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bookaddict24-7 · 11 months

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REVIEWS OF THE WEEK!

Books I’ve read so far in 2023!

Friend me on Goodreads here to follow my more up to date reading journey for the year!

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34. Never Too Far by Abbi Glines--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Re-read March 2023 Hi, it's me re-reading one of my favourite problematic series! I love seeing my past reviews and how my mindset changes and evolves over time. As I write this, I am already craving re-reading this again LOL. But if I try reading past this series, I can't do it. This is just a messy gem that I will for sure re-read many many more times.

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35. Forever Too Far by Abbi Glines--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Re-read March 2023 I'm always sad to finish this trilogy and the drama it brings. Delicious as always. ___

36. The Summer of Broken Rules by K.L. Walther--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I heard about this one a bit ago and was excited to read it because of all of the positive reviews. I was always worried because we all know what happens when we go into a book with expectations. I'm happy to say that I can understand why this book has so much hype behind it. It's a great exploration of family and the complexities of grief. It was interesting to see how everyone dealt with the grief they were all feeling as yet another summer started and one family member was missing. I think the concept of the game the family played before the wedding was genius and I wish I had a big enough family to play it. I also loved how it was the perfect opportunity for the MC to both connect with the memory of her sister and with a part of herself she never thought she would experience (especially coming off a toxic and long relationship.) Speaking of which, I loved the love interest. He had some pretty cool moments and was the perfect balm for the MC. I think this is a great summer read, especially since we're now starting to get into the summer vibes. Great for those who are going away to meet up with family, or those who are staying behind to chill by the pool, beach, or their garden.

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37. Promise Boys by Nick Brooks--⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

I think I went into this expecting something slightly different than what I got. It was a very powerful read, but I think the pacing felt a little off--at least, if we're going by the synopsis. I enjoyed reading this from multiple perspectives because I think it rounded out the story really well. I love when authors do this because it gives me perspectives to a story that I might have otherwise been wanting to see. Each character was dealing with their own issues and while said issues (like relationship troubles) weighed the story down a bit, I can also appreciate that these are teenagers. Overall, I thought this was a good mystery and it has some seriously important topics--like corruption in schools, the treatment of Black boys in American schools, and the way society sees Black boys--but I think if some of the situations were flushed out a little more; if the pacing was a little better, this would have been a higher rating for me. Don't get me wrong: this book is incredibly readable and I recommend it, if not for the mystery then for the moments where you might get angry at the discrimination and racism, but I do think that something about this book felt missing. This is actually a very short book--I think it would have benefitted if it was just a tad bit longer.

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38. Set On You by Amy Lea--⭐️⭐️⭐️

I really enjoyed this one! I loved the representation of a fat FMC and the hot, big and tough love interest (MMC). I always love reading stories like that because I've heard that muscle gym bros love bigger girls. I loved seeing the FMC actively share her journey and have some pretty good character growth by the end of the story. I loved that final message she shared and I think it could be an especially healthy message to share with readers who may also be stuck in that web of toxic positivity. I'm not going to lie, the MMC was a bit forgettable--mainly because I'm writing this a month or so after reading the book and I don't really remember any of his traits....oops. What I DO remember, however, is him kind of messing up a bit somewhere in there. This isn't to say that it's all on him. The FMC, in my opinion, handled everything in probably the least healthy way possible--which, tbh, is understandable because anxiety and depression is a bitch that takes zero days off. But I think the biggest downfall of this couple is their problem with communication. When it comes to my romances, besides the smut and the enemies to lovers sexual tension, I want a healthy level of communication. When miscommunication or a lack of communication leads to the main climactic point of a book (the main conflict), then you've lost me. Imagine all of the pain that could have been avoided? Overall, I would recommend this one because of the amazing representation and the spicy tension during this couple's enemies to lovers initial bond. I'd read more books by this author, but that communication issues has got to go.

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39. Virgin River by Robyn Carr--⭐️

I'm going to be very honest here: I made it 76% before I DNF'ed this. I normally don't write reviews for books I've DNF'ed but a) I think I made it far enough and b) I have things to say. I read this book back in March and I still remember the parts that made me want to throw the whole book away. It started alright with the premise of a city woman moving to a small town. I loved that concept because then she meets the gruff but willing man who will show her the beauty of her new home. To start easy: This book draaaaaaaags. It honestly felt like it would go on forever and never end. It would get to certain parts where I would actively check how much I had left because there is no way that more still needed to happen. But other than the slow pacing, this wasn't my main concern. I admit that I try to not read reviews before I pick up a book. I tried to follow the hype behind the tv show and the series (it has a million books), but I honestly....don't get it? But my main point is that I don't know if others have talked about my next complaint about this book. My main concern with this book is a particular scene that happens between a fourteen year old and a sixteen or seventeen year old--I don't remember his age, but it was one of those two. The girl is described as this obvious sexual being when she is a CHILD. Even the boy is wary of her age. Then we get a chapter from his perspective where they are having sex. Very descriptive sex. Two teenagers. Two children. I don't want to go into detail, unlike the book, but it made me so incredibly uncomfortable. Then, later in the book, the male character thinks about being *inside* of her and missing the warmth. Wtf. A child. I've read a ton of YA and I think it's perfectly fine to have sex positivity in those novels because a) they're usually not descriptive (and if they are, they're not to that level because the authors know their audience), and b) it's usually aimed towards other teenagers who can relate. Even still, sex positivity in a YA novel is different than a very descriptive sex scene between two children in an adult novel that has spicy scenes between adults. Don't get me wrong, I love smutty novels but not this. That was not right and I'm surprised that this book has such high ratings. It's so creepy! Reminds me of how creeped out I was about the Princess Diaries having a 14 year old MC dating an 18 year old teenager. Anyway, this wasn't for me. Even if there wasn't a creepy af scene, the pacing would still have made this a DNF for me.

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Have you read any of these books? Let me know your thoughts!

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Happy reading!

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tciddaemina · 10 months

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AI and fanworks - a dissection

In attempt to address some of the fears and uncertainty going around in the fan communities at the moment I wanted to have a look at AI interacts with art and fandom, and more specifically how it relates to theft in these fields. When AI comes up there has been a lot of knee jerk defensiveness and hurt from artists and writers in the fan community, and honestly, that’s fair enough. This is a field that has advanced rapidly, which has entered the scene with all the force of an explosion. I don’t think anyone was expecting it to hype up this much or so suddenly be splashed everywhere all at once, becoming the topic of debate in nearly every discipline and field, be it law and academia, digital art, and even fanfic writing.

It’s everywhere, it’s all over the place, and to be honest, it’s just a bit of a mess.

Currently we’ve had a strong outpouring of reaction, lashing out at everything to do with AI and its involvement in creative works. The thing is though, this whole issue of AI in art - especially its use on and in relation to fanworks - is something that's complicated and layered and isn’t composed so much of one single offense being committed, but rather multiple stacked issues all tangled together, each of which is simultaneously eliciting reactions all that all end up jumbled together.

What I want to do a bit here is unpick the different layers of how AI is causing offense and why people are reacting the way they are, and in doing so, hopefully give us to the tools to advance the conversation a little and explain more clearly why we don’t want AI used in certain ways.

There are, in essence, three layers of potential ‘theft’ in this AI cake. These are:

The training data that goes into the AI.

The issue regarding ‘styles’ and the question of theft in regards to that.

Use of AI for the completion of another person’s story.

This last one is the one that’s doing the rounds right now in the fanfic community and is causing a lot of strife and upset after a screenshot of a TikTok of someone saying that they were using ChatGPT to finish abandoned and/or incomplete fanfictions.

It’s a concept that has caused a lot of anger, a lot of hurt, and a lot of grief for authors who are facing the concept of this being done to their work and honestly that’s fair enough. As a fic writer myself, I also find the concept highly uncomfortable and have strong feelings about it. Maybe this person was trolling, maybe they were not, but the fact exists that this is increasingly coming a subject of debate.

So, let's go through this mess step by step, see how exactly ‘AI theft’ is being done, what different levels this ‘theft’ is operating at, and what, if anything, can be done about it. And I’m not claiming to have a magic solution, but just that in understanding a problem, you have a better toolkit to explain to others why it is a problem and how to ask for the specific things that might help improve the situation.

Training datasets - yeah, there’s some problems here

One thing we need to talk about going into this section is how AI actually functions - AI here being specifically image and word generators.

Text generators such as ChatGPT and Sudowrites are essentially word calculators. When someone feeds in an input, a prompt saying ‘write me this email’ or ‘write me a script for so and so story’ they essentially behave in the same manner as an autocomplete on your phone. Part of a sentence gets written, and based on the hundreds of thousands of pieces of writing they examined in their training data, they write what the next most expected thing in the sentence would be.

For art generators, it comes down more on pattern recognition. A picture on a screen is just a pattern of pixels, and by feeding them huge amounts of training images you can teach them what the pattern for say ‘an apple’ looks like. When prompted, they can then use that learned pattern to spit out the image of an apple, one that doesn’t look specifically like any single image that went in. In essence it is a new ‘original’ apple, one that never existed specifically just like that before.

All of these systems require huge amounts of training data to work. The more data they have, the better they can recognise patterns and spit out output that looks pretty or makes sense, or seems to properly match the prompt that was put in.

In both these situations, writing or art, you can put in a prompt and get out an output that was created on demand and is different from even the pieces of work it might have been trained on, something that is ‘original’. This is, I think, where a lot of the back and forth regarding use of generated writing and art as a whole comes from and why there’s a lot of debate about whether it counts as theft or not.

And honestly, whether generated content counts as ‘art’ or not, whether it counts as original, and whether the person who prompted it ‘owns it’ or the company who created the generator does isn’t a debate I want to get into here. Hello Future Me did a very good breakdown of this issue and the legalities of AI regarding copyright on YouTube, and I would recommend watching that if you want to learn more. Basically, it’s a murky pond with a lot of nuance and it’s not the debate we’re looking at here, so we’re just going to set it aside and focus on the other part of this instead - the training data.

Because yeah, currently the vast majority of these generative ‘AI’ models have been trained on materials taken without the creators consent. They need huge amount of training data to work, and a great deal of it has been sourced in an unethical way. We’ve seen this with OpenAI scraping AO3 for writing text, to use as training material for their software - and being caught out with it by the whole knot thing. We know that Stable Diffusion was trained using the work of thousands of digital artists works without permission and used their work as training to help educate their image generation software, now resulting in a class action lawsuit by artists against it.

And that fucking sucks.

It sucks on multiple levels. If someone creates a piece of art, copyright law and shit requires that someone wanting to make use of it ask permission. And that’s fair. Copyright law does have its issues, but it does provide some protection to artists and their work. Using someone else's work without permission is not okay, especially when you’re using it for your own profit. There’s a couple of different aspects we need to unpick here, so let’s unpick them.

Yes, a generated work might not be a specific copy of any work that was taken and put into it, but honestly that doesn’t even matter - the lack of consent on the part of the people whose work is being used in this situation is unethical. Web scraping has always been a thing, but there’s a difference between people gathering data for research purposes and a corporation gathering the work of independent small artists and writers without their consent for use in generating their own profits. Because yes, these systems are currently free to use but you know that monetisation is an any now kind of thing, right? Eventually these generative softwares will be paywalled and used as a means of earning profit for the companies that created them, and that work will be done off the back of all the artists/writers whose work was put in.

Already, on the level of being a regular writer or artist, this is pretty shitty (particularly when you consider that generated works are being eyed up by corporations as a way to avoid having to pay proper artists and writers for their work). As a fanworks author, the thought is even shittier. Part of what is lovely about the fan community is the fact that it’s all done for free. Fanworks exist in a specific legal framework that prevents monetisation, yes, and for the most part that’s something that’s celebrated. The joy of creating art or writing a story - of creating and sharing it with a community, just for the sake of doing it and not because of profit, is an integral part of what makes being a creator of fanworks so amazing. So to have something that you’ve created for free and shared for the love of it - specifically with the intent of never having it monetised - fed into a machine that will, in the end, be used to turn corporate profits is souring. People are entirely right to not feel pleased at that concept.

AI techbros would argue that there isn’t a way to create large generative models like this with big enough datasets unless they collect them the way they do, but is it really?

Dance Diffusion is a music generation program that creates music from purely public domain, volunteered, and licenced material. It uses only works where the musicians have either consented to be part of the dataset, or have made their work available broadly for public use. And yes, the reason that they’ve taken this route is probably because the music industry is cutthroat with copyright and they’d be sued out of existence otherwise, but at the very least it proves that taking an ethical approach to data sourcing is entirely possible.

Already some generative software for images are working to do the same. Adobe Firefly is an image generator that runs entirely on its own stock photos, licenced photos, and images that are public domain . This already seems like a more ethical direction, one which is essentially no different than a company using public domain images and modifying them for commercial purpose without using AI. Yes, it has a more constrained data set and therefore might be less developed, but honestly if you can’t create a quality product without doing it ethically, you just shouldn’t make that product.

This is the element of consent missing from many of the big generative softwares right now. The only reason this isn’t the mode of approach being used in selecting what goes into training data is because techbros are testing the waters of what they can get away with, because yeah, taking this step takes more effort and is more expensive, even if it is demonstrably more ethical, and god forbid anything standing in the way of silicon valley profit margins.

So yes, there is unethical shit going on in regards to how people’s art and writing is being put into training sets without their consent, for the final result of generating corporate profits, and as a fanwork author it’s particularly galling when such a model might be making use of work you specifically created in good faith with a desire for it not to be commercialized. You have a right to be upset about this and to have a desire for your work not to be used.

Work that is used in training AI should have to be volunteered, obtained with a licence and the artist’s consent, or be works of public domain. It has to be an opt-in system, end of story.

If you take away this issue of stolen training works, the ethical dilemma of generated works is already a lot more palatable. Yeah, it might not be the same as making a work from scratch yourself and some might argue it’s not ‘real art’, but at that point it just becomes another tool people can use without this bad-taste-in-the-mouth feeling that you’re using software exploiting stolen works from non-consenting artists and writers. (The undervaluing of artists and writers works is something I acknowledge, but that’s a different debate and we’re not going to get into it here – though it will be touched upon briefly in the next section.)

The thing is though, this issue isn’t one we can readily fix as individuals. This is something that’s going to come down to government regulation and legislation. If you feel strongly about it, that’s the areas you need to put pressure - learn about what regulation is being done, make known your support for regulations that do promote more ethical practice, and if you’re someone who is generating artistic works, when make your consumer vote count and do it using software that more ethically sources its training data.

And yeah, maybe this sort of sucks as a conclusion for this issue, but the cat’s out of the bag now and generated works are likely here to stay. We’re in the wild west of them right now, but things can be done and it doesn’t need to be the complete dystopia it currently feels like it might be becoming.

The ‘theft’ part of ‘art theft’

Here we move on from the issues inherent with the generative models themselves - or more specifically their training sets - and to the ways they’re being used. This issue is split into two parts, the first of which is a more prominent issue in visual art and the second of which is an issue more specific to fanfic writing.

Up until now you can sort of argue that use of a generative model is a victimless crime. The output you get may have been trained using someone else’s work, but it itself isn’t a strict copy of anything that exists. It’s created on demand and it’s unique. And yeah, you might say, maybe it sucks a bit that the training data stuff is a bit unethical but the harm there is already done and using it to generate a piece of art isn’t hurting anyone.

And to a point that’s true. If the ethical sourcing problem for data is solved, then there isn’t necessarily a lot of harm in using that software to generate something – it might not be the same process as creating art yourself, but it’s a tool that people can do doubt find some helpful uses for.

Using AI to copy someone’s style, or to finish one of their pieces of fiction, however, is something that hurts someone. It’s not a bad system causing the problem, but bad actors using that system to cause harm. In this this is distinct from the previous theft issue we’ve discussed. Even in a world where the big AI software’s all have de facto ethical training data, this would still be an issue.

‘Style’ theft – a problem for artists

One of the big things that’s been happening with image generation AIs is people training them to mimic certain styles, so that the user can then create new works in that style. There’s a lot of pretty furious debate back and forth about it in regards to whether using a style is art theft, whether its infringing copyright, with the weeping techbros often hurrying to cry ‘you can’t own a style!’

And to a certain point, yeah, they have a point. If you were to train an AI on impressionist artworks and tell it ‘paint me a tree in the style of Monet’ I don’t think anyone would necessarily have a problem with it. It’s a style, yes, but no one person owns it, and most of the people who developed that style are long dead – more works being created in that style and even sold commercially isn’t going to undercut a specific artist’s market. You could up and decide to learn to paint yourself and start churning out Monet-esque works by hand and it wouldn’t be copyright infringement or art theft or any of the like.

The situation is sort of different when you’re dealing with a living artist today. Already there have been cases of artists with distinct and beloved styles having their portfolios fed into AI without their consent, so that the prompter can then create works in their style.

(Original work by samdoesart on the left, and generated work trained on samdoesart’s style on the right, posted on reddit. A model was specifically created trained on this artist in order to create art that looks like it was made by them.)

And this is harmful in two separate ways. We’ve covered above why its unethical and shitty to feed someone else’s work into a training set without their consent, and for a work to be generated in a specific artist’s style, a large amount of their work needs to be put in in order for the AI to learn its patterns and mimic it. The artist hasn’t consented to their inclusion, and now their hard work and the style they’ve created has been absorbed and made available for corporate use. Remember – most of these programs retain full ownership over all works they produce, regardless of the user that ‘created’ then. All generated works are owned by the corporation.

Unlike general AI generation, where you’re creating some generic piece of art or writing and it doesn’t specifically harm anyone, this is a crime that directly has a victim. A specific artist has had their work used without consent, and often with the specific goal of creating work in that artist’s style to avoid having to commission or pay the artist for otherwise producing a work in their style. By creating this workaround where they don’t have to pay the artist for their work, they’re directly contributing to the harm of the artists financial prospects and the devaluing of their work.

When we talk about generic AI generation as a whole, the type where thousands of different distinct inputs go in and the thing that comes out doesn’t look specifically like any single one of them, you can make a case that it’s not copying any specific person’s work. This isn’t the case here. This is use of AI for the purposes of creating an art is a specific persons style. As Hello Future Me puts it “it is deriving a product from their data and their art without any attribution, payment, or credit.” And I don’t know about you, but that sounds a lot like theft to me. Yes, maybe a specific existing work was not explicitly copied, but you’re still making use of their style without a consent in a way that undermines their work and the market for their work, and that is a pretty shitty thing to do.

This whole section has talked about visual art so far, but you can see how it could also be applied to a written work. Telling an AI ‘write something in the style of Shakespeare’ is harmless, just as the Monet example was harmless, but you can readily see how this could also be applied to say, a poet who has a particular style of writing, with their portfolio of works fed in to create more poems in their style without their consent.

The key difference here, I think, is that works like Monet or Shakespeare are part of the public domain. No one owns them and everyone is free to use them. Generating derivitive works off their creations harms no one, because these creators are not alive and still producing - and selling - their work today. That cannot be said of living artists whose work is being exploited without compensation and whos livelihoods are being threatened by generated works.

Feeding an artist or writer’s work into an AI so that you can use their style, while not strictly ‘copying’ any single work of theirs, it still a harmful thing to do and should not be done. Even if you don’t intend to sell it and are just doing it for your private fun – even if you never even post the results online – you’ve still put their portfolio into the training set, making it a part of the resources a corporation can now use to turn a profit without repaying the artist or writer for their contribution.

The Fic Problem – or, completing someone else’s work

Now we moved onto the specific issue that first prompted me to write up this debate. There’s been noise going around in the fic writing community about people using AI to write fanfic and/or to finish other people’s incomplete works.

In general, using AI to write fanfic is no different than using AI to come up with any other kind of creative writing. It has the same underlying ethical issues inherent in the system – which is, currently, that all work is being generated based on training data that was obtained without consent. Leaving aside whether in general generating creative writing is a good thing to do (what’s the point in writing, after all, if you don’t enjoy the process of actually writing?) let’s talk instead about the issue of people finishing other people’s fics.

The fanfiction community – and the fanart community as well I would wager – has always had something of a problem with entitlement. And look, I sort of get it. When you find an amazing fic that isn’t finished, it can hurt to reach the end and wonder if you’ll ever get to read any more of it. But that’s just the way it is. The fanworks community is one that is built overwhelmingly upon people creating labours of love just for the joy of it and sharing them free of charge. It’s hobby work, it’s hours squeezed in around jobs and families and kids, it’s someone scraping time out of their busy day to create something and share it just for the sake of it. People move onto different projects for all manner of reasons – maybe they don’t enjoy the fandom anymore, maybe that story now has baggage, maybe their tastes have just changed and they want to write different stuff. Maybe they stopped writing fiction altogether. Maybe they died.

Some stories will never be finished, and honestly, no author owes you the end of one. They have every right to write whatever they want and work on what projects they like, even if that means leaving some unfinished.

Coming in to complain about it, or to demand new updates – or, in this case, to finish the work yourself without their consent, is a shitty thing to do. And yeah, some author’s do put their abandoned works up for adoption and are happy for people to finish them, but in most cases author’s don’t want this done. That’s a personal choice and varies author to author. Someone seeing an abandoned fic and choosing, with their own two hands, to write up an ending for it without asking the author is already a bit of a sketchy thing to do, even if it’s just done privately and never sees the light of day, and doing it using AI is even worse.

Because yeah, to do it, you have to feed that person’s fic into the AI. You as a person, are putting a piece of work made with love and shared freely with you as a gift into a corporate dataset, where it will be used to generate corporate profits off the back of that person’s work. And more, if you want it to write properly in their style and mimic them well, then hey, you have to probably put in even more of their work, so that the AI can copy them well, which means even more of their works taken without their consent and put into the AI.

And that fucking sucks. It’s unethical, it’s a shitty thing to do, and if it’s unacceptable for a corporation to be taking someone’s work without their consent for use in AI training, then it’s unacceptable for you as an individual to be handing someone else’s work to them of your own volition.

As a fanfiction author, I cannot imagine anything more disheartening. I have a lot of unfinished works yes, some of which are even completely abandoned, but even when I haven’t touched them in years I don’t stop caring about those fics. I have everything that will happening in them already planned out – all the arcs, the twists, the resolutions and the ends – and someone else finishing it without my consent robs me of that chance to do it myself. You don’t know if an author still cares about a fic, whether they’re trying to work up the motivation to put out a new chapter even years later. You don’t know why they stopped writing it, or what that story might mean to them.

And I think this is what a lot of it comes down to. People will assume that because a fic is abandoned that an author doesn’t care about it anymore, or that because it’s fanfiction they don’t ‘own it’. Nothing could be further from the truth. Author’s do still care, and yes, they do own their own work. A transformative work might be one based on another franchise and one that makes use of another person’s copyright, but everything you put in yourself is still yours. Any new material, new characters, new concepts, new settings – the prose you use, the way you write, your turns of phrase. Those legally belong to the fanfic author even though they’re writing fanfic.

And yeah, some people might argue that putting someone's fanfic through an AI is a transformative act in itself. People write fic of fic, after all, and is creating something with AI based on fic really any different? Yes and no. A transformative work is one that builds on a copyrighted work in a different manner or for a different purpose from the original, adding adds "new expression, meaning, or message". It is this transformative act that makes it fair use, rather than just theft.

Could an AI do this, creating something that is ‘transformative’? Maybe. It’s not for me to say, and AI generators are getting better every day. In the use of AI in continuing a fic, however, I would argue that it’s use is not transformative but instead derivative. A derivative work is based on a work that has already been copyrighted. The new work arises—or derives—from the previous work. It’s things like a sequel or an adaptation, and you could clearly argue that the continuation of a story, a ‘Part 2′, counts under this banner of derivative rather than transformative.

And okay, relying on copyright law while already in the nebulous space of fanfic feels like a bit of a weird thing, but it still counts here. Anything new that a person put into a fic belongs to them, and if you take it without their consent then yes, that is indeed stealing. Putting it through an AI or not doesn’t change that.

And if the legal arguments here don’t sway you, then how about this - it’s a dick thing to do. Even if you don’t mean for it to hurt anyone, you are hurting the author. If you enjoy their work at all - and you must, if you’re so attached to it that you're desperate to see more of it - then respect the author. Respect the work they’ve done, the gift they’ve shared with you. Read it, enjoy it, and then move on.

Fandom is built on a shared foundation of love and respect, a community where people create things and share them with others in good faith just for the love of it. This relationship is a two-way street. Authors and artists share their work with you and put in hours making it, but if the fan community stops respecting that then things might end up changing. An author burned by seeing their work fed into AI might stop writing, or stop sharing their works publicly. Already people are locking down their AO3 accounts so that only registered users can read and are creating workskins to prevent text copy and pasting out of fear that their work will be the one that someone chooses to ‘finish for them’. Dread over non-consenting use of AI is already having a direct impact in making fic more inaccessible.

Is that the direction that we as a community want to head in? Because what’s currently happening a real shame. I would prefer to share my works with non-users, to have them read by anyone who cares to read them, but I’ve had to change that, just in the hopes that that small extra step might provide a slight sliver of protection that will keep my work from being put in an AI.

And what after that? Currently sites like AO3 allow readers to download copies of the fic so that they can store them themselves. If authors are concerned about their work being taken and used in AI, will they begin petitioning for this feature to be removed, so as to better protect their work from this sort of use? Artists are already coming up with programs such as Glaze to help protect their work from use in training datasets, but what recourse to writers have save to make their work more and more inaccessible and private? No doubt some authors are already contemplating whether its better to just start only sharing their works privately with friends or in discord servers, in the hopes that it might better protect their works from being stolen and used.

Its worth noting as well that any way in which an author restricts fic on AO3 in order to prevent AI - such as using a workskin to prevent copy and pasting - is one that will also impact peoples ability to do things like ficbinding and translations. If access is restricted, then its restricted for everyone, good and bad.

And some of you might say - well what does it matter if your work does end up in an AI? It’s a drop in the ocean, they won’t be copying your exact work so what does it even matter? And all I can say in response to that is that its about the principle of it. If someone is making use of another person’s work, then that person deserves to be fairly credited and compensated. If I create work for free, in rebellion against a world that is racing towards the commercialisation of all and everything, then I don’t want my work being exploited by some fucking corporation to earn profits. That’s not why I made it, that’s not why I shared it, and they can go fuck themselves.

Unethical corporations are one thing, but the other component of this problem is people within the community acting in bad faith. We might not as individuals be able to regulate mass AI data gathering, but we can chose how we behave in community spaces, and what things we chose to find acceptable in our communities.

What I’m trying to say is, if you love fanfiction, if you love fanart, if you love the works people create and want to see more, then please treat their creators with respect. We put a lot of work into creating the art you enjoy, we put blood and sweat and tears into it, and we want to keep making more. We want to share it with you. We can’t do that if you make us scared to do it, out of fear of our works being put into an AI without our consent.

It's about respect, it’s about common decency. We as a community need to decide whether we think it’s acceptable for people to put someone’s work into an AI without their consent – whether it’s acceptable to finish someone else’s work using an AI without their consent. Maybe AO3 will make some sort of ruling in the future about it, or maybe they won’t. Even if they do, it likely won’t make that big of a difference. Bad actors will act badly no matter the rules, all we can do as a community is make it clear how we feel about that and discourage these sorts of behaviours.

AI generative tools exist and like it or not will be here to stay. They have a lot of potential and could become a really useful and interesting tool in both writing and the visual arts, but as it stands there are serious issues with how it is used – both on a system wide level, with the unethical gathering of data, and on a user level, with people using it in bad faith.

AI is what it is, but it doesn’t change the underlying choice here – you as a member of the community have the choice whether to behave like a dick. Don’t be a dick.

#artificial intelligence #chatgpt #sudowrite #openAI #stablediffusion #fanfiction #fanart #fantasy #creative writing #fic #ao3 #ff.net #image generation #art theft #te talks

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lauranthalasah · 9 months

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So, I read this excellent post about representation and left me thinking.

Since the end of BBC Sherlock* I've had a big problem in the way fandom demands representation sometimes, the way that if it is not exactly what they want then it is worthless. Let me explain myself.

For a long long time a lot of people have seen Holmes and Watson as a couple, and in new recreations of Doyles' work people get more and more hype for a possible in screen representation of this "headcanon", because new times gives hope to them that sooner or later Holmes and Watson ARE going to be gay (sooner or later they are gonna get it, tho).

Now, my issue is that Holmes and Watson have always... ALWAYS been a representation of something that is very dear to me, you see, Sherlock seems to me like asexual and aromantic, while Watson is very clearly heterosexual, but THEY ARE A COUPLE. They are life partners, they are! They just are not interested in each other in a sexual/romantic way, but they very much construct their lives around each other, at least for a while.

BBC Sherlock gives us that end, they end up raising a child together even! For me, the show that gets it right and makes it obvious is Elementary, they purposely made Watson female (and I think heterosexual? maybe bi?), and Holmes is quite sexually active (he might be pan), and then they proceed to give us a story in which they never fell sexually and romantically in love with each other. But do you know what they are at the end of everything?! Life partners!

For a long time people have been trying to put Holmes and Watson's relationship into one tag, when they are a perfect representation of another one that it needs its due representation as well. Like, the day someone finally makes them gay I'm gonna be okay with it, because it is gonna happen and it is gonna be a blast, but I need people to understand that there are other things that are valuable too.

The same happens with Good Omens, there are interesting representations going on there from season 1 (and the book if you want too). But because the author explained that the two protagonists we love were not MEN therefore they were not GAY** a round of "queerbaiting" accusations raised against it. Like they are undoubtedly queer, but because they were not explicitly gay then it was queerbaiting. And I don't like that.

How many opportunities we'll have of seeing two people fell in love, one of them usually male presenting, one of them however they want to present themselves, both of them in which gender is literally a choice, both of them loving each other, I'll say romantically at least, not necessary sexually, but it could be (more after season 2 I guess). How many times are we gonna see this kind of complexity in a love story? And it is queer! Is so damn queer that we don't have the words for it! They are not humans! But it is a representation of love beyond heterosexual conventions without a doubt.

Also, tell me that Aziraphale and Crowley's romance is the only representation in that show! Or that even Aziraphale and Crowley are the ONLY characters who represent queerness on it?! Tell me that Crowley's gender fluidity isn't fucking amazing! I haven't watched every show in the world, but Good Omens is the most gender transgressive fictional show I have ever seen!

To be fair, I do think we need more queer representation, my point here is that we shouldn't stomp on one kind of representation simply because it is not the one we wanted from it. I don't think any piece of fiction is ever going to meet everyone's expectations of it, it is impossible, but we need to start thinking critically about it. Even when it represents part of what and how we are, it might not be perfect. It might not reflect my reality (there's no fictional work that has ever done that for me), but it doesn't mean it is not representing someone's reality. There's not a singular individual who is going to experience the full spectrum of anything except for their own personal experience of it.

What we need to learn to do is to look around us, to other people that are in similar boats as us who might be telling us "oh wait… I'm sorry that is not you, but that's me!", and we are not listening, and by condemning those fictional works we are kinda telling those people that they are not worthy of representation, or that their representation is less valuable than ours… and I don't like it! Just... just look around once in a while.

*Once upon a time I defended BBC Sherlock over the queerbait allegations against them because the creators were always clear they didn't intend to make Holmes and Watson gay in their show. Later on I realized that not everyone who watches a show watches interviews, cons, etc., but everyone who watched the show would get all those little jabs that, mostly Watson, would get about him and Sherlock being a couple; and I understood why people were so angry and disappointed. They were right to be. So this is not a defence of BBC Sherlock and the shit show they created. I just use the show as an example about Holmes and Watson in general because it's well known on Tumblr.

**I hate that the two examples I used were of gay couples that fandom wanted, I use those because are the cases I know the best, and I truly believe a canon gay Holmes/Watson is just a matter of time.

#representation #in this case... queer i guess #this is a reminder to myself too #rant over

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father-time-and-baby-new-year · 3 years

Text

OFF WITH YOUR HEAD

PART 2 OF HEADS WILL ROLL

SYNOPSIS: Whenever school is in session, Eren will just keep finding new places to corner you.

PAIRING: BULLY! EREN x FEM! READER

DEDICATED TO: you guys, always you guys.

WARNINGS: unedited, slight dubcon, groping, degradation, bullying,

WORD COUNT: 2.4K

Gooooood Morning Paradis Birds! Remember to give a big round of applause to the football team for clutching the victory against reigning champion Marley High! We stay undefeated thanks to our excellent and hardworking team. Special shoutout to Captain Eren Yeager for guiding the team to another flawless victory-

You're half-heartedly paying attention to class, sleepily listening to the school announcements over the speaker until the mention of his name douses you like a shock of ice-cold water.

You can't catch the rest of the announcement because your class erupts into cheer, enthusiastically clapping their hands for the boy of the hour.

The only one not joining is you.

Eren's smile is brighter than 100 kilowatts. In the back of your mind, you wonder where he learned to smile like that. When his emotions became so practiced.

Mr.Berner tries to calm the kids down, especially Sasha who bangs on her desks and howls, creating even more hype and ruckus. The class, now in a chattier mode, excitedly breaks into little conversations.

"Man, thank god. That school is so pretentious, I'm glad we finally have something over them."

"Jeez, I know our team was good, but it's this good-?"

"-Bro, year of XXXX is stacked as fuck. It's literally never been this stacked before. We have a whole team of prodigies, it's insane-especially Eren. "

"Yepp. My dad went to Paradis too and he said shit like this never happened during his time. The academic comps were one thing, but these footballs wins? We're being put on the fucking map."

The announcements are still going on, but it's hard to hear over the noise. You're only able to catch the tail end, a useless tidbit about the word of the day.

pre·mo·ni·tion a strong feeling that something is about to happen, especially something unpleasant. Here is an example: "She had a premonition of imminent disaster" Have a good day folks, hope it's free of any premonitions!

Overhearing the unceasing praise of the boy who pinched your thighs until they bruise blue and purple was a little painful-but you were used to it. After all, he's putting Paradis on the map. Whatever the fuck that means.

While you didn't love sharing this class with him, he was seated far across the room and surrounded by a gaggle of friends. You might as well have been invisible, the way he did not acknowledge you. Maybe you should treat it as a small mercy.

Unwittingly, your eyelids grow heavy. You're sitting in the back of the class, no one would notice if you took a little nap right? Assured by the fact no one will notice, you lower your head into your folded arms and let your thoughts float.

You dream of vaguely nothing but shadows of smiles, tufts of dark hair, and the smell of the wind at sea until a noise confined to the shape of your name breaks the harmony.

"[y/n?]"

You startle awake with pairs of eyes piercing their gazes at you. Swallowing thickly, you apologize to Mr.Berner who looks worried. He's a good teacher, and one of your favorites.

"I'm sorry Mr.Berner. I had a migraine so I laid my head down." You lie smoothly, with more grace than you knew you were capable of. Course, you could have just said you were taking an unprompted nap, but that would disappoint your lovely teacher.

He sighs, "Guess that can't be helped then. Go to the nurse ok?"

Bingo. The nurse was an understanding lady, she'd let you sleep the rest of the period off. You nod, and start to gather your materials, relieved the class' attention on you was beginning to dwindle.

"Wait, Mr.Berner, let me take her. What if she gets disoriented and falls in the hall?"

Fuuuuck. You should have known. You should have expected this because attached to the request dripping with faux concern was none other than the precious jewel of the kingdom. Eren's intrusion makes your peers perk up again at the scene unfolding in front of them.

You smile, lips tightly pressed, "I'll be fine. I don't want to distract anyone from the lesson and it's a short walk-

"It's still potentially dangerous.", Your teacher interrupts, pinching the bridge of the nose, "And while I'm completely surprised by Eren's sudden streak of altruism, he's right. Something could happen. He'll take you there safely."

A very convenient streak of altruism, all right. You think it over in your head, yeah the nurses' office is right down the hall, and once you're there, he'll leave. Sure, he'll taunt you but you can handle a few minutes worth of cruelty.

It's awkward getting up, and walking in front of the class while Eren props the door open like a gentleman. You know what a sharp contrast it must look like, you and him, you cowering into yourself, not meeting any eyes while he stands tall and confident.

"Do you have everything?" His tone is one of reassurance, and for the barest of the moments, feels too familiar. You know he's not being genuine right now, and for the first time, you question if he was genuine back then.

"You can hold onto my arm if you're too dizzy to walk." He says as you guys slip out of the classroom, purposefully a little too loudly. You hear coos from girls and a stray "She's so lucky!"

He must have heard it too, because he lowers his head to whisper into your ear, "Yeah, very lucky, aren't you?" Wisps of dark hair tickle your cheeks. You see the glint of tiny silver hoops and wonder when he had gotten his ears pierced. The illusion breaks and the performative charming prince's reassuring smile is replaced by a sneer.

"Didn't know you could lie like that, by the way. Some good girl you are if you're trying to ditch class like this." Fingers dig deep into your waist as he drags you along the empty hallway that seems to stretch on for miles.

Your breath gets stuck in your throat, "How did you know I was lying?"

Viridian eyes narrow, "I've seen you get migraines before." There's a knock on your heart. As if realizing he was talking about something far away ago, a vindictive edge laces into words pouring out of his mouth, "I bet you wanted this to happen, didn't you? Wanted to get us all alone."

He's trying to get a rise out of you, that much is obvious. So you ignore him to the best of your ability.

...which quickly proved to be futile, as you suddenly find your arm pinned to your back, and your front facing the nearest walls.

"I asked you a fucking question bitch." He's practically growling, "Fucking answer me."

If there was a world record for the shortest temper, best believe Eren Yeager will have collected that accolade too. He's getting too worked up, and you could definitely feel his harness poking the back on your ass, as he grinds into you.

You manage to crane your neck, wanting to have your face shoved into the wall, and then venomously spit out, "You're not looking for answers. You just want me to repeat whatever you think is true."

This position brings back flashbacks to the library when he caged you in against the bookshelves, and like then, he spins you around to face him quite abruptly.

His smile is full of sharp teeth, "No. I know I'm right."

You don't respond. He moves in closer, his breath fanning on your earlobes. Your body can't help but let an involuntary shudder, and you close your eyes, not wanting to see his pleased grin or the way the fluorescent light makes his hoops gleam like silver bullets.

One calloused finger flicks your nipple, "Do you want to know why I'm right?"

At your lack of response, the dark-haired boy rolls your nipple in between his fingers before pinching it painfully, eliciting a small whimper out of your fuckable lips. "N-no", you answer finally. You're wearing your thinnest bra because of the seasonal heat, and you can't help but regret that decision right now. The fact he's only paying attention to one of your nipples is driving you insane. Not that you want it, but you're so fucking sensitive right now. You struggle in his hold, causing him to hold you tighter, and by now his nails were probably embedded into your skin.

He chuckles at your honesty, rewarding you with a thick stripe of his tongue over the collared shirt of your uniform making you gasp. Did he just-, over your shirt too-, you look down and see a very visible wet spot.

Taking advantage of your distracted state, a eager hand snakes under your skirt until it settles in the middle of your panties. He licks your earlobe before speaking, his voice like ice under your heels.

"You were so fucking wet that day in the library while saying you hated me the entire time," he pauses as his fingers scissor you through your panties, as if to drive the message home, "About as wet as you are right now."

There's a wet spot there too, also caused by him. You crush your eyes shut, "Eren...please just take me to the nurse." You're not even struggling anymore, holding onto him out of your own accord, worried that if you don't hold onto anything-you'd fall on your knees.

The very headache you lied about having seemed not so non-existent after all.

Eren hooks his arms under the plush of your thighs, "Yeah. Of course, that's what I came to do, right?"

You had hoped you'd be granted a reprieve in the nurses' office but you'd forgotten that luck was never really in your favor. Because while you guys had entered the squeaky-clean office, the nurse was nowhere in sight.

Instead, a note sat on her desk in unassuming frilly cursive that Eren read with glee.

Sorry students! Minor emergency to take care of, and I'll be back by the middle of the next period. If you're badly hurt, see Mr.Ackerman in room 203. If not, just sit tight! Feel free to take up the beds.

Thank you,

Ms.Ral

Eren had turned to you with shining green eyes, "Since no one's here, I guess I'll have to keep you company. Don't want you to hurt yourself."

There was something claustrophobic about how Eren stood in front of the door as if to signify to get out of here, you had to get through him.

"Maybe I can get Mr.Ackerman..."

Eren's sudden bout of laughter makes you wince and retreat inside of yourself, "For what? A fake headache? You really wanna inconvenience him like that? Mr.Ackerman?"

You take slow steps backward until the back of your knees hit the school bed, making you stumble as you clumsily take a seat. Eren's been marching forward with every retreating step you took, and it's no surprise when he pushes you down the bed, strong hands on the side of your head, while his muscular legs force your thighs apart so he can settle himself in between.

"We have some time to kill, you know." Strands of dark hair fall into his eyes, and without thinking, you reach upwards to brush them aside.

He grips your wrist before you make it that far, nearly gritting out a "What are you doing?"

You just stare, not really knowing why that was your impulse either. Finally, you mouth out, "I want you to leave Eren."

The grip on your wrist is tighter than ever, and you very well know that you're going to have new finger-shaped bruises before the old ones even finish healing.

"And I want to stay." He punctuates each word slowly, and all you can think is how being pinned to a bed is much less painful than having the hard surface of wood digging onto your back.

You're fully aware of the heat in your core, and having Eren on top of you doesn't make this it any easier because fuck, he is attractive. Maddeningly so. And maybe you want him to go away so bad because you're afraid that if his fingers are caught inside of you, you'll thank him for it.

As if reading your mind, he lets go of your wrist (making a mental note of your sluggish movements and slipping resistance) and massages your warm hole from your panties.

"Eren please" You grit out. He merely chuckles, "What are you asking for, whore?"

You could feel tears threatening to fall. This was so embarrassing. Did you want this? Yes, yes. yes, yes. You were so wet right now and had enough of the teasing.

He alternated his kneading from slow and soft to fast and rough, and you couldn't help but let out the prettiest little moans Eren's ever heard. Since you lose all pretenses of resistance, his other hand roughly brushes against your hardened nipples, straining against the fabric of your shirt.

Okay, he decided. He's going to make you beg.

"Beg." It's announced like a command, and while you hear it, you don't really register it because your hips are busy chasing the heat, and it's all too much of an utter disappointment when his long thin fingers leave.

"I said beg slut."

"Eren, please, please. I need you so bad." You're blubbering and you don't care. You just want his pretty fingers to shove aside your panties and rub against your folds. You think back to the library, how wet you were, how the stupid fucking phone call from his coach interrupted him pumping his fingers inside of you. And you didn't know if you were happy or mad he left. But now, all you crave is the blissful wave of pleasure- the very pleasure he's been denying you.

Eren looks down at you, green eyes scrutinizing. After a long while of what it seems to be him just staring, he wipes his fingers on your skirt, brushes back his hair with a wayward hand.

"Looks like I should head back to class. See you later."

Too numb to say anything, you watch him leave with a smirk on his face. When you're sure he's walked away, you curl into yourself and cry.

#attack on titan fanfiction #eren x y/n #tw dubcon #bully eren yeager #bullying #toxic eren #yandere eren x reader #eren x reader

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kirishoshego · 3 years

Text

Strange Addiction Pt.1//Bakugo

Summary: Bakugou and you meet during his weekend trip. He didn’t know you would be new in town, you didn’t know he had a girlfriend Words: 6k+

Part 2 Note: I will use the letter X as a friend of You in the beginning. X is gender neutral, so can be anyone you feel the most comfortable with :) TW: kinky sex, choking, spanking, spitting, hair pulling, oral (female and male receiving), face fucking, orgasm denial, overstimulation, playing with your chest, praise and degrading (only a bit), cockwarming (only mentioned shortly, not extremely detailed), him suggesting that you call him sir (will appear later again, in another part), mention of being in an kind of abusive relationship (him) considering his girlfriend is manipulating him, cheating

The bass was pumping through your veins, as did the alcohol. These were the last nights you would spend in your old home town before your new life in Musutafu begun. It was a big move, scary, but necessary. You only had one friend there who was happy to let you stay at her place until yours is done. “I can’t believe I have to wait like six month to see you again,” X told you with a sad smile. “Me neither, it’s crazy how fast time flies by, but I can’t wait to see Mina again, it has been so long since I last saw her,” you replied, swaying your hips from side to side, your eyes catching a certain blond on the bar. He looked rather bored, his eyes glued to his phone as he read something, sending a reply quickly before putting it away into his pocket. “Go talk to him! Having a one night stand still stands on your list and he’s really good looking!” they nudged you into the direction and you decided to try your luck. The worse he could say is no and you’re only here for 105 hours. The bartender immediately acknowledged you when you arrived, which caused the buff man next to you to huff out in annoyance. “Of course she notices the pretty girl first,” he muttered under his breath, checking his phone again. “What can I get for you?” she asked you, a glass in her hand and a smile on her face. “I would love this and a Rum Coke,” the bartender went her way and you could see the man starring at you irritated. “I could have handled this just fine,” he told you, a certain roughness to his voice. You raised your eyebrow at him, taking your drink in hand, the other one also placed in front of you. “Who said the drink is for you hun?” you could see a hint of a blush appear on his cheeks. “I’m just kidding, here,” you pushed it over to him, watching him gulp it down in one go, relaxing once the glass met the bar. ″Are you with someone?” you asked him, not spotting a ring on his finger. If you weren’t drunk you would have noticed the few seconds of hesitation, but now you didn’t question his ‘No, I’m single,’ just happy to have a possible chance with the handsome stranger in front of you. “Should I ask what’s going on?” you pointed at his phone that was still in his veiny hand, a few notifications from “Shark-boy”. “No,” he put his phone back into his pocket, ordering a second round once you were done with your drink. ″I’m Y/N” you introduced yourself, as the bartender walked away to mix up the order. ″Bakugo,”

He warmed up to you quickly. You were easy to talk to and extremely good with advice. The two of your talked to two hours about everything that somehow came up and you found yourself mostly agreeing with the counter part. “Listen this is going to be super upfront and I’m sorry if that’s the case, but I have an apartment around the corner so if you wanna-” before you could finish your sentence he pulled you in for a hot, hungry kiss. “I’m in, let’s go,” he held your hand the whole time, stumbling and giggling on the streets. You opened the door to your small apartment, the moonlight shining into your living room. “Before we do shit, you’re okay with this right? Even if we’re drunk?” he held your face in his hands, looking into your eyes and you felt save. “Yes and now please just shut up and kiss me.” Before you knew it you were naked in your bed, his head between your legs and your hand in his hair. You were moaning out his name, his tongue spelling every letter of the alphabet. Two of his fingers were buried deep inside of you shortly after, curling up. Sure you have had sex before, but this? This is what people talked about when they said they couldn’t get enough of it, this is why it was so hyped in books and movies and songs. “Wanna share what’s going on in that pretty head of yours?” he asked, his voice husky as his eyes met your half closed ones. “Only that this is the best I ever had,” you blurred out, your eyes growing wide as you slapped your hand over your mouth. “I’m not surprised to hear that,” he smirked up to you, cocking his eyebrow before returning to your wet cunt. He made you cum twice with his tongue before crawling up to, his dick in one hand, going up and down your slit, his other hand holding him up. His shaft went into you, inch by inch. He was a bit bigger than what you were used to, what made him special was his width. His dick stretched you out nicely, it felt... perfect, like it was made just for you. His length made him hit the right spot every time, your nails digging into his skin but before you could scratch him he pulled you hands to the side of your head, restricting you while he pounded into you, the bed frame hitting the wall over and over again. You thanked whoever to thank that your neighbors were out for the weekend. Bakugo pulled your hands up over your head, one of his hands holding both of your wrists in place, his other hand wrapping around your marked throat. Nobody ever did this before and at first you were unsure if you would like it, but the moment he squeezed your sides you felt an immense pleasure run through your body. “Fuck Bakugo, I’m about to cum,” you moaned out and felt his thrust turn harder and-you didn’t think that was possible- faster. “When you cum on my dick I want you to look at me, got it? Might not let you cum the next time otherwise,” he warned you, a dark hue over his usual bright red eyes. Your chest rose up when you felt the knot in your stomach exploding, your mouth shaping an ‘o’ as you locked your eyes with his. “There we go, good girl,” he praised you, releasing himself in you. The both of you were breathing heavily. He stayed still for a moment and you could slowly feel him soften inside of you before he pulled out. “I have a hotel room that’s waiting for me,” he said, sitting up and pulling his shirt from the floor. “So no round two tomorrow?” you asked him, watching his back muscles flexing under his skin. “Already addicted?” Bakugo asked you as he put on his shirt. “Maybe,” you answered with a cheeky smile, watching him drop his pants back on the floor and lay back down. “Can’t leave a woman unsatisfied now can I? Would ruin my reputation,” he told you, turning towards you and watching your skin glow in the bright moonlight. “And we don’t want to risk that,” you mumbled, already half asleep, Bakugo following swiftly after. You woke up before him and decided to make a nice breakfast for the two of you. You went with pancakes, adding a few extras here and there, not sure what he likes but sure there has to be something nice you made. “Morning,” his sleepy voice was raspy and deep. “Hey, how was your sleep?” you asked him, offering a coffee which he gladly took out of your hand. “Nice, relaxing,” he answered shortly, needing some time to wake up properly. “Smells nice,” he pointed at the stacks of pancakes next to you, his stomach growling already. The two of you didn’t talk much, but you heard him humming when he first took a bite from your breakfast which you took as a good sign. “Hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable last night,” he started a conversation, making you choke a bit on your last bite. “With what exactly?” you asked Katsuki who had a small smile on his face. “Choking you,” he pointed at your neck, shifting in his seat. “Oh well... I uhm-” you stuttered, feeling a bit embarrassed all of the sudden. “Spit it out,” he demanded. “I liked it! It was just... new?” you were unsure if that was the answer he wanted to hear, feeling a bit stupid for being so unexperienced. “New? How so?” he noticed that you looked like a deer in headlight and he couldn’t deny the fact that he loved that look on your face. “It’s not like I was a virgin or anything! I just... The guys I slept with before were just b-” “Boring?” “I was going to go with basic, but I guess that fits too,” you laughed, feeling blood rush to your cheeks. “So you don’t know what type of shit you like?” Bakugo asked you, his eyes captivating you. “I mean, I thought about it and all but I don’t know for sure,” you shrugged your shoulders, suddenly getting extremely interested in the tiny crumps on your table, trying to look everywhere but him. “Tell me about them,” he told you, propping his head up with his fist. He noticed that you hesitated, looking down on the floor and not at him. “Come sit on my lap and tell me, now, that wasn’t a question Y/N” the blond pushed his chair back, patting his naked, muscular thigh. “Be a good girl,” his voice held a warning in it and the way he suddenly bossed you around made you feel excited. You got up and made your way over to him, standing in front of his relaxed body and fiddling with your fingers. Bakugo grabbed your hands and pulled you into his barely covered, muscular body. “I really don’t know. I mean I watch porn sometimes, but...” “What kind of porn?” he asked you, grabbing your thigh and drawing small circles, his fingers close to your sex. “Rough shit,” you mumbled. “What? I couldn’t understand a thing you said,” he could understand what you were saying, but he liked making you feel ashamed. “I like rough porn okay? I don’t know what I’m doing and I don’t like thinking about it so having someone lead me through it would be nice, I think. But I don’t know if it feels the way I think it does and I don’t like talking about it because it’s so... So embarrassing and freaks others out...” you were rambling on and on, afraid that he wasn’t into it either and this will turn into a mess. Before you could say anything else he had covered your mouth with his hand. “Now here is how this will go: I will use that little body of yours and have my way with you. BUT and now this is the important part, I will not listen to your ‘no’s’ or ‘stop it’, they will only make me go harder, what I will listen to is Red and red only, understood?” he put his pointer finger under your chin and made you look into his deep eyes. You nodded your head, which earned you a warning pat on the cheek, a tiny sting lingering where his finger tips hit your skin. “Start using your voice Y/N or I will edge you until you pass out,” he seemed to enjoy the thought of this, his cock twitching in his boxers. “I’m sorry, I understand,” your voice was meek, a little unsure of what’s about to happen. “See, it’s not so hard, is it?” he raised his eyebrows when you were shaking your head, adding a ‘no’ quickly. “Good,” he smirked and pulled you in for a deep kiss, quickly slipping his tongue into your mouth, turning it into a wild make out session. His rough hands grabbed your ass cheeks, causing your breath to hitch. He landed a spank on your right cheek, a small moan slipping out of your mouth and into his. “You like getting that pretty ass spanked?” he asked you, nibbling on your neck. “I guess so,” you breathed out, grinding down on his hardening dick. “Guess so?” he spanked you harder and watched your face intensely, the way your lips fell open and your (Y/ec) eyes closed. “This is the first time someone spanked me,” you admitted, your eyes looking at him so innocently. Bakugo couldn’t wait to see them wet with tears. “Never? No spanking, no hair pulling, no choking? Nothing of the simple stuff?” he was genuinely surprised that not one men you came across showed you the beautiful world filled with kinks, rough fucking, toys, just everything. “Oh darling you’re in for a wild ride,” he felt like a small kid on Christmas. Well, what he imagined a small kid to fell on Christmas, but that’s besides the point. He wouldn’t think about you any less, definitely not, but the fact that he gets to show you all of these things, get to know your body more was just so fucking hot. He couldn’t wait to ruin you for anyone but him. A broad, veiny hand of Bakugo found it’s way into your hair, his other hand on your ass, massaging it and delivering a slap to it whenever he felt like it. Suddenly he pulled on your hair, making your head snap back and letting him attack your neck. He licked along your collar bone, up to your chin, biting the crotch of your neck. Soon he found a sensitive spot on your neck that you didn’t even knew existed, making you gasp out a ‘fuck’ your eyes closing as you ground yourself down harder on his shaft. “This feels so good,” you breathed out, which caused him to chuckle against your neck. Of course it does, he knew what he was doing after all. You didn’t expect him to stand up, but he did, supporting you under your ass with one arm, the other one opening the kitchen door to walk into your living room and then your bedroom. He held you close to him when he crawled onto your bed, you noticed that he had made it before joining you in the kitchen, forming a small smile on your face. The hand that was under your butt disappeared underneath your shirt, his skilled fingers playing with your hard nipples. You loved the feeling of his hands on your body. The roughness of them, his hands were warm and you could smell a dose of burned but still sweet caramel lingering in the air. He got rid of your very annoying shirt so he could look at you in your full glory. You looked so hot and ready for him. Your body was so sensitive to his touch, everything so new for you. He saw your pussy glistening in the sunlight that fell through your window, the same light that woke him up this morning to an empty bed. Bakugou definitely preferred it this way. His hand wandered down between your legs. Once his fingers fell onto your clit you closed your legs out of reflex, which apparently was not approved by the blond on top of you. “Open your legs back up for me darling,” he rasped into your ear, nibbling on it’s lobe. “Or what?” you asked him, prepping yourself up on your elbows. “Twenty minutes in and you’re already a brat,” he clicked his tongue before forcing your legs open, on one side his hand, the other side his elbow. His head found it’s place between your legs quickly, his tongue flicking in and out of his mouth on top of your clit, tongue sharp. Sometimes he would draw different pattern on your sensitive nub, his fingers inside of your cunt going up and down in a curling motion. Your hand soon pulled on Bakugo’s hair that was sticking in all directions. “Fuck Katsuki I’m about to cum, fuck, don’t stop,” you moaned, your hips grinding down on him. But right when you were about to release he completely disappeared from your throbbing core, leaving you hanging. “What the fuck Ba-” you rose up, looking at him in disbelieve. Before you could say more he stood up, his hand around your throat tightly as he pushed you down onto the mattress, towering over you. “Don’t fucking test me and don’t tell me what to do bitch, you’re going to cum when I decide to let you, your body is for me to use and that’s it,” his voice was deep, almost a growl as his red eyes pierced yours, looking down on you as he felt the pulsing in your neck. “Now show me how sorry you are,” he sat down against your headboard, watching you swallow before slowly getting up. Apparently you went too slow for his liking. Thus he grabbed you by your hair and guided you the way he wanted, pulling you in for a kiss before he opening your mouth with his other finger, spitting into it and shutting it again. “Don’t swallow, keep it in there,” his grip in your hair hardened again as he pushed you down to his throbbing member, pre cum already leaking out of the slit of his tip. “Ass in the air princess, let me look at it while you suck me,” he ordered. You did as you were told, putting on a little show for him. You really wanted him inside of you again, fill your little hole up with his thick cock. You wrapped your lips around his tongue, going up and down on his length. It was long enough for you to deep throat him, but you weren’t ready yet, having to prepare your throat for the stretch it will experience. Your hand wrapped around the part you couldn’t take in your mouth while the other one massaged his balls. You couldn’t hold both of them in one hand so you switched in-between them from time to time, feeling him buckle his hip up every now and then and a few groans and moans leaving his lips. “That’s all you want, hm? My dick inside you, just somewhere to fill you up, yeah you like that, my little whore,” he told you, watching the way his dick went in and out of your already swollen lips. “Open your mouth,” Bakugo’s hand was still in your hair, holding you in place in case you decide to act up. You let his dick fall from your mouth but held it up with your hand that stroked it, your fist squeezing it just right. What made him lost it was the way you sticked out your tongue, your hooded eyes looking up to him as a string of your mixed spit dribbled down on him. That view made him fuck your throat within seconds, one hand on your bedsheet, the other one in your hair. Bakugo’s dick put your throat on fire and tears well up in your eyes. If only you were wearing mascara, he thought. Next time. You couldn’t do much besides letting him abuse your mouth, your jaw opened as much as you could. It started to sting a bit after who knows how long. Drool was now all over his dick and pouring down your chin, all the way down to your tits. He could feel himself getting closer and closer so he pulled you off of him with a small pop. He pulled you up with him so he could lay you down on your back, watching your chest rose up and down like crazy, trying to catch your breath. “Would you look at that? Your cunt is so wet that it went all the way down to your knees, dirty girl,” he pulled your legs up, one hand at the back of your knees, his other hand lining himself up on your sloppy pussy. He slipped into you without any problems but he noticed the way you tensed up when he was balls deep in you. “You didn’t feel this big yesterday,” you gasped, your hands gripping the bedsheet underneath you tightly. “Aw, does it hurt?” he fake concerned, stoking your cheek before slapping you, his hand now around your throat. “Good,” he growled, his thrust becoming harder. Bakugou fucked you with your legs thrown over one of his shoulders, your hole now tight around him as you laid underneath him, a moaning mess. His other hand was on your stomach, holding you down so you wouldn’t rise up every time he hit your g-spot. You wanted to touch yourself, so close to your release. But he slapped it away, now holding your hands besides your face, his fingers inlaced with yours. “You either cum because of my cock or not at all,” the buff man told you, watching your helpless expression. He changed the position slightly, pounding into you, hitting your g spot every single time, pushing you to your release within seconds. Before you had the chance to catch your breath Bakugo turned you, handling you as if you weighted nothing. He pulled you up so your ass was in the air. He tapped it once, twice, leaving your cum and his pre cum all over your ass cheeks. Then he went back in without warning. He was buried deep inside of you, pulling you up by your throat, your body now flush against his as his other hand found it’s way to your clit, flicking and pinching it. It was after your fourth orgasm that you were a mess, not able to form any understandable sentences, only mumbling out words for him to interpret the way he wanted to. “So good! Mh... So fucking big, wan’ more,” you told him as he had you in the mating press, close to his own release. “You’re a cock hungry little whore huh? Thought it hurt?” “No! No hurt... Fuck, ‘m a whore,” you said to him, looking at him with hazy eyes. “Tell me princess, have you ever had something in here?” he asked you, his fingers circling around your untouched hole. You shook your head no, causing him to spank you hard enough to leave a mark behind. “Speak up,” “No, never,” you moaned out, the sensation of having him inside of you while he played with your ass. “Guess there will be a lot of first times then, huh?” he told you, his fingers slipping into your tight hole. He didn’t give you enough time for stretching, he knew that. But the way your moans just poured from your lips and how you would push yourself up to his fingers, wanting more in there because it felt so, so good, just made it impossible for him. He pushed his tip into you and for a short moment you thought you were going to die. Bakugo didn’t wait long before shoving himself in more and more, the tears falling from your eyes just pleasing him more. It took a while but after he was completely inside of you he stayed still, kissing your shoulder up and down and sucking on your sweet spot. Neither one of you expected you to be the first one to move but once the pain went away you felt so needy for him to abuse even that hole. Wanted him to stretch you out and let you know that he is the only one that could make you feel like this. Bakugo couldn’t believe that you fucked yourself on his dick, whimpering out his name, your mouth open as drool formed a small puddle underneath you. He really almost fucked your brain out. Of course he took that opportunity to pound into you, groping your ass and spanking it over and over again to leave his hand prints on your ass. “Cum for me one more time,” he ordered, his hand wandering to your tits, playing with them roughly. It didn’t take long and you screamed out his name, your legs almost numb and your body basically on fire, but you loved it. Bakugo pulled out of you, pumping his length a few times before painting your ass and back with his cum. The both of you were a panting mess, covered in sweat and you also in tears and spit. Once he was halfway back to his strength he pulled up his t-shirt, cleaning you so he wouldn’t make a mess when he pulled you to him. The blond didn’t know what was happening but he found himself completely relaxed, playing with your hair and caressing your back as you were next to him, sound asleep. Two hours later you sat in his rented car on his way to the hotel to get him some new clothes and check out so he wouldn't have to pay for another night. As you went to open the door he came to your side and opened it for you, catching your smile. Before you could walk to the lobby he extended his hand towards yours, an annoyed look in his face. “Take my hand dumbass,” he groaned and took yours in his. “Sorry, I’m not used to this,” you told him sheepishly. “What?” he asked confused. “Having someone show affection to me in public,” he clicked his tongue again before pulling you into the hotel with him. “Oh Mister Bakugo, you’re back!... And you are?” the girl behind the counter asked you, some venom, almost not noticeable, in her voice. “None of your business,” he told the girl off without really looking at her, passing by and going to the elevator. “I will be checking out today, prepare the papers for that,” he barked at the girl before pushing you into the metal cube with him. “Oh Mister Bakugo,” you repeated her, shaking your chest in front of him. “Sir for you, if you want to address me properly,” he looked down to you, watching your flustered reaction. He pulled you into his side and gave you a kiss on the forehead before the elevator door opened again. He walked out and turned to you. “Move your ass woman, damn, did I fuck you that stupid?” he asked you shaking his head. “Oh shush, you know very well that you abused my...” you trailed off, walking, or well trying your best to, after him. “Your what? Say it,” he turned around, pushing you against the wall next to his door, his knee between your legs, his hand next your head. “That’s what I thought,” he whispered into your ear, releasing you as he heard another door open. Once he had collected his things the two of you went grocery shopping, deciding to make ramen at home with everything you wanted. You made him stop to look at a cute dog that passed by and he didn’t know what it was but something in him felt warm when he watched your eyes sparkle as you watched the pet pass by and tugged on his sleeve. There was so much the two of you could talk about, there was never an awkward silence between you. He couldn’t deny the fact that he started to like you. You reminded him of Kirishima a lot, so bubbly and full of energy. Kiri was alway there for him, always understood him. He stood by him even when he was a bit of an ass in high school, he would never admit that (because he was perfect) but he was glad he wasn’t as hotheaded as he was back then. Once he cut of ties with his mum, moved in the UA facility completely things were a bit different. And when he seriously harmed Kirishima in a fight because of his anger he knew he had to change something before losing his best friend. He loved how fascinated you were with his cooking skills. It fed his ego a bit and he loved the way you praised him for the smallest things. It was cute, really. After the two of you ate you asked him if he wanted to watch a movie and he agreed, but only if he gets to choose it. You agreed, but told him not to bore you, which ended in him threatening to stuff your mouth with his dick if you don’t quit being disrespectful to him. You only giggled and gave him the remote. At first the two of you sat up, close but not really touching. It was half into the movie when he noticed you were dozing off. He asked if you wanted him to stop the movie and go to bed but you denied ever closing your eyes. That made him smile and pull you into him, your head on his lap as he played with your hair absently.

You were knocked out within seconds. He was watching your chest rise up and down, your smell surrounding him, suffocating him. He got up quietly, careful not to wake you up. It would annoy him to the max if you were to push him to talk, not letting him think. He had to have a clear head for when he arrives back home.

The clock in your living room read one in the morning as he stepped outside on your small balcony. Pulling out his phone he turned down the brightness, reading through his best friend’s texts. K: Listen Bakubro, she’s manipulating you. Ngl, she reminds me a lot of your mom, which is NOT a positive thing Sorry, I know she’s a touchy subject... There was an audio, so he clicked on play: “She can’t play you like that, demand a break and then get mad at you for giving her time and if you do the other thing she’s pissed that you don’t respect her boundaries, she’s just playing with you at that point because she knows you’re about to enter the top three on the pro hero list. Which means: Money an- “And a lot of that! Just leave that b-” “Mina!” “What? She is a bi-” the memo cut of at this point and Bakugou rolled his eyes. He knew Kirishima was right but was he ready to leave? Maybe never find someone who’s willing to be with him again? Fuck that, he’s Bakugo Katsuki, Top Hero #4, strong, clever and hot. Lots of women want him, of course they do, of course they want Dynamight. “Notice how you didn’t say Bakugo, but rather your hero alias first?” he quietly mocked his psychologist, his thumb ghosting over a chat. He thought about you, how you made him feel, how open he could be, how he could be himself. But then again he only knew you for like 50 hours now and yes, the sex is amazing, absolutely, but what about... basically everything else? You were cute and beautiful and clever and you let him use you the way he wants to, but he didn’t know what you were like when you’re sad, when you’re angry. And yet, he couldn’t deny the way his body reacted to you. “Should I leave the two of you alone or...?! you trailed off, scaring Bakugo. “What the fuck?” he turned around, anger laced in his voice. “I noticed you couldn’t sleep, so I made tea,” you held up the two cups in your hands, smiling at him the best you could in your sleepy state. “And now?” he asked you, watching you cautiously as if he awaited a second head to grow out of your shoulder. “Now you drink your tea and-” “Talk?” he asked and you could notice a certain hint of annoyance. “Is that what you want?” you asked him, taking a sip of your warm beverage, leaning against the flower covered railing. “Does it matter?” he took in a deep breath, starring at the moon slowly going down at the horizon. “Of course. If you aren’t ready to talk then we shouldn’t. Sometimes it’ll confuse more than it helps, especially if you don’t have your thoughts in order, ” you explained to him and could see a small smile on his lips.

“Would you like to sleep?” you asked him after a yawn slipped out of his mouth. “I don’t think I can, just one of those nights,” he shrugged his shoulders, ready to make it through the night. You took the now empty cup in your other hand, putting it down in the kitchen before returning, pulling Bakugo into your bedroom. He watched you as you went into the bed, pulling the blanket away from you and patting the empty space. “Put your head on my chest,” you told him and he did, hearing your soft heart beat against your rib cage. Your hand drew lazy pattern over his back, the other hand in his hair, massaging his head. Suddenly you started humming a lullaby, the vibration in your chest and the way you took care of him made him fall asleep faster than he would have thought. The next morning was amazing. You had woken him up with a blow job and he made you his favorite breakfast. You ate together and he talked to you about the upcoming weeks. Now you found out why he seemed so familiar. Of course, Mina would always tell you about ‘Kacchani’ who was about to be a big hero in her (and soon your) country. You felt a bit embarrassed about the fact you didn’t immediately recognized him, but he only laughed about it. It was nice to know you were like this to him because of who he was as a person and not because he was a big hero. You decided not to tell him you will move to his home town, you might not even run into each other and he seemed so busy, he shouldn’t feel obligated to meet up with you or anything. Most probably because he doesn’t want you and maybe him to feel bad about just spending the weekend together, fuck and then leave. And Mina shouldn’t find out about this for a while too, maybe when you moved out, otherwise she wouldn’t let it go. He thought it was great idea to have you cockwarming him while you had to write emails for your job. Every now and then he would thrust his hips, fuck you for a few seconds just to stop as fast as he started. After you finished every email, which took up to an hour, leaving you a whimpering mess, begging him to just pound into you, he finally had mercy on you and took you right there on the kitchen table. Bakugo had to leave soon but before that the two of you exchanged numbers. His idea, not yours. He left you with a kiss on your forehead and butteries in your belly. The week afterwards was weird. You were stressed out, only two days left before the big move. You checked everything twice, checking up on your new apartment, how far it was and how long it will take to be done. Your things will be shipped there already, so it won't stand in Mina’s apartment, but that made you double check your bags that you packed for the three weeks that you were about to spend with your old friend. Of course you and Bakugo texted back and forth, sending stupid pictures to one another and talking about your day.

Sometimes he would rant to you about how stupid someone was, how slow they walked or how shitty they drove. He even told you about a barista getting his order completely wrong but you were glad when he told you that shit like this happens, especially when you have ‘THE Bakugo Katsuki’ in front go you, he added. Of course you told Mina about this really cute boy you met the first night the two of you caught up, dressed in pajamas and wearing face masks. You had send him a picture of you on snapchat and he told you he preferred your face covered in his cum rather than this mask. He send you a snap back, showing off his body after a late work out. Before you could reply Mina came back into the room, panic in her voice. “Y/N I am so, so sorry, but I had the boys over today and when I went to pick you up they basically emptied out my fridge... They left me some money on the counter, but I didn’t realize it. Would you be super mad about going grocery shopping with me?” she asked, taking off the mask. You laughed, telling her it’s fine and you would love to see the city a bit more. You got dressed rather casually, making your way to the store around the corner. It was cute and simple and not a lot going on, as it was already late at night, the moon shining in it’s full glory.

“Do you think you’ll meet him again?” Mina asked you, grabbing some veggies to put them in the basket. “I don’t know. I would love to, but he’s about to be promoted in his job so he seems really busy and the weekend was nice, yes, but it was just a weekend you know?” you told her, walking down the aisles. “It doesn’t matter if it was just a weekend. Your feelings are real and if you keep on texting you might find out if the two of you would fit together,” she told you, checking her grocery list. “I’m gonna go grab some things to drink, how about you go to the snacks and grab some for us?” “Sure thing!” you told her, looking at the labels on top off each aisle. You were lost in your thoughts as you stood in front of the many gummy bears in front you, not being able to decide what you want. After filling your basket with a few bags you made your way back to Mina, your eyes on your phone as you received a new message from Bakugo. Before you could reply you bumped into a rather hard chest. “Oh I’m sorry!” you apologized while the person told you to watch where you going at the same time. Your head snapped up in shock as Bakugo suddenly stood in front of you, his expression matching yours. “What are you doing here?” he asked, completely baffled that the girl that won’t leave his head was now right in front of him. “I just moved here, I’m grocery shopping with a friend right now,” you told him, suddenly ashamed that you haven’t told him earlier. “Thanks for letting me know that you fucking move basically across the globe,” he told you and you could hear a tiny bit of pain laced in his voice. “I’m so sorry, I know... I just didn’t want you to feel obligated to anything,” you explained to him. “Obliga-” before he could finish his sentence you could hear a woman calling out Bakugo’s name. She caught up to him quickly, grabbing his hand which he pulled away from, feeling visibly uncomfortable. “Hey Babe! I’ve been looking for you all over the place,” she told him, smiling at you. His eyes were glued to yours, as yours were to his. He noticed the breath hitching in your throat as she called him babe, the way your eyes widened only for a split second. “Everything okay?” his girlfriend you assumed asked you. “Yeah, sorry, I just moved here and was looking for the drinks,” you told her, turning back to Bakugo. “But I just saw my friend, so thanks for everything, but I won’t be needing you anymore,”

©Kirishoshego//do not repost on any plattform

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ebonyslasher · 3 years

Text

Crybaby

Slashers react to you listening and dancing to Crybaby (Megan Thee Stallion ft Dababy)

thank you to @betajunk for giving me the idea

Tries to listen to the lyrics but a lot of the idioms and wordplay goes over his head. He recognizes some of the more straight up lyrics though

“NBA playoffs that ass it’s a bubble” Like🤔??????? What in the hell is an NBA? Does it stand for no bitches allowed???

“Choke me, spank me, look at me, thank me” Ok he understand that one. He can do all that for you😘

He likes it when you listen to songs like that, cause you always end up shaking dat ass

It’s his ultimate weakness. This nigga is Ass obsessed

If you do the dance esp on him, listen,,,,,,,,,,,, he will do whatever you desire. This is the only time he’ll get submissive, so take advantage

You go “Real hot girl shit” at the end

he automatically thinks ‘Yeah you a real hot girl cutie...keep dancing😈’

OHHHHHHHHHHHHH he would cover his ears and shake his head at this song😨

The lyrics..........good lord spare his soul. For he has not sinned under his grace🙏🏻

If you start dancing during his mental prayer, he’ll stop and take a peek at you

“I do not hear it, but I will see it”

He always enjoys watching you dance and have fun! He just wishes it was to another song...a much cleaner song lol

He will probably ask you to switch songs if he hears you playing it out loud too much

Otherwise, he doesn’t mind the type of dancing you’re doing either. If you’re being flirty towards him while doing it, he won’t hesitate to sling you over his shoulder and take you to bed

Megan thee stallion stan💅🏼

He lovvesssss herrrr

Listened to her whole album Good News with you when it dropped

Out of all the songs, crybaby was his fav. He was dancing right beside you when y'all listened.

That repeat button steady going round and round cause y'all can't get enough

His favorite part is when meg says, “ Moaning like a bitch when he hit this pussy

Damn, he probably wanna wear my hoodie “

Oh he can relate cause your pussy girl......has him yelling like

youtube

He can't fit into your hoodies tho 😢

Goes crazy over the challenge. Convinces you to do one while he records

Have to do it fifty leven times cause this boy shaking the camera all the time🙄

He can't help it y/n, he loves seeing you make that ass rumble. Gets him hype

Jesse's the type of guy who doesn't care about the type of music you play

He don't trip over little shit like that

But he will definitely come and watch if the song sounds sexual

And we all know crybaby is sexy as hell

I mean it's Megan.... she's the embodiment of cute,smart and sexy🤷🏿‍♀️

Once he comes and sees you dancing, it's recording time

Catching you in 4K lmaoooooooo

He doesn't care about the lyrics, just wants to see that gorgeous body move

You also act a bit bratty with songs like this (sexually aggressive tone), which the daddy dom in him lovesss

He loves when you do that 👅 shit. Keep going Kitten

Keep acting like that and y'all might have to make a home movie👀👀

You like to sing and dance to your favorite songs whenever they come on, even in the car while driving

Daniel's used to you doing that, he always enjoys you having fun

You tend to sing to him when the songs are romantic or sexual

He just sits there awkwardly and watches you, blushing like always

He gets tired of blushing all the time, like damn can his face take a fucking break for once😤

You love it tho, it's adorable as hell🥺😘

Crybaby comes on and you start going in

Perfect opportunity to make him hot and bothered. You on your demon time

The lyrics have him like 😵

Whoa...wait hold on...wait

When the part where megan list names and his comes up, you give him a smouldering look

Combined with you licking your lips, winking, and saying it out loud in that sexy voice of yours makes him wanna NUT

He wants you to pull over and fuck him in the car right now.

Listen, he’s pretty quiet and shy but...them be the freakiest ones

#slasher x reader #michael myers #chromeskull #jason voorhees #daniel lamb #stu Matcher #slasher thirst #michael myers x reader #jason voorhees x reader #daniel lamb x reader #stu matcher x reader #chromeskull x reader #jesse cromeans x reader #jesse cromeans #I had fun with this lol

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achubbydumpling · 3 years

Note

Modern Bucky is fat and Steve’s sugar baby. Steve likes to spoil him. :3

eyy only took me a month and a half to answer 😂😂 I'm sorry, nonnie, but I'm highjacking your idea and using it for today's chubtober prompt :D

(I ended up having a lot more ideas for this than I could actually finish writing in time, so this ends pretty abruptly as soon as Steve and Bucky actually meet)

[unfinished] Oct 3: Masks and Malfunctions

Rating: Mature Words: 1911 Relationship: James “Bucky” Barnes/Steve Rogers Additional Tags: Sugar Daddy AU, Daddy Kink, Belly Kink, Weight Gain, Verbal Humiliation, Stuffing, Corsets, Age Gap

Bucky’s phone chimed and he didn’t even have to look at the screen to know that “Steve” just sent him more than enough money for the costume Bucky wanted. He didn’t actually know if that was the guy’s real name, but he’d been funding Bucky’s lifestyle since the beginning of college and Bucky wasn’t about to fuck that up by questioning the guy’s identity.

If this were a normal Halloween party Bucky would have just bought a random costume at Spirit Halloween, but his kinda boyfriend Jonas (it’s complicated) had invited him as a plus one to an actual masquerade ball. Bucky didn’t even know those kinds of things existed outside of fantasy novels, but right now he was at a high-end clothing store getting an “appropriate” costume.

[Bucky] Thank you, Daddy❤

Bucky texted Steve and then went back to trying on another dress shirt. This one had a looser cut that reminded him of something the male love interest in a period drama would wear or a pirate.

“Wonderful choice,” the store clerk told Bucky when he stepped back from the mirror. Bucky would probably never get used to having someone help him pick out clothes, but the higher-end stores Bucky had been to all offered this type of assistance.

“It drapes very well,” the clerk said with a sneer on his face. Bucky turned back to the mirror. Yes, he had to admit he’d fallen victim to the freshman 15. A small belly was rounding out even against the loose fabric of the shirt, but he didn’t actually feel self-conscious.

Steve had complimented him on every single one of those pounds. Bucky probably wouldn’t even have noticed all the changes to his body if Steve hadn’t been constantly talking about them. Bucky had never put much effort into maintaining his physique, but being hyped up by Steve over the smallest changes of his body made him feel desired and his heart fluttered every time his sugar daddy complimented his thicker thighs and soft belly.

“Any other suggestions?” Bucky asked and the clerk scoffed.

“A corset,” he muttered under his breath, but Bucky’s ears pricked up at the suggestion. His first instinct was to text Steve. Bucky didn’t know why it was important for him to know Steve’s opinion when Bucky was going to the party as someone else’s plus one, but excitement stirred in Bucky’s stomach at what Steve might say.

“Sure, get the corset.” Bucky sent the clerk on their way and then sat down to text Steve. He could feel his belly straining against the shirt buttons now that he was sitting down and he snapped a picture of the way the buttons on the otherwise loose shirt were straining over the thickest part of his belly.

[Bucky] Daddy~ they’re telling me I’m fat

[Bucky] they said I need a corset

[Steve] You will look incredible either way.

Annoyance prickled at the back of Bucky’s neck from the generic compliment.

[Bucky] that’s not what I asked

[Steve] You didn’t ask anything.

Bucky rolled his eyes at how literal Steve could sometimes be, but Bucky also didn’t know how to ask for what he really wanted to hear.

Some of his classmates had teased him for his weight gain and instead of making Bucky feel insecure, the hot shame had shot straight to his dick and he’d had to excuse himself to deal with the problem. Since then Bucky couldn’t stop thinking about Steve telling him those things.

Bucky didn’t even know what the guy looked like, but he’d quickly developed a crush just from texting him. It was actually fun to talk. Bucky couldn’t understand how the guy was single when he seemed like this perfect, interesting and kind guy—and rich on top of all that.

There has to be something wrong with him, but so far Bucky hadn’t been able to figure it out. Not for the first time Bucky wondered who Steve actually was, but his thoughts were interrupted when the clerk came back with three different corsets.

All the same material and color, just different cuts. Bucky’s eyes were immediately drawn to the tiny waist cincher—just tall enough to cover the widest part of his belly. Despite his grumblings the clerk helped Bucky lace up the corset and when he looked in the mirror he couldn’t believe it was him looking back.

His entire body shape seemed different. From the billowing sleeves of the shirt emphasizing his wide shoulders to the waist cincher doing an excellent job of making it look like he still had a waist instead of the soft belly that was hidden underneath. The simple black slacks he was wearing completed his outfit. Simple colors, just black and white.

The mask he had chosen matched as well. A deep midnight black that contrasted with his piercing blue eyes and gold detailing that caught the light when Bucky turned his head. He snapped another picture for Steve, but didn’t wait for his response. Bucky could still hardly believe that a single outfit could be this expensive, but Steve of course had transferred enough money to pay for it. On his way home Bucky finally checked his phone.

[Steve] What did I tell you? Incredible.

[Bucky] better than without the corset?

[Steve] This feels like a set-up.

Bucky groaned at Steve’s response. Of course, Bucky would luck out and get the sugar daddy that won’t humiliate him for gaining fifteen pounds before the semester was even over and wasn’t that a personal revelation. Bucky had never thought of himself as someone who could want something like this, but since gaining weight he had become more aware of his body—and how others perceived it.

[Bucky] it is

He quickly pocketed his phone after sending that text. Bucky immediately regretted it. He’d had a good thing going with Steve. Why risk fucking that up? His phone vibrated multiple times, but Bucky was too worried to check his messages until he got home. As soon as he’d closed the apartment door behind him he fished his phone out of his pocket.

[Steve] What does that mean?

[Steve] If you don’t want to continue this arrangement, you can just tell me.

[Steve] Bucky.

[Steve] Answer me.

[Steve] What do you want me to say? That you’re a spoiled pig? That you’ve gotten fat on your Daddy’s money and need a corset to look good for your little boytoy?

Bucky’s throat went dry as he read Steve’s message. The wave of lust that crashed through him, threw him off balance and he sat down heavily on the bench in the entry way of his apartment. He read the message again. And again. His dick gave an interested twitch. It was embarrassing how much he reacted to Steve’s words.

[Steve] Is that what you want?

[Steve] Don’t leave me on read.

Bucky didn’t know what to say. He typed and retyped the same message again until another one from Steve popped up.

[Steve] ‘Yes’ or ‘no’? It can’t be this hard to type one fucking word.

Bucky couldn’t breathe. Steve had always been kind and considerate, it made Bucky’s heart race to see this side of him.

[Bucky] Yes.

[Steve] Thank you, but we will talk more about this tomorrow.

Bucky’s phone chimed to tell him, he should be on his way now if he wanted to get to the party on time. His mind was still caught up in foggy arousal, his cock tenting his slacks. It’s too much, he wasn’t thinking straight and Steve wasn’t even here—wasn’t even touching him. Just a text and Bucky was a mess.

At least the walk to the subway station helped to clear Bucky’s head and chase away some of the immediate, burning need that had been burning in his guts just a few minutes earlier. It left him frustrated, but slightly more level-headed and in a more appropriate mood to be out in public.

When Bucky met up with Jonas outside the high-rise office building the guy was already wasted. He was surrounded by his office buddies and Bucky was honestly about to turn on his heel and go back home when Jonas called out to him. With all his mates there Jonas treated Bucky like another one of them and Bucky was already over the metaphorical dick-measuring contest that was happening whenever one of these guys opened their mouth.

Once they got inside Bucky split off from the group, Jonas didn’t even seem to notice. So, he explored the venue. The party stretched across multiple floors. The bottom floor was full of rich and wanna-be rich people schmoozing and socializing, barely anyone of them had stuck to the masquerade theme and Bucky kept debating whether he should take off his own mask.

He was much more comfortable on the upper floor. There were less people here and most of them kept to themselves. He felt less out of place when he noticed that most of the people here stuck to the masquerade theme, there were only a few people who’s face wasn’t at least partially hidden behind a mask.

Jonas didn’t even shoot him a quick text to ask where he had disappeared to, so Bucky was more than ready to just find whatever food this place offered, eat for free tonight and make the best of the situation. He didn’t know what he’d expected dating someone his age, but Bucky was done settling for anything and he made a resolution to break up whatever was going on between him and Jonas.

When Bucky finally found the buffet that was standard for these types of events, he couldn’t stop himself from loading up two plates and searching for a quiet, secluded place to eat. At this point it had become a reflex to send Steve a text whenever he sat down to stuff himself.

[Bucky] found the food

He sent a picture with his hand next to the plates to give Steve a sense of how big they were. Some guy’s phone went off as soon as Bucky hit send two tables over and for a moment Bucky wondered if that’s Steve.

He had a commanding presence even sitting down. Bucky could tell he’s a gym buff from his ridiculous shape. His shoulders looked almost double the size of his waist. As well as the large plate of food in front of him. This man needed to fuel his body with all those calories, but Bucky was eating more than him and only planning on getting fatter. Bucky dug in.

His little costume went from fitting perfectly fine to too tight within half a plate of food. The corset was throwing a wrench into Bucky’s plan of stuffing himself. He already felt full before he had even really gotten started. The blond guy from two tables over caught Bucky’s eye again. He was frowning at his phone and looking back up at Bucky.

[Steve] What are you doing here?

[Bucky] what do you mean?

Another phone chime from two tables down. Bucky re-read the text two times before he looked back at the blond guy. No way that’s Steve. That would be too much of a coincidence, right? Bucky sent another message and the guy’s phone went off again. For a moment Bucky contemplates just getting up and walking away, but then Steve was already out of his chair and walking up to Bucky’s table.

#asks #chubby bucky #chubtober 2021 #chubby kink

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peachyteez · 3 years

Text

angel nurse ≫ DAY FOUR, HEHETMON

this fox hybrid was brought into the recovery facility covered in scratches, whip marks, blood, and every other injury you could imagine. due to this, yeosang has trouble trusting humans, as he was afraid they could just hurt him all over again. until he meets jiyu, his “angel nurse”.

PART OF THE HEAVEN SERIES.

✧ taglist: @defsoul15, @jaeminpeachy, @joongiebug, @sunsethw4, @t-tbinnie, @chanyeolol, @danibookmarks, @hello-its-ya-boi, @murralyn, @alienmashup, @panini, @moon8894, @koasworld, @taetae123094, @luv3rxcha, @treasure-hwa, @etherealbyeol, @hwaseongzzz, @lovely-sanie, @orbitiiny, @pirate-of-the-dark-seas, @babydolljo, @ms-starlight, @everrrlasting, @bls-luv-me, @atzgiggle, @arohabyeol, @rainbowmagicpixecorn, @soverystupid, @ayetothezee, @kingalls00, @sanstreasure0305, @sparklingmallow, @peachseok

✧ notes: i’m missing the boys extra today and i don’t know why :(

back。| next。

“ji, we’ve been standing here for ten minutes now. are you sure you’re going in?” yeonjun whispered, not wanting to alarm the fox hybrid on the other side of the door.

“shh! give me a minute, jun!” she whisper-shouted back.

“it’s been ten!”

“well give me another one!”

yeonjun sighed. “it’s not like you to be so nervous about visiting a patient,” he pointed out.

“i know...it’s just...i know how he feels since i can relate to his situation to some extent,” she meekly admitted. “a lot of people left me alone for a while after i left home so i guess i did the same towards him.”

with an understanding and gentle smile, yeonjun reassuringly gave her a pat on the shoulder. “then don’t let him wallow in his own thoughts alone, otherwise it’ll be much harder for you to pull him out,” he advised before walking off and waving at her over his shoulder. “good luck, i’ll go check on taehyun.”

waving after him, she took a deep breath and looked at the door once more. “let’s go,” she mumbled to herself encouragingly before entering the code to the keypad.

the door slid open to reveal the fox hybrid on sitting on his bed. in front of him was a foldable table, some paper, and...pencils and colored pencils? is he drawing?

yeosang’s eyes widened when he spotted jiyu at the door and his ears started to twitch. unable to keep eye contact with her, he glanced away and at the wall next to her instead. the cream-colored wall looked very interesting to him at the moment.

“um...hello! i’m here for your checkup,” jiyu said with a small smile, holding up her folder with his papers in them. “is that okay?”

silence.

while it seemed as if yeosang was uncomfortable on the outside, his mind was yelling at him to at least respond. yeosang, please, you literally spent most of last night promising and hyping yourself up to make an attempt to interact with her.

jiyu felt her smile slightly faltering at the awkward atmosphere. “o-or i can go ask seojin—”

“...it’s fine,” yeosang said, practically whispering. “y-you can do whatever you n-need.”

“are you sure?” she asked, sensing his hesitation.

yeosang nodded before putting the pencils and colored pencils away and neatly folding the table. although he was trying his best, he still couldn’t look at her in the eyes. but jiyu was still ecstatic at his baby steps. progress was progress, and it was the thought that counted the most.

“okay, i’m going to put this part,” she gestured to the round, metal part of the stethoscope, “to your chest. it’ll let me hear your heartbeat.”

seeing his tense expression, she couldn’t help but feel a wave of deja-vu hit her. it’s like when i did this with seonghwa. she realized. she couldn't help but quietly giggle at the similarities between the two.

yeosang slightly tilted his head at her giggle, yet said nothing about it. “g-go ahead,” he gave her the okay.

feeling the cold metal touch his chest, he slightly flinched before relaxing. he had to constantly remind himself that she wasn't going to hurt him. whether he fully trusted seojin when he told him that, he wasn't sure, but he still found the smallest bit of solace in those words.

“okay, your heart seems to be beating normally,” jiyu mumbled, deciding to not mention how fast his heart was racing. “now, temperature...” she said, taking out a thermometer.

yeosang’s eyes widened at the thermometer. it reminded him too much of the scanner that the breeding facility used to scan their collars every morning and night.

“are you okay?” jiyu asked, seeing his scared gaze at the thermometer. “i promise, this is only to take your temperature. look.” putting the thermometer up to her own forehead, she pressed the button and a beep sounded, indicating that it took her temperature. she showed yeosang the numbers on the small screen. “see? it’s nothing harmful.”

yeosang said nothing, but his body visibly relaxed. taking it as a good sign, she gently brushed the front pieces of his blonde hair away before taking his temperature. and just like she said, nothing bad happened.

after a few more steps to the checkup (and some reassuring that the blood pressure machine wouldn't cut off his blood circulation even though it was extremely tight), jiyu happily smiled. “you did good today, yeosang. i really appreciate you allowing me to conduct a checkup,” she said.

noticing some papers on the table underneath his documents, jiyu curiously glanced at them and aw’ed at the small, cute drawing. she figured it must’ve been yeosang’s. “this is so adorable,” she squealed. on the paper was a small, cartoon-like character that was holding a flower, and had the most adorable smile.

yeosang’s fox ears stuck to the side of his head while his human ones turned red out of embarrassment. he had forgotten he’d left his drawings there.

“oh! my apologies, i didn't mean to snoop,” she sheepishly said, setting the paper back down. “but i really meant it when i said it was adorable.”

“...hehetmon,” yeosang whispered, his ears still burning.

jiyu tilted her head in confusion. “pardon?”

“it’s name. i named him hehetmon...” he said again, trailing off towards the end. he felt weird since it was out of character for him to be conversing with a human.

nervously glancing up at jiyu, he was surprised to see the look of adoration and awe in her eyes. if they had been in a cartoon, her eyes would’ve been sparkling.

“wait, that's literally so adorable,” she said, looking down at the drawing once again. it portrayed the inner child in yeosang, it showed her how maybe there was a glimmer of light still left in him despite the mental scars.

“you know,” jiyu mindlessly said, her eyes never leaving the drawing. “i kind of know how you feel, being abandoned and all that...”

yeosang’s eyebrows furrowed at her words. impossible. there’s no way that a human could even understand an ounce of what—

“you’re probably thinking that there’s no way a human could understand, right?” she wryly smiled at his shocked expression. “you’re right, though. i may not understand completely, but i still know what it feels like to be left behind and used.”

in his eyes, i’m just a tool for his and the company’s benefits.

snapping out of her trance-like state, she gently smiled at yeosang. “i’m sorry, i rambled quite a bit. but i hope that no matter what life throws at you, no matter how many curveballs the universe throws at you, that you keep yourself grounded. even if it means drawing thousands and thousands of your hehetmons,” she said before making her way towards the door.

“um...”

turning around, jiyu’s eyes practically bulged out of her head when she saw yeosang standing behind her and offering her one of the hehetmons he drew. embarrassed, yeosang looked away as his cheeks and ears burned pink. “m-maybe it’ll make you happy, too—” he tried justifying.

a small grin spread on jiyu’s face as she accepted his drawing, feeling so many emotions swell in her chest. heck, she could've cried, as it was the sweetest gesture she’s received from him. “thank you, i’ll treasure it.”

from her tone, yeosang could sense how the genuinely meant it, and how much she appreciated it. it gave him a sense of comfort that maybe there really was someone that not only appreciated hehetmon, but also his existence.

she tucked the drawing safely away in the folder as she left, saying goodbye to yeosang.

“oh, jiyu!” seojin caught up with her in the hall. “i see you managed to visit yeosang,” he smiled. “how was it?”

“he...seemed to open up a lot more today,” she smiled. “and i came to realize that there just might be a little spark of light in him left. despite everything he went through.”

catching a glimpse of a drawing in the folder, seojin chuckled. “trust me, i think the sparks of light will grow brighter soon,” he mumbled.

“did you say something?”

“huh? nope, nothing at all!” he boyishly smiled, his fangs peeking through.

she playfully scoffed, jostling him with her shoulder, although he didn’t even budge. “i’ll pretend you didn’t say anything, then.”

“how rude, miss.”

and she really did treasure the drawing yeosang gave her.

that night, after dinner, mingi spotted a new drawing on the fridge door. he knew none of them had done it, considering how horrible they were at art (minus hongjoong, but mingi knew it wasn’t something he would draw). “who drew this?” he asked jiyu who had entered the kitchen again after running taking a shower.

“seonghwa’s twin!” she chirped, laughing when seonghwa whined out of confusion from the couch as he played animal crossing.

twisting around away from the tv screen, he pouted. “i swear i’m an only child!”

#9th member of ateez #ateez imagines #ateez scenarios #ateez fluff #ateez angst #kang yeosang #kang yeosang imagines #yeosang imagines #yeosang scenarios #ateez yeosang #hybrid au #kpop hybrid au #ateez hybrid #hybrid!ateez #ateez au

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splendidly-secret-sick-fics · 3 years

Note

That last fic was really sweet! Would you possibly be willing to do a continuation with BokuAka and KageHina perspectives? x

Why So Mean?

Pairing: sick Kageyama, caretaker Hinata

Word Count: 5,625

Warnings: vomiting, swearing, meanie kageyama :(

————————————————————

Hello hello! Long time no see :)

ABSO-FREAKING-LUTELY I WILL DO THIS. You and another asked for this and I’m SO HYPE ABOUT IT. So thank you!! I’ll answer the other ask with the Akaashi part :)

My timeline w the Kuroo chapter (& most likely the Akaashi one once it’s fully written) do not line up with this one at all. Please just ignore that and pretend it all makes sense. Thank you much appreciated.

If you prefer reading on ao3, check it out here!

Kuroo Part

————————————————————

Kageyama was being a jerk today.

Well...a bigger jerk than normal anyway.

Things were fine up until about the middle of afternoon practice. In fact, Kageyama was almost unnervingly nice to Hinata until that afternoon.

When Hinata woke him up, he didn’t grumble or swear at him (he was almost pleasant!). He pecked the top of Hinata’s head in a cute sleepy haze on his way to the bathroom (PDA? Even with the risk of someone catching them?!). He even let Hinata pick off his plate at breakfast (without smacking his hand away or swearing!).

However, something must have set his boyfriend off. He was being cold, ignoring Hinata’s complaints and questions. He was almost completely silent while they were playing. It was freaking Hinata out.

During their practice matches, Kageyama was consistently flawless as usual, Hinata was really on his game, and the other spikers were in good form as well. His foul mood couldn’t be because they weren’t playing well.

It also couldn’t be because anyone picked a fight with him either. Kageyama got along with most of the players at these training camps. He even did serve practice with some players from Shinzen and Ubugawa last night when Hinata went to practice with Bokuto and Kuroo.

So when Hinata couldn’t figure it out himself, he marched up to Kageyama during a water break and demanded to know what was wrong.

“Hey! What’s up with you today?”

“Hah?” Kageyama asked sharply, glaring down at Hinata.

“You’ve been really quiet for the last two hours and you’re being a butthead right now!” Hinata snapped back. He wasn’t backing down when he knew he was right. He knew something was bothering Kageyama. He just had to find out what it was and then he could try and make things better for him.

Kageyama blinked at him for a few seconds before his face melted into a deeper-than-normal- scowl. It was more...confused than angry though. Hinata thought that he was about to relent and finally tell him what was wrong.

Instead he scoffed and walked away.

Hinata’s jaw dropped as he watched his boyfriend walk away. How dare he?

He clenched his fists and scoffed as well.

For the rest of their practice matches, Hinata and Kageyama avoided any non-volleyball related interactions. However, by the end of their last game, Kageyama looked so pitiful that Hinata couldn’t find it in himself to be angry anymore.

Instead, he sat beside Kageyama who plopped himself heavily onto the floor as soon as they finished their penalty lap. He was leaning against the wall, panting.

Hinata turned his head to observe him. He was sweaty and breathless as to be expected. Hinata was also trying to catch his breath and wipe away the sweat before it dripped in his eyes. What was unexpected was the pale tint to his skin, probably barely noticeable to other people. But Hinata, who spent an exorbitant amount of time studying Kageyama’s face, noticed.

His eyes scanned Kageyama’s face and saw the near imperceptible blush rising to his cheeks as well. Was it from the running? Or…

Hinata’s hand moved towards Kageyama’s forehead but before he could touch it, Kageyama’s hand slapped it away.

“Ow! What the heck? That hurt, Yama!” Hinata cradled his hand against his chest.

“What are you doing, dumbass?” Kageyama snapped. Hinata took a moment to be utterly flabbergasted at the malice laced in the reply. It felt unwarranted, given that Hinata was a) his boyfriend and b) just trying to help.

“I’m trying to figure out why you’re being such a freakin’ asshole today, Jerkyama,” he narrowed his eyes and glared up at Kageyama. The setter’s lip curled and he clicked his tongue.

“I don’t know why you’re so in my fucking face today, idiot,” Kageyama spit back so venomously that Hinata almost instinctively recoiled.

“Cause I know something is wrong and I don’t know why you’re hiding it from me!” Hinata yelled back. What the fuck was his problem?

Hinata could feel the eyes of his teammates on them now, probably wondering what was causing their dynamic duo to fight this time. Thankfully, they kept their distance. He knew they’d step in if they needed to, but he and Kageyama have gotten a lot better at resolving things themselves. (And that has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that they are secretly dating. Nope.)

“I don’t have to tell you everything. You’re not my mom,” Kageyama shrugged sharply. “Just back off okay? Fuck. You’re so clingy. Let me breathe,” he exhaled and turned his head away again.

The words cut through Hinata’s chest painfully. He gaped at Kageyama for a moment before standing up quickly and glaring down at Kageyama.

“Fine. What the fuck ever, Shitty-yama. I don’t know what crawled up your ass today, but I’m sorry for caring. Come find me when you’ve got your shit together and you’re ready to be my boyfriend again,” Hinata seethed and walked away.

If Kageyama was going to be such a jerk, he would go practice with Kuroo and them again until Kageyama decided to not be a dick.

“Hinata,” Suga called out to him. Hinata inhaled and slowly turned to face his upperclassmen.

“Yeah?” He asked as calmly and normally as possible.

“Is everything alright? Looked like things got pretty intense. You guys haven’t fought like that in a while,” Suga asked and put a hand on Hinata’s shoulder. He squeezed, eyes wide and a concerned frown on his face and Hinata’s anger melted. They hadn’t officially come out as a couple to the team or anything yet, but it’s not like the team didn’t know how close the two were recently. Even if they believed it was only as friends.

“Yeah,” he huffed, “I don’t know. Something’s bothering him, but he won’t tell me. I almost thought for a second that he might be sick, but if he has enough energy to be such a huge buttwad, then that’s probably not what it is.” Suga nodded in understanding.

“Want me to keep an eye on him?”

Hinata peered over Suga’s shoulder to where Kageyama was still sitting. Yachi was sitting facing him on her knees, clearly trying to get him to talk to her. If he was responding, Hinata couldn’t tell. Kageyama’s knees held his knees to his chest, his head resting loosely on his arms. He was about to say yes, absolutely, please, until he remembered that they were just friends in the eyes of the team and he therefore had no reason to be as concerned as he was.

“Uh pft, what?” he tried to cover, “if you want--I mean--I don’t care--it’s not like we’re dating or anything. If he wants to be an idiot, that’s his problem.” Suga raised his eyebrows at him.

“I’ll have him practice setter switches with me then,” Suga said with a soft smile.

“Okay. If you want to… it might help him...,” Hinata replied, grateful that Suga wasn’t questioning his weird reaction. Suga ruffled his hair before prancing over to the rest of the team to coerce them into more practice.

Hinata inhaled slowly and exhaled away his frustration. Then he turned and skipped over to where Kenma and Kuroo were chatting quietly.

“Kuroo-san!” Hinata called and ran up to them, “are we practicing again today?? I want you to show me that cool wha-BAM block again!!” He jumped up and attempted to imitate Kuroo’s cool kill block.

“Shoyo, Kuro was actually just saying that he was—“ Kenma started. Hinata thought that Kenma almost looked worried about something? Kuroo cut him off before Hinata could figure it out.

“On my way to look for you Chib-chan!”

Hinata grinned at him. He loved practicing with such amazing players. He learned so much and it was a sure way to take his mind off his grumpy boyfriend for a few hours. Hopefully, by the time they met up for dinner, Kageyama would be in a less crappy mood.

“Let’s go grab something to eat and then we’ll round up the others,” Kuroo told him and Hinata nodded and ran off. Now that he knew Kuroo was coming, he should convince Tsukishima to join.

***

Extra practice was absolutely not going the way Hinata thought it would. In fact, it only reminded him about how completely useless he was trying to help Kageyama earlier that day. He was still completely useless. Tsukishima already yelled at him and Lev to be quiet.

“You’ve got a fever,” Akaashi said and Hinata’s anxiety spiked. Maybe Kageyama was sick after all. He might’ve caught whatever Kuroo had. And Hinata was such an asshole to him. He would have to apologize after they took care of the current situation.

Hinata watched helplessly as his upperclassmen slowly broke down, trying without success to think of some way to help. Akaashi and Bokuto seemed to have it covered, but Hinata was tired of feeling useless.

When Lev mentioned Kenma, Hinata was more than happy to retrieve the setter. He knew exactly where he should be too.

“Kenma!” Hinata yelled breathlessly as he entered the Nekoma sleeping quarters. He scanned the room for the familiar brown-blonde hair, ignoring the curious eyes of the other Nekoma members in the room. Kenma was nowhere to be found. He locked eyes with Inuoka who blinked at him in shock.

“Hinata? Is everything okay?” He stood up and crossed the room.

“Uh,” Hinata quieted down a little, he wasn’t stupid enough to blurt out the situation. That might only cause panic. “Kuroo-san is sick and I came to get Kenma.” Inuoka’s eyes widened.

“It hit Kuroo-san? Already? Damn,” Inuoka sighed, putting a hand on his forehead.

“What are you talking about?” Hinata asked.

“A few players from Shinzen and Ubugawa got a stomach bug. They just told Nobuyuki-san. He went to go talk with the rest of the captains and vice-captains about what to do. He took Yaku-san and they figured they’d just tell Kuroo when he got back. I guess he knows…” Inuoka explained and Hinata’s stomach dropped to his feet. Kageyama practiced with a bunch of Shinzen and Ubugawa players last night, so he most definitely was sick. Shit.

He wanted to run to find his boyfriend, but he had a job to do right now. He trusted his team to take care of things until he could find Kenma.

“Where’s Kenma?” Hinata pressed.

“He’s in the shower,” Inuoka said and Hinata cursed.

“Okay. Thanks, Inuoka!” he called as he sprinted towards the bathrooms.

Kenma was very unhappy with Hinata when he burst into the bathroom shouting his name and throwing the curtain open. After he explained the situation with Kuroo though, Kenma sighed and said he’d be right out. Hinata waited impatiently outside the bathroom for Kenma to finish. When Kenma emerged from the bathroom with his hair tied back and dripping and his Snorlax slippers adorning his feet, Hinata quickly led him to Gym Three.

“Kuroo- san! I found Kenma!” Hinata yelled as soon as they got there. Kenma immediately went over and took Akaashi’s place beside Kuroo.

Hinata watched for a little while, but when Kuroo started gagging more he remembered that his own boyfriend might be in a similar situation.

“Uh, I’m gonna—I’m gonna go,” he stuttered and ran out of the gym to find Kageyama.

He had no idea where his boyfriend might be at this point. Was he even sick? Was he angry at Hinata? If he was sick, would he still be in the gym anyway? It wouldn’t be surprising at all if he blatantly lied about being sick in order to keep practicing.

“Hinata!” Kiyoko ran up to him, “there you are. We’ve been looking everywhere for you. I ran to Gym Three earlier, but as soon as I saw the situation and that you weren’t there, I just left. Please come with me,” she said quickly and turned back the direction she came from.

“Is everything okay?” he asked. Kiyoko looking for him so urgently couldn’t be anything good. She shook her head.

“Kageyama almost passed out while he and Sugawara were practicing, but he refuses to leave the gym.” Hinata’s chest squeezed. He was right. Kageyama was sick.

“What a freaking idiot,” he said, picking up his pace a little.

When he got to the gym, Kageyama was standing on the court, swaying on his feet. Yachi was hesitantly tossing balls up for him to set. Before each one, she tried to say something about how Kageyama should sit down, but Kageyama cut her off with a glare. Asahi, Yamaguchi, and Kinnoshita were all practicing half-heartedly, keeping an eye on their stubborn setter. Noya was the only one who looked angry. Hinata imagined that he tried to get Kageyama to leave and was quickly shut down.

“Where are Daichi and Suga?” Hinata asked Kiyoko. She shrugged.

“They were called away for some captain’s meeting.” Hinata nodded.

“Shinzen and Ubugawa players have a stomach bug. It’s probably about that.” Kiyoko’s eyes widened and she shot an anxious look in Kageyama’s direction. Hinata grimaced and steeled himself.

“Hey! Bakayama!” Hinata shouted and the ball Yachi tossed fell to the ground untouched. Kageyama turned to him and Hinata gasped.

He was paler than earlier, almost ashen, and positively dripping in sweat. Hinata’s feet carried him over to his idiotic boyfriend and he immediately cupped his flushed cheeks. His fever was immediately evident. Kageyama registered the movement a little too slowly (incredibly concerning) and grabbed Hinata's wrists and weakly tried to pull his hands off his face.

“Stop. You have a fever. You need to go to bed.” Hinata said, not leaving any room for an argument.

Of course, that didn’t stop Kageyama.

“I’m fine,” he said. The crack and complete lack of bite in his voice made the statement incredibly unconvincing. Hinata pursed his lips and dropped his hands.

“Fine. Let’s do some passing drills then,” he shrugged and walked over to Yachi to get a ball.

“Hinata, I don’t know if that’s the bes--” Yachi started.

“Get a bucket and some water ready.” Hinata cut her off with a whisper. Her mouth immediately dropped into a frown, her eyes wide, but she nodded and ran to the store room.

“Fine. You suck anyway,” Kageyama muttered. He moved into position.

They started passing and things were going smoothly for the first few minutes. As time passed, however, it was more than clear that Kageyama was unwell. There was an obvious sway to his stance, and he was panting even though they’d only been at it for a few minutes. Hinata was uncomfortable with putting his boyfriend through all this, but if the idiot wasn’t going to admit he was sick, there wasn’t anything else he could do.

Without realizing it, Hinata let out his frustration on the ball and spiked it down. Kageyama jumped to try and reach it when it bounced back up, but just barely touched it. When his feet slammed back onto the floor, his legs gave out and he fell to his hands and knees. Yachi and the remaining Karasuno players gasped and tried to run to his side, but Hinata beat them to it.

“Kageyama!” Hinata ran over to him. He swiped back his sweaty hair and cringed at the heat he felt.

“That was a shit move, boke,” Kageyama wheezed.

“I didn’t mean to spike it, really, I was just so frustrated because you’re being so unnecessarily stubborn about this. You’re clearly sick, idiot.” Hinata replied. He couldn’t keep the concern out of his voice. Kageyama seemed way worse off than Kuroo.

Kageyama thought about his words for a second before he looked at the floor and nodded. Hinata sighed in relief.

“Can I take you to bed?” Kageyama met his eyes. Hinata frowned. Kageyama’s eyes were fever-bright and glassy (Hinata secretly thought it made the blue of his eyes even more beautiful, but he kept that to himself. For now, at least).

“Please,” Kageyama croaked. His bottom lip trembled and if there weren’t other people around, he would’ve kissed Kageyama’s sweaty forehead.

Instead, he stood up, extending a hand down to Kageyama. The setter took his hand and Hinata helped him stand slowly and carefully. As soon as he was upright, Hinata pulled one of Kageyama’s arms around his shoulder and wrapped his own around his boyfriend’s waist. Kageyama leaned a little too heavily on Hinata.

Hinata bit his lip. If Kageyama did catch the same bug, he needed to get him somewhere away from people sooner rather than later. It was unlikely that Kageyama would be okay spewing his guts up in front of everyone.

“Here, I’ll help,” Yamaguchi said and Hinata shook his head before he could make his way over to them.

“It’s okay. I don’t want you to catch this,” Hinata said and sent Yamaguchi a grateful smile. Yamaguchi nodded and took the bucket and water from Yachi.

“I’ll follow you. I want to find Tsukki anyway.”

They made it about 3 feet out of the gym before Kageyama pushed himself away from Hinata and careened off to the side. He put a hand on the wall and doubled over with a painful sounding wretch.

“Crap,” Hinata muttered and grabbed the bucket from Yamaguchi. He walked over to Kageyama and put it down in front of him and put a hand on his hunched back. A second later, he heaved again unsuccessfully.

“Can I do anything?” Yamaguchi asked. Hinata glanced at Kageyama’s scrunched up face and watched his throat bobbed up and down as he swallowed. He turned back to Yamaguchi and shook his head, sending him another thankful smile.

“It’s okay. I got this,” Hinata said. Yamaguchi hesitated, but nodded and placed the water bottle on the ground before turning and walking away.

“Relax, Yama,” Hinata soothed.

“Go’way,” Kageyama replied. Hinata for the umpteenth time that day, took a second to compute his boyfriend’s response.

“As if, stupid. It’s fine. It’s not like you haven’t seen me puke.”

“That’s not,” he hiccuped, “that’s not it.” Kageyama said.

Hinata stared at him for a second and tried not to be hurt by thoughts that hadn’t yet been voiced.

“...you’d rather be alone?” he asked softly. Kageyama looked up at him, his eyes big and his mouth in a tight line, but an apologetic look on his face. He nodded. Hinata tucked his lips into his mouth and took his hand off his back.

“I’ll just be over there then,” he chuckled pathetically. If Kageyama didn’t want him around, it didn’t mean that he didn’t love him or trust him, Hinata tried to remind himself. It was just a preference. This was a new situation for them as a couple and Hinata had to remember that he was still learning things about his boyfriend.

“Hina—“ Kageyama tried, but was cut off by another gag. It was wet and gurgling.

“It’s okay, Yama! I know it’s not cause you don’t love me. It’s fine. Come get me when you’re ready,” Hinata assured and walked around the corner of the gym.

He sat down against the wall and took a breath. It was stupid for him to feel so hurt. The only reason he was this upset was because they fought earlier and never really made up.

Around the corner, Kageyama gagged harshly and Hinata winced. He resisted the urge to run around the corner and help.

For the next several minutes, Hinata sat by helplessly, uselessly, and listened to Kageyama wretch and gag and hiccup and gasp unproductively.

Finally, a harsh cough brought with it the sounds of vomit hitting plastic and Hinata felt some relief on behalf of his sickly boyfriend.

From there, it was almost like someone turned on the faucet. Hinata winced everytime Kageyama heaved. He was about to run to Kageyama, whether the setter wanted that or not.

“Sh-Shoyo,” he heard Kageyama whimper and with that Hinata’s resolve to sit by patiently broke and he got up and sprinted the short distance back to his boyfriend.

Kageyama was squatting with the bucket between his legs and his head in his hands, panting.

“Yama,” Hinata said at the same time that his heart broke. He knelt by Kageyama.

“Hey, I’m here. What do you need? Want me to rub your back? Want some water? I can tie back your hair or —“

“Sho, please,” Kageyama breathed. He looked at Hinata with the biggest, saddest, wettest eyes and the cutest, smallest, most adorably pitiful frown.

“Please jus’ shuddup ‘n hold m’hand,” he said and held out a hand. Hinata gladly took it and squeezed. Kageyama’s shoulders relaxed briefly before jumping back up by his ears when he heaved.

Hinata sat by quietly while Kageyama continued to throw up seemingly everything he’s ever eaten. He wanted to do more, but didn’t want to overstep any boundaries and make Kageyama uncomfortable. Just being able to offer even the most minute bit of comfort to Kageyama made him less anxious. He hoped Kageyama felt the same way.

Kageyama spit in the bucket and breathed heavily.

“Water?” He choked. Hinata nodded eagerly and handed him the water Yachi brought him. Kageyama used it to rinse his mouth out first and then fell onto his butt and took a few more sips, opting to sit cross-legged against the gym wall.

Hinata fiddled with his fingers, trying to figure out what to do with them now that he wasn’t holding Kageyama’s hand anymore. He decided to move the bucket away and await further instruction.

Kageyama looked...bad. And it made Hinata’s whole body twitch. He’d never seen Kageyama like this, weak and sweaty and vulnerable. On the one hand, he was glad that Kageyama trusted him. On the other, it hurt his chest to see the guy he loved in such a state.

A quiet sob broke him out of his thoughts and his head shot up to look at Kageyama.

“Yama?”

Kageyama shook his head and brought his arms up to cover his face. Hinata crawled over to him and waited for him to calm down.

“I’m sorry, Hinata,” he whimpered behind his arms. Hinata’s face softened.

“It’s alright.”

“No,” Kageyama said quickly, dropping his arms and meeting Hinata’s eyes. He was flushed, pale and sweaty, his hair matted and sticking up in all directions. Hinata smiled at him sympathetically.

“It’s not alright, Hinata. I-I was such an ass-asshole,” he wheezed between sobs. Hinata bit his lip.

“And you were on-only trying to h-help, and I was so mean!” He cried, his chest heaving. “You should break up with me.” Hinata furrowed his eyebrows and widened his eyes. How did he fall for such a freaking drama Queen?

He threw his head back and sighed, “Kageyama.”

“Don’t forgive me, Hinata! You’re not clingy! I’m sorry,” the setter continued to cry. His raspy breaths and choked sobs were quickly devolving. Hinata could see where this was going. He felt bad because Kageyama was probably way too out of it to realize that he was working himself up.

“Yama, please listen to me for a second you big idiot,” Hinata tried again. Kageyama continued to sob, hiccups sprinkling themselves in now.

Hinata needed to calm him down. Could he touch him now? He wasn’t sure. He didn’t want to make Kageyama more uncomfortable.

Kageyama made up Hinata’s mind for him when he lurched forward with a dry heave. He planted a hand on the ground in front of him but his whole arm was trembling. Hinata wrapped his arm around Kageyama’s heaving chest quickly to keep him upright.

“Tobio, calm down. Breathe,” Hinata soothed. Even he was surprised, but very proud, at how calmly he was handling everything. He’d brag to Kageyama about it when he was feeling better.

Kageyama shook his head quickly, eyes squeezed shut and dry heaved again.

“There’s nothing left, Yama,” Hinata tried to reason. He used his free hand to rub gently between Kageyama’s shoulder blades.

Kageyama grabbed Hinata’s arm around his chest and squeezed. His body continued to betray him and after a few more heave, he choked on a small stream of bile onto his legs.

Hinata cursed and pulled Kageyama up to a standing position. It only served to aggravate his stomach more and he belched up a larger wave. At least this time he didn’t get it on himself.

He kept an arm firmly across Kageyama’s chest and the setter leaned heavily into Hinata. It was concerning to say the least. His throat gurgled before more bile spilled from his mouth.

“Kageyama, hey. Breathe,” Hinata said more urgently.

“Hinata!” Suga called and Hinata’s head snapped towards his upperclassmen. Suga was jogging towards them with a few medical masks in hand.

“Shit, it hit him hard, huh?” He winced.

“Yeah,” Hinata replied with a grimace. Kageyama gasped. He squeezed his eyes shut and spit before moaning pitifully.

Hinata, getting past his own disgust, used the end of his own gosh dang shirt and wiped off Kageyama’s mouth. His boyfriend’s lip trembled when he made eye contact with him and Hinata’s mouth quirked up in sympathy.

“You’re okay,” he said. Kageyama turned and wrapped his arms around Hinata’s head and collapsed onto him in a heavy hug. On instinct, Hinata’s arms snaked around Kageyama’s waist.

Hinata managed to bring his face out of Kageyama’s chest and found Suga again. The older setter had an eyebrow raised and subtle smirk on his lips.

“Seems you guys made up,” he said, crossing his arms.

“Yeah,” Hinata blushed, “is there somewhere he can rest?” Suga chuckled.

“Yeah. Come on. They’ve set up a room for the fallen,” he joked. “Do you need help?”

“Uh,” he glanced at the giant buried in his neck and smiled softly.

“Nah. I got it. Just lead the way.” He said and maneuvered Kageyama onto his back.

“Try to keep your insides inside for a bit, okay, Bakageyama?” Hinata teased. Kageyama just groaned and nuzzled further into Hinata’s neck.

Suga covered his own face with a medical mask before handing one to Hinata. Then he led them to a classroom set up for the sickies. While they were walking, Kageyama whispered repeated and delirious apologies to Hinata.

“Hey, it’s fine,” Hinata insisted after a bit, “I was a jerk too. I’m sorry. I just wanted to help. It was stupid of me to think I could fix everything if you just told me what was wrong.”

“I should’ve just told you,” Kageyama replied quietly.

“Yeah probably,” Hinata shrugged as best he could, “but this is new for us. We’ll figure it out.”

“Still. I was so mean,” Kageyama mumbled into Hinata’s neck.

“I’m not mad,” Hinata reassured. He looked ahead at Suga who was very obviously trying not to listen.

“You should be.”

“You’re sick, Yama. It’s no surprise that you’re grumpier than usual. I’m just grateful you’re letting me help you now.”

“I don’t want anyone else to help me,” Kageyama admitted. Hinata’s chest warmed.

“It’s you and me, then.” He smiled. Kageyama nodded.

When they finally made it to the Designated Sick Room, Suga left the room to tell Daichi what was going on while Hinata took Kageyama to a corner futon away from the majority of the others.

“Alright, I’ll come check on you in a bit, okay?” He said once he was satisfied that Kageyama was sufficiently comfortable. Kageyama nodded and turned onto his side and shivered. Hinata frowned. He didn’t want to leave his boyfriend, but he didn’t want to stay in that nasty, germ-filled room longer than necessary.

He turned to leave, resisting the urge to give Kageyama a quick kiss. Right before he stepped out of the room, Suga stopped him with a hand in his face.

“Where do you think you’re going?” He asked, one hand still up to stop Hinata and the other on his cocked hip.

Hinata raised an eyebrow and said, “I’m going back to practice?”

“As if,” Suga scoffed before noticing Hinata’s confusion at the response.

“Hinata,” he sighed and turned away, “listen,” he met Hinata’s eyes, “we were trying to wait for you guys to be comfortable enough to tell us yourselves, but we all know you and Kageyama are dating.”

Hinata blinked up at him. Suga’s hidden meaning was not immediately apparent to him, but eventually he realized what his upperclassman was implying and he felt his cheeks heat up in embarrassment.

“What— no— I mean we don’t— I don’t—“

“Cut the crap, Hinata,” Suga chuckled, a crooked smile and a raised eyebrow telling the middle blocker that there was no getting out of this one. He immediately deflated and dropped his head and shoulders with an exasperated sigh.

“How’d you guys find out?”

“For real?? It’s not like you guys were subtle at all!” Suga laughed fully this time. “You’ve been fighting less and you stare at each other all the time. Also, take it from me, the storage closets are not as private as you may think.”

Hinata flushed in embarrassment again. No way could he meet Suga’s eyes right now.

“Now. Get back in there. If Kageyama is sick, there’s no way you’re not at least carrying his germs.” Suga pushed Hinata gently back into the Sick Room, despite his many sputtering attempts at protesting.

Kageyama’s bleary eyes peeked up at Hinata in confusion when he unceremoniously plopped down beside his sick boyfriends. He huffed sharply and crossed his arms, pouting.

“What are you doing? You shouldn’t be in here. You’ll get sick,” he mumbled groggily. Hinata let out an exasperated sigh.

“Apparently,” he drawled out, “we aren’t as good at hiding as we thought so there’s ‘no way’ I’m not carrying your germs. Suga’s making me stay here.”

“Wha—“ Kageyama’s eyebrows squished together cutely while his foggy brain tried to interpret what Hinata said. As soon as he did, his already flushed cheeks deepened in color before he quickly buried his face in his pillow.

“Stupid, Shoyo,” came the muffled insult, “you’re too obnoxious.”

“Me?” Hinata gasped, a hand flying to his chest and his eyes widening. “You’re the one that insists we make out in the storage closet!” Kageyama turned his head and frowned up at Hinata.

“I’m sorry,” he croaked, “I just really like you. Please don’t yell at me. I don’t feel good.” Hinata’s heart constricted from the sheer adorableness behind Kageyama’s wide glassy eyes and tiny little pout.

“Gah,” he squeezed his eyes shut and grasped at his chest. “You’re so freaking cute, Yamayama. I’m sorry! You’re right! It’s my fault.” To show his remorse, Hinata flopped onto his boyfriend and snuggled into him.

“Ah! Shoyo, stop! We’re in public, dumbass,” Kageyama cried through giggles. Hinata laughed and peered up at Kageyama with a smile. He pecked his flushed cheek and sat up.

“Guess since everyone knows, you’re really stuck with me, Yama,” he sing-songed. Kageyama smiled up at him softly.

“Good. Now let me sleep.” He rolled over and Hinata settled himself against the wall beside his head.

“Sure. I’ll be here in case you need to puke again. Let me know if you feel bad and I can get you some medicine or some water. Or hey! If you feel up to munching on something, I can run to the vending machines and—“

“Shoyo?”

“Hmmm?”

“Please just shut up and hold my hand.” Kageyama snaked one hand out from under his blanket and Hinata took it in his own as a smile tugged at his cheeks.

#haikyuu sickfic #haikyuu!!#hq!!#kagehina #sick kageyama #caretaker hinata #kegayama tobio #hinata shoyo #my fics

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ordinaryschmuck · 3 years

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What I Thought About "Yesterday's Lie" from The Owl House

Salutations, random people on the internet who absolutely won’t read this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons!

Here it is! The midseason finale of The Owl House Season Two! An episode featuring Luz going back to the human realm, is hyped up to heaven about how painful it'll be for the audience, and features more anxiety by how Creepy Luz is a thing. And BOOOOOOOOY howdy were fans not ready for this. I'm sure as hell not ready for when I wrote this intro at *checks time* thirty minutes before watching the official premier. Yup, the words you're reading right now are from me in the past, when everything was still pure and simple. Whereas future me is still probably destroyed by the events that transpired. Isn't that right, future me?

Future Me: Actually, it wasn’t that bad. The ending hurt, sure, but other than that, it wasn’t too painful.

Wow, that is some neat input! At least, I think it was. I wouldn't know because I literally wrote that after watching the episode. With the words you're currently reading being written at *checks time* twenty-six minutes before the premier...this whole intro is confusing, isn't it, future me?

Future Me: Sure is.

Yeah, it's definitely confusing. In any case, let's dive into this spoiler-filled review as we find out together just how painful this episode was! Take it away, future me!

Future Me: Will do! Major spoilers ahead, folks!

Now, let’s review, shall we?

WHAT I LIKED

Luz’s Room: We only see it for a short time, but everything about it just screams Luz. The pile of weird-looking stuffed animals, the witch hat in the center of the floor, and the fact that she has bunk beds, a single child's dream (Or so I've heard). It's a small thing, but I love it.

Vee: Here she is! The character previously dubbed Creepy Luz who now turns out to be yet another new addition to the ever-growing list of characters that we, as a fandom, would give our lives for. Because holy s**t was Vee the best type of expectation subversion. Showing us all the ominous ways of how she basically took Luz's place made fans assume that Vee was an evil doppelganger. Turns out, she was just a tortured soul that was desperate to live a new and better life and lucked out in finding Luz's. What Vee does is...questionable at best, but seeing what she went through with the experiments Belos pulled on her, you understand why she would do it. And I personally love it's that same background information that makes Vee resentful of Luz of all people. Luz's life is a relative dream come true, and running away from that would be insane to someone who spent most of their existence through imprisonment and experimentation. It's an intriguing point of view, even though it's admittingly flawed given how it's mostly Camila that seemingly made Luz's life bearable. But the flaws don't matter. What matters is that you can see where Vee is coming from, and to me, personally, I think she's understandable enough to make me root for her to have some kind of happy ending. Whether as Luz or as herself, I'm hopeful to see Vee get some semblance of peace.

Camila: *Round of applause* Don't mind me! Just taking the time to love how all them sons of b**hes who thought Camila was a bad mom are now heavily invalidated. 'Cause, guess what? Camila is a fantastic mother, both to her daughter and her daughter's doppelganger! Allow me to walk you through the highlights:

How Camila looks like she’s not okay with the fact that "Luz" is clearing out her weird stuff, seemingly acting too different to the Luz she knows. Added to the fact that Camila doesn't like it.

How Camila drove Luz to camp whether than letting her take the bus

The fact that Camila takes that box of junk back in, not willing to part with the tin foil sculpture Luz made.

The way she was willing to play along with the game she thought Luz was doing, supporting her daughter's creative mind that Camila admits to being glad to see.

And, best of all, the willingness Camila had to help this poor creature, despite the lies it lived.

It's that last part I really want to touch upon, though. Because an action like that shows just how much Luz's heart comes from Camila. The kindness and generosity of helping this poor creature, who she has every right to run out on, proves how Luz learned to be everything she is today through Camila's own loving heart. Vee was scared and hurt, and the second Camila saw that she was then more than willing to help because of it. It's something that Luz would do, and it proves that even though Camila didn't exactly get everything right, she's still a great mom where it counts.

“A new life”: A perfect line.

Initially, it makes audiences think that it has everything to do with replacing Luz. It's only through future context that we know it's about escaping the s**t show Vee once lived through that it's clear she's talking about starting over. It hits us with intrigue on the first viewing, only to hit harder with the feels during a second. Really well-done.

Luz in the Mirror: A well-done surprise that makes fans curious about how this even happen in the first place. Kudos to you, writers.

The New Portal: I don't mind that they found a way to build this off-screen. Showing Luz and the gang slowly building a new portal would have been a little too tedious to watch, and it's so much better to just start this episode out with it. Besides, maybe we'll get the slow and steadier version now that we've seen how quickly building one might not have been the best way to go, given how fast that thing fell apart.

Luz Between Dimensions: I have no clue what the hell that place she was in is called, but it's awesome! The overall design of the realm is the correct type of unsettling, like it's oozing with mystery, but it's somewhere that you probably don't want to be in for too long. Whoever designed it deserves all of the credit because I don't want to even think about all the hard work that went into making this look as well-made as it was.

Luz Resisting to See Amity: What? Luz and Amity are adorable, and seeing Luz's immediate thought about seeing Amity makes my shipping heart scream with glee. Don't judge me!

Hiding Luz’s Dad’s Face: Well, that was a fun story while it lasted.

So, it turns out that Luz's dad really was a part of Luz's and Camila's life at some point, but not anymore. As for why remains to be seen, as we don't really know yet if we'll see him make an appearance. I'd say that the odds are high that he will, given how much of a point this episode made about keeping his face hidden. Shows don't usually do that unless the goal is to hype up some official reveal, and I can't wait to see what comes of it.

Luz Telling Herself to Count to Five: Hey, more evidence for how I relate to Luz! I know how it feels to be all panicky about a specific situation, and I only got better when I took the time to calm down for a bit. Sometimes, I even tried the "count to x" method that Luz used...it never worked, primarily because it made me feel worse when people told me to do it, but I still tried it! Plus, there's also some narrative foreshadowing when after Luz says five, the realm shows her Vee, or Number V, which is a pretty cool detail you'll notice on a rewatch.

Luz Helping Vee: I gave Camila praise for helping Vee in the end, but that doesn't abstain Luz from her own set of recognition. The second that Luz realized that Vee wasn't really a threat and is far from evil, our favorite human does what she can to help and even makes a deal where they're both happy. Because, of course, Luz is that perfect of a protagonist who is more than willing to help others in need. And it's why we love her so.

Looking for Magic that Eda Left Behind: A pretty cool idea that gives Luz and Vee a chance to bond and giving us an insight into Eda's past antics and misadventures in the human realm. Not much I can add to it, though.

Gravesfield: It's surprisingly not as jarring as I thought it would be to spend an episode in the human realm. I thought for sure, after all that time in the Boiling Isles, there would be something off about walking around a normal environment for a change. Turns out, it's almost easy to get used to. Or, for me, it is.

But I will say that there's this neat use of colors when comparing Gravesfield with the Boiling Isles. In Gravesfield, the coloring looks dulled down and standard, which is a stark contrast to the bright vibrancy of everything we've seen in the Boiling Isles. It's a subtle way of showing how things are different, aside from the major discrepancies we could come to expect. And I think that's why I appreciate it much more.

Eda’s Called Herself Marylynn in the Human Realm: Hang on...hang on...do you mean to tell me that the crack theory about Eda being Stan's ex-wife is actually true?

...

...What even is this show?!

Vee Making Friends with Camp Members: This shows the most apparent difference between Luz and Vee. Where we see Luz is already fearing the many ways that could go wrong with interacting with teens, Vee revealed that she adapted to her situation and had a chance to make friends. The implications of this are worth discussing another time, but for now, I'll say that it's pretty intriguing that we gain this much insight into both Luz and Vee through such a small thing.

Belos Wanting to Learn How Basilisks can Drain Magic: ...Didn't Raine say that Belos was taking away magic? If so, I think we can figure out how he's doing it. The question now is: Why?

Jacob (The Curator Guy): This guy was a riot. At first, Jacob seemed like a threat with the way he trapped Vee and was apparently stocking her, but the second he goes off about his conspiracy theories, it becomes clear what type of character he is. And was it a blast seeing how much of a crackpot this man is. It wasn't cool seeing him wanting to dissect the precious angel that is Vee, but I still chuckle about things like his "Flat Eather's Certificate." So while he's not that much of a threat, he's still fun to watch.

The Owl Beast was in the Human Realm: ...How did that happen? When did it happen? And how the hell did Eda get out of a situation like that?! Who knows, but it's still a shocking piece of news to learn.

Luz Telling Camila the Truth: Hey, she faced her fear after all! Although, the results aren't as pleasant as when Amity faced her fear two weeks ago.

Camila is a Veterinarian: ...One insignificant reveal...managed to destroy so many fanfics. I mean, we probably shouldn't have just assumed Camila was a nurse...but what the f**k else were we supposed to think?! Sorry for seeing the scrubs, and the first thing that came to my mind was "nurse" and not "vet."

By the way, that had to have been intentional, right? There's no way that Dana Terrace didn't think we'd assume Camila was a nurse. She'd had to have put off a reveal like that just to trip up her fans. And if that's the case, then that is a major d**k move...but that's why I mildly respect it.

Two Human Brothers went to the Demon Realm: Turns out we don't have to be in the Boiling Isles to learn more about it. Because now we have more information about how two humans were taken to the Isles with the help of a witch, thus setting up a grander reveal if it turns out that one of the humans was Philip and the witch was Belos. Because if that's true...then there's more of a history between those two than we thought.

Jacob has a Training Wand: This helps me believe that it's highly likely for Jacob to make a return and to have a power boost for when he does. After all, focussing all that attention on the training wand is way too convenient for it not to come up again in the future. Meaning we're most likely going to get more pain from Jacob if he shows up again.

Camila Beats the Crap out of Jacob for Vee: ...Writers, don't make me choose between Camila and Eda on who's the better cartoon mom. I know Eda's technically not a mom...BUT I STILL DON'T WANT TO CHOOSE DAMNIT!

Also, the sandal...just...

Why the f**k does Camila have a sandal in her purse? I don't know. Is it still funny that she does? Most certainly.

Camila and Luz’s Talk in the Rain: Ooooooooh, I was not ready for this...

I wasn't ready for the crying.

I wasn't ready for the hurt in Camila's eyes when she found out Luz chose to stay in the Boiling Isles.

I wasn't ready for Camila asking if Luz hates being with her that much.

I wasn't ready for Luz profusely stating how it was never Camila's fault.

I was not ready for Camila to tell Luz that she'll try to do better.

And I definitely was not ready for Luz to barely have enough time to promise that she'll come back.

This episode wasn't the twenty-two minutes of nonstop angst that I thought it was going to be...but this short scene more than make up for it.

Luz Tries to Stay Strong: Yet another thing she unwittingly learned from Camila. Camila tried to keep a brave face when Vee was with her and Luz, most likely not wanting to tear either of them down in the process. Luz does the same thing here as she avoids talking about the details of what went down in her sort-of journey back home. And seeing her clearly fake smile slowly droop into an uncertain frown, it uh...it definitely tore me up inside.

WHAT I DISLIKED

I want to say it's perfect, but there's one major issue that really bogs this episode down.

Continuity Error in How Vee Replaced Luz: Having Vee take Luz's place the same day Luz appeared in the Isles is a smart idea on paper...if it wasn't for the fact that it's impossible.

Because Eda closed the portal door the second that she saw Luz, meaning that there's no way for Vee to go to the human realm. It's a major plothole that makes no sense, and it might just be the first time ever that this series wasn't so closely knit with its story. Which ends up taking a dive in quality in the process.

IN CONCLUSION

I'd say that "Yesterday's Lie" is an A-. Everything about Luz, Vee, and Camila is incredible, combined into a story that ends in tragedy and uncertainty for the future. That plothole may drag things down a bit, but everything else is handled so well that I'm not lying when I say it's easy to forgive and forget.

(And that's ten episodes in a row without a single stinker. HOW THE F**K DOES THIS SEASON KEEP WINNING?!)

#the owl house #the owl house spoilers #toh spoilers #luz noceda #camila noceda #camila is a good mom ok!#toh vee #emperor belos #what i thought about #the owl house reviews

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sanstropfremir · 3 years

Text

kingdom episode 5 review!!! lets fucking go!!!!!

look. was i insanely hyped for this episode? yes. was my hype justified? also yes. holy FUCKING SHIT. you’ll have to forgive me for going off the rails at some points because ateez and btob directly tapped into something primal in my brain and i am obsessed. i'm obsessed. there’s no other word for it I’m obsessed.

ok ok ok i'll focus. i'm focused. i'll do the stage breakdown first and then do my personal ranking at the end. i might do a quick runup comparison of the self and expert rankings for funsies but i'll see how i feel when i get there. instead of going in airing order i’m gonna reverse it, since that was the order i actually watched them in and also i will run out of brains if i talk about rhythm ta first.

skz

i feel for skz. i don't think this show is going to be as much of learning curve as it needs to be for them because the fan voting skews the rankings so much. I’ve said it so many times before, but letting something flop or getting a bad ranking is actually good, because it shows you that you need to improve. because skz keeps getting validated by the fan rankings and placing first in the last two stages, they aren't actually taking the time to evaluate what about their stages is or isn't working. and besides, we’ve now seen two very similar concepts in a row from them, just one is on a grander scale than the other. what they should be doing is what both ateez and btob did for this round, which was scale up production value, but scale down concept. i know this sounds weird but i'll explain. skz has done two very abstract and ‘grand’ concepts. first round we had ghosts/good self vs evil self, and this stage they just went straight for the throat with a deal with the devil type stage. now when you combine these very abstract concepts with an unclear narrative arc, you lose clarity of intent in the performance because there are no specifics that you’re playing off of. there’s a lot more places left up to personal interpretation and this is where people can get lost. btob and ateez both narrowed down their concepts to hyperspecific scenarios where they very clearly showing the audience the arc the stage is taking. audiences can be smart but also if you can lead them by the hand they like not thinking about highly conceptual ideas, and especially not so much in a pop song competition show.

costume

this is so rare because generally stylists are pretty careful about this, but i genuinely think they got outshone by the backup dancers, especially in the ‘heaven’ sequence. those sash and skirt combos with the strapped white tops that look like straitjackets? the fucking angel wings?! these are some thematically fun costume designs and because they’re white they stand out so much more when skz are wearing black. i also think i've seen these tops on backup dancers before? i thought it was on the last stage but i might be going insane.

i am a sucker for beaded embroidery and the combined dyework on some of their sashes is beautiful. but again, thematically irrelevant? at least you can see the greco-roman inspiration in the backup dancers’ costumes. all this is telling me is that whoever the stitchers are at jype, they are fucking incredible, but they don’t actually have a good designer because the main costumes for all their stages have been both aesthetically similar and thematically irrelevant.

again, i applaud skz for trying more experimental makeup, but boys you have to go bigger, it has no impact right now.

set

well, i did ask for them to commit to the western art bit and they sort of delivered? the first space is not planned very well and combined with the wide wide camera shots instead of making the space seem grand and sweeping it just seems bare. the ‘heaven’ side was excellent though, there was much better control of the camera and the columns and altar scaled the space down so it was more believable. also the breakable columns were fun and corny and i love it when stuff gets destroyed onstage.

the child statue transformation into actual child was a neat trick that i think landed really well. i wish they had given that concept a little more grounding other than the flashback bit but it was still very readable.

i know using rodin's gates of hell is the easiest way to shortcut saying that like, “you are now entering hell,” but them being used SO literally feels a bit blunt when the last time we saw them used in kpop was by original blasphemous catholic lee taemin, who used them with such nuance and intelligence that i'm a bit put off by skz’s literalism.

on that note, i find it very interesting the conflation that happens between greco-roman/”classical” aesthetics and catholicism, because ideologically the two are opposed (see: the bible) and historically, they didn't exist at the same time. now i'm not going to go off on a tangent about neoclassicism because you are not here for an art history lecture but i thought i would make the observation about how catholics continued appropriation of greco-roman aesthetics without complete understanding or context of those aesthetics is as pervasive as it ever has been in the last several hundred years.

lighting

generally the lighting is pretty good, but there’s an over-reliance on projections that cheapens the look of the stage but also devalues the intentions as well. at the core of it there’s a profound statement being made about trading away your innocence, but when you underscore that with like, clock graphics and a WoW looking demon, it loses that simplicity of message.

the thing about using this particular type of projection, which are actually screens and not typical projectors, is that screens always throw light. and due to where they are situated, this basically means that if you're using the screens at full capacity with a cool colour range, we are going to be able to see everything. this is another contributing factor to why the stage looks so empty; they’re lighting up everything and it exposes where the gaps are.

now i fully acknowledge that this possibly could have been a deliberate choice, since they do actually use some spot lighting at the beginning and end. however, if it was it did not land for me.

i loved the intro of demon felix done in blue, that was a nice switchup from what we would usually see, but i wish there was more of a coherent colour arc. like the narrative it stutters around a bit.

sound

the arrangement was a miss for me. i found it a bit dissonant again, like their last stage, since the original i'll be your man has obvious lyrics about a good christian boy being sad about a girl. this gets a bit wonky conceptually as soon as you add a child self into it. i don’t know if they changed any of the lyrics in the singing to match this a little more because i don't speak korean, so i'll have to wait for episode subs for verification.

i really applaud them for trying, and overall they didn't actually do that bad, but skz is not a vocal group. the most i'm going to say about it is that these boys don’t have the breath support. this is likely because they're trying to do choreographically complex movements, but also it's a training thing. you can hear the difference even just between eunkwang’s ‘vocal warmup’ at the beginning of back door, he’s not projecting full voice but he still has the breath support for his voice to sound full, whereas all skz boys sound thin in comparison, even when at full volume, because they’re trying to project from the throat and not the chest. that's all i'm gonna say about that. i don't think the cracked note was bad, i didn’t really clock it on first listen.

staging

thematically they could have had something really interesting here if they stuck to a more simple narrative arc. the genesis (i’m very funny) of the idea here is good, the whole mephistopheles deal with a devil + regret/loss of innocence is clear, but the arc isn't really an arc, and the colour story doesn't help. it kind of goes earth (green/blue) -> the gates of hell are opening (red) -> oh it's heaven now (blue) -> oh just kidding it's hell/lets destroy heaven (red) -> back to earth (blue). not necessarily a bad arc, just a bit complex for four minutes.

the choreo was a lot better this time, there was a lot more intention and relevance to theme and i didn’t feel like they were flailing for the sake of flailing as much as i have in their other stages. there was also a clarity in the overall blocking and movement patterns that was missing from their other stages. this stage has a really great handoff of each member playing the ‘main’ character, especially in the beginning. i especially liked the cut from falling off the stairs to laying centre stage.

i think I’m right in assuming that it was a choice that the members were all playing the same character and demon felix was that character possessed rather than the actual devil, but personally i think it would have been a lot more fun if they had straight up just made him be the actual devil. there’s a bit of dissonance when you have a performer with such a specialized skillset that gets used in very specific instances, but then he shows up in the regular group choreo like any ol’ guy. they always put such emphasis on felix (as they should, he’s their most charismatic performer), but they never go the distance. i would have loved it if they had committed to the bit like TOO did in their magnolia stage from rtk, where they had a member just be blinded justice. that was literally the only thing he did and it worked so well. could have done the same here with felix and it would have been fun. that being said the felix parts were SO good. love love love him getting dragging in chains.

btob

this hit every little one of the buttons in my tiny backstage crew brain. i'm in love with this stage. there’s so many true to life little details here that on repeat viewings you're still finding new things. i know i rag on and on about narrative every week but here is a good example of what i've been trying to get at this whole time: the stage needs a shape. an a to b. you don't need a whole pirates spiel or a game of thrones theme extended universe; all you need is a clear setting and a point a to point b. this stage has both those things perfectly. we have a hyperspecific setting, (american rockstars) and a basic arc (getting ready to perform -> performing). even though back door is outside of btob’s wheelhouse, they spun it in a way that played to their strengths and did a bit braggadocio, which is rightfully earned. i'm gonna be saying it every time but the experience shows!!!

costume

good contemporary costume is SO difficult, i want to impress that here. because it's the the time period that we are currently living and seeing every day it's so easy for the audience to spot mistakes. although yes it's easier to source/shop for, to get it good enough that it doesn't pull people out of the immersion is surprisingly more difficult than you think. their stylists did an excellent job here. the backup dancers and btob are all in monochrome plus one and it adds a very clean unity to everything without visual clutter.

each of btob’s costumes have enough to give indication of character, along with the member’s acting, which i'll get more into in the staging section. regardless, never underestimate the power of a good fitting shirt and statement belt. oh and minhyuk in the stirrup motorcycle boots with the skinny jeans and the supreme boxers and the red satin robe? good bye.

i love love love a dyed buzz this was such a good aesthetic choice for peniel, 10/10 i have no complaints about the costumes.

set

oh my god i’m gonna french kiss this set designer. this is such a simple set but it’s executed so well. there’s the ‘backstage’ area, the corridor with four dressing rooms, and then the ‘stage’ that’s pretty much just velvet ropes. so simple, but all the detail is in the set decoration and props. the road cases, the monitor, the subtle flex of the posters of them on the walls, the clothing racks, all the booze. although this is not the actual layout of any theatre (they're normally much weirder than this), there’s so many little details here that really make the experience.

there’s a very straightforward path here and it works so well. i think this might be the best use of the gates so far? it appropriately suited the drama of the moment and they didn't have to do anything to them because they're already in a theatre. bada bing bada boom.

lighting

love the setup and continuation through the amber ‘BRRRMM.’ like with sf9 it gives a smooth transition into the stage. also loved no blackout. it's a general rule in current theatrical practice that you only use blackouts when they are absolutely necessary, because they can stop the pacing of a play dead in the water. so the lack of one here at the start of the stage was a really smart choice and makes the transition feel less jarring.

i will say that actual backstage areas are very rarely lit with amber because it travels far and it's bright. it's much more common to see running lights (the lights on during a performance) to be deep red or blue.

those blasting wash lights as the gates open? the DRAMA. such a seemingly innocuous choice that really cements the atmosphere of ‘we are about to perform.’

really smart use of the projections to accentuate the already existing stage facilities. it's pretty much unnoticable because it's very well done but i appreciate it.

sound

this ARRANGEMENT!!!! it's so good!!! back door has this premise essentially built into the song so it was so smart of them to put this gimmicky spin on it. loved the literal interpretation of the knocks into the structure of the stage, it makes the blend between the sound design and the staging that much more effective.

more rock versions of everything please and thank you.

btob is just stunting at this point and i love it. i'll have to wait for subs but judging by the hands in front of the camera bit and the ‘your super high note’ i’m pretty confident the added rap lyrics are full of shots at the other groups and honestly? valid.

staging

there's some really sharp camera control here with the one take first half. It’s up very close and personal because there’s a lack of space but it really works for the ‘intimacy’ of seeing backstage at a venue. also this is such a simple movement track but it’s so effective. it backs over a couple spots but it doesn't feel repetitive because there’s a sense of urgency and drive.

there are so many good little details in here that are true to life and unnecessary to include but sell the performance as a whole. peniel flinging water onstage, minhyuk stripping down twice and flinging his clothes around, minhyuk closing the door on the standby’s face, the backup dancer as a dresser with the laundry basket, peniel stealing the hat off her but then not going on stage with it these are all things that I’ve either had directly happen to me or something very similar has happened. but the best one and the one that sets off the tone amazingly for the whole stage is eunkwang’s intro. that ‘vocal warmup’ with the quiet okay at the end? with the little jump? i see that moment of vulnerability before the transition between person and actor every time i watch someone go onstage for the first time and there’s no way to describe it other than magic.

the luxury of only having four members, there was actually time in this stage to establish character. it also speaks to the performing strength of btob that they can establish clear character in this short amount of time. obviously it’s pretty one dimensional; there’s serious eunkwang, typical rocker minhyuk, fuckboy peniel (how many licks does it take to make your tootsie pop, anyone?), and comedian changsub. i’ve seen and met and worked with these exact dudes many, many times. ugh i love this stage

ateez

the utter euphoria i felt at the proof that last round’s stage wasn't a fluke. this stage is so good. it's so good. i'm obsessed with how good this stage. as an unreformed pop punk teen who played a LOT of latin jazz i am LIVING. if you’ve only seen the episode cut and not the full version here i'll make it easy and link it for you because oh my GOD mnet destroyed the pacing by cutting in a full minute and a half of reaction shots. actually mnet fucked up the pacing for all of these stages but this one was the worst. and look. i know this is the closest these boys are going to get to being real punks and this is a carefully curated and artificial facade for narrative purposes only but oh the pandering tastes so sweet. regardless of that, i am IN AWE of the level of storytelling happening here. the narrative is so clear on just the first viewing even though there is so much going on and they use every possible element they can to further enhance that narrative. repeat viewings just add more and more little details. i’ll probably miss some things because there's so much but i'll try my best.

costume

look, hanya and i were joking that my notes for this stage were just gonna be ‘san dog collar’ for a thousand words and i was so tempted to just leave it at that because.....woof. so here is a short list of things i am the most obsessed with:

san dog collar

san smeared lipstick

wooyoung cruella deville ponytail

hongjoong terrible blond crewcut

san crushed velvet cargo pants?!

seonghwa cropped fur jacket

yunho arm sleeve

hongjoong sockless in red derbys

but in all seriousness the costumes are so good. none of these are truly authentic punk looks but they capture the spirit right and that's what matters. all the right trappings are there; safety pins, patches, plaid, leather, and a lot of diy type looks. i love the painted masks, especially as a callback to the comedy/tragedy theatre masks. it was a thematic choice to have the backup dancers in black and the tac vests are a super simple contextual device.

also hongjoong’s quickchange hat/jacket combo is super fun and i hope that’s intentionally a preview of the next stage.

set

if you weren't convinced before that whoever is designing the ateez stages is a stage designer, i don't know what to tell you. it's hard to tell because there is so much environmental storytelling happening, but there is NO large scale set here. like with their last stage, kq smartly put money into two highlight pieces; the anarchist blimp and the van/wall, and the rest of the stage atmosphere is established solely through propwork and lighting. just think about that for a bit. every other group has some kind of large scale room or wall build. ateez has a bunch of tables, flyers, and a podium. i don’t know if i can accurately communicate just how difficult this kind of coordination is to pull off but holy fucking shit this is so hard to pull off. these are theatre people i see you and i see your work and i love you!!!

they fully used the gilt mnet stage as their pseudo government building and it works. everything about this (lack of) set is so smart i wish i could be more articulate about it but there’s so only so many ways i can say the same thing over and over again.

lighting

the laser scopes. the LASER SCOPES!!! god this lighting designer is so good. whoever you are, i'm acknowledging your effort because you deserve it. there’s some really wonderful contrast and directional lighting: the van light, the pinlights/lasers/smoke as searchlights. a lot of atmospheric red lighting but it makes sense for the theme (alarm lights) and they offset it well (unlike in the other two predominantly red stages we’ve seen) by fill lighting the faces with blue or amber; this is what actually makes us able to see what’s happening on stage

the projections are used to augment the stage action in without being overpowering, they're at relatively low tonal value so they aren't lighting up the stage at full brightness like in the skz stage.

the big brother eye on the tv screens (it's just a projection, not actual screens) combined with the government ban notice and the broadcast has to be the record for fastest visual explanation of fascist totalitarian state.

sound

i love it. they really successfully made rhythm ta into an ateez song and it’s cool as fuck. i love that it isn't sonically very loud. a lot of the chorus is actually quite level tone and quiet, which is a bold choice and they pull it off. this is very comfortably in their range (excluding jongho) and they went more for style than range and that's exactly what every group should be doing. singing high does not equal singing good. yes i am looking at you jongho you should have stopped at that penultimate note, it was fine!!

using rhythm ta as a pseudo protest song against a fascist government that’s banned all music and art? galaxy brain. that intro of hongjoong whispering “hey hey hey hey, this is just a song so get on the rhythm” after gunning down military police/guards? king fucking shit.

staging

i will eat all five pairs of my fluevog boots if kq hasn't hired a bunch of theatre professionals to direct and design these stages because now it's been proven that last stage wasn't a fluke. the level of execution at work here is absolutely incredible. oh the gesamtkunstwerk of it all!!! there is SO much happening so quickly in this four minute stage and it still manages to convey exactly the correct amount of information that it needs to on the first go round, and it only gets better on repeat viewings.

they use a really classic theatre perspective trick with san climbing the rope, and they absolutely didn’t have to do that. san probably could have actually climbed that himself, but here they made a choice for aesthetic artistry over tricking/other feats of skills we’ve seen the 4th gen groups do. instead of going with the more technically difficult and ‘impressive’ option, they chose the simple way that allows for more character to shine through. there’s actually very little tricking in this stage as whole, they're putting trust in the design of the stage and the raw performance abilities of the members to carry the stage and they stick the landing again. san has some breakdancing and so do the backup dancers, but it’s window dressing in the same way that the flyers are window dressing.

there’s a lot of really good little moments of acting that really sell the performance and dedication of the group as a whole to giving their all. hongjoong overall in his cocky aspirational leader role, seonghwa’s first verse and malfunctioning earpiece bit, san’s falsetto hostage interrogation bit. also i'm obsessed with how far yunho just hucks that mask. he gets like fifteen feet of air with that thing. also props to hongjoong barehanding that glass break.

the paper props are impeccable. the first notice sets up the situation right away, and then we get some further exposition with the newspaper wooyoung is holding (which says ‘the central government has defined the black pirates as a terrorist’ but honestly you don't really need to know what it says to get the point), and then we have raining anarchist flyers from the anarchist blimp. great atmospheric touches.

the blackout crash-to-mask transition is just so good. this is an example of a good use of a blackout. nothing else to add i just thought i would point it out because it's dope.

like with btob there's some really tight camera control here, that along with the lighting and the way they've laid out the space make it easy to follow the trajectory of where they're going and also make the space seem smaller than it is. this is a really big stage and if you don't control how you want it to be seen you end up like with what happened to the first part of skz’s stage. i wish they had tracked some of the one takes a bit better, but the end of that take where the camera followed the group movement laterally and then the formation swung around to face front? sexy. surprisingly the editing is pretty ok.

there’s probably still so much i could talk about but this is already so long so if i missed something just let me know.

ok finally lets do some rankings

personal ranking

this round wasn't as tough to rank because there were two clear top tier stages for me. i actually went back and looked at my ranking from last round and this is identical except the top two spots are switched, which i find extremely funny. however in contrast to last round, these stages were all leagues better than their predecessors. all the groups are improving, just some at greater speed than others.

ateez - i'm not even gonna explain this one.

btob - i won't explain this one either since i just did that.

sf9 - this would have been first if ateez and btob hadnt blow everyone out of the water.i still think they made all the right choices and played to their strengths.

ikon - this stage is so fun to watch but the others offer me more. that’s it.

skz - i like the idea behind it and i loved felix; i'm always down for some good catholic fuckery but like last round it just wasn't played out far enough.

tbz - double ding on the moulin rouge and the continued game of thrones references for me. there were a lot of strong elements here but when compared to every other stage it just doesn't have the same gravitas.

the self rankings i thought were fairly accurate, but again, what the fuck is up with these expert rankings? who are these experts? what stages are they watching?? i won't go more into it than that because then you'll be here even longer but i don't trust these experts who consistently rank btob at the bottom, do you have eyes??? ears????

ok i'm done for real now im so sorry this 4.6k words......if you make it this far do something nice for yourself like eat a cookie or something. this is way too long you deserve a reward for making it through my nonsense. as always if you’ve got questions or want to share your opinions feel free to send me an ask!

#kingdom #kingdom review #should i risk it and tag the groups this time? i kinda wanna bait some weirdos #kpop analysis #ok im gonna do it #ateez #btob #stray kids #the boyz #sf9 #ikon #im pretty sure i missed so much here but this is so long im so sorry #at least next week i wont be doing this kind of writeup #text

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weeb-writor · 3 years

Text

Meeting Shouta’s parents on Christmas

Hello all you beautiful people! So here is the last part in the Aizawa mini series. I fell in love with all these Characters and this head cannon so I will probably revisit them! As usually the reader is neutral in every since of the word! I hope you guys enjoyed this series.

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Aizawa Shouta x Reader

After a month of preparation you meet Aizawa’s Parent over the course of a week

Words: 3,098

Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five

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“Ooh my goodness what are we gonna do!?” You said pacing around your living room. Shouta looked at you and chuckled at your frazzled state.

“We get in my car and drive to my family house as planned, pretend to enjoy ourselves so we can come home and cuddle with my fat cats.” He said, pulling you into a hug.

“You want me to show up to meet your parents without the gift I ordered for you dad? Shouta are you outta your mind.” You said to him with a pout.

“Well that's debatable but I do know my parents and they aren't even expecting anything so it's fine. You can just tell them we’ll get it to him when we get it. Now let's go!” He said trying to drag you to the car.

“Aizawa Shouta! I am not going anywhere unless it's to a store to buy your Dad a gift.” You said giving him a glare. He stared back as if to question if you were being serious. You cocked an eyebrow at him, challenging him to disagree.

“Were gonna be late to get there, do you want that?”

“Better to be late than to show empty handed especially when everyone else has gifts.” You said with a shrug. Aizawa laughed but nodded as you both went to the store. You wandered around the place for an hour before you found something you actually liked. Now you were in the car messily wrapping in as you pulled into the driveway of your destination.

“Okay goodness gracious we barely made it but we're here and I have gifts for all your siblings and their lovers and their kids! Didn't think I would pull it off but here we are in one piece.” You said mostly to yourself.

“Kitty Cat you start talking to yourself and I might leave you to enter the den of wolves by yourself.” Aizawa said as you both got out of the car. You let him take in your overnight bags and get help for the millions of presents somehow packed into your small car you didn't wait long as you felt as presence behind you.

“Hello you, perfect example of a gorgeous human being!” The voice said from behind you.

“Shinji, how nice to see you.” You said with a sigh.

“You know if you’re tired of sighing that way… I have a better way to make you sigh.” He said winking at you. You had to push back all the thoughts of murdering him and just smiled but before you could say anything another voice interjected.

“See I told you we had to come out here! Shinji stop hitting on y/n their dating our little brother you snake.” Saika said, hitting him over the head.

“Can't help it, sis!” He said with a laugh.

“Well for this week you absolutely will have better control overself or so help me God Shinji! Anyway y/n you’ve got me, Shinji and sora at your beck and call, what do you need help with?” Saika said with her graceful smile.

“Oh just this.” You said pointing to the car packed with presents. Sora seemed to choke on air at the amount of gifts.

“God, didn't Shouta tell you didn't have to buy everyone a gift, you poor thing!” Saika said hugging you.

“Well he did but I just really like you guys and loved getting to know you this past month so I wanted to.” You said waving her off.

“More like you wanted to impress our parents, huh cutie?” Shinji said teasing you before he started to grab presents as to avoid his sister wacks.

“Ignore him! My mom is dying to meet you, Shouta’s never brought anyone home.” She said as her and Sora grabbed some more presents. As they went in you pulled out the last two rounds of presents and waited for Aizawa who wasn't far behind.

“Hey love are you ready?” Aizawa said, picking up the presents you set out.

“I am totally not!! I barely remember everyone's name! We should just slip away right now!” You said beginning to pace some more.

“Babe i'm gonna go inside and wait on you, come in whenever you want but remember we are late.” He said with a light chuckle.

“Sho!! don't you go into your house without me!” You said picking up the gifts and following him like a lost puppy. That was that and soon you were inside the house with a lot of eyes on you. You followed aizawa while bowing and placed the toys underneath the huge tree.

“Alright now that that’s done let me meet the one whose stolen my baby’s heart so effortlessly!” A woman said coming over to you. You bowed deeply to her and she let out a melodious laugh.

“How cute, no need to bow so deep! I should be bowing to you, you who is able to make my stoic Shouta blush, giggle and pout!” She says grabbing your face and pulling it around as if to inspect it.

“Oh Honey, you stop it! They are just being polite, you know like Japanese culture requires them to be.” A tall man said coming over to you.

“I'm just saying! Anyway you can call me Mina and this is my parasite of 41 years Hirohito! Nice to meet you!” She said hugging you, you were a bit surprised by how informal and kind they were.

“Excuse my parents, they were born and raised in America! No less Japanese but they are a bit more informal and that does shock a lot of people.” Shojiro said scratching his neck.

“Oh hush boy! Don’t put a warning label on me and your mom as if we are damaged goods.” Hirohito said, knocking him over the head.

“Now it’s getting later we should all wash up and get ready to eat! I made something special for you all. And Sho I put a king size bed in your room since you’ve finally brought someone home. If you want to take advantage of that and make me some grandchildren then don’t worry we will hold up dinner for you!” His mom said kissing his cheek. He groaned and grabbed your hand and pulled you away and soon you were in his room.

“See, was that so hard?” Aizawa said with a flushed face.

“Ehh you look like it was, tomato paste! But I think it went okay! I can do this!!” You said hyping yourself up.

“Yes you can, kitty cat. After dinner only 6 more days to go.”

“WHY do you guys do Christmas gatherings for a week!” You whisper yelled at him.

“Because we have a doting mother who wants to smother us every chance she gets and a father who would do anything for her.” He said serious, you laughed and got ready for dinner. When you and Aizawa made it to the dining room, you were met with three huge dining tables. Almost every seat filled.

“Sweetheart, you and y/n come sit right here! I’ve got so many things to ask you!” His mom said waving you over.

“Thank you… Mina. Your way to kind!” You said with another bow. Dinner was pretty quiet at first but how quiet can you be with like 30 people in one room.

“Saika, dear, you were in charge of the schedule this year can you read it off for everyone.” Mina said.

“Of course! So on the 20th aka tomorrow it’s all about decorations and the tree! 21st is all about taking the kids to see Santa! 22nd is Family photo day! 23 is the gingerbread houses contest and reindeer games! 24th is sugar cookie making and movies! 25th is a grand breakfast and present opening! Bring forth the cup of straws!” Saika said giggling. Sora rolled his eyes but got the cup and passed it around, everyone taking a straw.

“Okay now blow into if red dust comes out you’re in charge of taking the kids to see Santa!” She announced and everyone did. Of fucking course red dust billowed from you straw. You looked at Shouta and he shook his head at you and your heart dropped.

“So then it’s me and you, how fortunate!” Shinji said waving at you. You couldn’t control yourself and your head dropped onto the table dramatically.

“Haha, Shinji y/n already knows what a pain in the ass you are! you must be losing your style dear! Not to worry y/n, Shinji will be on his best behavior won’t you?” Mina said as an ominous silence fell over the room. Shinji didn’t hesitate to nod.

“Okay then! Y/n, welcome to the Aizawa family. I hope you enjoy your first Christmas with us! With that let us begin the 6 days of chaos!” Mina said laughing lifting her glass, everyone joined laughing. Okay maybe this won’t be so bad you thought for a brief second.

20th - 5 Days till Christmas

“Dad I understand you like to hang lights up dangerously but do you have to drag y/n into it.” Aizawa said as he watched you nervously. You were on the roof helping his dad put up a few decorations and lights.

“Of course I did, if they’re gonna be an Aizawa one day they gotta learn all our trade secrets.” He retorted as if it was common knowledge.

“I’ve never seen my little Sho so worried. I can’t figure out if it’s because your kind and you love him so much or if you’ve got him by the balls or maybe even both.” Mina said with a slight chuckle. This made you warm in embarrassment and you lost your footing and began to fall, of course taking the old man with you.

“Shit!” Aizawa said as he quickly used his capture weapon to grab both you and stop your impact from being damaging.

“Yeah alright, me and y/n are opting out of decorations this year.” He said dragging you who was still in his captured weapon toward the door.

“Oh honey calm down it would have just been a small bump and maybe a sprain. Would you at least help Shinji and Sora with the kids, decorating the tree?” She said with a kind yet manipulative smile. Before either of you could respond yelling was heard from inside

“Damn it, Yukio stop breaking the glass ornaments and Maki stop recording and help me!” Shinji yelled.

21st- 4 Days till Christmas

“Shinji what the hell do we do!” You said pacing.

“Hold on stop talking I’m thinking.”

“Like hell I’m trusting your brain! We just have to ask them to let us take pictures anyway.” You said with determination. You see everything was going well until and elf said something to Haru that Jun took as bullying. A fire light in that boy like you had never seen he was on top of the elf giving him the business in seconds. After he just mumbled things like ‘Bakugou said you can’t let people bully you.’ And ‘gotta put bullies in their place.’. Then when you tried to get him to apologize he glared and said ‘no, I can’t let that bully win’ and just like that y’all were kicked out.

“No look let’s just disguise them! Tetsuya and Haru stitch clothing and Haru and Umi switch! Then Maki will take them and her pictures with them.

“What about Maki though they saw her!” You said not believing you were actually going along with his crazy plan.

“Oh I have a change of clothes, gotta be prepared when you’re going out with uncle Shinji!” She said cheerfully.

“That’s my girl! Now go do this thing!” He said giving her and high five. Someone how Shinji’s ridiculous plan worked and the parents didn’t even notice, they were all too drunk or tired.

22nd - 3 Days until Christmas

“There is no way I'm taking pictures wearing this.” Sora said as he pulled the clothes from the box.

“Yeah mom, why did you make Sho pick clothes this year you know he cant even dress himself! It’s because you babied him so much, you know.” Shojiro said, looking as equally as disgusted at the clothing.

“Hey now! I put my baby in charge of the clothing and you all are gonna wear it, end of discussion. Also if anyone babied him it was all of you so blame yourself.” Mina said, ending the discussion as Shouta wore a crazed grin.

“I like the clothes Uncle sho’ta.” Nozomi said rocking on her heels.

“They are pretty cute huh?” He said ruffing her hair.

“Ah ah ah! Don't you go infecting my kids with your bad fashion sense!.” Saika said, covering Nozomi's ears. At this you all broke out into laughs before heading to put on the outfits and prepare for maybe the most embarrassing photos known to man.

23rd - 2 days till Christmas

You were not an artist by any means but when you heard the winner got the honor of passing out presents you were purposely trying to lose. You knew them apart mostly but if they were all wearing the same pajamas with their hair tied back it was going to be a stuttering mess. However your plan of making a 3 out of 10 gingerbread house was foiled quickly. Aizawa wasn't really a competitive man or so you thought but when you to were paired against Shinji and Shojiro he went berserk! You looked at the gingerbread MANSION with a sigh.

“Shouta i’ve never seen you so invested! It's amazing.” Said Shizumi the resident artist in the house.

“Yeah uncle Shouta and L/N! You definitely got my vote!” Daisuke said smiling at you, you smiled back at him warily. The family all wrote down the people of their choosing and put it into the Santa hat. Now as names were being drawn you were biting your nails.

“Shouta and Y/n will be our Clauses this year.” Hirohito said with a small smile.

“Yay y/n wins.” Haru and Jun danced around you. You giggled before glaring at Aizawa in a way that said when we get home your sleeping on the couch, he just kissed you sweetly.

24th - 1 Day till Christmas

“Uncle Shouta stopped making so many cat cookies! Santa wants other shapes too!” Tetsuya said, hitting Shouta repeatedly on his legs. You laughed evilly as you formed another cat cookie and wrote Shouta’s name on the corner.

“I like your cat cookies.” Nozomi said, playing with her hair. Aizawa picked her up and spun her around.

“Okay, yep that's weird Baby brother! Why is Nozomi clinging to you? What did you do?” Shiori said looking back and forth from you and Shouta.

“Nothing.” Shouta said with a smirk. The family then looked at you hopeful.

“Well would you look at that! It's about time to watch the Grinch isn't it, Rei?” You asked the young boy. He eagerly nodded wanting to escape the situation.

“You got Rei too? What is happening!” Saika said as she grabbed Rei bringing him to her chest.

“Huh where is your DVD player? I got to put the disk in.” You said completely ignoring her.

25th - Christmas Day

The gift giving had been going pretty successfully. You only Stuttered a few times but you hadn't given anyone the wrong present and let Shouta take the ones with Nicknames you didn't know. But this right here was the moment of truth, the moment you had been preparing for. In your right hand you had a gift for Shizumi and in your left one for Saika. You looked at the two twin like sisters and handed the gifts to each respectful sister hoping you were right. They opened the gifts and smiled so you guessed you were correct had everyone's eyes not been on you, you would have done a happy dance.

“Alright last gift before Mom and Dads are for Miss Nozomi!” Shouta said signaling you to get the present you and him picked out for the young girl.

“Alright this is from me and Uncle Shouta!” You said to the girl handing her the blue box. She said a quiet thank you before tearing into the box. Inside the box was a note which she took out.

“Look at your favorite uncle.” She said before looking straight at Shouta making all the other brothers gasp. In Shouta’s arm was a cute 3 legged kitten which had the girl darting toward him but slowed when she got to him so as not to scare the cat.

“Thank you!” The girl said, rubbing at her teary eyes. You and Aizawa had been teaching her how to care for cats knowing she wanted one. In all honesty she knew she was getting a cat she just didn't know when. You had asked her parents as well but didn't tell then when either so as to have a bigger reaction from the family.

“No need to thank me! Just promise me to take care of him real well.” Aizawa thumbed away the last of her tears. She nodded rapidly before snuggling the kitten who seemed to enjoy the attention. The last arc of gift giving went well as did the extravagant breakfast you had all prepared together. Now you were all saying goodbye.

“Y/n dear I do have one last parting gift for you.” Mina said as you rounded the corner with your bags. You placed down your bags and went to her side.

“I know you and Shouta haven't been together too long but I want to thank you. He acts tougher than he is. He would rather bear all the responsibility and pain and suffer alone. Not to mention the way he puts himself in danger rather than ask for help. With you he seems different, and you put him in his place. You’ve made me feel at ease for the first time since he entered UA as a student. So welcome to the family, we're so glad to have you.” She said putting something into your hands. You bowed at her and opened your palm to see a key to this house and a few pictures taken over the course of the week. You waved goodbye to them all and got your bags and made the short trip to your car where Shouta was waiting.

“Why do you look like you're going to cry.” He said worried.

“Because there are 365 days till next Christmas.” You said to him smiling.

~~~~~~~~~~~

MHA Masterlist

#bnha shouta aizawa #aizawa imagine #Aizawa #aizawa x y/n #aizawa shouta x reader #mha x reader #bnha aizawa #shouta aizawa #domestic fluff #aizawa x reader

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x0401x · 4 years

Text

Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun: Ghost Hotel’s Café (Part 2)

Revealing the secrets of the menu, such as “crushing muffins so they will look like earth”! Interview with the staff of Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun GHOST HOTEL’S CAFÉ.

GHOST HOTEL’S CAFÉ, the collaboration café of “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun” – an on-going manga from Monthly G Fantasy (Square-Enix) by Aida Iro-sensei –, was held in Ikebukuro, Tokyo at AniPara CAFÉ for a limited period from December 5 to February 11. Here, we have carried out an interview with the staff behind the planning and production of “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun”. We have discussed things in detail, from the background of the collaboration café’s presentation to the public to the secret stories behind the development of the food and drinks that reflect ideas from the author, Aida Iro-sensei!

Interviewees

Square-Enix café organizer: Ookubo Kana-san

Square-Enix editor in charge of “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun”: Imanishi Chiharu-san

Grounding Lab café planner: Andou Minako-san

Grounding Lab café planner: Nakayama Natsuko-san

Andmowa café menu creator: Aizawa Kanto-san

AniPara CAFÉ manager and menu creator: Shirato Kouhei-san

The collaboration café of “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun” is entirely supervised by AidaIro-sensei!

——How was it decided that “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun” would have a collaboration café?

Ookubo: The cue was that, while the café planning members were talking about what café to hold next, we were introduced to “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun” as the most highly recommended title of our company.

Andou: There are a lot of young people in the staff of AniPara CAFÉ and most of them knew “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun”, so by the time SquaEni-san talked to us about it, we gave them the one-sentence reply of, “By all means!” and asked them to let us do it. *laughs*

——This is the third time that “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun” earns a collaboration café, so how were the fans’ reactions?

Imanishi: Since this is the third time, there were many reactions of concern about the very concept of “how will it turn out next?”. Thankfully, the responses were good and we received many warm messages such as “it was fun”!

——How was AidaIro-sensei’s reaction when it was decided that yet another collaboration café would be held?

Imanishi: They were very pleased. An event that the readers can enjoy is a rare opportunity, so they were hyped about many things, such as, “I wonder what we will do~!” and, “How about this?” (laughs).

——The theme of the collaboration café is a “ghost hotel” this time. How was it conceived?

Ookubo: This time’s theme was proposed by AidaIro-sensei.

Imanishi: In the first time, I think it is orthodox that the characters are made into café waiters, but since this is the third one, Sensei suggested that they felt like displaying them in yet another a different light, and that they wanted to make it so that both the people who would be attending for the first time and the people who had already attended before would be able to enjoy it in a brand-new way.

G Fantasy carries out a project of giving away color spreads as presents every year along with the commemorative issue of its launching, and the theme for the color spread of “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun” on the 25th anniversary was “ghost hotel”. There was also the fact that the readers’ response to it was very positive, so Aida Iro-sensei decided, “Let’s go with a ghost hotel this time!”.

When it comes to “Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun”, you cannot miss out on ●●●!

——Did you get any menu or decoration suggestions from Sensei?

Ookubo: They granted us the base ideas of the menu and supervised the whole thing. They also chose the names of all the menu items. Writing “holy” in English was one of Sensei’s ideas. *laughs*

——The shop’s interior has a wonderful decoration perfectly fitting of a “ghost hotel”, with spider webs and mini characters hiding everywhere.

Andou: When we were thinking about how to reproduce the worldview depicted by AidaIro-sensei, we thought it was perfect... so we left it there (laughs)!

Ookubo: That spider web is amazing, isn’t it? The first time I looked at it, I thought it was a perfect fit for the café’s mood!

——The BGM that plays inside the shop is also a perfect fit for a “ghost hotel”.

Ookubo: We choose after listening to lots of tracks, so hearing that makes me happy! This time, Sensei gave us proper suggestions regarding the worldview, so the interior design parts were easy to picture.

Imanishi: There is a fun to it that is similar to riding on a horror attraction, even if you are inside a café. I think we were able to create this atmosphere exactly because its worldview is solid.

Ookubo: Also, since this is “Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun”, we would like everyone to check the toilets, by all means! I want people to see at least this with their own eyes.

——The toilet is a checkpoint that people cannot skip. The illustrations for the café were made by AidaIro-sensei this time too, but do the numbers written on the keys of each character have a meaning?

Imanishi: In this thematic setting, the employees (the characters) live and work in the ghost hotel. The numbers on the keys are the numbers of the rooms where the employees live, and they increase like 1, 2, 3... when you see them lined up in order, you will know who is whose neighbor and which of them are in the floors below or above. This is linked to the nature of the characters’ relationships, so please give it a check.

——Sensei did not just write the story but also story cards.

Imanishi: There might be people amongst the readers of G Fantasy who know about the 25th anniversary illustration, but I believe most of them will be seeing it for the first time. Since it could be difficult to understand what the story of this ghost hotel is and what the characters are doing, so we introduce them in the story cards and in-store PV. This method is easy even on people visiting for the first time, so we would like them to come hang out with friends here (laughs).

Aizawa: Quite a lot of the people who come to the shop are young, and on Sundays, it is not rare for families to fill up the seats. Amongst them, we have received a call from a father who had never been to a collaboration café before, telling us, “I want to make a reservation for my daughter; how do I do it?” and we have also been asked, “My daughter wants your goods; are they still not sold-out?”.

Andou: We have also been told, “I’ll save up my allowance to go there!”. Hearing things like these makes me think that it is great that we managed to implement a wonderful café, and I want people to enjoy it by any means.

“We crush the muffins to make them look like earth.” “The pot-au-feu is always chamfered.” – The secret stories behind the cooking of the collaboration menu are revealed!

——You have quite a quirky menu, with things such as the “GHOST HOTEL’S CAFÉ Afternoon Tea”, which comes with a written invitation to the Ghost Hotel; Hanako-kun’s favorite food, the “Hanako-kun Floaty Doughnuts”; the shinny “Mokke’s Delightful Candy Cake”, which is modeled after candies, Mokke’s stable food.

Andou: “Mokke’s Delightful Candy Cake” is quite a painstaking piece of work...! Of course, it is delicious, but I think being able to have fun taking pictures of cute food is a point that everyone looks forward to in a collaboration café, so we prepared a menu that everybody would be able to enjoy from their eyes too. When we were planning it out, we had about thirty suggestions for the menu in total, and from there, the team narrowed them down through discussions until the menu took the form it has now.

Nakayama: When it comes to Mokke, I think the image that comes to mind is of candies, do after a bit of devising, I came up with a cake that looks like candy. I am happy that, thankfully, the fans also had positive reactions to it!

——The “Edible Plots of Nene from the Gardening Club” shows quite a bit of uniqueness. Having a dessert inside a vase had a lot of impact.

Ookubo: The “Edible Plots of Nene from the Gardening Club” consists of muffins in flower vases, and the sight of the vases lined up in rows in the kitchen is quite surreal (laughs).

Shiratsuchi: We crushed chocolate muffins for them to look like earth and made them dirt-like. As a cook, I am also conflicted as to whether it tastes good to eat it like that, so while obsessing over the reproduction of its appearance, I break muffins into pieces every day, in order to combine them with a definite deliciousness.

——(Laughs) “Nene’s R•A•D•I•S•H Pot-au-Feu” is a warm and comforting dish, perfectly fitting for this time of the year.

Imanishi: This is actually the menu item that requires the most work out of the other collaboration foods.

Ookubo: The radish used in “Nene’s R•A•D•I•S•H Pot-au-Feu” is not a ready-made one that we warm up, and instead we cook the radish in the shop every day. On top of that, since the ingredients do not absorb the taste when cooked in the normal way, we chamfer (thinly scraping a vegetable so that it will take a round shape) the radishes one by one, so this is a menu item that takes up a lot of time. It costs 880¥, so when people ask, “Is this the quality of a collaboration café?”, I think it is in the good sense (laughs).

——My! The people who visit the shop should totally try this out, then.

Aizawa: We want them to! This desire is quite strong in us, but since it is a hassle to prepare that menu item, it would be a problem if too many people ordered it (laughs).

Shiratsuchi: While I was happy that everyone said, “It’s delicious~” during the sample food meeting, this item made me think, “I might’ve created something terrible (in a laborious sense)” (laughs).

All: (Laugh).

Ookubo: The cooking team really created the collaboration menu with a lot of passion. We make the crust for the “Clock-Keeper’s Tart ~with fruits~”, which is from the latter half of the menu, by hand every day in the shop. We fill it up with layers of berries, chocolate cream and wiped cream one after another... It gives us so much work that it could make people think, “Are you really serving this at a collaboration café?!”. I believe that even people who have only ever been to regular cafés and never to a collaboration one can also enjoy it.

Imanishi: The menu for the latter half of the collaboration has quirky and cute items, such as the “Mad-Risky Soup”, as in a “pretty dangerous” soup, and a limited number of the “Pipe Dream Cake”, so I think anyone can enjoy it, be it the people who visited during the first half or the people who are visiting for the first time during the latter half.

By the way, AidaIro-sensei’s top recommendation was “Kou’s Specialty Omelet Rice”! This rice omelet has caponata (boiling of fried eggplant) inside, so the flavor is unlike that of any other collaboration café. The fact that these secret gems exist is part of the wonderful levels of consideration from the cooks’ side.

——All the foods looked delicious, and every drink was wonderful too, so I was indecisive about which ones to order.

Ookubo: “Nene’s Welcome Cocktail” is also in the story that AidaIro-sensei posted on Twitter before the café’s opening. I recommend it as the first drink to the people who are visiting the collaboration café for the first time.

——By the way, are there any menu items that were rejected?

Nakayama: There was a legendary menu item named “Hanitarou Sandwich”, right?

Imanishi: There was! There is a character named Akane-kun who uses a haniwa as a protection charm, and I suggested a meal based on him – a “haniwa” coppe bread.

During the planning stages, I thought it was possible and tried reproducing it, but the cost turned out pretty high and its appearance was a haniwa through and through (laughs), so I wondered if anyone would order that... There was also the fact that Akane-kun is not much of a “haniwa stan”, so it became a legendary menu item (laughs).

Andou: I had suggested “Hanako-kun’s Doughnut” with the image of a school cap at first, but then the talk turned into, “Rather than a hat, I want it to have the appearance of a cute and tasty-looking doughnut”, so the cap version was rejected.

Ookubo: I also tried to produce a book-shaped cake, with the image of Tsuchigomori-sensei’s Four O’clock Library, but it seemed the price value would be too expensive, so it was unfortunately rejected.

——So there were menu items that were cast aside as “legendary” ones! This means you have created quite a number of items, but how do you come up with those ideas?

Nakayama: We were already collecting information from Instagram and Twitter and analyzing what the costumers were after. We deepened the conceptions from there to plan out the menu a lot.

Andou: Also, we think first-thing about what will be suitable for the costumers’ age range. In these occasions, rather than thinking about it as the menu of a collaboration café, we tried coming up with tasty-looking stuff as a regular food and drinks menu, and from that point, we created many things that drew close to the characters.

——It seems you were very conscious of the “showiness” of several menu items this time, so is “showiness” an indispensable element for your needs?

Andou: That’s right. Of course, the menu has to be delicious, but I think that, if it also turns out good for taking pictures, it will be posted on Instagram and Twitter, and become a cue for the fans to interact. The people who know the series will obviously do that, but I would be happy if this menu could become a trigger for even the people who don’t know it to talk about it, like, “That’s wonderful”, “What series is this?”.

Ookubo: We believe that the collaboration café’s menu is important for the original work’s side as well, so we take many requests, such as, “I want you to make this kind of dish” and, “I want to put this illustration card on it”, and the side that plans out the cooking does their best to give them form, so a wonderful menu is birthed every time, and as a result, it turns out as something that the fans can enjoy.

——It seems the people who will visit the store are quite young, so have you devised anything for the flavors?

Aizawa: We added a bit more variety to the taste of “Nene and Mokke’s Broccoli Gratin XD” during the planning stages, but we reviewed it in order to make it match the palate of young people better.

Ookubo: The “Mokke Curry”, which appears in the latter half of the event, was a green curry at first, but we changed it into a normal curry so that it would match the young ones’ tastes.

——On the topic of creating menu items that suit the customers’ age group, were there any difficulties or things you obsessed over?

Aizawa: The biggest hardship in making the menu of a collaboration café is the items’ appearance. Even if we deepen their image, we often worry about how to bring out their colors.

We repeatedly have conflicts such as, “I have to use this ingredient for bringing out this color, but this ingredient doesn’t fit this menu. Then how do I reproduce this coloration?” so it’s a relief when we eat the finished products and calm down with a, “It’s surprisingly good now that I’ve given it a try!” (laugh). Also, when we are feeling confident, the ideas soon flash into mind, but when we are in a slump, we get distressed.

Shiratsuchi: There was also a difference of views between the cooks’ side and the original creators’ side, so there were times when we thought, “We’ve made something really good!”, the original creators would say, “This won’t do!” (laughs). In regards to the menu, it is purely an insight race, so it made us happy when good flashes of inspiration took form and received approval.

——Anything from this menu that gave you an especially hard time?

Aizawa: As expected, that would be “Nene’s R•A•D•I•S•H Pot-au-Feu”, which we talked about earlier (laughs).

——Lastly, please leave a message for the readers.

Imanishi: New menu items will be added in the latter half, so I believe it has turned out as a café that people can enjoy no matter how many times they come. We want them to eat, drink and have fun. Also, the coasters that they can earn by ordering foods and drinks have wonderful designs, so I hope people will take them as a memory, by all means. I think you will definitely enjoy it, so please come over!

Aizawa: There are many attractive menu items, so do not forget your cameras!

——Thank you very much!

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