#How to Apply Eye Shadow for a Dramatic Look

[axonspro]

Get Creative with Eye Shadow - Colorful Long Lasting Makeup

Get Creative with Eye Shadow – Colorful, Long-Lasting Makeup Eye shadow is an amazing way to get creative with your makeup. With the right colors and techniques, you can create a variety of looks that will last all day long. Whether you’re looking for a subtle hint of color or something bold and dramatic, eye shadow can be used to enhance your features and bring out your inner beauty.  With the…

[solradguy]

I need 2 see nagos model so I can stare at his ass for research purposes ~pumpkin anon

Genuinely really impressed they gave him this much butt considering he's wearing like 900 layers of robes lol

[rafecameronssl4t]

Night out || Drew Starkey x fem!reader

Summary: A night out with your boyfriend and Madelyn and waking up to pictures of you and Drew circulating around social media.

Warnings: none :)

Word count: 1,591

A/n: Send me drew starkey requests pleaseeeeeee

MASTERLIST

Divider by @yoonitos

“Look at you,” Drew says with a playful grin, his eyes tracing every detail of your outfit with admiration. You giggle, feeling a blush rise to your cheeks as you catch your reflection in the mirror, pleased with your appearance. “What time are we meeting up with Mads again?” you ask, tearing your gaze away from the mirror to glance at Drew as he checks his phone.

“Uh, like right now,” he says sheepishly. Your eyes widen in surprise. “Drew!” you exclaim, a mixture of amusement and exasperation in your voice. Without wasting a moment, you grab your perfume, quickly spritzing it on as you rush to the other room to retrieve your Sambas.

“I feel so bad for making her wait,” you mutter to yourself, hastily tying up your shoes. “It’s fine, babe. The drive is only like five minutes,” Drew reassures you, the keys jingling in his hand. You shoot him a playful glare, your bottom lip jutting out in a slight pout.

“Still!” you retort, a hint of mock annoyance in your voice. With a quick glance in the mirror to ensure everything is in place, you grab your bag and hurry out of your cozy Charleston home, Drew following closely behind.

In the car, you carefully apply a layer of lip gloss, glancing at yourself in the visor mirror. Drew’s hand rests warmly on your thigh as he admires you, his eyes filled with affection. Feeling his gaze linger, you turn to him with a smile. “What?” you ask playfully, catching his eye.

Drew grins, his thumb gently rubbing circles on your inner thigh. “You’re just so pretty,” he gushes, his voice full of admiration. You giggle, feeling a blush rise to your cheeks. “Thanks, babe,” you reply, your heart fluttering.

~

“I’m so sorry we’re late,” you apologize as you and Madelyn go in for a hug, embracing each other warmly. “No, it’s okay. I was sorta late too,” Madelyn chuckles, pulling away from the hug with an understanding smile. Drew joins in, pulling Madelyn into a hug as well. “Hey Mads,” he greets, smiling down at her. “Hey Drew,” Madelyn replies, pulling away from the hug and smiling up at him.

You three catch up, ordering drinks and food, simply enjoying each other’s company. As the night rolled on, the three of you decided you wanted to walk down the street to your guys’ favourite bar.

It was around 11 at night, and the streets of Charleston were still bustling with a few people. “Wait, I’ll just go to the bathroom,” Madelyn says just as you step outside. “Want me to come?” you offer, concerned. “No, it’s okay, I’ll be quick!” she assures you with a smile as you nod in understanding.

Drew pulls you close to him, his arm wrapping around your waist protectively as you wait for Madelyn to return. “Do we have any choc chips in the fridge?” you randomly ask, looking up at Drew.

“I doubt it, why?” He chuckles as you couldn’t help but smile, “I wanted to make choc chip pancakes in the morning,” You say, “I’ll just buy them tomorrow,” He wraps his arm around your shoulders, pulling you even closer. “Thank you,” You smile, going up on your tippy toes to place a kiss on his lips.

“You lovebirds ready?” Madelyn calls out. You and Drew turn your heads toward her, both smiling. A playful grin spreads across your face as you step away from Drew, immediately missing the warmth of Drew. Linking arms with Madelyn, you share a glance. She sticks her tongue out at Drew, who feigns offense, placing a hand dramatically over his heart.

Drew walks behind the two of you as you giggle about something Madelyn said. The sight is pretty amusing—how small the two of you look next to him, with Drew towering behind like a protective shadow. It’s almost as if he’s your loyal Doberman, following closely and keeping an eye on his favourite people.

The three of you arrived at the bar and immediately ordered drinks, though Drew opted for just iced water since he was the designated driver. The atmosphere was relaxed and cozy, with only a few people scattered around. After about an hour, Madelyn decided to head out, mentioning her early start the next day.

The bar was nearly empty, the clock inching past midnight, but you and Drew decided to stay. The two of you continued to chat, enjoying the quiet intimacy and the time together. His hand rested on your thigh as you talk about something, his eyes watching your side profile in awe at how lucky he was.

“We ready?” Drew asks, downing the last of his water. You hum in agreement, getting up and thanking the bartender, who returns your smile warmly. With a final glance around the nearly empty bar, you head out into the night with Drew by your side.

~

Waking up, your hand moves across to Drew’s side of the bed, only to find it empty. Lifting your head from the pillow, you catch the faint sound of music coming from the kitchen. Curiosity piqued, you slide out of bed, your feet hitting the cool floor. As you leave the bedroom, Bella, your cocker spaniel, trots up to you, her tail wagging enthusiastically.

You crouch down, scooping her up into your arms, her soft fur warm against your skin. With Bella nestled comfortably, you head towards the kitchen.

Rounding the corner, you spot Drew at the counter, mixing something in a bowl with his back turned to you. “Morning,” you say softly, catching his attention. He turns around, a warm smile spreading across his face. “Mornin’, baby,” he greets, his voice filled with affection. You walk up beside him, and he instinctively wraps an arm around your waist, pulling you close. Curious, you peer into the bowl.

“You’re making pancakes?” you ask with a smile, looking up at him. Drew grins down at you. “Mhmm, I got the choc chips in the fridge. Could you grab ’em for me?” he asks. You put down Bella, who trots off happily, and head to the fridge to fetch the chocolate chips, feeling a surge of affection for Drew and his sweet gesture.

“I didn’t start them too long ago, so sit down,” Drew says, giving your ass a light pat as you pass by. You lean up to kiss his cheek, “Thank you,” you say warmly before heading to the other side of the kitchen to make your coffee. The aroma of freshly ground beans fills the air as you start the coffee maker, glancing back at Drew, who’s humming along to the music, focused on making the pancakes.

You settle down on one of the kitchen stools, enjoying the comforting warmth of your coffee as you watch Drew mixing the batter . Scrolling through your phone, you’re suddenly interrupted by a FaceTime call from Madelyn.

“Mads is calling,” you inform Drew before answering the call. Maddy’s cheerful face fills the screen as you prop your phone up on the counter. “Hey!” You greet her as she does replies in the same cheerful tone.

“I’m getting my hair and makeup done right now, and I got bored, so I called,” Maddy explains, chuckling as she looks up to let the makeup artist do her eyeliner. “Hey Maddy!” Drew calls out.

“Hey Drew!” she greets back, her voice bright. “What are you doing?” Madelyn questions Drew as you flip the camera around to focus on him. He’s in the middle of flipping a pancake, his expression concentrated yet relaxed. “Making pancakes,” he replies with a smile “Stoppp, you’re making me hungry. I haven’t had breakfast yet,” she groans, letting out a loud sigh.

“Where in Charleston are you? We can drop some off if you want?” you offer, genuine concern in your voice. Maddy smiles gratefully at your kindness. “You’re too sweet, y/n. Thank you, but I feel bad making you drive out to me. I’ll just ask my manager to get an açai bowl or something,” she replies, her gratitude evident. You hum understandingly, appreciating her consideration.

~

After about ten minutes of casual conversation, Maddy brings up something that makes both you and Drew pause mid-chew. "What are you talking about?" you ask as Drew pulls out his phone.

"Are you guys living under a rock? It's all over social media right now. I thought you would've found out last night or at least this morning," Maddy says, sounding surprised.

"No, we haven't been on social media at all since we left the house yesterday afternoon," you explain while Drew opens Instagram and heads to the explore page. Almost instantly, you spot what she's talking about. "Oh, I see it," you say, leaning closer to get a better look at the post.

drewstarkeyupdatez

Liked by 1,947,208 people

Drew and his partner y/n spotted out in Charleston tonight!!

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"Aww, these picture is really cute," you smile, swiping through the images as Drew chuckles beside you. "Oh, and one of the workers at the bar made a TikTok about seeing us there. They even took a photo of you guys from the CCTV camera," Maddy adds, "I'll send you the TikTok too."

(the pic)

With Drew being a well-known celebrity, you're used to pictures of you both popping up on social media. Still, you always enjoy looking at them, finding them wholesome and cute.

[3rachasdomesticbanana]

All Nighter | Bang Chan

•Synopsis: You can't help but to tease your boyfriend when he's working, regardless if he's alone or not. "What's life without a little risk?" Who cares if the other two members of 3RACHA get a glance, a peak of what you're craving to give your boyfriend?

Bang Chan x Female Reader

•Content Warning: Heavy smut, Oral(m receiving), Strong language. If I left something out let me know and I'll add it.

Want more smut? Follow the banana 🍌

“Good job boy's. Why don't you two head back and get some sleep. I'm gonna work a little longer.” You hear Chan say to Han and Binnie.

The seat where Han sat next to you dozing in and out of sleep shifted when he stood up. Looking up you see him stretch his arms over his head and give a loud dramatic yawn that makes you giggle.

“Alright hyung. Don't work too hard. Night Y/N.”

“Yeah, what he said. See you tomorrow Y/N.” Changbin added before he and Han left Chan's studio.

It was just the two of you now and the tension between the two of you that was growing all night shifted and became palpable. He swivels in his chair, turning to face you. When your eyes meet he raises an eyebrow at you with a smirk playing on his beautiful full lips. Feigning Innocence you smile brightly at him. Yet the way he was sitting, legs opened wide, slightly slouched down in his chair with his elbows resting on the arm rests, made you feel borderline feral.

“Y/n baby, don't give me that look. You've been anything but innocent all night. Teasing me. Practically teasing Bin and Han as well.” He tells you. His voice is calm and much deeper than his usual tone. You know you've successfully turned him on when he sounds like that.

“Baby I don't know what you mean.” You drawl out sweetly, crossing your legs and flashing him in the process, just like you've been doing all night.

The pale blue skirt you had on wasn't particularly too short but it hitched up around your thighs just right while you sat on the sofa. Any time you repositioned how you were sitting, each 3RACHA member got a view of your wet cunt. Chan scoffs playfully and sits up.

“Baby girl, I could see the tint Jisung was sporting in his jeans all the way from here. Bet those two will be thinking of that pretty pussy of yours all night.”

You lick your lips smiling, eyes focused on your boyfriend's. You'd be lying to yourself if you said that very thought didn't turn you on. Many times you stayed at their dorm, you'd sometimes see the shadow of someone standing on the other of Chan's door through the bottom crack as he fucked you into his mattress. You'd only be able to tell who it was by the telltale blush over their face when you would later emerge for a drink and it was usually always Han.

“Guess I just made their night then huh baby?” You say seductively with a wink.

“Get over here and make my night. My hands have been itching to touch you.”

Smirking, you slide off the couch, getting onto your knees and crawling the short distance over to where he's sitting. Placing your hands on his knees and slowly sliding them up his thighs until your fingers find their target. You keep eye contact with him when your fingers curl under the band of his loose black basketball shorts before forcing them down and freeing his thick and hard erection.

“So big and so hard for me Channie.” Leaning forward, whispering and letting your breath fan over the tip.

The sensation makes him shiver and his cock twitches once, twice, and you give him a satisfied smile. Your mouth salivates with anticipation of having him on your tongue. Reaching your hand over and gripping the base of his thick shaft in loose fingers, you slowly apply pressure, tightening your fingers around him. He lets his head fall back with a groan. A strong hand threads its way into your hair pulling you forward slightly. Your fingers begin their slow dance of stroking him as your tongue flicks over his leaking tip before wrapping your soft lips around him.

He keeps a firm grip on your hair encouraging you to take him deeper into your mouth.

“More, beautiful.” His words are breathy and strained and you know he's holding back his impulse to fuck your throat.

Keeping your hand fisted around him you take him inch by inch until your lips meet your fingers. He's too big for you to deep throat but you take as much as you can feeling him hit the back of your throat.

“Fuck.” He growls and you feel your muscles clench around nothing. It makes you so incredibly wet.

You need him inside you but you also want to taste and tease him. Push him as close to the edge as possible. The sounds he makes when you start moving faster, bobbing your head up and down are raw and primal. Sliding your mouth over Chan's cock, slurping and sucking he bucks his hips up once into your mouth completely losing control over his body.

His grip in your hair is almost painful but you ignore it, heavily focused on his moans and breathing. Thighs tense up underneath your left hand that you're using to keep yourself steady and he stops you from moving using the hold he has on your head. You know he was close, you could taste the sweet and salty precum on the back of your tongue. He needs your pussy though, he'll go insane if he doesn't get to bury himself balls deep inside you.

“Get up here and ride me like Goku's flying nimbus.” He orders.

Giggling, you comply, easing up off your knees and straddling his thighs. “Mm I love it when you talk nerdy to me Channie.”

He gives you a deep chuckle that you feel down to your core making you bite down on your lip to suppress a moan despite him not even being inside of you just yet. Wrapping your hand around his hard shaft, Chan shivers at your touch, watching how pretty your fingers look curled around him. You guide him to your opening, the folds slick with your arousal, it takes little effort to push him inside of you inch by inch. He inhales deeply through gritted teeth and his hands grab onto your sides, gripping you for dear life. Once he's fully sheathed inside, your warm walls enclosing him you start to move your hips in a circle.

“I'll never get tired of the way you stretch me Chris.” You moan and he growls loving the way his English name sounds on your lips. It's his favorite, granted he loves the way you call him by any of the names you've become accustomed to but hearing you call him Chris just does things to him.

Slowly at first you tease yourself with his cock and then gradually pick up speed. Chan's soft panting mingles with yours, his hands slide up underneath your shirt massaging your breasts underneath the black lacy material. He moans appreciatively, flicking a thumb over the hardened peak of your nipple before giving it a squeeze, causing your walls to clamp down around him. His hips buck up underneath you and you gasp in pleasure feeling him push deeper inside your heat.

“Fuck,” he drags the word breathlessly. “Bounce on it for me beautiful.”

Placing your hands on his shoulders for support you do as he says bouncing up and down, feeling his cock slip in and out of you in such a sweet intoxicating way.

“Yeah, just like that. Keep it up baby. Don't stop until you're covering my dick with your cum princess.”

Your head falls back, hair tickling Chan's bare thighs, forcing a shiver to run through him and a groan to escape from his mouth. The sounds he makes between each word that he mutters incoherently is delicious. Each praise, each breathy sigh and each time his hands caresses you gets you closer and closer to sweet release. Chan can tell, he knows your body inside and out. He's got everything about you memorized. So when your legs begin to shake he stands up carrying you in his arms and sets you down on the desk. His strong hands push the keyboard and his laptop safety out of the way, still deep inside you before he starts to move. He fucks you rough just the way you like on his desk like he's done so many times in the past.

“Ah… ah, Chris! Fuck baby i'm so close don't stop.” Your legs wrap around him tighter, pulling him closer. He's balls deep, hitting that sweet spot over and over in a tantalizing rhythm.

“That's my girl, cum for me. Cum so I can fill you. Oh fuck baby, you feel so damn good.” He picks up his pace and you cling onto him, nails digging into his back and clawing him.

Even when he pulls his black T-shirt over his head he doesn't skip a beat in every thrust. The shirt lands on the leather couch behind him with a soft thud that's drowned out from the intense slapping sounds created by you and Chan’s body's coming together. The pounding he's inflicting on your walls is excruciatingly… delicious and your orgasm is crashing through you like a freight train.

Your moans ring out around the small pale green colored room. You're so grateful for the s class level soundproofing in the JYPE studios, surely your cries of passion would reach the 14the floor otherwise. Your muscles clamp down around Chan's pulsating cock, squeezing and milking him while his own moans harmonize with yours as he finds his own release.

“Ah, s-shit baby. Thank fuck. Ah!”

He spills himself inside of you with a long groan still thrusting his oversensitive muscle into you and shudders when your body trembles. You feel him fill you with his warm seed. It's this sensation that's hard to explain but you love it. Chan cumming inside of you is your favorite part, you secretly crave it. You don't even mind when his cum dribbles out of you whenever he pulls out. You love it when it's messy. He's breathless and chuckles, resting his forehead on your shoulder.

“I fucking love you baby.” He says finally, his voice husky and kisses your collarbone.

“I love you too baby.” You reply with a happy sigh and your hand finds its way into his soft curls massaging his head as you and him let your bodies relax after such an intense O.

✧￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣￣✧

It's after 5am when Chan and you walk into the parking garage and a mischievous smile spreads on your face.

“Think you can go harder for round two Channie?”

You ask him and giggle at his shocked wide eyed expression but he doesn't let you down. He goes harder in the second, third and fourth round until you're thoroughly fucked and unable to keep your eyes open, succumbing to sleep.

[sanakimohara]

“Soft Dom [1]” L. F.

Soft Dom Felix, who lets you sit on his lap all dressed up in the cute cotton pj set, you barely begged him to order for you. It's simple but snug and hugs all your gorgeous curves. It makes him blush, seeing your thighs smush on his lap, your ass sitting nicely, and your feet dangling a little over the edge of the couch you pushed him to sit down on. He's well mannered as any man can be with a body snug up against him, your focus entirely directed on applying the finishing touches of makeup to his face, and your voice sounding softer the longer his mind wanders where it shouldn't.

Soft Dom Felix, who hates it when you shift in his lap to get a better angle of his face. One of your hands holds his chin firmly, guiding him to be obedient when you need to turn his head. He wants to shove your hands down, lock them behind your back, and keep them there while he takes over your little ‘quality time’ project. You look so pretty, fawning over him, squinting at minor details on his face, and unconsciously pouting when you spot something to fix. You're just being a sweet girl for him, showering him with affection he's missed, but all he can think of is bare skin on his.

Soft Dom Felix doesn't utter a word for a whole three minutes, staring at you in a daze you notice but doesn't say anything about until your curiosity can't stand it any longer. You badger him to talk, bouncing in his lap while whining about him not paying attention. He nearly moans, feeling your weight rise and fall on his thighs, pressure mounting in his crotch when you smack his chest lightly before settling back down again. His eyes, sharpened by mascara, shadows, and liner, appear more piercing when they zero in on you. There's no playfulness in his stare. There is no pleasant feel to the way he picks you apart with one look, jaw clenched, and a soft, long silver strand of hair framing his done-up face. You've done something to ease his hard exterior forward but can't comprehend what it is before you feel his hips rising to meet the space between your thighs.

Soft Dom Felix is in no rush to answer your whispered and fragmented questions, hands wandering your figure and groping whatever flesh he can. Your breasts harden under the soft fabric of your shirt, parking up as his fingers dance over and pinch your nipples. It hurts, and you whimper from how insensitive he seems to the slight pain he inflicts. Your breasts fill his hands for a moment longer, tender and malleable, but left alone as his attention wanders downwards. You've yet to stop his dry humping, joining on it without shame and smiling at the feeling of your arousal dampening the shorts pulled high up on your hips. A groan tumbles from his lips as your slick leaks past the fabric and into his sweats. The liner and thin-tipped makeup brush fall from your hands, clattering on the floor when he bucks his hips upward, hands steady on your hips to hold you firmly still while his hardened cock nuzzles your clothes cunt.

Soft Dom Felix accidentally licks the gloss from his bottom lip, and the senes dulled dramatically as every other sensation flows straight to the head of his length. He feels utterly evil for interrupting your cute hobby of decorating his face. He wanted to hold back, to be reasonable, and get through the activity without putting his hands on you, but you were asking for it in more ways than one. The pouting. The bouncing. The whining. It was all you're doing, not his.

Soft Dom Felix feels a tad guilty for putting you at fault. You couldn't be to blame for everything. Not the swiftness of his hand as it dived into the confines of your shorts, snuggly cupping your cunt in all its slick glory and gently pushing and sliding his fingers over your entrance to hear you cry for him. Not the slow and vicious pace he sets while shoving his fingers into your fluttering walls, curling then forward until he hits a spot that makes your thighs quiver and brushing past it for the sake of feeling you clench on his hand without warning. His cock jumps in his sweats when you whimper, face flushed a hue of pink as your cum seeps into his palm, helping the heel of it stimulate your budding clit, and leaking last his hand and onto your shorts. You can't possibly be held accountable for his hushed compliments, the narrowing of his eyes as they study your frightful reactions or the low laughter he lets out when you begin to ride his hand like a pup in heat. It's not what you asked for, he knows that, but it's what you deserve for being so persistent.

Soft Dom Felix spreads you with his fingers for his amusement, loving the sloppy sounds your cunt makes with every stroke of his hand. He keeps you on edge, slowing himself down and massaging your clit to make up for leaving you so empty all of a sudden. It has to be done. You'll unravel too quick for his liking if he doesn't show restraint. You've worked so hard to highlight his features that he doesn't think it's fair not to appreciate yours, too. Granted, he may not pick up the liner and mark up your face, but he does tend to the obviously needier areas. One solid tap of his hand on your thigh has you standing upright to take his place on the couch's edge. You get no say in how he wants you, back laid flat on the cushions, shorts tugged off and onto the floor, and your legs firmly pushed upward towards your chest as his head settles between your thighs.

I ain't got shit to post…I’m being so fr…I’m stuck in a rut.

[ BONUS CONTENT + ]

Mr. Androgynous here needs to have his soul sucked from his body. IMMEDIATELY!! Now, who's volunteering first?…. Credits to creator btw 🧡

[loveinhawkins]

for the one word ficlet prompt thing!!

I'd love to see something steddie with the word "sun". not picky about how you use it and im good with whatever season you'd like! 💕🌻💘☀️

pre season 3 crossing paths in high school, my beloved ☀️💕 ao3

There’s a blind spot just on the outskirts of the school grounds, before you get to the woods: a little hill that if you sit at just the right angle, back pressed up against the grass, no-one can see you. Eddie goes there whenever he needs some peace—like now, reading alone during lunch. He can still hear the distant laughter of students floating along on the breeze, but it’s far enough away that it doesn’t intrude as he reads.

The air smells like summer’s approaching. His fingers skim through drying blades of grass; they feel almost as delicate as pressed flowers.

Despite the calm solitude, the words aren’t going in—and he knows that with the right teacher, he kinda gets Tennessee Williams, but Mr Hauser’s gone, and he was the only one who allowed Eddie free reign to go wild when reading aloud in class, every other sub since then would say he was being disruptive and… okay, that was true some of the time, but most of the time it was because it helped, damn it, gave him at least some hope of scraping a pass—

A shadow falls across Eddie’s page—it doesn’t loom in the way a teacher’s stance would, but he still jumps at the suddenness of it.

“Jesus!”

Eddie tips his head back against the hill, cranes his neck to look upside down. Squints against the sun.

It’s Steve Harrington, and he must have gym straight after lunch because he’s already changed into a T-shirt and shorts, which is an odd decision in Eddie’s opinion as a perpetual gym-ditcher, but whatever, it’s a free country… and it’s not exactly like the guy’s an eyesore.

”You trying to give me a heart attack, Harrington?”

“No,” Steve says shortly; he looks a mixture of embarrassed and… annoyed? Which would be a new personal best for Eddie, considering he’s done nothing to piss him off save for just sitting on the ground. “I didn’t know you were here, dude.”

“Yeah, that’s kinda the idea,” Eddie waves his hands in explanation, “welcome to my hiding spot.”

Steve scoffs. “Not much of a hiding spot if I found it.”

It comes out a little petty, sure, but nothing major, Eddie thinks; it’s not like Steve’s picking a fight.

“What’s up with you, man?” he asks lightly.

It’s something he’s pondered more than once over the last couple of years, in between the stress of failed tests and the same platitudes in school reports: Eddie must apply himself next year; Eddie must try harder; Eddie must…

In the background of it all was the enigma that was Steve Harrington. Eddie had found that you couldn’t not look at him, his eyes drawn to even the most fleeting impressions: walking past the lockers or driving in and out of the school parking lot. Seasons changed—whole damn years changed—and still the question remained: just what on earth is up with Steve Harrington these days?

At least now, asking the question is profoundly less upsetting than it had been last fall, when Eddie silently tracked the progression of bruises healing across Steve’s face—along with Billy Hargrove’s intimidating stare.

“Nothing, I’m just…” Steve sighs. “Didn’t wanna spend forever in the cafeteria when it’s so nice out, but… Honestly?”

“Nah, I’d prefer you lie to me,” Eddie says deadpan, and Steve snorts before sighing again; Eddie almost asks him to read some Tennessee Williams out loud, ‘cause he’s surprisingly got the dramatics for it.

Steve flops down onto the grass, lies right on his back with no concern for his precious hair. “I’m so damn bored, Munson.”

“Gosh, my heart bleeds,” Eddie says. “Puh-lease tell me how hard it is to have passed everything and literally not have a care in the world?”

Steve blinks up at him, frowning. “Shit, are you repeating again?”

He sounds earnest, and there’s something in his phrasing that means Eddie isn’t nearly as defensive as normal—maybe because it’s about repeating again rather than failing.

Eddie lifts up the script in demonstration. “Not exactly reading this for fun, dude.”

“God, I’d take that over gym right now.”

“Okay, you’re bullshitting me. You love gym, Harrington. You, like,” Eddie gestures at Steve’s get-up, “actually make an effort and everything.”

“Not when the semester’s almost over, man. We don’t even have a cover right now, so we’re just left to, like, do whatever, who gives a shit. I’m bored outta my mind.”

“Tragic,” Eddie says—gym without a teacher sounds like a dream; he’d literally just leave. “I’m weeping for you.”

Steve rolls his eyes. But it doesn’t feel like a dismissal, even when he doesn’t reply and just lies back in the grass with another sigh.

So… Eddie mulls it over. What the hell, Steve’s graduating; it’s not like they’ll cross paths after that.

“Bet you can’t run to the woods and back before the bell rings.”

Steve sits up, a gleam of interest in his eyes. He checks his watch. “The bell’s gonna ring in, like, two minutes, Munson.”

“Oh, sorry, I thought you were so bored. Well, if you’re not up to the challenge—”

“No, no,” Steve says, standing up. “I didn’t say that.” He actually gets into position like he’s on the running track, looks at Eddie expectantly.

Eddie covers his bemusement with theatrics; he mimes firing a starting pistol.

And… shit, Steve Harrington can run.

Objectively, it’s not like it’s a surprise; he wasn’t exactly bringing up the rear in the swim and basketball teams. Still, it’s one thing knowing it, another to see it up close like this.

Eddie puts his book back in his bag, watching as Steve disappears from view. Reluctantly, he edges away from the hill—if he doesn’t, he’ll risk being late for class again by the time he walks over, and… He thinks of ‘86, what has to be his third time lucky. Start as you mean to go on, and all that.

Eddie turns back to look. Sure enough, Steve comes sprinting out of the woods, racing up to the hill right as the bell rings.

“Still counts, Munson!” he calls, a little breathless.

And Eddie knows that he’s not really solved the mystery of what’s going on with Steve Harrington.

What he does know is that Steve is smiling as he raises a fist in victory, the sun turning his hair golden for just a moment; he looks utterly free—as he should be, graduation’s right around the corner.

And Eddie can’t begrudge him that.

”Inspirational,” he shouts, cupping a hand around his mouth as he walks backwards. “I’ll get John Hughes on the phone, stat.”

The bell stops. Eddie turns around before he can trip on his own feet.

He’s getting closer to the school building now, can feel the change in the air, cliques unwillingly disbanding as teachers move them on.

But as he heads to class, Eddie faintly hears evidence that the moment hasn’t been broken entirely: Steve Harrington’s laughter, drifting across on the wind.

[zilodak]

I love how you do your blakout inking... Is there any tip to doing it right or do you just go in on instinct? I know having a good idea of shadow placements is important but I also struggle with how I shape my shadows and I end up being too conservative with how much black the drawing has yk

The easy answer to this is... intensity!

Let's start, everybody say "hi Selin!" She's going to be our muse today!

First I'm going to go over how I tackle flat light. This is the style of inking I used when I was drawing Miss Atom if you noticed!

Flat lighting is perfect if you want your colors to shine, perhaps even when the background is incredibly detailed as well. This one is easy, just apply thicker line onto the part of the body that doesn't see light. You can choose to shadow certain details like the inner side of the hair.

Now just sort of expand on it. Try to keep it blocky. The trick is to balance the light and the shadows. The trick is to keep in mind where the light is coming from. This type of lighting gives you more depth, you can now see how her body curves and how hey hair flows. You're getting more details here.

Keeping it simple helps your eye focus on the details and what is being lighten.

If you want dramatic lighting, the key is to crank up the shadows by a 100. And still keep in mind where the light is coming from, and keep it simple.

As you can see, you don't need to highlight every detail. That's the best part about moody and dramatic lighting. It's extremely useful in serious scenes, if the tone or your work is dark, like Noir.

And there you have it!

Just have fun with composition and shadows! Keep in mind, as long as it looks good, it doesn't really matter if it's not realistic. Shadow and light are tools for composition.

[cinnaminyoons]

!!   jungkook

[ event masterlist ] 

assassins after the same target

alone in the darkroom together

“here to finish me off?”

"i'm going to kill you, ln jungkook."

"wait, nobody told me we're married – babe—"

"don't you dare 'babe' me after ignoring all my texts and declining all my calls," you interrupt with a growl, looming over him as he shrinks back against the wall. "who the fuck do you think you are? you stole my kill."

with an awkward smile, illuminated just barely by the red light in the corner of the darkroom, jungkook says, "i don't know if you're talking about last night's call of duty round or this morning's fiasco."

"fias—" you suck in a hissed breath, pinching the bridge of your nose with the hand not trapping him in place. it needs to be there. jungkook is very good at escaping when he wants to be. "you killed my mark!"

"but you said we share everything," he mumbles cluelessly. "our jobs are the same, so i thought you'd appreciate it if i checked him off your list for you. y'know – acts of service as a love language?"

"that applies to washing the dishes or refilling my gas tank," you sigh, "not stealing your boyfriend's contracts."

he twiddles his thumbs, a tiny pout pursing his lips as he stares at your shoes. or the shadow of them, really – it's much too dark to see a whole lot. he wishes you'd let him step outside for this conversation. "i'm sorry, baby... i just wanted to help out, you know? you're always so busy and i miss you sometimes. like, i know that basically being your househusband would keep me from seeing you as often, but it's hard not to get sad when you're halfway across the world and the only thing i have of you are your clothes. i killed him so that we could spend more time together..."

you can't handle how adorably pathetic he looks, on the verge of tears. your anger dissipates with a breath. you bring him into your arms and kiss his temple, feeling his fists twist in the back of your jacket. he buries his soft, sweet face in your shoulder with a quiet sniffle.

"don't cry, doll," you murmur, stroking his soft, glossy hair. you twirl a lock between your fingers. "i'm sorry for blowing up at you earlier. i was worried that they'd trace and find you because of who that guy was. i was taking my time on purpose, and you just strolled in and popped his head like a grape."

he smiles, nosing your neck. he kisses the curve of it and pulls back with bright, sparkling eyes. "it's okay, baby. i should've asked you first. i'm a big boy – nobody is tracking me. i learnt from the best, after all."

he taps your chest and you smile softly, brushing his messy hair out of his eyes. they hold the galaxy, red dwarves and quantum foam and everything in between. you kiss his eyelids. 

“that you did, dollface. that you did."

you turn towards jungkook's chemical setup, the tubs holding rolls and enlarged prints of your life with him, placing your arm around his little waist. "how's everything going? will we be able to hang these up soon?"

"they're chugging along nicely," he replies softly, hooking his thumb into the belt loop of your crisp black trousers. you're still dressed up from the flight you took a few hours ago to return to him. "just a minute or two more – i can't remember, need to check the clock. then i can start with the fixer and the washes, and we'll be able to take a peek tomorrow and scan them up. i already have one in mind that i'd like to set my profile picture to – i hope it came out well."

"i'm sure it's gorgeous," you hum, "just like you."

he laughs, separating from you to wander closer to the bench, checking the clock. he hovers around the tubs, watching the second hand closely and extracting a roll and a print at the exact moment the hand touches the twelve. he submerges them in the next tubs along the bench. "thanks, baby. i was, um, really scared if you'd kill me. as in, honest-to-god murder me. your opening sentence didn't help, either. i planned this whole, like, dramatic scene for if you were really upset – i was gonna say, 'here to finish me off?' and turn around in a spinny chair and you'd laugh and everything would be okay again."

you chuckle, eyes crinkling, and wrap your arms around him as he transfers the final roll in the dedicated 'wash' basin. "you know me so well. i wouldn't have been able to be angry at you."

he giggles, twirling around and pecking your lips. "mmhm." he entwines his fingers with yours, and his smile sparkles like the diamonds he adores so much. "i love you, baby. i always will."

"i love you, too, kook. once i have a shower, we can do whatever you like to spend those hard-won hours together." he gasps in delight and you grin. "let's watch the first iron man. that one always makes you turn into such a cutie."

"ba-by," he whines, blushing. he's never been more relieved that the room is both dark and lit  by red – the same colour as his cheeks, he's certain. "you're so mean to me."

"sorry." you kiss his cheek. "it's my love language."

[staghunting]

it is a cool choice to write regulus as being permanently in sirius' shadow and would grate against that. i understand that some writers make this the basis for the j/egulus dynamic of "i am deeply in love with my brother's best friend but It Cannot Be because my brother and i have a weird relationship", but it's hard to write that without changing a lot of their personalities. while i can see how good writers would take a mile if you gave them an inch of inspiration, i never got on the j/egulus train simply because i was rotted by a more compelling ship route to take

namely, that regulus would get with snape in order to get back at sirius.

your baby brother falling in love with your amazing best friend? ew, but also, you can't fault his taste. your baby brother doing the nasty the worst supremacist scum in the british isles, on the other hand? vile! disgusting! treacherous! sirius would absolutely go nuts if his baby brother debased himself in such a way– which is exactly why i think regulus would go for it. it is the sort of slytherin-flavored vengeance that befits regulus more than softly angsting under dramatic light in a corner

and the reason why sirius would freak is for a multitude of reasons! regulus is a black– pureblooded, high-class, honor above all. sirius' value system of honor would not accept that his own blood would associate with hypocrite supremacists such as snape (though sirius himself is a hypocrite through regulus' eyes because he loudly goes against their traditions but wants to effectively manage and control someone within the institution he left)

perhaps, years later, sirius might still wash out some of regulus' blame— his idiot brother, too soft to know when his lover (shudder) was joining a supremacist organization

but snape is an effective knife for regulus to hold against his brother simply because snape is the sirius-that-never-will-be

because snape is accepted by the same family that callously disowned sirius! he breaks bread with the black cousins! joined the same after-school traditionalist club! quite possibly (i don't remember if it was canon) also named draco's godfather! sirius hated that this greasy git fit better into his family than he ever would

(and had he lived longer, he would be simmering with envy of how effortlessly snape still swans in their circle despite being proved a LITERAL SPY. he is stuck and tied in his house but snape, of all people, gets to have afternoon tea with bella and cissa)

and snape hates sirius because he is effortlessly powerful and cool– even by muggle standards!! it is hard to be cool by muggle standards when there's so much going on in that world but somehow, this posh bloke steps in london and immediately becomes a café racer. he transfigures his robes to mimic muggle clothing and still looks fashionably rockstar handsome instead of looking like he came from a multicolored freakshow circus like every wizard trying to fit in the muggle world

sirius bought a nice flat in the richer side of london right after graduating, without looking for a job. he knows what the current movies are, has paid for all of his friends to watch it together, and is in tune with muggle life the way he would never be

(the day snape found out that sirius, who was raised on enchanted concertos and magical singing kitchenware, bought a pregnant lily potter VIP seats to an artist's concert— the artist who they both first heard on a rickety radio player in his mother's house— he flipped his shit and applied for his second masters)

they are soooo deeply jealous of each other's ability to fit in. and it would make for a really good dynamic. all three of them are playing each other like fiddles

[axonspro]

Get Creative with Eye Shadow - Colorful Long Lasting Makeup

Get Creative with Eye Shadow – Colorful, Long-Lasting Makeup Eye shadow is an amazing way to get creative with your makeup. With the right colors and techniques, you can create a variety of looks that will last all day long. Whether you’re looking for a subtle hint of color or something bold and dramatic, eye shadow can be used to enhance your features and bring out your inner beauty.  With the…

[hannahssimblr]

How did you improve so much in a year at building and taking screenshots?! Forever in awe

hahah thank you so much! I'm so happy with my improvement - the answer is ~magic~

nah, really, it's just that when I started Lucky Girl back at the end of 2022, I knew absolutely none of the screenshot tricks - I only ever got ts4 as a way to tell the story, and hadn't played it at all in the years prior. I ended up trying to take screenshots in a game where I didn't even know how to work the teleport function - and you can tell, I fear.

I was also using another platform to share my story at the time, and a lot of the content there kinda looked the same - vanilla, screenshots taken with plumbobs on and the walls down etc. I wasn't using Tumblr so I didn't have any inspiration. Coming here really pushed me to be better and taught me a lot of tricks and new things to add to my game to make it look better - the short of it, is that I just really didn't know better, and I just wanted to write the story. The screenshots felt secondary. I look back and cringe tbh, but I distinctly remember not really bothering that much with them, and thinking that 'just okay' was good enough.

Since then I've learned so much!

The first was how to teleport, and use MCCC to get sims to do couple poses off the lot

I got TOOL and figured all of that stuff out - including to create the illusion of varying heights etc.

I added in more details to the sims, changed any hair and skin issues, and added in skin details galore

I use WW for posing whenever I need something a bit more complex

I got over my fear of having too much CC in my game and just got so much build/buy cc - this made it possible to create the kinds of houses and rooms I imagined in my head - also, experience building helped a lot. In the beginning I was so intimidated, and frankly, unable to make things looked good that I relied on builds from the gallery 90% of the time.

Weirdly, even though I studied film in college, I never applied my knowledge of composition to the screenshots - I just started doing that, and generally trying to think more cinematically.

I got more use to using photoshop to fix screenshots, mix them together and crop them to be more compositionally pleasing. I also did that tutorial about changing the BG of a scene - I do that as a last resort, but it really works.

RESHADE - this was the biggest one. That DOF really changed my screenshot game - there's a point in lucky girl where I started using it, and you can see the instant difference.

Lighting mods - I use sunblind, and I also use the ghibli replacement clouds. I have a few others also to fix the shadows and lighting in general

Being more intentional with poses. I got a bunch of new ones with more subtle expressions that I felt suited the tone of my story better. I think the exaggerated ones are super cute, but they always seemed too much for my story. I also got animations for even more natural movement in scenes. Sometimes I'll make my own, too, if I can't find exactly what I am looking for

The eye trick was a huge gamechanger - I use it almost every single shot, and truly couldn't live without it.

Relight is a recent addition to my game - I only figured out how to use it around the end of part 2 of Lucky Boy. I don't use it a lot, but it was great more some of the dramatically lit festival scenes, and whenever I want some lamplight on a character (Or to just balance out a dark part of the shot)

camera mods have helped me gain more control of my scenes, along with the CTRL 5/6/7/8/9 camera saving trick. I use this a lot too, especially when I need to characters to look at each other with the eye trick and they won't do it at the same time (recent example below)

All of that is basically how I did it! It was a whole process but I'm so pleased because I look at the old screenshots and just think, damn, I've come so far!

More examples of the same scenes redone, because it's fun

[andkisses]

♡ fifty-fifty split | sunghoon ♡

Sharing an apartment with Sunghoon, your best friend since you were both 12, has ups and downs. Sometimes (a lot of times...) he doesn't do the dishes. But he always splits rent, utilities, and any other costs 50/50. And tonight? You find another good thing about him being just across the living room...

♡ sunghoon x gn!reader | wc. 2.2k ♡ genres/tropes: fluff!!, friends to lovers, roommate!au, casual hurt/comfort ♡ mentions of/warnings: bugs and creepy crawlies and reader is afraid of them; one pet name usage (love) ♡ a/n: i swear this man is my enha muse... enjoy lol inspired by true events </3 copyedited as i went so vaguely proof read lol enjoy <33 ♡ masterlist ♡

What should have been a peaceful late night of relaxation had turned into a nightmare. You'd done your self-care—shower with matching body wash and lotion, skin care with your favorite serums and moisturizers. Vanilla overnight lip balm applied. All that was left was to snuggle down into your covers and delude yourself into whatever romance you were reading or watching (you hadn't decided yet) that night.

     And that's when It showed up.

     You were scrolling through your phone, trying to see if a new drama would catch your eye before you defaulted to the book on your nightstand. The covers were mid-pull, almost tucked beneath your chin. You had scrolled again, mindlessly searching for something—anything—to curb your romantic tendencies for the night when—

    Out of the corner of your eye—

    Something dark and squirmy and creepy crawly on the edge of your covers, the part almost to your neck and chin.

    It's over before it begins—you grabbing at the figure and dramatically chucking whatever it was across the room. You turned on your phone flashlight, waving it around your dark room looking for any sign of whatever that was. You kick the covers back, combing through every layer and blanket before coming to terms with your new reality.

    You had no idea where that bug went—or if it was even real. And the uncertainty of the event and its aftermath meant your room?

    No longer a place of relaxation.

    Your hand pauses before knocking on Sunghoon's door. Yeah, he's your friend and all. Your best friend, at that. But what if he's busy doing something? Hanging out on a call with his friends or gaming? Yeah, he's your best friend, but he loves to tease you and surely this situation would lead to that, and... you aren't sure if you could handle him treating you like that right now. It's not that you despised his teasing, you most certainly adore his attention every time you have it. But tonight...

    "Are you gonna come in or just stand there like a serial killer?"

    "How do you know I'm even out here?" you huff, indignant that he cut off your thoughts.

    "Kitchen light's on," he calls through the door. "You're casting a shadow under my door. Very serial killer-y. Come in."

    You sigh, turning the knob and pushing his door open. Sunghoon sits on his bed, wearing the grey hoodie you think compliments everything about him. In his hands, resting on his lap, is a journal. You watch as he seamlessly places his pen inside, closing the book and setting it on the side table furthest from you. You watch as his eyes take you in—his shirt you stole a year ago and never gave back (even if it doesn't smell like him anymore), pajama pants, socks. Nothing spectacular, but your heart has already convinced you he's staring because it's you.

    You forgot to calculate your stupid crush into this. Honestly, falling for your best friend who also happens to be your roommate?

    "Let me guess," Sunghoon hums, smirk on his lips as he leans back against the wall, hands politely folded in his lap. "I forgot to send you my share of the rent."

    "No, I—"

    He holds up one finger, as if saying aha! "My share of utilities?"

    "No, Sunghoo—"

    "I did the dishes I promise!" His hands are both up, palms out, a stupid grin on his face.

    "There was a bug in my room." You step forward, shutting the door behind you. You wanted as much room between you and that thing—even if you're still wondering if you even saw one or not. Sunghoon didn't need to know your doubts about that. "I'm here because there was a bug in my bed."

    Sunghoon leans forward, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and patting the spot beside him. "Not because you're madly in love with me?" he teases, and you roll your eyes. If only he knew. "Because that was going to be my next guess."

    "No, it's—I—" You sit down beside him, feeling his weight on the bed shift as you join in. You didn't think it had bothered you this much, or you didn't want to think about it at all. But sitting here? Trying to recall it?

    "Hey, wait." Sunghoon's face has shifted, his brows knit together with worry. "For real. Are you okay?"

    "It's just..." You close your eyes, trying to find the right words. When you open them again, you turn towards Sunghoon, whose stare moves over your features, searching for anything he can do. "It was so icky. It never actually touched me, but I feel like I can feel it on my skin.

    "Where?" Sunghoon asks softly. His attention and care, the calming atmosphere of his room lit only with small table lamps and string lights, are already helping.

    You go along, pointing to your arm. "Here. Like all over. It's nasty."

    "May I?" he asks,

    You pause, confused and unsure as to what he's asking about. But this is Sunghoon, and you trust him with so many things already. You nod.

    He turns his body more toward you, and you mirror him. Sunghoon takes one hand with his larger, warm one, cradling yours in his palm. Then, with his other, he places his hand at the top of your shoulder, moving down softly and slowly, drawing warmth all the way down to your wrist. Any sensation you thought you felt has been replaced with a real one now. Sunghoon does it again once or twice—you're now feeling dizzy, intoxicated with such an intimate touch—before switching to your other arm and repeating the process.     Once he finishes, Sunghoon drops your hand back into your lap, his lips quirked into a half smile. "Did that help? Is it gone?" You watch in a haze of feelings as Sunghoon reaches behind him, pulling his hoodie off effortlessly. His hair is ruffled now and all you can focus on is how good the black t-shirt he's wearing underneath looks. He places the hoodie in your lap, then reaches up to cup your cheek, his fingers threading behind your ear into your hair and against your scalp. "You felt cold. You take it."

    "What are you doing?"

    Sunghoon squints, unsure, but doesn't remove his hand. "I'm... taking care of you." He doesn't say it like a question.

    You shake your head, and his hand falls away. You grip at the hoodie in your hands, still warm from being worn. "No, nuh-uh. Is this how friends take care of each other?"

    "I'm not sure I'm getting what you're saying," he says, frowning. As he pulls back you lean forward, and his eyes widen just enough.

    Just enough to keep you talking.

    This ball of feelings had been pushed the moment you decided to come to his room and seek out comfort. If you didn't want to sleep in your room, you could have slept on the large sofa the two of you had saved up for and invested in together. You bought a couch together. Do regular friends do that? And then the touching and his warmth and openness and his hoodie in your hands and—and—

    "I lied earlier."

    You feel bad for how confused your best friend looks. "What? Seriously are you okay?" he asks, taking the back of his hand to press lightly against your forehead.

    You reach up, taking his hand in yours and bringing his knuckles to your lips. There's no going back now. And since he hasn't kicked you out yet, you keep going, ball still rolling. "I lied earlier," you repeat. "I do like you."

    You watch the blush on Sunghoon's cheeks, mindlessly wondering how you can see it happen again. Sunghoon blushing? Because of you? He clears his throat, but instead of withdrawing his hand, he threads his fingers between yours. "I actually asked if you were madly in love with me."

    You nod, and you feel Sunhoon squeeze your hand tighter as his eyes widen. Now, it seems, his in shock. "I just... I adore you and I don't know when it happened. It certainly wasn't when we met and you called me a loser and then we got paired together on the next group assignment." You stop to catch your breath as Sunghoon laughs, drawing his free hand over his face. There's a soft, carefree smile on his lips when you continue. "And then I saw you date other people and it felt weird to be excited when it didn't work out. And then we moved in together and got the couch and—"

    "Can I kiss you now?" he interrupts, bringing his hand back up to cup your chin between his thumb and forefinger, half-lidded eyes alight with happy mischief.

    You squeeze his hand, acting as an anchor. "Would you believe me then?" you ask.

    His whisper ghosts against your lips. "I already do."

    He tastes sweet and tart and strong, like cherries and coffee. He tilts his head, nose brushing past yours as he kisses you, tenderly and thoughtfully and in a way you know you'll never, ever get enough but it won't stop you from trying. He shakes his hand from yours to wrap his arm around your waist, and your fingers dig into the fabric of his shirt. You pull apart, gasping for air, trying to blink past the haze in your eyes before deciding that no, actually, neither of your were done. And this kiss? You can feel him smiling as he lets go of your chin to wrap that arm around you. You start laughing, pulling away as he plants kisses on your cheeks and nose and chin and jaw. You two topple over, a laughing mess with limbs already tangled together, like you already both knew.

    Like you'd been loving each other for a long time.

    "Can I tell you something?" Sunghoon asks, brushing his nose against yours. You'd been in his arms before, obviously, but this? Here and now? It's different—a good different.

    "Yeah, I guess so," you reply. "I'd rather you kiss me more, though."

    "What? We aren't doing a fifty-fifty split like we do on everything else?" he asks, propping himself up. "I have to do all the kissing?"

    "Do I not deserve to be spoiled?" you ask, cheeks hurting from your smiling. The hoodie had been lost, probably fallen to the floor when you grabbed his shirt. But you aren't cold anymore.

    Sunghoon laughs, grabbing the journal and paging it open to where he had bookmarked it with his pen earlier. His eyes scan the page, but he doesn't share. "I was actually writing about you... us... I was trying to get my thoughts out on paper when you showed up." He shrugs, placing the pen back to bookmark his spot and returning the journal to the nightstand. He levels you a soft and dreamy stare. "Maybe that bug was Cupid."

    "I literally cannot believe you right now."

    He laughs again, flopping back down beside you. Somehow, you'd found your way to the middle of his bed, head resting in his pillows. The two of you lay on your side, face to face, as close as each of you dared.

    "Be honest," Sunghoon requests. "Was there really a bug?"

    You whack at his shoulder, and he hooks his arm around your waist in response, pulling you closer. "Yes, there was!"

    Sunghoon shrugs again, leaning in to kiss you. "Okay, I'll call the exterminator in the morning."

    "What? You aren't going to save me yourself?"

    "And give you an excuse to leave me and go back to your room?" Sunghoon's hold on your waist gets tighter. He shakes his head. "No, I'll call in the morning, thank you."

    You roll your eyes. "Some prince charming you are."

    "I'm calling, aren't I?"

    "Make it up to me," you say, and Sunghoon nods. "Tell me how long you've been in love with me."

    He laughs, blush coming back up to his cheeks as he rolls his head into the pillow. He looks back up at you shyly, and in such a way that makes you blush. You can feel the heat creep across your cheeks, the tips of your ears, down your neck. His eyes flick there before coming back up to yours.

    "You told me you definitely didn't like me when I first called you a loser," he says, voice soft now. "But I think I did. I thought you were the coolest person ever, and I couldn't believe you were talking to me. So I panicked and called you a loser."

    "Really smooth," you say, reaching to push Sunghoon's hair out of his eyes. You revel in the way you see him shiver slightly beneath your touch.

    "I know," he says, "but if I hadn't called you that, our teacher wouldn't have paired us together so we could 'get along.' And then we never would have bought a couch together."

    You laugh, small and light, and Sunghoon smiles wider still. "What? You don't think we would have met or connected any other way?"

    Sunghoon shakes his head. "I don't even want to think about a world where I never got to know you."

    "Then don't," you offer, threading your fingers through his hair. "And kiss me again."

    His hands splay against your ribs, warmth radiating against you, his lips moving against yours before you're done talking. "Whatever you say, love."

[shini--chan]

Hello, how about yandere!England with darling, who dislikes him for being self-centered and rude and is annoyed with his snobbish attitude, but one day she just gets enough and tells him: 'Stop being such a pretentious asshole. Who do you think you are? The times of your glory are far gone, no one takes you seriously nowadays, but yet you're still trying to act bold and treating others like shit, thinking you're superior. How pathetic. That's why nobody loves you'.

A small drabble for thee

Yandere England - Touche

Thick eyebrows scrunched together in frustration, and he laid the knife away with which he had been gutting the fox on the table. The blood smeared up his arms and down the front of his torso - it made him look all the more the part of a vicious despot in your eyes. 

"That is very rich coming from you. Aren't you proving through your mere words that what you say actually applies to you? Projection much, eh?", he replied, a sardonic smile on his thin, dry lips. 

Now that you thought about it, this whole set-up resembled gothic horror more than plausible reality. Arthur Kirkland suited the role of antagonist in such a genre too well, with his pallor and sharp angles, with his cynical disposition and skewed morality. What he was saying was just deflection and deception - best not fall for his tricks.

"Don't distract from the topic - we are talking about you and your failings. It has been so long since they have been addressed, and it is time that you get a wake-up call."

"Oh really, need I really remind you how you love to point out my supposed flaws? You do so, so often, and so often you just pull things out of thin air, or exaggerate minor matters, making dragons out of mice. Really, why should I take you seriously? I…”

You crudely interrupted him. It was all becoming too much and your anger was getting the better of you. It was also worse than it usually was when it came to him; today he was getting under your skin in a new, agonising manner. Just when you thought you had him, he just had to kick and hit and wriggle himself out of.

“You should take me seriously, because you are nothing more than a rotten corpse, a shadow of your former glory.”

“And you, should watch your tone. You are even less than my so-called “shadow”.” He interrupted his small triade for dramatic effect, and gripped your chin with a bloodied hand. By now, you were trembling with rage, and had to use the last vestiges of self-control to not explode. You wouldn’t win. 

“I’ve left my permanent mark on history, something you’ve never been able to do. For all that I’ve lost, for all that my current position in the world pales in comparison to my former power, I’m still more than you ever were, ever are and ever will be. 

“You would be absolutely nothing without me; you are only something because of me and even that is less, far less than my shadow. So shut up.”

He released your chin and went back to disembowelling his kill. You were dismissed; the conversation was over.  

[ask-the-pale-elf]

Tav had bought some box of makeup from a little shop,they touched the wooden box it had pretty delicate carvings on the borders and it had the faint scent of honey coming from it. The materials where clearly hight quality and looked luxurious, the old woman from the shop was an expert and chose a box of items that would compliment their skin tone and eyes, her eyes glinting with happiness, she clearly took pride on her trade.

They payed the 200 gold and thanked the shopkeeper and gently put the little box into a bag and wondered back into camp, trying their best to not be seen by anyone, slightly coy at their new purchase. and after not attracting much attention to themselves they changed into the cutes tclothes they had, and started to apply the makeup. most of it wasnt so difficult and they seemed pleased with it, but when they had to add the damned potted lipstick with the brush, they felt defeated as nothing looked right, when they heard someone standing quietly in front of their tent.

"Hello? who is it?" Tav triest their best to sound composed as they take off the lipstick with a damp cloth.

(Im sorry about my english lmao, I hope I didnt mess up too much)

Despite your best efforts to hide your latest purchase, Astarion's perceptive eyes landed on the makeup box you purchased earlier. His interest piqued when you immediately rushed into your tent, it would be oh so selfish of you to keep your find all to yourself. Astarion sought to remedy that.

He leaned his arm against the supporting beam of your tent and looked in, "Darling, I can't believe you kept this from me!"

His faux shock was emphasized by his hand being dramatically placed over his dead heart, "You bought all this makeup and didn't think to invite me? Shame on you!"

After revelling in the fake scandal, he made you scooch over and his nimble fingers hovered over your new collection. Then something else catches his eye, he sees you in your adorable little outfit and your attempts at applying the lipstick, "Oh darling... I. Am. Offended! That you didn't ask me for help. I am the expert on beauty within this camp after all, so.."

He gingerly plucked the potted lipstick from your hands and examined it, "Oh it's been a few decades since I've last used this but... I know exactly how to use this to make you absolutely gorgeous."

He gently pushed you down onto your back and loomed over you, "Don't get the wrong idea, I need a better angle for this. Now close your eyes~"

As you do as he says, you hear the gentle clinking of bottles and feel gentle brush strokes against your skin. If you try to crack one eye open, Astarion scolds you by bapping your eyelid with a dry brush.

The moment he gets off of you, you hear some shuffling within the tent. The moment the shuffling stops, a familiar voice brings you back, "I do hope you're not sleeping, my dear. Open your eyes."

The moment you sit up and open your eyes, you're met with yourself. Your lips delicately painted red, as if they were kissed by a rose. Your eyes accented by black eyeliner also, deepened by eye shadow that complimented your skin. It was subtle yet head turning.

With a mirror in hand facing you, Astarion preened at his latest creation, "I think I've outdone myself, now hold your applause-"

A moment passed and you could feel his impatience emanating through the air, "Don't wait too long, I do love a little appreciation for my work."

[dramavixen]

Chang Heng: The Man Who Deserves to Be a Male Lead, But Absolutely Should Not Be One

(i.e., I found the opportunity to dunk on Ten Miles of Peach Blossom’s Ye Hua after spending far too long harboring a simmering resentment for that giant man baby)

**Spoilers for: Love Between Fairy and Devil and Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms

I was around 19 years old when I watched the renowned xianxia drama 三生三世十里桃花 (Three Lives, Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms, A.K.A. Eternal Love or TMOPB for short). I was smitten with the worldbuilding and music, but especially with the male lead. To this day, Ye Hua holds the crown as one of xianxia’s most beloved characters. Not that he did anything super cool—unless you consider bawling over his dead wife revolutionary.

It was a couple years and many more dramas later that I realized I had been conned. Beneath the pretty tears and fantastic dubbing, Ye Hua represents an absolute disaster of a man, an apocalypse for the poor lady on the receiving end of his heart-eyes. How could I, a supposedly mature adult, have been so blind to his deadly flaws (ironic, given what he does to his wife)?

This epiphany blessed me with an instinctual aversion to the xianxia genre. Everywhere I looked, I could only see the shadow of Ye Hua within the male characters who took up his torch—none of these xianxia men are worth shit. And then I learned that the same often applies to xianxia women. All of them need an intervention.

So when Love Between Fairy and Devil’s Chang Heng graced my screen and started exuding extreme Ye Hua vibes, could you blame me for thinking “oh hell no”? I was not ready to get hurt again. Over the course of the drama, I learned to heal and love again, but because of a single caveat: Chang Heng is destined to never get the girl.

---

The Walking Red Flag

As with all good science experiments, we need to establish the control element. Ye Hua will act as that today. What about Ye Hua is so unforgivable, yet allows him to remain as one of the faces of xianxia?

TMOPB was met with explosive popularity upon its release in 2017 and remains one of the most well-known C-dramas to this day. It’s not a reach to say that its success prompted the wave of xianxia dramas released in its wake, nor to claim that its influence inspired a new formula for the genre’s plot structure. It wasn’t entirely original in concept, but its impact on pop culture shouldn't be understated.

The drama’s primary selling point is the love story between esteemed goddess Bai Qian and Heavenly Crown Prince Ye Hua. Through a series of unfortunate events, Bai Qian loses her memory and powers, becoming the “mortal” Su Su. Ye Hua is the smitten deity who really, really wants to be with Su Su even though their relationship is strictly forbidden due to Reasons That Definitely Exist and Are Valid.

Dramatic irony is also at play. Bai Qian and Ye Hua are betrothed to one another long before they fall in love in the mortal realm, but are unaware that their beloved and their future spouse are one and the same person. Their love is essentially a fated relationship disguised as a wild goose chase.

Once Su Su “dies,” Ye Hua deteriorates into a lovesick shell of himself. His longing, guilt, and grief over her death have since established themselves as the picturesque representation of tragic elements inherent to the xianxia genre. Ever since Ye Hua did it, everyone and their grandmas think it’s the new hip thing to get their lovers killed and then cry over it.

Ye Hua could take one step into my house and I would kick him to the curb, install new locks, and file for a restraining order. I fear this man far more than I fear the typical drama villain. Because imagine what he’d do to someone he hates, if this is what he does to the person he loves:

I’ll give him a pass on some of his early flirting techniques, which includes shenanigans like injuring himself to elicit her care and attention and also sleeping in her bed without her express knowledge. (Off to a promising start, aren’t we?) He's a lovestruck fool, ignorant to proper methods to woo the ladies.

After Su Su takes an interest in him, he tricks her into marrying him. Fine, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. But he doesn’t see anything wrong with marrying her while she’s unaware of his true identity. He doesn’t even pipe up about it after she gets pregnant. Meanwhile, Su Su marries him because she’s lonely and trusts that he’s someone who can always be there for her—you know, like a good spouse tends to be. He is not that.

Ye Hua thinks he can outsmart the heavens with his amoeba brain and tries to fake his own death so he can be with Su Su. He fails miserably.

Su Su finds out who Ye Hua truly is after she’s captured by his Heavenly Lord grandpa, who fully intends on punishing her for their relationship since she’s a “mortal” and easy to bully.

Ye Hua fears that openly expressing his love for Su Su will get her killed. To avoid this, he comes up with the ingenious solution of pulling the whole “I have to treat you like garbage to protect you” bullshit. Dearest Ye Hua, please name me one scenario in any drama where you saw this method working out well enough for you to try it for yourself.

For obvious reasons, Su Su starts doubting that Ye Hua truly loves her. This doubt peaks after manipulative female support character Su Jin accuses Su Su of pushing her off the Zhu Xian Tai (“Fairy-Executing Terrace”) in an attempt to kill her, a plot that results in Su Jin going blind. Ye Hua, in another effort to “protect” Su Su, personally digs out Su Su’s eyeballs as retribution—even though he knows that she didn’t do anything wrong, and even as she sobs and begs him not to do it.

Blind and abandoned, Su Su explores the palace every day through touch and commits its layout to memory. After giving birth to her son, she uses that knowledge, finding and leaping off the Zhu Xian Tai to kill herself.

She doesn’t die, of course. She regains her memories as a goddess, but is so tormented by what she endured that she decides to wipe away the memories of the entire relationship. Then they reunite and fall in love again, yada yada yada.

All of that content makes for great angst. I still need a tissue box or two to make it through the episode where Su Su throws herself off the Zhu Xian Tai. If anything, my frustration toward Ye Hua makes me cry even harder because goodness, the audacity of this asshole. He acts purely out of selfishness, desiring to keep Su Su at his side at any cost, even if she’s the one paying it. This isn’t to say that Ye Hua gets off scot-free. He also willingly takes punishments in Su Su’s stead and wants to follow her after she dies. But so what? Does his suffering reduce Su Su’s pain at all? Does that change any of what he does to her? And he doesn’t even get her eyes back for her afterward; she has to do it herself!

What makes Ye Hua truly irredeemable in my eyes is that he still ends up with Bai Qian. Her forgiveness is only natural, as her love for him exceeds her hate. That sounds romantic, but only if you ignore how he caused her enough pain for her to prefer death. And even if she forgives him, why does she have to take him back? Unless she so desperately needs a reason to jump off the Zhu Xian Tai again.

While I understand that the show is more marketable when the lead couple has a “happy” ending, it doesn’t sit well with me that that’s the end result for Ye Hua and Bai Qian. Ye Hua expresses remorse, tons of it; otherwise how could so many viewers readily forgive him? But it’s simply not true that once we show enough remorse, we should earn back the things and people we lost. Once some things are over, they’re truly over. If that applies to anyone, it should definitely apply to someone like Ye Hua.

---

Wake Him Up Inside

And so we arrive on the subject of Chang Heng. Oh, Chang Heng. I see his tiny face and I just want to wrap him up in a blanket and feed him s’mores.

Chang Heng’s character shares many foundational similarities with Ye Hua: he crushes on someone while unaware that she’s actually his long-lost fiancée, has too many responsibilities, and struggles to balance those two problems. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if the writers had Ye Hua in mind while creating Chang Heng. Every single word of wisdom he utters is a not-so-subtle jab at Ye Hua’s erring ways. It’s the sweet honey of vindication, I tell you.

Before he gets to that point of self-awareness, Chang Heng treads the same path as Ye Hua. He wipes Xiao Lanhua’s memories of him without her permission. He doesn’t dare reveal his feelings for her because that would be counter to his duties. Even after painstakingly creating medicine to help with her dysfunctional spiritual root, he ends up pretending that he never did such a thing. In his deepest subconscious, he believes his love for Xiao Lanhua is a weakness. The main difference between him and Ye Hua is that Chang Heng has the decency to distance himself beforehand, knowing that he is in no position to have a relationship with her.

Two things prevent Chang Heng from transforming into Ye Hua 2.0: 1) he isn’t the male lead and 2) Dongfang Qingcang’s existence.

Imagine a world in which Chang Heng is the male lead. When Xiao Lanhua is accused of being a traitor, he would almost certainly pull a Ye Hua move and negotiate with his brother. “I know she’s innocent, but I also know that you must punish her, so please just spare her life”—that type of thing. (The reason I think this isn’t just possible but probable is because later in the actual drama, he enthusiastically agrees to a plan in which he and Rong Hao would kill Xiao Lanhua’s body with DFQC trapped inside, and simply build Xiao Lanhua a new shell to live in. Bro, what the hell.) Because Chang Heng doesn’t fully understand how useless he is, that would be the limit of what he can do for her. He would seriously believe that he has no other choice in the matter.

But someone else is the male lead. When DFQC comes along to rescue Xiao Lanhua, there’s no compromise to be had. He’s taking her with him and that’s the end of it. I, for one, have never felt so validated as when DFQC beats Chang Heng to the floor and then just...walks away, like he’s making a stop at the supermarket.

DFQC: Are you going to save her? Or are you going to save your Shuiyuntian?

That someone can behave this way is a major culture shock to Chang Heng. How can someone just do whatever they want? What about rules? Watching DFQC whisk Xiao Lanhua away serves as loudest of wake-up calls: DFQC intends to put Chang Heng in his place, showing him that he does have a choice in the matter. But he can neither defeat DFQC nor abandon his responsibilities. Until he can overcome those obstacles, Xiao Lanhua will always be out of his reach.

While Xiao Lanhua sparks love in Chang Heng with her desire to protect him, DFQC is the one who makes him question his priorities. Exactly what should he be doing that he currently isn’t? How is it possible that he’s a god of war, yet can’t protect the one he loves?

Chang Heng realizes that distancing himself from Xiao Lanhua accomplishes nothing but forcing her further out of reach (proud of him for realizing that one because let’s be honest, we don’t love Chang Heng for his brain cells). He also has an extreme edge to him, so he hops straight over to doing the exact opposite, rebelling against the arbitrary rules of heaven, constantly trying to bring Xiao Lanhua home, and openly expressing his feelings for her. Later, even if it means becoming a mortal, even if it means letting her go to someone else, nothing is off-limits.

---

The Fine Line Between Helplessness and Incompetence

A lot of xianxia plots depend on characters being helpless and subject to the fates. In my childhood memories, xianxia dramas commonly had at least one main character who was a low-ranked human or deity. Bullied and unable to fend for themselves, their journeys to improve themselves and protect what mattered to them were ones that touched and inspired people who could relate to their common identities. These characters aren’t given many choices in such situations, yet they consistently choose to fight back.

This zero-to-hero trope has become less convincing over time as the trend turned into telling the stories of “chosen ones.” There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, except now all of these dramas are trying to convince us that these gods with unlimited power are...powerless. They’re all hero-to-even-bigger-hero tales, if you will.

It’s not impossible for gods to be forced into making certain decisions, but it’s quite rare that a xianxia persuades me into finding it believable. If we look at Ye Hua again, he gets outsmarted by some random woman who's jealous of his wife. He also snubs Su Su to placate an old man. You’re trying to tell me that that’s the best a dragon crown prince can do? If I lived in the heavens, I’d live in fear of a revolution every day if those are the capabilities of my future leader.

When it comes down to it, Ye Hua is not helpless like our heroes of old—he’s incompetent. And it’s hard to sympathize with a guy who loses everything not because outside forces overpower him, but because he himself sucks major ass.

LBFAD, a drama where every one of the three leads is someone of super high rank, is the only xianxia in recent years which puts into perspective how huge power translates into huge responsibility, and why that pushes characters into feeling like things are out of their control. Be it DFQC’s and Chang Heng’s duties to their people or Xiao Lanhua’s destiny to save all life, it’s hard for any of them to decide when to give in and when to rebel against the heavy weight of destiny.

Chang Heng is a pleasant mixture of both helplessness and incompetence. Is it not endearing the way DFQC easily crushes him, yet he still goes flying into enemy territory proclaiming that he’s going to save Xiao Lanhua? I don’t know where his confidence is coming from and I don’t think he does either, but it’s heartwarming to watch him try and fail with flying colors.

When Chang Heng hops over to Cangyan Sea to bring Xiao Lanhua home without a solid plan, DFQC is again the guy to remind Chang Heng that he still needs to do better. Good intentions are a solid starting point, but are worthless if he can’t convert them into something practical.

CH: Xiao Lanhua, is someone threatening you? Do not be afraid. Tell me, and I will protect you.

DFQC!XLH: No one has threatened me, and no one has forced me. [...] I am also no longer the inconsequential lowly spirit that you all take me for, nor am I a traitor or a spy in collusion with the Moon Tribe. I can happily be myself. Compared to my days in Shuiyuntian, when anyone could step all over me, this is over a hundred times better. [...] Suppose that I go back with you. Can you guarantee that you will clear my name from collusion with the Moon Tribe? Suppose that your Lord Yun Zhong insists that he will not pardon me; would you dare go against him? Suppose that he uses that heavenly rule nonsense to ask you and force you; could you promise my safety? Suppose that anyone dares to harm me or blame me; could you reduce them to ashes?

Aside from making Xiao Lanhua understand that Chang Heng’s mainly just a pretty face, this interrogation forces Chang Heng to consider what’s at stake. Protecting Xiao Lanhua and following the rules are mutually exclusive decisions. His struggle to circumvent this issue isn’t trivial, seeing as it’s challenging his entire belief system. But he can either start questioning what he’s capable of, or let Xiao Lanhua get hurt again.

What stands out to me about this interaction is when DFQC also tacks on that Chang Heng “cannot even tell [her] something [she] wants to hear”; that he won’t even claim that he can keep her safe. Maybe I’m just that jaded, but his refusal to tell pretty lies is what I adore about Chang Heng. It’s a matter of life and death, and if he can’t promise her safety, he won’t. If he lies to her and to himself, then he could never become the straight-shooting Chang Heng we all know and love.

DFQC might be his inspiration, but Rong Hao being simultaneously Chang Heng’s best friend (potentially more; oh what could’ve been) and a foil to his character is an enormously overlooked dynamic. Rong Hao frequently tells Chang Heng that they’re the same type of people, that their love for their respective ladies is what corners them into making less-than-optimal decisions. Each time, Chang Heng’s instinct is to rebuff him.

RH: Because the two of us are the same. I have no choice. And you, ultimately, will also have no choice.

CH: You do not have a choice? You chose to conspire with my brother, to disturb matters, to catalyze the three realms’ largest war in the last tens of thousands of years!

Chang Heng’s newfound philosophy is that everyone has a choice. You may be dealt an awful hand, but you can still choose to play or fold. His friend’s decision-making comes off as foolish arrogance to him.

But Rong Hao is right in one respect. They are similar: if Ye Hua represents an alternate universe version of Chang Heng in which DFQC doesn’t exist, then Rong Hao is suffering a version of Chang Heng’s future in which Xiao Lanhua/Xi Yun sacrifices herself for the greater good, yet is forgotten by those she dies for. Chang Heng can remain optimistic because the person he loves is still alive and loved by others. Rong Hao is comparatively hopeless. He can only wait to witness the impending devastation before realizing that the harder choice is oftentimes the better one.

We will never know how Chang Heng would react if in Rong Hao’s exact position. But whatever he would choose to do, he would not absolve himself from responsibility by claiming that he had no other choice. The results may be out of his hands, but the initial choice is what he can decide for himself.

Chang Heng reminds me much more of traditional xianxia protagonists. Every obstacle they face only drives them to seek enough strength to change the status quo. While Chang Heng may never win against DFQC, he’ll keep trying. (Or he’ll convert him into a brother; that works too.) Everyone will say he doesn’t have a choice, but he wants one and he will get one. Ah, my heart is so full. I don’t want perfect characters. I want characters who strive to do better, especially in a world that pushes them down, and he suits that to a tee.

Meanwhile, Ye Hua over here blinds his wife due to...societal expectations? My god. He just keeps getting worse the more that I think about him.

---

I’m Sorry. But At Least I Love You!

There always has to be an arc where the lead couple’s relationship splinters because one party draws back in order to “protect” the other. It’s accompanied by an intentional lack of communication, so the other person thinks that they’ve been left behind. Remember when this trope used to be cool? Yeah, I don’t either. Because it never was.

Ye Hua might have some fun with this, but LBFAD doubles it by making both the male lead and second male lead utilize this strategy: DFQC, in order to force Xiao Lanhua to fall out of love with him and spare her life in the process, and Chang Heng, who refrains from pursuing Xiao Lanhua in the beginning in order to keep her out of his brother’s view.

I’m tempted to be lenient in both cases. DFQC’s predicament is written well enough that he does seem truly out of options in that situation—every possible choice is wrong. He either breaks her heart and she survives, perhaps so he can explain his actions later, or he lets her die. Or, you know. He could communicate like she asked him to, and they could try to find a way out together. Instead she stabs herself. So you know what, no free pass for DFQC, but at least he makes up for it later.

(I have to get another jab at Ye Hua in here. When Xiao Lanhua commits suicide, she does it to save DFQC. It’s an act of love and sacrifice. Su Su literally seeks death out of unadulterated heartbreak and betrayal. Big difference there, huh?)

I mentioned that Chang Heng’s actions are out of responsibility, so it’s hard to fully blame him. At the same time, the reason Chang Heng can’t win over Xiao Lanhua is because he doesn’t act on his feelings until it’s too late. Simply “protecting her” is not enough: people don’t love others in the hopes of being protected. They love someone to walk alongside them through all the good and bad in life, together.

Chang Heng shines in the ending episodes. He still wants to protect Xiao Lanhua, but he also becomes the one person who understands and accepts her own desires. Knowing from experience that acting one-sidedly is but a temporary solution to a much larger issue, he listens to and considers what she wants. When the two tribes are on the brink of war and Xiao Lanhua doesn’t want to return to Shuiyuntian with him, even after learning of her lost identity as the Goddess of Xishan, he respects that. When, as Xi Yun, she confides in him that she’s pretending to not remember DFQC, he is hurt by how cruel she is being to him, but in the end chooses to understand her.

CH: Your life will truly be in danger this time, Xiao Lanhua. I absolutely cannot let you go back there.

XLH: Lord Chang Heng, are you really going to stop me? My lord, you are a god of war. I am merely a plant with a damaged spiritual root. If you insist on stopping me, then there is nothing I can do. But I will definitely not give in.

CH: You will die. Is that right? [...] You and Dongfang Qingcang love one another. You would rather pretend not to know him than to harm him in any capacity. Then what about me? How could you...how could you ask me to marry you and then personally send you off to die? Did you consider me at all?

XLH: Chang Heng...I am sorry.

CH: I do not want any of your ‘sorry’s. You clearly know that what I want is not for you to say sorry. Are you going to tell me that you do not have a choice?

XLH: That is not true. It was me who chose to live with the Goddess of Xishan’s destiny. Chang Heng, you are the only one who can help me.

Oh, Chang Heng. He’s come to his senses, but everyone he loves and respects falls apart. Saving DFQC from his dreamworld, bringing Xiao Lanhua back from the dead, sacrificing Xiao Lanhua, burying his best friend...what a rough schedule. Scratch giving him s’mores, he needs a drink or two.

Everyone in this drama grows into a better version of themselves, but Chang Heng practices the deepest empathy of any of them. To be hurt is to understand others’ pain, and he really does learn to understand.

---

Such is the beautiful tragedy of Chang Heng and his love for Xiao Lanhua. It’s bittersweet that Chang Heng knows to let go, but comforting to recognize that they’re better off not being together. Only with them apart can Chang Heng’s love stay as pure as it is.

Take that, Ye Hua. I’ll admit, I appreciate Ye Hua for showing me the perfect example of a guy that I should not even spare a glance at. Otherwise, Chang Heng supremacy declared; respectfully, please get that other man away from me.

[caliburn-the-sword]

fhh ch35-40

another day another suffering cause of chloe gong lesgo

scarf and sunglasses look?? did miss chloe just reference the superhero disguise gag in the mcu of sunnies, cap and hoodie?? given she marketed the first book as like captain america,,, it's almost defo the case fvksdjfs

just the entire comedy bit about orion's big head fksdnfs

the way rosalind is inching closer and closer to figuring out that phoebe is priest

omg poor phoebe being approached by her mother's men RIGHT after expressing her abandonment issues

i really hope lady hong's men don't bring back rosalind's blood on the knife a sample for her to study and apply to her supersoldiers,,,

PHOEBE YOU IDIOT WHY WOULD YOU GIVE YOURSELF UP OMG

orion pov again. especially interesting now that he's more or less seeing rosalind in action for the first time

nation over everything? nation over everything, but never you, sweetheart. and yet here celia is, almost choosing not to sacrifice communist agents even if it means she can't save oliver, because of her principles, because she doesn't want to lie. god i love celia. stop giving her the hardest battles i can't take it

ROSORION KISS ROSORION KISS

"to hear a proper laugh and store it away in a place no one could ever take from him again." THAT'S SO KAZ BREKKER CORE I'M THROWING UP. HE WOULD HAVE BOTTLED HER LAUGH AND GOTTEN DRUNK ON IT EVERY NIGHT

orion likes to get bitten confirmed. kinky bastard. i love knowing where all those "rosalind bites people" memes were coming from now fksjdhn

orion IS a prettyboy

alisa is such a little shit i love her. you go you funky little cockblocker

phoebe's identity crisis and being three girls at once because of all the faces she puts on, not knowing who the real one is >>> there's a reason she's my favourite character i'm smashing my head against a wall again and again and again until a crack forms and brings down the entire roof of the house on my head

poor phoebe my eyes are actually burning i will NOT cry but my poor girl

"there was no such reality where Phoebe could have stayed in the shadows forever protecting Orion. Eventually, people had to face their own danger." phoebe is totally gonna expose herself at the nationalist base to save oli

SILAS WHAT THE FUCK. I AM GNAWING THROUGH SOLID WOOD AND METAL WITH MY TEETH. WHAT THE FUCK. HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN. I REMEMBER THE SILAS IS A QUADRUPLE AGENT THEORIES. BUT THIS IS WORSE. THIS IS SO MUCH WORSE. HOW COULD HE BE WITH LADY HONG

phoebe's urge to go all priest on her mum for her betrayal -> she's gonna go all priest on silas. i NEED it

delulu is the solulu i will simply believe that silas is quadruple or quintuple agenting rn until it becomes trululu there is no way he's NOT on our side

"Maybe they ran into each other at headquarters," oh they've run into each other alright celia ksjdnfs (coping with humour is the only thing left for me to do without screaming)

hgdjhb i love orion he's such a little guy for enjoying the wires

"Rosalind and Celia may as well start taking turns on whose mission partner went missing." STOPPPP MISS CHLOE THAT'S FUCKING COLD

SILAS YOU MOTHERFUCKER. N O T H I N G ON PHOEBE??? MOTHERFUCKER. I'M FIGHTING HIM I'M FIGHTING HIM I'M FIGHTING HIM HE HAS NO BUSINESS GOING ON ABOUT THE OLI RESCUE AS IF WE WASN'T TAKING BLOOD FOR LADY HONG. AND THIS IS REALLY BOLD CONSIDERING I DON'T EVEN LIKE OLIVER

I HATE DRAMATIC IRONY THIS IS KILLING ME

silas seems genuine but i don't trust him. i fear he's also brainwashed as lady hong's little spy. he was in london with the others for very long. it would let her have eyes and ears in the two major forces in china, nationalists and commies. or maybe lady hong promised phoebe's safety. who knows

the fact that phoebe was called by her name for the entire chapter, only to be called priest at the end?? chills. also i'm dying

SILAS POV. MOTHERFUCKER

THE FACT THAT SILAS SEES THE MOON AS HE DRIVES TO THE NATIONALIST COMPOUND I AM FROTHING AT THE MOUTH

SILAS IS A GUILTY BASTARD HE'S CONSCIOUSLY AWARE OF IT

now celia sees the moon. i want to cry

omg oliver was hallucinating celia. that's almost romantic

oh shit japan is bombing