#the computer microphone quality

[catgirltoes]

Julia Serano is such a university professor. She recorded a full lecture using zoom screen recordings and a slideshow.

[nancy789uio]

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[secret-subject]

Equipment for audios?

Oh yea here we are at the nerdy side of hypnokink, I'm a total mic nerd and I am always getting asked, what equipment do I use for recording?

For different things (spoken word, music, asmr etc etc) you need different set ups but generally...

I have a zoom f3 which I plug into it either a matched pair of clippy ems mics for asmr or my rode nt1 5th gen for basic hypnosis audios. This is a portable recorder with 32 bit float and automatically sets the gain for you so no clipping! The reason I much prefer a portable recorder is two things. One versatility, they can be used stand alone or plugged into a pc for a handy interface so you have options. Two, if you (like me) dabble in asmr content you need the LEAST amount of background noise possible and most computers are loud. Yes, even the quiet ones trust me I've spent five years trying to have a quiet pc, going portable so I can turn off my pc and use my phone (or my brain) for the words to record is a lot easier and wayyyy less noise.

Now the zoom f3 is a little pricey and not very beginner friendly (it is what they call in the biz prosummer level gear) so here are some other portable recorders I have tried that I like for people on a budget/more beginner friendly:

-zoom h3: this is a binaural/ambisonic portable microphone and it not only as my seal of approval but some of my asmr girlies as well use this mic in their content, so you know it's good.

-tascam dr-05x: this little portable recorder is so good I regularly use it in recordings, the only downside is you NEED a windshield on it because it is that sensitive of a mic. It also has a little bit of a high level of self noise but with some cleaning this is an easy fix.

-zoom h4n pro: this is a little wild card but it was my first portable recorder. While the tascam absolutely blew this one out of the water for me personally, I do like that this recorder also has two xlr ports on bottom as well as binaural mics so it gives you a lot of options in one device. The only downside is I just didn't find the sound quality of the onboard mics to be that special with my voice and sometimes the self noise was a little much.

Now let's chat microphones!

Are they even that important? Yes. There are so many times I settle down to listen to some audio hypnosis of an evening and the second I hear the quality of the audio I am put off and a lot of the time, it's your mic or mic settings. Now yes, I am a snob about these things but here are so tips for getting a mic that works for you.

Firstly, usb or xlr mic?

Usb: these mics are designed to be plug and play. They connect right into your pc and you don't need any extra gear to run them. The downside? Usually this ease of use comes with the cost of quality, both in mic build and quality of recording. You need a pc to run them which means, noise. Also, sometimes it's hard to monitor the audio on these mics (monitoring meaning having headphones to hear what you sound like in the mic, EXTREMELY important to listen for clipping, unwanted sounds etc.)

Xlr: these mics are your standard mics, they are plugged into an audio interface or mixing board via an xlr cable. They usually give you a lot more range and choice of mic and are easy to find high quality ones at even low price points. Downside? The start up cost is higher because you NEED that interface to plug it into but because of that you can also get this mic as far away from noisy things like your pc as possible because of how it's set up with the cables. You also have a lot to do a lot of set up and cable management so if space or portability is important you should probably get a USB or portable recorder instead.

Which one do I recommend?

I have both in the same mic. My go to beginner mic is the rode nt1 5th gen. This mic not only comes with everything you need in box (pop filter, shock mount, xlr and USB cables) but it is BOTH xlr and USB. So I would personally if I could only have one mic, get this and use it USB style until I could upgrade to an interface. Now if you have a lot of background noise this isn't the mic for you. But, check out the rode podmic xlr/USB instead. It is a dynamic mic so terrible for picking up quiet sounds but it will give you a TON of great back ground noise rejection plus a great sound quality.

If you are not ready for a stand alone mic, do not panic here's how you record stunning audios without a proper mic. Use your phone. I am deadly serious your phone has one of the BEST mics on it. Most smartphones have decent sound built in. All you have to do is make sure you position it correctly as far or close to your mouth as sounds good for your phone. Do a few test recordings on your voice recording app to see what works then, put the phone in a sock so you just cover the mic. This is your free pop filter/windshield. It will catch some of those plosives (words with a p, b, or d, sound will make a popping noise that cannot be edited out so the sock will help soften that a little plus remove the crackle of air from your breathing into the mic).

Whatever you do, do not use a headset mic. Most of them are trash. Yes that includes gamer ones, yes that also includes office ones too. Even the expensive ones. If you are spending money to get a mic, get a proper mic. Please also, do not use laptop mics. They are usually also pretty awful, your better off trying the phone.

Finally some quick advice for people wanting to get into this. I've had people literally tell me, "Secret, I don't care what you think about mics and your trial and error, I'm just going to buy the most expensive mic I can find because it has to be the best!" Expensive does not mean good for you. I have mics in my locker that cost hundreds, I have a couple special purchases that set me back thousands and every single time I find myself recording on my very cheap gear because it sounds better. My 3dio pro is collecting dust because that 5k (I live in nz and it cost a TON in shipping) mic doesn't sound half as good as the 100 nzd clippies I got on a whim and am OBSESSED with. Your voice is unique to you. It has frequencies and nuances that will not sound amazing on every mic. The mic that fits your voice and makes it shine might not be that 10k Neumann U87 (although I wish I could try it out one day...) it might be on the much cheaper one you have had for literal years in the back of your closet!

The best comment I ever got was from a friend. I was testing out my beloved rode nt1 and they said to me, "Secret, I don't know what you did with this mic but it makes your voice sound the most powerful it has in years." And that was my goal. This audio I sent them was raw. I did not even have to edit. So please for the love of hypnosis, stick to your budget and do your research. Some places around the world do mic testing and if you can find one, I would suggest it. If you have a friend who has a mic you are thinking of buying, ask to try it. If you find a youtube review of a mic, try and find one with someone with a similar range to your voice to see what it could sound like for you before you purchase and get to know what is important in a mic for you, your voice and your recording situation. The room is just as important as the gear.

Now, can you fix a bad mic in post? Absolutely, there are a ton of things you can do to a recording to make it sound polished in editing but personally, I like a raw, uncut sound to my recordings. It feels a lot more personal and I like that. Plus I am bad at mixing and I hate the sound of my own voice so do not panic if your mic isn't quite what you wanted, you can play around with the eq, compression etc until you get a sound you want (but still please don't blow 10k on a mic first time. It's not worth it.)

Final finally: the person I learned all my mic knowledge from is called Podcastage on YouTube please go check him out. He has incredible resources for finding your perfect mic and reviews on pretty much every mic you can think of. Remember, be resourceful, stick to your budget and think about what you want in a mic before you click buy and happy hunting!

I can't wait to hear what you'll record. 💜

[star-sim]

hello kitty meets batman (real not clickbait!) ☆ jake sim

☆ youtuber! super down bad! bf! jake x youtuber! fem! reader ☆summary: jake sim was youtube's cut-throat, horror creator, known for his dark video style. meanwhile, you were the cutesy beauty vlogger, lighting up every algorithmically generated home page you touched. no one would have expected you two vastly different people to know each other, let alone be in a long-term relationship. ☆ genre: fluff, youtuber! au, secret dating! au, established relationship, suggestive, im sorry im never letting the ytber au go, cutesy!reader, jake is SO down bad its kinda painful #patheticmen ☆warning(s): no, just fluffy, also reader is really feminine and girly in this ☆ word count: 13.4k words ☆ wrote half of this in spanish class so im sorry if there are mistakes, first time writing established relationship in full, kinda nervy

Jake Sim was many things.

One of the most popular and well-respected content creators on Youtube was one of them.

As Jake's nimble fingers darted across his keyboard, his other hand rested firmly on his mouth, he thought that the blue light emitting from his computer screen should burn his eyes. Except, it didn't. Despite what most people thought, 90% of being Youtuber was just simply staring at a computer screen, rather than being in front of a camera lens. The man felt his nose prickle before he let out a soundless, but satisfying, yawn. He leaned back against his office chair, stretching his neck and arms before he rubbed his eyes.

There was a reason that he was an extremely respected creator on Youtube.

For one, the production quality of his videos were high. Down to the Closed Captions or his camera's grain, Jake's attention to detail was immaculate. Not to mention, the content itself was magnificent. 

Whenever people asked Jake what he did for work, it was hard for him to answer.

He'd said that he made horror content, but he'd only earned incredulous looks, like he was a madman. Even then, "horror" content wasn't the correct description.

In short, Jake liked to make videos about obscure things. Which just so happened to be a little spooky. Sketchy true crime cases, searches for lost media, strange Internet phenomena, government cover-ups— Name anything a little bit eerie and Jake probably already covered something of that sort on his channel. Given the nature of his content, Jake almost always maintained a serious tone, but when the opportunity came to offer his opinion, he liked to relay it in a straightforward way. 

Another reason why he was so regarded was because of his content style. He preferred using darker colors, having a crisp microphone that picked up every rasp of his deeper voice. When he had camera shots, Jake liked to be in a dimly lit room. Unfortunately, his room was dark, too. 

This all combined together to create a singular image for Jake: the cool, high-quality, but a little bit scary, guy that likes to make videos about scary topics.

Now cracking his knuckles, Jake sucked in a sharp breath. Although he could easily export his upcoming video now and upload it, garnering millions of views, he refused to. There was something missing from it; it needed a little umph, a little embellishment to really pull things together. If there was one thing about Jake, it was that he'd put quality over quantity any day.

Jake is torn out of his thoughts when his phone, long forgotten next to his mouse, lit up. Usually, when he worked long afternoons like this, he silenced his phones in order to maintain focus.

However, there was always one exception.

You.

pretty girl: hi babe, do you think you can help me take promo pictures later?

The moment that Jake saw your contact show up, he picked up his phone immediately. His fingers tapped his screen, quickly responding to you.

me: yeah i can do it rn if you want

pretty girl: if youre busy, it doesn't need to be today, it can be tomorrow or something

pretty girl: oh

pretty girl: are you sure?

Of course he was.

Jake was already shutting off his monitor, grabbing his keys and shoving his feet into his shoes at your first message.

me: yeah i'll come over right now

You were Jake Sim's girlfriend. But other than the people in your personal life, no one else knew that.

Not that either of you minded.

Like Jake, you were a Youtuber. Except, your community was the complete opposite from his.

Your niche was cute makeup and lifestyle. Your videos had cute, blushy sets, characterized by cute plushies in the background and pretty, pink decorations. When you weren't making makeup tutorials or "get ready with me's," you were giving your viewers small sneak-peeks into your life. Whether it be your rosy morning skincare, or your sunny afternoon cooking attempts, or your illuminated late night thoughts, your content was light-hearted, soft, and personable. 

And if you weren't doing any of those things, you were modeling.

You were a beauty influencer, so you had sponsors from different makeup companies and such. What was most distinguishable from your personal brand was that you were one of Sanrio's biggest ambassadors. If there was someone that was the living embodiment of Hello Kitty, it was you.

Your personability, and your ability to feel authentic to your viewers, was a key factor in your large viewerbase. And what contributed to that the most was the fact that you had no idea how to use a camera. One would think that a content creator would know how to use a camera, but you were somehow the exception.

Not a problem!

Because you had your boyfriend, Jake!

Who was basically the master of content creation and film, in your opinion.

"Jakey!" you pounced on your boyfriend the moment he appeared at your apartment doorway. You threw your arms around his neck, immediately peppering his neck and cheeks with kisses. You heard him let out a few chuckles, feeling the rumble of his strong chest as he did. 

"Geez, babe, let me take my shoes off first," Jake teased you, taking in your sweet strawberry perfume. You immediately peeled yourself off of him, your lips forming a cute frown. 

"Shut up," you murmured, punching him on the arm while you jutted your bottom lip out. The lip tint and gloss on them shined, which made Jake grin. And when you noticed that he was staring at your lips, you gave him a gentle shove before saying again, “Shut up, Jakey.”

There it was, his favorite thing about you.

You were so, very, really, undeniably, mean to him.

Okay, that sounded weird.

But it was the truth.

Your relationship could be summed up in a few words—

You were just the cutest, and could barely contain your feelings for Jake, so you'd get all cuddly and affectionate with him. He'd tease you about it, so you'd get all shy and flustered, and you would begin to be mean to him. You'd call him stupid or annoying, and you'd tell him to go away but make no effort to resist his arms wrapping around your waist, pulling you against his chest. And then he would get to tease you more, until you were so embarrassed that you relented and let him kiss you.

How could he not resist teasing you?

You were always so pretty, with makeup or not, and it was easy to tease you since you got embarrassed so easily.

Even if he was holding his most expensive camera in his hands, he'd still let you pounce on him, if it meant that he got one extra kiss from you.

You led him to your bedroom. It had the same sweet, strawberry scent as you. Your room was pink, and along the walls were shelves, all filled with the many, many plushies that Jake bought you. Plopping onto your bed, Jake watched as you dug around your filming desk.

"Sooo," he started, "You're gonna do a promotional post on Instagram?"

You hummed. Sanrio recently launched a new line of lip tints, and they sent you their newest ones to review and promote. 

"I already made a review, and it's going to go up later," you said, digging through your drawers. "I want to make a promo post, too, y'know?"

You let out an 'a-ha!' as you found what you were looking for. It was a tube of lip-tint, the newest one from the collection. You then touched up your makeup a little more. 

Jake watched you in awe. The way you applied lip gloss and brushed setting powder (or was it blush? he didn't know anything about makeup) onto your cheeks was so mesmerizing, as you weren't already so captivating to him.

Finally, you stood up, straightening out your outfit. You puckered your lips, and when you noticed Jake staring at you, you gave him a little twirl.

"How do I look?" you asked. 

Jake, with his camera in hand, pointed the lens at you. He looked through the viewfinder.

"Beautiful." 

As always.

The shoot went smoothly. As you always did when Jake was your photographer, the two of you drove to the film studio, renting out a room for a good hour. Jake was a pro with the camera and you were an even bigger pro at modeling. Other than a few compositional edits or changes in exposure, you and Jake were done as soon as you started. The two of you decided that you’d go back to your place, cook dinner together, and maybe watch a movie.

Except that got delayed.

“Y-You’re so annoying, Jake,” you struggled out. You were in the back seat of your car, legs thrown over your boyfriend’s hips, his soft lips connected to your neck. Your fingers gently tugged on his hair, you yourself pressing soft pecks against his forehead and temples. It started because you gave Jake a kiss on the cheek as a ‘thank you,’ which spiraled into a makeout session in your car.

“What,” he breathed against your skin, dark eyes flickering up to yours. “You said you’d do anything to express your thanks for me.”

Jake kissed your neck again, before trailing up your throat to your jaw. Your fingers raked through his soft hair, pushing his dark locks out of his face so that you could see his face clearly. Jake reached up, took your hand out of his hair, and instead held your palm against his cheek, nuzzling into your warm hand. The way your eyes widened into saucers, lips parting, in response made the man’s lips curve upward.

“W-Well I thought you’d ask me to hug you… or something,” you said sheepishly, your voice soft as your boyfriend’s actions flustered you.

Jake grinned to himself internally before pulling away from you altogether. 

“Then do you want to stop?” Your eyes widened a fraction. “Then, let’s go hom—“

“No!” you cut him off, your hands squeezing his shoulders. “Let’s not!”

You stared at him, brows furrowed, for a few moments, before you noticed the growing grin on your boyfriend’s face. That look you knew too well, the one that said that he was going to tease the everlasting fuck out of you.

Jake pulled you in by the waist, close enough so that your chests touched, noses almost brushing against each other. He could feel the heat radiating off your face, and you could hear the smile in his voice.

“You sure you don’t wanna stop?” His voice was teasing, but you knew better. The earnest look in his eyes, you stared into yours, was filled with sincerity. He gave your waist a squeeze, almost as if to ask, “Do you actually want this?”

“Yes, Jakey,” you breathed against his lips, matter-of-factly. “I don’t wanna stop.”

The corner of his lips begin to lift.

“So you better kiss me,” you quipped, gripping his shoulders.

“Thought you’d never ask,” he rasped back, before attacking your lips.

(Later, when you were done, you two went home and went about your plan for the night. Except, you had to yell at Jake to go wash his face, because the sight of your lipstick at the corner of his lips was too much for you to take.)

"Hi, everyone!" you greeted the camera, folding your hands in your lap. With your thick, pink, knit sweater's sleeves falling over your wrists, you shot the lens a pretty smile. It was another normal day on the job of making content.

"As you guys know, VidCon is coming up soon." You pulled your makeup pouch toward your chest, leaning against the edge of your filming desk. "So, let's pack with me!"

Vidcon was an event for people to meet all of their favorite Youtubers. This year, you were invited to be one of the featured creators, given your popularity. As you filmed your "Pack with Me!" vlog, surrounded by ring lights aided by your windows cracked open, you recalled the email you had sent earlier, squeezing your eyes shut.

You see, Jake and you were both invited to VidCon. Since no one else, not even Youtube the corporation or your fellow Youtubers, knew that you guys were dating, Jake and you were given vastly different things. Youtube booked an entire hotel complex for all of its creators, and unfortunately, your room was located 10 floors below Jake's room. And worse, your booths and events were so far apart from each other that you probably wouldn't even see your boyfriend even if he decided to traverse the Convention. 

That's what you got for being vastly different content creators.

This year would be the first year that you and Jake got invited to VidCon, and you two wanted to share this experience with each other as much as possible.

Which is why you just shot Youtube one of the most embarrassing emails of your life.

"Hi, Youtube. The hotel complex you booked has a bar, and it is much closer to the top than the bottom. I really want to visit that bar. Can I request a room change so that my room is maybe on the 15th or 16th floors?" except add more formalities and much more discreet language, and that was the email you sent to your employers. You knew that it wouldn't be hard, and that the Youtube PR manager wouldn't reject your request. After all, you were the Sanrio beauty girl. Regardless, you'd gotten a response about an hour ago, and your request was approved, luckily. 

As you continued talking to your camera, folding your clothes neatly while chatting to your viewers about updates in your life, you thought about what you and Jake should do at VidCon. It was in the LA area, but you definitely wanted to visit other places in Southern California. 

It was no surprise that you and Jake had been more than touchy and close to each other. You were dating. Still, butterflies formed in your stomach as you thought about what you would do with him. Your face heated up at the thought of you and him spending time together in the hotel's rooftop hot-tub. The idea of him sneaking in your room at night, warming you up and pepperinging your cheeks with kisses, made your heart rate speed up, and you could only relish in the thought of exploring LA, Irvine, or wherever Jake wanted to take you with him.

You were a grown woman with a job and responsibilities, but the mere thought of your boyfriend being within the same vicinity as you made you nervous.

Just as you finished folding your clothes, you heard your front door crack open.

"Babe?" you hear Jake's voice call out your name. You turn off your camera to greet him, swearing to forget all of the thoughts you just had. Except, the moment that you locked eyes with him, all determination to not be teased left your body. Your lips wobbled, trying to bite back that stupid, bashful, and lovesick smile that made its way onto your face when you thought about Jake, but your eyes gave it all away. Instead of throwing yourself at him like you usually did, you only reached for the hem of his black T-shirt, playing with it sheepishly. 

You mumbled a small, "Hi."

You could feel Jake staring at you, and you could hear the way his lips curve into a smug, shit-eating grin.

"Shut up," you told him, your eyebrows crashing together.

"Baby, I didn't even say anything," Jake said, his hands finding their place on your lower back.

You felt shy and exposed before him. "Well, I know you're going to say something."

Jake grasped your chin, gently making you look at him. You tried to avoid his eyes, but it was impossible to avoid those dreamy, caramel eyes. Then, he took your face with both his hands, leaning in.

Was he going to kiss you? Oh my god, he was! Quick! What do you do? You felt like you were going to melt.

Instinctively, your hands tightened on the hem of his shirt, the black fabric scrunching in your fists. You closed your eyes, your lips softly puckering. You could feel him coming closer and closer, until his breath fanned your cheek.

As if he hadn't kissed you a million times before, your heart felt like it was going to fall out of your chest. 

Jake ghosted his lips over yours, inching just close enough that he could brush his lip against yours. 

And then, he pulled away from you. He took off his shoes, placed down his keys, and made his way into your bedroom, leaving you there standing alone.

Heat spread across your face and neck and ears as you realized your boyfriend had just teased you once again. You hid your face in your palms, letting out a small whine of embarrassment, before recollecting yourself and joining your boyfriend.

"Woah, what's going on here, babe?" Jake asked, standing at your bedroom doorway. 

"Oh." There was clothes and film equipment sprawled across your floor and bed. "I was filming a video."

You saw Jake's expression twitch, before he took your hands in his.

"My bad, was I interrupting something?" He was sincere in how his face showed a small drop of guilt for disrupting your filming. How could someone be such a tease one moment yet be so genuine the next?

"No, it's okay, Jakey," you said. "I mean, I need to finish my video, but I don't mind if you're around."

And that's how you found yourself trying not to burst out laughing as you filmed your video. Jake kept making funny faces at you, that goofy grin growing on his face as he wiggled his eyebrows at you.

"Jake, stop making faces!" you laughed, throwing a shirt at him.

He dodged it, throwing his head back into one of the plushies that he bought you. "I'm not doing anything!"

You threw another shirt at him, this time hitting him square in the face. Instead of admitting defeat, Jake only grabbed your shirt, pulling the fabric to his nose and taking a long, dramatic, sniff. 

"You smell sooooo good, babe," he said, ignoring your contorted expression, "I think I'm gonna keep this. You won't mind, right?"

"Ugh, Jaaaaakee!"

You plopped on top of him in bed. You felt his chest rumble as chuckles left his lips, rolling your eyes at him. You gave his chest a smack, a pout forming on your lips.

"You're so annoying," you mumbled as his hands slithered up to your hips. He gave your ass a pat, gesturing you to adjust your position. You did, sitting up so that you straddled your boyfriend's hips.

"And you're so pretty," he said, squeezing your hipbone.

"Let go of me," you poked him in the chest, but made no attempt to get off of him. 

"No."

"I need to finish my video," you pouted, still not moving to get off of him. 

"I don't care." Jake instead sat up on his elbows, his hands sliding down to your lower back, his face getting suspiciously close to your boobs. "Just lay with me."

Your fingers ran through his dark locks, before giving them a tug towards your chest. Jake laid his cheek against your boobs like they were pillows, arms wrapped around your waist. You could feel his hot breath against your skin and neck. The next thing you knew, he was pressing sticky kisses against your chest and neck, soft gasps escaping your lips.

"Sorry, babe," he muttered against the shell of your ear, "I just can't resist you."

You let out a soft "ahhh!" when he bit down on your skin, his teeth brushing against the nape of your neck. Jake briefly pulled away, a smirk making its way onto his face as he admired the red-purple mark on your neck. 

"You're just too addicting."

Long story short, your video was still finished and uploaded. As Jake edited his video, he let yours play in the background, your bright voice illuminating his dark room. Somehow, your voice was the only thing that made him focus. 

However, when he heard a familiar laugh— his laugh— in your video, Jake stopped in his tracks.

His mind flashed back to what happened the other day in your apartment, when he interrupted you during your filming.

"I don't know if I turned off my camera, Jake," you had purred as Jake's tongue dipped into your collarbone. At that point, both you and him were shirtless, hair disheveled and pupils blown out with desire. Jake remembered the electricity that ran through him as those words left your lips.

"Am I supposed to care?" he had muttered, trailing kisses down your chest. "If they hear us, that's not my problem."

It was almost like you, who edited your video, added that clip to tease him. 

Immediately, his cheeks began turning the brightest shade of red possible. If you were here, he would have only coughed and looked away shyly, but since he was alone, his embarrassment spread across his face like a wildfire. Jake almost never showed it when he was flustered, at least when he was around you. 

He hid his face in his palms, sucking in a sharp breath. He squeezed his eyes shut, warmth prickling his skin. You were going to be the death of him. He let out a small, lovesick giggle, one that his friends would flame him for. He couldn't help it, not if it was you. 

When he read the comments, still flustered out of his mind, he felt a twinge of disappointment when no one seemed to notice him. 

For some reason, Jake couldn’t help but want people to know that you were his. He knew that you and him kept your relationship private to preserve it, but he still wanted to show you off.

Except, one comment caught his eye.

“Wait, does [Name] have a boyfriend? Who laughed at 6:34?” it read. Jake’s heart skipped a beat in his chest. The warmth that spread across his chest as his lips pulled upwards. He almost wanted to jump on his bed and roll around while giggling like a schoolgirl, but he contained himself.

At the corner of his eye, Jake spotted a certain plushie. 

As you were a partner of Sanrio, for a time there was a Limited Edition [Name] plushie, clad in pink with a cute, ruffle-lace bow to top it all off. Of course he bought one the moment it launched. Jake preferred his room to be completely dark and black, but he liked to keep that plushie on his bed, and although he’d never admit it, he hugged it when he slept if you weren’t with him.

Would it be wrong of him to tease you back? After all, Jake still had to film the brand deal for his new video. 

Would it hurt to position the plushie just enough so that it was in frame? 

So that maybe someone would see it.

Vidcon came crashing on you and Jake like a meteor, and before the two of you knew it, you were in the venue, wringing your fingers as the event commenced.

Sometimes, it was difficult for you to comprehend the level of your popularity. Sure, the numbers that Youtube loved to display for you told you that you had millions watching you, but mere numerical figures were simply not enough for you to wrap your mind around.

Your schedule that day was simple: you were going to have a booth that you'd tend to for an hour or two, where your fans could take pictures with you and take a few freebies with them. Then, you'd go to your main event, which was in a smaller venue.

At your booth, where you sat currently, your personal table was set up in a very special way: your table was pink, and covered in a lacy, white tablecloth. Even the wall behind you was specifically painted pink and decorated with various Sanrio-esque decorations. You had stickers that you'd give out, as well as a Limited Edition Vidcon Sanrio plushie of you that people could buy. The pink polaroid decorated with Hello Kitty stickers hung around your neck with a pink lanyard. You genuinely looked like Sanrio and Hello Kitty vomited all over you, but you didn't mind. And plus, that didn't matter, because you were cute either way.

You were hit with pure surprise as multiple groups of fans came your way. The amount of people that came to you, rambling nervously about how much they loved you, how much they looked up to you, how much you inspired them and made their days better, made you feel light-headed. And very warm inside.

Jake was the one that did the talking for you (thank goodness!), but for some reason, you pushed through your usual shyness, instead wanting for people to come up to you and talk.

Your face lit up as one of your fans, a girl that looked around your age, maybe only a few years younger than you, approached you. You could tell by the Sanrio sticker of you on her phone case that she was most definitely here for you.

"Oh my gosh, hi [Name]!" She gazed at you with wide, glimmering eyes. 

Your initial reaction was surprise, but then you broke out into a smile. You cocked your head, fingers gripping the hem of your dress, both nervous and excited. "Hi, there."

You fan took one look at your face, and squealed. The way that she giggled, bouncing on her feet as she fangirled over you made warmth spread across your cheeks, getting shy and looking down briefly.

"I'm sorry, [Name]!" Your fan couldn't stop giggling, which you thought was very cute. It was now that you noticed the camera in your hand. "I just really love your content, and I'm just so excited to meet you in real life!"

You blinked at her a few times, before you smile only widened. 

"Don't worry about it!" you said, taking her free hand in yours. Your shyness melted away as your fan squealed again. "It really means a lot to me that you came out here to personally see me."

Your eyes flickered over to her camera, squeezing her hand and motioning to it with your other. "Can I...?"

She nodded enthusiastically, so you took her camera. Turn on the 'photo' setting, you posed for the camera, taking multiple pictures of yourself for her. You hoped that that would make up for your shyness. The two of you hugged, and you took many polaroids for her.

Almost immediately, after she left, you were tagged in a Twitter thread. It was that fan, reporting her experience with you.

"She was so much prettier in real life, I thought I was in heaven," her tweets detailed, "And [Name] was so sweet! It felt like I was meeting the real life Hello Kitty."

She posted the pictures you took on her camera, and then the videos. You couldn't help but grin like an idiot, especially at the comments (and the rapidly-accumulating likes and retweets).

"The way [Name] gets so shy is so cute!"

"I don't really watch beauty content but I love [Name] so much."

"She's like an actual Disney Princess."

You loved your fans, you really did. You were grateful for them, and you thought they were very cute. 

You were excited to see how Vidcon would treat you.

Jake was fighting.

He was fighting demons, wars, the little voices in his head.

Did you have to look so pretty today?

Jake's own event was an entire venue away from yours. He had a few events, so after his first one, he took a small break, where he looked through his notifications. 

Of course, the first thing he looked at was your texts. They were from a while ago, during his show when he didn't have his phone on him, so he responded to them now. He smiled at your cute texts, expressing how excited and happy you were. His heart jumped out of his chest when he saw the selfie you sent him: there you were, in all your cutesy Sanrio glory, smiling so prettily for him. Jake had to clasp his face to hide the stupid, love-struck grin that bled onto his face. 

"Oi, what're you giggling about?" Jake was interrupted by Jay, another one of his fellow horror Youtubers.

Jake immediately wiped his expression clean. "Nothing."

When he glanced back at his phone, that dumb grin began to form again.

Jay groaned. "This is so weird. It's like watching Batman smile."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jake scoffed.

"I'm sayin' that you're basically Youtube's Batman," Jay scrunched his nose, "And it's weird seein' you all... smiley and stuff."

"I literally smiled earlier!"

"Not in the way that you did just now. I have a bad feeling about it."

"Shut up!"

Jake really tried his best to swallow back his pure admiration for you as he opened his phone screen again, but he failed miserably.

He wished he could see you right now. He loved to see his fans, he loved to talk to them about their shared interest: all things horror and obscure.

But Jake missed you right now.

His heart plummeted to his stomach, however, when he logged onto Twitter, and saw the worst hashtag he could ever think of: #[Name]isSoCute.

He agreed with it. No, he embraced that sentiment with every molecule in his being.

Just... he wished that he could see you right now. When he checked the tag and saw all the cute pictures that people took of you and the sweet experiences they had with you, he frowned— That should be him!

However, Jake actually saw the worst thing to ever materialize when he saw the top video under the tag.

It was a shaky video, starting off with a teenage boy walking up to you. In the background, he could hear your pretty voice in the background, exchanging small greetings and words with the poster. Jake was almost lost in his sheer love for you when his eyes narrowed. The boy in the video let out a little chuckle, before dropping a cheesy pick-up line on you.

"[Name], if you were a vegetable, you'd be a cute-cumber." What made it worse was that you only giggled, leading the boy to drop a few other dumb pick-up lines. The camera panned up to you, showing you all smiley and bashful. Then, you and the boy hugged, before taking a few polaroids together.

Jake almost snapped his phone in half.

He understood better than anyone that you were a content creator just like him. It was part of the job to interact with fans, and given your character, of course you were sweet to them. He could tell that you were perfectly comfortable in the video, and that the kid probably was just joking around with his favorite Youtuber.

But did that stop Jake from mentally lambasting every single aspect of the video? Absolutely not.

Shaky camera, probably filmed on a phone, Jake's hands balled into fists, Fucked up aperture, exposure to low, bad mic.

Was he being a little immature? Yes, and Jake knew that. 

Though, Jake would admit that he agreed with a lot of comments and retweets under that post, hearting many of them in agreement.

"[Name] is such a cutie!" one read.

Absolutely.

"I love her so much," another read.

Me too, Jake thought.

"I want her so bad."

Just as Jake's finger hovered over the 'heart' button, he let out a small hmph. Did it annoy him that other people wanted you? Yes. But did he disagree with the comment? Nope. He pressed the "like" button.

He wanted to see you so bad. As Jake was queued up on stage, ready for his second event, he hoped that he could see you soon.

And his wish came true a few hours later.

It was now past noon, and Vidcon was in its (unofficial) intermission period, where a lot of the creators were now taking breaks. As Jake traversed the convention, he texted you trying to find a spot where the two of you could meet.

He passed the many booths and venues of his fellow Youtubers. The layout was unique in the way that Youtubers of similar genres were placed in similar areas. So when he started seeing Youtubers with bright makeup and problematic pasts, Jake knew that he was near you.

And lo and behold, soon he found you. Under the fluorescent light, you still glowed. There was some kind of halo around you as you turned over your shoulder, your face instantly brightening up as you spotted your boyfriend. You had a few fans that you were talking to at the moment, so you tended to them first, while Jake made his way over to you.

You and Jake agreed that you wouldn't make your relationship too obvious at Vidcon, but all of that was left forgotten the moment that Jake saw you. 

However, as you ran up to him, people couldn't help but stop and stare.

Why wouldn't they? You were the living embodiment of Sanrio, that one Hello Kitty girl, whereas Jake was that one guy that made scary content and was often shrouded in darkness, dubbed as Youtube's personal Batman. Absolutely no one would have expected to see the two of you interacting with one another, let alone be within the same vicinity.

"Hi, Jakey," you smiled up at him, and Jake thought that he could die right there. With the amount of people staring, Jake had to restrain himself from throwing his arms around you and hugging you.

"Hey, baby," he grinned. 

Before either of you could do anything, you and Jake were interrupted by a shrill squeal. You whipped your heads around to see a young girl and her older brother, who still looked relatively young. They explained nervously that the girl liked your content, while the brother liked Jake's content. They were expecting to scour in order for each of them to meet either of you, but were surprised to see you and Jake in one place.

You and Jake took a few pictures with them, both individually. Though, the two of them requested a picture with both you and Jake in the same frame, which you happily did.

When they left, you and Jake shared a look, before going off together.

Vidcon Day 1: Over.

Jake returned to his hotel room, too tired to do anything other than wash up and order room service. 

As Jake laid in his half-hard hotel mattress, he scrolled through his phone. He was tagged in a lot of pictures and tweets, and he found himself grinning at a lot of the sweet words his fans left. Although he was tired, he could definitely do this a few more times, feeling invigorated by his fans.

As he scrolled, the trending Twitter hashtag caught his eye.

#HelloKittyMeetsBatman.

Interesting name, he thought as he clicked on it.

Jake's heart skipped a beat as he saw what came up.

Apparently, people were extremely surprised to see you and Jake so close to each other. 

There were so many pictures of you and him taken together from afar just from that one instance earlier, from multiple different angles and distances. Jake would admit, the way he was dressed in all black while you were dressed in cute pinks and whites was almost laughable.

What truly caught his attention were the captions of all these pictures.

"Craziest crossover of 2024."

"I'm crying they legitimately look like Hello Kitty and Batman."

"Jake Sim and [Name] interacting was not on my Vidcon 2024 bingo card."

"This is like seeing two worlds collide, absolutely wild but I'm pleasantly surprised."

For the most part, it seemed like everyone just thought that you and Jake were friends, but it was still a little funny how taken aback the entire internet was.

Then, he saw the picture of you, him, and those two kids together. 

"They look like a family," was one of the most popular retweets under that post. 

Family.

That word rang through Jake's head, before he buried his face in one of the pillows, giggling to himself. He felt a little ridiculous getting so excited over such a small comment, but he couldn't help it. He felt so giddy inside at the thought of having a family with you, and felt even giddier knowing that people could see it, too.

Suddenly, his phone rang. Jake wasn't going to answer it, too caught up in his flustered-ness, but when he realized that it was you, he quickly cleared his throat, instinctively straightening out his hair (because what if he accidentally turns on his camera?-- he needed to look good for you!).

"Baby," he greeted suavely, as if he wasn't just giggling like a schoolgirl seconds ago.

Maybe it was the fact that it was already getting late, or the fact that Jake barely saw you today, or the fact that you were just so goddamn perfect, but your voice sounded so attractive in that moment.

"Jakeyyy," you whined. "Come over."

His chest was already throbbing but Jake played it cool.

He chuckled. "What for?"

"I miss you," he could hear the pout in your voice. "And I want your attention."

It was rare for you to be so direct with him, and while Jake wanted to melt on the spot, he wanted to tease you a bit longer.

"What's wrong with just being on the phone with me?" Jake's lips pulled into a smirk. "You can just talk to me like this."

"Noooo," you said. "I want— I want you."

Jake tried his best to not crumble then and there, but it was too hard.

"Fuck," he muttered under his breath. "Okay then, baby. I'll come over right now."

He didn't miss the cute little "yay!" you let out before you hung up.

You were going to be the death of him.

"Eep! Jake, what are you doing here—?!”

You’re cut off when you realized that you were, in fact, backstage of one of your events. Today was the second day of Vidcon, and you had just finished up your first event. As you went backstage, carrying the little bags of gifts that your fans got you, you didn’t expect your own boyfriend to be waiting back there for you.

“Hey there, Princess,” he said cheekily, sprawled across the backstage couch. "Miss me?"

He opened his arms up, and you instinctively crawled into them, sitting on his lap and sliding your arms around his neck. 

As you did, you eyed him up and down.

Clad in black as always, he wore a black button-up, paired with black slacks, a black belt, and a loose, black tie. That's right: today, Jake was going to have a panel with a whole bunch of other horror creators, ones that transcended the internet— authors, authors that Jake spent his whole life reading and looking up to, which explained why he was dressed significantly more proper today than yesterday.

The way his shirt fit his chest and hugged his shoulders made it hard for you to not stare, and the way that it wasn't buttoned at the top, revealing his honey-tan collarbones, mixed with the scent of his rich cologne, made you feel dizzy.

"Ay, are you checkin' me out?"

On any other day, you'd be embarrassed, maybe even pushing him away, but today, you only nodded your head, humming mindlessly in agreement.

Jake blinked at you, before he pulled you in by the waist so that you were flushed against his chest completely.

"Kiss me," you mumbled, pushing his dark bangs away from his face.

Jake chuckled, rubbing your cheek with his knuckles. "What's with you these days? Getting so bold."

You only leaned into his touch. Maybe it was sometime in the LA air, or maybe it was the vigor that your fans gave you earlier, but all you could do was look at your boyfriend with glossy, wide eyes innocently, watching the way that his resolve trembled.

"Shit," Jake cursed under his breath. "Hold on—"

He grabbed your hips, then tilted your chin so that he could have a better angle. Your lips crashed into one another. Not in the way that a meteor would crash into Earth's delicate atmosphere, but in the way that gentle sea waves crashed onto themselves, dark folds of blue creasing over each other, only to brush up against the foamy seashore, none the wiser. 

Jake liked the taste of your lip gloss; it tasted sweet, but not nearly as sweet as you, hungrily squeezing your hips in his hands. He swiped his tongue over your bottom lip, earning a squeal from you, who tugged on his hair. 

When you pulled away from each other, you were breathless, chests heaving not for air, but for each other. You stared at each other for a few moments, losing time in each other's eyes, when your eyes trailed down.

God, the button-up and tie were going to drive you crazy.

Without thought, your fingers twirled around his tie, slinking up his chest before you yanked him harshly, jerking Jake toward you abruptly. 

In a moment of pure, unadulterated boldness, you attacked his neck, laying sticky kisses all across his skin. One hand laced itself in Jake's hair, keeping a firm hold of his tilted head, while your other hand crept around the buttons of his shirt. 

Each soft sigh that Jake let out made you only press more kisses on him. When he let out one particularly loud whine, his arm jerking up to grab at the couch's armrest, you knew that you found the sensitive spot on his neck. You pressed another kiss on that spot, this time sinking your teeth into his skin. The hickey was dark and purple, and when you ran your tongue over it, Jake's hands shot to your hips again.

"Shit, [Name], wait a sec—"

Skillfully, your fingers began to slowly unbutton Jake's shirt, just enough that you could see more of his chest. 

Your head was feeling fuzzy now, drunk off your desire for him. The way he threw his head back, his Adam's apple bobbing with each gulp of air he took in, curses falling from his lips, sent electricity coursing through your body.

When you unbuttoned the last button, you noticed the way Jake's eyes were squeezed shut, his other arm resting over them, hands balled into fists as his desperation for you increased.

"Jakey," you said. Jake was going to go mad, the way your voice was so soft and innocent as it said his name, all the while you were kissing and touching him in ways that made him go light-headed. He squeezed his eyes shut, another whimper escaping his lips. If he looked you in the eye right now, he was sure that he'd burst. "I want you to look at me."

He couldn't refuse you. Immediately, he opened his eyes, the arm strewn over his face dropping back to its position on your hips.

If he didn't die by combustion, Jake was certain that he'd die now— Your pupils were blown out, eyes lidded and staring at him like he was your prey to be slaughtered. He'd seen you wrought with desire so many times before, but the way you gazed at him like he was a piece of meat, like you were going to absolutely ruin him, made him feel weak.

"Watch me, Jakey," your voice sounded so sweet, but your actions said otherwise. You abruptly got up from your seat on his lap, Jake frowning at the loss of your touch. You dug through your purse thrown across the room, returning with a tube of lipstick.

You plopped back onto Jake's lap, making sure that he was watching as you applied it to your pretty, swollen lips. 

Then, you discarded it, throwing your lipstick to the side as you snatched his tie again. You brought the black fabric to your lips, staring your boyfriend down as you pressed kisses on his tie. You kissed it a few times, making sure that the color of your lipstick, as well as the shape of your lips, was well-imprinted on it.

Then, you yanked his shirt's collar toward you, pressing a harsh kiss on the fabric, making sure that the shape of your lips was once again imprinted on the fabric.

You looked back up at his face, unable to hide your smugness as his entire expression was painted with red.

"You're so hot—" Jake attempted to force out of his throat, but you only cut him off with a rough kiss to his lips. Without a word, you covered his face, from his forehead to his jaw, with kisses.

You pulled back to admire your work, before you pulled away from him.

"I have to be on stage in a few minutes," you said quietly, your back turned to him as you straightened out your skirt. Dumbfounded, Jake could only stare at you, but when you turned over your shoulder, flashing him a bright, but terribly cheeky, grin, Jake's heart fell out of chest. "I can't be late, right?"

With that, you left your boyfriend, all hot and bothered, on the couch, running off to prepare for your next event.

Almost immediately, Jake melted. He threw an arm over his eyes as he leaned back, letting out a groan.

Was this how you felt when he teased you?

Was he now sexually frustrated? Absolutely. But now he wanted you even more.

After mulling over it for a few minutes, Jake began to go back to his venue. But, as he passed the backstage vanity, he caught sight of himself in the mirror.

Some of it was obvious to him already: disheveled hair, messed up shirt. But what made Jake want to evaporate was the sight of his entire face and neck covered in lipstick marks. The corner of his lip had a big lipstick smudge, the hickey that you gave him earlier was so dark now, and he couldn't even dare to forget your lip imprints on his shirt and tie.

You little tease.

Jake's last straw was.... right now.

After the backstage fiasco, he didn't get to see you all day. That night, you had a PR event to attend with your fellow beauty creators, so he didn't get to see you at night either.

Which was why Jake was practically glowing with a dark and negative storm cloud as he pranced around the third day of Vidcon. It didn't help that he saw so many pictures of you and fans all across platforms. Poor guy almost lost it when one of your fans' vlogs blew up, the most replayed part being when you let out the most angelic and sweet laughs he'd ever heard in his life.

That should be him!

Meanwhile, Jake sat in the convention room at a panel. Lined up along the table were other horror creators, from authors to Youtubers to filmmakers, similar to yesterday. The way that this specific event operated was simple: fans got to ask anyone on the panel questions and they'd answer, which the entire room got to hear, and later there would be one-on-ones along the panel.

Jake was pulled out of his thoughts when one of the fans said that they had a question for him.

"Jake, your videos take a long time to make, how do you balance work and your personal life?"

Good question. He had a simple principle when it came to how to balance everything. Jake thought about it for a moment, before reaching for his microphone.

"I don't have any outright method," he began. Jake's mind flashed with your image: all the cute messages you'd send him throughout the day, all the times where after hours of rotting in front of his computer screen he could always count on your loving embrace to give him life, all times that he'd tune into your Spotify playlist so that he could be listening to what you were listening. It was easy to balance work and life, if it was you. "But I always put my life before the screen."

The room was quiet, intently listening to what Jake had to say. After all, he was renowned all across the Internet.

The room was quiet, intently listening to what Jake had to say. After all, he was renowned all across the Internet.

"To be clear, I understand the privilege of getting to work in a profession like mine," Jake continued. "I don't expect everyone to be able to follow my advice exactly, but the more I live, the more I realize that what happens before my very eyes will endlessly matter so much more than what happens in my own little Youtube bubble."

Jake's mouth jumped to you faster than his mind could stop him.

"My beautiful girlfriend is everything to me," he unconsciously began to grin stupidly to himself, "I'd put her above work any day if I had to."

The moment that those words left his lips, the room erupted with gasps and whispers.

"Wait, you have a girlfriend?!" one of Jake's Youtuber friends asked, leading the room to laugh.

Oh.

Shit.

Jake's eyes visibly widened. He clutched his microphone, bringing it up to his mouth, but no words came out.

There was no way in hell that he'd outright deny you, not even in a million years.

"I.... Well..." Jake stammered, trying his best to generate any words at all. He sucked in a sharp breath, a bashful expression making its way onto his face. "That's..."

The room filled with more laughter, alongside the teasing grins and pats on the back that Jake got from his colleagues.

"Oh, so that's what you were giggling about yesterday, lover boy..." Jay, also on the panel, quipped, his brows raised so high on his forehead that it could have touched his hairline.

"Sh-Shut up, Jay!"

Jake's chest felt fizzy. In a weird way.

A part of him felt on-edge. You and him always wanted to keep your relationship secret, for the sake of preserving it. He'd seen what the Internet did to relationships: it tore them apart. It wasn't like he name-dropped you, but he felt so... exposed, so vulnerable.

But at the same time, Jake felt his chest also swell with pride. That's right. He had a girlfriend (a hot girlfriend at that), a girlfriend that he was nefariously down bad for. He hoped everyone knew that, that he was taken and that if there was anyone that he'd spend the rest of his life with, it would be you.

Jake huffed. "Yeah, I have a girlfriend. What about it?"

No one questioned him further. Probably out of fear.

You were in the middle of trying your best to get through a conversation with some beauty guru that you knew one thing about: their personal makeup line launch failed horribly and they gave everyone hairy lipsticks. It was difficult, to say the least.

Exchanging your final regards, you quickly rushed back to your booth.

The first thing you saw when you checked your phone was a viral video, in which Jake admitted that he had a girlfriend. Your heart plummeted to your stomach when you initially read the caption, but when you watched the video, you had a difficult time processing your feelings.

Did you hate that Jake admitted that he had a girlfriend? … No, you didn’t. You didn’t at all. At a certain point, seeing the way that your boyfriend smiled so earnestly made your heart jump out of your chest. The way he was so giddy and smiley (of course, only you could tell that that was how he was feeling— to everyone else it probably looked like he was brooding) made your neck and cheeks warm up.

But, the way that the room erupted with voices and laughter, combined with the quirked brows of everyone on the panel, made you quiver.

You weren’t prepared for it, for how vulnerable you felt as a chorus of “ooh’s” filled the room.

Frankly, there were too many things that you had to focus on at the moment. You'd rather enjoy Vidcon now, and address it later, when things settle down. 

Pushing it to the back of your mind, you tucked your phone away, greeting another wave of fans. Though, not without taking an extra second to "heart" the post, adding it to your favorites folder, and rewatching the video one more time, feeling warmth and giddiness filling your chest.

As the cool night air kissed your cheeks, you fought the shy smile that seeped onto your face. It was late now, late enough that you could see all the city lights gleaming, lighting up the dark sky with blotches of all different colors.

There was a Vidcon party for creators, to celebrate the end of the event. Everyone was going. Although it was meant for any creator, there was a very exclusive VIP section; only those of high prestige could get in. Both you and Jake were invited, but upon realizing that nearly the entire hotel complex would be empty due to the popularity of the party, the two of you ditched it.

You'd been wanting to go to the rooftop hottub for a while now, but you never went because you wanted to go with Jake, and it was always too crowded for the two of you to go there comfortably. But now that everyone was gone, it was the perfect time.

Your boyfriend was already waiting for you up there, towel thrown over his shoulder with a shirt and swim trunks. His face lit up the moment he saw yours emerging from the elevator doors, rushing over to you to take your hands.

He paused for a moment. His dark eyes peered at yours, licking his lips before sucking in a sharp breath. Jake gave your forehead a peck, before saying a small "C'mon" and pulling you over to the hottub.

Jake took your towel for you, folding it next to his and perching it on a sunchair.

"They're gonna get off fireworks soon— Oh, damn," he cut himself off as you pulled your shirt over your head, revealing a bikini top. Your face scrunched up, squirming under his gaze. It's not like Jake has never seen you like this (in fact, he'd seen you in much more compromising positions), and it wasn't like he never complimented you, but as the hottub bubbled, the rosy scent of the water filling the air, you felt shy.

Jake slinked toward you, taking his own shirt off. 

"Hey there, Gorgeous," he said, his fingers playing with the hem of your shorts that had yet to be taken off. Your heart pounded in your chest, fighting the urge to squeeze your eyes shut and groan in embarrassment. You kept your eyes glued to the ground. Jake chuckled softly, before clutching your chin gently, making you look up at him.

"Don't get shy on me now, babe," Jake grinned when your lips pressed into an unconscious pout. He squished your cheek, relishing in the look of confusion painted across your face. Then, his hands fell to your hips, pulling them toward his. "You look so beautiful."

Jake's fingers hooked onto the hem of your shorts, meeting your eyes for permission before pulling them down himself, revealing your bikini bottoms.

Jake's eyes glazed over your figure, taking his bottom lip in between his teeth.

"Jaaakee," you whined, squeezing his hands.

"Sorry," Jake's eyes flickered up to your face. "I can't help it. You're just so hot, baby."

You rolled your eyes, biting back shyness, before you pulled him toward the hottub.

You rolled your eyes, biting back shyness, before you pulled him toward the hottub. 

The two of you got into the tub, sinking into the warm water, you felt your limbs relax. 

Vidcon was very fun, some of the most fun you've had in a while. But, it was very tiring, having to be around so many people at a time. And plus, it was hard not seeing your boyfriend whenever you wanted.

You pulled your knees to your chest. You could hear the loud techno music a few blocks away, probably coming from the club nearby. The bright night lights of LA was something that you could only imagine sleeping under.

Other than the sound of the city bustles, the hot tub’s jet system, and the occasional ripple of water, the night was silent.

“How was your day?” Jake broke the calm silence. The way the blueish water reflected off his skin made you dizzy.

“Good,” You cursed your voice for being so small. You swallowed the lump in your throat. You didn’t know why you felt so nervous. It was your boyfriend, for goodness’s sake!

Jake loved it when you were shy, but sometimes he was genuinely worried about you. Part of why he loved you was the game that was trying to figure out what was going on in that pretty head of yours.

He reached out for you, clutching your knee. "Baby, what's wrong?"

Your stomach churned. For a second, you thought about that video of him admitting that he had a girlfriend. It made your skin crawl, but when your boyfriend squeezed your knee, it all stopped.

"Nothing," you said simply.

There's a few pulses of silence, before Jake clicked his tongue.

"H-Hey—!"

Jake got up from the water, wrapping his hands around your waist, and hoisted you up so that your legs were thrown on either side of the body, before sitting back down so that you were perched right on top of his lap.

Your chest, nearly bare, pressed against his own bare chest in a way that made your heart race. The warmth of his skin as it contacted yours was an addicting feeling, enhanced only by the warm water surrounding you. Either it was the steam from the tub, or the heat collecting between the two of your bodies, that rose to your cheeks.

You rested your hands on his chest, your fingertips barely reaching his broad shoulders, while Jake’s hands stayed in their spot around your waist.

"C'mon," you could feel Jake's warm, strong chest rumble beneath you. "Tell me what's wrong."

Under the sky, his eyes gleamed, like two gems. For the flirt that he was, Jake was too genuine and pure of a person. The sincere worry in his eyes made you feel warm, even warmer than you felt right now. And sometimes that was enough for you.

You leaned into him, your hands coming up to cup his face. You rubbed your thumbs against his cheeks, to which he let his eyelids fall shut, relishing in the comfort that was your presence. Every time your thumb pressed against his lips, he kissed them, unable to hide the smile growing on his lips when you giggled softly.

At the corner of your eye, you spotted the purple hickey you left on him the other day. That combined with his wet hair, the water droplets temptingly running down his chest, and the fact that you were right on top of him made you feel light-headed.

Your hands left his face, and Jake opened his mouth to whine about it, but was shut up when your fingers tangled in his damp hair, pulling him in for a kiss.

It was a soft, innocent kiss, the type you gave when you just wanted to be close to him. Jake hummed against your lips, squeezing your thighs. You pulled away first, but Jake gently guided the back of your head back to his, pecking your lips.

"I just missed you," you said. You kissed his cheek. "I really missed you."

"It's only been a day," Jake teased you, but he knew better than anyone that he had absolutely no right to say that to you: he was practically dying each moment he couldn't see you.

The two of you sat in silence for a moment, staring into each other's eyes. You held onto his strong shoulders, eyes glued to his lips. You were feeling needy, needy in the way that you simply wanted to be close to Jake. You were already close to him, but you wanted to be even closer. Your heart thirsted for it.

Then, you heard a rustle, whipping your head around toward the sound.

"Nuh-uh," Jake whispered in your ear, gently holding your face and guiding it to look at him. "I want you to look at me."

It wasn't until a few seconds later that you understood why Jake's tone sounded so teasing: he was referencing you and him the other day backstage. 

"Stoppp," you whined, pushing your face into his neck. "You're so annoying."

Jake laughed, his chest rumbling. He stopped to admire the way you were all pressed up against him. He could feel every curve of your body, and he could feel the way your cheeks puffed with air, your lips forming a pout. He poked your cheek.

"You're so cute, baby."

"I know."

"What's with you getting so bold?"

"You're annoying me."

"Awww, you love me so—"

Fireworks fired off in the distance, painting the gray-blue sky with bright colors. 

You stayed in your position, only your eyes moving upward to admire the show. However, Jake stayed staring straight at you, practically ignoring the fiery flowers forming in the sky. He gazed into your eyes, watching the reflection in them.

"It's so pretty," you murmur.

"Yeah," Jake felt like he was falling into your eyes, "So pretty."

Just as another round of fireworks shot up into the sky, Jake grabbed your face, crashing his lips onto yours. Your lips fit into each other well, like puzzle pieces, in a way that was so satisfying, almost like you were made for kissing Jake. But for all of the desire and roughness that the kiss was filled with, it was a soft one. 

Jake swiped his tongue over your bottom lip, making you squeal and giving him the opportunity to slip his tongue into your mouth. His hands kneaded your body, roaming all over you with no intention of leaving a single part of your skin untouched. Likewise, you gripped his biceps, digging your nails into his skin to keep yourself grounded.

"Fuck—" Jake mumbled against your lips, only to get cut off by your lips attacking his— "Wait—"

Jake tasted sweet, like candy. He tasted like home, like love, like everything was going to be okay no matter what. How could you pull away now? 

"B-Baby, wait—"

"Stop talking, Jakey," you pulled away briefly, only to bite his lip, pulling on the pink flesh with your teeth. You let your tongue roam his mouth, feeling the warmth as your own hands began to wander his toned chest. 

"Just kiss me," you breathed.

You kept Jake like this for a few more minutes, trapping him in the heaven that was your lips. But when your bikini top began to untie at the back, something that Jake noticed immediately, he ripped away from you.

Something in his eyes had changed.

Quietly, he tied your bikini top back for you, ignoring your confused (and very breathless) gaze.

"If you keep doing what you do to me," he began into your ear, "I don't know if I'll be able to control myself."

With that, Jake threw you over his shoulder as he hoisted himself up to his feet. He grabbed everything that you brought to the rooftop, throwing your towel over you and ignoring you fussing.

"W-Where are we goin—?!"

"Back to my room."

You were in for a night.

You and Jake were going to stay in LA for a little while longer after Vidcon, so you extended your stay in the same hotel rooms.

After last night, Jake and you fell asleep in his bed. 

It was going to be the best, Jake thought. Neither of you had anywhere to be, anyone to put on a show for. The two of you could sleep in for as long as you'd like. It didn't really matter to him, as long as he could wake up with you in his arms, he'd be all right.

Which is why Jake's heart dropped to his stomach when he woke up to you already dressed, pacing around the room nervously.

"Baby?" Jake was alarmed, even as he rubbed his sleepy eyes. "Baby, what happened?"

You whipped your head over to him, your expression pinch and painted with anxiety. 

"Check your phone," you muttered as you chewed your lip.

Jake did as you said. The moment he opened up his phone, his screen was filled with text messages from everyone: his colleagues, his friends, heck even his own mother. He was tagged in about a thousand posts all across his social media accounts, and his Youtube home page was plastered with his face. But not only his face. Your face too.

What caught his eye was an article from a major Internet news source that made its round across every platform.

Its headline?

Jake Sim and [Name] [Last Name] are reported to be dating.

The worst part was the cover page.

It was a photo of you and Jake, together in the hottub last night, with your arms thrown around his neck with your lips connected. When he read more into it, the photo evidence got more and more specific. Close-up pictures of Jake's neck to reveal a hickey and lipstick mark on his shirt, your smudged lipstick, a screenshot of the Sanrio plush in one of his videos, even that clip of his laugh in the background of one of your videos. Of course, the most crucial one was that clip of Jake admitting that he had a girlfriend.

This was what he wanted, wasn't it? For everyone to know about you, to be able to show you off.

Objectively, this was bound to happen.

But as Jake watched you pace around, your hands shaking as you looked like you were about to cry, he didn't feel the pride that he thought he would feel if everyone knew. He didn't feel happy, he didn't feel excited that he got to show you off. All he felt was a mix of guilt and anger.

And before he could reach out to hold your hand and pull you close, you quietly said that you were going to go on a walk, and left the hotel room.

The quiet that filled the hotel room was piercing. Jake stilled in his spot, still groggy and disheveled.

Had he always been like this?

He swore that at the beginning of your relationship, he took every measure to keep it private. Because you asked him to. Because he respected you.

Why did he throw it all away? 

He agreed to keep things private. 

But now he put you in an uncomfortable position and an even more vulnerable position than you'd ever been in before. 

Was he a bad boyfriend? Were you going to break up with him? Would your relationship with him ever be the same? That made Jake's heart palpitate. He couldn't lose you. No, he'd die. But then again, he fucked up, he knew that.

Jake ran a hand through his hair. This was an asshole move.

But he couldn't help feeling his fingers twitch for his phone when it ding'd.

The first thing he saw when he opened up Twitter were tweets at him.

And they were surprisingly... supportive?

"Emo boyfriend, cute girlfriend, the best combo!"

"Sending love to both of you. Hope you're doing well. We support you."

"I'm very pleasantly surprised."

"This is literally like Hello Kitty and Batman meeting this is crazy"

But as he scrolled deeper, he found more obscure comments.

"Feel so bad for [Name]. Her boyfriend is a freak."

"He doesn't deserve her."

And the nail in the coffin:

"No wonder they kept it a secret. I'd hide it too if someone like that was my boyfriend."

Why did you keep your relationship with him secret? Jake knew the answer to that: you just wanted to keep your personal life private.

But as Jake plunged himself deeper and deeper into the hole that was the media, he could only imagine alternative answers, and one stuck out.

Were you ashamed of him? 

Of course you would be.

You were beautiful in every capacity and just the most perfect person in the world. And Jake was just himself. You were always cute, and sometimes, Jake felt like he couldn't keep up with you. You were far out of his league. His content was considered "niche" and "obscure," of course people, maybe even you, considered him a freak.

He was a bastard, and you were a princess. He didn't blame you for being embarrassed about him.

That's why you were so anxious and against your relationship being exposed, right?

No, no, no!

Shut up, shut up, shut up, Jake thought, his hands balling into fists. You wouldn't. He knew you better than anyone, and he knew that you would never be embarrassed about him. You weren't like that, and he was a fool for even thinking of you in that way. He was being insecure and stupid.

But even so, as Jake let all the guilt, shame, anger, and anxiety settle in while he thought of an apology to you, he couldn't help but feel his insecurity seeping in.

You knew that you were overreacting. You shouldn't have left Jake in there all alone, you should have sat down and talked to him about it.

But there was something scary about having everybody's eyes on you at once, scorning you. You were a Youtuber, of course you knew what it felt like to be watched, but to have the entire internet so hellbent about your personal life made you jump into your own skin.

You just took a walk along the early city streets, you reflected upon yourself.

Why did you keep your relationship with Jake secret? 

Part of it was privacy. You didn't want the internet to interfere with your personal life, of course. 

But it wasn't like you wanted to hide your love for your boyfriend forever. It wasn't like you wanted to stow him away somewhere no one could find him. You were both adults, and you had to start living at some point.

You'd be lying if you said that you never thought about making a cute video with him, if you said you never wanted to post a cheesy anniversary picture on Instagram with a long caption just for him, if you said you never wanted the world to know that Jake Sim was yours.

You remembered the first time you and Jake talked about keeping it private. He was unsure, but because he cared so much about you, he agreed. Had you ever stopped to think about how he felt? You may have wanted to keep your relationship quiet, but did he? To a degree, there was something selfish about you, both now and in the past. You wanted to preserve yourself and your feelings, but you never even considered how Jake felt.

You were afraid, you felt vulnerable and too exposed to the world. But you cared far more about Jake than those fleeting emotions. Desire outweighed fear, you had to see him now.

But as you marched back to your hotel, your mind racing as you came up with paragraphs of words that you'd spill to Jake, you began to notice your worst nightmare.

A group of men, each with massive cameras that had even bigger microphones. 

They called themselves the paparazzi, but they were really only middle-aged men that made money off of being invasive towards people half their age.

Maybe you should have worn a hat, or something, as you were in a camera-infested area that was even more infested with celebrities and influencers. As they approached you, you quickened your steps, trying to get as far as you could from them. You tried your best not to make eye-contact, but alas, they got to you before you could escape.

"[Name]?" one of them called out your name, practically running to you.

Oh my god, you thought, ignoring them as you sped up. Please not right now.

"[Name], are you dating Jake Sim?" The sound of your boyfriend's name out of their mouths made your stomach churn. You kept walking, but you could feel them pointing their massive cameras at you, taking any measure to make a buck off of you.

You had a few choices.

You could make a run for it. Though, you had about six men double your age who would probably chase you down.

You could also give in to them, and give very vague answers. That would require a lot of patience, and simply, you wanted to go kiss your boyfriend, not talk to these so-called paparazzis.

Your last option was the one that seemed the most appealing, but could stir the pot of the media even more and it would give the tabloids what they wanted: you could tell them off and shut them down completely. The only issue was that you were the cutesy, sweet, Sanrio Hello Kitty girl. You've talked about adult topics before, but for you to be hostile and mean to another person? That was completely unheard of to anyone on the Internet. It would also be very reactive, and the media could twist that into something more.

But you wanted to get out of there.

You wanted to go see Jake. If you had to throw a few curse words at people if it meant that you could go home to Jake, then you'd use every curse under the sun.

"[Name], everyone is saying that your relationship with Jake Sim is real and not a publicity stunt. Any comment on that-?"

You were getting irritated.

You stopped in your tracks, turning over your shoulder.

"Will you fuck off?" Your gaze hardened on the group of men shoving cameras in your faces. You didn't even bother looking into the lens. "It's 10 in the morning, I don't have time for this."

"We didn't mean to offend you, [Name], we just wanted to know your relationship with Jake Si—"

You huffed to yourself, rolling your eyes. They loved acting polite only to violate your privacy. 

"Cut the bullshit, okay?" you narrowed your eyes. You were only a few meters from the hotel entrance, and they were still stalking you with their massive cameras. How shameless. 

Your anger was bubbling up inside you. It was rising, rising so much that you could feel it attempting to spill out of your mouth.

"You want to make a quick buck off of me so bad?" You stepped through the hotel doorway.

If the media was so curious about your life, and if they wanted to go so far as to try to disrupt your relationship, you wouldn't give them that satisfaction.

Everyone loved seeing what you were doing, everyone loved to watch you. It was your job to put on a show, to give people what they wanted. If you wanted to live, then you'd have to accept that.

You were an influencer, a micro-celebrity. You could make tides move if you wanted to. Why be so fearful of the eyes of so many?

But more than anything, you were a performer. And if that's what they wanted from you, that's what they'll get.

"Fine," you huffed. "I'll give you a story: me and Jake have been together for six years. In fact, we met each other in high school when he was my Physics lab partner. Go investigate that, won't you?"

With that, you slammed the hotel entrance door in their faces.

Jake swore he heard the trumpets of heaven when the hotel room door cracked open, revealing you.

He'd been waiting in front of it for a while now, and he jerked up immediately as he saw your face. He jumped right to his feet, ready to spill every word he thought of on you. You deserved an explanation.

But all you did was raise your hand, silencing him instantly. Instead, you took off your shoes, took his arm, and pulled him with you to the bed. You motioned for him to lay down, and did so yourself.

Jake stared at you like you were insane. Were you not going to yell at him? Why weren't you hitting him or telling him that you wanted to break up with him? Should he be on his knees begging you to stay at this point? But he complied (because of course he did, it was you).

You laid on his chest in silence, pressing your cheek up against him. 

That made his mind wander.

Maybe you were trying to ease him into a hard conversation. Maybe you were going to forget this until later.

He didn't want that. No, you deserved to hear what he had to say. If you were going to leave him, Jake wanted to say everything that he wanted to.

"I'm sorry," Jake blurted. The silence was deafening, before you took a deep breath, turning over onto your stomach so that your chin laid on his chest.

"What for?"

The gentle look in your eye as you looked at him made Jake choke up himself. He had to hold back or he'd start sobbing.

"For going against your wishes a-and..." Jake searched through his mind for all the words he practiced, but nothing came to mind. Not with you looking at him like you still loved him. "And for telling people about our relationship. I—I shouldn't have done that and I'm sorry for disrespecting the promise w-we made.... And... And—"

Jake sucked in a loud, sharp breath. His eyes were getting watery. He took your hands in his, squeezing them. 

"And I know that you're ash—ashamed of me, and I know that y-you won't— you won't want to be with me anymore, but—"

"Wait what?" you interrupted him, squeezing hands back. "I'm not ashamed of you, Jakey."

Jake stared at you.

Jakey.

"I'm not breaking up with you either. What makes you think that?"

The gate that was holding back Jake's emotions broke.

Jake let the tears that he tried so hard to hold back roll down his face. He let out a sob before he clamped a hand over his mouth.

You didn't hate him? You still wanted to be with him?

You instantly threw your leg over his hips, straddling him as you pulled his head to your chest. He melted into your touch, his wet face hiding in the crook of your neck. You pet his hair, pressing kisses to the crown of his head.

"Baby," you whispered into his ear gently. "Why are you crying?"

Jake's crying only got louder, and you couldn't help but giggle. He was a total softie. The way his hold around you tightened told you enough.

Jake sniffled through his words, cutting himself off every now and then with a hiccup and more sobs. "Th-Thought you were gonna l-leave me."

Your fingers stopped in his hair. "Leave you? Why would I?"

Jake pushed his face back into your shoulder, shaking his head.

You let him cry like that for a little while longer, whispering sweet reassurances in his ear as you patted his back. 

And when he was ready, the two of you talked it out, because that's what people did when they loved each other. You exchanged apologies, explained to each other your thought processes, and created an agreement: start anew, and you both didn’t mind that your relationship was now public, and if either of you disagreed, you had to voice it immediately. You ended it with a kiss.

You clicked the camera on, checking in the viewfinder that you were in-frame. You were back at home, the pink Hello Kitty decorations in your room, as well as the scent of strawberries, surrounding you. 

“Hi, everyone!” you smiled brightly, clasping your hands together. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you all. How are you?”

You chatted about a few updates since Vidcon, telling about your wonderful experience there and how you were so happy to meet all your fans.

“Now, onto the video!”

You peered to the side, where you spotted Jake sitting at the edge of your bed, waiting intently for your cue.

“Oh, Jakey!” you said in a sing-songy voice. “Come out now!”

With that, Jake popped into frame, dorkily saying a quick hi before plopping down onto the chair beside you.

“Today, I will be doing my boyfriend’s makeup!” you chirped happily. “Are you ready, boyfriend?”

The two of you shared a grin.

“Of course, girlfriend.”

[httpsserene]

Can I get the one from the kink list role play with Ocon, Alonso, Norris, Stroll and Gasly

🧽🪣 would you like a complimentary car wash? — send me any five (5) drivers and one (1) kink from this list, and i will rank the drivers in order of who i think is most to least likely to participate/avoid, or love/hate that kink !!! each driver will have a small blurb written xxx

༊࿐ ⊹ ˚. ngl when i saw this request come in i was like “fuck, i have no idea what to write for this.” but now, you can definitely tell that my keyboard starting smoking on some of these blurbs. happy 3k🩷 love !

⌕ 3k v-day celly nav | all 3k requests | main nav | table of contents ↻

𝐦𝐭𝐥 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲 fem!bipoc!reader x ln.4 | pg. 10 | fa. 14 | ls. 18 | eo. 31. cw under the cut.

humor? is that a cw? pierre is rp-ing johnny sins. was gonna have lando's include him dressing up in a maid dress, but it ended up going a veryyyy diff way...

𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭

pierre takes to role-play like a fish does to water. he’s your masseuse, giving you a deep tissue massage, and you struggle to keep yourself quiet while the lingering, wandering press of his fingers seduces you into letting him stretch your tightest muscles. he’s the plumber you called to fix the leak underneath your kitchen sink, and instead of money as payment for his services, you spread your legs for him to leave something leaking out of you. don’t look too deep into these scenes; you might notice that in all of them, you two aren’t dating—you’re strangers to each other. 

post-race, lando’s alone in his hotel room sporting a half-chub before the webcam is even turned on. the image of you—wearing nothing but his hoodie and lingerie—washed in the blue light of the computer screen shakes as you set up the best angle for his viewing pleasure. you’re airy, shallow breaths are picked up through the microphone of your wired headphones, sounding pixelated from the terrible quality. lando’s camera will remain off the entire time; the only way he’ll interact with you is through the text chat as a faceless viewer. you greet lando as if he’s a frequent watcher, a fan—not your man—and you explain tonight’s show as your hand slides underneath the hoodie to fondle your nipples. however, the true power lies in lando’s hands. you’re persuaded to do what he asks of you, though it’s not what you decided on, since he’s sending you a pretty amount of money that increases with each of his requests. his messages are riddled with more typos than usual as he struggles to type with one hand—and his orgasm is so delicious that it leaves him craving for another taste. lando will have his full feast when he returns home for proper victory sex.

fernando admits that he’s a deeply unserious man, which is probably why role-playing is hit or miss with him. he has to be in the right mindset, or he will not immerse into the scene and break with laughter. there’s a higher chance of success when he’s playing a role of authority over you. you’ve left him no choice but to bend you over his lap when you walk into his office wearing a tight skirt—one that’s against company dress code, specified in the employee handbook he watched you read before you accepted the position as his assistant. fernando’s going to fuck you into his desk so roughly that you’ll have the wood-grain of it imprinted into your thighs. you’ll be forced to wear longer skirts or slacks to cover the bruises, unless you want the entire office to know that you’re a slut. hopefully, that teaches you the importance of respecting the dress code.

esteban would never be into role-play, or so he thought he wouldn’t ever be. he was proven wrong last halloween. the two of you decided (he begged, actually) to do a couples costume as spider-man and mj. it’s just that esteban didn’t expect for you to pretend that you didn’t know who he was underneath the mask, nor did he know that the payment for saving your life (he stopped you from walking into incoming traffic because you never pay attention to the light cycles when he’s with you), was sex. he may have taken the suit off, but the mask stayed on—because spider-man wouldn’t reveal his identity, even to mj. esteban swears that he intended for it to be quickie—because, one, you were going to be late to your friend’s party and, two, spider-man can’t step away from patrolling the streets for too long because who knows what crimes are occurring in his absence—it’s not like the role play made him cum embarrassingly quick, or anything. but he can’t find the confidence to tell you that he wants to do it again. he’ll just wait until halloween comes around again, hoping that you won’t mind repeating the same costume and that there’s an opportunity for spider-man to save your life once more.

lance could never be convinced to try out role-play again. he can admit that you giving him a lap dance and strip tease pushes him past the point of turned-on, but it becomes substantially less attractive when you’re pretending to be a random stripper and that he’s a paying customer. and, he can’t help that he finds every scenario weird or cringy. he doesn’t see the allure of the pretend-dynamic of escort/client or professor/student,  or even calling him daddy—it’s simply not for him, and he can see that his distaste for it stems from his awkward and possibly self-conscious nature. on the other hand, he’s more than satisfied with you using handcuffs to secure his hands behind his back while you make him suffer through a teasing rock of your hips; don’t say he’s under arrest, though, you’ll ruin the vibe. 

𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐭

© httpsserene — do not reupload. photos in header from pinterest. mdni divider by @cafekitsune.

[lilgarbitch]

The Voice of an Angel- Matt Dierkes

Part One

Pairing: Matt Dierkes x PornBlog!Reader

Cw: Smut, Masterbation (f and m), sappy freak!Matt

Word Count: 3.5k

Author’s Note: Doing something a little different. The story seemed to work best if I wrote time in phases, so I hope it doesn’t ruin it😬 And I couldn’t tell you where this idea came from. I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever seen someone write something like this, but I did the best I could❤️ I hope you enjoy

Tags: @xmads-omensx @dontwantthemoney @theanarchymuse95 @badomensgoodomens

Y/N | Wednesday 2:36 PM

Kicking off the floor and rolling my chair over to my computer, I plug my phone into the cord and begin transferring the audio file. I should really get a microphone for this, but I’m still somewhat new to this… Yeah, I definitely need to start doing research on vamping up my equipment.

I plug my headphones into the laptop once the file was finished so I could listen back over the audio, making sure it’s suitable to be posted. I live alone, and literally just made all of these noises out loud, but I still get a little weirded out playing it without headphones and need to be able to listen to every detail, making sure there were no weird noises in the background.

Clicking on the file, my voice starts playing through. It took some time for me to get used to hearing me say certain things and make these noises, hell, it took me a good while to even hit ‘record’ when doing this, but once I got enough praise from people online, it just became routine. 

My slightly over exaggerated moans and whimpers fill my ears, and I can’t lie, I was pleased with the quality. IPhones have good microphones. It sometimes even picked up the sound of my vibrator or how wet I was based on how close I had the mic to me, and my followers always enjoy that.

After spending about twenty minutes editing out small distracting background noises, I opened Twitter and connected the file to a post, captioning it, "You know exactly how to pull these pretty sounds from me,” before hitting post and then proceeding to do the same for my tumblr blog. 

Almost instantly, my phone starts going crazy from those who have my post notifications on, and I read every comment with a smile on my face.

It may seem weird to many people, but I truly enjoy doing this. I get to turn a common activity into a side hustle, and it pleases both guys and girls when they find my pages. And most of them are the sweetest when they reply. They’re usually all horny replies, but unless I post something that instigates them to degrade me, they always choose to be super sweet.

I scroll through some replies and the likes from my followers, and even some who always come back but choose not to follow me because they don’t want others to know. It was nice seeing repeated faces. Like I created a space for them to feel safe to be open about something so lewd. 

That’s when I got a notification from my Cash App that’s linked to my accounts, causing a small smile to form on my face when reading the name. ThotxPleaser had been a loyal follower for a while now. He’s following my Twitter, Tumblr, subscribed to my Patreon, and here he is again, sending me a gift. 

ThotxPleaser- $250

Sounded beautiful as always, Angel❤️ 

I really wished that his gift had caused a bigger smile, but I knew this anonymous person’s actions too well by now. He usually gave me a sweet nickname, but today he just used my pseudonym, Angel, and it wouldn’t be worrying, if he also didn’t send the donation right after I posted, again. He always tried to send appreciation ‘when he had the chance,’ even commenting that he was too busy sometimes and felt bad for seeing my posts so late, so it was abnormal that he was so on top of it for the third post in a row, almost as if he was waiting for my posts as a pick-me-up. I know that was cocky thinking, but he’s said before that my posts have made his day, giving me a grateful gift to prove it, so it wasn’t that far off of an assumption. I just hope he’s doing okay.

Matt | Wednesday 2:59 PM

I crash into my bed with a groan. We’re getting everything situated for tour next week and I’ve been working my ass off doing almost all the work. The boys and our team do the best that they can, but I’m the one they run to when problems surface, and with the dates coming faster and faster, everyone is running rampant with anxiety and constantly on my ass needing help with the most obvious things. I know we’re all stressed but every part of my job other than actually getting them on that tour bus is done. 

I told them all to give me at least the rest of the day off to unwind. Any problems that come to head today can easily be fixed tomorrow. I warned them that I was switching my phone to Do Not Disturb so even if they tried to contact me, I won’t answer.

It was a lie, though. I would never actually do that to them and hopefully they know that. I just need them to understand and leave me be for at least a few hours before I burn out. And, of course, almost right as I thought that, my phone went off. 

With a loud groan, I turned my phone over and glared at it, trying to read what the hell the problem was now, but then my heart skipped as I read the notification. 

Angel💋 

You know exactly how to pull these pretty sounds from me

My breath hitched as I read it and I instantly felt blood rush to my other head. This had to mean that she finally posted a new audio clip. I instantly clicked on it, desperately needing to hear her to put me in a better mood. My fingers eagerly tap at the back of my phone as it takes a minute to load up Twitter, but when it finally does, I see the audio file and click ‘play’. 

I shove my face into my pillow and place my phone next to my head as I let her voice and moans fill my ears. As the audio plays, I can feel myself getting harder. But I am too fucking tired to do anything about that right now. I truly just needed to hear her sweet voice in a time like this. I could listen to her for hours. It doesn’t matter if it’s her talking dirty or making these sweet noises. Hell, she could start a damn podcast and talk about the weather and it would still make my day. Something about her voice always brought me out of any rut that I’m in. 

The audio ends and I finally look back at my phone. I debated on playing it again, just to hear her, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to show her some gratitude and appreciation. 

I open up Cash App, using the account that wasn’t under my real name, and send her a simple note. I didn’t have enough energy to put too much thought into it, but she deserved something after boosting my mood. After I sent it, I closed my phone and shoved my face back into my pillow, this time with a small smile. Within minutes, I was out like a light, dreaming of what she could possibly look like, and having a chance to actually have her speak to me, just to be able to hear more of her voice. 

Y/N | Saturday 6:23 PM

It’s been a few days since the last donation from ThotxPleaser. I try to post a few suggestive posts a day if I’m in the mood, and every single one was instantly liked by him, but that was it. No flirty comments, just what seemed like he was already on his phone when I posted and a simple like. I know I shouldn’t worry about a random follower, but he has always been so sweet and supportive. Plus, as creepy as it may seem, I end up paying close attention to my supporters, and it was obvious that he was acting different than usual. 

I tried pushing the worry out of my mind the best I could, not needing to stress over a damn audio blog supporter, but I couldn’t help the fact that my mind wandered, thinking of what could possibly be happening in his life that he was too busy to show his usual appreciation, but still forcing him to be one of the first likes on every single post, audio or not. What could he possibly be dealing with that made him seem like he was so busy that he barely had time to do much, yet he still went out of his way to give me a hint of support? Fuck, I’m sounding insane. Am I overthinking this so much that I truly believe this man was using my moaning audios and lewd posts as his main form of serotonin? God, I need to fix my ego. He’s probably just losing interest and slowly weaning me off his attention…Okay, Y/N, he’s a fucking follower. He doesn’t care about ghosting you. You’ve never even spoken. Why are you so obsessed anyway?

I let out a groan, getting annoyed with my own thoughts. I realized that I was staring at the ceiling, worrying about someone I don't even know, so I quickly sat up and grabbed my phone, hoping that doom scrolling could help distract me…and make me feel less embarrassed.

I open Instagram and my eyes instantly land on the story bar. I scroll through the orange and green circles, hoping to find someone interesting, when I finally do. Matt Dierkes had a new story. I click on it and instantly giggle, seeing that, of course, it was another raccoon meme. Since this was my personal account, I liked his story and went on with doom scrolling.

After seeing only reposted memes and people living their best life, I realized this wasn’t going to give me the entertainment I needed. I close the app and look at my others, before opening Tumblr. Matt was still on my mind. I always found him so cute. I’ve enjoyed Bad Omens’ music for a while now, and definitely found the boys attractive, but something about their tour manager had always caught my eye. He said whatever he wanted and enjoyed things without judgment. I really liked how unique and undeniably him he let himself be.

I try to scroll through my feed, but with him still in my mind, my fingers trailed over to the search bar and I found myself looking up another fanfiction about him. 

After a few…okay maybe a little too many one shots and short stories since I was free tonight, I landed a quite…spicy story, leading me to decide this was the perfect time to create more content. 

With the story playing in my mind like a movie, I set my phone up and hit record. I was too lazy to grab a toy, and was definitely worked up enough that I could easily get this done manual style. Lying back, I slipped my hand down my pants with his face flashing behind my eyes. In the story, he had a little more dominant energy, so I began imagining him taking what he wanted.

My breath picked up as I felt his hands sliding up my thighs, using enough pressure to keep them held to the sides. He had this almost hungry look on his face as I stared down at him. His fingers finally reached the hem of my panties before powerfully yet gracefully sliding them down, like he was teasing me, making me wait. 

I could feel his warm calloused fingers grazing over the softness of my thighs as they trailed towards my core. I began to squirm in anticipation, desperately wanting to grab them and bring them where I needed him most, but I knew if I did, he’d find a way to punish me. 

Finally his hand reached the apex of my thighs and I gasped as he grazed his fingers through my folds. 

I’m getting too desperate, I have to get this little fantasy sped up. I start circling my clit and letting out a soft whine. 

His tongue passes through my slit before finally focusing on the bundle of nerves. My breath picks up as he perfectly laps at it, occasionally circling it with his tongue. As he adds more pressure, I can feel myself getting closer. I look down and see his face between my thighs, causing a small gasp to escape my lips. Once our eyes meet, I let out a breathy moan as my head falls back against the pillow. I can’t control the noises leaving me, the sound of his tongue lapping at my wet core and the image burned into my mind of him staring up at me causing the pleasure to intensify.

As I reached my peak, my mind overwhelmed with ecstasy, I forgot where I was. 

“Ma-“ I let out, before quickly gasping and covering my mouth, hoping I could play that off as a gasp of pleasure and not shock at me almost ruining my audio by saying his name. After catching my breath, I stop the recording and sit there. 

Fuck.

Matt | Saturday 9:47 PM

The guys and I were hanging out at Noah and Jesse’s house, telling ourselves that we needed a night off to relax and leave the stress behind for a few hours. Everyone’s mostly packed and we have at least tonight to just forget about everything, so they were all a few beers and shots in and it was getting kind of rowdy. I made sure to keep my eye on everyone to make sure they didn’t do something stupid. 

I was sitting on the couch as the rest of them either destroyed the kitchen, trying to drunkenly make snacks, or hung out in the backyard, just chatting or getting excited over revisiting places on the tour they enjoyed. I was silently watching them all, using this time to try and force some relaxation into my mind, knowing we agreed that we could take a break from work. I know I could have done this at home, but doing anything with these boys was better than doing it alone, since I could always end up hunched over in laughter at any moment.

I stare off, listening to them loudly argue over which cheese to put in a grilled cheese, and just let my mind wander over how life has been going lately. Thinking about what still needs to be done and what fun things I could try to do before I was slaving away for 3 months on tour, since even when I tried my hardest, I couldn’t push the thought of work away. But then I was pulled out of my thoughts by my phone vibrating in my pocket. I pulled it out and saw that Angel had posted a new audio. God, this is exactly what I needed right now. A small smile formed on my lips, but I quickly went back to a straight face, not wanting anyone to see and question who made me smile or find out that it was a goddamn porn blog. 

I glanced around the room, making sure that everyone’s attention was occupied, before sneaking my way off to the bathroom. I close and lock the door behind me and pull out my Airpods. I know the house was loud, but the thought of them hearing her voice coming from the bathroom was not something I wanted to deal with. 

I put an Airpod in and click on the notification. Once it loaded, I pressed play on the audio. It was a short one, but it was definitely enough to put me in a better mood. Instantly, her sweet sounds filled my ear. Soft airy moans played through my Airpod and I could feel myself growing in my pants. I debated whether it was weirder to jerk off in their bathroom or to leave the bathroom with a hard on, and decided on the latter. 

As her voice played through my headphones like a beautiful melody, I reached my hands down and pulled the waistbands of my shorts and boxers down, letting my growing cock spring free. I turned my hat around, pushing my hair back to keep it out of my face as I leaned my hips against the sink and gripping the edge with one hand. I wrapped my other hand around the base and firmly gripped it. 

She let out soft whimpers with an occasional ‘Fuck’ and I leaned down and let a trail of spit reach my tip, biting back a groan as I collected it and used it to slicken my movements. It was just the perfect amount of lubrication to move at the pace I needed without making any noise. 

I brought my shirt to my teeth and closed my eyes, biting down as I fought back the noises collecting in my throat. I was close to biting through my lip and I didn’t need to get a noticeable mess on my nice tee. Explaining the teeth marks in the fabric would be easy, if their drunken asses even noticed. Her breath picked up, a telltale sign she was close, and that itself caused a tightening in my stomach. I listened to her moans getting higher and higher, subconsciously pumping myself to the beats of her breath. But then, she let out a moan I had never heard before. They were usually whiney and breathless, but this time she used her full chest voice, moaning out a ‘Maa-‘ before gasping and finally letting out her usual whiney sinful moan as she came. 

Something in my brain took that personal. It sounded too close to her moaning my name for me to prepare for the instant rush of pleasure taking over my body. I quickly cupped a hand over my tip as my eyes rolled back, my mind replaying that single sinful syllable over and over as I spilled into my fist. 

I probably bit a hole in my shirt with how hard my teeth clenched as I forced the deep loud moan from coming out. But I didn’t care. I had to hold my weight up with the sink behind me and force myself to catch my breath through my nose as the pleasure in my stomach lasted longer than it ever has before. 

After a few moments, the feeling of my cum threatening to drip from my hand caused me to finally open my eyes and drop my shirt from my teeth as I spun around and turned on the sink. I quickly washed all the evidence down the sink and tucked myself back into my pants before looking up.

I stared at myself in the bathroom mirror, grimacing in post-nut clarity as it hit me how gross what I just did was. Not me jerking off to her, that was normal, but the fact that I had gotten so obsessed that I couldn’t wait until I got home to listen and react. 

I hung my head as I thought about how the fuck I was supposed to get through tour if I couldn’t stop myself from listening to her audios, but also definitely wouldn’t have a way to hide my reaction from them. I just wish I could hear her in any way other than something so erotic. That could hold me over. As long as I didn’t pavlov myself into getting hard just at the sound of her. 

I reach up and fix my cap before grabbing my phone and sending her a like and a comment. 

ThotxPleaser- Could never find a better way to make my day, beautiful. 

I softly laughed at myself as I sent it. I knew I was a freak. She probably thought I was a creep the way it looks like I stalk her with how fast I respond to her posts. But I couldn’t care less. She brought me a happiness I couldn’t explain. It wasn’t the context of her posts. It was her. And I had to show my appreciation, even if I just looked like one of many horndogs in her comments and donations. 

Wait…That was it. 

I fumble with my phone to open up Cashapp, before realizing how long I’ve been in the bathroom. I make my way back to the living room as I think of the perfect way to ask. Sitting down, I debate on the most convincing price to get her to even think of helping me out here. Tour starts Tuesday and with us all together, missing a chunk of change won’t be a problem. I go back and forth in my thoughts for a few minutes, writing and rewriting my message until I think it’s perfect. Finally, I send it and cross my fingers. 

ThotxPleaser- $1,000

All I want is to hear your voice more. Talk about your day, how the weather is treating you, or rant about a TV show you’re watching. I’d listen to you forever. All I ask is if you’d be willing to send me voice memos here and there to get me through my days. Name your price, sunshine. 

PART TWO

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing an oc that's a streamer?

Writing Notes: Streamer Characters

Live Streamer

Also livestreamer or online streamer

Someone who makes videos that show them playing computer games, talking about products, or doing other activities, and streams them (i.e., puts them on the internet) at the same time as they are being made.

An individual who broadcasts real-time video content over the internet, engaging with an audience through online platforms.

Transmits live or on-demand audio or video content while users listen or watch.

Livestreams are deployed over various platforms, including social media platforms like YouTube Live, Facebook Live, Twitter, Instagram Live, and TikTok, as well as through professional business services, such as Kaltura and Dacast.

Unlike pre-recorded videos, live streams occur in the moment, allowing viewers to interact with the streamer through chat functions and other interactive features.

This immediacy creates a dynamic and engaging experience for both the streamer and the audience.

Live streamers cover a wide range of content:

playing video games,

hosting talk shows,

conducting interviews,

cooking,

crafting, and

live vlogging daily activities.

The versatility of live streaming content means that streamers can find their niche and build a community around shared interests.

Successful live streamers often cultivate a loyal following by maintaining a consistent streaming schedule, engaging directly with their viewers, and creating a sense of community.

What your Character does as a Live Streamer

Content Creation: Live streamers plan, prepare, and execute engaging live broadcasts. They choose topics or activities that resonate with their audience, maintain a consistent streaming schedule, and ensure that their content is entertaining and relevant to their viewers.

Audience Interaction: Interacting with viewers in real-time is a key responsibility. Streamers engage through live chat, responding to comments, questions, and feedback during the stream. They foster a sense of community by acknowledging and involving their audience, using interactive features like polls, Q&A sessions, and shout-outs to enhance viewer engagement.

Technical Management: Managing technical aspects is crucial to a successful stream. This includes setting up and maintaining streaming equipment such as cameras, microphones, lighting, and streaming software. Streamers must ensure a stable internet connection, troubleshoot technical issues promptly, and optimize stream quality to deliver a seamless viewing experience.

Monetization: Monetizing their channels is an important aspect for many streamers. This can involve receiving viewer donations, earning subscriptions (e.g., Twitch subscriptions), securing sponsorships and partnerships with brands, and generating revenue through advertising. Streamers may also leverage merchandise sales, affiliate marketing, or exclusive content to diversify their income streams.

Community Building: Building and nurturing a community around their content is essential. Streamers cultivate a loyal following by creating a welcoming environment, engaging with viewers regularly, and participating in community events or collaborations. They may also moderate chat and ensure a positive and inclusive atmosphere during streams.

Continuous Improvement: Successful streamers constantly strive to improve their content and grow their audience. They analyze viewer analytics to understand audience preferences and trends, experiment with new content formats or streaming techniques, and stay updated with industry trends and platform changes to maintain relevance and competitiveness in the streaming space.

What Type of Live Streamer is your Character?

Live streamers can be categorized into various types based on the content they stream and the communities they engage with. Here are some common types:

Gaming Streamers: Gaming streamers focus on playing and broadcasting video games live to their audience. They may specialize in specific genres such as first-person shooters, role-playing games, or multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBAs). Gaming streamers entertain viewers with their gameplay skills, commentary, and interactions with their audience through live chat.

IRL (In Real Life) Streamers: IRL streamers share their real-life experiences and activities in real-time. They broadcast everyday activities such as traveling, exploring new places, attending events, or participating in challenges. IRL streamers often engage their audience by interacting with them while showcasing their daily routines or special events happening in their lives.

Talk Show and Podcast Streamers: Talk show and podcast streamers host live discussions, interviews, or debates on various topics of interest. They invite guests or panelists to join their streams, engaging with them and their audience through insightful conversations and debates. Talk show streamers may cover topics ranging from politics and current events to pop culture and entertainment.

Creative Streamers: Creative streamers focus on showcasing their artistic talents and skills live. They create art, music, crafts, or digital designs while interacting with their audience. Creative streamers often provide tutorials, share their creative process, and take viewer suggestions or requests for their next project.

Music Streamers: Music streamers perform live music sessions, DJ sets, or music production sessions for their audience. They may cover popular songs, perform original compositions, or engage in interactive music creation with their viewers. Music streamers often use platforms that allow them to receive song requests and interact with their audience in real-time.

Fitness and Sports Streamers: Fitness and sports streamers broadcast live workouts, training sessions, or sports events. They provide exercise routines, fitness tips, and motivation to their audience while demonstrating exercises or participating in sports activities. Fitness streamers may also engage in challenges or competitions with their viewers.

Educational Streamers: Educational streamers conduct live tutorials, lectures, or workshops on topics such as science, technology, languages, or academic subjects. They share knowledge, answer viewer questions in real-time, and provide interactive learning experiences through demonstrations or experiments.

Cooking Streamers: Cooking streamers broadcast live cooking sessions where they prepare recipes, share cooking tips, and engage with their audience while demonstrating culinary techniques. They may also take viewer suggestions for recipes or cooking challenges, creating a community around food and culinary arts.

What Would your Character's Workplace Look Like?

The workplace of a live streamer is typically centered around creating a conducive environment for broadcasting engaging and interactive content.

Unlike traditional office settings, live streamers often work from home or a dedicated studio space that they have set up for streaming purposes.

This space is vital for maintaining control over the streaming setup and creating a comfortable atmosphere conducive to content creation.

At home, live streamers often have a designated area or room where they set up their streaming equipment.

This might include a high-quality camera, microphone, lighting rigs, and a powerful computer or gaming console capable of handling streaming software and gameplay simultaneously.

The setup is tailored to their specific streaming needs, ensuring optimal audiovisual quality and reliability during broadcasts.

Beyond the physical setup, the digital workspace of a live streamer involves managing streaming software, interacting with viewers through chat functions, and monitoring analytics in real-time.

This requires multitasking skills to engage with the audience while focusing on gameplay, discussion topics, or other content being streamed.

Streamers also use this digital space to collaborate with moderators, manage community interactions, and coordinate special events or collaborations with other content creators.

Some Streaming Strategies your Character Could Use

Makes their livestream unique

Focuses on their livestream audience’s needs

Surprises their livestream audience

Promotes their livestream

Interacts with their viewers

Tells viewers what to do at the end of a livestream (e.g., see more content, attend an event)

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 ⚜ More: Writing Notes & References

Hope this helps with your writing!

[so-god-awful]

TD Headcanons - 2nd Gen

The quality of the facilities is the worst during ROTI. They get slightly improved/fixed in the year between Revenge and All-Stars.

All of the post-mergers (Cam, Lightning, Zoey, Scott, Jo, Mike) have sleeping problems. Like, you couldn't tell me *any* of those six get a consistent, full eight hours.

Brick has hypermobility. My justifications are : 1. Nobody dislocates their joints that easily unless there's something wrong with them (joint instability). When Jo dislocates (breaks?) his thumb for the thumb war, he doesn't even freak out that much and fixes it in a second. No medically normal person does that. 2. Kinda crap stamina for an athlete. 3. Bladder control issues.

Jo's iron-deficiency anemic. Justifications are: 1. Anne-Maria calling out how pale/pasty she is. I know everyone who isn't doused in spray tan is pale to Anne-Maria, but still. 2. "Food is for wimps!" Sounds like a great way to get a deficiency. 3. She just seems like the kind of girl who *has* iron pills and just doesn't take them for a few weeks. She thinks she's stronger than anemia.

Dakota's step-dad is a cinematographer; the person in charge of the filming and lighting crews for movies. He does work with highly esteemed actors and actresses who definitely babysat Dakota when her dad brought her to work with him.

Sam's super popular at his family reunions because he jumps at the chance to show off his video games to his younger cousins. He's the cool older cousin who lets you play with his stuff as long as your chill.

After being eliminated, Sam showed Dawn those cozy farming/animal-care type games and they bonded over them. B likes to watch them play and listens to them like a podcast.

Cameron's mom definitely has parent controls/filters on the family computer. Cameron accidentally found three different ways to bypass it before he turned 13 and she never noticed.

Everyone assumes Cameron knows zero swear words, that he's too protected to know any. He knows all of them. Whenever Cameron says a swear word for the first time around a new person, they look at him like he's just said ten racial slurs in a row. He did not think it would be that big of a deal.

Anne-Maria supplies cheap liquor for parties, stolen from her parents cabinet. She will not host at her house. Dakota hosts parties at her house, but can't provide alcohol. The stuff at her house is too expensive to give to the teenagers of other rich people. Lightning cannot host nor supply but gets the pass from everyone at his school because he's popular enough to freeload.

Lightning and Mike both have contacts. Lightning runs out of contact solution halfway through the season and steals Mike's until his elimination. Mike's convinced he's going crazy. The night Mike gets eliminated, Lightning pours half of what's left of his bottle of contact solution into his own empty bottle. Mike tweaks when he gets his stuff back.

Going off the one above, Lightning didn't even bring his glasses with him to the island and has no idea where they are at home. He'll do anything to not wear them because he thinks they make him look like a loser nerd. The rest of Team Dude agrees when they find out he owns glasses.

Out of the range of what the microphones can pick up, Jo blurts that she's going to kill herself at minor inconveniences ie; 'my head hurts, guess I'll kill myself', Cameron picks it up and has to fight demons to not say it when he gets home.

Brick, Cameron, Lightning, and Dawn have single-parent households. Brick and Cameron have single moms. Lightning and Dawn have single dads.

Dawn's parents got divorced when she was 7 and after her dad told her 'You can always tell when someone isn't a good person. There's just *something* about them.' That's when Dawn really started to pay attention to people's auras. She could read them before but after her parents divorce, it became the first thing she notices upon meeting a person.

[desertfangs]

Record and Play - Armand/Daniel - 1564

This is just a short little ficlet for the @vamptember prompt "Tape Recorder."

Daniel set the tape recorder on the table. Armand stared at it warily like it might jump up and bite him. But soon curiosity got the better of him and he snatched it off the table.

It was small, the size of a deck of cards and half the width, a hundred times smaller than the one Daniel had used in the 1970s when he’d interviewed Louis. Hell, this one didn’t even technically have a tape. It was all digital. He would have to plug it into a computer to extract the files when this was finished.

Armand turned it over in his pale hands. He pressed the buttons on its side: record, play, rewind, fast forward, stop. He studied the tiny little digital screen, a black and white read out that would provide a time stamp for the audio. A tiny red light on the black recorder’s corner would illuminate to indicate when it was recording. 

“It’s small,” Armand said. 

“Neat, isn’t it? Imagine just having that in your pocket! It can hold up to thirty hours of audio,” Daniel gushed. He and Benji had gone to Techland a week ago, a store in the East Village, where Daniel had spent hours talking to one of the workers about different recording options. He was amazed how much technology had progressed since he was lugging around his large tape recorder and microphones. 

Armand continued to study the tiny machine, his head bent over it, his long russet curls falling into his face. Tension gathered in the air and Daniel worried he was going to bolt now that they were actually here, equipment literally in hand. 

Armand had not dressed for the occasion. He wore an oversized sweatshirt—one of Daniel’s, a green one with an illustration of a trilobite fossil on the front—and jeans. Casual clothes. Daniel wasn’t sure what that meant, if anything. He’d expected Armand to wear a suit or finery, but then, why? This wasn’t a video recording. And his outfit did mirror Daniel’s clothes: a purple sweatshirt, gray t-shirt, and jeans. 

After letting Armand fiddle with the recorder for a bit, Daniel held out his hand. Armand hesitated, then placed it in his outstretched palm. Daniel put it back in the center of the small round table and plugged in the microphone he’d purchased to go with it.

Once he was sure the set up was good, he looked up. 

Armand was staring at his ring-adorned hands that lay flat on the table in front of him. 

“Are you ready?” Daniel asked.

Armand did not move or speak. 

Daniel swallowed uneasily, but he didn’t want to push too hard. So he waited,  drumming his fingers on the table and looking aimlessly around the room. There wasn’t much to see.

They were sitting in one of Trinity Gate’s smaller sitting rooms. In it was the table with two chairs on either side, and a window that looked out into the courtyard garden. It was private, though that wasn’t really the point - they were alone now in this massive house. Everyone else was in France and soon they’d join them. He’d chosen this room because the small size, small window, and thick wallpaper would help the sound quality. 

Daniel waited, his nerves jangling. Maybe it was too soon. Maybe he shouldn’t have asked. The idea had come up during a hard conversation they’d had last night about Armand’s book. But he’d agreed, hadn’t he? Daniel hadn’t forced his hand. 

Armand remained motionless. Infuriating how he could turn into a statue like that! It always driven Daniel past all reason when he went utterly still. 

“Do you—” He started.

“It’s not for them, Daniel.” 

Daniel blinked. “What isn’t?” 

“Our story,” Armand said. “It’s not for David, or even Sybelle or Benji. And it’s not for public consumption, anymore than it already has been. That's why I left it where I did.”

Pain and frustration twisted inside him. He could still remember the way Armand’s dismissal of him in his book had felt like a knife right through his stomach, how he thought he’d never stop bleeding from that particular wound. Armand, his maker, the person he’d given up his entire life for, had reduced to him a few bitter paragraphs. 

It wasn’t the worst thing Armand had ever done to him but it had stung—no, more than stung; it had cut him open and torn out his heart. Daniel had been freshly restored to his own faculties and eager to reconnect with him, only to read that he was hardly an afterthought, and not a fond one at that. 

Daniel bit back a retort and took a breath. “You weren’t shy about discussing your past with Marius,” Daniel said, trying to keep his voice even, lest this explode into another fight. 

“More time had passed.” Armand turned away, looking out the window. “With you, the wounds were still raw.” 

Daniel looked down, a lump forming in his throat. The last time they’d seen each other before Armand dictated his story to David Talbot, they’d fought viciously and carelessly, venting their spleens and marinating in the bile. They’d been cruel to each other, maybe crueler than they’d ever been, and then Daniel, having hit his limit, walked out the door.

Not forever. He never intended that. But once he was gone, he kept going, and didn’t look back. It was fair enough for Armand to assume he was done with him when he’d yelled exactly that before slamming the door so hard it had cracked.

It had been mean of him and he’d wanted it to hurt Armand at the time. 

He just hadn’t known what would happen next. That not long after Armand would go into the sun, without so much as a thought to how Daniel would endure the centuries without him. 

Daniel ran his fingers through his hair, tugging at the strands. Hot shame washed over him, along with regret and frustration. Armand glanced over at him and then reached across the table, taking his hand. 

He squeezed, his hand cool against Daniel’s blood-warmed skin. Such a small, simple gesture. The touch tingled up his arm and his shoulders relaxed.

Armand let go and gestured to the recorder. “Do you wish to begin?” 

Daniel swallowed and nodded. He reached over and hit the little record button on the device. 

“So, tell me about the night we met,” Daniel said. 

Armand straightened in his seat. He looked up into Daniel’s eyes which he held as he spoke: 

“I heard a familiar voice from down the street as I approached the little house. I walked past it nightly, you understand, and checked on it.” 

“On Lestat, you mean,” Daniel corrected.

Armand waved a dismissive hand. “Louis’ voice was grainy and I knew that he wasn’t there. I couldn’t sense his presence. But of course it was strange to hear his voice coming from the house. I went to investigate and I found the most curious thing: a mortal boy, desperate and feverish, with recordings of his voice.” 

“Desperate and feverish?” Daniel asked, amused.

Armand cut his eyes at him. “No commentary, beloved. This is my story.” 

Daniel held his hands up in supplication. “Yeah, yeah. Go on.” 

Armand nodded sagely, but Daniel caught the ghost of a smile on his lips. “The tapes surprised me. I wondered why Louis had allowed his voice to be captured in such a way. But then I saw this beautiful creature pacing in the house, tall with soft blond hair and intense eyes. He had a frenetic energy and was walking from window to window as if hoping someone would appear. I knew at once Louis had probably been drawn to the boy’s beauty. Though I still didn’t understand why he’d spoken with such candor. So I remained outside and listened.”

“How long were you there?” Daniel asked. 

Armand considered. “Long enough to learn that boy was there for Lestat, who still lay sleeping. Not long enough to decide if the boy should live or die. That was why I had to hold him until I could examine his belongings and learn more about him.” 

Daniel, of course, remembered being knocked unconscious and locked in the cellar for three days. How delirious and desperate he’d felt when he’d seen Armand again, how full of awe and desire! Those days were a blur now, but he remembered the strange cocktail of emotions that would become his life for the next few years: terror, curiosity, and burning desire. 

“And? What did you find?” 

Armand smiled wryly. “That he was a harmless fool in pursuit of danger. But he was beseeching and bold and I found that fascinating.”

“Yeah?” Daniel sat forward.

“For all he knew of our kind, the boy’s excitement at seeing me was equal to his fear, and I was intrigued.” 

“Intrigued, huh?” 

Armand paused, tilting his head as if in thought, eyes burning into Daniel with such intensity he could feel the heat of it.

After a moment, Daniel asked, “Are you going to call me ‘the boy’ the entire time?” 

“If you wish for me to continue, you must let me tell it how I see fit,” Armand said. 

Daniel smiled at him. “Sorry, boss. Go on.” 

Armand scooted his chair closer to the table and continued his story. 

[caitchercatlady]

Not Having a Good Time

-Ignihyde Version

Idia Shroud

When it comes to helping people when they're down, Idia thinks he's the worst at even coming up with solutions to make said person feel better. If it was physical hurt, he'd just send Ortho to do the healing, but mentally and emotionally? He learns from Ortho that you haven't been yourself at the first-year study sessions lately. He explains to Idia that you were down about not doing so well in Potions class the other day, and Crewel hasn't let up about it. Though Idia rolls his eyes about Crewel's typical nature, his heart sinks at how you must feel because you're the most hardworking student he knows.

You receive a text from Idia, asking you to come to Ignihyde at once, which does force an eyebrow of yours to go up. You didn't want to leave the comfiness of your bed, but if Idia is asking you to come over, it has to be something serious. You arrive at the dorm to an empty lounge, but before you know it, you are greeted by the lounge's main computer flashing in front of you. Idia's voice comes through the speakers.

"Um...Welcome, Yuu, to Ignihyde's presentation on well...Yuu. Today's, um...demonstration will cover the...pretexts of why Yuu is the OP player of Night Raven College. The key words we have are the following: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma."

It's curious how Idia's acting nervous over audio, but you supposed it was because he was giving compliments, which he's not used to doing. Nevertheless, the presentation on each of your qualities makes your heart skip beats. The further on the presentation goes, the quieter the speakers get. At first you think it's a tech error, but then you turn towards the opening of the hall to see Idia with a microphone, trying to finish the speech. You make your reaction as soon as the ending "Thank you, Yuu" slide appears. Instead of making a big "Thank you, Idia" scene, you give him the biggest hug you could muster. Idia's hair flickers in shock while his face contorts in slight embarrassment, but that quickly fades away as your warmth phases into his. His return hug is the only "You're welcome" you could need.

Ortho Shroud

As the more "attentive" of the Shroud brothers, Ortho can't be lied to about how you're feeling, whether physically, mentally, or emotionally. He sees that you're stressed out about something, nad he refuses to stand by and watch you get worse. He catches you outside in the campus garden, and he politely asks you to tell him what's been going on first. However, the more you resist, the more concerned he gets until he makes his point across.

"According to my research, friends help each other. As we are friends, I will find a way to help you no matter the problem. Now, as my brother would say in campaign, lay it on me."

You reveal to Ortho that Ace and Deuce had invited you out for a Saturday on the town after getting Crowley's permission to exit campus for a day. However, you remember that you have a big Ramshackle cleaning job that can't go without, which is another responsibility added on to an already busy school week. You want the break, but this cleaning needs to be done, so you are afraid to tell Ace and Deuce no. Ortho pulls out his emergency pack of tissues from his storage and offers you one to clear your tears that you didn't realize were falling down your face. He announces that you should go and have fun, and that if cleaning Ramshackle is all you need, he can do that no issue (in fact, he thinks it's a piece of cake). Ortho will make sure you keep you updated on the process, but his main advice is for you to clear your mind and go have fun with friends because it's only every so often that you get to do so.

[vikenticomeshome]

Cyberchase on Pixter Console (part 2/?)

I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to make a sequel to my first post about the sole Cyberchase console game. Back then, I only had a low-quality scan of the manual. It told us plenty about the different mini-games on the cartridge. However, the screenshots were all monochrome.

But now...I have the cartridge. It's gotten a bit scuffed over the past ~20 years, but all of the kids managed to avoid hair, face, and brain damage. One thing that doesn't come across in the scan is that the white ring and white writing have a rainbow shimmer effect in person.

I have a working Pixter console to play it on.

Unfortunately, there is no video output, so any pictures or video that I make will involve pointing my phone camera at the screen. Now, I am aware that the MAME project is working on an emulator for the Pixter console, and they have confirmed that they have dumped data from the Cyberchase cartridge. However, their emulation is still in too early of a state to be able to play the game. Maybe someday, then the emulation is ready, I can give you direct video and screenshot capture from the emulation.

Anyway, while I won't be taking video for everything, I decided to get the animations used for the title screen and intro. I don't believe these have previously been made available online. Given that the Pixter is out-of-style, these animations may not have been seen in years. Now, even at the highest volume setting, the phone's microphone doesn't pick up the audio very well. Therefore, I had to record the audio separately, mute the audio from the phone's microphone, and then combine them together. Please watch to the end, as there is an animation that happens if you stay on the menu for too long.

Alright, I'm going to use screenshots to explain the rest of the game. There are other animations, and I may make a follow-up post to show them.

So, we get our title screen, with recreations of our kids that could be rendered on the Pixter's screen.

We get a shot of Motherboard during the intro.

Then we get our menu of five games: Poddle Sort, Bridge Break, Cyber Jam, Scramble and Drawing.

The login page is for up to four stored profiles. All of these profiles were on the cartridge when I found it. I haven't overwritten one to make a profile for myself yet. Not sure when these were last touched.

The first game, Poddle Sort, involves sorting Poddles into different trucks based on their shapes. We're trying to get them back to Poddleville, which is confusing. I thought Poddleville was the name of the entire site.

We get this cool computer graphic to tell us which level we are on. The first three games have three levels apiece, which increase the difficulty.

When you complete a level, you get a "level jump," which features the Cybersquad jumping.

The second game, Bridge Break, features an animation of Buzz and Delete breaking a bridge.

In order to repair the bridge, you need to work out the pattern to figure out which planks go where.

The third minigame, Cyber Jam, features an animation of Matt getting stuck in traffic. Hacker ruined the traffic lights.

This is a classic puzzle called Klotski. You need to move the other vehicles out of the way to get Matt through the exit.

The fourth minigame, Scarmble, features an animation with Jackie. She loves creating Cyber creatures, apparently. That's a bit terrifying.

You can make a little guy. He even has a little animation when you're done.

The final game, Drawing, is a simple drawing program. You get several backgrounds to choose from. They are all based on backgrounds from the show, remade to be rendered on the Pixter.

We get the Dracula's Castle from Castleblanca.

I'm not sure what site this is from. It doesn't look like anything we see on Kalamoor during "A Day at the Spa". Maybe its a shot from Solaria during "Snow Day to be Exact", after the Sunisphere was stolen and the site started to freeze over. It could be Penguia, but I doubt it, as Penguia didn't come around until "Penguin Tears" in mid-2005. Penguia would have been pretty late to be included in this game. I wonder if this was just an original piece of winter-themed art, since there weren't many winter-themed sites at the time.

We get that forest where the tall, blue bunny, one of the Lucky charms of Cyberspace, lives.

We get another place that I don't recognize.

We get this shot from Solaria.

I'm pretty sure this show it from Sensible Flats.

I don't immediately recognize the site from this shot.

We get a shot of Motherboard's control panel and screen from Control Central.

We get a shot of the Northern Frontier.

We get a shot from Poddleville.

We get the bridge from The Hacker's Grim Wreaker ship.

And finally, we get this establishing shot of Cyberspace.

That's all that I have to say about this game for right now. I may do a follow-up where I try to capture the transitional animations.

[accidentalmistress]

I've been working on this for a long time, and I still didn't go over everything I want to go over, so this is going to end up being a multi part series on how I make my wavs, as well as a bit of general audio engineering.

Reed Behind the Scenes Part One:

Microphones and Recording Environment

A couple of notes before we begin:

For this series I'm going to focus on audio recordings, not video recordings, as they are very different mediums with different requirements. I am by no means an expert, I just have a little more experience with audio production than the average person.

All of my equipment is in the Android/Microsoft ecosystem, and as such I do not have much experience with Apple products. I apologize in advance if anything I discuss does not work within the Apple ecosystem.

Let's talk about microphones. You can't make a recording without one, whether it's the one in your phone or a standalone mic. I use the latter, but some phones have decent mics. Since we just mentioned Apple products, I will say that I have heard that the microphones in iPhones are pretty good these days. When I record on my phone, I prefer to use a dedicated recording app, because it allows me to record directly to an mp3 or wav file that I can then export to my computer for editing, as opposed to recording a video and trying to rip the audio later. I use an app called Voice Record Pro, but there are plenty of voice recording apps out there.

For my best quality work, I use my microphone. You don't need a super fancy mic to make good recordings, but the kind of mic you get is important. There are many different kinds of mics at many different price points, but they generally fall into two categories: USB and XLR. USB microphones can plug directly into your computer, whereas XLR mics need to pass through an interface first. For the vast, vast majority of people looking to get a mic for making fetish content, I am going to recommend getting a USB mic, and the main reason is cost.

For XLR mics, you need two pieces of equipment: the mic itself and an audio interface to run it through to a computer. Not to mention XLR cables, a stand, and a mount. Even if you get a relatively inexpensive XLR mic, after you get all of the other equipment and accessories you need, you may as well have splurged on a decent USB mic.

I only recommend investing in a good XLR if you want to pursue a professional audio career of some kind, and even then I'd wait to sink serious money into it until after you've gotten your feet wet and know that it's really what you want to do. These can be very difficult industries to break into. I do professional voice work, so for my setup I have a Neumann TLM 103, Focusrite Scarlett Solo audio interface, and a Surface Go tablet for recording. More on that in a bit.

In both USB and XLR there are generally three types of microphone: condenser (which is also sometimes called capacitor), dynamic, and ribbon. I'm not going to get into ribbon mics, because you don't need one just for snz content, and I'm not well-versed in them anyway. Most of the mics you will encounter when shopping for one online will be either condenser or dynamic.

Condenser mics are more sensitive than dynamic mics, so they're generally clearer and better suited for voice work. I'm using the word “generally” a lot here, because there's such a wide range of mics, and you may very well find a dynamic mic that works better for your voice and your space than a condenser mic. Unfortunately, the only way to really know for sure is to get one, try it out, and return it if it doesn't fit your needs.

There's this idea that dynamic mics are better for untreated spaces, because they're less sensitive and will therefore pick up less background noise. That's not exactly true. Dynamic mics do pick up fewer audio frequencies than condenser mics, so if you have some background noise that's outside of your mic’s frequency range, then that may not get picked up. Your average background noises, though—loud neighbors, motorcycles and trucks driving by, your cat meowing, the hum from your PC fan—those sounds will still get picked up. The best thing to do is to sound treat your space, but we'll get to that later.

I'll post a few recommendations, but I haven't used any of these mics for myself, so these are recommendations from the voice acting community at large as good budget mics. Any prices are USD, and unfortunately I don't know the global availability of these mics.

USB Mic Recommendations:

Blue Yeti USB

AudioTechnica AT2020 USB (Note that there is also an XLR version.)

Both can be purchased under $100 pre-owned. Both retail for around $130 new. If you're in the US, the nice thing about the Blue Yeti is that you can walk into just about any Best Buy and pick up a brand new one on the spot.

XLR Mic Recommendations:

RØDE NT1 5th Gen

AudioTechnica AT2020 XLR (As mentioned above.)

The AT, at about $100 new, costs less than half as much as the RØDE at $250. If you're set on an XLR but shopping on a budget, that may be the mic for you. The RØDE, on the other hand, is a great introductory mic for professional voice work. For these mics you'll need an audio interface, also called a preamp. A solid one for the budget-conscious, and what I use, is the Focusrite Scarlett Solo, which will set you back about $100 new.

The microphone I use, a Neumann TLM 103, retails for about $1,200 new. You can sometimes find them under $600 pre-owned. They're pretty much the gold standard in the animation industry for how well they can handle loud sounds, like yelling and screaming, without clipping. I invested in one several years ago when my husband got a nice bonus from work, for which I am eternally grateful. Do not go this far unless you are serious about voice work.

Now that you've learned far more about microphones than you ever wanted, let's talk about sound treatment for your recording space. Whether you're using a dedicated mic or your phone, sound treatment will always elevate the quality of your recordings. Even the highest quality mic in an untreated space will sound worse than an average quality mic in a well-treated space.

What is sound treatment? Sound treatment is taking steps to reduce and eliminate the amount of background noise and reverb from the space you are recording in. Have you ever noticed a slightly echoey quality to your voice in recordings? Like you can "hear the room"? That's reverb. When you speak, the sound waves go from your mouth to the microphone , but they also go out into the room and reflect off of the walls before coming back and hitting the microphone again, creating that slight echo. You'll need a sound treated space to prevent that from happening.

One fairly easy and inexpensive way to do this is to utilize thick moving blankets. You can try tacking them up in a closet or hanging them from a booth frame. I currently use a recording booth made from a PVC pipe frame with a double layer of moving blankets hung around it and draped overtop. (Here’s a link to a video tutorial on how to build your own). Another method is to use sound dampening panels hung on the walls of your recording space. A lot of folks use those textured foam tiles. Just be careful with those because if you get really cheap ones the foam can be poor quality that doesn't dampen sound very well. (The Foam Factory sells great acoustic foam, but the cost can add up quickly depending on the size of your space.)

I've also seen booths that are made by lining the walls of a closet with carpeting, so if you happen to have some carpet remnants that might work for you. I’m upgrading my own recording space by converting a closet into a recording booth. I'm building sound panels made from wooden frames filled with sound dampening insulation that I’ll hang on the walls. (Here's a link to that tutorial as well, but that option costs a few hundred dollars in supplies.) If nothing else, a closet filled with hanging clothes can do in a pinch to dampen background noise.

Let's talk a little bit about computers while we're on the topic of background noise. Remember way back when I mentioned my Surface Go tablet? Now remember when I talked about how mics can pick up PC fans? The Surface Go is how I get around the problem of PC fan background noise. The Surface Go doesn't have a fan, so it doesn't make any noise. I can bring it into the booth with me, hook my interface up to it, and use it to run my recording software. I'll then transfer the file to my main PC for editing. If you can do so with your space, you could potentially get cables that are long enough to leave your PC tower outside of the recording space so you can't hear the fan. Definitely cheaper than buying a tablet just for recording.

For editing, I use Audacity, which is a free digital audio workstation, or DAW. Another popular DAW is Reaper, which is "free" in that they don't limit the trial version, so you don't need to pay to use the full version (although they'd really like you to buy a license). I'm not going to go too far into depth on software and editing here, since I plan to do a Part Two on how I edit my recordings. Besides, this post has gotten long enough, and this seems as good a place as any to end it. I'm always open to questions on this kind of thing. Like I said, I'm not an expert, but I'll answer what I can, and if I don't know the answer I'll do my best to find the information for you. Thanks for reading this far, and I hope you've learned something that's helpful or at least interesting to you in some way 😊

[gamerbot-22]

Demo Version

Prompt: Headphones

TW/CW: None, barely proofread and I appreciate spellchecks!

Word Count: 898

A/N: Last Ficlet before my break! I’m writing this while I watch the Oscars with my mom, which feels mega fitting. Anyways! Robin! My sister’s girlfriend’s favorite! I think she’s def won some awards in the game if it hasn’t been stated officially. Could you imagine her in like… Penacony Wicked… Transcendent, tbh. Also yeah, there's a pretty direct reference to the above mentioned sister's gf because I can do what I want! Woo!!!

Translation Notes: Normally this is for foreign language in dialogue, but I thought I would throw this in for people who don't know ballet/don't know it well (like I do.) Adagio means a slow piece, and pas de deux is a dance for two!

Likes and Reblogs appreciated (reblogs > likes) and Requests are Open! Read this story on Ao3 here!

<- Previous Ficlet | Collection Post | Next Ficlet ->

The dividers in this post were made by @/gamerbot-22 (me!) ☆

© All rights reserved by miHoYo

It was intensely common for Robin to get fan mail. Physical, digital, occasionally hand-delivered at events, the starlet was practically swimming in it at all times. She tried her best to get back to all of it herself, and while she was still firmly of the opinion that every single letter get acknowledgement, most of the workload had to be handed off to her assistants.

Still, they saved the best for her to look at, and those letters and messages never failed to lift Robin four feet off the ground with pride and joy.

Especially when they motivated creation. From fanart to music to everything in between, it was a joy Robin wouldn't give up for the world to know that she had touched the heart of even one person in such a way.

On this Mail Day in particular, Robin had gotten quite a few creation letters, with most of them being beautiful pieces of physical or digital painting and sketching in a variety of styles. So when she saw that one message came with an .mp4 attached, Robin couldn't help but get a little more excited.

The letter was from a young lady probably not that much younger than her, from a planet far away. She talked about school and her friends and how she had first found Robin's music through her then-friend, now-girlfriend. It was all very sweet, but what especially caught her eye was the very last paragraph:

"so obviously this isn't me telling you that you have to bc you don't have to do anything, but you've been such an inspiration to me since i started listening to your music! so much so that i actually thought i'd try composing something? there's no lyrics and i'm still new so i have no clue if this is any good, but... even if you would listen to this, it would mean a lot.

thank you! i love you and your work!

- 🐝

attached file: with-wings-unclipped-demo.mp4"

Robin quickly plucked up her headphones from beside her computer's monitor and set them on her head, minding her halo and the wings behind her ears to avoid any discomfort. Earbuds would probably be less trouble, as her agent and brother were so fond of reminding her, but headsets had such better sound quality in her opinion.

So with her headphones on and the file opened, Robin settled in to listen. The progress bar at the bottom showed her that it was on the shorter end of a song--clocking in at only a minute and a half--but demos were meant to be short, and the fact that a self-admitted amateur composer had made that much was something to be proud of!

She hit play and settled against her desk, resting her chin in one hand as she watched the bar at the bottom of the viewer begin to slide seamlessly along.

The first few seconds were just room noise--the kind of white noise that no one notices until there's a microphone around--with the faint sound of breathing and fabric shifting against itself. Then, softly, almost imperceptibly, there came the sound of a piano. It was old, and maybe a little out of tune, but as the chords started to grow more confident, more loud, it was made so clear that the tuning did not matter.

The music swelled and swayed, a beautiful adagio of notes that turned between Robin's ears like a wind-up music box. The starlet shut her eyes and let herself be carried along with each measure, humming softly in Harmony...

...Only to find herself suddenly joined by the sound of a violin. No, a viola, actually. The strings wrapped so perfectly around the piano's notes, the perfect compliment in this newly revealed pas de deux, like the instruments were two pieces of a puzzle that were made custom for one another and nothing else.

Robin turned the music up and let herself get carried away, following each note as it caught in her wings and carried her off with it, right towards the stars. It felt so intimate, being brought along with such a perfect pair.

Then a third sound joined. A voice? For a fleeting moment, at least, she thought there was a voice. Well, the composer said they were still in school, it was probably just a roomma--

"...in?"

Huh. That one wasn't on beat like the first one. It wasn't ruining the demo by any means, but--

"Robin!"

Oh, that was for her--

Robin turned quickly in her chair, only to be met face-to-face with Sunday, her brother, with a rather skeptical, if amused look on his face.

"Oh! Sunday!" Robin quickly paused the track and pulled her headphones off. A rush of warm embarrassment flooded her cheeks. "Sorry, I didn't hear you come in."

"I noticed," he chuckled, the wings by his ears fluffing up a little smugly. "I came to tell you that dinner is ready. You've been reading and answering fan mail all day, you should get something to eat."

She nodded gently, still a bit off-guard from the surprise of Sunday's sudden appearance. "Of course, of course, I'll be right down."

Sunday's eyes looked to the monitor, then back to her. His smile widened just a bit, reaching his eyes a little more as he backed up. "Be quick, alright? Don't want it getting cold, now."

[crescentfool]

so you want to use OBS

hello! i’ve decided to compile information on my OBS setup and some resources that have helped me along the way.  this is mostly for personal reference, but maybe others can make use of this information!

some notes before i get into it:

i use OBS for both offline recording and (twitch) streaming. any footage i record is edited using DaVinci Resolve 18, which is free.

most of my OBS captures are of video games (through a USB capture card, specifically elgato), and the occasional screen/application capture (like clip studio paint, and sometimes PC games).

as such, the information here is reflective of these experiences. this post is not comprehensive to all of OBS’s features- this is just an overview of the settings and configurations that are most relevant to me.

with that out of the way, all the information will be under the cut!

Basic Setup

file format:

how to change: settings -> output -> recording -> recording format -> press “apply” once finished!

I save most of my recordings as .mkv files- it supports multi-track audio! i prefer .mkv over .mp4 because if your power goes out, you still have a recording to work with. 

.mkv files can be read by DaVinci Resolve without an issue- but for Adobe software, they'll need to be remuxed to .mp4 within OBS! (file -> remux recordings -> press the … to select a file -> press the “remux” button)

video resolution and framerate:

how to change: settings -> video -> output (scaled) resolution

my obs canvas is @ 1920 x 1080p (16:9)

i switch between 720p and 1080p as needed! if you're concerned about space, you can probably just go for 720p. i also record at 30 fps, simply because that’s what my capture card supports.

video bitrate:

how to change: settings -> output -> encoder settings (located in both the streaming and recording tab) -> press “apply” once finished!

bitrate is a bit of a doozy to explain, but the most important thing to know is that bitrate affects your video’s quality. lower numbers = lower quality, while higher numbers = higher quality. 

generally speaking, you'll want higher bitrate when you're recording things with high depth of information (e.g. you’d want a higher bitrate for something fast-paced like splatoon, compared to a slower-paced game like animal crossing).

my video bitrate is either set to 3000 or 4000 kbps! and here's some of my other (related) settings while i'm at it:

you can put your bitrate at much higher values than me if you're a stickler for quality- but keep in mind that a higher bitrate means:

bigger file size

more information to upload (when streaming)

your computer will need to encode more

i’d recommend reading twitch’s guidelines on encoding, bitrate, resolution, and framerate to get an idea of what values to pick. for people who are doing offline recording or streaming on a different platform, i suggest googling the appropriate resources!

multi-track audio:

this is mostly applicable to anyone looking to do video editing!

multi-track audio basically allows you to separate your audio sources (e.g. discord, game audio, and your own microphone) into different tracks. 

this is an immensely helpful tool because it lets you adjust audio levels in post-production (editing). some examples of how this can be used:

increasing someones microphone volume if they speak too softly

increasing/decreasing game audio

muting swear words/sensitive information

completely muting voice call + microphone if you want to upload a no commentary video

and more!

to set this up, take a look at your audio mixer panel, and press the ⚙ icon. this will bring up advanced audio properties.

by checkmarking a track box, it puts the audio on that track. to make the above screenshot easier to digest:

track 1 consists of ALL three audio sources- desktop, elgato, and microphone.

track 2 only has the microphone audio.

track 3 only has desktop audio (i use this for voice calls)

track 4 only has the elgato capture card audio (game audio). the volume has also been lowered so that any speaking voices can be heard clearly.

tracks 5 and 6 are unused.

you might be wondering, “why do all three of these have 1 checked off?” this is what i call the universal audio track. i recommend having a universal audio track for a few reasons:

when you stream from OBS onto twitch/youtube- you have to select ONE audio track.

it’s also a nice backup in case you didn’t separate your audio correctly.

if for whatever reason you need to move around your individual audio tracks in editing, the universal track acts as a nice reference point.

mark off your audio tracks for each audio source as you see fit! once you’re finished with the advanced audio properties, go to settings > output.

for the streaming tab, you’ll want to have the number of your universal audio track selected. in my case, that will be audio track 1.

for the recording tab, checkmark all the audio tracks that are applicable to you (in my case, audio tracks 1, 2, 3, and 4). by default, only audio track 1 is selected.

if you don’t check off the additional audio tracks in the output > recordings section, you will not have access to those audio tracks in editing, and you won’t be able to edit your audio tracks independently of each other. so don’t forget to do this! 👍

custom browser docks

custom browser docks are a great tool for when you’re streaming and want to have access to your twitch chat and/or activity feed! (or if you wanted to have some other web browser on OBS).

to create one, go to docks -> custom browser docks.

you’ll be given a table interface that asks you to put the dock name and URL. for streamers who want to have chat and alerts available, do the following:

on twitch’s homepage, go to the upper right and click your icon

then, click creator dashboard

once you’re on your dashboard, go to stream manager

click the vertical “...” on my chat OR activity feed.

press “pop-out chat” OR “pop-out activity feed”

copy and paste the link into the table back into OBS

press apply once you’re done

click and drag the docks around at your leisure to put them where you like!

if you ever decide you don’t want to have something on your OBS dock (or want to bring something back), go to the toolbar, click “docks,” and click the appropriate dock!

third party things

a section of optional things that you may enjoy having.

streamlabs alerts

this is basically for anyone who streams and wants to have their chat and/or follower notifications visualized on screen!

streamlab alerts can be added to OBS by adding a browser source into your scene, and the specifics can be customized on streamlabs itself. it’s pretty self-explanatory, so i’ll just leave a link to streamlabs website, where you can log in using the streaming platform of your choice: https://streamlabs.com/

discord overlay

this is a browser source that can be set up to show people who are in a server's voice chat and who speaks. i recommend this to people who make multiplayer content- it can help viewers distinguish who is who but also it can be helpful in editing.

to set this up, go to https://streamkit.discord.com/overlay, click “install for OBS,” and after logging in with discord, go to “voice widget” and click the server and voice channel you want.

you are able to apply CSS if you'd like more control over the visuals, but the standard layout tends to work fine for me! a search of “discord overlay css” on youtube can help you get more information.

veadotube mini

this is a pngtuber software that a friend recommended to me! no webcam is required- mouth opening and closing is based on your microphone input!

you can download it here (it’s pay what you want!): https://olmewe.itch.io/veadotube-mini

for a proper tutorial on how to use it, i recommend checking out the app's documentation, which you can read here: https://veado.tube/help/

source record

have you ever wanted to stream something with a chat overlay/layout, but wanted your recording to ONLY be the gameplay? or maybe you wanted to record BOTH your gameplay AND your webcam so that you can have a crisp zoom-in on your webcam!

source record is a third party plugin that can help you with that!

the general gist of source record involves applying the “source record” filter on either a scene or source, and customizing the encoding settings accordingly. the exact details of how to set it up is beyond the scope of this post, so I'll just direct people to this video instead (it was very helpful to me):

⚠ a quick note about source record: this plugin can be intense for your computer. be sure to do test recordings and the like to see what your computer can handle (and see if the recordings come out the way you like). it took me a few tests before i settled onto something i liked!

you can download and install source record here: https://obsproject.com/forum/resources/source-record.1285/

vdo.ninja

have you ever wanted to do a collaborative video or stream where you feature someone else’s video on your stream? or maybe you’re doing a multi-person streaming event! vdo.ninja is the perfect tool for you!

vdo.ninja turns your OBS virtual camera into a browser source link- which your collaborator can add on their stream! this is a new tool that i’ve added to my arsenal recently- since my friend and i are planning to stream a side order challenge together! i’ve still got to iron it out a bit more, but i like what i’ve used of it so far.

try it out for yourself at their website here (with documentation and demos available on the homepage!): https://vdo.ninja/ (no downloads required!)

ok! i’m set up! what now?

and with that, that’s all of the settings and tools that i thought would be worth mentioning! while most of my setup was written with video games in mind, some of these plugins and setups may be applicable to other types of videos (e.g. tabletop gaming with a physical camera)!

now that i’ve outlined all these settings, i have one more thing i have to say: regardless of what you're using OBS for, do a test recording before doing anything “official” with it. this recording can be as short as 30 seconds. it’s a good habit to develop that can make sure your streams/recordings turn out the way you want them to!

here are the kinds of things i like to check! it’s not an exhaustive list, but this can be a starting point:

video:

does my video look the way i want it to (and can my computer handle that)?

can my computer handle the load of encoding? - OBS will note in the bottom if the encoding is overloaded. if it can’t handle it, turn down your bitrate or adjust other encoding settings (e.g. i had to toggle psycho visual tuning OFF because it was causing lag)

this is especially the case if you're recording PC games- you don’t want to have slowdown on either your game or the recording!

audio:

are my audio sources (e.g. desktop audio and microphone) correct? - if you plug/unplug devices a lot, be sure to check this (settings -> audio).

are any of my audio sources muted? - make sure you don’t have anything on 🔇 if you don’t want it to be muted! otherwise the audio will be lost forever… (i lost my friend’s VC audio once… it was sad)

are my audio tracks separated properly? - requires you to boot up your editing software, but it's worth doing! for the test recording, just have something from all your sources playing at once, and see if your editor has things separated into tracks.

can i hear the voices clearly? or does the music and/or game overpower them?

if for whatever reason your OBS crashes, or you want more information on anything “critical” or “warning” worthy in your set-up, you can go to help > log files > upload current log file > analyze. crash logs currently can’t be analyzed by the log analyzer- but they’re a valuable tool when asking for help on the OBS forums!

and that’s all! for real, this time. i hope that some of these tools and settings can help anyone wanting to get more out of OBS. there’s definitely other things i didn’t touch upon (e.g. audio filters for noise compression, suppression, etc.), so i suggest doing your own research and trying things out!

happy recording/streaming, and thanks for reading! ✨

[katatty]

Hi, Kat! Fellow UK simmer here - been following you for a while here on tumblr (love your MCC posts), and am currently binging all your YouTube content after recently stumbling across your channel! I have a quick question related to YouTube, if you don’t mind answering, as I’m interested in potentially making some videos of my own. May I ask what software and setup you use to record your videos? As your audio is very good, I presume you use a mic? Your screen recordings are very smooth so I’d be interested in what programme you’re using, although I’m sure your computer has a lot to do with that. I hope my question makes sense! Thanks in advance for your help.

Hello! I don't mind answering at all, I am answering it publically in case anyone else is interested but do feel free to message me if you want to chat in more detail, I'd be happy to talk shop :) I wish I had people to talk to when I started out, I was too intimidated to approach anyone lol!

(and aaaa, I'm flattered to hear you are binging my channel, thank you!! its funny (but nice!) hearing a compliment on my audio bc I am self-concious about it and think it is not the best, hahaha)

I use OBS Studio for recording, which I think is pretty standard. But I do my video editing in Vegas Pro which idk if its common (I think people usually use adobe these days?) but I used a pirated version of Vegas to make AMVs back when I was a teenager so that was what I went with XD

I do have a decent PC but also play with low cc when I am recording for Youtube, as the game runs a little smoother and doesn't lag too much, which I think looks nicer on video! I also delete all my raw footage after I have finished editing/rendering as the files can get pretty big

edit: forgot to include this (idk if useful) but my OBS settings are set to recrod at 60FPS at a resolution of 1920x1018

I do use a mic! My first few videos were just recorded on a cheap bluetooth headset I used for work but the sound quality was pretty bad, haha. TBH I don't know much about mics, my partner is a musician and has a bunch of mics & equipment so I just borrowed his stuff lol! The mic is an Audio Technica AT2020 condenser microphone and its plugged into a M-Audio M-Track Solo USB audio interface (as the mic wouldnt plug into the PC otherwise, the interface also lets you adjust the gain which is nice) but idk if you really need something that fancy. I usually see people reccommend the Yeti mic for YouTube, which doesn't need an audio interface, idk if it is actually good or not but it seems like a popular choice?

Although if you are just starting out, I would not invest in any expensive mics or anything right off the bat - since you want to see if you actually enjoy the process of making videos first before spending any money on it! (For me at least I spend a LOT more time editing footage than recording it, it's very time consuming, although I think some creators do a lot less editing so its a style preference maybe). IMO Just start out with whatever you have and you can always upgrade later.

Also, the main thing I learned quickly which I think helped me about as much as using a better mic was having good "mic discipline". That's like, making sure your head/mouth is always the right sort of distance away from the microphone, making sure its positioned properly, trying to keep the volume you speak consistant, etc. I am still not always the best at this tbh! but am getting better :D

Hope this was useful!! Like I said, please feel free to msg me if you want to chat more about YT stuff :)

[belit0]

2000 Word Commission (Uchiha Obito / Fem Reader) @moroseu

"Alrighty for this one imma let you pick between Madara or Obito since you write both of them so well 🥹💗 If you could write in a modern AU about ex-lovers reconnecting online? He accidentally likes an old risque photo of reader during a work break and she notices immediately because she misses him too. Which leads into some spicy texts or phone call👀"

You know I had to choose Obito for this commission because which Uchiha is more capable of liking something unintentionally?!!?!?!!?

Also, thank you so much to beautiful Roseu for always supporting my work, highly grateful to my darling🙌🏻💕🛐💫

EACH COMMISSION COMES WITH AN EXTRA SECRET SCENARIO, THAT I UNIQUELY AND ESPECIALLY ADD FOR THE BUYER. (I'll leave you an example of it at the bottom, but in Spanish, so you don't cheat.)

KO-FI COMMISSIONS

His mind is fried as he opens Instagram without even thinking about it, headphones still in place and microphone ready for when the client finishes her word marathon. Uncle Madara usually makes fun of Obito and his job, saying it's just a stupid call center and his labor is way too simple, so easy he could do it without paying attention, yet he doesn't have a clue.

He has been on the phone for about an hour with Mrs. Maria Rodriguez, trying to explain why her online banking is blocked, asking for verification of certain suspicious transactions, struggling to read some legal disclosures without being interrupted. The lady, in her eighties and as lucid as a mad goat, talks on and on, ignoring all Obito's requests for time to explain himself.

He holds a Monster in his hand, the only source of strength in these times of labor adversities.

Personally, he believes that people this old should not have access to these types of lines without a family member by their side to assist, with the personified example on the phone and not being able to do anything about it. The lady speaks a mixture of broken English and fluent Spanish, mixing dialects and mistranslations into a jumble of incomprehensible sentences.

He has been staring at his computer screen for an hour with his microphone muted, tired of fighting Mrs. Rodriguez's compelling need to recount all of her family's wanderings, what she did today, what she bought yesterday, what medicines she needs refills for. The Uchiha abandoned the urge to fight against his rambling client some time ago, determined to end the call as airily as possible.

He evaluated the possibility of dropping his connection several times, fed up with being unable to follow her lead or explain the reasons for the blockages in her account, exercising all his patience on the first call of his shift. He has about seven more hours of torture ahead of him, and no idea how the day is going to end after starting out like this.

As Maria continues to babble on about how her granddaughter started school and explains she ran out of Atorvastatin for her heart problems, Obito gives up and grabs his cell phone, leaving Instagram open just to bring some comfort to his visual. He's tired of seeing Mrs. Rodriguez's account on his screen, and can't seem to get out of that situation anytime soon.

He would jump into watching TikToks, but it causes him terrible frustration having to binge them without sound, choosing muted stories as his quality poison. He can't forego the possibility of finally needing to use his microphone as soon as the client stops mumbling, simply staring at the photos people ephemerally upload.

His heart catches in his throat when he sees Shisui's story, and almost chokes on the shot of Monster he takes at that exact moment. Had he had the microphone open, Mrs. Rodriguez probably would have spent another hour telling him to watch out and be careful, to drink some water.

It's not because of Shisui himself, but because of who is posing with him in the story. (Y/N), his ex, beautiful and stunning as always, looks at him from the other side of the screen with a wonderful expression, huge smile, and looking genuinely joyful. They both model in front of a sculpture in a museum, and Obito should have assumed he would eventually come across some hint of her on his social media.

He never unfollowed her, but preferred to restrict her stories so as not to suffer whenever seeing her dating someone else, knowing that a girl as stunning as (Y/N) would not take long to find someone. She and Shisui, co-workers at his uncle's company, always had a pleasant friendly relationship, true work besties.

He is not surprised to see them together, nor does he suspect his cousin is betraying him in any way, but coming face to face with her after months of grieving is shocking. Mrs. Rodriguez brings him out of his stupor by asking him a question he fails to catch, only being aware of it by the sudden silence in the line.

He hastily opens his microphone, unwilling to lose his job and have to beg Madara to employ him, and speaks as professionally as he can muster, "Mrs. Rodriguez, as I told you a couple of times, this is Obito with Wealth Fargu, online fraud assistance trying to verify a transaction for an amount of 273.45 cents made through Zelle. Can you confirm the legitimacy of it or are you unfamiliar with the charge?"

"Ohhhh, it was probably mi hija, trying to purchesear something because it turns out..." Another huge trail of words he's not willing to hear, ringing on the other end of his headphones for approximately 45 minutes. Maria goes back to addressing her pointless monologue as the Uchiha decides to pop into (Y/N)'s profile, pressing the @ that Shisui left in his story, and see what life has thrown at her.

Their separation was neither traumatic nor terrible, two adults agreeing it was not the right time to face anything serious, let alone a relationship like the one they were in, taking the most responsible decision and opting to walk away. There are no grudges or quarrels, just words stuck on the tongue and many "I love you" to be said.

Obito scrolls through her profile, reaching the time limit where the two stopped talking and seeing each other, and clicks on the first picture. Dazzling as always, (Y/N) poses in a bikini on the beach, body sculpted by the world's most lustful gods, curves to die for, tanned to the perfect point.

He can't deny the feelings his friend downstairs feels as he admires the details of the photo, putting his Monster down on his desk and resting his phone on it as well, trying not to make mistakes and unintentionally like it. He looks at the screen from afar, with Mrs. Rodriguez in the background as she continues to tell him about her daughter, and can't help a circulation of beautiful memories in his mind.

"OBITO! MY BOY! ARE YOU THERE?!" Maria shouts on the other end of his line, startling him so much that Uchiha brings his hands to the keyboard out of instinct. The second his arm twitches in panic, he ends up inadvertently pressing against the phone screen, giving a like to the most suggestive photo he could have found on (Y/N)'s profile.

"YES, HERE I AM! DO YOU RECOGNIZE THE TRANSFER AND THE AMOUNT?!" he shouts out of sheer panic at his customer, while internally wanting to die at the sight of the phone. That red heart, lit up at the base of the screen, hunting him as if it wanted to eat him alive.

"Yes, yes, it was my daughter." Obito doesn't have the strength to answer as he should, opting to reestablish Mrs. Rodriguez's access to her online banking without the system's regulatory checks, needing to cut the call and breathe. He doesn't even say goodbye before letting go of the line, and remains transfixed staring at his computer screen.

He locks the cell phone without moving his eyes, refusing to look at it, knowing there is no way to retract the notification that has probably already arrived on his ex's device. He tosses it onto his bed, located just behind the desk he uses for work, determined to feign nonchalance in the remaining hours of his shift.

...

The clock strikes five o'clock, time for the Uchiha to finally log off, shutting down the system he uses on his computer and heading to bed. It's a Friday without much to do, having turned down some invitations to go out to stay at home and relax, but he begins to evaluate the possibility of accepting some of the proposals just to get drunk and forget his little mistake.

Of course, for that, he has to go through looking at his mobile phone, which is an impossible task.

He turns the device over on the mattress, having landed on the screen, and lies down next to it. iPhone pointing towards the ceiling, he looks at it from the side, unable to read the notifications that came in or to know if there were any repercussions for his action.

He types in his security code by heart, keeping his face out of the camera, and is thankful to always have it on mute to avoid knowing what happened during all the hours he ignored it. When he accesses his messages, however, everything becomes complicated.

He can't make out names or pictures at the angle he tries to look at the phone, and doing his best to try and open his family's group chat, he ends up getting into one that leaves his heart in his throat again.

"Hey there :)" He reads the harmless text his ex sent him, and has no idea how to react. Having already inadvertently left her on read, he has no choice but to reply, a little excited and nervous.

"Hi :), what's up?" With a smiley face? No smiley face? More formal? Less informal? Resentful? Cheerful? He has no idea how to set the tone of his message, conflicted about how to react after so many months of no contact with her. How should one behave when your beautiful ex texts you again?

His message is instantly read, which means (Y/N) is inside the chat. She sends another calm, casual reply, and the two of them fall into the well-known chatting dance, catching up as if nothing happened.

Obito learns he misses her madly when she sends a picture of her smiling face, always so pretty and perfect, the most beautiful woman in the world to his eyes. Feelings of nostalgia and love intermingle in an emotional mess, tying a knot in his chest he decides to ignore.

After all, he still loves her fiercely.

He responds to the photo with one of his own, having taken about ten minutes to define the angle and try to look as cute as he can. Disheveled after a long day at work, his ex replies with a similar picture, but a little more daring.

She, on the bed, wearing shorts too small and revealing half of her buttocks, only a fragment of her face in the shot. She is clearly shooting where she wants the attention to go, and the Uchiha is not going to object to that. (Y/N's) body is still as ravishingly gorgeous as he remembers, smooth skin he can identify even through the screen, an angel personified on earth.

Not intending to ruin the reunion, mixed feelings between his legs as well, he follows the tone of her photo with a slightly more provocative one. He, in the mirror, shirtless and revealing the V marked at the end of his abdomen by stretching the waistband of his pants down.

The tone quickly rises on both sides, both parties engaged in a back and forth of increasingly explicit photos, and soon, Obito finds himself with a hand inside his pants, touching himself without remorse. According to the videos he now receives, (Y/N) seems to follow him in body and soul, showing as she satisfies herself with a pink toy vibrating on her clit.

She had no possession of such an object before it all ended, and he feels even more aroused at the possibility of her not having been with anyone for months. Of course, there would be nothing wrong with the opposite case, but a toxic part of him is happy about that fact.

(Y/N) moans into her phone with anticipation, and before he can reply with a video of his own, he receives a video call. He doesn't take a second to answer it, being greeted with an "I miss you" between moans and ragged breaths, his ex's legs spread wide open as she touches herself with that toy of hers.

"I need you, (Y/N), I fucking miss you too" he moans in response, ceasing his touch to articulate coherent words and then resuming his self-inflicted caresses. They both share the moment, separated by distance but together in virtuality, fucking each other from afar yet close at the same time.

"You... sho-ould come! Here... I-I mean, come here!" It kills him the effort she makes to communicate what she needs, and he can imagine the familiar look of pleasure she must have plastered on her features, the one he appreciated countless times beneath his own body.

"Now?"

"Fuck yes-s, come, please!" Obito doesn't need a second invitation, quickly cutting off the call and typing an "on my way, don't cum" into their chat as he pulls on a jumpsuit with no need for a t-shirt underneath, sneakers, and runs out of his apartment with his car keys ready in hand.

EXAMPLE OF A SPECIAL AND UNIQUE ADDED SCENARIO