#I won't be able to play for a couple weeks so have a doodle in the meantime

[animatedjen]

I think they'd be friends 🥰

[breoasis]

im going on vacation for a couple weeks (nothing big im just going to my dad's house) and i won't be able to play minecraft during that time </3 which breaks my heart, but i will Not be bored as i'm taking some online courses and i have to study like crazy so it's not like i have nothing to do.. i dont think i will draw much either, propably just oc doodles, i still need to post 2 fully rendered fanart pieces that have been finished for more than a month tho

[alisheaburgess]

Dev Diaries: Day 8...We Back!!!

Dev Diaries, Masterlist

Romancing the Process...coming soon

June 4, 2023

The Day number will just be a log number as I may not do Dev stuff every day. I'll be including the dates though.

Now that I have a month to take classes, I'm going to be a bit more strategic with what I'm taking and when. I want to get the most out of this 😊

For the Dev side, I'm going to finish up the bigger courses that I wasn't able to get into before. They will mainly be HTML and CSS. There are a couple of them that have intros to Python and the like. I have already had a little bit of Python in other courses, so I'm kinda looking forward to that one and more C# 😁 that's the one I'll be learning for my game dev stuff.

For the Diaries though...

I'm thinking about having a separate Design Diary (non-web design) and Doodle Diary because I'm also going to be working on those. I mainly want to so I can find things easier later but also... so I remember what all I'm doing now 😂😋

I am starting Romancing the Process! Which is just a diary of all the crazy stuff I'm learning, trying, and just my story as I experience it. I think it's gonna be fun (for me at least lol)

My goal for this month is to be as job ready as I possibly can be! I'm going to be purging my belongings as well in case I need to move. This will trick my brain into cleaning which is useful even if I don't move 😅 I'll be going over this more in Romancing the Process. I am trying to get a balance of input (learning) and output (creating). This is gonna be so much fun!!!!

Weekly DevPlan:

Courses to Tackle for the Week (starts Monday, today is bonus)

Improve UX Prototyping

HTML

CSS

Soft Dev

Full-stack Dev

1 Class at a time! 😊

The prototyping course is introductions to a bunch of tools you can use. It's kinda boring to start but then I turn into a child when they start the actual prototyping part 😂🤣 It's so much fun and I can't wait to get to play...I mean...use them.

I won't be doing each of these every day. They are in order of importance. I want to get the first three done this week. The bottom two be the least important and can take all month if need be lol

I've already done a prototyping course but it's super close to being completely done. I've almost exhausted their library of UX stuff 😅🥰 This is the last fuller course they have for it. After that it's just shorter courses that I plan to filter in.

Let's Go!!!

[stellarstarcelios]

🎈 Updates | 9/10/2024 🎈

🎈 Hiiii, everyone. I usually do these kinda updates on other sites I'm on, but I figured I should start doing some here too. :)

🎈🎈🎈

🎈 Well, the job hunting has stopped for now. For those who don't know, I got a new job in June at a supermarket next to a small casino, and I started as a cashier. However, due to discrimination towards me and my mom for working on the sales floor and our ethnicity, I was moved to another department, the meat department. It's been very physically taxing on me, and now, I have to have wrist braces for my job. I'm not very fit at all and it's been a strain, but I have a backup plan for if it ends up not completely working out. I'm getting used to this new job in the meat department, but I don't know how well my body will be able to tolerate this much physical work with my weight and lack of muscles.

🎈 But, since the market's casino is a sister casino to a larger one, me and my mom are planning to move to the bigger casino when we hit our 3 months of employment. I think it'll be a lot better, because they won't let me be a cashier at the supermarket, and that was the only thing I knew how to do for a long time.

🎈 Life wise, I had to drop a bunch for bills this past two weeks, but I'm slowly getting back to a healthy habit of saving. It's been hard when I don't get paid more than my state's minimum wage for my experience and that barely covers living here. :(

🎈 But I've been making paper dolls, playing video games, and drawing to try and keep my mind clear so I don't freak out. I've had a couple of meltdowns due to being overwhelmed in my job in the meat department, but I'm starting to get used to it mentally. I just wish my body was physically used to it.

🎈 With my art, I'm mostly working on drawing some new OCs and putting them where I post my OCs. :) I have a bunch of new ones I've been meaning to post here and on my Toyhouse and CharacterHub. I'm also just trying to do simple, slice-of-life doodles for them so I can draw what makes me feel better and makes me happy. I'm doing my best to take care of myself, so I'm hoping things will get better within the next few months. :D

🎈🎈🎈

🎈 I think that's all I have for now, guys. :D I hope you have a good timezone, and please take care of yourselves, my friends!

[shwaim]

About the Hiatus

Last year I said I was entering a hiatus and that I would explain the reason once 2024 came... Before I realised, it's already June.

First of all, happy Pride!

Second of all, sorry for the silence the past months. A lot has been going on and I needed a break from social media and posting my art.

Under the cut is more info about some stuff that's been happening, there's also a tl;dr.

Because of some health reasons, I was going to have surgery in December 2023 - January 2024, but some family matters got in the way and I had to replan everything to happen in to April - May 2024.

I don't wish to enter in details about the surgery, but I wouldn't be able to draw for at least 1-2 months, so I planned to make a post after surgery... Until things got more complicated to the point that I couldn't get my surgery in May; and, the fact that I'm moving to another state altogether because of family matters will make it difficult to get into the airplane (or leaving the house altogether) after surgery.

During these past months my arm/wrist health hasn't been in the best condition, and the fact that I wasn't able to pinpoint when exactly I would be able to have my surgery was slowly draining me and making it more difficult to keep my mental health in the best condition. If my mental health wasn't helping in making me draw, even if I forced myself to sit and draw, my arm/wrist would start to hurt badly, and if I insisted, the pain would normally last for a couple of days (the longest lasting pain I felt was 6 days and the shortest 3).

I'm very lucky that this surgery isn't urgent or needed for my survival for the next 8 or so years. Even so, it was something that I was (weirdly) looking forward to and also scared of happening. In a way, I know it's needed and I do want to have it, I'm just a coward scared of pain lol.

My notebook almost died (I don't have a spare one). It's now working after a factory reset, and luckily, I saved all my drawings and little projects. I forgot to make a backup of my workspace on CSP, so now I have to manually download all the brushes I used previously, which I will do only after I'm fully moved in my new house... I've also been (Trying) to experiment with different brushes, so my art style might or not change.

Even so, because I already packed most things (including the tool that I use for drawing digitaly), I won't be able to draw for a while, I still have some art from the past couple of months that I will post glazed on social media and unglazed on my ko-fi (mostly for archive purposes), but other than that, nothing new.

These last months have been peculiar. They're not the worse and I got to rest a little, catch up to some anime and finally play Ys 2 (!!!!!).

For now, I plan to take things slowly. I probably won't post something once a week, or once every 2 weeks. There are still many story ideas and drawing ideas I wish to draw about, but for now I'm going to learn how to take it slowly.

If you're still reading this, thank you for your attention, have a nice week!

EDIT: Oh, and I finished the little Gottschalk doodles!! They're on my artfol, but I don't plan on posting them here on Tumblr because they were made in a rush in December.... I'm thinking of drawing them better once I have more time.

Tl;dr:

Was going to have surgery, got postponed 2 times, still haven't gotten it.

My mental health got worse these past months and made it difficult to draw

My arm/wrist has been hurting more frequently to the point of the pain lasting 2-4 days and making it painful to draw.

I'm moving address and will only make new art after I'm 100% moved in.

I still have some art I made during these months. I will glaze them slowly and post them on social media, while I will leave the unglazed version on my ko-fi (for archive purposes).

Won't post art every week, or once every 2 weeks anymore.

[archived-and-moving]

Reading textbook chapters can be so ugh dude (is in the middle of reading stuff for his and had to stop in the middle. whoopsies.) However I've been trying to like. plank or do push-ups for one paragraph then rest while reading. Idk why but it's like as soon as I sit down to read informational text my brain is like alrighty boys deploy as much energy as you can. Make him want to run a 5k. But this works pretty well! (except for the fact that I Cannot plank very long. started out on every two paragraphs then off one but my arms got tired.) but i feel like those dude bros in the movies, working out and getting smort.

Ada;lkj bestie congrats on your last semester, that's such an awesome thing to be able to celebrate!! And also tacking onto that. How could you not brag about six associates degrees. That's incredible! I'm having trouble arranging my core classes around two. Six is awesome!!! Literally so excited for you to graduate w/ seven whole degrees in your hand.

And oh yeah yeah yeah Ori and the Blind Forest!! Saw those giftsets you rbed and sent a couple to a good friend of mind who's obsessed w/ those kinds of indie games. She'd already played it, but she Highly recommended it to me, so it's actually on my list of games to play. And ough Omori!! I haven't heard too much about it, but I really like it's art style and score! Super spooky!

I'm glad you're doing alright, all things considered!

I myself and doing pretty good as well. Our school for some reason makes us go on break and THEN has midterms a week later, so I finished up some mid-terms/finals last week and am starting some new classes this semester. Taking speech to get it out of the way so that I (hopefully) won't have to take it in college. But oh man is my teacher an interesting one. The way she formats her class it's easy to pass, but we quite literally have a quiz! Every day! Until late february!

Just finishing up some homework for that and another class. (Trying to get ahead since she posts the videos we listen to ahead of time, but it is terribly disinterested so that's incredible. /s) Other than that though doing good myself. Sport is starting up again soon, and I'm overall enjoying life.

Hmm artistic endeavors. I've been doodling a lot. I haven't really done much digital stuff since I haven't been able to get into the mood, did do a finitar drawing in pen which. Disappointed and proud of myself at the same time. I'm also planning a kotlc pride month and Other Weeks that I really hope to create something for. But yeah! Lots and lots and lots of doodles.

Thenn writing side I haven't done too much either. Wanted to write something tonight but idk if I'll have time since I have to finish up studying, take a shower and do other house hold stuff. But I've been researching stuff for a fic that is like. My special interest. I LOVE researching about a very specific topic that I will not disclose for...mysterious author reasons.

Though now that you've been talking about games, my mind wandered to Stray, which is probably one of my favorite games I've played. I'd say I'm probably around a third or fourth of the way through, and it's just. incredible. I love dystopian worlds and incredible art, but I also like balancing the stress fight scenes with exploring stuff. Which this game does really well in my opinion. (also. you are a kitty. which I think makes it 17 times better.)

But yeah overall!!! P good! Stressed but like that classic kitten poster, I'm hanging in there.

hiiii quil i was JUST thinking bout you then BOOM you're on my dash. how's your day bestie. how is Life.

hiiii Tobi *twirls hair* *twirls hair* *twirls--

Very sweet of you to ask, I have been doing alright. Had to read three textbook chapters in two days to do an assignment (each chapter takes about an hour) which was OUGH but I did it. And it's a subject I'm interested in so it's okay I forgive the professor. Also got another material sorted (had a bit of a Situation with an access code for a thing, but it's good now)

Basically life has been me getting into the swing of the semester. Final semester! I graduate in April, so that's pretty cool! Doing things a little out of order though because I already have six associates degrees (2 year college degrees) and will just be tacking a high school diploma on the end, but I think that's very impressive of me so I may brag a little bit.

Also been playing some lovely video games lately. Finished Ori and the Blind Forest and am now going for the completionist things and getting all the life/energy cells and such. And started Omori, but haven't gotten very far yet. Adoring it so far though!

I am doing alright, is the summary! How is your day and your Life, Tobi? Read anything good recently? Done any fun artistic things? Drank water? I hope your life is being kind to you :)

[cosmicsketch]

How do you deal with art blocks?

I've been cutting down on bad habits like quitting cigarettes or spending too much and incorporating healthier coping mechanisms in my life to improve my quality of life, little by little. However I'm finding myself now feeling demotivated from going through these changes that have been affecting my creativity and facing art block these days.

I have tried drawing things I used to draw and it didn't seem to work. The ideas won't come as naturally as they used to. I have realized lately this year i have taken a habit of taking a long break whenever I have this issue which actually gets me nowhere. So again i have to start thinking differently.

Doodling really helps free up my mind. I have noticed when I keep painting and drawing for my work, i get stuck into this routine and the same kinds of themes of artworks that have become more habitual which leaves no room for flexibility and spontaneity. To make things easier, i had cut an A4 paper into 4 pieces smaller. Whenever I feel like doodling, I grab a paper and pen start drawing random lines, shapes and objects without really thinking of a plan to be more playful and less rigid in my creativity. I do this at least a few times a day each time taking like 5 - 10 minutes. After I wake up in the morning or after a meal or before I start painting or after playing a video game and so on. This helps me to fight through my art block but at the same time it also needs consistency to work. The more practice the easier it feels but this alone is not enough for myself.

After reading the atomic habits book, i felt inspired to make my own habit tracking schedule. To keep myself motivated i gave myself some rules to apply for next month. My goal is to work 8 hours a day except once a week which can be my rest day. Although after going through a big break a few times this year my speed has been slower than before and to get back on track i tend to put more pressure on myself which leaves me even more dissatisfied. Perfectionist tendencies? Indeed. So I'm making a system. Each hour I work for i get a reward. The more hours i work the more reward i can have. If i work for an hour, i get to snack on a chocolate, if I work for 4 hours i can order food home and give myself a treat. I made a rule also, if I lose a day of work, my saved reward will be lost. I can stack up and save these rewards for my rest day where I can truly enjoy or use it that very day. In all, it's like a video game. (I'm a gamer so this hypes me up) so far it has inspired me to work harder. Second day of trying and I was able to do art for 2 hours + even though i ruined a couple of them as well. It's also important to tell yourself you're making progress instead of beating yourself up. When I do beat myself up, I'm not going anywhere and setting myself back. So no point in that. Usually i work putting a stop timer from my phone for one hour. I can take a break anytime and get back to it when i feel ready again. This seems to be effective because the few days I tried to do art before then, I was barely able to keep on for 30 minutes.

Next I'm gonna try listing down some of the things i want to practice painting or drawing. Like I wanna learn how to draw cities and architecture which I can be bad at. I would like to learn how to draw more detailed trees or get creative like create my own kinds of flowers in my imaginary world.

This is what I came up with to fight through art block. I shall post again to update on the progress.

[topsytervy]

Colorful Notes ~ Pope Heyward

Naming and knowing how to end my writings is my Kryptonite, I swear.

Blurb: Pope stops by your house after school while your sick and informs you his notes are boring.

Word Count: 1,451 (it's a short one peeps)

Warnings: swearing, mentions of a cold?, spelling/grammar mistakes, there's not really anything else that needs a warning I think.

~~~~~~

You laid on your couch a sniffling, coughing mess as some random soap opera played on your tv. Well, random being the Young and the Restless cause you saw it on Hulu and decided you had nothing better to do. 

You were called in from school by your father, much to your dismay considering you had an AP world history test that day, and were forced to rest. 

You heard a knock on the front door before it opened, a familiar voice calling throughout your house. "Y/N! Sweetheart!"

"In here, Pope!" You called out, immediately regretting it when you started coughing.

Within a couple of seconds, the face of your sweet boyfriend came into view and you smiled. 

"How are you feeling, baby?" He asked, walking over to the couch and setting his backpack down next to it. 

He placed a quick kiss to the top of your head as you sat up. "Like shit. And when I figure out who got me feeling like shit, they will be feeling like shit when I punch them for making me miss a test." You grumbled. Pope let out a small laugh as he sat down, pulling you into his side. You rested your head on his chest as you wrapped your arms around his waist. "Please tell me you brought me my homework."

"I did but your dad told me not to give it to you because you'll do it now and you need to rest. He thinks you got sick cause of stress and I think-"

"You think it was John B cause he was sick that one day." You cut him off and he shot you a look.

"I think your dads right." Pope finished, emphasizing the 'I' in his sentence.

You pouted. "I think he's wrong." 

Pope rubbed your back and sighed, changing the subject. "What on earth are you watching?"

"The Young and The Restless." 

"Why?" 

"Well, there's 48 seasons of Young and the Restless and I started thinking about how easy it is for us nowadays to go through an entire season. We go through a season as if it's a hot knife cutting through butter. So I wondered how long it would take me to watch all 48 seasons if I didn't just stick to a season a day which made me do the math and if I can get through 2 seasons a day, I can watch all of it on 24 days. I now have a goal to watch all 48 seasons before day 24 hits all while keeping up with everything happening." You rambled.

"And how long are these episodes?" Pope inquired.

"The show started in 1973 and up until 1980, episodes were about half an hour. Every episode after 1980 is about an hour."

"Sounds like you have your work cut out for you then."

"Well, I need something to keep me busy, Pope."

"You're not gonna be sick for 24 days sweetheart which means you won't be able to watch at least 2 and a half seasons a day if you wanna get it done before day 24 because you'll be back at school." He reasoned.

You grinned. "I know. Which is why once I'm back at school I'm dropping the knowing what's going on bit. Then it can just play while I get ready, or eat, or do homework." Pope rolled his eyes and reached for the remote but you pulled it away from him. "I'm only half a season in and this is season 5, bucko."

"Alright. Alright. I just thought maybe," Pope sighed, reaching over and unzipping his backpack and pulling out some of his notebooks. You perked up at the movement, pulling away from Pope and staring at your boyfriend. "I have all these boring notes from the past week and they're so dull. I thought you would want to do your thing and make them a little less dull but I guess not." He shrugged.

You grinned and wrapped your arms around his neck, kissing his cheek. "Pope, you are the greatest human being on earth. Do you know that?" 

"You tell me everyday." He smiled before getting up to go grab your gel pens from your room.

This wasn't the first time Pope had done this. Letting you doodle/color code his notes when you were bored or needed a break from whatever or even to just calm you down. It was enough to keep you relaxed while also engaging your brain.

Freshman year was the first time he ever let you do it and since then, he hasn't liked his notes in just boring pencil. He also hasn't thrown away any of his notebooks and barely lets anyone touch them, besides you of course, in fear that someone will destroy your work.

"Please John B. I just wanna do something." You pleaded.

You sat at a table in the library during study hall, all your homework done, with your friends Pope, John B, and JJ.

John B looked over at you. "They're notes, Y/N/N. I'm throwing all of them in a bonfire at the end of the year. It's pointless."

You rolled your eyes before turning them onto JJ. "JJ, can I please do something with your notes. I'm dying of boredom over here." 

JJ laughed.  "Bold of you to assume I took down notes. Come on, Y/L/N. I thought you knew me better than that."

"Why didn't you take notes?" 

"I can give you many reasons. One is why waste paper on useless shit. Deforestation and shit exists. Save some trees. Two is because then I don't have to buy new notebooks next year and I can save some money. Three is why the hell would I when I can just look at yours or Pope's." JJ listed before resuming his paper airplane. You stared at JJ and he glanced back up before sighing. "This is actually for science this time. Don't worry. I'm not gonna use it to piss off the librarian."

You were about to say something when a notebook was pushed towards you. You looked across to see Pope with a small smile. "Knock yourself out."

You grinned before opening it up and grabbing your gel pens from your backpack.

JJ leaned in close, knowing of his best friends small, but growing, crush on you. "Fuckin' whipped, dude." He chuckled which caused Pope to hit him.

Since then, Pope made sure to write light enough so you could trace over the words and left enough space for small doodles if you felt some were needed.

"Do you have a color scheme in mind?" You asked, sitting on the living room floor and laying out all your pens in front of you with Pope's science notebook opened to where you left off.

Pope thought about it for a minute before shaking his head. "You do whatever you deem fit, sweetheart." 

You grinned before turning your full attention onto the small project in front of you, reading over the words in front of you to see what colors you wanted to use. 

Pope sat behind you, playing with your hair as he watched you do your thing, content written all over your face. 

"I love you." You told him after a while, sniffling as you felt your nose begin to run

Pope smiled, kissing the back of your head as he reached for the box of tissues that sat beside you guys. "I love you too. Snot and all." He responded, holding the box out in front of you.

You grabbed a tissue with a pout before blowing your nose, Pope reaching for the trash can to bring it closer. "I hope I get you sick." 

Pope laughed. "Good luck with that. My immune system is solid, baby. It'll take more than this to get me sick."

You rolled your eyes before looking up at him and tapping your lips. "Kiss." 

Pope laughed once more as he shook his head. "Nice try, Y/N/N, but no."

You narrowed your eyes at him "I'll get ya, Heyward. I'll get ya when you least expect it. You won't even see it coming."

"I bet you will. Until then, and by then I mean better, all kisses will be placed on the cheek, hand, shoulder, top of the head, back of the head, and forehead." 

You made a face. "That's rude." 

"So is getting me sick. Now are you gonna do your thing or argue with me?"

"Both." You responded as you went back to Pope's notebook.

Pope smiled as he wrapped his arms around you and placed his head on your shoulder. "Bring on the debate then baby."

~~~~

[softspaceboibrian]

Journeys End in Lovers Meeting (Chapter 3)

Pairing: Professor!Gwilym Lee x reader

Summary: Reader is a new student at Harvard University and, on her first day, she does something she might regret. Or maybe not.

Warnings: mention of a stroke

Wc: 2212

A/N: guys, this chapter is very descriptive. hopefully you won't think it's boring or stuff. don't worry! in the next chapters more is going to happen!!

Previous chapters: 1 - 2 - 4 - 5

Taglist: @tegan-eva (ask if you want to be added)

On the other hand, you were pretty different, thing that Gwilym grew to love more than he expected himself to. At first, he didn’t notice the peculiar shade of your eyes, or the constant rosy colour of your cheeks. Gosh, he could look at those eyes the entire day if he could; you had intelligent eyes, and whenever you laid them on him, he knew you were thinking about something, you were studying him, noticing the smallest detail that even him had never noticed before; like that time when you walked up to him after the lesson finished and started off with a “Did you know you look a lot like Brian May? You know, the guitarist from Queen”. That made him laugh, at first, but when that night he found himself in front of a mirror, he started staring at his traits and noticed that you were right, as always. You had a beautiful mind that was always working on some new, fresh idea, that would surprise everyone. If you remained silent for a little too long, he would always ask you what you were thinking about and you would probably start answering by saying “What if…” or “Have you ever considered…”. And those amazing ideas usually came with a big dream. “I want to travel to Rome, visit Keats’ house and see his headstone, then do an essay on the impact that his poetry, his works and Romanticism in general is having on modern day culture.” You said one day, out of nowhere, while you were re-reading one of his articles; you were alone in his office, as every other afternoon, he was drinking black coffee, no sugar, just a little bit of cream, while you had your usual mug filled with tea. You changed the tea every couple of weeks: at first, you started with black tea, then, when autumn came, you moved to chai tea. But now the office was filled everyday with the soft smell of mint and honey, fresh and warm at the same time. Just like you, he thought. He also found out he loved to make you laugh: you had a loud laughter, the type that fills the room with joy, that contagious laugh that you cannot hear and stay serious. Your voice, on the contrary, well, your voice was soft, warm, so pleasing to listen to that he would often make you read his essays and articles aloud just to hear it. You loved scented candles, that’s for sure. You even bought an orange chocolate scented one for his studio, just because you thought he might like it. But in general, there’s no doubt you are a poet. You were quiet, your steps were gentle, just like a fairy’s ones. You were quiet because you were always thinking, analysing things and finding in them the smallest, most peculiar details that no one else would notice, taking time to organize your thoughts and ideas, but still struggling to find the right words. That’s probably the main reason why he has often walked in on you reading the entire dictionary for the umpteenth time. You had so many beautiful ideas, and you would always talk about them as if they were your children. “I’m afraid that I won’t be able to express what I’m thinking, to put it into words on paper, and I don’t won’t to ruin it.” You said to him many times; in fact, it had happened more than once that you could not be productive for days, weeks even, and then suddenly write six poems in an hour. But then, there’s this one thing that he read in one of your poems, one thing that stuck with him. «I wish to be enough, someday.» How could someone like you think that you weren’t enough. You were far more than enough. At least to him.

It was the beginning of December, and the first flakes of snow where starting to shyly cover the gardens and sidewalks, there were no longer leaves on the branches of the trees, it was finally that time of the year when he was able to turn on the fire in his little chimney in the evening. And, in fact, you loved spending the evenings over at his place, sometimes crushing on his couch just to enjoy the warmth of the fire. Or maybe you just enjoyed his company over anyone else’s.

The weeks went by and you got to know each other pretty well during your ‘meetings’ or your coffee breaks. Apparently, he was in fact of Welsh heritage, even though he was born in Bristol. He studied English Literature at Cardiff University and then moved to the USA. But, most importantly, he was the most genuine person you had ever known. You liked to look at him when he was busy working. His hair was long, but not too long, and sometimes little stands of hair would fall in front of his face, distracting him for even just a moment. When he was thinking, he would start doodling on the side of the page or on a spare paper. He collected playbills from theatre shows and museum’s pencils. He always had kind words for everyone. His earbuds were always tangled, and it would take him a good minute to untangle them. He always took artsy picture of everything, his dog, the school library, the first fallen leaves from the tree in front of his office’s window. He loved history, learning intriguing facts about historical figures. He liked to always have an open window, unless it was too cold outside. When he smiled, his eyes would brighten up, the corners of his lips go up, little crinkles show up around his eyes. He was also exactly how one would expect a writer to be: his notebooks a mess, full of notes and doodles, and his desk exactly the same, little reminders scattered all over the wooden surface, an empty pen holder, pens and pencils used as bookmarks. And his head too: he always had so many ideas, he was always thinking of a new article, a new story he could try to write, but that he never actually managed to finish; and you noticed that, sometimes, he would scribble stuff that he needed to remember on his hands and arms. He was definitely a night owl: it had happened many times that she would wake up to a text from him that had been sent at three in the morning. He was so passionate about everything that he liked, like that time, during class, when he was explaining Queen Elizabeth I’s Tilbury Speech, he was basically praising not only Queen Elizabeth herself, but her tutor, Roger Ascham, too. You found it adorable. He knew pretty much everything, except for his own limits. He was the kind of person that would try to make flowers bloom, even during heavy storms. But the things that stuck with you the most was the fact that he always found the good in everything.

“Love” That’s how he had been calling you lately, even around school, not really caring about what people would say. “They are doing Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night in a theatre just outside town and they want me to review it” He explained, showing you the email on his phone.

“Well, that’s amazing! When are you going?”

“We are going tonight. The play starts at 7:30, but we have to be there at least half an hour before the beginning of the play, because I have to meet the woman who has to give me the tickets at the reception.”

“Wait…” You stopped him, visibly puzzled “We are going?” You had talked about that many times before, Shakespeare was by far your favourite dramaturg and one of Gwilym’s favourite authors in general. You had often found yourselves debating whether it was Hamlet or Macbeth Shakespeare’s best play, discussing about every detail that made one’s favourite the best one and not the other’s.

“I got two tickets for free and I thought that you might have wanted to come with me. I mean, it’s Twelfth Night. You love it, it’s one of your favourites, isn’t it?”

You were speechless. You didn’t expect that to happen, not at all. Maybe that was the reason you immediately put your arms around him and reached for his cheek to leave a soft kiss, realising only afterwards that you weren’t at home or somewhere else. You were at University and there he was a professor and you were a student. You couldn’t act like that. So you instantly pulled away, your cheeks turning crimson, but he didn’t really seem to mind it.

“It’s a 45 minutes long drive, so I’ll pick you up at 6:00, so we have a few more minutes in case traffic is a mess. We can have dinner afterwards.” He smiled, his eyes on you, finding that look on your face extremely adorable. “Oh and wear a pretty dress.” He laughed while walking away.

Once you were left alone, you could feel the eyes of numerous girls on you, probably whispering to each other, already making assumption about the two of you. All you did at that point was walk out of the building, almost running towards the bus stop, to escape those curious looks rather than to actually get home early.

It was 5:45 and you were already sitting on the couch, a book in your hands, waiting for the man to send you the text saying that he was waiting for you outside. Wear a pretty dress, he said; and that was what you did. One could rarely see you wearing a dress, or anything a little more daring that a simple jeans and a nice blouse. But that time you decided that you could actually wear something different, maybe one of those dresses that your mother had bought for you years before. It was nothing too special, a simple bodycon dress with blue, burnt orange, mustard and white horizontal stripes. Obviously, not wanting to look too formal, you just paired it with a simple blue cardigan and white converse. Furthermore, you had no one to impress, it was only Gwilym, you professor, and in a way, your boss too. Yes, well, he was still really handsome, charming, and you too often found yourself daydreaming about those ocean blue eyes, that made you feel like you didn’t have to worry about your ponytail being perfect or your laugh being too loud. Whenever you were with him, you felt good, you felt as if that was the place where you were meant to be. And that was not good. You could not feel that way about him.

[from James] Hey love, I’m outside. Whenever you’re ready.

You didn’t even reply. You just put your jacket on and sprinted out, forgetting to say goodbye to Rose, who looked at you wondering whether you were acting like that because you were excited to go see one of your favourite plays or because you were basically going on a date with the man you had been talking about non-stop for the last few months.

You and Rose met the first day you came to Cambridge. She knew a new girl was going to live in the room next the hers, but she didn’t expect you to be, well, like you were. At first, you were reserved, she could barely see you outside of your room, but she could easily understand whether you were home or not, because you would always be playing those old records. One day she even caught you singing a little tune, but as soon as you realised she was watching you, you immediately turned red and shut the door. It took her a while before she could actually get to know you, even just a little bit. At first, it was small talks at dinner, random facts that popped up during movie nights. Then you spent a whole day around town, just the two of you, in which she showed you all the nice cafés and libraries where you could go and study without any problem, the restaurants where you could eat without spending too much, the shopping district, even the pretty places you could go to take pictures or take someone on a date. That day Rose found out some of the most important things about you. You were sitting on a bench in JFK Park and the brunette started talking about all times she had taken her parents there whenever they visited her, the things she used to do with them when they still lived together and how proud they were of her. But your response left her speechless. “My mother died two years ago. Stroke.” Your voice was cold, distant, your eyes on the water in front of you. “And my father is so proud of me that he is paying my tuition so that he doesn’t have to see me around the house anymore.” Rose didn’t know what to say, how to act, so she just stood up and offered you to go and eat ice cream. “I know a place that makes the best mint chocolate chip ice cream in town. It’s your favourite, isn’t it?”