#I could be good at more social media I think also to promote stuff

[voxsmistress]

Mama Didn't Raise No Bimbo - Part NINE

PHHEWWW this seems a bit of a filler but I wanted to show you some little moments she had with the Vee's - after all not everything can be big dramatic happenings - how else will we get to the good stuff if they dont build some trust together ;)

Plus what do you think is Y/n's surprise?

Part One / Part Two / Part Three / Part Four / Part Five / Part Six / Part Seven / Part Eight / Part Nine / Part Ten / Part Eleven / Part Twelve / Part Thirteen / Part Fourteen / Part Fifteen

It had been a week since that last meeting with the Vee’s and it had flown by. You were singing at the clubs, having meetings with Velvette to get your measurements done correctly, being more social on Sinstagram and other socials, you had a few interviews with small time magazines promoting you. You were a busy bee. And you loved it!

Tonight, you were going to a club opening that had asked you if you wanted a part time contract there as a singer – before you agreed you said you’d like to see what the night life was like first, which they then invited you to their opening night. Once you had the date set, Vel had been nonstop harassing you with pictures, sketches and videos of her designs and then letting you know all the progress when you chose the outfit you wanted. Sometimes you caught Vox or Valentino in the background of her videos; both rolling their eyes dramatically or pulling faces making you laugh. Or sometimes they took over the video and had a little chat with you pushing Velvette out the screen completely.

It wasn’t just Vel that you were in constant contact with either: Vox had taken to messaging you every day letting you know that certain media outlets wanted to talk to you (after he ‘persuaded’ them) about an interview or have you on their show. He also, a few days after you complained that your phone had such a crap camera, sent you a brand-new state of the art VoxTek phone. You laughed for ages when you turned it on as he set the background as himself standing proud with that charming grin of his. No matter how many times you tried to change the background, after a few hours it always switched back to that photo so after a few days you just left it.

Valentino, he was a bit more subtle than the other two. Sending selfies of himself and the other two on SinsChat with flirty little messages to you, a few text messages here and there but nothing too ‘Valentinoish’. When you mentioned that you were going to the club opening, he actually suggested some ideas to talk about if you were stopped by the paparazzi. Which you doubt would happen but better to have the ideas and not use them, than need them and not have them. Right?

You were in the elevator heading up to Velvette’s floor, you had a few hours to get ready and she was already in boss mode ordering everyone about when she phoned you this morning waking you up. You could only imagine what she was like now. Which is why you have brought the coffee: one for her, one for you, and two more in case the other two appear. They seemed to have a habit of appearing when you and Vel were having a meeting, usually causing Vel to have to kick them both out as they tried their best to distract you.

Striding onto Vel’s floor you hide an amused smile at everyone running around like headless chickens and Velvette in the middle orchestrating the mayhem. Your phone buzzing in your pocket distracted you, walking over to one of the tables with no fabric on – you were not risking your undead life by getting coffee near Velvette’s designs – you pop the coffees, your purse and jacket on top. Yanking your phone out your leggings leg pocket (thank you Vel for that genius invention) you spy Angel’s face pop up on a notification. Pressing it you quickly read the message, frown appearing on your face. He was letting you down tonight, so much for your plus one. Now you think about it, all this week you hadn’t see hide nor hair of him and his usual constant messaging was getting less and less. Hmm. Reminding yourself to call him tomorrow to speak about it you pop your phone back in your leggings pocket. Okay no plus one, you can totally do the opening by yourself. Wouldn’t be the first time.

A hand grips your wrist and swirls you into a seat. No longer surprised at Velvette’s ways you just get comfy and sit up straighter in your seat. After the third or fourth time she’d done this to you, it’s easier to just accept the gentle manhandling.

“Finally, you are here. You know you were meant to be here an hour ago, right?” She raises an unimpressed eyebrow at you, lips pulled down in a scowl. Yanking her coffee from the holder you hold it up as a peace offering, your best sorry expression across your face.

Taking the cup off you, a quick sip later she hummed under her breath before smirking: “fine you are forgiven! But do it again and I’ll start cutting that pretty hair shorter and shorter – an inch for every hour you are late” she threatens, swirling away to grab another sinner to start on your hair while she got her make up out ready. She had determined she was getting you ready for this club opening before you even thought about how you were going to get ready.

You closed your eyes as they got to work, the sinner working on your hair was sectioning it off and placing it in large curlers to make bouncy waves in your waist length hair and Vel was cleansing your face. At ease you barely notice anyone else until you smell the distinct aroma of a certain cigarette.

“Good evening, Valentino” you murmur, completely docile because of the fingers combing through your hair. You didn’t realise you liked it so much, not remembering if it felt this way when you were human or if it was a new thing now you were in Hell.

“Evening Princessa, it looks like you’re getting all the works tonight”, opening your right eye you smile at the Moth Overlord. Over this past week you’ve settled into a more relaxed relationship with each other. Less threatening and overbearing sexual innuendos and more flirty banter, which you could cope with.

“Yes, Vel was determined she was the best one to get me ready even though I offered to do my hair and make up myself” a small tap to your nose with a brush made you scrunch it.

“Well darlin’, if you want something done right, sometimes you just gotta do it yourself!”

Humming in agreement you close your eyes again at the feeling of the sinner sorting your hair, sighing happily. Or you did until you heard a snarl and the fingers stopped combing through your hair: “enough. Fuck off!” Blinking in shock you look up to see the sinner running quickly away and a glaring Velvette stood with her hands on her hips. She flashed you a smile when she caught your bemused stare, “she was taking the piss bae, Val is gonna finish off your hair. It only needs a few more curlers put in and then to set”. Hmm … a smile tugged at your lips from her behaviour. Was she jealous that you were enjoying someone else touching your hair?

“Like you said, if you want it done right, you got to do it yourself. My hair is in your talented hands Val” you close your eyes again at Velvette’s instruction as she starts on your eye make-up.

Fingers raked through your hair that hadn’t yet been pinned up and curled, nails scratching at your scalp caught you off guard as a moan nearly escaped your lips. Okay. You learn something new about your body every day. Even in Hell. Clearing your throat when you hear him lowly chuckle you try to distract yourself from the luscious feeling that he was pulling from you by playing with your hair.

“There’s a coffee on the table for you Val if you want one. I know you are usually up late with shoots so figured the caffeine fix might be what you need” you tell him, nose twitching when Vel turns and her hair tickles it.

“You are so kind to us, mi cariño” humming your agreement you allowed them both to work, chuckling every so often as the bitched and picked at each other. A week or two ago you would have thought they’d hated each other the way they spoke – now you realised this was just how they showed each other they cared. Toxic and not your style but it worked for them so who were you to stand in the way and judge.

You must have dozed off as the next time you opened your eyes Velvette was putting the last touches to your make up and Val was taking the curlers out of your hair. Closing your eyes you felt yourself being blasted with a fuck tonne of hair spray. Not a hair would be out of place and your make up would not be smudged. You’d be surprised if you could move your own face with the amount they used.

“Now who is your plus one to this opening Princessa?” Opening your eyes you look in shock at yourself in the mirror that a random sinner was holding in front of you. The demon who looked back at you from the reflection looked like some kind of Siren. Velvette and Valentino worked miracles. In awe of their skills, you mumble how your riding solo tonight as Angel cancelled on you, missing the look they both shared behind your back as you twisted to see how the waves rolled down your back.

 “Guys you are miracle workers, thank you so much! I don’t think I’ve ever looked this good even when I was alive!” Spinning in your seat you clap your hands giddily as Velvette giggles with you.

“Now for the outfit babes, then we’ve gotta get some photos of you posing before you go”, pushing you towards the dressing room you spy Valentino aggressively typing on his phone. Strange. But too excited to put on your clothes to give it another thought you barge into the room. A small shriek of excitement escaped your lips as you saw it finally. A black feather bustier with accents of the pink that you are starting to be known for, high waisted black leather pants which flared at the bottom, your favourite black stilettos with the pink bottoms were waiting for you. Pushing Velvette out the room to get ready you wafted away her complaints that she wanted to help you get ready saying you wanted it to be a surprise when you finally were all done up.

Carefully putting on the bustier, wriggling into it into place making sure it hugged your curves and synched your waist in but didn’t expose anything you didn’t want exposing. No nip-slips here people! The leather pants were a little easier to put on but again there was a lot of wriggling and jumping to get them completely up. And men thought we looked sexy putting these outfits on? The heels were the easiest thing to put on thank Lucifer. Slipping on the black choker you check that the little pink sapphire crystal was dangling correctly at the front of your throat, matching bracelet and ring then added. A quick spritz of your favourite perfume on your neck and wrists you were finally ready. Turning around to look in the mirror you grinned happily. Never in a million years did you ever think you would look this good.

Opening the door, you step out into the studio. Velvette and Valentino both talking about something heatedly together with their heads turned so you can’t read their lips. Hmm. Clearing your throat at them both to get their attention. Velvette was the first to look at you, beaming she claps her hands together as Valentino just licked his lips in a flirtatious manner.

“GIRL! You look AMAZING!! Right, we’ve gotta get some pics ready for your Sinstagram – you are gonna be trending tonight!” Suddenly there was a flurry of movement around you, lights blinding you as you were shoved in front of a backdrop. A photographer appeared from behind a big camera, him and Velvette directed you how and where to stand. Blinking in amusement you give your best seductive smile from over your shoulder to the camera, catching Valentino and Velvette watching you intently. Both of their gazes dark, Valentino was puffing aggressively on his cigarette. Blushing at their attention you lower your gaze before winking at them both. Screw it, you were going to have fun tonight! A few more photos turned into hundreds with you in different positions, places and sitting on different things. Your last set was you lying against the pink (you noticed this was a new addition in Vels studio) chaise lounge, back arched and your hair rippling down your back.

When you finally finished with the photographer you grabbed your phone and took a few selfies of yourself while you still had the light. Velvette appeared at your side, pulling your phone down a little you both took a few cute selfies together until a huff was heard from behind you. Smirking at the pouting Overlord you pull him closer by his hand.

“Come on you big baby, you’re gonna have to take the photos though as you’ve got the longest arms” you tease. Velvette clutching your arm on your one side and Valentino with his arms wrapped around your waist on the other you took a few selfies, laughing at how some of them turned out. Though you were having a blast with them both you couldn’t help but miss Vox’s sarcastic comments and charming smile. Shaking that thought from your head you check the time and squeak. It was time to get moving!

Thanking them both for helping you get ready and promising Velvette you would take loads of photos tonight you grab your purse and phone – glancing at the lone coffee left on the table you sigh a little under your breath. It woulda been nice to have seen Vox’s reaction to your outfit. Rolling your eyes at your own thoughts. Jeez y/n get a grip! Walking to the elevator you miss the smirks crossing Vel and Valentino’s faces. If you had, you’d have known you were walking into a big surprise.

Taglist:

@tasha-1994  @azullynxx  @reath-solia @leathesimp @klorinda @twinklethewarrior @wonderlandangelsposts @th3rizzler @martinys-world @rosiethevoxobesser

[cieloclercs]

what would you say (if i told you i love you)? — charles leclerc

PART: 3? (read part 2 here)

summary. in which childhood best friends blur the lines between what they’ve always known, and something more

warnings. swearing, online hate, we’re getting to the angst now 🫣 arguments, charles is an idiot, arthur and joris being sick of his shit (but what else is new)

pairings. charles leclerc x arsty!reader

face claim. tara michelle

author’s note. again, i have no idea how much modern art sells for at auctions so don’t come at me if this seems unrealistic 🙏☹️ i also feel the need to clarify that y/n has 2 instagram accounts, one personal and one for art stuff ☺️

liked by joris_trouche and 51,196 others

y/nsart auction update! 🎨

tide - sold for €12,460 erode - sold for €9,500 wave - sold for €20,890 glint - sold for €6,300

this is nothing short of a dream come true for me. the support i’ve seen both on social media and at the auction (once again, thank you to everyone who stopped by!) has been beyond anything i ever could have hoped for 🩵

if you’d told me when i was a little girl that one day people would pay for art i’ve created, i wouldn’t have believed you. i’m so so grateful to have been given this opportunity to do something that i love and to share it with the world 💗 i can’t wait to see what the future holds!

view all comments…

username congratulations y/n! 💕💕

*y/nsart liked this comment

leclerc_pascale C'est tout à fait mérité. N'arrêtez jamais de peindre, ma fille, vous avez un don! / completely deserved. never stop painting, my girl, you have a gift!

y/nsart merci beaucoup 🥹 je promets de ne pas le faire x / i promise i won’t

arthur_leclerc congratulations petite sœur! / little sister

y/nsart merci arth ☺️

y/nsart also, ‘petite’? i’m literally older than you?

arthur_leclerc but you’re smaller 🙃

charles_leclerc toujours fière de toi, ma chérie ❤️ / forever proud of you, sweetheart

y/nsart 😐

charles_leclerc you’re still mad at me? ☹️

y/nsart if you wanted one of my paintings you could have just asked rather than wasting over €20,000. i would have let you have it for free

charles_leclerc i didn’t waste anything, y/n

username uh oh mom and dad are fighting 😳

username ironic how her highest selling painting was literally bought by her best friend 😭

username i guarantee you it would NOT have sold for that much if charles hadn’t been bidding

username i don’t want to be the one to say it but lately it kind of feels like y/n’s been using her friendship with charles as a way to promote her art…

username as much as i love y/n icl i think you might be right 🥲

username 🤢🤢🤢

username stop using charles’ fame to try and make yourself relevant! you’ll never be good enough for him babes 🥰

username the switch up on these comments from ‘fans’ is actually so embarrassing

username i know! it’s like as soon as y/n starts becoming successful everyone suddenly decides it’s not because of her own hard work but because of charles 🙄

username lmao how has she managed to make tens of thousands for that shit she calls art? i’m sensing a clout chaser 😂

username this REEKS of jealousy

username these comments make me sick. y/n has proved time and time again how talented and hard working she is. just because charles doesn’t know you exist doesn’t mean you get to hate on another girl who he ACTUALLY cares about. grow up.

*charles_leclerc and y/nsart liked this comment

username i feel so bad for y/n. no offence to charles but if he’d let the auction play out normally without bidding (although he does have a right to do so if he wants!) then she wouldn’t be getting all this hate right now 😔

comments on this post have been limited.

liked by pierregasly and 1,567,836 others

charles_leclerc back to work 🇳🇱

view all comments…

username no y/n like? ☹️

username is y/n with you?

username guys check kym illman’s instagram! he said charles turned up to the paddock alone…

username i mean, y/n could be arriving later right?

username if y/n isn’t there it’ll be the first race she’s missed since singapore last year 😳

username y/n has a life besides charles! just because she’s not at one race doesn’t mean they’ve fallen out or anything ☺️

username but think about it…neither charles nor y/n have posted anything to do with each other since the auction a week ago normally they can barely go a day without posting each other 🥴

username can everyone just stop talking about y/n 🙄 all she ever did was distract him anyway

username forza charles! ❤️

username he’s not even smiling :((

username because he knows ferrari are shit, it’s probably nothing to do with y/n

username i didn’t even mention her? 😭

joris_trouche i think you’re missing someone mate

username JORIS??

username HE KNOWS SOMETHING!!

username JORIS PLEASE TELL US WHAT YOU KNOW

username i hate to be the bearer of bad news but y/n just posted. she’s not at the grand prix 🥲

yourusername

viewed by charles_leclerc and 9,637 others

replies:

arthur_leclerc oh shit arthur_leclerc what did he do joris_trouche just say the word and i’ll smack him for you 😁 ↳ yourusername please don’t do that 😭 yourfriend you don’t need him, mon amour ❤️ ↳ yourusername ☺️

you:

did i do something wrong?

we haven’t spoken in a week

charlie 🤍:

no, y/n

you:

you won’t answer my calls

charlie 🤍:

i’ve been thinking about what you said

i don’t want you to have to deal with hate because of me

you:

so you think ignoring me is the answer?

charlie 🤍:

i’m not ignoring you, y/n, i’m trying to protect you

you:

what the fuck?

charles, i don’t care what people say about you

charlie 🤍:

but i do

isn’t it for the best? if we aren’t seen together for a while, you won’t get any of the hate

you:

you really don’t get it do you

if you think i want you to cut me off to ‘protect me’ then maybe you don’t know me as well as i thought you did

charlie 🤍:

don’t say that

i just want everyone to see you the way i do

you:

and i already told you, i don’t care what they think of me

i only care what you think

charlie 🤍:

why?

you:

i’m surprised you haven’t figured it out yet

charlie 🤍:

figured what out? [ seen at 4:11PM ]

y/n?

you:

i think it’s best if we don’t see each other for a while

bye charles

charlie 🤍:

what?! [ seen at 4:13PM ]

y/n come back [ delivered at 4:14PM ]

just tell me what you mean [ delivered at 4:20PM ]

please y/n [ delivered at 4:47PM ]

liked by yourfriend and 1,637,937 others

scuderiaferrari A DNF in Zandvoort for Charles. Now time to refocus ready for Monza 🔜

view all comments…

username what the actual fuck was going on with him today?

username i don’t know. i’ve never seen him so distracted 😕

username honestly a rookie mistake. if he’s going to be pulling shit like this then he doesn’t deserve his seat 🤷

username it’s just one mistake?? calm down 😭

username why do i feel like this has something to do with y/n…

username oh my god will you all shut up about y/n 🙄 they’re not even dating !!

username and? they’ve been best friends since they were 5 years old. if my childhood friendship broke down i’d be pretty fucking upset about it too

username we don’t actually know that they’ve fallen out tho…neither of them have said anything

username but isn’t it obvious? y/n not at the race, charles being distracted and sulky around the paddock? they’ve definitely argued about something

username charles i can’t keep defending you when you do this 💔💔💔

username how this guy has managed to keep his seat with all these mistakes i have no idea 😒

username hopefully y/n will be in monza to bring him some good luck🤞

➜ part 4

[drunk-on-dk]

I Just Think You're Cool | Pt 1 - Lee Seokmin (m)

✦pairing: college athlete!seokmin x afab reader

✦genre: fluff, some smut (minor DNI)

✦warnings: Best friend Mingyu, teasing, drinking, y/n has a bit of a stalker at one point, SMUT, fingering, cunnilingus lmao, i gotta think of any other warnings, MINORS DNI

✦wc: ~6.2k

✦summary: Seokmin knew you were off limits, you were Mingyu's best friend, and he had been quite protective over you. However, your sudden reoccurring appearances make it harder for Seokmin to not fall for you even more.

✦ AN: I hope you all enjoy it! This is not super proofread towards the end, so I apologize for any errors. A little all over the place, but I had fun writing it. Got a bit carried away with the lead-up, thinking of maybe a pt 2 with some more smut. Otherwise, Cinema by Harry Styles was on repeat during this. ENJOY!

part one | part two

Seokmin was surprised to see you so bright and early at 6 AM in the morning, watching you from where he was warming up on the field as you fumbled with a camera bag and tripod near the bleachers. Mingyu was next to you, helping you set up and keeping you from falling when your foot got tangled in the strap of your camera bag. Seokmin had to hold back a chuckle as he witnessed you almost topple over from afar. He watched as you regained your balance, Mingyu and you laughing at your clumsiness, a graceful smile was drawn over your features in contrast to your near fall.

Seokmin had to pull his gaze away, hating the ping of jealousy that he felt as he watched Mingyu pinch your cheek before he jogged back towards the team on the field. Coming to a halt alongside Seokmin, Mingyu gave you a thumbs up, which you returned, but also waved at Seokmin upon noticing that he had been looking your way, a blush shading your cheeks realizing he probably saw you trip. Seokmin waved back, still unsure as to why you were here at their practice, and Mingyu seemed to notice this as he continued to stare in your direction, seemingly confused.

“I thought I let everyone know on the team, but Y/N is helping out with our social media,” Mingyu explained, grabbing a soccer ball nearby to begin running some drills with Seokmin. “You know, like posting about our games, making promotional videos, all that fun stuff. You may not know it, but Y/N is good with stuff like that.”

Seokmin nodded, passing the ball back and forth between Mingyu and him. “So that means she’ll be at all our practices?”

“Probably as many as she can make it to, and most likely as many games as she can attend as well.” Seokmin couldn’t deny the giddiness he felt, realizing he’ll be seeing you around more often, losing his attention as the ball that Mingyu kicked his way flew right past him. “Hey, pay attention to the ball.”

Mingyu was Seokmin’s kind, best friend who he had met his first year on the university’s soccer team. You were Mingyu’s even kinder, best friend that Seokmin was absolutely infatuated by, but could never admit it to anyone, fearing that Mingyu may beat his ass. Seokmin had seen you around often of course, due to you being Mingyu’s other constant in life other than his soccer team. However, your interactions were scattered, only briefly catching up with Seokmin at parties the soccer team threw, the occasional pregame or hangouts that Mingyu held at his place, and the couple of times you passed each other on campus, always greeting him with a shy wave and smile. That was it though, as Mingyu wasn’t your only friend, and you had become MIA over the years due to you going out with other friends from your own extracurriculars.  

Seokmin remembered the first time he met you freshman year at one of the first parties the soccer team had thrown. His friendship had just begun with Mingyu, and the two were already attached at the hip. To no surprise, Mingyu had invited you to the party, as you two had quickly become close friends upon meeting each other on your first day of lectures, only to find out you both live in the same dorm building. Seokmin watched you walk into the party with Mingyu, to which Mingyu introduced you to all his teammates. Seokmin thought it may have been love at first sight, you were attractive and incredibly charming, so he quickly brushed it off as a freshman crush.

Of course, Seokmin wasn’t the only one interested in you, there were other teammates who tried to make advances on you. This would prove to piss Mingyu off by the end of the party, pushing an older teammate, Jeonghan, away from you when he tried to make a move on you. You had eased the situation, guiding the heated Mingyu away from the perplexed Jeonghan, making sure to direct a bright smile and blow a kiss towards the older boy. Jeonghan of course teased Mingyu for the rest of the year up until he graduated

Ever since then, Seokmin has treaded very lightly around you, still unsure three years later if Mingyu was being a protective friend, or if the boy has a crush on you just like all his friends. Unfortunately, Seokmin’s crush never went away, you only became more and more attractive over the years, not only did you tend to get prettier each time he saw you, but as he learned more about you as well. However, he’d never risk his friendship with Mingyu, especially since they were on the same team. Still, Seokmin was sure to follow you on social media, giddy when you followed him back, and tried to speak to you whenever he came across you in person.

On the other hand, you still couldn’t believe you agreed to helping Mingyu and the soccer team out with social medias. Sitting down behind the camera you let out a huff, feeling slightly uncomfortable as the morning dew that had settled on the metal bleachers was now soaking into your leggings. You enjoyed editing pictures, videos, and were savvy with social media, so you had blindly agreed when Mingyu asked you to help manage social media for the team, not being aware of how much of a time commitment it may be. This wasn’t necessarily related to your major at all, but hey, it wouldn’t hurt to be affiliated with your university’s official soccer team, the management skills potentially being beneficial for your resume. Also, you couldn’t deny that you enjoyed watching attractive men play soccer all day, for your own selfish reasons.

An hour later, practice had come to an end, but Mingyu had to stay an extra half hour due to a screw-up he had made during a scrimmage game that cost him extra practice time. Mingyu had called out to you from the field before Soonyoung, the team captain, began pushing him to start running laps. “Catch a ride with Seokmin, he’s the only fool that I trust to get you home safely, don’t wait around for me.” Upon hearing that, Seokmin points to himself dumbly, looking up from where he was packing his cleats into his bags and over to Mingyu, who paid him no attention.

You laugh at the confused boy, haphazardly carrying your camera bag and tripod towards him, “you don’t have to take me home, DK, I can wait around for Mingyu. I really don’t mind.” Seokmin could have sworn the wind was knocked out of him upon hearing you use his nickname so casually in a sentence. He came to his senses, closing his jaw that was slacked open, realizing why you may think he doesn’t want to take you home per his shocked expression.  

Scrambling to pick up his duffle bag, Seokmin takes the tripod from you to carry as well, and quickly tried to play off his odd behavior. “Y/N, don’t worry, I can take you home,” Seokmin laughs, “Sorry, I was just shocked that Mingyu wasn’t being protective of you for once, and that he said he trusts me out of all people.”

You laugh at his statement, following him towards his car in the lot near the field, and decide to tease him a bit. “Good point, Mingyu tends to be overprotective. Can I trust you though, hmm?”

Seokmin smiles at you as he piles your stuff and his into the backseat of his car, you both climbing into the front seats once everything is all set. You always have noted how dazzling Seokmin’s smiles are, it’s the kind of smile that extends up into his eyes, and always makes you want to smile in return.

“I don’t know, Y/N,” he says as he revs up the engine, putting the car into drive and pulling out of the lot. “I’m hungry, and you don’t want to see what I can do when I get too hungry. Otherwise, I’m pretty trustworthy, won’t cause any harm, I promise.”

“Hmm,” you seem to hum in consideration, “how about I get you breakfast this morning in return for driving me back?”

Seokmin’s heart almost pounds out of his chest, as he refrains from snapping his head in your direction to see if you’re messing with him. Of course, this was just an innocent suggestion on your end, but the thought of any chance to spend more time alone with you sends his mind and heart into overdrive, danger mode.

Before he even has a chance to respond, you’re jumping in your seat and pointing towards the popular twenty-four-seven diner on your campus. “Here! Pull over here! Let’s get breakfast at the diner.” Due to the enthusiasm in your voice, he’s whipping into the first parking space he can find at the diner, shocked by how you grab his hand once he locks his car, pulling him into the diner and to the nearest empty booth.

Breakfast with you is comfortable, even with the subtle pounding of Seokmin’s heart. You are incredibly entertaining to him, constantly coming up with new topics of conversation, and never failing to make him laugh. He takes pride in making you laugh as well, especially when you almost spit out your coffee when he fails to perform a pseudo magic trick using his napkin and utensils. Seokmin uses this as a chance to get to know you better, but so do you, taking the time to ask him questions about himself. He swears he’s only digging himself deeper, further realizing how kind and funny you are, loving the twinkle in your eye as you talk about the things you enjoy doing, sharing tid-bits about your hobbies, such as editing pictures and videos, and your friendships outside of Mingyu.

He knows he's in really deep when the waitress spills a full cup of water on the table, the puddle leaking onto your lap. She’s quick to apologize, claiming it’s been an off day, but you graciously assure her that it is alright, that it’s just water, with the kindest eyes he’s ever seen. You’re even sure to leave her a tip above average, mentioning that you hope it helps brighten her day and that you’ve been there before. Seokmin had only inquired, in hopes that he can help chip into the cost of the breakfast, but you stubbornly snatched the check away from him, tucking in enough cash for the food and a hefty tip.

The car ride back was comfortable as well, but Seokmin’s heartbeat had only picked up even more, not wanting his time with you to come to end just yet. You were in the passenger seat, singing along quietly with the music that played on the radio, and he thought he could get used to having you around, even if that meant he had to suppress his itching desire to make you his.

Much to his dismay, he pulled into your apartment's front entrance, but you seemed to be bummed a bit as well. You huffed, holding your palm out to him, “hand me your phone.” Seokmin stumbles to pull his phone out of his pocket and unlocks it, tossing it into your hand like a hot potato. You don’t seem to notice how nervous he is, watching as you type your number into his phonebook, and giving yourself a quick call. You hold your phone up to show him that you have his number as well before ending the call.

“Let’s be friends, DK, I had fun today. Text me if you ever want to hang out,” you say whilst handing his phone back, and he holds it almost as if he’s been handed a relic. You’re quick to hop out of his car, snapping him back to reality. Seokmin watches as you grab your stuff from the backseat before heading up to the front door, shooting another smile his way and you bid him goodbye with a wave, disappearing into your apartment complex.

This is how Seokmin ends up texting you for the next couple of weeks, leading to your friendship blooming, and despite trying his hardest to not fall more for you, his heart was growing fonder of you day by day, text by text. He sees you around more often now due to your frequent attendance at games, practices, and any team event you are invited to. However, he still hasn’t had the guts to ask you to hang out one on one. Of course, Mingyu is still your best friend, so he can’t help but feel as if he’s betraying some sort of bro-code, even though he’s only set his intentions on becoming a good friend of yours for now.

Mingyu starts to pick up on your newfound friendship with Seokmin too, noticing how instead of being by his side as per usual at the pregame, you’re actually in the corner of the kitchen giggling at a joke that Seokmin says. It must be obvious that something has shifted since Seungkwan from the team had the audacity to walk up to Mingyu and tell him that you may have found a better friend on the team. Mingyu lets his comment slide, pushing the younger boy away, but he’s sure to note the way that you lean into Seokmin as you both continue talking. He’s not sure what he’s feeling, but he sure doesn’t like that his two best friends are bonding without having him in the loop.

When you’re all out at the bar later, Mingyu pulls Seokmin aside to ask about the clear difference in your friendship. You had disappeared into the crowd a while ago, noticing a group of people you had recognized, and you had ended up taking shots and moving to the dance floor with them.

“What’s going on with you and Y/N?” Mingyu asks his friend, looking down at the half-drank beer in his hands. “Just curious, since you two seem to be closer now.”

Seokmin is quick to pick up on Mingyu’s mannerisms, as he doesn’t seem too hostile, but there is still that protective tone in Mingyu’s voice. “Just became friends I guess; we’re pretty alike you know.”

Mingyu laughs, Seokmin was right, you two were almost the same person, and he couldn’t believe he basically had two clone best friends. “True,” Mingyu hums, seeming to trail off, unsure of what to say next. He’s not sure why he’s acting this way, or why the question leaves his mouth. “Do you like her?”

“Do you like her?” Seokmin asks back, unsure how to respond, and hoping his wide eyes don’t give him away. There’s an awkward pause as Mingyu chokes on the beer he had just sipped on.

“No way,” Mingyu almost stutters out, but Seokmin gives him a knowing look. “Ok, I liked her sophomore year, but she completely, flat out rejected me. Nothing really changed otherwise though, stayed best friends of course. That’s over now, but that may be why I’m so protective. That’s also why I’m asking, do you like her?”

Seokmin isn’t sure if this is a test from his friend, unable to read the look in Mingyu’s eyes. Thankfully, you and a friend of yours pop up out of nowhere, and you’re too excited to notice the tense air between him and Mingyu. Quick to wrap an arm around Mingyu’s waist, you take his free arm and place it over your shoulder.

“There you guys are,” you slur, you’re much drunker than before, and you’re leaning most of your weight into Mingyu, your other friend quick to grab the drink you almost spill out of your hand. “We were looking everywhere for you.”

“Hey, Maya,” Mingyu greets the girl who is next to you. Maya, per Seokmin’s observations, seems to blush as Mingyu smiles at her, and he knows the feeling all too well.

“OH MY GOD,” you screech, scaring your friends slightly and making Seokmin jump, “Seokmin, you have to meet my roommate, this is Maya. Maya, this is Seokmin, one of the nicest guys ever.” You break loose from your grip on Mingyu, stumbling over to the hesitant Seokmin who catches you, wrapping your arm around him in a similar matter. Seokmin avoids making eye contact with Mingyu at all costs, feeling how he eyes you two up and down.

“Nice to meet you, Maya,” Seokmin greets your roommate, charming as ever of course. She gives him an all-too-knowing look, before looking back at you and engaging in some unspoken conversation between you two. Mingyu can’t help but notice how you smile endearingly up at Seokmin, understanding your body language and comparing it with how you act around him. He can tell you're into Seokmin like crazy.

“Nice to meet you too, Seokmin. Unfortunately, we do have to head out, which is why we had been so desperately looking for you guys so that Y/N could say goodbye,” she laughs, trying to pry you away as your hold tightens on Seokmin. She’s successful in pulling you away from the man, even though Seokmin is just as reluctant as you are to let go, but he helps Maya out anyways. “As you can see, Y/N here is a little too tipsy. Nice to see you gents, and hope you have a good night.”

Maya and you bid the boys goodbye, of course not without pressing a quick peck to both of their cheeks before she can drag you out of the bar. Maya is quick to apologize on your end, saying goodbye again and pushing you out the door towards the uber.

Mingyu notices the bright hue on Seokmin’s cheek as you exit, and before Mingyu can point it out, Seokmin ultimately confesses his feelings to his friend, “Fuck, I like her a lot. I’m way too into her for my own good. I’m so sorry, Gyu.”

Mingyu can’t suppress the bit of jealousy within him, but he knows you two are never meant to be anything more than just friends. With a huff, downing the rest of his beer, he grabs Seokmin’s shoulder, “break her heart, and I will kill you.”

The next day, upon what can be considered Mingyu’s blessing, Seokmin finally works up the nerve to ask you to hang out. He sends you a simple text, asking if you’d like to get some coffee, assuming that you may be a bit hungover this afternoon.

You respond back quickly, but unfortunately not in his favor. You let him know you’re already out with Mingyu for the day. Seokmin internally curses Mingyu, of course, you had to be out with him. Seokmin is quick to send a response back, asking if you may be available to hang out tonight, as his only plans were to go to the field late at night to run some practice drills alone. It was a Saturday, but with there being a game tomorrow, he had no intentions to go out.

You never do respond though, not until later, apologizing that Mingyu had distracted you from your phone and that you already had plans to go to the bar again tonight, serving as redemption after your night before. Later when you had posted a picture that night on your story with Maya, he couldn’t help but notice how good you looked, cursing that he couldn’t just give in and go to the bar himself.

Ultimately, that leads to Seokmin spending his night on the field, running practice drills, and repeatedly kicking the soccer ball into the net to let out some steam. He had done this for a couple of hours, working up a sweat, and finally, when it reached 11 pm, he made his way back over to his duffle bag. As if perfect timing, he noticed he was getting a call, not just from anyone, but from you.

Fumbling to pick up his phone, he quickly answers, “Y/N?”

“Seokmin,” you mutter out quietly, “I’m so glad you answered, Mingyu wasn’t picking up at all. Can you please stay on the phone with me, I left the bar since I needed some air, but I think this guy is following me.”

“Of course, where are you at?” Seokmin is stern, not with you, but immediately felt tense considering you have someone following you.

“Umm, I’m right on Caldwell Lane, walking down towards Market Street,” your breathing is shaky, and he wishes he could be right by your side. “Where are you at, Seokmin? I’m far from my apartment, and I don’t want to stop here for an uber.”

Just then, Seokmin has a realization. Thank goodness he’s been practicing for so long, he realizes that once you get to Market Street, if you walk a block or so more, you will be at the soccer fields. “Y/N, just keep walking to Market, take a right once you get there, and you’ll be at the soccer fields. I’m here right now.”

He swears he can hear you whimper, “OK, I’m almost there, I’m going to pick up my pace a bit.” He can hear the clicking of your heels in the speaker as the urgency of your steps pick up. Seokmin can’t help but run down the street, hoping he can see your figure appear and at least have eyes on you. Once you do, he lets out a breath of relief, seeing that you’re safe and alone. However, much to his dismay, a guy is trailing you, making a turn at the corner and continuing to follow you.

“I see you, Y/N,” Seokmin says, increasingly getting more and more angry as the man continues to follow you. “You’re almost here, I’m gonna hang up now and call out for you.”

You seem to protest, but Seokmin hangs up, jogging towards you with arms wide open. “There you are, I’m so sorry I couldn’t make it out tonight with you.” You’re quick to fall into his arms, Seokmin staring at the man behind you with blazing eyes to let him know he’s been caught, to which the guy turns off conveniently into another local pub.

You’re near tears in his arms, grasping onto Seokmin for dear life as he runs a hand over the back of your head in comfort. “Thank you, Min, I’m so glad you picked up the phone.”

His heart flutters at the new nickname, “of course, Y/N. Please call me whenever, seriously.” He leans back, keeping you in his hold as he grabs your face in between his two hands, brushing a tear away with his thumb. He can’t help but notice how pretty you are, even when your nose has turned slightly red from all your sniffling. “My stuff is back on the field; I can go grab it and take you home.”

“No, no, no,” you mutter, mustering up a small smile. “I don’t want to intrude on your practice time.”

He scoffs, “Y/N, it’s 11 pm, I was getting ready to go home anyways,” Seokmin begins to lead you back to the field, and you follow, holding his hand tightly in yours, feeling safer that way. The field picks up all the noise pollution from the bars, booming music echoing throughout as you stand near Seokmin, reminding you that it truly is 11 pm. You pout when you notice he does pack up, pathetically playing with the soccer ball in your heeled booties as you wait for him.

“What if I don’t want to go home yet, Seokmin,” you ask, still kicking around the ball. Seokmin takes the time to look at you from where he is crouched over, packing his things up. You really do look good tonight, honestly extremely sexy in his opinion. He couldn’t believe the sight before him; you kicking around a soccer ball in your knee-high boots, black mini skirt, a trendy long-sleeved blouse, and your curled hair a bit tousled from the wind. He tried not to stare at you for too long, quickly standing up from his stuff, and snatching the ball from you with his own feet.

“Well, what do you want to do,” Seokmin asks gently, trying not to let his voice waver as you seem to chuckle at his playful nature of taking the ball from you.

“I want to do something fun,” you joke, getting a bit closer to him and pushing him to try to receive the ball back. Truthfully, you don't want to go home, you want to spend as much time with him as possible. “Play a bit of soccer with me.”

Seokmin can’t deny you anything, especially not when he hears your melodious laughter ring through the air as he starts to play along with your request. Your mood has flipped from before, now giggling as you somehow get the ball back from Seokmin, booking it down the field to attempt a shot at the net. However, Seokmin is too fast and skilled for you, albeit you’re in blocky heels, swiftly kicking the ball out from under you, but ultimately almost causing you to fall over.

Seokmin is quick to catch you, noticing how you lose your footing and trip over yourself. He pulls you in close like before, however, this time his body burns against you with a new heat in comparison. You’re breathless, you’re not sure if it’s from the running or the way Seokmin looks into your eyes, darkness in them that you haven’t seen before. He seems to be breathless too, but you see the way his demeanor changes before quickly letting you go.

You miss the heat of his body, not wanting him to let you go, and deciding to risk it, you pull him back into you. He is silent when you do so, so you panic, trying to sway along with the music echoing on the field. “No, please hold me, Min. I mean, do you hear that music? Dance with me or something.”  

Seokmin can’t tell if you’re still drunk, he can still smell the trace of alcohol on your breath, but you aren’t acting too out of sorts. He almost shivers when he feels your hands travel from his arms, up to his shoulders, and all the way into the hair on the back of his neck. This results in his grip on your waist tightening to pull you closer to him as you sway along to the distant beat. He can’t tell if you know exactly what you’re doing to him, letting out a sigh as you gently tug on his hair. You were acting quite odd, still, he couldn't bring himself to pull away from you.

“What are you doing, Y/N?” Seokmin almost pouts, an incredulous laugh escaping his lips as your close dancing starts to turn into sillier dance moves. You couldn’t believe that you had come onto Seokmin like that, trying to play off the situation by spinning in his arms, blaming the alcohol for making you act up again.

“I don’t know, having fun, Seokmin,” you giggle as he spins and dips you, playing along with you a little bit more now. The two of you must look so funny to any passersby, both of you dancing on the field, as you’re dressed up in going out clothes and he’s in his practice gear. He still looked extremely attractive to you though, the sporty look and messy hair sending your mind into overdrive.

“Seriously, what’s up with you?” He continues to laugh but finally pulls away, holding you steady for once.

You suck in a breath, staring into his eyes again, trying to pick up on any cues on how he may feel about you because you are surer than ever that you want him and want him bad. You had developed feelings for him as well, and it was beginning to drive you crazy. You quickly spit out, “I just think you’re cool; I like being around you. Do you think I’m cool too?”

Seokmin has to stifle back a laugh, “I think you’re cool too, Y/N.”

You shake your head, finally deciding to let it all out, “no, Seokmin, like I’m way too into you. I don’t even know why I said that.”

Seokmin stares at you incredulously, and all he can think to do is to lean down and gently pull you into a kiss. However, upon kissing you, you let out a moan, and for once he feels something snap within him, making him act out differently from his usual gentle style. He grabs the soccer ball from the ground near your feet, hoisting you up onto his shoulder, being sure to cover you from your mini skirt rising, and he leads you over to the building next to the field.

Dropping you down gently onto the ground, Seokmin tosses the soccer ball into the metal-wired basket where the rest are all piled up, and he pushes you up against one of the many lockers. You soon realize this is the locker room, noticing Kim Mingyu’s name engraved on the locker across from the one you’re pressed against. Your skin feels hot, noticing how Seokmin’s demeanor really has changed, his eyes back to the darkness that they were before.

“Stop with all that cute shit and playing games, Y/N,” Seokmin grabs your jaw with one hand, the other hand holding your hip against the locker behind you. “Fuck, I’m into you too, didn’t you ever notice that? Did you ever notice you have most of the soccer team running laps for you?”

You gasp when his lips connect with your neck, messily trailing up to your jawline where he holds you tightly. “I-I never n-noticed,” you breathe out, feeling breathless at his touch, grabbing onto his arms as you tried to ground yourself. You feel how they flex under your touch, this side of Seokmin being something you never noticed until now, truthfully. “I l-like the way you t-talk with me, h-how playful you are, and how,” Seokmin harshly sucks on your neck, nibbling gently, “fuck, h-how you make me feel.”

With new fervor, you gain some dominance, ripping his hand away from your face and pulling him into a rough kiss. Your heart flutters at the feeling, the kiss messy as your noses bump into one another, and his one hand slams into the locker making a loud noise. You jump slightly, but Seokmin keeps his mouth on yours, still battling for dominance against you.

Seokmin only pulls away from the kisses to whisper praises to you, “I can make you feel so good, darling. You’re so good for me, you deserve it,” he says, making you rut your hips up into him. Seokmin has ignited something in you, something you hadn’t felt in a while, and you were becoming more desperate as each second passed. “You look so beautiful, so gorgeous with my name engraved behind you, sounding so sexy moaning my name out.”

You gasp, moaning out when his hand travels down to your chest, palming roughly at your covered breasts. You realize you must be pressed against his locker, a way for him to stake his claim on you, and you continue to breathe out his name like a mantra as his hand travels farther down your body and closer to your core. By the time his hand makes it to your heat, you’ve wrapped a leg around him, his other hand helping hold it up for you.

His deft fingers run over your clothed folds, and you buck into his hand, feeling needy for his touch. “So sensitive for me, darling,” he groans out when his fingers move past your damp panties, slipping two of them into your seeping cunt. “So fucking wet for me too, is this really all for me?”

He looks at you so innocently, but his long fingers start moving in and out of you expertly, curling and hitting your g-spot. You’re gasping for air, hands pulling at his hair as he bites at your bottom lip, “all for you, Min, only you make me this wet.”

“Such a sweet girl,” Seokmin moans out, crashing his lips against yours as he relentlessly fingers you, and you can feel your own juices begin to drip down your thighs as he continues his ministrations. You let a loud moan slip past your lips as he begins to rub fast circles into your clit, your high approaching you quickly as Seokmin catches your moans with a kiss. He has your hips pushed against his locker, not allowing you to chase his fingers, but he’s able to get you to reach your release just by fingering you.

You feel the coil inside you snap, and you almost scream out in relief from the orgasm, but Seokmin is quick to capture the sound with a kiss, knowing you can’t be too loud. Seokmin almost loses his mind at the way your walls clamp around his fingers, wishing that he could feel you squeeze around his cock instead. However, tonight is not the night for that, knowing you’re a bit tipsy, and wanting to wait until he can really take his time with you. Regardless, he knows he is not done with you for the night. Not after the way you whine out when he removes his fingers from your core, pulling them to his mouth to taste you for the first time.

“Of course, you taste so fucking sweet, too,” Seokmin can’t help but sink to his knees, pulling the leg that was wrapped around his waist, and placing it over his shoulder instead.

“P-Please,” you beg, “I n-need more, please.” You’re gripping at his hair, as his hand roughly shoves your panties out of the way again, wasting no time diving into your heat with his mouth this time.

“No need to beg, darling,” Seokmin laps at your cunt, looking up at you from between your legs, and you swear you almost collapse at how innocent yet sexy he looks. “Taste so fucking good, let me take care of you.”

You’re grinding against his face as his tongue fucks into you, his nose deliciously providing pressure against your clit as you chase your high once again. “Just like that, ride my face,” he encourages you, only working his tongue even more messily into you, adding his fingers to the mix.

The rubber band inside you is quick to snap again, as Seokmin’s tongue and fingers work you through your second orgasm. You’re a writhing mess, your legs shaking as he tries to still the one hooked over his shoulder.

Once he comes back up for air, he’s pulling you into a heated kiss. The taste of you on his lips still makes you want more, even though you’ve become sensitive from the overstimulation. You try to trail your hand down to where he is obviously hard, all from getting you off, but he stops you before you can reach him.

“No, no, darling,” he says gently, pulling away from the kiss. “Just wanted to focus on you tonight. Let’s save this for later.”

You almost pitch a fit, but your cut off when you hear your phone vibrating in the distance from where you hand dropped it on the bench earlier. Quick to scramble away, you grabbed your phone to realize it’s Mingyu returning your calls. You quickly eye Seokmin, unsure if you should answer, feeling a bit frazzled by what had just happened.

As if he knows your almost asking for permission, he nods, smirking slightly as you pick up the call from your close friend.

“Oh, hey, Mingyu,” you say, and there is still a breathlessness to your voice that only Seokmin knows the reasoning behind. “Oh no, everything is okay. I’m fine now, don’t worry.”

Seokmin can hear Mingyu’s concerned voice on the other line, unable to make out exactly what he is saying, but he’s sure that the other man is making sure you’re safe. “Yeah, I’m safe now, Gyu. Seriously, I am perfectly okay.”

You breathe out once again, making eye contact with Seokmin, feeling the butterflies erupt in your stomach, reminding you of your orgasm ebbing away from your core. He looks so perfect as he stares at you with such love, you almost melt, forgetting you’re on a call with Mingyu. “I promise you, Gyu. Everything is perfectly fine. I'll see you at the game tomorrow.”

Seokmin pulls you into his arms after you assure Mingyu once again that you were safe and hang up. He's sure to scatter kisses all over your face, pulling you into a tight hug. You can’t hide the smile that covers your features, hiding your blush behind your hands as you try to cover your face. “I mean it, Seokmin, I’m really into you.”

Seokmin knows that Mingyu would kill him if he knew what had taken place right before that phone call, but he was sure he’d never let Mingyu down in the sense that he’d never break your heart. “I’m really into you, too, darling.”

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (March 17-23, 2024)

Mere days to go before a new Godzilla movie... didn't we just do this?

Before we welcome that latest entry, let's look back on one that just commemorated its golden anniversary. With Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla turning 50 on March 21, every member of Toho's Big Five has now hit the half-century mark. The company didn't mark the day itself with much; as has become typical, the celebration of Mechagodzilla (and presumably King Caesar) will be spread throughout the year. I wrote a bit about the magnificent machine, who I consider the best Godzilla antagonist, here. The film itself is one of Teruyoshi Nakano's masterpieces, an onslaught of animated rays and gorgeous explosions. The humans are forgettable, but they keep the pace brisk—and the alien commander Mugal is almost as devilish a villain as Mechagodzilla itself, especially in the English dub. Speaking of that dub, you can watch a video breaking down the entire voice cast here, thanks to the tireless work of the Save All Dubs! group.

Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #6 finally gets to the good stuff, with Lex Luthor piloting Mechagodzilla and commanding an army of Titans to raze Metropolis while the heroes counter with not one but two giant robots. It doesn't quite measure up to the Godzilla: Rulers of Earth finale, but like that double-sized issue, it required two artists (Christian Duce joined by Tom Derenick) to draw all those characters, and the results are impressive. The story hasn't grown any more complex, but I'm at least interested to see how it all wraps up.

In other Godzilla comic news, a Godziban manga by Sakuju Koizumi has started up, hosted by Telemaga, a tokusatsu-focused Kodansha site. The first installment was pretty short, so I'm guessing these'll be updated weekly. It isn't the first comic version of Godziban, as one called Godziman ran during the 1st Season, but this one's actually illustrated.

Tokyo's Ikebukuro district made Godzilla the honorary chief of police on March 16 to take part in a parade promoting traffic safety. The stunt made international headlines and generated no small amount of angst over Cop Godzilla. I think Gamera would've been better-suited to this campaign myself.

Here's the trailer for Season 2 of Chibi Godzilla Raids Again, revealing Gabara, Gigan, and Titanosaurus's designs. Looks as funny as the first one. Maaya Uchida, who sang the ending songs in SSSS.Gridman and SSSS.Dynazenon, will voice Chibi Minilla. It's gone weirdly neglected by English Godzilla social media accounts, but X user @MakoMattari translated it.

The Music Box Theatre in Chicago has a Godzilla program for the ages scheduled for June 7-13, in honor of his 70th birthday. There's not a weak day on the schedule, but the clear highlight is a 24-hour marathon of the entire Showa series on the 8th, which I don't think has ever been attempted before.

G-Fest has also started announcing guests: Ayako Fujitani (Asagi in the Heisei Gamera trilogy) and Rie Ota (Baragon in GMK), both first-timers. Frankly, they could carry the con themselves if they have to; not sure who I'm more excited to meet!

[wrongcaitlyn]

AHHHH I ALWAYS FEEL LIKE I SEND YOU TOO MANY ASKSMHFJGXJC BUT ANYWAYS- the greatest of luxuries takes place around 2018, right? Which is also coincidentally around the time tiktok got popular so just like hear me out-

Nico is a chronic tiktok user and definitely makes tiktok dances (he was supposed to use it for promotional purposes and it's not until Apollo asks him about it that he actually does)

Nico and Will are those tiktok friends, the kind that you see videos of and it just looks like they came straight out of a coming of age movie- same goes for whenever Leo is featured in Nico's tiktoks like they are so iconic

Apollo definitely gets tiktok for the shits and giggles, only to go accidentally viral constantly- like he could make one silly random tiktok of freaking alley cat he found and it'd get like 50 million likes 😭😭 (bros tiktok account consists of his children and their silly friends)

ANYWAYS HAVE A GOOD DAY 🫶🫶🫶🫶

NEVER APOLOGIZE FOR TOO MANY ASKS I LITERALLY LIVE FOR THEM LIKE YES PLEASE ASK ME A MILLIION QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS AU THAT CONSUMES MY ENTIRE LIFELKSDF

and you are RIGHT OHMYGODSKLJF i keep thinking of a way to incorporate it bc rn they're in 2019, but i'm like, ahgsdf how do i bring in tiktok, do i make it a whole convo or just casually mention it orrrr

i do have quite a few tiktok headcanons in relation to them but i LOVE your ideas they're so real😭

these are the hc's that i had before reading this but tbh might have to go back to the drawing board on some of them becauseee i mean

(also i deleted tiktok a while back bc it was too addictive so tbh i have no idea what's going on over there anymore... nor was i there in the early daysSDLKF)

nico already strays away from social media quite a bit, and i think over the music industry changed, it's def encouraged for artists to like promote their music there and stuff. BUT. he has a bit of an addictive personality (relatable) and so when he eventually downloads it (because he would resist for a very long time) would get hooked. except he rarely posts, instead, he's that verified celeb account that you find in the most random comment sections and he spams all his friends with vids. he definitely gets a lot of pet videos i feel like, like the cute dogs and cats and he would send a vid of like yk YK WHAT VIDS IM TALKING ABOUT like two cats snuggling with each other or smth and send it to will with 'us' i just KNOW he would bc it's incredibly sappy but doesnt require too much descriptionsfkljs

he probably has 235829348 drafts and he mostly posts random stuff that's completely unrelated to his music. like i bet there would be a few people (when he occasionally says something related to his job) who didn't even know he released music despite definitely having heard it

i didn't really envision him doing tiktok dances eXCEPT maybe they all stay in his drafts. bc i dont think his vids would really be focused on *him* because he's not a huge fan of being on camera, so it'd more just be like those rants where you can only see his forehead or random studio vids oR TRAVEL VIDS WHILE ON TOUR. he would def do those. there's def some people who think he's a travel influencer and then find out he's a grammy award winning artist and are like ??? NICO?? FROM TIKTOK???

but he isn't called a "tiktok artist" despite some people knowing him from tiktok because he literally ALWAYS forgets to promote his own music in his vids. his fans are promoting it in the comment sections to try and get the people who think he's a travel influencer to listen to him😭

but his posting schedule is so very sporatic like he'll post ten vids in a day and then nothing for a month. it's fully based on vibes and is completely chaotic, just like everything else he does

will, like any other social media platform, has a private account. (nico also has a private spam) so will is that person who tags people in the comments like all the time (whereas nico sends it more often just bc he doesnt wanna risk being on the wrong account accidentally)

he appears a LOT on leo and lou ellen and cecil's tiktoks (and nico's) and every other week there's a huge internet search to find out who this guy is on a new famous person's tiktok account and then someone will be like "it's just will solace again HOW THE FUCK DOES HE ALWAYS FIND THESE PEOPLE"

like when he randomly shows up in taylor swift's getting ready for her nyu graduation post. like he's definitely there for a brief second in just like the reflection of a window or something and everyone goes CRAZY

before realizing it's this cryptid guy again who seems to be surrounded by every famous person to exist

he definitely posts a lot on his private account though and often it'll just be him rambling about something he's learned in class or him documenting every time he sees a cute animal in public

eventually he'll be dared to make a public account and he decides "haha that's funny okay sure it's not like anyone will find me"

WRONG. this guy is allergic to being not-famous. he will never be allowed to be a normal guy. his first video goes completely viral. he posts once in a blue moon, usually documenting his friends being crazy and every single time he does, it gets like a million views with people in his comments being "how does he know them???"

but you are DEFINITELY right about his account always seeming like it comes out of a coming of age story

and there are most definitely thousands of shippers in every single comment section with literally every friend. so he tries to have at least two other people in every single video so that people can't ship him with just one other person. but it's unavoidable. esp when he comes out as bi, people are just shipping him with ANYONE who shows up on his account

he also does those screaming lipsync vids to whenever a song by one of his favorite songs comes out he's a huge fanboy

OH and he gets to show off his vinyls there. he loves doing that. he's got so many and vinyl tiktok admires it.

also in every single video there's at least one comment that says "you look like apollo the singer"

EVERY SINGLE ONE

leo's the most active on tiktok, as he is with every other social media

it's either him building something, him setting something on fire, him with his friends, him talking to the camera while walking down the street (you know the genre of tiktok)

he is very similar to will in the aspect of "HOW DOES HE KNOW THEM??" but he's been a bit more public than will so people will know him more

he doesn't go viral as often as will (despite posting 132532x as much) but when he DOES it goes VIRAL viral. like tens of millions of views. it still happens quite often and he has the highest follower count of the friendgroup

and he's also the most active in comment sections like he's in every comment section you can't escape him and he replies to like every single one on his vids, usually with very cryptic responses that leave you with more questions than you started with

he ALSO tags will and nico in a bunch of videos, but not in a private account. he doesn't have a private account. he just tags them (obviously, avoiding any romance-related / stuff that could out them, in which he would send it to them) in EVERYTHING

and that's also the highest chance you have of will (on his public account) commenting on a video bc he's mostly on his priv

he also (when him and jason eventually come out) makes a million couple tiktoks and does all the trends

most recurring character in his vids are piper (and shel) (and will and nico over the summer when they're not so far apart)

apollo runs the account for delphi records

i know i haven't shared much of this BUT most people 100% assume that it's run by some intern or something bc of how casual it is but it's actually just him

he loves comment sections and hyping up all of his artists

oh BTW leo and will and apollo do all the promotion for nico because of how much he forgets about it

it's very common for nico to be posting a random ass video and then the top comment is Delphi Records ✓ Check out Nico's latest single, ______!

he also EVENTUALLY gets a tiktok for himself

that is just entirely his kids

as he should

aside from leo, i think kayla and piper are most active on tiktok

piper knows all the inner fandom details from shel (who has an editing account 100% bc i have an editing account and im projecting onto her)

piper's vids are mostly with leo they're such an iconic duo

idk why but all i can think of when thinking about piper is that her feed is like momona tamada?? like that's the vibe we're going for here

and ofc she promotes charities and other important topics there too!!!

and if there's a wlw trend going around yk that piper and shel are going to be on that first thing, probably the top video under whatever audio it is

and KAYLA. GOD. KAYLA'S TIKTOK IS SOOO ICONIC i think she's second to leo with most followers

the lip sync videos for sure, also out of all of them i think she'd def do tiktok dances she'd slay them all

and then some of them are just trends or her in the archery range

somewhat similarly to will, she often gets comments that say "how does she know them??"

but like a good 30% of people watching the archery events of the olympics are there just because of her tiktokSDLFKJS

she also happens to go viral. all. the fucking. time. like i swear apollo's kids just HAVE to go viral all the time they can't escape it they're made for fame and it's likeee kayla does love it (will not so muchKSDF and austin has avoided this problem by just not downloading tiktok at all! except apollo's video of him performing has gone viral. oh well.)

so those are my hc's feel free to add on to these!!! i would love to hear what y'all think bc AHGSDFL writing about these characters' social media is one of my favvv things to do - thank you for the ask!!!! sorry for the lengthy rambleKSDJF

[whiskey-tango-matcha]

Cry Wolf (m, cold)

Buckle up, y’all, it’s 5k words of ~pure drama~. Lmao, but for real this one is long, dramatic, and a little snz-light (apologies). Also, there isn’t a sneeze until like 2500 words in (oops). Greyson fakes a cold to try to get out of trouble with Elijah, and is instant-karma’d, as one would hope lol. It’s a little more flowery, there’s a lot of snarky dialogue and inner monologuing... idk. I like this one, even though it’s not super snz-heavy. I hope you guys do, too. Let me know what you think :) 

cw: male, cold, coughing, fever

Cry Wolf

“Not to be dramatic, but that sounds like literally the worst event on planet earth and I think I would rather be entirely consumed in flames than do it.”

Elijah turned around slowly in his chair and gave Greyson an incredulous look. “‘Not to be dramatic’? What would being dramatic sound like if not that?”

Greyson shrugged and reached around his boss to click out of the email displaying the event details. “Probably me saying, ‘If you make me do that event, I will cut off my own arms and legs and feed them to you’,” he said, sliding back into his own rolling chair. “But that seemed a bit much, even for me.”

“Yeah, that’s a bit much,” Elijah said, grabbing his mouse back and reopening the email. “Consumed in flames is so much more chill.”

“Agreed.”

Elijah snorted. “Grey, I’m sorry but this isn’t an event we can turn down. I know it’s a lot of work, but the press it gets is unparalleled.”

Greyson groaned and threw his head back theatrically. “Liiiiiij,” he moaned, “c’mon, dude. A ten-course dinner for a bunch of blowhard millionaires throwing pocket change at kids with cancer? Seriously? It sounds like my literal definition of hell. Plus, you know anytime I step into one of those stuffy, soulless banquet halls I break out in hives.”

“Genuinely, and I mean this with all the love in my heart, I have never met anyone as dramatic as you are. And I have a twelve-year-old niece, so that’s saying something,” Elijah said, placing a faux-caring hand on Greyson’s arm. The chef shook it off, annoyed, and Elijah laughed. “Grey, I get that the people who pay to go to these things are assholes, but it really is a good cause. Plus, the American Pediatric Cancer Society seriously has the crème de la crème of social media teams. They promote you for months before and after the event.”

Greyson bit his cheek to keep from laughing. “Creme de la crème?” he asked. “Seriously?”

“Oh, fuck you, Chef.” Elijah said, shaking his head. “You’re doing the damn event. Get used to it.”

***

“Chef?”

Elijah looked around the corner, behind the line, and in the prep kitchen, but Greyson was nowhere to be found.

“Greyson!” Elijah called, pushing through the swinging doors to the dining room, and running directly into the chef, who was innocently making coffee in the server’s station.

“Yes…?” Greyson asked, putting a lid on his coffee and making his way past Elijah, back into the kitchen. The GM followed behind him, annoyed.

“Have you ordered anything for the dinner this Friday yet?”

Greyson raised an eyebrow. “I thought we were closed Friday?”

Elijah gave Greyson a look of complete exasperation. “Yes, we’re closed, Grey, but you remember why we’re closed, right?”

“Uh…” Greyson said, eyes darting towards the calendar. “...winter break for the staff?”

Elijah pursed his lips and closed his eyes; he took a deep breath, pressed his hands together, and readdressed the chef in an entirely too-calm tone. “Greyson. No. Not winter break for the staff.”

Greyson rubbed the back of his neck, nervous. “You’re… out of town?”

“The cancer awareness dinner, Greyson, oh my fucking god,” Elijah slapped a hand on the desk beside them and Greyson cringed. “How could you forget this? The fuck is your problem? We’ve had it on the calendar for months.”

“Dude, I’m really sorry, it just slipped my mind! I’ll be ready, it’s only Monday, this shindig is in four days, I’ll order the stuff now,” Greyson said. He turned towards the desk and started rummaging through the mess of papers by his computer, before looking up at Elijah again, guiltily. “...did we send them a menu?”

“Jesus fucking christ, Greyson, yes we sent them a menu in September. Seriously, are you okay? How in the ever-living fuck could you forget such a huge event? I know you don’t want to do it, but fuck, Greyson, this is my restaurant and my reputation on the line!” Elijah couldn’t seem to ebb the anger now that it had started flowing. He slammed himself into his chair and pounded the computer keys until a PDF popped up – the menu they’d had approved three months earlier. Greyson visibly shrunk back.

“Oh,” he mumbled. “Yeah, I… now I remember. Shit, Lij, I’m so sorry, man.”

Elijah pulled a hand down his face and pressed his fingers into his eyes before addressing the chef. “I’m asking in earnest this time,” he said, his voice small and controlled. “Are. You. Okay. Because you never forget shit like this.”

In hindsight, Greyson knew he shouldn’t have said it; he should’ve told Elijah that he’d put the dinner out of his head the moment he’d halfheartedly slapped together a menu and hoped that Elijah would do the same. He should’ve said that he’d hoped Matt would want to take it over, even though he knew Elijah would never let the sous chef take care of such a high-touch dinner. He should’ve said fucking aliens had abducted him and stolen that one piece of information from his mind, for fuck’s sake, anything other than what actually came out of his mouth.

“Actually, I uh… I haven’t been feeling great. Maybe I’m like, coming down with something?”

In what universe, a tiny voice in Greyson’s head whispered, is this a good idea?

Elijah’s face softened at the false admission. “Shit, Greyson, really? Why didn’t you tell me? What’s wrong?”

Greyson felt the guilt pool in his stomach the moment Elijah’s voice turned to one of concern. Shit. “Uh, I mean, it’s probably nothing. Just like a, uh…sore throat and headache. Just not feeling 100% myself. I’ll be good, just, y’know… a little foggy. But I promise, I’ll order the stuff now and make sure I have cooks for this weekend, okay? I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to forget.” At least only half of that was a lie, Greyson thought to himself, grimacing. He and Elijah never lied to each other – as a rule.

Elijah sighed. “I’m sorry for yelling,” he said, “and I’m sorry you aren’t feeling well. Did you take something?” Greyson nodded, the guilt pool in his gut growing larger. “Okay,” Elijah said. “Just… I mean, let me know if it gets worse, okay? Take it easy today. I’ll close the books.”

Greyson nodded as his boss stood and placed a firm hand on his shoulder. He swallowed hard, a swallow that probably looked painful, and Elijah winced in sympathy. You fucking asshole, Greyson chastised himself. “I’m good, boss. Thanks, though.”

Elijah gave the chef a small smile and headed out to the dining room to talk to the host. Greyson let out a little ‘fuck’ and sat down to call purveyors. Why would he say that? If there was one thing Elijah was sympathetic of, it was illness. Greyson had essentially phoned in sympathy points because he didn’t want to be yelled at. What was he, a child?

Greyson tried to shake it off; maybe Elijah would forget the fake-sickness in lieu of the big event this weekend. Maybe this wasn’t a big deal at all. The chef put his head down and called the first purveyor, made an excel sheet, began preparing for the dinner he desperately did not want to do.

He was so wrapped up in preparations, he didn’t see Elijah sneak in to the office; didn’t see him stealthily switch out his coffee cup, or leave just as quick as he’d come in. He didn’t notice until he lifted the cup, took a big swig – and swallowed down a hard lump of guilt with the lemon tea Elijah had brought him. Oh, fuck, Greyson thought, placing his head in his hand. This is not going to end well.

***

The shift felt long.

“Get some rest, okay?” Elijah said to Greyson as the chef packed up his bag. “We need you at 100% for Friday.”

Greyson nodded, somber, and hiked his backpack onto his back. “You got it, boss,” he said; he’d been a man of very few words tonight, which didn’t help the long shift feel any shorter. “I’ll be all good tomorrow. Promise.”

Elijah gave his friend a small smile and nodded back. “See you in the morning,” he said, and Greyson gave a wave behind his head as he walked out the door. Once the chef was out of earshot, Elijah sighed.

He wouldn’t deny the fact that he was worried. Greyson was the king of pushing through illness, but he had a tendency to push himself too hard too quickly, and end up absolutely destroyed a few days into whatever ailment he was fighting. Elijah wanted to make sure that didn’t happen this time; all day, he’d tried to keep Greyson seated if possible, to keep him hydrated, to bring him lozenges and Dayquil and make him ingest them. Care-taking was far from his strong suit, but today he’d really tried; not only to keep Greyson from careening into a worse illness, but to make up for the fact that he’d yelled at him. That had been uncalled for, and he felt like an ass.

An hour or so after the kitchen staff had departed, the final server closed out her check and brought Elijah her paperwork. He finished filling everything out, filed the daily report, and shut off the harsh kitchen light. As he waved the last server goodbye, he found himself thinking, I need a drink. It wasn’t something he did often, but occasionally he’d stop by the club three doors down for a beer and the possibility of spending the night with a real person instead of a glass of whiskey and late-night talk shows. Tonight, when he didn’t have the option of grabbing a burger with Greyson – his only real friend, if he was being honest – at the dive bar, felt like a perfect night to scout for some booze and a warm body to fall asleep next to.

Elijah pulled his jacket on, locked the back door of the restaurant, and set out for the club. The air was frigid this evening; he huddled further into his jacket and upped his pace, reaching the front door of Zed in record-time. He was practically salivating at the thought of a neat whiskey as he yanked open the heavy door – fuck the beer. Let’s get right to the good stuff.

The club was full, but not packed, and Elijah managed to get a seat at the bar – rare here, especially since the club’s bar was tiny by design. They wanted you on the dance floor, mingling, sweating, working up a thirst for another, and another, and -

“Can I get another double Maker’s?” Elijah’s ears perked up at the sound of someone ordering over his head; if there was one voice he knew for certain, it was that one. The GM turned slowly around and to his left – oh, you mother fucker.

“Greyson?” Elijah called over the thump of electronic music. From about a yard away, Greyson’s  head snapped around, searching for the voice that said his name. When he and Elijah locked eyes, Elijah noticed he was sweating and panting – and certainly not from any feigned fever.

“Oh… fuck,” Greyson said, obviously too drunk to realize how loud he was being. “Oh, shit. Fuck. Lij, I -”

Elijah shook his head. “I see you’re… feeling better,” he called over the heads of the people seated next to him. “Asshole.”

Greyson couldn’t seem to form words after that, and the bartender interrupted him anyway by placing a full glass of whiskey on the bartop. “Name on the card?” the bartender asked. Before Greyson could answer, Elijah called out to the bartender.

“Put it on me,” he said, and the bartender nodded before moving to help another guest. Greyson stood, seemingly stuck in place, before taking a tentative step towards his boss. Elijah put a hand up, as though to say stop right there. “No need to thank me, chef,” he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Enjoy your… medicine.”

Elijah slapped a fifty on the bartop in front of him. He drained his whiskey, slammed down the glass, and breezed past Greyson, his face flaming with embarrassment. What an ass he was, not realizing he’d been played. What a complete moron.

“Elijah, wait -” he heard Greyson call behind him – but he wasn’t about to give him the satisfaction. Without looking back, Elijah pushed open the door and immediately hailed a cab outside. When Greyson finally made it past the throngs of people and into the street, Elijah was long gone.

***

To say the next few days were awkward would be the understatement of the century.

The morning after the club, Greyson had barreled into the office, spewing apology after apology before Elijah could even say hello. The GM had accepted, albeit coldly, and hadn’t mentioned it for the remainder of the day. He hadn’t mentioned much of anything, truly, and when the shift ended Elijah walked out without saying goodbye, leaving Mark to close the restaurant down.

“What did you do?” Mark had asked Greyson when their boss had departed. Greyson just shook his head.

“I fucked up,” he said. Mark snorted.

“Clearly.”

The next day had continued in the same fashion; Elijah giving Greyson the cold shoulder, Greyson attempting to apologize in every way he could think of. They barely spoke Thursday, as well – and by then, Greyson was starting to worry that they’d never speak again.

“He’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Mark promised when Elijah walked out for the third night in a row without saying goodbye. “He can only hold a grudge for seventy-two hours, max.”

Greyson wasn’t so sure. He’d never seen Elijah this mad before, not even when Greyson had fucked up and only bought two tenderloins for a party that requested nothing but steak in his first month of working together. Plus, Greyson was dealing with a bit of a sticky situation – a situation that he was sure would make Elijah ten times angrier at him. A situation that literally could not have arisen at a worse time.

“Hhh...hhNGTSH-zue! HTSHH-ue! NGTZSHUE!”

“Bless,” Mark said, distractedly, his eyes trained on the computer monitor in front of him. “You feeling okay?”

He wasn’t. He’d woken up that morning with his throat sticky, and his head pounding. Instant karma, he’d thought as he chugged tea in place of his usual coffee. When he remembered the tea Elijah made for him a few days before – a gentle kindness, a peace offering, a showing of care for someone who’d blatantly lied to his face – his stomach soured. Greyson had dumped the tea down the drain and forced himself to chug an energy drink instead; the bubbles made him cough until his ribs were sore.

“I’m good,” Greyson said, stealthily managing to keep the congestion out of his voice. “Allergies.”

Mark turned to the chef, an eyebrow raised. “It’s December,” he said.

“Right,” Greyson answered, though it wasn’t an answer at all. “Yeah, it is.”

The event was tomorrow; Elijah had spoken to Greyson long enough to remind him that they needed to be in the van by three PM for a six PM call time at the banquet hall. Greyson had said he knew, had said he’d be in at ten to get everything finished and packed and make sure Matt was well-versed on their menu, as he was the second set of hands Greyson would need to plate up. Elijah had nodded, obviously done with the conversation, and that had been that.

“Alright, Chef, I’m out of here,” Mark said, snapping Greyson back to reality. “You need anything before I go?”

Greyson shook his head. “Thangks, Mark,” he said, internally cursing the congestion that had wormed its way into his voice. Mark pursed his lips.

“Yeah,” he said. “Get some sleep, Chef.”

A parroting of Elijah’s sentiment at the beginning of the week; a mockery. One that Greyson most certainly deserved.

***

When Elijah got in the morning of the event, Greyson was already in the prep kitchen tightly wrapping his food for the evening and briefing Matt on the menu. The GM sighed; it was finally time.

“Chef,” Elijah said, knocking politely on the wall. Matt and Greyson looked up, surprised, and gave their boss matching smiles.

“Morning, boss,” Greyson said, his voice low. Something seemed… off, but Elijah couldn’t put his finger on it.

“I just wanted to say, I accept your apology,” Elijah said. “Thanks for letting me sulk the past few days.”

Greyson raised an eyebrow, but nodded. “Thanks, boss,” he said, simply. “I appreciate it. Sorry againd.”

Elijah nodded back and made his way towards the dining room to begin packing up dishware for the dinner. Something was weird about Greyson today; he’d really expected a bit more fanfare when he’d announced his acceptance. A bit more gushing, maybe a signature Greyson pick-you-up-off-the-ground hug – but he got none of it. If anything, Greyson seemed more reserved than Elijah had been in the days leading up to the dinner. Maybe he was angry that Elijah had held the grudge for so long – though that didn’t seem like Greyson in the slightest.

He decided to drop it; most likely, he was putting weight on a situation that required none. Elijah finished packing the dishes into milk crates, and headed back into the kitchen to ask Greyson and Matt for help loading them in the van.

“Grey?” Elijah called into the kitchen. “Matt? Can you guys come give me a ha -”

“HNGTSSHHH-ue! HTSHZUE! NGTSH! Huh-! Huhh...HUHESTZHUE!”

He wasn’t cut off, because Greyson clearly hadn’t heard him speaking before unleashing a seemingly-unending volley of sneezes. Elijah’s heart first sunk deep into the pit that was his stomach – and then his face flamed with an anger he hadn’t expected.

“Oh, you’re shitting me,” he muttered, stomping his way into the back kitchen. “You are absolutely fucking kidding.”

Greyson, who was posted up at the sink blowing his nose, nearly jumped when he saw Elijah storm into the prep kitchen. “Christ,” he said, trying to nonchalantly throw the paper towel he was holding away, “give a guy a heart attack.”

“Is this some kind of joke to you, Greyson?” Elijah asked, crossing his arms. Greyson sniffled, rubbed his nose on the back of his hand, and raised an eyebrow, clearly waiting for Elijah to continue his diatribe.

“Is… what a joke?” Greyson asked when he realized he wasn’t getting any more context clues from his boss. Elijah huffed out an angry laugh.

“You’re trying to fuck with me. Right? You’re trying to make me look like an ass, see if I’ll once again feed into your weird little game.” Elijah was practically snorting with anger; he couldn’t help it. Fool me once, and all that.

“Lij,” Greyson said, holding his hands up as though to surrender, “I… I don’t kndow what you’re talking about.” Elijah laughed – a mean, ringing sound.

“I get it; you’re making a point. You don’t want to do this event and you never have. Well, Greyson, it’s too fucking late now, so just stop. I’m not in the mood for whatever fucking ruse you and your little minion have up your sleeves. So get rid of whatever it is you’re using to make yourself sneeze – we get it, ha ha, Elijah’s a moron, so goddamn funny – and cut it out. In fact, hand it over. Clearly you’re too much of a fucking child to know when enough is enough.” Elijah held out his hand, waiting on Greyson or Matt to fess up and slap a pepper mill or something into his hand, but neither of them stirred. After an awkward moment of the three of them standing, all waiting for something to happen, Matt cleared his throat.

“Um…” he said, “I… I don’t know what’s going on here, but we don’t, like… have anything.”

Elijah threw the sous chef a dirty look, then looked back to Greyson. “You’ve got him trained well,” he said, not giving it up. Greyson opened his mouth to say something, but his face collapsed before the words could make it to his mouth. He crumpled to the side and used an elbow to cover his mouth.

“HRRTSHH-uh! Huh...huhhNGTSHH-ue! ITZSCHUE! Huh! Hhh…” Greyson didn’t allow himself the luxury of waiting on the last sneeze to make its appearance; instead, he pinched his nose to ebb the fit and coughed into his palm – a hacking, congested sound. Elijah’s anger dried as quickly as rain in the Sahara desert – oh, fuck.

“Oh… fuck,” Elijah muttered as Greyson grabbed another handful of paper towels to blow his nose into. “You’re… you’re not actually sick, are you?”

Matt started to answer for him, but Greyson cut his sous off. “Ndo,” he said, curtly. “Allergies or sombething. Ndot tryigg to fuck with you. Sorry, Lij.” He finished with another painful-sounding cough, while behind him Matt shook his head, eyes wide; a silent miming of he’s sick as a dog.

Before Elijah could say anything else, Greyson tossed the paper towels and headed out towards the dining room. “Were you sayigg you ndeed help with plates?” he asked, wiping a hand under his nose and swallowing painfully. Elijah, unsure of how to handle this situation, simply deflated, a balloon in the harsh summer sun.

“Um. Yes,” he said, following behind Greyson. “Yeah, I… help would be great.”

Greyson nodded, turned, and headed to grab the plates. Elijah held back, and turned to Matt.

“He actually has a cold now, doesn’t he?” he asked, though it was soft enough to not know if it was to Matt or himself. Matt shook his head.

“No,” he said, giving Elijah a disapproving look. “It’s definitely not a cold.”

With that, the sous followed behind his boss, side chosen – leaving Elijah standing stalwart in the back of the kitchen. This, he thought to himself, is not going to end well.

***

If he was being honest, Greyson wasn’t sure how he was going to make it through this dinner.

At the beginning of the day, he’d been fairly sure he could hold it together; sure, his throat was on fire, and he couldn’t stop coughing. Yes, he was stuffed up to the gills and every little movement triggered another sneeze fit. But he hadn’t had a fever, and he’d been plying himself with cold meds, so everything had been fine.

...that is, until the Elijah-explosion.

Things had gone downhill quickly after Elijah’s screaming fit. Greyson started attempting to hold back all of his sneezes and coughs, resulting in a headache that made his eyes feel like two swollen golf balls lodged inside a too-small head. He’d stopped pounding ibuprofen, cough syrup, and dayquil after Elijah’s freak-out, too; didn’t want to seem like he was egging his boss on. Now that they had arrived at the event, he had a new problem: it was incredibly difficult to medicate in a banquet hall filled with stuffy, old assholes.

“Mbatt, is that everythi – NGTSH! TSH! HTSH! Huh - ! HRSSH-uhh!” Greyson tried desperately to hold back yet another string of sneezes, to no avail. Whatever shit he’d picked up was persistent; persistent and fucking annoying.

“Yes, Chef,” Matt said, giving his boss a pointed look. Greyson meant to return the look, but instead sunk down below their prep station to cough into his sleeve. From the ground, he heard Matt sigh – then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a bottle of cough syrup in his sous’ hand. Without thinking, Greyson snatched it and chugged.

“Chef,” Matt said, quietly, “we’re all set here. Just waiting on people to arrive – why don’t you go have a cigarette or something?”

The last thing Greyson wanted with this bitch of a cough was a cigarette, but he nodded anyway; he knew Matt. He knew what he meant was go outside and collect yourself, you’re in for a long night.

“Thanks,” Greyson muttered, standing. “I’ll be back ind ten.”

“Take your time,” Matt insisted.

Greyson stumbled out of the building, clutching his chef’s coat close to his body; he’d left his jacket in the car, but he desperately needed some air. Fortunately or unfortunately, he’d already caught his death; no need to worry about the cold infecting him further.

Whether it was luck or just the fact that it was too cold for anyone else to dare venture outside, he couldn’t be sure, but either way he was glad to see that no one else was in the courtyard when he pushed through the heavy banquet doors. Greyson sat heavily on a bench arms wrapped around his middle, and took a few deep breaths. On second thought, he found himself thinking, maybe a cigarette does sound nice.

The chef pulled his pack and lighter out of his jeans and brought the cigarette to his mouth with a shaking hand. It took a few clicks to light it; once it was finally lit, he only got one good pull before he heard the door open noisily behind him.

“Are you seriously smoking?”

Elijah.

Greyson turned around, sluggish, and gave his boss a coy you-caught-me smile. “Addiction’s a hell of a thigg,” he said, turning to cough once again. “You wandt one?”

Elijah sighed, clearly thinking twice, but ultimately nodded and sat next to Greyson. The chef handed him the pack and the lighter.

“If you wandt it today, trust mbe you don’t wandt mbe lighting it,” Greyson joked, holding up a shaking hand as proof. Elijah bit his cheek, then slid out of his heavy outer coat and placed it over Greyson’s shoulders. Greyson went to protest, but Elijah held up his hand.

“You need it,” he said, taking the lighter and producing a flame immediately. “Just as much as you don’t need that,” he pointed to the stick between his friend’s fingers, but didn’t go to grab it.

“Yeah,” Greyson said, “you’re probably right.”

They sat in an awkward silence after that, punctuated only by Greyson’s coughs and sniffles; a game of chicken neither of them seemed keen on losing. Finally, Elijah finished his cigarette and stomped it out beneath his foot. He stood, and turned to regard Greyson.

“Thank you,” he said, holding out a hand. Greyson gave his boss a look, then took his hand and allowed the other man to pull him to his feet.

“Dond’t mbention it,” Greyson said, sniffling. He tried to hold the eye contact Elijah was giving him, but his nose seemed to have other plans. “Huh! HuhhhETSHHZUE!” Greyson sneezed, hard, into the sleeve of Elijah’s coat, then groaned when he realized what he’d done.

“Bless,” Elijah said, apparently unfazed by the coat’s untimely demise. Greyson nodded, wiped his nose on the back of his hand, and sniffled. “Grey, I’m -”

“Please dond’t say it,” Greyson said, holding a hand up. “Please. I’mb the boy who cried wolf, y’kndow? Instant karma. I did this to mbyself.” He rubbed a tired eye, attempted a light cough, then dissolved into a full-on coughing fit.

“Christ, Greyson,” Elijah said, patting the chef on the back. “That sounds fucking awful.”

“Weird,” Greyson said once he’d composed himself. “Because it honestly feel ambazigg.”

“Seriously?”

“Ndo. Ndo, I feel like I’mb going to keel over at any second.”

Elijah couldn’t help it; he burst out laughing. Greyson laughed, too; tension broken. They caught each other’s eyes, and burst out laughing once again; friends once more.

“I’m sorry you’re sick,” Elijah said. “And I’m sorry about this event. You’re right; these people suck ass.”

“Mbost people do,” Greyson said, chuckling. “I’mb sorry for being such a dick about this dinner, though. And forgetting. And pretending to be sick.”

“And then actually getting sick,” Elijah finished for him. Greyson smiled.

“And that,” he said. Elijah shrugged, gave a short little laugh.

“Very typical ‘us’,” he said, looking through the window into the banquet hall. Greyson nodded.

“Yeah,” he agreed, sighing. “You ready to get this shit over with?”

Elijah smiled. “Yes, Chef,” he said. Greyson laughed, which dissolved once more into a crackly cough. “Then let’s get you to bed.”

Greyson nodded, a hand pressed into one of his aching eyes. “Boss,” he said, “You read mby mbind.”

The two men headed back inside and took their places. It certainly wasn’t the first time they’d do an event with one of them on the brink of death, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last; that was the way of this industry. Greyson sucked down some more cold medicine, Elijah fixed the table settings, and Matt gleaned that all had somehow been forgiven and visibly relaxed. Just another night. The show must go on.

[munkiey]

First of all, hello lmao. I just found your blog because I love lmk stuff even though I'm not very active on this social network, I've seen your amazing art on other social networks, and I wanted to ask you kindly if you could help giving me some tips to be able to promote my art or my blog in a better way or how to get people to see my content more, because I have seen that you have been very popular here in such a short time and I have been here trying for more than a year and I have achieved almost nothing, when I share my art on various sites there are no comments and I don't know what to do anymore, I am a bit desperate because I really want to work on this because I love it, it is my passion and also I will want to have some income with commissions because I need it, so yes I would like to make money doing what I am passionate about, but sometimes I wonder if my art is really good or what am I doing wrong because nobody responds to me when I post something. It was long, sorry if this has bothered you, I hope you can answer me, I feel that it would help me.

Okay so what you’re asking about is marketing. Now in the grand scheme of things bud, I’m actually pretty small. Maybe in correlation to a small fandom I might have made an impression but as the internet at large I’m a guppy compared to some of the big fish. Honestly, I prefer it that way. 

The bigger you get the easier a target you are, and the less you’re a person to the people you interact with. Don’t forget that.

The old saying, it's lonely at the top, is very true. The bigger you get the more likely people are to put expectations on you for how you should behave or what they expect. You’ll always be vulnerable to criticism and unable to reach out to your ‘fans’ in a fashion that isn’t either going to leave you exposed or looked at with scrutiny. When it comes to breaking into a fandom though, choosing what your focus is and making sure you have in mind what branding you’re going for. People like consistency and they like predictability. Think about some of the most famous Youtubers today, they’re always updating and they have a ‘theme’ to what they do. I’m a comic artist and wannabe animator, that’s what my content is. I post occasional illustrations between larger projects but as a whole people who follow me can generally expect I have something in the works. 

Looking at your message as a whole though I’m gonna give you a little bit of a hard pill. Don’t base your worth off what other people say. Yes, not getting any responses s u c k s. We’ve all been there and we all want to know how we did. In the grand scheme of things artists are a line of lil dogs wagging their tails and waiting for a pat on the head. You gotta find joy in just chasing that passion though. I see a lot of artists chasing clout and not chasing their artistic passion. They base every decision off what people want, or what they think will get them noticed. It’s very hollow. You can make a living in the comic book, illustration, animation, industry and never be noticed by the online sphere as a whole. Trust me on that, the amount of people I see that I know are published and recognized artists in the industry and have almost no following is a pretty regular thing. Again though, that comes down to your focus and what you want. If you want to have an online presence and gain a following, choose your lane, market yourself and keep your social media oriented towards that. Make a character for yourself and how you want to be perceived by people. I’m not always as cheeky in person, or horrific, but I like the humor of it and it builds a persona for me online.  If you want a career and you want to chase that dream, focus on improving yourself first. If you keep posting it online, trust me, the rest will follow.

There is no magic pill to making a social media following overnight. There are tricks, things to do to help grow it over time. Marketing classes are a thing and can help. But all and all, I’m also a believer in the fact that, if you love what you do, the rest will gradually follow.

[bookishtheaterlover7]

PSST: here’s some insight for you.

I work in marketing for a non-entertainment industry.

My job is content creation which means:

I write copy for social media, webinars, marketing emails, campaigns, videos, website content, and more. A huge part of my job is making sure what we say aligns with PR and legal approval.

This means, sometimes what we DON’T say means more than what we do.

It can be a bit of a thankless job because when we write something on social media or on behalf of our CEO, we have to say a lot but can’t lie but also stretch the truth just enough to sound exciting but not get us sued. And yes, we often ghostwrite on behalf of higher ups but their names are the ones quoted. Even if they do give us a soundbite, with permission we can sometimes edit it and rewrite. So even actual quotes aren’t always 100%.

Basically….wordplay.

“My wife is from PT.” - truth, but non specific. Doesn’t say a name but basically alludes to what everyone is thinking based on process of elimination.

“I had kinda two ceremonies, one on the east coast, one in PT.” - truth, but non specific. The tabloids ran with conflicting stories like ceremony 1 was held in two different areas, in one state on the east coast. But he doesn’t say specifically which one which means he’s not lying but he’s only not specifying. Plausible deniability.

“I find silence in my husband.” - no names, no confirmation but also sort of confirming.

“My dog” - same as above.

CE’s GQ article where he mentions a non descriptive girlfriend - then a line is inserted by the journalist “he got married to Xyz” not quoted by him.

Same thing with RDJ’s spread and his wife saying “CE’s wedding” - and the magazine inserts the wedding to xyz.

None of these are direct quotes from the people themselves. It’s just implied.

Scarlett in an interview says she “attended a wedding” in sept - again, non descriptive.

All of these context clues are pretty commonly done in content strategy. It’s basically to say stuff to say it for promotion reasons but also making sure we cover our asses. We didn’t SAY he said it, we just added it as an afterthought and if for some reason it’s questioned well at least we didn’t quote him on it.

For example: my company has an office outside of a major city. But we can’t say “our San Francisco office” because it’s technically not SF. It’s in the Bay Area, so we can say Bay Area/Northern California office - but not get too specific. This way we’re not LYING but we’re also kinda keeping it “vague.” Cover our asses 101.

I can’t tell you how many times I have to say things like “nearly a decade of experience” - but in reality it was 8 years and five months. When I say it like this, it makes it sound like MORE rather than less.

“Over a year” - makes it sound like wow it’s been over a year but we’re not telling you just how long because we just want you to focus on the OVER part.

Marriage = stability. If you ignore the person and the pairing, it just looks like oh wow he finally got married! Good for him. Now his Wikipedia won’t show he’s just single forever because God forbid somebody turns 42 and still isn’t married. 🙄

The next time you see anything related to these two, or if you want to chance reading old articles about them - check for those little nuances in the tabloid articles. I bet a bunch of them are purposely contradicting and use “anonymous sources” as the quote to magnify the situation and hype it up to be more intense than it actually is.

Because if an anonymous source says “CE is so in love and happier than ever” - gushes a close friend of the actor, it’s not tech libel or lying because the quote is coming from a mysterious source, not CE. But the intention is inferred. You are to assume he told them this. But if someone were to directly call that out, he could simply say I don’t know who I said that to and the anonymous source won’t have or need to be confirmed. Because if it is a lie at least nobody quoted him as saying it. Nobody will be asking for a retraction.

Lastly. In marketing I often have to hype up things and use flowery language. Everything always has to be “a huge success and totally a blast” - even if the pictures we get at the events show three people standing in a booth looking bored. LOL.

“The private couple looked so in love and were all smiles!” - meanwhile the accompanying photo was two people walking in silence, one doing an Arthur fist and basically grimacing. Nobody looking at each other.

The power of wordplay, y’all. And yes, we hype everything up for a reason. And the reality is often very far from what’s being presented. It’s just business though.

(Hope you find this helpful!)

And if anyone wants to fact check my knowledge, please feel free. I have nothing to hide.

Thank you, Marketing An🫶n!

This whole thing is definitely confusing, but it's nice to know that, a. It's all business, and b. How the business works.

This is all helpful, and really quite interesting 😊 so, once again thank you, and I hope you don't mind if I and a few others will call in to ask the next time something drops 😅

[elisysd]

Anywhere – Rita Ora

Masterlist - Previously - Next Chapter

Some place where no one knows our name We'll find the start of something new

Charles indeed did look her up online. And he felt like falling in a rabbit hole. He started with her Wikipedia page which made him really uncomfortable now that he was thinking about it. He could have just asked her questions but when he searched her name online, her Wikipedia was the first result. He got curious, could you blame him? He then searched her on social media and discovered that she was not really active, only posting to promote the projects she was involved in. No pictures of her friends or family or her life. Absolutely nothing. Not that it surprised him, she did say that she didn’t want to expose her private life. He found also interviews on Youtube. She was fun and carefree in them, far from the image of the lost and defensive young woman that she gave him. He watched trailers of the projects she was in. Nothing else, he promised her that he was going to watch the movies with her.

Beside Spielberg’s movie, she played in a fantasy show about vampires and werewolves that he learned was incredibly popular. That was how she was discovered by a large audience. She then took part in more independent projects. Her filmography was really diversified and clever. She was never where you could expect her to be. If he had to admit, he was admirative. She was 23 and seemed to have her career under control.

“What makes you so glued at your phone? It’s been almost two hours and you barely put that thing away.” His mother scolded him.

“Maybe it’s more like a who” teased him Arthur, his younger brother.

“Oh! Did you and Marie…”

“No we didn’t. And there is no who, I’m just reading stuff online, that’s it.” Replied Charles bluntly.

The last thing he wanted was his family to imagine things.

“No need to be this defensive, I’m just teasing you.”

“Well go tease someone else.”

“Someone got up from the wrong side of the bed this morning…”

Not wanting to spend more time trying to justify himself to his brother, he went to the kitchen to help his mother. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and all the Leclerc family, as well as Arthur and Lorenzo, Charles older brother, girlfriends were there to enjoy a nice family lunch. His mother was occupied cutting vegetables while following both Charles and Arthur dieticians’ instructions.

“How are you darling?”

“Good. Busy.”

“You would tell me if there was someone, right?”

Charles sighed loudly. He was starting to get fed up with the innuendos.

“What is it with you all? It’s annoying. Again, there is no one. And yes, I would tell you if it was the case. But I won’t say anything because there’s nothing to say. I’m single and it’s probably going to last a while. So please can you all stop?”

“Okay, no need to take things that way… It’s just that you’re never on your phone like that when you’re with us. Excuse us to find that a little weird.”

In the meanwhile, Artur’s girlfriend Carla joined them to help them.

“I’m sorry about Arthur, he doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut at times. You’re allowed to have your private life; you don’t need to share everything with us. Sorry if it made you uncomfortable…”

“Thanks Carla, I appreciate.”

Charles liked her a lot. She was everything his brother needed. She knew how to keep Arthur under control. And they were so in love that sometimes it made Charles jealous. His brother seemed to find the way to keep a healthy and steady relationship while being away most of the time, just like Charles. How could he and Charles could not? It was a mystery to him.

“But still, I’m very curious about why you’re so much on your phone.”

“Research purposes. I started to watch movies recently, more specifically the ones nominated to the Oscars last year. I really loved Spielberg’s one so I was reading stuff online about it…”

He didn’t know how much he could say about Lyanna. She valued her privacy and maybe she didn’t want people to know that she was in Monaco, yet. He was not really lying to Carla and his mother. He was just voluntarily forgetting to mention some details.

“Oh my god! The one with Lyanna Michel? I loved it.”

“Do you know her?”

“Do I know her? She is a pretty big deal in Hollywood right now. I love her, she is one of my favorite actress. I knew her since she started in Fire and Blood, the tv show. She was amazing in it. I always knew she was going to get big.”

Well, this was a clear indication that, right now, was not an ideal moment to announce that the actress was his new neighbor. The last thing Lyanna needed was a fan to show up at her door. Even if the fan was Charles’s sister-in-law and would not cause any type of problems to Lyanna.

“So she is THAT good?”

“Charles, where have you been these last 3 years? She is almost everywhere, on cover magazines, on TV, in movies, even in the tabloids. That part is no fun. They were awful.”

Charles could have asked her what happened. Carla would have told him. But for some reasons it felt like betraying the little bit of trust he managed to build between Lyanna and him. So before being tempted to ask, he left the room.

The rest of the day passed very quickly for Charles. Between Arthur's jokes, discussions about their respective jobs and his mother's hairdressing anecdotes, he had not seen the day go by. And it was exhausted that he entered the entrance hall of his building. His mind fogged, he paid no attention to what was going on in front of him and almost collided with Lyanna who was coming out of the lift, rummaging through her handbag.

“Oh my God, Charles I’m sorry.”

“I should be the one saying that. I was not paying attention to my surroundings! That being said, we definitely should stop to meet like that.”

“Yeah, seems like déjà vu.”

“Are you okay? You seem in a rush.” He asked.

“Kind of. I wanted to visit the Jardin Exotique before they were closing for the night.”

“Right now? It’s getting dark outside, you sure you don’t want to wait for tomorrow.”

“I can’t tomorrow. I really wanted to go there tonight. And I really have to go now if I don’t want to miss the shuttle.”

“Let’s take my car. I’m coming with you. I don’t feel like letting you go on your own when the sun is starting to set. You never know what could happen.”

“You don’t have to. You seem tired, I don’t want you to feel like you have to watch me.”

“It’s no problem. And consider yourself lucky, you get to visit them with a true Monégasque.”

“Wow, I feel so special.” She quipped.

And suddenly, Charles didn’t feel tired anymore. He indicated her to follow him towards the underground garages where his Pista was parked. She didn’t say anything about the car, she just frowned before hopping in and fastened her seatbelt.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked her.

“How rich you must be to own a car like that. It must pay very well to drive car in circles.”

“I didn’t buy the car; it was a gift from the team.” He felt the need to justify himself.

She raised an eyebrow. She definitely was judging him.

“And you think it’s making it any better? How rich are you exactly? Because when I first met you, you didn’t strike me as a type who was loaded.”

“I’m doing well with my life money wise.”

“That’s exactly what someone who was really rich would say.”

“What about you, hum? You must do well too.”

“I’m okay but clearly not as much as you. So what do you do with your money?”

“I bought the apartment I’m living in. Reimburse the loan my mom got for hers, so she doesn’t have to worry about that anymore. That’s actually the first thing I did when I got my very first F1 paycheck. And then I bought cars…” he confessed.

“Oh no… you’re so cliché! That’s literally what a basic rich person would do. Don’t tell me that you also have a yacht.”

“I do have one…” he admitted.

She opened her mouth but he added quickly:

“But I didn’t buy it. It was a gift from a sponsor. It doesn’t count as an investment, right?”

She shook her head and rolled her eyes. She was laughing at him.

“Whatever you say, rich boy…”

The discussion ended there. They fell into a comfortable silence. She took the time to look at the streets of Monaco. They were busy and she could still hear the noise. She looked at the architecture of the buildings, a mix of ancient and modern, between tradition and modernity. If she turned her head towards Charles, she could see the sea. She could understand how someone could like it here. But she thought that to appreciate the city, you had to be born here. But maybe she could try to not see the negative and focus on the positive side of Monaco. After all, she made a friend here. Well, she wasn’t considering Charles as a friend yet. But with time, he could be. But time was not something she had.

They finally made it to the gardens. She got out of the car quickly and ventured in the alleys, leaving Charles behind. He didn’t mind though. He knew these gardens like the back of his hand. He watched her moving between trees and bushed. Doing weird poses, climbing on benches, jumping from ledges to ledges. She seemed to know what she was doing and why but Charles found that a little weird. He understood why she wanted to go when no one would be here. If someone was seeing this show, he would think she was mad. But Charles found that strangely cute.

“Can I ask you what you are doing or would it disturb whatever you have going on?”

She stopped and approached him. They both sat down on a bench.

“Sally, the character I’m playing in the romcom I told you about, she is so bubbly, she doesn’t care about what people might think of her, she is supposed to wear bright colors and overall, she is just a ray of sunshine. That contrasts with Nicholas, her love interest. So I was trying to see how it would feel to behave without a care in the world. That’s how I work. Some actors will spend hours breaking down their scripts at a table, I do that too, but I also try to do what the character would do. It helps me a lot to feel close to them. Usually I do that on my own.”

“She seemed to be the opposite of you.”

“She is. That’s also why I wanted to play her so badly. That’s also why I didn’t totally refuse you to come. So I could really understand her feelings.”

“And here I thought that was because you appreciate my presence… I’m hurt.”

“Sorry to disappoint”

She yawned.

“Maybe we should go back… it’s getting late and I don’t want us to be arrested for trespassing.” Charles recommended.

The drive home was silent, with Lyanna dozing in the car. Charles walked her to her front door and, before she closed the door, asked:

“I know you said you were busy tomorrow and I am too but what would you say of coming at my place tomorrow evening. We could watch one of your movie and I could start to teach you about F1? We both promised that to each other.”

“Well, I don’t know when I’ll come back from work. Between castmates and director meetings, then table read, the moment when we all read the script for the first time together you know, it tends to be really long. I don’t even know if I’ll have the time to eat, to be honest. But I’ll let you know.”

“This reminds me that I don’t have your phone number. Here’s mine, text me when you’ll know. But for your information, my door will be open if you decide to show up.”

She smiled at him while putting his number in her contacts. She gave him his phone back and told him goodnights while softly closing her door behind her.

[i-am-still-bb]

Treat for 22/10:

One of them is a modern witch and an owner of a famous potions recipe blog. The other one is a bit of a fanboy / just trying not to get his eyebrows synged off…

A/N: Originally conceived as an AU of The World Next Door. That had me stuck though. So we have this. But it still has similar elements, age gap, instructor/student dynamic, etc.

—

Fili drummed his fingers on the walnut conference table. One. Finger. At. A. Time. Focusing on how there were pits in the wood and some scratches in the varnish beneath his fingertips.

“Do you have any ideas?”

The silence following the question stretched on a beat too long and Fili knew he was supposed to answer. “Can you rephrase the question?”

“Enrollment numbers are dropping.”

“I’d noticed.”

“We need better student engagement and retention. Do you have any ideas? You are the most junior member of staff.” That last part was a thinly veiled dig and threat.

Fili shrugged, brushing off the words, “We could try putting some stuff on social media, teasers, sneak peeks, behind the scenes stuff. Stories about how potions and other magic sometimes go awry.”

Frowns appeared on the tenured track professors’ faces as soon as the words “social media” had left his mouth. This is why he rarely spoke up during these things. He kept his head down, did his research, lectured, and quickly attended conferences and published. 

Alice, the other young faculty member, specializing in potions that assisted in the growing of plants, clapped her hands. “My students would love something like that,” she grinned. “And I think it would do them good to see us as human, to see that we also make mistakes and singe our eyebrows and armchairs off.”

The department head looked skeptical. “It is an ‘interesting’ idea,” Fili could hear the air quotes around the word. “I think one of you younger people should be in charge. And as Ms. Yu is already assisting the Archives in their project then it should be you, if you don’t mind.

Fili did mind. Very much in fact. 

“It shouldn’t take that much time, maybe an hour a week,” the Head continued. 

And that was how a decade later Fili found himself spending more time on social media (Instagram, TikTok, and the like) promoting the university more broadly and the potions department specifically. 

He had asked for an assistant and was denied. 

It was fun. 

Sometimes. 

But other times he was just answering basic questions, or telling people “NO! ABSOLUTELY DO NOT MIX THOSE THINGS TOGETHER!” and then hoping that they actually listened.

Most of the time he was typing up replies, proofreading, posting, recording response videos, without paying much attention to the usernames that came across his screen. Sometimes there was one that would strike him as particularly ridiculous or clever; he would screenshot it, crop it, and save it to a special folder on his computer. He did the same with responses that made him give up home for humanity. 

But then there was one user, K.O.A.K., who asked questions that often made Fili pause and wonder and sometimes his only response was “I don’t know” even after he did some research and some serious thinking. 

They had a video chain going back at least six months at this point. 

Fili’s videos were well-lit against a carefully chosen background from a tripod; all courtesy of a performing arts student who interned for him for a semester. Really, she had bullied him into letting her do an unpaid internship. She was a double major and she said that the content of his videos were fantastic, but everything else was tragic. 

So now part of Fili’s large office / workspace was permanently set up for filming videos.

K.O.A.K.’s videos were probably worse that Fili’s had started out as. He always held his phone which sometimes made Fili nauseous while the user tossed ingredients into a travel sized cauldron that sat on a stove that had a single burner and plugged into a wall outlet. The wooden table it sat on was scarred from mishaps and frequently littered with ingredients, snacks, dust, and the occasional iced coffee cup of varying fullness. 

K.O.A.K. never showed his face. 

His hands featured in nearly every video. Sometimes his bare feet (which Fili had scolded him for, “What if you spill [insert potion here]? Or it boils over?” K.O.A.K.’s only response had been laughter, and to show off a fairly impressive old scar on his shin from just that thing happening) appeared. 

Fili shared tricks for making a potion that temporarily improved hand dexterity. “Roast the willow root before cutting it into thin 1 inch strips.”

K.O.A.K.  responded with a video demonstrating the differences between his original potion, one following Fili’s tip, and then one where he had added some olive oil to the foil packet before roasting, and then had roughly minced the root. 

Fili amended his notes.

He toyed with the idea of sharing his phone number as they starting talking about more than just tips and tricks for potions. But decided against it. This account operated in an official capacity. And it was probably bad enough that he was carrying on personal conversations through it. 

But he did notice that the twinge of excitement he got when he saw a notification form K.O.A.K. was the same as the one he would get early on in a new relationship. He had more than a little bit of a crush. It was merely academic, or so he told himself. He did not often get to talk about potions with anyone else.

—

Direct Messages between You (Prof.Durin) and K.O.A.K.

You: Why don’t you have a degree in this? You’re better than some of my grad students.

IDK.

You: You should apply to Erebor’s program. 

I don’t think they’d take me. I never took those ridiculous tests.

You: I’ll get them waived.

… I may not have finished secondary school

You: I’ll see what I can do.

—

Fili dismissed the class early. The first day of a new semester was always short. Most of his students were out of their seats and out the door before Fili had finished wiping down the whiteboard. Except for one. He was standing by the lectern, backpack slung over one shoulder.

“Did you have a question?”

The student shook his head. “I just wanted to introduce myself.”

Fili consulted his attendance sheet for a moment, “It’s Killian Oaks, right? If you would prefer something else, I can certainly do that. I just don’t have a note from the college about anything like that for you.”

“It is. But that’s not how you’d know me.”

Fili frowned in thought, one hand splayed over his papers on the desk. There was the niggle in the back of his brain that told him he was missing something.”

“You’d know me as . . .”

--

Taglist: Everything: @silvermoon-scrolls Fili/Kili: @dubhlachen

[observers-journal]

Do you think that the whole controversy with Tenoch has caused ER to either be more popular among social media and the public or just less as if people are turning away from her? Especially since the 'so-called' evidence that she posted was used against her to call her out on her lies as well as her crimes and history. Also, I wonder if politicians who have tried to be associated with her, such as that one deputy who schemed with her to try to pass the stealthing law by dragging Tenoch, are avoiding and turning away from her due to probably realizing how toxic and criminal she really is. Because it's amazing how they are all silent instead of supporting her, even with the access to the media power that they have that they could use to promote her such as they did with her case as there is not much news going on except for what she posts on Twitter, even with her acid case. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that no one prominent is really on her side publicly, except her lawyer and followers, which makes her really all alone. She probably does these horrible things as a way to feel good about herself and have some self-importance, which would have been sad, if it wasn't for the fact that she tramples and hurts others with her family to do so. If there is one important thing that I have learned in my two and a half decades of life on Earth that is very true, it's that the bill always comes due, and I feel that her bill for all that she has done might be on its way.

Thank you for the submission, anon! You pose a very interesting theory, which I agree can be true.

I'm gonna be a bit more cautious here about my answer, mostly because everything is so chaotic, nuanced and layered it's hard to tease out a specific reason for this. Whatever I say is purely my opinion, so please take it with a pinch of salt.

She could be the case of "bad publicity is still publicity". If she truly is trying for a political career, this might bring her some exposure. Politics is usually dirty and messy, and any kind of exposure helps. I have a feeling she's not very big on her own, but tries to show herself by using the few contacts she has gained, and the nexus she has from her own family. She cares a lot about her carefully constructed image, coz that's what she has going for her. That public sympathy and an activist image.

On the other hand, an equally valid argument is the one you raise. And that I suspect too: this is gonna come back to bite her. Everyone acts to preserve their self-interests, and so we have seen people distancing themselves from her. The amount of stuff she and her family has going on is a biggg problem for her. It's not like other politicians are not toxic or criminal, they just hide it better.

She definitely created a big ruckus and then nothing came of it. So to some extent, I think her temporary social media popularity is down. Will it continue to be that way? I can't say. Does it reflect the ground reality? I don't know.

I don't want to pass any personal comments on her as a person, and keep myself limited to her case with Tenoch. I feel bad for her acid attack, but what she did to him was nasty. Terrible.

Here's what I suspect. All of our conclusions are based on publicly available info. Behind the scenes? She could have quieted down and shifted her focus elsewhere (other cases that are more important). She might have found solace in the fact that she was able to successfully deliver a blow to Tenoch's career. She might be covering up her criminal traces. She might be working on her network politically. Or she might be quietly planning another attack on Tenoch (I actually doubt that).

But boy do I hope he sues the hell out of her.

Sorry for such a long post! I had thoughts. I hope you keep the world bright through your goodness and optimism! 🫶

[skepticalarrie]

Louis has a bigger fanbase than most of the "famous" artists nowadays. In this day and age it's so easy to get famous or go viral really. Radio isn't the only factor anymore. If they can't get him the radio play then his team should devote their complete energy into using other sources, like being consistent on social media promotions, or some good interviews (eg - zane lowe) instead of those small radio stations who don't even play his music after it. They can't just depend on the existing fanbase given how divided it is because atleast one faction of it is mad at Louis at any given point. This is a very lazy strategy.

And Louis clearly wants the good things too, we used to say maybe Louis doesn't want to go bigger, doesn't want the mainstream stuff, but in the last year I've noticed that he very much does want it, maybe not Harry level, but still mainstream.

I agree that his team/BMG strategy is pretty confusing at times and relying so much on the fans sounds pretty lazy. However, something that intrigues the shit out of me is to what extent his blacklisting goes? I was talking to friends earlier, there are so many artists that have open up over the years about the fear of being sabotaged in the industry and all the abuse behind the scenes because it's that easy to end someone's career. So whoever is doing that with him (within Sony), it goes so much further than simply blocking him on the radio, a lot of effort is being put into it. So I agree his team could do more for him- and as fans, I'm sure we will always think that they're not doing enough - but it's also hard to guess what they can do for him since he's in such a tricky situation.

I think people may have different perceptions of what "going big" is, I think Louis wants to do the music he wants to do and be able to expand the audience that may be interested in that music. Which is the opposite of what he did at the beginning of his career, trying to go "big" and "mainstream" instead of being more authentic in his music, so I think this could have been misinterpreted. And that's the point, and that is the big shift in his career

[alarrytale]

I think that along with L*ewe, which they've both been wearing a lot, and L*me and other stuff they're promoting, that the stunt is in part to undo the damage O*ivia did to Harry's image. They couldn't do another PR relationship like Holivia because people would turn against Harry completely as he's so overexposed so they had no choice but to make this one low key and unproblematic. They want people to be invested in it, and many are but there's many ignoring it too. It has definitely helped his image with some of the gp, who think the 'relationship' is cute. But I'm angry at him and his team. He made that romantic quote at his show, supposedly giving advice to a fan but no doubt the whole exchange was orchestrated, and it turned out it was something T*ylor also said and it was used to sell their relationship, they used the exact same tactic with Holivia. I ignored it with Holivia because that whole stunt was weird but when they used that tactic again it really made me question how genuine Harry's shows are. Even that 'daddy' exchange at his show it turned out that the guy works for Pleasing. That was a set up. Lol. How are we supposed to believe anything he says when it's used to sell stunts, and even his shows aren't safe from them. I also stupidly thought that he might CO or stop stunting after the queerbaiting backlash. I thought that the backlash was too much for HSHQ to ignore, it was all over the media and social media. Then he literally went into another pr relationship after. They learned nothing, except to make this pr relationship more low key. I hate this need for him to always be publicly in a relationship or if he isn't then he's linked to a different model every week. His success is so manufactured, he has got to where he is by connections only. He hasn't earned his position. He is a very talented musician but they don't lean into his talent to sell him, it's completely overshadowed by his PR stunts. They could have done so much else with him.

Hi, anon!

I still don't understand how a pr/bearding relationship is going to rehab the damage of another pr/bearding relationship. The only thing holivia did was make people sick and tired of his pr relationships. We are stunt fatigued. This is yet another one, but with added shit aka poorly disguised repetitive brand promo. The obvious brand promo is actually making the whole thing look more fake. I see more and more people calling H out on his bs.

Yes, they use the same tricks every stunt. They start seeding a relationship with small things like that, that makes sense in hindsight. And yes, so much H does that seems organic is preplanned, set up or contrived. Even at his shows. We see less and less of the real Harry. Everything he does or shows us is controlled and is connected to an agenda. Things that might seem innocent on surface level always seems to be tied to a stunt or commercial gain. He's a walking billboard, always selling us something. We don’t get any fan service to make up for it either anymore, that's were the issue lies. There is nothing good to make up for the bad (or the things we tolerate for his sake).

I do wish they'd have more faith in him as a talented artist. I wish he had more faith in himself too. I think everyone makes more money this way, but i don't understand how he's not embarrased and ashamed. He does look annoyed and pissed off in all the photos from the last month. Is a cranky H good promo for the citrus fruit brand or the german lion brand? Is the fandom making fun of it's ridiculousness good promo? I think we're all counting the days until this phase is over. He doesn’t need to stunt like this to rehab his image after O. As you say, there's loads of other things he could do that give him pr that everyone would love, including him.

[talenlee]

Homestuck 1/2

Alright, look, I made the banner graphic let’s tear the bandaid off.

I make fun of Homestuck and have no intention to stop doing so, but I do so based on the series and interactions with its fans and the creator’s opinions and – look I’m not doing a good job of setting this up, this is a very meta and tortured introduction that doesn’t get to the point, and therefore, by Homestuck standards, it’s good. But what I am trying to get to is that Homestuck is a space that’s super important to people in a way that to me, an older internet denizen, rings true of the Ranma 1/2 fandom.

You know, it was a space full of romance roleplays and weird sexy exploration, and a bunch of queers used it to work themselves out and in the process learned from one another about what it meant to be queer.

I think the overlap between these spaces is a synthesis of three ideas: Isolation, Play, and Smoochiness.

There’s a reason why the Cops Reading Homestuck story was a desireable story to tell and also why it was obvious bullshit. Cops can’t read. But also because the nature of being a Homestuck was one of being isolated. Homestuck isn’t a media everyone at school reads and has as a shared experience, it’s not communal and it’s not actually shareable. Like, you and a friend can’t put the webcomic on at the same time as you, it’s not a thing you can watch together. You have to participate in the webcomic separately, and to share the fandom you have to spend time with people who are also doing so. That pushes you out of social spaces with people you hang around with personally and into spaces where you’re going to interact with them in online spaces, and almost any online space like that is going to inevitably give people a way to be creative.

Similarly, if five to ten years earlier, you were invested in Ranma 1/2, you weren’t going to be seeing that at your library. You might be lucky to be at an anime club or manga club at a university, but if you were an English language speaker, odds were good you were going to only be finding community around Ranma 1/2 was online, and at that time? Online was stuff like Geocities or Lycos or Angelfire. Online was AOL Instant Messenger roleplay rooms. Online was USENET. You weren’t logging onto those places for a bit of everything, you were going there for this fandom, for this thing that you were interested in.

This is a thing I think that induces these kinds of media into being play spaces. You wanted to immerse yourself in it, you wanted more of it, there was a limit for how much of it there was and the only real places you could find it were places that were, definitionally, only going to necessarily share this thing as a frame of reference. It’s a great set of pressures for making sure people completely pickle their brains about a subject material.

Another element that links these two is that it seems the fandoms latched pretty hard onto the importance of romance and relationships. I don’t know anyone who considers themselves Extremely About Homestuck who starts promoting it by saying that the story is really coherent and good and makes a good singular point. I don’t mean this in a way that’s disrespectful to you Homestuckies, aside from the general low-level disrespect that you all are comfortable with and know you deserve, but I don’t get the impression anyone who spent a long time in the Homestuck space, especially the roleplaying Homestuck space, then you were into the characters.

Similarly, nobody should turn to Ranma 1/2 for a great long form story full of character arc moments — it’s a sex comedy martial arts manga with silly magical powers. The conclusion of it is a ‘wedding’ that gets interrupted and returns the story to a status quo (kinda). But along the way there was practically an OC Kit of narrative of hey, here’s a bunch of obvious hooks we reuse for characters to arrive in the story space and here’s how a Ranma 1/2 character gets created and you almost had an RPG sourcebook on that matter.

(Almost.)

No, the thing that drives both stories in their fan’s minds is the characters and the ability to play with them. Particularly, the ability to play with them as people with mouths that could be pushed up against one another and made to kissssss. Now, if you’ve read Ranma 1/2 you might want to go at this point ‘uh actually romance doesn’t come up that much’ because there mostly the romance is in reference to people trying to coerce a romantic situation onto someone and Ranma or Akane resisting it but c’mon.

It’s a 1980s sex comedy anime.

The story is building up to the kissssss.

Which means you have this media that focuses you on focusing on it more, a sort of hyperfocal brain pickler, sitting right next to a big pile of crayons and blank paper, and room to play. There’s non-judgmental approaches to trying things out, there’s a creative space where you aren’t necessarily going to encounter immediate resistance — believe it or not, there was actually a default fandom position of ‘oh, you’re going to make something? cool!’ on the internet back in the day — and in the process you wind up, without necessarily being told or induced to, play with romance in this media space with people who are definitionally not in a position to harm or judge you.

I want to make fun and I will and I like doing so, but to do so I must always do with open honesty that: there’s nothing wrong with this. The fact that Homestuck is very meaningful to people, so meaningful to people, makes complete sense.

I’m still not going to read it, don’t be silly.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[ettawritesnstudies]

IE your 'what would i pay for poll'. I would pay around $3 monthly feasiblhy but honestly I would be more invested in doing that if you were a bigger presenc3e on here again, over if you had anhy fun treats for subscribers. mostly i just miss seeing you alkl over my dash! i like to support the people who are big involved in the comunity or who post a bunch of fun snippets or moodboards or character rambles. and i dont see that from you very often!

Hey Anon!! That is SO FAIR and honestly I wish I were a bigger presence here too, and one of my concerns about offering memberships is that creating all the ~*exclusive*~ content will take away my time from shitposting and playing tag games and just generally hanging out. The more I'm splitting my energy between several platforms the more my "presence" on each platform will suffer if that makes sense and I miss the days when I only had tumblr and I could just ramble about whatever.

That being said there are a couple reasons why I've changed my approach so I hope you understand where I'm coming from

I'm on Draft 5 of the same book I've been working on for like 3ish years now and if I shared the same snippets for every "find the word" tag I think people would be sick to death of it by now

I'm on Draft 5 of the book I'm planning to publish and if I share too many excerpts of the in-between drafts, those things are both A) subject to change, B) probably spoilers and I want to be very very picky about the excerpts I choose to share from now on

Tumblr (and instagram, and tiktok, and other social media sites) regularly get nuked by the companies that own them so I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket which is why I've doubled down on my website.

I'll share more moodboards and fun snippets and stuff soon! But they'll be in the promotional/marketing vein probably because if I'm going to spend time making that stuff it's going to be multitasking

You raise a really good point. I'd love to be more involved here, and I'll try to set more reminders for things like WBW and STS. That being said, I've been trying to support the writing community through other ways like ARC reviews and interviews!!! I put so so so much work into these every month and they do fine in general, but for some reason they don't get any traction on tumblr. Not for my lack of trying, but I don't know? Nobody wants to reblog a link to a youtube video I guess? It's discouraging because just because it looks different than the old traditional games and things doesn't mean it's not still contributing something to the community - a way to find new authors and promote your newly published books - that's largely going unnoticed and unappreciated.

If you want me to reblog snippets and moodboards for the love of god please send me stuff my queue is empty! I love seeing what people have going on but I'm also following well over 1000 people so sometimes stuff gets lost.

[onlyonewoman]

One good thing about getting older and having grown up partly without the Internet - and certainly without the extent of social media we have now - is that you could watch and read stuff with flawed characters without immediately jumping to the conclusion that:

The creators thought the bad traits of a character were morally good.

You should equate shitty behavior from a fictional character with a prompt to act like that yourself or excuse that shitty behavior in others in real life.

You should police and shame other people's personal preferences in media consumption publically, like a fucking HSA during the satanic panic, only ramped up like a squirrel on speed.

I have no problem with content that is clear about consent and who's good or bad, sometimes that take fits the story and characters well. A clear "this good, that bad" story is like comfort food or following a nice evening routine.

It serves our need to stay grounded and relax, which is very important, especially in a world where we're exposed to more daily impressions and personal choices than ever before in history.

I wish more young people kept in mind that ONE of the reasons why we're stressed, distracted and easily feel alone and/or watched, is that the consumation of literture, movies, tv shows, music etc. now almost never is a solo experience, which in turn robs us of some of the joy.

What I'm trying to say is that while it's good to reckognize shitty behavior in fictional characters - kudos to you youngsters who discover it earlier than we did - it doesn't make the one reading/watching/listening to a promoter of sexual assault, murder, gas lighting, bad sterotypes, shitty friends, non-existing communication etc.

Like, the worst "crime" I've committed is getting absurdly high library fines due to forgetting to return books in time. My worst behavior includes yelling in complete frustration and possibly tossing my own possessions around - which happens like once every five years. (Thanks emotion regulating meds!)

I'm a trusted animal caretaker and sometimes supervisor for minors. I'm on the organ donor list, I do volontary work, loves Studio Ghibli movies and if I see a cat, I stop dead in my tracks, hoping it will grant me the honor of petting it.

I also write hardcore porn sometimes.

One of my favourite movie characters of all time, is the killer Bill in Kill Bill and the fact that David Carradine died from erotic asphyxiation only makes him hotter.

I loved Marilyn Manson as Ron Tully in Sons Of Anarchy, because the role was just small enough to leave all the room for excellent prison fanfics - and I will go to my fucking grave claiming that Jax Teller was a way worse person than Ron Tully, without claiming that Tully was in any way a good person.

I can't watch the scenes in either Casino or Goodfellas, when Joe Pesci's characters die, because while his absolutely horrendous characters definitely deserve to die, the way it happens in both cases, plays with my own fear of betrayal.

I fear that plenty of younger people have been robbed of the wonderful experience of realizing they can't despise a bad character with the same ease they could as kids.

Yes, some films, movies, books etc. are like comfort food: no resistance, no surprices, less thinking and more feeling. And we need them!

We also need the type of media that shows grim reality with an easily defined enemy, like the nazis in Schindler's List, where there's no way we can identify with the nazis, but still have to balance on the edge with Schindler, who didn't care about the Jews at first, only his business.

We need characters like the despicable yet somehow also caring Aunt Lydia in The Handmaid's Tale, who in her own twisted way cares about the women she's set to control and keep in line. I myself find it impossible to wish her dead, not because she deserves a second chance, but because her lack of cruelty just for the sake of it, has shone through enough times to reveal she might be a vital key for the good in the end.

By being exposed to morally grey characters, we learn about ourselves and what we, as human beings, are capable of in extreme circumstances, whether it's good or bad.

I believe that with the literal fear of coming across as "toxic" or a promoter of shitty behavior by loving characters with awful behavior, makes people less interested in challenging media and thus, not building up an inner understanding for and capacity to deal with bad things and shitty people in real life.

And if you find yourself in a position where you feel like you can't handle characters who can be both monsters and human beings, it's no longer a content problem, it's a YOU problem.

Maybe you're not old enough to connect with certain characters or stories. Maybe you're not in the right mindset to watch/read it right now. Maybe it's simply not something you find enjoyable at all.

All three are valid reasons to stay away from this kind of content.

What it isn't, is a reason to try and shame other people for taking a liking to it. Don't spend your 20's playing moral police online, pretending to be judge, jury and executioner for some stranger enjoying fictional criminals consentually fucking their rival criminal in chains in the basement.

We already know it's fiction, know perfectly well it's not an advertisement for healthy relationships and if YOU didn't understand that, you're simply not old and/or experienced enough to partake in that sort of content.

And if you ought to be old and mature enough to understand this, yet still get your panties in a twist when you come across, lets say, the vegaspete tag: just remember that had Scorsese wrote Kinnporsche, most of the characters aside from Porsche, would've ended up:

buried alive

shot in the neck

blown up

mutilated or, at best:

living under secret identity for the rest of their lives, on the top of the Bangkok mobster death list

Goodfellas is still one of the best movies ever made and if the young people in the 90's could go and watch it without leaving the theatre thinking "yeah, lets start money laundring, doing blow and shooting friends in the head", I'm pretty damn sure today's youth can do the same.