As Grantland’s resident ’ship captain, I often feel pulled in two directions. One part of me feels it’s my duty to let you guys know about every important development in the fanworks community; the other part feels I should at least pretend to only like Important TV shows like Homeland and Mad Men and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

Oh, whatever. If Rembert Browne gets to write 50,000 words on Pretty Little Liars, then I get to show you this video about The Vampire Diaries.

Here’s all the background info you need: It’s a television show on The CW about supernatural teenagers, it’s great, and everybody should watch it. And naturally, its genre lends itself to a very devoted and industrious fan base, who have filled the Internet with millions of words detailing nearly every combination of characters in various states of coitus (or just emotionally loaded cuddling.) Now, in the clip above, the cast finally acknowledges their fans’ hard work, reading excerpts from some particularly noncanonical pairings. (Yes, I went to the trouble to Google the full works for you.)

• Nina Dobrev (Elena) reads Need You Now by evildictatoroftaste
• Michael Trevino (Tyler) reads Forever And Always, by zeldaxlexi
• Candice Accola (Caroline) reads love what’s burning right in front of you by Drakulina
• Zach Roerig (Matt) reads Pericoloso Cambiare, by JoviClutch

Leading lady Dobrev seems the least stoked/most embarrassed to be participating in this important video, but supporting stars Trevino, Accola and Roerig all bring it as usual — Accola’s coy glances at the camera and Trevino’s commanding hand-on-armrest reading stance are particularly effective. In all seriousness, though, I do love this cast; they always seem to be having a great time with their awesome and fun jobs of playing vampires and werewolves on a teen soap. Congratulations to them on their lives, and to the lucky authors whose works they have chosen to spotlight.