#//hopefully can post something before AF too

[dragonita-arts]

A cycle renewed, a cycle passed. Dragon to dragon, gold to ice, a new era awaits to be cast.

A quick personal piece

[fortunatelyannoyingcrown]

Rant incoming(won't be very pretty)

The most disgusting thing about Rhysand Stans is that their hate for Tamlin is so excessive, they want to pair him with a POS pedophile Amarantha, and come up with the most insane theories about why they are mates?The new Reddit post, talking yet again, about Tamlin and Amarantha being mates is just another example of how much hate can make you say the most asinine things without any single sensible thought put into it.

To all Rice plant stans currently obsessing over the theory of the male you hate being with a predator, let me tell y'all something.Y'alls jealousy, that Tamlin was pursued and wanted way more that Rice plant, by other people, is just too obvious and is too hilarious.Maybe, if Rice plant wasnt such a malicious, narcissistic, gaslighting rapist/physical abuser, then he would have a chance....nah, he's still a shortie, shorter than Tamlin, so besides Feyrat, no one would give a shit about him,🤣🤣🤣🤣 Tamlin was pursued by noble women, well before Acotar and even your fave's mate was willing to freaking die for him.Tamlin's the man, get the bloody fuck over it.Your fave ratman would never,ever compare.

Now, onto some actual facts so that y'all's pea brains hopefully understand(I don't have much hopes, but I will still put it out there)

For the mate theory to work, both Fae should be obsessed with each other.Here's the catch: Tamlin hated Amarantha because she ruined his life, and pursued him since she was a child.That does not scream mate energy in any way.He had no problem killing her too, and that is impossible if you are mates with someone.Also, if Amarantha knew anything about it, she would have held this over her head and everyone else's surely, and that's not something that happens.Your "theory" therefore makes zero sense and it is STUPID AF, and just another excuse for y'all to shit on him and make him miserable👍.I see through y'all's BS

So for y'all's wishes that Tamlin is as miserable as possible, I will say this too- I hope Riceplant is revealed as the monstrous villain that he is and that he tricked Feyre.I hope that bitch cries her heart out and stays miserable and y'alls little fantasy bubble that he is the dream boyfriend pops hard🖕🖕🖕I also hope Tamlin makes him suffer and he dies the worst possible death.

I hope and wish for every horrible thing to happen to Riceplant, his bitch of a mate and everyone else in the inner circle.I wait to see their misery with my own eyes, as it happens in the series.They and their Stans can go fuck themselves👍

[heavenbloom]

🇵🇸 BEFORE YOU READ: DONATE • BOYCOTT TLOU • GAZAN MUTUAL AID MASTERLIST

❆ — 𝐦𝐨𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫

song: the night — lovewave

summary: a letter addressed to abby anderson, twenty years after the two of you parted.

warnings: 18+ mdni, literally straight up angst, letter format, from reader’s pov, set in the future, not proofread.

a/n: this is entirely inspired by moonlit winter (2019). this’ll probably be boring af but i love love that goes beyond time and the physical and i love mundane yet emotional movies <3

The icy air nipped at your fingertips, the chill tracing unforgiving trails from them to the bottom of your soles.

The snowfall was thick this time of year and it painted the small town in hushed tones. The only thing heard in the white noonday was the laboured crunch of your boots and the heave of your breath against your thick woollen scarf.

The cold barely registered, though, as you dipped your hand into your coat pocket. The thin, glossy edge of an envelope crinkled at the contact.

How could something so small and hidden conceal a whole lifetime within it? It felt like it was burning a hole where it sat, yearning to reunite with your being, to settle there and remain a secret.

The sound of your footfalls ceased, and you let out a slow exhale. A plume of air swelled in front of your vision, softening the edges of everything.

The post office box was rimmed with ice. It stood as lonesome as you did, on this drowsy street, in a town you knew so well now, yet not nearly enough as you should have. It was hard to be a part of something when you always had one eye gazing back at the past.

This would hopefully change that. A parting gift. A farewell to somebody you had said goodbye to long ago.

You reached for the letter.

⋆⁺₊❅.

Dear Abby,

It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?

I don’t know if I will send this letter, but I can imagine the look on your face if you ever do receive it. Bushy, furrowed brows and downcast eyes… you never looked up when you were puzzled about something. It was if you had to retreat into yourself in order to make sense of the world around you.

The woman that I see receiving this is youthful and vibrant, forever frozen in the sands of my memory. Lines have begun to etch my features, and with each year that passes by, they deepen. It must be the same for you. It has to be, right? But the image of you, aged, eludes me.

I often imagine what kind of person you are now. Did you ever marry? Have children? Do you live in a house with a garden bursting with the smells of overripe berries and fresh herbs, like the one we fantasised about owning all those years ago? These are the reveries that have teeth, that sink and gnaw at something unspoken within me.

I did know you, once, but I’m unsure I do now. Does the soul change over time, or just the meat and bone that surrounds it?

I’ve experienced more of my life with your absence as opposed to your presence. I moved to a quiet corner of the world and made a life for myself. The summers here are mild and the winters are the never-ending and silent kind that we never saw back home. It’s somewhere that you would despise.

Maybe that’s why you plague my mind so often. This town is a place where I know you’d never find yourself in. Back then, I was running away from you and in a way, I still am. Like visiting an attic that one knows is haunted, I think of you.

I dream of you, too. Mundane, meaningless. Nothing happens in these dreams, but you’re there, shining. A wisp of blonde hair, the starlight of a freckled shoulder… the same.

I guess this sameness is what compelled me to write this. I’ve been walking through my life with my head craned back towards the past, so much so that I couldn’t see where I was headed. Now I’ve stopped, in the middle of it, in this purgatory. It can’t go on, Abby. At some point, I have to turn to face the future. I should have long ago.

I’m made up of regrets, but what good will they do now? Instead of listing the should-haves, I’ll tell you the truth;

This is not the first letter I’ve written that’s dedicated to you, but it will be the first I’ve ever had the courage to send. Let it be the last.

I’m sorry if what we shared has also left you with scars and an endlessness of seeking. I’m sorry that I was cowardly, and that I still am.

Thank you for the sliver of sweetness that you gave to me. Thank you for loving me like you meant it. I hope you know that I meant it, too. Everything I did, every word and every touch, was honest.

But I have lived with its death. Now I must let it rot.

Goodbye, Abby. Be braver than I am.

[bloogers-boogers]

Forbidden Power AU. This AU focuses on Michael, it's the end of all Creation, all thanks to Lucifer's Spawn. Michael's final attempt to fix everything is to Disturb their father Only To Discover that his father is dead and has been dead for what looks like years there is still hope his father may be dead but his Authority can still be used... All angels authorities are held in Halos and God is no exception... Michael has a halo So he can go back and fix everything... The issue is the darkness in his heart, his Desire for the First man... Originally he was going to leave Almost everything unchanged...but this is an Opportunity he never did get or never should have had...can he stay on the noble path...ya No Michael has bin the good boy all his Existence and he will continue to be the good boy But he will be so when it comes to Adam and make Adam Exactly how he wants him to be

Hopefully this ask is for me and not mistaken for another blog shsiwbdjiwe do not get me wrong I love the guitarhero ship but I haven't posted anything about them aside from the drawing I made for @/ironbatpaperturtle (and my adamsapple fic) so I have a feeling that maybe this ask wasn't for me 😭

I should tho... like write more of them cause ngl I really like them together but my whole view on those two is far different than @/ironbatpaperturtle's Michael and Adam ahdjendiw

BUT if this anon is for me then I appreciate you for sharing me your au whdjwkdjdwoek 💖 now, with all that said let me proceed on actually answering you.

Omygod. Okay first, I think the God being dead for the longest period is such an interesting concept I read something similar like this before in a fic (adamsapple) called 'the devil you know /by anglotron' so I like it, kinda explains why angels would be put in so much work (do drastic choices) if God isn't there to guide them and solve things for them or just get involved but I also love the concept of him not giving a f*ck shjsiahdwiwbs after Lucifer's fall/betrayal he was just left hopeless for anything; his most "perfect creation" (Adam) corrupted by evil and then his most "perfect angel" turned out to have been the one to bring said corruption. (he may still care for Michael and Jesus tho but like it's hard for him to care about the rest) and letting all his children figure it out themselves (poor Sera), like, I can picture him just as depressed like Lucifer in the show issisofksos but unlike him who copes with making ducks, God just lays in the couch mopping about how disappointed in humanity he is and how "perfect" everything was before he planted the damn apple on earth, while he bosses Michael and maybe Metatron too (tho with him he's a lot more harsher bc he was previously human and he's kinda just bitter about them in general, but he's proven his worth enough) around to bring him shit like ice cream or junk food (tho he could easily just summoned all those things he subconsciously just wants company and Michael is there to bring it to him the only angel that has not yet disappointed/maintain loyal to him). So yeah.

Anyways — I still like the concept of God actually being dead. Like when you say Michael has a halo do you meant like he holds on to God's halo? Cause that's kinda cool af, imagine him just holding on to the halo of God (maybe even pitifully hopeful their father would return 'saving it for him') so he just has the halo on him and everyone just "oh shit this motherfucker really could just end it all if he wanted to" but Michael just doesn't cause 'with great power holds big responsibility' type of mentality and I think it'd be funny if Lucifer confronts heaven and is in a determined search for Michael to provoke him and remind him he's still the most perfect of all God's creation (mosty just salty as hell bc Michael cast him to hell lmao) and then when he finds Michael he like comes up with a taunting comment about how bad heaven turned out to be Yada Yada that neither realm is perfect or better than the other, and BAM suddenly his eyes drifted to Michael's head and recognizes the halo.

"Is that—...!"

"Yeah," Michael simply states defeated in his chair, unfazed by his brother arrival, from all the chaos going on, his people being murder, just, done, "father's gone, Lucifer."

So they just stare at eochother in silence, Lucifer with a stunned almost hurt expression and Michael with a nonchalant one. After the realization hitting him like a truck Lucifer realizes there was no end to the chaos released to all realms after Charlie unintentionally brought it to them if God wasn't there to fix it all...

Fear overwhelming him now cause he was kinda chilled out about the whole thing knowingly God would have to intervene soon because heaven was also being attacked by evil- but now realizing he's dead, it like hits him hard, mostly worried for his daughter's fate more than anything else.

Then, another thing hits him, "wait! What aren't you doing anything?! You can fix this, Michael! You have father's power, we can-"

Michael lifts his hand to signal him to stop, "I'm not planning to do anything."

"WHAT?!! Do you realize your people are also being attacked!"

"Your daughter brought this among ourselves, now, she must find her way to solve it."

"But she won't be-"

"Silence. If she was able to bring it to us then she's more than capable of putting it back. If not, that's no longer my problem"

"YOU-!"

"No, Lucifer," he stands up, the power of God emitting through his aura, the millions of eyes on him, big six graceful wings extended to show their full on glory, eyes bright like the intensity of a star. His voice was much more deeper and cold, distant, detached, "I lost everything because of your silly dream of free will, and now redemption. Look at where it lead us, prove me wrong this time, if it doesn't succeed then it was meant to be that way. Accept your fate.

I would create something new, something different. Something that won't betray its kind. No longer you existing. It will be perfect."

Lucifer felt so tiny now. That was no longer the brother he once knew. Not the caring, gentle, protective fiercely warrior that he once was.

Only filled with rage, grief and pain.

Michael... is dead too.

But anyways with all that, somehow lets say both Charlie and Lucifer mange to remind Michael of his love for the countless souls left at his hands to care and protect. And I dunno maybe a song too ahdhdiqgsjahsia and what gets the cake is Michael seeing Adam alive, behind the two, who somewhat stumble across their intervention in a 'bad timing'.

"Hey bitch you forgot your tampon— oh shit! Wrong room," Adam (now sinner) appears at the door oblivious of the whole deal.

"Adam!" Charlie shouted annoyed as they were already, almost, having a heartfelt moment between her father and Michael.

Michael eyes watered, "ADAM!" He pushes past Charlie and Lucifer who are now just confused as fuck seeing how Michael (filled with new growing hope) crushes Adam in a big hug with all the intensity of his power and somehow it was till so gentle and careful that it didn't kill Adam.

And the first man just there struggling to get loose while also suffocating.

Idk I just like Michael still having to be the hero even in circumstances where he doesn't want to. So the universe just grants him a purpose for he to keep following up God's title for him. If he wasn't gonna do shit because he lost Adam? Then BAM! Sinner Adam is now a thing so keep your ass moving Michael!

Michael now wants to fix things up to keep Adam safe; his new purpose (reason) on protecting heaven, his people and the countless souls God left him in charge with.

[bryce-bucher]

500 CALIBER CONTRACTZ Post #13

Tha Pole-vault:

I added what is hopefully the final move to the moveset. It's a sort of pole-vault that you use to fling yourself around.

Aside from just letting you flip around tho, it also partially converts your horizontal momentum into vertical momentum. This means that if you are going fast enough, you can fling yourself up real high.

Wow wow woowiwe woah

C4:

Put an explosive floatin around. U can grab it and it will immediately start counting down. You have to bring it to the bomb site before it explode can you believe it!!!1

In the factory level you're gonna use this to blow up the propaganda statue that the company funded to keep workers complacent.

aewsome

NEW SKINZZ:

I woke up in a cold horirible sweat with a dastardly idea to make some 2D billboarded skins for this game. I got to work immediately by grabbing a copy of flash 8 and making some shitty drawings with my mouse. What I ended up with is a skin that I'm calling Flash Trash:

(Oh yeah also this is a wip tutorial area dw about it) After putting this skin together I thought it would also be cool to make a similar skin as an homage to the thing thing flash games that served as a p big inspiration for this project as a whole. So I got to work again and put together thingthingthing:

Here are some behind tha scenes photos:

flash is so fun. I loved flash anims and games as a kid but I was too young to really figure out how to use it myself. Feel like I missed out tbh it is such a cool program.

Conclusion:

I'm sick af!!! Not in the good way!! I got some kinda food poisoning or something and it was existentially horrible! Been recovering from that steadily while still gettin some work done here and there. I've been putting together a whole tutorial area which I'll show off sometime. Once that is done I'll be ready to get some more playtesting done before moving on to getting the first two worlds completely finalized. Also played a lot of bombrush cyberfunk. Very cool game.

[hippolotamus]

Fuck it Friday 🌻

tagged by @thewolvesof1998 @daffi-990 (do yourself a favor and visit their FIF posts. promise you won't regret it)

no pressure tagging @disasterbuckdiaz @ladydorian05 @wikiangela @malewifediaz @shortsighted-owl @eddiebabygirldiaz @stereopticons @elvensorceress @giddyupbuck @monsterrae1 @spagheddiediaz @spotsandsocks @chaosandwolves @wildlife4life @heartshapedvows @loserdiaz @your-catfish-friend @statueinthestone @buddierights @911onabc @hoodie-buck @the-likesofus @fionaswhvre @barbiediaz @eowon @honestlydarkprincess @spaceprincessem @pirrusstuff @jesuisici33 @steadfastsaturnsrings @watchyourbuck @weewootruck @exhuastedpigeon @underwater-ninja-13 @messyhairdiaz @gayedmundodiaz and anyone else who wants to

so i kinda got this idea. it's more than likely going to the backburner for a while (i have got to finish the stuff i already started) anyway, i came across this post that was adorable af (some screenshots below)

brain said 'huh. what if a young Eddie wants to take young Evan on a date? and then gets shamed for it. because of course he does. and then Eddie has to work through all his crap as an adult so he can then ask Buck on a date?' so i'm dumping what i have under the cut. mwah!

Eddie sits on the end of his parent’s bed, kicking his bare feet in time with a song only he can hear. He can’t remember the name, only the basic rhythm that his music teacher, Ms. Hughes, taught them. 

Tap Tap Thump! Tap Tap Thump! 

The wooden footboard is starting to bother his heels, turning them a faint red, but he continues tap-thumping along, not ready to stop just yet. It keeps him busy while his mama gets ready for a night out with Papa.

“What do you think, Eddito?” She asks, meeting his gaze in her vanity mirror.

She holds up two different earrings. One is tiny, barely visible between her fingers except for the way it sparkles in the light. The other is bigger, in a sort of loop shape with a jade stone at the bottom that matches her green dress. He thinks she looks pretty with both of them, but he remembers his dad boasting about the tiny one being a real diamond. Eddie’s not sure what that means. It seems important though if the way Papa looked was any indication.

Papa was so proud when he gave them to her after his last business trip, practically beaming. Mama wasn’t quite as pleased. Not like she was when Eddie and Sophia gave her the jade pair for Christmas. Maybe she was just tired that day? She usually is when Papa goes away for work. 

“The sparkly ones,” he tells her confidently. If Papa knows Eddie helped choose them for tonight, maybe it’ll help him earn some extra time for catch tomorrow. 

Eddie’s been extra helpful this week, helping Mama look after Sophia, setting the table, and dusting around the house before his dad came back from Houston. Hopefully Mama will mention that, too. He might only be nine but he’s getting bigger all the time (Abuela tells him so) and can do a lot more things than his little sister.  

“Thank you, mijo.” She tucks her long hair behind her ears so she can put the earrings in. 

He rearranges himself on the bed so he’s on his belly with elbows bent, chin resting on his open palms. His feet automatically restart their rhythmic drumming. 

Mama picks a lipstick and carefully swipes the brilliant red across her lips. She pinches them together a few times before she’s satisfied, swapping the small tube for a square container and something that looks like a funny, fluffy paint brush. He watches her swirl the brush and lift it to her cheeks, tinting them a dusky pink. 

“Where are you and Papa going?” 

“Out for dinner at a nice restaurant. Maybe some dancing.”

“Why?” He asks, not particularly sure why he suddenly wants to know. Tia Pepa is babysitting tonight, which means a bowl of ice cream neither of them will ever admit to while they watch telenovelas.

“He’s been traveling and it’s a nice way to celebrate when he comes home.”

“Because, Edmundo.” Papa glides through the doorway, like he was waiting for the perfect moment, stopping to stand behind Mama. “You’ll figure this out when you’re older, but date nights are key to keeping everyone happy. Especially your mother.” 

He tilts her chin up, leaning down for a kiss. Gross. 

“Ramon,” she scolds. “Now I have to fix my lipstick.” 

Papa sighs playfully. He turns to Eddie, shrugging as if to ask what are you going to do?

“So a date is just going out to a fancy restaurant? For no reason?” Eddie muses aloud. The whole thing sounds a little boring and undeserving of a special title. 

“It can be,” Mama says. “Or it can be some other activity. People go out just because and for meaningful days, too, like an anniversary or birthday. As long as you’re with someone special, it can be whatever you decide.”

Oh. Well that changes things. 

“Like laser tag and pizza?” 

“Sure,” Papa answers with a chuckle while he digs through a dresser drawer. 

An idea begins to form in his brain. His best friend in the whole world, Evan, is moving at the end of the summer, just weeks away. Evan and his sister, Maddie, have lived next door as long as he can remember. He and Eddie do everything together. Other than his family, there’s nobody more special than Evan.

[manasurge]

Sketchdump 2023

Since I don't really have enough (or at least what I'd consider to be enough) art that I'd like to compile, I'm going to do an "end of the year sketchdump" instead (tbh I don't usually do yearly summaries of anything because I'm lazy af and usually don't care, but there is a lot of WIPs that I never used or shown, and I'd been wanting to do sketchdump posts anyways, so this feels like a good way to do it!)

Start with WIPs of things I've finished:

Things I'm still working on: - I'm still working on her Scion appearance. It's just on hold for the moment so I can work on more lore so I'm not stuck in world building mode forever. - the third one is to show her alien-looking maw (that splits open on both top and bottom) and her hyper-terraformation beam (aka her "dragon breath"). Super quick messy whatever, but hopefully it sort of still comes across - the Charr one is just a super basic trial of figuring out her Charr disguise design for IBS+ (she's going to get an Asura one too). This is also my excuse to make in-between Sylvari Charr/Asura looks for her too since she sucks at disguises and has to "shape" her body first before applying the Mesmer disguise over top. I still have to finish designing these as well

Things I've discarded/older Mourynn design concepts: - old outfit look that was changed a bit. Tbh I still really like this outfit design, the only reason why I scrapped it was because I wanted something that was easier to replicate and visualize at all angles - she still has Mawdrey! she helps hold her Greatsword and other things (kid of a handy symbiotic relationship where Mawdrey just chills there and occasionally does things for comedic timing or convenience purposes. Mawdrey kind of functions as a sentient set of semi-extra limbs that she uses sometimes. Mawdrey mostly exists in her first form when dormant when Mourynn has her (easier to draw and keeps her more hidden) - I was trying to figure out what to do with her shoulders. It's still a bit tricky to figure out how to do the collar at side-angles, I think I need to get more refs in game from the NMC set to see how it looks properly lol - the last one here is the forbidden first draft of me trying to figure out Mourynn's design. I just wasn't feeling this look + this wasn't that easy to replicate or visualize/had too much going on.

[rogerswifesblog-updates]

Chapter 4 - it’s all about the…

Series Masterlist

Masterlist

Previous chapter

A/N: yeah I know it’s late…I’m sorry! I’m just so so busy with uni and Easter (which reminds me; happy Easter!!). I’m tired af but I just couldn’t sleep another night without posting this! I feel awful for no reason, here some flowers as an apology😬💐 love ya, enjoy! And thank you @jamneuromain for some of the ideas, especially about Brock 👀❤️

Pairing: stripper!Steve Rogers x Sugar!Mommy reader

Chapter summary: You go out with steve to buy him some new clothes. The day is all about giving and receiving…

Warnings: hand job, semi public, oral f receiving, subby Steve, needy Steve, mommy kink, a hit of mommy issues,

18+

A few days later a chilly breeze reminded you of Steve’s thin jacket that he was probably still wearing, too thin, too cold. Not even close to what he was supposed to wear in such weather. You felt bad for not having bought him a jacket sooner, especially since you were cuddling in your own fuzzy coat, always warm and soft hugging your body.

Sitting in your office you couldn’t stop thinking about this issue.

Your Babyboy needed a high quality jacket. Something that would keep him warm and be comfortable, not just a thin worn out coat. You didn’t want him to freeze or get sick. It would probably break your heart to see him sick while you could’ve prevented it a bit.

Were you thinking ahead? Again? But it’s just the little voice in your head that told you to take care of him, make sure he’s fed, comfortable and appropriately dressed.

You were definitely caring a bit too much for just knowing him less than a week, but Steve was really a sweetheart. He had probably already stolen a part of your own heart.

But maybe you should just casually mention wanting to go shopping? Maybe asking if he wanted to accompany you?

You’ve already made up your mind. He’s coming with you. And he’s getting a damn warm jacket.

Taking out your phone you found Steves contact, typing a text. > Hello, Steve. Are you free today? We could go shopping, maybe grab some food on our way home and I’d drop you off later at your place. Tell me when I could pick you up. < Reading over the message one more time you added a little heart emoji, before sending. It was immediately delivered and seen only a few seconds after. You hadn’t had time to even put your phone away, before a reply came.

> hi CTN have classes. BRB < You squinted your eyes at the reply for a moment, not being sure if these weren’t some typos-but no, thinking it through you assumed it meant ‘can’t talk now’ and ‘be right back’. That’s the only thing that would make sense. Jesus, this kid.

You decided to reply anyway. >Just let me know. I can pick you up whenever you’re free.< With that you put your phone aside, rereading the documents you had filled out before texting Steve. Just when you sighed them and put them in a binder for later to go over during one of the upcoming business meetings, your screen lit up.

> iirc my classes end in 40 but iu2u when youd pick me up just lmk <

You stared at the message for a solid three minutes before huffing and throwing your phone in your purse. How could a person shorten a sentence so much that you couldn’t understand it? The only thing you assumed was his classes ended in 40 minutes. Hopefully.

After closing your office you walked to your assistants desk, telling her you wouldn’t be back today. For a moment you considered asking her about the text message, if she could translate it into your old school language.

God, you thought it would be easy to be with someone younger, but…whatever.

Sitting in your car you couldn’t stop yourself from looking at the last message one more time.

IIRC... I really care? No, that can’t be right, there are two i’s

My classes end in 40…minutes, right?

but iu2u…I used to you? This also doesn’t make any sense. Why the hell is there a number in it?

When you'd pick me up just…lmk…Love me kiss me?? Huh. So should you kiss him? Or what does he mean?

Only when you look in your rearview mirror do you notice the grimace on your face, the squinted eyes and pouty lips. Jesus. All this over one text message. Now you feel even older than you actually are.

After putting your phone and purse away you started the car. Not needing your GPS since you knew where Steve’s university was, you turned on some music before finally leaving the parking lot, quietly humming to yourself.

Within twenty minutes you arrived at Steve’s university, to be exact in front of the art building. Opening your car door you turned down the volume of the music, but not fully down. It was quite chilly and windy so you threw your fur coat over your shoulders, leaning against your car.

Steve's class should end in ten minutes so you decided to let him know you were already waiting. > I parked at your art building.<

It didn’t surprise you when the replay came within seconds. > rnbbbb? <

“What the fuck does this mean”, you whispered to yourself having no idea what Steve meant. Not even a hint. Sighing, you shook your head. Not wanting to look like a total moron by asking him what he meant you took a picture of your view, to show him where you waited. > I’m here <

While waiting for Steve’s classes to come to an end the sun slowly started shining, the wind stopping. It started to get warmer immediately, making you feel too warm in your coat, so you quickly took it off, throwing it over your arm, leaving you in your black suit, the Gucci belt shimmering in the bright light.

Since it would take a few more minutes till Steve’s classes come to an end you grabbed yourself a cigarette, lightening it and bringing it to your lips. The red lipstick staining the stumble, while you breathe out the smoke.

Your phone vibrated again, four times. This many messages could mean business so you quickly took your phone out-only to see all four were from Steve. A small smile crept onto your lips while you opened his chat, surprisingly seeing a picture of yourself, leaning against the car and smoking.

> picture <

> I see you! HOT! <

> omw <

> bbbbb <

You pulled your eyebrows together, a quiet chuckle escaped your lips, still not understanding half of the things he meant-well, omw you knew was on my way. Wanda used it sometimes, too, being the youngest in your friend gr- “hello gorgeous”, interrupted you a voice. A voice you didn’t know.

With raised eyebrows you lifted your gaze, looking into the gray eyes of a stranger with a predatory grin. “Hello, and you are?” You smiled as friendly as possible at the man, who was in your opinion standing a bit too close to your personal space.

“I’m Brock and you seemed like you needed some company, so I’m here to help you out, gorgeous.” A scoff escaped your lips. “Please, leave me alone, I’m not interested in you nor your company.” You didn’t like men who behaved like they could have everyone. Especially you. His grin made you actually feel the opposite, making you slowly back a bit away from him. “Thanks, I’m just waiting for someone”, with that you looked to the doors-just then did Steve leave the art building. Finally

Your lips curved upwards. “There’s my boy. You can go now, Brock.” He wanted to say something more but you turned away from him, instead awaiting for Steve to come.

Behind you Brock snorted when Steve stopped in front of you, a bashful smile on his face. “Hi”, he mumbled leaning a bit down when he noticed you wanted to kiss his cheek-which you did, leaving a red lipstick stain behind. “Whops, sorry, Stevie, now everyone can see who you belong to”, you grinned; licking your thumb before trying to wipe away the red color from his skin. Of course this made him blush immediately.

There was another unfriendly reaction behind you, an unpleasant groan. “Really? Steve? That’s who you’re spending your time with? Come on, that doesn’t make sense. You can do better-or maybe he’s just some waiter boy huh? Earning a couple more bucks, because there’s no other reason such a gorgeous woman would be with a poor, sick nerd that-“ “oh for fucks sake aren’t you bored of standing here and watch us?” You hissed, throwing your fur in the back of your car while nodding for Steve to get in the car, before turning around to address Brock again.

“Maybe you are wondering how he lands with a rich af girlfriend, but I'm not putting up with your shit because he's the one having a relationship between the two of you. In fact, he's a million times better person than you are, you arrogant misogynist prick." With that you got in the car yourself, wanting to drive away. Your gaze once again falling to the young man that had bothered you-but then you looked back at Steve, who was visibly uncomfortable and upset.

Sighing you took his hand. “Don’t think about him. I only met him ten minutes ago and can tell he’s a total idiot. You’re not what he-“ “fucking Gold digger!” You heard Brock's voice, making your grip on the wheel tighten-thank god you weren’t driving or you’d have hit the brakes till they’d squeak.

“I won’t let him do that to you”, you hissed under your breath, leaving the car, loudly throwing the door shut. Brock was already standing with his friends, talking shit about Steve that you could hear from your car.

So you decided to teach him a lesson.

Nobody messed with your boy.

“Hey Brock!”, you called out, noticing how a grin spread onto his lips while he turned around, already saying something. “Gorgeous, I’m glad you changed y-“, before he could finish the sentence your fist met his jaw so hard he stumbled back into one of his friends. All of them left shocked and speechless, while you smiled at the group one last time before walking back to your car. Behind your back you could hear some mutters that made you grin even more.

When you finally sat back behind the wheel, Steve was also shocked. His beautiful blues wide, at the same time feeling how his heart was thudding wildly. “Now where were we? Oh right, don’t listen to Brock, he’s not worth it,” while you tried to cheer Steve up he seemed to get even more upset.

“He may be not worth it but…he’s not wrong. I’m poor and sick and a total nerd, while you’re this amazing woman that deserves to be with a real man,” he looked out of the window, ignoring your hand when you tried to take his. “Steve, why do you think that? Money is not important-that’s why we have our agreement and…you’re not sick, right? Do I need to know something? If you need medicine or anything, I’ll get it for you. You just need to tell me.”

There was a sigh next to you and Steve carefully took your hand. “Just look at me”, you did just that, your gaze falling over Steve for a second, but the only thing you noticed was his hurt puppy dog eyes. “What do you mean, Stevie?”, you chuckled, having a hard time understanding what he meant.

“Take a closer look-“ “Steve, if you want me to take a closer look we might end up in a tree, you have to tell me,” there was another loud sigh.

“Look at my ear,” his voice was quiet, even sounding a bit insecure. That’s when you had to stop at a red light, making it way easier for you to finally take a look at him. He wasn’t looking at you, completely avoiding your gaze.

Only after a few seconds did you notice what he was talking about, or, well, because he pointed it out. “Stevie…how have I not noticed it before?”

Steve had a hearing aid.

It wasn’t even much noticeable, just a bit of light blue around his ear.

“And Brock bullies you about that? What a dick. You shouldn’t feel self conscious about that. You’re still perfect-maybe even more than before”, you said softly, leaning over to him and kissing the shell of his ear, noticing how he blushed. His whole chest swelled up, his throat felt a bit tighter, while butterflies erupted in his stomach. His whole body.

Which he quickly tried to ignore.

Instead he cleared his throat. “So you don’t mind it? There’s more stuff. I also have asthma-and I-“ Softly chuckling you took Steve hand again, while pulling over. You hated how he was trying to talk himself down. Steve was an amazing person, with an incredible soul and heart.

His gaze was glued to your hand that was holding his, your thumb stroking the back of his hand, his skin tingling under your touch. “None of that, Stevie. I really like you the way you are-but I don’t like it when you talk yourself down, okay? You’re amazing-and so much better than this Bully Brock. I’d rather spend my whole life with you than a day with Brock.”

A that you both were shocked.

But the composed person you were, you tried to ignore the blush creeping up into your cheeks.

“Well, I-I wanted to ask you about something you texted me-or…a few things even”, you chuckled, probably making yourself even more nervous than before. Somehow you felt like you walked right in a dead end with all that, which Steve partly noticed too, so he grabbed your phone. “Could you enter the password so I-” “I don’t have one, don’t worry.”

You could feel the side eye Steve was giving you.

You could feel it burn a hole in your skull.

“What? Don’t look at me like that. I forget my passwords all the time.” Steve still wasn’t convinced with your explanation, but didn’t say anything. Instead he opened your chat watching over the messages he sent you. “So? What did you wanna know?”

Surprisingly you felt yourself blush again. Which hadn’t happened often…before meeting Steve.

“Could you…could you explain the abbreviations to me? I know a few-I think-but not all of them”, at this point you felt your whole head burning. The last time you were this nervous was…maybe in highschool. Which also was quite a while ago. You really didn’t want to get deeper into it.

Since you couldn’t remember the shortened messages Steve had sent you before you leaned a bit over to him. “Oh right, there were a few. iirc, iu2u, lmk…? Like…I really don’t know what this means. Lmk? Love me, kiss? If you want me to kiss you just-“ Steve’s laugh interrupted you, the blush on your face deepening immediately.

When he noticed you were serious he promptly shut his mouth. “I’m sorry-I didn’t mean to laugh, I’m sorry. I thought you were joking…”, he mumbled, averting his gaze. “Okay, so, iirc means ‘if I remember correctly”, there was a pause, so you looked up at him but he didn’t say more.

“So do you remember or not?”

And that’s when Steve realized it’d be a long, long time till he explains everything.

He was right.

It took him twenty minutes to finally explain everything and till you two finally stepped out of the car, your hand immediately wrapping around his bicep. “Just one more question, you didn’t explain what the whole ‘bbbb’s mean? That I Waldo couldn’t figure out” “oh, no, that’s nothing just typos, my screen broke and now it sometimes…does this”, Steve laughed quietly, the blush from before reappearing.

He definitely needed a new phone. You’ve seen his phone before, but you hadn’t expected it to be that bad.

“Would you mind?”, you smiled at him, giving him your purse that he took without hesitation. There was even a little happy smile on his lips, feeling helpful.

You walked into the shopping mall, your heels clicking coudly against the tiles. Many heads turn to watch you, eager to see the source of the clinking.

And Steve? Steve didn’t like all the attention.

The looks of other people’s faces first interested, then thoughtful and after a second judging. Him. They were all looking at him. They were all judging him. His simple collage hoodie, while you were wearing a whole elegant suit. The Louboutin heels loud and clear for everyone to hear, to see. To notice.

“Don’t do that”, Steve’s head turned so quickly you feared he might hurt himself. “What? I’m not doing anything?” Softly chuckling, you shook your head squeezing his biceps a big harder to comfort him. “I can feel you thinking. Ignore it. The thoughts, the people. They’ll always look. It’s what people do”, you tried to reassure him, succeeding only partly. He was still tense, but his lips twitched to a smile.

For a moment you watched as he watched his bottom lip, his cheeks covered by a soft pink blush. “Can we get some food first, tho? I haven’t eaten anything today and-“ “you what?? But it’s three pm?! You must be starving, baby. Let’s get you something to eat first”, with that you grabbed him a bit tighter, pulling him with you.

Half an hour later Steve was fed, happily still holding your purse while the two of you walked into a clothing shop. A very, very expensive shop. At least compared to the clothes he’d usually buy-mostly stuff on sale or second hand. And now he was in a shop surrounded by premium brands he didn’t even know how to pronounce.

You didn’t even look at the prices while showing him all the clothes he should try on. “I’ve noticed you like blue, right? Would you mind trying on some suits? I’d love to see your beautiful body in a real suit, maybe a blue one…or gray…or..well, we’d see which one would suit you best”, while talking you couldn’t stop yourself from brushing your hand along his muscular chest. To no one's surprise his face was covered by red spots, again.

“You’re so cute”, you whispered, pulling him a bit closer. His smile widening to a grin, his hands automatically falling into your waist.

He’d love to kiss you.

At the thought his chest tingled a bit. A bashful chuckle escaped his lips, while his grip on you tightened.

It’s weird how much happier he felt with you. How much more desirable he felt because of you. He didn’t even know you a lot, having only spent a bit time with you and yet he felt amazing with you. Like he mattered…like…you really liked him.

But maybe that’s how it's supposed to be. Nothing was real, it just was supposed to feel and look like it’s real. Or not? Was it real? Slowly he got confused, so he decided to push these thoughts away. It was all about money, he shouldn’t be seeing too much into it.

“Now go try these on…and whatever else you’d want to, there’s no price limit if you’re worried about that. It’s on me”, you gave him the clothes, continuing to look for something for yourself, maybe a new blouse or skirt.

Maybe some new heels…

Or a coat? Maybe- “could you please come with me? I…want you to help me…decide and just tell me what looks good”, Steve seemed nervous, maybe even a bit uncomfortable with the attention he was getting from some shop assistants that always checked if he needed any help-which he denied.

“Sure, sweetheart. Let me get something for myself then”, after finding a few pieces for yourself you followed Steve to the changing rooms-hust when he wanted to walk into one of them you grabbed his arm. “The last one is bigger.” Without further explanation you pulled him into the last one, immediately hanging your clothes up.

Steve looked a bit around, his gaze falling to your hands when you started taking off your suit jacket and slowly opening the button down. He didn’t even notice the smirk on your lips, while you casually let the blouse slide from your shoulders, his gaze still glued to your body, now to your bra covered breasts. A very pretty bra, if he had to be honest, black with lace, perfectly pushing your breasts up, making them look nicely. Very, very nicely…the image of your naked breasts popped up in his head, reminding him of the incident a few days ago.

Then your pants dropped to the floor and you stepped out of them, with this coming a step closer to him. The matching slip nicely hugging your hips, the hip dips making him wanna grasp your body even more. You were so beautiful. And so, so sexy.

Without saying a word you turned around and bent down to pick up your clothes, his breath stopping for a second. Your round ass on display. So close he could touch you if he’d reach out. Your legs look incredibly long, especially with the heels. The heels with the red bottoms.

Fuck.

Now he had a little problem.

Or a big one.

Whatever.

Definitely a visibile one.

And he knew you’d notice it, too, as soon as you’d look back at him.

What he didn’t know is, you did all of it on purpose, knowing exactly how your body, clad in only underwear, would affect him. You took a skirt, sliding it on then finally turning around to watch Steve’s reactions.

Just as expected his head was red, the blush creeping up his chest to the very tips of his ears. His hands folded before his crotch, making you raise your eyebrows. “You’re hiding something from me, Stevie?”, you whispered teasingly, slowly pushing his hands away, your palm pressing against his hard cock. A soft gasp escaped his lips.

“S-sorry I-“ “you got a bit excited, hm? Was it because of my breasts? Or my ass? Did you imagine how it’d be to grab my body? Pressed against you, while you’d fuck me?”, you whispered against his neck, leaving some kisses behind. His pants felt tight around his crotch, especially with you palming him with every word, “come on, baby, tell me what you’re thinking about.” A quiet whine escaped his lips while he buried his face against your neatly made hair.

“Thought about-about holding your hips-squeezing-feeling you close”, he mumbled, pushing into your palm, while you slowly opened his pants, your hand stroking over his boxershorts, grabbing his thick shaft tightly. “My naughty boy getting all worked up in a changing room. My filthy babyboy. Want me to make you cum? Are you this needy? Coming while being in public? In a changing room? Aren’t you scared of getting caught?”, you felt how his dick twitched at that, leaking more precum into his underwear, soft moans leaving his mouth.

You kissed underneath his ear, sucking gently at his skin, feeling Steve tense against you. His face pressed even harder into your neck, the moans turning to breathless gasps, while he slowly filled his boxershorts with cum.

A chuckle escaped you, while you slowly pulled out your hand from his pants. “Sweet”, you mumbled watching him cover his crotch, the redness in his face darkening. He looked down at his hands, before back at you. “I just came.” “I know.” The smirk on your lips reappeared and you quickly changed into the clothes you’d worn before, while Steve seemed frozen in place.

“Stevie, don’t worry. I’ll get you something to change into and it’ll be fine. Wait a minute, I’ll get you some underwear…just…wait for me. Don’t make a mess while I’m gone”, you added teasingly, watching as the man whined quietly, a bit embarrassed.

Or a lot.

Giving him a last kiss you left him to find some underwear, already paying for it and bringing it to him. After he changed and tried a few other things on, especially pants which he needed to wear now, because the other pants were…a mess.

After leaving the shop you looked once again back at Steve, who was carrying four to the brim filled clothing bags and your purse, a smile creeping on his lips when he noticed your gaze. “Need any help, baby?” “No, no I’m good”, he immediately refused to give you any bags, wanting to carry it all by himself. Laughing you shook your head at him, but finally let him have it his way.

“I need to do some errands, it’d take half an hour, max. In the meantime you could maybe…go order something? And we could go home then-unless you want me to drive you to your place?” He thought about it for a minute, before shaking his head. “I’d like to stay with you tonight.”

You shouldn’t feel as happy as you did.

After deciding where Steve could go order something to eat, you went back to the clothing store, finding a jacket Steve had not so subtly looked at, a very simple one but very thick, perfect for winter and cold evenings.

You bought something else, too, what you knew he’d be very happy about.

It wasn’t too hard to find Steve with all the bags hanging from his arms, looking a bit funny even. And probably a bit overwhelmed.

“Let me take the food, okay? I don’t want your arms to lose circulation from all the bags”, you grinned, taking the food from his hands, pecking his cheek. Leaving a soft red lipstick stain behind. You decided to leave it.

Your place wasn’t far away so it only took you twenty minutes to arrive. “Bring your stuff to your room and I’ll get the plates ready”, you said while taking out the food and bringing it to the couch so you could watch a movie together.

He turned around to look at you with all the bags in his hands. A grin on his lips while he came a bit closer to you, pecking your cheek. “Thanks, my sugar mommy. Can't imagine having a better mommy”, he definitely meant it kicking my, but seeing you blush and gasp softly made him pretty curious. But maybe he just imagined it.

You only smiled at him lightly, nodding before averting your gaze. Your smile turning goofy as soon as he walked out of the door.

While Steve was gone you took the jacket out and laid it out on the couch, already imagining how pretty Steve would look in the clothes you bought him.

His heavy steps echoed through the corridor and a few seconds later he was standing next to, looking at the jacket in surprise. “I-when did you get that?”, he asked quietly, lifting the jacket, a smile immediately appearing on his face.

“I may have lied about the few errands…just wanted to get you something nice-“ “but you bought all the clothes-” “but you chose it. I wanted to buy you something from me”, you smiled at the blond man pushing him down to sit on the couch. He dropped willingly, the jacket still clutched to his chest.

You took the jacket to put it aside. “I have one more thing”, you grinned, taking the bag again and pulling a little box out. Steve gasped loudly, his hand grabbing onto your thigh. When you looked back at him he seemed shocked, his mouth agape.

“You-you did not?”, he whispered letting you put the phone box into his palms. A soft laugh escaped your lips, while you leaned back, watching him fondly when he opened the box, slightly speechless. “I love having a sugar mommy”, his whisper made you laugh quietly but your chest immediately felt warmer, a bit tingling. You stayed quiet, not trusting your own voice.

His eyes had a little glimmer in them, a soft expression on his face while he slowly took the phone out, looking over the screen and back, before putting it once again away. “Thank you so much, I-…I really don’t know what to say…just…” “it’s why we’re having this, baby. Besides, I have a party coming up. Stark organizes a charity event so… let’s say…it’s a little gift for you joining me”, you smiled at him, winking.

Steve giggled quietly and shook his head lightly, leaving the box on the glass table. “I’d love to come with you. The phone is incredible-I’d never be able to afford it myself-but I’d have joined you anyway, you know? It’s actually not so bad…I thought it’d be weird but I really enjoy spending time with you”, Steve grinned, scooching a bit closer to you, his hand not leaving your thigh. Maybe sliding a bit higher.

“I want to thank you for this nice gift-“ “but I told you it’s for you joi-“ “I’ll probably need a suit anyway so…you’d need to buy it too…let me thank you properly, once in a while,” he whispered into your ear. You hadn’t even noticed how close he’d gotten until his lips trailed down your throat. That’s also when you noticed holding onto Steve’s blond hair. “But Stevie…the food…” “is it really that important? Do you really want me to stop? I want to thank my sugar mommy”, the last word made your grip in his hair tighten and he definitely noticed that.

Steve slowly kissed along your neck before uncrossing your legs and pushing them open, slowly dropping to his knees between. You couldn’t stop yourself from spreading them a bit further, your heart already thudding uncontrollably. “I’m sure it won’t be a problem to reheat it later…”

He helped you out of your pants as quickly as possible, admiring the pretty underwear he had seen before. You had no idea how many times Steve had seen women in underwear before but if he looked at all of them like that you definitely felt some kind of jealousy. No man had ever looked at you like that, his soft lips gently kissing your thighs, not really doing anything else.

Slowly kissing up to your core, Steve felt his own dick harden, but he decided to ignore it for now. All that mattered was to make you feel good-and he hoped he’d do it right.

His lips finally found your slip, slowly kissing your dressed pussy, his tongue licking over the material teasingly, curious. A quiet moan rumbled in your throat while you pulled his head a bit closer.

“Fuck Stevie-“, you moaned when he pushed the slip aside and licked over your slit, his nose nudging your clit unintentionally. You tried to push down your slip but before it could go any down Steve grabbed the material and yanked it from your body, ripping the material apart.

This made you gasp even louder, even a bit surprised. You had no time to say anything, Steve’s tongue immediately entering your hole licking up the wetness. His arms wrap around your thighs, holding you against his mouth as he moans against your core, his arms tightening.

You moved your hips against his lips, grinding against his face. He was all enthusiasm, lacking the finesse of an experienced man but his eagerness made up for it, especially when he started sucking on your clit. When you felt your high coming closer two of Steve’s fingers pushed in your hole, feeling how your walls throbbed around his digits. A quiet curse left his lips imagining how it’d feel to really fuck you. So warm and wet. How your pussy would tightly grip him.

“Curl your fingers upwards-and-and suck on my clit-I’m so fucking close babyboy.” Gasping louder when Steve did what you said you felt your peak approach. Steve felt how your muscles tightened around his fingers.

For not being experienced Steve sure did know how to use his mouth, having you moaning and shaking in no time. “I want to see you come-wanna make you come”, Steve moaned into your core, slurping and smacking loudly.

He looked up at you from under his eyelashes. His eyes being a bit glazed over, the blue being swallowed by his black pupils. A sudden urge overcoming him he definitely needed to try. “Mommy, please.”

And he was right.

Wetness gushed around his fingers, your walls sucking him in, your face scrunched up in pleasure. “Oh babyboy-you’re incredible”, after riding out your orgasm you slowly released the grip on his hair, moving your hand to lift his chin, running your thumb along his lips, the wetness glistening on his face.

A little smile widening over your lips. He was breathing hard and his eyes were all soft and needy. Your cum dripped from his chin onto his hoodie having left a wet spot behind.

Fuck.

“Sweetheart, you’re amazing.” , you mumbled, kissing his forehead before pulling him up and next to you onto the couch. “I’ll help you better with that…” Your hand trailed down his chest, but before you could grab his belt he stopped you. “It was about you, not me”, Steve kissed your knuckles. After taking off his hoodie he threw it over the back of the couch, an uneasy feeling erupting in your chest. Didn’t he even want a bit cuddling? You always enjoyed a hug after being intimate, but at the same time you knew you shouldn’t be thinking about it that way. It’s not like you were together. It was strictly business.

Steve kissed your forehead and took the food from the table. “I’ll warm the food up, you should wear something more comfortable than your work clothes-I thought we could watch a movie together”, he seemed sure about his words, but still seemed somehow nervous.

Which he was.

Because he now realized he had called you mommy.

And you seemed to enjoy it more than he’d imagine you’d do.

But the worst part of that?

He had definitely enjoyed it even more.

Next

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[sleepyyshouto]

comfort crowd — iida

a/n: I know I said I was gonna post bakugo today but I’m a filthy liar and there was a double update yesterday. however, his should hopefully be out tomorrow, I’m just stumped on what his would be. also tenya is domestic af send tweet

song: comfort crowd by conan gray

!! tsuyu — prev | iida | next — bakugo !! | masterlist

iida — quality time

it had been a long day. you knew of this because tenya had called you by 11 am, even though he’d only been on shift for 4 hours, to vent his frustrations: his patrol partner had called in sick last minute, he had no back up in any of the 4 mostly minor but tedious villain attacks he had to deal with today, thus resulting in him having to take the brunt of the paperwork (his mortal enemy) and he’d left his lunch at home.

trying to stifle your laughter at how distraught he sounded after hanging up, you couldn’t help but smile at the childish pout you could hear in his voice as you got off the couch to head to the kitchen. surely enough on the counter plain as day was his bento, thing of orange juice, and thermos of coffee. it was your off day, or mostly, you didn’t have any meetings until after one so you didn’t need to go in early or stay long after them. putting his things in a bag and grabbing your own bento out of the fridge, you grabbed your purse and headed out the door. his agency wasn’t anything more than a ten minute walk but if he’s been as busy as he seems it would make sense that he couldn’t have just ran home to grab it, especially when he refused to use his quirk for his own personal benefit outside of hero work.

getting to the front door of the agency, you easily walked in and up to your fiancés office. having been together nearly 7 years now everyone was used to your presence in the office no matter if you were there yesterday or last month. knocking before you opened the door, tenya’s head shot up from the paperwork he was dutily completing. “oh thank god,” he sighed out in relief and you couldn’t help but laugh as you started to take everything out of your bag.

he quickly cleared his desk to make room for both your lunches, automatically taking the thermos and drinking part of it before putting it down and moving to the other side of his desk so he could sit beside you as you ate.

A smile settled on his face as you both started eating and his hand intertwined in yours. the silence between you was enjoyable, his hand squeezing yours occasionally and as time passed you watched as the tension eased from his shoulder and he seemed to become more energized though that could have easily been the coffee.

“thank you, love.” he mumbled as he leaned in to press a kiss to your cheek and you smiled at the man beside you. “I know today was your day off but I appreciate you coming over.”

“Always, it’s never a problem for you babe.” You promised, packing up your lunch.

“I can take these home when I get off, are you going to be off at your normal time?” He asked as he copied your movements, taking yours off your hand and you faced him, a matching smile on his lips.

“Yeah, do you want me to grab anything on the way home for dinner?” You offered, glancing reluctantly at the clock to see that you had to go soon, but not wanting too.

“Yeah or we can order in later and watch a movie or something. just staying in tonight sounds enjoyable, but that’s if you are up to it.” You smiled more at the thought of a night in and stood up, grabbing your bag.

“We can do that. I love you.” You said as tenya stood up too, pressing a firm but loving kiss to your lips as he went to grab the door.

“I love you too, have fun at your meetings.” He wished and you couldn’t help but snort at the thought as you walked out.

“I hope your day gets better.” You added and his face softened any more if possible, relaxed as he leaned on the door face and watched you walk down the hallway, already ready to have you in his arms tonight and not having to worry about menial things like paperwork. The rest of the day seemed much more possible to get through now as he closed the door upon you turning the corner.

“It already is.”

do not edit, claim, or repost my works as per @sleepyyshouto

[ryuseiphilia]

my issue(s) with the kpop community

(ignore the image i tried to make this aesthetic but this whole post is me complaining so my dearest apologies)

ok, i KNOW i'm a kpop stan myself but can we pretty please use our noggins for their intended purpose?? obvs not targeted towards ALL stans, but some of y'all jump the the wildest of conclusions very quickly.

one of the things that truly baffled me at first sight was that some internet dwellers decided to sit on zb1's gunwook for eating strawberries. literal fruits. i get it, it was nawt bro's cake but cut my homie some slack!! if the other members felt shit that he devoured eleven strawberries then they probably would've expressed that by now. i don't think zb1 wants some little internet pussies to convey their emotions for them.

another thing that got me bewildered was the whole eruption after the taeil from nct announcement. like, this paragraph is not defending that man by the slightest... however why are some of these people coming on here being like "i feel so bad for taeil stans..." and "omg ppl that spent money on taeil must be in pain :(("... girl... what about the victims??? what about the people that were actually violated??? you're saying you're sorry for someone that spent a flabbergasting amount of money on a male idol instead of firstly expressing condolences for the victims?? like, yeah, i DO feel bad for people that have spent money on taeil's merchandise... but girl there are worse things happening right now. the world isn't going to collapse because you didn't burn your taeil photocards. instead, you should try validate the real victims by not discussing such unnecessary things.

the whole seunghan thing genuinely made my jaw unhinge and drop several feet below because GIRL... people dancing casually after sending hundreds of FUNERAL WREATHS (with death threats on them) is actually batshit crazy. no, because.... mans came back just to instantly be pushed away. what? because you k-netizens couldn't handle the fact he had a life before debut and that he, i dunno, is a human??? parasocial ahh because GIRRRRRRRRRLLLLLL. yk i want to be an idol (my ass has NOT auditioned yet) but it's things like this that stop me from wanting to become one. if my twitter, instagram, tiktok, all that jazz resurfaced as an idol and especially during debut... i'd sob because people will over-analyse it all. like, just because seunghan did this does not make him horrible now!!! i know the smoking was slightly more controversial because it's unhealthy, but dating?? DATING??? i was genuinely baffled beyond my utmost belief at the sheer SHOCK. the photos.... people on weverse setting the photos as their pfps, people on twitter posting 'reminders' with the photos... why dod they have those saved??? it's not only obsessive, but kind of parasocial that you're acting like you got wrongingly cheated on by a guy who doesn't even know who you are. i really hope our GOAT seunghan comes back as a soloist or something (hopefully under good management too) because he, everything aside, spent a lot of time training to be an idol just for this to happen.

also not directly a certain idol but why do we, as kpop stans, care about an idols weight and appearance so much?? i know majority of stans are normal and not weird af but there's a minority that actually put their little nerd glasses on and their fingers up that complain like "omg (insert female idol) lowkey lookin big back these days) LIKE HUHHH??? girl please weigh yourself and tell us the result before calling someone fat. especially a random celebrity of all people. all jokes aside, i'm sure the person criticizing an idols weight would feel quite stink if someone did the same to them. so just, uh, dont??? also people that complain when idols dye their hair something different because they like a certain color on that idol are genuinely crazy. like, take a step back and relax. because.... wdym you're having cardiac arrest just because your fave left their blonde era...... i think we as fans shouldn't be so focused on the little things and just enjoy the art!! the music!! the dance!! yes, appearance comes along with it, but it isn't like their stylist is going to make them look like that ratatouille rat....

N E WAYZ if you've read this much already i really applaud you and hope you have a WONDERFUL WONDERFUL WONDERRRRRFUL day for putting up with this yapping for a whole post. my complaints might not be as many or as long as they should be, but i'm simply venting my utter frustration as best i can without getting banned off of every platform i have. so yeah. follow me for more hit posts like this one 🤫🥶😈

[burningsolarsystem]

Introduction post:

I'm over 18, so some posts might not be minor friendly. I'm not gonna do hard nsfw, but just thought I'd put the warning out there just in case one of my posts touches on a topic.

You can call me L or Solar.

I go by they/xem or any neopronouns really

I probably won't post often. I'm just using this blog as a way to explore my identity.

So from what I can tell, I'm a pdid system. I'm frontstuck as the host and the others can only cofront. Communication is difficult and though they can't control the body, they do heavily influence me and my actions. (They aren't fully distinct unless influencing me, and even then, they are kinda blurry, so *shrugs* hopefully this blog allows me to learn to identify them better)

Will be some posts about my experiences. Others will just be junk posts I thought of.

Here's a summary of the ones I can tell so far:

Exile:

She/they/xe/void/dark

Some weird shadow magic girl.

Has a bit of an attitude.

Probably will tag posts with ☠️

Leo and Lucas:

Are brothers.

He/him, though Lucas does enjoy he/they and is willing to use any pronouns other than she or it.

Leo is the responsible one. Mr. No nonsense.

Lucas is the fun one, But knows when to be serious.

Both tend to hang together. Will probably sign off with 🙃 (Lucas's idea. Leo says he doesn't care)

Belle:

She/they/fae/kit/claw

Cat girl, but can morph into a cat form (think that's called a neko?)

She's a cat. Idk what else to say. Very cat-like.

Will probably sign off with 🐈‍⬛️ or purring or something

Luna:

She/fae/star

Literal human embodiment of a star.

Clueless. Doesn't really understand Human things.

Too shy to show up most of the time.

But will sign off with ✨️most likely

Vera:

She/Vee/Ver/fae

Don't ask why two of her preferred pronouns are based around her name, idk.

She is a goddess? Maybe?

She is very mothering. Takes care of me and the rest of us.

Signs off with some form of <3

Alex:

It/;-; is okay with he, but not preferred (don't ask about the ;-; pronouns. Idk if that's a thing, but it insisted)

(Honestly, fuck you Alex. Respectfully, of course)

Don't worry, it isn't offended. ;-; will gladly shoot back at me.

It is an asshole. Has a lot of attitude and won't hesitate to cuss people out(including me. Has gotten me into some not great situations, ngl)

;-; also doesn't really talk by itself. It talks through others. Most of the time, Exile communicates to me what it is saying. (Which is usually it just swearing at me)

Will sign off with ;-; (unsurprisingly)

Violet:

She/her?

Teen. Very teen attitude. And sassy

Dramatic af.

Will probably sign with 💜

Chaos?:

Honestly, it's name might be void, idk if it even has a name.

It/void/xe

Is literally the void.

Showed up like once, but kinda drifts by in the background on occasion.

Doubt It'll be around for posts

Some random dog:

Just showed up and barked at me before leaving

Idk. It's somewhere in there, but other than that I have no clue.

Some random shadowy figure/guy:

Don't know who or what he is, but he is basically the embodiment of my negative thoughts. Doesn't matter what I am feeling. He will insult me and ruin my day. (Could be not a headmate, but he feels like one)

Also, someone is obsessed with saying peace <3 at the end of posts and I don't know who. Might be Violet?

Anyways... idk. Some posts (if not most) won't be signed off on since half the time it's either just me or too blurry to tell. Again, won't post often.

This might get me some hate, but I'm indifferent to endos. Idc, just don't cause problems, please, and thank you.

Dni: homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, fake claimers, anti systems, abelists, many other things I can't think to list, just anyone hateful in general.

[saunteringvaguelydownwards]

what are the fics you’d consider required reading (as you said in the tags of another post) ? any fandom i’d say for required reading or if there’s too much, for warrior nun ?

*heavy sigh* I had this post 90% complete when the power went out at my house and I had to rewrite the whole thing.

I'm gonna give you a scattershot approach, one fic for a few different fandoms, different types of fic, and hopefully something resonates.

🦗 (Recommend any fic, wild card!)

Avengers/MCU - The Infinite Coffee and Protection Detail series by owlet (tumblr?)

Set immediately at the end of CA:TWS, Bucky's scrambled brain does a hard reset and decides his new mission is to protect Steve, covertly. Meanwhile, he kinda gets adopted by the senior citizens that live in the shitty apartment building he's crashing in while he learns how to be person again. It's snarky AF, touching, funny, great action, fluffy domestic Avengers Tower stuff. There's some Stucky eventually, but it's not the primary focus and doesn't really show up until like the 5th story in the series. There are 7 stories, and a Q&A with the author.

OUaT - The Secret's in the Telling by @the-pyrophoric-one

Emma is being pranked by a thief while living in the mansion with Regina and Henry, and there's also magic fuckery afoot. This story is just neat. It's tightly-plotted and funny. I can't actually say too much because the whole point is that there's a mystery to solve and I'd hate to spoil it. Even when I had kinda figured out what was going on, I still had no idea how it would end. It's told from two different POVs, so it's fun to reread the first part once you know the ending. Apparently there's also a sequel, but I don't believe I've read it yet.

R&I - Calamity Jane Meets Dr. Isles, Medicine Woman by @jobethdalloway

Rizzles 1800s western AU. Maura is a fancy lady from Boston who moves west to live with her fiancé Garrett Fairfield, Jane wears pants, drinks whiskey, and roams the countryside as Jake Wyatt, an outlaw who's hunting for Charles Hoyt, the man who killed her parents. The immersion in this AU is stunning, the characters feel true to the originals while allowing for how things would change given the time and circumstances, and the buildup from their unconventional meeting to friends to more is a lovely and authentic slow burn. There's also a completed sequel, but it's still on my to-read list.

The 100 - Lightning Only Strikes Once by fiona_249 (tumblr?)

Lexa gets shot and dies, Clarke climbs to the roof of the building, gets hit by weird lightning, then suddenly she's back on The Ark, about to be sent down to Earth with 99 other teen prisoners, and no one remembers the events of the past year besides her. The ultimate fix-it fic. How do you fix your mistakes while still trying to keep the good things that happened? Balancing future knowledge with ripple effects, how much can you change before you don't know what's going to happen anymore? What do you do with a second chance? I think I've read this fic at least half a dozen times.

Warrior Nun - What If I Told You I'm a Mastermind? by @sapphicstacks

Avatrice actress AU. Ava is an unknown actress working as a bartender, Bea is a famous but reclusive actress making a comeback after several years away from the spotlight, and they get cast together in a sapphic love story. You ever read a story and go "JFC, will you two just talk to each other?" Yeah, the reason is because all of the healthy communication got requisitioned for this fic. It's incredibly wholesome and overwhelmingly romantic and also ridiculously hot. Like, prep a cold shower or make sure you're somewhere private when you read it. There's a regularly-updated WiP sequel.

[godfrey-the-chaos-duck]

Can you please tell me more of your Villian¡Scrooge AU??

Abso-freaking-lutely!! I can ramble about this ALL DAY LONG so THANK YOU SO MUCH

I'm hesitant to spoil too much but I will say the following

So you know how after Della left, Scrooge got very lonely and depressed? Well, I feel like he only stayed sane cause Beakley and Webby were there. The more I thought about it the more I realised that they were probably the ONLY thing stopping him from losing it entirely

So then I asked myself, well, what happens if Beakley decided she didn't want Webby being raised in a house of chaos like this? She leaves too, and with Duckworth dead by now too, Scrooge is totally alone. And loneliness does strange things to people...

As well as this, I have to think about how he would ACTUALLY be evil. You see, most villains do what they do in the pursuit of power, or riches. Scrooge is already the richest duck in the world - so he has to move into a phase of villainy that most bad-guy types get thwarted before they even get the chance to think about it: maintaining that power through intimidation.

Now obviously it's a fairly easy job. He's been rich af for about as long as anyone can remember, so there's no real unrest. A bit of grumbling at taxes being raised, here and there, but nothing that screams "Vive la revolution" quite yet. No, no, the people Scrooge really has to worry about are the ones who already hate him. Glomgold. Magica. The Beagles.

Now, here's how some things will inevitably diverge from canon, simply by the fact that Donald and the kids don't show up when they would have in the show.

Because Webby's gone, Lena never gains her trust and entry to the mansion, so Magica never gets Scrooge's Number One Dime, and the Shadow War doesn't happen. The lunar eclipse comes and goes, and we have one VERY ticked-off evil sorceress stuck in the shadow realm.

Moonvasion still happens because ultimately the goings-on of Earth had exactly nothing to do with Lunaris's plans. The moon invades, but Scrooge has to use some good ole fashioned reverse psychology and manipulation on Zeus to convince him to let Storkules and Selene help deal with the invasion. No weird Glomgold scheme, just the Goddess of the Moon handling things as she should.

Not quite sure what I'm doing with the FOWL plotline from Season 3 but I will cross that bridge L A T E R

But I do have parts of the first chapter written so hopefully I can get something posted soon!

[citrus-cactus]

I LOVE this series!!! Have you drawn a Dracula+Jonathan version? Or planning Dracula+Lucy/Mina version? Or Jonathan+Mina, as even if they haven't blood transfused each other, they've clung and got "stained together with vampire blood" in the process

I was holding off on answering this until the series was complete, but aaaaah thanks Anon, that’s so sweet! I’m glad you enjoyed them, and I’ve really enjoyed reading people’s’ comments and responses in the tags (<3) so I’m gonna take some time to ramble for a sec because I’ve thought a LOT about Alternate Dracula Ballet Stuff!

I didn’t necessarily have the scenes you mentioned in mind, if only because the Michael Pink ballet does SUCH a great job telling the story with the Count as the focal point (particularly Act 1 with Jonathan at the castle. I don’t think anything I could draw could possibly improve it!! Also uh… I haven’t figured out a character design for Jonathan I’m happy with yet, he’s tricky ^^;).

Following Dracula Daily last year, I became really attached to the parts of the novel that focused on Lucy, and basically everything from August onward, so that’s where my brain started going “I NEED TO SEE THESE SPECIFIC THINGS AND THERE NEED TO BE POINTE SHOES INVOLVED,” ahaha.

Because I will NOT get to all of these, here’s a list of some other book-based ballet scenes I have in my head, just to get them out there. Hopefully I can actually draw some more of them someday, even if I don’t possess the time or art skills needed to do all of them justice! Honestly though, Dracula + ballet goes together so well, and there are so many cool things you could do to tell this story through dance. If other people wanted to use these, or had other interpretations, I’d love to see the final results! BALLET ALL THE THINGS!!!

I’m sure my idealized version would accidentally end up being 5 hours long, BUT WHATEVER here’s my list:

Include the three proposals as a way to introduce Lucy and the Suitor Squad. They DO all need to dance together in a pas de quatre, too :3

Mina and Lucy dancing together in Whitby; call it “Castles in the Air.” Mr. Swales and the News Correspondent can make an appearance too, plus the sleepwalking rescue.

Mina and Jonathan pas de deux post-Transylvania: he starts out bed-ridden but eventually gains enough strength to dance with her; they get married and he gives her his journal (still important that he uses a cane for a while though!)

Because of spoilers for things that happen after September 20th, I’m gonna put the rest under a cut.

Jack and Van Helsing dance together showing their Incredible Dynamic(tm) (+ late September graveyard shenanigans??)

The Suitor Squad (ESPECIALLY ARTHUR) dances with the Bloofer Lady (it’s about the symmetry. THE PARALLELS!!!)

Big ol’ Crew of Light montage to represent them coming together, reading each other’s notes, and becoming a proper polycule friends. Lots of possibilities for interesting dance combinations here*, plus something-something October 3rd :)

Post-October 3 pas de deux between Mina and Jonathan FOR SURE. Let them be INTENSE!!!

Bring the Weird Sisters back for a showdown with VH and Mina, let it be creepy and gothic af (because at first, you’re not sure whose side Mina is even on…?) and ultimately, she gets to shotgun a vamp or two, as a treat :D

*I DO really love the Mina-Renfield pas de deux in the Michael Pink version too. I didn’t expect that combination of characters to dance together before I watched it, but it was SO GOOD!!

[moonreadingjournal]

What is up?

(Totally unrelated to this post, but I hate it when someone says “what’s up?” Or “what is up?” And some smartass answers with “the sky jajajajja” I hate it so much. It makes my whole soul and my whole life cringe so hard. Also when it’s new years and people go up to you and say “see you next year jajajaja” ew or “haven’t seen you since last year ajajajajaj” ewwwwwww).

So after I finished reading The Extraordinaries I was on the fence in regards to what read next? Don’t get me wrong. I have a ridiculous amount of books to choose from, but it is hard sometimes to choose and make the right choice. So for me it was between If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio, Spell Bound by F.T. Lukens, Happy Place by Emily Henry (which I already started but put down to read the extraordinaries), All the Hidden Paths by Fox Meadows (the sequel to A Strange and Stubborn Endurance) Kindling by Traci Chee (which I have the ARC for [what???] but I haven’t read it and the book is out but whatever) and Midnight in Everwood by M.A Kuzniar.

I don’t know why but I ended up choosing Midnight in Everwood. It is a book that I have previously started reading but just stopped. I don’t think I know or remember what else I decided to read instead (but that’s not important). As you can probably guess from the cover it is a re-telling of The Nutcracker. Which I love. Granted, I’ve only ever seen the Brarbie and the nutcracker movie. But I’ve seen so many tiktoks of the ballet, from the Royal Opera House and the Bolshoi Ballet. It looks so magnificent and magical. It is all snow and sparkles (and some creepy af mice).

One of my dreams is to someday a) watch a small production of the nutcracker in person where I live currently and b) to watch the nutcracker at one of the famous ballet houses (Royal Opera or the Bolshoi).

This book is a work of fiction, for adults. But it is quite the cozy and comforting read. As of where I am right now, I know it is a pretty nice reading. Something you can enjoy during the winter months w a hot cup of anything (cider or hot chocolate) and curl up on a fuzzy blanket while it is snowing (slightly not a full out blizzard).

After I am done reading this book I don’t know what I will read. I am pre-ordering some books and I pre-ordered some books that will be coming at some point. I ordered The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang and there are also the books I listed I wanted to read before I landed on this one. I guess we’ll see.

Also I feel like re-reading Red, White and Royal Blue. Which I only want to because I re-watched the movie and I do remember a lot and know they made quite a lot of changes, but not quite the deal break for me. What is a deal break for me though is the cover for the paperback. The pink one with those goofy looking Henry and Alex. I don’t like it. Alex looks so weird in that drawing and Henry too. All I can think of is that, this cover had to go through approvals. Multiple people had to probably make a vote and landed on that. If someone were to tell me it was Casey who drew them I would be like “okay well” but yeah. I now I sound like a lot. I am weird but I just. It’s not like any of the other books I have. I honestly like the movie tie-in cover they released when the movie came out (I know, blasphemy). I want to buy this collector’s edition hardcover one that is so pretty. It has no Alex or Henry in the cover. Only on the inside and they are so cute. But whatever. This little paragraph has no real purpose just me complaining sorry.

Well hopefully I will finish Midnight in Everwood before The Emperor and the Endless Palace arrived (I write as I literally get a notification that it arrived and I can pick it up, ugh, I feel sick today, I cannot go for it). And hopefully I will remember to write something about the book once I am done.

So it was decided I will read The Emperor and the Endless Palace after this book (by me, just now) I don’t know what I will read after. It is between….all the books that I own.

[slowestlap]

i have to shoot my shot and ask - HOW on earth do you make your gifs so crisp. they're so clean its literally out of this world!!!!!! when your gifs are on my dash i almost always know its you just by the QUALITY of the gif. help a girl out!!!

Hii! Thank you!! <3 I'm happy with the way my giffing process now goes but it's taken years and a few different fandoms and stumbling upon good tutorials which is why i decided to make one of my own too.

I still love figuring out new things to try and hopefully you can get some new tips to your process from me too. Under the cut is a long af post about gif making, focusing on some basic stuff and sharpening/coloring tips.

________________________

WAY TOO LONG INTRO

Before i get to the photoshop part, the base stuff is super important: You can't turn a very bad video into great gifs since there's only so much photoshop can do BUT you can turn a good video into great gifs. So, obviously the original video quality matters a lot.

I religiously stand by the correct tumblr size dimensions (see example, the numbers mean the width. Height doesn't really matter). However in 3 column sets i’ll sacrifice that one pixel and would make them all 177px. The empty space between gifs in 2 column sets is 4px, in 3 column sets it's 4px + 4px.

Since tumblr can only properly handle 540 gif pixels in the same row, sets with two wide gifs side by side can be laggy to scroll by. So for example, 268px gif will not be as sharp as 540px gif (if you click on it to see it bigger), since it legit has only half of the pixels, but if you plan to post 2 gifs in the same row, the 268px will look better on the dash in the gif set since it’s correctly sized for the best dash result.

I download videos when i can (dl is always better than screen recording), so that's youtube, instagram/twitter etc. Streaming sites/broadcasts i have to screen record and i use OBS to do it. It's the best i've tried for hq recording. I record with 60fps and use display capture. OBS is a heavy program, as is photoshop, so a good enough computer is also super important imo. I used to make gifs with a laptop of 4gb ram/128gb emmc and lost my mind after all the crashing and spent 1k€ on a new one. Basically, have as much performance as you can afford, and editing experience will be much much more pleasant. Of course gifs can be done with an average computer too, it'll just likely be slower and clumsier and you need more patience 😫

Also, i've gotten rid of the urge to be the first to post a gif set when new content drops. I'm not the fastest, i always do every coloring from the scratch. I save to drafts to see how it looks like on mobile, i go back to ps to correct the things that don't look right (too dark/bright, too green/yellow/red, too slow/fast), i make the changes, then save to drafts again and then post. I'd rather post a set i'm happy with than to post quickly knowing i could've made it look better with just a bit more time. (It'd bother me and i'd go back and re-color for my own peace of mind 😅) And i just wanna say it's totally fine when people make gifs of the same stuff!! The more the merrier, no need to think only the first to gif something somehow now has the rights to that moment. I just never get the best result if i try to hurry, so i’ve stopped trying to get my sets out asap. I’ll post when i’ll post.

________________________

SHARPENING

All these words and i haven't even gotten to the point yet 🫣 But fine tuning the details won't work if they don't have a proper base at first. Which!!! Finally brings us to your question:

I'm not sure if the order really matters but the main steps i do in this order: once the layers have been converted to video timeline and video timeline is converted into a smart object -> smart sharpen -> crop -> resize -> coloring

I like to sharpen things first, to me it makes sense to do it before resizing because after resizing you've already lost some pixels, so feels better to sharpen when you still have all the original pixels.

All the above steps (sharpening, cropping, resizing) will affect how the gif looks, so i do the coloring as the very last thing so i can better see how the end result will look.

To me sharpening and coloring go hand in hand, and you use both of them to get the best result. Sharpening obviously does what it says but good coloring will help to make the gif look cleaner and smoother too.

Finally, examples!! The key to a sharp result in my process is 2 sharpening layers. The main layer and the second layer.

Enjoy looking at judgy max f i giffed last year and chose to use as an example here. The source video quality was 1080px and i screen recorded with OBS.

I use photoshop CC2019 so cannot guarantee that these will work the same way in other ps versions. As always, it's about fuckin around and findin out 🙏🏻

__________________

1. Example with resizing done, but no sharpening or coloring (blurry and ungood)

2. Example with resizing and main sharpening layer (already much better)

3. Example with second sharpening layer included (more depth, dark spots are darker, almost too strong of an effect but coloring will fix that)

4. Example with all of the above + coloring (the final result)

5. The final result as a gif

And how did we get that result?

Main sharpening layer settings (yes, it’s in finnish but i think the options are in the same place in every language):

Because the sharpening is quite heavy, I double click on this thingy (red circle) in the layers panel to lower the opacity to 50-70%

The middle layer is gaussian blur, which i’ve set to 0,2.

So basically i intentionally oversharpen the gif and use the opacity function and blur to soften the effect. Dumb or smart, who knows not me, but it’s working for me so i’m rolling with it.

The top layer is the second sharpening layer. A godsend trick i’ve learned along the way: (the difference between the example photos 2 and 3 above)

(I've created an action, so i just gotta push one button and it'll run thru these sharpening settings, ie. i don't have to manually click thru these every time, saves crazy amount of time)

Wasn't sure at which point i'll mention this so i'm just putting it here: when saving the gif for web, i almost always use adaptive and diffusion.

________________________

COLORING

I’m not gonna go thru every coloring thing in my process since this is already so long hsdkfjdkjgkd but i’ll give some info on what i usually do and some tips i've found helpful.

My style is quite natural and i prefer colder tones. I hateeeee overly green/yellow/red skintones that are caused by bad lighting so I always try to correct that. The below stuff is more or less what i did to color that example gif too. (Everything is down to preference, these are just the way i like to color)

My most commonly used coloring layers:

Curves. Utilize the eye dropper tools, pick white eye dropper and click on a white spot on the gif (not pure white tho since it won’t do anything) and it will turn that spot to 100% white and correct the other colors at the same time. Black eye dropper will turn a dark spot you picked to 100% black. It can be super effective, just try a spot, undo, try another spot, undo, until you find what looks good. If you like the result but it’s too strong, lower the layer opacity. And of course you can just simply drag the curve up and get brightness that way. There are times when the eye droppers won't work nicely but it's always worth a try.

Levels. Works similarly to curves, they are basically the more efficient brightness/contrast combo.

Color balance. No gif of mine has been made in the last 3 years without dragging the blue in the midtones to the right. I also often drag the green to magnetas side. 

B&W gradient map. I set the blending mode to soft light and lower the layer opacity. Gives the gif a bit more depth and pop to the dark/light parts.

If the dark parts in your gif are too dark, for example details around eyes look messy but you don't want to lower the contrast, then try adding light colored gradient map (light yellow-white or light blue-white etc) and set it to soft light and play with opacity. It will give light and brightness to the gif without making things blinding and not losing much contrast.

Photo filter. I’m almost always going for cold blue and 10-20 setting. (Orange filters can give a nice effect too, if you want to bring some warmness to the gif.)

Vibrance. Always adding at least a little bit, helps colors to pop and makes skintones look nicer.

Selective coloring. Just drag them sliders to left and right to see what works, that’s really the best advice i can give. If you want reds to pop, go to red and play around. If you think the white spots are a bit blinding, go to white and then slide the bottom one (black) to the right. If you want some more contrast, go to neutral and slide the bottom one (black) to the right. Same with black (black).

Also, i don't like to do too much with one layer. I tend to do different colors with different selective coloring layers, so if needed i can lower the opacity and it will only affect that one color. Also it's handy to duplicate layers if you really want a certain color to pop, one layer often isn't enough in that case so duplicate it and if it's too strong then play around with opacity.

(Left image below). If you want to correct overly yellow/green skintones, go to yellow and you can try these settings. Then lower the layer opacity to see what looks good. 

(Right image). If you struggle getting rid of very red tones, you can use hue/saturation layer, go to red and just drag the middle slider to the left. (This is also a good tip with POC, when you think their skintone is overly orange/red but you are afraid of white washing. This setting will usually correct the orange and red tone without taking the dark/black color away.)

______________________

THE END

Wheew this is what happens when you give me an opprtunity to talk about giffing 😅 I hope it was easy to follow, feel free to ask if i was unclear about something!! And hopefully you got to learn something new. 

Also these are obviously just my way of doing things, not the Only Correct way, do whatever you like and enjoy and don’t worry too much if other people do things differently. Most important thing is to have fun creating 🫡