#I also wanted him to have gorgeous dreadlocks

[the-cooler-kizy-art]

Attempting to design my own Antinous design hehehehe

[mellosdrawings]

The Princes

Ten years later. When marrying a Prince turns a Queen and a Servant into actual Royalties.

Because Vil deserves a real crown and Jamil deserves to be treated better.

NOW I'M GONNA RANT ABOUT MY CHARA DESIGNS CHOICES AND ALL THE DISCOVERIES I MADE WHILE LOOKING FOR REFS! If you only care about art and funny doodles, you can scroll down for a handful of slices of life.

(Don't worry if you can't read my notes, I'm repeating myself better right under this)

Leona

-Lion: As you may know, one of my grievances with Leona is how his hair doesn't look like an actual mane despite being a lion. While I don't want to stray too far from the canon design with the usual drawings, that's the occasion for me to have some fun with a future version. Give that lion a beard and voluminous hair!

-Hair: First, get those bangs out of his face. Despite Leona being very confident, he still has bangs covering his scarred eye. I wanted him to finally own the aspects of him that may be scary to others (his UM, his scar, etc). I actually went with bangs framing his face similar to the ones he had during his Overblot. I wasn't sure whether to give him dreadlocks or curly hair, but I ended up choosing the free curls decorated with some atebas and braids so that Vil could have more fun styling them.

-Eye: Thanks @aria-faye for the idea, I decided to have his eye gradually lose its capacities with time. From a headcanon that, while the eye wasn't directly touched by whatever attack scarred him, the process of healing still had an impact on it and he gradually lost sight in his left eye years after years.

-Body: Not giving him a dad bod (yet, maybe in another ten years), but definitely giving him more voluminous yet casual muscles. Practical muscles with a healthy dose of fat and tissues. Also giving him two full sleeves of tattoos because I decided he should have much more than just his lion tattoo.

-Clothes: Went full Maasai dressing and Kenyan fabrics and beadworks. If you're not familiar with it, please go check it out, it's GORGEOUS!! Crown is beadwork too. He also has one Arabic styled foot jewellery.

Jamil

-Hair: My first order was to remove his double-faced hairstyle and also remove his bangs from his eye. Make him confident enough to show his whole face. Unlike Leona and Vil, he doesn't really want a crown though (he still feels weird about becoming royalty) so instead he uses a braid as crown. Also gave him a little goatee because I like facial hair and Jafar has a beard too.

-Body: He grew up! While he didn't quite catch up with Leona and Vil, he is now closer to their sizes than before, sitting at around 180cm. He kept his breakdancer/martial artist lean muscles but developed a bit of shoulders.

-Clothes: Went full Arabic dressing and fabrics (once more, go check the fabrics, they are pieces of arts). I gave him floral motifs instead of his usual fire/snake motifs (though he does have a snake earring and a fangs necklace) to symbolise his rebirth/blooming. Like Leona, he has one piece of jewellery that is beadwork.

Vil

-Hair: Here it was a bit tricky. Considering Vil's work, he likely changes hairstyles a lot, going from long to short for his roles instead of his wants. So I leaned into the little things he could add to his hair despite their constant changes, mostly jewelleries, beadworks and wool decorations he stole from his husbands. He also cares a bit less about them looking perfect and is allowing himself to be more natural. He doesn't have any facial hair (yet), keeping a youthful appearance for as long as he can. In another ten years though, he might start looking more and more like his father, beard included.

-Clothes: For Leona and Jamil's mental states, the three of them most likely started living in Sunset Savanna so they wouldn't freeze to death. Vil is well traveled so he can handle most temperatures without trouble, and he is used to dressing up in the local get ups. Here I decided to give him both African dress and Arabic fabric, and likewise both beadwork and golden jewellery. I gave him crown and heart motifs so he can keep being himself despite borrowing a lot from his husbands.

There, I'm done rambling. Here's some doodles, followed by some random headcanons.

-Vil does his husbands hair every morning and keeps giving them more and more intricate hairstyles. He developed a whole haircare and beard-care products set for them.

-When Vil is away for a movie, Jamil keeps his hair mostly down save for a few accessories.

-Jamil and Falena get along surprisingly well (to Leona's despair). Vil gets along very well with Falena's wife.

-Jamil acts as a Scalding Sands ambassador and still is the one to care for Kalim when he comes to visit, though this time he's doing it because he wants to and not because he has to.

-Vil got used to his new title immediately but Jamil struggles with it a lot. He still has a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that he is no longer a servant.

-The servants at the palace love Jamil because he always makes their job easier.

-Leona finally decided to put his wits to good use and became Falena's advisor. He still fights a lot with Kifaji about the direction to take with the country, but he managed to make some of his ideas heard to help with the staggering inequalities in the country.

That's all for now!

[carboardserpent]

Next gen headcanons? 🤔

Like, Jackson, Cruz, Tim, Danny, Chase, and Ryan?

Oh boy, that's a few characters. Alright, strap in then. Probably also gonna throw in Bubba because he's my favourite non-main next gen <3

(Humanised, as always)

(Quick disclaimer for this one, none of these are supposed to reflect on the irl racers that gave their names and voices to them - I'm treating these characters as though they're entirely fictional and not based on/inspired by real people. I make my HCs literally just based on Vibes (and RPs))

Jackson Storm:

6'1 and fit AF. Clearly spends a lot of time in the gym toning his body and muscles. He is male model levels of gorgeous. Physically flawless black man <3

Short black dreadlocks dyed blue at the ends.

Aromantic (female-leaning)bisexual.

Autistic.

Ray knew he was autistic before Jackson even knew himself, and is the reason he even got diagnosed in the first place.

One of his most common complaints is still about the reflections of the sun glinting in his eyes. The loud noise of the track still gets to him occasionally, but he has special earplugs to help him deal with it.

Can usually be seen drinking a can of IGNTR's flagship energy drink before a race. It helps him calm down and focus in. His sponsors love it, for obvious reasons.

Any time he's on camera, he acts calm and cool but internally he's freaking out. If they ask something he doesn't expect, he visibly tenses up and flounders for a second as he tries to figure out what to say, even if it was a simple question.

Doesn't do fan meets or signings unless he absolutely has to. Even then he tries everything he can to get out of them.

His physical attractiveness makes his already poor attitude even worse. Doesn't know how to talk to people, but gets all the praise and attention he could ever want online.

Yes, he posts photos of himself on various social media. He wasn't sure at first, but Ray convinced him to start shortly after his debut race, hoping that it would help reassure him and give him a bit of a confidence boost. Naturally, it went a little TOO well...

He's a gamer through and through. In any downtime he gets, he's still topping the leaderboards on just about every popular racing game you can play online. He also enjoys the occasional game of CoD and will verbally rip anyone to shreds if they try to come at him.

DUBSTEP. He loves it. If his skull isn't rattling from absolutely filthy, grimy bass, he's not interested.

So, of course, he has to have an incredible sound system that's probably worth more than the average person's car.

He doesn't watch anime. (Stop asking him if he does) Most of his entertainment comes from Twitch streams.

He streams himself playing Super Corsa 4 any chance he gets. Which isn't often with the packed NASCAR schedule, but he tries his best. His user is UrStormChasing

Still doesn't get along with Tim after their rivalry in training and isn't very good at pretending he does either. Their crew chiefs have to make deliberate efforts to stop them from running into each other before they get into their cars.

Cruz Ramirez:

5'5 with an athletic build. She is a Latina woman with visible abs and she deserves them gdi.

Side-parted brown hair a little shorter than jaw length, perpetually kinda wild looking.

Chaotic lesbian hours!

ADHD

Literally cannot sleep at night without a big, milky mug of coffee.

It's not normal to wake up and go for a run before even having breakfast?

She's teaching Lightning to use social media more regularly (for better or for worse). His homework is to send her a funny meme or video that he found that week.

The result of this can sometimes be catastrophic. She'll never be able to unhear him uncertainly attempting to use outdated slang.

Almost every race, there's someone complaining about how she doesn't weigh enough and it's unfair to the rest of them. So she forces them to watch as race officials put extra weights in her car.

Has cussed Danny out in Spanish across Pit Road and will do it again if he carries on-

Is probably the only person on Team Dinoco that is actually nice to Cal and doesn't try to tease him. They get along well.

Tim Treadless:

6'0 with a broad frame and light muscle tone.

Tanned skin and tousled brown hair.

Straight ally.

Just call him Mr. Charismatic, everyone loves him.

Everyone except Jackson, that is. Jackson is the only person who brings out his anger to the point of wanting to throw hands.

Has a wife and a baby, bc of course he does.

One of those guys some people hate for being irritatingly perfect. Usually people that don't actually know him.

Has type 1 diabetes and a bad nut allergy.

Was pulled out of a race at the last minute when he went into anaphylactic shock - the entire race was almost stopped when people started to whisper that it was foul play. The race went on, but the only reason for Treadless' absence was that he had to be pulled for "unforseen medical issues".

Some of the other racers still blame Jackson, who actually had nothing to do with it.

Danny Swervez:

5'10 and fairly slender. Not a lot of bulk to him.

Tanned skin (he's Latino) and short black hair.

Cishet male.

This man is FULL of himself. What an attitude.

Genuinely a good racer, but not many people like him.

He's not a good guy. He's given Cruz some trouble for being a woman, though after she embarrassed him by publicly cussing him out in Spanish, he's learned to keep his unpopular opinions on her to himself.

Isn't exactly what we would call "faithful".

But hey, at least he doesn't cheat on the track (smh)

Has just as little respect for the older racers as Jackson, but is less vocal about it.

Is very bitter about Jackson and Tim being more popular than him, yet still does nothing to change himself for the better.

Has at least attempted to physically fight with other drivers that messed with him on the track several times.

Chase Racelott:

5'9 with a build somewhere between Danny and Tim.

Pale skin and dirty-blonde hair.

Straight ally.

Generally a pretty likeable guy. Not as well-loved as Tim, but he has a good amount of pretty dedicated fans.

Makes jokes about being single/available.

Has pretty average performance on the track, not great, but not poor.

Fairly high energy, he gets along well with Cruz.

Probably one of the best with kids. Has a lot of younger fans because of how he interacts with them during meets and signings.

One of the few who will try not to leave until he's spoken to every fan who wanted to meet him, no matter how long it takes.

Often seen hanging around with Ryan - the two of them cause some pretty good natured trouble together, often involving pranks on the other racers.

Ryan "Inside" Laney:

5'11 with a broad build similar to Tim.

Mixed race (¾ Caucasian, ¼ African American), with short black hair.

Closeted bisexual.

Friendly, but not really a standout character as far as the fans are concerned.

Kind of cocky, but in a cool way.

Has a girlfriend who travels with him.

Agent of chaos when he spends too much time with Chase. Don't turn your back on him.

Bubba Wheelhouse

Absolutely massive 6'2 gentle giant

Another gorgeous black man (fight me), his skin tone isn't quite as dark as Jackson's

Closeted homosexual

Has a fake relationship with a lesbian woman who's actually just his best friend (the racing world is scary and the US South probably wouldn't love an openly gay driver)

Kids ADORE him. Him and Chase are the drivers with the most kid fans.

Throws a football around with fans over the catch fence during rain delays (this one is based on the real Bubba Wallace bc its wholesome af)

Gets asked all the weird gay questions by everyone in the friend group. (Ex. "Is it gay if...?" "What is X actually like?")

Legit just trying to mind his own business, he doesn't want any part of drama or rivalries.

Occasionally finds himself roped into girl talk if the guys have their S/Os around. They're very excited to include him. He's too polite to decline.

[paradox-the-unimpressed-nun]

🍓My demon slayer headcannons (because everyone obviously wanted to know)

🍓Little warning some of these are suggestive also prob finna make a part 2

⋆⸜ ⚘ ⸝⋆ .* ⚘ ⋆*⋆⸜ ⚘ ⸝⋆ .* ⚘ ⋆*⋆⸜ ⚘ ⸝⋆ .* ⚘ ⋆*

🍓Muzan prefers his female form. I think he absolutely loves when people dote on him. Constantly gets called gorgeous or beautiful by all types of people. Also he likes to dress up, painting her nails picking out a dress putting on makeup. Her lipstick always matches her nails, her signature colors are red and blue

🍓 Fem!muzan is apart of the itty bitty titty community

🍓Kokushibou is trans. I explain in this post why I believe this

🍓Kokushibou reads story’s to yoriichi. I don’t think yoriichis parents ever bothered to teach him how to read so kokushibou reads to him.

🍓kokushibou and Yoriichi are black. Koku has dreadlocks, he likes to add charms to his hair. Yoriichi has big curls. But occasionally koku will braid Yoriichi hair- he just wants to be like his big bro

🍓 Yoriichi is autistic, he struggles with understand peoples emotions (like facial expressions) and ask people how they are feeling to know

🍓Kokushibou eats human food- the even though he will throw up.

🍓 Akaza has a soft spot for single mothers and old women. He will help elderly make their way home, he likes to chat. (Btw he canonically likes to talk to people)

🍓in the data book it’s stated douma likes hookah, alcohol and dancing. He lets people he likes smoke with him, He offered kotoha.

🍓Douma is pan but he has a preference for women. I also think he’s ace

🍓 Douma prefers to wear clothing that doesn’t show much skin. He mainly wears turtle necks- his swim wear is long sleeves or straight up wet suit.

🍓 douma WAS blonde but turned white due to stress (inosuke is giving him a hard time)

🍓Obanai learned how to make western style food for mitsuri. Her favorite is pasta- she’s a messy eater

🍓obanai also buys themed socks for mitsuri for every holiday 

🍓Genya has a big FAT crush on tanjiro (that canon can’t change my mind) which he try’s and fails to hide from tanjiro. “Genya you don’t have to be shy I have a crush on you to!” “Shut up! I don’t have a crush on you Leave me alone!!” He learned that from his brother

🍓Giyuu and Sanemi sneak away for ohagi, Sanemi is incredibly secretive with their relationship-though the others all know.

🍓Tengen invites Rengoku over on Sundays to paint his nails with his wives. They’ll spend hours painting them just for him to wash it off (his dad dose not like nail polish on boys)

[pasta-in-the-pudding]

OMG OPEN INBOX I THINK??? SO EXCITED!!!! COULD YOU MAYBE TALK ABOUT THE PUPPETEER OR HELEN,,, MAYBE TOGETHER POSSIBLY X3

RAHHH I NEVER GET TO WRITE FOR THESE STINKERS BUT I LOVE THEM SO MUCH <333

Thank you so much for requesting!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

General headcanons!

The puppeteer

He's around 5'10

Im kind of 50/50 on his sexuality, I'd like to say hes bi, but idk i feel like hes straight

We'll go bi with a fem lean

Pronouns are he/him, he's cis

He's american

His aesthetic is a mix of grunge and mall goth

I feel like he'd be a vengeful spirit/ghost

He likes to pretend he's moved on from that first girl, but he really hasn't

He died at age 21, and would be around 26 if he would have continued aging

But due to him not letting go of that "unfinished buisness" he hasn't aged

He smells like general cologne and maybe a tiny bit of laundry detergent

He's kinda lanky and thin

Hes kind of annoying tbh

Soooo whiney and mopey omg

"If i never would have died I might've found someone new 😭 she took everything away from me 😔😔😔"

"Dude stfu im literally just trying to get some soda" -jeff probably

His proxy tattoo is on his right shoulder

He's supringly really clean

Literally everything else about him is fine, he's just a major bummer to be around

and also kind of an incel

His hobbies include listening to midwest emo bands, writing "poetry" and watching south park

Occasionally you'll see him warming up some pizza bagels and he'll try to pretend he's all mysterious and such a bad boy by shimmying away

Im going to be so for real with you, he probably idolizes jeff and tim

Theyre just so manly 😱😱

Also really wants what bella and edward have

Can you guess which one he wants to be in that situation?

Thats right!! Its edward!!

Like i said, incel

The bloody painter

He's 5'8

He doesn't really take a romantic interest in people, so most of the time I'd say he's aroace

But idk man, theres something in the way he looks at men and constantly draws them thats a little...💅...yk?

Like he'd never want to actually have a relationship with anyone, or engage in any physical intimacy with anyone, he just thinks that the male figure is especially beautiful

Pronouns are they/he, poor dude has had soooo many identity crises

The conclusion he came to was that he doesnt mind being a boy, he DEFINETLY does not wanna be a girl, but he does like expressing his gender with more fluidity

He's 22 years old, and he's french

He has a really heavy french accent, and pnly really speaks english when needed

He has an obsession with circle shaped choclate

Specifically circle shaped

He is kind of skinny, with long fingers

He smells like rose petal deoderant, paint and fresh cotton

His proxy tattoo is on the back of his neck

He also has a little star tattoo on his wrist

I feel like he'd be very in love with the idea of multimedia art pieces

He wants to make a fashion line someday, he just needs to learn how to sew

He has his very own art studio on the first floor of the manor, the walls are completely windowed and there is canvases and unfinished works everywhere

He's generally very quiet and observant, only speaking when spoken to

His few friends include jane, liu, and ej

His relationship with ej is complicated though

He wants to be his friend but also....he is in LOVE with his structure

Ej has such a perfect face shape for and pil painting, combined with his gorgeous skin tones and dreadlocks that frame his face oh so beautifully??

Mwah. Chefs kiss

But will helen ever admit that? Nope

He has a little bird he's named "eros"

Such a silly little dude <333

ALSO HE HAS LOTS OF TRAUMA SURROUNDING BEING FEMININE AND GENDER ILL ONLG ELABORATW IF PEOPLE WANT ME TO TJOUGJ

[mitamicah]

Spoilers for The Owl House 3.03 Watching and Dreaming

Okay so .... I have a lot of words about this episode!

Since I’ve just watched it don’t expect anything here to be cohesive since I am basically just ranting from memory and getting all my thoughts down in writing. No profound meaning behind everything here, just vibes :’D

The Collector - their mini arc in the episode and having them learn to appreciate life, forgiveness and friendship was such a treat - I screamed and actually feared for their life when they ran to Belos then to scream at Luz breaking apart (dying) afterwards - I had no idea this was the way the crew would go with the collector but I loved it

Belos - fucking hell, I am glad he finally died!! I am a little sad that we didn’t get more of his backstory with Caleb but I think what we did get about Belos especially though the words of the titan to Luz in the inbetween fits well with the story and gives closure to Luz and her doubts about being as ‘bad as Belos’. Also him melting in the boiling rain and Luz being over him to the point of not even flinching when Belos tries to manipulate her? Good stuff!! So was the call back to the first episode with the Good Witch Luz pulling Belos off the dying heart of the titan!!

The dream sequences ... I actually thought those and the games would take up more screentime but I am not too sad about it since what we got was pretty much just as angst as I’d thought it would be - and giving time to Raine being badass resisting Belos and Luz meeting the titan was a far trade off for me

I did get some Amphibia the Hardest Thing vibes from the Luz meeting a deity in the in-between after “death” only to get back to life bit but again I don’t mind it since it ended in a pretty badass finale seeing Luz, King and Eda fight side by side 

Seeing the rest of the Hexside squad helping to free the other inhabitants of the Boiling Isles with the help of best mom Camila was pretty fun although a part of me had wanted to see them have a bigger impact on the story: still, it was nice checking in with them once and twice and gosh I adored Amity for being the first to genuinely giving up her hand of friendship to the collector after Luz has just told them about friendship - it was a perfect moment in my mind.

The scenes of people meeting up with their family was so sweet - I enjoyed it a lot especially with Hunter getting his found family in Darius and Ebberwolf :3

Yet to me the real beauty was the epilogue - seeing all the different ways that the peeps on Earth and the boiling Isles have grown up and their new looks! I love Luz’ eyeshadow, and gah, Vee’s piercings look so cool!!! (I wonder if the nose piercing is a nod to the voice actor also being the voice of Amethyst? I believe she had a nosering  (Amethyst?)? I could be wrong, this is literally my unhinged, first thoughts written down unedited) - Willow being a badass sports girlie fits so well and I love the short hair for her, Gus looks incredible with those gold accessories in his dreadlocks, and Amity as a badass air explorer with a sidecut? Hello!!!? Hunter is killing me being this adorable taking up the mantle as apprentice of Dell and aaaaa the blue bird is gorgeous and somehow fits Hunter so well :’D what really killed me about him tho was two fold 1) Flapjack’s grave and 2) the red thing on Hunter’s arm that king of sort of looks like a Flapjack tattoo to cover up his empire coven sigil OVO

And then hello white haired Raine!? Why do they slay with that haircolour and the ‘tear down’ scars!? this look fits them so well, and I am so happy seeing them together with Eda, finally :’3

The ending sequence with the collector sending the fireworks and all the casts saying “Bye” feels like the biggest nod to the fans - thank you so much Dana, the crew, the cast, the animators, everybody for this wonderful show!!

[thesinglesjukebox]

NOAH KAHAN - "STICK SEASON"

Just to be clear, this post was *not* sponsored by the Vermont Tourism Board... [5.10]

Hannah Jocelyn: Noah Kahan snuck up on me -- I first wondered why Ruston Kelly was opening for this guy who I'd never heard of before. I heard a couple of his songs, they were fine! So I ignored him. Suddenly, last year, a friend (a songwriter herself) was complaining about him, asking "What does the 'season of the sticks' even MEAN?" And from then on, he was everywhere, the same way Ed Sheeran was genuinely grassroots a decade ago before he became the eldritch pop horror he is now. Sheeran and Mumford & Sons ultimately gave us the indie folk of Boygenius and co., as well as Taylor Swift's own forays into indie, all of which I either love or respect. I go to open mics and concerts often, and it's a lot of empowered non-men leading the charge; even the guys I see make more interesting music than "I'm so sad, I'm so fucked up."  And now the pendulum's swinging, so now we are back at WGWAGs, and they don't even have the slick production of the Mumfords. I am not afraid of Noah Kahan; this song just sounds like the banality of fuckboys. I am more afraid of everyone following in his footsteps. Bonus point for actually mentioning COVID, though. [5]

Jacob Satter: Back when they were riding the wave of stardom for the first time, I bought tickets to see Counting Crows and a pre-dreadlocked Adam Duritz was going through it. He spent most of the show baffling the audience by lying flat on his back at center stage, talk-singing his way through August and Everything After, genuinely unable to look success in the eye. I take this trip down memory lane to clarify that when I say that every generation gets the self-actualizing folk dorkery it deserves, I'm not exculpating X while side-eying any COVID-worn millennials who embrace Mr. More-Mumford-Than-Mumford here for their mental balm. [3]

Dave Moore: I can google "is Noah Kahan related to Marcus Mumford" (no) but I can't google "do I hate Mumford and Sons" because despite remembering making fun of and claiming I hated Mumford and Sons at the time, I never wrote anything about them. Now that nothing else really sounds like this, I don't mind it so much. [6]

Leah Isobel: At least Mumford & Sons had the showmanship to drop an f-bomb in the midst of their self-regarding self-flagellation. What does Noah have? The word al-co-hol, leaden and imprecise and sung like it's an unbelievable blasphemy? Grow some balls, dude. [3]

Alfred Soto: He's so earnest that he acknowledges a drinkin' problem and the existence of COVID-19 and must sing as if he wants Mike Posner to sell him a pill to take in Vermont. [3]

Thomas Inskeep: His voice just oozes earnestness, and no, that's not a good thing. But strummy guitar guys never entirely go out of style, do they? If his success makes a Lumineers comeback happen, I swear to God… [3]

Lauren Gilbert: Yes, I could write a snarky review that this is a song for girls who haven't yet left their Folklore era.  And that's true enough; it's a pretty standard folk pop, with too many words pressed into too few lines, the murmurings of someone who spends entirely too much time in their head.  But it's also a pretty good instance of the form.  It has more of a hook than Bridgers, and it's less likely to put me to sleep than Clairo.  And it does feel like the season of the sticks -- like driving my parents' car through the hills of Virginia, dark, leafless trees silhouetted against a grey, featureless sky, thinking only of the person not sitting in the passenger seat. [7]

Mark Sinker: What if “season of the sticks” but it’s good not bad? (It’s such a gorgeous phrase to attempt to use as a negative… ) Plus Noah’s breath control seems kind of terrible -- the snatch at air plus his kinda squeaky voice makes him seem way younger than he even is (which is already way young), and sorry teens but that really dilutes the resigned agony he’s going for here. [6]

Taylor Alatorre: "I've been called the Jewish Ed Sheeran," says Noah Kahan on stage, with apparent regularity. Cheap heat, sure, but it's also self-deprecation as brand-building, aimed at propping up a certain persona by playfully prodding at the weaker and more exposed parts of it -- and suddenly I'm not just describing the stage banter but also the music itself. Kahan spent much of the last year collecting enough guest artist remixes for an unplugged No.6 Collaborations Project, but one of the few Stick Season songs to remain untouched by this process was the title track, which says something about it. It says that this is the anthem, the legacy definer; this is his own private Vermont, and no one but him (and a sold-out arena crowd, inshallah) can ever do it justice. With some reservations, it's deserving of this pedestal. And no, those reservations have not the slightest to do with Mumford & Sons, who are overdue to be treated as a normal, middling rock band and not a portentous class enemy. When teenage Mumford fans were listening to "Hopeless Wanderer" back in 2012, I imagine many of them were playing in their heads the kind of diaristic scenarios that Kahan sings about here, replacing grandiose Biblical allusions with only slightly less grandiose relationship angst. That was always the correct reading, and one can't fault Kahan for opting to cut out the middleman between his and his audience's experiences. "COVID on the planes" is the line that most loudly announces this isn't your father's indie folk, and it's the kind of lyric whose currency will only grow with time, like the transistor radio in "Brown Eyed Girl" or the satellite radio in "Sequestered in Memphis." At the other end of the realist-romantic spectrum, there's "might not have but I did not lose," a waist-deep k?an that's perfectly befitting of a future dorm room staple. Also fitting the dorm room vibe, less fortunately, is the way the phrasing in the chorus is awkwardly chopped up so as to min-max its drunk singalong value, with the line about alcohol of course being the worst offender. It's a testament to Kahan's affability that I want to forgive his more sophomoric tics -- I mean, who wants to be the one to interrupt a drunk singalong? [7]

Nortey Dowuona: When did Noah Kahan develop talent, and why wasn't it with Joel Little? [9]

Joshua Lu: "Stick Season" starts off as a earnestly mopey torch song, with a steady stream of metaphors and rhymes about his post-breakup blues. The causes and effects of this despair are presented straightforwardly, earning an almost comical feeling: the mom forgetting about him entirely, the excessive drug and alcohol use, his victim complex. It's in the second verse, though, that the song takes an interesting turn into self-reflection: "So I thought that if I piled something good on all my bad / That I could cancel out the darkness I inherited from Dad." That same chorus rings differently in this new light, creating an image of a once-fixed man who has returned to his broken default nature, and whose internal sadness was only buried, not cured, by being with the one he loved. There's something quietly devastating about how resigned he is to his fate -- how he knows that he can't heal his pain, only dampen it with the memory of a time when he couldn't feel it. [8]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: A [2] or an [8] depending on how much this alerts your anti-Mumford and Sons or anti-Lewis Capaldi radar, and whether or not you have a soft spot for self-deprecating white men telling jokes and making confessions at their own expense. We’ll skew higher since this has aged surprisingly well. [7]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: I’ve heard this around seven times and I’m not exactly sure what he’s singing about, but I like the texture of his words as they spill out of his mouth. Kahan will let a syllable last just a bit longer or shorter than I expect, all while singing fast enough that he feels like he’s uninterested in easy signifiers of the contemplative. The banjo feels like a cheap way to keep the song interesting; he doesn’t need it when every guitar strum is so propulsive. [5]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Loses me after that banjo riff comes in two thirds of the way through. Everything before that is charmingly middling, everything after makes me want to place the entirety of New England under cordon sanitaire. [2]

Will Rivitz: I also love Vermont, having grown up just outside of Boston, and have to admit Kahan's bitter and self-deprecating narcissism quite poignantly encapsulates the sense of drifting listlessly and peevishly through New England's dreary December, mired in one's own solitude and the inexorably self-centered trappings that accompany it. His lyrical acumen is, however, not quite sharp enough to justify exhuming the stomp clap hey brouhaha previously left to rot alongside the word "hipster" a decade ago. If he thinks it appropriate to hire a mandolinist, maybe you were right to break up with him. [4]

Rachel Saywitz: “Stick Season” is a haunting masterpiece, and a triumph for Noah Kahan -- with just a folkloric guitar, illuminating banjo, and a steady kick drum, he traces a love lost with a traveler’s bent and a timeless seasonal metaphor. Wait, this song takes place in Vermont? Wait, he’s American? I can feel the spell breaking, the cloudy haze over my eyes that always appears when I’m listening to mediocre folk-pop by European singers is dissipating. Okay, sorry. Back to normal now. Going to review this again. “Stick Season” is some Lumineers-ass sounding shit. Grow up, stop being a whiny lovesick boy, and pick up an English accent! [4]

Ian Mathers: I'm so pissed that 1. "stick season" is not a reference to hockey which part of my brain irrationally insisted it was; 2. this tweet no longer applies to me. I gave that up for something that's just deeply mediocre, not even entertainingly bad. That the Olivia Rodrigo cover is… fine indicates my problem is less with the song (not bad, kinda standard) and more with Kahan's excruciating indie folk dude presentation. [4]

Will Adams: Outside of a terribly dull EDM feature, I had not heard a single note of Noah Kahan's music until now, so every time I saw his name I would think, "Oh, he does that one song, like 'lady, running down to the riptide, da-da-da'" before correcting myself. Listening to "Stick Season," I wasn't far off: anodyne stomp-clap folk complete with banjo. Instead of a rousing singalong, however, we get a winter doldrum mope-fest where the more a clever line is repeated, the less clever it seems. [4]

Katherine St. Asaph: Big junior-year busker energy. I hope the quad found "once you called me forever, now you still can't call me back" as clever as he does. [4]

Isabel Cole: Mumford-lite, nasal whine, uninspired lyrics: sure. And I, who tend towards particular indifference in the face of men with their guitars, should of all people be somewhere between immune and repelled. But this one fucking got me, I don’t know. There’s something about the unrelenting quickness of the verses, the way it slips heedlessly along axes of register and mood and scope: from the mannered poetry of “all the miles combined” to the indignantly conversational “like halfway through the drive,” from self-pity to self-recrimination, from daddy issues to drinking the pain away. It plunges into melodrama -- “I’m terrified of weather” -- and pivots to a gag, funny enough and also true, about air travel in the era of COVID. He says he’s stuck, and I believe him not because of that line but precisely because the song refuses to alight on any particular complaint for long.

That’s what it’s like sometimes, when you’re in the long process of reconfiguring your life around an absence you never planned for. You scrabble for purchase amidst the concrete and specific, saying all the useless sayable things because the whole truth defies articulation. Your petty irritations and psychological fault lines alike draw you right back into the vortex. You do see him in the weather, which is a way of saying you see him everywhere, and also that you never realized your block had a particular smell in spring until one April morning you found yourself thinking of him and realized it had been a year. You dream a version of him and wake up unnerved and you don’t know if what disturbed you was what the dream got wrong or what the dream got right. You can’t believe you can't talk to him when your uncle dies and when #FreeBritney goes mainstream and every time Marvel puts out a new terrible movie, and in the peculiar gravity of loss these things feel somehow equally consequential.

You wash the dishes and listen to a song that rattles off all these different ways to miss someone and you wonder how long he’ll be the person this type of song makes you think of, and you think about how much he would hate it, how mean he would be about Noah Kahan’s hair, how you have to look up every time if it’s Noah or Noel but you’re still crying at the kitchen sink, how much of your taste was his taste first, how you lost two people, really, because he took with him the person you were when he was here. I am no longer funny, ‘cause I miss the way you laugh. Your head says this is a generous [5], that it’s neither special nor smart enough to quit while it’s ahead, that while the line about being half a heart is trite but serviceable, the clarification of “the other half was you” is unforgivable, truly, taking you out of the song every time. Your heart thinks that so many of the funniest things you’ve ever said were things you only said because he was listening. Noah, not Noel, drops the strumming to sing that line about Vermont one more time and in the emptiness around him you can almost hear the whistling northern wind, the sound of a world turned brittle and cold. Stupid. These fucking songs always do that. It’ll be four years come April. You put the dish in the rack and wipe your eyes with your wrist and before you pick up another dirty plate you hit play one more time. [8]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

[earthenhollow]

Drago Bludvist: my one problem with How To Train Your Dragon 2

I love the How To Train Your Dragon (Httyd) stories in all its endeavors.

The shows, the movies, the fan made community, the art, it’s all been a very important part of my life. I started watching the shows and movies in my childhood, and am now rewatching the movies and joining the fandom as I grow older. It brings me joy in all aspects.

However. Both despite and because it’s a media I so much adore, I do not want to overlook its issues.

Or more specifically, one issue.

Drago Bludvist.

Goodness gracious I love this man’s design.

If you don’t know, Drago Bludvist is the main villain in Httyd 2. He is described as a “cruel, ruthless and twisted warlord whose main goal is to conquer the world with his enormous army of both humans and dragons. He is feared by all and destroys anyone who gets in his way.” By howtotrainyourdragon.fandom.com

Drago is a gorgeous example of good character design in my books. A tall, broad, imposing figure helped out by his asymmetrical dragon skin cloak. Light amounts of armor cover his exposed side, and beneath his dragon skin cloak is his prosthetic metal arm. His main weapon we see him use is his bullhook (something found in real life, it looks like a cross between a spear and a metal hook). Drago does use his spear in fighting, but we mostly see him using it to control the Bewilderbeast. (A huge dragon known to be the “alpha species” of all dragons. It’s integral to this movies plot as both the protagonists and antagonists each have a Bewilderbeast on their team.)

Drago has backstory, mystery, character history, motive, a good outfit, a powerful army, and challenges both the protagonists physical strength and the strength of their integrity. He is the opposite of Berk’s fairly new-found beliefs of dragon-human-harmony, and has a lot of dangerous power and therefor influence to back those ideas up.

But then where’s the problem?

The problem is that he is the only character in the whole first and second movies (to my knowledge) who isn’t white. Or at the very least is designed with physical traits of non white people. A list of examples; he has an olive skin tone, curly black hair and beard that he wears in dreadlocks, a dramatically hooked nose, and is voiced by Djimon Hounsou, who is one of if not the only black voice actor for the characters. So yes, he looks badass with his scars and deep voice and intimidating attitude, but they could have achieved this without designing his physical character this way.

Having more diversity in Httyd would not be a problem. If the producers had chosen to add more ethnic or racial diversity to characters, awesome! The series is set in what seems to be a land of white Vikings (nearly all characters with red, brown, or blond hair), but it’s also fantasy where they have dragons and flaming swords, there is no reason sticking to that detail should be important.

But they didn’t. The important thing is that they designed one character this way. The important thing is which character it is. The important thing is that they only designed a character like this when it was the big evil villain of the movie.

I get the “oh the unknown is scary.” With someone like Drago Bludvist who is meant to hold mystery, using his “from another land” background is a good reason as to why we haven’t heard about him before. As described in the movie, Drago is seen as “a stranger, from a strange land. Covered in scars and draped in a cloak of dragon skin.“

In my mind there were two good ways to make new character designs work in Httyd 2. One, follow the form of the first movie and have everyone be some form of white Viking. This would continue following with the last movie as all the characters we met for this description. Two, diversity in all sides of the characters. Show that it’s not important to this movies plot to make your characters different races and cultures, affecting protagonists and antagonists alike. It being a movie to be enjoyed by kids and adults, there’s no harm in going into the second movie with the mindset of “hey, we know this concept works now, there’s no harm in making our characters more diverse because it’s not the sole point of the story, and it will reflect the diversity of our watchers more.”

However they chose to do neither. And made a badass character whom I love, but cannot ignore that the designers made Drago a standout unnecessarily.

Were I designing him, I would not take away these traits. I would not redesign him without dreadlocks, the stylish beads in his beard, his intimidating personality or his role as the villain. But to do this successfully you need to look at the design of your protagonists too. Think, “who is getting an strong accent? Who is seen differently because of where they came from? Who is being seen differently because of how they look?” And if the answer to that is always the villains, then you’re doing something wrong.

And that could be that. It’s about where my knowledge of the series ends, and thus most of my critiques. I’ve watched most parts of the third Httyd movie but not all of it, so my takes on it are less rounded. But I couldn’t help but notice when watching what parts I did…

Huh. The villain Grimmel the Grisly. Wow. I mean. They did it again. They didn’t do as much physical design coding... But. He’s one of the only main characters they gave a heavy accent (again) and an implied different ethnicity (again). To me it felt like he had less personality than Httyd 2’s villain, so I preferred Drago, but he was a stylishly designed man with stark white hair and an impatient attitude. That kind of villain can be fun for a lot of people and I get that. The fact that it’s only the villains being designed as anything but blond-red-brown haired white Vikings is a problem.

And hey. It might only be one problem with the series but it is a big one, and I’d hope it doesn’t become any more of a pattern.

To conclude; go fan over Drago Bludvist, hate him as a person whilst loving his character, notice the lack of diversity in films, and if you’re an aspiring film maker then start taking your own notes of how to do it better. Or at least learn how to hire a competent team of people to do it for you.

And fuck Grimmel the Grisly. Me and my homies all hate Grimmel the Grisly.

*Bonus Thoughts and Feelings*

On a similar topic which thankfully needs less explaining, this series of movies are an instance where disability isn’t shown as a horrid punishment. Protagonists and antagonists alike get scarred, burned, injured, and disabled. Hiccup loses a leg, Toothless loses part of his tail, Gobber always lacked his hand and leg (we learn the story behind it in Legend of the Boneknapper), Gothi is mute, and Drago Bludvist is missing an arm. Wether or not these are good representation of disability in media I’m not sure, but the attitude of this series towards it is a great start on its own. Hiccup choosing to customize his leg prosthetic in Httyd 2 was the most badass thing childhood me could’ve ever seen.

Passionately concluding,

G’bye!

[Feel free to add on or leave suggested edits/critique! I’d love an excuse to discuss more about the film or be corrected on spots I might’ve missed!]

[bloededhoine]

world building cause twn doesn't part 8: nonhumans

this is easily the geekiest part of the series. and it's a Very geeky series. because sapkowski's worldbuilding is waaay more extensive than i have the time, ability, or desire to convey, i'm sticking with races both sentient and important

colour code cause i fucking love colour codes - already happened/introduced, probably s2, important background info, stuff that might be in the prequel, extras

series masterpost

dopplers

dopplers, also known as vexlings, shifters, mimics, doubles, imitators, or pavrats, are a nonhuman race that can take on the appearance of nearly anyone they encounter

before mass migrations of humans, dopplers primarily inhabited the forests and plateaus around the city of novigrad, where they would transform into wolves and pack animals to hunt

their abilities are pretty impressive, dopplers can not only mimic appearance but also voice, personality, skills, behaviours, and knowledge. dopplers can even turn parts of their bodies into pieces of clothing or other objects

however, there are some limitations

dopplers can't transform into someone/thing with dramatically more mass than they have, are burned by silver, and can't drop anything they created (if they did it would kind of turn into a fleshy goop)

we've already met a doppler in twn, this sexy sexy man

BUT

it is important to note that this doppler is a huge deviation from sapkowski's lore. dopplers are pretty much always exceptionally kind and gentle. a lot of times they use their abilities to appear threatening (big teeth, sharp claws etc) because they really don't want to hurt anyone.

when dopplers aren't mimicking another form, they aren't exactly pretty. they're bald, short, have beady yellow eyes, and kinda look like they're made from soft clay

here's the hexer doppler

the most notable doppler is dudu biberveldt, who i mentioned as the halfling dainty biberveldt's fake cousin. dudu's actual name is tellico lunngrevink letorte, but dainty decided to help dudu live in novigrad by adopting him as his fake cousin.

dragons

dragons are fucking awesome. you know it, i know it, and zerrikanians know it. witcher dragons are especially awesome

they are the only being, other than cats, that can naturally harness and absorb the force of chaos

there are multiple subtypes, but most dragons fall into one of four: black dragons, green dragons, red dragons, and white dragons.

black dragons are the largest, and primarily live in swamps and wetlands where they bathe in mud. they have extremely hard scales and don't breathe fire, but an acid that causes burns similar to those from mustard gas.

green dragons (right there) are the most prominent yet smallest species of dragon, mainly living in forested areas and breathe highly flammable chlorine gas.

red dragons mainly live in hills and mountain caves and can breathe fire hot enough to melt metal

white dragons are one of the rarest species and live in the far north, and can breathe frost

however, if you watched the witcher netflix as i assume you did, you may remember golden dragons. these dragons are so rare and exceptional that they are not usually included with other species. they breathe steam and fire and can shapeshift into any living being

all dragons communicate through telepathy, although golden dragons can speak when they are in the form of a species that can speak

humans are pretty divided on the topic of dragons, with zerrikanians worshiping them and nordlings hating them.

because they are incredibly intelligent and emotional, witchers (generally) refuse to hunt them

borkh three jackdaws, also known as villentrenmerth, is the only golden dragon we know. there he is right there.

ASSASSINS OF KINGS SPOILERS NEXT TWO BULLET POINTS

the other dragon from twn was a green dragon named myrgtabrakke, borkh's mate. their daughter is named saesenthessis, also known as saskia the dragonslayer (an alias she took to explain her extensive knowledge of dragons) and the virgin of aedirn

because saskia is part golden dragon, she can shapeshift, although is much more limited than her father. she can basically only be a human looking woman with blonde hair or a huge dragon.

cut because this part is getting REALLY long

godlings

ah godlings. i love them so much. they're adorable and precious. they usually look somewhat like a human child, but with blue skin and large amber or green eyes. they don't wear much clothes, their focus is in accessories like jewelry, flowers, or tattoos

that's johnny, a holding in wild hunt.

godlings are incredibly rare, and are easily confused with young goblins. they primarily live in swamps near drowners, but aren't afraid of them.

they're quite mischievous but kind hearted, many have happy go lucky personalities and love just having fun. i adore godlings. i've said it once and i'll say it again.

higher vampires

definitely the most important group on this list, higher vampires are incredibly powerful and intelligent. they can shapeshift within certain limits, generally either looking like a human or a large terrifying bat. they also have some telepathic abilities - they can basically make you fall asleep and forget stuff

scary wooo

higher vampires do not need to drink blood to survive. some don't drink blood at all. when they do, it's like a human drinking alcohol. on full moons, groups of higher vampires go out partying and get white girl wasted

although all higher vampires have the same basic abilities, each individual has one skill they are exceptional in.

most find humans harmless but annoying, like mosquitos. they don't really like interacting with humans, which works out pretty well as higher vampires can blend in very well, even a witcher's medallion can't detect one

higher vampires also have three distinct cultures, the tdet in the far east, the ammurun across the great sea, and the gharasham in the northern realms

they are really really hard (or impossible, depending on canon) to kill. based on the books, you basically need to disintegrate them. based on the games, only higher vampires can kill other higher vampires, but humans can get close

we only meet one in the books, emiel regis rohellec terzieff-godefroy. he goes by regis for short. regis was an "alcoholic" in his youth, and has since abstained from blood or any other substance. he's incredibly old, by the end of twn season 1 he'd be 425 years old. as for regis' "special ability", he's just kind. he's an incredibly gentle and loving person. that's it. i love him.

merpeople

probably one you're already familiar with! merpeople are intelligent humanoids that inhabit the great sea. mermaids are notably gorgeous, having green hair and tails, and their scales are prized alchemy ingredients

sapkowski's mermaids can breathe above water, but the sun burns their skin so they don't stay at the surface for very long.

merpeople are incredibly powerful, they can summon krakens and the sea-dragon like race of vodyanoy respect their authority

they use their own language that's quite similar to hen llinge, but more lyrical sounding.

nymphs

nymphs are a humanoid race primarily based around nature. they have 5 subspecies, dryads (including hamadryads), leimoniad, naiad, nereid, and oread.

dryads, called eerie wives by humans and aen woedbeanna by elves, are the most prevalent, primarily living in the brokilon forest. some have human skin with olive undertones, but others are green. they usually have dark brown or green hair which is usually worn in dreadlocks (breaking my promise of not being overtly and annoyingly political in this series yet again - the dryads, especially in the netflix adaptation, are classic magical n*gress stereotypes. but more on that later.)

this is a lore-accurate one that i LOVE

dryads have incredibly strong connections with nature and magic, although it is really rare for a dryad to be a source. dryads are able to draw energy from trees, but rarely do because they don't want to hurt the trees. support dryads and take the bus.

all dryads are women. all of them. they make babies by basically luring men into the forest and doing the adult hokey pokey. also why dryads aren't really a fan of witchers, who don't make the baby butter (i am so sorry)

however, dryads can also turn a girl of another race into one of their own through the use of magic. the water of brokilon has some mutating quality that makes young girls forget their human past and physically turn into dryads, although it is less effective as the girls are older. the dryads tried to do this to ciri, but given that she's a source, nothing happened. generally, this process is done to girls who wander into brokilon, but some dryads will abduct peasants from outside the forest if they need more dryads.

here's twn dryads... yikes

this is where i think the whole racism thing becomes a bit too obvious. "uncivilized" women who live in the forest and have dreadlocks and abduct young girls from "civilized" areas?? in twn they leaned even further into this, having one of the two black women they cast be a dryad and replacing the usual bows and arrows with spears, a less sophisticated weapon. again, this series is about the lore, not the political implications of it, but it is important to keep in mind

dryads are excellent at archery, shooting anyone who comes within 80 metres of the forest. through their connection with nature, they have highly advanced medicine and use glowing fungi as a source of light.

hamadryads are a specific type of dryad that is incredibly connected with her tree. because of this connection they have exceptionally strong magical and healing capabilities, but will also go insane and die if their tree dies.

like merpeople, dryads use a more melodic dialect of hen llinge

leimoniads are a type of nymph that lived exclusively in meadows, but are practically extinct due to wars with humans

naiads, also called rusalki, are nymphs that live in lakes and rivers, although a few live with the dryads in brokilon. naiads are very similar to dryads, although they tend to have very light skin with very dark hair, webbed hands, and can dry out on land

naiads rarely speak common, live in small groups, and have highly developed telepathic abilities

nereids are nymphs that inhabit the great sea, often living closely with merpeople. they usually have blueish skin with either blue or white hair and have some telepathic abilities, though not to the extent of naiads.

oreads are nymphs of the mountains, which, like leimoniads, are nearly extinct due to human conquests.

succubi/incubi

succubi (female) and incubi (male) are creatures which look like incredibly attractive humans but with horns and goat legs. they seduce humans, first in dreams and then physically, using their prey's energy to sustain themselves, often to the point of the human's exhaustion or death

our man eskel has a soft spot for them...

sylvans

sylvans, another race we already met, are exceptionally rare. like, practically extinct. they live mainly in the woodlands of the northern realms and have goat-like faces with yellow eyes, horns, cloven hooves, and tails

my man torque is quite possibly one of the last sylvans on the continent

they are distantly related to elves, and the two races tend to coexist quite well

generally quite mischievous and merry, highly enjoying pranks and parties. they can use simple spells and are mainly herbivores

sylvans live around 100 years and are highly sought after by dryads for their... ahem... reproductive capabilities

unicorns

yep, we got unicorns! i fucking love unicorns and still kinda think they're real. camels are real and those lumpy fuckers are way weirder than a horse with a spike on its head.

anyways

unicorns are highly advanced beings, they can travel between worlds and use telepathy. they don't really like the "less advanced" races, mostly staying around to observe them. they have distinct societies led by a council of elders and tend to avoid evil

these unicorns are badasses

unicorns strongly despise the use of the force but encourage the power of destiny. in the context of pavetta's betrothal feast, a unicorn would not be happy with pavetta's little source hurricane thing, but would encourage geralt to follow the law of surprise

in of the witcher, unicorns are very important because of their world-hopping capabilities. the aen elle, unfortunately, realized this and began enslaving unicorns to help them plunder other worlds. this turned into a massive conflict between the unicorns and elves.

[bowiebond]

The idea of Sam growing his hair out as he gets older,,,

✨Immaculate✨

Can you imagine older Cap!Sam, with his trimmed pepper/salt goatee and these gorgeous box braids or even dreadlocks? He ties them up during battles and will whip a villain with them if they come up too close behind him.

And when he gets his braids out and his hair is just everywhere, Bucky just looks at him with even more heart eyes than usual cause his husband looks so soft and doe eyed with the extra volume framing his high cheek bones and angular jaw. (And if he wears glasses too? 😭)

I wanna cry cause my minds image of this is just so beautiful (I need fanart of this pLS I’m so bad at drawing)

(And Bucky is such a proud husband??? Flaunting off his husbands ethereal sexiness to their villains like “yeah, that man let me marry him. Yes, I’m blessed. You may proceed with the fight”)

BONUS POINTS FOR THIS HC:

Bucky also grows his hair out, but he keeps an undercut and manbuns it all the time. But because Bucky’s hair is so straight, it seems way longer than Sam’s, and most people are shocked when Sam admits to growing out his hair for a few years, because it’s so much shorter than Bucky’s at first glance.

And Bucky loves proving them wrong but showing them that Sam actually has almost twice the length on him (cause ✨shrinkage✨) cuz Bucky started growing his hair out way later than Sam (cause he realised he wanted them to “match” after they became husbands)

Sam also loves fucking with people by adding extensions to his braids so they touch his lower back, but only when he hasn’t seen someone in a while. When he’s not fucking with ppl tho, he still likes to add coloured extensions every now and then to spice up his style.

Bucky likes the blue ones best cause Sam takes to wearing a lot of red and purple day to day and it looks like he’s in Cap mode 24/7. Sam likes red better though cause Bucky himself wears a lot of blues and greys and he likes how they contrast against his sleepwear when he cuddles with Bucky in the morning. (Ayo and Sarah visit often and both agree that Sam looks better with bright, vivid yellows. They refuse to explain why and it irritates Sam and Bucky both even though it’s a very stupid argument they have often)

[mypimpademia]

Taishiro (Fatgum) and Keigo (hawks) w a black s/o

Fatgum x black!reader x hawks

TW: Swearing, suggestive

TAISHIRO

This man knew he was in love with you from the moment he saw you

Expect him to always be admiring you

He just thinks youre so beautiful

And please wear your natural hair around him

Especially in an afro if you can

And for when you have it done, passion twists or dreadlocks

He just really enjoys wild looks

He'll also touch it a lot as long as you let him

Tells you how beautiful you are and how much he loves you on the daily

Plus kisses on every inch of your body

Please let him do golden hour photo shoots with you🥺

If you dont want to, at least sit by a window for him so he can absolutely worship you

He likes to help you on wash day

He just loves watching your hair go from long, to short, then long again

Buys you all they hair products you need

Always makes sure you're wrapping it or wearing your bonnet before you go to bed

"Did you wrap your hair while I was on patrol last night, gumdrop?"

Believe it or not, hes on of the main ones that gets irked rude and racist comments

They all do, but he definitely gets more mad that some of the others

You were receiving more once you and Taishiro started hanging out to begin with

And when you started dating it only got worse

You mostly ignored them, even if some of them stung, and so did Tai

But you knew more than anyone how mad they actually made them

If he'd been hearing rude and racist comments about you all day and managed to bottle it up, he'll come home and rant while doing things like cooking and picking up around the house

But sometimes, he'll snap at fans

He'll try to keep his words to be less hurtful

But his facial expression and tone could make a grown man cry

"Why is fatgum with a black girl? Did he not think of how his fans would feel? If he really cared, he wouldve had a girl from literally other race."

Since you were out in public surrounded by fans, he'd usually just squeeze your hand and try to wait till you could get home, but today he just wasn't having

"Fans? Youre no fan of mine sayin suff like that about my s/o. Im embarrassed that you left the house in my merch to say things like that about my s/o and her race. You make me, and my fans that are actually good people, look bad."

What he said was sort of in character

But again, his expression and tone were from a whole other person

The girl started crying on the spot, and when the two of you walked passed her and Taishiro mean mugged tf out of her, she ran in the opposite direction

After days like this, he can't even function properly till he gets it out of his system

So he'll mostly pace around and rant, maybe even punch a pillow

Taishiro just really doesn't understand how people could be so hateful to others because their skin is different

And it just makes him want to protect you from the hate of the world even more than he already does

He's probably cried over it more than once because it made him so mad

In cases like this, he pretty much just sits there, stares at a wall, and cries with his brows furrowed together

You try to calm him down and say its not his fault people are like this, and he shouldn't get so worked up over something he can't control

But he just can't help it because he loves you so much and he hates racism and hate speech in general

Summed up, Fatgum loves you

KEIGO

Hes so prideful of you

Literally shows you off every chance he gets

I feel like Keigo has been all over the world so hes seen how black women get treated

So manz had been defending you before yall were even in the talking stage

Of course all of it upsets him, he hates the way people hate on others for things like race and religion

But out of everyone hes the most chill confrontation wise

If he can maintain composure without saying anything, he'll just shoot people this mean ass glare if they say something

If he can't, then he's pretty mild on words too, but they definitely leave a sting on die hard fans

"Really? A black girl? And its her? You could do better. For example: me."

"You? Sorry, wouldn't date you if were the last person on Earth while you're talking about my S/o, and saying racist things like that."

And yet another fangirl running off crying

He really loves your hair

Like almost a little too much

When its natural, he likes to see it with a side parted afro if you can

When you get it done, he likes box braids, goddess braids (cornrows), and dreadlocks

His hands will be in your hair 90% of the time when you cuddle (as long as you let him ofc)

The king of taking golden hour pics

He'll fly you to different places to get a good picture or better lighting, use his feathers to fix your hair or clothes, and fly or even get on the floor to get a better angle

"Just a few more pictures, dove, then we'll be done."

Most likely calls you "golden dove" during golden hour (only if you're okay with it, hes a respectful man)

He literally worships you

Probably spends 2 hours a day just telling you how gorgeous you are

Gives you kisses while he uses his feathers and gives you soft touches

Speaking of his feathers, theyre the perfect tool to cut out old braids with

Like it takes a single second to cut every single braid

Then he'll help you unbraid all of them

And he'll help you wash your hair because like I said, he loves touching your hair

If he travels and has to leave you behind for any reason, he'll bring you back hair products for you to try

When he sees you sleeping without your hair protected, he uses his feathers to wrap it/put your bonnet on for you without waking you up

In conclusion, youre the only god/goddess he'll worship

[dreaming-of-assclass]

AssClass Halloween Costumes

I’m a few days late lmao...but here we go 👻🎃

Karma: Edward Scissorhands. A classic. He goes all out in his costume and it looks really good...scary but awesome yeah. Waves his scissors in front of people’s faces to be annoying.

Isogai: The Phantom of the Opera. Gets complaints later from his fangirls that the mask was covering his “beautiful face.” 

Okajima: A sexy devil costume. It’s not too revealing but it’s certainly quite feminine, which throws people off guard. But he struts with confidence and 3-E supports him all the way.

Okano: Princess Mononoke. She looks like such a badass with the wolf cape and the red markings on her cheeks. 

Okuda: Mickey Mouse. She looks so so cute in the little overalls and gloves, and ear headbands. Matching with Kayano.

Kataoka: Audrey Hepburn. Sis got legs for days and the tights/heels emphasizes them even more. Turns so many girls gay, let’s be real.

Kayano: Minnie Mouse. She looks adorable in the dress and cute ears headband. She’s matching with her bestie Okuda UwU.

Kanzaki: Mario!! The comical handlebar mustache looks hilarious on her, and she’s just such a cutie in the outfit.

Kimura: a Mummy, who looks legitimately terrifying with dark makeup and gold contacts. Ends up having a crisis when he needs to pee but can’t get out of the wrapping.

Kurahashi: Belle from Beauty and the Beast. The yellow dress looks gorgeous on her. Lowkey wanted to ask Karasuma to be the beast, but thankfully, she didn’t.

Nagisa: Luke Skywalker. The tunic looks really adorable on him ngl, and his lightsaber is actually so cool. Half the night, his friends keep trying to steal it and play around. Didn’t expect to coordinate with Mimura but they take a bunch of great pics together uwu.

Sugaya: Doesn’t really dress up. But he has the best and most elaborate face makeup. Dude seriously looks like a monster or demon or whatever he intended. It looks so good and professional. Other than that, he’s wearing plain sweats he just threw fake blood on.

Sugino: A werewolf umpire, of course. He’s dressed in the baseball outfit with a scary mask on. Definitely gets called a furry by multiple people.

Takebayashi: KIRITO FROM SWORD ART ONLINE FSDJHKS. He spends forever (and with some help from Hara) on his costume, having the black trenchcoat and swords and everything. His hair is messy and unlike it’s usual style, and he lowkey gets some attention for his visuals.

Chiba: Howl Pendragon. He looks so charming in the outfit. Is he blonde or does he keep his dark hair? I can’t decide. Also Kaho is Sophie.

Terasaka: Totoro. He goes as Totoro. I’m not kidding at all. He may have lost a dare to his sister, and had to wear this giant onesie of the beloved character. But as much as he’s laughed at for the night, the joke is on everyone else. He (smugly) stays warm and cozy even when it starts to get more chilly.

Nakamura: A Zombie prom queen. Bought the dress part for the costume but she made the sash herself. And her makeup is on point, it’s so scary and good. Loves making guys squirm with creepy looks, then flirting with girls.

Hazama: A ghoul. But it’s literally the most horrifying, gut-wrenching costume ever seen. Straight out of a horror movie. Super detailed, makeup is on point and terrifying. Carries weapons and scares the shit out of everyone. Makes some people even pee, and cry.

Hayami: A cheetah, in a full body costume and hat with ears. She looks so GOOD. Her sharp eyes look even more bright and feline than usual in such a dark outfit.

Hara: A ballerina!!! She looks so pretty and angelic in her pink tutu outfit, and it highkey looks so professional too. She made it herself after all haha. But yes, our Hara is a pink princess, ok?

Fuwa: Piccolo. It’s ridiculously accurate and well-made. Halfway through the night, she changes to be a One Piece character.

Maehara: Thor. Let his hair grow out a bit just for this costume. Slings the hammer around everywhere and almost accidentally kills someone with it.

Mimura: Han Solo. It’s so accurate and well made...the only thing wrong is his height lmao.

Muramatsu: the KFC guy, except he keeps advertising his ramen shop to everyone at the same time.

Yada: a bloody Alice in Wonderland, with a basket full of cookies that she carries around, and a ripped apart white rabbit plushie.

Yoshida: Danny Zuko from Grease ADJHKS. Takes out his dreadlocks for the night to have a pompadour. All his friends roast him hard and say he looks no different than he usually does lmao. Itona voice: “Are leather jackets the only things you own?”

Ritsu: Who else would she go as other than the legend Hatsune Miku. Turns her hair blue too, and sings a couple songs for everyone.

Itona: Iron Man. He looks so cute ok, this tiny little 14 year old in a bulky superhero costume that doesn’t suit his face at all.

Korosensei: Tinkerbell. One of his favorite Disney characters. Totally rocks the green dress and blonde bun. But then he starts crying and whining when his students tease him. “Tinkerbell? How fitting, Sensei! You’re both such attention seekers!”

Irina + Karasuma: They go as a sexy vampire couple, much to Karasuma’s hesitance. They look really good though. He has to hold Irina back from killing someone when the students dub her a “trampire.”

Gakushuu: A skeleton, but it’s way more elaborate than it sounds. It’s like a very detailed black tux outfit, made of 3 pieces. And every piece of it has a bone design on it, with like a blue glow so it looks he’s literally an X-ray picture. Hella cool. And he refuses makeup but reluctantly compromises with just dark eye stuff. 

[thecatladywife]

God Put A Smile Upon Your Face

Yangyang x Male Reader

Fluff

I’m weak.... I couldn’t resist writing about him in the end. Also there isn’t enough Yangyang fic on tumblr, so if you have any to recommend please think about me :(

Another refusal.

It was slowly getting to you even though you pretended that it was fine. That the next interview would be the one when it was the tenth where you heard that you were lacking experience for the position. At least this time they told you right away and you wouldn't have to wait several weeks to get you hope crushed...

You sighed as you stirred a cup of coffee and milk from the coffee stand in the station.

You had come a long way to Munich but for what use in the end? Maybe your mother was right when she said that the problem wasn't your qualifications but your style, on top of the recruiter’s usual discrimination.

You lifted your hand to touch the short dreadlocks on your head, thinking that it wasn't that bad. Lots of working men sported the same hairstyle nowadays and you even made the effort to dress for the occasion, willing to appear as serious and professional as possible.

To no avail though.

Wearing slacks with a green jumper and a white shirt under a long grey coat, you were standing next to the platform, another pitiful sigh leaving your lips before you took a sip of coffee and looked around you.

It was mid-afternoon and the station was full of people which wasn't unusual since Munich was one of Germany main hub with the international airport not so far.

You were absentmindedly watching people going on and off the trains on the platforms when you noticed from the corner of your eyes a ticket inspector walking towards your train.

Few moments later the sound of a whistle blowed took you out of your daydreaming, startling you as you only got an instant to realise that it was for your train about to leave.

 "Fuck me."

You dashed in the direction of the train, feeling hot drops of coffee drizzle on your fingers as you held your goblet securely with both hands. Today was really the kind of day where you wondered if you should’ve gotten out of your bed.

You finally rode on the train, out of breath and the face covered in sweat since your ran all the way to the front wagon so you could get to your designated seat.

The passengers in the wagon gave you either weird looks or mocking grins as you walked through the alley and you tried to ignore them long enough to get to your seat.

Relief washed over you when you finally found it in a four-seat area and let yourself fall down to sit, too exhausted to care and thus not noticing the young man already there.

On the phone when you appear out of nowhere, he opened wide eyes as you startled him.

He had a handsome face, some might even say pretty because of his soft features, a beanie on his head was covering part of the hair falling on his forehead and he wore casual clothes giving him even more boyish looks.

You mouthed some apologies while taking off your coat and putting down your coffee and your bag, the man carrying on with his conversation in a language you didn't understand.

He said a few more words before hanging up and putting his phone away

You instinctively apologized in French but immediately corrected yourself and switched to German.

 "Sorry I must be tired... I wanted to say sorry for my brutish manners, I didn't mean to bother."

"It's ok! You look like you almost missed the train so don't worry about that."

You gave him a small smile, half apologetic and embarrassed because of the situation. He really didn't seem to mind and only smile brightly at you, making you froze as it was the most beautiful smile you had ever seen.

God put a smile upon this face, you thought to yourself forgetting about all your hardships of the day, all your worries being washed away by this gorgeous being.

 “I’m Y/N.”

You blurted out, mouth slightly agape from shock as you wondered what got into you but you quickly understood when the guy gave you another dazzling smile as well as his name.

 "Yangyang. Nice to meet you!"

Yangyang... you had fallen hard for a guy you had just met on the train.

You didn't dare to talk to him as the ride went on but you kept taking glance at him, your heart almost jumping out of your chest each time he caught you and grinned in response.

You probably looked like a fool but you couldn't help yourself.

At one point you realise that you wanted to know more about him so you took your courage and looked up at him.

 "So... You're going to Dusseldorf?"

"Yes, hm... I'm going to visit some friends there for the holidays."

 You nodded, not knowing what to add to carry on the conversation. Luckily for you, Yangyang decided to talk before you could come up with something.

 "You ?"

"Hm ?"

"You go to Dusseldorf too ?"

"No, to Francfort. I live in Strasbourg so I'll change train there."

"Oh I see... you'll get off after the next station then..."

 You weren't sure if he sounded disappointed or if it was just you hoping. You fell back into silence, Yangyang busying himself with his phone when you were thinking about ways to see him again.

After all, if you didn't do anything this perfect smile and the man it belonged to would only be a souvenir that would slowly fade with time.

You couldn't let that happen.

You opened you bag, taking out a pencil then one of your resume in the folder you were transporting to draw on the back of it.

You started with the sun like smile you couldn't get out of your mind then stealing glances at him, you went on with Yangyang other features until you finally completed his portrait.

A loving smile appeared on your face as you admired the final result but the satisfaction you felt satisfied longed only for a moment and panic took you over.

What if he found you creepy for making his portrait when you don't even know each other ?

You looked hesitantly at Yangyang. He wasn't on his phone anymore but watching the landscape through the window pane. He was so peaceful, so perfect to your eyes that in the end the drawing you made wasn't worth it anymore.

It was him you wanted, for real.

The train was slowing down when you took the sheet of paper and shreded it into pieces.

Yangyang turned his head at the noise and stared at you with intrigued eyes after noticing the papers in your hands.

"Ah it's nothing. It's... too lacking to keep."

You made it so every single piece was turned on the side of your resume and he couldn't see any part of the drawing you made.

You put your things back in your bag and got ready to leave the train. And Yangyang. The thought made your heart ache harder than you expected.

"It's your station next ?"

"Francfort... yes."

"It was fast, I guess."

He nodded to himself and watched you as you put your coat back on then stood next to your seat. Even though you didn't say much during this two hours together and didn't know much about each other, you didn't want this moment with Yangyang to end now.

"I..."

"Yes ?!"

He lowered his face slightly, flustered after showing so much enthusiasm, red spreading on his cheeks.

"I.. hm.. goodbye..."

"Goodbye Y/N"

You hated yourself for the words wouldn't leave your mouth. You couldn't muster up the courage to ask him for his number or any way to keep in touch touch with him.

All you did was stare at Yangyang before turning your back and getting off the train with your heart already full of regrets.

You stood on the platform and looked as the train left, staying a little longer as all the things you could've said went through your mind.

You finally walked toward the embarking area of the station to take your connection when you heard your phone ringing in your pocket. Assuming that it was probably for another interview, you quickly took it out from your coat and answered.

"Y/N ?"

"Yangyang ??"

You almost dropped your phone on the floor when your heart jumped in your chest then started beating fast when you were sure that it was him.

"How... how did-...??"

"I didn't really think and... actually I got off the train after you."

You turned around and saw him standing further away on the platform in a long brown coat with his luggage by the hand. You jogged in his direction, the phone still on your ear until you realized that it was no longer necessary when you stood in front of him.

"How did you know my number?"

"I found this!"

He dug out a little piece of paper from his pocket and showed it proudly to you. On one side you notice a fragment of your drawing representing the corner of his mouth and on the other, it was the part of your resume where your phone number was written.

You had an astonished look on your face while Yangyang was giving you his brightest smile.

That was all you could see and think about as you took a couple of steps forward, crossing the distance between the two of you. His hands found the side of your coat, grabbing them lightly and he gaze at you softly, his voice turning into a whisper when he kept on talking.

"I didn't want to part with you Y/N... not so soon."

You nodded, never taking your eyes off his perfect smile, focusing on his thin lips as your hands found themselves on both sides of his face.

"Me neither."

You brought his face to yours, kissing him deeply.

[xxmiizcornerxx]

Darker the Berry (POC! Reader x Aizawa)

A/N: Okay so heres the late story I’ve promised! Sorry for the delay, my internet has been booty buttcheek and my only source of comfort has been Mario Kart 8 deluxe and my Soundcloud listening history 😣 ANYWHO~ This story is on the issues(insecurities) of colorisim. And this is for my insecure baes out there that just needs some love🥰So enjoy! (And hopefully my internet doesnt give out once im done (┬┬﹏┬┬).....)

A/N: Oh! Another side note, this is in Aizawa’s POV for the most part!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

‘Oh for fucks sake. This is just embarrassing.’ 

Thought Aizawa Shota, aka Eraserhead, a somewhat well known hero. At least till another well known pro hero comes around. Anyways, it was late at night and Aizawa was at a small restaurant waiting for his date to come. But by the looks of it, he probably just got stood up. Recently he has been trying to “get back out there” to not only have his comrades off his back but also because he was becoming lonely. He wanted that emotional support from someone other than his students, family and friends. Someone he could come home to every night to ramble about absolutely nothing or about everything going on in his world. And sure he had his best friend and his cat to talk to, but its not the same. He wanted that somewhat perfect love he sees everywhere he turns. 

 With a tired sighed, he was getting ready to leave but all of a sudden he could hear an all too annoying familiar voice. Even without his quirk, Hizashi Yamada is the loudest man on God’s given green earth. “HEY SHOTA!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!” He asked loudly making the people in the restaurant jump but Aizawa was accustomed to it.

“OOH! ARE YOU HAVING A DAT-?!” Aizawa instantly covered his mouth annoyed, “How about you shut up? Anyways yeah but I was just getting ready to-” he was cut off when a 5′8 dark skinned woman with the most beautiful set of dark eyes that was barely covered by the few dreadlocks that poked out of her high bun. She was dressed in light shades of grey and white that made her skin pop out. She was truly what they called a goddess among men. “I am so sorry I’m late! I got so busy with work, I lost track of the time and decided to come straight here.” the woman rambled not fully realizing that Aizawa was too busy silently thanking whatever deity that was here for not only sending Hizashi for stopping him from walking out that door but also blessing him with the most gorgeous person he’s ever seen. 

“It’s alright. My colleague here just stopped me from leaving.” He stated in his usual monotoned voice removing his hand from his friend’s mouth and sending him a look that said ‘ If you say or do something to ruin this for me, I will personally rip your vocal cords out.’, thankfully Hizashi got the memo nodding in slight fear. “Indeed I have! And now that you’re here miss, I can get what I’ve came here for and leave. Have a goodnight you two!” he stated as quietly as he can possibly get and left. “Sorry about my loud, somewhat obnoxious colleague. Here let me get your coat.” Aizawa said gently taking the woman’s coat setting it on the back of her chair. “Oh its alright, I have also been ‘plagued’ of having a very, very loud best friend. But you learn to get used to it.” she joked a bit taking her seat which only left the hero himself to take a seat. “I see. Well I don’t think we’ve properly introduced ourselves. I am Aizawa Shota, an absolute pleasure to meet you.” He said with a tiny little smile. “It’s wonderful to meet you, Aizawa. I am Y/N L/N.” she returned the smile flashing her pearly whites a bit. And with that led the beginning of a great date. The night was filled with a few laughs, a few stories about their past as children and teenage years.

Soon the two were at a park, the air was brisk and cold. The moon, stars, and streetlights illuminating their path and a small light drizzle of snow softly falling from up above. It was like a seen from a Hallmark Christmas movie, just absolutely perfect. Aizawa and Y/N were getting along great and were sitting on a bench somewhat snuggled up against one another but not quite because personal space still exists. Currently the topic of conversation landed on insecurities. Aizawa admitted to Y/N about how he felt about his own unkept look and how it took a lot of faith for him to even go out tonight. “That’s reasonable.” said Y/N, “But just in my own opinion, that unkept look is your own. Not many people can pull it off and still look as handsome.” she chuckled giving him a soft nudge of her elbow to the barely blushing man. “Well what about you? What are your insecurities?” Aizawa was genuinely curious about what she could possibly be insecure about. She was practically perfect in all aspects; has a good sense of humor, an amazing sense of style, very well educated, has more confidence than anyone he knows, and to top it all off, just carries herself respectably.

Y/N bit her thumb a bit nervous, for what she was about to reveal is going to be silly or at least that's what she thought. “Well. The thing I am most insecure about is my....complexion. As you can clearly tell I am not in anyway light skinned or even milk chocolate. And I know it is silly to be insecure about but from where I come from looking like me is a target in more aspects than one. To some being dark skinned has even been turned into a personality trait.” Without even noticing, Y/N ended on an entire rant about how her skin was and still is a target for ‘dark as night’ jokes or the ‘loud mouth, ratchet, Hot Cheetos’ girl. How people within her own community would just assume that she (and many others) fought or was angry all the time or lived in a really bad area where there was a lot of sun. Or the worst of things, that if she was a slave back then she’d be in the cotton fields. Every time she was told that or something similar, Y/N’s self-esteem would just crumble entirely. It made her feel unwanted, unloved, unnoticed, and just down right ugly. By the end of her little rant, she found herself trying hard not to cry in front of Aizawa. She didn’t really intend to just lay it all out there on the table for him, but maybe it was for the best. If they were going to continue dating then it was best for her to lay out all of the cards on the table and show him what he’s getting into.

“Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to make everything so gloomy with my little insecurity reveal.” she said giving an awkward smile to the now stunned man. He personally didn’t understand how anyone could be cruel to their own people, let alone for how they looked. It was foolish and childish to say the least. But he was more than proud of Y/N for being able to overcome it all. “Well I’ll be honest here. I won’t pretend that I have any form of resemblance of what you must’ve gone through over the years simply because of your skin color, but I will tell you now. Your skin is beautiful and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. I am willing to learn about the struggles you face and if fate allows it I’d love to be by your side as I do.” He said in a serious tone, gazing into her eyes and gently taking one of her hands bringing it to her lips planting a soft kiss upon her knuckles. “All those people in the past or in the now that has anything to say about your skin in a negative light are simple minded nincompoops' that have yet to be enlightened. After all, don’t they know?” he asked tucking a dread behind her pierced ear. “Know what exactly?” she asked with the most brightest smile that night. “Don’t they know that the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice?” That alone made Y/N laugh but Aizawa was being serious. “Boy, don’t do that. Plus how would you know?” she asked as her accent came out a little. “Well I don’t. But why don’t we find out?~” he asked teasingly leaning into her ear.

Needless to say.....

Best. 

First Date.

 Ever.

[knittingdreams]

Fireheart - Chapter 4

Hey there! Hope you’re having an amazing day! To make it a little better, here’s an update on my ToG fanfic! If you haven’t read the previous chapters, you can find them here:

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

I promise I'll make a Masterlist one of this days so it’s easier to find n_n

CHAPTER 4

Implementing phase one

Once lunchtime came around, Celaena walked eagerly towards the school’s cafeteria, her stomach rumbling loudly. She was still not used to the new schedule and having to get up so early, she hadn’t managed to grab anything for breakfast before riding to school. She had had enough time to carefully sort out her uniform for the day though, adding her own little twist with a red bandana tied around her right wrist. She had also taken twenty minutes in front of the mirror putting on her contacts and making sure her makeup was spotless.

She had accentuated her cheekbones, making her face look a bit rounder than what it was, had thinned her nose, and added a few fake freckles across it. She had decided on black eyeliner and simple grey eyeshadow, with a little bit of gold in the inner corners of her eyes. That day's lipstick choice was bright red, as it matched her rider's vibe. 

Celaena got in the queue at the buffet, eyeing everything in front of her and having a hard time choosing only one item from the vast range of options. In the end, she settled for the fried chicken, a portion of fries, and two servings of pudding. 

Finding an empty table close enough to her main interests but a little secluded at the same time was a challenge; but once she found the spot, she sat down with her tray. 

She watched as the cafeteria filled up, and spotted Sam on a crowded table only a few meters away. They were one to each side of Aedion’s table, and she knew this was no coincidence; Sam was playing his cards too. Annoyed, Celaena glared at him, but Sam’s eyes were too focused on the couple making a scene in between them, and he didn’t see her.

“Hi, there!” Someone said, popping a tray of food next to her own, and grabbing a seat.

Celaena turned towards the intruder, surprised to find a dark-skinned girl with long raven dreadlocks falling to her waist and curious eyes that were looking at her. 

“Hi,” She said dubiously. 

She had enjoyed the peace and quiet of eating on her own the previous day, but she knew it wasn’t going to last. Celaena would have to find her place in the status quo soon, or else she’d end up as an outcast, and that wouldn’t be good for her plans.

“Nice to meet you,” the girl sitting next to her said. “I’m Nehemia, I’m the only other exchange student in this stuck-up school, so I thought we might as well kick start this inevitable friendship of ours,” she finished with a tight smile.

Celaena looked at her a little perplexed, and a little stunned. Nehemia looked somehow shy yet she also had a kind of hidden sass that Celaena found appealing. But she had to remind herself that she wasn’t there to make friends, she had no time for it.

“If you say so,” she replied, nonchalant.

“I’ve been here for a whole year, and I can tell you, this is a hard crowd to please.” Nehemia looked her up and down as if analyzing her. “I would have expected you to be sitting on the table with the jocks already,” she added pointing at them with her head. “A few of them are taken, as the team captain over there. His name is Aedion,” she explained, talking eagerly as Celaena listened carefully while pretending to be more interested in her food. “His father owns one of the biggest businesses in town, and they have investments all over the place, he is loaded! Even more than most of us. It's a bit of a sad story if you ask me, his mother died when he was young, and it’s just him and his father; I believe he lost his aunt and other family members to a tragic accident too. You wouldn’t be able to tell from looking at him though, he’s always so full of himself… And he's got that damned gorgeous smile!” 

Nahemia sighed and stopped talking for a moment as she ate a few spoonfuls of her lunch. Next to her, Celaena looked at Aedion through her lashes as she picked on the fries. 

“Who’s the chick with him?” She asked, knowing that any other girl would have asked the same question.

“Lysandra? She’s the queen bee. Captain of the cheerleaders, she’s probably the most gorgeous girl in this whole town,” she said, and then looked at Celaena, analyzing her again. “Well, maybe she was, she might have competition now.”

Celaena huffed, trying not to grin at the remark. Of course, she was better looking than that girl. At least now she knew who that Lysandra girl was, and she could keep an eye on her. 

“Don’t be stupid,” she said instead.

“Please, I’m not blind, you are absolutely gorgeous. And blond seems to be trending at the moment, I’ve heard every single boy in school talk about your entrance today,” Nehemia added as she lifted her thin brows.

Celaena smiled to herself and disregarded the comment with a wave of her hand.

“So, how long have those two been together for?” She asked next, knowing that she might as well just use this free source of information while it lasted; there wasn’t much time left on the clock before they’ll have to head over to their next class.

“A long while, they've been together since the start of junior year,” Nehemia said. “So sorry to be the one to break it up to you, but you have no chances with Aedion, many have tried to break them apart, but no one has succeeded,” Nehemia finished.

Celaena smiled while she laughed to herself once more. “Don’t worry, I’m not interested, he’s not really my type,” she replied.

“I guess you’re right, you two would look a bit creepy as a couple anyway, he looks like he could be your brother,” Nehemia stated, playing with a gold band from one of her dreads.

Celaena composed her expression into something neutral, trying not to worry about that remark. No one would ever suspect they were related, she was safe, she reminded herself. But this girl had her eyes on the details, and Celaena knew straight away that she’d have to be careful around her. Maybe having her close would be the smarter option.

“What’s your type then? I can picture a hot dark-haired boy…” Nehemia said dreamily as she played with another one of her dreads, her dark eyes darting around the crowd and looking for someone to match Celaena with.

“Oh, how come I didn’t notice it before?” Nehemia said in a hushed tone as she leaned closer to talk into Celaena’s ear. “Dorian is checking you out,” she said, a smile spreading wide on her lips. “You two would look so good together, but he’s not the dating type,” Nehemia replied.

That was a cue Celaena didn’t know she was waiting for, and as the words left Nehemia’s lips, she found herself popping another fry in her mouth and looking up. She met Dorian’s bright blue eyes, and she held his gaze, chewing slowly, playing with a strand of hair between her fingers. 

“How come?” She asked Nehemia, her eyes still on Dorian’s.

Dorian took the bait and elbowed the guy sitting next to him. Celaena watched as Chaol lifted his head, and watched her shamelessly staring at them. 

“I mean, he’s never had a girlfriend in school, rumor has it he’s been with half the girls from Adarlan Elite though,” Nehemia said. “Almost every girl claims to have been in bed with him, but the stories don’t quite… match,” she finished.

Dorian murmured something in Chaol’s ear and then contained a laugh as Chaol shook his head from one side to the other. Dorian shrugged, and stood up, leaving his tray behind on the table and sliding his backpack over a shoulder.

“Is that right?” Celaena replied, her eyes unblinking.

Dorian walked towards their table slowly, deliberately, his eyes never leaving hers.

“Oh my God,” Nehemia whispered. “He’s coming over here, what should we do? What should I do? Do you want me to go?” She was moving in her seat, and Celaena put a hand over her tight under the table, as if telling her to stay calm. Nehemia got the wordless message and went still all of a sudden. She kept her head down, but she gazed up between her long lashes. 

Nehemia looked shy all of a sudden, her shoulders slightly drawn as if trying to make her tall frame look small, but Celaena thought it was a facade; she reckoned underneath it all the girl seemed composed, careful, attentive. The girl knew how to lie, and how to make people see her the way she desired. Celaena noticed because she was so used to doing the exact same thing.

“Dorian,” Celaena said sweetly as the guy finally made his way to them and stood over the other side of the table. “What brings you here?” She asked, motioning at the table and the empty seats in front of her.

“Wondering if I could join you for a moment?” He asked.

“Well,” Celaena said slowly. “I’m pretty certain the bell is about to ring any minute now, and there’s a class I need to attend. I’m sure there’s one you need to head to as well.”

She finished eating the last of her fries, and grabbed a spoon, taking a bite of her chocolate pudding and licking her lips slowly as she swallowed.

“There’s still a few minutes on the clock,” Dorian quipped. “And I’m sure you can’t finish all that on your own,” he continued. “Maybe I could help you.”

“Would you like to bet on that?” Celaena said with a smirk and then shoved another big spoonful in her mouth.

She could see Dorian staring at her lips, and she ran her tongue between them again.  

“You’d be surprised at my odds in gambling,” Dorian said, composing his expression into something like a smug smile. “I’ve never lost, not once,” he said.

Celaena let her eyes drift past Dorian quickly, and saw that she had the attention of most of the cafeteria by then. She saw Aedion looking at her and then looking away when she met his eyes, and then she collided into Sam’s golden-brown irises. It was as if he was trying to burn a hole into Dorian’s back, trying to see through his very soul.

“And will you?” Celaena asked. “I mean, bet against me?” she said as she finished the first portion of pudding, and moved onto the second one.

“No, I would never,” he replied. “I would never dare bet against you, Celaena, I will be sure to always bet on you,” he said, and then he sat down in front of her, leaning over the table to look at her closely.

“Uhm, interesting,” she said. With that, she pushed the dessert over to Dorian and stood up quickly, grabbing her bag in one hand and hooking the other around Nehemia’s elbow. “Lost my appetite, you can have it,” she said as she pulled on Nehemia’s arm and turned around to walk away. 

“You can’t run away, I know where you live, Celaena,” Dorian’s mellow voice trailed after them as they headed out of the cafeteria without looking back.

“What was that about? You just stood up the king of the school! In front of everybody! Do you have any idea how popular that guy is?” Nehemia asked as the double doors closed behind them.

“You have to keep them on their toes,” Celaena replied as she abruptly let go of Nehemia’s arm. The dark-skinned girl looked shocked and motioned to follow along, but Celaena lifted a hand. “I’m on my own from here on, but thanks for the company,” she said nonchalantly as she walked away with quick steps. 

She had never had a girlfriend in her life, and this was the wrong time to go looking for one. Nehemia was smart, and she would keep an eye on her, but she didn’t need friends, no; she needed to infiltrate the hive. 

The first step of her plan had already proved to be a success. She had got the whole school thinking she was a possible match for Dorian. And most importantly, she had caught the attention of the jocks' table. 

Time to move to the second stage, time to become one of the popular kids.

Here’s the Queen Bee herself, Lysandra Caraverre :D [Made with picrew]

[harrybabystyles]

Oh, Angel! (harry styles)

chapter one - m a s t e r l i s t -

warnings: sex, language and drinking

a/n: my first series, yay! I swear the chapters get better after this one lol, and I realize that I am not the best at smut so bear with me, also the gif below is what I imagined him looking like for this chapter :)

series intro: After a rough week, Anna decides to let loose with her friends, go out drinking and dancing, maybe even let a stranger take her home. She was starting to lose all hope when suddenly she runs into an angel -or so she thought- who actually turns out to be a tall, curly headed man with a thick accent, making her stomach twist in knots. When he asks to buy her a drink, she doesn’t hesitate to agree, how could she resist?

It was hot, and dense, like every other club I suppose, not quite suffocating, but close. Especially with the dozens of people packed in the small space, heated kisses being shared in corners and sweaty dancing happening practically everywhere you looked.

Normal for a Friday night, especially with the music fest happening only a few blocks away. After the concerts were over, the after parties seemed to always be carried here. Which, I wasn’t opposed to I guess, it happens every year, but the number of bodies increased ten fold, and this was my favorite club. 

My friends were always thrilled by it, it provided more options if one of them were feeling risky and wanted to find themselves under the sheets with a stranger, which they usually were. Matter of fact, I think I see Evelyn slipping through the front door, her arm wrapped around a burly man with dreadlocks draping down his back. I smile, she always found her a man within the hour. 

I wasn’t much of the ‘take a guy home every weekend’ kind of girl, I did it every once and a while, but frankly, I preferred to be alone.

However, tonight was not the night. 

Between being fired earlier this week, and finding out that my sister was moving across the world at the end of the month and there was nothing I could do about it, I needed a distraction, and I decided that taking a stranger to bed was the drug I needed. 

So, when I was getting ready for tonight, I went straight to the back of my closet and grabbed the tight black dress I wore only for occasions like these. 

Was it a little too revealing? Probably, but I didn’t really give a shit to be honest, I knew the kind of attention I wanted, and I also knew how to dress to get it. My friends squealed when I hopped into the cab, like they always did when I wore this dress, they know what it means. By now we had all broken off, I went to grab more drinks, and since I saw Evelyn leave, I’m guessing that Harper is probably rubbing up on some helpless soul. 

Harper is something else, always hooking up with whomever she pleases, whether its the bartender from downstairs or the girl with the shaved head and face tattoos, she can have almost anybody under her spell within minutes. 

But then there is Paige, she grew up on a farm out in Georgia, her christian mother was brought to tears when she told her she was leaving her southern life. She tends to get wild for the first hour or so, choking down a few drinks, but then she sits in the corner the rest of the night, and sips at a glass of water. Sometimes I don’t understand why she doesn’t let herself go more, but her modest dresses always stay puke free, so I guess that’s a plus, and she can take care of us in the morning when our heads our threatening to pound us out of existence. 

Bless her soul.

I’m pretty sure her parents would die on the spot if ever they found out she shared an apartment with Harper, or that we go out to drink almost every week. She enjoys the freedom, and the adrenaline of knowing her parents would drop dead if they ever found out, but even if she denies it, she actually doesn't like drinking that much. 

I should probably check on her actually. 

I step out of my place in line, the massive amount of bodies made getting drinks take ten years instead of ten seconds, and it wasn’t worth it anyways, it was getting late and I needed to pick out my target. I steady myself against the somewhat sticky railing, as my head spins a bit. I was always one the be able to hold my alcohol, but I certainly had a few more than I usually would tonight. My eyes landed on Paige, right where she always was this late at night, tucked into a corner, eyes scanning her phone, a half empty glass of water in her hands. I make my way over to her, but my phone buzzes in my purse and as I reach down to get it my body clashes into something hard, and before I know it I feel my body slam against the floor, and a weight crash on top of me. 

I blink, focusing on a pair of pale green eyes. 

My eyes grace over defined cheek bones, brown furrowed brows, a halo of dense curls bouncing around a defined face, and a pair of rosy lips, that made me subconsciously wet my own.

Then, my eyes focus back on the striking green in front of me.

I must have died, and this is an angel carrying me to my mansion of clouds, because there is no way this is real. 

But then my senses come back, the pounding of the music fills my ears, the smell of alcohol and sweat consumes my nose, and the feeling of the sticky floor under me makes me shift. 

I feel like my soul left my body.

I look around noticing how the man caught himself just before he completely crushed me, his hands on either side of my head. 

Damn his reflexes are fast, and I can’t help but heat up at the feeling of his body weighing down on me, his hips flush with my own.

“Uh...I’m so sorry” he faintly chuckles, the smell of alcohol on his breath slightly stinking my nose, his breath hot against my face from hot close we are. 

“Are you okay?” he asks, getting back on his feet in a wobbly manor, and offering a hand out to me, which I take and he pulls me to my feet. 

“Yeah...” I breath, still trying to pull myself together, “...are you?”

“Yeah...” he runs a hand through his thick curls, and looks down at his chest, “...damn” he whispers, and I notice the wet fabric of his dress shirt stained with whatever drink he was carrying, which leads me to notice the glass that is now on the ground, and the sticky substance that drenched the left side of my chest.

“Oh damn, me too” I look down at the darker fabric of my dress where the drink had spilled, “I’m so sorry” 

He gives a light hearted chuckle and looks up at where I’m helplessly trying to clean off the thick alcohol.  

“Here” he smiles, and motions his head to follow me. I take in his tall figure as I follow close behind him, and how his thick curls swayed when he would turn to look back at me, I gave him a small smile, and he would return it with a breath hitching one. 

I’m still not convinced this is actually real.

And if it is real, there is no way I’m letting him out of my grasp, he was drop dead gorgeous, even covered in sticky alcohol. He leads me back down the stairs and into the women's bathroom, to which he got several confused glances and a small laugh from me. 

He rips paper towels from off the dispenser, and puts them under the running water of the sink. He wrings them out, and I watch as the muscles in his ring clad hands flex, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a man wear so many rings... it’s actually really attractive. 

“Here” he hands me a damp paper towel, “Sorry again” 

With the loud music of the club muffled behind the bathroom door, I notice his heavy accent, and butterflies can’t help but stir in my stomach.

“You from the UK?” I ask in shock of the accent that was hidden under the music. He flashes a smile, starting to wipe off his shirt, “Yeah, I’m from Cheshire” he shrugs, and I start to wipe of my shoulder where the stench of alcohol was radiating profusely.

“Huh” I reply, amused and baffled at the same time. 

“What? You never met someone from the UK before?” he questions me with a smirk, and my heart skips just a tad at the dimple that pokes into his face. 

“No, actually, and I definitely have never knocked over someone from the UK before” I say playfully, watching as he lets out a head spinning chuckle.

 “Its a first” I shrug. 

I feel him look up, a small laugh leaving his lips, and I smile when I slip down the strap of my dress, to wipe away the alcohol from my collar bone, and his whole body freezes. 

“What?” I smirk, looking up to find him jolt back into action, trying to hide his pause in motion, his eyes settling back onto his dress shirt. 

“Nothing” he shrugs, but he smirks again, and my eyes settle to where the white fabric of his shirt, due to the spill, clung to his torso, and my breath hitches at the taut muscles underneath. 

Fuck, he really is flawless.

My eyes go wide when he starts to unbutton his shirt, and my brows drop in confusion.

“Oh, you don’t mind if I take this off...do you?” He looks me straight in the eyes, and the devilish smirk that pulls up on his lips makes those butterflies in my stomach begin to take of. 

Is he teasing me?

I take a deep breath in, “Of course not”

I try not to watch as his fingers gracefully slip each button out of there holes, but I find myself struggling to keep my eyes away.Then, the door hits the tiled wall, and a husky voice echoes through the room. 

“No sex in the bathrooms, you both need to leave immediately” a built security guard looks between us, his face stern and gaze serious.

“Oh no, we aren’t...” I laugh at his hilarious assumption, but I look at how my dress strap is slipped down below my shoulder, and how his shirt is unbuttoned all the way down, exposing his toned chest and his...tattoos? 

Are those tattoos?

My eyes settle on a inked butterfly just below his chest, and flip shamelessly down to where dark leaves poke out from under his trousers, a slick black belt and the fabric of his trousers block the rest of the ink from my view. 

Oh damn.

“Sorry, we will take our business elsewhere” his accented voice interrupts, and I blush when I realize I am staring at his torso, and that he has noticed, giving me a smug grin. My teeth bite down on my lower lip as my cheeks heat up.

I pull the strap back over my shoulder, and he buttons up his shirt again, leaving several open like before, and we squeeze past the security, tossing our paper towels in the bin on the way out. 

“Who do you think snitched on us?” his voice rings in my ear, and I now notice the presence of his hand grazing my lower back. 

I giggle, “My bet is on the brown bob” I refer to a women with a short bobbed cut I noticed on our way in, “She was definitely glaring at us when we walked in” I play along, not telling him that she was the only face I even remembered from when we walked in, and he smiles.

“I agree” he replies, and he takes in a breath, his eyes momentarily glancing down to my lips, and those butterflies reappear in my tummy. 

“I’m sorry about your dress” he starts, pointing to where the strong smell of alcohol still soaked my chest, “If you’d like I’ll buy you a new one” 

My eyebrows shoot up at his offer, “Oh, don’t worry about it, it was worth nothing” 

Which was a lie, it wasn’t worth a lot, but it was still the most expensive thing in my closet.

“Well then at least let me buy you a drink” he insists, clapping his hands together, eyes scanning my face.

I try to make it look as if I’m really struggling to give him an answer, like I want to but I’m not sure if I should, even though I already knew my answer. 

“Sure” I agree, but a sudden scream catches our attention, and my eyes snap to our right where two girls are being held back by what looks like security guards, only they wore slick black suits instead of T-shirts. 

A sudden ghostly touch from his fingers on my shoulder turns my attention back towards him, “Wanna go somewhere a little quieter?” he asks scratching the back of his neck like he is suddenly uncomfortable, leaning forward just a tad. 

“Only if you tell me your name” I tease, raising my eyebrows at him in a playful manner. 

“Of course...” he covers his face with his hands like he is embarrassed, “I’m Harry” he holds out his right hand, “Excuse my manners”

“Hi Harry, I’m Anna” I shake his hand, and notice how much larger his was compared to mine. 

This man has no flaws, whatsoever.

“Pleasure to run into you, Anna...” he pauses for a moment and leans in , “...literally” 

I giggle and nudge his shoulder playfully, “Pleasure is all mine” I say back, putting a hand over my heart dramatically, to which he chuckles, and we start to walk towards the front door, his hand placed on my lower back as we weave through the crowd. 

The night air feels cold and brisk in my lungs, but it’s such a relief and I take in a deep breath, smelling the scent of rain, and cherishing the fresh oxygen. 

“Shall we?” he calls, holding out his arm for me to take, and I stumble a bit walking over to him, most likely due to the alcohol and the heels I’m in.

“Where are you taking me?” I ask playfully, but genuinely curious, and he keeps his eyes glued in front of us, but leans over, a smile on his face. 

“That’s for me to know, and you to find out” 

I scrunch my nose, pouting at him, “Fine” 

 I look ahead of us and notice both sides of the street are lined with cars, and as we continue to walk, I find that the line keeps going for several more blocks. 

Damn, I guess my favorite club just turned into a block buster.

“Here we are” he breaks the silence, reaching in his pockets to grab a set of keys, unlocking an old 1966 Mustang, my eyebrows raise.

“Nice ride” I comment, as he opens the passenger door for me, and gently shuts it, walking over to hop in the drivers side. 

“Thank you” he gives me a smile, starting up the engine, his eyes linger on mine for a moment, flashing back down to my lips before focusing on putting the car in drive, pulling his bottom lip between his teeth. 

I lean towards the window, watching giddily as we pass building after building, traveling through several traffic lights before pulling off the road into a parking garage.

As we climb the levels, his old car somewhat struggling with each steep turn, my eyes land on him again, taking in his side profile.

Perfect forehead, nose, chin, neck, not to mention that sharp ass jawline he has got.

He really is perfect, isn’t he? 

 He must have noticed my gaze because he grins, that perfect dimple flashing as he glances at me from the side. 

I blush and look back out towards the window, how the hell did I get this lucky? 

We hardly speak as we step out of the car, and walk through a glass overpass that lead to the apartment building across a dark alleyway, we only exchange small smiles, his hand hardly leaving the small of my back the whole time. 

Walking through the doors of the apartment building, my jaw drops.

Between the red velvet sofas, and the gold detailing on the roof, the room looked like the inside of a palace, with painted ceilings and a small fountain in the center.

This wasn’t even the main floor.

I manage to close my lips, as he leads me towards the elevators, waving to several hotel staff workers, and giving the button number of his floor a gentle push as we step in. I was still in awe at the beauty of the place to even tear my eyes away, and even as the doors slowly shut, my eyes still wandered around the room.

Who is this guy?

When the doors did shut, I managed to let out a breathless “Whoa” from my lips, smiling up at him.

“Impressed?” he questions, and I couldn't help but pick up on the subtle gravel that laced his voice, and how it made those butterflies in my tummy reappear ten fold. 

“Definitely” I breath, crossing my hands in front of my hips, still gripping my handbag. His lips turn up in a small smile, “I’m glad”

I catch his dense green eyes again, but this time there is something flashing behind them, a shade of sparking desire perhaps? 

I hoped so.

His eyes don’t leave, and neither do mine as the moment drags on, making my tummy catch on fire as his gaze burns further into me. 

Holy shit, it was almost intimidating.

I became suddenly restless, biting the inside of my cheek, and fidgeting with my fingers, I felt like I suddenly stepped out into the desert, my body temperature rising alarmingly. 

I felt like I had a fever. 

His eyes tear away when the silver doors of the elevator glide open, and we shuffle out into the hall.

“This way” he guides, pointing to the right where a gorgeous hallway with only a few doors extended in front of us, and his hand settles back down on my back. As we walk I notice how far apart the rooms are spread out, and realize how big the apartments must be.  

We stop at the second door, and he grabs the keys from his pocket and unlocks it, swinging open the door so that I can walk in first. 

When the lights come on, I’m blown away.

Crisp walls enclose the space, a marble countered kitchen to my right opening up to a living room larger than my own apartment, with a huge TV mounted on the far wall, and dark grey sofas that surrounded a sleek glass coffee table. My heels click gently on the wooden floor as I mindlessly walk towards the floor to ceiling windows, the city stretching out like a sea of stars. 

I was entranced, the glowing white and yellow hues twinkling in the dark night.

New York never looked so alive, but at the same time, it was the most peaceful I’ve ever see the city be. You couldn’t hear the honking cars, bumping music, or loud profanities you usually couldn't get away from, just the shuffling of my heels as they hit carpet. 

The city below looked endless, with miles of soft blinking lights.

It looked heavenly.

For once it didn't seem like the dirty city it was, crime and poverty seeming to wash away under the gentle glow of apartment buildings and offices, which made a streak of hope tug at my heart, and I absentmindedly put my hand against the cool surface of the glass. 

I could feel the tears that rimmed my lashes, not falling, just letting me know they’re there, as my eyes continued to scan the scene. 

It was surreal to see the city like this, peaceful and elegant, like it was a place for angels. 

Even the red neon of the strip club down the street or the subtle blue of a raging bar seemed innocent, just another glowing light for my eyes to soak in. Just another stroke of the painting that was being etched behind my eyes. 

And for a moment I forgot I was some girl who was jobless, standing in a strangers apartment in my not so innocent black dress, looking for a distraction from life. So, I tear my eyes away from the glass, blinking back the tears that rimmed my lashes, I found his eyes looking at me with an amused smile, pouring alcohol into two glasses. 

“Tequila?” he asks, lifting his brows.

I clear my throat, suddenly feeling embarrassed at how emotional I got at the scene, “Please” 

He puts a lime wedge on the rims of the glasses and walks over to me at the windows, a small smile on his lips, but it drops and his brows furrow as he gets closer.He sets the glasses carefully on the coffee table rushing to me with concern.

“Are you okay?” he places his hands on my shoulders sliding his hands slowing down my arms in a comforting manner, his eyes flicking between my own. 

I can’t help but inhale sharply at the touch of his skin, or the warmth of his chest that was now only a few inches away. 

“Yeah...” I breath, heat flushing my cheeks at the realization of him seeing my teary eyes, “...the view” I explain vaguely, gesturing towards the windows beside us, letting out a nervous laugh.

“Oh...” he takes a moment to look out, a smile forming on his lips, “...heavenly, isn’t it?”

I nod, following his gaze back out to the open city, “Breathtaking”

“Don’t worry, I cried the first night I stayed here” his warmth leaves as he grabs the drinks from the table and hands one to me.

“You did?” I ask, shocked that he is telling me this, most guys would keep something like that like it was their darkest secret. 

“Like a baby” he adds taking a sip from his glass, and I raise my eyebrows, letting out a shocked breath.

“What? Guys can’t cry too?” he sounds offended, but the playful look on his face tells me that he is just messing around. 

“No, no, I just...most guys don’t feel like that, they feel like it makes them less of a man” I explain, taking a sip of my drink, feeling the thick liquid sting as it glides down my throat. 

“Crying is manly” he shrugs, taking another sip, and I can’t help but let out a laugh.

“Exactly!” I agree, still half laughing. 

A smile lights up his face, “So, Anna...” he lowers his voice, and a shiver falls down my spins at the sound of my name accented on his lips, and I tried to hide the feeling as it shimmers through me.

“...tell me something about yourself” his eyes glaze over with that same look from the elevator, dark and swirling, that makes me want to catch on fire as the back of his fingers ghost down my left arm, sending more chills spiking through me.

He brings his hand up to brush my hair off of my shoulder and behind my back, leaning in so that his breath is fanning over my ear, “Something no one else knows” he adds in a low whisper, before brushing a piece of hair behind my ear and leaning away, a devilish smirk of his face. 

I take a deep breath in, realizing I wasn’t breathing, and shamelessly look from his eyes down to his lips and back up again. 

“Well...” I begin, watching as he takes another sip of his drink, never breaking eye contact, “...I do this thing, when I can’t sleep, where I sneak up to the roof of my apartment building, and I try to see the stars” 

His lips tug up into a smile, and his eyes dance over me, I can tell he is intrigued by my answer, and I can see the curiosity flourish inside of him. 

“What about you, Harry from Cheshire, what do you do when you can’t sleep?” I drag out my words, my voice a notch above a whisper, and I take another sip from my drink, watching as he thinks. 

“Meditate” he smiles, and I quirk a brow at him, “I’m just kidding” he chuckles.

“I typically take a bath...” he answers confidently, “...simple but effective” he shrugs. 

I laugh quietly at his answer, taking another sip, “Maybe I’ll try that sometime” 

His eyes glance down over my body shamelessly, making my spine tingle as they travel back up to my eyes, and my heart jumps at the contact.

Inside the dense green, I can see it, all the lust and desire that is stirring up inside of him, and it makes me want to be lit on fire, heat spreads through every limb as we hold the contact, and when his fingers graze my arm, the heat of his skin mixed with the cool metal of his rings send fireworks exploding within me.  

“I like your dress by the way...” he whispers, his voice low and thick, “...fits you flawlessly” 

My breath hitches in my throat as my heart starts hammering, oh boy he is good.

I set down my drink, game on.

“Thank you...I’m still so sorry about your shirt...looks expensive” I whisper, reaching out to grab just above where the fabric folds down into the first done button, pulling gently until his body is almost touching mine. 

“I know I may never be able to make it up to you...” I look up at him, watching as he darts his tongue out to wet his bottom lip. I flatten my hands against his stomach, feeling his muscles tense under my touch, as I glide them down lower and lower until I rest them on the edge of his trousers, my fingertips slipping under the fabric just a tad, “...but I can try”

I smile when his breath hitches, and his hand grazing my elbow slides down to my hip, I slowly lean forward, and a plant a kiss in the center of his chest, where his the fabric of his shirt is not yet buttoned. 

I slowly kiss up his torso, and along his collarbone, all the way up to his jaw, which is set tight as he inhales sharply. 

I pause over the side of his face, my eyes tracing the shape of his lips as I bite my tongue, I can feel him watching, and painfully waiting for me to connect our lips, but I don’t budge, I just sit there tempting him with my breath.  

In a flash he sets his drink down, the loud clink startling me as he grabs my face and pulls it to his, the hand his drink was in wet against my skin due to setting the glass down so abruptly. His lips glide along my own, the feeling knocking the air from my lungs, and his taste explodes in my mouth as he deepens the kiss, tequila overpowering my senses. 

I tangle my fingers in his hair, pulling against the silky soft strands as he lets out a low grunt, causing a tornado of butterflies deep in my stomach. 

My fingers blindly find the buttons on his dress shirt and start to fumble with them, tearing them from their places one by one. He helps my hands slide the shirt off his body, our mouths never breaking, and I glide my hands over his torso, my stomach doing flips as I feel the taut muscles flex with every movement. 

I slip my hands under his arms to slide up and down his back, the smooth skin feeling like silk under my fingertips. 

His lips rip away from my mouth as they begin to nip and kiss along my jaw and down my neck, my lips part from the feeling of his tongue laying slick marks against the skin, as his hand smooth down my body. 

He breaks away, his breath hot against me as he begins to tug at the end of my dress, “Is this okay?” he whispers, slowly starting to pull it off. 

I nod frantically, and in an instant the dress is on the floor and his lips are back on my neck. His hands travel down to grasp my butt, and slide down the back of my thighs, signaling for me to jump, to which I jump up and wrap my legs around his waist. 

His lips refocus on mine as he starts walking, and I carelessly kiss him back as we walk down a hallway and into a room. He sets me down just before what I assume is his bed, and before he can push me back onto it, I flip around so that he falls with a surprised expression onto the soft covers, and I smirk. 

I lean down and begin to slip off my heels, and I notice his gaze never leaving me even as he sits up ans slides off his own shoes. 

He pulls me to him by the waist his large palms pressing into my hips slightly, as our lips reconnect. He slides his hands up my back, and slip his fingers under the latch of my bra. 

“Still okay?” he asks, and my heart melts at how innocent he sounds. 

I bite my lip and nod, “Yes” 

Then, his lips press in the valley of my breasts as he undoes the latch, and I gasp silently when he bites against the center of my bra and pulls it off with his teeth. 

Holy shit.

He smirks, and kisses me with a fury only pure lust could produce. As his hands grasp and palm over my body, a furious heat grows in my core, and with every heated kiss, I am more and more desperate to feel him closer. 

I lean back and with my lips tugging into a smirk, I push against his chest and he falls flat against the bed as I climb to straddle his hips.

I place open mouth kisses on his chest, over the butterfly tattoo, and glide my hands down his torso until I feel the cool leather of his belt and I start to unbuckle it when his hand stops me. 

“Wait...” he pants, “...are you sure?” he looks at me with concerned eyes, and I almost laugh at how absurd he sounds, of course I’m fucking sure.

“One hundred percent” I reply, my chest heaving as I struggle to catch my breath. He nods slightly and lets me continue. He helps me shimmy of his trousers, lifting his hips so that I could pool the fabric down to his ankles, his belt clanking when it hits the floor.

His jaw goes slack and his lips part when I palm the bulge that’s under the thin fabric of his briefs, and he starts to pant, his chest heaving. He grips my hips, his fingers slipping under the fabric on my hips as our lips collide again, a low moan rippling up from the back of his throat as my hands smooth over his hips, close to his core.

I break away, catching my breath, and taking a moment to look over his body.

Disheveled curls, perfectly parted lips, adam’s apple bobbing in his throat...down to his taut chest, sparrows rising and falling on his pecs, and the image of the ferns tattooed on his hips making my core heat up seeing them completely.

I trace my fingers over the vines and leaves, my eyes settling on his v-line as it goes down into his briefs.

He had to be an angel right? No one is build like that if they’re human.

I’ve got to be dreaming.

He sucks in a breath as my fingers graze the ink, and I look up to see his eyes traveling on my body as well.

“You’re so fucking beautiful” he says breathless, pulling his bottom lip in his mouth, and the rasp in his voice has heat pooling at my center.

I pull him back in for a desperate kiss, like his lips were oxygen and I was drowning, and he kisses back with just as must force.

In a flash he flips me around so that he is hovering over me, and I giggle into his lips.

“That’s better” his voice rumbles up from his throat, his hands hot on my hips, fingers pressing firmly into my skin as he connects his lips with my neck, leaving wet kisses down to my collar bone before pulling away to hook his fingers under the lace of my underwear, smirking up at me while he begins to pull them down my legs.

Once they are completely off he throws them over his shoulders, a devilish grin placed on his face, as his hands smooth up my shins.

He places a kiss on both my knees before starting to suck on the soft skin on the inside of my thighs, and I have to muffle a moan at the feeling.

“It’s okay love...” he whispers, his voice incredibly low, “...let me hear you”

My jaw goes slack as he starts sucking again, slightly higher up, and as the moan leaves my lips, a low groan leaves his own.

His palms push on my inner thighs, and I open them as he makes his way further and further up, and if I wasn’t totally washed away in pleasure I would have thought about the hickeys he was leaving on my skin, but I didn’t.

I couldn’t give a fuck to be honest.

I arch my back when I feel his tongue leave a slick trail just a hair’s width away from my folds, a soft whimper leaving my mouth.

“Tell me what you want” he says, voice low and lustful as he smirks at me, eyes blown out.

The throbbing in between my legs is almost painful, and I shift my hips to try and ease it, wincing when he continues to do nothing.

“You gotta tell me what you want, baby” He says and I glare at him, the heat in my core rising by the second.

“You” I breath, and he smirks even wider, “I don’t care how...God, I-I just want you”

I feel the presence of his fingers on my heat, and a moan leaves my lips. He sinks his middle digit deep into me, his cool rings making me gasp as he curls his fingers up.

“Fuck” I whisper, my eyes closed as he goes a steady pace, my head spinning, “N-need more” I gasp, and he slips in a second digit.

“N-no” I shake my head, writhing and rolling against his bed.

“No?” he questions, a smug tone to his voice and I force my eyes open to look at his.

“Not what I meant” I glare, and his smirk tells me he knows what I meant, but I can see the devil dancing in his eyes.

“Not your fingers, I need you” He bits his lip as he groans, pulling his fingers out of me to slide off his briefs, his member springing to his stomach.

“You want to feel me love, is that it?” he says low and raspy, reaching over to his bedside table to pull a shiny foil package out of the drawer.

My core is throbbing and I feel like screaming as more heat shoots through me, “Yes...need you now”

A dark chuckle rolls up from his chest as he rolls the rubber material over his hard center, sucking in a breath at the feeling.

“It’s okay, need to feel y’too” he whispers as he positions himself above me, my hips bucking and rolling, trying to ease the heat between my legs.

“Gonna have to hold still fo’ me” he says, one large palm pressing between my hips to try and limit my constant movement.

“Sorry-“ I pant, “It’s killing me” I whine, not even able to find embarrassment at how needy I am, all I could think about was the heavy throbbing at my core.

“All this for me?” he gasps as his head glides through the wetness at my center, and I moan at the feeling of finally feeling him, wrapping my legs around his hips, my heels pressing into his skin.

He sinks further and further into me, and I hadn’t realized just how big he was until now, he filled me up completely and I couldn’t help but whimper. He starts slow, pulling out and pushing back in at a painful pace, and I grab at the sheets under me.

“Faster, p-please go faster” I plead, and he sucks in a breath as he picks up speed, hitting all the right spots inside of me.

“God you’re so tight” he grunts, his eyebrows furrowed together in a mix of concentration and pleasure. He pace quickens and quickens until I’m seeing stars, the bed thudding from his thrusting.

“Feel good?” he pants, and I wonder how I’ll even get words out of my mouth with the pleasure rushing through me.

“Fucking amazing” I manage with a moan, my hands moving to grip at his shoulders, feeling myself almost to the edge.

“I-I’m-“ I gasp, but I can’t seem to speak as my head spins.

“You’re close?” he questions, stepping in for me and I nod furiously.

“Me too, fuck” he gasps, biting his lower lip, one hand landing on my hip to pull me against him harder, to the point where I ached where his fingers where, his nails digging in to my skin.

And that’s enough to send me over the edge, dirty noises leaving my lips as the coil in my belly snaps, my body shuttering around him as my vision blurs. I cuss and wrap my legs tighter around his hips, pulling him impossibly closer as he moans.

His thrusts become sloppy and broken as he cries out, his own release quickly following my own, and his head drops to the crook of my neck as he comes down from his high, body exhausted but still rolling into me. He rides out both of our orgasms, lazily sliding his hips into my own until he is almost too tired to move, but manages to slide out -causing me to gasp at the feeling- and plop down beside me.

We lay there, our bodies recovering, chests heaving and skin sticky with sweat.

When I finally regain some muscle movement I look over to him next to me, his back flat against the mattress one hand on his torso, one up by next to his head. A low fire begins to brew in my belly again at the sight of him, curls soaked with sweat, body glistening, muscles twitching and stretching as he struggles to catch his breath, lips parted and eyes shut.

I drag myself on top of him, tracing patterns on his balmy skin, “You okay?” my voice rasps, my vocal chords a bit overdone.

He swallows and smiles, “Yeah...you?”

I brush a hand through his damp hair, and he gives a satisfied hum.

“Yeah” I bite my lip, “...never felt like that before” he chuckles, and heat is already returning to my core as he opens his eyes, a lazy grin on his face.

“Me either” he admits, his hand beginning to run gently up and down my back, and I realize his rings are still on.

A shiver travels down my spine, and I bite my lip, “Think you could do it again?”

He raises his eyebrows at me, bringing his other hand to run down his face as he laughs.

“Christ! Already?” he exclaims and I blush a bit, still tracing invisible patterns on his chest.

“I made y’feel that good?” he asks, voice a bit lower, a sly grin on his face, and I give him a nod.

“Here...” I begin, “...you don’t even have to do anything, let me do the work” I say as I pick myself up from his body, ignoring my wobbly legs, and scoot down so that I am straddling him just above his hips.

“Okay...” he swallows, watching as I kiss his torso, right on top of the butterfly tattoo, laying a slick line with my tongue. His skin erupts with goosebumps and I smirk, sliding my hands down his body, placing my palms on his fern tattoos. I lay another kiss and another, until I’ve reached his belly button, and I scrape my teeth along his skin. A low groan leaves his mouth as his eyes close.

“Y’like that?” I ask, and his hands flex the sheets underneath him before he nods. I can feel his cock already hardening from behind my bum, and I lean up to suck on his neck, my teeth nipping his skin as I finish and his breath hitches. I scoot down and rub my wettening core on his length, which earns a soft whimper from both of our mouths, both of us still sensitive from our last round.

I reach between us as I glide my hands down his member, realizing he never took his condom off from previously, and giving him a slow pump as I watch his jaw slack as his length fully hardens in my hand.

“Feelin’ good yet?” I ask, and I graze my thumb over his head, a moan leaving his lips.

“Yes...keep going” he says, his chest already starting to heave again. I lift myself up, thighs shaking, and slide onto him just a tad, closing my eyes at the feeling, and I pause, my hands firm on his chest.

“K-keep going” he pleads through gritted teeth, and I don’t have it in me to tease him, my core throbbing for him. I lower myself down and I hear him suck in a breath as I completely engulf him. Then, finding it impossible to hold still, I lift myself up and back down, my lips parting at the feeling.

He was so big...and I loved it.

His hands settle on my thighs, gripping as I speed up, slowly bouncing faster and faster on top of him.

“Holy shit” he mumbles, grunting and I let out a small whimper, I was already so close.

“I’m close” I gasp, biting my lip and he nods.

Only a few more bounces and I’m shaking, throwing my head back as pleasure shoots through me, his hands now on my hips, pulling me down as he lifts his own up until he was moaning too, both of us trembling and gasping for air.

I lift off of him, and collapse beside him, opening my eyes when I hear him roll the condom off his body, and he goes to toss it away, returning to pull me under the covers and against his chest.

“You’re a minx, y’know that?” he laughs breathlessly, and I chuckle back, I was exhausted, and he was too.

“Made me feel amazing though, haven’t felt that good in a while” he whispers, a genuine tone to his voice, pressing a kiss to my forehead, “Thank you”

I furrow my eyebrows, did he just thank me?

No one has ever thanked me after having sex before, and I found it oddly heart warming.

“Let me know when you’re ready for round three” he smugly whispers and I raise my eyebrows pulling away from his chest to see the devilish smirk on his lips, he was either an angel or satan himself, and I’d be lying if I said the idea didn’t burn me up from the inside out with excitement and curiosity.