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robbie-wallis · 1 month

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I need to vent about Watcher, endure it if you can

Relax, this isn't a parasocial thing, but it is a long ass post, which suits me as a long ass human.

I need an outlet to discuss the terrible business decision Watcher has made by announcing their plan to leave YouTube, and this long-forgotten Tumblr account reached from its grave to grab at my ankle.

If you didn't see their video, good for you. It's extremely cringe-worthy in its sentimentality and editing, with blurry shots, pensive pauses and obligatory sad piano.

But at least there's no f'ing Ukulele.

Although, I think we might get the Ukulele in a few months.

Even though anyone who reads this is probably familiar with what the "Ghoul Boys" have done, I feel as though I need to add a little history.

WATCHER HISTORY

You can skip this part if you've been obsessively following the shenanigans, this is for the noobs who were never a "shaniac" or a "boogara".

Shane Madej and Ryan Bergara used to work at Buzzfeed. They hosted the successful Buzzfeed Unsolved shows. In 2019 they followed in the footsteps of the Try Guys and Safia Nygaaard and left Buzzfeed to create their own YouTube channel named "Watcher".

They brought along Steven Lim, another Buzzfeed person who is most known for the "Worth It" series. This series followed Lim and his friend/s spending obscene amounts of money on obscenely overpriced and indulgent products.

Think of it as being similar to the $100 V's $10,000 Sidemen content, only without the self-awareness and British "bad lads" humor.

Notably, even the Sidemen seem to have cut back on those adventures, perhaps understanding how bad it looks when so many people are struggling to pay their essential bills.

Steven became the CEO of Watcher while Shane and Ryan continued to create and present for the new channel.

They were wildly successful by YouTube standards. At the time of their self-spanking on Friday they were close to achieving 3 million subscribers, in just 4 years, based on basically only 2 cornerstone shows. If Social Blade is still a reasonably trusted source in everything but estimating income, they were gaining thousands of new subscribers every week.

Their most successful shows were Ghost Files, Puppet History, Too Many Spirits and Mystery Files.

Ghost Files is the only one of these shows which requires heavy investment, travel, a large crew and impressive production costs. These videos are shot on-location and require a lot of work. The rest are basically Good Mythical Morning style, just the two hosts and their banter.

Aside from Ghost Files, their content could be created with 3 cameras, 2 lapel mics and a good editor.

They were massively successful, solely because of Ryan and Shane.

THE DEMISE

So, what did they do on Friday 19th April? They decided to announce the launch of their own subscription platform.

Not a Patreon for extra content, behind-the-scenes, audience interaction etc, (they already had a Patreon with 6,000 paying subscribers earning them at least $50k a month), but a bespoke streaming platform which looks like a clone of Netflix.

The cost is $5.99 a month, or $60 a year.

Comparable to Netflix.

And by that I mean the price is comparable to Netflix while the content is comparable to a 4 year old YouTube channel.

Don't get me wrong, their production quality is incredible. The quantity, however, is not.

From the end of May viewers will have to pay to be a subscriber on their own platform in order to watch their shows.

They'll still be posting their trailers on YouTube, and the first episodes of new shows, but to watch it all you'll have to pay up or miss out.

Edited to add: Variety originally reported the Watcher crew were planning to remove all their existing content from YouTube to monetize it on their own platform. It's since been confirmed they will not be removing their old content. Fans are undecided whether this was a back-track after the announcement or a misunderstanding by Variety. You be the judge.

Of course, they're entitled to do this. They are creating a product and you can either enjoy it or not. No one is entitled to see it, for free, whenever they like.

Why did they do this?

Half of the sombre video gushes about their "humble beginnings" as "struggling young guys in a big harsh world", which comes across as extremely self-indulgent and ego-stroking.

A quarter of it explains how insanely successful they've been on YouTube and how this is all thanks to the fans who stuck with them after Buzzfeed, how it's allowed them to hire 25 people, how it's given them the freedom to create what they enjoy making and what the viewers want to see, and - most importantly - how it's allowed them to increase production quality on Ghost Files.

The final quarter of the video explains that this isn't good enough, the quality isn't high enough, the finish not glossy enough, it's not "TV caliber" enough! They want more, they need more, you have to give them more, mostly (apparently) because their CEO Steven Lim wants to bring back his show where he flies around the world with his bestie sipping Champagne and eating gold-leaf-covered lobster.

In short, they want more money to make even bigger things, even though their audience never asked for that.

WHY IT WILL NOT WORK

Oh my goodness, this is going to be a ride so strap in.

I'm not a YouTube creator so there are a lot of things I do not know. Having said that, I know a little about business.

This ain't Buzzfeed, y'all

Watcher became successful because of Ryan and Shane. It was their friendship, their personalities, and the content we loved to watch featuring them at Buzzfeed, that brought us along for the ride.

The audience they poached from Buzzfeed is there for them and Ghost Files. It's not there for Steven Lim and "Worth It". His show worked under the Buzzfeed umbrella only because they had numerous sub-categories in that community to support it.

The Try Guys left and created their own channel from their Buzzfeed fans.

Safia Nygaard left and created her own channel from her Buzzfeed fans.

Shane and Ryan left and created Watcher from their Buzzfeed fans.

Steven Lim left and became the CEO of Watcher. He didn't take his audience with him.

The audience of Watcher is not the audience of "watch me fly around the word with my pal and spend $100K on hand-reared, Whiskey marinaded, diamond-encrusted Kobe steak".

And... IN THIS ECONOMY?

Steven chose to become a CEO instead of a presenter. He's missed the opportunity to take that Buzzfeed audience with him.

This is made clear by the Watcher channel itself. Their "man eats food" content rarely breaks 500K views while their Ghost Files breaks 2 million consistently.

If a million of their viewers followed them from Buzzfeed to Watcher, the other 2 million have joined them since, based almost entirely on their spoopy content.

Not only did they base their channel on this genre and format, they have distilled their audience further ever since the creation of their channel and no matter how hard they try to diversify into "man eats food" it's just not working.

This ain't Netflix, y'all

As mentioned, the $5.99 charge is comparable to Netflix and just about every other streaming platform. Only Watcher can't give you even 5% of what a competing platform can offer for that price.

Other platforms also tailor their content and their pricing based on geographical location and localized economics.

You're paying far less than $5.99 a month if you live in an economy where the median household income is $300 a month. YouTube has a global audience. Their subscribers don't all live in a stable economy where $5.99 is considered disposable income.

We don't know the numbers, but I would guess only 60% of their subscribers are based in the USA, Canada, and the UK.

Even for those who do live in a stable economy, their audience is predominantly young adults and students. Most young adults are currently facing the reality that they will possibly never own their own home, they're living day-to-day trying to budget.

They've instantly priced-out a large % of their audience.

I confidently predict that diehard fans who can't see anything wrong with this will sign up for $5.99 a month, binge watch for a couple of weeks, realize there's no new spoopy content and cancel.

They'll come back when a full season of Ghost Files has arrived, pay again, binge it and leave.

Steven Lim thinks they're gonna get $5.99 a month, every month, from thousands of subscribers. In reality they're going to get maybe $12 a year, from people signing up to binge watch what they want, then leaving.

This will then decline naturally as attention wanes during the months where there is no spoopy.

This ain't good marketing, y'all

They're going to be posting "trailers and season pilots" on YouTube.

Sure, I bet YouTube is gonna be totes okay with a channel doing nothing but trying to hijack traffic for an external site.

Posting nothing but trailers and season premiers will mean maybe one full video per month during busy seasons. That's not enough to remain relevant for the algorithm.

If 80% of those posts are also just trailers saying "leave YouTube and come here", the channel will be smacked down quicker than a crypto scam using an AI generated Elongated Muskrat.

Their channel was growing steadily, but that was with full content regularly posted. When the schedule drops off, and when most of it is considered spammy by YouTube, it's going to collapse like a flan in a cupboard.

A streaming platform needs a constant flow of new subscribers just to replace the gradual drop-off (maybe ask Rooster Teeth about that). When your global audience at YouTube is gone, where are those new subscribers coming from?

The platform is also an additional overhead. It's going to cost thousands a month to keep the servers going.

This ain't good financial management, y'all

I don't know if they've already spent hundreds of thousands of $s on Lim's "men eat food" gamble, but I suspect they have.

I know they have spent hundreds of thousands of $s on a new season of Ghost Files, flying to the UK to host live events while filming those episodes.

This means they've over-extended their finances just at the moment where they've cratered their opportunities to see a return on investment.

Just that, on its own, is enough to destroy a production company.

They do not need 25 employees any more than I need an editor and proof-reader for this long ass post.

They do not need a production studio in Hollywood any more than I needed an office to write this.

They do not need to spend tens of thousands of $s on glossy graphics that appear on screen for maybe 4 seconds in one episode any more than I needed to add screengrabs to this painfully long essay.

By leaving YouTube they've lost:

Adsense revenue (which might not be much on a per-video basis but adds up with a back catalogue over years of productions)

Sponsorship deals, which allegedly contributes almost 50% of their annual revenue.

Merch sales, which is about to crash if the only people they can promote merch to are already paying per month in their smaller ecosystem.

Patreon. Why would someone pay $5.99 twice, for the same or less content?

And they've abandoned all of this for maybe a few thousand people who will probably end up paying just $12 a year when a new spoopy season arrives for them to binge.

I'm no Will Hunting, but no matter how hard I try to make the numbers work they just don't, and I don't need Robin Williams to tell me it's not my fault.

This ain't nice, y'all

Some of you are feeling like Ned's wife right now, and some of you will have no idea what that's in reference to.

Most of you will hate that I made that reference more than you hated the SNL skit.

I get it.

Maybe the worst part about all of his, from a viewer's perspective, is the dismissive nature of their sign-off.

They didn't mention the Patreon members once, not one single time in the whole video. It's like they consider the Patreon "too YouTube". They're the deformed cousin locked in the attic. They're the relative who wasn't invited to the wedding because they can't afford a Tom Ford suit. They're the colleague who isn't invited to the staff night out because they only work in accounting and no one has anything in common with Janice anyway.

These are diehard fans who were actually paying them extra to support them and enjoy a little bonus behind the scenes, and the boys didn't even consider them worthy of an utterance.

They also finished with "If you don't follow us and pay up it's been real, peace out". I'm paraphrasing, but that's basically what it was.

They spent so much of the video saying how awesome and great it was that the fans and YouTube got them to this point, but they didn't thank their Patreon members, and they ended with a blunt suggestion that if you don't follow them and pay more then you're not a real fan anyway and they don't really need you.

"Thanks for getting us here, sucks to be you, bye now!"

You made them wealthy, you helped them hire 25 people, you helped them increase production value to "TV caliber" even though you didn't ask for that, but your job is done and now you're superfluous. Only the real fans are wanted.

In the words of the great George Carlin - "It's a big club, and you ain't in it".

They're okay losing the vast majority of the people who got them here if a few thousand of those are comfortable enough to be able to pay $60 a year for a YouTube channel.

Can it get worse? Sure!

We've had a weekend to enjoy the constant heat of this bonfire and it's predictably worsened with each hour of silence from the company and its employees.

The fact that they haven't back-tracked, despite almost unanimous agreement that this is badder than the baddest thing that could happen to their company, suggests they're okay with it.

Consensus seems to be that they knew it would be this bad, and they're cool. They predicted 90% of people would scream "Boo to you good sirs! Boo indeed!" and they could still survive on the 10% who don't see a problem here.

The lack of response reinforces the narrative that they're totally fine with discarding almost their entire audience if they can just squeeze the cash they need out of whoever is left.

This ain't fixable, y'all (maybe)

Note: I don't want this to be mean, but it's going to sound a little bitchy no matter how I try to say it.

If they'd brought out the Ukulele on Saturday, or even teased Ukulele's on their socials before putting out a video on Sunday, they probably could have survived this with much hand-wringing and a little groveling.

But now I think they've grilled this Kobe steak for far too long.

They've lost 100K subscribers, and counting. The venom among Patreon members is allegedly worse than the public comments section under the video, which is startling. Dozens of YouTubers are torching them harder than a $100 crème brûlée.

People are scraping their channel content in case it's nuked.

Shane "eat the rich" Madej's sentiments over the last few years look disingenuous, to say the least. To shamelessly steal someone else's comment: "Imagine being all 'eat the rich' right before throwing yourself on the plate". He's silent while his McMansion burns down, at his own hands. "Why not!?" indeed.

Steven "I drive a Tesla" Lim's socials now make him look like a tech-bro try-hard and his use of words like "early adopter" and "soft launch" in the video only compound the belief that this was all his brainchild. He is the CEO, and that comes with responsibility and the associated blame. You can't steer the ship into the Bermuda Triangle and then disappear without looking like the bad guy.

Okay, you can disappear, but that convoluted metaphor is a mystery for someone else to solve.

Ryan "TV caliber" Bergara now sounds like an elitist who thinks YouTube is "too pedestrian" for his big plans, not big enough to meet his artistic vision. You see, he's more James Cameron, while YouTube is more like your student film club. He's grown beyond this pesky platform with billions of daily hits offering exponential growth with almost zero financial risk.

Even if they released a video today admitting they messed up big time it's still going to be hard to get the taste of this Ghost Pepper Warhead out of the collective mouth of their viewers.

This hasn't just burned their shared brand, it's singed their individual reputations among an audience upon which their careers rely.

What they should have done, on Saturday, is release a video (Ukulele or no) confessing their error. They should have announced their new platform will instead just be a bigger and better Patreon, with early access to everything, behind-the-scenes content, extra features, audience interaction etc.

They should have reversed to make clear their YouTube channel will stay the priority, their main source of revenue, but that you could get more on their own platform if you want it.

And, maybe, over time, people will pay for that. If they grow their channel to 6 million subscribers in the next 4 years there will be a couple hundred thousand of them willing and able to pay $5.99 a month for 8 years of shows, 8 years of behind the scenes content, 8 years of community involvement and regular early access to new episodes.

Maybe then they could try out their "privileged guys eat expensive food in expensive places" show and see how it does? Maybe a majority of people won't be living on the cusp of poverty by then and it won't look as tone-deaf as a 13 year old YouTuber trying to cover Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah"? Maybe then they could hire another 50 people and make Bergara's "TV caliber" (I still don't know exactly what that means) game shows and reboots?

The clock has been ticking since they hit that "publish" button on their career ending video, but that clock is about to count down to zero and silence will permeate throughout their previously lively community.

That 1980s basement set needed someone crying in the corner, right?

The problem is, their own platform is not a terrible idea. Really, it's not the worst thing they could do. The badness came in the timing, the switch, the middle finger and the f you. They could have released this as an extra, their own Patreon alternative, waited, developed it over time into something sustainable and established.

They could still try to do that and hope this dark chapter is forgotten.

Maybe I'm wrong? Maybe Lim is a financial genius with more skill than the management of Rooster Teeth and their corporate parent company combined? Maybe this gamble will be wildly successful despite all streaming services down-sizing or just going bankrupt? Maybe they won't be back on YouTube in 3-6 months begging for views after having to lay off 20 of their employees?

I know this... if I were one of those 25 employees blind faith would not be enough to stop me from looking for another job.

I suppose this will, for now, remain... a mystery.

EDIT:

I'm not writing another essay about this, but I'm glad to see they've backtracked and made the right choice to use WatcherTV as any sane creator would - to host early access and exclusive content in addition to their YouTube channel.

Over time, while promoting it in every video, building up that trust and fan base, it can be a secure and long-term financial bonus helping them to expand their business incrementally as finances allow.

Why this wasn't the plan all along is anyone's guess. Gambling everything on this was never the sane decision.

I still think they need to scale back on costs. I still think the food content is not currently a viable source of income while being a serious drain on resources. I still think they need to stop hiring all their friends and they need to hire one person who doesn't have personal relationships with everyone there and can make the tough business decisions.

No one likes firing people, it's ten times worse when it's a friend. But this is a reality of business and just wishing it wasn't so isn't going to make it go away. It would be awesome if we could all run a business where we can hire all our friends and family, never have to rely on any outside funding, make whatever we want, make a great living in one of the most expensive cities in the world and continue to grow.

That's just not the reality.

Their apology was genuine, in my opinion. I just hope they can work out the right financial balance.

#watcher #ghoul boys #steven lim #watcher entertainment #shane and ryan #ghost files

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touchoffleece · 20 days

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Apology in Advance for the probable incoming Sulemio v Destiel Poll posts.

There are layers to why the dumb ship poll has me feeling so passionate, some are: -Sulemio more or less checked off a Bucket List Want I thought I would die before seeing it become a reality. That being: a Sapphic Anime couple where the main focus and story doesn't revolve around discovering or accepting their sexuality and showing it can be a successful story public perception wise and money wise (G Witch has some of that self discovery stuff but it's like a D or E level plot). And having it so the gay relationship can't be perceived away as besties or sisterhood or with a Bury Your Gays end. -wlw/GL ships constantly getting overshadowed by mlm ships or get played down to hype up mlm ships because "there can only be 1 lgbtqi+ ship" mentality in fandoms. -Sulemio fandom was vibing and more or less quiet until this rewoke us up here on Tumblr. We are all once again speaking and writing deep analytical lengthy posts about how deep, well written and portrayed the love between both characters were not only in subtext but throughly explicit sentences in dialogue or actions of Suletta and Miorine, and the world around them. I am very happy to join in and revisit the awesomeness that their story was since I can't truly replicate the journey that was watching their story as it developed in real time. (Shout out to my 2 het cis male acquaintances who nagged me to give G Witch a shot back when only ep 0 and 1 were out you guys freaking amazing. Bros gave me unforgettable memories.) -But a big one I see not getting talked about a lot is how this match up is giving a big and much needed reality check to western-media-live-action-only-consumers/fans that: Just because something is an animation it does not make that type of art/storytelling/show/whatever you want to call it inferior to live action. A few years back I saw so many west live action tv fans shit endlessly and mercilessly on Magical Girl Utena because of a similar ship poll where it had come down to live action fandom ship vs canon anime ship. (iykyk, I don't want to restart that shit up again since it hurt a lot to watch as someone who liked the ship that was leading but didn't watch Utena-I'm too weak for that hurt- see the show and its contribution towards actual wlw/gl representation get shit on) A lot of the criticisms and punchlines of statements were mocking people for getting attached to cartoons as "grown ass adults"; a criticism any animation enjoyer probably knows all too well. Post so many animation shows in western streaming sites get cancelled or be erased and locked behind vaults because the CEOs think there is no fanbase or value in creating animation, this sentiment more towards animated shows with depth in their stories. I think back to that poll and the ensuing shit show. To think about that back then and see a reflection of that situation with the Ship (Sulemio) that has been stated to be inspired by the ship from Utena (Utenanthy) that was shat on so much by similar media consumers back then who perceived and said animation is a lesser form of storytelling-after seeing so many animation shows I enjoyed get cancelled because of this same sentiment from people thinking no adult wants animation as entertainment- to see Sulemio beat "the greater known" ship from a western live action media show that didn't even want the gay representation associated with itself, it feels like properly bandaging a seeping wound that you were letting "dry out". This all still feels like ship war with ships and fandoms that shouldn't have reason to beef, but the catharsis of seeing such a: powerful, moving, and overall amazing story that is Gundam the Witch from Mercury (free on Youtube to watch btw) and Sulemio's love story get recognized when it still feels like animation as a storytelling device gets looked down upon and has partially been erased, is making me cautiously optimistic that maybe in a few years we can get our amazing in depth animated shows that got taken away because animated storytelling is "just for kids" or "isn't good enough".

#rambles #rants #shower thoughts #sulemio #animation #g witch #gundam the witch from mercury #sapphic thoughts #fandom wank #fandom #fandom meta #lgbtqi+#media analysis #polls #pop culture #pop culture history #hollywood desperately needs change #ao3topshipsbracket

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bloodyserratus · 7 months

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aural fixation

pairing: nanami x fem!reader word count: 11.5k synopsis: kento never knew that ino had a sister. and when he finally meets you, he can't help but feel like there's something so familiar about you... themes/warnings: SMUT! mdni. she/her pronouns, reader is a virtual sex worker (erotic audios, camming, etc.), dommy!nanami, subby/bratty!reader. lil bit of daddy kink, mentions of restraints, domesticity/apron kink? there's a lot of smut and plot. phonesex.

a/n: ...how did this get so LONG?!?!! 😵‍💫 i'm so happy it's out of my brain.

You tapped your chin as you scrolled through notifications. A handful of comments, two new subscribers, and two direct messages. The DMs were spam, so you went to check the results of your recent poll for top tier subscribers. It was time for your monthly, limited audience live stream and you had offered up a few dates and times. The results were quite split this time, which concerned you, but Friday at 7:30 pm had won by a few votes, so you went ahead and created an event.

A smile snuck onto your lips when you noticed that ken73 had voted for the chosen timeslot. It was probably just confirmation bias, but you felt like ken73 always voted when you put out polls. Part of this was likely because he was your longest time subscriber, so you were most familiar with his username. Reality or not, you were glad for the support. He had been a consistent lifeline when you’d first started this work out of necessity to support yourself and your younger brother, Takuma.

Takuma was older now, and though you didn’t exactly understand what his job was, it meant he could be self reliant. Similarly, you really didn’t need the income from virtual sex work anymore, but something about it kept you engaged. Whether it was sheer boredom or the freedom of being able to explore your sexuality on your terms, you’d stayed active enough to generate a decent little income stream while it still stayed fun.

‘see you next friday!~’ you captioned a photo of yourself.

In it you were wearing a new set of lingerie. In the grand scheme of things, it was relatively modest, but you hoped it served the purpose of piquing your subscribers’ interest.

…

Kento loosened his tie as he walked into his apartment. It had been a long day. Meetings with Principal Yaga and training with the students at Tokyo Jujutsu High. The training really wasn't nearly as challenging as dealing with Gojo, their teacher. As much as Kento cared for and trusted Gojo, he had never not found himself irked at the end of the day by his shenanigans.

He sighed as he scrolled through his notifications. He made quick work of it, marking items read and flagging things for follow up. His eyebrows raised when he saw the notification for your livestream. Friday at 7:30 pm. He quickly created an event on his calendar so as not to forget.

A soft smile settled on his lips as he examined the photo you’d posted with the announcement. He’d been subscribed to you for so long that the swells and curves of your shape were familiar like old friends and yet, like an old friend, it still brought him joy to see them. His eyes traced the lace lines of your lingerie, but ultimately he found himself fixated on the shape of your chin. For all of the suggestive and sexual ways in which he’d been able to consume you, he had never seen your face. He understood the safety boundaries that you had to maintain, but it didn’t mean he didn’t wonder.

Wonder whether your pleading and begging would be accompanied with round, doe eyes, like he imagined, or a shape more similar to a cat or fox. Wonder what color hair he might find himself with a handful of, in an alternate universe where he was lucky enough to enjoy you in the flesh. Wonder exactly which kinks were yours and which were just good customer service.

“Hmm,” Kento exhaled and stood to pour himself a drink. All this thinking had left him straining against the front of his briefs.

He set his glass tumbler down before undoing his belt buckle. The tendons in his fingers flexed deftly before it came undone with a quiet ‘shhhhhk’. He popped open the button at his waistband before sitting back down. Kento turned on the television in his living room and cast photos from his phone onto it. An album of his favorites was easily summoned at his fingertips and he palmed himself through his zipper as he flipped them.

“Shit,” he groaned, hips bucking slightly, as he arrived at one of his favorites.

It was actually a screenshot of one of his favorite streams. You’d just been in the middle of checking comments, so it wasn’t the most explicit image that he had of you, but something about the way your tits threatened spilled out of your bra as you’d used the mouse had entranced and haunted him until this day.

Kento took his glasses off and set them aside before he unzipped himself slowly. He felt the teeth of the zipper unlatch, delaying gratification slightly, before he pulled himself out. He was thick and heavy in his own palm and already shiny with precum. He spread the slick across his tip with the pad of his thumb and inhaled sharply at the sensation. He dragged his fingers up and down his hard shaft slowly, thinking of how soft your hands would be compared to his. His thighs tensed as his precum spread, making each pass silkier and smoother than the last.

After a few more thrusts up into his face, Kento needed more. He navigated to your audio scenarios and pulled up one of his favorites. ‘Don’t Be So Mean to Me…it Makes Me Really Wet’. Kento had to roll his eyes a little at the title, but it was one of his favorite flavors of you. Whiny, submissive, and playing right into some kinks that he was slightly in denial about having. He scrubbed through the intro…he’d heard it so many times that he could’ve recited it for you.

‘s-stop’ your recorded voice sounded in his apartment.

‘do you always have to tease me like that?’

“You like it,” Kento growled, fist tight around his cock at your airy moans.

‘you’re right, I do’ you giggled, ‘is that bad of me? you’re so mean to me and it just,’ your voice hitched here, ‘...it just makes me leak.’

Kento closed his eyes and shook his head.

‘no? you…you know it does?’ you asked, surprise clear in your voice. ‘do you…do you do it to me on purpose? i-’

He imagined your eyes flashing up at him, eyes wide and pupils wider as you squirmed below him.

‘why?’ you asked in a tiny voice.

“Because I need you to be soaked if you’re ever going to make this fit,” he jerked his cock forcefully.

‘oh! oh…i get to? get to have this?’ your voice was sultry now and the sound of rustling in the audio put him fully into your imagined context. ‘it’s so big, though…’

His brow furrowed as he slumped back into his chair further.

‘you’re going to make it fit?’ you purred excitedly, ‘show me’

Kento’s imagination ran wild. The way he would pick you up and toss you over his shoulder. Or bend you over the back of this armchair. Not in a rush, though, he would allow himself to enjoy the sight of your wet lips soaking through your panties between the plush landscape of your thighs. He might even allow himself to kiss up the backs of your legs from the pits of your knees to your slick inner thighs. You would wiggle impatiently, but his firm hand would keep you pinned over the back of the chair, toes barely able to brush the ground beneath you.

‘ohhhh, you’re one of those.’ you sighed as if frustrated, ‘can’t you be a little more…excited? that you get to have me this way? all puffy and swollen for you?’

He smirked. You were an impatient little thing, at times.

‘don’t you just want to sliiiiide that big cock into my little cunt? or…at least your fingers, right? it would be so easy with how wet you’ve got me’ you coaxed so sweetly.

Kento bit his lip, letting off with his hand for a moment. As a verified enthusiast, he could confirm that you did have the wettest little pussy that he’d ever laid eyes on. The way your lips split prettily around your fingers always made him think about how much deeper his could reach and stretch.

‘i thought so’ you giggled as you slid into yourself with a wet gush. ‘god your-, your fingers…they’re a lot bigger than mine,’ you sighed contentedly.

‘but i think you should really show me how much bigger that cock of yours is. if you think you can last, that is.’

Kento’s lip curled at your bratty teasing. He had no doubt that he could outlast a wanton little slut like yourself, but he so enjoyed the way that you egged him on.

‘i know…the sight of me creaming all over your cock…it’s enough to make anyone bust a nut. but that’s what i was hoping for anyways. as soon as i saw you, i thought, ‘hmm…he looks big and strong. i bet he would hold me down on his cock and breed me. breed my pussy. maybe that would finally satisfy me and make me less of a cockstarved little slut.’

“Doubtful,” he snickered, thrusting forcefully back up into his fist again. But he’d be happy to try. Fuck load after load of his cum into you. Listen to you moan and arch for him like a bitch in heat until each thrust did nothing but push his creamy ropes of cum back out, dripping down to your knees.

Kento’s balls tightened as he listened to you fuck yourself, your moans growing louder and less restrained. Little gasps and hiccups peppered your dirty words and he anticipated the moment that sent him over the edge each time without fail.

‘am…,’ you sniffled ‘am-, am,’ you struggled to speak between thrusts of your dildo. ‘am i being a good girl?’ you sounded so unsure of yourself and that flipped something deep inside of Kento’s brain.

“Fuckkkkkkkk,” Kento let out a deep, primal groan. “Yes,” he panted, about to burst. “Such a good girl. Such a good girl letting me fuck you like this,” he praised through gritted teeth before his cock jerked. Spurts of cum shot out onto his crumpled dress shirt and tie. His chest heaved with deep breaths and by the time his cock had deflated, he had also recovered.

A light flush covered the bridge of his nose as he peeled his shirt off and cleaned up. He was always a little embarrassed at the way he unraveled when listening to you. He considered himself to be an upstanding citizen, so how it was that you unlocked this crazed, unhinged version of himself, he still didn’t quite understand.

Checking the watch on his wrist, Kento sighed. Another day of sorcery work awaited him in the morning so it was time for him to go to bed.

…

Ino looked at Nanami Kento with admiration. They were on their way back from exorcizing a handful of Grade 2 curses. Ino had been able to handle them with minimal assistance from Nanami, which had his chest full of pride.

“Nanami-san, do you have any plans for the weekend?” Ino asked his mentor as they rode the subway.

“...no,” Nanami answered after some thought.

The most exciting thing he had planned for this weekend was your livestream on Friday, but he certainly wasn't about to share that with Ino.

“Do you?” he asked the younger man, a gentle look on his face.

“Not yet, but, oh!” Ino’s face lit up suddenly, “That reminds me, I need to call my sister back. She had asked about having a meal together this weekend.”

Nanami’s eyebrows raised. He wasn't aware that Ino had a sister.

“Do you mind if I do that now?” Ino asked when they got back to street level. “I'm worried I'll forget again.”

“Go ahead,” Nanami shrugged. They were just walking back to Jujutsu High.

“Hey sis! Yeah, yeah I know,” Ino grew sheepish as he spoke to his sister on the phone. “I’m sorry I forgot! But yes we should get dinner this weekend. How about Friday?”

Nanami smiled. Ino’s boyish nature showed through as he talked and something about it tugged at his heartstrings.

“Oh, you’re busy Friday? Hm, okay how about Saturday? Okay, Saturday then! Let me know where we should go. My treat!”

Nanami heard the voice on the phone protest at this, but Ino insisted.

“All set?” he smiled when the younger man slipped his cell phone back into his pocket.

“Yup! Seeing her Saturday,” Ino flashed a bright smile at Nanami.

“Are you close with your sister?” Nanami found himself asking.

Ino received this question with a look of surprise. Nanami was not prone to small talk, so this caught him quite off guard. He blinked a few times before standing up a little straighter and launching into a monologue about you.

Apparently Ino and his sister were quite close. He explained that his sister had largely raised him due to the significant traveling required by both of his parents’ jobs. She had encouraged him through school and taken on part time jobs in order to help support him. Nanami could tell that Ino felt a great deal of admiration towards her and perhaps that he owed an unpayable debt to her too. He wondered if you knew details of the line of work that Ino was now in or anything about the jujutsu world at all.

“We’re here,” Nanami decided to keep those questions unasked for now. “I have a meeting with Principal Yaga. Good work today.”

“Thank you, Nanami-san!” Ino bowed, brimming with happiness.

…

You checked the clock. Ten minutes until you started your stream. You checked your appearance again in the mirror and tried to reassure yourself that you looked fine. You were dressed in an oversized sweater with lingerie underneath. You wondered how many of your top tier subscribers would tune in today.

“Here we go,” you whispered to yourself before starting the stream. “Hi guys!” you greeted the virtual room.

A few logins dinged as you checked your framing to ensure that your face was out of view.

“Hi Todo, Hi Ken~,” you greeted a few of your regulars as their usernames popped up.

todollyawesome: ‘damn ken, the way she says your name’

ken73: ‘hi cinnamon roll’

You giggled at the nickname. The pseudonym you used online was Cinna and some while ago, fans had taken to calling you their cinnamon roll. Ken was one of the only ones who still used it and it made you feel warm and fuzzy with familiarity.

“I said hi to you too, Todo!” you protested playfully, watching as the viewer numbers ticked up, but only slightly. For an exclusive subscriber stream, it was to be expected, but you were grateful for everyone that did show up.

todollyawesome: ‘yeah but not like the way you say ken73’s name. its fine i get it, he’s dreamy’

You chuckled heartily at this. todollyawesome was another loyal subscriber of yours. Not quite as long as ken73, but he had a personality that certainly stood out. He was playful, boisterous, and always cracking jokes.

“Small group today then, I guess,” you cocked your head to the side. “What’s on everyone’s minds?”

todollyawesome: ‘you and your big juicy ass’

p1ercing.c0ck: ‘work tomorrow’

“Work tomorrow? On Saturday? Yuck,” you stuck your tongue out with distaste.

Kento nodded in agreement. He didn’t chime in to the chatterbox and instead took the time to observe you. You were dressed in an oversized, cozy sweater with part of the collar off-shoulder. This exposed one black bra strap and a generous view of your collarbone. Kento found himself wanting to suck and bite, marking you up.

“Shall we relieve some stress?” you asked, “Or do we just feel like chatting?”

It was a genuine question. While you were technically a sex worker, sometimes your smaller group streams did just naturally end up as chatting with a few friends.

“Aside from piercing, do other folks have weekend plans?”

todollyawesome: ‘hanging out with my best friend, yuj’

“Nice!” you smiled. “What about you, Ken?”

Kento’s eyebrows raised at the direct call out.

p1ercing.c0ck: ‘RIP cinna’s not even tryna hide her favoritism anymore’

todollyawesome: ‘man we been known that he was her favorite, old news’

“I mean…,” you laughed softly at the direct call out, “He’s been with me the longest,” you shrugged.

It was silly, of course, but you did have your favorites. Aside from being your longer subscriber, he also quite liked his personality. It was straightforward and though not as colorful as todo’s, it stood out to you just as much if not more.

In conversational settings, like now, he was quite reserved. While others liked to draw your attention by being ostentatious, Ken rarely did that. In sexual settings, however, he seemed to change completely. His messages were domineering, demanding, and downright filthy. You recalled clenching while reading them more than a few times. Ken struck you as someone who knew very clearly what they wanted and articulated it.

The personality that you'd fabricated for him was one of quiet confidence and unbridled, raw sexuality. A heady combination.

Kento swelled at the simple explanation for why he was your favorite. A sort of possessive pride filled up his chest at this subtle confirmation.

ken73: 'you're my favorite too.’

todollyawesome: ‘dude they're flirting 👀’

p1ercing.c0ck: 'don't mind me just watching 👀’

“Oh you're both into watching, huh?” you teased, eyebrows raising off screen. “How do you feel about that, Ken?”

Kento considered this for a moment.

ken73: ‘i'm not sure, to be honest’

You grinned. This was a very characteristic answer. Open and honest.

p1ercing.c0ck: ‘i just know it's big zaddy ken’

This had you cackling. You really did adore your top tier subscribers.

Kento flushed at the compliment.

“Speaking of big,” you hummed as you looked over your toy collection. “What do we think of this one?” you selected a dildo and brought it on screen. It was sizable to say the least. Girthy with a bulbous head, it was one of your favorite toys because of the way it popped inside of you initially.

todollyawesome: 'oh fuck yea! gonna show us how you take it?’

ken73: ‘love seeing you spread open around it’

“Piercing’s hands are too busy to type, I guess,” you teased as you stood up and readjusted. You moved the camera down to the floor and adhered the suction cup on the base of the dildo. You straddled it and flipped your skirt up.

“Oh I'm wet, guys,” you moaned, tugging your panties upwards so that the fabric outlined your puffy lips more clearly. A damp, dark spot was obvious.

todollyawesome: 'fucking super soaker 🥴’

p1ercing.c0ck: ‘on my computer screen but never on me 😔’

You rocked your hips, grinding your clit against the taut fabric. A warbled moan left your lips and the chat box popped off again.

ken73: ‘you sound so gorgeous’

todollyawesome: ‘that voice makes me NUT every time, without fail’

“Hah, thanks guys,” you smiled as you let off your clit slightly. “Can I please sit on it?” you cooed.

p1ercing.c0ck: ‘PLEASE GOD YES’

todallyawesome: ‘i’m gonna pass out if you DONT. ON GAWD’

ken73: ‘...do you think you’ve been good enough?’

Your chest fluttered. Ken was so withholding and it drove you wild.

“I think I’ve been good,” you pouted, “Don’t you think I’m a good girl, Ken?”

p1ercing.c0ck: ‘bro…should we leave?’

todollyawesome: ‘y’all need to do a 1:1 stream FR’

Your eyebrows perked at that. You weren’t not interested.

“You’re right, I’m singling him out, aren’t I?” you relented. “Well, I suppose I should sit on this thing and give you what you came for,” you teased, singsongily.

You angled your hips back so that the tip pressed against the wet fabric of your panties.

“Hmm, panties off or pushed to the side?” you asked your audience. “To the side, it is!” you grinned at the easy consensus.

A soft moan left your lips when you pushed your panties to the side. The slick juices caused the elastic to roll across your clit in a way that had you reeling. You glanced quickly as you positioned yourself over the bulbous head. It was a gratuitous upskirt shot as you lowered yourself on the toy slowly.

Kento groaned, hand fisted around his angry erection as he lowered it in time with you. His eyes were glued to your shining lips and the way they spread to accommodate the toy’s girth. Even just after one pass, it was coated with your slick ooze.

“So nice,” you exhaled dreamily when you reached the base. “So full.”

ken73: ‘good girl’

todollyawesome: ‘i’m dead. i died.’

Kento rocked his hips up into his fist as you worked yourself up and down on the toy. You were so fucking wet that a ring of froth was starting to collect at the base. God what he wouldn’t give to see that around his own cock. The swollen, dark head disappearing into your lovely folds as you utterly coated him with your arousal.

“Oh fuck,” you panted, your nipples tightening as your bounces grew sloppier. “I-, hmph!”

ken73: ‘gonna cum already? desperate thing…’

“It’s so wide,” you tried to explain, “The head. Feels so good,” you moaned wantonly.

“I love,” your breathing grew labored, “Love that fat tip,” you cried desperately as it raked against your sensitive spots.

p1ercing.c0ck: ‘god it’s so good when she gets like this’

Kento agreed. So aroused that you could barely string together sentences. He threw his head back and milked himself faster. The tendons in his forearm and hand flexed deliciously as he applied firm pressure to his cock. His thumb brushed over the tip occasionally, which caused his whole body to tense and shudder with pleasure.

“I-, I’m,” you spoke through your panting, “Gonna cum,” you whined just before your body tensed. The orgasm shot through your body with a shudder and a long, satisfied moan wrenched from your lips.

Kento grunted as the sound of your release triggered his. His heavy balls tightened and cum spurted through his stranglehold onto his tummy and chest. He continued stroking lazily, half hard, as he watched you rock through a second orgasm, this time with the toy stuffed deeply inside of you with shorter up and down motions. Ken wondered how many times he might be able to lazily pump you through orgasms until you tapped out.

“Thank you guys for tuning in,” you smiled as you supported yourself with your forearms planted in front of you. “I had fun, as always.”

p1ercing.c0ck: ‘thank you you beautiful goddess!!’

todollyawesome: ‘MARRY ME PLZ CINNA’

ken73: ‘thank you, princess. i think todolly was joking, but curious if i may in fact DM you about a 1:1 or custom audio? if you’re open to it’

Your heart skipped a beat at Ken’s message.

“Please do!” you smiled, blowing a kiss at the camera before ending the stream.

…

You huffed after checking your email. The past twenty hours had seen you searching for a notification from your streaming platform that never came. Perhaps ken73 hadn't been serious, but he didn't strike you as the type to ask that question flippantly. Shaking your head, you tucked your phone back into your pocket and you scanned the area for Takuma once more.

“Hey sis!” you saw his beanied head emerge from the crowd suddenly.

“Takuma!” you waved at him excitedly. When he got close enough, you folded him into a giant hug. It had been too long since you’d last seen him.

“How are you? You look great,” Takuma complimented you genuinely.

“Well thank you,” you laughed. Takuma hadn't changed.

“Aren’t you going to tell me I look great too?” your brother asked cheekily.

You leaned your head back and let out a belly laugh.

“I don’t know,” you teased, “This beanie…I don’t know if I dig the look.”

Takuma crossed his arms and huffed in protest.

“I look cool!”

“You always look cool,” you patted his head affectionately. Takuma had outgrown you in height now, so you had to reach up to do it, but he was still your little brother. “Hungry?”

“Yes! Always.”

“So how are things with your…work?”

You had a blurry understanding of the jujutsu world. When Takuma had first enrolled in Tokyo Jujutsu High, Principal Yaga had met with you as a courtesy to help you understand exactly why Takuma had been chosen. Takuma had excitedly kept you apprised of his training and ascension through the levels, but after graduating and becoming fully fledged, the sharing had ceased. You certainly understood the need to keep secrets too, so you never pushed too hard. So long as Takuma came home safe, you were satisfied.

“Really good!” Takuma beamed, “I had an assignment with Nanami-san this week. I learn a lot when I get to work with him.”

You smiled. This Nanami had become a mentor of sorts to Takuma through the years. It was clear that Takuma looked up to him and perhaps even idolized him to a degree.

“How are things with you?”

“Good,” you flipped through the menu, “Things at the office have been surprisingly calm and not much has changed.”

“That’s good,” Takuma smiled.

Dinner passed quickly with Takuma filling most of the silence with stories about the new students at Jujutsu High. You listened to him happily. Even if you didn’t share much in common anymore, these days, you were glad to see that Takuma hadn’t lost any of his positivity. It seemed that this Nanami-san was doing his best to take care of him and for that you were truly grateful.

“That dinner was not good,” Takuma shook his head regretfully as you left the restaurant with him.

“I have to agree,” you felt bad saying it, but it was true. “How about I cook for us next time?”

“I would love that! I miss your cooking,” Takuma beamed at you.

“Let me know what you want me to make!” and you chuckled at the speed with which your brother started rattling dishes off the top of his head.

…

‘You have (1) new messages!’

Your eyebrows raised. You clicked on the hyperlink in the email which brought you to the streaming platform.

ken73: ‘I apologize for the delay. Following up on my comment from earlier. I would love to discuss commissioning a custom audio from you.’

You were a bit surprised. You would’ve expected a 1:1 video session to be more interesting, but alas.

sweetcinna: ‘of course! I was starting to think you weren’t serious ;)’ sweetcinna: ‘full transparency, I haven’t done any custom audios to date, but am willing! if you have a script already or a scenario with some themes in mind, that would be really helpful’

Along with that, you sent some rough ideas of pricing that were mostly a wild guess.

Kento stared at his phone. Scenarios and themes…his mind went blank. All he could think was that he just enjoyed hearing you moan, but that wasn’t anything that you could go off of. He tapped the side of his phone as he thought.

If he let his mind run wild…what would it come up with? He certainly enjoyed your playful and sometimes teasing nature. Your little exhales of surprise made him think he would quite enjoy putting you in your place, manhandling you if needed. Looking up from his phone, the tie on his dresser from the day prior caught his eye. He would love to see you wear it and he wondered if he would enjoy binding your wrists with it.

ken73: ‘I enjoy it when you’re playful and tease. I imagine myself manhandling you a bit when you need to be put in your place. Lastly, I wear a tie to work every day…’

A delighted smile crept up your lips. So a little bit of a brat tamer and perhaps some shibari or bondage interest. You could work with that.

sweetcinna: ‘hm, ok! does an office/workplace scenario interest you?’ ken73: ‘Candidly, no. I prefer not to think about my job during off hours.’ sweetcinna: ‘that’s totally fair, I get it.’ sweetcinna: ‘hmm, how about something more domestic? like welcoming you home after a long day of work.’ ken73: ‘That sounds quite nice.’ sweetcinna: ‘perfect…also what would you like me to call you in this audio scenario?’ ken73: ‘You can keep calling me Ken.’ sweetcinna: ‘sounds good, ken :)’ sweetcinna: ‘let me mull this over a bit and flesh out the scene a bit more. i’ll send you more plot points as I think of them!’ ken73: ‘Great. Thank you, princess. And payment should already be to you.’

This surprised you. You checked and it was indeed already there in your virtual tip jar.

sweetcinna: ‘thank you sugar daddy! ;P’

Kento’s eyebrows raised sharply.

Daddy…

…

You tapped your chin with a pencil as you looked at the sheet of paper in front of you.

playful/bratty character

brat tamer? Ken

welcoming him home from work

his tie

You huffed. Maybe this custom audio thing was tougher than you had expected. How were you supposed to come up with something out of thin air? You laid down in your bed and closed your eyes, allowing your mind to roam for a bit.

You wondered about Ken. He seemed somewhat stern, but he had to have a wild side if he was following you. You wondered what he looked like. You imagined someone tall and strong. You weren’t sure if the 73 in his username referred to his birth year, but you had assumed that he must be a bit older. You wondered if you should play into a bit of an age gap fantasy…a lot of men tended to enjoy that. Your eyes popped back open as an idea struck you.

“Aha!” you ran back to your desk and scribbled down a few more bullet points.

Ken coming home from work

I’ve been teasing him all day with suggestive texts and explicit pictures

Ken is frustrated and has been aching to get home to reprimand me

I welcome Ken home dressed in nothing but an apron

Ken is stern, ties my wrists together to a bedpost. spanks and overstimulates me until i apologize

You did some more workshopping of the phrasing before sending it off to ken73. You were delighted when he wrote back that he loved the scenario.

…

Kento couldn’t wait to get home. He had received your audio file in his email earlier in the day and he had rushed through the rest of the day in a blur. Exorcizing curses seemed much more tolerable when he had something to look forward to at the end of the day. Gojo’s antics hadn’t even bothered him as much as usual, which was exceedingly rare.

He shrugged off his jacket and harness while he slipped off his shoes. It wasn’t much longer before he had your file open and was pressing ‘play’.

‘hi baby, welcome home!’ your voice greeted him, sounding slightly far away as some background noise accompanied it.

‘i’m in the kitchen!’

Kento closed his eyes, imagining walking through a set of hallways, slightly on edge from your teasing throughout the day.

“You’re acting awfully chipper,” he greeted you with a cool, terse voice. “When you’ve been acting like a needy little slut all day.”

‘who me?’ you giggled breathily.

“Yes, you,” he growled, stepping through the final doorway to the kitchen. His eyes glanced over your and they widened upon finding that you were dressed only in an apron.

‘hi Ken,’ you greeted him shyly.

Ken’s jaw ticked. Did you think there weren’t going to be any consequences for your actions?

‘i missed you today,’ you stepped towards him, but were stopped.

“You pissed me off today,” he imagined gripping you by the wrists firmly.

‘oh? i-’

“I had a lot of work to get done and I was able to accomplish practically none of it. Sending me all of those pictures and texts…”

‘oh did i distract you?’ you giggled, toying with him. ‘you know i can’t control myself when i get like that’

Kento snorted. This was indeed true. When you were turned on, there was practically no stopping you.

‘maybe you need to teach me a lesson,’ you wondered and he could hear the smirk on your face when you’d said that.

“Maybe I do,” Kento responded to your taunt. Maybe he needed to tie your wrists together with his necktie and spank you until you apologized for your behavior.

‘where are you taking me?’ you asked

“To teach you that lesson,” he replied.

‘you’re-, you’re tying me up?’ your voice sounded like a purr of a delight.

Kento imagined binding your wrists to his headboard, lifting your legs up by the ankles, and folding you in half so that the backs of your thighs were exposed to him. Then you’d have to count. To ten.

‘one!’ you cried at the sound of a spank.

Kento was surprised. You really made it immersive. By the tenth and final spank, your voice had grown airy and you had melted into the bed. He wouldn’t be surprised if you were soaked by now. Soaked and ready for him.

‘ken I need you,’ you moaned desperately. ‘i’ve needed you all day, please’

“So desperate,” he found himself teasing as he palmed himself through his slacks.

‘baby pleeease? can i please have that cock?’

It was too easy to melt at your request. He pulled himself out of his zipper and stroked, nodding to himself.

‘i can’t stop thinking about you,’ you confessed before wet sounds sucked Kento fully into the fantasy.

Your mouth and your pussy were used freely and you came loudly for him several times. He was proud of himself for lasting until the end of the audio, but the sounds of you hiccuping and begging for him to cum inside of you ultimately pushed him right over the edge and he exploded magnificently into his own hand.

Kento breathed deeply for a while before he tidied himself up. You were addicting.

ken73: ‘Thank you so much for that, sweetheart. Incredible.’

…

Why were you flustered by a message?! You wanted to smack yourself. The message you had received from Ken had been so simple and yet you found yourself melting at his praise.

sweetcinna: ‘thank you!! i really enjoyed making it.’ sweetcinna: ‘may I ask you? do you find yourself responding to me in the scenario? i often wonder that about my listeners, but haven’t ever asked!’

Ken was surprised at your question. He hadn’t even really been expecting a message back, since the transaction was technically complete.

ken73: ‘It sounds silly, but I do respond sometimes. You are very talented at creating an immersive scene, so I can’t help it at times.’ sweetcinna: ‘thank you very much.’ sweetcinna: ‘would it be odd to share that i’m curious what you sound like? like what types of responses come to your mind when you listen to me?’ ken73: ‘Would you like to hear my voice?’

Your heart leapt into your throat. His directness really grabbed you, for whatever reason.

sweetcinna: ‘yes, but i understand if you find that odd! i was just talking’ ken73: ‘No, I would like that very much. Take some time to think about it and let me know.’

Your heart was pounding.

…

You stared at your phone nervously. You had thought about it, probably too many times, before confirming that you wanted to do a phone call with Ken. You’d picked a day and the time had flown by.

ken73: ‘I’m running a bit late, but I will be home very soon.’ sweetcinna: ‘no rush!’

You decided to pour yourself a glass of wine while you waited. It wasn’t excessive, but the little bit of alcohol helped to ease your nerves.

ken73: ‘I am home. Here’s my number for you to call.’

You dialed and listened to the ring tone, full of excitement and anxiety. It rang just twice before he picked up.

“Hello, this is Ken.”

“Hi,” you did your best to keep your voice level. “How are you?”

“I’m good now, sweetheart. How was your day?”

“It was good,” you thought for a moment, “Work was not too eventful and now I get to talk to you!”

Kento smiled. He was incredibly pleased that you had agreed to a phone call. It was one thing to listen to your audios, but getting to interact with you in a more live fashion thrilled him.

“You have a nice voice, Ken,” you observed, interjecting into his thoughts.

“Ah, thank you,” he found himself flushing and chuckling at your words.

“You have a nice laugh too,” you pressed. You found yourself wanting to hear it again.

“You’re very complimentary, aren’t you?”

“Only when I have reason to be,” you shrugged.

“Consider me flattered,” Kento loosened his tie.

“Are you getting undressed?” you asked, hearing the rustling of fabric on his end.

“Not quite,” Nanami let out a hearty laugh. “Just loosening my tie.”

“Ah,” you nodded, “The tie that you’d like to tie me up with?” you flirted shamelessly.

Nanami tensed at your direct suggestion. Minx.

“I think you deserve it, don’t you?” his voice got lower somehow.

You let out a nervous, airy giggle. His voice was so attractive.

“Answer me,” he insisted.

“Please Ken,” you bit your lower lip and squirmed.

“That’s a good girl,” he exhaled, palming himself through his zipper.

“Your good girl,” you corrected him and you were rewarded with a soft growl.

A streak of possessiveness ran through him.

“That’s right, isn’t it?” he mused, “I’m the one who gets to enjoy you like this, aren’t I?”

“Uh huh,” you giggled. It was true after all, he was the first and only subscriber of yours to cross over into something more.

“My good girl,” he groaned and you purred in response.

“Are you hard?” you asked, hand snaking down to tease your inner thighs.

“Very,” he chuckled.

“Wish I could see,” you pouted.

Kento was struck with the sudden realization that he was more than willing to show you. In lieu of that, for now, he could try and paint you a word picture.

“Greedy girl,” he teased, “You’d love to feast your eyes on my cock, straining in my pants just from listening to you, wouldn’t you?”

“Yes,” you exhaled breathily, “Would want to feel it, rub my face on it, and then ask you if I could take it out.”

“So polite,” he leaned his head back. “Polite little thing.”

“Sir, may I touch myself?” you asked.

“Not yet, sweetheart,” he clicked his tongue, he wanted to tease you a little bit longer.

You let out a whine of disappointment that was music to his ears. You were so expressive and he loved that he was wrenching these sounds out of you.

“You’re going to get on your knees and watch me play with myself,” he decided.

You pouted, even though he couldn’t see you. Your cunt clenched at the thought. The denial was frustratingly arousing.

“Yes, sir,” you answered him, shifting to your knees.

“God you have me aching,” he exhaled shakily as he undid his pants and pulled himself out. His cock was heavy and thick in his hand.

“Would you describe it to me?”

“Naughty girl,” he grinned, “It’s decent sized,” he considered himself. “Six or seven inches with a wide, bulbous head. Veiny and,” he circled his fingers around the shaft, “Fairly thick.”

“Oh fuck,” you sighed contentedly, “You have a pretty cock.”

“Pretty cock for my pretty girl,” he chuckled at your description.

Your thighs squeezed together at his praise. You so desperately wanted to touch yourself…do something to relieve the throbbing ache between them.

“How long do I have to wait?” you squirmed, the crotch of your panties pressing against your clit torturously.

“Go ahead, baby,” Kento relented, “I know you’re not good at being patient.”

You flushed at the soft dig, but thanked him anyway and reached down to rub your aching slit.

“If you were here, I would have you suck my cock while you waited, but alas…,” his rich voice filled your ears and your toes curled.

“I would love that,” you breathed, “I would love to taste you. Feel that beautiful cock on my tongue,” you moaned wantonly.

Ken groaned as you described how you would lick and suck his raging erection. Nibble your lips along the underside, suckle at the bulbous tip, and swallow him down until you gagged on him. He felt like he could burst.

“Get me nice and hard with your pretty mouth,” he sighed, his chest heaving as he stroked himself to your pace. “So you can sit on it.”

You purred excitedly at this thought.

“May I?” you sat up, wanting to grab a toy.

“I think you must,” he chuckled.

You grabbed a dildo with a suction cup at the base and stuck it to the ground. You kneeled and positioned the head at your entrance before lowering yourself slowly.

“Oh fuck!” you whined at the pleasurable stretch. “Ken, fuck…”

Kento’s balls tighten when you moaned for him. He filled in the second syllable of his name in his mind as his hips bucked of their own accord. God, you made him want to bully his cock deep inside of you.

“So good, baby,” he groaned through gritted teeth, “So good taking it for me.”

You whined, bouncing your hips lower and lower on the dildo. Your nipples tightened as you approached orgasm.

“Hng, Daddy, can I cum?” you pleaded without thinking, desperate and wanton.

Kento’s body betrayed him.

“Yes, fuck!” he managed to answer before he came violently. His abs contracted forcefully as he shot ropes of cum onto himself. Your sounds of orgasm melted into his as you both reached your highs together.

“You came?” you asked after catching your breath.

“Yes,” Kento answered, his body slumped down in his chair.

“I should’ve asked you about the ‘daddy’ thing first,” you realized suddenly, “I’m sorry if I caught you off guard with that.”

“It…,” Kento paused. As loathe as he was about admitting it, he felt like he could with you. “I don’t…hate it.”

“But do you like it?” you insisted.

“...yes,” he finally answered.

“Okay good,” you exhaled with relief.

“Do you have other plans this evening?” he asked after a small gap of time.

“No, not tonight. Later in the week I need to get groceries, but nothing today. Do you?”

“Luckily no. Will take care of a few things around my apartment. Cook dinner.”

“Ah, do you enjoy cooking?”

“I do,” Kento nodded. It was a relaxing activity and a welcome reprieve from his job, which was filled with insanity.

“Me too. When I have time, I love to bake.”

“Ah, is that so?” Kento’s ears perked up. He loved baked goods. “What do you like to bake?”

“Oh almost anything,” you settled into your pillows. “Bread if I’m feeling ambitious. Muffins or something else if I’m short on time.”

“Cinnamon roll indeed,” Ken remarked with a chuckle.

A soft warmth flushed through you. Considering that Ken was a technical stranger, it was incredibly comfortable being on the phone with him. Maybe this was how your subscribers felt about you despite knowing very little. It was interesting to be on this end of a parasocial relationship.

…

You looked up from your pot of soup when you heard the buzzer for your front door. Takuma must be here! You let him in and then went to set the table. As usual you had cooked too much food, but you intended for him to pack most of it away anyways.

You answered the door and were surprised when your eyes landed on a tall, blonde stranger.

“Oh…, hello?”

“Hey sis!” Takuma greeted you from behind the stranger with a wide smile. “I hope you don’t mind, but I invited Nanami-san!”

Nanami wished a hole would open up in the ground underneath him. It wasn’t like Ino had railroaded him into joining for dinner, but he had insisted quite adamantly and caught Nanami in a moment of weakness.

“Ah? Ah!” as the name finally triggered recognition and you bowed politely. “Nanami-san, wonderful to meet you! Please come in!”

“I-,” Nanami paused, “Ino, I thought-,” he turned to the younger man with a stern look on his face. Ino hadn’t been quite clear about the invitation, but you clearly hadn’t been expecting Nanami.

“Please, Nanami-san,” you insisted, a soft smile on your face. “I have been wanting to thank you for taking such good care of my younger brother. I would love it if you joined us for dinner.”

Nanami found his cheeks growing warm at your genuine smile. Your eyes were locked directly on his and he found himself struck by your appearance. He noted some subtle similarities to Ino, but mostly he was reeling from how pretty you were. Preparations must’ve still been underway as you were wearing a scallop-edged apron that was tied back in a way that emphasized your shape.

“Ah, thank you,” he bowed before stepping through the doorway.

Takuma helped hang up Nanami’s jacket and leather harness while you added another place setting to the table. You ladeled out three bowls of miso soup and brought them to the table with the other dishes that were already laid out.

“Itadakimasu!” Takuma beamed at you before digging right in.

“Tch, impatient,” you clicked your tongue at him with a fond smile.

“Itadakimasu,” Nanami bowed his head at you as well before picking up his soup spoon. “This looks and smells wonderful.”

“Hopefully it tastes good too,” you winked at him.

“YN is a good cook,” Ino remarked to his mentor.

Nanami’s eyes widened after a few bites. It was delicious.

“This is wonderful,” he complimented you genuinely.

“Thank you,” you grew a little under his heavy stare. He was so serious. “Ah, I forgot!” you stood suddenly, “Would you like anything to drink other than tea?”

“Nanami likes whiskey,” your brother answered helpfully.

“No, you don’t have to,” Nanami put his hands up in protest.

“Ice? No ice?” you asked, ignoring his niceties.

“One ice cube,” he relented and you nodded.

“Let me play house for you, Nanami-san,” you grinned playfully at him when you returned with the glass. “It’s in my nature as an older sister, after all.”

Kento blinked at your teasing. There was something familiar about it. His eyes were glued to you as you untied the apron and hung it on a hook.

“Well, tell me about yourself, Nanami-san!” you demand cheekily as you started in on the food as well. “Considering how many times Takuma has mentioned you, I don’t think I actually know anything about you!”

“Of course,” the tall gentleman nodded, “Nanami Kento. I am twenty-eight years old working as a Grade 1 jujutsu sorcerer.”

You chuckled at his formal introduction.

“Ino YN,” you returned the introduction. “Working as a personal assistant at the Tokyo courthouse. Very nice to meet you.

Nanami found himself smiling at you. You were obviously teasing, but he found that he didn’t dislike it…at all.

“Tell me about your day,” you asked of Takuma as you also started eating.

Without fail, your younger brother launched into enthusiastic storytelling, which allowed you to observe both him and his mentor. Nanami’s blue shirt pulled taut across his shoulders. He wore a spotted tie, which seemed to be in contrast to the rest of his stern appearance. You smiled…it was a nice touch. His hair was parted sharply and his face was full of similar lines and planes, but he was handsome nonetheless.

Nanami looked up during your observation and caught your eye. He was watching you too. Particularly he found himself fixated on your chin and mouth. He felt crazy for even thinking it, but you reminded him of SweetCinna. He even felt that your voice was similar, but perhaps he just found himself attracted and projecting.

“How was your day?” Takuma’s voice cut through the tension. He glanced between you and Nanami and then grinned.

“It was good,” you smiled. “I did some reading in the morning before getting groceries and cooking for dinner.”

“What are you reading?” Nanami asked.

“Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang. It’s…,” you thought for a moment about how to describe the work. “Interesting. It’s near future dystopian, lots of references and imagery around food.”

“Interesting,” Nanami’s eyebrows raised. “How are you finding it?”

“Hm,” you looked at him head on. “I’m not quite far enough yet to have a strong opinion.”

Nanami nodded. That certainly made sense.

“Do you enjoy reading? I’d be happy to lend it to you when I’m finished.”

“I do,” he nodded, some of the tension seeming to leave his shoulders. “It’s probably my main source of leisure these days.”

“Ah! Me too,” you beamed at him with delight. Nanami smiled at you and your breath caught. There was something satisfying about seeing his stern facade drop.

Takuma look on at your interaction with Nanami, over the moon. This wasn’t exactly what he’d had in mind when he’d extended the invitation, but he certainly wasn’t complaining.

“How can I help?” Nanami asked once everyone had had their fill.

“Help me bring the dishes to the sink?”

He nodded and started stacking empty plates and bowls together. You put your apron and gloves back on and placed everything into the sink.

“Shall I dry?”

“That’s not necessary!” you shook your head, chuckle when the image of Nanami in your apron and gloves popped into your head.

“There’s nothing I can do to help?”

“Oh, actually,” a thought did pop into your head. “Can you help me tie my hair up?” you gestured to the hair tie that was laying on the counter.

Nanami blinked at the request, but nodded, grabbing the elastic. His fingertips brushed along your scalp as he gathered your hair into a bundle. He struggled a bit, but managed to get most of it tied up in the band. You’d tried to bite it back, but Nanami had heard what sounded like a soft purr when he’d tugged a little too hard.

He really felt like he’d heard that before.

…

Nanami tapped his foot impatiently on the train. It had to be you, right?

After the meal with you, he’d tried to put things out of his mind unsuccessfully. The thought of you being SweetCinna had nagged and nagged at him until he’d finally relented and gone over your audio collection with a fine toothed comb. He’d listened and listened to your honeyed voice, painfully hard, until he’d found a clip that made things fall into place.

‘tch, i’m not a brat!’

The click of your tongue had been so similar to your admonishment of your brother.

As he continued to wonder whether he was valid or crazy, his phone chimed with a notification.

sweetcinna: ‘any chance you’re free?’ ken73: ‘I am actually. Anything the matter?’ sweetcinna: ‘no? does something have to be the matter for us to talk?’ ken73: ‘No not at all, angel. I just wasn’t sure if it was a one-off last time.’

You regarded your phone with a look. You supposed that was a fair assumption, but after your slip up with Nanami’s hand in your hair you’d found yourself with an excess of sexual tension that you wanted to work out…with Ken.

sweetcinna: ‘would you be interested in chatting on the phone again?’ ken73: ‘Of course. Give me a few minutes and I’ll let you know when you can call.’

“Hello!” you greeted him sunnily.

“Hi angel,” he smiled at the sound of your voice.

“How are you?”

“Very good,” he nodded.

“Very good?” you laughed, “And why’s that?”

Kento paused before answering in a way that wouldn’t give himself up quite yet.

“It was just a good day,” he shrugged. “How about you? How was your day?”

“It was actually quite good as well,” you answered honestly, “I had dinner with my younger brother and that was a lot of fun.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“Yes!” beamed as you recalled the meal. “He actually invited a colleague of his who I’d never met before. He talks about him often, so it was nice to meet the gentleman.”

“It must’ve been a bit of a surprise then?” Kento asked.

“It was, but not in a bad way,” you shook your head, “He was quite handsome,” you giggled as you thought of Nanami’s tall, broad form again.

Kento was almost jealous for a moment before he remembered that you were actually referring to him.

“Is that so?” he raised an eyebrow, feigning jealous anyways.

“Quite,” you answered honestly. “Are you jealous?” you asked, catching the slight edge in his voice.

“Should I be?”

“I don’t think so,” you answered giddily, “I probably won’t see him again. And it’s not like he’s made me cum just with his voice, right?”

Kento let out a sharp laugh. You were quite skilled at flattery.

“Hmm,” he hummed in agreement, “And is that why you called? So I can remind my slutty little princess just how hard I make you cum?”

“Maybe…”

“Ask me for it, pretty girl,” Ken’s voice was low and thick in your ear.

“Hng…Ken, please,” you relented with a soft whine.

Kento squeezed his eyes shut at this noise. You were so alluring. He would have to tell you…he wanted to tell you, but for now he needed to hear you cum, fall apart for him and only him.

“Very good girl,” he hummed, pleased.

You squirmed. It was ridiculous how so few words could have you clenching for him. Your nipples were pebbled through your thin shirt and you brushed your fingertips over them with a soft hiss.

“Tell me what you’re doing,” he demanded, palming himself through the front of the sweatpants that he had changed into.

“My nipples,” you panted, “Teasing them, through my shirt.”

“Imagine, my tongue on them. Lapping with my tongue wide and flat and then teasing with the tip, getting the fabric damp and wet so that when I blow on it, it grows cool.”

“Oh fuck!” you arched instinctively, images of Nanami popping into your mind. His mouth working at your puckered nipples as Ken described.

“Make a pretty wet spot to match the one that I know is on your panties.”

“Ken!” your chest heaved with ragged breaths.

“Yes, pretty girl?”

“I need,” you squirmed, “I need…something.”

“Have you been waiting for me?” Kento asked, slightly fuzzy in the chest at your obedience, despite your obvious desire.

“Yes,” you nodded, “I'm being good, I swear.”

“Can you wait for me just a bit longer? I’d like to take my time tonight.”

Kento heard you nod and he imagined the breathless expression on your face, this time in full clarity. God, he wanted you. To push your knees apart. To tie your wrists together above your head. To feast on you until he'd had his fill.

“Fuck,” he threw his head back and groaned. He hadn't thought it was impossible, but his cock was harder knowing who you were and that you were potentially in reach.

Your toes curled as you pulled your knees to your chest. Your cunt was aching and dripping at Ken’s rough, deep voice and you wished he were there to bury himself inside of you and fuck you within an inch of consciousness. You wished to be drooling and mindless, stuffed full of his fat erection.

“Daddy please, I can't wait anymore,” you cried.

Kento growled at the moniker.

“Go ahead, baby,” he coaxed you. “Go ahead and touch that pretty pussy for me. I know you need it.”

“Thank you thank you thank you,” you murmured as your fingers stroked over your soaked lips. “Fuck I'm so wet,” you giggled, relaxing with relief.

“God I want to taste you,” Kento moaned. “Eat you until it's dripping down my chin. Until you're crying.”

“Fuck! I’m gonna,” you choked at his fervent words, “Can I? Please?”

Nanami’s vision went red. So. Fucking. Polite.

“Cum for Daddy,” he coaxed.

Your body jerked. Hearing him refer to himself that way triggered a deep and primal response in you that had you crying out for him as you snapped.

Nanami’s pupils dilated as he listened to you come apart. You were so loud, so clear, so gorgeous…for him.

“Beautiful,” his voice was almost like a whisper now.

“You haven't cum yet?”

“No, not yet.”

His self control was really something else.

“Good, because I need you to cum in my pussy,” you declared.

Kento’s eyebrows raised. Little brat.

“Oh is that so? How do you figure that?”

“Because I'm you're good little slut,” you insisted. “Don't you want to fill me up?”

Kento barked out a laugh that sent a thrill down your spine. He wanted to grab a fistful of your hair and pull you to eye level with him.

“Babygirl. Listen to me carefully now,” his voice was hard, “I will cum where I want, when I want, and you will be happy with it.”

You melted audibly into your bed with a fluttery sigh and Kento smirked. You were perfect.

“You're lucky I'm in the mood to pump you full of my cum tonight,” he remarked and you felt yourself gush again.

“Please,” you nodded. You felt like you were floating. “I need you to fuck your cum into me with that fat cock, please!”

Kento grunted, hips bucking up into his fist. The dark, swollen head disappeared and reappeared repeatedly between his thumb and pointer finger as his hip flexors worked.

“Kento,” your tongue slipped as you ground your clit against the heel of your palm. “I'm co-oming!” your breath hitched in your throat as you did.

“Hah,” his panting was throaty. He tensed at the sound of your second orgasm and the mental image of being balls deep inside of you pushed him over the edge with you.

You listened to each other breathe as your minds returned to your bodies.

“Did that scratch your itch?” Kento finally asked, a content smile on his lips.

“Very much so,” you nodded, eyelids growing heavy with relaxation.

“You should sleep,” he murmured after hearing a yawn.

“Goodnight, Ken,” you muttered.

“Goodnight, YN,” he whispered after ending the call.

…

You checked your wristwatch again. The train was more than a few minutes late today. It had been a reasonable day at the courthouse, but you were ready to go home.

Eventually, the train car doors slid open with a squeak and you stepped inside. Glancing around, you were surprised when you saw a now-familiar silhouette.

“Nanami-san!” you found yourself moving towards him.

“A-ah, Ino-san,” he greeted you with a surprised expression.

“Nice to see you again. Are you headed home?”

Nanami nodded and you reached up to grab a handhold as the train pulled out of the station. The car jerked slightly and you stumbled, hand wrapping around Nanami’s flexed bicep instead.

“Shoot!” you squeaked as you tried to steady yourself. You almost jumped out of your skin when a warm hand met the small of your back, helping you regain your balance. “I’m sorry,” you turned away, slightly mortified.

“Quite alright,” Kento found himself pleased at your self-consciousness. His hand was splayed across your back and he let it linger for a moment or two longer than necessary. “How was your day?”

“It was a little busy, but not bad,” you looked up at him. “And yours?”

“It was a fair day. Did some training with students. Have you gotten any further in your book?”

“Oh I have!” your face lit up and you turned to face him. “It’s quite interesting. The language is very beautiful.”

“Hmm,” Kento nodded and you shared more of the plot and your opinions on the work.

“Oh, my stop is next,” you interjected with realization. You turned to him with a look in your eye that was almost regretful.

“May I walk you back?” Kento found himself asking. “I’m enjoying this conversation.”

“A-ah, of course!” you nodded. Heat prickling up the back of your neck.

Nanami fell into step with you as you led the way to your apartment. You found yourself truly enjoying his company so you took a few scenic options.

“Has Ino ever shared much about his special technique with you?” Kento asked.

“No,” you shook your head. “And I suppose I’ve never asked.”

“I see.” Nanami nodded. He inhaled deeply, now was as good a time as any. “There are a wide variety of techniques. One of mine involves creating weak points at a set ratio of 7:3. Some refer to me as the 7:3 Sorcerer.”

You stilled for a moment. 7:3? Nanami Kento, the 7:3 Sorcerer?

You heard an almost comical screeching sound in your mind as the pieces puzzled themselves together. Could Nanami be ken73? Surely that would be too coincidental.

Nanami had kept walking, so you found yourself several paces behind him when you snapped out of your thoughts. You jogged lightly to catch up, shooting him a furtive glance as you did so. You certainly wouldn’t mind it if he was. Imagining all of the phone calls that you’d had, those words coming out of Nanami’s mouth, had a fiery heat building steadily in your belly.

You were rendered quiet until you reached your building. You paused at the sidewalk and tried to keep your face straight as you bowed politely.

“Thank you for walking me back. I enjoyed our conversation today.”

“Likewise,” Nanami nodded. He looked you over from head to toe. You were doing a remarkably good job of staying composed, so he was not sure whether you had picked up on his clues or not. As you turned to enter your building, one last thought entered into his mind.

“YN…are you a fan of cinnamon rolls, by chance?”

Your mask fell. Your mouth fell into a circle and you turned to face Nanami again, eyes searching. He had taken his glasses off and his gaze bore into you, heavy and hot.

“Ken?” you murmured in disbelief.

His lips curled into a smile and relief curled through his chest.

“How?” you shook your head as he stepped towards you.

“I’ve been subscribed to you for years, remember? It is so surprising that I could identify your voice?” his eyes flicked over your face. “Plus you are an insufferable tease in real life too.”

You felt like there was steam coming off the top of your head. You had wondered in the past what it might feel like to be discovered, but it was always more doomsday-y than this. Having Kento find out felt more like relief and nervous excitement. You wondered what he was thinking.

“I am wildly attracted to you, both physically and mentally, but I don’t want to presume anything on your end because I understand that our virtual connection was also your job.”

“You’re not,” you answered honestly. “I-, it was meaningful to me too.”

Kento nodded.

“May I take you out on a date?”

“You don’t think we could skip that?” you reached for his tie playfully.

“I don’t-,” Kento’s mind stuttered at your touch. “I don’t want you to get the wrong idea by doing things out of order.”

Your chest squeezed. He was so proper…until he wasn’t.

“Can’t you make an exception for me?” you cooed, running your hands along his lapels.

His hands clutched your wrists and stilled them. There was a tick in his jaw that hadn’t been there before.

“If I tell you no, would you be a good girl for me and wait?”

“Yes,” you sighed, relishing the pressure of his strong grip.

“Good girl. I’ll see you tomorrow for dinner, then,” he decided and then stepped back. Almost as an afterthought he added, “And don’t even think about touching yourself before then.”

You almost let out an anguished wail at this. He was going to make you wait to have him. And you would.

…

You were vibrating with anticipation when Kento picked you up. The night passed torturously slowly with soft grazes of his knuckles against your calves, his fingertips trailing across your hips and lower back, and his warm breath curling around the shell of your ear when he spoke.

Nanami had watched proudly as you had held back shivers and bit down moans as he’d teased you through the evening. He couldn’t get enough of touching you. Watching you barely hold it together, just for him. Keeping up his gentleman’s facade he walked you to your front door, kissed your knuckles and then moved to leave.

“Kento, please,” you begged softly, looping your arm around his torso and resting your forehead against his back. “I need you,” you whispered, voice growing frayed as your sanity unwound.

Kento swept you up into his arms and pressed a kiss to your temple. You grabbed him by the necktie and pulled him into a ravenous kiss as he backed you into your apartment. Your hands pushed the suit jacket off of his shoulders and explored his broad form. For a moment Kento was caught off guard by the ferocity of your kisses, but he adjusted quickly.

“Shall I put on the apron?” you teased, lips brushing against his. The groan he let out was well worth it.

“Later,” he pressed you down onto the bed and grasped you by the ankles.

He pressed a kiss against your left ankle before he set them on his shoulders. His hands traced down your calves and pushed your skirt up over your plush thighs. It was like unwrapping a present. He found himself kneeling until your legs were hooked over his shoulders and his face was buried against your quivering, needy cunt. You had leaked completely through your panties through the course of the date and your inner thighs were slick with shine.

“All for me, princess?” he teased, before diving in. He dragged his nose along your core and kissed you languidly through the fabric. The noises were so wet and gushy, music to his ears.

“Kento,” you arched up against him, desperate for more. “Please fuck me,” you begged, the words coming out in wet, hot little pants. “You can torture me later, take your time later, but please I need you to fuck me right now!”

Kento smirked against your pussy. He had really done a number on you.

“Since you asked nicely,” he relented, peeling off his disheveled clothes. Your eyes feasted on him as he pulled off your panties and set your ankles back on his shoulders. His pupils dilated as he watched your juices coat his fat tip. His eyes rolled back as his cock slipped past your impossibly tight lips with a ‘pop’.

“God you are fucking tight, princess,” he marveled as he rocked into you. “Your pussy is gripping me.”

“Kento, more.”

He nodded and pressed a kiss to your calf again before he stroked himself deeply into you. You let out an embarrassing noise as he filled you up. Your eyes rolled back and your hips canted to meet his thrusts. Wet sounds of him burying himself into you mingled with wet pants and low groans. A coil tightened in the pit of your belly.

“I’m,” you gasp punctured the air, “I’m close.”

He nodded, keeping up his pace as you clenched around him.

“Are you?” your wild eyes sought his out, “Together?”

Kento’s eyes widened as his stomach clenched at your breathless request. Together. Yes, he wanted that too.

“A little more,” he answered, “Hold on for me.”

You nodded furiously, stifling your orgasm as Kento rutted himself deep inside of you. His cock stroked deep and thick inside of you until he tensed.

“Now, princess!” he whined, his hips stuttering as his cock twitched deep inside of you. His heavy balls shot ropes of cum into you until his body sagged atop yours.

You pulled him close and pressed kisses across his jaw and over his nose while he recovered. He grew shy at this peppering of affection, which only served to endear you to him more.

“Shall we change my nickname to cream pie instead of cinnamon roll?” you giggled, brushing some hair out of Kento’s eyes.

Kento started laughing so hard that his shoulders shook. You wrapped your arms around them and basked in the sounds of his joy.

#nanami smut #nanami kento #nanami fanfic #nanami x reader #jjk smut #jujutsu kaisen smut #jjk fanfic #jujutsu kaisen fanfic #serrated writing

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seraphic-saturn · 8 months

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Solar Return : Finances (2nd House)

Solar Return 2nd House in Aries: You may find yourself eager to invest in entrepreneurial ventures or take on new financial risks that could yield immediate returns, but it's important to ensure these ventures are well-thought-out and align with your long-term financial goals.

Solar Return 2nd House in Taurus: Focus on building a steady savings plan or exploring stable investment opportunities that provide a reliable and predictable income source, allowing you to feel financially secure and prepared for any unexpected expenses that may arise.

Solar Return 2nd House in Gemini: Explore various freelance opportunities or part-time jobs that leverage your diverse skill set and offer flexible earning potential, ensuring that you maintain clear and organized records of your income and expenses to manage your finances effectively.

Solar Return 2nd House in Cancer: Consider investing in real estate or other stable long-term assets that provide both financial security and emotional comfort, ensuring that you create a well-structured budget that allows for both practical saving and occasional indulgences that bring you joy.

Solar Return 2nd House in Leo: Channel your creativity into monetizing your passions, such as starting a side business or pursuing artistic endeavors that have the potential to generate additional income, while also being mindful of creating a sustainable financial plan that supports your creative ambitions.

Solar Return 2nd House in Virgo: Focus on organizing your financial records and exploring investment opportunities that are based on thorough research and careful analysis, ensuring that you prioritize practical and cost-effective solutions that align with your long-term financial stability and personal values.

Solar Return 2nd House in Libra: Collaborate with trusted partners or consider investment opportunities that emphasize fairness and mutual benefits, ensuring that you maintain transparent communication and legal clarity in any financial agreements to maintain a harmonious and balanced financial portfolio.

Solar Return 2nd House in Scorpio: Evaluate high-potential investment options that involve calculated risk-taking and in-depth research, ensuring that you remain aware of the potential for financial fluctuations and have contingency plans in place to manage any unexpected changes in your financial situation.

Solar Return 2nd House in Sagittarius: Embrace opportunities for professional growth and consider investing in educational pursuits or travel experiences that can expand your skill set and open up new income streams, while also maintaining a well-planned financial strategy that supports your adventurous endeavors.

Solar Return 2nd House in Capricorn: Focus on building a strong financial foundation through disciplined saving and conservative investments that prioritize long-term stability over short-term gains, ensuring that you approach financial planning with a pragmatic and realistic mindset to achieve sustainable wealth.

Solar Return 2nd House in Aquarius: Explore innovative investment options or consider contributing to socially responsible projects that align with your values and have the potential for long-term financial growth, while also maintaining a balance between your progressive financial approach and the need for practical financial security.

Solar Return 2nd House in Pisces: Trust your intuition when making financial decisions, and consider investing in charitable causes or artistic pursuits that bring you emotional fulfillment, while also maintaining a realistic and well-organized financial plan that balances your compassionate nature with the need for practical financial stability.

#astrology #astrology aspects #astrology observations #astrology finance #finances #solar return #astrology solar return #solar return 2nd house #2nd house

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aldbooks · 6 months

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Just had a hilarious idea for a fic that I'll probably never write but here goes...

Nesta, Gwyn and Emerie take a business class together their senior year and as a group project they have to create a viable business plan with budgets and projections, the works

As a joke, they decide to do a topless maid service but, after researching and looking at the numbers, they realize they could actually potentially make a lot of money at not a lot of expense and in order to open the book shop they eventually want to own, they'll need a lot of capitol and preferably not to be bogged down with loans so they decide to give it a go

Cassian is one of their first clients (because of course he is) and the tension between him and Nesta is 🔥. So Cassian makes a contract exclusively with Nesta which brings them all a steady stream of income so they agree

After hearing the story from Cass, Mor calls in out of curiosity and when Emerie shows up, she too draws up a contract.

Then there's Az. He hasn't heard about this particular service yet but his mom just called saying she got some vacation time and is coming to visit and oh my god his house is a mess. He needs it cleaned ASAP but he's too busy with work. Cassian, being the 'good friend' that he is, gives Az the girls' contact info

"They do some truly amazing work" he says. But of course leaves out some pertinent information

They have some punny name that doesn't immediately make it obvious their services are unique so though Az balks a little at the price Nesta quotes him, he knows it last minute and he's desperate. He agrees.

"Just so you know, I work from home, so I'll be there working in my office. I hope that's ok."

Nesta is confused because usually the whole point of these services is to be seen but "Yeah, of course it's ok"

I'm sure you can see where this is going

Nesta and Emerie have exclusive contracts so Gwyn is up. Az is a little confused when she shows up in a tank and tiny shorts but whatever, Cass said they do good work. He lets her in and is alarmed when, after explaining what all he needs done, she starts stripping...

#got the idea from a tiktok #Bless that woman 😂#gwynriel #nessian #emorie #valkyries acosf

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mostlysignssomeportents · 5 months

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Tech workers and gig workers need each other

Catch me in Miami! I'll be at Books and Books in Coral Gables on Jan 22 at 8PM.

We're living in the enshittocene, in which the forces of enshittification are turning everything from our cars to our streaming services to our dishwashers into thoroughly enshittifified piles of shit. Call it the Great Enshittening:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/09/lead-me-not-into-temptation/#chamberlain

How did we arrive at this juncture? Is it the end of the zero rate interest policy? Was it that the companies that formerly made useful things that we valued underwent a change in leadership that drove them to make things worse? Is Mercury in retrograde?

None of the above. There have been many junctures in which investors demanded higher returns from firms but were not able to force them to dramatically worsen their products. Moreover, the leaders now presiding over the rapid unscheduled disassembly of once-useful products are the same people who oversaw their golden age. As to Mercury? Well, I'm a Cancer, and as everyone knows, Cancers don't believe in astrology.

The Great Enshittening isn't precipitated by a change in how greedy and callous corporate leaders are. Rather, the change is in what those greedy, callous corporate leaders can get away with.

Capitalists hate capitalism. For a corporate executive, the fact that you have to make good things, please your customers, pay your workers, and beat the competition are all bugs, not features. The best business is one in which people simply pay you money without your having to do anything or worry that someday they'll stop. UBI for the investor class, in other words.

Douglas Rushkoff calls this "going meta." Don't sell things, provide a platform where people sell things. Don't provide a platform, invest in the platform. Don't invest in the platform, buy options on the platform. Don't buy options, buy derivatives of options.

A more precise analysis comes from economist Yanis Varoufakis, who calls this technofeudalism. Varoufakis draws our attention to the distinction between profits and rents. Profit is the income a capitalist receives from mobilizing workers to do something productive and then skimming off the surplus created by their labor.

By contrast, rent is income a feudalist derives from simply owning something that a capitalist or a worker needs in order to be productive. The entrepreneur who opens a coffee shop earns profits by creaming off the surplus value created by the baristas. The rentier who owns the building the coffee shop rents gets money simply for owning the building.

The coffee shop owner can never rest. At any moment, another coffee shop can open down the street and lure away their customers and their baristas. When that happens, the coffee shop goes bust and the owner is ruined. But not the landlord! After the coffee shop goes bust, the landlord's asset is more valuable – an empty storefront just down the street from the hottest coffee shop in town.

Capitalists hate capitalism. Faced with a choice of retaining their workers by paying them a fair wage and treating them well, or by saddling them with noncompetes that make it impossible to work for anyone else in the same field, and obligations to repay tens of thousands of dollars for "training" if they quit, bosses will take the latter every time. Go meta, baby.

Same for competition. Faced with the choice of competing to win the most customers with the best products, or merging so that customers have nowhere else to go, even the bitterest of rivals find it remarkably easy to intermarry until our corporations landscape is so interbred the dominant firms all have Habsburg jaws. Think: Facebook-Instagram. Disney-Fox. Microsoft-Activision:

https://locusmag.com/2021/07/cory-doctorow-tech-monopolies-and-the-insufficient-necessity-of-interoperability/

Enshittification has complex underlying dynamics and a reliable procession of stages, but the effect is quite straightforward: things are enshittified when they become worse for the people who use them and the suppliers who makes them, but nevertheless, the users keep using and the suppliers keep supplying.

There are four forces that stand in the way of enshittification, and as each of these forces grows weaker, enshittification proliferates.

The first and most important of these constraints is competition. Capitalists claim to love competition because it keeps firms sharp: they must constantly find ways to improve products and cut costs or be swept away by a superior alternative. There's a degree of truth here, but that's not the whole story.

For one thing, competition can "improve" things that we would rather see abolished. Critics of the GDPR, the EU's landmark privacy law, often point to the devastation that enforcing privacy law had on the European ad-tech industry, driving small firms out of business. But these firms were the most egregious privacy offenders, because they had the least to lose, lacking the dominant position of US-based Big Tech surveillance companies.

Having the least to lose, they were the most reckless with their privacy invasions – but they were also the least equipped to pay expensive enablers from giant corporate law firms to hold off European enforcers, and so they were obliterated. The resulting lack of competition is fine, as far as privacy goes: we don't want competition in the field of "who is most efficient at violating our human rights":

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/04/fighting-floc-and-fighting-monopoly-are-fully-compatible

But there's another benefit to competition: disorganization. A sector with hundreds of medium-sized, competing companies is a squabbling mob, incapable of agreeing on the site for an annual meeting. An industry dominated by a handful of firms is a cartel, handily capable of presenting a unified front to policy makers, and their commercial coziness provides them with vast war-chests they can use to suborn governments and capture their regulators:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/05/regulatory-capture/

Competition is the first constraint. When there's competition, corporate managers fear that you will respond to enshittification by defecting to a rival, costing them money. They don't care about your satisfaction, but they do care about your money, and competition hitches their ability to satisfy you to their ability to get paid by you.

Competition has been circling the drain for 40 years, as the "consumer welfare" theory of antitrust, hatched by Reagan's court sorcerers at the University of Chicago School of Economics, took hold. This theory insists that monopolies are evidence of "efficiency" – if everyone shops at one store, that's evidence that it's the best store, not evidence that they're cheating.

For 40 years, we've allowed companies to violate antitrust law by merging with major competitors, acquiring fledgling rivals, and using investor cash to sell below cost so that no one else can enter the market. This has produced the inbred industrial hulks of today, with five or fewer firms dominating everything from eyeglasses to banking, sea freight to professional wrestling:

https://www.openmarketsinstitute.org/learn/monopoly-by-the-numbers

The endless and continuous weakening of competition has emboldened corporate enshittifiers, who operate on the logic of Lily Tomlin in her role as an AT&T spokeswoman: "We don't care. We don't have to. We're the phone company":

https://vimeo.com/355556831

But the drawdown of competition has also enabled regulatory capture, by converting cutthroat adversaries to kissing cousins. These companies have convinced their regulators not to enforce privacy, consumer protection or labor laws, provided that the gross violations of these laws are accomplished via apps.

This is where tech exceptionalism is warranted: while the bosses that run these companies aren't any nobler – or more wicked – than the Robber Barons of yore, they are equipped with a digital back-end for their businesses that let them change the rules of the game from moment to moment.

Think of labor law: as Veena Dubal writes, gig-work companies practice algorithmic wage discrimination, turning your paycheck into a slot machine that pays out more when you are more selective about which jobs you take, and which then docks your pay by tiny increments as you become less discriminating about answering the app's call:

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

This is a plain violation of labor law, but the fiction that gig workers are contractors, combined with the opacity and speed of the wage discrimination back-end, lets the companies get away with it.

But the monsters who hatched this scam are no worse than their forebears, nor are they any smarter. Any black-hearted coal-boss memorialized in a Tennessee Ernie Ford song would have gladly practiced algorithmic wage discrimination – but there just weren't enough green-eyeshade accountants in the back office to change the payout from second to second.

I call this "twiddling" – turning the knobs on the back end to continuously adjust the business logic that the firm operates on:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/19/twiddler/

Twiddling is everywhere, and it is only possible because "it's not a crime if we use an app" has been accepted by (captured) regulators. Think of Amazon's "pricing paradox," where deceptive search results – which Amazon makes $38b/year on – allow the company to offer lower prices, but charge higher ones:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/06/attention-rents/#consumer-welfare-queens

The first constraint on enshittification is competition – the fear that you'll lose money when a disgusted customer take their business elsewhere. The second constraint is regulation – the fear that a regulator's punishment will eat up all the expected gains from an enshittificatory move, or even exceed those gains, leading to a net loss.

But the less competition there is in a sector, the easier it is for the remaining companies to capture their regulators. Say goodbye to that second constraint.

But there's another constraint – another one that's unique to technology, and genuinely exceptional. That's self-help. Digital technology is infinitely flexible, which is why managers can twiddle the business logic and change the rules on a dime.

But it's a double-edged sword. Users can twiddle back. The universal nature of digital products means it's always technically possible to disenshittify the enshittified products in your world. Mercedes wants to charge you rent on your accelerator pedal via a monthly subscription? Just mod the car by toggling the "subscription paid" bit and get the accelerator for free:

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

HP tricks you into installing a "security update" that sneakily disables your printer's ability to recognize and use third-party ink? Just roll back the operating system and you won't be forced to spend $10,000/gallon to print out your boarding passes and shopping lists:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-battle-soul-digital-freedom-taking-place-inside-your-printer

Self-help – AKA "adversarial interoperability" – isn't just a way to override the greedy choices of corporate sadists. It's a way to hold those sadists in check. It's a constraint.

Imagine a boardroom where someone says, "I calculate that if we make our ads 25% more invasive and obnoxious, we can eke out 2% more in ad-revenue." If you think of a business as a transhuman colony organism that exists to maximize shareholder value, this is a no-brainer.

But now consider the rejoinder: "If we make our ads 25% more obnoxious, then 50% of our users will be motivated to type, 'how do I block ads?' into a search engine. When that happens, we don't merely lose out on the expected 2% of additional revenue – our income from those users falls to zero, forever."

Self-help is the third constraint on enshittification. But when competition fails, and regulatory capture ensues, companies don't just gain the ability to flout the law – they get to wield the law, too.

Tech firms have cultivated a thicket of laws, rules and regulations that make self-help measures very illegal. This thicket is better known as "IP," a term that is best understood as meaning "any policy that lets me control the conduct of my competitors, my customers and my critics":

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

To put an ad-blocker in an app, you have to reverse-engineer it. To do that, you'll have to decrypt and decompile it. That step is a felony under Section 1201 of the DMCA, carrying a five-year prison sentence and a $500,000 fine. Beyond that, ad-blocking an app would give rise to liability under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (a law inspired by the movie Wargames!), under "tortious interference" claims, under trademark, copyright and patent.

More than 50% of web users have installed an ad-blocker:

https://doc.searls.com/2023/11/11/how-is-the-worlds-biggest-boycott-doing/

But zero percent of app users have installed an ad-blocker, because they don't exist, because you'd go to prison if you made one. An app is just a web-page wrapped in enough IP to make it a felony to add an ad-blocker to it.

This is why self-help, the third constraint, no longer applies. When a corporate sadist says, "let's make ads 25% more obnoxious to get 2% more revenue," no one says, "if we do that, our users will all install blockers." Instead, the response is, "let's make ads 100% more obnoxious and get an 8% revenue boost!"

https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/16/23763227/uber-video-advertising-ads-taxi-food-delivery-apps

Which brings me to the final constraint: workers.

Tech workers have historically enjoyed enormous bargaining power, thanks to a dire shortage of qualified personnel. While this allowed tech workers to command high salaries and cushy benefits, it also led many workers to conceive of themselves as entrepreneurs-in-waiting and not workers at all.

This made tech workers very exploitable: their bosses could sell them on the idea that they were doing something heroic, which warranted "extremely hardcore" expectations – working 16 hour days, sleeping under your desk, sacrificing your health, your family and your personal life to meet deadlines and ship products ("Real artists ship" – S. Jobs).

But the flip side of this appeal to heroism is that it only worked to the extent that it convinced workers to genuinely care about the things they made. When you miss you mother's funeral and pass on having kids in order to meet deadline and ship a product, the prospect of making that product worse is unthinkable.

Confronted by the moral injury of enshittifying a product you care about, and harming the users you see yourself as representing, many tech workers balked at the prospect. Because tech workers were scarce – and because there were plenty of employment prospects for workers who quit – they could actually prevent their bosses from making their products worse:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/25/moral-injury/#enshittification

But those days are behind us, too. Mass tech worker layoffs have gutted tech workers' confidence. When Google lays off 12,000 tech workers just months after a stock buyback that would have paid their wages for the next 27 years, they deliver two benefits to their shareholders. It's not just the short-term gains from the financial engineering – there's the long-term gain of gutting worker power and stripping away the final impediment to enshittification:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/10/the-proletarianization-of-tech-workers/

No matter how strong an individual tech worker's bargaining power was, it was always brittle. Long before googlers were being laid off in five-digit cohorts, they were working in an environment where harassment and predation were just part of the job. The 20,000+ googlers who walked off the job in 2018 were an important step towards replacing the system where each tech worker's power was limited to their moment-to-moment importance to their bosses' plans with a new system based on a collective identity.

Only through collective action and solidarity – unions – could tech workers hope to truly resist all the moral injuries of their bosses enshittification imperatives. No surprise then, that tech unions are on the rise:

https://abookapart.com/products/you-deserve-a-tech-union

But what is a little surprising – and very heartening! – is what happens when techies start to self-identify as workers: they come to understand that they share common cause with the other workers at the bottom of the tech stack. Think of Amazon's tech workers walking out in solidarity with Amazon's warehouse workers:

https://gizmodo.com/tech-workers-speak-out-in-support-of-amazon-warehouse-s-1842839301

Superficially, the bottom rank of the tech industry is as different from the tech workers at the top as you can imagine. Tech workers are formally employed, with stock options, health care and theme-park "campuses" with gyms and gourmet cafeterias.

The gig workers who pack, drive, deliver and support tech products aren't even employees – they're misclassified as contractors. They don't get free massages – they get AI bosses that monitor their eyeballs and dock their paychecks for peeing:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/11/robots-stole-my-jerb/#computer-says-no

Gig workers desperately need unions, but they also derive extraordinary benefits from self-help measures. When an app is your boss, another app can make all the difference to your working conditions. Take Para, an app that fights algorithmic wage discrimination by allowing gig workers to collectively and automatically refuse any job where the pay is below a certain threshold, forcing the algorithm to pay everyone more:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/tech-rights-are-workers-rights-doordash-edition

Para is fighting a grim legal and technical battle against companies like Doordash, whose margins depend on atomized workers with atomized apps, prohibited from countertwiddling. This is a surprisingly effective tactic: in Indonesia, gig workers co-ops create suites of "tuyul" apps that modify the behavior of their bosses' apps', unilaterally securing concessions that they lack the bargaining power to secure by other means:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/08/tuyul-apps/#gojek

Tuyul apps and other forms of countertwiddling aren't a substitute for unionization, they're an adjunct to it. The union negotiator whose rank-and-file are able to modify the apps that monitor and control their working conditions operates from a position of strength. "Please give my members more bathroom breaks" is a lot weaker than, "If you want my members to stop hacking their apps so they can piss when they need to, you're going to have to give them official bathroom breaks."

This is where solidarity between the high-paid tech workers at the keyboard and low-paid tech workers on the delivery bikes comes in. Together, they can wring more concessions from their bosses, sure. But unionized coders can give their unionized delivery riders the apps they need to countertwiddle and increase the bargaining leverage of all the workers in the union. And when unionized coders' bosses force them to put enshittifying anti-features in the apps they care about, unionized front-line workers can run counter-apps that disenshittify them.

Other sectors are already working through versions of this. The ouster of the old corrupt leadership of the Teamsters ushered in a new, radical era that produced historic wage and working condition gains for drivers and the abolition of the two-tier contract system that eventually destroys any union that tries it.

That change in leadership was possible because the Teamsters organized the Harvard Grad Students, and those Harvard kids memorized the union rulebook. At the historic conference where the old guard was abolished, it was teamwork between the union rank-and-file and the rules-lawyers from Harvard that turned the proceedings around:

https://theintercept.com/2023/04/07/deconstructed-union-dhl-teamsters-uaw/

We are deep into the enshittocene and it is terribly demoralizing. But by understanding the constraints that kept enshittification at bay, we can rebuild them, and shore them up. Labor organizing among all kinds of tech workers isn't just a way to get a better deal for those workers – it's key to the disenshittification of all our lives.

I'm Kickstarting the audiobook for The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

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

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/13/solidarity-forever/#tech-unions

#pluralistic #jennifer abruzzo #labor #tech unions #tech layoffs #enshittification #para #tuyul apps #solidarity #union density

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bitchesgetriches · 2 years

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On food and groceries:

How to Shop for Groceries like a Boss

Why Name Brand Products Are Beneath You: The Honor and Glory of Buying Generic

If You Don’t Eat Leftovers I Don’t Even Want to Know You

You Are above Bottled Water, You Elegant Land Mermaid

You Should Learn To Cook. Here’s Why.

On entertainment and socializing:

The Frugal Introvert’s Guide to the Weekend

7 Totally Reasonable Ways To Save Money on Cheap Entertainment

Take Pride in Being a Cheap Date

The Library Is a Magical Place and You Should Fucking Go There

Your Library Lets You Stream Audiobooks and eBooks FOR FREEEEEEE!

What’s the Effect of Social Media on Your Finances?

You Won’t Regret Your Frugal 20s

On health:

How to Pay Hospital Bills When You’re Flat Broke

Run With Me if You Want to Save: How Exercising Will Save You Money

Our Master List of 100% Free Mental Health Self-Care Tactics

Why You Probably Don’t Need That Gym Membership

On other big expenses:

Businesses Will Happily Give You HUGE Discounts if You Ask This Magic Question

Understand the Hidden Costs of Travel and Avoid Them Like the Plague

Other People’s Weddings Don’t Have to Make You Broke

You Deserve Cheap, Fake Jewelry… Just Like Coco Chanel

3 Times I Was Damn Grateful for My Emergency Fund (and Side Income)

When (and How) to Try Refinancing or Consolidating Student Loans

The Real Story of How I Paid Off My Mortgage Early in 4 Years

Season 2, Episode 2: “I’m Not Ready to Buy a House—But How Do I *Get Ready* to Get Ready?”

The Most Impactful Financial Decision I’ve Ever Made… and Why I Don’t Recommend It

On buying secondhand and trading:

Almost Everything Can Be Purchased Secondhand

I Am a Craigslist Samurai and so Can You: How to Sell Used Stuff Online

The Delicate Art of the Friend Trade

On giving gifts and charitable donations:

How Can I Tame My Family’s Crazy Gift-Giving Expectations?

In Defense of Shameless Regifting

Make Sure Your Donations Have the Biggest Impact by Ruthlessly Judging Charities

The Anti-Consumerist Gift Guide: I Have No Gift to Bring, Pa Rum Pa Pum Pum

How to Spot a Charitable Scam

Ask the Bitches: How Do I Say “No” When a Loved One Asks for Money… Again?

On resisting temptation:

How to Insulate Yourself From Advertisements

Making Decisions Under Stress: The Siren Song of Chocolate Cake

The Magically Frugal Power of Patience

6 Proven Tactics for Avoiding Emotional Impulse Spending

On minimalism and buying less:

Don’t Spend Money on Shit You Don’t Like, Fool

Everything I Know About Minimalism I Learned from the Zombie Apocalypse

Slay Your Financial Vampires

The Subscription Box Craze and the Mindlessness of Wasteful Spending

On saving money:

How To Start Small by Saving Small

Not Every Savings Account Is Created Equal

The Unexpected Benefits (and Downsides) of Money Challenges

Budgets Don’t Work for Everyone—Try the Spending Tracker System Instead

From HYSAs to CDs, Here’s How to Level Up Your Financial Savings

Season 2, Episode 10: “Which Is Smarter: Getting a Loan? or Saving up to Pay Cash?”

The Magic of Unclaimed Property: How I Made $1,900 in 10 Minutes by Being a Disorganized Mess

#saving money #being frugal #money advice #personal finance #how to save money #impulse spending #spend less

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sapionic · 1 year

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Placements In Taurus

Astrology information about SOME(not all) placements in Taurus. If you don't see a particular placement, it's intentional, not accidental.

Taurus Sun ♉ ☀️ As a Taurus Sun, you're born during Taurus Season which means your life will be centered around earthly pleasures and striving for stability and maintenance in your life. You're likely always busy doing many things and being engaged with many different situations. You usually don't have a problem with meeting people and creating friendships. Multiple income streams comes naturally to you and plus you're likely to have friends that introduce you to things anyway. Your daily circumstances are changeable and as a fixed sign, you'll have to master some flexibility to maneuver these changes that's bound to happen regardless if you're ready or not.

Taurus Moon ♉ 🌙 You're naturally grounded in yourself around anyone. You're comfortable in general and always striving to maintain that comfort. You like environments that are jolly and lighthearted in nature. You feel stable when you're stimulated. You like good food and you're likely to become better at cooking if it doesn't come naturally to you. You're emotionally motivated to create a home for yourself that you can feel proud about. You're naturally receiving attention although it's not what you're striving for. In family settings, the attention may go to you.

Taurus Mercury ♉ 🦜 You're naturally grounded in your beliefs and may have a one track mind or a main way of thinking. Once you're having a conversation with someone, you probably can talk a mile a minute. You're comfortable in your voice and what you have to say. Your voice is calming or soothing. Your speech is clear and notable. Your tone may increase in volume around people you're comfortable with or family. You are probably more animated with your family. You make logical decisions.

Taurus Venus ♉ 😍

You're likely into yourself so much that you maintain your cleanliness and appearance. You are naturally good at having a clean look about you and presenting yourself with tact when it comes to appearance. This same thing attracts you to a person. A person that can keep themselves up is great. Upon making connections, you definitely like to keep your options open, but as things develop into frequency, you open up and can be more nurturing in these connections. You have a soft spot for the people you connect with habitually. You enjoy skilled cooking/food and also enjoy indulging in it with the people that matter.

Taurus Mars Before you take action, you consider the logical reasoning behind it. You are likely not quick to do something unless you truly feel you want to and have considered it worthy. You're meant to take action in a slow manner. You're meant to weigh pros, cons, and possibilities. You're likely always buying and eating foods that you like as if it's mandatory. You're someone that has to warm up to situations which is why people shouldn't take you for granted. Likely attracted to people who have a laid back persona.

Taurus Rising

You're naturally independent and focused on your responsibility of the moment. You're patient when it comes to doing what needs to be done. You come off very direct and practical. You're likely always surrounded by your siblings. They are a big part of your daily life. You may help them or even make decisions for them or because of them. They're your first friends and then you make your actual friends. If you aren't the one cooking, you're helping cook. You're likely very bold in family dealings and can be counted on to hold the family together in some way. Your life experience becomes fiercely about structure and serious matters. There could be certain situations that happened in your life that felt practically tough, but you're likely to overcome those things a huge deal. You have a social disposition so people won't consider the many things you've dealt with, but you'll always likely have a clan of people by your side.

#astro community #astrology #astro notes #astro placements #astro rambles #natal chart #taurus mars #taurus #taurus mercury #taurus sign #taurus sun #planets #zodiac signs #zodiac

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thecrazygamingzombie · 7 months

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How Viviziepop kickstarted the third wave of indie animation.

Okay, I've been seeing a lot of people talk about the tweet below and how Viv doesn't deserve to take credit for the success of other indie animation projects online but the fact of the matter is...she does, in an indirect way at least.

First, let's start off with a brief history of indie animation:

everything started out on a site called newgrounds, I'm sure you've all heard of it. Created by Tom Fulp in the 90s to show case some of his half baked game ideas. Which eventually evolved into a place where indie creators could post anything they wanted without fear of censorship; the rating system that automatically removed any posts that dropped too low being the only source of quality control.

This gave indie animation it's initial foothold online but without any way of obtaining a revenue stream it never really moved beyond a fun hobby done to practice one's art/coding skills or just screw around with friends online.

This problem got more significant as time went on and many of the teenage artists that gave newgrounds it's inital success, such as RicePirate and Tom Fulp, grew into young adults who needed a revenue stream. Luckily they found one in the form of youtube.

With these monetization policies, many indie animators were actually able to go into animation practically full time. Their pre-existing income bolstered by that of youtube and what followed was a golden era of animation, just an explosion of content across the board. You had stuff like Eddsworld, Salad Fingers, ASDF movie, and tons of other creators bursting onto the scene.

all putting their content out there on Youtube for the world to see. All bolstered by revenue coming in from Youtube...but the good times never last

See, back then youtube's monetization policies were pretty simple: the more views your channel got, the more money you'd make. Great for short form animators and also great for clickbait youtubers who abused the system with deceiving thumbnails and titles!

To combat this, Youtube changed it's monetization policies in March of 2012: instead of being rewarded on view count, monetization would instead reward the time watched during a video. Which created a system where longer videos with frequent uploads were rewarded

In theory this was supposed to stop clickbait videos as people would just watch for a few seconds and leave. But in practice? It meant that animators were put at a heavy disadvantage as now they'd have to put in significantly more work for the same result.

This caused a complete and total crash of indie animation online. Between an unfair algorithm and the rise of gaming channels, most indie animators couldn't gather the same level of funding they could before and had to either quit or scale back.

Only the big name animators who could coast by on brand recognition such as Harry Partridge and TomSka among several others, or larger channels with dedicated teams similar to tv studios such as Mondo Media and Rooster Teeth. Were able to keep going.

This started a brief dark age for online animation until the advent of story time animators. People like Jaiden Animations, Swoozie, and TheOdd1sOut who relied on simplistic art styles with minimalist animation that focused on content reminiscent of old vlogs where the animators simply share stories from their everyday lives that allowed them to put out longer videos faster; thus working around the monetization system that had put so many animators out in the cold.

While they didn't solve the problem, in some ways they made it worse by starting a trend that attracted countless copycats, they did help sustain an interest in indie animation online and ensure there was a consistent audience for such a medium.

Now it wasn't a total wasteland mind you, as I said there were still plenty of animators who survived the purge. There were even a few channels such as Shut Up Cartoons and Mondo Media, again, that helped produce dozens of animated series from indie creators.

But even at it's best, these series were still very amateurish. The passion was obviously there but these were still very simplistic flash or stop motion animations with low budgets and small teams, focusing more on episodic skits than any sort of overarching plot

This environment of amateur passion projects, where animated series were usually very small scale and never really escaped from the limited sphere of youtube, went on for several years and kept the animation community alive. Until Viv posted Hazbin Hotel and brought about the third wave of indie animation.

Unlike the previous examples, Hazbin Hotel was a VERY different beast from most indie animation. Not only did it have an extremely distinct visual style but the animation was so fluid, so professionally made, it felt like something you'd see out of a mainstream studio. It felt leagues above the average indie project in terms of quality.

Now Viv had already a decent audience from her Zoophobia webcomic, her speed draws, and the die young video. So it wasn't like she was starting from nothing. But there was no denying that this new form of animation caught people's attention and caught it FAST.

You all can probably recall the explosion of discussion that surrounded the original pilot and how it was all the internet was talking about for awhile. Viv road that wave and used the momentum to launch 'Helluva Boss' another indie production with a similar style.

This made her even more popular, especially when she started cranking out new episodes of the latter series with the same high quality as before, and soon her fanbase swelled to millions. A fanbase that was more than happy to crowdfund Viv's work through patreon and merch sales. Then other animators saw this and realized that there was a sizable audience for animated content; one that could not only sustain professional level animation, but was desperate for more content of this scale. Soon several other series started cropping up like MurderDrones, Lackadaisy, Monkey Wrench, and the Amazing Digital Circus. All of which followed Viv's lead of producing high quality, fluid animation with overarching plots that drew funding entirely from legions of online fans.

For the first time in a long time, indie animation was breaking out of it's original platform and reaching far more mainstream audiences than it ever has in the past on a scale never before seen and it's all because Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss kicked off this new animation renaissance!

Now I'm not gonna say Viv was solely responsible, the series we enjoy now have thrived primarily on their own merits and the creative minds behind them.

But as it stands, her work played a big role in setting the stage for other indie animation projects and creating the perfect conditions for them to thrive amidst the current digital landscape. Like it or not, Viv is the catalyst for modern indie animation. To deny Viv her rightful place in history out of spite is nothing short of historical revisionism.

Give the gal her due, she's done some amazing things for this crazy world we live in.

Here's the videos I got most of my info from, it's important to cite one's sources after all!

youtube

#helluva boss #hazbin hotel #vivziepop #animation #indie animation #long post #tumblr essay #Youtube

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eelhound · 1 year

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"[The U.S. Surgeon General] is right to talk about loneliness as an important issue and social bonds as critical for our health and well-being — humans are social creatures, and we all need human support systems to thrive. But ultimately, calls that emphasize individual actions don’t quite work to solve the problem, and we need to promote a culture centered around the individual and the collective well-being.

For people to truly not be lonely or isolated, and to live meaningful lives in which their potentials can be realized, it’ll take more than atomized actors making small-scale connections; we need an entirely new social fabric which fosters social connection, and that has to come about through systemic changes, such as what Goldstein says in the rest of his tweet:

The indirect policy solutions on these things are one that centrist/neoliberals will never call for. Ones that give us time, basic needs met as guarantees. A basic income, a 30 (or 20) hour work week, guarantee health care and paid leave, reducing the scale of corporate power in tech, entertainment, advertising by immensely taxing corporate wealth/revenue (not just profits) and by limiting their ability to take over our public spaces and airwaves, fighting for union power, fighting automakers/car culture, fighting suburban developers, and so many more policies that actually foster and enable genuine social infrastructure.

How can you join a political group when you are working one, two, or three jobs to make ends meet? (Even one full-time job is exhausting enough.) How can you take a break to meet someone for coffee or join a reading group when you don’t have child care? How can you seek out new social connections when social media and streaming services are designed to be addictive and take up a lot of your free time? How can you make a social connection without having to consume something (say, buying food or drinks to get a place to sit) because public spaces for recreation are so limited? How can you meet up with a friend or family member who lives 20 miles away or multiple bus rides away? Or when your loneliness complicates depression or other mental health needs and you don’t have healthcare?

I’m not saying people never get to socialize. The point is that social and economic realities make it too difficult for the vast majority of people to develop healthy social lives. There’s also something cruel about telling people, 'These are the solutions,' but they’re things that many people can’t actually do. This makes it easier for people to then blame themselves when they don’t fix their loneliness — after all, the 'solutions' were available!

... The larger point here is that whenever we are told to 'do more of something,' we should ask whether society is creating the conditions for us to do that thing (assuming that thing is indeed good)."

- Lily Sánchez, from "The Surgeon General Should Stop Telling People to Solve the Loneliness Crisis on Their Own." Current Affairs, 3 May 2023.

#lily sánchez #quote #quotations #community #relationships #mental health #well being #activism #democratic socialism #socializing #adulting #loneliness #neoliberalism #capitalism #individualism

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zsakuva · 2 months

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Hello! My name is Grim, and I fancy myself a bit of a researcher. Now, this is not for anything important or extremely serious. Instead, this is mostly for my own pure enjoyment and something I have in the works that is to be posted on Tumblr. You are not obligated to answer any or all of these questions I have posed. I know it’s a bit much. Take your time, but don’t feel obligated to do anything. Feel free to add any additional input! Thanks for your consideration!

1. How different do you think your work would be, in terms of getting across a point, in a different medium thats not Audio RP?

2. How do you think your work would be different if it more reflected main stream industry forms of storytelling where you as a creator would be more separate? (ex. movies, tv shows, games, etc.)

3. How important do you find the voice acting in your work?

4. You are the primary voice of your works. Would you consider taking a step back from voice acting in your work to focus on narrative work?

5. Do you believe your own individual ability to voice characters enhances the story overall?

6. Do you enjoy the idea of a “Listener character” or would you better prefer to not have one?

7. As a writer, how does the writing of the Listener take you out of your comfort zone? (ie their effect in relationships, plot movements, etc.)

8. Is Audio RP your favored form of art?

9. How do you believe Audio RP differs from main stream forms of art/entertainment?

10. Do you believe that your work has over arching themes that relate to you personally? (very optional)

Hello, and thank you for the questions!

How different do you think your work would be, in terms of getting across a point, in a different medium that's not Audio RP?

If I were to create similar storylines in another medium, I think my work would be very different. The major element that all my stories are based around is the Listener. Everything is crafted from their perspective, so I need to always keep this in mind when scripting and editing. The best ways to handle the narrative and dialogue are through implications with other characters and SFX; to keep audios sounding as authentic as possible, this must always be considered when I work. Much of it is filled with the Listener's imagination, but to convey a point with only audio cues can be a difficult task.

2. How do you think your work would be different if it more reflected main stream industry forms of storytelling where you as a creator would be more separate? (ex. movies, tv shows, games, etc.)

I'd allow the story to breathe and marinate due to the platform it's on and the medium the story is told in.

The genre of audio RP, especially on YouTube is already limited because creators are told that in order to keep an audience, we must hook them within the first 10-30 seconds. Due to this, we develop our audios with that in mind; it can come as a detriment to our creativity and desire to show a story in a particular way. We're confined by parameters that value immediate views and responses in order for our creations to be deemed successful, and when many use YouTube as their primary source of income, this manner of thinking can become the norm. In order to stay relevant, we must research what's trendy, what tropes are no longer popular, and though it's not necessary, online demand can change on a dime. Exploring different topics and themes are also limited due to this; creators must work within the platform's restrictions, and that has impeded many stories with how deep I can dive and what it could've become.

As a visual medium—particularly movies and TV shows—my stories would be far better. Viewers can perceive them the way I want them to and with far more understanding. Although SFX and a wonderful soundscape can teleport consumers to another place, the nuances that I love and appreciate slip through the cracks. On a larger scale, visualising the settings, fashions, and people can elevate a story as it gives a plainer context everyone can draw from. On a smaller scale, facial expressions and body language are paramount for communication, something that audio RP cannot do.

An example of this would be my newest series, The Noble Trials. It's a high fantasy world which, in itself, is difficult to show because in that kind of setting, anything goes. I want the audience to experience the extravagant events, the opulent locations, the embellished fashion. Of course, as I depend heavily on sound design, I have faith in the listeners to imagine that for themselves, but they'll never imagine it the way I do. The only option is to write it through dialogue, and sometimes, this can feel unnatural. I'm one to sprinkle in details, so if I decide to create a new fantasy creature, I must show it through SFX and characters describing it. That's not to say it can't be done, but that requires more time and effort; it depends on if a creator is willing to go the extra mile for a little more immersion.

3. How important do you find the voice acting in your work?

I find it extremely important! If I want my audience to be transported, then all elements of the story must be convincing, and the character I voice is no exception. Voice acting is the primary driver of it all; though dialogue can certainly tell the audience something, the way it's expressed is vital to adding a layer of realism. As I can't rely on faces and movement to show a particular feeling, it must be emoted through speech, and that can elevate a story to the next level.

4. You are the primary voice of your works. Would you consider taking a step back from voice acting in your work to focus on narrative work?

I've thought about it but I don't believe it to be a possibility. Most of my community listen to my works because I'm voicing the characters, so it's something I must continue doing. However, writing is my strength and passion. It gives me true joy, so if I was guaranteed my career would be retained and someone else voiced the main character, I would consider it. At this point however, it's not an option.

5. Do you believe your own individual ability to voice characters enhances the story overall?

Though I'd say I'm okay at what I do in terms of voice acting, I know there are others that are far better than I am, and I believe they could take my stories much further. My projects are made with audio dramas in mind, so I think that someone more skilled in voice acting could easily transform a character of mine.

Also, my vocal range is pretty good, but voicing all characters (I've created 18 so far with many more to come) is very difficult. Although the audience know it's one man behind all these characters, as a creator I'm compelled to separate everyone so they don't sound similar. Of course, it's impossible to take note of every modulation the voice makes and consistently use certain intonations where necessary, but there will always be similarities between the characters which, to me, hurts the story if the voice is comparable to another and the audience notice. It makes me want to develop my acting more, but it's quite saddening despite what I must do to make characters sound different (pitch, accent, tone, etc). In this case, I am my own limitation.

6. Do you enjoy the idea of a “Listener character” or would you better prefer to not have one?

The short answer is no, I do not enjoy the idea of a Listener character. As a writer, it limits what a story can convey.

In the beginning, it was a great challenge because I could experiment with how to tell stories through the perspective of someone who doesn't talk. It allowed me to develop different means of showing a narrative through SFX and one-sided dialogue, and to understand the limitations and liberties I could make. However, there's a massive downside: everyone is different. Some creators like the Listener being a blank slate for the audience to fill, and that's absolutely fine; I started out like this too!

But as I sank deeper into adding dimension and story to my characters, I realised that I needed to do the same for the Listeners. They need personality, and desires, and struggles that will inevitably clash with other characters. A blank slate cannot drive a story, nor can they transform it in any way because there's nothing to challenge or change. For my stories, the Listener's personality and interests must have something of substance in order to interact with characters.

However, this also proves to be inconvenient because the audience may not be able to relate. Some listeners like to insert themselves into an audio while others enjoy it from a third-person perspective. Those who listen in the former way can have difficulties with what the Listeners do because it's a stark contrast to who they are, and that can break immersion. Additionally, they can develop characteristics about the Listener depending on their own beliefs of them—by their own reflection or other means.

The most recent example would be Alex's series. Tl;dr of the story: Alex and Gremlin (the Listener's petname) have been together for four years. One day, Gremlin accused Alex of cheating, they were wrong, tensions arose, both were stupid, they broke up, and Gremlin left to who knows where. The latest episode is a dream sequence that explores Gremlin's thoughts about what happened, what they think of themselves, and it reveals other questionable things they've done. As a character, Gremlin suffers from trauma, and this drives them to act in unfavourable ways similarly to Alex. The purpose of this audio was to show that Gremlin is not as good as they seem. Everyone is flawed, and I make sure my characters are no different. But many listeners likely can't imagine themselves screaming accusations at their long-time partner, stalking them, and living with crippling trust issues and anxiety; therefore, in their mind, that doesn't happen in the audio.

If the Listener character was voiced, I think their views would be different, but this is the main factor: No matter how detailed I am, the audience will never see the Listener the way I do. And as I want to write narratives in a specific way to convey a specific idea, that can get lost in translation. That means a Listener character must be predetermined in order to write a compelling story and explore themes and situations I can't do with a blank slate.

7. As a writer, how does the writing of the Listener take you out of your comfort zone? (ie their effect in relationships, plot movements, etc.)

Having been doing this for a few years, I think I have a comfortable grasp on how to write Listener characters. The main challenge is natural dialogue between them and other characters, as well as staying true to the personality I've given them. Different Listener characters would notice or mention certain things depending on who they are, and I must always keep that in mind. But for the most part, it's pretty enjoyable!

8. Is Audio RP your favored form of art?

Absolutely not. My favoured form of art has always been audio-visual in nature because that's what I respond best to. Films and TV shows are where my heart truly lies, but expressing myself through this medium is a privilege I cannot take for granted. It can evoke just as much emotion as other arts, and I find that amazing. Although I love watching things, storytelling keeps me sane, and I always have something to share or create. Audio RP gives me the opportunity to challenge my ideas, expand my knowledge, experiment with characters, and develop other skills such as audio engineering (which I love). But most of all, it lets me offer my stories to the world, and I'm so happy I'm able to do so.

9. How do you believe Audio RP differs from main stream forms of art/entertainment?

It's an interesting art form in its own right because although there are certain elements of story set in stone, for the most part it's personalised. Drawing from the way I create audios, the audience—even if they aren't projecting themselves onto them—is experiencing a story through the Listener. It's a limited perspective, and the only things that belong to the consumer are their thoughts, though it might not necessarily be canon to the plot. Most narratives are told through a camera, and what the viewer sees is carefully crafted for the purpose of the story. However, as Audio RP is told from a second-person POV, curating an experience is far more immersive, and I think there is still room to innovate with this medium!

10. Do you believe that your work has over arching themes that relate to you personally?

Without a doubt! Many characters share parts of me, whether that be likes, dislikes, ideologies, experiences, or even direct memories. It's easy to use yourself or people you know as a basis for characters, then build upon that to make them their own individual with their own journey.

Niall is the best example of this. At school, he was closeted but was outed against his will and bullied for being gay, and his crush (the Listener) at the time stood by and watched it happen. In the present timeline, Niall is a creative with a job that keeps him occupied, but those traumas shaped him into who he is: a socially awkward and wary man without love for the part of him he refuses to show. His fears of trust and making friends governed him, but above it all, he was afraid to accept who he is. His story explores that deep fracture: navigating what it means to forgive, changing a once rigid and cold outlook on the world, and in the end, permitting a chance for healing and closure, and realising that living without love is no way to live.

Though I didn't experience most of what he did, writing Niall was a way for me to also have hope in similar thoughts that I carry. It was somewhat therapeutic—more-so knowing that his story resonated with other people and helped them find some form of catharsis.

Thank you so much for these questions! I'm so sorry I wrote so much omg

#zsakuva #sakuverse #audio roleplay #boyfriend audios #audio rp #writing

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