#(and i love pastels so it was obvious what had to be done)

[mashtatosworld]

calm in the chaos

summary: you give birth to your first baby

You should have known when Jiyong walked into the room with a beret perched on his head and a set of fine paintbrushes in the other, that today was not going to go as planned.

You had thought you were going to start painting the nursery.

You had been excited, even, having selected a range of pink shades together weeks ago. You’d imagined the two of you working side by side, getting messy with paint, making this space a home for your little girl.

But instead, you found yourself sitting on the nursery floor, your maternity dress rolled up over your stomach, as your husband carefully dragged a paintbrush across your swollen belly.

You sighed, watching him dip the brush into a soft pastel colour before sweeping it over your skin. "Ji, why are we doing this again?"

He didn’t even look up, his lips pursed in deep concentration. “She gives me inspiration.”

You arched a brow. "She?"

“Our baby,” he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I’m waiting for her to tell me how she wants the room painted."

You blinked. "You don’t know what colour you want the nursery to be?"

He had a vision board, a Pinterest board and even hired interior designers to help plan the nursery. But in the end, the two of you went to the store and picked out your favourite swatches of pregnancy safe paint - of which he was now painting on your stomach.

“I thought I did," he admitted, sticking a tiny flower to your belly, right where he had just painted. "But then I realised, I should wait for her input."

You stared at him, bewildered. "She’s going to decide?"

He nodded sagely. "Of course."

You sighed again, shaking your head. "And how exactly is she going to do that?"

At that exact moment, a small but firm kick pressed against your stomach, right where he had been painting.

Jiyong grinned, eyes wide with excitement. "Ahhh, see? She’s choosing!"

You couldn’t help but laugh. “Or maybe she’s just done with you poking her all the time.”

He ignored your teasing, his expression turning softer, more thoughtful. He ran a hand gently over your stomach, his wedding ring cold against your skin as it grazed the painted surface.

"I feel so connected to her already," he murmured, pressing a kiss to your belly. "I think she’s going to share my artistic vision but have your beauty." His eyes flicked up to you, filled with so much love it made your breath catch. "She’s so lucky."

Your heart melted, and you reached out to touch him, feeling closer than ever. "We’re the lucky ones, Ji."

He smiled, rubbing a hand over your belly again before picking up another flower petal and sticking it carefully to your skin.

After a few more strokes of paint and some deep, artistic pondering on Jiyong’s end, you finally asked, "So… now that she’s chosen the colour, can we start painting the nursery?"

Jiyong froze, slowly pursing his lips. His expression instantly shifted from serene to guilty.

You narrowed your eyes. "Jiyong."

He cleared his throat. "Well… we could… but, you know, it's a lot of labour, and - "

"Ji."

"And you're pregnant, and I just - ”

"Ji."

"I don’t want you moving around too much!" he finally blurted, eyes pleading. "It’s not safe!"

You stared at him, incredulous. "That’s why you’ve been delaying? Because you don’t want me painting?"

He nodded quickly. “I mean, you are involved! You’re growing our princess!”

You threw your hands in the air. "Jiyong, come on. I want to help. I’m not going to break!"

He hesitated, clearly torn between his need to protect you and his desire to make you happy. After a long pause, he finally sighed in defeat.

“Fine.”

"Thank you."

"But only sticking flowers to the wall," he warned. "No climbing ladders. No stretching. No actual painting. Just decorating."

You rolled your eyes but took what you could get. "Deal."

He'd been like that your whole pregnancy.

You weren’t allowed to carry anything. Not a grocery bag, not the laundry, not even your own shoes if he was feeling particularly protective. The man had damn near wrestled a glass out of your hand once, insisting it was too full and too heavy - until you nearly bit his head off.

After that, he reluctantly allowed you to lift a drink or your phone. But everything else?

Off limits.

𓆩♡𓆪 𓆩♡𓆪 𓆩♡𓆪

An hour later, the nursery was transformed.

The walls were coated in the perfect shade of soft pink, the door dotted with tiny, delicate flowers. Jiyong had even painted a subtle mural on one wall - gentle brushstrokes forming a dreamy, almost ethereal heart. It was beautiful.

You both stood in the centre of the room, looking around in awe.

It suddenly felt real.

This wasn’t just a room anymore. This was your baby’s room. The space where you would rock her to sleep, where she would wake up every morning, where she would play and grow.

Jiyong took your hand in his, his grip warm and steady. He gave you a small, almost disbelieving smile. “This is really happening, huh?”

You squeezed his fingers. “Yeah.”

Briefly, you were pulled back to when you first met him. At the time, you'd been too afraid to even look him in the eyes. And yet now you would touch your stomach and wonder if your baby would have those same, curious eyes...

He pulled you into his arms, holding you close.

You closed your eyes, resting your head against his chest, listening to the steady rhythm of his heart.

The three of you - already a family.

𓆩♡𓆪 𓆩♡𓆪 𓆩♡𓆪

You should have known.

You should have known when Jiyong didn’t touch a single drop of alcohol all night - not even during Youngbae’s toast.

You should have known when he stayed practically glued to your side all night, his hand permanently resting on your belly like some kind of monitor.

And you should have known when he kept looking at you with that knowing little smirk every time you shifted uncomfortably.

But you?

You were in denial.

Sure, there had been some cramping earlier that day, but that was normal at nine months pregnant. It was not the start of labour.

No way. Not tonight, of all nights. Not when you were supposed to be enjoying Youngbae’s big concert, surrounded by your closest friends.

So, you pushed through.

You swayed lightly in the VIP section, singing along with Hyorin. And you breathed through the discomfort when Jiyong leaned in, murmuring sweet nothings against your temple.

And then the concert ended.

You were all backstage, congratulating Youngbae, when a sharp pain rippled through your stomach. Your hand immediately shot out, grabbing the nearest thing - which happened to be Jiyong’s forearm.

You squeezed, fingers digging in.

Jiyong didn’t even flinch.

Instead, he sighed, tilting his head with that same knowing smirk. "Right, jagi - your contractions are within five minutes. It’s time to go to meet our baby."

Silence.

Then -

“WAIT, WHAT?!”

Every single person in the room turned to stare.

Youngbae, still towelling off his sweat, froze. Hyorin’s jaw dropped. Daesung, mid-sip of water, choked violently.

"Is this really happening?!"

"How could I have not noticed?"

"I'm going to be an uncle again?"

Jiyong rolled his eyes. "Yes, ok, she's in labour. Time to go. Let’s move."

"Yah!" Hyorin smacked your arm. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"You can't smack a pregnant person!" Daesung jumped in, standing in front of you like a personal bodyguard.

You tried to protest, but another contraction hit, and all that came out was a pained groan.

"What are we waiting for!" Youngbae ushered, grabbing his wife as Daesung threw on his jacket.

"This isn't an afterparty." You muttered, shuffling out of the room with Jiyong at your side as the others followed closely behind.

"We were there when you met, we'll be there for this too."

𓆩♡𓆪 𓆩♡𓆪 𓆩♡𓆪

The car ride was complete chaos.

You were wedged in the back between Hyorin and Daesung, who were gripping your hands like they was the ones about to give birth.

Youngbae was in the passenger seat, throwing out directions that he believed was the fastest way to the hospital.

"Take a left here! Hyung! Hyung! You missed the turning," He instructed Jiyong, his maps up on his phone. "Go right here! No! Jiyong!"

Your husband ignored his frantic shouting as he continued straight ahead. "I know the way." He'd been studying every route to the hospital since you entered your third trimester.

Daesung, squished in the back, was losing his mind. “Drive faster! Why are we not driving faster?! This is an emergency! Run the light!”

Jiyong stayed silent.

Completely calm. Not panicked. Not frantic. Not hovering.

He just gripped the wheel, eyes steady, jaw set. Cool. Collected.

Which only made it worse because nobody expected this.

“Why is he so quiet?!” Daesung hissed from the back.

"Maybe he's in shock!" Hyorin whispered back. "Youngbae fainted when I had our son."

"Hey... I was tired and simply closed my eyes," Youngbae muttered in return. He then looked to his bandmate with wide eyes. "You're not going to faint right? Tell me and I'll grab the wheel."

Jiyong rolled his eyes. “I’m perfectly fine.”

"That makes it weirder, Jiyong!” Daesung exclaimed.

You let out a strangled groan as another contraction hit, gripping Hyorin’s fingers like a vice.

Jiyong found your eyes in the mirror. His voice was calm when he spoke.

"Breathe, jagi," he murmured. "We’re almost there."

Everyone else was in full-blown meltdown mode, and yet he was here, anchored, pulling you back down to earth.

𓆩♡𓆪 𓆩♡𓆪 𓆩♡𓆪

By the time you got to the hospital, Jiyong immediately sprang into action.

The moment the car stopped, he was out, grabbing the hospital bag from the trunk - which he had secretly packed without your knowledge.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group spilled out of the car like a panicked clown parade.

"Move, move, move!” Youngbae yelled like it was a military drill.

Jiyong opened the door for you, helping you out carefully, and wrapped an arm around your waist as he guided you inside. The others trailed behind, all talking at once -

"We’re here for the birth!”

"She’s having the baby right now!”

"We need a wheelchair!"

"I can still walk Daesung.” You declined even when he nearly tripped you up, trailing closely behind at your heels.

Jiyong ignored all of them. He was only focused on you.

Hyorin was on the phone with your mother, giving her updates in hushed tones. Youngbae was already calling Jiyong’s mom. Daesung, pulled out his own phone, not one to be left out.

"I'm calling Seunghyun," He muttered.

Another contraction hit. You clenched your jaw, voice shaking. "Ji... I’m scared."

And just like that, his entire demeanour softened.

He turned to you, his hands framing your face as he rested his forehead against yours.

"I know, baby," he whispered. "But you’re going to be okay. I’m right here."

And somehow, that was enough.

𓆩♡𓆪 𓆩♡𓆪 𓆩♡𓆪

The moment you were wheeled into the delivery room, the chaos of your friends faded.

It was just you and Jiyong now.

He never let go of your hand.

Not once.

Through every contraction, every moment of pain, he was there. Whispering reassurances. Kissing your knuckles. Smoothing your hair.

"You’re doing so well, jagi."

"Just a little more, my baby."

"I’m right here."

And when your daughter finally entered the world - when her tiny cries filled the room - Jiyong let out the softest, most broken breath.

The doctor placed her in your arms, and Jiyong just stared.

He looked at you, his eyes wet, his lips trembling. "She's here," he whispered. "You did it."

You nodded weakly, exhausted beyond words.

And Jiyong - your calm in the chaos - just broke.

Tears streamed down his face as he cupped your daughter’s tiny head, his hands shaking. "She's perfect," he whispered.

You smiled sleepily, watching the love in his eyes as he gazed at your little girl - the masterpiece he had been waiting for.

The one he'd been waiting for his whole life.

𓆩♡𓆪 𓆩♡𓆪 𓆩♡𓆪

a throwback to the birth of baby diva! i thought i should post this before Angel arrives - which is not long now!

taglist: @petersasteria, @mirahyun , @allthoughtsmindfull , @gdinthehouseee , @infinetlyforgotten , @redhoodedtoad , @kathaelipwse , @lxvemaze , @loveesiren , @sherrayyyyy , @getyoassoutthetrunk , @shieraseastarrs , @ctrldivinev , @xxxicddbr88 , @onyxmango , @tryingtolivelifeblog , @tulentiy , @bettelaboure , @maskedcrawford , @breakmeoff , @emmiesoverthemoon , @rafesbunniebby , @ricecake9999 , @fleabagspurplewife

[littlelamy]

notes: taboo, food kink?

the chilled pastel-colored egg sat innocently in your palm, its surface decorated with tiny hand-drawn flowers and swirls—an obvious attempt at making it look cute. rafe had slipped it into your bag that morning before you left, reminding you to put it in the fridge while pressing a kiss to your temple with that smug little smirk of his, whispering, “made you something special, babe.”

and you knew. you always knew. this wasn’t the first time. rafe had a habit—one that was equal parts ridiculous, and strangely endearing.

he got off on this. on you knowing exactly what he’d done. on you accepting it without hesitation.

the thought alone sent a shiver down your spine as you stood in the chateau’s kitchen, still wearing the oversized sleep shirt you’d borrowed for the night, your fingers curling around the egg. sarah stood a few feet away, flipping through her phone, blissfully unaware of the not-so-innocent “gift” you’d just cracked into your bowl.

but before you did crack, something caught your eye. a tiny puncture near the top of the shell—subtle but unmistakable. your breath hitched.

he’d injected his own mark. a creamy, white, sticky one inside of the egg.

your stomach twisted, anticipation curling warm and slow in your gut. rafe never half-assed anything when it came to this.

as if on cue, your phone vibrated on the counter. you glanced at the screen, heart picking up speed at his name flashing across it.

baby<3: remember, not for her baby; it's just for you.

your fingers tightened around the edge of the counter. he knew you were making breakfast. knew exactly what you’d do with his little “gift.” knew you’d see white in the yolk, that you’d realize—

sarah sighed happily, oblivious. “ugh, i love scrambled eggs,” she said, tossing you a lazy smile. “why did he give you just one? ugh idiot, well enjoy it.”

your mouth went dry. you forced a casual nod, pulse hammering as you flicked your eyes back to your phone. rafe had sent another message.

baby<3: bet you’ll think of me with every bite.

your thighs clenched instinctively. fuck. you already were.

taglist𑄽𑄺: @rafesbabygirlx @namelesslosers @drewsephrry @maybanksangel @averyoceanblvd @iknowdatsrightbih @rafesheaven @anamiad00msday @ivysprophecy @wearemadeofstardust0 @rafesangelita @rafedaddy01 @bakugouswaif @skywalker0809 @vanessa-rafesgirl @evermorx89 @outerhills @ditzyzombiesblog @slavicangelmuah @alivinggirl @rafesgreasycurtainbangs @lil-sparklqueen @rafessweetgirl @esquivelbianca @p45510n4f4shi0n @palomavz @cokewithcameron @donaldsonsgirl @yncoded @lilbunnysfics @solaceluna @icaqttt @alphabetically-deranged @bevstofu @wintercrows @st8rkey

[zoropookie]

SWEET MELODY

☆ chapter thirteen — arson (🎂)

“Why…” You sobbed to yourself that morning, tone bubbling in your throat as you held your knees close.

The sky lightened and lightened the further the time closed in on dawn. Painted in the hues of soft pastels broke through, kissing the lavender and rose. You sat on the sand in the least high maintenance outfit you could think of that night, and set out to the nearby isolated walkway to the beach near your brother’s house. The problem was that you were there all night, expunging the tears off your face with your sleeves and dealing with the morning chill biting at your skin with no means to an end to your misery. No numb to your inner aching.

Your tears fell freely, soaking into your cheeks, falling onto half-wet sand. Unable to contain the sobs that wracked your body, your heaves and wails muffled into the sleeve of your now ex-boyfriend’s sweater. His sweater clinging onto you like the shore with its heavy mist.

The serenity was blatantly mocking you and comparing to the raging war in your mind. Your brother, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed this part of the beach. It’s probably why this was the first place he thought to go to search for you. He loved it, of course, more than you did on a regular basis too. He loved that this was the spot that you, him, and your mother would spend so much time around in the summers because of how little population there was. He loved the miniature sand dollars he would find washed up against one of the rocks sometimes, he’d even find a few anemones to poke and gently prod with his finger until they closed up tightly.

So it came to a more distinguished concern when he sat beside you silently while you sobbed in broken waves. Your breathing turning into heaving with every sniffle and wail. Those same memories Kazuha had enjoyed were slipping through your fingers, just like the sand you clung to.

“I’m sorry,” You choked out, throat sore and voice hoarse as you buried your face in your knees, trying to hide your puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks. “You didn’t have to check on me…I’ll be okay.”

Kazuha gave you a moment to recollect your words,” There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.” He smiled after replying, hugging his knees together as well as he looked straight at the sea instead of you.

You two learned from a very young age the consolation could be many things to many people, and this was their. Sitting together in silence, meshing with each other’s energy and attempting to heal the other if there was a disturbance. There were hardly any words to exchange other than the obvious, there were no signs of gloating nor false sympathies until one of them wants to discuss how they feel. As for now…people pushing problems on you felt a lot more burdensome than usual.

“My heart hurts.” You shook your head, fresh tears spilling over your face. “I wish I knew what he wanted sooner. I know he was struggling, I wanted to help him, but he just pushed me away and I felt really conflicted! I wanted last night to be perfect, I mean, we were at the festival for the first time since mom died and…and!”

“And you felt like you were talking in front of a locked door?” Kazuha looked at you, to which you hide your face in your arms as you listened. “You don’t know who will stay here with you and who won’t, and that’s okay.”

“I don’t know if I could’ve done more or not.” You drawled, struggling not to just burst into tears again. “Maybe he needed someone, and I was too busy on the one day he wanted to ask for my help.”

Kazuha’s hand reached out, placing a light hand on your back and rubbing it in circles. “The most interesting thing about life is that it never stops, even when you’re having a good time. We’re ignorant to things happening around us with our loved ones…all because we ourselves aren’t feeling necessarily sad enough to address them. That’s not a judgement on our character, but he’s capable of taking care of himself too, just like us.”

You felt ashamed knowing that the only time you had to spend with your brother was during the time that you keep getting curveballs thrown at you. “I don’t know,” You sniffed. “I doubt that we had time to think about ourselves with mom.”

“Mom…didn’t tell us she was getting sicker until it was too late.” He sighed softly, eyes still fixed on the riding sun, but a little more defeated this time. “There were signs, but I guess that just proves my point.”

“I think did what you could…mom is watching us sometimes, too. Sometimes the dreamcatcher she really liked rings when there’s no wind.”

You both sit there in silence, listening to the soft lapping of waves. Talking about mom almost drew you away from the fact that you were in hysterics about your former lover, which made you more sad that you couldn’t have either one. The sky brightened more, pastels giving leeway to the golden warmth of the early morning. It casted a soft glow on everything it touched, and for a split second, it almost felt like this was the peace you needed. With your brother, the one you knew better than anyone.

Kazuha’s hand was still on your back, grounding you from the situation again, but reminding you of the new coming problem that you had school in ten minutes.

“Someday I hope you have the same memories that I do about this place, good or bad.” Kazuha finally said, soft and reflective. “It’s where our happiest moments show up, you’ve made a great connection with it already by yourself. Now you just need to let your own mind come to terms with it.”

You chuckled amidst your full throat. “That’s a little silly…why would I want to keep the bad memories with me if the main goal is to heal?”

He didn’t respond right away, but he tilted his head enough to lean against your shoulder, eyebrows furrowed slightly. “For a reflection, I hope.”

previous ☆ masterlist ☆ next

THERE ARE not many things that can sway your interest ever since the "incident", but in spite of that, you pushed forward. you are now the owner of the biggest bakery chain in your city, consistently seeing couples and catering to them as such. you've been a big host at weddings, events for celebrities, and even a big support for your friends and family. you've even earned yourself a niche following as well by how sweet you are to everybody around you. but, even with your kindness, you don't have a particular spark that keeps you going anymore these days. that is until one of your employees starts suggesting you write love letters to customers who request your services. at first you thought it was a horrible idea that could easily turn into trouble, but that was until you were tasked with writing one to your own (very very famous) ex-boyfriend.

taglist ☆ — @seternic @chemiru @coquettemaiden @1kio0o @emiixuu

@agaygothicmushroom @yomishen @jingyuan-wife-real @toruscorpse @whoooismkeee

@sketcheeee @st4r4ngel @xionri @scaradooche @lightyagamifan

@pwushizz @alatusorrow @eutopiastar @magica-ren @slu7

@vaxmpi @theyluvkatt @kyon-cherri @suzydarling @mimi3lover

@auroratumbles @vxcmx @yourfavoritefreakyhan @kunimylovee

@czerwka @little-honey-the-third @featuredtofu @simonisferal @justpeachyteastea

@liuaneee @skyoverkill1 @mellowberrie @lalalaloveallmydays @mostlymoth

@mtndewbajablasted @vernith @lovekeychains @danhenglovebot @elizshade

@balladeersflower @kazumiku @bananasquash @neversore @yevurin

@franaby @vicslz @kamiboo @thegalaxyisunfolding @morgyyyyyyy

@feikyuu @tamikahoshiko @kissingkzuha @bbysatoruuu @rvoulte

@kinvasions @kukikoooo @adriannauodi @pumpkincitrus @umiloa

@eunseok-s @state-of-grac3 @ariesloves @trulyylee @lyzeivr

@suniika @animeobsessed56 @kamisstufff @samyayaya @scarawiki

@mywillt0live

[daylighted]

— AND IT ALL SHATTERS LIKE GLASS, d.dixon.

summaryㅤsit with him a while; the dawning sun always made your smile look so pretty . . .ㅤwarningsㅤsad, unreliable narratorㅤauthor's notesㅤsorry :/

the sun rises in pastel shades of yellow and pink, vibrant orange cusping over the peek of it beyond the horizon. you loved sunrises. loved when the birds began to chirp hidden away in between the branches, loved when warmth began to spread across the dewy grass and drape over your skin through the sheer tarp of tent over your head like a blanket. sleeping outside was never something you preferred, daryl knew too, but there were moments of peace like this that made it easier.

he never really slept. his eyes closed and he went into an inbetween place in his head, never fully unconscious but enough to where his body counted it enough to let him keep moving throughout the sunny parts of the day.

so when you make that little noise signifying that you were beginning to stir awake, daryl's eyes instinctively open.

your eyes are always so beautiful like this. half awake, tucked away behind your eyelashes as you will them to open slowly. you look younger, without all the worries of the ending world weighing on your shoulders. daryl wanted to bottle up these moments, flip them like an hourglass so that it'd never run out.

"sleep okay?" he asks, because you already know the answer to if you'd ask him. you'd long stopped, knowing his answer would be a dismissive grunt.

your lips curve upward, offering him a toothy grin already. you were the sunshine to his darkness, always had been. you always had enough to leave little sprinkles across everywhere you and him went. it wasn't much, but eventually, it'd cultivate a world that wasn't so broken. he was sure of it.

daryl can't help his own grin, either. there were two contagions in the world: the virus that'd knocked the world's population down by over half, and the pure joy you'd been infected with since before he knew you. everything was a threat, now — the living to each other, and the obvious threat of the undead — and yet all of that never managed to dampen your spirits.

he'd tried to, once. even he couldn't puncture the harsh truths of reality into your head, couldn't shatter the strong barricades of optimism that you protected yourself with.

daryl's hand comes up to trace alongside that smile, careful to keep his thumb brushed across your bottom lip, not wanting to touch anything besides that smile. "m'glad," he murmurs, and he is. forget everything that wasn't keeping you safe and keeping you happy; none of it mattered. "hungry?"

you nod. of course you do. how long had it been since daryl could find anything big enough to last past a single meal? the wildlife was long endangered, even moreso than the human population. he tried every day, though, to find anything to keep you from starving. he'd give you everything and make himself wait another day, if he had to.

"i know ya are," he sighs, running a hand through the dirt coated locks of hair clinging to his forehead. "m'tryin', alright?"

the words hang heavy in the air, sharper than they're intended. he's been frustrated lately, doesn't mean to lash out on you but you're all he's got anymore, so you catch the brunt of it. he'll apologize with something to eat, or if he can't find anything, he'll be forced to use his words. all he needs is a few moments to get his bearings back, and he'll do it.

it won't fix what's been done, though. never will. all of his apologies build and build like the mountains out of molehills that the arguments stemmed from, and he's left ragged and full of shame every time he sees the clouds in your eyes.

forget everything but keeping you safe and keeping you happy. over his shoulder, and he glances at you again, to where he'd tied you to a thick tree trunk overnight, your neck straining so hard against the bound rope that red bruises were blossoming on pale skin beneath it.

"we'll find somethin', yeah?" you don't answer. of course you don't. your teeth are bared in a mockery of the smile you used to wake him up with, laughter replaced with desperate, throaty growls. he reaches over even though the illusion has shattered, thumbs over your cracked, mottled lips, careful again to avoid those teeth.

the jerky movement of your head is almost a nod. daryl pretends, sometimes, that it is, that you can hear him in there, still, even though he somehow simultaneously hoped you'd moved the fuck on from the emptiness of this shit life.

"yeah," he says, the weight of his grin making it drop, prying your hands away from his shirt as you claw into it, trying to sink your fingers into his skin. "yeah, we'll get you somethin', alright?" those eyes he used to love track him as he stands, a predator stalking a predator, knowing it was the bigger threat in the equation. they were clouded and empty, a bleary shroud tucked around what they once were.

he'll starve another day for you, so long as it kept you around for him to wake up next to, again and again. it was all he could do to take care of you anymore.

tagsㅤ@deansbeer @angelicjackles @beausling @angelblqde @bloodofswans @fairychris @bluemerakis @theosaurous

[cheriecoke]

.𖥔 ݁ ˖ SHADES OF RED — nanami kento

summary . . . kento tries to move on, but he sees you in every shade of red

contents . . . ex-boyfriend nanami, nanami pov, f!reader, reader is only mentioned but she loves the color red, suggestive part at the end, kento has a new gf but :/ he wants you bad — 700 words

notes . . . erm this is so self indulgent btw ! everyone around me laughs at me for only getting my nails done the color red and this was born bc i got my nails done today. in my yearning!kento era ig <33 he can miss us instead of the other way around smh

kento had never considered himself a sentimental man.

he’d always had the keen ability to let go of things easily—or, at least, to let go of them without too much regret. he’d never been overly emotional about things that served as reminders to his past. kento could’ve passed his childhood home and, sure, he’d feel a twinge of nostalgia. but it was one that he’d get over once he was out of the neighborhood, on his way to something different, somewhere better.

perhaps, it was a lack of sentimentality, or perhaps his future orientation was just a mechanism to help him cope with the ever-changing thing he called life. 

too bad that approach never worked when it came to you. 

even after you broke up with him, kento saw you everywhere he went. four years together was too much time, and time wasn’t enough to wash away the smell of your perfume, the love letters you’d written that he’d shoved away. kento still had a few of your belongings you’d never come back for. pieces of jewelry you’d left behind, and he’d never been able to get rid of. 

your pretty red lipstick still stained the corner of his sofa, the tiny little smear where you’d accidentally dropped the tube.

you’d apologized, embarrassed, so flustered he thought you might cry. but he’d only laughed instead, pushed the cap back on, and kissed the lipstick right back off your face. 

it had been his fault anyways.

your golden bracelet still hung with his watches, interlaced with rubies and diamonds. an anniversary gift he’d gotten you, and one that you’d thrown at him angrily when you finally left him. 

there was a red ribbon in the center console of his car, one that he’d left there in case you ever forgot a hair tie. 

there were reminders of you everywhere, there was red everywhere. the color of the passion, and the color of the fiery love that had burned bright between you. 

he saw you everywhere…

even in his new girlfriend. 

the first time gojo met her, he told kento how much she looked like you. maybe a little bit taller, her hair a little bit different. her lips were wider, eyes a slightly different shade.

still, the similarities were striking. and she’d never know.

besides all of the red, kento had erased whatever traces of you he could find, kept them locked up in a pretty burgundy box that was tucked away in his closet. 

and maybe she was similar to you in appearance, but she was gentler, softer, and she had an affinity for shades of pink. a light rose color was her favorite.

she probably thought that it bothered him, the obvious sign of femininity taking over his apartment. but kento appreciated that the lacy ribbons she left lying around, the lingerie sets, were much lighter than the color you’d tended towards. 

“kento,” she interrupted his stream of thought, as he stared at the splotch of maroon on his sofa, remembering how you’d stained his cheeks the same color.

he hummed. it’d been nearly six months since he’d seen you last. it’d seemed like longer. 

he shouldn’t miss you this much.

he did, though.

“i’m thinking of getting my nails done.” his new girlfriend—the one that looked like you but wasn’t you—stretched her hands out, looking at the chipped pastel pink at the end of her nails. half of the paint was gone. 

“okay,” he said, shrugging. shades of pink, she lived in. it’d be a shade of pink again.

she looked at her fingers, scrutinizing them like she wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. “i’m not sure it’d suit me, but… what do you think of red?” 

kento’s eyes had drifted over, and for a moment, he contemplated a protest. it didn’t suit her. she was a gentle, sweet soul. her voice soft, words loving—she was pink.

then, he remembered the softness of your palm over his thigh, your fingers threaded in his hair. nails longer, filed perfectly, a beautiful red color painted onto them. 

he missed you.

he felt guilty for his answer.

“sure, honey,” kento said, smiling. “that’s pretty.” 

when she came home later, kento had pulled her into the bedroom, turned off the lights, the room dark already with the sun that had set. her hands were smaller than yours, fingers more slender, but the color of her nails was the same. 

he could imagine your hands between his legs, stroking him lovingly. and kento had to seal his lips tightly to keep your name from spilling from them when he imagined you instead of her.

“mmm,” his new girlfriend had muttered, snuggling into his side. kento stared at the ceiling, sick with longing. “i love you. night, kento.” 

he didn’t answer.

when she was asleep, kento climbed out of bed, padded to the kitchen with his phone in his hand. it was past midnight, but you tended to stay up later, a book on your lap, with some form of red on the cover. 

his finger hovered over your name; there used to be a red heart next to it, and he wanted to put it back.

he wondered if this would just be another one of those times where his calls went unanswered. or, maybe, this time, you’d pick up. 

kento didn’t care anyway.

he pressed the call button.

[shadowww-bunny]

「His princess」-D. W.

❥ Dean never thought that he would be so happy to take care of someone and fulfill someone's demands before you came into his life.

❥ fluff, established relationship, princess treatment

In the last few minutes, almost every customer at the cafe has turned around to look at you. It wasn't surprising, considering how comical you and Dean looked together. He's a hunter with a rough, intimidating appearance in a worn leather jacket, and you're like a Disney princess in a pastel dress and pink lipstick.

However, none of you paid any attention to it. Dean took a sip of his coffee and looked at you, grinning slightly. You were sitting with your legs crossed and sipping your strawberry milkshake. Your lace stockings accentuated your slender legs, and it took Dean a lot of effort to control himself.

"Sweetie, are you going to finish your dessert?" Dean reminded you, looking at the cheesecake on your plate that you had been begging for so long on the way.

You mumbled something, but all your attention was on your phone. You're in the clouds again. So typical of you. Dean couldn't help but find it cute how carefree you sometimes seemed, as if you didn't care about the problems of the whole world, and in a strange way, it calmed him down.

The hunter grinned again. Without thinking, he picked up a fork and poked a small piece of cheesecake before bringing it to your lips. You almost instinctively opened your mouth slightly, letting Dean feed you. The hunter watched in fascination as your plump lips wrapped around your fork, as you chew and as your tongue stuck out to lick off the remnants. His hand reached out on its own as he wiped the cream from your lip and licked it off his finger.

It was almost part of the routine for both of you. You teased Dean about your knight in shining armor, and he rolled his eyes and called you a spoiled princess, but you both loved it.

Dean feeds you the last bite and cups your chin to kiss you. You giggle when his stubbly cheek rubs against your smooth skin and finally pull away from the phone, allowing the hunter to take your hand and lead you out of the cafe.

When you return to the motel, Dean holds the car door open for you. He bends down to fasten your seat belt. It's not that you can't do it yourself, but Dean likes little things like that when he can express his care and affection. He can't resist tucking a few stray strands behind your ear before getting behind the wheel. Dean lets you choose the music, and although your tastes vary greatly, the hunter doesn't mind the trendy pop music much, because all his attention and thoughts are occupied by you anyway.

Absolutely whipped, Sam would have said if he were here, and Dean knew that was true, but he would never have agreed with that out loud. Protectiveness was one of Dean's traits that stuck to him like a second skin, he spent his whole life protecting people close to him, first Sammy, and now you, and the fact that you enjoyed it did something to Dean.

The atmosphere in the car was relaxed and comfortable. From time to time, Dean would cast adoring glances at you, stroke your thigh, slide under the edge of your stocking, and listen to you chatter about everything in the world. So, to the sound of one of Britney Spears' songs, you drive up to the motel.

The hunter gets out of the car and notices that you stay in place without even thinking about getting up.

"What's the matter, princess?" He asks, leaning against the car door and waiting for your next witty answer.

"I'm tired." You answer in such a tone, as if it was the most obvious fact and he hadn't thought about it by himself. When Dean chuckles, you pout adorable, crossing your arms over your chest, as if you're unhappy that he hasn't done anything yet, and that makes Dean laugh more.

"Okay, okay." He raises his hands in surrender and sighs in mock annoyance. "You're lucky I love your arrogant ass, you know that, right?" Despite the sarcasm, his hands are surprisingly gentle and careful as he scoops you up in his arms, pressing you to his chest. "Comfortable now?"

Of course you're comfortable, Dean thinks. You've wrapped his around your little finger and you're enjoying every second of it, but the hunter doesn't mind.

Dean walks into the motel with you in his arms while you wrap your arms around his neck and rub your cheek against his shoulder. It's hard for him to stay serious when you're smiling like that, pleased with the attention he's giving you.

Dean notices the curious stares of the staff and other guests, but he doesn't care, and he knows that you do, too, because you keep snuggling up to him, tracing simple patterns on his shirt, and probably not even realizing what effect you're having on him.

After a few moments, the two of you find yourself in a room. Dean closes the door with his foot and puts you on the bed, but he doesn't pull away right away. His hands move down to your hips, stroking your creamy skin. It's always so exciting, the hunter just can't take his hands off you. He wants to lift higher, touch the most sensitive places and hear these lovely moans over and over again until he goes crazy.

You lean back on the sheets and your long silky hair spreads out on the pillow, shimmering in the dim light of the lamp. So beautiful, and all his. He leans in, his breath tickling your neck before he leaves a few feather-light kisses on your skin, feeling your hands squeeze the shirt on his shoulders.

"Don't you think you should thank me for that dessert, huh?" Dean teases. He's hovering over your delicate little figure.

You roll your eyes, but a mischievous twinkle lights up in your eyes, and you pull the hunter towards you, pressing your lips to his. Dean hums contentedly into your mouth, returning the kiss and hugging your waist.

He will never get tired of it. After all, you were his girl, his little princess, whom he will always take care of and love.

[kairiscorner]

what are you... wearing? — hobie brown x reader

request: reader wearing the I ❤️ my bf shirt she wears it w pride too ‼️‼️🗣️🗣️🗣️ a/n: and ofc, a hobie ver bc why not (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

(reblogs are greatly appreciated, it helps get my content out there! if you guys like what you see, please reblog it too &lt;:D)

you and hobie had pretty opposing aesthetics--for while he usually wore darker colors and more punk-like, bolder clothing; while you were more of the calmer kind, the more pastel and soft kind of aesthetic. though the two of you would always earn unwanted and unsolicited stares from other people you two would pass by, neither of you cared, you two were in love, so what if they wanted to stare? hobie hadn't let that bother him before, he's used to getting stared at, but he was worried about you if you were okay and didn't feel too conscious about these nosy people's stares. you had told hobie before that the stares didn't bother you too much, though you wished other people could just mind their own business.

it had also happened before that people mistakenly thought hobie was your family member or a really close friend, never as your boyfriend. you've had many people approach you and ask you for your number, but you always declined because you already had hobie, but they didn't know that until you cleared it up. it secretly frustrates hobie that not everyone took you two seriously as a couple, hence, you found the perfect solution for that: the very shirt you were wearing with pride as you walked down the sidewalk with him, hand-in-hand. the shirt read: 'i💗 my boyfriend', with a picture of hobie's face in the heart. as other people stared at you two with mixed reactions, you and hobie both smiled widely at them--with hobie also wearing a shirt that read: 'i💗 my partner', with a goofy selfie of you in the heart.

the first time you showed hobie the shirt, he was surprised you put in the effort to put his face inside the heart, with a good picture of him, too. "wow, love, didn't... expect you to have to say it aloud. but y'know what, i love it, i love it more than i love it, if that makes any sense." he says with a flustered chuckle as you giggled with him bashfully. "y'know what, i can't let you hog all the fun." he says as he takes a blank shirt of his and pulls out some spray paints and newspaper clippings. hobie immediately got to work and began to put the same words on his shirt with a few tweaks, designs, and a lot of pictures of you, mainly silly ones you never wanted to upload on your social medias or show to your friends out of fear they might tease you for them, but ones you looked genuinely happy and most beautiful in.

once hobie was done and the paint and glue all dried, you smiled widely out of embarrassment and delight at how adorable the shirt he made that was very you-themed and you-centric; your little compliments had made hobie's smile widen and the fluster in his face get even more obvious as he spoke to you in broken stutters and kept chuckling as you kept giggling and looking up at him with a bright smile. fast forward to now, with you two walking hand-in-hand happily among a crowd of people passing you two by the sidewalks and streets--many of which were staring at you two and whispering, muttering under their breaths how they never would've guessed you two were a couple if not for the shirts--and just enjoying each other's comforting warmth and touch as you two can finally make it known: you're each ther's, nobody else's.

tags !! @k4tsu3 @fiannee @luvstarrstruck @toneystank-3000 @ii01vq @maxoloqy @popeheywardssecretgf @arachnoia @solecitoszn @conitagray

[npookie0]

Flowers for Your Thoughts. Ronin x OC

A story for my oc Luce x Ronin, first date, fluff with a little twist.

Cw: blood, descriptions of murder, spoilers for Killer Chat!

"Are you sure about this Angel?" Luce said while her friend stood in front of her, putting pink eyeshadow on her eyes.

The woman was getting ready for her date, a date with Ronin Beaufort, a serial killer she met through Slaughterhouse Losers after Angelic, also known as The Heartsick Angel, invited her to the server.

It was a surprise for Luce when the man showed interest in her, after all they had two completely different aesthetics and she thought that she's way too light and pastel for his liking. Yet somehow the two of them had great chemistry, Ronin being the flirt that he was and Luce not shying away even if his words made her flustered.

Ronin always complimented her kills whenever she sent them in the server or a new news report met the daylight after the police finally shared some information with the press.

<goreboy> wow luce, you're Really Lighting up the streets with your lil art <goreboy> truly The last light Of Our lives

He'd call her whenever she saw her online and sometimes send her his kills in DMs as an excuse to send her a selfie.

The whole server saw their obvious interest in each other, Angel taking over the role of Cupid, getting the two of them to go out on a date instead of flooding the server with their "little fling."

So now, here Luce was, having her make up done by her best friend while she stressed out about the date she was about to go to.

"For the hundredth time Luce, yes I am sure about this! You look fabulous already and I am barely halfway done with your make up." Angel sighed and put away the make up brush.

She took Luce's hands in her own and looked into her light green eyes.

"Luce, you're one of the prettiest girl I know, you have a heart of gold and are an amazing person. If Ronin won't like you, which I am sure will never happened because all I hear about from him is you, then I will beat the idiocy out of him." The youtuber squeezed her friend's hands gently and gave her a soft smile. "Now, let us finish you up with some lip-gloss and blush." She pat her on her shoulder and tucked some of the loose blonde strands of hair behind Luce's ear.

"Thanks Angel, it means a lot." The florist replied and let her friend continue with her make up artist duties.

Luce stood in front of the mirror, looking at herself in awe. Her dark blonde hair usually put up in a bun, were now put in two braids with two light pink bows at the end of them. Her fair skin was smoothed out with make up, her light green eyes were framed with glittery-pink eyeshadow, Angel paid extra attention to the make up to make sure that Luce's freckles were still visible "for more cuteness". Her outfit was just adorable; pastel pink baggy turtleneck-sweater, brown chequered pattern short flared skirt with a Hello Kitty pink bow attached to it. On her legs she was wearing dark brown tights, white legwarmers with pink bows and black Mary Janes. She was also wearing a light brown jacket and a pastel pink scarf, it was late February after all.

"So, what do you think?" Angel asked excitedly, standing right next to Luce and looking at her in awe.

"Woah... I look so... beautiful." She felt like she could cry right there and then.

Luce, a woman who fought her whole life just to be able to be the woman she desired to be for so long, now looked at her reflection in her mirror and could happily say that she sees a woman, maybe slightly taller than most, but still a very beautiful young woman. If it wasn't for the make up on her face she could tear up and cry in Angel's shoulder, thanking her for helping her so many times.

"Thank you Maria, without you I don't think I could ever find so much love for myself." She whispered, pulling Angel into a tight embrace.

The model smiled, rubbing her friend's back gently. "Shh, look at yourself sweetheart, you're a brave young woman and I believe there's a guy waiting for you in front of your house." She giggled, looking out the bedroom's window to see Ronin standing next to his motorcycle right outside Luce's home.

"He's already here?!" Luce turned around, gasping in surprise. "Oh my god... He's here!" She wasn't sure if she was more excited or stressed, but she was quick to pick up her tote bag with daisies painted all over it and kissed Angel on the cheek before she made her way out of the house, shouting a quick "Remember to lock the door when you leave and text me when you're home, dearie!" to Angel.

She walked slowly towards Ronin, shyer than she expected herself to be, after all she was much more open and brave in calls with him.

"Hey there, pretty lady." Ronin said when she finally stood in front of him, taking her hand into his and placing a quick kiss on the top of her hand.

Luce's cheeks burned up at the gesture, her eyes straying away from Ronin for a second. "Good to see you too, emo boy." She collected herself quickly. "Wow you finally changed that skull t-shirt." She said, looking him up and down.

Ronin was attractive to say the least, even if Luce would be playfully rude to him from time ot time, that emo aesthetic was definitely his and she couldn't imagine him as anything else but a bastardising Shakespeare emo guy.

"And you on the other hand wore as much pink as possible," He paused and leaned in closer, his mouth at her ear. "you wear the colour well, love." She nudged him with her elbow. "Ah sorry, sorry, I forgot you're trying to play a mean cool girl today." He chuckled and backed away.

"I'm not-! Ugh, never mind. Are we going for that date or do you want to let Angel watch us?" She asked and turned away to see Angel giggling and trying to hide behind a curtain.

Ronin shook his head and waved at Angel.

"Yeah, let's get outta here, doll." He outstretched his hand towards Luce who accepted it with no second guessing. Holding hands with Ronin? On their first date? Seriously, the butterflied in her stomach will kill her one day.

Luce didn't live in Uptown for long, so she was really surprised when Ronin took her to an ice cream shop that she was yet to see before. It was really sweet, its main colours were white and yellow and it had lots of sunflowers everywhere she looked. They were seated at a small table at the very back of the place, next to a window with a view at the square where some smaller artists sometimes came to sing or play for tips.

"So, how dya like it?" Ronin asked, sitting across from Luce, holding a cup of apple crumble ice cream in his hand while he moved a plastic spoon through the dessert.

Luce was digging in her own ice cream, strawberry and vanilla flavoured. She looked around once again, smiling at the beautifully growing sunflower standing near the counter. "It's a sweet place, thank you for taking me here Ro." She gave him a beaming smile.

"Heh, I'm glad ya like it, wouldn't want to bore my pretty girl to death, now would I?"

"Yours, am I now?" She chuckled and gently kicked him from under the table.

"Well, you have my aorta between your fingers, just how you usually have the flowers you take care of, it's time for me to take your aorta." He lowered his voice so no one else besides Luce would hear him.

Her green eyes sparkled with joy when he said that, nothing's more romantic than a serial killer telling another serial killer that she owns his heart.

"You're so in love with me already, Beaufort?" She asked teasingly, eating some of her dessert.

He chuckled. "And what if I am? Is it a crime to love a woman who lights your day?" That was an obvious play on Luce's killer name.

She scoffed. "Even if she could be the last light you'd ever see?" Luce raised an eyebrow, not caring if anyone heard her or cared to think more about her saying a name of a serial killer.

"Oh darlin', for woman like her? I'd become blind any day." He chuckled and dug out a bigger portion of his ice cream. "Say ahh." Ronin said, bringing the spoon closer to Luce's mouth.

"What is this? A romcom?" She titled her head, some of her hair falling on her cheek.

"you said you loved 'em, didn't you? Now, open wide~." He chuckled. "I'd bless ya with a taste of heaven."

She rolled her eyes, letting Ronin feed her with his snack. She felt the ice cream melt on her tongue, the taste of a sweet apple mixed with the spicy crumble left a pleasant aftertaste on the woman's palate.

She pouted when Ronin stole some of her ice cream. "Trade, dessert of dessert." He shrugged with that shit-eating grin on his lips.

"What's with you and trading hm? Secret for secret, story for story and now even ice cream."

"'s my brand."

"One of many." She rolled her eyes and fixed her hair, getting annoyed by the feeling of her hair on her face.

"You get me so well, pretty." Ronin said jokingly. "Alright, chop chop, we have places to be."

"Huh? What do you mean?" She asked, confused.

"What? Ya didn't think this was the last of our date?" He cackled. "Nah baby, we're going for a lil romantic sight seeing."

"I feel like 'sight seeing' isn't necessarily what most people would have in mind." Luce said, eating a big chunk of her ice cream, enjoying this last bit of peace.

"Awh, you know me so well, darling."

Turns out; Luce was right. They were standing at a end of one of many Uptown's shabby alleys, truly a prime spot for a date. Sight seeing turned out to be people watching, Luce told him what flowers the people reminded her of, explaining to Ronin why and what the meaning behind said flower was.

"That big guy is a yellow rose?" Ronin asked in disbelief, cackling as if Luce just told him the funniest joke ever.

"Obviously! He looks like he's the best friend you could ever have! Like the type of guy who gives you bear hugs and stuff." She said it like it was the most commonly known thing about a random person.

"Yeah, yeah, you just gave me a random flower, didn't ya?" Ronin laughed and put his arm around Luce's shoulder.

Luce laughed nervously. Her mind wasn't in the same place as her body, she was lost in thoughts, worried about something.

Ronin noticed immediately, raising an eyebrow. "Hey, what's up? I see you're not really present here with me." He said, rubbing her shoulder with his hand.

"It's nothin-..." She didn't finish, there was no reason for her to lie, Ronin saw right through her anyway. "I... prepared something for you, but with the route we're taking I don't think it's possible for me to take you to the gift naturally." She sighed and added in a hushed voice. "And I worked so hard on that thing."

"Oh? A gift, for me? Darling, you should've said so. C'mon, now I'm all curious." He turned her face so she'd look at him and looked straight into her eyes. "Won't you indulge me now. my light?"

She scoffed and nudged him with her elbow. "It's Your Last Light, butcher." She took his hand in his. "Now come on, or your eagerness and curiosity will be the death of me." She dragged him out of the alley and led him further into the deepest and filthiest parts of Uptown.

Ronin knew the way so well he didn't even need to look around to know where they're header. The graffiti on brick walls, broken glass scattered on the floor, piss and vomit staining the walls of the long closed corner stores. An even cuter and romantic place for a date.

"You decided to take the devil to his Purgatory?" He asked once the two of you stood in front of said alley, the alley known and feared by many, the alley belonging to the sinner and saint of Uptown, the man who brought them ruin and salvation. The Devil's Butcher.

"Yeah, cause I came here to kill you." She said lightheartedly, dragging him deeper into the alley.

"Oh, there's nothing I wish for more. A woman after my own heart really." His grin was wicked, sick even.

Ronin was proudly watching his little "workshop", not noticing that Luce wasn't holding his hand anymore and was kneeling between the gore and fifth of the place, in front of a body The Butcher didn't leave there.

"Close your eyes!" She shouted, standing up from the ground, holding something in her hands.

Ronin listened, covering his eyes with his and and listening as Luce's footsteps got closer with every move she made.

"Ready?' She whispered.

"I was born ready, doll." Ronin could beat that she rolled her eyes when he heard her scoff.

"Then... open your eyes."

Ronin heard the change in her voice, she sounded nervous, it piqued his interest more.

What he saw when he opened his eyes was just beautiful.

Luce was holding a human skull in her hands, a real, fresh human skull. White lilies tangled into its eye holes, blood staining them. His breath hitched when he took the carefully prepared gift from her hands.

"What's the meaning?" He asked.

It was a form of art, of course it had a meaning.

"You're in my thoughts. Haunt me in my dreams." She whispered. "It's not a heart yet, but I hope that my mind is enough for you, for now." She said, looking away from him, finding her shoes very interesting.

Ronin titled her head up, the look in his eyes, insane, sick, loving. Luce never seen him so happy before, the sight itself made her stomach go crazy.

"It's the best thing you could've given me," He whispered. "and trust me, that heart will be mine soon, darling."

Flowers dipped in blood little by little, just how the devil was falling for the light.

An art of Luce and Ronin made by @sincerelyyourslilly <3

I love my sillies and I hope that you guys will adore my baby girl Luce just as much as I do!

Funfact : her voice claim is Lest from Arcane!

[ninjaneonleon]

(last seen at the tmnt au comp u _ u )

Mikey almost fell over backwards when the frantic looking Leo counterpart appeared in his vision. Casey, of course, was no help. She just laughed as he stumbled over his own feet and tried not to fall. In the end he just floated back to his feet properly with a small pout.

“Oh, sorry,” the Leo (Leon? Yeah, that worked for now) said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. “I just really need to find my Donnie, he’s, uh, not very stable with others.” He held up the photo he was brandishing a little more for emphasis.

The photo in question showed a version of Donnie that was very different to the brother Mikey knew and loved. Not only was he notably paler, his usual jade colouring going almost pastel, he was softer somehow. Rounder. He was also wearing a beautiful feathered tutu, had small white wings and was en pointe. That Donnie looked like he was all set to dance in Swan Lake, maybe even as Odette considering the feathered crown he had in place of a headpiece.

“No, I haven’t seen him. Hey, why do you say he’s unstable?” Casey asked, her eyes lighting up with excitement. Eugh boy, if Casey got it in her head that she wanted to try sparring with this unstable ballerina Donnie, there would be very little Mikey could do besides try to hold her back. Maybe if he got the Donnie back with his Leo, he’d be calm enough to not take Casey up on her obvious excitement.

“He’s, uh, well he’s very much got a swan brain?” Leon offered with a sheepish laugh. “Half the time he’s fine, the other half…”

“Oh, he gets violent and territorial?” Mikey had a few encounters with swans in the past. They were dangerous bastards who can and will mess you up. “Eugh boy, that’s definitely not someone who you want to leave alone. Leave it to me, I can help you find him.”

“Wait, you can?” Leon lit up with a relived grin. “How?”

“Like this.” Mikey held his hand out towards the photo and got a feel for Swanatello’s (heh, Swannie, that was a perfect name for him) energy. Once he as sure, Mikey plucked that very unique feeling chain from the air. He studied it curiously. “Huh. This is a very old feeling connected to him. Well, anyway, I can track him for you. Just follow me, we’ll get your Donnie back,” he promised, not letting go of the chain.

“Thank you so much,” Leon said enthusiastically. I’m worried he’s either gonna freak himself out or hurt someone.”

“Has he got memory problems or something?”Casey asked, following after Leon and Mikey. “Our Donnie can be violent but he’s very good at directing that away from people. Most of the time.” She shuddered, probably remembering the sago pudding incident. Mikey didn’t want to dwell on that.

“Yeah, he’s sort of been claimed by this mystic lake to be its guardian?” Leon offered with a shrug. “It means that he barely remembers anything before, and on his bad days, he doesn’t recognise us at all. He might look small but he’s just as strong as ever.” Based on the way Leon rubbed his arm, he clearly knew just how strong Swannie was.

“Claimed by a mystic lake? I might be able to help keep him calm for a while, if you wanted,” Mikey offered. If he could make sure Swannie could still sense the lake, he might stay calm enough to not hurt anyone during this whole thing.

“Anything would be helpful, thank you Mikey.”

They walked together for a little while, following the pale coloured chain, until Mikey spotted Swannie. He was looking around frantically, his feathers all puffed up from how worked up he was getting. Okay, Mikey totally had this.

“Casey, wait here. Leon, you too. Let me see if I can calm him down.” As he spoke, Mikey let a wave of magic wash over him. When it cleared, he was in his own tutu (orange, of course) and had his pointe shoes on. Oh yeah, that was awesome, he totally nailed the dramatics there. It might have been a while since Mikey had done any serious dancing but luckily, his body remembered exactly what to do.

He called for Swannie’s attention by putting a spotlight on himself and on Swannie, one only they (and Casey and Leon) could see. Then he let some music start to drift around, again, done so it didn’t bother anyone who was want involved.

Swannie looked over immediately, but when he heard the music, he seemed to relax. Perfect. Mikey made his way over, travelling in time to the music and throwing in some of his own choreography, warming himself up slowly. He and Swannie met in the middle and for a moment, they danced together.

It was simple enough to weave in some magic to their dance. A nudge to the mystic hold on Swannie’s soul, finding the link back to the lake, a touch of mental magic in the form of white smoke gathering around them to make sure he could feel the lake and feel it was safe, and tada! One fully conscious and aware Swannatello.

“Mikey?” He asked slowly as Mikey let the illusions die down.

“Not quite. I’m a different Mikey, buuut your Leo is right over there.” Mikey gestured over his shoulder to where Casey and Leon were waiting.

“Leo!” Like a bullet out a gun, Swannie shot over to Leo and clung to him, getting an awed hug in return. Oh yeah, Mikey was good.

“Nice going, Mikey,” Casey said with a grin. She clapped Mikey on the shoulder. “Wanna stick around with these two for a bit?”

“Yeah, if they’ll have us,” Mikey said, watching the twins get quite emotional as they hugged. “I think they could use some familiarity here, and besides, I wanna dance more with Swannie.”

————

@tmntaucompetition

[thevesuvianchronicles]

Burnt Amber

I was reading something the other night about the fact that in the dark the cones in our eyes legit can't respond to light like, at all. considering my recent bg3 binge that obviously got me thinking abt a certain sassy vampire and thus... this piece. (I've also been told there's a scene that could go along with this but I legit just got to act 3) enjoy!

spoilers for vague bg3 things

If he had to explain it - which he never would- the world lost its color. Many people looked back upon childhood so happily, everything had been brighter, the world bigger, love was so easy and quickly fleeting. A babe’s eyes opened to blurry yet vivid shades, pastels, and tints. Yet the first thing Astarion’s crimson eyes had seen was only the darkness of his own coffin. Color meant nothing to a vampire who’s first vivid memories consisted of clawing his way through six feet of funerary dirt.

Though his vampiric vision allowed him to make out the different threads on a rich man’s lapel, he only ever saw it in moonlight. Only a reflection, a fraction of the beauty the sun would give the fabric. Where there had been pastels there was now muted tones, tinted colors became gray, and shades became nothing but more inky darkness.

Centuries of this and he slowly began to forget the true colors the world had to offer. Was purple always so deep that one couldn’t discern where a sleeve ended and the night air began? Had yellow always seemed so dull? And red… had red always been so greedy? Soaking up and glaring back the same sick color he saw in Cazador’s eyes.

That’s all his vampiric life had been, that was all it ever would be.

Yet there he stood, watching the last of the sun’s rays dip below the horizon

Despite his suave demeanor and sweetened words, he knew how to woo someone, lure them into his bed with his body and honeyed words, and later back to his master. Yet no words could describe the sun now. It burned his irises, his eyes ached for him to blink, turn away, and do anything but stare into the sun. He simply couldn’t stop; it would take away his breath if he needed to breathe.

His first realization that color was far better within the sun was, rather unfortunately, Gale. Upon falling on his ass, Gale had done the wizardly thing and began rambling. However, Astarion wasn’t paying attention at all. His eyes were on Gale’s robe. He couldn’t remember a purple ever being so vibrant, so cocky almost, as if requiring you to look at it. It fit Gale as Astarion would come to learn. Then he saw purple everywhere. Balsam blooms carried but seemed a warmer tint of Gale’s robe. Shadowheart’s armor was even darker, matching that which Astarion saw late at night in the alleys of Bauldur’s Gate. He hadn’t really thought about it but he rather thought purple and red clashed. Leave it to that wizard from Waterdeep to be a walking fashion faux pas.

Yet despite the fashion error, Astarion couldn’t stop thinking about purple, the many different shades he had seen in a matter of days. The sun making the slightest variations more obvious to his crimson eyes.

He first realized that light is what made the colors so polluted, as if the colors were waiting to leach into his eyes when he couldn’t help but stare at the color yellow. It was, by far, not his favorite color, drawing too much attention of a rouge like himself.

Yet the golden glow of the divine seemed to suit Shadowheart. The brilliance of a guiding bolt whizzing past his ear, bathing a goblin in light, setting it ablaze. The disgusting color had saved his skin to many times to count by now. All thanks to the devotee’s hands.

The vampire couldn’t say he understood Shadowheart’s devotion. But the sheer power her belief brought the color yellow, made him quirk a brow. Such polluting brillance made him wonder if light was able to redeem every color.

The color followed him after that battle. Yellow licked at Karlach’s flames, light reflected off the golden threads of Halsin’s armor, it even sparked every time Lae’zel sharpened her sword.

Yet there was nothing that could redeem the color red. No amount of light or dark could make crimson look any better. In darkness it looked like a cesspool of all things evil, an open maw waiting to swallow whatever it could. In the light of day, it reminded him of nothing but lost souls, glowing red eyes, and a sickly grin.

It was the color Cazador liked most on him, both his clothes and his skin. It was the color his life had been reduced to. Living off such crimson ichor, so much so that it stained him, stained even his eyes from what he had gathered about vampiric looks. It was the only color that he would be happy to forget, but never could.

“You know if you stare at the sun long enough… you could go blind.” The voice came from behind him, his pointed ears finally picking up on the crunch of gravel beneath feet. His eyes did feel a bit dry as he blinked, black and swirling colors hindering his vision as he looked back over his shoulder.

The leader of their little group was… interesting to say the least. So focused on the tadpole and their companion's journeys that Astarion hadn’t learned much about their own personal goals, if any. He should work on that.

“I always love to look at beautiful things, not unlike yourself darling.” Astarion let the words lilt off his tongue, but didn’t turn away from the setting sun.

He heard a small hum from you as you settled beside him, standing close enough for him to tell that you had refreshed yourself from today’s adventuring.

Neither said anything for a while, the gentle rustle of trees and soft calls of animals in the underbrush the only noise. He had been so lost in his musings that he hadn’t realized how far the sun had set, a barely visible sliver of yellow still visible surrounded by orange and red.

“Well… now that the lovely colors are gone I do believe I’ll turn in for the night. A book and a glass of red do seem to be calling my name.” Astarion sighs, as if it would be a hassle to get up and walk the few steps to his tent. It is a hassle, to leave the presence of their leader has become more and more of a hassle on his heart than he’s willing to accept.

“Don’t go now, it’s just started to change.” Your voice was soft, softer than he has ever heard it and a glance tells him that your eyes are still on the setting sun.

“No thank you darling, I do think I’ve seen enough shades of red for a thousand lifetimes.” There is a twist of pain in his voice, one that makes him wrinkle his nose. He was getting too easy, a slip like that with Cazador and he would have been reminded how much he hates red.

“But the sky is beautiful-“

He cuts you off with a flippant wave of his hand and a scoff. A change of subject was all they needed, easier territory. “It’s just red. You know they say a red sky at night means-“

“It’s not just red Astarion.” You cut him short this time, tone sharp. He didn’t understand why you would defend such a color. Of all things to fight for, a color. They saw red spilled every day, every day their leader fought, for teiflings, for druids, for their companions. Each day that color ruined everything it touched.

“Oh? Do tell darling, what is oh so special about that distasteful mix of colors. A muddled mess of all things awful-“

“I rather think red is beautiful.” Astarion snaps his eyes up, disgust curling his lips, a flaunting jab just ready on the tip of his tongue when your eyes stop him.

At some point, he wasn’t sure when, you had turned to look at him. Eyes just as soft as your voice had been. There is a sweet tilt to your lips as he turns, as if finally seeing what they had been after.

He sees the minute shift of you eyes, as if darting back and forth. He can hear the uptick in your heartbeat, the tension releasing from your shoulders. As if the sight of him was what you were after, as if waiting to catch his eye.

Then he remembered. Remembered exactly what color his eyes now were.

“I happen to like that color.” You grinned, eyes steady on his. His mind was blank, no haughty taunt or seductive words. He could do nothing but blink as a grin spread wide on your lips and you turned back towards the sun.

“When the sun hits just right… it’s beautiful, a burst of burnt amber. I think it’s the prettiest color I’ve ever seen.” Astarion knew they were definitely not talking about the sunset anymore. He couldn’t help but stare at you. The curve of your nose, the way your smile seemed so giddy, the way the sun reflected in your own eyes.

Red was the color of the flowers Karlach had tried to pick for all of them. It was the color the jewels in Lae’zel’s armor, the color the hem of Gale’s awful robe. And it was the color of the blood you so willingly gave him. Had offered as soon as he had explained himself that night, without asking for anything in return. You were so different than what he expected.

He tutted, realizing he had been staring and turns back towards the sunset, listening closely as you go to sit on the ground. The bright yellow of the sun diffused into a russet orange that slowly eased into a vibrant, dazzled red. He sighed, slowly settling himself beside you, far closer than before.

“Yes darling, perhaps you’re right. Perhaps I could grow to love it.”

[k00319173]

Thursday 07/11/2024

Judith Slaying Holofernes (reimagined)

We started our day with a lecture from Ireland 3000 about his work, this was an inspiring lecture as it made me consider the active nature of artwork and ways in which artwork could become more artwork, we briefly covered the idea of collaboration and then looked at his current work in which he recreates high art with religious themes using jigsaw woodcut printing techniques and bright colours. We then were challenged to create a piece based off of one of a select few high artworks as a group.

Our group was made up of Sadhbh Hennessy, Debbie Devlin, Lorena Daly, Eva Fitzpatrick, Nina BoiZ and Rachel Desmond, and myself Elle O'Connell. We chose the image Judith Slaying Holofernes by Artemisia Gentileschi. We liked this piece as it symbolises female empowerment, as Gentileschi had been raped this piece was a way of her showing her empowerment by beheading a man with a likeness to that of the man who had harmed her and it is a way of reclaiming her story. This reflected an importance of maintaining the importance of feminist issues today.

We started brainstorming and came up with the concept to make the man one who persecutes and assaults women and the rights of women and considering the results of yesterdays election Donald Trump was an obvious choice as he is a tyrant in our times. We decided we would make the women Medusa, who in tattoo culture is a feminist icon who symbolises strength and survival after overcoming rape and Lady Liberty who represents freedom and justice in America and these women would overcome trump by stabbing him with liberty’s torch.

We were then told we had 5 minutes to come up with a totally new idea and so for fun we conceptualised what it would be like to replace the characters with muppets, in the end we actually found that this was a fun idea and decided that for our piece we would combine these ideas together.

We proceeded then to make sketches and I made a mock up reference picture using photos from the internet and procreate app on my iPad.

This gave us an idea of composition and we then started to collaborate on the large scale final piece, we each sketched everything out and then got to work outlining in markers and colouring in oil pastel, we used black Indian ink on the background. We also added a fabric element to the top of the piece which resembles the American flag. We decided these were the best materials as we didn’t have much time and the piece had to be quite big so we were all able to collaborate on it successfully.

When the final piece was done we stuck it up in the gallery.

I love how this piece turned out, we worked well as a group to produce an image which is clearly inspired by the original piece and although maintaining a serious message we were still able to have fun and create something tongue in cheek and approach such a dark issue with some fun and enthusiasm which got us through the process.

[herrscherofmagic]

A look at the past & future of Honkai design: Simplicity vs. Complexity (Part 1)

Link to the YouTube channel of the person whose thumbnail I yoinked off of Google Images for this; it was the best image of the new Hyperion that I could easily find which is why I used it for this.

TL;DR:

Original Honkai Impact 3rd designs tended towards large, simply shapes that gave battlesuits (and other stuff) a strong "mecha" vibe. Many newer designs are trending towards more complex designs that do away with these simple and recognizable shapes, instead using more overlapping textures and ornamentation to create detail. Some designs balance the two, using large and relatively simple shapes that still carry enough detail to stand out as newer while still keeping the original vibes.

Because of this, I think there's gonna be a very clear visual split between Part 1 designs and the APHO+Part 2 designs because of this split between simplicity & complexity, and some Part 1 designs feel off because they stray too far from the original design motifs, making them feel out of place even if they're still good designs on their own.

~

I've been thinking a lot about the design philosophy of Honkai Impact 3rd for quite a while now. As someone interested in concept art and illustration and who's played video games for more than 3/4ths of their whole lifespan.

And obviously I'm not alone in this, given how often I've seen discussion of Honkai's character design. Whether it was the march of the pastel battlesuits or the techwear of the part 2 cast or the upcoming Garuda Fu Hua battlesuit, many people have had many opinions both positive and negative.

But I've wanted to do a sort of "deep-dive" for a while now, because I think HI3rd is a really interesting case where we can see the co-existence of (sometimes drastically) different designs made years apart from one another. It's normal for the style of a franchise to grow and change with time- my personal example is Halo, with obvious differences between Halo CE, Halo 3, and Halo 4 in mind. But typically that has been done over the release of different games over many years, not so much in consecutive releases within the same game. HI3rd's not alone in this regard, of course :)

I don't want to label anything as "bad" or "good". I can like or dislike something, and that's my personal opinion. Of course I COULD try to label designs as bad or good, but I'd want to back that up with serious analysis and get the opinions of other players, and that's way too much effort for a reddit post. Instead, I want to present some different designs in Honkai and share my thoughts, so others can feel free to agree, disagree, elaborate, etc. More of a matter of casual discussion rather than trying to present some solid theory, I guess you could say?

What I will say is I intend to label designs based on whether (or how) they fit into HI3rd's aesthetic(s), so that's the main point- not so much whether an individual design is good or not.

To start with, I'd like to talk about the simplicity vs. complexity of Honkai designs because I personally feel like this is the biggest problem I have with HI3rd, outside of story issues that is. Not because of designs being "good" or "bad", but because I feel like Mihoyo has been moving towards a new design philosophy that's different from what I loved most about HI3rd when I first started.

I opened with the comparison of Hyperion because I think it's a perfect example of this concept, and if we can understand what the difference is with Hyperion then I think it'd be more apparent with battlesuits as well. I also have another image that highlights some of the biggest differences between the two models:

I had mixed feelings about the reveal of the "new and upgraded" Hyperion during the moon arc. It's a neat design I'll admit, but I felt like it deviated a lot from the original Hyperion, not as a difference in fidelity and detail but rather as a difference in the fundamental design of the ship.

What I like so much about the original Hyperion is, as you might have guessed by now: its simplicity. Hyperion was comprised of much larger, blockier shapes with more clear silhouettes. It's actually the same reason I love the design of Halo's UNSC frigates, funnily enough. I'm a huge sci-fi fan and I absolutely adore spacecraft and vehicle design, so I really appreciated the design of Hyperion cause to me it felt very original.

The new Hyperion retains most of the same characteristics, and it's still recognizable as a version of Hyperion. But it bothers me just how much the design was changed. Many of the simple shapes of the design were broken up into smaller parts or almost totally changed, like the cannon going from a sleek polygonal barrel to a spikey... thing.

To me, it feels like Hyperion was redesigned with the idea of trying to make it more "futuristic" or "tech-y", or perhaps it was even designed with some retro anime motifs in mind like the Space Battleship Yamato. But it seems as though this was done by adding many objects that broke up the original silhouette, as well as inventing lots of new detail instead of adding details to complement what was already there. The shape of the winglets was greatly changed; the vent-like structures were totally changed; the barrel was completely changed; most noticeably, the bridge was drastically changed.

The new Hyperion model is technically "better" in terms of fidelity and the amount of detail it has, no doubt about it. But I think changing the fundamental shapes of Hyperion so much really hurts the charm of the original design, to the point that I was actually quite disappointed to see that Mihoyo used the new Hyperion design in the CG of the Captainverse Hyperion farm event. It seems as though Mihoyo wants to consider this as the new default impression of Hyperion, and not a special one-off thing from the moon arc.

I think this can be seen across other aspects of the game, too. In general Mihoyo has moved away from simple designs and towards complex designs, and I think there's been a lot of hits and a lot of misses with this.

For instance, I'd like to compare the three Herrscher Kiana battlesuits: HoV, HoFS, and HoFi.

There's a clear trend of an increase in complexity across the three battlesuits. HoV's design uses fewer and larger shapes, HoFS adds more and smaller shapes, and then HoFi is almost totally devoid of any large clear shapes.

To me, this is what distinguishes a battlesuit that "feels like Honkai" from one that doesn't.

Everyone starts the game in Chapter 1, and most long-time players have spent more time with older battlesuits than newer ones simply because they were playing the game before these newer battlesuits were even released. I think it's safe to say that even though HoFi is the grand "Kiana in her greatest form" battlesuit, most players will still have seen HoV's design more often because of the years that it's been around, and its prevalence in story content.

Most of those older designs were rooted more heavily in the mecha vibes early Honkai had. For instance, even though HoV is obviously not wearing a mecha battlesuit, the large blocky shapes are still reminiscent of armor, two examples being the large frames on her wings and the large white pad-things(?) on her sides. There's other obvious cases like White Comet being a skin-tight battlesuit which used glowy energy bits for its attacks, but I use the example of HoV because it shows that HI3rd was fully capable of creating battlesuits within the mecha theme without being limited to literal "mecha" designs. HoV's battlesuit is far from mecha in its nature, yet still fits perfectly with that aesthetic.

HoFi has pretty much none of that, though. It's a pretty design for sure, but it's also nearly completely divorced from that original aesthetic. There's few easily-recognizable shapes on her design, with the (very little) clothing she wears being almost entirely detail and ornamentation. It definitely fits the "Princess Kiana" or "Goddess Kiana" theme in isolation, but I don't think it delivers on that theme in the context of Honkai Impact 3rd.

Yet look at HoFS. HoFS definitely has more detail than HoV. Yet there are still lots of large blank areas that define clear forms; for instance, the armor on HoFS' waist. It's reminiscent of that of HoV while still adding more detail. This gives that same effect of a slight mecha vibe. It's still an appealing design and it still feels more modern than HoV, but it also manages to retain much of the same design language.

That being said, I have to admit I ADORE the Honkai wings that HoFi has, though I wish they were a little higher in the air. That's one thing that I think Mihoyo absolutely nailed with HoFi, and I wish more of that aesthetic was kept in the rest of her design.

What's also interesting is that (in my opinion) neither of the other two main Herrscher Trio designs suffer from this. For instance, consider Mei's battlesuits:

I've included Lighting Empress as a reminder that old =/= good. I'd like to make it clear that just because it's an "original" battlesuit doesn't mean it's a good one. I said before that I didn't want to label stuff as good or bad but this is a clear exception and I hope y'all can understand why, lol

We can certainly argue about whether HoO Mei's design really fits the image of Raiden Mei. It's a vast departure from her other battlesuits when it comes to her palette, for better or for worse. I didn't like it at first but it has grown on me, and I think part of that is because of that concept of simplicity vs. complexity.

HoO has way, way more detail than the other two Herrscher Mei battlesuits, no doubt about it. But it also retains many large and recognizable shapes. Nothing on this battlesuit is bulky like HoT or other older battlesuits, but it still gives off the feeling of being armor despite being so thin. Much of the detail is created not by overlapping layers of ornamentation and texture, but rather by using intricate shapes with clear silhouettes and light detail inside that outline.

And HoTr is obviously a mecha design, so I don't think we need to elaborate on that one :)

The point is that it's absolutely possible to make detailed and beautiful battlesuits without getting rid of the original shape language that HI3rd was built on. HoFS is a bit dated now but still much newer than HoV, yet it keeps the vibes. HoO is also far newer, yet it still fits the theme of battlesuit. HoFi, though... not so much.

Finally, I want to talk about the elephant in the room: the Part 2 character designs.

Once again, here's the link to the YouTube video by Matt Is Playing, where I pulled this image from!

Much like HoFi, there's very little trace of the OG Honkai mecha aesthetic in these battlesuits. It's not to say that they are inherently bad because of that* , but it doesn't quite feel like "Honkai Impact 3rd".

*except Dream Seeker, I'm sorry but what the heck is going on there???

But the thing is that this design philosophy isn't even new. In fact, it's years old by now... because we see this in APHO.

For a long time now, APHO has had battlesuits that tip-toe on the very edge of the original Honkai aesthetic. So the designs of Part 2 aren't actually some new and drastic shift in Mihoyo's design philosophy- rather, it's reinforcing a design philosophy that was introduced with APHO.

These new characters all feel out of place if we compare them to the original battlesuits. They don't use the same simple forms, instead using dense and overlapping details. But if we compare them to the APHO cast, they fit right in. We can argue about the merits of the new character designs in other terms, but I think these discussions have to keep in mind this context.

I'd say the APHO designs work well in the setting of APHO because they're following the same aesthetic. As we enter Part 2 and once we see more of the story and setting of Part 2, it's very possible that these new character designs will feel more natural and more like "Honkai Impact 3rd".

But it's a different Honkai Impact 3rd.

This is why I think the idea of "simplicity vs. complexity" is so important to understanding Honkai Impact 3rd's designs. I think Mihoyo might be trying to emphasize two different phases of Honkai through this design philosophy. These are going to be two very different halves to the same game, with the designs of Part 2 possibly becoming as distant from Part 1's designs as Part 1 is from HSR.

You have the OG mecha action vibes from the good ole St. Freya days, and we have the sleek tech-wear of the era of exploring Mars, world-hopping in the Sea of Quanta, and fighting literal aliens.

For better or for worse? Only time will tell.

As a bonus, I'd like to include some extra comparisons, though I won't be adding any more analysis. It's more about having extra examples to keep in mind. Also, I think these ideas can apply to enemies and weapons as well, but that's a larger discussion I'm not yet ready for so that will come in a follow-up later on!

[mx-paradox]

Anyway that last poll had the brain wheels turning so here's me listing those tropes from favorite to least favorite and why I like/dislike each of them

1. Found family

Love this trope. This and friendship and qprs...platonic devotion my beloved. Even if some of the relationships are not always platonic found family is just a much deeper chosen bound i enjoy. One thing I can say is that you should not assign actual nuclear family roles to the found family (especially if you then get mad at other people for shipping characters you have arbitrarily decided are related in your own mind. Stop it. Get help). The best found family could not conceivably have these roles forced upon them.

2. Friends to lovers

Idk I just like the idea of people who already know and like each other falling into more...I think that's nice...it bypasses the love at first sight shallowness which can get boring. It feels more comforting to be loved by someone who knows you more deeply i suppose. The downside I mostly see in heterosexual romance media but the idea you have to get together with your close friend if they're the opposite gender. Or even the gender you're attracted to in general. Just no

3. Enemies to friends to lovers

Done well, this is great. Tbh I think the friends in the middle bypasses my biggest gripe with enemies to lovers, which is that too often it's just 'oh villain is hot' without any of the actual fun tropes. If it's mostly a sex thing I don't like it SKSJKSSK it gets flat

4. Happily ever after

Why wouldn't u like some of this sometimes...I don't think it's always necessary or fitting depending on the story, and often I can sacrifice a happy ending for a more thematically fitting one easily (even if I seem to gripe over it)

5. Soulmates

I used to like this trope more...I think bc of the absolute guarantee you will be loved. Now I think the interesting ones either involve a not immediately obvious mark (aka they realize what their mark means after a while) or a more fluid bond type/platonic marks...again to avoid the issues I have with love at first sight type stuff sometimes where it feels flat and unearned

6. Fake dating

I dont have much to say other than sometimes this bores me. Or gives me second hand embarrassment. Can be pretty funny though or crushingly angsty if youre good at it

7. Workplace au

This can be so good and interesting but I just think very few people do anything different with it. Tattoo shop/flower shop often feels like another pastel/goth thing where someone has to be ooc for no reason...the best workplace au imo is coworkers who both hate their job. Or people who just have a weird/different job so you can have fun with it

8. Love triangle

Annoys me usually. I did like fruits basket tho...so I concede that it can be done well if the author actually makes good characters that don't just exist purely for romantic angst

9. School au

I just think it's boring. Tbh. I don't really have a positive for this one.

[volfoss]

Long time no faceup...

Under the cut cause my number 1 hobby with doll faceups is to talk 700 years about the process and well. I was talking a LOT this time around lol

I am so kind of notoriously bad at not finishing a doll. Like ridiculously so. In my defense with this doll- his face sculpt was SO ridiculously out of my comfort zone (I usually have more cartoonish dolls > realistic) and he was massive (and his body had a lot of mods that I in turn wanted to modify) (on top of my pain increasing a lot which caused me to not be able to work on projects often the last year or two). I would have kept his faceup if it wasn't scratched badly in certain places but, here's the before (blank, I am NOT showing how bad my previous faceup attempts are..it's bad) and then I'll get into processes and such!

[ID: A large ball jointed doll sitting up. His face is blank with no eyes or wig and his body has multiple sculpted blue sections on it. A cat is sniffing his shoulder. /End ID]

The mod work was easy (thankfully! Pin that says I ❤️ my dremel) but I am not done with that so I will be focusing on his face! I watched a lot of realistic faceup tutorials and came away with a few takeaways:

1. Watercolors and a skinny nail brush WILL be your best friend. Also water in general to fix the mistakes

2. Take your time <- you'd think this was obvious but I'm soooo bad at rushing a faceup ok. I'm so bad at slowing down

3. Pastel before watercolor makes it go on smoother (the vid recommended using white which worked well bc this boy is very pale lmao)

4. Be brave and get the worst bit done first so if you fuck it up it's no big deal

So, with that knowledge I began sealing the head (was doing him along w 2 other heads Ive been putting off) and that was when the trouble started. I use sponge on sealant (liquitex matte varnish. Works like a dream always and no respiratory gear or weather conditions needed) but it was applying glossy. I assumed it was too cold in my room and after a few layers of hoping that would fix it, it didn't! Thankfully it had happened to me before and I shook it up VERY aggressively (like 1-2 minutes of shaking) and it went on fine minus some exaggerated texture on the resin from the few bad layers. Now this is one of the issues w this method, the other is it can trap dust/hair or whatever in there (you can easily pick it out if you notice it before it dries tho). These are both pros for me, I like when the doll looks more textured skin wise (realistic) and if I'm getting a little too lost on what direction to take the head, the dust or hair can make moles, freckles, or even scars! Prefacing all of that with the sealant was kicking my ASS and I was fighting for my life, which wasn't giving me much hope when this was a faceup style greatly out of my comfort zone and skill set, so it was just really a bad start. Also important to note that I did like absolutely no mockups for this which I usually do. I did a very vague basic realistic faceup and that was it, which was not really setting myself up for success, one may say.

But, somehow, the first layer was ok! I put white pastel down under the eye, around the eyebrow placement and then after some mishaps with the watercolor on the brows, I went to my old tactic. Usually with brows, I lay a layer or two down of pastel (FAR lighter than I want the brows to be) to kind of carve a rough shape out because I'm so atrocious at getting them even (like to a comical level. The amount of times I've had to redo a full brow to match the other makes this be my default method bc I'm SO bad at them).

I did one layer of that, and then decided I would try again with the watercolor. I don't want him to have super obvious eyeliner or anything (statements I've never said before. I have dolls where the liner covers the entire eyelid, I love a big eyeliner) so I just did the top waterline in a dark brown watercolor on a skinny nail art brush. This went... Suspiciously well? To the point where I just decided hey, we're going in and doing the eyelashes on the same layer.

Eyelashes are another point I'm so bad at, to the point where of all of my dolls I've painted, I've done bottom eyelashes 2x like ever. 3 at most. I remembered the tips from the video (not too much water but not too much paint, steady your hand, take it slow, and not doing just straight lines (hard to do that because I default to that often lol)) and just dove in.

The first eye went so well that I just went right into the second one and it was so much less bad than I thought it would be. It's crazy that practice and research helps? After that dried, I mixed pink and peach acrylic paints together to paint the lower waterline, and after THAT dried, I covered the bottom lashes with the same white pastel. It muted it a lot but the main thing I've learned working with this sealant method is that it WILL take stuff off. So in theory, I hoped that it would take the white pastel off and not fade my very painstakingly painted eyelashes.

Somehow it did work (thank you makeup knowledge or something) and the first layer was done. It felt SO wrong to have a first layer with NO blush???? Like absolutely makes no sense to my brain but it was so relieving to be done with the worst parts (minus the brows. I was not looking forward to those).

[ID: A three quarter view of the doll head shown above. Instead of being blank, it has very faint blonde eyebrows and dark brown lower eyelashes. /End ID]

This is the time in which I admit that I was wrong that it was so bad to do a realistic faceup (which could easily change when I do the blushing, you do not want to see the 80s blush situation I had on the first faceup attempt), as having the brow bones so prominent made the painting so much easier. I was very mad about this as this is my first proper* attempt at this sort of faceup and it was going so well (* proper meaning I actually attempted to adapt my style to the sculpt instead of putting my usual methods to use here on a head of a different style). Honestly I just kind of locked into the brows, and since my brush is a nail brush, there's a little ball stylus (I think that's what it's called? Dotting tool may also be what it's called) so when I messed up, I got that wet and very gently cleaned it up, dabbing the excess water/paint with my finger. This was SO much less painful than using acrylic paint on brows (that is MISERABLE to remove if you fuck up with black acrylic. That does not budge ever) or using watercolor pencils (like with doing my own eyeliner, I do much better with a brush than pencil).

Genuinely never will go back to using a different material for doing the brow strokes, this was such a breeze. Even getting it even wasn't too bad, I just cleaned the brows up with that same technique until I got it close enough. While I was waiting for that to dry, I used the same dark brown (I have a very small watercolor palette and no clue how to blend it lol, so I just used the same color this whole faceup so far) and same brush to add some paint to the eye crease to add some more dimension to the face. While that was drying, it started to bother me that all the dust was just not covered up, because my brain is used to when I break the paint out, I'm nearly done with the faceup, so it should be covered and cleaner by now. Which honestly I'm glad I did! It looks a lot better with most of it covered, although I do still.plan on doing a scar from the left eyebrow up to the forehead as well as others on the forehead but those are 3d sculpt projects and not flat paint projects (I use Elmer's glue to build it up and then blush/paint over top) so it is not my problem now lol.

[ID: A front facing picture of the head above. The head has dark brown curved eyebrows, moles dotted at random around the face, and the eye crease is filled in with dark brown. /End ID]

As if this project wasn't driving me crazy with stress enough, when I powdered the brows, one of them just didn't get as powdered as the other and so when I applied the sealant, about half the brow came away with it! Absolutely devastating but it is just the nature of water colors and liquid sealant! The next layer now had to include a patch job on the brow, as well as blushing (or if I was a little smarter, one layer for the brow repair, seal again, and a layer for the blushing so I didn't mess it up again!). It was such an incredibly frustrating set back especially with how long it took me to do the brows initially.

At THIS point, I was so relieved I had done a mockup digitally (even if not super accurate to what I ended up going with) because thinking of doing the blushing the next layer did make me want to cry a little bit for a couple reasons (on top of the already immense frustrations that sealing the brows on the start of day 2 brought).

As I said earlier, very different head type than what I usually do (usually can just slap some pink on the cheeks, brown elsewhere etc), but the bigger issue was how pale he is. I find it a billion times easier to paint a yellowed doll or a doll with darker resin (I am SO excited to get to my Dong next (his resin is so pretty (and has been really fun to work on while I was in white boy shading hell)) than a white unyellowed doll. If you know color theory or like any makeup at all, paler skin makes things show up so much brighter, which is a pain in the ass when you're trying to make a doll not look like they have clown makeup on with the blush alone. And with how sculpted his face is, I had to place the blush just right to get it to look ok, as well as somehow get the shading to look clean and decent.

I used a combination of a brush directly against the pastel and shavings and slowly built up some flush to the cheeks and shading around the nose.

[ID: The same doll head as above, but with a more peach color to the lips and cheeks, with slight definition around the sides of the nose bridge. /End ID]

I added the tiniest bit more blushing (my favorite hobby is procrastinating sealing. #1 thing ever) and then felt really unsure if I was somewhat close to being done or not, so decided to try it on his body with random eyes and wig to see what else needed to be there, which confirmed a couple things!

[ID: The same head as before, now shown on a seated large ball jointed doll body. He has a long lilac center part straight wig on and dark eyes. There is a doll to the left and right of him./End ID]

The first thing was somehow ALL of the messy forehead was covered by the wig, which was such a relief in of itself. The second thing was all of the blushing looked really good and natural which was such a big relief honestly.

He really just looked like some guy which was very funny as I really um don't have any dolls in my collection that have a normal faceup (guy addicted to getting too silly with it voice: Well surely getting MORE goofy won't hurt! I think the closest to a normal guy would be Theo? Cordelia perhaps too but she's also so pink lmao) and look like just a guy that you could find at a gas station. This will probably not last as I wanted to turn the forehead marks into silvery scars (I feel we could get a little silly with it and have it be magical or something like that, provides the scars look ok lmao. Future me's problem). I definitely need to add some more shading under his eyes (under eye bags are PERFECT when his eye bags are actually sculpted, I'm not used to that on a sculpt lol), accents to the lips (MAY do lip lines. May just add more color. No one ever knows what my go to is with lips because I hate doing them), add highlights (and maybe use some pearl x powder on the eyelid area... I kind of want him to look MOSTLY natural but I cannot lie, the lure of men with eyeshadow. It's a slippery slope) and mess with his eyes a bit as he looks really good with that purple wig, so I'd like to use colors that coordinate with that if possible (same with the eyes probably?). All in all, this was a lot of work for a low energy day and I feel I'm entering the home stretch a bit!

Day three, and despite how horrendous I was feeling like the entire day, I locked in and got a lot done!

[ID: The same head as above, with silver scarring on the forehead and nose and slightly more pigment on the lips. /end ID]

In pictures the scars look a LOT like leeches to me but it's ok or something. I wanted to do silver as I felt it would be fun to do a more magical twist with the characters and having some funky colored scars would work with that! I started with a layer of light grey paint and Elmer's glue mixed together, then added layers of a silver paint with the glue until it was more pronounced from the resin, how a scar would be, and then shaded with watercolors (before then adding the blushing to make it look like actual scars instead of weird metal globs). Honestly I really liked how the eyebrow and nose ones came out but the forehead ones were more of a cover up job rather than where I wanted to place them, so they may get adjusted later.

Other than that, I started work on his eyes (and most of the day was laying in bed in pain so I didn't get a ton done sadly)! It's not very visible in photos but I also used a glittery powder (pearl ex) on the eyelids to add some sparkle.

All that was left is a bit of scar work, figuring out if I'm going to do lines on the lips (my worst debate always tbh, I feel they rarely look good with my faceup style and are often a pain in my ass), finish the eyes (admittedly this is just because I'm very slow with it as I don't really like working with the resin a ton), and gloss the areas that need it. There is definitely a chance I remove the forehead scarring (the great part about it all being glue is well. It removes easily) and do something different there that's a bit bigger and less small blobs but that is tomorrow's problem. Honestly really excited about the eyes, they look REALLY good from when I've tried them in!

I then proceeded to procrastinate for about a week maybe (time is odd for me rn) because I was so unsure about the forehead scarring but when I picked it back up, I did the finishing touches I planned on here and then wrapped his eyes up and he's done! 2 heads to go (sadly. I'm so scared doing them to be honest cause it's so much work always) but very happy with him!

[ID: The head shown previously, but on his body. His lips and scars are now glossy, he has eyes with a dark blue sclera and bright purple glittery iris in, and is wearing a long straight lavender wig. His body is wearing a teal and purple camo shirt that is tight fitting. The doll is sitting between two other dolls on a shelf. /End ID]

[car-sounds]

Valentine's Baking

Simeon x (GN)reader

1020 words

Summary: Simeon and Mc do some baking the weekend before Valentine's Day.

Simeon and you were walking towards each other through the halls of RAD, Simeon ended up being the one to start your conversation “Oh, Mc. I had something I wanted to talk to you about, do you have a minute?” 

“Yeah, go ahead.”

The two of you continue walking to the RAD exits while Simeon explains what was on his mind “I thought since Valentine's Day is coming up the two of us could bake some cookies together. I know that the brothers will probably be hogging your attention throughout that day, maybe we could get together this weekend to make some sweets that way we could also hand them out to everyone else as their Valentine's gifts.”

“Of course, I would love to!” Simeon looks delighted with your answer, and continues to explain what he had in mind “I’m sure Purgatory Hall already has all the ingredients we need and I remember both Luke and Solomon said they would be out most of the day on Sunday. If you can make it then, it would be easier to keep the surprise from them.”

“Sunday works for me. Are you sure you don’t need me to bring any ingredients?” The two of you stop when you reach the corner you usually part ways at, to have a bit more time to talk. “No, don’t worry I’ve got that covered. Let me walk you the rest of the way home, It’s nice getting a moment alone with you.” You agree and catch up with what went on in your day.

—

It’s the weekend before Valentine's Day, Simeon texted you the day before telling you the time Solomon and Luke should be out of the house, around one in the afternoon with them coming back before dinner. Hopefully that also left time for you to air out the kitchen so the cookie surprise isn’t immediately obvious.

When the wait is up Simeon picks you up from the House of Lamentation, the two of you discuss the cookie decoration ideas you both had in mind. Setting up the cookie making starts pretty much right away, Simeon had already gotten out the recipe you’ll be using, it was decided over text that making heart shaped sugar cookies would be the most on theme dessert for the holiday. He starts reading out the ingredient list directing you to pull them out so they’ll be ready to use. Once that’s done Simeon tells you to get started while he grabs something from his room, he comes back after about a minute holding a present wrapped in pink heart shaped wrapping paper. 

You feel a little guilty when you first see what he has, you didn’t have anything on hand to give to him since you were going to wait until the actual holiday. “Oh, what’s that?” He gestures the gift towards you and responds “It’s one of the gifts I have for you today, I thought it would be best to give this to you now rather than later given what it is.” 

“Thank you Simeon! You should have told me that you were going to be. I could've brought some of the things I had for you.” You say while starting the unwrapping. “Well, that would have ruined the surprise wouldn’t it? So do you like it?” It’s a Valentine’s Day themed apron, pink and covered with heart prints. “Oh! It’s so cute! Thank you” 

“I’m glad you enjoy it, I even have one here I bought for myself so we could be matching. With that out of the way let’s actually start baking. Oh, let me help you tie up your apron?” 

Once both of you decided who was going to do each step, you and Simeon got to work chatting more about whatever random things that came to either of your minds. Once the cookies were cut into their shapes and thrown into the oven, the two of you got started on the icing, it was divided into separate bowls and dyed one red, one white, one pastel pink. Simeon was helping you learn how to properly flood the icing and both of you were trying to make as many different designs as possible using some of the sprinkles the kitchen had on hand and the different coloured icing. 

Not all of them ended up original but they were still super cute. Simeon had even made some extra preparations and bought little boxes to give the cookies in, boxing the cookies was relatively quick, although there was some debate on who to give each cookie to.

It didn’t take as long as you expected and there was still a bit of time before Solomon and Luke came back. Simeon expressed interest in you staying for dinner tonight, since that's the plan there’s you have extra time to hang out with Simeon before everyone else gets back. It’s an hour before they come back enough time to make dinner together and than clean up, it goes pretty smoothly and by the time Luke and Solomon are back the kitchen is as clean as it was when they left and the cookie scent was gone from the room which would keep them from asking questions and ruining the surprise for themselves. Dinner was nice and once it was finished there was a bit of chatting before Simeon pulled you to his room. There was a cute pink box sitting on his bed.

“I said there was going to be another gift, didn't I? Go ahead, open it.” You pull off the top of the box and inside is a small heart shaped cake, it's decorated with pink frosting as the base and white frosting as decorative piping with those large pearl sprinkles carefully placed on it. “Oh, it’s so pretty! Thank you.” 

“I made it yesterday, I’m glad you like it. ” He prepared a knife and plates that were placed off to the side. It’s a delicious vanilla cake with strawberry flavoured buttercream frosting, it’s a wonderful moment between just the two of you…

Until Solomon and Luke come barging in and interrupt the moment.

Masterlist

[glamgirlkayla]

How to Be More Feminine and Ladylike

Femininity has always come very naturally to me but as for how it started? That’s a mystery. My mom has always been a bit of a tomboy rather than girly girl. I remember putting together outfits from her closet when I was younger, wearing her heels around the house and putting on her makeup. She dressed me in the frilliest dresses to play outside in the mud haha (I would never get dirty, of course). And as I grew up, I always found myself enthralled by fashion… but not just any fashion. Feminine fashion. And it doesn’t stop there.

I’ve always had a more feminine demeanor. My behaviors and interests lean more traditionally feminine naturally. This is not something that I’ve done subconsciously but it is something that I’ve realized over time as people have brought more attention to it. With this, I’ve deducted what is considered to “be more feminine” and I’m excited to share my findings with you today!

With that being said, I believe that we all have a unique mix of feminine and masculine qualities. It’s important to own who you are and what you do best no matter where this falls on the scale. But I also understand that there is a desire from a lot of people to be more feminine and this honestly makes me so happy!

Before this whole popularity increase in being more feminine, I was looked down on and made fun for being my authentic self, which happens to be… you guessed it – feminine. People would often asked why I was always so dressed up or why I love pink so much or why I love wearing dresses. I discussed this in detail in my post about Why It’s Okay to be a Girly Girl. For some reason, these are negatives in the eyes of others. What’s even worse is that I was often judged for my appearance. People would often think I was unintelligent, untalented, air-headed, and weak. I specifically remember many situations where I was judged and punished solely on the basis of how I looked and presented myself. But that’s a story for a different day.

I’m really happy that society “seems” to be more accepting of femininity these days and to be honest, I’ve always felt a need to preserve it. I love sharing feminine outfits but I also love breaking stereotypes and inspiring others to do the same. You can be feminine and strong, fun, successful, talented, smart and masculine (crazy, right?

For now, let’s get into all of my tips on how to be more feminine and ladylike! 🙂

Dressing The Part

Let’s start with the basics! Looking feminine is all about dressing feminine. Of course, there are items that are more traditionally feminine but don’t feel like you have to dress in a way that is not authentic to you. By sharing my tips, I want to encourage you to embrace your femininity but I never want to take away the things that make you special as a person. It’s not that black and white. With that being said, these are my best tips for looking feminine!

Fashion

When it comes to dressing feminine, dresses and skirts are more traditionally feminine so this will give you a very obvious feminine look. Personally, I love dresses and skirts that nip in the waist and flare out but honestly, go with a silhouette that is flattering on you and that you are comfortable with.

You can also look feminine without wearing dresses or skirts. In this case, just look for feminine details like ruffles, bows, pin-tucking, embellishments, etc. Look for more feminine fabrics like silk, chiffon, tulle, lace, tweed, etc. And of course, look for lighter colors, pastels, and traditionally feminine patterns like florals, polka dots and more.

Hygiene

Having proper hygiene is an important part of being more feminine. However, it doesn’t have to be excessive with an hour long skincare routine haha. Just a little effort in taking care of yourself goes a long way. If you are wondering how to make your face look more feminine naturally, I think that having a good skincare routine is a great place to start.

Personally I love to indulge in self-care and it’s a ritual that I set aside time for each day and week, no matter how busy I get. My bare minimum is a morning and night time skincare routine. If I have a bit more time, I love utilizing skincare tools like a steamer, facial roller or an anti-aging device like Nuface. At home spa days are also a win-win in my book! I love indulging in bubble baths, face masks, hair masks and DIY mani/pedis.

These are things that make me feel my best. You don’t have to dedicate as much time – just do little things that make you feel good. Even something as mundane as showering can become a luxurious experience! To make my showers more exciting, I use a shower radio, shower bombs (like bath bombs for your shower) and indulge in nice hair and body products.

This might seem obvious but brushing your teeth, washing your face and brushing your hair are super simple but go a long way appearance-wise (and health-wise). For clothing, I highly recommend using a steamer for a flawless look. Things like shaving, waxing and plucking also give off a more feminine look but like everything else, do what makes you feel most comfortable. Don’t feel the need to incorporate something that feels inauthentic to you.

Hair and Makeup

How to Make Your Face Look More Feminine Naturally

How can I make my face look feminine? This is a question that a lot of people ask! If you are wondering how to make your face look more feminine naturally, I recommend a great skincare routine, feminine makeup and a feminine hairstyle. Naturally feminine facial features tend to be softer, daintier and more rounded in nature. Even if you don’t have these features naturally, you can make your face look more feminine by utilizing makeup and the right hairstyle for your face.

Before proceeding, I do want to note that femininity can look different to different people. I’m a huge advocate of working with your natural features and bringing attention to your favorites! With that being said, read on for tips on how to have a more feminine face!

Makeup

Wondering how to make your face look more feminine? Doing your hair and makeup can really elevate your appearance and create a more feminine look overall. I’ve always loved wearing makeup – for some reason, it’s really relaxing to put on. I listen to music or podcasts and make it a thing 🙂 My makeup changes depending what I’m doing. I go all out with a full glam makeup look. For day to day, I prefer a lighter look with some BB cream, lipgloss and mascara. And for lazy days, I put on tinted sunscreen and call it a day.

For feminine looking makeup, I think it’s important to not go to overboard. It’s better to err on the safe side with more classic, timeless and natural looks. That’s not to say that you can’t have fun with colors or techniques – just use them in moderation. Put emphasis on one feature – your eyes or lips are a safe bet. Wear colors that suit your complexion and eye color. I personally love wearing pink-toned eye shadows to bring out my green eyes. Play up the features you love the most. I was always made fun of for my full lips when I was younger but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve grown to appreciate them and this is the feature I love to emphasize the most. You will hardly see me without some type of lip product on.

Hair

When it comes to how to make my face look more feminine, hair definitely helps! For hair, the most important thing is that it looks clean. Like makeup, feminine hair styling looks best when it’s more natural and simplistic. Embrace your natural hair for an effortless look or go the more polished route. I think that this will heavily depend on what you feel more comfortable with, what suits your face and features and what you realistically have time for.

Personally, I am very basic with my hair. 95% of the time, it’s down and curled. The other 5% of the time, I love creating simple ponytails, braids and half up styles. I love incorporating feminine hair accessories like barrettes, hair bows, ribbons, scarves and headbands. Hair accessories are not for everyone but they are fun to wear – give it a try if you’re feeling brave!