitchcon

omg he’d def bring you to the artist alley and just buy a bunch of fanart and stuff tho

“oh wow look phil, someone made a giant poster of the dream smp and shit!”

“holy shit that’s so good what the fuck!”

and he’s like rushing to that artist’s stall to buy a poster or print

idk why but phil seems like the person to know where he’s going all over the convention center

he probably had a copy of the directory map but yk

you just have trouble reading it bc all the signs seem to be misleading to you

nothing really crazy screams out to me of what phil would do at twitchcon besides like go to a few events, spend a bunch of time w his friends, etc

HOWEVER i could see him wasting a lot of his time at the gaming area and testing new games that are currently on the works of being developed

like “woah y/n, this vr game is sick, you should try it out!”

ngl i feel like phil would plan a visit to disneyland for everyone, like he gets the tickets and everything but once you’re at the park it’s free reign, y’all go everywhere with not much of a plan

the minors would try to cheap out phil and pay less than the others even though everyone else fully paid phil back and everything LMAO

ok but if he’s feeling nice, phil will buy everyone cotton candy/pretzels :D

and if you’re not hungry, he’d at least get you a mickey balloon

HE WILL HAVE MATCHING MICKEY EARS WITH MUMZA YES .

ALSO STAYING FOR THE FIREWORKS THOUGH OMG

just in general, best idea phil had for taking everyone to disneyland :D

technoblade

surprisingly techno is really calm despite this being like one of his first conventions

but when he finally settles in and gets comfortable, he’s showing the same energy

if you’re playfully yelling, he will yell back

however there’s still those awkward moments that are unavoidable

idk why but something about him makes me think that if you feel tired and want to go back to your hotel room, he’d go with you just to make sure you get there safe

he probably also needs a break from being around everyone else for a moment too LMAO

i could also see him searching far and wide in the artist alley for fanart of himself AHAHAH

walking around with him in the convention consists of someone yelling “BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD” every 5 minutes but you don’t really mind

something about him makes me think he’ll be forced into playing minecraft twitch rivals along with the rest of sbi or smth

and he’s like “oh god, i’m going to be on stage? and people will see my face while i play minecraft?”

“i’m sure it will be fun!”

“i mean i like being competitive and feeding my ego, but i’m not that desperate.. well”

do i imagine techno getting easily tired of being surrounded by a bunch of people and just going back to his hotel room with phil and watching some anime with him? yes

and will you watch even if you have no idea what’s going on? also yes

i feel like after a while of you guys hanging out in techno’s room, the rest of the gang will just slowly join you guys

like eventually everyone is there; you, techno, phil, wilbur, niki, tommy, tubbo, ranboo, etc

and techno is like “wha– where did you guys come from?” because his room is basically packed

and niki could be like “oh we can go if you want!”

then techno just insists that she’s fine “but who let the child get in?” clearly implying tommy’s presence

“OI!!”

eventually techno gives in with the company and someone gets a bunch of board games to play from the front desk

lots of yelling and laughing for sure

when it becomes late at night, techno is like half conscious, you’re on your phone, wilbur is staring out the window & enjoying the night view, tommy is passed out on the couch from tiredness, tubbo & ranboo is still wide awake quietly talking, and phil & niki are helping clean up the giant mess

eventually everyone brings themselves to go back to their own room except tommy who won’t budge

you give techno a look and he immediately understands what you were thinking

he rushes to the bathroom to fill up two cups with ice cold water and handed one to you

“on three?”

“okay.. one”

“two”

“three!”

then both of you pour the water on the poor child’s face

he jolts awake and saying a string of curses

“what the fuck techno? y/n too?”

“get out” is the only think techno says that before tommy rushes out with his stuff and you leave right after

a/n: i honestly can’t wait until conventions open up again though,, phil and ranboo were talking about vidcon earlier and omg.

also i kinda want to take in tommy requests but i’m not sure??? it would be both cc! and c! x gn!reader for sure tho. i love writing him to bits but who knows, maybe i’ll only stick to my ideas,, or not. send in a tommy x reader request, might do it, might not, but he’s my fav cc if you can’t tell so! :D (i dunno if i will keep it strictly platonic, but unrequited crushes and stuff are fun to write hehe,,)

edit: let’s hope i fixed all the grammar mistakes LMAO we love writing late at night :) /s /hj

[dovahkiin796]

The Glamrocks

Remember when this was teasing Security Breach? The game has sure come a long way since then. On the far right we can assume is Roxxane Wolf. She looks so different from her current design. Like, where’s her tail? And is she wearing an actual skirt? The Glamrock’s do not wear real clothes in the game. It’s either painted on clothes or the clothes are a part of their animatronic suits. Next to Roxxane we have Monty. Again, far from his current design. He kind of looks unrecognizable and if you’re not paying attention to the details. You might think he’s a different animal as to me, he looks like a wolf. Next to him is Glamrock Freddy and once again he looks very different from his current design. In the teaser he seemed to retain his roundish-cartoony look from past games. His top hat is the normal size while in SB it was shrunken down. Like with Roxxane, he seems to be wearing actual clothes. My bet he’s wearing a business jacket, but it was going to match the 80s vibe. And finally, there’s Glamrock Chica and she looks no different. The chicken probably had the least changes throughout the development of the game.

I greatly love Glamrock Freddy’s final design, especially at how simple it is. His orange color suit works well with his red and blue face paint along with the blue lightning bolt going down the middle of his chest. The red shoulder pads further emphasize the Glamrock look along with his red forelegs, which can safely be assumed to be leg warmers. Glamrock Freddy became instant favorite character by the fandom even before the game was released. The trailers showed him how caring and protective he was towards Gregory. People were already depicting his as Freddy Dadbear in their art. When the game did come out, it only made the fans love him even more. He’s so kind and always apologizing for things he really doesn’t need to apologize for since he never does anything bad. One detail I like if you try and take him into the Fazer Blast arena. Glamrock Freddy will scold Gregory like a dad who’s a stickler for the rules. I hope we see more of Glamrock Freddy in the future. GF is the kind of character we would all love to have as a friend.

Roxxane Wolf, another popular character for reasons that aren’t as wholesome as Glamrock Freddy, but I won’t judge. Roxy is not the first wolf animatronic to appear in the franchise but is first one to feature in a mainline entry. Roxxane’s design REALLY emphasizes the 80′s rock band style more than the others. Her long wild hair with a streak of it dyed green, red crop top, red shoulder pads, red shorts, and tiger patterned arm/leg warmers. Her instrument being a keytar is the most 80′s thing ever. However, I can totally see her being the drummer of the band if there was one. Being a drummer is fast paced which fits Roxxane as she has a racetrack and she’s the fastest of the Glamrocks when it comes to chasing Gregory. A unique aspect of the character is she has major insecurities. At some point in the game, you can catch Roxy crying and calling herself a loser to her own reflection after she fails to capture Gregory. Really shows us how the Glamrocks are more ‘alive’ than past animatronics since they’re not possessed including Glamrock Freddy. It is a shame we could never free the Glamrocks from the hack that was afflicted upon them by Glitchtrap and Vanny. 

Monty holds the honor of being the first animatronic to be based off of a reptile. His design is similar to Glamrock Freddy’s mainly because they share the same animatronic suit but just painted with different colors and Monty’s legs were painted to look like he’s wearing pants. Though the obvious differences are the tail, head shape, the awesome red mohawk, and gator face. Not much is known about Monty as he has very little lines of dialogue and he only appears in a few areas in the PizzaPlex. Though we know he’s the most aggressive of the Glamrocks because in a note it says the gator likes to break open fences which explains the signs on some of the gates that have an icon of Monty with a cross symbol over it. Plus, at the beginning of the game we can hear him trashing his room. When it comes to his role in the band, Monty is the bass player. I think him playing bass fits well with the jealously he has for Glamrock Freddy. In the mini-golf arcade game. The last course has GF in the trash while Monty is taking center stage in the band. Showing us, he wants to be leader. Monty is theorized to be the one who killed Glamrock Bonnie so he could take his place in the band. However, I’m on the fence when it comes to that theory. I won’t say much on it as I want to wait for more details on it. If it ever does get expanded upon.

Strangely enough, Glamrock Chica has a more 70s look than an 80s one. Though that doesn’t mean her design isn’t any good. It’s actually my second favorite. It’s obvious by her instrument being the guitar that Glamrock Chica is the lead guitarist of the band. Like past incarnations of the character, GC loves pizza. Though her options have expanded to other kinds of junk food like burgers, nachos, cookies, and fries. Ironic since she promotes fitness, and her area is called Mazercise. Though in-game we find the chicken eating garbage because of the hack. It’s unclear if Glamrock Chica is able to eat food or is programmed to think she’s eating food when in reality she isn’t. I guess it’s just one of those things to not think about too much. By now we know Glamrock Chica is getting a DLC called Chica’s Chowda. Right now, it’s not known what kind of DLC it’s going to be. My best guess the PizzaPlex will get a new location added to it since there’s no point for Steel Wool to make an entire new building for the player to explore. 

[necros-writing-stuff]

I'm simping hard for Mason and Bailey, so could we get mutual non-con with them? Also maybe with the person forcing the non-con degrading m!Mason and or m!Bailey about forcing them breed f!pc?

Like maybe Leighton wants to watch the hot swim teacher pipe that pretty little thing that wont let him photograph their gentiles, so he threatens Mason's job if they dont fuck in the locker room so he can watch. He knows pc is Mason's favorite, that Mason might actually have caught feelings. He's seen them hanging out outside school.

Or for Bailey, it could be that someone was pissed they couldn't buy you since you were paying your dues, or maybe Bailey just didn't like their vibe. They hold pc and their pissed off caretaker at gun point and make them screw. Bonus on the forced breeding kink, since bailey def doesnt want kids, and I cant imagine any PC wanting to put another kid in his care.

Sorry for the long ask 😅 Your writing is so good and you capture the characters so, so well. It really gets my imagination going.

Dear gods anon this haunted me from the moment I read it you're so smart I love you.

NSFW below (tw for noncon, loss of virginity)

Bailey

Waking up tied to a chair and gagged isn't exactly how Bailey wants to start his weekend, but here he is.

It had been a simple task. Drop off some money at Quinn's office. That's all.

So when he'd been hit over the head and knocked out, it had been rather unexpected.

He can see a man in a tailored suit looking at him and he immediately recognises who it is.

The guy was with that drug gang Bailey had seen to a couple months ago. Saving you from them, his favourite pretty brat.

Trust you to get in drug trouble over a fucking maths competition.

"You're awake. Good. We can talk about how you owe me," the man says. Yeah cause Bailey could do a lot of talking right now.

The door opens, two henchmen dragging in a girl with a bag over her head.

Bailey knows it's you, can recognise your voice as you whimper in fear.

Someone that had been standing behind Bailey's chair comes forward and starts to pull the caretaker's pants down. He can't fight back, tensing his arms to check how tight the bindings are.

The person covers their hands in some weird clear slime they then proceed to rub on his freed cock. It's cold and tingles.

"This one's your most requested right? Always pays her debts though. It's cause she's a virgin isn't it?" The boss questions as whatever that salve was kicks in, stimulating Bailey till he's hard as a rock.

The bag is ripped from your head, your eyes scrunching up at the light. You look so scared and helpless.

"Well you're about to drive her value right down with your own cock, mate," the boss nods to his men and you're brought forwards, skirt of your school uniform ripped up and pantes cut off with a knife.

You start sobbing and begging as you're picked up and your pussy is angled so that they can push you onto Bailey's cock.

Bailey is still. Staring straight ahead, trying not to let the rage he feels show.

He shudders as your body is pushed onto his cock, having to admit its a nice tight fit. God you would have been worth so much.

You scream, pain from being taken for the first time with so little preparation adding to the stress of the whole situation.

The henchmen holding you lift and drop you onto your caretaker's length at a steady pace. You feel no pleasure in the situation, just deep sorrow and an itching need to run.

But you can only whine out "I'm sorry," to Bailey, unable to look at him in the eyes.

It feels good. You feel good - you feel wonderful and Bailey can't help it when his balls start to feel tighter.

Can't help it when a tingle grows up his spine.

Can't help his hips jolting up the tiniest bit to meet you, needing more friction so he can cum.

"Oh and one last thing. We injected the girl with some hormone treatment to make her more likely to get pregnant. Good luck selling a used up whore then," the boss finally interjects, but its too late.

Oh fuck no.

Bailey is already on the verge as the man speaks, ejaculated deep inside your pussy since the henchmen so kindly push you down when they notice his body spasm.

The men let you go, your arms coming to wrap around Bailey's shoulders as you cry into his neck.

"A few more rounds, I think. Let's get our money's worth," it's only now Bailey sees the camera pointed at the two of you.

"This time the girl will move herself," a gun is brought out and you wrap yourself tighter around Bailey's body, seeking comfort. You're still sat on his cock, that hasn't gotten soft even after his orgasm. Just what was that salve?

He's going to kill them when he gets out of this rope.

Mason

He can't belive he's doing this.

Can't believe he has your cunt in his mouth, tongue deep between the folds as he licks away.

He wishes it were under any other circumstances.

Leighton had always rubbed him the wrong way, but Mason loved swimming. Loved teaching, this was his perfect job.

And you were his perfect student.

So kind and understanding, so innocent compared to the horrors he dealt with most classes.

You'd been so shy when you'd caught him swimming naked, but had accepted it without judgement.

You had been lovely to talk to at the pond.

You clung to his hair so tightly as he ate you out, moans echoing through the locker room.

Leighton had threatened his job. Had told him he wanted a video of that good one getting ruined by a handsome man like Mason. Wanted to see the pretty thing impaled on his cock.

And it worked. The threat worked. But at least Mason was the one corrupting you, he reasoned. At least it was someone who genuinely cared for your wellbeing.

You were shaking like a leaf when he had explained the situation, looking between him and the headmaster, off the to the side holding a camera.

"If you don't do it, I'll send every university you apply to personal letters telling them what a whore you are," Leighton added, and you reluctantly let Mason strip your uniform and kiss up your thighs.

"She's wet enough," Leighton calls from behind the camera, admiting the flushed pink dusting your cheeks. Forced, yes, but your were enjoying this, weren't you? What a little harlot.

Mason frees his length from his swimming trunks, never having the chance to change from his last lesson.

Bending your legs up so they're pressed to your chest, he gently kisses your forehead.

"It's going to be okay," another kiss, "just breath nice and steady for me." It's the same soothing tone he used to teach you.

You take in a deep breath as Mason pushes himself in, inch by inch. Both of you try to ignore Leighton moving to get a better angle.

Soon enough, your teacher is balls deep inside of your virgin pussy, the two of you breathing raggedly while staring into each other's eyes.

You both look upset.

"Well fuck her then," the headmaster tuts, and Mason starts to thrust.

Your mouth falls open, an expression so lewd and lovely the teacher wishes he could have seen it in another situation.

Wishes he could have waited for your graduation and asked you out on a proper date.

Not lose himself in your cunt, on camera for the pervert blackmailing you both.

And he does lose himself, can't stop his hips from hammering away at the warm, tight, wet heat that sucks him in like it was made for him.

Mason can't last this long. He brings a hand to start rubbing circles around your clit, eliciting more moans and whimpers.

You're so pretty, so good for him.

"M-mason, sir," you yelp as he hits a nice spot, and his breath catches in his chest.

Leaning in, he takes one of your nipples into his mouth, sucking and teasing.

Your walls tighten around his shaft, signifying your end coming soon and Mason increases the pressure on your clit.

You milk his cock so perfectly he cums right when you do, filling you up to the brim with seed and aware it was spilling onto the bench below.

He can't bring himself to let you go when he's done, has to keep you covered until Leighton puts that camera away.

"Excellent. Now, try to get used to each other, I won't be satisfied with only one tape."

[pynkhues]

Girl ! Ive finished your The center of circumference series and I was wondering if you’re planing to continue on writing Playing House ?! It was AMAZING !!

Meanwhile, I’m dying for some FLUFFFF! The kind that Rio literally confesses his love to Beth and ask her to be his kinda fluff !!! Can you recommend some fics preferably series ??

Thank you for all the entertainment and time you spend! I’m super new to tumbler and the whole fandom thing and I’m LOVING IT!!

Ah! Thank you so much, anon, and welcome to tumblr and to the fandom!! I’m so delighted you enjoyed C&C and that you’re loving your time here! 😊

I’m definitely planning on continuing that ‘verse, and will fingers crossed have a couple of installments up in the next few weeks (time permitting – it’s been a bit of a wild few months for me, haha), and as for your request, I can absolutely rec you some fics!

I’ve tried to keep it to canon / canon divergent fics, just because if I didn’t, this list would be a mile long, and I know I’ll have missed heaps (people should please reblog with additions!), but I hope these can get you started!

Series'

oh no, don't close your eyes by ms_scarlet /@mego42. Set in a loosely canon-compliant s3 ‘verse, Beth and Rio try to figure it out. Okay, full disclaimer, this ‘verse is as angsty as it is fluffy, but I feel like that’s the same sort of situation with my C&C ‘verse, so I hope you don’t mind me reccing it first, haha. This series is an absolute fave – it really gives all the characters space to breathe and react, and to use that breath, those reactions, to build something that gives us such a deep insight into Beth and Rio’s relationship while never undermining the other relationships around that. It’s magic, and rich, and will transport you, and it’s a series I just really, really love.

Only Show Me What Warmth Is by @riosnecktattoo. This series is also set in a loosely canon-compliant s3 ‘verse where Beth and Rio get together, but it’s pretty much the opposite tonally, haha, and just - - oh my gosh, this series is just the sweetest thing. It really leans into Beth and Rio at their most affectionate, but also at their most teasing and their most pigtail pulling – it's their familiar powerplays with the edges sanded down a bit, and it makes for something that feels soft but also still feels like them, which is a really hard balance to get right. It's a pretty special fic.

how to get from here to there by vuccijl / @lilliloves. Canon-compliant prior to 2.13! Annie's getting married and Beth needs a date! Rio complies! This series has four parts and it's absolutely delightful. V/L has such a wonderful sense of the characters' voices, particularly the girls', and it creates an atmosphere that feels like this perfect pivot to the show.

Tumblr prompts / stay gold: tumblr prompts by @foxmagpie. Okay, some of these are angsty too, haha, and they’re mostly standalone, but they’re all really rich, really compelling, really bite-sized snapshots of moments, worlds, relationships that make you want to peel your skin off a bit they’re so perfect. Megan always nails narrative beats and understands the way those interact with character, and it gives such a bounce to her stories that just leaves you wanting more in the best possible ways. This is an extremely magic collection of fics, but for your fluffy needs I’d direct you to two of my faves specifically – Get Your Hands off Me and Jealous Kiss 😉 )

One Shots

for a moment we were strangers by openhearts. A canon-divergence from 2.04, but involves Beth, Rio and Marcus and Emma playing house and it's extremely sweet and a little angsty but entirely lovely too.

PTA Vibes by greyish. Beth and Rio are on the PTA together! It's mostly canon compliant! Magic!!

Girl with the Tattoo by zetuslapetus / @querenaxx. Rio discovers Beth's hip tattoo! Zl/q has this incredible way of capturing Beth and Rio post-coital (and pre, and, err, just plain coital, haha), and just really leaning into the intimacy of that? It means a lot of her fics are pretty darn special, but this one is especially soft which makes it especially lovely for your fluffy-needs, haha.

A Bit of a Stretch by @septiembrre. Okay, this one was written for a prompt from me, haha, but it would x1000000 be on this list anyway, because it's so warm and wonderful and the sort of fic you can just sink right into. It's established relationship fic! Beth and Rio do a yoga class together! It just - - sings.

Candy Hearts by @peachraindrops. Valentine's Day!! An unknown but hopeful future!! This is more pwp than fluff necessarily, haha, but it's established relationship fic, it's fun and it's sexy and it really builds and builds to something that's really charged.

I hope that’s enough to get you started, anon! Happy reading 😉

[lovenona]

it’s here, it’s wild, and it’s fun – welcome to “what happened after the art show” featuring everyone’s favorite menace art student ryomen sukuna (previous installment here and full universe here) 

(note that this does contain some references to explicit content – it will be clearly marked within the text) 

now that i've captured your attention: there are a myriad of ways this could go, really. let’s start with the basics. 

first things first: while the thought of scratching up geto’s stupid little car sounds awfully appealing to you, and while you simply wanted to accept the offer for the sake of sukuna’s unusually kind gesture, you also know that you don’t want some serious claims filed against you. geto’s a prick, as you’ve learned, and it’s best to keep things civil. 

so you politely tell sukuna as much, and while he might tease you for being a coward, you know there’s no real malice behind that impenetrable voice of his. 

but the night is not over! sukuna will take you to his car, then. it’s vintage and black and a little beat up and there’s miscellaneous art supplies and tattoo reference books strewn across the backseat, but it smells so distinctly like sukuna that it feels strangely like home. he controls the music, of course, blaring indie and punk with his windows cracked so every stoplight can hear. (he has a preference for wolf alice. he thinks the lead singer is hot.) and even better, he’s got a smirk, a real one, as he drapes one hand across the steering wheel and the other on the glove box between you. 

(you think you’d like his hand to reach further. but you’re still technically in recovery mode, so of course you won’t say it, not yet.) 

your earlier sadness melts away with every minute you spend in sukuna’s car. he’ll take you for a drive without needing to ask. he can read the vibe – it’s you. you don’t want to go home, you don’t want to go out, you don’t want to be anywhere; so he’ll keep you in that liminal space, driving in circles and turning down strange roads whenever and wherever he feels like it. he’ll pass familiar buildings on campus to make a silly little quip, drive past the grocery store to watch students filter through with their reusable grocery bags, drive past the parks that loom in the dusk shadows. you don’t need to talk, and neither does he. it’s quiet, strangely, but a silence so comfortable you hardly notice it. 

and, frankly, the most realistic ending to this night would be that sukuna drops you off at your apartment complex and lets you go home for the night with a final joke. but, of course, i know that’s not why any of us are here. 

so, of course, let’s go to sukuna’s place, instead. it’s an expected gesture, almost, and you can’t say you’re particularly surprised when you see the familiar building come into view. you’ve been to his apartment a few times now, and it’s a place you’re beginning to learn like the back of your hand. 

at this point, your night could go one of two ways. you may now choose your own adventure: safe and fun or sex and spice? 

safe and fun: (mentions of alcohol) 

you’re stumbling through the door with sukuna, arguing with him as you always do, only to find yuuji and his crew in the living room playing god-knows-what on the xbox. they’ll wave you in with a casual vigor, their loud and raucous behavior making sense once you see the array of empty white claws on the table. (many of them are mango. it’s yuuji’s favorite flavor.) 

“you’re back early,” yuuji tells sukuna with a loopy grin, a grin that suggests something unspeakable as he wiggles his eyebrows. he looks at you with that dopey little smile and you roll your eyes. 

“the art show sucked,” sukuna responds, scrunching his nose and heading to the kitchen to fix himself a drink. “you fuckers still drink that shit?” 

sukuna, you know, hates white claw. he’ll only drink hard alcohol, mixed drinks, things that make him feel like a man. you’ve seen it firsthand countless times by now. 

“you’re fourteen minutes older than me,” yuuji whines. “don’t act so high and mighty, old man.”

so sukuna will make himself a drink – a real drink, he clarifies – and offer you a glass almost instinctively. your fingers brush his as he hands you the glass. something electric runs across the surface of your skin, rustles your bones. you make eye contact, and it’s a thousand lifetimes unsaid between you. 

(you wonder if you like him. you don’t know.) 

so the night passes: you watch yuuji and his friends try and struggle to complete the missions in their silly little game as sukuna sits next to you, flexing his biceps as if he knows you’re watching from the corner of your eyes. megumi yells at yuuji who yells at nobara, and while they offer to let you play, you simply cannot break the connection between them. you like the way yuuji laughs and the way nobara smiles and the way their presence is like a soothing balm, cool and collected. 

it’s strange and comforting all at the same time, this newfound ease you feel as you settle back into the couch, your drink sweet on your lips. 

the night is a warm lilt; the silly party plays their games, you watch, sukuna acts indifferent to the spectacle and threatens to return to his room at any moment. you know, though, that he’s enjoying himself, even if only because of his posture and the smirk ghosting his lips. it’s wonderful and mundane and in this moment of pure domesticity, you can allow yourself to forget the night’s events entirely. 

you hardly remember silly geto now, you do. you know you’ll be angry as all hell when you see him in class but for now, here, it’s okay. 

and when you fall asleep, slowly, suddenly, someone – you think sukuna, but he insists he didn’t – tucks you beneath a layer of warm blankets. it’s a warm night, a comforting night, one that feels like a kiss to the forehead. you need it. 

(you think sukuna really does kiss your forehead, too, but you don’t know. when you wake on the couch the next morning, you wonder whether it could have all been a dream.)

sex and spice: contains nsfw, slight dubcon (both characters are tipsy but very much consenting and happy with their situation), oral (f! receiving), sukuna being a tease 

oh, but the second option. you’ll stumble through the door in this life to find that yuuji’s not home – the apartment is dark and quiet and full of a tension you cannot name. you’ll become hyper aware of your actions, suddenly, shyly, taking note of the exact way you take off your coat and shoes and leave them in the doorway. sukuna feels incredibly present and you don’t know why. you’ve been alone with him before, but perhaps it’s different when you’re alone like this. when it’s his home, his couch, and not a classroom. it’s different, now, when the chances of being seen by strangers have decreased significantly. 

you’ll warm up slightly, though, when sukuna offers you a drink in that teasing voice he always uses when he wants to fluster you. he’ll fix the drinks with a bartender’s ease and sit down on the couch, throwing an arm back, letting his bicep tattoos flex in the golden glow of the living room. 

it’s so quiet, and you’re trying your best, really, but you don’t know what to say. you’ll put the television on and sukuna will find something you both know you  won’t watch but lets you ease the strain. you’ll make fun of it, he’ll make fun of it, and you’ll slide back like molasses into the lazy semblance of friendship you’ve cultivated together. 

and it’ll be easier to feel normal, too, once you’ve had a drink or two – your tongue loosens up, and you find yourself able to say things to sukuna that you’ve never said before. you find yourself forgetting that you’re alone with sukuna in his house, and that you are suddenly and absolutely nervous in a way you have never been before. 

“so tell me,” he’ll ask, turning to you on the couch, brave and arrogant with a dark and stormy in his system. “how was it?”

you pretend you don’t know what he’s talking about. “how was what?” you’ll purse your lips together and suppress the butterflies in your chest. you wonder just how long you have thought sukuna to be attractive. 

he’ll shake his head. “fucking geto, you idiot.” plastered across his face is the smirk you’d know with your eyes closed. he leans in, slightly, not enough to terrify you but enough to leave you struggling to form a complete sentence as your brain shuts down. 

but you’ve had something to drink, too, and while in daylight you would have ignored his question entirely, brushing him off as a perv and a jokester, you can’t help but think there’s something different in the aura of the room tonight. you can’t help but be honest. 

“it was fine, i guess,” you tell him. you shrug your shoulders and look back towards the television. you pretend you care about what you see. 

he smells like something smoky and earthy today. “fine?” 

you try to make a joke, but your head is spinning from his undivided attention. you do not know what you are anymore. “are you always this interested in my sex life?”

sukuna, surprisingly, grins with genuine amusement. “no, but geto gives off the vibe of a limp dick film boy, and i wanted to know if it’s true.” 

“limp dick film boy,” you repeat, and a hearty laugh escapes your bubbling chest. you feel your inhibitions melt away, and your secrets fly out of you, the horrifying experience of the art show fading behind you. you’ll deal with geto in class, you think vaguely. at least he never said your name. 

you sigh, forgetting him like a bad pun. “i mean, i guess it was fine. i don’t know.” 

“you don’t know.” you can’t tell if he’s being condescending or if he’s genuinely concerned for the state of your pitiful sex life. “did he at least give good head if he made a fucking sculpture about it?”

“what?” your heart stops, your face is hot, your brain on fire. it’s not that he’s crossed a line, you think, but that that question opens something deep and unspeakable and strange. “no?” you don’t know why you answer, but something within you tells you that you must. something tells you that the world is shifting, and you must follow.

“he didn’t?” you feel the couch shift as sukuna shifts closer. “what kind of fucker doesn’t? it’s common courtesy, you know.” 

“he didn’t want to,” you respond, but you don’t know what you’re defending.

“and if i do?” 

you freeze. one of sukuna’s hands traces your shoulder like butterfly wings. it must be the rum talking, you think, because there’s no way sukuna would want you. it wouldn’t make sense, certainly, you rationalize. he must be out of his mind, this must be a joke –

“you still there?” a finger taps your forehead. 

“yeah,” you respond, returning to yourself. you curse your flailing heartbeat. you turn to look at sukuna, so close to you, and you’re met with the terrifying depth of his dark gaze. you have never seen this gaze, this look that places you at the center of the universe. your breath nearly catches in your throat. 

sukuna leans in. so do you, instinctively. you disregard geto and the sculpture and everything that came before. this, you think. this is what it should have been like. you’ve been waiting for this moment since the first time he kissed you months ago. you’re overcome with sensations you cannot name, an ache that builds and spreads through your belly. perhaps you’ll regret it tomorrow. but now, here, you want it more than anything. 

“you don’t have to,” sukuna says. his breath is hot on your cheeks. 

“i want to,” you say, and it’s a kiss for the ages. 

so he’ll push you backwards to lie on the couch, and his shirt will be off and disregarded before you can think about it. you’ll trace the tattoos on his broad chest, lines and patterns you’ve never seen until now that you will never be able to forget. you’ll memorize the feeling of his tongue in your mouth, the smooth metal of his tongue piercing sending shivers down your spine. it’s messy and crude and everything you would expected it to be – neither one of you is willing to give in to the other. neither wants to admit this is anything more than a challenge. 

(you’re in heaven, though. geto who?) 

and fuck, god, the look he gives you as he asks if he can take your pants off now: you’d paint it, frame it, place it in every art museum in the world if you could. it’s the second time you’ve taken your clothes off for someone in your life and while it’s strange and weird and sukuna, it feels right at the same time. he bites your neck when you left your hips to slide the clothes off you body and you feel dizzy with hunger. 

sukuna loves to tease. he’ll make his way down your body slowly, tantalizingly, sly, and you swear you’ll lose your mind if he waits any longer. and when he looks back up to meet your eyes, with that lustful, dangerous, blown-out gaze, you know you’re fucked. you know you’re fucked when you realize it’s ryomen sukuna hanging out between your parted thighs, asking for consent before he places a soft kiss to your clit. 

and you know, you know bitterly, that this would have been the most mind-blowing sex of your life had the key not turned in the lock because yuuji decided to come home early. 

so you scramble to get your shit together, angry and disappointed. and even though you’ve regained your clothes and your dignity before yuuji can even remove his shoes and make his mindless way to the living room, you cannot quell the fire that grows within you. you cannot stop the hunger that has already begun. and sukuna knows it, too, because his eyes have not lost the look of a predator looking for prey. 

(and, you notice, because his dick is still hard.) 

he looks at you, and you look at him. he leans in, grins, whispers, “my room?” 

[myaekingheart]

20 [Fanfic Writer] Questions Game

Thank you so much for tagging me, @lemony-snickers! This is tons of fun, I love answering these kinds of big questionnaires 😂💕 Also putting mine under a cut because there’s a lot of questions and I like to ramble. 

Also gonna go ahead and just tag whoever wants to do this! 😅💕

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

As of August 27, 2021, I have a total of 77 works on my AO3! 

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

Funny enough, I was just looking at this, specifically, earlier today and kind of laughing about it. Right now, my total word count across all my works is 1,148,941 😬 

3. How many fandoms have you written for, and what are they?

Apparently 12, but some of them I don’t really consider “big” in my fandom repertoire. Naruto is my greatest fandom with a total of 60 fics so far, followed by The Chronicles of Narnia and Rise of the Guardians. The rest are ones I either did crossover fics with or just did one-off little pieces with--The Incredibles, Tangled, Brave, How to Train Your Dragon, Arthurian Mythology, Disney Princesses, Fairy Tales and Related Fandoms, Back to the Future, and Frozen. 

4. What are your Top Five fics by kudos?

The Scarecrow and The Bell (Naruto) - 470 kudos The Day Kakashi’s Mask Slipped (Naruto) - 139 kudos Sunflowers (Naruto) - 92 kudos Sakumo the House Husband (Naruto) - 81 kudos Someone to Lean On (Naruto) - 67 kudos

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I always try to respond to comments, because I like to acknowledge when people respond to my work. I cherish comments like nobody’s business, especially when they’re kind and reactionary. I just really love seeing/hearing what people think of the way a story is progressing, or what they thought of a one-shot. Comments keep me going especially when it comes to longfic so I want to be able to let readers know that I do in fact see their comments, that I’m acknowledging what they’re saying, and that I appreciate them. Plus, it can be kind of fun to tease upcoming events in a fic through responses to people’s comments, too. Because I’m mean. 

6. What fic have you written with the angstiest ending?

Definitely Hothouse (Rise of the Guardians/The Incredibles; Jack Frost x Violet Parr; American Horror Story AU). This was the first multi-chaptered fic I ever wrote to completion and I honestly cringe when I remember it exists both because it’s so poorly organized (and full of nasty plot holes) and because I just went ham on the gore factor. It definitely has a really bittersweet and heartbreaking ending to it, too. 

7. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

I think I’ll definitely have to say Temptation. The story itself was kind of a ride, and it’s only the first installment in a series, but it follows the plot of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe but remixed due to the presence of an original character, but the ending is still roughly the same as the original: they defeat the evil, the Pevensies are all crowned kings and queens, happy days. Reading the last few paragraphs of the last chapter honestly still gets me all up in my feelings. 

8. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I used to be more of a crossover writer due to one of my main ships being a crossover ship. They weren’t super crazy, though, because they were both CGI-animated films. The craziest crossover I’ve ever written is an in-progress/unfinished multichapter piece, Kakashi, Enchanted, that sees our favorite Copy Ninja get kamui’d into the Disney princess dimension and has to help the likes of Snow White, Cinderella, and Rapunzel on his journey to find a way back to his own world. It’s a super weird premise but definitely one of my more lighthearted works and fun to revisit when I need to decompress. 

9. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I don’t think I’ve ever received hate so much as I’ve received criticism. The closest I ever got to hate on a fic, I think, was someone left an overly personal and mentally disturbed comment on a chapter of my main fic that made me convinced they needed to seek therapy and deal with their own personal issues rather than take it out on a fanfic about animated ninjas. 

10. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Maybe 👀 I’m super vanilla when it comes to smut, though. I think the wildest thing I’ve ever written in smut is breeding kink. 

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of, and I hope I never will. 

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not yet! I had someone ask to translate a one-shot of mine in Russian but I never got a response back when I laid out my terms and conditions. 

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have not! I used to do paragraph-style roleplay which was kind of like cowriting fanfiction but writing is so personal and sacred to me that I don’t know if I could ever actually cowrite a fic with someone. I like brainstorming with other people, but writing for me is more of a deeply personal and independent endeavour. 

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Oh god, this is a tricky question because it depends on fandom. I absolutely love New Dream (Rapunzel x Eugene, Tangled) and have for the past ten years, and my love for them as only grown since watching Tangled: The Series/Rapunzel’s Tangled Adventure. I don’t write or even really read a ton of fanfiction for them, though. I’m also still highly dedicated to my favorite crossover crackship, Frostfield (Jack Frost x Violet Parr, Rise of the Guardians/The Incredibles) and to this day, if you search for that ship on AO3, I am the sole provider of every single fic about them so far. I’m not as active with them as I used to be, but they got me through some really rough times back in the day and still mean so much to me. A lot of my favorite ships across fandoms, though, are honestly canon x OC ships of mine because I am a self-indulgent bitch who needs to project. So Peter Pevensie x Eilonwy (The Chronicles of Narnia) and Kakashi Hatake x Rei Natsuki (Naruto) are really important to me and I’ve poured so much of myself specifically into their stories. I think it’s safe to say Kakashi and Rei is my all-time favorite ship across all fandoms, though, just because of how much their story means to me. The Scarecrow and The Bell is my magnum opus, my pride and joy, and I’m sure it will be my biggest fandom footprint of my entire life. I’ve dedicated the past three years to this story and these characters and I intend to continue doing it until it no longer brings me joy (which I hope it always will). There’s just so much I could say about this story and Kakashi and Rei’s relationship but I don’t think we have enough time or space in this post for that 😅 Just know that they mean the world to me and I will always hold them in the highest regard as a beautifully messy, flawed, passionate, soulmate-y ship that I love with all of my heart 🥺

EDIT: I also feel obligated to tack on some of my absolute favorite Naruto ships because I may not have written for all of them (yet) but they still make me unbelievably happy or I find them really compelling and enjoy the idea of exploring them: 

Naruhina is precious happy sunshine and The Last honestly felt like a wonderful Disney princess movie to me, it was so cute and the romance was so on-point, Naruhina just makes me so incredibly happy and I love them with all my heart. 

MinaKushi also gets me all up in my feels and I adore them with every fiber of my being. Their romance also gave me Disney princess movie vibes which I love, their story is just so damn sweet as is their character dynamic and I am still so heartbroken that they never got to be a happy family with Naruto because you know what? It’s what they deserved!

SasuSaku is so compelling to me and I really feel like we were cheated out of seeing their relationship develop and evolve postwar in the same way The Last did for Naruhina. They’re my favorite angst ship and while I don’t think they were written that well in canon, I love the possibility and potential of them together and am excited to explore them more in-depth in my own writing. 

NejiTen is just too cute, I really love the way Neji and Tenten’s personalities compliment each other? I don’t have much else to say about them except that I really love them together and think they have so much untapped potential that I also can’t wait to explore in more depth in my own writing. 

15. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

Paper Hearts and Impromptu Bookmarks, probably. I love the premise of this story a lot and I have so many interesting ideas for it but at the same time, it also feels kind of cheap and cringey to me, in a way? It takes all of these ideas I probably would have had if I had been into Naruto when I was a kid and kind of compiles them all into one big story. Kakashi and Aiko’s relationship and story is still really important to me and I want to continue it someday but for right now, I just haven’t had the motivation or desire to write any more of it. I think I’m just so overwhelmingly preoccupied with writing Kakashi and Rei’s story that I can’t imagine writing any other Kakashi x OC fics right now. 

16. What are your writing strengths?

I want to say that I’m really good at capturing complex emotion? I don’t know, I write a lot of angst and mental upheaval in my fics which can be really difficult to try and capture, but I think I do a decent enough job of it? And just writing difficult subjects in general. I think it’s really important to address difficult topics such as mental illness and relationship difficulties and everything but I also want to try and write those topics in a way that is both authentic to the experience while also still tasteful. I don’t want to drive readers away with heavy subject matter but rather present a situation that feels real and authentic while also still being digestible. I may not be doing a very good job of that during the current arc of my fic that I’m working on, but I’m trying haha

EDIT 2: I also want to add onto this to say that I’m really proud of my organizational techniques for writing longfic. It’s not necessarily a strength in terms of the prose itself but it’s something that’s taken me years to really get a grasp on and find a method that works perfectly for me and so far, it’s been extremely helpful and beneficial to me. I don’t know where I would be now as a writer without these essential tools in my pocket. 

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I feel like I do a really bad job of the “show, don’t tell” thing. It can be really hard to balance descriptive prose with straightforward writing that moves things along. I don’t want to dwell on mental dialogue to the point where you lose track of what’s going on, but I also don’t want my stuff to read like “Character A did xyz. Character B said abc. They went to 123″, whatever. Another thing I struggle with is sentence variation. I always fall into the same patterns when I’m writing prose and I get really self-conscious about it because I don’t want to sound repetitive or disrupt the flow of the writing. One of my favorite things about prose is focusing on the cadence of the words, I think it’s one of the most beautiful things about writing in general, but it can just be really difficult to get a good grip on that. I’ve been told in the past that I apparently have a really good grasp/control of the language or whatever but sometimes I just find that really hard to believe when I look at my work with such scrutiny. I think one of my biggest pet peeves with my own writing, too, is feeling like I start all of my sentences the same five different ways. I’ll read other people’s works and they’ll write sentences like “Glass-blue water lapped against the shores of a deserted beach as a lonely woman gazed off into the distance” and I can just never figure out how to realistically write sentences that start like that in the context of my prose and it drives me fucking crazy, like I’m definitely jealous  😅

18. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I’ve never really thought much about it before, but I think there are pros and cons! For bilingual/multilingual readers, I think it can be a really enriching reading experience because they know what’s being said in both languages. For people who only know one language, however, unless a translation is provided, I feel like it can be really alienating. I think the best use of that for both worlds is using it as a means for miscommunication humor. Other than that, I think it can be a slippery slope that depends on what kind of reader you are and how it’s written. 

19. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

The Chronicles of Narnia! My very first fanfiction was a Narnia fanfic that I barely remember except that it laid the basis for Temptation and my Narnia fanfic series as a whole. I never posted this first iteration anyway, but I remember it was 2008/2009 and I wrote a solid 80 pages (which was wild for me at the time) and had gotten halfway through remixing the events of Prince Caspian when my computer crashed and I lost absolutely everything. I’m still heartbroken that it’s gone forever, not because I’d want to go back and read it necessarily (since I’m sure it was actually hot garbage) but at least for nostalgia’s sake. Either way, like I said, this long-lost fic laid the basis for the very first fanfiction I ever posted, the first published (and never finished) iteration of Temptation back in 2011 on deviantART and the since-defunct Figment. I fell out of the fandom around 2012/2013 and left the story alone for a while before ultimately deciding to completely redux and rewrite the story when the fixation swung back around again between 2016 and 2018. 

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Despite the fact that it’s still in-progress, definitely The Scarecrow and The Bell. This fic just genuinely means so damn much to me and I will cherish it for the rest of my life because of how much it’s given me, how much love and passion and time and even parts of myself that I have poured into this, and also just how expansive of a story this is. Not only does it touch on some very dark and heavy topics, but I’ve also created so much of my own characters and meta for this story that it’s almost an entire universe in and of itself. I’ve just contributed so much additional world-building and created so many new OCs to fill important roles in this story and in Rei’s life, and they’ve all become so deeply important to me as they’ve developed further over the years. I’ve come up with so many interesting ideas for everyone and their lives, which are all slowly becoming so rich and varied. Not to mention that it’s my most popular fic to date as well as my longest fic at 632k and counting. I’ve really just genuinely poured so much of my heart and soul into this story, it’s my absolute favorite thing I’ve ever done and I really mean it when I say that I will cherish it for the rest of my life. 

[m4gp13]

I generally try to keep relationshippy type posts more platonic on my blog but ethabaster shippers (or ethaster, as I’ve seen it referred to) y’all gave me content when there was none, this one’s for you babes <3 Also quick sidenote, this ship has extremely limited content in canon (which is to say, NONE) so a lot of this is based on speculation but bear with me because some of them are actually fairly plausible (or at the very least they aren’t explicitly ruled out by canon). Si tight because this may end up being pretty extensive.

The main reason they are shipped is because they are the only two similarly aged demigods in the titan army that we have any information on (including name) and thus have some small chance of meeting however it would be silly to say this is the only reason and - believe it or not - there are some other interesting reasons on why this is shipped. Keep in mind this is the PJO fandom, a fandom that visibly adores the “the grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one” trope (have y’all seen how popular Solangelo is ???) and in that respect Ethan and Alabsters personalities are easily compatible. 

I can’t recall a single instance in the books where Ethan is described as smiling; he is usually serious, driven and has very sharp responses to questions or statements he doesn’t like (see: “there is no wrong side”, glaring after being asked about his eye and almost pulling a sword on Percy for questioning his mothers motives and ethics). Alabaster on the other hand, while he is still traumatised from the massacre he recently witnessed, does still make ironic comments, smile and he is described at one point as “happy-go-lucky”. And yes, it is important to note that Ethan was with his enemy and Alabaster was with an ally during pretty much every page we see them in, the fact that Ethan had moments ago been rescued by the people he was snapping at and Alabaster still being somewhat cheery despite the horrors he had only just witnessed suggests it is more of a personality thing rather than a situation thing.  

This beloved trope is of course not the only instance of compatibility between the two. For example, Ethan’s story ended with him giving up the notion of getting revenge on the Olympians like kronos wanted and instead giving his life to pursue and fulfill his original goal of balance. On the contrary, Alabasters story is currently in a state in which vengeance helps keep him going; he sites revenge as the only thing that would make him go anywhere near chb. This sort of balances them out and creates and interesting dynamic and it would be a joy to see them interact after this but considering Ethan’s current predicament I don’t think that’s likely except in fics. (although in this Ethans calmer demeanor would make him the sunshine one and Alabaster with his John Wick revenge plot would be the grumpy one).

They also have a lot in common but not so much that they start looking like mirrors. They are both clearly passionate about their cause, both of them are willing to kill and die for what they believe is right. They both openly express how strongly they feel to the conflict and they didn’t get so far in the army by being apathetic to what everyone around them is fighting for. Alabaster was chosen to lead the demigods into battle and Ethan is definitely a person of note in the army from the things we’ve seen him do (meaning they had a very high chance of meeting during their time in the army). However, Alabaster and Ethan view the army in very different ways. Al clearly sees the army as a heroic force from his “hero’s never die, right?” line while Ethan isn’t so black and white with his world view which we know from his “there is no wrong side” line. This means that they are similar enough to have common interests that they can bond over while still being separate people that can act on their own wishes, desires or simple personalities. (because sometimes it’s nice when characters are characters instead of just existing to serve a ship)

They understand each other. As they were both high ranking members of the titan army with similar goals they will have had similar experiences and therefore know things about each other that most people just can’t; as in, they don’t have the experience necessary to understand them like they understand each other. This is very appealing from an observers perspective because a lot of the time people don’t want grand declarations of love and massive bouquets, they just want someone to know them intimately enough to be truly in love.

They also have a lot of story potential both before and after Ethan’s death. Especially if you consider the fact that Al could have saved Ethan or brought him back as a mistform. People like drama and intentionally or not seek out dramatic things. Ethan and Al’s storys are dramatic enough on their own but when you put them together and then imagine all the things they could have done or could do!!! The spice! The flavour! The DRAMA!!! and the intrigue. They are both very interesting characters that can pique one’s curiosity easily. When people are curious about characters they look more into them, think about them more and in some cases this leads to shipping.

Another reason is simple vibes. Sometimes you just look at some characters and go “yeah bro those guys vibe together” and that’s that. Your ship has been chosen by the Vibes ain’t nothing you can do about it. 

These aren't the only reasons of course but these are the only ones coming to my mind; if you have others please tell me. Now that we’ve got a couple of reasonings of why they’re shipped it’s time to look at their canon interactions. Since there are none you may expect me to skip this part entirely but you underestimate my devotion to both my favourite (platonic and romantic) ship and ✨obsessing over throwaway lines that only exist to give the readers a clearer image of a scene in their head rather than any plot important reasons✨. That’s right fellas it’s over analysis time (as the old saying goes, “if i cannot find homoerotic subtext, I will create it”) !!!

Before we begin, fear not avid lovers of sticking to things explicitly mentioned in the books, my argument is not “On page 228 of my copy of battle of the labyrinth, Ethan is first mentioned by a demigod holding a torch. Alabasters mother is the goddess Hecate and one of Hecate’s symbols is the torch therefore Alabaster is the person who found Ethan and thus the first times both are mentioned is in conjunction with each other which means boyfriends”, although I will admit my mind did have fun spiraling down to that little tidbit.

We know from the son of magic that Alabaster was able to use his magic to protect himself from the Princess Andromeda exploding but we are never given an explanation on how Ethan survived. I have mentioned this theory before and I’m going to say again the idea that Alabaster used the same magic to save Ethan that he used on himself. Alabaster doesn’t mention Ethan when he tells Claymore how he survived but remember he is still traumatized and it is anything but rare for trauma victims to seriously suppress their trauma (for example: almost watching a close companion being blown up right in front you and knowing that you are the only thing standing between them and breaking their toe on the big bad bucket) Of course there are reasons this might not work such as Ethan leaving the main deck to go to the engine room before the ship blows and Alabaster, being a high commanding officer, was likely on the deck when she blew however, Alabaster could have easily given Ethan some kind of magical protection before hand as they were warned of the anti Andromeda plot and will have prepared for any possible outcome. 

Another deadly event that Ethan miraculously survived is the bridge incident. Realistically, do you genuinely believe that an unconscious, minorly wounded kid is going to be able to drag his unconscious body through a massive crowd of tightly packed teenagers, to the other side of a very large bridge and get far enough away from that bridge to be safe from it completely collapsing all by himself ??? We already know Alabaster is powerful enough to survive an explosion of greek fire so a collapsing bridge should be nothing to him, even if he is lugging around his friends limp almost-corpse. Also, if you like the trope of character A lovingly teasing character B then there’s nothing to say Alabaster wasn’t the “nice knowing ya” guy and, If you prefer it when character A ruthlessly defends character B from silly jabs then there’s also nothing to say Alabaster didn’t stomp on the guys foot the second Ethan left. 

Another thing, ya know how Al has a bit of a revenge thing that he might need to tone down ever so slightly? Who better to help with that than a kid whose mum is the goddess of that kind of thing?! And yes, I know Ethan was already dead at that point but also, I don’t care; it can sort itself out. Anyway, I feel like with Nemesis kids it’s less of a “constantly seeking revenge for everything” and more of a “having a deeper understanding of revenge and therefore more able to regulate who does or doesn’t need some vengeance in their life”. It would have been interesting if Ethan survived and sorta coached Al on his feelings and how to deal with them in the least destructive way possible.

Also, as I mentioned before they are both high ranking individuals in the titan army. Al is chosen to lead the demigod forces into battle and Ethan seems to get called on by Kronos for a lot of specific tasks i.e. the sword of Hades, capturing Beckendorf, guarding Prometheus and being with Kronos during what he thought would be his final victory. From this we can assume that they probably worked pretty close together as the only high ranking demigods aside from Luke that we know of. All other important people in the army are titans, monsters or gods. As the only two demigods with such importance they probably gravitated towards each other and bonded over their workloads, goals or other things that people talk about before developing more intimate feelings (I assume but anyone who knows how relationships work please correct me if I’m wrong)

Also, a couple of things I noticed is what drives them is, at surface level, the same thing. They both want the Olympians to back up a bit and allow for the minor deity’s to receive some of the respect that has been with held from them for centuries. However, Al is more deeply motivated by his emotions while Ethan is not so much. Al expresses anger at the gods and disdain, he almost immediately latches on to the closest father figure he can get and gets notably excited when it appears he’s about to win and distraught when he thinks he’s lost. Ethan is motivated less by hatred for the gods but by a less emotionally draining thought of the minor gods deserve respect. He never gets emotionally invested in tasks, even life or death ones, unless attacked with something personal (he was generally apathetic during the parley until Percy started insulting him and his mother).

 This could be due to Al being allowed to openly express emotion while Ethan has been taught to suppress it. What evidence do I have for this? Their mothers. To Nemesis, Ethan is a tool, a means to an end, a “thing” to use so she can get the desired outcome. To her, taking his eye and telling him to join the army was little different from drilling a hole in a board. She took a part of his body as payment so she clearly doesn’t see him as or care that he is his own person with thoughts, feelings and desires of his own. Hecate on the other hand actively acknowledges that her son has his on interests ideas and she wants to see him happy which is a complete U turn from Nemesis. We know that Al ans Hecate have regular enough conversations through dreams but we don’t know if Ethan ever met Nemesis after the eye thing. So we know that Al has contact with a mother that not only supports him but actively uses her powers to improve his life (see Claymore) and Ethan saw his mother once, was presumably traumatized and never saw her again. Big yikes. (Also the reason that Hecate stopped resisting the Olympians was because they threatened her with Al’s life. If Nemesis was the one who chose to resist and Ethan was still alive would she have stopped to keep him alive? I doubt it)

But yeah that’s pretty much all possible character interactions they could have had, the rest is up to our dear old friend, imagination. have fun kids. Also pretty much everything here can be read as platonic sooo.

[hlupdate]

On November 18, 2019, a website promoting a mysterious place called Eroda (“No Land Quite Like It”) arrived on the internet. Two days later, the official Twitter account for this fictional frown-shaped island began teasing local seaside attractions. You may have missed it, depending on which corners of the internet you choose to lurk, but not if you were a Harry Styles fan, a group that went into pure overdrive trying to figure out what it all meant.

I, for one, missed it at the time. I was unaware this account was cryptically quote tweeting fans as they tried to piece together what was happening, what it meant, and what it could be connected to (Greek Mythology and Lostwere a couple of theories posed in comments, Twitter threads, and Reddit). Meanwhile, the Columbia Records marketing department had been hard at work for months, devising this specific and highly-detailed campaign around the music video for Styles’ second single, “Adore You” from his second solo album, Fine Line, ever since he shot the video in Scotland in August 2019 (Eroda = Adore backwards — clever!).

But it was all leading up to the morning of Friday, December 6 when the video was released, one week before the full-length album arrived. Up until that point, I had never seen an entire Harry Styles music video, but what happened next was inevitable. Somehow, as a self-proclaimed boy band scholar, I had never paid much attention to One Direction. I kept a distant eye on Styles since they disbanded, intrigued by the decisions he was making in his solo career. But I hadn’t yet realized I’d been in the ring all throughout the fall of 2019, fighting to resist the inevitable fascination that awaited. First came the jab of Rob Sheffield’s Rolling Stoneprofile, followed by the cross of “Lights Up”, a song that cracked my Top 20 most listened to songs of the year despite being released just two months before Spotify so thoughtfully compiled that personalized playlist. Then there was the hook of his SNL hosting stint in November (and bless you Bowen Yang for that Sara Lee sketch), which then leads us to the “Adore You” video, the uppercut and ultimate TKO. I surrendered in what felt like a near instant. I was now a Harry Styles fan. (If we’re following this analogy, I sat up to spit out some blood after seeing that cover of “Juice” before my head quickly hit the mat again with a loud thud).

Maybe it’s not quite remarkable that I took time out of a Friday morning to watch a music video, but that I sat at my desk, in an office, with other people around (back when we did those kinds of things) and proceeded to wipe away a few tiny tears from under my eyes by the end of it, was an experience I had not been through… maybe ever? In a world of lyric videos and TikToks, actual, thoughtful, impactful music videos with a full (and sweet!) story are about as rare as a glowing and growing fish these days.

Ultimately, “Adore You” does everything a music video should do. In nearly eight minutes, this video uses excellent visual effects in a cool and interesting way, tells a compelling and heartfelt story, is anchored by an irresistible leading man and an adorable sidekick, is backed up by the catchiest song you could ever dream of, and culminates with a touching and hopeful ending. It’s a treat for the eyes and the ears and the soul. It’s innovative and the kind of thing that begs you to watch it more than once to catch all the details (and yes, I do tear up every time).

So one would think that an award show with the specific purpose of celebrating this type of creativity would be extra sure to nominate such a charming and effective clip, but alas, “Adore You” was overlooked in the MTV Video Music Awards main categories this year. Of course, some could argue that that fact only adds to the video’s credibility but I’ll do my best to not be that petty as I’m still rooting for it to win in the three technical categories where it picked up nominations: Best Visual Effects by Mathematic, Best Art Direction by Laura Ellis Cricks, and Best Direction by Dave Meyers, who remains one of the most inventive and influential directors of all time and whose videos with artists such as Missy Elliot, Pink, and Kendrick Lamar have been racking up nominations for nearly 20 years now. He also saw four other videos he directed get recognized this year: Normani’s “Motivation” (Best Chorography), Travis Scott’s “Highest in the Room” (Best Hop Hop and Best Visual Effects), Anderson .Paak’s “Lockdown” (Video For Good), and Camila Cabello feat. DaBaby’s “My Oh My” (Best Cinematography).

But I reached out to Meyers to specifically ask about the intricate details of “Adore You” and how it all came to be; how he captured such a vibe with the overcast and dreary weather, mixed so wonderfully with the charming oddities of the people that make up this world of Eroda. In addition to directing the video, he also co-wrote the story with Chris Shafer and said, “It’s the first idea that popped to mind after the first listen to the song, and the first idea I pitched to Harry. It was a story that underscored my understanding of what Harry stood for and felt it was necessary to tell it as a narrative to convey his optimism.”

The extended version of the video starts with a two-and-a-half-minute introduction to the world of Eroda, narrated by Rosalia. This includes the “peculiar” people and their professions on the island, meeting The Boy (Styles) and his glowing smile that most people try to avoid, and the quirky superstitions these people continue to live by. “It all served a purpose,” Meyers said of the details. “The superstitions were a set up for how society generally reacts to different things. They fear change or oddity, even if it’s what’s best for them.”

Meyers, however, did not share in that fear, as much of this video provided for interesting and new opportunities he had yet to experience throughout his decades-long career, which he listed off: ”Compelling narrative, CG character, remote location, Scottish crew (nothing fazed them),” also noting that all of the other characters in the video were locals as well. So perhaps they were less fazed by the atmosphere across the four-day shoot in Scotland, but as Meyers recalled, the “weather was nuts. It rained every 20 minutes, then the sun, then cloud over.”

However, it’s likely that Mother Nature is also a Styles fan, as Meyers recalled, “I seem to remember going up on the hill for Harry’s picnic with the fish and being worried that it was so gloomy. By the time we came to shoot, the sun came out. And then the sun went away as soon as the scene was over. Similarly, we had the worst storm when Harry was contemplating suicide at the start. Pouring rain, drenching him. So I guess in that sense it was fun watching how Scotland provided a backdrop for the emotions we were after.”

And hey, at least they had the weather on their side to add to the mood while shooting the video, as one of their main characters, well, didn’t exist. “It was very odd shooting with no fish,” Meyers admitted. “But was quite rewarding later seeing it dropped in and making empathic sense to the story we were after.”

Of course, the main character they did have on hand is an awfully useful and appealing one at that. Fans became enamored with the moment Styles uses the back of his hand to check the temperature of a coffee pot before dumping the fish inside the water so it could stay alive. I asked Meyers about this particular moment and he said, “The problem we had was apparent when Harry ran in and threw the fish in the pot. We all sorta felt — well, what if it was hot? So I believe Harry improvised that as a solution and we felt it was perfect for the character’s sensitivity and consideration for this poor fish.” And that’s not the only nice thing he does for his fish friend — he also serves him a tiny taco! “The taco was a whimsical way to express friendship between Harry and the fish,” Meyers offered. It looked pretty tasty, too.

The entire video serves as a showcase for what Styles does best and what makes him such a unique artist: his music, his acting, and his charisma, which Meyers knew would offer him a lot to work with. “Harry is a leading man. I felt that from my first meeting and wanted to play with his wonderful range of emotions. So finding a story with a real character arc was part of my focus in building this world.” Meyers described working on “Adore You” as an “all-around memorable shoot: awesome location, lovely Harry, compelling story, great effects, and… it worked.”

It did. And it was a risk: a video this complex and detailed (and one has to assume, costly), attached to a marketing campaign that proved to be even more involved, still came with no guarantee that the fans wouldn’t shrug it off. But as Manos Xanthogeorgis, SVP of Digital Marketing & Media at Columbia Records told Billboard last year, “When you have a video and a piece of art at such a level, it’s an incredible challenge for the rest of the team to build a campaign at that same level of artistry and creativity.” Oh, and that was only step one, as the marketing team engaged in “real-time marketing” with fans online, ensuring they would continue to remain engaged by dropping clues and clips in the lead-up to the video premiere and subsequently the album. “This whole campaign was around mystery and sometimes mystery is more powerful than knowledge,” Xanthogeorgis said. The Twitter handle has remained active throughout 2020, used as a continual marketing tool for Styles’ next videos including the Meyers-directed “Falling” and this summer’s hit, “Watermelon Sugar.”

With that kind of fan engagement, “Adore You” seemed like a no-brainer for the fan-voted categories of the VMAs this year, as they surely would’ve turned out to vote just as feverishly for this video as they did when searching for clues (about a made-up island, at that!). But hey, maybe MTV was just not interested in massive fan engagement this year — after all, it’s not like everything Styles does, including growing freakin’ facial hair, has the internet in a tizzy for weeks. Ultimately, as the impact of music videos (and certainly the ceremony celebrating them) continues to lose relevance, the disregard of this specific project simply feels like a missed opportunity to acknowledge a rare achievement in the art form.

While Meyers was sure to describe his inclusion in the VMA nominations this year as “lovely and flattering” (and he better have a moonperson in his possession this time next week, MTV!) it’s still puzzling why “Adore You” wouldn’t be included in the big categories, considering Styles is squarely within their demo, at the very least. That “Adore You” is also a technical and storytelling masterpiece, as well as a full moment that was used as inspiration both for the experience online and in-person at the Fine Line Spotify listening party last December, that also comes packed with one of the most enthusiastic groups of fans around, well, that should have had the entire network drooling.

Of course, some of this can simply be chalked up to a perfect storm. As far as his singles go, “Lights Up” was a nice appetizer, but “Adore You” remains the delicious entree (you already know what’s for dessert). “Adore You” is a perfect pop record if I’ve ever heard one (and I have) and deserved a special video. A Chris Isaak “Wicked Game” sexy vibe wasn’t going to work here. The song tells the story of such passionate, pure, and heartachingly naive and innocent love that it almost had to be directed toward a non-human being. Instead, Styles chose to inject those same carefree, sweaty, sticky, delicious, whimsical beach vibes into the “Watermelon Sugar” clip, which was the right choice, and not just for the summertime season (MTV has since added the Song of Summer category to the VMAs and included “Watermelon Sugar”).

But it’s “Adore You” that has melodies that bring a smile to the faces of babies, get your toes tapping even when you hear it in the dentist’s chair, and likely has my neighbors rolling their eyes when I sing along to it in the shower. The song is so simple it’s deep, a theme reflected in the video, as is the central reminder to help and care for others, a thoroughly 2020 message.

However, not all is lost. Both “Adore You” and “Watermelon Sugar” continue to rack up major spins at radio with the latter hitting number one on the Billboard charts earlier this month. Grammy voting kicks off at the end of September and Academy members should take note. Not only is Fine Line more than worthy of being acknowledged, but having Styles on hand to potentially collect trophies and perform is in your best interest when it comes to viewers and online chatter. Do not wait to take him seriously. This is the album, this is the time. Prove that you aren’t a bunch of stodgy old white men who think he’s just for teen (and um, thirty-something) girls, but that you understand the music he enjoys, is inspired by, and subsequently makes, is the same rock music you appreciate as well. An artist like Styles can be both of those things at the same time, and really, the best of both worlds. Give the album a listen, and then one more to let it all sink in. If you have not yet succumbed to the force that is Harry Styles fandom, I truly can’t recommend it enough — and please know that it will get you eventually.

[officialleotolstoy]

Oh Dolokhov/Hélène Brainrot We’re Really In It Now, aka Dolokhov/Hélène playlist annotations!

I stole several songs from a playlist my friends have and I’m not gonna put those on this list, I won’t pretend I came up with those

The ship playlists (since they aren’t for canon couples) are very much based on my headcanons. We don’t get to see them interact literally ever so I’ve just extrapolated what I can. Several of these songs are at least alluding to sex, I don’t really think they actually slept together for various reasons I can enumerate if someone asks, but it’s more about the vibes of the song.

Casual Affair - Panic! At The Disco

It’s literally in the title. Bestie how much more explanation do you need? I don’t even like this song but it’s got the right energy

Those Nights - Bastille

“Aren’t we all just looking for a little bit of hope these days? Looking for somebody you can wake up with?”

Being drawn to each other because of mutual loneliness is a Thing in my interpretation of their relationship, and this hits the nail on the head.

But It’s Better If You Do - Panic! At The Disco

“Praying for love and paying in naïveté”

Again, mutual loneliness and desperation for anything resembling love. Also the “isn’t this exactly where you like me” bit fits because they won’t admit to liking each other outside of their weird intimate moments.

Hurricane - Panic! At The Disco

“Drop our anchors in a storm”

The circumstances of their lives arent super fun at the moment so they find refuge in each other but in a very weird kind of unhealthy way! “We are a hurricane” sort of alludes to knowing that you’re causing problems/your relationship isn’t great.

Almost (Sweet Music) - Hozier

“I’m almost me again, she’s almost you”

It’s about not really being In Love but kind of convincing yourself you are because it makes you feel better in the circumstances. I don’t think either of them were fully into their relationship for various reasons. Not as in they didn’t want the other, more that they were both too aware it would never work for long.

Hall & Oates - Satchmode

“I want to be in love again, with you”

This one’s about wanting the idea of love and companionship more than you actually like the other person, which I feel like kind of fits. This song is framed as one person in love with the other and one hesitating, but i think this works for both of them to hesitate.

Feel Something - Jaymes Young

“Touch me, someone, I’m too young to feel so numb”

The I have tried like six times and I can’t word why I think this song works. I don’t even like it, I skip it every time, but I think it’s got something to do with loneliness and desperation for love driving them to look for it in places they wouldn’t normally? Who knows. Send me an ask if u do.

Another Place - Bastille

“Don’t make promises to me that you’re gonna break”

They could never actually be together for SO many reasons and I think they’re both pretty aware of that. They have no desire to pretend that their relationship is anything other than what it is (“we only ever wanted one thing from this”).

When You Were Young - The Killers

“You sit there in your heartache, waiting on some beautiful boy to save you”

I do not think Hélène expected Dolokhkov to save her from anything except maybe monotony and loneliness, but this song slaps and if I can stretch the lyrics to work, I will

broken - lovelytheband

“I could be lonely with you”

Almost every song on here (including this one) is just. We’re messed up and I know we won’t really find love in each other but we might find solace for a while and be less lonely so uhhhhh wanna kiss me or what

Bleed Magic - I DONT KNOW HOW BUT THEY FOUND ME

“You stand up, stand up, before I drag you down”

They are NOT good for each other! Toxic relationships uwu

Sweater Weather - The Neighbourhood

I believe in bi4bi Hélène/Dolokhov

Enemy Fire - Bea Miller

“Sweet words from a serpent’s tongue”

This song is kinda complicated and parts of it don’t fit but the energy of “everything sucks including you but at least we can hide from the suckiness together” is sorta there. Originally I just added it for the soldier vibes because I was testing out songs but I realized i can fit some of the lyrics so on the playlist it goes

Angel of the Small Death and the Codeine Scene - Hozier

“Her sweetened breath and her tongue so mean”

They are horrible and cold to each other as a love language. This song is essentially just “Wow my evil scary gf is so hot” and you’re right Fyodor. She is.

Shut Up and Dance - WALK THE MOON

I won’t lie this one’s mostly a joke, I just think the vibes of telling someone to shut up as (maybe because) you’re falling in love with them is Dolokhov/Hélène energy. Ignore all the parts about wanting to be with her forever and her being his destiny that is not why I added it.

Lone Ranger - Rachel Platten

“I’m just gonna leave, ‘cause baby I’m a lone ranger”

I do not think Dolokhov was intending to stay with her forever at all. Very rude of him. However, she probably also knew it wouldn’t last forever, she’s not stupid.

House of Memories - Panic! At The Disco

“Promise me a place in your house of memories”

This is very much post-duel, their relationship has fizzled out but it was pretty important (do I mean emotionally or to the plot? I’ll never tell) and deserves to be remembered.

American Beauty/American Psycho - Fall Out Boy

“I’m the best worst thing that hasn’t happened to you yet”

SO MANY of these lyrics are so good for them like. Hélène’s beautiful Dolokhov’s a psycho... “you take the full truth and you pour some out” can you imagine them being open and honest with each other? Yeah, me neither. “We were pity sex” They were just sad and lonely! That was what allowed anything to happen at all in my head (not sex but bear with me it’s not my fault those are the lyrics). “All those dirty thoughts of me, they were never yours to keep” because Hélène is married to someone else, they really have no right to think of each other that way.

Sk8er Boi - Avril Lavigne

“He wasn’t good enough for her”

UNIRONICALLY THIS SONG. Hélène’s complaints about Dolokhov staying with them are just the quoted lyric. “They had a problem with his baggy clothes” yeah Dolokhov’s not as rich and bougie and the rest of them and he’s certainly rough around the edges. And then the skater boy ending with a successful music career vs Dolokhov ending with a successful military career and a great reputation and both the women in the songs having sad endings...I’m not wrong.

Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bad Bet - Fall Out Boy

“Does your husband know the way that the sunshine gleams from your wedding band?”

The affair vibes. The AFFAIR VIBES. And the concept of “I will never end up like him [the husband]/ behind my back I already am” in reference to using Hélène and deciding he hates her right after deciding she’s hot...okay! I see you kinning Pierre, Dolokhov. You ARE being just like her husband :/

You Give Love A Bad Name - Bon Jovi

“Shot through the heart and you’re to blame”

This is just Dolokhov’s massive I Hate Women monologue condensed. Stop blaming beautiful women for YOUR attraction to them maybe 🔫

Death Valley - Fall Out Boy

“Don’t take love off the table yet”

This is not a table sex joke this is not a table sex joke this is not a table sex joke this is n-

I didnt add it for that reason it was about a vibe but then. I realized. Now the original reason doesn’t even matter.

Nobody Puts Baby In The Corner - Fall Out Boy

“I’ll be your best kept secret and your biggest mistake”

Tell me the quoted lyric does not SCREAM Hélène/Dolokhov. You can’t. Also “I’ll weigh you down I’ll watch you choke/You look so good in blue” really captures hatred as a love language.

This is Love - Air Traffic Controller

Ok I stole this from my friends’ playlist but I did want to explain it because it’s not JUST Dolokhov and Hélène in my mind. The whole jealous fool second verse gives me Pierre around the duel energy as well

Bad Boy - Cascada

“Be my weekend lover but don’t be my friend”

Bernie Sanders voice I am once again asking you to hear me out about the unironic meme songs on my War and Peace character playlists. It’s got the refusal to admit that she actually likes hanging out with him down. The line “after some time you just pushed me aside” referring to Dolokhov teasing Pierre about their affair because he got bored. “I dont need you in my life again”...YEAH I’m fairly sure they dont interact in canon again after that.

Hayloft - Mother Mother

“My daddy’s got a gun”

This song started playing on accident once when I was listening to this playlist and I was like huh. It fits though. The gun thing is twofold: 1) Though he is not her father, Pierre does have a gun in the duel and 2) I think Vassily would happily shoot Dolokhov for his relationships with Vassily’s kids. It’s also just the general forbidden love vibes mixed with the violence vibes.

affection - BETWEEN FRIENDS

“I’m looking for affection in all the wrong places and we’ll keep falling on each other to fill the empty spaces”

Have I been clear enough about my thesis that their relationship is based in mutual loneliness? Also, I like the acknowledgment that this is in fact the wrong place. I think they’re both very aware of that.

Walk Away - Franz Ferdinand

“Yes I’m cold but not as cold as you are”

This song is for them post-duel. Especially the “I cannot stand to see those eyes as apologies may rise/I must be strong, stay an unbeliever” because 1) I hear the word eyes, I think of Dolokhov and 2) I think she’s too smart to believe any apology he would give her, she knows he doesn’t really mean it. The song kinda reads as someone trying to convince themselves they’re happy that the relationship is over, which I think is definitely what happens for both of them.

Van Horn - Saint Motel

“Tell me do you hate me? Or do you wanna date me?”

Obsessed with the dynamic of “I like you but that’s embarrassing for both of us I’m gonna act like I hate you instead”

[stylesnews]

On November 18, 2019, a website promoting a mysterious place called Eroda (“No Land Quite Like It”) arrived on the internet. Two days later, the official Twitter account for this fictional frown-shaped island began teasing local seaside attractions. You may have missed it, depending on which corners of the internet you choose to lurk, but not if you were a Harry Styles fan, a group that went into pure overdrive trying to figure out what it all meant.

I, for one, missed it at the time. I was unaware this account was cryptically quote tweeting fans as they tried to piece together what was happening, what it meant, and what it could be connected to (Greek Mythology and Lost were a couple of theories posed in comments, Twitter threads, and Reddit). Meanwhile, the Columbia Records marketing department had been hard at work for months, devising this specific and highly-detailed campaign around the music video for Styles’ second single, “Adore You” from his second solo album, Fine Line, ever since he shot the video in Scotland in August 2019 (Eroda = Adore backwards — clever!).

But it was all leading up to the morning of Friday, December 6 when the video was released, one week before the full-length album arrived. Up until that point, I had never seen an entire Harry Styles music video, but what happened next was inevitable. Somehow, as a self-proclaimed boy band scholar, I had never paid much attention to One Direction. I kept a distant eye on Styles since they disbanded, intrigued by the decisions he was making in his solo career. But I hadn’t yet realized I’d been in the ring all throughout the fall of 2019, fighting to resist the inevitable fascination that awaited. First came the jab of Rob Sheffield’s Rolling Stone profile, followed by the cross of “Lights Up”, a song that cracked my Top 20 most listened to songs of the year despite being released just two months before Spotify so thoughtfully compiled that personalized playlist. Then there was the hook of his SNL hosting stint in November (and bless you Bowen Yang for that Sara Lee sketch), which then leads us to the “Adore You” video, the uppercut and ultimate TKO. I surrendered in what felt like a near instant. I was now a Harry Styles fan. (If we’re following this analogy, I sat up to spit out some blood after seeing that cover of “Juice” before my head quickly hit the mat again with a loud thud).

Maybe it’s not quite remarkable that I took time out of a Friday morning to watch a music video, but that I sat at my desk, in an office, with other people around (back when we did those kinds of things) and proceeded to wipe away a few tiny tears from under my eyes by the end of it, was an experience I had not been through… maybe ever? In a world of lyric videos and TikToks, actual, thoughtful, impactful music videos with a full (and sweet!) story are about as rare as a glowing and growing fish these days.

Ultimately, “Adore You” does everything a music video should do. In nearly eight minutes, this video uses excellent visual effects in a cool and interesting way, tells a compelling and heartfelt story, is anchored by an irresistible leading man and an adorable sidekick, is backed up by the catchiest song you could ever dream of, and culminates with a touching and hopeful ending. It’s a treat for the eyes and the ears and the soul. It’s innovative and the kind of thing that begs you to watch it more than once to catch all the details (and yes, I do tear up every time).

So one would think that an award show with the specific purpose of celebrating this type of creativity would be extra sure to nominate such a charming and effective clip, but alas, “Adore You” was overlooked in the MTV Video Music Awards main categories this year. Of course, some could argue that that fact only adds to the video’s credibility but I’ll do my best to not be that petty as I’m still rooting for it to win in the three technical categories where it picked up nominations: Best Visual Effects by Mathematic, Best Art Direction by Laura Ellis Cricks, and Best Direction by Dave Meyers, who remains one of the most inventive and influential directors of all time and whose videos with artists such as Missy Elliot, Pink, and Kendrick Lamar have been racking up nominations for nearly 20 years now. He also saw four other videos he directed get recognized this year: Normani’s “Motivation” (Best Chorography), Travis Scott’s “Highest in the Room” (Best Hop Hop and Best Visual Effects), Anderson .Paak’s “Lockdown” (Video For Good), and Camila Cabello feat. DaBaby’s “My Oh My” (Best Cinematography).

But I reached out to Meyers to specifically ask about the intricate details of “Adore You” and how it all came to be; how he captured such a vibe with the overcast and dreary weather, mixed so wonderfully with the charming oddities of the people that make up this world of Eroda. In addition to directing the video, he also co-wrote the story with Chris Shafer and said, “It’s the first idea that popped to mind after the first listen to the song, and the first idea I pitched to Harry. It was a story that underscored my understanding of what Harry stood for and felt it was necessary to tell it as a narrative to convey his optimism.”

The extended version of the video starts with a two-and-a-half-minute introduction to the world of Eroda, narrated by Rosalia. This includes the “peculiar” people and their professions on the island, meeting The Boy (Styles) and his glowing smile that most people try to avoid, and the quirky superstitions these people continue to live by. “It all served a purpose,” Meyers said of the details. “The superstitions were a set up for how society generally reacts to different things. They fear change or oddity, even if it’s what’s best for them.”

Meyers, however, did not share in that fear, as much of this video provided for interesting and new opportunities he had yet to experience throughout his decades-long career, which he listed off: ”Compelling narrative, CG character, remote location, Scottish crew (nothing fazed them),” also noting that all of the other characters in the video were locals as well. So perhaps they were less fazed by the atmosphere across the four-day shoot in Scotland, but as Meyers recalled, the “weather was nuts. It rained every 20 minutes, then the sun, then cloud over.”

However, it’s likely that Mother Nature is also a Styles fan, as Meyers recalled, “I seem to remember going up on the hill for Harry’s picnic with the fish and being worried that it was so gloomy. By the time we came to shoot, the sun came out. And then the sun went away as soon as the scene was over. Similarly, we had the worst storm when Harry was contemplating suicide at the start. Pouring rain, drenching him. So I guess in that sense it was fun watching how Scotland provided a backdrop for the emotions we were after.”

And hey, at least they had the weather on their side to add to the mood while shooting the video, as one of their main characters, well, didn’t exist. “It was very odd shooting with no fish,” Meyers admitted. “But was quite rewarding later seeing it dropped in and making empathic sense to the story we were after.”

Of course, the main character they did have on hand is an awfully useful and appealing one at that. Fans became enamored with the moment Styles uses the back of his hand to check the temperature of a coffee pot before dumping the fish inside the water so it could stay alive. I asked Meyers about this particular moment and he said, “The problem we had was apparent when Harry ran in and threw the fish in the pot. We all sorta felt — well, what if it was hot? So I believe Harry improvised that as a solution and we felt it was perfect for the character’s sensitivity and consideration for this poor fish.” And that’s not the only nice thing he does for his fish friend — he also serves him a tiny taco! “The taco was a whimsical way to express friendship between Harry and the fish,” Meyers offered. It looked pretty tasty, too.

The entire video serves as a showcase for what Styles does best and what makes him such a unique artist: his music, his acting, and his charisma, which Meyers knew would offer him a lot to work with. “Harry is a leading man. I felt that from my first meeting and wanted to play with his wonderful range of emotions. So finding a story with a real character arc was part of my focus in building this world.” Meyers described working on “Adore You” as an “all-around memorable shoot: awesome location, lovely Harry, compelling story, great effects, and… it worked.”

It did. And it was a risk: a video this complex and detailed (and one has to assume, costly), attached to a marketing campaign that proved to be even more involved, still came with no guarantee that the fans wouldn’t shrug it off. But as Manos Xanthogeorgis, SVP of Digital Marketing & Media at Columbia Records told Billboard last year, “When you have a video and a piece of art at such a level, it’s an incredible challenge for the rest of the team to build a campaign at that same level of artistry and creativity.” Oh, and that was only step one, as the marketing team engaged in “real-time marketing” with fans online, ensuring they would continue to remain engaged by dropping clues and clips in the lead-up to the video premiere and subsequently the album. “This whole campaign was around mystery and sometimes mystery is more powerful than knowledge,” Xanthogeorgis said. The Twitter handle has remained active throughout 2020, used as a continual marketing tool for Styles’ next videos including the Meyers-directed “Falling” and this summer’s hit, “Watermelon Sugar.”

With that kind of fan engagement, “Adore You” seemed like a no-brainer for the fan-voted categories of the VMAs this year, as they surely would’ve turned out to vote just as feverishly for this video as they did when searching for clues (about a made-up island, at that!). But hey, maybe MTV was just not interested in massive fan engagement this year — after all, it’s not like everything Styles does, including growing freakin’ facial hair, has the internet in a tizzy for weeks. Ultimately, as the impact of music videos (and certainly the ceremony celebrating them) continues to lose relevance, the disregard of this specific project simply feels like a missed opportunity to acknowledge a rare achievement in the art form.

While Meyers was sure to describe his inclusion in the VMA nominations this year as “lovely and flattering” (and he better have a moonperson in his possession this time next week, MTV!) it’s still puzzling why “Adore You” wouldn’t be included in the big categories, considering Styles is squarely within their demo, at the very least. That “Adore You” is also a technical and storytelling masterpiece, as well as a full moment that was used as inspiration both for the experience online and in-person at the Fine Line Spotify listening party last December, that also comes packed with one of the most enthusiastic groups of fans around, well, that should have had the entire network drooling.

Of course, some of this can simply be chalked up to a perfect storm. As far as his singles go, “Lights Up” was a nice appetizer, but “Adore You” remains the delicious entree (you already know what’s for dessert). “Adore You” is a perfect pop record if I’ve ever heard one (and I have) and deserved a special video. A Chris Isaak “Wicked Game” sexy vibe wasn’t going to work here. The song tells the story of such passionate, pure, and heartachingly naive and innocent love that it almost had to be directed toward a non-human being. Instead, Styles chose to inject those same carefree, sweaty, sticky, delicious, whimsical beach vibes into the “Watermelon Sugar” clip, which was the right choice, and not just for the summertime season (MTV has since added the Song of Summer category to the VMAs and included “Watermelon Sugar”).

But it’s “Adore You” that has melodies that bring a smile to the faces of babies, get your toes tapping even when you hear it in the dentist’s chair, and likely has my neighbors rolling their eyes when I sing along to it in the shower. The song is so simple it’s deep, a theme reflected in the video, as is the central reminder to help and care for others, a thoroughly 2020 message.

However, not all is lost. Both “Adore You” and “Watermelon Sugar” continue to rack up major spins at radio with the latter hitting number one on the Billboard charts earlier this month. Grammy voting kicks off at the end of September and Academy members should take note. Not only is Fine Line more than worthy of being acknowledged, but having Styles on hand to potentially collect trophies and perform is in your best interest when it comes to viewers and online chatter. Do not wait to take him seriously. This is the album, this is the time. Prove that you aren’t a bunch of stodgy old white men who think he’s just for teen (and um, thirty-something) girls, but that you understand the music he enjoys, is inspired by, and subsequently makes, is the same rock music you appreciate as well. An artist like Styles can be both of those things at the same time, and really, the best of both worlds. Give the album a listen, and then one more to let it all sink in. If you have not yet succumbed to the force that is Harry Styles fandom, I truly can’t recommend it enough — and please know that it will get you eventually.