#I SUCK AT DRAWING ANN AND ANDY | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

sonasnowdrop · 2 years ago

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Chapter 2: Alone at sea.

-D:QFTIM-

Five years ago I lost my mama to archangels, everyday I dread about it happening again. We’re far away from when it happened, but I can’t help but feel like it was all my fault. Tzian says it was bound to happen, but it couldn’t have happened if I didn’t stay out after dusk. I miss you Mama.

~~~~~

Today was the day, no matter what I was gonna see those mermaids shimmer tonight. Under the night of the forever moon shining above the stars, I threw a bunch of junk into my bag and slung it over my shoulder.

I glare outside, scanning the pavement of the empty streets. It was almost pitch dark, I swallow my sudden discomfort.

“BOO!!”

I jump feeling startled, my friend laughs hysterically. I grumble and suck air through my teeth, “Ugh, really Ori?” I scoff, she snorts while laughing. She soon settles down and pats my shoulder. “Relax Ben, we’re gonna have a blast!” Oierio threw her hands up dramatically and plopped them back down onto my shoulder, I groan as she does so. I stare off, soon tuning her out as she speaks, my hands interlock and I gaze down. I soon part my lips and interrupt Ori’s rambling,

“Ori, are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, what if we get caught?” I ask, trying not to sound too nervous. The demon beside me squints, and her brows furrow. “Pfft, of course it’s a good idea! This is one of the best plans yet!” She replies while reaching into her bag and pulling out a piece of paper. When opening it, a map was revealed, cities were drawn and the hand writing was poor. Oierio definitely hand made this.

“Besides, who’re ya’ worried about catching us anyway?” She scoffs teasingly, I cross my arms and turn away. Ori turns to me, her smile fades into a frown, and she rolls her eyes in realization. “Oh for gods sake, Ben! No angels are gonna come get us!” She grumbles, and hops off the bed. “They could!” I reply back bitterly, she sucks air through her teeth.

I soon hop off the bed as well as she begins to draw an extra location on the map. “We’re miles away from when it first happened.” She mutters, while scribbling. My hand brushes against the yellow paper she strokes on with her crayon, I feel sweat drip off me. “Well Anne said—“

“Anne, Anne, Anne! We don’t have to listen to her!” She interjects, while slamming her hand down, I slightly flinch. “We never get to do anything fun anymore!” The demon puts down the paper and crosses her arms, I can agree, we used to have alot of fun before the raid. The demon huffed, causing her outline to shift in color due to her emotion. My face saddens, and I pat her back and sigh. “Ngh…okay okay, we can go but like, just for a little while.”

Oierio gasps and jumps up and down in excitement, which caused her to shift again to a more yellowish color. We both finish packing and rush out of the house. Ori’s eyes light up our path. “We shouldn’t be doing this oh jeez oh gosh…” I say to do myself, the Imp ahead of me chuckles, “Relax dude, nothings gonna happen. Keep up!” She cackles while dragging me along, I need to just think positively.

I feel myself slightly shiver as the cold breeze tugged at my bangs. Our footsteps fill the city streets, Oierio has walked this path many times as she always goes out to see the glowmaids shimmer by in a nearby ocean tide. We both blended into the shadows of the night, I gulp and flinch at any sudden noise. Ori looks back at me with a grin, “I know what I’m doing, trust me.” She smiles, “I-I know!” I reply shakily, mist forms around my mouth as I speak and huff.

The stars and bright blue moon above lighten out our path further, we dip past Anne and Andy’s little candy store, I glance at it, obviously it’s closed but I can’t help but admire the cuteness of it. Tiny flower pots coated the windows and cherry vines cover the pots. Cute shiny crystals hang from the ceiling outside, the blinds were drawn so I couldn’t make out the interior.

Soon, I see we are approaching a beach, next to it was a beach house. “Uhm…” I stammer, “Who’s house is this?” I ask, as my friend lets me go and I clasp my hands. “Heh, not really important right now.” Ori scoffs while chuckling, she climbs up a ladder that leads to a deck. I hesitatingly follow her. “Ori, I swear if we’re trespassing I’m gonna kill you.” I throw empty harmless threats at her as she grins at me. “Psh, you wish.” She replies.

My anxiety soon transformed into excitement that bubbled on, I smiled as we both approached the silver lake. Ori was the first to sit down, I sat down next to her only seconds later.

“Now what? Are they coming tonight?” I ask, turning to the female demon.

“Heck yeah, we just gotta wait.” She replies,

I lean back, Ori leans forward. The moon certainly does compliment the ocean at night, I wish I could see this more often. My attention drives off onto the beach house behind us, all the lights are off it seems, and no cars sit in the driveway. I suddenly feel a light tap on my shoulder, I turn back to Ori, to which she’s giddy and pointing onto the water “Look look, it’s happening they’re here!” She thumps her feet lightly and turns yellow again.

I stare on in absolute wonder as the sea is now littered with glowing creatures. Some even have jellyfish bottoms, their blue aura stains my skin as they glow. Occasionally, pink, and yellow ones go by. Ori and I stare in admiration, I lean over the decks edge, I stick my hand into the water and feel the silky skin of the creatures below. I get way too lost in the moment and end up falling in.

“Ben!” Ori shouts, I flap my arms unable to swim. The mermaids shoot by, causing me to drift farther and farther away from shore. “Shit shit, grab onto something!” My friend shouts as she looks down into the water.

I knew it I knew this was a bad idea crap crap! I shout to myself, I suddenly feel arms hook underneath my armpits and lift me up. I look down, the hands are silky and almost see through, they’re also tiny, like a babies hands. As I’m lifted to the surface, I splash out gasping for air. Ori spots me, she stops in her tracks when seeing who had recused me.

“A-a mermaid!” She shouts, the little soul flinches when being called out and drops me onto the sand. “Hell, Ben, are you okay?” My friend runs to my side, I cough, she lifts me up. I stare on at the mermaid who saved me, she looks about our age.

“T-thank you.” I say while breaking into a smile, she smiles back. “You’re very welcome.” Her hair is like snakes as it falls around her shoulders, her skin is Caramel and she has golden charms around her dreads. Her hair shines a bright red.

“What are you…” she ponders, swimming closer to shore. The other mermaids continue to swim by with speed. I blink rabidly before answering “A demon, we’re both demons.” I state simply, “you’re so…beautiful.” Oierio gasps out, this causes the red haired mermaid to flush.

She covers her mouth with her hand at Oierio’s compliment, “she’s right y’know, you’re gorgeous!” I add, hands clasps. The mermaid giggles and looks on with glimmering eyes. “Ariel.” She mutters, me and Ori tilt our heads simultaneously, “M-my name, is Ariel.”

“Oooohh.” We both say, staring at one another, a little fish accompanies Ariel, it’s yellowish white and has blue stripes.

“Ben, and Oierio.” I say, pointing at myself, then pointing over at Ori. Ariel giggles again and states that she likes our names very much. A crab emerges from her red locks, startling me and Ori. It then does something neither of us expect. It…speaks-

“Ariel! Get your fish fins back into the sea this instant!” The red crab shouts, Ori’s face contorts into disgust as the crab uncannily moves its mouth to speak. The cute fish next to Ariel talks as well, “Yeah, we gotta hurry! The other mermaids are leaving us!” The little fish squeaks, we both stare at one another in confusion.

Ariel shakes off the crab, to which it falls onto a rock, “Don’t shake me away young lady, I—GAH!!” Its rambling was cut short as Oierio snatched it. She held it firmly with two hands and shook it gently. Ariel lightly gasped and tried to grasp the crab, “Oh my, please don’t do that!” The mermaid cries, Ori immediately lets the crab go, and it falls into Ariel’s little palms. “Sorry-“ My friend mutters.

“You insufferable demon! How dare you lay a finger on me—“ the crab shouts, Ori sticks her tongue out. The caramel mermaid interrupts the argument.

“Sebastian…be nice.” Ariel whimpers, to which the crab; who’s name is apparently Sebastian, lowers his claw. “Who’s this?” I ask, pointing at the fish, Ariel’s eyes light up as she smiles, “Thats flounder!” She exclaims, the fish in question hid behind the mermaid fearfully. I wave, Ori does the same. “They’re my friends Seb!” She says to the crab before staring back at me, I smile back and nod.

“I don’t care who they are! You need to get back into the tide now!” Sebastian snaps, Ariel flinches slightly at his tone. “But I’m having fun!” She argues, brows furrowed. “You won’t be having much fun when your father finds ou—“

“ARIEL!” A loud voice booms, interrupting the crab, “oh no! It’s the king! Ariel, we’ve gotta go now!” Flounder whines, Sebastian sides with the fish. Ariel blows hair out of her face and rolls her eyes. She swims up close to the deck. I feel my smile fade into a frown when seeing how saddened she looked.

“Hey…Ariel? I’ll come back here tomorrow, okay? Ori too.” I reassure the mermaid, and hold her hands. She flushes, “I’ll be here.” She smiles, her aqua blue eyes shine like no other. Her time was up, as she splashed back into the ocean, Sebastian climbed at her locks and flounder followed close behind. I stare off as her bright red hair fades. I turn over to Ori, to which she hasn’t said anything, she smugly looks at me, I furrow my brows in confusion. “W-what??” I say, while tugging at my jacket strings, her lips curve and she narrows her eyes. “You liiiiiiike her~” she teases, while pinching my face. I jolt, and grab her wrists, I feel my face heat up, “What the hell are you on about!? I just met her!” I snarl, she laughs. “So? I saw how you looked at her! ‘Oh Ariel, I’ll come back tomorrow for you my love~’” she closes her eyes and clasps her hands while imitating my voice. I flush more and push her away.

“Hey!! Get off my property you filthy freaks of nature!” A raspy voice interrupts us both, we both turn around to see an old man, a human, yells at us. A robotic woman stands in the doorway of the beach house now. Ori springs to her feet, and snatches me. She bolts towards the fence we jumped over.

“Who’s that?!” I panicky ask, anxiety fills me completely now.

“It’s the owner of the beach house!” Ori shouts while laughing hysterically, the old man chases us until we’re completely out of his property. I trip over my hooves and fall into the dirt. Ori stops to catch her breath, “Shit Ben! That was close! You okay?” She reaches her hand out, I swat it away, “are you insane?! We could’ve had our ass kicked by a human!” I bark, Oierio breaks out into absolute laughter. I breathe heavy and sweat shoots off of me. “That was fucking awesome!” She snorts, and holds her stomach. Once we recover and catch our breath, we realize it’s very very late, and I gotta get home before Anne wakes up.

Oierio walks me home, I watch her walk to her house out my window. Might sound creepy but, I wanted to make sure she got home. I plop into my bed, and yawn. Soon, I fall asleep.

——————

Chapter 1 / Chapter 3

I enjoyed writing this lol

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captaincatsshapedliketriangles · 4 years ago

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I just

I had to-

#he's just so #he's a good brother #raggedy andy #raggedy ann & andy: a musical adventure #also can't you tell I just suck at drawing stars?

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spaloonbabooguuscooties · 4 years ago

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how old are raggedy ann and andy?? im just wondering bcs i see a lot of ship art around of them between other characters and some of it is sort of suggestive so i wanted to know?....

OKAY SO IM NOT LIKE . A RAGGEDY ANN LORE EXPERT BUT some of the cartoons like the chuck jones short fluctuate on this because theyre very much seen as kids there and Look like kids- whereas things like musical adventure (what everyone usually focuses all of their info on), the books, and the stage play (YES it counts) theyre adults and pointed out specifically as being. Very Old. even the official artbook for the movie says this

as far as it goes theyre dolls that are insanely old so their ages are like. you know. technically 100 and they werent really made with the intention of having specific ages in the canon .

that being said as far as i know no one is being weird about it and everyone pretty much interprets them as Adults (especially the people drawing that sort of thing) like. characters like Babette are VERY much ‘adult-coded’ or whatever so i kind of base it around that if that makes sense

like if you drew the chuck jones versions in weird situations id kill you . get me. sorry if this answer sucks lol the lore is all over

#raggedy ann lore is all over the place . i like to think people are not being freaks though #except the ones that use the weird canon to ship ann and andy. you can die god bless #raggedy ann

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thedappleddragon · 4 years ago

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haha here we go again

there's a lot of dumb ranting and 3 days worth of logs and a dream in here so im gonna spare evryone’s dashboard and just put it all under the cut.

tw bad memories, talk of unhealthy relations with food, and dreams about dead animals

I realized I kind of entirely forgot to write about what I did yesterday? I kind of did a lot. I know my mom wanted to work on getting tile laid out in front of her bathroom, so we worked together to scrub the concrete and wipe up all the dirt and dust and whatever was under the carpet and remove some of the nails in the floor and bring up a spiky metal strip between the bathroom door and where the carpet was. The other main thing I remember is deciding to continue work on my dress, sewing up the outer bodice, checking that the bodice and lining would fit together, deciding I’d rather have no different colored front panel, and working on the circle skirt. At first I tried cutting the fabric on my bed, but it wasn’t big enough and too lumpy. I contemplated asking my friends if I could borrow their dining table, but I ended up clearing off my own. After I traced and was in the middle of pinning, I accidentally knocked over a glass bowl that I had set on the chair. My mom heard it from the other room and had me come to her room to tell her what it was. She got angry at me, which I thought was fuckin stupid if it was an accident, but after some reflection while cleaning up the glass pieces, I kind of understood why. Mostly I got a little upset about 2 ceramic pieces I made during school breaking a little from the drop. One was a mushroom house from middle school that always makes me remember feeling like an asshole during peer review when I told my person to smooth their project more because I didn’t know “no improvement needed” was an option until I got back to my desk and saw my person saying it was good in all categories because everyone thought my project was great for some reason. The other was a bunch of flowers on a circle. It was the last project we did before quarantine hit, I think. That one is in less tough shape, just a couple flowers knocked off and a chip on one of them. They can both be glued back together, I guess. Then my mom called me back into her room to listen to her talk about wanting to eat huge amounts of food, because she’s clinically depressed with BPD and PTSD and DID and several other acronyms and her favorite coping mechanism is food, but her doctor put her on a diet so she can get her knees replaced, but recently she’s been getting into a zone where she talks about wanting to eat entire cakes and pizzas and buckets of kfc and a gallon of queso or whatever the fuck and she goes “doesn’t that sound GOOD?” And I have to laugh along and say “haha no that sounds bad actually” and get her a piece of ham or something. And every time she goes on her spiel the only thing I can think of is the greedy from the raggedy Ann and Andy musical. It’s just this horrible undulating orange blob that eats everything in sight and seeing it for the first time just made me think of mom and it made me very uncomfortable, with all the orange goo and hurling noises. Also reminds me of this horrible video game boss fight where it’s the apocalypse and a fat lady on a scooter took over the buffet and eats so much during her boss fight, during the defeat cutscene she projectile vomits everywhere and dies. My brother Greg showed me that thinking it was funny. I hated it, and I still do. He showed me a lot of things he thought were funny as a shitty little kid, and I remember several of them being very upsetting. It’s ok. I don’t want to dwell on it. But after cleaning the glass and talking to mom I brought my fabric to my room and called it a night. Oh wait my dad also helped me with some paperwork my coworker handed me so I could get on the payroll.

Today I woke up differently than I have in a long time. I set an alarm for 10 am so I could be at work by 11, but I woke up at 9 from a heavy sleep with dreams about hanging out with my friend in my room, worrying about my dirty house. I wanted to sleep longer, so I got up at 10 to have breakfast and get ready. I spent my shift changing the price tags all around the store, making everything more expensive. I’m gonna work again on Tuesday where I’ll learn how to use the register. I hope I don’t fuk it up, but I have a couple days to relax until then. Maybe I’ll work on my dress. My friends all want to go to prom together, so my new deadline will be March 2nd or a little before. I still need to buy a ticket, but I don’t have access to the link to buy one :( bleh I’m too tired right now to worry about this shit. I only worked 4 hours again today, but after I got home I felt like I could have worked longer if they gave me something else to do. The only price tags left to change were a bunch of grills and stuff I don’t know about but I don’t know if they had any other work for my to do. But I’m glad I went home tho because I was hungry and my feet hurt from standing lol. I did laundry and made myself dinner and washed my hair and drew a little bit and made the table and tbh the pacing of today has been so weird I don’t remember everything. It’s only 1am but I think I’m just gonna go to bed. my friends started talking about going to prom, and I really want to join them, but I can't figure out where/how to buy a ticket. my brain started being really mean to me, syaing that I was being annoying and pushy and that they didnt want me at prom for some reason, so I low-key almost made myself cry until my friend offered to let me be their platonic date since their partner couldn't go.

last night I had a dream about a hard video game where when you played it, the black shadow enemies would fight you in real life, and one of them left imprints on my arm in the shape of lego bricks. they could only attack you so long as you played the game, and they tried to capture people and you were supposed to save them. I decided it was my time to play, and I walked into my garage that had turned into a cave with bat-people fused into the wall. I paid them no mind as I rescued a girl who was my irl brother, grabbing her hand and pulling her into another versoin of my garage which was uncorrupted and normal looking. she thanked me, and I said it was no problem. then I tricked her, telling her not to trust so easily, as I became one of the shadow enemies and engulfed her in a black sack, trapping her and leaving the room. I came back a couple minutes later, letting him free (now my brain told me he was my brother) telling him I just wanted to know if I was capable of tricking him, and didnt actually want to kill him or whatever. another big chunk of my dream was taken up by me, my sister, and my dad visiting a run down petting zoo/gamestop. the petting zoo barn was very dark with low ceilings with lots of rabbits and pigs and hay. one of us accidentally killed either a pig or a tiger right next to the exit door, and I had to slink around the gamester trying to distract the owner and keep him from going in the barn and escaping at the same time. I dont remember how it ended, other than me waking up with a sore throat from breathing so deeply through my nose. I had slept on my stomach wit my pillow in my face so I could hardly breathe, and even after I woke up I felt like I wasnt getting enough air. I HATE that feeling, I always felt like I was suffocating in middle school for some reason. I thinkk somethings wrong with my airway but im not gonna do anything about it. im gonna continue to spend 80% of my day laying down so my resting heart rate and breathing speed is slower than an goddamn sloth. whatever.

right now as im laying in bed typing this I feel utterly unpoductive but I KNOW I did SOME shit today. but yeah mostly I relaxed. I worked on my dress, removing and replacing the blue front panel. I lost my exacto knife somewhere so I went to dollar tree to get a knockoff, along with snacks for mom and my sister. the blades aren't as sharp as exacto, but I still know where the name brands blades are so maybe Ill try and see if they're compatible. when I open the package everything was oily and gross, so I washed everything off with soap and water before I used them to cut the threads of the panel seams. I could have used my seam ripper but I wanted to get a replacement craft knife anyway. its kinda neat that it came with 6 different shaped blades for different crafts :) but uhh I also cut out the other half of the circle skirt of the dress, and I have a bunch of extra fabric left over. probably enough to make a whole other bodess if I wanted too. I used my sewing machine to attach the new front panel, and I was hoping to get more sewing done tonight, but when I asked my sister if it was ok for me to use my sewing machine (it right next to the wall between our rooms so she can hear it from there) she said she was going to bed soon so I just attatched the front panel and called it a night. so that kinda sucked. I still have another day tomorrow before I have to work again, and I can still work on my dress on Tuesday after work. idk why my brain thinks that one 4 hour shift is gonna take up my entire day lmao. I just have to get the whole thing done by may 2nd. GOD that reminds me, im gonna be so busy next month. I have six events back to back happening like every other day, plus work. oof. I'll have to let my boss know, but idk If that's gonna make him mad. I've already got pretty comfortable with the lady in charge of the garden center who’s taken lead position while the manager is on vacation, but I dont think I;ll every understand my boss. he’s a sarcastic busy old man and NOT AT ALL approachable. whatever. really the only other tings I did today were drink a shit ton of water play harvest moon, spend too much time on tiktok, and sraw a couple dum things for my friends’ princess au. I fucking HATE the drawing I did for Anna, so I designed her a secondary outfit more inspired by sky pirate bohemian vibes, since she rules over the floating islands. idk if I'll replace her old outfit with the new one in the lineup or just re-draw her old one with better shapes and composition and match the style better or what. I just need it changed eventually becasuse it looks like ass. tbh now that ve taken a little bit of time away from the princess au, there are a couple designs im not 100% satisfied with. but I know that if I go back and make them more detailed or whatever the’ll be more of a hassle to draw and aslkdfhalksdf I dont know anymore. I'm still tied up about color pallets and trying to give everyone a distinct color, and im a little upset it doesn't quite work, and FUCK dude the edgy one’s lore and character are weird and I kind of want to revise it to make it a little nicer but its not my character and I need to stop shoving my dirty little mitts into everyone’s ocs and AHAGHRGHGARGHHG idk man. her power is necromancy and she has a skeleton army, which I think I kinda cool, but I also think it would be neat if her powers extended beyond just that to communing with the dead, helping them find rest, and THEN maybe it can branch into helping fallen soldiers fight again to help them with unfinished buisness. and then if she goes feral and starts abusing her powers, she ignores all the communication and concent with the dead and instead magically rips them from thr ground to do her bidding and they’re uncontrollable and violent and aimless, just like her mind slipping from the magical blight infecting her. idk man we’re till working on a lot of lore. her concept could be SO COOL with just that little bit of extra thought, but so far it’s just MY POWER IS DEATH IM SO EDGY. ugh I know its fuckin rude to bash your friends oc ideas and I might be too overbearing and controlling of this au but dammit im tired and im mean sometimes and my ego is through the goddamn roof and im so sexy and im always right and my meat is huge. ah shit I rpomised my friend I would help her with character design for the dead king but I was busy when she firat asked me and now im not busy but im not doing it ugh. im just frustrated right now because I spent wayyyy to fuckin long just laying in bed watching tikotks and youtube and playing harvest moon an doing jack shit all day. but hey at least I attempted to get a new social security card again today. and them promptly gave up when they said my adress was invalid. again. I feel like im in an uncomfortable medium between having no plans and worrying about the future and having too many plans all the time oh my god. ive been so focused on getting a job and then having a job and making this dress I completely forgot about college shit. thankfully there's no hard deadlines coming up that I haven't already finished. whatever I dont really want to worry about all this hit right now, im just gonna take it one day at a time. (haha it feels like my angel oc just stepped in. how nice of him :) )

#thanks for coming to my ted talk #April 2021 daily #2021 daily

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writsgrimmyblog · 7 years ago

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Ficlet: Always You

The second of my Wednesday night ficlet/drabbles in which Harry is persistent and Nick is very uncomfortable with flirting around his family. Humour, borderline crack and a bit of kissing and schmoop.

This is a bit long but it combines two prompts, so double the words. The anon prompts were Gryles and uncomfortable bad flirting in front of the family, please and thank you :))))) and Maybe just some family time with Harry's/Nick's family? Like this talk about awkward flirting in front of Jane but in front of their whole families, maybe a flashback of Nick's siblings giving Harry The Talk™, Anne texting Nick photos of her cat, etc. SOME DOMESTIC STUFF✨✨✨ - I’m afraid I didn’t get all of the second prompt in, but hopefully the fic captures the awkward flirting bits. There are more prompt fills to come, thank you for the awesome prompts! The next couple will hopefully be shorter, so I’m hoping I’ll get to most of them tonight but if I don’t, I’ll pick the rest up when I can.

Always You (Nick/Harry)

Content Warning: None

The first time Harry meets Nick’s family it’s fine, because they’re still in the just friends stage and Harry hasn’t discovered skinny jeans or shirts that open to the navel. He’s just a ball of energy and relentlessly charming and he’s absolutely, categorically far too young and too about-to-be-mega-famous for Nick. He’s also a cheeky little shit and he doesn’t seem to appreciate that Nick doesn’t flirt in front of his family. If anything, he seems to get a kick out of making Nick squirm and having secret conversations with Jane after complimenting Eileen on her roast potatoes.

“Grim’s coming to mine over Christmas.” For some reason, Harry’s sucking jam off his thumb and making eye-contact with Nick at the same time. Nick’s going to have to explain to him there’s a certain table etiquette which definitely doesn’t involve making Nick think about blowjobs when he’s surrounded by family. “My mum loves Nick.”

“Why?” Jane says. She gives Nick a wink and he flicks her the finger.

“Says he’s a good boy.” Harry winks too, his cheeks dimpled. He says good boy in that low, slow drawl of his and he looks delighted when Nick visibly squirms. Fucking Harry.

“Enough of that, Styles.” Nick rolls his eyes and tries to look blasé. “Eat your toast.”

“Yes, sir.” Harry smiles around a mouthful of food and gives Nick a look from under his lashes. Honestly, it’s a wonder Nick doesn’t kill him.

* * *

Flirting with Harry in London is easy. Nick can swagger about a bit and show off all his industry-insider knowledge. He can say young Harold just enough times to get Harry pouting and he can ruffle Harry’s hair and do impressions of his voice or take the piss out of his bandana. He appreciates many people might not actually see that as flirting, but it’s Nick’s favourite kind. The kind that involves just enough insults to mask the god, you’re fit kind of nonsense that Nick often feels but doesn’t like to say out loud.

Harry’s a master at flirting. He’s got a magnetic way of commanding attention when he walks into a room and everyone he speaks to falls a little bit in love with him.

Not Nick, obviously. Nick flirts, but it’s not love or anything. It’s just Nick and Harry, dicking around and annoying Finchy and Ian. It’s not like Harry’s warm body pressing against Nick’s in the pub begins to make Nick a bit dizzy. It’s not like Harry’s getting into the habit of lingering when he kisses Nick goodbye after a night out.

“Two kisses. Like we’re from Chelsea or something.” Harry’s on the second cheek now, his breath warm on Nick’s skin. It feels like he’s been kissing Nick’s cheeks for hours. “Night, Grim.”

“Bugger off and get to bed.” Nick releases Harry and hopes he doesn’t look as shaken as he feels. “Popstars need their beauty sleep. You wouldn’t want to wake up haggered, like me.”

“Don’t.” Harry’s brows meet in the middle and he looks disgruntled. “You’re not haggered.”

“Am a bit.” Nick shrugs it off and he pulls Harry into one more hug. He does that thing blokes do when they’re keen to make sure their hugs look proper laddy, clapping Harry on the shoulder.

“Are not.” Harry smiles at Nick when they eventually separate. He punches Nick on the shoulder, lightly. Very just good mates, that. Very non-homoerotic. Nick can breathe again.

When he walks home, Nick definitely doesn’t think about how Harry smells like the candles in Nick’s home and the same posh cologne Nick’s ex used to wear. He doesn’t fall asleep thinking how Harry melts into Nick’s arms when they hug, like he belongs there.

Nick wraps his arms around his pillow and holds on just a bit too tight.

It’s fine. Really, it’s fine.

* * *

If Nick doesn’t like flirting in front of his family, he definitely doesn’t like kissing in front of them. That’s why Harry’s mistletoe becomes a bit of a problem.

“Oh, look.” Harry points above them to where his impertinent fingers are currently dangling a slightly sorry for itself piece of mistletoe above Nick’s head. “Look what it is.”

“No.” Nick glares at Harry and tries to keep him at arms-length by putting a hand on his shoulder. “Put the mistletoe away, Styles. You’ve got enough Victoria’s Secret models giving you kisses. You don’t need one from me just because you’ve spent too long cooped up in Holmes Chapel.” He can hear Jane giggling and his mum asks if Nick’s going to put Harry out of his misery. Andy rolls his eyes and Nick’s aunt looks as if she’s about to start planning the wedding.

“Seems a bit rude not to.” Harry waggles the mistletoe and one of the berries drops into Nick’s quiff. “It’s right here.”

Nick gives Harry a kiss on the cheek and steps back, nearly tripping over himself. He knows he’s bright red because he can feel the heat coursing through his cheeks. “There. That’s all you’re getting.”

“Pity.” Harry lowers the mistletoe and puts it in his pocket. “I’ll just have to try again later.”

Nick avoids standing close to Harry for the rest of the day and Jane finds it absolutely fucking hilarious.

* * *

Nick can’t decide if flirting in front of his own family is worse than flirting in front of Anne. Scrunched up against the arm of the sofa because Harry apparently has no concept of boundaries and personal fucking space, he thinks it’s pretty much a draw.

“Did you have a nice time with your mum, love?” Anne gives Nick a smile, but he doesn’t miss the way she raises an eyebrow at Harry snuggling up to Nick with a blanket pulled up to his chin and an enormous mug of mulled wine. He’s drinking out of the mug Nick got him for his birthday, with a picture of Harry from the olden days on one side and a massive pink heart on the other. It’s disconcerting, being this close to two of them, grinning up at Nick as if they’re enjoying his discomfort.

“Lovely, thanks.” Nick smiles at Anne and wonders whether it would be weird to stretch his arm across the back of the sofa. He’s starting to get pins and needles.

“Glass of wine?”

“Can’t really move at the minute.” Nick nudges Harry. “Harold here’s made himself comfortable.”

“Have some of mine,” Harry offers. Instead of handing Nick the mug like any normal person, he proceeds to give Nick some mulled wine, holding the mug to Nick’s lips and helping him drink like he’s a small child that needs feeding.

“Great mulled wine.” Nick swallows and he glares at Harry who seems blissfully unaware of the fact Nick wants to slide into the sofa cushions and never surface again.

“Thanks, love.” She’s lovely, Anne is. Nick likes her a lot. It’s a shame he’s going to have to dump her son on the floor shortly. “I think I’m going to go to bed.” She kisses them both on the cheek and ruffles Harry’s hair. “Behave, you.”

“As if I wouldn’t.” Harry’s smile is beatific.

“Take Nick to bed if he’s tired.”

“Oh,” Harry says, licking his lips. “I’ll definitely take him to bed.”

Yep. Nick’s going to have to kill him.

* * *

“You’re round for a cuppa with Eileen.” Nick eyes Harry up and down. “A jumper and some nice jeans would have been fine.”

“I wanted to make an effort.” Harry breezes past Nick, his expensive silk shirt clinging in all the right places. His trousers are impossibly tight and he toes off his shoes to reveal black socks that probably cost a thousand pounds. “I didn’t want to be scruffy.”

“Says the man who wears beanies out to dinner.” Nick rolls his eyes. He can’t exactly talk. He’s worn a pink faux-fur jacket for tea with Eileen before. Harry’s got nothing on him.

“Hi Eileen.” Harry kisses Eileen on both cheeks, properly suave these days after becoming a global megastar and learning the tricks of the trade. “Thanks for having me.”

“You’re welcome, love.” Eileen beams at Harry. She definitely prefers him to Nick. “Are you staying?”

“’Course he is! We’ve got wine.” Jane gives Harry a hug. “Hiya.”

“Hi.” Harry grins and he glances at Nick. “If Grim’s happy to have me, I’ll stay.”

“Always happy to have you,” Nick says. Jane raises her eyebrows and he has to fight back a blush.

“I’ll be in your room, Grim?” Harry moves his stool close to Nick’s and blows on his tea to cool it. “Like in London?”

Jane makes a strangled sound that’s half snort, half laugh and Nick kicks Harry in the leg. “Not that much in London.”

“Sometimes, though.” Harry smiles around his tea. “It’s a nice room. Nice big bed. Very tidy.” He clearly thinks he’s doing Nick a favour by telling Eileen that Nick’s house proud but all Nick can see is the way Jane and Eileen look at one another, wondering what the hell Nick’s doing with Harry in his bed.

“I’m glad you like it.” Eileen sounds a bit faint, which is quite rare for Eileen.

“Very much.” Harry puts his mug on the kitchen counter and he puts a hand on Nick’s leg. “I’ve got something I wanted to show you. From America.”

“Oh, from America.” Nick moves his leg out of reach of Harry’s grabby hands. “Where is it?”

“In my bag.” Harry doesn’t look like he’s going to fetch it and bring it into the kitchen.

Eileen clears her throat. “Why don’t you get Harry settled in your room, love? We’ll still be here.”

Nick huffs and leaves the room, Harry following behind. When they’re upstairs and Nick’s quite sure no one’s listening at the door he turns to Harry.

“You’re a bloody menace. He’s got a nice big bed. They probably think we’re shagging every night.”

“Would be nice if we were,” Harry says.

“Exactly, it’s embarrassing.” Nick stops. “Wait, what?”

“Shagging.” Harry’s close to Nick now and he’s grown enough that they can look at one another dead on. “It would be nice if we were doing that.”

“Harry.” Nick thinks it might be sensible to get some distance but he can’t, not really. He can’t move away from Harry even though he’s conscious they’re in his old bedroom and there’s still a picture of Eminem on the wall that reminds him of being a teenager and really fucking miserable. “We’re not just going to-”

“Why not, though?” Harry presses close to Nick. “Because I think we definitely should.”

Nick sighs. He rubs his forehead with his hand and he shakes his head, trying to clear it. “Was there even a thing from America?”

“Yeah.” Harry moves away and he reaches into his bag, extracting a framed photograph. It’s probably an original because Harry’s got billions in the bank and he’s the kind of person that likes to get an extravagant gift. Nick swallows, tracing his fingers over the words which are lit up in bright neon on a dark background.

always you

Harry watches Nick expectantly and he looks so good standing there. Despite everything he’s still the same kid who sat at Nick’s table, licking jam off his fingers. Still the same idiot who dangled a sad piece of mistletoe over Nick’s head, smiling and eager for a rubbish kiss. He’s still the same Harry who curls them up in blankets from Nick’s sofa and makes Nick order carbs from the local curry place. He’s a bit more polished, but his hair still curls at the forehead and Nick’s never not wanted to run his fingers through it. He’s never not wanted Harry.

“Come here.” Nick pulls Harry close and kisses him, hot and sweet. It’s a lot, kissing Harry. It’s a lot of good, strange, stomach-flipping things all in one go and when Harry opens his mouth and takes control of the kiss, Nick’s done for.

“Wanted that for so long.” Harry’s lips are plump and red from kissing when he pulls back. His voice is low and rough. “You’re going to make me go downstairs again, aren’t you?”

“Just for a bit.” Nick points a finger at Harry. His heart thump-a-thumps in his chest and he has to swallow back the words that threaten to fall between them. “I’m not shagging you here, with my mum and Jane being nosy.”

“We can go back to London tomorrow. We can shag there.”

“Eager.” Nick pulls Harry close, nevertheless.

“Definitely.” Harry smiles against Nick’s lips and there’s no more time for talking because it’s easy to forget how to form actual sentences when you’re kissing Harry Styles.

Eventually they go downstairs and Eileen asks about the mark on Harry’s neck. His explanation is so long-winded, rubbish and completely unbelievable it has Jane in fits of laughter and Nick’s back to squirming in his seat all over again.

He’ll kill Harry in a bit.

Possibly.

#my fic #gryles #wednesday night drabbles

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ericfruits · 5 years ago

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Did “Four Weddings and a Funeral” need updating?

I FEEL IT in my fingers, I feel it in my toes. From the opening moments of “Four Weddings and a Funeral”, it is obvious that this series—based on the film of the same name by Richard Curtis, released in 1994—is less a blissful renewal of vows, more grounds for divorce. References to the original abound, from the very sweary first scene to the soundtrack (Wet Wet Wet’s “Love is all around”) and even a cameo by Andie MacDowell (Carrie in the original film), but it is all somehow off-key, with some vital element lost in translation. And so the feeling grows.

The 1990s are back. “The Lion King” is in cinemas, the Spice Girls are touring, Ann Widdecombe is banging on about Europe. And now Hulu has shot an homage to arguably Mr Curtis’s finest rom-com. Yet where his 117-minute film was light as wedding cake, this series sprawls to ten stodgy episodes: not a night out with the girls, but a hen weekend.

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Much like the original, it follows a group of 20-something friends celebrating a seemingly endless succession of nuptials while longing to find someone with whom to say those vows themselves. The twist is that the friends are Americans who came to Britain for a college exchange and stayed. Each has their own special (or not-so-special) relationship with a Brit. In theory, this ought to allow for the sort of comic misunderstandings and pointed observations on class and manners that peppered Mr Curtis’s script.

Unfortunately, nobody seems to have bothered to find out what Brits do, or sound like. So the script gives us Gemma (Zoe Boyle), an absurdly plummy woman who thinks cartoons are “films made of drawings”, has a father-in-law who eats “boiled beef” for supper and whose husband supposedly falls asleep in shrubs when he is drunk because “it reminds him of his childhood in Keen-ya”. You begin to wonder whether this is a prequel.

Elsewhere, Americanisms creep in. A posh parliamentary staffer talks of “making rent” and “bathing myself in a janitor’s sink”. Another character compares himself to T-Mobile, a network that ceased to exist in Britain four years ago. One of the few authentically English moments comes in episode five, when Basheer (Guz Khan), rushing to hospital after his friend threw a punch in a club, starts to moan about car-parking charges.

Despite being written a quarter-century ago, Mr Curtis’s script is in many ways the more modern. This series makes gimmicky references to Instagram influencers and “Love Chalet” (a barely-disguised “Love Island”), but there is no attempt to explore, say, internet-dating culture, transgender love or polyamory. Some of its humour feels regressive. Much is made of the chaperones accompanying two young Muslims on dates before a potential arranged marriage (“do I hear mosque bells?”). Maya (Nathalie Emmanuel) likens Kash (Nikesh Patel), a dishy banker of Pakistani heritage, to “Ryan Gosling dipped in caramel”.

Contrast this with Mr Curtis’s treatment of his gay characters, Matthew and Gareth: presented, in 1994, as just another couple. Two years before this liberal newspaper embraced gay marriage, he has Charles (Hugh Grant) remark, after Gareth’s funeral: “All these years we’ve been single and proud of it and never noticed that two of us were to all intents and purposes married all this time.”

Mr Curtis is also a much better guide to pomp. Since the rituals of weddings have not changed (marquees, ceilidhs, cringeworthy speeches, all the awkward hanging about), his script has hardly dated. His funeral is genuinely moving. Hulu’s “Love Chalet”-themed wedding—“sponsored by Hotels.com”—feels tired already. Mourners putting on Chelsea shirts and yelling “Arsenal sucks!” in memory of the football-loving deceased do not bear comparison with Matthew’s reading of “Stop All The Clocks” by that “splendid bugger”, W.H. Auden. Leave the Hulu series waiting at the altar, and run off with the original.

“Four Weddings and a Funeral” is streaming on Hulu now

https://ift.tt/2YFrh1O

#IFTTT #Feedly

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pony-unicorn · 5 years ago

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Drawing; Astronomy; Science; Ballet; Cooking; Singing; Books; Swimming; Turma da Mônica; Monster High; Ever After High; Fashion; Magic; My little Pony; Romeo and Juliet; Turma da Mônica Jovem; Anime; K-pop; Feminism; Roller skating; Wicca; Steven Universe; Kindness; Twice; Cartoons; Write; GFriend; Classical Music; Star vs. the forces of evil; Miraculous ladybug; Equality; Little witch Academia; Stranger Things; Ice cream; Feminism; History; Anne with an E; To play; The Danish Girl (book and movie); Acting; Paint; To all the boys I've loved before (book and movie); Anti racism movement; Hairstyles; A Series of Unfortunate Events; Witchcraft; Arts; Libraries; One day at a time; Everything Sucks; Andi Mack; Craftwok; Embroidery; No good Nick;

And I can't remember everything.

Since the decade is almost up let's list all the special interests/hyperfixations we went through in the 2010's either in a reblog, comment, or in the tags. I'll go first: (from oldest to most recent) the Roman Republic/Empire, That 70s Show, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Futurama, Alice: Madness Returns, The Simpsons (current), Power Rangers 2017, Steven Universe (current), and Ducktales 2017 (current).

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charlieism · 8 years ago

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Get To Know Me

Tysm for tagging me @helloimjess!! (and this took me like 500 years to do im so sorry ahh)

Rules: Tag people you want to get to know better! (but totally don’t worry about it if you don’t want to join in!!)

Name: Jay

Star sign: Saggittarius

Height: around 163 cm- I think that’s like 5″3 or something idk

Age: I am not old

Time right now: 7:34 PM

Orientation: Who tf knows, not me. (maybe bi or pan except i dont know what the heck attraction feels like/dont know if i feel it so... idk. somewhere on the aro/ace spec i guess.)

Ethnicity: White and from New Zealand haha

Biggest fear: Spiders or like never being remembered/never making a difference.

Favourite colour: tbh any pastel colours!! blue and pink and green and purple and yellowand orange, anything lol :)

Favourite music artist(s): Panic! at the Disco, Fall Out Boy, Arctic Monkeys, Troye Sivan, Ed Sheeran, My Chemical Romance, All Time Low, Paramore, Pierce The Veil, The Misterwives :D

Favourite books: I love these book series’: Percy Jackson, Heroes of Olympus, Magnus Chase, Trials of Apollo, generally anything by Rick Riordan lol. The Skulduggery Pleasant series is gold. Harry Potter. The Golden Door trilogy. Demon Road trilogy is good. I love The Neverending Story. And I love More Than This by Patrick Ness. I also like classics like Anne of Green Gables and The Secret Garden and The Little Princess lol.

Hobbies: Reading and writing, going on the internet, netball and basketball, being annoying, occasionally attempting to draw, learning piano.

Average hours of sleep:Anywhere from 6-8:30 (usually more on the side of 6 tho) unless its the weekend, where i sleep for as long as possible.

Language(s) you can speak: English. Thats all im fluent in. i know a little bit from other languages but not enough to really hold a conversation or anything.

Reason behind your url: I love stars and thomas sanders and starlight is a pretty word

Middle name: Cerise

Dream trip: I would love to go to places like rome or greece or egypt and see the ancient stuff haha

Dream job: I would love to be an author and i retain the childhood dream of being an astronaut. I would also love to do something with archaeology or ancient history.

When this blog was made: I’ve had tumblr since like 2015 bcoz of my sister but i never used it much. until i think last year when i began using it all the time lol.

Number of followers: 438 and i love every single one of you :)

What made you decide to post this blog: I was bored i think. and i loved dan and phil. so i just reblogged stuff about them, then i got sucked into more fandoms, discovered my true nerdiness, and here we are today!

I tag: @pansexualroman, @princeyandanxiety @mylasagnaisraw, @lekawaiimelon @prinxiety-logality-sanders-sides @andy-the-anon :) and anyone else who feels like doing this :D

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lightprince · 8 years ago

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Get to know me tag

Tagged by @valianova

1. What is your full name? Anna

2. What is your nickname? it’s just Ann probably

3. What is your zodiac sign? Leo

4. What is your favorite book series? hmm the Etnogenez series were rather good i guess??

5. Do you believe in aliens or ghosts? yeah probably

6. Who is your favorite author? honestly? i have no idea. i don’t read as much as i’ve used to so it’s really hard to tell

7. What is your favorite radio station? i don’t usually listen to the radio but the 104.0 is p good, they play meme songs sometimes

8. What is your favorite flavor of anything? i used to love the living hell out of Orange flavor, but now i guess that would be Coffee or Caramel maybe?

9. What word would you use often to describe something great or wonderful? amazing. incredible.

10. What is your current favorite song? hmm i wonder. probably one of Rebecka Reinhard’s songs since i’ve discovered them really recently

11. What is your favorite word? i can’t think of any specific word atm but i think it’d be something space-related

12. What was the last song you listened to? Andy Warner - Warm Days

13. What TV show would you recommend for everybody to watch? ugggh idk maybe atla or volton or something like that

14. What is your favorite movie to watch when you’re feeling down? i don’t really watch movies that much tbh. usually when i’m feeling down i just play otome games lol

15. Do you play video games? rarely. i watch a lot of playthroughs though

16. What is your biggest fear? deep open waters holy shit

17. What is your best quality, in your opinion? i’m really accepting, i think? it’s not hard for me to take things in just the way they are;

18. What is your worst quality, in your opinion? cowardice. i’m a weak coward who actively avoids doing things that would affect me in a bad way

19. Do you like cats or dogs better? i love them both equally ♥

20. What is your favorite season? probably the end of spring-beginning of summer

21. Are you in a relationship? nah

22. What is something you miss from your childhood? ability to easily make friends and mental health

23. Who is your best friend? my classmate Christina. we basically went to the same kindergarten and were best friends ever since then

24. What is your eye color? hazel green i think

25. What is your hair color? the back and the sides are ashy blond(this is my natural color) and the longer hair on the top is blue at the moment

26. Who is someone you love? a whole lot of people and it’s a bad thing honestly

27. Who is someone you trust? some of my friends who i’m really close with

28. Who is someone you think about often? people with who i used to talk but now don’t

29. Are you currently excited about/for something? summer break probably

30. What is your biggest obsession? no idea. i was in the warrior cats fandom for the longest time though

31. What was your favorite TV show as a child? atla, danny phantom, my life as a teenage robot probably

32. Who of the opposite gender can you tell anything to, if anyone? there was my former best friend and i guess i can talk to one of my friends/classmates about pretty much anything

33. Are you superstitious? nope

34. Do you have any unusual phobias? not really

35. Do you prefer to be in front of the camera or behind it? neither lol. i suck at making photos but i also don’t turn out good in them

36. What is your favorite hobby? drawing? playing otome games?? i wonder

37. What was the last book you read? prime and prejudice, but that was for the school

38. What was the last movie you watched? Bolshoy (it’s a movie about russian ballerina)

39. What musical instruments do you play, if any? i play piano and i’m learning to play ukulele/guitar at the moment

40. What is your favorite animal? fox maybe?? i don’t really know

41. What are your top 5 favorite Tumblr blogs that you follow? i follow a shitton of people so it’s hard to choose but i think my absolute favorites are @ritsu-kageyamas, @joker-ace, @polyglotplatypus, @softwaring and @agent-lapin

42. What superpower do you wish you had? while it’d be amazing to be able to rewind time, i’d also love to have a power like leaving flowers everywhere i touched something

43. When and where do you feel most at peace? outside my house in the early morning(in may-june usually). it’s so quiet and peaceful and you can only hear birds chirping quietly

44. What makes you smile? my friends, usually

45. What sports do you play, if any? well we play volleyball on PE at school but that’s about it

46. What is your favorite drink? oolong or earl grey tea//mango or banana or peach juice//hot chocolate with whipped cream

47. When was the last time you wrote a hand-written letter or note to somebody? i don’t really do that i think?

48. Are you afraid of heights? not really but my brain likes to go “oh what if you fell off that railing lol” from time to time

49. What is your biggest pet peeve? people asking about painfully obvious things

50. Have you ever been to a concert? yep

51. Are you vegan/vegetarian? not really, but i don’t really like eating meat anyway

52. When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up? a fashion designer. i also wanted to be a taster of new sweets for quite a long period of time

53. What fictional world would you like to live in? not sure about that. i think arcana famiglia’s concept was pretty interesting

54. What is something you worry about? E V E R Y T H I N G.

55. Are you scared of the dark? a little bit?

56. Do you like to sing? yes. am i bad at it? probably also yes

57. Have you ever skipped school? my parents won’t let me lol.

58. What is your favorite place on the planet? probably this quiet place near Volga

59. Where would you like to live? somewhere in Canada, maybe. the farther from here the better

60. Do you have any pets? a cat named Basil and a dog named Willie

61. Are you more of an early bird or a night owl? something in between. i tend to swing between those two a lot

62. Do you like sunrises or sunsets better? sunsets are prettier than sunrises in my area, but i like both tbh

63. Do you know how to drive? nope

64. Do you prefer earbuds or headphones? i prefer earbuds when it comes to travelling but i never use them at home, only headphones

65. Have you ever had braces? never

66. What is your favorite genre of music? i listen to pretty much everything, it depends a lot on the music itself

67. Who is your hero? no one specific, honestly

68. Do you read comic books? not really

69. What makes you the most angry? when people try to anger/upset someone just to make fun of him

70. Do you prefer to read on an electronic device or with a real book? both are ok with me

71. What is your favorite subject in school? english and economics probably.

72. Do you have any siblings? older sister and brother

73. What was the last thing you bought? a bunch of chocolates, cookies and other sweet things

74. How tall are you? 5′10

75. Can you cook? uhh not really but i’m working on it

76. What are three things that you love? stars, flowers(and plants) and warmth

77. What are three things that you hate? unhealthy relationships, bullying and my mental health

78. Do you have more female friends or more male friends? it’s almost 50/50

79. What is your sexual orientation? i’m either pansexual or panromantic ace; i’m still kinda in the process of figuring it out

80. Where do you currently live? Russia

81. Who was the last person you texted? my best friend

82. When was the last time you cried? this sunday lol. it’s the end of the semester i’m a total wreck right now

83. Who is your favorite YouTuber? i’d say it’s Cry

84. Do you like to take selfies? nah not really

85. What is your favorite app? i use VK and the music app a lot

86. What is your relationship with your parent(s) like? it’s...difficult, to say the least

87. What is your favorite foreign accent? absolutely no idea

88. What is a place that you’ve never been to, but you want to visit? New Zealand and Baikal

89. What is your favorite number? 6 and 9

90. Can you juggle? no

91. Are you religious? nope

92. Do you find outer space of the deep ocean to be more interesting? i feel like they both are veeery interesting in their own ways

93. Do you consider yourself to be a daredevil? not really

94. Are you allergic to anything? i don’t think so?

95. Can you curl your tongue? no

96. Can you wiggle your ears? unfortunately i can’t

97. How often do you admit that you were wrong about something? as soon as i realize it

98. Do you prefer the forest or the beach? forest!!

99. What is your favorite piece of advice that anyone has ever given you? “There are countless possibilities for the future. It’s up to you to decide which one will become reality.”

100. Are you a good liar? yes, i am. i don’t usually lie to my friends but they know about it as well and often joke that i should have gotten an oscar a long time ago lol

101. What is your Hogwarts House? slytherin~

102. Do you talk to yourself? sometimes

103. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? 100% introvert.

104. Do you keep a journal/diary? i do, because my memory is shitty so i have to leave little notes to my future self

105. Do you believe in second chances? yes

106. If you found a wallet full of money on the ground, what would you do? there probably will be an id or something like that so it won’t be a problem to find the owner

107. Do you believe that people are capable of change? definitely

108. Are you ticklish? yes

109. Have you ever been on a plane? i basically live on them lol

110. Do you have any piercings? both of my ears are pierced three times each

111. What fictional character do you wish was real? i don’t know? someone with whom i can become friends?

112. Do you have any tattoos? not yet

113. What is the best decision that you’ve made in your life so far? to continue living

114. Do you believe in karma? maybe?

115. Do you wear glasses or contacts? nope

116. Do you want children? no thank you

117. Who is the smartest person you know? i guess my parents?

118. What is your most embarrassing memory? ohhhh boy there sure are lots of those. my memory refuses to work properly though so i doubt that’s the most embarrassing one but it’s the only one i can remember now. in the third grade i was that smartass kid who didn’t know when to shut up about their knowledge, so my teacher apparently thought it would be a good idea to fucking humiliate the child into shutting up so she kept putting me down in front of the whole class. boy what a wonderful experience

119. Have you ever pulled an all-nighter? not really, no

120. What color are most of you clothes? they all are in a wide variety of colors. although i have a lot of black-gray-white ones because of school’s requirements

121. Do you like adventures? i do, actually

122. Have you ever been on TV? i haven’t, but my parents have.

123. How old are you? 17

124. What is your favorite quote? “When thinking about life, remember this: no amount of guilt can solve the past and no amount of anxiety can change the future.”

125. Do you prefer sweet or savory foods? sweet/ you don’t have to do it, but i’d love to read your answers~ @lost-in-gravity-falls @le-pupycat @uglyelleth @embrace-the-yaoi @littleballofspace

#get to know me #valianova #thanks for tagging me <3

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maryhare96 · 7 years ago

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Why Today’s Bloggers Spend More Time Writing Less Content

What are bloggers’ biggest challenges, processes, and goals in 2017? What are the trends that bloggers need to be paying attention to in 2018?

Andy Crestodina, my Andy (Andy Tyson), and me, looking crazy as usual

Every year for the last four years, the wonderful Andy Crestodina has been on a quest to answer these questions in his blogger survey. I met Andy a number of years ago at a social media event, and we became fast friends. In fact, one of the weddings I was invited to actually listed “Jess Ostroff & Andy Crestodina” on the invitation because we had so many pictures together on Facebook and the bridesmaid at the wedding got confused about who my boyfriend was. (His name is also Andy—easy mistake to make.)

But I digress.

This year, an impressive 1,377 bloggers answered the call to provide their insights. That’s a lot of bloggers! I’m not surprised, given Andy’s charm and smarts. He is a true data nerd, and I can say for myself that the reason I spent the time filling out the survey was that I knew the output would be interesting, useful, and perhaps even inspiring.

I was right.

Behold: Five major takeaways from the 2017 blogger survey. And please do yourself a favor and download the full survey for more delicious insights. You won’t be disappointed in the time, energy, and work that went into analyzing this data!

1. Writing Time Increases, Publishing Frequency Decreases

Despite the fact that videos, Stories, and Snaps are growing in popularity, it’s clear from these 1000+ bloggers that writing still matters. (Thank goodness!) Bloggers are spending more time than ever crafting high-quality pieces. But the number of hours in the day remains the same, which means that something has to give.

It’s no longer about publishing 500-word articles every day to keep people’s RSS readers topped up. Instead, more and more bloggers are moving to a once or twice per week strategy. Many are culling it back even more to a few times per month.

In 2014, almost 40 percent of bloggers said they were knocking out posts in one to two hours. But when I look back at the content I published in 2014, I can tell you with a straight face that it wasn’t very good. It sounds like other bloggers are reflecting and finding the same results. We didn’t spend enough time researching, looking for unique snippets of information, or injecting our own perspective.

From 2014 to now, I’d argue that many of us were creating content for the sake of content instead of for results. Now, finally, we are taking into account what our audience wants and how blogging fits into our overall marketing strategy.

According to the report, the average blog post takes a whopping three hours and 20 minutes to write. I’m definitely on the longer side—closer to five or six hours per post—especially if you include the time I spend brainstorming in the shower.

This tells me that even if your entire job is creating blog content, the average writer can’t really create more than one or two posts per day, let alone go through the editorial process of editing, graphics-creation, and promotional strategy to get those posts published as quickly.

So that explains the decrease in publishing frequency, but is less really more? According to these bloggers, the answer is, “Perhaps.” 49 percent of bloggers say that spending more time on each post does make a difference in the results they get from those posts.

However, this is not a conclusive finding because bloggers also find a correlation between frequency and success.

This begs the question: How can we keep up with the demand to create more when we don’t have more resources, more budget, or more talent to produce at a high level?

In my humble opinion, if you are stuck with the decision about whether to create more content to keep up with frequency demands or better content with less frequency, creating less content that is of better quality and is more suited to your audience’s needs is the best option.

Ann Handley, author of Everybody Writes, agrees:

“The bigger themes here are two. One: Quality matters. And two: We don’t need more content. We need more relevant content.”

Relevancy is the killer app, and writers are reaping the rewards of spending more time making fewer pieces of content better, not creating more pieces that suck.

The average blog post takes a whopping 3 hours and 20 minutes to write. Click To Tweet 2. Quality and Media Matter More Than Ever

When I saw the figure that says that bloggers who have a formal process for edits are 43 percent more likely to report strong results, I did a happy dance.

This goes back to the point I mentioned earlier about timing, however, because adding an editor into the process increases the overall time spent on a blog post. And it’s still true that the majority of bloggers edit their own work instead of going through a formal editing process, but the numbers are slowly rising, so I’ll keep dreaming about the day when all content creators use editors—because it truly does make a difference. After all, no one likes reading blog posts that are riddled with typos, and a poorly written article decreases your credibility as a thought leader.

In addition to the conversation around quality, bloggers are also experimenting with including other types of media within their written pieces of content. Most bloggers are adding more images to their posts, which helps break up the text and provides a visual element for those of us who like to skim.

When it comes to other forms of media, such as audio and video, I found it interesting that the biggest percentage of bloggers are seeing strong results from including audio in their content.

I believe this is related to the increasing number of podcasters out there and may also be related to including an audio reading of the blog post itself, which we have done here on Convince & Convert. People love to have different avenues for consuming content, and audio has proven to be a great one because it allows listeners to multitask while learning.

Still, the most common form of media used among bloggers is images, and 30 percent more bloggers are using multiple images to draw readers into their posts. This increasing use of media is paying off, with the bloggers who do use video, audio, and graphical elements reporting strong results.

3. Long-Form Articles Are Winning

As you may have guessed, while bloggers are spending more time on each post, they aren’t spending more time writing the same amount of words. Blog posts are getting longer. They are trending toward the long-form, 2,000+ word posts.

At Convince & Convert, we’ve seen the positive results that are associated with longer form content. That’s because readers these days are looking for a one-stop shop of information. They don’t want to scour through a bunch of 250-word articles when they can skim through one 3,000 word article to find the answers they need.

Bloggers from this survey agree. In fact, over half of them report strong results when a post is 2,000 words or more.

Today, the average blog post is 1,142 words long, which is 41 percent longer than the average post just three years ago. Plus, six times as many bloggers are writing 2,000+ word posts—six times! It’s no wonder bloggers are spending more time than ever on writing.

I’d be willing to wager that the average word count will increase next year after seeing that longer form posts drive better results. Would you agree?

4. Paid Promotion Plus Influencer Marketing Equals Content Promotion Success

It’s not surprising that using paid advertising tactics to promote blog posts wasn’t very popular in 2014. Back then, social media ad platforms were in their infancy (or non-existent), and most people didn’t know how to leverage them effectively.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest have made it easy for anyone to become an advertiser. Combine that with the fact that organic reach continues to decline, and the insane spike in the usage of paid services is hardly a mystery.

According to the survey, paid content promotion has seen a 5X increase since 2014. If this increase in usage continues, we will see half of all bloggers using paid services within the next four years.

Part of the reason paid services are so attractive right now is because their reporting tools help us justify the spend in ways that most other promotional tactics do not. It’s always about proving effectiveness, measuring content marketing efforts against goals, and reaching audiences where they are. Paid advertising services that provide targeted, specific options allow us to do just that.

And while none of the other promotion tactics compared to the massive rise in paid services, influencer outreach has seen its own success over the last couple of years as well.

It’s interesting to note that while influencer outreach is not the most popular form of promotion, it is reported to be one of the most effective. Almost half of bloggers who are collaborating with influencers are seeing strong results.

That’s compared to only about 30 percent from social media marketing, even though social media marketing is by far the most widely used tactic for promotional efforts.

Remember: Just because things like tweeting or sharing a Facebook post are easy doesn’t mean they work. This research suggests that you may benefit more from investing your time and resources in the tactics that are harder but provide better results.

5. Updating Old Posts Is a Worthwhile Strategy

Although only 55 percent of bloggers are updating older posts with new information and links, 74 percent of those bloggers are reporting strong results. This means that the ones who aren’t doing this may simply not know what they’re missing!

I could go on and on about the reasons why updating old content is so important. Here are just a few reasons:

It allows you re-use content you’ve already spent lots of time and energy on.

It signals to Google that you’re maintaining popular content.

It tells your readers that you care about them because you’re consistently providing them with useful information.

Here at Convince & Convert, we have implemented a new strategy where we go through our most popular blog posts based on Google Analytics and update the top 10 posts every quarter. If the top 10 are the same for the next quarter and there are no new updates to make to those particular posts, we move on to the top 20, and so on.

This allows us to continue ranking for the terms that people are searching for and providing them with the information they need.

Lisa Jenkins from Social Media Examiner started using this strategy when she noticed that visitors continued to find and click on older articles through Google, but bounce rates were increasing. Starting with those articles is a great step toward developing an ongoing update strategy that works.

Just remember: “While you can update the text and should include a date stamp at the top of the article to show readers when the last update occurred, you should never change the original URL, or you’ll lose all that search juice,” Lisa cautions.

Bottom Line: Blogging (Still) Works

I might argue that “blogging” is out and “content marketing” is in. This is because bloggers aren’t just writers anymore—they’re strategists, editors, promoters, and data analysts. It’s not enough to spend hours writing a piece of content. The success of bloggers’ creations lies in the quality, relevancy, and promotion.

And as bloggers evolve into content marketers, their success evolves with them. From 2016 to 2017, 20 percent more bloggers report strong results from their blogging efforts.

Yes! This is encouraging, especially for those of us who are still camera-shy or are not excited about all the Snap-stagram madness. If we keep investing our energy in writing, hiring the right editors, and putting our sights on the promotion engines that produce the highest ROI, we will all be just fine.

Don’t forget to download the full report here. Thanks to Andy and his team for pulling together this helpful research year after year.

http://ift.tt/2yZYRzJ

#Why Today’s Bloggers Spend More Time Writing Less Content

0 notes

mercedessharonwo1 · 7 years ago

Text

Why Today’s Bloggers Spend More Time Writing Less Content

What are bloggers’ biggest challenges, processes, and goals in 2017? What are the trends that bloggers need to be paying attention to in 2018?

Andy Crestodina, my Andy (Andy Tyson), and me, looking crazy as usual

But I digress.

I was right.

1. Writing Time Increases, Publishing Frequency Decreases

However, this is not a conclusive finding because bloggers also find a correlation between frequency and success.

This begs the question: How can we keep up with the demand to create more when we don’t have more resources, more budget, or more talent to produce at a high level?

Ann Handley, author of Everybody Writes, agrees:

“The bigger themes here are two. One: Quality matters. And two: We don’t need more content. We need more relevant content.”

Relevancy is the killer app, and writers are reaping the rewards of spending more time making fewer pieces of content better, not creating more pieces that suck.

The average blog post takes a whopping 3 hours and 20 minutes to write. Click To Tweet 2. Quality and Media Matter More Than Ever

When I saw the figure that says that bloggers who have a formal process for edits are 43 percent more likely to report strong results, I did a happy dance.

When it comes to other forms of media, such as audio and video, I found it interesting that the biggest percentage of bloggers are seeing strong results from including audio in their content.

3. Long-Form Articles Are Winning

Bloggers from this survey agree. In fact, over half of them report strong results when a post is 2,000 words or more.

I’d be willing to wager that the average word count will increase next year after seeing that longer form posts drive better results. Would you agree?

4. Paid Promotion Plus Influencer Marketing Equals Content Promotion Success

And while none of the other promotion tactics compared to the massive rise in paid services, influencer outreach has seen its own success over the last couple of years as well.

That’s compared to only about 30 percent from social media marketing, even though social media marketing is by far the most widely used tactic for promotional efforts.

5. Updating Old Posts Is a Worthwhile Strategy

I could go on and on about the reasons why updating old content is so important. Here are just a few reasons:

It allows you re-use content you’ve already spent lots of time and energy on.

It signals to Google that you’re maintaining popular content.

It tells your readers that you care about them because you’re consistently providing them with useful information.

This allows us to continue ranking for the terms that people are searching for and providing them with the information they need.

Bottom Line: Blogging (Still) Works

And as bloggers evolve into content marketers, their success evolves with them. From 2016 to 2017, 20 percent more bloggers report strong results from their blogging efforts.

Don’t forget to download the full report here. Thanks to Andy and his team for pulling together this helpful research year after year.

http://ift.tt/2yZYRzJ

#Why Today’s Bloggers Spend More Time Writing Less Content

0 notes

conniecogeie · 7 years ago

Text

Why Today’s Bloggers Spend More Time Writing Less Content

What are bloggers’ biggest challenges, processes, and goals in 2017? What are the trends that bloggers need to be paying attention to in 2018?

Andy Crestodina, my Andy (Andy Tyson), and me, looking crazy as usual

But I digress.

I was right.

1. Writing Time Increases, Publishing Frequency Decreases

However, this is not a conclusive finding because bloggers also find a correlation between frequency and success.

This begs the question: How can we keep up with the demand to create more when we don’t have more resources, more budget, or more talent to produce at a high level?

Ann Handley, author of Everybody Writes, agrees:

“The bigger themes here are two. One: Quality matters. And two: We don’t need more content. We need more relevant content.”

Relevancy is the killer app, and writers are reaping the rewards of spending more time making fewer pieces of content better, not creating more pieces that suck.

The average blog post takes a whopping 3 hours and 20 minutes to write. Click To Tweet 2. Quality and Media Matter More Than Ever

When I saw the figure that says that bloggers who have a formal process for edits are 43 percent more likely to report strong results, I did a happy dance.

When it comes to other forms of media, such as audio and video, I found it interesting that the biggest percentage of bloggers are seeing strong results from including audio in their content.

3. Long-Form Articles Are Winning

Bloggers from this survey agree. In fact, over half of them report strong results when a post is 2,000 words or more.

I’d be willing to wager that the average word count will increase next year after seeing that longer form posts drive better results. Would you agree?

4. Paid Promotion Plus Influencer Marketing Equals Content Promotion Success

And while none of the other promotion tactics compared to the massive rise in paid services, influencer outreach has seen its own success over the last couple of years as well.

That’s compared to only about 30 percent from social media marketing, even though social media marketing is by far the most widely used tactic for promotional efforts.

5. Updating Old Posts Is a Worthwhile Strategy

I could go on and on about the reasons why updating old content is so important. Here are just a few reasons:

It allows you re-use content you’ve already spent lots of time and energy on.

It signals to Google that you’re maintaining popular content.

It tells your readers that you care about them because you’re consistently providing them with useful information.

This allows us to continue ranking for the terms that people are searching for and providing them with the information they need.

Bottom Line: Blogging (Still) Works

And as bloggers evolve into content marketers, their success evolves with them. From 2016 to 2017, 20 percent more bloggers report strong results from their blogging efforts.

Don’t forget to download the full report here. Thanks to Andy and his team for pulling together this helpful research year after year.

http://ift.tt/2yZYRzJ

#Why Today’s Bloggers Spend More Time Writing Less Content

0 notes