#I use the first few words of dialogue from each panel I want to crop

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 249: Todoroki Taco Night

Previously on BnHA: Nothing happened at all, because the manga was on break last week! Fortunately the anime had finally resumed after a billion years (estimation; exact length of time may be slightly off), so we had that to take the edge off in the meantime. Except we didn’t, because the anime also ended up going on break due to a rugby game or some shit. So that was nice. On a related note, when I die I’d like the Basement arc to lower me into my grave, so it can let me down one last time.

Anyway, Endeavor did some mentoring and gave Shouto and Kacchan a power-up assignment and told Deku to work on Air Force to help him master the fine control he needs for the Bloop. Then Fuyu called a week later and was all “HEY DAD, DINNER, OUR PLACE, TONIGHT, BRING THE KIDS.” And then as previously mentioned, we waited two whole fucking weeks and MY GOD, my body is ready, on to the new chapter we go!

Today on BnHA: Shouto, Katsuki, and Deku are cordially invited to Todosmith Farms for an evening of food and fun! They make it approximately six minutes into dinner before Natsu loses it and exits with more theatrics than a spurned reality TV show contestant. Baku and Deku spend the next hour being all “!!!” at each other back and forth, and whispering about how fucking dramatic the Todorokis are, which fully kills me and is my favorite thing ever to happen in the world. Deku then begins to guide Shouto through his personal healing process like fucking Mufasa booming at Simba from the heavens, and meanwhile Endeavor listens in while quietly kneeling before HIS DEAD SON’S PHOTOGRAPH, IN THE SHRINE THEY BUILT FOR SAID DEAD SON IN HIS BEDROOM, and sorrowfully wishing he could do more for his family. Anyways so I’m in ruins now, but otherwise fine. How are you?

(All comments are my unspoiled reactions from my initial readthrough of the chapter. I did a quick edit for grammar and clarity afterward, and added a few ETAs in the process, but aside from that there are no changes.)

well it’s Thursday morning, and I have just seen the picture of baby white-haired Touya because no one in this fandom knows how to fucking spoiler tag (and that’s on me too for browsing the BnHA tag on a Thursday; I know better, but I was just curious how this new group chat thing was working out), so here are my immediate thoughts

we never actually confirmed that the hair color correlates to their powers, huh. we just assumed. but come to think, there’s no reason why someone couldn’t have mom’s hair but dad’s quirk. it’s all Shouto’s fault for being a perfect 50/50 split and thus making everyone assume that THAT’S JUST HOW IT WORKS. damn you Shouto and your dramatic character design

anyways I tried not to look at the pic for too long -- once I realized what I was looking at, I averted my eyes -- but he does look like Dabi, I think. oh shit guys. it’s really fucking happening

and I also didn’t get a good enough look to determine whether this was a photo of Touya (that Deku or whoever happened to spot while visiting the Todochester Mystery House for the much-hyped dinner) or a flashback image (in which he is just standing really fucking still for some reason and staring directly at the camera), so I guess we’ll see. but anyways, Deku and Kacchan didn’t come all the way down to Todoroki taco night to not have their evening peppered with intricate family drama and reopened wounds and hysterical conspiracy theories, so you had better keep them goddamn entertained! lord knows the Todorokis don’t do small talk. this is literally their only way of spicing things up so their guests don’t die of sheer awkwardness while Endeavor sits in stony silence and Shouto just stuffs his face with soba all night

also aren’t we due some popularity poll results soon? just getting in all my random thoughts now before we dive in. anyways Horikoshi, so you know what I want to see now and you better deliver

aaaand now it’s Friday! so Happy Birthday Aizawa, and LET’S GET TO THAT CHAPTER

and we’re opening with Endeavor’s Redemption Arc: The Page. omg

holy fucking shit BnHA. you sure do have a way of making me wait WITH BATED BREATH!! FOR TWO WEEKS!!! ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT!!!! for the new fucking chapter only to have me immediately suck in a deep breath through my teeth and seriously reconsider whether I am in any way emotionally prepared to handle this. “you think you know what you want?!” Horikoshi demands. “YOU HAVE NO IDEA.” sob it’s trueeee

okay. okay. we can do this. hell, if we made it through Tomura’s flashbacks then this should be child’s play. so all right, let’s go

-- oh wait, but before I click to the next page, I just want to note that Endeavor isn’t the only one who’s nowhere to be found in this pic, though! boy you have three sons. uno dos tres

“the hellish Todoroki residence” lmao this legitimately sounds like the title of a Buzzfeed Unsolved episode

ARE YOU TELLING ME ENDEAVOR PROVIDES LUXURY APARTMENTS FOR ALL HIS FUCKING EMPLOYEES OMFG

SO MY THREE SONS HAVE ALL BEEN ROOMING TOGETHER UNDER ENDEAVOR’S ROOF!? THE FANFIC ENDEAVOR AGENCY RESIDENCES?! WHAT KIND OF OT3 SHENANIGANS HAVE BEEN ABOUNDING THIS PAST WEEK OH MY GOODNESS THIS IS LIKE A DREAM

OH MY GOD

okay I have like... ten different notes I want to make about Katsuki and I don’t know where to start SO I’LL JUST START SOMEWHERE!

I’ve legit wanted to see how he would look with his mask pushed up into his hair like a headband for the longest fucking time (I don’t know why! I just wanted to see it!) so this. is. Christmas for me omg. if only he wasn’t making one of his (◣д◢) faces and was instead making a normal face. but that’s probably too much to ask of him at THE CRACK OF DAWN, which brings me to my next point,

I thought he was a morning person?? [furiously checking headcanon notes] kid you go to bed at 8pm. you have your full eight hours by four in the fucking morning. and the full nine and a half hours that GROWING BOYS ACTUALLY NEED by 5:30am, which is when I always assumed you typically woke up in order to get in your morning workout and BEAST IT UP IN THE PIT or whatever gym people do. yet here you are, half dead, while Deku and Burnin’ are raring to go. were you just burning the midnight oil and that’s why you’re grumpy? WAS IT THE FANFIC AGENCY RESIDENCES SHENANIGANS, OH MY GOD I CAN’T

lastly, look at that unzipped collar. why is it that the more disheveled he looks the more I want to pile him up in a headlock and give him noogies. I love him so fucking much, this is ridiculous, he was only gone for two weeks but it felt like SEVENTEEN YEARS anyway

so Burnin’ is all “catch any villains faster than Endeavor yet, LOL, LIKE THAT COULD EVER HAPPEN!!” and they’ve been putting up with this trolling for a fucking week now huh. no wonder Katsuki’s ready to pack it in and sleep for the next year

motherfucker holy shit

sure thing coach. Todoroki Shouto out here ready for the morning huddle. BRING IT IN! ONE TWO THREE PLUS ULTRA

meanwhile Katsuki better keep his hair like that for the rest of the arc now. the collar too. I am living for this

what is Shouto doing with his hands

are you blowing a kiss. or beckoning toward her like Neo in the Matrix. are you channeling your inner Iida. wtf is this

this one panel perfectly encapsulates everything I love about this OT3 dynamic oh my god

Katsuki screaming at Todoroki that he’s better than him (based on impeccable, flawless logic). Shouto completely disregarding this and calmly continuing to have a normal conversation at a normal person volume. and Deku ignoring them both while sending the chipperest, most positive energy in the world out toward this other person because he loves everyone!!

and now there’s three closeups of the boys showing how worn out they are

they’ve been working so hard I’m so proud of them and also they totally deserve a night off to go gorge themselves on soba at Toderly Manor

and then there’s a whole nother page continuing to establish that it has been a week! and they’re working hard! and YES, WE KNOW, though

yep yep yep we get it now WHAT ABOUT THAT DINNER oh my god. it’s been four pages! and if we’re only getting thirteen again then this is precious real estate we’re just wasting here, come onnnnn

so Endeavor is continuing to show off how great he is while the kids look on in frustration

heh but I like this panel because LOOK AT THEM

ALL THREE OF THEM CAN FLY (basically). I love it. yes. just let them be airborne for the rest of the series

meanwhile Endeavor’s thinking agitated thoughts about how Fuyu wants him to try and CONNECT TO THE CHILDREN ON AN ACTUAL EMOTIONAL LEVEL, like what do you think he is?? a human being??!

lol he’s got that look like “WHY DON’T YOU JUST KILL ME NOW AND BE DONE WITH IT.” things he would rather do than have a family dinner with his kids and his two new apprentices: literally. anything. else. ah, but Endeavor. no one said the path of Not Being A Bastard would be easy

he’s thinking about how happy Fuyu sounded on the phone, though. “the thought of us finally becoming a real family...” c’mon Enji you can’t just let your only daughter down like that

and also me. you better not fucking let me down. I was promised dinner at Todoton Abbey and DAMN IT THIS IS HAPPENING

lol he’s getting all fired up and the kids are just mindlessly yelling back like “FUCK YEAH”

even the guy in the background’s like “YEAHHHHHHH LET’S DO ITTT.” the best part is how not a single one of them has any clue what they are loudly agreeing to

OH MY GOD

TODOLAND RANCH, AT LONG LAST. YESSSSS

lmao Kacchan

“it’s not too late!” he is so desperate, bless him. all he wanted was to curl up in his room with a bowl of spicy ramen after a long day and watch old All Might clips on Youtube while blissfully not interacting with a single other soul. and now instead they’ve dragged him to fucking Todo-a-Lago for dinner with his boss, his two best friends who he hates, and SOMEONE’S SISTER. what a nightmare

FUYUMIIIIII

worst part is, I don’t think Kacchan will be able to resist Fuyu’s Kind Elementary School Teacher Energy at all. he’s totally screwed. -- OH MY GOD, IS HE HIDING

like, I know this is the Todoroki drama chapter and that’s where my focus should be, and I’M SORRY, but you guys all know what you signed up for by this point, right? you can read a million other Todo hot takes on tumblr today, but this will forever be the blog that spends paragraphs and paragraphs obsessing over Kacchan hiding behind the door frame and sulking and asking “why though?” in increasingly petulant tones like a four-year-old because SOMEONE DRAGGED HIM TO A SOCIAL EVENT and this is his personal hell! Fuyu’s gonna end up having to manually feed him chicken like Satou did at the party

meanwhile now that I’m actually READING THE REST OF THE PANEL LIKE A NORMAL PERSON, I have to pause for a moment to let my heart break over Deku saying that he hardly ever gets invited over by friends. hey Deku come here for a moment, I just have to give you a dozen hugs real quick and then you can continue as you were

anyway so guys I literally owe Todoroki Fuyumi my life and I want to send her flowers with a “THANKS FOR SAVING THE MANGA” card but it’ll have to wait until the chapter is done. let’s continue

NATSU’S HERE TOO, SHOUTO SAW HIS SHOES, OH M Y GO D

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

(ETA: shout out to Natsu for wearing the greatest shirt of all time and taking Deku’s rookie-tier gags to THE NEXT LEVEL!)

I LOVE EVERYTHING. I’M SOBBING. BLESS YOU HORIKOSHI. LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!

holy shit Deku

Alton fucking Brown over here. chill my dude

NATSU BRINGING THAT DRAMA YESSSS

and look how oblivious Deku is to the general vibe settling in here

what the fuck do you see. you just literally had no idea how else to respond to that, huh

oh my god oh my fucking god

(ETA: I’m laughing so hard and I’ll explain in the tags. sob.)

guys let me just break down these two panels for you

1. Fuyu is all “NATSU YOU COOKED TOO”

2. Shouto is all “WTF, I ATE NATSU FOOD AND NO ONE FUCKING TOLD ME”

3. Natsu is all “YOU PROBABLY DIDN’T BECAUSE... THAT MAN PROBABLY WOULDN’T ALLOW IT”

how the fuck is there drama brewing over the fucking cooking. this fucking family. and Shouto’s face is two seconds away from being my new icon omg

LMAO

SO YOU TWO FINALLY FUCKING CONNED ON TO THE DANGEROUS SITUATION YOU’VE FOUND YOURSELVES IN, HUH. that’s right bitches. welcome to Todo’s Landing

and now Fuyu has finally made a FATAL ERROR IN JUDGEMENT oh no. that error being trying to fall back on Shouto of all people to ease the awkward tension. that boy literally is made up of awkward tension. right down to his atoms. Fuyu what were you thinking??

FUYUMI: [SLAMS HANDS ON TABLE] “SHOUTO WHAT KIND OF FOOD DO YOU EAT AT SCHOOL!!!!”

SHOUTO: [LEAPING TO HIS FEET] “AT THE CAFETERIA!!!!”

someone help me I’m fucking dying. actually, you know what, help them

“yo Deku, do you wanna get the fuck out of here right now.” “yes, yes I do.” turns out, they didn’t really need that internship anyway. maybe they can still convince the centipede man to take them instead

holy shit

like, I feel so bad for him, but also Fuyu looks so fucking sad and I can’t?? this is too much, and things haven’t even gotten spicy yet. this arc is going to leave me a wreck

DSFKSLDFJLK

“it’s okay,” Horikoshi says comfortingly, “here’s a panel of your two good boys helping clean up.” WELL THANK YOU, EXCUSE ME FOR A MOMENT, I’M GOING TO GO SIT. and think about Katsuki being a fucking gentleman whose momma raised him right and who helps clean up the dishes after being invited over for dinner. never mind that he didn’t even help clean up the Christmas party. but he saw Fuyu being sad and immediately went MY GOD, I’VE GOT TO DO SOMETHING TO HELP THIS STUPIDLY NICE LADY

anyway so are you two going to ask Endeavor why his kids hate him so fucking much. or just ignore it because you pretty much know the gist already because Shouto can’t keep a lid closed on anything

OH MY GOD THEY’RE HAVING A SECRET CONVERSATION ABOUT IT

FFFFFFFdfsLK -- “YOU GUYS WERE TALKING ABOUT IT RIGHT NEXT TO ME, ON ACCOUNT OF I WAS STANDING RIGHT THERE, IN THE SHADOWS, BECAUSE I WAS EAVESDROPPING, SHUT UP”

anyways so did you guys know that Deku and Kacchan having whispered conversations about how dramatic the fucking Todorokis are is my all-time aesthetic. I didn’t know either actually. but it is

Fuyu why are you apologizing to Shouto for making him help clean up

AND WHY ARE YOU PERSISTING IN MAKING THAT FACE. SON OF A BITCH. GIRL I’M BRINGING YOU SOME ICE CREAM AND SOME DVDS. WE’RE GONNA HAVE A SLEEPOVER AND FORGET ALL ABOUT THIS SHIT. PLEASE FEEL BETTER. I’M SORRY YOUR TWIN BROTHER IS DEAD AND YOUR WISH TO HAVE A NORMAL FAMILY IS NEVER GOING TO FUCKING COME TRUE BECAUSE WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS OMG

oh my god she’s having a heart to heart with Shouto about how he feels about Endeavor. oh my god I see Horikoshi aiming a bow right at my fucking heart. he’s notching the fucking arrow, this is it, it’s been real you guys

that look in his one visible eye. god. there it is. oh god. hurts

(ETA: do you suppose all of the Todorokis have secretly had that exact same dream. we know Fuyu has, and Rei as well based on her letter. I’m starting to think that Shouto has too. it only makes sense that a boy who was denied a real childhood for the first fifteen years of his life is going to have some part of him that secretly longs to just have a normal family. in related news, Shouto had better get some fucking hugs in this arc!)

-- ARE YOU SERIOUS

WHAT IS IT WITH HORIKOSHI LATELY AND BEING DONE WITH JUST IMPLYING THINGS AND NOW VERY INTO SHOWING THEM IN EXPLICIT HORRIFYING DETAIL. HERE’S A DEAD DOG! HERE’S A DYING CHILD! HERE’S A SIX-YEAR-OLD WHOSE MOM JUST POURED SCALDING WATER ON HIS FUCKING FACE AND SHE DIDN’T MEAN TO BUT IT’S TOO LATE AND NOW THEY’RE BOTH TRAUMATIZED. AND SHE’S USING HER QUIRK TO HEAL HIM AND HELLO, THIS ONE PANEL IS ABOUT TO MAKE ME START CRYING. KATSUKI YOU WERE RIGHT. WHY, THOUGH

(ETA: yeah this does not bode well for an upcoming flashback in which a child was presumably burned the fuck alive. feels like Horikoshi was testing the waters to see how much he could get away with. we may be in for some brutal shit pretty shortly.)

OH MY GOD A LETTER

they’re going to discharge her soon!?? IMMINENT FEELINGS INBOUND. I HAVE NO MORE SPACE TO PUT THEM!! MY HOUSE IS PACKED WITH FUCKING FEELINGS ALREADY, PLEASE

ahhhh he says he doesn’t know

this is the most realistic fucking thing I’ve read in this manga to this date. not knowing how you feel about the abusive parent who did so much harm but is now trying to change. boyyyyy howdy I feel that in my fucking bones. Horikoshi is out there delivering the real shit. goddamn

KATSUKI MY HERO

it’s as though Horikoshi placed his hands on his shoulders and said “listen up sonny boy, I’ve got an important job that only you can do. defuse this tension. in any way you can.” and Katsuki looked him dead in the eye and said “I got this”

meanwhile Deku’s hoping he can spontaneously develop another new quirk which will open up a hole in the ground to swallow him up

DEKU: “I HAD PERMISSION!!!” KACCHAN: “I DIDN’T HAVE SHIT!!”

HE IS BITCHING LIKE A DISGRUNTLED HOUSEWIFE HOLY SHIT I’M LOSING MY MIND

“A NORMAL, PLEASANT EVENING!!” yes of course, that’s why you spent the entire ride over here clinging to Todoroki’s shirt and repeating “WHY” ad infinitum. anyways as usual this child is a nightmare whose fickle tirades absolutely no one deserves to be subjected to, god bless him and I adore him so

and Deku is again apologizing for him like they’re fucking married. this chapter is filled with so many highs and lows for me, it’s wild

this, to be clear, is one of the highs. god I love it

oh shit it looks like Deku’s getting ready to say something! SOMETHING WISE, I BET

YESSSSSSS

IS HE?? sometimes this kid can just peer into other people’s souls with perfect clarity, it’s uncanny

oh my god Shouto’s face

genuine shock. he doesn’t even know how he feels, but somehow Deku is able to cut right to the heart of it

oh my god Katsuki’s there to chime right in too and say “but if you feel like he doesn’t deserve forgiveness that’s fucking fine too”

this is actually incredibly fucking supportive? anyway so guys have I mentioned within the last five seconds how much I love Bakugou fucking Katsuki. I have? well that’s okay I’ll just say it again anyway. and also I love Deku and Shouto too oh my god. bless this chapter

oh lol nevermind that still Deku talking while Katsuki is just making faces. well he’s doing his best. anyways so like I said I love Midoriya fucking Izuku

(ETA: [chinhands] do you guys think. that perhaps. Midoriya Izuku might be harboring some unresolved feelings regarding his own absent daddo. maybe. ??? why does this chapter have so many layers??)

ah I see, Katsuki spied Natsu just STANDING THERE LISTENING IN THE DARK, as one does, and that’s why the face

and also YES, Shouto is like the kindest fucking person in the whole series possibly. thank you for acknowledging that?? I’m in the process of arranging all of these new feels into a comfy little pile now, so maybe I can curl up in them. if Horikoshi insists on delivering more and more

SLDKFJSLDKFLSHGLKJKLJSLGKJSDLFKSDLFKJLSDKJFLKSL

“THE OTHER CHILD WHO’S NO LONGER THERE” RED ALERT, RED FUCKING ALERT, IT’S REALLY HAPPENING, HOLY FUCKING SHIT. REMINDER TO SELF, NEXT THURSDAY I’M GONNA HAVE TO GO ON A SELF-IMPOSED INTERNET HIATUS FOR TWENTY-FOUR HOURS BECAUSE FANDOM’S GOING TO LOSE THEIR FUCKING SHIT WITH THE SPOILERS NEXT WEEK AND I’M NOT EVEN MAD

sdfhk. oh my god. and so it was a photograph! but one which appears to be a segue into a flashback! and the law of escalating tragic flashbacks states that Touya’s is somehow going to be even more horrific than our last flashback, in which, let me just think back for a sec, oh yes, an entire family was massacred and torn into bloody chunks including a six-year-old girl and a dog, and the surviving child was then adopted by a psychopath who adorned him with severed hands and was all “NEVER FORGET HOW FUCKED UP YOU FEEL ABOUT ALL THIS” and then the child murdered some people to feel better about himself. so this is somehow going to be worse than that. well that’s just. ...I don’t even know. I literally can’t think of a lighthearted way to end that train of thought lmao. WE ARE FUCKING SCREWED. get ready to burn, baby

but meanwhile, parting thoughts

so they really do believe he’s dead. that’s confirmed. and he died (or, well, “died”) young, too, based on this picture and on the toys on that shelf. fffff

Endeavor kneeling at a family shrine to pay respects to his dead son and miserably wishing he was still alive is just. repeated stabbings of my already mutilated heart. thanks. thanks for that

he heard EVERYTHING and he’s saying nothing, because what can he say?? I meanwhile have already said “oh my god” about 1600 times in this recap, but I’ll go ahead and say it again anyway one last time because oh my god, the fucking Todofam AND THEIR FUCKING DRAMA!!!

what can I do for my family at this stage? the last plea of a desperate man struggling to make amends and piece together something he’s already shattered into a million pieces. he keeps dreaming of them being happy together, even if he’s not in the dream. he wants to do right by them, finally. but he doesn’t know how. anyways so people have been saying and saying that this arc so far has been death flag after death flag for this old coot, and you know what, they’re fucking right. this does not have a happy ending. this is going to be fucking devastating. and here I am, fully obsessed with it. fuck me

anyways I guess that’s finally everything I can think of to say. this recap is already a million fucking words so that’s fine lol. why though

[maiji]

Process and wip images for A House That Holds Long Limbs (Part 3)

Previous process and wip documentation: Part 1 / Part 2 

Read the pages for part 3 here (full complete version will be linked from YYH North Bound master post)

In Parts 1 and 2 I went through the transitions between idea, script, thumbnails and final art in quite a bit of detail. This time I’ll share script and thumbnails and point out some of the biggest changes, and then talk about how I scan and clean the final artwork.

Script and thumbnails

Biggest changes:

Dialogue changes every-freaking-where. Changes in word choice, moving things around to make the dialogue flow better, rewriting to make things flow better up to the umpteenth hour (i.e., right when I’m inking). 

Page 24 “It is enough to know the letter has been delivered” - this thought has been transplanted onto the next page. I was also running out of space on each page for so many wordy words. Looking back now I’d probably like to move Hokushin’s “I can read it, not that she needs to know that” earlier in the sequence of panels, but it’s too late and whatever.

Page 25 split into two pages because 1) the dialogue started growing on the first of the 2 pages and I wanted to give more emphasis to the woman dropping her “tee hee I’m matchmaking” bomb and Hokushin’s “lol get me out of here” expression.

The last page with Raizen did not exist in the script or the thumbnails. I tacked it on at the last second because the previous change increased the page count to 9. I’m drawing 2 pages up on an 11x8.5 sheet of paper (so each page is about 5.5 x 8.5), so this meant I was left facing an empty page. I impulsively threw in a “meanwhile, Raizen’s shenanigans” for fun.

As an aside, this level of dialogue is what I was anticipating the hypothetical “let’s separate Hokushin and Raizen with some random NPC offering a job” scenario to involve (see Part 1 process and wip discussion). You can see why I was so eager to ditch that idea and find something simpler and more efficient.

I feel like "I was (too) careless!" is such a stock (shounen) manga phrase. Therefore I must work in "Seems like I underestimated [...whatever thing they underestimated]" and "Impossible!!" into upcoming parts of the story lol.

Inking

Part way through inking I actually ran out of ink in my new cartridge. I had started the comic with 0.3mm Muji black pen, and it ran out a while back. I switched to 0.4mm (because that’s all they had in stock at the time)... and then actually ran out of the ink part way through on these pages. @atorier lent me a 0.3mm refill so these pages mix both thicknesses in the art. I can’t really tell the difference though... can you?

Part 3 was super fun to illustrate because it’s 90% subtle facial expressions, one of my favourite things to draw. The downside is WAY TOO MANY WORDS BEING SQUEEZED IN EVERYWHERE. I’ve never been very good at managing my speech bubbles - drawing them, positioning them, and fitting words in them. I never give them the time needed for proper planning and I often write rather impatiently, as if I am jotting down a note, instead of carefully lettering each word. They’re simply very sloppy, which results in a lot of mistakes...

It used to be that when I made a mistake in the later stages of the art (mainly, inking) I’d cry and throw everything out because I’m a complete failure, this is all worthless, etc. Nowadays I’m like uhhh... #@^&^#$!!! Oh well. Depending on the mistake I still have moments of I’M A COMPLETE FAILURE, but then I just redo it on the side or add a note to myself to fix it on the computer for the final version. Here you can see a whole bunch of mistakes around lettering and placement of things.

And this is just to make it more legible. It’s still ugly lol. (That’s why I use a font for my webcomic...)

Scanning / editing

Long Limbs is drawn in black and white which makes it a hell of a lot easier to scan/clean/prep final art. I use an old Canoscan LIDE110. I’ve upgraded once or twice but always to another Canoscan (basically whatever the latest version of this series is). It’s a cheap workhorse and lots of other scanners use Canon’s scanning technology so it’s always suited my purposes very well.

For black and white lineart, I scan at 600 dpi black and white. These are my settings as they show up in the default scanner software:

For clarification, the only parts I really pay attention to/change is Color Mode (black and white) and output resoluton to 600 dpi. Most of the other stuff was already calculated or set.

Industry practice is generally 1200 dpi for black and white line art, with 600 being a “if your computer can’t handle it and is gonna blow up... this is sufficient”. I rarely bother going up to 1200 mainly because I don’t usually have applications where I need it for output (this comic is not intended for print, for instance. And even if I ever do someday print it for whatever reason, it’s not likely to be bigger than a small comic). Scanning in black and white mode also conveniently kills most of the pencil lines I still have left so that post-scan cleanup work is minimized to a degree.

Here’s a shot of the page that was scanned.

Oh god look at all the mistakes that need to be fixed hahaha.

On the computer, I crop the individual pages and save them separately. Then I blow up to 100% and start selecting/deleting unwanted dust/artifacts/dots etc. Sometimes I also just use the eraser for cleaning fine details, but select+delete is faster for large patches.

This is also the opportunity to make corrections. To be honest, there’s not much retouching on these pages because I am lazy and trying to get them out as quickly as possible, so it’s mostly getting rid of artifacts, a few stray lines from ink smearing if I smudged or erased before it was fully dry, cleaning the shapes of a few letters to make them more legible, deleting errors and pasting the fixes over where the errors used to be, and any really stupid mistakes I’ve made - like drawing the fixes to Hokushin’s hitatare in Part 2. For redrawing/adding new parts on the computer, since the art is in black and white mode at such a high dpi, almost any brush will work great and look indistinguishable from the scanned lines when scaled down.

I save a high res TIFF for my archives. Then I convert to greyscale (better for maintaining details when I resize, since black and white can drop things that aren’t 100% black or white), and resize to 72 dpi at 700 pixels wide. 72 dpi has long been the standard for on-screen viewing - nowadays screens can display higher resolutions (e.g., retina) but this looks fine to me so I’ve long stuck with good ol’ 72. I arbitrarily picked the 700 dpi width - it seemed a good balance of “not too small” and “looks big enough to let you see the art nicely” on Tumblr. Below are my settings to resize:

Again, the above I mostly only pay attention to width and resolution. All the other stuff is mostly default or autocalculated. All my pages are different heights, which I don’t really care about since I’m just posting them on tumblr and pixiv. Finally I save as JPG for posting. 

 Ta da!

[winchesters-imagine]

Dean Winchester X Reader - Infected - Pt 2

Imagine tagging along with Joel and Ellie as they attempt to find the fireflies, and you try to figure out how to get home with Dean.

A/N: I am very aware that I haven’t been posting fics for a while - I’m going to start posting more regularly again but if I don’t, send in a request x

Part three perhaps?|Part 1

Word Count: 5,272 Warnings: swearing, mild violence, blood Tags: @whats-the-matter-with-y0u, @the-angels-stole-the-tardis @mousehybrid @amyd12

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You hear a river thrashing against the rocks, and the air starts to get colder as you approach a sign. The trees line the mountains, tall and gently swaying.

“Jackson County. That means we’re close to Jackson City, right?” You ask. Joel had filled you and Dean in on where he and Ellie were going.

“Shouldn’t be more than a few miles,” Was your reply from Joel.

“You ready to see dear old brother?” Ellie teases. Joel shakes his head slightly. “I’m just ready to get there.”

You, Dean and Ellie end up in a small cluster as you follow Joel down the mountain trail, following a path that leads to a road. 

“Are you nervous?” Dean’s voice is slightly hoarse, as he hasn’t spoken for a long time. He clears his throat before repeating the question.

“I don’t know what I’m feeling,” Joel replies honestly, as you see that the river had thrown itself against the road, causing the road to be washed away. 

The road that Dean is just about to step on, lost in his thoughts.

“Hey!” You grab a fistful of his jacket and roughly pull him back, stepping on the weak road in the process. 

You try to avoid slipping on the damp road as you both step back onto stable land. His eyes are wide, and he nods at you in appreciation and smiles after taking a deep breath. 

“So much for this road,” Ellie comments. “We just follow the river. It’ll lead us straight to Tommy’s. C’mon,” Joel leads you all down a different way, down the side of the mountain, and you approach a small drop from a small cliff.

As you all keep walking again, you raise a point to yourself. You’ve played the game, you know how this all goes. Should you copy the dialogue? Of course, a lot of it is what Ellie and Joel say, so what if you tweak it to be more...you?

That’s what you decide to do, as Joel leads you along the river bank, where your feet sink into the wet mud beneath you.

“What happened between the both of you?” You ask Joel. “What do you mean?”

“You and Tommy...you're not together, so clearly something went down,” Ellie chimes in, catching up to walk next to you.

��We just had a bit of a disagreement, that's all.”

Joel jumps first, followed by Ellie. You step off next, bending your knees when you reach the ground to cushion the impact. You stumble as you stand up before regaining your balance.

You watch Dean drop. He winces slightly when he reaches the floor.

“Oh, here we go...so what was it about?” Ellie asks, her voice bouncy yet curious. “Tommy saw the world one way, I saw it the other,” Joel states bluntly as you follow the rocky path next to the river.

“And that's why he joined the Fireflies?” You enquire.

“Yeah, Ellie’s friend, I’m assuming you know her, Marlene promised him hope. That kept him busy for awhile, but just like Tommy, he eventually quit that too,” Joel explains. 

“How was it, the last time you saw him?” Dean pipes up from behind you, trying to make his relationship with Joel less awkward and forced. You appreciate that.

“I believe his last words to me were ‘I don't ever want to see your god      damned face again.’” Joel replies, which eases your thoughts on whether he was trying to do the same as Dean.

You all climb over some small rocks, avoiding slipping off of them. You walk underneath a bridge which was high above you, and you see a large boulder in the river to your left, with a tree that has previously fallen on it, and as a result, was snapped in two.

You all continue walking over the rocky terrain and you can hear some sort of bells in the distance.

“Geez,” Ellie sighs. “But he's gonna help us?”

“I suppose we're gonna find out,” You say. “Well, with or without his help, we'll get there,” Ellie says determinedly. 

“Let's just keep going,” Joel tries motivating the group.

You hang back to walk with Dean, who still seemed to be thinking deeply. You don’t want to disturb him too much, though, so you just take his hand and squeeze it to let him know you’re there. He squeezes back, as you continue following Joel and Ellie. 

You duck under a fallen tree which is propped against a rock before walking over a small hill to see a large structure, spanning the river. It had two waterfalls coming from the small dam it has made, about five foot tall. There are buildings on each side, the ones on the left sporting a staircase to climb up.

The other building was tall with many windows, and it surprised you how it hadn’t fallen down yet.

“Whoa, what's that? “ Ellie asks in awe as you approach. “That is a hydroelectric power plant,” You reply.

“A...hydra who?” She furrows her eyebrows in confusion. “It, uh...uses the river's movement and turns it into electricity,” Joel explains.  “How's it do that?” “Look. I know what it is, I don't know how it does it,” Joel replies sarcastically.

“Alright...how are we getting across?” You ask, as you start jogging up the metal staircase. Your footsteps are heavy, and you can hear Dean and Ellie behind you as you and Joel reach the top of the stairs, the rails wrapped in barbed wire that coils to the side. 

As Joel breaks into the abandoned cabin-like building in front of you, you drift to the left and spin the wheel that forms half of the thin bridge that marks your path across. Your hands start to form blisters as you strain against the force, the rust resisting your attempt to move it. 

Dean comes to help you with the last turn, pulling the half of the bridge all the way up.

“Well, that gets us halfway. If we get the other one up, we'll make it across,” Ellie states.

“Hmm,” You hum, before getting an idea. You give Dean your metal rod and shed your jacket, shivering slightly due to the wind. 

You remember this, looking out into the pool of water formed on the other side of the dam, looking for the wooden pallet in the water.

You forgot that it was stuck to a sunken building. Turns out some of the tall building from earlier did fall, taking the pallet with it.

“Y/N, what the hell are you doing?” Dean asks as you put your jacket on his shoulder.

“You’ll see.”

You turn and jump into the water. The freezing temperature shocks you momentarily, as you feel the water pressure against your ears. You swim to the surface and take a deep breath of the sweet oxygen, before swimming along the surface of the water to the sunken building.

“Here goes nothing,” You mutter, inhaling deeply before diving under the water. 

As your lungs are full of air, your body begins to float to the surface, taking all your energy to swim down and through what used to be a doorway. 

The door was gone completely now, and you could see, although it was fairly blurry, that the pallet was lodged in a window frame. 

You start swimming towards it, before realising that you need to take another breath. Fast.

Shit.

You swim out of the doorway and breathe out all of your air to get to the surface. You reach it just in time, your lungs burning as you regain the ability to shout.

“Joel! A little help?”

Joel jumps in and swims towards you.  “Uh, the pallet is stuck real good, and I need you to help pull it out,” You explain quickly, ducking under again and swimming your previous route.

You reach the pallet and push it feebly with both of your hands. You feel Joel tug it from the other side and you let your body float upwards into it as you shove it again, harder. 

Joel tugs at it again and one of the two wooden panels that are stuck become free. You repeat the action again with Joel and the pallet comes free completely, with Joel swimming with it to the surface, believing you’re following him.

But your shirt caught onto a jagged corner of the window frame, and you can’t see where it is as the water isn’t clear. 

Joel surfaces with a deep breath, relieving Ellie.

“Where’s Y/N?” Dean demands, his eyes scanning the water for you. “She was right-” Joel turns, expecting to see you, but you aren’t there.

You begin losing breath, and start panicking about your predicament before realising that you have a dry jacket with Dean on land.

Fuck it.

You rip your shirt away from wherever it was caught and weakly pull yourself to the surface, using Joel’s silhouette as a guide. You reach the surface and grab onto the pallet to steady yourself as you take a deep breath.

“I’m...good!” You smile, swimming along the surface to the corner of concrete that Dean and Ellie are standing on. 

Dean drops your rod and jacket to hoist you out of the water, with the cold wind making you shiver violently. He puts your jacket around you as you look down and realise why you’re shivering so much. 

Half of your shirt was still in the water. The bottom of your shirt has completely ripped off, leaving you with what would probably pass as a crop top. Dean rubs his hands up and down your arms to warm you up before you slip your arms into the sleeves of your jacket and stand up, fastening your jacket all the way.

“Alright, Ellie, I need you to--” Joel is still in the water, holding the pallet next to the edge of the ground.  “I know, step on the fucking pallet,” She cuts him off, jumping onto the pallet, landing on her hands and feet. Joel ferries her to the other side, and she leaps onto land, flicking the water off of her hands before turning to the crank. 

“Go on, give it a spin,” Joel instructs.

Joel swims over and leaves the pallet floating in the water. He pulls himself out and approaches you as the loud groaning of the metal can be heard by the bridge.

“Hey, sorry about-”

“Don’t mention it. I could ask Tommy when we get to his - if he’ll let me,” You suggest. Joel runs his hand through his hair as you hear the loud clank of the bridge falling into place. 

Dean follows you over the bridge, watching your feet don’t slip.

“Hey, be careful crossing that thing,” Ellie warns. You show a thumbs up sign, eyes trained on your feet. You see out of the corner of your eye that Dean has his hands out, either side of your waist, to make sure he can catch you if you fall.

You let a smile spread across your face. “We will,” Joel assures Ellie. “Teamwork,” Ellie jokes, lifting her hand out so that everyone can high five her as they walk past. “Yeah,” She says proudly as you all continue walking. 

You walk up the metal staircase on the other side, shivering slightly due to the cold. 

 “Aughh, I'm so hungry,” Ellie complains once you reach the top. You smile and chuckle.

“I know, I am too,” Joel says.

“Next squirrel we see, we’re totally shooting it,” Ellie whispers to you. 

“Let's get past this place, then we can scrounge up some food,” You suggest. “Well, if I starve, you're responsible,” Ellie jokes as the clouds begin to collect to form a large grey rain cloud.

“Fantastic,” You mutter sarcastically, looking up. “Here,” Dean starts taking off his jacket but you slap his hand.

“I can last until we make it to Tommy’s,” You assure him as you tread through the long grass that’s scratching your legs. You follow Ellie, ducking underneath a fallen tree that’s propped up against a rock.

You walk around the dam, drying off slightly, and you see that the road ahead is blocked by roadworks equipment. The other side of the road leads into a powerplant which has it’s gates firmly closed.

The bushes surrounding it sway in the wind, in time with the forest of trees everywhere else. 

“Uh...should we head in?” You approach Joel and stand next to him, staring up at the high wall in front of you.

“Ah, ain't no way around... Gonna have to cut through the plant,” He says. 

He approaches the door and tries opening them, but it doesn’t seem to be working.

“Gimme a hand with this,” He beckons Dean over. Dean hesitantly steps forwards to help tug at the heavy doors, which creak in reluctance to the force.

You then hear multiple gun clicks and look up to see three people holding shotguns aimed at you.

You step forward to grab your crowbar from Dean but the woman holding a hunting rifle stops you.

Don't even think about reaching for your weapons. Tell the girl to drop       her's. Now,” She demands. You glance over to the side and notice that Ellie is holding her gun in her hand, aiming at the woman. Joel and Dean step back.

“Y/N.” You stop in your track as Dean warns you not to do anything.

He only needs to take a few steps to cover the distance as he’s so tall, but when he reaches you he pushes you behind him protectively.

“Ellie, do as the lady says,” Joel says calmly. “Okay,” Ellie holds her hands up in a surrender position before lowering both of her arms.

“Please tell me you're lost,” The woman pleads. You find that you aren’t scared about what’s going to happen - you already know. Even though you were used to being shot at, it never gets old.

“We didn't know the place was occupied. We're just trying to make our way      through,” You explain quickly, after noting that everyone else was speechless. Usually, this would be a great time for Dean to practice his FBI lying skills.

“Through to where?” The woman presses.  “They're alright,” A voice comes to your rescue. “What, you know these people?” The woman doesn’t seem convinced, and the conversation moves along quickly.

“I know him.” 

The metal clanking of the gate catches all of your attention, and Dean looks at you in confusion, pointing to himself and mouthing ‘Me?’ You shake your head and motion towards Joel, who was staring at the man behind the gate, barely visibly.

“He's my goddamn brother.” “Tommy,” The name falls out of Joel’s mouth as he scans his brother. “Holy shit,” Tommy returns the action as he strides over to Joel, before pulling him into a hug. Tommy has hair that reaches his ears, much like Sammy’s. He has a small cut on his face that leaked dried blood, and his features are sharp. His short beard covers the bottom half of his face, probably providing some sort of warmth in the winter.

“How you doin', baby brother?” Joel mutters into Tommy’s shoulder. You whack Dean playfully on the arm.

“Hey, looks like you and Joel do have something in common after all,” You tease. Dean watches Joel and Tommy as they hug, visibly missing his younger brother.

“We’ll get back, Dean-o. We just have to figure out why Gabriel sent us here,” You assure him as Joel and Tommy pull away.

“Let me look at you. You got fucking old,” Tommy comments, making you smile. “Easy -- it's gonna happen to you too.” 

Their conversation reminds you of Sam and Dean’s sarcastic conversations, like whether Sam secretly braids his hair to stop it from getting messed up during the night, or if Dean had ever mistaken apple juice for whiskey. These conversations almost always end up with you making the final decision. 

“This is Maria. Be nice to her, she sorta runs things around here,” Tommy introduces, gesturing to the woman who was holding the hunting rifle, and who also had come down to join you all. She had short blonde hair, combed away from her face and framing her defined cheekbones.

“Ma'am. Thanks for not blowing my head off,” Joel jokes.

“Would've been embarrassing, considering you're my brother-in-law.”

Dean turns around and looks at you, eyes wide. You stifle a giggle and put your fingers to your lips before turning him back around, missing what Tommy had said.

“Ellie, Y/N, right?” Maria asks, pointing at you both in turn. You nod. As Ellie audibly replies with a ‘Yeah.’ Maria looks over at Dean expectantly.

“Dean,” He says. 

“What brings you through here?” She asks you. You look over at Dean, who shrugs. 

“Uh...it's kind of a long story,” You say. “Why don't we bring 'em inside?” Tommy suggests. “Yeah. You hungry?” Maria asks.

“Starving,” You and Ellie say together as Tommy leads you all into the dam compound. You and Ellie glance at each other, sharing a smile.

 “False alarm. They're friendlies,” Maria calls out to the compound, which had various men in denim jackets wearing yellow builder hats. The dirt road leads through the courtyard of the compound. There was an industrialist feel about the place, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out why.

Maria turns to your group. “We've been dealing with raids. Lot of bandits in this area,” She explains.

“Like hunters?” You ask. Dean stiffens next to you as Tommy nods. “It's been quiet for a few days.”

Joel walks quickly to keep up with his brother, and they start talking about the electricity supply of the plant. 

“Hunters?” Dean whisper shouts. You stifle a giggle. “Not like us,” You laugh. Dean visibly relaxes. “No, hunters in this world are out to kill you - survival of the fittest sort of thing. Best to stay away, if they get you then you’re screwed,” You explain. 

“Those sons of bitches,” Dean replies. You shrug, before hearing a whinny from a horse.

“No way! You guys have horses,” Ellie exclaims, excitedly rushing to where two horses were standing, one brown with white patches and the other a light chestnut brown with black socks.

“We got a whole lot of 'em,” Tommy says proudly. A man out of your peripheral vision calls Tommy over and he briefly leaves, as you stare in awe at the horses stood in front of you.

As if she was reading your thoughts, Ellie asks, “Can I?”

“Yeah, of course. He likes when you pet his ears. You ever ride one?” Maria asks Ellie. You make your way over to the horse and stand next to Ellie, petting the horses’ mane as Ellie and Maria speak to Joel, who is also taking his chance to pet the horse. 

Dean stands next to you, shifting from one foot to the other. You grab his hand and let him take your place petting the horse. You watch how gentle he is with it, and end up staring. 

You turn just as he looks up.

“All right, let's continue the tour,” Tommy says proudly. You all follow Maria as she strikes up conversation with a man in one of the yellow hats. 

“You ever ridden a horse?” Dean asks. You shrug.  “What about you?” “Sammy and I went Star Trek four to find Samuel Colt-”

“The Samuel Colt?” You ask in disbelief. Dean chuckles.  “I also became the Sheriff,” He adds, smirking. You snort and follow the rest of the group up a small flight of stairs, and Maria opens the door before the radio says her name.

“We're in the control room. Steve's about to start it back up. Do you wanna come check it out?” 

Maria looks up at the small crowd, giving you a small smile. “I'd rather eat with Y/N and Ellie,” She admits. 

 “It's my turn anyway. I'll go,” Tommy says.

“I'll come with you,” Joel says, turning to Ellie. “Go with Maria and put some food in you.”

 “Joel?” Ellie asks, unsure. You rub her shoulder. 

“C'mon, Ellie. Let's give the boys some space,” You say. 

“Dean,” Tommy starts. Dean spins on his heel at the sound of his name. 

“You look like a guy who’s interested in stuff like this,” Tommy suggests.  “I fix cars,” Dean shrugs. “Come with us.”

“Tommy we need to talk, he can’t-” Joel is cut off.

“He can wait outside. C’mon, Dean,” Tommy compromises with Joel. 

Dean looks back at you gingerly and you raise and drop one shoulder with a smile as Maria speaks into her radio again. 

“This'll be the sixth time of them trying to get the turbines back online. We've been here just a week, but it feels like forever,” Maria states, leading you and Ellie into a room that somewhat resembled a cafeteria.

“So, tell me about yourselves,” Maria drops a tray of food lightly onto a metal table which you and Ellie had settled on. 

Ellie takes a sandwich from the small pile on the plate and shrugs before taking a bite.

You also take one, but decide to be polite to talk to Maria. 

“It’s a long story,” You say. Maria looks at you expectantly, so you continue. 

“But in a nutshell, me and Dean don’t actually belong in this... world?” You question yourself slightly.

“What do you mean?” Maria asks.  “In our ‘world’, Dean and I are hunters.”

Ellie chokes on her food as Maria’s arm disappears below the table and you hear the safety of a gun being taken off. 

“No! No, not the hunters like there are here; geez, those guys are terrible. We’re good hunters, we save people. Like I told you before, Ellie - Vampires, Shapeshifters, Ghosts...” You list.

Maria’s arm slowly reappears onto the table. “Okay, enough about me.”

You continue to eat with Ellie and Maria as Ellie becomes more comfortable with sharing. 

“Y/N, have you ever read a comi-”

The lights in the room briefly flash red and a deafening alarm goes off, causing you to drop what you’re holding and cover your ears. 

“What’s that?” Ellie shouts over the noise. “We’re under attack!” Maria grabs the radio off of the table as you reach for Ellie, helping her jump away from the table quickly. You sprint to another table that was next to the door, and put your hands onto the cold surface, straining to push it along. 

“Ellie, gimme a hand!” You shout. Ellie joins you in blocking the doors, before you stand in front of both her and Maria.

“Tommy! Bandits, they're breaking into the building,” Maria shouts as you look for another door.

“Can you get out of there?” Tommy asks through the radio. “No, we're trapped.” The doors are being pushed with force, and the table is only barely keeping them out.

“We're gonna come to you, just stay-” The table flies to the side, crashing loudly into the wall, and you all jump behind a crate which was holding supplies.

 “They're here! We gotta run!” You don’t here what Maria said next, but you catch Ellie’s attention and motion her to climb over the wall and into the room that was in front of you. 

There was a gap where a window would usually be, and you’re suddenly aware of the pairs of slow footsteps in the room. 

You hold up your fingers as a countdown. When you reach one, you make sure that none of the bandits are looking before you sprint to the window gap, vaulting over and then pushing yourself back into the wall.

Ellie jumps in a second later, and you let her fall into you as you retreat to a corner. 

“I’m going to help Maria, stay here,” You instruct in a whisper.  “Bullshit!” Ellie exclaims.  “Ellie!” You insist. She leans back against the wall as you peek over the top. Maria is facing you behind the crate that you were hiding a second before. You see the bandit pacing just behind it, and your heart rate increases dramatically.

You jump over and scramble to hide behind a crate about three metres in the opposite direction. 

You’ve done this before, sure. 

With a ghost. 

Who are you kidding, you can do this.

You peer inside the crate and reach inside for a bottle, lifting the lid only slightly. 

You look up at the lid at exactly the wrong time, as two empty bottles which you hadn’t noticed before slid off, smashing on the floor. Maria takes the opportunity to sprint to Ellie.

The four bandits in the room open fire in your direction, so you duck. 

You aim over the crates and throw the glass bottle which you had retrieved away from you. All gunfire ceased immediately as they all went to see what made the noise. You take the chance to vault back over the wall, pushing yourself against it once again. 

You take steady breaths to calm yourself, and the adrenaline starts to wear off. As a result, you feel a sharp pain in your hand whenever you shift. 

“Y/N!” Ellie whisper shouts. You turn your head to look, and the points to your left hand, which is leaking blood, creating a puddle on the floor. 

“Oh, shit!” You curse, turning your hand over to see a bullet wedged into the side of your palm an inch below your pinky finger.

You look down at your shirt which is still ripped. 

“What have I got to lose?” You rip another part of your shirt off, accidentally ripping it so far that the bottom of your bra peeks out from underneath. 

“Ellie, can you help tie this knot?” You struggle with one hand, and you know that Ellie is going to need it later anyway. 

She crawls over to you and carefully ties a tight knot around your wound. 

You jump at the sound of gunshots, three at a time. Three of the men drop to the floor, and you look over the edge to see that one is hiding behind a crate, creeping up on Joel who is retrieving ammo from a dead bandit. 

Dean doesn’t miss this, as he checks his shotgun for ammo before shooting him in the stomach, emptying the shell and shooting again as another bandit sprints in before dropping as the bullet hits him.

“They're all dead,” Ellie says in shock. 

“Maria!” Tommy shouts as you all stand up.   “I'm alright. They’re with me!” 

You pull yourself over the wall and walk into Dean’s arms, breathing shakily. 

“That was worse than hunting a werewolf,” You breathe nervously, collecting handfuls of Dean’s shirt as he holds onto you.

“A Werewolf, huh? God, are you okay?” Dean grabs your hand gently and inspects the bloodstained makeshift bandage around it. 

He recognises the fabric and looks down at your shirt, or what was left of it. His gaze lingers for a second longer than you expect, making your stomach flip before you snap your fingers in front of his face.

“That was too damn close,” Dean states, running a hand through his hair. 

“Joel!” Ellie exclaims. You smile as you watch Joel check on Ellie.

“Oh man... They were coming in from every direction-” “Okay. Ellie-” “-then Maria was like "We gotta run!"-” “Listen,”  “And so Y/N gave me a signal and we dove over that ledge and this huge guy blasts in with a shotgun-”  “Slow down, slow down. Listen-” You chuckle at Joel’s attempts to calm Ellie, who is still giddy from the adrenaline.  “And then-”  “Hey, hey, are you hurt?” Joel finally get Ellie calm, rubbing his hands along her arms. “No.”

“Goddamnit. I need to talk to you,” Tommy says to Maria.

“Give me a minute, Tommy. I think that Y/N is in need of a new shirt,” Maria says.

Maria gives you one of her old black shirts, which was in pretty good condition. You thank her as she hurries into the compound to talk to Tommy. 

You take your jacket of and reach for the ends of your used-to-be shirt before pausing. 

“Come to enjoy the show, Mr. Winchester?” You joke. Dean, who had just swivelled around so he wasn’t facing you scoffed.

“I’m just here to make sure no one shoots your ass. Thank me later,” He replies.

You roll your eyes before turning around again, pulling your shirt off. You pull Maria’s soft black shirt on swiftly, smiling to yourself when it was the perfect fit. 

Dean swipes something off of the desk as you make your way to the compound. 

“What’s going on over there?” Dean asks. You put a hand on his hard chest and push him back slightly. 

“It’s best if we don’t interrupt that,” You say, as Dean pulls out a small medical kit from his pocket, before holding his hand out. 

“We’re doing this before your hand heals with the bullet inside,” Dean raises an eyebrow. You sigh and give him your injured hand. 

He carefully unwraps your hand as you hold the kit open for him, concentration evident on his face.

He then pulls out a glass bottle from his belt and flips it the right way up.

“Where did you get that from?” You ask. Dean opens the cap and shrugs. “Stole it from the cafeteria. Want some?” He takes a swig and offers you the bottle, but you refuse. 

“Well you’re gettin’ some anyway,” Dean shrugs, pouring the alcohol onto your hand for a good four seconds. You hiss and drop the medical kit onto a nearby crate, grabbing your wrist. 

“Sorry, sweetheart. You’ve had worse,” Dean says, fishing out the tweezers from the kit. You glare at him before turning away. 

“I’m not gonna watch,” You say, as you feel the cool metal of the tweezers in your hand. You grit your teeth and tense up, bracing yourself for sharp pain.

“Relax, Y/N,” Dean mutters. You gingerly let your muscles relax as you turn to face him. His tongue is threatening to fall out of his mouth due to his focus on your hand, trying ever so hard not to touch anything with the tweezers that would hurt. 

You eventually feel the tweezers come into contact with the bullet and you forget to breathe as you hear the metal connect with metal, and eventually, you can feel the bullet being pulled ever to gently out of your hand. 

You clench your fist in your free hand as Dean grabs the already prepared needle and thread, as he begins to thread four stitches through the hole in your hand. He then reaches for a bandage, wrapping it around your hand four times before tying it up.

As he ties it, you watch how his eyes move quickly to scan what he’s doing. He slowly looks up at you, and you feel no shame in being caught staring. 

His eyes flick between your eyes and your lips, the moment seemingly lasting forever, before you hear shouts and whip your head around to see Tommy on the radio.

“What’s happening?” Dean asks, as you follow Joel and Tommy as they run past. 

“Ellie! Time to shine, cowboy!” You shout, pushing Dean onto a horse next to Joel and Tommy at the gate. You climb on behind him and hold on to his waist, clutching his jacket tighter in your right hand than your left due to your injury.

“Be careful out there,” One of Tommy’s men instruct as you tell Dean where to go, taking the lead of the three horses.