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gamermattsgf · 2 months

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I mean it // homewrecker Matt

Warnings: smut / cheating plot / thigh ride / dry grinding / wet grinding / degradation kink / praise kink / spit kink / dom Matt x sub fem reader / mentions of drinking + smoking / mentions of drugs / hair pulling if you squint / cum kink / princess kink

Summary: in which Matt is only friends with a guy because he really wants his girlfriend…

Author’s notes: this is my longest one yet but I don’t know how I feel about it yet, I might warm to it later, who knows… obviously, I do not condone cheating, nor is it an acceptable thing to do to anyone, so again if you don’t like it, don’t read it. However, if Matt Sturniolo came up to me one day and offered to steal me away from a current boyfriend… I would not hesitate to take my clothes off on the spot. I rest my case.

“She wears a ring? Came through without it, you really think she stays true? I doubt it, because I am fucking your girlfriend and there’s nothing you can do about it” - I mean it, G-Eazy

‘Yeah but Matt’s a dick…’

You shrug at your friend’s pointed comment, swishing around the last half of the strange alcoholic mixer that had been thrust into your hand the minute you had walked through the door.

Both of you stand to the side of the noisy, open living room area whilst your backs lean against the cold wallpaper of some rich kid’s penthouse.

‘Yeah… I know’

‘I could literally list all of the things wrong with him on my fingers and I would run out of them. I don’t even know why your boyfriend chooses to be friends with him’. She continues, taking a sip of her own drink whilst you stare off into the distance, mostly looking over to the opposite side of the room where a ping pong table has been set out and both the boyfriend in question and Matt - the subject of your degrading conversation - are playing in a heated game of beer pong.

‘I’m not sure either’

‘He’s a womaniser with literally no respect for anyone around him, he’s a narcissist, and he’s just constantly rude to people.’ She continues to rant aimlessly, her very large hoop earrings jingling as she shakes her head and denies someone who was offering her a selection of ecstasy pills on a silver platter.

The person doesn’t seem to care for the denial and instead shrugs his shoulders before moving on to pester the next highly intoxicated person, coaxing them into falling even more inebriated by placing the tempting round pill into the palm of their open hand.

She then starts again, waving her hands about dramatically whilst you secretly get lost in your own thoughts.

‘You should have heard what he said the other day about a random girl who passed us on the sidewalk, if I-’ but then her voice slowly fades into the distance the more you focus in on Ryan, who stands next to a Matt that cheers him on whilst he aims a ping pong ball up to throw it into one of the cups opposite them.

Matt wears a baggy dark green zip up hoodie that looks almost black in the flashing red LED lights of the room as weed smoke blows up into the air in thick plumes, like tiny little volcanos releasing their clouds of ash.

Suddenly, your heart squeezes strangely and you find yourself beginning to blush in embarrassment when Matt senses someone staring at him and so flicks his eyes over to you. He has his hands tucked into his hoodie pockets and wears a cheeky little smile on his face that puckers even more after he deflects his eyes to the back of Ryan’s head. He then looks back at you and makes a face, as if to playfully scold you for staring.

You bet he finds all of this so funny. The fact that you are looking at him instead of Ryan.

It immediately makes you feel bad, because you know that if you bump into Matt later tonight, he is most definitely going to bring this up just to tease you about it. However, something within the look of his eyes makes you inwardly squirm. Or maybe it’s the way his smirk suites his face so attractively…

But then you come to the conclusion that it is neither of those things, because what it really is, is the way he inconspicuously lifts his middle and pointer fingers up to split them at either side of his mouth and 'scratch his face’ whilst making direct eye contact with you.

He’s got a pair of fucking balls to innocently mimic the dirty joke of eating someone out, you’ll give him that. Whether it is intentional or not, it still makes you screw up your face in disgust and avert your eyes, to which Matt smiles in victory before re-joining the conversation that is being shared around the ping pong table at his end.

His lower half isn’t visible as he stands behind a Ryan that holds a cup in his hand already whilst his other one lets go of a white ball. Everyone watches it bounce to the other side of the table before it neatly splashes into one of the opposition’s cups.

People cheer for Ryan whilst the other random guy groans with his head thrown back. He playfully points at Ryan and Matt, saying something before he swipes up the shot and knocks it back with a screwed up face of disgust.

They’re probably all drinking the equivalent of burning gasoline in those vile, non-diluted drinks. And judging by the way Matt and Ryan have polished off quite a few of the cups on their side already, it’s clear that they must have come to get absolutely shit-faced at this party.

You secretly roll your eyes and nod along as you hum, pretending to listen to a word your friend is saying before another random girl who - your guess, knows her - comes up to chat.

This gives you an excuse to slip out of her eye-line.

Matt.

Aka, the asshole of all assholes, however… also more fondly known as ‘your boyfriend’s best friend’.

It’s not like what your friend says isn’t true, because all of it is. He is a womaniser, he is a narcissist, and he most definitely is disrespectful to everyone most of the time. In fact, Matt sometimes scares you. You don’t like opening your mouth in front of him at all, nor should anyone else, because no matter what is being said, he’ll still manage to be rude about it.

To say he is a fucking bully is an understatement. He’s the kind of person that will snigger at a guy in glasses and whisper about his appearance after he has passed by to his friends or trip up someone in the school hallways ‘by accident’, only to then watch their folders go flying for the fun of it. He is mean and unpleasant, and quite frankly a terrible influence on Ryan.

Plus, annoyingly, as your friend also points out, Matt loves girls, and he loves the attention he receives from them, because he knows he’s hot. Which doesn’t bother you at all, because you’re with Ryan. But what does concern you however, is that more often than not, you catch Matt looking at you in ways that clearly shouldn’t be allowed, especially since he knows that you are taken. No less taken by his best friend.

They are subtle, and he always immediately looks away after you catch him, but usually with no regret in his eyes and sometimes even with little conniving smirks on his face as though you are both sharing a little inside joke.

Ryan is as clueless as ever of course, he trusts too many people, and only ever really sees the best in Matt. He refuses to believe that Matt could be using his friendship for something else entirely. Because unfortunately, sometimes guy are only friends with other guys because they really want their girlfriends.

And lately… Matt has been absolutely oozing those vibes. Sometimes, you get inwardly pissed at Ryan for not realising the obvious signs, because Matt really doesn’t make it discreet. At all.

It always starts with the stupid shit like looking over at his phone whilst he’s texting Matt to arrange a hang out time, only to see Matt replying with an oh-so-innocent ‘oh cool, will ur gf be there?’ as a sneaky way of making sure that you’ll be around.

Either that or it’s him making blatantly flirty remarks, right in front of Ryan.

Stupidly… most of the time all of these go over Ryan’s head and you just have to roll your eyes at him.

The other thing that also leads you to this conclusion is the very worrying fact that you know Matt has a clear track record of being a notorious homewrecker. It’s like… his thing.

He loves pursuing something that people tell him is actually out of his reach. He loves being able to feel like he can touch the untouchable. And here he is, best friends with Ryan, but only because Ryan has a girlfriend… you.

Someone that he maybe- possibly? To your recollection… wants to fuck.

But that’s just your take on it, and it might not even be true, who knows what actually goes on in the complicated weave of Matt’s mind.

Heading further into the haze of the party, you stroll about, practically choking on the smell of sweat, perfume, nicotine and weed. Not to mention the fact that you almost get crushed in between the grinding body parts of people as their skin brushes and presses up against your own.

You trip up on your feet a couple of times and find it pretty hard to breathe in amongst all of the party goers as you barge your way through the claustrophobically intense crowd that flashes generic neon party colours of red, blue and green from the installed lights above.

Your ears ring and your head thumps at the sound of the tasteless rap music still playing, so you decide to do what any normal person would and go up the stairs to find an unoccupied room where you can just lie down and have some peace and quiet. You’re sure the guy throwing this rager has a couple to spare, even if in some of them people have already gone to fuck.

You’re not too drunk to have lost your grip on what is actually going on around you… you can still think straight, however, you’re not exactly stone cold sober either. So, you wobble your way up the stairs and then walk along the corridor, having to try a few rooms before finding a nice empty one.

Sitting down on the plush double bed you sigh. However, in your intoxicated state, you don’t quite realise that the light to the bathroom suite is on and that someone else is also shuffling around on the other side of the door.

Who that someone is, is only made apparent to you after the bathroom door unlocks and he comes stepping out whilst flicking off the light switch.

You quite literally freeze, and part of you thinks you get so much of a fright that you sober up a little when you gaze upon a full bodied Matt standing in the darkened doorway of the bathroom.

Oh…

Matt looks equally as caught off-guard as you as he narrows his eyes.

‘What are you doing in here?’ You stupidly announce, as if it is your own private room that he is in. He rolls his eyes and scoffs, his usual clipped tone being exercised on you as he responds with a sharp ‘I’m just looking around, jesus it’s not like it’s your bathroom’.

You gulp and shake your head in understanding, inwardly scolding yourself on the idiocy of what you had just said. Trying not to stumble upon your words the next time around you keep your eyes trained on him as he marches across the room to have a nose at some of the pictures hanging up on the walls. Now, your hands are shakily white knuckling the bedsheets… fuck, you can’t just leave! That would be weird.

You don’t have to start speaking again however, because Matt does it for you.

‘So why are you up here by yourself? Thought you would have been begging for Ry’s attention by now’. You can feel his smirk through the back of his fucking head.

Pretty much everything that comes out of this man’s mouth makes your blood sear hotly within your veins. Who the fuck does he think he is to say something like that about you?

‘Well I’m not am I?’

This is the only good comeback you can manage to think of and bite back in the time that he gives you. He is already starting to make your hands shake with nervousness.

His back is turned, but he always somehow manages to command your attention.

‘Yeah I guess so’ he shrugs, but then starts an annoying chuckle as he suddenly looks over his shoulder at your body sitting meekly on the bed, his jawline still as sharp as ever and protruding from his neck. ‘Seems like instead you’re looking for my attention then huh?’.

The quipped hum that travels from his throat makes you flush a cherry pink, and you struggle to keep up with his wit since you get nervous about the way he looks at you and the way he commands himself. ‘Oh really, and what gave you that impression?’. But immediately after you say this you wish you could take it back, because Matt swivels on his feet as though you had walked directly into a trap of his own making.

Which to be honest, you kind of had…

‘Well for one, you’re in here… with me. And two, you just couldn’t seem to keep your eyes off of me earlier… and that’s not really supposed to be what loving girlfriends do’ he pouts his lips and tilts his head meanly, already psychologically bullying you because of how much you had looked at him earlier at the ping pong table in comparison to Ryan.

This time you directly roll your eyes at him and decide to get back up from your position on the bed. At least now you feel like you’re not at a loss for power due to the height difference. You don’t like the way that it’s too easy for him to completely tower over you from your spot on the patterned bed covers.

You can tell that Matt is also a little tipsy based off of the way he sways a little as he stands still, but just like yourself, it’s not enough alcohol to make him completely lose his grip on reality and who you are. So why is it, that he looks at you as though you are a hunk of fresh meat up for grabs?

Suddenly he looks away, taking a deep breath and reaching his hand to the nightstand next to the bed. He swipes up the book resting on top of it, and then slowly reads out the title of the classical novel. ‘The Lover’s Den… it’s one of those must reads isn’t it?’ He asks, still with the added patronising tone that never fails to tick you off.

Your skin feels itchy, and you want nothing more than to run out of this room and away from Matt’s presence, because his attitude really affects you in the strangest of ways. ‘Sure I guess…’ you shift awkwardly, trying to keep your answers as brief as possible.

You wish he would just put the book down, but instead he flips it around and starts to read the blurb.

‘An erotic romance filled with dark twists and a lover’s secret…’.

As he speaks these words your heart plummets into your ass. Next come his hooded eyes that flick up to yours and narrow impishly.

Please just let this be over.

You don’t want to be around Matt any more than you can help it, for conflicting reasons. If before you weren’t sure if whether or not he wanted to fuck you, now you’re pretty much certain he did.

You just hate the way that he is so critical about you, and how he can easily make you feel shy and embarrassed about yourself.

Matt is really attractive, almost unfairly attractive, which just makes you feel sick to your stomach about how often your feelings fight with one another when discussing the concepts of right and wrong. Because you shouldn’t be thinking about that at all, especially when you’re in a supposedly “loving” relationship with Ryan- that transforms into a less loving relationship with every single step Matt takes to get to your heaving figure.

By now he has dropped the book and it’s flopped quietly back down onto the mattress, the suggestive pages of the erotica long forgotten by Matt in favour of him getting to what he really wants… you.

‘Aren’t you a little tired of your relationship?’ He gently starts, as if trying to take on the tone of some kind of marriage counsellor. Your heart squeezes as little paper butterflies make their way around the step ladders of your rib cage.

Oh fuck, how the hell are you supposed to respond to that?

You end up simply keeping your lips sealed in shock. Instead, you opt to nervously gulp a drop of your saliva down your scratchy throat as one of your feet naturally takes a step back from his advancing body.

‘Maybe you want to explore a little before you tie any proper knots with your boyfriend no…?’

Matt has reached you now, and as a natural reaction you simply freeze in your spot of one foot stepped behind the other, your heart still galloping and your eyes blinking up at him widely.

As you begin to stutter, Matt’s mouth peels up into a satisfied smirk with his jawline sharp and his hot breath dispersing directly onto your face because of just how close he is. In fact, he’s so close that you can see the small little pores where his dark stubble grows in to shape his beard.

‘Y’know I like exploring too… a lot…’

His voice reduces to nothing more than a mere whisper now as his face gets incomprehensibly closer to yours. Your hands lay limp by your sides, that is, until Matt slowly gravitates his veined ones forward to pinch your softer skin in between his rougher, more masculine grip whilst his thumbs rub temptingly over the flesh that conjoins your pointer fingers to your thumbs.

Your breath is shaky and audible as Matt falls into a hushed quiet, taking your own silence as permission to press his lips against yours.

Something within your brain sounds a shrieking siren that screams ‘RYAN! RYAN! RYAN!’ Over and over again as Matt’s soft lips enclose over yours with a gentle victory that he treats cautiously at first. He’s buttering you up with his tender caresses and soothing voice, knowing exactly how to play to your weaknesses since he’s had practice at swinging sledgehammers at other people’s happy relationships before.

But, unfortunately for Matt, the little nagging voice of Ryan inside of your head succeeds.

Bile almost rises in your throat as reality comes to slap you in the face. You’re knocked out of Matt’s bewitching trance and are absolutely horrified as to what you are doing with him whilst your boyfriend is most likely located just down the stairs from the two of you.

Ripping yourself away, you jump back in terror and leave Matt to open his eyes and blink them, his lips already swollen with arousal before his hand comes up to smoosh against them in a vampiric manner. He then rubs away any saliva that might have oozed from out of his mouth as though he were swiping away blood.

Shaking your head in silence, you once again have practically no words to utter and instead spin on your heels. Making a beeline straight to the door, you leave Matt’s sexual aura behind, his presence and strong smell of aftershave still polluting your nose and playing with your senses before you grasp a hold of the doorknob and slip outside.

However, regrettably, you don’t leave Matt standing alone in the centre of the room for long, because as quickly as you had closed the door right in his face, you are shyly cracking it back open again and sliding into the room with a guilty grimace once more.

Matt only stands there with his arms crossed and a smug fucking smile on his face, the dim bedside table lamp lighting up both of your complexions with a yellowish lustre. It’s as if he knew that you wouldn’t be gone for long - which to be fair, was right - but it still irked you to admit it.

With a final swallow, you put a signature on an imaginary infidelity contract whilst standing meekly a couple of strides away from him. Fiddling with your hands self-consciously, you voice a curious but soft ‘tell me more…’.

Matt’s shoulders rise and his chest expands with a satisfied sigh, knowing that he has won and absolutely loving it in the process.

Walking up to you, his feet pad quietly on the carpet whilst your breaths once again mingle with one another. Regrettably, you feel now that the heartbeat is not just within your chest, but also in between your legs as Matt easily slips his body around to your back.

He exhales another gentle sigh, now a cool air hitting the side of your neck and making you shiver whilst his chest presses against your shoulder blades. Taking your hands within his once again, he now does something that makes you screw your eyes shut and completely mentally kick yourself because of how much you enjoy it.

Pressing his flat palms over the tops of your hands, he splays them onto the bottom of your thighs before sensually sliding his fingers into the slots between yours. Then, he starts dragging both of your hands up each of your thighs, making sure that you can feel as much as he can underneath the pads of your fingertips whilst he breathes into your ear and expands his chest along your back.

‘Hm… I also like a lot of touching…’ he whispers into your ear before nudging it with his nose.

The more you let him guide both of your hands, the closer they get to your now throbbing centre as they slip up your tender inner thighs. But before you two touch it, he expertly manoeuvres them back out to the sides.

Once again, the sensation of your boyfriend’s malicious best friend touching you without him knowing catches up to you and you accidentally freak out.

Jumping away slightly you shake your head and this time move further into the room rather than sprinting back out of the door again.

You begin to pace.

Matt looks at you as though he has the praying eyes of a panther, predatory instincts kicking in as soon as you move away from him.

Smacking his lips in annoyance he raises his eyebrows sassily at you, his earrings glinting in the small stream of light and glittering every time they wobble when he moves.

Making up your mind and making it up quickly, you throw your whole entire relationship built up on trust into the trash as you stutter out a pathetic, cheating question that you hope will answer the doubts running around in your head.

‘You won’t tell a fucking soul about this will you?’

Matt raises his eyebrows again to look at you in judgement before substituting his incredulity for a smirk instead. Placing one of his hands over his heart, his other one raises to his head whilst he pledges allegiance to you with a mocking nickname lilted onto the end of the quip for good measure.

‘Cross my heart and hope to die, sweetheart’

With this… somewhat reassurance, you genuinely believe that Matt won’t tell a soul. So, you decide to think like a man… with your clit instead of with your brain, just as they would with their dicks.

‘So… what else do you like?’ You curiously ask, your voice still laced with a huge amount of hesitance, because you know of Matt’s dating history… and based off of some of the horror stories you’ve heard, you’re sure he likes a lot of different things. He doesn’t seem to be the picky type.

But you let Matt answer for himself, and you also let him once again walk back up to you, this time allowing him into your personal space without any fight at all. In fact, you’re actually more responsive to his touch.

He trails his hands around the hem of your jeans, before fiddling with each side of your shirt whilst his seductive eyes mimic his raspy voice.

‘I like things sticky… wet and messy… if it’s not messy I don’t fucking want it’.

His voice is slow, like dripping hot honey coated in sugar. The overall sensual manner of it makes your panties pool and you can practically feel yourself sticking together down at your core. Matt plays on this a little bit more after he sees how much it affects you.

‘Can you do messy baby? With those gorgeous thighs of yours? You wanna be my good girl tonight?’

He pouts boyishly and then tilts his head just that little bit so that he can feather a teasing kiss onto your lips before pulling away.

By now he is standing in the gap between your legs, enough so that when he compliments your thighs he can reach down to them and cup the backs of them, giving them a testing little squeeze.

His nose runs down the arch of your neck to your shoulder as he does this and at the same time, you both test the waters by giving each other an inconspicuous grind. Matt moans slightly into your skin at the erotic motion whilst the scruffy hair by his ear rubs against your jawline.

Throughout all of this dry sex however, he still manages to keep cool and collected. Unlike you, who practically falls to a puddle at his feet. The only thing keeping you up is his big palms supporting your thighs whilst his lips pucker and pepper a sprinkling of small kisses all along your exposed shoulder.

‘You wanna know how I taste don’t you? How I feel’. His voice rasps cheekily whilst referring to his cock. Now it’s your turn to let something of a stuttered whimper out into the air that gets semi-trapped on the way up because of just how far back your neck tilts to let Matt in to your exposed skin. You notice that now, your back is also arched for him and his cock as well. God how needy could you be?

‘I bet you’re just aching to hear what I sound like when you pull my hair…’ he continues his tease, showing you no mercy as your own hands grip and tighten onto each of his shoulders. They tremor in apprehension.

And now, Matt decides, is the best possible time to give you another kiss. Only this time, it’s longer, heavier and thicker with the feelings of lust laced within the twists of his tongue. Matt also lets your thighs go just so that he can grab a hold of each side of your jawline to steady himself better into the kiss.

Just like he had said before, it’s messy, and it’s sloppy. You easily feel the slick consistency of your salivas layering over the fullness of your lips. He rubs his own pair against yours before trapping them and sucking them, his tongue licking slowly over the plump pink flesh.

‘Give me your tongue baby’

He speaks quietly into your lips, pinching your hip bones after he teases his hands underneath your shirt. Clearly wanting you to reciprocate his tongue motions, it doesn’t take you long to do so whilst he gently pushes his nose to nudge against yours. Sensually, he starts to walk backwards.

Bending his knees, he falls down onto the bed and it squeaks underneath his heavy weight before his thighs spread open and he hauls you to sit on top of one of them. You can feel your cheeks burning.

Your eyes are squeezed shut, just to gaslight yourself into believing that you’re not really doing what you’re actually doing.

If you can’t see Matt and see the way you’re perched on top of his thigh as he easily cradles your ass possessively within his hands, then it’s not happening.

After you start to use your tongue more, from Matt’s tilted neck, you hear a throaty hum of delight before he rasps a quick ‘that’s my girl’.

Only your stomach pools with regret. Because you’re actually not his girl. You’re supposed to be Ryan’s.

You try your best to push the thought to the back of your mind however, and instead focus on the way Matt gently starts to apply pressure to each of your ass cheeks, willing them to slide forward, before he moves his thumbs to the front of your hip bones so that he can dig them into your skin and push you back into a grinding motion.

Your breathing is heavy, as is his, but you still continue to kiss, the sounds of your lips erotically moving together being pretty much the only sound in the room until you decide to speak up in response to what he had said earlier.

‘Well it serves Ryan right for being so stupid and not dropping you when he should have…’

Matt sniggers meanly with a toothy smile through your kiss, almost triumphantly at the fact that he had managed to slip past Ryan’s eyes with ease and take you as if it were like taking candy from a baby.

‘Fuck… you’re just as bad as me baby, aren’t you?…’ he muses in surprise, raising his eyebrows teasingly whilst you break away from each other’s kisses just so that he can look into your eyes. His irises flick between the left side of your face to the right, his hands still working you into a soft grind above his thigh whilst he passes his reddened tongue over his moist lips, almost hungrily. You find it within yourself to weakly smirk at his statement.

‘I’ve been waiting to put my hands on you for so fucking long baby, you have no idea’ he mumbles, again with another low and conniving laugh, not even a single thought about how Ryan would feel about all of this travelling through his mind.

Nope. His only concern currently, is how he can’t wait to hear the way you breathe his name through sweat, tears and pleasure as he has you in any way he wants. He feels proud, as if he is finally claiming his prize for being the shittiest friend known to man. But Matt isn’t really a friendly type of guy anyway. So he doesn’t give a shit.

The only thing he had been interested in was you in the first place, all he had needed to do was find a way into your life without making it too obvious that he was trying to steal you right from underneath Ryan’s nose.

Slowly, he slips his hand down to the front of your jeans, swiftly and expertly manoeuvring his fingers to the button so that he can pop it open and yank down the zipper with a desperate speed about him.

‘Shut up Matt… I don’t want to hear you gloating about this’. You whine pathetically, shyly looking down at Matt’s spread legs and the bottom of his green hoodie that currently covers his black belt, just so that you don’t have to look into his eyes.

He scoffs, yourself still not safe from the sharp edge of his tongue. You yelp when he decides to flex his torso and flip you two around.

‘Oh so you’re gonna be a cheeky little bitch about this then hm? Well, maybe you don’t deserve to have my cock…’ the spit he comes out with is ugly and threatening.

You’ll admit… you’re not quite expecting the change in power dynamic, and just the very sight of seeing Matt crawling his body over yours and trapping you with an animalistic look in his eyes makes all of this seem very real. There’s no going back now…

You gulp and blink with doe-like shock whilst Matt hooks his thumbs into your jeans to pull them halfway down your legs.

He sighs. ‘What would you rather me talk about then?’

But you only pant in return, cautiously looking down towards your jeans that are slowly being peeled from your smooth thighs as Matt’s face finds itself extremely attracted to your open neck.

‘Ugh, I don’t know Matt? Just… anything other than Ryan’ you complain, mildly rolling your eyes. Before he can go in to kiss your flesh, Matt catches this and actually snorts a laugh in response, clearly finding your lack of care for your shitty boyfriend highly amusing.

‘Hey, don’t worry, as soon as I’m finished with you the only name you’ll be able to remember is mine…’. Your thighs subconsciously squeeze at this comment, but you can’t quite clamp them together fully because Matt’s hips are in the way. He notices the tension in both of your muscles and so decides to milk it further by leaning his face down closer to yours whilst whispering a gorgeous ‘yeah? You like that?’ that rolls from off of his tongue with ease.

‘Mhm hmm’ you hum in return, trying to keep your mouth closed so that you don’t whine into the air when responding. Matt is clearly happy at this, reaching down one of his hands to his own pants that are fitted nicely around his legs.

He then places his other hand flat on the bed right next to your hip before using it to hoist all of his body weight up so that the hand down by his pants could expertly undo his belt and slip it out from the belt loops.

It’s extremely attractive, to see him towering over you like this just to undo his belt, and you feel your clit throb behind your panties once again when he bites his lip in concentration to get the rest of his pants undone just by using a single hand.

‘I wanna taste you so bad, but we’re gonna have to be quick baby…’ he mumbles to you after both of your attentions are side tracked to the door, where loud voices can be heard as people walk down the corridor and bypass the room. Too many people know who both of you are at this party, so it is risky doing this in here anyway, considering the fact that there is absolutely no lock on the door.

Pushing down his pants, you nod once again to agree with him before gulping at the slivers of his tanned thighs that reveal themselves the further down his jeans drop.

‘How do you wanna have me?’ You speak up timidly, feeling an awful lot like a mouse in the presence of a lion, one wrong move from you and you’re toast. But you decide to play along with Matt, because he seems to like it when you play the clueless game with him.

‘Have you ever had someone’s thigh before princess?’

Matt seems to immediately know what he wants to do to you with how quickly he responds and seems even more delighted at your virginal response of ‘what the fuck does that mean?’.

‘Sweetheart… has Ryan taught you nothing?’ He coos softly, his patronising tone still there whilst he sneakily slips his hands into your panties to pull them down and have cool air hit your centre. He has to bite his lip at the sight of your gushing wetness.

‘Well not really… he’s always sort of wanted to be on top so I’ve just let him…’. At this response, Matt scoffs and shakes his head in disappointment.

‘God Ryan what the fuck are you doing man?’ He quickly mumbles under his breath as if Ryan is in the room with you two before he turns his attention back to your needy figure.

‘I want you to cum all over my thigh angel… think you can do that for me?’ He questions encouragingly, your panties now also half way down your legs and sitting just above your sagged jeans. Your heart flutters and your back arches up once again whilst you hesitate.

Now, the throbbing is turning into a stinging because you haven’t touched yourself at all since this whole encounter has started, so you decide to simply answer with a quick ‘yes Matt, I-I can do that’.

He praises you right after with a sultry ‘that’s my good girl’ before getting up from his position over you and instead sitting down on the edge of the bed beside you.

Sitting upwards a little, you help Matt grab onto you, and his hands practically swallow your sides whilst he stretches you out onto his lap. Moving a little further up onto the bed his cattish eyes gaze up into yours with his pupils dilated and his mouth a blushing red.

Getting you onto a singular thigh, your knees plant on either side of the mattress and sink down softly due to the weight of your upper body. Your sensitivity touches the lower part of his thigh when you press yourself onto him.

Hissing, you whimper slightly in open-mouthed pain whilst your hands claw onto the sleeves of his green-hoodied shoulders.

You look down at the dark haired skin of his powerful muscle, testing the waters of what he’s about to make you do before you hear a low and guttural ‘spit’ violently exhale from his mouth. Glancing back up at Matt you see that he has an expectant look laced within his eyes.

And it doesn’t matter how much your brain screams that this is all terribly wrong, because you still will you mouth to produce an acceptable amount of saliva before knocking your head downwards and letting it all slowly drip from your open mouth.

The thick globule splatters noisily against Matt’s thigh and now Matt finds himself continuously throbbing at the look you give him as the last remnants of your spit linger around your mouth in mid air like a small spider’s web tendril blowing in the wind.

At least, it’s like that until Matt reaches out one of his fingers to whip it away and lick it into his own mouth.

Your saliva glitters in the low lighting and is soon joined by Matt’s own spit after he gathers it into his mouth and also releases it onto his now already lubed up thigh.

‘Fuck angel you are going to love this…’ he muses cockily, grabbing both of your hips within his hands before groaning whilst he lifts you slightly to place your aching and bare centre onto the sticky consistency of your strings of saliva.

Gritting your teeth upon first impact, you have to close your eyes and try not to whimper at the strange sensation Matt’s thigh gifts to you whilst Matt himself looks up at you, proud of what he has made you feel thus far.

He knew you weren’t going to last long at all.

Your face gets very red and very flushed, very fast. As soon as Matt starts to use his hands in a similar way to how he had when you were both clothed, the pressure it brings to your core nearly makes you light headed. You feel so sensitive, and you can hear your spit being spread about his thigh as he tenses his muscle and then relaxes it to give you a perfect pleasure point when rubbing you over it.

You still have your eyes closed, but from the darkness of your vision, you can clearly hear Matt’s smooth voice cooing a gentle ‘open up those pretty little eyes for me…’.

You struggle to do this in between screwing up your face in pleasure, and knocking your head back automatically every time he decides to lift his thigh up a little into the grind so that you can feel it even harder when you ride him. But you slowly manage to peek both of your eyes open ever so slightly.

‘Fuck sake Matt what are you doing to me…’ you breathe out shakily down to him, both of your noses brushing from your position straight above him. After getting used to his motions, you also decide to help him out a little by engaging further and now using your own legs to hoist your harder and faster on his thigh.

‘I’m just doing what Ryan never could…’ he whispers back up to you in a snake-ish manner, knowing how good he’s fucking you and also knowing that it’ll never be the same with Ryan ever again after this. You’re just simply going to want more and more of Matt instead…

‘It would always make me so jealous whenever he put his hands all over you. I swear he did it on purpose just to tease me… and it killed me every time because I so desperately wanted to know what kind of face you’d make if it were my cock stretching you out…’

Whining to him in stimulation once again, your gut flutters and you have to bite your lip to suppress dizzy spells because of how perfectly he’s using his leg.

‘I love feeling you on me like this princess, you feel so fucking good…’ he breathes back up to you in response. ‘I won’t even have to jerk off later because you’re gonna make me cum in my pants’ he continues.

‘But… what about - fuck - giving you a taste?’ You moan into his lips after you start to messily make out with him once again, now both of your lower and upper body halves at work to help you reach your high.

Matt hums a groan in response to this, bucking his hips forward a little in excitement yet still keeping the quick rhythm of his thigh for you.

‘It’s okay, it’s okay, you can let my face have a turn next time’ he utters quickly and without worry, automatically assuming that there’s going to be a next time - which probably is accurate with the rate that this is going at. Yet, it’s still bold of him to assume.

However, most of your thinking is forgotten as you soon feel like you have bypassed a certain point within your build up stage that tells you that you are ready to cum, because it starts to burn in your gut and you feel like you seriously can’t keep quiet at all anymore with whimpers, whines and moans expelling from your mouth into Matt’s.

Uttering something completely inaudible to him, he seems to catch on that you’re close to finishing and so reaches one of his hands up the front of your top to play with one of your tits beneath your bra. This only enlarges the feeling whilst Matt praises you with showers of ‘you’re being such a good girl for me’ and ‘you’re doing so well angel… just a little more’.

The last remnants of his praise are eeked out of him before something within you snaps and a gushing waterfall of pleasure rolls all the way up your gut like some form of ricocheting explosion. You almost cry, and your eyes certainly dampen a little with tears as your mouth drops open.

From below you, Matt admires the sounds of ecstasy tumbling from your lips as you cum.

‘Shhh, shh- shhh, I know baby, I know…’

Whilst he helps you ride out your high, he hushes you gently like a baby, stroking your back and gazing up at you sympathetically, as if it wasn’t just him who had caused your body to react in this astronomically earth shattering way.

‘Jesus pretty, you’ve soaked my thigh…’ he remarks in absolute shock after you wobble your way off of your seat on his leg to crash tiredly next to him onto the bed. You smirk in exhaustion, before your squished lips mumble a ‘yeah well that’s all of what Ryan couldn’t give me, so savour it Matt…’ into the mattress. Matt also snorts, before cleaning up a little bit of your sticky cum and licking it from off of his finger right in front of you.

‘There… I did get to taste you in the end…’ he muses playfully, to which you hide your face into the blanket and groan at what you had just done.

The feeling of realisation after you’ve made a mistake is never a nice one, however, what is as equally concerning is the fact that you don’t seem to care as much as you thought you would have, which sends warning sirens off in your head once again.

You had just cheated on Ryan… but what’s even worse is that you had cheated on him with his so-called ‘best friend’, the same best friend who had coaxed you into cheating with him in the first place.

‘Ryan can’t know about this…’ you croak fearfully into the mattress whilst Matt stands up to put his pants back on properly again.

He spins around to you, his skinny, short figure accentuated in the light as he does his belt back up with a cheeky grin on his face. His hair is fluffy and tussled at the front from when you had carded your hands through it a couple of times whilst you had fucked.

His little chain with a small horse pendant on it also glitters with malice and cockiness at the state he had left you in, crumpled on top of the mattress. God, he’s going to love sneaking around behind Ryan’s back to fuck you, he always gets a free high from playing these kinds of games with people’s heartstrings.

‘Don’t worry… I don’t kiss and tell… plus, keeping it a secret is all part of the fun anyway…’

Author’s notes p.2: TW: Ryan… the only thing going through my head when writing this was the song ‘Homewrecker’ by Marina and the Diamonds lol, Matt is such a dick but I absolutely LOVE IT. Also guys I’ve literally reached the limit of the amount of people I can put on my taglist, so I’m going to have to tag the rest of u guys in the comment sections now sorryyyy hehe, shits crazy. Thank you so much, I’m always so eternally grateful for all of the love u give my writing, I love reading all of ur asks and messages, so please write more!! 🎀

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trulyhblue · 2 months

Note

If you write for her, I will not be opposed to a Kerstin Casparij one because I have the biggest fattest crush on her. Maybe a fan keeps showing up in the fanzone (an area of the Joie stadium where a selected few are allowed to meet the players, but it's random each time and should make it so its different every time so everyone gets a go.) And nobody knows why she's there or how she keeps getting chosen but the players find it funny and make sure to get round to her every time. But Kerstin always spends a particularly long amount of time with her, until it's revealed that she's pulling strings and getting the girl in every time just so she can see her. (You can either do it where she does it because she likes her or because they're dating, it works with both and I'm not sure which one I want more.)

Charmer

Kerstin Casparji x Reader, Lauren Hemp x Platonic! Reader, Esme Morgan x Platonic! Reader, Man City WT x Reader.

Warnings: fluff, coarse language, established secret relationship

A/N — Thank you for this request!! Love it so much. Will definitely write more for Kerstin if anyone is willing to send in some requests!!!!!

__________________

You had met Kerstin in a bakery down the road from your house. When you first saw each other, the woman nearly tripped over her own feet. You were surprised by the shock on her face like she was starstruck by being in a metre of your presence. You gave her a friendly smile, hoping your open ambiguity would keep things humble.

It was during your final exams, the ones where you needed to pass so that you could continue your degree. You were very passionate about what you did, and sitting down in a quiet coffee shop with your headphones on and books open was your idea of being productive.

Kerstin, on the other hand, had the impression that you didn't want to talk to her.

Which, well, to be honest, you were in the middle of studying, but you gave no clear indication of what she thought you were thinking.

Instead of going about her day — she should've been at training twelve minutes ago, but it was only media day so they could wait — she slowly sauntered closer to where you sat, pretending to be interested in the decorative flowers that embellished the cafe. You watched her out of the corner of your eye, smiling at her piss-poor attempt in remaining discreet.

You were dressed in very basic clothing, similar to hers save for the Manchester symbol embedded on her jumper. Only one ear was covered by your headphones, meaning that Kerstin would be heard loud and clear if she plucked up the courage to speak to you — which she was trying to do now. She thought you were the most beautiful woman she’d ever seen, and she was surrounded by women almost every single day of her life. You looked extremely immersed in what you were doing, which should of been an indicator of apathy but it only lured Kerstin in more.

She wanted to know everything about you. Your name, you favourite colour, what you did, what you loved, who you loved—

It sounded a bit creepy, so she shook off her thoughts and focused deeply on the flowers. The woman was staring at her screen distantly, aimlessly typing away on the keyboard with a mug by her side.

When she realised you had caught her staring, she buried and swallowed down her pride. “They are nice flowers, don't you think?” She asked, her cheeks burning a vibrant red as if she had just run a marathon. You noticed her accent, one that wasn't accustomed to Manchester, and nodded like you cared about the topic.

“Yes, but I think they are fake.” You replied, smiling wider as the woman’s flustered state only grew in size when she caught sight of the very fake-looking plants.

“Oh.” She gulped, shoving her hands into her pockets. She's so stupid, she thought to herself, she’d blown her chance of even talking to this gorgeous stranger by talking about some stupid, fake plants.

You wondered whether the woman would continue the conversation she started, but the silence that followed was a pretty good indicator that she was audibly stumped on what to say.

“They are pretty, though.”

“Like you,” Kerstin spoke without thinking and instantly regretted it. She slapped her hand across her mouth, nearly walking out of the coffee shop, packing her bags and moving back to the Netherlands. “Fuck, sorry. That just— erm, came out. Sorry.”

You took off your headphones, pretending to act offended, raising your eyebrows and sighing. “You don't mean it?”

“What— no, no, you are so pretty. Like, beautiful, gorgeous. That's why I'm here. Well— yeah, I saw and thought you were pretty. I didn't mean it like that. You're probably smart, too, but— erm, yeah.”

The look of remorse almost made you feel bad, but your amusement — and somewhat endearment — overturned your hesitancy.

Instead, you laughed, took a sip of your drink and smiled, hoping it would calm the woman’s nerves.

“You worry too much.” You said, moving across the booth you were sitting on, offering the space beside you for her to sit down. She did so without delay. “I'm not someone you should waste your worry on.”

“You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen,” Kerstin answered wholeheartedly, pleased when she noticed the blush that dusted your cheeks. “I would rather worry about you than anything else for the rest of my life.”

You laughed, crossing your arms over your chest. “You don't even know me.”

With a push of confidence, Kerstin wrapped an arm over the back of the booth, scarcely missing your shoulder. “If you’d let me, I’d like to.”

“Charmer.”

It was from there that you and Kristen started to hang out.

Seven months had passed, and you were now completely and utterly in love with the woman. Kerstin was an externally affectionate person despite her introverted persona. She loved showering you with compliments, giving you everything you needed at exactly the right time with just the right amount of love and devotion.

You found out she was a football player pretty early on in your relationship due to the tight and busy schedule the girl had, including her diet, exercise, and all of that. You weren't a massive football fan, but going to your first game a week into knowing Kerstin made it seem to find a way into your heart.

Your girlfriend wasn't the only one to give compliments. You had your fair share in making sure the Dutch woman knew how much you were enamoured with everything she did. It took you a while to get used to her career and the publicity that came with it, but you found pleasure in knowing that once you got back to your shared apartment you could tell and show her just how much she made you feel so so proud.

It was in mutual agreeance that you both wanted to keep your relationship under wraps. Your feelings for one another and how you cared for each other were one of the highest concerns in your relationship, and by keeping your love between yourselves, you've found that it worked better overall. You didn't want to indulge in a media presence, and Kerstin respected that.

Kerstin was fine with putting herself out onto social media, but when it came to you, she wanted to make sure you were comfortable at all times.

Because of this, you both came to the decision that at games, you wouldn't sit within the family and friends section, and instead, in the crowd with the fans.

You were among the group of fans that were guaranteed to meet the players after the match, whether it be cause they paid more or if they were chosen randomly by officials. For many weeks, people just assumed that they were lucky or could just afford to pay the extra money to be seated in the same section. Both you and Kerstin found it amusing when fans would wonder why you were always the first one to be greeted, or why you knew her.

After a month of this recurring theme, some of Kerstin’s teammates started to notice.

Surprisingly, Lauren, who wasn't the most observant, caught sight of it first.

“Do you know her?” She asked Kerstin after a game against Everton, watching the Dutchie make eye contact with you from where they were signing shirts.

Kerstin looked at Hempo, a blush running across the bridge of her nose.

Shrugging, she thanked the last fan, handing back the pen. “She's a friend of mine.”

Lauren’s eyebrows furrowed. “Then why isn't she in the friends and family section?”

When Kerstin didn't instantly reply, silenced by the prodding questions she was receiving, a distant idea clicked in Lauren’s mind.

“She's your girlfriend?” She sounded, obviously a little too loudly since the Dutch international nudged her warningly.

“Alright, nosey, keep your voice down.” She snapped, pulling the girl away from the crowd. “You can't tell anyone, alright. It's still pretty new.”

Lauren’s eyes widened in alarm, not exactly thrilled with the commitment of keeping a secret. “Does Jill know?”

“Why would Jill know?”

“I don't know, I didn't think I’d be the first person to find out,” Hempo replied, looking back at you. “Can I tell someone?”

Kerstin’s eyebrows furrowed. “I just said you can't.”

“Yes, I know, but I'm terrible at keeping secrets,” Lauren whined. “Please, let me tell Jill, at least.”

“No, because Jill will tell Viv and Viv will tell Beth, and Beth will tell literally everyone.” She quipped, only half-heartedly digging at the Arsenal girls. She watched Hemp sigh like a child, looking down as if the burden of her knowing was too much. “You can tell Esme but that's it.”

That was how the first people found out about you and Kerstin. When she told you that night, you weren't necessarily fazed. It was bound to come out at some point, and you’d rather Kerstin’s teammates find out from her than the internet.

Unfortunately, though, the rest of the girls weren't afforded the same luxury as Esme and Lauren.

All of the girls at Man City couldn't believe their eyes when they found out Kerstin was in love.

Well, to be fair, they weren't quite certain this was true. Lauren and Esme saw it first at the next game against West Ham, watching their teammate smile cheekily at the girl in the stands when she should've been stretching.

Sandy mentioned the Dutch International’s love-sick countenance to some of their teammates over lunch a few weeks later, promoting Hempo and Es to spill their not-so-long-kept confession.

None of the girls knew who Kerstin was talking to — or even if their suspicions were acclimated, but Sandy, Esme, and Lauren all made it their mission to keep their lips closed.

Sandy was the one to come up with the pact, yet the demanding eyes of Roebuck after an endurance training session set her tongue loose.

Lauren wasn't at all happy. Esme ended up spilling the secret to Mary as well, meaning the secret was already spreading across the team.

Meanwhile, fans were growing more and more suspicious of you and how you managed to steal the attention of Kerstin after each and every game.

The media surrounding you two got so big that Kerstin’s national teammate Viv called her one day asking what was going on.

Kerstin knew Lauren and Esme had told at least half the team by then, including Jill, who had run up to you after a game and pretended to flirt with you just to annoy her teammate. Viv was quick to point out that if she wanted to keep your relationship private, putting you in the midst of cameras and media attention wasn't the most suitable option.

You ended up deciding that if you were to stay in the crowd, both of you needed to be willing to make your relationship more public.

It had been seven months of concealing your obvious love for one another. Pretty much the whole team knew about you, and it only took fans a quick video of the two of you looking at each other to piece the clues together. You were both mature enough to keep your private lives private and social lives up to your discretion.

You made the decision to share very minimal parts of your lives together without spelling it out. This meant that you could hug your girlfriend for that little while longer in front of everyone. You could kiss her and not look around to see if anyone was looking. You could tell yourself that Kerstin was yours and you were hers.

But you didn't need public knowledge to make you feel loved by her.

__________________________

kerstincasparji

kerstincasparji — bit of a charmer ✨

Comments:

user11 — UM THE SOFT LAUNCH ARE YOU KIDDING???

viviannemiedema — ❤️

laurenhemp — love that bakery

*liked by kerstincasparji and yourusername

esmemorgan — busy girls

^ wosofan — SHE KNOWS

maryfowler — 🐐

user23 — is she dating the fan??

^ manchestergirl — if you mean the girl in the stand then yeah I think so

^ user2 — “THE girl IN THE STANDS” AHAHAHHAA

jillroord — ew cooties

^ viviannemiedema — shush

^ jillroord — no 😍

user7 — why does she sit in the stands and not in the family and friends section

^ laurenhemp — that's what I said 🫢

yourusername — charmer, huh?

^ kerstincasparji — idk, some pretty girl called me it

^ yourusername — didn't you call her beautiful, gorgeous, stunning, talented, incredible, out of this world

^ kerstincaslarji — she likes to think so.

^ user12 — IS THIS HER??????

^ arsenalwosoxx — THEY HIT THE PENTAGON

________________________

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aroseformyself · 8 months

Text

yandere twst au !¡

⚠️tw: bullying, violence, nsfw, blackmail, yandere, noncon/dubcon, mc is depicted to be small and fragile (im not even like that but it fits with the theme), reader is gn for half then fem

. A Z U L A S H E N G R O T T O !¡

. the obsessed clingy stalker !¡

. stats

easily angered: 5/10 physical capability: 4/10 gullibility: 5/10 sexual sadism: 4/10

azul is an business man, he knows his way to get someone to fall apart and has dirt and almost everyone. and if he doesnt the moment he finds a weakness he will exploit it with all his power. considering this info, once azul finds out mc is living in ramshackle, the perfect little hang out for the monstro lounge AND is magicless. azul will definitely find a weakness, a insecurity, or even a fear and attempt to force mc into a contract.

however, when mc refuses, azul can’t believe it. he had just offered them the offer of a lifetime, money and a confortable place to stay, but they refused. they didn’t even read the fine print (which would make mc an employee of the lounge).

azul is fuming because of this and almost throws a tantrum before the twins calm him down, saying they’ll take care of it. azul had a realization, the twins will find a way to force you into the contract, either they annoy you so much you sign just to get floyd to stop seeking you out in the halls. or to get jade to stop trying to feed you random foods and drinks that he swears are not “poisonous and harmful”.

so when the twins come back empty handed after weeks, you can understand his confusion and frustration. even though he’s offered you a great deal (minus you being an employee) and the twins annoying you so much, you should be running back, wanting him to stop the torture. he expected you to give up the first time he offered, or even run to him earlier, especially since your magicless.

he doesn’t get it, anyone else except a select few would have given up by now, so why didn’t mc?! they just keep going on with that old house that is one sneeze away from falling apart. it makes his blood boil that he can’t figure them out, “perhaps they’ve already planned for all of this!” azul said to jade, but jade shook his head, saying its impossible for someone as weak as mc to think that far ahead. they were thrown into a world of magic, surely they couldn’t have seen anything coming. but they are stoic all the time around azul and the twins…

mc not talking to them and lowley avoiding azul has lead all these thoughts about them to bubble up in azuls mind. it had him second guessing his moves for the first time, re-thinking how things will play out. but azul has a revelation, mc would be a powerful ally to octavinelle and could be a powerful business partner. as long as he plays his cards right mc will be his.

and unknowingly of mc, they’ve stuck themselves in azuls brain, permanently. while they were just trying to save themselves, they ended up falling deeper in, in the process. azul had become obsessed with them, so much so that he wanted them by his side forever, to never leave and stay with him at all times.

”what a poor unfortunate soul, but fret not, l/n, let’s make a deal.”

. J A D E L E E C H !¡ . F L O Y D L E E C H !¡

. the sadist stalkers !¡

. stats

easily angered: 2/10 easily angered: 6/10 physical capability: 7/10 physical capability: 8/10 gullibilty: 1/10 gullibility: 5:10 sexual sadism: 4/10 sexual sadism: 7/10

jade is majors in strength, intelligence, and communication. he acts very gentlemanly, and masks almost everything up with a smile. considering this he. is midly shocked when azul comes into the lounge about to cry because of a little migicless mc from another world. he heard about the mc because gossip at NRC spreads quicker than wild fire. he knows about them being form another world, one without magic above everything else. so why would azul be so frustrated by a little thing like that?

it all starts to make sense when azul goes and comments on everything mc did to avoid him, saying things like “they’ve had to have known” which makes his interest in mc burn. jade like things he finds interesting and loves testing them. so you’ve been put on his radar to look out for (same with floyd). when he does get tired of azuls whining he decides it’s best to see for himself. little did he know, mc is a master of evading, whenever mc saw him they would immediately walk forward, a stoic expression on mcs face, acting as if they were so focused on something else, they weren’t thinking of the world around them. and of course he didn’t run after them, he would have looked like a fool, running after a random person in the middle of the campus. then there was mcs annoying so called “friends” who were invading personal space and always around them.

as if mc running away all the time wasn’t bad enough, they’re friends also didn’t seem to fond of jade. so they ran away to! jade was now trapped in a position either to suck it up and go to floyd, admitting he had trouble with mc, or find a time where mc would actually approach him. option one was the quickest, and time is somethign they don’t have with everyone starting to like mc. especially the animals from savanaclaw.

when jade asked floyd to help out, he didn’t expect floyd to literally tackle mc into the wall and squeeze really tight. and on top of that, mcs stoic facade breaking and their eyes watering was the most important thing to think about. if they do have the ability to have emotions, why cover it up? jade kept the thought in the back of his mind.

floyd is a moody teen who likes seeing peoples reactions specifically people he’s interested in, which now includes “shrimpy” or mc. he wants to see them all, all the expressions and emotions they are capable of. so while jade asked mc a few questions regarding their cooperation with azul and the price they want to become an emplyee of the lounge, he noted floyd’s hands wandering all over their body. when one of his twins hands went to their thigh and gave it a slight squeeze before almost sliding up into their shorts which caused mc to let out a breathy gasp, is when he decided it was enough. telling floyd to knock it off before someone comes over. (not bc he hard)

when jade and floyd come back to azul’s office to tell him they finally got what they needed, they can tell azul has been over thinking. and as amusing as it is, they can aslo tell he has a new place in his life for mc. but the thought of mc is enticing, who can blame him? even the twins have taken a new liking to mc, but the question is, how is mc going to deal with them.

fem!reader

now azul, jade, and floyd are tasked with finding a plan that you won’t be able to tinker with. one that is simply ingenious. and your friends are the perfect targets. floyd first suggested just enslaving the school and you along with it, and azul and jade built from that, taking the exam to their advantage, azul made fake exam cards and fake answers for the dtudents to study with, the ones who didn’t make it to top 50 were toast and the ones that did weren’t free to leave leave. of course they suspected you wouldn’t fall for that, but you weren’t the target.

ace trappolla amd deuce spade, your closest friends fell for it in an instant, and didn’t tell you. just how they thought it would play out. azul felt great in his glory, no more times that you can make him second guess himself.

you couldn’t believe the smug looks on their faces when they saw you walking into azul’s office after you your friends failed. azul started by questioning how your day went, and you harshly replied with “horrible”. but it didn’t seem to make even a dent in his facade, he just chuckled and proposed an offer you couldn’t refuse. freeing your friends and you taking their place, and of course you said yes, you were just to innocent for this school if you thought they would just make you a forced emplyee.

and oh how they wished to ruin that innocence. the first day of your job was saturday, so you weren’t expecting anything out of the ordinary to happen, all you had to do is take people orders and give them said orders. pretty easy, and since it was a weekend you didn’t have any work for school to do. however what you did NOT expect floyd to be following you around, monitoring you and all your movements. so when you accidentally dropped a drink, floyd hugging you while saying, “oh~ look who messed up!” wasn’t a surprise, but floyd dragging you back to azul and setting you down on his table, while jade walked in.

. slight nsfw !¡

you frantically tried to defending yourself by explaining what had happened thinking they were mad with you, “i didn’t mean to-” but azul cut you off, holding a finger to your lips.

“as you know our supplies are limited until we can bring in more at the end of the week.” but it is the end of the week, your sweat drops as floyd stand behind you, his hands graze your thigh. “we require payments and sense you are in no position to pay in full. we must take it from you in other ways…” his evil smirk did nothing to calm you, are they gonna beat me up? you thought, as floyd’s hands gripped your thighs tightly. but your heart dropped when his hands moved toward your inner thigh, prying them open despite your protests. “hush now, it’ll feel good, i promise.”

you need a safe place to escape to. perhaps savanaclaw will work?

#twisted wonderland #twst x reader #smut #twst smut #lemon0bear11 #azul ashengrotto #floyd leech #jade leech

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mostlysignssomeportents · 6 months

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Big Tech’s “attention rents”

Tomorrow (Nov 4), I'm keynoting the Hackaday Supercon in Pasadena, CA.

The thing is, any feed or search result is "algorithmic." "Just show me the things posted by people I follow in reverse-chronological order" is an algorithm. "Just show me products that have this SKU" is an algorithm. "Alphabetical sort" is an algorithm. "Random sort" is an algorithm.

Any process that involves more information than you can take in at a glance or digest in a moment needs some kind of sense-making. It needs to be put in some kind of order. There's always gonna be an algorithm.

But that's not what we mean by "the algorithm" (TM). When we talk about "the algorithm," we mean a system for ordering information that uses complex criteria that are not precisely known to us, and than can't be easily divined through an examination of the ordering.

There's an idea that a "good" algorithm is one that does not seek to deceive or harm us. When you search for a specific part number, you want exact matches for that search at the top of the results. It's fine if those results include third-party parts that are compatible with the part you're searching for, so long as they're clearly labeled. There's room for argument about how to order those results – do highly rated third-party parts go above the OEM part? How should the algorithm trade off price and quality?

It's hard to come up with an objective standard to resolve these fine-grained differences, but search technologists have tried. Think of Google: they have a patent on "long clicks." A "long click" is when you search for something and then don't search for it again for quite some time, the implication being that you've found what you were looking for. Google Search ads operate a "pay per click" model, and there's an argument that this aligns Google's ad division's interests with search quality: if the ad division only gets paid when you click a link, they will militate for placing ads that users want to click on.

Platforms are inextricably bound up in this algorithmic information sorting business. Platforms have emerged as the endemic form of internet-based business, which is ironic, because a platform is just an intermediary – a company that connects different groups to each other. The internet's great promise was "disintermediation" – getting rid of intermediaries. We did that, and then we got a whole bunch of new intermediaries.

Usually, those groups can be sorted into two buckets: "business customers" (drivers, merchants, advertisers, publishers, creative workers, etc) and "end users" (riders, shoppers, consumers, audiences, etc). Platforms also sometimes connect end users to each other: think of dating sites, or interest-based forums on Reddit. Either way, a platform's job is to make these connections, and that means platforms are always in the algorithm business.

Whether that's matching a driver and a rider, or an advertiser and a consumer, or a reader and a mix of content from social feeds they're subscribed to and other sources of information on the service, the platform has to make a call as to what you're going to see or do.

These choices are enormously consequential. In the theory of Surveillance Capitalism, these choices take on an almost supernatural quality, where "Big Data" can be used to guess your response to all the different ways of pitching an idea or product to you, in order to select the optimal pitch that bypasses your critical faculties and actually controls your actions, robbing you of "the right to a future tense."

I don't think much of this hypothesis. Every claim to mind control – from Rasputin to MK Ultra to neurolinguistic programming to pick-up artists – has turned out to be bullshit. Besides, you don't need to believe in mind control to explain the ways that algorithms shape our beliefs and actions. When a single company dominates the information landscape – say, when Google controls 90% of your searches – then Google's sorting can deprive you of access to information without you knowing it.

If every "locksmith" listed on Google Maps is a fake referral business, you might conclude that there are no more reputable storefront locksmiths in existence. What's more, this belief is a form of self-fulfilling prophecy: if Google Maps never shows anyone a real locksmith, all the real locksmiths will eventually go bust.

If you never see a social media update from a news source you follow, you might forget that the source exists, or assume they've gone under. If you see a flood of viral videos of smash-and-grab shoplifter gangs and never see a news story about wage theft, you might assume that the former is common and the latter is rare (in reality, shoplifting hasn't risen appreciably, while wage-theft is off the charts).

In the theory of Surveillance Capitalism, the algorithm was invented to make advertisers richer, and then went on to pervert the news (by incentivizing "clickbait") and finally destroyed our politics when its persuasive powers were hijacked by Steve Bannon, Cambridge Analytica, and QAnon grifters to turn millions of vulnerable people into swivel-eyed loons, racists and conspiratorialists.

As I've written, I think this theory gives the ad-tech sector both too much and too little credit, and draws an artificial line between ad-tech and other platform businesses that obscures the connection between all forms of platform decay, from Uber to HBO to Google Search to Twitter to Apple and beyond:

https://pluralistic.net/HowToDestroySurveillanceCapitalism

As a counter to Surveillance Capitalism, I've proposed a theory of platform decay called enshittification, which identifies how the market power of monopoly platforms, combined with the flexibility of digital tools, combined with regulatory capture, allows platforms to abuse both business-customers and end-users, by depriving them of alternatives, then "twiddling" the knobs that determine the rules of the platform without fearing sanction under privacy, labor or consumer protection law, and finally, blocking digital self-help measures like ad-blockers, alternative clients, scrapers, reverse engineering, jailbreaking, and other tech guerrilla warfare tactics:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/21/potemkin-ai/#hey-guys

One important distinction between Surveillance Capitalism and enshittification is that enshittification posits that the platform is bad for everyone. Surveillance Capitalism starts from the assumption that surveillance advertising is devastatingly effective (which explains how your racist Facebook uncles got turned into Jan 6 QAnons), and concludes that advertisers must be well-served by the surveillance system.

But advertisers – and other business customers – are very poorly served by platforms. Procter and Gamble reduced its annual surveillance advertising budget from $100m//year to $0/year and saw a 0% reduction in sales. The supposed laser-focused targeting and superhuman message refinement just don't work very well – first, because the tech companies are run by bullshitters whose marketing copy is nonsense, and second because these companies are monopolies who can abuse their customers without losing money.

The point of enshittification is to lock end-users to the platform, then use those locked-in users as bait for business customers, who will also become locked to the platform. Once everyone is holding everyone else hostage, the platform uses the flexibility of digital services to play a variety of algorithmic games to shift value from everyone to the business's shareholders. This flexibility is supercharged by the failure of regulators to enforce privacy, labor and consumer protection standards against the companies, and by these companies' ability to insist that regulators punish end-users, competitors, tinkerers and other third parties to mod, reverse, hack or jailbreak their products and services to block their abuse.

Enshittification needs The Algorithm. When Uber wants to steal from its drivers, it can just do an old-fashioned wage theft, but eventually it will face the music for that kind of scam:

https://apnews.com/article/uber-lyft-new-york-city-wage-theft-9ae3f629cf32d3f2fb6c39b8ffcc6cc6

The best way to steal from drivers is with algorithmic wage discrimination. That's when Uber offers occassional, selective drivers higher rates than it gives to drivers who are fully locked to its platform and take every ride the app offers. The less selective a driver becomes, the lower the premium the app offers goes, but if a driver starts refusing rides, the wage offer climbs again. This isn't the mind-control of Surveillance Capitalism, it's just fraud, shaving fractional pennies off your paycheck in the hopes that you won't notice. The goal is to get drivers to abandon the other side-hustles that allow them to be so choosy about when they drive Uber, and then, once the driver is fully committed, to crank the wage-dial down to the lowest possible setting:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

This is the same game that Facebook played with publishers on the way to its enshittification: when Facebook began aggressively courting publishers, any short snippet republished from the publisher's website to a Facebook feed was likely to be recommended to large numbers of readers. Facebook offered publishers a vast traffic funnel that drove millions of readers to their sites.

But as publishers became more dependent on that traffic, Facebook's algorithm started downranking short excerpts in favor of medium-length ones, building slowly to fulltext Facebook posts that were fully substitutive for the publisher's own web offerings. Like Uber's wage algorithm, Facebook's recommendation engine played its targets like fish on a line.

When publishers responded to declining reach for short excerpts by stepping back from Facebook, Facebook goosed the traffic for their existing posts, sending fresh floods of readers to the publisher's site. When the publisher returned to Facebook, the algorithm once again set to coaxing the publishers into posting ever-larger fractions of their work to Facebook, until, finally, the publisher was totally locked into Facebook. Facebook then started charging publishers for "boosting" – not just to be included in algorithmic recommendations, but to reach their own subscribers.

Enshittification is modern, high-tech enabled, monopolistic form of rent seeking. Rent-seeking is a subtle and important idea from economics, one that is increasingly relevant to our modern economy. For economists, a "rent" is income you get from owning a "factor of production" – something that someone else needs to make or do something.

Rents are not "profits." Profit is income you get from making or doing something. Rent is income you get from owning something needed to make a profit. People who earn their income from rents are called rentiers. If you make your income from profits, you're a "capitalist."

Capitalists and rentiers are in irreconcilable combat with each other. A capitalist wants access to their factors of production at the lowest possible price, whereas rentiers want those prices to be as high as possible. A phone manufacturer wants to be able to make phones as cheaply as possible, while a patent-troll wants to own a patent that the phone manufacturer needs to license in order to make phones. The manufacturer is a capitalism, the troll is a rentier.

The troll might even decide that the best strategy for maximizing their rents is to exclusively license their patents to a single manufacturer and try to eliminate all other phones from the market. This will allow the chosen manufacturer to charge more and also allow the troll to get higher rents. Every capitalist except the chosen manufacturer loses. So do people who want to buy phones. Eventually, even the chosen manufacturer will lose, because the rentier can demand an ever-greater share of their profits in rent.

Digital technology enables all kinds of rent extraction. The more digitized an industry is, the more rent-seeking it becomes. Think of cars, which harvest your data, block third-party repair and parts, and force you to buy everything from acceleration to seat-heaters as a monthly subscription:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

The cloud is especially prone to rent-seeking, as Yanis Varoufakis writes in his new book, Technofeudalism, where he explains how "cloudalists" have found ways to lock all kinds of productive enterprise into using cloud-based resources from which ever-increasing rents can be extracted:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/28/cloudalists/#cloud-capital

The endless malleability of digitization makes for endless variety in rent-seeking, and cataloging all the different forms of digital rent-extraction is a major project in this Age of Enshittification. "Algorithmic Attention Rents: A theory of digital platform market power," a new UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose paper by Tim O'Reilly, Ilan Strauss and Mariana Mazzucato, pins down one of these forms:

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/public-purpose/publications/2023/nov/algorithmic-attention-rents-theory-digital-platform-market-power

The "attention rents" referenced in the paper's title are bait-and-switch scams in which a platform deliberately enshittifies its recommendations, search results or feeds to show you things that are not the thing you asked to see, expect to see, or want to see. They don't do this out of sadism! The point is to extract rent – from you (wasted time, suboptimal outcomes) and from business customers (extracting rents for "boosting," jumbling good results in among scammy or low-quality results).

The authors cite several examples of these attention rents. Much of the paper is given over to Amazon's so-called "advertising" product, a $31b/year program that charges sellers to have their products placed above the items that Amazon's own search engine predicts you will want to buy:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/enshittification/#relentless-payola

This is a form of gladiatorial combat that pits sellers against each other, forcing them to surrender an ever-larger share of their profits in rent to Amazon for pride of place. Amazon uses a variety of deceptive labels ("Highly Rated – Sponsored") to get you to click on these products, but most of all, they rely two factors. First, Amazon has a long history of surfacing good results in response to queries, which makes buying whatever's at the top of a list a good bet. Second, there's just so many possible results that it takes a lot of work to sift through the probably-adequate stuff at the top of the listings and get to the actually-good stuff down below.

Amazon spent decades subsidizing its sellers' goods – an illegal practice known as "predatory pricing" that enforcers have increasingly turned a blind eye to since the Reagan administration. This has left it with few competitors:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/19/fake-it-till-you-make-it/#millennial-lifestyle-subsidy

The lack of competing retail outlets lets Amazon impose other rent-seeking conditions on its sellers. For example, Amazon has a "most favored nation" requirement that forces companies that raise their prices on Amazon to raise their prices everywhere else, which makes everything you buy more expensive, whether that's a Walmart, Target, a mom-and-pop store, or direct from the manufacturer:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/25/greedflation/#commissar-bezos

But everyone loses in this "two-sided market." Amazon used "junk ads" to juice its ad-revenue: these are ads that are objectively bad matches for your search, like showing you a Seattle Seahawks jersey in response to a search for LA Lakers merch:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-02/amazon-boosted-junk-ads-hid-messages-with-signal-ftc-says

The more of these junk ads Amazon showed, the more revenue it got from sellers – and the more the person selling a Lakers jersey had to pay to show up at the top of your search, and the more they had to charge you to cover those ad expenses, and the more they had to charge for it everywhere else, too.

The authors describe this process as a transformation between "attention rents" (misdirecting your attention) to "pecuniary rents" (making money). That's important: despite decades of rhetoric about the "attention economy," attention isn't money. As I wrote in my enshittification essay:

You can't use attention as a medium of exchange. You can't use it as a store of value. You can't use it as a unit of account. Attention is like cryptocurrency: a worthless token that is only valuable to the extent that you can trick or coerce someone into parting with "fiat" currency in exchange for it. You have to "monetize" it – that is, you have to exchange the fake money for real money.

The authors come up with some clever techniques for quantifying the ways that this scam harms users. For example, they count the number of places that an advertised product rises in search results, relative to where it would show up in an "organic" search. These quantifications are instructive, but they're also a kind of subtweet at the judiciary.

In 2018, SCOTUS's ruling in American Express v Ohio changed antitrust law for two-sided markets by insisting that so long as one side of a two-sided market was better off as the result of anticompetitive actions, there was no antitrust violation:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3346776

For platforms, that means that it's OK to screw over sellers, advertisers, performers and other business customers, so long as the end-users are better off: "Go ahead, cheat the Uber drivers, so long as you split the booty with Uber riders."

But in the absence of competition, regulation or self-help measures, platforms cheat everyone – that's the point of enshittification. The attention rents that Amazon's payola scheme extract from shoppers translate into higher prices, worse goods, and lower profits for platform sellers. In other words, Amazon's conduct is so sleazy that it even threads the infinitesimal needle that the Supremes created in American Express.

Here's another algorithmic pecuniary rent: Amazon figured out which of its major rivals used an automated price-matching algorithm, and then cataloged which products they had in common with those sellers. Then, under a program called Project Nessie, Amazon jacked up the prices of those products, knowing that as soon as they raised the prices on Amazon, the prices would go up everywhere else, so Amazon wouldn't lose customers to cheaper alternatives. That scam made Amazon at least a billion dollars:

https://gizmodo.com/ftc-alleges-amazon-used-price-gouging-algorithm-1850986303

This is a great example of how enshittification – rent-seeking on digital platforms – is different from analog rent-seeking. The speed and flexibility with which Amazon and its rivals altered their prices requires digitization. Digitization also let Amazon crank the price-gouging dial to zero whenever they worried that regulators were investigating the program.

So what do we do about it? After years of being made to look like fumblers and clowns by Big Tech, regulators and enforcers – and even lawmakers – have decided to get serious.

The neoliberal narrative of government helplessness and incompetence would have you believe that this will go nowhere. Governments aren't as powerful as giant corporations, and regulators aren't as smart as the supergeniuses of Big Tech. They don't stand a chance.

But that's a counsel of despair and a cheap trick. Weaker US governments have taken on stronger oligarchies and won – think of the defeat of JD Rockefeller and the breakup of Standard Oil in 1911. The people who pulled that off weren't wizards. They were just determined public servants, with political will behind them. There is a growing, forceful public will to end the rein of Big Tech, and there are some determined public servants surfing that will.

In this paper, the authors try to give those enforcers ammo to bring to court and to the public. For example, Amazon claims that its algorithm surfaces the products that make the public happy, without the need for competitive pressure to keep it sharp. But as the paper points out, the only successful new rival ecommerce platform – Tiktok – has found an audience for an entirely new category of goods: dupes, "lower-cost products that have the same or better features than higher cost branded products."

The authors also identify "dark patterns" that platforms use to trick users into consuming feeds that have a higher volume of things that the company profits from, and a lower volume of things that users want to see. For example, platforms routinely switch users from a "following" feed – consisting of things posted by people the user asked to hear from – with an algorithmic "For You" feed, filled with the things the company's shareholders wish the users had asked to see.

Calling this a "dark pattern" reveals just how hollow and self-aggrandizing that term is. "Dark pattern" usually means "fraud." If I ask to see posts from people I like, and you show me posts from people who'll pay you for my attention instead, that's not a sophisticated sleight of hand – it's just a scam. It's the social media equivalent of the eBay seller who sends you an iPhone box with a bunch of gravel inside it instead of an iPhone. Tech bros came up with "dark pattern" as a way of flattering themselves by draping themselves in the mantle of dopamine-hacking wizards, rather than unimaginative con-artists who use a computer to rip people off.

These For You algorithmic feeds aren't just a way to increase the load of sponsored posts in a feed – they're also part of the multi-sided ripoff of enshittified platforms. A For You feed allows platforms to trick publishers and performers into thinking that they are "good at the platform," which both convinces to optimize their production for that platform, and also turns them into Judas Goats who conspicuously brag about how great the platform is for people like them, which brings their peers in, too.

In Veena Dubal's essential paper on algorithmic wage discrimination, she describes how Uber drivers whom the algorithm has favored with (temporary) high per-ride rates brag on driver forums about their skill with the app, bringing in other drivers who blame their lower wages on their failure to "use the app right":

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4331080

As I wrote in my enshittification essay:

If you go down to the midway at your county fair, you'll spot some poor sucker walking around all day with a giant teddy bear that they won by throwing three balls in a peach basket.

The peach-basket is a rigged game. The carny can use a hidden switch to force the balls to bounce out of the basket. No one wins a giant teddy bear unless the carny wants them to win it. Why did the carny let the sucker win the giant teddy bear? So that he'd carry it around all day, convincing other suckers to put down five bucks for their chance to win one:

https://boingboing.net/2006/08/27/rigged-carny-game.html

The carny allocated a giant teddy bear to that poor sucker the way that platforms allocate surpluses to key performers – as a convincer in a "Big Store" con, a way to rope in other suckers who'll make content for the platform, anchoring themselves and their audiences to it.

Platform can't run the giant teddy-bear con unless there's a For You feed. Some platforms – like Tiktok – tempt users into a For You feed by making it as useful as possible, then salting it with doses of enshittification:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilybaker-white/2023/01/20/tiktoks-secret-heating-button-can-make-anyone-go-viral/

Other platforms use the (ugh) "dark pattern" of simply flipping your preference from a "following" feed to a "For You" feed. Either way, the platform can't let anyone keep the giant teddy-bear. Once you've tempted, say, sports bros into piling into the platform with the promise of millions of free eyeballs, you need to withdraw the algorithm's favor for their content so you can give it to, say, astrologers. Of course, the more locked-in the users are, the more shit you can pile into that feed without worrying about them going elsewhere, and the more giant teddy-bears you can give away to more business users so you can lock them in and start extracting rent.

For regulators, the possibility of a "good" algorithmic feed presents a serious challenge: when a feed is bad, how can a regulator tell if its low quality is due to the platform's incompetence at blocking spammers or guessing what users want, or whether it's because the platform is extracting rents?

The paper includes a suite of recommendations, including one that I really liked:

Regulators, working with cooperative industry players, would define reportable metrics based on those that are actually used by the platforms themselves to manage search, social media, e-commerce, and other algorithmic relevancy and recommendation engines.

In other words: find out how the companies themselves measure their performance. Find out what KPIs executives have to hit in order to earn their annual bonuses and use those to figure out what the company's performance is – ad load, ratio of organic clicks to ad clicks, average click-through on the first organic result, etc.

They also recommend some hard rules, like reserving a portion of the top of the screen for "organic" search results, and requiring exact matches to show up as the top result.

I've proposed something similar, applicable across multiple kinds of digital businesses: an end-to-end principle for online services. The end-to-end principle is as old as the internet, and it decrees that the role of an intermediary should be to deliver data from willing senders to willing receivers as quickly and reliably as possible. When we apply this principle to your ISP, we call it Net Neutrality. For services, E2E would mean that if I subscribed to your feed, the service would have a duty to deliver it to me. If I hoisted your email out of my spam folder, none of your future emails should land there. If I search for your product and there's an exact match, that should be the top result:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/04/platforms-decay-lets-put-users-first

One interesting wrinkle to framing platform degradation as a failure to connect willing senders and receivers is that it places a whole host of conduct within the regulatory remit of the FTC. Section 5 of the FTC Act contains a broad prohibition against "unfair and deceptive" practices:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

That means that the FTC doesn't need any further authorization from Congress to enforce an end to end rule: they can simply propose and pass that rule, on the grounds that telling someone that you'll show them the feeds that they ask for and then not doing so is "unfair and deceptive."

Some of the other proposals in the paper also fit neatly into Section 5 powers, like a "sticky" feed preference. If I tell a service to show me a feed of the people I follow and they switch it to a For You feed, that's plainly unfair and deceptive.

All of this raises the question of what a post-Big-Tech feed would look like. In "How To Break Up Amazon" for The Sling, Peter Carstensen and Darren Bush sketch out some visions for this:

https://www.thesling.org/how-to-break-up-amazon/

They imagine a "condo" model for Amazon, where the sellers collectively own the Amazon storefront, a model similar to capacity rights on natural gas pipelines, or to patent pools. They see two different ways that search-result order could be determined in such a system:

"specific premium placement could go to those vendors that value the placement the most [with revenue] shared among the owners of the condo"

"leave it to owners themselves to create joint ventures to promote products"

Note that both of these proposals are compatible with an end-to-end rule and the other regulatory proposals in the paper. Indeed, all these policies are easier to enforce against weaker companies that can't afford to maintain the pretense that they are headquartered in some distant regulatory haven, or pay massive salaries to ex-regulators to work the refs on their behalf:

https://www.thesling.org/in-public-discourse-and-congress-revolvers-defend-amazons-monopoly/

The re-emergence of intermediaries on the internet after its initial rush of disintermediation tells us something important about how we relate to one another. Some authors might be up for directly selling books to their audiences, and some drivers might be up for creating their own taxi service, and some merchants might want to run their own storefronts, but there's plenty of people with something they want to offer us who don't have the will or skill to do it all. Not everyone wants to be a sysadmin, a security auditor, a payment processor, a software engineer, a CFO, a tax-preparer and everything else that goes into running a business. Some people just want to sell you a book. Or find a date. Or teach an online class.

Intermediation isn't intrinsically wicked. Intermediaries fall into pits of enshitffication and other forms of rent-seeking when they aren't disciplined by competitors, by regulators, or by their own users' ability to block their bad conduct (with ad-blockers, say, or other self-help measures). We need intermediaries, and intermediaries don't have to turn into rent-seeking feudal warlords. That only happens if we let it happen.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/03/subprime-attention-rent-crisis/#euthanize-rentiers

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

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kafus · 5 months

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how to transfer your old pokemon to pokemon home before it's too late!!!

the wi-fi services for the nintendo 3DS and WiiU are shutting down in early april 2024, and while it specifically lists pokemon bank and poke transporter as being available post-shutdown, there is no guarantee of how long that may be for. there will likely come a time when these services shut down, and it could be in the relatively near future.

it is also pretty much impossible now to transfer pokemon to the switch's Home service with alternative methods such as PKHeX (popular pokemon save editor for the uninformed) due to the implementation of server-side Home IDs tracking pokemon at all times - the details of that aren't super important for this post, but point is, whenever bank shuts down, unless nintendo makes an offline way to transfer to home, it will be impossible to move pokemon from the old gens to the new, even with alternative/hack-y methods.

i write this guide with the intention of making this process easier for people since transferring pokemon has changed so much over the past two decades that it's a bit of a mess, and in a timely manner to give people time to finish the process. i'll be organizing by generation so feel free to skip to any part of the guide you need. (keep in mind that transferring is permanent, your pokemon cannot go back afterwards!!)

(by the way it would mean a lot to me if you weren't overwhelmingly negative of pokemon in the tags/reblogs. i get that pokemon transferring being an online service sucks but reading that stuff in my notifications constantly is really tiring </3 make ur own post to talk about that)

to walk you through, i'll be transferring this random shiny spinda i hatched in emerald version all the way up to pokemon home. her name is Moss :]

below the cut since this is long as fuck sorry LOL

GEN 1/2 -> 3 (aka RBY/GSC -> RSE/FRLG)

this is impossible! as for the Virtual Console releases of the gen 1/2 games on 3DS, more on that later in the gen 5 -> 6/7 section.

GEN 3 -> 4 (aka RSE/FRLG -> DPPT/HGSS)

what you need:

a copy of RSE or FRLG

a copy of DPPT or HGSS in the same language as the RSE/FRLG copy that has beaten the champion and has access to post-game areas, preferably HGSS because it lets you transfer unlimited times as opposed to DPPT's once-per-24-hours limit (unless you happen to have korean DPPT/HGSS, which is not language locked in terms of transferring)

either an original DS or a DS lite, the old ones with the GBA slot at the bottom

the steps:

#1. you can only transfer 6 pokemon at a time, so get whatever 6 pokemon you want to transfer up together in gen 3. if you're intending to transfer less than 6 pokemon, you'll need to catch some extras since you have to transfer the full 6 every time (i usually just catch a bunch of extra mons on the first route, which is what i've done here with the poochyenas/wurmples)

#2. put the gen 3 game into the GBA slot of the DS, and the gen 4 game into the DS slot. both games should appear on the home menu after turning on the DS.

#3. load the DS game and spam A past the title screen. before loading your save, scroll down. you should see a "MIGRATE FROM (GAME NAME HERE)" option. if you don't, either the GBA game isn't reading properly, or you have not visited Pal Park in your gen 4 game of choice. in HGSS, the Pal Park is located in Fuchsia City, and in DPPT, the Pal Park is located at the end of Route 221 below Sandgem Town.

#4. select the aforementioned migration option and pick the pokemon you want to transfer.

#5. navigate to the Pal Park and complete the Catching Show, where you re-catch your transferred pokemon in the wild. this does not overwrite what pokeballs they were originally caught in! you will need to bring a pokemon with Surf if you have any Pokemon that spawn in the water areas. you can check what location the pokemon you transferred will be in on bulbapedia.

#6. say yes to storing the caught pokemon in your PC boxes and they'll be there!

important things to note:

pokemon with HM moves will be blocked from transfer, so make sure to use the Move Deleter to remove HM moves from any pokemon you're transferring in gen 3 before trying to transfer. in RSE, the Move Deleter is in Lilycove City, and in FRLG they are in Fuchsia City.

gen 3 -> 4 is the only step in the transfer process where held items transfer up as well, meaning that if you attach a valuable item such as a rare candy, master ball, or TM to a transferred pokemon, you can take it off that pokemon and put it in your bag in the gen 4 game.

an aside about colosseum/XD gale of darkness on gamecube:

you can transfer pokemon from colo/XD as well! unfortunately you'll need to have beaten colo/XD, and then you will also need to beat the gen 3 game... in FRLG, you even have to complete the postgame ruby/sapphire quest on the sevii islands to unlock trading with the gamecube games. once you do all that though, you can navigate to the pokemon center basement in Phenac City to trade with your gen 3 GBA title. to do this, you'll need a gamecube or wii with gamecube compatibility, a GBA (or GBA SP), and a GCN -> GBA link cable to connect the two consoles.

GEN 4 -> 5 (aka DPPT/HGSS -> BW/BW2)

what you need:

a copy of DPPT/HGSS

a copy of BW or BW2 in the same language as DPPT/HGSS copy that has beaten the champion (or N in the original BW) and has access to post-game areas.

two DS consoles of any kind (3DS is also fine!)

the steps:

#1. get the pokemon you want to transfer together in your gen 4 game's PC boxes. you can only transfer 6 pokemon at a time. if you have less than 6, catch some extra pokemon, since you need to transfer the full 6 every time. save it and turn off the DS with the gen 4 game.

#2. turn on your gen 5 game and navigate to the Poke Transfer Lab. personally i just fly to Black City/White Forest and head west.

#3. talk to the NPC in the lab to start the transfer process. you will be prompted to turn on your other DS again and open DS Download Play with your gen 4 game inserted. do that and download the Poke Transfer app that comes up.

#4. select the 6 Pokemon you want to transfer when prompted.

#5. play the transfer minigame! just drag the... bow? (lol) on the bottom screen to aim your pokeballs. there's technically a time limit, but it's very generous, and your final score doesn't matter.

#6. say yes to transferring the pokemon once you're done and they'll be placed in your PC boxes!

important things to note:

pokemon with HM moves will be blocked from transfer, so make sure to use the Move Deleter to remove HM moves from any pokemon you're transferring in gen 4 before trying to transfer. in DPPT they're in Canalave City, and in HGSS they're in Blackthorn City.

the level the pokemon was obtained at and the date it was obtained is changed upon transfer to gen 5 - it will have the met date of your DS clock and the met level of the level it was at the time of transfer. if you'd like to preserve a pokemon's met date, make sure to change the DS clock to the proper date.

GEN 5 -> 6/7 (aka BW/BW2 -> 3DS TITLES/BANK)

what you need:

a copy of BW/BW2

a copy of any 3DS pokemon game (XY/ORAS/SUMO/USUM)

a 3DS (or 2DS, i'll just be referring to them all as 3DSes here) with the poke transporter and pokemon bank apps installed. these were free apps that were once downloadable from the 3DS eShop, but the 3DS eShop is no longer available, so if you don't already have them installed you will need to explore alternate methods, AKA hacking your 3DS and injecting them in. that's outside the scope of this guide but you can find more information here on 3ds.hacks.guide. (do not attempt to follow any 3DS hacking guide not on this website, they could be outdated and harm your 3DS!)

a nintendo network ID that your 3DS is logged into (also outside the scope of this guide but if you don't already have one, it will prompt you during the process to make one)

internet connection

the steps:

#1. poke transporter defaults to trying to transfer every pokemon located in Box 1 of your PC, so go into your gen 5 game and put every pokemon you want to transfer into Box 1, and take anything you don't want to transfer out. if you want to transfer more pokemon than you can fit in one box, you'll have to transfer multiple times.

#2. open poke transporter with your gen 5 game inserted into the 3DS' cartridge slot. after pressing A through some menus and selecting the gen 5 game when prompted, it should ask if you want to transfer the pokemon in Box 1, with a preview of the pokemon inside. confirm and let it do its thing. after poke transporter is finished, the pokemon you transferred will be in the special Transport Box in bank.

#3. make sure you either have a 3DS pokemon title downloaded onto your 3DS, or swap out your gen 5 cart for one, it doesn't matter which.

#4. close out of poke transporter and navigate to pokemon bank. at the time of writing this guide, bank is still online and is free for everyone without a subscription - the main menu has an infinite "free trial" period number.

#5. select "use pokemon bank" and pick a 3DS game to connect with when prompted. it doesn't matter which one, but if you're looking to see your pokemon in a gen 6/7 game right now, pick the one you want to move it into. viewing a pokemon in a gen 6/7 game isn't required to move to home later, though!

#6. the Transport Box is located one box to the left of Box 1 - navigate to it and drag your pokemon out into a normal bank box. now you can move them to any gen 6/7 pokemon game you want, or home later!

important things to note:

even though bank connects with both gen 6 and gen 7 games, once you place a pokemon into a gen 7 game (SUMO/USUM), you cannot transfer that pokemon back to a gen 6 game (XY/ORAS), so be careful!

an aside about the VC releases of RBY/GSC:

poke transporter can also be used to transfer pokemon out of the VC releases of RBY/GSC. these pokemon are changed pretty heavily, converting all their old gen data into pokemon's modern data structure. you can find more information about all the changes/conversions made on bulbapedia. these pokemon are considered gen 7 pokemon afterwards, and cannot be moved into XY/ORAS. pokemon with held items also cannot be transferred from VC titles and will fail to transfer.

if you want to transfer pokemon from cartridge RBY/GSC and have a save dumping device, it is possible to inject the cartridge's save file into the VC versions with Checkpoint on a hacked 3DS and then transfer that way. for GSC specifically, you'll need to edit your save slightly to make it compatible with VC GSC's save format. i personally made a converter for that here that you're free to use in-browser.

GEN 6/7 -> GEN 8+ (aka BANK -> HOME)

what you need:

a 3DS (or 2DS, i'll just be referring to them all as 3DSes here) with the pokemon bank app installed. this was a free app that was once downloadable from the 3DS eShop, but the 3DS eShop is no longer available, so if you don't already have it installed you will need to explore alternate methods, AKA hacking your 3DS and injecting it in. that's outside the scope of this guide but you can find more information here on 3ds.hacks.guide. (do not attempt to follow any 3DS hacking guide not on this website, they could be outdated and harm your 3DS!)

a nintendo network ID that your 3DS is logged into (also outside the scope of this guide but if you don't already have one, it will prompt you during the process to make one)

a switch with Pokemon Home installed, which can be downloaded for free from the switch's eShop. a nintendo switch online subscription is not required.

unfortunately, you WILL need a subscription to home's premium plan to do bank -> home transfers.

internet connection

the steps:

#1. open pokemon bank and make sure all the pokemon you want to transfer are in their own boxes, and any you don't want to transfer are not in the same boxes as the to-be-transferred pokemon.

#2. go back to the bank home menu and select the "move pokemon to pokemon home" option. when you get the notice about the transfer being one-way, you'll need to scroll down to hit "Begin".

#3. you will be prompted to select what boxes of pokemon you'd like to transfer, so pick all the applicable ones.

#4. you will then be prompted to put in the moving key from home, so turn on your switch, open pokemon home, and select the icon that looks like a 3DS on the main menu. when prompted, choose "Ready!" to get the moving key.

#5. input the moving key on the 3DS, submit it, and wait for both apps to do their thing. once bank goes back to its title screen, you can turn off the 3DS.

#6. home will go back to its title screen as well, and depending on how many pokemon you moved, you may have to wait a few minutes to get back into the app. once it's done, the next time you open home, it'll prompt you to choose how to organize your transferred pokemon into home. pick whatever you see fit.

#7. congratulations, your pokemon are safe in home!!

important things to note:

unlike all pokemon games before the switch, pokemon can actually go backwards in generation on switch, so don't worry about transferring a pokemon into scarlet/violet locking you out of moving it to sword/shield, for example. (the exception to this is LGPE - nothing can be moved into LGPE and once a pokemon is moved out of LGPE, it can't go back.)

pokemon home actually has decent hack checks, so be careful when transferring hacked/glitched/otherwise illegitimate pokemon around.

pokemon from a gen 3/4 game will have their met location set to "Poke Shifter" - this is an alternative translation of the japanese name for the Poke Transporter.

pokemon on switch can only transfer into games that contain that pokemon in its dex, so not everything transferred can go into scarlet/violet, for example.

and that's it!!

there's a lot of other quirks to the pokemon transferring process at pretty much all steps, so if you run into an unusual issue or have specific questions about how pokemon data is changed in minute ways across the franchise, i would encourage you to do your own research, all of this stuff is pretty heavily documented by the fanbase. this is just meant to be a guide for casual users, and a quick reference.

this guide of course does not cover options for transferring in alternative ways, but it's worth mentioning that if you have a hacked 3DS and the ability to back up save files at any point from gens 3 -> 5, you can use PKHeX to transfer pokemon into the 3DS titles, then move them to bank and transfer to home normally from there. that's outside the scope of this guide and i'd also encourage you to do your own research for that.

happy transferring!

#pokemon #pokemon bank #pokemon home #long post #nintendo #of course it really sucks that we have to do this at all #ive been opposed to bank/home being online services since p much day one #but that's just how the cookie crumbles i guess #Sighhhh i have so much stuff to transfer myself lol #kiki was here #kiki.txt

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corvidexoskeleton · 3 months

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You know, I actually think that Gage's romance in fo4 is incredibly fascinating on quite a few levels, not just in how it differs from the other fo4 romances, but in how his character is constructed

Like, aside from Mac, Gage is one of the only companions in fo4 that starts out 100% not giving a single shit about you or your safety as a person. You're just a tool he's using as a means to an end, and his interest in the pc and their safety begins and ends with how it benefits his goals

From the very first words he says to the pc, his intent is purely to manipulate you into doing what he wants you to do, by trying to make you think that A) you don't have any choice, and B) that you want to do it, that it's something you want to choose to do. The way he phrases things, his word choice, and the way he is constantly reaffirming very specific points while either ignoring or talking around others, he is explicitly manipulating you

But, because of the precarious situation he's found himself in, Gage is forced to tie himself to the new overboss, not just for his own safety, but for the success of nuka world. If the new overboss he selected at random - and it was at random, Gage doesn't select you for any reason other than the fact that you happened to be the one that survived that long and listened to him - doesn't work out for one reason or another, then that's his ass on the line as well, not just yours

He only cares about your reputation as a hard strong leader because being seen as anything less will jeopardize your position amongst the gangs, and in turn jeopardize his position amongst the gangs. It's the same with the pc taking chems and drinking alcohol, he only cares about you doing it because if you're impaired, you might not be thinking clearly or make the right decisions, or more importantly, you might not be able to listen to him as well as he needs you to. He doesn't care about raiding or the things raiders generally care about, but he is adamant in encouraging you to act like a raider and be interested in those things. He needs you to fill the role of a raider leader, and in order to do that you need to act like one

Which is how we end up with this guy who hates taking orders or being subservient to others looking out for the health, safety, and well-being of what is essentially a complete stranger at that point, because you're the tool he needs to keep around to get done what he needs to do. He doesn't want to be responsible for other people or get too close to them, but with the pc, he's put himself in a position where - unless you really screw it up or deliberately try to fuck it up - it's just about inevitable for Gage to eventually end up genuinely caring for the pc. After all, he spends all that time looking out for you, trying to keep you level-headed and safe, it's not really a surprise that eventually it would become sincere instead of just a means to an end

#text post tag #fallout #fo4 #porter gage #hello i am once again feeling mentally ill about the stinkman #i have returned with many thoughts #long post

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raven-at-the-writing-desk · 5 months

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With Playful land ending soon, can you try which part of the Halloween event is better which is either Playful Land or Glorious Masquerade? For example, the topic is characters and you picked Glorious Masquerade because of etc like that. (NRC cast design, NRC cast role, Yuu and Grimm's role, New character/s, Movie-inspiration event, Plot, Music, Place Setting, Opening, Ending) You can add more topics if you want.

By “better”, I’m going to assume you mean which (between Glorious Masquerade and Stage in Playful Land) I preferred in each of those categories? (I say "preferred" here because I'm judging based on my own tastes; obviously everyone will have a different opinion on how the two events compare.)

It’s quite a few to get through, so I’ll just quickly summarize each. This post will also serve as my general thoughts on Stage in Playful Land.

***Spoilers for those two events below the cut!!***

NRC cast design — I’d say the designs are pretty split down the center?? In theory, I love the concept of masquerade balls and marionettes, but in practice the designs look all over the place and I really only like a select few of them.

NRC cast role — GloMasq was stronger in this, especially the choices for the SSR trio. Malleus and Idia are a deliberate rival and foil to Rollo, whereas Azul’s UM comes in clutch during the final showdown. Meanwhile in Playful Land only Kalim seemed to be very significant story-wise; he was the one trying to convince everyone to sit down, eat, and try to understand Fellow’s motives, is the last to be captured, and gives the big speech about how he’ll never abandon his friends + the importance of school. Ace has his usual schtick of being brutally honest and there are some parts where Ortho’s robotic abilities come in handy (like playing sounds to distract the puppets), but these seem like very minor roles compared to what the GloMasq trio did. Perhaps they were good choices for the end when they all decided to destroy the amusement park though??

I also feel like some things the SSR trio does in Playful Land (like dispersing the puppets by using a “lost item”) could have been done by any smart or deceptive character (Leona, Vil, Cater, etc.), not just the SSRs (ie Ace). Furthermore, the other cast members in GloMasq seem much more important in how they split off and battle—there are good reasons or synergy given as to why they pair up the way they did (ie Riddle and Epel needing to be good flyers, Ruggie and Jamil willing to use others as meat shields, etc), while in Playful Land it seems more random (like Floyd losing interest) or obligatory (mostly the third years stepping up to defend the younger students).

It’s also anticlimactic how Fellow just let them all go??? Especially compared to Malleus, Idia, and Azul and Rollo squaring off to the bitter end.

Yuu and Grim’s role — Once again, this goes to GloMasq. In Playful Land, Yuu is automatically caged and tossed into a corner to wait it out to the climax. At least in GloMasq Yuu is actually doing something (even if it is offscreen): they’re with Grim and Trein, helping the townspeople from the flowers. (Note: I’m not entertaining the “but Yuu is magicless! It was a wasted opportunity for them not to have a bigger role in GloMasq!” thing because I’m talking only about canon and not hypotheticals here.)

New character(s) — … Do you even need to ask 😭 Obviously, I’m loyal to Roro-chan Rollo; I just find his story and character to be super interesting, especially with the root of his conflict being inner turmoil and an inability to move on… It makes him an excellent foil to Idia.

While I do also enjoy Fellow and Gidel, I feel that I’m not as invested in them because despite the terrible dark shit they're doing, the conflict they get wrapped up in gets resolved in an underwhelming manner. Plus, there was not a lot of elaboration on their own backstories?? It was mostly told to us via Fellow, yet kept so vague that the fans are left to fill in many missing details on their own. I’ll have another post out later going into more depth with how I feel about Fellow and Gidel.

Movie-inspiration — I think both events have their moments of film inspiration. A lot of GloMasq's comes through in the traditions and culture of the city, whereas Playful Land's are embedded into the games, foods, rides, and attractions in the park itself. Playful Land feels more overt because of how flashy everything is, but also because it's not really based on any real-world area (unlike the City of Flowers/Fleur City, which is fantasy Paris and therefore also has Paris elements) it has to stand on its own. They don't need to worry about developing a unique "culture" for a smaller area like a park; they can just cut loose and have everything be fun and whimsical like Pleasure Island is. For this reason, I feel that Playful Land has stronger movie ties.

Side note: I want to put out the disclaimer that I personally don’t think how much an event references its source material should be counted when evaluating the quality of its writing. Just because you mention things from the film or reinterpret them doesn’t mean the story itself is good.

Music — I’m going to give this one to Glorious Masquerade because while the tracks are nice for both (I love the dramatic bells in GloMasq and the eerie music box of Playful Land, and both songs with lyrics are also great!). However, the narrative context and meaning behind the songs with lyrics are very different, and I feel that this makes Let My Wish Resound performance that much more meaningful. Additionally, Playful Land introduced a sung version of Rave Up! Up! in part 3 (even if it was just the first half of it) whereas GloMasq saved its sung version for part 5, which grants us more time to get hype. (I also like the rhythmic/twistune of the boys dancing over the boys… idk, dancing and doing property damage for funsies.)

Opening — Both openings do a good job at building up the hype for the ominous events to come, but again GloMasq wins on a technicality… which is the quality of the evil laughs given during them 💀 Fellow’s is kinda weak (like it stutters and sounds like he’s out of breath), at least Rollo can do a slow, unabashed laugh like a proper villain/j

Setting — This one’s suuuuper subjective; I don’t really like amusement parks I know, I’m boring so that automatically means I don’t find Playful Land to be a compelling or interesting setting (even if it fits thematically). I’d much rather just be allowed to wander and explore a city unsupervised, get to learn about its history and culture by experiencing it myself. GloMasq’s City of Flowers/Fleur City allows Twisted Wonderland to be expanded so much more (like, thinking about how this city relates to other cities and countries), whereas one isolated floating park doesn’t add much to the overall world lore.

Plot — Playful Land was so… boring 🤡 I’M SORRY, IT’S TRUE (to me)????? Like, they were just aimlessly wandering around during the second half of the event (even though it should be obvious that Fellow is at the theater)???? While at least in GloMasq they knew where to go (the bell tower) right away and strategized around that… Plus, we keep switching perspectives between the captured boys and the action, which bogs down the pacing. GloMasq keeps the action going and only takes very brief pauses to check in on our villain for the evening. There was way too much time spent meandering and not enough time spent actually Doing Things in Playful Land.

Stakes — GloMasq’s were higher. This isn’t to say that higher stakes automatically means the event itself is good. It’s just that the same urgency isn’t present in Playful Land because the scope of it is not as grand. If the crimson flowers/fire lotuses spread, there is no stopping them—and it endangers many people, communities, industries, etc. if they do. Meanwhile, a handful of people go missing in Playful Land. It’s still tragic, and their losses will still impact their loved ones—however, that’s still on a smaller scale than what the flowers would have done to their world.

Ending — GloMasq trumps. It’s just perfect how Rollo indicates he won’t give up and then drops ominous lines foreshadowing Malleus bringing ruin to them all (ie book 7) 😂 Love the pettiness of the banter, the ballroom setting, the perfectly timed delivery of the gift/song, and especially how Rollo’s punishment was so perfectly fitting for someone as neurotic and self-righteous as he is!! Also loved little details like the gargoyle and Trein wanting to keep an eye on Rollo 💕

The conflict resolution for Playful Land felt like a deus ex machina…? Fellow’s literally about to win (he caught them all) and the boys get let off the hook because Fellow had a change of heart. The boss told him it will cost a lot to repair the destroyed puppets so it’s coming out of his paycheck… That, and I guess all the stuff the boys were saying about how great school is finally got to him? Fellow got so fed up he called the whole thing off???? So he releases everyone and they all go around busting up the park???? I mean, they did foreshadow it by pointing out earlier how Fellow isn’t loyal to his boss + showing more phone calls where the boss is getting increasingly annoyed 💦 so it’s not as anticlimactic as Endless Halloween Night (one of my least liked events). I just mainly dislike how the conflict is triggered in part by Fellow’s boss being rude 😭 Like damn, what if his final straw hadn’t been claimed??? Then everyone is screwed.

At the very end, Fellow and Gidel decide to go on the run?? Which… isn’t an easy thing to do but it’s hand waved away so fast. If the staff meant for it to feel this way because the original Pinocchio also left Honest John and Gideon’s fates ambiguous and they did show remorse for their victims 💦 idk, it’s cases like this that make me think TWST is at its best when it does more of its own thing rather than strongly stick to the source material…

I also have?? Mixed thoughts on how TWST doesn’t follow up on the whole “yeah a bunch of rich people are caught up in running a human trafficking operation using this scary ass magic”. I know crime must exist in TWST, so in a sense this is… realistic??? But it feels odd to see such a big thing being casually mentioned and not being treated with full gravity?? (Maybe these are the types of crimes that special mage police defense forces (like the one Deuce wants to join) investigate??) Guess that’s just going to sit in the back of our heads from now on… It’s not satisfying seeing a story “end” like this, but I understand why it had to be 😭

The cathartic release of breaking down the park that once trapped them all is fun, but too goofy. I know it symbolizes a lot more than that, but it’s just not for me.

And so (to no one's surprise, given the frequency with which I talk about R*llo), I much prefer Glorious Masquerade to Stage in Playful Land. It's not even a contest to me. A certain pseudo-French boy aside, I just think the former has much better writing overall. By comparison, Stage in Playful Land has a very strong aesthetic and start, but not much else to keep me engaged??? It was an entertaining if not mid event aside from the big scare when the twist is initially revealed (because none of us expected it to be that dark) and minor other parts like Kalim’s big speech. The rest of the event felt like walking around and not doing anything useful.

I honestly think the failure of Playful Land to execute on its ideas comes in part from the hype of Halloween events (like, so much attention is put onto them that when Halloween events flop, it is SUPER noticeable) and the legacy of GloMasq (which set the bar VERY high) 💦 A shame, really…

Anyway, round of applause for Roro, who stays winnin’--

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hoejosatoru · 10 months

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Got Game? Haikyu edition !

Ranking Hiakyu characters on how good they are at hitting on people. Basically does your fave has rizz or nah?

A/n: there are sooo many haikyu characters so if I forgot your fave I'm sorry feel free to add them in wherever you want & if you disagree be nice about it or I'll bite you this took a long time there’s SO MANY OF THEM

33. Mad Dog

He’s scaring hoes. No explanation needed.

32. Aone

He was dead last until I remembered mad dog existed. He is scaring hoes as well. But like if someone could give him a chance I think he does have a good heart. He really needs to be introduced to someone or something, bc cold walking up to someone is never going to work for him I fear.

31. Ushijima

More intimidating that scary, but still makes people nervous. He��s just like super dry and has bad social skills. Does not know how to be flirty at all. He’s cute so I think on occasion there’s girls that want him enough to look past all that but honestly he will almost always strike out unless he has a wingman (Tendo) to help balance him out.

30. Sakusa

Bro is mean and grumpy. I also feel like he doesn’t really care for random hook ups anyway so he is not trying to pick up people a lot. On the occasion he does see someone he wants to approach, I just struggle to see him being flirty. Like you almost get the sense he is judging you when he’s talking to you. Which, to be fair, he probably is. He is another person who would benefit from having a wingman, though he won’t admit it. He’s getting past Ushijima by the skin of his teeth just because he isn’t as imposing.

29. Kita

Another one who I don’t see trying to approach too many people. I think he would come off as disinterested even if he did find you cute. Would probably try to flirt by asking weird philosophical questions. Does better than Sakusa bc his energy is slightly less intense.

28. Yamaguchi

He’s just too awkward. He gets super shy and flustered around anyone he thinks is cute. Sometimes gets lucky when he goes for someone who finds his shyness cute, but often is shit outta luck.

27. Tsukishima

Of course Tsukki and Yams are next to each other. Tsukki is another grumpy one, but not as intense as Sakusa. He too doesn’t approach too many people, but more than Kita or Sakusa would. I could totally see him being one of those dudes that relies on being tall for getting girls. Like he thinks he doesn’t have to try that hard since he is over 6 foot💀 I think he flirts by being mean but it comes off too mean or condescending at times. Definitely tries to be more selective with who he approaches though, won’t approach anyone he doesn’t think he has a good chance with.

26. Goshiki

Talks a big game in front of his friends, but gets really nervous in front of the person. Blushes like crazy and trips over his words. Can get past that at times, but flirting definitely doesn’t come as naturally to him.

25. Tendo

Tendo is fearless, which does help his success rate because he just will walk up to anyone he thinks is hot. Doesn't really get nervous at all. However, he is a little weird (I say that affectionately) so he's definitely not everyone’s cup of tea. Strikes out a decent amount bc of that, but honestly it doesn't really bother him at all. Will just move on to next one. He’s really just there for a good time.

24. Yamamoto

Gets very nervous around girls he thinks are hot. He gets loud when he is nervous which can freak people out. Tries his best, but either comes on really strong or really stiff. Sometimes can get past that if gets hyped up by his friends beforehand.

23. Kunimi

He’s okay at it. He’s quiet and a little snarky, which doesn’t alway connect well. I think if he is able to break the ice and get a conversation going, he has a good success rate. But if he isn’t able to get the person hooked into the conversation quickly, he fizzles out.

22. Asahi

He is like 50/50. He’s the guy who comes up to you and you get super excited because he’s cute, but he can fumble it. If he is in a nervous mood, it is really hard for him to get a convo going and be natural. Those days he is striking out more. If he is feeling confident that day, he has a really good success rate. Again, 50/50.

21. Oikawa

I know this is low but hear me out. Because girls were crazy over him in high school he really never had to try to get someone to like him. Therefore he really doesn’t have good skills in that area, especially when just approaching someone random. I think he would learn fairly quickly, but it would be a tough start.

20. Kenma

He’s kinda shy and doesn’t like approaching people bc he’s a lil lazy( but mostly nervous). However, he’s super smart and if he can figure out a way to get you to approach him, he’ll definitely do that. Can have trouble standing out to people since he is on the quieter side. But circling back to the smart thing, I think he is good at zeroing in on his type & what will get that person hooked on him. Definitely spends some time observing you before he makes a move. His success rate does go up a lot if he has a wingman, but he doesn’t NEED one like some people on this list.

19. Tanaka

He’s very similar to Yamamoto, but I think he is just a bit better at staying calm. Just a bit. Definitely is nervous to start& can come off a little strong at first, but if you give him a chance he’s able to show he’s a good, genuine guy. Also feel like if he is with a friend his success rate goes up like crazy. Like he doesn't need the wing man to intervene for him, it’s more like having his friend there makes him feel confident and takes away his nerves. This is why he is always begging Nishinoya to come out with him.

18. Matsukawa

Middle of the road guy. I feel like he is bad at opening conversation, which hurts him. However, if someone gives him a chance for a longer conversation he does a lot better.

17. Daichi

He’s not bad, but he’s also not amazing? Like I don’t really see him as someone who gets very nervous around people he finds cute. However, he’s not super flirty and can struggle to hold people’s interest if that makes sense? Just kinda mid tbh.

16. Koganegawa

He has like puppy dog vibes. He has a lot of fun flirting. I feel like he is a lil bit of an air head, so he doesn’t even realize he should be nervous. But since he has such positive, easy going vibes it’s super easy to talk to him. His down fall is that he can be a little too spacey and forget to follow through, ex forgets to ask for your number or tell you he thinks you’re cute.

15. Kageyama

He’s not super flirty either. But I feel like as he gets older he grows in confidence and gets better at approaching people. Let’s be honest them beautiful fucking blue eyes has him picking up most people he wants. His weakness is sometimes he’s too reserved and the other person thinks he’s not interested. Either than that a pretty solid success rate

14. Akaashi

Honestly bro is so fine he really doesn’t have to try that hard. Similar to kageyama in that he can struggle with coming off too aloof. Still, I think he’s super polite and engaging which makes him charming without even really trying

13. Lev

He also has some puppy dog vibes but I think he is more in control of it. Especially as he gets older he mellows out more. Being a professional model gave him a lot of confidence, but he still is a lil goofy on the inside, so it never comes off as cocky or anything. I could see him trying a little too hard to be suave at times that it works against him. Like it comes off a little disingenuous. But he’s a 6′4 model, he’s not struggling THAT hard to get numbers lets be real.

12. Nishinoya

He’s higher than Tanaka bc I think he comes off slightly less strong. Maybe it’s just because he’s small 💀. But he doesn’t feel intimidating even though he does come on strong. He’s able to do it in a way that’s very endearing. Also once he gets talking he’s able to reel himself in more. He’s also super funny which helps his success rate a TON.

11. Kuroo

Idk why but I can see him wanting to use like pick up lines 💀 like he thinks he’s being smoother than he really is. Kenma tells him he’s being a dork(which he is). He’s hot enough that most people will give him a chance, though. Once he gets past that he genuinely charming and doesn’t struggle to get someone’s number

10. Bokuto

Another one that can come on strong but in a way that works for him. I can deadass see him just walking up to someone and flat out telling them they’re gorgeous. And it feels so genuine(bc it is genuine) and not just like someone trying to get in your pants (even if he is trying to get in your pants). If he strikes out tho it totally kills his mood and it’s hard for him to recover.

9. Atsumu

He’s the opposite of bokuto where him calling you gorgeous sounds like he’s just trying to get in your pants 💀 but he is SUCH flirt oml. I think that can hurt him at times bc he’s laying it on a little too thick. But usually finds a good balance. Can charm the pants off most people if you give him enough time.

8. Aran

Solid flirter. Confident enough to approach you and make conversation without being overbearing. Chill and easy to talk to. Even if you don’t end up going out with him after, you still enjoy the talk you had. Also doesn’t make it weird if you decline him.

7. Sugawara

Suga is so good at getting your guard down. He’s just sweet and genuine you feel at ease with him (it’s those big brown cow eyes). So easy to talk to and is surprisingly funny. Plus when he tells you he works with kids it makes him seem even sweeter.

6. Terushima

And then we have to total opposite. Honestly he should be lower. He comes off strong to the point of being cocky but somehow makes it work. Let’s be honest it’s the tongue ring(he definitely makes suggestive jokes about it). I also hc that he’s super tatted as an adult. I think he does well because he’s superrrrr good at picking out the girls who would be into his vibe. Also like who doesn’t wanna hook up with a bad boy every now and then?

5. Hinata

Listen. This may be high but I truly believe Hinata has good game. So good that at times he doesn’t even realize the effect he is having. I think his favorite way to flirt is getting you to do something competitive with him. Has no issue walking up to you at the beach to ask if you wanna play volleyball with him or even just asking to play beer pong at a party. He doesn’t even really have to try once you agree because he is super good at everything he does (which is a turn on) and you have a lot of fun. Great at asking you on a date without even realizing you’re being asked. Like he’ll say you should go get something to eat after playing together and you immediately agree. Then you’re like wait a second... this is totally date. And you’re very happy about it.

4. Semi

I feel like we don’t know that much about his cannon personality, but he has such a cool vibe. Liken effortlessly cool so you’re naturally drawn to him. Plus he’s super good looking like come on. Really just knows how to curate his look. He’s someone expect to be a little mean but he’s actually a sweetheart. Has you head over heels in no time.

3. Osamu

Atsumu is punching the air rn. He’s got Atsumu’s confidence but is able to keep from being too much. Subtle flirt, but super good at it nonetheless. Loves flirting with costumers who come to his shop because it gets him extra tips but also you keep coming back to order shit just so you can talk to him more. He knows he’s got you right where he wants you. He gets soooo many numbers left on receipts and absolutely will call them if he liked you.

2. Suna

God. This man. He was born to flirt look at him!! He’s so fucking smooth. He’s sorta aloof but he is really able to work that to his favor. Definitely confident enough to just walk up to you and start a convo. He is a good talker but he almost doesn't need words??? Like he can just look at you a certain way and god you’re sweating (in the best way). Easily gets anyone he sets his sights on.

1. Iwaizumi

Iwaizumi has the best game idc. He’s equally hot and approachable. Has plenty of confidence but is never cocky. Truly has a kind, warm aura that makes you feel so comfy talking to him. He’s super smart and funny. Like you just feel like you’re having a conversation you don’t even realize he’s flirting with you but you’re absolutely developing a huge crush on him. The type you talk to and immediately feel like you’ve known him forever. He truly never strikes out. It’s a gift.

Bonus: Coach Ukai

It didn’t feel fair to compare Ukai to everyone bc he is a few years older and definitely more experienced but I couldn't leave him out. He has INSANE game. Like just look at him. He’s fine, a lil bit of a bad boy vibe, has a heart of gold (LOVES dropping in that he is a volunteer coach with kids). I think he would be sexy n fun flirt like it’s just too easy for him.

#why are there so many #haikyuu #haikyu #haikyu x reader #haikyu headcanons #haikyu scenarios #haikyu hcs #oikawa hcs #kuroo hcs #kenma hcs #bokuto hcs #hinata headcanons #kageyama hcs #atsumu headcanons #osamu headcanons #suna headcanons #iwaizumi headcanons

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yangsharperavery · 8 months

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so here's the thing...

i've written about this topic a few times during and after season 1, but the carmy and sydney of it all remains a highly contested and discussed topic. even after season two.

what i find so truly fascinating is that chris storer and joanna calo and everyone involved with the creation of this lovely, well constructed show absolutely could have created the duo they work SO hard in the press to convince viewership they intended.

if they really wanted sydney to be a psuedo/standin sibling for the one carmy lost, or the brainy, determined business partner that comes in to orient a sinking ship...

there are a couple hundred ways they could have managed that and made it abundantly clear that's what the angle was within the dynamic between carmy and sydney.

instead... we have all this very overtly (and covertly) romantic, potent and simmering subtext regarding the nature of their relationship and what they mean to one another, their effect on each other and their seemingly endless potential.

in a whole host of ways there are a number of scenes that literally don't make sense without the lens of the undercurrent of feelings or reverence or romance or something that exists between them beyond the intended business partners/co-creatives.

there are ways to narratively parallel sydney as a mirror and equal and peer of carmy's void of all ambiguity and romantic tension and any energy of awkward longing or confusion.

but that's not actually what we got. i've been consuming television media for most of my life. i've watched hundreds of shows; shipping has never been a requirement for my viewership or interest.

which leads me to believe that there's either a bunch of deflection/dismissing happening for a very distinct reason. or there's been a bait and switch planned from the beginning.

you would literally have to remove 75% of the nuance within carmy and sydney's interactions for the stictly platonic claims to make sense and effectively land.

you'd have to go through and remove various staging, shot selection, editing, music choices and sometimes entire scenes to accurately convey original or "intended" messaging.

to completely eradicate the liminal space of subjectivity between them.

why is carmy talking about tina looking like sydney with that distinct expression on his face when they all wear that apron?

why are they being awkward at the lockers like it isn't customary for coworkers and business partners to go out after work for dinner or drinks or whatever (literally evidenced by tina this season)?

why is sydney mentioning jealousy at all when it comes to carmy's relationship? especially when it makes perfect sense for her to be upset with him for not pulling his weight?

why is sydney entering into carmy's life for the first time and deciding to stay, the second time, something that literally brings him out of his panic? when it could have been him cooking, his drawings, his staff, his gf. ANYTHING else.

they effectively made sydney an emotional, mental and energetic tether for him in that scene. for what reason? business partner ones or????

why do they bicker like an old married couple? is that customary for creative collaborators and coworkers?

why superimpose sydney, parallel her doing something the audience saw carmy do last season, and then show her going about her night while he's by contrast, with his girlfriend? why show a random closeup of a meaningful tattoo on her shoulder? no thematic significance beyond the grind of the restaurant world and career ambition?

why is there an obvious awkward breaking of energy after a highly vulnerable and tender moment between the two of them under the table? why does sydney noticeably fidget/adjust herself/her apron when he walks away to get her gift?

there's actually a hundred instances of these questions you could ask over the course of the two seasons when it comes to them.

so the reasoning behind the shipper pushback is baffling and a bit laughable.

some people bring into question, perhaps this is just the natural chemistry that jaw and ayo bring to their characters bc they're obviously good friends.

which... sure. i guess. but even that begs the question, you wrote and shot and constructed a story a specific way and then your two actors sort of bled on and expanded the material in a very obvious way you didn't expect?

cool, cool. so again... you're surprised that could lead to viewership seeing something deeper than mere platonic business partners?

that's shocking and surprising to you?

no way.

especially considering storer and calo have commented on how close jaw and ayo are and that their dynamic is different than the one she has with ebon and lionel. which is hilarious bc she adores ebon and has been out of the country traveling with lionel (and some other people from odd future.)

so clearly they all enjoy each other, are friends and get along.

but why even make that note of demarcation regarding jaw and ayo's dynamic and STILL be like "oh yeah, we didn't write or mean for them to be a romance " you're shocked that people SEE something given your storytelling and their obvious connection that even you, the creators themselves remarked on?!?!

there's a picture from the golden globes of ayo holding jaw's mom's hands during his acceptance speech. like they're really besties.

but i'm sorry, they can't bestie themselves into what carmy and sydney clearly exemplify on our screens without an entire framework at their disposal. because they're talented and professionals.

so if the writing is saying something, then it's intentional.

maybe the intention was to have their characters skirt and skate on the periphery of each other.

maybe it was for things to be awkward and weird and undefined or hectic and toxic.

maybe they weren't ever gonna have some relegated idea of a shipper's happily ever after.

people have feelings that go unexpressed and undefined. people fall in love and then don't end up together.

maybe the slow burn fizzles out, maybe it explodes or implodes, maybe one of them self denies, maybe they both do.

maybe it will or won’t be addressed directly or covertly. that's actually not a requirement for its existence.

to act like there isn't something true and obvious and visceral that exists between these characters is frankly like asking those who watch your show not to use their eyes and their brains.

impossible.

#sydcarmy #the bear fx #carmy x sydney #carmy berzatto #sydney adamu #let's act like we can all consume media and hold various elements and arcs and constructs within our minds

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jinxedmuse · 7 months

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secret dating idol!svt — 95z line, & if you guys get caught

authors note: idk this just seemed fun! i wanna release a one shot for another member but i’m stuck between which one ;-; so for now we have this plz enjoy!!!

warnings: uhm reader is famous but it fluctuates between each member (ie: actor, idol, etc)? , should be gender neutral but tbh may (???) come off as fem.

choi seungcheol

probably another idol (+ leader) he liked how you managed your group and definitely gives off the vibe he’d approach first if he was really interested.. which thankfully, he was!

dates (although rare bcs ur both busy taking care of ur children, ie: team members lol) definitely consist of: driving around the very low-key parts of seoul, pre reserved dinners at extremely exclusive restaurants, weekend golf dates at elite and selective country clubs (with matching outfits), and obviously going over his place to sleep in and play w/ kkuma!

surprises you with gifts every time you can meet! or, he’ll just have it directly ordered to your place. definitely have an over flow of couple items like that man is as obvious as can be without completely blowing the lid over??

he wants matching couple rings sooo bad but he knows that svt is known for their pinky rings & people would immediately notice if he had another one that he suspiciously never took off.. hm? so he’d opt for matching sweat suits (ie: hoodie/sweatpants sets/athletic sets/lounge sets etc). he’d buy you the gray ver of his all black adidas sweatsuit and everyone would be like.. wait a min? but also can’t pin point if they’re overthinking it (hint: they’re not ;)

when things get serious, and they most likely will, he’s probably the best long term partner ever.

yes, he’s a man at the end of the day so obviously he’d wanna have fun and we do not know him outside svt content BUT i feel like he already has so much responsibilities to bare and he’s too busy to even be dating but he chose to! with you! because he likes (dare i say loves) you a lot! so why would he wanna waste his precious time that he barely has??

definitely gets matching tattoos with you somewhere down the line. i feel like if you guys were like YEARS into it , parents have met, etc etc then he’d get your initials on his ring finger or somewhere on his back or along his neck :(

at this point, dispatch has a wholeeee book on you guys. definitely planning to expose y’all as the new years couple but you know hybe is swimming in money so they paid them off and saved your asses! aka, you don’t get caught.

lucky you!

yoon jeonghan

probably dating a idol or well known model. either way, you’re both known for your otherworldly visuals! you guys met at a exclusive ysl event/after party and he asked his manager to talk to your manager and boom! things went off.

dates are actually pretty regular. don’t get me wrong, you both have pretty hectic schedules, and yours are pretty random because you never know which city you need to be in next but since you both don’t like doing as much interviews/variety shows as your counterparts, you use that time on dates!

you guys reserve 1- sometimes 2 hour tours at those interactive park places (where you can hold/feel animals etc) and takes lots of pictures for each other (which means matching lovestagram!!!) , you guys go on secretive sauna dates to catch up on your work weeks, and hang out at each other’s apartment while eating your fav food at odd hours lol!

LOVEEE couple items! matching lego sets, pet rocks, any new jewelry he gets, especially if it’s a bracelet, he buys another one for you and you guys wear them 24/7 like seriously it doesn’t come off! would probably even get the cartier love bracelet if he wasn’t so dedicated to ysl…

fans are saurrrrrr suspicious because like.. is he even trying to be subtle or are they just making it up in their head??? svt would be playing the character quiz and you’d come up and his brain would literally malfunction like all he can do is smile and apologize for “getting you wrong” while the rest of the members are trying to (not so) swiftly move on.. yeah!

you guys are definitely the on and off type! nothing toxic just every time you both get genuinely TOO busy you’d cool off from each other and bounce back like nothing happened.

i feel like he’d want something long term but wouldn’t be too set on marriage? idk, if you guys did end it wouldn’t be on a bad note and you’d both just play it off (to the public) as if you were always “just” friends but bffr.. anyway!

you guys wouldn’t necessarily get exposed by dispatch/a news outlet but both your fandoms would like low-key know you had something going on and respect that privacy.

joshua hong

i can see him dating a gorgeous high class actor/actress. you guys meet at an award show and slowly got to know each other before comfortably settling into a relationship.

dates are superrr frequent, even your personal managers are shocked because damnn that devotion? you guys already told them that any free time you have in your bustling scheduals go to each other. very cute.

dates are very spontaneous and depend on where you are. believe it or not most dates are at home and consist of you laying your head in his lap as he makes bracelets and you revising your lines. (as with ll the boys) you get backstage concert privilege with kisses between sets and he visits you on set with coffee trucks for everyone and your fav pick me up snack if you're feeling down during filming.

couple items are very low-key! he's known for his handmade jewelry so he'll give you one or two but anymore will land ya'll in the mouse trap. so the more intimate matching things never see the light of day.

fans start getting suspicious when they realize that all the films or dramas he's been recommending lately have you in it but he just plays it off that he's been getting interested in more films during his down time and you became his favorite actress/tor .. right! also you suddenly keep singing seventeen songs (his parts) in your behind the scenes and they're just like..? okay maybe you just really go into seventeen outta no where.. whatever that means!

you both are very private people by nature so you guys leave 0 trace behind when planning dates etc like everyone is signing NDA's lol! so dispatch (and your fans) may have a feeling, but they have no proof.

does have marriage in mind for the long run but you guys would date for a longgggg time before that like 5+ years. would probably announce it randomly after you guys are satisfied with your career and respected enough to the point people don't throw a fuss but are genuinely happy for you. ya'll end up nicknamed: the nations unexpected but ultimate visual couple, for sure!

───── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ─────

#svt fanfic #svt x reader #svt imagines #svt fluff #seventeen #svt scenarios #svt kpop #choi seungcheol #joshua hong #svt 95z #yoon jeonghan #scoups headcanons #svt joshua fluff #jeonghan fluff #jinxedmuse #Spotify

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maximoffcarter · 13 days

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Drunken nights.

Pairings: Alex Cabot x reader.

Summary: Alex never understood what was the point of getting drunk, y/n had never seen her drunk before. But sometimes it happens that people stop counting their drinks and then...we get a drunk Alex.

A/n: This was requested by an anon, drunk and clingy Alex. I wrote more than I expected, I just got carried away, so I hope it is what the anon wanted haha. Keep the requests coming you guys! Enjoy and leave your comments, reblogs, hearts, whatever you'd like, will be very much appreciated🫶🏻

*not my gif*

Alexandra Cabot has always been a private and reserved person for as long as she can remember. Even when she was a kid, she had been a selective kid and pretty reserved about what she liked and wanted, so that meant that she had very few friends, and never actually kept any contact with them. But that had changed when she started college. At first, she had said that she’d fully focus on her studies only, she was always the top of her class, so she was not about to change that here, and if that meant zero friends, then so be it. But after her first class, she ran into a girl in the hallway, making all of her books fall to the floor, and once she had them all back in her hands with the help of the girl, she couldn’t help but stare at her and the girl had done the same. That was the day when Alex and y/n had become close friends.

Their whole career, they had stuck by each other’s sides and had pushed the other to become the best in their classes. Alex would be lying if she said that she would’ve rather stay alone and go through the years alone, she had actually been happy to have someone by her side who was at her level, and who never stopped her from being herself and getting what she wanted, though they had their differences, they got alone pretty well, and Alex loved that about y/n. After graduating, they had parted ways, both women wanting different things with their careers, but even then, they never once lost contact and if they ever needed anything, they were just one call away.

And that’s how y/n ended up being Alex’s roommate three years later. On a random day, y/n had told Alex that she would be moving to Manhattan and that she had been trying to find a place to live but everywhere she went, was either way too expensive for her at the moment, it was a complete shithole, or it was too far away from her new job. So, Alex thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea if she offered y/n her guest room. Her apartment was pretty big, in a good location, her guest was actually never used, and Alex definitely didn’t mind the company of her best friend; and she was right, once again, she had taken the best decision. It turned out that y/n was working in White Collar, and she had been transferred to Manhattan, so at the end of the day, they wouldn’t be working too far away from each other.

Coming home to y/n was probably the best thing ever, they had dinner together, they shared their work with each other whenever they were stuck or they needed another perspective, they had lunch together, they basically almost did everything together. After a whole year living together, Alex couldn’t picture herself in another situation, she couldn’t see herself living alone anymore, which once again brought back those old feelings; that crush she never mentioned when they were in college. Their friendship was so good and beautiful, unlike any other friendship that Alex had had before, so of course she didn’t want to lose that. If having y/n in her life meant she’d only have her as her friend, then that’s how it was going to be.

“Hey Lexi?” Y/n asked softly as she walked into the living room.

“Yeah?” Alex turned to look at y/n and smiled softly.

“We’re out of fruit and milk, I’m gonna head tomorrow to the store after work. Is there anything you need from the store?”

“I can come with you. Maybe something pops up while we’re there.” Alex smiled.

“That sounds good.” Y/n smiled. “Okay, I’m gonna go get ready.”

Alex frowned as she sat down on the couch and placed her notepad in her lap. “You’re going out?”

Y/n turned to look at Alex and smiled softly. “Yeah. Some colleague got me involved in a blind date and I said I’d go, thinking it was actually a night with them but…it’s a blind date.”

Alex’s smile fainted as she nodded, looking down at her notepad. “Good. Uh…I hope you have fun.” She looked back at y/n and offered a small smile. “Let me know if you need a ride back or if you need anything.”

“I will, thanks, Lexi. I’ll see at the office tomorrow.” Y/n smiled before she walked out of the living room.

It wasn’t that Alex was not conscious that this would happen sooner or later. Hell, she even went on one or two dates herself, even before y/n had moved in with her, she’s had her one night stands and dates, but after y/n had arrived, there was no one else but her. But Alex was pretty conscious that sooner or later, y/n would settle in Manhattan and then she’d start dating. She had also told Alex that she’d find a place once she was stable enough with her job, but Alex had insisted that she really didn’t mind her staying there, now that was their apartment and she liked it that way. But y/n could find a partner soon, and then maybe she’d one to have her private moment with them, which of course crushed Alex’s heart but she knew it was also her fault for never talking to y/n. There was nothing she could do.

********************

“How’s the Gilbert case going?” Y/n asked as she took a sip of her drink.

Alex shrugged as she took a bite of her sandwich. “It’s okay. I’ve got like…three witnesses. There is no way that he’s getting out of this one.”

“How could he when you’re prosecuting him?” Y/n grinned and went back to eat her food.

Alex stared at her for a moment and grinned, nodding her head. “So…you never told me about your date.” She looked down at her notepad even if she was really not paying attention to it.

Y/n looked back at Alex and shrugged. “It was okay. I mean…she’s really nice. She works with us, but I never noticed her before.”

“Are you…going out with her again?”

Y/n shrugged. “I’ve been pretty busy to think about that. But…maybe I wouldn’t say no to another date.”

Alex nodded softly as she looked back down at her notepad. “Right.” She cleared her throat. “By the way, I’m going out today with the squad. I’ve been promising that I’ll go for drinks with them, and they finally reminded me of it.” She chuckled.

“They just want to see you loosen up a bit.” Y/n chuckled softly.

Alex frowned as she shook her head. “What do you mean? I do loosen up.” She grinned.

“Oh, c’mon, Lexi. When was the last time you actually got drunk?” Y/n raised her brow.

“I…I don’t know. I can’t remember.”

“Because you haven’t…never.” Y/n laughed softly.

Alex rolled her eyes playfully. “Okay, so? What’s the point of getting drunk?”

Y/n shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s fun.”

“Oh, so much fun. I remember taking you back home and having you barely standing on both feet.”

“Hey! We do not mention those times.”

“Too late.” Alex laughed as y/n threw a chip at her, laughing with her.

Later that day, Alex had met the squad at a bar near the precinct, and it seemed like they were celebrating that Alex was finally going out with them. The first half hour she had only been listening to the rest of the squad talking about cases or some old stories they had, she had also been refusing to drink anything else than a glass of wine, but when the squad started asking for rounds of beers -and a shot or two-, Alex couldn’t help but drink along, ending up joining into the conversation and laughs. She was happy that even after all the stress and anxiety in the last few days, she could feel a bit relaxed and happy, suddenly every bad thought had been pushed away.

“So, Cabot. Anyone in your life?” Fin raised his brow as he looked at Alex.

Alex furrowed her brows as she looked at Fin. “I’m married to my work.”

Elliot laughed. “C’mon, Alex. Didn’t work with Langan?”

Alex laughed as she shook her head. “Oh, that was a mistake. Do not remind me of that date. It started and ended right there.”

Olivia laughed as she nodded. “We thought we would lose you that night.”

“Never. It was a complete mistake.” Alex sighed as she looked at her drink. “And no, no one in my life.”

“What about that girl you’re always with?” Munch asked as he looked at Alex.

Alex raised her brows. “Are you guys spying on me or something?” She chuckled. “And y/n, she’s my best friend. She lives with me. We’ve known each other since college.”

“Best friend? You sure about that?” Elliot grinned as he took a sip of his drink.

“She’s going out on dates. So yes. Just my best friend.” Alex took a sip of her drink and then shook her head again. “Why are we talking about my miserable love life? Let’s talk about something else!” She chuckled softly with Olivia.

After an hour or so, Alex had had more drinks than she was supposed to have, losing count of them at some point and forgetting that she had to go back home alone. She had told Olivia that she’d be okay, but Olivia could tell that Alex didn’t really mix drinks, ever, and if she let Alex go alone, she didn’t know what could happen. So she took the liberty to grab Alex’s phone and find y/n’s phone number and dialed it. After the phone call, Olivia smiled as she heard the worry on y/n’s voice and the way she said she’d be there as soon as possible to pick up Alex. Olivia then knew that Alex was completely oblivious of y/n’s feelings, and she was pretty sure that y/n was just as oblivious. Not too long after, y/n arrived and introduced herself to everyone, a shy smile on her face as Alex almost screamed her name when she saw her. She was wasted.

The whole ride, y/n had tried not to laugh as Alex kept singing whatever song played in the radio, every now and then, she’d turn to look at her and make sure she was still okay, but Alex looked like she was full of energy, which made y/n realize that once in the apartment, it would be a complete ordeal to get her to sleep, and that was if she was able to, a little afraid that Alex would end up being sick and would have to stay close to the toilet. Once they got to the building, y/n had her arms wrapped around Alex as they walked to the elevator. Alex had been talking nonsense the whole way to their floor, her arms securely wrapped around y/n. Y/n wanted to laugh as she had never seen Alex this way, maybe she had made a mistake to tell Alex that she had never been drunk because she was completely wasted, but y/n found it cute at the same time, and she had no problem in taking care of her. When they were inside the apartment, y/n made sure to sit Alex down so she could go close the door properly and make sure it was locked, but just as y/n left Alex’s side, she started to call for her.

“Y/n! Where did you go?” Alex whined as she leaned back against the couch. “Don’t leave me here!”

Y/n chuckled softly as she walked back into the living room. “Lexi, I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. I just had to go lock the door. We don’t want someone walking in.”

Alex groaned. “Right. Well, come here now.” She extended her arms as she smiled. “My arms are waiting for you.”

Y/n bit her lip as she held back her laugh. She shook her head and took a deep breath. “Alex, you’re going to bed. It’s late, and you’re drunk. You need sleep.”

Alex groaned again and whined as she let her arms fall. “But y/n! I want cuddles! Why won’t you want to cuddle?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to, Lexi. But you’re drunk. We can cuddle once you sleep.” Y/n walked to her and helped her get up, wrapping her arms around her waist.

Alex wrapped her arms around her neck and sighed. “You smell so good. You always do.”

Y/n sighed. “So, drunk Alex says her undying love for everyone, huh?” She grinned as they started walking to Alex’s room.

“Mmm…no.” Alex shook her head. “Just for youuuu.” She laughed.

“Right.” Y/n chuckled as she sat Alex on the bed. “You think you can change into your pajamas?”

Alex shrugged. “Can I?”

“I sure hope so, or we’re about to be uncomfortable in the morning when I tell you that I helped you change.” Y/n smiled as she went to Alex’s closet to get a fresh pair of pajamas. She then walked back to Alex and placed the clothes beside her. “Here, try to change while I go to the kitchen.”

Alex nodded rapidly. “Aye, aye, captain!”

Y/n rolled her eyes playfully as she walked out of the room and into the kitchen. She grabbed a snack thinking that maybe at some point in the night, Alex would get hungry, or even right at this moment. She then grabbed a glass of water and some pills for her to take in the morning. She turned off all the lights and then went back to Alex’s room, finding her already laying down in bed but mumbling something as she looked up at the ceiling. Y/n placed everything on Alex’s nightstand and then proceeded to get Alex’s clothes from the floor and the bed, walking to the bathroom and throwing them into the laundry basket. She went back to Alex’s bed and stared at her for a moment, smiling softly. Even drunk, Alex looked adorable and as beautiful as ever, it was almost frustrating. She took a deep breath as she went to Alex’s side and took off her glasses.

“Okay, Lexi. Time to sleep.” Y/n placed the glasses on her nightstand and then looked back at Alex. “You’ll worry about your makeup in the morning.” She tried to pull the covers so Alex could get under them but then Alex’s grabbed her hands.

“Y/n…please stay with me. Pretty please.” Alex pouted as she looked up at her.

Y/n chuckled softly. “Alex, you need sleep.”

“And I’ll sleep but stay with me. I don’t wanna be alone.” Alex pouted again, bringing y/n’s hands to her lips, and kissing them softly. “I want you here.”

Y/n’s breath hitched as she looked down at Alex, nodding softly. “Okay. I’ll stay with you.” She smiled softly and then went around the bed to lay down with Alex.

Before she knew it, Alex was moving and wrapped her arms around y/n’s middle, her head landing on y/n’s chest and sighing happily. Y/n couldn’t help but smile, wrapping her arms around Alex and kissing her head softly. It wasn’t the first time they cuddled, but there was something behind this moment that y/n couldn’t quiet tell what it was, but if she was given the chance, then she’d take it. They stayed quiet for a moment, y/n had started to trace patterns in Alex’s back as she looked up at the ceiling. Eventually, Alex started mumbling again, making y/n frown and look down at Alex, trying to figure out what she was saying.

“What are you saying?” Y/n whispered softly.

“I’m upset.” Alex said softly.

“Upset? Why upset?”

Alex sighed. “Y/n.”

Y/n frowned. “Y/n? What did she do?”

Alex sighed again as she looked up at y/n. “She doesn’t know. And I can’t tell her.”

“What doesn’t she know? Is there something you wanna tell her?”

Alex shrugged. “Maybe.” She rested her head again on y/n’s chest. “But can’t.”

“Maybe if you tell her you’ll stop being upset.”

“But then she’ll be upset.”

Y/n suddenly felt butterflies in her stomach, and not the good kind. She knew Alex was drunk, but she had also known that sometimes drunk people spoke the truth, and maybe there was something Alex had been keeping to herself and she hadn’t told y/n not to hurt her. And suddenly she was scared of what could possibly be in Alex’s mind, but she knew better than to push.

“Alex…you should sleep.”

“But I don’t want to.”

“Why not?”

Alex sighed as she looked up at y/n. “I wanna talk to y/n.”

Y/n smiled softly. “I’m here silly.”

Alex smiled. “That’s right.” She chuckled softly. “You beautiful.” She bit her lip, her hand suddenly going to y/n’s face, first stroking her cheek and then her fingertips touched her lips softly. “I like your lips.”

Y/n chuckled softly. “I like yours.”

Alex stared into her eyes and then bit her own lips. “I wanna kiss you.” She whispered softly as she stared at y/n’s lips, almost to herself, but since she was really close to y/n, she heard it.

Y/n gulped as she looked down at Alex. “You’re drunk, Alex. You don’t mean that.”

Alex frowned. “But I do.” She whispered softly, she then sat up and turned to look at y/n. “You…you don’t wanna kiss me?” Her face looked so sad as she asked, making y/n’s heart break a little.

“Alex…” y/n sat down and sighed as she placed her hand on Alex’s cheek, stroking it softly. “I do. But…you’re drunk. I will if this is what you still want in the morning.”

Alex whined. “But I want now.”

“Alex, I-“

Before she could say anything else, Alex placed her hands on y/n’s neck and closed the gap between them, kissing her lips tenderly but also hungrily. Y/n gasped softly, her first thought was pulling away, but her lips seemed to think on their own as she kissed Alex back, her other hand landing on Alex’s waist. Everything seemed to happen too fast as Alex moved to straddle y/n’s lap, pushing her against the pillows and swiping her tongue against y/n’s bottom lip, y/n giving her access right away and moaning as she felt Alex’s tongue. But then the taste of alcohol made her realize what was happening, her hands going to Alex’s shoulders and softly pushing her away, both women panting as they stared into each other’s eyes.

“Alex…this is…” Y/n swallowed as she tried to catch her breath. “I’m sorry.”

Alex sighed as she got off y/n’s lap and laid back down on her side, looking up at the ceiling. “I’m sorry.” Her eyes started to get teary as she bit her lip.

Y/n turned her head to look at Alex and sighed softly, moving close to her, and kissing her head softly. “You’re drunk, Alex.”

“Just…please don’t leave.” Alex rapidly went back to her arms, burying her face in y/n’s neck.

“Never.” Y/n wrapped her arms around her again as she sighed.

She didn’t know when they both had fallen asleep, the room had fallen into silence as they held each other and after that, both women lost track of time. Y/n groaned softly as she moved and tried to reach for Alex, but then she figured out that Alex’s side was now empty. Y/n opened her eyes and turned her head to try to find Alex, for a moment her mind stupidly thinking that she might’ve fallen to the floor, but then she heard Alex groaning in the bathroom and she stood up rapidly, almost running to the bathroom. She sighed as she found Alex kneeling in front of the toilet. She knelt beside Alex’s and held her hair as she threw up, she had been hoping that this wouldn’t happen, but after seeing how drunk Alex was, she knew it would come at some point during the night.

Alex sighed as she rested her forehead against her arm, mumbling that she was done, y/n stood up and flushed the toilet. Y/n helped Alex get up slowly, trying to not make her dizzy as she tried to stand still. Alex looked at y/n and told her she wanted to brush her teeth, so y/n helped get in front of the sink and got her toothbrush and paste out, preparing it for her and handing it to Alex. After she was done, y/n helped Alex get back to bed and helped her drink some of the water that y/n had brought for her. Alex then laid back in bed and sighed softly.

“Stay?” Alex whispered softly.

Y/n nodded as she crawled back in bed, wrapping her arms around Alex and smiling softly as Alex wrapped her arms around her middle again, feeling Alex’s breath against her neck. Right after, both women fell asleep again.

********************

Alex groaned loudly as she tried to stretch, groaning again as she felt her head pounding badly. She opened her eyes slowly and looked around her room, trying to figure out why her head was hurting that badly. As she slowly sat down, she turned to look at her nightstand and find a glass of water with some painkillers. She looked back around her room again and frowned. She took two pills and then decided to get out of bed, whining as she felt both her head and her shoulders heavy. She then went to the bathroom to wash her face and try to wake up a little more, and as she looked at herself in the mirror, the memory of last night hit her. Shit. She got drunk. She was with the squad, and she stopped counting her drinks. She got drunk. So drunk. And then it hit her again. Y/n. Y/n had seen her like this.

“Fuck.” Alex cursed under her breath as she walked out of the bathroom and out of her room. She slowly walked to the kitchen and stopped in her tracks as she noticed y/n in front of the stove, making breakfast.

Y/n turned her head and smiled softly. “Morning, Lexi.”

“Morning…” Alex whispered, not moving an inch, scared that if she moved, something would happen, or y/n would say something. But she knew they had to talk about last night. She needed to know what she did.

“Breakfast is almost ready. Sit down, I’ll get the coffee.” Y/n smiled as she turned her attention back to what she was doing.

Alex nodded softly and went ahead to sit on one of the stools, her eyes never leaving y/n’s. As she looked at her, she tried to figure out what had happened the night before. She remembered drinking and laughing with the squad. She remembered that they had asked about y/n, and then they started talking about something else, and that’s when she started losing count of her drinks. She remembered being in the car with y/n, making a fool out of herself, and then she remembered getting home. She remembered she had laid in bed, and she had asked y/n to stay. She remembered going to the bathroom and throwing up. But there was something missing, something happened before she woke up to go to the bathroom.

Y/n placed the plate in front of Alex along with her mug. “I’m sure you’re hungry.”

Alex looked at her and offered a small smile. “This looks delicious, thank you.”

“I know you love pancakes with bacon.” Y/n smiled as she grabbed a plate for her and went around the kitchen island to sit beside Alex.

Alex took a bite and smiled softly. She wanted to at least have a bit of food in her system before they started talking. She was sure y/n knew what had happened last night but maybe she was just acting nicely to not make Alex feel bad about it. Eventually, both women finished breakfast and just sat there with their mugs in hand. Alex kept trying to look at y/n, but she would stare back at her mug, wishing the coffee was endless.

“So…about last night.” Y/n started, looking at Alex. “Do you remember anything?”

Alex shrugged. “Not everything.”

Y/n nodded. “What do you remember?”

Alex sighed as she looked at y/n. “Being at the bar. I remember losing count of the drinks. I remember being in the car with you, and then getting home. It’s kind of blurry but I remember going to bed, I was…” she blushed slightly. “I guess I was being clingy, and I asked you to stay.”

Y/n smiled softly. “Yeah, you were cute.”

Alex huffed a chuckle as shrugged. “After that, everything is blurry. I remember getting up to throw up. And then I woke up.”

Y/n sighed as she looked back at her mug. “Got it.”

Alex frowned. “Oh, no. What did I do?”

Y/n looked back at Alex and chuckled softly. “Nothing bad, Alex. Just-“

“Something happened, I know something happened. But I cannot remember. And you know. So, what did I do?”

Y/n took a deep breath as she looked down at her mug again. She nibbled her bottom lip as she tried to put her words in order. “Well…at some point you…started mumbling. You said you were upset, and you wanted to tell me something, but you never did. And then…you uh…you started saying that you wanted to…kiss me.”

Alex closed her eyes as she looked away. “Oh, god.” She whispered softly.

“And you did.”

Alex snapped her head up, turning to look at y/n. “Y/n, I-“

“I kissed you back.” Y/n huffed a chuckle. “We basically made out.” She nibbled on her lip again as she tried to talk again. “I…I shouldn’t have kissed you back, Alex. I am so sorry.”

Suddenly, memories started to appear in Alex’s mind, sighing as she shook her head. “No, y/n…I shouldn’t have kissed you. I…I was drunk, and I was- god. I am so sorry.”

“I took advantage of you, Alex. I should’ve stopped you the moment you kissed me.”

Alex looked back at y/n and frowned. “But I kissed you. I took advantage of you.”

Y/n looked back at Alex. “I wanted you to kiss me.”

Alex’s breath hitched. “What?”

“I wanted you to kiss me.” Y/n shrugged as she looked away. “I had been wanting you to kiss me for so long…I…I got so lost in the kiss, I didn’t know what was going on until I figured out too late. And…I’m so sorry, Alex. I wished so badly for that moment to happen, and it happened, and I couldn’t help it. And then I wished that you’d remember, and you’d want to do it again, but sober. And I-“

“I do.”

Y/n looked at Alex, a hint of hope in her eyes. “You do?”

Alex smiled softly. “I was not upset at you. I was upset at myself because…I never told you that I had feelings for you, and then you started going on dates, and I thought it was too late.”

“I started going on dates because I thought I needed to get over you.”

Alex chuckled softly as she shook her head. “Please, don’t.” She smiled. “I want to kiss you. And I want to be with you. I am so sorry that I had to get drunk for me to tell you this, and that our first kiss had to be that way. I’d do things differently if I could.”

Y/n smiled, standing up and getting between Alex’s legs, her hands going to Alex’s cheeks and stroking them softly. “Then let’s have our second kiss.”

Alex smiled softly as she placed her hands on y/n’s waist and leaned in to kiss her lips softly. Even if y/n had to admit that last night’s kiss was everything, this had topped that kiss; it was everything she always imagined when she thought about kissing Alex. So tender, so sweet, so full of emotions, there was nothing left to say after the kiss, they were talking through it. Y/n couldn’t help but smile against her lips, breaking the kiss but staying in place, making Alex smile too.

“You know.” Y/n whispered softly, looking into blue eyes. “You’re very clingy when you’re drunk.”

Alex chuckled softly. “Please never let me get drunk again.”

Y/n chuckled as she kissed the tip of her nose. “I’ll think about it. Because you were really cute.”

Alex rolled her eyes playfully. “I’ll be clingy, but I’ll never get drunk again.”

“Deal.” Y/n smiled and kissed her lips softly again.

#alex cabot x reader #alex cabot #alexandra cabot #svu fic #law and order svu #svu

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bigtreefest · 16 days

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I dare you to write a piece using a character that you want to, but have never had a chance to write for before. With the sentence "Well that was a surprise."

Saint or Sinner?

College! Lloyd Hansen x Reader

Word Count: 1,331

A/N: Amber!!! Thank you for tickling my brain with this dare! I honestly wanted to do Andy so badly, but this quote was screaming Lloyd to me and I couldn’t resist. To be completely honest, I had no intention of writing him, but my fingers tip-tapped away and I lost all control. I might’ve been possessed.

I also always plan on writing a Drabble, and then it ends up being as long as one of my fic chapters, but anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Warnings: 18+ MINORS DNI, Smut (oral, m receiving), use of pet names, sociopathic tendencies, mean Lloyd, a twist?

Dividers by @firefly-graphics

Ever since you were old enough date, you’ve been happily independent. You grew up in a small town, surrounded by blue collar families, including most of the members of your own.

You’d always had a keen ability to fit in anywhere, which you attribute to your upbringing. Your mom worked a corporate job, while your dad spent all day in a mechanic shop.

You were well off, but not raised like it, and you’d never judge those who had less than you, even though that’s what a lot of people expected.

Once you graduated high school, you got into Harvard where you met Lloyd. Lloyd was someone who was good at keeping his distance. You noticed it at first when you invited him to join a study group you had started with some other members of your cohort.

You received a terse “No thanks, Pumpkin,” punctuated with a curt nod and a wink, before he went to hang out with his other friends and his team.

You had made multiple attempts to include him in group activities, or engage in conversation when you could nab a seat next to him in class, but after some time, you stopped seeing him altogether. You could tell he was avoiding you and the study group you had become closer with. You’d probably actually call them your friends, becoming just as close as you were to some people back home. They picked up on the same things too, seeing that you were humble, and carried yourself in such a proper manner, earning you the nickname “the Saint.”

When word of that got around to Lloyd, he rolled his eyes. You were the complete opposite of him. Kind, welcoming, calculated, while he was cold, unpredictable, sociopathic. He couldn’t stand how successful you were, too. Professors and students alike constantly praised you, more than willing to help you in any way through your academic journey and career beyond. Where he schmoozed, you gracefully existed and got just as far.

You were perfect in everyone’s eyes, including his own, which is what infuriated him. There had to be a weak spot, somewhere where your surface would crack, and he had initially tried to find it by turning you down all those times, but it was unsuccessful.

None of the manipulation tactics he had worked so hard on perfecting for so long made you budge, either. He’d pluck out a random friend from your group to join his. Nothing. He’d sabotage your flash drive for your presentation, you’d have a backup in your email, ready to go. After you’d gone, you wished him luck and no technical difficulties like you had, with a giggle! He was enraged.

After being at the top of your class, the two of you were selected to go to a conference in DC. It was hardly supervised by your professor who had booked two rooms for you next to each other, getting himself a suite a few floors above.

You knocked on Lloyd’s door in the late afternoon, the day before your presentation. He opened it just enough to peek his head through.

“What do you want?”

You sighed with your signature smile on your face. “Did you want to go over everything one more time before dinner?”

He looked you up and down, face as stern as it ever was when he was dealing with you. “Not really, Sunshine.” He slammed the door in your face.

What Lloyd didn’t know was that all his little tactics were really chipping away at you. All you wanted was to spend time with him, to get close. You couldn’t help it. You’d be lying if you said it was in your usual friendship way, too.

No, you wanted more. There was something about how aloof he was that drew you in. You were obsessed and not willing to give up until you got what you wanted, what you deserved.

His little tendencies weren’t upsetting because he was rude, they were upsetting because they were keeping you away from what your body and the deep, dark recesses of your mind were screaming for.

The door slamming in your face was the last straw. Lloyd wouldn’t get away with this any longer. You could see what he was trying to do, and if you had any say, you’d make sure it failed. You were going to be the winner of the little mind game he was playing.

To be honest, by this point, Lloyd had given up, thinking you’d never break. You were just too sweet, a true Saint. Treating you like this had just become habit, which is why he was almost confused when he heard muttering on the other side of his door.

You had taken the magnetic clip out of your hair and maneuvered it against the hotel key card reader until it unlocked. The door flew open and your eyes landed on Lloyd, stomping towards him and pinning him with his back against the nearest wall.

He looked down at you, face unreadable beside his eyes being slightly wider than usual.

“Why are you being like this!? What did I do!?” You gritted out, your tone threatening.

Lloyd didn’t say anything, only the corner of his mouth twitched upwards.

“Tell. Me.” You slammed your hands against the wall, arms framing his head as you looked up into his eyes, your stomach pressed against his cock that was growing rock hard.

“Am I going to have to pull it out of you? Suck it out of you, myself?” Lloyd found himself at a loss for words for once. All he could do was part his lips slightly and give a small nod like he always did.

You began to unbuckle the belt of his ridiculously expensive pants, shoving them down just enough that you could see the hard-on pressing against his boxer briefs.

“Huh? Is that what you want? That what you need, Pumpkin?” You spat back at him, mocking his previous words.

His brain was finally beginning to catch up with the situation as he nodded down to you and you got on your knees.

“Yeah, do it. I know you want to. Suck me off.”

You didn’t need much more prompting, fueled by rage and control. You pulled down his underwear, his dick springing free.

You gave him no time to prepare, immediately licking from the base of his length to the tip before fully taking him into your mouth. Your mouth was stretching to accommodate his girth, but it was nothing for you in the lust of the moment. You set a vigorous pace, Lloyd’s head thrown back against the wall as he moaned loudly.

He pulled his head forward as his abs tensed, already close with the debauchery of the situation. He tangled his ringed fingers in your hair, helping to guide you along his length.

“That’s it. Keep going. Not such a Saint, are you?”

You hummed against his length in response, saliva dripping down your chin and his balls that you were lightly tugging in you hand. The other hand had its nails dug into his thigh, causing a slight sting that heightened the pleasure for Lloyd.

Before he knew it, he was coming down your throat. You pulled away as you swallowed his salty release, looking up at him and wiping off your face before standing up.

You caught his gaze again and Lloyd looked at you with bewilderment mixed with his post-orgasmic haze.

“Well that was a surprise.” He said between heavy breaths, pulling up his underwear and pants, buckling his belt again. Oh, he had no idea the tactics you had in store for him.

Your hands pressed against his abs in his knitted shirt. One stayed there as the other traced up his firm pec, past his collar and found purchase around his neck, lightly squeezing.

“So are you finally going to tell me what’s going on in the head behind that ridiculous mustache?”

Bonus A/N: Um… I don’t really know what happened. I think I blacked out.

#ST’s 100 follower truth or dare game #100 follower truth or dare game #truth or dare #dare #lloyd Hansen #lloyd Hansen x reader #lloyd Hansen x you #lloyd hansen smut #the gray man #Chris Evans #st answers

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canarysage · 2 months

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PSDs For Dummies <3

— as written by a dummy

hello dear readers and welcome back to canarysage, the world’s least comprehensive tutorial blog. today, we’re back at it again with photopea for dummies, and we’re tackling something i probably should have done first: psds.

example psds are: 1 (@cutesiplushi) 2 (@didlivio) & 3 (@lumieron)

what is a psd?

excellent question, dear reader! psd stands for photoshop document, and it’s a type of file format (like .png or .gif) that allows you to store a project’s individual layers! it’s a file format that, for obvious reasons, is exclusive to photoshop and photopea.

in editing circles, psd has become shorthand for filter. people use psds to save configurations of adjustment layers that are then used to filter images consistently, without having to remake them every time. when someone posts a psd, they’re posting a folder (hopefully it’s in a folder) with their specific set of adjustment layers for anyone to use!

where can i get psds?

right here on tumblr! check your favorite edit blogs, as they may have posted some, or search ‘free psd’ or ‘psd coloring’ in the search function. tumblr doesn’t allow you to upload psds directly, so you’ll be redirected to a site outside tumblr. probably either deviantart, google drive, or ko-fi, all of which are easy to use. deviantart requires you to have an account to download anything (luckily, an account is free!) and ko-fi may require you to pay money. google drive doesn’t have a search function in and of itself, but it’s extremely easy to download off of.

also, shameless self plug, but i post psds right here on canarysage! i personally use deviantart, but again, an account is free. if send me an ask, i may be able to provide you with a google drive link, if you ask really nicely (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧

and of course if you don’t want to use someone else’s psd, you can always make your own.

how do i use a psd?

once you have a psd of your choice downloaded, open up photopea! or photoshop, if you’re rich like that.

once you open photopea, click this here button right in the middle of the screen, the one that says “open from computer”

from there, go to choose files and open up your psd! depending on from whom you got it, psds will look different once you open them. i’m using one of my own as an example.

you can see there’s two layers in my psd, a folder, and an image. the image is just for me so i know which psd this is once i save it—i like to save all my psds with images of real people so i know how it looks on moodboards or stimboards.

the folder is the important part here, that’s where the adjustment layers are contained. to transfer a psd, you can either go to file > new

which lets you start an entirely new project, or you can open an image using file > open

which will give you the image you selected.

as an aside, if you’re opening a psd and you already have a project in progress, make sure to click file > open and not file > open & place, as open & place won’t give you the adjustment layers.

then to move the folder, go to layer > duplicate layer into while having selected the folder (just tap on it, that will make it a lighter gray to show it’s selected) and duplicate the folder into whatever your image is

i’m moving mine to a random image of honami i found which is why it’s named like that. once the folder’s duplicated into your project, go over and take a look!

you should now see something like this! ensure that the folder is on top, as otherwise the adjustment layers won’t work.

here’s the difference between the unfiltered image and the image with my psd!

to save images in photopea (like i did just now) go to file > export as > (your preferred file format)

which will pull up something like this

i recommend either saving as a png (for still images) or as a gif (for… gifs) but that’s up to you! in order to save a psd, go to file > save as psd! that will save your project to your device

bear in mind that tumblr doesn’t accept psds as a file format, so if you’re going to post an edit, you have to save it as something else. also, don’t just save other people’s psds and claim them as your own—psds take a lot of time, effort, and skill, like any other art form.

can i make my own psds?

100% yes! i can’t give you a step-by-step process unfortunately, as there really is no one way to make psds. i recommend familiarizing yourself with adjustment layer and seeing what works.

shameless self plug again, but you can check out my other posts in this series to find out about some of the adjustment layers!

basically, i like to think of adjustment layers as a few different categories. light/darkness adjustments (ie: brightness/contrast, levels, curves, exposure, black & white, and threshold to a certain extent.) saturation adjustments (vibrance, hue/saturation.) color adjustments (hue/saturation, color balance, photo filter, channel mixer, selective color, gradient map depending on how you use it, and replace color.) and also, miscellaneous (posterize, which gives your images a pop-art crunchy kind of effect, invert, which… inverts your colors, and color lookup, which is a set of filters unto itself)

how you utilize adjustment layers is up to you! i personally like to use a variety and see what happens, my personal favorites being channel mixer, photo filter, and hue/saturation. you can also utilize blending modes (shameless self plug again,) or opacity.

if you have no idea where to start, you can look at other people’s psds to see their process. don’t copy or steal, for obvious reasons, but you can toggle layers on and off and see what happens and what each layer does.

making psds isn’t as intimidating as it sounds, you just have to start a project and start creating! it gets really fun once you get the hang of it (*'▽'*)

i don’t edit with photoshop or photopea, can i still use psds?

short answer: nope!

long answer: if you want use psds but you’re super used to ibis paint or whatever you currently use, have no fear! you don’t have to switch all your editing to photopea. you can make your main project in ibis or whatever as normal, then upload it to photopea and add a psd.

you can also make perfectly fine filters in ibis paint in your own right, with enough tweaking. there’s also apps such as polarr and picsart which come with filters, but i’ve never used them so i’m unable to vouch for how they work.

do i need to use psds when editing?

nope! psds are 100% optional. they’re a style like anything else—some people prefer them and some people don’t. it’s up to you.

did you genuinely write 1178 words answering questions no one asked?

yep.

what if i have a question you didn’t answer?

feel free to shoot me an ask! i don’t mind explaining further, and i promise i don’t bite. as with anything, this is just meant to explain to anyone who needs assistance—photopea for dummies by a dummy, after all. we can be confused together!

are you done now?

i am! congratulations for reading this far!

yours truly, canarysage

#photopea for dummies #ʚɞ — tips.

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daichiduskdrop · 8 months

Text

˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚⋆·˚ ༘ *𝙎𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙡 ⋆·˚ ༘ *ੈ✩‧₊˚

Chapter 25

Pairing: BTS Ot7 X fem! reader

Genre: A/B/O AU, Fluff, Angst, Strangers to lovers,

Warnings: none :)

Words: 3736

Taglist:@thelilbutifulthings @ilovemoneymorethenmen @singukieee @cherrysainttt @felicityroth @mageprincess7 @lucis-noctiana @danielle143 @osakis-gf @girl-nahh @vintageoldfashion @neverthefirstchoice @juju-227592 @silentreadersthings @i-have-no-life-charlie @everyonehatesshani @iamkookiesforyou @dragons-flare @fangirl125reader @roseidol @frieschan @popcatx0 @liz67900 @exfolitae

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Your cheeks heated up, your smile was soft and sweet on your lips. Yoongi's grip tightened on your palm, his fingers holding yours sincerely.

Namjoon smiled to himself, glad to know his pack was doing so well. The alpha wished to have an omega to take care of for so many years—pretty much since their pack was formed during their predebut.

And now that they finally had you, the packalpha was ready to spoil you. He would make sure you were always taken care of.

You would get only the softest blankets to cuddle up with—none that would itch or scratch your skin. The food they would make for you would be the tastiest they could ever manage, the meat always cooked well through to ensure no risks.

Nothing too chewy or crunchy, so your jaw wouldn't hurt from anything. They would make sure you had enough of everything under the sun and would always be protected and cared for.

While it wasn't that unusual for omegas to cook for their packs, it wasn't too abnormal for alphas and sometimes betas to fully do so instead.

The kitchen could be dangerous, and they didn't want you to get hurt. Plus, if something goes wrong, you might get stressed out, and they didn't want that to happen either.

Namjoon was sure you were a great cook, though, and so an idea for a cooking RUN BTS episode popped into his head, with you participating.

Oh, he could already just imagine—it would be for baking, a silly competition using random gadgets their staff would order for them, and whoever made the better pastry would win.

The packalpha was no professional in the kitchen, that's for sure, but he got a bit better over time. All of his packmates were still more skilled than him, that's certain.

It would all depend on how the meeting with the management goes today, and he can't get his hopes up like this. Namjoon knew you would make a nice first impression deep down; you made a great impression on him the first time he saw you.

Remembering the moment of how small and fragile you looked- oh, the packalpha could hear himself practically cooing if he thought of it any longer.

The way you entered their lives, triggering their alpha needs that have been tucked away for so long, had them wrapped around your tiny finger right away.

Scrolling through the many available radio stations they had recently purchased, he selected the one that seemed the most suitable, named Staticooll, the alpha's smile was dry at the play of words.

Switching it on, the simple conversation of two people flowed through the vehicle, the alphas quieting to hear better.

„-cial season, isn't it? Speaking of which, have you had a chance to visit any of the amazing Christmas markets around Seoul this year? A few of them had already opened!”

„Absolutely, Ji-hoon! The Christmas markets in Seoul are absolutely magical. One of my favourites is the Seoul Christmas Festival at Cheonggyecheon Stream. There's something so festive about strolling along the stream, browsing through the stalls, and sipping on hot chocolate while Christmas carols fill the air. It's such a delightful experience.”

„That sounds absolutely delightful, Eunji! I can just imagine the twinkling lights and the joyful atmosphere. Now, let's talk about your music. Any new songs or exciting projects that you're working on that we can look forward to?”

„I'm glad you asked! I'm actually releasing a new single next week called "Winter's Melody." It's a heartwarming ballad that captures the essence of the season—a blend of love, hope, and the joy of being together. I'm so excited to share it with everyone, and I hope it becomes the soundtrack for many cherished memories this winter.”

„Oh, that sounds absolutely enchanting, Eunji! I can't wait to listen to "Winter's Melody" myself. Will you be performing this song or any other winter-themed tracks at any upcoming events?”

„Yes, I will be performing "Winter's Melody" live at the Winter Sparks Concert happening at Olympic Park this Saturday. It's going to be an amazing night filled with incredible performances by various artists. I invite all of you to join-”

„I never heard of this singer; what's their name again?” Jimin asked from the backseat; the song's name was not familiar with him either.

„Me neither, do you think their song will be the next trend? Ah, I want to listen to it.” Jungkook whined softly. While the alpha was quite on point with the newest trends, he himself was on TikTok quite a lot; he truly never heard of the singer on the show.

„I'm sure they will play it soon, oppa.” You said gently, looking behind yourself, the three youngest alpha's eyes set on you. They watched you fondly, only leaning over to ruffle your hair gently.

The car ride continued peacefully, with the host and the singer talking about many things. It was a calm radio station, obviously meant to not scare and unsettle any omegas with how the songs they played sounded.

The pack members were glad you seemed to enjoy it, happy that the purchased monthly subscription didn't go to waste.

„Sunny? Baby, come here.” Hoseok whispered softly, pulling you closer to himself. Yoongi shot him a disapproving glance but let him be. They agreed to share after all.

Holding onto both of the alpha's hands, he looked into your eyes for a second or two. Sighing, his chin ran over the top of your head, his scent still carrying a worried undertone.

„Baby, listen to Alpha explain now, okay? There's a lot of bad people out there, you know that, hm? We are known quite a bit, especially around Korea, and it's very scary for us to have you go around and see strangers. I know you mean well, and my heart,...

Just, sunny-bub, baby, please be more careful.”

Hobi had a hard time explaining what he wanted to say and understood that his message didn't come across perfectly how he wanted it to. But he was sure you understood at least a bit.

Sure, it was just the police officers today, but it could have been practically anyone behind the doors. And having you go to open the doors so quickly truly scared the man.

They didn't want you to get hurt; their hearts were practically beating to protect you from any possible harm.

„I kno-know Hobi, and I'm sorry... I'll go with one of you next time, okay?” You said, meaning your words. You knew where the man's worry was coming from, and you felt your heart flutter at the thought of them worrying about you.

Pulling you close to himself, his lips brushed up against the top of your head. Breathing out a soft thank you, the alpha scented you slightly before tucking you back in with the blanket.

The rest of the car ride was mostly calm. Yoongi spoke softly to you about what other music styles you liked, encouraging you not to worry about anything.

He could sense you were scared about what they would think, and while music certainly was a big part of their lives, they didn't feel the need to judge any of your opinions.

Soon, you all arrived at the Hybe building, with Jin driving towards the security entrance to the underground parking lot. Showing the man at the booth a card, the officer opened the bar, and the vehicle went through, the surroundings now darker.

Parking at a reserved spot, the car stopped rumbling, and you all started climbing out. Gently taking the blanket from you and folding it up into his bag, Yoongi smiled gently at you, unclipping the seatbelt before he helped you climb out.

You tightened the grip on the alpha's hand, worried after being in such an unknown environment. You didn't truly register that you would be going here today, and so you weren't sure what to expect.

Clinging onto the alpha's seemed like a safe bet, though.

He didn't seem to mind, pulling you closer to himself, his arm gently rubbing up and down your back, the puffer jacket crinkling.

The others soon noticed your unsettled and worried scent; the first to hop over was Taehyung, his hands taking in your cheeks as he watched you closely.

„Aigoo, babycheeks, don't worry, okay? Alpha's are here, baby." He whispered to you softly, his voice deep and rumbly.

Leaning close to you, his nose gently touched yours, a sweet bunny kiss shared between the two of you.

Taking your other hand in his, at the called-out command "let's go, you guys, we are already late", you all started moving towards the entrance.

Jin pulled out an ID card, letting it scan before the doors opened up, allowing you to all enter. You were met with a clean staircase and an elevator; the alphas ushering you inside once it opened.

You never did too well with closed spaces, but this one was larger than the usual elevators you've seen.

Still, you moved closer to Taehyung, the alpha understanding quickly before his arms gently pulled you to himself.

„You're okay, baby; Alpha is here now." He murmured, and all of you quickly moved up to one of the highest levels of the tall building.

With the doors opening with a soft ding, Namjoon led the way, your small group mingling through the hallways, many offices and doors lining the way over.

There weren't many workers you met on your way, but you all saw a few. They wore dark clothes and an obvious ID tag hung up on their necks that moved whenever they would bow to the packmembers.

They would eye you weirdly, usually looking back at you once the packmates passed by after they shared their own short greetings.

You looked back yourself, unsure as to what to do. Going to do your usual habit of picking on your fingers, you realised you couldn't, since your hands have been tightly nested in the palms of the two alphas.

Still, you turned your head to look back, noticing the quite nasty and confused state you received from the short-bob hairstyle girl.

You didn't get to do anything before Jimin gently positioned your head to stay forward, his smile sweet, calming you a little from your suddenly worried state.

„Don't worry, princess. Keep your head up, precious; Alphas will take care of everything, my sweet baby.” He whispered, being mindful not to talk too loudly.

Opening the doors for all of you, Hobi held them as your group entered, Namjoon at the front. Everyone was already sitting around the long table, but once you arrived, they were quick to stand up, bowing and politely greeting all of you.

While you stood a little astonished and suddenly even shyer than before, a man was quick to stand up and greet you individually.

You didn't dare to look up, your hands abandoning the alpha's in slight emberassment. You weren't sure if showing skinship in here was okay.

„Hello, Miss L/N, my name is Sejin, and I'm one of the main managers from HYBE for the group. It's good to finally meet you.” His voice was heavy, and the man was obviously tired.

You could smell that he was an alpha himself, therefore making you more timid and shy if that was even possible. You didn't dare shake his hand, only whispering out soft greetings yourself.

Taking your hand in his right hand, Jungkook led you over to the table, pulling out the chair for you and letting you take a seat first before he sat down next to you.

The young alpha grasped your hand right away, your fingers locking with his under the table as he leaned close to your ear.

„You're doing great, baby. Alpha is very proud of you, my bunny.” A wide, toothy grin took over his face, your eyes shooting up to his for only a millisecond.

The man felt worry deeply swarming under his skin at how your eyes looked. Wide and almost teary, you truly looked like a small, timid bunny kit sitting next to him and Jin on your other side.

„Okay, let's just get this done and over with; we are already behind on the schedule. So you guys have started courting Miss L/N?”

Another man, his voice younger, asked the group. You didn't look up in case you made any unintended eye contact; your usual worry was coming back to you.

„Yes, we want her as a part of our pack, as our mate.” Namjoon answered simply, stating the truth. You felt your cheeks heat up slightly at how blatantly he addressed it. He was talking about marking and mating with you, after all!

„...Right. And can you all just once again tell me who this even-" The other manager didn't get to finish; a low rumble sounded through the room, his snarky tone cut off.

„That's our 'mega." Yoongi's words sounded so cold and heartless, you felt a chill run down your spine. Jungkook's fingers tightened at yours, and when you looked up, you could see his jaw clenching—you thought he might just about break it.

The room fell quiet for a few seconds; a stare off was held between the pack members and the manager.

„Okay. I trust you guys will choose the right one. I've prepared the NDA to be signed, so if you would be so kind, miss, and go through it to see if everything is to your liking, We will need a few details about you too.”

The manager, Sejin, as you remembered his name, seemed to have taken a slight pity on you, noticing your shaken-up form.

He slid a file of papers stapled together, and you thanked him quietly as you went to look through the long documents. Jin and Jungkook are leaning close to you, reading it with you.

NDA (non-disclosure agreement)

This NDA is made and entered into as of the date set forth below, by and between HYBE, a S. Korea's corporation, with a principal place of business located at 42, Hangangdae-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Korea, referred to herein as "Discloser," and L/N F/N, with a principal place of business located at Y/A, referred to herein as "Receiver."

Whereas the discloser is the owner of certain valuable and confidential proprietary information, including but not limited to trade secrets, processes, formulas, product designs, market strategies, and other valuable information related to its business operations,

Whereas the recipient desires to receive access to such confidential information in the course of conducting business or for any other purpose,

Whereas the discloser and receiver desire to protect and safeguard the confidentiality of such proprietary information,

NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of the promises and covenants contained herein and other good and valuable considerations, the receipt and sufficiency of which are hereby acknowledged, the parties agree as follows:

1. Definitions.

"Confidential Information" means all present and future, written or oral, technical or non-technical information, or data, relating to Discloser's company, products, processes, and/or information, including (without limitation) trade secrets, business plans, strategies, systems, software, research and development, financial information, customer lists, and supplier and customer information, which is disclosed by Discloser to Receiver during or following any discussion between the Parties.

"Discloser's Confidential Information" means all Confidential Information of the Discloser that is disclosed or made available to the Receiver pursuant to this Agreement.

2. Confidentiality.

The receiver agrees that the confidential information received from the discloser is highly confidential and will be maintained by the receiver in the strictest confidence. The receiver shall not disclose any confidential information to any person or entity, except to such of its directors, officers, employees, and/or consultants as may be required for the performance of the receiver's duties hereunder and who shall be required to keep the confidential information confidential. The receiver shall not make any use of confidential information of a commercial or competitive nature (other than for evaluating the feasibility of doing business with the discloser).

3. Return of Confidential Information

The recipient agrees that it shall not copy, reproduce, or remove any confidential information from its offices, and at the termination of this agreement, it shall return...

You felt like you didn't even understand half of these words. You never had to sign a contract like this in your entire life, logically, and you didn't really ever get to work except for small part-time jobs you would keep from time to time.

It wasn't like you would ever have the opportunity to get a job anyway; with you being an omega, it would be complicated.

You read through the whole stack of papers within the few next minutes, providing your ID and full name so the managers could get in touch with the police and get your full criminal records—there wasn't anything to really look at, though.

Jin would, from time to time, let his chin rest on top of your head, his own eyes tearing up slightly, his arms wrapping around you as much as he could in the current situation.

He felt his heart breaking at the things you had to agree to. Of course, it was a standard process for all of their staff members, and they had to sign such contracts all the time.

But having you sign that you wouldn't even get to talk to your friends about things you did with them? Something so absolutely normal and even considered necessary, in his opinion, for an omega to do?

You needed to have social contacts with other people, and the alpha didn't want you to have to cut off all of your social life because of them. What about that Yuki boy they met at the mall? Would you not be able to be friends with him because of their jobs?

With more and more worried thoughts clouding his mind, he sighed out once again, seeing you file in the list of required information from you.

You stopped at the address link; the pen handed to you by the managers stopped its smooth movements; you had pretty and sleek handwriting, the alpha noticed.

It probably had to do something with you drawing and painting your entire life, but nonetheless, it was so easy to read and pretty to look at.

„Sh-should I write my apartment address or yo-yours, oppa?” You whispered out softly, your fingers shaking lightly.

Jungkook looked up from the paper he was currently rereading, a small frown on his face as he leaned over to look at what you had struggled with.

„Sejin-hyung, the address should be ours or her own apartment?” The alpha didn't hesitate to ask, and the older man looked up from the notebook.

„You can write both.” Nodding timidly, you scribbled down the address of your place, letting Jin whisper the exact number of the street of their own softly.

You wrote out quite a lot of things: your full contact details, your previous pack name, your family pack name's (even though those were technically the same), your date of birth, your whole employment history, and the place of your occupations. There was a lot to do.

And with how long it was taking, it was only natural for someone to knock on the doors and ask for the alphas—they had a busy schedule today after all.

Whenever one of them would leave, either to go record a song, go to a dance practise, or just to have a meeting about their upcoming solo music, the alphas would make sure to tell you the most proper goodbyes.

Crouching on the floor next to you, Jimin found your soft hand, his fingers wrapping around yours. He held worried eye contact, smiling softly at you.

„Stay close to your alphas, my princess, okay? We will talk later, baby. Call me if you need anything. Alpha loves you precious, lots and lots.” He kept his words quiet, wanting you to understand they were meant for you and no one else in the room.

With his lips brushing against your forehead in a quick peck, he pulled away to leave himself. By now, you were in the room with only Namjoon, Jungkook, and Taehyung, though the second youngest was preparing for his own meeting that would happen only in a few minutes.

You finished the paperwork in a few minutes after he left, with Namjoon and Jungkook staying close with you the whole time, helping you whenever you weren't sure what exactly was requested from you.

Finishing with a signature from you and the main manager, the man then looked over everything, his eyes taking notice of your being an art student.

„You draw? You must be clever, then. Do you have a photo of some of your work?” He asked, the man warming up slightly to you over the time with you there. It has taken quite some time for you to read through everything, after all.

Fumbling with yourself, you took out your phone, going to the gallery. Before you slid over the cracked device for the man to look through, the album named 'Portfolio' opened.

Sejin wasn't so sure about everything when Namjoon and Yoongi came to tell him about starting the courting process. He was worried, naturally, that you might take advantage of them over time, but with how sweet and timid you looked, he felt reassured.

You were a sweet omega after all, and with how you had the packmates at your feet, quite literally, he knew you wouldn't do them much harm in the future.

„You are talented for sure. Good job!” Smiling widely, he placed your phone back on you, having you thank him for his kind words again.

It didn't take much longer before he was telling you all goodbyes, the other managers politely adding to the words as you all piled into the clean meeting room.

Just as the doors closed, you were immediately held against a chest, your body tightly gripped as the alpha's chin went over the top of your head, holding you close.

With Jungkook carefully hugging you from the back, you let yourself be held by the two alphas, their own chins and cheeks running over your head as they scented you.

„Alpha is so, so proud of you, my pup. You did so well."

„Such a good girl, babybun. Alpha's good 'mega.”

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