#did you voice that thinking it's just a game anyway?

[iaeriy]

noiseless • jude bellingham.

summary: remaining silent can be difficult, but can your boyfriend too? (based on this request!!)

word count: 1.3k!!!

warning: smut, cockwarming, unprotected sex, jude choosing video games over u sighs.

note: NOT PROOFREAD , i apologize if this was short. I couldn’t think as much of nothing and i just thought it’d be better like how it is 😞, if it seems rush or anything i apologize..again. anyways, hope y’all enjoy!💗

You don’t know how you ended up like this, but here you were. Legs wrapped around judes torso, butt naked as your juices were leaking and drenched onto judes dick. You currently had your face burried in his neck, attempting to hold in any noise. “Judeeee..” you whispered, he slapped your ass. “shut up..” he mouthed. you sighed silently, nibbling his neck. You rested your head on his shoulder, lips facing away now from his neck. Minutes ago, you were in the sofa begging for judes attention or something to do together, watch a movie and cuddle, take a nap together or possibly get something to eat.

30 minutes went by..you were gripping onto his arm. Every movement he did from getting upset, or a tiny thing that made him rage. He’d move up, precisely his dick would squelch and slight thrust up, it was difficult for you to stay quiet. You were clearly just wanting some type of affection, clearly that failed. Although some of it was mostly your idea, you thought of being needy and being touchy would make him stop playing video games and he’d ignore everything but you—jude wouldn’t even let you get off his lap, one little move and immediately a tight grip held onto your hip. Heaven, must’ve been for jude, it felt amazing to him having your walls squelching and pooling around his cock doing nothing.

You sighed, whimpering attempting not to move at all. jude looked at you, scoffing. “Who are you banging now..” his friend laughed, you were able to hear the voice call. You whimpered burrying your face into his neck, chewing on your bottom lip holding in your noises. Jude chuckled, squeezing your ass. You held back a moan, breathing shakily.

Well, This was not fair at all..

After an hour, sitting on judes cock. Juices soaking down to his shorts, nearly staining. He decided to end the voice call. He just couldn’t stand the teasing from his friends, especially the way they kept saying y/n this or y/n that or anything with your name. He couldn’t stand the way your noises were probably only visible to his friends and them only and not you. He just couldn’t stand it. Jude had looked down, bucking his hips up to your g-spot causing you to moan loudly. You covered your mouth, squelching around him again. You felt your cheeks warm up, “j-jude! y-your mic-“ you said, whining in between your moans, eyes rolling back. Finally after waiting something happens. Jude pulled his headset off, he smirked to himself at the mess he just made you, listening to your moans. “hung up on them baby.”

He looked at you, pulling your hair making you look at him. You moaned uncontrollably, he desperately yet hungrily kissed you deeply. You kissed back as he whimpers into your mouth, gripping onto your waist. “You’re fault for what happened.” He said, you kissed him shutting him up. He slipped his tongue in between, the two of you sloppily, desperately kissing. Your hands cupping his cheeks, “i-it i-isn’t..y-you made m-me wait f-for-ah!” You moaned louder, he held onto your ass thrusting deeper into you causing the chair to squeak louder than the two of you. “fuuuuck, that’s more like it.” He chuckled, nibbled your ear lobe as he moaned into your ear. You whimpered, moaning onto his lips. You threw your head back, jolting forward within every thrust.

He moaned feeling you everywhere, you leaned closer to him wrapping your arms around him. He smirked before getting up, his cock slipping out of you. Your mouth dropping and whining at the loss of contact, he carried you to the room, he threw you on the bed. He got rid of his shorts and shirt, you took your shirt off. He grabbed your legs pulling you closer, you giggled bitting your lip as he lowered his head down. Kissing and bitting onto your perky tits, your hands resting next to your head flat on the mattress. He towered himslef above you looking down at you, your legs next to his waist as he pushed himself in. Thrusting slowly, you held onto his bicep. He leaned down, kissing you again. The two of you whimpering into each others mouth.

He fondled with you boob, loosing his patience as he lifted your hips up. Your lower back in the air, he thrusted up into your g-spot again. You moaned loudly, eyes rolling back as your head fell forward making eye contact with jude, you bit your lip in between your moans. You gripped onto the sheets, skin smacking against your thighs. He moaned deeply, hand still gripped onto your waist as you jolted forward. He burried his face into your neck, kissing and sucking on your skin pounding into your g-spot. You had nothing left to say, nothing but judes name. You moaned out judes name over and over, again.

He moaned into your ear, your legs slightly expanding wanting to feel him in deeper. It drove him crazy for how you were right now, he gripped onto your ass as you whined. He looked at you, as you looked at him. You wrapped your arms around him, biting on your lip attempting to hold back your sounds. “babe, let them out, please..” he said, you whined, shaking your head. “That’s okay..maybe i’ll get it out of you.” He said, thrusting harder, causing you to moan louder. He smirked, caging your head with his hands. “Y-You..k-know..y-you’re..mmhngh..a-a..t-tease..r-right..” You cried out with every hard thrust, he chuckled at your stutter. “Wanna repeat that again?” He said chuckling, you whined, looking away he grabbed your chin making you look at him.

He kissed your forehead, thrusting harder into you. His cock brushing against your cervix, your eyes rolling back as he groaned feeling you tighten. You arched your back onto him, forehead resting on his shoulder. You moaned uncontrollably, holding onto his bicep. You clenched around him again, he groaned in your ear. His thrusts become sloppier, indicating he was close himself. He groaned, thrusting quicker into your g-spot. Your vision going white, “j-judeee!” You screamed out.

your orgasm hitting you like a tidal wave. Leaving you gripping onto the sheets.

jude pulled out of you, stroking himself as spurts of his cum landed on your tummy. you breathed heavily looking down. your thighs trembling, jude picked up your cum with his fingers. You giggled looking at him, as you sat down on your knees. He held your chin, you licked his fingers, sucking every little droplet of his cum off. He smiled, kissing your forehead. You fell on the bed, trying to catch your breath and calm yourself down. You knew by tomorrow you’d be sore due to the slight roughness, jude looked down at you caressing your waist. “Did i hurt you?” He said, you turned your head to look at him, shaking your head. “n-no, it’s okay..” you said, he smiled.

You laid down against the pillows, he laid next to you. Fingers running up and down your leg. “sooo..you want to sleep with it in you..” he said, your eyes widened. “Jude!” You smacked his arm, he smiled. “I promise i won’t do anything..” he said, you looked at him.

“..That’s what you said the first time..” you said, he pulled your leg. You winced in pain, “i’m sorry..” he kissed your cheek, you smiled. He let your leg rest over his waist, you were slowly starting to fall asleep. He covered both of you with the blanket, you were already under the sheets. He slipped himself in again causing you to whimper from the over sensitivity, he kissed your forehead. You moved closer, resting your head on his chest. He kissed your forehead, as he played around with your hair.

[pacienties]

— emo txt as obey me characters!

warnings <3: !cursing, fluff and smut! + childish reader <3 (heavily inspired by the mobile games obey me!), jealous tsundere + yandere txt basically, separate headcanons for each member, !size difference, !mentions of smut, !daddy kink, oral sex (such as face riding), unprotected sex (pregnancy link if u squint!), sub coquette bratty reader + dom txt! (praise and degradation), squirting, breeding n ddlg themes if you squint <3 !! ,, use of pet names!

a/n <3: soobin is literally levi irl

soobin as levi:

soobin absolutely hated socializing, he hated being forced to go to RAD every week day, hated being called to eat with his brothers in the great hall too.

soobin feared that he was doomed; doomed of always being alone romantically when all he ever wanted was a girlfriend ):

but then again who can possibly love a loser shut in moody otaku like him? he would often ponder on that depressing thought

letting out a bored sigh soobin lazily took a sip out of almond milk from his ruri chan cup as he played texas chainsaw massacre by himself sadly

another reason why soobin wanted a girlfriend so bad was because he secretly hated playing video games by himself; he hoped that once he does get a girlfriend she’d play all the horror games he liked ):

but then again soobin hated all the demon girls at rad, they weren’t his type or they liked his brothers or what he says ‘some kind of macho jerks’

“go away im busy playing my games” soobin speaks up snapping out of his train of thought, as he hears faint knocks on his door

who would possibly wanna be in his room anyway?

“i said go away im busy-“ soobin groans getting up from his bean bag from the ground when he hears his door being opened by his jaw was left open when he sees you, all dressed pretty in front of him.

“s-soobin? im sorry for barging in like this but yeonjun just wanted me to come get you for dinner” you’d say in your sweet honey like voice with a faint blush painted on your cheeks, feeling awfully imitated by the look on soobin’s face followed by his irritated tone.

another thing soobin was good at hiding and not thinking about, was his massive crush on you.

he couldn’t believe he liked a normie! i mean come on really? a human out of all the demon girls at rad? soobin was in shock with his feelings

soobin’s favorite thing about you was how shy and timid you were around him; he found your stuttering and blushing so cute especially when you nervously pull at the hems of your pretty ruffle skirts when you spoke to him :(

soobin was very stubborn though, he didn’t wanna admit he liked you especially when he didn’t know you liked him back </3

the emo boy also failed to notice that you were dressing up all pretty in hopes of him noticing you ):

you felt ashamed of how you felt for the older demon; ashamed of how you were dressing up in skimpy attire to get his attention but you were thankful once it worked!

soobin loved how you looked today, in the softest pink makeup look that really made your doe eyes pop, while you wore a baby pink off the shoulder sweater matching it with a denim ruffle skirt all while topping it off with matching bows on each side of your pretty head <3

“b-binnie? did you hear what i said?” you’d repeat with a small tilt of your head watching as soobin stare you up and down

you’d also hoped by calling him nicknames he’d see that you liked him :(

“what? oh of course of course just tell yeonjun i’ll be there in 10 okay?” soobin shook his head at his perverted thoughts

you nod softly followed by, “okay but yeonjun said to hurry before taehyun eats your food” you’d walk away frowning as soobin slams his door shut behind you

what was his problem?

soobin cursed at himself knowing you’ll probably think he hates you but really he just wanted to hide in his room for ten more minutes to get rid of his raging boner </3

the emo demon hated how you made him hard with just your outfits and the size difference between you both you didn’t even have to try to get him hard but it just happened

with a swift motion; soobin plops down on his bed and grabs the stuffed rabbit you gifted him for his birthday before wrapping the limbs around his leak member groaning in pleasure as he freed his cock from his ripped black jeans

throwing his head black of blue hair on his ruri chan body pillow, soobin begins to whimper lightly imagining how pretty you’d look underneath him, your tiny pussy stretching around his large length ):

“b-binnie i don’t think it’s gonna fit” you’d let out a heartbreaking sob in pain as you’d desperately claw at soobin’s forearm

“shhh it’s okay you can take it” soobin promised you wiping your eyes as he bottoms out before finally moving his cock in and out of your sex making you whimper with a slight arch of your back

“b-binnie you’re so close i feel you s-so close” you’d babble caressing your stomach as if you were pregnant at your stomach bulge ):

and within minutes; soobin cummed all over his hand sighing as he quickly heads to the restroom to wash his hands hoping to god he doesn’t think of you anytime soon especially about fucking you

taehyun as beelzebub:

“taehyun? are you done now?” you let out a faint whine watching your boyfriend do a set of arm lifting

“almost baby” taehyun grunts assuring you not sparing you a glance

you huffed crossing your arms over your chest; “you said that fifteen minutes ago! i want attention!” you’d stomp your feet with a huge pout on your face

taehyun sighs, “and i said you’ll get my attention but right after i’m done with my sets now be a good girl and wait”

you’d whine more feeling tears gather in your vision; you felt so neglected today and you needed constant attention otherwise that meant that your boyfriend didn’t love you anymore ):

“i hate you! you never pay attention to me!” you cried watching your boyfriend’s face grow more angry wit you by the second

“you what? wanna repeat that?” taehyun puts down the weights he was using inching closer to your small frame

“i-i said i hate you” you’d whispered looking up at your much taller boyfriend trying to stand your ground

“apologize”

“no! i hate you! you don’t pay attention to me and you’d rather be eating or working out” you’d shout sniffling

“im telling you again to apologize” taehyun repeats walking closer to you smirking lightly as he watches you back up to the wall behind you

“n-no” you’d hiccup fear washing over your body as you watch taehyun lightly trace the soft skin on your thigh

taehyun didn’t say anything only pulling down his gym shorts below his ankles before lifting you up in the air against the wall you were laying against making you squeal in surprise

you weren’t fighting your boyfriend though, letting a few whines and whimper slip past your mouth as your boyfriend sheds your pretty clothing <3

“now i’m gonna tell you again, apologize” taehyun half smiles with a look of menace on his face

“no” you’d reply still pouty before whining in pain as you felt your boyfriend shove his hard length in pussy; you cling on to your boyfriends strong arms

“d-daddy.. it hurts hurts so much” you’d tear up at the stretch, trying to play it sweet so taehyun would go easier on you

“hurts?” taehyun mocks your high pitched voice thrusting faster in your puffy pussy, sweat beads collecting on his forehead

“you’re such a bratty little girl you know that? can’t spend one day in the gym because you throw a tantrum about it” taehyun scoffs playfully his hips snapping so hard against your stomach making you mewl in his arms

“im so-sorry daddy i just missed you- oh! missed your cock so much” you’d whine in the crook of your boyfriend neck your pussy growing wetter and wetter around his groin

taehyun grins enjoying seeing you be nice to him rather than yell at him about how you “hated him”

“if you wanted me to use you so badly you should’ve just said so baby, instead of throwing a tantrum” taehyun laughs gripping on your waist lifting your poor body up against the wall and back down on his cock over and over again

“yes- yes i know im sorry for being a br-brat ah! i really just wanted attention i don’t hate you” you’d let out a gasp in pleasure as you felt your orgasm wash over you, whining at how your boyfriends thrusts only fasten making you feel overstimulated

taehyun snickers assumed by your babbling.

“p-please cum in me.. please please!” you’d beg through pleas sucking your boyfriends cock desperately in your needy pussy giggling weakly when taehyun did just that <3

“can we eat now im really hungry?” you’d speak up after catching your breath; taehyun smirks ducking his head to your abused pussy before lightly pressing his lips on it for kisses

“we’ll eat after im done yeah? daddy just wants a little taste”

beomgyu as belphie:

beomgyu was lazy, often your dates with him were you just sleeping with him.

not that you mind though, you were timid and often lazy yourself

but today was one of the only days where beomgyu had the energy to do something other than sleeping with you

“b-beomgyu” you’d whine at the harsh grip your boyfriend has on your thighs as you lazily rode his face

you hated being on top, but your boyfriend was lazy when it came down to sex too ):

beomgyu’s jaw began to hurt as he sloppily ate you out, not really used to doing this much exercise but tries anyway to make you happy <3

beomgyu pressed lazy kisses on your inner thighs, his kisses feeling light as feathers as he sleepily tells you how good you were for him and how you were his favorite meal to eat <3

“i love you baby” he sleepily rasps as his tongue slowly draped over your pretty pussy savoring the way you tasted with a sheepish grin

“i love you too beomgyu bear” you’d whine shyly as you cummed all over your boyfriends face giggling as you hear him snore lightly below you

beomgyu often fell asleep after going down on you he always got pussy drunk because of you ):

huening kai as asmo:

“i think you look very pretty huening kai” you’d say a matter of factly trying to hide the fact that you didn’t want your boyfriend going to an all demon party

“thanks baby” kai giggles his voice all high pitched and filled with genuine sincerity as he fixes his hair in front of his mirror

you let out a whine, “are you positive you have to go out to a party? can’t you just stay home with me instead?”

you hated sharing kai, you didn’t like how he had a party every weekend despite him spending the weekdays with you

you were clingy with kai, always needed his constant love and attention feeling absolutely miserable the second he was gone ):

“please? don’t go im better than those demon girls at that party” you’d pout tugging at your boyfriends arm sleeve tears gathering in your glossy eyes

huening kai chuckles, often enjoying you in your needy state before lifting you gently tossing you on his bed smiling as you squeak at the action

“you want me to stay home that bad?” kai teases with a tilt of his head his black hair falling to the side making him look like justin bieber back in 2008

you’d nod softly with puppy dog eyes hoping that would work. “please? i’ll do anything you want just don’t go”

“yeah? anything i want?” kai’s eyes twinkle with excitement at your words, lightly tracing his finger tips on your clothed pussy giggling as he senses you growing wetter by the minute

you nodded your head, your breath hitching as you felt kai grab your legs draping them over his shoulders. your boyfriend loving the white ruffle socks you had on <3

“does this mean i can fuck your pretty pussy raw tonight? you don’t mind me fucking’ any babies in you do you?” kai laughs at your desperate state

you’d tremble not really wanting a kid but if it that meant no matter parties for huening kai then who are you to refuse?

you’d nod again making the boy above you grin before shedding you both of your clothing leaving your pretty socks on though of course <3

“don’t go to another party p-please” you’d whisper out of the blue once kai bottoms out dragging his cock out of your gummy walls momentarily before shoving his length inside your needy pussy again

your boyfriend snickers, “you really think i’m still going? why go to a party when i can just fuck a baby in you” and you’d weakly smile in relief

“god my little girl’s pussy feels fuckin’ amazing around my cock, im never using protection ever again” kai grunts hicking your body closer to his cock by gripping at your waist making you sob at the stretch

“gonna be a good cum dump and take all my cum in your tiny cunt right?” kai groans his cock hitting you on the right places making you whine more

“y-yes yes yes” you’d babble reaching for your boyfriend for a needy kiss, making kai smile against your lips :(

“good girl, you’re taking my cock so we’ll” the demon boy rewards you with a harsh rub on your clit making you whimper loudly before feeling squirting all over his hand and length <3

“holy fuck did you just squirt?” kai breathes slapping your wet pussy, eyes fixated on the sight of your womanhood clenching around him triggering his release

kai drops his head full of sweat in the crook of your neck crushing your much smaller body as he breeds you full, determined to get you pregnant with his pretty babies ):

“you make me so proud, my pretty little cum dump” he pants looking at you face to face with a nasty smile on his face <3

yeonjun as lucifer:

you’ve always been a good girl for your boyfriend yeonjun.

always following the rules, telling him whenever his younger brothers broke them; kicking your feet at his praise while he rubbed you on the head telling you how much of good girl you were for him ):

you absolutely loved pleasing yeonjun; you always wear light colors, your boyfriend enjoying how sweet and innocent you looked for him even when you were letting him use your pussy you still looked so innocent because of how you dressed yourself for him <3

you never made your boyfriend feel insecure or jealous; resulting in yeonjun’s big ego and high self esteem not that you minded him having these qualities though, you loved it

that was until today though, when soobin yeonjun’s younger brother begged you to play videos games with him today since you were the only gamer he knew other than his himself ):

and everything was fine until you hear a dry cough coming from behind you making you turn your pretty head to the door way blushing as you watch yeonjun stare down at his younger brother with his tongue poking at the inside of his cheek

“don’t you have other friends to make play with you? y/n isn’t your girlfriend she’s mine, my human get your own” yeonjun splats voice traced with venom and jealously making you confused because he never acted this way before

sure yeonjun was strict and mean but not to you much less in front of you to witness.

“well she’s also my friend too older brother she’s her own person not some type of property” soobin replies tone flat not paying attention to your boyfriend only continuing to play his horror video game

yeonjun rolled his eyes watching you look down nervously at your pretty high top converse, walking towards you and soobin smacking the blue haired male’s head from behind with a gloved hand. “watch your tone around me little brother”

the way yeonjun sounded scared you; soon after hearing soobin gulp yeonjun turns to you snapping his fingers signaling you to get up and follow after him “let’s go”

you felt your bottom lip wobble in fear as tears threaten to fall down from your eyes; scared if yeonjun was going to hit you too.

“y-yeonjunnie? you’re not mad at me right? im not gonna get punished? im sorry i was playing with soobin i just felt bad because he never had anyone to play with. i was just trying to be nice” you’d sniffle

yeonjun sighed, feeling guilty and decided to forgive you.

“you’re right you were only being nice”

you sighed in relief, “im sorry daddy i didn’t mean to make you angry promise” you’d grip on the loops of your boyfriends jeans staring up at him with tears in your eyes :(

yeonjun chuckles, enjoying how pretty you looked on your knees in front of him. “you’re really sorry baby?”

you’d nod with a whimper “mhm”

“make me cum babygirl then maybe i’ll actually be able to tell how sorry you are” yeonjun hums as you eagerly nod your head yanking down his pants getting right to work with your mouth, taking your boyfriend in one go moaning sweetly at the taste cause being a good girl for yeonjun was all you were good for anyway <3

a/n: im finally free from writers block ^^

[yoursweetestbunny22]

JJ Maybank x reader

We had been hiding out at this remote, old farm for what felt like weeks, since John b and Sarah returned. The Pogues and I were making the most of the situation, trying to stay under the radar and out of trouble, which was a task and a half given our track record. The farmhouse had an eerie charm to it, with creaky wooden floors and ivy-covered walls. The surrounding garden, though a bit overgrown, was dotted with wildflowers in every imaginable color.

One evening, as the sun was setting and painting the sky with hues of orange and pink, we were all lounging on the porch. The air was cool, and the scent of the blooming flowers was intoxicating.

“Do you think we’ll ever get back to normal life?” Kie asked, her voice soft, almost wistful. She was sprawled on a deck chair, staring up at the sky.

Pope, who was busy fiddling with some old farm equipment he found in the shed, looked up and shrugged. “What’s normal anyway? We’ve never been normal, Kie.”

John B, who was sitting next to me, chuckled. “Normal is overrated. Besides, we’re like, what, fugitives now? We’ve got a badass story to tell.”

“Yeah, badass until we’re caught,” I muttered, my eyes scanning the garden. I couldn’t help but feel a bit restless. The isolation was getting to me.

Just then, JJ strolled up, hands behind his back and a mischievous grin plastered on his face. “What’s got your panties in a twist, Y/N?” he teased, nudging my shoulder with his.

I rolled my eyes. “Just tired of being cooped up here, jayj…feels like..like we’re living in some post-apocalyptic hideout.”

“Well, I have something that might cheer you up” he said, revealing a handful of freshly picked wildflowers from behind his back. “These are for you, cupcake.”

I couldn’t help but smile, my heart doing a little flip. “JJ, did you just steal flowers from the garden?” I asked, taking the bouquet from him.

He shrugged, unbothered. “Technically, it’s abandoned, so they’re free game. Plus, you looked like you needed something to smile about”

“Smooth,jayj, real smooth,” Kie called out, laughing. “Trying to win her over with flowers? Boring and classic”

“Hey, whatever works, right?” JJ shot back, winking at me.

Pope joined in, shaking his head. “You’re such a dork, man. But it’s cute, I guess.”

I looked down at the flowers, then back up at JJ. “Thanks, JJ. This is actually really sweet.”

“Don’t mention it,” he said, plopping down next to me. “Figured it’s the least I could do. Besides, it’s nice to have a little beauty in all this chaos.”

“Speaking of chaos,” Sarah cut in, leaning forward. “What’s the plan for tomorrow? We can’t just sit around forever.”

“We’ll figure something out,” Pope said, ever the problem-solver. “Yes but for now, let’s just enjoy tonight. Who knows when we’ll get another moment like this?” John b added

We all nodded in agreement, letting the comfortable silence settle in.

[laviefantasie]

Video 0.1

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“… know how this works”

Thump. Thump.

“Pretty sure you’ll break it like that”

“Oh, shut up, Shoko!”

A groan. A male laughter.

“Have you checked if it’s on?”

“Of course I have! How stupid do you think I am?”

Silence.

“I need new friends”

Laughter. Three in total.

“ Y/N, look on the bright side, you’re smarter than Satoru!”

“Hey!” Calls out another voice, “I’ll let you know I’m ver—”

“AHA!”

The blackness fades from view, everything becoming a blur because of the sudden light. Then the focus is on a video game console in someone’s hands, a Digimon game being played on it.

‘G A M E O V E R’ is written on big red letters on the screen.

“Did you just record me losing?!” An indignant voice exclaims at a close distance.

“Hey! It’s not my fault I finally figured out how this thing works” the voice, your voice, behind the recording device calls out, “It’s not like you ever really win anyways”

“HEY!”

The camera is grabbed abruptly and moved towards the source of the sound, a shriek leaving your lips from the sudden motion.

A white haired handsome (really tall) teenage boy with pale skin and dark circular glasses comes to view.

“To whoever sees this in the future: I ALWAYS WIN”

“Oh, get over yourself, Satoru”

An arm settles itself on Satoru’s shoulders, a tall handsome teenage boy with dark hair styled in a bun and purple eyes joins the panorama.

The pair of boys that sorta remind people of the yin and yang, personality and physical characteristics wise, start to bicker with one another making you sigh.

You decide to turn the camera around in your hands so you can come into view, making sure to turn the screen towards you so you can see yourself as you record. You sigh with a slight roll of your eyes and a small smile.

“Ignore them” you voice, “Once they start there is no stopping them”

The volume of their voices growing seems to support your argument.

“Anyways, I’m Y/L/N Y/N. If things go out well then you probably are my future children, but you never really know as a Jujutsu sorcerer so…” you shrug your shoulders, “I bought this videocamera to record our daily lives so that someday we can look back and laugh once more at Satoru!”

“HEY!”

You hadn’t even noticed the bickering had stopped making you jumped in your place at Gojo’s loud voice.

A female laughter is heard close and soon a beautiful short haired brunette with a beauty mark on her left cheek comes to view, a small smirk adorning her features.

“Please make sure you gift me a copy of all his stupidest moments for my birthday”

“HEY!” Satoru calls once again.

Ignored once again too.

“Of course, Shoko” you smile at her before looking once more at the camera, “This is Ieiri Shoko, my best friend EVER”

The black haired boy joins your other side, smiling with mischief.

“Well, well, Y/N, now you’re breaking my heart” he sighs faking sadness, “I haven’t even been properly given some screen time by you yet”

You laugh, “Now, ladies, get ready to be mesmerized! Or horrified… This is the better half of the pair of idiots I also call my best friends, Geto Suguru”

“Ouch. Not sure if i should be offended or… forget it, I’m offended”

You roll your eyes but soon let out a shriek as you stumble forward, not falling because of the pair of arms holding your waist tightly from behind.

“I WANT AN INTRODUCTION TOO”

A sigh.

“Gojo Satoru, better known as the other half of the pair of idiots I call my best friends”

“Ajem” he fake coughs.

You ignore it.

“Ajem” you ignore it, “Ajem! AJEM”

Shoko and Suguru try to stifle their laughters as much as they can.

“What, Satoru?”

“You didn’t introduce me well!” He whines, “You had to mention how I’m the strongest sorcerer and how you’re madly in love with me!”

“EXCUSE ME?!”

The camera’s view changes dramatically as it is lowered abruptly, showing only the white converse with Digimon characters on the side and the black combat boots.

Until Shoko grabs the videocamera and focuses it on Suguru and her for a second, signaling for silence with their fingers to their mouths, before turning it to focus once again on you and Satoru.

You who’s reprimanding the white-haired sorcerer, and him who’s looking at you with an adorable smile on his face.

It would sure be a series of interesting recordings.

[desire-mona]

dead poets society chars but i assign them random things ive seen happen on the internet / random videos or posts i remember (not based on anything it is genuinely at random):

neil - tony crynight's fnaf animation series which i dont entirely remember the plot of but i'll try to describe. so basically its fake mangle lore to say that mangle is the way they are (all broken and shit) because Mangle kissed Foxy and Chica got jealous so she took a Machete to Mangle to Mangled them. and then the gang tries to save mangle or whatever

todd - fluffle puff, someones pink fluffy mlp oc who was in lesbians with chrysalis (i think thats her name, i never watched mlp). mosy notably known for the animation to pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows. also the creator is a pedophile i think

charlie - sorrow tv and his entire existence. sorrow tv was a youtuber who made videos reading out reddit videos in silly voices. there was a whole posse of youtubers who did this, and he was the most popular just bc his voice acting was rly good. i still watch him every couple months even tho he hasnt posted since 2021.

cameron - does bruno mars is gay? i think about cameron man door hand hook car door every day, so i obviously need to point to my third favourite silly trying to be serious sentence. most ppl know this from game grumps but im not linking a game grumps video on here. rumour come out!

knox - venturiantale, the youtube channel usually consisting of 4? siblings playing gmod together usually. the channel itself was ran by this guy named jordan i think? and his siblings has their own channels. i knew them best for their fnaf gmod videos and their fanmail videos. turns out they were all very christian? and the whole family was abusive and way deep into said christianity if i remember correctly, one of the siblings who left first made a video on it. the venturiantale channel hasnt posted in like 2 yrs and the slow death was kinda sad to see bc he (jordan) blamed it all on The Algorithm.

meeks - that one nagito komaeda kinnie back in Whenever it was cutting off their finger to. i guess prove that they were a nagito kinnie frfr? if u dont know danganronpa lore then nagito gets his hand cut off and replaced with junko enoshima's hand because sheeeee got... executed? i wont lie i dont remember this part of the games story sorry. but essentially that one person was like I Gotta Do That........ anyway im jk the audio was faked and nothing actually happened + the person is fine LAWL

pitts - the key of awesome's parody of tiktok by kesha called glitter puke. theres no lore to this the key of awesome is / was ? a silly little song parody channel. this video was made in 2010 and it kinda shows in some moments but other than that it holds up. just checked and the key of awesome is Not still going, it ended 6 years ago and the last video was actually rly good and genuine

keating - onma island is buried a treasure chest. ok so basically mr beast made a video talking abt a private island and he buried. a treasure chest for a viewer to find. during the video he said "on my island is buried a treasure chest" but it sounded like "onma" which this one youtuber (pinely) found rly funny. it became an inside joke with his friends (one of whom got a tattoo) which then became a lowkey meme. mr beast even tweeted it so. good lord thats a lot of links sorry there isnt a know your meme page or anything

chris - i dont have any links for this one sorry, im just gonna tell the story and u have to believe me when i say i swear it happened (its very a believable fandom story im sure you will). so back when the genshin impact was still in its fairly early days (late 2020-early 2021) the phrase "hear me out" to refer to characters n stuff started becoming popular I THINK at the same time. so people in the genshin fandom were like hear me out with increasingly more heinous shit. started with characters, then npcs, then enemies, then bosses, then weapons, the stamina bar at one point, etc. a lot of these were jokes or straight up bait but back then (maybe now too - i havent been part of the genshin fandom for a LONG time) people took bait far more often than they didnt. so it became a "genshin fandom bad" gotcha to point out That One stamina bar post.

ginny - $300 junko enoshima wig! sorry for double dipping with danganronpa it was just the first fandom i actually started like. on purpose noting fandom happenings with + a lot of shit happens in that fandom. this one cosplayer who at the time was called snowthesaltqueen / badguyincorporated started selling pre-made (and styled) junko enoshima cosplay wigs for $300. which WOULD be fair (i think? idk how cosplay commissions work) if said wig was styled well or quality at all, but what was ACTUALLY provided was a rly basic wig base and few clips with no note or no nothing, and rly flat. like on purpose. like that was "the styling". also you may recognise this cosplayer for 1) getting in trouble when they did a cosplay photoshoot (danganronpa cosplay funnily enough) in a graveyard, posing ON a gravestone. 2) KILLING SOMEONE. they were screwing around with a firearm and fake pointing it at someone and then they accidentally shot them.

i could do this forever like actually. i have SO many internet stories in my brain its actually bad.

[keeps-ache]

1) i'm bad at games 2) i'm scared of people

[batsplat]

thoughts on challengers ? 👀

haha okay sure. I was overthinking this when I first saw this ask but since then I've sent half an hour worth of voice notes to my number one person I send half hour's worth of voice notes to (listen she keeps encouraging me to) and I've ironed some of my thoughts out. also I should probably watch it again. some of this might be me misremembering shit. also it's not that serious. quick warning, this ended up being just. too long. it's basically just a long rant. under the cut it goes

so first of all, I really enjoyed watching this film. I liked the central premise a lot, I liked the chemistry between the characters, tashi was very hot, the score was fantastic, the cinematography was at least interesting, and a lot of the non-tennis bits are interesting

having gotten that out of the way. there's an interview where guadagnino says he doesn't watch tennis matches because he finds them boring, which to be clear is completely fair enough - but I do think it does slightly come across in how the tennis is filmed. there's definitely fun, neat stuff in there: the shot where it follows around the ball, the shot from underneath the court, all of that stuff. and I think there's obviously a lot of challenges with filming tennis when you have to make sure you can't, like, see the actors actually play tennis, and I don't know anything about film-making so I don't want to judge it too harshly. but there are a few established angles from which tennis looks good, and this film doesn't really use them all that much. it was interesting to what extent they went for side shots (basically from the tashi pov in the final match) rather than... well, picking a side, and at different points of that match actually giving the viewer a clearer sense of the visceral nature of what they're doing here. like, if you're going court level from behind the player, that's how you capture the weight of the shot on screen. which felt was a little bit... missing

okay... ffs this next section ended up kind of being tennis tactics 101, and then the other bit ended up being about how matches work. my basic point here is that I think this film did some interesting stuff with the tennis but, and this is part of my more longstanding frustrations about the untapped narrative potential of sports, I think you could've done a lot more and communicated a lot more through the actual tennis. not just for annoying people who want to go 'oh look that's an extreme western grip and explains why her forehand has so much spin but can also be fragile when absorbing pressure!!' but for the general viewing audience. I want to be very clear here: I do not really care about realism except when I'm being annoying in voice notes, I care about storytelling. if you understandably do not give a shit about all this tactics and match construction stuff, skip to the bit marked 3 for more of my thoughts related to the actual film

1

now you might go 'okay but this film isn't about capturing tennis and doing it justice - it's not even about tennis'. yeah, but tennis is the central metaphor! tennis is a relationship, right, but it's also a conversation. it's a way of communicating something to the audience, yes, in a way non-tennis fans can also pick up on. and a lot of the tennis looked pretty same-y. the points were very similar - the intensity was ramped up mainly by the characters just... whacking the ball harder, running side by side, and then sometimes they both move forwards. this isn't a realism issue, it's a storytelling issue. you can tell a story with a tennis point, you can construct these points in different ways to tell you different things

just to give you an example (I promise this is relevant): okay, the most common rally pattern in tennis is hitting cross court. so either you hit on the deuce court (from your pov, this is from the right side of your court to the left side of the other player's court, aka the forehand side for right handed players) or the ad court (the opposite, and thus the backhand side for right handed players). this is for a bunch of tactical reasons. the net is at its lowest in the middle so, y'know, you're less likely to hit it. perhaps most importantly, it's a question of angles and... okay look I don't want to bore the two people reading this with the details but just to very quickly explain, here:

say player a is hitting the ball along the red line to player b, the orange zone depicts the theoretical area in which the ball trajectory of player b's answering shot can go. like, if you want to get the other player to move 'out of the court', you can only do so by going back cross court... which is obviously where, in a cross court exchange, the other player is already standing. this is why a lot of the times, players don't 'recover' after their shots to the exact centre of the court, but instead make a judgement of where the centre is of the theoretical zone the opponent can hit. to put it in plain english: I hit a forehand cross, I don't move back to the exact middle of the court because I know where you can hit the ball back and I need to be in the middle of that - which skews to the right of centre. also, I just know it's more likely you're going to go cross again, because that's just how this works

you want to move the other player around, right, first of all to get the ball past them - but also to make it harder for them to attack you. you're trying to construct a point so that eventually they are the one who can't reach the ball/makes an error, not you. a lot of the times, continuing to go cross court is the smart option. it's less risky than going down the line, and also if your down the line shot isn't perfect, where it isn't a winner or at least a shot they'll struggle to attack, then you're setting up a situation where they have all the angle in the world to work with, where the centre of their theoretical hitting zone is nowhere near where you're actually standing and they can easily whack the ball past you

now, why the fuck does this matter when we're talking about the tennis threesome film? obviously, I don't expect the director to interrupt the film to explain angles to the audience. in tennis terms, 'go cross court' is tactics for babies, but it's still not something most viewers will be instinctively familiar with. but think about what it actually does if players keep exchanging shots cross court because they can't risk going down the line: they're engaging in a direct contest! they are measuring one shot against the other, my forehand against your forehand, my backhand against your backhand, and they are trying to assert dominance. sometimes, you have no choice to escape that exchange even when it's risky because their raw cross court shot is better than yours. sometimes, you're trapped in that exchange. how you can extract metaphors from that should be fairly obvious, and I don't think this should be visually too tough to get across - it's a power struggle between two people contained within a simple shot pattern. it adds variation to what the viewer is being shown (and, yes, it does make the points feel more realistic), but it's also a way of gradually ramping up intensity. my shot against your shot - who wins? who is willing to risk deviating from the norm? who sets themselves up for a trap - does patrick sucker art into attacking him down the line? can he then manage to counterpunch (to use attack as defence) by making it to art's shot in time and placing his response into the open court? who blinks first etc etc

look, this is only one way you can visually use tennis to add to the story. another common tactic is (if you're a right handed player) hitting forehands from the ad court, to 'run around the backhand'. that's an expression of dominance, it's a power play - you're trying to bully your opponent with your most powerful shot (which is the forehand for 99% of players, some might have better backhands but they won't have stronger ones), and you're deliberately recovering less to the centre. you're camping out on the ad side, and going 'yeah I don't actually think your down the line shot is good enough to hurt me, I actually feel very comfortable standing right here so I can more easily move far enough to the left to continue hitting forehands'. it's a tactic that is implicitly passing judgement on the opponent, and again, I refuse to believe you can't show this in a way that the audience understands roughly what's going on. have patrick bully art with his forehand into the weaker backhand or vice versa - they can use their faces to show how comfortable they are with their respective positions. y'know, make the actors act. have one of them find the backhand down the line, fire it into the bit of the court the opponent has completely left open. your characters are using tennis to assert dominance over each other, to manipulate, to deceive each other - you can do that with the actual tennis they're playing

you can also express character through tennis. I'm not saying different play styles function as a personality quiz, but inherently the way you play is going to reflect what you feel comfortable with doing on the tennis court. is your preferred point three shots long or twenty shots long? are you looking to dominate your opponent with your big weapons, or are you looking to trick them with your variety of shots and smarts in using them? or are you looking to just grind them into submission with sheer relentless consistency?

take the drop shot: a shot that 'drops' right after it clears the net as a result of how the player has put a different kind of spin onto it. ideally, it's so close to the net the opponent can't sprint forward quickly enough to reach the ball. how effective your drop shot is depends on several things. obviously, it's how good the shot and the placement and the spin you've put on it is. it also depends on where you're standing and where your opponent is standing, which means that particularly effective dropshots usually come after big, heavy attacking shots that have forced the opponent to move back and have allowed you to move into the court. and it also depends how good your disguise is: for as long as possible, it should look like the shot you're playing is going to be a bog standard forehand or backhand - until you readjust your grip at the last moment and slash the racquet downwards (vs the upwards motion you'd make with the bog standard forehand or backhand). this is a shot that depends on the element of surprise. it's about trying to fuck with your opponent, it's about choosing your moment. it's about playing with them! and you can get pretty memorable reactions from your opponent. if you wrong foot them well enough, they'll literally stumble when they realise what's happening and never even start running. maybe they'll comically flail their arms

I feel like when the men's world number seven throws his arms up in shock every time somebody hits a short ball, you can probably convey this kind of dynamic in a film

and think about what it says if somebody's using a shot like that. again, you're trying to fuck with the other player, and you are relying on your knowledge of the opponent to figure out when they might be susceptible to it. now, obviously, this is tough to do when you're playing someone for the first time and (unlike top level professional players) don't have a vast amount of data to work with and how often xyz shot works against them in xyz situation. this is generally why early in a match, it's a good idea to just like, test some stuff out to give yourself a sense of how they'd react, if it's a good idea to use it in a pressure situation (you also do a version of this in the warm up if you're smart, just check how they react to that high ball to the backhand! all about being curious y'know). but if you know someone, if this is an established rivalry, if this is someone you've played with since you're kids... well. then it's a different ball game entirely

patrick has the psychological edge in that match-up, right, and the whole point of that final match is that it shouldn't be that close but it's that close due to the mental dynamics between the pair of them. patrick constantly wrong-footing art and frustrating him is the easiest way in the world to visually demonstrate that dynamic. you're constantly trying to guess what your opponent is going to do, you're constantly trying to anticipate, yeah? you know what I said above about how you're 'recovering' to the centre of the theoretical zone and all that? well, sometimes you don't do that - you guess where the opponent is going to go. most often, you've got to do that when you know the opponent has a relatively easy shot and they can hurt you with it, so you have to play the probabilities and hope you get it right... it's basically like a penalty kick in football. it's a quick judgement you're making on the basis of past data, of what you think your opponent is thinking, of how big a risk you want to make - of when to time it, because if you move too early they can still change the trajectory of their shot and go the other way. maybe you even feint one way before darting the other. and your opponent might shoot one way or the other... but, sometimes they'll drop shot you while you're moving in one direction as you frantically try to change course. or, which is even more humiliating, they'll go straight down the middle - since you're no longer standing there

in narrative terms, what does it tell you if a character guesses rightly or wrongly? what would it say if art or patrick had that kind of intimate knowledge of each other - I know you usually do this, but I know you know that so I'm going to go the other way - round and round in circles, a mental contest between people who are so familiar with each other that it can become actively confusing to try and preempt their moves. tennis is a relationship and it's a conversation and the way we construct a point tells us a story about the history between you and me. it tells us a story if art, the six time slam winner and more accomplished player by far, is being read so perfectly by patrick that he's tripping over himself and getting in his own way and flailing. one of the most common commentating cliches is about the ball, or indeed the player, being attached to the end of a string. the extension of that metaphor is that one player is the puppet master and the other player is a puppet. easy visual metaphor bingo

you can literally express how the characters feel about each other by... where they're standing. if you're scared of your opponent's shot, then you're going to try and give yourself more time to react. if you are on the attack, then you need to move in, to take the ball earlier, to take time away from the opponent. to me, if you're showing fictional tennis, you really should be playing with time and how you can use cinematic techniques to play with that sense of time. now, you can do this on the broader level of the match, because your subjective sense of time is dependent on how well you're doing in a match. time never moves faster than when you're losing a six love set. but it's also obviously integral to actual points, because you are usually trying to maximise your own time and minimise your opponent's, trying to make sure you will always have enough time to get to the ball and making sure they won't (obviously often u kinda have to pick one of those because of how time works)

where you stand on the court is an integral part of that, for obvious reasons related to 'basic physics'. and, again, it's also psychological. take the return position, right, aka where you're standing when the opponent is serving. most people have a built-in preference for both the first and second serve, and a kind of basic 'return strategy' of what kind of shot they'd like to use and where to move. generally, you'll stand further back for the first serve because it's more powerful... but hey, maybe you have a slightly unorthodox return strategy where you're just trying to 'block' the first serve and use the weight of the opponent's shot against them, and then you step back for the second serve and have a massive whack at them. just as an example

and, again, this is another way in which you try to fuck with your opponent. there is nothing more annoying than seeing the twat on the other side of the net move in to the court by an insulting amount because they don't respect your shitty second serve and think they can take a swing at it from in front of the baseline. some players just do this in general - prime offenders on the women's side are garcia and ostapenko (and with all love to them, they do this more than is perhaps tactically prudent)

(for the other end of the spectrum, see another place from which you can theoretically return a serve from if you're out of your fucking mind) (this particular player's return strategy has been like a top five discourse point over the last few years but we do not have time to get into all that)

but you can also vary it up in a match, and you probably should if you're being smart. so for instance (and there's a specific match in 2022 I'm thinking of here), if you know your opponent has an awful second serve and a lovely little habit of double faulting when under pressure, maybe as the returner you just... well, look, the ball from the first serve has rolled right to your feet, so obviously you need to politely pass it to the ballperson, and maybe it just takes a little bit longer so that you know the server is looking right at you when you meander in front of the baseline to wait for their second serve. and then they double fault and that's the break of serve right there. you're not always standing that close to return second serves, but you're standing there when you know it'll make them most nervous. again, I am not saying the tennis threesome film needs to explain the difference between jelena ostapenko's and daniil medvedev's return strategies, but these ARE the kinds of things you CAN organically integrate, and give you very blunt and easy to understand messages about the characters and their dynamic

and like... different people have different play styles, yeah? let them express a little character! tashi is relentless, maybe she's constantly attempting to take everything with her forehand to attack and attack, or maybe she trusts herself to attack from any place with any shot. maybe she's so lively and confident and uncompromising that she uses down the line shots more than anyone else, or maybe there's surprising subtlety there in how the intensity and rage fades away for a moment as she flutters a slice across the net. what is it about her game that so captivates the two boys, its aggression or its complexity? is her game already more complete and well-defined and self-aware than it has any right to be from a high school student? or is it raw and untamed and a little wild and so full of potential?

art has a one-handed backhand and uniqlo gear in a very obvious federer allusion, but does he share any more with federer than that? is he particularly prone to rushing the net, especially after the serve? does he want to end points quickly? does he have good hands, is he trying to wrong-foot his opponent - or is he the one constantly getting wrong-footed as the others dance around him? is he constantly trying to assert his dominance, to end points quickly, and initially you think it's a sign of his power and confidence... but then you realise that it's insecurity - he's worried what will happen if they go on too long, if he gives too many chances to other players to outsmart him, if he's uncomfortable playing defence because it makes him feel reactive and weak. maybe in the second set he has to knuckle down and accept the rallies will be long and gruelling - which is a central aspect of tennis, it's about patience and managing risk. maybe he's so tense and nervous that he's just an error machine in the first set, but then he decides to just slow the pace and live with patrick in those forehand to forehand exchanges, let his natural weight of shot do the talking for him and force patrick to change things up

and patrick, with the unorthodox technique and the sleeveless shirts and the money and how he never really grew up - what does that tell us about his tennis? is it rough and energetic, big swings at the ball, layering on more and more spin to propel it high over the net? does he throw a massive forehand at art's backhand, making him hit it at a high point that is naturally uncomfortable for the one handed backhand? wouldn't it be interesting if you had patrick have a strong point to his game that naturally matches up to art's weak point, the chink in the six time grand slam champion's armour? what about the physicality, does he lunge further and harder and throw himself into balls just that little bit more? is he stronger than art, or is he faster, or is he neither? is he driven by instinct and gets in his own way less than art does, or is he tactically more astute and gets the better of art that way?

obviously you can't do all of those things in a film and you shouldn't because it's distracting. but what I'm trying to demonstrate here is that there is a whole range of potential storytelling you can tap into here. now, nobody's actually doing this, and my thing with challengers is that in many ways it came closer to the kind of narratives I would like to see. but then it still falls short just a touch, which is where the frustration comes in

a rivalry has got a history that is woken up again every time you step on court to face your old foe - you remember how they play, you already know what you want to do to beat them this time. you are trying to unsettle them. you know how they want to play and you want to deny them that opportunity. inevitably, any defined play style tells us something about the player and their personality and their approach to the game. the film is quite scarce on details about its lead characters and using the tennis more deftly would've been a great way to give us a stronger sense of who they are in a very economical, concise way. what does it mean for tashi's game that she can no longer run? yes, obviously it means she can't compete any longer, but the injury does different things symbolically depending on how big a part movement was of her game. often, tennis injuries directly affect your strengths. take a player who puts a lot of heavy spin on the ball by snapping their wrist - they are putting more strain on said wrist and may end up injuring it (a particularly terrible part of the body to injure for a tennis player). there's something extra cruel about that because it also affects how they'll recover, if they'll ever be able to trust that body part again. these are career-threatening injuries not just for physical but for psychological reasons. same thing if you're a great server with a shoulder injury... or if you're a great mover with a leg injury

also, and okay this probably did come across as nitpicking and it's not really an issue if it worked for people who aren't familiar with tennis... but omg the last point was so confusing. did check and this wasn't just a me problem, though I'd be curious if it worked for people less familiar with the game. when they came closer and closer to the net and hit back and forth, I thought what was happening was that they'd like, given up competing and were just hitting back and forth as a symbol of defiance or something. that they'd basically decided to stop playing the match and just play with each other. because like, you just can't do that in a match, the point would immediately be over especially if they're just standing there - they're too close! you'd immediately get the ball past! so I only realised when the film was over that it was supposed to be a really intense point... but I think that's the kind of thing where most people watching will probably be fine with it, so again. y'know. whatever. I do think you could have staged that point a little more cleverly to get to the same conclusion in a more natural way, but also. whatever. it's fine

(obviously there are also some other broader suspension of disbelief issues that I'm far less bothered about. the technique was like, not great, but also probably about as good as you'll get from actors, though again I would've liked a little more thought put into what they're doing beyond 'art's got a one handed backhand and patrick's got a quirky serve!' I thought the patrick serve thing was really neat and fun and theoretically you could hit a serve like that, though quite frankly in the men's game you'd probably be fucked because you need more racquet acceleration than that - but that does fit in with his character and the stubbornness and all that so it's fine. the art serve quirk... well, most players deliberately construct serving rituals like bouncing the ball several times or ball placement or whatever because it's the one shot in tennis that's completely 'on your own racquet' but is also really tough, so you're trying to trick your brain into always doing the same thing. I find it a little tough to believe art wouldn't have been aware of what he was doing, but again, not a massive issue. beyond my concerns about the lack of variation in the points they were showing, it did also trip me up whenever they were obviously stranded in no-man's land - you need to be either on/behind the baseline or right at the net and there's certain areas of the court where if you spend too long in them you are very much fucked. the whole concept of 'recovering' after a shot is like, as important part of tennis movement as getting there in the first place, and there's whole footwork patterns you use while you're hitting the shot and immediately afterwards to get yourself in position again. at times they'd just be standing in place in the fuck end of where on earth are you standing until the next shot comes and. listen. it really Does Not Matter beyond how it's fun to be annoying about this stuff but it did make me a bit twitchy)

2

so. match constructions and narrative arcs. I think if a literal match of tennis is the framing device of your film, you should think about the natural narrative tension that exists within a literal match of tennis. again, a match is a conversation, it has its ebbs and flows and peaks and troughs and all that other stuff. you are more tense at *4-5 30:30 than you are at 1-1* 15:0. you are feeling better about your life choices at 6-4 *5-3 than you are at 7-6(8) 0-6 *1-3. you change over the course of a match, as you test yourself physically and mentally and acquire a situationally specific data bank about yourself and the other player, as you notice and learn certain things about what's going on in your own game and your opponent's game. maybe you have a moment where you go 'yup the backhand's a catastrophe today, time to slice everything and hope for the best' or you go 'lol that's the third consecutive djokosmash they've hit, maybe I'll throw the ball high up again next time they get to the net'

also obviously all these things vary over the course of a match - and they do so more than they have any right to! there's no logical reason why 6-1 1-6 6-1 scorelines should happen, but they do! because game breaks and changeovers and set breaks and all of it can represent massive shifts in momentum. you play a *5-0 game differently than a *0-1 game, and suddenly those beautiful forehands you were ripping for half an hour are all flying out of the stadium and, shit, time to change tactics to defend more except now you're really screwed because you're playing your opponent's game. the most important thing to remember about tennis is that it fucking sucks. matches are psychological torture. I want to feel that part when watching the tennis threesome film

the basic mechanism of narrative tension in a match is the serve vs return dynamic. if you serve, you need to protect your serve, because those are the games you are supposed to be winning. if you return, you need to attack the opponent's serve, because those games represent opportunity. you want your service games to be short and fast and you want your return games to be long and tough and miserable for your opponent. and after every game, it ticks back again - you are literally passing the ball to the other side of the court. your turn, have fun!

there are a million different ways you can construct tension on a micro level within a match. you have breakpoints/matchpoints, obviously, which to some extent the film did feature. you have games that just get stuck on deuce, with neither player able to win the requisite two points in a row to release them, so it's like... basically groundhog day in sports as you keep trotting from one side of the court to the other, both players frustrated, one unable to escape the danger and the other unable to seize the opportunity. battle of the wills. games can completely realistically last more than twenty points. obviously you've got tiebreaks, which again the film did feature (though icl I had no clue what the score was supposed to be, again it doesn't matter but). you have the old cliche of 'it's not a break of serve unless you've backed it up' (aka by holding your own serve) and how common it is to be broken straight back for various nasty psychological reasons

I wish they'd played with this a little more, just showed a little more of why the players were reacting emotionally in the way that they were at certain stages of the match - rather than just basically reacting to the flashback we've just seen. like, there's plenty of reasons why a player might get particularly angry at a certain point of a match in a way that just feels a bit more organic. if tennis is the medium through which to explore this three-way relationship, then showcase that push and pull factor, those changes in momentum. the film suggests patrick has always had the upper hand - I'd make more clear this is the classic 'pigeon' dynamic where basically the head to head between two players is more skewed than it has any right to be given how 'good' those two respective players actually are. usually that means there's something funky going on with the play styles or it's something mental or it's an interaction between the two. patrick really cares about art, right, and then he's always able to beat him because he gets him and knows how to mess with him. art has the more raw ability(?) but it takes a bit longer for him to actually realise how good he is, in part because he always lost to patrick

the way they should've done this imo have a place where art does actually choke a sizeable lead, a kind of unexpected switch of momentum. like have this be the first set where art comes in hot and is y'know the obviously better player and all that, but then patrick just increasingly manages to unsettle him. make it a proper bad one, say *5-2 to 5-7. throw in a long deuce game. and then art is confronted with all his old demons again, his inadequacy, all that stuff. and then you've got the momentum switch after the set break when art manages to pull himself together. the thing is, they do actually show a fair bit of the match, but it's not always that interesting because it lacks a little bit of specificity, a little bit of detail... just make a few adjustments that accentuate the central dynamic. you don't have to go with this exactly but go with SOMETHING, 6-2 2-6 is such a nothingburger score lol like what does that tell us... 7-5 1-6 is what it's all about

(dumb nitpick corner: unlikely a time violation would get called between first and second serves, and if you do so then you'd better hand out a time violation if the receiver starts faffing about between points right after, rather than quietly talking to them off-mic. but hey, the establishment is corrupt, they obviously wanted art to win. also, there's a mistake on the scoreboard at the *5-6 game where they accidentally make it look like art is serving for the match at that stage, which would completely change the dynamic of that game and the previous game and the implications if art had let it go to a tiebreak - aka he would have choked. just slightly confused me when the umpire called out 'thirty love' after patrick won the point lol)

3

so maybe this all does come across like I hate the film, which I really did not. I enjoyed it a lot, and honestly it's not like there's much to choose from in terms of 'sports media that seriously engages with the narrative potential of the actual sport'. there were plenty of storytelling details I really vibed with, especially the dynamic between the central three characters and the push and pull between them and how they work as a trio. all three sides of the triangle were good fun. the way the two blokes were so in sync at times, that kind of easy intimacy and familiarity - again, I think you could have expressed that more through actual tennis but that did absolutely work for me

the actual 'playing a challenger before uso' thing was also fun, though I was wondering what his ranking was like because it must have still been kinda in the pits. like, you can't show up to a challenger as a top ten player. not that it actually matters matters but just. whatever. I do think the premise is neat

(though, that challenger audience was not keyed in enough! like omg if you're showing up to some random challenger to watch a top player on the injury comeback try to rack up some wins and the final is against the guy he played doubles with to win a junior slam, everyone watching would be SO aware of it. those spectators aren't just randomly being drawn into the drama, they know what's up!! you just know the challengers tv stream is racking up crazy figures. idk this is obviously more of a subtle thing, but I feel like it was supposed to give off the vibe of the non-tashi viewers being surprised by why they were being such weirdos all of a sudden but nah they would be ON IT with their patrick zweig backstory. including the fact he used to date tashi lol, like yeah they'd Get It)

I loved a lot of tashi's characterisation, how fucking obsessed she was with tennis and how everything was About Tennis for her... like yeah very real!! of course it eats her up!! I had a bit of a debate about this but I personally really liked the college tennis thing because it felt like a complete curve ball given her characterisation. it's good though, this idea that she wants to fool herself into believing she's more than hitting a ball but she's actually not... because of course she isn't.... none of these people are.... I like that element of self-delusion, even though it still... hm, I'm not entirely sure the film COMPLETELY sold me on that level of self-delusion because it was so obvious she didn't care about anything except for tennis... like it never quite felt entirely clear what she thought she was getting from that experience. but yeah, the central premise of it all... like the fact she just can't say goodbye to that world, that she can't really escape it, that she has to pursue something related to it to feel alive, even by proxy, the suspicion that all she needs art for is to have that kind of second hand thrill... really good!!

I was talking about this with the unfortunate recipient of my voice notes, and she's more familiar than I am with american college tennis than I am for the fairly obvious reason that only one of us has attended an american college. she said she'd discussed this with some of her friends and that that kind of injury did feel a touch unrealistic in the context of college tennis, partly because you're less likely to be playing with the kind of schedule that professional tennis requires of you. now, this doesn't really bother me, but I almost wish they'd leaned into the tragedy of it more - that it was unlikely and she didn't even get it while playing professional tennis! she was engaging in this grand act of self-delusion that there was more to her than tennis, which, let's face it, just really isn't a thing when you're a very good junior player, and she got injured before she ever even got close to 'making it'. it's tragic because it should never have happened. whatever injury art picked up (can't remember if they mentioned) would be statistically more likely to actually fuck you over, given their respective ages and time on tour and all that. you don't typically randomly get career ending injuries when you're running for a ball, not if you've trained properly - both in the sense that you're moving 'correctly' on the court and you've developed the muscles to protect yourself (which admittedly she was looking a touch light on). perfectly fine as a narrative choice, lean into it more

the churro college conversation between patrick and art was good, but that's another thing I would've integrated more into the tennis. like, the thing about him actually going for what he wanted and all that? you can do that through tennis! I also kinda wanted more of a sense of what tashi brought to the coaching dynamic, just something very simple and straightforward even the non-tennis viewing audience can understand. again, you've got this fairly obvious federer expy set up going on with art, and the glimpses we got of his game ... I mean mainly the one handed backhand, it does lean towards him being a player that's naturally oriented towards aggression. I would've maybe gone for the whole.... y'know. him not really being able to embrace that, him always holding himself back a little bit, not willing to fully give himself over and throw himself into the game. that tashi kinda has to get him to go for it, to go after the ball, to step into the court and use that technically excellent flat forehand stroke and trust himself to find those angles and rush the net and play the game, rather than letting the game play him. linking that into his loss of motivation post injury, where he feels like he's achieved what he wants to, where maybe he kinda retreats into himself. which is partly a motivation issue but also about trusting yourself post injury... not really being able to go after it in the same way any more, struggling to commit to that kind of aggressive mindset when your heart just isn't it any more. or something! just a thought!!

that's the thing right - sure, tennis might be a relationship, but the tennis will always be a character in its own right in whatever twisted threesome thing they've got going on. at the end of the day, the real toxic relationship is with the tennis! it's sad tashi can't leave it behind, it's tragic she's organising her whole life around something that'll always be lost to her. but it won't ever let her go, even though it hurt her, even though it caused her physical pain as well as emotional. it's the truest love in the whole film, tashi and the game itself, and all other love is subservient to that. it's also the most interesting relationship that needed to be... well, a little more foregrounded. she's always chasing that high, that moment of perfect communication and understanding and all that - and it's an entire lifetime of work, chasing the briefest of moments and now even that is gone. something she won't ever be able to recapture. she can't live her dream and she can't move on, so she is forever trapped, in stasis, frustrated and tormented by desires she can't act upon, the worst kind of repression imaginable. and it's not just about playing tennis in general - it's about playing matches. the height of competition, the moment in the point and in the match in which losing or winning feels like an equal possibility, where anything could happen but only one player will eventually emerge victorious... she's chasing the high of uncertainty, of suspense - the equivalent to showing up to the bedroom of two blokes and knowing anything could happen, not knowing yet what choice she will make, who will win, who will lose. if you really want to get abstract about this, she's essentially functioning as, y'know, the tennis gods with these two boys, where she is the one to make the choice of who wins and who loses. she is the one creating the uncertainty, the suspense. and she's doing it all for the love of the game, because that's all she ever truly loved

or that's what I think they should've gone for idk. I also have a few kinda dumb thoughts like 'ugh I needed more of a sense of what patrick's career looked like, are we talking never made it to the main draw of a 250 or slam quarterfinalist because both are plausible'. but anyway I think narratives in sports are neat and I wish more people did stuff like challengers did, even if I think I was just looking for something a little different from what that film was doing. you do kinda need somebody who's really into sports to do some of this stuff I feel, but. well. sports rivalries really is a bit of a tragically under-explored storytelling set up. they're good narratives. somebody write them

[electoons]

fuck it. ulothir moodboard

[hikasetas]

[image description: digital art of shadow the hedgehog. he has one hand on his hip and the other down by his side, side glancing at the viewer with a serious expression. his eyes are slightly lidded. shadow is dressed in the clothes of roland from digital devil saga, with roland's atma mark on his left hand. end i.d.]

incredibly niche crossovers that appeal to me and me alone

[todayisafridaynight]

any hopes for kiwami 3? like things u wanna see added or changed stuff like that

if they dont keep kiryu's goofy walk stance and the hoof-like walk sounds i dont wanna play it

[ziracona]

Thinking for the rest of my life how S1 of TWDG begins with Lee in cuffs, life over, because of a man he just killed, who took a girl he loved, and ends with Lee in cuffs, life over, because of a man he just killed, who took a girl he loves, but literally everything about that string of statements has so utterly changed meaning, the end could not be farther from the start. The bookend of finishing right where you started, and nowhere near it.

Both the first and last line in the game are spoken to Lee, about Lee, and reflect regret towards the end of his life, but even the flavor of regret could not be more distant. “I reckon you didn’t do it,” and “(I’ll miss you) - Me too,” do not even share a sadness. The first legacy, remarked on throughout season 1, would have been ‘murderer.’ The real one is so far the opposite, his ghost carries every person who survives for the rest of the series. I hear it described as about redemption, but the focus is never once in the game about Lee making up for something. You never even really know what he did or if it was merited. The game is a second life, and culminates in a stranger accusing Lee of having no right to live or have someone who loves him for every single thing he’s done wrong since the game began, no matter how unfair the accusation, and about that being bullshit. About it being enough, what he did for Clementine, for everyone, for himself. It’s about salvation, maybe. Of the self, by the self, from ruin, through meaning in love and caring for other people, no matter their endings or yours. Ben always dies, but it mattered. Omid always dies, but it mattered. Duck, Carly, Katya, Mark, Doug, always die, but it mattered. And Clementine always lives, and that does too. Lee always dies. It just takes the course of a season. But he’s not lost anymore when he does.

[skyburger]

"fnaf is the scariest game ever" "no its silent hill" "well i think its resident evil" everyone shut up!!!!!! youre all wrong. its actually zack & wiki quest for barbaros' treasure (on the nintendo wii) but only the level "keeper of the ice". that level scared me so bad as a kid and you can tell because its the only individual level i remember the name of off the top of my head. like there is nothing scarier than a) being chased and b) being on a time limit. and you know what this level has? BOTH OF THOSE. this level is still scary to me im like AHHHHH!!!! and then i die

[apricote]

thinking thouts about sirius and halsin as i fall asleep 🐻🩷

[sapphire-weapon]

crawls back in after finishing the ffxvi demo

curls up into a ball on the floor

sobs

[profic-mafuyu]

how about 🧸 for hua and mafuyu? 👀

"what's your favourite memory of us?"

(some s/i lore stuff and probably spoilers for hua's backstory below but oh well)

hua

I have a lot of memories of her from the previous era, but most of those are lost in time by now. I'd say my favourite would be either be her remembering me, or us getting reunited after... uhh some 'shots' were fired haha. I was worried that I'd lose her again, so seeing that she was okay made me feel a lot better.

Though, I never really minded her amnesia from the divine key, since a lot of her past is painful for her. but... to say i was relieved would be an understatement.

anyways serious stuff aside I like seeing Hua get frustrated at her gacha luck, it's cute! I try to wish her luck but... it doesn't end up working-

mafuyu

Might sound strange but, hearing her speak with her genuine voice in empty sekai. I mean, it was our breakdown era and all, but, I think hearing Mafuyu talk with her normal voice made me realise how much i prefer 'Mafuyu'. Not just her being an honour student, but seeing a bit of her true self. We both still have a long way to go, but I'm glad she doesn’t have to talk like that around Niigo.

Also!! feeding Mafuyu apple slices!! I honestly wasn’t sure why she wanted me to feed them to her but,,, it's cute so i just go with it <3

[icharchivist]

on another irony i went back to look for Road’s song out of nostalgia while at it and the only thing youtube knew to do was shove STEP from a3 in my way, for NO reason, but only to have me stare, confused, almost yelling, about why out of all the a3 songs to shove my way it had to be the one with Kanda’s second seiyuu while i was specifically talking about the dgm seiyuu coincidences that had been following me.