~Utilities Included Comic Masterpost~

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Utilities Included by @strawhattery

utilities included: the faq

ahead of the utilities included finale, i shared my retrospring on here & twitter, and i invited anyone to ask questions about the story. you can find the answers to those questions below the cut, and i'll be updating this post as any additional questions come in!

why did you choose an alpha/alpha pairing?

i think i was drawn to that dynamic specifically because it felt the most accurate to how i interpret their canon dynamic. it also gave me a vehicle to explore sanji's identity (and queerness), which was a lot of fun.

why did you choose sanji's limited POV?

limited POV in a romance story creates an interesting layer of narrative tension ("how does the other character feel?") that i love. i also knew early on that i wanted sanji to be a chronic overthinker in contrast to zoro's more simple, straightforward approach to life, and i knew that i wanted that contrast in their personalities to be the root of the story's "conflict." so it was easy to decide that i needed to plant myself in sanji's headspace for the story—that's where all the conflict is!

why did i decide to remove sanji's ability to sense pheromones?

when i was first outlining the story, sanji was actually going to move into the apartment as a favor to his friend luffy, who was begging him to take over his lease. but when i sat down to write this, it didn't really feel like luffy to me, so i pivoted to story so luffy has already run off and nami's trying to find a total stranger to take over his lease. this is what you see at the very beginning of chapter one. however, i quickly realized a plot hole in this: if sanji could sense pheromones, he'd immediately know the place wasn't nami's, and he might not even step foot in the apartment to begin with (because i was always going to write him not liking or trusting other alphas). so. uh. i nixed his ability to smell pheromones. and that spur of the moment decision ended up becoming the cornerstone of sanji's characterization and a major part of his internal conflict. i actually forgot until i sat down to answer this question why this became part of the story because it was a decision made so early in the process that it's funny to think there was ever a version of utilities included in my mind that didn't have it!

which part of utilities included did i enjoy creating the most?

chapter 10 is my favorite chapter overall, but the pool scene at the end of chapter 3 is really special to me. it's the first time sanji realizes these people are thinking of him as a friend, and it's also the strawhats (and friends) being petty criminals in a modern AU. honestly, any of the group scenes (with 4+ characters) i had a blast writing. i love the chaos and the silliness and also being able to push myself to make every character sound distinct from one another on the page. but the pool scene is just extra special for me.

while writing sanji POV, did i think of what zoro's POV would be each scene?

generally speaking: no. when i first started writing fanfiction, i had this compulsion to cram every detail i had thought about into my exposition instead of letting the details come up naturally through conversation or character observation. there are different ways you can get out of this trap as a writer (or lean into it, if you want to), but for me the most effective method was the most simple: if you don't need it, just don't think about it! so unless zoro's state of mind was directly contributing to the plot (because of what he was saying or how he was acting), i simply did not think about it. i like to think that gives sanji's spiraling thoughts some degree of authenticity because while sanji was thinking "how does zoro feel about this?" i was also thinking "hm. i wonder how zoro feels about all this." well. to an extent. i knew that zoro was going to be into sanji from the first moment they met (he likes blades. sanji threw a blade. simple.) and i knew that their first kiss was going to be zoro's "little garden" moment where he'd suddenly go from neutrally annoying sanji to actively stoking the fires of sanji's competitive spirit (and sexuality). and i knew that when the "define the relationship" conversation inevitably came to pass, zoro was going to be just as Not Bothered about it as sanji was Bothered. that's it, that's all i planned for zoro's perspective (with the obvious exception of the epilogue). i'm a big fan of working smarter, not harder with this stuff ☺️

what did sanji first smell like to zoro?

i kind of touch on this in the epilogue, but i'll expand a bit here. for sanji's pheromones, i wanted them to reflect the duality of his canon personality: both harsh and kind. so i wrote his pheromones as being both sweet and a little burnt. when i was thinking of how pheromones "work" i was loosely using the formula of "imagine you smelled a subtle scent ONCE, then ten years later your brain had to recreate that scent from memory." so zoro's brain does something like sweet + burned = caramel / sake, another character's brain might do something like sweet + burned = tobacco. it's less about a 1:1 scent and more about what their brain associates with that scent, if that makes sense? and if it doesn't make sense, you can see why i enjoyed writing a 100k story from the POV of the one character who can't understand this crap ☺️ as for their first impressions: when zoro first walked into the apartment, sanji had been contently cooking, so the room was probably very sweet at first. then there was a sudden, sharp burst of that burnt smell when sanji's anxiety kicked in.

was zoro into sanji from their first meeting? did he have an "oh" moment?

i wouldn't call it love at first death threat, but zoro was definitely interested in sanji from their first meeting. nothing like a little adrenaline to jumpstart zoro's attraction. i don't think zoro had an "oh" moment in the traditional sense, just because i think he goes with the flow so well that he's less likely to get bowled over by a sudden surge of feeling? if that makes sense? i think he'd be much more like "damn, i was right all along" than "oh" but that's just my take on him 🙃 as for when he fell in love, i personally like to think it was watching sanji's ddr match against koby. but i'm open to all other interpretations too ☺️

how did zoro feel seeing sanji cuddling with his friends for the first time in chapter three?

this is an interesting question. i didn't really think about it much while writing the scene, but i think zoro would probably not have lingered on the moment very much. i think, to him, it's obvious that sanji would be integrated into (and loved by) the people closest to zoro. if sanji was the sort of person zoro's friends wouldn't love, zoro would never have pursued anything more with him to begin with, and they would have just stayed contentious roommates forever. but zoro knew from early on how much his friends liked sanji, so seeing them all cuddled up together like that was probably just confirming what he already assumed.

we know what happened to sanji, but what happened this siblings?

i haven't thought too much about this because, again, i don't think sanji thinks too much about what happened to them. he was isolated from his siblings as a child—at first for judge's fear that whatever was wrong with him might be communicable, then later as a sort of carrot-and-stick measure (if sanji got better, he could play with his siblings; as long as he didn't get better, they were allowed to bully him). if i had dug into the vinsmoke siblings more, i'd probably have characterized them as people still adhering to the same reductive beliefs judge tried to instill in sanji early in life. they wouldn't have been exposed to the same medical trauma, but they would have been fed a lot of misinformation about alpha dominance and what it means to be the "right kind" of alpha in this society.

are there any canon side ships in utilities included's universe? are luffy and law an item?

i think the only confirmed ships besides sanji & zoro are robin/franky, nami/vivi, and usopp/kaya. luffy and law definitely have something going on, but what that something is is never confirmed. i'm happy to leave everything about them open to interpretation!

and thats a wrapppppppp!!

from the 10th and final chapter of utilities included

✨ utilities included

zoro/sanji | explicit | chapter 10/10 [now complete!]

alpha/beta/omega dynamics • alpha x alpha • modern era • roommates to lovers • internalized homophobia • canon-typical zosan antagonism • references to canon-typical vinsmoke family dynamics

“I wish blondie was being gross,” Zoro complains. “He’s trying to make me clean stuff.” Luffy, with a pinky buried knuckle-deep in his ear, swings his head to look at Zoro, then at Sanji. “But why? It’s so clean already. Like a hospital.” Sanji, who has been fighting a one-man war against pink mold in their shower since the day he moved in, can only assume Luffy’s never stepped foot in a hospital before. “You idiot,” Nami sighs, “it’s only clean because Sanji’s been cleaning it.” She casts a derisive look Zoro’s way. “Would it kill you to help out a little?”

utilities included finale tonight 🥲 chat how are we feeling

i'm considering putting together an FAQ of sorts for utilities included, to be linked in my final author's note this friday. if you have questiond about the story or my writing process, please submit them to my tumblr asks or (if you prefer to stay anonymous) my retrospring !

if there's any else you'd like to ask, feel free to submit those questions too! i won't include them in the FAQ but i think answering asks is fun ☺️

bro I don't think this lifeguard is certified

i cannot emphasise enough how much you need to create something. anything. it doesn't matter if you suck. you don't need to monetise it, or make it your career. you can restart an old hobby; you can start from scratch. it doesn't matter. you just need to hold something and be able to say "i did that". baking, drawing, painting, writing, coding, crafts, whatever. make something ! you cannot have all your hobbies be a form of consumption. it's fun, it's great in its own right. but the single best action to make yourself feel better, to calm your mind, to gain self esteem, is to Create

i've got a lot of work to do this week (both offline AND for writing/editing the utilities included finale) so i apologize in advance for being slow to respond to comments & messages while i prioritize that stuff

but i am reading EVERYTHING, and the support & excitement y'all are sending mean so, so much to me. as soon as my stuff for the week is finished, i'll be sitting down to reply to everything 🩷💜❤️

apartment shenanigans

from utilities included, ch. 9 (mind the tags and rating!)

✨ utilities included

zoro/sanji | explicit | chapter 9/10

alpha/beta/omega dynamics • alpha x alpha • modern era • roommates to lovers • internalized homophobia • canon-typical zosan antagonism • references to canon-typical vinsmoke family dynamics

“What do you mean ‘why?’” Sanji rounds on Zoro. “I’ve been on my feet all day—I’ve got sweat in places it should never be!” Zoro scowls as if to ask, So? “What am I saying,” Sanji sighs. “Of course you’re into that. Forget it—I’m showering, and that’s that.” Zoro scrubs a hand over his head. “You really know how to kill a mood, you know that?” He sulks over to the couch and throws himself onto it. “You better not expect me to shower.” Tragically, Sanji knew better than to hope for that.

it's frUIday! and the second to last frUIday at that

this week's chapter is the longest of the story, currently clocking in at 15.9k words 🙃 excited to share it later tonight!

send good vibes my way this week... chapter 9 is over 15k words BEFORE edits 🙃 praying to cut some of that down but, knowing me, it'll only go up 🫠

snork mimiimi

launching a rescue mission!

from utilities included, ch. 8

✨ utilities included

zoro/sanji | explicit | chapter 8/10

alpha/beta/omega dynamics • alpha x alpha • modern era • roommates to lovers • internalized homophobia • canon-typical zosan antagonism • references to canon-typical vinsmoke family dynamics

Usopp jerks his head left to right and back again and asks, “Wait—if you’re here, where’s Zoro?” “Beats me.” She shrugs. “But you know Zoro. He probably got lost somewhere between the dining room and the kitchen again.” “‘Again?'” Sanji asks. “Those rooms are connected.” They both sigh. “Like that’s ever stopped him."

utilities included chapter 8 is undergoing its final beta review right now, but the chapter will be posted a little later than usual (just a couple hours!!) because i am gonna be away from home for a bit 💕

see you soon~