#I used two completely different shading Methods for the blonde and every other part of this doodle

[coffinkissez]

one like drop self insert NOW

Here’s a (slightly) better doodle

[rahuratna]

To you, young sorcerer

Happy Father's Day to all the Dads, including anime Dads. And Nanami Kento, of course.

Nobara hated this. For most other girls, it was a natural process, a part of life to be embraced, an inconvenience you groaned about to your girlfriends as you rummaged through your bag for a tampon. For her, it interfered with training. It might even be a hindrance on missions, where she might not be in the best physical condition, where every little ache and pain her body inflicted upon her could mean the difference between life and death.

Gritting her teeth, she made her way into the hallway of the main building of Jujutsu Tech, taking a shortcut to the student dormitories, even if it meant tracking mud and debris from her training session with Panda all across the pristine wooden floors. Her abdomen had been plagued with discomfort all afternoon, and now, after that particularly rigorous regimen Panda had put her through, the cramps were returning with a vengeance.

Even worse, another side effect, one she detested the most, was making itself known. Frustration, anger, resentment against her own body for failing her in this way, were all boiling up inside her in a way that made her throat tight and her eyes sting.

One hand on her belly, squinting slightly as another wave of pain assailed her, Nobara shuffled through the hallway, hellbent on reaching her room where a nice hot shower, some painkillers and the soft embrace of her blankets awaited her.

There were voices behind her now. It sounded as if Yuuji and Inumaki had completed their own session and were returning to the dorms as well. Nobara could hear Yuuji enthusiastically outlining his new method of deflecting attacks to his quiet companion, punctuated by the occasional "salmon", "fish flakes" or "salmon roe". Yuuji spotted her and she groaned internally.

"Hey, Kugisaki! Wanna hear about my new technique?"

"Not right now. Read the room."

"Whoa, you look ... not so great. You okay?"

She grunted as a way of reply.

"What's up? You not feeling too good?"

As well-meaning as Yuuji was, he really didn't know when to step back from a situation. Nobara didn't have the energy to whack him upside the head like she usually did, though. To her horror, the constricting sensation in her throat was coiling like a vice, the burn behind her eyes growing stronger. A single, fat tear slipped traitorously from her lash line, tracking down her cheek.

Yuuji looked horrified, and Inumaki, eyes wide above his collar, was rooted to the spot, neither boy sure what had brought this on. Hands flapping helplessly, Yuuji took a step towards her.

"Uhh, Kugisaki? Was it something I said? I'm really sorry if -"

"It's not you, idiot," Nobara muttered, hands scrubbing furiously at her eyes.

"What's going on here?"

Oh, for the love of God.

She had learned to recognize that clipped, smooth baritone from the time the sorcerer in question had been designated as Yuuji's mentor on some missions when Gojo wasn't available.

Nanami Kento, grade one sorcerer, wielder of the seven : three ratio technique. Nobara didn't know much about the man, having interacted with him only a few times. She knew that he was strict, no-nonsense, a stickler for propriety and good conduct, rather dour and gloomy if what Gojo described was accurate. Used to be a salaryman. He certainly looked like the kind of man who could blend into any boardroom, with his tan business suit and perfectly parted blonde hair.

He was now eyeing her from behind those reflective shades, taking in her bedraggled appearance, the leaves and mud on her clothing and hair, the hand clutching at her abdomen, the tear-streaked face. She wondered, momentarily, if he was going to dismiss her as yet another weak, female sorcerer with aspirations far higher than her ability. The thought made a fresh wave of frustration rise in her chest, moistening her eyes once again.

Nanami turned, expression unchanged, and addressed the boys.

"You two go and get supper at the canteen. Kugisaki, with me please."

He began to make his way out towards the student dorms, not bothering to check if she was following. Grumbling slightly, Nobara complied.

"Don't need an escort," she muttered.

"I'm aware."

"Then - "

"How bad are the cramps?"

She stared at the back of his head. Nanami paused and turned towards her slightly, one eyebrow raised.

"Well?"

"Uh ... pretty bad."

"Hmm."

He resumed his walk, and she followed, almost in a trance. Nanami spoke again, voice quiet and measured, before she had a chance to put words to her query.

"I had a friend, when I studied here at Jujutsu Tech. He had a sister who he was very close to. He used to visit her in the countryside, and they looked after each other. He could always recognize when she needed help of this sort. He told me everything. I had no choice but to listen. He was ... a talker."

"Oh, I see. What kind of stuff did he mention?"

"Many things. The kind of tea that eased her pain. The stretches she liked to perform. The bath salts he used to purchase for her from the store at the shrine. The food she liked to eat."

In spite of herself, Nobara quirked a small smile.

"Sounds like ... a pretty good guy."

"He was."

She was silent for a minute, taking in the tense with which Nanami had referred to his friend.

"Did he - "

"Yes. Many years ago."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"No need. We all know the dangers of this profession. Haibara knew too."

They'd reached the dorms and Nanami opened the door, motioning her through. Somehow, coming from him, the gesture didn't seem condescending. She stepped through and he followed, moving off to the side into the small kitchenette that was reserved for the students' use.

Nobara hovered awkwardly in the doorway, wondering what she was supposed to say next. Nanami was busying himself with the cupboards, boiling water and pulling open the fridge. He glanced over and she realised that, at some point, he had removed the shades that normally concealed his stern gaze.

"Go and get yourself cleaned up. Then come back to the kitchen when you're done."

"Um, sure. Goodnight, Nanami."

"Oh, and Kugisaki?"

"Yes?"

"You're a strong and capable young sorcerer. We all have moments of weakness. From time to time, remember to let yourself be. We are sorcerers, but we're also human. Sometimes, recalling that simple fact is enough to hold your mind together when nothing else will."

Nobara's throat was tightening once again, but this time, she felt little to no shame. She was beginning to realise that the sorcerers who were responsible for them knew exactly what they were talking about. No wonder he had come across as so perceptive. How many nights had he spent, alone, in pain, wishing he were stronger, better, wishing that the boy who once smiled alongside him was still amongst the living? How weak had he felt, back then? Had he wished an adult had said these very words to him?

"I'll remember that. Thank you, Nanami."

"Goodnight, Kugisaki."

After a long, hot bath, Nobara changed into her most comfortable pyjamas and slowly made her way back to the kitchen, as Nanami had instructed. As ridiculous as it sounded, she felt a small sense of nervous anticipation. What had he done in there?

Entering, the scent of something delicious made her mouth begin to water. There, on the stove top, bubbling merrily in a small cast iron dish, was a cheese and corn, green onions snipped neatly as garnish over the top. Covered dishes of miso soup and rolled omelette with diced vegetables stood to the side, still steaming slightly. In a pot on the stove, next to the cheese and corn, Nobara sniffed out something warm and herbal, some kind of tea blend.

Mood lifting immediately, Nobara set the table and dug into the food. As simple as the fare was, it was exactly the kind of comfort food she had been craving. Right then, it tasted like a five-star meal to her.

As she polished off the last of her food and gathered all the dishes together to wash up, she noted that her cramps had eased considerably, probably due to the warm bath, the medication and her satiated appetite. Soap forming soft suds under her fingers, Nobara surprised herself by humming slightly.

Nanami had certainly turned out to be different than she'd expected. From the little she'd seen of his interactions with Yuuji, she had assumed that he was quite a cold person.

She remembered, in that moment however, that Yuuji had never had a single bad thing to say about Nanami. Granted, Yuuji was one of the most accepting and easy-going people she knew, but there was a certain admiration and respect evident in his voice when he spoke about Nanami that she hadn't noticed in his descriptions of other people.

She was beginning to see why.

Leaving the dishes to dry on the rack, she poured out the remaining tea and carried the cup to her room. The porcelain was warm, steady and comforting between her fingers, like his eyes had been in the dim light of the kitchenette. She had never seen him without his glasses before.

Growing up in that small village, Nobara had learned to prize a particular quality above all others, one that she would now add to the growing list of words she could use to describe Nanami Kento.

Kindness. 

[fluffi]

SARCOLINE SUNSET I: WELCOME HOME, OUTSIDER :: SOOBIN

pairing: soobin x gn!reader, platonic!ot5 x gn!reader genre: fluff, some subjective angst, bits of humor, enemies-to-lovers, childhood friends word count: 4002 event: #summerscape for @kpopscape credit: @enha-woodzies​ for making the gfx for this series! show her some love <3 author’s note: i accidentally deleted this post so here is a rushed reupload. it might not be as good as the original because it isnt proof read as well but i still hope the algorithm picks it up, maybe this’ll be good for the post. Also, the second part will be coming out in 15 days. warnings: people disappearing, mentions of burning and fire (further warnings will be released in the next parts as the story gets darker)

THIS STORY IS PURELY A WORK OF FICTION AND DOES NOT DICTATE JAY OR NI-KI’S PERSONAL LIVES AND/OR FAMILY.

part two ->

The blonde stared up at an intricately designed structure in awe, walking forward to touch the sides of it and running his calloused hands up and down its rusted carved wedges. It seemed oddly cliche and unrealistic, but he could feel its story. Every touch of the ceramic pillar provided him with emotion that he couldn’t bring himself to explain.

The sun hadn’t set yet, but he could make out the faint reflection of it settling in the background. The huge pine trees around him were making conversation with each other; their faint whispers and rustles providing peace to his veins.

So entranced in the scenery of such a mystical place, he forgot to watch out for his younger peer. Kicking back into his senses, he nervously called out, “Riki! You there?” His voice, usually strong and boisterous, laced fear today.

“Don’t worry about me Jay, I’m right behind you. Just climbing this fence..and..there!” Riki let out a grunt as he jumped onto the soft grass, looking at his older friend with an innocent grin.

At the sight of his buddy, Jay visibly loosened. It was clear that he didn’t feel safe in this environment, yet felt entranced to it in some way. Riki caught up to him in a quick jog before standing next to Jay, in awe at the magnificent view that they were spectating for the first and possibly last time.

“Is this…the place you were talking about?” Riki was out of breath from running after his peer. He pats the grassy patch below him before slumping onto it, crossing his legs afterward.

Jay took a seat next to him, setting his canvas satchel and leather jacket next to him. “According to the maps and books, this is the right spot. I just want to see if the myth is true.”

Riki clapped his hands in excitement and turned to face Jay. “We’re staying till the sun sets right? I want to see what the carousel looks like at night! This structure is so fascinating. It must be beautiful out here at night.”

“No, we’re walking back as soon as the sun goes down. I do not want to risk being out here at night. People have disappeared from staying too long and I wouldn’t want to worry your mother.”

Riki visibly slumped and turned back in time to see the last drop of orange dip. It was quiet for a while. The singing birds stopped humming their soulful tunes, yet the whispering trees grew louder, their inaudible gossip echoing in the ears of the two boys.

At nine at night, Riki’s mother would call Jay, heeding no response. She would do the same for his parents and his friends. The only piece of information they could provide was that Jay had brought Riki, in his words, to “a magical place”. With no other vital details they could draw from their son’s peers, Jay and Riki’s family agree to call the local police, reporting two missing people: two minors, one last seen in a brown leather jacket, and a taller one tailing alongside him. Both their hairs were dyed in a striking shade of blonde.

Summer’s heat-blasted onto your skin as soon as you stepped out of your sleek white Toyota. It was good to be back, you supposed. Although it was something that not many people would fawn over, you were ecstatic to be home in town.

Leaving at the mere age of sixteen wasn’t easy. After your parents decided that you were too good for a mediocre high school where people cared more about their body count than grade count, they immediately sent you off to a prestigious boarding school in the big city. You were given three days to pack and say goodbye to your friends, the rest of your family, your world. As excited as you were to study in the evolutionary epicenter of technology, you didn’t like how you had almost no say in this decision.

You didn’t return home from high school even after four years of studying at that mentally draining institution. It wasn’t like you didn’t want to come back, you were just so accustomed to life in the big city that it seemed pointless to return to square one. With the rest of the world finally in your grip (or so you thought), you enrolled in a highly expensive university and received a full-ride scholarship.

Perhaps that was your breaking point. Piles of work that could never be cleared must’ve got to your head. No one out there seemed to care about your mental health and well-being. The only reason you were allowed to take a break from the university and return was because of your constant breakdowns that your lecturers called “distracting” and “unethical”. You were hoping that this drop-by in town would give you a physical and mental cleanse.

There was no place as hot as home, from where you had been. The blazing sun scorched onto the road. Carrying baggage by itself was already hard enough, but this heat was immensely torturing. You struggled to carry your belongings while trying to close the car boot at the same time. Oh, a pity. You had just returned home and you were slowly turning into a bundle of disorganization, unlike your previous methodical attitude.

“Need a hand?” A familiar suede voice behind your shoulder sounded like music to your ears as you dropped all of your luggage and turned back to see…

“Taehyun!” Child best friend number one. You were looking at a once-innocent boy with doe eyes who had matured into a fine young man. His hair was dyed platinum blonde and, although younger than you, possessed a flair that was completely unlike his past self. His facial features were more prominent than ever and you wondered if all of your friends had developed as well as he had.

You locked your arms around his neck and embraced him as he took your baggage from you.

“You’re so tall now!” You gasped in awe and looked him up and down.

“Of course I am! A boy has to grow, doesn’t he?”

Speak of the devil(s), four people tagged behind Taehyun, waiting for you to notice their presence. All of them were just as tall (if not taller) than your blonde friend and stood out like a sore thumb. It wasn’t just the height, their hair was also in very...exciting colors.

“Can’t believe you forgot about us just for Taehyun.” Ah, that nasal voice was so recognizable. Choi Yeonjun, second-best friend. You cherished him like he was your secret weapon, a power waiting to be unleashed into your industrial world. Although older than Taehyun, they seemed to be the same height now. You couldn’t tell because his new neon pink hair was waxed slick and puffy which made him look a teensy bit taller than his younger friend. You had seen him around on social media and he was a hair-changing chameleon.

Alongside Yeonjun was Hueningkai, better known as Kai in the friend group. He was the youngest one, constantly babied and spoiled, you could say. He was probably influenced by the rest of his friends too, his hair now in a mossy shade of blonde. 

Poor Yeonjun, you completely disregarded his existence and dashed over to Kai instead, eagerly standing next to him to compare heights. The kid had grown so much, you couldn’t tell if you were contented that he was now taller than you or dejected that you had missed so much when you weren’t around.

“Hey, wait up!” Someone from behind called. With Hueningkai and Yeonjun blocking your view you couldn’t see who that one person walking next to Choi Beomgyu was.

Beomgyu, the last friend who joined the friend group. He was always a comedian and never failed to make your day. Although, he didn’t seem so smiley anymore. You figured that it was school stress and adulting getting the best of him. We all had those days; you regrettably knew them like you knew the back of your hand . Unlike the rest of his friends, Beomgyu’s hair was kept in a natural shade of ivory brown. He had never been swayed by the rest of the crowd.

There were so many things to do, so many people to see. You had missed out on most of your growing: having fun with friends, staying up late at night just to watch the stars, dancing on your balcony. You had missed the people too. The town felt different from when you had left it.

“Soobin! Don’t just stand behind, meet our friend! They just returned from the city, right?” Beomgyu ran over to you before giving you a little squeeze.

Who’s Soobin?

“Hey, I’m Choi Soobin. Twenty-one this year. I moved here a few years ago. You must have left before I showed up.” A simple and concise introduction from the blue-haired man. Maybe he was the root of this hair-dyeing trend in town (pun very much intended), as well as the height trend since he was just as tall, if not taller than the rest of the boys.

You briefly introduced yourself but that was about it. You didn’t know how to create small talk, nonetheless with someone completely unfamiliar to you.

Later that day, you wondered if he had replaced you, become another guardian in the friend group. As one of the oldest, you and Yeonjun were always known as the parents of your three “kids”, but Soobin seemed to take care of them equally well. Throughout the day, you watched his every action, how he helped Beomgyu with homework, how he styled Kai’s hair, how he treated Taehyun to his favorite meal, exactly like what you did when you were still around. For once, you felt like the outsider.

Marshmallow Night had always been a tradition here. It was a five-of-you kind of thing, well, the six-of-you now. It had always been the go-to celebration whenever one of you hit a milestone, or was just held for fun. The days of joy where the only thing you had to worry about was whether your smores were burnt.

It had changed a lot over the years, you guys would add some new events to it and remove the ones you guys outgrew, like hopscotch.

You had missed most of its evolution.

Instead of being the main catalyst for today’s event, you resorted to sitting at the side as Soobin took the lead, carrying tables back and forth as well as setting up the fire in a method that the five of you had never used.

Oh, how much you loathed him. You hated his innocent-looking face that spurred out words of authority and boastfulness. You couldn’t stand how he looked so obnoxious with his bright blue hair, his dark brown eyes that held an impeccable gleam. He looked so cheeky, so mean, and worst of all, he had made all of your friends convert to mini spawns of him. Even Yeonjun, the oldest member, no longer felt like the Choi Yeonjun you once knew.

If you could, you would throw him out of your hometown, except that you seemed to be the outsider here. Anyone who walked past would see five people sitting on a huge log, helping each other light marshmallows and biscuits. They would barely notice the one person hunched over on the other side, sitting on the ground, eyes dazed and uninterested.

Occasionally one of the boys would call out to you, either hand you a s’more or ask if you were alright, to which you responded, “I’m alright! Don’t worry about me, I’m having fun.”

Anyone could also see that you weren’t in the zone, but you didn’t want to ruin the moment and be a party pooper. You ended up spending most of the time scrolling on your phone, checking school emails, and such. It didn’t feel like you were back home, it felt like you were on a vacation, on your own.

The commotion had died down, for the most part. Everyone else was either discussing school gossip in hushed voices or making the most of use of their electronic device. You were tempted to join the little heated conversation that Soobin and Beomgyu were having, but you didn’t know who this ‘Chaeyeon’ girl was and either way, you wouldn’t want to voluntarily speak to Choi Soobin.

It wasn’t long before both of them went to do something else, the only sound prevalent being the wood crackling from the bonfire and the occasional chirp of evening birds.

It was a loud, sucked-in breath that drew the attention of everyone, eyes pinned onto the instigator.

Choi Soobin, once again disrupting the peace of this curated environment. He ducked his head in apology and you were about to return to your world when Kai’s curiosity got the best of him.

“Why did you just do that?” His booming voice resounded over everyone else.

You weren’t going to lie, you were curious too. It wasn’t every day you heard a gasp like that.

Soobin looked back up, eyes wide and awake. He was excited about something but seemed to be masking it for the sake of..suspense?

“Okay. You guys know Yongsam Park right?” He put his phone down and tapped his hands on his thighs in a state of urgency.

Now that statement got everyone’s attention. “It’s the flower place outside our town, everyone passes it when they enter. Of course we would know where the place is. Why are you so adamant about it?” Taehyun inquired.

“Well, have any of you gone inside the park? Or near the landmark in general?”

“No. Why would we? There’s nothing to do there than to take pictures of boring flower statues.” You stated.

“See. You guys don’t know anything about the place.” He smirked tilting his head upwards and proudly crossing his arms.

“Could you cut to the chase and tell us what it is already?” Thank Yeonjun for his smart, impatient mouth.

Soobin didn’t answer and merely flipped his phone so you could see whatever was on it. The only words you could make out were “Yongsam...missing...carnival” and something related to the park before he turned it back, away from your view.

“You can’t just say that we don’t know anything about this place then proceed to give us nothing about it.” You rolled your eyes, disinterested in the conversation once again.

“Fine. I’ll send it to you.” Soobin rolled his eyes back as four of the other boys snickered. They loved seeing the two of you bicker.

In courtesy of Beomgyu who gave Soobin your number (without your consent), you received a news article and skimmed through it with eager eyes:

[WHAT’S THE HYBE?]

YONGSAM PARK CURRENTLY UNDER INVESTIGATION, AUTHORITIES SAY 3 days ago

What’s the deal with Yongsam Park? Insiders say that, although bland and boring, Yongsam Park is currently under high-level investigation for the disappearance of a few citizens. The flower-decorated park is the perfect place to take Instagram-worthy pictures and is quite harmless in itself, so visitors were shocked to arrive at the park only to find it surrounded by heaps of yellow tape.

Yongsam Park was developed by Kim Yongsam, director of My Flowers, a multi-million florist franchise that has now spread to Japan and Taiwan. In a 2015 Interview with the millionaire, he mentioned that he had created the park in the inspiration of the rising ootd picture trend, also known as the outfit-of-the-day trend, which he had initially discovered from his teen daughter. 

“I wanted to create a welcoming park for people of all ages, but I couldn’t find a suitable place to do it without the budget being drastically high. In the end, my team and I found an abandoned site and decided to build a simple structure with lower costs up there. Props to my team for the discovery of this landmark. The scenery there, especially in the evening, is stunning .” He stated in the 2015 interview with Soup Magazine.

What’s the abandoned site? With the evidence that is still standing, Yongsam Park is rumored to have previously been a carnival. Said evidence is a worn-down carousel in the back of the park, along with piles of other burnt carnival decoration and equipment. With research, Yongsam Park’s site may have once been an abandoned carnival that perished from an unknown wildfire. This may have been the primary cause of the drought that ensued in the 80s, leaving only a carousel and ashes behind. When questioned, Mr. Kim said that he had decided to leave the carousel standing behind the park due because he felt ‘drawn by its alluring glow’, as quoted.

Investigators and the local police have only enclosed the flower section of Yongsam Park because that was where the victims were spotted. They believe that disappearances took place there and are currently trying to find evidence to back up their stance. Most of this new information is not known to the public, however, Kim and his team are trying to keep it that way. The current disappearance count is seven people, the most recent case being two high-schoolers.

The carousel is still open and does not require a visitor ticket, but visitors are advised to take precautions and leave before the sun sets.

RELATED

TWO MORE BOYS HAVE DISAPPEARED AT THE NOW INFAMOUS YONGSAM PARK 5 days ago

FAMILY OF TOURISTS DISAPPEAR AT YONGSAM PARK, INSIDERS SAY THIS IS THE SECOND CASE OF DISAPPEARANCE HERE 2 weeks ago

JAPANESE COUPLE DISAPPEAR AT FLOWER PARK, NETIZENS CALL THE NEWS A POLITICAL DISTRACTION 3 weeks ago

“Are you seriously...telling us...that we should visit a place where people have been kidnapped?” Yeonjun gawked. “Dude, that’s so stupid. What if we die or something?”

“Don’t say that! I was just curious if you guys wanted to go since it’s so near and since your old friend is back home.”

“It’s a dumb move. I’m not risking my life just so I can celebrate the return of my friend. Not worth it.” Beomgyu huffed.

“Hey! You’re worth it, right?” Soobin glanced at you, waiting for a response.

He was...defending you? His ulterior motives were questionable and you weren’t sure if he was protecting you because he cared about you (cue the puking) or solely because he wanted to go to Yongsam Park that bad.

You didn’t reply and chose to drown out the wailing and chaos that ensued with your friends. You clicked on a related article below, curious to learn more about this lesser-known part of the park.

[WHAT’S THE HYBE?]

TWO MORE BOYS HAVE DISAPPEARED AT THE NOW INFAMOUS YONGSAM PARK 5 days ago

Park Jongseong (20) and Nishimura Riki (15) mentioned to their friends that they would be heading to ‘a magical place’, before disappearing for around a week. They were last spotted walking through Yongsam Park, according to anonymous witnesses. This is the third case of disappearances at the park and both teens are the sixth and seventh people to go missing.

Both families reported their children missing just two days after their disappearance. With this case being the last straw, local authorities forcibly shut down Yongsam Park despite protests from staff and management.

Parents of the two minors refused to respond when called for an interview and HYBE reporters resorted to interviewing the victims’ friends instead.

“Jay’s never been a bad kid. Yeah, he might be late here and there, but he wouldn’t skip class or fly across the country for vacation during school. I just don’t understand why he’s not here with us. He wouldn’t voluntarily disappear.” Park Sunghoon (19), a friend and classmate of Jongseong (who is better known as Jay among his friends) said.

“Although I’m not close with Jay, I know Riki personally and I know for a fact that both of them wouldn’t run away like that. Why, Riki was gearing up for a dance competition that he’s been excited about all year, and now he’s just gone? Like that? Riki has always been like my little brother, and he’ll always be. I just want him back at my side.” A teary-eyed Lee Heeseung (20) says.

Netizens have been complaining about the lack of coverage on this issue.

“Maybe Mr. Kim spent all his money on covering this story up from the mainstream public. That’s why he had to build the stupid park on an abandoned sketchy site.” An anonymous netizen commented.

Regardless, we’ll be keeping our prayers for Jongseong and Riki, as well as the five other victims, to return home soon.

“...you guys are such wimps.” That was the first thing you heard Soobin say when you tuned in to the conversation again.

How dare he say that? How dare he have the courage to call you, someone who moved out on your own at 16 to live in the big, scary world, a..wimp?

“Look, Choi Soobin. I may be a lot of things, but I’m not a wimp. I didn’t say that I wasn’t interested on this trip.” You stand up and blurt out without thinking twice.

The rest of the boys are gawking at you, their mouths open wide in awe and shock. Yes, you weren’t a wimp, that was for sure, but they had known you all their life as someone who could not stand going out into the wilderness. Maybe the big city had really changed you.

“At least someone wants to go! Perfect. We can leave tomorrow at noon, bring your camping stuff!” Soobin grabbed his things and began walking away.

“Camping?” The five of you exclaimed in unison.

Taehyun, the rational member, gasped. “I, personally, wouldn’t mind going to the carousel thing..or whatever it is, but I am not staying the night. Dude, are you nuts?” The rest of you nodded your heads in agreement.

“It says in the article that we are advised to leave before the sun sets.” You point out, trying to keep your voice as steady as possible in fear of breaking this mask of false confidence, when in reality, you were terrified of this place.

Soobin turned back and eyed you down disinterestedly. “Conclusion is that we’ll bring a small backpack, or whatever you guys want to pack, and we’ll stay there until eight. Deal?”

“Seven.” Hueningkai timidly said.

“Whatever you guys want.”

You hadn’t been able to sleep last night. It wasn’t due to fear of the place you were going, rather, you weren’t too excited about having to spend half of your day around Soobin.

What were you going to say to him? You were definitely overthinking at this point.

You know, they always say that the person one hates the most is the one that they also love most. And when Soobin flipped his blue hair back or cheekily smiled, showing his endearing dimples, you couldn’t help but…

No! You loathe Choi Soobin. You couldn’t stand his smile, or his hair, or his height. That evil moonwitch.

“Hey, you ready to go?” Speak of the devil (or moonwitch), you spotted a fluff of blue hair in your peripheral vision.

You couldn’t even muster up the courage to look back at him, merely nodding your head while staring at the white wall.

“Why aren’t you looking at me? Are you...scared?” You could see him wiggle his eyebrows as he made that statement.

That was it. You turned back at him. “Yes I am. I’m absolute terrified. I can’t stand the fact that I have to forcibly spend my precious time around you. It’s like I’m about to voluntarily live a nightmare.”

Woah there, calm down. You had smoke spurting out of your ears at this point.

Soobin’s once excited face fell into one of disappointment. “Yeah, it’s a nightmare having to be around you too. Gosh, the immaturity.” He left the room in haste as your eyes shot lasers through his well-toned back.

Maybe you had gone too far with the insult. He hadn’t been mean to you at all, really.

Then again, he had been mean. He took your place when you weren’t around. Suddenly, you were determined to get it back.

“Hop on the magic school bus!”

“Shut up, Yeonjun.” You deadpanned before leaning your head on his shoulder. The two of you were finally falling back into routine and you couldn’t help but bask in this nostalgia.

You also couldn’t help but notice how Soobin kept on looking through the rearview mirror at the both of you, pupils darting away once you locked eyes with him.

Man, this was going to be a long ride.

2021 © fluffi

[gypsydanger01]

THE STORM - Part seven

Fandom: The Boys (Amazon prime tv series)

Pairing: Black Noir x OC

Disclaimer: I don’t own The Boys, only my OC characters and certain pieces of au plot.

Comments, reviews, constructive criticism, and other requests are always more than welcome!

     Posting new chapters on Wednesday and Friday!

  Operation Whistle-blower

As the first tendrils of sunlight curled through her bedroom’s blind shades, Sarah rolled over in her bed, still unable to fall asleep. Her mind was crowded with thoughts surrounding her evening encounter. What was she going to do? The lines always grew muddy in these situations, and she still didn’t know what to think of Black Noir. If anything, their interaction only added to her confusion.

She was so tired. But nevertheless, she pulled herself into a sitting position and waited for the pounding at her temples to subside. Once it finally did, she stretched and rose from the warm bed.

And so, her morning began. Looking in the mirror, she wondered what had changed. She’d been training for these moments, preparing to execute her plan. When had she gotten so tired? When had she lost her edge? Wherever it went, she needed to find it immediately.

Sarah’s morning routine was precise, meticulous even. First, she made a quick stop in the bathroom to freshen up for the day. This was followed by a morning workout, consisting of either jump-rope hiit or strength exercises. She stretched and drank her lemon water. At that point, she always took a shower and decided her look for the day. Outfit, hairstyle, and makeup. Once she was prim and proper, she would head into the kitchen and make herself pancakes, which she considered to be the best start to any morning.

Once she’d cleaned up, she’d gather her things and head out.

On the other hand, Black Noir needed no more than three hours of sleep and often found himself awake throughout the night. He’d spend his time reading, prowling the city, or watching movies. He wasn’t quite sure how it’d started, but one movie every now and then turned into one or two movies a night.

When the sun begins to rise, he starts his routine of suiting up and eating breakfast. He would then enter the combat training room Vought had built for him and that only him and the company knew about. He clocked many hours in that room, constantly training and sharpening his skills. He’d freshen up before heading out for meetings or events.

Sometimes even missions. Now those were his favorites and he often found himself craving one just to be able to let go, to use his abilities. He was a master martial artist and interrogator. He was a spy supplied with strength, durability, and knife proficiency. When they assigned a target, it always ended up classified as ‘terminated’. He never missed, he never failed.

But that morning was like any other, and he had yet another string of meetings. And so, with great composure he completed his morning routine, slipped his mask on, and left his living quarters.

He found that the only thing he might look forward to as much as a mission, was meeting the woman who had captivated his attention that fateful night at the gala. She was different from what he’d originally imagined, still radiant but imperfect. Up close, watching her while she spoke, he had noted a sadness, a maturity in her eyes he wasn’t expecting. For the first time, he was personally invested in another human being, watching over her like a guardian. She was hiding something, and he’d get to the bottom of it soon enough.

..

The day went by in no rush, the hours slowly dragging along. The burning in her eyes and the heaviness of her limbs were nothing when compared to the pounding in her head.

Massaging her temples, Sarah tried to focus on the task at hand.

Someone hovered over her desk, “Long day?”

Sarah hummed before granting her friend some attention. She didn’t like the mischievous glint in her eyes.

“Or should I say long night?”

“Hell no, don’t start up with that,” Sarah immediately rejected the image she had conjured up at Martha’s words.

Martha merely huffed in disappointment but respected her wish to keep quiet about it at the moment. You could never really know who is watching or listening.

“All right, all right,” the blonde swept at her bangs. “Are you sure you’re up for tonight?”

Sarah immediately nodded, “Of course, we need to go over a few things.”

Martha watched her closely, “You hide it well, but you really need to slow down.”

She knew her friend meant well and was probably worried over her fatigued state, but there was no time for rest. She could sleep, but it never truly replenished her. It only kept her going.

And who could blame her for it? People who slept well weren’t constantly looking over their shoulder, afraid of being identified and murdered in cold blood. They weren’t leading a plan to take down one of the biggest, most successful pharmaceutical companies in the world. They weren’t being watched by an enhanced, murderous ninja who could tear their head off. Most of all, they didn’t fear burning up and clearing a block in their sleep.

As a little girl, she’d always sleep curled up at the center of the bed, far from the edges. Under no circumstances would she allow a limb to fall over the side. Now, she always slept with an arm hanging out, her fingers inches away from the backpack holding all the necessities to disappear at a moment’s notice. New passport, keys to a safe house, change of clothes, snack bars, lighter, knife, flashlight…

Sarah stirred herself from her thoughts, “It’s fine, I’m just not sleeping that well.”

The other woman pursed her lips.

..

What Martha had been referring to was their weekly night out every Friday. They would either go for dinner at a restaurant or go clubbing if they had to discuss anything in secrecy. That night, they were heading to one of their favorite clubs for dancing and plotting. A club is the perfect place to talk about sensitive information if you find the right spot inside. The loud music masks your words, and most of the people are drinking, buzzed, or completely wasted. And seeing them out together raised no suspicion because it simply looked like friends going out and having fun. Additionally, they got to dance which was always a plus in the two women’s eyes.

Martha often complained that at twenty-seven they were rapidly approaching the deadline for going to clubs, dancing events and such. She was often very dramatic about it, claiming they had to enjoy it before they got labelled as cougars. Sarah always brushed it off with a laugh, not even attempting to reason with her friend’s logic.

And while she enjoyed going to clubs or bars, that night she truly was regretting it. She slipped into a small, refined black dress and hopped into her heels. She’d already done her eye makeup and moved in front of the mirror to apply a rich, dark red lipstick. Her hair was left down, cascading over her shoulders in tight kinks and curls, a cloud of dark brown locks. She pulled her bangs to the side and took in her appearance in the mirror.

Alluring and mysterious, perfect.

Her phone vibrated from an incoming call. “Hey, I’m two minutes away, start locking doors or whatever it is that always makes you late.”

Sarah laughed and started to, indeed, shut her windows and lock the backdoor. She finally made it to the porch where she stood waiting for her friend’s Honda.

Little did she know, a certain someone was hidden on her roof, listening to her move around on the porch beneath him. Black Noir could smell the enticing perfume she’d applied and could hear the characteristic click of heels on wood. He breathed in deeply and restrained himself from jumping down.

She was lightly humming to herself, and he found the tune oddly familiar, but he couldn’t recall when he’d last heard it.

A light grey car rolled around the corner and came to a stop in front of the house.

When Sarah stepped down from the porch and onto the sidewalk, he couldn’t help but hold his breathe. Frozen in his spot, he grew hot at the elegant form-hugging dress she wore, her hips swaying from side to side. Ringlets of dark hair reached down the curve of her back. Where was she going looking like that?

As the car sped away, Black Noir took a few moments to collect himself. She’d completely clouded his mind, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about it. One of the things that made him so efficient was his ability to focus, always. In any situation, he selected and categorized his surroundings with an ease unlike any other man or woman. He was controlled. No distractions, ever. His outlet was killing, but even then, it was methodical.

But now he felt an underlying tension grow, right under the skin where he couldn’t reach. She was stunning, and he was sure others would think so as well. He’d gouge their eyes out. If he caught anyone catcalling, he’d rip out their tongues. Yes, that’s appropriate.

He shook his head, almost in an attempt to concentrate. Mostly, he was angry with her. Who was she meeting? He sneered at the thought of another man entering the picture.

And so, fueled by possessiveness and an unfathomable jealousy, he followed from the rooftops with an ever-watchful eye.

..

Having already been there multiple times, Sarah and Martha were quick to settle into their usual spot. Taking in the masses of moving bodies around her, Sarah glanced at the people within hearing range. A good rule a thumb was that if she could he hear them speak, so could they hear her.

She moved closer to her friend as Martha started, “I think this is a good time to proceed with everything. I mean, we’re only missing the codes to the lab.”

Sarah snorted, “Yeah, as well as infiltrating the lab, taking the samples and data—like the whole rest of the plan.” She mused, “Oh and don’t forget, we have to live through it and get everything to Max.”

Martha rolled her eyes, “Okay, you’re right but still…,” she took a sip of her drink, “it’s time. There’s a lot of confusion and change at Vought, it could easily be someone else.”

Sarah thought about it. “The plan is pretty solid. It has its risks, but I don’t think there’s any potential plan that doesn’t have any.”

Martha approved, “Exactly. Plus, it fits in with the timeline so we’re good.”

“Yeah….” Sarah trailed off before finally deciding, “I’ll do it next week. I get the algorithm and you crack it.”

Martha high-fived her and downed her drink. “Now that’s what I’m talking about.”

“To Operation Whistle-blower.”

Sarah smiled, “To Operation Whistle-blower”

After such extensive planning, it felt good to finally act, to make Vought pay. She would just need to hold it together for a little longer, focus and get the job done.

Looking over at the blonde she searched her eyes for doubt or remorse. After all, this wasn’t her battle and she’d gotten wrapped into it almost accidentally. They had met at Mallory’s house as teenagers and had been inseparable ever since. And they made a good team, always looking out for each other in the dangerous world of lies, conspiracies and death they grew up in.

Martha snapped her fingers, “You still with us?”

Laughing at her friend’s impatience, Sarah nodded and focused on the drink in front of her.

“Have you told Mallory how we’re proceeding?”

Growing serious, the brunette shook her head, “I only call at our scheduled time on Sunday. I’ll hint at it then.”

Martha leaned back in her seat, “Yeah, it would be great if she could muddy the waters even more, feed false information here and there.”

“You know she’ll help where she can, but I don’t want her involved,” Sarah repeated for the hundredth time, “She already doesn’t want me doing this, and she’s suffered enough.”

Watching her friend retreat into her thoughts, Martha made the snap decision to get up and literally force her to be present.

“Let’s dance.”

Sarah sputtered, ���Well okay.” She stared wide-eyed at her friend, “That was sudden.”

“Well you know all that crap about,” she paused for emphasis, “Ces la vie”

The young brunette stood up and laughed at her friend’s antics as she was swept into the crowd.

Losing themselves to the music, they joined the mass of moving bodies, shaking hips and hands raised. The pounding music had since reached into their chest, their bodies almost vibrating to the fast tempo of the music. It was exhilarating, until Sarah’s head felt like it split open.

Martha touched her neck.

“Oh my god, Sarah what happened,” she yelled over the music.

She dragged her over to a less crowded corner and checked her over for any sign of injury. The bleeding woman could feel her agitation grow and spread throughout her body. Had someone nicked her? She looked back into the crowd, wondering who was hiding in there, waiting to finish her off. The dim lights over the sea of moving bodies concealed everything, both action and sound.

Martha found the source of her bleeding, “Oh god Sarah, it’s your ear, it’s bleeding.” Looking up with knowing eyes she placed her hands on the brunette’s shoulders, steadying her. “Look at me, we’re fine. You need to calm down.”

Sarah’s eyes were traced by thin glowing veins, and her breaths were increasingly shallow. She could feel her heartbeat at the tips of her fingers, her whole body on edge.

When Sarah looked from side to side, Martha lightly shook her to catch her attention. “Hey,” she warned.

Slowly, the net of glowing light blue retreated.

“Are we cool?”

Sarah swallowed, “Yeah, I’m fine now.”

Martha tugged on her hand and led her to the exit. They both knew she needed to go home and fully slow down—come down from her high. The moment of danger had triggered a response that she thought had long went dormant.

“It’s been a long time since I last saw you like that.”

Sarah merely wrapped her arms around her waist. After the moment of scalding hot, she was now left cold, almost shivering.

“Has it happened since last time.”

Sarah stared ahead. “Not really.”

“What do you mean ‘not really’?

The brunette kicked at a small rock on the sidewalk. “When I sleep and I remember things, I feel it. But I wake up each time.”

“Jesus, no wonder you’re not sleeping.” Martha looked over at her pensive friend, “I’m staying over tonight. It can be a sleepover like the old days.”

Sarah smiled at the thought of their wild adventures. Their sleepovers were not what people commonly thought of. There was no braiding, nail polish or barbies. It was training, sparring, and eating abnormal amounts of ice-cream.

“You’re going to rest, and I’m going to make you some tea,” Martha decided.

“So a different kind of sleepover,” Sarah pointed out.

Martha looked over, worry in her eyes. “Yeah, a different kind of sleepover.”

When she stayed silent, the blonde made a light-hearted comment, “You know we need to branch out, get out of our comfort zones so that we can grow as human beings”

At Sarah’s laugh she proceeded, “Maybe we should try braiding your hair, too.”

The brunette raked a hand through the ends of her curly hair, “Please, you don’t have what it takes.”

Laughing, Martha agreed. From behind them, someone called out.

“Hey, girls, wait up.” A stocky man with hard eyes but a blinding smile came to stand way too close for comfort, and they both took a step back.

“Can I get your numbers?”

“Excuse me?”

“Can I get one of your numbers” he asked again, but slower.

They were both getting bad vibes. Sarah sized him up, still rattled from what happened in the club.

“Yeah, we understand English, we just don’t know what you’re trying to achieve here.”

Martha interjected with a disbelieving tone, “Are you trying to get both of our numbers?”

He smirked and ran a hand through his hair, probably thinking he was cute.

“Well, I’ll take what I can get. One or both.”

Martha smiled widely, “Yeah, no, that was the worst attempt to a get a girl’s number in the history of pick-up lines.”

Sarah agreed, “We’re leaving.”

She promptly spun around but was stopped when he grabbed her wrist and shook her. She looked back at him and down at his hold, feeling the energy bubbling right under the surface.

“Come on, I know you want it, no way you weren’t dancing for attention in there.”

And for an instant she got a glimpse into his mind, pictures clouding her thoughts. Her own mind was now spun up, running a thousand miles per hour as her body grew increasingly hot. Martha attempted to catch her attention.

“Come on, let’s go, we’re leaving now.”

But Sarah stood stock still, staring at the man as he grew more and more uncomfortable. Not as bold as before, he tried to back out. When she felt a looser tension on her wrist, she twisted and grabbed onto his, pulling him close.

Her temperature surpassed what would commonly be considered a fever, and she felt the characteristic burning warmth pervading her chest, like ribbons of fire and smoke swirling though her ribcage.

The man started to feel heat on his wrist, and, confused, he tugged. Sarah never moved. And Martha was terrified, not knowing how to knock her friend out of her trance-like state of focus on the disrespectful man in front of them. She had already been on edge, and him grabbing her like that must have sent her barreling over a metaphorical cliff.

Growing scared, he tugged even harder, to no avail. She saw Jason in his features. And suddenly, her skin was so hot, he was burning. She seared the shape of her fingers onto his wrist and ignored the smell of burning skin in the air.

“Oh god, Sarah that’s enough.”

She pressed harder, and he kneeled to the floor, trying to twist out of her grasp.

“Sarah, you’ll blow our cover,” she tried, and finally pleaded, “Marianna.”

That got to her, somewhere in her mind. It shook her and distracted her from the surge of energy building up inside.

Leaning down, she whispered. “You need to learn to respect women. We’re not weak playthings, you hear?”

He nodded insistently, and she finally let him fall back onto the sidewalk, clutching onto his wrist.

Martha watched her, “Now, are we cool?”

Sarah couldn’t quite meet her eyes, “I’m sorry.”

Martha was slightly fuming, but it was worry that truly consumed her.

“You better do some jumping jacks or flap your arms to cool down, because you will not burn my leather seats.”

..

Once they left, the silence in the car was suffocating.

Sarah finally pierced it, “I saw what he was thinking, Martha. Not like I could in the past—just a glimpse.”

She peered out of the window into the night.

“And it was horrible.”

..

Up on the rooftops, Black Noir had watched the interaction with growing frustration.

Ready to make his way down to kill the man, he stopped in his tracks. Was this the secret she’d been hiding? She too was enhanced.

She wasn’t on any of Vought’s lists or indexes, which confirmed the fact that she was using a fake identity. So, if she was hiding, presumably from the company that had made her into what she is, why was she working there? So many questions, and no answers.

And why had the other woman called her Marianna? Was that her true name?

His patience was growing thin, but he decided he wouldn’t advance on her until he had a better understanding of where she stood. He found himself proud of how she’d handled the man. Disappointed that she hadn’t killed him, but proud, nonetheless. If she had simply given over her number, he wasn’t sure what he would’ve done. Violent thoughts danced behind his eyes but he wasn't sure he'd be able to carry them out, not on her.

He leapt down from where he was perched and followed the man without a sound.

And in the dark of night, one can only imagine what happened when he finally reached him.

-Giulia

Tag list: @ateliefloresdaprimavera @ellejo @dust-bun @coco724​  @proximio-5​ @damiminator

[sparklyandchic]

𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕡𝕝𝕖𝕥𝕖 𝕙𝕖𝕒𝕕-𝕥𝕠-𝕥𝕠𝕖 𝕞𝕒𝕜𝕖𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕣 𝕘𝕦𝕚𝕕𝕖

 ✨ first, a disclaimer! this is a list of things which i have found to subjectively improve my own appearance. i’m sure there’s many more treatments i’ve missed, and you may also feel that some of these treatments aren’t for you- i’ve just included everything which i have enjoyed personally in order to inform you of your options, from which you can make your own decisions on which to take part in. also, little blurb; what society or others think of you doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things and it is not my goal to promote being concerned with these things here. these are meant to help you be more excited about your own appearance every morning when you wake up, and take more time and care for yourself. partaking in these activities should add to your life, not subtract. ur all cute and valuable already ✨

also second disclaimer: i initially tried to make an amazon storefront as i thought i could put all the products i mentioned on one page so you could have access to them easily, but it turns out regular people can only get an amazon affiliation. this means that if you buy anything through the amazon links i provided, i’ll receive a very tiny percentage of the profits. this doesn’t benefit you, nor does it make the price higher for you, but if you’d like to support what i’m doing, it would be cool if you bought things through the links i provided. if you hate me or something, you can just search and buy them through amazon yourself! these are all products that i used and bought from amazon far before i signed up for the amazon affiliation, i’m just genuinely obsessed with amazon but i’m not affiliated in any way with any brand i mentioned.

✨ 𝕙𝕒𝕚𝕣  ✨

bleach/dye: personally i am a huge fan of foil highlights! tons of gals look amazing with dark hair or their natural hair color, but i have found that, for me, they really brighten the face and add depth to my hair. you could also darken your hair, do balayage, or tone it a different shade. i always recommend going to an actual well-rated salon rather than attempting to do it at home. they can ensure you’re getting the proper undertones and the correct volume developer for your hair. if you’re getting your hair bleached, look for a salon that uses olaplex or a similar bond builder in the mixture to avoid completely damaging the structure of your hair. at home, i tone my hair to remove gold/brassy tones with either this pravana mask, or a tiny amount of this semi-permanent violet hair dye mixed into my conditioner (you should only leave this in for a minute the first time as it can be very strong). i’ve found most purple shampoos are quite harsh, especially on fragile hair, so i always go for conditioner.

at-home protein treatments: if your hair is damaged from dying or styling it, i highly recommend using a protein mask on it at home once a week when you can to restore the structure of your hair. olaplex no 3 is a popular option but i really like this k-beauty collagen mask for a way cheaper option that works just as well in my opinion! many brands make protein and keratin masks though so feel free to order whichever you like.

cleansing conditioner: if you’ve used every “hydrating” and “repairing” shampoo + conditioner under the sun but your hair is still dry or fragile, i recommend using cleansing conditioner instead! shampoo, even sulfate free ones, can create friction and cause tearing in your hair, but cleansing conditioner cleans your hair without stripping or damaging it! i love this one from renpure and it’s a lot cheaper than other cleansing conditioners like wen, which i found to be less effective and weigh the hair down. if your hair does ever start to feel a little weighed down or oily, use shampoo to clean it more deeply- i tend to use it once every 1-2 weeks depending on how much i’ve been working out. cleansing conditioner will also help maintain a keratin treatment as it won’t strip the treatment from your hair, which brings me to this next consideration...

keratin treatments: keratin treatments are a semi-permanent treatment which help to make your hair quite a lot straighter, and much smoother, softer, shinier, and dry quicker! these help so much if you have frizzy or damaged hair, or your curl pattern is super irregular like mine! curly hair is beautiful too but if your curl pattern is tough to manage and make look pretty, then they’re a great option. a lot of people ask me if they're damaging but i find that they really help with my damaged fake-blonde hair and my hair stylist agrees, but he said to stay away from relaxers or japanese straightening treatments if your hair is fragile as those can be very damaging! if you’re in nyc, i recommend ‘hair bar nyc,’ their treatments are around $100 and last a couple months before they start to fade. i always go for their strongest solution, the 24 karat.

hair growth vitamins: personally i had short hair for a long time and loved it and still think it looks great on so many people! but i’m currently growing it out, so i’ve been taking hair vitamins daily to speed up the process. any brand works, but i love this brand ‘hair anew’ on amazon, or any store-brand which contains extra nutrients like zinc and pantothenic acid (not just plain biotin) as i feel that they work better and also clear my skin. they also help grow your nails longer and stronger, your eyebrows thicker, and your lashes longer and thicker!

hair extensions: these are less common/necessary, but for girls whose hair is much shorter than they want it, is damaged from bleach/dye/heat, or whose hair is quite thin, clip-in extensions can be a game changer. i’ve had tape-in extensions before and found that not only did they damage my hair and thin it out incredibly badly afterward, but they also truly were a lot of work to style and still looked bad after half an hour of trying to get it to work. a pair of clip-in remy extensions should also only set you back $60-100 while any sort of semi-permanent extension is far more expensive. i currently have this brand fullshine from amazon but it may also be wise to find a beauty supply store where you can match your hair to the extensions. this is also a great method of showing your hair stylist exactly what color you want your hair dyed to be! and pro-tip, never ever use shampoo on your extensions if you want them to last more than a month before they’re ratty and you need new ones. only ever wash them with plain conditioner, every couple of weeks!

shower filters: if you live in a place which has hard water, this can make your hair more brittle, dry, frizzy, tangled, and even make your hair a shade of green, due to the dissolved minerals drying in your hair. i installed this water filter in my shower to purify the water. it only takes 5 minutes; you simply twist off your showerhead,  twist the filter on, and then twist the showerhead back on. they also help with acne, eczema, and dandruff! i definitely noticed a difference in my hair softness when i got one.

leave-in treatments: i figure my favorite leave in-conditioners and serums are worth a mention here! i’ve been using the same 2-3 products for several years and i’ve never found anything that works as well as them. the two non-negotiables for me are it’s a 10 leave-in conditioner with keratin, and either biosilk or chi silk infusion. and if and when my hair is very dry or damaged from recent bleaching, i also put some moroccanoil on the ends. 

✨ 𝕖𝕪𝕖𝕤 ✨

brows: at-home tinting is a quick and cost effective way to make your brows more defined! i’ve used henna dyes before, which also dye the skin beneath the brows and make them look extra thick, but i found that lighter colors were always more orange than “light brown.” instead i love and use this brand of lash/brow dye. i don’t buy their developer- i just followed a reviewer’s instructions to mix equal parts hydrogen peroxide and dye, and it works great! and obviously choose the color which suits your hair color. also worth mentioning, the light brown can be quite light or quite dark depending on how long you leave it on so start with 5 minutes and go from there! 

also, of course always keep your eyebrows well-shaped! if you’ve never had them shaped before, it’s a good idea to get it done professionally first and then maintain it at home with tweezers. i’m a big fan of benefit brow bar for waxing! they have stand-alone locations or smaller bars in a lot of ulta’s.

lashes: getting your lashes done is a great way to feel more done-up even without makeup! lash extensions are amazing at defining your eyes and making them look bigger and more awake, but they’re also a lot of money and upkeep. personally i love lash lifts as i have long lashes (from hair growth vitamins woo) but they just don’t curl very well and are super blonde; a lash lift dyes and curls them and lasts far longer than extensions with no bi-weekly touch-up appointments! if you're not opting for any treatments, i’d still recommend hair growth vitamins to grow your lashes longer!

you can also dye your lashes at home! i’ve tried at-home lash lift kits several times and i found them all messy and completely ineffective, possibly due to my lack of skill, but i couldn’t personally recommend them as of yet. i would recommend at-home lash tints though! if i don’t currently have my lashes curled and tinted from a lash lift, i will use this dye, which is the black version of my eyebrow tint, and use the same hydrogen peroxide formula as described above, to dye my lashes black. it’s great if you’re lazy with makeup, going swimming, or wanna look a lil extra cute when you're at home.

✨𝕤𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕔𝕒𝕣𝕖 ✨ 

professional facials are a great option if you want to feel pampered, get extractions from someone who knows how to do it properly, or get an intensive peel or mask. but they can also get incredibly expensive, while some of their treatments can be done entirely at home! 

physical exfoliation: this is pretty important for basically any skin type, in order to remove dead skin cells! you should avoid harsh scrubs, like those with walnut shell, as they can create microtears in the skin. sugar-based scrubs are safe, but personally i use either of these two items:

-facial brushes! i got a clarisonic years ago, and i love it! if i remove my makeup, then wash my face with my hands, but then wash my face with the clarisonic, there's generally still makeup that comes off on the brush. i would recommend a clarisonic but there’s now highly rated much cheaper versions on amazon so i don’t think i’d recommend spending $100-200 on one when this $33 version with similar sonic vibrations is available.

-microdermabrasion is a great, more advanced option, for removing dead skin cells and helping to clean out your pores. the ‘diamond’ tip runs along your skin to exfoliate dead skin cells, while a vacuum pulls off the skin cells and unclogs your pores. they are a bit more expensive- i got this $90 one for christmas and love it, though there are also similar ones which run around $60 and also have great reviews. i only use this about once a week.

chemical exfoliation: this is great for brightening up the skin. whenever my skin simply looks tired, dull, or congested, i opt for a chemical exfoliant. there are tons of chemical exfoliant options, but my go-to has to be these pads by dr dennis gross. they consist of 2 pads- one with the acids which will exfoliate your skin and one with a neutralizer- and only take about 5 minutes total to use! they are an all time favorite, as i see a difference in my skin right away, but aren’t so harsh that i get any redness or peeling afterwards. the ordinary is also a great skincare brand for all kinds of acids and oils for really cheap! they make a peeling solution which one of my friend uses and she loves it, and i’ve tried a lot of their products over the years and loved them too.

general masks: there are tons of different masks to help with different skin problems and skin types. basically, you've got clay masks for oily skin, hydrating masks for dry skin, and undereye masks for when you're tired as hell.

radiofrequency machine: i first found out about this from stephanie shepherd’s top shelf interview. it’s somewhat commonly used in high end facials, and my friend who is going to cosmetology school said they're great for acne and skin tightening! to my understanding, it works by killing bacteria in the skin, and stimulating blood flow and collagen production. the one i have is only $40, which makes it seem too good to be true, but apparently studies have shown they’re effective in wrinkle reduction, and i’ve found it really helpful for making breakouts heal faster.

other products: i haven’t actually found many other products that i think are a “holy grail” item, besidesss the embryolisse lait creme concentre. i have really dry skin, especially in the winter, and actually bought myself the smallest jar of la mer available this past christmas to see if it could help, but i found it to help absolutely nothing. the lait creme, though, has made my skin actually look like normal skin again, when it used to be extremely flakey and irritated. it’s known for commonly being used backstage at a lot of couture fashion shows, which sold me on it initially lol.

✨ 𝕤𝕞𝕚𝕝𝕖 ✨

teeth whitening: i use crest whitestrips to whiten my teeth at home! i’ve found them really effective, but i’d recommend using them a bit less often than the instructions recommend. the kind i have recommends using them daily at first but, anytime i’ve used them two days in a row, my teeth were sensitive and in pain for a whole day afterwards. otherwise they’re great though, just space them out a bit!

also, of course, floss and brush your teeth morning and night! i’d also recommend adding a tiny bit of baking soda on top of your toothpaste, to help with whitening. i used to do this daily back in high school and started actually getting compliments on my teeth being white.

lip filler: as many of you know, i’ve had lip filler done, and I've received a lot of questions about them, so i thought i’d include the basic rundown here. these obviously aren’t something that you should feel ugly without. your lips can be beautiful whether or not you’re following this trend. personally, i never thought i would get lip fillers, but last year i did start noticing that when i smiled in pictures, my top lip would totally disappear. i was hesitant but went and got my lips done knowing that it would dissolve in time, and i ended up loving them and feeling totally glamorous with them! i must caution you to avoid getting too much “lip flipping” done if any. over time, my injector started putting the filler around the edges of my lips to flip my lips out and make them appear bigger. it’s okay in small doses, but some injectors start cutting corners and over-doing it, which leads to the “duck face” look, and my lips have started to look slightly pursed even at rest, but are also completely lacking volume in the middle. i’m getting them dissolved and re-done soon, but let this be a lesson to you to ask for little to no lip flipping, and ask for the filler to be more in the center of your lips. before lip flipping, no one ever seemed to notice i had anything done, then suddenly after two appointments with lip flipping, everyone and their mother started asking if ive had my lips done. so i’d highly recommend them, with that caveat in mind.

 ✨ 𝕙𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕤 + 𝕗𝕖𝕖𝕥 ✨

manicures: okay so you can do your nails at home if you’re doing regular polish, or even if you're using an at-home gel polish set. you should file them into a nice shape (i prefer them round as opposed to square, as they’re less likely to break), push back and trim your cuticles if needed, and paint them. but personally i love getting acrylics or dip powder! i always get tips added if my nails aren’t very long at the moment, and i feel that it makes my fingers look longer and more elegant and feminine. either way is cute though!

pedicures: okay so getting a pedicure at the salon is a great experience, but i also see no reason to get one given that i can just trim and paint my toenails at home. i would highly recommend ordering some peeling foot masks though- these are the ones i have. they’re these little plastic sock masks that you leave on for an hour, take off, and then ~3 days later an entire layer of your skin starts peeling off and your foot is baby soft. if it’s taking a while to peel off, go soak your feet in a bowl of warm water or in a bath/shower and scrub it off. i used to sit with a foot exfoliation machine for like 20 minutes whirring away at my feet but with these you can just chill on tumblr for an hour and then a few days later  your feet are totally renewed.

✨ 𝕓𝕠𝕕𝕪 ✨

self tanner: self-tanning is probably my #1 beauty tip. honestly i’d give up makeup, conditioner, whatever, as long as i could hold onto my bondi sands dark tanning foam. a good tan makes you look so fresh, healthy, glowing, and fit and toned. before tanning, you should try and exfoliate yourself in the shower. i use a scrubby mitt, specifically this one, which also comes with an actual tanning mitt and a mini facial tanning mitt for applying your tanner. afterwards, you’re going to want to apply some lotion on your knees, elbows, and heels, as these areas tend to be dry and soak up more self tanner and turn darker than the rest of your body. then just apply your self tanner all over with a tanning mitt, and blend well. i swear by bondi sands dark foam! st. tropez gives me an allergic reaction personally and a lot of other ones smell bad or have an orange guide-color, but bondi sands smells like coconut and has a really pretty cool-toned tan guide-color. (DHA is the active ingredient in self-tanners- its a clear chemical which reacts with the skin cells and turns them darker after a few hours, while the initial color that you see right out of the bottle is the guide-color. self-tanners will market their tan as “not orange” or something like that, but this only refers to the guide-color, not the tan itself, as they all contain DHA which turns skin the same color. regardless, i love that bondi sands has such a nice guide-color, so even when i’m pale, i can just throw some on and run out the door looking tan!) after a week or two, your tan is going to start getting patchy no matter how many layers you’ve added, so you’re either going to want to exfoliate as much off as you can and do a fresh new tan, or if i have time i’ll apply the bondi sands self-tan remover before exfoliating to get virtually all of it off.

glitter: this is a bit more out-there, but i love love love using shimmery lotions on my body. i feel like a fairy princess, but also it gets rid of that chalky flakey dry look my skin can get in the winter. before swim shoots or the victoria’s secret fashion show, models are always getting slathered in shimmery lotion or oil. there’s a lot of expensive shimmery body oils out there, but you can also just make your own with cosmetic mica and your favorite lotion (i use a gradual tanning lotion to keep my tan looking fresh). cosmetic mica is basically what they use in all the shimmery makeup you buy, and it doubles as an amazing highlighter or eyeshadow!

✨𝕞𝕒𝕜𝕖𝕦𝕡 ✨

basic tips: i’m by no means a makeup guru, but i do feel as though my makeup skills have strengthened a lot since i was a little hippie at 16 years old who just wore hemp lip balm and organic powder foundation sometimes, so here’s some tips i picked up since then. i did also take a one-day makeup masterclass in LA with a celebrity makeup artist who has done the kardashians makeup, which is where i learned virtually all these tips:

✰  let your moisturizer sit for a few minutes before applying foundation ✩ beauty blenders tend to be far better for blending liquid makeup into your skin than brushes  ✰  using just one shade of foundation on your face can make your skin look flat. either use a few different shades of foundation, or a light concealer and a darker contour stick, to add dimension to the face. also, use 2 or 3 different blush colors to add dimension  ✰  blend. more than you think you need to. your foundation, contour, blush, eyeshadow, everything. just keep blending.  ✰  don’t make your eyeliner too thick along the entire eye. this makes your eyelids and eyes look smaller. it should be thin until you thicken it at the outer corners of your eyes.  ✰  as for the rest, fill in and brush your eyebrows, wear a lip color that goes well with your skin tone, highlight the inner corners of your eyes to look more awake, use a setting spray if you want to look dewier and make your makeup last longer ✰

if you’re curious about my full makeup routine here are all the products i use:

✰  embryolisse lait creme concentre moisturizer  ✰  giorgio armani luminous silk foundation  ✰  tarte shape tape concealer  ✰  anastasia beverly hills contour stick in ‘mink’ ✰  too faced born this way setting powder ✰  wet n wild blushes in ‘mellow wine’ and ‘apricot in the middle’  ✰  huda beauty rose gold eyeshadow palette (this is pretty but doesn’t blend super well you should probably buy the abh modern renaissance palette)  ✰  stila micro tip eyeliner  ✰  too faced better than sex mascara  ✰  abh clear brow gel ✰  eyebrow powder, doesn't matter what brand but i got tamnova at the makeup course so i use that. thin eyebrow pencils are good for a natural look but my brows are too thick for them lol  ✰  this cosmetic mica for highlighter  ✰  glossier generation g lipstick in the color leo  ✰

makeup bag: a somewhat extensive list of on-the-go beauty products for you to consider carrying with you in your makeup bag:

✰ perfume. you can buy small on-the-go perfume bottles like these and fill them with your favorite scent ✰ lip products, such as lip balm, lip gloss, or lipstick ✰ lotion. i bring a small hand lotion bottle, and also carry a small container of my body lotion and cosmetic mica mixture ✰ mini lint roller ✰ tide stain stick ✰ downy wrinkle releaser fabric spray ✰ eyelash curler ✰ foundation powder ✰ mascara ✰ mini hairbrush ✰ mini dry shampoo ✰ mints, mint gum, or mini mouthwash ✰ mini deodorant ✰ summer’s eve wipes ✰ hydrating facial mist ✰ blotting papers ✰ 

✨ 𝕜𝕚𝕟𝕕𝕟𝕖𝕤𝕤 ✨

no matter how manicured, tanned, and sparkly you are, if you act with jealousy, spite, and hatred, you will never be beautiful, on the inside or outside. live authentically, act with integrity, and be kind ♡

[bespectacledbookworm]

How to Bleach Your Hair and Not Completely Ruin It

I get it. You want to be platinum NOW. If you’ve done your homework, you know what everyone says: it’s a process, it can take weeks of being brown, then light brown, then dark blonde, then medium blonde, light blonde, and finally platinum. For people who can afford it and have the patience of Mother Teresa, this is no big deal. But you work part time and go to school, and ain’t nobody got time for that! So before you pop on down to Sally’s, or your local beauty supply store, PLEASE READ THIS.

EDIT: for clarity regarding level of damage to hair.

Disclaimer: I am not a professionally licensed cosmetologist, so everything I say, you listen to at your own risk. However, I have been trained by a popular beauty supply store to ADVISE others on bleaching and or coloring their own hair at home, and I’ve done my own research. About three years worth. So, be advised, be warned, be smart. Please. The integrity of your hair is at risk.

If you’ve done your research, and all of this looks familiar to you, go ahead and skip down the section titled THE METHOD to see the process i’ve used to avoid fried, patchy hair.

For the sake of this post and time, I’m not going to cover every single thing about hair color and chemistry, but I’m going to go over some important stuff if you don’t know what you’re doing. I’m hoping you’ve already done some research, either on google or youtube. If not, you might want to watch a few Hair Bleaching Fails from Brad Mondo’s youtube channel. He periodically gives tips and tricks during these and is actually licensed. If not, here’s a quick article that explains the process of bleaching that I think covers the basics that I’d like to add. 

[child with natural ~level 10-11 hair. About the lightest hair can really get without bleaching out all pigment to white]

So onto a few basics and info that I think is worth noting:

KNOWN TRUTHS OF HAIR BLEACHING:

To achieve  Platinum hair, THE HAIR MUST BE TONED. More on that later.

The thicker your hair is, the more bleach it can take, usually. If you have curly/kinky hair, it’s not necessarily impossible to bleach, but because of your curls and the tendency your hair has to frizz, bleach can be more damaging. (Or, rather, the damage is much more visible on curly/ kinky/ natural hair. Sorry ya’ll :/ ] 

Fine/thin hair is fragile. TAKE CAUTION. Test strand.

Test strands are your FRIEND. Please don’t bleach all your hair in one go before test stranding.

Bleach will damage your hair. There’s no way around it. You’re hair will never be the same. It will be drier, a little frizzier, more brittle, and it probably won’t hold a curl as well. You have to accept this, and realize that you will be spending a little more to mask the damage.

You cannot repair bleached hair. The process is permanent and so is the damage. All of the products that claim to repair are tongue-in-cheek. Many of them say “Reduces the appearance of damage of the hair” on the back. This is not the same as actually repairing the damage. As far as the Hair community knows, Olaplex is the only thing that reverses the hair damage, but it is expensive, it is only sold to professionals, and only yields the greatest results when mixed in with dye or bleach, when the hair is being chemically altered.

Bleaching is a PROCESS. This is why professionals will have you visit the salon multiple times before you get platinum/ silver. It’s healthier for the hair, it saves length, it stops your hair from looking like spaghetti- Which is why it’s so expensive. But you’re here because you don’t have patience, don’t lie to yourself. You’re probably also here because you want to save money. Which brings me to…

[ the usual bleached hair process from this site]

WHAT DO I NEED and HOW MUCH WILL THIS COST?

BLEACHING HAIR IS EXPENSIVE, no matter which way you go. Product breakdown, 2019 prices:

1 pound tub of powdered bleach (trust me. You want the tub. It’s cheaper in the long run): ~ 30  dollars. This tub will be enough to bleach a shoulder length bob (normal hair thickness) two or three times.

16 Ounce bottle of developer: ~5

Manic Panic/ Other brands: ~10 for one tub. One manic panic is about 4 ounces of color, which can color an above shoulder bob if you have normal/ thin hair. For thicker, longer hair, you WILL need more. So the price for this is anywhere from ~ 10— 50 dollars for first time application.

Brush for color: ~2

Brush for bleach: ~ 2

Bowl for bleach/ color (it can be washed and rinsed)- ~3-4

Toner (wella, most popular toner)- ~5

10 0r 20 Vol. Developer for toner: ~3

Shampoo Toner (less permanent than well, but also less damaging) ~ 12-15 dollars.

gloves: ~ 4

Hair clips/ ties to section hair: free if you have them: ~ 5

Protein masks/ deep conditioners: ~1 for the mask or ~ 10+ for the bottle.

(There are bleaching kits, like the manic panic one and “High lift” boxes of color at walmart, but I don’t recommend them as they usually are packaged with a 40 developer and not one box fits all. Plus, they’re way WAY more expensive than buying a tub of bleach if you have long hair compared to buying five boxes of Feria high lift or whatever at 10 bucks each. And they don’t contain as much product, so. YEah.)

Total: ~80. Sales tax (CA)= 5.60. That’s around 85 dollars MINIMUM if you have shoulder length hair. If you have longer hair, you WILL be spending much more than this. A salon visit will cost about 175+ for a bleach process alone, not including color or toner.

Does it sound like i’m trying to convince you to just go to the hair salon? I kind of am. If you’re going to spend this much money, you might as well just go to a professional, sit down in a nice comfy chair, and have someone else slave over your hair while you chillax. But I gotchu- you want to do this yourself! It sounds fun! Plus, the pride of doing it yourself? Addictive. And the potential to save money? Even more so. So okay. You’re buying all this stuff. Now the other question is….

[Loreal Quick Blue Bleaching Powder. Probably the most popular tub of bleach.]

WHAT DO THESE PRODUCTS DO??

Bleach powder: chemically lightens hair.

Developer: Activates bleach and opens the hair cuticle, allowing the chemical reaction to take place inside the hair strand and take out your natural color. A lower level developer is typically used to deposit color/toner back onto the hair.

Toner: Light glaze of color that tones hair, usually purple or blue. Why? Think of it in terms of the color wheel. Your hair will be some shade of yellow no matter how much you bleach, so you have to neutralize the yellow with a purple to create that beautiful silver/grey/ platinum/ white color. It’s just color science. This can be achieved with long term results with Wella or similar toners, or you can use a shampoo that’s purple colored for short term results.

The darker the purple OR the longer you leave on the toner, the darker grey it will get. Some people have the misconception that using a toner like Wella’s T14 will lighten their hair to grey which is not true. The developer lifts a little bit of pigment out, but it also replaces some with the purple- it doesn’t really lift :/ . To clarify: toner NEUTRALIZES the yellow hue in your hair. It’s like toggling the “hue” tool in instagram editor: you’re not changing the darkness or lightness of anything, you’re just changing the color a bit. 

Okay! So you have these products, you’ve watched some youtube videos, you have a general idea of how to apply it. But..

[Ahh, Brassy hair. The bane of our existence. Katy’s got about three different levels of hair going on here, all untoned and brassy. The hair at the crown of her hair behind the bangs isn’t bad- it’s a nice golden color. But the rest might be a little yellow/orange for some of us. ]

HOW DO I AVOID PATCHY/ BRASSY HAIR??

Test strand! Mix enough bleach using the ratio on the tub, it’s usually 1 parts bleach to 2 parts Developer. So get a tablespoon of bleach in your bowl (parts can mean anything used for measuring but a table spoon should be enough), mixed with 2 tablespoons of your Developer and apply it either to some hair you’ve collected from your hairbrush, or snip a few strands from the back of your head. Follow the rest of the directions on the tub. It is crucial that you test hair that is in the same condition that your hair is in now. Don’t use old hair. 

Okay, so you’ve done that, and the hair still is only a weird orange/yellow color! Can I bleach it again?

Technically, yes. But in a salon, they would make you wait a week or two, even a month before daring to touch your hair again. So I tell you the truth: bleaching it immediately will cause more damage then if you’d waited for a few weeks while using conditioning treatments like moisturizing and protein packets. Your hair will be more brittle, dry, and rough if you bleach again immediately.

But that’s your call. It will be more expensive in the long run, because you will probably purchase more expensive conditioners and more treatment packets to mask the damage.

Just for clarity, here is a hair level chart from Pinterest, showing toned levels of hair on the left and the underlying warm pigment of that hair on the right:

THE METHOD

Okay, so to avoid patchy hair when you bleach, I find that this method described below is time intensive but almost foolproof. It works best on hair that is longer than shoulder length, as hair this long can end up the patchiest. Like I said above, your hair will be damage, but using this method, it won’t be as bad as the “hair bleach fails” that you see on youtube. On virgin hair this process should yield hair that is a uniform color with minimal damage. After you’ve test stranded and found the appropriate amount of time that works for you, section your hair into four sections, buns is good. Now apply bleach to one section of hair beginning an inch away from the roots all the way down, making sure the hair is thickly coated in bleach on BOTH sides (bleach is thick and not as runny as water and will not “soak” into your hair like water. You need to make sure to get both sides or patchiness will ensue). Then go back up and do the roots. Now this is the important part!

LET THAT ONE SECTION SIT FOR THE AMOUNT OF TIME YOU NEED. DON’T DO THE OTHER SECTIONS. Then rinse, shampoo, rinse, maybe shampoo that one section again until it is free of bleach, taking care not to wet the other sections. And repeat. Yes, I am advising you to bleach and wash your hair in sections. We can’t do our own hair fast like the professionals can, we just can’t. Bleaching it like this in sections will ensure that each section is bleached for the same amount of time, every time, ensuring a nice even color all around. Is it labor intensive? Yes. And if your hair is still only a level seven after you do all that work, you may have to do it again before you can tone. 

But this method will save your hair. Get your supplies, test strand, bleach and rinse in sections. You and your hair will thank me. I’ve done this, and it worked!... for the most part. I got cocky during the last section and waited an extra ten minutes longer than all the other sections, and wound up having to get a trim, but that was my fault. So don’t do what I did; go by the time you have used on your test strand for. Ever. Section. 

If your hair is already patchy/ has previous color tackle those sections first. I’m not guaranteeing anything for hair that has been previously treated- that’s a color correction and is very hard and expensive to do. This method works best on virgin hair, but not really on hair that’s already been colored. 

If you have any questions, let me know and I’ll try to answer them the best that I can. Good luck!

[the beautiful silver hair of all our dreams....]

[manikas-whims]

A Chance at Redemption [5]

[1] [2] [3] [4] [...] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]

Chapter 5: The Damsel in Distress

"Look into her heart, you'll only find anguish... But look into her eyes and you'll feel hope..." -Ino Yamanaka

Sakura will never admit it to her conscience but she was more than desperate to prove her worth to the members of the FoK. People keep giving her fake sympathy for the sake of maintaining peace while in the insides, they blame her for every single act that goes wrong. She is sick of the treatment that she has been receiving for no apparent reason.

So, when she decided to put her escape plan into action, she heard the door to the shop being pushed open. She excused herself from the man examining the lilacs and walked to the door, making sure there were no flaws in her henge that could lead her into trouble. In a flash, she found herself hurled onto the cold, wooden floor and gasped.

"Caught you!" A familiar voice teased.

Confused, she opened her tightly shut eyes to look up at her captor making another shocked gasp escape her lips.

Ino knew the exact time at which Sakura leaves Konoha's Medical Hospital. Therefore, as noon approached and the pink-haired medic made an exit from the hospital to see the Hyuga heiress, Ino dragged her to her parent's flower shop. Of all the methods to convince Hinata into joining the FoK, Sakura plans in using some sweet-talk? No, it will never work-out. Ino has tried it numerous times herself but failed. She has still not been able to elicit a real smile from her best friend. Thus, to distract the pinkette from her plan, Ino engaged her with the job of handling the counter of the Yamanaka Flower Shop.

She herself was busy with some customers in the backyard for their in the back of the house, they keep all the exotic varieties that come from different places around the country. As she handed over the desired flowers to the last customer, she walked back to the main area of the house. There from the threshold, she saw Sakura talking to a man near a bunch of beautiful lilacs. She noticed the anxious expression present on the medic's face as if contemplating about doing something or not. All of a sudden, the door to the shop was pushed-open and the bell at the top of the door clattered. At the same time Sakura turned around to check on the latest customers entering the shop. But when Ino took-in the features of the odd duo, she made her feet motion the fastest they could and tackled her friend to the floor, making her gasp in shock.

"Caught you!" Ino muttered in a sing-song voice to grab her friend's attention away from the door.

Hearing her voice, Sakura looked up at her and gasped even more. Slowly her tense muscles began relaxing on meeting the gaze of her blonde best friend. For a moment there, she thought that some unknown enemy was trying to kill her only to realise that it was just her childhood friend. She sighed deeply and looked questioningly at Ino for her weird actions. The customers gave her even more questioning looks.

"Uh..." Ino thought before continuing to speak, her eyes scanning all the customers that were watching her and then finally settled on the strange pair of latest customers that had entered the shop.

"Trying to escape, now are we?" Ino glared at her as she spoke, "You already tire yourself with so much work at the hospital. I'm not letting you attend to every single customer here at the shop. Go back into the kitchen and take a snack-break." The blue-eyed girl ordered.

Sakura stood up and brushed off some fake dust from her clothes while walking inside the house, towards the kitchen, still suspicious of her friend's behaviour.

As soon as the girl disappeared, all the customers went back to their usual task of selecting flowers. Ino turned around to look at the two strange men, one eyeing her with concern while the other with hints of amusement. She stepped towards them and flashed them a small professional smile.

"How may I help you, Sirs?" She asked politely.

The amused one grinned at her from ear-to-ear, giving her a perfect view of his complete set of thirty-two, sharp teeth. He winked at her as if he had caught her in some inappropriate act and grinned wider if that was even possible. Two strange looking guys came at my house, one of whom was carrying a huge sword behind his back. The guy with the sword was very lean and had white hair that contrasted well with his violet irises. He also had very sharp, shark-like teeth. His partner on the other hand was tall and had scarlet-red irises and an unusual sort of fiery-orange hair. Ino recalled Shikamaru's vivid description of the two men and was now sure that these were the weird guys that he was talking about.

"Sorry for interrupting the moment with your girlfriend." He apologised in a mock tone.

Ino smiled again, "Hehe...we were just arguing, nothing more. You know, it's a friends thing."

The guy nodded and grinned. "Say, have you seen a girl around here with freakish, pink hair?" He asked.

"Pink hair?!" Ino faked a surprised look, "Now who would even dye their lovely hair into a shade of pink?!"

"No", the tall man spoke this time, "You're getting it wrong. Her hair colour is naturally pink."

"Although I still find it unbelievable," Ino flashed them her best oblivious-look and answered, "I'll say I haven't seen anyone around here like that. I am really sorry." She bowed gracefully before the two men.

They eyed her for a few seconds as if examining her for any hints of hesitation or fear but found none. Both exchanged a meaningful glance and nodded towards the blonde young woman. The taller one bowed his head before her and apologised for disturbing her while his partner sighed in exasperation and tugged him out of the shop.

The moment they were out of the place, Ino released a breath that she didn't realise she had been holding onto. With a sigh of relief, she left the customers to themselves and scurried towards the kitchen to find her friend.

.

.

On entering the kitchen, Ino felt no presence of a breathing, 18-year old female. Worriedly, she looked around in every nook and corner of the small room. She rushed to the backyard and slammed open the door. No signs of a dark haired girl with midnight black orbs. She scurried back to the kitchen and searched around again but to her dismay, she found nothing. A cool breeze swayed-past her skin and it was then that she noticed the large, oak window was wide open. Shit! Ino cursed inwardly on realising that Sakura was actually gone...

Sakura entered the kitchen with a frown stretching across her features. At first, it was only them who would criticise her behind her back but now her very own childhood best friend has started doing the same. The minute she began walking to attend to the latest customers at the Yamanaka Flower Shop, she was tackled to the floor by her friend. Ino didn't even allow her to take a peek at the customers and ordered her to go to the kitchen.

She is angry for always being held back like this but she never rebelled against any of her friends. Not even once did she go against the commands given to her. But when she saw the large, oak window in the room, a small devious smirk replaced her frown. She pushed it open and with one look to check if anyone was coming or not, she leaped out, feeling no chakra signatures.

As soon as she escaped and began heading down the pathway, her mind started formulating plans for her as there were still hours to spend before the beginning of the meeting. Convincing Hinata was the first thing on her list but she skipped it and moved onto the next goals on her list. Doing a quick check on her parents was second on the list, followed by seeing a five-year old patient at the hospital. She decided to visit Hinata as this is supposed to be the most important task in her list but for some weird reason, her feet took her to an old, scarcely populated area in Konoha. She continued walking, making her legs choose the directions for her. Her motion came to halt before a small, two-storey house and she smiled sadly at the place. The place has played too significant role in her life to be forgotten. She smiled at the front lawn, the stone pillars at the front gate, the wooden porch and at everything else that her eyes could intake at a glance.

How can she ever forget the one place where she didn't need to worry her head over every little thing? The only place where no one underestimated or made her feel inferior. The place where she had grown-up as a young innocent girl, only to be turned into a practical woman with time. Yes, this is the only place which she can never archive into the back of her mind's deepest pits. After all, it is her home.

She wanted to knock and enter at the very instant she saw it and yet she cannot. Her feet glued to the ground, she stared at the house for who knows how long, waiting by luck to get a glimpse of the two people that brought her into this not-so-beautiful world of the Shinobi. As if on cue, the door clicked open and she quickly masked her presence, hiding behind one of the huge pillars. A tall man in his fifties stepped down from the porch and began watering the shrubs in the lawn. The man's spiky, pale-purple hair had turned even lighter. It was now a shade more close to white. Another click was heard and Sakura moved her eyes away from her father to see her mother walk out of the same door. The thin woman joined her father in the task of watering the plants. Both exchanged a soft smile and continued.

It was right after the war that Madara began to hunt down every person related to the fifth hokage to publicly execute them. It was an unnecessary feat but Madara hated the Senjus and wanted every single one of them dead. He even couldn't stand the number of people who had become a part of Tsunade Senju's foster family and ordered to kill all the people acquainted with her. Sakura being one of them ran and hid herself away from everyone she knew. She went so far as to disguise herself as a normal doctor of the village. Ino and Sai were the only ones who knew about her alias and helped her out in blending with her new persona.

Later on, Ino informed everyone of their friends about her henge. Everyone but her parents. Ino argued many a times with her to reveal it to them but Sakura did not permit it. Instead, Sakura made Ino tell her parents that their daughter has been missing ever since the end of the war. With some hints of guilt and sorrow, her parents accepted the fake news about her daughter's disappearance. So now here they are, completely at peace with their life. They don't need to worry anymore about their good-for-nothing daughter. Sakura smiled at them again before leaving the grounds carefully so as to not get noticed by anyone in the area.

Now that she has seen her parents, she can move onto the most important task on her list- convincing Hinata Hyuga. With that goal set in her mind, she made her way to the Hyuga Compound.

.

On her way to Hinata's house, Sakura came across another familiar street. This place also holds many precious memories of her life; memories about the time when she was still an innocent twelve-year old. She smiled sardonically at the sight of her former team's favourite hangout spot, remembering about the past events and feeling just how much time has changed her into the woman that she is today. She straightened herself, wanting to skip the street altogether yet her mind told her to atleast pay respect to those old, joyful memories that had once been shared at the spot. Therefore, she sighed inwardly at her own weakness for her past and walked towards the place.

As she reached the place, she lifted one of the banners of her former teammate's favourite noodle shop and sat down on one of the vacant stools right next to a guy with a huge sword resting by his leg. She took a proper side-glance at the guy and saw him talking to a tall man with fiery, orange hair. To her, they appeared to be astonishingly familiar. Her mind was sure about having seen them before. Their names were stuck in her head but her tongue just couldn't put voice to them.

Think Sakura! Think! Sakura berated herself inwardly for not being able to recall their identities.

"Man...Sasuke is surely gonna kill us." The one sitting next to her muttered casually.

At the mention of her ex-teammate, Sakura gasped, making everyone turn their heads at her. She grinned apologetically.

"Oh!" The owner's daughter looked at her and Sakura almost jumped in fright. Almost.

"I'm sorry I didn't take your order." The girl apologised to her and Sakura sighed in relief.

"One pork ramen, please." She ordered and the girl left after bowing her head again.

That was close, she thought.

The guys went back to continue with their conversation as the one with orange hair shook his head in disagreement, "No, not us. He'll only kill you and that too just for being so care-free about everything he expects from us."

"Yeah...yeah..." The man next to her passed a hand through his white-hair in what seemed like irritation and spoke, "But there's no way that a girl with pink hair-"

"Pink hair?!" asked the shop-owner's daughter in a shocked voice.

Both of the guys looked back at her, equally surprised.

"You-you mean Sakura-san?" The young girl asked.

Sakura flinched at her name being called-out like that in a public spot and that also by a girl who used to know her. Instinctively, she scanned her whole form to check if her henge had any flaws that could put her own identity in any kind of jeopardy.

"You", the orange-haired man addressed the young girl politely, "Sakura-san, right? Do you..do you know her?" The man asked. Sakura gulped.

"Not quite," the girl answered sadly but genuinely, "I used to know her..."

"What's this supposed to mean?!" The white-haired guy asked.

At that very moment, Teuchi, the shop-owner who had presumably been busy preparing her pork ramen came over to the counter. The look on his face was a mix of sorrow, pity and determination. He bowed at each one of them before joining in the conversation as he felt the need to pull his daughter away from these strange-looking men.

"Sakura Haruno, yes, me and my daughter used to know her. She was one of our cherished regular customers until.." The man decided to leave his speech incomplete.

"Until?" The white-haired guy pressed on the matter, now showing hints of eagerness in the topic of discussion.

"...until she disappeared. No one knows how..but she just vanished after the war." Teuchi answered honestly.

The eagerness in the white-haired man's eyes was gone as disappointment took it's place. "Sasuke is sooo gonna kill me." He muttered to himself and stood-up from his stool. After paying the required sum of money to the young daughter of the shopkeeper, he left with his tall partner in tow.

Sakura relaxed her stiff muscles. She had been beyond scared by their presence right next to her. Suigetsu and Juugo- she recalled them the moment they started talking about Sasuke. She knows about them as she had once read about their identities in a bingo book. They are highly-skilled S-ranked criminals, known for their weird affinity to killing but what's more noticeable is that they were once a part of Sasuke's rogue team, Taka. For them to be searching for her, is not an everyday activity that can be taken lightly. Not to mention, one of them said that Sasuke is going to kill him. This probably means that the whole matter is somewhat linked with Sasuke. Staying as far as possible from them will be the best for her.

But..., she thought. If they know Sasuke then they can take her to meet him. And if she meets Sasuke then she can confront him about the 'Hyuga Clan Annihilation' and maybe convince him to stop it from occurring altogether. Yes! Maybe there's no need for her to waste her time on convincing a girl as broken as herself? Maybe all that she must do is talk to the people who will play a major role in this mass killing, especially because she knows one of the man involved. Or...used to know...

Worried in a miasma of her thoughts about having to meet her ex-teammate again, she shook her head. No, I must not do this. But...what if... If Sasuke is actually related to this whole search for her then maybe she can use it to her advantage and help out Neji and his clan from being completely exterminated. And also, this will prove her worth to the members of the FoK.

Yes! I must give it a try! She told herself and stood-up from the stool that she had occupied.

Teuchi looked back at her questioningly.

"I'm sorry I need to go. Please cancel the order I had placed a few minutes ago." With that request made, she exited the shop and ran towards the two S-ranked criminals.

.

"Excuse me!" She called out loudly to the weird duo, making them turn back to face her with their confused eyes.

"What is it?" Suigetsu asked.

"I...I was there, sitting next to you guys at Ichiraku's Ramen Shop." She reminded them.

"Yeah so?" Suigetsu quirked his brows emphatically.

Sakura took a deep breath and looked at the two rogue shinobis standing before her. It is dangerous, very dangerous to talk to them so directly about anything but she has no other choice. From the inside, her whole form is shaking in fear but on the outside, she is just breathing raggedly. If she succeeds then everyone in the FoK will be extremely delighted because of the loss of one big burden from their heads. But everything depends on her conversation with these two acquaintances of Sasuke. She must choose every word very cautiously. Go on Sakura! This is it!

"The girl you were talking about...I know her." She admitted, plastering one of the most serious expressions on her face.

A long pause followed her confession to the two men. Neither of them uttered a word to her. Instead they stared at her without any twitching of their eyes. After what felt like eternity, they exchanged a nod and turned back to her.

Suigetsu swung his huge sword and placed it's paper thin, sharp edge at Sakura's neck. She gasped in fear, wondering what did she do to offend them after having chosen the most appropriate words.

"If this is some kind of sick joke then I'll give you a chance to apologise." Suigetsu hissed.

Sakura's eyes widened, "What?! No! This is definitely not a joke." She shook her head, making the sharp blade faintly graze the skin on her neck. "I really do know about her whereabouts..but this is.." she took a deep breath, "this a very confidential information and I will only reveal about this to your leader."

The blade on her neck pushed harder at her skin, breaking it so that a small trail of blood began cascading down her throat.

"I'm not lying, I swear on my life!" She yelled harshly.

The blade was removed from her neck as she was pulled roughly into the arms of the mist ninja. He took her left hand's palm in his own right hand's palm and whispered threateningly in her ear, "If I find out about you feeding lies to us, then I'll cut every single finger of your palm, one-by-one. Do you understand?" He traced each one of her dainty fingers with his calloused thumb as he spoke the threat.

She licked her lips in anxiety and shakily nodded her head, "Yes! Yes I do." Suigetsu grinned evilly at her reply and let go of her frail form. He himself gave a nod to Juugo and then started dragging Sakura towards their destination- The Uchiha Compounds.

Sasuke is sure that he had declared to Madara about finding the woman of his choice by tonight. However, his words were only spoken to keep his arrogant pride alive. He never expected his announcement to turn into a reality. So when his ex-teammates from Taka came back with the news that a certain woman wishes to speak with him in the case of the person he's been itching to see again, he was shell-shocked. He glared at the two guys who were awaiting his next orders patiently.

"Are you trying to trick me?!" He shouted.

Before Suigetsu could use his sword-sharp tongue to speak words of equal magnitude to that of Sasuke's, Juugo intervened. He stopped the mist swordsman and took a step forward to stand face-to-face with the young Uchiha Prodigy.

"Sasuke we aren't lying about this. That woman is desperately waiting to tell you about the pink-haired girl you'd asked us to look for." Juugo explained.

Sasuke glared at them again but then sat down on his couch. Only two words were uttered from his lips and that too in a commanding tone, "Bring her."

Sakura stood up from the porch when the two rogue ninjas approached her. She was forcefully pulled inside the huge Uchiha Mansion by a very pissed Suigetsu. She wondered what had happened with him while she was waiting here outside. She also pondered about what will happen to her now that she has been taken in. Juugo clicked open a door that probably led into the living room and entered. She had no other choice but to follow because of the former mist nin's vice-like grip on her wrist.

The minute she stepped inside the room, she realised that it was dimly lit, making only a few features noticeable in the room. She looked around and spotted a silhouetted figure sitting atop the couch. Sasuke, she can recognise him anytime and anywhere just by his spiky hairstyle. One could only feel his presence as not even a single part of his skin was visible in the darkness of the room.

"We brought her." Suigetsu said.

Sasuke didnot respond to his Taka teammate's words. Instead he assessed the three of them silently. His interest suddenly piqued when his Sharingan finished examining the dark-haired woman who had come along to see him.

"Is it true that you are looking for Sakura Haruno?" The woman asked, trying her best to sound professional.

"Yes. Yes I am." He answered with hints of mockery in his tone.

"I can...I can give you her location. But only if-"

She stopped speaking when she felt the shuffling of his feet. He vacated his spot on the couch and walked towards her. His steps came to a halt when he was standing inches away from her.

He tilted his head down to look at her and asked, "If what?"

Her breathing hitched and she stumbled back to put some distance between him and herself. Her voice stuttered as she answered, "I-I-I want you-I want you to do something for me in exchange-for her location"

In two short steps, he breached the gap that she had created between them. He again tilted his head down at her and with a smug smirk stretching across his lips, he spoke, "What do you want, Sa-ku-ra ?"

A/N: So this is where this chapter ends. Hehe XD Sasuke knew it was her.

What do you think about this chapter?

I'd be glad if you comment your views.

Hope it was worth the wait...:)

*NEXT CHAPTER WILL POSTED WHEN THIS ONE REACHES 20 NOTES.

~Manika

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[themyskira]

Wonder Woman #47

Previously in the Land That Proofreaders Forgot, Jason is the specialest snowflake and his armour gives him all the powers of all the Greek gods ever!!!

Also, people are losing their shit, denouncing their gods and proclaiming the arrival of some so-called “Dark Gods”. One of those people is Supergirl, whose fist is on a collision course with Diana’s face.

At least the variant covers are still gorgeous.

Supergirl attacks Diana while monologuing furiously about how all the gods are dead and the Dark Gods are coming to Show Us The Way. She says they’ve told her to kill Diana, who apparently inadvertently “dragged them from their own dimension into ours”, because she will threaten their plans if she’s not stopped now.

She freely volunteers this all in the first three pages, as Diana fights off her attacks, which seems just a teeny bit premature. Usually the Bond villain doesn’t launch into explaining their villainous plan until after they’ve captured Bond, you know?

If the Dark Gods really have this much control over people, including some as powerful as Supergirl, and if it’s really so crucial to their plans to eliminate Wonder Woman, why not launch a precision strike? Rather than Supergirl hurtling towards Diana screaming ‘RAO IS DEAD AND SO ARE YOU!!!!’ — thereby giving Diana both time to react and an indication of who’s really behind the assault — make it a true ambush, with Supergirl attacking in ruthless, resolute silence.

Or make it a coordinated attack from a group of heroes and villains under the Dark Gods’ sway.

Or have the civilians Diana’s trying to save turn on her as one.

It’s not only a smarter tactic on the part of the villain, it would actually make for more interesting storytelling. The Dark Gods, whatever the hell they are, are supposed to be a threat of mythic proportions. They’re allegedly so scary they make all the other gods piss their pants, and their mere approach turns human minds to mush. So lean into that. A mounting series of unsettling and inexplicable events — Diana’s patrons falling suddenly silent, Circe inexplicably fearful, violent mobs forming out of nowhere, heroes turning on each other, divine items losing their power, a building undercurrent of they’re coming and you brought this on us, so that even before we’ve heard their name or seen their faces we know to fear them.

That’s far more interesting than Cheetah and Supergirl bursting onto the page shrieking ‘THE DARK GODS ARE COMING, ALL OTHER GODS FUCKING SUCK!!!!!’, in the same way that a trail of breadcrumbs is far more compelling than having half a loaf shoved violently into your face.

Anywho, they fight, Supergirl raving all the while about all the ways she’s going to murder Diana, as Diana goes into her usual (under Robinson) weak litany of ‘listen to yourself, this is crazy talk, be reasonable!’

Diana displays her usual (under Robinson) keen deductive skills.

“I need to know— whether Supergirl is attacking me out of blind madness, or is it— is this attack because whoever these gods are, I’m a threat to them in some way?”

Supergirl: “those Dark Gods … tell me you will interfere if you aren’t stopped now.”

Diana, three pages later: Hey, do you… do you think it’s possible that maybe the Dark Gods are trying to eliminate me because I’m a threat to them or something???

Then this happens, and I literally burst out laughing.

“You can’t outfight me, Amazon— outrun me… outrun my eyes!”

“OUTRUN MY EYES”. WHAT. EVEN.

Diana’s been grappling with Supergirl for six pages at this point, and the whole time I’ve been mentally yelling at her YOU HAVE. A FUCKING. MAGIC LASSO. THAT BREAKS THROUGH DECEPTION AND ENCHANTMENT, because this is something that Robinson never seems to bloody remember. Diana finally cottons on… sort of. She ensnares Supergirl with a view to forcing her to confess everything she knows about the Dark Gods.

And, look. I’ll buy that whatever hold the Dark Gods have on people can’t be broken by the Lasso, but I don’t accept that Diana wouldn’t even try it.

Her priorities here are all out of whack. Robinson has Diana give up on trying to save Supergirl the moment her usual (under Robinson) method of firmly telling her foe to snap out of it fails. And, having decided that she can’t break through the Dark Gods’ control, her very next thought is not to subdue Supergirl and minimise the harm to civilians (they’ve already flown directly through several skyscrapers at this point), it’s to pump a still unrestrained Supergirl for information over a crowded city, causing more damage and endangering more lives in the process.

I’m not even exaggerating, because Diana’s every inane thought is there for us to read in Robinson’s narration boxes: “No use reasoning with her. Need her to tell me— I need to know—”

Supergirl is caught in the Lasso, Diana commands her to talk about the Dark Gods, and we cut away.

Jason is meeting with the Fates — the Moirai of Greek mythology.  They’re among my favourite Greek gods, and Robinson could not have written them more obnoxiously.  They speak in turns, finish each other’s sentences and use smug made-up acronyms.

Their character design is utterly boring: three conventionally attractive, young, fashionable, skinny white ladies, one blonde, one redhead, one brunette. Jason says they’re not what he was expecting, and they ask what he was expecting and teasingly shift through a series of forms: a typical depiction of the Moirai, robed and holding a thread between them; a vaguely Scandinavian-looking trio who are clearly intended to be the Norns, a… trio of seemingly generic East Asian deities???; and the Three Witches of 70s and 80s DC horror comics (best-known today from their part in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman).

This is actually a decent gag in concept, but the execution is sloppy and culturally tone-deaf.  The Fates share some commonalities with the Norns, but they’re not the same goddesses, and they were certainly never adopted by East Asian cultures. The intention seems to be that these three are fate incarnate, the same three goddesses worshipped worldwide under different names and guises. But in implication, that has unpleasant shades of colonialism: it assumes a single Greco-Western conception of fate, ignoring diverse and culturally specific ideas and beliefs about fate and universal order. (Surprise, folks! Your indigenous gods are actually white people in disguise!)

(Edit: Mirrorfalls has pointed out that the third shift is the form taken by the Three-in-One in Neil Gaiman’s Sandman story ‘The Dream Hunters’, something I’d completely forgotten about! I think the criticism still stands: fate and trinities are major recurring themes/motifs in Sandman, and anthropomorphised concepts are a central concern of the comic, so the inclusion of a maiden-mother-crone trio in that story serves as a familiar shorthand for the forces of fate at play. Whereas... there is literally no reason here for Robinson to throw out in a by-the-by that the Greek Fates are everybody else's fate/destiny gods as well, except that he wants to drop yet another smarty-pants reference to comics that are better than his.)

And those two middle shifts aren’t even necessary for the joke to work. Arguably it’d work better with only the Moirai and the Three Witches, making it purely a play on typical (and stereotypical) depictions of the Fates, without claiming ownership of any other culture’s deities.

Anyway, the Fates say that they look like sexy white ladies because it’s the “perfect guise for W.A.M.” W.A.M., Jason asks? “Walking Among Mortals.” Told you they were obnoxious.

Jason wants to know about his super-special magic armour, how he got it and why he has it. He feels like it wasn’t even meant for him. “That’s good,” say the Fates, “Because it wasn’t.”

Oh good. Finally something we can agree on.

The Fates explain that Zeus, foreseeing the coming of the Dark Gods, created the armour as a weapon against them, to be wielded by “the hero he considered Earth’s greatest champion”. Jason realises they’re talking about Diana, and his face does this.

So, why did the armour go to Jason, then? Hahaha well it turns out the Greek gods are super sexist.

“Unfortunately your father died before he could bestow the armour. The rest of the pantheon, wanting to honour his wishes, still retained their ancient views. They assumed Zeus had created the armour for his son,”

Okay, few things.

E D I T I N G. “The rest of the pantheon, wanting to honour his wishes, still retained their ancient views.” He’s trying to say that the gods wanted to honour Zeus’s wishes, but, being old-fashioned sexists, assumed the armour was meant for Jason and not Diana. I know that. But this sentence says that the gods wanted to honour Zeus’s wishes and so remained old-fashioned sexists. Also, sentences do not end with a comma. Fuck’s sake.

If the gods and goddesses of the Rebirth DCU are so unbearably sexist that they think only a man is up to the task of saving the world, why did they create the Amazons (who are themselves the reincarnated souls of women whose lives were lost to the violence of men) to perform the essential task of guarding Ares’ prison? Why, when Phobos and Deimos sought to release Ares and envelop the whole world in war, did they command the Amazons to choose a champion to stop them? Why did they bless her with their divine gifts? Under their logic, wouldn’t all these jobs be more suited to a man?

(The answer is of course no, because this “ancient views” thing is a total asspull.)

And if the gods did assume that the armour was meant for a son, well, Zeus still has a fair few of them floating around. Apollo, for one. Why would they give it to the incompetent fuck-up who unwittingly helped Darkseid to kill Zeus?

In fact, according to the Fates, Zeus didn’t necessarily specify that the armour was for one of his children, just that it was for “the hero he considered Earth’s greatest champion”. Now, you’d think it would be pretty hard for the gods to mistake this one: Diana is, after all, their chosen champion, and already blessed with divine abilities. But fine, let’s say for argument’s sake that the gods are too sexist to accept this. They consider it for a moment, then scoff, ‘He couldn’t have meant such a powerful weapon for Diana. Listen, she’s a nice girl and all, but what if she’s on her period when the Dark Gods attack? Who else do we have?’ You can’t tell me that Jason was ahead of Superman in the running for “Earth’s greatest champion”.

Ultimately, this entire plot hinges on the idea that the gods, forced to choose one of two twins upon whom to bestow the great power and heavy responsibility of defeating their supposed scariest foe, passed over the anointed champion who gave up paradise to help others, who has served the gods faithfully, who has saved the world a hundred times over — passed her over in favour of a self-absorbed, untested, incompetent, glory-seeking fuckup whose only major accomplishment to date is to accidentally help Darkseid murder Zeus, Heracles and a crapton of demigods and heroes.

So that’s why I’m choosing to believe that the gods all got hammered at Zeus’s wake and decided it would be funny to bequeath the armour to the shittest son.

Jason asks if he should give the armour to Diana. He can’t, the Fates say; it’s bonded with him and nobody else can use it. Oh and PS, he’s going to have to learn how to use it fast, because the Dark Gods are already here haha prolly should have led with that.

This would be the perfect opportunity for Jason to ask who and what the Dark Gods are, and maybe how to defeat them, but lol, this is Jason, guys. So of course he races off like an impulsive jackass, knowing nothing about his enemies aside from their collective name.

Speaking of Diana, she’s gotten no answers from Supergirl, who blacked out the moment the interrogation started. Jason catches up with her.

Jason: DIANA! I’m here!  Diana: Jason, where were you? Jason: With the Fates. They told me about the Dark Gods. Diana: The Fates of Greece? Really?

Diana is contending with a group of adversaries so powerful that they’re inside the heads of tens of thousands of people before they’ve even entered Earth’s atmosphere — and she’s just found out that she is the one who summoned them. She’s failed to get answers from the mind-controlled Supergirl, and time is running out. Then Jason appears claiming to have information about these fast-approaching enemies, and her reaction is, “OMG U MET THE FATES????”

That said, Jason is also a fucking liar.  The Fates told you the Dark Gods’ name, Jason. That is not the same as telling you about the Dark Gods. They told you, Zeus made your armour specifically as a weapon against some super baddies called the Dark Gods, and you were like, ‘cool, no further questions’.

There’s another eyeroll moment as Jason pauses mid-rambling-explanation to ask, “Hey, where are the Dark Gods, anyway? I expected—”

He’s cut off by the arrival of the much-vaunted Dark Gods. There’s a big dramatic fanfare. Thunder. Lightning. Stormclouds. Tortured facial expressions.

Followed by this anticlimactic reveal:

Jason: They’re monoliths… but without movement or action.

As opposed to regular monoliths, which as we all know are famously lively and active.

Of course, immediately after Jason says this, the… giant floaty statue blokes… start shooting lasers out of their eyes.

Just as Diana seems dangerously close to actually doing something, a couple of Star Sapphires appear and whisk her away.

Star Sapphires: Wonder Woman… you must come with us. The Star Sapphires of Zamaron need you. Diana: No, not now, I have to—

They vanish with her, leaving Jason alone against the flying rocks, and us with this unpromising promo text:

NEXT: Follow Wonder Woman and the Star Sapphires as they battle the fate of Zamaron in Wonder Woman Annual #2. Then in issue# 48 see if JASON alone is a match for the DARK GODS!

I’m so mad, guys.

I’m mad because a Wondy/Star Sapphires space adventure is exactly the kind of story I want in my life and I know James Robinson is going to suck all the fun out of it because he’s a talentless doorknob.

I’m mad because it looks like we’re in for yet another issue of Diana being sidelined while her dumbass brother and her boyfriend take centre stake.

I’m mad because this book’s editors are so intensely apathetic that nobody noticed the two typos in this promo text.

But mostly I’m mad because FUCK FUCK I FORGOT ABOUT THE ANNUAL THAT’S A WHOLE ‘NOTHER COMIC I HAVE TO GET THROUGH GOD FUCKING DAMMIT

[weightlossfitness2]

I Got a Pastel Pink Hair Makeover—Here’s How It Went

Hair has by no means been my factor. And to be frank, I’m a bit off-kilter on the subject of minding my mane. For starters, I haven’t used conditioner in in all probability 4 years, and haven’t owned a brush or dryer in a decade-plus. In essence, minimal, matte, and messy have lengthy been my styling anchors. So what led a hair minimalist to decide to the supremely excessive mane-tenance endeavor of a pink hair makeover? Here’s the thin on my determination and course of, plus the massive reveal. I entrusted Joey and Misha of Mane Duo Salon in Hollywood to cleared the path.

Why I Wanted a Radical Hair Transformation

While I’ve dabbled with highlights over time, they’ve by no means been constant. And save for an unlucky adolescent dalliance with blonde streaks to emulate Nicole Richie circa The Simple Life, they’ve by no means been main both. However, my curiosity in going daring has been marinating for a few years now.

So why did I lastly determine to make the leap? In sum, my latent want to have assertion hair, paired with the newfound “need” to paint my grays away, galvanized me to lastly make strikes. Only one query remained: Should I am going platinum à la Kim Ok, or pastel pink for a pop of enjoyable and whimsy? Since I fearful the previous would wash out my deep-olive pores and skin tone, I opted for pink.

What to Know Pre-Treatment

For starters, discover a colorist you may belief primarily based on method and expertise. Second, have lifelike expectations, because it’s unlikely that you simply’ll be capable to precisely replicate an inspo picture.

Next, Joey mentions particular need-to-knows. “The best candidates for a pastel hair journey are those with virgin (untreated) hair,” he begins. “If somebody has pre-existing hair color or artificial pigments—especially from at-home products—we’ll put a firm halt on that kind of request.”

Other main concerns are the time and maintenance required. “Prospective clients should know that they’ll be here for at least eight hours. It’s a lengthy process,” Joey explains. As for upkeep? “They’ll have to come back every six to eight weeks for a root touch-up, and some pastel or platinum refreshment in between.”

Unsurprisingly, one of these hair makeover comes at a steep price, which begins with about $200 per every bleach and tone. Extras embrace the likes of bond remedies, trims, coloration refreshments, color-safe hair merchandise, and so forth. All mentioned, if you happen to’re going to commit absolutely, brace your self for the inevitable monetary hit.

Lastly, individuals who prize glossy, heated styling above all ought to in all probability forego this sort of remedy. “If a straight, shiny look is your thing, you may not want to get a pastel color since it’ll be textured and have a more grungy feel,” Joey explains. (While this final half rings as music to my ears, I do know I’m within the minority.)

My Pink Hair Makeover Process

Here’s a take a look at the whole thing of my hair makeover journey, from deep brown to platinum to pastel pink.

Test Strand

Before committing absolutely, Joey inspired me to return in to bleach a take a look at strand of hair. That means, he’d be capable to gauge the way it responded and if my desired transformation was even doable. About an hour or two in, he was happy with how my darkish pigment lifted. Thankfully, he gave me the inexperienced gentle to make an official appointment, additionally including in pink so I might get a sneak preview.

A Long Day of Bleaching

From the fore, I used to be grateful to know that Joey would take a protected and gradual method. First, he added a bond remedy to the bleach to forestall my hair from shedding too many cuticle and cortex cells. Next, since warmth from the scalp can pace up the bleach’s activation, Joey began portray my hair an inch from the basis downwards, then wrapped every part in foil. Only after rinsing this primary full spherical did he go in for the roots. FTR, I by no means sat instantly underneath warmth in order that I might keep away from injury. However, I generally sat near the heater to softly nudge issues alongside.

Following 9 hours of painstaking work on his finish (and snoozy reveries on mine), I used to be despatched residence with a mop they warned can be “an undesirable shade of yellow.” I hid underneath my favourite fedora and known as it an evening.

Bleach + Tone

Clocking in at solely six hours, day two felt like a breeze. Joey started by making use of one other spherical of bleach and foil, additional lifting pigment and correcting uneven areas. Once my hair achieved its lightest degree, Joey utilized a violet ashy toner to neutralize coloration and masks any lingering yellow patches.

Let me inform you: I used to be *shook* by how a lot I liked the platinum. Kanye would possibly really feel like Pablo, however I completely felt like his Mrs. on the apex of her icy-haired recreation. Any preliminary issues have been put to relaxation, and I used to be beaming from ear to ear. While most of my buddies post-progress-pic urged me to stay with platinum, I remained dedicated to comply with by with the pink. I left in a deep conditioning masks to nourish my now brittle-yet-beautiful strands earlier than embarking on the ultimate phases.

Final Color

At lengthy final, the time had come to use the semi-permanent pink dye—however solely after diluting it with conditioner to attain a pale blush tone. I sat with it for 20 minutes earlier than Misha trimmed my useless ends and styled my new ‘do for the massive reveal.

Pink Hair Reveal

This pastel pink hair is killer! I don’t take selfies or look within the mirror usually—however I can now see the post-reveal attraction. While I fawned over my quickly platinum locks, I additionally actually love the pink. I didn’t count on to get plenty of dimensionality, so I’m glad I get to expertise one of the best of each worlds. As massive of a change as it’s, I already really feel used to my new pink hair. I believe it brings out my enjoyable facet, which is all the time a plus!

Pink Hair Makeover Maintenance

Accept that you need to solely wash your hair as soon as every week. Tip: Intermittent bathe rinses with conditioner are permitted, satisfactory trade-offs.

Invest in non-toxic, salon-quality shampoo and an arsenal of conditioners: one common, one deep conditioning masks, and one to combine with at-home pink dye.

Get able to turn into your individual colorist in between salon visits. Mix semi-permanent pink dye with conditioner as soon as every week to redeposit light coloration.

Lay off warmth styling as finest you may.

Go again for root touch-ups, firming, and trims each six to eight weeks (or as wanted) for long-lasting outcomes.

Final Thoughts

I’m extremely glad I lastly went by with my pink hair makeover. It’s enjoyable to rock a brand new, totally different look to enhance my different type staples and creatively talk my persona. And whereas the pink does fade fairly shortly, I’m cool with being stunned by the infinite number of shades that come and go. I’m impressed to proceed experimenting with my hair coloration, as long as its well being can Keep Up…

And talking of, I’ll completely return to that Kim Ok platinum subsequent.

Big due to Joey and Misha! Show them some love on Instagram or go to Mane Duo Salon in Los Angeles.

The post I Got a Pastel Pink Hair Makeover—Here’s How It Went appeared first on Weight Loss Fitness.

from Weight Loss Fitness https://weightlossfitnesss.info/i-got-a-pastel-pink-hair-makeover-heres-how-it-went/

[qualitytacolover]

Hair dye for men: everything you need to know

New Post has been published on https://www.easypromhairstyles.com/hair-dye-for-men-everything-you-need-to-know.html

Hair dye for men: everything you need to know

Hair, unlike a suit, watch, or pair of trainers, is the one-style statement that you can't just slip off. That said, it's worth making sure you're sending the right signals, whether brown, salty, peppered, or blonde.

In an age of “bread box” and forehead sculptors for boys, the vanity of people who dye their hair is old news. So why if we love doing it so much, are we still wrong?

To help you get the best dye job possible, we consulted cognoscenti for advice on everything from hiding gray to a complete overhaul. Color informed itself.

Should I dye my hair?

skin tone

The right hair color can make a big difference in how you look, which makes finding the right shade for your skin tone so important. You usually want a hair color that is the opposite of the undertones of your skin. To find out which camp you fall into, check the bottom of your arm. Those with cool skin tones have blue or purple veins and go with warmer colors, while warm skin tones have greenish veins and cooler colors.

Hair type & color

Unfortunately, switching on the hair is not a flat coloring field. In general, the darker, thicker, or looser your hair, the harder it will be to bleach. This does not mean that a new “Do is off the table. However, it can take several treatments to get the desired effect that can damage your hair. If you are not the owner of fine, light natural hair, leave this to the experts.

Age

For most men, the telltale signs of aging are what make them reach for the dye donor. But even if you want to make the change earlier in life, the number of candles on your cake is still important. Far from us to set a limit on what boys should do, some looks are better left to the youth. After your late 30s, Sidestep neon pink in favor of something a little more classic.

Personal style

You can take any "what color should I dye my hair" quiz that the internet can bring up, but no matter what your zodiac sign / liquor / favorite Disney princess leads you to an answer, it won't be the right one if it doesn't fit your personal style. Consider factors such as your job (and the dress code it needs) and everything that's already in your closet before you even pick up a color sample.

maintenance

As with all parts of your care routine, the greatest barrier to effectiveness is complication. If it adds too long to your morning routine, you just won't. When it comes to grooming colored hair, this can be seriously bad news for your barnet. The chemicals used in bleach remove essential natural oils, which means your hair can become extremely dry and brittle without a little TLC. If you are not committed to maintenance, step away from the bottle.

Hair dye for men

Gray hair dye

Gray hair is a completely natural part of the aging process, and while a few more bits of salt in your pepper doesn't necessarily mean that you should spark your will, silver hair, like male pattern baldness, can zap your trust.

If you're not ready to hug the gray, make it go away. Using dye to hide grays is a fairly simple process, so while salon treatment is the safest bet, one can be made easily at home by following a few simple steps.

Assuming you have short hair and your top priority is to cover up patches of gray, then look for a colorant that is two shades lighter than the depth of your natural color and with an shade of ash, e.g. B. light ash brown. "This will counteract any warmth (the richness of color) that can develop while the color is being processed," said Scott Cornwall, painting expert and founder of the Scott Cornwall series.

Tempting what it's like to do this as quickly as possible, refrain from tipping the entire contents of the bottle onto your head in one leap. "If you have shorter hair, you may only need a third of the mixed bottle to cover it," says Cornwall. "Using too much colorant can cause it to overlay, making the hair look too dark and saturated."

Instead, press small amounts of the colorant onto the teeth of a small brush and apply to gray areas with gentle, circular movements. Not only does this method mix gray hair, it also maintains the overall cool tone and natural variation of shades, which means you won't appear like Tom Hanks.

Above all, follow the instructions on the packaging. If that fails, give your wallet a hit and get a professional to tackle your hair.

Bleached hair dye

If you're still sprightly enough to get away with bleaching your hair, pull a Lucky Blue (like in phenomenally successful platinum-haired male model Lucky Blue Smith) to turn your head others.

You just have to scroll through the hair trends of the past few seasons to see that platinum hair is certainly a "thing". But be careful, because a) it doesn't suit every skin tone (sorry, redhead), and b) it's anything but a Friday afternoon job.

"Pre-lightening or bleaching is not an easy process because you are actually pulling the hair off its pigment," said Joe Mills, founder of London barbers Joe & Co.

In fact, if your hair is particularly dark, the process may require two lightening treatments. "It's a real art, and getting the right blonde shade isn't as easy as they make it look on the pack."

For best results – and to avoid how a canary just died on your head – contact the experts. "There are so many things to consider, like your skin tone, your lifestyle, and your desired end tone – all of this is pretty difficult without holding on to a hairdresser's guide," says Mills.

Colored hair dye

Do you want to step your hair coloring game in a notch? Try a bolder color like pink, green, or blue. (Don't quote us if your boss gives you your marching orders to try the “Merman”.)

With current supporters like Jared Leto, Zayn Malik, and Jaden Smith, turning the color wheel is a sure-fire way to get some attention, but you don't need a degree in color theory to know that this is a risky move.

Light colors work best with pre-lightened hair, so another job is best left to professionals if you're not interested in channeling Krusty the Clown.

"The easiest and most effective way to do this is to use water-based toner that gets lighter the longer you leave it on," says Mills. "Because it is water-based and has no harmful chemicals, it will not damage the condition of your hair."

Finally, unless you have an impressive range of hats (or a side gig as a child entertainer), this is a look that's best done with semi-permanent dyes.

Hair Dye

While men with shorter curly hair who are still growing don't have to worry much about color maintenance (your gray will show up again in a few weeks), boys with long hair and regular swimmers can take steps to slow down the fading.

"Use a color-preserving conditioner after every wash," says Cornwall. "And if you've bleached platinum hair or a light 'fashionable' color like artificial silver, gray, or pastel, try a blue or purple shampoo." Without this, the hair can very quickly start to turn yellow or green get as keratin (the fibrous protein that forms the hair structure) starts to show.

If you see some yellowing, break out some anti-yellow toner and continue washing with a blue shampoo daily to restore that icy white hue.

Joe Mills also recommends some weekly TLC. “Use a deep conditioning mask once a week to replenish the moisture in your hair. Dyeing is a chemical process, so you have to keep the hair in top condition to make it look fresh, ”he says.

Hair dye Q&A

What color should I dye my hair?

You wouldn't eat the same for breakfast every day, so why should you settle for having the same hair color every day? Of course, pouring hot sauce on your cornflakes could be "different", but that doesn't mean it's better. This is a lengthy way of saying which color you choose should still be right for you, and that includes considering all of the above variables, including skin tone, age, and hair type.

How often should I dye my hair?

Whether you choose professional treatment or a bottle job at home, there's a fine line between maintaining your roots and exaggerating the dye. How often you can dye your hair depends on factors such as your hair type, the natural color and the shade you switch to. However, you are still chemicals on your "do", so most professionals recommend leaving at least two weeks between treatments to minimize damage.

What should I do before coloring my hair?

If you are reading this, it is likely that you are a hair coloring virgin, or the last time went terribly wrong. To avoid the latter from happening again, there are several things to wake up to before you open a bottle: especially styling products like hair gel, flat irons and hair dryers and chemical relaxers. All of these either contribute to the damage caused by bleaching chemicals or slow the rate at which the bleach acts on the hair.

How to get hair dye from skin and hands

Hair dyes have come a long way since the Elizabethan era when women used urine to give their curls a yellowish (gross) shade of yellow. In fact, today's bottle orders are so effective that the skin on your face, neck, and hands can have the same consequences as your strands. To avoid this, always wear gloves and try to put a thin layer of petroleum jelly or baby oil along your hairline before dyeing. To remove stains, apply a small amount of detergent, dish soap or olive oil to a damp washcloth and gently rub the skin until it is gone.

Can you dye wet hair?

When it comes to hair dye, whether you should apply it to wet or dry hair depends on a number of different factors, such as hair type, and there is a lot of conflicting information floating around. While some say that wet locks are better protected from damage, others believe that it could prevent the dye from working. If in doubt, stick to what is recommended in the instruction list – the advice is usually there for a reason.

Does the hair dye expire?

Before you think, "What's the worst thing that could happen?" And Sklther on a bottle that's been on the back of the closet for six months – stop. Unopened dye doesn't always have a set expiration date (if it does, it will be printed on the bottle), but if the consistency is off or the product looks separate, put it in the container and buy a new one.

How long does hair dye last?

It's worth sticking with semi-permanent or semi-permanent dyes unless you're 100 percent sure you know what you're doing. These usually take around 28 shampoos, but to prevent your scalp from drying out, it is advisable to skip a wash from time to time, so this can take between four and six weeks.

How to dye your hair with Kool-Aid?

Wait, people do that? No. Just no. What's next, Cheeto Dust Fake Tan?

[easynaturalhairstyle]

Hair dye for men: everything you need to know

Hair, unlike a suit, watch, or pair of trainers, is the one-style statement that you can't just slip off. That said, it's worth making sure you're sending the right signals, whether brown, salty, peppered, or blonde.

In an age of “bread box” and forehead sculptors for boys, the vanity of people who dye their hair is old news. So why if we love doing it so much, are we still wrong?

To help you get the best dye job possible, we consulted cognoscenti for advice on everything from hiding gray to a complete overhaul. Color informed itself.

Should I dye my hair?

skin tone

The right hair color can make a big difference in how you look, which makes finding the right shade for your skin tone so important. You usually want a hair color that is the opposite of the undertones of your skin. To find out which camp you fall into, check the bottom of your arm. Those with cool skin tones have blue or purple veins and go with warmer colors, while warm skin tones have greenish veins and cooler colors.

Hair type & color

Unfortunately, switching on the hair is not a flat coloring field. In general, the darker, thicker, or looser your hair, the harder it will be to bleach. This does not mean that a new “Do is off the table. However, it can take several treatments to get the desired effect that can damage your hair. If you are not the owner of fine, light natural hair, leave this to the experts.

Age

For most men, the telltale signs of aging are what make them reach for the dye donor. But even if you want to make the change earlier in life, the number of candles on your cake is still important. Far from us to set a limit on what boys should do, some looks are better left to the youth. After your late 30s, Sidestep neon pink in favor of something a little more classic.

Personal style

You can take any "what color should I dye my hair" quiz that the internet can bring up, but no matter what your zodiac sign / liquor / favorite Disney princess leads you to an answer, it won't be the right one if it doesn't fit your personal style. Consider factors such as your job (and the dress code it needs) and everything that's already in your closet before you even pick up a color sample.

maintenance

As with all parts of your care routine, the greatest barrier to effectiveness is complication. If it adds too long to your morning routine, you just won't. When it comes to grooming colored hair, this can be seriously bad news for your barnet. The chemicals used in bleach remove essential natural oils, which means your hair can become extremely dry and brittle without a little TLC. If you are not committed to maintenance, step away from the bottle.

Hair dye for men

Gray hair dye

Gray hair is a completely natural part of the aging process, and while a few more bits of salt in your pepper doesn't necessarily mean that you should spark your will, silver hair, like male pattern baldness, can zap your trust.

If you're not ready to hug the gray, make it go away. Using dye to hide grays is a fairly simple process, so while salon treatment is the safest bet, one can be made easily at home by following a few simple steps.

Assuming you have short hair and your top priority is to cover up patches of gray, then look for a colorant that is two shades lighter than the depth of your natural color and with an shade of ash, e.g. B. light ash brown. "This will counteract any warmth (the richness of color) that can develop while the color is being processed," said Scott Cornwall, painting expert and founder of the Scott Cornwall series.

Tempting what it's like to do this as quickly as possible, refrain from tipping the entire contents of the bottle onto your head in one leap. "If you have shorter hair, you may only need a third of the mixed bottle to cover it," says Cornwall. "Using too much colorant can cause it to overlay, making the hair look too dark and saturated."

Instead, press small amounts of the colorant onto the teeth of a small brush and apply to gray areas with gentle, circular movements. Not only does this method mix gray hair, it also maintains the overall cool tone and natural variation of shades, which means you won't appear like Tom Hanks.

Above all, follow the instructions on the packaging. If that fails, give your wallet a hit and get a professional to tackle your hair.

Bleached hair dye

If you're still sprightly enough to get away with bleaching your hair, pull a Lucky Blue (like in phenomenally successful platinum-haired male model Lucky Blue Smith) to turn your head others.

You just have to scroll through the hair trends of the past few seasons to see that platinum hair is certainly a "thing". But be careful, because a) it doesn't suit every skin tone (sorry, redhead), and b) it's anything but a Friday afternoon job.

"Pre-lightening or bleaching is not an easy process because you are actually pulling the hair off its pigment," said Joe Mills, founder of London barbers Joe & Co.

In fact, if your hair is particularly dark, the process may require two lightening treatments. "It's a real art, and getting the right blonde shade isn't as easy as they make it look on the pack."

For best results – and to avoid how a canary just died on your head – contact the experts. "There are so many things to consider, like your skin tone, your lifestyle, and your desired end tone – all of this is pretty difficult without holding on to a hairdresser's guide," says Mills.

Colored hair dye

Do you want to step your hair coloring game in a notch? Try a bolder color like pink, green, or blue. (Don't quote us if your boss gives you your marching orders to try the “Merman”.)

With current supporters like Jared Leto, Zayn Malik, and Jaden Smith, turning the color wheel is a sure-fire way to get some attention, but you don't need a degree in color theory to know that this is a risky move.

Light colors work best with pre-lightened hair, so another job is best left to professionals if you're not interested in channeling Krusty the Clown.

"The easiest and most effective way to do this is to use water-based toner that gets lighter the longer you leave it on," says Mills. "Because it is water-based and has no harmful chemicals, it will not damage the condition of your hair."

Finally, unless you have an impressive range of hats (or a side gig as a child entertainer), this is a look that's best done with semi-permanent dyes.

Hair Dye

While men with shorter curly hair who are still growing don't have to worry much about color maintenance (your gray will show up again in a few weeks), boys with long hair and regular swimmers can take steps to slow down the fading.

"Use a color-preserving conditioner after every wash," says Cornwall. "And if you've bleached platinum hair or a light 'fashionable' color like artificial silver, gray, or pastel, try a blue or purple shampoo." Without this, the hair can very quickly start to turn yellow or green get as keratin (the fibrous protein that forms the hair structure) starts to show.

If you see some yellowing, break out some anti-yellow toner and continue washing with a blue shampoo daily to restore that icy white hue.

Joe Mills also recommends some weekly TLC. “Use a deep conditioning mask once a week to replenish the moisture in your hair. Dyeing is a chemical process, so you have to keep the hair in top condition to make it look fresh, ”he says.

Hair dye Q&A

What color should I dye my hair?

You wouldn't eat the same for breakfast every day, so why should you settle for having the same hair color every day? Of course, pouring hot sauce on your cornflakes could be "different", but that doesn't mean it's better. This is a lengthy way of saying which color you choose should still be right for you, and that includes considering all of the above variables, including skin tone, age, and hair type.

How often should I dye my hair?

Whether you choose professional treatment or a bottle job at home, there's a fine line between maintaining your roots and exaggerating the dye. How often you can dye your hair depends on factors such as your hair type, the natural color and the shade you switch to. However, you are still chemicals on your "do", so most professionals recommend leaving at least two weeks between treatments to minimize damage.

What should I do before coloring my hair?

If you are reading this, it is likely that you are a hair coloring virgin, or the last time went terribly wrong. To avoid the latter from happening again, there are several things to wake up to before you open a bottle: especially styling products like hair gel, flat irons and hair dryers and chemical relaxers. All of these either contribute to the damage caused by bleaching chemicals or slow the rate at which the bleach acts on the hair.

How to get hair dye from skin and hands

Hair dyes have come a long way since the Elizabethan era when women used urine to give their curls a yellowish (gross) shade of yellow. In fact, today's bottle orders are so effective that the skin on your face, neck, and hands can have the same consequences as your strands. To avoid this, always wear gloves and try to put a thin layer of petroleum jelly or baby oil along your hairline before dyeing. To remove stains, apply a small amount of detergent, dish soap or olive oil to a damp washcloth and gently rub the skin until it is gone.

Can you dye wet hair?

When it comes to hair dye, whether you should apply it to wet or dry hair depends on a number of different factors, such as hair type, and there is a lot of conflicting information floating around. While some say that wet locks are better protected from damage, others believe that it could prevent the dye from working. If in doubt, stick to what is recommended in the instruction list – the advice is usually there for a reason.

Does the hair dye expire?

Before you think, "What's the worst thing that could happen?" And Sklther on a bottle that's been on the back of the closet for six months – stop. Unopened dye doesn't always have a set expiration date (if it does, it will be printed on the bottle), but if the consistency is off or the product looks separate, put it in the container and buy a new one.

How long does hair dye last?

It's worth sticking with semi-permanent or semi-permanent dyes unless you're 100 percent sure you know what you're doing. These usually take around 28 shampoos, but to prevent your scalp from drying out, it is advisable to skip a wash from time to time, so this can take between four and six weeks.

How to dye your hair with Kool-Aid?

Wait, people do that? No. Just no. What's next, Cheeto Dust Fake Tan?

Hair dye for men: everything you need to know

[hale-of-stiles-heart]

🚗☕️🎶

Charlie, you’re a prince among men. What more can I say? Other than this was originally gonna be longer but I figured I better cut it off for now and come back later for more installments. (also on ao3!)

Dean would never understand how Sam could drink all those fancy, over-complicated, hoity-toity iced coffees and skinny lattes or whatever the hell they were called.

The damn things cost like seven bucks for a small, or 'tall' at those pretentious coffee shops Sam liked to frequent. That money could be used for much better, more important things like gassing up the Impala or a nice freshly baked pie.

And every time Dean had humored his little brother and tried the douchey hipster drinks, they had tasted absolutely awful. Like someone had dumped a whole container of ground cinnamon in some too weak coffee then tossed in some kind of almond skim milk that was basically just water.

They were just plain gross. Why they were such a hit with almost everybody else on the face of the earth would forever be a mystery to him. What was wrong with regular coffee?

Despite his moral objections to the frilly, overly expensive drinks it was his turn to fetch coffee for all the guys, and girls, at the garage which happened to include Sam that day. Still working on getting his bachelor's degree before transferring to Stanford for law school, Sam had decided to work on his essay for his gen-ed history class at the garage.

They had been rather busy that day, at least busier than usual with a few new clients coming in for the first time. While he, Bobby, and John had been restoring a 1969 Camaro, Benny and Jo had been working on fixing up an obnoxiously bright red Porsche that had gotten its brake lines cut, its extensive paint job all keyed up, and its headlights smashed.

It was like something out of a Carrie Underwood song, Garth had informed them with a bright laugh. He was the newest addition to the garage, helping Charlie out with the financials and the brand new website that she had assured them would bring in new customers.

Around two o'clock, Bobby announced that it was break time and they could all use some coffee, checking the handwritten schedule on the wall to see whose turn it was to make the run. It was Dean's of course, making him groan when Sam had requested some coffee himself, immediately rattling off some ridiculous order that Dean had to jot down on an old McDonald's napkin he found lying around on a cluttered desk in the virtually unused office.

Not wanting to forget anyone else's order like he had the first time it had been his turn, still remembering the pout Charlie had given him, he scribbled the rest down. With a stiff salute that only Charlie returned, Dean was off, walking down the block to the best local coffee shop around, the Birds and the Beans.

It was a popular spot for locals due to its large variety and high quality of coffee along with its affordability, their prices nearly half of what larger chains like Starbucks charged. Its cozy, inviting atmosphere didn't hurt either.

Inside, it had brick walls covered in chalkboards advertising specials and new varieties, warm lighting giving it a homey feel. Unlike most cafes and coffee shops, they encouraged people to stay for long periods of time, the place filled with comfy couches and armchairs

On top of that, along with the myriad types of coffee it served, the coffee shop had a bakery that made everything from coffee cake muffins to cannoli to a dozen different kinds of pie, sold both by the slice and whole. It was because of that fact that Dean had become a loyal customer after the coffee shop opened about three or four months prior.

The others at the garage seemed to enjoy it too, evident by the fact that most days when they took their lunch break they ordered the freshly made sandwiches the coffee shop offered. Other times, they would just purchase a dozen or so donuts for lunch, lauding the fried treat the best they had ever had, even Sam who was apparently a vegetarian now.

Usually, the Birds and the Beans had a lull in customers around two, which made it perfect for the garage's lunch, but when Dean walked in it was to find a line. The bell on the door rang cheerfully as he took his place in line behind five others, four guys and a young woman.

All five of them looked like poster boys, and poster girl, for the word 'hipster' in their flannels and ironic t-shirts and nonprescription glasses. The guy immediately in front of Dean was wearing three scarves, in late summer.

He bet at least three of them were there for the sole purpose of writing their screenplays in front of everyone just so they could brag about the fact that they were writing screenplays. And he would put actual money on it that all three hypothetical screenplays would be full of mansplaining, manic pixie dream girls, and complaints about being straight cis white cubes.

Discreetly rolling his eyes, Dean tapped his foot and hummed Metallica under his breath as he waited for the line to move along. He just barely managed not to roll his eyes when he overheard the douche at the front of the line order some kind of latte with ten pumps of vanilla.

Seriously, who needed ten pumps of vanilla? A douchebag, that's who.

Still humming, he curiously peered over the shoulders of the people in front of him in line at the people bustling around like busy bumblebees behind the counter to see who was working. After months of being a regular, he knew everyone who worked there pretty well, save for a few employees that worked either earlier or later shifts.

He recognized Balthazar, a blonde with a smarmy British accent despite the fact that he claimed to be French, leaning over the top of the bakery display case. He was chatting up two women who seemed to be debating whether or not to order any pastries, gesturing at a plate of chocolate strawberry scones as Balthazar flashed a charming smirk at them.

Kevin, a college student who worked there part-time to help support himself and his mother, was behind the counter making drinks. His shoulders were hunched as he methodically counted out ten pumps of vanilla.

Dean didn't refrain from rolling his eyes that time. He still couldn't wrap his head around the fact the guy had seriously asked for ten pumps.

Gabriel, one of the owners of the coffee shop, was nowhere to be seen which was unusual for the time of day. Gabe usually preferred working after noon, claiming that he enjoyed sleeping in too much to wake up before ten o'clock.

Dean shrugged, not paying any mind to his absence, sure that he was probably out causing mischief somewhere else. The dude was like a leprechaun without the pot of gold, delighting in screwing with people for the hell of it. Dean guessed it was some kind of Napoleon complex thing.

Instead, in Gabriel's usual spot behind the counter, was a dark haired man that Dean had never seen before. His head was down as he rung up the dude that had asked for ten pumps of vanilla so Dean couldn't see his face.

When he looked up to hand Mr. Ten Pumps his change, Dean's breath caught in his throat. The dude was gorgeous.

Even at a distance, he could see that the man had brilliant blue eyes and full pink lips that looked a little chapped. Dean idly wondered if he chewed on them a lot.

His cheeks and jaw were covered in dark stubble, giving him that hint of ruggedness that made him just that much more attractive. His hair, a stygian black, was disheveled and windblown, looking fluffy and soft.

He was wearing the nondescript brown Birds and the Beans apron over a white button up, the sleeves uncuffed and rolled up to the elbow. The rolled up sleeves proudly showcased tattoos on his wiry forearms lightly dusted with dark hair.

There was a colorful burst of flowers on the inside of his left forearm, vivid blues and purples complemented by deep reds and shades of green. The other arm bore a darker landscape of bare trees rising up like dark veins from a thick black band encircling his right wrist.

His white button up was slightly unbuttoned, showing off a hint of collarbone and part of another tattoo that Dean couldn't make out from so far away. He wondered if he had any other tattoos, maybe more colorful ones like the flowers on his arm.

Dean's shameless staring was interrupted by the buzzing of his cell phone in his pocket which tore his focus away from the simultaneously cute and hot barista. Tugging his phone of his pocket, he checked his messages to find a text from Charlie: What's taking so long? Sooooo thirsty!

Smiling fondly at his friend's excessive use of the letter o, he sent back a text explaining that there was a long line, promising her one of her favorite cream filled donuts for her patience. She eloquently responded a nanosecond later with several rows of heart emojis, Dean reading her approval of the suggestion loud and clear.

Tucking his phone back into his pocket, he resumed his absentminded humming and refocused his attention on the bakery display case. He hoped there would still be some pies left by the time the garage closed for the day, their caramel honey apple pie with brown sugar streusel was the best thing he had ever eaten. Not that he would ever tell his mother because it would break her heart.

He was so lost in daydreaming about pie that he barely realized that it was his turn to order. The barista's observation was the only thing that pulled his mind away from Pieland as he commented, "Metallica. Sweet Amber, right?"

"Uh, y-yeah..." Dean answered, his words stunted by surprise, having forgotten where he was for a moment. He scratched the back of his neck as he pulled the list he had written out of his back pocket, wincing when he noticed the way that the cute barista's brows raised a fraction when he saw the length of the list. Dean was glad that there was no one behind him in line.

Trying not to look like a complete idiot, Dean glanced down at the list he had written, cursing the sloppiness of it. Stuttering over the excessively long order, he put on a brave face and began, "I need a-a iced, half-caf...ristretto? Uh, venti or large, I guess, since you guys have normal sizes. Four pu—"

"My apologies for interrupting but would this drink happen to be for someone named Sam?" The barista inquired, thankfully cutting Dean off before he could embarrass himself any further, his voice all honey and gravel. It was the sweetest sound Dean had ever heard, downright heavenly if he had to use a word.

Dean glanced up at the barista, valiantly trying not to blush at his surprisingly soothing voice, wondering where all of his suave confidence had gone. Rubbing the back of his neck, he tensed when the barista's words sunk in, very cautiously nodding and confirming, "Um, yeah... How'd you know?"

"He comes in here a few times a week. It's his usual order," the barista explained, a placating smile on his face as he grabbed a twenty ounce to-go cup. Pulling a Sharpie that Dean hadn't noticed in his earlier ogling from out from behind his ear, he wrote Sam's name on the side of it. "Large iced half-caf ristretto, four pump, cinnamon, Dolce soy skinny latte."

"Wow. Impressive," Dean commented with a low whistle, shifting around awkwardly as he tried not to make it obvious how much the barista's voice was affecting him. It was a really nice voice, okay?

Hoping to get through the rest of the list as painlessly as possible for everyone involved, he quickly tumbled through it just as fast as the barista could punch keys on the cash register and scribble names on cups. He felt like a bit of a jerk for having such a long order but the barista seemed to take it in stride, making him wonder if he had taken orders for the guys at the garage before.

They were all pretty regular with their orders which probably made it a little easier. Both Dean and his dad took their coffee black, Bobby and Benny both added a splash of cream and some sugar to theirs, Charlie was a sucker for caramel macchiatos, Garth always requested some variant of weird hippie tea, and of course, Sam took his four pump ristretto monstrosity.

With Charlie's special donut added on, the total came out to just a little over twenty bucks. That was just yet another reason that Dean loved the Birds and the Beans: it was affordable.

He handed over some cash, dropping his change in the little glass jar labeled 'tips' that had little drawings of bees doodled all over it. Waiting patiently, he moved further down the counter, watching as the barista started prepping to-go cups after informing Kevin that they would split the drink making since no one else was in line.

"So, uh..." Dean started, recognizing a chance for some lighthearted flirting when he saw one, trailing off when he realized that he still didn't know the barista's name. Rising up on the tips of his toes, he took a curious peek at the nametag pinned on the barista's apron.

He furrowed his brow when he saw the name he saw laser printed in black: Castiel. What kind of name was that? French?

Anyway, he was reluctant to mispronounce it and look like a jerk so he found a way around it. Setting his hands on the edge of the counter, he looked at the tattoo of flowers on the barista's arm and inquired, "So, Cas, that's a nice tattoo. It's from the Bible or something, right?"

Upon closer inspection, he could see that the colorful flowers, revealed to be a collection of roses and irises and lilies along with various other blooms, provided a stunning backsplash to a banner. Scrawled across it in an elegant black font were the words: Under his wings you will find refuge.

Castiel paused, glancing up at Dean with his eyebrows furrowed, eyes narrowed, probably at the nickname Dean had just given him. Shifting his gaze to the tattoo that graced his own arm, he continued his work, succinctly explaining, "Yes. It's Psalm 91:4."

"Cool," Dean said for lack of anything else to say, pursing his lips and stuffing his hands in his pockets as he waited patiently. Not knowing what else to do, he occupied himself with watching Castiel's hands as he made Charlie's macchiato, watching the familiar way he handled the coffee machines and various other equipment.

His fingers were long and adroit, full of finesse and careful precision, elegance in every movement. He somehow made it look like art as he drizzled caramel sauce on top of the foam. Caramel macchiatos had never looked so good.

Garth's weird, New Age tea was next, this time mango and passion fruit with bits of edible flower petals tossed in because why not? It ended up being a vibrant orange-ish yellow like a tropical sunset, purple petals floating around ice dudes.

He was a little bit disappointed when Castiel started on Sam's drink, informing Dean that his visit would be over soon and he would be going back to work, looking at beat up engines and flat tires instead of the handsome barista in front of him. But all good things had to come to an end at some point, right?

"Balthazar!" Castiel's voice called, breaking Dean out of his thoughts. It also apparently interrupted Balthazar's flirtatious chat with the women still lingering by the display case. "Could you please grab me a cream filled donut? And the bag I told you about earlier?"

"For you, Cassie, anything," Balthazar returned with a wink and a dramatic bow, holding his arms out at his sides. Turning back to the women, he claimed, "Excuse me, my darlings, but duty calls."

He disappeared through the doorway that led to the kitchen, returning a moment later with a brown paper bag in his hand, the top rolled up and secured with a clothespin. Reaching into the display case with a piece of wax paper, he grabbed a donut and slipped it into a small plastic carrying bag.

He carried both over to Castiel them down on the counter before turning on his heel and returning to his conversation with the two women. Castiel quickly finished putting lids on the to-go cups as Kevin carried over the four other coffees, already in a carrier which Dean realized presented a major problem.

Carrying seven drinks in two carriers along with a donut wasn't going to be very easy. He abruptly realized that he should have made Sam go with him, or at the very least driven his car instead of walking.

He chewed his lip as he tried to come up with a solution, figuring that he could probably balance once carrier on top of the other and just walk very slowly and very carefully back to the garage. Just as he was about to veto that plan and come up with a way to make two tips, Castiel turned to Kevin and suggested, "How about you take your half hour and help...Dean, I believe, carry all this back? I'll give you another break in a few hours."

"Really?" Kevin asked, already reaching over to grab one of the carriers. A bright smile stretched across his face. "You're the best, man."

"Oh, and this is for you," Castiel tacked on, handing Dean the paper bag that was heavier than it looked, clearly chock full of something. At Dean's thoroughly confused look, he clarified, "You work at Bobby Singer's garage, correct?—" Dean nodded "—Well, our baker's been experimenting with some new products and we'd like you, and the others at the garage, to be our taste testers. If that's alright."

"Hell yeah, it is," Dean answered automatically. "What is it?"

"Donut holes," Castiel replied. He tipped his head to the side as he listed off flavors. "There's a cinnamon apple caramel, banana bread, and s'mores."

Dean whistled again as he set the paper bag on the carrier Kevin held. Beaming at Castiel, he announced, "You're an angel, Cas."

The blush that lit up Castiel's face had Dean smiling for the rest of the day.

Send me random emojis for a Destiel drabble!

[deducingfangirlsofhell]

Paparazzi

Pairing: Implied:SherlockxReader, Eventual!SherlockxReader (There will be a part II)

Warnings: Cliff hanger, kidnapping, mentions of prostitution (not the reader), mentions of murder and violent/graphic scenes, and very creepy Moriarty.

______________________________________________

"That isn't fair!" How could he give you a 'C' when you did more work than everyone else? Even he admitted it was the best piece, and most supported article! But no- he gave you a 'C' because it had nothing to do with "current events". Because the brutal slaying of a prostitute doesn't seem to qualify. Does no one else think even they deserve some ink? 

"Your essay was supposed to be on a current topic, not the mutilation of a street-" That's where you drew the line.

 "So, if I had done the assassination of a diplomat, I would've gotten an 'A'?" You snapped. No one wanted to admit that they thought whoever killed people like her were "cleaning up the place". But that woman had a life, just like any other victim. How was her death any different, or less impactful on the world? She was someone's little girl, a sister, and a mother to two boys. But that's not how anyone else saw it, and that really burned you up inside. 

Almost sheepishly, he replied, "Yes." Now you wanted to tear his stupid office apart, but you knew it would do you absolutely no good. You'd handle how the general public saw the people working on the streets when you were an actual journalist. For now, you'd have to find away to fix your grade. Taking a deep breath to steady yourself, you carefully chose your words.

 "Can I fix this, in any way?" And that's the question that led you to start researching the one and only: Sherlock Holmes. If you could just get the story to make any other journalists' career- he'd fix your grade. How could you say no to such an opportunity? You couldn't, and that's what lead you to take the flat right below him at 221C Baker Street.

 The first few days were spent unpacking your new flat, enjoying tea with Mrs Hudson, and gathering any information you could on Sherlock Holmes, without actually talking to the man. Really, at first, you were just collecting photographs and clues on the man. Basically, you were his full time stalker that he never let sleep due to his 3 am violin jam sessions. He does understand the concept of sleep, does he not? Still, your sleep-deprived state didn't stop you from stalking him and John to crime scenes in your spare time, at least, it didn't when you still were. 

 John noticed you taking pictures along with all the other reporters and physically pulled Sherlock towards all of the reporters, everyone with their cameras flashing- nearly blinding both himself and Sherlock in the process -just to go off on you. In the process, though, you managed to meet Sherlock Holmes, and he was rather impressed with your stalking abilities. After two weeks of following him near everywhere, he'd had yet to notice you'd even came up more than once in his life. 

You didn't know if that was a compliment or a burn, but damn. Maybe you should've been a professional spy or something. After that, you'd attempt to get Sherlock to talk to you about his methods- to give you the insider scoop- but to barely an avail. It's not like you were going to give up, though. 

 "So, what was it like when you were a kid? Being a super-genius, and all?" You brought up once again, making him an afternoon cuppa, hoping the kind gesture would be reciprocated. 

 "It was fine." Is that literally how he replied to everything? 

 "Alright... how do you do it, then? Solve all those crimes? I want to know what 'deducing' actually is." You set the tea in front of him, sitting in John's chair, leaning in to listen. He must've been getting rather tired with your constant pestering, because he actually seemed to humor your question. 

"Do you want to know what deducing is, or are you asking how it's done?" You thought about the question for a silent moment. If you asked how it was done, the how would lead you to the what- just like a crime scene. How the crime was committed showed you what the main purpose of it was... then, you'd also be able to (maybe) pick up on subtle clues relating to Sherlock Holmes, himself... 

"How." You stated simply, and he eyed you carefully. He seemed to take an odd interest in your answer, because he actually looked like he would tell you! Your excitement had to have been clear, because it felt like a whole thunderstorm was whizzing throughout your body. Rain patterned against your ribcage, mimicking a heartbeat, lightning lit up your veins causing thunder to roar your lungs into an unsteady rhythm. 

"Okay," He agreed, standing up, "What can you tell about John Watson from this room?" He wasn't even going to explain to you what you should be looking for, first? Well, immersion is the best form of teaching... you looked around, part of you trying to sort out what was Sherlock and what was John. The fridge is what stuck out first. 

"He had to have once been in a violent field of work." You pretty much asked, not suggested. He looked at you oddly, trying to pick up on your train of thought. 

"He's a doctor, right now. Works in a clinic, and yet, I've never heard him complain about body parts in the fridge. So, he must have a bit of immunity built up to that gory stuff, right?" You tried, receiving a furrowed brow, half smile, and small head nod in return. So, you kept looking. 

 "Um, he's attracted to danger." You made an inference based on your last deduction, and his relationship with Sherlock. Yet, the detective seemed to be impressed by your skills. And from that point on, whenever you went up to 221B, you and the detective played a game he liked to call "Deductions". You preferred "The Game Sherlock Always Wins, But I Enjoy Nonetheless." 

 It was maybe a month after you and Sherlock began properly getting along that you turned in your completed piece on "Sherlock Holmes: A Mind Like No Other." Sherlock actually appreciated the title, and insisted you let him read it once it was graded. And how could you refuse him with his darling curls, sonorous voice, and eyes that could kill a person with their shimmering beauty? Actually, you were heading back to his flat to show him the pictures of your professor's face when he saw you'd actually manage to get the story on Sherlock Holmes. After you explained the situation with your original piece, Sherlock grew about an equal loathing of the man. It seemed you finally had met a person that hated the politics of police work as much as you did. 

On your way, however, you heard something in an alleyway that was known to be were "professional dates" picked up johns. Most people would've ignored the sounds of struggle that were atypical for the area, not caring what happened to a street whore... then again, as Sherlock liked to say, you were not most people. By the time you made it to the alleyway, she was already dead, holding pieces of her own intestines in a futile last attempt to survive, and a blonde man stood over her, seeming rather bored with what just happened- not a speck of blood on him. You tried to snap a photo, but none of them showed any identifiable markings... an idea struck you. 

Quickly, you turned to a woman a few steps away who was carrying a coffee, and managed to exchange the cup for a twenty. Once the man made it to the mouth of the alley, he was immediately crashed into, scalding coffee drenching his white tee and leather jacket. You gasped like this wasn't an intentional thing, and quickly began profusely apologizing. You looked into his eyes, and recalled every romcom, girl-in-love look you could, plastering it onto your own face. His eyes were a dangerous shade of blue, and he had a scar carved out of part of his face, over his left eye. If it weren't for the scar, actually, he would be rather attractive. 

"I am so, so sorry about that... I-I don't have any cash on me, but... maybe you could give me your information, and w-we could arrange a way for me to pay for your dry cleaning? M-Maybe pay you back for the, heh, c-coffee fiasco?" You tripped over your words as much as possible, bringing any information that could help you look more love-stricken up. Unsurprisingly, your favorite detective was at the forefront of your mind. The waves in his ocean-coloured eyes narrowed as he pulled out a little notebook and a pen, seemingly a bit skeptical about you. 

"Uh, yeah, sure... sounds great.." He scribbled down his name, then his number, his attention still on the notebook as he tore it out and you lifted your camera up, flash on, this time. You quickly snapped your hand out to grab the paper, the flash blinding the Goliath of a man for a long enough moment for you to begin sprinting the two blocks back to Baker Street. You could hear him growl behind you, before beginning to chase you. Three years on track team definitely never paid off anymore than it did in that moment. Making it to Baker Street was a blessing, and you nearly tripped over the steps, you were going so fast. You tried opening the door to 221B, finding it was locked. You could almost sense the murderer nearing, and you started banging wildly on the door. 

"SHERLOCK! LET ME IN, PLEASE!" The door swung open downstairs, at almost an identical time as the detective's did.

"Hello, Darling." A smooth Irish accent welcomed. This wasn't Sherlock, obviously not, but he did look awfully familiar. The man behind you chuckled, a sickening sound. 

"Nice to see ya, Jim." The man behind you was definitely British, but also seemed to know the man in front of you. The name stuck out as something Sherlock had told you, though... Jim Moriarty. You were most definitely screwed. 

 "Now, now, Sebby- you knew she was on to you. Though, that little rouse she used was awfully smart~." The raven haired-madman in front of you purred, freezing you in place as his index finger caressed your jaw.

"I'm going to have so much fun with you, pet." He whispered heavily into your ear while the other jabbed you in the neck. The last thing you could remember was everything turning black, and a lunatic giggling jumbled up with the words, "So... much... fun."

[venuskail702265-blog]

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[erenfanclub]

The Curious Cat Tower

ereri | ~6700 words | no warnings | fantasy, magic | ao3 | insp

It all began, as it usually did for Levi, with eavesdropping. However, this time happened to also have an unusual but welcome twist compared to past occasions; this time, the man talking definitely wanted to be heard. He had the attention of almost everyone in the dimly lit tavern, half leaning on the bar, loosely gesturing with one hand while telling his story. And it certainly caught Levi's interest, even from the back wall. The guy had charisma, Levi had to admit, and it looked like he was trying to make the most of it, eyes glued to a vaguely attentive blonde barmaid on his right.

“So my buddy was telling me about it, and I bet him his prized bearskin rug that I could do what he couldn’t,” the man had begun, flexing subtly. “I was gonna find the stupid tower, get in, and take the treasure all for myself. I mean, I’m doin’ pretty well for myself but I ain’t gonna say no to easy riches. So he tells me where to go and I see it with my own eyes. The weirdest thing. It’s in the middle of nowhere and there’s no door in. But I was prepared. Had a hammer y’see. But—” he takes a swig from his tankard “—fifty hits and not a single mark on the stone. Couldn’t believe it could be that strong. Can you?” Here he pauses and looks at the people around him, happy to see many still listening. “And then this crazy cat jumps in outta nowhere and claws up my arm.” He brandishes the wounds. Levi raises an eyebrow in contempt. The scratches on the man’s forearm are many in number but small in size, barely visible from a distance and nothing to complain about. Although red now, they’d heal completely in a couple of weeks. “I was half ready to swing at it too. Waste of my time. I get home and my buddy has the gall to laugh at me. All a trick, for sure. I bet there’s nothing there. And that swine cheated on the bet, not tellin’ me about no stinkin’ cat, so he ain’t getting nothin’ outta me. I shoulda known when he agreed so quickly. I should take the rug anyway.”

The man rambled a little further, but Levi had heard all he needed. He concentrated on moving around the outer tables, checking jackets and pockets swiftly while staying inconspicuous. The search didn’t yield much, but he had other plans for the evening. The last thing he heard as he slipped up the stairs was a prim voice saying, “I hate bearskin rugs.”

A few minutes later, Levi left the building from an open window, weighing a few pounds heavier than he did when he had entered through the front door. With his task over and his mind unoccupied for the moment, he spared a thought for the oaf abandoned at the bar and his tale of woes. It was rare for Levi to take interest in such stories, and yet he fancied himself having more luck than that cocky bastard. On a whim, Levi switched paths and melted into the night.

+++++

Levi put it all down to simple human curiosity. He had nothing in particular to do, and so he allowed himself to spend a couple of days on reconnaissance in that town, and a couple more in the next one over. It was a job that kept him active, and eventually he had a direction. Levi discovered he was a little late to this particular party, but it seemed that all the men who had made an attempt on this tower had failed, and to Levi's good fortune, half of them had big mouths.

The stories varied in many ways; the treasure remained undefined and things were added in or taken out or exaggerated, but such is the nature of rumours. Levi didn’t make a single move until he had a location though, and a solid one at that. Whether it was gold, or a princess, or a fairy ready to grant wishes that awaited him, Levi would find out.

A two hour ride north-east from the next town on, it was. Levi had no horse, but no objections, and so he set off on foot just as the sun had risen. His bag was as light as could be – important belongings had been stashed nights ago, of course – and for the most part he enjoyed the sense of adventure, setting off into the forest at a fork in the northern road, just as he’d heard. The weather was good, the summer sun kind to him once filtered through lush green leaves. He encountered no one once off the beaten track, but that didn’t matter.

He thought he’d see it coming, but he was wrong. The tower was tall, that was true, reaching a fair distance above the old trees surrounding it, but it was hidden from the angle of Levi's approach. After miles of walking, Levi finally laid eyes on the tower from all the tales.

Cat Tower, it had recently been dubbed.

Word of mouth was unreliable, but everyone who had the time to come to the tower saw the same feline during their visit, hence the name. Not one person had cared to describe it beyond its species. All found it unusual in different ways, but no more unusual than the tower itself, and so it had been overlooked. But one account let Levi know that he’d have to find it to get what he wanted.

He circled the tower’s base, scouting the place more casually than he normally would, but no less careful. It was perfectly cylindrical, with a tiled, conical roof, and really did have no obvious method of entry. There was one window at the very top that looked big enough for a person to climb through, but the others below it were slim rectangles barely more than a foot in height. They were shaped into small pointed arches, decorative and completely non-functional. Other than that, smooth grey stone was the only thing for Levi to look at. He stopped after making two full rounds, quietly appreciating the flawless architecture. There was currently no way of knowing what was on the inside, but the outside was clean and simple; Levi had the passing thought that he’d like to have a tower like this for himself. The solitude appealed to him just as much. Birdsong was the only sound that had reached his ears for the last hour or two.

If it was all a hoax, then it had at least been wrapped in a neat little package.

Levi scanned the wall in front of him again, seeing nothing new. He reached out a hand to touch the largest of the stones, but then stepped back quickly when the contact made the brick glow bright yellow. On high alert, Levi watched, intrigued, as the unnatural light condensed itself into golden lettering, written in a delicate script and completely incomprehensible to him.

It was the words of the Old Tongue. Having fallen out of use with commoners everywhere at least one hundred years ago, it was now referred to as Witch Speak, named such for the one group that still cared to use it. Levi couldn’t read it, but from his through information gathering, he knew that some other poor sap had already turned out his pockets paying for a translation. He was immensely grateful that he wouldn’t have to initiate conversation with his one magical acquaintance, or a certain bushy-browed intellectual, to know that the text read:

The cat has the key

Levi stared at the glowing words. He had yet to see the infamous cat, but knew that it would only be a matter of time. Knowing cats, Levi thought it was likely to come out to enjoy the weather at midday, and that he might stumble across it lounging in a sunbeam.

The magical message faded after another moment, and Levi, having scoped the place out as well as he could, moved away from the tower and towards the shade of a nearby pine tree to sit down. He set aside his pack, keeping it within reach, and drank from the waterskin attached to his belt. The cool water was amazingly refreshing, and he relaxed against the tree trunk, glad to be resting.

A light breeze blew through his hair. The birdsong from earlier had died down, but there was still music in the leaves. For a long while, Levi just listened to that quiet rustling. After a while, a new sound reached his ears. From the thicket over to his right there was a very faint shuffling, almost drowned out by the other noises. Levi saw a branch move, and then a section of tall grass was pushed and sent swaying. He made sure not to move as a grey rabbit hopped out to the edge of its hiding place, but allowed himself an internal sigh of relief.

There was nothing Levi could do this time, but finally seeing some wildlife in the area let him know that setting some traps nearby could help bulk out his supply of rations. Extending his stay at the tower for longer than a week would only be possible if he could catch more food as well as identify edible plants growing around him. A water source must also be close by, but he had never worried about that. Fresh water was abundant in this area.

Levi was only able to look at the rabbit for another short moment. He breathed a short laugh as he watched its fluffy, white tail disappear back into the foliage. With a small shake of his head, he turned away from the momentary distraction.

Only to find a cat staring straight at him.

It sat directly between Levi and the tower, like a proper little guardian, sitting watchful and alert with its tail neatly curled around its front paws. Its fur was a rich brown, with dark stripes banding its limbs and decorating its forehead in an interesting pattern, but the tip of its tail was pure white. The sun was glinting off something on its chest.

Levi stood and brushed grass off his legs, acutely aware of the cat’s gaze following his every move. The animal made no protest when he came closer. From a few of the stories, Levi had half been expecting some sort of wildcat, vicious and territorial, but in front of him was an average-sized domestic cat, looking well-groomed and docile.

It was cute.

Levi knew he was unusual for liking cats, but he didn’t care. In this country, they were seen as pests, only useful to farmers who let them hang around if they could keep rats and mice out of their food stores. In the towns and cities they were met with hostility and dislike. Shopkeepers swept them from their doorsteps, women were scandalised when they came near. Their close association to witches didn’t help either.

If he thought too much about it, Levi would say they were kindred spirits.

He looked at the cat and had to suppress a small sound of delight. As it was, he was caught up in admiring its green eyes, tiny nose and triangular ears, all in perfect proportion to its rounded face. Around its neck was a short strip of leather, from which hung a shiny, golden key. But that was suddenly much less important.

Its steady gaze seemed full of intelligence, and Levi hadn’t found a cat so trusting of a human in a long time. Slowly, he crouched down in front of it, extending his right hand into the space between them. Noting the tip of its tail flick upwards, Levi opted to stay still and let the cat decide what to do.

“C’mon, I won’t hurt you,” he said, curling his fingers gently and showing it the back of his hand instead. The cat, unblinking, flicks its tail again, but judging by the movement of its ears, it was listening. “You’re quite a pretty cat, y’know.”

Levi was simply speaking his thoughts aloud, but the cat perked up, twitching its whiskers and standing. Then it sauntered around Levi's side, completely ignoring his outstretched arm. Levi let out a breath, slightly disappointed despite the fact that he’d been expecting such treatment. But as the cat passed he felt a brief touch of fur on his arm, and turned to see that the feline had deigned to brush the end of his tail against his left elbow.

Labelling the gesture as ‘friendly’ was probably giving the cat too much credit, but Levi happily thought of it like that anyway.

+++++

The next morning, Levi was met with another strange, magical sight.

He had watched the cat for hours the previous afternoon, cataloguing the way it circled around him, maintaining a set distance that didn’t allow for anymore contact. When that pastime had yielded no fruit, and his sweet words had shown little effect, he left the cat to its own devices and started setting himself up for the night. As his stay would be longer than a single night, he put more effort into making a comfortable place to sleep than he normally would.

This meant scouting the area and climbing a tree.

Levi didn’t have to go high, but tying his hammock further off the ground meant he would be less noticeable to nosy humans and any predatory animals that might wander by in the night. The leaves offered shade and shelter from the rain, and his pack had to be kept off the ground either way. By the time he had finished, the cat had gone.

Wide-eyed, he watched it return mid-morning.

The tower was special, that was for certain, but it was still full of surprises for Levi. In broad daylight, the cat descended gracefully from the large upper window via an external spiral staircase made of small, protruding bricks. When the cat reached the ground, Levi witnessed the bricks recede back into the tower, leaving them flush with the rest of the stonework and completely hidden from view. Levi hadn’t seen the cat-sized path before because it never crossed his mind to look for such a thing. The workings of the magic itself made no sense to Levi, but he was glad that it explained the method for the cat’s comings and goings. That, at least, was one question answered.

Wide awake but stiff from sleep, Levi slowly climbed down from his hammock and set off west until he reached the river he’d found the previous day. He shucked his boots at the edge, leaving them neatly side-by-side on the grass, and rolled up the bottom of his trousers until they were just under his knees. Just as he was moving to stand up straight again, he spotted the brown cat emerge from behind a nearby tree.

“Morning, cat. You sure are living the good life out here, aren’t you.” The cat’s eyes were fixed on him before Levi spoke, and the intensity of its gaze was just as strong as in their first meeting. Not feeling the least bit silly for making conversation with a cat, one of the most hated creatures in the land, Levi stared back. He didn’t know quite what he was waiting for, but the only reaction the cat gave was to look him up and down and then begin licking one of its front paws. Levi smiled and shook his head slightly, and then stepped down the riverbank until his ankles were graced with cool, clean water.

He stood still when the water was halfway up his shins, and then faced upriver to scoop water and wash his face. Tiny fish darted by his feet, and water droplets clung to his eyelashes and ran down his arms. The forest felt full of life and peaceful at the same time, and Levi relished the quiet time to himself without worrying about anything happening to him. No one chasing him, no threats to hear, or authority to dodge. Just him and the sun and the trees.

Oh, and the cat.

Levi splashed his face one last time and used one hand to push back his hair, turning to look to where he’d last seen the animal. There was no movement in the grass, no white-tipped tail flicking between the trunks. The cat had disappeared without a sound.

Unbothered, Levi shook off most of the water and stepped out of the stream. He pulled a cloth from his back pocket and dried his hands and face, folding it again once he was done and heading for where he’d left his boots. There, he had to pause for a moment, taking in the unexpected sight. His boots were no longer positioned in the orderly way he’d left them. Instead, one was lying in the dirt, tossed from its original place, and the other was missing.

Levi knew there was only one explanation, but rather than irritation, he felt a small laugh bubbling up inside him. Pressing his lips together and humming a single, thoughtful note, Levi set off to find his wayward shoe.

+++++

Twenty minutes later, his right boot was rediscovered, under a thorn bush halfway between the river and Cat Tower.

The laughter that Levi had been holding back spilled out all at once. When he got up from his crouch, unharmed by any prickly branches, the cat was sitting a short distance away, silent and unassuming. Levi smirked at it, slipped his boot back on, and sat down properly, one hand outstretched in a second attempt.

“Well?” he asked, amusement underlying his tone. Levi swore he saw those long whiskers twitch, right before the cat stood up and walked off, not once looking back.

+++++

Four days of mischief followed. When Levi wasn’t watching the cat it would take unattended possessions and move them wherever it wanted. Levi didn’t bring much with him, so the same few things would get taken, but the hiding places were random and sometimes ridiculous. After the first few times, Levi began to see it as a game. The cat wasn’t hurting him, but at the same time it couldn’t seem to leave him alone. Often it would sit on its magic brick staircase and observe him while he searched. “How about a clue, cat?” Levi would ask if it was dragging on for too long, and the cat would stare at him and then pretend to look off into the distance. Every single time, the cat would be looking somewhere close to the item.

Levi knew it was strange, but he thought the cat was having fun.

In the night, when the cat had returned to its home and the forest was quiet, Levi would lie awake and contemplate the events of the day. He would look back fondly on his interactions with the weird cat, and smile to himself. Not once did he really question anything. Levi hadn’t lived an ordinary life so far anyway. But the cat made him happy, and he barely thought about leaving. He wondered if it was time to switch things up. To step away from his current lifestyle and find something else.

One particular night, Levi was curled in his hammock, those same thoughts running through his mind, when he spotted a snow-white owl fly overhead. He watched, in slight awe of the rare sighting, as the owl flew to the window at the top of Cat Tower and tapped at the glass. Levi could tell by the reflection of the moonlight exactly when the window swung open, and kept watching as the owl hopped inside. Despite staying up for almost an hour after that, Levi saw nothing else happen at the tower. The next morning he wondered if he had dreamed the whole thing.

When a whole day passed without an incidence of thievery, Levi wondered what had changed. He went to sleep curious, but couldn’t come up with an answer.

And then the next morning he was woken by a sound he’d never heard before. A loud meowing was coming from beneath him. Levi could hear the demand in that sound, and frowned as he carefully leaned his head over the edge of his hammock, instantly spotting the cat pacing through the grass. It was circling and weaving back and forth, but stopped once it saw Levi's face appear.

“Uh… morning, cat,” Levi greeted, confused but undeniably pleased for the obvious attention. The cat meowed once in reply, bright green eyes fixed on him as usual. “What?” Another meow, louder and longer. “Alright, alright, I’m coming down.” The cat meowed every now and then while waiting for Levi to get up, but went quiet as it watched Levi climb down from his perch.

Once Levi's boots touched the ground, it sauntered closer and looked up at him in what seemed to be anticipation. “I don’t have food for you,” Levi said, trying to make sense of the cat’s new behaviour. The cat made another adorable noise, not quite a meow, and for the umpteenth time, Levi crouched down and held out his hand.

For the first time in almost a week, the cat walked straight over a rubbed its face against his fingers. Levi couldn’t hide his surprised gasp quickly enough.

“So, you’re going to be nice to me now? Not going to be a thief anymore?” he questioned. The cat meowed softly, a slight trill reaching Levi's ears just after it. “That’s ok. I don’t think I want to be a thief anymore either.” The cat turned to face him with an expression Levi couldn’t possibly decipher, but Levi stroked its head and broke the eye contact, sighing gently. He looked over to the tower. “I’ve been wondering something, cat. Who’s taking care of you? Are you all alone? Are you a witches pet?” The cat continued to demand petting, but said nothing. Levi hummed to himself. “I wouldn’t mind if you were, you know, but I’m not so good with people. I haven’t seen anyone around here. Oh, but you had that owl visit that one night, right?”

The cat turned those big eyes on him again, and meowed a few times. Levi smiled. “It’s good that you have friends, I guess. I hear a guy tried to hit you with a hammer, cat. What an asshole.” Levi thought the cat might have nodded at that, but then it was ducking under his hand and walking off in front of him. Even knowing how independent this cat was, Levi couldn’t help but be disappointed at the loss of contact.

“Was it something I said?”

The cat looked over its shoulder at him, and then trotted off to its tower. The brick staircase slid out into place, and then the cat was running up it, pausing every now and then to glance down at Levi. When it got to the top, the sun shone on the key on its collar briefly, before it vanished through the window.

Levi didn’t know what was going on. Distracted, he went about his day without any sign of the cat. He went to the river to wash and fill his waterskin, he took the time to make a fire and have a hot meal for lunch, he organised his belongings despite already having them set out just as he wanted. Cat Tower remained void of activity throughout the day, no matter how often Levi checked. He touched the stone again and saw the glowing message, and thought of how he was brought here by nothing but a story.

Levi went for a walk.

It was close to sunset when he returned to his camp, and he was lost in thought when he climbed the tree and settled into his hammock early. A sudden meow brought him back to the present. Unlike that morning, the meow came from up in the trees with him. Levi whipped his head around to see the cat perched on the sturdy branch that Levi had tied one end of his hammock to.

Without further invitation, the cat picked up something in its mouth and leapt from the branch to land directly on Levi's chest. Levi let out a short huff of air at the impact, but recovered quickly. He was shocked that the cat would come up to see him.

“Hey, cat, what are you—?”

Before Levi could finish, the cat dropped what it was carrying on his chest. And then it made another leap to the branch in front of it, expertly navigated its way to the ground, and hightailed it back to the tower. Speechless, Levi sat up, his hand coming up to hold the cat’s gift. It was a short strip of leather. The collar.

The key.

Levi took a moment to breathe, but then jumped into action. He’d been overthinking everything recently, but this was his step forward. He could solve the mystery of Cat Tower now and ponder the future later. Boots on, he hurried down from his bed and over to the base of the tower, the key clutched tight in one hand. He brushed his free hand over the smooth stone to reveal the tower’s message, and then hesitated. There was no keyhole in sight, and if there was one anywhere else then Levi would have found it on the first day. Clueless, but not giving up, Levi holds the key up in front of him, hoping that it would trigger something.

One second passed. Then two. And on the third, the golden letters started to swirl and condense, until there were only two words left. It was still written in the Old Tongue, so Levi couldn’t read it, but the tower still continued to change so he didn’t have time to dwell on it. The words sparkled and vanished, and then the stones started to slide apart to make a doorway.

Levi was impressed at the display of magic, unused to seeing such feats happen right before his eyes. It was incredible to think that witches were capable of such things, and yet ordinary people shunned them because they were afraid of the unknown. Cautious of being caught by any more moving walls or floors, Levi entered the tower.

The room he walked into was bare, except for a few boxes and miscellaneous items piled by the wall, and although Levi was still unsure if anyone lived in the tower, the space was clean and airy. A stone staircase started on his left, and spiralled clockwise around the tower wall. Levi thought briefly about searching through the boxes – after all, the rumours spoke of priceless treasure – but his priority was finding out what was at the top.

Plus, the cat must be in here somewhere.

Levi climbed the stairs at a steady pace, listening for any suspicious sounds and hearing nothing. The room above the ground floor was very similar, seemingly used only for storage, but wasn’t one big, open area. Half of the room was walled off, and the wooden door that lead to that room was closed. Levi pushed aside his curiosity and continued upwards.

In the third room up, the staircase staggered itself a little to provide more space, and more than half of this room was walled off and hidden behind two closed doors. Levi ignored them. Red-orange sunlight shone through one of the small windows. He was almost there.

The staircase ended on the next level, and Levi was brought face-to-face with a dark-wood door with black iron hinges. He thought that he might have to use his borrowed key here again, but the doorknob had no keyhole underneath it, so Levi assumed there was no lock. Determined, he took a deep breath, and decided to knock.

“You can come in,” called a masculine voice on the other side. Levi hesitated for a moment, not expecting such a prompt reply, or even another human being, but then he reached for the doorknob and pushed the door open.

The first thing Levi noticed was the large window on the opposite wall from where he was standing, open to let air in. He’d made it to the top of the tower, and he knew that if he walked over and looked out, there would be an amazing view of the forest, and he would be able to see the spot where he’d made camp. This room was completely open and full of light, even at this time of day, and Levi could see that it was a multipurpose space.

Closest to him was a kitchen area with lots of shelves and cupboards and a small dining table with four chairs. Another area housed a bookshelf and a large oak desk with many drawers and space for various items. Books were spread on its surface, some open and some closed. The middle of the room was bare of actual furniture, but the floor was covered in a deep red, circular rug, and a few pillows had been placed on top of it. Much of the free space in the room was filled with plants, in big pots and small pots and even hanging from the wooden ceiling, species and varieties that Levi knew weren’t common because he’d never seen them in his life. There was a ladder on the wall to Levi's left that lead up to a trapdoor and a final attic room, and a creeper plant was growing up one side of it. Close to that was a huge comfortable-looking sofa, one that must’ve been custom made to fit the curve of the wall, and just on its other side was an armchair of similar style.

And in that armchair sat a teenage boy.

Levi's first impression was that he fit the room perfectly. The slight clutter and the effect of all the flora gave the whole space a barely-tamed feel, and the boy only added to that. He had thick, dark brown hair, longer and shaggier than Levi's but still parted neatly to show his forehead. He wore dark trousers and a long-sleeved top with a stretched, wide neckline that made his collarbones visible. His feet were bare. And by far his most interesting feature was his eyes; deep green and unwavering.

“Hello,” the boy said, tone polite and posture relaxed.

“Hello,” Levi repeated stiffly, having no idea what was going on.

“So, the cat gave you the key, huh?” The boy tilted his head slightly, questioning, and glanced down at Levi's hand. Levi held his hand up in front of him, the key resting on his palm. He frowned at it.

“Yes,” he said simply, wary of the conversation and where it might lead. The boy hummed.

“So the cat likes you. And you like cats. Don’t people give you trouble for that?” Levi thought over the words and his answer.

“I do like cats. And I can handle trouble, but people know not to bother me.” The boy smiled widely at this. “Where is your cat, now that you mention it?”

His question went ignored. “The cat knew from the second it saw you that you hadn’t got the magic touch.” Levi was about to make a remark about nimble fingers, but the boy continued. “Magic has touched you, however.” His green eyes narrowed as he ran his gaze over Levi's body, curious. Levi couldn’t hold back the slight shudder he felt at the mere thought of Hanji making physical contact with him, but made no word to deny the statement. The boy blinked slowly. There was a moment of silence. “You’re interesting.”

“I could say the same about you,” Levi replied.

“Ah, so you know what I am,” he said, tapping his fingers on the armrest.

“Kid, you live in a magic tower in the woods with a cat. You’re not exactly being subtle.” The witch’s eyes went wide, and then he burst into laughter, shaking his head and leaning back further into the cushions. Levi felt awkward standing in his home, but part of him was glad to finally get a positive reaction from the boy. Tension bled out of his back and shoulders.

The witch boy eventually got himself under control, the last of his laughter muffled behind one hand. He grinned and stood up from his seat – he was taller than Levi by a few inches too, he realised – and motioned for Levi to come further in.

“Sorry, I knew you were funny but that just caught me off guard.” Levi paused in the centre of the room.

“What do you mean you knew I was funny?” Only Hanji had ever described him as such, and if this continued he’d start thinking it was a thing with witch humour. “Have you been watching me?” The boy went quiet at this. He scratched the back of his head and looked off to the side. Because of that, Levi didn’t get caught staring at the blush that has risen on the boy’s cheeks.

“Well, I mean, not watching you. Um, the… the cat told me.” He ended the last sentence with such inflection that it mostly comes out as question, but Levi had no time to ask about it. The boy waved a hand dismissively and hurried on. “So, uh, I guess I should introduce myself.” He took a step forward but paused when he noticed he no longer had Levi's full attention. “What?”

It was just as he asked the question that an owl alighted on the windowsill, folding its wings in one fluid motion. Perched there silently, it looked between Levi and the witch boy with a slow swivel of its head. Levi's mind was only just catching up to its sudden appearance, and the fact that he had seen this white owl before, when it took a step forward and hopped into the tower room.

When the bird’s feet hit the stone floor it was no longer a bird, but a boy with long blonde hair and blue-black robes. A witch. A shifter. Levi never thought he’d see one in his entire life. That particular kind of magic was rumoured to be a lost art, and when it was around it had been rare and apparently incredibly difficult to master. Levi's brain helpfully supplied this knowledge in Hanji's annoying voice, their words coming back despite his best efforts to block them out. He was well aware that they had a keen interest in the subject, but Hanji couldn’t perform it even after reading piles of books. Apparently you couldn’t learn it from text. Shifting had to be taught by a shifter.

The blonde adjusted the white shirt collar peeking out from under his cloak, and then fixed the brunette with a disapproving look.

“Eren, what are you doing?” he asked flatly, glancing at Levi without changing his expression. “Mikasa is visiting today, I hope you remember, and just because she let you move out here alone doesn’t mean she’ll be happy to find you messing around.” The brunette, Eren as Levi now knows, sighed lightly.

“I’m not,” Eren replied with a smile, obviously ignoring the other witch’s scolding. “Let me introduce you to… um…”

“Levi,” Levi said.

“Yes, Levi.” Eren cleared his throat. His blush was still making his cheeks red. “Levi, this is Armin, my best friend.” Armin narrowed his eyes at Eren's dismissal, and gave Levi a suspicious look.

“A pleasure to meet you,” he said, his tone leaning towards polite but not quite reaching it. There was a pause, and then Levi brought his hands in front of his chest, putting his fingertips together with his fingers spread, and bowed slightly. A typical witch’s greeting. Levi had never been the kind of person to bother with or pride himself on being polite, but things were different when facing a strange new witch. He looked up to find Armin's eyebrows raised, his surprise clear, but there was no hesitation when the boy greeted him back. When the witch did it, the space between his hands started to glow pale blue the moment they touched; it was a part of the greeting that Levi couldn’t copy. Hanji always made red sparks fly, and he never knew the magic was personal to the witch.

Armin smoothed out his expression when he lifted his head. “Well, I know Eren didn’t teach you that. I look forward to hearing more about you, Levi,” he said, much happier. Levi simply nodded, following the conversation but unable to see where it was leading him once again. Eren was beaming at him, obviously impressed. Levi looked away again. The day just kept getting weirder and weirder.

“I can’t believe you ruined my introduction, Armin. What do you want?” There was no real irritation in Eren's voice, but he did punch Armin lightly in the shoulder. Armin threw a punch back, and then reached an arm into his cloak and pulled out a small pouch. Levi could tell that the little bag was filled with something much smaller than coins, yet Eren's eyes went wide and he fixated on the pouch instantly. “Is that…”

“Yes, indeed. I went out of my way to you-know-where to get you-know-what for you,” Armin replied, smirking as he held the drawstring pouch out of Eren's reach. Since Armin was shorter than Levi, this meant he soon had to jump up on the sofa in order to hold it high enough.

“Armin, come on, give it!” Eren whined, grabbing at Armin's robes and tugging at his arm.

“Well since you’re being so mean and punching me maybe I’ll keep it for another time.”

“You already punched me back, so come on.”

“No,” Armin laughed, obviously enjoying himself.

Levi watched them scuffle over the mystery item, his confusion reaching new heights. Armin was now on the arm of the sofa, and Eren was jumping and swiping at the pouch in an attempt to take it for himself. The action reminded him of the brown cat snatching some food from him earlier in the week. It was so similar that Levi almost laughed.

What came out of his mouth was a different sound, however, since he’d just spotted a tail flicking against Eren's legs. A brown tail with dark bands and a pure white tip. But the tail wasn’t attached to the cat Levi had been looking for. Instead, that tail disappeared under the hem of Eren's loose shirt. Both witches stopped their playing and turned to Levi, who could hardly take his eyes off Eren's new, fuzzy appendage.

“Ah, oops. The cat’s out of the bag,” Armin said, biting his lip and looking very unapologetic. Levi tore his eyes away to see Eren staring at him, and noticed a change there too. Eren's pupils had become slits. There was an awkward moment where none of them know quite what to do, and then Eren whirled around to face his friend.

“Armin! You ruined my big reveal!” he yelled. His tail lashed angrily behind him. Seeing it now, and knowing that Armin could turn into an owl, Levi didn’t understand why he hadn’t realised the truth sooner. Then, Levi hit another realisation. He’d been talking to a cat that wasn’t a cat all week.

With all the embarrassing things that he’d said to that cat, to Eren, rushing to the forefront of his mind, Levi turned and walked to the kitchen table, pulling out a chair and dropping heavily into it. Head in his hands, he tuned out the argument that had come to life again behind him.

A week ago, he’d set out to solve the mystery of Cat Tower. He thought it would be easy, and that he could satisfy his curiosity and carry on with his life afterwards. But Eren was a whole new mystery, one that he’d stumbled upon completely by accident, and that was a much more curious thing.

[dumasmusique-blog]

Balayage hair dyeing

You are enthusiastically reviewing magazines with photos of stars' hairstyles and think - “can it be so beautiful for me to paint?” you with their mysterious names. Well, then, it is time to talk about how hair dyeing is performed, what it is and how to care for it.

Balayage is a beautiful and sonorous hairdressing term that came to us from France. Literally, we can translate it as “sweeping”. The meaning of this coloring is concluded in creating the effect of strands faded in the sun. Technically, visually this technique is very unusual, it requires a creative approach from the master, it gives fresh impressions, new sensations to you - as a direct participant in this action.

We have become boring classic melirovanie, juicy chocolate shades, expensive blonde. I want novelty and freshness. Here we remember that there is an old good technique of painting balayage. A lot of disagreement, controversy around this coloring. Every stylist means something different by this term. Let's remember that everything is new, it is well forgotten old. Balayage was popular once very long ago, then forgotten, and now comes back to us, having acquired a new breath.

Why do we need balayage?

Nature is never wrong - this is an expression known to all. In this case, its meaning can be comprehended completely. For a long time, we preferred cold shades, survived the boom of delicious chocolate colors. Moved to the other extreme - blond, of all shades and levels of depth of tone. And what do we have?

Every girl knows for sure - when you are painted in a very dark color, the skin often looks more pale. You have to adapt, use different tricks in make-up. The same with light colors - you have to fight either with pale skin, or to focus on the eyes or lips. We recall the rule of the golden mean and the fact that there is a hair dyeing. This method is a good way out of the situation, such coloring is very convenient, it can be said, universal. Ideally, it is performed on natural hair.

The main work happens only at the tips. We get, if the balayage staining technique is done correctly, smoothly stretching the color, from dark or natural to any shade of light. Natural hair blends perfectly with eye color, skin tone, you do not look pale or colorless, because nature has thought of everything!

Bright ends and a properly selected shade for toning will complement the beauty already created by nature, give freshness and enthusiasm, plus - it is very fashionable. On dyed hair, this method also works. The result is interesting, and there can be plenty of options for such work. The wizard always works with different shades to create volume, color play, gentle transitions and highlights.

Balayazh helps to solve a lot of problems relating to the volume, silhouette haircuts, growing roots. Perfectly refreshing face. In the trend now naturalness is the main principle of this method. Competently made balayazh dyeing technique kills two birds with one stone - it saves time and does not damage the hair.

Staining benefits

For those who do not want to part with the length of the hair, coloring allows you to refresh the haircut and give it new accents, thanks to the color change

By correctly placing the glare, you can correct the shape of the face. Underline the texture of the haircut

Balayazh refreshing face, then it will be relevant for middle-aged women. Gray hair can be tinted as the roots grow back. Light ends, especially if the haircut is short, make the roots not so noticeable. In fact, you can paint less often than with a single color.

Looks good on curly hair. Even a sharp transition in color will be softened by soft curls. If desired, straighten hair and get a completely different hairstyle. A more graphic staining technique, balayazh allows you to change the image very effectively

In the work involved, not all the hair. Dye, lightening powder applied only to the ends of the hair. This is the biggest plus of this technology.

Hair is not wrapped in foil, there is no need to keep them under the climazon. That is, we do not create additional conditions to accelerate a chemical reaction. The work of the brightening composition takes place in a natural way. Hence, the quality of hair suffers minimally. This is another big plus.

Lack of staining

It does not always look aesthetically and beautifully. This can happen for two reasons. The first is that the transition was made very abruptly or simply is not. On straight hair, if you do not stack them with forceps or brushing, it will look rough. The second reason is that if hair dyeing is performed on dark hair that was previously dyed, the ends may turn red, or dirty red.

Daily styling is necessary. Yes, miracles do not happen. Balayazh looks expensive, effectively only with styling. Ideally, on the curls. But you can just twist the ends with a brushing too. If you do not do this, you’ll get the effect of roots growing on the head

Hair dyeing method balayazh best done by an experienced master. The technology of doing work is not as simple as it seems at first glance. It's necessary to take into account the texture, quality, type, length of hair, haircut. In fact, equipment is selected individually.

Sometimes before applying the dye required to perform bouffant to achieve special effects. A lightening compound is applied to the fleece, and this can adversely affect the quality of the hair. Very often, the ends have to be cut as a result.

We recommend to weigh the pros and cons well. Photos of stars with natural flowing curls are the work of a large number of professionals, appropriate care and styling. Are you ready to pay $ 1000 for the work of a master of this level? There is a myth that balayage is a coloring for the lazy, but, alas, this is far from the case.

Related :  The Best Lightener for Balayage to Keep Your Hair Color in Tip-Top Shape